As we all know, Hallowe'en is one of those magical times of the year when we can get dressed up in Harry Potter costumes and NOT get stared at as if we've just escaped from the local psychiatric hospital.

Last year, to celebrate what Prof McGonagall once said would probably be known as Harry Potter Day (read the first chapter of the first book...) we decided to celebrate the Boy Who Lived, and went on a liver-unfriendly pub crawl.

In costume, obviously.

This was definitely one of the highlights of last year - as we marched down the street pointing our wands at Muggles and giving them the odd hex, whilst approaching others and asking if they'd like to stroke our wands, or if they'd like to see our Chamber of Secrets...
If you check out the gallery, you can see us in all our glory as we ended up at King's Cross station, playing drinking games by Platform 9 3/4.

Even some tourists wanted us in the photos with them!

Getting Costumes
If you want to join us, we thoroughly recommend coming in costume. You will very rarely get the opportunity to walk through the streets of London, in a group of people dressed as Hogwartsians, so you should definitely make the most of it.
Of course, costume is entirely optional, and even just a witch's hat will make you enjoy Hallowe'en much more.
Here are some tips for getting costumes ready.

Pound Shops!
These are your friends at Hallowe'en. Last year I bought a couple of little fluffy Hedwigs, a small broomstick (my little Nimbus 2000) and a witch's hat for a grand total of 4 pounds. yes, that's FOUR pounds!!
I personally went to the pound shop next to Whitechapel tube station, but there are pound shops in many places, like Camden and Holloway.

I also bought a Gryffindor patch on ebay last year for about 2 pounds. I also had bought some house scarves, but these aren't too easy to get in time as I could only get them from an American seller, so took a few weeks to arrive. So, a white shirt, grey or black jumper and a black coat will be perfect, with a plain coloured tie if you can't get the right colour stripey ones. I'm going to bring my wands - I have about 6 or 7, so I'll share them out. If you can't get hold of a wig - then you can get spray on (and wash out) hair colour from boots.

We will send you details on where to meet us, and when. Until then, have fun finding costumes, and send us a message if you find something exciting, or need some more ideas for characters.

Here are a few good ideas for characters, if you don't want to go as just a normal student.

Luna - blonde wig if you don't have long blonde hair, blue tie.

Draco/Lucius - another blonde wig! but green tie, or black cloak if you have one for lucius (i have his cane, so if anyone wants to go as him, i'll bring the nice big shiny cane with - the wand comes out of the cane!! it's gorgeous!!)

Harry - Nick is going to be Harry for the evening, (he doesn't have a choice...) but that doesn't mean that noone else can. We recommend black eyeliner pencil to draw on a scar (I did this last year when I went as Harriet Potter...)

Ginny/Lily - red hair (get a wash-out red hair spray for 3 or 4 quid from boots) and obviously a red tie or gryff scarf.

Bella/Narcissa - black/blonde wig respectively, black clothes, (preferably gothic and a bit sexy) and black cloak/long coat.

Tonks - pink/purple wig or hair spray ( they sell them in boots) a t shirt of your favourite rock/indie band - (Tonks likes the Weird Sisters but unfortunately they don't exist!) and otherwise cool stuff - check her out in google images, for pics of her from the film.

Cho - ravenclaw scarf/blue tie, black wig if you don't have black hair, smug look for getting to kiss harry... ;-)

Voldemort - red contact lenses... shave your head?! snake is optional (i'm not bringing mine, they're gonna stay safely in their vivariums... and yes, i do own 2 snakes, check out the pics on facebook!)

Hagrid - bushy beard, moleskin coat or other big coaty thing. oh and big boots. and preferably a big giant dog. or a dragon - your choice!

Happy costume-hunting!!!

See you at Hallowe'en - or Harry Potter Day.

Your friendly Head of Slytherin
Naomi
xxx