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The Wizarding World News

• Writing School with Ash
• Creative Corner with Hemlock
• Dear Severus Snape with Verity
• Competition Queries with Katie Alden
• Team Challenge with Ruhi
• Beta How To with Accio
• League Table

Follow all important events of the International Wizarding School Championship here in the Wizarding World News. We also have a live Twitter feed, Facebook and an Instagram account for you to get day by day updates!

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Judges’ Picks

Year 1: A Gift by Lady Sloane BEAUXBATONS

Following the story of Verity, a Muggle-born wrongfully imprisoned for “stealing magic”, this piece explores the psychological downward spiral of a young woman in a truly horrifying situation. Filled with beautiful descriptions and emotions so real you’ll be feeling them long after you finish reading, if this story doesn’t send chills down your spine, nothing will.

Year 2: The Room by loverloverlover BEAUXBATONS

Your portrayal of Draco and Harry’s relationship from beginning to end was just so delightful. There was something really special about the way the two of them carved out a space for them to be themselves, together, and how it remained steady despite the changes they both went through. 

Year 3: The Redemption of Lavender Brown by cheesyficwriter HOGWARTS

The author does an excellent job of lulling the reader into thinking this story is a typical teenage romance/rendezvous. Just as we’re left thinking Zacharias may have some redeemable qualities, the author switches the theme of the story to a drama and plays out the subversion of the characters’ actions causing a strong reaction from the reader as we hope for Lavender to prevail.

Year 4: You Are My Sunshine by JanieOhio BEAUXBATONS

This story is great in every area. Not just the plot or the descriptions, but also your characters and how you used your prompts. You made my heart break with the contrast between reality and the illusion. And then you also have meaningful details like the story Lady and the Tramp. It’s a perfect example of showing, not telling, with the way you slowly revealed how something wasn’t right to the readers. 

Year 5: Last Night In the Dungeon by CutewithAcapital-Q HOGWARTS

Ever wondered what would happen if Draco Malfoy went to a club? This creative and fun story offers a glimpse at what life would look like for Draco and co. if they lived in an alternative universe with no magic. The descriptions are incredibly detailed; allowing readers to feel like they’re also spending the night at the Dungeon. Full of great one-liners and a comedic plot twist, this story is guaranteed to be an entertaining read.

Writing School with Ash

Writing Technique: Perfect People

Characters carry the story on their backs. To avoid two-dimensional characters, with both canon characters and original ones, you need to know them inside and out.

1. Appearances.

What does your character look like? Focus on details that will grab readers’ attention and say something about the character’s personality. 

In Six of Crows, Leigh Bardugo introduces Kaz Brekker like this:

Kaz shook his head, dark hair glinting in the lamplight. He was a collection of hard lines and tailored edges—sharp jaw, lean build, wool coat snug across his shoulders. “Yes and no,” he said in his rocksalt rasp. “It’s always good to have a country in debt to you. Makes for friendlier negotiations.” 

Think about how you present your character. If Leigh Bardugo had written, “Kaz had a sharp jaw, lean build, and wore a wool coat,” the character wouldn’t have seemed as commanding.

First impressions matter.

Less is always more, so if you’re going to describe your character’s outfit, do what J.K. Rowling did with Luna’s turnip earrings. Pick one thing that shows your character’s personality.

2. Origins.

Where is your character from? What values did that place teach them? Look at their family life and ask the same question.

Think about their friendships and rivalries, their fears and dreams. Understand their happiest and worst memories, and figure out what they’re passionate about and why. All these things will affect how they act.

Do this with canon characters as well as original ones. A deeper understanding of the characters you write will make your stories all the more gripping.

3. Mannerisms.

Is your character impatient and, therefore, a fast walker? Or do they often check their watch? The right actions will convey personality traits far better than “He was impatient.” It’s a facet of the show, don’t tell rule.

Do not give your character too wide an array of mannerisms, and do not make them repeat their mannerisms too often.

4. Perspective.

Harry describes Draco as haughty, with pointy features and a lazy drawl; Pansy would describe him differently. 

Decide what your POV character thinks about every character, setting, event, etc. How they describe things will show readers how they feel about them and will reveal more about their personality.

This is another aspect of the show, don’t tell rule. You should never have to say that Character A hates Character B.

5. Rinse and repeat.

Repeat this process for all your characters, even the canon ones. All too often, characterisation in fanfiction is bland because every story relies on the same personality pillars for each character. By using this method, you should manage to go more in-depth and dig up something new.

