IU Southeast students and community members stepped into Harry Potter’s world during the IUS Bookstore’s Harry Potter Book Night. They dueled with wands, dressed as characters and objects in the Harry Potter series, drank Polyjuice Potion and completed other activities related to the series.

The bookstore held the Harry Potter Book Night on Thursday, Feb. 4 from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. to correspond with the second annual Harry Potter Book Night. The event was held around the world on Feb. 4, according to harrypotter.bloomsbury.com.

Julie Faulds, manager of the IUS bookstore, said she heard about the annual Harry Potter Book Night a year ago and immediately signed the bookstore up to hold the event. She said she is a huge fan of Harry Potter.

Faulds said there were 10,000 schools and libraries participating in the Harry Potter Book Night worldwide last year, and this year there were even more participants. She said Bloomsbury sent a basic event kit to the IUS Bookstore, and they ran with it.

Faulds said she only advertised the Harry Potter Book Night on social media. On the morning of the event, 88 people had said they were going and 440 had said they were interested in coming. Faulds said those numbers scared her because she had only made 100 handmade wands.

Joe Meyer, part-time employee of the IUS Bookstore, manned Ollivander’s Wand Shop and was in charge of handing out wands to attendees. Meyer said he was given material to study, which told him the characteristics of each wand and the personalities that matched.

Faulds said Conference and Catering provided Cauldron Cakes and Molly Weasley’s Rock Cakes for the event.

She also said the Harry Potter Book Night included The Three Broomsticks, Hogsmeade pub, a Pensieve, coloring pages, a scavenger hunt, a novice trivia contest, an owl trivia contest for Harry Potter experts and a wand hunt.

Faulds said the bookstore staff put a lot of effort and creativity into the Harry Potter Book Night. She said wands were made, acceptance letters were tied and Olivia Linders, biology junior and an employee at the bookstore, drew owls on all but two balloons.

Linders said she worried no one would show up, but when she saw the line of people outside of the bookstore, she almost screamed.

Linders said a big reason the bookstore had this event was because they wanted the IUS community to know they aren’t just there to sell textbooks and IUS gear. She said the bookstore staff wants to build a sense of community with the campus and show they care about the students and are there to answer questions.

Linders said she would call herself a big fan of Harry Potter. She said her mother started reading the books to her when she was in second grade and she became obsessed with them.

Faulds said the IUS Bookstore coordinated with the Castle Club on campus to hold the Harry Potter Book Night.
Amanda Miles, Spanish and criminal justice junior, is the founder of Castle Club. Miles said the Castle Club was in charge of the novice trivia contest, the owl trivia contest, the wand duel, the Horcrux scavenger hunt, the book discussion and the sorting ceremony.

The sorting ceremony was done by placing the sorting hat on a student and having them pull a card out of a bowl, which contained each house crest to determine which house they would be placed in.

Miles said Linders reached out for the collaboration with the Castle Club, and that the Harry Potter Book night was bigger than any event the Castle Club could have done by itself.

Ben Garrett, secondary education sophomore, said he is a proud member of Slytherin and a member of Castle Club.

Garrett said he is an extreme fan of the Harry Potter series and he went to all of the midnight movie premieres. Garrett said he hid Horcruxes [objects] for the scavenger hunt. According to the Harry Potter series, Lord Voldemort had seven Horcruxes, which were objects that contained a piece of his soul.

Olivia Cooper, psychology and pre-med sophomore, said she has worked at the IUS Bookstore since December 2015.
Cooper said she helped tie off Hogwarts letters and participated in the Horcrux scavenger hunt, where she was the last Horcrux.

Devin Armbruster, theatre sophomore, participated in the owl trivia contest.

Armbruster, who was dressed as a Hogwarts clock, said she considers herself a Harry Potter fan and that she learned how to read from the Harry Potter books. Armbruster also said she was in a play called “The (Other) Boy Who Lived,” which was Harry Potter themed and shown at the Alley Theater in Louisville in January 2016.

William Taylor, criminal justice freshman, won the novice trivia contest. Taylor said this was the first thing he had ever won in his life.

Taylor said his grandmother would dress up as a witch and read him the Harry Potter books, and that he would go to all of the book releases.

Faulds said the winner of the novice trivia contest won Harry Potter coloring books and the winner of the owl trivia contest won an illustrated version of “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.”

In addition to trivia contests, the wand duel, the scavenger hunt and other activities, the Harry Potter Book Night also featured a photo booth and a drink station.

Sophia Bierman, theatre freshman, said she has worked at the IUS Bookstore for about two months. Bierman said she was in charge of the photo booth and making the frames for the photo booth. She said she has read the Harry Potter books several times.

Kathy Betz, an employee at the IUS Bookstore for 15 years, manned the drink station for most of the evening. She said she was serving  Polyjuice Potion, which consisted of Sprite, lemon drops and magic.

Faulds said a raffle occurred during the Harry Potter Book Night. The prizes included a couple of Jelly Belly BeanBoozled games, which come with a spinner and a variety of flavored jelly beans ranging from sweet flavored jelly beans to diaper and baby wipe flavored jelly beans, according to jellybelly.com.

Additionally, Faulds said the Harry Potter Book Night attendees could also win gift bags donated from MuggleNet and illustrated Harry Potter books.

Laura Hernan, employee of MuggleNet, volunteered at the Harry Potter Book Night and donated the gift bags. She was dressed as Professor Mcgonagall.

Faulds said she would love to coordinate events with more campus organizations. She said she would like everyone to know that the IUS Bookstore is a full-service bookstore that can host events, coordinate with campus organizations, order any book needed and answer questions.

Faulds also said she would like the IUS bookstore to have book signings and more events. She said she believes it’s important for everyone to know that the bookstore is part of the community.

Hernan said she encourages students to keep reading.

“Believe in the magic,” she said.