This year, my World Book Day costume comes from a book within a book. In Harry Potter, Harry receives a list of the books he is required to buy for his Hogwarts studies including a book called Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them. Back a long time ago, JK Rowling actually wrote her own book for Comic Relief (or was it Children in Need) as it if it was written by Newt. I remember buying it and reading it.
Now, in the last couple of years, the Harry Potter franchise has created films about the character Newt Scamander and his adventures looking for animals. CBC had to dress up last year for Harry Potter night at his school as Newt Scamander and he dutifully put together a costume for it. I declared at that point, that my World Book Day character was already sorted.
CBC bought the turquoise coat, the tan waistcoat and the scarf from various websites.
I'm wearing my own pair of tweedy trousers, white shirt and men's brown brogue shoes.
If you can see a green creature attached to my lapel, that is a Bowtruckle which my Mum crocheted for CBC last year. He's super cute.
The suitcase came from Sarah Nelson Gingerbread in Grasmere and we filled it with various animals including
Ones we already owned: Owl, Fox, Squirrel, Foxsquirrel, Crab
Bought for 1 sickle a piece at Harry Potter night: Another Bowtruckle, 2 Nifflers, 1 Pygmy Puff.
It was great fun to get dressed up like this and I found the sideways glances on the train amusing!
Lots of the children at school knew who I was straight away. Others, mainly younger, were not sure. It was fun opening up my case and sharing the animals with the children.
Lots of the other teachers made a great effort. Other costumes included: Wizard of Oz Year 5: 2 witches, 1 Lion, 1 Dorothy, 1 Scarecrow, How to train your dragon Year 4: Hiccup the Viking and Toothless, Year 6: Alice in Wonderland: Queen of Hearts, Alice (wearing my dress), Mad Hatter, White Rabbit; Year 2: Snow White x 2, SMT: Peter Pan and Tinkerbell,
I'd love to know if you dressed up and what you were?
I feel like I haven't had much that is very interesting to post about recently as our weekends have largely been taken up with house-based issues, concerts and work preparation and our Half term in February was spent at home in Essex. I apologise for this. It has largely been a bit uninspired!
Well, the final Wednesday of term was spent in a most unusual way.
CBC's work had organised a Harry Potter night which he had been to last year and enthused over as well as bringing me back some treats.
Well, this year, he was asked to be one of the Professors for it- he was asked to be Newt Scamander from the Fantastic Beasts and where to find them movie.
In case you are not sure of the Harry Potter link, Newt Scamander is the author of the book entitled, Fantastic Beasts and Where to find them which is on Harry's required reading list in his first year at Hogwarts.
This month, in preparation, CBC has spent time searching for costume items to make his costume up. I was getting very excited and wishing I could also dress up though in the end, I just wore his colleague's academic gown!
The excitement began at the entrance. They had covered the main doors with this brick wall material which you had to step through rather like Platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross. I failed miserably at getting through and also tripped up!
After putting my bags in CBC's office, Sorry NEWT's office, I headed to the library to hear CBC and his music ensemble playing the Harry Potter, Hedwig's Theme.
Here began the first of 3 sorting ceremonies, introduced by two of the pupils who were organising, most beautifully! It was very clever the way they got some pupils to come up and used their knowledge of the pupils to make a judgement.
The space was disguised beautifully with the long tables set out like the Hogwarts dining room, fairy lights and then these 'floating candles' on the ceiling!
At this point, I had a look at CBC's costume- someone had made him a wire Bowtruckle which was attached to his suitcase (this once housed Grasmere Gingerbread!)
Here is CBC as Newt Scamander! My Mum made him a really cute crocheted Bowtruckle which was annoyingly not pictured as it cheekily poked out his pocket on the other side.
At this point, the students were sent to their lessons- each had been given a timetable of Hogwarts lessons to attend.
I crept into Transfiguration where they were using the Wingardium Leviosa spell to try and make their feathers float!
A previous Headteacher seemed to be a talking, moving portrait!
One very cool thing you could do was you had to change your money at the Gringotts bank for Wizarding money.
I chose to change £5 for 11 sickles which surprisingly, bought a lot!
Next, I headed to Diagon Alley to see what I could spend my money on.
Here, you could buy Nifflers- these canny Critters are attracted to treasure and steal it!
Golden snitches were also for sale!
Honeydukes were selling their famous treat mix!
You could buy the Monster Book of books which is what CBC bought me last year! The one in the cage was very fierce!
Pumpkin pastries could be purchased!
Or Golden snitch cake pops!
One of CBC's jobs was to be accosted by pupils at various times who had to seek the various professors around and obtain their autographs by answering a question about that particular character!
