A Letter
Author: Prof. Sorcha
Date: 01-28-03 00:03

Reclining in the chair behind the deck in her dark office, Sorcha's smug look is hidden by shadow. Her second letter of the day had just been sent, updating Voldemort on her latest mission. Soon, James Simpson would soon join the Dark Lord.

The first letter, sent earlier, notified James that she would be coming to Hogsemeade tomorrow to see him. Since she had Friday's off, in a matter of speaking, no one would really notice her missing from the school, not that anyone ever did.

After a few moments sitting in the dark, Sorcha got up, and turned in for the night.

---

James awoke with a start that morning, a little excited or nervous about getting to see Christina today. He downed his breakfast of eggs and Orange juice quickly and jumped into the shower. He combed his curly locks, attempting, though unsuccessful, to tame them in some way. Giving up, he sighed and went to his closet, debating on what to wear.

James decided on something casual but not too casual and headed down the stairs of the apartment house. Once outside he looked up at the sky, trying to guess the weather, "Probably sunny, cool temperatures but not too." He nods to himself and starts down the street to the train station to await Christina's train.

---

Generosity
Author: Hermione Granger
Date: 01-29-03 08:13

"Well, who's it from?" Ron asked, leaning over the table to get a good look at the music box.

Hermione flipped open the card and widened her eyes in surprise. "It's from Annie Paul."

"Who?" Harry and Ron asked simultaneously, exchanging blank looks with one another.

Hermione rolled her eyes and said, "Honestly, don't you two ever pay attention to things other than Quidditch and avoiding homework? She's a first year, Gryffindor. Now, I don't know her that well..."

"But your a prefect, so the chances of you knowing her name and being able to place it to a face is greater than it would be for us," pointed out Harry.

"Maybe, but I still think you both need to open your eyes more. It's not like there are hundreds of new Gryffindors running around. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go thank Annie for the beautiful gift."

Hermione rose from her seat at the table and ambled over to where Annie was sitting. The young Gryffindor had her nose buried in a book, but looked up when Hermione approached.

"Hi, Annie," Hermione said, smiling. "I want to thank you for the gift, but it really is too much...We don't really know each other..."

"You didn't like it?" Annie's face fell.

Hermione shook her head and exclaimed, "No, that's not it at all. I love it! It's very beautiful, but you really didn't have to do that." She smiled and encouraged Annie to cheer up a little.

"I really liked it, Annie. Thank you," repeated Hermione, and then she added, "I'll leave you with your book now."

She returned to where Harry and Ron were sitting and slid onto her seat, taking the music box from Ron's hands and tucking it back into the box it came in.

"Want to go to the library for a little bit before Potions class begins?"

Harry shrugged and Ron answered, "Not really..." Hermione rolled her eyes. "Why am I not surprised?"

---

Talking
Author: Remadi Ye
Date: 01-29-03 11:25

The week after the Quidditch trials went by quickly for Remadi. She was still happy about getting on the team, and that Rowena was going to be a chaser with her. On Thursday she celebrated Hermione's birthday with the rest of the Gryffindors. Remadi hadn't really talked to the 6th year, but she promised herself she would try to have a conversation with her.

Not on Thursday, because everyone wanted to talk to her. Maybe Friday or on the weekend, she told Neko as she had left the party for DADA class. Hermione could always be found with Harry and/or Ron.

Remadi wanted to talk to them, too, about Quidditch. With all of the new teammates, including herself, she knew that they were going to have to work hard if they were going to be the best, which they were. It was a good thing Remadi thrived on hard work and keeping busy.

Now it was Friday and Remadi was classfree. She had seen another Gryffindor name on the Wizards Chess Tournament sign-up sheet. She had decided to see if the other Gryffindor, an Annie Paul, wanted to practice with her. That was where she was heading now. She had found out the first year's schedule and was planning on talking to her after her History of Magic class. Remadi had seen Annie around and so knew what she looked like. Five minutes to three Remadi and Neko found themselves waiting outside of Professor Binns' classroom for Annie to come out.

---

At twelve forty-five Orei left the Gryffindor common room and headed towards History of Magic. She hadn't seen much of Brett Kingston lately, because they had both been busy with class, and Brett was getting ready to start practice for the Gryffindor quidditch team. She had been with him when he found out that he was going to be a beater for the team.

