Quidditch is, naturally, not the safest sport in the world whichever way you look at it – on account of being played many feet in the air with Bludgers flying at you every minute. But just like any other sport, Quidditch does have a set of rules around fouls that are to be abided by – 700 of them, in fact.

At the 1473 Quidditch World Cup final, all 700 of these fouls were committed over the course of one game, in fact, the game originated a few of them. This included quite a lot of violence, such as opponents being attacked with axes and clubs, but also featured more niche incidents, such as Transfiguring a Chaser into a polecat or releasing one hundred blood-sucking vampire bats. We saw some eventful Quidditch matches in Harry’s time at Hogwarts, but we’d quite like an entire book to unpack this one...

The Fresh Air Refreshes Totally movement

Another story about creative rule-breaking now – this time, around the subject of wizarding fashions.

You might’ve noticed that witches and wizards tend to have rather eclectic dress sense, such as the jovial fellow in a violet cloak Vernon Dursley once bumped into. It is actually against the rules for the wizarding community to wear more wizard-y things in the presence of Muggles – as to not arouse suspicion, as this member did with Mr Dursley.

It is said that the wizarding community gravitate towards more old-fashioned looks due to the fact that it was during the seventeenth century when the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy was first introduced – i.e. the time where wizards and witches had to go into hiding from Muggles. The separation meant that the wizarding community were hardly following the latest trends – and probably would hate the very idea of skinny jeans.

Indeed, due to favouring cloaks and robes and more swishy items over the ensuing decades, wizarding kind began to resent the more constrictive attire they were required to wear in Muggle public, particularly trousers. In fact, the disdain rose to such an extent that a fringe movement, ‘Fresh Air Refreshes Totally’, was born to counter it. Here, members of the group argued that trousers stemmed ‘the magical flow at source’ and continued to wear robes around Muggles despite fines and warnings. The president of the fringe movement, Archie Aymslowe, even went as far as to wear ridiculous combinations of Muggle items to purposely flout the rule – such as combining a sombrero with football boots.

A very amusing story indeed, especially when you notice that the ‘Fresh Air Refreshes Totally’ movement’s acronym is... F.A.R.T.

Mrs Figg’s kitty spies