Sorry for the delay!  The voting is now open for the latest round of the DSTA's, meaning it's time for you to cast your vote to decide the winners.

Please vote here https://siye.co.uk/trinkets.php (you must be logged in to vote) and I'll be back to announce the winners in on 22nd April.

UPDATE: Thank you everyone!

It has long been SIYE's tradition to forego obnoxious advertising and pay for the domain and the hosting with donations provided by patrons like you. This is the month we pay the bill. If any of you happen to be rolling in dough or have some extra cash that needs a home, please consider forwarding some money our way so that we can continue to keep the archive online. We prefer to collect via PayPal. The link can be found under EXTRAS > DONATE TO THE SITE. Thank you for your consideration and support and for the generosity of those who have kept SIYE afloat these many years. 

Harry is spending summer at the Burrow and something strange is afoot, what could possibly be happening?

Your challenge is to write a story about the mystery and how it is solved.  The story can be set at any point you choose during or after Hogwarts.  Is the mystery something to do with Harry, or is it someone else?  Is a certain red-haired witch going to help him solve it?  The choice is yours!

The categories for judging are Best Overall, Most Unexpected, Most Humorous, and the People's Choice Award.  Multi-chaptered stories are allowed but they should be completed, or at least satisfy the challenge sufficiently by the time it is closed.

All stories should be submitted under the "Summer at the Burrow (2024-1)" section of the SIYE challenges category by midnight SIYE time on 1st May.  The winners will be announced on the 15th.

Have fun!

Update - the site is working again now.

Gin110881

Thank you to everyone who voted, I can now announce that the winners are as follows -

Best Comedy
• Winner: Detentions Aren't All Bad by myenzie 

Best Drama
• Winner: Harry Potter and the Repercussions of Future Past by buddingauthor1133
• Honourable Mention: Harry Potter and the Ritual of Love's Memory by Forge2 

Best Romance
• Winner: Harry Potter and the Ritual of Love's Memory by Forge2
• Honourable Mention: Moody's Blues by gryffins_door 

Best One-Shot
• Winner: I Look at You by Count Westwest 

Best New Story
• Winner: A Taste of Honey by Gin110881 
• Honourable Mention: Jailbreak by millie 

Congrats to all the winners.  Keep an eye out for the new challenge which will be posted tomorrow.

The voting is now open for the latest round of the DSTA's, meaning it's time for you to cast your vote to decide the winners.

Please vote here https://siye.co.uk/trinkets.php (you must be logged in to vote) and I'll be back to announce the winners in on 17th January.

Although we didn't have any stories in the best completed or comedy categories, we still had some excellent competition in the others.  The winners are as follows.

Best Drama
• Winner: Harry Potter and the Ritual of Love's Memory by Forge2
• Honourable Mention: Yesterday Came Suddenly by purpleducki88

Best Romance
• Winner: All The Tropes by lilyevans_Jan30
• Honourable Mention: Moody's Blues by gryffins_door

Best One-Shot
• Winner: The Snape Club by Count Westwest
• Honourable Mention: A whiff of him by AnHPsuperfan

Best New Story
• Winner: All The Tropes by lilyevans_Jan30
• Honourable Mention: Yesterday Came Suddenly by purpleducki88

The nominations are back open for the next round which will close on New Year's Day so don't forget to add your favourites!

Also, I know I've been a bit lax this year about keeping up with the challenges, but keep your eye out for the announcement of the next one shortly!

The voting is now open for the latest round of the DSTA's, meaning it's time for you to cast your vote to decide the winners.

Please vote here https://siye.co.uk/trinkets.php (you must be logged in to vote) and I'll be back to announce the winners in on 10th November.

The voting is now open for the latest round of the DSTA's, meaning it's time for you to cast your vote to decide the winners.

Please vote here https://siye.co.uk/trinkets.php (you must be logged in to vote) and I'll be back to announce the winners in on 10th November.

Today is a special day for our beloved Ginny Potter, it's her birthday. We wish you all the best, dear Ginny, especially happiness and health for you and your family.

21 years ago, on August 3, in 2002, Siye went online.

Some may wonder which story was published here first. Unfortunately, the story with SIYE story-Id #1 is long gone, and we don't know what it was called

The story with SIYE story-Id #2 is Can not Stop Loving You by LaArpista. Unfortunately, this story was left incomplete after 12 chapters.

The oldest completed story on SIYE is the story with the story-Id #3, My Best Guarded Secret by Amanda SaturnVenus

Feel free to scroll back and read these stories from the founding days of Siye.

Otherwise, we would like to take the opportunity to thank all the authors and readers who keep the site alive, be it by reading the stories, leaving comments, which the authors are always very happy about, and last but not least by providing new stories about our beloved couple for free over all the years.

Thank you so much!

Our very best wishes today to Joanne and Harry who are both celebrating their birthdays today. May the coming year be a good one and bring you and your families much happiness and health.

Sorry I'm late!  The results are as follows -

Best Drama
• Winner: Harry Potter and the Ritual of Love's Memory by Forge2
• Honourable Mention: Harry Potter and the Repercussions of Future Past by buddingauthor1133

Best Romance
• Winner: Harry Potter and the Ritual of Love's Memory by Forge2
• Honourable Mention: Moody's Blues by gryffins_door

Best Comedy
• Winner: Irretitus Amor by Jeograph
• Honourable Mention: The Power Within by Jorgie

Best One-Shot
• Winner: Intervention by _kb_
• Honourable Mention: I'm Glad I Met You by TheHallowsInMe31

Best Completed
• Winner: Irretitus Amor by Jeograph
• Honourable Mention: Even Evil Plans Can Have A Happy Ending by Gin110881

Best New Story
• Winner: Echoes of the Snake by straykneazle
• Honourable Mention: The Killer You Know by TheHallowsInMe31

Congratulations to all the winners!

The voting is now open for the latest round of the DSTA's, meaning it's time for you to cast your vote to decide the winners.

Please vote here https://siye.co.uk/trinkets.php and I'll be back to announce the winners in one week on 20th July.

The judges have had a difficult task, but the results are now in and the winners are as follows -

Best Overall

• The Library by Kezzabear

Most Humorous

• Irretitus Armor by Jeograph

Most Unexpected

• The Unexpected Detention by Forge2

The People's Choice Award

• = The Unexpected Detention by Forge2
• = Irretitus Armor by Jeograph

A huge thank you to everyone who entered and to our fantastic judges AM, ADM, SR.

Don't forget to keep an eye out for the next challenge which will be announced within the next week!

The Detention Challenge is now closed.  We have a good crop of entries for the challenge this time, with six stories which can all be found here.

However, while the judges to choose the winners of the categories for Best Overall, Most Humorous, and Most Unexpected, it's your turn to choose the winner of the People's Choice Award.

Please vote here (you must be logged in to vote) - https://siye.co.uk/trinkets.php?peopleschoice=Y 

The winners will be announced on 15th June.

Thanks you to everyone who voted and congratulations to the winners, I can now announce that the results are as follows -

Best Comedy
• Winner: Irretitus Amor by Jeograph
• Honourable Mention: The Power Within by Jorgie

Best Drama
• Winner: Harry Potter and the Ritual of Love's Memory by Forge2
• Honourable Mention: Irretitus Amor by Jeograph

Best Romance
• Winner: Irretitus Amor by Jeograph 
• Honourable Mention: Even Evil Plans Can Have A Happy Ending by Gin110881

Best One-Shot
• Winner: The Unexpected Detention by Forge2
• Honourable Mention: Surrender by GreenhouseThree

Best New Story
• Winner: The Library by Kezzabear
• Honourable Mention: Irretitus Amor by Jeograph

It's time for the latest round of Trinkets and it's down to you to undertake the difficult task of deciding the winners.

Please vote here (you must be logged in to vote) - https://siye.co.uk/trinkets.php

The winners will be annouced in one week on 16th May.

Apologies for my tardiness!  The votes have now been cast and the results are as follows -

Best Comedy
• Winner: What Color is My Tongue by harrystwin
• Honourable Mention: Flour, Butter, Sugar, Salt by GreenhouseThree 

Best Drama
• Winner: Through Shadows by hp_fangal 
• Honourable Mention: Harry Potter and the Heart of the Hero by Jeograph 
Best Romance
• Winner: Harry Potter and the Ritual of Love's Memory by Forge2 
• Honourable Mention: Career Advice (Revisited) by GreenhouseThree

Best One-Shot
• Winner: A Proposal Among Family by AnHPsuperfan
• Honourable Mention: What Color is My Tongue by harrystwin1

Best Completed
• Winner: Bereft by weirdweasley

Best New Story
• Winner: Like Circles on Water by GreenhouseThree

Congratulations to all the winners and thank you to every one who voted.  The nominations are now open for the next round.

Albeit later than planned the voting is now open for the latest round of the Dumbledore Silver Trinket Awards.

Please vote here (you must be logged in to vote) - https://siye.co.uk/trinkets.php

The winners will be announced in one week on 22nd March.

Harry and Ginny end up in detention together - what on earth could happen?

Why did they end up in detention?  Are they surprised to find themselves in the same detention, or did they end up there together?  The choice is yours!

The categories for judging are Best Overall, Most Humorous, Most Unexpected, and the People's Choice Award.

All stories must be submitted under The Detention Challenge (2023-1) subcategory of the SIYE challenges by midnight SIYE time 31st May.  All multi-chaptered stories should be completed, or at least satisfy the challenge sufficiently in the posted chapters.

If anyone has any questions then just either PM me or email me.

Thanks to Gin110881 for the idea and thanks to everyone else who has sent me suggestions - look out for yours next time!

P.S. I'll be updating the Trinkets in the next day or so.

UPDATE -- You've all been very generous. Thank you.

UPDATE -- LINK FIXED

UPDATE -- PayPal is giving us trouble. We are working on it.

It has long been SIYE's tradition to forego obnoxious advertising and pay for the domain and the hosting with donations provided by patrons like you. The time for SIYE to pay its annual hosting bill is upon us. If any of you happen to be rolling in dough or have some extra cash that needs a home, please consider forwarding some money our way so that we can continue to keep the archive online. We prefer to collect via PayPal. The link can be found under EXTRAS > DONATE TO THE SITE. Thank you for your consideration and support and for the generosity of those who have kept SIYE afloat these many years. 

The SIYE challenges are always fun and there will be a new one announced in February.  In the meantime I'm open to suggestions for this challenge and future ones.  Just send me a message, leave a comment, or email me at hannah_ward_1992@hotmail.com and we could be seeing your idea as the next challenge!

So put your thinking hats on!

Happy new year!  Thank you to everyone who has participated on the site in the last year, we've had some wonderful stories written, so now it's time to announce the winners of the annual DSTA's which are as follows -

Best Comedy
• Winner: The Masked Ball by HarryGinnyDestiny

Best Drama
• Winner: Through Shadows by hp_fangal

Best Romance
• Winner: The One With Ginny's Boyfriend by Kezzabear

Best One-Shot
• Winner: Bill Weasley’s Sunday Mission by AnHPsuperfan

Best Completed
• Winner: I'd Rather Fall in Chocolate by Kezzabear 

Best New Story
• Winner: Taken by _kb_ 

Don't forget to nominate your favourites for the next round!

There were some fabulous stories once again, and now I can announce the winners of this round of Trinkets as follows - 

Best Comedy
• Winner: The Masked Ball by HarryGinnyDestiny
• Honourable Mention: The Power Within by Jorgie

Best Drama
• Winner: Harry Potter and the Ritual of Love's Memory by Forge2
• Honourable Mention: The Power Within by Jorgie

Best Romance
• Winner: The Space Between by YelloWitchGrl
• Honourable Mention: Harry Potter and the Ritual of Love's Memory by Forge2

Best One-Shot
• Winner: Happy Halloween by Pottermum
• Honourable Mention: Standard Operating Procedure by GreenhouseThree

Best New Story
• Winner: Harry Potter and the Thief of Souls by Archimedes
• Honourable Mention: Harry Potter and the Velvet Room by FavChanger

Congratulations to all the winners. I've now opened the annual polls so please vote here (you must be logged in to vote)-

https://siye.co.uk/trinkets.php

I'll announce the winners on New Year's Day, but in the meantime I hope everyone has a fantastic Christmas!

It's time for you to wave your wand and cast your votes for the latest round of trinkets.

Please vote here (you must be logged in to vote) - https://siye.co.uk/trinkets.php

I'll be back on Christmas Eve to announce the winners.

We had some excellent entries in what is always a fun challenge.  The judges had a tough task ahead of them, but the winners can now be announced as follows -

Best Overall - "Weasley duo should never become one." by Sasha

Most Humorous - "Sirius: Sometimes I think in barks." by berriesnlighters

Most Serious - "Phoenix perch for sale.  One owner." by MyGinevra

Most Unexpected - "Technically we've all seen McGonagall naked." by demonclownbaby

Honorable Mentions -

"I don't want to die, I..." by Sasha

"'Obliviate!' And George forgot his twin." by demonclownbaby

Huge thank you to everyone who took part and to our judges as without them there wouldn't be a challenge - AM, MS, LG, MM

There were plenty of stories to choose from, but the votes have been cast and counted and the results are as follows - 

Best Comedy
• Winner: Bill Weasley’s Sunday Mission by AnHPsuperfan
• Honourable Mention: I'd Rather Fall in Chocolate by Kezzabear

Best Drama
• Winner: Harry Potter and the Heart of the Hero by Jeograph
• Honourable Mention: The Space Between by YelloWitchGrl 

Best Romance
• Winner: The One With Ginny's Boyfriend by Kezzabear
• Honourable Mention: A Sovereign Summer by DukeBrymin

Best One-Shot
• Winner: Bill Weasley’s Sunday Mission by AnHPsuperfan
• Honourable Mention: Family Tales by izzyclara

Best Completed
• Winner: I'd Rather Fall in Chocolate by Kezzabear
• Honourable Mention: The One With Ginny's Boyfriend by Kezzabear 

Best New Story
• Winner: Taken by _kb_ 
• Honourable Mention: Harry Potter and the Ritual of Love's Memory by Forge2 

Congratulations to all the winners.  Keep an eye out for the challenge results which will be posted later on tonight.

I bit later than planned, but the voting is now open for the latest round of Trinkets.

Please vote here (you must be logged in to vote) - https://siye.co.uk/trinkets.php

I will announce the winners in one week on 26th October

We have some excellent entries for the Hemmingway Six Challenge and now it's time for our judges to take on the tough job of deciding the winners.  There's no People's Choice Award for this one so results shall be posted shortly.

The votes have been cast and the results are now in for the Birthday Challenge.

Most Romantic - Twenty-Five Years Later by sapphire200182 

Most Unexpected - I'll be back by RMWB

People's Choice Award - Twenty-Five Years Later by sapphire200182 

Best Overall - Twenty-Five Years Later by sapphire200182 

Congratulations to both authors on their well deserved wins and a big thank you to the judges - AM, MS, SR.

Don't forget to have a go at the Hemingway Six Challenge which closes next month - all you need is six little words!

I bit later than planned, but the Birthday Challenge is now closed. We have two excellent stories entered and it is now time for the judges to decide the winners.  It is also time for you to do your part by choosing the winner of the People's Choice Award.  Please vote here (you must be logged in to vote) - https://siye.co.uk/trinkets.php?peopleschoice=Y 

The winners will be announced on 23rd September

In the meantime, don't forget about the Hemingway Six challenge which is just a bit of fun.  Anyone can have a go, just email me your entries (hannah_ward_1992@hotmaill.com)

Edit - current submissions can be found here

"Victory had never been so terrible."

"Camera: worn, singed, reliable.  Needs photographer."

Our most popular challenge to date has been the Hemingway Six challenge which has been run twice before - in 2008 and 2015 - so we thought we'd bring it back for a third time as an extra challenge for SIYE's birthday month.  The above two were the overall winners of the previous challenges.

Therefore, your challenge is to write a story with exactly six words - no more and no copies of previous entries.  All entries are to be submitted by email to me at - hannah_ward_1992@hotmail.com with the subject titled SIYE challenge.  You can enter as many times as you like with as many entries in each email.

All entries must be submitted in the format: "six words" by "penname"

All entries are to be submitted by midnight 1st October

The categories for judging are Best Overall, Most Humorous, Most Serious, and Most Unexpected.

To give you some inspiration, the previous challenges can be found here and here

Have fun!

P.S. Don't forget about the Birthday Challenge which closes next month!

Dear Ginny, we wish you all the best for your birthday. As we found out, Harry has a surprise for you, and we hope you enjoy it. Harry is already very excited. Have a nice party!

The votes have been cast and tallied and I can now announce that the winners of the June-July 2022 DSTA's are as follows -

Best Drama
• Winner: The Space Between by YelloWitchGrl
• Honourable Mention: Moody's Blues by gryffins_door

Best Romance
• Winner: The Hidden Path by harrystwin1
• Honourable Mention: Moody's Blues by gryffins_door

Best One-Shot
• Winner: Remember the Lights by TheHallowsInMe31

Best Completed
• Winner: Old Love by TheHallowsInMe31
• Honourable Mention: The Hidden Path by harrystwin1

Nominations are back open again for the next round.  Also keep your eyes peeled for an exciting announcement in the coming days about an extra challenge in honour of SIYE's birthday.  I'll give you a hint - it's been run twice before and was our most popular one (oh and stories are quick to write and you can enter as many times as you like!)

Today is a special day in the history of SIYE. Exactly 20 years ago, on August 3rd, 2002, SIYE went online.

Even if the times for Harry Potter fanfiction have become a bit quieter, we are proud to continue to offer our beloved couple a platform here after so many years, a platform maintained by a few volunteers in their spare time.

We would like to thank all writers and readers who keep the side alive.

Let's hope for many more years with Harry and Ginny around.

It's time for you to wave your wand and cast the deciding vote to choose the winner of the June-July DSTA's.  Unfortunately there are no stories in the best comedy and best new story category, but there are still plenty to choose from in the other categories.

I'll be back in one week on 7th August to announce the winners.

Please vote here (you must be logged in to vote) - https://siye.co.uk/trinkets.php

Today, as every year, on July 31, we celebrate two special birthdays. Dear Joanne, dear Harry, we wish you all the best, good luck and health, and your every wish comes true.

The two celebrate their birthdays with their families in an undisclosed location to keep the nosy reporters of the daily prophet away.

2022 is a landmark year for SIYE and August 3rd marks the site's 20th birthday.  Therefore, to mark the occassion the next challenge is going to be the birthday challenge.  Your challenge is to write a story about Harry's (or Ginny's) birthday.  The choice is entirely yours as to when it is set and what happens.

The categories for judging are the People's Choice Award, Most Unexpected, Most Romantic, and Best Overall.

All stories must be submitted under The Birthday Challenge (2022-2) subcategory of the SIYE challenges by midnight SIYE time 1st September.  All multi-chaptered stories should be completed, or at least satisfy the challenge sufficiently in the posted chapters.

If anyone has any questions then just either PM me or email me.

The votes have been counted and the results are in for the April-May DSTA's.  Congratulations to all the winners, the results are as follows -

Best Comedy
• Winner: Enough is Enough by Gin110881
• Honourable Mention: The Art of Pranking by gryffins_door

Best Drama
• Winner: Through Shadows by hp_fangal
• Honourable Mention: Old Love by TheHallowsInMe31

Best Romance
• Winner: Black & Red by CharmHazel
• Honourable Mention: A Timeless Prank by Ironhidensh

Best One-Shot
• Winner: Service by GryffindorHealer
• Honourable Mention: Enough is Enough by Gin110881

Best New Story
• Winner: The Art of Pranking by gryffins_door
• Honourable Mention: Old Love by TheHallowsInMe31

Nominations are now open for the next round so don't forget to add your favourites.

We have some excellent stories nominated once again (albeit no stories for the Best Completed category) so now it's your turn to decide the winners,

Please vote here (you must be logged in to vote). https://siye.co.uk/trinkets.php

The winners will be announced on 7th June

The votes have been cast and the winners of the Prank Wars Challenge are as follows -

Most Unexpected - The Art of Pranking by gryffins_door

Most Humorous - Enough is Enough by Gin110881

Best Overall - The Art of Pranking by gryffins_door

People's Choice Award - (Tie) The Art of Pranking by gryffins_door, Enough is Enough by Gin110881, A Timeless Prank by Ironhidensh

A huge thank you to everyone for taking part and to our judges - AM, SR, LG, LM

I'll be back in the next few days to announce the new challenge so keep your eyes peeled!

The Prank Wars challenge is now closed and we have three stories submitted which can be found here 

So while our judges are determining the winners of Best Overall, Most Humourous and Most Unexpected, it's your turn to decide the winner of the People's Choice Award.  Please vote here (you must be logged in to vote) -

https://siye.co.uk/trinkets.php?peopleschoice=Y 

The winners will be announced 15th May.

So far we have three wonderful stories entered for the challenge.  It's supposed to close tomorrow, but I'm going to allow a few extra days for any last minute submissions.  Therefore, the challange will now close midnight 3rd May.

Also, if anyone would like to become a judge for this round or for future challenges then please either PM or email me (hannah_ward_1992@hotmail.com).

The votes have been cast and the results for this round of trinket awards are as follows -

Best Comedy
• Winner: Lumiere over me by AnHPsuperfan
• Honourable Mention: The New Normal by Pottermum

Best Drama
• Winner: The Winding Road by NotAWriter
• Honourable Mention: Moody's Blues by gryffins_door

Best Romance
• Winner: Harry Potter and the Secrets of the Chamber by Gin110881
• Honourable Mention: The Space Between by YelloWitchGrl

Best One-Shot
• Winner: Stay Next to Me by Pottermum
• Honourable Mention: Say Farewell by harrystwin1

Best Completed
• Winner: Harry Potter and the Secrets of the Chamber by Gin110881
• Honourable Mention: The Winding Road by NotAWriter

Best New Story
• Winner: Crucio VS Sectumsempra by millie
• Honourable Mention: The Hidden Path by harrystwin1

Huge congratulations to all the authors and thank you to everyone who took the tme to vote.  The nominations are now open for the next round.

P.S. Keep an eye out for a challenge update in the next day or two.

Some fantastic stories have been nominated so now it's time for you to cast your vote.

Please vote here (you must be logged in to vote) - http://siye.co.uk/trinkets.php

I will be back to announce the winners on 10th April.

To start us off with the challenges again I thought we'd see the return of an old favourite - the prank war challenge.  Fred and George have been getting on everyones nerves with their pranks, so Harry and Ginny decide to team up to teach them a lesson.  Your challenge is to write a story telling us how they go about it.

All stories must be submitted under the Prank Wars Challenge (2022-1) subcategory by midnight SIYE time on 1st May. If anyone has any questions then just ask.

