InsaneJournal

Patronus Section and extra study sessions:

• Ms. Lilywhite has been teaching a section on casting Patronuses. Every year, she allows non-DADA students to attend extra study sessions she holds after dinner, because she believes a well-formed Patronus is an important life skill. It’s… not, probably, but who’s going to argue with her?

Iris Shacklebolt notices something weird while looking at main lodge’s photographs of previous Gooseberry students: someone’s meticulously cut out every appearance of a teenage Karim Elmasry, from dances to yearbook photos to portraits of him as Head Boy. Popular theory is that some student has an obsessive crush on the Potions teacher, but after classes end, Joanna May spots Mr. Elmasry looking extremely upset as he locks himself in his office. Mr. Elmasry does not appear for dinner.

Polar Bear Plunge! Every year, the most foolhardy students go out to the docks to participate in this ridiculous tradition. Students strip down to their bathing suits, line up, and jump into the freezing cold water! The most enjoyable part (besides machismo and/or bragging rights) is climbing out and letting your wiser classmates fuss over you as you’re rushed into the lodge to get warm again. Healer Mufferaw is on standby, just in case, and he insists all participants have someone on hand to watch out for them.

If you'd like to participate and/or find a standby for your character, please sign up below!

🎂 Happy birthday, Sybilla Borgin!

Mr. Thorn deems the lake frozen enough to skate on. He conjures neon yellow markers around the most solid part of the ice by the docks, and warns students that they can’t step beyond them.

🌟 Quinn Cunningham (with the help of Christopher Park) runs a intramural pick-up hockey league during the winter. All skill levels are welcome, and players can join at any point in the season. If you'd like to sign up, please see this notice!

Iliya Krum didn’t sign up for hockey, but they decide to go out for some leisurely skating today anyway. If the hockey players complain, a spectating Healer Mufferaw will remind them the lake’s big enough to share the ice. (However, he won’t stop anyone from trying to recruit Iliya to play.)

Jonathan Wilde decides to pull a fresh new prank on Azurcrest, the eternal breeding ground of kiss-transmitted diseases. They design a clever Charm that infects an unknowing Diego Morales and Regan Hobbs, hoping it’ll spread to the rest of the house. The magic causes blue spots to appear on the cheeks of anyone who comes into physical contact with the infected individuals. By the end of the day, almost everyone in Azurcrest has bright blue freckles, and it’s begun to spread to other houses.

There are now more students with blue freckles than ones without. It's a relatively harmless prank, but the teachers are investigating a way to get rid of the "plague."

🌟 Diego Morales somehow encourages a large number of people to go sledding down Azurcrest Hill with him. It's dangerous, and very, very against the rules. Several students get hurt before prefects Nathaniel Bird and Ravinder Dhaliwal break up the party.

The yearly talent show is announced! It won’t take place until the students return from Winter Break, but Ms. Thrussell tells everyone to sign up now and work on their acts over the break. The winning act gets a 2013 Contrail Hurricane, a top of the line broom generously donated by a former student who was notoriously good at showtunes and Quidditch. This broom is the best of the best, and used by professional American teams. (There’s no need to officially sign up yet! We’ll create a post for discussing acts closer to the actual event.)

In the aftermath of yesterday's sledding incident, several students are given punishment.

Mr. Calderon-Boot figures out how to dispel the blue freckles from students (and a few unfortunate teachers), but Estella Morales-Tran is so amused by the "plague" that they keep finding ways to infect other people and re-infect themselves. They manage to keep it going until the end of the day, when they're finally caught by Calderon-Boot.

Members of Victoria Powers’s cabin return after class to discover that their cabin has been ransacked by a bear, because Victoria improperly sealed some snacks they were keeping. The teachers are forced to crack down on keeping food in cabins. While their cabin is being repaired, the Coppertale sophomore girls are housed in the main lodge under the supervision of Mr. Hightower.

🎂 Happy birthday, Levi Kramer and Susana Velasquez!

🌟 Reece Downing leaves his desk drawer open when he heads out for class this morning. When he comes back, he finds a handful of toy bugs he's been making have escaped. They're charmed to behave like real bugs, and they don't like being caught. He needs help rounding them up.

It’s less than 10 days until Drama Club’s winter performance, and all the pieces of A Midsummer Night’s Dream are finally coming together. Starting Sunday, both cast and crew will have their days booked solid with extra rehearsals and meetings with Ms. Acuña. As can be expected from drama productions, a series of small catastrophes occur over the course of the week:

• Coralee Wong goes for their costume fitting only to realize their costume is definitely too small. Oh no! Can this be fixed in time?


