Chapter 39 - Dueling Club part 2 (2/2)
The 2nd one from the losing team will fight the one who won in the previous match. Anyone interested in this can participate. The rest can just stay aside and watch”. Hermoine replied with a disappointed look, ”Hey, that's not fair. What about our opinions?”.
Neal looked at her and replied, ”why should I care? If you have a problem with it, you can complain to Prof. Snape. He's the one who put me in charge for today or you can just leave if you don't agree with me. It's just a club, not a class. It isn't mandatory for everyone to stay here”.
As nobody moved, Neal nodded with a smile, ”Good. Now, how about we start with Daphne, Tracey, and Hermoine, Neville. come up.
Tracey and Hermoine stood on the Dueling platform facing each other. Neal then said, ”ok, don't follow my example with Prof. Lockhart. Only disarming your opponent, alright?”. Both of them nodded and started their duel.
After Hermoine beat her, Daphne came to the stage and defeated both of them making Slytherins excited. One by one, the matches continued to move on. Finally, it's time for Harry, Ron team vs Draco, Crabbe team.
Ron looked at him and sneered, ”we're finally getting the chance to finish our battle. Last time someone challenged us and never appeared with fear”.
As Malfoy and Ron start trading insults, Neal interrupted them with an annoyed look, ”can you two hurry up? People are waiting for their turn”. When Ron just pulled out his wand, Neal stopped him, ”wait. You should sit this one out”.
When Ron looked at him as if he wants to kill, Neal replied, ”your wand isn't alright. I can't allow you duel with such a wand. It's dangerous for you and your opponent. Either buy a new one or use someone else's”. When Hermoine is about to give her wand, Ron snorted, ”no thanks. I can buy one, later”.
Neal then said, ”Let's just make this a 1v1, then. Draco vs Harry”. Even though Ron felt humiliated, he swallowed his frustration and cheered Harry to beat up Malfoy. Both of them stood before each other while pulling out their wands, Malfoy spoke, ”Scared, Potter?”. Harry replied, ”you wish”.
Neal then started their match, ”3, 2, ”. Before he counted 1, Malfoy pointed his wand at Harry and spoke, ”Everte Statum”. An Orange light got fired off from his wand and hit Harry who was unprepared.
As it hit Harry, he flew back several feet and fell on his ċhėst which caused a sharp pain but didn't cause a lot of damage as Harry stood up perfectly. Harry then waved his hand and shouted, ”Rictusempra”.
Both of them were firing spells at each other without defending and of course, didn't drop their wand even after forced to dance, laugh when hit with various low-level curses. Draco then waved his hand and shouted, ”Serpensortia”.
He conjured a live snake that began to crawl towards Harry to bite him. Harry then brandished his wand and tried to counter with, ”Alate Ascendare”. As the spell hit the serpent, it merely caused the serpent to fly upwards and fell on the stage again without doing any damage and made it aggravate further.
The snake forgot the target it was supposed to bite and hissed with a rage showing its fangs and started to move towards a first-year student. Harry stepped forward slowly and started speaking in parseltongue, ”leave her alone”.
The snake stopped in the middle and stared at him. As Harry wasn't sure what to do with it, Neal stepped on to the platform and passed Draco. He started to speak in parseltongue as he kneeled on one leg while raising his hand towards it, ”come here”.
As it heard Neal's voice, it turned away from Harry and slowly crawled its way towards Neal and after picking it up, he looked at Harry and spoke, ”it seems my suspicions are right. You are a Parselmouth, after all”.