HP: The Arcane Thief
HP: The Arcane Thief - Chapter 82: R.I.P Gryffindor

"WHAT?! WHAT JUST HAPPENED?! I THOUGHT THEY WERE GOING TO CRASH?! I NEED A REPLAY!" Exclaimed Jordan, mirroring everyone's thoughts at witnessing the spectacle just now.

Meanwhile, casually sitting on his broom, looking at the snitch struggling in his hand, Axel clicked his tongue. "Who told them to assume I can't turn at that speed?" he muttered.

Amidst the anticipatory gazes of the onlookers, the replay was played in slow motion. And, what it showed managed to baffle the onlookers even further!

"MERLIN'S SWEATY KNICKERS! DID HE JUST-?!"

"Jordan!"

Lee Jordan, along with many others, couldn't believe what they saw! Just when Axel was about to bump into George, he somehow managed to swerve around the twin, missing him by a hairs breath, blowing George's robes due to the sheer wind force.

"HE ACTUALLY DID IT! AXEL HUNT HAS SOMEHOW MANAGED TO TURN HIMSELF ACCURATELY AT THAT SPEED!!! HOW?! I DON'T KNOW!"

Ignoring the crowd's cheering, Axel turned his head to look back at George Weasley. 'How the fuck are only Slytherins called the villains?' he thought knowing exactly what the guy had tried to pull. Others might have missed it, but Axel had not.

Just now, when blocking Axel's path, the Weasley twin had slid back on his broomstick and raised the tip to point straight at Axel. In this way, the tip of his broom would hit Axel first in case a collision happened. Since he's far back on his own broomstick while Axel is leaning forward, George would be relatively unharmed. On the other hand, having a broomstick hit right into his helmet or gut at that speed… Axel would have been in trouble.

"Seriously?"

First of all, they humiliate him last night for no reason other than the fact that he was in the Slytherin Quidditch team, and now this. In the situation just now, it would have still been understandable if they had tried to stop him by putting themselves at equal risk as him, but George had purposefully tried to injure Axel badly, while also making sure that he himself won't suffer anything more than minor injuries.

Axel shook his head in lamentation."You've blown it, you moron," he murmured. Previously, there was still a chance he might have let them off easy. But with the shit he had just tried to pull, Weasley had doomed himself, along with his whole team.

Looking at the scoreboard, Axel decided to tilt it completely to one side. He was going to butcher them.

In the minutes to come, Axel was like an unstoppable machine, catching the snitch again and again. He even stopped using the launching boom, removing Gryffindor's delusions that they had a chance if they somehow stopped him from using it. He had already caught the Snitch 9 times by now.

It was almost Halftime, and Axel once again went to chase after the snitch. But Rose was flying right in front of him, being lucky enough to have the snitch pass right by her side.

"And it looks like the Gryffindor team is finally going to have their first 50! Rose Potter is on to the snitch, and Axel Hunt seems unable to catch up!"

Indeed a bit too far behind to do anything, Axel looked at Rose, who was about to catch the snitch for the first time in the match.

'Should I, or should I not?' He wondered. But then, he just laughed. "Of course I should."

Rose has always been a little too arrogant for her own good. And since Axel has decided to take on the task of humbling her, he must be thorough.

Rose looked at the snitch which was flying just a couple feet in front of her.

'This time, it's mine!' She thought, her hand stretching out to take the snitch. She didn't care whether they won or lost at this point. She just wanted to beat Axel, at least for once, and wipe the confidence off that smug face.

"ROSE POTTER IS ABOUT TO TAKE THE SNITCH! AND— WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING?!"

Rose almost had the snitch in her grasp. But before she could close her fingers around it, it disappeared from her view! Turning her head, she saw that snitch clutched in Axel's hand, which currently had its middle finger raised specifically for her! This grand gesture, promoting brilliant sportsmanship, was shown on the screen as well, to all the spectators who thought Rose was better.

"AXEL HUNT HAS THE SNITCH! I SERIOUSLY CAN'T BELIEVE WHAT I'M SEEING! IS THIS GUY A HACKER?! Hunt has somehow caught up to Rose, snatched the Snitch right out from within her grasp, AND flipped her off! What an absolute vindictiveness! Please remind me to not get on his bad side!"

Axel got a warning from Madam Hooch for using vulgar gestures which he shrugged off while the Slytherins, and many others among the crowd seemed to have found a new idol.

"""""AXEL! AXEL! AXEL! AXEL!""""

Amidst thunderous cheers from the audience, the first half came to fruition, and the Slytherin team swarmed Axel once again.

"AXEL! MARRY MEEEEE!!!" That was Patricia, whom Axel promptly dodged once again. The rest, they were still nameless characters for him, so he ignored them as well.

Finally getting from people trying to marry, hug and pat him, Axel wasn't allowed to take a breather since the Gryffindor Captain Oliver Woods had accused him of cheating. That's the thing with games. If you're playing too well, people think you're hacking.

Several experts came to Axel, who still held the struggling snitch in his hand. So, instead of releasing the snitch, Axel had to give it to the experts, who began casting several spells on it to find out any signs of tempering since it did seem a bit unbelievable that he was able to catch the snitch so easily and quickly. After that, Axel's broomstick was also checked, since his flying skills were too bloody brilliant and the last burst of speed did seem a bit sus. And then his eyes were checked in case he was wearing some sort of enchanted device which was allowing him to see the snitch.

Meanwhile, inside the Gryffindor Locker room, the atmosphere was as depressing as a funeral. Which was kinda true, since they had just been butchered single-handedly by one person. The team members were all lost in their own thoughts, while Oliver Woods, the burly Captain and keeper of the Gryffindor team paced back and fourth, fuming.