They had celebrated a bit together afterwards, before retreating into their homework. They spent some time together when they could and never passed up a spare moment. Brett even offered to help her when she was having trouble with some of her potions, charms or herbology homework. Everything else came pretty easy for Orei, she was good at history and the Defense Against the Dark Arts class truly enthralled the young Gryffindor (not that having a rather handsome professor didn't aid in her enjoyment of the class either). She was also doing rather well in her Transfiguration class.

Orei entered the class room and found her seat near Annie Paul. "Hey Annie. How are you? Ready for the Wizard's Chess tournament?" she asked as she pulled out some parchment and her quill, as well as the homework that was due today. This class was her longest class, it was two hours of listening to Professor Binns droan on and on about this battle or that, and constantly fighting the urge to fall asleep in the middle of class. Most of the time, Orei kept a spare piece of parchment out so she could write an owl to her mom to keep her awake during the never ending lectures.

Also Orei couldn't wait until after History of Magic was over because today would be the third flying lesson of the year. Orei had caught on fast with the flying lessons and was looking foward to the flying lesson. Though after this week, there would be only one more flying lesson since it is only a four week series of classes.

Orei also knew that the first Hogsmeade trip of the year, and she had heard stories from a few of the older students about all the wonderful things that could be done at Hogsmeade, from the butter beer, which she had gotten her first taste of at Hermione's party in the common room yesterday, to all the shops that are there. She wished she was already a third year so that she could go to Hogsmeade, but oh well, her time would come.

After History of Magic finished, Orei jetted from the class room. She only had a few sparse minutes to make it to the Quidditch pitch for her flying lesson. She left her bag to the side and moved to join the line of students who were already there. The flying lesson went quick enough and soon was over. Orei grabbed her bag and headed toward the Gryffindor common room. She pondered just sitting in her room and doing some homework, but it was a Friday afternoon and the weekend had just started for the young Gryffindor.

She dumped her belongings on her bed, and waved to her roommates. She then went down to the common room and caught one of the boys heading up to the boys dormatory. "Could you see if Brett Kingston is in his room? If he is tell him that Orei wanted to see him."

The boy nodded and Orei sat down in front of the fire and waited for Brett to come downstairs.

---

Taking down notes, he listened to Profesor Fairchild's lesson for the day. It was becoming a bit of a chore as this is his only class for the day. Yesterday was quite eventful. Not only because it was Hermione's birthday, but also because he saw how jealous Diether got when Mirai sat next to the Hufflepuff fifth year in their DADA class.

The two were talking quietly, occasionally taking down notes, then resumed their talking. As Mirai had explained after, they were catching up. And besides, she added, that guy, who she introduced to them later as Lawrence, already has a girlfriend.

Glancing up to his side, he thought how he would react if she would do something like that. Shaking his head and taking down some more notes, he scolded himself. You're not yet a couple, idiot! he told himself.

He sighed. He wished he could tell her soon. Looking back again at the corner of his eyes, he decided on when.

Later would be soon..., he thought to himself.

With that, he resumed listening to the good professor, but of course, more often than not, admiring the one beside him.

---

Location Unknown: Plans
Author: Voldemort
Date: 01-29-03 20:38

Three weeks have passed since I sent Severus back to the school to act as my eyes and ears around the school. Three weeks, and not a word from him. I suspect he tried to spy on me. But I saw through his plans, and didn't let any of my plans reach his prying ears. If he really is loyal, I will hear from him, if not then he'll need to be dealt with appropriately.

Meanwhile, my clever follow in Hogwarts is busy continuing to work for me. Her letters arrive regularly. Two of them today, promising success very soon in converting someone who sits on the fence too much.

And in Hogwarts, my secret weapon is being made aware of a latent truth. Soon he'll be ready, along with other just like himself.

---

Re: History of Magic and the Third Flying Lesson
Author: Annie Paul
Date: 01-30-03 05:57

Orei came in and sat next to me. "Hey Annie. How are you? Ready for the Wizards Chess Tournament?" I smiled and gave a laugh. "Hello Orei. Fine and I need some practice for the tournament. I found out another Gryffindor has signed up, a Remadi Ye. I don't know her but I heard about her. I hope we can get some practice time after flying lessons with Madam Hooch."

Professor Binns showed up in his usual manner, then all went down hill from there. Orei was writing a letter to be sent by an owl later and I was doing Tic-Tac-Toe on a scrap piece of parchment to kill the time and to keep from being bored to death.

The bell rang and I went out the door to see an older girl in Gryffindor robes standing there with a couple of others. "Annie Paul?" she asked and I stopped, then slowly nodded. "Yes, but I better hurry. Madam Hooch frowns upon tardiness."

