Night enveloped Hogwarts.
When Harry, Ron, and Hermione carefully crept under the Invisibility Cloak to the third-floor corridor, they were surprised to find someone already waiting for them.
Rove was leaning against a stone pillar, moonlight spilling onto his slightly oversized Hufflepuff robes.
"Rove?" Harry lifted a corner of the Invisibility Cloak, gasping in surprise. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm waiting for my party." Rove straightened up, his gaze sweeping over the three of them. "The System... uh, I mean my intuition tells me that tonight is the final battle."
"Listen, Rove, this is too dangerous," Hermione whispered urgently. "We're going to stop... You-Know-Who. This isn't a midnight snack run to the kitchens."
"I know." Rove's eyes grew serious. "Remember what I said after the Troll battle?"
The three paused. The memory of that night in the girls' bathroom flooded back.
"'Do not face the darkness alone,'" Rove repeated softly. "That is the duty of Rangers and Warriors. Since you've decided to go after the Ring... I mean, the Sorcerer's Stone, the Fellowship of the Ring cannot be without me."
He patted the frying pan at his waist. "Besides, without me, who's going to tank the damage for you?"
Harry looked at Rove's determined eyes and finally nodded.
"Alright," Harry said. "But we have to be quick. Stick close."
---
At the end of the third-floor corridor, the forbidden wooden door stood slightly ajar.
"Looks like someone's already gone in." Harry pushed the door open, and a foul, musky scent hit them in the face.
Fluffy, the three-headed dog, was lying over the trapdoor. Its three massive heads rested on its paws, emitting thunderous snores. Next to its claws, an old-looking harp was playing a soothing melody by itself.
> [Boss Encounter: Carcharoth the Wolf]
> [Status: Sleeping (Time Remaining 00:00:10)]
"It's a harp," Hermione analyzed in a whisper. "Whoever came in before must have left it. They charmed it to play automatically... Looks like they've already gone down."
"As long as the music plays, it'll keep sleeping," Harry shared the secret Hagrid had let slip one drunken night. "Hagrid said Fluffy is actually easy to handle; just play him a bit of music, and he goes straight to sleep."
"So I prepared this." Harry pulled a rough wooden flute from his pocket, which he had whittled specifically for tonight.
Suddenly, a string on the harp snapped, and the melody cut off abruptly.
Fluffy's ears twitched. All three heads lifted simultaneously, six yellowish eyes glowing in the darkness, low growls rumbling in their throats.
"Quick! Blow it!" Ron shouted in terror.
Harry hurriedly shoved the flute into his mouth, but his fingers were shaking so badly from nerves that he only managed a shrill, piercing squeak.
Fluffy was agitated. The middle head opened its bloody maw, revealing fangs dripping with foul saliva.
"Let me handle it!"
Rove stepped forward, blocking the group. He pulled a wooden flute, still covered in bark, from his robes. It was a gift from Susan, supposedly to help him practice his "artistic cultivation."
He brought the flute to his lips, closed his eyes, and pictured the golden wheat fields of the Shire in his mind.
Whooooo—Dooot—
A... completely out-of-tune sound, like a duck being strangled, squeezed out of the flute holes.
Harry covered his ears in pain, and Hermione frowned deeply.
But in the System's judgment:
> [Skill Cast: Requiem of the Homeland]
> [Effect: Forced Hypnosis (Beast-type units only)]
Fluffy's fierce gaze instantly turned glassy. That bizarre tune seemed to have some incredible magical effect on this hellhound—or maybe it was just so awful it made the dog want to pass out.
Its eyelids grew heavy, its heads began to sway, and finally, with a heavy thud, it collapsed back onto the floor, snoring once more.
"Don't stop! Keep playing!" Ron shouted, terrified the monster would wake up again.
Rove puffed out his cheeks, playing his tune Concerning Hobbits (which only he thought sounded good), while gesturing for the others to open the trapdoor.
Harry struggled to pull open the trapdoor, revealing a bottomless black hole underneath.
"I'll jump first!" Harry said. "If anything happens, I'll send up a signal."
He leaped and vanished into the darkness. Ron followed, then Hermione.
Rove played the final note, watched Fluffy fall into a dead sleep, stuffed the flute back into his pocket, and jumped in after them.
---
> [Current Level: B2 - The Deep Tentacles]
Rove felt himself land on something soft.
"It's okay, it's plants," Ron's voice called out in the dark. "It's soft here..."
"Don't move!" Hermione screamed. "This is Devil's Snare!"
> [Monster Encounter: Watcher in the Water]
> [Weakness: Bright Light / Fire]
Before she could finish her sentence, the vines that had seemed soft suddenly came alive, rapidly winding around Rove's ankles and wrists, squeezing tighter and tighter.
