Neil twisted the doorknob again, only to hear a click, and the door opened softly to one side. He walked in humming the chorus of "The Song of Barbablowan and the Mother Crocodile"—a wizard's tune he had recently learned—and didn't forget to pull out the big silver key from the keyhole and toss it aside so that it could return to its companions when it came to its senses.

Standing in the doorway and looking in, the next room was still pitch black. Lighting wasn't a serious problem for Neil, though, and through the darkness he saw a large stone brazier placed in each corner of the room, apparently the classic design that would automatically ignite whenever someone stepped inside.

The professors at Hogwarts are quite fashionable.

Sure enough, as soon as Neil stepped into the room with one foot, he heard a bang, and the braziers on the four corners were lit at the same time, illuminating the whole room as if it were day.

If the challenger who came here was a normal person, he would have been shocked at this moment, because he would suddenly find himself standing on a huge wizard chess (i.e., chess) chessboard, surrounded by tall shadows that could easily be used as pillars in the dark. The black pieces stand side by side with them, while the white pieces stand on the opposite side, and it seems that they need to be defeated in the game before they are allowed to pass.

It's a pity that Neil has seen the situation inside clearly in advance at the door, and this scene is like a suspense that has been spoiled in his eyes. In the same way, he is not ready to honestly play chess with this group of plaster statues.

The designer of this trap must have been so confident that he didn't even lock the door to the next room and then shove the key into the head of the white chess king – as in the story of "The Six Busts of Napoleon", without worrying about someone ignoring his elaborate game and trying to go straight to the exit.

Neil took a brief look at the fact that the magic given to these pieces was so complex that it was almost wasteful to use in such a play-like place, and even among Hogwarts professors, only wizards of the level of McGonagall or Flitwick were capable of doing this.

But he must not have expected that someone would stealthily drill directly from under the feet of the chess pieces without any sense of honor.

"Don't look at me like that, what difference is what you did in our mountain gate back then and what I do now?" Neil flicked the badger's head.

Under the power of the latter, he was almost in a no-man's land along the way, no one was aware of his presence, neither Kuroko nor Shiroko, only the self-lit brazier was functioning normally - they were presumably bound to the door of the previous room, only sensing the opening and closing of the door, not caring if anyone passed. Ironically, this simple method of Muggle technology is the only one that works.

……

Neil didn't have time to stay and sigh about some philosophy of life. There were more levels than he had imagined, and he didn't know that Harry was enjoying Christmas with all his head overhead, showing no signs of rushing out of his dorm in a hurry, and that the rush out of his dorm was just an illusion, so he was only thinking about getting it done quickly, so as not to leave Harry and his party with a hidden danger that he didn't know when he arrived.

Walking through the spectacular magic chessboard, the next room suddenly became petty: a heavily armed troll guard was sitting on the ground playing with his toes. It is true that trolls are very terrifying creatures, and in the face of their incredible strength, the human body is no different from jam bread, and if you hold the middle part and gently grasp it, the crimson slurry will gush out from the upper and lower ends, because most of the people who look down on them because they are stupid will not end well.

But after dealing with the bigger, more ferocious three-headed dog in the first place, there was nothing new about this guy in front of him, except that he was superior in terms of stinking.

Neil didn't know if he was counting his toes or licking the sludge between his toenails - two possibilities were almost equal to the troll - and had no intention of looking into it. He trotted all the way around the troll, removed the key from its belt, unlocked the door to the next room, and trotted back

Hung it back as it was. The whole process is not as long as we are speaking now.

However, he privately thinks that this guy may be a strong opponent for Mr. Potter, after all, unlike the previous "wit" levels, here it is almost forcing the challenger to solve the problem with violence.

……

By the time Neil had put the key back to the exit and pulled the door open, he was a little tired - mostly mentally, as it was still unknown how many Hogwarts staff were involved in the cause, and he had to be careful not to break anything while doing his best to complete the marathon of unknown mileage as fast as possible.

As soon as he stepped through the next door, a purple flame rose from behind him, completely blocking the way of retreat in the future tense; At the same time, the front door to the front was also covered by a sudden black flame, directly trapping him in it.

"Very well, what is it this time? Do you need me to perform a ring of fire?"

No one answered. In addition to him, there was only one table in the small room, on which were seven glass bottles with the same strange shape as the contents. Neil found a piece of parchment next to him, and the handwriting on it felt familiar.

He whispered it aloud:

"Danger is in sight, safety is in the rear. Two of us can help you.

"Drink them down, one will lead you forward, and the other will send you back to where you came. Two of them are filled with nettle wine. Three are killers and are waiting in line.

"Choose, unless you want to be here forever. We also provide four clues to help you choose: first, no matter how cunning the poisons are, they are actually on the left side of the nettle wine; Second, the bottles on the left and right ends are not well lit up, and neither of them will work for you if you want to move forward; Thirdly, you will find that the bottles are of different sizes, and that there is no Grim Reaper hidden in the giants and gnomes; Fourth, the second on the left and the second on the right, although they look different, they taste the same...... Wow, I didn't even know you had a talent for limerick poetry, Professor Snape."

Needless to say, the handwriting on the paper and the Potions knowledge involved in the puzzle both lock the identity of the person who wrote the problem to the same person. Snape's level was not about magic, but a riddle that tested logical reasoning, and in Neil's view, it was a sign of extreme perversion - he just didn't want to see Harry answer even a single question about potions.

Neil didn't think about the correct answer to the puzzle, after all, even if he did, he wouldn't have been able to snatch the potion reserved for Harry and drink it. Anyway, the bottle of potion was only used to help the user pass through the wall of fire safely, and it was the same to replace it with a fire avoidance trick.

He tore off a small strip of yellow paper from the yellow paper he carried with him and picked it on the tip of the sword, glanced at the black flames churning in front of him, thought about it and tore another one.

"Hmph, in the end, it's a common man, and the fluorescence of this kind of rotten grass can't stand it, I want to ...... back then."

"Don't make any noise, I have to concentrate - chase the monkey in the west, drive the tailed tiger in the east, cut the winged snake in the south, and attack the room pig in the north!"

……

Neil didn't recognize where the black flame came from, but it was rare, and its power was far inferior to the various fires in myths and legends. The extravagant use of the fire avoidance technique of the two talismans easily deflected its effects. When Neil pushed back the wall of fire and entered the next room, he was pleasantly surprised to find that there was no door in front of him to move forward.

However, what awaits him here is not the expected Philosopher's Stone, nor is it any other treasure.

"Good evening, Mr. Ding. We haven't seen each other in a while."

Albus Percival Wolfrick Brian Dumbledore, the greatest wizard in British history, the current headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the chief wizard of the Wizengamot, and the president of the International Confederation of Wizards, stood there, nodding at him with a kind smile, but the kind gaze penetrated the badger's stealth protection.

"I have to say, you're here at the right time, and I think it's almost time for us to talk."