The Hogwarts Pensieve: Christmas/New Years Edition

Christmas is hands down my favorite holiday. Not because of the presents waiting in the stockings and under the tree, but because of the sheer amount of anticipation and happiness that is constantly around from the day after Thanksgiving to Christmas Day. Perhaps even more exciting is the amount of traditions, at least in my family, that we follow through with each year, from putting the Christmas tree up after Thanksgiving to the meal we eat on Christmas Eve and Day.

And this year was no disappointment. While the general busyness of this year compared to any other, as well as a complete lack of snow around here, not seeing as much as a snowflake in the Christmas season, led to me being completely surprised by how close Christmas was (meaning I had hardly any time to do any Christmas shopping), by the time Christmas came around, it was a relief to fall back into our old traditions: baking and decorating Christmas cookies to what feels like the thousands (you’re all welcome to have some as there’s no way we can eat this many cookies), assembling a gingerbread house to the best of our unartistic ability, chopping down a Christmas tree and stringing it with lights and decorations and having an everlasting flow of Christmas music on in the background (though steadily avoiding the one about the Red Christmas shoes for fear of bursting into tears).

However everyone spent their Christmas Day, I hope it was filled with fun and excitement and you had a wonderful time, whatever you may have been up to. I hope you’ve been able to use those holiday “eat-anything-and-as-much-as-you-like” passes to the best of your abilities, and have had a wonderful end of the year. A very Merry Christmas to you all, and the happiest of New Years!!


Yes, my darling HEers the time has come again for your beloved, up to date, gossip column. And though it might have been Christmas just a few days ago, it doesn't mean that scandal is not afoot.

If I were any of you, I'd be careful eating any of your Christmas sweets because I saw a certain Gryffindor Head Girl sneaking around while everyone was asleep the other day and magically replacing chocolate with slabs of cheese. When I confronted her about this terrible trick, all she had to say before sprinting off was, "I LOVE CHEESE AND YOU SHOULD TOO!"

Second head of Ravenclaw house, Rigby, has been caught read handed in a terrible crime. After innocently creeping around the library, I found her stealing the books off the shelves and trying to enchant some characters into coming out of the books - therefore leaving the books without that character, forever! Unfortunately, the black eye I received was from trying to stop her.

The previous story disproves all the rumors about my black eye coming from a fight with someone else over a certain Hufflepuff that shall remain nameless. Really, it was the book thing, honest to blog. Besides, I totally pwned that fight.

Moving on, Katie was seen trying to hack into my personal computer the other day. Why is that? She was looking for the answers to the current How Well Do You Know event. When confronted, she broke down in tears and exclaimed, "I just want Hufflepuff to win the cup! I didn't mean to sneak to Slytherin lows!" Of course not, however, I've now guarded the answers more than the beloved HEBB Hit List.

Speaking of hit lists, one of my own second heads of house recently revealed that I was on her hit list when she tried to lock me in a room with an angry Rai. Not only did I barely survive, but when I confronted her about it, Mel (aka FaerieOfDoom), admitted that, "It's nothing personal, but you're an obstacle on my way to domination of the site."

Has anyone else noticed lately that the site has been a bit slow? Well, I'm here to give you the scoop and it's not pretty. After obsessively following members around for days, hiding in bushes, pretending to be statues and paintings, the truth comes out. People are, brace yourselves for the shocking truth, ditching us for real life celebrations and homework. GASP! It's big scandal, just like I said.

And finally, our lovely Headmaster has been up to things this year. Besides his famously foiled attempt to steal Christmas songs away from other countries and make them his own, he also recently made a decree that all students found in possession of Lucky Charms must turn them in. Confused as ever, I demanded answers. "I need the Lucky Charms! I can never have enough! They don't make them here!" And with that, he stole my cereal bowl and ran away yelling about how privileged I was in America. Poor Fluffybear.

Until next time, keep up the good scandals everyone and don't be afraid to let me know exactly what's happening around HE


2012 is upon us! If, like me, you are wondering what your favorite Harry Potter cast members are up to in the new year, and what exciting new projects you can look forward to seeing them in, look no further!

***For the sake of space, this is obviously not an all-inclusive list of actors, so if your favorite is missing, I apologize, but there are a lot of people in Harry Potter, and this is a short list of the ones who have a lot going on in 2012. Also, I left out any films rated R.

Daniel Radcliffe- Daniel stars in a new film entitled The Woman in Black, which will begin being released in February. It is rated PG-13. Here is a link to the preview, but be warned, it is pretty creepy. Link to preview
He will also be hosting Saturday Night Live on January 14th.

Emma Watson- Emma stars in The Perks of Being a Wallflower, which has not yet been rated, and so far there is no release date, though it will be sometime in 2012. She also has a new line of lipsticks for Lancome coming out in February.

