Chapter Thirty

[merrymelody]

Grawp -

This’ll be fun! Who doesn’t like Grawp?

(Am still behind a good five chapters. I’ll post them sooner or later, unless Mirabella/y’all would rather we keep moving in a more linear fashion?)

Comments

[romeo_ambiences]

either the Slytherin team rocks except for Malfoy...Or then there's the alternative--the Slytherin team is carried by Malfoy,

--I wonder if JKR even knows which is the truth. I wouldn't be surprised if she hasn't given this any consideration beyond making sure that Slytherin doesn't win the cup.

wouldn't the correct strategy there be to just keep Malfoy from grabbing the Snitch in hopes you'd get a few more points before you caught it?

--I think Quidditch would be much more entertaining if the seeker's role was limited more to ending the game. In other words, catching the snitch would not add so many points to the score and in many cases essentially "winning" the game but would merely end the game. Then the pursuit of the snitch would involve preventing the capture of the snitch by either player if your team was not in the lead.

That would probably increase the physicality of the game. And that brings up something else that bothers me. I think it was here in this community that I saw someone reference Draco being called a dirty player or a cheat during a match. Please correct me if I am wrong.
I can think of two possibilities. One way to "cheat" would be to doctor the equipment in some manner. (like corking or tarring a baseball bat) I think if this happened it would have been detailed.
The other is by fouling...colliding..."physical" entanglement.
Many people argue that Draco is a wimp, yet if he is playing in this manner that would suggest otherwise to me. (I so despise the scene in movie POA where Draco runs from super-Hermione...*pukes*)

What are the ways to cheat at Quidditch? Do I need to buy the Quidditch book?

I just want to be enlightened as to what exactly he was doing.

Is Draco's characterization consistent? It might be if looked at from the "use any means to get his way" angle.

If this post makes no sense, I'm going to use the many times my children have interrupted my thought process as I have attempted to write this. *grins*

[romeo_ambiences]

heh...use my children as an excuse. *shakes head*

[merrymelody]

Yes, the whole having the Seeker win so many points seems to negate the whole game. Why don't they just have a seeking competition and forget the rest of the players? Oh, well.

The fouling rules seem quite difficult.
I think JKR said there's over 700, so it appears to be something she can invent at will - someone sneezed? OMG FOUL!11 - which, naturally, is only applied to some characters.
I haven't read the book, but I'm sure it has extra information.
(Doing a search of 'foul' brings up Flint blocking Harry, which doesn't sound as if it should be one, considering how rough the game is supposedly; someone 'using their elbows excessively' which is apparently 'cobbing'; 'flying to collide'; and 'penalty' has: throwing a bludger at the commentator; throwing a bat at someone's head; holding onto someone's broom (this is the one you're referring to, I think, in PoA.
It prompts Hooch to say she's never seen such tactics, which seems kind of unlikely, or else how would it be a recognised foul, but whatever. Me, I'd be more horrified at someone throwing a bat, and would consider that far 'sour(er) grapes' but then, obviously my perspective is wiiiildy different from Harry's, or even JKR's! Which I already knew.)

[sistermagpie]

Basically, any defensive move other than stealing the ball without touching the other person seems to be considered a foul, probably because Gryffindor is always the one going for a goal and the Slytherins are always trying to stop them. I mean in a game where there are players whose whole job it is to smack hard balls at other players, why is blocking someone is a foul? (In fact, why should blocking be a foul ever in any game? It reminds me of that Odd Couple episode where they're playing basketball and Felix is like, "Put your hands down, I'm trying to shoot for the basket.") How is holding onto their broom is so shocking no one's ever seen it until a 13-year-old boy got the idea?

[merrymelody]

The blocking bit is hilarious, because it provokes, in all earnestness: "They oughta change the rules. Flint coulda knocked Harry outta the air." Like, don't worry about the rules that allow people to throw hard objects at other people's heads. Or a game in which people have broken their jaws, died, or gone missing for months. Harry could have gotten a hangnail!111 They should change the rules of a game that's apparently been going several centuries, now that someone so special is at risk!

Yeah, Madam Hooch sounds pretty easily shocked.
(As was McGonagall, just from skimming.)
All bets are in for what house she was in?
(Isn't that like the equivalent of going to a football match and saying 'OMG! The goalkeeper handled a backpass! I HAVE NEVER EVER SEEN SOMETHING QUITE SO SHOCKING!' Hee.)

[sistermagpie]

Yeah it's like, "They should change the rules. Flint coulda knocked Harry outta the air."

Um, yes, Hagrid. But isn't the point to knock people out of the air? Like with bludgers?

Personally, I think Ron should have been fouled in that last game. He kept knocking the ball away from the goal. How is that fair?

Mind you, I DO think it's reasonable to not want to get knocked out of the air. It just seems like a particularly stupid worry to have in this game when you went to the trouble of making that the point.

[merrymelody]

I always thought it was unfair that Harry caught the snitch in his mouth. And was allowed to knock his opponent's arm out of the way. I really wasn't meant for this series, was I?

I DO think it's reasonable to not want to get knocked out of the air.

I kind of lost all sympathy for Harry, (and indeed, all the Quidditch players) when he was all 'I'll risk dying rather than lose a GAME.'
To me, it's kind of the equivalent of saying 'Isn't this guy who played chicken with a lorry brave? He must really want to win! That's dedication!'

[romeo_ambiences]

Maybe I really need to read the Quidditch book because this sport seems rather odd to me. I almost feel as if JKR threw in seekers and snitches to distinguish this wizarding sport from muggle sports like soccer and basketball... As if flying on broomsticks while playing it just isn't unique enough.

So Draco commits a "holding" penalty or foul. *laughs* Holding just happens to be one of the most common infractions in football by *gasp* even professional players. Yep...that's quite the shocking tactic....er....NOT!

Again...it feels as if JKR is trying to force the reader to see Draco and the Slytherins as bad, but doing it in such a ridiculous manner that I have trouble taking it seriously. Are we actually supposed to believe that no one else has ever done anything similar? Can anyone honestly say they follow a sports team that never commits a foul or penalty?

Slytherin may be playing more aggressively and dirtier than the other teams....but I'm not shocked and I can't buy that Hooch is either.

[merrymelody]

Slytherin may be playing more aggressively and dirtier than the other teams...

That's the impression that's given.
It's just a shame that we're supposed to cheer when it's say, the Weasley twins or Wood trying to turn it a blood sport; and look horrified and clutch our pearls when it's anyone else.
(I like how in CoS, there's all this 'There could be Slytherin spies! Everywhere! Anywhere!' but it's kind of casually slipped in that actually, it's the twins who are spying on the other team's practice.)
Or that two of the players on the Slytherin team have been beaten up/hexed in the last season, but they're the ones who are conducting an evil campaign of Machiavellian tactics like...singing.
And that the rules seem to change depending on who's playing, so Hooch is shocked - SHOCKED, I tell you! ;) - at something which must be a registered foul and is, while completely unsporting, actually not very dangerous; but a bat in the head gets the fairly jaded 'That will do!'