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In Ch 19:Elf Tails of the Half-Blood Prince, after Ron was accidentally poisoned, Cormac McLaggen plays the keeper during the next match, Gryffindor vs Hufflepuff, where he hits Harry on the head with Beater's bat. I have some doubts regarding that match.

So just before Harry gets knocked out the score was 70-40.

“Seventy-forty to Hufflepuff!” barked Professor McGonagall into Luna’s megaphone.

And then this happens:

“Is it, already?” said Luna vaguely. “Oh, look! The Gryffindor Keeper’s got hold of one of the Beater’s bats.”

Harry spun around in midair. Sure enough, McLaggen, for reasons best known to himself, had pulled Peakes’s bat from him and appeared to be demonstrating how to hit a Bludger toward an oncoming Cadwallader.

“Will you give him back his bat and get back to the goal posts!” roared Harry, pelting toward McLaggen just as McLaggen took a ferocious swipe at the Bludger and mishit it.

A blinding, sickening pain…a flash of light…distant screams…and the sensation of falling down a long tunnel…

Then Harry wakes up in the hospital wing where Ron tells him they lost.

“D’you know how much we lost by?” he asked Ron through clenched teeth.

“Well, yeah I do,” said Ron apologetically. “Final score was three hundred and twenty to sixty.”

Why wasn't the match suspended or postponed on account of this accident and the fact that the Gryffindor captain and seeker was injured and no longer able to play.

Even if Hufflepuff caught the snitch immediately as Harry fell and they did not notice this (which seems impossible as Luna drew attention to this via her commentary) the final score should have been 220 - 40.

How on earth was the final score 320-60 unless they took Harry to the hospital and had a reserve seeker or played without a seeker (which doesn't make any sense)?

Am I missing something or was this an error in the book?

TheLethalCarrot
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dobby
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    Because that's the rule? The game goes on until the Snitch is caught. If both seekers go down, then maybe they get replaced but AFAIK, the game doesn't have to stop because one player goes down – Shreedhar Feb 10 '21 at 09:31
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    Quidditch is not a game. It is a plot device. You might as well ask why the snitch is worth 150 points. – Jontia Feb 10 '21 at 10:00
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    Last I read the first book, a game could go on for weeks or months. – Clockwork Feb 10 '21 at 10:03
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    @Jontia actually the reason behind 150 points is clearly mentioned in the book Quidditch through the Ages. – Shreedhar Feb 10 '21 at 15:28
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    @Shreedhar: Just because she invented a rationale after the fact doesn't mean it wasn't invented (in our world) as a plot device first, game second. Jontia is describing it from an outside perspective; no part of Quidditch makes any sense as a game, it's just a cheap way to give Harry something to do where he can prove how special he is (as opposed to relying on everyone just calling him special), and provide a set piece equivalent to football or rugby or whatever at a non-magical school. – ShadowRanger Feb 10 '21 at 19:02
  • @ShadowRanger can't argue with that. But in the end, it is just fiction. – Shreedhar Feb 11 '21 at 08:26

2 Answers2

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As mentioned in Quidditch Through The Ages (Chapter Six),

[...]

  1. In the case of injury, no substitution of players will take place. The team will play on without the injured player.

  2. Wands may be taken on to the pitch but must under no circumstances whatsoever be used against opposing team members, any opposing team member’s broom, the referee, any of the balls, or any member of the crowd.

  3. A game of Quidditch ends only when the Golden Snitch has been caught, or by mutual consent of the two team Captains

[...]
QTTA Chapter 6: Changes in Quidditch Since the Fourteenth Century

Rule #5 clearly states that no substitutions will take place in case of injury. However, as I mentioned in my answer here, Quidditch does allow substitutions in certain cases.

Rule #7 is clear enough; match cannot end until the Snitch is caught. Since Gryffindor had no captain on the field, there was no choice to have a consensual ending of the match.

