Book 1: Learning to Fly

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 83331


Stephanie:
> > Is there a possibility that Neville's broom was hexed when he was
> > learning to fly?  There is some real similarity with the way
> > Neville's broom reacted and the way Harry broom reacted during 
> > the Q game.

Iggy McSnurd:
> Hmmm...
> Could be that Quirrel tried to figure out which broom was most 
likely to be
> used by Potter in the flying class, and hexed it.  When that didn't 
work, he
> determined that he would have to actually see the broom Harry was 
on to make
> sure he got the right one.  So he hit the broom Harry was on during 
the
> Quidditch match to try and avoid suspicion by being "lost in the 
crowd."
> 
> (Madame Hooch may tend to have a "seating chart" of where to line 
up by your
> brooms, and Quirrel tried to exploit that... But for some reason or 
another,
> the places got switched around from the alphabetical by something 
as simple
> as people gravitating towards friends they had already made.)


Geoff:
I would tend to take an opposite view. I think that for Quirrell to 
be able to hex a specific broom would be very difficult. The students 
had already arrived before Madam Hooch and unless they had positions 
marked in some way would tend to stay with friends etc.

Also, there seems to be a difference in the way the brooms' reactions 
are described.

"But Neville, nervous and jumpy and frightened of being left on the 
ground, pushed off hard before the whistle... Neville was rising 
straight up like a cork shot out of a bottle - twelve feet - twenty 
feet. Harry saw his scared white face look down at the ground falling 
away, saw him gasp, slip sideways off the broom and  - WHAM.... His 
broomstick was till rising higher and higher and started to drift 
lazily towards the Forbidden Forest....." (UK edition pp.109/10)

"His broom gave a sudden, frightening lurch. For a split second, he 
thought he was going to fall.... He'd never felt anything like that. 
It happened again. It was as thought the broom was trying to buck him 
off. But Nimbus Two Thousands did not suddenly decide to buck their 
ridrs off. Harry tried to turn back towards the Gryffindor 
goalposts...... and then he realised that his broom was completely 
out of his control. He couldn't turn it. He couldn't direct it at 
all. It was zig-zagging through the air and every now and then making 
violent swishing movements which almost unseated him." (ditto p.139)

To me, these are different. Neville kicked off too hard, fell off and 
the broom continued on the same trajectory having no further 
instructions. I iamgine it's a bit like falling out of a dinghy and 
it drifts in the direction you push it as you fall.Harry's broom 
seemed to be quite intent on unseating him and was obviously 
responding to external directions (i.e. Prof.Q) and refusing to 
respond to it's rider's control.

Geoff