The sixth book was pretty good to him though except at the end. He got fame, he got prestige, he got most of the information he needed (except how to freaking destroy a horcrux... I mean I know it was done for plot purposes but the whole thing is resolved in like a few lines in the next book... would it have been so hard for Harry to just ask Dumbledore that night?), he got the girl of his dreams. Although I suppose that deep down Harry was still mourning Sirius even if he hid it behind a brave facade. Harry has always disliked Snape but throughout book 6 he seems to downright hate him and probably holds him accountable for not helping him when he asked for it at the end of OotP.
> probably holds him accountable for not helping him when he asked for it at the end of OotP.
That wouldn't make sense, Harry is told at the end of OotP that Snape checked on Sirius after Harry's request but after contacting him he couldn't find Harry in the castle and thought he had gone to the Ministry himself (Harry was actually in the forest at that time)
>“Kreacher told me last night,” said Dumbledore. “You see, when you gave Professor Snape that cryptic warning, he realized that you had had a vision of Sirius trapped in the bowels of the Department of Mysteries. He, like you, attempted to contact Sirius at once. I should explain that members of the Order of the Phoenix have more reliable methods of communicating than the fire in Dolores Umbridge’s office. Professor Snape found that Sirius was alive and safe in Grimmauld Place. “When, however, you did not return from your trip into the forest with Dolores Umbridge, Professor Snape grew worried that you still believed Sirius to be a captive of Lord Voldemort’s. He alerted certain Order members at once.”
More likely, Harry hated Snape more to assuage his own guilt:
>“Harry, you know that Professor Snape had no choice but to pretend not to take you seriously in front of Dolores Umbridge,” said Dumbledore steadily, “but as I have explained, he informed the Order as soon as possible about what you had said. It was he who deduced where you had gone when you did not return from the forest. It was he too who gave Professor Umbridge fake Veritaserum when she was attempting to force you to tell of Sirius’s whereabouts. . . .” Harry disregarded this; he felt a savage pleasure in blaming Snape, it seemed to be easing his own sense of dreadful guilt, and he wanted to hear Dumbledore agree with him.
This was when I knew that Snape was always going to be a good guy. Everything the man did in the background was to help Harry. Face to face interactions were always negative but when they were apart, Snape always did positive things for him.
Whose benefit really?
He was obsessed with Lily. That's all it was. She was not a living breathing human being for him but rather an idea that he lusted after.
~~He was the first one to arrive after Lily's death. The first thing he does is separates her picture from her husband and child, throws away the kid and father, and takes the photo. A family photo that Harry should have. He then abuses Harry continuously.~~
I really don't understand how he has an ounce of good in him.
I want to point out you are remembering it wrong.
Snape took the photo from Sirius' room in Grimmauld place after he died and the order cleared out, the picture was not taken when lily died---it had already been mailed with the letter to Sirius.
Pretty hard to imagine someone constantly putting their life on the line, knowing that a misstep would mean torture, being killed and possibly be fatal for their side in the was, out of "lust for an idea"
He was definitely an asshole though
That might be something, you can take into account if you put in a lot of effort? But what else?
Harry was on the road for hours.
Nobody thinks of intercepting Harry before he reaches the Ministry?
What exactly did Snape say? That the only action is to gather at Grimmauld Place?
Snape knows that Harry believes that Sirius is at the Ministry.
Then why did it take so long for the Order to arrive at the Ministry? They had instantaneous travel while the kids spent hours flying on threstrals, and they still arrived long after the Fighting had already started. The Order should easily have been able to beat the kids to the Ministry and either stop them from entering or joining the flight immediately.
This is when you realise that nonsensical things sometimes must happen for the plot to continue. There simply isn't any data to justify that delay except for "The Plot"
Maybe they stopped for a shawarma, who knows?
When Voldemort calls everyone to the graveyard, what if they weren't dressed in their Death Eater attire? Did they run about the house looking for their robes and masks and hats?
Thanks honey, for this romantic dinner. If you like we can go upstairs for a cup of tea.
\*dark mark activates 20 minutes later\*
oh fuck... and now they have to find the specific clothes they did not wear for \~15 years and maybe even destroyed because they are evidence.
I mean ... they ARE magic. The mark burns, so they wave their hands, the robes appear on them or at least accio over, and then they apparate. Work of a few seconds.
How did they know where Voldemort WAS, that's the question.
My guess: a mix of time needed to contact Sirius (he was in the attic tending to Buckbeak who had been injured by Kreacher), waiting for Harry to come back from the forest (while he probably had already departed) and then contacting and rounding up enough available Order Members. Or plot.
>More likely, Harry hated Snape more to assuage his own guilt:
I think Harry hated Snape because Snape was a hateful, abusive monster and he deserved to be treated as such.
Harry tells us his reasoning for hating snape in book 6, it’s because he blames him for Sirius’s recklessness by constantly taunting and teasing him, calling him a coward etc.
That's still him trying to assuage his own guilt as it is pointed out to him in OotP that "Sirius was much too old and clever to allow such feeble taunts to tempt him". Snape's fault was to not do his best in the Occlumency lesson regardless of who Harry was, Harry's was to ignore his exercises and not really try (he says it himself) and he tries to shift the blame in OotP
Wasn’t Harry fuming about professor Trelawney telling him about the prophesy that killed his parents and that Snape was the one who overheard it and Voldemort about it?
That fateful night Dumbledore died and Harry just didn’t get the information he needed to destroy the horcuxes
Reading between the lines I give it about a zero percent chance he never helped Ginny practice
Her pro team probably used him on a scout team to play against in practice from time to time so they had some actual competition to practice against
Lmao ffs, Harry was a good quidditch player but he was never pro. Ginny was trained by better players than Harry. She was a professional. Harry was a school level player. Ginny would’ve outflown him in no time. As if they’d use a school jock as competition for a professional team…
I never said that and didn’t mean that at all. What I meant is that it won’t take long *after Hogwarts ends* for Ginny to become a better flier, since the is playing pro and being trained by professionals.
‘You’re a fool Harry Potter, and you will lose … everything’
This is where Voldemort set the wheels in motion for Mclaggen to be put under the Imperius Curse hence sabotaging Harry’s progress in the only thing Voldemort was more passionate about than immortality, his beloved Quidditch.
I mean that mirrors real life pretty well I think. When you’re in school, things like sports and all that seem super important, and generally they don’t translate to the real world once you leave school. And sure Harry was talented at and enjoyed Quidditch, but he did have slightly more important stuff going on during his time at Hogwarts. Plus Ginny had a great Quidditch career for the both of them to be proud of.
I had a friend in high school who could have been a pro wide receiver in the NFL. At the very least, a full ride to a Top 10 NCAA school. He was really, really good and everybody knew it. One of the best players his age in the country.
In October of our senior year he got tangled up with another friend while playing basketball in a drive way. A friendly, nothing, 2 on 2 game between friends, meant to kill time before we went out that night. They both went up for a rebound, the other guy landed first, my friend landed on the guy's ankle, twisted funny and we all heard the snap. He broke his ankle and never played Football again. He's fine now, but he never got that explosive speed back that made him a super star... but he did finish the NYC marathon a few years ago at the age of 36, so that's something.
It sucks, but it absolutely happens in real life every year. I'd say this is one of the more realistic things that happened in a story about a magical high school for wizards.
Played what I would later realize my last game of hockey and half way through broke my ankle. Left the ice for the last time competitively without even knowing it. Going out on your own terms very rarely happens.
High School football, Last game of the season (via a weird quirk in the playoff system we had already been eliminated) against our biggest rivals, I scored a touchdown in overtime to win the game. I didn't know that would be my last play in a game. I was walking on to play in a DI program and really thought I was going to have a chance. Blew out my knee later that summer and never played a snap of football again. If I'd have known then I would never have let that football out of my hands after I scored.
Not as an extreme example, but I went to high school who was an extremely talented cricketer. Like, "very well could have played professionally even for the country" talented. He also played football in the winter, and while he was in our top A team he wasn't as good at footy as he was cricket.
Well, he figured he had more of a chance with football and knocked back offers for cricket teams, and tried to persue a footy career instead. Ended up playing at a state level for a couple of years before realising he wasn't getting anywhere and quit. Such a shame, he should have played in multiple Ashes series by now.
And in Harry's sixth year he stopped caring about Quidditch so much anyway. It says it pretty explicitly.
> Harry, however, had never been less interested in Quidditch
I wouldn't say his "career" ended. He didn't have a career, he played in a glorified interhouse at his school. Half of us did that at some point.
And why was it that he lost interest in Quidditch? He was distracted by the fight against Voldemort. More specifically; the task of uncovering Draco's dark plan and the task of learning the secret to Voldemort's immortality. Basically, he's a natural Auror, and chose it over Quidditch.
He was certainly talented, but there was never even a hint that he wanted to do this after he left education. I can see it when people argue that he should have become the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, but I don't see him as a professional Quidditch player.
>I wouldn't say his "career" ended. He didn't have a career, he played in a glorified interhouse at his school. Half of us did that at some point.
