Sofie Corner

Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.
~Norman Vincent Peale

Instead of being a time of unusual behavior, Christmas is perhaps the only time in the year when people can obey their natural impulses and express their true sentiments without feeling self-conscious and, perhaps, foolish. Christmas, in short, is about the only chance a man has to be himself.
~Francis C. Farley

Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love!
~Hamilton Wright Mabie

It's very nearly December, which means it's almost Christmas, which is my favourite season of the year. Everyone's just...nicer. People think about each other more than themselves, they do random acts of kindness more often, and we get to give gifts, which is so fun! I love seeing people's faces after they open gifts I've given them.

Christmas really is the most wonderful time of the year, and here it's almost that time again. Colour me red, green, and happy all over!

The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up.
~Mark Twain

What a wonderful life I've had! I only wish I'd realized it sooner.
~Colette

Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.
~Abraham Lincoln

The most pressing part of these anonymous comments, to me, at least, is how many sad people there are. If you're feeling down and you'd rather be feeling up instead, try:

• Eat some chocolate. It's proven to make you happier!
  
• Go for a run. Exercising releases happy chemicals in your brain.
  
• Sleep properly, eight to ten hours.
  
• Laugh with your friends; it's called the best medicine for a reason, and/or
  
• Go outside, because sunshine (even through clouds) improves mood.
  

Come on, Hogwarts, cheer up!

Don't wrestle in the mud with a pig. You both get dirty, but the pig likes it.
~Common Saying

Just in case anyone was wondering, the correct plural terms for the houses are:

• A convocation of Ravenclaws (eagles)
  
• A pride of Gryffindors (lions)
  
• A cete or a clan of Hufflepuffs (badgers)
  
• A nest of Slytherins (snakes)

Clothes make a statement. Costumes tell a story.
~Mason Cooley

A costumed ball is such a good idea! Who knows what they're going as already?

Private to Josie
I'm sure Cal's with you, so you're all right, but when you wake up, would you let me or Nona know so we don't worry?

Also, before you start to think it, there wasn't time today for you to have played well or badly.
/Private

Lust's passion will be served; it demands, it militates, it tyrannizes.
~Marquis de Sade

If you got yourself in a mess the other day at breakfast, please sort it out with whomever you need to sort it out with. It's not worth losing all the friendships and romances that make Hogwarts such a wonderful place, especially not when one or both of you couldn't control yourselves.

At the same time, though, if you've discovered a newfound attraction to someone as a result of this, act on it! You never know when love could be lurking around the corner.

Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.
~John Ruskin

Anyone who says sunshine brings happiness has never danced in the rain.
~I can't remember who said this

Bad weather always looks worse through a window.
~This either, I'm afraid

Anyone else up for a walk in the rain? Umbrellas, hooded cloaks, and water-repelling charms are cheating. Getting wet is the entire point.

The greatest poem ever known
Is one all poets have outgrown:
The poetry, innate, untold,
Of being only four years old.
~Christopher Morley, "To a Child"

( Dream, dream, dream )