The Death Knell

The three of them ran to the opposite side of the hall, and there was a broomstick leaning against the wall not far away. It should have been brought in by Quirrell.

Some of the naughty keys launched harassing attacks on the three, but were shot down by Hannah and Susan with 'Expelliarmus', which bought Hermione time to observe the keyhole.

"Two inches up and down, about 0.5 inches wide, the lock is blue, and the key is likely to have blue patterns or decorations." Hermione gestured on the keyhole with her fingers: "We are looking for a big key, bigger than the others." The keys are big!”

"over there!"

Susan, who obviously wears glasses but has the best eyesight, found the key that met the requirements. It looked like it was floating in the group of keys, as if someone had roughly poked it into the keyhole not long ago, with its wings drooped. The feathers are also messy.

While Hannah kept fighting back, she said a little nervously: "Qi Luo may have used a broom to fly up and grab the key, but the three of us are not good at this sport."

Hermione turned around and took out her wand. She recalled the spell:

"We don't need brooms. On the train to Hogwarts, Professor Wilson taught me a magic spell and asked me to practice more, saying that I wouldn't be qualified until I could summon things from my old home to fly in the castle. It seems that that goal will not be reached within a few years...but I have been practicing this spell, and the key with the most ruffled feathers comes flying!"

The tip of her wand spurted out some light, drawing a clear trajectory in the air. With a flick of her wrist, the big key, although it was still struggling, seemed to be dragged by an invisible hand, and fell straight into the sky. Min's hands.

The girl held the key tightly and opened the lock directly. The three of them ducked into the door, letting the other keys who swarmed behind to save the big key hit the door, making a crackling sound like rain.

"Huh, it's a bit exciting." Susan gasped, pressed her back against the door, took off her glasses and wiped the sweat from her head.

"Yes." Hannah also bent down and held her knees, casting spells continuously in a short period of time. If it weren't for the outdoor 'spoon-bumping' exercise in physical education class, she probably wouldn't be able to bear it: "It's really not possible. Knowing Hermione, how did you stay calm in the face of the troll yesterday?"

Hermione just smiled, not knowing how to answer. Does it mean that a blank mind means being calm? She didn't think so.

When she raised her head and was about to say something, she was a little stunned.

The second room was originally dark when entering, and nothing could be seen. But when he looked up again, the room was suddenly brightly lit, illuminating a shocking scene.

They were standing next to a huge chessboard, with black chess pieces in front of them. Those chess pieces were taller than them and seemed to be carved from black stone or something like that.

Facing them at the other end of the room were some white chess pieces. No matter which side they were on, those towering chess pieces had no facial features on their faces.

Judging from the black and white chessboard, this is a bit like Muggle chess, but this is wizard chess. Although the rules are the same, it does not require hands. The chess pieces will move to the target square according to the player's command.

When a piece is captured, it will be knocked over by the opponent's piece and then dragged off the board.

Wizard can even be played alone, playing against the board itself.

At this time, the other two girls also took a deep breath, straightened up and took a clear look at everything in front of them, and quickly realized what it was.

"Is this wizard chess?" Hannah frowned. She didn't like playing this kind of thing. She might as well plant flowers if she had that time: "Do we need to win the chess board itself to pass?"

Hermione bit her lip and thought for a moment: "It's not just wizard chess, it also has a 'Transformation Curse' and an 'Amplification Curse' cast on it. Look at how small the door behind us is. These three-meter-high chess pieces definitely can't be brought in." of."

"It should be the guards arranged by Professor McGonagall. What should we do?" Susan sniffed. She was not very good at playing chess either.

"If it's Professor McGonagall... let me ask." Hermione walked to the castle at the corner of the chessboard and patted the tall chess piece: "Do we need to defeat the white side to pass? Instead of us Pawns with equal numbers? Join the chessboard?"

The tall stone tower shook like jelly and bent down in agreement.

