Week Two - Task Four - "Interesting Finds"

[Anne-Marie Gagne]

”Alrighty! Time to get this show on the road.” you say, waving your wand with a swish and a flick and the cleaning supplies you have are floating next to you. “Since we’re on this floor, we might as well start here.”

Your friend nods and follows behind you when you leave the room, the both of you ignoring some of the looks you’re getting from some of the other students mingling around. You find your next room pretty quickly and get to work.

You stop when you open the desk at the head of the room and find it still filled with parchment. Old answer keys for tests and there’s a few lesson plans as well. “Huh, this is so cool. Hey come look at this! It's some Hogwarts history right here.”

For this task, in 125 words or more, I want you to tell me which class you think used to be held in this room and what one of the lesson plans was for. There are no right or wrong answers here. Could be an old room for a class still taken or one that hasn’t been offered in a long time.

Or alternatively, you can tell me in 100 words or more something interesting you found while cleaning. Something you thought was lost forever or just totally forgot you ever owned.

Please post your reply by April 30th at 11:59PM HOL Time. If you complete all of the Week Two tasks by the end of the month, you’ll receive a BONUS 10 beans/sapphires.

[Hiya Debnath]

I once bought a pink lipstick when I was in high school. It was my favorite shade of pink and from a well-known brand. It was also the only lipstick I wore often, back then. One day, I took a purse I wasn't fond of to a party, with my lipstick inside it. The purse had a hole in it, that led to a second layer of the purse's material itself, not to outside the purse (the purse was made of double-layered material) and my lipstick rolled into the space between the two layers of the purse's material, through that hole. All of this happened without my knowledge and I enjoyed the party. When I came home, I unpacked my purse but couldn't find my lipstick. I thought it had been stolen or that I had dropped it somewhere. I was very disappointed at myself for having lost the lipstick and/or angry at whoever had stolen it. As I said earlier, I wasn't fond of the purse, so it ended up in my stash of unused items for the next two years. About three years later, when I was in college, I decided to do some spring-cleaning. I threw away items that I did not need or donated or recycled the ones that were still in a good enough condition to be used. It was then that I discovered the purse, but this time, I took a liking to it because my tastes had changed slightly or maybe because the popular fashion trends had changed. I thought the purse was dirty so I gave its insides a good scrubbing with my hands with soap and water. I felt something hard and cylindrical, perhaps in the shape of a lipstick-case. I searched for it and discovered the hole. I put a finger through the hole and then both my thumb and my index finger, and after some difficulty, managed to fish out the cylindrical object I was feeling, which turned out to be my favorite pink lipstick.
P.S. I had already bought another of the same one to replace it, but I had no idea until then that my original lipstick hadn't been lost.

[River Fenwick]

I always lose things (I would argue that it's more misplacing than losing) and rediscover them while cleaning. One particular flaw of mine is my lack of ability to keep track of the items in my car. I tend to throw things into the center console and tell myself to get them out once I'm home, but I never remember to do so. One of these items was my graduation tassel, which I usually had dangling from my windshield wiper switch, but I put it in there at some point and couldn't remember what happened to it. When I went to clean out my car, I opened the console and found it. It's back to where it belongs now, but I was a bit down for a while, thinking I had lost it.

[Dibyarup James Potter]

When I was 12 years old, my mother gave me my first expensive pen as a gift on my birthday because, at that age, our school asked us to transition from a pencil to a pen for day-to-day writing. It was a really beautiful black ballpoint pen, with a golden clip and a golden ring around it. I used to carry it with me to school every day and write almost everything with it. A year passed, and it was a regular afternoon when I came home from school. However, that day we didn’t have any writing, since it was a day for sports practice. In the evening, when I opened my pencil box to take my pen out for my homework, it wasn’t there. I got so nervous that I anxiously started looking for it inside my school bag, under my table, and everywhere else I could think of, but it was nowhere to be found. It was a Friday, and we didn’t have school during the weekend, so that made me even more anxious that I had lost my mother’s gift for good. I was so upset that I went to bed without eating much, crying myself to sleep.

