By a Gryffindor
Within the past month, several new faces have popped up around the house of Gryffindor. A special welcome back to Shannon Wood, Ville Valo, and Cassie Pandora; we're glad to have you back in this wonderful house, and hope to see you around more often! And to our brand new students, Elizabeth Sheridan, Allegra Nightingale, Stevie Johnson, and Angela Potter, we give you a big old Gryffie welcome, and are glad that you ended up in our house!
By Megan Miller
When looking at the title of this article, the first thought that probably comes into your head is that this will be some kind of article praising the students of Gryffindor for their intelligence and logical thinking, and all though it's true that we are a house full of intelligent students, 'great minds' implies something else that we haven't talked about in a while.
A while back, the students of former Gryffindor prefect Audrea Martin started up a mind topic, basically, a topic where she could write down her thoughts, feelings and anything else. It also allowed other students to post their own thoughts in response to hers, or in general. As more people saw this topic, many students began to like the idea of having their own mind topic, and they made their own. Now, almost every student in Gryffindor has their own mind topic where they share their thoughts, feelings, and habits of randomness with their housemates and in turn, their housemates can corrupt the minds of their friends.
The idea was forgotten for a bit, but now those minds are coming back and are full of new thoughts and ideas. Currently, we have 20 mind topics posted in the GCR but only a few of those 20 are active at the moment. Come on Gryffs! Get your minds working again before all the dust and cobwebs build up!
By Beonca Aims
We welcomed some new students recently, like Sukiro, who is so funny in a sarcastic and dry humor type of way, and Maria, who has been pretty quite. Clark Wayne joined us and already finished up Potions 101 and Ema Tear just came in, we can�t wait to get to know her better. Tiberius Flint arrived and we are honored to have a family member of the famous Flint clan joining us, maybe we will see him on the Quidditch team soon. Most newly arrived is Julian Emerson and already posting here and there, he seems like he is going to be a great fit! All were welcomed Slytherin style by the Slytherin Salutations Society and of course the secret Slytherin Welcome Intro. We are getting some books ready for the library, discussion our house magazine and other things going on of which I can�t share because�you�re not a Slytherin.
By Beonca Aims
Seems the Shirelings are up for challenging another house with their latest ending between them and Gryffindor. It was a points war� our challenge, however, is a post war! The two Assistant Heads of Houses are in charge and each house will register their common room post count on April 27th and go until May 3rd.
In Slytherin, we are going to break into two teams, the Sly Snakes and the Silver Serpents. The challenge will be good for both houses and we are looking forward to this opportunity to take on the Pennies. This challenge won�t be over by the time you read this, but keep an eye out for the results article in the June issue.
By Billy Raven
What�s new in the Shire? We have seen some new students enter, Adrianna Reyes, who jumped right in and began posting and being a big part of the RPGs. Vladimir Kalinnikarovsky, who likes to have his last name pronounced properly! Newton Merrick is another active new student, Cara Riccio, Christina Crush, Dorinda Emerald, and Beverly Heaven. We have seen a return too! We were so excited to see Makayla Malfoy finally get her Muggle life settled and computer problems resolved! She is an active gamer and RPGer and she and Adrianna are hard to separate! Penshire is working on putting a name to our mascot crane and working on points, posts, and other things that will enable us to own the House Cup this year. We are gearing up for out last Quidditch game against the mighty lions, but we have confidence we will play a good game.
By Bry Casten
Every house has participated in an inter-house point war before� they became commonplace last year with the first battle challenges. But how about a posting war� and not just against your own housemates, but against an entirely different house?! That�s what Penshire and Slytherin have done, and from April 27 to March 3 they�ll be posting like crazy in their own common rooms, fighting against each other to be the house that posts the most. Professor Simbi and Professor Bliss have taken the starting count numbers and will keep track throughout the week, marking their common rooms total to determine the ultimate winner.
Penshire is geared up, ready to go, and looking forward to war!
By Billy Raven
Everyone house has a mascot; in Penshire we have our beloved crane, though nameless. What is his name, what is the history behind this crane and how did it come to be Penshire�s mascot? The Penshire Crane Spirit Club decided to hold a contest, Name the Crane and though only two �history� entries came in, there were sixteen suggested names. At this writing the voting was still going on, so once over, I will report back on the results.
Here are two suggested histories, one deal with the past the other the present:
History #1: Pandora Penshire had rescued the crane when it was a fledgling. The nest was destroyed in a storm and she found the baby crane in the bushes below a huge tree where once the nest was. Pandora didn't see its parents or other babies and decided to take it home to nurse it to health and feed it until it could be on its own. She called him ______ and the young crane would follow her everywhere, it would 'shadow' her, and he grew and stayed with her and never left.
History # 2: About a week after Penshire was reopened, Professor Ripley the new Head of House was in her study doing some 'readings' with her cards, when it hit her to go down to the lake. There at the lake was a tine little crane. It looked like a baby still. She quickly took it to the gamekeeper and got directions on how to take care of it. The tiny bird was brought to the common room about a week later and the Pennies just loved her. One day Ava said this cutie needs a name and quickly the Cranes began making suggestions. "Oatmeal, Ducky, and Legolas' were all mentioned.
As for the names suggested, here what we are voting on:
Cranston
Phillip
Evelyn
Harry
Quiddy (because we are the best at Quidditch)
Penelope ( also could go with Penny for short)
Caedmon - Celtic for 'a wise warrior'.
Cailean - Scottish Gaelic for 'the victory of the people'.
Caldwell - Old English for 'cold well'.
Calisto - Greek for 'most beautiful'.
Magnus - meaning 'great'
Gavin - meaning 'white hawk of battle '
Dave - meaning 'beloved'
Quinque - meaning five in Latin, since we are the fifth house and the fifth mascot
Puchre - meaning handsome, since he is the most handsome crane around!
Creo - meaning create, since we are the creative house!
By Bryony Casten
Penshire welcomes Vladimir Kalinnikarovsky, Adrianna Reyes, and Beverly Heaven to Hogwarts and Penshire House! Vladimir and Adrianna have both taken right to the spirit of Penshire and jumped in, joining in games, role-plays, events, and most importantly general conversation that harbors friendship and brings the house together. We also welcome back Makayla Malfoy after her absence from the grounds�she was sorely missed and we�re glad to have her back!
