3 of Ravenclaw: Work

3 of Ravenclaw: Work

When the card is facing you: teamwork, collaboration, initial fulfillment, learning
When the card is facing away from you: lack  of teamwork, disregard for skills

For this card, I drew my own symbol to represent Quidditch. I looked at the Quidditch World Cup posters, logos from house teams, and drew my own version of it. It's not that original but I think it's pretty.

I chose Quidditch for this card because it is a game that relies on teamwork. Without the teams, there wouldn't be the game at all. Also, in the game, the team members need to learn how to work together in order to win the game. Sure, each member can do their own job without taking the time to sync up with the others, but in order for them all to stay coordinated and winning, they have to learn how to work together, guard each other from the opposing team, and work to get goals against the other team. Everything in teamwork is about the collaboration. The beaters have to be able to work together to guard the Chasers as they try to score against the other team's Keeper, all of them working to keep the other team from trying to mess with the Seeker. If the team does not learn how to collaborate, then they are disjointed and most likely easily defeated. As they practice together and work on being a team, they learn these skills and become better athletes. None of this comes without the work that the team members put in.

Just want to say that i love the way Quidditch is introduced in the books. There are a lot of games where important things happen: Harry almost getting thrown off by Quirrell, Dobby and Lockhart's obvious lack of magical knowledge when it came to certain things, the Dementors and Sirius, the Quidditch World Cup and the Death Eaters, Umbridge being a horrible person, etc. etc. etc. There are so many things that happened around Quidditch in the books (not so much in the later books but still, its a theme that continues to come up). Also it's interesting how it connects Harry to his father in ways that I don't think anything can, other than maybe the invisibility cloak.

6 of Gryffindor: Victory

The 6 of Gryffindor [Victory*]

This is the first card I made. I had been sketching out different ideas for symbols and characters and it was the one I was the most confident about.

Sketches that I've made

When the card is pointing at you, it represents public recognition, victory, progress, self confidence. When it is facing away from you, it represents egotism, lack or confidence, fall from grace.

I chose the Golden Snitch (or Quidditch in general)  to represent these things. In the Harry Potter world, Quidditch is a sport that everyone knows (in fact, it is really the only sport we hear about, except maybe chess). Every wizard child loves or knows about Quidditch enough to get excited about it. It's a game of skill, speed, and strategy that comes with recognition when you win.

The first time Quiddtich becomes important is in the first book. Draco Malfoy took a Remembrall that Neville had dropped and threw, goading Harry into flying even though he was told not to. When Professor McGonagall sees how easy Harry catches the ball out of the air, she takes him to see Oliver Wood, the Gryffindor Quidditch captain and Harry is made Seeker of the team. At this time, Quidditch is made important not only by the fact that Harry is the youngest to join a house team in a 100 years or that everyone gets excited by that fact that Harry did but also because it is a victory for Harry over Draco. It shows Draco that making fun of people is not a good thing to do and that there are consequences to being nasty.

The Snitch is also one of the sure ways for a Quidditch team to win a game. When they catch it, they receive 150 points. We find out in the fourth book that there are circumstances where the Snitch does not win the game, but as a general rule for the Hogwarts games, the team that catches it, wins the game.

Quidditch also can represent victory from Ron's perspective. At first he was doubtful of his abilities as a Keeper and often fumbled, causing his team to lose. The Slytherins made fun of him for it, which brings down his confidence even more. (This is an example of the cards meaning when it is facing away from you) In the sixth book, Harry pretends to slip Ron a potion to make him luck (Felix Felicis) and this causes Ron to think that he will get lucky when in the game. Because Ron did not actually take the potion, he was running on self confidence and was able to save all the goals that the opposing side was trying to make against him. Without confidence, Ron failed, but with it, he was unstoppable and victorious. 

*One of the inspirations that I took (a rather strong word here, but I can't really think of another in it's place) from Ellygator. All of her card 2-10 of each suit have a name that is associated with it. Based on the descriptions that I found of each card, I agree with her titles. The other places I looked did not have titles like this for their cards, so I'm not sure if other decks have them, but I really liked them so that is why "took" them.