presents

If Headmistress Hawthorne thought the threats facing Hogwarts had diminished with the summer holidays, she was sadly wrong. During a bustling Halloween weekend of trick or treating in Hogsmeade, four separate red hawks appeared on shop frontages. This would be exactly the same imagery as we first reported happening this time last year. It seems whoever is behind the graffiti was happy to bide their time until they could have the biggest impact, with Honeydukes, Dervish and Bangs, The Stylish Salon and Madam Puddifoots all targeted in the campaign.

At the latter, Sapphira Puddifoot told me she plans on pressing charges for the actions. “The Hawk painted out front is nearly impossible to remove, did you know?” She called the action “outrageous”, and with no known enemies of the shop, suspects that “the mysteries occurring at that school have undoubtedly reached Hogsmeade village.” Meanwhile, Monte Bossa, owner of The Stylish Salon, was more concerned with the aesthetics. “It’s horrific,” he told me, visibly distraught. “That shade of red completely clashes with my decor!”

As previously, Hogwarts students were used as the culprits. At Honeydukes, a Ravenclaw student was caught in the act red-handed by Prefects. The Professors in town were swift to react, with new Potions Professor, Ignatius Noble, first to the popular sweet shop. Swiftly gaining a reputation for grumpiness in class since the start of term, he quickly told me to “shove off and take my nosy business elsewhere.” However, Gaston Marchand, the Charms Professor and Gryffindor Head of House, later confirmed that the mode of attack was a repeat of those last year, telling me that one of the students involved “seemed out of it, almost in a trance-like state.” The two students known to have been possessed last year have since moved on from the castle, which makes this latest appearance of the hawk all the more worrying.

The mood in Hogsmeade was certainly left more somber than the start of the day. Whilst Gladrags Wizardwear was left unscathed, Summer Longshadow was clearly shaken by the happenings, admitting to now fearing for her, and her customers’, safety. “My heart goes out to my fellow shopkeepers and the students affected,” she said. Marchand was left wishing he “could've done more to stop this from happening”, having been present in the cursed play rehearsal last year too.

Meanwhile, Hawthorne has been worryingly silent, declining all our requests for comment. Rumour has it she ignored all students requests for help and stayed firmly put in her office at school. It’s unusual behavior indeed for the Headmistress, who is usually quick to quell gossip and confirm things are under control. Have the hawks got under Hawthorne’s skin?