HOL

The area where the houses have set up their stalls is a riot of colour and activity. Green, yellow, red and blue banners flutter over your head and people on all sides invite you to come and here what they have planned for the year.

Before you go and listen to what they have to say, remember that you’re welcome on all of the common room forums regardless of what house you’re in. While there are some areas of each that guests can’t see, there is plenty that is open to everyone on each one. You will need to make a separate account for each forum, using your HOL name as your username and the email you used to sign up for the main HOL Website.

This term, come and make mischief with the lions! Don’t let the talk of steadfast bravery fool you: We’re a laid back, joyful and supportive house who would rather wrestle the giant squid than take ourselves at all seriously.

The Den
Make sure you stop by our cosy common room on the 7th floor (also known as The Den)! While we throw ourselves into planning elaborate events, we have plenty of stuff going on year round. The Fat Lady is quite a talker and oversees our discussions area where we chat about pretty much everything: films, music, food, drinks, philosophy, food (did I mention food?). We also play host to Peeves’ Place which is chock full of Games, positively encourages spam and is all around just as chaotic as its namesake poltergeist. By visiting us, you also gain the chance to earn sparkling rubies and (should you manage to earn the most) to scoop our prestigious awards for hording the most at the end of term.



Gone Questing
Okay, so we haven’t entirely lost touch with our daring roots. Most months, we invite you to set forth and explore a rich and ever changing landscape on the hunt for valuable treasure. By solving devious clues and puzzles, reasoning your way past deadly dangers and telling tales of your exploits, you’ll earn plenty of rubies (and glory) for yourself. From the ocean floor to a dystopian tower-block, there’s no knowing where you might find yourself. Click to find out where you'll be swept off to this time.



Gryfftoberfest
Ah, the autumn. The leaves will soon be turning scarlet and gold, people will be trying to add pumpkin spice to literally everything and the joyous sounds of Gryfftoberfest will ring through the halls. This October, we’re taking our celebration of everything Gryffindor to the Magical Renaissance Fair. Expect games to play, coins to earn, items to collect, delicious food to eat and plenty of ye old zaniness. Everyone in HOL will be more than welcome!



Paw Print
The mane news tonight… Is that The Paw Print, Gryffindor’s newspaper, will soon be accepting submissions for our first issue of the school year! We accept articles on literally anything and there’s also the chance to get poetic and witty with Prose and Cons (our short story, poetry and humorous caption section). There are house points to be earned so sharpen those quills and keep an eye out for an announcement.

We’ll be hosting a few icebreakers this month to kick off the school year so make sure you get yourself signed up on the den without delay!

Welcome to HOL and especially to Hufflepuff House! My name is Professor Felicia Hartwick and along with Professor Rorey Padfoot, we are the Heads of Hufflepuff.

Come join us at The Sett to see what we’ll have to offer during the school terms.

Besides taking classes, which we all look forward to, we have many activities to take part in each month and to help you relax from your studies.

In September we usually have a Huffle Orientation that lets you wander around the tunnels and see what Hufflepuff is all about.

In October, we have my personal favorite activity… Huffleween! Each year it’s something different and I’m excited to see what our Badgers have in store for us.

December, we celebrate with Huffle HOLidays for which we like to invite all of HOL to participate in.

In addition to the above, we also have monthly activities in many of our Departments. Such as, the Kitchens, the Library, the Dorms and The Department of Huffle Games and Sports. Activities range from jigsaw puzzles, word searches, Fallen Letters, mazes, Logic Puzzles and much more.

So I hope I'll be seeing you soon!

Come and join the fun!

Hooray for September! Welcome (back), everyone!

If you're looking for things to do in the Ravenclaw Common Room (affectionately known as the Roost), you're in luck, because there's always something going on!

For our eagle pop culture fanatics, we have E=MC Hammer, where you're invited to talk about anything entertainment related. One thing you'll find updated there each month is the 'monthly' theme song, where you can share your favorite song related to a theme that one of our staff members poses every month. August's theme centered on wind...stay tuned for September's theme!

For those of you who love a good, heated discussion, we invite everyone to participate in Debate Club! Do you think Hogwarts students should use pen or pencil instead of quill and ink? Do you think online education is better than traditional education? Let's have some fun disagreements!

