Pensieve Christmas Edition

Editor's Babble

So its Christmas, and with that time of year comes chaos and lots of crying because once again no-one bought me a pair of jimmy choo's or a Louis Vuitton handbag or an iphone 4. The only thing i am guarenteed to get this christmas is a rather large visa bill.

I find myself wondering, if you the younger generation wish people merry christmas or happy holidays? When i was growing up it was perfectly fine to wish everyone and anyone a merry christmas and a happy new year, despite the other persons beliefs as they would not take offence because no offence was intended, in fact if the person was of another religion they would simply greet us in their saying like Happy Hanukkah etc . However now, the government has literally banned people from saying merry chrsitmas because its offensive, in this country we're also not allowed to fly English flag, because its offensive, or in some extreme schools, the children are not allowed to sing christmas carols, go to the special christmas service the local church holds for all school children, i find it utterly shocking that todays world can be so easily offended, anyone who knows me on here know's i say what i think regardless of it being politically correct or not.

So what would you do, if you could not fly your country's flag proudly, or hang bunton, or say merry christmas with the joy of your heart, if you could not sing carols and you could not do those things which make christmas, well christmas!?

And do not get me started on HEalth and Safety, we i live we have a huggggggggeeeeeeee public christmas tree, and every year someone either climbs it all the way to the top or craashes their car into it, so Health and Safety have decided its dangerous and we're not allowed our tree. But can i just say dear local authority dudes, IT WOULDN'T HAPPEN IF YOU DIDN'T PUT THE FRIGGIN THING RIGHT OUTSIDE A PUB! Thats right, the tree goes up outside a popular pub, and yes the person who climbed it to the top was extremely drunk and the guy who crashed his car into was also very drunk.

Have we lost the magic of christmas? No, but politicans appear to have lost it. I will not bow down to their way of thinking, for i am stubborn, pigheaded and totally unreasonable. Therefore i would like to say, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to each and everyone of you and if you are offended, well tough.

Love and mistletoe kisses,
Ettie


Choas Christmas at HE
Violetriddle and Stephy have a tale to tell of a Christmas not too long along. It involves many of the members here on the site and throughout the Christmas Edition of the Pensieve will the story of the Choas Christmas be presented to you in pieces. There's too much chaos to read all at once. Here is the first piece.

Oh, Christmas at the HE. The beautiful, white, fluffy snow flitters from the sky to the frozen ground below! A time for love, joy, and evil. On the grounds are Kate and Mel having fun putting together a fort, putting all their effort into it. Taking careful aim, he starts to melt the fort, causing it to crash and crumble. Mel and Kate sit there, crying because of the many hours of hard work destroyed. Rai walks away, laughing at the top of his lungs, scaring those around; however, someone stands in the shadows, waiting for perfect revenge. For the longest, it has been Caro's mission to mess with Rai's life for as long as she lives. But last week, Rai stole her most prized possession....her secret box. Now Caro kept her box well hidden, but somehow the Headmaster got his hands on it! Caro wanted it back and she had a plan but she needed the help of those around her. Before her was Mel and Kate, looking like they wanted revenge!

Caro tells the two what she needed to be done, but soon the trio realized they would need more help. Near the lake, which was frozen, is Stephy and Vi, throwing snowballs at one another. Caro smiles her evil smile, knowing she found the perfect pair for her eviliness. Rai is filling out detention forms, a grin on his face, unaware of what is taking place inside the castle walls. A small little girl walks into his office, a smile on face. Rai narrows his eyes, knowing she is up to something.

Christmas Traditions on HE
by amortentia773

With Christmas right around the corner I’ve been watching all the trees and lights go up, and began reflecting on all the Christmas traditions I’ve been following ever since I was very little. Hunting for our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving, the Church service on Christmas eve and coming home to open one gift before going to bed, leaving cookies out for Santa; Christmas is a season full of holiday traditions for me.

I decided to ask around among HE members to see what their holiday traditions were, if they had any, and how they came about. Samantha Granger talked of her Christmas trees, reflecting, “I always have a tree to decorate, and as long as I can do that, it usually feels like Christmas…My dad was always very adamant about having a real tree, and now I always want a real tree”. Decorating Christmas trees seemed to be one of the most popular Christmas traditions for HE members—despite whether or not the tree is real or fake, members responded and talked of putting of their tree as a family and decorating the tree while listening to carols, something my family has always done as well.

