Welcome to HPFT's May's bulletin, where you can find all of our major monthly announcements, information about house yearly awards, and more!

If you're new, welcome to HPFT! It's awesome to have you with us. HPFanficTalk is a forum/archive - the forum is Harry Potter-themed (including a year-long house cup), but we talk about other fandoms, too, and the archive is multi-fandom/OF.   We have a strong culture of support for other writers and feedback here, including a story help section, challenges, and reviewing events, so if you're a writer, you've come to the right place.

A quick rundown to help you get started here on the forums: please post in the 'Welcome to HPFT' topic +here to say that you've read over the rules and understand them. You can specify your house in that post or in our sorting ceremony +here - once you do, we'll sort you into the right group so you can see a common room that only people in your house are allowed to see. You're welcome to post in your common room and/or in our introductions forum +here to introduce yourself if you'd like, and you may also find our +FAQs helpful.

Enjoy your stay! 

We are pleased to announce that @crestwood, @Lacey Black, and @MalfoysAngel will all be joining the prefect team, and both @MalfoysAngel and @potionspartner will be stepping up to join their respective house's newsletter editor teams.

Congratulations Joey, Lacey, Tasha, and Barbara!

Would you like to pitch in behind-the-scenes?

If so, you're in luck! Applications for all staff, prefect, and house newsletter editor positions are open for the next week. There's no post count/join date limit, and you can apply for as many positions as you like - it's all on one application. A detailed rundown on how HPFT staffing works can be found +here, and you can find the application +here. If you're interested, please apply by Midnight EST on May 10th.

If you applied in March or April, you don't need to apply again unless you'd like to apply for additional positions or change your answers - we will still consider you this month. 

The +Third Round of the Collab is on it's way, and in the meantime keep your eyes peeled on your common rooms, for House Award season is right around the corner!

Gryffindor

It was a busy month of writing for our Lions, who have been hard at work with their pen pals and in their Camp nests! Capture the Flag made its triumphant return and will continue on into May to help us prepare for the upcoming POGs. It's not too late to join a team, so if you're still interested in playing, stop by +the return thread to sign up and be assigned to a team! Our Featured Fic was mes a'n lester by @nott theodore, who's also our Leading Lion! Congrats on the sweep this month!

Hufflepuff

In April, Hufflepuff had a blast with some Puff-a-Palooza review events in preparation for .the Golden Chalice awards. The wonderful @Jo Raskoph is Hufflepuff of the Month for May. She Softly Guides by @RoRoWeasley won Hufflepuff Story of the Month for May, while @Jo Raskoph wrote our winning monthly review. Keep an eye out for May’s edition of Hear Ye, Hufflepuff! And look out for Chalice nominations coming soon.

Ravenclaw

This month kicked off the beginning of Ravenclaw's Nargles Awards season!  Many of our house spent this last month intensively writing for Camp NaNoWriMo, producing so much good content! Also, keep an eye out for an extra-special reviewing event happening in June, Claws!  Our Claw of the month goes to the phenomenal @ReillyJade, and her story June Bug (M) is May's Story of the Month!

Slytherin

The Snakes have been busy participating in an extra-special EvS round this month, in order to prepare for the MFWHATAs! They've been doing a phenomenal job of getting those reviews around! Snake of the Month went to @crestwood, for being a wonderful, kind, and helpful Snakeling. Slytherin Story of the Month was taken by three magnificent Snake-authored stories: Daughter's Lament by @beyond the rain, Unpave my Path by @MegGonagall, and Forgive Us Our Trespasses by @Oregonian!

Gryffindor House submission by: @adorably cute. Hufflepuff House Submission by: @MuggleMaybe. Ravenclaw House Submission by: @MadiMalfoy. Slytherin House submission by: @Rumpelstiltskin

Our first Head Student of the month has been a very active member for a while now, but his presence is as such that he cannot be overlooked. From joining challenges, to being a friendly face on the site and offering help literally everywhere, to writing a ton of stories both in general and for the collab - this person has become an invaluable member of the site. So please give it up for...

@crestwood!

