Hometown Show & Tell [Errand](Closed)

Why had she signed up for this again? Scarlett didn't have the slightest clue, but was actually rather excited to brag about her hometown in front of people. She lived in Godric's Hollow, a quaint wizarding village that had really only gained fame after the whole Harry Potter thing. Speaking of Potter, she had heard that the guy had been arrested, but that wasn't the point. Anyway, Fiona had told her the reason that she had come to live there after she had graduated was all of the history surrounding the place. Fiona had taken her on trips to the very creepy cemetery and the old houses of people like Bathilda Bagshot and the Potters which had been frankly a bit boring, with her blabberings about history. But without those blabberings, Scarlett would've have no idea what to say in front of the people awaiting her presentation. She gave a slight raise of the eyebrows as her close friend Henry Knight talked about the same place, but shrugged it off. She would at least try to make this entertaining for the crowd.

After the Divination professor had yelled 'NEXT' at the poor person on stage, and said poor person scrambled off, Scarlett rose to start her presentation.

"Buckle up motherfu-" Language Scarlett, she chided herself. Why don't we keep this PG? She forged on to a chuckle from the audience. "Since we're keeping this child-friendly, hold on to your seatbelts mofos, because I'm going to take you on a slightly-historical ride."



The presentation started. "Right," said Scarlett, gesturing at the remains of Bathilda Bagshot's house. "I don't believe Harry Potter's adventures were written down in detail in the history books - only the final battle or whatever - but basically Harry Potter and Hermione Granger went to Bathilda Bagshot's house for whatever reason to find she was dead and they had to fight off a snake, or something?" She shrugged. "I don't know, wasn't really paying attention to my aunt at that time."



"Okay so we got this graveyard and everyone says it's haunted but I don't believe that BS," said Scarlett, moving on to the next slide and really keeping an effort to maintain her...PG-ness. "Ignotus - Ignatus - something Perverell is buried here, as are Lily and James Potter and I think Bathilda Bagshot? You all know Bathilda Bagshot right? The History of Magic lady?"



"Anyhoo, we've got this random church called St. Jeremy's or something - I'm not sure - here now. Beautiful. Lovely. Spectacular. And moving on."



"Finally, Godric Gryffindor built my hometown," said Scarlett. "And since he's from 'wild moor' - thank my aunt for this exclusive info - there's like a lot of wild and natural places here, like a forest and also this stunning countryside." The presentation changed to a view of rolling hills on a sunny day. It brought a familiarity that made her smile. "Bit egotistical naming your village after you, isn't it? You don't see a Rowena Grove, or a Helga Hamlet, or a Salazar...okay I can't think of one, but that's not the point - don't you? And that's my presentation so have a nice day and kudos to-"

"NEXT!"

"Oh dangit," said Scarlett, giving a dramatic exit bow whilst simultaneously running down the stairs and creating a new dance move in the process.

wc | 546

Nicholas wasn’t particularly comfortable with public speaking, that much was a given. His own personality never truly lent itself well to discussion let alone presenting in front of a crowd. What’s more, he truthfully wasn’t entirely knowledgeable about the intricacies of his hometown, his family had spent most of their time on various jaunts to the countryside. Before his time at Hogwarts, he had spent almost as much time on various trips to Donegal or to Antrim as he had in the city of his birth. These factors combined meant that he was entirely nervous and relatively unprepared for the task that had been asked of him, namely giving an accurate and engaging presentation with relation to his hometown.

The boy stumbled over his words at first, the greeting getting caught in his throat. He blushed for a moment before allowing himself to take a deep breath, the air flooding into his lungs and relaxing him as it did so.

“Good afternoon,” Nicholas commenced, visibly less shaken, “I’m Nicholas McCowan, of the Ulster McCowans, and I come from Belfast. Now, Belfast has a long and storied history, having been founded back in the bronze age. But it was only with industrialisation in the eighteenth century that the city grew to be the second largest on the Emerald Isle.”

He paused for a moment, unsure of how much detail he should go into regarding the city’s history. He wasn’t entirely aware of it all himself, in truth, but he knew that his mother had spoken in hushed tones of the constant conflict that had mired her youth. It had painted the city, painted it with such a broad brush that practically any reference to Belfast made mention of it. Rather pointedly, Nicholas opted instead to entirely dodge the issue, Belfast was more than its past, and the city couldn’t quite heal if all it was known for was its issues in the twentieth century.

