A/N: This is Beater 2 of the Chudley Cannons Checking in for Round 7 of Season 5 of the QLFC.
Prompts: Write about a time where wizardkind has gotten so used to Muggle technology that they find themselves using magic lesser and lesser.
Additional Prompts: (action) charging an electronic device and (word) batteries
Word Count (before A/N): 1,700 words
Thank you to my lovely team captain Ned for beta-ing for me!
It was the happiest day of Arthur Weasley's life.
Well, the third happiest day. His wedding day definitely trumped all else, and he was a father, too, so the birth of his children took second place. Or did that count for more because he'd had multiple children?
Whatever number it was, it was a very good day to be Arthur Weasley.
"What does this button do?" he turned to his Muggle daughter-in-law as his index finger hovered over the oval button.
"It will open and close the window," Hermione said, smiling that patient smile of hers. Arthur adored Hermione most out of all his children's spouses. Of course, he'd never tell any of them that—that would be in bad taste, after all—but in his head, Arthur knew it. Hermione remained the kindest and most patient with him as he discovered new Muggle inventions. She always answered all his questions and explained how things functioned.
Today, she and Ron would be treating him to a real Muggle outing.
"This button opens and closes the window?" he gently pressed down on the rounded bobble attached to the car door. A gentle whirr sounded by his ears as the car's window sank into the door. Arthur waited until the whole thing was consumed before gripping the edge and looking down into the thin, dark slot where the glass should have been. The wind ruffled his thinning hair.
"Extraordinary."
Ron chuckled from the driver's seat. "The Ford Anglia still had the roll down windows. With the crank," he explained to Hermione. Arthur pulled his head back into the car and pushed the button again, letting the window close and the breeze halt.
Hermione had opted to sit in the backseat with Arthur while they drove to a very special destination: Arthur's birthday surprise.
It had been years since he set foot in a car, and even then that car was one he had tampered with. This contraption was a true Muggle vehicle. Designed and operated with Muggle technology. Hermione even had her cellular fellytone hooked into the front dash with a thin white wire. She said it was charging. Arthur loved it.
Ron pulled off the main road and into a parking lot. Arthur looked up, his eyes squinting behind his glasses.
"What's a Best Buy?" Arthur turned to his daughter-in-law.
She smiled. "It's your birthday present this year."
"A bloody good one, too," Ron muttered under his breath. He pulled into a parking spot and shut the engine off with another button - Muggles had advanced so much that they didn't even need keys to operate cars anymore!
As he shut the door behind him, Arthur found himself staring up at the giant black and yellow sign boasting the store's name in neon lights.
He felt an arm circle around his shoulder.
"Come on, Dad. You're gonna love this."
Three days ago, the whole family was over for his seventieth birthday. He still couldn't believe that he was that old, but somehow the number had crept up on him.
He received lots of homemade gifts from his grandkids, which he immediately put on display in the living room. Then Molly had given him a set of homemade socks and a new pocket watch. But it wasn't until Ron was standing in front of Arthur, empty handed with a giant grin on his face, that Arthur felt the old excitement he used to get as a kid.
"I want to take you on a Muggle outing," Ron said. "Hermione will come and answer every question you have. I know the perfect place."
Arthur, now walking up to this Best Buy, took a deep breath. The glass doors parted, swooshing to the side as Ron and Hermione guided him into the store. At first, he wanted to promptly turn around and watch just how the doors worked, but something else much more extraordinary caught his eye.
Huge rectangles with the same moving picture lined the wall, floor to ceiling. Each followed a young man in white running down a bright green field, a checkered ball at his feet. Over and over again the man ran with the ball, eyes focused, the picture zooming in and out on his face. Arthur could see the sweat on his brow.
It was hard to pull his eyes away from the pictures. They weren't like anything else he had ever seen before, and the picture was so clear and sharp.
"Hello there," Arthur said to the man as the painting zoomed in on his face again. "How are you doing?"
"Dad," Ron placed a hand on his shoulder, "he's not real. Well, I mean, he is real, he's just not there. He, um..."
Arthur and his son turned to Hermione.
