My Day With Oliver Wood – Harry Potter Fanfic

[This article is a work of fiction written using information based on the books, especially the book “Quidditch Through The Ages”.]

oliverwood
Olliver Wood

I’m a really big fan of Oliver Wood, the coolest Quidditch player to come out of Hogwarts since Charlie Weasley. Never expecting any reply, I found out the mailing address of Puddlemere United and sent Oliver Wood a Dodger’s baseball cap (I live in Los Angeles) with a note saying if he’s ever in the states, Dodgers tickets and hot-dogs were on me. You’ll never know how surprised I was to receive a reply from Oliver himself, saying he couldn’t make it away from training, but inviting me to come to London and spend the day with him learning about Quidditch. Needless to say, I was on the next plane!

We met early in the morning at The Leaky Cauldron, which is the place to go to meet a Witch or Wizard if you’re in England. Our first stop was to be the nearby London Museum of Quidditch, but as Oliver explained, you can’t be so close to Diagon Alley and not take a moment to check out Quality Quidditch Supplies. I agreed.

After a quick cup of tea and a little catching-up between Oliver and Tom, the Leaky Cauldron’s inkeeper, we headed out the back and walked straight to QQS. I had been to Diagon Alley once before and longed to revisit all the cool shops again (I could spend all day in Flourish and Blotts, and another whole day in Mr. Cobble’s Vintage Wizarding Wares, which everyone else calls the ‘junk shop’), but Quidditch was my mission today and so I stuck close to Ollie, and we were outside the window of QQS before I knew it. I almost bumped into him as he had stopped dead in front of the window. Obviously a new broom was being displayed there, all I could see from my vantage point through the crowd was the bright shine coming off its highly polished handle.

Once inside, Ollie introduced me to the manager of QQS, Karl Broadmoor, one of the dirtiest Quidditch players in league history ever. He and his brother Kevin were beaters for the Falmouth Falcons in the sixties and, as Karl proudly told me, they were suspended fourteen times, a league record. Mr. Broadmoor escorted Ollie and I from the crowded, noisy store into QQS’s back room, and there it was. The Stratus X, the latest racing broom from the Nimbus Company. I couldn’t believe anything could look cooler than a Firebolt, but this magnificent broom did. Its bristles came off its tail in two bunches, making it look like a serpent’s tongue. It wasn’t moving, but you could sense it was humming with pent-up energy. As Mr. Broadmoor was rattling off its statistics, accelleration, turning radius, breaking speed, Ollie just stood motionless and stared at it with his mouth hanging slightly open.

“No chance on taking it out for a test spin, I suppose,” Ollie asked longingly, finally coming to his senses after a moment. “You couldn’t afford the insurance,” Mr. Broadmoor replied.

Back in the front of the store, I wanted to buy one of everything, but I hadn’t changed any of my muggle money for galleons, so I had to just settle for looking. Official Quidditch team robes from all the British and Irish teams. Specially-charmed quaffle-handling gloves. Miniature scale-models of famous brooms. A whole wall of books and magazines about The Sport of Warlocks, Ollie had to drag me away from it.

qqs
Quality Quidditch Supplies in Diagon Alley

We bid our goodbyes to Mr. Broadmoor and as we were making our way out of the shop, Ollie threw me something orange. It was a Chudley Cannons cap! “We’re even!” said Ollie, smiling. It went right on my head and there it stayed all day.

Back inside the Leaky Cauldron, it was a quick floo-trip to the Museum of Quidditch. Once again, there were so many things to see and do, I could spend the whole day here as well.

There were ancient letters documenting the earliest days of the sport, preserved in glass cases. There were antique quaffles, some with handles and others with finger holes, like muggle bowling balls. There was also a collection of very old bludgers, some still active and having to be strapped to the inside of the display case. Several Golden Snitches (I spotted at least two) flew randomly in and out the rooms.

