"Fascinating, simply fascinating!" Arthur yelled over the noise. "Look Molly, it's sucking the dirt right up!"
Molly rolled her eyes and turned back to her hostess. "Of course, Arthur and I have always been very fond of Hermione, very fond. We couldn't be more delighted." The last three words reverberated loudly in the sudden silence. After a quick glare at her husband she continued in a softer tone. "It is hard to believe though, he is my youngest son! Still, Ron has always been more responsible than some of his older –" The end of her sentence was lost in the resumption of the earlier noise.
Their hostess turned to her husband. "Dear, why don't you show Arthur the kitchen?" she said loudly.
Arthur looked a little disappointed to be leaving the vacuum cleaner, but his spirits brightened at the thought of the other joys that awaited him in this wonderful house, so he went willingly enough.
Margaret Granger turned back towards Molly. "Ron seems like a lovely young man. Hermione has talked about him ever since –" A loud clattering sound came from the direction of the kitchen. Margaret closed her eyes briefly, with a pained look. When she had suggested the kitchen, she had been thinking of the kettle, or the microwave. She had forgotten the coffee grinder and silently cursed her husband.
Molly was mortified. But before she could say anything in apology for Arthur's enthusiasm, Margaret turned back to her. "Why don't we take a walk in the garden?" she suggested.
It was a beautiful day; the sky was clear and there was a gentle breeze wafting the smells of spring through the air. Margaret asked, politely, about Molly's other children, giving Molly the opportunity to boast about her new granddaughter. And Molly politely admired various aspects of the garden, giving Margaret the chance to talk about the local open garden scheme. All in all the conversation was going very well until a loud buzzing noise interrupted their conversation and they heard an excited yell.
"Look, Molly, I'm cutting the grass!"
That evening, back at the Burrow, while Molly was playing with her granddaughter, Fleur hovering anxiously, Bill listened to his father talk about his day.
"And they had a machine for sucking up dirt, and a machine for cooking, and a machine for boiling water, and a machine for cutting grass, and guess what?" Arthur sounded like a child who had been to the zoo.
"They had a machine for playing a pennywhistle?" Bill replied.
But Arthur didn't hear. "It all ran on eckeltricity!" He beamed. "All of it! Isn't that marvellous?"
"Yes, Dad" Bill replied. "Simply –"
"And look!" Arthur said proudly, showing off his new prize. "They gave me this."
"What is it?"
"It makes light," Arthur said. "With eckeltricity," he continued. "Except it's broken so they put in a new one. They were going to throw this away." He sounded horrified at the thought. "But then Margaret suggested I might like it and they gave it to me!" He placed it on the table reverently.
Well, there was no doubt about it now, Bill thought; the Grangers were always going to be Arthur's favourite in-laws. Veuve Clicquot, brie and baguettes might go over very well with his Mum; but, for his father, nothing could compete with a blown light bulb.