The categories for judging at Best Overall, Most Unexpected, Most Humerous, and the People's Choice Award.  Good luck!

Trinket Update

The trinkets are now working again, so don't forget to nominate your favourites and I'll be back next month to open the voting round.

UPDATE: Thank you for your generosity!

It has long been SIYE's tradition to forego obnoxious advertising and pay for the domain and the hosting with donations provided by patrons like you. The time for SIYE to pay its annual hosting bill is upon us. If any of you happen to be rolling in dough or have some extra cash that needs a home, please consider forwarding some money our way so that we can continue to keep the archive online. We prefer to collect via PayPal. The link can be found under EXTRAS > DONATE TO THE SITE. Thank you for your consideration and support and for the generosity of those who have kept SIYE afloat these many years. 

The site issues have now been fixed and I'll be posting an update in the next few days about the comeback of the Trinkets and the Challenges

It's come to our attention that some people are experiencing difficulties logging into their account or resetting their password.  If you're having any trouble then please email me at - hannah_ward_1992@hotmail.com or contact me on reddit or discord if you prefer - ginnyweasley777 and I can fix it.  Thanks

Update (21/10/31)

It looks like I've found a workaround for the occasional problem with the wrong update date. With the other problems, I still have to ask for patience. 

Gin110881

Unfortunately, we have not been able yet to fix the bug with the display of recently updated stories. Some stories don't show up in the 'most recent' category. 

Please note that a new chapter has just been uploaded for 

In the Days That Followed By CharmHazel.

edit 21/09/06:  The Space Between By YelloWitchGrl

edit 21/09/10: Black & Red By CharmHazel

We apologize for the inconvenience. 

Gin110881. 

Today Ginny is celebrating her 29th birthday ... for the 11th time, and we wish her all the best. 

With the students of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry on holiday, Harry managed to rent the Quidditch Pitch for the birthday party. The festive dinner with all her friends and family takes place in the Great Hall.

19 years ago, on August 3, in 2002, Siye went online.

Nineteen years is an eternity in the age of the internet, a time when many other fanfiction sites were very popular but sadly disappeared again. Therefore we are glad that this little place in the big world of fanfiction still exists after all the time. 

We would like to thank everyone who launched this website and helped to keep it working over so many years. Special thanks, of course, to all authors and readers whose love for our favourite couple keeps the page alive. Let's hope for many more years full of entertaining stories about the life of our favourite couple.

We here at Sink Into Your Eyes would like to wish J.K. Rowling, as well as Harry Potter, a very happy birthday.

Harry let us know that he will celebrate his 41st birthday only with close family members, as the big birthday party of the year will take place in about two weeks, and he wants his beloved wife to get the attention she deserves. 

Follwing on from Gin110881's post about a problem with the recently updated list, we've also identified a problem with the trinket nominations where it seems that stories are not getting nominated when user's click on it.  Therefore, as I would usually close this round of trinkets about now, I'm going to leave them open until we've fixed the problem.  I'll post again once the problems are fixed.

Due to a yet unknown bug, some recently updated stories are not being provided with the correct update date and therefore not in the correct order in the "Most Recent" section.

The updated stories can be found here:

Black & Red by CharmHazel

The Space Between By YelloWitchGrl

edit (July 25): Through Shadows By hp_fangal

edit (july 31): new update of Through Shadows  !!!!

edit (August 7) new update of Through Shadows !!!

Please, let us know if any other stories are affected by the bug. We are working on the problem.

We had some fantastic stories on offer, but the results are now in and the judges have decided that the winners are as follows -

Winner of Best Overall and the People's Choice Award

 Who Is Ginny Weasley Dating? by sapphire200182 

Winner of Most Humerous

The One With Ginny's Boyfriend by Kezzabear 

Winner of Most Unexpected

When the Family Finds Out by Ironhidensh 

Thank you to everyone who took part and thank you to the judges AM, MS, MJ, SR, LG

Make sure you keep an eye out for the next challenge which will be posted within the next week.

Well, it's that time again - we have six wonderful stories entered for this challenge and now it's time for the judges to decide their winners and for you to decide the winner of the People's Choice Award.  Please vote here (you must be logged in to vote) -

http://siye.co.uk/trinkets.php?peopleschoice=Y

I will be back on 1st July to announce the winners.

I haven't decided what the next challenge will be yet, so if you have an idea you want to put forward then now is the chance to do it. :)

It was certainly a close run thing in a few of the categories, but the results are now in.  The winners are as follows -

Best Comedy
• Winner: Who Is Ginny Weasley Dating? by sapphire200182
• Honourable Mention: Molly’s Troubles by Ironhidensh 

Best Drama
• Winner: Through Shadows by hp_fangal
• Honourable Mention: Manipulations to War by Mutt N Feathers 

Best Romance
• Winner: The Weasley Perspective by CharmHazel
• Honourable Mention: I Never Promised You a Rose Garden by melindaleo

Best One-Shot
• Winner: I Never Promised You a Rose Garden by melindaleo 
• Honourable Mention: Just Loved by hp_fangal

Best Completed
• Winner: The Weasley Perspective by CharmHazel 
• Honourable Mention: The Lost Year by _kb_

Best New Story
• Winner: Dreaming a Life by GryffindorHealer
• Honourable Mention: Fallin' All In You by StarlingFlight

Congratulations to all the winners, there's some excellent stories there.  Nominations are now open for the next round and don't forget the challenge closes in a couple of weeks too.

Just a reminder that there is now a little under a month left for this challenge which closes on 15th June

Your challenge is to write a story telling us how the rest of the Weasley's found out about Harry and Ginny's relationship and what their reactions are.  The story can be set anytime and it can be any or all of the Weasley's who find out.  Categories are Best Overall, Most Unexpect, Most Humourous, and People's Choice.  Good luck!

Voting is now open for the next round of trinkets.  Please vote here -

http://siye.co.uk/trinkets.php  (you must be logged in to vote)

and I will be back on 30th May to announce the winners.

The results are in for the February - March Dumbledore Silver Trinket Awards and the winners are as follows -

Best Comedy
• Winner: undercover by lazyweekendmornings
• Honourable Mention: Twenty Four Years Later by LordCroussette ]

Best Drama
• Winner: Manipulations to War by Mutt N Feathers 
• Honourable Mention: Contagion by melindaleo 

Best Romance
• Winner: Black & Red by CharmHazel
• Honourable Mention: The Weasley Perspective by CharmHazel

Best One-Shot
• Winner: Nothing Holding Me Back by Celtics534 
• Honourable Mention: Twenty Four Years Later by LordCroussette 

Best Completed
• Winner: Contagion by melindaleo 
• Honourable Mention: When Ginny and Harry Eloped-- Sort Of by GryffindorHealer 

Best New Story
• Winner: The Lost Year by _kb_ 
• Honourable Mention: When Ginny and Harry Eloped-- Sort Of by GryffindorHealer

Congratulations to all the winners and honourable mentions, and don't forget to nominate your favourites for the next round.

The voting is now open for the February - March DSTA's.  Please vote here (you must be logged in to vote) -

http://siye.co.uk/trinkets.php 

I will be back on 31st March to announce the winners.

Just how did the rest of Weasley's find out about Harry and Ginny's relationship, and what were their reactions?  Your challenge is to tell us.

Stories can be set anytime and can be any or all of the Weasley's finding out.  The categories for judging are Best Overall, Most Humerous, Most Unexpected, and the People's Choice Award.  All stories must be completed and submitted in the One Where Everyone Finds Out challenge category by midnight SIYE time 15th June, results will be announced 1st July.

Thanks to HarryGinnyDestiny for the challenge suggestion.

We've had some fantastic stories in the last year and the winners of the annual DSTA's are as follows -

Best Comedy
• Winner: I'd Rather Fall in Chocolate by Kezzabear

Best Drama
• Winner: Contagion by melindaleo

Best Romance
• Winner: Covert Love by Celtics534

Best One-Shot
• Winner: Meeting The Family by jojo99

Best Completed
• Winner: steady as the stars by lazyweekendmornings

Best New Story
• Winner: Manipulations to War by Mutt N Feathers

Congratulations to all the winners.   Nominations are now open for the next round of trinkets so don't forget to nominate your favourites.  I'll be back later to announce the new challenge, then I think I'm all caught up! :)

The votes have been counted and the results of the December - January DSTA's are as follows -

Best Comedy
• Winner: The Masked Ball by HarryGinnyDestiny
• Honourable Mention: I do if you do too by FullCollectionFluff

Best Drama
• Winner: Through Shadows by hp_fangal
• Honourable Mention: The Space Between by YelloWitchGrl

Best Romance
• Winner: The Space Between by YelloWitchGrl
• Honourable Mention: The Masked Ball by HarryGinnyDestiny

Best One-Shot
• Winner: Meeting The Family by jojo99
• Honourable Mention: Overprotective Gits by millie

Best Completed
• Winner: Harry's Second Christmas by Mutt N Feathers 
• Honourable Mention: Framed by MichiganMuggle

Best New Story
• Winner: Manipulations to War by Mutt N Feathers
• Honourable Mention: Through Shadows by hp_fangal

Congratulations to all the winners. The voting is now open for the 2020 Annual Awards. Please vote here - http://siye.co.uk/trinkets.php  (you must be logged in to vote) I will be back in one week (actually one week this time!) on 20th February to announce the winners.

UPDATE: Thank you for your generosity. It always amazes me how much support this website has. If you wished you could have donated but could not do so this month. we do technically accept/collect donations all year. All the best.

It has long been SIYE's tradition to forego obnoxious advertising and pay for the domain and the hosting with donations provided by patrons like you. The time for SIYE to pay its annual hosting bill is approaching. If any of you happen to be rolling in dough or have some extra cash that needs a home, please consider forwarding some money our way so that we can continue to maintain our archive. We prefer to collect via PayPal. The link can be found under EXTRAS > DONATE TO THE SITE. Thank you for your consideration and support.

We had nine excellent stories in this challenge and the judges have now chosen the winners which are as follows -

Best Overall

Meeting The Family by jojo99 

Most Romantic

Meeting The Family by jojo99 

Most Unexpected

Vague Memories by beginningimprovised

People's Choice Award

I do if you do too by FullCollectionFluff

Well done to all the winners and thank you to everyone who took part.  Thanks also to the judges AM, JG, MJ, SR, MM.  I will be back in a day or so to announce the next challenge.

The voting is now open for the December - January DSTA's.  Please vote here (you must be logged in to vote) -

http://siye.co.uk/trinkets.php 

I will be back in one week on 7th February to announce the winners.  (And back tomorrow to announce the challenge winners)

We have a fantastic entry of nine stories for this challenge and while the judges are doing their part it is time for you to decide the winner of the people's choice award.  Please vote here (you must be logged in to vote) -

http://siye.co.uk/trinkets.php?peopleschoice=Y

The results will be announced 1st Feb

Just a reminder to everyone who wants to participate. There are only 4 days left until the submission deadline for the Elopement Challenge, midnight 15th January.

I'd just like to wish everyone a Happy Christmas from all of us at SIYE and to thank everyone for continuing to contribute to the site, long may it continue. I hope everyone has a good new year too.

Some fantastic stories on offer once again and a close run thing for some of the awards.  The votes have been counted and the results are as follows - 

Best Comedy
• Winner: The Flat Above the Wheezes by gliminalspaces
• Honourable Mention: Guessing games by Bellmel

Best Drama
• Winner: Contagion by melindaleo
• Honourable Mention: HP: Unspeakable by _kb_

Best Romance
• Winner: The Flat Above the Wheezes by gliminalspaces
• Honourable Mention: The Forgotten Wizard by CharmHazel

Best One-Shot
• Winner: Aurora by SamWil
• Honourable Mention: Telling Molly by Bellmel

Best Completed
• Winner: A Time for Healing by Arnel
• Honourable Mention: A Thought or Two by Mutt N Feathers

Best New Story
• Winner: HP: Unspeakable by _kb_
• Honourable Mention: The Secrets In-Between Them by Ravenpuff

Congratulations to all the winners.  Nominations are now open again for the next round.

Sometimes time flies by way too fast. At least, that was my thought when I noticed for how long I had neglected the Buried Gems. However, as you can see, I haven't forgotten about them.

The today's Buried Gem is a one-shot written in 2005 and nominated by Melindaleo with the following words: This is the Ginny who lives in my head. Fiery, spunky, but with a complete understanding of the bigger picture. She does what's right over what's easy, much like Harry does. I loved the glimpses of their shared humor, something I always noticed in canon, and I was so thrilled to read something after HBP that didn't have Ginny screeching at Harry.  They're both trying to suppress their own feelings to do what's right, not make it harder on the other, but their feelings just won't be contained. It's just a feel good story.

The Buried Gem 08-2020 is Something Gold by Gowdie.

Summary:  Ginny couldn't believe it. Here she was, walking down the aisle in this pale-gold, puffy-sleeved monstrosity, an absolute wreck of nerves at the idea of seeing him again for the first time, having no idea how to behave, and the git was laughing at her. If she had her wand she might hex him. Instead Ginny did the only thing she could, she rolled her eyes, blushed fiercely and started laughing with him.

Enjoy reading!

If you want to nominate your favourite story for the Buried Gems, just leave a comment here or send me a PM. The nominated stories should have been published on SIYE in 2012 or earlier, and they should be completed. As always, it would be nice if you could add a few lines explaining why you like this story.

For an overview of all Buried Gems we had so far, please follow this link.

The voting is now open for the October - November Trinkets.  I will be back on 30th November to announce the winners.  Please vote here (you must be logged in to vote) - 

http://siye.co.uk/trinkets.php 

The latest challenge is for you to write a story where Harry and Ginny elope.  Perhaps they marry secretly in the war, perhaps to remove the Trace from Ginny, or maybe they just don't want the fuss of a big wedding and just want to get married.  The choice is yours.

The categories for judging are Best Overall, Most Romantic, Most Unexpected, and the People's Choice Award.  All stories should be submitted by midnight 15th January and the winners will be announced 1st February.  Multi chaptered stories must be completed and all stories should be submitted under the Elopement Challenge (2020-3) challenge sub-category.

A bit later than expected but we now have the results of the challenge.  A bumper crop of entries certainly made it difficult for the judges but the winners are as follows - 

Best Overall

Hearts' Desire by Kezzabear

Most Romantic

Twenty-One by SamWil 

Most Unexpected

Imagined by Gryffinclaw_31

People's Choice Award

Hearts' Desire by Kezzabear

Well done to all the winners and thank you to every one who has taken part and also to the judges AM, SM, JG, MS, SR.  I will be back in a few days with the new challenge.

First of all, I'm sorry for the delay posting the results of the challenge - some of the judges have needed more time - but I expect to announce the winners within the next day.

Back to the trinkets - some fantastic stories on offer once again, congratulation to you all.  The winners of the latest round of trinkets is as follows-

Best Comedy
• Winner: Can't Fight This Feeling by Celtics534
• Honourable Mention: I'd Rather Fall in Chocolate by Kezzabear

Best Drama
• Winner: Brontide by SamWil
• Honourable Mention: A Thought or Two by Mutt N Feathers

Best Romance
• Winner: Path Diverged II by hp_fangal
• Honourable Mention: A Time for Healing by Arnel

Best One-Shot
• Winner: Discomposure by SamWil
• Honourable Mention: Spring Cleaning by harrystwin1

Best Completed
• Winner: I Saw Her Standing There by Gin110881
• Honourable Mention: A Week at the Burrow by beginningimprovised

Best New Story
• Winner: The Flat Above the Wheezes by gliminalspaces
• Honourable Mention: The Hunter by Gryffinclaw_31

Don't forget to nominate your favourites for the next round!

The nominations have now closed for the August - September DSTA's (thanks Gin for reminding me!).  Please vote for your favourites here -

http://siye.co.uk/trinkets.php  (you must be logged in to vote)

I will be back on 7th October  to announce the winners.

We have twelve!! fantastic entries for this challenge and now it's time for our judges to get to work to determine the winners of the Best Overall, Most Romantic, and Most Unexpected categories.  Meanwhile, you have the job of choosing the winner of the People's Choice Award.  Please vote here -

http://siye.co.uk/trinkets.php?peopleschoice=Y (you must be logged in to vote) and I will be back around the 1st October to announce the winners and the next challenge.

Just how did Harry and Ginny say "I love you" for the first time - was it a blurt it out spur of the moment thing, or was it romantic?  Who said it first - did Harry sieze the day like when he kissed her for the first time, or did Ginny make the first move?  You have a little under 4 weeks left to tell us about it as the challenge closes midnight 15th September.

Today Ginny is celebrating her 39th birthday, and we wish her all the best.

Her birthday party takes place on the makeshift Quidditch pitch at the Burrow. As a birthday surprise for his beloved wife, Harry has organized a Quidditch match where the Weasley siblings and their spouses play against the Weasley grandchildren.

Some excellent stories once again and the results of the latest round of DSTA's are as follows -

Best Comedy
• Winner: I'd Rather Fall in Chocolate by Kezzabear
• Honourable Mention: The Demise of Walburga Black by SamWil 

Best Drama
• Winner: Path Diverged II by hp_fangal 
• Honourable Mention: Contagion by melindaleo 

Best Romance
• Winner: A Time for Healing by Arnel 
• Honourable Mention: Path Diverged II by hp_fangal 

Best One-Shot
• Winner: The Demise of Walburga Black by SamWil 
• Honourable Mention: That red dress by AnHPsuperfan 

Best Completed
• Winner: steady as the stars by lazyweekendmornings 
• Honourable Mention: Cheating Death by SamWil 

Best New Story
• Winner: A Time for Healing by Arnel 
• Honourable Mention: Contagion by melindaleo

Congratulations to all the winners and don't forget to nominate your favourites for the next round!

We here at Sink Into Your Eyes would like to wish J.K. Rowling, as well as Harry Potter himself, a very happy birthday. 

Due to the current situation (covid-19), Harry had to cancelled the big party for his 40th birthday, to which he had invited all his friends. The birthday party with his family takes place in an unknown location, presumably the Burrow.

The Buried Gem of July is has been written in 2005 for the Hold Fast to Dreams Challenge on Silverwhisps. 

It is Career Advice by Strider.

Summary: Harry and Ginny are at the top of their games, but something's missing. What would they sacrifice to make their dreams come true?

 It's a story about Harry and Ginny wanting the dreams of the other to come true, and it takes them a while to realize that what the other is really dreaming of is something completely different.

If you like this story, make sure to give Strider's other stories a try. You can find them on his user profile page.

If you want to nominate your favourite story for the Buried Gems, just leave a comment here or send an email to gin110881@yahoo.com. The nominated stories should have been published on SIYE in 2012 or earlier, and they should be completed. As always, it would be nice if you could tell us with a few lines what you liked best about the story and why you recommend it.

For an overview of all Buried Gems we had so far, please follow this link.

Enjoy reading!

The voting is now open for the June - July DSTA's.  Please vote here 

http://siye.co.uk/trinkets.php (You must be logged in to vote)

I will be back on Harry's birthday to announce the winners.

This month's Buried Gem was nominated by DannyS717. It's been written by someone who's pretty well know for some of his other, much longer stories. 

The today's Buried Gem is the Ages trilogy by Sovran, consisting of the stories Ages, Months, and Years.

Summary: In a few moments and a few lifetimes, Harry and Ginny decide who they are and who they will not be.

According to DannyS717, Ages was one of the most unique takes on the 'twins time travel' challenge, with a subtle mystery that's not made explicit in the story. Months is a solid follow-up, showing how Harry and Ginny respond in the immediate aftermath and the start of their relationship. The third story, Years, beautifully deals with Harry and Ginny addressing how different the alternate universe the 'twins' came from was.

If you want to nominate your favourite story for the Buried Gems, just leave a comment here or send an email to gin110881@yahoo.com. The nominated stories should have been published on SIYE in 2012 or earlier, and they should be completed. As always, it would be nice if you could tell us with a few lines what you liked best about the story and why you recommend it.

For an overview of all Buried Gems we had so far, please follow this link.

Enjoy reading!

This challenge sees the return of an old favourite.  So little is told of Harry and Ginny's relationship in the books after their first kiss, so the question that I have for you is just when did they first say those three little words?

The categories for judging are Best Overall, Most Romantic, Most Unexpected, and the People's Choice Award.  All stories should be submitted by midnight 15th September and the winners will be announced on 1st October.

Multi chaptered stories must be completed and all stories should be submitted under the 2020-2 challenge sub-category.

We had two stories submitted for the Easter Holidays challenge and the judges have decided that the winner of the Most Romantic, Most Humourous, and Best Overall is Would You Be My Little Quarantine by Celtics534 

The winner of the People's Choice Award is a tie between the two stories - Would You Be My Little Quarantine by Celtics534  and A Happy Easter by Sasha

Congratulations to both authors and thank you to the judges AM, JG, SM and thank you to everyone who voted in the People's Choice.  I'll be back in a few days to announce the next challenge.

The votes have been counted and the latest DSTA winners are as follows -

Best Comedy
• Winner: Firewhisky Kisses by snarky24
• Honourable Mention: Classified by Celtics534

Best Drama
• Winner: The Forgotten Wizard by CharmHazel 
• Honourable Mention: Path Diverged II by hp_fangal 

Best Romance
• Winner: The Forgotten Wizard by CharmHazel
• Honourable Mention: The Space Between by YelloWitchGrl

Best One-Shot
• Winner: Would You Be My Little Quarantine by Celtics534
• Honourable Mention: A Potter and a Lupin by SamWil 

Best Completed
• Winner: Twelve Hours by Gin110881 
• Honourable Mention: Teddy's Speech by Gryffinclaw_31 

Best New Story
• Winner: Teddy's Speech by Gryffinclaw_31
• Honourable Mention: Nexus by GryffindorHealer 

Congratulations to all the winners and don't forget to nominate your favourites for the next round!

The Buried Gem of the month of May was written by an author who is praised for her excellent beta'ing in what feels like every other story I read.

The Buried Gem 05-2020 is For Love of Family by Arnel

Summary: A freak accident changes Auror Harry Potter’s life and tests the love of those around him.

The story is part of Arnel's Family series. If you enjoyed the story, make sure to read the other stories of the series as well.

If you want to nominate your favourite story for the Buried Gems, just leave a comment or send an email to gin110881@yahoo.com. The nominated stories should have been published on SIYE in 2012 or earlier, and they should be completed. As always, it would be nice if you could tell us with a few lines what you liked best about the story and why you recommend it.

For an overview of all Buried Gems we had so far, please follow this link.

Enjoy reading!

The voting is now open for the April - May trinkets.  Some excellent stories on offer.  I will be back on 31st May to announce the winners.

Voting.

