Welcome to our In the Spotlight blog series, September edition! This month we are a bit shorter on the interview side of things due to a double feature for Staffer of the Month last month, but otherwise have our usual haul of interesting tidbits and fun things happening around the site!

The September Story of the Month is No Wands, Please - We're Muggles by @PinsandKneazles

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What was the inspiration behind No Wands Please, we're muggles?
The inspiration behind 'No Wands' came from a FFT post on the subject of post-Hogwarts education. I've long pictured Albus S Potter as a Healer, and I thought it would be fun to send him to a muggle university for a year!

What three songs would you put on a soundtrack for this fic?
Ooh, soundrack; that's an interesting/tricky one! 'No Wands' is primarily a story about friendships and love,  written in the present tense, and most love songs that spring to mind are about break-ups or reminiscing, haha!! I've thought long and hard about this question. As I mainly tend to listen to popular music from 1970 - 2000, I doubt anyone else will have heard of these tracks, but here goes:

a) Walking on the milky way - OMD - it's a 'looking back' track but there's a frivolity and light-heartedness to it that suits this friendship group.
b) If I was - Midge Ure - describes Al's love for Sunita
c) Basket case - Green Day - Sunita could definitely identify with the lyrics of this one

Whose experience of university, if any, do you relate to from the story?
This story definitely draws from my university days  (I studied Veterinary Medicine at Cambridge so I set the story there); the rest is a mix of silly little anecdotes I've been unfortunate enough to have first-hand experience of, or fictitious nonsense that's running around my head at the time of writing.

Was there a reason behind all of the chapters starting with 'Ill'?
I chose 'ill' as a prefix because this story is about medics, and also one of the chapter titles might end up being more pertinent than the others.

Our Member of the Month for September is the great @northbound24!

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What are you currently reading (fic or otherwise)?
Re-reading the Discword series and Deathly Hallows. Also reading Marauder era fic

What are you currently writing?
A time-travel fic temporarily titled 'The Second Time Around'. A fanfiction staple, the protagonist is flung into the Marauders time at Hogwarts due to a magical accident unluckily for him, the Department of Mysteries and Dumbledore claim this isn't the first time he's done this. The protagonist has to deal with Death Eaters, Fenrir Greyback's werewolves, trying to get back to his own time and teenage Snape. 

What are you currently watching?
A lot of The Sopranos, various movies on Amazon Prime, Mythbusters on Prime and murder mysteries.

Where do you hang out on the forums a lot right now?
The challenge section.

 Did you know you can request tags to be added to the archives for fandoms and characters when tags don't exist yet for what you're writing? This is especially important as we grow to encompass more and more fandoms! Some of the most recent fandom additions are Pokemon (fics by @TidalDragon here and @Anony Mous here) and The Untamed (fics by @Aphoride here). You can also request tags for tropes, genres, etc.

 Do you write original fiction? Do you want to? Come discuss your short and long term goals with other OF writers in this thread!

 A little buried treasure on the site is this underrated thread where you can drop off plot bunnies that you don't personally have the time or inclination to write. It was a post in this thread that inspired @shadowycorner's you are a minute of quiet (in a loud, loud world). (Honestly a little surprised and very sad, however, that nobody has latched onto @Kerney's brilliant idea of marijuana as defense against dementors.) We often come up with fun ideas just messing around on the FFT discord, but consider visiting this thread to save them for posterity.

 Into podcasts? Come check out this thread recently started by @crowsb4bros to chat about audio drama podcasts.

 It's Hispanic/ Latinx Heritage Month! Fic is media just like any other, and we need representation here just as much as anywhere else. We have a Latinx tag on the archives, and if you browse that tag you'll find stories by @roisin, @TreacleTart, and @just.a.willow.tree, among others!

We'd like to take this opportunity to boost the current community feedback thread and hope you will all give the staff your thoughts on the format and content of the forums. Having moved away from the HP House format, it's important to hear from you about what keeps you engaged and how we might provide features and experiences that serve similar purposes to the old common rooms.

As the site evolves, so too does the role of the CC team, as we no longer represent specific Houses or do House newsletters. We're currently a very small team, but we still want to do what we can to encourage participation and interaction on the site. We hope to get back to hosting a couple of writing challenges each year. What have the CC's (formerly Prefects) done in the past that you really enjoyed?

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credits:

courier: shaza
news & highlights: melanie
compilation: madi