Prof. Scarlet Leslie-Lewis

steam train

yourself

litter

I'm sure everyone could benefit from a small bottle of Felix Felicis. I love all types of strategy games and magical versions of any game probably require less time to set up!

It didn't hit Thomas until that moment just how enormous the implications of that were.

Silver Snake was a lot of fun last year! I picked first, so my gifts was stolen a few times, but I got to reveal a couple presents. Unwrapping gifts is probably my favorite part of White Elephant exchanges, so I'm okay when people steal from me. My sister coordinates a Secret Santa exchange among my siblings and me. We started doing this when we were in high school and college, so we didn't have to worry about getting a present for everyone. Now it's tradition! (It's also practically a tradition for my mom to ruin the secret, but we've stopped telling her who has who.)

Growing up, my parents always emphasized maintaining good sleeping habits, which I am very thankful for, so I usually didn't leave homework till very late. One time that I did stay up was the night before the state competition for Science Olympiad. My partner for Towers wanted to make a back-up tower and I volunteered to do it. I figured he had too many other building events to worry about, while all my other events were test-based. Of course, building a whole new tower took quite a few hours. I have never been a huge fan of super glue or balsa wood since. We did end up using my tower, so it wasn't a waste of time, and placed third in the event! The nights before high school physics labs were due were also late ones. They were very labor intensive, requiring hand-drawn graphs with calculations and succinct conclusions. I was actually one of the few people who would start earlier in the week. I liked having extra time to analyze the data, so I never stayed up too late. One of my classmates was notorious for taking the morning off and coming in to school just to turn in the lab report.

Nope! Now Cody?

synergistic

5318

software engineer

excess

This is Scoot! From a young age, he was always on the move. His favorite way to pass time is to ride around trees on acorns.

Professor Grubbly-Plank introduces the fifth years to Bowtruckles. The first Fantastic Beasts film has made Newt Scamander’s pet Bowtruckle, Pickett, famous. Draw and/or describe another Bowtruckle! What is the Bowtruckle’s name and some of his/her personality traits? 10 scales if posted by Sunday 2nd December, 23:59 HOL time. 5 scales if posted after that but before Monday 31st December, 23:59 HOL time.

The fit with the team is very important, so Ron had an edge there, having played with his brothers and Harry for fun at the Burrow. It's always a shame when those who are naturally athletically skilled don't take sport as seriously as other aspects of life, but if the interest isn't there, it's probably better that way. I definitely have trouble playing with people who complain all the time, especially ones that whine to the referees. No, not all fouls will be called and some calls will be wrong, but it can really mess up the flow of the match if one tries to "referee" instead of play.

Angelina Johnson explained to Harry why she decided to choose Ron for Keeper: Do you agree/disagree with Angelina’s rationale? What do you value when selecting a teammate? 10 scales if posted by Sunday 2nd December, 23:59 HOL time. 5 scales if posted after that but before Monday 31st December, 23:59 HOL time.

Introducing the Grab Bag Writing Challenge! Write a short story at least 250 words in length that includes the words in the list provided. Each word used in the story is worth one point for a maximum of 15 points. Any form of the words (change the tense, make them plural, etc.) can be used. Be creative and have fun! blur chameleon contrast fashion glass hue mirror mosaic pattern piece repeat saturation shade tint vivid Deadline: 15th March Send your story to serpentimes.hol@gmail.com (Subject: Grab Bag) to earn up to 15 points. Make sure to highlight/bold/underline the words that you use in your submission. Please include your HOL name and house with your story.

I'm not available December 22nd too. Fridays (December 14 and 28) - Before 3 pm EST / 8 pm HOL time Saturdays (December 15 and 29) and Sunday (December 30) - Before 2 pm EST / 7 pm HOL time is preferable

November Scales Total Amaryllis Storm - 35 Arianna Stonewater - 70 Gwenevier Winters - 10 Polaris Black - 2 Prof. Scarlet Leslie-Lewis - 90 Prof. Tarma Amelia Black - 130 Sirius Fudge - 46 Sky Alton - 70 Will Lestrange - 50

SerpenTimes is including Superlatives with all issues. For each issue, five superlatives will be listed. Everyone is invited to send in nominations for all five superlatives. HOL'ers from any house can be nominated and more than one person can be nominated for each superlative. Reasoning for the nomination(s) must be sent in along with the names. Make sure the reasoning is at least one full sentence or the nomination will be discarded. Superlatives: Most Lively Most Perceptive Best HOL forum signature (please include a link and/or description with your nomination) Most likely to knit elf clothes Most likely to own a Streeler Deadline: 15th March Send all nominations to serpentimes.hol@gmail.com (Subject: Superlatives) to earn up to 5 points. Please include your HOL name and house with your nomination(s). If you have any suggestions for superlatives, include them in your e-mail. You will receive 10 beans if we use your superlative suggestion for a future issue. If you'd like to create a graphic for one of the superlatives, head on over to the ideas thread and claim one!

