Chapter 22 - Hogwarts Annual Festival part 2 (1/2)
On the morning of Saturday, the Great Hall was decorated with all kinds of colorful banners, A rainbow between the small clouds here and there bewitched on the ceiling. The festival started with a song by Prof. Flitwick and a few students in the back.
As everyone applauded the performance, Dumbledore stood up and spoke a few words and a Huge feast from all over the world appeared on the table surprising everyone.
After trying different dishes from the east, a delight appeared on everyone's faces. A couple of hours later, the Annual festival officially began with the Broom racing.
Daphne and Harry who were in different groups easily passed through the next round; After lunch, Neal went to the south tower to participate in debate while wondering who will be his teammates.
Neal was surprised to see Hermoine's name in his team along with Cho Chang, a 2nd-year Ravenclaw student who is also a genius seeker for the team, Percy Weasley, a fifth-year ”Prefect”, brother of Ron, Eddie, a fourth-year Hufflepuff and lastly Cedric Diggory, a third-year Hufflepuff”.
As he stepped inside the classroom, he saw Percy was explaining something to Cedric and Eddie. upon seeing him, few people from the other groups started whispering to each other.
He walked inside the class and sat beside Percy while introducing himself, ”Hello. I'm Neal Slytherin”. Cedric replied, ”of course, everyone knows you. Killing a Troll is a big-time achievement”. Percy replied, ”I hear you from Ron's complaints from time to time. I have no issue with you as long as you don't break the rules. So, you don't need to worry about me”.
Later, Cho Chang and Hermoine entered one after another. Percy looked her a bit unpleasantly as she lost house points a while ago. As it's a bit awkward to have a conversation with him, Neal just stayed silent until everyone gathered.
In the class, a whole of 30 people divided into 5 teams gathered. Almost half of the members belong to Ravenclaw and aside from him, he can see only one from Slytherin in this group. While a few students gathered outside of the classroom to see how it goes, Prof. McGonagall entered the classroom and started the event as in the entire Hogwarts, it is believed that she is the most knowledgable in theories more than even Dumbledore himself.
”Okay, students, before starting the debate, let me remind you that swearing, intentional personal attacks or bad words are prohibited. I don't wish to hear anything else other than words related to the topic.
Without wasting time, let's start the debate right away. The topic for the first round is one of the most common ones, relations between Muggles and Wizards/Witches. The time limit is one hour.
Only one person from each team must raise their hand and present their views. So, who's going to start”.
As all the teams are discussing among themselves, Eddie said, ”I'll go first”. Percy looked at everyone and Neal too nodded with them. Along with him, each one from other teams too raised their hands. The debate started with someone explaining the history of Muggles and Wizards when both used to coexist together.
As the debate started heating up, Hermoine argued, ”Legendary Wizard Merlin believed that wizardkind should help Muggles and live peacefully with them. He founded the Order of Merlin, an organization that promoted Muggle rights, creating rules against using magic on them.
But after his death, the Order of Merlin switched from a Muggle rights organization to an award bestowed upon witches and wizards who performed a great deed at personal risk or contributed to the betterment of wizarding society in some way, a sign of the estrangement of the Muggle community from the Wizarding one”.
Then someone countered with the witch/wizard hunts era where Muggles put many Wizards to death and burnt them with fire. After all, not everyone can perform wandless magic. Without a wand, a wizard is the same as any other Muggle and not every Wizard is also capable of killing or knowing high-level spells to protect himself.