SNITCHSEEKER, A HISTORY

This term started out normally with the Hogwarts Express taking the students to school. However, a rather clumsy Lainey spilled her glass of wine at the Start of Term Ball. There was a bit of a mixup of goblets but, things finally settled down. Or, so it seemed...

Over the course of the term Professor Lainey seemed to develop a crush on Professor Branxton. This seeming crush soon grew to something more like obsession. In addition to Professor Lainey's odd behavior, several other professors and students became enamored with various others. A search was started for the cause of this strange behavior and those affected were restricted to a special ward of the Hospital Wing. Professor Lainey was also included in this quarantine after attacking Rae in a fit of jealous rage.

The staff decided to brew a potion to counteract that which Professor Branxton identified as a love potion. Finally, one of the house elves (Schoop) admits to Professor Rae that he was the one to put the potion into the wine at the Start of Term feast and the cookies which Rae had served students. He had overheard Rae saying that she wanted a happier school with more love and decided to help in that endevour. He was truly sorry for what he did and promised not to do it again.

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry certainly did play the role of Cupid s habitat this past term. Love was certainly in the air fluttering its big magnificent pink wings and the Headmistress certainly got herself in the middle of it all.

Cassandra Rae, who has been Headmistress for three terms now, has showed her very romantic side quite a bit throughout her life. First of all she had to go through the tragic tragedy of her beloved Alexander, it certainly distraught her as she so kindly likes to remind us all. Next was her Giddy who had to leave the school for some unknown reason. Next up on Miss Rae s three course meal is Doyle Branxton, this grey haired hunk is being served as Headmistress Rae s dessert.

However, Rae did not take too kindly to the fact that her so called best friend, Anjelica Lainey, tried to swipe Mr Branxton from her beloved arms. The love these two women shared for the man in question lead to some red faces and a Headmistress down the stairs to later be turned bald!

Detective Rae knew something had to be up since her friend never acted in this peculiar manner before. This she had already discovered before her one on one boxing match with Lainey. In fact she had just been discussing such issues with her soon-to-be-husband before it all happened. It was a mission that Branxton and Rae tried to solve hand in hand (literally).

They started to notice more peculiar behaviour from their students and other colleagues. Oh, the horror! This would not go down well for Miss Rae if the Ministry were to find out, especially after only just recovering from the, obviously much needed, Ministry inspections.

Super Branxton came to the rescue with his underwear on the outside with the answer. He discovered the specific love potion that had been brewed and was currently infecting the entire school. After some questioning he even managed to track down where the source of this ironic love-wrecking solution was being consumed. So Doyle Branxton, in all his brains and wisdom, produced the antidote to return the infected to their original states, slightly embarrassed if I may add.

Sherlock Rae and Branxton continued their investigation to find out who had created this ghastly potion. Eventually their magnified clues brought them to the small creatures which produced the food and drink that the potion was found in. They suspected House Elves. Some may say they were just picking on the House Elves because they are misunderstood, but when the House Elf (Schmoop) admitted to his rebel antics all doubts on Rae and Branxton s suspect were quickly demolished.

Schmoop claims he did what he did since the Headmistress asked for more love in the school. However any idiot would be able to see that the potion was turning Hogwarts into more of a psych ward than a loveable palace. Rae made sure that the House Elf was not to repeat anymore foolish behaviour like he had shown this term and let him be.

So what is to come of Hogwarts this upcoming term? More loving? More danger? More strange and mandatory detective work? Are House Elves finding ways to get back at us Wizards once and for all? Only time will tell, until then I suggest you read some of the other articles we have to offer throughout this paper.

"It appears that someone, and I dare hazard it was the last Headmaster, Kobus Hendrik... planted clues in each common room. These clues led to a second location, which gave the whereabouts of the fabled Book of Mysteria. You all are aware by now that the book was hidden on the grounds, and no work of myself or any other professor led us to its whereabouts. Hendrik knew this, and he had Samea lead us on our way to finding the clues in order to find the book. His wisdom granted us that only those willing to work together would find the book, theorizing that if each house was involved, those students would be generous and pure of heart. He was almost totally correct."