However, Christmas dinner, swayed both ways. While FaerieOfDoom describes her Christmas dinner as consisting of “ham (a must) pork, pork crackle (yum!), salad, mum's rice, potatoes, apple sauce, beef or chicken” she also comments that when at her grandmother’s house, they have whatever they feel like. Similarly, Samantha Granger explains that when with her family she has a “traditional dinner with turkey and ham” but when it’s with her friends, they also cook whatever they feel like at the time. Many other members made similar statements, and some said they never followed any traditional Christmas dinner at all.

Nevertheless, not all members of HE celebrate Christmas with traditions. violetriddle commented on how her family used to open presents at four in the morning, but since she was ten years old, she hasn’t done anything to celebrate. “It started happening when I was ten,” she explains, “because my daddy was tired of putting up a Christmas tree. I haven’t had a wrapped present in years. I kinda like it that way though”. Samantha Granger spoke of picking a family member to be “Santa’s Helper” and pass out presents as a family tradition.

So are you one of those who loves to stick to traditions? Or do you prefer to celebrate in your own new way each year? Despite whether or not you’ll be spending your Christmas by following old traditions, creating new ones, or not celebrating at all, I hope your Christmas will be filled with all the things you love to do and is an exciting day for you all! Merry Christmas and have a happy New Year!

Role Player's Dimension
by stephy

Role Playing Dimension has taken a look at many of the member’s on the site’s characters and how they evolved since their creator first thought of them. Maybe they started off as a quiet little girl who grew into a chatty person who cannot remain quiet for even a second or perhaps they were like Harry Potter themselves and knew nothing of being a witch or wizard until they receive their letter only later to become well known. RPer’s have watched as their characters developed and shaped thanks to the Great Hall on the site but not everyone remembers the beginnings when HE first started. Not everyone watched as members came and went but one member does and this member is me.

When I first joined HE I had no clue what RPing was. After asking around I quickly found out that it was like a book written by many people, at least that’s how I always picture it these days. I quickly started RPing within the very first Term and I became addicted even though my writing skills were not that great I spent every free minuet I had writing away. Back then members wrote out paragraphs among paragraphs of their characters and what they were thinking, feeling and touching at the time and I admired how great these writers were. My posts were nothing compared to theirs, mine being only five or six sentences long compared to their twenty or thirty. Even though I had thought many times of giving up, my fellow RPing HE’ers encouraged to keep it up and for that I am grateful otherwise I would not be RPing to this day.

As time went on I kept with the same character Oddie Riddle who was my first character starting at the age of fourteen and a girl who didn’t really socialize much until she met other friends like Chris Potter (magicguy93) and Dani (Dancingsunset). Over time she made more friends and soon I spent about ninety percent of my time RPing making at least one hundred posts a day. As I made more posts the quality of my posts became less and less and soon I fell into a habit of only making them a sentence or two long just to keep up with others. This habit I noticed went on for a few years before rules were placed in to prevent this from happening again.

I do like these rules for they bring me back to the old time when I was RPing with much, much older RPers and also kjmut who at the time would make very long posts where one would have to scroll and scroll down the page to read it all but it was fun. I must say RPing with kjmut was the greatest and most important RPing I have done for it has shaped Oddie into the character she is today, a now 35ish year old women who has a son who will be leaving her soon to start a family of his own. Looking back I see that my character has come a long way from being a shy fourteen year old Hogwarts student into the strong fully matured women she is now.



Choas Christmas Continued
“What do you want, Sashi. I’m trying to give Stephy and Violet dentition for live,” he mumbles and watches as she smiles again. Seconds later, a snowball is in his face. He sputters and hears Sashi laugh before another snowball is thrown at him.

“SASHI!!! GET BACK HERE!” Rai shouts, chasing after her. Sashi giggles, throwing more snowballs.

“NEVER FLUFFY BEAR!!!” Sashi shouts back and runs towards the front of the school.
“DENTITION!!! FOR EVERYONE!” Rai screams as he finally catches up with Sashi. Sashi giggles, seeing Caro with a huge smirk on her face. All the while, Etta is smiling to herself, holding the teddy bear that belongs to Rai. She holds the bear close to her ad if it were a fragile item while skipping down the hall humming 'You're a Mean One Mr. Grinch." She and Caro had plans to destroy the bear, knowing how upset Rai would get.

