[HPforGrownups][OOP] Quidditch Reserves (was Re: Harry's importance and threats

[darrin_burnett]

No: HPFGUIDX 57285

Lynn:
 
> I agree that if reserves were the norm, than Wood
> did let the team down.  But, do we know that all
> the teams have reserves?  If they did, why was
> Slytherin allowed not to play it's first game
> against Gryffindor in PoA because of Malfoy's
> injury?  If there were reserves for the teams,
> the reserve should have been able to step in.  Of
> course, that would have lost the dramatic
> Quidditch finale between Gryffindor and Slytherin
> for the Cup.  Still, is that an indication that
> the teams don't field reserves?  Yet, Lee Jordan
> tells us that Katie Bell was a find of Wood's,
> had been a reserve and moved up.  So, perhaps
> Wood did look for reserves but there just weren't
> any available.  You can't make people play and
> maybe there was no one who wanted to play
> Quidditch or wanted to play those positions where
> there weren't reserves.
> 
> 

The Quidditch Through the Ages book clearly states that only the Seeker can 
catch the snitch. It's a penalty for any other player to catch it.

So, someone would have had to have been designated Seeker, otherwise 
Gryffindor's only chance would have been to get so far ahead that Ravenclaw 
catches the Snitch just to end the humiliation.  (Obviously, more than 150 
points ahead.)

Keep in mind two more things. 1) Gryffindor, prior to Harry's arrival, wasn't 
very good as a Quidditch team for several years, which means they might not 
have gotten a lot of people wanting to play.  2) Harry's ascension to Seeker 
might have annoyed enough people who just decided "Screw this." 

(That's not Harry's fault, by the way, in case some of the Harry-haters want to 
make it so.)

Darrin
-- No band names here. Someone help.