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It’s award time! But first, I’d like to say a huge thank you to all of you who earned points, joined in here on The Den or contributed to the community in numerous other ways. You really do make Gryffindor and HOL what it is - somewhere worth coming back to time after time. A huge thank you to our staff (including the current members and those who took a step back this year) – your efforts to make The Den a fun and cosy place to be have not gone unnoticed. <3 And now, I mentioned awards, didn’t I? Onto the shinies! The Brave award is for anyone who earned at least 500 points during the school year. Well done to... @Chasen Carter @Cut Yuna Davie Diggle @Dibyarup James Potter @Doubhee Pevensy @Ellie Vernez @Emily Hughes @Harmony Potts @Janne Halla @Lorainia Riverrider Nargola Hawthorne @Quinn Marshall @Reign Grey @Reyyan Azkendra @Sophia Williams The Determined award is for anyone who went a step further and earned themselves 1000 points in the year… Chasen Carter Davie Diggle Dibyarup James Potter Doubhee Pevensy Ellie Vernez Harmony Potts Janne Halla Nargola Hawthorne Quinn Marshall Sophia Williams The Daring award is for those hardy folks who went even further and achieved 1500 points this year…. Chasen Carter Dibyarup James Potter Doubhee Pevensy Ellie Vernez Harmony Potts Janne Halla Quinn Marshall Sophia Williams And finally, we award the Minerva McGonagall prize to those marvellous lions who manage to net themselves over 3000 points. There are two of them this year and we are in awe of their point hording prowess…. Dibyarup James Potter Janne Halla Now onto the awards specifically for this term…. Our Platinum Quill award goes to the highest point earner for the term and with a staggering 2201, Janne Halla is the worthy winner! Considering that Janne managed this all while teaching a class, planning the Wizardvision Song Contest and helping out around The Den, he really is this term’s Gryffindor MVP. Next up are our very sparkly ruby based awards, the Phoenix for the Gryff with the most rubies and the Lionheart Award for the visitor with the most. Congratulations to Dibyarup James Potter and @River Fenwick who both earned 430. It’s been wonderful to see you both putting so much effort into activities around The Den this term! And we’ll end with a couple awards decided by the staff … Studious Simba goes to someone who has distinguished themselves in their classes and we’re delighted to hand it to Quinn Marshall this term. Quinn put a lot of heart into their assignments and that hard work definitely deserves to be recognised. Speaking of hard work, we’d also like to give an honourable mention to last term’s recipient, Sophia Williams, who has kept up their sterling work as well. Next up is The Golden Snitch. This is an old award, handed out to a particularly enthusiastic member, and we’re reviving it so we can recognise a truly extraordinary achievement on the part of one of our lions. Lorainia Riverrider threw herself into the gruelling challenge of the OWL exams and emerged with 11 outstandings. Very well done, Lo! An honourable mention also goes out to @Emerald Wolvenhowlfor her 3 outstandings as well. That’s all the shinies for this time round. Now let’s crack open that butterbeer!

The priorities are random but are agreed upon by Sky and me prior to my posting those shipments.

As we sped along the route we had devised, we found a disintegrated planet from another solar system spewing its parts like asteroids into the black and empty space. Some of these differently sized and shaped debris floated ominously across our pre- charted course. Tensed, I went to the navigation chamber and began to examine the bodies on the monitor. Some could be blasted away if we tried, but the bigger ones would need expert dodging, and some would be trouble, especially the smaller ones (and they were also difficult to spot), which were likely to be sucked into orbit or pulled towards our spaceship due to our ship's gravitational force, and especially if they had spiky ends, damage our spaceship. I saw one that looked like a spiky ball and kept falling towards us. It couldn't be dodged soon enough. I was afraid it would dig a hole on the jacket of our spaceship and cause the vacuum to suck the smaller things out of our ship. I thought of having it blasted away, but then I remembered that we had a special mechanism gifted to us by some aliens. We could abduct the body into our spaceship. We discharged the mechanism, and a large saucer- shaped disc with several smaller bowl-like discs shining with green light slowly stuck itself out of our ship. A green beam of light and energy was discharged, and in seconds, the body was in our spaceship. We put the dull - colored asteroid in our research chamber where it could be safely looked at before it ended up in a research museum, and it served to excite the crew and launch discussions among the crew about the nature of the solar system that was its origin. Over the next few days, we dodged some of these missiles, swerving downwards or sideways at rapid speeds, because they kept coming like showers, attracted by our own gravitational force. With some effort, we cleared this part of the track, highly populated by newly formed asteroids, but found ourselves a few lightyears off track of our original course. So, we recharted our course and took a bend back to the original one.

