InsaneJournal

"Good evening once again, Wizarding Britain!" The voice was a dead-on rendition of Bowie, because with a name like Ziggy Stardust, how could it be anything else? There was more energy to it than Bowie usually had in his speaking voice, though; some things just couldn't be changed. "This is your old friend Ziggy Stardust, floating in a tin can with my dear friend...Sweet Melissaaaa."

Because of course he had to sing the name like he was Gregg Allman.

The drawl which just screamed of the American south that replied couldn't have been any more different than that of Ziggy's. There was a little smile in the voice and just a twinge of sass because, that's absolutely right -- some things just couldn't be changed.

"We're here hoping that you're all having just the loveliest of evenings and keeping yourselves out of trouble," she said with ease, almost as though she actually knew everyone in Wizarding Britain. "After all, I'm pretty sure that Ziggy and I are making quite enough trouble for everyone tonight."

"As always!" her compatriot merrily replied, and the airwaves picked up the smacking sound of a high-five in the underground studio. "In that last set you heard magical favorites Mycroft with "Mad About Her" and my personal favorite American wizards who aren't Cherry Maxwell, The Vital Statistics, with their chart-topper "Anywhere But Here", and finally some more Americans - Poco, and their brilliant country rocker "Good Feeling To Know". But now we're going to take a brief break from the music - no, not for a commercial! Never for a commercial!" he quickly assured the audience. "For a little something special from Sweet Melissa."

"Something special, indeed," came her reply. There was a slight pause where you could almost make out a little shuffling of paper, but then she spoke up again. "Now, I know it's probably unlikely that anyone listens to the mainstream wireless anymore when they've got such a far out illegal station that they can listen to whenever they like. But, sometimes I've just gotta switch over to see what's going on. You know, measure the competition and the like."

Another split second of a pause. "Now, last night I was listening and I heard the most intriguing thing. This Sloane Vaisey bird talking about something she called a Heritage Minute. Have you heard about this?" she asked, directing the question not only to the listeners but also to her partner.

"I have indeed!" he confirmed. "Celebrations of wizarding culture, I believe they're intended to be. Which I'm fine with! Been a wizard my whole life, and I'm glad to be one, and while I do on occasion get bored to tears with being lectured about the glories of the past, I've got no major problem with sixty seconds of historical interest here and there."

"You know, that's what I thought at first, too," she continued. "There's nothing wrong with a little history lesson, but after I sat down and thought about it a little bit, I've started to wonder if maybe they're a little skewed. Yeah, wizarding history is great and wonderful and we owe a lot to past generations and so on and so forth. But about the poor Muggles? Does their history not matter? Far as I'm concerned, if there's lessons on history going on, I'm thinking that Sloane ought to touch on more than just witches and wizards of the past.

"But, since it doesn't look like she's gonna anytime soon, I'm here to rectify her short coming," the bouncy woman kept on talking. "You see, even if some people are refusing to admit it and killing over it, we're not just magical folks on this green Earth. The non-magical people have just as much of a right to be here as we do and they deserve just as much respect and remembering as the magical sorts of the past. And so, my darling listeners, you're about to witness history as this is the Tube's very first 'The Rest of our Heritage Minute.'"

A quick pause and then a teasing chuckle. "Can't promise it'll be just a minute, though. Can you forgive me, Ziggy?"

"You know I'll forgive you anything, love, and you abuse it mercilessly," he cheerfully replied. "Go right ahead."

There was just the shortest of pauses before she launched right on in. "This past Sunday marked the fifteenth anniversary of the death fo Winston Churchill, who was also known as The Right Honorable Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill by the time he died. That's something of a tongue twister, though, and I don't think you lot want to hear me to stumble across the wireless airwaves, so let's just stick with Churchill. Anyway, if for some unsightly reason you have no idea as to who I am yammering on about, I'm assuming the reason would be because you're only listening to skewed history lessons on the wireless as Churchill was most definitely a Muggle.

"Churchill was born in 1874, which feels like a hell of a long time ago to most. He had a brief career in the British army before going on to become a member of Parliament in 1900. Over the next thirty years, Churchill held all sorts of high and far out posts in both the Liberal and conservative governments. It was in May of 1940, though, that he managed the post of all posts and became Prime Minister and Minister of Defense. He was in office until 1945, then picked it up once more in 1951 -- but resigned in 1955. After his resignation, he remained on Parliament until 1964, when he decided not to go for re-election. That's right, folks. He was ninety-years-old.

"Important to mention is that in 1953, Queen Liz the second gave Churchill his knighthood and the Order of the Garter. Even the Americans though he was ace, too. In 1965, President Kennedy gave him an honorary citizenship to the States. How about that? I haven't even been over there once.

"But, he did loads more than work with just the Muggle government because the man was apparently the kind of overachiever my parents just dreamed I would be. He is known in the literature world, even having been awarded a Nobel Prize for it in 1953. He wrote campaign reports, a novel, biographies, a history of the first World War, and his memoirs of the second. He was even an amatuer painter and wrote a book about painting.

"And this is just the tip of his life. The man did a hell of a lot more, but I know you folks only want to listen to my voice and blabbering but for so long before you take off on me. If you want more information, check out the library. It's a beautiful place."

Finally, a pause in the talking as though she was letting everything just sink in. Then, another chuckle followed by, "Still awake over there?"

"Enough to know that you missed the part where he kept England going while we were getting pummelled by Nazis," her cohost chimed in. "And that he was a stone-cold general arse-kicker who could both destroy England's enemies and maintain hope in the face of the Blitz. I feel that merits a mention."

"No, no," she replied. "I was leaving that part to you, don't you know. I'm selfless like that. But, you're right; the man was a fighter, a leader, and a bit of a radical. And, frankly, I'd say that we owe him more than just a few minutes of mention on the air. He might've been a Muggle and didn't own a wand, but it seems to me that without him we wouldn't be here. We might have magic and that was a Muggle war, but something tells me the Nazis would've found us eventually and Hitler probably wouldn't have looked to fondly on us all."

"Yeah, I should say not." A pause struck for just a few seconds - not long enough to be the dead air that they knew was verboten, but just enough to let it all sink in for a second. "So, sweetheart, is it time to get back to the music now? Because there's a lady out there who I need to play some Bruce Springsteen for."

"Despite that you just went and broke my heart like that, I suppose I can let you go right on ahead, love," she replied, as teasing as ever despite having just moved off of the heavy topic of Hitler and Nazis.

"Then let's kick it off with the first cut from Born To Run: Thunder Road."