These are absolutely hilarious but also so appropriate! I love how the name fits well with the FROGS.

I love both my awards but am also really touched by the humorous way you have given very well-deserved recognition to people who have really made special efforts in the house cup.

OMG these SLAYED me! Especially the herding cats one. *dead*

also every single one of these is so well deserved, I’m really glad you did this!

Aaah this is so great, prefects! I love the creative naming of the awards and that you've taken the time to appreciate members from each house.

And I'm still cackling about Kevin's Dumbledore award, that's just brilliant and so apt for him haha.

Thank you all so much!

Story time: when we were crafting this blog post in our super secret lair, I had a dream about it, as you do. And it was one of those dreams where you weren't entirely sure if it happened in real life or not, so I had to check. In the dream, we came up with further clever acronyms for each house -- I don't remember Hufflepuff or Slytherin, but Ravenclaw was the CAWs (Completely Awesome Witches). The clue that maybe it was just a dream came from Gryffindor's acronym, which was... the BEEFs. 

In the dream universe, this was an incredible masterful pun, although I'm not sure why.

Multiple prefects were reduced to helpless laughter at my post double-checking it was all in my head. beefs.

Thank you so much!!! I love the way you named the awards and also i'm really touched by my own award ?

congrats to all the other members and staffers who won!

Lol im crying im laughing so hard. Brilliant to wake up to!

This is adorable! 

Congratulations to all the winners! ?

A huge well done to all of our very well deserved winners!!!  You guys absolutely killed it throughout the finale and we couldn't let that go without saying something! 

We had so much fun putting this together and coming up with how best to thank you all, but also well done to Taylor, Rumpels and Emma for making all of the increasingly over the top awards. 

Hope you're all ready for the next one ? #dontmissthetrain

Thank you, thank you!! I humbly accept my Tom Riddle award for an activity which i suffered greatly for! But before that, I have a quick question to ask everybody: which was the most evil, most horrid, most obnoxious riddle of them all?

I'm goin to say that horrendous Walden Macnair riddle. So many sleepless nights, plus coming up with the craziest theories and guesses and chasing false leads e.g. spending hours reading up on the freaking history of the founding of Rome because I was convinced that was the answer. (and history is not my favourite subject)

BUT thank you so much for such a fun post, lovely prefects.   Congrats to all those who got one of these TOADs, and especially to the staffers, because y'all did such an amazing job with planning. The whole finale was the most complex event EVER and it was run so beautifully.

1 hour ago, teh tarik said:

I'm goin to say that horrendous Walden Macnair riddle

Are you kidding that was SUCH a good riddle. @whoever made the walden macnair riddle: I LOVE YOU. It was a masterfully crafted riddle.   Legit, I used that riddle as an example of What An Excellent Riddle, This Is How Riddles Are Supposed To Work. Going into the woods! Transcendental when understood! The bit about murdering innocents!!!! PERFECTION.

The evillest riddle was for SURE HUFFLEPUFF'S. GODDAMN SWANS, MOTHS AND LITTLE BEARS. I READ WAY TOO MUCH ABOUT THE GREAT SCHISM OF 1054 FOR THAT, YOU MONSTERS. I legit found the bloody song in my FIRST POST ABOUT THAT RIDDLE but we were convinced it was FOUNDERS-BASED. [explodes in rage]

1 hour ago, facingthenorthwind said:

The evillest riddle was for SURE HUFFLEPUFF'S. GODDAMN SWANS, MOTHS AND LITTLE BEARS. I READ WAY TOO MUCH ABOUT THE GREAT SCHISM OF 1054 FOR THAT, YOU MONSTERS. I legit found the bloody song in my FIRST POST ABOUT THAT RIDDLE but we were convinced it was FOUNDERS-BASED. [explodes in rage]

I found the Pope in that one, so I thought it was Rome. Thank God we had Nicole. 

The Walden McNair one I was convinced had something to do with Astronomy or Divination. So. ?

Rumpel doesn't riddle like the real Rumpel. 

I also loved the Walden one, which was our gateway to solving all of Gryffindor's fabulous and fun riddles 

We should have had a TOAD for best riddle. The Sphinx Award for Best Riddle. Goddamn it, I JUST CLOSED PHOTOSHOP. NOW I'M GOING TO HAVE TO OPEN IT AGAIN. (Although it's midnight and I have to go to shul in the morning so the award will come tomorrow. Also it won't be an official TOAD, I will just present it to whoever made the Walden riddle.   If it were an official TOAD I would have to let other people have opinions, and clearly that's just not acceptable.)