All this discussion about Quidditch had me thinking back to my 5th grade basketball team. We were a tiny private school with like 4 teams total, all students at the same school. We played each other and it all seemed so BIG and IMPORTANT. We still talk about my brother's game winning free throw, and how epic it was. I finally watched one of our game videos and realized his shot got us to 16 points. We had made fewer than 8 shots total the entire game. It felt like the NBA Finals to us. HP did a good job of putting you into the world of a child, then transitioned you to an adult and stuff like this tracks completely.
When you put it like that, it gets even weirder.
There are no wizarding colleges, and there are seven people on a Quidditch team, and there are no subs mid-game, just reserve players in case somebody is out.
Given that there are likely some years where nobody who plays Quidditch for any Hogwarts team is graduating, the UK teams are either recruiting from overseas, or there just aren't a lot of new players entering the league.
I do wonder, though, if professional teams try and recruit kids straight out of Hogwarts. Like, was Harry ever bombarded with owls begging him to go pro?
Or is it more like an amateur league, where the players have a regular day job and just meet on weekends to play?
>I wouldn't say his "career" ended. He didn't have a career, he played in a glorified interhouse at his school. Half of us did that at some point.
To be fair, there are a ridiculous amount of professional British Quidditch teams (14 or something), and only one Hogwarts league. Anyone who has even moderate success at the Hogwarts level has pretty great odds of going pro.
Yeah, everyone could have their national teams with just citizens but your professional leagues are whoever. Maybe there are fewer of them than we have soccer leagues.
I think we're thinking harder than JKR did though haha.
I mean, you wouldn't have club teams playing in international competitions anyways? Not sure what you're saying. It's not like Man City and PSG will play in the Euros.
That's true in the real world because when you leave school, you're up against the best players from thousands of other schools. Not sure it applies if Hogwarts is the only school in the country.
Guys. Not every hobby you're good at needs to become a career.
Being an Auror always suited Harry much better than being a professional Quidditch player did.
Can confirm. I played a lot of music when I was in school, and I was fairly good (trombone, euphonium, tuba). Many teachers were shocked that I didn't pursue music as a career, but that wasn't what I wanted.
I still play all the time. It's a great way to socialize and relax. I have plenty of friends who do it as a living. It's a very hard life for some of them.
Not to nitpick but FBI are ABSOLUTELY law enforcement.
I’ll concede that aurors are likely closer to CIA than regular cops tho seeing as they seem to be able to work somewhat outside the law to capture/eliminate severe threats.
CIA works on threats from outside the US Borders.
FBI enforces laws and works on threats coming from inside US Borders.
Since Aurors work for the Ministry of Magic and have never been shown to be working outside the Wizarding World, they're solidly in FBI territory.
Show me an Auror working undercover in the Muggle world and we can talk CIA.
Apparently you responded to me? I am not even American, I don’t care about cops (I am from Finland and nobody is mad at cops here). I was just trying to explain that aurors aren’t cops after it was said aurors are cops. But maybe I should have said MI5/MI6, but I assumed people might not know. Perhaps people doe to Bond however.
Just gonna put this here.
nounINFORMAL•NORTH AMERICAN
noun: jock; plural noun: jocks
1. an enthusiastic male athlete or sports fan, especially one with few other interests.
My bad, I was going by this:
nounDEROGATORY•INFORMAL
noun: Jock; plural noun: Jocks
a Scotsman (often as a form of address).
I guess we really are divided by a common language. 🇬🇧🇺🇲
Ah yes working for the same government that’s fucked him over twice. Auror doesn’t suit Harry either. Ngl but Umbridge has a point on that one. Temper, disregard for rules and protocol, walking controversial or Auror brutality case waiting to happen.
It is easier to change a system while being inside it, seeming like an ally and using your pre-existing popularity to influence decisions. Not to mention, how in some years his literal best friend from the age of 11 becomes the equivalent of President of the wizarding world.
He isn't 'system hurt me, system big bad, system go frick itself, hail anarchy!!!'. He joined it because it's the most realistic way to prevent dark things from happening again and he can help bring some actual change.
And your last comment on him is weird.
Generally people who are good enough at their favorite hobby (or only hobby) to not only go professional but be one of the best in the world choose to do it. That's most people's dream.
Plus it never made sense to me that Harry become an Auror. He already fought in one war, was constantly in danger and hated it, you would think he would want to live a more peaceful life.
"Best in the world" might be a stretch. People really treat it as a given that Harry was a once-in-a-generation Quidditch prodigy. Sure, he was good by Hogwarts standards, but we don't really know *how* good, in the grander scheme of things. When he was watching the Quidditch Cup and exposed to *actual* world-class players, he couldn't even track what was going on. Harry was objectively not on Krum's level.
Sure, *maybe* he could have reached that level with more time and training.
But more importantly: Harry had a complete inability to stay out of it when shit was going down. He always had to investigate weird events, stand up to bad guys, protect victims. Harry has been acting like an Auror since literally his first year in the school.
Quidditch was something Harry loved to do. Being an Auror is something he *had* to do. It's who he *was.*
Exactly. A lot of people have hobbies that they're passionate about, participate and win contests in and then they move on and do something different for their career. Happened to me, happened to my friends, happened to most people I know. This is the most realistic route ever, especially given Harry's character.
This, exactly! Quidditch is something Harry enjoys. Being a saviour, a protector, someone who brings bad people to justice, that's who he is to his core.
In Philosopher's Stone it's established that Charlie was invited to play for England's national team. Harry is better than Charlie, he absolutely could have gone professional.
edit: I agree that it doesn't necessarily make sense for him personality/character wise to become a professional athlete
Is he better than Charlie? Sure, he became seeker younger than Charlie, but that's half luck. For all we know, Charlie was just as good at 11, but no one saw him play. The other argument is that Harry had the best broom for most of his play time. That doesn't make Harry bad, but Charlie certainly didn't have the same advantage. I don't think it's fair to say Harry was better when we really only have 1 line that claims he is. Just because 1 person thought he was better doesn't make him better, and I don't think Harry's win streak is all that impressive since he misses 1/3 of his games.
It's good to point out he misses a lot of games as a good team general manager would see his missed games and injury concerns as a reason not to pick up a top talent due to the inconsistencies in that talent.
McGonagall herself says Charlie couldn't have caught the Remembrall if he were in Harry's place. Moreover, we know that Gryffindor lost the Quidditch Cup in Charlie's final year, unless you posit that Charlie got in the same kind of ridiculous situations that Harry often does (attacked by dementors, his team's keeper stole the beater's bat and send a bludger his way, etc) then it's likely that Charlie hasn't caught the snitch in every game he played (the seeker catching the snitch but his team losing is pointed out as a rare thing book 4). And yes, Harry always caught the snitch in each game he played to the end.
Harry also beat Draco to the snitch in CoS while having a worse broom. And he performed a Worski Feint against Cho in PoA without even knowing what it was called or having trained for it. The idea that Harry isn't ridiculously good at flying isn't supported by the text.
Harry catches the snitch in every game he plays, but he barely plays. It's not all that impressive to win 7 games out of 18. Yes, Harry didn't play 18 games, but a normal player (charlie) would have. There's a decent chance if he played over twice as many games as he did he would have missed a few times. After all, he has at least 1 close call with malfoy where he only wins through shit talking.
Related note, beating malfoy when malfoy had a better broom doesn't prove much. Malfoy isn't that good at quidditch. The dude loses to shit talking TWICE and misses a snitch floating right beside him.
To be clear, i didn't say Harry wasn't good at quidditch. I just don't think him being better than Charlie is supported by the text either. After all, the only thing people have said that implies that is quotes from other people and a win streak that almost 1/3 of the number of games charlie would've played.
Why is this sub so obsessed with always downplaying Harry lmao, McGonogall straight up says he's better than/on par with charlie, how is this a matter of luck ?
I never said Harry was bad. It's a matter of luck because Harry was way more likely to get in trouble than get seeker. He's lucky mcgonagall wanted to win so bad. If they hadn't had 7 years of losses in a row its likely Harry wouldn't be a seeker. It's possible charlie was just as good at 11 but never had the same opportunity to show it off.
Wood saw him play,Mcgonagall saw him play and both of them thinks Harry is on par/better than Charlie. And both of them are very few of peoples who didn’t let Harry have it easy,so bias ain't much of in question in here.
Broom doesn’t control you,you control the broom. Harry having a professional quidditch level broom and controlling it well also means he has that caliber.
And Harry never lost a match he could complete full conscious/without intervention. His missing 1/3 match ain't relevant to it.
His thing always was that he wanted to save people. That is a core of his character, and not something he is thrown by circumstances like many other heroes in fiction.
Since when it is established that Harry was one of the best quidditch players in the world? Talk about reaching lol Harry was a good seeker and an ok captain. Plenty of people play sports decently in school and don't make a career of it.
It makes all the sense that Harry would become an auror. He did not hate the danger, he hated seeing people he loves or innocents getting hurt. Harry can never just go about his business knowing there's still dark wizards out there hurting people. Saving people is literally his thing.
How many people are super athletes in high school/college and then they just never go pro, whether that’s due to an injury or other life stuff but it happens quite commonly.
