A/N: New story :) I know Facebook didn't exist yet at the time this story's set, but for the sake of the story, it did. Hopefully you'll enjoy it!
Disclaimer: I don't own the world of Harry Potter :( Nor do I own Facebook.
The Ministry had gone crazy. He had never thought he'd think that, but it was true. The Ministry (or rather, the people in charge) were completely bonkers. Yes, the war was over, for which he was glad. And no – something like this should never happen again. He was not one of the people who had opposed with all their might against the new Ministry policy. But if he had known that this would come of it, he would've thought twice about supporting it.
Muggles and Muggleborns should not be prosecuted anymore, they should not be hunted down like animals. He knew that, and he agreed with that. He also agreed with the fact that wizards and witches should try a little harder in their attempts to understand the Muggle world – who knew what good could come of it.
But this. This was simply preposterous. He almost started to think that someone had drugged the entire Ministry. When he'd entered the Ministry that morning, he was told that for the entire week, he would have entirely different tasks than usually.
Which was why, on a dreary Monday morning in March, Percy Weasley found himself sitting in a Muggle internet café, with enough Muggle money to last the day.
The place was deserted, apart from him and the owner, or whoever the man behind the desk in the corner was. Percy had been given instructions on what to do – mainly, he had to figure out how to use some sort of internet site (whatever that might be) to find out if it could be a useful tool for the wizarding world as well.
As much as Percy was honoured that they trusted him with such an obviously important task, he couldn't help but wonder how on earth he was even supposed to get on the internet. But since this was an internet café, the internet couldn't be that far away.
After waiting another few minutes, Percy glanced at the piece of paper (instead of parchment, since he had to look inconspicuous – for as far as that was possible, since he'd be sitting here all day. He couldn't imagine Muggles sitting in an internet café all day) again. It told him to double-click on the little sign that said 'Internet Explorer'. Double-click? Percy stared at the paper, slightly disturbed. How was he supposed to double-click?
"Having trouble, sir?" The owner (or whoever it was) had apparently noticed his discomfort with the computer-thing in front of him. "What d'you have to do?"
"I have to use the internet," Percy replied, trying not to sound too stupid. If there was anything in the world that he detested (apart from, of course, You-Know-Who (who, fortunately, was dead)), it was sounding stupid. Because he was not.
"Have you tried double-clicking the icon?" the man asked him.
"What am I supposed to double-click with?" Percy asked, a little frustrated about the tone the other man used.
"Have you never used a computer before?" the man now asked him. "Where are you from? Mars?"
Percy thought for a moment. Mars probably wouldn't do if the man would ask further questions. "The countryside," he replied.
The man shrugged. "Fair enough." He pointed towards an odd-looking thing with a thread that seemed to disappear in the box next to the screen. "That's a mouse. You use it to click. Like this." He quickly showed Percy how to use the mouse and left again.
Percy looked at the mouse curiously. Why was that called a mouse? It didn't even look like a mouse. He tried to remember what Scabbers looked like – even though he hadn't been a mouse, but a rat (and not even a real one, at that), Percy figured that they didn't differ that much – but he couldn't figure out the resemblance between his old pet and this Muggle-made thing.
He then did as the man showed him, and to his immense surprise, something happened. A new page opened, and Percy checked his paper again. Apparently, someone at the Ministry had already been quite active on the internet and had made an own internet page for the Ministry. Even though Percy was rather curious to find out what would be on that page (hopefully a long explanation about why the Ministry of Magic even needed an internet page), he couldn't let the Muggle in the corner find out his secret mission.
Then, he noticed that he actually did have to go to that page, because the someone who had made the Ministry an internet page, had also activated… Percy blinked and pushed his glasses further up his nose to make sure he read this correctly. E-mail addresses? Hesitantly, he entered the site's name in the designated area (fortunately, a drawing was included on his instruction paper) and once there, he entered what was, apparently, his e-mail address now. After a couple of minutes of fiddling around, Percy was proud to say he now had a vague idea of how to use his e-mail address.
