HOL

Welcome to the Quidditch 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.

For this last crawl, we’re stepping back in time (again) to 1994 to experience the charged build-up to one of the most infamous sporting events in wizarding history. Grab a pen, some parchment and the musical flag of your choice and let’s go!

After a while of stumbling around in the dark (and that was just trying to get dressed and out the door), you’ve finally located the Portkey.
*Write 50 words while you’re yanked through the air and unceremoniously dumped*

You pick yourself up, dust yourself off and join the slow stream of people heading towards the misty campsites.
*Write 25 words while you fumble with the Muggle money to pay the inquisitive gentlemen* (Bonus if your character is trying to blend in)

Finally, after more stumbling, you’ve located your plot.
*Write another 25 words while you put up your tent, avoiding next door’s feisty peacock*

Hissing at the peacock that you’ll report it to the Ministry, you head off to explore the campsite.
*Write 40 words while you chat to acquaintances and examine what exactly other people think passes for inconspicuousness* (Bonus if you take yourself outside to finish the crawl, sitting on the grass is optional)

As night falls, the souvenir sellers are out in force, offering you luridly colourful magical marvels you never knew you didn’t need.
*Write 60 words while you browse what’s on offer and make your careful selections*

The gong sounds. Borne along by the excitedly chattering crowd, you make your way towards the stadium.
*Write 30 words while you try not to get trodden on*

Ouch. You just cricked your neck trying to get a view of the top of the stadium wall.
*Write 20 words as you climb the never-ending (but nicely carpeted) staircase to your seats* (Bonus if the anticipation is building in your story)

As the excitement thrums through the air around you, you take your seat, riffle through your programme and start up conversations about employment ethics and conditions for workers with absolute strangers.
*Write 30 words while other people filter in around you*

The mascots have appeared on the pitch and everyone around you seems either to be losing their heads or trying to control those who have. Hang on, what are you doing on the edge of the box?
*Write 10 words while you get yourself back under control and check if anyone saw*

And finally, the moment of kick off.
*Write 10 words while you hold your breath, waiting for the referee to blow their whistle* (Bonus if, you guessed it, you can hold your breath while you write the concluding line of your story)

While you may not be lifting the cup, bask in the reflected glory.
*Share your story with us*

As soon as I touch the object, I get yanked into the mass of swirls, spinning and spinning until I want to throw up. I never liked portkeys anyway, but sadly, they are the most common method of transportation. The feeling passes rather quickly though as I get thrown from the tornado and land harshly on the ground.
I picked myself up and glared at my companion whose fault was that we were traveling by portkey anyway. Moving with the group of others, we stopped in front of a campsite manager. A muggle, apparently, according to the money we had to bring with us. Like, whose idea was to hire Muggles for a completely wizarding event?

“Darn paper money,” I growl, while I tried to make sense of the paper and numbers on it, until I had enough and just shoved ten bills into the man’s hands, took the map and started moving in the direction of our camp.

“I think you overpaid him by like…200%,” I heard from behind me. I found our spot and dumped the tent onto the ground, as I inspected our neighbors. We were in a luxury spot, which meant small mansion-like contraption with some serious security. Was that an albino peacock staring at me unblinkingly? “Creepy,” I murmured.

“I don’t care Jeff, it’s stupid that there are Muggles here,” I bit back, watching as my friend put his hands up in a placating manner.

“Come on, let’s browse the stalls before the match,” Jeff said. I liked the idea, so I took the pouch with the real, wizarding, money and followed him to the colorful part of the field.

“Do we know anyone here?” I asked him, while we browsed. I picked up a hat with the home team’s flag, while Jeff, the traitor look at some opposing team’s figures.

“I don’t think so,” he replied, paying for our items. “Lara’s sick, Alex and Terry are on vacation and Jessamine’s on that business trip.”

Just as I was about to comment, the general buzz of activity was pierced by ten deep gong, signalizing the approaching start of the match. The crowd started to move to the stadium’s entrance, so I took Jeff’s hand, not wanting to be separated in the masses of people.

Our tickets had us somewhere in the top-middle of the stadium, with perfect view of everything. I tried to take a look above me, but it hurt too much to see the end, so I stopped and focused on the people around me, while looking through the program, noting the different sponsors of the match.

The chatter picked up and I saw that the mascots arrived, green leprechauns and silvery, almost ethereal veelas. I was not that impressed with the first act, but when the women started singing, a fog filled my head and I was not aware of my surroundings anymore.