Warning: POV

POV can make or break your story, and there are three mistakes I see too often.

1. Randomly switching POV.

Do not show most of the story from one character’s perspective and then switch to another’s for a paragraph or two. Whatever information you think you need to convey through that POV switch, find another way to share it.

If you want to show another character’s POV for more than a few paragraphs, do it after a line break.

2. No inner thoughts.

Readers want to get to know your POV character. They can’t do that if all you convey are their actions. You need to show their internalisation.

3. Filter words.

Filter words are a show, don’t tell problem that can make readers’ experience with the POV character go from enjoyable to annoying.

Getting rid of filter words depends on the sentence. Here are some examples based on what I see most often:

• Choose – They chose to remain indoors. → They remained indoors.

• Decide – She decided to take a shower. → She took a shower.

• Feel – They felt their skin crawl. → Their skin crawled.

• Gave – She gave him a hug. → She hugged him.

• Hear – He heard the floorboard creak. → The floorboard creaked.

• Know – They knew they were out of time. → They were out of time.

• Look – She looked like she was about to faint. → The blood drained from her face, and she swayed on the spot.

• Notice – They noticed the bruise on his cheek. → There was a bruise on his cheek.

• Realise – She realised she would have to get out of bed. → She had to get out of bed.

• Remember – He remembered putting his keys on the table. → He had put his keys on the table.

• See – They saw him walk outside. → He walked outside.

• Seem – She seemed to change before their eyes. → She changed before their eyes.

• Smell – He smelled the sweet scent of her perfume. → The sweet scent of her perfume pressed around him.

• Wonder – He wondered about the new girl. → The new girl didn’t show up for lunch. Maybe she had packed herself a sandwich and eaten it away from the dinner ladies’ critical eyes, or perhaps she had gone home early, skipping classes on her first day.

These words will pop up in your first draft. Once you’ve finished all your revisions, use your computer’s ‘find’ command, and edit them out.

Grammar and Punctuation Section: Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement

A pronoun replaces a noun that was previously mentioned in the text.

Hermione read her book while she walked.

The word in red is the antecedent. The words in green are the pronouns. There are a number of things you need to keep in mind with pronouns.

1. Number agreement.

The bouquet smelled like summer and fresh air. Hermione tied them together with a ribbon and set them aside.

What does “them” refer to? We can guess that it’s meant to indicate the flowers, but they haven’t been mentioned, so the only thing “them” can refer to is “summer and fresh air”.

2. Gender clarity.

Ginny cast a tickling hex on Pansy, and her laughter echoed through the corridor. 

Who does “her” refer to?

This is the mistake you made most often last season. You make it because you don’t want to repeat the characters’ names, but repetition is a lesser offence than lack of clarity.

3. Epithets.

Once you’ve named the characters within the narrative, do not use epithets like “the other girl”, “the blond”, or “the Auror” to describe them. 

Use their names because 1) epithets are wordier, and 2) epithets call attention to whatever aspect of your character you described. If that trait isn’t relevant to the scene, you drew readers’ attention towards it for no reason.

4. Repetition.

Hermione ran. She could smell the wet soil, and she could feel the fallen leaves between her toes. She didn’t pause to put on her shoes or look over her shoulder. She hoped she wouldn’t trip over logs that she couldn’t see. She knew the Snatchers were still chasing her. She could hear their loud voices behind her.

Any kind of repetition creates a monotonous rhythm, but pronoun repetition is particularly awful. There are three things to do to fix this kind of problem.

• Combine sentences.

She could smell the wet soil and feel the fallen leaves between her toes, but she didn’t pause to put on her shoes or look over her shoulder.

• Vary sentence structure so that not every sentence begins with subject+verb. 

Hoping she wouldn’t trip over logs that she couldn’t see, she kept running.

• Stop focusing on your character and give some sentences a different subject.

Hermione ran. The smell of wet soil rose from the forest floor, and the fallen leaves oozed between her toes, but she didn’t pause to put on her shoes. With no moonlight filtering through the canopy, she didn’t dare look over her shoulder. What if she tripped? Behind her, the Snatchers crashed through the undergrowth, their shouts promising capture and pain.

Notice how the last example also gets rid of all the filter words.

Challenge:

Write a ficlet with pronouns and in-depth characterisation.

