The Wheelchair War God Is Speedrunning Hogwarts

Was this... Hogwarts trying to help her?

Vera froze for a moment. After hesitating for a few seconds, she gathered her courage and reached out to touch it.

Author's note: As promised, once the bounty reached five chapters, I released them all! But the bounty event isn't over yet—it ends at 23:59 on the night of the 21st. If you want to keep squeezing the author dry, feel free to send more rewards! Thank you, everyone!

Also, Cho Chang appeared in this chapter. I'm still considering whether to make her part of the harem. If you have any thoughts, feel free to leave them in the chapter comments~

The Castle's Help

The instant her fingertips touched the brick wall before her, the golden light coiled around them as if alive, and a warm force flowed through her skin.

The crystal near her heart began to tremble. Vera's breathing quickened, and she instinctively covered her chest, feeling her heartbeat racing.

She could sense it... the fine patterns gradually gathering before her were resonating with her Magic Circuit.

Vera closed her eyes and felt that power guiding her thoughts into gradual calm.

Her stray thoughts receded like a tide, leaving only the clear sound of her own breathing.

At this moment, she was enveloped in an unprecedented sense of clarity.

When she opened her eyes again, Hogwarts' library was no longer before her. Instead, there was a tranquil, profound lake, its mirror-smooth surface reflecting a cloudless sky.

Vera stared blankly at this unfamiliar scene, which somehow made her feel incomparably at ease.

Gradually, she felt her consciousness sinking into the limpid lakewater, cut off from the clamor of the outside world.

"So that's how it is..." she murmured softly, quietly savoring this indescribably wondrous state.

Sometimes, being unable to make progress in learning was not because one's comprehension was insufficient. People simply tended to use their own experience to speculate about and interpret unfamiliar knowledge, and that often led to misunderstandings.

Was Harry in the original story not intelligent?

Perhaps he fell somewhat short when compared to those exceptionally gifted wizarding prodigies, but he should not have been incapable of mastering Occlumency even after studying it for so long.

After all, he was the sort of practical talent who could master the Patronus Charm in his third year—a high-level piece of white magic that most adult wizards could not learn.

Aside from his resistance toward Snape as a teacher, Voldemort's interference was probably the greater reason he could not find the trick to getting started.

Otherwise, he would not have been able to immediately drive Voldemort's consciousness out after being overwhelmed by immense grief.

And now, Vera was also stuck at that first step.

Yet when she hit a wall, Hogwarts had taken the initiative to help her, personally letting her experience what it felt like to completely control her emotions and empty her mind of all distracting thoughts.

Simply put, it had helped her grasp the idea.

Once she had experienced that pure feeling, even following the trail afterward would be far better than charging ahead blindly like a headless fly.

Vera took a deep breath and slowly opened her eyes, only to find that she was still sitting between the library shelves, the book in her hands still open to the same page.

But compared to before, something had changed.

Her thoughts were exceptionally clear now, as though they had been sorted through by some force.

Her distracting thoughts were like filtered lakewater, while that feeling of clarity and tranquility still remained deep within her consciousness. It felt as though, whenever she wished, she could quickly recreate the state from before.

"Thank you." She looked up, gently placing her palm against the wall brick that had already returned to normal, and murmured in a low voice.

The surrounding air faintly trembled the moment her words fell, as though the ancient castle were responding to her.

Vera smiled faintly, closed her eyes again, and tried to recall that clear, tranquil state.

Gradually, she felt her thoughts settling, her distracting ideas sinking into the depths of her consciousness like grains of sand.

"Vera?" Harry's voice suddenly came from the other side of the bookshelf. "Are you here?"

She abruptly opened her eyes, and that mysterious state immediately dissipated by more than half.

Quickly hiding The Basic Principles and Techniques of Occlumency in the side pocket of her wheelchair, she pushed herself out from between the shelves.

"I'm here," Vera replied calmly.

As hurried footsteps sounded, Harry came over carrying a stack of books. There was still a little dust on the tip of her nose, and she looked rather frustrated.

"There are too many books to find," she wrinkled her nose pitifully, found a seat, and sat down. As she kneaded her aching arm, she complained softly, "I can't possibly finish looking through them all..."

