Author's Note:

Round 7: Muggle Me This

Team: Pride of Portree

Position: Beater 2

Prompt: Write about a time where wizardkind has gotten so used to Muggle technology that they find themselves using magic lesser and lesser.

Prompts used: 3. (action) charging an electronic device

12. (dialogue) "He tried to sell me a box that talked, so I hexed him!"

Word Count: _2992_ excluding Author's Note

This story takes place about two centuries after the end of the Second Wizarding War and so all the characters are OC. Also, an EMP is a short burst of electromagnetic energy that can interfere with the working of electronic devices.

The Wonders of Science and Magic

"And now, here is Hayley Black with the 7 o'clock news!"

Regina Maria Malfoy squeezed her eyes shut tightly and rolled over in bed.

"In other news, due to the Science and Development Conference, heavy air traffic is estimated above Knockturn, KnockOff, and Diagon Alley so please plan your shopping accordingly or opt instead to order in via communicator. Now, on to the weather. The day will be sun-" Regina groaned, fumbled with the remote, and switched the channel. Rubbing her blonde hair and stifling a yawn, she slipped out of the bed and stumbled into the bathroom. As she brushed her teeth, she heard the coffee machine whirring in the kitchen and two dings signal that her timer-set sandwich maker was ready with the breakfast. She sighed, splashed some water on her face and headed for the bedroom.

"He tried to sell me a box that talked, so I hexed him!" declared an old man on the TV-screen to the canned laughter of the studio audience. Regina smirked as she glanced at the ridiculous robe and pointed hat the actor was wearing as she slipped into a pair of comfortable black jeans and a soft T-shirt.

The comedy show, which was called "Wizards, Witches, and the Dark Ages" continued, showing off the various backwards traditions in the old Wizarding World, as the audience laughed derisively with the knowledge of how far they'd come. By the time Regina got to the kitchen, the old wizard, whose beard was so long he kept tripping on it, had moved on to brewing something in an enormous cauldron and commenting loudly on the proper way of dicing frog's legs. Regina turned the kitchen TV off and fished out a bottle of nutrient potion from Potio Magia Industries. Now that she thought about it, she couldn't really recall a time she'd brewed anything since graduating Hogwarts. It was just so much easier to order online and get them delivered fresh on her doorstep.

She picked up the cup of coffee and slumped into a chair by the kitchen table. As always, she fished out the communicator and began reading through her mail. It was mostly mundane work-related stuff and she swiped them into folders in accordance with their importance. That is, until one of the letters caught her eye.

Regina,

I know it is your day off and I am really sorry to do this to you, but I am out of inspectors and I need someone to check out a store at Cobblewalk Alley no. 25. I would really appreciate your help. They say it is urgent; level 4.

David

Regina sighed and tapped her fingernails against the glass table. David Bones was her boss at the Import-Export Department of the Ministry of Magic and the conference had created a sudden spike in foreigners travelling to Wizarding London. This, however, also brought a new flood of all sorts of contraband. Just last week they'd had to confiscate three crates of substandard communicators from a vendor at KnockOff Alley. The communicators themselves were mostly fine until the battery ran out and the unsuspecting witch or wizard picked up a charger, plugged the device in, and waited blissfully for the battery to charge, only for the whole thing to explode. Faulty batteries should have meant immediate destruction but instead they'd landed in the hands of a couple of bootleggers. Long story short, Regina had spent a whole weekend taking statements and trying to track down every single defective communicator before more cheap and gullible wizards needed nanobot treatment for explosion-related injuries. After that, David had specifically given her the week off.

Regina took another sip of coffee and fought through the initial frustration. David was a reasonable man and they got along well. He would not have asked it, if they weren't in real trouble…Maybe someone had started selling counterfeit potion cookers again? Last time one of those had gone wrong, they'd had to quite literally scrape the results of that accident off the walls. Regina shuddered. The government really didn't need something like that to happen again. Especially not with a bunch of scientists and Potions masters from all over the world gathered in London. And level 4 was what they called "a possible deathtrap" in the office.

She huffed, downed the final dregs of coffee, and typed out a quick reply.

David,

I'll do it. But you'll owe me for this.

Regina

Her communicator dinged immediately. David must have been waiting anxiously for her answer.

Thanks, Regina, you're the best. There shouldn't be any trouble, but have your stunner with you just in case. Take care.

David

Regina rolled her eyes. As if she'd ever forget her stunner; the one weapon all Aurors carried.

The traffic was horrible indeed. The blue sky was nearly hidden by the sheer amount of travelpods and to her surprise, Regina even saw the occasional broom, mostly with foreign identification tags. One rarely saw one of those in London anymore, unless at a Quidditch match, since travelpods were far more convenient, especially when travelling in bad weather or when the traveller was unsure about their navigation skills.

