Aisling Birch would rather be invisible

The 7th Year Festival today was a lot of fun, but I think next year I'm going to drop USO in order to concentrate more on my studies. I have faith that next year's 6th years will do an equally good job of organising it though.

I start working on Monday, back at the ice cream parlour again. It's nice to have a regular summer job to come back to, but it's strange to think that this is the last year I'll do it, that next year I'll hopefully have a proper job lined up. I'll miss it, I think.

I'm going to make the most of my last summer of freedom. I hope everyone else has a lovely summer, and I wish all our recently-graduated 7th years the best of luck in whichever direction their life takes them.

It always takes longer for spring to reach Hogwarts than it does to reach my home town, Hogwarts being so much further north. But the days are getting longer, the weather's getting warmer, and that means the hay fever season is well and truly on its way. Luckily term usually ends before the grass starts pollinating and it gets unbearable uncomfortable, but the trees are pollinating and that's bad enough.

Is anyone else disturbed by the Ministry's plans to give wands to goblins and house-elves? It's not just that I think it's a really, really bad idea, but choosing who to give wands to just doesn't sit right with me. How can you ever accurately judge trustworthiness? I think that if you're going to give wands to other beings, at least be consistent and give them to everyone rather than picking and choosing. I just can't see it ending well. The goblins will protest that we're still holding power over them -- which we are -- by making them go through what I presume will be a lengthy process, with no guarantee of a successful result at the end of it. I understand that change can't be radical in order for people to accept it, but I think the Ministry will always insist on keeping other beings on a lower level to wizardkind.

Although I can't condone Colleen's methods, I think she made a valid point in tonight's Charms Club. It doesn't feel right to simply kill all creatures considered "pests". I mean, I don't have a problem with swatting flies or squashing ants (or any other insects that I don't want crawling all over my food) but I don't mind having spiders in the room or anything like that. I always try to take insects and so on outside if I think they'll be happier there. Yes, it startled me when I found a goldfrog in the shower this morning, but once I was dressed I took it down to the lake and released it. They're really very pretty animals.

There's a difference between not wanting creatures around because they're dangerous or a health hazard, and not wanting them around because you don't like them or are scared of them. And if it's the latter, it's certainly not right to kill them just to make yourself feel better.

( Private )

I think I'd rather spend money on hair-removing potions than attempt that charm for myself. It just feels weird and I'm sure it can't be good for you, no matter what Professor Frobisher said. I mean, she would try and convince us that charms are better than potions.

The straightening and curling charms were better, but since I already knew those I didn't think tonight's meeting was all that useful. For me, anyway. I suppose it was helpful for the younger years.

This girl's choice is to curl up in front of the common room fire with a book and a mug of hot chocolate.

Enjoy the dance, everyone who's going. I'm going to enjoy my evening.

Is it possible to become addicted to headache potions? Hypothetically sp

Would someone possibly spare a few minutes to Side-Along me because I think if I knew how it feels to Apparate then I might get f


[Private]

I suppose the world's problems are bigger than my own right now. I mean, they always are, but right now it would just be egocentric to ask the questions I want to ask and ignore what's going on. Although to be honest I don't think anyone knows what is going on, exactly. A riot with several casualties was the latest update this morning, and that was it. Nothing about why there was a riot (although something tells me the neopurists are connected with it -- and if they're not, the Prophet will still claim there's a connection). I'm pretty glad there's the whole of the UK and the Irish Sea in between me and Azkaban.

At least Liam's gone home now. He's 30 next month and I keep thinking about what it must have been like for my mother, dropping out of Hogwarts and never doing her NEWTs or anything. She was my age -- three months younger, in fact, since her birthday's in January. It's just so weird to think about.

And Brevis being in the gossip column again is not helping with this headache. Do people really still care about what he gets up to?

[/Private]


The news always seems to be so oblique these days.

