Chapter 221

The wind swept across the beeches at the edge of the pitch, swirling up a few golden-red fallen leaves.

After the two arrived at the Quidditch pitch stands, they could see from afar that Ryan was standing in the middle of the pitch.

Beside him were many other Ravenclaw students who had also come to sign up.

Captain LuoJie stood in front of them with his hands on his hips, with the official members of the Ravenclaw team behind him.

"John, Senior, you're finally here."

At this moment, Titus and Ethan, who were in the stands, spotted them and waved to greet them.

"Yeah, how is it? Has it started?"

"They're doing the pre-match pep talk. See, because there aren't enough people, they've mixed the official members with those trying out into two teams to spar a bit later and see what everyone's got."

Titus explained the current situation to John.

Ryan had signed up as a Seeker, and as it happened, he was the only one who had signed up for that position.

So, naturally, he would be facing off against the Ravenclaw official Seeker, Qiu Zhang.

Although the official members would intentionally go easy to test their mettle.

It still wouldn't be easy to deal with.

"It's starting, it's starting."

Ethan hurriedly tapped the two who were chatting and looked toward the pitch.

The two groups, having already been divided, mounted their broomsticks and took off.

Captain LuoJie acted as the referee while observing the newcomers' performance.

"Ryan! Go for it!"

Seeing Ryan take off, John and the others cheered loudly to encourage him.

Ryan gave them a thumbs-up from the air, then flew to the highest point, waiting for the Golden Snitch to appear.

The scattered spectators who had come to watch also cheered for their friends.

Others were there from other house teams to scout the competition or simply to observe.

As the match began.

The two teams sped across the pitch on their broomsticks.

A flash of gold streaked across the sky.

Ryan and Qiu Zhang spotted the Golden Snitch almost simultaneously and charged toward it together.

"Our Ryan doesn't look any worse than Senior Qiu Zhang, hey."

Seeing Ryan's reaction was no slower than Qiu Zhang's, Titus immediately whistled and laughed.

"After all, he's a student I brought up; it's only natural he'd be excellent."

John, standing to the side, replied with a cocky air.

"Oh, give it a rest; you've only been here a few times, what are you acting like a big shot for?"

However, he was met with Titus's merciless mockery.

Hermione couldn't help but chuckle as she listened, secretly laughing at them.

"You don't know a thing; that's because I only teach the essence, and he needs time to digest it slowly before I can teach him the next step."

John retorted indignantly.

"Oh my~ the essence~"

Titus and Ethan, who had pulled him over, mimicked him in unison like mocking parrots.

Hermione's shoulders shook with laughter.

Just amidst this laughter, the situation on the pitch changed abruptly.

Ryan made a sharp dive, the tail of his broomstick brushing past Qiu Zhang's robes as he charged straight for the Snitch.

Just as his fingertips were about to touch the Snitch's wings, Qiu Zhang suddenly whipped her tail sideways, her broomstick sweeping across Ryan's wrist and knocking him completely off balance.

"Waaaaahhhhhhh!!"

Following Ryan's exclamation, he and his broomstick spun like an out-of-control top, spiraling toward the ground.

"Thump—!"

A dull thud echoed.

"Whoa~ is this also something you taught him, idol?"

Titus leaned over the railing of the stands to look down, and seeing Ryan sprawled out, he asked John.

"No, I didn't teach him that move."

John looked down as well and said, speechless.

"Are you still alive! Ryan!"

Ethan called out to him below with concern.

"Cough, cough... still alive, but not for long..."

Ryan struggled to get up, holding his waist, not forgetting to joke even then.

Although the fall was quite hard, it didn't cause any major physical damage.

Senior Qiu Zhang had held back, or rather, this was just a perfectly normal technique.

It was his own lack of experience that led to him being swiped away so easily.

The match didn't stop because of Ryan's crash; only Captain LuoJie came over to check on the situation.

After all, in this sport, falling from the sky every now and then was a common occurrence.

"Can you continue, Ryan!"

"No problem, Captain!"

Facing LuoJie's inquiry, Ryan hurriedly pulled himself together and responded.

Then he mounted his broomstick again and shot back up into the sky.

Senior Qiu Zhang, who had been waiting in the air for a long time, smiled slightly when she saw Ryan flying back up.

Then she chased after the Snitch again; this was essentially a test to see if Ryan's level was up to the task of being a Seeker.

The two then began chasing each other in the sky again, with occasional harassment leaving Ryan wobbling.

Ryan gritted his teeth and steadied his broomstick, his hair flying wildly in the airflow.

Having learned his lesson once, he became more cautious, but as a result, his speed slowed down significantly.

He had no way to deal with Qiu Zhang's various tricky feints.

It was the price of his lack of experience.

However, this didn't mean Ryan wasn't good; he stuck like glue to the tail of Qiu Zhang's broomstick.

Once Qiu Zhang showed any sign of catching the Golden Snitch, he would immediately accelerate to intercept her regardless of the risk.

The two went back and forth, darting all over the sky.

"John, who do you think will catch the Snitch?" Hermione asked John curiously.

"Well, I'm definitely supporting my good brother."

John replied without even thinking.

"I'm being serious."

Hermione poked his side in dissatisfaction and said again.

"Hmm... uh... sss......"

This question really stumped John.

He didn't watch Quidditch often, so how could he tell who had the better chance?

"If Qiu Zhang keeps holding back like this, Ryan will catch up to her soon."

At this moment, another voice spoke up.

The two turned back to see Luna and Neville arriving together.

Unlike Luna's calm demeanor, Neville looked incredibly shy.

It was indeed Luna who had just spoken.

She and Neville came to their side and smiled gently at them.

"Oh, Sister Luna, Senior Neville, you're here too."

Seeing the two, Titus and the others ran back to greet them.

"I just happened to run into Neville in the greenhouse, so I brought him along to cheer for Ryan."

Luna looked at Neville and then smiled faintly at the group.

"Got it, we all get it."

Hearing this, the group laughed happily, making Neville blush even more.

However, before they could tease Neville further, an exclamation came from the pitch.

The Golden Snitch, which had been leading Ryan and Qiu Zhang into the sky, suddenly made a sharp dive.

Ryan and Qiu Zhang dove down simultaneously—

Below them was the main battlefield of the match, where people were flying past from time to time, as well as the flat, green lawn.

One slight mistake and they could collide with someone or lose control and crash.

As the experienced one, Qiu Zhang instinctively slowed down, as she didn't think it was the right moment.

But Ryan thought it was a good opportunity, because without Qiu Zhang's interference, the Snitch hadn't started darting around yet.

He pressed down hard on his broomstick handle, like a falling sword, piercing straight toward the descending Snitch.

This scene also drew exclamations from the spectators.

Seeing this, John stood up immediately, staring fixedly at the rapidly descending Ryan, his wand lighting up in his hand, ready to catch Ryan at any moment.

Ryan, relying on his extraordinary courage and precise prediction, wove through the main battlefield where players were darting about.

Then, just ten meters from the ground, he reached out and grabbed, then pulled his broomstick up sharply.

But the buffer distance was too short; it was impossible to come to a steady stop.

So he landed in a perfect arc of acceleration.

Then his whole body was flung off the broomstick by the immense inertia, tracing another beautiful arc in mid-air.

Bang!

A dull thud landed him in a soft pile of hay, kicking up a circle of fine grass clippings.

The clippings fell onto his sweat-dampened bangs, but Ryan lay there on his back, grinning and holding the golden light he had clutched in his hand high up.

Immediately...

"Beep———!"

Captain LuoJie blew the whistle in his hand.

"Ryan Grey, has caught the Golden Snitch! Match over!"