myHogwarts: my Home
Year 50: A Year to Remember, Part 1
AN INTRODUCTION: by Isabella
You know that feeling, the calm before the storm, when everything is unmoving and serene for just a few moments before Disa-ster strikes? Or the sense of being within the eye of the storm, moving inside the only peaceful part of the hurricane but surrounded by the dangerous winds that structure it? This is exactly what Year 50 represents for me: Leaving behind the peace and quiet within the eye of the storm and being thrust into the dangerous and exciting world that I have jokingly dubbed as “The Hurricane”. All was well, trust me when I tell you that. I was but an ignorant little first-year, going about her business and stressing over end-of-year exams and grades. And then… BOOM! Welcome to the jungle, you are now an Emissary! And let me tell you something right now: If Year 50 is synonymous to something, that would be chaos, in the best way possible. But I am getting ahead of myself! No respectable review can start from the end, so let’s get back to how it all started…
The start of Year 50 was upon us at the 25th of November 2019 and came to a spectacular close by the 26th of January 2020. Instead of the four Houses that typically rule over Hogwarts, four new teams were created instead, bringing together both students and Alumni in a never-before-seen conglomerate of people. The four teams specially designed for Year 50 were:
1) The Alchemists
(Departments for RMC and Mysteries, Level 4 Head TheSmartpool and level 9
Head jrrossi facilitating, and Slytherin house)
Decked in silver and gold, the crafty Alchemists were granted access to the invaluable stock of time-turners held by the Department of Mysteries to use how they see fit, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
2) The Emissaries
(Departments for MLE and IMC, Level 2 Head Naomi-Jayne and former level 5 Head Emilia Granger facilitating, and Ravenclaw house)
Decked in blue and black, the witty Emissaries were granted special detaining privileges, getting a unique taste of what it means to be an Auror.
3) The Healers
(Department for MAC and St Mungo's, Level 3 Head Ichigo Mirai and Healer SusanHP facilitating, and Gryffindor house)
Decked in red and white, the bold Healers miraculously came across a significant stock of Phoenix tears, cutting their hospital stays in half.
4) The Rangers
(Departments for Transport and Sports, Level 7 Head Queen Nicole and Level 6 Head Ella Granger facilitating, and Hufflepuff house)
Decked in yellow and green, the fair Rangers were given access to all kinds of Floo Passes and Portkeys to roam the board for the whole year.
As you can imagine, the new teams also set the base for the formation of new and formidable Quidditch teams because no matter what kind of bizarre challenges we might be presented with, ain’t nothing better than Quidditch! As you can imagine, I was more than excited to jump headfirst into the action, mounting my broom and zooming through the pitch as the Emissaries’ resident Chaser. And it was an exceptionally good year to be a Quidditch player and/or spectator: Four teams, Alumni and students playing by new rules, two matches going on at any given time and a mind-numbingly exciting final! Do I dare ask for more? Oooh yeah, I most certainly do! And as the saying goes, ask and you shall receive!
And I did receive, if the chaotic RTQ match that was arranged was any indication. If you haven’t played in an RTQ match before, you are missing out on one of the pleasures of being alive! This time around, Emissaries and Rangers teamed up to face Alchemists and Healers in an RTQ match that has gone down in history!
Year 50: A Year to Remember, Part 2
LET THE GAMES BEGIN: by Isabella
Now let the fun begin! One of this year’s major happenings were no other than the infamous Team-Run Tasks. Each team worked to create an entertaining and engaging task for the three remaining teams, leading to four tasks that run during Term 1 in pairs (for maximum efficiency and entertainment). The four tasks were:
1) Healers need help! by Team Healers (December 2nd – 15th)
What would be more ideal than having the Healers run a task centered at St. Mungo’s? Three distinct cases of chaos that call for everyone’s magical assistance to be amended! From scouring the board to look for the site of the next disaster, to putting together clues hidden within the Healers’ signatures to construct the magical solution to reverse the damage, the task was particularly enjoyable! Combining logic with creativity, detective skills with Harry Potter knowledge, the scenarios were unique and the ideas behind them innovative!
