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*Holly Scrimgeour* · December 23, 2019 – 5:51 AM

Christmas Catastrophe: Diagon Alley Edition

I've really wanted to blow something up all year, like, really badly. And I mean literally blow something up—not just a situation that goes wrong and causes death and despair, but that's fun, too. To end the decade with a literal bang, I have an idea: blow up a brand new shop that's opened up in Diagon Alley. Here's how I propose it goes down:

1. New shop opens up selling candies, toys, and holiday-related things. It's like a Victorian version of those Christmas gift stores that pop up in the mall at the beginning of December.

2. It's colorful and the marketing is just wonderful, so everyone visits to buy their loved one a gift.

3. Plot twist: it might look wonderful, but everything was rushed and a walking hazard.

4. Someone nudges a gas lamp (yes, a gas lamp, in a store with children running around and potentially flammable merchandise) and it falls, setting the store ablaze with a good two or three dozen people inside.

5. People panic. Some escape. Some don't. There's an explosion.

6. Your characters get to don mourning clothes at Christmas dinner, while others spend the holidays in the hospital. Joy for everyone, right!?

So please, kill off your unwanted characters. Kill off your NPCs. Kill off your students' parents to maximize the drama.