Sci-Fi in the Harry Potter world. Believe me when I say that when I saw the topic of the semi-final round, I kind of freaked out.

Keeper Prompt: [Robot Fiction] Fiction in which the science of robotics is a central theme.

Disclaimer: I don't know anything about robotics, so kindly act as if what little I wrote about it actually makes sense. Thank you :D

Word count: 2984

Magical Scraps

"It is a change so groundbreaking that it will change both of our communities' lives," the Muggle Prime Minister announced with absolute joy, a bright grin lighting up his wrinkled face. "None of my precursors had even thought about this, clearly being too afraid or too narrow-minded to just go for it and try."

Hermione Granger-Weasley smiled at her colleague and nodded along. "Right you are. And I believe that starting with the children will give this project the chance it deserves. In the Wizarding community, there are quite a few citizens who will think this is insane, obscene even. Children are more open-minded than their parents."

"True, true. I wish I would be able to say what the non-magical community would do or think, but, alas, I have no idea." The British Prime Minister chuckled joyfully, clearly enjoying his time with the Minister of Magic. Her precursor had been an old man, too cautious to try anything new and the one before that? Oh, don't get him started! He had never met a more naive and unworldly man in his long life. What was his name again? Something that started with an F…

"Brilliant," Mrs. Granger-Weasley said and clapped her hands. "Then I shall prepare everything for next month. We will stay in contact, of course."

"Of course," the Prime Minister answered and offered her his hand. "I am very intrigued and have to admit that I'm looking forward to this little experiment."

*~*HP*~*

"'In the name of progress and peace, the British Ministry of Magic has decided to open their doors to the Muggle world,'" Harry read aloud, holding a large piece of parchment in his hand that had been tucked between his son's school shopping list he had received earlier this morning. "'To further underline our cooperation with the Muggle community and to diminish prejudices amongst our peers, your child's year has been chosen to participate in this project. I expect your child to be on their best behaviour. Yours, Headmistress Minerva McGonagall.'"

"Wow, she's done it." Ginny sat across from her husband, elbows resting on top of the kitchen table. "Hermione's really done it!"

Harry let out a laugh, still staring at the letter in his hands. "I can't believe it. I mean, she's been planning and talking about this ever since she got the job as the Minister, and now, nearly seven years later, she has convinced all of her employees and Heads of her departments to actually try it."

"You're one of the said Heads," Ginny said, smirking at him. She had a sparkle in her eyes that reminded him so much of the Weasley twins.

"I know, and I was the first one to sign the draft law if you remember."

She chuckled as she slowly stood up and walked around the table. "Oh, I do remember. I couldn't have been prouder even if I tried."

Harry grinned as his wife reached for him and snuggled into his lap. His arms wrapped around her as she snuggled in with her head resting on his shoulder. He could feel her warm breath tickle his neck. "But I can't help but worry slightly," he mumbled softly, his thoughts going back to his own childhood. Back then, if the Headmaster, or even the Ministry, had announced that one Hogwarts year should meet a few classes of a Muggle school and let them see what it meant to be a witch or a wizard, not only the Purebloods would have been against it but also those that had Muggle blood in their family line.

The Wizarding community had been in hiding for multiple centuries now, ever since Morgana had attacked the Muggles of Scotland way back when the Founders had still been alive. That trauma, the unnecessary deaths, had ingrained a fear so strong in the mind of the non-magical community that, even though magic had become a thing of legends and myths, they shied away at the pure thought of it. People who believed in it were labelled insane, shunned, and made fun of. Therefore, to try and reconnect two communities who couldn't be more different wasn't only a revolutionary thing to do, but also very risky.

Suffice to say - it was downright dangerous.

Not only did the magical community have a core of powerful, radical people trying to pull the strings behind the scenes, but the Muggles did as well. So, despite all of the risks this entailed, it laid in the hands of the children, of the next generation, to lay the stepping-stones for an open and unprejudiced future, one that not even Harry's generation would have managed to create.

*~*HP*~*

It would be fun, they said. You'd learn so much, they said.

Bill McCaughey cursed silently at his own stupidity. He was standing in the cold darkness outside a bloody ruin and couldn't, for the life of him, figure out what was fun about sleeping in a literal century-year-old pile of stones. That didn't even have a roof.

He should have just stayed home, burnt the permission slip before his mother could have found it, and faked the flu. He could spend the time fiddling with his watch. He had programmed it so that it reminded him of when to drink a glass of water. Yeah, it sounded lame, but it had been a compromise with his mum, as she had threatened to get him one of those ridiculous water bottles that told you when to drink and when to refill it. It was the exact same concept as what his watch was doing, but a speaking watch was way cooler than that ridiculous bottle. The programming was solid; he wasn't very good at it, not yet anyways, but he was getting there. He hated to admit it, but it burst out random reminders whenever he needed them the least, and once it got going it was difficult to make it stop.