On Monday, I visited the Lost and Found counter at my school, but they didn’t have it either. I was really upset for an entire month after this, but I never found it. Until, two years later, when I was cleaning my room and while shifting a pile of books that I hadn’t touched in over three years, I noticed something and my heart dropped. It was my long-lost pen! I was so happy, that I screamed “YAAAAA!”, when my mother came into my room running. I immediately showed it to her and she smiled. That day I ordered a pizza for everyone with my monthly allowance savings, as a party for finding something so close to my heart.

Today, nine years later, I am 21 years old, and I have that pen with me to this day, although I use it occasionally now. Even though it has some wear and tear due to its age, as can be seen in the photograph, it will always remain one of my favourite pens because it was the first pen that my mother gifted to me as a birthday present.

[Emily Spencer]

As I enter the room, I am immediately transported back in time. Not literally, perhaps, but more of a 'feeling'. As crazy as it sounds, I could almost picture the room as it used to be, and picture myself as one of the students in the class. I had no doubt, you see, that this forgotten room in an upper tower was once a functional classroom. Closing my eyes, I let the feeling wash over me and whispered almost reverently "Ancient Magic".

It all made complete sense. From the ancient tomes found scattered on an old table to the tapestries (long-faded and tattered) hanging on the walls and a huge glove of the ancient world still spinning slowly, animated by someone who came well before you and me, the puzzle fit together perfectly.

I recall reading once about a class by the same name offered once upon a time here at Hogwarts, and this room confirmed it. I walked around for further inspection and found a scroll unfurled on the main table. It appeared to be a lesson plan, and picking it up reverently, I began to read.

It further confirmed my belief in the room's purpose. The lesson was very detailed, a veritable treasure trove of knowledge actually. It told the history and practices of ancient Egypt and even offered a taste of some of the spells used and known practitioners of the ancient art. My inner Hermione was giddy with happiness!

I lingered probably longer than I should have and did not have the heart to render the room 'clean' by modern standards. Short of knocking down a few cobwebs, I left it just as it was, preserved in time and no longer forgotten. I knew that I would be back again one day, a class of one in a subject no longer offered. Or was it? If you listen closely, you can just make out the sound of the Professor's voice...

[Lex Green]

Leafing through the papers on the desk, I was confused for a moment by the writing that covered them. Many of the pages had what appeared to be unrelated poems on them, and some simply had hand-drawn lines and circles covering them. It took me a few minutes to work out that these scribbles were actually copies of sheet music that had faded over time, and looking back at some of the poems, I established that they were likely song lyrics to be sung to some of the melodies that were written down. This room must have been used for a music class at some point, long ago, before printed music and words. Looking at more of the papers, there were even some folk and traditional tunes that I recognised, which the students must have been learning in the class.

[Katherine Laurier]

As my eyes wandered over the pieces of parchment full of writing and the different posters hanging around the wall, I could notice it all revolved around myths and folktales of the wizarding world. All things mythology were touched on in the lesson plans; there were things about mythological creatures, stories or legends, as well as gods and goddesses. It seemed to be quite an old class because I wasn't familiar with most of the content, even the stories, or maybe I just needed to study more. I also noticed several parchments each for different stories, such as the legend of the wand and all five famous Tales of Beedle the Bard. This seemed like it was a fun class for those who enjoy reading and learning through stories.

[Ellie Vernez]

I am prone to misplacing lots of different things and have a habit of finding them when I'm not looking for them.
One thing I tend to loose a lot is my glasses case. I'll put my glasses on put the case down somewhere and then I forget where I put it. Or my mum will move it and then she'll forget where she put it. Another item I've found when cleaning which I thought I'd never see again was a key ring that I brought from a special holiday. Which I found down the sofa, even though It was one of the first places I searched when I first lost it.