Remus, Sirius, James

Microwave

Stuff

Remus was sitting at the kitchen table in Grimmauld Place reading a book on enchantments gone wrong and drinking a warm tea. He shook his head at most of them. Sirius only had ridiculous books to read, and Remus had ran out of his own books so he resorted to reading his friend's books.

The front door opened and in came Sirius and James. It was summer, so school was over for the season. The seventeen year olds seemed very excited about something as they closed the door behind them. James was carrying a white box-y looking thing with a window on the front.

"I can't wait to see what this does," Sirius's voice was full of excitement. "Stick it there."

James sat the thing on the counter in the kitchen. Remus glanced over, then went back to the book. "What now?" He muttered.

"Remus," James grinned and pointed at the thing. "Sirius and I found this in London the other day. In a dumpster. I can't wait to see what it does."

After a moment of staring at the thing, Sirius pushed the big button on the side and the front with the window opened like a door. Inside was empty. "Maybe we should put something in?"

"Oh!" James grabbed the nearest thing, which happened to be a used napkin. "Try this."

Remus glanced over again, wondering what his friends were thinking. Remus knew perfectly well that it was a simple muggle food warming device. He decided to say nothing, as the other two hadn't even plugged it in.

"On." Sirius stated to the device. Nothing happened. "Activate." Again, nothing.

"Maybe it's like the elevator that one time. Try the buttons," James pushed the button that read: Popcorn.

Nothing happened.

"What's this for?" Sirius waved the plug around. "Maybe this is what makes it work."

"But where do you put it?" James looked on the back of the device. "There's nothing on here."

Sirius reached behind a basket on the counter and grinned. "I never knew what this was." He shoved the basket aside and there was an outlet in the wall. It matched the plug. He plugged it in.

The machine did nothing.

"This is ridiculous. I thought this would work. Muggles and their stupid broken things." Sirius threw his hands in the air and gave up. He and James sat at the table with Remus.

Remus looked up at his friends, then took a sip of his tea, which was now cool. "You two aren't very bright. Remind me why I hang out with you two?"

He stood from the table, tea in hand, and walked to the device. He opened it, took out the napkin and then put his tea in. He closed the door and pressed the 0:30 button.

The machine came to life and Remus stood aside while waiting.

Sirius and James jumped to their feet and ran over to examine what was happening. There was a loud DING and the machine stopped. Remus pushed them aside, opened the device, and took out a steaming cup of tea.

"Muggles are fascinating when they invent stuff!" Sirius exclaimed, grabbing a glass and pouring water in, then sticking it in the machine. He pressed the same button and it came to life.

"It's just a microwave oven. It warms food and drinks. Nothing special." Remus sat back down and picked up the book again.

James ran out of the room, but quickly came back with a pair of socks. "Warm these!"

The socks went into the microwave and came out toasty warm. James was excited. Sirius was now taking his shirt off and sticking it in.

Remus was just waiting, watching out the corner of his eye, for Sirius to hurt himself.

The microwave went DING and Sirius put on the warm shirt.

"What else can we try?" James was looking for other things he could stick in.

Sirius stood there for a moment, then a smirk played on his lips. "I wonder if we could melt silver..."

James quickly grabbed a fork from a nearby drawer and handed it to Sirius. "We could be rich! Your family has tons of silver utensils."

Remus was now watching intently as his friends were making a huge mistake. He was almost smiling as Sirius pressed the start button.

Not even ten seconds passed before the microwave was making popping and sizzling sounds. Sparks flew here and there and then the inside of the machine turned black with smoke, and then a loud POPBANGPOP... DING.

Remus laughed as he saw his friends now laying on the floor covering their heads.

"Well that microwave lasted longer than I had expected." Remus closed his book and stood from his chair, stretching and then sipping his hot tea. "Remind me again why I chose you two as friends?"

"Because we amuse you with our stupidity?" James responded from the floor.

"Ah," Remus pursed his lips, cocked his head to the side and nodded. "Yes. True."

A laugh escaped his lips as he walked out of the room, which smelled sharply of metal and smoke. Remus and Sirius looked at each other and shook their heads.

"I hate muggle inventions. They are death traps!" Sirius flopped his head onto the floor.