The Last Slytherin - Chapter 51

Quickly, Defence Against the Dark Arts classes became the most popular in all years as Professor Lupin spent less time on theory and more on practical lessons. Not to mention the classes are conducted three times a week which is more than other subjects.

After boggarts, Neal and others studied Redcaps, small, dwarf-like magical beasts that inhabit wherever human blood had been shed, such as in the dungeons of castles, the potholes of old battlefields, or holes underground.

Then, they moved to Kappas, and later to Grindylows, etc… As for Care for Magical Creatures, it became suddenly boring as Hagrid just lost his confidence in bringing big creatures like Hippogriff. They studied Flobberworms which everyone considered not worth learning. The only one who studied habits with an interest was Neal which made Hagrid sigh in relief. As October started, the school became lively because of the Quidditch winter cup.

Everyone in Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff held meetings to discuss only one thing. How to stop the “Flash Cutter”. In the previous year, Neal brought everyone to their knees while scoring lots of goals and making a seeker useless. This time everyone was determined to study his patterns and stop him and also wanted to learn his specialty, the lightning cut skill.

Slytherin’s team also wanted to learn the burst skill from Neal to which he replied, “I don’t know, I just do it, naturally”. The members sighed while looking at this genius, who had the best academic scores and has a great talent in Quidditch too along with dueling skills.

Draco then asked, “just tell us what do you think when you use that skill”. Neal thought for a while and replied, “hmm, I have to reach that certain spot for sure? Does that help?”. Flint then clapped and joked, “forget it. Us commoners can’t understand your thoughts, anyway. Just do your best. This time, the other teams must have already come up with a plan to stop you. Be careful”.

Neal smiled, “don’t worry about it. I’m also developing a new skill. It might take a while to master it though. Even if they were prepared for the first one, they won’t be able to stop the second. The cup is ours, this time too”.

Flint then said, “We should also look for potential candidates other than those who were in reserves. Four of us are in the seventh year. So, the winter cup is the last one we will get to play. Let’s work harder and win it.

Neal, you will be the captain after the winter cup is over. So, this time, you will lead the team for a few matches. Treat it as a practice for the upcoming years”.

Everyone began to practice very hard this time especially the chasers who wanted to block Neal and the beaters who wanted to knock him out with a bludger.

As Halloween approached, a notice was posted in the Slytherin common room stating the first Hogsmeade weekend which excited all the third years who never visited the only wizarding village of Britain. However, Neal and Tracey weren’t that excited about it as they went to a wizarding village in China.

In their eyes, all wizarding villages are somehow similar but still looked forward a little bit hoping it would be different like how muggle cities are different in each country.

While Harry got left behind, everyone else went to Hogsmeade under Prefects lead. After reaching there, they separated and went on their own. While Draco went with Crabbe and Goyle, Daphne went with Pansy’s gang. As for Tracey, she just stayed with Neal while they roam around together.

As they walk together in the snow like a couple while Tracey grabbing his arm and walking closely, she pointed, “let’s go to this shop”. Both of them entered the Dervish and Banges shop which sells and repairs magical instruments.

He bought a Sneakoscope which is a type of dark detector that looks like a glass spinning top. It lights up, spins, and whistles if someone is doing something untrustworthy nearby.

Next, they went to Dominic Maestro’s Music Shop run by Dominic Maestro, a musician, who once got an award at Hogwarts, for excelling in music. Tracey wanted to buy the piano but then Neal reminded her that there’s no place in her room to place such a large piano.

She looked at him and asked, “can’t I keep it in your room? Your room has a lot of space, anyway”. At first, he coldly rejected her but after she asked nicely two more times, he sighed, “fine. But I’m telling you, Isle has a habit of roaming inside the room. Don’t blame me if she damages your instrument”.

She nodded, “fine. I understand. Let me buy it”. After paying the money including the delivery charges, they came out of the shop and looked at other shops. When Tracey saw a fancy looking shop from the outside, she said, “Neal, let’s go to that Tea and Cakes shop.

But just when they entered the shop, they saw a lot of couples sitting inside the shop holding hands and a couple of them are even kissing. Tracey and Neal blushed and immediately turned back and exited.

When they came out, as his heart is beating quickly, Neal commented, “what kind of a shop is that?”. As both of them looked at each other closely, they turned away and Tracey left his arm and stood a bit away. She cleared her throat, “ok, let’s go and look for other shops”.

After going and purchasing a few funny items at Zonko’s Joke Shop, both of them went to Gladrags Wizardwear, a clothing store that was founded in 1750 and run by Gladrags Wizardwear Group Ltd, with branches in London, Paris, and Hogsmeade.

There he saw a lot of girls trying out different clothes. As Neal was embarrassed to stay to be the only male in the shop, he said, “Tracey, you go and buy the clothes. I’ll be waiting at Honeydukes” and exited the shop.

As Tracey was trying to convince him to stay and try out new clothes while he’s saying he’ll go, Pansy who spotted them said, “It looks like Slytherin is on a date with Davis. Are they a couple, already?”. Daphne who heard that instantly looked at her in a frown, “what are you saying?”. As Pansy pointed both of them, Daphne got a bit irritated but then as Neal left her, she scolded, “don’t talk nonsense. Neal doesn’t look at her like that”.

Pansy replied, “well, didn’t you say they stayed together under one roof in the summer? Who knows what happened”. When Daphne was feeling uncomfortable and was about to reply, Tracey waved her hand and called her, “hey, Daphne, Pansy, it’s great that you are still here”.

After trying out some beautiful clothes, Pansy exclaimed, “Wow, you look beautiful in this dress, Tracey. Your boyfriend will be amazed when he sees you in this”. Tracey asked with a surprise, “boyfriend? I don’t have one though”. Pansy then asked, “wasn’t it the boy who came with you, earlier, your boyfriend?”.

Tracey replied, “it’s just Neal, Pansy. He was just embarrassed to come into the shop as it’s filled with girls”. When Daphne heard her reply, she sighed in relief but suddenly her expression changed when she heard Tracey’s next sentence.

Looking at herself in the mirror with her brown eyes, as Tracey let her jet black hair loose, she playfully smiled at Daphne, “so, do Neal and I looked like a couple to you too? Hmm, should I also buy a matching dress for him too, then? What do you think, Daphne?”.