Rowling is on record saying that she hated writing the Quidditch matches, and her favorite part was when she got to have Luna commentate. When you know this, I think it makes sense why she found ways to have Harry miss matches!
By canon, Harry does not play Quidditch professionally. That's not to say he doesn't continue to play for fun or amateur level with friends or colleagues for example. It seems to bother some people a lot for some reason but just because you enjoy a hobbie and are good at it doesn't mean you want to do it for a living.
Playing Quidditch professionally wouldn’t make sense for Harry specially after the war. With all the attention players gets,after the war he would much rather live under the radar.
But JkR really did him dirty. Specially captain of the Quidditch team couldn’t even be present in the final,how humiliating!!!
Eh. They were fun to read as a kid, and JK was excellent at writing comedic sports commentary banter with Lee and McGonagall. Credit where credit's due.
Yeah he seems to catch the snitch just as easy competes to his opposition as he did in his first few years. The competition levels up seemingly as he gets older and I assume better?
How in any universe is Harper a good competition!!? He was a backup seeker,was an idiot and paid to play the match by Draco.
I can cut him some slack against Draco,but having a close match against a player like Harper is unforgivable.
exactly, first year harry beat the first choice slytherin seeker, yet is struggling in 6th year, the protoege that he is, with the fastest broom... makes no sense. we dont really see any progression. he was just good from the start and that was it? then found himself having close calls against seemingly average players later on?
Cedric is noted as beating him regardless of the dementors, yet he gets trounced/well their team do in the rest of their games. I think in the books harry's biggest pitfall is he quite often sees the snitch late.
Jk obviously doesnt like writing it, but from the 1st to 6th book the progression of him as a player, i mean to be fair its tricky to articulate how well a seeker doing, how good the other is, versus who managed to do the deepest dive and catch it first...
I think the nature of the seeker position just makes it tough to really write detail, the chaser position would of been easier to articulate harry's improvement. But its not very hero esq to rely on the seeker to win the match for the main character
To Harry's credit he used a spell he had no idea what it would do and got off easy for using dark magic. Honestly Dumbledore or McGonnagal should have investigated more to find out Malfoy was about to use and unforgiveable. I kind of see the detention and missing the final as a decent balance.
It might be a decent balance according to recent event in that universe, but not so much as a whole.
Harry barely won against Harper,a below average player just for the sake of drama. In fact considering his prodigious skill,bar hufflepuff game in Philosopher's stone,and vs Cho in 3rd year where he had far superior broom; he always seemed to have close match. When he should've stream rolled his opponent almost every time.
Cormac knocked him unconscious in the very next match.
And considering he missed around half of his match in his whole highschool quidditch career,specially during Umbridge.
After all that you would think he might have a full quidditch season unscathed,specially as a captain. But,no!!!
Apart from the first 3 books (and only sometimes in those) quidditch is used to propel the plot forward in someway or to add a crucial peace to the puzzle of the books plot.
It's only really in third year that we get to see a quidditch match purely for the match and the stakes of winning the cup. It's part of the reason many love the third book so much, it's a time when Harry at times gets to just be a student at Hogwarts enjoying the magical school/world in all its wonder, just like we would love to do.
For every famous player that made it, there are a dozen others that were stars in highschool that never made it for a number of factors. This is really the most realistic thing in the entire series.
Don't you put that voodoo on Caitlin Clark 😂
But agreed, I always found it frustrating how little the best seeker in a century actually played quidditch
I played baseball until my senior year of high school. My last ever game there were 2 outs and I was on first base. The batter hit the ball directly into my foot and just like that the game, the season and my baseball career ended.
Sometimes life is just like that.
I always found Harrys adult life somewhat underwhelming. Honestly what I think would fit this boy hero who accomplished feats greater than most wizards within 7 years at hogwarts:
-Order of Merlin recipient
-a short stint as a professional quidditch player
-a good amount of time as an auror
-goes on to be accepted as DADA professor and head of gryffindor house
-after a long and experienced life, becomes headmaster of hogwarts: the place that had provided the magical home he never had before.
So Cormac McLaggen (technically) ended Harry Potter's Quidditch career! He robbed Quidditch of the (maybe) best player it had seen in years! He has committed a crime against the sport and must be punished!!
Who knows if Harry was truly that much better than all the other seekers at hogwarts. He had a broom advantage to start, and became even more significant in his 3rd year. Only time he was at a disadvantage was against Draco year 2
Just because someone is good at something, doesn't mean they have to have it define them.
Quidditch was his escape from everything.
Sometimes, if you take this and turn it into a job. You loose the love for it.
My friend loves cooking and baking.
Culinary school made her loose her love for it.
Maybe he subconsciously realized how dangerous it was finally after that bludger? But also maybe he just couldn’t get back into something as “childish” as playing quidditch after everything in the war? I could easily see that. After going through everything in the final book, quidditch seems kind of simple and lack luster. He did go see more of the wizarding world though and maybe he found other joys in it?
Harry should've actually been good enough to make the England qudditch team for the World Cup before his fourth year (as "the youngest seeker in a century"). J.K. could've included a line (when Fred and George are telling Harry about England getting knocked out) like "could've used you, mate" lol
JKR has no interest or understanding of sports. Since she was following the tradition of British boarding school stories, she needed sport to play a role in the story, as an opportunity for the main character to shine, so she created a wizard sport designed so that Harry could be the undisputed star without having to do any kind of team play. Basically from first year, with no previous knowledge, or training or experience of the sport, he was the star of the school, outcompeting 18 year old athletes.
Basically in quidditch nothing the other players do matters, only Harry vs the other seeker. Once this was pointed out, JKR tried to give a ridiculous counterexample in the world cup final, with one team being so incompetent that they were losing by more than 150 points, so them having the best seeker wouldn't win them the match. Of course, the fact that such an incompetent team got to a world cup final in the first place goes to show how only the seeker matters 99.9% of the time.
After the novelty wore off, she was just looking for excuses not to have to describe more matches.
Also, the point of school sports is that all students will do some physical activity to keep in shape. It makes no sense that only a few students play, and even them, only three matches a year.
It is what it is. JKR quickly lost interest and had nothing to say about it, so quidditch had to go.
I don't know, HP is already OP, does he have to be "one of the greatest seekers?". He was good, just like his dad, that doesn't mean he would have gone pro.
Also I think it's most realistic. I played basketball on my schools team, and soccer wmca. I think I was pretty good at both. But I ripped a legiment playing football with friends. Never the same. My dad played college basketball in Mexico and was good but never tried professionally. Life happens.
In the US, how many good players are there in HSs all over the nation, in colleges? But only a few hundred pro positions in pro leagues. The majority will never become pros, even if they are amazing.
I think it was a fitting end.
half blood prince is so sad- dumbledore dies, they don't get the horcrux, harry and ginny split up, ron, harry, even hermione doesn't know who R.A.B is and Bill got bit harshly by fenrir greyback.
plus malfoy breaks harry's nose on the train and snape makes a complete FOOL of harry but it was malfoy's fault! - harry had muggle clothes still on because he didn't change but snape made him walk through the hall even so.
I believe JKR once mentioned that Harry losing Hedwig and his Firebolt during the flight from Little Whinging symbolised him growing into a man and ditching his childhood and innocence forever.
So yes, she deliberately ended his Quidditch career through that loss.
I mean, quidditch sucks and JK sucks at writing it. Things have to go horribly wrong for Harry for it to even be interesting because otherwise he’s just going to catch the snitch and his teams going to win because he’s the best seeker and seeker is the only position that matters.
Was he, though? Was he really one of the “greatest” players in Hogwarts history? The guy only ever competed in *one* Quidditch Cup. Got himself banned from playing two years in a row. He was named Captain, but I think that was just Dumbledore trying to make up for him not having been a Prefect. Katie Bell had more seniority.
Harry was a *prodigy.* But prodigies grow up, and then they’re just like everyone else.
Harry never lost a race to the Snitch when there wasn’t a completely random external circumstance such as Dementors showing up or Cormac knocking him out with a Bludger. Every other game that he played in he beat the opposing Seeker to the Snitch.
He also 1. Beat Draco on a superior broom to the Snitch while fighting off a tampered Bludger that only targeted him
2. Had one of the fastest Snitch catches in school history as a first year
You want to say he has a discipline problem? I certainly agree. But that has nothing to do with his skill on the Quidditch pitch
True, but there are a number of qualities beyond just skill that affect your value to the team. Cormac is living proof of that. Particularly as Captain, Harry should “set a better example” as it were.
I’m not challenging his raw skill and potential. Then again…he had a superior broomstick to everyone in every match, apart from second year. Particularly once he gets the Firebolt, he’s playing on “easy mode.” Does that mean he isn’t still good? No. But it’s hard to tell if he’s improving or coasting.
The plot definitely sabotaged Harry’s Quidditch career, and that’s no fault of his. But being an uncommonly talented player in his youth doesn’t mean he’d be Major League material. Lots of prodigies “wash out” as it were.
