Harry Potter Challenge

Full rules here.

It's time for the next 1-week speed contest: the Harry Potter Challenge! Now with an additional randomly-chosen winner!

Did you dress up for the midnight showing of Order of the Phoenix? Plan to attend the book release, or throw an all-night Deathly Hallows reading party? Want to win a robot t-shirt and a Hogwarts Crest plaque ?

Well, do something cool and tell us how! You can make a magic wand, or a Death Eater mask to go with your Dark Mark. You could knit a dark mark bag, or make your cauldron bubble. If you throw an entire themed event, tell us how!

Be creative, and document your project well. We're not terribly strict, but it must be applicable to the Harry Potter theme! If you need inspiration, check out the Harry Potter Lexicon for more information than you possibly wanted about characters, magical creatures, [magical items], spells, and history from the Harry Potter books and movies.

Then make something awesome, share it on Instructables, and add it to the Harry Potter Challenge group by 11:59pm PDT, Wednesday July 25. That should give you plenty of time to read the book and get your project up! Add the keyword "hpc" to your Instructable (you can do so after it's published by scrolling down to the "keyword" box at the bottom of the right-hand sidebar and adding the tag), and click on that keyword to see how yours stacks up.

Since this is a short contest, we're letting the audience judge! Find the entries here and rate your favorite projects so we know what you like. Vote for as few or as many as you like- it's up to you. Only positive votes will count in this contest! We're not counting negative votes, so voting down your competitor's projects is both unsporting and useless.

We'll judge based on the standings at noon PDT on Monday, July 30, so everyone will have time to check out and vote on even the latest entries. Results will be posted shortly thereafter.

Ratings Prize: First
The Instructable with the highest rating will receive an Instructables Robot t-shirt and a dragon-engraved¹ plaque with the Hogwarts Crest and your name.

Ratings Prize: Runners-Up
The 5 Instructables with the next-highest rating will each receive an Instructables Robot t-shirt.

Page Views Prize:
The Instructable with the greatest number of pageviews will receive an Instructables Robot t-shirt and a dragon-engraved¹ plaque with the Hogwarts Crest and your name.

Random Prize:
We'll also randomly pick one Instructable to receive an Instructables Robot t-shirt and a dragon-engraved¹ plaque with the Hogwarts Crest and your name.

Only projects posted during the month of July, 2007 are eligible. If you've got an older project that could apply, make another with improvements and submit it to the contest! Post an improved version of someone else's Instructable with a link back to your source of inspiration!

Project Submission Deadline: 11:59pm PDT, Wednesday July 25
Audience Judging Deadline: noon PDT on Monday, July 30

Fine Print:
You can only win one prize per contest, but enter as many projects as you like and cross-post to other contests! International entries are great- we're happy to ship our t-shirts abroad. If you're under 18, that's fine too- we'll just need your parents' OK if you win.

¹ where dragon = laser. What will those Muggles think up next?