"What Hendrik did not suspect was that Voldemortist himself would sneak into the school and pose as a student. One of your number was actually Voldemortist, and only through luck and the quick thinking of several students were we able to stop him from escaping with the Book. I am happy to report that Voldemortist has been stopped and handed over to the Ministry, and I have the Book in my possession. It has been hidden until the staff decides what to do with it."

To start things off a wedding reception for Professor Branxton and Headmistress Rae was held in the Leaky Cauldron. However, to put a downer on the event, papers are found lying about which read that Voldemortist escaped on his way to Azkaban. The previous term had shahen up a lot of people after Lord Voldemortist was easily able to get into Hogwarts and now he had escaped.

Headmistress Rae and many other staff and students, knew that the Book of Mysteria could no longer be held at Hogwarts. A series of staff meetings were held in which the Professors discuss what should be done with the book: kept or destroyed? The majority were for it being destroyed but some were particularly adamant that the book should be kept safe. Professor Lainey had concerns that she might die once the book which had revived her was destroyed.

A suspicious figure is seen down in Hogsmeade and soon after a lot of mysterious things begin to happen. Classes being locked in, personal possessions being stolen, classrooms and common rooms trashed! Everyone suspects Voldemortists and tension brews up in the school.

Toward the end of term Samea makes everyone aware that the mysterious happenings in Hogwarts were caused by another poltergeist, Locus. He was a previous Hogwarts poltergeist who was trying to return and replace Samea. Rae settles this by banishing Locus from the school and everyone is relaxed and settled once more. What happened to the Book of Mysteria though? Well it learned that the school wanted to destroy it, so it hid itself so no one knew its whereabouts. The term ends on a happy note and summer begins.

At the beginning of term, Headmistress Cassandra Rae announced that Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry would be participating in a competition between other wizardring schools and they would be visiting to assess the school before making final decisions. Representatives for Salem Institue arrived at the school weeks later to ensure the school was in good order and that a tournament could be safely held at the school.

Everything started out normal but after a while the Hart sisters of Salem Institute began to act odd; searching Professor's offices, observing bookcases, attending classes, and sniffing around (particularly Professor Lainey). When students began to notice they automatically reported to Professors who thought nothing of it as they were supposed to be assessing the school afterall.

Later on in the term word got out that the sisters had come to Hogwarts to claim what was theirs: "The Book". After their many failed attempts of manually trying to find the book, they decided that they would summon the book with the power of all the Hogwarts students and staff and host a book party. Hepzibah Hart teaches a Potion lesson, since Professor Branxton had to leave on Ministry business, to brew a summoning solution to assist the sisters in gaining the Book of Mysteria.

The party is held out on the grounds and students were asked to bring a favoured possession of theirs to place in the potion as a sign of trust. Hester, Hepzibah and Hazel amuse the students and the Professors, who attended, with dancing and singing before the summoning began. Once the sisters started to chant, and the crowd with them, the book made its appearance. It flew out of a tower window and down to Hester Hart who grasped it in her arms, the cauldron exploded and all possessions were returned to their rightful owners. However, this was not the only surprise this night. Headmistress Rae went into labour and gave birth to two baby girls, Sophia and Genevieve.

The end of term finished in the usual traditional way with a marvellous feast.

At the start of term feast, Headmistress Rae announced that this term Hogwarts would be holding an Inter-House Tournament in which students could submit their names into the Goblet of Fire if they wished to have an opportunity to compete. Each Head of House selected a group of students from these submissions to be voted upon and ultimately, narrowed down to four students (three champions and one alternate for each house) elected by their peers to represent their house in a tournament of skill, knowledge, practicality, and bravery.

Champions began this task in the Fruit Grove, where they were given instructions to locate a tree marked by four feeding buckets and there encountered a bowtruckle. The champions had to quickly think and retrieve the appropriate food to appease the bowtruckle in order to retrieve a key and a map from the tree. The key and the map led to the Fourth Floor, seventh room on the left. In this room, the champions were forced to battle a boggart inhabiting a closet in order to obtain a bag of runes and instructions to head to the dungeons.

