[HPforGrownups] Quidditch reserves (again!) (Was Re: Harry's importance and threats of expulsion

[Silver Stag]

No: HPFGUIDX 57334


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "errolowl"
Troels, I find it hard to believe that Wood played one player short. Where's
the canon for that?

SS 302:
"You missed the last Quidditch match, we were steamrollered by  Ravenclaw
without you"

Now, Ron says without *Harry* - not without a seeker. I assume someone else
played seeker, probably whoever had that position before Harry if that
person was still around. It makes no sense to play one player short,
especially the seeker position, cause then Griffindor could never finish the
match. They would never win even if they compiled a huge goal difference
since they would be totally at the
mercy of the other team to close the match.

Actually...
CoS 108, I believe...definitely ch. 7.  The team's just been roused by Wood
at the crack of dawn and they're in the locker room.
    "Harry shifted guiltily in his seat. He had been unconscious in the
hospital wing for the final match of the previous year, meaning that
Gryffindor had been a player short and had suffered their worst defeat in
three hundred years."

There's also the passage in Sorcerer's Stone, Ch. 13, I think, just after
they find out Snape's refereeing.

    "Don't play," said Hermione at once.

    "Say you're ill," said Ron.

    "Pretend to break your leg," Hermione suggested.

    "Really break your leg," said Ron.

    "I can't," said Harry. "There isn't a reserve Seeker. If I back out,
Gryffindor can't play at all."

I believe Harry'd know if there was a reserve seeker.  However, that still
leaves the question of why there wasn't a reserve seeker, and how literally
we're to take the last part of that quote "if I back out, Gryffindor can't
play at all."  Apparently, they did play later that year, just one short.
Betty