Kevin Whitby is full of surprises

( Kevin B. D. Whitby )

( Timetable )

Hogwarts Prefects + Heads

Wow. I'm so glad I never had a talent for Quidditch, because I wouldn't willingly go for a contest like this in a million years.

Just a thought, though - what are the odds that if any of us complain on the behalf of other students, that Prefects will be added to the roster of competitors too? Look at what happened with Sex Ed

I hope everyone's interviews go well, or have gone well, if you have them already. I've the rest of the week to prepare for mine, but I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not, yet.

OOC Note - As H7 didn't previously have a male prefect, Kevin's got the nod, hence his now making wards to prefects and things :)

I'm certainly not complaining about the atmosphere in school right now. We're teenagers, what's wrong with a little flirting every now and again? It's harmless and rather good fun. I feel sorry for the people who seem to be in a rather bad mood about the whole thing!

Well, I can't say anything particularly new or comforting about all this business with the gossip columns, but I guess it's obvious that Witch Weekly's not exactly done the journalism profession proud. There were some girls in the common room earlier on about collecting signatures from people, promising not to buy the magazine again, though I'm not sure how much good it would do.

It seems like a really cruel thing to do on the eve of a match, though, especially as some of the comments were based on people's abilities on the pitch and I doubt many gossip writers are also Quidditch experts and therefore capable of judging. I'm no expert either, but it'd really stick in my throat if it was me being written about like that by people who don't necessarily know what they're talking about. That sort of knowledge might help some people shrug it off though? I suppose that's one of those things where people are different.

One thing I do know, however, is that I'm glad that whatever career path I end up in, I'm not going to be a target for this sort of vitriol.

Ruby

How are you holding up?

Oh my word. Um, I apologise for anyone who got freaked out by the weirdness the other day that was embarrassing

Edited later: Ward to H7 & Jon/Toby

Anyone got a clue what the fuck Pye's on about?!

Seriously, what's the point in anything in this school anymore? You can't go five minutes without some new and depressing thing coming up and I've had enough. I'll probably end up failing everything anyway.

Nina

Have you spoken to any more detractors yet? Because my god, I would give anything to end this assignment early. I've hardly even seen my partner for it. This is WAY too stressful...

Toby, Jon, Theo, Frank

Please tell me I wasn't the only one sitting in that hall with a look of horror when they announced this assignment? I think I sort of blocked everything out.

Eirik Krum

Apparently we've been partnered for this thing...

My mum and dad always used to say that there's never a quiet week at Hogwarts. They said it with a certain amount of affection, but in 20 years time I'm not sure I will be...

Private

This sex ed stuff is ridiculous. If there's anything I wanted to know, I know full well where to go and find out. I'm not an idiot. Unfortunately, the people who are have gone and buggered it all up for the rest of us by making the staff think these classes necessary.

Honestly, there are so many more useful things I could be doing with my time.

I wish it was a Hogsmeade weekend

You know, with all this talk of national identity and languages and stuff, it kind of made me think about how I don't speak any languages other than English. I'd like to, though.

So, ignoring any foreign languages you speak already, which one would you most like to learn, and why? I'd quite like to learn something that would generally seem exotic to people where I'm from, like Arabic or something.

I'm sure some people found it useful in a more positive way, but I think all the Mock Wizengamot proved to me was that that sort of thing's just not my cup of tea. I definitely prefer the idea of working outdoors, and I certainly hope I wouldn't need to know how the Wizengamot proceedings work for any other reason...

There are rather a lot of annoyed-looking Hogwarts players going around school, today...

School doesn't seem like the happiest of places this weekend, does it?

TTJK

Assignment #1 discussed today: the importance of following the full letter and spirit of the law relating to animagi practice and registration, which Ministry departments may be affected by misuse of the skill of transformation and why, and what specific improvements one might make to the regulation of training and monitoring of animagi.

Talk about paperwork! I had pretty much the whole Act to read and annotate, keeping all of the above in mind, and it's a good three pages just for the introduction and summary. Though I could see the point, in that the instructor wants to check I fully understand the reasons behind having regulations in the first place. I suppose having to think of my own ideas about it shows I've fully considered the matter, but it didn't half give me a headache!

Warded against Prefects of the stuck-up variety

Hearing the talk about apparition lessons makes me so glad it's not something us 7th years have to do... definitely glad it's done and out of the way forever. Not that I don't like apparating, or anything, but I remember the talk about splinching in the first lesson, and somebody leaving a leg behind (can't remember who), and that was bad enough without remembering the tales my uncles told me about certain other parts getting splinched. I'm 99% sure he was fibbing or that it's some kind of Hogwarts urban legend, but it's still not something you'd want to happen.

One term down, two to go, and I've definitely resolved to make the most of the time left in school before us 7th years leave. Obviously getting the grades is important, but I'm not going to make myself miserable in the process. "All Work and No Play", and all that. Plus much of what I got at home after the Winter term finished was Mum lecturing me about how it's important to have a work-life balance no matter how old you are, and really, who wants to be lectured the whole time by their mother?

And because I'm feeling nosy, who else is planning on going into the Ministry this summer?

Theo, Toby, Jon

Just got back from that meeting with the Ministry trainer bloke. He's given me a set of ten tasks to do, roughly one a week, and then each time we meet we have to discuss one of the tasks I did the week before. Once those are done, we get to start on the actual magic and practising and stuff. If all goes well, I could be able to register just before the NEWT finals in June.

You finish one set of exams, and yet almost right away afterwards you have to get ready for another lot. Such is life, I suppose. Still, if you don't have some down time, you'd go mad, I think, so it'll be interesting to see what this term brings.

Private

In more ways than one. Ha.

So, what to do? Well, I've refreshed myself with those beginner's notes before the meeting, so that should be fine. I need to answer that checklist of questions, but I'll do that after dinner on Friday, so it doesn't all get lost in the confusion of a normal working week. I suppose the main one is do I know what to do to become more self-aware, because you have to do that in order to know your dominant character traits, so that the magic knows what sort of animagus form you're best suited to. Not that that'll happen any time soon, I know, but I can't wait!

No matter how many times it's been necessary to catch the Hogwarts Express since starting school, after picking a compartment, someone almost always picks one next door in which to start impromptu karaoke of the latest WWN playlist. It's not the singing that baffles me (I mean, I'm in choir after all), but the fact that it happens so often. Weird.

Alice, Toby (separately)
Just wanted to thank you for the Christmas present. Seriously.

Thought I'd say so now because of course loads of people are going to be busy over the next few days - Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! We're off to my aunt's in York for Christmas lunch tomorrow and generally having a fairly chilled out one this year. What's everyone else up to?

I spent a fair amount of one of my revision sessions this afternoon talking like a chipmunk - sorry to anyone in the library I might have startled on the way in, by the by - and I thought I must have been got by a stray hex as I passed by Charms earlier when they had the door open. Apparently it's something else, though, because I heard someone else complaining about it in the Entrance Hall on the way to dinner. Very odd.

Exactly halfway through the exams for me now, and with the weekend ahead of me and nothing on Monday, I think that's a nice amount of time to focus on the three I've got left. It'll probably be Astronomy that I'll be focusing on most, though, so if anyone wants to fit in some last minute studying for that at some point, let me know.

Theo, Jon, Toby

One of you guys is going to have to make me look over my Transfiguration notes, though. Every time I go to get them I keep thinking about that reading for the Animagus training I have to do over Christmas, and that is not a distraction I could do with before the end of exams.

On a lighter note, though, I'm looking forward to the end of term celebrations after the exams are done. Last one for us 7th years! Time to make the most of it, guys!

It's time to move on...