HP: The Salazar's Heir Chapter 37

Chapter 37: A Game of Chess (2/2)

Sebastian's eyes widened, threatening to let his eyeballs slip out of their sockets.


"Oh, they will die," he declared with certainty. "They will definitely die."


The moment he saw the white queen make its move, there was no doubt in his mind that someone would lose their life, if not their limb.


"What should we do?" Hermione's nerves were beyond frayed; her voice quivered from the shock.


"We have to make a move," Harry said, biting his lip as he realized it was the only viable option. "Unless..."


He glanced at Sebastian, wondering if the boy had a way to bypass the trial without sacrificing someone.


"If I target one piece, they might all attack you at once," Sebastian explained, citing his reason for not going on the offensive. "And the spells I have that could possibly eliminate all the pieces... would also harm you three."


He realized it was foolish to have allowed the trio onto the chessboard in the first place, but now it was too late to turn back.


What worried Sebastian most was the lack of any visible escape from the room. What if he smashed a wall and the entire structure collapsed on them?


There were only a few things he could handle at once. Destroying the chess pieces, saving the trio, and making an escape all at once was nearly impossible for him.


"What do we do?" Hermione, who had managed to keep her composure until now, nearly broke down.


Why? Because, unlike the previous trials, this one held the possibility of death, and she was not as confident as before in her ability to win.


Seeing her distress, Sebastian had no other choice. With his teeth grinding in annoyance and desperation, he urged the trio to move forward.


"Make a move," he said, "I will do my best to protect you, in case you make an idiotic move."


But something...


Something he failed to consider, a fact he overlooked, happened right as he instructed them to make a move.


"R-Rook to c3."


"Wait, no!"


He forgot that people lose their senses when consumed by fear.


They make irrational, chaotic decisions, and those decisions often come with a heavy cost.


"Why?" Ron yelled at Hermione. "How could you, of all people, make that move?"


Except for Harry, who was lost in thought about strategies, both Ron and Sebastian were baffled by what they witnessed.


"I-I don’t know," Hermione bit her lip, horrified by her oversight.


In her mind, she had wanted to maneuver closer to the king, but her nerves caused her to forget about the threatening queen standing next to her.





And now, she was in trouble, with the queen piece right beside her.


"Oh no!" Harry gasped as he saw the queen piece, wielding a longsword, extend to attack Hermione.


The girl had made a mistake.


She had placed her piece in a sacrificial stance, and there was nothing she could do about it.


She tried to move, but immediately the pieces, including her own, pointed their weapons at her face.


"By Merlin! Save her!"


She was supposed to accept her fate, allowing the queen to destroy the rook along with her.


"Please..." She closed her eyes tightly, fearful yet hoping not to die.


"No, Hermione!"


And if not for the certain heir who decided against standing atop a piece, she would have died.


"Protego Maxima!"


But he did not take a piece, allowing him to move freely outside the chessboard.


"Hermione!" Ron yelled as he saw a barrier form around her, protecting her from the queen's sword slash.


"Run!" Sebastian yelled, hoping it would be enough to help her escape, but it wasn't.


"Bollocks!"


The pieces still aimed at her, and the queen raised her sword again, intent on ripping the piece along with the girl in half.


'Can I?' Sebastian gritted his teeth, wondering if he could make an offensive move. 'What if they all start attacking her?'


He didn't want to be reckless, but did he even have a choice?


Absolutely not.


If he didn’t make a move, nothing would change. He couldn’t just hold a barrier forever, and sooner or later, Hermione would be hit.


He had no choice, no other plan.


"Be ready!" He yelled. "You might need to run!"


This time, the trio understood that they had to be vigilant; there was no other way out. They had messed up once, and another mistake would likely cost them their lives.


They couldn't afford that.


"Alright," Harry nodded on everyone’s behalf, assuring Sebastian that they would be ready for his command.


And the heir, taking this chance alongside a deep breath, focused on the queen piece.


"This might be the stupidest thing I've done in a while."


Risky, but necessary.


"There we go..." With a heavy heart that warned him against using the curse, he went ahead. "CONFRINGO!"


A horrifying and bone-chilling explosion nearly consumed Hermione on impact, bursting their ears in the process.


