Prompt: Your Presence Requested

[Prof. Sky Alton]

Over on Ink Splatters, we’re creating invites to famous fictional soirees.

Invitations are a time honoured way of introducing plot points or moving proceedings along. People have met at parties, fallen in love at parties, died at parties and even vanished into thin air at parties. The invitation is the ideal time to start building anticipation and drop hints about what might be about to happen. So, this month I’d like you to write a story (200 words or more) that begins with an invitation. This can be a traditional card in the post or something a bit more abstract: you decide.

You’ll earn 20 beans for completing this prompt as well as it counting towards the chance to snag our shiny Quill and Ink award.

There is no deadline as such for these prompts but if you’d like it to count towards your chance of earning the award for a specific year, we’ll need it by the end of that school year. If you’re comfortable sharing, then post below. If not, email your story to us via hol.bookclub @ gmail.com (without the spaces). Oh and remember it’s a good idea to check through your piece carefully for spelling and grammatical errors as they make it harder for people to properly enjoy your work.

[Iverian Gnash]

Wait, what? Did she hear her right? Walking down the hallway, back to the Gryffindor CR, her sister had bumped her with her shoulder right before whispering, "midnight, the owlery, don't tell anyone, just be there." After delivering this cryptic message, she continued down the hallway nonchalantly like nothing had happened. "Whatever," Ivy thought. Exhausted, Iverian continued to her dorm room where she plopped her backpack next to her dresser and promptly fell onto her bed, fast asleep. When she awoke, Ivy realized it was already ten pm. Yikes, time flew. Well, maybe not that much. She had, stupidly, scheduled her last class for 8 pm. So, taking into account, the time it took for class, and then the walk back to her room, she probably had a good 45 minute nap. Wasn't there something she was going to do tonight? Involving her sister? Oh, that's right, the "invitation". Whatever that was about. She would go, just to make sure everything was alright. After doing 'some' of her homework and carefully making sure no one was watching, she slipped out of the room and padded across to the door where she slowly continued her journey to the owlery. Approaching the owlery, Iverian carefully stepped inside to find her sister and a mutual friend standing there. "Alright, here's why you're here," her sister started, "we are going to plan a surprise party for our flying instructor!" "Oh! Sounds exciting," Ive exclaimed. "I'm thinking, a full length broom shaped cake."