“Belfast lies on the mouth of the River Lagan,” Nicholas continued, “Which is how it gets its name ‘Béal Feirste’ means ‘mouth of the sand bank’ in Irish. It’s also how the city grew to be so large, the river mouth provided a natural port and thus allowed for the creation of a substantial dock and shipping industry.”

As he spoke, the image he’d assembled flickered from the projector. It was by no means a glamour shot, in fact it was almost industrial in its nature, but it did serve as an example of the city.

He continued, “But Belfast does also have a number of tourist attractions, such as:”

The image flickered and changed, “Belfast Castle.”

Again, the image shifted, “The City Hall, and…”

The image changed once more, “The Titanic Belfast.”

“Now, the famous muggle ship RMS Titanic was actually constructed in Belfast. Of course, this ship famously was the site of the greatest boating disaster in history when it struck an iceberg and went down, but given that we built it, we also commemorate it.”

It was an odd tangent to go off on, and the boy could feel himself running out of things to say quite rapidly. Referencing a tragedy wasn’t exactly the finest way to endear people to a city, that much was almost entirely certain, and the words all but died in his mouth as he spoke.

He struggled for a moment trying to think of an alternative way to continue his presentation, perhaps something about the local culture or cuisine, but all of his ideas were turning up a blank. Instead he just gave a half-hearted smile and slumped his shoulders, “Ah, thank you.”

604 Words

hi
February 28th.
#b76e79
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sta 6 | eva 7 | str 0 | wis 7 | arc 4 | acc 6
seer

picture references at the bottom~

Everly was excited for this for no real reason. Maybe because she finally had a valid reason to bug her mom about family history, or maybe because she liked stuff like this. Maybe both. Either way, Everly was practically jumping when the person before her finally finished and she walked up.

Everly cleared her throat a few times. "Hi people!" She started, with a little wave. "This is a short bit of my family history and where I'm from! Pay attention if you want, don't care if you don't, hope you learn something."

Everly pulled out a long stick to tap stuff with and seem professional. "Let's start with my family history," she said. "For the most part, as far as is known, my family has been mostly based in the United Kingdom, but we do come from international places including from parts of Asia, North America, and Australia!" She said, motioning towards the screen. Up popped a picture of a map with the areas she had just listed circled. [picture 1!]

Everly proceeded to whack the screen to bring attention to this. Tap tap.

"Now, moving on to my family. I don't know much about my grandparents, so if you ask, I'll tell you 'welp'. However, I was born in a small place in Scotland that I could probably care less about, then we all packed our stuff and moved to Godric's Hollow." [pictures 2 & 3]

Tap tap.

“Anyways, Godric’s Hollow is a really popular place because it was where Harry Potter had his first facedown against Voldemort and something like that. But there’s a lot more to Godric’s Hollow than just that! There’s... um... more cool stuff like the graveyard and stuff! Everly beamed, tapping on the pictures again. [picture 4!]

Tap tap.

“Anyways, we lived in Godric’s Hollow for a while until — guess what, you got it. We moved again!” Everly whacked the board one last time for lasting effect to signal the pictures changing. “This is where I live now! Canterbury, England.” [picture 5!]

“Okay, Canterbury! City in England, population of about fourty-three thousand people, go check out the Canterbury Cathedral cause it’s cool, and uh... the gardens and river are pretty too!” Everly held a bright smile. [pictures 6 & 7!] “Anyways, that’s stuff about where I’m from and places I lived! I’m sure we’re gonna move again sometime in the future, so check back in a few years and we’ll see!” With a last grin, the little Gryffindor took a fancy little bow, whacked the board one last time, and left the stage.

Reducio

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word count: 423/400

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Typically, Elena was not one to put herself in the limelight for any sort of thing whatsoever. In fact, she shied away from the prospect of doing anything that involved getting up in front of a crowd and potentially messing up. The pressure was too much and the cloud hanging over her head of what others might think of her little presentation she had put up. The Gryffindor smiled and clapped along with everyone else as they got closer and closer to her name on the list. Too many people had went with her top three options already which had been Scotland, Ireland and lovely England itself. The brunette had suspected that might be the case but thankfully, the Jangleton family had proud roots not just in London itself but also dating back to it's roots which had started up in none other than the proud Canadian province of Newfoundland. She tugged at her robes absentmindely fidgeting with them out of nervousness as the professor beckoned for the next person to go up.

Oh, that was her.

Right.

