Welcome to the post-Summer Camp blog. Every one of the students that wrote for Summer Camp deserves a round of applause, after all, they all attempted to write 8 stories in 8 weeks! So congratulations to you all.  You can read all of the fantastic stories that were submitted at our forum, here.

Weasley Cabin

The winners of this year’s Summer Camp with 2,400 points are Cabin Weasley. It’s clear they adopted Ron’s tenacity, Bill’s brains and Percy’s dedication! They knocked it out of the park, and what’s more impressive, they connected every single story, posting all of them at last minute! Well Done!

To find out how they did and some behind-the-scenes gossip, below there is an interview with the winning team.

Charbo – Has been with the comp since the first ever practice round. A Hogwarts champion who has been helping out Mahoutokoro during Season 2, Charbo knows the ropes.

Leela – Leela is an IWSC judge, but she hung up that hat, just for Summer anyway, and joined the Weasley cabin.

Laura – Joined Hogwarts during Season 2 where she certainly left her stamp, earning her school points, and even getting JP!

Imogen – Imogen has not been part of the IWSC before, but was pestered to join by her good friend, and loyal IWSC-er. She certainly showed that despite being new, she meant business!

Malfoy Cabin

Malfoy Cabin looked to be the winners from very early on. I believed they were the winners so whole heartedly, that I had already written their winner’s article. They still took second place with an impressive 2,050 points!

Crissie – Known as Secretfanficlover, she is a speed writer like no one else, so it was no surprise that her team took the lead so early on. She’s a loyal Ilvermorny and just like a few others, a frequent competition writer. SecretFanficlover is an asset to any team.

Jenny – This top notch writer is a fellow Snape girl and a member of the recent winning THC team: Gryffindor. Jenny was also a member of Ilvermorny during Season 2! Jenny was a part of Durmstrang the year before, and her loyal nature meant she had to follow Headmistress Claire to America. Much like her friend, Mia, (see below), she writes huge, unique plots! Just check out the Reality Wrapper!

Viola – She’s another star Exchange, hailing from Ilvermorny! She’s one to keep, as she was there to ensure full submissions for Ilvermorny a number of times during Season 2. Experienced in comp writing, it’s no surprise to find her on the team that took the lead almost right away.

Koroko – Koroko joined the IWSC family during season 2 and joined Mahoutokoro school. Koroko writes interesting pairings and is mostly known to me as a part of our Writeaholics server where she is super active and always willing to talk through my plots.

McGonagall – There were also strong contenders, with Sally getting in very quickly each week initially. However, they were soon over taken by Malfoy Cabin and eventually Weasley Cabin. McGonagall finished camp with a respectable 1100 points!

Sally – also known as QuickSilverFox started out at Durmstrang, but then was kidnapped by Hogwarts and she hasn’t been anywhere else since! She’s always willing to help, but we aren’t sure if she has Stockholm Syndrome?

Mia – Keepsmiling is her penname and it fits. This Durmstrang girl’s stories are always crazy unique and she’s a frequent recipient of the Judges Pick because their originality.

AJ – Miss Hourigan is another Ilvermorny writer that joined us from Season 2. She is one of our youngest writers, but this never stops her from doing her absolute best!

Mels – Melony Pond jumped in the second season of the competition and helped out on numerous occasions as an exchange student for Durmstrang. A good exchange is hard to find, so I am sure that Durmstrang will be hoping to keep her!

Evans – Unfortunately, Evans cabin didn’t get anywhere near as many points as the other teams. They worked hard, but coming up to the deadline they did make a push and got some very good submissions in. Unfortunately it was a little too late. They came in last place with 550 points!

Chloe – Another Hogwarts member from season 1. A brilliant team mate to have! Though, she is known for disliking, and sometimes killing, Harry Potter!

Emmy – This Durmstrang Deputy joined the competition for season 2. She’s friendly, kind and works very hard for whichever team she’s on.

Hope – Former Headmistress of Beauxbatons and Admin at the IWSC, Hope’s been here from the beginning, but she decided to take on some of the writing challenges herself over the summer.

Amanda – This writer is truly unique, and if there’s a comp, the chances are she will be there. She wrote for Ilvermorny during Season 2; she’s always happy to help and always has a plot.

AN interview WITH THE WEASLEY’S

• Charbo, what was your favourite story that you wrote for the Summer Cabin this year?

I would have to say Summer of Plans Pt 3: Sky Blue Dreams.

• Was there a story from one of your team mates that stood out for you? 

Honestly, I’ve been too busy with everything to actually read much.

• You all submitted on the final day. Did you guys plan things like that to give the other cabins a false sense of security?

