Welcome to a new chapter of Shocking News in this latest edition of HMN! How has your month been, dearest readers? I can say that mine has been - ahem - quite eventful, with notification bugs, new HiH features, and a so-called “Magical Studies Group.” What in Merlin’s name is that supposed to be? Well, if you want to find out, keep on reading!

Before we dive in, I’d like to start off with some sad news. If you have joined the public group for Hogwarts Monthly News, you may have noticed a certain marketer whose work really stands out—Asteria Rowan! (Fun fact: she’s Sara Rowan’s sister.) Although she had the chance to market some amazing graphics, she has unfortunately left HMN. Aw man, that was quite early! Best of luck to Asteria. We’ll all miss her very much!

Now, off to some quite annoying news. You know the notification bar? It used to show us our last 10 notifications. When we wanted to view all of them, we would just have to click “View All” and BAM! They were all there. Well, the irritating news is that the “View All” button has stopped working. Instead of displaying our notifications for us, it only shows us a dreaded “Page Not Found (404)” screen. I know that many of us have been missing comments from our friends on our posts, or for HMN, announcements in the news group. I certainly hope that the HiH coders fix this bug soon, because it’s gotten everyone’s skin crawling!

Now, there is some very EXCITING news for the future of HiH! If you have been poking around the newsroom lately, you may have noticed the sign-up form for a little something called a “Magical Studies Group.” Before you begin screaming at me and insisting that you don’t know what in the world that is, let me explain to you exactly what this group is about. You see, for many years on HiH, classes and lessons have been self-paced and there for you to do by yourself in your free time. This system works well for some people, but others find themselves going inactive or not having any motivation to continue their classes. In this group, you will be placed with other pupils to complete classes together at the same time! Isn’t that amazing? Unfortunately, I haven’t signed up due to my messy and unpredictable schedule. But, hopefully, you have! Sadly, at the time you are reading this, the forms have already closed and the groups are starting. Good luck to those beginning on September 1st!

Moving on… Remember all those frustrating blackouts in June? Everyone was so annoyed because they couldn’t visit HiH, complete classes, visit their groups & clubs, hang out in their dormitory, and talk to their friends! We, the news group, were especially irritated since we couldn’t complete our work and publish it on time. This is what led to combining June and July into one issue. However, it seems that these blackouts weren’t all for nothing! Here’s a list of a couple new updates to HiH:

Instead of showing you how many owls you have, there is now just a red dot on the owl icon.

You can delete your account now! Instead of having to add “OFFLINE AND INACTIVE” to your backstory, you have the option of deleting your account completely. I’m afraid I don’t know how to do it myself, but I wouldn’t want to delete my account anyway!

Another change is that your backstory now indicates if you are signed in or not, which I think will be useful for many witches and wizards!

We are almost at the end of this chapter, dear readers, but don’t worry—I still have a bit more news to share! Get this: there are STILL some professor and PA applications open for anyone interested! It is always sad to see professors go, but the good news is that there are more applications open for different subjects. If you are interested, you can find a list of open applications below.

Open Professor Applications:
Ancient Runes
Care of Magical Creatures
Muggle Studies (Temporary)
Mythology

Open PA Applications:
Divination
Flying

Do you believe that one of these jobs is a good fit for you? If so, apply today!

Oof! That was a lot to cover in this issue’s Shocking News chapter. At least you are all caught up with the latest news, and that makes me forget how sore my hand is. As always, thank you so much for reading this chapter. Be sure to stay tuned for future issues of Hogwarts Monthly News. For now, goodbye!

Written by: Hazel Antler
Edited by: Daphne Clarke
Proofread by: Lily