| The Owl Gazette |
| Issue: 34 Date: Sept. 2006 C |
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| By Ava Black
Penshire is working hard towards the goal of winning the House Cup. I believe the steady progress and hard work will pay off in the end. Our house has grown with new students and some old ones coming back. We are actively posting and enjoying the last few weeks of summer. A few of our students are going away to college (but not Pad�s J) and we would like to wish them the best of luck!! Go Deirdre and Bry!! We are working hard for the first Quidditch match and expect victory. Like I have said before Watch out for Penshire!! |
| Lavender Moondust
RAVENCLAW IS IN THE LEAD ON HOUSE POINTS! HOORAY GO GO RAVENCLAW! GO GO RAVENCLAW! Keep up the team spirit guys come on you ravens. Earn more points guys! We are in the lead by 200 points if you have checked this week! Hooray for us! |
| By Zoey Taylor
This month Hufflepuff has been quite busy with activity once again. We�ve seen the return of two old members, Kaggs and Angus Montana, and also welcomed several new members: Ash Potter, Chelzi, Felicity Sullivan, John Eselmann, Lindsayna, and Paige Matthews. I�m sure all of these members will make great additions to the house. It seems that love is in the air around the Huff Cr as we have several new couples in there including Ronald Weasley and Ciria Cresentlight, Jenii Chang and Liam Betteridge, and Amanda Dasaro and Joey Rockaway. And I won�t even get into all the snogging I�ve seen around there lately. *Rolls eyes* I�d like to say a special thank you to Professors Fairydust and Snape for coming to stay with us this month while our own Professor Lockhart was away. |
| By Zoey Taylor
Yellow VS Black made a Comeback! This past month we saw the return of one of our favorite post-a-thons, Yellow vs. Black. And I�d like to say congratulations to both teams as they both did well. Although the Yellow team came out on top this time and consisted of Zoey Taylor, Dakota Tallfeather, Kat Curtis, Joy Jennings, Jorge Franco, Elizabeth Crow, Adam Wright, Cassie Malfoy who each won a prize of 25 Galleons! All other participants won a prize of a basket filled with assorted wizarding candies. |
| Hufflepuff Posting Olympicsby: Jenii Chang We've started our Hufflepuff Posting Olympics! Everyone Huff is posting like crazy! Professor Lockhart made a deal with us. Anyone to post more then him wins a special price. Hm, I wonder what the prize is. My fingers our tired and we just started. The games are a great place to hit to rack up posts. Post Huffs Post! |
| Another Post Numbers Update
By Roxanne Whitez With the last month of summer rolling by quickly, the Gryffindor House has seen a lot of fellow housemates striving higher and higher for their personal post number aims. Many are aiming for the near thousand from their standing place while others are going for two or even three thousand posts more! During the past month, students have clearly gone on a posting frenzy, especially with the house's Post-A-Thon going on at the moment. The standings have altered a tiny bit, while the numbers have grown a considerate amount. Abigail Rose-Turner still stands as our overall Top Poster with 13 411 posts. Two close friends are head to head as Kristin comes in second, quickly followed by Kristin Johnson, both with over 11 000 posts! Keeping her position as fourth place, Gryffindor's HOH, Professor Opal stands with a solid 6300. The next four following are the four distant cousins, with their numbers roughly separated by a thousand posts. Yours Truly comes in as fifth, having recently reached 6k, with 6290 posts. There's been a quick change in the order, as Linda Danes, a post-aholic Gryffindor jumps into 6th place with 5803 posts! Next comes Kalie Black, with 5261 posts and Amber Potter follows with 4642 posts. Megan Miller, the last cousin was striving to reach 4000 before the Post-A-Thon ends, and reached her goal right in time with 4233 posts right now in 9th place. And finally, we have our other book lover, Adrianna La Cerva taking last place with 2669 posts! The Lions are posting and numbers are quickly rising! |
| Beonca Aims
Sadly we lost 3 really great Slytherins, two of which played a large part of our Cup wins. But with loss comes gain! We have seen some Slytherins return to the fold, like Wednesday Addams, Joseph Knightly, and Lily Merlin. We have also seen some new students join, like Hallie Potter, Alexander Sheridan, Emma De, Amaya Dimir, Analish Velimir, Sermara Black, Victoria Malfoy, Saya Erikson, and a new �Tom� Riddle. There have been a few more, but aren�t that active, yet! We see a lot of energy from Kamron, Darmean, and of course Kayla, Kelsey, and Junk! The house certainly has been revitalized. To top this, we had a transfer from Gryffindor, whose heart was Slytherin from the start, Seraphina Rosehill, and she came on like gang busters posting like she was home, and she was! And now, she is one of our Prefects!!! Congrats girl! With the three powerful Prefects and a great HOH, we are on a strong foundation! |
| Another Slytherin MIA
By: Jennifer Kull (JUNK) It appears that yet another valuable member of the Noble Slytherin House is gone. Michael D�Auria has much more pressing matters to attend to. So what is really happening? Does he really have pressing matters? Is there more we�re not telling you? Could it be that we�re scaring our house members away? Or is it that they are trying to escape our��family�? Perhaps the truth is that we�ve gotten rid of these people in some other manner? Are we being evasive? Most defiantly. I mean no. Yes. Well�you decide. ; ) Whatever the matter, Michael is gone, and we all regret it. He was, indeed, highly respected, valued, but most of all loved in our house, and I do believe I can speak for us all when I say that we hope for the best of whatever he has chosen to do, and that he excels. Good luck! |
| Finally�A Return!
