60 Fun Facts About Quidditch

How many players does each Quidditch team field?

Rowling gave the sport four distinct roles, and the real-life ground version keeps the same line-up.

How many points does a Chaser score by putting the Quaffle through a hoop?

Catching the Snitch is worth fifteen goals' worth of points, which is why critics call the scoring lopsided.

Catching the Golden Snitch ends the match and earns the Seeker's team how many points?

Rowling has said the scoring system particularly infuriates men, and one legal scholar called the sport "a really stupid game" because of it.

The Golden Snitch is described as being roughly the size of what?

It has wings and is enchanted to dart around the pitch while staying inside the boundaries.

Bludgers are round, jet-black balls made of what material?

They fly around violently trying to knock players off their brooms, and Beaters bat them away with short wooden clubs.

What colour is the Quaffle?

It is a leather ball passed between Chasers, and the goal-minder throws it back out to their own side after a save.

Where did J.K. Rowling say she came up with Quidditch?

She said she knew a society needed a sport that made people congregate and signified its character.

According to Rowling, how did she arrive at the word "Quidditch"?

She says it has no particular etymological root, though the word does turn up in old English place names meaning "mud-ditch".

Rowling once described writing Quidditch matches as what?

She said readers expected Harry to play, but there were only so many ways to make a match feel new.

The final Quidditch scene in the books features memorable commentary by which character?

Rowling said she wrote it with "fiendish glee" after years of dreading match scenes.

Quidditch appears in how many of the eight Harry Potter films?

Some subplots, such as Ron's own playing storyline, were cut for time.

Rowling's 2014 Pottermore Quidditch World Cup reports ended with a story about the final that featured what?

It was the first new writing about the characters since the series ended in 2007.

Which of these teams from the books is based in a fictional place, unlike the Bats, Falcons or Magpies?

For the 2020 illustrated Quidditch Through the Ages, banners were presented to 11 real UK and Irish towns that host teams in the books.

Which all-female professional team does Ginny Weasley join after Hogwarts, according to Rowling?

It is the only team in the sport made up solely of women; its 1953 win over the Heidelberg Harriers lasted a full week.

After her playing career, what job does Ginny take?

Her Daily Prophet coverage of the 2014 World Cup was written by Rowling and later voiced in the audiobook of Quidditch Through the Ages.

Harry becomes Gryffindor Seeker in his first year, described as the youngest in how long?

McGonagall spotted his flying and introduced him to captain Oliver Wood.

Which broom does McGonagall arrange for first-year Harry, by special consent of Dumbledore?

First-years are normally forbidden their own brooms.

Lucius Malfoy buys a full set of which brooms for the Slytherin team so they will pick Draco as Seeker?

It happens in Chamber of Secrets, one book after Harry got his own Nimbus.

Who sends Harry a Firebolt as an anonymous Christmas gift in Prisoner of Azkaban?

McGonagall confiscated it on suspicion it was jinxed before it was cleared.

What destroys Harry's first broom during the match invaded by Dementors?

Harry had fainted and fallen from a great height when the Dementors swarmed the pitch.

Outside of Quidditch, Harry uses his Firebolt to escape which creature during the Triwizard Tournament?

He summoned the broom with a Summoning Charm in the first task.

Oliver Wood, Gryffindor's captain when Harry joins the team, is how many years above him?

Sean Biggerstaff played him in the films.

Which Gryffindor Chaser later becomes team captain and eventually marries George Weasley?

She is two years above Harry and was played by Danielle Tabor and then Tiana Benjamin in the films.

Which Gryffindor student, best friend of Fred and George, is the Hogwarts match commentator?

Zacharias Smith takes over the microphone after him.

Who referees Hogwarts Quidditch matches and teaches first-years to fly?

Her first name is Rolanda.

Which house does Cho Chang play Seeker for?

She was also a member of Dumbledore's Army.

Cedric Diggory plays Seeker for which house?

He is a prefect two years above Harry and later a Triwizard champion.

In Chamber of Secrets, who jinxes the Bludger that breaks Harry's arm?

The house-elf was trying to get Harry sent home; Lockhart then botched the mending and Harry ended up in the hospital wing.

Why does Dolores Umbridge ban Harry and the Weasley twins from Gryffindor's team?

Ginny took over as Seeker in his absence.

Which position does Ron play when he joins the Gryffindor team?

Harry once boosted his nerves by pretending to slip him a luck potion before a match.

Which potion does Harry pretend to give Ron to boost his confidence before a match?

Harry had won a real vial of it in Slughorn's class and later used it to extract a memory.

Which Slytherin captain do Fred and George shove into a Vanishing Cabinet?

