By Toby Mcdermont
You heard right, folks. The construction of the new house at Hogwarts has finally been completely as of a week ago. The new house, Paddington is officially open to all students in the castle. Many students have already transferred to the new house by the droves, hoping to seek new adventures waiting for them there, and to get a fresh start on things.
Paddington has only been around for no more then a week, and already they have so many things established in the house. These things include their Quidditch Team, which is still being worked on at the present time, but rumors say that their Quidditch Team should be all set up and ready to play when the Quidditch season starts up again. They also have an Owlery Team organization which their job is to pretty much take care of the Owlery in �teams.� Another cool thing is they have a neat mentor program with an awesome name: �Adopt a Cub.� The house also is already working on putting together their own house magazine which is pretty much a tradition for every house to do at some point or another. Finally, the students have been posting in the games as if they�re required to. There�s lots of love going around the house....Especially between the HOHs.
By Beonca Aims
Staying at Hogwarts for the summer can be a lot of fun! Besides some classes, there will be the Summer Club and other activities. Many students will be working on new shops, library books, and RPGs since the rush for lessons/points aren't so much on their minds. We will see the new house open and hopefully a bunch of new students come to Hogwarts for
all the houses. Summer is a great time to plan things with house mates cause it is just more relaxed. I always like the fact the common room got cleaned out, its like spring cleaning and a fresh start! Also fun to re-start the games and come up with some new ones, I already have 3 new ones, but am waiting. Summer also is fun to see your mates go off
on vacation, then come back and tell you stories and, of course, bring you something back from where ever they went. So, I hope everyone has a happy summer and may we all be safe!
By Cauly Hauster
We near the year's finish and we have plenty upcoming events. During that period, we have the End of Term Feast. Throughout it, many different things happen there. All hear announcements about the present and the future. Besides, we get the House Cup. Last school day occurs June 7th. Then, the End of Term Feast will be June 14th-16th. However, PAD's Hogwarts experiences more prior this date.
Recently, those with interest have been required an application for various positions among their houses. Soon, all will notice different prefects, assistant prefects, a new head girl, a new head boy, and a new head prefect. When the students are chosen now, heads of houses will post the information into every common room. I think that all will be gracious and happy on welcoming their new staff.
Further, summer school classes will receive messages from the offerings. They might become really fun. Everything looks great at Hogwarts! I guess that anyone would agree then!
By Bry Casten
The growth of the Owl Gazette was brought to my attention recently with the latest April Fool�s edition of the paper�it was by far one of the largest yet with over one-hundred fifty articles. The sheer enormity of it struck me as something that was really significant�it demonstrates, perhaps more clearly than most things, the growth of this school over time.
The Owl Gazette published their first issue in November, 2003. That�s about five and a half years ago! I was curious to see how the paper has changed over time, so I spent a few hours in the newsroom doing some research�and let me tell you, the results were pretty outstanding!
The first few issues of the paper were small�only three pages, focusing on classes offered and things around the castle with perhaps one article for each house. The average number of articles for the first five issues? Twelve, give or take a few tenths of a decimal. Twelve articles per paper�compare that to what we�re used to today!
If you were to take the average of something larger, say, the first twenty issues of the paper, you�d get a number more like fourteen articles per issue. That�s right�after twenty issues the paper was still receiving only fourteen articles per month. That�s not to say they weren�t quality articles�for they certainly were. Reading over them, it is really interesting to see how the subject matter of articles has changed (and stayed the same) over the past five years. More was discussed in the early issues about renovations being made to the castle (new forums, additional classrooms and extra spots around the castle), the teachers themselves. Professor Ripley even had a regular comic strip back then featuring specific RPGs! Today we see much more student gossip and thoughts concerning events that have occurred, quidditch matches, competitions within the houses. Some things never change�interviews and top ten lists, for example, have been seen in the Owl Gazette since the very beginning.