After an undetermined time, the fog cleared from my head and I noticed someone tugging my shirt, chuckling. I glared at Jeff, who sported a smirk on his face. “How come you weren’t affected by them?” I whined as I returned to my seat.

Jeff did not reply, just chuckled softly. The crowed seemed to quiet down as a person in golden robes arrived on the field with a Quaffle in her hands and a whistle between her lips. The captains of the team shook their hands and with a sharp whistle and a throw, the match begun!

((Need to tell that I have never done this before and was so amazed during writing. Never imagined that writing with instructions can be so much fun.))

Wizard was nervously searching through his house for the magic wand and at the same time thinking about proper clothes that Muggles won't notice as akward and maybe even stupid. After some long minutes he padded through his door and stepped some steps forward. Like the luck was not on his side he turned around and noticed that the door was still open. With quick swish of the wand he locked them and hurried towards the nearest hill on which a few people were gathered. "Morning!" He exclaimed and looked for a portkey, small pencil!

Obviously there were even more things that silly wizard forgot at his home. Again there was a swish of wand and muggle money appeared in his hands. How much does it cost? Luckily there was someone who helped him with paying.

Trying to push himself through the mass of people and waving with wand he located his place to stay. He was right next to someone who knew many things about design. The tent next to him was extremely big and had peacock at the front. With swish of wand wizard made his own tent which was a little smaller but also comfortable enough and not very similar to tent that muggles were using.

Unfortunately the peacock noticed the wizard and began hissing at him. Wizard murmured something and decided that he would report that to the Ministry in the near future. Before he would become even more angry someone greeted him. It was old friend and soon they were both chatting and constantly looking at nasty peacock which turned his attention to another neighbour. They were talking about wizards and witches who were stupid enough to reveal themselves to the muggles by using so strange things.

Walking through the camp without no reasons wizard is suddenly pushed into another large mass of people which were all busy with looking and buying souvenirs. Immediately wizard is noticed by one of the sellers. Seller began offering thing after thing; first shinning hat with the name of the both countries that were playing, then small children toys with were moving around and loudly yelling at him, whistels in all imaginable colours and binoculars that can slow down the happening and explain you everything. After some loud seconds of thinking wizard bought binocular and escaped deadly claws of the seller.

There is no time left for getting back to his tent because gong was already on. Pushing his way towards the stadium and yelling with the crowd he arrived in the stadium and began searching for his seat.

Luckily it was not ordinary ticket that he bought, because he knew that the enjoying is possible only when you give more money in buying the ticket. Quch; wizard hit his head into the wall and noticed that he was not the only one with this problem.

Seating himself next to the old but richly dressed man he said: "I have just been reading the newspaper about conditions for workers." Man answered: "Really? I have heard about it too. So bad conditions aren't they." Wizard answered while other people were still coming through.

Their conversation was disturbed by mascots and wizard noticed many people standing up and doing unbelievable things such as dancing, laying down on the floor, shouting for no reason and so on. Wait; wizard also noticed that he was not on his seat anymore. Wildly looking around if anyone saw this he sat down and tried to calm himself.

Whistle began blowing and the cup had just started. Full of excitement he began yelling for encouragement of his quidditch team.

My hand was grabbed and we were racing through the crowd. I held on for dear life as my feet tried to drag behind me but were forced to continuously move forward. Whatever was going on in my sister's mind was beyond comprehension for me, but she had to go. I feel myself trip over the feet of someone else, and I quickly get up hoping that no one saw me before catching back up.

My sister had made it to the front of the stage where the cheering was insane. I plugged my ears from all the loud noise. I had had enough. This was going nowhere fast, and the last place I wanted to be was in a mosh pit. I told my sister I was going back and decided to step outside for some fresh, clean air.

The street vendors were even in an uproar. What was so amazing about this musical artist? Sure they were world famous and had a ton of hit songs, but this was ridiculous. Why did I even agree to go to this concert with her in the first place? One of the vendor carts ran over my foot and I hissed. The pain wasn't too bad, but the fact that I was now being pushed back in by the vendors to the arena made me forget all about it. What now?

I heard the music begin, and I knew Metal Boy was on stage. I heard the guitar. It was good. Actually, the music was too good. It was as if I was entering some sort of trance as well as the people around me. I had the urge to dance. The music was hypnotic, and I tried to stop moving. Nothing worked. We found ourselves all under the evil hypnotist.