What are the best ways to make friends when you’ve been homeschooled all your life? What is the best way to have conversations when your native language isn’t English?
— Dishevelled Hufflepuff
Dear Dishevelled,
I can relate to the struggle of making friends when you aren’t quite sure of how to approach people! One good method is to talk to Talula Shippe and find out when the next Spark Club gathering is being held; no matter how shy you might feel, don’t hesitate to fill out the survey she gives you. Another thing you can do is single out one person from your House you think is nice, and see if they are willing to have a chat with you; making one friend is a good start to making more friends.
I’m worried that one of the Professors is conducting classes with little regard for the health, safety and lives of the students in the class. Many risks are taken that could result in serious injury or death, and injuries are happening in just about every class, it seems. What should I do? How can I stay safe in this terrifying environment?
— Scared in School
Dear Scared in School,
Whilst it is sometimes the job of a Professor to push the boundaries of the students’ comfort, it is not their job to purposefully put the students in serious danger. Hogwarts has had such professors before, and they usually turned out to be some sort of infiltrator from an evil organization. Not that I am saying this professor is! However, if you are genuinely concerned about these classes and the Professor’s behaviour, then Hawthorne suggests you make it known to your Head of House and avoid the Professor’s class as best you can [editor’s note: unless it’s a core class]. If you attend and try to wiggle out of tasks, you’ll receive detention; and if you skip out on the class, you’ll still probably obtain detention. The question is whether you want detention with injury or not.
There is a boy in my house that I think is cute. To be fair it has been awhile since I have had a crush on anyone and I keep making a fool out of myself around him. I kept thinking I was just nervous but it seems this crush is a bit stronger than I thought. Do you have any advice for this lonesome dove?
— Lonesome Dove
Dear Dove,
While I can not claim to be an expert in matters of the heart or love, I can tell you that it would be wise to evaluate the friendship you have with this person. If you don’t know them well, just focus on being friends for now; if you do know them well, then maybe taking the risk of telling them your feelings might be worth it. I’m sure there are plenty who would be able to give a better answer than myself, but my advice is to focus on friendship. You might be surprised what blossoms from that.
Do you have questions for Ruffled Feathers? Submit them here
