This is for round 9 of the Quidditch Fanfiction Competition. The prompt was to write a character/pairing in a slice of life situation.
"Arthur!" The sound of his wife's commanding tone made him snap back to attention, thoughts of the purpose of shower curtains - really, why would someone have curtains in a shower? Muggles really were strange sometimes - fading away.
"Yes dear?"
Molly sighed, the noise sounding both exasperated and fond. "I said, what things did you say you needed for work?" She asked patiently, gazing expectantly at her scatter-brained husband.
"Oh, yes, erm...I need some books and a couple more quills," he replied once he had finally remembered the conversation that had led them to Diagon Alley in the first place, leaving Bill in charge of his two younger brothers for the couple of hours that they would be gone for supplies.
She nodded, "Let's go get your books first then, since the shop is closer," Molly rationalised before linking her arm through Arthur's and leading him towards the second hand book shop that they visited when their children needed books for Hogwarts.
Arthur let Molly guide him to the shop, his mind once again veering away to other things. He really did not understand why muggles would want a curtain in their shower. As far as he knew, muggles used locks on their bathroom doors. And the water would probably stay in the shower area. He had never used a shower curtain, and he had gotten by fine.
He mused the strangeness of muggles until the cold air turned warm and the scent of old books invaded his nose. Once again coming back to attention, he gazed curiously around the shop.
After a few moments of intense studying, he started to lead Molly towards the Muggle non-fiction section. Once there he picked a slightly battered volume of Muggle Artefacts: A Simple Explanation of Non-Magical Appliances, before continuing to the Defence Against The Dark Arts section of the shop. Once there, he reluctantly pulled his arm out of its link with Molly's so that he could pick up and carry a book on counter-curses. He had found recently that the ones he knew were not sufficient enough for his work, meaning that he was going to have to learn some new ones. It seemed like there were more cursed muggle artefacts than ever now and keeping up with work at the best of times was challenging, never mind keeping up with it while having an insufficient knowledge of counter-curses and the artefacts that had been cursed in the first place.
Molly pulled out her purse as they approached the counter, the money in it being the small allowance they had spared themselves for the trip to Diagon Alley. It only took them minutes to thank the shopkeeper and leave the cosy shop with their purchases, once again walking into the bitter wind.
With the bag of books in one hand, he offered his free arm to Molly with a loving smile. She gratefully took it, linking their arms once again, and staying close to Arthur in an attempt to stay warm in the cold chill. Without needing to converse about it, they made their way to Amanuensis Quills to get the rest of the things they needed. It was not only quills for A rthur, but quills for the rest of the boys too, since it wouldn't be long until the boys would be returning to Hogwarts and Bill and Charlie were very careless with their quills. Much like their father.
"What's for dinner tonight, dear?" Arthur asked as they walked, only just fast enough to be considered brisk.
"Steak pie," she replied, looking up at him.
He nodded, smiling. "That's good. Did you know muggles eat that on New Years Eve? They eat it before they go out 'First Footing'!" He proclaimed, clearly pleased by the nugget of information he'd been able to provide.
Molly nodded, "That's interesting, dear," she replied softly. She did find the facts about muggles that Arthur regularly emitted interesting, it was just that sometimes he would talk of nothing else. It was only then that she forcibly changed the topic of conversation. "And what is 'First Footing'?"
Arthur looked like an excited puppy when Molly asked him to tell her more. He was used to her telling him that he was talking about muggles too much, it was nice when she wanted him to talk about it more. "Well, at the start of the new year, some muggle s go to their friends' or family members' house and bring a gift, as it is the first time they've walked into their house in the new year. Hence the name, 'First Footing'," he explained with a grin.
Molly nodded along as he spoke, "That makes sense," she replied as they walked into the quill shop. Once again, the couple were glad to be in the warmth of a shop rather than the coldness of Diagon Alley.
"Does Percy need any quills?" Arthur asked as he started to look at a selection of red feathered quills.
"No, I asked, but he still has all the quills we gave him before," she answered, once again unlinking her arm from Arthur's to go and pick up four, simple white quills and two of the red ones that Arthur had spotted for the two boys. She realised that Arthur had walked off and sighed, going up on her tip toes to look around the surprisingly busy shop.
It wasn't long before she saw him and walked over to him, "Have you picked up any quills yet, dear?" She asked, stopping right next to him. She saw the dreamy look in his eyes and realised that he must have drifted away in his thoughts again.
Arthur was gazing at a selection of purple quills, but he was looking through them rather than at them. Muggle pencils seemed to much more practical than a quill, he thought. From what he had read, you couldn't smudge a pencil. And there were no ink splodges, since you did not have to dip the pencil into any ink, you just had to write. It would probably be cheaper too.
"Arthur!" Once again it was his wife's commanding tone that pulled him away from his thoughts about muggles.
"Yes, dear?"
That wasn't the last time he spoke those words that day.
It wasn't his fault that muggles were interesting.