The girl smiled. "I'm Remadi Ye. I see you entered the Wizards Chess Tournament?" I nodded again. "You too?" I asked and the girl's smile widened even more. "Yeah, I was wondering if you'd like to practice after your flying lesson." I gave a small laugh. "Sure, that'd be great. See ya in the common room after 3 then." Remadi agreed and I hurroed off to the Quidditch Pitch.

As I showed up, Madam Hooch gave me a slight frown as I barely made it and stood next to Orei. "Sorry, Madam Hooch. I was detained for a moment." She nodded and we began our next lesson. I took off and all of the sudden my broom began to buck like a wild horse. Holding on for dear life, I saw Orei try to fly next to me to get me off my broom.

I heard Madam Hooch yelling something and hold up her wand. "Miss Paul, get down here this instant!!" I looked down at the Professor and pointed my broomstick down as taught, but instead of going down I rose higher. "What the..." I wondered and looked around, I saw two Gryffindors sniggering.

The broom went really wild. Trying to think of a way to control the darn thing, I saw no other choice but to dive bomb the thing and take a chance of breaking my neck. I finally lowered the broom and ended up rolling on the lawn getting really dirty.

Madam Hooch and the others came forward. I still had a hold of the broom and I fought with the thing like it was a Bludger. I heard Madam Hooch cast a spell and the broom stopped.

---

Classes were in full swing now, and so was Veronica. Her fear of embarrassing herself in front of her students didn't really matter to her now since it had already become apparent to her class that she was a klutz and somehow manages to bumble everything.

"Alright, now pay close attention. Pop quizzes may just be on the schedule next week.. but you won't know, will you? That's why it's a pop quiz. Now listen closely, the first step in analyzing a name by arithmancy is to convert it to a set of numbers. Each letter of the alphabet is assigned a numerical value between one and nine. The letters A, J, and S have the value of one. B, K, and T have the value of two, and so forth."

Veronica began drawing up a chart of the letters and their values on the chalkboard. "For example," she said as she faced the students. She scanned their faces. Pansy Parkinson, who had been a rather quiet listener and had seemed enthralled by the class, was smiling brightly. "Miss Parkinson's name," Veronica said turning back to the board and writing Pansy Parkinson in big, bold capital letters, "Would be written out as follows." She quickly wrote down a number under each letter. "As you can see, every letter has been given a numeric value. Now on to the second step."

Veronica smiled, clasping her hands together. "The first number we will be discussing this year is the character number, which indicates the general personality type of the individual. You get this number by adding up the value of every letter in a persons name and reducing it until you have a single digit with a value in between one and nine." She began doing the math on the board as she continued. "If the total is more than nine, which it usually is, it must be reduced to a single digit by adding the component numbers together, more than once, if necessary. For example, Miss Parkinson's number, before reduction is sixty six, which obviously is not between the numbers of one and nine, therefore we reduce it."

She quickly scrawled small equations across the board as if it was the most natural thing to her. "Now, six plus six equals twelve and one plus two equals three, therefore Miss Parkinson's character number is three." Veronica put down the chalk and explained, "Three represents the idea of completeness or wholeness, as in the threesomes past-present-future and mind-body-spirit. Three indicates talent, energy, an artistic nature, humor, and social ease. Threes are often lucky, easygoing, and highly successful, but they can also be unfocused, easily offended, and superficial."

She was pleased to see that none of her students had fallen asleep or died of boredom yet; she must be doing something right. She smiled and continued with her lesson.

---

Honeydukes... What a wonderful establishment. Captain Electron put another Fizzing Whizzbee in his mouth and floated gently upwards, surveying the ceiling. Hmmm. It was a bit off colour. Better paint that this week, then.

The ground was littered with parchments. His newest quill was already spent. Hogsmeade was doing nothing for his inspiration! It was early days yet, though. Plenty of time... He kept reminding himself of that as he looked at the mess. The Whizzbee's effect wore off quickly, and Electron drifted back down to the floor.

He started cleaning up the parchment. Re-read some of them - well, not too bad, but it seemed to be turning into a diatribe against reporters, and that would never do. It would be fun, though. He grinned to himself, imagining some sour-faced reporter listening to the new song, expected to review it for the paper, and..... And having heard it, writing such a report about him that nobody would ever buy any more of his CDs! No good. He balled up the paper and threw it towards the bin.

