Hometown Show & Tell [Errand](Closed)

Up until now, Gabriella had been hesitant about going up to talk. While she loved talking, and socialising, and could go on all day if she wanted to, there were older students present, and the Ravenclaw did not like older students. Well, it wasn't that she didn't like them - that Serena had been very nice to her, and had helped her instead of laughing at her, but in general, Gabriella was just scared of being judged by older students.

Anyway, now Tory had gone up, and done an amazing presentation, Gabriella felt she had to prove herself. Tory's speech had been - regrettably, there was no other word for it - flawless, and
the Ravenclaw felt she just had to do better. Her relationship with the Gryffindor was like a friendly rivalry, but without the friendly part. In other words, they were enemies, and even the presence of a hoard of older students couldn't and wouldn't stop her now.

Unfortunately, Gabriella found herself at a major disadvantage; while her enemy lived in Bath, which was a beautiful city, Gabby herself lived in Portsmouth, which was, well, it wasn't. In fact, Portsmouth was an ugly city, with huge dirty high-rise flats, gum plastered to the pavements, and smog filling the air. She had to search hard for pictures that showed her city in a good light.

"I - I'll go next," Gabriella stuttered, slowly standing up. Her legs were shaking with fear. Tory wasn't shaking, she told herself, furiously. Tory did it just fine.
"Hello, everyone," she said. "My name's Gabby Haworth, and today I'll be talking to you about my home city, Portsmouth." Carefully, she slotted the first image into the projector slide, and it appeared big on the wall.

"So, as you can see," she began, "Portsmouth is a very pretty coastal city..." Lying through your teeth there, Gabby, she told herself, but made sure not to let her voice waver at all. It is right at the south of England, at the bottom of Hampshire. This skyscraper-" she gestured towards the large tower on the photo- "is Spinnaker Tower, and it was built in 2001. It is 170 metres tall, and one of the tallest buildings in the country. On one of its storeys, it has a glass floor, and I've walked on it." She stared pointedly at Tory. Ha, and what does she have? Some boring old baths, she told herself. She knew what she was saying to herself wasn't true - she had been to Bath with her parents, and had loved it - but it was better to kid herself... yes, that would be best...

"In the background," continued Gabriella, addressing the picture again, "you can just see two boats - one of them is HMS Warrior, and the other is HMS Victory, which is the same ship that Admiral Lord Nelson fought on during the Battle of Waterloo. I've stood on the very same spot he died on." Hmm, she thought to herself. Maybe Portsmouth's not bad after all, if you forget about the bad part."

Hastily, Gabriella pulled out the slide and put in a new one; this time of a football pitch.

"This is Portsmouth football club," she continued, "or Pompey, for hardcore fans. We won the FA Cup in 2008, which is pretty cool. My dad's a big football fan, so I've been to see
a few games."
She put in the next picture:

"It is also home to the harbour in which King Henry VIII's ship, the Mary Rose, sank, back in... 15-something. It got rescued from under the sea in the 1980s, and it's now in a museum, which you can see in the picture. I've been to see that, too. You can also see artefacts from it, which is pretty cool. You can look at them and think, wow... people six hundred years ago picked those things up..." Go on, Gabby, add a bit of sentiment. People love that stuff.

"I don't have time to show you pictures of these, too," said Gabriella, "but it has two cathedrals, a great university, a beautiful lake, a pier with a fairground, and beautiful housing." And ugly flats. "That's - that's all for today. Someone else can go now..."

Gabriella took her slides back. Wow, that was a lame ending, she thought to herself. Luckily, the rest of it went fine, and she had managed to make it sound just as interesting - if not more so - than Bath. As she sat back down again, she made sure to smirk pointedly in Tory's direction.

Word count: 780/400
Interacting with: Everyone, I guess
Mentioning: @Tory Williamson

Dee hopped onto her feet and sauntered up to the front after the previous presentation had ended. The other students came from many strange interesting places: Japan, or Italy, and even those who had grown up in the UK seemed to have lived in interesting towns at least. Whitehaven... really wasn't all that fascinating, not much to see, not much to tell. But that wasn't going to stop her from talking about it. Although it had almost deterred her when she'd noticed Professor Kibitzer of all people was the one hosting this errand. Not that she was scared of the old woman, no, never (or at least, she wouldn't admit it).

"Hi everyone!" she greeted the students who had stuck around to watch, or were still waiting to do their own presentation. "For those of you who don't know me, I'm Dee Prince, and I grew up in a town called Whitehaven."

