The Rogue Bludger - not the B.M.O.C.'s fault

[Mike]

No: HPFGUIDX 189198



> > Ceridwen's questions:
> > 3.  Harry, Fred and George all recognize that the rogue Bludger is attacking Harry.  Couldn't anyone else on the field see that?  Or is it that the game matters more than any individual thing going on?

> Potioncat:
> I don't get it either--you'd think Hooch would stop the game, or
> that McGonagall would do something. Snape took care of the jinxed
> broom, why not the rogue Bludger?

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Bludger Manufacturing & Operational Company (BMOC)

It has been quite some time since we received any inquiries about our bludgers, and interestingly enough this one comes from the same young witch that asked the last one:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/164012

We at BMOC would like to assure the wizarding public that our bludgers are not ever trained to go after only one player. Yes, we know that is was eventually discovered by a few wizards that this particular bludger was tampered with, but it seems the general public was never made aware that there was even a rogue bludger in this particular match.

As to your question, the problem with spotting a rogue bludger from afar is that we train our bludgers to fly erratically in the first place. So if you aren't the person being chased, or one of the beaters fending off our little darlings, you wouldn't notice that this particular bludger keeps come back at the same person. 

Referees are trained to spot a bludger that is acting erratically, well... more eratically than usual. But there is so much going on during a match that often a wiley bludger can fool even the best referees. And yes, about 1 in a hundred produced can be considered wiley, by bludger standards that is. We usually save those for international competition.

In one international match between Romania and Transylvania United, someone enchanted one of the bludgers to bite the necks of any player not wearing a Wolfsbane necklace, which all of the Transylvanian players just happen to be wearing that day. The inquiry after that match was a bugbear. It didn't help that our man at the inquiry, Mr. Gar Goyle, kept laughing at every penseive scene that was replayed, I can tell you.

Oh, sorry, I digress. At any rate, the rogue bludger from this particular Hogwarts match never flew again. As most of you know, the Quiddich season was cancelled after that match, and Hogwarts always gets a new set of Quidditch balls for each new season. We can't say what ever happened to that particular bludger, for all we know it's still out there trying to find the same young man to knock off of his broom.

One more thing, bludgers only attack people on brooms. The referees have a secret talisman that protects, and don't ask me what that is, we don't let that out, for obvious reasons. But that is why they wouldn't attack during a time-out. Of course that has nothing to do with them not wanting to go back into their storage box. Would you?

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~Mike, wondering if Gar Goyle still has a job at BMOC?