CHAPTER DISCUSSION: Prisoner of Azkaban Chapter 13: Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 189991

> Pippin:
> No one in canon doubts that  Harry was in mortal peril when Quirrell was trying to knock him off his broom in PS/SS. But I think more experienced wizards with their wands and their  wits about them could probably save themselves from a fall. "Accio broom!" for example, or they could transfigure their landing spot into something soft, or they could use a levitation spell once they got close enough to the ground for it to work. 
> 
> But I think Wood was indulging in a bit of hyperbole, and didn't really expect Harry to knock Cho off her broom. I doubt that without hexing the broom or Cho herself it would be possible.  Quidditch players routinely accelerate and decelerate rapidly without safety belts and don't go flying off.  In fact Ginny drives her broom right through the speaker's podium in HBP and doesn't get knocked off in the collision. Harry doesn't even seem to have fallen off  when a bludger knocked him unconscious in the same book. I don't think under normal circumstances a  broom will let its rider fall off unless he deliberately lets go of it.
> 
> Pippin
>
Carol responds:

That may be true for an expensive broom like the two Harry owns, but not necessarily for the old school brooms that the kids use for flying lessons and presumably for Quidditch unless their parents provide a better one. We know of several other students besides Harry who are injured playing Quidditch (doesn't Oliver Wood mention being in the hospital wing on one occasion?), and Madam Hooch has a supply of Skele-gro on hand at all times.

As for a wizard saving himself from a fall off a broom, the younger students have a limited knowledge of spells (which may be one reason that they're not usually allowed to play Quidditch until at least second year, and even then they really don't know anything useful). I agree with Geoff that it would take time (and require taking one hand off the broom) to grab their wand and perform a spell, and "Accio broom!" would take so long as to be totally useless.

Even experienced players are injured in falls from brooms. Oliver's "Knock her off her broom if you have to" illustrates his fanaticism (and total lack of gentlemanly instincts). Had Harry followed his advice, he would have committed a foul--and Cho, though a fifth year with, I assume, a fair knowledge of protective spells, would probably have been seriously injured.

Carol, imagining that half the injuries that Madam Hooch deals with are Quidditch related