-HiH Section-

Hello and welcome to the HiH section of this Magazine! This Section will feature an article on HiH news every issue, as well as alternating between Professor and Student of the issue. These latter two will cover either a Professor or Student each week, involving a short bio and possibly an interview. 

Writers for this section:

Misty Swanson

Lilia Le Fay (occasionally)

-Christmas at Hogwarts-

(RP article)

Snow was thick in the air at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry - and it wasn’t the only thing. Festivity buzzed through the crowds of students, leaving trails of hummed carols, excited anticipation, and an excellent reason for the hardworking students slogging away at their classwork to exchange their quills and parchment for wrapping paper and ribbon. 

The school was practically bursting with decorations. Holly was found draped over most available surfaces, everlasting icicles adorned banisters, mistletoe developed a habit of growing above the heads of unsuspecting students, and various suits of armor were found to occasionally blurt out rusty but jolly renditions of “God Rest Ye Merry Hippogriffs” and “Cast A Christmas Spell” to entertain the passing student.

And then the Christmas trees themselves. A dozen of them, towering magnificently in all their evergreen glory above the Great Hall, adorned with glittering ornaments and real, alive fairies. The latter fluttered cheerfully between the branches of the trees, earning a number of admiring gasps from the first-years when they saw them for the first time.

Finally, it was Christmas morning. After the piles of presents waiting enticingly at the end of each student’s bed had been thoroughly opened and enjoyed (and, in many cases, devoured), everyone bustled down to the Great Hall, sporting some item of clothing or another they had received as one of their presents. 

The house and staff tables had been set aside for the holiday, since so many students had left to visit home over break, and instead two tables had been set up together, where both students and staff would sit. A group of first years were the first to arrive, and spot the heavily laden table, groaning under the weight of the feast that it held, as well as the number of wizard crackers scattered around the plates. 

One of them, a young Gryffindor, had a number of siblings in the older years who had regaled him with tales of the splendid things to be found within the Hogwarts crackers, suggested that they pull one or two of them while they were waiting for the rest of their classmates and professors to arrive. The other first-years agreed excitedly - somehow or another, they’d all heard of the interesting prizes usually found within.

Between them, they pulled three crackers. Three bangs went of, like cannon blasts, and each of the first-years experienced a feeling rather like a bucket of cold, slimy molasses being dumped on them. Grimacing, they turned to each other to see that they were all covered with a greenish slime that stuck them firmly to the ground. 

“Merry Christmas!” Peeves cackled, swooping out from behind a hanging. “Couldn’t let you lot have all the fun now, could I?” He dropped a candy cane on each of the students heads before swooping off.

Of course, the first-years exclamations of annoyance quickly drew the rest of the students and staff down to the Great Hall, where a few quick incantations by one of the professors was enough to remove the remnants of Peeves’ Christmas prank, free the students, and restore the crackers to their former glory.

Despite the one mishap, the rest of Christmas at Hogwarts went well, and every student finished the day with a the pleasant feeling of a holiday well-spent. Stomachs full, heads full of all the presents they had received and given, everyone slept well that night.

-Written by Misty Swanson

-PROFESSOR OF THE ISSUE-

For this issue we will honor our perhaps most experienced and altogether lovely member of staff when it comes to the teachings of Hogwarts, Professor Lily Kyla Tudor.

Professor Tudor has been teaching Herbology on HiH since the site began and is the last remaining staff member from the original team.  Throughout her period of teaching, Professor Tudor has provided us with an interesting and challenging Herbology syllabus, striving on even though her subject is often put down. However, all of us students of HiH love her for her hard work and dedication. 

To show your appreciation to this wonderful teacher, go to her page here and post your comments on her profile. A few students were interviewed prior to this and sent me these comments:

Comments (anonymous):

”I love Herbology myself and really appreciate the effort that goes into to creating the lessons and an interesting syllabus. I think everyone should raise their glasses to Professor Tudor because of this, as she has been on the team from the start and has never failed to produce brilliant work. Three cheers for Professor Tudor!” 

‘I registered on HiH very early, around June 2014, and the first class I took was Herbology. Finding it incredibly detailed and captivating, I marveled at the work put into it. What makes it even better now is that Professor Tudor still teaches it after the original professors have left, and I love to still have an original teacher working here.  I just hope she sticks around for as long as possible!”

Biography*:

Professor Lily K. Tudor is keen Herbologist, half-blood, and British witch. In her spare time, Tudor loves to read and write (so much so that she was almost placed in Ravenclaw). It has always been Tudor's philosophy to believe that "there are many different ways to be smart" and that each individual just needs to be open to discovering his or her talent and using it to better the world. 

After graduating from Hogwarts in 2000, Tudor spent three years under some of the most intelligent wizards of the day at Merlin's Universal Academy of Magic. MUA allowed Tudor the creative room to grow and develop into "one of the brightest young women the Academy has ever seen" as the Headmaster once said. To be fair, not a lot of witches chose to attend MUA. In 2003 Tudor obtained a Degree in Healing and Protective Studies. 

Upon graduation of MUA's intensive three-year program Tudor was immediately hired to work at St. Mungos, but found herself unable to handle the emotional turmoil of a hospital environment. From there she began a research project revolving around plants and potions. Former Herbology Professor, Prof Longbottom, heard about Tudor's research and welcomed her to Hogwarts to continue the project together. Due to the time the project took up, Longbottom gave Tudor the responsibility of teaching years one through four of Herbology (with the Headmaster's permission, of course). When the project finished, Professor Longbottom received a job opportunity as a result of the studies, and Tudor was given the chance to take over the full post of teaching Herbology at Hogwarts. Here she remains to this day!

*Biography courtesy of Professor Tudor, taken from her page, which you can access here: