As the first few students arrived, Lennon grew more anxious but tried not to show it because a lot of them were new to the paper so he couldn't show any stress in his position as the club's leader. He smiled and waved encouragingly at some of the newcomers and was relieved to see some of the older faces enter the room. Lennon's stomach flipped when he saw Mini enter the room but simply nodded at her with a small smile and then waved at Sophie. He had missed her at the club fair and had a feeling if she had shown up they might not have had as many new interns as they did if she had been there. But that was not necessarily a bad thing so he embraced the size of the growing staff, hoping there would be no issues between them. As Lisa approached him, he laughed lightly at her comment and shook his head humbly. "Thanks, Lisa, but Carlotta's the one who gave me the courage to use the paper's voice to its full potential," he said, still fond of his former editor for having his back when he'd been in trouble with he Hufflepuff Head of House for his article.
Lennon waited a few more minutes for others to show up before starting, figuring anyone who was late could just slip in when they arrived, as the newsroom was often times hard to find in the castle. He cleared his throat to get their attention and waved as he said, "Hi guys, I'm Lennon and I'm the editor of the Hogwarts Monthly," he introduced himself for the benefit of the new students, especially those he didn't get to meet at the Club Fair this year. "This year we have quite a few new members joining us and all of our returning staff still," he said proudly, since no one had graduated yet. "It may take some getting used to all the people in here, but I hope the older members can help any of the new ones around with how we do things around here," he said encouragingly. He pointed out a few members who could be good mentors to the younger ones, like Caro since she was their Head Photographer and could perhaps enlist other photographers to help her, or Noemie who had been with the paper for a long time and had experience in covering a specific section, but could also write other things when asked.
"I'm so happy the staff has grown in numbers over the year because I want the paper to grow with us," Lennon said proudly. "What we write about now is great, but this year I want us to push ourselves and really get out and find good stories. Who knows what students are interested in better than students themselves right?" he said with a nervous grin. "The Hogwarts Monthly is a newspaper run for students by students, we should use it to our advantage and make sure that we are being heard." As he'd told Lisa earlier, the previous editor had given him the courage to speak his mind without fear of retribution, and as a Quidditch protester he was never one to shy away from speaking his mind. Now he just wanted to instill that same confidence in the younger staff. "I'm not saying we need to rebel or write stories trashing anything, just that we should strive to have good content that students want to read about and things that are important to us," he said with a small shrug.
He looked around the room, mostly at the older members to gage what they thought of his idea to take the paper in a different direction. Then he looked around at the newer members to see if he was possibly scaring them away from the club but he hoped no one would just get up and leave. "So, with that being said, the floor is open for any comments, criticisms, questions, or suggestions," he said with a small chuckle, wondering how their brainstorming session for the next issue would go.