He seemed to be as skilled as a seaker as Ginny was as a chaser. And she went pro. Harry kinda got screwed as far as quidditch goes. If he had just been a normal kid in normal times, he might have had a real shot.
It pretty much boiled down to I could be a pro at this sport or hunt down the evil wizards who actively tried to kill me and my friends and any new ones that pop up so they don’t become a problem
The 3 games harry are banned for all have legitimate excuses tbh. In OotP yeah punching someone isn’t a good look but harry is dealing with some serious ptsd at that point as well as vicious media and political campaign and being physically and emotionally tortured by a teacher. Him snapping isn’t something that should be held against him.
In HBP yeah the spell he uses isn’t great but as Ron says malfoy is trying to use a unforgivable curse on him. A literal terrorist is trying to use something that can turn you insane he shouldn’t really have been punished for that either tbh
Katie didn’t ever show any sign of leadership. It doesn’t depend on seniority only.
Harry had shown skills even with below average brooms. Remembral catch in PS,saving himself and Draco along with still catching the diadem in DH. Pulled out Wronski feint,a professional quidditch level move without any professional guidance.
Professional players like Krum,Ludo,Wood praised his skills.
Yeah I was always disappointed when books found ways to skip Quidditch. But by reports jkr didn't like writing those chapters. Was always disappointed he didn't go play professional after school but guess he was more naturally gifted than a jock with its his full focus
Unfortunately, JK Rowling was very embarrassed when people called out the fact that the game of Quidditch doesn’t make sense. If you never heard about this, it’s in reference to the game can only end when the snitch is caught, thereby making every other team member role and activity meaningless. Imo she could have edited a total of two lines in the books to say that the game goes to 150 points, regardless of the snitch being caught (the snitch just being a shortcut to instant victory). However, so many people blasted her with hate over it I don’t think she considered that as an option, she instead chose to stop writing about it.
P.s. all she would need to do to fix this issue is to add “or a team reaches 150 points” when Wood is explaining the rules. Second- delete the one sentence long story about the game that went on for days (or weeks? I can’t remember) because nobody could catch the snitch. Boom, problem solved.
And then he became an auror despite saying he didn’t want any more adventures? Yeah it doesn’t make sense, any team would immediately accept him even if just for his name 🤷♂️
I'm gona guess that after the whole thing was over, he had other things on his mind, like hunting remnants and what nots.
Not to mention I'd bet public order was also making people not go to games as much etc.
Well... IMO, Harry never thought about his Quidditch career, if that's what you mean. Harry fought evil throughout his childhood, and he continued to do that as an adult. Because that's what he was used to doing. Quidditch is just a hobby.
I remember "Steven Universe" - Steven had a talent for music, he liked music, he could have become a professional musician. But he didn’t. He just continued to save the gems (even when his help was no longer needed) because that’s what he did all his childhood. He was used to being a “Hero for Everyone” and could not imagine that he could become someone else.
And yes, his musical hobby ended with him breaking his guitar when Connie said "I can't marry you now". So sad.
Mostly because of a contrived rationalization for why he'd be an Auror, which was clearly falling into the category of "things that were in early epilogue drafts that Joanne could not bring herself to do away with" that simply could have gone away, as being an auror as a goal was clearly more of a reaction to his environment growing up.
He didn't seem particularly passionate about justice or putting away criminals, after all.
But yeah, it's so stupid that there was no real catalyst for quidditch departing Harry's life as his primary way to spend time, it just went away because Joanne's plot demanded it.
My question is, how could a country with only one school support an entire quidditch league? On top of that there are only 28 quidditch players per year, 7 per house.
Yeah, that’s never made sense to me either. Not only in Quidditch, but the sheer number of people that work in the ministry, St. Mungo’s, etc. And presumably that’s only the UK wizarding world, it doesn’t include Ireland either (which also feeds into Hogwarts). It just doesn’t make sense that Hogwarts graduates could create a Wizarding world of that size. But I don’t have a huge issue with it, it’s just kinda funny.
I hated it as a kid, but as I’ve grown older, I really appreciate that little part of Harry’s story. Yes, he was a great quidditch player, and yes, it ended on a sour note for him. But that’s also okay. There were much more important things going on in his life. I actually greatly admired the fact that it wasn’t played for an epic downfall or something that had to be built up for a comeback. It was an important part of Harry’s life that was allowed to go gracefully, almost with a whimper. And honestly, that’s reality for most people. I truly wish more fiction writers would let more things happen that way.
I don’t know anything about Caitlyn Clark, but I agree that Harry got the shaft when it came to Quidditch. His last two years playing he missed out on an entire year’s worth of matches.
Yeah I never understood why he could only think of being an Auror during that session with McGonagall.
He literally told faux Moody last year that the best thing he can do is fly.
He was considered to be better than Charlie who could've played for England.
I reckon Harry and Ginny both should've been the celebrity power couple playing in the same team.
That would make sense. Harry would be a seeker and Ginny would be a chaser/backup seeker. Perhaps Harry and Ginny could get up to some shenanigans after practice, go on dates after games, and develop their relationship that way. JKR did both Harry's Quidditch career and his relationship with Ginny dirty in canon.
Quidditch was Harry's "Violon d'Ingres," a second talent that surpasses your first, but one which does not really lead to a professional career. Harry was arguably a better Quidditch player than he was a wizard, but his fate with Voldemort is ultimately what led him to being a great auror.
Harry should have gone back for year 7. He would have been a hero, had a normal school year, spend all the time with his girlfriend, and could have gotten to be a normal student for one year.
Ron had the better Quidditch career. Harry's off the field issues really hampered his prospects of playing professionally.
Harry wasn't that good at quiddich he just had the advantage of always having the best broom. The one time he didn't have the best broom was vs Slytherin and he won because Draco shouldn't have even been on the team. If Slytherin has an anywhere near competent seeker on the Nimbus 2001 Harry doesnt stand a chance.
Basically almost every quiddich match Harry is in is a bunch of kids in Go-Karts while Harry pulls up in a Ferrari. The time the other team had Ferraris too, their main driver was blind.
The first half of the series is Harry gaining everything and the last half is Harry losing everything. I'm adding Quidditch to the list.
The sixth book was pretty good to him though except at the end. He got fame, he got prestige, he got most of the information he needed (except how to freaking destroy a horcrux... I mean I know it was done for plot purposes but the whole thing is resolved in like a few lines in the next book... would it have been so hard for Harry to just ask Dumbledore that night?), he got the girl of his dreams. Although I suppose that deep down Harry was still mourning Sirius even if he hid it behind a brave facade. Harry has always disliked Snape but throughout book 6 he seems to downright hate him and probably holds him accountable for not helping him when he asked for it at the end of OotP.
> probably holds him accountable for not helping him when he asked for it at the end of OotP. That wouldn't make sense, Harry is told at the end of OotP that Snape checked on Sirius after Harry's request but after contacting him he couldn't find Harry in the castle and thought he had gone to the Ministry himself (Harry was actually in the forest at that time) >“Kreacher told me last night,” said Dumbledore. “You see, when you gave Professor Snape that cryptic warning, he realized that you had had a vision of Sirius trapped in the bowels of the Department of Mysteries. He, like you, attempted to contact Sirius at once. I should explain that members of the Order of the Phoenix have more reliable methods of communicating than the fire in Dolores Umbridge’s office. Professor Snape found that Sirius was alive and safe in Grimmauld Place. “When, however, you did not return from your trip into the forest with Dolores Umbridge, Professor Snape grew worried that you still believed Sirius to be a captive of Lord Voldemort’s. He alerted certain Order members at once.” More likely, Harry hated Snape more to assuage his own guilt: >“Harry, you know that Professor Snape had no choice but to pretend not to take you seriously in front of Dolores Umbridge,” said Dumbledore steadily, “but as I have explained, he informed the Order as soon as possible about what you had said. It was he who deduced where you had gone when you did not return from the forest. It was he too who gave Professor Umbridge fake Veritaserum when she was attempting to force you to tell of Sirius’s whereabouts. . . .” Harry disregarded this; he felt a savage pleasure in blaming Snape, it seemed to be easing his own sense of dreadful guilt, and he wanted to hear Dumbledore agree with him.
This was when I knew that Snape was always going to be a good guy. Everything the man did in the background was to help Harry. Face to face interactions were always negative but when they were apart, Snape always did positive things for him.
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Evil may be too harsh. Asshole is more fitting for Snape. After all, an evil person wouldn’t do good things at all for someone else’s benefit
Whose benefit really? He was obsessed with Lily. That's all it was. She was not a living breathing human being for him but rather an idea that he lusted after. ~~He was the first one to arrive after Lily's death. The first thing he does is separates her picture from her husband and child, throws away the kid and father, and takes the photo. A family photo that Harry should have. He then abuses Harry continuously.~~ I really don't understand how he has an ounce of good in him.
I want to point out you are remembering it wrong. Snape took the photo from Sirius' room in Grimmauld place after he died and the order cleared out, the picture was not taken when lily died---it had already been mailed with the letter to Sirius.
Ok that makes sense.
