The Hogwarts Diaries - Marauder's Era

The Hype - Marcia

Dear Diary,

It’s a rare moment when I don’t know what to think. Normally I’m quite apt at tuning out noises, but the chatter echoing around the walls of the castle is too prominent to ignore. It seems every student at Hogwarts is positively brimming with excitement. Even those who tend to be critical of school activities are grinning. I keep catching fragments of sentences that pull me out of my thoughts.”Qudditch” and “Duelling”. “Beauxbaton” and “Durmstrang”.  “Honours” and “Cirque”. And of course, the most confusing word of all.

Ball.

The posters had appeared after afternoon classes, no doubt to prevent students from being hopelessly distracted in class and absent-mindedly setting fire to the DADA room. Great masses of paper, enough posters for every student at Hogwarts plus some, levitating throughout the halls. Naturally I’d joined my fellow students in reaching up and grabbing a copy for myself.

As I’d read through I felt the smile on my face growing. It was the Duelling Tournament that caught my eyes initially. Nothing would please me more than being able to put all that time spent studying obscure new spells to good use. Show everyone that I have other talents besides repelling any other human beings.

And the Quidditch cup could only be amazing. I myself didn’t have the temperament for flying, after a rogue broom had carried me off and deposited me in an enormous tree in the Forbidden Forest in my First Year. It had been dark before I had been found, and yet another hour before a teacher was brought to get me down. After that I’d opted to keep my feet planted firmly on the ground.

But you couldn’t simply dislike Quidditch. The excitement, the magic of the game was too strong not to be pulled into. Not to mention that it was international. A chance for Hogwarts to crush other schools. Maybe it would take some of the pressure off inter-house competitiveness. Besides, Wil and Mulciber were Slytherin beaters.

Mulciber. As I’d read down the poster, getting more enthusiastic the further I read, my face had suddenly dropped at the last event. The Enchanted Masked Ball. My face had burrowed into confusion and that is where it stayed.

It was of course, the very event I’d frozen at that was proving the biggest topic for my schoolmates. Dancing, dresses and partners. The chance for lovers to ask out their crush. The chance for romance, for true love.

All the reasons I was petrified.