SEE THE DRAGONS
WE'RE OFF TO
The Beast Brief: Hippogriff Races and Questionable Cases
by Crystalink
Professor Memrah’s Week 5 Care of Magical Creatures Hippogriff practical was a success, in some ways. Sure, the race might have been delayed by site outages and late students, and yes, she still hasn’t rewarded the winners of the last CoMC Hippogriff race in Year 44, but it was successful nonetheless.
Professor Memrah’s Week 5 practical was on hippogriffs—students were to interact with a hippogriff, before racing them to the finish line in a 9-lap Hippogriff race. Hippogriffs Comet (ridden by Luke Star, tashalouiise, & Starlight), Spottedfury (ridden by Raspyriel, HP_Mom, & NevFawkks), and Thundereye (ridden by Willow Maid, LemonDrop, & Disa), ended up in a three-way tie, all three having run 76 spaces.
Many CoMC OWL/NEWT students and alumni in high standing assisted with the practical and participated in the race, however, Umbridge was still unhappy with the practical. She told Professor Memrah she would drop her a line about making the races safer in future years in the case that they were still permitted to run. (It’s bold of her to assume she’ll still be around in four years; we’ve got competent investigators who can solve the murders way sooner than that and whisk Dolores away from our castle before she knows it.)
She scolded Professor Memrah for not mentioning the race in her risk assessment — racing itself is not a risk, but handling the hippogriff is — and suggested that the Ministry oversee the race, rather than “a mere professor.” Dolores’ case was weak, as pointed out by Disa shortly after; practical overseers included four professors, two representatives from the RMC, and the heads of four other ministry departments.
That’s it for this issue’s Beast Brief. See you next issue, and don’t forget to PM any creature-y conspiracies to Crystalink!
Word Search: Coming to a Close
by: Hanii
WORD LIST
Camp
Train
Exams
Feast
Summer
Ceremony
Vacation
Graduation
Hogwartsexpress
Solve this puzzle and send Harmony203 a screenshot of the completed puzzle by PM to earn a stamp towards the title of Quibbler Puzzler of the Year (and cookies)!
A Mischievous Farewell or A Merciless Free-for-all?
by Harmony203
Well, well, well … what do we have here? It seems like we have a rather wily pair of head students who seem to have anticipated the truth about Umbridge and planned an event engaging everyone around mH to bid a grand farewell to our Ministry Informant.
Their most popular activity is "Cast the Curse on Umbridge". Participants can cast curses (no, really?) ranging from the relatively harmless Locomotor Wibbly to several Unforgivable curses, including Avada Kedavra. It is rather chilling to note that our head students of such high standing encourage the use of Unforgivable curses! I do believe they may need a remedial class in the ethics and appropriateness of such powerful curses.
While Umbridge has been rather annoying and a distinctive disturbance in the castle, are her crimes quite serious enough to merit a Crucio or a straight-on Killing Curse?
First, remember that Aurors are given blanket permission to use Unforgivables at their discretion. However, they are given special training to determine what constitutes an excessive force in any given situation. Since the Head Girls did not include any mention of the gravity of using illegal curses, they could be conveying an inappropriate message to the younger students.
While there may be no "serious" consequence of using these curses in a game, their inclusion teaches children that these curses are a joke and can be taken lightly when, in reality, these curses have killed countless witches and wizards, hence their classification as Unforgivable. Their use is unforgivable. They aren't meant to be thrown into a game and treated like a toy.
Yes, Umbridge has been a nuisance, to be sure. But, we must consider just what constitutes justice for her actions and whether the public, and underaged students at that, has a right to mete out justice at their discretion. Shouldn't that be left to trained officials, such as Aurors?
A game is a game, but behaviour is learned... What behaviour are we teaching our students?
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