There were some ancient brooms that you could actually take for a ride around the museum’s courtyard, and let me tell you, thank heaven for Elliot Smethwyck (who invented the broom cushioning charm in the early 1800’s), you can’t do more than a few minutes on one of those old brooms before you really start to regret it! We also took two of the museum’s Cleansweeps for a spin, they were the first real sports brooms introduced in the late 1920’s. Ollie showed me a few excellent moves I’d never tried before, including the finer points of flying no-handed. The adjustment of balance is hard to describe, but I can tell you that you use your knees a lot.

But my favorite part of the musuem was the History of the Quidditch World Cup exhibit. There you can see an actual World Cup award plus mimentos of past games, the robes of famous players, lots of pictures (all moving, of course), and best of all, several pairs of omnioculars that you can look through to watch famous plays from past cup games, including examples of some pretty nasty fouls, and the most famous seeker of all time, Josef Wronski, executing a Wronski Feint against an unlucky seeker from Spain.

And then it was finally time for the match, the Cannons vs. the Pride of Portree. Another quick floo-trip to Chudley in Devon, and then a portkey north to Hennock, where Chudley Stadium is hidden in Dartmoor National Park. It was a few minutes until the match and the place was packed. I followed Ollie to our seats, we were held-up several times by young fans wanting his autograph, and we finally made it all the way up to our seats way up at the top of the stadium.

“Good seats, huh?” asked Ollie. I agreed, thanking him, and commented that it was sort of backwards from what I was used to at baseball games in America, where the seats all the way down front were the best and the ones up top of the stadium were the cheapest seats. Ollie thought that was funny.

Another difference between going to a baseball game and a Quidditch match I noticed was that I didn’t see a lot of food being sold at the stadium, except for some small mince-meat pies outside. At a baseball game, you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting some sort of food vendor, hot dogs, pizza, peanuts, nachos, ice cream, soda. But I didn’t mind, because a few minutes after we found our seats, the guy came around selling Butterbeer!

The Prides got out to an early lead, scoring the first goal after only a few minutes. The Cannons got off a few close shots in succession next, but the Prides’ keeper Meaghan McCormack, the daughter of famous Prides keeper Catriona McCormack from the sixties, was in great form, making the save each time. Ollie spoke of her very reverently, and I got the impression that if she wasn’t on an opposing team, he’d be asking her for a date. Ollie also mentioned that Meaghan’s brother is Kirley McCormack, lead guitarist for the Weird Sisters, and that he shows up to Prides matches sometimes, but we never spotted him.

At this point, I guess the Cannons started to get a bit aggravated, because in the next play two of the Cannons chasers got called for stooging, which is more than one chaser in the scoring area at the same time. (Ollie was very impressed I knew that.) The Prides chaser made the resulting penalty shot, making it 20 to nil. A few plays later, one of the Cannons beaters got called for bumphing, as the bludger sailed into the stands not too far from where we were sitting. The referee took care of the errant bludger immediately by blowing it up (I have one of the pieces!), and although you could tell even from so far away by the way he was gesturing that the Cannons beater was insisting it was an accident, it was another penalty shot for the Prides, which they missed, making the Cannons fans go crazy.

With the crowd now behind them, chanting “Cannons… Cannons…”, the Cannons were on their best form, but they were no match for the Prides, and the match was a stalemate for the next twenty minutes or so.

Then, all of a sudden, everyone was pointing to the Prides’ seeker, who, from highest reaches of the stadium, had all of a sudden started a dramatic dive almost straight down. The Cannons’ seeker was all the way at the other end of the stadium, he zoomed in her direction, but it was too late, as she recovered out of the spectacular dive with the snitch in her hand, and it was all over, 170 to nothing.

We lingered for awhile in our seats talking about the match, because not everyone can take the portkeys at the same time, but before I knew it was portkey and floo-powder back to the Leaky Cauldron where we had one more Butterbeer together before we had to call it a day and Ollie and I said goodbye, promising to keep in touch using the email-to-owl exchange. It’s a day I’ll never forget. And I’m still wearing the hat!