Rupert Grint- Rupert has quite a few film projects slated for 2012. Into the White, the trailer for which can be found here:Link to trailer it will be released in Norway in March, and there are not yet any other release dates. He is also working on Postman Pat- The Movie, Eddie the Eagle, and Cross Country, though they are all scheduled for release in 2013.

Tom Felton- Tom stars in The Apparition, which is rated PG-13 and will be released in August. He is also currently filming a TV series called Labyrinth, that, so far, only has a scheduled release date for Germany. He also starred in From the Rough, which was supposed to release in 2011, but is actually releasing in February. The trailer can be found here: Link to trailer

Ralph Fiennes- Ralph with reprise his role of Hades in Wrath of the Titans, which is a sequel to Clash of the Titans (also starring Bill Nighy). It will be released in March, and the trailer can be found here: Link to trailer. He is also currently filming the newest Bond movie, entitled Skyfall (also starring Helen McCrory), which is scheduled to be released around November.

Helena Bonham Carter- Helena will be in Tim Burton’s new film Dark Shadows, which is set to release in May. She is also set to star in the film version of the stage musical Les Miserables, which is set to release in December. Her two other films are set to release in 2013.

Gary Oldman- Gary reprises his role as Jim Gordon in this July’s The Dark Knight Rises, whose trailer can be found here: Link to trailer. Check out his profile on IMDB for his other projects: Link to IMDB


As November 30th steadily approached, all of us involved in National Novel Writing Month sacrificed sleep, friends, grades and any type of life outside of Microsoft Word and the Nano on their quest to reach 50,000 words in 30 days, a feat which takes an average of 1,667 words per day in order to reach said goal. While some of us found the daily goal easy to reach, others struggled with intense workloads that could not be put off. As anyone who writes knows, it’s almost impossible to write, and keep writing, without stopping to edit anything; for those of us with the eyes of perfectionists, it’s a constant irk at the back of our minds as gaping plot holes, horrible grammar and sickening vocabulary choice begs us to forsake our daily goal and edit the work to be perfect.

For myself, I had a wide mix of good days and bad days, usually either not reaching my goal at all or far outreaching what I’d hoped to reach once I entered the writing zone. Happily, and after many hours of insane typing, I reached my final goal of 50,000 words on the twenty-fourth day, giving me another six days to write away and support the other writers from my county who had not yet made it yet. As my second year of being a Nano participant, and my first of actually making it to the winner status, I really felt that this year not only improved my confidence that I could, in fact, write a novel, but also improved my ability to write what I needed and worry about going back later.

Whether you made it to the winner’s spot or not, you’re efforts were not only admirable but well worth the time you put into it, and I’m sure next year will prove to be an even better year than this one. So if you reached 50,000 words, my hat goes off to you and I suggest placing it on the Hogwarts Quill for all to read and review. If you didn’t make goal, I’m sure you made your best effort, and better luck next time! Regardless, each and every one of you who participated in Nano helped to contribute to the final Nano count: 3,074,869,709! What a year! Congratulations to you all and a job well done!


Now, I know that last month I was the person saying that comparing Harry Potter to Twilight was like apples and oranges. However, today I will be comparing the general experiences of the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 midnight premiere with the Breaking Dawn: Part 1 midnight premiere. Allowing you to see the differences and similarities that I encountered from fans, environment and my general feelings.

To start off I will say that this experiment was conducted in the same Cinema Carousel movie theater, both in November with school the next day (for those still in school). I was in Theater 10 for the Deathly Hallows premiere (see my theater after an hour of being in) and Theater 9 (see my theater when everyone went for concessions) for the Breaking Dawn premiere. Both times I was in the first theater to be let into their seats, approximately at 9 for Breaking Dawn and 10 for Harry Potter. Each time I was in a group of five or more people and each time I got to the theater at approximately 8 o'clock and got approximately the same place in each line.

The Deathly Hallows Premiere easily had more people dressed up between the few full body all out costumes and besides that most everyone had themselves shirts or scarves or goodies that were HP related. (Randomly, we had guys dressed up like Bellatrix, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift and Katy Perry that were in my theater, three can be seen here). The group was primarily made up of females, with a probably 70/30 ratio. However, the group age was about 95% late high school/collage aged group. The overall atmosphere was excitement, but people mostly kept themselves to their groups that they were there with. The only exception I saw to this was one of the guys dressed up like Amy trying to pick up a girl sitting in front of me. The second we were in the theater the atmosphere turned serious, even throughout the waiting we had for the movie (over two hours). The closer it got to the movie showing, the quieter it became. There was cheering when the lights dimmed, but for the most part the theater was quiet for the duration of the movie. Reactions were scarce among the audience and they were usually met with shushing. Overall, the movie was great but the audience was not.