Yes, we did.  We discussed it right after we set up the Cabin Chat.  I was more giving everyone time to do their stories and beta each other than giving the others that false sense of security.  It just worked out that way.

• Leela, what was it that made you sign up for Summer Camp?

I had so much fun being a part of the IWSC community during Season 2, I joined at a time in my life when I was lonely and going through a lot of health issues and it felt good to find a purpose once again. Then, when I heard about this summer camp, I thought it would be another fun opportunity. I was lucky to end up with such an amazing team! I also haven’t written a Harry Potter fanfiction since 2011, so I thought this would offer me a chance to practice. 

• A little birdy told me that you linked your stories? What made you want to do the challenge this way?

Initially, it started off with me and Laura trying to understand how the rules worked when Round 1 was posted. I then suggested that each week, we send the general idea for our own story to our group chat so that none of us ended up writing something similar, but that we could possibly do a round where we all had something in common. Laura and I then pitched the idea to Imogen and Charbo and thus began our little tradition! Every week we looked at the theme for the round and together we thought of fun ways to link our stories!

• Is there a particular story from another team you read that you loved from Summer Camp?

There were so many good stories! My personal favorite was Fun and Fireworks by ViolaMoon (Malfoy Cabin). Fred and Hermione isn’t a ship I’ve had much opportunity to read about so it was a pleasant surprise! I love how Viola portrayed both characters in this story, they’re both a bit broken after the war and manage to find each other. They compliment each other surprisingly well. It was a cute read and a great use of the prompt for the round! 

• Laura, which Camp Activity did you find the hardest, this year?

The advertisement round was by far the most difficult. I found it really hard to get inspired with it and actually left that one until the last minute!

• Do you think the element of surprise helped your team win Summer Camp season 3?

I’m not really sure, but maybe! We didn’t mean it like that, more we were just trying to make sure none of us felt any pressure while real life was so crazy for everyone. However, I do think it helped a lot. When I looked at the scores ours were by far the highest, and that was likely because the others thought that they wouldn’t need to do all of the stories to win…?

• Which of your stories would you most like people to read from Summer Camp?

Mine or from the team? If we’re talking about mine, people seem to like my round 1 and round 8 the best. From the whole team? I loved Imogen’s round 3, Charbo’s round 8, and leela’s round 5.

• Imogen, it’s your first time writing for the IWSC, what made you want to compete in our competition?

I’m friends with someone who has done it before and still does and she talked me into it. I hadn’t been writing much and with it being summer and having nothing to do while I waited for my teaching course to start it seemed like a good fun way to fill my time and meet some new people.

• Which was your favourite activity to write for?

I liked the underwater themed activity best because it had the most freedom and made it easy for me to bring in my interests and a bit of my archaeology. I liked round 1 as well for the same reasons, the only reason I preferred round 3 was the style I ended up writing in.

• What did you most enjoy about participating in the Summer Challenge?

I enjoyed having a team around me and feeling like I was safe and accepted even though I was new to everything and just having a reason to start writing again.

Farewell Headmistress Claire

Summer Camp was the brainchild of one of our original Headmistresses, ClaireBear. For the last 2 years, she has worked hard on this competition and put the Summer Camp together all by herself. She is a star that we are devastated to lose from our Mod team. We have written together on a number of occasions, and met during a competition. That’s why I love comps so much, because I meet people like this lovely lady. 

Claire, how do you feel to finally and officially no longer be a Headmistress?

As much as I hate to say it, I’m relieved that I’m not going to be a Headmistress this season. I don’t mean that in a nasty way cos y’all are amazing and I love you all so much, but it takes the pressure off me and I can work on writing, because when trying to help run a comp it seriously saps me of my creativity and I end up with a serious case of writers block. I’m really enjoying writing again, and having my muse back! 

What was it that gave you the idea for Summer Camp?

This was created about six years ago on a different Harry Potter forum that a friend and I used to run (the place was a madhouse of RPG!). Last year I decided to dust off the challenge and tidy it up and give it another go, and thankfully it went really well. 

How difficult was it coming up with so many challenges on your own and running the summer camp?

Ah, now this is based off of other fandom fics I’ve read by American writers who have incorporated their characters into a summer camp environment, plus ya know, movies! Lol. 

What do you want to get from IWSC Season 3? 

New friends, to be encouraged to be a better writer, decent feedback from judging – something I can actually learn from! (psst, I mean you Ash!). But overall a damn good time, and to kick the other school’s butts 😀

I am sure that you will kick the other school’s butts, especially if you come to Ilvermorny.