From Hogwarts to Strixhaven.

Chapter 133 Exposed

It is not an easy task to find a specific key among hundreds of flying keys, not to mention that Malfoy is always there to interfere.

Harry ducked his head to avoid the tail of Malfoy's broom, and several branches scratched his head, almost leaving another scar on his forehead.

"I'm sorry~~" Malfoy apologized in a weird way. Anyone could tell that he was being sarcastic. "The brooms that Professor Flitwick prepared are too old. The steering is a bit out of order."

Although he didn't want to admit it, Harry also missed his Nimbus 2000. The broom he rode now was a sweeping series from the Hogwarts broom shed, but due to severe wear and tear, Harry could no longer recognize its specific model.

But Harry would never agree with anything that Malfoy, his rival, said: "That's because your flying skills are not good enough! If Slytherin's Seeker next semester is only at your level, then Gryffindor can celebrate the victory of the Quidditch Cup in advance!"

"What!" Malfoy was as angry as if he was slapped in the face, and there was surprise in his anger, "How dare you! You Muggle-raised hybrid!"

Malfoy turned his broom in mid-air and flew straight at Harry.

Harry cried out, and jerked his broom high, a move he often used on the Quidditch pitch to deal with Slytherin trolls that charged at him, but this time he was in a closed room, so Harry's head hit the ceiling as it should have.

"Ouch!" Harry covered his head and the broom stopped rising.

Malfoy had only wanted to scare Harry, and having been a spectator in the stands for a year, he knew that Harry could easily dodge the attack. But who knew that Harry would hit the ceiling and be forced to stop, so now it was Malfoy who had to dodge Harry.

Malfoy turned around urgently and staggered into a pile of flying small keys. Fortunately, those keys with colorful wings were magical creations with unparalleled turning ability, otherwise, being rubbed by such a pile of metal, Malfoy's robes would have turned into beggar clothes.

"Hit him! Harry! Hit him!" Ron jumped up and down to cheer Harry on.

"That's enough! You bunch of childish ghosts!" Hermione shouted from the ground, "If we can't pass this place before dawn, we'll all be deducted points together!"

"I've had enough of these boys." Cassandra was not a witch who was good at flying a broom, but she had another solution. She drew her wand and said to Hermione who was standing in front of the door, "Get out of the way, Granger."

"What are you doing?" Ron quickly stood between the two of them.

"I'm going to blow up the door." This is of course the simplest and most direct way. As Ivy's warlock, Cassandra has mastered the 0-level trick of magic explosion. Although its level is not high, the damage type is noble force field damage, which has unparalleled destructive power on various material entities.

Although it is unclear whether Professor Flitwick has cast a protective spell on the door, it always helps to try.

"This door is protected by Professor Flitwick's spell, you can't do it!" Hermione advised, "As long as Harry and Malfoy in heaven don't interfere with each other, they will definitely be able to grab the key to the door lock soon."

"I saw it!" Harry's voice suddenly came from above. He was rubbing the big bump on his head, but an unusual flash suddenly caught his eyes. The three people on the ground stopped arguing and all looked up.

"Where?" Malfoy, who narrowly avoided Harry, adjusted his flying posture. Just as he was about to curse, he heard Harry's voice. In his panic, he didn't bother to curse and hurriedly searched in the air.

What Harry saw was a large key shining silver, with a pair of sky-blue wings, hidden in heavy surroundings.

"Do you think I'll tell you where it is?" Harry laughed twice and flew towards the big silver key on his broom.

Although the key was large, it was very flexible. Harry thought he could easily catch it, but the key moved around and actually escaped from the hands of Gryffindor's only Seeker.

"With a seeker like you, it's no wonder Gryffindor lost the game!" Although Malfoy started late, Harry, who started first, still couldn't grab the key, so he sneered and rushed towards the silver key.

Malfoy was unsurprisingly frustrated, and several times his fingers touched the key's sky-blue wings, but he was unable to catch it.

"Damn it! It's all because of this rotten broom!" Malfoy angrily knocked on the broom handle under him, and kept complaining.

The silver key flew around Malfoy and to the other side of the room. Harry circled around and turned around, constantly urging the broom under his butt in the direction of the key.

Malfoy cursed inwardly, not daring to delay any longer, and concentrated on chasing the exhaust of the silver key, vowing to get the secret key before Harry.

The Seeker and the Reserve Seeker flew towards each other, with the big silver key sandwiched in the middle.

A thousand words can be said in just a moment. The room where the flying keys are staying is not particularly large. It only takes a few seconds to fly back and forth. Even if Harry and Malfoy are at two ends of the room, the time they meet in the middle of the room is just a blink of an eye.

Harry stretched his arm as far as he could, trying to catch the key before Malfoy, who also kept trying to grab the target right in front of him.

The two people flying towards each other did not want to collide head-on with each other, so they tacitly planned to turn at the last moment.

Malfoy's outstretched finger had already touched the handle of the key. He pushed hard, and the flying posture of the big silver key, which was sandwiched between the two men with no way to hide, was broken and began to spin in the air.

Seeing that Malfoy had touched the key, Harry was anxious and jumped off the broom as if instinctively. If this time was counted, it was the second time he jumped off the broom by himself, as if he only saw victory and turned a blind eye to the possible danger.

Malfoy's first attempt broke the key's flight, and he tried a second time, determined to get it.

The spinning key suddenly stopped in the air because it was firmly grasped by two people.

Yes, both Harry and Malfoy grabbed the keys. Harry grabbed the teeth of the large key, while Malfoy grabbed the handle.

"Let go!" Malfoy's broom was bearing the weight of two people and was completely out of his control and was tilting to one side.

