Back again! Below are the fabulous results of Saturday's Quidditch tournament, plus lots and lots of photos from the games and more.

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Mud and Blood: Quidditch Comes to Salem

Malissa Hendrix and Genii Grimsley
Oracle Correspondents

    Quidditch arrived in Salem on Saturday morning with teams from the American Professional Quidditch Association (APQA) taking the pitches and thus marking the first time in recent memory that the sport has been allowed to be watched by Muggles.
    Aside from the ceaseless rain, soggy ground, and muddy pitches, Quidditch, the Wizarding World’s most popular sport, was a rousing success.
    After the first few matches, it became quite apparent that the rain would not dampen the moods of fans nor would it keep the players from giving their all.  Some players were bloodied and bruised, others drenched in rain, sweat and mud.  While the constant rains quickly turned the pitches into slippery marshes, the teams continued to strive for the glory of winning.
    Even film actor Chris Rankin stopped by the pitches to watch the sport in action.  He was met with fans and excited APQA teams and then proceeded to watch the matches that followed.  The Effortless Edibles Fizzing Whizbees beat the Salem Ghost Tours Ghosts in the final game.
    Following the APQA games was the House tournament.  Like their professional counterparts, the House teams, while soaked with sweat, rain and muck, played the game they love no matter how bloody or muddy they became.
    In the final match between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, Gryffindor was victorious after outscoring the opposition and capturing the Snitch, making the final score 140 to 20 and giving Gryffindor 400 house points.  Head of House Professor Tony Toledo said he thought Dumbledore would be proud of his team, saying the headmaster would feel that they were “the best Gryffindor team [he’s] seen in 86 years.”
    “The first game,” said Toledo, “was nip and tuck. Slytherin had out scored us but we caught the snitch.  I played in the first game as Head of House because we were short a player. The Slytherins put a Breath-o-rama curse on me [which] caused me to be short of breath.”
    Toledo said he was proud of the way his team played and was most impressed with the star of game two, a first year named Kendal, who, Toledo thinks, would have given first year Harry Potter a “run for his money.”  
    “There will be years of discussion at the Leaky Cauldron over who was the better first year player,” he said.  Toledo also said his team meshed well and had “lightening passes.”
    The Hufflepuff team was quite proud of their performance as well. Team members Cathy and Leia Weiss, and Draconis Leona all agreed that their team gave “as good a game as we could give.”  They agreed that the Gryffindors had impressive sportsmanship, yet both Leia Weiss and Draconis Leona informedTthe Oracle that Head of House Tony Toledo may have shouted out a dreaded Wizarding World obscenity, one which this paper will not publish.

Tea participants get cards read

Genii Grimsley and Rosalind McClure
Oracle Correspondents

     The Witching Hour's most popular special event, the Tea With Trelawney, took place Saturday afternoon in the gardens of the historic House of Seven Gables. The much-anticipated event, which has been sold out for more than a year, featured Tarot readers Amy Davis, Cat Tosenberger, Kathryn Loup, Vivienne D'Avalon and Mariella Bozzuto, as well as special guest artist Laura Freeman, whose Harry Potter Tarot art (on the web at www.nasubionna.net) is very popular in the fandom. Bozzuto, the lead organizer for the event, was very excited about the turn out.
    “It's great that it's been so popular!” she exclaimed. “Many of the participants have never been to Salem before, and the witchy atmosphere is perfect for this sort of thing.”
    Bozzuto set the scene by asking the attendees to imagine they were students at Hogwarts, traveling from the Great Hall up to Trelawney’s class room in the North Tower. Participants sipped their tea while hearing about the differences between Divination in the canon and "the real deal," as well as an in-depth discussion of Trelawney's Tarot reading from Half-Blood Prince. In addition, real-life Divination was explained. “Everyone has the ability to use Divination,” she said, because it’s mainly based on intuition. The Divination experts explained some of the tools of the trade, such as tarot cards, pendulums, and runes.
    The readers then moved among the tables for individual demonstrations of the experts’ arts. Divinatory tools were laid out for participants to explore on their own, including, rune stones, crystal balls, books on different augural methods, and a scrying mirror (a dark mirror used for gazing or “scrying”).
    Inclement weather only added to the magical mood, and like Trelawney's dark, incense-suffused classroom, it seemed rather appropriate. One almost expected Emma Thompson to materialize out of the fog with her huge glasses and trailing scarves, saying, “Ah! It was as I foretold with the Inner Eye! Gloom and doom, my friends!” Far from gloomy, participants seemed to be very much enjoying themselves, and went away glad to have purchased an early ticket all those months ago.