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David Haber
David Haber

D.S. Haber (known to his friends as Dave) is a professional muggle computer programmer and web designer and lives in Los Angeles. He is proud of the fact that he is a new-blood wizard with no (apparent) previous magical blood in his family. His favorite Quidditch team is the Falmouth Falcons, who's motto is "Let us win, but if we cannot win, let us break a few heads." He is also a West Ham United (Hammers) fan.

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Britney
Britney
17 years ago

Er.. I think I did learn a lot more about Quidditch though I am not paticularly fond of it. Anyway, thanks Dave, it was pretty imaginative and enjoyed reading it.

david
david
17 years ago

you have no idea how jealous i am of you

Kevin
Kevin
17 years ago

Did Wood happen to mention if he’d heard of any of the teams being interested in Potter?

D.S. Haber
D.S. Haber
17 years ago

We didn’t speak about Harry specifically, but it was my impression that, besides the fact that Harry is still in school, the wizarding world generally feels he’d be too much of a “distraction” for any team because of things like being “the chosen one”…

Sidra
Sidra
17 years ago

WOW!

Heather
Heather
17 years ago

Dave, sounds like you had a great trip. You can bet we’re all jealous! I was wondering, did Wood mention if had seen Viktor Krum at all at any of the competitions? If so, did Krum have any information from his Durmstrang connections? How are they handling Voldemort’s return in that part of the world?

D.S. Haber
D.S. Haber
17 years ago

Hmm. Krum. He’s pretty-much persona-non grata in the Quidditch world. While I was looking at the Quidditch World Cup exhibit, a guy at the London Quidditch Museum told me he thought it would probably blow over at some point, but for now he’s looked down upon because he was cut from Bulgaria after he caught the snitch while Ireland was more than 150 up…

I personally think Krum would make a good Quidditch Master for Hogwarts if Madame Hooch ever wanted to take a sabbatical…

As to Voldemort, as sport is generally used by people as an escape from the world, the whole Voldemort situation isn’t really affecting Quidditch one way or the other…

Sibyll
Sibyll
17 years ago

I think quidditch is the second best sport ever! Second-best because I’m a Leeds United fan! I think football is just like the quaffle part of quidditch (and without the brooms)! Anyone else here like quidditch because its like football?

D.S. Haber
D.S. Haber
17 years ago

For everyone in America, that’s soccer Sibyll is talking about, by the way.

I, actually, in the last few years, have become an English Football fan because of its similarity to Quidditch. My favorite teams are West Ham (because that’s Dean Thomas’ team!) and Liverpool.

beki
beki
17 years ago

im so jealous wood is so cool (and fit) oops lol

by the way dave liverpool is so not the football team to support its everton and Football is nothing like quidditch!

D.S. Haber
D.S. Haber
17 years ago

Regarding Liverpool and Everton, I used to live in a suburb of New York City, and I was a Mets fan, not a Yankees fan, if that helps explain it.

How could you say the quaffle part of quidditch isn’t like football? You have players passing a similarly sized ball to one another, trying to get it in the goal, you have keepers, fouls, penalty shots. To Dean’s (the West Ham fan) dismay, though, there are no Red Cards.

As it says at the end of the article, I’m a Falmouth Falcons fan. What’s everybody else’s favorite Quidditch team?

Ashley
Ashley
17 years ago

Wimbourne Wasps Baby! Me and my friends have nicknames and i am Angelina. I am sooo becoming a Wasp Chaser once i get my flippin N.E.W.T.s
except after the Wasps its the Cannons no doubt about that

karishma vakta
karishma vakta
17 years ago

Dave.. im really suprise to know that Oliver Wood has so many ardent fans because despite being fit, cool, handsome and a great quidditch player he plays a very small character in the HP series.. anyways your story was imaginative and fun to read… quidditch really is a great sport even if it exists only on paper (and quite understandably in the minds of thousands of quidditch fans like yourself) THE POWER OF SPORTS- mesmerizing people even on paper…… lol..

