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ALL ABOUT THE JOURNALS
HOW WERE THE JOURNALS CREATED?
Padma and Parvati Patil's mother gave them a 'two way journal' several years ago. This little book, hardly used during their time at Hogwarts, helped the two when they felt distant from each other. Locked up in their respective towers, the twins would write notes back and forth to each other late at night, much as they whispered to each other underneath the blankets in their shared room during their childhood. Padma didn't have the same luxury with her best friend Anthony, and he often complained about owl droppings from frequent letters back and forth. Tired of his grumbling, Padma finally let him in on her (journalistic? bookish? I need a word here) secret.
Together, Padma and Anthony began experimenting with the journals, trying to figure out the workings of the charm and ways it could be duplicated. Over half a year later, during the summer of 1997, the two perfected their experimentation and successfully transferred the charm onto another journal. To ensure that Parvati's journal didn't show what Anthony only wanted Padma to see, and that when they created one for Lavender that Parvati could keep her conversation with her best friend secret as well, they came up with a series of charms that could ward entire conversations.
The group agreed to make journals for everyone in the DA and promised to be cautious concerning the duplication of the charm. One journal was created for each DA member still attending Hogwarts. However, not all of them returned on September first, so Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Muggleborn students who did not return all have a number assigned to them, but will not be using their journals at all during this game.
HOW DID MY CHARACTER GET A JOURNAL?
Someone (you can determine who with another player, so long as their number is lower on our list) helped your character duplicate the charm. It's simple enough to repeat after watching, especially for N.E.W.T. level charms students, but there must be a journal nearby to duplicate OFF of.
If your character is in the D.A., they were sent a journal with the charms already performed a few days before Hogwarts opened. Otherwise, your character will have to obtain a journal of his or her own and perform the spell while in school.
HOW DO OUR CHARACTERS KNOW WHO IS WRITING WHAT?
When a passage appears in the journals, it shows the NUMBER of a person's journal (i.e., Parvati is 1, Padma is 2, Anthony is 3, Lavender is 4... again, consult our list) and their handwriting. It's up to your character to recognize the number (they will likely memorize them as time goes on) and the handwriting to recognize the person writing.
CAN MY CHARACTER MAKE THINGS PRIVATE TO THEMSELVES OR TO FRIENDS/GROUPS?
The charm does allow for privatizing!
What happens when my character writes something and doesn't charm it further? Everything that your character writes onto the page is immediately and instantaneously duplicated onto every other journal.
Can my character make an entry private to him or herself? Yes! When a character performs a privacy charm, the writing only appears on the page of the journal in which the entry was written. Anyone else who LOOKS in that particular journal can read it.
What happens when my character privatizes something to particular people? The message appears on their personal journals, but no one else's.
Can my character charm journal entries against certain people/groups of people? The magic isn't that advanced, sorry! Entries can only be made private to people, not away from them. That means that, if your character wants to make a journal entry viewable to everyone but Slytherin house, they'll have to charm their entry to Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff only, rather than against Slytherin.
Can my character make two separate 'Private' groups in the same entry? No! Sorry. The magic isn't that advanced, either. Also, you cannot make things 'half' private and half public, including separate comments in the same journal entry. It's all or nothing!
When writing a journal entry that is specifically charmed, please indicate the group or character(s) that the journal entry is charmed to in the title line of the post. Otherwise, it will be assumed that the entry is public.
NOTE: Do not have your character privatize things to an AMBIGUOUS GROUP -- "Private to Close Friends" is not acceptable. "Private to 7th Year Ravenclaw Girls" is.