Shiloh Adlar

This was a lot of fun! Thank you so much for organizing it! I also love awards and beans. Like Tarma said, we get them for having fun?Who could ask for anything better? :)

Bravery can be standing up for something you believe in, protecting someone or protecting yourself, or continuing to go on through life even when it feels like life has no meaning anymore or that you don't deserve it. Bravery to some people is stepping out on a stage in front of an audience of over 2000 people and dancing like there's no one else in the room. Bravery can be admitting that you made a mistake. These are all things I have experienced in one way or another, myself or through someone else. One thing I also had to learn is that bravery can also mean just being yourself in a world that tries to make people conform to a type or an ideal. It's really hard to go out everyday and be different and have no desire to be like everyone else when society is telling me that I should be this or I should be that or I should look a certain way or do certain things just to be accepted. Brave is taking my hand and pushing all of that aside and saying, "That's nice, but I think I'm going to just be me today because I'm kind of awesome and that's good enough."

When I had the chance to meet Death and defeat him, Death offered me a gift as well. He asked what I would want, and I told him that I wanted something that would be able to heal the people around me and that would protect the mind from those spells and evil thoughts that like to turn people to insanities. Death nodded and crafted me a crown made from weeds growing nearby. He told me, although this crown is not beautiful, it has no need to be. Pain is not beautiful, sickness is not beautiful, and self-hate is not beautiful. The weeds of the crown breathe in all of those ugly predicaments so the person is left beautiful once more. I thanked Death for the incredible crown and placed it on my head. The horrible I thoughts I once had from guilt and shame suddenly went away and I noticed a new purple bulb appear on one of the stems. I also found that the cough I had been dealing with the past few days had miraculously disappeared. I took the crown off and stared at it and nothing changed. None of it came back.

I quickly wondered if it could be used on others who would place it on their heads. I ran to my good friend’s home and told her to put it on. She had been distraught the past year over many things, one of which was physical so she would never be able to dance again, and nothing anyone tried to do could bring her out of it. Potions were brewed and they lasted a while, but when she stopped drinking them, the depression swarmed over her once more. My friend placed the crown on her head and a smile appeared on her face again. Her eyes lit and the negative energy that once surrounded her was exchanged for brilliant light. She stood and walked around saying that she felt no more pain in her foot and she twirled around. When she took it off, the positive energy stayed with her, she put on her pointe shoes and danced the loveliest dance I had ever seen.

The crown death had given me was a crown of healing and joy, and I knew I would use it well.

Knocking off a ladies hat - I would use Depulso which is the opposite of the summoning charm. This would send the hat to a specific location off the lady's head. The thing is, I would never use this spell unless necessary. How terribly rude to knock off a lady's hat.

Making a horse fly - I would use Alarte Ascendare which shoots a target into the air. I would just have to make sure to quickly use Arresto Momentum as the horse came down so it does not get hurt.

Swapping a sword for a parasol - Can I just use Accio and summon a parasol from somewhere? Then I have a sword and a parasol! The sword is to defend off any enemies and the parasol is to keep me from getting a sunburn. Perfect, right? But if that does not count, a simple switching spell is all that's needed.

Conjuring a glass of water - First I would use Avis to conjure a flock of birds. Then I would use Vera Verto to turn one of those birds into a goblet, and then I would use Aguamenti to fill that goblet up with water.

Changing the appearance of a nearby tree - Oh! This one will be fun! I think I will turn the tree into usable quills by using the spell Scribblifors.

Invisibility Cloak

I walked down the street when I saw a treat. A silver cloak, made with silk flowing with fluidity. I thought, “What could this be?” I looked to see what I could see. A person who may search the street, but none was found on a spree. “Could I put it on,” I asked a nearby tree. For there was no one else walking beside me. After I would greet people on the street, and I realized, no one saw me. I took it off and waved a beat, waves came back returning the greet. “Did this cloak cause invisibility?”

I loved this story! This may actually be my favorite and then the Hopping Pot. I think this story is so powerful because it does teach us that we don't actually need magic or someone to save us. We can save ourselves. We have everything we need if we put in the work, trust ourselves and keep an open mind. Keeping positive people around us who are motivated and working toward the same goal is also helpful. The encouragement that we bring one another is what can keep us going.