By: Jennifer Kull (JUNK) So THERE! We do NOT chase all of our members away, ne�er to return. *smug smirk* Wednesday Addams has made a wondrous entrance back into the Slytherin life. Welcomed by all, the girl is most definitely happy to be back, shown in her posts, and has promised to become more active. So, welcome back, all official like, Girl! It is so wonderful to have you in the family. Now that you�re back, want to race? =P Slytherins against Slytherins. Who can give the most hugs! LOL OK OK, I�m kidding, but not about the welcome. I hope you�re here forever. |
| Penshire of the Month
By Ava Black Penshire would like to acknowledge Araceli Mendoza as this month�s Penshire of the Month. Since Celi joined Penshire in June, she has been a wonderful addition to our house. She is an active poster with over 2000 post already!! She supports our house, is a member of the Quidditch team and is a active member. We really enjoy having Celi around. She has helped give everyone a nickname and she is well deserved of this title! Congratulations Celi! You are Penshire�s Student of the Month!!! Professor of the Month By Ava Black I would like to recognize Professor Hyde Takarai as this months Professor of the Month. Hyde as he prefers to be called is currently working on a art class for Hogwarts. We should expect to see it sometime this term. He is an active RPer on the BB. He is welcoming and just a lot of fun to be with. Congratulations Professor Hyde Takarai , you are Penshire�s Professor of the Month. |
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| Slytherin Student of the Month
By: Jennifer Kull (JUNK) And the student of the month is�.Darmean Volten! Dar, only second in post-warring with Seraphina Rosehill, has accomplished so much that he simply needs recognition. First, he is the new captain of the Slytherin Dueling club. Go Dar!!!! Next, he�s a new mentor, and already has a newbie! With mentioning Dar�s wanting to encourage absolutely everyone to post all they can and to do as much as possible for points, he�s simply an inspiration. |
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| Gryffindor of the Month
By Kalie Black Behind a pair of glasses, two startlingly blue eyes observe the world. With extreme loyalty to her friends and a naturally kind disposition, it is no wonder that Audrea Christine Martin was voted this month's Gryffindor of the Month. Auds, as her friends call her, is in her third year here at Hogwarts. Not only is she a good student, but also Audrea is an active member of Gryffindor house. She always gives every task her all and is a great help when it comes to earning our house points. Upon first glancing at Audrea, we see someone of a relatively average height and weight. Her medium brown hair frames her kind face and she looks her age: 15. No one in Gryffindor could imagine the common room without Audrea's presence, but the truth is that she was almost sorted into Ravenclaw. We in Gryffindor are all extremely lucky that it changed its mind and put Audrea in our house instead. Let's take a look at Audrea's life before she came to Hogwarts. She was born in Maryland, which is in the United States. She is a halfblood with her father being the Muggle. When he found out that his wife could do magic he dealt with it surprisingly well, and moved past the initial shock. Audrea's parents decided to hide her magical background from Audrea as a child. However, they were great parents for Audrea as she went to a muggle school. Audrea's best subject in school was math and her exceptional problem solving skills had a lot to do with that. Soon came the time when Audrea received her Hogwarts letter, and her family background was explained to her. It was at this time that her parents decided they should also tell their two younger children, Todd and Stephanie, about their magical background as well since there was a huge possibility that they could also be magical. So, with excitement and anticipation, Audrea set off for Hogwarts. Hogwarts was all Audrea could have hoped for and more. She felt like she was in heaven when she walked into the school that would be her home for the next few years. As a child, Audrea had always been something of a loner, but she had the potential to be a socialite. The first person Audrea met was Aerwin and in the first couple weeks of school, they became fast friends. Unfortunately, things took a turn for the worst. Audrea received an owl from her father that held a piece of dreadful news. Her mother had cancer and it wasn't looking good. Audrea chose to leave Hogwarts to be with her family since someone needed to take care of her younger siblings. Her father spent most of his time in the hospital where Audrea's mother was. It wasn't long before Audrea's mom passed away. Audrea was devastated to lose her mother, but she also lost something else. She lost the school that she had fallen in love with. Audrea lost Hogwarts. Her father was never around after her mother died because he was working practically all the time. He worked