As people all over the world are searching for Easter eggs, we’ll be exchanging… WORD SEARCHES!! The word search is a very common sight on HOL. A mix of letters are arranged in a grid, usually rectangular in shape. The goal of the puzzle is to find all the words hidden in the grid. Words may be oriented horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. Additionally, they may be forward or backward. The first word search is credited to Norman E. Gibat, who published an Oklahoma-themed puzzle in the Selenby Digest on March 1, 1968. Put together a list of 10 or more words and create your own word search! There are several word search generators available online. My personal favorite is this one. You could also make a word search manually. Post your puzzles below along with the following information: Title or theme Word list or minimum length of words Total number of words hidden (at least 10) How to submit the solution (E-mail, Dungeons PM, HOL message, etc.) Each puzzle you make is worth 10 scales. Solving someone else’s puzzle earns you 5 scales. You are allowed to post and/or solve multiple puzzles, but keep in mind that the maximum number of scales you can earn per month from Puzzle Exchange is 50 scales. Please remember to edit your post when other people solve your puzzle(s) so they can receive their scales.

Thanksgiving means family time... and board games! After a delicious meal, we played a few games of Azul including all of our first game on the side without the given pattern. It was a bit more challenging and amusing when people realize they messed up their tile patterns. Then, my sister wanted to play Boss Monster. It turned out to the the longest game of Boss Monster ever! We took over an hour to play a game that is only supposed to take 30 minutes. She took an early lead by attracting thieves to her dungeon. Cody's dungeon claimed the souls of clerics and I had a strong dungeon for defeating fighters. In the end, we couldn't compete with all the spell cards that my sister's fiance collected throughout the game. The next day, my brother wanted to give Terraforming Mars another try. This time, everything worked out really well for him. He played as Saturn Systems and managed to get a lot of Jupiter cards. That never happens for me... It ended up being a game where we didn't have much on the map. There were only three cities and a handful of plants. Some friends hosted a post-Thanksgiving hang out. It was a larger crowd, so we got to play party games. The first one was Exploding Kittens! Cody likes this game, probably because it plays a lot like Quodpot. Basically, everyone draws cards until they get knocked out of the game by an Exploding Kitten. There are other cards in the mix including Reverse, Skip, Draw from the Bottom, See the Future, Alter the Future, and general cat cards. Unlike most games of Quodpot, I made it almost to the end with a lucky hand of mainly Nope cards. I drew an extra Defuse card early in the game and stole two more from other players. We also played a couple rounds of Catch Phrase, which involved trying to get your team to guess the word or phrase on the device. Currently on our table is 7 Wonders Duel with the Pantheon expansion. It has definitely added more to our favorite 2-player game. Deciding whether or not to activate a Pantheon card changes the flow of the game. The first two times that we played with the Pantheon, we didn't even get to finish the third age. Cody won our first game with a science victory with the aid of the Mesopotamian gods. The Roman god of war, Mars, helped me to a military victory our second game. Most of the games after that have been true battles, but I ironically do have to thank Hades for keeping me alive in one of them!

Fred and George’s sign on the notice board didn’t go over well with Hermione. It also covered up an important poster! Describe or create an announcement you might see on the notice board in your common room. 10 scales if posted by Sunday 25th November, 23:59 HOL time. 5 scales if posted after that but before Friday 30th November, 23:59 HOL time.

The first day of lessons for the fifth year Gryffindors was a tough one! On top of writing about giant wars in History of Magic, brewing the complex Draught of Peace in Potions, and interpreting dreams in Divination, they experienced their first Defense Against the Dark Arts class with Professor Umbridge. Which class would be the hardest for you to get through? Which one, if any, might you enjoy? 10 scales if posted by Sunday 25th November, 23:59 HOL time. 5 scales if posted after that but before Friday 30th November, 23:59 HOL time.