When Sashi is sure Rai is no longer following her, she stops and giggles. She meets Etta around the corner, who is laughing also. Sashi fails to see Caro and smiles when she does.

“Caro is helping us with our eviliness!” Etta exclaims and hands Caro the teddy bear. Caro laughs her evil laugh while the other two rock on the balls of their heels.

“First, we should tear it apart slowly to watch the stuffing come out!” Caro shouts and tries to rip the bear. Only before she can, Ambi comes around the corner, eyes wide.

“NO CARO!! THAT IS CRUEL!!!” She shouts. Caro looks at her and her eyebrows rise.

"I'll be giving it back to him" Caro says as she stops trying to pull out the stitching.

"Let me guess, he'll have it back in pieces won't he?" Asks Amber and watches as a grin appears on Caro's face






With the Hogwarts Experience's fourth anniversary taking place on the 21st of February, I decided to take a little trip back in time. Since this site was created by the now retired Sharon (better known as Elfie Dumbledore) and Amy (better known as Duck the Duck), along with Severus Snape, MarieC, and Running_Swift, many things have become of HE. For better or for worse, there is no doubting that there has been change.

I have taken a day out of my busy HE schedule to go around and question a few of our more active members. Here is what they had to say:

I asked our members what they expected when they first joined HE. It seems that the majority joined due to boredom, or wanted something to do with there personal time, whether it be after school or on the weekends. One member I questioned said she joined because she thought is was simply another site of which she could relax on when she was feeling bored or wanted to go role play. She never expected to care about it so much, and found that all the work put into this site really gave it a unique edge, and helped it stand out above all other Harry Potter fan sites.

I also asked what was everyone's favorite feature or part of HE. I mostly got the same reply. The classes. I agree with this; no other site I've been on has offered such a wide and collected range of classes mimicking those at the Hogwarts school. From Ancient Ruins to Defense Against the Dark Arts, and even Flying Lessons and Herbology, the Hogwarts Experience has it all! Even better, the classes are actually fun! That's right! You can earn easy house points by writing a 300 word paper, listing the ingredients used in certain potions, and playing online games! And better yet, you learn a lot more things about the magical world of Harry Potter.
The role playing also draws in a lot of our members. It's always fun to take a break from classes and go have a stroll around the castle, or shop with friends at Hogsmeade. You can develop your original characters easily this way, and share them with all others online.

It seems almost everyone has somehow grown or developed from their time on this site. I, for one, have learned a great load more about how the magic in Harry Potter works, and have been able to develop my creativity to a whole new level. I look forward to taking classes here, and strive to be the best I can be and show my progress in an environment that understands, cares, and is constantly growing. I hope that most everyone feels this way and is willing to take risks, On HE, there is no such thing as screwing up. We are all here to help on another and most importantly, have fun!

After interviewing my couple of members, I asked the probably most expected question: what are you expecting in the future of HE? Well, ask yourself this. We all want to know! Do you want more classes? A more intense system of Quidditch? Maybe even becoming more active or achieving a certain goal? Want to simply graduate, or move from a fourth year to a fifth? Hoping to win house cup? Meet more friends?

Remember, anything is possible, and the Hogwarts Experience provides the perfect place for you to be the best that you can be.

Horoscopes
by FaerieOfDoom

Sagittarius
Venus is in your sector this month, beware the ones in disguise. Also, penguins – they’re after you.

Slytherin
Don’t tell us we didn’t warn you.

Aries
Look behind you!

Gryffindor
Auspicious signs point to you winning the House Cup.

Homo sapiens
Thumbs really come in useful this month when you get that iPad for your b’day.

Hufflepuff
It is well advised if you stock up on healing ointment this month. You’ve got some nasty surprises in your future. (because of course, what the heck are you!?)

StarKids
All signs point to yes.

Ravenclaw
Keeping your tower clean means keeping the clutter of your mind clean also.

Santa
You missed my house this year, I demand you come back!