The first of her pictures would be shown on the projector, a snap of Whitehaven's harbour, with small glimpses of the town surrounding it.

"It's really not a very exciting place," Dee explained, shrugging, "but a nice place to grow up in, anyway. It's a town in Cumbria on the English west coast, and really, the best part about it is that it's next to the sea. We have a beach and some cliffs, plenty of hidden places to explore..." The girl trailed off slightly, staring at the picture of her hometown. She missed it, she did, the scent of the sea, climbing cliffs, the sense of infinity you got from staring out over the rolling waves.

Shaking off the sudden bout of homesickness, Dee's smile returned, a little wryly. "Not much fancy history, either. Apparently the area was first settled in the 10th century by Vikings, which sounds interesting, but there's not much more known about that. We started out as a fishing village. There were a bunch of different families who were the landlords there over the years but no one remembers their names, and probably no one remembered Whitehaven, either, because we only had like 250 people living there, until the Lowther family in the 17th century came along. They turned us into a mining town and built a harbour for trading."

Signalling for the next picture to be shown, Dee continued, "Today a bit less than 25000 people live in Whitehaven, so its grown quite a bit, but is still nowhere near big."

"Our largest tourist attraction is the Beacon Museum, which explains a lot more about the history of the area than I have time to tell you about. The coal mining stopped after a while due to a bunch of accidents and explosions, although I remember something about underwater mining being invented there, and now most of the local work comes from the harbour and a nearby nuclear site, which... uuuh." She paused, staring at the students in front of her blankly, and wondered how many of them even knew what nuclear power was. Probably better to not delve into that. "Anyway, no more coal."

Clearing her throat, she motioned for the next picture. "We also have two National Heritage sites nearby, which are pretty. A lot of the landscape there is pretty, really. I used to run around with my friends and climb around the cliffs near the town."

"This is Saint Bees Head Heritage Coast, a protected area for nesting birds. Worth a visit, sometimes."

Dee threw a quick glance towards Professor Kibitzer, narrowing her eyes at the clock used to keep the time. Probably time to end this. How long had she been talking? She didn't particularly fancy being cut off and kicked out because she didn't stop rambling. "I tried to find any kind of important or famous person from Whitehaven, not that most of you would know them anyway, because there are roughly 0.5 wixes in Whitehaven, my family excluded, so the only possible choices were Muggles." Which was really most of the reason her parents had decided to move there. "There was nothing to be found, though, so no loss. Apparently we have a bunch of decent rugby players and footballers but that's about it." She grinned cheekily. "Guess I'll have to become Whitehaven's first celebrity."

Clapping her hands together, she bobbed up and down in a mock-curtsy, along with an amused spark in her eyes. "Thanks for your attention. If you have any more questions about the absolutely fascinating history of Whitehaven, feel free to come talk to me later, but I doubt it."

Word Count | 700+

Katrina was fine with crowds, but speaking in front of them was different. She certainly didn’t have stage fright, but it was far from her most comfortable position. Another thing Katrina was uncomfortable doing was talking about her past. But in either case, here she was, waiting her turn to speak in front of a crowd about her past. It was an errand, and a while back Katrina told herself that she was going to do as many as possible. They got her doing something new.

Katrina had been watching the previous presentations. There were a lot of students from exotic places. Even those who weren’t had found interesting pictures and settings that made them seem exotic. Katrina just hoped hers seemed just as exciting.

“So, hi everyone! I am Katrina Walker, and as most of you I doubt know, I was born in the outskirts of London. However, that’s not actually what I’m talking about today,” Katrina looked to see her first picture on the screen, enlarged. It was of her grandparents home back in the United States.

“About every summer, I used to go to the States to my grandparents home. We would travel around the small towns, sometimes just road trip around, and of course, do a lot of camping. It wasn’t anything super crazy, but the local town by the house had a bunch of cool things that I thought I’d talk about,” Katrina looked to the projected picture as it slid to a picture of the town. It had been years since she had seen the town so large. The only pictures she had were old copies that her guardians had sent via owl, “So this is Telluride Colorado. My grandparents home was a little less than an hour drive from here, up in the mountains some,”

“There are a bunch of mountains and lakes and everyone out there hikes. In the winter theres a lot of skiing, but it was more advanced stuff so I never really got to. There were a bunch of really really good restaurants too, for a little while my papa used to work at the local Italian restaurant,” Katrina looked as the next slide passed, a picture of a hiking trail. She didn’t actually know which one it was since her guardians had picked them out, but she knew it was one of the hikes up there.

