The Quidditch Loophole:
Harry was making his way toward the Quidditch pitch for their last practice game of the year. They were about to play Ravenclaw. So far, both Gryffindor and Ravenclaw had done pretty poorly. They had lost all the Quidditch matches they had played, and were at the bottom of the league. When he reached the pitch, he saw the rest of his teammates and was surprised to find that Oliver Wood was smiling.
"Roger Davies and I had a talk last earlier and he came up with a great idea. I can't believe I was too stupid not to think of it before. We can tie with Ravenclaw for the Quidditch cup."
"But how will we do that?" moaned Angelina Johnson. "Both of us are at the bottom of the league."
"I know," said Oliver, "but we can pass Hufflepuff and Slytherin up if we agree to help each other out. Now listen. Slytherin has 500 points, Hufflepuff has 480 points, Ravenclaw has 150 points and we have 120 points. That means Ravenclaw needs 360 points to pass Slytherin up and we need 390 points to pass Slytherin up."
Harry clapped his hand to his mouth. Harry realized what the plan was, and was also feeling stupid for not having thought of it earlier.
"Now here's what will happen," continued Oliver. "We're going to let Ravenclaw score 36 goals, so they'll have 360 points. Ravenclaw will let you 3(he pointed at Angelina, Alicia, and Katie) score 24 goals, so we'll have 240 points. Then, Harry, Cho Chang will let you catch the snitch so that we get 390 points."
"Brilliant," said Fred.
"Yeah well," began George, "it's a bit embarrassing that we didn't figure it out earlier."
"Isn't that sort of cheating?" asked Katie Bell.
"Of course not," said Oliver. "Failing to save goal posts is not cheating. Nor is failing to catch the snitch, or misaiming your bludgers."
"This is a brilliant idea," began Alicia Spinnet, "but it does seem pretty unfair that even though each of us lost to both Hufflepuff and Slytherin, we can still beat them to the Quidditch Cup."
"Do my ears deceive me?" said George. "A Gryffindor showing sympathy for Slytherins."
"You have to admit though," said Harry, "that it's strange that no one's spotted that loophole yet."
"Are you guys saying you don't want to do this?" asked Oliver, sounding put out.
"Of course we want to," said Harry grinning.
"Yeah, okay," said Alicia wearily.
"Brilliant," said Wood. "There'll be no need to practice tonight then. And please don't tell anyone of this plan."
Harry got up the next morning feeling considerably less nervous than he usually did the morning before a Quidditch match.
"Do try and catch the snitch this time," said Ron at breakfast.
"I have been trying," said Harry. "It wasn't my fault that the dementors showed up at the Slytherin match, or that Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, and Marcus distracted me from catching the snitch in the Ravenclaw match."
"We understand," said Hermione. "But none of that will happen in this match."
"You're already really far behind though," said Ron miserably. Harry, remembering his promise to Oliver, restrained himself from telling Ron the thing that would comfort him.
Ten minutes later, they walked down to the Quidditch pitch. All 14 players mounted their brooms.
"Captains, shake hands," said Madam Hooch. Oliver and Roger shook hands. Madam Hooch then released the 4 balls. Harry started circling the pitch, pretending to look for the snitch and keeping track of the scores.
The 2 teams were alternating between letting each other score. Both keepers pretended to try and catch the Quaffle every time it came toward their hoop, and gave a load groan when the Quaffle went in. The chasers made fake attempts to tackle the Quaffle from the other team's chaser.
Finally, both teams had scored 24 goals. Then, Ravenclaw scored 12 consecutive goals, with Lee Jordan swearing really loudly.
Harry's heart started beating faster. It was time to catch snitch. The chasers were now going towards the goal posts and deliberately throwing it to the keeper, so they wouldn't score any more goals. Harry spotted the snitch right in front of Cho Chang. She reached out and deliberately stretched her arm in the wrong direction. She kept doing this until Harry flew toward the snitch and caught it himself.
The crowd applauded. "Gryffindor has won the match!" said Lee. "And, by the looks of it, they have tied with Ravenclaw for the Quidditch cup. There's never been a tie before!"
Next, however, it was McGonagall's voice that spoke into the microphone. "I want all 14 players in the Headmaster's office immediately." Her voice was full of fury.
Harry's heart sank like a stone. Of course someone had realized what they were up to. It had been so obvious.
Harry and the rest of the players followed McGonagall to Dumbledore's office. Dumbledore was sitting behind his desk. Once they were in, they all sat down, and McGonagall turned to look at them, cold anger in her face.
"That was despicable," she said. "How dare you abuse the system like that."
"Please," began Oliver, "I tried as hard as I could to prevent the quaffle-"
"Silence Wood! I'm insulted that you expected me not to realize that it was all deliberate. 50 points from each of you. None of you are ever playing Quidditch again. I don't care how terrible a team we have next year!"
Harry's insides were burning with guilt and stupidity. How could he have expected everyone to be fooled?
"Minverva," said Dumbledore softly. He stood up and walked over to her side. "We cannot punish them."
"What are you talking about? They cheated. They completely took advantage of the point system."
"They did not cheat," said Dumbledore. "Nothing they did was wrong. They were only able to abuse the point system because of how I structured it. I now see that it was a mistake of course. But you must understand that the current point system makes it possible to do what they did. Therefore, they did not cheat to get it." Dumbledore looked at the 2 teams. "The Quidditch cup belongs to both of you this year. However, starting next year, there will be a different point system. After a match, we will take the difference in points between the 2 teams, and that's how many points the winning team will get, well the losing team won't get any points. Therefore, you will have no choice but to go as hard of you can against the other team if you want to win the cup."
Harry, feeling a huge wave of relief, made his way back to Gryffindor tower, feeling happy that they had won the cup, but at the same time, feeling like Dumbledore had a point.