Saturday 5th
October
Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. We got to watch our
first Quidditch practice. Apparently, students don’t usually get to watch their
team’s Quidditch practice, but Professor Snape managed to convince the
Slytherin Quidditch team captain, Marcus Flint, to let us First-Years watch.
At first, I was
totally lost, so I had Jed explain to me the rules of the game. To start with
the pitch was a huge rectangular field – similar to that of Muggle football or
rugby. On either side of the field were three huge rings. The tallest one stood
in the middle, with a shorter, smaller one on either side. These, Jed explained
were the goals. Before the practice started, Marcus brought a rather large,
rectangular box near where we were, sat at the bottom on the stadium stands. As
he flicked the crate open, I stretched my head up, trying to see over Priscilla’s
head at what was inside. Leaning over the box, Marcus pulled out a large, red
ball – about the size of a football. “That’s the Quaffle,” Jed told me, as
Marcus handed the ball over to another member of the team, named Adrian. “The
main point of the game is that three players on each team, called Chasers, have
t’ try and pass the Quaffle to each other ‘n’ get it into one of the goals
without lettin’ the other team get it. It’s ten points for ever goal scored.”
That seemed easy enough. “Then there’s the Keeper (ours is Miles Bletchley –
he’s in the same year as my cousin) who has to defend the team’s goal posts, so
that the other team don’t score.” It sounds kind of similar to basketball, just
without the bouncing. With the Quaffle ball now in Adrian’s hands, he and Jed’s
cousin Vince got on their broomsticks and flew further down the field. I
watched as they threw the Quaffle ball back and forth to each other.
The next thing to come
out of the box were two black baseball bats. “Those are for the Beaters,” Jed
said as they were passed to two Sixth-Years, Graham Montague and Chris
Warrington. They both looked huge. Their faces were so chubby that you couldn’t
see their necks. A nest of dark brown hair sat on top of both of their heads. A
shudder crept down my back as gazed at their stern, thug-like expressions. They
definitely weren’t two people that you would ever want to have to cross. I
guess in a way they almost looked like the older versions of Crabbe and Goyle:
dopey, yet tough. “Their job,” Jed explained, “is to beat the Bludgers away
from our team an’ to hit ‘em towards the other team.” At first, I frowned at
Jed, but leaning over to see the next balls that were about to be released, I
could kind of tell what he meant. Two brown, leather-looking straps (one horizontal
and one vertical) appeared to lock two down a black vibrating ball. There were
two of them; one on the left of the box and on one the right. The second that
Marcus freed them from their strapping, the Bludgers zoomed up and into the
air. Graham and Chris kicked off the ground and shot into the air and began
chasing around after the two black, baseball looking balls.
“The last ball… is
probably the most important of ‘em all,” Jed said to me, as Marcus bent over
the crate once more. “It’s the Golden Snitch.” As soon as Jed said this, a
small, golden ball, about the size of a golf ball shot into the air. It hovered
for a while near Marcus’ head. While it did, I noticed that the golden ball
actually had tiny wings fluttering either side of it. “The Seeker has t’ try
an’ catch it.” Our Seeker is a Third-Year named Terence Higgs. “Once he does,”
Jed went on. “The game’s over. But it’s almost impossible to catch ‘cause it
moves so quickly.” Exactly as Jed said this, the Golden Snitch zipped off
towards the other end of the pitch. It was so small that I lost sight of it in
an instant. “The most important thing for the Seeker though is to keep score,”
Jed was telling me, as Terence mounted his broomstick as hurtled towards the
other side of the field. “‘Cause grabbing the Golden Snitch is a
hundred-an’-fifty points, but if the other team has a hundred-an’-sixty-points,
but your team doesn’t ‘ave any an’ you catch it, you’ve j’st made your team
lose.”
The game sounds very
interesting. It was kind of hard to get into though, just by watching the
practice. Jed explained to me how Quidditch is a really fast paced, dangerous
sport, with players zooming by on their brooms and Bludgers flying everywhere.
Even the Golden Snitch can fly anywhere it wants and that includes the space
underneath the stands. The stands, I guess, are kind of like wooden planks that
you sit on, like where the audience is at a football or baseball game. The
first of the wooden planks is closest to the field. The second one is
positioned a little behind and is raised a little, so the people in the second
row can see comfortably over the heads of the people in front. Each row goes up
slowly higher and higher. Between each row is just an empty space, so if you
were to look underneath (which I did), you just see the rest of the grass.
It turns out that
Marcus is our team’s third Chaser. He started off giving the team orders. The
main focus seemed to be on Marcus, Vince and Adrian trying to score goals past
Miles. I think Miles did really well to defend as many as he did. It has got to
be a lot harder than what the goalkeeper in football does. Miles has to leap to
the sides, trying to stop the Quaffle from entering one of the team’s three
goals, whilst staying on his broomstick. The goals have to be nearly fifty feet
in the air. Now that is some impressive flying. Now I see what all the fuss
with flying is about. If you can fly well enough, you could get to play on a
Quidditch team. That seems pretty amazing.
I guess Quidditch is
kind of a cross between Muggle football, basketball and baseball. It was so
exciting to watch. I can’t wait until next month when the first match starts,
so that I can see what an actual game looks like. I’ve heard that it’s so
interesting that the entire school, even all of the teachers, come to watch. I
really can’t wait.
- Josie -
