I kind of hate how much importance was thrown on Quidditch in HP
Like I understand the metaphor regarding war and saviors and like yeah, sure, makes sense
But also, schools have OTHER kinds of teams too
Even in America where the only thing people watch is football, there’s soccer teams and chess teams and debate teams and cross country teams and track teams and ski teams
So as a non-athletic person I’m like “how do I show my school spirit tho? Gobstones Club?” And we all know duelling club was only a thing for a while before shit started to go wrong
Hogwarts Debate Team. Slytherins being given the argument FOR muggleborns to attend wizarding schools, Ravenclaws against (fyi oftentimes in debate your side is chosen for you) and like
Slytherins wanting to WIN so badly (ambitious much) and so their arguments are through the roof amazing and just like
They end up convincing themselves
And the Ravenclaws aren’t even mad
Hogwarts Track Team. The Gryffindors convincing Hagrid to clear a path in the Forbidden Forest so they can train in secret, training trees to grow into hurdles and pole vaulting tracks
Hufflepuffs taking over the Quidditch stands during practices because no one really cares if they’re around cuz last time Hufflepuff won the Cup was like 50 years ago
(Hufflepuff Quidditch winning that year because their track team was spying the whole time)
Hogwarts Geocaching. Hufflepuffs having a natural advantage because finding but then Gryffindors and Slytherins working together to get ahold of some Nifflers and the Ravenclaws figuring out how to train their abilities to find caches instead of shiny things
Hufflepuffs still doing better
McGonagall stumbling upon a cache in her office and TOTALLY getting in on it
Hermione teaching Gryffindor the “point me” charm from the Triwizard Tournament so they all have a compass