Hogwarts: The Cat Wizard of the Moving Castle.

Chapter 353 [Road to Progress] and Process Rewards

"Harry Potter!!!"

Harry's footsteps suddenly stopped as he looked at the shadows crawling on all fours on the dark stairs below.

The scene before him had a huge visual impact on him.

Ron was like a devil crawling out of hell. He didn't feel a thing about his flesh and blood being torn off by the wind. He just crawled straight upwards.

Soon, he passed Hermione, and then, without stopping, he quickly passed Harry and climbed upwards.

“Is this guy going to climb all the way up in one go?”

Thinking about this, Harry looked down again.

"Hermione, are you okay?"

"No." Hermione shook her head and raised her eyes that were drowned in blood. "Don't worry about me. This is my own [Road of Suffering]."

Harry was silent for a moment, then nodded.

"Draco may have already gone out. If you can't bear it, go out first."

"it is good."

After getting a response, Harry continued to lift his feet and walked upwards.

The next moment, an invisible wind blew, like a steel knife scraping bones, and it cut straight through his arm. The flesh and blood hung down, revealing the hideous cut surface.

His face twitched and his fingers kept circling around, piecing the flesh together again.

"It's just a simple cutting spell. But this automatic triggering mechanism is really amazing."

'The pain is real, but it is always within the human pain threshold.'

"And I have actually gradually forgotten the pain caused by those scars long ago."

The memory of pain was lasting, Harry was sure of that.

To this day, when he occasionally dreams, he would recall the first time he was pierced through by Uncle Mu En.

But here, all the injuries he suffered on these stairs were not too deeply remembered by him.

Like a protection mechanism?!

Maybe so.

The gradually increasing damage has now only become so deep that the bones are visible.

It was completely different from what he had imagined at first, that a sharp blade would directly cut off a person's head.

Watching Ron gradually disappearing from his sight, Harry sped up and walked upwards.

A moment later, the end was reached.

Across a dozen steps, Harry saw the dim candlelight above and a figure crawling forward.

Coming up, he looked at Ron lying below and stretched out his hand.

"Let's go, man," he said.

Ron didn't reply, or just like before, even if he wanted to say something, he couldn't do it.

"Buzz."

An inexplicable sound appeared, and if Harry had not been with Ron, he would even think it was Ron's humming.

"buzzing"

"What the hell?"

As the two of them gradually walked towards the curtain, just three or four steps later, the sound began to become clearer.

At the same time, Ron's injuries began to recover at the speed of light.

By the time he took the last step, he had returned to normal, his feet moving on the ground autonomously.

But, my brain doesn’t seem to have reacted yet.

Harry let go and walked towards the veil first.

"What's that sound?" Ron finally came to his senses a little and looked up at Harry in confusion.

"I don't know." Harry shook his head.

Then, the two of them walked in together.

The office was exactly the same as the headmaster's office Harry had seen in the outside world, a large, warm round room with the sword of Gryffindor on the cabinet. Well, that was not the sword of Gryffindor, it seemed to be called Frostmourne.

The Sorting Hat was the same, except that Harry had no idea how it got those damn sharp teeth.

"Professor Dumbledore?" Harry looked around but didn't find the familiar figure.

Nor was there any trace of a twisted, strange, unfamiliar figure.

"Where's the professor?" Ron was also a little surprised.

"buzzing"

"Are you blind?" The Sorting Hat smiled maliciously.

"What do you mean?" Ron looked at him, and then was frightened by the scarlet sharp teeth.

Harry discovered something unusual.

On Fox's gilded perch.

There were no Phoenixes there at this time.

There is a beehive hanging on the branch?!

That voice seemed to come from it.

"buzzing"

When Harry got closer and heard the sound suddenly getting louder, he suddenly understood.

It is indeed here.

Then, an extremely huge bee, as big as a fist, flew out from inside.

"Aha, welcome, welcome to the headmaster's office." The old bee spoke Dumbledore's voice.

As he spoke, he flapped his wings and flew onto the desk.

