Disclaimer: Possession is 9/10 of the law. Unfortunately I don't possess anything. Including HP etc.
Neville's POV
As we walked into the electronics section of the store, I was amazed by the lights, the sounds, the colors, in short, everything that the muggles had created. It boggles the mind to imagine that they achieved all of this without the use of magic. I couldn't help but stop and stare at the woman talking to me from the other side of a window, mentioning something about the best toothpaste, whatever that is. When I tried to ask her about it, she dissappeared, and in her place was a man saying something about a potion that will help stop the spread of 'genital herpes'.
Catching up to Harry, I was amazed to hear him in discussion with a salesman in a different language. They were talking about DLP and HDTV and ram...were we buying a goat? After a half hour's discussion, Harry provided a little piece of plastic, and told the muggle that he would 'ring him up' to provide a delivery address. I swear these muggles don't speak the same language we do. At least Harry knew what he was talking about.
Harry's POV
We walked into electronics, Neville almost took a header into a big projection TV as he was too busy watching a commercial for toothpaste to see where he was going. I shrugged, figuring he'd be less trouble if he was out of the way, and flagged down a salesman. After explaining to him our situation (we just moved to London, our old flat was destroyed in a fire, and we needed all new electronics) we got down to it. I picked up a plasma TV, a projector, a couple of laptops, PDA's...use your imagination. About halfway through our little spree I caught the snag in this little plan. "How are we going to get this stuff out of the store? Sure I can shrink it once we get out of here, but with all the security cameras around here that's an easy way to get caught if I try to do it here. Think Harry!"
Than it hit me. Just follow the story that I gave the guy.
"Excuse me, I just thought of a question. Do you deliver? I don't think all this will fit in my Mini" I said, trying to get a little humor into my voice.
"Yes, we offer free delivery" the salesperson replied with a chuckle.
"OK, than what I need to do is purchase a mobile to take with me, and I'll ring you up to arrange delivery" I told him, "We're closing on the flat today, I'm not 100 sure of the address, I'll give you a ring in a bit and give you the address."
As the salesperson led me over to the mobile display, Neville came from behind one of the displays and asked me "what was that about a flat?"
"I'll tell you when we get out of here. Just don't say anything." I replied.
A few minutes later, we walked out of the store, new pre-paid mobile in hand.
"Let's go buy a flat" I stated.
An hour later, and a large wad of cash later, Harry and Neville had a year lease pre-paid on a suitable studio overlooking the Thames. It was modestly furnished, and Harry had just placed calls to the gent at the electronics store to have them make delivery, to the cable company to get broadband installed, and to a local pizza delivery place for some lunch.
"So Harry, explain to me why we have a flat. I thought we were going back to Azkaban." Neville said, a little wary of the answer.
"Well, there are a couple of reasons. We can have deliveries and stuff sent here, so we don't have to go out in public very much. This place has power, and electric items will work here, so I wanted to use this as our base of operations to figure out how to make electronics work in a magic area. In case we have to disappear, we're already established with the landlord, so we wouldn't have to find a place while on the run. And probably the most important thing, I've never had a place I can refer to as home until now." Harry said wistfully.
Ron Weasley was having a REALLY crappy day.
It started when he got to work, and found out that the Cannons were moving him from starting to reserve Keeper. He yelled at the coach, saying that he was a better keeper than his replacement, and ended up being suspended from the team for a month for insubordination.
He decided to stop at the bar and deal with his problems the old-fashioned way. He apparated home (nearly losing a foot in the process) three hours late to discover that this was the night that he was supposed to have dinner with his fiancée (Lavender Brown)'s parents. He threw up on her father's shoes, hit on her mom, and later that night, called her 'Hermione' at a...shall we say inopportune time.
He was currently lying on the couch, wondering to himself where it all went wrong, and what did he do to deserve what was happening to him.
Ginny Weasley had made up her mind. Again. She was going to go tomorrow and talk to Minister Scrimgeour, and tell him what really happened to Percy. The fact that he was her brother doesn't give her the right to ignore the fact that he was a Death Eater, and that Harry was doing nothing more than possibly SAVING their lives. And of course, the fact that Ron hacked off Percy's arm with a sword after he was already dead.
Tomorrow. First thing tomorrow. Right after breakfast. I mean it this time.
Back in the flat…
They had just taken delivery of the stuff, and Harry was getting frustrated.
"When do we get to see naked women?"
"Later Neville"
"Is it later yet?"
"Dammit Nev, I already told you, we have to wait til tomorrow to get the broadband installed. Until then we can't get to the web or to cable, and therefore porn."
"Muggle technology sucks."
"Do us a favor. Shut up for a minute and help me figure out these cables. Getting a TV with multiple inputs is great, but I'm having a problem seeing what goes where. Now on that paper, where does the red cable go?"
A/N: Yes, I suck. It's taken forever to get anything done on this story. Unfortunately, I'm lazy, so it happens. We can hope for more chapters pretty soon I believe.