I'll be shipping to a remote planetary colony for my next destination, which has struggled to obtain necessary medical supplies. My sub-company's long-term plan is to ship out medical supplies to the colonies that need them the most as quickly as possible. We'll also ship supplies to non-struggling companies with more advanced medical tools and technology and use some profits to help obtain more supplies for the smaller colonies. We plan to develop strategically exclusive and reliable trade routes that cater to the growing space healthcare market, becoming the go-to service when medical equipment is needed for all the colonies in our trade routes.

My spaceship has two floors. The lower floor is primarily used to haul cargo, with ample loading dock space to place cargo into pods based on their size and need (such as humidity levels). This floor also has emergency tools and shut-offs, such as a repair bay, for anything breaking on the ship while in flight. This floor has minor control panels, including the ship's atmospheric controls. The top floor is home to many of the ship's necessities, such as the mess hall, medical bay, crew quarters, and central control panels. The crew will primarily stay on this floor during flights, often only going to the lower floor to receive and deliver cargo or make repairs.

The image shows a spacecrew dressed in my subcompany's spacesuit. The uniform consists of a whitish-yellow spacesuit with a slightly darker belt and gloves. The shoes are the same color as the spacesuit. It has black buttons down the front. The uniform also includes a silver space helmet with a red O2 mask, a red pipe, and a red cylindrical O2 jar. The sub - company's logo is attached on the upper right of the chest, and it looks like a pentagon in the shape of each level of the sub-company's spaceship, is colored red to indicate high-priority (as high-priority shipments are the focus of our company), and a yellow flash like that of light is streaked across the red logo (diagonally) to indicate speeding through space, with the sub - company's name abbreviated over the logo as ATLY (my sub - company's name is Across The LightYears).

My sub-company's long term plans are to establish a stronghold on speed delivery for priority shipping. We want to be the fastest on the galaxy to carry our high - priority shipments to their respective destination planets without any damage so that they can rely on us to be the fastest deliverers during emergencies. I will be shipping titanium for certain spaceship repairs needed following damage due to a solar storm to my next destination and since this is an emergency as those spaceships are absolutely needed, it is going to start off our sub-company on strong-footing with a name for quick delivery across the lightyears. To achieve this, we have to focus on speed - friendly fuel and efficient course - charting so that we can cover more lightyears than other spaceships at once. We also have to take special care of the shipments during handling and transport, to avoid damaging the shipments, because high-priority shipments are more likely than regular shipments to be annoying to customers if not delivered in one-piece. This will make our sub - company the one that are always chosen for high-priority goods that need extra special care and handling or contain costly products and that are needed quickly for emergencies.

My spaceship is shaped like a pentagonal prism boat with each cross section shaped like a pentagonal boat from top. There are three levels, each level has a few of the sections needed. One level (and the bottommost level) is the resting quarters including the cafeteria or the mess hall, the middle level is the place for the controls of the spaceship, and the uppermost top level is the shipment office. The resting quarters contain the cafeteria or the mess hall in the center where all the inhabitants of the ship can gather for food and nourishment (you don't get regular food on the spaceship, it's usually frozen, small in quantity, and highly concentrated in nutrition), but this place is mainly used for a daily bout of socializing and talking, important social meetings, and just lounging around. The rest of the space on this level spiraling away from the central mess hall contains extra space suits, safety jackets, personal equipment, cleaning rooms, toilets and bathrooms, a medbay where health services are provided to sick spacecrew, the exit from the spaceship on one side, and the private resting chambers of the crew. The middle level has the spaceship's engines (both the upper and lower), along with the most mandatory working mechanisms of the spaceship without which the spaceship will collapse or become uninhabitable, such as the reactors, fans to cool down the spaceship, oxygen regulator and dispenser which distributes oxygen into the entire spaceship and can be used to upregulate or downregulate the amount of O2 circulating, a camera hall from where any part of the spaceship can be accessed and seen on camera and recorded and which can be used to regularly monitor the safety and working of the spaceship and the spacecrew, a power room from where is regulated the power supply that runs the internal machinery of the spaceship including the lightings and several wirings take the power to the different levels of the ship, control and navigation chamber which controls the speed and fuel consumption of the spaceship and charts its course keeping track of asteroids and planets or other celestial bodies on the way or other spaceships and the destination, an equipment room which has equipments for everything, a communications radar which sends radiowaves to communicate with different planets and also within the spaceship, and a fuel storage room where extra fuel is kept and burnt to keep the spaceship going. The shipment office on the upper level includes the headquarters of the shipping sub-company where there is a CEO room for the CEO, an ID chamber where the names and identities of all the spacecrew are registered and count is kept besides descriptions of who works on which level of the spaceship and keeps track of their exact duties, a worker's room in the center of the level where the crewmates that work on the level with the shipping sub-company can gather and discussions about the handling of shipments can be held, an administrative chamber where the overall workings of the sub-company are recorded and discussed and registers containing lists of past, present, and future shipments are kept with records of the success or failure of each shipment delivery, a meeting hall, a shipment scanning chamber where the packages are scanned and x-rayed to see that the products being shipped are safe and that the contents of the packages are correct as per records, a shipment packing and unpacking chamber where all shipments are reopened to be repacked and sealed with the sub-company's logo and the relevant tags are attached and certain shipments are unpacked and checked for damage then packed again, and several storage rooms for the shipments.

