Chapter 216. Can You Play Wizard Chess Like This?
"Right away!"
Duncan called back, and went through the wooden door with Hermione and Harry.
They arrived in a new room, where rows of torches were set into the side walls, blazing with light and illuminating a shocking scene.
They stood at the edge of a gigantic chessboard.
In front of them were the black pieces, each one taller than they were, seemingly carved from black stone or something like it.
At the far end of the room, facing them, stood the white pieces.
Harry and Ron craned their necks, staring up in amazement at those pieces that nearly reached the ceiling.
They had no faces, yet they exuded a powerful sense of pressure.
"What are we supposed to do now?" Harry asked in a low voice, as if afraid that speaking too loudly would rouse those armed, motionless pieces.
"Isn't it obvious?" Ron said, pointing towards the door on the opposite side.
"We have to win this game to get across!"
Harry frowned and looked over, then turned his head to ask Duncan, who was still tapping away at a piece nearby, "Duncan, have you worked out anything new?"
"Let me try."
Duncan raised his wand and pointed it at the white pieces blocking their path, attempting to force them to change shape.
Under the expectant gazes of Harry and Hermione, the pawn—sword in hand, armour on its back—gave a slight shiver, its body bending downwards.
But just as Duncan was about to change the piece on a larger scale, another surge of strong magic seemed to rise from within the chessman.
All at once Duncan felt his control over it diminish sharply, and the sword he had turned into a strip of cloth reverted to its original form.
Professor McGonagall, it seemed, had anticipated this situation, and had used some method to fix the forms of these pieces so they could not be greatly altered.
Professor McGonagall truly deserved to be Hogwarts's Transfiguration professor; in Transfiguration her attainments were not something a youngster like Duncan could match at present.
"Ah, did it fail?" Hermione looked ahead, brows drooping, her small face filled with regret.
"So the only way through is to win the game?" Harry's voice jumped in pitch, anxious and agitated.
That fake Snape had gone in a long while ago, and if they dawdled here playing chess, they might really run out of time!
"Don't worry, I've got another way," Duncan said with a wave.
"You lot stand by the doorway, so you don't get caught up in anything."
"What are you going to do?" Ron asked in surprise.
"Fight these enormous pieces?
That doesn't sound like a good idea!"
Worry showed on both Hermione's and Harry's faces as they looked at Duncan.
Hermione even pulled out her wand, as if ready to help him.
"Relax, I'm not that foolish."
Urging Hermione and the others to move back, Duncan once more levelled his wand at the motionless statues nearby.
Moments later, a small black blotch appeared on the frontmost pawn on the opposite side of the board, and it spread rapidly outwards.
Within seconds, the whole piece looked as if it had been dipped into an ink bottle and pulled out again, wrapped from head to foot in a coat of pitch-black.
At the same time, the silent board sprang to life.
That white piece Duncan had turned black now seemed to be judged an enemy by the other side.
The pawn to its right clattered into place behind the blackened pawn, straightened a little, drew its sword, and hacked down hard.
A few booming crashes echoed through the room.
The piece Duncan had dyed black was smashed to bits, and the white pawn slid over to occupy its square.
"Knew it would work!"
Duncan clenched his fist and gave a pleased little pump.
He had not only changed that piece's colour, but severed its link to the board, turning it into an oddball among the white pieces.
As it turned out, his tactic was highly effective.
Before the black side had even moved, the white pieces had fallen into infighting, helping him remove an enemy for free.
"Brilliant!" Harry shouted from the doorway not far away, fingers hooked over the frame as he stood on tiptoe to get a better look.
"Duncan, that move was beautiful—knock them all out like that!"
Ron stared, eyes so wide they were about to fall out.
He murmured in disbelief, "You can play wizard chess like this?"
"Why not?" Hermione glanced at Ron.
"Is there a rule in wizard chess that says you can't?"
Ron tilted his head and thought for a moment.
"Doesn't seem like there is..."
But what sort of addle-pated bloke would play wizard chess that way?
At that point you wouldn't be testing chess skill, but who was better in a duel!
"Exactly!"
Hermione finished, then called to Duncan, who stood on the board, "Keep it up—take them all out!"
"No problem!"
Without even turning his head, Duncan waved and repeated the trick, turning the rest of the white pieces black one by one.
Clashing sounds rang out in the room from time to time.
Without a single black piece moving, a broad, clear road had already been carved through the opposite ranks.
"Only the last step left."
Duncan walked forward without hindrance to the king who had been guarded at the centre, both hands resting on his sword.
"Check, my friend."
He gave his wand the lightest of flicks, and the white king turned black as well.
The king did not react, still standing with solemn dignity, sword in hand, but the queen beside him seemed bewildered for a few seconds.
A few seconds later, the white queen accepted the fact that her king had "defected," raised her longsword, and drove it hard through the king's body.
As the king crashed to the floor, the remaining white pieces fell still at once and stayed where they were like whipped curs, not moving an inch.
By using an unconventional method, Duncan took only a minute or two to achieve a "victory" at wizard chess that would usually take half an hour.
"Come on over, it's safe now!"
Duncan twirled his wand twice around his fingers with a flourish, pocketed it, and turned to call to the others at the door.
"Right!"
Harry and the rest picked their way around the variously sized fragments on the board, crossed over, and scampered up to Duncan.
"Let's go to the next room and see what new tricks are waiting for us," Duncan said with a smile.
But he already knew the answer, so he deliberately slowed and let Ron take the lead to push open the wooden door.
A stench that defied description wafted out through the crack, like socks unwashed for decades or a lavatory never once cleaned.
A gust of cold air came with it and hit Ron full in the face, and his expression changed violently in the space of a heartbeat.
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