Another Quiz?

1. Triwizard Tournament
2. Hungarian Horntail
3. Mad-Eye Mooney (Except, according to my history text, it is Moody.)
4. Rita Skeeter
5. Unspeakables
6. Snuffles
7. Pensieve
8. Imperius
9. Butterbeer
10. Firebolt

Quized

1. Name 4 housemates who have revealed their Patronuses and list the form their Patronuses take.

• Avada Finch-Fletchley: Phoenix
• Ferula Vector - Eagle
• Minerva Kwikspell - Eagle
• Patonga Pinkstone - Tiger

2. Who attended the first meeting of the Ravenclaw Knitting Club?

• Fleur Lovegoods
• Esmerelda
• Elanor Cadogan
• Cassandra Hopkirk
• Millicent Brocklehurst
• Gabriella Clearwater
• Allitrya Spelling
• Serafina Starfire
• Mafalda Ackerley
• Minerva Kwikspell
• Enid Black

3. Name the housemate who likes to knit with peacock feathers.

• Fleur Lovegoods
  

4. Name the Ravenclaw who spent the New Year at Hogwart's Costume Ball.

• Emma Diggory
  

5. Which Ravenclaw got the first howler?

• Lavender Ackerly
  

6. Name 5 different types of wood used in the wands of Ravenclaws and name the housemate having that wand.

• Walnut – Gabriella Clearwater
• Holly – Patonga Pinkstone
• Birch – Perpetua Phoenixfire
• Hawthorn – Elanor Cadogan
• Maple - Esmerelda Beanswallow (and me!)
  

7. Who accidentally ate a toenail flavored Every Flavor Bean?

• Serifina Starfire!
  

8. Who cast a noise dampening spell before going to bed and then overslept?

• Esmerelda Beanswallow
  

9. Besides the HSKS4 blog, on what blog will you find the Ravenclaw Anthem?

• Minerva Kwikspell

10. Which housemate has a Muggle cellular phone?

• Victoria Black

Oh, I am so embarassed!

I started my first year of Hogwarts without getting a wand! Honestly. How I ever managed to get into Ravenclaw is beyond me sometimes! Oh well, a trip to Ollivanders fixed that!

Wood type: maple Length: 14 inches Core: Gryffon Feather get your own wand!

Maple is a favorite wood for magical wands and has an excellent longevity. Maple wood often symbolizes attraction, luring, drawing in, or bringing things together. It has very positive energy. This wand tends to choose those who have a love an appreciation for beautiful things. It is an excellent wand for love spells and also for Divination.

The gryffon originated in Greece, having the head and front legs of an eagle, but the hind quarters of a lion. Gryffon feathers are used in wands of wizards or witches who posses great strength whether physically, magically or emotionally. These wands are especially good for both offensive and defensive magic.

Especially good for both? Strange.

Well, cynicism aside. We've gotten our matches for the sock kit swap! I'm so excited. I've been claimed by a second year Slytherin, Cassandra Black. She's hinted in her blog about her own pattern! Goodness, that is neat! I've also let my downstream know--Toni Weasley, from Hufflepuff.

I've just recently started designing bags myself, but there are so many bag patterns already! I just don't know what to do! I've also been diving into my bead stash to see what I have and what I need . . . this is just too much fun!

Wednesday! On Wednesday!

So, one of the neat extra-curricular activities at Hogwarts is a Sock Kit Swap. I'm pretty into it, as you can probably tell by the banners and posters hanging around my room. And as it turns out, this is where the 5 assignments that I thought were for school are actually from! So, I not only have to do those, but schoolwork as well! Luckily, these extra-curricular activities (the Sock Swap, Quidditch, and specifics pertaining to the swap packages and blogging) are staggered around school itself, which starts on the 21st of this month. So I still have some time to prepare. The sock swap involves pairing up with another student secrectly--and we may find out as early as Wednesday! I can't wait! I do hope that my partner is also a blogger!

For the first time, I'm finding myself more excited about the extra-curriculars than I am about school itself! I went to a muggle school for most of my childhood and always had lots of fun there--learning to read and write and do math and color! The extra-curriculars in those schools weren't very much fun at all. Who in their right mind enjoys running around hitting a ball with a stick? Brooms are much faster. Not that I would know from experience--first years are not allowed their own brooms. But I've seen some of the older students playing Quidditch, or even just flying, and they go far faster than anyone I've seen run.

I can't wait for the Quidditch games associated with the swaps! Apparently they are much more complicated than normal Quidditch. They involve trivia and scavenger hunts along with the normal hunt for the snitch! I've always been very good at trivia--did you know that the muggles have a trivia game based on Harry Potter? Even before I was accepted at Hogwarts, I always won.

And as for the swap itself, I've taken a look at some of the previous kits made by students (as part of Enchanted Kit Planning Course and I'm very excited to get started on mine.

We have a webring!

So, with permission from the Headmistress, I've created a webring for those students and others participating in the Hogwarts Sock Swap 4 who have their very own blog. It only has two main rules:

You must have a character blog (not your personal muggle blog) associated with the Swap
and
You must have the code in the side bar.

If you feel you can meet those simple requirements:
1. Join
2. Put the necessary code in the sidebar as an HTML/Javascript widget.
3. Wait for a little bit. Your blog should be added to the ring within 48 hours.