Reading on, Percy saw that he had to go to another page. Something with a book of faces? A book for faces? Either way, what an odd name for a website. He even had to register. Now, Percy had registered for things before, but he was still wondering why this site wanted to know his name and his date of birth. They didn't know him at all, and he didn't know the people behind this site. In the end, for the sake of the Ministry, Percy typed his name, date of birth, and his e-mail address anyway. Typing didn't go very fast yet, which was rather frustrating to Percy. At least the Muggle stayed away now.
He jumped as a new screen appeared. Friends? He was supposed to add friends? Percy blinked. He was fairly certain that nobody he knew was on this internet site as well, simply because nobody had heard of it.
Looking through the names the site came up with, he suddenly came across a familiar one, so he clicked on the 'Add as a friend' button. Nothing happened, and Percy clicked again. Now, some sort of list of options appeared next to the icon of his mouse. This was annoying. Percy moved the mouse and clicked again, somewhere at the page. To his horror, Percy noticed that he had now added a random person to his not-yet-existing list of friends. He quickly clicked on the other name as well and started panicking.
Before long, he heard a soft 'pling' and he saw that one of the pages at the bottom of the screen was flashing. He quickly clicked it and saw that he had an e-mail message. From the site. About a friend request.
He clicked back to the site, just in time to see that he had a new message on his profile.
Oi, Percy, what is the Ministry making you do now?
Hastily, Percy clicked on the icon next to the message and he was now viewing Ron's profile instead. It looked pretty lonely as well, so he decided to type back, since he had nothing else to do anyway.
It's a way to find out whether or not this Muggle technology is useful for us.
Not a minute later, Ron reacted again.
What a bunch of nutters. Of course it isn't! We have much better ways of communication!
Try to tell the Ministry that, Percy thought to himself.
How did you get on here anyway? he asked Ron instead.
Hermione insisted on having a computer. She told me to sign up on this site. She hasn't even signed up herself!
Typical.
Don't you have to work? he asked his brother.
In an hour. Where are you anyway?
In some dodgy internet café in London.
It took Ron quite a while to answer, so Percy clicked to his own profile and then back to Ron's, where he found that Ron obviously 'liked' the fact that he was stuck in this weird excuse for a café. Percy huffed to himself. He could always count on his youngest brother to feel for him.
He then took a look at the page where his e-mailbox was still open, and to his fright, he noticed that the person he'd accidentally sent a friend request, had reacted. She, for it was a young woman of about his age, had sent him a personal message, asking him why he had added her. Percy was quite grateful that she had sent him a personal message, instead of just posting on his profile. After all, if his thinking process was correct (which it usually was), Ron wouldn't be able to see this, and therefore, he would not be able to tease him about it.
As quickly as he could, Percy typed a reply, saying that it had been an accident and that it wouldn't happen again.
Oh, that's alright. That could happen to anyone. Are you new here? she typed back.
Percy blinked again. He was sure that, if someone – a complete stranger – would suddenly add him as a friend, he wouldn't continue chatting with them and ask them questions. But since he had been the one in the wrong here, he felt obliged to answer her questions for as long as she felt the need to ask them.
Yes, I am. I'm rather new to the whole internet thing as well. He had no idea why he told her that. It wasn't as if they knew each other.
Really? Where have you been for the past years?
Apparently, this internet thing existed for longer than Percy had expected. He made a mental note to himself to never forget that again. But he was sure that after today, he knew more about the internet than the average magical person. Apart from Muggleborns, of course. He decided to answer her question the same way as he'd answered the owner's question earlier.
The countryside.
Suddenly, Ron was talking to him again as well.
Hermione just showed me how to upload pictures on this thing! It's hilarious! Look!
Percy had to restrain himself from banging his head at the desk. Ron could be such an idiot sometimes. He had posted a picture of his brand new broom on Percy's profile. On an internet site. A Muggle thing. Percy wondered why Hermione hadn't forbidden him to do so. She probably didn't expect his brother to be so stupid. He decided to read the new message the girl sent him first.
