Welcome to the HPFT bulletin, where you can find all of our major monthly announcements and information about new events - including the winners of last year's house cup and the kickoff of our 2018-2019 house cup!

If you're new, first and foremost: 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!

To: All Columnists

From: HPFT Staff

We know these last two (2) weeks have been tense. As you are each aware, your papers have been under great scrutiny by our publishers and we are immensely proud of how you reacted to said pressure. Each publication was masterfully assembled from its graphical elements to the power of each written word and even those rather...unique...additions that some of you included. Fortunately, we are happy to report that there was little distance in our publishers' minds between them. Many decisions had to be made every step of the way and we can promise you that they were incredibly difficult at every level. We recognize and honor the commitment and sacrifices of each of you in generating them.

As with any battle, there can be only one (1) victor and for this competition, the same held true. Below you will find the final results of our publishers' evaluations of your papers.

Ravenclaw: 5425 (The Augury: Your Trusted War Publication)
Hufflepuff: 5331 (Torches and Pitchforks: Bringing You All the Hottest Gossip)
Gryffindor: 4924 (Veritaserum: Unfolding the Truth)
Slytherin: 4460 (The Daily Flibbertigibbet: Scuttlebutt & Scandal)

A breakdown of points for the finale can be found here.

Be proud of your accomplishments! On behalf of the entire HPFT Staff - I know we are!

For the overall House Cup winners, check out our announcement here.

Our 2018-2019 House Cup starts later this month, and the prefects will be running the opening event!

We're very sad to announce that @Levana will be leaving her position as Muggle Liaison, and both @dreamgazer220 and @just.a.willow.tree will be stepping down after the conclusion of the house cup opening event. We'll miss all three of them; they're wonderful members of the site, and we hope they won't be strangers.

That said, we are very excited to welcome a new professor to the team! @Theia will be stepping up to join staff this month, and we're psyched to have her on board!

Congratulations, Nim! Thank you again, Maggie, Jill, and Eva!

During the first week of every month, we open up applications for all staff, prefect, and house newsletter editor positions. (The newsletter editor part is new starting this month, but we'll be keeping it going forward!) 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. We hold onto applications for three months before you need to apply again. A detailed rundown on how HPFT staffing works can be found +here, and you can find the application +here. If you're interesting, please apply by midnight EST on September 13.

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

If you don't stop into your common room very much (or even if you do), you might miss some of the major goings-on. You can get a quick snapshot here.
 

GRYFFINDOR:

 Gryffindor officially brought back our Featured Fic and Leading Lion awards this month! Our Featured Fic winner was Seven Deaths [M] by @Unwritten Curse - an Arc of Scythe fic that's an incredible read, even if you're not familiar with the source material. Our Leading Lion winner was @ShadowRose, for all of her House Cup efforts, and for stepping into her new prefect role!

HUFFLEPUFF:

While Hufflepuff didn’t recognize any stories or members this month, we had a super busy time participating in the house cup!    We also welcomed @Phoenix Potioneer the Hear Ye, Hufflepuff Newsletter Team, and we're excited to have her on board!! 

And, of course, there was plenty of food and cuddles passed around through the common room.  

RAVENCLAW:

We've had an exhausting month in Ravenclaw with the House Cup Finale, but we have new Claw OTM's to squee over!!  This month's Story of the Month is Seasons of Love by @Theia, a set of haikus. Our Claw of the Month for September is our wonderful prefect, @facingthenorthwind!! Our Ivory Tower team has been working hard on our newsletter, too -- that resumes properly this month.

SLYTHERIN:

Slytherin House wrapped up their Member OTM awards for the 2017-18 House Cup year with their very first annual “Snake of the Year” award… We are proud to announce that the winner of this title is none other than our amazing Prefect: @Rumpelstiltskin!!!     On behalf of Snakes everywhere, THANK YOU Rumpel, for all that you do - both for the Slytherin CR, and for the Site as a whole. We wouldn’t be the same without you!!   In addition, our first Slytherin Story OTM Winner for the new House Cup year goes out to @starbuck for her Novel: The Art of Being Nonchalant (or Not) [M]. Congratulations, Kris!!