The next slide was one of a gondola. “But the coolest part to me was the gondola that went right out of the city. We used to take it all the time, and one of the workers there knew my grandparents so we’d ride it again and again. Since the city is basically a skiing town in the winter, we would come in the summer, the off season to skip the lines. It was beautiful from in the little chair box thingies…. The uh- carriages—the gondola box things… wait, they’re just called gondola’s aren’t they…” With an awkward cough, Katrina moved on.

She watched as the slide changed to the last one. A picture from the town again in the summer. “So one of the funny tradition things of Telluride is the Nothing Festival,” She smirked, glancing out into the students looking for a response, “Basically, there was someone that was really annoyed with all the festivals who sent a sarcastic letter to the city manager. The first Nothing Festival was held in 1991, basically a few days that lets everyone enjoy the no crows and traffic and no hassles. Literally nothing happens,” Katrina shifted her weight, trying to wrap up.

“So yeah, it’s a really cool town and a lot more interesting than the technical town I was born in. I hope you enjoyed it?” With that, Katrina hopped off the stage a bit bashfully and returned to her seat to listen to the rest of the presentations.

WC: 652/400

WC: 434/400

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February 28th, 2021

Calypso Starling stepped up to the makeshift stage, nervousness bubbling inside her.

Her hands were practically shaking. Honestly. Get a grip, Cal, she chided herself, It's just one presentation. Taking a deep breath, she motioned for the first slide to be shown. Calypso didn't even flinch as light filled the sheet behind her. Being halfblood, and growing up alongside muggles, she was used to modern technology.

Pointing to her first image, the young Gryffindor began to speak. "H-hello. My name is Calypso Starling. This is my town, Pluckley, Kent."

"It is known as the Most Haunted Village in England. Well, that's because, though it's a Muggle town, many wizarding folk live here. In fact, there's so much magical activity in Pluckley that there is a whole team of magical government officials that work alongside the mayor to cover up supernatural mishaps. That's my Mom's job. We have a whole host of ghosts in Pluckley, most friendly. I actually know quite a few of them personally." At this a smattering of laughter arose from parts of the crowd, presumably first year muggleborns who, though they had been living in the magical world for half a year, still weren't completely used to the idea of being friends with phantoms. Cal continued.

"They give all sorts of ghost tours, and there have even been instances where Muggle tourists have captured the specters on camera." A slide change. Instead of a single image, there was a collage of photos this time.

"Three prominent areas for ghost sightings," (a pause for a slide change) "Are the Screaming Woods, Maltman's Hill, and St. Nicholas Church. The former used to be called Dering Woods, after a distinguished family of the area. It has been reported that more than fifty people have died there. The woods are a big magnet for self-proclaimed 'ghost hunters.' I suspect that's why the name was changed."

"Maltman's Hill is the site of frequent reports of a phantom coach, complete with

ghostly horses and a headless coachman, zipping by at incredible speeds. The coach has also been seen in other places around the village, but mostly at Maltman's Hall. Though it is claimed that no one knows who the coachman is and where he's going, it is well-known among the Pluckley wizarding community that his name is Friedrich Weber, who moved to the area from Germany when he was a boy. He was widowed, but had a daughter. She went missing at nine years old, and Mr. Weber spent the rest of his life looking for her. Even death couldn't stop his search. He is my dear friend. I keep him company sometimes, and he says I remind him of his daughter. Such a sad story..." Calypso had become lost in her telling, and had to shake her head a bit to clear it.

"Anyway, St. Nicholas Church. The church is home to two ghosts. The Red Lady, or Lady Dering, is buried in the crypt of the church. According to a popular tale, she was buried along with a red rose in seven lead coffins encased in a wooden one. They say she searches for the unmarked grave of her stillborn child. This is utter hogwash. Lady Dering hates the rumor, made up by Muggles, which she says is much too dramatic and theatrical. Although, you didn't hear it from me, but 'dramatic' and 'theatrical' are a pretty good description of Lady Dering, or at least her ghost." A few chuckles arose from the audience.

"Her sister is The White Lady, aka Kira Lee. She haunts the church. She usually

appears with a wine glass in her hand, though no one knows why. She is the more solitary of the sisters."

The Screaming Woods/Dering Woods

Maltman's Hall

St. Nicholas Church

A new slide. "Despite it's sinister reputation, Pluckley really is quite a beautiful place. It's great for nature hikes."

