Swampscott students play quidditch to benefit Project Bread

SWAMPSCOTT – There was no flying, but there were capes, wands, broomsticks and a large coterie of “muggles” – or humans – including parents, students and community Harry Potter fans at Swampscott High School’s first Muggle Quidditch tournament to raise money for Project Bread.”I’ve announced football, basketball, lacrosse, but this is my first quidditch match,” said student Chris Thomsen, who was doing the play-by-play of the Friday afternoon game for community television. “I’m pretty excited.”Approximately 25 students arrived at lower Jackson Field after school on Friday to learn how to play the Muggle version of quidditch – the most popular sport in the wizarding world as portrayed in the Harry Potter series. The event was organized by PotterWatch, the school’s chapter of the Harry Potter Alliance, an international nonprofit organization which uses inspiration from the Harry Potter books to promote change.Event organizer and founding member of PotterWatch Emily Walls described quidditch as a sport combining elements of dodgeball, capture the flag and basketball. The major difference between muggle and wizard versions, however, was that muggles don’t get to ride flying broomsticks but run with brooms in between their legs.So the Friday game was a little less graceful than the matches described in the books.Taylorlyn Stephan played the human version of the “snitch,” who is pursued by a “seeker” on each team and whose capture – or the capture of the flag she carries – ends the game. But there was a little confusion over whether the field boundaries extended to the parking lot. It is also unclear whether anyone was actually keeping score or regulating the game. But the competition for many spectators was not the real focus.”I’m looking for Buckbeak,” said 6-year-old Luca Croft, naming a Hippogriff – a half-agle half-horse similar to a mythological Griffin that appeared in book three, which he said he was reading with his mom, Shannon. “I don’t think Hagrid (Buckbeak’s caretaker) will appear, though.”Young Croft was not the only fan in the audience.The quidditch match continued a list of Harry Potter “firsts” for junior Amshula Divadkar. She said she was at the midnight book and movie releases. In fact, her Sweet Sixteen birthday party was at a midnight screening of the final movie, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, this summer.”The whole theater sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to me, it was so cool,” she recalled. “Except nobody knew my name so there was a lot of silence at that part ? I just love Harry Potter.”Other spectators were concentrating not on the fictional characters, but the reality in front of them.”They’re clearly an amazing bunch of teenagers,” said PotterWatch faculty advisor Jamie Bryanos. “Not only for organizing this, but for giving the majority of the money to Project Bread. ? this was 100 percent their effort. I’m a Harry Potter fan, but they bring the passion.”