Karma
Karma
16 years ago

My favourite Quidditch team? Easy, mate – The Woollongong Warriors, of course! (GO WW!)

Ashley
Ashley
16 years ago

Karma, your team would get SMASHED by the Wimbourne Wasps. even the Chudley Cannons would flatten them.

will
will
16 years ago

Great imagination, but just thought that as a great HP fan, you surely should have remembered that The Leaky Cauldron is invisible to muggles;)

Dave Haber
Dave Haber
16 years ago

It’s only invisible to Muggles who don’t know where to look for it. Remember, the Grangers (Hermione’s parents) got into The Leaky Cauldron, and all the way into Diagon Alley and Flourish and Blotts!

Monkeeshrines
Monkeeshrines
16 years ago

I’m more of a Quodpot fan, myself, but I do enjoy the occasional Quidditch game. Let’s see… I guess my favorite domestic team would be the Fitchburg Finches, and I wouldn’t say no to a Ballycastle Bats game if I were overseas!

Ashley
Ashley
16 years ago

Quadpot is overrated when compared to Quidditch… I recently recieved an owl from my pen pal in England, with full details of a recent Qudditch game between the Wimbourne Wasps and the Holyhead Harpies. Needless to say, the Harpies were flattened, and she even got me a signed photograph of the dreamy Keeper of the Wasps… sigh…

Monkeeshrines
Monkeeshrines
16 years ago

How dare you say Quodpot is overrated! Ok, so maybe it’s players aren’t all as pretty as your Wasps Keeper (owing to their tendency for singed eyebrows) but the thrill of unpredictability in the game itself is what makes it more appealing (to me, anyway) then a game where only the players talents determine the outcome. I’m not undermining the charms of Quidditch, but on the whole I find its lack of explosions wanting.

Ashley
Ashley
16 years ago

Monkeeshrines, you underestimate the excitiment of Quidditch! There ARE thrills and unpredictability in Quidditch, but the rules are more strict, and that narrows the alleyway a little bit. I mean really, in Quadpot how often are you confused so much that you sit down in your seat and give up? I don’t know about you but every Quadpot game I have ever attended ends that way.

Monkeeshrines
Monkeeshrines
16 years ago

I’m not underestimating Quidditch. I think it’s a great game in of itself and I acknowledge that Quadpot would not exist without it. I just find Quodpot more entertaining. I mean, you can see Bludgers coming and bat them away, but you can’t tell when the Quod will explode! It does sadden me that you get confused by it though, Ashley. My Muggle boyfriend said this when I tried to describe it to him (don’t worry, I told him it was a made-up game) “So, it’s like playing basket-ball with bombs?” Whatever basket-ball is, I think it’s similar. Hope that helps clear up the confusion!

Ashley R.
Ashley R.
16 years ago

Monkeeshrines–
I am a Muggleborn, but I was an exchange student to England. By that time they had discovered that I am a witch, so I lived with a wizarding family so I didn’t freak the Muggles of England out. I grew up watching Quidditch game after Quidditch game, and find the exploding Quad to be quite barbaric.

I asked my Muggle boyfriend if he preferred Quidditch to Quadpot, and he told me he enjoys football. What kind of stupid sport doesn’t involve broomsticks or flying iron spheres designed to knock you out?

Oatmeal
Oatmeal
16 years ago

I dunno, I prefer Quadpot. I like Quidditch, but I think its one of those things that are fun to play/do but boring to watch.

Monkeeshrines
Monkeeshrines
16 years ago

Wow! I just got back from a Cinncinnatti Cingers game – they were playing home against the Kansas City Kersplosion – and the game was neck n’ neck with only two players on the pitch… Everyone thought the Kerspolsion had it in the bag since it was their center scorer versus the CinCin player who was the pot-keep, but the keep held his own, lasted for another thirty minutes, and in a stroke of utter brilliance, he feigned a fumble, the Kersplosion player zoomed in to catch it, was about to score and BOOM! the Quod exploded in his fingertips! CinCin won only because the game was tied 9-9 and they had the last man flying. It was such a thrill! You would have loved it Oatmeal! Did you go? And how can you tell me that’s not exciting, Ashley?

