The lack of magic was making Jina look stressed too, partly because her magical skincare products stopped working, but also because she was indeed stressed. She had her first presentation date written down in her planner and her stress level increased whenever she saw it. This was her least favourite portion of the long term assignment due to her dislike of public speaking. Fortunately she had written notes while taking the pictures and rehearsed the presentation several times, so she felt prepared even though she could not remember everything well. At her assigned time, she entered the classroom and greeted the professor with a nervous smile. She reread her notes anxiously while waiting for her turn. When she was called upon, she walked to the front of the classroom. The audience consisted of students she knew, so she told herself that there is no need to feel nervous. She took a deep breath, held up her picture of Flat Newt at the bronze knocker and began speaking.

"Flat Newt had heard many stories about the common rooms of other houses - that is, Ravenclaw, Gryffindor and Slytherin - and was curious about them. One day, he was exploring - well, I can't tell you the specific location but anyway, he came across the entrance to the Ravenclaw common room. He did not realise where he was and was shocked to hear a riddle when he knocked on the door. He guessed an answer to the riddle and being the super clever and awesome person he is, he got it right! The door opened for him but he was so surprised that he ran away. He thought it was a fun experience though."

And she was done. She hurried back to her seat, blushing. For the next few minutes, she ran through the presentation in her mind to try to remember if she said anything wrong. To be honest, she forgot much of what she said but she thought it was alright! She focused on the other students' stories, nodding and clapping politely. When they were dismissed, she walked out of the classroom feeling much happier than the beginning of class.

Gabi chuckled and listened to Jina's presentation, which was definitely very creative on her part, since she had obvious access to the Ravenclaw common room and not Newt's original Hufflepuff room. She smiled at the Ravenclaw and clapped politely along with the rest of the students as she took her seat.

"Alright, who's next?" she paused to check her list of presentations for the day to see who had signed up for the next presentation.

The lapses in memory were driving Claudine crazy. It helped that she had started writing down everything related to lessons {homework etc} in a book but still, it was all frustrating. See, if she hadn’t remembered to check the book that day, she surely would have missed her allotted time and day for her History of Magic presentation. “Hi, Professor,’’ she greeted Ricci as she rushed into the classroom about five minutes late. “I- I forgot the time and date. I apologise.’’ Claudine was slightly winded and flustered and sincerely hoped Ricci would not be mad at her. Surely Ricci would understand? After all, Claudine was not alone with the memory issues. Sighing and trying to pull herself together, she got about prepping her presentation.

Claudine turned to face the class and tried not to let the nerves consume her. One of the most difficult things for her was speaking in front of a crowd. Still, not many knew this and she intended to keep it that way. She must be confident. Yes.

“A few weeks ago…’’ Merlin. Her voice sounded so high pitched. That was one of the signs of her nerves threatening to overwhelm her. Oh no. Claudine cleared her throat and situated her gaze to the wall at the back of the room. This way, she wouldn’t be forced to make eye contact with anyone. Not that eye contact was easy for her, anyway. “A few weeks ago, Newt started visiting the Magical Creature Sanctuary. Naturally, he fit in easily among all the creatures as they all loved him. He had a talent of understanding them.’’ Her voice was stronger and normal now, which was a relief. “Injured or sad creatures allowed him to tend to them without any hassle. He especially bonded with one kneazle.’’ Here, she held up the picture of Newt and President that depicted Newt standing close to the kneazle. “This kneazle would follow him around and Newt allowed it for he loved the kneazle’s company.”

And that was the end of the first part of the presentation. “So, uh,’’ she continued awkwardly. “That’s it for Newt’s adventures at the Sanctuary.”

Her first presentation had been successful, if her memory serves her right. She began to convince herself that speaking in front of a large group of people wasn't a big deal after all. She was not saying anything controversial, and the professor and a few students were probably the only people in the room truly listening to her speech (other kids making last minute edits to their own stories). With this in mind, she entered the classroom more confidently on the day of her second presentation. She greeted the professor and sat down at her usual seat. Instead of preparing her own presentation like last time, she focused on her classmates while waiting for her turn. She thought Claudine's story of Newt at the sanctuary was cute. She had a similar story to tell about Flat Newt meeting magical creatures in the Great Lake - but when she looked down at her picture, she realised that she had accidentally brought the wrong one. It doesn't matter ... she told herself, but her heart began to race. Fortunately, she had the notes she wrote while taking the picture at the technology lounge, but she had not rehearsed this story as thoroughly. Oh no, it was her turn already! She gulped and walked to the front of the room. She held up her picture, smiled awkwardly and began speaking.