Mustering up whatever courage she could find within her small figure, Elena made her way to the front of the room turning to face the hordes of students most of which seemed intently focused on her for the most part. "Hey, guys! So, I'm gonna be talking about Newfoundland which is a Canadian province near the Labrador Sea and also where my family orignates from." Elena herself had been surprised to find out that particular fact as the projector whirred and buzzed as the image of a flag popped up. The flag in question was a mixure of blue and red with white stripes and a yellow line running through it which she got to explaining more in depth. "So, as you probably guessed, this is Newfoundland's flag designed by artist Christopher Pratt and was flown for the first time on June 24th, 1980." Personally, the colors clashed too much with her and the bright yellow coupled with the dull red was just plain horrible. "The blue represents the sea, the white represents snow and ice and the yellow color represents the confidence and will of the people."

Reducio

They were after all a proud people. Maybe that was why her parents were so stuck-up and stubborn a majority of the time, they had some of the Newfoundland blood running in them. She motioned to the screen again and the slides switched revealing a array of names arranged in a list, all too complicated to say with ease. "Right, let's move onto holidays then." She pointed to each holiday name in the bulleted list reading them out loud as she went over them. "You got Candlemas Day, Orangemen's Day, All Soul's Day, Pancake night as well as more of the common names such as Christmas and whatnot." They were mostly traditional in nature as she motioned again and the screen quickly changed to show yet another picture which depicted a group of people, supposedly relatives gathered outside a house which had been adorned with Christmas decorations all grinning and smiling.

To those from the local areas, they would be familar with the practice and it was not just your average, holiday vist. "This is what they call mummering in Newfoundland. It's when you go around visting houses near Christmas-time though it's interesting to note that this practice was illegal in Newfoundland until like the 1990's." Mummer's parties and all that, noise complaints had clearly disrupted the serenity of an entire province so much they had deemed the tradition illegal for a short while and honestly, the Gryffindor couldn't blame them. She liked her peace and serenity too but still, the prospect that they had to go such lengthy resorts sounded hilarious to her. Now, they got to the good stuff for all the nature-loving and outside people.

The slides switched again and this time, one big glaring word loomed out at them spelling out 'LANDMARKS'. It was quickly followed by another slide which depicted a multitude of picture which Elena went to great lengths to explain. "For all you tourist people out here, here are some spots that you ought to visit and have some sense of history to them. Let's start with Signal Hill, shall we?" She pointed the image of a rocky hill with patches of grass covering and a small stone structure that sat on top of it but it was for the most part isolated but the hill overlooked quite a large terrain of flatland. "This place is famous because it's where Guglielmo Marconi recieved the world's first transatlantic wireless signal in 1901. " They were all big words that Elena still did not understand.

Reducio

Thankfully however, her trial of fire was over as the slides quickly faded to black and she repressed the urge to exhale a sigh of relief just glad she had managed to stammer out more than just a couple of words without getting all frozen up. "That's a little bit about Newfoundland, thank you all for listening." Elena had barely made it from the front of the room when the professor's instruction for the next person to go resounded across the walls. She settled back into her chair content with the fact that particular burden had been lifted off her shoulders. If it was for the sake of a couple of house points, Elena Jangleton had no problem rising up to the challenge, it just took her a little encouragement, that was all.

WORD COUNT: 917/400

WC: 835/400

feb 28th, 2021

Lindsey swore that she could smell newly baked cookies and the fresh fragrance of marigolds when she heard the word “hometown”. She was very sure that it wasn’t a type of deja vu, but real feelings. Especially after she moved to York. Lynn had to admit, that although York was a wonderful city, with gorgeous old timed churches and pebble streets, it’s nowhere as good as Kensington. Well, even if Kensington’s not even a city. But she knew it. It was probably the best place in London, and nothing could replace it. Yes, nothing.

For now her top resolution was to remember her hometown, the place where she had spent her childhood. Slowly she found herself being kept away from the old memories and places around the neighborhood, and the only resources was Edmund - their favorite time was to talk about old memories before bedtime now, alone, in his or her bedroom. She still remembered the talks during winter break…memorable. And this was probably why she was here today. She wanted to remember, and this would be the way.

Jumping onto the stage with the warmest smile on her face, her luxurious chocolate brown eyes scanned the room. If someone watched closely and attentively, they could see enthusiasm shining - and sparkles. “Hello everyone! I’m Lindsey Springhall, but Lindsey, or even Lynn would do really.” she started in her usual volume, and glanced at the projector. It was obviously a muggle device, which she had seen one or two time in Erica’s household, when she was fairly young. Growing up in a muggle neighborhood, she wasn’t really that unfamiliar with muggle things as some purebloods did. But still, the badger eyed the projector with curiosity - well, Lindsey had to admit, she was always a curious child.

