Firstie Fridays: IHU and You - A Love Story

Happy Friday, Badgers! Something exciting happened to me this week, and I wanted to share it with all of you: I became the new head of InterHouse Unity for Hufflepuff! I’m honored and excited – have I mentioned the excitement? I have? Good! – but in the middle of all that excitement I found out that a lot of ‘Puffs don’t really know what IHU is. So I’m here not just as your faithful Firstie blogger but also as your Fancypants IHU Lady (trademark pending) to tell you all about it.

InterHouse Unity is all about getting to know people from the other houses and hopefully making some new friends! I know that some of us Badgers (me included) can be shy homebodies who aren’t too sure about leaving the UCR or our cetes, but IHU is really fun and not even a little bit scary. If that’s true for me, then trust me, dear friends, it will be true for you too. InterHouse Unity also helps our friendly house competition stay friendly, which is a very good thing. It’s fun and easy, and I know I could use more of that in my life and in the Cup, so...

Firstie Tip of the Week: HAVE FUN WITH INTERHOUSE UNITY!

Our May IHU with Gryffindor is a tea party where you and your partner make something for one of four classes – Transfiguration, History of Magic, Potions, or Herbology – and tie your projects together. That’s it! You don’t have to do the same project or even the same class; you just earburn each other and write up a story if you like. I have three IHU partners this month, and they are all fun and awesome! Check out the GryffinPuff thread here. There are always students looking for a partner, so it’s not too late to get in on the wonderful IHU action!

Besides making new friends and reconnecting with old ones, you will also earn super-cool badges for your InterHouse Unity efforts. We have two shiny GryffinPuff badges for May:

The activities will change every month, so you’ll have a new house to hang out with and new badges to earn in June and July. I am obsessed with badges. I have a tab in my projects page just for badges. The fabulous LumosKP made our two GryffinPuff badges, and I will be the Fancypants IHU Badge-Maker (trademark pending) for the rest of the term. I love making badges, so there might even be super special surprise badges to be had. (I make no promises! I am a big fan of surprise badges, though, so stay tuned.)

Even if you’re not badge-obsessed like me, there is something for everyone with InterHouse Unity. IHU activities can be anything: they may be craft-alongs or class partnerships, or they may be more social activities like swaps or games. Whether you like to craft all the things or you like to get one class in and then hang out around the castle, IHU has something fun for you that fits with your style of play. So even if you can't make it to the GryffinPuff party this month, be sure to check back in June when we get in touch with our inner HuffleClaws and in July when we explore our SlytherPuff sides.

I really want InterHouse Unity to be fun and rewarding for everybody involved, and I promise I’m not just saying all of this because I am now a Fancypants IHU Lady. I was excited about IHU as soon as I saw the thread pop up. (If you follow that link, you'll see just how excited and how true to my Firstie name I was.) Why do I find it so exciting? Well, because IHU lets you have more fun doing what you were already going to do, and it helps you get to know more of the wonderful students in the castle! Take crafting, which we all love, and add fun and friends – it really doesn’t get any better than that. Plus, did I mention the badges?

Thanks for reading, Badgers! I hope you'll check out InterHouse Unity and spread the Badger love beyond the cozy confines of the Den to let it cover all of Hogwarts. Huzzah Hufflepuff!