Congratulations to the winners of the November/ December 2014 Dumbledore Silver Trinket Awards!  They are as follows:

Best Comedy
• Winner:Bikini Girls on Brooms by Northumbrian
• Honourable Mention: The Seeker Daughter by GHL

Best Drama
• Winner:The Seeker Daughter by GHL
• Honourable Mention: Hail Odysseus by Brennus

Best Romance
• Winner:Daughters of Heroes by HPmum2014
• Honourable Mention: The Commoner Queen by Pilargirl

Best One-Shot
• Winner:Bikini Girls on Brooms by Northumbrian
• Honourable Mention: Weasley is Our Queen by jojo99

Best Completed
• Winner:Bound by YelloWitchGrl
• Honourable Mention: Hail Odysseus by Brennus

Best New Story
• Winner:Trix by GHL
• Honourable Mention: Love Me Not by potterfan2008

Our annual polls are open until January 31st so be sure to take a moment and vote for your favourite today!

~Jenn, DSTA Admin

Based on the popular 1990 American movie "Home Alone," starring Macaulay Culkin as Kevin McCallister and two would-be burglars, played by Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern, this Challenge is about either Harry Potter at #4 Privet Drive OR Ginny Weasley at the Burrow.  Pick one!

Harry is left alone when the Dursley's leave town for the weekend.  Of course his wand is locked up somewhere and he can't get to it.

Ginny is home alone without her wand over a weekend while the family visits Bill on assignment in Ireland.  She's being punished for hexing the Twins after a prank gets carried too far.

For some unknown reasons the wards weaken and burglars are able to see and access their homes.  Harry / Ginny are determined to defend their homes, respectively.

The Challenge is to write a story of how Harry / Ginny get into this situation and how they defend their homes against the burglars.  Harry / Ginny may not leave their properties.

Rules:

1. All general submission rules apply. Stories over 20,000 words are discouraged but not prohibited.  R-rated stories are allowed but discouraged. Judges are not required to read stories over 20,000 words or any R-rated stories.

2. All entries must be submitted under “Home Alone” Challenge 2015-1, sub-category of SIYE Challenges and be submitted by midnight SIYE Time, Sunday, February 15, 2015.

3. Change in Rule: Only completed stories are acceptable.  Multiple chapters are allowed.

4. The categories for judging are Best Overall, Humorous, Ingenious, and The People’s Choice Award.

The Time Turner has been found and the voting will commence once again for the November/December DSTAs.  Voting will end on January 14th so that the annual awards voting will start on the 15th.  So make sure to cast your ballots today!

~Jenn :), DSTA Admin

Some time Tuesday, Jan 6th, SIYE experienced a technical glitch and the program  reverted back to sometime late Tuesday, December 30, 2014.  Anything that was done on the site is no longer there.  So SIYE lost a week.  (Somebody got a hold of a Time Turner!)

If you had any interactions with SIYE during last week, you need to do it again.  Submit stories or chapters, editing a story, etc.  We at SIYE will reprint the DSTA nominations and the Challenge News.

We are sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused you.  We are still talking with our technical staff to learn what happened so we can prevent it from happening again.

Happy New Year...again!

And The Winners Are....

Quidditch is a popular sport in the Wizarding World as well as on SIYE as this Challenge shows.  We had eight stories competing for winning scores.  A real mix of outcomes in the games.  And the winners are...

The award for Best Overall goes to:

The Seeker Daughter by GHL

The award for Best Game Action goes to:

Perfect Catch by Arnel

The award for Most Humorous goes to:

Bikini Girls on Brooms by Northumbrian

The People's Choice Award goes to:

Love Me Not by potterfan2008

The winning stories are now prominently listed in our Featured Stories section.  The 2015-1 Challenge will start January 1st.  You wouldn't want to be caught home alone.

I would like to thank the judges that sent in their votes.  You know who you are: AM, J, JG, NS, & SM.  Your time to help out is quite valuable. The Challenge would not exist if nobody judged them.

Note:  One judge questioned a story which my answer decided his first or second place nomination.  I thought his attention to detail was important to share with everybody.  If JKR spelled Quidditch with a capital Q, two "R"s and a "Z", then that is canon.  You should spell it the same way.  SIYE has brought this up in the past when it was questioned.  Spelling of proper names as JKR wrote them is what we consider correct, including capitalizing the first letter.  And don't you dare misspell Professor McGonagall.  She will dock you 50 points.

That's all Folks!

The Golden Snitch has been caught, the crowd has gone wild, Luna has been removed from her announcing job by Professor McGonagall, Harry and Ginny's team has again won, the two are enjoying another celebratory kiss, and, oh yeah, The Quidditch Challenge is now closed.

Our highly professional panel of judges will now begin the process of picking out the winning entries.  We have seven, yes seven outstanding stories submitted for your enjoyment, as well as one from me.  To refresh your memory, the categories for this Challenge are Best Overall, Best Game Action, Most Humorous, and People's Choice Award. Winners will be anounced next month.

