Chapter 25 - Hogwarts Annual Festival part 5 (1/2)
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.
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”.