Hogwarts This Month

Chapter 1

Oh, February… such a beautiful month. Full of love and hope in the air! Indeed, February has ushered in much to see this month—course revisions, a lovely new professor, an astronomy club, and some updates to the Discordian campus. Furthermore, love is certainly brewing between a pair of long-standing Hogwarts friends… read on to find out more!

A NEW PROFESSOR:

All animal lovers, look no further! Care of Magical Creatures has a brand-new professor this month, Professor Montclam, who completed her education at the Institute of Magical Law and worked for years at the Ministry of Magic defending magical creatures from the Committee for the Disposal of Magical Creatures. How interesting! She also has a lovely hut/office, which I’ll put the link to down below. She even has two pets—a niffler named Treasure and a Fwooper named Lavendar, whom you can meet during CoMC lessons. We welcome you to the castle, Professor Montclam!

Now, I always like to get the scoop, so I took it upon myself to conduct an interview with Hogwarts’ lovely new addition:

Sara: Hello, Professor! A warm welcome to the castle. Would you be agreeable to an interview for the Hogwarts Monthly News magazine?

Professor Montclam: Hi Miss Rowan! It would be my pleasure to participate in your interview.

Sara: Fabulous! May I start with asking what your favourite thing is about HiH? It can be niche or normal! A feature or just a simple pleasure of the castle, like the ghosts, for example.

Professor Montclam: My favourite thing about HiH is the library. We have such a great librarian here at Hogwarts who keeps the place under control and as welcoming as possible. In addition, we have some incredibly talented writers in the library! I do enjoy strolling down to the library after teaching to relax there.

Sara: Why did you choose to become a Care of Magical Creatures Professor? What makes you like working with animals—especially magical ones?

Professor Montclam: After I left Hogwarts, I was torn between legal studies and Care of Magical Creatures. In the end, I decided to combine these two passions by becoming a defence attorney against The Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures. I worked there for a few years before the Ministry approached me with the role of teaching Care of Magical Creatures, and I said yes without a second thought!

Sara: What’s your biggest motivation and inspiration as a professor?

Professor Montclam: My biggest motivation is watching the students in my classes find their passions, whether that be in the Care of Magical Creatures classroom, or a completely different subject.

Sara: What is your biggest advice for students regarding Care of Magical Creatures or school in general? Anything you wish you could tell your younger self?

Professor Montclam: If I had one piece of advice for my younger self, it would be to chase my passions more. I spent the good majority of my schooling stressing over subjects I planned to drop anyways after taking my O.W.L.s. Instead, it would've been a smarter idea to get really good at refining my skills in subjects I was passionate about.

Sara: Thank you so much for your time, Professor! We are all tremendously excited to see how Care of Magical Creatures will be with you. Enjoy your day!

THE MIDNIGHTERS:

Well, it seems a new era of Astronomy has dawned upon the castle. If you’re not quite sure what I’m blathering on about, a new Astro club has been founded at HiH! The club is called the Midnighters—what a mysteriously interesting name! If you’re interested in events related to Astronomy in any way, this is the group for you. It’ll be linked down below!

ACADEMIA:

Hogwarts Castle has some exciting new developments! For starters, the courses of Herbology 101, Care of Magical Creatures 101, Astronomy 301, and Divination 201 (whew!) have been revised and rewritten by their professors. A thank-you for all their hard work!

Now, if you’ve been keeping up with the newsroom (or the news chapters in our magazine!) you’ll know about the Discordian Castle campus. Over there, house points are being earned in abundance! If you haven’t joined the discord, a link is below as well. Opportunities for house points are scattered throughout the castle (it is a separate individual leaderboard there), such as the weekly Alchemy crossword and the Charms escape room (Year One primarily). Additionally, any discussion of academics may be rewarded with house points, too! I’d highly suggest checking out the Discordian campus straight away to start racking up those points. I’ll see you there!

LOVE IN THE AIR…EVEN FOR GHOSTS:

Indeed, it seems that love truly is in the air, for a blossoming relationship in Hogwarts Castle may be on the horizon. After the rumours floating around of Nearly Headless Nick’s Christmas gift to the Grey Lady (I hear it was a beautiful floral bouquet that Peeves helped to collect. How sweet!) it seems their relationship continued on, because they were spotted close together up in the Astronomy Tower on Valentine’s Day. What an absolutely adorable couple! However, coincidentally, the Bloody Baron seemed rather miserable this month. Poor ghost… Perhaps he and the Grey Lady may reconcile one day.

My goodness, my fingers ache from typing all of this news. It’s certainly been a busy month for February! Now, as we approach March, perhaps it’ll cool down… or perhaps the castle shall buzz with even more excitement. Flip the page to explore all of the other fabulous February happenings, readers!

Links:
The Midnighters! https://hogwartsishere.com/groups/75033/ 
Professor Montclam’s Hut [office]! https://www.hogwartsishere.com/groups/74995/
Hogwarts is Here Discord! https://discord.com/invite/FMwTwncn7V

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Written by Sara Rowan.
Edited by Hazel Antler.
Proofread by Daphne Clarke.