Does JKR dislike writing about Quidditch matches? (long)

[vmonte]

No: HPFGUIDX 132133

Nathaniel wrote:
Throughout the five books JKR takes great pains to describe in
excruciating detail every moment of the Quidditch matches -- as long
as Harry is playing. It seems to be a decision that Jo made early
and then soon regretted. Throughout the books she seems to take
great pains in order to keep Harry from actually participating in
these Quidditch matches.

vmonte responds:
I like what another poster on this site wrote about the Quidditch 
matches. I'm adding her post below:

Vivian
______________________________________________
Debbie wrote:
A couple of caveats: The citations are a bit thin, since I began 
writing it without access to the books. The primary references are: 
PS/SS Slytherin match (ch. 11); Hufflepuff match (ch. 13); CoS 
Slytherin match (ch. 10); PoA Hufflepuff match (ch. 9); PoA Ravenclaw 
match (ch. 13); PoA Slytherin match (ch. 15); QWC (GoF ch. 8). Oliver 
Wood's initial description of Quidditch is in PS/SS ch. 10.

Second caveat: I know nothing about literature or literary analysis. 
I even had to look up "metaphor" in the dictionary. Everything herein 
is, therefore, just an observation.

THE QUIDDITCH METAPHOR: THE ROLE OF QUIDDITCH IN HP

What is the function of Quidditch in the books?. JKR has said she 
included Quidditch in the books "because sport is such an important 
part of life at school (Scholastic, Oct. 2000). And so it is. The 
inter-House sports rivalries help set the boarding-school stage and 
make the atmosphere seem believable. Quidditch also provides a 
setting for significant plot developments, such as Quirrell's attempt 
to kill Harry by unseating him from his broom in PS/SS and the 
appearance of the Dementors in PoA. But it's just a game. Quidditch 
and the quest for the Quidditch cup often seem to me to be a 
diversion from the more important things going on in the series.

On reflection, however, I think there's a lot more to Quidditch than 
that. I think JKR has used Quidditch as a metaphor for the struggle 
against Voldemort and the players' roles in the fight; moreover, the 
Quidditch sequences appear to foreshadow subsequent events. When you 
think about it, sport seems an obvious choice for a metaphor. A game 
or sporting competition *is* an armed conflict of a sort. In fact, 
here in the US football players are frequently referred to 
as "weekend warriors." What is significant here, I think, is how 
carefully JKR appears to have modeled each position and chosen who 
will play each position to mirror their personalities and/or their 
possible role in the coming war, and how she has choreographed the 
matches themselves to foreshadow what happens in the
Voldemort struggle.

SEEKER

This position presents, I think, the most obvious parallel. The 
Seeker is the most important player on the team. If the Seeker 
succeeds in catching the Snitch, he/she garners 150 points for the 
team, vs. only 10 points per goal scored by a Chaser. In addition, 
because catching the Snitch ends the match, a truly superior Seeker, 
such as Harry or Viktor Krum, can control when the game ends by 
choosing whether to go after the Snitch himself or to prevent the 
opposing Seeker from catching it. It's very rare for a team to win if 
its Seeker does not catch the Snitch. Oliver Wood sounds like a 
hyperzealous fanatic when he tells Harry before the CoS Slytherin 
match, "Get to that Snitch before Malfoy or die trying, Harry, 
because we've got to win today, we've got to." But he's right: If 
Gryffindor is to have a chance of winning, Harry had better catch the
Snitch. Without Harry, Gryffindor was "steamrollered" by Ravenclaw 
(PS/SS ch. 17), for their "worst defeat in 300 years" (though this 
last sounds like hyperbole). The QWC is an anomaly in this respect 
(as I discuss further below).

