Hogwarts Express 2

Watch Out for the Earwax Ones

You thought they were fairy tales, dreams told to little children as their mothers and fathers tucked them in at night. They were tales about unicorns and phoenixes, sphinxes, and dragons. But never, ever in the short span of your life did you believe they existed. Well, except for when you were six.

To the muggle-born, this is what the discovery of Hogwarts feels like. A dream, that seems too wonderful to be true, and too beautiful to awaken from. It began with an owl swooping down across your front porch and dropping a strange looking letter on your doorstep. This letter would change your life forever, and informed you that you were a wizard (or witch), and that you had been chosen to attend the finest school of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

The Hogwarts acceptance was the beginning of your families shock, and the beginning of the dream.

But all of the surreal pleasure that you experience the moment you receive your letter, and begin at Hogwarts, stops when you realize one simple fact. You know absolutely nothing about the wizarding world, and the terror begins to set in. This is the eternal struggle for muggle-borns, the internal fight between the dream and the terror. In a world where everything appears to be upside down and inside out, the internal battle rages on each time you encounter a new beast or a new spell. And then there is that one nagging thought that frightens you the most, it is the fear that you will never catch up, that you will never be able to understand as much as those born into this world. Sometimes you even think that they who called you mudblood were right.

But you know this sentiment is rubbish. There are several things you can do as a muggle born to prepare yourself for the wizarding world, and put an end to the insecurities that you harbor within. CONT'D: Page 4

If You Have Nothing to Say, Then Don't

By Coraline De Magpyr

This week, for a change, I have decided to express myself concerning some of the people in this school and their apparent need to act before they think things through. This was recently shown to us all in the Great Hall, when one student went about with a clipboard at lunchtime asking his peers if we thought VHogwarts would last.

Of course, I told him to go away before he even put the question to me. However, later I overheard him ask some older students - who should know better than to encourage this sort of thing - and they actually took the time to answer his survey! I neednt tell you how mortified I was that some of these people were not only in my own house, but were actually civil to the student in question, taking time to think before they answered each question and not even throwing in a lie or two to mess up the statistics.

Have these people nothing better to do with their time?

There is a phrase that automatically springs to mind when behaviour of this sort is described. It is an expression from my youth. Many would say an outdated and unfair expression.

But I think, in these circumstances, well deserved. It is Attention Seeking Swine (or ASS).

From my limited research, I have found the ASSes appearing in great concentration amongst the students enrolled here at VHogwarts. They are easy to spot, as they make inane remarks and start idiotic topics, all at the drop of a hat.

Once spotted, ASSes run wild throughout the halls, disrupting the lives of more scholarly students and generally making trouble for everyone. They have a genetic disposition to mouthing off, and must express their (usually mundane) opinions on every subject they come across, else they have been known to faint, or even drop dead, due to not being the centre of attention for merely a couple of seconds. This proclivity is what has lead to their mating call. A sound made in the back of the throat that sounds eerily like a person going Me, me, me! Oh, look at me! PLEASE pay attention to me! Im the prettiest/evilest/best one here! You want me, you know you all want me, me, me! Look at me!

I would hate to think what Madam Pomfrey must be going through with so many ASSes around. The poor girl must be reviving people every fifteen seconds.

Letters to the Editor

Crystal Ball Predictions

Important Goings on...

Quidditch Teams have been selected and posted in all Common Rooms. The Players will need to decide on a captain for their Squad.

Due to the closing of the site for three days, the Battle of the Bands will be postponed until Saturday evening. It will be a multi-day event, so if you can't get on then, that's fine.

Lessons are ongoing as always, and if people continue to not attend, points will be taken in those classes where homework is not optional.

Please remember that this is a family oriented site, and anyone who is disrupting that atmosphere will not be tolerated.

Around the Wizarding World

Watch Out for the Earwax Ones

You thought they were fairy tales, dreams told to little children as their mothers and fathers tucked them in at night. They were tales about unicorns and phoenixes, sphinxes, and dragons. But never, ever in the short span of your life did you believe they existed. Well, except for when you were six.