Your story is not to be beta read by anyone other than you. This exercise is designed to help you improve, which can only happen if you aren’t relying on a beta reader to fix everything for you.

The upward word count limit for this challenge is 900 words.

Each school can submit only 4 writing school stories.

Optional Prompts:

[Event] A wedding reception

[Image] Bar at the Folie-Bergere by Manet

[Physical appearance] Perfect posture

Points Breakdown:

2 points for participation

Writing Technique

1 point for giving a new insight into a canon character.

1 point for conveying the characters’ personalities without stating them outright.

1 point for sticking with a single POV character.

1 point for not using filter words.

Grammar and Punctuation Section

1 point for respecting pronoun-antecedent agreement.

1 point for not including any unclear antecedents.

1 point for not using epithets.

1 point for not getting repetitive with your use of antecedents and pronouns.

Deductions

-0.75 for SPaG errors.

-1 for submission errors.

Creative Corner with Hemlock

The winner of issue three’s challenge is loverloverlover from Beauxbatons!

New Department

We’re relatively familiar with the Ministry of Magic departments, but we also know that wizarding Britain has a lot of room for improvement, and it’s time to make a change! I want you to create a new department for the Ministry of Magic, whatever you think would improve the lives of British witches and wizards.

• Use whatever artistic medium you want (sonnet, graffiti, pottery, aesthetics, etc.)
• 100 words max.
• Fact sheets and descriptions are not artistic mediums.
• It should be your own work. No plagiarism!
• No more than 1 submission per student.
• No more than 3 submissions per school.
• Submissions with a profound lack of originality or effort will not receive points.

Each school is allowed 3 submissions. Each submission will receive 3 points, and the winner will earn an extra 2 points. Deputies will vote for their favourite submission (excluding submissions sent by their school). Heads and admins will only vote to break a tie.

Dear Severus Snape with Verity

Welcome to Dear Severus Snape.

Friendship is the bedrock of a healthy, peaceful society, but unfortunately you’re all unable to manage this, which is why we have a new evil overlord every week. I am here to save the wizarding world yet again. After all, what would you all do without my advice on proper social conduct?

Professor Snape,

You said you had a friend…once. That’s hard to believe if I’m being honest. Since you’re offering advice, though, I’ll ask you this: How do you reckon I save a friendship from imploding? I’d Bat-Bogey Hex them into some sense if I could, but I fear they’re too far gone, and their other friend isn’t helping. Somehow I’m stuck in the middle of their canary attacks and snogging out of spite, and it’s exhausting. I’ve got my own love life to worry about.

Send help,

Another Red-Headed Gryffindor

Dear Miss Weasley,

You will find that this issue has resolved itself. It was very enjoyable watching Miss Brown run from the hospital room crying, though the look on Granger’s face as your bumbling brother mumbled her name in his sleep made me want to vomit.

Sincerely

Severus Snape

Professor,

I know you stated that we should come to you with friendship woes, but I’m afraid my situation is rather more complicated than that. I don’t seek friendship, you see, but minions. Considering I am a de-aged Dark Lord whose previous minions scorn me for my youth, have you any suggestions for recovering my power base? Even their children are older than me!

Tom Riddle, soon to be Voldemort once again!

Mr Riddle aka the de-aged and deranged Dark Lord, 

Friendship is based on trust and support. An example would be how you always trusted and looked for support from me. Considering I stabbed you in the back by telling tales to your nemesis, you’re probably best suited to minions.

In order to gain new minions, you will need to start from scratch. The name Voldemort doesn’t strike fear into the hearts of wizardkind anymore, not after that meme that points out you tried to take over a high school twice and failed. 

Sincerely

Severus Snape

Dear Severus Snape,

Last night, my best friend and I were in the Astronomy Tower, where I decided I wanted to test how strong our friendship really is. When I claimed I would jump off the tower to prove myself to him, he shoved me off the ledge himself! And while I was screaming bloody murder, he yelled at me to do a flip in mid-air! How was I supposed to do that?!

Now, I’m lying on the cold, hard ground… of the Infirmary, wrapped up like a mummy, trying to figure out what to do about my friend. Any advice would be appreciated.

Sincerely,

Broken Limbs

Dear Regulus, 

You said you wanted to prove we were best friends; if you really wanted to prove it, you would have found a way to do the flips! 

My advice, try very hard to make it up to your friend!

Sincerely 

Severus Snape

Dear Severus,

I hope this message finds you well. I hope you find time to answer, as your answers are always, at best, humorous.