At various times, CBC's suitcase burst open and animals escaped! He had a lot of my soft toys in there and we bought some Nifflers!
Another of the tasks was to seek various objects hidden around the building such as the Sword of Godric Gryffindor!
As well as specific lessons the pupils had to attend, there were various 'free-period' activities and lessons they could take part in. Here was one of the potions free choices.
I headed into Herbology and paid 1 sickle to try and repot a Mandrake! It was one of those 'don't touch the wire' games but with a Mandrake attached and going from one pot to another! I wasn't very good!
Always remember to wear your furry earmuffs for Mandrake repotting!
There were lots of scary looking plants in the Herbology lab!
But rather goofy too!
Next, I caught the tail-end of one of the Potions lessons which involved some chemistry and at the end of the lesson you had to put something through a bunsen burner flame. Confession- I was deadly scared of these at Secondary School and never touched one in my 5 years of Science!
I spotted Aragog , the enormous Acromantula lurking by the shredder! AHRGH!
Back in Diagon Alley, I had a go at one of the games which was to guess what was in Dobby, the House Elf''s socks. Got all of them right but one!
CBC and I tried some Butterbeer. It was NOT nice!
At this point, I spotted Dumbledore's Phoenix, Fawkes!
I headed to the Hall to watch the Quidditch lesson!
I didn't manage to catch any of the other lessons such as Divination or look at all the stalls but what I saw was super!
The final event was the announcement of the winners of the House Cup and the Yule Ball which I played flute for. We played the Waltz from the Yule Ball whilst some students waltzed like in the Goblet of Fire and then the Wyrd Sisters performed, Can you do the Hippogriff?
There are many other things I haven't mentioned or photographed including lessons, decorations, stalls, games, things to buy. All the Professors looked amazing- there was Hagrid, Mad-eye Moody, McGonagle, Sirius Black, Professor Trelawney, Madame Olympe Maxime, Professor Dolores Umbridge, Professor Sprout.
The whole thing was utterly wonderfully organised and great fun. The delight of all the pupils who attended was really obvious. I kept giggling with delight all the time.
What did I spend my 11 sickles on you may ask?
Well:
2 sickles were spent on a Pygmy Puff,
2 sickles on a bag of Honeydukes treat mix
1 sickle on a Golden Snitch.
2 Sickles on a Niffler,
2 sickles on a wand.
1 sickle on a Pumpkin pastry (not pictured)
1 sickle on a Golden Snitch cake pop
CBC also bought a Niffler and I was given a wand glow stick as I left.
You could also buy Bowtruckles like his.
Oh and here is the Bowtruckle my Mum made!
The whole event was brilliant! I hope if anyone reads this, it might give them some ideas of an event like this to organise!
I found myself thinking about Lord Voldemort in the shower yesterday morning. I've been rereading the Harry Potter series recently, maybe not a good time for it at Lent but it formed my thoughts for my Pause for Advent.
Lord Voldemort is the ultimate baddie. He's power crazy and wants to set himself up as God, never dying, all powerful, his name is forbidden, you mustn't say it or you get caught and punished. He wants to destroy those who are against him. He has those who are his fervent followers who like to think they are not afraid of him, but they are. Lucius Malloy, a great follower and believer of his makes mistakes and Lord Voldemort is angry and wants to punish him. He makes his son do an impossible task and wants him to fail, even though Lucius has begged for forgiveness. And it struck me, EVIL never forgives. It wants to crush and destroy and punish. All baddies want those who fail to suffer, never truly forgives or trusts them.
But TRUE GOOD always forgives. True good always offers another chance if the perpetrator truly wants another chance to be saved from their fate and punishment. God, by sending his Son to die for the World, wanted him to succeed and wanted to and wants to offer us another chance. Even if the one who needs forgiving only truly wants forgiveness at the last moment. Even if, like Severus Shape, you only see the light near the end, He always offers it. Forgiveness is offered. Willingly and lovingly. Jesus willingly and lovingly dies on that Cross every year, waiting for that heart.
I'm going to go back and answer the other questions like Rebekah
Week 1
1. Which is your favorite of the 7 books? This is SUCH a hard question! I know which is my least favourite (Prisoner of Azkaban). I think I'd have to say, The Half-blood Prince because I love the 'Room of requirement''s use (and the fact that due to this, that I guessed what and where the diadem of Rowena Ravenclaw was hidden!) and I loved Snape's Potions book. Plus, there was a lot of drama and things to think about after it, even though I was devastated by the end.
2. Which is your favorite of the 8 films?
I think the first part of The Deathly hallows was really good but I really enjoyed The Goblet of Fire.
