To the rest of you: Please consider submitting something for our March issue.
Submit your St Patrick’s day recipes. (Keep it appropriate, please.) Submit your spring-themed photos, perhaps. Crafts? Reviews?
I know Mass Effect 3 comes out in March and I won’t have the money to buy it. Review it, and convince me to purchase it!
Seen the new Studio Ghibli film? Tell us what you thought, and why we should go see it, too!

Anything!

…Please?

It’s a new year! A time for new beginnings! And that means you can look forward to a whole ‘nother year of articles, photographs, recipes, and crafts from us here at the Serpentimes. But we need your help! Get submitting! You want to earn points for your house, don’t you?

Tell us! What have you been up to so far this year? What are your plans? What HOL classes did you take last term that you’d recommend to our newest members?

We’ve got new students joining just in time for the new term, and they could use some help around! Send in your class reviews, newbie guides, and encouragement, and we’ll do our best to get them to read it. ;)

In the meantime, here’s what’s been sent in so far:

Art

Adventures in Hogsmeade - Kirra Rohan

Photography: Galapagos Islands - Lisette Westerveldt

New Year Rhymes – Sirius Fudge

Happy New Year! – Sirius Fudge

Articles

Newbie’s Guide to Picking Classes – Jenna Hathaway

Newbie Guide: The Art of Rating – Zoki Phantom

Twelve Tips to be Awesome this 2012 – Sirius Fudge

Second-year Student Contracts Potentially Deadly Disease – Cody Lewis

Serpentimes Searches - Sirithre Leylnn

Scribbler Drawing Contest Results - Sirithre Leylnn

Unicorns Exposed! – Zoki Phantom

February: Leap Year, Groundhog Day—Oh My! - Lisette Westerveldt

Puzzles

Bean Puzzles  - Rorey Padfoot
 

Recipes

Chocolate Mug of Happiness  - Kirra Rohan

Reviews

Review: Drop Dead Diva – Jenna Hathaway

Every beginning of term, you are faced with the impossible task of choosing just five classes from the long list of fascinating, intriguing, and very interesting names that is presented before you. If you’re a newbie, no doubt this is the most exciting part of starting your HOL experience, but even to me, a Seventh Year, this is still my favorite part of my HOL year. Which is why for me especially next term’s choices will be painstakingly made given that they will be the last five classes I will ever have and the last five slots I will get to use. (Okay, you can still take classes as a Professor indefinitely, but the points won’t count. And you won’t technically be a student.)

But for you, lucky bright-eyed newbies! You still have seven whole years before you, which totals to seventy slots of classes you can use throughout your stay at HOL. The possibilities are endless, but you will still need to choose only five classes per term and that choice will still be difficult because you can’t count on being able to take the other classes on your ‘want’ list next term or next year. We never know which ones of them will be there to stay and which won’t. (Sometimes you can know by asking the Professor, of course, but even then RL circumstances might make things change unexpectedly) Not to mention the fact that every term there will be brand new classes that no doubt will reduce your slots even more until eventually you simply find it impossible to take them all. So you need to be sure to always choose your priority classes.

So here’s a simple How-To Guide to picking your classes!

1. Pick the subjects that interest you
This is the most important thing. Most new students will want “canon” subjects such as Transfiguration, Potions, Charms, etc like the ones in the Harry Potter books. But not everyone will like those subjects. For example, I have never been interested in Potions or Herbology, so those classes never really appeal to me. So even though they’re “canon” classes, I don’t find the need to take them. Because you don’t need to. There aren’t mandatory subjects at HOL. Pick only classes you like because you’re here for fun! You already have to take classes you hate at school, so why do it here?

2. Check out the class website
You can usually tell what the class is about right off the bat, but sometimes the name can either be misleading or confusing. So make sure you check the website before clicking sign up! You don’t want to sign up for a Charms class you think is about spells when it’s actually about charming your fellow students, do you? (Okay, we don’t have that kind of class here. But you get what I mean). Even if you’re sure it’s the topic you had in mind, checking the syllabus to see which aspects of it will be covered will still be useful. There is a vast world surrounding Quidditch, for example, and you don’t want to find out the class you hope will teach you how to play it turns out to be covering its history instead.