“As some of you might have known,” she continued, most tranquilly, like talking about her last meal. “I’m currently living in Yorkshire.” although trying to do her best, Lindsey felt the slight tremble in her voice. No. She couldn’t go on like this, breaking down before everyone. Controlling herself a bit, she managed to return to the usually calm self. “But I just moved to Yorkshire this November. I’ve spent my whole childhood in Kensington, London. So, as a result, today I won’t be talking about York, instead, I would like to present the wonderful Kensington to you.”

She scanned over, and was fairly glad that the projector had successfully displayed her first image. “This is the Kensington Gardens, a place that is highly in my own favor. It’s near the Royal Garden Hotel, and the scenery there is beautiful - yup, like this.” she pointed at the picture. [reducio][center][/center][/reducio]
Taking a deep breath, she let the projector’s picture switched into another one. “Another famous park that I love is the Hyde Park - probably many of you have heard it. It’s a peaceful place, and I bet you won’t regret spending your cozy afternoon there.”[reducio][center][/center][/reducio]
“We’d be moving on to a museum. Personally I’m really interested in museums, probably because of my love for ancient items. Although this is, certainly, a muggle museum, but I’m sure you would like it. And there’s lots of specimens, as well as gorgeous decorations.”[reducio][center] [/center][/reducio]
Scanning over to confirm that the next image was on the screen, she smiled a bit to the audience, and continued, still with undying enthusiasm. “Now, off to shopping! Probably some of the Londoners here know about the Kensington High Street - which is what I’m going to present to you. There are lots of fine shops and restaurants, and possibly your mom would like it - but give it a try! Even if you just take a walk there, it would be quite pleasing.”[reducio][center] [/center][/reducio]
“Oh yeah, and finally - The Churchill Arms. It’s decorated with flowers outside on the walls. There would be organized parties sometimes - it mostly serves Thai food, but you may enjoy good beers there too. Do note, no alcohol for youngsters, though!”[reducio][center] [/center][/reducio]
She was a bit surprised to find that she had attached another page of picture which shown on the projector. But yeah, Lindsey almost immediately remembered it - “Speaking of alcohol - here’s a non-alcohol bar that I really like. Last page, professor, last page!” she made a dramatic gesture to Professor Kibitzer who yelled for the next student. “It’s called Joe & the Juice. Of course, it serves brilliant juice - alright, alright, professor! I guess that’s all, thank you for listening![reducio][center] [/center][/reducio]
Tentatively speaking, Lindsey had fulfilled her current little dream - she had presented her true hometown in front of her peers, and the Duke - well, if the Duke had a chance to hear the news, he’d get furious. She couldn’t help thinking about Edmund’s comment on this, and the Duke’s facial expressions. It would be - fun, which was for sure. Grinning a bit, Lynn curtsied a bit, jumped down the stage, and disappeared soon in the audience. Well, this was gonna be amazing…just think.

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|| WC : 550/400 ||

A girl had done her presentation before him, her name was Lindsey and she had talked about living in Yorkshire meaning that they were from the same country at least. Though that was not exactly rare so he was not paying the actual name of the area much thought. Especially after he had already heard about so many places from the other students that he was not exactly following the topic anymore. But that was only until it was his own turn and his head snapped up as he shuffled to the front of the room, a few photographs and trinkets in his hand. He would glance at Miss Kibitzer, waiting for an okay but when his gaze was met with only impatience, he would cough and face the other students. "H-Hi so uhm... I'm Alan Vanes and I live in London, England more specifically in Dulwich. It is basically an area that is in the south of London so many of you probably never heard of it. But it is quite a beautiful place, really. There is a lot of nature there if you like that kind of stuff and for those that like reading there are enough bookstores you can find," he would start his presentation as he glanced at the professor again, unsure whether he was doing alright. He would have to shake his head abruptly as soon as he noticed as he forced himself to look back to the students and straighten up. There was nothing to be nervous about when talking to the other students, especially because he saw a couple of familiar faces, giving them a slight smile.