The best Seekers are also extraordinary athletes. Harry is the first 
first-year Seeker in a century. Harry has a tremendous gift for 
Quidditch, but many of the same skills that make him a success at 
Quidditch - keen observatory skills, the ability to act quickly, 
physical bravery, and resourcefulness under pressure - are the same 
skills that allow him to succeed against Voldemort. They also set
him apart from the rest of the Quidditch team and from the other 
students. Though Harry yearns for normality - to be just one of the 
students who can go enjoy weekend trips to Hogsmeade - he is *not* 
normal. Harry is special, whether by his extraordinary talent or 
merely because he is marked for death by Voldemort. It does not 
matter how much he wants to be a normal teenager. He will be targeted 
and pursued by Voldemort and therefore will likely be a pivotal
figure in that struggle. His only choice is whether to use his gifts 
and for what purpose. He accepted the opportunity to play Quidditch 
as a first-year (the first in a century) after being plucked out of 
the crowd, and he accepts the opportunity to fight against Voldemort 
despite great personal risk.

Moreover, Seeker is the most dangerous position of all. Seekers are 
the players that are most at risk of being "clobbered by the other 
team", at least according to Seamus (PS/SS ch. 11), even without 
Dobby's assistance. Harry has an extraordinary ability to sidestep 
the Bludgers sent his way on the Quidditch field, as well as the 
metaphorical Bludgers he encounters - Quirrelmort, the basilisk, 
Voldemort in the graveyard. He gets help, of course, but in the end 
he does it by himself.

This leads to the next Seeker parallel. The role of a Quidditch 
Seeker on the team is solitary. Teammates provide support - i.e., 
Beaters may assist in removing obstacles that may impede the Seeker's 
search for the Snitch, and the Chasers and Keeper help keep the team 
in the game by scoring goals and preventing the opponents from 
scoring. But a Seeker doesn't really interact with the team during 
play. The Seeker must find and catch the Snitch by himself, just as 
Harry must face Voldemort alone. So far in the series, of course, 
though he has had a great deal of help getting there, Harry has faced 
down each Voldemort threat (Quirrelmort, Diary!Riddle and the 
graveyard) by himself.

But despite being such a solitary role, the best Seeker is a team 
player. The Seeker should be fully aware of the progress of the game, 
because catching the Snitch when the team is too far behind will cost 
the team a victory. Harry exemplifies all of these qualities on and 
off the Quidditch pitch - he may dream of glory, as he does after the 
QWC, but he is a true team player. In the PoA Ravenclaw match, Harry 
sees the Snitch but deliberately avoids catching it, choosing instead 
to divert Cho's attention because Gryffindor was down by more than 
150 points. Compare this to Viktor Krum's decision to end the QWC on 
his
own terms, even though he seals Bulgaria's loss to Ireland. This 
preserved his own status as the most brilliant Seeker, and though it 
could be interpreted as sparing his team the ignominy of a worse 
defeat, he snatched any hope Bulgaria might have had of pulling off a 
stunning comeback. I don't think Harry would ever do that - in my 
mind, he would always give his team a chance for victory, even though 
things might seem hopeless.

As an example, in PS/SS Harry is able to get the Stone because he 
doesn't want it for himself. He recognizes immediately that the issue 
is greater than the Stone itself. In countering Hermione's argument 
that he should not go through the trapdoor because he might be 
expelled, Harry states, "Don't you understand? If Snape gets hold of 
the Stone, Voldemort's coming back! There won't be any Hogwarts to 
get expelled from! . . . . Losing points doesn't matter anymore. 
D'you think he'll leave you and your families alone if Gryffindor 
wins the House Cup?" (PS/SS ch. 16). He's not avenging the death of 
his parents, and he's not doing it for the glory. Unlike Krum, Harry 
won't catch the Snitch, or face down Voldemort, just to get glory for 
himself.

