World Cup wagering

[Athena Appleton]

I was just thinking about the part in GoF when Fred and George bet their combined life savings with Bagman that Ireland would win the cup, but Krum would catch the snitch... I always thought that odd, and wondered how they could have gotton so lucky to have bet their entire life savings on such a small possibility... I mean, Krum is an awesome Seeker, but it's likely that Krum could have caught the Snitch earlier in the game than after Ireland scored sixteen goals...

Then I started thinking about the events leading up to the World Cup... when the Weasleys, Harry and Hermione first get to the campground, the trio go off to find water and stop and chat with a few school friends, and the others split up to go find firewood. When the trio gets back, George says "You've been ages"... If I were in George's situation, I wouldn't be that suprised that the trio had taken longer than they normally would have, seeing as so many of their school friends were around... and I started wondering..

Is it possible that while they were "looking for firewood," Fred and George made a cameo appearance to post-World Cup time to find out the final score, and then traveled back to the present to make a bet? From the very beginning of GoF, the twins seem preoccupied with making money. They know they have a limited amount of time, and my guess is they knew they'd be able to find someone to bet with... If they did a bit of time-traveling, it would possibly seem like "ages" before they next see the trio... and Fred and George definately don't have a problem with rule breaking, so if they were able to get their hands on a way to time travel, I think it's highly likely they did...

Any thoughts?

[Jotomicron]

Wow, Athena! I must say that you head is one of those that can catch every bit of evidence, join it, and take wonderful conclusions... I'd never thought about it! But I've always wondered how they won th bet!! Hmm...

You theory seems quite plausible (sp). But how could they travel in time? I mean, they're very intelligent, but the only travle in time we know is throught the Time Turner, and that only carries you to the past (or so I think).

Hmm!... Maybe... this will sound so strange... but maybe they needed to bet it and win. They came in touch with a Time Turner and thought:
"wow... the things we could do with this. What if we watch the final game of the World cup, and then travel back in time and tell ourselves what the score was?"

Hermione says that when you see yourself, you act strangely. But if they wanted to come back, then they KNEW they were coming back; they were expecting it. Hmm! (Third hmm I say... lol)

I don't know if you understand my idea!

[Ferrus]

I catch your point, and its a very sound theory. But theres just one snag: how did the twins get their hands on the Time-turner? I mean its supposed to be heavily regulated by the ministry and all that...

[paintballdecoy]

good idea, but how did they get back and forth between time. Maybe the is a spell which will allow someone to speed up to Mach 1, where, to the person moving, it would seem as though everything is standing still, and they saw the scoreboard after years and when they got back (???) they were able to make the bet

[Gower]

Even the twins might have felt dishonest about such cheating and law breaking.

[Athena Appleton]

Yeah, I haven't figured that out, yet... maybe... I don't know... no idea how they would have been able to travel in time. I just find it SO unlikely that two people who are so intent on making money would bet their life savings on such small odds, unless they knew there would be a pay-off...

As far as them feeling guilty about law-breaking and cheating... in GoF, Ron is a little worried about them, because of their obsession with making enough money to open Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes... they would probably have done anything (short of selling out their family members or friends or something like that) to get their hands on the gold they needed to open up shop...

Maybe there's another way of time-travel we don't know about (after all, J.K. Rowling has introduced new things to us in every book that we thought we were all knowledgeable about)

[Nobby]

yeah there is something fishy about that but..

Even the twins might have felt dishonest about such cheating and law breaking.

As Gower said, i dont think even the twins would be that dishonest!

About the betting, the Weasleys have always been really interested and devoted follwers of Quidditch. is it possible that the twins just made a normal bet based on their expert knowledge of Quidditch and came off trumps! i dunno,...theres still somthing funny there like athena suggests

[Athena Appleton]

That is not a normal bet... there are so many things that could go wrong with that bet, they were really playing with fire, unless they knew for sure the outcome... I mean, you never know when the Seeker would find the snitch and when he'd catch it... if the game weren't over as soon as the snitch is caught, I could see that being a normal bet, but they had to know that Ireland would be at least 16 goals up before Krum caught the snitch to get it...

The twins would feel dishonest if they were doing anything to really hurt someone else, but something like betting... nope, don't think so.

[highsorcerer]

You're overlooking another possibility - divination. It's never been clear which elective classes the twins took (the electives seem to be Muggle Studies, Arithimancy, Divination, Ancient Runes, and Care of Magical Creatures).

If they applied divination to the outcome of the Quidditch World Cup, they might have gotten their information that way.

[Athena Appleton]

I don't personally feel like the Weasley twins are seers, but who knows... as long as Percy didn't encourage them to take divination, like he did Harry... if he had, they would have purposely not taken it.

[Alice I]

You're overlooking another possibility - divination. It's never been clear which elective classes the twins took (the electives seem to be Muggle Studies, Arithimancy, Divination, Ancient Runes, and Care of Magical Creatures).

If they applied divination to the outcome of the Quidditch World Cup, they might have gotten their information that way.

OK I know this is stupid but in my story Bill believes in this seer he met in Egypt. Since this is just fun speculation anyway , maybe Bill tipped them off.

For more go check the fan fic threads

[Aberforth]

Hermione says that when you see yourself, you act strangely. But if they wanted to come back, then they KNEW they were coming back; they were expecting it. Hmm! (Third hmm I say... lol)

The thing is, they don't necessarily have to see each other. If the used the time-turner in the first instance, they could disappear into the woods or something until after the final has taken place. They could then use the time-turner and return to the tent acting as though they have just returned from collecting firewood (taking the place of their past selves) and place the bet.

This way, the first pair would always be hiding whilst the time travelling pair would be doing all the normal thinmgs with the other Weasleys. Then, when the two time lines meet one pair would disappear and the other keep going as normal.

[Athena Appleton]

Actually, you both have valid points, that could possibly have happened...

With Joto's idea, the easiest way for me to describe it is to go back to the Harry/Hermione episode in book 3. Use your imaginations that Harry/Hermione are Fred/George. When they go down the first time, to go see Hagrid, they have no intention of doing any time-traveling later, so seeing themselves again (and realizing it's themselves) would really throw them for a loop. But imagine they went out to Hagrid's the first time with the full intention of time-traveling later that night... if they ran into their future selves, they wouldn't be that shocked, because they know that possibility of running into themselves is there, so when it happens, it's not that big a deal...

Aberforth, good point, too.

[Herminny]

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

[Athena Appleton]

ooo that's a good point... but how often are they actually alone?

still, they're used to seeing their "own" face looking at them, so you have a point that it wouldn't be that much of a shock...