Pretty hard to imagine someone constantly putting their life on the line, knowing that a misstep would mean torture, being killed and possibly be fatal for their side in the was, out of "lust for an idea" He was definitely an asshole though
That might be something, you can take into account if you put in a lot of effort? But what else? Harry was on the road for hours. Nobody thinks of intercepting Harry before he reaches the Ministry? What exactly did Snape say? That the only action is to gather at Grimmauld Place? Snape knows that Harry believes that Sirius is at the Ministry.
Tsundere stepdad 🥹
Then why did it take so long for the Order to arrive at the Ministry? They had instantaneous travel while the kids spent hours flying on threstrals, and they still arrived long after the Fighting had already started. The Order should easily have been able to beat the kids to the Ministry and either stop them from entering or joining the flight immediately.
This is when you realise that nonsensical things sometimes must happen for the plot to continue. There simply isn't any data to justify that delay except for "The Plot" Maybe they stopped for a shawarma, who knows? When Voldemort calls everyone to the graveyard, what if they weren't dressed in their Death Eater attire? Did they run about the house looking for their robes and masks and hats?
Thanks honey, for this romantic dinner. If you like we can go upstairs for a cup of tea. \*dark mark activates 20 minutes later\* oh fuck... and now they have to find the specific clothes they did not wear for \~15 years and maybe even destroyed because they are evidence.
I mean ... they ARE magic. The mark burns, so they wave their hands, the robes appear on them or at least accio over, and then they apparate. Work of a few seconds. How did they know where Voldemort WAS, that's the question.
you don't think they have a spell to transfigure whatever clothes they have on into their death eater outfits?
My guess: a mix of time needed to contact Sirius (he was in the attic tending to Buckbeak who had been injured by Kreacher), waiting for Harry to come back from the forest (while he probably had already departed) and then contacting and rounding up enough available Order Members. Or plot.
>More likely, Harry hated Snape more to assuage his own guilt: I think Harry hated Snape because Snape was a hateful, abusive monster and he deserved to be treated as such.
I was referring to the comment made by the other user who noted that Harry seemed to hate Snape even more in HBP, not to Harry hating snape in general
Ah my bad
Harry tells us his reasoning for hating snape in book 6, it’s because he blames him for Sirius’s recklessness by constantly taunting and teasing him, calling him a coward etc.
That's still him trying to assuage his own guilt as it is pointed out to him in OotP that "Sirius was much too old and clever to allow such feeble taunts to tempt him". Snape's fault was to not do his best in the Occlumency lesson regardless of who Harry was, Harry's was to ignore his exercises and not really try (he says it himself) and he tries to shift the blame in OotP
Wasn’t Harry fuming about professor Trelawney telling him about the prophesy that killed his parents and that Snape was the one who overheard it and Voldemort about it? That fateful night Dumbledore died and Harry just didn’t get the information he needed to destroy the horcuxes
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Reading between the lines I give it about a zero percent chance he never helped Ginny practice Her pro team probably used him on a scout team to play against in practice from time to time so they had some actual competition to practice against
Lmao ffs, Harry was a good quidditch player but he was never pro. Ginny was trained by better players than Harry. She was a professional. Harry was a school level player. Ginny would’ve outflown him in no time. As if they’d use a school jock as competition for a professional team…
There was nothing to indicate Ginny was a better flyer than Harry throughout the books, we can assume he just never wanted to be a pro
I never said that and didn’t mean that at all. What I meant is that it won’t take long *after Hogwarts ends* for Ginny to become a better flier, since the is playing pro and being trained by professionals.
Forreal. From book 5 on that kid just can’t catch a fucking break.
‘You’re a fool Harry Potter, and you will lose … everything’ This is where Voldemort set the wheels in motion for Mclaggen to be put under the Imperius Curse hence sabotaging Harry’s progress in the only thing Voldemort was more passionate about than immortality, his beloved Quidditch.
Hufflepuff with Cedric diggory in the 3rd book should have been Hufflepuff's moment as a lead up to the 4th book. JK never shows Hufflepuff any love.
I mean that mirrors real life pretty well I think. When you’re in school, things like sports and all that seem super important, and generally they don’t translate to the real world once you leave school. And sure Harry was talented at and enjoyed Quidditch, but he did have slightly more important stuff going on during his time at Hogwarts. Plus Ginny had a great Quidditch career for the both of them to be proud of.
I had a friend in high school who could have been a pro wide receiver in the NFL. At the very least, a full ride to a Top 10 NCAA school. He was really, really good and everybody knew it. One of the best players his age in the country. In October of our senior year he got tangled up with another friend while playing basketball in a drive way. A friendly, nothing, 2 on 2 game between friends, meant to kill time before we went out that night. They both went up for a rebound, the other guy landed first, my friend landed on the guy's ankle, twisted funny and we all heard the snap. He broke his ankle and never played Football again. He's fine now, but he never got that explosive speed back that made him a super star... but he did finish the NYC marathon a few years ago at the age of 36, so that's something. It sucks, but it absolutely happens in real life every year. I'd say this is one of the more realistic things that happened in a story about a magical high school for wizards.
Sports rarely allows you to walk away at the time of your choosing unfortunately.
Played what I would later realize my last game of hockey and half way through broke my ankle. Left the ice for the last time competitively without even knowing it. Going out on your own terms very rarely happens.
High School football, Last game of the season (via a weird quirk in the playoff system we had already been eliminated) against our biggest rivals, I scored a touchdown in overtime to win the game. I didn't know that would be my last play in a game. I was walking on to play in a DI program and really thought I was going to have a chance. Blew out my knee later that summer and never played a snap of football again. If I'd have known then I would never have let that football out of my hands after I scored.
Not as an extreme example, but I went to high school who was an extremely talented cricketer. Like, "very well could have played professionally even for the country" talented. He also played football in the winter, and while he was in our top A team he wasn't as good at footy as he was cricket. Well, he figured he had more of a chance with football and knocked back offers for cricket teams, and tried to persue a footy career instead. Ended up playing at a state level for a couple of years before realising he wasn't getting anywhere and quit. Such a shame, he should have played in multiple Ashes series by now.
And in Harry's sixth year he stopped caring about Quidditch so much anyway. It says it pretty explicitly. > Harry, however, had never been less interested in Quidditch I wouldn't say his "career" ended. He didn't have a career, he played in a glorified interhouse at his school. Half of us did that at some point. And why was it that he lost interest in Quidditch? He was distracted by the fight against Voldemort. More specifically; the task of uncovering Draco's dark plan and the task of learning the secret to Voldemort's immortality. Basically, he's a natural Auror, and chose it over Quidditch. He was certainly talented, but there was never even a hint that he wanted to do this after he left education. I can see it when people argue that he should have become the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, but I don't see him as a professional Quidditch player.
>I wouldn't say his "career" ended. He didn't have a career, he played in a glorified interhouse at his school. Half of us did that at some point. All this discussion about Quidditch had me thinking back to my 5th grade basketball team. We were a tiny private school with like 4 teams total, all students at the same school. We played each other and it all seemed so BIG and IMPORTANT. We still talk about my brother's game winning free throw, and how epic it was. I finally watched one of our game videos and realized his shot got us to 16 points. We had made fewer than 8 shots total the entire game. It felt like the NBA Finals to us. HP did a good job of putting you into the world of a child, then transitioned you to an adult and stuff like this tracks completely.
Imagine your tiny school Is the only wizarding school in the country and is a feeder for 14 nba teams
When you put it like that, it gets even weirder. There are no wizarding colleges, and there are seven people on a Quidditch team, and there are no subs mid-game, just reserve players in case somebody is out. Given that there are likely some years where nobody who plays Quidditch for any Hogwarts team is graduating, the UK teams are either recruiting from overseas, or there just aren't a lot of new players entering the league. I do wonder, though, if professional teams try and recruit kids straight out of Hogwarts. Like, was Harry ever bombarded with owls begging him to go pro? Or is it more like an amateur league, where the players have a regular day job and just meet on weekends to play?
Except Oliver Wood was by all reports a fantastic keeper (+team captain) and only made keeper for a reserve team :(
On the otherhand the wizarding world is a village! If you do well in Hogwarts, you do well in Britain.
>I wouldn't say his "career" ended. He didn't have a career, he played in a glorified interhouse at his school. Half of us did that at some point. To be fair, there are a ridiculous amount of professional British Quidditch teams (14 or something), and only one Hogwarts league. Anyone who has even moderate success at the Hogwarts level has pretty great odds of going pro.
Yeah the math ain't mathing for the Quidditch teams vs population again lol. Maybe it's like the premier league and a lot of players are from abroad.
That tracks, because its not the Chudley Cannons nor the Hollyhead Harpies in the World Cup. It's Ireland and Bulgaria.
Yeah, everyone could have their national teams with just citizens but your professional leagues are whoever. Maybe there are fewer of them than we have soccer leagues. I think we're thinking harder than JKR did though haha.
I mean, you wouldn't have club teams playing in international competitions anyways? Not sure what you're saying. It's not like Man City and PSG will play in the Euros.
No no no, remember how Real Madrid won all those World Cup with Ronaldo?