Seeing Harry's dusty, disheveled appearance, Vera could not help but laugh. "Were all these books assigned by Hermione?"

"They're all tasks Hermione assigned!" Harry corrected with a frown, her green eyes full of helplessness. "She said they might all mention Nicolas Flamel and told us to search separately... But I've gone through more than ten books and haven't even seen the word 'Nicolas.'"

So she had come to find Vera and take the chance to slack off.

Vera could not help smiling. She moved her wheelchair closer, pulled a book from the pile in front of Harry, and began flipping through it. "I can share some of the work—"

"Really?" Harry's eyes lit up.

"But we need to find Hermione first." Vera put the book down. "The three of us will be faster together."

The two of them went to the study area and quickly found Hermione buried in a pile of books.

At least five thick volumes lay open before her. Her head was lowered, and the tip of her nose was almost touching the page.

When she saw them approach, Hermione hurriedly raised her head. Her brown curls were somewhat messy. "Did you find any clues?"

Harry shook her head and placed the stack of books in her arms on the table. "No. Let's look together."

Hermione glanced at Vera, then at Harry. She could only nod and shift over to make room.

Watching the two of them flip through books with troubled expressions, Vera felt a little guilty about fooling children. Still, she could only silently pick up a book and pretend to read as though nothing had happened.

Second by second, the people in the library gradually thinned out.

Outside, the sky darkened, and the sound of raindrops tapping against the windows became clearer and clearer.

The three girls left the library for the Great Hall in exhaustion. The moment they sat down, Harry leaned directly against Vera's shoulder.

"I'm exhausted..." she muttered softly. "My eyes are going blurry from all that reading."

Hermione rubbed her temples. "Let's keep looking tomorrow. We'll find a clue eventually."

Vera nodded lightly. Her gaze inadvertently swept over the teachers' table—Quirrell had returned to his seat, but his face was even paler than usual. His large turban was wrapped tightly around his head, and he twitched nervously from time to time.

Even after being injured by students playing a prank on him, the Dark Lord still insisted on going to work...

Having been an office drone in her previous life, Vera felt a surge of dark amusement.

She suddenly wanted to know how Voldemort had gotten along with Quirrell after being burned.

Had he flown into a rage and punished his servant, or had he weakly curled up inside the turban and groaned?

That absurd thought gave her a chill, and she quickly lowered her head to take a sip of pumpkin juice to hide it.

Vera guessed that aside from urgently wanting to recover, Voldemort probably also wanted to find out who had tampered with things on the Quidditch pitch.

She had not been discovered on the pitch before. Hopefully Quirrell would not notice anything suspicious here.

She Had Cheats

After dinner, when they returned to the common room, Vera had originally wanted to use feeling unwell as an excuse to return to the dormitory and continue studying Occlumency.

Unfortunately, she had already used that excuse many times before. Using it again would have been a little impolite.

Besides, seeing Harry and Hermione looking at her so expectantly, she could only sigh silently and swallow the excuse that was about to leave her lips.

"Fine." She pushed her wheelchair over to the table. "Are we doing homework or playing a game today?"

She had seen them playing Wizard's Chess with Ron more than once before.

But Ron had been officially established in the original story as a Wizard's Chess expert. Even when Harry and Hermione teamed up against him, they still lost more often than they won.

Harry and Hermione exchanged a glance and said in unison, "Wizard's Chess!"

Vera raised an eyebrow at their excited expressions. "Are you sure? I remember Ron wiping the floor with you last time."

"This time is different!" Harry eagerly set up the board. "We've got you now!"

Still, three people beating one person did not seem like anything worth boasting about.

Vera shook her head lightly and could only agree. "All right, but I should say this first: I'm not very good at Wizard's Chess."

Because of a TV series called The Queen's Gambit in her previous life, she had tried learning some chess. However, she was still not very familiar with the rules of Wizard's Chess.

Still, the boost from her Magic Circuit allowed her to learn quickly. After occasionally watching their games several times before, she had more or less figured out how it worked.

She just did not know how it would perform in an actual match.

Ron had already come over on his own. His red hair was especially striking in the firelight. "Ha! Someone finally dares to challenge me!"

