Fresh Takes | HM Meeting Y44 S1

[Aaliyah Chun]

The new term never came that quickly as Aaliyah got stuff set up at the HM lounge. She never thought she would enjoy being part of the newspaper staff but here she was, made co-editor. She had spent her entire break between music lessons and trying out different writing styles. She was still set on her path to be a solo soprano when she graduated but she figured a secondary passion would come in handy as times constantly changed.

In her excitement, she came in much earlier and got the room set up with refreshments on a long table to the side, one end with new notebooks with the staff's names adorning the cover. She designed them herself, trying out calligraphy in her spare time. It was also something she had been practicing whenever the CA club met for sessions. She looked around the room, checking if there was something amiss and smiling in satisfaction.

Picking up her notecard, she checked and did a run down on what she needed to say as well as reviewed her proposed activity for this first meeting. Soon enough, people started arriving and she gave a smile at @Giulia Alcott, a sixth-year Ravenclaw who was also co-editor with her.

"Hello, everyone. Welcome to Hogwarts Monthly, both new faces and old.", she smiled at the room. "I'm Aaliyah Chun, you can call me Ali. I'm one of the co-editors along Giulia here. Looking forward to creating awesome newspaper issues with you all." She glanced at her notecard before continuing. "For our first meeting, I figured we can take it a bit easy in getting settled and do something different. I want you all to think of a new section or category that you would like featured in our HM issues at some point. Then, make an article as an example of what it would look like.", she glanced around to see reactions. "It'll be a great way to get fresh ideas and personal takes on what we can add to our current layout." The Gryffindor was pretty sure each member had ideas of their own and she wanted them to be heard. "You can write as many as you want, the more ideas the better right?", she chuckled. "Unless Giulia has more to add, you can help yourselves to the refreshments and maybe pair up with your peers. Giulia?", she turned to the girl to give her the floor. The Ravenclaw was one of the most active members and Aaliyah was glad to be working alongside her.

 

[Giulia Alcott]

Giulia felt a little like she was going to be sick. This was a huge mistake. She had only joined the paper to practice her English, there was no way she was qualified to be editing anyone else's work. But here she was, doing her best not to let her nerves show as she fumbled a clumsy smile back at Ali. This was going to be a disaster. It was a relief to be working with someone so organised at least, who had been able to put together something for the group to do so easily. She listened as Ali began the meeting, not wanting to be the one to speak. She knew the whole team had seen her English improve gradually and were used to her thick accent, but it felt different now, being in charge. She winced slightly when Ali threw to her for anything to say, giving a nervous shrug. "I... think Ali said it all." She said with what she could feel was not the comfortable, easy smile she had hoped for. "Everyone please just have fun, and I look forward to working together this year." Her voice cracked a little as she spoke, and it was all Giulia could do not to put her face down on the table and wish she was dead.

 

[Aine Thompson]

Aine was trying not to give odd looks to the new editors, but she couldn't help but give a couple. She had no problem with Giulia, she'd spoken to the older girl a couple of times and though her English was a little shaky she certainly seemed clever and nice. She didn't really know Aaliyah, but Aine had kind of rolled her eyes at the poem she put in the paper last time. For one, she hadn't even written it, for another, it really came across as like 'just stop having difficulties with your mental health, stupid'. Aine was extremely resentful of that sentiment. Like it was just so easy to stop the screaming inside your head. Like Aine wouldn't just flick a switch and suddenly be better and more likeable if she could. But it was probably the sentiment that the professors liked, and she supposed she should be glad that they hadn't made Celia the editor since Aine had enough to deal with there in the prefects meetings. She was surprised it hadn't gone to Rhys, though.

(She wasn't sure whether to be annoyed or relieved she hadn't gotten it - mostly relieved, as she didn't really have the time to try and go over the finer points of editing and chase people up for their articles. But somehow without realizing it she had become one of the senior writers on the paper, and she figured that at least got her enough sway to have better articles than Aunt Meg, which she had thoroughly trashed last time she'd written it.)