so that he could be out of the house and away from the memories of his late wife. Meanwhile, someone had to take care of and watch over the kids. This task fell to Audrea. From where she stood, there was no hope of returning to Hogwarts, and so she decided to forget all about it. Audrea didn't write to her friends, and she didn't look at any of her magical supplies. In the summer, a woman who had known Audrea's mother came to live with them. Her name was Julia and she had lost her job. In exchange for living with them Julia would take care of the kids. She was kind and caring woman, who helped Audrea's father back to the way he had been before Audrea's mother had died. Audrea was finally able to return to Hogwarts. Her first term back, Audrea noticed a fellow Gryffindor named Kristin Johnson looked surprisingly similar to herself. When she ended up rooming with the girl, Audrea and her got along well. One day, they were talking on the grounds and they discovered that they had many similarities. These similarities were too many in number to be taken as coincidence, so Audrea wrote to her father. In his response, the truth came out. Kristin was Audrea's long-lost twin sister that her parents had been forced to give up many years ago. To look at the two now, you'd think they had been sisters all their lives since they are so close. During her first year, Audrea showed her skills at Charms and Defense Against the Dark Arts and her willingness to help people. Audrea is one of those people who no one has a problem talking to, although Audrea rarely talks about her own personal life. Her best friends are probably the only people who know everything about Audrea. When it comes to these friends, Audrea can be extremely protective and she's not afraid to stand up for them or herself. Anyone who had ever taken the time to talk to Audrea can tell that she is sincere and genuinely enjoys helping people. She is always there to help newbies learn the ropes. Audrea is an active member of several clubs including the Writing and Poetry clubs. Audrea does everything that she can to encourage people to do what they can to help earn points. I don't think that there's anyone who could wonder why Audrea deserves the title of Gryffindor of the Month. She is a prized member of Gryffindor and the best friend many people could have. Audrea takes her role as a Gryffindor seriously and she motivates people to be the best Gryffindor that they can be. Audrea's house and school spirit is inspiring to many people and there is no doubt in my mind why she should be this month's Gryffindor of the Month. So hats off to our prefect extraordinaire, our very own Audrea Martin! |
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| Setting Sights Far Apart: The Division of the Houses
by: Vicky Malfoy Of course the house front page talks about the type of people in each house but really every house has their own opinion on the other houses. First off is Slytherin. The front page describes slytherin's as cunning folk and quite competitive. They Slytherin's think that they are "the only house worth being in". The Hufflepuffs think that Slytherin is "over protective of their scones" as one student said. One Gryffindor described the Slytherins as "over competitive". When talking to a group of Ravenclaws they said that Slytherins were "greedy people who would do anything to win the cups". But, when asking one Penshire student about Slytherin I was told, "Slytherin? What�s a Slytherin?". Next onto Hufflepuffs. The page describes them as "just and loyal". Huffs think of themselves as "one big happy family". The Slytherins think they are, "hiding something from the rest of the houses" perhaps the Slytherins is thinking of a secret weapon to get their hands on. One Ravenclaw student said, "Ummm that's a type of dessert right?". Quoting from one Gryffindor they are "trying to steal their house motto of being brave". Speaking to a Penshire I found out the Hufflepuffs "A bit to 'buddy buddy' with the other houses". Ravenclaw is the next house. The main page says they are "witty" and "wise". Ravenclaws think of themselves as "by far the smartest house". A Slytherin was heard saying they were, "professor's pets". A Hufflepuff asked, "Is that a kind of bird? It sounds familiar". A Penshire first year said they were, "too uptight". Penshire gets a turn. The main page uses the words, "crafty" and "unique" to describe them. The Penshires think of themselves as, "special and highly unique". Slytherins say they are, "overly obsessed with themselves". The Gryffindors say, "Penshire... ummm sounds like a country. Is that in Africa?" Hufflepuffs think they are, "very creative". Lastly a Ravenclaw said, "They are so creative they could be creating a secret weapon and we would never know,". Last but not least is Gryffindor. The front page says they are "brave" and "daring". The Gryffindors think they are, "positively the best house since all the famous people get in there". A Slytherin said when asked about Gryffindor, "Gryffindor...Gryffindor.... Gryffindor...."*goes into long train of thought*. A Ravenclaw once asked, "they don't exactly think before they act now do they?" A Hufflepuff said, "Oh I could fight them easily". Penshire students were saying, "their ideas are good but they act too quickly,� So as you can see all the houses have interesting views on the other houses. *Authors Note: This is meant as a joke and should not be taken personally* |