***Edit - the People's Choice poll is now open, silly me forgot, thanks to Gin for pointing it out!***

We have two stories submitted for the Easter Holiday challenge.  The stories can be found here.

It's now up tp the judges to decide the winners of Best Overall, Most Romantic, and Most Humourous, while you have the decision of the People's Choice Award.  Please vote here (you must be logged in to vote) -

http://siye.co.uk/trinkets.php?peopleschoice=Y

I will be back on 4th June to announce the winners

***Edit - The challenge will close on 22nd May as I've had word that there is at least one more story being written.***

Massive apology from me for not having posted a reminder about this way before now, but here it is. The challenge is supposed to close on 15th May but I'm happy to extend it a bit if needs be.

Your challenge is to write a story about the Easter holidays for our favourite pairing. It can anything- Hogwarts era or not, the choice is yours.

Suggestions for future challenges are welcomed, as is a discussion on the current format of the challenges. Are we happy with the time frame given and with the more open ended challenge suggestions etc or not?

How time flies, another month is almost over and the time has come to present you the next Buried Gem. This time, the Buried Gem is an AU version of the second book, telling us a wonderful soul bond story with a concept I've never seen anywhere else.

The Buried Gem 04-2020 is

Furious Angels by Worldmaker

Summary: Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks within his bending sickle's compass come. Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, but bears it out, even to the edge of doom. 

If you want to nominate your favourite story for the Buried Gems, just leave a comment or send an email to gin110881@yahoo.com. The nominated stories should have been published on SIYE in 2012 or earlier, and they should be completed. As always, it would be nice if you could tell us with a few lines what you liked best about the story and why you recommend it.

For an overview of all Buried Gems we had so far, please follow this link.

Enjoy reading!

A couple of days later than planned, but I can now announce the results of the February - March Dumbledore Silver Trinket Awards are as follows - 

Best Comedy
• Winner: The Bartender by lazyweekendmornings
• Honourable Mention: Covert Love by Celtics534

Best Drama
• Winner: Cronus Rising by SamWil
• Honourable Mention: After the Horcrux by Manwe Valarian

Best Romance
• Winner: Covert Love by Celtics534
• Honourable Mention: Milestones by 321jump

Best One-Shot
• Winner: Lucky You by MyGinevra
• Honourable Mention: The Bartender by lazyweekendmornings

Best Completed
• Winner: From the Cupboard to the Castle (and Back Again) by waitingondaisies

Best New Story
• Winner: Covert Love by Celtics534
• Honourable Mention: Cronus Rising by SamWil

Huge well done to you all.  Don't forget to nominate your favourites for the next round!

The third edition of the Buried Gems in 2020 presents you a story written in 2006. It was a hard to decide for me which story by cwarbeck to choose as the todays Buried Gem as they all are gems, but here we go... 

The Buried Gem 03-2020 is:   Getting Over Harry Potter

Summary: When Ginny realises that she is firmly entrenched as Harry’s friend in the strictest, most platonic sense of the word, she is determined to banish any of her own definitely non-platonic sentiments once and for all. She comes up with a plan – an ingenious, infallible, perfect, foolproof plan – but how was it supposed to work if Harry seemed to be everywhere she looked?

Feel free to check out cwarbeck's other stories and let us know what you think.

If you want to nominate your favourite story for the Buried Gems, just leave a comment or send an email to gin110881@yahoo.com. The nominated stories should have been published on SIYE in 2012 or earlier, and they should be completed. As always, it would be nice if you could tell us with a few lines what you liked best about the story and why you recommend it.

For an overview of all Buried Gems we had so far, please follow this link.

Enjoy reading!

Apologies for being a bit late opening the voting, but the world is a bit crazy right now.  I hope everyone is staying safe.

Please vote here - http://www.siye.co.uk/trinkets.php and I will be back on 31st March to announce the winners.

A few days late, but the results of the 2019 annual Trinkets are as follows -

Best Comedy
• Winner: What Really Matters by Bluest Witch

Best Drama
• Winner: Hollow Ash by FloreatCastellum

Best Romance
• Winner: Path Diverged II by hp_fangal

Best One-Shot
• Winner: Hey, You! by Pottermum

Best Completed
• Winner: Hollow Ash by FloreatCastellum

Best New Story
• Winner: A Thought or Two by Mutt N Feathers

Congratulations to the winners, some excellent stories we've had over the last year.  Nominations are open again for the February - March trinkets so don't forget to nominate your favourites!

I'm not sure how deeply buried the today's Buried Gem really is because somehow it's a classic published on a handful of fanfiction sites. However, it's definitely a gem and since it's been written in 2004, it fulfils the requirement of a Buried Gem nomination. Hence, I present you the Buried Gem 02-2020:

The Awakening Power by Sib

Summary: Challenges fill Harry's busy sixth year: growing powers, Snape becomes defense teacher (and Harry's not in the mood for abuse), a new Potions teacher, a girl with a new crush on him, Quidditch, Voldemort, and a certain redheaded girl named Ginny who may help him through it all. What are the goblins up to? Will Ron win Hermione back? And what exactly is Voldemort's diabolical plan to kill Harry and plunge magical society into anarchy? Lots of romance, drama, action and humor! Voted Phoenix Song's Best Novel-Length Story (along with Best Harry and Best Kiss).

Feel free to let us know what you think about these stories!

If you want to nominate your favourite story for the Buried Gems, just leave a comment. The nominated stories should have been published on SIYE in 2012 or earlier, and they should be completed. As always, it would be nice if you could tell us with a few lines what you liked best about the story and why you recommend it.

For an overview of all Buried Gems we had so far, please follow this link.

Enjoy reading!

SECOND UPDATE: Thank you again. We've receive donations over a long period than we usually do.

UPDATE: Thank you to those who donated!

It has long been SIYE's tradition to forego obnoxious advertising and pay for the domain and the hosting with donations provided by patrons like you. The time for SIYE to pay its annual hosting bill is approaching. If any of you happen to be rolling in dough or have some extra dollars that need a home, please consider forwarding some money our way. We prefer to collect via PayPal. The link can be found under EXTRAS > DONATE TO THE SITE. Thank you for your consideration and support.

It's the Easter Holidays and just what are our favourite pair going to get up to?  It's up to you to decide!  Stories can be anything, they don't have to be Hogwarts era if you don't want it to be.

The categories for judging are Best Overall, Most Romantic, Most Humourous, and the People's Choice Award.  All stories should be submitted by midnight 15th May and the winners will be announced on 1st June.

Multi chaptered stories must be completed and all stories should be posted under the 2020-1 challenge sub category.

Ideas for future challenges invited!

We had some fantastic stories on offer again and the results of the voting for the latest trinkets are as follows -

Best Comedy
• Winner: Harry, Baby, Hurry Through the Window Tonight by Celtics534
• Honourable Mention: Fernando de Noronha by CaptainYellow

Best Drama
• Winner: The Forgotten Wizard by CharmHazel
• Honourable Mention: The Space Between by YelloWitchGrl

Best Romance
• Winner: Path Diverged II by hp_fangal
• Honourable Mention: I Saw Her Standing There by Gin110881

Best One-Shot
• Winner: Hey, You! by Pottermum
• Honourable Mention: Fernando de Noronha by CaptainYellow

Best Completed
• Winner: Doom Days by Celtics534
• Honourable Mention: I Saw Her Standing There by Gin110881

Best New Story
• Winner: A Thought or Two by Mutt N Feathers
• Honourable Mention: Pieces of a Soul by MuggleMomma

The voting is now open for the 2019 Annual Awards, please vote here http://www.siye.co.uk/trinkets.php and I will be back on the 10th February to announce the winners.

The voting is now open for the December 2019 - January 2020 DSTA's.  Results will be announced on 30th January, please vote here -

http://www.siye.co.uk/trinkets.php

We had two excellent stories submitted for the challenge and our judges have decided the winners are as follows -

Most Humourous - Harry, Baby, Hurry Through The Window Tonight by Celtics534

Most Romantic - Fernando de Noronha by CaptainYellow

Best Overall - Fernando de Noronha by CaptainYellow

The winner of the People's Choice Award is - Harry, Baby, Hurry Through The Window Tonight by Celtics534

Well done to both authors and thank you to the judges AM, JG, MS, MJ, SR

I'll be back in the next day or two to announce the next challenge.

Just like last year, the first Buried Gem of the year is a story written by St Margarets. The story is the sequel to the wallpaper trilogy, and I recommend to read these three one-shots before you start with today's Buried Gem.

The Buried Gem 01-2020 is Red Is The Heart by St Margarets.

Summary: "In the end, it mattered not that you could not close your mind. It was your heart that saved you." Harry begins to understand the truth of this statement as he learns valuable lessons in love, friendship, and choices during his sixth year. A fluffy H/G tale of adventure. A sequel to the "Wallpaper" trilogy. (Read that first.) 

The Wallpaper trilogy consists out of the following one-shots:

Wallpaper Moments: Harry and Ginny are put to the ultimate relationship test: wallpapering together.

Dragons, Diaries, and Diagon Alley: Harry and Ginny have a chance meeting in Diagon Alley two weeks after the events of "Wallpaper Moments." 

Lucky Me: Harry and Ginny miss the Hogwarts Express.

Feel free to let us know what you think about these stories!

If you want to nominate your favourite story for the Buried Gems, just leave a comment. The nominated stories should have been published on SIYE in 2012 or earlier, and they should be completed. As always, it would be nice if you could tell us with a few lines what you liked best about the story and why you recommend it.

For an overview of all Buried Gems we had so far, please follow this link.

Enjoy reading!

Despite only having two stories submitted for this challenge they are excellent stories none the less and it is now time for the judges to decide the categories of Most Romantic, Most Humerous, and Best Overall while you decide who will be the winner of the People's Choice Award.  The stories can be found here http://siye.co.uk/categories.php?catid=96 and please vote here -

http://siye.co.uk/trinkets.php?peopleschoice=Y

The winners will be announced on 15th January.

Well folks, the fairy is on top of the tree, Celestina Warbeck is warbling in the background, Fred and George are planning something which can only mean one thing - it's Christmas!  Your challenge is to write a story about one of Harry and Ginny's best Christmas' and submit it before the decorations come down in the new year.  Submissions will close midnight 3rd January.  Anything goes for this challenge - another Yule Ball, mistletoe kisses, first Christmas together - the choice is yours!

We still need a topic for the next challenge so please get your suggestions in, and I'm always on the lookout for extra judges so if you fancy giving that a whirl then get in touch via pm, email, or discord (ginnyweasley777), and on that note all that's left for me to do is wish you all Merry Christmas and I hope everyone has a good day tomorrow! :)

The last edition of the Buried Gems of the Year 2019 brings you a story nominated by ellen. She gave the story particularly high marks for a touch of humour, and characters brought to life with decent dialogue, as well as the excellent spelling and grammar.

The Buried Gem 11-2019 is 

Great Expectations by CassandraCross

Summary: A weekend trip to the mysterious Rose Cottage leads to Ginny's second pregnancy and Hermione's first. Join the Potters and Weasleys as they take on “The Next Great Adventure” while they anticipate the births of Albus Potter and Rose Weasley.

If you enjoyed reading this Buried Gem, you might also like CassandraCross' other stories, The Letter and To Hear the Bells Ring, the latter especially fits in the Christmas season.

Feel free to let us know what you think about these stories!

If you want to nominate your favourite story for the Buried Gems, just leave a comment. The nominated stories should have been published on SIYE in 2012 or earlier, and they should be completed. As always, it would be nice if you could tell us with a few lines what you liked best about the story and why you recommend it.

For an overview of all Buried Gems we had so far, please follow this link.

Enjoy reading!

Some thoroughly excellent stories to choose from one again.  The results of the latest round of Trinkets are as follows -

Best Comedy
• Winner: What Really Matters by Bluest Witch
• Honourable Mention: Doom Days by Celtics534

Best Drama
• Winner: The Space Between by YelloWitchGrl
• Honourable Mention: Path Diverged II by hp_fangal

Best Romance
• Winner: all your fumble words by lazyweekendmornings
• Honourable Mention: The Space Between by YelloWitchGrl

Best One-Shot
• Winner: warmth by Mnimi
• Honourable Mention: Holiday Sins by Celtics534

Best Completed
• Winner: What Really Matters by Bluest Witch
• Honourable Mention: all your fumble words by lazyweekendmornings
Best New Story
• Winner: Meanwhile, Back At the Burrow by GryffindorHealer

Nominations are open again for the next round so don't forget to submit your favourite!

Also keep your eyes peeled for a challenge update next week.

I apologise for not getting the Trinkets closed sooner, I've been having a rough time in real life  recently and this completely slipped my mind. The voting is now open though, so please vote here -

http://www.siye.co.uk/trinkets.php

Voting will close on 30th November.

This is just a reminder for all who want to participate in the Christmas Challenge  

You still have 28 days left to submit your story for our Christmas Challenge - and in case you didn't start writing yet - there's still time enough to come up with a nice story about Harry and Ginny's best Christmas memories.

Please note rules for challenge stories:  submissions must be stand-alone stories that are marked as complete by deadline; all stories must be posted under the Christmas Challenge (2019-3) category.

The categories for judging will be Most Romantic, Most Humourous, Best Overall, and the People's Choice Award. 

***Edit - I'm going to leave the challenge open until New Year as I don't think judges will want to be judging over Christmas, so you have a bit longer to submit stories too.  Thanks, ginnyweasley777***

The edition 10-2019 of the SIYE Buried Gems brings you a story that starts at the end of HBP, Losing Each Other by MyGinevra.

Summary: This story follows Harry and Ginny from their parting after Dumbledore's funeral. Much of it is told from Ginny's POV. The first chapter, "Ginny's Mermaid," was originally posted as a one-shot. I have revised it slightly as part of this longer story, but it is essentially the same as it was when I first posted it.

The story was written pre-DH. If you liked Losing Each Other, then I'd recommend reading the 'kind of' sequels The Hogs Head and Ginny's House as well. 'Kind of' sequel because it keeps some elements of Losing Each Other, but instead of creating an alternate universe, it follows canon, including Deathly Hallows. The sequels start during the final battle and describe the start into Harry's and Ginny's life together.

Feel free to let us know what you think about this story!

If you want to nominate your favourite story for the Buried Gems, just leave a comment. The nominated stories should have been published on SIYE in 2012 or earlier, and they should be completed. As always, it would be nice if you could tell us with a few lines what you liked best about the story and why you recommend it.

 Enjoy reading!

Today's edition of Buried Gems brings you a special time-travelling story recommended by Tron with the following words: It's a multi-chapter story that's not too long.  It involves some time travel that fixes a bunch of the problems in the wizarding world in a matter of days.  Harry didn't waste any time.  Great story. 

The Buried Gem 09-2019 is Natural Order, posted by moshpit on SIYE in 2008.

Summary: If you've got a chance to do it over again, why putz around? You know the game, you know the players, and you know the goal. It's time for Double Jeopardy, where the scores can really change.

Feel free to let us know what you think about this story!

If you want to nominate your favourite story for the Buried Gems, just leave a comment. The nominated stories should have been published on SIYE in 2010 or earlier, and they should be completed. As always, it would be nice if you could tell us with a few lines what you liked best about the story and why you recommend it.

For an overview of all Buried Gems we had so far, please follow this link.

 Enjoy reading!

Congratulations to everyone, some extrememly good stories there.  The results are as follows -

Best Comedy
• Winner: Up in the Air by quinn 
• Honourable Mention: Pleasure before Business by Celtics534 

Best Drama
• Winner: Doom Days by Celtics534 
• Honourable Mention: Don't Give Up On Me by HappyHouriFanfic

Best Romance
• Winner: Don't Give Up On Me by HappyHouriFanfic
• Honourable Mention: Doom Days by Celtics534 

Best One-Shot
• Winner: Decades of Cake by Pottermum 
• Honourable Mention: Harry Potter and the First Date by sanidad

Best Completed
• Winner: Up in the Air by quinn 
• Honourable Mention: The Dark Lord's Apprentice by Loveobsession 

Best New Story
• Winner: A Witch In The Shadows by Mnimi
• Honourable Mention: The Art of Being Harry by gryffins_door

Don't forget to nominate your favourites for the next round!

The voting is now open for the latest round of trinkets.  Please vote here -

http://www.siye.co.uk/trinkets.php 

Results will be posted on 30th September

The decorations are up, the gnome is on top of the tree and Christmas is just around the corner.  What do you think are Harry and Ginny's best Christmas memories?  Perhaps there's another Yule Ball, or Harry and Ginny's first Christmas together, and don't forget to watch out for the mistletoe!

The categories for judging will be Most Romantic, Most Humourous, Best Overall, and the People's Choice Award.  All stories should be submitted by midnight 15th December.  Results will be posted 1st January. (submission deadline to possibly be extended so judging will not be over Christmas, will update shortly)

Multi chaptered stories must be completed.  All stories must be posted under the 2019-3 challenge category.

Ideas for future challenges invited!

First of all I'd just like to give a big shout-out to every single author who entered this challenge as the judges have mentioned what a high standard of stories there is, and how difficult it was to judge as each author put their own unique take on the prompt given.  Without further ado I can announce the winners are as follows-

Most Unexpected

The Art of Being Harry by gryffins_door

Most Humourous

Up in the Air by quinn

Best Overall

The Art of Being Harry by gryffins_door

People's Choice Award

We have a three-way tie!

The Art of Being Harry by gryffins_door

Up in the Air by quinn

Ready for Take-off by Gin110881

I would personally like to give an Honorable Mention to Second Chances and First Occasions by Rogan which came extremely close and I was told would have won if there had been a Most Romantic category this time.

Huge thank you to everyone who has taken part, and to the judges for what was definitely a difficult task - AM, JG, MJ, SR

I will be back in the next day or so with the new challenge to keep your eyes peeled!

After the last Buried Gem has been a bit shorter, the 08-2019 edition of the Buried Gems presents you a significantly longer story written in the years 2003/2004. The story is set Post-OotP and belongs to the most reviewed stories on SIYE to date (rank 10).

The Buried Gem 08-2019 is It Happened One Night by SunDevil05.

Summary: Harry and Ginny make a decision that changes their lives... 

If you like the story, you should also read the one-shot companion pieces you can find on SunDevil05's user page.

Since it was a close call, which of SunDevil05's stories would be today's Buried Gem, I also recommend reading the other candidates, Adventures in Courtship and its sequel Adventures as Newlyweds.

Feel free to let us know what you think about SunDevil05's stories!

If you want to nominate your favourite story for the Buried Gems, just leave a comment. The nominated stories should have been published on SIYE in 2010 or earlier, and they should be completed. As always, it would be nice if you could tell us with a few lines what you liked best about the story and why you recommend it.

For an overview of all Buried Gems we had so far, please follow this link.

Enjoy reading!

We had have ten! excellent stories submitted for the challenge and it's now time for our judges to decide on the winners of Best Overall, Most Unexpected, and Most Humourous.  In the mean time, it is down to you to vote for the winner of the People's Choice Award.  The stories can be found here.  The link for voting is -

http://siye.co.uk/trinkets.php?peopleschoice=Y

Results will be posted 5th September.

Now that SIYE is back up and running I will leave the challenge open for submissions until midnight tomorrow 19th August SIYE time.  If anyone needs any longer then please let me know and I can leave it open an extra day.  Thanks

Today is the 11th of August, and our Ginny is celebrating her birthday. I was asked to give you word that the birthday party starts at 6 p.m. in the garden of the Potters in Godric's Hollow, and you're all invited.

There's now only 9 days left to submit your story for the First Time for Everything challenge.  Don't forget that anything goes for this one!  Have fun!

There's a first time for everything, right?  First kiss, first date, first prank, first time you say "I love you" - the world is your oyster with this challenge.  Write a story about one of Harry and/or Ginny's firsts.

The categories for judging will be Most Unexpected, Most Humourous, Best Overall, and the People's Choice Award.  All stories should be submitted by midnight 15th August, results will be posted on 1st September.

Today SIYE has its 17th birthday. I would like to take this opportunity to nominate the very first SIYE story as the next Buried Gem. 

Unfortunately, the story with SIYE story-Id #1 is gone a long time ago. If anyone here still remembers the story, please let us know and tell us about it.

The story with SIYE story-Id #2 is Can not Stop Loving You by LaArpista.

Unfortunately,  this story was left incomplete after 12 chapters and therefore does not qualify as a Buried Gem.

The oldest completed story on SIYE and therefor the Buried Gem 07-2019 is the story with the story-Id #3, published in August 2003.

My Best Guarded Secret by Amanda SaturnVenus

Summary: Ginny writes a letter to Harry on the day he finishes at Hogwarts.

Oh, and by the way, story #4 is the sequel to My Best Guarded Secret. Both stories together are only 2.000 word long. So, if you have 5 minutes, give it a try.

17 years ago, on August 3, in 2002, Siye went online.

Seventeen years is an eternity in the era of the internet, a period many other fanfiction sites were very popular but sadly have disappeared again.

Our thanks go to all who have launched this site and have helped to keep it working over the years. Special thanks, of course, go to all the authors and readers whose love for our favourite couple keeps the page alive.

Let's hope for many more years, filled with entertaining stories about the life of our favourite couple.

Today, on July 31th is the 39th birthday of Harry James Potter and the ##th birthday of Joanne K Rowling.

We wish you both health, success and best of luck for the coming years.

The votes have been cast and the winners of the latest round of Trinkets are as follows -

Best Comedy
• Winner: A Series of Escalating Dares by Deadptarmigan 
• Honourable Mention: I Don't Care by Celtics534 

Best Drama
• Winner: Don't Give Up On Me by HappyHouriFanfic
• Honourable Mention: Path Diverged by hp_fangal

Best Romance
• Winner: Se Revoir by HappyHouriFanfic 
• Honourable Mention: Natural by Celtics534

Best One-Shot
• Winner: A Series of Escalating Dares by Deadptarmigan 
• Honourable Mention: I Don't Care by Celtics534 

Best Completed
• Winner: Natural by Celtics534 
• Honourable Mention: Se Revoir by HappyHouriFanfic

Best New Story
• Winner: Don't Give Up On Me by HappyHouriFanfic 
• Honourable Mention: Se Revoir by HappyHouriFanfic 

Congratulations to everyone, and don't forget to nominate your favourites for the next round!

The voting is now open for the latest round of trinkets.  Please vote here -

http://www.siye.co.uk/trinkets.php 

Results will be posted on 30th July

The Buried Gem 06-2019 is a gem in two ways. Not only is the story a gem, but the author is an exceptional gem, too. Her beta skills are praised in almost every other story I read, and her support of other authors makes her an important pillar of the Harry/Ginny ship.

The Buried Gem 06-2019 is Arnel's Gifts Trilogy.