"So I made a mistake and brought the wrong picture, I apologise in advance if this doesn't go smoothly ... Flat Newt has always been curious about muggle technology, because he has muggle friends and is open-minded in general? and he was uh, wondering if muggle technology can help him in his creature research. He went to the technology lounge and used the internet to search um, 'kneazle'. There were no results, because well, muggles don't know about kneazles! Next, he typed 'cat', and found tons of cute cat videos. He spent a long time watching these videos and ... and he accidentally clicked 'like' on one of them. He thought he did something wrong so he shut down the computer quickly and left the scene."

She said all this very quickly. This presentation was so much worse than her first one, but at least she was done. At the end of class, she packed her bag and left the room. She couldn't wait to forget how bad her presentation was!

Normally Gabi had no tolerance for people coming in during the wrong date and time - but considering the circumstances surrounding the term, she was letting it slide. They were lucky SHE had remembered to come to the presentations, to be completely honest. The professor was not immune to what was going on, and she understood exactly what they were going through. They were probably more stressed than she was - SHE didn't have homework or assignments or exams to keep track of!

So whenever anyone started a presentation with an admission that they were a bit...off that day, like Claudine had, Gabi didn't dock any points or allow that to affect their grade. See? She could be understanding when necessary! She wasn't TOTALLY cold hearted...

"Might I suggest writing down the date and time in multiple places? Just a friendly suggestion," she added as an afterthought as Jina wrapped up her presentation. Perhaps if it was written in many places, they'd more easily remember? But again. No harm done if they were a bit confused still. Or brought the wrong picture. She'd grade the presentations as a whole anyways.

Onto the next presentation!

In her opinion, the presentations were going well, and Claudine did not just mean hers. There were some very creative places that had been picked and there were creative stories to match. Some students had chosen the same places as she had but that didn’t matter for they all had different stories. Admittedly though, she found a few stories boring and once or twice, she zoned out. At least she didn’t actually fall asleep. When her time came again, the third year felt that this time around, she was much more prepared and less nervous.

This time, she started off by holding up Newt on his ‘trip’ to the Kitchen. “We all know the Kitchen is right next to the Hufflepuff Common Room. It is said that Hufflepuffs love sneaking in for extra snacks.’’ Claudien was very relieved to hear that her voice was strong and clear. “Newt was no exception but his reasons were different. He had two, as a matter of fact: one - the foods he asked for weren’t necessarily for him and two - he loved to visit the house elves. He loved to study them as they bustled about doing their duties. He even told them stories about his adventures with creatures from the Sanctuary and they in turn told him tales of their lives. Newt eventually formed a very close bond with the Hogwarts elves and was sad to leave them when he was unfortunately expelled.’’

And with that, Claudine was done. “Thank you,’’ she mumbled before rushing back to her seat. Did Professors know how difficult it was for some like herself to get up there in front of a class and speak?

The angle of befriending the house elves was, honestly, not something Gabi had anticipated them taking - but she quite enjoyed it! She grinned at Claudine as she finished her presentation and continued along with the list of presentations. Things were going very well! Everyone was turning in all their assignments on time, as well as hitting all the requirements she asked for. Now she just had to continue with the paper grading...which was her LEAST favorite part.

She leaned back in her chair and waited patiently for the next presentation to begin.

Catherine always checked her planner first thing every day, which was a very useful habit to have at the moment. Another good habit she had: having all homework done as soon as they were given out by the teachers. That way, even if she completely forgot about a due date - which had been happening more often that not lately - it was all already done, she just had to go to class and hand it in.

Or in this case... present it in front of everyone. Urgh.

The Ravenclaw had done this multiple times at her primary school, but that didn't mean she was exactly used to it or that she liked it. Much on the contrary. She hated public speaking with a passion and avoided it like the plague. Unfortunately this was a solo project and she couldn't hide behind any groupmate or rely on someone else to do at least most of the talking. Although she was never quite keen on those instances either because most people forgot to mention important facts and details every single time.