Our second Head Student of the month has only joined recently, but she's been leaving and offering reviews from the get-go, is incredibly friendly, can be found literally everywhere on the site and has in no-time at all become a member of their House which they can't do without anymore! Such an impression can't be overlooked, so please give it up for...

@RoRoWeasley!

Congratulations to both of you - we love having you in our community!  Please PM @abhorsen. with your choice of story you'd like to have featured next month!

This month we’d like to recognize not one, but two phenomenal staffers for their hard work in maintaining a long-running event and also generally being wonderful members in this community! As our GameKeepers, @TidalDragon and @ShadowRose have consistently answered our relentless questions and concerns about the Great Collab with wit and clarity (and many a fun gif). Kevin not only runs House Cup events, but also hosts Fic Night every month and does a fantastic job at it! Taylor has just recently taken on the role of GameKeeper, but she is taking it all in stride along with her Muggle Liaison duties and is very active on the archives and social media! These two are working so hard and deserve a healthy round of applause for all they do for this site and the community! 

May's story of the month is...

Inheritance by @Bunbury

Quote

 

Phaedra Morley leads a quiet, private life, working at a Diagon Alley apothecary and looking after her infirm mother. But Phaedra has a secret, and now she must retrace her father's footsteps through the Dark Arts and find out what he was working on when he disappeared in the wake of Voldemort's fall. Along the way she enlists the help of a feckless bookseller and -- much to his displeasure -- Severus Snape.

A story of death, madness, haunted houses, true friends, and Cockroach Clusters.

May's Fic Night stories are Demented by @potionspartner, Hidden Desire by @Lacey Black, and Phineas Nigellus: Vampire Hunter by @Bunbury as a bonus story for the Nano project story. You can check out @TidalDragon reading them on +our youtube page if you haven't seen it yet!

This month, we're featuring stories from recent head students, the top three from this year's FROGS 'Best Humor,'

Best non-Harry Potter Fandom,' 'Best Minor Character', and 'Most Original' categories, site + house stories of the month, and several staff picks. Don't forget to stop by HPFT's Social Media pages throughout the month [Twitter | Tumblr | Facebook] to claim your free gift from the ML team! 

        

Congratulations, @Bunbury, @beyond the rain, @Downbelow, @Lacey Black, @MegGonagall, @nott theodore, @Oregonian, @potionspartner, @ReillyJade, @RoRoWeasley, @Rumpelstiltskin, and @Sleepingbagonthesofa!

May 31 – The Dragon Tale Story Challenge by @Tanda

May 31 - The Faking It Challenge by @ShadowRose

June 1 - The Build-A-Story Challenge by @RoxiMalfoy and @Lacey Black

June 20 - The [Blank] Meets [Blank] Challenge by @MuggleMaybe

June 30 - The Open Road Challenge by @you-make-me-wander

July 1 - The More Than A Stereotype Challenge by @MalfoysAngel

July 5 - The Spinoff Challenge by @crestwood

July 10 - The Shaking Up Shakespeare Challenge by @nott theodore

July 31 - The Make Me Like Sirius Black Challenge by @Noelle Zingarella

2 - @FireCrest

6 - @water_lily43175

8 - @Oregonian

10 - @bahneebee

16 - @LunaStellaCat; @magnifique

21 - @RoRoWeasley

23 - @Dojh167; @esmeraude; @Gabriella Hunter

24 - @Aphoride

25 - @HeyMrsPotter

29 - @MeIsMoonie

30 - @Alwynse; @DictionaryWrites

31 - @greisful; @SnitchSeer

 

Bulletin written and/or compiled by @Ineke and @abhorsen. (mostly Ineke this month, she's amazing). Gryffindor's House Submission was written by @adorably cute, Hufflepuff's was written by @MuggleMaybe, Ravenclaw's was written by @MadiMalfoy, and Slytherin's was written by  @Rumpelstiltskin. Order of Merlin written by @MadiMalfoy .  All graphics by @abhorsen.. Featured staff picks by @ShadowRose (Revival) and @Rumpelstiltskin (When the Storm Stood Still).