As the year slowly crept to an end and the students put their heads down to wrap up their last-minute homework, who could have predicted the unprecedented chaos that would unfold on the 1st of April? 🥷 Nothing seemed amiss as the day began, students and professors going about their day around the castle and tending to their various responsibilities... until, all of a sudden, an announcement by the Deputy Head, Nooms, caused a flurry of questions to spread through the population of the castle like wildfire. After the Headmistress, Memrah, had to leave the castle in the hands of her Deputy to attend to some urgent business, the Deputy in question stumbled upon something unexpected as she was browsing through a stack of papers left behind by the Headmistress: A new Educational Decree! 😲 Not only did this serve as a painful reminder of the strict rules that a certain pink-loving menace had inflicted upon the castle ages ago but it also seemed to be the strictest one yet, as anyone found in violation of its rules would be shipped off to Azkaban instantly! There was even a new ward, titled "Azkaban Club", that had seemingly appeared overnight within Azkaban, designed to house those that violated the rules of the new Educational Decree. There was only one problem with this: No one could read the Decree, for it seemed to have been damaged, and thus no one knew which rules had to be upheld!

As you can imagine, dear readers, confusion and chaos did not take long to spread all around the school as students and Alumni alike were wondering what sort of rules they had to follow moving forward so they could keep themselves out of trouble. Given the shroud of mystery that seemed to have fallen over the rules of the Decree, it did not take long for people to start falling prey to infractions, which led to them being wheeled off to Azkaban to serve their sentences. However, that situation also caused the most rebellious and inquisitive members to start their own investigation in an attempt to uncover the mysterious rules of the Decree... although, not necessarily in an attempt to avoid breaking them. 😆 If anything, some people even took joy in breaking the rules, which led to them soon amassing quite a few sentences in Azkaban, within the Azkaban Club. Of course, the chaos did not remain only on the board but it also spread to the site's Discord server, where new rules were enforced by everyone's favourite bot, Peeves, who did not hesitate to jump in and yell "Azkaban!" when anyone violated the enforced rules. The general craziness that came along with the day even led to a rave party that took place within the Deputy's office, a rave that ended with all the non-Admin participants being arrested and led back to Azkaban. This Decree was surely not to be messed with!  😶‍🌫️
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Amidst the general craziness that had taken both the site and the Discord server by storm, one could not forget about the most important element of this holiday: Pranks! Much like the Valentine's Day festivities led to many aspiring pranksters sending out their own personalised pranks that fit the holiday spirit, this April Fool's could not come and go without some people getting pranked. From makeovers to transformed offices, there were one too many pranks taking place around the castle on that very mischief-oriented day.

But the culmination of the day's events came only later, when Merlin, a former Ravenclaw, came forth with a solution for the... oppressed Hogwarts residents. What would be better than to escape the Decree's influence by seeking refuge in the newly created Alumni neighbourhood, henceforth known as Merlinshire? Deciding it was time to take a stand, Merlin orchestrated the creation of his own paradise, Merlin's Boulevard, which was soon ready to welcome anyone that sought to live a life surrounded by MerlinHatHouses and phoenixes. Merlin, with an army of phoenixes and enthusiastic future Merlinshire residents, even arrived at Azkaban to free those that had been wrongfully imprisoned and invite them to join him at Merlinshire. The response to his call was quick as students and Alumni alike flocked to the new neighbourhood to apply for a house, leading to Merlin even declaring Merlinshire as an independent land of freedom and opportunities soon after. Needless to say, the Headmistress returned home to find the school in riot and the site members flocking to the newly independent land of Merlinshire, to live the rest of their days in their own MerlinHatHouses. To the shock of absolutely no one, she was not impressed.  😆

At the end of the day, everyone managed to find joy in this chaotic situation, whether they were observing from the sidelines or jumping right into the heat of things to defend their rights against this new Decree. But all's well that ends well and I can assure you that soon, order was restored, the Decree was promptly abolished and the Headmistress spent a few... not-so-joyous days guiding students and professors alike back to the castle. You can say a lot of things about this site, dear readers, but you cannot deny that we sure know how to have fun. 😉