Graduate student Leigh Davis, senior Samantha Loza, junior Rachel Carpenter and sophomores Delilah Owens and Hazel Radvansky wore their own Harry Potter attire to the opening ceremony in the Edmondson Dining Room as they explained to students the rules and procedures of the week-long event.
Davis said these five students, including herself, have been preparing for this week since the beginning of September. They have prepared 27 Harry Potter-themed activities for the community Nov. 1 through Nov. 8, ending with a concert at 6 p.m. Saturday by Tonks and the Aurors, a wizard rock band inspired by J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, at the Coffeehouse in Collins.
“This is the perfect opportunity to embrace your Harry Potter nerd-dom,” Carpenter said as students signed their names with broomstick-shaped pens on an attendance sheet during the opening ceremony.
DisChord, an a cappella group composed of Collins residents, set the mood for the week with a performance of “Double Trouble” during the opening ceremony. “Double Trouble” is a song of warning introduced in the third film, “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban,” the installment of the Harry Potter series that “A Week at Hogwarts” is themed after this year.
Following the performance, students began the weeklong competition for house points. Each Collins building is given a color for the House Cup Competition.
Residents who wear their house color or other Harry Potter gear to the events earn extra points for their building. At the end of this week, one building will receive the house cup filled with chocolate coins and the title of champion.
“The people who started Hogwarts Week created house mascots, house colors and house traits for each building,” Davis said. “The idea is to compete with your building during the week and earn points by basically being active in the community.”
Students wearing green, blue, purple, brown, red and yellow flood the dining hall this week, representing each house of Collins.
Libby Robinette, freshman resident of Collins’ Greene building, said it is important that her residence hall wins this year. IU plans to tear down both Greene and Brown buildings next ?summer.
“It’s kind of like our legacy to leave here,” freshman Alex Black said.
Most participants say they go for the love of Hogwarts or the love of competition. However, students do not have to love Harry Potter or live at Collins to be involved.
Davis said the coordinators try to make some activities based off of the movies and books without getting too specific with terminology from the series.
“But for the people who love Harry Potter, they really have fun with Hogwarts Week,” sophomore Dannie Dobbins said.
Dobbins, wearing her Hogwarts robe and Harry Potter-like glasses, clutched her handmade wizard wand.
Tuesday, “Voldemort dressed in drag” became “Hermione being serenaded by Nagini” in a game of transfiguration. Laughter broke out in Edmondson Formal Lounge as students gathered to play a Pictionary version of the game telephone.
Cold weather meant low attendance for Collins’ seventh annual Quidditch Match on Sunday, so Owens told the students to divide into two teams. Winning points were awarded to residents of Cravens, as they had the highest attendance at the event.
With Cravens currently in the lead of house points and Greene in a close second, Collins LLC has nine more events beginning at 6 p.m. this evening with “History of (Collins) Magic with Collins’ Alumna Kristen Murphy — The lives of Edmondson, Smith, Cravens and Collins” in the Edmondson Formal Lounge.
The committee said its favorite events have yet to take place. Visit its Facebook page at facebook.com/events/1565748580323820/ or email Leigh Davis at leidavis@indiana.edu for a full list of upcoming events.