The Breaking Dawn Premiere had more people dressed casually in whatever they had worn that day, although there was a group of guys (seen here) dressed as a wolf pack. The group was primarily female, but a surprising number of males were also present. If I had to split the group up I'd say, 85%/15% for females to males. The age group was far greater though because although I'd say the core was probably high school students, I personally saw people in my own theater ranging from age 8 to age 67. The atmosphere was excitement here too, but the people were much more social. I sat and talked with a lady (in her 30s, with her daughter being the a fore mentioned 8 year old) for twenty minutes, who offered to buy me something so I wouldn't have to move out of line. In fact, most everyone was talking with people outside their group. In the theater it was no different and as it got closer to the movie showing, the more excitement buzzed through the theater. Cheering happened not only when the lights went out, but at different points in the movie. Reactions were plentiful and greeted happily, with others joining in. When the movie was over, everyone stayed for the additional scene and clapping and cheering occurred. Overall, the movie was great and the audience was as well.

Now, I know some people might not agree that it makes a good audience in the BD scenario, but I felt like it added to my movie watching experience. I enjoyed knowing that other people were enjoying the movie and overall the fans were just nicer to people. So, for all the hate that the Twilight community gets, I think that they proved to me that they are a far more inclusive group. Individually, I'd rank the DH P1 premiere a 3/5 for experience and BD P1 a 5/5 for experience.


We have all heard the rumors flying around about how the world is going to end this year, but there are also some pretty cool things happening this year that we can look forward to.

Summer Olympics (27 July 2012 and 12 August 2012)
The 2012 Summer Olympic games will be held in London, England. It will be the third time London has hosted the Olympics, which makes them the only city to have hosted the modern games this many times.
Link to website

London is also hosting the London 2012 Festival, which is the finale of the Cultural Olympiad, a four-year program of cultural events across the United Kingdom, leading up to the Olympic games.
Link to website

U.S. Presidential Election
Tuesday, November 6, 2012 will mark the 57th quadrennial presidential election in the United States. For many members of HE, it will mark the first time they are old enough to vote in a presidential election. On going information about candidates can be found at Link to website

Curiosity Mars Rover
On November 26, 2011, NASA launched the Mars Rover Curiosity, which is five times bigger than the rovers Spirit and Opportunity. It is scheduled to land on Mars on August 6, 2012. Curiosity’s primary mission is to analyze whether or not Mars is capable, or has ever been capable of supporting life. More information, including a count down clock to Curiosity’s landing, can be found at Link to website

Transit of Venus
The transit of Venus is what it is called when Venus passes between Earth and the Sun. It happens in pairs eight years apart from one another, and then doesn’t happen again for over one hundred years. When this happens, you can see Venus move across the face of the Sun, as a small black dot. It is one of the rarest astronomical events, and has only happened six times since the invention of the telescope. The first portion of this current pair happened in 2004, and the next pair isn’t supposed to happen until 2117, and 2125, so this is the last time to see this event in our lifetime. It will happen June 5 or 6, 2012, depending on where you live. While this will be an amazing this to witness, everyone must remember to use the proper equipment, and not look directly at it, or you will be blinded. More information can be found at Link to website

Wii U
Scheduled to be released sometime in 2012, the Wii U is a new controller for the Wii. It looks more like a tablet, and has a motion sensor just like the Wii remotes, but it also has a touch pad, and you can play Wii games on it even with your television turned off. It is going to be backwards compatible with the Wii, and will also work with all of the Wii’s peripherals, such as Motion Plus and the Balance Board. More information, including videos to show you what it looks like, can be found at
Link to website


Hello all my eager point winning companions! For this edition’s competition, it’s quite simple! All you need to do I send in a colored version of the following Christmas scene to amortentia773 before January 30 and then, before the next edition, the staff of the Pensieve will vote on the best drawing that will be featured in the next issue! And even better, everyone who enters will win house points, but the top three will earn bonus points! Decorations can be done by hand and scanned back onto the computer or done on a computer paint program, but it must be the following picture. Merry Christmas and good luck! Click here to see the picture!


People all over the world have been greeting the new year by making promises to themselves about how they will make the next year better than the one passing since around 153 B.C. Ancient Romans looked to the two-faced mythical king Janus as a symbol of new resolutions and forgiveness, using the dawning of the new year to reflect on the passing year’s events and look forward to the future.

Though I don’t usually partake in this particular tradition, I can still appreciate how powerful these resolutions can be in a person’s life, and I like the idea of taking time to reflect and make new goals. I asked around the site to see what resolutions your fellow HEers have made for 2012. In no particular order, and keeping them anonymous:

To start seeing myself as important and not a shadow of anyone else.

I'm hoping to be much more involved in HE next year, cause I feel like I slacked off this year.

To actually get my three hours of cello in each day.

To save more money and to be the best girlfriend I can be.

To read (and review on my blog) 112 books in 2012.

To read the books that are sitting on my shelves that I haven't read yet.

