Hogwarts in St. John's: Local school gets magical transformation

St. Bonaventure's College held its annual Harry Potter Day on Friday, and Grade 3students got the full magical experience.

Like any school year in the wizarding world, students began by boarding the Hogwarts Express.

After the train to school, students gathered in the Great Hall to sing the school songyes, of course there were floating candles!

You can't do magic without a wand, so every student got outfitted at Ollivander's Shop.

Inside the shop students tried out a few wands before finding The One.

Getting your first wand can make a witch or wizard hungry, so afterwards everyone stopped by the Honeydukes sweets shop.

Colleen Stone, a mother who volunteers atthe school, spent months constructing the legendary Hogsmeadestore. Treacle tarts, chocolate wands, butter beer, Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans she hadthem all.

But life at Hogwarts isn't all songs and sweets. Students also hadto take important classes, such as flying lessons. This year, parents constructed a zipline so students could ride their broom down the field.

Potions class is also mandatory. These students learned the fine art of brewing a good Polyjuice.

And of course, no Harry Potter Day would be complete without some excellent costumes.

Students were guaranteeda dayof fun...even if they went into the Enchanted Forest.

A 15-year tradition

Harry Potter Day has beenan annual tradition for theGrade 3s at this school for the past 15 years.

It started as a day of board games and movies, but every yearit's grown into a bigger and bigger celebration of thewizardingworld.

"It's just evolved into something more spectacular than I could ever imagine," said teacherJalineRowsell, who reads the book to her students every year.

This year,Rowselland parent volunteers started planning for the event in February.

Heather Carroll (pictured as BellatrixLestrange) was a student at the first Harry Potter day in 2002. Now she's a teacher at St. Bonaventure's College, andloving the event more than ever.

As for the students' experience?

"It was really, really fun," confirms Grade 3 student Isobel Acevedo,

"It was really, really cool."