She hadn't been the first one scheduled to do a presentation that day, and she used that to gauge the level of other people's work. They were okay and it seemed like she hadn't been the only one to have struggled with the ridiculous scales of the cutout compared to the environment. Of course she hadn't, everybody's cutouts were the same size and no one could use magic. That made her feel a little better, but that didn't mean she was happy with the fact it was all just wrong.

It was a good thing she had all of her presentations ready, even though she was only expected to do one that day. Someone else had spoken about Newt Scamander near the kitchen, which was the one she was planning on speaking about that day. She immediately swapped papers when she realised hers would be a duplicate that day and decided to talk about one of the other locations she had picked to take the photograph.

When her time slot came, Catherine slowly got up and quietly walked towards the front of the classroom, her eyes never leaving the piece of parchment in her hands. She turned around to face her classmates and took a deep breath.

"Newt decided to go up to the owlery to check on the owls." She started finally looking up above everyone's heads and towards the back wall. Her eyes kept going between her piece of parchment and said wall throughout the entire presentation as she spoke quietly yet clearly. "He noticed the area hadn't been cleaned in a while and that some of the owls weren't happy about it." She herself was quite familiar with fussy owls. This was when she held her picture up so people could see her cardboard cutout of Newt Scamander standing in the middle of owl droppings. "He decided to do the job himself, and since he enjoys spending time with creatures, he chose to do the work the Muggle way. This way, he was able to spend more time at the owlery chatting to the owls and getting to know them individually, as they responded very well to him and his voice."

There. That was more than enough, she hoped. Catherine was happy enough that she hadn't felt sick or panicky before this presentation. She supposed the fact people's memories were so bad lately would be a good thing for her as everybody would forget it. Hopefully.

Heath had to double and triple check the date and time for his presentation to make sure he didn’t arrive at the wrong time on the wrong day. Somehow despite his ever deteriorating memory, he managed to get here on time. He sat at the back of the room, poring over his presentation notes as he listened to the other students. He wasn’t confident in his own ideas to begin with, but the others’ presentations were so good, they made his own ideas seem dull or odd in comparison!

All too soon, his turn came, and Heath took a deep breath to calm himself as he walked to the front of the class. He supposed some might find it ironic that an actor like him would fear public speaking, but giving a classroom presentation was very different from acting. Here he would be judged as himself, not as a character he portrayed! Okay, he could do this… he hoped. If all else failed, he could always just pretend to be the narrator in a play about Newt Scamander’s adventures.

Heath held up his picture of Flat Newt at the Weasley Swamp. “Flat Newt had heard about the infamous Weasley Swamp and wanted to see it for himself,” he began, keeping his gaze fixed on the parchment in front of him so as not to accidentally lock eyes with anyone. “He heard strange noises, unlike that of any creature he’d ever seen, coming from the swamp and decided to investigate. The sound got louder as he walked along the edge of the swamp. He saw something round and picked it up, thinking it might be an undiscovered creature. It turned out to be a screaming yo-yo someone had dropped instead. Disappointed that there would be no creature encounter for him there, Newt pocketed the yo-yo and left to try to find its owner.”

Heath could feel everyone’s eyes on him as he returned to his seat. Please tell him his presentation wasn’t as terrible as he thought it was!

Gabriela listened intently to the projects as the two Ravenclaws came up and gave their presentations. She could have definitely seen the REAL Newt visiting both the owlery and the Weasley swamp out of pure curiosity. In fact, she didn't doubt that the real Newt had explored every single nook and cranny of this castle. It was fun to see how each student interpreted the different locations and what trouble they thought Newt might have gotten in to!

"Excellent job, everyone," she said with a smile, taking very complete notes so she wouldn't forget anything later as she waited for the next presentation to begin.

Even though she wasn't sure she was supposed to do so, Bernie clapped LOUDLY for Caty and Heather. LOUDLY. Loud and proud. Great performances, both of them. Well, Heather especially. Caty...she didn't really like. She wasn't sure why, but she felt ambivalent toward the girl.

Then it was her turn, after Heather, and Bernie stood up. She'd forgotten what she wanted to say or why, but she had a Newt cutout in one hand and a group selife in the other, and waved them both around as she tried to recall her story.