Gifts are precious things, no matter who the giver is. Gifts can be material, but there are emotional gifts as well. In this series of three stories, Ginny and Harry give and receive gifts. What these gifts are, only they will tell.

The trilogy consists of:

You're Still You

Summary: It's Harry's sixth year and Ginny Weasley has been "Harry-Watching" from afar. She doesn't like what she sees and decides to do something about it. Will her actions result in failure or will she and Harry become closer?

New Year, New Hope

Summary: It's Harry's sixth year and Ginny Weasley's "Harry-Watching" has paid off. In this sequel to "You're Still You" the two teens explore their new relationship while dealing with the challenges of life threatened by war.

Summer Story

Summary: Summer at the Dursleys’ is typical for Harry Potter who hopes his stay with his relatives will only last two weeks at most. In this sequel to You’re Still You and New Year, New Hope Harry learns that his role as “savior” of the Wizarding world is more complicated than he thought and that he needs his friends and mentors more than he ever imagined. 

If you enjoyed the trilogy, check out Arnel's other stories, especially her For Love of Family, part of her Family Series, where a freak accident changes Auror Harry Potter’s life and tests the love of those around him.

Please tell us what you think about the stories, just follow the 'comment' link at the bottom right, or follow this link to the HarryandGinny Reddit Sub.

If you want to nominate your favourite story for the Buried Gems, just leave a comment here, or in Reddit Sub. The nominated stories should have been published on SIYE in 2010 or earlier, and they should be completed. As always, it would be nice if you could tell us with a few lines what you liked best about the story and why you recommend it.

For an overview of all Buried Gems we had so far, please follow this link.

Enjoy reading!

The votes have been counted and the results of the April-May Trinkets are as follows -

Best Comedy

Best Drama

Best Romance

Best One-Shot

Best Completed

Best New Story

The Buried Gem of the month May was nominated by Tron. It is a story written by Velvethope back in July 2004 before HBP was published.

Two chapters make a short story that is heart-warming and sweet with a touch of sadness at the beginning. Percy leaves Ginny his most precious possession and Harry is ready and willing to help. Wonderful story. 

The Buried Gem 05-2019 is:

Percy's Gift by Velvethope.

Summary: Written for the HGFicafest on Live Journal. In the wake of Percy's death, Ginny finds out that her life is about to change. Will Harry offer to help her? Will she let him? First part is G but the rating is R for part two. 

Please tell us what you think about the story, just follow the 'comment' link at the bottom right, or follow this link to the HarryandGinny Reddit Sub.

If you want to nominate your favourite story for the Buried Gems, just send leave a comment here, or in Reddit Sub. The nominated stories should have been published on SIYE in 2010 or earlier, and they should be complete. As always, it would be nice if you could tell us with a few lines what you liked best about the story and why you recommend it.

For an overview of all Buried Gems we had so far, please follow this link.

Enjoy reading!

The voting is now open for the April - May Trinkets and there's certainly plenty of excellent stories for you to choose from in this round.  Please vote here -

http://www.siye.co.uk/trinkets.php 

The winners will be announced on 29th May

There's a first time for everything, right?  First kiss, first date, first prank, first time you say "I love you" - the world is your oyster with this challenge.  Write a story about one of Harry and/or Ginny's firsts.

The categories for judging will be Most Unexpected, Most Humourous, Best Overall, and the People's Choice Award.  All stories should be submitted by midnight 15th August, results will be posted on 1st September.  Thanks to happyhouri for suggesting this challenge.

Usual rules apply, multi chaptered stories must be completed.  All stories must be posted under the 2019-2 challenge category.

Anyone with questions please contact me.  Also remember to make suggestions for future challenges!

Phew, that was seriously close in all of the categories!  But without further ado I can announce the winners are as follows -

Most Unexpected

Of Splendour in the Grass by potterfan2008

Most Romantic

Snapshots by Danni Evans

Best Overall

Newly and Happily Impervious to Gossip by Kezzabear

People's Choice Award

Hanging by a Moment by Celtics534

Massive well done to everyone and thank you to the judges MJ, JG, SM, AM, SR, LG for taking the time to read and decide the winners.

Keep an eye out for the next challenge which will be announced in a few days time.  PS. It's never been done before...

Originally I wanted to present Sovrans The Meaning of One as the Buried Gem 04-2019. However, while The Meaning of One definitely is a Gem, I'm not so sure if it really is a Buried Gem as it is considered to be the mother of all soul bond stories. For this reason, I picked another of Sovrans stories as the next Buried Gem.

The Buried Gem 04-2019 is Sovrans one-shot Phoenix, written for the December Engagement Challenge (2006-6).

The summary is quite unspectacular: What does it take for the phoenix to rise from the ashes?

If you enjoy reading soul bond stories, I recommend reading The Meaning of One. You can find both parts on Sovrans user page.

If you enjoyed the topic of the today's Buried Gem, you ought to read any of the other stories written for the December Engagement Challenge (2006-6).

Please tell us what you think about the story, just follow the 'comment' link at the bottom right, or follow this link to the HarryandGinny Reddit Sub.

For an overview of all Buried Gems we had so far, please follow this link.

Enjoy reading!

After looking for so long like there would only be a few entries, a run of submissions has left us with eight wonderful stories for our judges to decide the winners of Best Overall, Most Unexpected, Most Romantic categories.  All the stories can be found here http://siye.co.uk/categories.php?catid=94

And that leaves you the job of deciding the winner of the People's Choice Award.  Please vote here http://siye.co.uk/trinkets.php?peopleschoice=Y

Winners will be announced on 1st May

Just a quick reminder that there's only a couple of weeks left to submit your story for the Best Time of our Lives challege which is as follows -

Harry said to Ginny that those few weeks while they were dating at Hogwarts was like something out of someone else's life.  Your challenge is to write a story set during those few weeks while they were together at Hogwarts.

Usual rules apply, submissions close midnight 15th April, results will be posted 1st May.  Categories for judging are Most Romantic, Most Unexpected, Best Overall, and People's Choice.

Feel free to comment with suggesions for the next challenge too!

The votes have been cast and counted and the winners of the latest round of Trinkets are as follows-

Best Comedy

Best Drama

Best Romance

Best One-Shot

Best Completed

Best New Story

Apologies for my tardiness this month, but the voting is now open for the latest round of trinkets. Results will be posted 31st March. Please vote here -

http://www.siye.co.uk/trinkets.php 

Today I present you a Buried Gem nominated by Pottermum. She recommended this story because it is beautifully written and brings up a topic that isn’t touched too often in fanfic, that what if Harry was impaired mentally after the battle. There are several where he is in a coma for days, weeks, months and years before waking, but not many where he will never again be a fully functional member of society.
Pottermum said she enjoyed the story mostly for the way Harry’s friends react around him. And of course, the Harry and Ginny moments.

The 3rd Buried Gem of the year 2019 is:

Teatime in the Garden by LadyTonks

Summary: It was almost teatime. Teatime was their favorite time. Ginny hoped that Hermione and Ron wouldn't stay long. She knew that they meant well, but they just didn't understand about Harry. Not many people did.

Please tell us what you think about the story, just follow the 'comment' link at the bottom right, or follow this link to the HarryandGinny Reddit Sub.

If you want to nominate your favourite story for the Buried Gems, just send an email to Gin110881@yahoo.com. The nominated stories should have been published on SIYE in 2010 or earlier, and they should be complete. As always, it would be nice if you could tell us with a few lines what you liked best about the story and why you recommend it.

For an overview of all Buried Gems we had so far, please follow this link.

Enjoy reading!

Ginny sighed with frustration as she dropped her quill onto the table in the Gryffindor common room where she was sat with Harry, Ron, and Hermione.  "I'm going to have to go down to the Library and get a book out before I can finish this Charms essay," she said with a smirk at Harry.

Catching on quickly, he stretched and said, "I'll come with you, I could do with a break."

Ron eyed the pair of them shrewedly as they got up, while Hermione only murmured her agreement as she scribbled furiously on a piece of parchment that was already hanging off the table.

As soon as they had clambered out of the portrait hole Harry pulled Ginny in for a kiss, ignoring the exclaimations of the Fat Lady behind them.  "I didn't expect Hermione to fall for that," chuckled Harry.

"Me neither," replied Ginny as they began to walk down the corridor hand in hand.  "How long do you think we have before she realises and decides to come looking for us?"

Harry thought for a moment.  "Maybe half an hour, longer if Ron annoys her and they start arguing."

"As per usual you mean.  I wish they'd just get on with it and admit they like each other."

"I know, I'm sure arguing is their way of flirting.  But enough about those two, do you fancy going for a walk down by the lake?"

"You read my mind," replied Ginny.

Harry said to Ginny that those few weeks while they were dating at Hogwarts was like something out of someone else's life.  Your challenge is to write a story set during those few weeks while they were together at Hogwarts.

Submissions close midnight 15th April. Any suggestions for future challenges are more than welcome, please either comment here or email me.

In today's edition of the Buried Gems, I present you a story nominated by ginnyweasley777. The story has won the award for the best Comedy back in November 2006, so be prepared for some fun, and probably, fluff.

The Buried Gem 02-2019 is:

Getting Over Harry Potter by cwarbeck

Summary:

When Ginny realises that she is firmly entrenched as Harry’s friend in the strictest, most platonic sense of the word, she is determined to banish any of her own definitely non-platonic sentiments once and for all. She comes up with a plan – an ingenious, infallible, perfect, foolproof plan – but how was it supposed to work if Harry seemed to be everywhere she looked?

I'll open a new thread for this story in the HarryandGinny Reddit Sub where you can tell us if you liked the, or simply follow the discussions there if don't want to register.

If you want to nominate your own favourite story for the Buried Gems, just send an email to Gin110881@yahoo.com. The nominated stories should have been published on SIYE in 2010 or earlier and they should be complete. As always, it would be nice if you could tell us with a few lines what you liked best about the story and why you recommend it.

For an overview of all Buried Gems, please follow this link.

Well, it was a close run thing again, so a massive well done to all authors, but the winners of the 2018 Annual DSTA's are as follows -

Best Comedy

Best Drama

Best Romance

Best One-Shot

Best Completed

Best New Story

UPDATE: Thank you all for your generosity and support of this website. It wouldn't be possible with you. We've raised a goodly amount. 

It has long been SIYE's tradition to forego obnoxious advertising and pay for the domain and the hosting with donations provided by patrons like you. The time for SIYE to pay its annual hosting bill is approaching. If any of you happen to be rolling in dough or have some extra dollars that need a home, please consider forwarding some money our way. We prefer to collect via PayPal. The link can be found under EXTRAS > DONATE TO THE SITE. Thank you for your consideration and support.

Some excellent stories on offer once again, and now the votes have been cast I can announce that the winners are as follows -

Best Comedy

Best Drama

Best Romance

Best One-Shot

Best Completed

Best New Story

The voting is now open for the latest round of Trinkets.  Please cast your vote here -

http://www.siye.co.uk/trinkets.php

Winners will be announced on 31st January

The first Buried Gem of the year 2019 was nominated by SilvaGrey with the praise 'In my opinion it's the best ever Harry and Ginny fanfiction. It's sweet, but not overly so, moving, hopeful, funny, even with a strange twist in chapter 2'. 

The Buried Gem 01-2019 is Since Feeling Is First by St Margarets.

Summary: In the aftermath of the Battle of Hogwarts, Harry and Ginny can finally put their feelings first.

Please tell us what you think about the story, just follow the 'comment' link at the bottom right, or follow this link to the HarryandGinny Reddit Sub.

If you want to nominate your favourite story for the Buried Gems, just send an email to Gin110881@yahoo.com. The nominated stories should have been published on SIYE in 2010 or earlier, and they should be complete. As always, it would be nice if you could tell us with a few lines what you liked best about the story and why you recommend it.

For an overview of all Buried Gems we had so far, please follow this link.

 Enjoy reading!

Harry said to Ginny that those few weeks while they were dating at Hogwarts was like something out of someone else's life.  Your challenge is to write a story set during those few weeks while they were together at Hogwarts.

The categories for judging will be Most Romantic, Most Unexpected, Best Overall, and the People's Choice Award.  All stories should be submitted by midnight 15th April.  Results will be posted 1st May. Thanks to Gin110881 for the topic suggestion.

Usual rules apply - multiple chaptered stories are allowed but must be completed.  All stories should be posted under the 2019-1 challenge category.

Anyone with questions feel free to contact me.  Same goes for anyyone wanting to suggest topics for the next challenge.  Either comment,pm, or email.

Edit - Please note the correction to the deadline.

Following GHL stepping back from running the challenges, I will be taking over until a suitable replacement is found.  Suggestions for challenges can be submitted here, or to me by PM or email.  I plan to post the new challenge in the New Year.  Happy Christmas!

Edit 9/1/19 - Apologies for the delay but the new challenge will be up within the next couple of days.

The last edition of the Buried Gems in 2018 is dedicated to the memory of Jaquelyne. Jaquelyne was a writer and senior stuff administrator on SIYE when she passed away in the young age of 33 in 2006. My thanks go to Melindaleo for directing my attention to her by nominating 'any of her wonderful stories'.

Matching to the season, I selected her contribution to the Christmas Challenge (2003-6). If you like it, please check out her other stories on her user page, or her never completed story she wrote together with Jeconais, Chances. 

The Buried Gem 12-2018 is:  Happy Christmas by Jaquelyne

Summary:The dreaded Yule Ball is back. Can friends make plans to go to the ball and stay friends?? Who knows when a fluff writer tries to have fun with her favorite ship. 

If any of our long-established readers/authors still remember Jaquelyne, feel free to share your memories with us.

And into the darkness shines a light to reveal the two cloaked categories...

• Best Mystery in the 'Strangers in the Dark' challenge, and
• Most Romantic in the 'Strangers in the Dark' challenge.

In addition to its many accumulating awards and recognitions, we now award the story "Strangers and Sticking Charms" by glasscandlegrenades with the above two challenge 2018-3 citations.

Sincere appreciation to MS and YK for their diligent judging!

Despite me only leaving you all a short time for voting, it was a close run thing in nearly every category.  The winners are as follows -

Best Comedy

Best Drama

Best Romance

Best One-Shot

Best Completed

Best New Story

Huge apologies for my tardiness in opening the voting for the latest round of Trinkets.

Please vote here - http://www.siye.co.uk/trinkets.php

Not much time for you to vote as winners will be announced on Friday 30th November.

In the 11th edition of the buried gems, I introduce you to a story by an author who is active here on SIYE for many years, and of whom I'm pretty sure many SIYE readers still hope for the completion of a story.

It was hard to decide which of her gems to choose and if her gems could even be considered buried, but her it is.

The 11. Buried Gem is:  I'll Be There For You by Kezzabear

Summary: When your life's a little bit ... sucky, you can count on your friends. Well, most of them anyway ... well, some of them at least ... maybe just one.

If you like the story, check out her others.

I'll open a new thread for this story in the HarryandGinny Reddit Sub where you can discuss the story if you want, or simply follow the discussions there if don't want to register.

If you want to nominate your favourite story for the Buried Gems, just send an email to Gin110881@yahoo.com. The nominated stories should have been published on SIYE in 2010 or earlier and they should be complete. As always, it would be nice if you could tell us with a few lines what you liked best about the story and why you recommend it.

For an overview of all Buried Gems, please follow this link.

Enjoy reading!

And so we find ourselves in the somewhat unusual position of having one single stellar entry for challenge 2018-3.  Consequently, our judges will spend the next two weeks determining which of the three competition categories (Best Mystery, Most Romantic and Best Overall) best deserves to be associated with this fine story.  May the best category win!

The People's Choice voting system does not work properly for a single story, so readers will not have that fun little outlet for their button-pushing impulses.  However, anyone who hasn't yet read Strangers and Sticking Charms by glasscandlegrenades should consider looking it up and perhaps leaving a review!

Oops, it's already the 10th edition of the Buried Gems...how time flies.

The 10th edition of the Buried Gems brings you a romantic comedy written by takefourmoments in the year 2005, and I promise you'll love it.

Summoning Conditions by takefourmoments

Summary: During a DA lesson, they are reviewing smaller spells, starting with summoning. Everyone, including Neville, is getting it down. Well, everyone besides Ginny. When she askes for extra lessons from Harry, he instantly turns her down. Which angers her and leaves her badgering him for the lessons afterwards. He finally agrees, but on one condition. She has to give him lessons too. Lessons on how to win over the girl he fancies.

Please tell us if you liked the recent Buried Gem, just follow the 'comment' link at the bottom right.

I'll open a new thread for this story in the HarryandGinny Reddit Sub where you can discuss the story if you want, or simply follow the discussions there if don't want to register.

If you want to nominate your own favourite for the Buried Gems, just send an email to Gin110881@yahoo.com. The nominated stories should have been published on SIYE in 2010 or earlier and they should be complete. As always, it would be nice if you could tell us with a few lines what you liked best about the story and why you recommend it.

For an overview of all Buried Gems, please follow this link.

Enjoy reading!

"Huh?"  Harry's eyes flickered open.  He stared at the dormitory door, blinking, wondering if...?

Had he just seen the fringe of a cape whisk from the room? Was it a trailing bit of dream?  Or had he just spied... an intruder??

Quietly setting aside his quilts, he slipped from his four-poster, crept to the stairwell, and peered out.

Noone.

On tip toes, he hastened downward, through the doorway into the dark common room, and...

....!!!!

"It's okay, Harry.  It's just me."

"Ginny!  What are you doing down here in the pitch black?"

"I, uh, heard some rustling by our dorms..."  She lit the tip of her wand, just enough to set a faint glow about her face.  "I came down here to take a look, and..."

** ! ** ! ** ! **

What happens next?  That was the question!

You have 27 days left to tell us what deeds, scary or sweet, transpire when, late at night, a hooded stranger appears at Harry's bed in Gryffindor Tower and casts a spell; when, another does the same to Ginny; whereafter the mysterious pair meets in the Common Room; and whereunto, after a kiss, they whisper, "That’s done.  Now, for the great adventure."

Halloween is almost upon us!  What great, eerie fiction might that brew up?  Time will tell; time will tell.

Awards will be made for Best Mystery, Most Romantic, Best Overall, and People's Choice.  Completed stories must be submitted by midnight, Nov. 15, in order for award announcements to be made on Dec. 1.

Please note rules for challenge stories:  submissions must be stand-alone stories that are marked as complete by deadline; stories must be shorter than 20,000 words; R-rated stories are discouraged, and judges are not required to read them.

Please continue to cast your votes for the 2019-1 challenge topics.  Additional suggestions are highly encouraged (need to keep the list fresh) but the currently considered entries include:

1. Years into their marriage, Ginny discovers something surprising about Harry.  Tell us about it.
2. Auntie Muriel announces that she will take her tea at the Burrow next Sunday.  Excuses fly as everyone tries to avoid attending.  Will anyone escape?
3. A debilitating accident brings Harry's and Ginny's hectic schedules to a screeching halt.  How will things change as the couple adjusts to a slow recovery?
4. Times are tense at Grimmauld Place... until Sirius and Lupin start sharing tales of old Marauder Pranks.  Suitably inspired, Harry and/or Ginny (you choose) decide(s) to liven things up with a bit of their own mischief.
5. Harry walks into the Gryffindor Common Room 10 seconds before Neville is able to ask Ginny to the Yule Ball. What happens next?
6. Outside the tent at Bill & Fleur's wedding, Harry finds Ginny, alone, fixing her corsage. A moment he's been dying for but he (and you) must keep it short and sweet.
7. Twitter-280 Challenge: mass participation! Your magnus opus must be Harry/Ginny; must be 280 characters or less. Beyond that, anything goes!

The today's edition of the Buried Gems presents you a story nominated by Melindaleo. It is a post-HBP one-shot, written by Professor Scroll back in 2006.

Bull's Eye by Professor Scroll 

Summary: Harry had stubbornly maintained his 'emotional' distance from Ginny while Hermione, Ron and he had searched for and destroyed the Horcruxes. As the lonely days passed, and Valentine's Day drew near, Harry grew to realise that his heart knew what was important, and that Ginny might just be safer by his side. 

I'll open a new thread for this story in the HarryandGinny Reddit Sub where you can discuss the story if you want, or simply follow the discussions in the Sub if don't want to register.

Of course, as always, you are welcome to add a comment here on SIYE by following the 'comment' link at the bottom right.

I still accept nominations for the Buried Gems, just send an email to Gin110881@yahoo.com. The nominated stories should have been published on SIYE before 2010, and they should be complete. As always, it would be nice if you’d add a few lines telling me and the other readers why your nominated story is worth to be a Buried Gem. I will publish all nominated stories in this column, but please be patient. I still have about two dozen nominations on my list, and it's always a hard decision which story to present next. The order of the stories presented here is not supposed to be a rating. 

For an overview of the stories presented as a Buried Gem so far, please follow this link.

Enjoy reading!

Well the votes have been cast and counted and the results are as follows -

Best Comedy

Best Drama

Best Romance

Best One-Shot

Best Completed

Best New Story

Well folks, it's that time again - time for you to wave your wand and cast your vote for the latest round of Trinkets.

Please vote here - http://www.siye.co.uk/trinkets.php

Winners will be announced in one week on 28th September.

A few days delayed, but here is the 8th edition of the Buried Gems introducing you a story nominated by BraverLeonheart. He recommended this story with the following words: 

Written during 2007 and completed in 2008, Saving Harry is a tragic AU story detailing Harry dealing with living in an abusive home throughout his life, and the subsequent discovery of this abuse and relocating to join the Weasley’s in a loving, caring environment. If you’re looking for a story that will make you feel good inside, this is not the story for you. I cried buckets when I first read this. It’s a tough read, but that speaks of the quality of the writing to evoke such emotions in the reader. The story covers Harry's life up to his first year at Hogwarts and the way that a young red-headed girl can help a broken-hearted boy. 

The today's edition of the Buried Gems presents you Saving Harry written by The Seeker.

Summary: What if JKR had never intended the Harry Potter series to be for children? How would Harry’s time at the Dursleys been written? This story focuses on the years Harry lived in the cupboard under the stairs at number four Privet Drive, as well as his first appearance at Hogwarts. The treatment he receives during his decade there is not described in fairy tale terms. The boy who initially develops is not the Harry Potter we know. The story is liberally AU, with different personality traits, events, and relationships used to reflect the changes in this very different Harry and the environment in which he grew up. In the end, through the assistance of a certain redheaded young lady, Harry ultimately finds the life he should have had and rediscovers the qualities he always had inside of him. While I am not a psychologist or child development expert, the symptoms, actions, and behaviors portrayed reflect the realities of child abuse. Appropriate disclosures will be contained in the Author’s Notes above the chapter when warranted. 

