Harry Potter: Every One Of Harry's Quidditch Matches, Ranked
Quidditch is the ultimate sport in the wizarding world. It became such a popular component of Harry Potter that it even translated off-screen to real-life fans who play Quidditch matches and even conduct their own Quidditch World Cups all over the world. In the magical world, the game is a favored past-time, in school and out of school at big events such as the fourth book's World Cup.
But we become most familiar with it through the eyes of series protagonist, Harry Potter, who becomes the youngest Seeker. Harry proves himself to be an accomplished flyer and extremely talented on the Quidditch pitch. He wins numerous games and assists the Gryffindor House in winning the long-overdue Quidditch Cup multiple times. We're ranking all of Harry's matches from worst to best.
9 Harry, Fred, and George get themselves banned from Quidditch
During Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the Gryffindor team has a couple of new members. The most notable new addition is none other than Harry's best friend, Ron Weasley. Ron becomes the Gryffindor's new Keeper while Angelina takes over for Oliver Wood as the Captain. The first game of the season is against Slytherin and, as per usual, it gets particularly nasty on the field.
Harry does win the game for his team by catching the snitch but things quickly spiral out of control in the aftermath. Bitter and angry about losing, several Slytherins, including Malfoy, start saying terrible things about Ron, the Weasley family, and eventually Harry. The comments instigate a fight between Harry, Fred, George, and the Slytherins. Dolores Umbridge sees this and puts a lifetime ban on all three Gryffindors for their actions. The ban is lifted when she leaves but it removes Harry from Quidditch for the rest of the year. Ginny Weasley takes over for him.
8 The match visited by Dementors
In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry is facing off against the Hufflepuff team with Cedric Diggory as the Seeker. The game is initially going well and is actually a fair and normal match. Harry probably would have won but unfortunately, a horde of Dementors arrive on the field to search for Sirius Black.
Having not learned the Patronus Charm at that time, Harry succumbs to the bleakness and dark gloom the Dementors bring with them. He falls off his broom and Cedric manages to catch the Snitch. To Cedric's credit, he hadn't realized what was happening until it was too late and he offered to have a rematch. But Gryffindor accepted the loss. Harry was sent to the Hospital Wing to recover.
7 Harry's third Quidditch match
Technically, this wasn't one of Harry's Quidditch matches because he was in the hospital wing at the time, but it's still worth noting because it was one of the early games in the series and Harry was still the Seeker at the time.
His third Quidditch match was conducted while Harry was in the hospital wing, recovering from his face-to-face encounter with Voldemort. At the time, Voldemort was still living through Professor Quirrell. Harry survived but was still severely injured in the battle. Sadly, Gryffindor was slaughtered in the match and suffered their worst defeat in centuries without Harry present.
6 Harry's last Quidditch match
Harry's last Quidditch match in the books is surprisingly uneventful. Harry does manage to win it for his team, but barely. The game is against Slytherin but Draco Malfoy is absent. This occurred in the sixth book of the series when Harry was obsessing about Malfoy's movements in the castle.
He was severely distracted by the fact Malfoy decided to sit the game out. Another Slytherin named Harper took over for him. He almost beat Harry too, due to his focus not being on the game at hand. But Harry managed to win the Snitch at the last second.
5 Harry's second Quidditch match
This match took place in the first book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. In the aftermath of Quirrell's attempted attack on Harry in the previous match, Severus Snape decides to take over as a referee.
It appears he's only refereeing so he can make things difficult for Gryffindor, and he does manage to do that. Snape is completely unfair in every call he makes. Still, despite Snape's insistence on forcing Gryffindor to lose, Harry still manages to win the Snitch first and Gryffindor succeeds.
4 Harry's first Quidditch match
Harry's first-ever Quidditch match proved very eventful and tense. For starters, Harry was facing off against Slytherin. While the intense inter-house rivalry between Gryffindor and Slytherin had yet to reach a fever pitch, it was still an intense match just because of that.
Then you factor in Professor Quirrell, who attempted to jinx Harry off his broomstick while he was soaring above the pitch, and you've got an intense game at hand. Harry came close to plummeting from a great height, luckily for him, Snape was trying to keep him safe with a counter-jinx. Ultimately, Harry catches the Snitch, by swallowing it. Still, a win is a win!
3 Dementors return to the Quidditch pitch
During Harry's Quidditch game against Cho Chang and the Ravenclaw house in book three, he is already distracted by his crush on Cho. Things become even more complicated when the Dementors return onto the pitch. Or do they? This time, Harry is prepared. He doesn't even pause long enough to take into account what he's looking at. He launches a Patronus and gets back to the game. Harry succeeds at catching the Snitch and winning.
To make things even better, we learn that the "Dementors" were actually just Malfoy and his cronies trying to mess Harry up to keep him from winning. They get a pretty intense shock when they're suddenly hit with a powerful charm and knocked over, and it was pretty pleasing to see McGonagall reigning down punishments on them.
2 Harry versus the rogue bludger match
One of the best matches in the book series is in the second book because of its intensity. This match is Harry's first match against Slytherin on their brand new fancy broomsticks with Malfoy as the Seeker. Their rivalry is at an intense level and the game is definitely a nail-biter.
To make matters even more difficult, Harry is being tracked by a rogue bludger magically enhanced by Dobby the house-elf. Harry is unable to avoid the bludger for long and gets hit with it, yet he still manages to catch the Snitch! That's true sportsmanship.
1 Harry wins the Quidditch Cup
Easily the best of Harry's Quidditch matches in the game is the one that lets Gryffindor officially win the Quidditch Cup for the first time in centuries. Even better is that Harry gets to do it right in front of Malfoy.
The game is an intense one in the third book with Harry on his new Firebolt. But ultimately, despite all of Slytherin's cheating tactics, Harry gets the Snitch and his entire team falls in on him to cover in him hugs before they take their celebrations back to the Gryffindor common room.