Welcome to the HPFT bulletin, where you can find all of our major monthly announcements and information about upcoming events! With our FROGS awards just finishing up and some smaller-scale activities on the horizon, we hope you'll all enjoy taking a breather.

If you're new, first and foremost: welcome to HPFT! It's awesome to have you with us.   HPFanficTalk has both 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 your common room. 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!

Hufflepuff: 1941 points

Ravenclaw: 1100 points

Slytherin: 1071 points

Gryffindor: 1016 points

We're sorry to announce that @MalfoysAngel will be stepping down from her role as Gamekeeper. Tasha is a good friend to so many on the site, and we hope she won't be a stranger.

We're excited, however, that @TidalDragon has agreed to move over to the role. Kevin has been one of the most dedicated and integral staff members of HPFT since we opened our doors, and we're sure he'll be as amazing as a Gamekeeper as he has been as a Professor. To replace him, we'll be bumping @MegGonagall to Professor - Meg's been a devoted member of the site in a variety of different roles, and we're happy to have her on staff!   Finally, we're thrilled to welcome @dreamgazer220 to the prefect ranks! Jill has always been a credit to Hufflepuff, and she was a wonderful professor until she stepped down last year, so we're very happy to have her on board.

Thank you for everything, @MalfoysAngel! Enjoy your new roles, @TidalDragon, @MegGonagall, and @dreamgazer220!

Voting for our second annual FROGS is closing today - make sure you get any last-minute votes in! After that, we'll be moving the polls to the staff area, where staff will cast their votes. We'll announce the winners around February 10.   Thank you so much to everyone who nominated and voted, and congratulations to everyone who was nominated!

For February, we're going to have a lower pressure activity: secret cupid! Cupids will need to leave at least three gifts for whoever they're assigned to over the course of two weeks. You can find the sign-up thread here; just make sure you post by February 7 if you want to participate!

Our first head student this month is a relative newcomer to the site, but she's already uploaded seven amazing stories (seriously, check them out!) and started showering people with reviews. She's been a wonderful presence around the site and in her common room; please give it up for...

@ReillyJade!

Our second head student has been a consistent and dedicated member of the site since it started up. She's a wonderful presence on the forums, and both her stories and reviews are absolutely lovely. This month was no exception, and we wanted to take the chance to recognize...

@dreamgazer220!

Please PM me with your choice of what story of yours that you'd like to be featured on the archive, and thank you both so much for everything you do!

This month's OoM goes to one third of our incredible admin team...

@Alopex!!

Holly works tirelessly behind the scenes to make that site continues to run smoothly through thick and thin. From organizing sitewide activities to helping keep herd us prefects in the right direction, Holly is nothing but kind and welcoming, always willing to answer a question or offer works of encouragement. The site wouldn't be the same without her!

Congratulations once again to Holly! 

In December, the prefects ran a wonderful challenge that centered around holidays and diversity.   You can view the full results +here, but we also wanted to give a special shout out to everyone who entered and the three overall winners here. There were so many wonderful entries, and I doubt that these will be the last awards I make for them - several of the entries are finalists in the FROGS, and we're planning to feature all of them over the next few months.

That said, we'd like to give out special awards for our top three:

Amazing job, @MuggleMaybe, @just.a.willow.tree, and @800 words of heaven!

Every month, HPFT runs Fic Night, where a staff member reads a nominated fic from one of our members.   You can check out January's Fic Night here if you haven't seen it yet - @TidalDragon reads @BlackPixie's People Watching, and they answer some questions.

Congratulations to all of this month's featured stories! They include a few stories by recent head students, the fic night story, each house's first place story in the recent prefects' challenge, and a couple prefect/staff picks! To check them out, just click on the award - and please keep in mind that some stories may be rated M.

 

Congratulations to @800 words of heaven, @Alexis Black, @BlackPixie, @just.a.willow.tree, @manno-malfoy, @MuggleMaybe, @ReillyJade, and @sapphicsunrise!

February 7 - Ancient Runes Drabble Challenge by @Ignatia

February 28 - "Anything But a Love Triangle" Love Triangle Challenge by @clevernotbrilliant

March 1 - The Pettigrew Awareness Challenge by @Felpata_Lupin

March 1 - The Fairy Tale Challenge by @nott theodore

March 2 - The Say Goodbye Challenge by @dreamgazer220

March 2 - The Domesticity Challenge by @forever_dreaming

July 31 - Auror's Tale Challenge Season 4 by @StarFeather

4 - @milominderbinder

4 - @Nykizta

7 - @Veritaserum27

10 - @UnluckyStar57

17 - @AltraX

17 - @pookha

24 - @ssslytherinnn

24 - @WriteYourHeartOut

27 - @1917farmgirl

 

header, promo image, awards, and bulletin write-up by @abhorsen. (with the exception of the Order of Merlin write-up, which was written by @clevernotbrilliant) - please remember to rehost & credit if you'd like to save your awards!