In my freshman year at TU, I had the opportunity to take the Harry Potter and American Culture course taught by Dr. Jan Wilson. I’ve loved the Harry Potter books and movies since I was a kid, so I was extremely excited for this class. Little did I know, all the students would get sorted into their houses by the sorting hat, and each house would compete for the house cup by gaining points throughout the semester.
We also got to put on a Harry Potter themed Halloween Party for the kids at the University School. Everyone got to dress like their favorite character and each house was expected to make up a game and make some type of treat. My house, Ravenclaw, made up a game called ‘Free Dobby’, which consisted of multiple hula hoops spaced out around the room, a stuffed Dobby, and socks filled with beans.
In the Harry Potter books, house elves can only be freed by being given an item of clothing. So, for our game, whoever threw the sock closest to Dobby won. We would move Dobby around from ring to ring each round. For our snack, we made Oreo balls, covered them in gold glitter, and stuck on little wings to resemble golden snitches.
There were also contests for the best snack, game, and costume which the kids got to vote on. Our house won second place for our golden snitches. I will forever remember this day because of how fun it was to meet and play with the kids from the University school. This experience also helped me get closer to the people in my house. There was a lot of work put into this party and it was worth every second.