Written for The Houses Competition, Year Two, Round Six.
House: Hufflepuff
Year: 5th
Category: Drabble
Prompts: [Character] Professor Charity Burbage
Wordcount: 367
Betas: Aya
Title: In the Muggle Studies Showroom
Summary: Charity Burbage demonstrates one of the Muggles' more curious habits.
Charity Burbage was balancing in the air, simultaneously demonstrating to her Fifth Years the use of an extension ladder and how to clean the lightbulbs hanging from the ceiling by hand.
"And this is called a feather duster, because it's made of feathers. You see, it catches the dust when you twirl it around the item, and then when you are finished dusting, you go outside to shake the dust out."
"But Professor, why would we collect dust, just to let it back out into the air again?" asked a girl, who promptly sneezed.
"Muggles believe that dust belongs out in the wilderness, not inside the home. My personal belief is that they treat dust like small creatures, such as butterflies, and they want to set the little beasties free."
Charity climbed down from the precarious ladder and brushed down her robe with a free hand. She delicately placed the feather duster on a glass case containing her latest addition to the Showroom, a small collection of plastic boxes, called Tupperware.
"Um, Professor, are you saying that Muggle dust is alive?"
"Not at all. I'm saying that Muggles may believe dust to be alive."
"That's not in the textbook," one said.
"If you want to blend in with Muggles, say, if your job depended on it, then you need to observe their behavior, and act accordingly, even when it doesn't make sense. Now, who would like to demonstrate 'dusting'?"
Several students raised their hands. Charity gave each of them a duster, and then swished her wand to make more feathers attached to sticks for the rest of the class.
"Now remember, this isn't a wand. You have to actually touch the feathers to the item in order for it to collect the dust."
She sat back and watched her fifth year class twirl their dusters around the room. One student twirled a spot on the screen of the television, leaving behind a dust-free circle.
Then, the entire class went outside to shake out their dusters. After much sneezing, putting the dusters away and dismissing her class, Charity Burbage walked back into her Muggle Showroom. She smiled at the gleaming surfaces all around the room.
That was one way to get everything clean.