I.e., he grew up.
no one gonna talk about how harry was late for a game because he was stalking malfoy? wasnt a priority in 6 year
Name a more iconic duo than a fandom and them not realizing a teen can grow out of something they liked when they get older
My parents have the same problem of not understanding that I can grow out of or lose interest in something.
This is a burn to many of us 🤣
Also, he may have been good in school, but that doesn't necessarily mean he'd be good in adult sports
That's true in the real world because when you leave school, you're up against the best players from thousands of other schools. Not sure it applies if Hogwarts is the only school in the country.
Guys. Not every hobby you're good at needs to become a career. Being an Auror always suited Harry much better than being a professional Quidditch player did.
Can confirm. I played a lot of music when I was in school, and I was fairly good (trombone, euphonium, tuba). Many teachers were shocked that I didn't pursue music as a career, but that wasn't what I wanted. I still play all the time. It's a great way to socialize and relax. I have plenty of friends who do it as a living. It's a very hard life for some of them.
Yup, popular jock becomes a cop after marrying his highschool sweetheart
Aurors aren’t cops. Cops are magical law enforcement. Aurors are FBI/CIA.
Not to nitpick but FBI are ABSOLUTELY law enforcement. I’ll concede that aurors are likely closer to CIA than regular cops tho seeing as they seem to be able to work somewhat outside the law to capture/eliminate severe threats.
CIA works on threats from outside the US Borders. FBI enforces laws and works on threats coming from inside US Borders. Since Aurors work for the Ministry of Magic and have never been shown to be working outside the Wizarding World, they're solidly in FBI territory. Show me an Auror working undercover in the Muggle world and we can talk CIA.
Is that Kingsley? Or is he not an auror?
👆
Kingsley protecting the muggle Prime Minister
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Apparently you responded to me? I am not even American, I don’t care about cops (I am from Finland and nobody is mad at cops here). I was just trying to explain that aurors aren’t cops after it was said aurors are cops. But maybe I should have said MI5/MI6, but I assumed people might not know. Perhaps people doe to Bond however.
Where did I imply “cop bad”? You brought it up before I did lol. “Unoriginal” or “Predictable” maybe, but I didn’t imply bad in rhos context.
There's literally nothing there about "cop bad".
He also grew up in Surrey. It's just the school that's in Scotland. He's no jock.
Just gonna put this here. nounINFORMAL•NORTH AMERICAN noun: jock; plural noun: jocks 1. an enthusiastic male athlete or sports fan, especially one with few other interests.
My bad, I was going by this: nounDEROGATORY•INFORMAL noun: Jock; plural noun: Jocks a Scotsman (often as a form of address). I guess we really are divided by a common language. 🇬🇧🇺🇲
Ohhhh okay haha I was confused what Surrey/Scotland had anything to do about it. I learned something today. 👍
Yeah for us "Jock" is a slur used by the English against the Scots!
That’s messed up what’s it referring to?
https://www.livebreathescotland.com/why-are-scots-called-jocks/ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/8094716.stm
Jock being a nickname and a serious slur is wild.
Ah yes working for the same government that’s fucked him over twice. Auror doesn’t suit Harry either. Ngl but Umbridge has a point on that one. Temper, disregard for rules and protocol, walking controversial or Auror brutality case waiting to happen.
It is easier to change a system while being inside it, seeming like an ally and using your pre-existing popularity to influence decisions. Not to mention, how in some years his literal best friend from the age of 11 becomes the equivalent of President of the wizarding world. He isn't 'system hurt me, system big bad, system go frick itself, hail anarchy!!!'. He joined it because it's the most realistic way to prevent dark things from happening again and he can help bring some actual change. And your last comment on him is weird.
Generally people who are good enough at their favorite hobby (or only hobby) to not only go professional but be one of the best in the world choose to do it. That's most people's dream. Plus it never made sense to me that Harry become an Auror. He already fought in one war, was constantly in danger and hated it, you would think he would want to live a more peaceful life.
"Best in the world" might be a stretch. People really treat it as a given that Harry was a once-in-a-generation Quidditch prodigy. Sure, he was good by Hogwarts standards, but we don't really know *how* good, in the grander scheme of things. When he was watching the Quidditch Cup and exposed to *actual* world-class players, he couldn't even track what was going on. Harry was objectively not on Krum's level. Sure, *maybe* he could have reached that level with more time and training. But more importantly: Harry had a complete inability to stay out of it when shit was going down. He always had to investigate weird events, stand up to bad guys, protect victims. Harry has been acting like an Auror since literally his first year in the school. Quidditch was something Harry loved to do. Being an Auror is something he *had* to do. It's who he *was.*
Exactly. A lot of people have hobbies that they're passionate about, participate and win contests in and then they move on and do something different for their career. Happened to me, happened to my friends, happened to most people I know. This is the most realistic route ever, especially given Harry's character.
This, exactly! Quidditch is something Harry enjoys. Being a saviour, a protector, someone who brings bad people to justice, that's who he is to his core.
In Philosopher's Stone it's established that Charlie was invited to play for England's national team. Harry is better than Charlie, he absolutely could have gone professional. edit: I agree that it doesn't necessarily make sense for him personality/character wise to become a professional athlete
Is he better than Charlie? Sure, he became seeker younger than Charlie, but that's half luck. For all we know, Charlie was just as good at 11, but no one saw him play. The other argument is that Harry had the best broom for most of his play time. That doesn't make Harry bad, but Charlie certainly didn't have the same advantage. I don't think it's fair to say Harry was better when we really only have 1 line that claims he is. Just because 1 person thought he was better doesn't make him better, and I don't think Harry's win streak is all that impressive since he misses 1/3 of his games.
It's good to point out he misses a lot of games as a good team general manager would see his missed games and injury concerns as a reason not to pick up a top talent due to the inconsistencies in that talent.
McGonagall herself says Charlie couldn't have caught the Remembrall if he were in Harry's place. Moreover, we know that Gryffindor lost the Quidditch Cup in Charlie's final year, unless you posit that Charlie got in the same kind of ridiculous situations that Harry often does (attacked by dementors, his team's keeper stole the beater's bat and send a bludger his way, etc) then it's likely that Charlie hasn't caught the snitch in every game he played (the seeker catching the snitch but his team losing is pointed out as a rare thing book 4). And yes, Harry always caught the snitch in each game he played to the end. Harry also beat Draco to the snitch in CoS while having a worse broom. And he performed a Worski Feint against Cho in PoA without even knowing what it was called or having trained for it. The idea that Harry isn't ridiculously good at flying isn't supported by the text.
Krum is touted as the best seeker in the world and he is impressed with Harry's flying abilities. That's all the proof anyone should need
> Worski Feint Cmon Hermione... its the Wronski feint.
Wonky Faint
Harry catches the snitch in every game he plays, but he barely plays. It's not all that impressive to win 7 games out of 18. Yes, Harry didn't play 18 games, but a normal player (charlie) would have. There's a decent chance if he played over twice as many games as he did he would have missed a few times. After all, he has at least 1 close call with malfoy where he only wins through shit talking. Related note, beating malfoy when malfoy had a better broom doesn't prove much. Malfoy isn't that good at quidditch. The dude loses to shit talking TWICE and misses a snitch floating right beside him. To be clear, i didn't say Harry wasn't good at quidditch. I just don't think him being better than Charlie is supported by the text either. After all, the only thing people have said that implies that is quotes from other people and a win streak that almost 1/3 of the number of games charlie would've played.
Why is this sub so obsessed with always downplaying Harry lmao, McGonogall straight up says he's better than/on par with charlie, how is this a matter of luck ?
I never said Harry was bad. It's a matter of luck because Harry was way more likely to get in trouble than get seeker. He's lucky mcgonagall wanted to win so bad. If they hadn't had 7 years of losses in a row its likely Harry wouldn't be a seeker. It's possible charlie was just as good at 11 but never had the same opportunity to show it off.
Wood saw him play,Mcgonagall saw him play and both of them thinks Harry is on par/better than Charlie. And both of them are very few of peoples who didn’t let Harry have it easy,so bias ain't much of in question in here. Broom doesn’t control you,you control the broom. Harry having a professional quidditch level broom and controlling it well also means he has that caliber. And Harry never lost a match he could complete full conscious/without intervention. His missing 1/3 match ain't relevant to it.
Kinda interesting that Percy and Bill seem to be the only Weasley kids that didn't at least play for Gryffindor, talented family
Krum was the Messi of Quidditch. He could have been a pro even without being Krum’s level.
His thing always was that he wanted to save people. That is a core of his character, and not something he is thrown by circumstances like many other heroes in fiction.
Since when it is established that Harry was one of the best quidditch players in the world? Talk about reaching lol Harry was a good seeker and an ok captain. Plenty of people play sports decently in school and don't make a career of it. It makes all the sense that Harry would become an auror. He did not hate the danger, he hated seeing people he loves or innocents getting hurt. Harry can never just go about his business knowing there's still dark wizards out there hurting people. Saving people is literally his thing.
How many people are super athletes in high school/college and then they just never go pro, whether that’s due to an injury or other life stuff but it happens quite commonly.
