Harry Potter Was a Generational Quidditch Star
From Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, we know how Harry’s life went after the Battle of Hogwarts: He finished school, did his Auror training, and ended up as a high-ranking law enforcement official. Nice career – it probably comes with a pension and benefits, a nice office, a personal assistant, the works. But it also came with a downside: We never got to see the superstar Quidditch career that Harry could have had.
Superstardom is exactly where Harry would have been headed if he’d stuck with Quidditch. He’s a generational talent, and the sport missed out on an enormous opportunity when he decided he wanted a life in the law.
It’s evident from the first time he gets on a broomstick: He’s an utter natural. With literally zero training, he knows exactly how to make the broom respond to his directions; soon after that, at his very first training session, he doesn’t miss a single ball that Wood throws. This is his second time on a broomstick, and the first was just one brief flight past Malfoy to catch Neville’s Remembrall. When Harry first steps on a broom, more or less, he’s already playing at the level of a Hogwarts House team Seeker.
The accolades don’t stop: Harry wins every match he plays in for his first two years, and the only reason Gryffindor doesn’t win a cup is that Harry is injured for the final in his first year, and then the final is canceled in the second. In his third year, Harry finally loses a match – but only because Dementors show up, which really isn’t his fault. That year, Gryffindor also wins the cup, and Harry remains undefeated in Dementor-free matches.
After the season is canceled in his fourth year, in his fifth, playing for a new captain, Harry keeps up his winning ways. Sure, he eventually gets banned for the season, but before that, he rescues the team from a humiliating defeat when Ron can’t keep things together. He remains undefeated in Dementor-free matches.
As Harry reaches sixth year and becomes captain himself, he shows no sign of slowing down. Sure, he loses another match – but only because his own Keeper knocks him out with a Bludger. His Dementor-free record is no longer perfect, but we can still truthfully say that Harry has won every match he’s played in which no one has hit him in the head with a Bludger or tried to suck out his soul.
We see Harry master complex moves in no time, capture Snitches from faster, stronger, older opponents, and put his Seeker’s eye and immense skill on a broomstick to capture a flying key, out-fly an angry dragon, and escape cursed fire. On the Quidditch pitch, he anchors his team and comes through every time. Off the pitch, with a broom in his hand, he’s invincible.
Perhaps most informative, though, are the reactions Harry earns from those who watch him. Professor McGonagall and Wood both compare him – favorably – to Charlie Weasley, who “could have played for England.” The word clearly spreads: By Book 4, Amos Diggory talks excitedly – and rudely – about how Cedric managed to beat Harry in a Seeker matchup. That level of excitement doesn’t come from any ordinary win; Amos is excited because he knows that no one else has ever beaten Harry. Harry is such a talented Seeker that word has escaped Hogwarts, and the wizarding world is starting to take notice.
Put it this way: After leaving Hogwarts, Wood signs with the Puddlemere United Reserve Squad. Wood is obviously a great Keeper – but doesn’t it seem like Harry is even better at Seeking than Wood is at Keeping?
Sure, there are knocks against Harry’s game. Most prominently, he doesn’t seem like a very natural leader. He’s not as forceful a captain as Wood or Angelina, and twice, he gets into trouble off the pitch and is forced to miss crucial matches. But all of that is mostly Voldemort-related stuff, and with the Dark Lord vanquished, Harry should be free to graduate Hogwarts and enter professional Quidditch as a highly-touted, can’t-miss Seeker prospect.
Obviously, Harry was always headed toward Dark-wizard-fighting as a lifetime pursuit. When you’re Harry Potter, that’s hard to escape. But somewhere along the line, he also became one of the best Quidditch players Hogwarts had ever seen. That’s incredibly difficult to achieve and not something that should be taken lightly. At the very least, Harry should have given Quidditch a more serious look. That soaring, elated feeling he felt when he first took off? Few get to experience it, but Harry was one of them – and it’s too bad he didn’t give it more of a chance.