BEATERS

The Beaters' job, in one sentence, is to create chaos. During a 
match, the Beaters disrupt their opponents but have no offensive 
role. (QttA states that there is no indication that Beaters have ever 
handled the Quaffle.) The Beaters guard their teammates from the 
Bludgers and, as Oliver Wood points out, they also "try and knock 
them toward the other team." They are the only players that
carry implements - and the clubs are themselves weapons. In essence, 
the Beaters to act as rogues to protect their team: they're 
*supposed* to aim Bludgers(which, as they're 10-inch iron balls, more 
resemble weapons more than implements of sport) at their opponents, 
and if the opponents are hurt, well, that's just a part of the game.


Beaters also seem to have a penchant for rulebreaking. The only non-
Beaters we ever see drawing penalties are Slytherins (which seems to 
fit with the characteristic that they will "do anything to achieve 
their ends"). Some examples:

* In the PS/SS match against Hufflepuff (after Wood specifically told 
the team to play clean because Snape was refereeing) George cost 
Gryffindor a penalty because he aimed a Bludger at Snape, who was 
refereeing - and in a match that only lasted 5 minutes!

* In the PoA match against Slytherin, Fred responds to an attack on 
Angelina by Marcus Flint by intentionally hitting Flint on the head 
with his club. Flint's violation earned Gryffindor a penalty shot, 
but Fred's violation offset it, as Slytherin got a penalty shot as 
well. Fortunately for him, Wood made a fabulous save, while Angelina 
was able to score on her penalty shot. Nevertheless, that kind of 
lawlessness can get the team in trouble. And the Slytherin Beaters go 
directly after Harry with their clubs after Harry has successfully 
avoided both their bludgers. Fortunately, Harry avoids them as well.

* At the QWC, the Bulgarian Beaters, Volkov and Vulchanov (whose 
names recall the iron Bludgers themselves), "seemed not to care 
whether their clubs made contact with Bludger or human as they swung 
them violently through the air." On the other hand, though the 
Beaters on both sides "were acting without mercy" only the Bulgarian 
Beaters are seen to break the rules; the Irish Beater Quigley is seen 
making a clean swing of his bat and hitting the Bludger in the 
direction of Krum, who was the chief threat to the Irish team.

* One other Beater deserves mention here. And though we only know 
Ludo Bagman from his behavior off the Quidditch pitch, he's not 
exactly shown to be a model of law-abiding behavior, either. It's not 
just that he's a gambler; it's that he welches on his bets.

The Beaters we know best are the Twins, whose position as Beaters 
appears to be typecasting in the extreme. In describing the Beaters' 
jobs, Wood states that the Twins are "like a pair of human Bludgers 
themselves." And off the pitch, they repeatedly prove Wood right, for 
example, by aggressively dealing with Harry's antagonizers Dudley 
(Ton-Tongue Toffee) and Draco (the Train Stomp Incident). But like 
clubbing the Slytherins on the head, those actions have been viewed 
by some readers as excessive, even though Harry defends the Twins 
when they get in trouble after the Ton-Tongue Toffee incident, 
showing that he appreciates their support and efforts.

The Twins give Harry positive support, too, the most notable example 
being giving Harry the Marauder's Map so he could visit Hogsmeade 
illegally. Nevertheless, though this was a magnanimous gesture, to 
date the Map has done little to help Harry except to aid him in 
mischief-making. In PoA Harry uses it only to get to Hogsmeade, and 
in GoF he uses it only to bathe in the Prefect's Bathroom. On the 
other hand, Crouch/Moody used it effectively to find and kill
his father, and Lupin's use of it in PoA led to Pettigrew's escape. 
On balance, then, the Twins' greatest gift to Harry has already 
caused as much harm as good.


Could the Twins' actions as Beaters foreshadow their role in the 
struggle? Will their rulebreaking (or their joke shop products) be 
used for the benefit of the dark side? If so, perhaps Gryffindor's 
ability to win despite their occasional fouls foreshadows Harry's 
eventual victory over Voldemort notwithstanding any trouble the Twins 
might cause.