He was also a member of Umbridge's Inquisitorial Squad.

Ludo Bagman heads which Ministry of Magic department, which organises the Quidditch World Cup?

His gambling debts to goblins eventually forced him to flee.

Students of which wizarding school, the smallest of all, are noted for their skill at Quidditch?

Legend says the sport reached them when Hogwarts students flew off course.

Which country won the 1994 Quidditch World Cup final even though the opposing Seeker caught the Snitch?

Krum ended it with his side 160 points down, so they lost by just 10; the Dark Mark appeared in the sky that night for the first time in thirteen years.

Which star Seeker at the 1994 World Cup is Ron's favourite player and later a Triwizard champion?

Ron's admiration soured when Krum took Hermione to the Yule Ball.

Under what pseudonym did Rowling publish Quidditch Through the Ages in 2001?

The in-universe author lives in Nottinghamshire and follows the Wigtown Wanderers wherever they play.

Which charity receives more than 80% of the cover price of Quidditch Through the Ages?

Together with Fantastic Beasts it had raised over $30 million by 2008.

Which teacher confiscates Harry's library copy of Quidditch Through the Ages on a made-up rule?

He claimed library books were not allowed outside the school.

Which Walking Dead star narrated the 2018 audiobook of Quidditch Through the Ages?

The Audible edition adds Rowling's history of the World Cup and Daily Prophet coverage read in character as Ginny Potter and Rita Skeeter.

Per Quidditch Through the Ages, the sport is named after which place?

An 11th-century Saxon witch, Gertie Keddle, wrote the first account after a ball landed in her cabbage patch.

Which live bird did Barberus Bragge release into a match, leading to the Golden Snitch?

The species was later protected and banned from the game, prompting the invention of a mechanical replacement.

Which witch's ban on using a live bird in matches led directly to the invention of the Golden Snitch?

Bowman Wright of Godric's Hollow is credited with building the mechanical replacement.

Which witch is credited as the first person to fly across the Atlantic on a broom, in 1935?

Gladys Boothby is credited with inventing the Moontrimmer broom.

According to Rowling's history, the Quidditch World Cup has been held quadrennially since which year?

Only European teams competed for its first two centuries.

What happened at the 1809 Quidditch World Cup final after Niko Nenad hit a Bludger into a nearby forest?

Hours of fighting followed, and Nenad himself was killed early on by a violent spruce.

What is strange about the 1877 Quidditch World Cup?

Players woke up with unexplained injuries, including a Canadian Seeker whose knees were on backwards.

Under modern World Cup rules, matches are capped at how long to prevent player exhaustion?

The rulebook runs to nineteen volumes and includes a ban on introducing dragons into the stadium for any purpose.

Real-world Quidditch was invented in 2005 by two students at which school?

Xander Manshel and Alex Benepe drew up the rules on a Sunday afternoon; players run with a broom between their legs.

In 2022 the US governing bodies renamed the real-life sport what?

They cited Warner Bros.' ownership of the word and Rowling's positions on trans issues.

In the real-life ground version of the sport, what stands in for the Golden Snitch?

The flag runner enters after 20 minutes and a catch is worth just 30 points.

What ball serves as the Quaffle in the real-life ground version of the sport?

Beaters use dodgeballs, and a hit player must run back and touch their own hoops before rejoining.

A 2014 plaque outside Bristol Children's Hospital claims its tall hooped sculptures are really what?

The 50-foot installation actually dates from 2001; nobody has claimed responsibility for the plaque.

Which theme-park ride flies riders through a Quidditch pitch near its finale?

A nearby storefront themed as a Quidditch supplier has an animated Quaffle and Bludgers in its window.

Which studio developed the 2024 video game Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions?

It launched day one on PlayStation Plus and let players pick any of the four positions.

How many Chasers does each Quidditch team field?

The seven-player side is completed by two Beaters, a Keeper and a Seeker.

Which Quidditch subplot from the books was cut from the Order of the Phoenix film to save time?

The sport turns up in only five of the eight films overall.

The word 'Quidditch' appears in old English placenames and is thought to derive from Anglo-Saxon words meaning what?

A street in Lower Cambourne, Cambridgeshire, is called Quidditch Lane, supposedly after a type of dry ditch, and fans make pilgrimages there.

Which legal scholar, bothered by the emphasis on the Snitch, called Quidditch 'a really stupid game'?

Rowling has said the scoring system particularly infuriates men.

In which year did Oxford Dictionaries add a definition of 'Quidditch'?

'Muggle' had made the Oxford English Dictionary back in 2003; the real-life sport was cited as proof the word had outgrown the books.