Chaos Christmas Continued
Amber shakes her head a little and says "Caro, I have a better idea. He'll get a piece of a teddy..." Amber says whispering her plans away.

Meanwhile in his office Rai is frantically looking for his teddy bear. He was going to take an afternoon nap but during his naps he ALWAYS napped with his teddy. Just than, an owl flies through his window with a package. Rai opens it up to see within it a bear's hand with stuffing all around. Tears start to build up and soon Rai is filled with rage. He runs out of his office screaming.

"WHOMEVER TELLS ME WHO DESTROYED MY TEDDY WILL BE REWARDED WITH 50,000 HOUSEPOINTS!"

"Rai you're teddy isn't destroyed." Stephy says a she tries to hold back a laugh.

"Yea, he's just outside enjoying the snow." Vi adds as the headmaster storms outside, Vi and Stephy not far behind.

Christmas Chatter in the Pensieve Tower
by Stephy

Ah it’s this time of year again and the site is filled with Christmassy events and talk. In the Pensieve towers our very own members discussed their Christmases and the traditions they followed. I sat in the corner (well tried to but ended up fighting with the Pixie the whole time) with a parchment paper and a quill at the ready. Here’s what I heard while trying to bat away the Pixie who for some reason likes to torment me.

The first thing mentioned was the food. I cowered under the couch quickly making a list of what the Pensieve members said while the Pixie hovered above waiting for the right time to attack.

“The food part of Christmas I like, a lot - we generally have my grandma's devilled eggs, mum's rice, potato salad, regular salad, roast pork, turkey, leg of lamb on a spit... it's all very delicious.” Mel said while filling out a crossword. She crossed out ten words before finishing that sentence.

“We always bake these special cookies from my grandmother's recipe and decorate them with frosting and sprinkles and such before Christmas that are addicting.” Katie says as she starts to zone out thinking about the cookies. I make a quick note to ask for some later.

I than darted out from under the couch, had my hair tugged and now thanks to the Pixie I have a tiny bald spot on the back of my head but I managed to get safe ground under a nearby desk and continue on taking notes. The Pixie hissed but I ignored her and said “Well what does everyone do on Christmas? Any traditions?”

One thing that seemed to be common was opening at least one gift on Christmas Eve, usually gifts from one another before heading off to bed waiting for Christmas day to arrive. Finally we would get to open the good presents from Santa!

Etta comes in telling us about how her and her two brothers would try to stay awake, wanting to meet the jolly man dressed in red only to fall asleep and wake up the next day. I know me and my sister would do that until the year she found out Santa wasn’t real, than ruined it for me by showing my parent’s bathroom covered in wrapped gifts. I was crushed but figured either way I still get gifts. “I always wrapped my presents to my family in a roll of paper, a roll of sellotape and about 30 bows, they'd sit for ages trying to open their present from me and the first person to give in and get the scissors had to wash the christmas dinner dishes hehehehehe” Etta says laughing menacingly. I make a small note reminding myself that if I receive a gift from Etta I would be sure to have scissors nearby.

Mel still working frantically on her word search with five other ones fully completed leaving me amazed at how many she can do speaks again, not taking her eyes away from the many d’s, f’s, o’s and thousands of other letters that litter the page. “My family always has problems buying me presents 'cause of my tastes - they're fleeting and too specific for my family to know, lol, so I get money! And with this money I buy awesome stuff I want like books”

Ah money at Christmas. This only happened for me once. I got a few presents and a little bit of cash to match the amount of money it cost that the spent on my other siblings. It was nice of them and gave me some extra cash to use next year when I went on a buying spree for my friends.

Katie says finally joining the conversation again “I think one of my favorite parts about Christmas is the Christmas Eve service my church has. It's late at night and it's super fun and touching and it's a tradition for all the members to light candles at the end and go outside of the church and sing Silent Night.” Then she shouts “I LOVE CHRISTMAS!” causing me to jump and bang my head off of the desk I’m hiding under. The desk toppled over and soon I was trying to bat away the menacing Pixie. However don’t worry I got away, if I hadn’t than you wouldn’t be reading this. A few nights in the Hospital Wing and I’m almost fully back to normal. I’m still missing that little piece of hair.

