Chapter 36: Rushing through the Challenges

Rushing back towards the Gate of the Ancient Castle, heading inside in the direction of the Great Staircase. In an unobserved corner of the Castle, with no Portraits present, he cast his empowered version of the disillusionment Charm, turning himself invisible. Secretly bypassing Snape, who was keeping an eye on the forbidden Corridor on the Third Floor whenever he could, Harry arrived in front of the door.

Behind it, he could hear Fluffy breathing and walking around. Once he made sure that nobody was in the Corridor that could see him, he pulled the Flute out of his Sacred Gear and cast the music Charm on it once again, putting the Three-headed dog to sleep. From then, he quickly bypassed all the security measures he was familiar with, rushing through every room without trouble since he already knew what he had to do in each of them. On his way, he collected the Devil's Snare and placed it in one of his Greenhouses.

Until he arrived at the familiar door of the Room with the Giant Chessboard inside. Once he stepped again inside the dark room, it began to illuminate wholly with light, revealing both sides of the Chessboard. With the Black Figures on his side and the faceless White Figures on the other side waiting for him. He approached the Figure of the Black King and touched it, "I am going to take your place." Having heard him, the Black King turned and left the field, opening his spot for him.

Once he stood in his place, the white side, like in any classic Chess Game, opened the game by moving a White Pawn forward. Harry followed suit with a loud voice, by commanding his pieces to follow his strategy. And an exciting Chess match erupted between both parties. Directing his pieces to fight the white ones, killing each other in a brutal match.

Every time one of his men was lost, the white pieces showed no mercy. Soon there was a huddle of limp black players slumped along the wall. But there were as many destroyed white pieces as black ones. There were a few risky situations where the white side put him under check, but he managed to evade the loss each time. To end that match, he had to make a risky move.

It was a gamble. If the white side was like a Chess Computer, he would lose since it wouldn't make any so obvious mistakes. But during his practice matches and right now, he felt as if the figures had a bit of their own personality, as if magic gave them life. Using himself as bait, he had to hold his breath. If the other side used their Knight, he would lose, but if it used the Queen, he would deliver a devastating blow since he could take it two turns after, and the Queen couldn't escape.

One uncomfortable long moment later, the Queen put him under check again, triggering his trap. After taking the White Queen out of the match, his side was stronger, and he could safely pull the match through, ending the Chess game for his life by putting the Enemy King under checkmate.

The white king took off his crown and threw it at Harry's feet. He had won. The chessmen parted and bowed, leaving the door ahead clear. And he continued on, having completed this challenge, through the door and up the next passageway.

"So Hagrid with Fluffy, Sprout with the Devil's Snare, Flitwick the Keys, McGonagall the Chess Set, only Quirrell, Snape, and Dumbledore remaining," muttered Harry as he rushed through the passageway. He had reached another door and pushed it open.

The moment he opened the door, a disgusting smell filled his nostrils, a familiar smell. His senses warned him as he jumped to the side. One second later, and he would have received a terrible wound as a massive wooden club hit the place he just stood. Another Troll, even larger than the one he captured, was the challenge Quirrell left in his room. 'Huh, that's how he got away with letting a Troll into the Castle. He probably said that it escaped him while he had to transport it here. They probably assumed it returned by itself into the wilds once they didn't find it,' he thought as he readied a barrage of enhanced paralysis spells.

Hitting the Troll with all five projectiles slowed it visibly down but didn't take it out yet. It was clearly a more grown one than the other one. Hitting it with two more barrages of his paralysis spells finally finished it. Unable to move, the Troll lay on the floor, steadily breathing while keeping onto its consciousness, its disgusting stench still flooding the room.

Not even thinking for long, Harry pulled the massive body of the ugly creature into his Sacred Gear, placing it with the other Troll who was becoming lonely all alone. Expanding the collection of creatures he possessed. Like with the Devil's Snare, why should he leave free stuff behind?

He was just going in and out while blaming everything on Quirrell if someone should ask. The strange stuttering Professor was clearly the culprit. Over the last months, the feeling of vile and disgusting magic from him became stronger and stronger. As if the man was breaking the laws of nature itself, without thinking about the consequences at all. Such a person was desperate and clearly already in the eyes of Dumbledore and the other teachers. Snape didn't make a secret of how he was clearly keeping an eye on him. So, an ideal scapegoat for Harry's borrowing tour.

After dying and becoming a Devil, his values clearly changed. Although he wouldn't harm innocents, he had no problem acting on his Devil sins, bettering his own position no matter how. He didn't want to die so pathetically again, and he would do anything to become someone truly great while also keeping the people close to him safe. 'So, sorry Quirrell, but when you send a Troll after me, you should expect to become my enemy and receive my revenge.'

Having stored the Troll away, he pulled the next door open, wanting to finally see the challenge in the next room, the final challenge left behind by Professor Snape. It was nothing outstanding, just a table with seven differently shaped bottles standing on it in a line. He stepped over the threshold, and immediately a fire sprang up behind him in the doorway. It wasn't ordinary fire either; it was purple. At the same instant, black flames shot up in the doorway leading onward. He was trapped. There was no way forward or backward as both entrances were blocked by magical flames.

On the table beside the seven bottles was a roll of parchment with a riddle written on it: Danger lies before you, while safety lies behind, Two of us will help you, whichever you would find, One among us seven will let you move ahead, Another will transport the drinker back instead, Two among our number hold only nettle wine, Three of us are killers, waiting hidden in line. Choose, unless you wish to stay here forevermore, To help you in your choice, we give you these clues four:

First, however slyly the poison tries to hide, You will always find some on nettle wine's left side;

Second, different are those who stand at either end, But if you would move onward, neither is your friend;

Third, as you see clearly, all are different size, Neither dwarf nor giant holds death in their insides;

Fourth, the second left and the second on the right, Are twins once you taste them, though different at first sight.

'Hmm, a logic riddle, clever. From what I could observe, most wizards aren't logical and always look for a solution with magic. Such a challenge will hinder the most of them,' smirked Harry as he had to give it to Snape that this was quite clever. 'Let's see, the leftmost one isn't wine as the first clue said that there is always poison on the left of wine. Which means, according to the second clue, the rightmost is different from the leftmost. The biggest bottle is on the right, it isn't poison but neither wine since the twins have to be wine or on the left of wine. It couldn't always be poison with the smallest one also being safe to drink. Since the outermost ones aren't the way forward, the biggest one on the right leads me back, and the smallest one is the way forward.'

Clearly thinking through all the clues, Harry managed to identify the correct bottle. The potion forward was in the smallest bottle. Harry took a deep breath and picked up the smallest bottle. He turned to face the black flames.

"Here I come," he said, and he drained the little bottle in one gulp. It was indeed as though ice was flooding his body. He put the bottle down and walked forward; he braced himself, saw the black flames licking his body, but couldn't feel them—for a moment he could see nothing but dark fire—then he was on the other side, in the last chamber.

— DXD — DXD — DXD — DXD — DXD —

AN: Leave some Power Stones!

— DXD — DXD — DXD — DXD — DXD —

For 10 more advanced Chapters please visit: www.p_a_t_r_e_o_n.com/Ashmodai

Thank you for your Support!