CHASERS

We don't see much of any Chasers outside the context of the Quidditch 
matches themselves, but it seems to me that Chasers represent the 
importance of teamwork, support and loyalty. The Chasers on each 
team, by working together, will keep their team in the game and give 
their Seeker the opportunity to seize victory by catching the Snitch. 
In the usual case, the collective contributions of the Chasers are 
essential to victory. The work of the best Chasers (the team of Troy, 
Mullet and Moran at the QWC, who "work together as a seamless unit") 
is enough to win the QWC despite the fact that their Seeker was 
outmatched and concussed, but this appears to have been an anomaly - 
certainly Bagman was surprised by it.

The only match in which the Chasers' match did not appear to make a 
difference was the PS/SS match against Hufflepuff in which Harry was 
able to see and grab the Snitch in the first five minutes. But this 
was also an anomaly; the Snitch is normally elusive and out of sight. 
The Seeker depends on the support of his/her teammates to keep the 
match close until the Snitch can be found. This was Krum's problem: 
his Chasers were unable to keep the game close enough for him. The 
Chasers, however, cannot seal a victory; only the Seeker can do that. 
The Chasers' excellent teamwork can only contribute in two ways: by 
keeping their team in the game, and, in the intra-House championship, 
to supply enough points so that their team will win the House Cup in 
the event of a tie in the standings (as happens in PoA).

There are numerous off-pitch "Chasers" that support Harry in each 
showdown, and in each case, though Harry must face each final 
challenge alone, he could not succeed without their support, in the 
same way that Harry cannot ordinarily win a Quidditch match without 
his teammates. To briefly recap, Harry needs the assistance of 
Hermione and Ron to negotiate the obstacles protecting the 
Philosopher's Stone; he needs the information Hermione provides as 
well as hints from Dumbledore and Hagrid to find and kill the 
basilisk; he needs more hints from Dumbledore as well as Lupin's 
Patronus lessons and Hermione's Time-Turner to rescue Sirius and 
Buckbeak; and he needs all the spells Hermione can teach him in the 
Triwizard Tournament, plus the help of his shadow parents and Fawkes 
in the graveyard. And I'm sure there are others that I've missed. 
Though this list illustrates that Harry gets help from many sources, 
the most constant support comes from Hermione, who provides critical 
help in each book and who is always chasing down information that 
Harry will need later -Nicholas Flamel, the basilisk, spells Harry 
will need in the Triwizard Tournament. It's perhaps not at all 
accidental that the Gryffindor chasers (and the Irish chasers) are all
female.

KEEPER

This position is the most enigmatic to date. We've seen very little 
of the Keeper during matches. Moreover, Oliver Wood as a character 
seems mostly intended as a humorous take on the fanatical coach whose 
sole focus in life is winning at all costs. Wood's lack of any 
significant future role in the books seems to be confirmed by his 
current job as reserve Keeper for a professional Quidditch team.

But we do know this: a Keeper is the last line of defense for the 
team against goal-scoring. Like the Chasers, the Keeper's role is to 
keep the team in the game. Lee Jordan described Wood's spectacular 
grab of a Slytherin penalty shot in PoA, appropriately, as a "save." 
Also, though we have not seen this happen so far in the series, I 
expect that a Keeper that is truly worth his salt would, when given a 
choice between being smacked by a Bludger and allowing the Quaffle to 
go through the goalposts, choose to make the save. Thus, the Keeper's 
role can be seen as sacrificial - taking one for the team, as it were.

If the Keeper is likely to be called upon to sacrifice to the cause 
of the team, then the selection of the next Keeper may foreshadow 
that character's role in the war ahead. Perhaps the new Keeper - 
whoever it is - will be put in a situation at some point in the 
series where he/she will be called upon to choose whether to save 
himself (or herself) or to sacrifice to allow Harry to continue the 
quest to defeat Voldemort.

