The four spells, distinct streaks of light—Harry's scarlet Disarming Charm, Ron's pulsing blue Stunning Spell, Hermione's pale green Petrificus Totalus, and Malfoy's silver-white Jinx of Hindrance—shot across the giant chessboard. They converged on the looming, silent Queen piece, hitting the heavy stone chest almost simultaneously with four sharp thuds.
The Queen, a warrior carved from dark granite, didn't even wobble.
Harry's Expelliarmus was the only spell to have a visible effect. A heavy, stone replica of a medieval mace—the Queen's "wand"—flew from her grasp, clattering loudly on the square beside her. The other three spells had simply dissipated, absorbed by the ancient, enchanted stone.
"The Stunning Spell won't work!" Malfoy roared, frustration turning his face crimson. He was already casting a rudimentary jinx that barely made the Queen's knee sparkle. "Stop wasting magic on status effects! Don't use anything that relies on stunning or stunning!"
"The Petrification Spell was useless too!" Hermione realized, her mind already racing through the failure. "These pieces are stone; you can't petrify something that's already been Transfigured! What about the Disarming Charm, Harry?"
"It worked! It actually worked!" Harry yelled back, slightly stunned. "They must still register as 'wielding a weapon' even though they're Transfigured! Everyone! Aim for the weapons—disarm all the remaining pieces now!"
Ron, recovering from the near-sacrifice sequence, eagerly raised his wand, preparing his own Expelliarmus. But before he could utter the incantation, the attacked Queen—now weaponless—moved with terrifying, brutal purpose.
Ignoring the pain, the colossal piece swiveled its torso, its massive stone fists raised above its head. It didn't target the students; it lumbered directly toward the black stone Knight position that Ron had so recently occupied.
"Merlin's beard!" Ron shrieked, belatedly realizing the stone pieces fought like real soldiers, not just spell-casting wizards. He threw himself sideways, tumbling off the Rook square and onto the edge of the adjacent square, rolling away just as the Queen's fist smashed down where he had been standing moments before.
BOOM!
The resulting explosion of stone was deafening. The Queen's attack didn't just crush the Knight; the kinetic force pulverized the huge stone horse into a cloud of sharp, gray gravel and splinters that scattered across the board, stinging Ron painfully even where he lay prone.
The self-destructive force of the blow was so immense that the Queen's own arms cracked, huge fissures snaking up to the shoulders, and then the stone appendages fell away from the torso, crashing to the board in two more deafening impacts.
The Queen was now a headless, armless statue—formidable only as an immense, slow-moving block. The immediate threat level was drastically reduced, but the terrifying power of the pieces was starkly evident.
"Ron, get back up! Get over here!" Harry shouted, pulling his friend toward the small huddle.
But before they could regroup, Hermione gasped, her eyes fixed on the rubble outside the perimeter of the chessboard itself—the pieces that had been destroyed in the earlier, fatal sequence of moves.
"Malfoy! Look!" she shrieked, pointing frantically. "The shattered pieces are healing! The rubble is slowly reforming! The charm is already resetting the board!"
The larger chunks of stone dust and gravel just beyond the black border of the enchanted squares were, indeed, subtly vibrating. Fine gray particles were slowly being drawn back toward the center mass, where the beginnings of a recognizable stone Pawn were coalescing. The game was designed not to be left unfinished; they had to win or be overwhelmed by an endlessly regenerating army.
"Malfoy, get onto the chessboard now!" Harry commanded, his voice edged with panic. "The fallen pieces will start coming back to life if you stand outside the boundary!"
Malfoy, his previous bravado momentarily replaced by genuine, wide-eyed terror at the regenerative power of the magic, didn't hesitate. He vaulted over the low border and landed squarely on an empty white square beside Hermione.
As his feet touched the enchanted surface, the low, humming vibration from the adjacent pile of rubble stopped instantly. The reforming Pawn froze mid-reformation.
The four children stood together in a tight, breathing circle, utterly exhausted and covered in dust. But before they could even exchange a breath of relief, the remaining five enemy pieces—the King, two Rooks, and two Bishops—all began to move in unison, gliding silently toward their positions.
"Everyone, stay calm!" Harry yelled, instinctively taking charge. "Our pieces aren't attacking us, so we only have five opponents, plus the crippled Queen! Focus! Use Expelliarmus again to keep their weapons out of their hands!"
They cast another frantic round of Disarming Charms, stripping the remaining stone opponents of their axes and hammers. The pieces were now harmless in terms of ranged damage, but they continued their inexorable, slow advance, ready to crush the small wizards with brute force.
"We need to stop them permanently!" Malfoy's voice was hoarse with anxiety. His earlier reliance on jinxes had proven futile. "Ron was right—we need brute force! Does anyone know the Explosion Charm? Bombarda or something stronger?"
"No!" Ron shouted, the adrenaline mixing with indignation. "This is your fault, Malfoy! You said use brute force, and we haven't even shattered one piece permanently! If we had followed my plan, we would have won the game already!"
"Silence, both of you!" Hermione snapped, her voice cutting like a whip, forcing immediate obedience. She squeezed her eyes shut, filtering out the fear and the noise, focusing only on the immutable laws of magic that Professor Flitwick had taught in their Charms class.
