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Really enjoyed this story! It really captured the kinf of dry humor that's endemic to these types of bureacratic proceedings.
Hello - Ysh here making my way back into the archives.
When I saw this in the nominations I was intrigued! Definitely did not fail to deliver. Love the format and premise. The level of detail that has gone into this is phenomenal. Even through the notes I felt the characters come alive - especially Sinistra who's quickly becoming my favorite rogue teacher at the moment! Budgetary discussions and micro planning are highlighted so well, and makes me stop and think about what all goes into school administration. I've always known it is hard work, this just reminds me to appreciate and be grateful for my teachers again! This story kept me on my toes. I loved how serious moments like safety concerns and memorial service (sob, sob) have been interspersed with the utterly hilarious ones - and everything so tastefully done. Kudos to your writing!
Favorite moments:
- Mrs. Norris in attendance - haha!!
- Sinistra's 'some sort of gibberish' had me laughing out loud! For it to be so bad as to have been discussed prominently at the previous meeting is so hilarous!
- Prof. Binns' employment - The second I read that I knew I was hooked. The 'zzzzzz' trailing off Binns' speech was a great touch! Curiouser and curiouser as to Dumbledore's reasons to keep him on. The very many secrets of Dumbledore indeed!
- Sinistra again - We don't get to see much of her in the books but I thoroughly enjoyed her whole rogue professor bit. And of course, Flitwick trying to moderate!!!
- Chain restaurant - Bahahahahaha!!! I had to pause to laugh at this one!
- Love the callout to James and Lily (JiLy forever!)
- Great Galleon Disappearance of 1972 - wow!
- Staff improper conduct - OMG! Hilarious!!!!
Cheers, and good luck with the inkys!
XOXO
Ysh!
For the Galazy review
Isobel,
What a brilliant idea - capturing something as mundane as a staff meeting, and yet providing so much ridiculousness in the process by imagining the Hogwarts staff involved. I’m thinking that ‘staff meeting minutes’ would make a great writing challenge for the forums!
This required a great deal of originality and world-building as there is almost nothing connected to the stories here. I loved the multiple storylines you developed throughout from the saga of who is going to take the minutes to the continuous voting-out of Binns, to Professor Sinestra’s refusal to approve an acceptable substitute.
You’ve brought such droll humor into this that it’s no wonder that it was nominated for funniest story, at the same time bringing in some of the terror associated with the Death Eaters’ activities as well.
The ‘Staff Improper Conduct’ was very funny to read and you’ve captured those images of Hooch (on ‘hooch’) and Filch threatening to shackle children excellently.
This was thoroughly enjoyable and thanks so much for coming up with it and sharing it!
-Drew
Hi there!
Okay so first of all, I really like how you're using the epistolary format for this story! It's taking it on a different spin than we usually see in fiction, and yet even though it's technically still just meeting minutes, you imbue so much character throughout the piece that it still feels vibrant and like these characters are actually sitting and having this staff meeting at Hogwarts. I particularly enjoy the tidbits in parentheses as various staff members wanting specific things to be noted in the record of the meeting, lol. You've also done an excellent job of just conveying how tedious (or not) meetings can be, particularly if there is a long agenda and some attendees are likely to have particularly long-winded or bullish positions on things being discussed. This was just such a fun one-shot, I'd definitely read another iteration of this in the future for when Harry & co. are present at Hogwarts to see if/how the staff discuss all of the ridiculous shenanigans that happen while he's there :P Great job, well done!! :)
Madi
RTTR
Hi! I saw this story was nominated for funniest story and has made it to the finalist round, so I thought, I better check this out! Plus, I love a good administrative tale. You wrote ministry memorandums and I remember thinking that was absolutely hysterical and I appreciated every bit of humor that that story brought.
The structure of this is well thought out. I love a story that is structured in such an organized fashion, but then the content of the notes below sort of swirls into chaos as the reality of such a meeting with so many attendees definitely wouldn't be as organized as the carefully laid out meeting minutes outline hah. There's humor to be found in such duality.
Poor Professor Binns haha. I mean, it seems like a necessary matter to address. I AM curious as to what Dumbledore's reason for vetoing is hah. The fact that he will not disclose it just makes this matter all the more intriguing!
LOL Sinistra seems to be going through a lot, what with threatening applicants. Yikes! I wonder if word has gotten around among the notable astronomer's in the community and no one is up for the task of even interviewing for it hah. May I request a spinoff with a young astronomer who takes the post due to their need for experience, but feels as though they are not up to the task/superstitious and jumpy about suddenly falling off the tower, because of how the rumor that circulates about Sinistra wanting to toss off that one applicant, please? (I don't know why, but I love that idea for a story haha).
The concept of a Muggle Studies trip is absolutely delightful! I love this and...you could totally write a story about someone's experience doing this! Just the level of detail you provide into this area of study and what the school does for those students was fabulous and enlightening to read about.
"The meeting went off-track at this point, with several professors in a state of alarm at the prospect of students dining whilst laden with chains."
^^ LOL "chef's kiss," level humor here! I often forget that certain phrases and concepts would get "lost in translation," between the magical and nonmagical world, and this is a hilarious reminder of that!