Ron is often suggested as a candidate for sacrifice, based on his 
chess sacrifice in PS/SS. Funny, though, I never thought of him as a 
Quidditch player. I tend to think his development as a character 
would be better served by his *not* joining the Quidditch team, as it 
seems too easy a solution for his jealousy and need for attention, 
which has been carefully developed through the first four books. So, 
IMO, the field is wide open for this position.

CAPTAIN

Through the first three books, Oliver Wood was, in addition to 
Keeper, also the team captain and its chief strategist. It was his 
decision to keep Harry as the secret weapon in PS/SS, and his 
decision that Harry should stay far away from the action at his first 
match until he actually sees the Snitch. Wood was the one who 
continually reminded Harry that in the final PoA match against 
Slytherin he should not catch the Snitch unless Gryffindor was more 
than 50 points ahead. The Keeper position and the coach's job will 
not necessarily continue to be occupied by the same person, but the 
team will continue to need good coaching skills.

As I see it, the primary coach of the "light" team that will fight 
Voldemort - of whom the nucleus would appear to be the "old crowd" 
mentioned at the end of GoF - has been Dumbledore himself. (Harry 
does have other mentors, such as Sirius and Lupin, but they don't 
give advice consistently in each book.) Though Dumbledore is never 
present at the climax of any book in the series, in each case Harry 
relies on advice Dumbledore has provided to him: in PS/SS Harry's 
understanding of the Mirror of Erised is of critical importance; in 
CoS, after Dumbledore gives a pointed hint in Hagrid's hut, Harry 
invokes his loyalty to Dumbledore in the chamber and is rewarded with 
Fawkes and the Sorting Hat bearing Godric Gryffindor's sword, which 
are the tools he needs to defeat the basilisk; in PoA, Dumbledore 
coaches Harry and Hermione on their mission to rescue Sirius and 
Buckbeak; and in GoF, he associates a critical piece of advice in the 
graveyard ("Don't break the connection") with Dumbledore.

It has been speculated that Dumbledore will die or otherwise be taken 
out of the picture in the next book or two in order to allow Harry to 
shoulder all responsibility for himself and complete his hero's 
journey. There is some sense of that already in GoF, in which Harry 
does not rely on specific advice from Dumbledore but instead only 
imagines that Dumbledore is telling him not to break the connection. 
The way in which this passage is written suggests to me that Harry 
finds that advice within himself.

What does the hero's journey have to do with Quidditch? Well, if 
Harry is on a hero's journey, and Dumbledore is the counsellor and 
metaphorical team captain who will at some point leave the scene to 
allow the hero to reach full maturity, and if my premise that 
Quidditch mirrors in some respect what happens in the Voldemort wars 
is correct, then Harry must be named captain of the Quidditch
team. Perhaps this will happen in OoP, or perhaps one of the seventh-
years will take on that role for a year (as I suggest above with 
respect to the Beaters and Chasers, choosing a Twin or a Chaser might 
be very significant for the action in OoP), leaving Harry another 
year to prepare to shoulder the burden himself. But I think it will 
happen at some point, if JKR is indeed drawing the parallels I'm
suggesting.

THE BROOMS

There can be no getting around it: Harry has the best equipment money 
can buy. In PS/SS he gets a top-of-the-line Nimbus 2000 and then, 
when it is shattered in PoA, he gets a Firebolt, the best broom in 
the world. Most of Harry's competition is playing with inferior 
equipment. Cho, for example, rides a Comet Two Sixty, which "is going 
to look like a joke next to the Firebolt," according to Wood, and the 
description of the Ravenclaw match makes clear that Cho's broom can't 
keep up with Harry's, though Harry acknowledges her flying skills. 
The Slytherins, of course, have Nimbus 2001s, which provided them 
with a momentary advantage over Harry until he acquired the Firebolt. 
But Draco, too focused on his own glory to concentrate on the task at 
hand, cannot put his advantage to good use and cannot catch the 
Snitch even though it hovers by his own ear. The conclusion: Harry 
has the skills to win without the best equipment. (In the PoA match 
against Slytherin, where Harry needs the speed of his Firebolt to 
catch up to Draco to get the Snitch, the reason he needs the power is 
telling - he had diverted his attention from looking for the Snitch 
to defend his teammate against an onslaught of Slytherins.)

