Apologies if you receive this multiple times. :)

Welcome to the first issue of December!! We apologize for the delay. Our owls have been a little sick lately, and the prefects have been busy with their finals. But no fear, for the OP is back!

First up is the Gryffindor Drama Club! On the 18th at 5:30pm EST, they performed a wonderful rendition of The Days of Our Tower, an original production. It was done in #godricshollow on IRC. There is a log available in the library.

This revolutionary episode is about the Gryffindor word-that-shall-not-be-spoken, and the three first years who bravely search for it. In this Episode we follow the first year trio, Harriet, Ronja and Herme’s adventurous investigation to find out about the mysterious word that none of the older students will reveal. Their frantic, madhouse journey involves them being attacked randomly by other students when they’re seemingly just having a normal conversation with other people. Why this odd behaviour? What could be triggering this? Have they mentioned the illegal word by accident perhaps? And what about the strange third year robed in purple?

All this and more might be answered. You'll have to come along if you want to know more.

Thanks too all who attended!!

Next up is points nagging. Don't grumble! Points aren't all about schoolwork. There are lots of other fun things you can do to help Gryffindor win the House Cup!

Points, why should I seek to earn points? The answer is simply because if you don't there is only so long that the nice Gryffindor Prefects (i.e. myself) can keep the Big Nasty Gryffindor Prefects from using their choosen weapons of doom.

Opportunities:

(1) Obvioulsy classes, most deadlines are the 15th of this month, but be sure to check. There might be assignments and exams you can do to earn points, so go on and do it.

(2) The Goblet of Fire competition from the HOL forum, go and check http://hol.org.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=13832, for more information.

(3) The Singing Sensations of HOL check http://hol.org.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=13738. This is an easy way to earn yourself 5 points if you can manage to send a song to Prof Liv.

Our last House Meeting went well. For those of you who weren't able to attend the house meeting, the log is now online.

http://www.gryff.net/houselogs/051211.html

Or just got to http://gryff.net and click the house meeting link and then on the link for December 11th. Whichever way suits you more.

The December Den Challenge, Boris the Sock's Multi-ethnic Christmas Jamboree, is currnetly going on. Two years ago, Boris searched desperately for an apropriate holiday to celebrate in the winter.

However, after many failed attempts at finding a traditional holiday to celebrate, Boris ultimately decided to creat his very own holiday.

He created perhaps the very best holiday ever, complete with symbols, traditions, songs, decorations, food, and for some reason, a large aardvark. However, after delirious weeks of celebrations, Cyn accidentally stashed all the master plans for this holiday in a shoebox under my bed. Unfortunately, when I had informed her mere weeks earlier that I had accidentally created a wormhole under my bed, she thought I was joking.

I wasn't.

Therefore, Boris' perfect holiday was lost forever to the world. I suppose we could have tried to remember the details, but loking back ont he whole event, all I remember is lots of butterbeer, funny hats, and that blasted aardvark.

Therefore, it's up to you and your den to gather together to creat a holiday for Boris to celebrate. As a den you must create a holiday with all of the following:

-A name and an explanation that tell what your holiday's about

-How this holiday came into existence and the story of the first time this holiday was celebrated.

-Symbols for the holiday-IE: Christmas has snowmen and Santa. (Images are preferred for this part.)

-A song that is sung during the holiday

-Detailed holiday traditions, including what you eat, what you do on the holiday, and any other ceremonies.

Be creative! Don't steal from other holidays! And above all else, NO BORING HOLIDAYS!

All stuff must be emailed to comradefernsky@gmail.com with the name of your den by December 20th. I know that doesn't give you a lot of time, but I also know you won't want to be working on Christmas. Winners will be announced on December 27th.

First place- 25 rubies for EVERY STUDENT THAT PARTICIPATED (it is up to the den leaders to gather names of participating students)
Second Place- 15 rubies for every participating student
Third place- 10 rubies
Fourth place- 5 rubies

Good luck, and happy holiday creating!

We have two very deserving recipients for the month of December to present to you all! After a month of debating and hard decisions, it is my pleasure to announce the following Gryffindor Award winners:

First, for her excessive helpfulness and playfulness and just really being an all-around great help, the Awards Committee would like to present Katie Potter with the Nimbus 2000 Award.

And the other award goes to someone who has worked very hard at her studies. She is active with SUN and is doing great in her classes. So without further ado, I present Jessica Summers with the Platinum Quill Award.

There is a HOL wide contest going on about Goblet of Fire:

"Here's your chance to earn a few points for your House and share your experience or your opinions about the newest Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire!

Now, to warn you, you are allowed to submit only one submission for this activity, and it can be either:

- a movie review about GoF OR
- an anecdote about seeing the movie

All submissions must be emailed to gobletoffire.hol@gmail.com, and you can earn yourself 10 points for yourself and your House! Yay!

However, you are required to have at LEAST 120 words to qualify for points, and because if I didn't we'd like to maintain our editor's sanity, you cannot have more than 4000 words, just because they may not read it if it's too long."

Congratulations to those that survived the term! The staff of the OP is very proud of our House and wishes you all the best of luck next term.