2 hours ago, facingthenorthwind said:

The evillest riddle was for SURE HUFFLEPUFF'S. GODDAMN SWANS, MOTHS AND LITTLE BEARS. I READ WAY TOO MUCH ABOUT THE GREAT SCHISM OF 1054 FOR THAT, YOU MONSTERS

Yeah I was convinced that the answer was Polaris, the north star, and I was nearly sobbing reading all that astronomy. I STILL have no idea what swans and moths and bears have to do with the answer.

I already shared this with the Slytherins, but I guessed the Walden riddle because I had planned a one-shot a few years back about Walden Macnair deciding to take up farming. Living the simple life and being transcendental and all that. Guess where I got the inspo from.

oh my god that's PERFECT. @forever_dreaming was like "man all I can think of is transcendentalism, that's so silly" and then later on I pieced it together and I would never have got the woods bit without her, so she deserves at least half the credit. 

Hahaha, these are amazing and so creative! ? Congrats to all the winners! ❤️

59 minutes ago, teh tarik said:

 I STILL have no idea what swans and moths and bears have to do with the answer.

Oooh that was my favorite part of that riddle! Care to explain, @WriteYourHeartOut

Also, I hope y'all enjoyed my reference to that in the horoscopes

@facingthenorthwind Evil?! Me?? How dare you.  Anyway, here's my riddle explanation:


So I asked Sam for some general guidance as far as topics for the riddle, and she sent me this Alopex quote: "It would be best if they were at least Harry Potter or magic or newspaper/journalism themed. Era is probably smart (though not absolutely required)", so I decided to go with old magic, like medieval/middle ages type (cause Hufflepuff was Founders Era, so). After some googling research, I landed on Black Sabbath to be the answer I'd build my riddle around.

So, breaking down the riddle:

Of swans and moths and little bears
Respectively: is, was, became

This is referring to the etymology of some members of the Black family: Cygnus (a constellation also known as the Swan), Callidora (a species of moths), and Ursula (which means "little bear"). In order, Cygnus IS a Black still, Callidora WAS a Black until she married a Longbottom, and Ursula BECAME a Black by marrying into the family after formerly being a Flint.

Should Gregory or Julius
Or Catholics take the blame?

These lines are about the Sabbath day, which turns out to be rather a debated subject. In the Bible, it's meant to be six days of work with rest on the seventh/Sabbath day. It's generally accepted that today's calendars start the week on a Sunday and end on a Saturday, which means Saturday would be considered the Sabbath. However, a lot of people/religions consider Sunday as the holy day and, therefore, the day of rest/Sabbath. I read an article about the Catholics taking credit for making the change from Saturday to Sunday, but there's also debate about whether the calendar's switching from Julian to Gregorian (named for Julius Caesar and Pope Gregory XIII) caused this, as the Julian Calendar was used during the time Jesus was said to have walked the Earth, but we currently use the Gregorian Calendar.

The Wizard, have you met him?
Walking silent, giving signs?
According to the people,
They are now "feeling so fine"

This last section is a reference to the band Black Sabbath, and specifically their song called The Wizard, because... it just seemed fitting. haha The words "feeling so fine" is a direct quote from the song, and "Walking silent, giving signs" are less direct quotes from it. Here are the two sections I based around:

"Sun is shining, clouds have gone by
All the people give a happy sigh
He has passed by, giving his sign
Left all the people feeling so fine
 

Never talking
Just keeps walking
Spreading his magic"

@teh tarik

Fine, I am..... Slightly less angry now.

@WriteYourHeartOut also it may be of interest that @MadiMalfoyhad an elaborate theory about how it was the band black Sabbath and they went to catholic school and I forget most of it but it was quite good. We never did fit the swans and moths and bears in though. 

4 hours ago, facingthenorthwind said:

@WriteYourHeartOut also it may be of interest that @MadiMalfoyhad an elaborate theory about how it was the band black Sabbath and they went to catholic school and I forget most of it but it was quite good. We never did fit the swans and moths and bears in though. 

YES EMMA IS CORRECT

I did research on the frickin band members and their personal lives for justification as to why it could be Black Sabbath but I cant follow my own directions so it took me a couple more guesses to get that one right ??‍♀️

THIS WAS SO CUTE IM CRYING 

the walden riddle was my favorite. it was a WILD ride but I loved every minute of it :’) ( hugs to my riddle-solving partner in crime @facingthenorthwind)