"They're televisions. Flat screens to be more precise," she said. Arthur stood, fascinated, as Hermione began to explain the ins and outs of televisions to him. He'd seen them before, sure, but never like this. Never in action and in such high quantities. He kept looking up and the wall then back at Hermione, his mind already racing with all the possibilities he could create with an entire wall of televisions.
Next, Ron and Hermione led him to aisles filled with miniature televisions.
"Computers. Laptops," Hermione smiled. "If you'd like, we could test one out. See what it's all about."
She gently touched the smooth pad on the laptop and the screen lit up from black to a beautiful image of rolling green hills and a baby blue sky.
"Dad," Ron said, "close your mouth."
"Oh!" he laughed, his face turning pink from embarrassment. Arthur didn't mean to be gaping at everything, but it was amazing. He started to wonder how he had ever lived without Best Buy before. The place was filled to the brim with potential gadgets to explore.
It was the worst day of Molly Weasley's life.
Well, she did lose a lot of people she cared about, including a son. Those were definitely the very worst days of her life. This one ranked somewhere in the middle.
Arthur's little Muggle excursion had turned into Molly's worst nightmare. She had hoped long ago that her husband's fascination with Muggle technology would wane as he entered into old age, but somehow it had exploded into something entirely more obsessive.
Arthur stood in their living room surrounded by brown packages and something called bubble wrap. Rose and Hugo loved it, popping the plastic bubbles with such glee that Molly wondered why they had ever needed toys growing up.
Hermione was next to Molly, her hand clasped to her mouth in disbelief. Ron was chortling in the corner.
"And this, Molly!" Arthur extracted a white wand with bristles. "This is a toothbrush that will brush your teeth for you! It runs on these small chips called batteries!"
Hermione gasped again. She had been doing that a lot since they arrived.
Molly had sent for them the moment she sensed the protective charms being taken down from around the Burrow. Arthur had, apparently, learned how to order devices from the Best Buy. And the Muggle trucks needed to get all his products to the house somehow, so he lifted the spells and welcomed the poor, confused men into the Weasley home.
Molly had to Confund them when they left.
Then she flooed over to Ron's house and demanded they arrive.
"He thinks we can embrace Muggle technology," she said to her son and his wife.
"Molly, I'm- I don't know what to say," Hermione finally let her hand fall to her side. She turned to the older woman, her brown eyes wide with concern. "This is all our fault."
Molly smiled. "Hush. This was bound to happen. I think I knew it somewhere deep inside. But," Molly listened as her grandchildren explained how to use the toothbrush to her husband, "I will need help getting used to these things."
And so Hermione and Ron and their young children spent three days hooking up wires and explaining the care and use of each device to Molly and Arthur. It wasn't long before Molly saw the benefits, too.
Reluctantly, she embraced her husband's new found love of technology. She could have done without the giant screens lining her living room wall-honestly, it was ghastly-but she had to admit, some things were of great use.
She had this thing called a crock-pot that cooked for her now. All she needed to do was put the food inside in the morning and remove the lid at night to serve. She barely used her wand to help anymore either.
She also really enjoyed the toothbrush, the way it vibrated against her teeth and made her mouth feel extra clean. Old age had made her bones ache, and it felt good to exert less energy and get more out of what she was doing. In fact, one day, she had gone nearly seven hours without using her wand once.
Arthur, too, was using his less and less. Molly was particularly surprised to find Arthur's wand inside his sock drawer one morning, clearly forgotten. He was outside in his shed working with something called a weed whacker. For some reason, Arthur loved that most.
"I can't believe we ever managed without these things," Arthur kissed Molly on the forehead. He placed his laptop down on the kitchen table, the screen detailing a new recipe she had asked him to find.
"Oh, we managed," she smiled, peeling a potato. She wouldn't dare admit how much easier things had become for her.
"I still think they've helped us greatly," he smiled.
Molly nodded. "It's true. It's nice to enter these golden years with a bit of help."
Arthur looked at his wife. He knew Molly had actually enjoyed the items he bought more than she let on. It felt good to know he could do something like this for her, ease her burden and let her relax a little. They had been through so much in their lifetime.
This was the happiest day of Arthur's life. No doubt about it.