"Once upon a time, Newt went exploring. He was trying to find the Chamber of Secrets, but not being a Parseltongue meant that instead he ended up in these underground chambers instead. He had a lot of fun in the chambers though. He came across a LOT of people who were hunting for some.... treasure. And since Newt is better with creatures than with people, he let them borrow his pet niffler to find their treasure, since Nifflers are good at those things. Hufflepuffs, like Newt, are ALSO good at finding things, so he helped them too. And they actually found their treasure in RECORD time, like, TEN MINUTES."

Andddddd she was forgetting where she was going with this story, blinking a few times at Professor Recard as she suddenly got REAL nervous.

"So that'swhythere'sapictureofNewtandcompanyhere and yes, I was there, and I saw the whole thing. So. It's history."

The end. Bernie rapidly sat down in her seat, still blinking and hoping she'd at least PASSED this part of the assignment. History of Magic was a really tough class when you had temporary memory loss, y'know?

Isla grinned as she listened to Bernie retell the time they'd taken a huge selfie in the Underground Chambers. That'd been an EPIC moment, even if she had ended up with a detention at the very end of things. Ahem. Anyway, Bernie's presentation was, as she'd predicted, interesting to listen to. Isla almost hated to go next, but here she was. Going next.

She kind of, sort of, seriously hated presenting in front of people, but whatever. At least she didn't have to talk for long. She held up the generic Flat Newt in one hand and then a picture of him at the duck pond in the other hand. "Flat Newt found himself at the duck pond today. It was one of the most obvious places on his list of things to see and do here," she said. She paused to hold the picture of him at the duck pond a little higher so that everybody could see.

"So, uhh, Newt was pretty interested in finding out more about the ducks. He watched the swim, eat, and interact with all the other ducks. He even thought a little bit about what they might do around magical creatures," she explained. She showed the picture on more time then headed back to her seat. Alright, then. Next?

Naya arrived at the History of Magic classroom and was uncharacteristically anxious. It was presentation day and she was hoping that she could pull things off successfully. She went to her seat and began to take her things out of her backpack. Flat Newt was ready and her photograph was prepared. Naya had gone over what she wanted to say, but given her memory issues, she wasn’t as confident as usual.

Naya watched as her classmates presented before her and was amazed at their creativity. They really had some good ideas and their pictures were great. Her favorite so far, was Claudine’s presentation about Newt with the house elves. Now though, it was her turn to present. Taking a deep breath to steady her nerves, Naya took her things at went to the front of the room. The Gryffindor propped Flat Newt up next to her for moral support and held up her photograph of Newt with the butterfly on his shoulder.

“Flat Newt decided that he needed a relaxing environment to carry out his work so he went to the Butterfly Garden. He was interested in studying butterflies in their various stages of developement. He was able to find some caterpillars and pupa, but unfortunately no butterfly eggs. Of course he saw many butterflies and he sat on a bench counting the different species that he could identify. Once his work was finished, he just spent some time enjoying the beautiful day in the Butterfly Garden.”

Annnd........she was done. Totally relieved, Naya went back to her seat. Feeling like the weight of the world had been lifted from her shoulders, she was free to enjoy the rest of the presentations. It was so much easier to get into the presentations when she didn’t have to worry about her own. Before Naya knew it, everyone had had their turn and it was time to wrap things up. Naya gathered up Newt, her photo and her backpack and headed for the door. She just had to do this one more time. For now though, it was off to the next class.

Isla thought she was being unique in presenting about Flat Newt going to the Butterfly Garden, but nope. The person literally right before her did a presentation on the exact same thing. Nevertheless, Isla nodded along as Naya presented. Yup. Isla's Flat Newt had had some of the exact same thoughts on his trip to the Butterfly Garden, too.

Soon enough, it was her turn again. Isla picked up her own Flat Newt and the photo of him in the Butterfly Garden then headed up to the front to make her presentation. Again, she hated presenting in front of others, and it didn't exactly get easier the second time around. At least this whole project was over after this.