Personally, I'm just waiting for the Daily Prophet to accuse Baron Fitzroy of being a Neo-Purist.

[Private]

Mother's Day. Why do I always dread it? I sent her a card and the gift basket I bought in Hogsmeade, but I just felt so sick when I owled it off and that's not how I should be feeling. I love her, of course I do, don't I? but it made me think of all those times at primary school where I'd have to make something for her and I'd always try so hard to please her even though I hardly ever saw her, she was always working long hours, and I know it's not her fault she was a single parent struggling to make ends meet but I resent her leaving me with Liam and never being around and always feeling like it was my fault.

It wouldn't be so bad if she'd just leave me alone about Apparation, but she's so obsessed, all because she dropped out in her sixth year and never learnt how to do it. I'm trying, I want to learn how to Apparate but I just can't. I wouldn't mind if I was Splinching because at least that would be progress but all I do is spin around in circles till I'm dizzy. I think about the three Ds and I've read up on all the theory and I've read descriptions of what it feels like so I try and envision that but nothing happens. I thought I was lucky because of my early birthday and not having to wait until the summer to take my test but is there any point in taking it the first time when I can't even do anything? I suppose I've got a few more weeks but it feels like I've hit a brick wall and I don't know what to do to get past it.

[/Private]


I miss the flowers. It feels like we've gone back into winter again.

Don't get me wrong, I'm proud to be Irish, but there's no way I'm wearing one of those shamrocks. Have you heard what they sound like? I can't decide if their "singing" is better or worse than the honking daffodils.

If English students get perfectly in-tune roses with the voices of sopranos on St George's Day then I'm claiming favouritism.


[Private to Charlotte]

Are you all right?

[/Private]

That was one of the least enjoyable Hogsmeade weekends I've ever had. Reporters really are like vultures, aren't they? Obviously some people wanted to talk to them, and that's their choice, but they could have stopped harrassing those of us who'd rather not have our names splashed across the papers. We only get to go to Hogsmeade a few times a year and I wanted to get some shopping done while I was there, not spend my time dodging Dictaquills and cameras.

I'm rather surprised no one threw cabbages this year. Not that I have anything against the Welsh, but I would've thought all the honking was more provocative than a parade.

[Private to people who disappeared]

Did everyone else get an owl from the reporters? They're quite brazen, aren't they? I handed mine over to Professor Dawlish since I thought the professors ought to be aware of it. I know Professor Sprout has enough on her plate right now, but it's not right for the younger years to be harrassed like this.

[/Private]


[Private]

Five and a half days is barely any time at all compared to an entire lifetime of allergies, so how is it my time in the empty world has made me so unused to dealing with them? My symptoms seem a hundred times worse.

[/Private]

( Private )

I suppose this means that our transition back to the real world is going to be a gradual process, unlike our disappearance.

[Private]

As I see it, there are three options:

1. Everyone else (plus all the furniture, food, etc.) disappeared/were transported somewhere else.
2. We (plus the main structure of Hogwarts and a few other items) disappeared/were transported somewhere else.
3. No one disappeared/was transported somewhere else. We both occupy the same space but are unable to interact.

Evidence for and against each option:

1. Everyone else disappeared.

+ Furniture and people are easier to vanish/transport than a whole castle. The scenery outside looks similar.
- Why would things like the leaves on the trees have been vanished as well?
- This means that the majority of the castle's occupants and objects were affected, which would be harder to pull off (especially vanishing about a hundred people all at the same time).

2. We disappeared.

+ If the spell that transported us went wrong, that would explain why not everything was transported along with us.
+ This means that only the minority of the castle's occupants and objects were affected.
- Is it possible to transport a whole building such as Hogwarts, plus all the grounds?
- I didn't feel anything. Surely I would've noticed if a spell had been cast on me?