Luckily, Cobblewalk Alley was just a few blocks away, near the Granger-Snape memorial library, so Regina could easily walk. She moved at a fast pace, only glancing around for docking travelpods. Foot traffic was also unusually busy, but they tended to move out of the way when they saw her department-issued jacket and the stunner shining on her hip next to her wand. The latter she had stuck there as an afterthought when her mind drifted back to an old painting in the Auror Academy. The wizard with one magical artificial eye, whose name escaped her, had the habit of shouting: "CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" every time she forgot where her wand was. After a while, despite it no longer being a requirement, she started carrying it; if only to appease the old wizard.

As she passed a teleportation and charging station, Regina found herself hoping that she'd be done with the whole affair in an hour or two so that she could spend the rest of the day at the conference as she had originally planned. She was excited to learn about the advancements in large-scale teleportation that supposedly no longer required special stations for it. She was also hoping to hear a lecture on the ethical arguments both for and against developing mind-reading machines to be used in criminal investigations. The tech was still rudimentary, but it was already showing more promising than Legilimency, being harder to counter, especially when used together with industrially-fortified Veritaserum.

The day was indeed beautiful and sunny for such discussions of the wonders of science. Regina smiled as the wind ruffled her hair and glanced around the city. In the end, it had taken a mere two centuries after the Second Wizarding War to change the Wizarding World enough that magic became all but redundant; used in only very specific and narrow circumstances. Some older families had fought the hardest but slowly they too had been won over by the travel pods, communicators, force shields, stunners, and countless other things that had somehow made everything easier than even a mere wand wave. There was something for everyone. Magic was still taught at school but mostly because a child who could not control their magic was dangerous to themselves and everyone around them. That, and some witches and wizards used magic in developing technology to make it better and so others would have no need to use it.

Even the lines between Muggleborns and Purebloods had blurred because technology was accessible to anyone. Regina couldn't resist a smirk as she thought back to her own ancestors fighting to keep the bloodlines pure. It all seemed so silly now. Here, under the bright sun, turning into Cobblewalk Alley, surrounded by wonderful innovations in technology, the concept of magic itself seemed silly. She scanned the houses for the correct number and paused to make a note of her arrival in the communicator.

Number twenty-five looked generally unremarkable but appearances were often deceptive. This was especially true with new holotech that allowed for the creation of false images. The quality of those had advanced to a point where they melted effortlessly into the background. Just in case, Regina ran her tech detector over the sight in front of her. The machine beeped and Regina frowned slightly, glancing down at the display. There seemed to be no electronic activity around the building at all, which was unusual. She couldn't recall the last time she'd seen a dead zone. There was something off about it; she couldn't put her finger on it. Still, it didn't indicate a threat, so she slipped the detector into her pocket and, moving her hand to the stunner holster, stepped forward to knock.

The door fell open with a creak under her touch. Frown deepening, Regina's fingers tapped lightly against the weapon on her hip as she entered. The streak of light disappeared slowly behind her, indicating that the door had closed again. Regina forced herself not to shudder. She was an Auror, dammit, she knew how to handle this.

The shop looked dirty and neglected inside. The glass shelves were covered with at least an inch of dust and some of the furniture had been covered in white sheets, reminding Regina of imagery from the old gothic novels she used to devour. With slightly numb fingers, she pulled the stunner from its holster and took a few breaths before heading for the door behind the counter. It was slightly ajar and as Regina approached, she noticed something briefly moving in the shadows. She moved forward, fumbling with her flashlight, and just as she stepped into the darkness, there was a blinding flash.

It took Regina a few seconds to recover from the brightness in her eyes. She blinked and blinked until she realized that the darkness wasn't just in her eyes. It was all around her. Regina's first instinct was to go for her flashlight but despite her fiddling back and forth with the switch, there was no light. She sighed and reached for her communicator but that was dead too. Everything was dead. Regina stood up slowly and blinked a few more times, trying to get used to the darkness. She ran her fingers over the side of the door, looking for the lightswitch, but failed. Even her stunner was out.

And that's when she realized what had been bothering her. If the portrait of the old wizard had been nearby, it would have been shrieking "CONSTANT VIGILANCE" the whole time and chastising her for having overlooked it. She had seen a dead zone once before and it had been a real threat. It had happened two years earlier and she had been with her partner, Rosie Finnigan. They were overseeing the destruction of illegal weaponry when a worker had accidently activated an EMP gun. The result had been much the same– every single electronic device in the vicinity had been knocked out, some temporarily and others permanently. Luckily, that had been in a controlled environment in the contraband destruction center, but she had lost her favorite communicator watch to the infernal machine. This time though, everything was broken. Not one of her devices worked and she was left in the dark. Literally.

With her fingers shaking more than was strictly appropriate for a senior Auror, she picked up the lighter. Even if a level four threat shouldn't have been much to fear; Malfoys had always been more cautious than rashly brave.

