Chapter 33: Breaking Through the Barriers

"We exchanged a horse for a bishop, but successfully sent the rook into his hinterland. Next, we need to plan a new attack. How should we move..."

Luo En was whispering loudly with his chess pieces. Harry fiddled with his own pieces; he was the white side this time.

"If I move the bishop four more squares to catch his queen, how will he move? Padding the horse or pushing the pawn isn't appropriate. She will definitely move, and definitely move this way. But if so, I'll take a bold move and just give up my horse. As long as his queen moves like that..."

Harry just felt the sun was warm and was drowsy.

"Then I'll move the rook here and start checking. If he moves here, then I'll move my bishop like this, and I can draw his queen. He can only think of moving here..."

At this time, Harry had already fallen asleep with his chin in his hand.

"This way I'll use the bishop to continue checking. He has to move here, but my queen is watching here, and here is within the attack range of my other rook!" Luo En moved a piece triumphantly. "Your turn, Harry."

"Luo En!!!" Harry suddenly screamed miserably.

"What, what's wrong?"

"Oh, sorry, I fell asleep a bit just now. I had a dream," Harry said apologetically.

"I dreamed we were playing Wizard's Chess, you were the horse, and I was the bishop," Harry described vividly. "Then you were eaten by the white queen, which gave me a fright."

"Look at what you're saying, hurry up and play."

"Hmm..." Harry looked at the chessboard and felt that the game was very similar to the one in his dream. He quickly moved his queen, no longer giving Luo En a chance to sacrifice a piece and win. Because he remembered that in the dream, after the horse Luo En represented was sacrificed, the rook Hemin represented won the game with a beautiful series of checks.

But why was it Hemin? How strange.

Just as Harry was staring intently at the chessboard, he heard someone knocking on the dormitory door, and it was a girl. She shouted anxiously, "Harry, Luo En, help me!"

Harry opened the door and found it was Hanna, her eyes a bit red and swollen.

"I begged many people before they were willing to let me in. Quick, you must help Nawei," she said incoherently. "Qiluo has already gone in, and the professors are nowhere to be found!"

"Don't worry, it's just a little game," Harry comforted her.

"No, no," Hanna cried. "Nawei said he didn't expect the Death Eaters to play for real. He asked me to find you, and Hemin went in with him."

"What?" Harry felt something was wrong. He hurriedly grabbed his wand, just walked to the door, and then turned back, took out his pistol from the drawer, and checked that there were still six bullets left.

Then, he pulled his Invisibility Cloak from under his pillow, and only then patted Luo En on the shoulder and said, "Let's go, Luo En. Hanna, you continue to find the professors, whoever you can find, quick!"

The two ran all the way to the room at the end of the third floor and found the door open, while Fluffy was already fast asleep.

Harry quickly lifted the trapdoor. He shot a red spark spell inside to check the situation below with the light of the sparks.

"Jump, it's Devil's Snare." After saying that, Harry jumped down. With a strange, muffled sound, he landed on something soft, and when he looked up again, the hole was only the size of a stamp.

Luo En also jumped down. Harry knew Devil's Snare was afraid of light and heat. He was worried that using the Fire-Making Spell would cause the place to burn, so he just shot a few spark spells at the Devil's Snare. The sparks were enough to make them wither, and the two struggled out of the entanglement of the Devil's Snare and walked along the only corridor that looked like a path.

They walked to the end of the corridor and found a bright room ahead. The ceiling arched high, and it was full of little birds shining like gems, flapping their wings non-stop. Behind the room was a thick and solid wooden door, which was now half-open.

"Look, this must be Madam Hooch's puzzle," Luo En pointed to the broomsticks in the corner. "It must take some effort to find a suitable key among these flying keys."

"I know how Hanna got out now," Harry said while turning sideways through the wooden door.

Behind the door, the ground was a giant chessboard. Harry and Luo En couldn't help but exclaim when they saw the scene before them.

All the chess pieces were lying on the ground crookedly, and many were even broken into several pieces. The white king was cut off at the waist, but the black king was still intact.

"Do you think this was done by Nawei?" Harry said suspiciously.

"If not, then he might really be in danger," Luo En swallowed a mouthful of saliva.

They rushed through the chess room. At this time, a musty smell immediately drilled into their nostrils, forcing them to cover their noses with their clothes. Their eyes were smoked with tears before they could see clearly that a troll, much larger than the one on Wan Shengjie, was lying flat on the floor ahead. But its head had completely disappeared, leaving only a charred broken end. This cruel scene made Harry feel very uncomfortable and almost vomit.