It is with Issue 24 of the Owl Gazette that we see an increase in articles. This is fascinating in itself, because the reason why is clear: from Issue 24 onwards points were awarded for submissions. Once points were at stake, students from every house suddenly jumped on the chance to write and see their words in print. Even so, it was nothing like the numbers we have today�Issues 26 through 30 had an average article submission of sixty-one articles per issue.
From there, though, the numbers simply keep rising. With more members, more events to write about, and more competition for the coveted House Cup the Owl Gazette grew to enormous proportions, giving us the 100+ article issues we have today. The purpose of this article? Don�t take the OG for granted! Everyone loves reading it every month, but remember that there was a time when the Headmistress had to beg for articles and even then only received a few! Hogwarts has grown since it first opened�and with it, our newspaper.
By Bryony Casten
The Headmistress recently announced the dates for the long-awaited End of Term�June 7th is the official End of Term for the 2007-2008 year! With it there are a few final activities and other important dates to remember. May 31st is the last day for students to earn points for this term�everything done after that will count for next year. May 26th through June 7th OWLS will be held, led by Professor O�Connell. Good luck to all students taking them! The final quidditch match between Ravenclaw and Slytherin takes place from the 30th to the 12th, and� perhaps the most fun of all the end of year events� the weekend of June 13th will be our annual End of Term banquet!
The banquet is always a blast, with all the Deputies giving speeches about the year past and the year to come, time for students to mingle, dance, and party in the Great Hall, the announcement of winners of the House and Quidditch cups, and, of course, plenty of snacks and refreshments (including punch!) for all.
By Luna Lovegood
For the past few months, students and staff from each House of our school have been at work, creating the new House, Paddington. We've had series of contests and such over the past months for the preparation of the House. Our first contest was to come up with the founder, House name, and the House motto. Simple information was given to help come up with the new House. This included, but was not limited to, that the mascot was going to be a polar bear, and that the House was going to be in the Astronomy Tower. It was also told the qualities of the people in the House and so much more! After this contest, the House of Paddington was much further along on it's creation.
The next contest was to come up with the history of the House and the founder.
Before we even knew it, the students started to pour in! It was as if without warning that they had all arrived overnight. I've gotten to speak to a few of these new students, and they all seem quite nice.
Welcome...welcome to the new House of Paddington.
By Arya Drottningu
After a long absence of a house ghost for Ravenclaw, the Ravens have finally acquired another one! Sir Hugo Tien has joined the ranks of the blue and bronze house. He is an eleven-year-old ghost who died on November 4, 1494. Even though he's dead, he's still energetic and tries to live life to the fullest, well, as full as a ghost can "live" it. Ravenclaw welcomes Sir Hugo warmly, with at least one student *coughAricough* saying, "Sir Hugo rocks!", and can't wait until the rest of the school can meet him too.
By Sir Hugo Tien
Paddington is here! Not being here when all the deciding was taking place, I missed part of the fun, but just meeting all the new and different talented students is so much more! I've already met some of the new students and I can just tell that their inventive minds are working. It's so exciting that PAD's has a new house and I'm sure we all can't wait until more and more Paddies come to our friendly abode.
By Ariene Callahan
On the evening of May 15th, those in Ravenclaw had a surprise announcement awaiting them. Ravenclaw was getting a new assistant Head of House! Professor Charles Simbi has officially been turned over to the Ravenclaw side! Yes, that's right, you heard me! We have gained a pretty awesome, and good looking AHOH! Watch out Professor Lockhart, you have some competition! Honestly, Professor Simbi fits so perfectly into our house, its like he was meant to be there! For the last two weeks the Ravens have had the privilege of getting to know Prof. Simbi. The final verdict? Professor Simbi is the sultan of cool!
By Cauly Hauster
Although we had a new member of our House, he will be leaving us. When changes were made everywhere around the school, Penshire accepted another professor besides Professor Ripley Guildhall-Professor Charles Simbi-into our members. However, he procured obligations elsewhere. No longer, he will be a part in the House of Penshire.
