6th of July - 12th of July.

July 11, 2014
Dear Diary,
This has been my first week in The League of 42. It’s been a very exciting week! I guess I picked a good time to join because they were taking dorm pictures this week. Everyone has been so friendly and welcoming so far even though I’m just a little firsty and ask a lot of questions. I still have to get used to living in a dorm with other people though. One of my first nights there Rhi and Novi kept me up all night chatting. I had to sleep with my pillow over my head. But I love them all so dearly and am really glad I found this dorm. I was getting worried for a bit that maybe I had made a wrong decision to study so far away from home. But now I know I am home!
Love Lyra (Lyra Heathers)

Dear Nala,

This is going to be a very short entry this week. I’ve managed to finish all of my classes aside from Transfiguration. Needless to say I’m scrambling to catch up so I can start 2nd year on time. That’s going to be a bit crazy as I’m going to be taking 12 classes. Yeah, that’s probably insane, but they all look so interesting! Anyway, wish me luck! I’m off to finish my last class.

Love,

Unji (Onji Thomas)

13th of July - 19th of July

Dear Friend,

I am dead. My close friend killed me. I am just as horrified as you are. Here’s how it happened:

I was in the common room just hanging out like any other day. Hoping to catch a dormie so we could have another Frozen sing along or watch AVPM. Well, I didn’t see anyone, so I was walking through the common room and just as I got to one of the statues Unji jumps out at me!! I was so frightened it killed me!!!! Now it is no secret that I scare easily. I’m sensing something fishy is going on. The good news is, this is Hogwarts. They are going to allow me to continue my studies. Being dead is making that a little harder. I also plan on getting even with Unji. No killing of course, just some pranks ALL THE TIME. I can’t wait until tomorrow when she wakes up with rainbow hair and is covered in feathers. I have something even better planned for next week! Soon she won’t be sleeping….Not that anyone in our dorm ever does.

That’s all for now Friend. I have to go warm this honey and collect the feathers. Luckily, I still have tons of paint from my water balloon days. I also have to go see Nearly Headless Nick. I wonder if he will be upset that I am a fully headless ghost.

Bye for now,

Cici The Certainly Headless Ghost (Cristina Trail)

Dear Diary,

Year one finished, I’ve taken a bit of a break. But I’m back now! The summer holidays have been swell so far, not to mention sweltering! Indeed, I feel like I’m about to swim off in my own sweat – not a comfortable feeling, let me tell you! I take showers so often, it’s a miracle Hogwarts still has any water left. Yes, dear diary, I stayed over at Hogwarts this summer. It was nice and quiet at first – just Professors getting ready for the new year, and a few stragglers. But my dorm was anything but: we had Cards Against Humanity games – an awful Muggle game which I’m sure you’d enjoy – and bonfire gatherings and long nights on which nobody slept and we did nothing productive.

But all good things come to an end, if only to lead to even greater events. Before I knew it, it was already time to start my second year here at Hogwarts! True to form, as a Ravenclaw I selected to take every elective available. Thankfully there weren’t that many yet, because even though I know my own limits, I tend to push them if it’s not too big of a step forward – the definition of too big varying from day to day, it seems.

With the new year, The League of 42 is well on its way to filling up all of the 42 spots with new members, and this is cause for much happiness. Not only to we have a great way to start a conversation by just walking up to a random person and going:

Hey, I don’t know you yet. Hi, I’m mennun, or the pink and punky panda, lel. Thanr for holding the door open for .E. Bailey!

And somehow still have all of that make sense.

However, even ‘ Claws must sleep – Rhi, I’m looking at you! – so I’d better be off and finish my homewo- wait, no. So I can get some sleep. Yes, sleep. Sleeeeep. Sleep is goooooooooood. Zzzz…

Bailey. (Manon Van Liempt)

Friday, July 18th

I’ve gone and done it again… not writing until the day before the weekend. It’s hard with the weeks so full sometimes. Oh well, as long as I do eventually write it all down it still counts. Speaking of full weeks, this one has been especially full, what with the beginning of term…

No one can be sure where or when it started. Maybe it was when Dana and I were discussing our hesitancy to join Magical Art and Janessa and Manon --and our own curiosity-- urged us to trudge down to the first floor the next day with them to attend our first class… or maybe it was when 5 of us, myself included, immediately set about convincing Cristina to take Alchemy with us, when she voiced an interest in it… or maybe it was even Onji and Novi’s week-long attempt to persuade Dana to take Divination with them. But wherever it started and whoever the culprit was, by the end of the week, we had signed up for all, or nearly all, of the classes and electives.