Jenkins talks 'Potter Wars'

Beckie Campbell
Oracle Correspondent


    On Saturday, Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Dr. Henry Jenkins continued the keynote speaker series with his talk on Harry Potter and the convergence of media in the gardens of the House of Seven Gables.
    Despite the constant rain, participants to the sold out event crowded into a tent to listen as Jenkins, director for the Comparative Media Studies Program, discussed in overview the topic of his book Convergence Culture. His topic focused on the "Potter Wars," both the conflict that fans face having to stand behind a book others feel should be banned and the conflict fans have with Warner Brothers studio.
    Through his research Jenkins has been impressed with the way young fans have embraced Harry Potter and developed valuable skills through their fervor to be a part of the fandom community. Not only has he noticed that they develop writing skills in greater depth than they would at school, they learn social skills and how to fight for and protect something they believe in.
    The keynote series will end with the Sunday Brunch. The topic is "Sirens, Furies and Heroes: The Development of the Fantasy Woman" and will be held from 10 a.m. to 12 noon at the Salem Waterfront Ballroom. This event will be a panel discussion with Dr. Eliza T. Dresang, Dr. Marleen S. Barr, Vicky Dann, Charles de Lint, and Tamora Pierce.

From 'hippie days' to 'writing buddies':  A writer's panel

Rosalind McClure
Oracle Correspondent

      Four well-known fantasy authors convened in the Sheraton Ballroom on Friday afternoon to discuss their journey “from scribbles to autographs.” Holly Black, Charles de Lint,  Nancy Farmer, and Patricia McKillip made up a panel moderated by Charles Brown.
    The panel began with each participant giving a brief account of their rise to success. Black told of her success through use of a “writing buddy” (kissing cousin to the fannish “beta reader”) and shared her experience of reading several now-published authors who got their start writing fanfiction.
    De Lint gave his history of working in a record company, spending off-days writing and sketching with an artist co-worker until being published in a fanzine gave him the courage to “finally quit [his] day job.”
    After enduring a few jokes from the other panelists about her “hippie days at Berkeley,” Farmer told the story of a writer friend of hers named Antoinette. Feeling the itch to write, Antoinette made time at small newspapers and magazines before being swept into the glamorous would of tourism writing and eventually penning her first fiction novel.
    McKillip read a prepared speech on her 43-year writing history, from her reading journal at age 14 to her present projects.
    When each author had spoken on their histories, the moderator took questions from the audience. Topics ranged from the authors’ personal inspirations to the eternal character versus plot story-creation debate.
    Finally, one audience member asked if the panel were optimistic or pessimistic about the future of the publishing industry. “The future, I think, is bright, if the human race survives,” answered Brown with a laugh.
    But conferences like The Witching Hour give de Lint hope.
    “I always love it when a Stephen King, or a J.K. Rowling comes along, because they’re creating a whole new generation of readers,” he said. “I’m very optimistic.”

Housemates meet up in Rooms of Requirement

Melissa Metro
Oracle Correspondent

    We’ve all heard of the rooms of requirement.  You stand at a certain place and you wish really hard for the room you need.  So far, few outsiders have been able to sneak past the wards keeping “others” from entering the Rooms for the Gryffindor House Party and the Hufflepuff House Party. But on Friday, all it took for this correspondent was a special Polyjuice Potion to sneak by.
    Most of those attending the house parties had never met before, though several in Gryffindor have chatted online.  Those in said houses have traveled as far as Hawaii and as close as Boston to be here for the symposium.  As such, they were all quite excited to meet, and luckily the Rooms of Requirement provide soundproofing. 
    At the Witches’ Brew Café, the Gryffindors of Professor Tony Toledo’s house spoke of shopping, their “cool” shirts: “Muggle-born Squib,” how they got their scars, and the community feeling. They also took a vote and decided Lupin was their favorite with Luna coming in a close second.
    The Hufflepuffs of Professor Vicky Dann’s house spent a lot of time discussing Percy, Quidditch, and Tea with Trelawney. They unanimously decided Cedric Diggory is Hogwart’s True Champion and the “Badger Boy Toy.” They met at Brother’s Restaurant for lunch.
    For those who have not heard about the Rooms of Requirement, they are listed on page 76 in the program book. Professor Roxanne Conrad’s Slytherin house will meet at Brother’s Restaurant on Saturday at 6 p.m.

Headmaster Bumblebee rescued in first quest challenge

Genii Grimsley
Oracle Correspondent

     At noon today word reached Witching Hour attendees that the Headmaster Bumblebee, of Salem Academy of Witches and Wizards, was kidnapped by You Know Who. Within minutes the hunt was on, as numerous witches and wizards took off on the quest. After a nerve-racking hour and ten minutes Headmaster Bumblebee was rescued by Gryfferins, Anne and Kendra. Anne and Kendra mentioned that their search took them all over Salem where they found the clues that the Headmaster left to assist in his rescue.