A Book and a Pub!

It was the perfect evening for a magical gathering.  The day: the 31st of May. The time: 1900 hours. The venue: the Orlando George and Dragon Pub. The book: “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s (or the Philosopher’s) Stone”. Witches began to apparate from different directions; among them, two wizards! We crossed the portal in between two telephone boxes placed at the walkway to the
pub and joined the rest of the invitees in an area outside the pub, where we could be, more or less, far away from Muggles. Five new witches joined the group, which we warmly welcomed.

Then, our formal event started with a game of guessing the character.  We were all given 
a name of a person (or ghost) from the book and we were to ask up to three indirect questions that could help us guess which name we were given. It was a very good ice breaker, since there were several new faces.  Afterwards, surrounded by beverages and appetizers, we began the discussion of the book following a list of related questions.  It was an amazing time of exchanging thoughts about various events in the book.  This, while, unsuccessfully, trying to convince Matt (or Liam, your choice!) to sing karaoke for us and the Muggle audience inside the pub.  After some more drinks and conversation, we got to our trivia questions! Some of the answers were quite creative, which got the person some points, even if the answer was incorrect.  First, second and third place got the chance of picking a magical price from the Crate of Wonders (as I decided to call it). The witches were delighted with their choices.  We continued throughout the evening in lively conversation, getting to know each other, sharing experiences (and songs) while, again, trying to convince Matt to sing for us as well as others that would like to participate in the karaoke night. That, for house points, but nobody dared. We let that part of the entertainment to the Muggles, which continued with their intense butchering of famous songs happening inside the pub, totally oblivious of our presence.  I wonder if the original artists, should they were magical, would
have the thought of performing the Cruciatus curse on them upon hearing them sing.  But that’s another story!

All in all, it was a fantastic evening full of laughter, stories and vivacious conversations!
Never a dull moment or a quiet event in the Wizarding world! I, and I’m sure others as well, are looking forward to our next meetup.

Until next time…EVANESCO!