Prof. Sky Alton

Approved Teagan Shae - first year

Approved Ivy Grey - First Year

Task 9: Week 3 Trivia 11. What incantation did Mr Weasley suggest Ron use to try to stop the rain in the ministry office? 12. What is the driest desert in the world? 13. What colour and pattern was Hagrid’s umbrella? 14. What type of weather is hotter than the surface of the sun? 15. What is graupel? To submit your answers, please follow the instructions given in the first post. Answers received from.... River Fenwick Dibyarup James Potter Adeline Morior

I’ve always wondered what weather reports are like in the wizarding world… Are their safety advisories about broom flying, updates on conditions for stargazing or tips for gathering certain potion ingredients during ideal conditions? Let’s find out! For this task, you have 2 options: A. Create a transcript of a weather report from the Wizarding Wireless Network. It should be at least 100 words for full credit. B. Create a magical weather map. Remember to lean into the wizarding world angle with the symbols and labels you choose. Please keep your image to 600x600 pixels and upload it to an image hosting website, then share the link. Post your response below by 23:59 HOL-time on the 30th of April to earn 10 rubies!

Approved Jacqueline Nightshade - First year

Task 6: Week 2 Trivia 6. What was the weather like when Harry saw the fake Mad Eye Moody for the first time? (Hint: we're not referring to the heavy rain but something more specific) 7. What is the term for the ornamental metal devices people put on rooves to show the direction the wind is blowing in? 8. What magical phenomenon was reported on the muggle weather forecast shortly before Dumbledore left Harry on the doorstep of 4 Privet Drive? 9. What is the job title for people who study the weather and make weather forecasts? 10. What is the center of a hurricane called? To submit your answers, please follow the instructions given in the first post. Answers received from... River Fenwick Hiya Debnath Dibyarup James Potter Lex Green Adeline Morior

This month we’re peering into the mirky depths with “Dreadful Denizens of the Deep” by an unknown author. Now this book is a bit of an enigma. It offers all sorts of fascinating details about those magical creatures that live deep under water, along with some dramatic first hand accounts from wizards who have come across them. But we don’t know anything about it’s author or when it was published. That’s because the only copy we’ve been able to find is from the Hogwarts library and the cover and title page are so badly water damaged (we think from students sneaking it down to the lake) that we just can’t discern any of the original publication information. But that’s no reason to swerve such an interesting read, so let’s dive in! Task 1: Task 2: Task 3:

Giant squids are some of the most fascinating and mysterious creatures on earth and the members of the magical subspecies are even more so. Here at Hogwarts, we’re incredibly lucky to have one of these magnificent dwellers of the depths living on our grounds, basking in the sunshine and occasionally rescuing a student who happens to fall in. Trouble is, nobody quite knows how that came about…. Let’s speculate! In at least 100 words, please share your theory as to how our friendly neighbourhood squid came to live in the Great Lake To earn 10 rubies, post your response below by the 30th of April at 23:59 HOL-time.

Merpeople are very protective of their settlements and their privacy. For that reason, wizards very rarely get insights into how they live day to day. Dreadful Denizens of the Deep contains a list of artifacts that were discovered in an abandoned village that used to be inhabited by merfolk. Let’s take a closer look… Create a collage of items you think might have been discovered in the merpeople’s village. Please keep your graphic to 600x600 pixels, upload it to an image hosting website and share the link. Alternatively, you could create a list of items: you should include at least 8 and describe each one in 2 lines or more. To earn 10 rubies, post your response below by the 30th of April at 23:59 HOL-time.

Welcome to April Showers! As you might be able to guess from the name, this is an activity all about the magic of weather. So, get ready for some stormy skies and sunny spells (and fun tasks, of course). There will be 3 tasks released each week : a puzzle, a creative task and a trivia task. Each will be worth 10 rubies and there will be a 20 ruby bonus if you do them all, coming out at 140 rubies in all. Everything is due at the end of the month, at 23:59 HOL-time on the 30th of April. If you have difficulty with a task for accessibility reasons, please reach out to a Gryff staff member and we’ll work with you to find something that suits you better. I think that’s it so come on, let’s go splash in the puddles!

If you have any questions about the activity, please ask them here.

To help the employees at the Ministry of Magic forget that they’re working deep under ground, they use some clever enchantments. With the use of atmospheric charms and magical windows, they’re able to give people a taste of the outdoors even while they’re working at their desks. That got me wondering: if you could pick the weather you could see out of your window, what would you pick? Would you go for perpetual sunshine? Maybe you like cosying up while rain hammers on the roof? Or maybe you’d go for realism and go with the Great Hall approach so you could see exactly what’s going on outside? Tell us about the weather you’d most like to magic up for yourself in 100 words or more. Alternatively, you can create a graphic of it. If you take the graphics option, please keep your image to 600x600 pixels and upload it to an image hosting website, then share the link. Post your response below by 23:59 HOL-time on the 30th of April to earn 10 rubies!

Task 3: Week 1 Trivia The questions for week 1 are… 1. What is the incantation for the spell that Hermione used to make Harry’s glasses repel water during a very rainy quidditch match in their third year? 2. ‘Chucking it down’, ‘nice weather for ducks’ and ‘cats and dogs’ are all British English slang terms for what kind of weather? 3. Which magical beast can create storms as it flies? 4. How many points does a snowflake have? 5. Which ministry official ordered a disguised Ron to sort out the rain in their office? To submit your answers, please follow the instructions given in the thread above . Answers Received From... River Fenwick Dibyarup James Potter Maeve Madden Adeline Morior Lex Green Hiya Debnath Ellie Vernez Chasen Carter

Trivia time! Every week, we’ll post a batch of 5 weather related trivia questions. These will be a mixture of Harry Potter related questions and questions from the non-magical world. You’ll receive 2 rubies per correct answer. You can answer all questions at any point before the final deadline of 23:59 HOL-time on the 30th of April – you don’t need to answer the questions during the week they were posted. To submit your answers, please create a group PM with Prof. Sky Alton, Prof. Maxim Trevelyan and Janne Halla all included and title it “April Showers Trivia”. You should use that conversation to submit all your trivia answers. Happy answering!