---

I reached the Gryffindor Tower and entered. Dirty, stiff and in need of a quick clean up, I went to my dorm cleaned and changed my clothes. I remembered I promised Remadi I would practice with her for the Wizard's Chess Tournament.

I hoped she'd make it to the next round and give me some good pointers as we practice. I don't think it was vain to want to win but to beat Slytherin in something was going to be a great feeling.

I left the dorm and went back to the Common Room. Remadi had a Wizard's Chessboard set out on a table. I smiled and greeted her. "Hi Remadi, ready?" I asked and sat down. She returned the smile and we began. Since I was the younger player, I chose what piece I wanted. I drew black, which made Remadi play first since she had white.

I was caught off guard by the pieces talking and pointing to other pieces each time I moved, by then a small crowd began to form around us. I knew something like this may happen at the Tournament so I kept my eye on the game as Remadi made move after move. She was good and so was I; it was so evenly matched.

---

Wondering and Wandering
Author: Angelina
Date: 01-30-03 16:19

My classes done for the day, I sat in my office going over my lesson plan and what points I gave and took away for the week to be sent in to Professor Dumbledore. Sighing, I stood up and stretched my back, then walked around the room. My mind was on many things, from the trouble in the library to my starting a Wizards Chess Tournament and most of all my grandfather's death.

I looked at Loki as he preened himself, then gave a low hoot as he looked at me. "All right you mischef maker, out you go." I opened the window and he flew out, gave a circle in the air and took off to the owlery. I went back to my desk and looked at my watch. I still had 30 minutes to dinner and I had a few more things to cover. Summoning a folder from across the room, I opened it to look at my copy of the Wizard's Chess roster.

"Let's see," I began. "Miss Paul and Miss Ye from Gryffindor, Mr. Masterson and Miss Giacinta from Hufflepuff, Miss Chang and Miss Forest from Ravenclaw and a Miss Aisling from Slytherin." I closed the folder and put it on my desk. Taking out a chart, I put down the names and put the chart back. "Just one more Slytherin for a perfect match up," I mumbled, then I looked back at my watch. It was time for dinner, and I got up and left.

As I left my office, I walked the corridor and headed towards the Great Hall. I felt strange somehow and needed to sit. I sat on one of the small walls near the courtyard and rested a bit. I had felt weak once before but now it was as if someone had a hold on me taking away my strength. Shaking it off, I ruled it out to just being tired and hard work. Taking a deep breath and standing up, the cool air seemed to wake me up.

I got back up and continued my trek to the Great Hall.

---

Finally out of Class
Author: Cho Chang
Date: 01-30-03 18:29

For some reason, this Friday had been especially dreary for Cho. She barely made it through her classes that seemed to take 3 hours instead of a mere one. At this point she could be found mulling over the events of the past week or so in the prefect special rooms, she wasn't bathing, merely sitting on a stool in front of the mirror, warmed by the heat given off from the water. Her books were cast aside on the vanity counter, back relaxed against the wall, eyes closed.

---

Turin Estate: After Work Thoughts
Author: Michael Turin
Date: 01-30-03 21:47

For the tenth time since Michael found himself enlisted to spy at Durmstrang, Michael wondered how Dierna convinced people to go along with her plans. He had decided to spend the weekend at the Devonshire estate, hoping the clean country air would clear his mind. It hasn't.

The problem was that Michael despised the Eastern European school, and everything it stood for. He'd been there a year, a terrible long and lonely year and never wanted to see the place or its people again. And now he had to explain to Blinkey what he was going to do and why he wouldn't dream of taking her with him.

"Master not go back to Durmstrang!" she said, in a squeaky, horrified voice/

"I'm afraid so, Blinkey, but not soon. Probably not till winter. I'm still creating my "profile" and setting things up."

"Blineky come too!"

"No way! I wont have you mistreated by those people. Dierna has said you can stay with her. She'll take good care of you."

Blinkey looked crestfallen. "What if master caught?"

"That is a risk in anything I do. I'll be careful, Blinkey. I am not reckless, like the chief auror can be. Cheer up, that won't be until after Christmas."

Michael picked up the ersatz resume he had created for himself. Yes, it looked as good as it can get: not too perfect as to smell false, but good enough to attract attention in darker circles.

Michael walked over to the barn where his owls slept and selected a largish barn owl.

"Take this to . . . Durmstrang. But take a circular rout so it appears to come from someplace other than Britain. The more circular the rout, the bigger the treat when you return." The owl hooted in acknowledgement and flew off.