World Cup wagering

[Ferrus]

Well, there is also the boring alternative:

F&G know lot about Quidditch, and have been following the World Cup very carefully. When the World Cup final arrives they know enough about about the two teams to guess (corectly) that, due to the fact that the Irish Chasers are so much better that the bulgarian ones, if the match lasts longer that say, 1 hour, the Irish team will have scored enough goals to make a Bulgarian victory impossible. Of course, this is the boring possibility, which I don´t like much myself.

[Alice I]

Well, there is also the boring alternative:

F&G know lot about Quidditch, and have been following the World Cup very carefully. When the World Cup final arrives they know enough about about the two teams to guess (corectly) that, due to the fact that the Irish Chasers are so much better that the bulgarian ones, if the match lasts longer that say, 1 hour, the Irish team will have scored enough goals to make a Bulgarian victory impossible. Of course, this is the boring possibility, which I don´t like much myself.

Maybe but that is what I have always thought too

[Athena Appleton]

could be... i just still think that it would take a genius to figure out that the Irish chasers would be able to be exactly 16 or more goals ahead by the time Krum caught the snitch... and to bet your life savings, particularly when you are trying to save and get money like crazy, just seems to be too big a risk unless you have some underhand information

[Emma'I'm a real witch']

They are identical twins also so if one of them was alone and saw his future self it might not be so much of a shock

Good Point, maybe only one twin time travelled, say Fred, and found his future other twin, George. Neither of them would be shocked because they are used to seeing each other. Fred could ask George what the outcome of the match is, travel back in time and tell the original George and then they place the bet.

Time Travel is very confusing.

[Evil Wizard Petting Zoo]

That could be, but I don't know how they'd get a time turner since they're heavily regulated and guarded by MoM.

[Emma'I'm a real witch']

Do we know what happened to the time turner Hermione had at the end of PoA? Did she give it back?

Plus, the twins are able to get there hands on some serious dodgy stuff, in OotP they get hold of a non-tradeable substance from Mundungus. They could have other ways of getting hold of stuff they are not meant to.

[Athena Appleton]

Hermione did turn in her time-turner, but I do agree with you, Emma. The twins are completely willing to use illegal means of getting something so long as it doesn't really hurt anyone...

[Emma'I'm a real witch']

I think trying to swindle Bagman out of money with a dodgy bet, the Twins would see as perfectly fine and not hurting anyone at all.

[Jotomicron]

Wow... You all came up with these very interesting ideas... Let's see... They're twins, so they have possibilities the other have not. But they seem to be always with each other...

About the seer thing... We know Ron has this peculiar capabilities of guessing thing when he's joking... But it doesn't seem to apply in this case! They really wanted to guess it!

But we shouldn't think it was a normal guess: as Athena said, they should have known it some time before.

It follows that they should have known the score before the game... Wait... do you remeber the Omniculares (sp?). But if they could see the future with it, there were some other people who could... and bets would be unusefull!

So: Time Turner... Could they have got one? I think they could. How? I have no idea...

[Evil Wizard Petting Zoo]

Yeah, I wouldn't put it past the twins to pull something underhanded like getting their hands on a blackmarket timeturner. Maybe their secret will have some major effect on the plot as a whole.

[Athena Appleton]

Yeah... I think they somehow got their hands on a black-market Time-turner (or some other time-traveling tool, if there are others) and when Harry, Ron and Hermione were off looking for water, they made a quick visit to the future to see the score. They were so focused on gaining the money they would need to get their joke shop started, they really weren't worried about tiny little details like legality, as long as it wasn't hurting anyone (because, if you've noticed, they do a lot of rule-breaking, but nothing that would ever put another person in danger). Then they popped back, made the "you've been ages" remark (which I think is a clue... they would have assumed the trio would be "ages" since there was so much to see, and it would seem like ages if they spent a little bit of extra time in the future), and bet their life savings on what would appear to be a very slim possibility (that's the only time, I think, that the team that caught the snitch didn't win the game).

Too bad Bagman was more dodgy than they were... it was all for naught.

[Evil Wizard Petting Zoo]

I just had a thought, tell me if its ridiculous or not. Remember when the DE's come and start levatating the muggles? And the trio get separated from Fred and George? Maybe that's when they decided to go back in time (assuming they did go back in time), ack!!! But if they knew the DE's were coming beforehand how come they didn't warn anyone. Maybe they knew that you're not suppost to mess with time, and that something worse could have come about had they warned people about the DE's.

[pandora315]

My thoughts in order of theories:

I think its most likely they knew Krum was the best seeker in the world would either catch the snitch first or prevent the other seeker from doing so and also knew that Ireland had superb chasers so the placed the bet that Ireland would win but Krum catch the snitch. This is most likely becuase it does two things- It introduces Krum and gives us an insight into his bravery, his skill, etc....and it also gives us Character clues about Bagman.

I think it highly likely that the Weasleys used some form of divination. I think theres Seer blood somewhere in the Weasley family. In Ron it shows up when he's joking, maybe in Fred and George they have dreams, or read bird entrails, who knows.

I think its a possibility that in all their experiments they discovered a way to travel forward or backward in time. Fred and George are both intelligent people abd have invented spells that do all kinds of things why not one that can allow them to see or even travel to the future.

I think its next to impossible, however, that they used a time-turner. We knoe from book 5 that there is a room in the DOM that time turners are kept in. I think that because they have the potential to be so dangerous the information on how to make them would be classified with no one but the ministry knowing how and also that they would keep a close eye on any that are being let out. I mean if one was not returned or something the Ministry would definitly go looking for it. In order for Fred and George to have gotten ahold of a time-turner they would have 1)been given one by the ministry. 2) know someone who had been given one and taken it. 3) know someone who had been given one and was allowed to borrow it. 4) found one. I think 1 is unlikely because they have no legitimate need for one. 2 is rediculous because they're not the kind of people who would steel (unless they found out Malfoy had one or something.) 3 doesn't seem likly because we know from hermione that people allowed time-turners are supposed to keep it quiet. And 4 seems just as unlikely.

My guess it they discovered a spell that lets them see the future.

[Athena Appleton]

EWPZ: could be, but I think they would have informed someone if they knew that was going to happen, and also remember, they had Ginny with them when the Death Eaters were levitating muggles. While I don't think they protect her from everything dangerous, they know she's smart and powerful, I think they would have wanted this to be a secret between the two of them, not between the two of them and Ginny.

pandora: I don't think the Weasleys have any seer blood... and I think the twins know that divination is pretty iffy, even for someone who is skilled in it, so I don't think they would have bet their life savings on something they saw with their "inner eye". As far as the chances of the results of the Quidditch game, I just think the odds were definately NOT in favor of Krum catching the snitch and Ireland winning, because Ireland would have to be at LEAST sixteen scores ahead at the time Krum caught the snitch. If they were betting on the fact that Krum is an awesome seeker, they would have probably assumed he would catch the snitch early in the game to avoid letting Ireland get a good jump ahead, I think...