Students began the second stage of this task in a chamber of the dungeons with a clinking bag of eight different runes, each with its own color, and a ring of keys, each with its own color and a different number etched into it. Within the chamber is a door with a string of numbers etched into its stone face and a round, hollow opening beside a keyhole. The champions were required to decipher how the string of numbers etched into the door was related to the various keys and runes. The clever champions realized that in order to unlock the door, they must use their knowledge of Arithmancy to find the reduced sum of the string of numbers and then find the key with the same number etched into it. After inserting the key, the champions soon realized that the door did not yet unlock and that there must be another component to the puzzle. Those adept in Ancient Runes would have recognized that a number of keys colors matched a color of one of the eight runes in their bag. After finding the appropriate rune and inserting it into the hollow opening beside the keyhole, the door unlocked and allowed the champion into the next chamber.

In the second chamber, the champions were forced to deal with pesky pixies before attempting to find a way to unlock the next door. Once the pixies were dealt with (by locking them in a lovely steel cage), the champions used the same method as before to progress into the next chamber, but with a different string of numbers, a different key and a different rune. The students continued on in this fashion through three more chambers, with one chamber containing a vial of unknown potion, another containing annoying fire crabs, and another with nothing out of the ordinary at all.

Finally the champions reached the sixth and final chamber where they encountered a door with double the amount of numbers, keyholes, and hollow placings. Using the same methods, the champions unlocked the door and found the next chamber, which contained no further doors, just a strange box atop a pedestal in the center of the chamber. This box contained a round hollow space and on the front face were three keyholes, each with a single digit above it. Those champions who were determined enough would have realized that three of their remaining keys and one remaining rune needed to be inserted into the box in the correct configuration. If they did so successfully, the box opened to display a piece of parchment and a silver ring to be used in the Third Task.

Champions completed this task as a team, solving word puzzles/riddles that serve as clues about where to seek the next clue. Professor Vindictus announced the first clue, "Winged words come from afar. Bring you home where e'er you are." This clue led the champions to the owlery, where they searched high and low to find a tiny fragment of parchment protruding from a pile of feathers and owl pellets. The parchment contained the second clue, which read, "Come up and up in darkest night. Find here glass eyes with distant sight." The second clue lead the champions to the dark and deserted Astronomy tower, where they discovered a few telescopes, one of which contained the next clue taped inside its lens, which read: "Dank or dark, I cannot say, but troublemakers come here to stay." The third clue pointed to the dungeons, where the champions found their fourth clue written in lines 100 times on the blackboard: Here the Keeper's keys do keep. And also Keeper kept for sleep. When the champions arrived at the Gamekeeper s Hut, they searched high and low to find the next clue resting beneath the Gamekeeper s pillow. It read: Ugly guard of entrance stone, Between his lips, the way is shown. Dashing off, the champions hurried to the Gargoyle where they discovered their next clue stashed between the gargoyle s teeth. Unrolling the parchment, they saw You're empty when you enter, fuller when you go. And 'neath the eagle's plenty, the final answer's stowed. It's just a little trinket, treasure for the feat, But bring it to the broomsmith, and find the task complete." Challenging though the clue was, once unmasked it lead to the Flying Instructor, Professor Vindictus. Ravenclaw champions were the only team to complete the entire task, thus earning themselves an interesting trinket a small flask containing sneezing powder, suspended by a thick golden chain, to be used in the Third Task.

The Champions were given the duty to find the Triwizard Cup, hidden somewhere within the maze earlier that day. Champions were given two options if in need of assistance: Sending up teal sparks if requesting the help of a flying horse (only to be used once and for any but one particular obstacle) or red sparks if needing to get out of the maze for any reason at all. Within the maze, the champions faced a confusing, direction-giving suit of armor, Cornish pixies, a wolf, a sphinx, a sleeping baby dragon, and blast-ended skrewts. Also, champions had to deal with immense darkness and fog, which could only be completely diffused by the light from the ring earned in the first task and those champions from Ravenclaw in possession of sneezing powder from the second task also had at their disposal a means to deal with one creature within the maze. Despite Ravenclaw s potential advantage with the sneezing powder, it was Slytherin who reached the cup first, relatively unharmed, and was awarded top points!

