Word crawl/HP1 Crawl

Welcome to Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry! You've just gotten a letter, and it turns out to be on only the first day of nano. The month seems to rush by, and butterflies crawl in your stomach whenever you think of September 1st...

Stage 1: Getting to Hogwarts

Rumors: Rumors have been going around that the school is more mysterious than it seems. All of this makes the school more intriguing. On September first, barely ten minutes to go, do a 100 word sprint.

The Departure: A scarlet steam engine is waiting at the platform. Jump on before it's too late, saying last minute goodbyes in a minute word sprint.

The Train: You're finally on your way to Hogwarts. Make some new friends in 300 words.

(Optional: Type 400 words to find which houses the people you find are going to be in, and decide which you want to. You can redo the sorting ceremony.)

As you get closer, you become more anxious. What house will you be in? Listen to this while you wait.

Stage 2: Hogwarts: The First Day

The Lake: There's only a lake between you and the sorting ceremony now. Sprint 100 words in 5 minutes to make your boat row faster.

(Optional: Row 200 words in 5 minutes to gain the ability of Hagrid distracting your professor for a lesson. You may skip a class.)

As you enter, you play this song in the back of your head from 1:01 and onward.

The Sorting: Before you know what's happening, you're drying off your clothing and being called up, placed in front of the whole school with a hat on your head. Your vision is obscured by blackness as silence falls in the hall. Interesting. Prove yourself as one of the four.

Gryffindor: Brave enough to sprint 500 words in 10 minutes? Listen to this music whilst or before you start to get you ready. Slytherin: Get to 1000 words in 30 minutes by whatever means you need to. Hufflepuff: Spend 10 minutes and sprint 250 words about a character, or in a new scene. As a Hufflepuff, you're always looking for somewhere new to explore; relax, you're a chill person. Ravenclaw: Patience is a virtue. Type 800 words in however much time you feel you would use productively, whilst listening to this light peaceful music.

Fail any of them and the hat chooses for you. If you fail and you have a redo, you may use it to choose; the sorting hat cares what you think.

The Feast: You were so excited to get sorted that you didn't even hear the rumbling coming from your stomach. Get a Butterbeer (drink) and a snack, and dice out 200 words on your plate in 45 minutes.

The Dormitories: You'd been dozing off during the headmaster's speech and not realized how tired you were. Despite the lack of a bathroom (Where are the bathrooms in Hogwarts anyway?) you get washed up and settle down on your bed, things unpacked. It's been a long day. Get to know your mates for 45 minutes by typing 450 words, until you all snooze off one by one.

Stage 3: Hogwarts: The Lessons

​History of Magic: The Professor has already assigned an essay by the next day! Luckily, it's only a rough draft. Do the tortoise way to complete it: Write 100 words in the next 10 minutes 'without stopping' to do anything else. (Optional: Do it three times to earn a 'skipped class' to spend talking to the surprised but delighted Professor.)

Potions: Contrary to what you believed at first, Potions was really enjoyable, but for one thing: you had to memorize so many ingredients your head hurts. Get a number of ingredients from 1-10 and write that x100 to clear your head in 30 minutes. (Optional: Type x1000 the number of ingredients you got to skip two classes to chat with your Potions Master about how well you scored on the first day and what you are excited for.)

Charms: Before you start, the Professor gives everyone a few minutes to become inspired before the class starts. Listen to this and sprint 150 words in 5 minutes about the extensive uses of charms in everyday life.

Transfiguration: The teacher is teaching you to transform pens into needles. It's hard work, take a three digit number from someone (the last three digits of their word count) and leave your last three once you've written that much that they left.

Lunch: If last night's meal was any bit delicious, today the food is spectacular. Take a snack and head down to Hagrid's hut where he'll teach you (even though you aren't especially to allowed to see them {"What them Professors don't know won't hert 'em."}) all about various creatures he cares for in his duties. Talk with Hagrid in a 100 word sprint whilst listening to this.

Flying Practice: One of the things you were excited for, flying practice, is a let down as all you are allowed to do is hold the brooms and hover a few feet in the air. Nevertheless, you and your friends have a laugh when the teacher unexpectedly falls on her rump off of her broomstick. She's fine, but makes everyone write a 300 word summary on how not to have that happen to you.

Defense Against the Dark Arts: This is the class you've been waiting for all day. For the first lesson, the Professor teaches everyone about various types of dark creatures. No need to take notes, but you can't help scribbling down 200 words as you try to remember the names and the many ways they can hurt you. (Optional: The Professor also noted at the end of the period that anyone interested may join the dueling club. When you enter that night, the hall is packed with eager faces. The Professor hops onto the dais and teaches everyone the movements to use the "Expelliarmus" spell. You take 300 words notes on how exactly to use it to the full extent.

Impressed, the teacher will spare you from 400 words of your final exam.)

The Exams: It's been a wonderful year and you've learned loads, but the exams are coming up. Unless you've been exempt from part of them, you're going to have to write 1500 words in 30 minutes. Fail, and you have to write an additional 300 on why you failed and what you spent that time doing instead of writing.

Stage 4: Return

Train Ride Home: You've changed, and much for the better as you're on your way to becoming a true wizard just like all of them you've grown up with, and you spend the last precious half an hour on the bus chattering away with your friends, downing chocolate frogs, and reminiscing about your times at Hogwarts in a 500 word sprint.

The Summer: You've been counting down until the next year comes along, and you're so anxious for it to start that you manage to inflate your clothing by accident, and you try to pack them inside of your rucksack as the time comes. You run into the platform, and run towards the wall between platforms 9 and 10. Word sprint 500 words in 5 minutes (Five Headed Hedra) to pass through, or you're left with a nasty bump that takes another 200 words (in however long) to heal and realize why you didn't get through. (You headed into the wrong pillar.)

If you make it back to train, congratulations! You're entering your second year and you're hopefully a lot farther on in your novel than when you started, not to mention that you have great soundtracks to listen to.

Besides, you did well on your exams so you're smarter than the average second-year is at the beginning.

You're back home at Hogwarts.