A dear friend of mine seems to have either misplaced her quill, or misplaced her affection for me, as she hasn’t replied to any of my letters in months. Should I attempt to contact mutual friends of hers, to be sure nothing is amiss? Or do I let her go, and hope that she feels we parted on decent terms?

Thank you for reading this far, it is much appreciated.

– un admirateur

Dear person, 

I had a similar situation. My dearest Lily and I were inseparable, but she took issue with the company I kept outside of that friendship. My advice is to run to her, beg her on bended knee to forgive your folly, and whatever she wants you to give up, do it. Sacrifice anyone and anything, it will be worth it. 

Sincerely 

Severus Snape

Based on the variety of letters that remain unanswered, there is more work to be done. That and because the Wizarding World News has decided to pay me per response rather than an hourly rate, I will be posting replies to any unanswered questions in my private chat room in the Honeydukes Server. If your question is answered, you can show the post at the counter for a free bag of cockroach clusters!

In the next edition of Dear Severus Snape, we will be delving into a dark and disturbing topic. A topic that none but the bravest wizards could tackle: Romance!

Competition Queries with Katie Alden

Communicating Online

Communication is never straight forward, and online communication is fraught with even more dangers than talking in person. In a competition like IWSC, where most of us have never met in person, we can’t base our online communication on how we have interacted face-to-face. 

I touched on some basic communication advice in the article on teamwork, but I will discuss online communication in more detail here. 

The first thing to remember is that tone cannot be conveyed through text. If I were to text someone: “You’re such an idiot.” Would they be unable to tell whether that was being said affectionately, jokingly, or as an insult? I cannot send tone of voice, facial expressions, or hand gestures via text, and what might seem like an innocent phrase to me has upset someone. In the Head’s chat, we have chosen a specific emoji to use to show that we are joking. Similarly, your team could choose an emoji – such as a red flag or a sad face – to indicate that you are being bothered by something that has been said. 

Secondly, different people have different thresholds for what will and won’t bother them. It is always better to play it safe than accidentally offend or upset someone. If you are considering sending a jokey message, I would advise talking with the person for a bit first to gauge how they are feeling. I’m pretty good at making jokes and banter, but there are days when even the most well-meant joke from my best friend would make me cry. If someone seems to be having a bad day, be even more careful than you normally would.

My third piece of advice is this: it isn’t always going to be about you, and that is ok. If you open up your team server and there is already a conversation, join in before changing the topic. If you jump straight in with something about your day, your story, etc., you might find that people are a bit thrown off and will respond less positively than if you engaged in the existing conversation first. Similarly, if you put time and effort into other people’s conversations, you will find that this is rewarded when you have something that you want to discuss.

Related to this is my last piece of advice: Choose the right place for your conversation. Whether you are in Honeydukes or your school server, you will see different threads for different types of conversations. The “general” or “fun” chat is just that—go there if you just want to chat about anything and everything, like you would when catching up with friends. However, this is not the place for plotting, advice, links to docs, etc. Using the correct chats helps to keep topics separate and stop things from getting lost. It also means that you can chat about what to cook for dinner in the general chat while giving someone advice on their plot in another without getting the conversations confused. If you are unsure about what thread toe uses, ask your Headmistress or Deputy. They can point you in the right direction.

Communicating online can be tricky, but if you follow these four simple tips, you will find it much easier and more enjoyable to chat with your team throughout the competition.

Magical Murder Mystery with Lun

Winner of the previous Murder Mystery: Hogwarts

PART TWO

Head Auror Potter purses his lips as he scans the information you have reported back to him. 

“Alexander Peake, I can’t believe you figured out your Headmistress Verity Grahams is one of our witnesses. It was very clever of you to check out her FanFiction.net profile!

“Kate S. Black, thank you for sending your ID photo for your Ministry pass. Those tattoos are awesome. You were quick to decipher Ron’s handwriting and figure out that Zacharias Smith is the victim. To find out it was written in Caesar code was the easy part. Those of you with expert research skills might have discovered that Ron was using the more secure Keyed Caesar Cipher.

“Jackie Cheng-McIntosh, I’m sorry you had to deal with our forensic witch. She’s a former student of Sybill Trewlaney and has a tendency to speak in riddles. Of course it was poisoned mead that killed poor Zacharias. Severus Snape is known for his potion skills and there are many poisonous potions. Without doubt, the poison was in the mead, considering that the Hogwarts Express arrives at the Hogsmeade train station with new students every school year. It is easy to forget though, that students don’t arrive at Hogwarts directly. Death by poisoned warts sounds truly horrific.”