Can you believe it's nearly the end of term already? The final deadline for most classes will be on the 15th of January but that isn’t always the case for every class, so be sure to double check. Whether you're ahead with your homework or playing catch up, you're doing great. You got this! And just because the term is winding down doesn’t mean there aren't opportunities to earn some extra points outside of classes. Once you’ve handed in your homework, you still have a chance to earn some extra points by submitting to the school newspaper, the HOwLer. Come up with something that fits the theme of “hidden depths” or go in a totally different direction, it’s up to you. Head over to the HOL Forum to find out more and get your ideas approved in time for the deadline on the 20th of January. If you’re feeling artistic, you could celebrate the new year (and snag some more points) with the Art Department as they explore all kinds of new beginnings. You’ve got until the 1st of February for that one.

Happiest of birthdays to @Cassie Williams! *Hands round cauldron cakes and hot chocolate*

Hi everyone Unfortunately, we had an issue with the admin side of the Gryffindor forum that means we’ve had to revert to a back up of the forum data made earlier in the week. I’m afraid that means we’ve lost any changes made (like replies posted or private messages sent) over the last few days. If you notice anything missing that’s the reason and we’re very sorry for any inconvenience. The good news is that everything from Potterium should have been recorded correctly even with the technical problems. A massive well done to @Prof. Amy Lupin for keeping on top of all that! I’d also like to say a huge thank you to webmaster @Prof. Dario Brighton for working his magic on our poor database and getting everything back up and running so quickly. Also to @Prof. Maxim Trevelyan and the rest of the staff for keeping cool heads and being very supportive. We’ll be back with new tasks for Light Reading and an exciting December activity very shortly.

Hope you have a truly wonderful day, Janne! Make sure you take some time for yourself.

Hope you have a magical day, @Janne Halla!

Happiest of Birthdays

Very happy birthday! Janne! God bless you!

Hi everyone, I'm Cassie! I'm a first year Gryffindor slowly getting myself used to HOL. Always happy to make new friends so I'm looking forward to getting to know you all :)

Hello everyone!!! *jumps in excitement* I'm so excited to get to know more people. My name is Victoria but you can call me Vic or Vickie. I am a first year here and everything is so new and interesting. I love all houses. Sending lots of hugs <333

Here are some point earning opportunities for October: The HOwLer, HOL’s newspaper, is accepting contributions for its next issue until 31 October. The theme is conversations, though you're welcome to submit other pieces - just make you get your ideas approved first. You can earn up to 60 points through your submissions. Ever wanted to step into the shoes of a particular Hogwarts headmaster or headmistress? The Library has a new project that lets you do just that. This project is worth up to 20 points and is due on 31 October.

There's a few that has caught my eye like flying lessons and quidditch. But i might go with some traditional subjects first. Charms will the first one.

Well, what an amazing summer that was! It’s been incredible to see all the creative submissions and ingenious puzzle solutions flying in – thank you to each and every one of you for taking part. And now onto those all important snappy scores… Here’s the final scoreboard of the activity: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1TSQu_U55FF5fcpb_0h_hob8yw8H0jeJ9PGXHBYauBuo/edit?pli=1&gid=0#gid=0 An uproarious round of applause to Prof. Will Lestrange for snapping his way into first place! And three cheers for Dibyarup James Potter and River Fenwick for cruising into second and third respectively. Well played indeed to all three of you. Your beans should be with you now. And onto the rubies. These are the totals as we have them but if you see anything missing, just let us know and we’ll look into it for you ASAP. Since this has been such a complicated activity with lots of moving parts and messages to keep track of, we’re going to wait at least 48 hours before awarding them this time to make sure any miscalculations can be cleared up pronto. Adeline Morior - 180 Anne-Marie Gagne - 60 Dibyarup James Potter - 180 Ellie Vernez - 180 Evelin Stockom - 110 Galena May - 180 Ivy Grey - 100 Katherine Laurier - 30 Lex Green - 110 Lexa Winslow - 132 Prof. Amy Lupin - 180 Prof. Felicia Hartwick - 140 Prof. Scarlet Leslie-Lewis - 100 Prof. Will Lestrange - 180 River Fenwick – 180 It only remains for me to thank you once again for playing. Wherever you placed, I hope you had a blast with us this summer!