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| Battle for the Cup
By Abigail Turner With the new term poised to begin, we students find ourselves already in competition for the cup. Not only have we already begun to battle for the lead, but we've been working day (and sometimes night) to get ahead. It almost feels as though it's the end of term already, the way people are in such frenzy. The way things have been going, it seems that the competition is fierce. Nobody can stay on top for long without working to keep their place. It seems almost different from past years, where a house could stay ahead for months. No, now it seems that it's becoming easier to be knocked out of your place. Each house is going to feel the pressure to keep a steady flow of points coming in. Everything's just starting up, but nobody's going to be allowed to let his or her guard down for a moment. This year, things are going to be different - winning is going to be even more of a challenge than it has been in the past. |
| Watching the Cups
Beonca Aims They sit on the mantel, two bright shining beacons of house pride. These are symbols of a term past, but a term that was filled with surprises and hard work. We�ve watched, this past summer, different Heads of House come in, admire them, but were warned to �not touch the cups�, respectfully, of course. Sure rumors abound that each Slytherin student takes turns sleeping in the common room to guard the cups, this is not true! We have repelling charms for that. Sure having them gives us bragging rights, but we have been pretty low key about it, unless you come into the common room. With the start of term, the official classes opening, the Slytherins are counting the days to being again working towards rocking the glass again. |
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| Back to School
By Ava Black Many of us are getting ready to go back to school in RL or Muggle life�. But are you prepared for the Hogwarts start of term? Starting September 1st registration will open for the 2006-7 term. Students will rush from store to store, gathering necessary supplies for the upcoming classes. Then on September 15, that is when the real madness begins. Classes� open and lessons will be submitted. There are so many interesting classes here at Hogwarts that picking which ones to take will be a hard choice. Keep in mind your career choices when you graduate and that should help you to choose your path correctly. So everyone get your books, plenty of parchment, ink and Quills and buckle up!! Homework is on its way!! |
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| New Pictures From PAD
By Danny Lupin In the last month many of you must have noticed the new pictures of our common rooms just before you logged in. Not only can they be found in our common rooms, but I also saw one in the Administrative office. As a thank you to PAD I must say, what many are thinking, how creative, entertaining, and beautiful these pictures are, and we cannot thank you enough, but we can one more time, Thanks a lot PAD! |
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| Student Council Elections
By Lavender Moondust This Summer we had a few elections for the Student Council, which seems to have more and more in fact of things around here. >> We got: Kalie from Gryffindor as the Student President Roger from Penshire as the Vice President Our own Summer as Secretary And Raelyn as Treasurer And in the last elections for House Representatives: Joey from Hufflepuff Bryony from Penshire Kelsey from Slytherin Roxanne from Gryffindor and our own Gemini from Ravenclaw! Congrats everyone and good luck on your new positions! |
| Movie Club Update
By: Seraphina Rosehill This year, as a part of the Summer Club, Kamron Flame, Slytherin, took something he loved and turned it into an open discussion for all. The Summer Movie Club is a place where students from all houses can gather to discuss their favorite movies. Topics have included Scary Movies, Comedies, Student Picks, Top 10 and Random movies. Students have been sharing their favorite movies and are able to have discussions with other students that share similar interests. Though this is the first year for this club, Kamron says he has had a good response and is considering having it again next summer, with a few changes of course. He says he has found this to be a learning experience, and recommends anyone interested in teaching, try running his or her own club! If you haven�t checked out the Summer Movie Club, I recommend you get down there and see it before the summer club is over. |