Tuesday was interesting even on top of classes. I was wandering around the Great Hall, trying to calculate exactly how many points more or less the other houses had in comparison to us, when a chirpy, businesslike brunette appeared next to me. She held out her hand in greeting and graciously ignored the inelegant jump I made when she had first appeared. She inquired about the dorm and if it would be okay to let her in. After scribbling a note to the council, we both headed up to the Common Room so she could pack up her things.

Wednesday contained another case of me not paying attention to my surroundings. I walked into the dorm on the tail-end of a well-attended conversation in the Common Room of the dorm… nothing atypical. I was attempting to finish reading over my notes for DADA to make sure I hadn’t left anything out. So, as I passed by and muttered a distracted “Sounds good!”, to the lively chorus of hellos, silly faces and a call of “Eesabilsa”, the question that followed my recently-coined nickname hadn’t truly registered. It took approximately 6 more steps before my brain caught up with what my ears had missed; I nearly gave myself whiplash as I turned my head sharply over my shoulder to ask in a disbelieving tone, “You want me to make what for what kind of animal exactly?”. But by then, it was too late; the devastatingly effective puppy dog eyes were on full blast. It seemed I would be going back to the library to do some research on how to build a suitable indoor habitat for a platypus. Thank Merlin we have a pool for me to work with.

Friday, a few of the first years and I spent the majority of the morning in a random, cozy alcove just lazing around. The rest of the second years were off taking Divination—the only class I had not been persuaded into taking. The bubbly blonde I had first met weeks ago, named Rhi, introduced us to an… unorthodox card game. Anti-mankind cards? Anti-human cards? Something like that. The rules were simple, the cards were wildly inappropriate and in no time, our game had attracted the attention of random passersby. By the time the Leaguers headed back to the dorm, it was still going strong. We brought the conversation, and one of the friendly Gryffindors we’d met back to the dorm (though we left the card game behind) and we only came to an end when we realized we had all better go our separate ways to sleep, get dinner or do some work.

*************************************************************************************Speaking of work, I really should put the finishing touches on my Muggle Scavenger hunt essay; I’m lucky to have met another girl that likes to brainstorm ideas for assignments with me, and I came up with something I ought to add. However, even as I write this, I know it will have to wait just a little bit longer. I can see Bronze over by the fire standing on top of the table with a throng gathering. I think she’s re-enacting a scene from the film we saw in the Auditorium a few weeks ago.  Judging by the chuckles ,her impression of Draco is something I can’t miss.

Don’t let the muggles get you down!

Isabel

Dear Nala,

This has been such a hectic week! It was the first week of the second term and believe it or not...but I’m already behind. There has been a lot going on in my family so it has me a bit preoccupied. A new development though...I’m apparently the dorm murderess! It was completely an accident, I swear! Everyone was super quiet so I hid behind a statue in the common room, determined to scare someone! It felt like I sat there forever, but then I finally heard someone. I didn’t even peak around the side, I didn’t want whoever was coming to see me. I waited until they were just in the right spot, and jumped out screaming “Boo!” I guess I should have checked who it was first, because it was Cristina and I scared her to death! I can’t believe it...I’m a murderess. True, she did come back as a ghost, and she DID forgive me, but still….I killed her! I thought I was going to get in trouble, but nope, Batman said I was forgiven. Bronze still hasn’t said anything about it, so I might still get sent to my punishment corner yet, who knows. Well my dear, I have several assignments to get done, so I had better keep this short. Until next week!

Sincerely,

Onji (Onji Thomas)

20th of July - 26th of July

Dear Friend, My first week as a ghost was not so bad. The great thing is, I don’t ever have to worry about being late to class! I just fly through the walls and past the staircases. There’s no waiting for the staircases to move or trying to get through a crowd of students. It is much more efficient this way. I’ve learned I can still transform into my animagus form. I decided to use that for pranking Amber this week. It was great. I turned into the rooster and I followed her around. Every time she tried to speak I would crow. It was especially fun in class. I would crow and then fly through the wall or through the floor so the professors wouldn’t see me. I would stick my head back through just enough to see if she would try to speak again and if she would I would crow again, quite loudly too. I followed her around everywhere, with the bathroom as an exception. I’m a rooster not Moaning Myrtle. My favorite part was when she went to bed and started sleep talking. She nearly fell of the bed in a panic when I started crowing. It was great. I’ll go easy on her next week. I already have it planned. I should start preparing though. So, goodbye for now. 