The little metal lighter was not a usual sight this century, but it was something of a family heirloom; said to be as old as the First Wizarding War. On one side, it even had the initials N.M. engraved. Running her thumb over the letters, Regina felt a certain sense of calm. Surely a descendant of Narcissa Malfoy, a woman who faced Lord Voldemort and lied without consequence, would be able to get the better of whatever anyone would be throwing at her in this dump. She flicked the lighter open and in its dim light, Regina began slowly moving forward.

The little yellow flame was just enough light to help her maneuver in the dark room. An uncomfortable thought was forming in her head as she walked towards the door at the back of what looked like a small storeroom. There were empty boxes on the floor and some trash lying around, but that wasn't what Regina was worried about. What did bother her was that, in her experience, even contraband EMP guns had some sort of a safety mechanism. They certainly didn't just go off in an empty room without any outside disturbance. There was someone else in the building.

Regina's lighter flickered and she found herself desperately hoping that there would be working lights behind the door. She reached out to turn the knob. The door didn't budge. There was no key in the keyhole, either. Without thinking, Regina reached for her electronic lock pick only to realize that she was holding what was essentially a very expensive keychain ornament. The little machine had been completely fried. Regina glanced around in the room for anything to try and pry the lock open with manually, but all she could see was more trash. For a moment she even considered trying to break the door down with her shoulder, but it was solid metal and she was more likely to break something inside her. Irritated, she shook her head and put a hand on her hip. She might have been a coward but she couldn't bloody well just walk away. She was on the job and with such a powerful EMP gun, whoever owned it could probably take down a travelpod like they were duck hunting.

She tapped her fingers on her hip. One of her polished nails clicked against smooth wood. Confused, she looked down at her belt. It was odd that the solution hadn't even occurred to her before. Hesitantly, still holding the lighter, Regina picked up her wand and turned to face the door. She cleared her throat with a loud cough.

"Alohomora!"

The door didn't budge. Regina took a deep breath and tried again.

"Alohomora!"

The door either creaked a little or more likely it was wishful thinking. Still, third time's the charm, right?

"ALOHOMORA!" the words sprouted from her lips with a bit more force than necessary. In response, the door flew open with a thud.

In the split-second before Regina could react, she heard the click of a stunner but to her surprise, no bolt of energy followed. Using the moment to her advantage, she stormed inside yelling:"Stupefy!"

Many hours later, when Regina finally got down to writing her report, she wished really badly that she could have described the duel as glorious or brave. At the very least, even just adequate. In reality, it was pitiful. On the other side of the door, behind a table full of various electronics, some taken apart and others intact, sat a young man in his early twenties with flaming red hair. Regina had recognized him immediately as Icarus Weasley, a small time criminal and smuggler, who always tried to pull off schemes far above his abilities. In the time she'd wasted casting a below-average Stupefy, the man too had realized how useless his gun was, and reached for his wand. However, his first Sectumsempra had barely slashed the air in front of him, never mind her skin. Regina had sent back a Stupefy with little result to Weasley, though it did blow up a box of chargers. The man retaliated with a Diffindo that left a very slight red line on Regina's skin. She sent a Bombarda his way, but the wand movement must have been wrong, because the flash of light just slipped through Weasley. After a number of attempted Sixtusempras, Abraka Dabras and Disarmiums, all of which turned out to not to even be proper spells, Regina did get lucky with a Diffindo, cutting whatever was holding a shelf just above Icarus' head. The man collapsed on the floor, unconscious and the shelf on top off him. Granted, it wasn't the most elegant solution (or, indeed, even what Regina had planned), but looking around at the destruction in the small room, Regina took what she could get.

At least the handcuffs she carried were mechanical and she slipped them on Icarus before turning to inspect the contents of the room. On the table lay a half a dozen EMP guns, various supplies to create a deadzone, and some other instruments she didn't recognize. It also seemed Icarus had been charging another bigger gun. That must have been what went off and fried everything when Regina moved around upstairs. Level 4 indeed. David was going to owe her a damn three course meal, cocktails, and dancing in the floating disco that soared above the clouds, too.

After three attempts, Regina finally managed to send a successful Patronus message to the headquarters. Within minutes David sent a nervous reply apologizing for underestimating the threat and informing her that a whole crew was on the way to take custody of the man as well as the machines. Having made sure that Icarus would not be going anywhere, Regina picked up both their wands and sat down to wait for David's arrival. She leaned back and twirled the smooth wooden sticks in her fingers. Just a few hours earlier, her wand had seemed a merely nostalgic addition to the uniform but perhaps it would be good to follow the advice of the portrait of the crazy wizard with one weird eye and always be prepared for whatever life threw at her. Apparently magic hadn't left the building, (or the Wizarding World for that matter), just yet.