Nonetheless, we acquire someone else in his place. In the future, Penshire welcomes Professor Delia Macintosh into Penshire. Though, she has taught many subjects for many years at Hogwarts, she recently filled this position. All of Penshire hopes that she will like this new arrangement.
By Carrots
Soon the new staff members' names are going to be announced and Hogwarts can't wait to find out who's filling the positions! Each house is itching to hear PAD's end of term speech, which will include an announcement of all new staff members. One thing we already know-- the new staff will do very well in the upcoming term, whoever they may be!
By Ava Black
Don�t be alarmed!! It happens to us all!! At the end of term each common room cleans out old post and gets the post count down to zero. Then we go in like a frenzy and repost all our rules and games. So the only thing you have to do is save any important RPG�s or games you would like to see again. If not sit back and enjoy the clean CR! And no worries about your personal post count that stays the same. I remember my first cleanout and being worried. It might be a little funny at first but once every gets in the common room it will be posting as normal!! So relax!
By Riley Jake
My first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry has truly been an extraordinary one, full of tumult, crazy adventures, and winning the title of "Coffee Ninja". It was an interesting experience, getting to meet a lot of the students from the different houses here. As different people, I was able to meet many students from the respective houses that never ventured out to the Bulletin Board, and went on my own journey of self-discovery, that ended up with me being incredibly attached the house of Slytherin. I've formed many friendships, and hopefully they will continue to last during my stay here. My first year is nearly done, and soon my second year will start, and I thank everyone here for making my first year so wonderful, and know that the second year will be even better!
By Cucumber
Bye bye spam! Yes, you heard me right, spam is no more! Bulletin board administrators have decided to terminate the spam thread on the BB. Reasons for doing that include the difficulty of monitoring the thread. Now the only time to spam with friends from other houses is during the posting wars�and every day in the Great Hall chat room!
By Ava Black
Hogwart�s held it�s first year of OWLS this term. Students applied and were sent out pm�s to take the test. All of the core classes were covered. All OWLS are due June 7th. Professor O�Connell is heading up the entire process. Good luck to those taking them!
By A Penshire Contributor
With the end of term looming ever nearer, students wonder what they�ll do with themselves for the summer. Muggle school is out, leaving many Hogwarts students with more time on their hands (those that don�t have summer jobs, that is), and yet classes at Hogwarts have closed and things have slowed down for a lazy summer. You might be getting blue just thinking about it� I know that the first summer I was here I did!
But don�t! Because summer at Hogwarts is anything but boring unless you chose to make it that way! PAD�s offers a huge variety of things to do over the summer, from a few summer RPG lessons (I know that I for one always participate in Professor Snape�s summer potions and they are a blast) to Summer Club activities, school dances and publications, clubs (they stay open for summer), and so much more! So if you�re bored and blue, it�s only because you�re not getting involved�step up and see what�s out there, because summer here at PAD�s Hogwarts is no less exciting than the regular school year!
By Moaning Myrtle
End of term is the time of year when even I can�t mope about and be unhappy. At least, for the beginning of End-of-Term, at least. The frantic time of last-minute point-earning and students hurrying this way and that, hushed conversations about who will win the House Cup after a whole year of working hard. I can surely tell you that the Penshire Common Room has been abuzz lately with talk of overtaking the Ravens and doing everything in their power (including write a ridiculous amount of OG articles), to win the cup. They came so close this year, it seems like they�ll go to any lengths to win it this year!
So this point of End of Term is fun and exciting for everyone. The Banquet, of course, has both sides of the story�for the winner is announced. The winning house, of course, won�t be happier and will enjoy the banquet immensely. The other houses� well, some people might still enjoy it, but I am of a weaker race and am perfectly content to tell you that if we lose, I will moan and mope and do all sorts of horrible things to the house that beats us for the rest of my undead life.