A strange man sat alone in a compartment on the Hogwarts express. Many didnt find this strange, occasionally a new Professor would ride to the school along with the student to keep an eye on things and to get a feel for what the students were like. So our mysterious stanger went unoticed...

The Opening Feast went along as normal, though Professor Natasha Blaylock of Divination did call a staff tarot reading party in her classroom for later that night. During said tarot reading, Professor Blaylock made a disturbing prediction that this term would not be a 'quiet' one for the staff or students, we were soon to find out exactly what that meant. By the next day, Headmistress' Rae's daughters, Sophia and Genevieve were both missing.

Our friend from the train, who we learned was called Pierre Montague, popped up from time to time, sometimes in Hogsmeade and a few times in a classroom! All the while, baby cries were heard around the castle, though no one could find the source or the crying. Anti-wizarding poster were popping up all over Hogsmeade with no one knowing where they had come from or why they were there. Headmistress Rae eventually comes to the conclusion that Mr Montague is responsible for all the posters, as well as the kidnapping of her children. She extends an invitation to Montague, and the mob of Muggles he has gotten to fight with him, to come discuss the situation in the Great Hall. During this discussion it comes out that Montague does not have that Rae-Branxton twins and he was under the impression that he was there to discuss Hogwarts surrenduring to his mob! Minutes after, a fight broke out between the Muggle mob and the students and faculty of Hogwarts. With the Muggle swinging torches and pitchforks and students and staff hexing the Muggles, it was all out chaos. Eventually the Muggle mob was beaten, their memories modified and they were returned to their homes.

Through all this, no one knew what had happened to the Headmistress' girls. The End-of-Term feast was a very solem occasion, until baby cries were heard. Seconds later, Sophia and Genevieve (walking by now) wandered into the Great Hall followed by... Nora Leiden? Miss Leiden had taken over Hogwarts on behalf of the Ministry nine years ago and caused alot of destruction to the moral of the students that term. She was thought to reside in St Mungo's in the Permanently Spell Damaged wing, but had escaped and kidnapped Rae's children.She believed Rae, who took over the Headmistress position after Leiden was kicked out, was the reason she lost her job.

After Leiden was returned to St Mungo's the students left Hogwarts, waiting for the next term to begin.

The term was begun with an announcement by Headmistress Cassandra Rae that a Ministry Official, Agatha Swensa, would temporarily take the position of Hufflepuff Head of House. Following this announcement, Ms. Swensa herself gave a speech, claiming that she was simply there to observe and suggest, and of course, ensure that Hogwarts still upheld the standards that make it such an amazing institution.

Soon into the term, upon talking to a student, the Headmistress let it slip that someone may be fired. Not long after, the Headmistress, who was very suspicious of Miss Swensa, mentioned the firing of a professor in a meeting with the Ministry Official. To the horror of the Headmistress, Miss Swensa immediately agreed, believing that the Headmistress had encouraged her to fire a member of staff. At once, she began to concoct ways to allow for the students to select their favorite professors.

At the same time, Professor Danni Pride entered the office, and from the conversation, deduced that a staff member was to be terminated. Before things could be made right, both Miss Swensa and Professor Pride exited the office. Professor Pride went on to alert Professors Erikson and Blaylock.

On top of all this, Professor Angelica Lainey returned to Hogwarts! She and the Headmistress held a small reunion between themselves before Lainey informed Rae that she would be returning.

Towards the end of the term, a meeting was held in Professor Lainey s office, the purpose of which was to discover the identity of the person being terminated. The Headmistress eventually intervened and at first decided to resign, but thanks to an overwhelming show of support by staff and students, she made the final decision to simply speak with Miss Swensa about the situation.

