This Saturday, a group of incoming freshmen familiarized themselves with the campus in a new and challenging way–by tracking down horcruxes in the Horcrux Scavenger Hunt, the first event of the Harry Potter’s World series.
Arranged into five (randomly named) teams–The Bludgers, The Grangers, The Snapes, The Broomsticks, and The Lupins–these students raced each other around Alfred University, using a set of seven clues to track down the hidden horcruxes, based on the magical artifacts from the sixth and seventh Harry Potter books. To get credit for finding each horcrux, they had to take a picture of the entire team with it and send it to the hogwarts@alfred email account. From where we sat at mission control on that beautiful sunny day, it looked like a blast! Ultimately, the Broomsticks took first place, with the Bludgers and Snapes coming in close second and third respectively.
In the order in which the horcruxes were found in the original books, we present to you the horcrux hunters of Alfred University:

Tom Riddle’s Diary

Tom Riddle’s diary was turned into a Horcrux while he was still at Hogwarts, sent back to Hogwarts castle by Lucius Malfoy, and destroyed beneath the dungeons of the Hogwarts castle. We hid ours on the front doors of Steinheim Castle, where it often proved a challenge for team members to squeeze themselves in for the selfie.

Marvolo Gaunt’s Ring

From the creation of the Resurrection Stone in the 13th century to its placement in a gold setting as it was passed down through the family, Marvolo Gaunt’s ring was a piece of jewelry with a lot of history. We decided to hide it next to the book Jewelry Through the Ages in the Scholes Library.

Salazar Slytherin’s Locket

This turned out to be the trickiest one by far! In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, when Dumbledore and Harry finally succeed in retrieving a locket from the cave where Voldemort hid it (at great cost), they discover that it’s a fake, and that a note has been left by someone who switched it out with the real horcrux, intending to destroy it. We wanted to add in some of that sense of crushing despair, so put our own note from “R.A.B.” up on the swimming pool doors, directing students to follow yet another clue to the real locket.

And hopefully, a sense of great elation when teams actually found the real locket on the Powell Campus Center.

Helga Hufflepuff’s Cup

There’s always time for a good pun, right? Harry, Hermione, and Ron have to break into Gringotts bank to retrieve Helga Hufflepuff’s cup. We told students to go looking by the BANKs (you see?) of Kanakadea Creek; specifically, the back of the Village Bandstand!

Rowena Ravenclaw’s Diadem

Never let it be said that library events are all about sitting around and reading! Tom Riddle found Rowena Ravenclaw’s diadem in an Albanian forest, so these students had to trek all the way up to the trailhead at the edge of the woods.

Harry Potter

The Brick has had the words “Platform 9 3/4” painted on it all summer (maybe longer?), so obviously it had to be a hiding place. We decided to stick the Harry Potter horcrux under the old arch to bring to mind passing through the brick wall at the station.

Nagini

This horcrux has found you! (And how unfortunate for you that it has.) We tucked Nagini in the stacks at Herrick, near the book Snakes in Question.

Congratulations to our winners, and to all the participants! Students: if you see the sweet Harry Potter swag they won and would like your own, keep an eye out for future Harry Potter’s World events. Events like, the trivia night, for instance, or the art exhibit, might involve some similar prizes…