Chaser 2 of Magpies;
Prompt: Write about a witch or wizard trying to figure out how (one or more) Muggle technology works in an experimental space, i.e. a lab of any kind, and the chaos that ensues.
Optional Prompts: (word) motor; (word) confusion; (image) /images/Len1h6
Disclaimer: I own this not
Word count: 1120 - as stated by Google docs.
A/N: Mr. Dennis Parker is an OC who will be filling the role of the main character because reasons. Oh, and the song from the lab scene is at www. Youtube watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ if anyone's interested. :D
Dennis looked at the piles of what could only be described as junk in front of him. The whole place was filled with plastic and metallic objects that were in shapes similar to boxes. He stood there, for a minute, wondering why the Muggles needed so much of those objects if they were just going to get rid of them as soon as the next interesting thing comes up.
He shook his head to clear his mind. He wasn't there to think, that was the job of the so called scientists back at HQ. No, his job was to provide those same scientists with more materials to study so they could—hopefully—understand Muggles better.
They asked—more like demanded—him to get them something called a television. Apparently, Muggles had invented something that was a mix of wizarding photos and the radio. His superiors back at HQ thought him knowledgeable enough to get it for them and gave him an order to acquire one. Whilst that trust did wonderful things to his ego, there was a small problem with that.
He didn't know anything about television.
People often assumed he knew a lot about Muggles since his best friend was a Muggle-born. They couldn't be more wrong. While his friend was a Muggle-born, they were raised in the Wizarding world, and his friend knew even less about Muggles than he did. This was unfortunate since he could use some advice at the moment.
He looked around while thinking about what he knew of the object. It was supposed to be a big rectangular object made out of plastic with dark glass on the front from which the images appeared when it was turned on. He tried to remember more information about it, but he kept drawing a blank. Therefore he decided to go with the oldest trick in the book.
Guess, and maybe you'll get it right this time.
But what to chose, that was the question. There were just so many objects that fit the description. Whilst there were some minor differences, most of the objects all seemed squarish and plastic.
He went to the nearest pile of objects and lifted the biggest one with a flick of his wand. It was time to head back to the HQ; postponing wouldn't save him this time.
He turned on the spot and apparated back to the lab.
Once there, it took him a moment to get used to the environment—he never did like the feeling of Apparition.
He left the Apparition spot and headed down the hallway to his left towards the lab. It was at the very end of the corridor and surrounded by some of the strongest wards known to man. One might have thought it unnecessary at first but he got used to it quickly enough. Nowadays he wondered if the wards are strong enough to withstand all the chaos that occurred behind those doors. With that in mind, he braced himself for the upcoming madness and opened the door.
The darkness inside was a great contrast to the brightly lit hallway behind him; all the lights had been shut off and the only light left came from a rotating light bulb that created multiple colored circles. The rotating lights were accompanied by quite a nice upbeat song. Well, that was new.
Movements from the far right of the room caught his attention."Lupin, Lovegood, Lovegood, what is the meaning of this!"
The three blondes quickly turned around with shocked faces.
"Oh, Mr. Parker, you're back! This… isn't what it seems?" The tallest answered with a sheepish grin on his face as his hair changed color in a clear sign of nervousness.
"It seems like a classic case of fooling around during work hours to me."
"We, uh, have a good reason?"
"Is that a question or an answer Mr. Lupin?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
"An-an answer, sir! You see, I was working on the motor, trying to see how it reacted to variations of vastness of magic around it—like you told me to, sir—when these two," he pointed at the Lovegood twins who were trying to keep straight faces, "came into the lab with what they called 'the Best Invention Ever' and demanded I try it out with them."
"Is that so?"
"Yes Mr. P.! We were out scouting for new things to experiment on when we found this cool looking light bulb. We asked the saleswoman what it did and once she explained we knew we had to buy it."
"It was love at first colored circle on the ceiling." They both nodded at that and looked adoringly at the still spinning light bulb.
Dennis sighed and rubbed his temple with his right hand. "Right." These kids seemed to think giving him daily headaches was the essential part of their job description. "Well, while it is nice you have found your love of the week, we do have official Ministry work to do here that doesn't include dancing to music and fooling around."
"But Mr. P.-"
"Don't you 'Mr. P.' me; you've had your fun, now turn it off and get back to work."
"Yes Mr. P., Sir," the three answered and proceeded to do exactly that.
He gave a sigh of relief once the lab was returned to its normal, quiet, brightly lit self. While the music was nice, it started to get annoying by the third time it looped—and the flashing lights did nothing to improve his headache.
"Now that that's done we can start a new project with this television device." He levitated said device to a nearby counter that was, thankfully, clean for once.
He took out his notepad and started to mark down the specifics of this particular object and turned to ask the, now once again, blonde Lupin when he saw the confusion on his face. "What is it now, Lupin?"
"Well, Sir, isn't that a computer monitor?"
Dennis tried not to groan out loud. He had taken the wrong object! Now he was going to have to go back there and find the right one before his superiors found out. Could this day get any worse?
A sound of an explosion came from behind him as one of the Lovegood twins started yelling about a fire.
This time he did groan out loud as he went to grab a fire extinguisher from the closet on the right. It was the last week's project so the twins should have no problem using it and what better way to punish them them than to make them deal with the fire—and the cleaning that would be needed once the fire was out—than to use Muggle means to do it.
He hated this job.