I'll opened a new thread in the HarryandGinny Reddit Sub where you can discuss the stories if you want, or simply follow the discussion (if there will actually be a discussion) if don't want to register.

Of course, as always you can also add a comment here on SIYE by following the 'comment' link at the bottom right.

I still accept nominations for the Buried Gems, just send an email to Gin110881@yahoo.com. The nominated stories should have been published on SIYE before 2010, and they should be complete. It would be nice if you’d add a few lines telling me and the other readers why your nominated story is worth to be a Buried Gem. I will publish all nominated stories in this column, but please be patient. I have about two dozen nominations on my list, so it may take a while before your nomination becomes a Buried Gem.

For an overview of all the stories presented as a Buried Gem so far, please follow this link.

Enjoy reading!

Dear SIYE writers and readers, new and old,

Since the beginning of the summer, the site has entered a modest growth phase -- the first time in quite a while where we're slowly but steady gaining active new users faster than old members drift away.  As a result, we thought it might be useful to start a quick dialogue about what you can expect from the SIYE experience.

We're going to offer a few thoughts here, but we welcome comments and questions from all others.

Firstly, SIYE is intended as a friendly and supportive place for writers to try their hand at fictionally celebrating the Romantic, Dramatic, and sometimes downright Comical pairing of Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley.  By the same measure, it's also a great place for readers to browse many many (thousands) of fine stories, and interact with the writers behind them.

SIYE aims for a happy balance between a desirable 'friendly and supportive' atmosphere without bogging down into an excessively saccharine smurfy little love fest. To achieve this, I think we all strive to use common sense, and are prepared to self-correct if ever we get a bit out of line.  That said, some basic principles are to aim for constructive rather than destructive exchanges, and to avoid any matters that get overly personal, such as comments that verge upon racial, gender or sexual discourtesy, and/or infringe on members' privacy.

A few questions arose recently about SIYE standards on stories.  First of all, we do have a story classification/rating system that helps people to steer toward types of fiction they enjoy, and away from those they prefer to avoid.  However our full breadth of story content is a small bit narrower than some fan fiction sites span.  Here's some background and perspective on that:

Years ago, Jo Rowling was approached by major fanfic sites and asked for comment and guidance the sort of derivative fiction she, well, would be willing to not sue.  I don't recall her exact wording, but she responded with parameters that proved to be a decent compromise between good taste and permissiveness. 

SIYE has always adhered to a reasonable interpretation of her intent which tends to hew fairly close to the film industry's R (permitted) vs. X (no) boundary.  I can't state everything exactly but F-bombs and other hard phrases are tolerated if they're important to the story.  Some violence is to be expected in fiction like this; it can get quite brutal if the plot demands it, but gore is not part of the culture.  Sexuality is fine if tasteful and not pornographic.  Alternative sexual identity is generally fine, as long as it's within plausible character, but it's worth one more reminder that SIYE does have its special mission to uphold the special nature of the Harry/Ginny pairing.  So, be tasteful.

That's the quick primer.  Comments and thoughts?

This is mostly the same message I posted ten days ago, but please note an expanded list of possible foci for Challenge 2019-1!

Your premise for Challenge 2018-3 is:  Late at night, a hooded stranger appears at Harry's bed in Gryffindor Tower and casts a spell.  Another does the same to Ginny.  The mysterious pair meets in the Common Room.  After a kiss, they whisper, "That’s done.  Now, for the great adventure."  What happens next?

Awards will be made for Best Mystery, Most Romantic, Best Overall, and People's Choice.  Completed stories must be submitted by midnight, Nov. 15, in order for award announcements to be made on Dec. 1.

Please note rules for challenge stories:  submissions must be stand-alone stories that are marked as complete by deadline; stories must be shorter than 20,000 words; R-rated stories are discouraged, and judges are not required to read them.

Finally, please use this space to cast your votes for the 2019-1 challenge topics.  Additional suggestions are highly encouraged (need to keep the list fresh) but prior vote-getters include:

1. Years into their marriage, Ginny discovers something surprising about Harry.  Tell us about it.
2. Auntie Muriel announces that she will take her tea at the Burrow next Sunday.  Excuses fly as everyone tries to avoid attending.  Will anyone escape?
3. A debilitating accident brings Harry's and Ginny's hectic schedules to a screeching halt.  How will things change as the couple adjusts to a slow recovery?
4. Times are tense at Grimmauld Place... until Sirius and Lupin start sharing tales of old Marauder Pranks.  Suitably inspired, Harry and/or Ginny (you choose) decide(s) to liven things up with a bit of their own mischief.
5. Harry walks into the Gryffindor Common Room 10 seconds before Neville is able to ask Ginny to the Yule Ball. What happens next?
6. Outside the tent at Bill & Fleur's wedding, Harry finds Ginny, alone, fixing her corsage. A moment he's been dying for but he (and you) must keep it short and sweet.
7. Twitter-280 Challenge: mass participation! Your magnus opus must be Harry/Ginny; must be 280 characters or less. Beyond that, anything goes!

The seventh edition of the Buried Gems brings you two related stories written by kjpzak. Both stories were simultaneously published on SIYE and MuggleNet Fan Fiction in 2005 and 2006, they're set post-OotP and continue where Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix ended. The stories were nominated by Tron, Potterfan2008, and ykirirn. Thank you to you all for supporting the Gems.

Ancient Magic

Summary: Love is the most ancient form of magic there is. Harry and Ginny begin to discover they may have a love that will endure forever. He Who Must Not Be Named certainly thinks so. Could their love be the key to fulfilling one of his greatest wishes?  

Blood of the Heart

Summary: 7th Yr Sequel to Ancient Magic. It is now known the power of immortality resides inside Harry and Ginny. Will their combined powers be enough to protect them from the Dark Lord?

If you enjoyed reading the today's Buried Gems, you can find kjpzak's other stories on her user page. 

I've opened a new thread in the HarryandGinny Reddit Sub where you can discuss the stories if you want, or simply follow the discussion if don't want to register.

Of course, as always you can also add a comment here on SIYE by following the 'comment' link at the bottom right.

I still accept nominations for the Buried Gems, just send an email to Gin110881@yahoo.com. The nominated stories should have been published on SIYE before 2010, and they should be complete. It would be nice if you’d add a few lines telling me and the other readers why your nominated story is worth to be a Buried Gem.

For an overview of all the stories presented as a Buried Gem so far, please follow this link.

Enjoy reading!

We've recently been asked if we're interested in a collaboration with the HarryandGinny Reddit Sub. The HarryandGinny Sub is supposed to be a "forum dedicated to celebrating and discussing the beautiful relationship between Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley from the Harry Potter series". There are a lot of authors active in this Sub, quite a few of them are also publishing their stories here on SIYE.

We discussed the topic and decided it wouldn't hurt to give such a collaboration a try.  As of now, we will start publishing a copy of our key news in this Sub in the hope to acquire a few more readers and authors for SIYE.

In return, everyone interested is invited to follow the discussions about Harry and Ginny in this Sub and join in the discussion if the topic hits your interest.

Everyone who wants to know a bit more about the Sub before going to check it out can have a look at a survey conducted a few days ago among the members of the Sub.

Here is the link to the HarryandGinny Sub, and here is the link to the aforementioned survey on google docs.

As hinted, your premise for Challenge 2018-3 is:  Late at night, a hooded stranger appears at Harry's bed in Gryffindor Tower and casts a spell.  Another does the same to Ginny.  The mysterious pair meets in the Common Room.  After a kiss, they whisper, "That’s done.  Now, for the great adventure."  What happens next?

Awards will be made for Best Mystery, Most Romantic, Best Overall, and People's Choice.  Completed stories must be submitted by midnight, Nov. 15, in order for award announcements to be made on Dec. 1.

Please note rules for challenge stories:  submissions must be stand-alone stories that are marked as complete by deadline; stories must be shorter than 20,000 words; R-rated stories are discouraged, and judges are not required to read them.

Finally, please use this space to cast your votes for the 2019-1 challenge topics.  Additional suggestions are highly encouraged (need to keep the list fresh) but prior vote-getters include:

1. Years into their marriage, Ginny discovers something surprising about Harry.  Tell us about it.
2. Auntie Muriel announces that she will take her tea at the Burrow next Sunday.  Excuses fly as everyone tries to avoid attending.  Will anyone escape?
3. A debilitating accident brings Harry's and Ginny's hectic schedules to a screeching halt.  How will things change as the couple adjusts to a slow recovery?
4. Times are tense at Grimmauld Place... until Sirius and Lupin start sharing tales of old Marauder Pranks.  Suitably inspired, Harry and/or Ginny (you choose) decide(s) to liven things up with a bit of their own mischief.

I did not know this until just a little while ago, when curiosity led this cat by the hand:

Sandwiched neatly in the middle of SIYE's birthday season (Harry, JKR and Ginny) is the SIYE's very own fete.  This past August 3rd was our site's 15th birthday!

The site marked it's first operational day with several dozen pre-approved stories, which I shall not list in full, but the industrious amongst you can probably find.

The very first story, the mythical story #1, has been deleted, and its identity may have been lost to the ravages of time.  However, for historical purposes, I will list story #2:

Can't Stop Loving You by LaArpista

which will never qualify for Martin's gems because it was left incomplete after 12 chapters.  The distinction of first completed story that we have on file, therefore, is story #3:

My Best Guarded Secret by Amanda SaturnVenus

Fifteen years is an eternity in the era of the internet.  Congratulations to those who came before and gave us what we have; appreciations to those to picking up the oft-handed torch to keep the community thriving for another generation!

Today, on August 11th is the 37th birthday of Ginevra Molly "Ginny" Potter née Weasley.

We wish you all the best for the coming year. Stay the way you are!

The today’s edition of the Buried Gems is going to present you two stories I had on my list right from the beginning. Several SIYE readers nominated the stories as a buried gem as well, including Dad, ykirirn and Potterfan2008. That’s why I don’t want to wait any longer to dig these gems out. Be forewarned that you’ll need a few hours more to read the today's gems. 

The 6th edition of the Buried Gems presents you Abraxan’s version of Harry Potters 6th and 7th year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

The Refiner's Fire

Summary: In the summer before his sixth year at Hogwarts, Harry Potter learns to come to terms with the death of Sirius. As he heals and grows emotionally, he learns how to enjoy life again. But there's a war on, and Voldemort's primary objective is to kill Harry Potter, by any means necessary. As a result, Harry and his friends have a very adventurous sixth year at Hogwarts.

The Time of Destiny

Summary: Sequel to "The Refiner's Fire." Harry Potter returns to Privet Drive for the last time, prior to his Seventh Year at Hogwarts. Much to the Dursley's surprise, Remus is going to stay with him due to a head injury Harry received on the train. The Dursleys are not happy with this situation, as you can well imagine. This fic covers both the summer before Harry's seventh year, and his entire last year at school.

I know that most HG shippers, including me, don’t like to see either Harry or Ginny with someone else.  Oddly enough, Refiner’s Fire is the only exception for me. Harry's girlfriend, Casey, whom he meets in the summer after his 5th year, is a great character. She helped him to cope with the loss of Sirius. I like to think of her as a blonde Muggle version of Ginny. The story is telling us how Harry, with Ginny's help, copes with the loss of Casey and how he becomes a powerful wizard in the process. I am usually a bit reluctant when it comes to Powerful! Harry stories, but these two stories are special, believe me.

In case you liked the todays gems, make sure you won't miss the outtakes you can find on Abraxan's author's page.

Of course, I still accept nominations for the Buried Gems, just send an email to Gin110881@yahoo.com. It would be nice if you’d add a few lines why you think your nominated story is worth to be a buried gem.

For an overview of all the stories presented as a buried gem so far, please follow this link.

Enjoy reading!

Well, we did have only three stories, but they were broadly acclaimed as good ones, and all received lots of votes!

If we were to follow the straight and strict lines, the awards would be as follows:

People's Choice Award: Heart's Desire by Snarky24
Best Overall: The Worst/Best Valentine's Day by Celtics534
Most Humorous: The Worst/Best Valentine's Day by Celtics534
Most Unexpected: Heart's Desire by Snarky24

However, we had multiple judges overlook my hard-nosed judging categories (rebels :) and institute one of their own.  Among these improvisationalists, there was a unanimous selection for an improvised category:

Most Romantic: A Taste of Honey by indywriter

A fine choice, really!  My sincere thanks to all judges (AS, MG, AM, SM, KL, YK, MS) for your hard work and consideration!

Sometime in the next week or so, be on the lookout for details regarding Challenge 2018-3 which will focus (if you dare) upon a mysterious hooded stranger!

Today, on July 31th is the 38th birthday of Harry James Potter and the ##rd birthday of Joanne K Rowling.

We wish you both health, success and best of luck for the coming year.

I forgot I'm away tomorrow so I'm announcing the winners a little early.  Without further ado, the results are as follows -

Best Comedy

Best Drama

Best Romance

Best One-Shot

Best Completed

Best New Story

The nominations are closed and the voting is now open for the May Trinkets.

There's plenty of stories to choose from so please vote here - http://www.siye.co.uk/trinkets.php

Winners will be announced on 30th July.

The 5th edition of the ‘Buried Gems’ presents you with a story suggested by freshwater. Thank you so much for your collaboration.

The buried gem number 5 is "How It's Going to Be", written by Lady Tory in 2005. 

This story has received 5 full stars from all reviewers (well, all but one), and that at a time when those stars weren't given as generously as they are today.

Let's listen to what freshwater has to tell us about the story:

When Harry, in his quest for a dreamless night of sleep, asks Ginny to tell him a bedtime story, the consequences are something more than he would have ever imagined.  This tender, gentle story of the beginnings of their relationship is one I prefer to even JKR's version.  It is my all-time favorite HP one-shot, and I deliberately re-read it 3 - 4 times a year, just because the simplicity and hopefulness of it does my heart good.  This elegant little fic uses an economy of language to reveal a great deal about the characters.  It is so very well done.  Read it and see if you agree with me that the most poignant bit is when Harry says that he doesn't want to be an Auror.

Official Summary to the story: Harry is having trouble sleeping, he asks Ginny to help. "Just then Ginny closed her book, and Harry turned with a start of realization. Ginny. Ginny could lie to him, and she was so good at it that he would probably even believe her for just a moment." 

Since "How It's Going to Be" is only about 5,000 words long, it shouldn't prevent anyone from reading the stories of the recent SIYE challenge and casting their votes. Please don't forget the challenge. There are three wonderful stories waiting for you and your votes.

The next buried gem will be a longer story, much longer. That's all I'm going to say today.

I have received about 25 suggestions for buried gems so far. Thanks a lot for this. I will consider all suggestions and plan to mix up longer and shorter stories, and stories that are probably better known with less-known stories. The order is not a rating!

Of course, I'll gladly accept further suggestions, just send an email to Gin110881@yahoo.com, but please be patient. It might take a while for the suggestions to be published. I don't want to publish the buried gems more than once every three weeks so even rare visitors have the opportunity to read the recent gem before I bring the next one up for discussion.

For an overview of all the stories that have been presented as a buried gem so far, please follow this link.

Brilliant!  There are three fine tales now awaiting your evaluation for People's Choice Award:

• A Taste of Honey by indywriter  
• Heart's Desire by snarky24  
• The Worst/Best Valentine's Day by Celtics534  

You have two weeks cast a vote for your favourite via http://siye.co.uk/trinkets.php?peopleschoice=Y, while our judges deliberate on 'Most Adventuresome', 'Most Romantic' and 'Best Overall' categories.

I'll be back to you all on August 1 with challenge awards, and our topic selection for 2018-3 (which you can all still continue to cast votes on).

Finally, you may recall me saying that I will be phasing out of my Challenge leadership role.  Anthony (cyko2041) will assume responsibility starting with 2018-3 (with my help) and then take over in full for 2019 and beyond.  I will continue to serve as a senior archivist for the foreseeable future, though, so you may all continue to badger (or otter) me with suggestions, complaints and whatnot.

In the today's edition of the 'Buried Gems', I want to present a story a whole universe is based on and for which many writers later wrote missing moments stories. There is an eventful history behind this universe which culminated in the so-called StalkerGate in November 2001.

I'm talking about Imogen's 'Carpe Diem', a story Imogen wrote in 2001 and posted it on SIYE in 2006. 'Carpe Diem' was one of the first well known Harry/Ginny fanfiction stories, set in Harry's fifth year at Hogwarts. Of course, since the story was written in 2001, there is no Dolores Umbridge, there are no Horcruxes, and there is no Prophecy in this universe, well, at least not the Prophecy we all know. In exchange, the story introduces us to an amazingly refreshing Ginny who was not born on August 11th and who is guilty of having a weakness for stolen socks. But don't be afraid, Harry doesn't die because of cold feet.

According to Imogen, 'Carpe Diem' grew out of an assignment she set for a high school English class she taught:

"I started writing it initially after I set a Year 7 class a homework piece to 'write the next chapter after Goblet of Fire' and said I'd do a chapter as well. As it turns out I got the class hooked, and they wanted more. So I kept writing what is posted on the internet as 'Carpe Diem' on the condition that if they all handed in their homework, they got another chapter every week until the end of term. And they all did. In fact, one Friday I'd forgotten to set homework and the entire class turned up on Monday morning having done something over the weekend!"

The summary to the story doesn't give much away:

The Fifth Year at Hogwarts. Why does Harry have Ginny under the Imperius Curse, and what dangers does Voldemort pose for you this time?

On SIYE, there is also the One-shot 'Riverside Reflections', which is set during the summer after 'Carpe Diem', as well as the 7th year story from this universe, 'Alpha and Omega'. If you are interested in reading 'Alpha and Omega', I recommend the full version on Phoenixsong. Although the story is marked as completed on SIYE, it contains only 10 chapters instead of the 26 chapters of the completed version.

An overview of the stories written for this universe can be found here, here, or here. Unfortunately, the story 'Home is Where the Heart is' is only available on Imogen's former homepage http://www.harryandginny.co.uk, which is accessible only for existing members, there's no registration possible anymore. edit: As I just noticed, the completed version of A Pensieve Affair probably is also only available there.

I'm always open for further suggestions for the 'Buried Gems'. Just send me an email (Gin110881@yahoo.com) with your favourite 'Buried Gem'. Please add a few lines to explain why you like the story so much and why everybody else here should read it. The story should be complete and preferable posted on SIYE before 2010.

I will continue to release a new edition of the 'Buried Gems' every three weeks. The order of the presented stories is random and not a rating!

edit: If you want to see which stories have been featured as 'Buried Gems' so far without searching in the archive, just go to Categories, at the top of the SIYE home page. There, thankfully, GHL has set up a new category 'Buried Gems' containing all the stories presented here...or just follow this link.

edit2: Thanks to Phil42 who just informed me that on ffnet chapter 4 of "Alpha and Omega" is missing and chapter 5 has been posted twice. I have removed the ffnet link. If you want to read "Alpha and Omega" you should read the version on Phoenixsong ( just like I did.).

The 3rd edition of the ‘Buried Gems’ presents you with a story suggested by Alicia Rose and Aragorn. Thank you so much to you two. The story is an excellent perspective on the Weasley family and Ginny's childhood, and how she came to end up with Harry. It shows a deeper look at the brothers and makes them more human than some fics that only feature them as side characters. The story explores the relationships between the Weasley siblings, first from Ginny's point of view, and later her siblings tell us how they experienced Ginny's childhood.

I’m talking about "In the House of the Quick and Hungry" by Laura Laurent. The story was written back in 2004, so please be aware that some details differ from the late books.

Summary: The finer aspects of Ginny Weasley's life, all entwined, in their own way, within the story of how she wound up with Harry Potter. 

I’d like to thank everyone who has send a suggestion so far. I'm fortunate that I now have enough stories to publish a new edition of "Buried Gems" about every three weeks in the next months. Please be patient, I plan to accept every suggestion, but it may take a while before your suggestion will be posted. Of course, further suggestions are always welcome. Just send me an email (Gin110881@yahoo.com) with your favourite 'Buried Gem'. Please add a few lines to explain why you like the story so much and why everybody else here should read it. The story should be complete and preferable posted at SIYE before 2010.  

Due to my upcoming holidays, I'll probably won't be able to answer your email in the next 2-3 weeks, but rest assured that I will answer as soon as I'm back.

The results of the March 2018 DSTA's are as follows - 

Best Comedy

Best Drama

Best Romance

Best One-Shot

Best Completed

Best New Story

Through the mad scramble, Harry tried to ignore the frightful racket and the random writhing limbs flailing all about him.

Concentrating solely on Ginny's legs as she shimmied ahead of him beneath the final table, Harry dodged feet, knees and chairs, desperate to escape a Valentine's feast gone slightly awry.  Seeing his favourite redhead leap clear, feint past a couple of dozy-eyed snoggers, and break wildly for the exit, Harry whooped in joy.

Seeking to follow, Harry sprang out from beneath a gaggle of shrieking Hufflepuffs, got both feet beneath him and-

"Gak!"

... found himself face to face with a slavering Millicent Bulstrode; his formal necktie looking tiny and sad, clenched in the Slytherin witch's meaty fist.

"Erm, didn't I hear Draco calling you?"  Harry attempted a disarming smile, even as he strained to twist away from menacing lips that loomed like a large pink inner tube, glistening with still-fresh pumpkin juice.


  -:-:-:-:-

What in the blazes is going on?  Does Harry escape to the comforting company of the only other non-addled Hogwarts student?  Is pumpkin juice a bad idea, in general, in any sober-minded institute of magical education?

The answers to those quandaries, or to your own far more interesting questions, await us all in Challenge 2018-2:

Tis the Valentines feast at Hogwarts, and something is odd.  The pumpkin juice tastes suspiciously good, and all who drink it are behaving strangely.  Uh oh.

Awards will be made for Most Humourous, Most Unexpected, Best Overall, and People's Choice.  Completed stories must be submitted by midnight, July 15, in order for award announcements to be made on August 1.

Submissions must be stand-alone stories that are marked as complete by deadline; stories must be shorter than 20,000 words; R-rated stories are discouraged, and judges are not required to read them.

Please continue to cast your votes for the 2018-3 challenge topic.  Additional suggestions are highly encouraged (the list could use some freshening) but prior vote-getters include:

1. Years into their marriage, Ginny discovers something surprising about Harry.  Tell us about it.
2. Auntie Muriel announces that she will take her tea at the Burrow next Sunday.  Excuses fly as everyone tries to avoid attending.  Will anyone escape?
3. A debilitating accident brings Harry's and Ginny's hectic schedules to a screeching halt.  How will things change as the couple adjusts to a slow recovery?
4. Harry has never been abroad before. His first trip is with Ginny. Where do they go, and why?
5. Late at night, a hooded stranger appears at Harry's bed and casts a spell.  Another does the same to Ginny.  The mysterious pair meets in the Common Room.  After a kiss, they whisper, "That’s done.  Now, for the great adventure."  What happens next?
6. Times are tense at Grimmauld Place... until Sirius and Lupin start sharing tales of old Marauder Pranks.  Suitably inspired, Harry and/or Ginny (you choose) decide(s) to liven things up with a bit of their own mischief.

