The Death Knell

Games, school, rest, the days just go by.

There is a competition at the end of almost every month, and Harry gradually has some other strengths besides his hair.

Finally, six months later, in the second semester of fourth grade, in this somewhat sultry summer, Harry faced the biggest difficulty in his life so far.

That is, with the help of his mother, he actually entered the finals of the top ten competition!

The final event is a maze with a silent stretching spell. The Wilson Cup at the end of the top ten competition is placed somewhere in the maze. As long as you reach out and touch it, you will become the final winner.

There are not only contestants in the maze, but also monsters such as minotaurs thrown into it by professors. This is a competition about strength, luck and imagination. In addition to Harry and Hermione, there are eight people from other schools. participate.

The old Quidditch pitch has become completely unrecognizable. A twenty-foot-high hedge surrounds the edge of the field. There is a gap in front of the warriors, which is the entrance to this large maze.

The passage inside is dark and a bit scary.

The outside audience could still only see a limited number of places through surveillance cameras, but this did not stop people's enthusiasm for anticipating who would win the final championship. The stands began to be crowded with people, and thousands of students filed into their seats. There were many more adult wizards who came to watch the fun.

The air was filled with excited words and chaotic footsteps. Their hats were decorated with bright red stars, and pairs of eyes were looking at the little wizards at the entrance of the maze.

The sky was now a clear deep blue, and stars began to appear. Hagrid, Professor McGonagall, and Professor Flitwick walked into the sports field and approached Bagman and several warriors who were presiding over the game.

"We will patrol outside the maze," Professor McGonagall said to the warriors. "If you encounter difficulties and want to be rescued, just shoot red sparks into the sky and someone will come to help you. Do you understand?"

The warriors nodded together.

Harry was a little nervous, especially since Hermione's back was in front of him. The order of entering the maze was based on the scores in the previous events. His turn would not be until one minute after the girl entered the maze.

This maze is a tall hedge made of magical plants, which not only blocks everyone's view, but is also one of the traps.

My mother told herself in her dream that there were devil's nets lurking in the hedges in some places. Try not to touch the walls of the maze. If you are entangled, you must use flame or strong light spells immediately.

Harry wasn't sure how much he heard Professor McGonagall's words, and he wasn't sure if he really remembered the path to the trophy. He just promised his mother in his dream that he would be the first to hold the cup in order not to disappoint him.

Dumbledore was also sitting in the audience tonight, and the person in charge of hosting the game was Bagman, the British "famous mouthpiece" whom Harry had met at the Quidditch World Cup. He had a funny face and a big red nose.

Before Hermione set off, the man came over to Harry in a friendly manner: "Are you ready, young man?"

Harry only felt a stomachache, and he almost vomited out the starry sky pie he had eaten for dinner, but he still forced himself to nod calmly.

The other person was holding a pocket watch and looking at the time. Harry could notice the beautiful hands shining with moonlight, and then he felt a big hand on his shoulder tap him.

"Set off!"

He rushed into the maze subconsciously and disappeared from the audience's sight as soon as he turned the first fork in the road.

The tall hedges cast dark shadows across the narrow path, and whether because of their height or because they were enchanted, the voices of the spectators were inaudible once Harry entered the maze.

He almost felt as if he was sinking to the bottom of a black lake, with the air sticking to him thickly. He pulled out his wand and said: "Luminescent flash."

His vision recovered, and he gradually calmed down. Apart from the damp and cold atmosphere in the maze, he had not encountered any danger.

It's just that he completely forgot the road map his mother told him in advance.

This is not important. In fact, for Harry, being able to reach this point and enter the finals has surpassed his past self, and he is already satisfied.

After walking forward for about fifty meters, he came to a fork in the road. He chose to go to the right. There seemed to be nothing on this road. He raised his wand in one hand, trying to see as far as possible, but his field of vision remained the same. limited.

Harry kept looking behind him. He seemed to feel that someone was watching him secretly again, but maybe the camera still caught him?

The maze was getting darker every minute, and the sky above turned dark blue. He came to the second fork in the road.

"Show me the way," he whispered to his wand, holding it flat in the palm of his hand.

The wand rotated and designated the dense hedge on his right, which was the north. He knew that he had to go deep into the central area of ​​the maze first, so he had to go northwest first.

So he turned left. The road ahead was still empty. He moved forward quickly, and when he reached a right turn, Harry turned in. There was still no obstacle.

Harry didn't know why this was happening. He was a little panicked because of the unobstructed flow. He should have encountered some monsters now. Hagar secretly told him that the professors had put hundreds of terrible creatures into the maze.

The maze seemed to be tempting him with the illusion of safety. At least it had been almost ten minutes since he entered, and he still hadn't seen any species that could be called dangerous. At most, there were just a few Bowtruckles.

He shook his head to avoid being suspicious. The physical education professor once said that when a person is in the wilderness, he must not doubt himself. Once he stays where he is or has doubts, he is not far from death.

Although a maze is not a dangerous wilderness, this principle still applies.

He quickened his pace again, and when he turned a corner, he finally saw the enemy he should have encountered long ago.

A Dementor walked slowly towards him, twelve feet tall, his face covered by a hood, his rotten and scabbed hands stretched straight out. It approached step by step, touching him based on feeling. Harry could hear the gurgling gasp in its throat.

A cold, slimy feeling washed over him, but he knew what to do.

He tried his best to think of the most pleasant things, and while recalling the magic spell his mother taught him in his dream, he raised his wand and shouted: "Call the gods to protect you!"

A silver doe popped out of Harry's wand and ran towards the Dementor.

Seeing the shining silver animals driving away the dementors, Harry gasped violently. He knew there were some difficult things in the maze, but he didn't expect that he was so unlucky that he encountered the guards of Azkaban.

He looked down at his wand. His guardian spirit was the same as Lily's and Professor Snape's, which was a doe. This was also proof of a family.

Although he also heard his mother in the dream say that love and strong personal will can change the image of a person's guardian spirit, Harry did not feel that the doe guardian spirit was not manly enough at all. He hoped that he and his parents would protect him. The same spirit.

There was an explosion, and the silver deer that had defeated the dementors in the distance exploded into green smoke and disappeared.

Harry hoped it would stay, keep him company, provide a light or something.

But he continued to move forward, walking as fast as possible without making any noise, still holding his wand high, and listening vigilantly to what was going on around him.