"Quick, quick." Seeing that this troll had already become a corpse, Harry also realized something, and the two accelerated their pace.

Then, they saw a black wall of fire, and Hemin, who was fiddling with seven little bottles while crying.

Harry walked up and asked in a low voice, "What's wrong—"

"This is a logic puzzle," Hemin sobbed. "When we came, there was a huge sound inside, so Nawei went first."

"Ah ah ah ah ah!" A heart-piercing scream came, and Harry and Luo En were stunned. It seemed to be Nawei's voice.

"Quick, I have to go in," Harry said urgently.

"No, the only bottle of medicine, the third bottle, no!" Hemin cried even harder, but the more anxious she was, the less she could clear up this difficult puzzle.

"How did Nawei get in?" Luo En asked.

"I don't know. In the blink of an eye, he recited a spell—"

"Do you still remember what spell it was?" Harry was burning with anxiety.

"I don't know, haven't learned it," Hemin said. "I just remember hearing a 'Zhong' character."

"No matter what, let's trust Peifulier once," Harry wrapped the Invisibility Cloak tightly around himself and then rushed into the fire.

In the surprised eyes of Luo En and Hemin, the invisible Harry ran through the fire safely, as if the flames were automatically making way for him.

Harry clearly saw the flames licking his body, but he couldn't feel the temperature of the fire at all. This Invisibility Cloak seemed to be thermally insulated; such flames couldn't hurt it.

Walking to the end of the barrier, he saw the Mirror of Erised lying on the ground, and Qiluo—it was indeed Qiluo.

He was grabbing Nawei's hair with one hand, dragging him in front of the mirror, and said viciously: "Tell me again, what do you see?"

"I see... your doom." Nawei was in tatters at this time, with burns on his face and his hair scorched. Harry believed his process of passing through the fire must not have been easy.

"Damn it," Qiluo cursed. "Crucio!"

Nawei screamed again. Harry felt that things couldn't continue like this, so he stepped forward quietly and slowly took out his pistol.

The spell ended, and Nawei fell to the ground, opening his mouth and closing his eyes, looking extremely painful.

Qiluo took two steps forward, wanting to grab Nawei, and just then—Harry lifted the cloak and fired three shots in a row.

But these three shots all stopped in front of him; an invisible wall blocked the bullets.

"Did you think I didn't cast Protego?" Qiluo sneered. "Expelliarmus!"

A red light shot over, and Harry's pistol flew out of his hand immediately, but it was the pistol that flew out; the wand was still tightly gripped in his left hand.

"Expelliarmus!" Harry learned and used this spell on the spot. He felt that this spell seemed to be naturally suitable for him, and it was effortless to cast.

But unfortunately, the red spell seemed to only barely break Qiluo's Protego, and then he was knocked away by another red light.

Qiluo flicked his fingers lightly, and a rope appeared out of thin air, tying Harry up tightly.

"Even you came, that's really great. I thought there was only this silly boy here," Qiluo smiled wickedly. "This is perfect. I can get the true blood of the enemy, which is offered voluntarily, not cheated."

He took a small silver knife out of his robe.

"So you deliberately collected my blood on Wan Shengjie? What do you want to do?" Harry couldn't break free from the restraint and could only try to drag out time by talking. Hanna had long gone to find the professors. Whoever came should be able to contend with Qiluo, and they should also notify Deng Buliduo.

Qiluo cut Harry's hand and collected some blood. He thought for a while, then walked to Nawei's side and grabbed his hand.

"Of course it's to resurrect the Dark Lord. Although the Sorcerer's Stone has a better effect, we must have a backup plan," Qiluo picked up the knife and gestured. "The Dark Lord wants to kill you himself, but this kid doesn't matter."

"You want the Sorcerer's Stone, right?" Harry said anxiously. "We can think of a way together, don't kill Nawei."

"Then take it out of the mirror for me!" Qiluo roared. He walked over and grabbed Harry's hair, dragging him in front of the mirror, and he was almost completely lying on the mirror surface.

"I can see a little, but it's not complete, unless the mirror is set up, and then let me stand upright in front of it," Harry said calmly.

"As you wish." Qiluo waved his wand lightly, and the mirror stood steadily on the ground again. Then, Harry felt an invisible force lifting him, almost hanging him in front of the mirror.

Harry stared intently at the mirror surface. He saw Zhang Qiu appear in the mirror, quietly stuffing her wand into her sleeve.

And he did feel something long and hard pressing against his forearm. ===== CHAPTER 34 =====