Here is a quick tutorial on how to add the code to the sidebar:

• Once you have signed up properly, you will be brought to a page with the code in a little box. Right click inside this box, and in the popup, select "Select All." The code should then highlight with blue.
  
• At this point, either press "Ctrl" and "c" on your keyboard at the same time, or right click again and select "Copy"
  
• Make sure you are signed into your blog. Go to the layout page, and select "Add a Page Element" There will be an option called "HTML/Javascript" Choose that one.
• In the box that appears, paste the code that you copied earlier into the Content by EITHER pressing "Ctrl" and "v" at the same time, or by right-clicking and selecting "Paste"
• Give the box a title if desired, and save! That's all there is to it!

Feel free to let me know if you need any help or have any questions! I've become quite fond of the the muggle computer and seem to be on quite often!

Here's the join page again, for good measure!

The Patronus Charm

I saw some of the older students doing a neat charm in the Common Room today. It was called a "Patronus" I immediately went to the library to do some research and discovered that it was the spell used to drive away Dementors. In fact, it is the very charm that nearly got Harry Potter expelled in his third year! Also during my research, I found the necessary incantation: "Expecto Patronum" and its meaning in Latin: "I await a protector!"

Well, of course after all that interesting information, I had to try it for myself. It is really quite difficult! You have to have a very happy memory or thought while saying the incantation. I sort of managed it, but I couldn't quite achieve a corporeal figure. However, I was close enough to recognize my Patronus' form (not that it would be difficult to miss or mistake for another!):

Your Patronus would take the form of a Hydra. The Hydra is famous in Greek mythology, especially in the tale of Hercules. Hydras usually have seven to nine heads representing the faults of humanity. The Hydra is associated with shame and disgrace. This creature sprouts one or two heads for every one that is cut off causing this monster to be quite a challenge.

I'm not really sure what to think about my Patronus--associated with shame and disgrace! However, it appears to be quite powerful and that is what counts, right? Perhaps it means shame and disgrace to the Dementors that this Patronus will defeat!

Doing my Homework.

I've been told that, as a first year, I will have 5 assignments this year. I must:

1. Make a kit bag in house-specific colors, using whatever craft I desire
2. Find some sock yarn in house-specific colors.
3. Provide pair of new knitting needles, preferably in a type requested by another student.
4. Either make or buy a set of stitch markers
5. Find a sock pattern suitable for the sock yarn.

As it turns out, I'm getting off easy. Apparently, 3rd and 4th year students have another assignment on top of that! Luckily, we all have until April 4th to get this altogether.

We don't find out the house-specific colors or the type of needles requested until January 23. I've decided to get a bit of a head start--I've visited the shops provided in The Great Hall, and have been on the look-out for patterns or designs suitable for a kit bag. I do have some experience making stitch markers, but have also found quite a few very nice ones available for sale. I've also been scoring this marvelous place called Ravelry for the perfect pattern. Of course, I've been looking at yarn, too, and am currently drooling over a colorway called Fawkes. But, don't tell anyone that! I couldn't bear it if it got out that I was fond of the bird so closely associated with Gryffindor! I'm very true to my house, I promise.

I've heard about this game called "Quiddich" quite a few times recently. I'm not quite understanding the rules fully. A sign in the Great Hall says:

There will be three rounds of Quidditch during this swap. Quidditch consists of a trivia challenge, picture scavenger hunt, and a hunt for the Golden Snitch.

Does this mean we will be given trivia questions and are meant to answer them in a blog? Is there a time limit? And, how do we prevent cheating (say, one student stealing answers from another's blog?) Does an individual win, or does the prize go to the house? Any and all answers would be much appreciated!

Picture-button!

There have been a lot of people asking how to make clickable buttons. I figured, seeing as I'm in Ravenclaw, I had better do my best to give instruction to those in need!

Here is the code you need:
<*a href="http://hsks4.blogspot.com/">
<*img src="http://yourimgsourcehere/" />
<*/a>

The *stars* are not needed, so delete those.
Add your own image source code where it says. (See Note below if you need help with this.)
Then copy-paste the three lines into an HTML/Javascript widget.

Note: Getting your own source code:
1) Right click the picture on my sidebar. In the list that appears, choose "Save Image As . . ." Save it wherever you'd like on your computer.
2) Upload the image to your photo-hosting site (Flickr, Photobucket, etc)
3) Right click the image from your photo-hosting site. In the list that appears, choose "Copy Image Location"
4) Paste the image location into the code above.


I hope this will help my fellow Hogwarts classmates!

Hello!

I am Fleur, and I'm a first year to Hogwarts. I took 5 tries to be sorted, but eventually Ravenclaw prevailed. Apparently, I also sort of belong to Gryffindor and Hufflepuff. (5 Sorting quizzes - 3 put me in Ravenclaw, 1 in each Gryffindor and Hufflepuff.) I'm quite glad I'm in Ravenclaw, I've heard it is the best house. I don't think I'd fit in Gryffindor. Cocky bunch there. The Hufflepuffs seem quite nice, though. And those Slytherins--just plain rude! One pushed his way past me, knocked over all of my books, just because he wanted a seat on the Hogwarts Express!

I've done some research on my house. Here are a few of the links!
http://ravenclaw.info/
http://www.hp-lexicon.org/hogwarts/houses/ravenclaw.html
http://www.geocities.com/ukharrypotter/hogwarts/houses/ravenclaw.htm