The year is coming to an end and soon I’ll be watching the tv to watch the ball drop, and I’ll come up with some new year resolutions only to break a few days later but I look forward to Christmas and shoving my siblings away from the tree trying to get to all of my gifts first. So with that I wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part One Review.
Where Did All The Time Go?
by FaerieOfDoom

We were all there when a hush descended over the world at the end of that momentous week in November. Years, months, endless days of waiting, waiting, waiting had finally come to fruition – it was coming, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One was to be released in cinemas! Finally!

For a lucky few of us in earlier timezones (teehee, that’s me!), we saw it on Thursday the 18th, for others, you had to wait those extra hours (an eternity of waiting, I’m sure) to see it on the 19th. But see it we did, and our lives are forever enriched by this momentous occasion.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One was a revelation in the film franchise. It is far removed from the first two movies, which are often thought of quite separately from the more recent, and darker films. This removal is not a bad thing, of course, merely a point to reflect upon when you see Harry, Hermione and Ron all grown up, fighting bad guys, being in love – things that seemed nothing but a distant thought in those early years.

Forgive my nostalgia, people, but I really will miss this when it comes to pass. I almost dread it – the excitement that the film releases have brought to our lives will cease to be. We’ll have little left to us after that, and I hate to see things come to an end, as the inevitably must. Feel free to join me in clutching onto the final vestiges of our childhood, to the very end!

We all know that this movie covered the events of the first four hundred pages of the book of the same name by JK Rowling. It follows Harry and his hunt for Voldemort’s soul – partitioned into different items called Horcruxes. This epic spans a great amount of time, in which Harry, Hermione and Ron find their fair share of trials and tribulations, finishing on that moment when Voldemort gets his hands on the Elder Wand.

Regardless of all circumstantial things aforementioned, it was a great film. Combining amazing performances from the entire cast (a particular shout out to my favourite: David O’Hara who played Albert Runcorn). Each scene was a work of art, the scenery, the sets, everything was quite atmospheric and beautiful to a fault. Drawn instantly into the film, I was nearly speechless the entire way though (I’m a confessed talker during movies), a rare thing for me. Such a success was it, that I saw the film three times in the first two days of its release.

Overall, I’d give it a solid – and well deserved – 9/10. Let’s hope the next one is even better, and gets the full ten!

Glamorous Life at College
by stephy

College. What comes to mind? Partying? Drinking? Relationships? Depending on your personality that might be the case but for me college is much, much different than that.

Unlike most smart students I decided to pick a college in a middle of farm land where the greatest place to go for fun is Wal-Mart. What? Wal-Mart? How could someone possibly have fun at Wal-Mart? I’ll tell you. Make sure you grab some of your closest friends and head over to the nearest Wal-Mart. Where I go to school it’s like 10 million miles away, okay maybe I’m exaggerating a little. I still however have to go take the bus. Funny story about buses they don’t always stop where they are supposed to. If you’re like me you will be spending ten minutes of your life trying to flag down the bus that was suppose to stop right where you were standing. You’ll be flailing your arms about screaming at the top of your lungs while people stop and stare, pointing their fingers and laughing like crazy only for the bus to get away and you standing there cursing. If however the bus does stop you get to head down to Wal-Mart where your fun begins at the wonderful store that has it all. Wal-Mart truly does have everything and what’s fun is to go into the children’s section and push all of the buttons. Try to get the most toys going off at once and you win!

Now there are times when there’s so much snow outside staying inside is a better idea. Why not cook some food? Well when it comes to me and my friends cooking food is a lot harder then what one might think. Trying to cook rice on the stove we ended up breaking a glass lid and making a terrible mess. It was all laughs and giggles until someone had to clean up the glass. When cooking, do not leave a glass lid sitting on the edge of a counter, otherwise there will be millions of tiny clear sharp objects just begging to go up your foot.

Now what do college students like to drink? I’m sure you all know the answer to that… JUICE PACKS! Every chance we get we like to have juice packs parties and someone brings the goods and we spend hours getting high off of life and drunk off of sugar. Also playing Halo against other Xbox live members is tons of fun. The things they say are funny, for instance one guy was singing Miley Cyrus party in the U.S.A. Needless to say he shouldn’t quit his day job.