He groaned as they reached the rusted gate that had a big, weathered sign on it, saying 'Trespassing will be prosecuted!' Who even wanted to break into that thing? Ugh, he was hungry and tired. He just wanted to crash into a comfy bed and sleep through the night to face the odd circumstances tomorrow when his brain was back to work again. But apparently, mercy did not like him as he stood amongst his classmates and looked up at the rotten-looking piece of trash they were supposed to spend the night in.

"Don't you worry, kids," Mr. Longbottom, the nice-looking teacher that had picked them up from the platform, said and motioned for them to follow him. He started leading them down the path that was covered in rotten leaves and twigs that had been blown over from the forest to their left, as Bill felt something warm flow over him. He couldn't help but shriek. Thankfully, his friends were equally freaked out, so no-one bothered to point out how much of a girl he was. He was just about to say something cool when he caught sight of the humongous and ancient castle standing proudly at the end of the wide path they were standing on.

"What the…" Tom, his best friend, muttered as he stared up to what had to be their destination with big eyes.

Gone was the tiredness, gone was the annoyance about the long way to get here. All that remained was excitement.

Mr. Longbottom stopped on the first step leading up to the huge wooden doors, which had to be the main entrance to the castle, and turned to face the students. "Well," he said and raised his arms as if to welcome them all. He was quite literally beaming. He looked just as excited as Bill felt. "Welcome to Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft And Wizardry."

"WHAT?!"

Excited chatter started to swell up as Bill turned to his classmates. Witchcraft and Wizardry? He could hear his friends start to discuss whether Mr. Longbottom was totally bonkers because magic didn't exist… right? Right. Yeah, it didn't exist! There were no such things as witches, wizards, and magic. No werewolves or vampires. No centaurs or unicorns. They were all stuff out of tales to amuse children and to support their creativity as that was important for the development of their brains!

As his classmates continued to yell about how this was all impossible, Bill couldn't keep his eyes off of the big castle right in front of him. He had always liked the thought of magic ever since he was little. He hadn't told anyone about it, but sometimes he would write stories about adventurers entering the magical world and experiencing things beyond his imagination. There was still a small part of him that thought this was all fake, but what if it wasn't? How awesome would that be?

"But the castle!" Betty, a rather shy and quiet girl in his class that often got bullied for her dental braces, called out loudly, pulling all attention onto her. Immediately, a deep blush darkened her light skin, but she pushed through anyway. Bill blinked. This day was full of surprises. "Guys, you saw the freaking ruin turn into this incredible castle, didn't you?" She looked around, her eyes imploring. "Didn't you?"

Murmurs of "yeah" and "uh-huh" floated over their small group.

"And why are we still discussing whether this is actually real? Because it clearly is!" she said without waiting for an answer. "I know this is completely insane and I, for one, feel like I'm losing my mind because this goes against everything that I've known up until now, but I can't deny what I have seen. Because," she added hurriedly, as if not sure whether she should say the following to underline her argument or whether saying the following would make her seem even crazier than she already felt, "I have taken my medicine this morning and I can say for certain that I'm not hallucinating."

Bill snickered. Oh right, Betty the Barmy was in treatment for hallucinating - news that had completely overrun their school at the end of last year. Back then, Bill had been torn between making fun of her and feeling sorry for her. Now, though, he felt nothing like that. He nodded slowly and smiled at Betty, who ducked back to the other side of their small group, her face beet-red.

"She's right," he said out loud and, without deeming his classmates another glance, he turned back to the still grinning Mr. Longbottom, waiting patiently for an explanation.

"Hogwarts was founded over a thousand years ago by the greatest witches and wizards of their age - Godric Gryffindor, Rowena Ravenclaw, Helga Hufflepuff, and Salazar Slytherin."

*~*HP*~*

Mr. Anthony, still a bit jittery but visibly fighting for composure, walked to the front of the classroom, a big box in his arms. Bill had wondered what was in it ever since he had seen his Science teacher struggle with it while boarding the bus to King's Cross the day before. "As you have already allowed us to participate in your feast and evening activities both yesterday as well as this morning, your professor and I both think it fair for us to start with the presentation," he said and set the box on top of the huge oak desk at the front of the wicked-looking classroom.

Bill had trouble focussing on his teacher as he still couldn't take his eyes off everything magical. Which was everything but his teacher and his box. There were chandeliers, both floating and standing, there were owls and big hallways, there were fires and students in robes... Everywhere he looked, there was something fascinating, and he honestly had trouble focusing on the matter at hand - school. Yes, school. This was still a field trip, after all.