"Alright so... it is about an hour away from King's Cross and Diagon Alley if you were to use muggle transportation, but we usually just floo to Diagon Alley and reach the express from there. It comes in quite handy that diagon alley is so close because of how beautiful it is... so that is definitely nice about living in the area. Where I live we live very secluded in a way. Of course there are still Muggles and all but generally you have to walk for a bit before meeting someone else which helps us stay hidden in a muggle town. If we do however want to go somewhere, the Dulwich park is a great place to go!" he would say before he finally handed the few pictures he had to the divination professor. All of them seemed to be taken in the park or its surroundings. As well as other landmarks which all seemed very natural. "Muggles and people actually meet up in the park about once a week to run together and it is nice to go there for a picnic in warm weather or tennis and ponds with ducks and ...yeah," ashe was talking the pictures would slide through one after the other and pictures would show the different ponds and landmarks of the area. He would fill in for the rest of the presentation until he found himself rudely interrupted in the middle of his sentence as the professor barked "Next!" signaling to him that the five minutes had finally passed. Grateful in a way, he would pick up the photos and shuffle back to his place quickly, heart pounding slightly.

Serena pressed her fingers together tightly as she waited for her turn. The nerves started to chew her stomach up, twisting the butterflies in them and making her regret coming here. It was a good way to get herself over these silly nerves and to learn to address people on a stage or to give a good speech. However, she was now considering if her speech was good enough. She did not really have much planned. Others had brought along pictures, which she had not. Photos, in fact, was not really a thing that she owned many of. Perhaps she ought to change that one day. Invest in a camera or something.

In either case, she stayed rooted to her chair for now as she watched the others. Within time, it was her turn. Hesitantly, she made her way onto the 'stage' area that had been set up and looked down at her notes. They were mostly about London, the city where she grew up in. However, a few others had also spoken about the same topic. Knowing she did not really have much more to add to it - especially given that she was not really allowed to go exploring on her own and her family did not want to see all of the sights there - she was not entirely sure if her speech had any purpose anymore.

"So uh, I was going to talk about London - which is where I live - but I know that a few others already have. So erm I guess it's a bit pointless for me to add anything. Instead, I guess I'll share a bit about my culture?" She asked, not really expecting any answers. Nonetheless, she continued, "Oh! I'm Serena, by the way. Serena Towers, fourth year Hufflepuff," She added as though introducing herself was an afterthought. But someone else had done it so she figured she probably should too, "Although I was born and brought up here. Well, in London, my family are originally from other parts of the world. The majority of them are from India, in Asia." As she spoke, it dawned on her that she knew very little about India. Her own culture had been kind of lost to her. She could speak a little bit of the language but certainly not enough to be fluent in it. And although she knew bits and bobs, she did not know what sights were around and had not spent enough time to know every little tradition or thing about it.

In fact, knowing what was India and what was her family, London's culture or her goblin heritage (which she had recently found out about and could also talk about, if she had been willing to share) was hard to separate for her. They all joined together, becoming a part of her without her really realising where they came from. She never stopped to ask. Perhaps she should... "I haven't been to India much before but I went to visit my grandparents a few years ago. I think I must have been seven or eight? I recall it being very hot, even though it was not summer at the time. It would have been their 'rainy' season and yes, it did rain a lot too. Much more than it does here but the rain was also warmer, which was nice if you got stuck outside. My grandparents live in a part of India called Punjab. It's in North India. And they speak a language called Punjabi there, which is what I often speak to them in. Though, I'm not very good at it so a lot of my sentences are half English-half Punjabi. Oh! There's a place called uh Arm- Am- rit-ser? I think? And it's apparently got a Golden Temple, which sounds pretty cool. I haven't been there myself but my gran was telling me that it's not too far from where we live so I would like to visit there one day. Oh! And uh the food is super tasty. My gran has a cook, who makes really delicious stuff, I highly recommend the food and urm..." She added, rattling off anything she could think of from her visit.

The 'rainy' season that she spoke of was better known as monsoon. It tended to fall around the same time as their summer holidays and so, when she went with her mum and brother, it was around that time. The Golden Temple that she referenced was in a city called Amritsar, which is a very thriving city within the state of Punjab. "And uh- well I guess that's it-" She added, realising her time was probably up already as she was urming and ahhing trying to figure out what to say. She quickly left the stage area as soon as she heard the word 'next', which was like a saving grace since she was not sure what else to really ramble off. If she had prepared properly, maybe she could have brought an outfit or some pictures of one or a recipe of some food or something. Her gran definitely would have sent her that if she had asked in advance...

WC: 865/400