Upon arriving at Agatha s office, the Headmistress, with Professor Pride and Madame Kohan present, discussed the situation with the Ministry Official. It was quickly discovered that it was all a big misunderstanding. No one would be fired!

In conclusion of the term, a Sock Hop was held, the Headmistress put an end to the rumor that a professor would be let go, and a good time was had by all.

A new term at Hogwarts, as always excitement is in the air as the Opening Feast begins.

The term had just barely gotten started when strange things began to happen. The students were going to the village of Hogsmeade as they always did, but there was something very wrong at Honeydukes.

Twelve of the students who had eaten chocolate frogs from Honeydukes began to undergo slow, strange transformations and eventually became animals. All four houses had infected students. Potions Professor Adam Dresden also began to change into a tiger, though his transformation was never fully completed. Professor Dresden was forced to conduct his classes via a holographic image of himself.

Once fully transformed, the animal students all ran off from Hogwarts, somehow not one of them was detected even though many of them had turned into some pretty unusual creatures (the students were now a black panther, a cheetah, a bald eagle, a panda, a penguin, a silver wolf, a red fox, a squirrel monkey, a weasel, a red squirrel, a tabby cat and a black cat). The animals were all captured by a very unusual man, Flavio Giovanni, who appeared to be a circus performer and his lovely assistant, Ambrosia. The animals were all kept in cages and made to perform in a ring as if this were a circus.

We never knew what Flavio's true intentions were because there finally came a day when he accidentally left the cage door open and all of the animals escaped, somehow miraculously finding their way back to Hogwarts.

In the meantime, Professor Lainey conducted one of her most unusual HOM classes ever, taking the students to the lake to visit the giant squid! Professor Lainey explained to the giant squid the plight of the animal students and asked him for help. This proved to be a stroke of genius, as the giant squid was able to talk. He then gave some of the students who were kind to him clam shells, telling them that the answer laid in the clam shells.

Professor Lainey and the students came back to Hogwarts and began working on the cure, eventually ending up in the fifth floor broom cupboard. Professor Branxton took over the potion making with Professor Erikson assisting and it was a very slow, laborious process. No one could be sure when the potion would be finished or if it would work or if it did work, what the side effects of the potion might be.

By this time, the animals were all back at Hogwarts. Many students were aware of their situation and were trying to help them in the meantime. Some of the more docile animals actually stayed with some of the students who were caring for them.

Finally, after some more time had passed, Professor Branxton announced that the potion was ready. It was decided that the potion would be administered by spray bottle to the three animals who had been rounded up and were inside the broom cupboard - the red fox, the bald eagle and the black panther.

At this point the broom cupboard had become far too crowded and everyone was ordered out. Headmistress Rae made an announcement from the front of the castle that all the animals were to be brought there as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, Professor Vindictus devised an ingenious plan of having balloons filled with the potion to be flown over by some of the students on brooms and dropped onto the animals from above. Three hits would be enough to return the animal to human form. This plan would go into action after the quidditch consolation game.

Miraculously, the mission was a success, with all twelve animals returning back to their human form immediately after their third hit! There was a special ward set up in the hospital wing where the former animals could recover and receive visits from their friends.

Slytherin had amassed a huge amount of house points and also won the quidditch championship for the first time in eight terms, so there was much happiness and celebration in the air by this time.

The mood was light when tragedy struck. Divinations Professor Natasha Blaylock, a wonderful teacher who was loved by all, was found dead along with her young son just before the term ended, bringing tremendous grief to her husband Professor Erikson (who had the double heartache of finding her), and casting a dark and somber tone over the whole term. All the students left Hogwarts with a feeling not of joy, but of great sadness and mourning.

The marriage of Brennan Cooper, Minister of Magic to Clara Belle, editor of the Daily Prophet, was definitely the talk of the wizarding world. Soon after the marriage, though, the Minister began to act rather strangely, declaring that Hogwarts was unsafe and would be closed. In turn, he opened two new schools near Hogsmeade Belle s School of Magic for Young Witches and Cooper s School of Magic for Young Wizards, with a boy and a girl prefect for each house.