(There’s a crack in the fourth wall. Jo has never ever mentioned any Quodpot team names, so I came up with a few of my own. These names are not cannon in any way, shape, or form. Now let me go get some mortar.)

Lucinda.
Lucinda.
16 years ago

Stop arguing. Everyone knows Quidditch is the BEST!

Bekah
Bekah
16 years ago

Quodpot beats Quidditch hollow. Reasons, you ask? Here you go:

1) Quodpot needs less equipment. No brooms, no football field-sized pitch, no concussing cannonballs…all you need is a good potioneer to make the explosion potion and a tampered-with Quaffle. Easy.

2) Quodpot has a lot less politics. People don’t try to murder each other over Quodpot, do they…?

3) JK needs to talk more about Quodpot!

Ashley R.
Ashley R.
16 years ago

Thank you, Lucinda! Exactly my point. Quodpot is a totally barbaric game that requires no skill or taste levels whatsoever. It is highly confusing and a waste of time.
GO WIMBOURNE WASPS!

roo
roo
16 years ago

YOU ARE SO LUCKY!

oatmeal
oatmeal
16 years ago

I prefer Quadpot but Quidditch is still nice. I support the Ballycastle Bats.

Katie
Katie
16 years ago

I like both sports, yet I lean a little toward quidditch. I live in the middle of nowhere, and school’s on the opposite side of the States, so I get to see a lot of quidditch and quadpot teams play and I enjoy both sports immensly.

Just the whole concept of actually being up several feet in the air and feeling the wind blow in your face amazes me enough. (I’m Muggle-born)

PS: monkeeshrines, I did see that game! It was AMAZING! I held my breath during that entire time when the last 2 players were fighting. I was literally crying when CinCin lost. I had 10 galleons on that match.

Garrick
Garrick
16 years ago

I am a great fan of Quadpot, and I support the Elkton White Tails. GO DEER! Quidditch is okay… but my Favorite team is the Moose Jaw Metroites, and the Finchburg Finchs.

Abby
Abby
16 years ago

lucky! tell oliver I say “hi!”

i don’t know how to play quadpot, but I’m a huge queidditch fan. my favorite UK team is holyhead harpies, and being american my favorite team is the finchburg finches. when i play in my back yard i’m usually chaser.

go Holyhead Harpies!

Linda
Linda
16 years ago

Is there any truth to the rumor that Quodpot is accepting galleons for advertising? According to the Quibbler, when the quod explodes, instead of a bang, you hear an advertisement. Normally, I would dismiss it, but since Deatheaters took over the Daily Prophet, I feel the Quibbler is more accurate in its reporting.

Monkeeshrines
Monkeeshrines
16 years ago

Lies! Lies and slander! I know none of the AQpL teams would stoop to such a level! It would completely undermine the very spirit of the game! Don’t know about Quodpot leagues in other countries, though, especially in Europe where it’s not as popular and the teams may need the money. I agree that the Quibbler has seemed to become more accurate lately, but it’s still just a tabloid. It only started circulating here in the US after that Harry Potter interview a few years back. I don’t know anything about the Daily Prophet, since we don’t get it here, but our newspapers don’t seem to be under Death Eater control. Although, admittedly, they didn’t publish much about the war… Maybe they have…

Back to the topic – No, there are no credible sources that say, at least in the US or Canada, that Quodpot is going to sponsor Quod explosions.

