Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. All rights go to respective owners.
Chapter Summary: Crabbe and Goyle, two pureblood wizards and sons of Death Eaters, visit the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, as a part of a post-war Dark wizard rehabilitation program. (See, stupid wizards? Muggles aren't medieval idiots.) Needless to say, some of the information is hard for them to wrap their heads around.
Word count (not including title and author's notes): 561
To Infinity and Beyond!
"No way that piece of Muggle junk went to space!"
It was the longest sentence Hermione Granger had ever heard Gregory Goyle speak. Despite the accomplishment, however, she still grimaced at the loud comment. For the umpteenth time that morning, she questioned if she had truly lost her sanity when accepting this job.
What she was doing was important. She had been personally charged by the Minister of Magic himself to oversee the 'Rehabilitation of Dark Wizards and Reintegrate Them into Society' program — or R.E.D.W.A.R.T.S. for short. (Not that anyone was willing to call it that, for obvious reasons. Harry had said, and Hermione readily agreed, that it was a million times worse than S.P.E.W.) And critical as it may be for this job to be done well, it wasn't like she had been given a choice in the matter.
Still … it was always entertaining to see bigoted, pureblood witches and wizards be forced to learn about Muggles and how to interact in, as Hermione liked to call it, 'the real world.' Malfoy's reaction to seeing a movie in the theater had been priceless.
But just exactly how the Wizarding World maintained the Statue of Secrecy, especially with idiots like this walking around, was beyond her.
The tour guide cleared her throat.
"I can assure you, sir," she said clearly, "that the Space Shuttle Atlantis has made more than thirty trips to space over the course of over twenty-five years. Eleven of those trips were to the International Space Station."
As Crabbe and Goyle stared stupefied — or just stared, Hermione couldn't really tell the difference — at Atlantis, the tour guide gave her a questioning look.
"They grew up out in the country," Hermione explained, using one of the pre-established cover stories. "Their families didn't use a lot of modern technology."
"You mean they're Amish?" a man in the group questioned.
Hermione suddenly noticed the growing interest from most of the tour group and began to feel uncomfortable. She shrugged noncommittally.
"They didn't get out much," she replied evenly. Turning to the tour guide, she decided to redirect the conversation.
"Do you also have models of the Mars rovers here? I'm sure they would love to see them as well."
As the tour dispersed to take a closer look at the Shuttle, the tour guide explained how to get to the Mars exhibit. Thanking her, Hermione led Crabbe and Goyle out of the exhibit.
"They went to space," Crabbe stated, still sounding in a daze.
Hermione nodded, firmly steering the two taller boys toward the exit.
"Yep," she said. "Muggles have even put men on the moon."
Crabbe and Goyle stared at her. The three of them stepped out into the bright Florida sun.
"Mars?" Goyle slowly asked next.
"Well," Hermione said, going into teacher mode, "no people yet. But we have put robots on Mars, which are controlled from Earth. Mars isn't really hospitable to humans, so we would need special equipment…"
At the unusually glassy-eyed looks she was receiving, she slowed to a stop and started again.
"Muggles are smart. They put robots on Mars because Mars is not a nice place for people," she explained slowly.
The silence stretched out for a minute, before Goyle — who appeared to be talkative today — asked another question.
"What's a robot?"
Hermione sighed. Today was definitely going to be longer than most.