"What would you like to eat? Candy? Or a cup of honey tea?" said the strange principal.

Meanwhile, behind the curtain, Hermione arrived late.

She walked in and looked at Harry.

"I succeeded."

"Congratulations," Harry said. "I knew you could do it."

Hermione rolled her eyes at him, "If you knew, you wouldn't want to help me."

"It's always right to want to help you, right?" Harry smiled.

Hermione opened her mouth and reluctantly confirmed that Harry was right.

"Okay." She waved her hand and turned to look for the principal.

"Where's Professor Dumbledore?"

"This, this" Ron pointed his finger at the old bee on the table.

Hermione's expression suddenly became strange. She looked at Harry, but got a positive answer.

"Ah, good girl, you are here too," the old bee said. "How about you, how about some candy?"

As he spoke, a small box on the table was suddenly pushed forward and came to the edge of the table.

Hermione looked closely and saw eyeballs inside, and several cockroaches.

"hiss"

She remembered what Draco had said below about 'corpse oil candy'.

"Thank you, Professor. But forget it." She said with some fear: "My teeth are not that good."

"Oh, all right." Dumbledore nodded, seeming disappointed that he didn't share the candy.

"Well, what do you want?" he asked.

"As you know, the principal's job is very busy. I have to spend a lot of time getting up from the nest every day, and spend three or four hours revitalizing my old age's rigid thinking, and then bury those who disobey me in the forbidden forest. Well, in short, it's very busy."

"Uh" Harry felt like he had a lot to say.

"Oh, right." Dumbledore seemed to have just remembered, "And the castle was struck by lightning, and it was me who was struck. I have to go up there to repair the nest and the castle.

This is a big project, isn’t it? "

"Repairing the castle?" Harry asked doubtfully.

"Ah, yes." Dumbledore nodded. "The world is full of holes, and there are always people who patch it up. It is said that for every time I repair a beehive, I die a hundred times.

The thunder will never subside. Rather than saying that the beehive is being repaired, it is better to say that it is being repaired by the sacrifice of lives. "

As he spoke, he spread out his two forelimbs and rubbed them in front of the bee's head.

"It would be nice if someone could fill it in for me."

Hermione's eyes became curious and her brain started to work.

"Number 16, The Tower, is also known as the House of God, Destiny, and Lightning.

The card is very simple, mainly expressing that unpredictable and drastic changes are unacceptable; no matter how proud humans are, they cannot compare with the power of nature, and challenging nature will only bring the wrath of God;

Although this huge change is hard to adapt to, it is teaching you to grow. Try to accept it, and it will make your life easier in the future."

Ron was a little confused when he heard this. Only then did he realize that this Major Arcana was the Tower.

"So?" he asked quickly, looking at Hermione as if he had seen a savior.

"What we just walked through was the Road of Suffering. The physical pain and the torture brought by mental illusions were the suffering and torture in the tower," Hermione continued.

"Yeah." Ron nodded quickly.

Hermione glanced at him and felt that Ron didn't actually understand.

"Now, it's time to rebuild what's been hurt," said Hermione.

Harry nodded. "Perhaps it could be called the Path of Progress?"

"Maybe." Hermione nodded in agreement.

"Okay." Ron nodded and looked at the old bee on the table: "Professor, we are willing to help you rebuild the castle."

"Very good." Dumbledore nodded: "However, only one person can receive my reward. It needs to be distributed according to your merits."

Ron looked at Harry and Hermione hesitantly, then nodded.

"That's fair," he said firmly.

Dumbledore was satisfied with this answer. He gradually flew up and turned towards the path behind the desk.

"Come with me, children."

After passing the desk, the three of them entered a quiet path.

Ron was extremely nervous. He looked at Harry and asked, "What are you thinking about?"

Harry fixed his eyes on the back of the old bee flying in front of him and whispered, "I wonder if I will succeed if I choose to violently snatch the card directly."

Ron shuddered when he heard this.

"Just a thought," Harry added hastily, noticing the sudden stillness of the old bee in front of him.