Finally, it's been a blast, but I think we're heading toward a time when you'd likely all do best with some fresh new inspired management for the Challenges.  Who would like to rise to the occasion and help enliven the SIYE creative spark?  I'm comfortable either stepping aside after 2018-2 in deference to new talent, or coaxing things along through the end of this year -- whatever is the right fit for all.

The nominations are closed and the voting is now open for the March Trinkets.

Please vote here - http://www.siye.co.uk/trinkets.php

Winners will be announced on 30th May.

 (Edit - put wrong date, 30th is correct one)

Cosmo (AurorOfTheLight) has alerted us to having seen a cool trailer on the sequel to Fantastic Beasts.  I'm not sure if this is precisely what he saw, but I'm going to post a link to a trailer I found on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sEaYB4rLFQ

The second edition of the 'Buried Gems' presents you a story probably only a few remember. I found the story three years ago with the help of the 'Random Story' feature in the top right corner of the SIYE main page. For some time this feature seems to be called 'Completed Reads' in the meantime. The title of the story made me curious, 'Light From An Open Window'. I was curious, from whose window the light would shine in the darkness, and who would be attracted by the light. The summary peaked my interest even more, and since the story was not that long, I gave it a try.

Light From An Open Window by seshhat

Summary: A warm summer night, some pensive thinking, a broomstick ride-the beginning of a new friendship and perhaps something more. Harry sees Ginny in a new light, and Ginny falls in love all over again. A night of dark memories, light-hearted conversation, deep understanding, and the glimpse of light peering from a newly opened window. In five parts. Written from the alternating perspectives of Harry and Ginny.

The story was written after OotP and posted on SIYE in 2005 before HBP has been released. It's a story about the problems of two teens in difficult times, and that friendship means to help each other.

To everybody who liked this story, I recommend reading the sequel, 'Light Reflected'.

Tell us about your favourite buried gem. Just send me an email (Gin110881@yahoo.com) with your suggestion and a few lines explaining why you like the story so much and why everybody else here should read it. The story should be complete and preferable posted at SIYE before 2010.  

Today is May 2, 2018, the 20th anniversary of the Battle for Hogwarts.

We celebrate the victory over Lord Voldemort, but we also remember the many students and members of the Order of the Phoenix who fell in the battle.

Despite the destruction and suffering, the Battle for Hogwarts is the first step in a brighter future; the birth of Victoire Weasley is a sign of change as her name is a special symbol of the victory.

Is this day of joy and remembrance also the anniversary of the reunion of Harry and Ginny? I'd like to think so, but only JKR knows for sure.

The first story in the new Buried Gems series is the very first fanfiction story I've ever read. Okay, that's not quite right, it's the second since the first fanfiction story I've ever read was the German translation of this story.

I'm talking about Melindaleo's The Seventh Horcrux.

The Seventh Horcrux continues where HBP ended. The story has been published before DH. To my knowledge, the story was even traded in the internet as the leaked copy of DH. I'm not sure if this is just a legend because I started reading fanfiction about 8 years after The Seventh Horcrux had been released in 2006.

What is The Seventh Horcrux about? I think the summary explains it very well:

The hunt for the Horcruxes begins. Harry has to decide who to trust as he moves closer to fulfilling his destiny. Will he be able to find and destroy all the Horcruxes? And at what price? Will he be able to find the strength within himself "the Power the Dark Lord Knows Not" in order to succeed in vanquishing Voldemort? And, can he do it and still get the girl? Join Harry and his faithful friends on their quest to finally defeat a Dark Lord.

I remember very well that the 'and still get the girl' immediately caught my attention. Would Harry really ask Ginny to take him back?

Why do I like the story so much...and where do I start without giving too much away? 

Well, the first reason is that I think the story is very well written, I immediately felt transported back to the Harry Potter universe. The second reason are the many little loving details that, to my astonishment, had many similarities with things I've read in DH, although the plot is very different from DH. The most important reason, however, is that Ginny plays a much bigger role in The Seventh Horcrux than in DH. 

Of course, there is also a Horcrux hunt in The Seventh Horcrux, and, of course, it is completely different than in DH, which is understandable considering that DH was released later.

I don't want to reveal too much, but (spoiler alert!) in the end Harry wins against Voldemort, and...oh, I can't remember...did he really get the girl?

What do you think about The Seventh Horcrux?

Oh, and please don't hesitate to correct me if I wrote something wrong.

And what is your favourite buried gem? Just send me a PM with a short description of the story.

edit (2nd May 2018):

Since the SIYE PM function sometimes delivers empty messages only, please feel free to send me an email with your suggestions: Gin110881@yahoo.com.

(I promise to use your email addresses only for 'Buried Gems' conversations!)

Hi there,

At GHL's suggestion, I will try to establish a "Buried Gems" feature on SIYE. I'll rummage the SIYE treasure chests for stories written in the early SIYE years. The "Buried Gems" feature is intended to remind the long-time readers of this site of the stories they read many years ago, and help the somewhat newer readers to find some of the old gems buried in the depths of SIYE.

Of course, everyone is invited to suggest his/her favourite story. Just send me a PM with the title of the story, the name of the author, and a few lines with a short description of the story, why you liked it so much, and why you think the others should read it. The suggested stories should have been written before 2010, and they should be complete.

For starters, it is planned to present a story every 4-5 weeks. Dependent on the number of voluntary contributions, I'd consider posting the new edition of the feature sooner. The first edition of the Buried Gems will be released within the next few days.

As previously announced, the topic for Challenge 2018-2 is:  Tis the Valentines feast at Hogwarts, and something is odd.  The pumpkin juice tastes suspiciously good, and all who drink it are behaving strangely.  Uh oh.

Awards will be made for Most Humourous, Most Unexpected, Best Overall, and People's Choice.  Completed stories must be submitted by midnight, July 15, in order for award announcements to be made on August 1.

Please note rules for challenge stories:  submissions must be stand-alone stories that are marked as complete by deadline; stories must be shorter than 20,000 words; R-rated stories are discouraged, and judges are not required to read them.

Finally, please use this space to cast your votes for the 2018-3 challenge topic.  Additional suggestions are highly encouraged (the list could use some freshening) but prior vote-getters include:

1. Years into their marriage, Ginny discovers something surprising about Harry.  Tell us about it.
2. Auntie Muriel announces that she will take her tea at the Burrow next Sunday.  Excuses fly as everyone tries to avoid attending.  Will anyone escape?
3. A debilitating accident brings Harry's and Ginny's hectic schedules to a screeching halt.  How will things change as the couple adjusts to a slow recovery?
4. Harry has never been abroad before. His first trip is with Ginny. Where do they go, and why?
5. Late at night, a hooded stranger appears at Harry's bed and casts a spell.  Another does the same to Ginny.  The mysterious pair meets in the Common Room.  After a kiss, they whisper, "That’s done.  Now, for the great adventure."  What happens next?
6. Times are tense at Grimmauld Place... until Sirius and Lupin start sharing tales of old Marauder Pranks.  Suitably inspired, Harry and/or Ginny (you choose) decide(s) to liven things up with a bit of their own mischief.

Well, Ginny and Harry are found, Molly's blood pressure is subsiding below volcanic levels, and the people have clearly decided that our authours treated us to some wonderful fanfic literature!

Congratulations to all contributors -- every entry received votes for at least some categories and no selection was unanimous.  That said, our champions for 2018-1 are:

Most Romantic:  For Luck by melindaleo
Most Adventuresome:  Odyssey to the Orient by potterfan2008
Best Overall:  Odyssey to the Orient by potterfan2008
People's Choice:  Odyssey to the Orient by potterfan2008

Sincere appreciation to MG, OB, HG and YK for your dilligent evaluations!

And now, on to our voter-selected topic for Challenge 2018-2:

Tis the Valentines feast at Hogwarts, and something is odd.  The pumpkin juice tastes suspiciously good, and all who drink it are behaving strangely.  Uh oh.

The topic was based on a suggestion by Gin110881.  Awards will be made for Most Humourous, Most Unexpected, Best Overall, and People's Choice.  Please stay tuned for a followup announcement in about a week, specifying rules for Challenge 2018-2, and opening the voting process on possible topics for Challenge 2018-3.

After another closely fought battle the results of the February Trinkets are as follows -

Best Comedy

Best Drama

Best Romance

Best One-Shot

Best Completed

Best New Story

The voting is now open for the January 2018 DSTA's

Please vote here - http://www.siye.co.uk/trinkets.php

Winners will be announced on 29th March

Oh my!  Didn't this challenge take us some surprising and unexpected places!  Oh, right.  That was the intention...

In any case, there are six stellar stories to peruse as you, our fine readers, make your People's Choice
selections:

• Wolf portkey by V-L-K
• Odyssey to the Orient by potterfan2008
• A Tale of Two by Aniket Chowdhury
• For Luck by melindaleo
• Escape from Brextwistle Hall by Arnel
• The Legacy of Regulus Black by Gin110881

Please cast a vote for your favourite via http://siye.co.uk/trinkets.php?peopleschoice=Y, and wait upon our illustrious judges with bated breath whilst they make choices for 'Most Adventuresome', 'Most Romantic' and 'Best Overall'.

I'll be back to you all on April 1 with challenge awards, and our topic selection for 2018-2 (which you can all still be voting on too, if you wish).

Very close in the voting for several of the categories so well done to everyone, but the winners are as follows -

Best Comedy

Best Drama

Best Romance

Best One-Shot

Best Completed

Best New Story

UPDATE: We've received a goodly number of donations. Thank you everybody for your kindness and generosity.

It has long been SIYE's tradition to forego obnoxious advertising and pay for the domain and the hosting with donations provided by patrons like you. The time for SIYE to pay its annual hosting bill is approaching. If any of you happen to be rolling in dough or have some extra dollars that need a home, please consider forwarding some money our way. We prefer to collect via PayPal. The link can be found under EXTRAS > DONATE TO THE SITE. Thank you for your consideration.

"This is all my fault, Harry." Ginny sighed, turning deliberately away from him as she used her wand to sweep away decades of greasy dust from the interior of an old cabinet. "You've not said a thing since, er, you know, so I gather you're quite angry."

"Angry?? No, no, no." Harry stretched warily away from corner where he was vanishing mouse droppings and peered into the corridor to make sure they were alone. "I was deathly afraid I'd die laughing in front of Filch and get our detentions doubled!"

"Laughing? Whatever about?"

With one final glance out the door, Harry turned with an ear-to-ear grin. "Didn't you notice? After your little explosion, Warrington, uh... had a wee bit of an accident."

"Accident??" Holding a half-dusted urn, Ginny turned to him with wide eyes.

"You didn't see that wet spot?"

"Wet...? Oh my!" Failing to stifle a hoot of hysterics, Ginny sputtered straight across the urn, raising an eruption of dust.

"Mind your step, Gin'." Reaching over, putting a hand on her arm lest she teeter over, Harry eyes turned, incidentally, to the newly exposed bronze surface on the urn.  He stared. "Hey, what's this?"

"What's what?" Wiping away a couple of tears from her eyes with her free hand, Ginny turned her attention to the partially exposed engraving. "St. Jerome's Church, Godr..." Squinting, she extended a finger to wipe away some remnant dirt, and was about to read the last of the name, when-

"Gak!!" Both student felt a sharp tug somewhere in the pits of the stomachs, and the filthy store room swirled away into darkness...

***

Eep!  And what happens next, pray tell?

Do let us all know how it all turns out, or kick off your own Portkey misadventure for SIYE's Portkey Challenge (2018-1).  Awards will be made for Most Adventuresome, Most Romantic, Best Overall, and People's Choice.  Completed stories must be submitted by midnight, March 15, in order for award announcements to be made on April 1.

Please note rules for challenge stories (including some judge-requested modifications):  submissions must be stand-alone short stories (may be part of a series, but must contain introduction, climax and resolution all in Challenge entry), and the stories must be marked as complete by deadline.  Each submission must be shorter than 20,000 words; R-rated stories are discouraged, and judges are not required to read them.

Readers:  we are always looking for new judges, so some additional volunteers are always apreciated!  If I don't hear from anyone, I may trying twisting a few arms...

Finally, please use this space to continue casting votes for the 2018-2 challenge topic.  Additional suggestions are encouraged but top current choices include:

1.  Years into their marriage, Ginny discovers something surprising about Harry.  Tell us about it.
2.  Auntie Muriel announces that she will take her tea at the Burrow next Sunday.  Excuses fly as everyone tries to avoid attending.  Will anyone escape?
3.  Tis the Valentines feast at Hogwarts, and something is odd.  The pumpkin juice tastes suspiciously good, and all who drink it are behaving strangely.  Uh oh.
4.  A debilitating accident brings Harry's and Ginny's hectic schedules to a screeching halt.  How will things change as the couple adjusts to a slow recovery?
5.  My, how the kids have grown!  And didn't you notice how [] was looking at [] yesterday?  Oh dear, I'm afraid it's time for... 'the talk'.
6.  Harry has never been abroad before. His first trip is with Ginny. Where do they go, and why?
7.  Late at night, a hooded stranger appears at Harry's bed and casts a spell.  Another does the same to Ginny.  The mysterious pair meets in the Common Room.  After a kiss, they whisper, "That’s done.  Now, for the great adventure."  What happens next?

Edit 5/2/18 - Winners of the Annual Awards will be posted this coming Thursday 8th February.  Sorry for the short notice.

The votes have been counted and the results are now in for the November 2017 DSTA's.  The winners are as follows:

Best Comedy

Best Drama

Best Romance

Best One-Shot

Best Completed

Best New Story

And now after a minor malfunction I believe I have opened the voting for the 2017 annual awards. *fingers crossed*  Results will be posted in February, exact date to be confirmed shortly.

 http://www.siye.co.uk/trinkets.php

The voting is now open for the November 2017 DSTA's

Please vote here - http://www.siye.co.uk/trinkets.php

Winners will be announced on 30th January

Well it's not quite new year where I am, but as it's new year already somewhere I'd just like to take this chance to say thank you to everyone for your continued support of the site, whether it's as an author or as a reader, it's very much appreciated.  I'd like to wish everyone Happy New Year and all the best for 2018, and let's hope it continues to be another good year for SIYE!

As previously announced, the topic for Challenge 2018-1 is:  By accident, Harry and Ginny stumble upon a hidden Portkey and are swept away.  What happens next, and how do they get back?

Awards will be made for Most Adventuresome, Most Romantic, Best Overall, and People's Choice.  Completed stories must be submitted by midnight, March 15, in order for award announcements to be made on April 1.

Please note rules for challenge stories (including some judge-requested modifications):  submissions must be stand-alone stories that are marked as complete by deadline; stories must be shorter than 20,000 words; R-rated stories are discouraged, and judges are not required to read them.

Finally, please use this space to cast your votes for the 2018-2 challenge topic.  Additional suggestions are encouraged but top current choices include:

1.  Years into their marriage, Ginny discovers something surprising about Harry.  Tell us about it.
2.  Auntie Muriel announces that she will take her tea at the Burrow next Sunday.  Excuses fly as everyone tries to avoid attending.  Will anyone escape?
3.  Tis the Valentines feast at Hogwarts, and something is odd.  The pumpkin juice tastes suspiciously good, and all who drink it are behaving strangely.  Uh oh.
4.  A debilitating accident brings Harry's and Ginny's hectic schedules to a screeching halt.  How will things change as the couple adjusts to a slow recovery?
5.  My, how the kids have grown!  Voices are changing, giggles spur up at the oddest moments.  Dear, I think it's time for... 'the talk'.
6.  Harry has never been abroad before. His first trip is with Ginny. Where do they go, and why?
7.  Late at night, a hooded stranger appears at Harry's bed and casts a spell.  Another does the same to Ginny.  The mysterious pair meets in the Common Room.  After a kiss, they whisper, "That’s done.  Now, for the great adventure."  What happens next?

Quite a wild ride, this magical creature hunt has been!

Well, the dust has settled, the beasts are accounted for, and the judging is complete.  Congratulations to all contributors, and especially those who produced our winning stories:

• Most Unexpected:  Chasing Gnats, by Gin110881
• Most Adventuresome:  In Search of the Isle of Drear (unanimous selection), by potterfan2008
• Best Overall:  In Search of the Isle of Drear, by potterfan2008
• People's Choice:  In Search of the Isle of Drear, by potterfan2008

Let us all offer a round of applause for our wonderful judges:  AS, KH, MG, AM1 & AM2!

I will mention, for interest's sake, that for every authour who wrote a second story for this challenge, it was the second story that fared best in judging.  Fascinating.  In light of this, from heretoforward, I am happy to now make it standard policy that writers may contribute more than one story to a challenge.

This makes a nice seque to announcing our voter-selected topic for Challenge 2018-1:

By accident, Harry and Ginny stumble upon a hidden Portkey and are swept away.  What happens next, and how do they get back?

Awards will be made for Most Adventuresome, Most Romantic, Best Overall, and People's Choice.  Please stay tuned for a followup announcement in about a week, specifying rules for Challenge 2018-1, and opening the voting process on possible topics for Challenge 2018-2.

The votes have been counted and the results for the latest DSTA's are as follows -

Best Comedy

Best Drama

Best Romance

Best One-Shot

Best Completed

Best New Story

Where has the time gone!  It seems like the last two months have flown by.  And so without further ado I now pronounce the voting open.  Winners will be announced on 30th November.

http://www.siye.co.uk/trinkets.php

Well well well!  There was clearly a demand for some magical critters, and that has been met with seven fine stories to choose from for the People's Choice Award:

• Tengu and Ninja's Daughter by StarFeather
• Chasing Gnats by Gin110881
• Finding Hedwig by Gin110881
• Harry Potter and Druidic Magic by StarFeather
• In Search of the Isle of Drear by potterfan2008
• Featured Story Suitcase Burrower by 0902FRIENDs
• Going on a Unicorn Hunt by potterfan2008

Please cast a vote for your favourite via http://siye.co.uk/trinkets.php?peopleschoice=Y, and cheer on our judges as they sift carefully through the criteria to arrive at their selections for 'Most Adventuresome', 'Most Unexpected' and 'Best Overall'.

I'll chime in again on Dec. 1 with challenge awards, and our topic selection for 2018-1.

NOTE:  this is a bit unusual, but for StarFeather's story "Harry Potter and Druidic Magic", it seems that only Chapters 4 and 5 are to be considered as the Challenge entry.  I am inclined to allow this since it's a fine story and various of us in the past have submitted Challenge entries that are part of a longer series of stories.  For fairness to the other entrants, however, judges and People's Choice voters should take into consideration how well these two chapters, as an isolated unit, stand alone as a distinct story.

Dear friends!  It is almost upon us -- another submission deadline to another exciting SIYE challenge!

As a reminder, the topic for Challenge 2017-3:  Somebody is going on a magical creature hunt -- tell us about it!

Categories for the challenge include 'Most Adventuresome', 'Most Unexpected' and 'Best Overall'.  Stories must be marked as complete by midnight, Nov. 15, in order for award announcements to be made on Dec. 1.  By way of old standard caveats, please note that judges are not required to read stories that are classified as 'Restricted', and are permitted to skive off after the 20,000th word of long stories.

For this challenge, we had waived the strict requirement that stories focus on Harry/Ginny, although I believe most stories are fairly HG-centric thus far.

Those people who have judged in the past, please expect a note from me sometime in the coming ~week asking you again for your participation.  Those who have not judged in the last, but are interest in doing so are asked to contact me via my profile.

Finally, votes and ideas for the Challenge 2018-1 topic are still being tallied.  Comments are a bit distributed, but input will be considered from anyone who replies to this new item, or to any of those time-stamped as below:

2017.08.01 - 05:02AM

2017.09.01 - 12:04PM

2017.10.01 - 10:19AM

Thank you all!

                  - GHL

"So I thought to myself, 'Oi James, now you're done for!  It's dead dark an' you'll never find your way back!', then suddenly a second Hinkypunk -- a good Hinkypunk this time -- pops up behind me, an' he's lighting up the gap in the hedge, an' I say, 'Oh bless you, bless you, li'l mate!', an' I run run run all the way back home, and snuck back in bed 'fore anyone even noticed I was gone!"

"You're bluffing, Jamey!"  Albus Severus scowled at his older brother.  "No way you went down to the stream last night, no way there's a Lethifold behind the gorse, and way no way he took Griffy!"

"Leffy-fooled took Gwiffy-Wiffy!"  Lily Luna clapped her hands, grinning cheekily at Albus's glare.

"No bluffin'."  James gave his younger brother a deathly serious smirk.  "Only way to get your stuffed Griffin back now 'sif we go down there together.  You lure the Lethifold away, an' I'll grab Griffy."

"Al fools leffy-fool 'n' Jamey grabs Gwiffy 'n' Lily Luner's gonna watch!"  Lily danced about the room, singing her assessment.

"Oi crumbs."  Albus's face sank wearily into his hand.  "When do we go?"

James thought for a moment.  "Maybe Tuesday night, as it's full moon an' we shan't need the Hinky-"

"Biscuits and milk!"  Ginny sailed into the room with a loaded tray, then froze, reading their faces.  "Oh my!  What are you three planning now??"

After a moment of awkward silence, Lily shrugged.  "Nuffin' Muvver."


***************


Two wonderful stories in and six more weeks to discover some others, right?  Time to rattle some keys and jolt us readers with your great tales of tails, yarns of barns, and furry fantasies!

Give the time stretch between the earliest stories that those about to come our way, I am going to add our first two entries to Featured Story prominence.

Finally, please continue to cast votes for favorite 2018-1 challenge topics within the 2017.09.01 discussion space (scroll down SIYE home  page).  Note that the newest topic suggestions, plus vote-getters from the 2018-1 ballot, will be recycled as options for the 2018-2 challenge.

The votes have been tallied and the results are in.  The winners are as follows:

Best Comedy

And so it's that time again, time to vote for our favourite stories of the last two months.  Although a few of the categories are a bit thin on the ground with nominations it has been decided to keep to the schedule of a two-month cycle in order to hold the Annual Awards early next year.

And so I now hand the reins over to yourselves.  Please vote for your favourite stories.  Voting can be found here -

http://www.siye.co.uk/trinkets.php

I *think* I'm away on the 29th (calf shopping!) so voting will close and the winners will be announced on Thursday 28th September.