To the muggle-born, this is what the discovery of Hogwarts feels like. A dream, that seems too wonderful to be true, and too beautiful to awaken from. It began with an owl swooping down across your front porch and dropping a strange looking letter on your doorstep. This letter would change your life forever, and informed you that you were a wizard (or witch), and that you had been chosen to attend the finest school of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

The Hogwarts acceptance was the beginning of your families shock, and the beginning of the dream.

But all of the surreal pleasure that you experience the moment you receive your letter, and begin at Hogwarts, stops when you realize one simple fact. You know absolutely nothing about the wizarding world, and the terror begins to set in. This is the eternal struggle for muggle-borns, the internal fight between the dream and the terror. In a world where everything appears to be upside down and inside out, the internal battle rages on each time you encounter a new beast or a new spell. And then there is that one nagging thought that frightens you the most, it is the fear that you will never catch up, that you will never be able to understand as much as those born into this world. Sometimes you even think that they who called you mudblood were right.

But you know this sentiment is rubbish. There are several things you can do as a muggle born to prepare yourself for the wizarding world, and put an end to the insecurities that you harbor within. CONT'D: Page 4

If You Have Nothing to Say, Then Don't

By Coraline De Magpyr

This week, for a change, I have decided to express myself concerning some of the people in this school and their apparent need to act before they think things through. This was recently shown to us all in the Great Hall, when one student went about with a clipboard at lunchtime asking his peers if we thought VHogwarts would last.

Of course, I told him to go away before he even put the question to me. However, later I overheard him ask some older students - who should know better than to encourage this sort of thing - and they actually took the time to answer his survey! I neednt tell you how mortified I was that some of these people were not only in my own house, but were actually civil to the student in question, taking time to think before they answered each question and not even throwing in a lie or two to mess up the statistics.

Have these people nothing better to do with their time?

There is a phrase that automatically springs to mind when behaviour of this sort is described. It is an expression from my youth. Many would say an outdated and unfair expression.

Pages - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4

Letters to the Editor	Crystal Ball Predictions			Important Goings on... Quidditch Teams have been selected and posted in all Common Rooms. The Players will need to decide on a captain for their Squad. Due to the closing of the site for three days, the Battle of the Bands will be postponed until Saturday evening. It will be a multi-day event, so if you can't get on then, that's fine. Lessons are ongoing as always, and if people continue to not attend, points will be taken in those classes where homework is not optional. Please remember that this is a family oriented site, and anyone who is disrupting that atmosphere will not be tolerated.
Hello everyone out there, this is our second issue of the Hogwarts Express, and we have no designs of ceasing to bring you the best in Wizarding news every couple of weeks. However, we need your help. If you want your voice to be heard within the VH community, you now have another option. I will be accepting letters to the editor for publication up here in the upper left corner of page 2 every week. If you feel that there is something going on in the VH community that needs to be addressed, feel free to write to me. Alternatively, you could write to me praising someone or something that has made your stay on the site that much more enjoyable. Basically, this space is for you... use it as you see fit, I do request that you do not send any flames, as I will not print them. Also, if I get more than one letter, I will print only the one that I deem the most pressing in the paper, but I will provide links at the end of that letter to a page with the rest of the letters. Use it well... -Hagrid	~~~~~~~~~~~
		Monday	Outlook is foggy
		Tuesday	Foggy early - 13 degrees
		Wednesday	Clearing later- 10 degrees
		Thursday	Thunder Storms - 12 degrees
		Friday	Mostly Cloudy - 11 degrees
		Saturday	Humid and foggy- 19 degrees
		Sunday	Light Rain - 14 degrees
		Around the Wizarding World
		Salem Institute - Cool and cloudy - 10 degrees
		Durmstrang - Seasonably cold - 2 degrees
		Beauxbatons - Perfect as always - 20 degrees
		Beijing Academy - Warm w/ t-storms 21 deg.

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