"I also had an encounter with Newt in the Butterfly Garden. When he looked up at the butterflies, his mind wandered to how their flight patterns might be similar to that of a pixie. He also made a mental note to do some research on the life cycle of a butterfly," she explained. And uhh...what else did he do? "He also noticed how a butterfly could use its colors and patterns as camouflage against predators. Sometimes they look at patterns like large, black circles and assume they are the eyes of a larger animal. Newt thought that was super cool!"

She paused for a second and then held up Newt and the picture she'd taken. After that, she was done. PERFECT, because her nerves were getting the best of her just standing up here in front of everyone.

Naya was feeling a little bit better about her presentation on day 2. She had survived the first one. Now she just had to do it one more time and she could relax for good. This time she hoped to go as early as possible to get it over with. She entered the classroom and took a seat. Then she took out Flat Newt and her photograph. Naya looked over her notes and reviewed what she wanted to say in her mind. Then it was time to pay attention as her classmates presented. As before, her classmates’ Flat Newts had visited many different locations around Hogwarts. Some were visited by multiple Newts and others were more unusual.

Thank Merlin Naya didn’t have to wait too long before being called on. This she was happy about. Grabbing Newt and her photo, she went to the front of the room for the final time. Feeling a bit less anxious today, she held up her picture and began to speak.

“Flat Newt visited the library because he was in the mood for some reflection. The library was a place that he had spent a lot of time during his tenure at Hogwarts. He often went there to study and research information on the many creatures that he had an interest in. As you can see, in the picture he is standing by his book, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. He was proud of the fact that his book had been used by generations of students and may have been instrumental in inspiring future Magizoologists. Even though he had not come to research this time, his visit to the library left him feeling proud and satisfied.” The end.

That was all she had to say about Newt and she was done. Naya went back to her seat and put her photo and Flat Newt away. She sat back in her chair, feeling extremely relieved and focused her attention on the next presenter. When the last student had shown their photograph, it was a wrap. Since Naya’s things were already put away, she was good to go. She got up and left the classroom, waving to the professor on the way out.

One down, one more to go, Heath thought as he walked into the History of Magic classroom on the day he was scheduled to give his second presentation. He took his usual seat, arranging his notes nearly on the desk in front of him as he listened to the other presentations. Where did his classmates come up with their ideas? He was impressed with everyone’s creativity, but he especially liked Bernie’s underground treasure hunt idea. He never would’ve thought to do something like that with Flat Newt!

As he listened, he suddenly realized that he’d used the exact same place for his presentation as Isla. Oh, nonononono! Now everyone was going to think he copied her and - He took a deep breath to calm himself. Focus, Heath! He thought to himself. Think on your feet; that's what a good actor does… He had an idea! If he switched his picture and notes from the duck pond with the ones from the window seat in the common room, he could give his presentation on that instead, and no one would have to know that it wasn’t the one he originally planned. Nobody had Flat Newt in the Ravenclaw common room yet, right? The presentations sort of ran together.

Heath quickly reordered his notes, trying not to rattle his papers too loudly during someone’s presentation.He had just enough time to finish before his name was called, and he trudged to the front of the room. Okay, Heath, you did this before. You can do it again, he thought as he held up the picture of Flat Newt sitting next to a gray bobtail cat on the window seat in the Ravenclaw common room. “Flat Newt needed a quiet place to study, but the library was too crowded,” he began, keeping his eyes down. “He asked a student to let him into the Ravenclaw common room instead. Once inside, he spread his notes out on the window seat and got to work. It wasn’t long until one of the students’ cats noticed Newt and jumped into his lap. Try as he might to get his work done, the cat wouldn’t leave him alone, so Newt decided to take a break and play with the cat instead. He dangled a quill in front of the cat, watching as she attacked it, and the two had fun playing together.”

Heath hated that presentation the minute he gave it! It sounded so unrehearsed and poorly worded and… everything about it was just terrible. Not one of your better performances, he inwardly berated himself as he took his seat. At least it was over!

Carsyn's palms were sweaty which was a weird feeling because the sixth year was normally not one to get nervous. Perhaps it was the fact that she had procrastinated this assignment but surely it wasn't her fault, right??? Chewing her lower lip, she waited as her dormmate finished up her presentation and then rose with picture one clutched in her hand.