3. Check out the lessons and assignments
The class will usually have one or two lessons and assignments up. Skim the lesson to make sure you will be interested in reading it. And check the type of assignment to see if it’s your type of assignment. If you don’t like writing essays and the class requires you to write one for every assignment, you might want to skip it. There are a wide variety of classes with a wide variety of assignment types at HOL. Some will let you choose among a few of them – these are always ideal – but some will not. So be very careful because you’ll have to do assignments every month and you don’t want to get stuck with the ones you hate.

4. Make note of the teacher
Class teachers disappear sometimes. By checking the teacher’s HOL history (such as checking their HOL file), you can see if they have a good record of being active or not. If they’ve been racking points consistently every term and all their classes never get canceled, then you can count on them being reliable. If it’s a first-time teacher I usually wait until the second term before taking the class just to see if the teacher will stick around. Of course, sometimes extreme circumstances can make even the most reliable teacher unable to finish their class for some reason or other, but by doing a little research you can make sure that you’re not stuck in a class that’s bound to be abandoned.

5. One term or full year?
Full year classes will take up more slots than one term classes because they last one year instead of one term, not allowing you to take up a different class on its place next term. For people who prefer variety, one term classes are more appealing. But some full year classes are just too good to pass up. I would suggest not taking five full year classes at once, though, because you might get bored of having only those five classes the entire year.

6. Deadlines
Most classes have one assignment every month, due at the end of that month. But others only have one deadline. If you’re the type of person who likes doing everything in one go, the latter type of class might be better for you. But if you like doing one each month, you can also still take the type of class with one deadline because the teacher will allow you to send assignments in whenever you like, including one each month.

These are the main pointers you might need to decide on your first five classes. I hope this will be useful both to newbies and oldbies. Happy class-picking!

See more articles by Jenna

The truth is, every newbie craves for more beans once they join HOL, and when you learn that leaving ratings and comments to the submissions for the Art and Library Departments gives you beans, you just run there and get to work, usually overlooking or ignoring the rules. You don’t have to deny the obvious, I was a newbie once upon a time as well and I pretty much did the same, unfortunately.

What you need to realize is that if your comments and ratings aren’t appropriate, you risk the rating being removed, which means you would lose the beans you earned there. If you get too carried away, you might even lose house points and with that, lose more beans. And the worst part is, by leaving pointless or silly comments, you won’t only have a hard time making friends, but you will also earn yourself a HOLer or two who will be angry for your doing.
As much as it seems unimportant, the ratings you give submissions and the comments you leave, are in fact of great importance both for yourself and for the author of the entry. Here are some easy and very helpful tips that should lead you to rating submissions properly.

1. Check the project info
You need to see what’s the topic of the project, what people are required to submit so that you know you’re not rating high an off-topic entry. Check how many points a submission gets – the effort that people need to put for a project of 10 house points and for a project of 30 house points is obviously not the same.
Basically, you need to know what you’re rating on in order to give rightful ratings, as well as knowing the rules on comments – you need at least 8 words for it to be valid!

2. Go to through the submission (or skim it, at least!)
If you’re at the Art Department, this should be very easy – it only takes a minute or two to get a decent look at the entry. If you’re at the Library Department, it might take longer (depending on the length), but you could always just skim through it or maybe just go through half of the submission. Giving proper feedback on half the entry is way better than bad feedback on all of it!

3. Is the submission on topic?
It should be very easy to notice this, even at first glance. Differentiating between a valid and an invalid submission is crucial because if the entry is off-topic and it surely needs to be rated as one. If it doesn’t stray away from the topic, then you’re good to start judging it.