Kind of like Kendra said, one of my favorite quotes is, "Happiness is a journey, not a destination."

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There once was a man who had kept a long secret from his wife. He told her that once a month he would have to go away for work and he would be back within a few days. The wife grew to accept this as custom, and would sit in her chair reading until his return. What the wife did not know is that her husband would go into the forest and lock himself into their old cabin while a terrifying hideous change took place, a change he could not tell his wife about because it turned him into a monster.

The man, this time, had a feeling that something was not right. The wife had watched out the window as her husband walked out the door and saw him heading into the forest. That night, she followed his trail to their old cabin and peered inside the window. What she saw terrified her. She quickly ran back to her house and grabbed a knife. When she returned to the cabin, very slowly and carefully, she pulled the knife and steadied herself to kill the creature inside.

It was dark as she opened the door, and the wolf leaped on her, but her knife was pointed and ready and it stabbed the wolf through the stomach. There was a great howl as blood splattered onto the floor. It was then that she realized, the wolf had been no ordinary wolf. It had been her husband and she wept by his side.

I wanted to go all out creepy with this. My goal was to give nightmares since Mrs. Bloxam seemed to believe that these tales would do that. I suppose this one actually did for her. Oops.

I decided blood splatters would be awesome for this to symbolize the end where the unnamed maiden is murdered and the warlock takes his life. I have a wall splatter near the top right corner and bottom center are drops of blood. Right above those drops of blood is a human heart. The heart is colorless and has hairs coming from it. Colorless felt right since it's love that colors life in my opinion. Without it, life is dull and without color. In the very top right, in purple (again to symbolize the warlock), it says The Wizarding Academy of Dramatic Arts presents. WADA is a real thing. Check the HP Wiki. So cool!

Following the line of the heart on the right side are the dates for the show. They're written diagonally to give it some fun. Then below, written regularly, it says "WADA Studios Theatre." Below that are the ticket prices set at 6-13 pounds. And right below that in small print, now the letters are black, it says "Not suitable for children under 12 or Mrs. Beatrix Bloxam." I thought the last part was funny. On the left side of the page, it announces the title of the play "The Warlock's Hairy Heart" in huge letters. I designed the letters to look like they're being formed with pieces of hair. Then underneath, and in regular print ,it says who the play is by, which is Beedle the Bard.

I can't ever stand a white background, so I added a slight yellowish peach to it. In the left hand corner is this yellow line. It actually was a mistake when I noticed a white spot then grabbed the wrong color pencil, so I went over it with the right colored pencil but it just made it worse. However, I now think it looks kind of cool. If a person looks closely, they may see a wizard (think of the Hamilton playbill) standing there and holding his wand in his hand.

Description: The quote is spread out all over the drawing. I decided to write the word "strange" in a circular fashion, and it's the only word that is written completely different from the others, making it quite strange. Grown is in big green letters because when I think of growth, I think of green. The rest of the quote is in a mixture of orange, swamp green, golden rod, red and ocean blue.

The background for the quote is a drawing of an actual human heart (not the heart shape). The heart starts off with this reddish-brown which I used to symbolize the color fading. It eventually drops off into a grey and black. Hair is coming out of it everywhere. The veins of the heart are in thick black. There are also two mouths on the heart. Both of them are open with razor sharp teeth and ready to bite at anyone that comes near it. There is also a black hole above one of the mouths symbolizing rot.

To finish with the quote layout, I started at the top right with "But it had GROWN" the underneath it, the circular "strange." In the bottom left corner, I wrote, "during it's long." There is nothing special about this. In the bottom right hand corner, far away from the word long, I wrote "exile." This word is written in a black box to symbolize where the heart from the story was kept, far away from the warlock. On the edges of the box, I wrote "blind and," which is the next part of the quote. And then written downwards, I wrote "savage." Savage is back inside this black box along with the next part of the quote next to it and on top of "exile." It says "in the darkness to which it had been condemned." The word "darkness" is inside another very dark box and condemned is the same color as savage. The quote goes up along the side of the page and finally reaching the word "appetite," I wrote it on the outline of the human heart. There is a purple arrow that points to "grown." I used purple to symbolize the warlock. Then "powerful and perverse" is written in red inside one of the mouths of the heart.