Hermione took the opportunity to observe the door behind the opponent's white chess. It was more like a stone gate with no chain holes. I'm afraid the 'unlocking spell' would have no use.

But did Quirrell really waste so much time and advance to the next level by playing chess?

She didn't think so, because Quirrell's garlic smell hadn't even completely dissipated when they arrived in front of the fourth floor door.

Even adult wizards cannot play a game of chess faster than Hermione and the others, so there must be some shortcut.

Suddenly, her eyes lit up and she asked the chess pieces around her: "You only need to knock down the white chess on the chess board to pass, right? This is a wizard chess, but no one stipulates that it must be played according to the rules of wizard chess."

The black castle stood without any expression, but several women present had a feeling that it seemed to reject Hermione's opportunistic ideas.

The chessboard is a battlefield for the chess players, and those who don't respect the battlefield are not worth communicating with!

But Hermione would not put herself in the chess pieces' shoes, so she chose to skip the level.

My professor once said that everything is imaginary and everything is allowed. If you just play according to the rules when you see the chessboard, I am afraid you will fall directly into the trap of preconceived ideas!

There are no rules and slogans like 'play wizard chess to pass' or 'no magic allowed', right?

She took out her wand and cast a spell on the white chessmen on the opposite side of the board: "Shrink quickly!"

‘Quickly shrink’ and ‘quickly grow’ are respectively the shrinking spell and the enlarging spell. These two spells are counter-spells to each other and restrain each other.

Although this is a spell that only senior students can learn, Hermione has already taught herself the third-year Transfiguration course. As the rays of light shot out, the huge chess pieces on the opposite side instantly returned to their normal size.

About as high as a finger.

Next, Hermione walked over, grabbed the white chess pieces that were blocking her approach one by one, and threw them all out of the chessboard.

They fought back with small needle-like swords, but it was of no use to the 'Hermione Giant'. They were originally tools for entertainment, not killing machines.

After the judgment was passed, the door on the other side of the room opened. The girl thanked the physical education teacher for her teachings and waved to her friends to follow.

She felt that she was getting closer and closer to Quirrell, and even her little hands were sweating.

But there was nothing in the next room, it was empty, and the door on the other side was completely open.

The three of them looked at each other. Everything was not very clear in the dark, but everyone's eyes looked very excited and sparkled in the dark.

There was only a table in the next room with a few bottles of potions on it, and the entrance was blocked by a sudden burst of flames as they stepped inside.

The flame was purple and looked very unusual, and a red wall of fire also rose in front of the crowd, surrounding the three people around the table.

There is a scroll next to the potion with a riddle written on it. Generally speaking, only one of these bottles is a 'fire-resistant potion', and the others are invalid potions or poisonous wine.

"Logical reasoning and potions?" Hermione looked at the small table: "This should be the level designed by Snape, but Quirrell still made it through."

Hannah looked at the bottles. They looked exactly the same. She unscrewed the caps and smelled them. The smells were also the same. She had no idea:

"Which one should we drink?"

Hermione shook her head and started to dig into her bag again: "Quirrell entered the next level before us. Maybe he also messed up the order of all the potions. If you drink according to the prompts in the riddle, you may drink the poison instead." Wine, so... I choose to drink what I brought myself, here, be careful it's a little cold."

She took out the 'extreme environmental protection potion gift box' that the professor had given her as a prize a few days ago, and took out several bottles of fire-resistant potion.

It is said that the fire-proof potion in this big gift box can resist the breath of a fire dragon if she drinks it, the cold-resistant potion can let her have a snowball fight in the Arctic wearing only her pajamas, and there is even a potion that can breathe underwater.

At that time, she thought the gift bag was useless, but now she realized...it smelled really good!

The three girls clinked the bottles like toasts and drank the potion in one gulp. Then Hermione took out the shotgun and the other two girls began to apply protective magic. Together, the three of them passed through the high wall of fire and faced Their first life challenge.