Helpful things for our guests to know

[alt_luna]

The pumpkin juice is reliably quite good. On the other hand, there are prunes hidden in the cock-a-leekie soup. Just so you know.

Chocolate caramel ice cream always runs out before any other flavour, whenever it is served at the feasts.

The soldier with the golden ruff in the portrait just to the left of the charms classroom will often offer to help you if you look lost, but he delights in sending people in the wrong direction.

Peeves will usually give you much less trouble if you don't seem to be in a hurry but instead act as if you are happy to stop to chat with him. The conversations you might have with him, however, are usually rather bewildering and often repetitive. And they involve rude noises.

The view from the steps of the owlry at sunset is really worth seeing. And at sunrise, too, if there's hoarfrost.

No matter what the Slytherins have told you, the squid hasn't ever been known to snatch anyone off the shore and drag them under the surface of the lake.

Comments

[alt_draco]

It's just a matter of connotation, isn't it?

Generalisations are all well and good when they suit, but it seemed as if you were going rather farther than necessary bring those generalisations associated with Slytherin to light. I wouldn't say that "sneaky" has a particularly positive connotation.

I've never noticed you do anything like that before, but some of the girls are trying quite hard to get the attention of visiting students, and in quite inventive ways.

Private message to Draco Malfoy

[alt_luna]

Connotations can be tricky, certainly. But I might also point out that you seem to be highly suspicious of my motivations. Can't you see that what I wrote tonight was an attempt to help other people? I certainly can't help it if the person who told me about the rumour about the squid said that a Slytherin told her that. Perhaps she is gullible...but there is no point in getting angry at me for saying the person who told it to her wasn't telling her the truth. I suppose it might have been different if she had said 'a left-handed person told me this' or 'a person with curly hair told me this.' But we tend to lump people in groups in our minds using the Houses, rather than other characteristics, and the Houses seem more personal, somehow.

I do think using the journals sometimes makes some conversations difficult, too, because you can't see tone of voice or facial expression in the written word, and so things may sound more hurtful or sarcastic in a way the person truly didn't mean.

I think I know what you mean, about some people trying to get the visitors' attention. I am not sure whether their attempts are working very well, however.

Re: Private message to Draco Malfoy

[alt_draco]

If I'm suspicious it is because, like I said, I've never noticed you saying anything about Slytherins before now. It just seems rather sudden and ill-timed, doesn't it? Given that we're all trying to present our best selves to our visitors.

I don't think it would have been so much trouble to have said "Despite what you may have been told about the squid" instead of "No matter what the Slytherins told you" - as if we're all sitting round, cackling at the thought of French and Eastern European people being drowned in the lake.

I mean, I suppose that you didn't mean it like that exactly, but like you yourself said, things in the journals can be mis-read, if one isn't careful about how they write.

Re: Private message to Draco Malfoy

[alt_luna]

I suppose we've both had that conversation with our fathers, haven't we? About the power of the written word. Since they were both involved with the press.

If it helps any, I will try to be mindful about not being sloppy about making blanket statements. And I think we should both try to be mindful about not imputing suspicious or malignant intent to other people.

Most people mean to be good, I think. If they are given the choice, and the opportunity.