Round: QLFC: Season 5: Round 7
Team: Kenmare Kestrels
Round Prompt: Write about a time where wizardkind has gotten so used to Muggle technology that they find themselves using magic lesser and lesser.
Title: The Pile
Word Count: 880 minus AN
EXTENSION USED
Written for QLFC Round 7!
Please enjoy and review guys! Thanks!
"I never realized how fantastic all of these Muggle doohickeys are. They have films that are... what do they call it? D3 or something?"
"3D, mum." Alkilo Fourth, a fifteen year old wizard, answered to tall, blonde, and strict woman before him: His mother.
Lilliana Fourth was not a force to be reckoned with. When she made up her mind about something, that opinion would not waver no matter how much you tried to convince her that computers were not used only for cat videos. Muggle technology had become her recent obsession, as with the rest of the wizarding world. Nowadays, you couldn't tell the difference between a magic user and someone who had no idea about wands and spells. Wizards would carry iPhones around and had more pounds than knuts or sickles in their pockets.
"So, teach me, how does one use this... microwave?" Lilliana stared down the appliance as if doing so would make it work.
"You first put what ever food you want to heat up inside on a plate- but make sure it isn't plastic." Alkilo quickly stopped his mother from placing a plastic bowl inside of it, "The plastic will melt and get a bunch of chemicals you definitely don't want to eat in your food. So always use glass or porcelain stuff. Then put in your food, select a time- those numbers represent seconds and minutes and stuff. So then just press start and you're good." He placed a plate with a banana nut muffin into the microwave then selected forty seconds and start. The plate began to slowly circle in the appliance and a faint humming started as the muffin was heated.
"Okay, listen, we're going to head to a movie before dinner. Meet me outside of the Hargraine Theater at 6:30. I've got some things I have to do with a few friends. Try not to... do anything drastic with all of this tech."
"Of course. I'm not eighty, you know."
Lilliana watched her son leave their penthouse, then opened the door of the microwave. Inside was the muffin, steaming a bit. She pulled it out, only to notice that her son's wand was left home. Staring at it on the counter, she pulled out her own, a strong ebony with a unicorn hair core. She traced the wood, moving her fingers with the engravings. Lilliana found that she couldn't remember the last time she had used it, long before wizards became obsessed with technology. In that moment, she decided that never again would she use a computer, nor a microwave, nor any other Muggle instrument.
In an act of frustration, she took the computer in her office and threw it out of the window. The penthouse was sixteen stories high, so in no way could the technology have survived. When she looked outside, she saw that she had cause a bit of a traffic holdup, but that was of no matter to her. The computer was smashed into hundreds of tiny, broken parts now.
Having seen to that, Lilliana took her long coat and a hat, then slid her want down her sleeve and into a pocket she'd had built for that purpose only. Then, having taken all she needed, she headed out.
Alkilo was walking near the theater he was meeting Lilliana at when a billboard nearby displayed a short news flash. A moustached reporter was holding a mic as he gestured to a background of computers being piled up. He payed almost no attention to the screen until he heard the name "Lilliana Fourth..."
"Mum, what have you done now?"
When Alkilo arrived at the street where Lilliana was putting all of these computers, he found that there was already a huge crowd, full of many wizards he recognized. He raced over to his mother, once he'd spotted her next to an old woman sporting a feather boa, and instantly demanded to know what was going on.
"I'm afraid I don't quite know myself. After you left, I found that you'd left your wand on the countertop. It was then I realized that we'd been slowly, but surely, forgetting about magic. We were becoming Muggles! Even Hogwarts attendance was going down in favor of new technology schools! What has happened to us?" She gestured to the pile of computers. "I found a couple of old friends and we decided to start a computer drive. We dumped all of our technology here and they each contacted some of their friends. From then on, our small idea just spread. Everyone wanted to get rid of these Muggle things in favor of our old magic. So here we are."
Alkilo paused, then walked away. He walked until he reached his building, then waited as the elevator climbed the floors to his home. Once inside, he grabbed every piece of technology he could find, and grabbed his wand as well. A few people gave him odd looks as he practically marched back to the pile. Then, he threw it all in.
The age smart phones, laptops, and microwaves was over.
Or at least, so said the pile in front of him as it disappeared into thin air.