To be better organized and prepared in 2012, since 2011 kicked my bum.

To work out more, eat less junk food, and find a way to really love vegetables.

To watch all the movies sitting on my shelves that I have purchased but not watched.

To spend more quality time on HE and restore Ravenclaw to our former glorious glory.


As most of us are huge fans of multiple series, there’s no way to ignore the constant competition that seems to spring up surrounding different series: the infamous Harry Potter vs. Twilight debate in particular is something that some of us may have even taken sides on ourselves. But have fans taken this way too far?

While to me it’s always been irksome that people feel the need to compare different series, with completely different plots, authors, stories and target audiences to one another, and then fight over which one’s better, I feel like I can hardly go anywhere today without hearing some debate or comment that degrades one series over another.

I’ve particularily started noticing this surrounding the new movie, The Hunger Games. While I’d grown used to the Twilight/Harry Potter competition, when I read The Hunger Games in anticipation for the new movie, I didn’t think for one minute it would get involved in this debate too. I mean, The Hunger Games is a fast-paced, science fiction book about survival—so why have fans suddenly starting pitting these great books, against other great books? You can’t even go to youtube to watch the trailer or websites about the book anymore without people taking sides, Hunger Games over Harry Potter or Twilight, and Harry Potter fans over both of them. Has it really become such a big deal to admit that you might enjoy more than one series? Besides, the majority of the Harry Potter fandom loves the Hunger Games and the majority of the Hunger Games fandom loves Harry Potter too. So can everyone just take a minute to take a deep breath, acknowledge the fact that both series are amazing and get over this childish need to take sides in such a needless debate and I think not only would the sense of community between fans grow, but the wait for this movie, and other series too, will become much more enjoyable.


Aries (March 21-April 19)
Songs on the radio today will seem amazingly relevant to what you’re going through. Avoid crying on freeways or at least move into the slower lanes.

Taurus (April 20-May 20)
The desert of discontent has found you. Drink more water

Gemini (May 21-June 21)
Your ship has come in. Too bad you're not at the docks.

Cancer (June 22-July 22)
You are out of answers. Avoid questions.

Leo (July 23-August 22)
Fill up your gas tank before you go home. You will forget to leave early and be short on time later.

Virgo (August 23-September 22)
Bad television tempts you. Fall into its trance without guilt. It is your destiny.

Libra (September 23-October 23)
Do some online or television shopping and have it sent with the slowest shipping and handling. You need SOMETHING to look forward to.

Scorpio (October 24-November 21)
Oh the horror. Oh the horror.

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21)
Your mountain of old mail is reaching dangerous heights. Pets and small children could be in danger.

Capricorn (December 22-January 19)
Congratulate a friend who reached their goals. Success is contagious, and you just may need to catch it.

Aquarius (January 20-February 19)
Your luck has run dry. I’d try the wishing wells next.

Pisces (February 20-March 20)
Things like not being able to unbold the stupid heading or eliminate the space after some kind of line of text on your blog will be maddening today. My deepest condolences.


Usually, I never make new year’s resolutions. Mostly because I’m really terrible at keeping them. I’m only bad at keeping them because you are always on the spot when someone asks for yours, and I can never think of anything good. Being on the spot also means I probably won’t remember anything I said. 2012 is a special year for me, however, as it marks the last year I will be in my 20s (yes, I know… I’m old… shut up, besides, acceptance is the first step ). I can’t really wrap my mind around this because I still feel 19. Plus, people still think I am 19 when they meet me. Which I love. Anywho, looking back over the past year has made me realize that I really need to kick things up a notch, so I decided to make myself some promises this time; things to make sure I accomplish before I turn 30 (ugh). Here goes:

- I will not be living in this town by the end of the year
- I will figure out what I want to be when I grow up
- I will figure out a way to make that happen
- I will be braver when it comes to love
- I will figure out what the heck tattoo I want, and actually get it
- I will get rid of all the useless clutter that I possess
- And most importantly, I will no longer let fear get in the way of life

I hope you enjoyed our Christmas/New Year’s edition, and that 2012 is awesome for everyone!

“We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year’s Day.” Edith Lovejoy Pierce

It looks fabulous everyone! Thank you so much to all those who contributed for all your hard work!

And don't forget to send in your activites and the Christmas Tree Coloring Contest to me for house points!

Great job everyone!!! I can't wait to do the activities!!

First... I need to say this... THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS HAVING TOO MUCH LUCKY CHARMS! THERE'S ALWAYS NEED FOR MORE!

This is so good guys! I still love the graphics for the ads, it's such a perfect touch!

Thanks for the article on what the cast will be doing next year Sam, I wanna see Dan's The Woman in Black and the poem was funny xD

As for fans bickering... well I was never in the middle of fandom or cannon discussions, much less debates between different series, but my opinion is people are... wait PG-12!