Special treatment - yes or no

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 146010

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "hickengruendler" 
<hickengruendler at y...> wrote:
>
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "a_svirn" <a_svirn at y...> 
wrote:
>  
> > a_svirn:
> > I beg to differ. The school rules are bended specially for Harry –
 
> > normally first years are not allowed to the team. Wood – surely 
an 
> > authority on the all things Quidditch – said that Harry is the 
> > youngest player in a century.  
> 
> Hickengruendler:
> 
> And that probably means, that there were Quidditch players as young 
as 
> Harry before, and that it therefore was not an exception 
specifically 
> done for him, but rather something that happens very, very seldom. 
> Anyway, Charlie and James might have been naturals in Quidditch as 
> well, but I don't think McGonagall saw them catching something that 
> resembles a snitch during their first flying lesson. Anyway, if I'm 
not 
> misremembering things, there is no school rule that first years 
aren't 
> allowed in the team. If there's a problem, than it is regarding the 
> broomstick and not regarding Harry becoming a member of the team.

Geoff:
That is how I interpret these pieces of canon:
'"He's just the build for a Seeker too," said Wood, now walking 
around Harry and staring at him. "Light - speedy - we'll have to get 
him a decent broom, Professor - a Nimbus Two Thousand or a Cleansweep 
Seven, I'd say."
"I shall speak to Professor Dumbledore and see if we can't bend the 
first-year rule..."
(PS "The Midnight Duel" p.113 UK edition)

'"Seeker?" he said. "But first-years never - you must be the youngest 
house player in about -"
"- a century," said Harry, shovelling pie into his mouth. He felt 
particularly hungry after the excitement of the afternoon. "Wood told 
me."'
(ibid.)

I think Ron here is on the point of saying that first-years are never 
selected. It is quite obvious from earlier exchanges between 
Professor McGonagall and Oliver Wood in the same chapter that it is 
quite in order to have a first-year on a team but that no one has 
shown the same aptitude for being a Seeker in recent years. The 
reference to bending the "first-year rule" is obviously meaning that 
regarding the ownership of a broom.