Harry Potter Camp - Day 10 - The Final Battle

The last four days of camp were marked by the arrival of a letter from various enemies of Harry at the start of each class.  The final day, Lord Voldemort himself wrote to us, demanding that we turn him over.  There was only one problem: we didn't have Harry; we'd never seen Harry; we certainly couldn't turn him over.

The Slytherins suggested that we either join the Death Eaters or run, but the rest of the class out-voted them, suggesting that the Slytherins could sit quietly on the sidelines if they'd like, but if they joined the other side, "We duel to kill."  (No, that's not quoting my students in real life, it's quoting Professor McGonagall.)

Soon, the epic battle was underway.

As an early elementary schooler, my reading material of choice were the "Choose Your Own Adventure" books.  If it wasn't for the fact that these were not Accelerated Reader books, I never would have read anything else (and thus never would have read Harry Potter, so it all turned out for the best).  So, when I found a PowerPoint game, designed as a Harry Potter-Lord Voldemort Choose Your Own Adventure battle, I could not turn it down.  The game was loaded up with 60 different slides, two to three options on each slide, and (from what I can tell) one way to win.

This thing kept me happy for the forty minutes that we played (because each house had four lives, and it took almost all of those lives to finally beat it).

In the end, it was, surprisingly enough, the Slytherin house that defeated Voldemort.  For doing so, they were awarded 160 points, as per the movie, which was enough to make up for all the points they had lost along the way for doing their Slytherin-like antics, such as not doing/turning in their work or not participating.  I was so glad that it turned out the way it did, because I hated seeing them so clearly far behind everyone else.  Unlike the books, though, it was not the house that defeated Voldemort that won the house cup.  Rather, it was Ravenclaw, coming in with over 500 points.  This worked out well for me, because there were two students to whom I was considering giving an award "for special services to the school" (aka perfect attendance and best attitude).  As one of them was a fifth grader in Ravenclaw and the other a sixth grader in Hufflepuf[f], I decided the best course of action would be to give it to the student who hadn't yet been recognized for her achievements.

I promised her that if she needed help reading it, we could get together and have some Harry Potter fun.

"And suddenly, their wardrobes were empty, their trunks were packed.  Neville's toad was found lurking  in a corner of the toilets; notes were handed out to all students, warning them not to use magic over the holidays ('I always hope they'll forget to give us these,' said Fred Weasley sadly); Hagrid was there to take them down to the fleet of boats that sailed across the lake; they were boarding the Hogwarts Express; talking and laughing as the countryside became greener and tidier; eating Berttie Bott's Every Flavor Beans as they sped past Muggle towns; pulling off their wizard robes and putting on jackets and coats; pulling into platform nine and three-quarters at King's Cross Station...

"'Hope you have - er - a good holiday,' said Herminone, looking uncertainly after Uncle Vernon, shocked that anyone could be so unpleasant.

"'Oh, I will,' said Harry, and they were surprised at the grin that was spreading over his face.  'They don't know we're not allowed to use magic at home.   I'm going to have a lot of fun with Dudley this summer..."

The End