"Technology." The voice of Mr. Anthony pulled Bill's focus back to the front of the classroom, where his teacher as well as the witch that taught… What was it again? Muzzle Studies! stood. "Unlike you, we don't have magic to help us get through the day. We cannot conjure mugs or transfigure books into tables in case we might need one. We might not have magic, but we have something that might take a bit longer but is just as good - robots." And with that, he opened the box on the desk and pulled out an expensive-looking glass box.

"You brought a 3D printer?" Tom asked, his tone incredulous.

"Yes, Thomas, I brought a 3D printer," Mr. Anthony answered sarcastically and held up the plug, looking around helplessly. "Excuse me, do you have a power socket somewhere?"

An excited grin lit up the face of the magic professor as she waved her wand and a white box came flying out of the room on the other side of the classroom. "This, dear students," she said excitedly and held up the white box that looked oddly like a remote charger, "is what Muggles call a battery. It stores electrical energy for later use. The Headmistress has been kind enough to lift the charms off this part of the castle, so we can make use of electricity. Here you go, Marcus." She turned and handed the accumulator to Mr. Anthony.

"Thank you, Eleanor. Now, students, this is a device that can print an object you design within hours. You magical folk would use the word conjuring, I believe. Well, this is the non-magical form of conjuring without having scraps and materials to use to build your design, however, that is also a well-used method to conjure things… um… M-Muggle-style."

Excited whispers filled the classroom as the Hogwarts students sat up straight. Bill shook his head. Sure, 3D-printing was cool, but not that cool.

"Of course, I don't only want to talk about engineering and constructing but encourage you to try for yourself, so I've brought some things that might turn out to be useful for you to build stuff with." With a flourish that Bill was sure he had practised before, Mr. Anthony opened the lid of the box even further, turned it upside down, and allowed metal scraps, wires, and other rubbish to tumble out of its depth.

The students jumped up in excitement and hurried to the teacher's desk, talking loudly and laughing. They began digging through the material, holding things up at random, and discussing what it was and what it might do. Bill couldn't help but feel amused and slightly proud at seeing wizards and witches in awe at something so basic and straightforward. He had to remind himself that, for them, this was just as incredible as magic and floating candles were for him, so, summoning all of the courage that he possessed, he stood up from his chair and slowly walked to the front of the classroom. His friends were looking at him with big eyes, not daring to move forward themselves.

When he reached the desk with the scraps, he forced himself to take a deep breath, pick up the first thing he could get his hands on, and show it to a boy with blond hair and a green tie wrapped around his neck.

"This is a basic module," Bill said, pointing at the minuscule outlets and then at a random wire that lay on top of everything else. "You can connect it to things and build a robot."

"What's a robot?" the boy asked, curiosity written over his pale face. "Oh, I'm Scorpius, by the way. Scorpius Malfoy."

Bill smiled and dropped the module to offer his hand to his new friend. "I'm Bill. Nice to meet you, Scorpius."

"Alright, everyone," Professor What's-Her-Name-Again called out over the loud and excited chatter of the magic students. "Now, it's time for you to learn a bit about this specific type of Muggle technology. We went through the various types two weeks ago, and each of you had to write a two-foot essay on robotics. Now, it's time to put the newly-learnt knowledge to good use! Each of you grab a non-magical classmate and pay good attention! There will be a test on this next week, so ask them as much as you can think of. But most of all - have fun!"

Scorpius squealed and whirled around to Bill, who was still quite overwhelmed at the whole situation. "Do you want to pair up?" he asked, a big grin on his face. Before Bill could answer, the blond wizard grabbed as much metal scraps and wires as he could and motioned for Bill to follow him to the other side of the classroom, where he dropped the stuff onto an empty table. "I can't wait for you to show me what you can do with all of this!" He motioned at the heap of non-usable things in front of him. "My parents are magical and they never really thought much of Muggles in general, so this is a big deal for me. I can't wait to convince Dad that Muggles aren't the stupid imbeciles he thinks them to be!"

Bill blinked owlishly at the rambling boy, not quite sure whether he should be insulted or amused. Seeing the honest and excited look on the other's face, though, he opted for the latter as he bent forward. He really wanted to build something cool for Scorpius to show his parents. No-one called him stupid. Pfft! He knew what he was doing when it came to that sort of stuff.

"Did you have your glass of water yet, Bill?" Damn that watch, trying to undermine him! But Bill didn't have time to feel overly embarrassed as most of the magic kids swarmed around him with shouts of wonder.

Amongst all, Scorpius could be heard over the chatter of the Hogwarts students, excitedly yelling, "That's Bill and he'll build a robot for me to show my stuck-up parents!"

I hope you liked it! It's something different. I've wondered about what might happen if someone decided to have magical and Muggle schools collaborate before. Maybe what you just read would be one possible outcome.

Until next time - see ya!