That did not mean catching the key was easy at all. The bewitched objects were incredibly rapid, dived, turned and darted so quickly it was nearly impossible to follow. Grumbling she should have "borrowed" a faster broom in the Quidditch lockers and not an obsolete Cleansweep 5, Alexandra took a quarter of an hour to catch the key, open the door and close it fast as the other keys engaged a massive retaliatory attack. Yes, definitely Flitwick 's work. The keys had had all the sadism of the Ravenclaw Head of House.
Breathing high and loud for the exercise she had just been forced to do, Alexandra turned and watched the room where she had arrived. It was dark, but she had only done two steps that a bright light flooded the room. Letting her eyes acclimating themselves to the light after more than an hour of partial darkness, Alexandra watched the next obstacle.
The Potter Heiress had to admit it was impressive. It was a gigantic chessboard, with chessmen twice or three times her height. Alexandra was on the side of the black chessmen. The white chessmen faced her, but unlike the black they looked unfriendly, a side effect of their lack of faces.
"Chess, why did it have to be chess?" The raven-haired girl moaned.
Coming from a Ravenclaw, Alexandra supposed the commentary could be ironic, but she really didn't care. Yes, the Ravenclaw were supposed to be intelligent and wise, but she had only learnt the rules of chess at the start of the holidays. In all, Alexandra had perhaps played between thirty and forty games. Decent enough to know the rules and some basic combinations. Not an expert at all, not like Ron Weasley for example, who seemed to glorify himself each time he beat one more student.
Oh no. Weasley. Alexandra suddenly understood. The obstacles were not supposed to keep the students outside and away: they had been conceived to test students. Specifically, the first-years Gryffindor. Except Padma Patil and Zacharias Smith who were average players, no one else in first-year was playing as much than the youngest Weasley boy. The challenge of McGonagall had undoubtedly been for him.
As Longbottom was the youngest Seeker in a century, Flitwick 's trial had been created for the Boy-Who-Lived to triumph. With Seamus Finnegan passion for fire and explosion, passing Professor Sprout Devil's Snare wouldn't be too difficult. As for the Cerberus...well Alexandra had heard Longbottom and the rest of the Golden Trio discussing with Hagrid. She supposed it wouldn't be too difficult for the Boy-Who-Lived and his friends to convince the Keeper of Keys to reveal the truth.
Still that left Quirell and Snape obstacles, two teachers who had absolutely no love for Neville Longbottom and his sidekicks.
Sighing, Alexandra stopped to think about it. In the end, whether this obstacle course was for Longbottom or another person didn't matter. If she wanted to advance, she had to beat the white chessmen, one way or another. With the chessmen made of stone, Alexandra hadn't the magical firepower to blast them away. She would have to play by the rules and win the game regularly.
"Give me your place," she said to the black king. Nodding, the chessman left the board. Alexandra took his place.
"The white begins." Alexandra reminded herself in a whisper. Effectively, a white pawn moved forward two squares.
Trying to avoid thinking about what would happen if she lost, Alexandra began to send her chessmen to their positions.
The following hour proved the longest of Alexandra's life. One by one she lost her black pieces. It was not a consolation, but as many white pieces were destroyed. Seeing the fate of the pieces pulverised, which despite being stone were blasted apart, Alexandra thanked her intuition to place herself as the king. As the most important piece of the game, she was in the rear lines and could always run to the keys room if she lost.
Finally, after sacrificing her queen and her last bishop, Alexandra won the game. Somehow, she thought the massive overuse of the white queen by the enemy side had allowed her to claim victory. A narrow one, and she grimaced at how few black pieces were still in the game and not in the state of debris on the sidelines. One pawn. One tower. One knight. Somehow, Alexandra didn't think she would have been able to protect a second person on this hellish exchequer.
The white king took off his crown and threw it at Alexandra's feet. The chessmen not reduced to piles of rubble parted and bowed, leaving the door ahead clear.
"All hail the Queen..."
Opening the next door, Alexandra coughed as her senses were filled by a disgusting stench. Her eyes watering under the horrible spell, she emerged in front of a room where a mountain troll even bigger than the one she had killed at Halloween.
"At least no need to wonder if it was Peeves who made enter this one." Alexandra sighed.
"RRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRR!"
Apparently, being in this room for the best part of several months had not improved the troll behaviour. Unfortunately, Alexandra had no wish to be on the receiving end of his massive club. Moreover, the long hour she had passed playing chess had unnerved her to the highest degree. The troll was going to pay for the obstacles creators, as she could decently not going to their teachers' offices and berate them for their lack of ethics and originality.
"WINGARDIUM LEVIOSA!" She shouted. The club of the troll levitated under its owner eyes, and the troll blinked, apparently too stupid to fully understand what its eyes were describing.
"I would say I'm sorry." Alexandra smirked. "But it would be lying."
One flick of her wand, and Alexandra precipitating the club on the troll's head with the velocity of a baseball bat, knocking the beast unconscious on the floor in a shock which made the room tremble. The troll was out of commission, hopefully for several hours.
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