• During rehearsal, Diana Gam loses their temper after Sun-mi Choi has a contagious gigglefit that spreads to half a dozen other people and halts the scene for several minutes.


• Riley Stamper gets so into their impassioned performance that they accidentally walk off the stage and break their leg after a hard fall. They’re taken to Healer Mufferaw, who mends their bones and warns them to pay attention.


• Philippa Nightingale is trying to charm the fake trees to appear more "dreamy" and accidentally enchants them to strobe through different neon colours instead. It takes almost an hour, and some help from Cole Moss, to figure out how to reverse the mistake.

🌟 Inspired by the mystery of Lachlan Galbraith's vanishing shirt, Casey Patterson shows up shirtless for Drama Club. He claims his shirt was vanished by some freshman girls and dares anybody to prove him otherwise. He thinks he's very clever.

Outdoor Exploration & Equestrian Club Camping Trip! It’s a tradition for Outdoor Exploration and Equestrian Club to ride the horses out to the mountains to get Christmas trees. Students will need to be proficient in riding, snowshoeing or cross-country skiing to come along. It’ll be just an overnight trip, but Mr. Covington and Mr. Thorn warn everyone that it’ll be cold. (As always, couples will not allowed to share a tent alone together. This isn’t a honeymoon!)

If you'd like to have your OE or Equestrian Club character go on this trip, please sign up below!

🎂 Happy birthday, Ramon Delgado!

Despite the biting cold and several players being gone on the camping trip, Quidditch practices persist. Cheer, on the other hand, is more sensible. On the suggestion of Casey Patterson, several cheerleaders commandeer the Atrium space for the day. They order freshmen to move couches and chairs out of the way, and get into an informal competition showing off stunts. Ty Hawkeswood impresses onlookers by sticking ten perfect standing back tucks in a row.

The campers return, Christmas trees in tow. Time for a tree decorating party in the evening!

🎂 Happy birthday, Hazel Keating!

Event Committee holds a bake sale to enable their most ambitious ideas for the Winter Formal. In order to drive up demand, Rafael Ramirez managed to convince Cecil Honeychurch to not make any baked goods for the two weeks leading up to the sale. It works: every last cake and cookie sells out, and Event Committee makes a killing.

• All morning, Veronica Powers directs other club members in the Magical Rudiments kitchen to bake winter-themed treats. Cameron Carney burns a tray of cupcakes, and are put on icing duty instead—as it turns out, they have a real knack for it!


• At 1 PM, others set up tables and a stand in the cafeteria for sales. Ivy Templeton manages to guilt a group of freshmen into buying more than $100 of baked goods when a short conversation reveals the kids knew about last month’s Amortentia scheme and said nothing. Meanwhile, Jesse McBride has been in such desperate withdrawal, they purchase a full dozen of their favourite Honeychurch desserts.

🌟 Cressida Quayle hosts a Christmas crafting party in the Atrium. The whole school is invited. There are plenty of crafting supplies and Cricket is on hand to help students craft the perfect handmade gift!

🎂 Happy birthday, Penelope Vargas!

Marilyn Fairchild and Penelope Vargas are collaborating on making a cheeky magically altered version of mistletoe, which is in the Charms classroom for safe keeping. The intent is for use in party games, but the current version is way too enthusiastic. All’s going well until a white crow flies in through an open window. Before Marilyn or Penelope can do anything about it, the beautiful bird has snatched their specimen in its beak and is flying back out the window. That’s weeks of work!!!

• By the end of the day, mistletoe has sprouted all over the Lodge. Anyone who is unlucky enough to walk underneath a sprig of it is trapped in place with their feet rooted to the ground.


• The only thing that will free them is a kiss. Cheek kisses or a kiss to the back of the hand are sufficient.


• Mr. Hightower is busy all day, and cancels Herbology until he can get a handle on this.

🎂 Happy birthday, Katerina Ivanova!

🌕 COLD MOON

The mistletoe has mostly moved out of the lodge, but now it can be found periodically on paths leading to camp sites. It makes uses of lamp posts or overhanging tree branches.

🌟 Leonardo Fiori successfully transforms into a snapping turtle while practicing right after Animagus Studies today. Upon rushing out to tell all his friends, he gets stuck under mistletoe, and sits there snapping at people as a turtle until he gets cold, which is the best way to show off new skills.

Hazel Keating gets stuck along one of the wooded trails late at night, and while waiting to be rescued, sees a dark figure with antlers in the distance, watching them. It doesn’t respond to anything Hazel Keating does or says, and minutes before Avery Davenport comes along to save them, the figure simply walks away into the forest.

🎂 Happy birthday, Solomon Webb!

