GRYFFINDOR! GRYFFINDOR! GRYFFINDOR!

That’s right. We won. It was well over a week ago and I’m still living off that high. Halloween week was so busy I didn’t write out the post like I wanted, and then Erica wrote a much better post than I could so I ended up thinking “Why bother?” Still, a victory that pure, that symbolic deserves to be sung multiple times.

It happened exactly as JK Rowling would have written it.

The Gryffindors are loud, cocky and maybe a LITTLE pretentious.

The Ravenclaws are quiet, brainy and ready.

The Hufflepuffs are smiley, cheering and good-natured.

The Slytherins are the worst.

The lead changed hands several times. I believe Ravenclaw held it for most of the game (unsurprising – as they are so very smart). Hufflepuff held it… maybe once? Those poor Hufflepuffs. Still, their spirits were high and they were the great sports we all knew they would be. The Slytherins took the lead by stomping on others, as you’d expect. We actually trailed behind for the middle chunk of the game, only pulling ahead in the last few, clutch rounds.

I was worried, you guys. We started missing questions. A LOT of questions. And not just dumb ones that we messed up. REALLY hard questions (click here to read/download the complete list of questions: HPTrivia). Every time we got a difficult question I breathed a sigh of relief that I was not the one up there, followed by a sharp and nervous intake of breath as I realized whoever was up there likely didn’t know it either, and then the disappointed snort when we missed ANOTHER question. We all missed questions. All of us. Our table quieted down in a hurry, for the Lions of Gryffindor were humbled.

I had talked so much cheese. We were the HARRY POTTER BOOK CLUB FOR CRYING OUT LOUD. And now we were going to LOSE. I legitimately felt sick. I screamed and jumped each time we got a question right, but the queasy anxiety came right back as I realized it wasn’t enough. Everyone wanted to beat us. Especially the Slytherins.

See here’s what happened with the Slytherins: One of the questions asked “Where is Harry when he first hears the Basilisk?” The correct answer was “Professor Lockhart’s Office.” Ben, the mediator/judge/host/MC wasn’t going to give it to Team Slytherin, who had written “Detention.” Ravenclaws were yelling that it was technically insufficient. We, quite loudly, said “Yeah that’s good! Give it to ’em! That’s ok!” while nodding and clapping. WE STOOD UP FOR THE SLYTHERINS.

Not 3 rounds later came their moment to prove their dirtbag Slytherin selves – We wrote “Banishing Cabinet” instead of “Vanishing Cabinet.” Now, in the first place, Ben had said spelling didn’t count unless specified (like the question asking to accurately spell Minerva McGonagall’s name). And where Banishing/Vanishing is so very close and still completely identifiable, I believe it shouldn’t have even been an issue. Especially since not a single other team had anything close to the right answer. She clearly knew it, no one else did. Award us points and send us on our way, right?

Wrong.

The Slytherins were calling for her head. They bellowed with ferocity that we absolutely SHOULD NOT get that one, convincing the host, to our dismay. We didn’t get the points. Slytherin held the lead, taking that key round away from us. Even after we stood up for them! Can you believe that? Yes. You can. Because they’re Slytherins and they’re the worst. They smirked and then seemed to realize how ridiculous that was, turning their backs to us for the remainder of the game. They quickly lost the lead to Ravenclaw.

The last few rounds are a blur. My sister-in-law Haley miraculously knew the possible number of Quidditch fouls, giving us the lead and our courage as lions once more! Jessica, our stud MVP, articulated the perfect written answer for the final round. We knew we had it. The host deliberated on Hufflepuff’s answer, and we just cheered and yelled “We won! Either way we won!” Because as long as we got the answer right, we were in the lead. We won!

“Like it MATTERS.” a snobby, slimy voice reached our table from the Slytherins to the right. She said it just loud enough for us to hear, even as most of her team was packing up to slither out of there. Well, look who we have here DRACO MALFOY. It doesn’t MATTER? Didn’t seem that way when you were demanding we not get points for Banishing Cabinet, after we stood up for you!

“Well SOMEONE’S pissed!” Haley shot back at them with a smile, sending those snakes curling off. (But seriously, they all left. Quickly, quietly, with their proverbial serpent’s tail between their legs.)

Didn’t matter. We couldn’t hear them over our HOUSE CUP FULL OF RUBIES (m&ms) and the flashing camera shutters. We couldn’t have been happier. We won. WE WON! I was so relieved; you guys don’t even know. Actually, you might be able to tell from my adrenaline-quavering-voice in this video…

We won DVDs, M&Ms, tickets to the HP Concert on Halloween, and a free round of bowling. But we didn’t care about all that. It was the Gryffindor Pride we were after, and boy did we walk away with plenty.

HP Book Clubbers – I feel like we should do our own trivia contest amongst ourselves… what say ye?