Until next week, Cici the Certainly Headless Ghost (Cristina Trail)

July 20-26

This week was hard. I don’t think anyone can disagree with me on that…

I had stayed up very late the night before, holed up in my room catching up on some work. I woke up the next morning quite late… and something immediately felt… off. I discarded the idea as my guilt at sleeping in until such an embarrassing hour and went about getting ready as fast as I could to start my day. However, I couldn’t help noticing how quiet the dorm was. Warily, I poked my head into the adjoining rooms, which typically had many more people than mine—I had chosen a pretty un-populated room—but there was no one. My confusion rising, I checked the rest of the rooms. Nothing…. No one. There was no one in our Common Room. I was starting to become equal parts of alarmed and amused. There had never been no one  in the dorm before.  What was going on?

I decided I was dressed enough to stick my head out of the dorm for a second to look around the rest of the castle and see where the proverbial party was. I creaked open the door to the Ravenclaw Common Room. It was in absolute disarray. Piles of parchment everywhere, someone… or maybe a few someone’s trunks strewn out all over the floor. And… was that someone’s dragon abandoned?! I worriedly strode over to the tiny thing and attempted to touch it, or pick it up to comfort it, but drew back quickly when it bared its teeth at me with a malicious look in its eye. In this case, size was definitely not indicative of need… or ability to incinerate anyone it didn’t like. I spared a glace for it over my shoulder to make sure it wasn’t in pursuit as I pushed open the outer door to the rest of the castle.

My heart fell to the ground the same time that my jaw did. Everything about me about me sank in that moment. The only thing that went upwards was my eyes. The chaos of the Common Room was a safe haven compared to this. There were pieces of the castle missing. My thoughts were mono-syllabic: How? Who? Why? I was torn between frozen inaction and wanting to be everywhere at once to try and find out what was wrong, to help. But what to do and where to go? Abruptly, I noticed something else amidst the holes in the walls, magical residue, the ashes and graffiti. It was the silence. As if the entire castle was holding its breath, as if it was so tired, so beaten, it could only sit and wait for the killing stroke to fall. The silence was too eerie juxtaposed with the manic physical state of the rest of the castle… and I strained to hear something, anything.

I picked up my search for my peers where I had left it off. But where to go first? On instinct, I headed to the Room of Requirement. On my way, searching desperately for a student or, better, a teacher to help me understand what was going on, so we could face it together. I found both shortly, but there was not much standing together… though plenty of fighting. The Room of Requirement’s door would only crack open slightly, and so I saw only part of what was happening. But I heard it all.

My mind reeled. Students against students. Professor against Professor. Students vs. Professors. More hate and vitriol than I had ever heard. People I had respected making decisions, saying things, that confused me. I realized the Professors were also partially responsible for the destruction, graffiti and general state of the castle. I backed away from the door when I could take in no more. There was nothing to be gained from listening to the barrage of insults and spells being thrown back and forth. There were two camps. That was the important part.

I was part of neither. Or both? I didn’t know. Did I think the castle should be abandoned to fail? Should I support what others saw as a corrupt system? Did I believe anything being said? I didn’t know.  My eyes couldn’t help but drift over the graffiti on the walls, scrawling out harsh accusation and hidden agendas. Well, I knew one thing at least. I wasn’t leaving. I didn’t know who was wrong, but on my slow trudge back to Ravenclaw Tower, I became more and more sure of one thing: while I wasn’t a part of the problems being described… that did not mean it wasn’t my responsibility to be part of the solution. Who else was going to heal Hogwarts? Certainly not the people too busy casting hexes on each other. When I arrived at the landing of Ravenclaw Tower, I was already as weary as if I hadn’t slept for days, though in truth, I had only just awoken. In the time it had taken me to return—had it really been hours?!—the state of the Ravenclaw Common Room had deteriorated considerably. Messages of hate scrawled on a door half-ripped off its hinges. Inside the gaping hole that was now the entrance, I saw a few frightened-looking first years huddled in a corner with very obvious questions on the tips of their tongues, threatening to burst over.