He sat down carelessly across from the chessboard, placed down his somewhat battered pieces, and rubbed his hands together. "Get ready to cry when you lose, girls!"

Vera looked at the exquisite board before her. The chess pieces had already arranged themselves into formation and were watching the two sides about to play with eager expressions.

"Since it's the three of you together, I'll go first." Ron wore a smile of absolute confidence as he ordered a pawn forward.

Harry and Hermione both looked at Vera, their eyes full of trust.

Under their stares, Vera felt a tremendous amount of pressure. She pursed her lips and lightly tapped a pawn with one finger. "Forward two squares."

Seeing that she did not even know the basic terminology for moving pieces, Ron crossed his arms. "So you're a beginner too."

Over the next dozen or so moves, Vera played conventionally while Ron appeared completely at ease, even yawning from time to time.

"Vera..." Harry whispered in her ear. "Shouldn't we use some strategy?"

"Good point." Vera nodded, raised her eyes to glance at Ron, who still looked entirely confident, and silently moved a piece.

Throughout the rest of the game, Vera still did not appear particularly aggressive. Even when Harry and Hermione tried to offer her advice, she politely turned them down.

It was not until Ron's queen was captured by one of Vera's seemingly unremarkable knights that his expression instantly changed from relaxed to grave, and fine beads of sweat even appeared on his forehead.

He abruptly bent over the board to study it, his red hair nearly standing on end.

"Wait..." His eyes widened. "How did you..."

"Aren't you going to continue?" Vera asked calmly.

Ron was rendered speechless and could only lower his head to ponder for a while.

A few minutes later, he scratched his head in frustration. "Merlin's beard! You deliberately let me take that bishop just to set up this move!"

The corners of Vera's lips lifted slightly. "Not bad. I got lucky."

In the end, as Ron's king was checkmated by one of Vera's pawns, the entire common room erupted in astonishment.

"Vera won?!" Harry's eyes widened as she threw her arms around Vera's shoulders. "You actually beat Ron!"

Hermione also stared at the game before them in surprise. "This is incredible... Ron is the best chess player among us."

Ron flushed red and shouted indignantly, "Another game! I was careless just now!"

But Vera shook her head and pushed the board back toward him. "Next time. I'm a little tired."

She really was somewhat exhausted. Winning this game had not been easy at all, because... while playing, she had also been trying to apply the techniques for practicing Occlumency to the match.

While maintaining a state of complete mental clarity and calm, both her calculation ability and concentration had improved significantly.

With almost every move, she unconsciously calculated the positions two or even three moves ahead at incredible speed.

Only in that nearly cheating-like state could she gradually lure Ron into her traps and barely turn the game around.

Of course, the price was that although she looked fine on the surface, her mind had long been close to exhaustion.

It had to be said that Ron's mastery of Wizard's Chess was indeed formidable. In her normal state, it would have been nearly impossible for her to beat him.

Seeing Ron still unwilling to accept defeat and about to challenge her again, Harry frowned and immediately stood up. "Hermione and I will play with you later."

Then she turned around and said gently to Vera, "Come on. I'll take you back to the dormitory."

Vera did not refuse and nodded lightly. "All right."

After returning to the dormitory, Harry helped her onto the bed and thoughtfully poured her a glass of water, placing it on the bedside table.

"Vera," she sat beside the bed, her green eyes full of curiosity, "had you learned Wizard's Chess before?"

Vera shook her head. "I've learned chess. Its rules are very similar to Wizard's Chess."

Harry suddenly understood. "No wonder you could beat Ron! He's been playing Wizard's Chess since he was little."

"It was just luck." Vera shook her head. "His technique is very seasoned. I couldn't have turned it around until the end."

Harry stared at her for several seconds, then suddenly reached out and ruffled her hair. "You're always so modest."

That sudden intimate gesture startled Vera. She stiffened for a moment, but Harry had already stood up. "Get some rest early. I'm going back to the common room to keep playing chess."

Watching Harry's retreating figure, Vera blinked and reached up to smooth down her rumpled hair.

If she remembered correctly, she had always been the one ruffling Harry's hair before. Being ruffled by Harry... seemed to be a first?