4. Make note of the effort the author put into the submission
When you look at ratings and comments, you will notice how the majority of the students rate the submissions based on how good they look, which is very wrong. Sure, a fabulous entry can charm your eye, but it doesn’t imply that another entry should get downgraded because of that one. Not everyone is the wordy type or a skilled artist on the site, there are people who do project solely for fun and one needs to take into account the amount of effort they put into their work. It might not be Shakespeare’s or Picasso’s work, but they could have done a lot of hard work to do what they did (as not everyone is talented). So don’t let your eye fool you at first sight, let your brain do some work too.

5. Simplicity actually does make perfection
Many submissions get lower ratings because people believe they are “too simple” – but why don’t you let your mind think twice about that? Take a “simple” entry and then try to imagine it with a lot more elements in it and you will see how easily that nice submission could turn into a horribly busy and overwhelming piece of work. On the other hand, a “busy” submission might work better than a simple one with another idea for that same project. Don’t be in a hurry to comment, take your time and double check you’re doing the right thing.

6. Where is the average?
The best way to go around ratings is to make some idea in your head about what you consider the “average” entry for that project – which is obviously a rating of 5. I for example like to think that as long as an entry doesn’t show lack of effort, it should automatically get at least a 5. Then I simply give better ratings to those who go beyond that (each level of effort gets them slowly to 10). Rating someone a 2 simply because you think they used wrong colors or made grammatical mistakes, is definitely wrong. Sure, those are things that could have easily been fixed – but keep in mind that it might have worked like that for the author’s idea.

7. Give good feedback in the comment
Of course you could get away with a simple “Oh I love this, that’s a wonderful submission you have there!” comment, even when you give a lower rating, but is that right? The author would be much happier if you state your reasoning rather than your emotions. Simply saying “I like this, but I think the text could stand out more and a border might make it even better.” Can actually help the author to improve for his or hers next submission.

8. Positive criticism is the better option
Even if you think that an entry isn’t good at all and shows no effort at all, you don’t have to say that directly with a rude tone. You can always play a game of words and make it sound nice, supportive, and reasonable, saying that there is still place for improvement and that it can use some more work. If you’d like to keep drama and stress away from your life, you need to learn to learn how to properly criticize without hurting the person behind the submission.

The bottom line being, be fair to everyone and be considerable – if someone submitted something then they obviously did put some effort which still needs to recognized. If you have the chance to be the good cop, why look aside and search for the chance to be the bad cop? Remember that what goes around, comes around, so unless you want people to rate your entries unfairly too, don’t do it.

See more articles by Zoki

Have you ever wondered how the myths and stories about Unicorns started? Have you ever wondered if those completely perfect and innocent magical creatures aren’t just a fake rumor that became popular? What if they aren’t actually extinct but in fact they didn’t even exist in the first place?

In various popular cultures it is believed that all legends about the unicorns started from simple stories about goats. That’s right, unicorns were created by the look of goats! You could see how it all relates as back in those days goats were usually found roaming in the forests and higher mountain places, where unicorns also lived, according to mythologies. They both have their bodies covered in white fur, and goats also have longer hairs nearby their hoofs and at the back of their head. Unicorns have a similar shape, except instead of two swirled horns they have one straight and sharp one, which is mostly depicted in gold color.

Of course, various mythologies give unicorns various different characteristics, such as some portray them with golden hair around the hoofs and the back of their head, and others even state that their whole body is golden. But at least the reason of their extinction is almost exactly the same in all the stories – they’re hunted down because of their value. Some say their blood had healing powers, some say their horn was the one that held great magical power that could kill any evil being, etc. In most stories it is evil wizards and professional hunters who went after them, but it is possible that those could be just ancient huntsmen and woodmen that needed food, right?

Come to think about it, horses roamed quite freely back in those days as well, so if you take a white horse for example (which looks exactly as a unicorn, except for the horn), and take a goat in the other hand, you can almost see a pattern of how the stories of the unicorns were created. Horses and goats obviously ended up being of use to the human kind – the one providing a fast transport and the other providing food, which automatically puts them on the “good side”, for lack of better words.