We at SIYE are thrilled to mark Albus Severus Potter's first ride on the Hogwarts Express this morning!  Cheers, little fellow -- it will all work out, yeah?

Challenge 2017-3 Update:

We're off to a roaring start.  Welsh Green, or Hungarian Horntail you ask?  Nay, the roaring is all the applause for two great stories already in the mill, and hopefully more to come!

A special note:  we received a question about whether it is permissible for an author to submit two stories to the same challenge?  The answer is that, to the best of our research, nobody ever said no (and indeed the Hemmingway 6 challenges actively encouraged multiple entries) so all writers with multiple beastly tales are welcome to contribute them!

By way of reminder, the topic for Challenge 2017-3 is  Somebody is going on a magical creature hunt -- tell us about it!  Categories for the challenge include 'Most Adventuresome', 'Most Unexpected' and 'Best Overall'.  Stories must be submitted by midnight, Nov. 15, in order for award announcements to be made on Dec. 1.  The strict requirement that stories focus on Harry/Ginny is relaxed for this challenge, although it's impossible to deny that HG stories are always real crowd pleasers.

Let's Begin Voting for 2018-1 Topics:

1. Years into their marriage, Ginny discovers something surprising about Harry.  Tell us about it.
2. By accident, Harry and Ginny stumble upon a hidden Portkey and are swept away.  What happens next, and how do they get back?
3. Harry has never been abroad before. His first trip is with Ginny. Where do they go, and why?
4. In the rubble of the final battle, Harry and Ginny both think that the other has perished.  What do they do?
5. Harry secretly discovers that the Mirror of Erised can be used for time travel!  Ginny secretly learns the same thing, and both begin using the mirror, without realising that the other is doing so too.  Oi, there's a recipe for trouble!
6. Harry's and Ginny's hectic lifestyles come to a screeching halt when one of them suffers a debilitating accident.  How will things change as the couple adjusts to a slow recovery?

Please let us know your preferences!  Please also feel free to make new suggestions, which will be added to the above list.

Her greatest fan just reminded me that today is Ginny's birthday.  Happy 36th!!

When Harry J's big day went off with a bang in the Cheviot Hills, I was off on travels, focusing on my road rather than his.  Perhaps he too will accept our belated cheers!

For this latest Challenge 2017-2 awards, we are pleased to announce (drumroll please) the following triumphant stories:

•     Most Humourous and Most Unexpected:  Revenge is Sweet by Gin110881
•     Best Overall and People's Choice:  Just a Talk and That's the Naked Truth by pleurocoelus

And finally, the Rory Award for Most Gratuitous Use of the Word 'Belgium' shall be shared between Revenge is Sweet by Gin110881, and Homecoming by Brennus.  

A tremendous round of virtual applause to our diligent judges:  ZA, SM, AM, KH, JG, MG and AS!

And now, here is the topic for Challenge 2017-3:  Somebody is going on a magical creature hunt -- tell us about it!

Categories for the challenge include 'Most Adventuresome', 'Most Unexpected' and 'Best Overall'.  Stories must be submitted by midnight, Nov. 15, in order for award announcements to be made on Dec. 1.

For this challenge, I am going to waive the strict requirement that stories focus on Harry/Ginny, although authors who find some way to at least weave them into tale will always earn a little extra appreciation from many SIYE devotees.

Please use this space to begin proposing topics for Challenge 2018-1.  Please Please.

The results are in for the May 2017 Dumbledore Silver Trinket Awards.  Huge thanks to everyone who voted, and congratulations to all the winners and everyone who was nominated.  Nominations are now being accepted for the July 2017 awards.

Best Comedy

• Winner: James and Me by Northumbrian
• Honourable Mention: Revenge Is Sweet by Gin110881

 

Best Drama

• Winner: Harry Potter and Love's Changes by ScubaDoc3
• Honourable Mention: The Reason Not To by potterfan2008

 

Best Romance

• Winner: James and Me by Northumbrian
• Honourable Mention: Realizations by potterfan2008

 

Best One-Shot

• Winner: Revenge Is Sweet by Gin110881
• Honourable Mention: Discovering His Roots by potterfan2008

 

Best Completed

• Winner: A Little Bit of Hope by CharmHazel
• Honourable Mention: Like Flames by DragonHeartstring

 

Best New Story

• Winner: Like Flames by DragonHeartstring
• Honourable Mention: James and Me by Northumbrian

The last two months have flown by and now it is time to vote for your favourites again.  The votiing is now open for the May 2017 trinkets.  We have a good number of stories submitted and your votes can be cast here -

http://www.siye.co.uk/trinkets.php

The results will be posted on 29th July so as to not clash with Challenge posts.

EDIT 24/7/17 - Due to work commitments on Saturday and being away on Sunday I will now close the voting and post the results on Friday 28th July.

Brill!  Happily, I have been proven wrong on both major counts of my message from this morning.  Sometime between my settling into a strange bed late last night, and my blearily hitting the road this morning, we did indeed get a second story before the deadline.  And, somewhere in all this, there may well be the mention of a flat EU country; purveyor of fine wheat beers and lagers!

Anyway, our two illustrious stories are:

• Revenge is Sweet by Gin110881
• Just a Talk and That's the Naked Truth by pleurocoelus

Community involvement is greatly encouraged, courtesy of the People's Choice award voting:

http://siye.co.uk/trinkets.php?peopleschoice=Y

Sometime, shortly after expelling the host of gnomes that broke into my home in my absence, I will try to write to esteemed judges with revised instructions.

Hmmm...  Well, unless someone has dreamed up a rather novel gag, I believe that the April Fool's Challenge has produced only one story.  It is, however, a fine one:

Revenge is Sweet by Gin110881

There will be no People's Challenge, obviously, so over the next two weeks judges will ponder the pranksome nature of a titilating tale of knickers, chess pieces, and misplaced attribution, to determine which of the following categories is a suitable award:

• Most Humourous
• Most Unexpected
• Best Overall

There is, to my knowledge, no gratuitous use of the word Belgium to evaluate, hence there is no need to compromise anyone's beer loyalties.

Dear judges:  I am currently on travel and am limited in my laptop time, so I will send you a note with instructions within the next 24 hours.

HG4evr!

             - GHL

"Er..."  Wide eyed, Harry scratched his head.  "Now that was unexpected."

Watching huge gobs of greenish clotted cream oozing from Marcus Flint's armpits, Ginny sputtered into her hand.  "Oops!"  She took Harry's arm and steered him away from the spectacle that had exploded the Great Hall into hysterics.  "I may have dribbled too much doxy egg-yoke into the potion by accident.  Oh well."

"Accident?"  Leaving the raucous hall, Harry glanced back in time to see Flint skid in the cream and land tail first in the mess.  He smirked and pulled his new-found conspirator a bit closer.   "Say, Gin'.  I wouldn't mind having another accident like the one we had yesterday in the, uh, broom closet."  His eyes couldn't resist a quick glance at his conspirator's lips.

"Nuh uh, Potter."  Ginny shook her head firmly.

"No?"  Harry blinked, a bit crestfallen.

"Of course not."  Ginny tugged Harry to the side, sending them both stumbling into a tiny alcove, rattling an old mop and some pails.  "This time it's no accident!"

*******************

So April Fool's Day may be months past, but who's not looking forward to reliving some great pranks??  The next challenge is due in less than twelve days now -- we have one great story in already, and at least one more in the works, but here's hoping there are loads more tricks and gags waiting to be sprung on poor hapless Hogwarts villains!

Please get your entries in by midnight SIYE time on July 15th.  Some of you should also be on the lookout for judging requests.  Also, we need to pin down our topic for Challenge 2017-3.  Please either suggest a topic, or vote for one of our the top prior candidates:

• Someone is going on a magical creature hunt. Why they are hunting the creature?  Do they find it?  Tell us about the journey.
• Years into their marriage, Ginny discovers something surprising about Harry.  Tell us about it.
• By accident, Harry and Ginny stumble upon a hidden Portkey and are swept away.  What happens next, and how do they get back?

WHAMM!!!

As the shock wave receded from the Gryffindor Table, Colin Creevey timidly wiped a spatter of stew from his nose, Ginny slowly emerged from her blast crouch, and several seventh years looked down their sharp seventh-year noses at... Harry Potter.

On her way over from the Ravenclaw table, Luna smiled genially.  "Good evening, Harry Potter.  You're looking quite tetchy tonight."

Harry took a breath, low and raspy like a 'quite tetchy' lethifold. His white knuckles unclenched the seat back that he had just slammed, and he scanned the Great Hall, seething, "I'm going to rearrange someone's bloody face."

"Oh dear no."  Luna blinked.  "It need not be bloody.  Magical healers can do excellent, non-intrusive cosmetic surgery these days."

Ignoring her, Ginny stared at Harry.  "Oi Potter.  Does that mean they got you too?"

"Got me too?"  Harry looked in askance.  "Do you mean, someone else was cursed with a singing cauldron in Potions?"

"Yes.  Me."  Ginny nodded stiffly, banishing from her mind the strains of a daft love song (something about her fancying the Boy Who Lived).  "They pranked me this morning."  

"Bugger."  Harry gritted his teeth for a moment.  "Do you have any idea who did it?"

Ginny's shoulders slumped.  "No.  Snape took all the evidence and locked it in his office.  How are we going to find out?"

"Simple!"  Luna beamed a ray of sunshine at her friends.  "Just ask that lot over at SIYE.  They know everything that happens to us."

"Hey!"  Harry grinned.  "That's a great idea.  You know, I'm still chuckling about that Hugo Granger-Weasley piece.  That poor lad is so clueless..."

"True."  Ginny smiled.  "But I think my favourite was the story about two weddings.  Who would have thought, you know, that old Mrs. Figg would have let that happen?"

"Uh, I may have missed that one..."  Harry scratched his chin.  "What was that about two wedd-?"

"Shush!"  Luna rapped the table.  "Be quiet and hear what the authors say.  Meanwhile, I'll find you a book on cosmetic surgery."

*********************

Somebody has just wronged Harry and Ginny, and they're going to get even in the most fitting and funny way possible.  There are roughly six weeks left for you to tell us about it and compete for fame and (nonmonetary) fortune in the 2017-2 April Fools Challenge!

Challenge award categories are:

• Most Humourous
• Most Unexpected
• Best Overall
• People's Choice Award

Standard advisories:  all challenge entries must be marked as 'Complete' by the due date (midnight, July 15, 2017).  Stories longer than 20,000 words or with a Restricted rating are discouraged.  Judges need not read Restricted stories, and are not asked to read beyond the 20,000th word of any story.

Everyone, please feel free to suggest new challenge ideas whenever they occur to you!

The results are in for the June 2016 Dumbledore Silver Trinket Awards, and I can tell you it was very close in a few of the categories.  Congratulations to all the winners and everyone who was nominated.  Nominations are now being accepted for what *should* be the May 2017 trinkets.

Best Comedy

• Winner: Animal Quackers by GHL
• Honourable Mention: I'd Rather Fall In Chocolate by Kezzabear

Best Drama

• Winner: The Aurors by FloreatCastellum
• Honourable Mention: Gothic by Brennus

Best Romance

• Winner: Biscuits Deferred by GHL
• Honourable Mention: The Moments That Matter by Charm Hazel

Best One-Shot

• Winner: A Romance In Reverse by DukeBrymin
• Honourable Mention: Ginny's Heartache by TomBombadil

Best Completed

• Winner: Gothic by Brennus
• Honourable Mention: The Aurors by FloreatCastellum

Best New Story

• Winner: Hiding In Plain Sight by GinevrasChampion
• Honourable Mention: The Road Not Taken by potterfan2008

Well it's still a work-in-progress with figuring out just where we are with them, but I can now announce that the voting is now open for the June 2016 Silver Trinkets.  There's quite a few stories to choose from and you can vote at the following link -

http://www.siye.co.uk/trinkets.php

P.S. The winners will be announced on 20th May, so if you haven't already done so then please vote for your favourites.

Well.  So there are some things that need to be announced, or at least chatted about, and although I'm not truly the right person to be making announcements, I'm at least a decent sort to start chatting.

First of all, and most importantly, Spenser Hemmingway is stepping down from his Senior Administrator and Trinkets Tsar role, "effective May".  That may or may not mean tomorrow, but regardless it is certainly soon.  I don't know details, but Sir Ollivander told us that Spenser / Eric has accepted a college position in creative writing.  Fitting, I would say!

Anyway, hopefully those who know more, and perhaps our long-time SIYE icon himself, may be able to provide more information, but in the mean time, let's wish him well!

Secondly, Hannah / GinnyWeasley777, has agreed to take on the Trinkets and get them charged up again.  Thank you Hannah!  In return, I will assume full responsibility for Challenges.

Thirdly, I am aware, and somewhat disheartened, by the fair number of minor unresolved technical problems on the site, including failures in new account approval, review responses, and (for some authors) an inability to edit old chapters.  I don't personally have the control (and perhaps not the know-how) to fix these problems, but the appropriate authorities have been alerted.

I will admit that this is a difficult time for SIYE.  We are limping along, but we are not dead yet, especially if authors, readers and volunteers continue to make things happen.

Thank you all!

***Comment: Hey folks, a quick good bye. It's been a great twelve years with a great group of people here. I will going on to Portland State University to work on a Master of Arts in Writing, Book Design, and Publishing. I don't know if I would have pursued it if not for my experiences at SIYE. Great luck to all of you and thanks. One last time...Mischief managed! Spenser / Eric

What a grand way to honour a grand day!

Er, what's so grand about today?  Sixth anniversary of Alan Rickman's last on-stage performance?

No silly.  I mean, yes, BUT today is April Fool's day and what better way to honour it than with a "Pranks" Challenge?  Indeed, it is not just the twins who can pull a prank.  Somebody has just wronged Harry and Ginny, and they're going to get even in the most fitting and funny way possible.  Tell us about it!  Please note that these shenanigans need not take place on April 1, however they're certainly welcome to borrow from the spirit of this fine day!

Challenge award categories are:

  Most Humourous

  Most Unexpected

  Best Overall

  People's Choice Award

  Most Gratuitous Use of the Word Belgium in a Serious Screen Play

Authours, please have your stories submitted by July 15, 2017 to line us up for an awards announcement on August Fool's Day.  The usual caveats apply as far as judges not having to read Restricted stories, or read past the 20,000th word of a story.

Everyone, please feel free to suggest new challenge ideas whenever they occur to you!

The votes have been counted and the results are now in.  The winners are -

Best Overall - A Romance In Reverse by DukeBrymin

Most Romantic - The Moments That Matter by CharmHazel

Most Unexpected - A Romance In Reverse by DukeBrymin

The People's Choice Award - A Romance In Reverse

Huge thanks to all the authors who entered, and to all the judges for taking the time to vote (SM, MG, GL, AM, MS, AS)

The winning stories are now in the featured story section.  Keep an eye out for the 2017-2 challenge which is coming soon!

Reviews are now fixed! Thank you for your patience

Dear all,

Five days late, but with good reason.  We have six wonderful challenge stories for you all to read, as listed at:

    http://www.siye.co.uk/categories.php?catid=85 

Please register your votes for the People's Choice Award via the following link:

   http://siye.co.uk/trinkets.php?peopleschoice=Y

Sadly, I do not yet have word on a resolution to the technical problem with leaving story reviews, so please feel free to use this discussion space to comment on stories.

Also, please continue to state your preferences for the next challenge topic (2017-2), ideally within the earlier update discussion:

   http://www.siye.co.uk/news.php?action=newsstory&nid=1706

We look forward to announcing the 2017-1 challenge winners, and the upcoming 2017-2 challenge topic, on April 1.

No foolin'!

Dear all,

Authours, please do not feel unloved for the next while if you don't receive reviews on your stories -- the function is temporarily unavailable, and will hopefully be restored reasonably soon!

For those wondering about the recent outages, they were the result of denial of service attacks.  Why hackers might wish to target a site that brings the joys of free, heart-felt fiction to the world, we may never know.  But with your patience and the technical skills of generous volunteers like Bear (who donated a good chunk of his time thwarting the attacks) we shall persevere!

Happy reading and writing to all!

                                - GHL

P.S.  While we wait for word about the reviewing function, anyone who feels strongly (hopefully positively) about any of our new slate of stories is welcome to leave a comment in this thread.

Update to the Update:  two days ago I was able to log on just long enough to write the message below when the site crashed for more than another full day, which rendered the challenge 'extension' fairly meaningless.  Furthermore, I have it on good information that at least one authour attempted to submit a story but was thwarted in doing so.

So, although I'll leave the old message in its original form below, Hannah, Sir Ollivander and I were quite unanimous on wanting more than just a 24 hour extension, so perhaps we should set the new deadline as midnight, March, 20.

And now, let's all dip into out stores of Felix Felicis and hope for a bit of server stability!

[The problem with SIYE crashing is at our host server site.  I personally have not learned what the problem(s) is/are but we are definitely in contact to find out why and when SIYE will be stable.  -Sir Ollivander]

================================

Friends, seeing as how many times the site has been down in the past few days, I think it's only fair that we extend the submission deadline by a day in case there were any other authors attempting to submit stories.  So let's say that we will accept any stories submitted before midnight SIYE time on March 16th.

Shortly thereafter, the category will close, and stories will be open for People's Choice voting.

Thank you for your patience.

"Oi, what a plank..."  Stumbling his way back up toward the castle, Harry shook his head, disgusted over his sudden bout of awkwardness.

It should have been simple -- find Ginny down by the lake shore, return her lost Potions essay, chat cheerily, and forget his Ron/Hermione problems.  Instead, he'd found himself tongue-tied and twisted, floundering for a cringeworthy minute, then beating a hasty retreat before her initial gratitude could turn from puzzled bemusement to full-on laughter.

He couldn't figure why he had turned so divvy in front of Ron's little sister.  He was even more puzzled that this bothered him so much.  Derision had been a constant feature of Harry's younger years, easily ignored, so why care now?  Was it just because her... her...

... her eyes had sparkled like the sun-kissed lake?  Hair gleaming in the warm westerly glow -- an irridescent crown of-?

"Hi Harry!"

Harry jumped, whipping about, setting his gaze on... Michael Corner.

The Ravenclaw smiled and waved.  "Harry, have you seen Ginevra Weasley?  Her friends told me she might be by the lake."

"Uhh..."  Harry stared dumbly, rubbing his jaw with the grace of an obliviated ape.

"I'm trying to find her."  Corner pulled out his wand in a non-threatening way.  "She was having difficulty with some of her DADA spells, and I intended to offer..."

"NO!!"

Corner gaped.  "Eh?  Beg Pardon?"

Blinking at his own outburst, Harry shook his head.

"So you haven't seen her?"  Corner raised an eyebrow.

Seen her?  Harry frowned.  In all these years, he'd never truly seen her, had he?  The little girl from Platform 9 3/4?  The living, quaking body that had clung to him down in the Chamber?  The charming young woman with-

"Ahem?"

"Oh, sorry."  Harry nodded.  "I guess I never saw her, Michael.  Say, have you tried the library?"

"Library?"  Corner scratched his head.  "I just came from there but...  Perhaps we just missed each other?"  He turned back toward the castle.  "Okay, well thanks Harry."

Michael Corner had retreated out of sight past a heavy thicket before Harry loosed a long conflicted sigh.  Then, preparing to make his own way up the hill, he heard something.  A voice.  A voice of gentle concern, a lilting D major arpeggio on a fine harp...

"What's the matter, Harry?  Did I say something to upset you?"

Slowly, Harry turned to see two eyes gazing tentatively up at him; eyes wide, deep, and very... beautiful?

And there was a hand -- Ginny's hand; small and gentle; reaching inquiringly.  "Are you okay?  You look a bit peaky."

Harry's words failed him, but no matter, for his fingers (far wiser than brain or heart) had found the courage to act, to meet the proffered hand.  To accept it.  Cherish it.  Draw it close.

--------------------------------

Part two of 'little scribble', per Martin's request  :)

My charming witches and gentlewizards, we have one wonderful story in hand.  Are more forthcoming?  Will Pleurocoelus's Cretaceous muse come through for him?  Other hands helping Harry to pluck up the courage?

Please note that we are always on the lookout for judges.  If you judged in recent challenges, you may expect to hear again from GinnyWeasey777 or myself soliciting your kind opinions for this round.  If you haven't already judged, then do consider dropping us a PM or e-mail to volunteer.

Finally, it is not too early to consider topics for Challenge 2017-2.  Below are some promising concepts from earlier.  Please voice your choices here in this forum, and/or propose new topics.

1.  It's not just the twins who can pull a prank.  Somebody has just wronged Harry and Ginny, and they're going to get even in the most fitting and funny way possible.  Tell us about it! 

2.  Someone is going on a magical creature hunt. The challenge would be to tell why they are hunting the creature, do they find it, and tell about the journey.

3. Years into their marriage, Ginny discovers something surprising about Harry.  Tell us about it.

4.  Harry ran away for all the wrong reasons. Ginny has finally tracked him down. What happens next?

Four short weeks until March 15 challenge deadline, mates!  Poor Harry will languish if you don't give him that kick of inspiration.  Poor Ginny will wonder, again, whether she'll ever find that perfect arm about her, banishing the old fears...

In case it's any help, here's a little scribble to spark some creative engines.

==============================

Harry's knuckles whitened... then he released the edge of the table and glowered at an empty chair across of him.

Chewing her lip, Hermione listened to the thuds of Ron stomping petulantly up the steps toward the dorms.  She loosed a weary breath, and patted her friend's arm.  "I'm sorry, Harry."

"Sorry?"  Harry's brow crinkled.  "What are you sorry for?"

"I, er..."  Hermione's chewed lip grew paler.  "I'm sorry that Ron's being so impossible, but I can't really take your side either."

Harry stared at her.  Hermione looked away, shaking her head.  "Sorry, I just can't.  The two of you will just have to sort it out for yourselves."

She turned from the table and made her way quickly, quietly, toward the girls' dorms.  Harry stared after her for a long moment, incredulous and hurt.  Alone.

Indeed, their latest row had (once again) cleared the Common Room.  Harry's weary eyes swept the empty chamber.  The gaggle of first-years had fled an hour ago.  Dean and Neville had long since packed up their chess match.  Even Ginny had given up on them -- her favourite desk vacated, jumper gone from the chair-back, not a hint of...

Huh?  Harry's eyes caught a glimpse of... something fallen into the shadowy space between the wall and the bookcase -- perfectly hidden but from his odd current vantage.  He crossed the room, knelt down, stretched his arm into the narrow crack, and pulled out -- a scroll.  Upon which he saw flowing script, neatly stating, 'Potions Essay 12.  Ginny Weasley.'