2) Lie your way through the Maze by Team Rangers (December 2nd – 15th)
As the name itself denotes, the Rangers constructed an intricate maze of epic proportions! But that’s not all. Those brave enough to venture inside this labyrinthine construction had to put their mH knowledge to the test if they hoped to get out in one piece. A twist in the classic game of two truths and one lie, the participants were presented with some wonderfully constructed rooms in each turn. From snowy chambers to mysterious darkened halls to so much more, I enjoyed every last twist and turn inside the magical labyrinth and almost regretted escaping in the end!
3) Defending the Delegate by Team Emissaries (December 9th – 22nd)
What would be more fitting for the Auror-lead Emissaries than to investigate the mysterious kidnapping of the British Delegate to the International Confederation of Wizards? A story packed with mystery, story-changing decisions at every turn and a dangerous group of unseen assassins out to wreak havoc set the scene for our own task. With the darkness as their ally, the daring agents followed clues, pondered over forks in every turn and enjoyed an interactive site holding the adrenaline-packed ending to an exciting adventure!
4) Something’s not right… by Team Alchemists (December 9th – 22nd)
Like true descendants of Nicholas Flamel, the Alchemists built their own Laboratory and called the rest of us to explore its depths. A mysterious Alchemist experimenting with a top-secret cure… only for his experiment to get out of hand and corrupt a series of mH artifacts! Our job? To locate what went wrong so that everything can be amended, of course! And for those observant enough to spot and fix all of the errors, the discovery of the Alchemist’s treasured cure could be the ultimate prize…
But if you think the site’s resident Evil Masterminds would sit this one out, then think again! Adjusted into a two-part task assigned by the DIMC, it was time to bring back a timeless classic: The Headless Hunt! To get things going, the first round started off with a traditional game of Horseback Head-Juggling. And yes, it is exactly as it sounds! Cue players riding horses and trying to throw their heads into the air and through a series of hoops, each one worth different points, while being chased by Peeves and assisted by their friendlier House Ghosts! Talk about crazy… And when you believe it can’t get worse, the second round of the Hunt has us all roaming the castle like headless chickens… since we are now looking for our heads! Seems like our favourite Masterminds, in an attempt to keep the spirit of the game intact, thought it wise for us to part with our heads and work through a Sphinx’s riddles to get them back. Insane!
Year 50: Trivia Game
by Isabella
Try your hand at a trivia game about year 50! Some of the information you'll need is in Isabella's article, including Part 3 & 4, found after this game. So, you may want to play after you've read of her article or just play a round before moving on. ;) Up to you!
Year 50: A Year to Remember, Part 3
THE GAMES CONTINUE: by Isabella
And then there was the much-expected Interim! But if you think we got the chance to rest, I encourage you to rethink that, for it was time for… the TETRAD! Quite possibly one of my favourite events throughout the year, the Tetrad was the first part of the most epic Team Challenge one could imagine. Including four specially designed rooms, constructed to test out four different skills within each team, the Tetrad for the Emissaries can be described by one word: chaos! The conversations were moving along faster than the speed of sound and I would not trade that excitement for the world. But let me give you an insight on what each room demanded before I get all emotional here!
1) The Perquisition Pad: A challenge like no other, based on sheer speed and quick thinking, that provided us with a 16-point list of mH items and a 72-hour limit.
2) The Decennium Den: This room called us to put our knowledge of the past decade to the test, with a general knowledge quiz of epic proportions.
3) The Spectacle Suite: This time around, our creative juices were allowed to flow for the purpose of orchestrating an engaging story/play to amaze our audience.
4) The Conundrum Chamber: Did someone say riddles? Because this is exactly what this room was all about: logical, mathematical riddles and a search for a mysterious place based on a set of coordinates we discovered.
But all good things must come to an end and the same applied to the Tetrad. By the time we completed the tasks within the last room, we were immensely disappointed at the realization that there would be no need for our intricate scheming and profound discussions from now on… until the announcement of the second part of the Team Challenge pushed us all back into action!
This time around, we had… the TERNION! But before I start reminiscing about our enthusiastic (and quite mischievous ) activities during this task, I should explain what the Ternion was all about: Three races in one huge team relay competition, moving from the air to the water and then back on land. A race against time and against each other…
1) Air: A spectacular Broom Race! Five brooms, twenty laps, 72 hours… can you beat the clock? I don’t know about you, but the Emissaries apparently felt at home in the heavens.
2) Water: A fascinating Hippocampus Race! An underwater scavenger hunt for three mysterious items with two riders at a time and some insanely smart riddles. Some of us rode Hippocampi, others rode Hippos… who would have thought!
