Surprises

Uric the Oddball was a disruptive influennce on Wizarding culture because of his

Oops! I started doing my revising for History of Magic in my journal instead of my parchment.  I'm trying to get a lot of revising done today since the only class we have is double DADA with the Gryffindors.  I like Professor Lockhart very much, but not because he's handsome although he is. It's the way he tells stories--I'd love to be able to tell stories like that someday.   I used to think that I would like to have lots of adventures like he does, but now that there have been some real adventures here at Hogwarts Im not so sure.   They seem scary more than anything. 

I've been thinking a lot lately about how sometimes things aren't the way you expect them to be at all.   When we had our first flying lesson at the beginning of the year, I was so sure I'd do well right away because I'd ridden on loads of brooms with my dad.  But it turns out that controlling a broom yourself is a lot different than just riding on one that someone else is steering.  I was able to get my broom to jump into my hand right away but then it took off!  I was just barely hanging on and Madame Hooch had to help me get down.  I was really shaken up and worried that maybe I would always be terrible.  So I owled Daddy for advice and he reminded me that you have to show a broom that you are in charge and really believe it.  That helped a lot and now I think I'm quite good at flying for a first-year.

I didn't expect to do well at all in the chess tourney--I mostly said I'd do it because Sally-Anne convinced me and I wanted to make sure Hufflepuff was represented.  I did lose really badly to Patil in the first round--she did some kind of mental series of moves and had my king in 4 turns!  It was a bit rough standing around watching everyone else finish, but I have to admit it was clever. And Patil did me a favor in a way--I don't think I'll get fooled by that ever again.  I just wish it had been somebody else.  Then I played Weasley--I don't really know him except to say hello to in the coridor before class, but I'd heard that he was really good. And he was.  I expect he could have finished me pretty quickly, but he played out a longer game and even explained a few times why a certain move was good or bad.  A couple of times he told me to hurry up and move already but I don't think he was actualy mad.

Up till then I was doing even worse than I'd expected, and I was feeling a little bit down but I didn't want to give up. Then I played Bobby Stebbins.  Bobby usually beats me when we play in the common room because hes a very agressive player and Im a very careful one.  But this time I decided to be more agressive and I did some things that I saw Weasley do, and I won!  Then I played Neville and that was a really good match!  I think it could have gone either way but I was feeling quite excited from having just won the match against Bobby and Neville seemed tired from a couple of long matches. He thought he was moving his king out of check but he'd forgotten about my knight!  I quite often forget the knights too but this time I didnt!

So I quite surprised myself by doing well after a bad start! 

One nice surprise at Hogwarts has been the journals--I guess no one knew we were going to get them before school began, and I wasnt sure what to make of them at first.  But I've decided that I really like them because I've talked to people who I might never have talked to without them like Harry Marvolo and Pansy Parkinson.  I went to the Owlery after the chess matches to get my owl Valkyrie because Pansy had wanted to meet her.  We met in a classroom that isn't used anymore and played some music for Valkyrie to see if she liked it.  She did, except for Nine Inch Wands which made her fly around the room screeching!  I've decided that I like Gary Grimoire a lot--some of his songs are like stories and some are like listening to a persons thoughts.  None of my dormmates are interested in music except Hannah and she and I don't really like the same things. I had a good time and I hope Pansy did as well sometimes its hard to tel  I cant wait to meet her Kneazle when she gets one! Even though it is kind of a horrid story about her cousin we both agreed that Piranhas Ate My Kneazle would be a good name for a band.

But there have been some not-so-nice surprises at Hogwarts too--like that troll at the feast and what happened to Harry Marvolo's broom and the Carr.  I hope there aren't any more of those!