Golden Snitch

The **Golden Snitch** is a very important ball in the wizarding sport of Quidditch. It appears throughout the *Harry Potter book series*.

It is a bright gold, walnut-sized ball with fluttering wings. It is the smallest ball used in Quidditch. It hovers and flies around the field at a high speed. The seeker has to catch the Snitch before the other team's seeker, which is worth one-hundred and fifty points. Until it is caught, the game doesn't end unless the Captains' agree to stop playing. The seeker who catches it usually did does so when it guarantees victory for their team.

## About

Golden Snitches have a flesh memory and will only open for the first person who caught it. The makers of Golden Snitches wear gloves and only seekers are allowed to ever touch a Golden Snitch.

## History

In the twelfth century until the sixteenth century, the Snitch was a bird called a Golden Snidget. They were introduced to the sport by Barberus Bragge, who offered a prize fund of one-hundred and fifty galleons to the person who caught it. It was a very popular addition and it led to the introduction of a player called the Hunter. The bird was already struggling to survive Snidget-hunting, and introducing it to Quidditch nearly drove it to extinction because they are fragile and crushed to death easily. Eventually, the Golden Snidget was put under protection to save it, so the sport had to find another thing for the seekers to catch.

Bowman Wright thought of the Golden Snitch, a walnut-sized gold ball that has silver, fluttering wings which are enchanted to behave like the Golden Snidget. It is quick, has rotational wings which are able to suddenly change direction, and it weighs the same.

In 1884, a Golden Snitch went missing in Bodmin Moor and the game continued for six months until the players gave up. It is thought that the Golden Snitch continues to roam in Bodmin even over one-hundred years later.

In 1976, James Potter, who was a Chaser, stole a Golden Snitch to impress Lily Evans. In 1991, Oliver Wood introduced his new seeker, Harry Potter to the Golden Snitch. He practiced for catching the ball by catching golf balls. He caught the Golden Snitch in the very first game he ever played being the youngest Seeker in half a century. In 1997, he had a seventeeth birthday cake in the form of the ball.

Albus Dumbledore kept the first Golden Snitch that Harry Potter ever caught. He gave the ball to Harry in his will, putting the Resurrection Stone inside the Golden Snitch. Rufus Scrimgeour gave it to Harry when Dumbledore was killed. Engraved on it were the words "*I open at the close.*" Harry tried and failed to open it for nearly a year. However, when he knew he had to let Voldemort kill him in order to save everyone he loved, he whispered "*I am going to die*". Dumbledore had enchanted it to open when Harry accepted he had to die and so it finally did open to give him the Ressurrection Stone.

## Notes and sources

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 *Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows*, Chapter 7
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 *Quidditch Through the Ages*: The Arrival of the Golden Snitch
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 *Quidditch Through the Ages*: Changes in Quidditch Since the Fourteenth Century
4. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix*, Chapter 28
5. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone*, Chapter 10
6. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone*, Chapter 12
7. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone*, Chapter 9
8. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows*, Chapter 22
9. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows*, Chapter 34