Susan Bones

It was a pretty brill weekend overall, even without Hogsmeade--really, it was a bit of a wrench getting back to lessons today.

I went flying Saturday morning, just me and Valkyrie; she's been looking a bit ragged of feather lately and I wanted to spend some time with her. I think she misses visiting her friends at Professor Grubbly-Plank's owlery, now that she's teaching here.

Solo flying is sometimes the best thing in the world, just flying out over the lake in the morning sun with the little wavelets far below.

Ms. Pencarrow was pretty wizard at the YPL meeting; she had loads of really interesting stuff to show us on the Hogwarts portrait tour. We stopped at this amazing room on the way to Gryffindor tower that's absolutely stuffed full of portraits, and I thought right then that it would be a great spot for the Tea.

That was Sunday, and a good time was had by all, I hope! My scarf still looks a little twitchy, as if it's lonesome for its time as a top hat.

Thanks to the Slytherin portion of the membership for the monocles and moustaches--did you get those at Zonko's?

The games with the portraits mostly went well, although we might have had an easier time getting down from the tower if someone hadn't called Sir Cadogan a pea-brained pillock!

Those portraits must have some way to communicate with the moving staircases, that's the only explanation I've got.

Still, if everything went normally, it wouldn't be Tea Time of the Strange!

After all that fun, it had better be a life of revision for me--we've got 12 inches to write on the theory behind Wit-Sharpening Potion before we start brewing it, argh.