Enter Leaky’s annual Back to Hogwarts essay contest

Merlin’s baggy y-fronts! Can you believe it’s only ten days until we go back to Hogwarts?!? Have you been to Diagon Alley to get your school supplies? Did you outgrow last year’s robes and get measured for a new set? Got a carrier for yer owl, toad, or cat so it doesn’t escape on the train? (Well, you might allow your owl to fly to the Owlery on its own rather than coop it up in a cage for the train ride, but watch that slippery toad.)

We look forward to September and the annual return to our home-away-from-home every year. We cannot wait to see our friends, living and dead, and cheer ourselves hoarse at the first Quidditch match of the season. Not to mention that indulgent start-of-term feast. (Does the meal still include mint humbugs in the post-Dumbledore era?) Whilst our mouths water in anticipation, let’s distill our enthusiasm into a little essay on what we most look forward to about going back to Hogwarts each year.

Submit your 500 minimum word count (that’s only 1 page in Word) exposition of what you love most about the annual return to our beloved school of witchcraft and wizardry, embellished as desired with detailed descriptions of your favourite courses (meal or academic, your choice), clubs, house, friends, teachers, journey, etc. — whatever motivates you to return each year to revisit the story of Harry and his friends saving the magical and Muggle worlds from the encroachment of evil. What inspires you to come back to the magical world, again and again? You can write from the perspective of returning to Hogwarts (or another wizarding school) as a student or teacher or you can expound on why you return to the stories each autumn.

Deadline 15 September, 2025. Top essays will be featured on our website and writer will receive a gift related to your Hogwarts house. 

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