AGIRLNAMEDALLY: October 2013

Last night I fulfilled what must have been a dream since 2000, after the release of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (holy hippogriffs, how did that come out thirteen years ago?). I got to metaphorically step into the world of witchcraft and wizardry, literally step into a beautiful floor length gown and party with my fellow HP loving friends, as well as some new faces from two other schools.

Last night, I went to the Yule Ball.

The Harry Potter club at my uni, along with the clubs at two others, got together and organised this incredible, magnificent night. I'd only ever been to one fancy event in my life (Year 12 formal) and was therefore greatly excited to dress up and pretend to be a dignified, beautiful and classy young lady again. Mostly I just wanted to rock a pretty dress.

We all gathered at my friend's house, where we were welcomed warmly with questionable mixed drinks, took a couple of photos and hopped into the maxi taxi. Not exactly an enormous ship or flying-horse pulled carriage, but I'll take it. It's probably more of a challenge to take selfies when inside a submerged vessel, anyway.

Upon arriving at the venue, inside the door stood a life-size replica of the trio, a table full of goblets, owls and fake cobwebs, plus a board with our table numbers and names on it. It was created on beautiful old parchment (aka coffee stained paper that we used to make for projects in grade 5) and was even embossed with an owl stamp. My friends and I were originally seated at Hagrid's Hut, but graciously relocated to Godric's Hollow to accomodate some seating shortages.

One of the first things I noticed on the table was our menu. It was a legitimate replica of the marauder's map (I made sure to bring two home) and each dish was written out as though fit for the back-to-school Hogwarts dinner. It included blast-ended skrewts (spinach and ricotta cannelloni), dragon-flamed augery (lemon pepper chicken) and Dumbledore's Lemon Sherbet Surprise (lemon curd tart), among other magical and delicious things. We definitely got our money's worth and I think I may have been one of the only few to actually finish all courses plus dessert. No one else would stand a chance at the Halloween feast.

In between all the tables was the dance floor, where we grooved to all the typical event songs; Jesse's Girl, Stacey's Mom, Sk8er Boi... there was even a Grease medley. The most special song of the night (and my personal favourite) was non other than 'Do The Hippogriff' by the Weird Sisters. Amongst a bunch of fully-fledged potter-heads, that one went off. Between courses, one of the organisers hosted a Hogwarts dance-off, where each house got up together and boogied their best for one song. The Hufflepuff's got the Macarena, Ravenclaw had the Nutbush, Slytherin danced to Barbie Girl and The Gryffindor's got down to Single Ladies. Understandably, Gryffindor took the (metaphorical) cup.

I felt like Hermione any time I walked down a set of stairs (and prayed internally that I wouldn't fall), slightly wishing I'd forked out the $345 for her ruffly pink dress from the store at Wizarding World last year, but I did enjoy rocking a more Pansy Parkinson-eqsue black number. I ran into some high school friends, even some primary school friends, and for the most part made some great new ones. I stayed later than the rest of the girls at my table, so I hit the dance floor with a mix of kids from other schools. I danced for a while with a nice Slytherin boy, and even took a photo with a Ron Weasley doppelganger. It was just so exciting to be surrounded by like-minded people, equally as enthusiastic about something and just having one heck of a good time.

All in all, it was one terrific night!

Scroll below for photos :)