“Beau L’Enquêteur, I heard that you struggled with this riddle but were finally able to figure out that the witness who gave a false name was actually Mary Sue. I’m not surprised she was hiding her true identity like she does in so many stories.”

Alexander Peake, Ilvermourny. Alex likes to wear a bowler hat on top of his fair hair and his eager ice blue eyes can pick out any clue that is in the vicinity of his 6 ft frame.	Kate S. Black, Hogwarts by MissyandtheDocs	Auror Beau L’Enquêteur, Beauxbatons by LoverloverloverBeau is genderfluid and does not identify as male or female. Pronouns They/Them.	Jacqueline (Jackie) Cheng-McIntosh, Durmstrang. Jackie is a little older than most recruits as she spent the last five years traveling the world when an international terrorist organization started targeting her family for marrying those of other backgrounds. One of these attacks led to her losing most of her sight though magical glasses have given her back a form of vision. This experience sparked her interest in the Auror program. She despises all forms of prejudice and uses skills gained after losing her sight to augment her detecting skills. Among these is the ability to read how things are verbalised to identify untruths.

Auror Potter nods proudly at all of you. “Now, we need to pay the witnesses a visit. Hermione!” he calls. “What’s your schedule like? We have two witnesses to question.”

Auror Granger’s head shoots up behind an enormous stack of files on her desk. 

“No can do, Harry. I’m stuck with paperwork today.”

Your superior sighs, rubbing his brow — no, the scar on his forehead — with a tired face. “All right, off you go then. Question our witnesses and report back to me asap.”

Report the answers back to the competition email to get further instructions from Head Auror Potter. Each school sending correct answers will get additional prompts in the next main round.

If you want to continue in the next round, you have to send in the correct answers. You can request hints from your headmistress if you are stuck, but you will lose the chance to win points and will get no additional prompts for the next main round.

1. Murderer:
2. Motive:
3. Location of the Murderer:

1. MURDERER: 

Mary Sue, the first witness, proves to be a chaotic person who is prone to forgetting details. “I remember reading the murderer’s last name in one of my beloved fan fictions,” she says. 

The murderer has a brother who has killed before in another story. The writer of this riddle has a crime fic in her collection that will lead you to the suspect. (Warning: M rating)

2. MOTIVE:

The second witness, Verity Grahams, claims to know the murderer personally. “I know why they committed the crime.” 

You try to convince her to tell you more, but she is reluctant to give specific answers due to her connection with the murderer. “We were good friends back at Hogwarts.”

You try to gain her trust. Find out the murderer’s motive by finding out which students Verity went to school with.

The motive was: B1 – 1, C1 – 3, A2 – 2, C2 – 1, B3 – 3, A4 – 2, C4 – 2, D4 – 5

	A	B	C	D
1	My best friend’s twin sister is in C4.	The person at the bottom of this column was prone to blowing things up.	Somewhere to my left is a person that always hung around the twins that were up to no good.	The person next to me dated two champions.
2	Below me, you’ll find gold.At the bottom of this column is the murderer’s brother.	To my right is a Mudblood that fell victim to the Basilisk.	I admired Harry Potter, but then I feared him.	I went to the Yule Ball with the person in C3. Above me is a Slytherin.
3	Above me, you’ll find the moon.The person to my right is a Hufflepuff who lost her aunt to a Death Eater attack.	Somewhere to my right, you’ll find a redhead.	The person in D1 hated me but thought I was pretty.	In B2 is a Slytherin who is named after a non-magical animal.
4	A1 and D4 are named after flowers.	The person in D2 was exceptionally good in Herbology.	The person to my right has the same initials as me. She is not my sister.	The victim of the murder can be found in this column.

3. LOCATION:

You manage to gain Verity’s trust, and she tells you that the murderer fled to where the person in B4 was born.

The International Wizarding School Competition League Table

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Feel free to contribute to other aspects of the paper by sending a private message to the Competition account. We are always looking for pieces of fanart and even your thoughts or recommendations. Even if you want to send a message to someone in the competition that you think has excelled, or maybe they helped you out? Send it to Professor Snape! Anything else should be sent to Wizarding School Championship. The subject line should be “Wizarding World News: [Name the section of the paper you are writing about]”.