21st October 2022 • The Wizarding World's Beguiling Broadsheet of Choice • 5 κ
THE FUTURE OF QUIDDITCH, PT. 1
By Ginny Potter, Quidditch Correspondent
Is there anything more exciting than Quidditch season at Hogwarts? The blurs of house colours and home-charmed banners, the teenage romance and bravado on display, the exasperation of professors when the outpourings of enthusiasm become entirely too much to keep in check, the constant adrenaline from watching for dementors and life-threatening hexes (my husband tells me this line is not nostalgic or amusing, but I disagree, and if it has made it into print, so does my editor). My personal favourite part of match day at Hogwarts was breakfast that morning, when the air was so charged with energy you felt as though one stray wand spark would light the whole room on fire. Professional Quidditch is arguably more exciting in play, but off the pitch the seasoned veterans (as a general rule; there are some notable exceptions) don’t seem to have the same all-encompassing do-or-die mentality that made school Quidditch so exhilarating. Professional Quidditch fans have been known to do some rather mad things after matches, but not a single thing I’ve seen holds a candle to the atmosphere of the Gryffindor Common Room after a win—or a loss. Imagine, then, those highlights (or low points), amplify them exponentially, and you might have a taste of the ambiance of Hogwarts in the days leading up to the first match of the Junior International Quidditch Tournament. Everything has intensified, from the colours to the pressure to the general excitement among the student body. Beauxbatons and Durmstrang face off on the newly renovated Hogwarts pitch tomorrow, 22 October, and from what I have seen of both groups of young players, it will be quite the event. Amid the politics and the rhetoric of cultural receptiveness and international understanding that surround this tournament and its participant schools, here are young adults who (for the most part) just want to play Quidditch. Heart, determination, and a certain degree of foolhardy characterise them, though a few are admittedly more naturally inclined to the exposure that comes with the territory than others. On both teams are surnames true Quidditch fans will recognise, as well as newcomers who prove a pedigree isn’t required for success. The Beauxbatons team, coached by four-time French National Chaser, Josephine Marat, is exceptionally lovely, awfully plaisant, and quite easy to talk to. Captain Didier Blanchard (son of Michel Blanchard, Marat’s former French National teammate), a strikingly beautiful young man, put into words precisely the impression I have of Beauxbatons’ playing style—“quick and graceful and also deadly”—which, not coincidentally, is how I would describe Marat in her glory days. And Marat is not the only one who seems to have made an indelible impression on these young students. The moral fibre of Headmaster Gualberto Duarte is reflected in his team’s attitude toward integrity; “I hate people with poor sportsmanship and sore losers. It’s one of my very strong dislikes,” says Mei Arvers. Alessandro Costa demonstrates Duarte’s characteristic humour, “My sister Marina tells me that I go after a thrown ball like a dog,” echoed also by Danielle Moyet who gets in a good-natured jab at her classmates across the Pond: “The French influence in Canada has helped them to be passable cooks. This is what they are thankful for each year.” Nor has Hogwarts failed to make a positive impression on the lot, though some degree of homesickness has predictably kicked in. Blanchard gushes about the shops in Hogsmeade and the quaint Scottish countryside, confiding “I even went on a lovely picnic with one very nice student and I loved going to Hogsmeade with Hogwarts student!” As sophisticated and charming as the lot is—niggling English grammar points aside—they are serious about their futures in the sport. For each of them, Quidditch factors into future goals, with Moyet even thinking about ways to improve the sport and its prospects: “I want to find ways to help Muggleborn children train outside of school. Perhaps with apparatus or training camps.” Truly inspiring, as is this team as a whole. The Durmstrang crew makes an entirely different—though no less remarkable—kind of impression. Coached by superstar Seeker Viktor Krum (whose return to Hogwarts caused déjà vu for those of us who recall the last Triwizard Tournament), the Durmstrang team is on the whole more averse to the idea of a newspaper interview. Anastasiya Bielski answers no more than two sentences to any question asked of her, though her respect for her coach is apparent. Also uncooperative is Jana Wronski, granddaughter of renowned Seeker Josef Wronski, who despite her open disdain for my questions is nonetheless unable to keep from singing her team’s praises: “I am impressed by our dynamic and the way we function as a unit...I know that we are a powerful team, and we give our best during every match.” Powerful does, indeed, seem to be the best adjective to describe these young players, coupled perhaps with intense. Though charming seems better suited to their French counterparts, the Durmstrangers have their answer in Eirik Krum, younger son of the coach, who admits to having snogged one of his new classmates and, when asked if there was a special someone to whom his performance was dedicated, answers “Yes, indeed there is. She knows who she is - this performance is for her. What? No. I don't have a girlfriend. I just thought if I didn't say who I'd have a bunch of ladies cheering my name thinking I'm winning for them.” His elder brother, Roald Krum, is equally amiable, though less flirtatious. Though Durmstrang, too, seems on the whole focused on proving themselves capable for a future career in Quidditch, Katja Vos’s aspirations appear to lie beyond the realm of professional sport: “I want to go into law, and help women in particular receive justice. I want to change people’s lives and help rid the world of this horrible inequality.” Captain Celima Dolinskaya’s passion for the sport is evident in her description of the exhilaration of a snitch chase: “That one moment when you are stretching for the snitch and the other person is swerving in from under you, behind you, whichever, and your fingers are only centimeters away … The blood, it’s rushing in your head and you are so very certain that you will catch it. Yet nothing is that certain … until your hand closes around it. And you win, your team wins.” If these young, impressive individuals are the future of this sport, things are looking pretty bright indeed.