"H-Hermione?" Ron looked at his friend, covered in ash and dust but still alive and unharmed.


And the one responsible for her safety was the boy who cast the curse, strong enough to decimate the queen piece.


"JUMP!"


But none of them had time or luxury to sit and act foolishly.


"HERMIONE!" Sebastian yelled, ordering the girl to move.


After her first failed attempt, she didn't dare deny his order.


If anything, the moment he yelled, she jumped down.


"Run!"


And in that instance, she ran as fast as she could, not daring to look back.


Which was the smart choice, as the moment she stepped foot outside the board, the rook, the very piece she had sat atop, exploded into a thousand bits, assuring everyone that even if they prevented other pieces from taking theirs, those pieces would face the same fate.


"Thank you," she said, shaking at the realization that she might have died there.


"We have to win this," Sebastian said. "Even if it means sacrificing the pieces."


He understood that saving his classmates, even if it was a headache, was possibly the best option he had.


"Ron, Harry!" He yelled. "Do you trust me?"


He asked, wanting to be certain before making a move.


Ron, Hermione, and Harry all suspected Sebastian of conspiring with Snape. But as they saw the recent events and Sebastian’s actions, they realized how foolish they might have looked in front of him.


And so they did the only right thing they could think of.


"We do."


They followed his command.


"Then move your knight to h3, Ron!"


Without a second's delay, Ron did as asked.


"Knight to h3!" And he ordered his knight to h3.





"Now, run!"


And Ron sprinted as fast as he could.


Why?


Because the moment he rushed out, his knight piece exploded into dust.

"How..." Hermione's eyes widened. "And why?"


"It's the queen piece," Sebastian explained. "While I did destroy it, in the context of the game, it's still there as none of your pieces have managed to capture the queen."


The queen was destroyed but not captured. So, while the queen couldn't attack them, the pieces would sacrifice themselves if it was possible for them to be captured by the queen in that move.


"Isn’t that too difficult to keep track of?" Harry asked, wondering how Sebastian would track all the pieces he destroyed without capturing.


"Do you have a better idea?"


That silenced the boy.


"As for why I made the move," the heir grinned, "Trust, Hermione, trust."


He then looked at Harry. "We win this if it takes the bait, Harry."


The spectacled boy hardened his heart, prepared to possibly sacrifice his piece.


But he didn’t have to.


"Move your bishop to c5."


And Harry followed.


"Bishop to c5!"


The black bishop slid smoothly across the colored tiles to c5, securing a safe position.




‘Just one blunder, just one…’ Sebastian prayed silently. And even if God didn’t exist, his prayer seemed to reach someone.


"YES!"





Sebastian noticed something.


Something he had been praying to notice.


The dust, the powder of the destroyed queen piece, slid to a specific position.


“E3!” Sebastian yelled. “Move your piece to E3!”


And that's when even Hermione understood.


“The queen moved to E3!” She yelled. “It's a checkmate!”


“How?” Ron asked.


“With Harry’s bishop on E3, the king is trapped. If it moves to H1, the other bishop takes it. If it moves to G2, that same bishop captures the king,” Sebastian explained.


“And if the king moves to F1, the rook takes it,” Hermione added, “Completing the checkmate.”


And so, Harry moved.


“Bishop to E3!”


With that command, the bishop moved, while every other chess piece began to quiver.


“Now run!” Sebastian yelled.


Harry, like the other two, ran faster than he had ever run.


And he was glad that he did, as when he escaped the board, it wasn't his bishop that exploded.


It was every white piece on the board.


“I still haven’t lost my chess skills, have I?”


And it was his skills that allowed for their escape.


How?


“Look!” Hermione yelled, pointing toward one of the walls. “The wall is cracking!”


The wall cracked, revealing an ancient form of remodeling magic that formed a tunnel through the wall, creating an exit.


“And now,” Sebastian sighed, “We move on to the next trial.”


If there was one.


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[[A/N: This match is entirely the Jeremy Silman match with a little bit of twist from the books. Instead of actually injuring the trio, I went with a different approached that I think works.


I hope you liked it?


Peace ✌️ ]]