Release Party | HM Meeting Y39/S2

[Poppy Perkins]

Poppy could hardly believe she had managed to survive her first year as editor. The whole year felt like it passed in a blur and now she was finally starting to take in the feeling accomplishment as she stared at one of the finished copies of the paper on her desk. She hoped Nell would be proud of her and she felt a small twinge of sadness when she realized that next year would be her last. It felt impossibly close and so far away at the same time. Thankfully she had a party to put the finishing touches on to keep her distracted from feeling too melancholy. She had gotten some food and drinks prepared and brought up to the meeting room for the rest of the club to enjoy. They had all worked hard and she wanted to show just how much she appreciated them. A moment later she heard people start to arrive and she quickly turned to great them. "Welcome everyone!" she greeted warmly. "I just wanted to say congratulations to everyone on putting together another great issue of the Hogwarts Monthly!" she said and started to clap and hoped that others would join in too. "Well I won't waste your time and talk your ear off." she said with a laugh. "But I wanted to thank the seventh years for all their hard work over the years, I hope you're all off to do great things! And with that please enjoy the food and have fun!" she said with a smile she hoped didn't look forced. She wasn't great at talking in front of people and there was a lot of pressure to make sure everyone had a good time. She just hoped some snacks and a reason to celebrate would be enough.

 

[River Hopkins-Vance]

River had seen her article in the Hogwarts Monthly, if you could call it an article. She had written a very short poem about a rather grumpy professor. Of course the young Slytherin was smart enough not to include any names, she hoped her fellow students who know who she was referring to, hoping the professor did not. Even if he did, it wasn't like River broke any rules. It was art, poetry, there were no rules about that. Definitely a loophole, something the young Slytherin was great at finding.

River had heard tell of a little party to celebrate the last issue of the year. She needed a little break anyway. The young pink haired girl entered the Hogwarts Monthly Area, seeing that she was the first to arrive besides the editor. She gave a bright smile at Poppy. "This place looks amazing." She said kindly to the girl as she waited for the others to arrive. River eyed up the food table. She could always go for a snack, but did not want to be the first, not yet at least.

As the other members of the club arrived, Poppy made a short speech. It was odd to think that some of the students she had worked so hard with in this club were graduating already. Graduation for River felt forever away, although she knew it would sneak up on her soon enough. The young girl clapped as the speech finished, awkwardly. Ending her short clap, River walked over to the food table, waving at Emmaline to join her. It was one of the few times that River was able to spend time with her older sister while at school.

 

[Charlie Helkovaara]

Charlie was looking forward to the Hogwarts Monthly party. He hadn't been in the proper mindset to put out a good article this semester, so he'd opted to not sign up for any. Still, he was proud of his team and the paper they'd put out. He came in, sitting with the others for a bit before walking over to their leader. "Excuse me, Poppy?" He asked. "Can I talk to you about something?" @Poppy Perkins

 

[Estella Fuentes]

Estella had really liked being part of the Hogwarts Monthly. It was a great place to write her ideas down and report exciting things that had happened over the semester, and she was glad that everyone seemed to enjoy reading it. The girl entered the meeting room and smiled around at everything Poppy had set up for them. She enjoyed a little get together, and this was quite the perfect set up with the food and drinks that were available. Feeling a little peckish, Estella walked over to the food table and took a couple of biscuits before smiling across the room at Poppy. She gave her a big thumbs up, knowing that it was her first year as editor and knowing that she had done a really great job at it. It would be tough work being editor, especially since Poppy had to do it all by herself, but everything had gone smoothly. She listened as Poppy addressed them all before heading back over to the food table to get some more treats to eat.

 

[Nikko Blackwood]

Sometimes Nikko felt a little self conscious about not writing many articles for the paper he had done quite a lot of work, especially this year, and was responsible for all the photos of school events. He had chosen to join the Monthly since it seemed like the most normal of all the school's clubs but he doubted muggle schools had dueling tournaments. Nikko was also a little nervous for the party because Estella would be there and he had wanted to talk to her before the semester was over and he wouldn't see her for months. He stopped short when he saw her in the meeting room and tried to act cool as he joined her by the snacks. "Hey." he said with a smile. "Funny meeting you here." he joked and immediately regretted it. "Well, I was wondering if it would be ok if I wrote you or something over the break?" he asked quickly before he could chicken out. "You could send me photos and I can give you advice." he added quickly, not able to help himself from falling back to a safer topic. @Estella Fuentes

 

[Poppy Perkins]

Poppy was happy to see everyone arriving and having a good time, or at least she hopped they were. She had grabbed a drink for herself and ducked off to the side to simply watch everyone when she heard someone trying to talk to her. She had been so focused on everyone else she hadn't noticed Charlie yet. "Oh, hi!" she said brightly. "Sure, what's on your mind?" she asked and couldn't help but worry that something might be wrong. @Charlie Helkovaara

 

[Estella Fuentes]

As Estella was approached by a familiar face, she smiled when she realised who it was. Nikko had been helping her lately with camera work, and whilst Estella admittedly was more interested being in front of the lens rather than behind it, she had been having a lot of fun with him. There was something about him that made her feel some type of way, and as he joked about seeing her at the party, she couldn't help but feel some butterflies as she chuckled lightly at it. She wasn't sure what it was about bad jokes that really got her attention. She found it a little odd that he wanted to write to her over the break, but definitely wasn't going to say no. "Sure, that would be good." she said, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear a little nervously. She poured herself a glass of pumpkin juice and took a sip of it. "Do you have any plans over the break?"

