“Quidditch is a game, played on a field, with 2 teams of 7 players on each side.

You have chasers, there are 3 of them. Their job is to ride their brooms around the field and pass the quaffle, a slightly deflated volleyball, and try to score one of the three hoops on the opposing team’s side of the field. And if they score through the hoop, through the front side or the backside, they score 10 points for their team.

You have 2 beaters on each team. They handle the bludgers. The bludgers are dodgeballs. There are 3 of them on the field. And they’re thrown by only the beaters, who are allowed to touch them, at the other players. A bludger hit mean that you have to dismount your broom, run back to your own hoops and touch them before you can be involved in the next play.

The keeper’s job is to defend the hoops. The keeper does have immunity right near the hoops, but in most games, teams use their keeper offensively very often.

As last, there’s a seeker, there’s one on each team. And their job is to catch the snitch. Seekers deserve the most credit, the most respect for having to catching this very difficult golden ball. Seekers are the fastest player, the most agile player, the most aggressive player. If you have one of those, you want him/her to be your seeker.

The snitch is a person, who’s not on either team, completely dressed in yellow and they usually have a sock, hanging out of the back of their shorts. Their job is to run around the area, not just the field, the whole area where the quidditch match is going on. And, by any means necessary, try to avoid to being caught by either seeker. The snitch is very hard to catch, because (s)he’s not a broom and gets to play all dirty tricks on the seekers. It’s the nature of the snitch to be very crafty, very evasive, very agile and very arrogant. Snitches can do whatever to avoid being caught. That means, tackling seekers, running away from seekers, stealing brooms, riding bicycles… The snitch is pretty much God on the field. Snitches are not players, they are their own thing. The snitch catch is worth 30 points and ends the game.”

– Ben Cohen, coach of McGill University , 2010