Hogwarts Annual Festival part 5

After having lunch, he went to the Quidditch stadium along with his gang who went there to support him. Seeing his pocket watch, he mumbled, "Duelling event will start at 3:30 while it's still 2 o'clock now.

Okay, by the time Duelling starts, even Semifinals can be finished. Finals are at 5'o clock while Duelling will go on until the dinner, anyway. I hope I have enough time for that".

In the Quarterfinals, they didn't give Neal Quaffle every time like the first round. But still, whatever passes they gave, he caught them perfectly and scored a couple of goals while dodging the bludgers. In the end, the match was ended with 70-10 making them advance to semi-finals.

Then, he saw the watch to see it's 3:15 when all the matches are finished. Oddly, half of the stadium began to vacate it as the Duelling event is about to begin.

Draco, Daphne, and Tracey too left while wishing him luck. In the semi-finals, Neal's team faced against Twin Weasleys. The match went neck to neck until the last 5 minutes. Cho and Flint were kept getting blocked and the last one easily evades Neal's defenses and scored goals continuously .

When the score is at 20-30 and Neal's team on losing side with only 2 minutes left, suddenly, a miracle appeared which stumped the players, audience and even Madam Hooch. When Neal has the Quaffle while having no options to pass it as Flint was knocked by a rogue bludger and Cho was blocked by one of them.

He went straight towards the Twin Weasleys and at the last moment, made a sharp cut from the left in an accelerating state. It happened so fast that even Madam Hooch wasn't able to see clearly. For the twins, it seemed as if he passed through them. As soon as he sees the Goalpost empty while the keeper was distracted for a second, he scored a Goal.

But too bad that the match was declared with the opponent's win as Flint is in no condition to play the finals a couple of hours later even if they won. Not to mention, unlike the original Quidditch, they don't have any reserve players.

Neal thought that it actually might be good since he finds the game boring. Although he still felt that the last sharp cut was amazing.

He rushed to Duelling Hall leaving everyone else without saying anything as he is already late by 20 minutes.

As he reached the place, he saw the hall was crowded with first years, second years, third years and a few other upper-class students from different houses. Mostly seventh years strangely. He searched for his gang for a while but gave up soon as he failed to find them in the crowd of nearly 200 students standing close to each other while surrounding the table watching the duel closely.

Its rules are simple. Two will duel with each other on the Duelling long table. The winner will stay there and the loser will go down to the audience. Anyone who didn't Duel once gets to challenge him/her and Duel them. One loses when he admits defeat; breaks the rules and inflicts lethal damage upon the opponent; loses his wand; gets off the table; The last one remaining is the winner.

An additional rule is that if one has more than ten winning streaks, he can rest and a new match will start and later challenge the final winner. At first, the rules were only first years can battle each other but then it was changed after hearing the requests of Prefects.

That's why in the 3rd-floor hall of North Tower, they mixed the first years, second years and third years and the remaining in the upper floor hall.

As the duel was finished, the winner Storm Wolpers, a 3rd year Gryffindor who had won six times in a row waited for the next challenge. Then, again a first-year Ravenclaw challenged him and was defeated quickly.

Storm who was getting arrogant by winning one by one spotted Neal staring at them while just standing and taking the support of the wall. Upon winning his 14th match in a row, he spoke loudly and pointed his wand in Neal's direction, "how about you challenge me now, Slytherin?".

Upon hearing his name, everyone turned back in the direction the wand was pointed and spotted Neal looking carefree. Draco shouted, "Neal, you are here". His Slytherin friends and supporters surrounded him as he walked towards them. Neal asked, "so, what's his deal?". Draco scoffed, "he was just being arrogant. Just go and teach him a lesson".

Neal then asked, "what about yourself?". Draco replied, "mine was actually the first match. I lost to Daphne after winning 5 matches and she later lost to Amanda from 2nd year after winning 8 matches".

Daphne then replied while smiling, "I won against Hermoine as I've promised. Hehe. Anyway, so far, he has the highest number of winning streak". While they were talking, Storm got impatient and taunted him, "I heard that Slytherin defeated a Troll. Don't tell me that was just a lie Slytherins build-up to?".

As Neal refused to comment and stay still, Ron spoke, "how about defeating him in an official duel, Slytherin? Probably got scared after hearing his winning streak?. Don't worry, as a 3rd-year student, He'll go easy on you". As some of the Gryffindors laughed, Hermoine slapped her forehead, "why is this idiot trying to make a fool out of himself again?".

Neal smiled lightly and patted Malfoy's shoulder, "If I don't show their place today and embarrass their House, I'll change my surname". Neal spoke, "fine, Storm. If you want to embarrass yourself, I'll help you out fine". As he goes on to the stage, the seventh years who were just sitting around and watching the matches until now, stood up and came near to the Dueling table.

The anger in Storm rose as he saw the seventh year students made their way and stood near the table in interest after Neal stood on the stage. The Sixth Year Prefect of Hufflepuff who was overseeing the match spoke, "Wands ready".

Neal took out his Black Walnut wand and went into a duel stance. "On the count of 3, 2, 1"; Before Storm gets to fire a spell, Neal already shot him with, "Expelliarmus". The spell hit him lightly while disarming him and his wand fell on the floor.

The duel was already over in a nick of a second and stumped Storm who won 14 times in a row. While seventh-year students nodded as they expected, Ron's face became red in embarrassment.

Neal ignored the defeated Storm and looked at Ron with his hazel eyes, "you didn't compete yet right? I'll wait for you here. Until you step above the platform, I won't even step a single foot away from this spot. If anyone in the Gryffindor has the strength, please make me so".

His challenge provoked everyone in the Gryffindor including a couple of seventh-year students. A second-year from Gryffindor stepped on, "so, arrogant. Let me see how strong you are, Slytherin".

He just turned towards him without moving and gestured the Prefect to start. "3, 2, 1". The second-year shot, "Expelliarmus". Neal simply shielded it with, "Protego" which blocked the spell and then fired quick, "Stupefy".

As it hit opponent, he was stunned for a few seconds and time, Neal fired, "Expelliarmus". This time, as he used more power behind it, it pushed him out of the bounds and fell on the floor on his butt.

Then Neal looked at Gryffindors, "next". One by one, Neal is not only defeating every Gryffindor but also everyone from Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw who hasn't competed yet, without even moving a foot from where he is standing as he announced earlier.

The crowd began to grow bigger and the upper-class students came to watch the duel as they heard Neal is on 24th winning streak. Ron's face becoming redder in embarrassment every time Neal looks at him after the match. After winning his 25th match, he once again looked at Ron, "So, are you coming on the stage or not. If you aren't coming then how about you, Harry?".

As Harry looking at him seriously with full of nervousness inside, Fred and George who just returned after winning the Mini Quidditch pushed Ron front, "go, on, Ron. Don't sacrifice others for your sake".

Seeing the increased crowd, Ron who lost his courage to face Neal, gulped and slowly stepped on the stage. Upon seeing him, Neal smiled and put his wand inside his pocket making everyone wonder what's going on.

They were surprised when he pulled out another wand that has stunning beautiful artwork and looked at Ron, "I pulled out this wand, special for you. From the start of the academic year, you seem to have something against me even though we have nothing to do with each other. Today, I've lost my patience towards you, Ron Weasley".

Then he looked at his wand and spoke in a parseltongue, "Awake my wand".