@Nikko Blackwood

 

[Celia Vuong]

The rest of Celia's life might be falling apart, but at least things were going well with the Monthly. She had managed to convince Poppy to let her start writing op-eds, and she was hoping to turn it into a full-blown column. It would be an easy way to make a name for herself. She'd chosen to write about a fairly innocuous topic this time around, but hopefully there would be room to tackle more interesting issues in the future. That would be easier to do if she was in good standing with the editors.

Celia listened as Poppy welcomed everyone and thanked the seventh years. She clapped politely, wishing she was also graduating this year. At the end of the speech, Celia wandered over to the snack table, where she saw River. "Hey, I read your poem," she said, adding a couple of strawberries to her plate. "Poem" was a rather generous word for what had appeared in the paper, but that wasn't the point. "It was about Professor Crabapple, right?" she asked with a slight smirk.

@River Hopkins-Vance

 

[River Hopkins-Vance]

River was just about to take a bite out of some of her snacks when a fellow Slytherin girl began to speak to her. River placed the snack back on her plate, not waiting to take the massive bite she had previously planned. She let a smile fall onto her face. At least someone had figured out the poem, well haiku. It was not River's normal style of writing, but she had wanted at least something in the Hogwarts Monthly. She had gotten inspiration one night and quickly jotted it down. In all honesty, she was surprised that someone had even read it, being as short as it was. She could not help but be slightly proud though. "I'm not sure if I would say those exact words" River began waving her free hand. She did not know this girl really well. With her luck, River would say the girl was right and she would run directly to the professor to tattle on her. "But you're not a bad detective." River added the smile still on her face. It should be clear enough without her saying the exact words that would certainly get her in trouble.

@Celia Vuong

 

[Charlie Helkovaara]

Charlie smiled shyly as Poppy responded to him, shifting nervously on his feet. "I was actually wanting to talk to you," he fiddled nervously with his coat sleeves. "I... I had an idea for a new article I wanted to write," He peeked up at the older girl, trying to gauge her reaction, her interest in his words.

 

[Celia Vuong]

Celia's smile widened as River all but confirmed that the poem had been about Professor Crabapple. "Well, there aren't that many professors who fit the description," she said with a small shrug before taking a bite of a strawberry. Considering she and River shared most of the same professors (electives excluded), it hadn't been hard to guess. The only other person she could think of who fit the bill was Professor Styx, but he was more serious than grumpy. "God, can you imagine how much that would suck? Having multiple professors like Crabapple?" She shuddered for emphasis. "Anyway, do you think he read it?" she asked, her eyes shining bright at the possibility.

@River Hopkins-Vance

 

[River Hopkins-Vance]

River was happy to see that the other girl smiled. It didn't seem like a 'I'll go tell him right away' smile, but more of an approval smile, or at least that is what River thought. River nodded as Celia described how she figured it out. Honestly it did make sense. Not many professors were as grumpy as Professor Crabapple, even the ones that weren't always in the best mood seemed to care more than their History of Magic professor. Guess it was more obvious than I thought River thought happily. Again she didn't think she could get in trouble for her little act; she had not mentioned any names after all. A smile remained on River's face as she reached towards the snack table to grab a few pretzels to put on her plate.

She shook her head at both the comment about multiple Professor Crabapples teaching them their studies as well as the comment about the professor actually reading the poem. River could almost guarantee that the professor had no interest in the Hogwarts Monthly, even less interest in a poem in the poetry corner. "I highly doubt he will. I mean I doubt he even reads our homework." The blue haired girl stated.

Part of the young Slytherin wanted the professor to read the article. In a way it was written in slight frustrated that he never really taught them this year. The field trips had been cool, but the lessons seemed short and honestly like he didn't even care to be there. River put way too much effort in her schoolwork to have someone not even read her assignments. Maybe the poem was just a way to prove how little the professor noticed any of the students. "Be kind of interesting to see his reaction if he did though." River added.

@Celia Vuong

 

[Poppy Perkins]

Poppy waited patiently for Charlie to tell her what was on his mind. He seemed so nervous it made her kind of sad that he might be scared of her. She had tried very hard to create an open environment at the monthly so she gave him a reassuring look. "Oh really?" she said excitedly. For a moment she had been scared he had bad news, like he was leaving the paper or something so she was relived and excited to know it was actually about a new article which she was always willing to talk about. "What did you have in mind?" she asked. She had always thought they had most things covered but she wasn't so confident to think that there was never any room for improvement.

 

[Celia Vuong]

Celia was feeling rather pleased that she managed to guess who the poem was about, even if it hadn't been difficult at all. "You have a point," she admitted, when River pointed out that Professor Crabapple probably didn't read anything related to the school he worked for. She knew Hogwarts had low standards, but it still baffled her how the man had managed to get a job here. "But he did agree to sit down for that interview with the Monthly last semester, so who knows? Maybe he does read the paper." she said with a shrug, adding some more berries to her plate.

"Well it's hard to imagine him getting any grumpier," Celia said dryly. The man had hit rock bottom when he started sleeping through his own lessons. "I'm just glad someone's calling him out." It was about time. She was also fairly impressed that River had singled out an individual professor. Celia's own article had been critical of the school, but she hadn't dared to name Alicastell (or anyone else). "But you should include his name next time. Then the school could actually do something." Something like fire him.

@River Hopkins-Vance