"So uh... I actually hope this is okay, but I took Flat Newt to the Prefect's bathroom because he got expelled around his fifth year and I think it's safe to assume that had Newt not been expelled he probably would have made prefect. Didn't let him go for a swim though because well, he's made of paper.... but he did stare at his reflection in the water and pretty sure he was impressed with its grandiose....." Grandiose what? She thought her lack of words would be no longer and yet here she was stuck. "Ness. Grandioseness." Grandioseness... was that even a word? Goodness, who was she? She forced a smile as she showcased her picture of him sitting at the pool ledge, before she went to take a seat for the next presenter.

One presentation down, one to go?

Bernie definitely hadn't written anything down for this day of class. She'd forgotten, alright? But she was listening closely to her peers, to Carsyn especially, since she was due to speak right after her.

"Building off what Carsyn said... had Newt been un-expelled, which is a stupid punishment anyway for someone cool like Newt," and her. It was stupid threat too, at least, in Bernie's case, "he might have ended up at the statue of Boris the Bewildered, since it's near the Prefect bathroom. Apparently." Bernie still hadn't been in there yet, so she wouldn't know. "No one really knows what Boris is known for, or why we have both a portrait and a statue of him here at Hogwarts, but he is recognizable for having his gloves on the wrong hand. And had Newt been allowed to continue his magical education, I'm sure he would have figured out who Boris is and why he matters. And maybe he would have even started a Celebrate Boris day or something."

There, yes, a good story.... of sorts. Bernie sat down in a hurry again. She should have prepared more for this speech...

Once again, Catherine was not looking forward to her second presentation. It was in her planner, so she didn't nearly miss it either.

With a sigh, the second year entered the History of Magic classroom and took a seat. At least she wasn't the first one that day either.

To be honest, she didn't quite pay attention to the presentations taking place that day. She was a bit more nervous now than before her first presentation, and she didn't like that. It was probably the fact many of the Castle places had already been taken, and she didn't like the thought of repeating a place someone had already spoken about. That was bound to happen, though, she just had to make sure it didn't happen on the same day. That would be embarrassing.

Even though she wasn't paying attention to what her classmates were saying, she did look at all of their pictures, and she noticed no one had spoken about the Study Hall that day. She then pulled the picture and parchment that she had used to write about that area and finally got up to do her presentation.

"Newt needed some quiet space to do some writing, for he had had a great idea for a book." Catherine wasn't comfortable calling him 'Flat Newt' for some reason. He was Newt. A 10-inch cardboard version of him, but still, he was Newt. "He thought about going to the library, but he changed his mind because it was too crowded and he... doesn't like crowded." She made that last bit up and it made her uncomfortable too. She didn't know real-life Newt, so she didn't know whether a crowded area was a dislike of his, but she had said it and she wasn't going to correct herself now. Maybe it would go over people's heads. She hoped it would. "Newt chose to go to the study hall because it was a lot emptier." Saying this, Catherine held up the picture she had taken. "He got some writing done, but then realised the quietness was also putting him off, so he picked up his things and quickly left after writing just half a chapter of his new book." She finished with a shrug, not knowing whether any of that would be true at all.

That was annoying.

Giving the teacher a quit glance and nod to signal she was done, the Ravenclaw quietly went back to her seat to listen to the rest of the presentations before the lesson was over.

Carsyn itched impatiently in her seat because quite honestly she was READY to get this assignment done with. Maybe it would have been okay if she hadn't procrastinated, but the lack of magic had made the sixth year a little preoccupied. Once Catherine sat down, Carsyn leaped out of her seat with her second photo - only it was actually the third because the second was just him about to nose dive into her plate of chicken. The third activity they did was far more interesting.

"Sooo Newt wanted to give me a quick demonstration of where to find the best creatures and about caring for them... which is why we went to the forbidden forest." She paused for reaction but then smiled. "No, no, we didn't go actually IN the forest, because that would be dumb, particularly after the craziness of this year. But we did go just to the outskirts, although if Newt were really here it probably would be some place he would go. Not to be defiant of the rules, but because of the creatures and his need to be this animal whisperer of sorts." Mmhm. And he couldn't really do that under the prying eyes of some overprotective professors or students out to get him, which meant .... forbidden forest it was.

Right, guess that was a wrap then? With a small grin and final showcase of her photo for her classmates to see, she nodded at Professor Recard before taking her seat to watch the remainder of presentations.