Our first Head Student this month has been a force of nature throughout the entire year. She’s enthusiastic, motivated, always in to help, but also great at keeping things very organised. Aside from that, not only is she a beast when it comes to leaving reviews – they’re also very thoughtful and amazing to read. So please, give it up for:

@Dojh167!

Our next Head Student for this month hasn’t been on the forums for very long, but has already proven herself to be an invaluable member. Not only does she leave reviews quite a lot, she’s also been a huge help for their House during the finale, being absolutely determined to help their House out and not willing to give up for even one moment. So please give it up for:

@Chemical_Pixie!

Please PM me with your choices of stories to feature in next month's bulletin. Thank you again, and congratulations!

 This month's Order of Merlin goes to...

@LadyL8!

Lotte is an extremely hard-working, kind-hearted, enthusiastic Moderator on the Forums. If you've never po pped in to say hi, I highly encourage you to do so! Other than being a sweetheart, Lotte is extremely active in her Mod duties, ensuring that nothing is out of place and always willing to help out those in need. She can frequently be spotted in the Badge Claim Thread as well, working diligently to ensure that everyone gets th e badges that they deserve. She also makes adorable little badges for HYH. Lotte is a truly lovely person and we're very lucky to have her as a pa rt of the HPFT Staff Team. Lotte is a Mama Badger and always makes sure things get done or runs smoothly, our common room wouldn't be the s am e without her. And she does an amazing job with being a major editor on the newsletter

September's story of the month is...

That's All (M) by @beyond the rain

A witch hides from the society that shunned her for being a muggleborn...and a slytherin. That is until two broken men, fighting on opposite sides of a war, give her no option but to return to the wizarding world.  Magic hasn't managed to convince Clara that she belongs, but friends are more persuasive than any spell could be.

Every month, HPFT runs Fic Night, where a staff member reads a nominated fic from one of our members.  You can check out @TidalDragon reading Magnolias in the Country by @ShadowRose for August's Fic Night +here if you haven't seen it yet!

This month, we're featuring: some winners of our monthly sitewide competitions, several stories from past FROGS and house yearly awards, and two staff picks. Thank you so much to our staffers who chose our two staff picks:  @abhorsen. (Steady, Stable) and @RoxiMalfoy (The Seer). Click through for links; please keep in mind that some may be rated M.

Congratulations, @adorably cute, @Aphoride, @dirigibleplums, @manno-malfoy, @nott theodore, @Phoenix_Flames, @scooterbug8515, @ShadowRose, @Sleepingbagonthesofa, @Theia, @Unwritten Curse, and @victoria_anne!

September 6 – The Oceans 8 Heist Challenge by @just.a.willow.tree

October 1 – The Musical Muse Challenge by @dirigibleplums

October 31 – The Challenge Yourself Challenge by @Slytherinchica08

October 31 - The Seven Deadly Sins Challenge by @nott theodore & @Crimson Quill

November 1 - The Trope Of Aces Challenge - by @Lady Ausra

December 1 - The Unreliable Narrator Challenge by @Stella Blue & @Felpata_Lupin

May 31 – The Dragon Tale Story Challenge by @StarFeather

And finally, we want to wish a very happy birthday to all of HPFT's September babies. Feel free to stop by their profiles/APs/writing journals on their special day!

5 - @teh tarik

9 - @xxDustNight88

10 - @Rainbow-tui

11 - @magnolia_magic

13 - @Slytherin913

14 - @Unwritten Curse

16 - @AjTheJetPlane; @fwoopersong8

20 - @Rhaenyra

21 - @Chemical_Pixie

22 - @ACorHelen

23 - @ailhsa23

25 - @Renacerá

26 - @TidalDragon

27 - @banshee; @Shadowkat678

29 - @navyfail; @Stella Blue

 

Head students, story of the month, fic night, challenges, and birthday all written by @Ineke. Order of Merlin write-up by @Rumpelstiltskin and @dreamgazer220. Finale write-up by @Alopex and @TidalDragon. Common room news compiled by @RoxiMalfoy and written by @ShadowRose, @victoria_anne, @facingthenorthwind, and @RoxiMalfoy. Rest of the bulletin write-up and all graphics by @abhorsen.. Please rehost and credit if you'd like to keep your awards!