If someone was hunting after nightfall, and they encountered a white horse in the wilds but didn’t manage to catch it, nor even get a good look at it, they could start telling stories of this legendary beast, which later on gets the attributes of a soldier of fortune due to men’s knowledge of horses and goats.

Myths also mention that the easiest way to get a unicorn was to lure it into charging at you, after which you trick it into hitting a tree, which will get it stuck with its unicorn in it, unable to escape. Interesting enough, it is assumed that’s how huntsmen started hunting goats as well. Horses, and pretty much most animals really, were obviously also lured into traps, but not all of them were lured into getting their horn(s) stuck in a tree.

So even though you might not like the fact that unicorns don’t exist and you won’t ever see one, hold on to the fact that no one actually has! It’s all an illusion created from pretty little silver-white horses and goats.

See more articles by Zoki

Complete the puzzle and send me (Rorey Padfoot) in an HOL message the saying and who said it to earn 15 beans.

Name that Snake

Complete the puzzle and send me (Rorey Padfoot) in an HOL message your answers.  2 beans per correct answer.

See more articles by Rorey

Here’s a celebratory new year’s graphic made by the talented Sirius Fudge!

See more articles by Sirius

After the Christmas and winter holidays of December, and then the New Year celebrations in early January, the days since have been rather dull and slow. But don’t fear—February is here!
Although February is indeed the shortest month of the year (even including the leap day for this year), it also happens to be one of the busiest. While it may be best known for Valentine’s Day, many people tend to forget the other holidays that are present in February. For example, Presidents Day celebrated in the U.S., Flag Day celebrated in Canada and Mexico, and International Mother Language Day, which is celebrated worldwide, all take place in February—along with a dozen others in various countries. In addition, February is considered to be historically and socially important for being the Black History Month in the countries of Canada and the U.S., and the LGBT History Month for the United Kingdom. But even more than that, this year’s February will play host to Leap Day!
That’s right. February will not have its typical 28 days this year, but instead have 29. But why is that? The answer is fairly simple. Although many believe that the Earth’s complete revolution around the sun takes 365 days, it actually takes an approximate 365 days and 6 hours. So, every four years, after an extra 24 hours have accumulated, one extra day is added to the calendar. The last leap year was 2008, so now in 2012, four years later, we will have another one. Exciting, right?

Another famous (or should I say, infamous) February holiday is Groundhog Day, which is typically celebrated in the U.S. and Canada each year on February 2. On this day, in mid-winter, a groundhog will awaken from its long winter nap and go outside his den to see if it can see its shadow. Folklore says that if a groundhog sees its shadow, on a sunny day, there will be six more weeks of winter. If however, he does not see its shadow, on a cloudy day, then there will be no more winter. This tradition actually has German roots, back when German immigrants brought the tradition with them to the U.S. Nonetheless, Groundhog Day remains a popular holiday in the both the U.S. and Canada.
So what are you waiting for? Celebrate. Find out what kinds of obscure, wacky holidays are celebrated where you live. And best of all, you may even get the day off!

See more articles by Lisette

Drop Dead Diva is a show on Lifetime that not many people know about (I seem to be watching a lot of these types of shows). It tells the story of Deb Dobkins, a beautiful blonde supermodel on the cusp of her career and life when she got into a car crash and was killed. She then found herself in heaven, where she was declared to be someone who had done neither any good deed nor any bad deed while she was alive. She was, apparently, simply shallow. Deb didn’t like this, and decided to press the “Return” button on the desk of Fred, the gatekeeper. Unexpectedly she did get returned to earth… except not quite in her own body. She found herself trapped in the body of a similarly recently deceased lawyer with a plus-size body; Jane Bingum.

Naturally, Deb was horrified by her new body. She was also forced to take over Jane’s life—fortunately she now had Jane’s intelligent brain to allow her to do that—and started working as a lawyer to help people who came to her. Fred the gatekeeper was also sent to earth after his mistake; he was demoted to a guardian angel and was tasked to watch over Deb (now Jane). The only person beside Fred who knew of Jane’s real identity was Stacy, Deb’s longtime best friend. Jane longed to tell Grayson, her boyfriend who was still grieving over her death, the truth about herself, but constantly found herself unable to. Instead she became Grayson’s new best friend and was forced to watch as he moved on from one woman to another, including almost marrying one.