I copied and pasted the questions from Rebekah's blog with her whole text and this came too and it seemed a shame to remove it, so I've kept it! Hope you don't mind Rebekah!
(source)
3. Which, if any, of the films made you angry for not staying true to the books? Hmmmm, it's a long time since I've watched most of them! I think I thought that Book two was rather short and skimped on the action as did Book 1! But to be honest, I can't remember!
4. Who is your least favorite female character and why? Rita Skeeter. Horrible, sneaky and mean. Or Dolores Umbridge because she's a nasty two-faced sneak!
5. Who is your favorite male character and why?
Hard to choose. I really like Mr Weasley. He's really scatty and disorganised and sort of into funny things, so I do like him but I (as you will see)am very fond of Lupin because of his difficulties he's faced in life!
6. What house would you like to be in? Now be realistic...where would the Sorting Hat put you? I think that I might be in Ravenclaw probably because I am an academic more than anything else and more that sort than being full of bravery, daring and things. I think of course it would be nice to be in Gryffindor (especially as my Uni academic hood is Gryffindor colours) but I'd say Ravenclaw as I'm too much of a coward to be in Gryffindor.
7. Which subject would be your favorite at Hogwarts? I'd definitely like Charms. I like languages and I think like Hermione, I'd be a bit of a pedant at pronouncing the incantations right. Win-gaaaaaa-rdium leviosa. Make the gaaaaa nice and long!
Week 2
1. Who is your favorite female character and why? Eeeeeeeeeerm? Fleur was cool!
2. Who is your least favorite male character and why? Lucius Malfoy. He kept true to evil
3. Pick one: Horcruxes or Hallows? Hallows.
4. Which character do you relate to most?
Luna. I'm a little bit looopy and eccentric like her!
5. Your favorite pairing of characters? Luna and Neville- great fun!
6. Your favorite professor? Lupin was really kind and caring.
7. Bring one character back to life. Who and why? Definitely Sirius. Because he and Harry would've been family.
Week 3
1. Do you prefer the books or the films? Books definitely. I've seen most of the films only once or maybe twice! I love the progress of a book and the fact you can be anywhere reading them. I never forget reading The Philosopher's stone and I was at a rehearsal at the Royal Festival Hall and I was so so so so desperate to read it and carry on that I kept reading in all my bars rest in the music!
2. If you could meet one member of the cast who would it be and why? Hmmmm, I'm not that worried about meeting the cast members as they are not actually the real characters themselves! I guess, I'd like to meet Maggie Smith as she comes from where I come from and she's been in so many cool things! It would be fun to meet Emma Watson too as I feel we'd get on!
3. If you could punish one of the characters and not get in trouble, who would it be and why? Like Rebekkah, I am really cross with James and co for being so mean to Severus Snape- that was just cruel and horrid!
4. What parts of the films and books made you cry if any? All the deaths, Snape and Lily flashbacks, bits where Harry feels lonely!
5. Scene from a book you wished was in the movie? The Hogwarts song and Dumbledore saying "Music, a magic beyond all we do here" - I put this in my school music policy!!!! Also,the lilac flames in Book 1, where he has to pick a potion when finding the Philosopher's stone- I don't remember this being in the film!
6. Were you satisfied with the epilogue? In the book, I was very happy with it! I like predictable happy endings, I really dislike twists!
7. If you could do ONE spell, without a wand..what would it be? Apparition would be amazing!!!! It reminds me of T-bag who used to be able to click her fingers and land anywhere!
Week 4
1. If you could ask Harry one question, what would it be? Er-? Why didn't you go back and get that Potions book of the Half-Blood Prince from the Room of Requirement?
Why oh why didn't you just pick up the Portkey when you landed in the Graveyard in the Triwizard tournament? Always be prepared!
2. Who is your favorite marauder? : Lupin definitely! I feel so sorry for him and he was so nice yet always facing trial and difficulty! He was the most genuinely nice one out of all of them. James and Sirius were too full of it and Pettigrew two-faced!
3. Least favorite house? Slytherin! Evil!
4. Do you think it was important for Dobby to die? What about his funeral in the film? Did you love it or hate it? It made me cry in both the book and film- I don't like being made to cry. No, he shouldn't have died and I don't think it was important for him to die!
5. Would you have chosen a rat, a cat, or an owl as your companion? An owl definitely! One like Ron's little one! More useful with free postage!
6. If you could have one of the Hallows, what would you choose? The invisibility cloak for sure. That'd be soooo fun! Not bothered by the other two!
7. Time turner or pensieve? Why? Timeturner definitely- I've always wanted to be able to travel in time!