In the mean time, I get to enjoy the Wizarding World's wonderful medical care during my stay here at St. Mungo's.  I sort of flew my broom into the side of a mountain while trying to learn to catch a Snitch.

Mischief managed!

Spenser

Note:  Correction - there are eight outstanding stories.  One author drank the wrong potion from Madam Pompfry.  Sir Ollivander

It's time to reveal the winners of the Dumbledore Silver Trinkets Awards for September/ October 2014.  Without further ado, 

Best Comedy
• Winner:Seeing Double by DragonHeartstring
• Honourable Mention: Clueless by HPmum2014

Best Drama
• Winner:Hail Odysseus by Brennus
• Honourable Mention: Bound by YelloWitchGrl

Best Romance
• Winner:Seeing Double by DragonHeartstring
• Honourable Mention: Bound by YelloWitchGrl

Best One-Shot
• Winner:When Harry Met Harry by HPmum2014
• Honourable Mention: Big Brother by HPmum2014

Best Completed
• Winner:Seeing Double by DragonHeartstring
• Honourable Mention: Paintball Wizard by cackling stump

Best New Story
• Winner:The Least Magical Town in Britain by Humean
• Honourable Mention: Coming Home by HPmum2014

Congratulations, everyone!

Jenn, DSTA Admin

It's time to cast your vote for the best stories of September and October!  So head over to the Dumbledore Silver Trinket Awards Voting under your account info and cast your vote today! Winners will be announced on November 11th.  Good luck to all the nominees!

~Jenn :)

A Halloween Update for the Quidditch Challenge

Harry was playing like a first-year Slytherin. He couldn’t find the Snitch! Harry couldn’t see the Snitch, or much of anything else for that matter! Normal glasses had years before been replaced with match goggles with prescription lens, but it didn’t matter. He was experienced with rain, fog, snow, heavy winds, and annoying Dementors. The problem was the freezing rain. Except for lightning, it was the only weather condition which could postpone a Quidditch game…if detected before its onset. Once a match had begun, Voldemort himself arriving wouldn’t stop the contest.

As this type of rain comes in contact with anything, especially so high in the air, it will instantly freeze…to the brooms, to their robes, to the balls and bats, and, unfortunately, to the special glasses Harry needed to see. With each passing moment, it became harder and harder to make anything out, and the wind didn’t help. It was as if he was trying to read fine print through a stained glass window while riding a bucking bronco. I’m blind with or without these blasted things! he realized. I have to get to the ground now before I…

Wham!

The decision came too late. Harry couldn’t tell if he’d hit someone or something, or if he’d been the one struck. A falling sensation washed over him. The last thing he remembered before blacking out from the pain was Ginny’s voice calling out his name. He was gone before he could decide if it was real.

What's your inspiration?  Baseball season is over now.  Devote the time you're saving to that great story plot that's bouncing around in your head.  It doesn't need to be an enormous endeavor for you.  Ernest Hemingway (no relation) wrote a famous novel with only six words.  All we're asking is a thousand plus.  You can even wear your Albus Dumbledore costume and munch away at your Trick-or-Treat candy as you type away.

Happy Halloween!

Okay...how about this little tidbit to spark the imagination.

Finally, by the light of still another flash, Ginny spotted the Snitch approximately forty yards off to her right.  Breathing a sigh of relief, she directed Harry's broom in its direction only to be nearly knocked from it at the last second by a near miss.  A lightning bolt had actually hit the Snitch!  Its magic had been negated. and it was simply falling.

"Oh crum!" Ginny shouted to the storm as she dropped the broom into a nosedive.  Could she catch it before it hit?  The Firebolt was the second fastest broom she had ever ridden.  Only Tromed Love, the first racing broom Harry had built, could match it.  The Snitch, however, was plummeting like a meteor.  The nose of the broom was aimed straight down, and she was only three or four hundred feet up. 

"Closer...closer...I almost have you she called out to it.  Still hugging the broom, Ginny reached out to grab it, only to have the wind catch and pull it away from her.  Without thinking, Ginny threw herself from the Firebolt, seizing and then clutching the ball to her chest, and only then realizing that she was now the one dropping to earth at breakneck (literally) speed.

Down she fell.  Two hundred...a hundred and fifty...Ginny knew that she was mere seconds from death.  Even if she had bothered to bring her wand up with her that morning, she doubted that she would have had any time for an Accio Firebolt.  It was a manuever that both Harry and she had used a number of times during their stunts...other stunts.  Perhaps it wouldn't even work in this electric storm.

 Yes...Harry was going to be very upset about this.

Any inspiration?  We have so much time left with this Challenge, and it doesn't need to be a novel-length.  Shirley, you must have a thousands words in you about Harry, Ginny, and Quidditch.  The rest of you do as well.  Break out that quill true believers!