After hearing this, the old bee continued to fly forward.

Hermione was also shocked by Harry's words. She was just thinking about whether there was any other way to get the card, such as persuading Professor Dumbledore to accept all this.

"Accept suffering" is one of the meanings of the Tower card.

This was far from what Harry had imagined, and killing the headmaster was a bit too much.

However, she felt that her previous idea had some possibility of being implemented.

Thinking about it, she decided to give it a try later.

The path made a circle and went up two flights of stairs, and they soon came into sight of the top of the tower which had been destroyed by lightning.

"This is it." Dumbledore said, "You must be careful, very careful, after all, this is not such an easy task. If you die, I will have to spend time burying you."

Ron shrank his neck. He felt that this game that always talked about death was a bit unfriendly.

And this was said in the voice of Professor Dumbledore.

Their whole family respects Professor Dumbledore very much, and they don’t know what their parents would think when they see this scene.

Will you call the game maker a bad guy?

"You just need to fix it," Dumbledore said, turning away. "You'd better hurry up, I don't give you much time."

After saying this, his figure gradually disappeared.

Hermione quickly expressed her ideas to the two of them. After Harry thought about it, he felt that Hermione's ideas were also reasonable.

"I think we can give it a try." Harry nodded.

Hermione looked at Ron again.

Ron was obviously stunned for a moment, wondering: "Do you still need to ask for my opinion?"

Hermione nodded matter-of-factly.

The time she has to take is tantamount to cutting off the source of fuel.

"I think I can still ask for your opinion," said Hermione.

After a moment, Ron nodded blankly.

"Then I'll try." Hermione said happily, waved at the two of them, and followed Dumbledore's footsteps.

She was going to try to convince Professor Dumbledore to accept the lightning-caused scar on the castle.

After Hermione left, Ron looked at Harry in confusion.

“Do you want my opinion on this?”

Harry patted Ron's shoulder and just said softly, "We are all friends."

"Friend?" Ron looked at Harry's back in surprise as he walked forward.

There were a lot of rubble on the tower, and the entire top had been destroyed. There was a lingering smell of dust in the air.

"Yuga Yugadim Leviosa——"

Harry waved his fingers, and there was a crackling sound on the huge stones, and blue sparks of lightning exploded, dispelling the spell.

"The interference is too strong." Harry frowned and tried to touch a stone with his hand.

crackling——

Lightning strikes at fingertips.

"These things have lightning?" Ron said in horror.

The next moment, he saw Harry pick up a whole piece of stone with his hands.

The crackling sound of explosions continued.

Soon, a faint burnt smell came from Harry's body.

"Harry, put it down!"

"I thought you were going to call me Potter." Harry smiled and threw the stone aside.

"Is this what you care about?" Ron looked at him as if he was crazy: "Well, we are all friends."

"You're right." Harry smiled, and then explained: "Of course it's not just about this."

"Lightning still hurts, doesn't it?" Ron's expression finally relaxed a little.

"No, it's just that my clothes are all burnt." Harry said distressedly: "These were bought with the pounds I saved for a long time. Obviously, this damage cannot be repaired by a repair spell."

As he spoke, he saw Harry take off his robe and coat, roll up his sleeves, and reveal his forearms as strong as Charlie's.

Ron's expression became even stranger.

"Actually, I came here to verify something."

"what?"

"Reward." Harry uttered the word slowly.

Ron didn't understand.

"If you follow the established process, you will get rewards other than cards," Harry continued.

“Just like when you play a game, in addition to the rewards for the mission itself, you will also gain experience, drops from killing monsters, etc.

I have completed the process of the [Moon] card before. In addition to the card, I am sure that I got something else during the entire quest process.

The same goes for Draco. Although he was not the ultimate winner, he also said that he had some insights.

This is what I want to verify. In the process of completing the task, you will gain experience, props or knowledge. "

"So?" Ron asked puzzledly.

Harry clenched his fists.

"I vaguely felt that my strength seemed to have increased a little bit after the electric shock."