"Pluckley is close to the sea, too." The click of the projector as Cal signaled for her fifth slide. "It's only about thirty miles from the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel. My family and I go on day trips there sometimes." She smiled at the memory. A twinge of homesickness had arisen some point during her presentation.

A slide showing her beloved Pluckley Library. "A few more details: Pluckley was the filming site of a popular 1990s British Muggle TV show, The Darling Buds of May. We also have a wonderful library. The village is located an hour's drive from London, and there's a Dog Collar Museum nearby."

She switched the slide one last time. "I've lived in Pluckley my whole life, and I love my home. I hope I haven't bored you too much, and that you've enjoyed learning about my little village. Thank you for your time." Calypso took a little bow, and stepped off the stage.

Word Count: 812/400

Word Count: 596/400

Henry didn't know what he went, the twelve year old anxiety would increase will speaking in front of a large group plus he did have some level of stage fright. Then why was he in the rehearsal room during the presentations maybe because a part of him wanted to feel like part of the group or perhaps he was trying to put himself out there even if he was terrified at the thought of public speaking.

Upon hearing the professor call him next, Henry gulped and felt his anxiety increase as he move to the front of the room. Staring out at the others, the second year cleared his throat with the feeling of panic rising within him as he opened his mouth and spoke.

"Uh hello, I'm Henry Knight for those who don't me. And while I currently live in Liverpool, I'm going to talk about my first home today which is Godric Hollow."

Henry eyed the projector and saw the image it showed before the second heat continued.

"Godric Hollow is located in the outskirts of England and is home to a mixture of both wizarding and muggle families. The village is known for it's history within the magical world, it was the home and name after Godric Gryffindor and the late headmaster Albus Dumbledore lived there during his younger years with his family."

A pause as Henry waited for the image to change on the projector, when it did the boy would continued.

"On the outskirts of the village is a forest area that is covered with trees and is really beautiful during the spring time. Occur you can see a magical creature running through the trees and depending on the type of tree there have been a few bowtruckles that call the forest their home. But the forest still is over run with non magical animals and is amazing and peaceful to stand in at times."

Another pause as the boy waited for the image to change, once it did he would continue.

"One of the reason Godric Hollow grew in popularity is because it was the first home of Harry Potter. It was the place where Voldemort... uh killed the potters and attempted but failed to kill Harry Potter. Each day there are still lots of wizards and witches who come to godric hollow to visit the destroyed house and stature of the Potters."

A short pause before the twelve year old continue.

"Another popular location to visit in Godric Hollow is the cemetery. The muggles have start rumors that the place is haunted and from time to time their have been sightings of ghosts there but the place also houses the tombstones of historical figures in the wizarding world as well."

Another slight pause as the projector showed the first image again before the second year would speak.

"Godric Hollow holds history and is often know as a historical area but is also a modern village that has both wizarding and muggle families living side by side. It has moments of the past that can be viewed and remembered but also makings of the future awaiting for it's time. That will conclude my p..presentation I hope that you enjoyed it."

Henry still felt his anxiety rise so after a moment the second year would leave the front and head to the back from there he would run from the rehearsal room and to the boy's bathroom where he would lock himself in a stall and take a few moments to breath and try to relax.

Calanthe had jumped between Brighton and Gangneung at least five times before taking a seat in the rehearsal room. In the end, she decided on her birthplace. Most of the girl’s life was spent in Brighton, but she was right in predicting the number of people featuring their European towns. Why talk about the colourful Lanes or the time she spent hiking for hours across the South Downs when she could torture herself by delving into her mother’s history?

“Hi. I’m Calanthe … here to talk about the place I was born,” she spoke after clearing her throat in an awkward manner.

“This is Gangneung, a city on the eastern coast of South Korea. Way back when, a group called the Yemaek people lived here, and it’s widely suggested that they established the first ever kingdom in South Korea, called Gojoseon. Uh … Gangneung’s representative animal is the tiger. That’s important because Korean culture and identity is strongly associated with the tiger, and the animal has a long-standing presence in their folklore.”

“This is one of the most important places in Gangneung when it comes to the country’s history. It is the home where Shin Saimdang was born.” Calanthe’s mother loved talking about that woman. She always made sure that the family visited the place whenever they visited Gangneung. Calanthe could not complain, though. Saimdang was a cool one. “The home actually has a title. It’s called Ojukheon. Saimdang was born in the Joseon period, and during this time, women were discouraged from showcasing any talent or gifts after marriage. They were instead required to devote their time to the family. So Saimdang married someone who would let her develop her abilities, and she became one of Korea’s most revered artists. And she even wrote poetry. Both Saimdang and her son, also born in Ojukheon, actually appear on the money in South Korea.”

