"Hmm...... It's almost over. Ron gripped the stone reins and said slowly. Let me think, let me think...... yes—"

The White Queen turned her featureless face to him.

He understood at once.

"You two, listen to me......" he said in a stiff tone, "I'll go to the left in a moment, go to the Black King on the other side, and then the White Queen will eat me, and at this point, you can command that castle to checkmate it Harry!" ”

"No way!" Harry and Hermione shouted at the same time. "Don't you see the fate of the captured pieces?"

"But it's a game of chess!"

Ron yelled, "Look at our field, there are no other pieces to use here, we have many chances to win, but what happened?" I had to make a few more scrap moves to avoid me and Hermione getting eaten! This game is so unfair to us! This is an essential sacrifice if you want to win! ”

"But—"

"No, Harry, if we don't take this opportunity, I'm probably never going to win this game again, and if you really want to stop the mystery man from getting the Philosopher's Stone, please do as I say!"

"Ron...... Harry clenched his fists, his eyes red. I understand. ”

"It's true, it's a good thing Brandi and Parvati didn't come together - otherwise it would have been a lot harder to play with five uneaten pieces." Ron shrugged his shoulders with a wry smile, his face pale but resolute. "Merlin bless, Queen, you have to be gentle in a moment—"

He patted his horse, as if his mind was in touch, and the horse under his crotch began to move in a diagonal line. "It's up to you, Harry, get it!"

The White Queen pounced fiercely, the giant sword in her hand slashed through a semicircle, and with an earth-shattering bang, the war horse that Ron was riding was directly cut in two - he fell from the horse, and his head hit the black and white floor tiles heavily, and there was no movement at all. Then, the White Queen grabbed his feet like garbage and threw down the chessboard.

They looked at Ron unconscious in the middle of the rubble in the audience, but they couldn't leave now - a trembling Harry covered his cheeks with his hands and took Ron's last order.

The castle has been moved three blocks to the front.

“Checkmate！” Harry whispered.

There was a brief silence, and the White King's sword fell to the ground with a thud - the white chess pieces retreated to both sides, making way for Harry and them.

"What's next?" He gave Ron a look of embarrassment.

"Can we turn back now...... There's no way we're going on an adventure with him on our backs! ”

They stared at Ron's limp 'remains' with sorrow, then rushed through the door and into the next hallway.

"What do you think will happen next, will there be dragons here?" Harry shook his head, trying to forget about Ron's misery, and he changed the subject as if nothing had happened.

He hadn't expected Hermione to answer his ...... But who would have thought that Hermione actually stopped, and for a moment Harry's serious expression reminded Harry of Professor McGonagall.

Does she really know something?

"If I was confused before I met this chessboard, I have a vague idea now! Harry, I hope you won't be too surprised by whatever inferences I make next. ”

Harry nodded stunned, he didn't quite understand why Hermione's face was so horrible.

“…… I'm now wondering if these traps to protect the Philosopher's Stone were designed specifically for us! ”

"Clams!?" Harry cried out loudly. "Are you kidding?"

"Of course not!" Hermione glared, "Didn't you realize that the traps we just went through were too simple!" ”

"You say it's simple? That big mushroom under the trapdoor almost didn't kill me and Ron! And the chessboard formation, I swear Professor McGonagall deformed the pieces, look at Ron, he's still hanging from the White Knight's lance to dry! ”

"But we're only first-graders! Are these trials really as difficult for an adult wizard who really wants to come in as hard as we do? And—"

Harry stopped talking.

"Actually, we can have an easier life, but we don't even notice the real way to clear the level! Harry. ”

“…… You're saying, what? The right way to clear customs? ”

He was completely confused by Hermione's words, "Are there any other ways to beat those levels before?" ”

Hermione glanced at him. "Listen, of course I'm just guessing - I don't know if you've noticed, in addition to Hagrid's Lowe and Dumbledore's own traps, there are a total of six professors involved in the operation to protect the Philosopher's Stone."