"It is an annual tradition for the Hogwarts staff to increase their patrols every year after Easter, to ease the strain on Prefects who will be revising."
^^ What a great observation to make! Also, LOL at Slughorn being denied because he was to amiable with the misbehaving students.
And gosh, I love the inappropriate behavior on the teachers behalf you have depicted LOL. No wonder Hooch didn't want to be present at this meeting. But anyway, you're giving him human qualities beyond the teaching pedestal of being morally superior and I totally love that!
I love that see canon events and how they might arise in this discussion as well. The inclusion of The Dark Mark and how complicated a task it would be to root out those students was a nice touch. It's unfortunate that the law protects such things, but I think you explored that idea well and explained why nothing was done.
Oh my gawsh, the image of plants making the Hufflepuff Common Room cozier...I need those vibes in my life. I love it! <3
All in all, I loved this "glimpse behind the curtain," and seeing administratively how the school handles things we only see in canon from the students POV. I thought your approach to this entire one shot was very clever! This whole thing was so interesting and entertaining to read, thank you for writing!
<3 Courtney
~* 85 rising through the ranks *~
hiiii isobel <3 i'm here for the galazy event and also because super psyched to see you back!
so like this is so much fun though? i forgot how much i love your sense of humor, but i really, really do. the smallest details (like "with much frustration" or "added at filch's request") just convey this tone of deep eye rolls that's really just perfect.
i love that sinistra pulled the "get assigned a job i don't want and then do it so poorly that they don't let me do it anymore," though i don't blame beauregard for being irritated about it. the minutes turned out well despite that very reasonable irritation, though! (from both an in-universe perspective and a reader perspective - i loved the way you really captured a lot of the strong personalities and tensions as well as just simple logistics of keeping the school running.
amazing job. <3
Isobel, you are just... a genius with fics with unconventional formats, telling a story exclusively through the use of notes, memos, etc. This was brilliant and so well considering. Just like Min Mems I am kind of blown away but how MUCH content you were able to put in this, like you really put thought into what kind of things they would be discussing and how those discussions would go. You're so good about details in that way and it's like... a little mini worldbuilding exercise in a way. The worldbuilding of the Hogwarts staff procedures.
This was clever and funny in such a wry way. The scenarios, the arguments. How they keep trying to vote Binns out OMG! I feel kind of bad for poor Prof Binns even though I also kind of get it. I wonder why Dumbledore always keeps him there?? And why the other staff persist every single meeting omg, Binns must be kind of annoyed at this point hahahah.
Loved Filch being all "yass chain up the children in restaurants" lmao, and Sinistra being difficult about her temporary replacement, and all the various kinds of staff misconduct hahaha.
It's just... a wonderful glimpse into this little society of the Hogwarts professors and their relationships and grievances and tremendously creative on your part!
<3 Melanie
(galazy review event)
Hi there!
I thought this was an interesting story and personally, I would like to see more of these staff meetings. I liked that this was a different way of telling a story and it offered a unique look into the way the staff keeps the students engaged and under control. I loved that there were some easily recognizable names outside of the main professors we already know and thought it was a great take having Karkaroff as the DADA professor before he starts at Durmstrang.
I think my favorite bits were getting to see the personalities of the professors and loved the pouty moments and exasperation with each other. I especially loved that ALL those present want to get rid of Binns and are upset that Dumbledore refuses to get rid of him.
I really want to see more of these meetings and sincerely hope you consider turning this into a series at some point.
Peace, Love and Tacos
Tasha
-Team Wanderer–2022 review event
hihihi!! dropping by for the race through the galazy event :)
i lovelovelove the way you do these stories written through notes and work logs and now minutes - it's so so creative and clever, and it's a brilliant twist on the usual tendency to go for letters and diary entries when people do the whole non-narrative stuff.
and omg your humour <3 i feel like i say this all the time, haha, on almost all of your stories, but the way you write humour is incredibly. it's so so hard to do and do well - the wittiness of it, the timing, the translation of the humour to a general audience - it's super hard and you make it look so easy. and it's genuinely funny: it's not even that it's kind of funny, it's really honestly funny and it makes me smile even on reading a second or third time. and it starts from the very beginning - the way filch has insisted mrs norris be added to the list of attendees made me laugh :P
there are just so many details in this which i adore so much, it would be impossible to go through them all, but i think the overall theme of it is that i lovelovelove how you build the characters through the minutes, including the narrator: the comments he makes when writing, the interjections from other members of staff, the notes around that, the little asides here and there, like the list of teachers being reprimanded for eating cakes at a previous party, the confusion over a congratulations card, sinistra's handwriting being illegible and other members of stuff objecting to minutes written by her.
i also love the little details you slip in to link this both to canon so firmly and so well - like, it could be canon: it really, really could be - but also in your own universe, with posy and pince's alarm at her being nominated to help stack books. hagrid keeping strange animals lololol is so canon and i love the addition of binns' employment being on the agenda every month it just sort of... staying there as an item. (i've run a fair number of meetings and written a fair number of minutes in my time and there's always items which just... linger :P)
ahhhhh this is just so so good and it's always so so good every time i read this. i love it so much!!
laura xx
I really loved this! It was very in-depth and funny at some points but serious at others, very well written!!
~Waiting~
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