“There are several other places like this in Gangneung too, such as the Seongyojang House, which is three hundred years old and was home to a noble family.” Pictures would appear one after the other on the projector screen, showing gently sloping roofs, neutral colours with the odd red, green, and yellow colour combo showing up once in a while.

“Gyeong-po Beach gets really popular during the summer time. It’s the only time when the water’s bearable, anyways.” No comparison to Brighton. But it was still beautiful. “I’ve heard people say that it has the bluest waters in all of Korea. Can’t confirm … The representative tree of Gangneung is pine, and it lines the six kilometre stretch of sand. It’s fu- … freezing cold in the winter, though. Only really good for the sunrise.”

“Speaking of the sunrise … here’s Gyeongpodae Pavilion. It’s where many people come to see the sunrise, and they can also view the mountains, ocean, and lake. It’s in a pretty special spot. Oh! And it’s also the perfect place to see the cherry blossoms. I mean, I bet there are more awesome places in South Korea to see cherry blossoms, but this is the best for Gangneung and it’s pretty dang perfect.” It was a regular for the family to head to the Pavilion at least once during their stay in Gangneung, of course making their reservations ahead of time. Snow or sun, the Pavilion saw crowds like no other place, expect the beach in summer, probably.

“So … that’s the best of Gangneung. There’s a lot more, like the festivals for the cherry blossoms, summer … and coffee. And the massive lake. And the filming locations. Worth a visit, definitely.”

Piper was not one for public speaking. Not the tiniest bit. When the presentation opportunity to present where one was from arrived, Piper's first instinct was an arbitrary no. However, things had changed when she had overheard two students talking about London. Of course Piper had perked up upon hearing this, and was utterly baffled at the fact that the only things mentioned were the London Eye, Big Ben, and of course the Ministry of Magic.

Didn't anyone know anything else about London?

Exceptionally irritated, Piper had begun fantasizing about teaching these ninnies about London misconceptions - that their precious ideas of tourism were severely off-course. The idea slowly became more appealing, and it was with hesitant enjoyment that Piper began to create her slides.

As Piper approached the stage now, her heartbeat seemed to speed up by a hundred beats. I can't do this. She was such an idiot. Everyone else had presented so well (even Starlee); how could she? But no no, a commitment was a commitment. And so, Piper stepped onstage, swallowed with a parched throat, and tried to speak while ignoring the eyes burning through her.

Anger.

Piper had learned quite some time ago that when one was afraid or unmotivated, they simply had to get terribly angry about it. It was a fuel to press on, more effective than the kindest encouragement, thrilling adrenaline, or harshest motivation. It had subconsciously driven Piper through everything else. Why should this be different? She worked up a burning sensation. How could everyone else be so selfish as to misunderstand London? To make assumptions about thousands of people?

"M-my name is Piper, and I'm about to show you why what you think about London is completely wrong." Feeling more confident, Piper pressed on.


"You recognize this? Have you been here? Does it look interesting?

"Let me tell you. The London Eye SUCKS. It's not fun. At least, not as fun as everyone thinks. All the peo- Muggles always want to ride it and it's not worth it."



"Here's another big one. Big Ben. Yeah, it's cool, but no it's not the only thing in our city. London is 607 miles wide, and half of you seem to think it's only a few blocks that include major attractions."

The anger drive was absolutely working. Piper was becoming more passionate as she spoke.



"In London, it's not this clean or luxurious. No, I don't have tea at three o'clock every morning. The streets always have some kind of roadwork going on. All the touristy places are crowded most of the time, and are definitely more polished than the rest of the city because of all the traffic. The back alleys are something else."



"For some reason, it's a common misconception that it always rains in London. It's certainly colder there in the winter and it does rain, but our summers can be extremely hot and dry. We get a bit of all the weather."

"So, now that you know a little bit about that, I'd like to say I've lived there my whole life. It's nice but rather dull once you've seen everything. Some nicer places to visit are much smaller, but overall my point is London is rather over-hyped. Anyway, next time you see anyone spout more nonsense about London, feel free to correct them with what I just told you-" Eyes blazing, Piper was abruptly cut off with the leader's cry of, "NEXT!" How inconsiderate.

Either way, Piper was content that she had now educated some people about London. She hoped those two students had been here.

And, best of all, Piper had proven to herself that she could get up and over her fears.

WC: 603/400