Week 1 Storytelling: The Lion Beat the Unicorn

The lion and the unicorn

Were fighting for the crown;

The lion beat the unicorn

All round about the town.

Some gave them white bread,

And some gave them brown;

Some gave them plum-cake,

And sent them out of town.

At the 150th Annual International Triwizard Tournament, held this year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry up in Scotland, the three representatives from each school are down to their third and final task. The final task for the champions will be for them to enter a maze designed by Professor McGonagall, where they will encounter obstacles that will require their strength, wit, cleverness, and knowledge of spells. The maze itself is an ever-changing hedge, designed to test the champions on their memory. Should anyone choose to forfeit, they just have to send up blue sparks into the sky.

“The champions this year include: Helen Blackburn of Gryffindor House (whose symbol is a Lion) from Hogwarts, Estelle Bonnet from Beauxbaton Academy of Magic (whose symbol is a Unicorn), and Marko Popov from Durmstrang Institute (whose symbol is a double-headed Eagle). Since Helen Blackburn and Estelle Bonnet has accumulated the same amount of points from the previous tasks, they would get to enter the maze at the same time, then followed by Marko Popov,” said the Headmaster, once the spectators have quieted down. “At the sound of the cannon, the contestants may enter the maze,” declared Dumbledore, followed by the boom of a cannon less than a second later. 

Gryffindor's crest, a lion

Beauxbaton's mascot, a unicorn

Durmstrng's crest, a double-headed eagle

Cheers for each school can be heard from the stand as the champions enter the maze, the sound drowned out once the maze closed itself. Sparks and flashes of light can be seen from the spectator’s stand every once in awhile, showing that the champions are fighting obstacles, and maybe themselves, to get to the cup first. 

After a stressful few hours, Helena appears before the spectators with the glowing cup clutched in her hands, being portkeyed back from wherever the cup had been placed within the maze. The other champions were fetched from within the maze a few seconds later by professors, and the winner is crowned. The prize was gifted to the winner, with consolation prizes given to the other contestants. 

A few days after the excitement of the tournament has passed, the visiting schools travel back to their hometown, and the Hogwarts students get ready to board the Hogwarts Express to travel back to London for the summer.

Author's Note

I chose to use a nursery rhyme since it's short, meaning there was a lot of ways it can be interpreted. The rhyme mentioned a lion and a unicorn, fighting for a crown, in which the lion won in the end. Seeing "lion" and "crown" reminded me of Gryffindor house, and how they frequently won the House Cup. "Unicorn" was integrated into the story by being Beauxbaton's mascot, an all-girl (I'm assuming) wizarding school based in France.

Bibliography

The story is a rhyme called "The lion and the unicorn" from The Nursery Rhyme Book edited by Andrew Lang and illustrated by L. Leslie Brooke (1897).