Aine was almost prepared for a fight in the meeting, but maybe after the last ones Aaliyah and Giulia were keen to just avoid having any sort of discussion as much as possible. She was almost disappointed. Almost. She didn't really want to fight, but maybe some kind of perverse part of her actually did. (Probably the same part of her that liked hanging out with Cameron more than she was willing to admit, especially not to him.) At any rate, she pulled out her notepad and started scribbling down some ideas. There weren't really any papers back home, since it had all moved online, but she knew that local announcements often left room for people to send in opinions or ads, and maybe that was something to consider. "D'you think we could do, like, a classifieds section?" she muttered idly to whoever happened to be near her at the time. Aine was not one for layouts, only ideas, but she had that written down along with 'letters to the editor'. She was less inclined to bring that one up, lest Celia think she was trying to push in on her territory.

 

[Ruto Vernier-Raison]

Ruto rather enjoyed being part of the Hogwarts Monthly. It was probably her most favourite club as she had a lot more freedom to do what she wanted. The first meeting of the year was about to begin, so the Ravenclaw made her way from her dormitory down to the meeting room, wondering what they were going to be discussing. She entered the room quietly, noticing that there was a new leader. She listened to Aaliyah talk, not finding the task too different, but happy to do it nonetheless.

As they were told to get started, Roo reached for a notepad to begin writing down some ideas until the person beside her decided to speak to her. She was a little taken aback at first, as she hadn't made any friends in the club just yet and neither had she ever spoken to an older student, but she was open to the idea of it. "What would you advertise?" Roo asked, wanting a little bit more information as she thought the Hufflepuff was being a little too broad. "I'm thinking it could be a good idea, however, we don't want it to be too boring either. We need to remember that eleven year olds are going to be reading this." She thought for a moment before speaking again. "What if we made it fun and exciting and sort of mocked the idea of classifieds? Make up jokes within it that might appeal to the younger people?"
@Aine Thompson

 

[Aine Thompson]

Aine blinked a few times, tilting her head in confusion. She'd more been muttering out loud, not really expecting any sort of in depth response, but pondered what the younger girl said for a moment. "Well, I wouldn't necessarily advertise anything." She shrugged, pen idly scribbling a spiral on the corner of her notepad. "I dunno, students might be more interested in trying to sell old textbooks they aren't using anymore to younger students or trying to set up a totally gambling free and one hundred percent legal poker night or something. Like a bulletin board, but saving you from having to get signs up in all the common rooms." Aine hadn't really thought out the finer details, she was still in the general ideas part. She winced a bit at the idea of putting in jokes. Her eyes scanned the room, shaking her head. "I think even first years might cringe if we did that," Aine replied, possibly a little bluntly. She didn't mean to disparage the younger girl, as it wasn't a bad idea, but she did have a tendency to be a little more blunt than necessary. "Uh, but maybe you could prove me wrong, I dunno," she quickly added, trying to backtrack and not be rude. "I'm sure there's better ideas anyway."

@Ruto Vernier-Raison

 

[Celia Vuong]

Celia was beyond pissed that she'd been passed over for the editor-in-chief position. Instead, it had gone to a plagiarist and a person who had never written an actual article. Celia of course thought she was the best choice for editor. She actually understood what went into a newspaper and even had ideas on how to improve the Monthly. But if River really didn't want to pick her, she could've at least chosen one of the two other senior staff writers, both of whom technically met the bare minimum standard of "able to write an original article." But no, River had somehow chosen two of the least qualified staff members to run the paper. It was almost impressive how bad her picks were.

It wasn't even that Celia wanted the additional responsibility (though the chance to reshape the paper to her liking was certainly appealing). Rather, she knew just how impressive the editor-in-chief position would look on her college applications. And now she had to settle for "Student Defense Association president." How was she supposed to explain that to a muggle college admissions officer?