Rose sat quietly in a corner in a daze. What was she thinking when she accepted Axel's challenge? Did she really think she could beat him? The guy whom she hadn't seen lose at anything even when he was crippled?

In the first place, what was she thinking when she went to confront him? What did it matter to her if he was seducing all the witches?

Rose closed her eyes, and when she did, all she saw was the smug face of Axel, looking disdainfully at her with the snitch held in his hand, and the scenes of his amazing flying skills, which were much superior to hers without even trying.

"Damn it! I can't think of anything." Exclaimed Woods, bringing her out of her thoughts.

"But we can't let the Slytherin team win with such a huge landslide! We'll be the laughing stock of the entire Britain! So if any of you have any ideas, I'm all ears.

The three chasers were out of ideas as well.

"We have to stop Hunt, but I have no idea how." said Angelina.

That much was obvious. If they had to stop Slytherin they had to stop Axel. But the question was, how?

"I don't think we can. Why did you guys have to provoke him?!" Questioned Alicia Spinnet. "He's a beast!"

"Yeah, a hot one," added Katie, without realizing that she had said it out loud. Though the other two chasers certainly did not disagree.

The twins looked at each other. "I say we take him out," said Fred.

"We can't beat in terms of skills anyways," said George.

Rose disagreed immediately. "No way! We were already wrong to let you do whatever you wanted with the earlier strategy! You could have seriously injured him!"

The twins looked innocent, "But that would have stopped him, right? And we wouldn't be in this situation right now," said one.

"Besides, he's a Slytherin. We can't go soft on him, can we Rosie?" said the other. "Don't you remember what the Slytherins were like last year? Just think how much more insufferable they will be after this kind of win."

"So what if he's a Slytherin? He hasn't done anything wrong yet," argued Katie.

Woods, who had been silent, seemed to have decided. "Alright, we're doing it." He said.

"But—!" Began Rose, but Oliver cut her off.

"Save it, Rose. I'm the Captain, and I've decided. We can't let him disrespect us like that. It's just a little injury."

This time, Rose wasn't worried about Axel. She had gotten a glimpse of his real skills. So now, she was actually worried about their own team. "You'll only make it worse for yourself, trust me," she said.

"We don't trust you anymore, Rosie."

"After all, you are already his slave, aren't you?"

!!!

Though the Twins were mocking her, but Rose realized... they were right!

'Fuck! I forgot the bet!'

…

The examination for whether he was cheating or not resulted in nothing more than pissing Axel further off. Of course the experts couldn't find anything.

As soon as the match resumed, Axel spotted the snitch yet again and went after it. From in front of him, he saw Fred Weasley coming but he didn't pay much attention.

"And Axel's revenge continues, he's going for the snitch yet again—And something is different with the Gryffindor beaters, maybe a new strategy— OH!!!"

'The Hell?!' Just as he was about to catch the snitch, Axel was surprised as one of the Weasley Twins out of the blue, decided to take a direct swing at him with his beater's bat as he flew past him!

Imagine flying at a blurring speed, and someone comes at you with equally blurring speed and does a close line with with his beater's bat. Yep, you'll be toast.

Though with nothing to hold him back, Axel dodged of course, but missed the snitch, making him frown.

*Beep*

The Gryffindor Beater Fred Weasley got a warning and a penalty was awarded to Slytherin.

'So, that's how we're playing now?' Thought Axel, looking at the twins as he cracked his neck. "Then bring it!"

For few the minutes to come, Axel's pace increased, leaving no saving grace for Gryffindor. Even when Fred and George Weasley tried their best, how could they really take him out? Even the 10 year old Axel was skilled enough to avoid whatever tricks they had up their sleeves. Especially when he's already on alert.

The twins were desperate now. They knew that they were going to be disqualified if they actually succeeded. So, why not go all out? If they are losing like this, it is only fair that they bring their enemy down with them, right? It's the least they can do.

So, just as Axel was about to catch another snitch, one of Fred Weasley distracted Axel by hitting a bludger his way with all his might, while George Weasley snuck up to him with his wand drawn, getting in as close as he could in order to get the perfect shot.

'Just one hit, and it'll be over.' Thought the Twins in sync.

"IT WOULD SEEM THAT THE TWINS HAVE LOST IT! A WAND! A FUCKING WAND!" Exclaimed Jordan. Even Jordan had lost it. He wanted to know exactly what his friends were thinking.

"Jordan!" Leave it to Professor Mcgonagall to be a stickler for rules even when a student is about to be hit with an unknown spell at such a high speed. But hey, she's only doing her job.

"Are you kidding me right now?" With the snitch right below him, Axel noticed what the twins were doing and was baffled at their gall. Are these two for real? Even using magic? When his own wand was lying broken in his pocket and the spare wand that could land him in Azkaban for murder?

Yeah, what a great situation to be in.

But it would seem it was his own fault. Perhaps he had been too soft on the twins, making them think they could do anything to him without serious consequences.

Sigh...

"Take this as a reminder then," he said, activating [Arcane Eyes].

The Bludger had already reached him at an incredible speed, and so had George Weasley who was about to fire a spell at him. It seemed like Axel was a goner now. Even those who trusted him were worried.

But perfectly calm at this moment, Axel ducked low, towards the snitch and actually raised his hand up towards the Bludger made of out iron!

"WHAT?!"

The Bludger hit his hand at an incredible speed, but Axel rolled with its momentum, changing its direction.

While turning, he caught the snitch which was right below him with his other hand, and then—

[Throwing]

He lauched the Bludger at George Weasley, who was about to fire a spell at him at, while even boosting it's already very high speed!

*BAAAM*

....

A.N.: RIP to the twin and Gryffindor.

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