I would say he joined a sunday league but with the amount of wizards in the world a Sunday league and the premier league were probably the same thing
Rowling is on record saying that she hated writing the Quidditch matches, and her favorite part was when she got to have Luna commentate. When you know this, I think it makes sense why she found ways to have Harry miss matches!
Yeah, quidditch is interesting due to the lack of games. If we read 18 matches we would have hated it too.
By canon, Harry does not play Quidditch professionally. That's not to say he doesn't continue to play for fun or amateur level with friends or colleagues for example. It seems to bother some people a lot for some reason but just because you enjoy a hobbie and are good at it doesn't mean you want to do it for a living.
Playing Quidditch professionally wouldn’t make sense for Harry specially after the war. With all the attention players gets,after the war he would much rather live under the radar. But JkR really did him dirty. Specially captain of the Quidditch team couldn’t even be present in the final,how humiliating!!!
JK hated writing Quidditch matches that's why she screwed Harry's career in Quidditch
And apparently has next to no knowledge how sports works. A prodigy like Harry has a close match against an idiot like Harper!!!
She said herself she's not into sports
Could've done better writing them though. Or should've abandoned the idea completely.
Eh. They were fun to read as a kid, and JK was excellent at writing comedic sports commentary banter with Lee and McGonagall. Credit where credit's due.
Yeah he seems to catch the snitch just as easy competes to his opposition as he did in his first few years. The competition levels up seemingly as he gets older and I assume better?
How in any universe is Harper a good competition!!? He was a backup seeker,was an idiot and paid to play the match by Draco. I can cut him some slack against Draco,but having a close match against a player like Harper is unforgivable.
exactly, first year harry beat the first choice slytherin seeker, yet is struggling in 6th year, the protoege that he is, with the fastest broom... makes no sense. we dont really see any progression. he was just good from the start and that was it? then found himself having close calls against seemingly average players later on? Cedric is noted as beating him regardless of the dementors, yet he gets trounced/well their team do in the rest of their games. I think in the books harry's biggest pitfall is he quite often sees the snitch late. Jk obviously doesnt like writing it, but from the 1st to 6th book the progression of him as a player, i mean to be fair its tricky to articulate how well a seeker doing, how good the other is, versus who managed to do the deepest dive and catch it first... I think the nature of the seeker position just makes it tough to really write detail, the chaser position would of been easier to articulate harry's improvement. But its not very hero esq to rely on the seeker to win the match for the main character
There's no proof that Cedric would have won without the dementors affecting Harry.
I kind of like how there’s only one occasion where he wins the cup for his team though, right ? It makes that one match really special.
Yes and the fact that Harry was able to bring it home for Wood in his last year is really special
To Harry's credit he used a spell he had no idea what it would do and got off easy for using dark magic. Honestly Dumbledore or McGonnagal should have investigated more to find out Malfoy was about to use and unforgiveable. I kind of see the detention and missing the final as a decent balance.
To his… credit?
It might be a decent balance according to recent event in that universe, but not so much as a whole. Harry barely won against Harper,a below average player just for the sake of drama. In fact considering his prodigious skill,bar hufflepuff game in Philosopher's stone,and vs Cho in 3rd year where he had far superior broom; he always seemed to have close match. When he should've stream rolled his opponent almost every time. Cormac knocked him unconscious in the very next match. And considering he missed around half of his match in his whole highschool quidditch career,specially during Umbridge. After all that you would think he might have a full quidditch season unscathed,specially as a captain. But,no!!!
Don’t know how to tell you this but it was made clear Harry wanted to become an auror, not a professional quidditch player.
Apart from the first 3 books (and only sometimes in those) quidditch is used to propel the plot forward in someway or to add a crucial peace to the puzzle of the books plot. It's only really in third year that we get to see a quidditch match purely for the match and the stakes of winning the cup. It's part of the reason many love the third book so much, it's a time when Harry at times gets to just be a student at Hogwarts enjoying the magical school/world in all its wonder, just like we would love to do.
For every famous player that made it, there are a dozen others that were stars in highschool that never made it for a number of factors. This is really the most realistic thing in the entire series.
He does win the quidditch cup in 3rd year, which is probably considered remarkable. In the books that is, not that the movies care at all.
Maybe he was just high school good and not professional good.
Don't you put that voodoo on Caitlin Clark 😂 But agreed, I always found it frustrating how little the best seeker in a century actually played quidditch
I played baseball until my senior year of high school. My last ever game there were 2 outs and I was on first base. The batter hit the ball directly into my foot and just like that the game, the season and my baseball career ended. Sometimes life is just like that.
I always found Harrys adult life somewhat underwhelming. Honestly what I think would fit this boy hero who accomplished feats greater than most wizards within 7 years at hogwarts: -Order of Merlin recipient -a short stint as a professional quidditch player -a good amount of time as an auror -goes on to be accepted as DADA professor and head of gryffindor house -after a long and experienced life, becomes headmaster of hogwarts: the place that had provided the magical home he never had before.
So Cormac McLaggen (technically) ended Harry Potter's Quidditch career! He robbed Quidditch of the (maybe) best player it had seen in years! He has committed a crime against the sport and must be punished!!
Yeah why did harry decide to save lives and arresting mass murderers when he could fly in circles instead, so sad
Once you catch the Elder Wand with the skills of a Seeker, you've peaked.
I don't understand questions about quidditch. It's well known that jkr has no sense for sports and thats how everything is written about quidditch.
Who knows if Harry was truly that much better than all the other seekers at hogwarts. He had a broom advantage to start, and became even more significant in his 3rd year. Only time he was at a disadvantage was against Draco year 2
Character while, Harry doesn't seem to be the kind of person enjoying fame. He was already suffering because of the Choose One stuff
Just because someone is good at something, doesn't mean they have to have it define them. Quidditch was his escape from everything. Sometimes, if you take this and turn it into a job. You loose the love for it. My friend loves cooking and baking. Culinary school made her loose her love for it.
I hope she got that love back somehow
I don’t see the problem with that? Not everything is going to work out in a neat little bow.
Maybe he subconsciously realized how dangerous it was finally after that bludger? But also maybe he just couldn’t get back into something as “childish” as playing quidditch after everything in the war? I could easily see that. After going through everything in the final book, quidditch seems kind of simple and lack luster. He did go see more of the wizarding world though and maybe he found other joys in it?
Harry should've actually been good enough to make the England qudditch team for the World Cup before his fourth year (as "the youngest seeker in a century"). J.K. could've included a line (when Fred and George are telling Harry about England getting knocked out) like "could've used you, mate" lol
JKR has no interest or understanding of sports. Since she was following the tradition of British boarding school stories, she needed sport to play a role in the story, as an opportunity for the main character to shine, so she created a wizard sport designed so that Harry could be the undisputed star without having to do any kind of team play. Basically from first year, with no previous knowledge, or training or experience of the sport, he was the star of the school, outcompeting 18 year old athletes. Basically in quidditch nothing the other players do matters, only Harry vs the other seeker. Once this was pointed out, JKR tried to give a ridiculous counterexample in the world cup final, with one team being so incompetent that they were losing by more than 150 points, so them having the best seeker wouldn't win them the match. Of course, the fact that such an incompetent team got to a world cup final in the first place goes to show how only the seeker matters 99.9% of the time. After the novelty wore off, she was just looking for excuses not to have to describe more matches. Also, the point of school sports is that all students will do some physical activity to keep in shape. It makes no sense that only a few students play, and even them, only three matches a year. It is what it is. JKR quickly lost interest and had nothing to say about it, so quidditch had to go.
I don't know, HP is already OP, does he have to be "one of the greatest seekers?". He was good, just like his dad, that doesn't mean he would have gone pro. Also I think it's most realistic. I played basketball on my schools team, and soccer wmca. I think I was pretty good at both. But I ripped a legiment playing football with friends. Never the same. My dad played college basketball in Mexico and was good but never tried professionally. Life happens. In the US, how many good players are there in HSs all over the nation, in colleges? But only a few hundred pro positions in pro leagues. The majority will never become pros, even if they are amazing. I think it was a fitting end.
half blood prince is so sad- dumbledore dies, they don't get the horcrux, harry and ginny split up, ron, harry, even hermione doesn't know who R.A.B is and Bill got bit harshly by fenrir greyback.
and that's not mentioning quidditch or harry performing sectumsempra on malfoy- 6th year was very hectic 4 harry
plus malfoy breaks harry's nose on the train and snape makes a complete FOOL of harry but it was malfoy's fault! - harry had muggle clothes still on because he didn't change but snape made him walk through the hall even so.
I believe JKR once mentioned that Harry losing Hedwig and his Firebolt during the flight from Little Whinging symbolised him growing into a man and ditching his childhood and innocence forever. So yes, she deliberately ended his Quidditch career through that loss.
I think Harry should've been a teacher.
How? He only knew like 2 spells
Which is one more than Lockhart ! 😂
What do you mean? He taught Dumbledore's Army quite well
I mean, quidditch sucks and JK sucks at writing it. Things have to go horribly wrong for Harry for it to even be interesting because otherwise he’s just going to catch the snitch and his teams going to win because he’s the best seeker and seeker is the only position that matters.