Ravenclaw also hosts a monthly activity. Some months' activities are open to all HOL members, while other months' activities are held for Ravenclaw members only. The month of September will be for eagles only and involves some fun and clever guesswork as you try to predict the answers given by a hundred other people. but for everyone else, keep an eye out in the announcements throughout the year and we'll have some really fun activities that everyone can join us in!

Stay tuned for information about the Alte Sententiam so that you can learn more about how to contribute to our amazing house newspaper. You don't have to be a writer - we need puzzle creators and artists too!To tell you more, I'll hand you over to our editorial team...

Welcome to Alte Sententiam!
We are Ravenclaw's Newspaper. Let me present the staff: Gail Allen, the editor in Chief, and the editors Vanessa Tilley, Polaris Black and Ryan Granger. Together we put together Alte for publishing every other month. Most importantly of course are the submissions we get from the members of HOL. Members from all houses are more than welcome to submit and we hope you'll all consider doing so!

Each issue has a specific theme: The first one this term will be a Spooky issue and will be published in October, so all things ghostly and spooky are more than welcome. Of course you aren't limited to write only about things that fit the theme.

The only things that do have to fit the theme are Submissions to Drabble Babble. For each Alte Issue we offer the chance to submit two drabbles (that's a mini story of exactly 100 words) and two photos which must adhere to the theme. If you like to do creative writing we have a Bingo Challenge with a board of 25 prompts that might inspire you.

If you'd like, you can bring the latest issue with you to read later. Just grab it here!

Have a wonderful year, HOLers!

The most illustrious House of Slytherin would like to welcome ALL to our humble dungeons! We are an ambitious group who love to have fun!

We have several big activities that are open to all including Slyth-o-ween, Silver Snake, and the Emerald Cup! There are also several clubs and activities that run throughout the year such as an arcade club, a puzzle exchange, and our Read-A-Long with fun trivia and tasks (we're reading through Half-Blood Prince this year!)

Speaking of The Half-Blood Prince... As a special welcome to draw you into our Dungeons, we have a little scavenger hunt for you!

"Down where the ambitious dwell,
we like to have fun!
We love doing puzzles,
so why not start the year with one?

Solve the clues to get the word,
and into the forum you'll get!
Glorious prizes await,
with which the seekers will be set!

Brewing a potion is the task at hand,
five components have been misplaced!
You don't have much time,
so make haste!

One item you'll find in the welcoming place of Lounging Snakes!
Some roots were spotted where we submit to the presses!
A beaker of liquid is hidden in the scales where Book 6 will be discussed!
Grab your quarters to play here and you just might find something there!
The last shall be found where logic is tested!

Once you've found the ingredients, unscramble the letters in the brackets to get the password for a special forum! where you can get a special prize!"


Image shows "Serpen" and "Times" over scraps of newspaper articles

SerpenTimes is the Slytherin house newspaper. We publish four times a year, twice a term. HOL members of all houses are allowed to contribute to SerpenTimes. We take articles, reviews, advertisements, recipes, puzzles, and anything else you can think up! You can earn up to 50 points by submitting to SerpenTimes each issue.

There are also 40 additional points up for grabs for those who complete the SerpenTimes Exclusives each issue. We have three different ones:

• Magic Moments - Share your pictures and graphics!
• Grab Bag Writing Challenge - Write a short story using the words provided!
• SerpenTimes Superlatives - Pick out the HOL'ers that fit the descriptions!

The theme for our upcoming October issue is Discovery. Submissions are not required to fit the theme.


Image shows a pair of binoculars on top of an old map for the Discovery edition of SerpenTimes

Check the post in the Great Hall or the SerpenTimes area in the Dungeons for more information!

Before you head off to another booth, here is an announcement from a new columnist this year:


Image shows cursive "Dear Dumbledore" over a phoenix feather on a white background

Hello people of HOL! There is a new column for SerpenTimes coming about, called "Dear Dumbledore." This column will be an advice column. If you have any silly questions or issues please send them in! All issues will be used! Please note that any serious matters shouldn't be sent in, and if they are sent in they won't be featured in the column. See answers to problems you sent in! Expect silly answers! Please send all issues and questions to [email protected] by 11:59 pm HOL time on October 5, 2019. Thank you!

Thank you for stopping by! We look forward to receiving your SerpenTimes submissions this year!