"That's true, but what does this have to do with our adventures?"

"How many of us are there? I mean count all the Gryffindors that appeared tonight! ”

"Five...... Huh? Harry pondered, "You mean Neville?" Six of us? ”

"That's right! Don't you think there's an inexplicable connection between these levels and the six of us? ”

"But Neville wouldn't actually come over at all, he was knocked down by your petrification charm, wasn't he!" Harry said irritably, Hermione's speculation gave him a terrible feeling, and he didn't want to think about it at all.

"Yes, Neville chose to confront us, so I restrained him." Hermione nodded. "We've paid the price for that – there's definitely an easier way to deal with that gluttonous mushroom, and I'm sure Neville could figure it out in a matter of seconds. But since I knocked him out and left him in the break room, we had to choose the hardest way - and I ran out of magic because of it; The Flying Key in the back is very simple, isn't it, because this level is designed for you, and you haven't thought about why a broom is specially left in a mechanism that guards the Philosopher's Stone to open it? ”

Harry was stunned to the point of breathlessness. This is simply ridiculous! Did Hermione think that Dumbledore had expected a few of us to come here one day to retrieve the Philosopher's Stone?

"And then there's it, the chessboard...... We may be having a hard time, but at least we shouldn't be able to afford to lose a partner! Naturally, this trap was designed for Ron, so who would have thought of testing the intruder's chess skills? But because there were two hiccups - first, Brandi and Parvati temporarily decided to leave the team...... Delayed Quirrell, and I lost my magic from the Enchanting Charm. That's why it's so hard! Hermione didn't give Harry any time to think, she said in a quick breath. So I can boldly guess that in the next three levels, there should be me, Brandi and Parvati's traps respectively! The creators of these institutions seem to want to see us come together and face the final test together......"

"But we didn't do what they wanted from the beginning! Didn't ...... in the first place" Harry covered his face in despair, "and now it's just the two of us......"

"But that's not going to be a reason for us to back down, is it Harry?" Hermione patted him on the shoulder, "Brandy, they might already be on their way here...... I believe they have the ability. Come on! Let's move on. ”

They stumbled down the hallway to the next door.

"We really don't have to wait for them?" Harry asked in a whisper.

"Let's hurry up, maybe this is what I'm good at...... We're going to get the Philosopher's Stone as much as we can before they arrive, and even if we can't, we're going to do our best to make it a little bit better, and I don't think the two of them can come back unscathed under the nose of the mysterious man. ”

Harry raised his wand vigilantly in one hand and pushed the door open with the other. After their eyes adjusted to the bright light in the room, they saw what was in the room.

It was an unusually small room, not even as big as their dorm, with nothing in it except for three doors on each of the three walls. The walls of the whole house were covered with frescoes—one on exactly one wall, from left to right—the homeless man on the edge of the cliff; an old man with a lantern in the cave; There are also men who seem to be hunting under the moonlight. Among them, the old man's mural is still the opposite, the sky is facing down and the earth is facing up, how awkward it looks.

The two of them were stunned on the spot.

"Hermione?" Harry stammered, "What does this level mean?" ”

Hermione blinked blankly. The little confidence she had just had just now didn't know where to fly, "Even if you ask me that...... I've never seen anything like this before! Did we talk about this in any of our lessons? ”

The two of them cautiously walked to the center of the room, and found that there were no traps, and after some discussion, they opened the door on the right-hand side and looked inside—it was an identical room, but the painting was completely different.

"Okay, okay...... It seems that this is a special labyrinth, and it should be to decipher the things on this painting and find clues to the exit. Hermione's tone froze. I might have a problem with my thinking, this kind of thing probably won't be what we freshmen are good at... This is a question from a professor whose class we have never taken yet! ”

"So, Hermione is thinking too much~ How could Dumbledore design these levels specifically for us!" Harry felt a little more relaxed, "Since we don't know how to get through...... Shall we be here a little bit - huh? Listen, isn't there any movement in the back? ”