These are Transfigured pieces. Ordinary spells are ineffective.
Petrification is useless against stone.Stunning is useless against an entity without a living consciousness.The Binding Curse (Incarcerous) is useless because the pieces can easily use their colossal strength to rip the ropes.
The enemy of Transfiguration is not a counter-Transfiguration spell, which is far too complex, but a fundamental spell of Kinetic Energy.
The Explosion Charm (Bombarda) is advanced and powerful, but it relies on creating combustion or destructive force. The stone might resist that, too, or it might be too uncontrollable.
Hermione racked her brain, picturing the pages of her textbook, recalling a footnote from a lecture on magical physics. Flitwick had often stressed that some of the simplest Charms could be the most effective, provided they applied the correct, fundamental force.
Her eyes snapped open, blazing with sudden, complete understanding.
"Harry, Ron, Malfoy, there is a simple spell—the Banishing Charm!" she exclaimed, her voice urgent but steady. She used the common name: the Repelling Spell. "Do you know the incantation?"
All three nodded, having heard the basic Charms in class, though none of them were strong enough to cast it effectively in a duel, let alone against an immense stone warrior.
"I've only read the incantations and wand movements!" Ron admitted, sweating as the nearest Rook piece slowly blocked their escape route. "I've never even attempted the sheer magical power needed! What's the secret, Hermione?"
"Hermione, you have to try it!" Harry insisted, quickly darting forward to draw the attention of one of the advancing Bishops, performing a dizzying sidestep as the stone foot stomped where he had been standing. "I can buy us a little more time! These pieces are rigid, but slow! You're the smartest witch I know—you can learn it in seconds!"
"Go on, Hermione!" Ron shouted, his voice ringing with genuine, desperate belief. "You have the focus! I trust your ability to learn this!"
Malfoy remained silent, his gaze intense, absorbing every detail of Hermione's expression and posture. He made a silent, humbled vow: When I get out of this, I will spend the rest of the year mastering every practical spell in the seventh-year textbooks. Never again will I be rendered useless by a Gryffindor know-it-all.
Hermione closed her eyes, forcing herself to breathe deeply. The theory was sound: the Banishing Charm (Depulso) was pure, unadulterated kinetic force, designed to violently push an object away.
It bypassed magical state entirely; it was simply a magical equivalent of a thousand-ton, supersonic battering ram. The enchanted stone could not stop physical trauma if the force was great enough to exceed the material's structural integrity.
She pictured the hand movement—a simple, strong thrust. She focused her intent: not to break the piece, but to push it completely off the enchanted chessboard.
Hermione opened her eyes, her gaze sharp, focused on the advancing Knight piece that had almost reached Harry. She raised her wand, pointing it with fierce, unwavering conviction.
"Depulso!"
A thick, barely noticeable crimson light erupted from the tip of her wand and hit the Knight squarely in the stone chest.
WHOOSH! CRACK!
The effect was instantaneous and spectacular. As if struck by an invisible, gargantuan fist, the entire stone Knight was lifted violently off the board, sailing backward through the air for several meters. It hit the far stone wall of the chamber with a sickening crunch, then plummeted to the floor outside the chessboard's boundary.
The sound of the impact was immediately followed by a low, grinding rumble. The Knight didn't try to get up. Its body had fractured into large, irreparable chunks, and the rubble immediately began to reform in slow motion, just as before.
"We did it!" Ron bellowed, a triumphant sound of sheer, unadulterated joy. "It shattered it! And it didn't try to heal while it was on the board! Quick, Hermione, tell us exactly how to do it—the wand motion and the focus!"
"Only four left, let's go!" Harry shouted, expertly dodging the slow, grasping hand of the King piece, sprinting back toward his friends. "The focus is pure, absolute repulsion—imagine you're physically shoving a mountain!"
Under Hermione's rapid-fire instruction, the three boys quickly grasped the simple wand movement and the focused intent. The urgency of the advancing pieces gave them the perfect motivation.
Harry cast his spell next, sending a Rook spinning through the air. Malfoy, his concentration fueled by competitive fury, followed up instantly, his Depulso knocking a Bishop clean off the board. Hermione, after a deep breath, successfully cast the spell again, targeting the colossal King piece, which flew back, crashing into the wall with a shattering roar.
Suddenly, there was only the immense, two-armed Queen remaining on the chessboard. The pressure on the quartet vanished instantly.
"Weasley, are you truly capable of hitting that giant target?" Malfoy taunted, seizing the opportunity for one last, gratuitous jab, even as they all collectively backed away from the crippled giant. "If you're not, then step aside and let someone with actual magical talent finish this."
Ron's face flushed a deep crimson. This was personal. This was the piece that had nearly pulverized him into dust, shattered his Knight, and embarrassed him in front of his rival.
"You're utterly useless, Malfoy!" Ron retorted, adjusting his grip on his wand. "This Queen tried to smash me with its bare fists! I have a score to settle with this brute!"
Ron took a deep, steadying breath. He recited the complex spell's principles in his mind one last time, channeling every ounce of his adrenaline and Gryffindor anger into the tip of his wand. He focused his sight on the immense, slow-moving torso of the armless stone Queen.
With a final, resolute shout, he launched the full force of his desperate, first-year magic at the giant.
"Depulso!"