Quidditch, Hogwarts and Wizard society

[Kensy Joseph]

No: HPFGUIDX 14926


Was just thinking about Quidditch when the following occurred to me (if
they've all been discussed before, just point me to the message number) -

1> All the time Durmstrang and Beauxbatons were at Hogwarts, how come
there were no friendly Quidditch matches between the three schools? For
one, it is not very often (over a century since the last Triwizard
Tournament?) that schools get together. In books 1-3, there has never been
any mention of any inter-school tournaments; so why not a few friendly
matches when they came visiting? Not to mention that the world's best
Seeker was on the Durmstrang team. (If Beckham came to my school for a
term, there's no way I'm letting him go without having him play soccer
even once.)

2> If Hogwarts were to put up an "All-Star" Hogwarts team (am I going OT
here?), who would be on it? (Since I'm trying to think of a team to play
the other schools, this would be set before the death of Cedric and I
guess we could include him in consideration). We know (??) that Harry's
the best Seeker. What about best Keeper, Chasers etc (evidence in canon?)
***I guess it's not OT now ;-)***

3> Is Quidditch a truly universal game in the wizarding world? Not
everybody would use brooms for transport, would they? (I remember some
mention of flying carpets at the WC - and it seems only natural that few
Asian wizards, for instance, would use brooms for transport due to
cultural factors). Would there be versions of Quidditch that use other
means to fly than brooms? Other games?

4> The question of who would play Quidditch led me to another question -
what would the poorest classes in the wizarding world be like? JKR has
often depicted the Weasleys as being impoverished - but somehow people
with three square meals a day and a roof over their head (not to mention a
garage and a flying car!) could hardly be the dregs of wizarding society.
If Quidditch were the most popular game in the wizarding world - then
there might not be a basic-existence-level class at all. In the real
world, soccer (or cricket) is extremely popular amongst the poor because
of the simplicity of the sporting equipment used (just some old newspapers
tightly wound to a ball would do!) Quidditch, OTOH, seems to require a lot
of specialised (enchanted?) equipment - snitch, bludgers, hoops, etc. It
wouldn't be possible for *anyone* to enchant a little ball to make it
behave like a snitch (or we would have seen it at the Weasley's; not to
mention that if anyone could *make* a snitch; then anyone could invoke the
counterspell and we would have chaos at the WC!!) So, if JKR's world had
really *really* poor people, they wouldn't be able to play ...

I'd love to hear what you think about this.

--
Kensy Joseph <kenc at cse.iitb.ernet.in>
Institute Literary Secretary	 
Room #275, Hostel 4
IIT-Bombay
	 I used up all my sick days, so I'm calling in dead.