Answering the second part of your question, it is mentioned later in The Half Blood Prince that Ginny was in fact a backup Seeker (she was almost as good as Harry)

He was having a bad enough time without Hermione lecturing him; the looks on the Gryffindor team’s faces when he had told them he would not be able to play on Saturday had been the worst punishment of all. He could feel Ginny’s eyes on him now but did not meet them; he did not want to see disappointment or anger there. He had just told her [Ginny] that she would be playing Seeker on Saturday and that Dean would be rejoining the team as Chaser in her place. Perhaps, if they won, Ginny and Dean would make up during the post-match euphoria
Chapter 24: Sectumsempra

Once Harry was down, the play couldn't stop. so Ginny could've assumed his position as a Seeker (supported by the answer here). Logically, this could increase their chances of winning as well considering the 150 point win reward and the only way the game could end. Also they still had one Chaser (Demelza).

Finally, when Harry went down, the score was 70 - 40 to Hufflepuff. The final score was 320 - 60. The match could've gone easily for several minutes after Harry was hit (see Rule #5). The final score does make sense because:

  • Hufflepuffs catching the Snitch got them 150 more points.
  • Gryffindor were one player short (either a Seeker or a Chaser depending on what Ginny did after Harry went down). Losing any player would bring the morale down. And they'd lost their star player.
  • McLaggen was pathetic.

    “McLaggen, will you pay attention to what you’re supposed to be doing and leave everyone else alone!” bellowed Harry, wheeling around to face his Keeper.
    Chapter 19: Elf Tails

NOTE: To add, some of the horrific incidents did not stop a Quidditch game from being canceled:

The final between Transylvania and Flanders has gone down in history as the most violent of all time and many of the fouls then recorded had never been seen before – for instance, the transfiguration of a Chaser into a polecat, the attempted decapitation of a Keeper with a broadsword, and the release, from under the robes of the Transylvanian Captain, of a hundred blood-sucking vampire bats.
QTTA Chapter 8: The Spread of Quidditch Worldwide

Shreedhar
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    I do not remember Quidditch Through the Ages that much. Your explaination does make sense when it comes to the official quidditch rules but I feel that these rules do not make any sense and there should be some provision for exceptions like if the captain is unavaiable, another team member should be able to ask for a time-out, or there should be a reserve player who can come and join. – dobby Feb 10 '21 at 10:55
  • @dobby you're right. but I did not find any source that had such exceptions.. so this is the best I came up with – Shreedhar Feb 10 '21 at 11:03
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    @dobby Quiddich doesn't make any sense as a sport, period. It has way too many nonsensical rules. – IloneSP Feb 10 '21 at 15:21
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    The rule, "in the case of injury, no substitution of players will take place," seems to incentivize seriously injuring players on the other team. – WaterMolecule Feb 10 '21 at 18:26
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    @Shreedhar "Rule #6 is clear enough; match cannot end until the Snitch is caught." That's rule #7 – Kevin Feb 10 '21 at 19:47
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    Actually the other answer on the question you link mentions that it is a foul for a non-Seeker to touch the snitch so that would probably prevent unofficial substitutions for the Seeker https://scifi.stackexchange.com/a/133480/84412 . Given that there are no official substitutions for injuries, that seems to rule out Ginny taking over as Seeker. – user3067860 Feb 10 '21 at 20:51
  • @Kevin yeah, my bad. i've updated the answer – Shreedhar Feb 11 '21 at 08:22
  • @user3067860 Well, Ginny was already on the field. So technically it isn't a substitution; it's just a change in the position that she will play. Just like in football: in case you're done with your subs and the keeper is injured, a player will switch to player as the keeper while the keeper is taken off field. – Shreedhar Feb 11 '21 at 09:29
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Besides Shreedhar's answer based on the supplementary book, I'd like to point out the relevant statement in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone chapter 10, where Oliver Wood explains Quidditch to Harry.

‘A game of Quidditch only ends when the Snitch is caught, so it can go on for ages – I think the record is three months, they had to keep bringing on substitutes so the players could get some sleep.’

b_jonas
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    Interesting. As noted in rule 5, no player may be substituted "due to injury", but apparently "lack of sleep" is acceptable. Just supports the fact that Quiddich is a nonsense sport invented to support the plot, not to actually be a viable, reasonable sport. – FreeMan Feb 11 '21 at 16:39