The show is mostly light and funny, but it’s full of heart and emotional moments. There have been some twists that really made me unable to wait until the next episodes, and the question of when Grayson would finally find the truth about Jane is one that looms upon every season. As the seasons progressed, we also saw how much Deb/Jane grew into a much better person, someone who would surely no longer be declared shallow but rather someone who had done a lot of good deeds should she ever find herself at the gates of heaven once again. It’s an easily likeable series in my opinion, and can be enjoyed by people of all ages. The supernatural theme is always there but doesn’t dominate it. And it’s sort of a lawyer show, but it’s not boring at all, in fact it never fails to be funny no matter what the cases are.

See more articles by Jenna

Welcome to the Year of the Water Dragon! Most of us are psyched in the changing of the year that it becomes a worldwide phenomenon. Even the Muggles have their own way of celebrating the New Year. As for us in the wizarding world, we take pride in celebrating it with our loved ones like family and friends. And like in the non-wizarding world, we take interests in what’s in store for us this coming year. This seems like one divination work, isn’t it?

Not everyone of us have genuine interest in the field of divination. Take for example, the famous Hermione Granger-Weasley which is currently in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement of the Ministry of Magic. She dropped out of her divination class in her third year and decided not to take the course from that day on. We also have the famous story of Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley in their many efforts in the subjects of foretelling the future. I think that many of us can relate to them, at least those who had taken the Divination classes and not really have the interest in it.

Well, here is my share of advices for this year for everyone to be awesome! Happy foretelling guys!

• 1. In this year of the water dragon, it would be very useful and awesome for you to know the Aguamenti Charm. Who knows, it might come in handy this year!
• 2. Never tickle a sleeping dragon, as our alma mater says, especially blue-colored dragon because you’ll never stand a chance. Remember that it’s their year so be careful.
• 3. Learn dragon-related spells like the Conjunctivitus Curse used by Viktor Krum in the 1994 Triwizard Tournament, Stunning Spell and Draconifors which transfigures statues of dragons into real ones. Well, if you fail at any of these, you can always use your broomstick and get ready to be chased by a dragon. However, that’s a dangerous task so at least try to learn the mentioned spells. Don’t tell I didn’t warn you!
• 4. Take a bath daily as it would nourish and enhance one’s magical powers. Trust me on this, guys; you will be really awesome if you do this. It’s the year of the water! What better way to celebrate it than take a bath every day?
• 5. Drink more than eight glasses of water every day. Aside from the boost on your magical powers, you will have that refreshing supply of awesomeness in you! And as a bonus feature, it is good for your health.
• 6. Be careful in handling dragon products like dragon dung in your Herbology class, dragon hide used as your clothing and powdered dragon horns in your Potions class. Follow this rule and you might not have the dragon pox disease for the whole year. Excellent prize, isn’t it?
• 7. Use wands with dragon heartstrings as their cores. It is a lucky year for them!
• 8. Have yourself on good terms with Draco Malfoy or any Draco-named individual. You’ll never know; they might shower you with some of their blessings for the whole year. Awesome!
• 9. Be a dragon keeper like Charlie Weasley. They are absolutely awesome!
• 10. Never trade or sell dragons or dragon eggs! It’s against the law and it’s not awesome as well!
• 11. Learn to swim and have a swim in the lake even though it is freezing. Remember that Viktor Krum had done that and it was awesome. Now this is one tried and tested tip! Try it!
• 12. Be active in HOL! Yes, you read it right! It’s very awesome in here especially this year of the dragon. With the dragon in our motto, this is a good year for us so it would be awesome if everyone will be a part of it! Awesome!

There are my tips for the year! I think I could pass Professor Trelawney’s Divination class!

See more articles by Sirius