Author's Note: Thanks for your reviews! Here's a happy chapter to help you get through the sad ones. I hope you enjoy X-Quidd.
Vault 712:
A Harry Potter Treasury
PenPatronus
Chapter / List Nine:
Quidditch!
1) They finished rebuilding the Hogwarts Quidditch pitch a week before school began again in September. Hundreds of people attended the big opening ceremony to see Headmistress McGonagall christen the "Dumbledore Memorial Pitch."
Pickup games started as soon as the ceremony was over. The Weasley family was an entire team: Percy, Ginny and Bill played Chasers, Ron was the Keeper, Charlie the Seeker and George and Arthur were Beaters. They all wore maroon shirts with a gold "F" in the middle.
Harry rounded up a random team to challenge the Weasley's. Once again he played alongside Oliver Wood. Minister Shacklebolt was a formidable beater. Viktor Krum tried his hand at the bat but was dreadful at it! Katie Bell spent most of her time trying to keep Neville Longbottom from falling off his broom and Dean Thomas surprised everyone with his athleticism as a Chaser.
They played until midnight, enjoying each other's company and laughing the whole time. No one kept score.
2) Hermione (and Ron, by default) organized mini-Quidditch games for House-Elves and Goblins. It was a good idea, but didn't catch on. The Goblins spent more time gambling on the games than playing them and most of the Elves were afraid of heights!
Kreacher, who was team captain of the Dobbies, was pretty good on a broom as long as he didn't look down!
3) With Harry's help, Teddy Lupin became an amazing Seeker. He broke every record that Harry Potter, James Potter and Charlie Weasley set, and he did so in his very first year at Hogwarts.
His Metamagus powers came in handy on the Quidditch pitch. If he wanted to distract the other Seeker all he had to do was turn his hair the color of a golden Snitch!
4) The Hogwarts Quidditch teams were no longer organized by Houses. There were still four teams, named after four Hogwarts Headmasters / Headmistress: Dumbledore, Snape, McGonagall and Dippet. Each team consisted of two Gryffindors, two Hufflepuffs, two Ravenclaws and two Slytherins. That equaled seven players with an eighth as an alternate. The teams were mixed up again every year.
The Sorting Hat was recruited to determine who would be on which team.
5) The only reason why Harry allowed the makers of the Nimbus 2000 to name a new line of brooms after him was because they agreed to give Hogwarts a hundred of them for free. Every kid who dreamed of being a Quidditch player wanted a Potter 3000. The handle of the sleek, black broom had a golden lightning bolt on it and the tips of the brushes glowed green when it flew.
6) Lee Jordan and George Weasley came up with the idea for "Extreme Quidditch" (nicknamed X-Quidd) after watching a Muggle event called the "X Games."
George blamed the Firewhiskey.
The rules of X-Quidd were basically the same as traditional Quidditch. The pitch was similar except that its gravity reversed at random intervals and the grass burst into flames if a Quaffle touched it. The beaters were armed with Dungbombs (George's idea) and two more bludgers were added into the mix (Lee's idea). The X-Quidd Snitch was smaller and had the ability to camouflage itself. They also created decoy Snitches called Ghosts. If a Seeker grabbed one of the Ghost Snitches, it disappeared.
The Seeker and Chasers were given special wands that shot two offensive spells and one defensive: a blast of wind, a flash of light and a shield. They could use the wind to move a ball out of their opponent's reach, blind them with the light and deflect a Quaffle or a bludger with the shield. Unfortunately that didn't work very well when the balls became invisible!
Another goal for the Keeper to guard was added, one that moved under its own will like the staircases at Hogwarts. If a Chaser got a Quaffle through that tricky hoop they earned double the points! The goal post would spit confetti and Weasley Wizard Wheezes fireworks. Also, in Harry's honor, the Seeker got triple the points if he caught the Snitch in his mouth.
A year after George and Lee pitched the idea to the Ministry, X-Quidd was an international success.