Waived Illusions

My name is Julie Fawcett, and the account you're about to read is the absolutely true story of my last year of Hogwarts. I've taken writing classes - I know you're supposed to show rather than tell, and I intend on doing that. Just let me tell you a few things first.

In general, all Hogwarts students live pretty difficult lives. We've got swirling passageways, "unique" teachers, and what's possibly the coldest, draftiest living quarters from the 20^th century upwards. That's not even to mention OWLs, NEWTs, and the homework load, which can only be described as - well, immense.

But I think us Ravenclaws have it a bit harder than most. You see, our house has the greatest amount of Muggle-born students, and by a significant amount, too. I suppose it's because Gryffindor and Slytherin - and Hufflepuff too, to a certain extent - have family histories. All the purebloods there can trace their ancestries back through generations of parents and grandparents, all in the same house. So we ended up with everyone else, the "free thinkers". And while that may not sound too important, it affects our way of life. Traditional subjects and all sports besides Quidditch, for example - we had to arrange those all ourselves. The Drama Club was a Ravenclawidea, and so was the symphony orchestra. We're the ones who arranged to get the Mugglepapers - a few English ones, and even the New York Times flown in, so we wouldn't lose touch with the outside world. We've had to lobby for some religious freedoms too - you should have see Professor Snape when my friend Mandy wouldn't sample her potion because it wasn't kosher.

And then, of course, there's our own little secret. Over the last few years, we've managed to sneak some laptops and modems into the common room. There are spells to guard against that kind of technology, but a few of us are learning theoretical magic, so we were able to take care of that - and Padma Patil, who's pureblood, and had never seen computers before, learned how to network everything. Luckily, our Head of House, Professor Sinistra, is a Muggle-born too. She was a professor at a regular school for a while before she taught here, so she understands. In fact, sometimes she sneaks in to check E-Mails and look up some things herself.

This year's been the hardest of any - and it's not just because of the NEWTs, though I'm taking a ton of them. It's Professor Umbridge- she was in the Ministry before she came to teach here, and attempted to turn the school into a political entity. And then there was the Quidditchscandals, and the experimental magic, and Harry Potter with Dumbledore'sArmy... But I'm getting ahead of myself, and after all, this is only a prologue. When you see for yourself what happened this year, it might make sense - or at least the actions will. Even now, looking back, I still haven't been able to figure out why.