3. No one disappeared.

+ I don't really understand this option, to be honest, but I think it would be similar to those magical boxes that have different locks, and depending which key you use to open it, you find different things in the box. They're very expensive, obviously, because it's a difficult enchantment to cast, so I don't have any experience with them directly. I only know that theoretically it is possible for two things to coexist in the same space, but not interact.
- I've never heard of a spell that can cause two objects to... become unaware of each other, for lack of a better way of explaining it. Whereas vanishing objects is a spell. Likewise with transporting people.

The first option is initially the most appealing, simply because that is what our senses tell us. But I have more evidence for the second option (assuming that I'm correct in assuming it's easier or more likely for the minority to have been affected). As for the third option... it's the one that makes me most uncomfortable, because I don't know how it could be undone. At least with the first two options we're... on the same plane of existence, just in different places.

This isn't helping. I'm calm. I am. I have to be. It's going to be all right.

[/Private]

[Friends]

Do you ever feel like you're waiting for your life to start?

[/Friends]

It is lucky we have a potions master in the family, otherwise I don't know how we would have survived being given contaminated honey for Christmas. Most likely we would have all succumbed to a deep depression and been unable to rouse ourselves from such melancholy, gradually wasting away entirely. I probably owe my life to Liam Birch, the aforementioned potions master. Why, if it wasn't for his prodigious skills then the consequences could have been dire indeed! I can't believe he's being so modest about the entire affair. He only reminds us several times a minute how he single-handedly saved us all. Frankly, I'm surprised no one has composed a ballad in his honour yet. Or would the Order of Merlin (first class, naturally) be more appropriate?



On a less sarcastic note, does anyone want to go see a film? I need to get out of the house think we have a Muggle newspaper with the listings in... Somewhere. Hang on, let me go find it.

It was a bit daunting when, at the start of term, all the professors suddenly expected us to perform spells non-verbally now that we were sixth years. I wasn't at all certain their all-or-nothing approach was appropriate, but these days I find myself performing simple spells non-verbally without even thinking about it.

Between that, and being of age, I think the holidays are going to be bearable.

I don't think I'll be going to the Muggle Studies club's art discussion next week, since I don't know all that much about art, but I have enjoyed seeing all the new paintings that have been put up. I was pleased that "The Sea Hath Its Pearls" was one of the chosen pictures, since I have a print of that in my bedroom at home. (That's the painting of the woman on the seashore, with the round frame, for those who haven't been looking closely at the titles.) Not that I've anything against wizard paintings, but I think it's nicer to be able to be able to contemplate a painting without its occupant trying to draw you into a conversation. More peaceful.


[Friends]

A slightly odd question, but does my hair look lighter? I swear that ever since that speed charming contest where my hair was accidentally turned purple, it's steadily been getting blonder. I thought I'd fixed it back to my natural colour, but maybe I didn't get the charm quite right? Does it look What do you think? Am I imagining it?

[/Friends]


[Josh]

Has Sonic settled into his new bed all right?

[/Josh]

ATTENTION EVERYONE.

I do NOT have sneezing sickness. I am allergic to cats, and as there are about a hundred cats here at Hogwarts, I sneeze. A lot. It's nothing unusual for me, and since I can perform magic perfectly well and am not growing or shrinking when I sneeze, I can assure you all that I am quite healthy. Apart from the allergies.

I don't appreciate being glared at, nor is it particularly pleasant to be told to go to the Hospital Wing "before you infect everyone in the common room, bitch." I'm also getting a little sick tired of people covering up their nose and mouth whenever I come near them and pretending to ring a bell. I'm not a bloody leper.

So could everyone please leave me alone now?

( Private )

( Private to Louis )

I love the week after the clocks go back, when I still wake up an hour early and I get to stay in bed with a book before getting up. It's that feeling of having extra time that I love. After the weekend I know I'll be back in sync, but it's nice while it lasts.

By the way, thank you to my Secret Santa! Astronomy is one of my favourite classes, so your gift was very thoughtful and much appreciated.