THE BLUDGER
The first Bludgers (or "Blooders") were, as we have seen, flying rocks, and
in Mumps's time they had merely progressed to rocks carved into the shape of
balls. These had one important disadvantage, however: They could be cracked
by the magically reinforced Beaters' bats of the fifteenth century, in which
case all players would be pursued by flying gravel for the remainder of the
game.
It was probably for this reason that some Quidditch teams began experiment-
ing with metal Bludgers in the early sixteenth century. Agatha Chubb, expert
in ancient wizardind artifacts, has identified no fewer than twelve lead Blud-
gers dating from this period, discovered both in Irish peat bogs and English
marshes. "They are undoubtedly Bludgers rather than cannon balls," she writes.
The faint indentations of magically reinforced Beaters'
bats are visible and one can see the distinctive hall-
marks of manufacture by a wizard (as opposed to a Muggle
)--the smoothness of line, the perfect symmetry. A final
clue was the fact that each and every one of them whizz-
ed around my study and attempted to knock me to the floor
when released from its case.
Lead was eventually discovered to be too soft for the purpose of Bludgers
manufacture (any indentation left on a Bludger will affect its ability to
fly straught). Nowadays all Bludgers are made of iron. They are ten inches
in diameter.
Bludger are bewitched to chase players indiscriminately. If left to their
own devices, they will attack the player closest to them, hence the Beaters'
task is to knock the Bludgers as far away from their own team as possible.
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