31 July 1999
Today was my birthday. We went out on another hunt hoping to either get a Yale and a Guivre since we missed them last time. We had a bigger party since Ron and Hermione came out to celebrate, we might even have been able to handle a graphorn if we came across one. Unfortunately we didn't get to find out, but we did manage to find a pair of Yale, which are giant goat-like creatures with boar tusks and horns atop its head that it can move in any direction. We took them unawares so were able to take them down relatively easily. We split into groups of three and two fired while the third prepared to shield. Bill and Fleur brought theirs down easy, but Ron and Hermione needed a second round. These seemed like great sources of wand material. Both the tusks and the horns should have uses as well as the hearts. One thing I hadn't thought of was the meat. Apparently magical meat is better than regular(when it's not poisonous). Mrs. Delacour served some of the boar from our previous hunt today for my birthday and it was some of the best food I have ever tasted. As usual with birthdays there was presents, but Gabi surprised me with a braid of her hair. She said that girls born to veela are veela themselves so she's not half or quarter veela like the gossip at Hogwarts said about Fleur. I think her gift is right up there with Hedwig and Fabian's watch for the most touching gift I've ever gotten.
On a less happy note, Garrick says I'm an idiot. Apparently transfiguring wand components being a bad idea is common sense. According to him magic altering an ingredient physically is detrimental to the quality of the ingredient even after the alteration is removed. That is basic potion theory and he has no idea how I didn't make such an obvious connection to wand components. I feel like Snape neglected a few more topics than I thought...