For WHH1, it says a lot of computer graphic things, however is creating something off the computer allowed as well?

1. Could I use art supplies to write the quote? No computer graphics necessary.

2. Is illustrating the quote into a drawing also acceptable if I would put the quote on the drawing somewhere?

This is one of my favorite tales from the book. I have always liked this one since I was young. I never once had nightmares with this story or any of them. I remember thinking, while my brother read this to me, why would the son do such a thing? He saw his father helping the muggles out. One would think he would want to do the same. Truthfully, I thought that the son was getting exactly what he deserved as he refused to use his abilities to help those who were in need. He finally realized that it was much easier to perform a simple task to help someone than it was to live with the regret of ignoring them. The regret coming from the frustrating pot. It taught me that I should be kind to everyone and use my gifts and abilities to help where I can.

I think it is silly to tone down fairy tales for children. Isn't it better for our children to be exposed to such things now ("horrors" that really aren't even that bad in the Tales) than to release them into the world where dark magic certainly exists. It does them no good to be sheltered young because then they won't know how to deal with what life throws at them. And when they do see something truly horrifying, they may freeze up. Either that or they'll be drawn to it because it's new and you know...a shiny new toy sort of thing. "Sanitizing" these stories only cripples everyone. Children are more resilient than adults want to believe. As Dumbledore once said, "Age is foolish and forgetful when it underestimates youth."

The thing I thought about most while reading this was how children would experience this story as a nightmare. I certainly would not have seen it that way, but as our Mrs. Bloxam believed, most children would. Again, I absolutely disagree with this. Her version of the story is horrible and way too sickly sweet. However, with that in mind, I decided to create this nightmare of our hopping pot Mrs. Bloxam once depicted.

Here we have a room that is out of proportion to indicate the loss of reality, we are in a dream-like state. You can see the bed which looks particularly normal (minus my use of an ocean blue for the frame, but it's not reality so anything goes). The door is lopsided as are the windows to go with the distorted perspective of the room. I chose purple curtains to indicate the son's belief that he was royalty compared to muggles.

Starting with the walls, I left them grey as no other color would have looked right in my opinion. However, there is slime crawling down the walls in shades of green. I was thinking of snot, like the children of the village being ill. There are also blue tear drops to indicate the crying heard from the pot and throughout the village. On the ceiling, I decided to color it an earthy green and also leave trails of bright green goo that one could see if they were looking up at the ceiling from the bed. All of this indicates sickness in the village and would be shown in a person's nightmare.

As for the pot, I went with my own view of different colors. I despise the color red. It has nothing to do with me not liking the color, but seeing the color too much actually increases my anxiety ten fold. Don't ask me why, but it does. So I started with a red and began to fade it into a purplish red and finally into a purplish pink at the bottom of the pot. Pink is my absolute favorite color, as I'm sure everyone knows by now. This is to indicate the pot being happy and eventually getting more upset as the villager's ailments continue to be ignored. The foot is made of some sort of bronze or brass I suppose. That's the color I chose anyway for it to make that clacking sound. Inside the pot is boiling black liquid that has bubbles coming from it in orange, with lots of black steam. The pot is getting really angry. In order to add to the nightmare these children are supposed to be having, I added a face. The teeth are very sharp and pointed and the eyes wide and mad. Quite terrifying.

And we cannot forget the most important part of this picture! The ballet slipper!!!! I attached the ballet slipper to the pot with a pink string. When the pot is happy again, the ballet slipper can be slipped back onto its foot. But because it's a nightmare, it dangles there tempting the dreamer.

I was given a copy of the book as a prize for something quite a few years ago at work. It's hard to say which story is my favorite. They're all great. I suppose if I had to choose one it would be The Wizard and the Hopping Pot because it teaches us that we should be helping others instead of being selfish and keeping our magic to ourselves. It could also mean that we should share our gifts with others as well. I'm the type of person who wants to help everyone, so this story speaks to me more than the others.