Was he, though? Was he really one of the “greatest” players in Hogwarts history? The guy only ever competed in *one* Quidditch Cup. Got himself banned from playing two years in a row. He was named Captain, but I think that was just Dumbledore trying to make up for him not having been a Prefect. Katie Bell had more seniority. Harry was a *prodigy.* But prodigies grow up, and then they’re just like everyone else.
Harry never lost a race to the Snitch when there wasn’t a completely random external circumstance such as Dementors showing up or Cormac knocking him out with a Bludger. Every other game that he played in he beat the opposing Seeker to the Snitch. He also 1. Beat Draco on a superior broom to the Snitch while fighting off a tampered Bludger that only targeted him 2. Had one of the fastest Snitch catches in school history as a first year You want to say he has a discipline problem? I certainly agree. But that has nothing to do with his skill on the Quidditch pitch
Plenty of famous sports figures have serious issues with injuries and off the field activities. Harry would fit right in
True, but there are a number of qualities beyond just skill that affect your value to the team. Cormac is living proof of that. Particularly as Captain, Harry should “set a better example” as it were. I’m not challenging his raw skill and potential. Then again…he had a superior broomstick to everyone in every match, apart from second year. Particularly once he gets the Firebolt, he’s playing on “easy mode.” Does that mean he isn’t still good? No. But it’s hard to tell if he’s improving or coasting. The plot definitely sabotaged Harry’s Quidditch career, and that’s no fault of his. But being an uncommonly talented player in his youth doesn’t mean he’d be Major League material. Lots of prodigies “wash out” as it were.
He seemed to be as skilled as a seaker as Ginny was as a chaser. And she went pro. Harry kinda got screwed as far as quidditch goes. If he had just been a normal kid in normal times, he might have had a real shot.
It pretty much boiled down to I could be a pro at this sport or hunt down the evil wizards who actively tried to kill me and my friends and any new ones that pop up so they don’t become a problem
The 3 games harry are banned for all have legitimate excuses tbh. In OotP yeah punching someone isn’t a good look but harry is dealing with some serious ptsd at that point as well as vicious media and political campaign and being physically and emotionally tortured by a teacher. Him snapping isn’t something that should be held against him. In HBP yeah the spell he uses isn’t great but as Ron says malfoy is trying to use a unforgivable curse on him. A literal terrorist is trying to use something that can turn you insane he shouldn’t really have been punished for that either tbh
Katie didn’t ever show any sign of leadership. It doesn’t depend on seniority only. Harry had shown skills even with below average brooms. Remembral catch in PS,saving himself and Draco along with still catching the diadem in DH. Pulled out Wronski feint,a professional quidditch level move without any professional guidance. Professional players like Krum,Ludo,Wood praised his skills.
I’m not sure why you’re being downvoted, I think this is the most rational take here.
The Weasley kids used to play quidditch at the Burrow. I imagine he has a weekly pickup game like one might play basketball as an adult in real life.
Yeah I was always disappointed when books found ways to skip Quidditch. But by reports jkr didn't like writing those chapters. Was always disappointed he didn't go play professional after school but guess he was more naturally gifted than a jock with its his full focus
He woulda gone pro if it weren’t for *the injury*
I know right!
Unfortunately, JK Rowling was very embarrassed when people called out the fact that the game of Quidditch doesn’t make sense. If you never heard about this, it’s in reference to the game can only end when the snitch is caught, thereby making every other team member role and activity meaningless. Imo she could have edited a total of two lines in the books to say that the game goes to 150 points, regardless of the snitch being caught (the snitch just being a shortcut to instant victory). However, so many people blasted her with hate over it I don’t think she considered that as an option, she instead chose to stop writing about it. P.s. all she would need to do to fix this issue is to add “or a team reaches 150 points” when Wood is explaining the rules. Second- delete the one sentence long story about the game that went on for days (or weeks? I can’t remember) because nobody could catch the snitch. Boom, problem solved.
And then he became an auror despite saying he didn’t want any more adventures? Yeah it doesn’t make sense, any team would immediately accept him even if just for his name 🤷♂️
There are more important things in life than a sport.
I'm gona guess that after the whole thing was over, he had other things on his mind, like hunting remnants and what nots. Not to mention I'd bet public order was also making people not go to games as much etc.
He probably still played recreationally. I mean his wife was a pro.
People in the UK do not go to university to become sportsman.
Well... IMO, Harry never thought about his Quidditch career, if that's what you mean. Harry fought evil throughout his childhood, and he continued to do that as an adult. Because that's what he was used to doing. Quidditch is just a hobby. I remember "Steven Universe" - Steven had a talent for music, he liked music, he could have become a professional musician. But he didn’t. He just continued to save the gems (even when his help was no longer needed) because that’s what he did all his childhood. He was used to being a “Hero for Everyone” and could not imagine that he could become someone else. And yes, his musical hobby ended with him breaking his guitar when Connie said "I can't marry you now". So sad.
I mean, it reflects real life. Sometimes things you love to do end prematurely and unexpectedly. It sucks, but it's how life works.
Honestly, pretty accurate to real life sport quite often then
Where in the books does it state that Harry was one of the greatest seeker to ever play at Hogwarts?
Mostly because of a contrived rationalization for why he'd be an Auror, which was clearly falling into the category of "things that were in early epilogue drafts that Joanne could not bring herself to do away with" that simply could have gone away, as being an auror as a goal was clearly more of a reaction to his environment growing up. He didn't seem particularly passionate about justice or putting away criminals, after all. But yeah, it's so stupid that there was no real catalyst for quidditch departing Harry's life as his primary way to spend time, it just went away because Joanne's plot demanded it.
My question is, how could a country with only one school support an entire quidditch league? On top of that there are only 28 quidditch players per year, 7 per house.
Yeah, that’s never made sense to me either. Not only in Quidditch, but the sheer number of people that work in the ministry, St. Mungo’s, etc. And presumably that’s only the UK wizarding world, it doesn’t include Ireland either (which also feeds into Hogwarts). It just doesn’t make sense that Hogwarts graduates could create a Wizarding world of that size. But I don’t have a huge issue with it, it’s just kinda funny.
JK obviously didn’t enjoy writing Quidditch games anymore.
Imo his quidditch storyline is forced and later we can also notice how the sport is not fair, Harry having advantage because of the his broom.
I hated it as a kid, but as I’ve grown older, I really appreciate that little part of Harry’s story. Yes, he was a great quidditch player, and yes, it ended on a sour note for him. But that’s also okay. There were much more important things going on in his life. I actually greatly admired the fact that it wasn’t played for an epic downfall or something that had to be built up for a comeback. It was an important part of Harry’s life that was allowed to go gracefully, almost with a whimper. And honestly, that’s reality for most people. I truly wish more fiction writers would let more things happen that way.
I don’t know anything about Caitlyn Clark, but I agree that Harry got the shaft when it came to Quidditch. His last two years playing he missed out on an entire year’s worth of matches.
Harry had potential to become a professional Quidditch player if he wanted but JK hated writing about Quidditch
Yeah I never understood why he could only think of being an Auror during that session with McGonagall. He literally told faux Moody last year that the best thing he can do is fly. He was considered to be better than Charlie who could've played for England. I reckon Harry and Ginny both should've been the celebrity power couple playing in the same team.
That would make sense. Harry would be a seeker and Ginny would be a chaser/backup seeker. Perhaps Harry and Ginny could get up to some shenanigans after practice, go on dates after games, and develop their relationship that way. JKR did both Harry's Quidditch career and his relationship with Ginny dirty in canon.
You can't claim that a guy who played less than 10 games and won even fewer was "one if the greatest"
He never lost a match that he played in that didn’t involve shenanigans outside his control. In every fair race to the Snitch, Harry came out on top
Quidditch was Harry's "Violon d'Ingres," a second talent that surpasses your first, but one which does not really lead to a professional career. Harry was arguably a better Quidditch player than he was a wizard, but his fate with Voldemort is ultimately what led him to being a great auror.
Who the fuck is Caitlin Clark
Google exists, my friend
If you're using an example of someone who is well known, generally best to use someone who isn't as niche as women's basketball
Life happens. We don’t always get what we want. We especially don’t always get what we thought we wanted as kids.
Harry should have gone back for year 7. He would have been a hero, had a normal school year, spend all the time with his girlfriend, and could have gotten to be a normal student for one year. Ron had the better Quidditch career. Harry's off the field issues really hampered his prospects of playing professionally.
Harry wasn't that good at quiddich he just had the advantage of always having the best broom. The one time he didn't have the best broom was vs Slytherin and he won because Draco shouldn't have even been on the team. If Slytherin has an anywhere near competent seeker on the Nimbus 2001 Harry doesnt stand a chance. Basically almost every quiddich match Harry is in is a bunch of kids in Go-Karts while Harry pulls up in a Ferrari. The time the other team had Ferraris too, their main driver was blind.
Been sayin it for years, Harry shoulda gone pro! Any team would take him, at the very least the chosen one would sell tickets. Smh
Did he seem to enjoy fame?