THE MATCHES AS FORESHADOWING

The second illustration of how well Quidditch is woven into the 
fabric of the series is how the Quidditch matches in the books 
foreshadow that book's climax.

GoF

The QWC can be viewed as foreshadowing what happens in the graveyard. 
Ireland wins the QWC despite Krum's capture of the Snitch because its 
Chasers demonstrate exquisite skill and teamwork. I see Ireland as 
representing the "light" side and Bulgaria as the Dark Side -- 
suggested by the fact that its Seeker, Krum, attends Durmstrang, 
where students are taught the Dark Arts and not merely to defend 
against them. Krum's strategy is to take the Irish Seeker, Lynch, out 
of the game by using the Wronski Feint. I don't think it's accidental 
that JKR shows how bloodied both Seekers become, or that Lynch 
continues to play despite an apparent concussion, and manages to hang 
in there through the end. The sight of Lynch, dazed and confused, in 
the Top Box with the other members of his team, is symbolically 
important, as is the sight of Krum's bloody nose, indicating that he 
did not get through the match unscathed.

If you compare this to what happens in the graveyard, Voldemort, 
the "seeker" of power and immortality, achieves a great personal 
victory through his re-birthing. Voldemort's rebirthing appears to 
have been spectacularly successful, like Krum's capture of the 
Snitch. By the end of the graveyard scene, Harry has been Stunned, 
Imperio'd, and Crucio'd. Like Lynch, he is dazed and confused. But 
Voldemort does not succeed in taking Harry out of the game - he 
escapes before Voldemort can kill him.

Bulgaria should have such an advantage with the "unbelievable" Krum, 
but his supporting cast proves unable to provide the necessary 
support. Likewise, the team of DEs Voldemort assembles - who, he 
notes, have been disloyal and who are cowering in terror at the sight 
of Voldemort - does not appear to be up to the job. Voldemort, like 
Krum, wants the glory for himself and does not trust his supporting 
cast. So he takes on the job of killing Harry himself. But Harry's 
own supporting cast rises to the occasion: Fawkes (symbolically 
present, at a minimum, in the phoenix song Harry hears); his shadow 
parents, who give him the instructions he needs; Hermione, who is not 
present but who taught him to master the "Accio" charm through which 
Harry effects his escape via the Portkey, and certainly others who 
I've missed. On the other hand, when the terrified DEs are finally 
called into action as Harry dashes for the portkey, their spells 
cannot touch him, so Harry makes it back to Hogwarts. Though 
physically injured and emotionally wracked, he (like Aidan Lynch) 
will recover to fight another day.

PoA

Here the events of each Quidditch match foreshadow the events 
following the Shrieking Shack episode. In the first Quidditch match 
in PoA, against Hufflepuff, Harry succumbs to the power of the 
Dementors and passes out on his broomstick. Similarly, Harry1 is 
overcome by the Dementors and is unable to cast a Patronus as they 
surround him and Hermione (ch. 20). In the second match,
against Ravenclaw, Harry successfully casts the Patronus (even though 
the "Dementors" turn out not to have been real so they do not affect 
him). And later on, Harry2 (TimeTurnered!Harry) conjures a very 
powerful Patronus (but because he is across the lake, he is 
relatively unaffected by the Dementors this time) (ch. 21). In the 
third match, against Slytherin, Harry manages to beat Draco to the 
Snitch - despite constant foul play by the Slytherins - with Snape 
decked out in green and watching from the front row. Later, Harry and 
Hermione engineer the escape of Sirius and Buckbeak, thwarting 
Draco's attempts to have Buckbeak executed and Snape's satisfaction 
at seeing Sirius captured.