3) Land: An intense Magical Car Race! Each team chooses between a variety of magically enhanced cars and the action begins! That race saw everything from impromptu karaoke sessions to spontaneous dance battles (Aeeey Macarenaaa! ) to the teams troubleshooting their way through fixing their cars (from thinking of using another car to tow us forward to commandeering a random car, the Emissaries were certainly not short of creative ideas ).
Year 50: A Year to Remember, Part 4
THE GRAND FINALE: by Isabella
After challenges upon challenges, tasks upon tasks, the time had come to see the grand finale… the adrenaline-packed OCTRAIN! Two words from me: DEAR. MERLIN! The highlight of our year, the thrilling end to a wonderful adventure, a mixture of adrenaline, wit, logical thinking and insane amounts of planning! Once again, there were three parts to this final task, each one leading us all closer and closer to the championship. First, there were eight, then there were four, all fighting to prevail. Each team had two representatives within the Octrain, all ready to claim their spot in the final act of this championship. The lucky eight were announced before the start of the last challenge during the third week of Term 2 and were quite a formidable bunch:
Alchemists
Dragon & William Riddle
Emissaries
Emilia Granger & Isabella
Rangers
Maddy Rose & Megan Blincoe
Healers
Ichigo Mirai & SusanHP
Part I came in the form of a scavenger hunt of knowledge. Five individuals of mH history, five facts to represent each of them, only one chance to guess all of them correctly… the stakes were already high! Each of us had to take a trip down memory lane and identify the five famous mHers before they could move on to the second part.
Part II was a real test of our logical thinking and deduction skills. A puzzle-style riddle based on a list of ten potions and other dueling extras (the first hint for the final task had already been dropped, at this point!) granted to us by the famous members of the previous round. The aim was to use all our brainpower to figure out the five correct items while also putting them in the correct order… not as easy as it sounds!
After hard work, blood, sweat and tears, the scene was set, the champions chosen…
Alchemists
Dragon & William Riddle
Emissaries
Isabella
Rangers
Maddy Rose
… and the final task revealed: A never-before-seen free-for-all DUEL of insane proportions!! The most amazing finale to the most amazing year! But once again, things are not even remotely as easy as they sound… but then again, where is the fun in that?
The Top 4 brought us face to face in the ultimate task, a duel out of the ordinary, a challenge that saw ingenious strategies, hilarious gifs and puns, calculated attacks with power and vicious strength, creative roleplay and a massive number of injuries that could have easily granted us all a one-way ticket to the other side! In order to give us more chances at survival and create more spectacular results, each one of us was allotted ten casts with pre-determined accuracy and in a unique order for each dueler. For me, who nearly fainted at the mention of the word duel, that was a surprising gift that led to a never-ending series of questions and concerns throughout the duel that probably led the ones behind this to facepalm more often than not!
The tip of the iceberg was the opportunity for us all to use three duelling extras each, choosing between a variety of the most powerful ones available. I don’t even know how many times I changed my strategy and contemplated on my options, always waiting for the perfect moment to strike, lurking in the shadows and worrying for my life! Quite honestly, this duel was a real spectacle if the amount of people that were watching is anything to go by. It included “fiery rain, vicious hippos, jaw-dropping shields, corrosive chemicals, a sandstorm, along with quite a bit of blood”. But no matter how many things I learned by the end of this and no matter how exhilarating dueling is as a whole, make sure to not sign me up for this next time, folks!
All in all, Year 50 was a memorable year for mH. Just think about it, half a century and still going, half a century and still counting. Something akin to a golden anniversary, it was most certainly celebrated by students and Alumni alike. According to the records, “The vision for Year 50 started […] in the middle of Year 48! It started with conversations from conversations! Conversations about revamping some parts of the site structure gave birth to the idea of a gap year, and event year was born”. And boy, am I glad I was around to see this! Despite the fact I spent around half of the summer that followed cooped up inside St. Mungo’s for some much-needed rest and even though I thought I would never pull through, I am happy I did. Because no matter how many House Cups or Quidditch Cups or challenges I could possibly win, the greatest reward for me was getting to work together with my fellow Emissaries, having fun and talking until the wee hours of the morning and getting to know each other. Once the lights fade away and the spectators leave, this is what I get to keep: the memories…
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