Approved Nicole Avenger - First Year

Approved Rose-Malfoy Granger - Slytherin Visitor

Approved Queenie Bloom - First year Jupiter Winchester - Slytherin visitor

@Reyyan Azkendra has made the difficult decision to step down as prefect to focus on RL college studies. Reyyan, a huge thank you for all your hard work for the house, very best of luck with your studies and we hope to see you back in The Den very soon. <3

I'm incredibly pleased to announce that @Janne Halla has stepped up to become a full prefect!

Approved Jae Moore - Slytherin visitor Rejected Someone signed up with their email address as their display name. If you recently signed up and your name doesn't appear here, please try again. :)

As ever, there are plenty of things to get involved with around HOL. Feeling arty? Help the Art Department welcome in the lunar new year and the year of the dragon! You could earn up to 20 points. Deadline: 2nd March The HOL newspaper has just opened for submissions for a “letters and parcels” themed issue. You can submit articles, puzzles, graphics, short stories and poems, so there’s bound to be something there that plays to your strengths. And with 60 points up for grabs, it’s well worth your while! Deadline: 31st March

The easiest way to help out your house and show your lion’s pride is to earn points! There are lots of ways you can do this so you’re bound to find some that play to your strengths. In this post, the staff give you a brief run-down of the regular point earning opportunities available to you. Whenever a new one opens up throughout the term, we’ll post it as a reply so keep checking back! The first and most obvious is to take part in classes. All classes will give you the chance to earn 300 points in a term through homework and extra credit. If you take several classes (even if you don’t have the time for the maximum of 5 every term), those homework points soon mount up to quite a tidy haul. Class sign-up opened on the 1st of February 2024 and will remain open until the 20th of May, so remember to put your name down for the classes that interest you and get sending in that homework! It’s always a good idea to keep an eye on the individual assignment deadlines so that you don’t run out of time or put too much pressure on yourself. The next are the creative projects offered each month by the Library and Art departments. Department projects alternate each month, one month you will get to be artsy and the next will give you opportunity to brush up on your writing. Visit the 'Departments' tab on the main website. Don't be shy: your submissions are anonymous during the rating period. You can get started by going to your profile and telling everyone 'How you Got Into Harry Potter' in the designated section - that will earn you a cool 10 points! Finally there's the HOL Newspaper, the HOwLer. This is a great chance to earn plenty of points by writing about what interests you. If articles and reviews aren’t your thing, it will also offer creative prompts and the chance to submit your own puzzles, graphics and more. Keep an eye on the Newspaper section of the main HOL Forum for updates about the latest issue. https://hol.org.uk/forum/viewforum.php?f=612 Throughout the term, there will be unique and exciting activities to take part in which will give you the chance to earn points along the way. Remember to check the replies to this thread for announcements and reminders about anything that might be occurring!

It’s time to celebrate what we achieved in the autumn term! And what a term it was. We welcomed a huge number of new students to the castle back in September and it’s been wonderful to see so many people, new and old, enjoying HOL and stopping by The Den to take part in our activities. Gryffindor also managed to catch up in the nick of time and finish the term more or less neck and neck with Hufflepuff in the cup standings, so a huge thank you and congratulations to all of you who contributed to that by earning points. Even if you can only earn a few here and there, we truly appreciate you! Now, the awards. They’re coming to you a little late this year due to an incident with an open window, a pair of nifflers and a rogue flying key (don’t ask). So let’s press on before anything else can happen! The Platinum Quill goes to the lion who has earned the most house points during the term. Our hard working autumn term winner is @Janne Halla who earned a dazzling 2027 points! Next up are our ruby awards, the Phoenix and Lionheart, presented to the Gryffindor and visitor with the highest ruby counts. Many congratulations to our own @Dibyarup James Potterfor an impressive haul of 883 and @Lex Green of Ravenclaw for an even more staggering total of 937! And now for a few awards given out by the staff… We hand out the Studious Simba award to a lion who has distinguished themselves in the classrooms. I’m delighted to present it to @Sophia Williams who has hit the ground running in their first term and achieved some very admirable grades indeed. An honourable mention goes to last term’s recipient @Doubhee Pevensy who has kept up their sterling work this term as well. The Consistent Cub is handed out to a particularly active lion who shows up for the house continuously and who courageously throws themselves into everything HOL has to offer. It isn’t possible to go anywhere in the castle and not encounter this particular lion hard at work and flying the flag for Gryffindor, so very well done to Dibyarup James Potter! Last, the Exploding Snap award is for someone who has lit up The Den with their creative and ingenious ideas. We’re proud to hand it to Janne Halla for his enterprising and entertaining Book Fair activity. Congratulations to our winners and thanks once again to all the lions and visitors who make The Den such a fun place to hang out. Butterbeer this way!

Rejected Emmanuel James - Unfortunately I couldn't find you in the HOL database.

You’ll often hear people calling out for someone to throw them something as the floats go by. The krewe members riding on them will then toss small gifts into the crowd for them to catch. One of the most traditional Mardi Gras throws are beads in the Mardi Gras colours of gold, green and purple. See if you can get someone to throw you some! Solve this hashi puzzle to secure your beads: https://i.imgur.com/LPAlX1X.png Send your solution to me and Prof. Maxim Trevelyan via PM by 23:59 HOL-time on the 29th of February to earn 10 rubies!