Ashley R.
Ashley R.
16 years ago

I have a question for both Linda and Monkeeshrines: Does the Quibbler even run anywhere besides England? I was under the impression that it didn’t; perhaps I am looking in the wrong stores, I have been looking forward to reading the newest article on sightings of Blibbering Humdingers.
But I have to admit, I actually believe Monkeeshrines on this one: Quodpot is still a sport, and most sports are more noble than to raise money by putting subliminal messages in the game…

Dave Haber
Dave Haber
16 years ago

My favorite hangout, O’Brien’s, a British pub in Santa Monica, imports copies of both The Daily Prophet and The Quibbler, but only because they get a lot of British ex-pats in there. I think both of those are generally hard to find in America, unless you’re in a real big city.

They make the best Bangers and Mash at O’Brien’s, and it’s fun to watch Quidditch on the big screens with the other English fans.

Oh, also, I think their imported Butter Beer is better than ours. Must have something to do with the water…

areluna
areluna
16 years ago

nice story!

ChudCannons
ChudCannons
16 years ago

You’re so lucky Dave! tell Oliver Wood I said hi! one question though, do you think he could mention me to any Quidditch teams looking for a player? Anyways, my favorite Quidditch team is the Chudley Cannons, even though I agree they aren’t as great as they were a few years ago.

Dave Haber
Dave Haber
16 years ago

We’re just friends so I can’t promise anything… What position do you play?

ChudCannons
ChudCannons
16 years ago

Well I’m not the best at quidditch but I am good at the Chaser position.

Alex B.
Alex B.
16 years ago

A good story, i think harry also could have gone into Quidditch after Hogwarts, why didn’t he?

Ashley Ross
Ashley Ross
16 years ago

ChudCannons, we have something in common! I play Chaser as well!

My friend Shannon is trying to plan a Quidditch game (with 8 people on each team: someone has to run around with the Snitch and pretend to make it fly) and adapt it for Muggles… oh my gosh.

But I’m going to play Chaser when I graduate. For the Wimbourne Wasps!

Tomgrl
Tomgrl
16 years ago

O my gosh! Dave that is so cool, I would LOVE to meet Ollie. As an american witch I love both Quodpot and Quidditch as well as a few muggle sports that my mom taught me (I’m half-blood). I definitely agree that both games are quite exciting though I wish something in Quidditch would explode. my fave quidditch team is the Sweetwater All-stars, however if I was overseas the Pride of Portree is a close second fave team (not to mention that Kirley’s sister is the teams Keeper and everyone LOVES the Weird sisters). My dream is to play Quidditch after finishing my education (unfortunately there are not any Wizardry schools in Illinois and my parents didn’t want me to go that far away for school when I was 11 so I have a very limited education).

Nat D. Aiken
Nat D. Aiken
16 years ago

As far as I know, SOME of the movie locations give real hints on where the actual potterverse locations (might) be… Sometimes I feel that on some level the books’ events really transpired, and Jo fictionalized it for us due to the International Decree for Sorcering Secrecy (or some such). *BUT* with science acknowledging alternate, parrallel, universes, who’s to say that one couldn’t be a Potterverse? I’d pity the Muggles though!;)

Christine
Christine
16 years ago

LUCKY! i wish I could spend a day with Oliver Wood…

ChudCannons
ChudCannons
16 years ago

It is great to hear that you play the Chaser position too Ashley! Oi, Dave, you heard anything from Wood yet?

Dave Haber
Dave Haber
16 years ago

CC: Although we still correspond occasionally, we just got together that one time, and he’s way over in England and I’m in Los Angeles. He’s doing great, and told me last time we spoke to say hi to everyone at Beyond Hogwarts. He’s still on the Puddlemere United reserve squad, but he’s been seeing a lot more action in the Premiere Quidditch League games lately as their regular keeper is day-to-day after that nasty stooging incident in Falmouth that I’m sure you all read about in the papers…

ChudCannons
ChudCannons
16 years ago

Ah, yes, that incident was rather nasty, good for Wood though, seeing that he is getting more action now. Anyways, if you ever do speak to him about me, please tell me how the conversation goes.

Wood
Wood
15 years ago

I think that’s really cool. I love Quidditch! Any chance I could experience this adventure as well?
I wish I could fly!