I looked the carnage up and down, and with a wavering breath, I cast about for something I could do to fix this all. How was I supposed to show strength and clarity for them, let them know that everything would be okay when I wasn’t sure myself. What could I even begin to say to them? I took a steadying breath, and my eyes landed on a bit of the brick molding where the door had stood just hours ago. That was a simple enough fix. I cast a shaky Reparo, with my slightly unsteady hands and guided the brick back into place. The pile of rubble to my right shrunk slowly, and inside, I saw the first years attempting to put things to rights the best they could; levitating books back onto their shelves, straightening the couches and statues that were not in pieces. It was less than an hour into the repair work when I both heard and felt someone come up behind me. I winced internally, and tensed visibly, before I turned around to confront whoever it was. It was the dorm leader himself, Novi. Before I could say anything, he gave me a nod and started in the Common Room and began to console the First Years and help them set things to rights. More and more people came by after that. Some simply passed by without a word, but some joined me. A large crowd gathered at my original spot, and with the help of a fair number of my dorm mates —who had all come up to share a hug or a tight smile—as well as other students both from Ravenclaw and elsewhere. With our combined efforts, we had the door back on and in one piece, working as good as new. A hush fell over the crowd at one point when one of the Professors I had seen dueling in the Room of Requirement split the busy, working group up the middle and headed straight to me where I was attempting to scrub some of the graffiti off by hand. She looked as weary as I felt, but spared a nod for me, and with a quick motion, she brought out her wand, flourished it, and like that the large, angular scribbles melted away.

We drifted away in small groups… to search for others, hoping to find friends were still here, to get food, to just be alone. When I finally went back to the Dorm, I was greeted by a new kind of graffiti on the door:

L42 FOR PEACE

I went inside, and saw a familiar sight: a large knot of friendly faces gathered by the fire. I closed the door and, although nothing would completely erase the unease and pain that today had brought with it like a permanent cloud over the castle, I knew things would be okay.

(Isabel Rhodesse)

July 20-26th
Dear Diary,
This has been a week full of drama! It started off fantastic though. Rhi showed us the plans for the new dorm rooms so we all started picking out our bed and roomies. Not to mention planning all of our late night parties. :) Then I went down to the Great Hall on Wednesday and heard the horrible news that several of our professors have left us. None of us really knew what to do. Some wanted to leave school. We are Ravenclaws though, not quitters. Novi brought us all together again and slowly we will help rebuild the school. #L42forPeace
Love Lyra (Lyra Heathers)

DOOM day.

Novi convinced me to finally start working on my Transfiguration lessons. We had decided we will team up and help each other out. As we went to get our first lesson's assignment, it had mysteriously disappeared. We looked at each other, made a joke about being Darkstormed and decided to spend the rest of the day doing our own thing. That was the last time I saw Novi when Hogwarts went into chaos.

I went to the common room and saw a notice from Professor Darkstorm saying he will no longer be a professor at Hogwarts. Chills ran through my spine. WHAT?! Then I noticed a staple in the paper, flipping up his notice, I see five more professors with their resignation notice. What on Earth is happening?! The other Ravenclaws looked around confused and shocked. We all knew at once where we can find the answers to our questions, The Room of Requirement. There, I saw Isabel, equally confused as I. I was trying to get information out of the ex-professors, but some had other plans, like using a spell to make their name appear on official things, humorous.

I tried to keep my dormies updated as much as I could, but needed sleep as I had pulled an all-nighter. I waited until a council member was on to keep the updates coming for those who were just waking up. I was scared to go to sleep, but I needed to, otherwise I will be no use at all. While I slept, things were put into place to sort out the chaos, my dormies that were awake, started helping repair the damage. When I woke, I got the other dormies that needed sleep to help make the dorm look nice and peaceful. Novi came in with several dormies and said we need to spread the love and peace back through Hogwarts and asked us to put '#L42FORPEACE' all around the school.

So far, the school is on the mend, and hopefully everyone can learn from this, on both sides of the chaos. For those that left during the chaos, I am sad they lost the opportunity to see how the school can become better.

#L42FORPEACE. (Rhiannon Fleetwood)