Word Crawl: Philosopher's Stone

[Prof. Sky Alton]

Welcome to the Philosopher's Stone Word Crawl!

Don’t know what a crawl is? No problem! It's esentially a writing board game: you write from one instruction to the next to create a story of 300 words or more and it can be about absolutely anything (you don’t have to stick to the Harry Potter theme in any way).
If you’d like to share your story, you’ll earn 20 beans and it will count towards your chance of earning one of our shiny quill and ink awards. You can post it below or if you’re uncomfortable sharing publically but would still like it to count, you can email it to us at hol.bookclub @ gmail.com (without spaces) with the subject line Crawl-Theme-HOL name. There is no deadline, though if you want to scoop that award, we’ll need it by the end of that particular school year.

Ready? Then away we go!

Confidently assuring the snarling three headed dog that you can’t sing but you’ll write him a story as you go, you step towards the trap door.

Before dropping down into the bowels of the earth, you check you’ve got everything you’ll need
*Furnish yourself with a quill and parchment, stone tablet and chisel, a computer document or some other writing mode of your choice.*

Ahg! You’ve been seized by devil’s snare upon landing.
*Write your opening sentence to create a fire of creativity to combat the tendrils*

You find yourself in the room of flying keys and must catch the correct one
*Write 50 words while you fly around after it*

You find yourself Confronted by McGonagall’s giant chess set. You lose a friend along the way and must work twice as hard to win through this time.
*Write 100 words while you laboriously play your way across* (Bonus if they advance the plot in some way)

You encounter a comatose troll who seriously needs to make a complaint to the Department of Magical Creatures. There’s not much to do here but climb over him and try to ignore the stench.
*write 25 words while you do* (Bonus if you can do it while holding your nose with one hand)

You’re confronted by a logic puzzle of many bottles
*Go get a drink, then Write 50 words while you deliberate on which will advance you forwards* (Bonus if there is a decision being made in your story)

Oh no! You encounter a dark wizard apparently having a row with himself in the final chamber
*write 75 words while you try and fight him off*

You stand before the mirror of Erised
*Conclude your story with the sentence of your dreams to collect the stone*

Brag about your exploits while your adoring public pelt you with every flavour beans and toilet seats
*share your story*

[Bull J. Johnson]

(Not my finest work but here it is.)

There were always dragons in Brownsville but the farmers never complained, because they were both very happy. Until one day there was starting to be too many villagers and they started to move into the mountains where the dragons lived. This made the dragons very mad and they decided it was time for them to make a stand. So they called a meeting with the oldest dragon who was the leader of all the dragons in that area. In this meeting they brought up their concerns to her and she decided that they were right and that it was high time that they had a war, but before she gave her final ok she said that she needed to give the humans a ultimatum which was to either stay off the their mountain and to dwindle their size on their own or to allow the dragons to pick a few chosen humans and let them eat them. The next day she went down to tell the humans what the dragons had decided that night. Of course when the Mayor heard this from the head dragon he got very upset and shouted at the head dragon. This was a huge mistake and the head dragon breathed fire at the Mayor and killed him. In fact, nothing was left of him other than his bones. That night the villagers decided to attack the dragons giving the dragons no time to come up with a battle plan, but none the less the dragons still beat the villagers and the villagers had to flee. This gave the villagers just on option and that was to follow with the wishes of the dragons and send half their people away from this wonderful farming village called Brownsville. The ones that were chosen of course didn’t want to go, but understood that this was the only way to have peace between the dragons and the villagers. After this everything went back to a happy peace between the villagers and the dragons and they did not have another battle for at least another decade.

[Meredith Malkins]

Not exact to the word counts, mostly over but not enough to be double, I think it's passable.

Once upon a time there was a beautiful and brave three-headed dog called Fluffy.
Fluffy was the guardian of the most important door in the world, which is only fitting for the descendant of the great Cerebus of old. Fluffy was very good at his job, protecting the door from all manner of thieves, thugs, and bad guys, while allowing only the authorised to pass. He could even do it in his sleep!
Most nights were the same: see thug, eat thug, see good guy, let him through. Fluffy never did get bored, though he could do his job in his sleep. He'd seen so much, so many ploys and plots, he thought he'd seen it all. But one night, something different happened. That night, it was no hero or keeper or old bearded wizard who came to his door, nor was the intruder any sort of criminally-minded miscreant he'd ever met before. Then again, this was no ordinary night from the start.
The first odd thing was the mist, which smelled like smoke, but it carpeted Fluffy's chamber like a light fog should and smoke should not. And there was the funny circular lightning outside, and then the door opened very slowly.
Through it slipped a most pretty princess, in a flowing cream-coloured gown, holding a lantern in one hand and her wand in the other. Unlike other visitors, she didn't have a pass, or a musical instrument, or a bribe. She did however, have a story to tell, about how her subjects were starving, and that she had come to fetch enough food to feed them all, and save them from death. She wasn't authorised, but Fluffy, being an understanding creature of great intelligence, allowed her to pass, as long as she told him another story.
Poor Fluffy had the most terrible insomnia, like his ancestor, but the princess told him a wonderful bedtime story, and slowly Fluffy felt himself relax. The princess made her way through the maze he guarded so well as she spun her tale. Eventually, she reached the end, collected all the food she could in bags she had tied around her waist in such a fashion that it melded into her gown so enemies would not have thought it suspicious. After filling her bags with cockroach clusters, chocolates, and cauldron cakes all manner of nutritious food for her subjects, she came back to Fluffy and finished her story, thanking him profusely for his kindness.
And so Fluffy continued his work most relaxed, while the princess went back to the Sett for a midnight potluck with the other Badgers her kingdom, and they all lived happily ever after.