Fred & George (at the Quidditch world cup)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 171575

Alan wrote:
>
> Hi all, I'm a newbie here, so forgive me if this question has
already been answered. I have read HP&GOF several times, and I still
can't find the answer. I wanted to know how Fred & George were able to
make such an unlikely bet against Ludo Bagman before the Quidditch
world cup final.... and win. Do the twins have access to time turners,
or did they just get lucky when they made their 'prediction'. Maybe I
have a page missing from my book, maybe I just missed something, or 
maybe we will find out in book 7? <snip>

Carol responds:

This question has been discussed before, naturally. You could probably
find the posts using Advanced Search if you're sufficiently
interested. However, the simplest answer is what we hear in the
discussion between Charlie and the Twins before the QWC: Krum is the
best *Seeker* in the world but the Irish have the best *team* in the
world. Put those two together and you have the unlikely but not
impossible combination of Ireland (the best team) winning the match
but Krum (the best Seeker) catching the Snitch. (If catching the
Snitch always meant winning the game, why bother to have Chasers and a
Keeper? All you would need is a Seeker on each team and a Beater or
two raining Bludgers at him. Boring!) 

Fred and George are clever enough to figure out that Krum will catch
the Snitch, losing the game on his own terms rather than allowing
Aidan Lynch to catch it, which would result in Krum's team being
slaughtered by, say, 310 to 10 (which would have been the score if
Lynch rather than Krum had caught the Snitch at that particular
point). As it is, the score is 160 to 150, a respectable point
difference. I think the Twins understand Krum and his psychology a lot
better than the not-very-clever Ludo Bagman does.

Carol, who thinks the Twins were, erm, right on the money with their
inspired guess and did not require a Time Turner or Divination to
predict the likely outcome