Don't you have internet there?
Not knowing whether or not the girl was from the countryside herself, Percy thought for a moment before replying.
We didn't. I take it you're not from the countryside then?
He then turned back to the problem of the picture of a broom staring him in the face on his profile. He clicked to Ron's page and sent him a private message too.
Ron, this is a Muggle site. Why are you posting a picture of your broom on here? Do you want to be found out?
That should do the trick. In the meantime, he now had a new message from the girl.
Oh, that's really too bad. And no, I'm from London. Definitely not the countryside! But, what is that picture on your profile? It looks like a weird, mutated kind of broom…
Darn, there you had it. Silently cursing Ron, Percy tried to come up with an excuse for the picture.
Oops. Sorry Percy. I'll try to take it off now.
Rolling his eyes at his brother, Percy clicked on an icon in a panel above that said 'refresh' and indeed, his page disappeared for a moment and then came back, fortunately without Ron's last message and the picture.
Picture? What picture? There's no picture on my profile.
Hoping that she would somehow believe him instead of her own eyes, he sent the message, feeling a little nervous. The last thing he needed was the wizarding world being discovered due to his and his brother's antics at this site.
Oh, I could've sworn that there was a picture there just a minute ago. Are you sure you didn't delete it by accident?
So he could've deleted it himself? He really should've known that before. And since he hadn't been the one to delete it, and the deleting certainly hadn't been an accident, Percy told himself that he could easily send her a negative reply. He took some time replying to Ron's message and started investigating the girl's page instead.
As he already expected, her page was much less lonely than his or Ron's. She had tons of friends and loads of messages on her profile, making Percy wonder why on earth she was talking to him, then. Probably because she felt sorry for him because he had no friends on the site. Only a little brother who should never have even been allowed access to it.
That reminded him, he had forgotten all about Ron! Quickly clicking back to his page, he saw that obviously, Ron had found a new feature on the site to use. His 'status' now read, Off to work, hopefully George won't turn me into a guinea-pig again!
It seemed that Ron still had a lot to learn and understand about Muggles.
The 'status' thing was interesting though. Sitting a little closer to the screen, Percy decided to try it too. Five minutes and lots of thinking later, he now had a status too. Investigating this site in a café in London. That should be safe enough. There had to be more people here for whom this was the first day on this site. Whether or not it was also their first time to use the internet, Percy wasn't so sure.
Then I must've just imagined it…
Well, that was easy, Percy thought. If, at least, the girl wasn't just typing this, and was now actually about to find out about the wizarding world. It was possible!
He wasn't sure what to reply to that, but he didn't need to wait for long because she sent him another message. She was certainly a little too enthusiastic about this site.
Hey, you're in London now? What for?
She must've seen his status, then. Interesting.
For work. But I don't have to be at work today, so I'm in this internet café instead.
Well, it was true. Faster than he would've thought possible, he had a new message.
Oh, I see. I'm off from work today as well! Lovely, isn't it?
So she kept bombarding him with questions about… everything. Percy tried to answer those questions as truthfully as he possibly could, without letting anything slip about his world. That proved to be quite difficult at time, especially when she started asking stuff about his work, his old school, and his family. He'd give her little pieces of information and ask her questions too, to which she answered in great length, leaving Percy to wonder why. How could she be so sure that he was trustable? Sure, he was, but how did she know?
He decided to ask her this after reading a particularly long message about her time at secondary school, because he knew that if he didn't, she'd expect an equally long message from him (which would take him an hour to type, he calculated in his head, after taking another hour to determine what exactly he could tell her).
While waiting for her to answer, Percy took a look in his e-mailbox. There were lots of unread messages in it, all alerting him about new messages from the girl, which, of course, he had already read. Yet, he somehow couldn't get himself to throw them away. Oh – and there she was again.