CoS

Here Harry's battle with the rogue bludger seems to parallel Harry's 
later battle with the Basilisk. Dobby, bless him, unwittingly 
prepares Harry for the encounter. In the Quidditch match, Harry 
elects to take on the rogue Bludger by himself, to allow Fred and 
George to concentrate on protecting the rest of the team from the 
other Bludger. He does this even though he has no idea if it will
do any good. But Harry outplays the Bludger, just as later on he 
outplays the Basilisk. The Bludger does manage to land a nasty blow 
on Harry's right arm, just above the elbow, as Harry grabs the 
Snitch. In the Chamber, the Basilisk bites Harry in the elbow -- 
almost exactly the same spot - just as Harry punches Godric's sword 
through the Basilisk and kills him (ch. 17). Both the Bludger and
the Basilisk produce exactly the same "searing pain" in Harry's 
elbow; in both instances, he needs outside help to recover.

PS/SS

I've left this for last, because the parallels do not seem to work as 
foreshadowing like the parallels in the later books do. The primary 
parallel I see in the first Quidditch match, against Slytherin, is 
that the Trio suspect Snape both of trying to kill Harry during the 
Quidditch match and of trying to get through the obstacles to reach 
the Stone. However, since Harry doesn't learn that Snape was 
protecting him instead of jinxing him at the Quidditch match until he 
faces Quirrelmort, the element of foreshadowing is lacking. There is 
some foreshadowing in the Hufflepuff match, where Harry's grab of the 
Snitch in record time foreshadows his ability later on to retrieve 
the Stone instantly from the Mirror when he realizes he needs to keep 
Quirrelmort from getting it (ch. 17). However, I find this parallel 
less satisfying than those in the later books.

Perhaps this is testimony to JKR's improvement as a writer as the 
series progresses, or to the fact that the plot of PS/SS is less 
complex than later plots.

THE FUTURE OF QUIDDITCH

It has been speculated that Quidditch might fade from the books as 
the series becomes darker and the serious threats facing the WW cause 
Quidditch to lose its power to thrill. I don't think this will 
happen. I believe that Quidditch is part of the structure underlying 
the books and it's unlikely that it will be scrapped. Harry's speech 
in PS/SS shows that he already knew at age 11 that winning the 
Quidditch cup isn't what really matters. Harry's lying when he tells
Quirrell he sees himself in the mirror with the Quidditch cup. JKR 
makes that point again when, in PoA, Harry learns in his first 
Patronus lesson with Lupin (PoA ch. 12) that memories of flying or 
winning the House cup are not strong enough to produce a Patronus. 
But that doesn't mean that it's not valuable for Harry to play 
Quidditch. Quidditch helps keep Harry's spirits up, it sharpens 
skills he will need later, and JKR does give him a wonderful - but 
temporary - moment of the euphoria that accompanies a championship. I 
think she has a lot more Quidditch planned, and it will continue to 
be important to Harry, to the plot, and to the structure of the 
series.

Debbie

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPfor...s/message/48192
__________________________________________________


My (vmonte) response to Debbie's problem with quidditch during SS/PS:
I believe that the quidditch in this book reflects what happened at 
Godric's Hollow. Debbie wrote about the ease of Harry catching the 
snitch above. Well, look at how baby Harry was able to defeat 
Voldemort at GH. (And it was really due to the fact that his mother 
had placed a spell on Harry to protect him.)

By the way, should we start thinking that Snape was at Godric's 
Hollow too? And what about Wormtail's role? Didn't Peter turn out to 
be as "two-faced" as Quirrell?! Peter and Quirrell were both 
perceived as being harmless, but in the end it turned out they were 
both working for the baddest guy of all.

If you go to JKR's website she says there that what happened at GH 
was originally included in SS/PS but she took it out. (Click on the 
coffee cup and then click on Edits: Opening chapter of Philosopher's 
Stone.)

Vivian