Harry and Ron were caught too. The vines constricted their chests like snakes.
"Relax! If you don't move, it won't hurt you!" Hermione shouted. She had reacted quickly and broken free, standing on a stone ledge nearby.
"I don't think relaxing works on a tentacle monster!" Ron yelled in panic, struggling desperately, only to be bound tighter.
"I... can't move either!" Harry gritted his teeth, trying to reach his wand, but his wrist was locked tight by a vine, making even breathing difficult.
Rove felt the air being squeezed out of his lungs. He tried to draw a throwing knife, but his arms were pinned. On his System panel, his health bar was slowly dropping.
> [Warning: Suffocation Check in Progress...]
"Light! Hermione!" Rove roared with all his might. "This thing is a demon of the deep! It fears the light! Use the Flame of Anor!"
"What Anor?" Hermione paused for a split second, but she immediately understood what Rove meant—sometimes you just had to listen to the second half of his sentences.
She raised her wand and shouted, "Incendio!"
A jet of flame erupted from her wand tip, illuminating the entire pit.
The moment the vines touched the light and heat, they let out a hiss like a scream and recoiled rapidly into the shadows, releasing their prey.
Thump, thump, thump.
Rove, Harry, and Ron fell to the ground one after another.
"Cough, cough..." Rove scrambled up, eyeing the tentacles retreating into the shadows, and rubbed his neck fearfully. "Well done, Elven Princess. Your fire purified the filth here."
Hermione rolled her eyes, but a hint of a smile played on her lips. "Stop babbling, Rove. It's just ordinary Bluebell Flames."
"That thing nearly strangled us," Harry stood up rubbing his wrist, looking around with lingering fear. "Thanks, Hermione. And you, Rove, your tip was timely."
---
> [Current Level: B3 - Mechanical Swarm]
Passing through a stone corridor, they arrived in a brightly lit room.
Countless small winged creatures circled overhead, emitting a dense buzzing sound like a glittering cloud.
"Are those birds?" Harry looked up and asked.
"No." Rove narrowed his eyes. In his System vision, those things appeared as red hostile dots. "Those are keys."
> [Unit Encounter: Mechanical Killer Bees]
> [Objective: Capture the Hive Core (Old Gringotts Key)]
At the far end of the room was a heavy wooden door. Next to it lay a few broomsticks.
"We need that big old key," Harry pointed at the swarm of flying keys. His Seeker vision allowed him to lock onto the target instantly. "Look, that one with the bent wing. It looks the oldest."
"This is probably some kind of trial," Ron looked at the brooms. "We have to fly up and catch it."
"Leave it to me." Harry grabbed a broomstick, his gaze focused. "This is what I'm good at."
"Be careful, Harry," Rove warned. "Those things don't look like doves of peace."
Harry nodded, mounted the broom, and kicked off into the air.
However, the moment he ascended, the aimlessly flying swarm of keys suddenly activated, charging at him madly like a disturbed hornet's nest.
"They're attacking Harry!" Ron shouted.
"Cover him!" Rove yelled.
He instinctively pulled a dinner knife—his "Noldorin Throwing Knife" purchased earlier—from the belt under his robes.
He raised the knife, aiming at a key diving toward Harry, but then hesitated.
"Tsk, this is good gear. Using it on keys is a waste... and it'd be bad if I accidentally stabbed Harry."
Rove shoved the knife back into his belt with a reverse grip and bent down to pick up a few loose stones from the floor.
> [Skill: Hobbit Throwing Arts]
> [Accuracy: 95%]
Whoosh!
A stone flew with a whistle, accurately hitting a key that was trying to smash into the back of Harry's head.
"Petrificus Totalus!" Hermione was also casting spells from below, helping Harry clear the obstacles.
Rove was like a human turret, the stones in his hands flying continuously.
"Left! Harry! Three o'clock!" Rove directed while throwing.
"Got it!" Harry shouted from the air, executing a beautiful dive to evade the encirclement of keys, and snatched the injured big key.
"I got it!"
He tossed the key to Ron, who quickly jammed it into the lock and twisted hard.
The door clicked open.
Harry landed quickly, panting, his hair messy.
"Your aim isn't bad, Rove," Harry wiped his sweat, smiling. "Just now, you looked like a Quidditch Beater."
"Back in my hometown, we used this to hunt rabbits," Rove dusted off his hands, but his gaze remained grave.
He looked at the open door.
A cold wind blew from inside, carrying an unsettling silence.
> [High Energy Warning Ahead]
> [Entering Area: Pelennor Fields]
"Next level." Rove drew his wand, his other hand unhooking the frying pan from his waist.
"Ready, Fellowship?"