"Hold on tight, Harry! Or you'll fall!" Ron exclaimed, but before he could finish his words, the two people who were holding the key had fallen off their brooms.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" Cassandra, who had been pointing her wand at the gate, turned around and caught them both with a beautiful levitation spell.

After all, the levitation spell was not a spell used to slow down falling, so the two opponents from Gryffindor and Slytherin fell into a heap without any image at all.

"Damn Scarhead! Get your foot away from my face!" Malfoy pushed Harry's calf hard.

"Lift your butt up first! You're pressing on me!" Harry, who was lower down, also complained. After a long while, the two finally got up from the ground.

"Let go! I got the key first!" Malfoy glared at Harry angrily.

The latter was not to be outdone: "Don't even think about it! I got it first! I even jumped off my broom!"

Yes, at this moment they were still holding the keys tightly in their hands.

But before the two of them could finish their argument, Cassandra came forward and tapped their wrists with her wand.
Suddenly, the two little wizards let go of the key at the same time as if they were stung by a bee and dropped it on the ground.

"Hey!" Malfoy complained, "Which side are you from?"

Cassandra picked up the key from the ground, just glanced at him and went to open the door.

"You're awesome, Harry!" Ron jumped over and patted Harry on the shoulder. "I never thought you'd dare to do it a second time! In this case, it should be considered a tie, right? That means Gryffindor is still leading by one point, right?"

"Hurry up, both of you!" Hermione, who was standing by the door, urged Harry and Ron. Cassandra, who had opened the door, had already passed by. The key in the keyhole was struggling hard, trying to pull itself out. "There are more rooms in the back! We have already passed Professor Sprout's Devil's Snare and Professor Flitwick's Flying Key. I'm afraid there is at least Professor McGonagall's Transfiguration, Professor Snape's Potions, and then the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor's level..."

"So there are still three more tests?" Ron asked optimistically. "Since they are all compulsory courses, why are there no tests on History of Magic and Astronomy?"

"Can you imagine Quirrell drawing a star map here, or answering the question 'In what year was the automatic crucible invented'? I wish there were these two subjects!" Harry was amused by him, "But we have Hermione, we will definitely win!"

"That's enough! You two!" Hermione rolled her eyes. "It's too early to be happy now. You should think about how to face the Defense Against the Dark Arts level and Professor Dumbledore's level!"

"Dumbledore?" Harry took a breath. "Yes, he put the Philosopher's Stone here, so he should have his own level..."

Ron was as optimistic as ever: "Think positively, buddy. It's not that I look down on Malfoy, but if we can't get past Dumbledore, then neither of them can. Think about it, Dumbledore is also a Gryffindor!"

The three chatted and laughed as they walked into the next room, which was completely dark. Once everyone had walked through, the room became brightly lit, illuminating a shocking scene.

They were standing beside a huge black and white chessboard, with black pieces in front of them, taller than they were and seemingly carved out of some black stone or something, and across the room, facing them, were some white pieces.

"It must be Professor McGonagall's Transfiguration!" Hermione whispered. She was a little scared because all the chess pieces had no facial features.

"What does this mean?" asked Malfoy, who came in first.

"Isn't it obvious?" Cassandra said. "Just play a game of chess."

"Wizard chess?" Malfoy's facial features were squeezed together, because he was not good at this. "Is there no other way?"

"What? Master Malfoy can't play wizard chess?" Ron sneered.

"Okay! Then let's take a look at Gryffindor's chess skills first!" Malfoy immediately helped Ron.

Although Ron was always very powerful in the Gryffindor common room, he was still a little insecure in front of his opponents. He took a half step back, half opening his mouth, at a loss.

"You can do it, Ron!" Harry encouraged him, "Just think about how you slaughtered everyone in the common room! If there is a wizard chess master to be found in Hogwarts, it can only be you!"

"Okay..." Ron swallowed, walked to the chessboard, and looked at the faceless chess pieces. "Maybe we need to replace these chess pieces..."

He reached out and touched the black knight's horse, and the stone chess piece came to life. The horse scratched the floor with its hooves, making an unpleasant friction sound. The knight turned his helmeted head and looked at Ron.

"Professor McGonagall brought them all to life! What a great magic!" Hermione seemed less scared and began to think about how the professor did it.

"Harry, Hermione." Ron suddenly asked after thinking for a while, "Do you believe me?"

"Of course!" the two said in unison.

"Well, Harry, you take the bishop's place; Hermione, you stand beside him, taking the place of the castle." Ron immediately gave the order, "And I will be a knight!"

But before Harry and Hermione stepped onto the chessboard, a crackling red beam of energy suddenly shot out from the side - it was Cassandra's magic energy explosion.

The red lightning pounced on the white chess pieces, directly hitting the white king and queen standing in the middle of the chessboard. Under the damage of the noble force field, the white stone chess pieces turned into pieces on the ground, and also smashed the pawn in front of the king and the bishop next to him.

The white pawn loses its king and immediately stops moving.

The red lightning shot by Cassandra almost brushed Ron's cheek. At that time, Ron had just ridden on the black stone horse of the Black Knight.

"…What are you going to do?" Ron asked with a pale and trembling face.

"Don't mind." Cassandra gave an elegant smile, "I just wanted to try this spell."

From her expression, she was obviously satisfied.

Ivy, who had been following behind in stealth the whole time, was very dissatisfied. Cassandra's magic explosion just now was an upgraded spell, but as a level 0 warlock, she had no spell slots, and this effect was achieved by completely consuming the third-level spell slot that Ivy had left in her through the mark of black magic.

Not to mention that Dumbledore was right next to Ivy, which completely exposed the thing that Ivy least wanted to expose.

Ivy sensed the questioning look in Dumbledore's eyes and nodded with a dark face.

(End of this chapter)