Quidditch, encyclopedia keys to Harry Potter college course

No one can fly, but otherwise it was a perfectly proper match of Quidditch.

From the swirling golden snitch to the bone-crunching bludgers – represented by a hard rubber ball and a pair of black dodge balls – students at North Georgia College and State University had all they needed for a hard-fought round of the magical game made famous in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books.

Just over 24 hours before the release of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," the final installment in Rowling's series, the match ended in dramatic style Thursday evening when a blue clad Ravenclaw caught the elusive snitch to win despite being far behind the rival Slytherin.

The match is part of a Potter-oriented course at the college known mainly for its large military program in the mountain town that was home to the nation's first gold rush in 1828.

Professor Brian Corrigan is teaching "Harry Potter and the Legion of Night," an elective English course that both students and college officials describe as a rigorous look at the novels.

It's an approach being taken by more and more colleges and universities across the nation – as academics begin looking at the series less as a pop culture event and more as a serious work of children's literature.

In Corrigan's class, students are working to compile a comprehensive encyclopedia on the Harry Potter series that could one day be published commercially.

Corrigan, a Renaissance literature scholar and the Georgia Writer's Association 2006 Author of the Year, said he couldn't resist taking a scholarly look at the Potter books during the peak of their enormous popularity.

"If I had the opportunity, I would of course want to take my students back to 1599 and take them to the Globe theater to see the first production of 'Romeo and Juliet' or 'Julius Caesar,' " Corrigan said. "Whether you like Harry Potter or not, you have to admit this is a cultural and literary phenomenon."

In addition, literature experts have begun comparing the books to "Alice in Wonderland," "Watership Down," and other works that were first considered kiddie literature but later elevated to a higher station.

"Books become classics because the critics like them and because the public likes them," said Philip Nel, a professor who has taught "Harry Potter's Library," an English elective course focusing on the works that influenced Rowling, since 2002. "Harry's got both of those routes open.

"I think people will be reading these books well off into the future."

On-campus Potterphiles stretch from Stephen F. Austin University in Texas, which offers a philosophy course centered on the mages of Hogwarts Academy, to Middlebury College in Vermont, where students have been playing their own Quidditch variant since 2005.

There's no shortage of enthusiasm from students – many of whom have grown up with the bespectacled main character since the first Potter book was released in 1997.

Originally, 126 students applied for the North Georgia course. That number was whittled down to 44 and, in the spring a "sorting hat" ceremony straight from the books divided them into the four houses of Hogwarts Academy – Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin.

Gena Trust, a 28-year-old senior, was selected to lead the sneaky, sinister Slytherin house -- a role she relishes.

"You can get away with a lot more," said Trust, 28, who was first introduced to Potter's world by her 8-year-old daughter. "You can say anything and everybody will just say, 'Well, they're Slytherin.' "

Trust and others say it's a little scary how the class's 11-student groupings have taken on the characteristics of their fictional houses.

The goodness-and-light Hufflepuffs hold sleepovers and give each other silly nicknames. A Slytherin House member looked straight into a local television news camera recently and told the world his squad currently sits in first place in the Quidditch standings – despite their actual spot in dead last.

But the class is far from all fun and games – worthy, students say, of Hogwarts' own Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Test.

"You tell someone you're taking a Harry Potter class and all they see is the fun of it," Trust said. "But I spend at least 30 hours a week doing research – it's pretty intense."

Corrigan said he hopes the encyclopedia that results from the course will provide a scholarly look at the books long after Internet fan sites have disappeared.

"A book is forever," Corrigan said. "When whoever runs those web sites decides to quit running them, all of that material will be gone. If we create this book now, it will be on the shelves 50 or 100 years from now."