Various notes

[alt_draco]

As I flip through the pages of my book for the last day or so, it's interesting to note that the majority of other people's entries (and my own) consist of Private Messages. As much as I use and value the PM system, I have to admit that I do miss the days when people would simply log their schedules, comment on recent events, or just say something utterly daft and laughable. People still do that, mind; just seems as if it all gets overwhelmed by the surplus of PMs.

So, in light of this observation, I am planning a return to more public postings, and I hope that some of you lot reading will do the same.

Getting closer to the end of the term is always an odd time. Everyone can feel the hols building in the air, and that, along with the pleasant weather, makes it really tempting to just faff about and play portkey, or go for a fly around the lake. But then there's all this building pressure too, with more revising, upcoming exams, and the summer YPL stuff.

So, if anyone wants to come to a combined study-and-games/music-after session, let me know and I'll see if I can organise something snitch.

Mother: I hope you received my package and that it found you in good spirits.

Crabbe: Where's my France-Bulgaria quidditch programme? If you've sopped up your juice with it or something then we will have problems, you and I. I hope you're not hanging onto it because you're actually trying to read it, because it's written in French, genius. Goyle was convinced for a while that it was just really strange handwriting.

Harry: Has your Father said yet what you'll be doing this summer? You'll get to stay with us for a while, right?

Comments

[alt_daphne]

Makeup, really? You're ever so lucky. Mother insists that I remain makeup-free until I'm fifteen years old. She says I'm already trying to grow up too fast.... as if makeup's going to stop me from doing that!

[alt_padma]

Well, we're already allowed to wear bindi for special occasions. And there's not a whole load of makeup in the cases. Just gloss and a small blusher, really. Oh, and a little kohl. There's also a phial of perfume - sandalwood, jasmine, and lotus.

Parents really do hate that we grow up, don't they?

[alt_blaise]

Some people are naturally beautiful and don't need cosmetics. You're an English rose, Daphs: there's no sense messing with perfection.

[alt_daphne]

Why thank you, Blaise. What a terribly lovely thing to say.

[alt_padma]

Are you saying Parvati and I do need cosmetics?

And Daphs does have excellent complexion but that doesn't give call to be rude.

[alt_blaise]

No need to get cross, Patil. I shouldn't have thought you needed them, either. I was simply telling Daphne that she shouldn't feel her mum's wrong or holding her back from anything she really needs.

I don't understand why witches with good faces feel the need of paint when they've nothing in need of enhancement. And, frankly, the plain ones generally look a bit naff when they paint since it makes it dead obvious they see they are lacking.

But then there are cultural things for some people, and I don't think that bindi or henna are cosmetics so much as they are, well, markers of being Hindu, aren't they? And maybe wearing kohl is a bit that way, too, for you and Parvati and some others, if you choose to do it. That's what I was saying about Daphs being English, though: it's not something people with an English heritage do traditionally, you see, or do out of respect for their traditions. And she's so beautiful without being made up, I don't think she ought to worry that she needs to or is missing something while her mother says 'No'.

[alt_padma]

But nearly all grown witches do wear some kind of paint, even the really beautiful ones like Mrs Malfoy and your own mum. There's all sorts of ways to wear makeup. I don't think a girl ought to look brazen or anything, but sometimes it's just fun to look all glamourous and special.