I don't know, I just know, you know? Well, you probably don't, seeing as you're asking me. But just the fact that you're so new around here makes me want to give you a warm welcome. Besides, your messages seem quite genuine, they make you seem trustable. You seem like a great person to converse with. Who knows, if you're in London again we could have lunch some time, maybe?
Well, that was straightforward. She had to be the first person Percy had ever met (or rather, 'met') who thought of him as a great person to converse with, and although he didn't know whether she meant this or not, he decided to take it as a compliment anyway. He could also pride himself now with the knowledge that he seemed trustable. If he'd ever need a good reference for something or other, he'd make sure to let her write it.
Sure, who knows. I live in London now, for work, so I'm here quite often. And you're possibly the only person I 'know' who thinks I make a good discussion partner.
Whoa. He didn't know who wrote that, but it certainly wasn't him. It had to be him, though, but what was he thinking? Meeting up with a total stranger just because she trusted him and she wanted to? Percy didn't know what to think of this. On the other hand, he would be relatively safe; he was a wizard, he had a wand to protect himself. But why on earth would this girl want to meet him? He wasn't that exciting, he was sad to say.
Oh, that's great! What about tomorrow, then? Or – do you have lunch plans for today? I know a nice place here in London! And I'm sure you won't be that bad. Come on, it'll be fun!
This girl was clearly insane. Who wanted to meet up with some random bloke they had met only a couple of hours earlier, on the internet? On a site full of faces? Come to think about it, he didn't even have his face on the site yet. He clicked towards the girl's page and took a better look at her picture.
She didn't look like a supermodel, no, but Percy thought that she was very pretty in her own way. Definitely not the kind of girl who would want to be associated with him, as he had realised after dating Penelope Clearwater at Hogwarts. Girls like her just weren't for him.
I don't think that's a good idea, sorry. We don't even know each other.
It'll be like a blind date! Except, you know, for the 'date' part.
Insane, definitely insane. But Percy had to agree that people going on blind dates normally had no idea about whom they were going to meet either. Yet, it wasn't like him to just go through with this, even if he, a wizard, had an advantage over her, a Muggle. He was much too rational for that. Tapping his fingers on the desk, he wondered if he even was allowed to go on a lunch break. He hoped so, because he was feeling rather hungry. That was the moment when he thought, why the hell not? As he had concluded several times before, if she turned out to be even more insane than he thought, he could easily get rid of her. If not, he could always let things drift and see where it took him. If she wouldn't run away first, of course.
At least he'd be talking to a Muggle, and that counted for something too, right? If this whole Ministry policy was set up to bring wizards and witches closer to the Muggle world, they couldn't possibly argue with him having lunch with a Muggle, right?
If you insist. But I have to warn you in advance, I'll probably bore you to death.
He didn't know why, or how, but that's what his family always told him. Well, they didn't necessarily tell him, they would just zone out, walk away, or fall asleep.
Oh, that's ridiculous! I'm sure you won't. I'm not easily bored, if that helps any. I'll send you the address in a minute, just have to look it up!
Percy waited patiently, and also rather nervously, for her to tell him the address. What had he gotten himself into now? She proceeded to ask him what he looked like, so she would recognise him if he didn't recognise or see her. That was another thing. What if she wouldn't even show up? Well, at least he could apparate. Not much time would be lost.
I must be going, then! I'll see you there, Percy!
Glancing lazily at his watch, Percy concluded that he still had twenty minutes left before he should be there. He had to stay inconspicuous, though, and not let himself get found out. Therefore, he couldn't still send her a message two minutes before they would meet. Wondering what he should do in the meantime, he replied one last time. Most likely, it would just be lunch and then they'd part ways and never see, or speak to each other again. At this point, Percy wasn't sure if he should be happy or disappointed at that thought. Since he had never been too good in Divination, he would have to wait to see what the future would bring.
And I'll see you there too, Audrey.
A/N: So, what do you think? Don't try this at home, of course. Don't meet up with someone you just met on the internet. Anyway, let me know what you think, please review!