Hightower finally gets rid of the last traces of the mistletoe. Victory!

Adeline Foster-Hayes casually brings up plagues and the upcoming Grotto party to Mr. Elmasry, who sighs and shakes his head at the explanation. However, it turns out that he's not nearly as disapproving as Addy may have momentarily feared. He instead takes the time to teach them a potion that will help to stave off bacteria and viruses, and suggests sharing the recipe with the rest of the student body. This is what they used to take back in his day to keep Azurcrest disease-free.

Quinn Cunningham arrives 15 minutes early for Hermeticism to ask a question, surprising a distracted Ms. Vector, who cuts herself deeply on the metal compass she was using for measurements. Vector, cursing under her breath, says she doesn’t have time to see the Healer, so Quinn volunteers to tend to the wound herself. “Don’t let this get out, Cunningham. I don’t need anyone at this school knowing Septima Vector can actually bleed,” she dryly jokes as Quinn bandages her hand. “Also—thank you.” Vector dismisses her, and is all business again as the rest of her students come trickling in for class.

End of classes.

Levi Kramer decides to impress their prospective date to the dance, or perhaps just their current boy/girlfriend, by climbing the Ornery Oak and tying a ribbon with their names on it to one of the highest branches. The Oak irritably throws the romantic from its branches… but Levi is successful! All the promise of eternal love cost was a broken arm. ♥

It’s a Grotto Party to celebrate Levi and Diego’s birthday! Only Azurcrests would insist on partying outdoors in the middle of December, but by this point, it's a yearly tradition. Why do they all have winter birthdays???

• If you'd like to participate in the just-as-traditional kissing games, please sign up below!

🎂 Happy birthday, Diego Morales!

Final dress rehearsal for Drama Club. I hope you’re not too hungover!

Drama Club performs A Midsummer Night’s Dream for the whole school. There’s a cast party afterwards, of course.

Winter Formal: The fanciest dance aside from prom, the Winter Formal is notorious for being a romantic event to which you take someone you’re serious about. The dress code is semi-formal at the minimum, but traditionally everyone wears their best gowns, dress robes or suits. Event Committee spends the afternoon transforming the Atrium into a ice palace—thankfully, a room-temperature one.

• The dance’s favourite feature is a decorative maze of fake trees lit up by fairy lights. It’s a beautiful place to get lost in with your date. Anuhea Alapai gets cozy in the maze with their companion, but their romantic moment ends when Anuhea bumps into a fake tree and the fairies take this as a cue to playfully tug at their hair and mess up their clothes.


• Event Committee crafted an awe-inspiring icicle chandelier that magically “hangs” from the ceiling. In the middle of the ball, a strange chill passes through the Atrium—it’s the only warning before the chandelier’s charms fail. Thanks to the quick thinking of Christopher Park, who casts a giant shield charm over the dance floor, and Leonardo Fiori, who melts most of the ice before the chandelier hits the ground, no one is seriously hurt—although a few people do get doused with ice water.


• With Mr. Hightower, Wilhelmina Tran and Laurel Templeton investigate the remains of the chandelier and find evidence that someone disabled the charms. Who would want to sabotage the dance?

Students head home for Winter Break. Those who asked their Head of House beforehand are permitted to stay at school over the break.

Isaiah and Ezekiel Covington are invited to stay one more night and return home for Christmas with their uncle, Mordecai Covington. They have dinner that night and breakfast in the morning with the staff.

Winter Solstice.

🎂 Happy birthday, Wilhelmina Tran!

Hanukkah begins.

🎂 Happy birthday, Dahlia Hale and Robin Youngblood!

Christmas.

The following staff members remained on campus for the break: Ms. Rhee, Healer Mufferaw, Ms. Vector, Mr. Elmasry, Mr. Hightower, Mr. Oakes, Ms. Lilywhite, and Mr. Chettri. For Christmas dinner, a long table is conjured in the cafeteria, so teachers and students can sit together, and the house-elves bring out a lovingly prepared meal. Oakes encourages the other staff members to try a hard cider he brewed, and Ariadne Flint is treated to an amusing personal story by a somewhat tipsy [Ms. Rhee].

🌟 Tabitha Ogletree's (possibly annual?) Christmas party! Silly daytime festive fun, and a party with drinks and dancing à la Gooseberry during the evening/night. If your character would like to be invited, please discuss here.

🌑 NEW MOON

🎂 Happy birthday, Reece Downing!

🌟 Cameron Carney couldn't go to Vegas - so he's bringing Vegas home by throwing a themed New Year's Eve party at his mom's house in Olympus, TN. The whole school is invited, and you can expect gambling and smooching.