The one thing everybody who wants to go to campus just remember that you will be walking, A LOT! You walk to everything. You walk to get breakfast, you walk to your morning classes, you walk to get lunch, you walk to get to your afternoon classes, you walk to get to dinner, you walk to go to the bathroom, you walk to do your laundry, you walk to hang out with your friends, you walk to walk your dog, you walk to get a snack, and the list just goes on and never ends. Gaining weight is one thing you don’t have to worry about especially if your college is like mine and is on a giant hill. Correct, the college is the giant hill!

What about your dirty clothes? Well Laundry is a nightmare for a college student. I stood in the laundry room for an hour straight waiting for a washing machine to get done, then just as I was about to throw in my dirty close a boy just jumps in front of me and slam dunks his cloths in the washing mahine and snatches it away from me. I called him some not too kind names as I waited for another half an hour before I finally got one. Only then did I put the detergent into the softener slot and I had to curse at myself as I cleaned it out and put it in the detergent slot.

As you can see college is pretty tough with the classes but everyday things are just as hard as that final exam. It’s nothing like high school that’s for sure and I did not originally plan it to be like this. Of course I’m probably the most boring college student ever not doing what the stereotypical college student does like drinking all weekend and each night while partying it up. Oh well I like my boring, very complicated college life.


Chaos Christmas final piece

There, right where Kate and Mel had their snow fort before was a new one, this time inside was his precious teddy. Rai cries for joy as he runs into the fort and snatches up with bundle of joy. He quickly examines the hand and sees it's still intact.

With a laugh from outside, Rai pokes his head out of the fort only to see Caro standing before him wand raised. With a flick of her wand the fort crashes in on Rai. Not far away Kate and Mel were laughing glad that they finally got revenge.




November has come and gone, and once again the most insane of the pack cancelled all social engagements, locked themselves away, and wrote a NaNo novel. For those of you who do not know what I’m talking about, NaNo is a competition where hundreds of thousands of people aim to write a novel of fifty thousand words in length in the month of November, and believe me when I say that many people of different walks of life undergo this task, and it is no small thing.

For some of us it was a new venture, fun, exciting – and we had a ball. Others found it an intimidating goal, but of course any accomplishment, no matter how small, is celebrated over at NaNo. So let us take a moment to really appreciate the goals set, met, missed, and ignored altogether, for those of us crazy to think that we could write a 50, 000 word novel in a month.

HE supports a base of aspiring writers, with members who have either participated in this competition in the past, as well as this year’s NaNo. Talking to them, this member found that the experience is most assuredly different for each member. I myself found the goal not so difficult to reach (though perhaps my grades suffered in the face of my fanaticism) while others struggled to stay on top. No matter how we found it, the journey was as different as the word-count difference, and I applaud our amazing members for their efforts! It takes a special kind of person to want to do NaNo, and I think HE has the right sort of people indeed. Well done!

Some cool Nano Stats:

Nano newbies: 3
Total words: 156, 712
Average per person who contributed: 52,237

Remember: We’re all winners xD

A Parting Word From Stephy

Ah it’s the time of year again, a year of giving and caring, a year of joyous occasion, a time to relax and have fun, or so I wish. This month has been filled with nonstop tasks raging from things that need to be done for college to things that need to be done for the HE site. I love doing the many tasks on HE, if only I loved doing homework and studying for tests as much.

The past two months seemed to fly by for me with all of the fun I’ve been having on the site and also at college. I made my usually trips to Wal-Mart and participated in the challenges and events that Rai took out of his busy schedule to create. He even brought life back to the java chat room, which if you’re ever bored and need a good laugh please stop by. Not too long ago Amber and I had a fluffybear contest showing us who was the fluffier one. As you can see the list of fun I had at college is a short one, I do have fun but it would be better if I had less tests.

So now this semester is coming to an end and instead of relaxing for until next semester I’ll be battling for house points trying to have Ravenclaw beat those Gryffindors, I know a task that could only happen in my dreams but I like my dreams. As the months go by more and more active HE’ers are returning to the site and though it might never be like it used to be in the olden days it’s still a pretty magical place with the best people.

wow!!! it was such a collection.

It looks great!

I loved Vi and stephy's story. Hehe. That's what you get for knocking down me and Melly's snowfort, Rai.

I'll be sure to PM you the people who do it.