"Oi!"  Harry blinked.  "Wouldn't want to lose this, would you Gin'?  I reckon it's due tomorrow."

He pursed his lips.  "Where did she say she was off to?  For a stroll by the lake?"  He glanced at his own swotting --  parchment strewn about from the argument, lessons driven from his mind by the frustration of having such a git for a best friend.  He gazed at the window, at the late sun playing off moody clouds and felt a vague longing for...

For what?  For fresh air?  A friendly face to chat with?

Harry shrugged.  "Well, at least she'll be glad to have her essay back."  He pulled on his cloak, and made his way to the portrait hole.

==============================

Remember, the categories for judging are Best Overall, Most Romantic, Most Unexpected, and the People's Choice Award.

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 The Carpe Diem Challenge (2017-1) sub-category of SIYE Challenges and be submitted by midnight SIYE time on Wednesday 15th March 2017.

3. Only completed stories will be accepted. Multiple chapters are allowed as long as all the requirements are in the chapters and the story is completed by the deadline. All stories still go through the same approval process as normal submissions so please don't wait until the last minute to submit your story.

UPDATE: Thank you, everybody, for your generosity. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly SIYE's patrons respond to the call. At this point, SIYE has enough to pay for the upcoming year and perhaps most of the following year, too. If you were unable to donate at this time but are wanting to donate at another time, our account does accept donations 24/7/365. Thank you. RLS

It has long been SIYE's tradition to eschew advertising and pay for the domain and the hosting with donations provided by patrons like you. The time for SIYE to pay its annual hosting bill is fast approaching. If any of you happen to be in possession of a healthy wallet and a fair amount of goodwill toward SIYE, please consider donating. We prefer to collect via PayPal. The link can be found under EXTRAS > DONATE TO THE SITE. Thank you for your consideration.

So the votes are in and we have our winners for the 2016-3 challenge and now it's time to turn our attentions to the next.

Come on now - did Harry truly have to wait until spring of his sixth year to snog Ginny?

Your challenge is to write a story telling how our favourite pair get together earlier.

The categories for judging are Best Overall, Most Romantic, Most Unexpected, and the People's Choice Award.

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 The Carpe Diem Challenge (2017-1) sub-category of SIYE Challenges and be submitted by midnight SIYE time on Wednesday 15th March 2017.

3. Only completed stories will be accepted. Multiple chapters are allowed as long as all the requirements are in the chapters and the story is completed by the deadline. All stories still go through the same approval process as normal submissions so please don't wait until the last minute to submit your story.

Wow -- impressive bunch of stories!

There was a truly pitched battle for some of these awards, but in the end, the winners for the Burrow Secret Challenge 2016-3 are clear:

People's Choice Award:  The Secret Diary of Hugo Granger-Weasley, Aged Thirteen and a Half by FloreatCastellum

Most Unexpected:  Finding a Happy Ending by Bekah Jo

Most Humourous:  The Secret Diary of Hugo Granger-Weasley, Aged Thirteen and a Half by FloreatCastellum

Best Overall:  A Family Duty by Potterfan2008

A tremendous round of applause to all of our stories, and sincere thanks to our judges (HW, SM, JG, OB, AM, FF & AS) and our People's Choice voters.  At least one judge did keep detailed comments, if authours are interested.

The victorious stories will remain on our Featured Stories List, along with winners from the last Trinkets round.

Tremendous kudos to GinnyWeasley777 who's clearly the brains behind this new incarnation of challenges, and did much of the heavy lifting.  She is going to pop on soon to tell you about the next round (2017-1)!

The Burrow Secret Challenge (2016-3) is now closed and we have seven stories submitted.  The judging has begun for the categories of Most Humerous, Most Unexpected, and Best Overall, but it is down to SIYE members to vote for the People's Choice Award.  Votes can only be posted once and the winners of all the categories will be announced on 1st December.

People Choice voting - http://siye.co.uk/trinkets.php?peopleschoice=Y

The ghosts and ghouls may have come and gone, but are there still some unresolved secrets left in the Burrow?   Well, we have one week left to find out because entries for Challenge 2016-3 must be submitted, validated and finalised before Midnight (SIYE time) on Nov. 15.

Several kind readers have come forward to volunteer as challenge judges. but we could still use a few more if any more of you are willing!

Finally, it is not too early to think about a challenge topic for 2017-1.  Our list of runners-up topics from the last round are recapped below.  Please use this forum to vote and promote any of these, or suggest a new topic that we should consider.

1.  Come on now -- did Harry truly have to wait until spring of his sixth year to snog a certain redhead?  Think of another good opportunity to get our favourite pair together earlier.  Carpe diem! 

2.  Years into their marriage, Ginny discovers something surprising about Harry.  Tell us about it.

3.  James, Albus and Lily Luna are throwing a long-anticipated retirement party for their illustrious parents. Help everyone celebrate with some stories of our two hero's extraordinary and unconventional careers.

4.  Harry ran away for all the wrong reasons. Ginny has finally tracked him down. What happens next?

5.  Someone is going on a magical creature hunt. The challenge would be to tell why they are hunting the creature, do they find it, and tell about the journey.

6.  It's not just the twins who can pull a prank.  Somebody has just wronged Harry and Ginny, and they're going to get even in the most fitting and funny way possible.  Tell us about it!

The stench of lies and deceit hung over the Burrow like an ominous thundercloud - roiling and brewing until it was ready to unleash it's fury. The tension was palpable and it gave Molly Weasley the jitters. 

She was sure that so far she was the only person who'd picked up on it - Arthur being busy with both his work for the Ministry and for the Order, but she knew, a mother always knew. 

It had something to do with Harry, Ginny, Ron, and Hermione, of that she was sure. Several times since they'd returned from Hogwarts for the summer she'd caught them arguing amongst themselves, all four clamming up as soon as she got within earshot. Oh, she wasn't naive, she knew they'd split into two couples. Indeed, she'd realised that Harry was falling for Ginny the summer before, and couldn't be happier about it, even though none of them had actually come out and said they were together - it was the worst kept secret in the Burrow at the minute. No, whatever it was that was going on was much bigger and more serious than the usual teenage relationship dramas, of that she was certain. 

Molly frowned as she walked downstairs and neared the kitchen. The unmistakable sounds of raised voices could be hear from within. 

"You've got to do something about it soon!" 

"I know, okay, but it's my decision when and what I do, I just need a bit longer!" 

"I don't think I can keep this up for much longer!" 

Worry crept into Molly, chilling her bones and sending a shiver up her spine. This was obviously serious and it was time she found out just what was going on. She stepped into the kitchen and was met with stony silence. Hermione was stood with her arms folded and Ron's ears were bright red - never a good sign. 

She waved her wand and both the back door and the door she'd just come through sealed themselves shut with a loud squelching sound. "Right," she said, "it's time someone told me what's going on, and no one leaves this room until I find out." 

Ron and Hermione looked at each other worriedly, Harry looked decidedly green, while Ginny just looked sick to the stomach.

** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **

A deep flush crept further up Molly's neck with each passing second; the oppressive silence broken only by ominous tapping of her foot.  Impatience finally getting the better of her, the inevitable eruption began just as Harry was opening his mouth.

"I SAID it's time someone told-"

"Mrs. Weasley, this is all a-"

SPLAAAATTT!!

Everyone jumped, spinning around to see a lurid, splotchy red stain spreading down the outside of the kitchen window.

Molly turned, shocked, hand half-embedded in mouth, the deep colour draining fast from her face.

Ron stared in pallid horror.  It couldn't be?!  He'd never thought it would come to...??

"Is that...?"  Hermione pointed a trembling finger toward the splattered window.  "Is-is that...?"

"Yes."  Ginny's voice sounded surprisingly calm.  Almost surreal.  "Yes," she repeated, with a half-audible breath.  "The gnomes are throwing tomatoes again."

******************************************

As the northern hemisphere leaves begin to drop, up rise some wonderful challenge stories!  Because of the long challenge incubation time, the earliest entries are starting to get buried way back in the Recent Stories archive, so Ginnyweasley777 and GHL decided to make use of the SIYE Featured Stories section on the main page to ensure our early bird authours get as much visibility as those who submit closer to deadline.

And what was that deadline again?  The entire rule set is recapitulated below for our writers' convenience.

Someone at the Burrow has a secret and it's causing tensions amongst the occupants.

Your challenge is to write a story about who is keeping the secret, why, and how it is revealed.

The categories for judging are Best Overall, Most Humourous, Most Unexpected, and the People's Choice Award.

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 the Burrow Secret Challenge (2016-3) sub-category of SIYE Challenges, and be submitted by midnight SIYE time on Tuesday 15th November 2016.

3.  Only completed stories will be accepted.  Multiple chapters are allowed so long as all the requirements are in the chapters and the story is completed by the deadline.  All stories still go through the same approval process as normal submissions so please don't wait until the last minute to submit your story.

4.  Authours do not have to pay attention to alleged relationship dramas, gnome malfeasance, and other silly scenarios posted by Challenge Administrators.  Just tell us your secrets!

Prospective Judges:

For those of you who have judged Challenges before, please expect a note from Ginnyweasley777 or GHL fairly soon, seeking your continued assistance.  For those of you who have not judged in the past but are interested in doing so, please feel free to contact either of us via our profiles!

Someone at the Burrow has a secret and it's causing tensions amongst the occupants.

Your challenge is to write a story about who is keeping the secret, why, and how it is revealed.

The categories for judging are Best Overall, Most Humerous, Most Unexpected, and the People's Choice Award.

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 the Burrow Secret Challenge (2016-3) category sub-category of SIYE Challenges and be submitted by midnight SIYE time on Tuesday 15th November 2016.

3.  Only completed stories will be accepted.  Multiple chapters are allowed so long as all the requirements are in the chapters and the story is completed by the deadline.  All stories still go through the same approval process as normal submissions so please don't wait until last minute to submit your story.

Sincere appreciation to readers and writers who have offered suggestions for challenge topics!  Since we need to narrow our choices down to 1 topic by Aug. 1, GinnyWeasley777 and GHL have whittled the list down to 6 possibilities which, in no particular order, include:

1.  Write about a secret source of tensions at the Burrow.

2.  Years into their marriage, Ginny discovers something surprising about Harry.  Tell us about it.

3.  James, Albus and Lily Luna are throwing a long-anticipated retirement party for their illustrious parents.  Help everyone celebrate with some stories of our two hero's extraordinary and unconventional careers.

4.  Harry ran away for all the wrong reasons.  Ginny has finally tracked him down.  What happens next?

5.  Someone is going on a magical creature hunt.  The challenge would be to tell why they are hunting the creature, do they find it, and tell about the journey.

6.  Come on now -- did Harry truly have to wait until spring of his sixth year to snog a certain redhead?  Think of another good opportunity to get our favourite pair together earlier.  Carpe diem!

Please use this forum to express your preferences.  If you're vocal and persuasive, others may listen.

Note that if your idea hasn't made it this far, or if it isn't chosen on Aug. 1, then do know that it's still under consideration for the future.  Feel free to keep reminding us!

Pending official approval, GinnyWeasley777 and GHL have agreed to assume the mantle of SIYE challenge coordination.

Normally, the new challenge cycle would have started on July 1, however GW & GL have proposed to instead announce the next challenge on August 1, and to plan to run three challenges every year, on four month cycles (start dates of August 1, Dec. 1 and April 1).

Here's an example of how a proposed challenge cycle would run:

  - Aug. 1.  New challenge topic is announced

  - Nov. 15  Submission deadline; judging begins

  - Dec. 1   Winners are announced, and the next new challenge topic is revealed

Tentatively, we would like to have an ongoing solicitation for new challenge topics within the News forum...  starting right now!  Below are a few of the topics discussed in last month's challenge News item.  Please either tell us which one(s) you enjoy most either as a reader or an authour, or else please suggest new candidates!

Running List of Possible Topics

   1.  James and Lily Potter are still alive.  Write a brief story involving the two of them meeting Ginny.

   2.  Lily Luna decides she's had enough of living under her parent's spotlight and takes off to another country. She doesn't tell anyone where she's gone.

   3.  Harry and Ginny go out on a bender. The next morning they notice that something is missing... Uh oh...

   4.  Write about a place that is special to Harry and Ginny.

   5.  Write about a secret source of tensions at the Burrow

   6.  Years into their marriage, Ginny discovers something surprising about Harry. 

   7.  James, Albus and Lily Luna are throwing a long-anticipated retirement party for their illustrious parents. Help everyone celebrate with some stories of our two hero's extraordinary and unconventional careers.

   8.  Harry ran away for all the wrong reasons. Ginny has finally tracked him down. What happens next?

   9.  Someone is going on a magical creature hunt. The challenge would be to tell why they are hunting the creature, do they find it, and tell about the journey.

  10.  Seeing names on the Potter Family tapestry left Harry with more questions than answers.  He begins to do some research.  What interesting stories does he uncover?

  11.  Really wicked topic suggested by *you*

Sir Ollivander is resigning from the positions of Senior Administrator and Chief Challenger at Sink Into Your Eyes web site effective the end of June.  He is stepping down from his areas of leadership and responsibility to become a regular member of SIYE.  The staff of SIYE have been aware of this move since the beginning of June.

My private and family life is beginning to take on more of a priority.  Working with SIYE is beginning to take a back seat when it comes to managing my time and energy.  I don’t want SIYE to suffer from my lack of attention.

Since December of 2003, I became an avid reader of SIYE stories.  Little by little, I was asked to join different positions in SIYE to the point of Senior Administrator under the owner, Robert.  I have enjoyed running the web site and adding my contributions.  I even had the pleasure of meeting Robert when on vacation near his hometown a few years ago.  Although I am leaving my positions, I will still be around, reading a story here and there.  I wish to thanks everybody who have made my jobs so easy.  Take care and best of luck to all.

Tom

Sir Ollivander

SIYE Administration

At the height of its popularity, the SIYE Challenge received 15 to 25 submitted stories per Challenge.  The judges had a lot of reading to do.  The last few years has seen the Challenge submissions dwindle down to 2 or 3 per contest.  A few occasions we were worried that we would have no submissions.  With such a very low turnout lately, the Challenge is being put on hold at this time.  I would like to thank a) those judges that continued to help out by reading and judging the stories and b) those authors that accepted the Challenge and came up with original stories to meet the it.  Overall, we received over 550 stories over the years.

For this Challenge, we had eight judges and the People's choice Award voting on the two stories submitted.  It was a virtual clean sweep.  And the winner is...

The award for Best Overall, Most Useful, Most Unexpected and the People's Choice Award goes to:

Biscuits Deferred by GHL

The winning story is now prominently listed in our Featured Stories section.  The Challenge category is back open.

My thanks to judges AM, JG, HW, NS, ZA, EB, SM, & FD.  Without judges taking the time to read and judge, the Challenge would not be happening.

The deadline has passed and The Potter Trunk Challenge (2016-2) is now closed.  The judges are being given their instructions to judge the two stories that have been submitted.  Remember, the categories are Best Overall, Most Useful, and Most Unexpected.  The People's Choice Award is open to all SIYE members and can be voted on only once.  Make your vote count. The winners will be posted at the end of the month.

The People's Choice award: http://siye.co.uk/trinkets.php?peopleschoice=Y

Greetings to one and all!

With the help of our Administrator Emeritus Jenny Elf, I think that I've finally figured out how to work of Silver Trinket Award system. Logged in members can vote at their home page. There are quite a few nominations to wade through, so please take your time voting. Winners will be anounced on 1 June. Thank you for participating and thank you again Jenny for your patience with me.

Mischief managed everyone!

Spenser Hemmingway

PS: http://www.siye.co.uk/trinkets.php

After Harry got over his shock at receiving something from his parents, he expanded the trunk to full size and went inside.  On the table in the den was the second letter.  He grabbed it, sat down and read it.

The Potter trunk library was better than the Hogwarts library.  Those books deemed not suitable or restricted at school was fully accessible in the trunk.  Also, the potions lab was better stocked than Snape's classroom.  Plus Snape wouldn't be standing over you, yelling insults at you, while you practice your potions.  The study room/den was a nice and quiet room to read or study without interruptions.  It could easily turn into a sleep room if needed.

Harry looked around the various rooms and through about it.  Given a kitchen & loo type room and one could live in the trunk.

What would be your reason of creating such a trunk for your child?  Write down your answer as a story and submit it for the Challenge.

Two owls Harry had never seen before came thought the window at #4 Privet Drive.  Between them they carried a trunk about the size of a loaf of bread. They landed on Harry’s bed. Harry removed the trunk and gave the owls some treats before they flew off again.  Harry looked at the trunk and saw it had an envelope attached that was addressed to him but he did not recognize the hand writing.  He opened the letter and read it:

Harry,

We left this trunk with the goblins of Gringotts to deliver to you on your 12th Birthday if anything happened to both of us. Inside the trunk are three rooms set up as a Library, a Potions lab, and a study room/den. The library will expand as needed when books are added to it. The trunk also has a charm on it that allows you to enlarge and shrink the trunk without the Ministry’s knowledge. Just tap the trunk with your wand and say “Enlarge” or “Shrink” and remove your wand when the desired size is achieved.  You cannot enlarge the trunk bigger than its original size or shrink it smaller than a match box. There is also a second letter inside the trunk to explain why we did all this.  We love you and hope this trunk can help you in your life.

Love,

James & Lily Potter

The Challenge is to write a story explaining why James and Lily left Harry the trunk and what changes will it make in his life.  Although the trunk was delivered on Harry's 12th birthday, the time frame can be later.

The categories for judging are Best Overall, Most Useful, Most Unexpected, and the People's Choice Award.

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 The Potter Trunk Challenge (2016-2) sub-category of SIYE Challenges and be submitted by midnight SIYE Time, Sunday, May 15, 2016.

3. Only completed stories will be accepted.  Multiple chapters are allowed as long as all the requirements are in the chapters and the story is completed by the deadline.  All stories still go through the same approval process as normal submissions.  Please don't wait till the last minute.

NOTE:  This Challenge is based on a suggestion by Calvin W.

Thanks, Sir Ollivander

The judges voted a bit differently as there was just one story in the Apparition Challenge.  And the conclusion is:

The award for Best Overall and Most Embarrassing goes to:

Wondrous Apparition Provided by Magician by Just Horsing Around

The winning story is now prominently listed in our Featured Stories section.

My thanks to judges HW, JG, TM, AM, GL, and NS.  Without judges taking the time to read and judge, the Challenge would not be happening.

The Challenge category is back open.

It is now 17 February in London, in Hogsmeade, and throughout Western Freedonia. We the staff and membership of Sink Into Your Eyes would like to wish Bonnie Wright a most excellent birthday. For the two people in the world who don't know, Miss Wright is the actress who portrays Ginny Weasley-Potter, one half of the special couple to whom this writing site is dedicated.

As both ballrooms have recently suffered a new round of damage (it really, really wasn't my fault this time), the music and refreshments will be set up in the SIYE cafeteria.

Mischief managed!

Spenser

UPDATE: Thank you everybody for your generosity and support. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly and thoroughly the community comes through. We are now paid up until next year and have some change leftover that will be applied to next year's bill. If any of you who missed the chance to donate this time around win the lottery or are feeling filthy rich before next February, feel free to donate at any time. The PayPal link is always active. Thank you!

The time for SIYE to pay its annual hosting bill has arrived. Past generosity of site patrons like you has allowed us to avoid asking for donations for a number of years. However, this year, we're short. If any of you happen to be in possession of a healthy wallet and a fair amount of goodwill toward SIYE, please consider donating. We prefer to collect via PayPal. The link can be found under EXTRAS > SUPPORT THE SITE.

The Apparition Challenge (2016-1) is now closed.  We have one story to judge for the categories for Best Overall, Most Embarrassing and Most Dangerous.  The People's Choice Award will not be used.  The judges will be given their directions for judging one story.  Good luck to our brave author to entered.

It was time for the Charms class to start.  Professor Flitwick was just closing the classroom door after walking in.  He noticed a few students missing.  Walking to the front of the class, one student finally arrived.  Ginny Weasley popped right on top of the stack of books the little professor normally stood on.

"My, my, Ms Weasley.  Although I's rather you not take my place, that was an excellent demonstration of Apparition.  How did you learn to Apparate so well?"

"I took lessons from the experts, my twin brothers." Ginny replied.

"Take five points for learning how to Apparate properly.  Your fellow students could benefit from learning than just trying it on their own.  Merlin knows there have been numerous incidents we professors had to correct.

How is your Apparition coming along?  Write your story and share with the rest of us.

Everybody that read "Hogwarts: A History" knew you couldn't Apparate at Hogwarts.  But a lot of students didn't read that book.  Plus it didn't mention outside of the castle itself.  So a lot of students were Apparating around school grounds and sometimes beyond.

One Ravenclaw was good enough to Apparate home and pick up a few things from her bedroom.  She failed to mention she was almost hexed by her mother who didn't expect to have a visitor in her bedroom.

During a Hogsmeade weekend, numerous students practiced Apparating around town.  One mis-guided student showed up in Honeydukes, in the middle of the front window display.  That caused a big ruckus.

If you were able to Apparate, where would you practice to?  Tell us in your own words.

A few Ravenclaws were studying Wizarding laws when they stumbled on the law governing the training and licensing of Apparition.  It is so vaguely written that any person under any supervision of any instructor can practice Apparition at any time.  There is no mention of the qualifications of the instructor or if the instructor must be present to practice.  Therefore, any student of Hogwarts qualifies.  Once the student population learned this, everybody started "practicing."  It will take the Wizengamont over two years to update.

The Challenge is to write a story involving students learning to Apparate and how they used their new found ability.  The categories for judging are Best Overall, Most Embarrassing, Most Dangerous, and the People's Choice Award.

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 The Apparition Challenge (2016-1) sub-category of SIYE Challenges and be submitted by midnight SIYE Time, Monday, February 15, 2016.

3. Only completed stories will be accepted.  Multiple chapters are allowed as long as all the requirements are in the chapters and the story is completed by the deadline.  All stories still go through the same approval process as normal submissions.  Please don't wait till the last minute.

I found our very own Spenser Hemmingway in SIYE's Virtual Ballroom Two managing some mischief. He was kind enough to temporarily pause his activities and agree to take on Jennyelf's prior role as administrator over Silver Trinkets and archivists. I realize this may escalate the mischief going on around here, but I have long been fond of Spenser's brand of mischief. I do not know what his future plans for the Silver Trinkets are, but I imagine that you, too, might find him in the ballroom if you want to ask. Watch out for candlesticks and lead pipes.

RLS (President, SIYE)

We welcome GHL as SIYE's newest archivist and express our gratitude to him for his willingness to serve.

All the season's best to you and yours,

RLS (President, SIYE)