Some students were chosen to attend when their 11th birthday came. Others have invited themselves to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. At the end of last semester, about 50 witches and wizards assembled in the library of Fossil Ridge High School to honor the beloved story book series, Harry Potter. Holidays at Hogwarts is an annual event at Fossil Ridge that has been running for three years.

The Harry Potter franchise, whose first book was published in 1997 and first movie released in 2001, has gained more followers than one would at first think. James Chapman, a writer on Squidoo, assembled a list of the most read books in the world, showing that the Harry Potter series has been read an estimated 400 million times and is currently the third most read book in the world. This is a list including the Bible, which came in first, and the second place holder is simply quotations from Mao Tse-tung’s “Little Red Book.”

As of custom, the students were first sorted into their houses by the sorting hat. Many students entered with scarves or cloaks showing their preferences, but pulling from the sorting hat is a game of chance, and not everyone could get what they wanted. Junior Cara Bollinger suggests that the sorting process be changed in upcoming years. Not only would she like there to be more in-depth sorting, but she’d “make it so people aren’t allowed to trade [houses] with each other.” Seeing that the houses dictate who your company is for the rest of the evening, it is understandable that students would want this aspect a bit more refined than “sheer dumb luck”.

The students swiftly went on their way to play Quidditch in the cafeteria. Easily the most popular event in Holidays at Hogwarts, Quidditch is a favorite by many, including junior Cara Bollinger. “It’s fun to hit people with brooms and break them,” Bollinger said. Many students side with Bollinger and insist that Quidditch is great fun, but even this Muggle version of broom hockey can be dangerous. Just as in any high energy game, injuries are not uncommon and brooms have been broken more than once before. This event is normally in the gym, but was moved to the cafeteria this year due to a conflicting sports event. Senior Abby Baldwin also notes that last year many students participated in a “bring your own broom” style tournament; this meant many cheap brooms were used, which were more likely to break. Such wasn’t the case this year, but students still had to adjust to the different floors and the dozens of folded lunch tables that lined the courts.

Returning to the library, the houses then settle down for a long winters feast. They were fed pizza and butter beer—a potion made of cream soda, caramel sauce and whipped cream. They were also given treats such as chocolate frogs and pretzel wands. According to media specialist Lana Fain, the event collectively cost upwards of $300. “The money comes from the media budget; school allocations and fines,” Fain said. “We actually have kids who consistently don’t turn books in on time… so that’s actually a steady financial source.”

The dozen pizzas Fain ordered cost around $120. The houses then got to know each other and the feast was accompanied with singing and quoting movies and YouTube videos.

Participants then competed in a game of Harry Potter: Scene It? with their houses. Hufflepuff was the only house who only received five points, when the other three received ten each. The last event was the search for horcruxes that were hidden throughout the library.

Groups such as the Book Club give the media center a lot of help with setting these events up. Baldwin has helped set up the scavenger hunt as well as help decorate the library, all of which takes about an hour.

Even though she only went for the first bit of the event, Junior Olivia Jones still has a few sentiments for Holidays at Hogwarts. She attended last year and enjoyed the loose atmosphere, and was actually pleased with the smaller crowd that attends. “I grew up with the Harry Potter series and I had friends who were going,”  Jones said. Baldwin added, “I really love Harry Potter… I like being a part of something.”

The students’ sentiments were just what the media center was hoping. Fain and the library staff began the tradition “to celebrate our love for this book series… [and] to encourage the passion for reading. It’s a chance for a lot of people to share a common passion.”

Fain is hoping to have more events around the year. Many events, such as National Novel Writing Month (November) and National Poetry Month (April) are, you guessed it, national events, but Holidays at Hogwarts is Fossil Ridge inspired and executed. Fain hopes to begin similar events circulating around other popular book series, such as Lord of the Rings and Hunger Games. Fain and the staff also are openly accepting constructive criticism for Holidays at Hogwarts to better the event. “If anybody has some ideas,” Fain said, “We’d love to hear them.”