Maybe she'd spend the meeting working on those college applications. Celia had little desire to contribute meaningfully during this year's HM meetings. She certainly wasn't going to hide her displeasure, and she fixed the two "editors" with a look of disdain as they started the meeting. The agenda for today could've been a good one, if it weren't for the fact that River had done a variation of the same thing last year. Once they were done, Celia piped up rather loudly. "So... are you actually going to seriously consider any of our ideas or example articles when we're done? Or are those going straight into the trash after the meeting? Because I remember your predecessor trying to solicit suggestions last year, but none of those ideas ever made it into the paper."

 

[Giulia Alcott]

With the speaking part all done, Giulia was doing her best to keep her head down and pretend this whole meeting wasn't happening. She wanted to jump in the lake and go live with the eel. She was doing a very good job of pretending she was taking some kind of notes, writing 'This was a mistake' over and over in French, so nobody would know she wasn't actually working if she looked. Her focus was broken by a question though, and she cringed under the scrutiny. Celia was one of the people at the school that scared her the most, and she was not equipped for this at all. "It's - eh, we'll..." She faltered, English escaping her under the pressure. "We're going to see... what fits. We want everyone to... to make ideas together..." She spluttered out, voice wracked with tension, stopping and starting between words. Doing a great job of proving she was fit to edit a newspaper.

 

[Jupiter Ascot]

Jupiter did feel a bit like an outsider in the Monthly. Sure, he was on the paper and had the title of 'reporter', but he wasn't a proper reporter. He didn't write any articles or interview people or cover any of the interesting stuff around Hogwarts. He was just a comic book artist. He made stupid comics for the paper. And that was his only contribution the previous year, no proper thought or diligent information gathering. Just whatever childish ideas popped into his head for a simple comic book strip.

So, he couldn't help but squirm a little in his seat, eyes flicking between the two new co-editors. He hadn't gone out of his way to really get to know any of the other members of the paper, so couldn't really say he knew much about them. But he was sure they would go and do a good job. Most likely. Though he shrunk further into his seat at almost immediately there was some kind of conflict. "Isn't it, um, more about what people want to write..." he trailed off, almost regretting opening his mouth to say anything in the first place. "People should just... write whatever articles they want to."

 

[Celia Vuong]

It was a wonder how Giulia and Louis were related. Not only were they polar opposites in terms of personality, but Giulia's English seemed much more limited. Normally, that wouldn't be a problem, but this girl was supposed to run a newspaper. Celia gave the girl an unimpressed look as she stumbled through a reply. Celia was about to respond when a younger Ravenclaw spoke up. "Exactly," she said, seizing on his comment. She gave him a smile that could almost be described as friendly before turning back to the editors with a challenging look. "People should get to write whatever they want. After all, it's not like this paper has any standards. If a poem that you ripped from someone else and published next to your own name 'fits' in the Monthly, then it's hard to imagine what wouldn't fit." she said, giving Aaliyah a pointed look. Celia, of course, did not believe a real newspaper should publish whatever its writers wanted, but she wasn't here to help the Monthly improve. All the suggestions she'd offered in the past had either been ignored or attacked. No, she was here to stir up trouble and watch in amusement as the editors scrambled to put out the fires she started.

 

[Emery Mettlestone]

Emery was mostly still a member of Hogwarts Monthly because it was kind of nice to belong to a club. But he had discovered writing wasn't really a passion of his. Still, he hoped he could write something about gobstones sometime, maybe to get more people interested. He headed to the Hogwarts Monthly club room for the first meeting of the semester. They had two new people in charge, and Emery barely knew either of them. He didn't really care either. Emery wasn't sure if he enjoyed the idea for this meeting, but maybe he could write that gobstones piece now and at least get it out of his system. He listened quietly as Celia Vuong spoke up rather loudly and rudely, reducing one of the leaders to a stuttering mess immediately. He watched the interaction with interest, gaze moving between them.