Since a full curriculum of courses needed to be taught at both schools, new Ministry approved professors were brought in to ensure that each school had an adequate amount of staff. Cooper s School saw five new professors Chester Wesolowski to teach Arithmancy, Bob Thornton to teach Care of Magical Creatures, Darien Richardson to teach Transfiguration, Gavin Langston to teach Charms and last but certainly never least, Berty Borr to teach History of Magic. Belle s School gained seven new professors Brittany Breitbarth to teach Muggle Studies, Dr. Norma Shaw to teach Ancient Runes, Linnea West to teach Astronomy, Xylia Wystan to teach Flying, Sophie Melita to teach Potions, Terpsichore St. Touissant to teach Divination and Michelle Korvis to teach Herbology. In addition, Nurse Brekken Taylor and Librarian Mario Ingles were sent to Cooper s, and Adrienne Dion became the Groundskeeper at Belle s. Together with the regular Hogwarts staff, there were enough professors to staff both schools.

When the students first disembarked from the Hogwarts Express, they received the shock of their lives to find carriages waiting to carry them to their separate schools by gender. Protests and discord soon followed, a tone which carried over through much of the term. There were many rules, but the main rule was that boys and girls must not enter the other s school or have any contact together. No communication was allowed between the two schools, not even by owl, and boys and girls had no way of reaching each other. The only time when male and female students were allowed to be together was during Hogwarts weekends or while playing quidditch, but so strict were the rules that boys and girls were not even allowed to sit together in the stands while watching the game.

The professors were nearly all either Slytherin or Ravenclaw, and it seemed to many students that Hufflepuff and Gryffindor were not treated as well and were regarded as inferior houses, even though they were assured that this was not so. The new professors certainly had their own unique style of teaching, focusing more on etiquette than curriculum. Very little of substance was actually taught by any of them, and many students felt their time was being wasted and they weren t learning anything. There were even incidents of students being embarrassed in the classroom, one such notable lesson being one taught by Lord Barty Borr on the importance of washing one's hands. During that lesson, Lord Borr actually forced the boys to pretend they were babies and to sit in bowls of water.

The discord between the houses widened even more when a few Slytherin girls wrote to Minister Cooper asking for help in getting more points for their house and the Minister somewhat rashly deciding to award Slytherin a whopping 2,000 points, a huge lead which ultimately ended in Slytherin securing the house cup. At this point, house unity was almost completely destroyed.

The regular Hogwarts professors, of course, were very unhappy with the separation of the schools but were powerless to do anything about it at that point. Soon Headmistress Cassandra Rae at Belle s and Headmaster Doyle Branxton at Cooper s were forced to set an example by also teaching etiquette type courses such as those offered by the Ministry professors. Hogsmeade weekends grew less and less frequent. By this point many students were rebelling, and suspensions reigned supreme as students from both sides attempted to infiltrate the other school in order to visit their boyfriend or girlfriend on the other side. Many despaired that Hogwarts would never return and that things would always be this way.

Finally, just as all hope seemed lost, a mysterious owl appeared, delivering a cryptic message to one boy and one girl of each house. Each message was different, and contained a riddle which had to be solved in order to spell out a letter of the alphabet. All eight students had to work together in order to connect the eight letters and figure out what they spelled, which turned out to be H-O-G-W-A-R-T-S. With the aid of a helpful prefect, the eight students were able to meet in secrecy and discover that there once existed four secret orders which had disbanded to form one, the Order of the Seal. The students received these messages because the time had come for them to come together in unity, much as the Order of the Seal had done so long ago. There was also allusion to a treasure of some sort, but that part was very vague.

Together, the eight students drafted a letter to the Minister letting him know that there appeared to be some kind of treasure at Hogwarts, hoping to appeal to his baser instincts of greed. At last, the Minister responded that Hogwarts would return as normal next term, with the students being united again.

But what was the treasure? Was it material or simply the concept of unity? No one really knew.