Jukebox challenge prompt: "Colors of the Wind" - Pocahontas
Word count: 1,004
'Why would I want to do Muggle Studies?' Andromeda asked in disgust. 'It's not as if I'll ever need anything Muggle-made with magic around.'
'You know, you might be surprised if you gave technology a chance,' Ted said, raising his eyebrows at his girlfriend's remark.
Andromeda suddenly remembered Ted's background.
'I didn't mean to say that the Muggles don't have useful stuff,' she amended. 'Just that it's…well, primitive.'
'Tell you what,' Ted replied. He wasn't angry, one of the reasons Andromeda loved him. 'I'll take you to Muggle London for a day, and then you can tell me what you think.'
'What? No!' Andromeda cried. 'It's dangerous on the other side of London. My parents say they're...' she looked around and whispered. 'Savages.'
'You mean they're not like you,' Ted corrected her. 'Come on, Andy.'
Andromeda yelped as she hit the ticket barrier on the way to the tube. Ted laughed and slid the small piece of paper into the slot, activating the turnstile.
'There's so much here that you never knew you never knew,' he told her, taking her hand and leading her through the underground.
'That doesn't even make sense!' Andy huffed, but allowed herself to be led into the throngs of people.
London was so much more alive on the other side of Diagon Alley. There were so many people, more than she would have thought possible, and they were all rushing around, using gadgets and fast-moving automobiles like she had seen the Ministry workers use.
'Make sure you don't touch anything,' Ted warned her. 'You don't know what's been here.'
Andy made sure to stand far away from all surfaces as they entered the underground train compartment. A strange noise sounded, and suddenly she was propelled backwards into a stranger.
'Oi! Watch it, lassie!' he yelled.
'Sorry,' Andromeda replied hurriedly, holding onto Ted for dear life as the train thing moved faster than she even thought possible, taking wild turns and stops until Ted told her it was time for them to get off.
'Are you alright?' he asked. 'I remember my first tube ride. It can take getting used to.'
'Just like Apparition,' Andromeda said decisively, ignoring her spinning vision. 'At least it smells better out here. Well, what now?'
'Now you're going to discover Muggle London,' Ted replied, taking her hand and spinning her. 'Have you ever had candy floss?'
'Candy what? Is that like dental floss, but made with sweets?' Andromeda asked, trying to figure out the meaning of the strange Muggle word.
'Not at all,' Ted laughed. 'Here.'
He walked up to a vendor on the street and paid him with Muggle money. Andromeda was surprised to see that the money was exclusively made from copper and silver, but that some were different sizes, despite being made from the same metal.
'What's that called?' she asked, motioning towards the coin the vendor was giving back.
'A shilling,' Ted replied. The vendor gave her a strange look, but Ted shrugged off the curious glance. 'She's foreign.'
Andromeda frowned, but she guessed that he was right. Muggle London was a sort of foreign country.
'Here you go then, lass,' the vendor presented her with a ball of pink fluff on a stick. 'Enjoy your first glimpse of London!'
Andromeda looked at the ball of pink fluff. Then she looked at Ted. She looked back at the fluff.
'This is food?' she asked.
'Sure!' Ted replied, grabbing a clump of fluff and squishing it between his fingers before eating it, licking his fingers.
Tentatively, Andromeda pinched some fluff. It stuck together. It stuck to her fingers. She brought it to her tongue to taste and was surprised to find that it melted on contact.
'It's…sugar?' she asked, eating some more. 'Just…sugar?'
'Yup!' Ted grinned happily, grabbing some more. 'It gets everywhere though.'
They strolled through Camden market, Ted making her try most of the foods. She had already visited a couple of different countries, so wasn't surprised at the tikka masala or any of the other Indian dishes, but there were some odd things that caught her attention, such as "hot dogs". She asked whether it was dog meat, and Ted had looked horrified. That time, it was Andy's turn to laugh.
'What's that?' she gasped, refraining from pointing, since it was rude.
Ted followed her gaze, a huge smile spreading across his face.
'Of course! How could I have forgotten about the London Eye?' he cried, slapping a hand comically to his head. 'Come on!'
'I don't know,' Andy replied doubtfully.
It was a large circular contraption with cabins hanging from each axis. As they drew closer, Andy saw to her horror that people were in the cabins, laughing and taking photos.
'Come on!' Ted urged, his eyes twinkling. 'Have you ever flown without a broomstick? Have you ever seen a city from above? For once, don't think, just do.'
Something reckless stirred within Andromeda and she suddenly found herself agreeing.
'Wow!' Andy said, a nervous giggle escaping from her throat. 'It's beautiful.'
She was standing in the surprisingly steady cabin, moving upwards courtesy of some unknown contraption, and yet…there was something strangely fascinating about the entire experience.
For once, she was in the air without having to concentrate on what she was doing, able to enjoy the view, but also walk around. It was a strange sensation, but an exhilarating one.
'Are you ready for our last stop?' Ted asked, looking seriously into Andy's eyes.
She squirmed away from his gaze, not knowing whether he was joking or not. She had been proven over and over again during the day just how ignorant of the Muggle world she had been. Life in this world was bursting at the seams, begging to be let out, compared to the drabness of the wizarding system.
'I'm ready to expect anything and everything by now,' she replied dryly, not letting her inner shock show on her face. It was the Black family way.
'Don't worry,' Ted assured her. 'You're going to love this.'
He led her to a building with flashing neon lights. Muggles were queuing up at a ticket stand not unlike the one in front of the London Eye, something she had ridden on three times that day.
'Two tickets to see "A Space Odyssey", please,' he asked.
The man in the ticket booth slid them two sticks of strange parchment, then waved them away, looking as though he would rather be anywhere but here. Andromeda took her ticket from Ted, bending the strangely thick and rigid parchment. The ink had been stamped on to the ticket in the same way as all of the Black official documents, which reassured her.
It seemed that at least a few things didn't change.
'What is this place?' she asked for the umpteenth time that day.
'The cinema,' Ted explained, getting them something called popcorn.
Andromeda took an experimental bite. It was sugary and salty all at once, everything her mother had said was bad for her health. She took another one.
'You know how wizarding pictures move around?' Ted gestured to the immobile paintings on one of the walls. 'Well, a film is like that, only it lasts for a couple of hours and tells a story. You can't interact with it either, you just have to watch. It's like reading a book, only you're watching the story instead of imagining it.'
Andromeda was amazed at the magic primitive Muggle technology was able to produce. As they entered the viewing room, she settled back into her comfortable seat and snuggled into Ted's arms to watch the film.
I can't believe everything I've seen today, she thought, watching how Muggles planned to expand across the galaxy in the future. Why would anyone ever want to leave this world?
'Thanks, Ted,' Andromeda said at the end of the evening. They were standing at the Floo in the Leaky Cauldron, saying their last goodbyes before she went back to the Black country home. 'I never knew that a whole world was hiding just outside the Leaky Cauldron's brick walls.'
'Your parents think that the only people that are people, are the ones who can do magic like you and me,' Ted said, his voice losing its earlier mirth. 'But now you've seen that the Muggles can teach you things too, that they have a life, a spirit, a soul. The prejudice will never end if we don't learn that.'
'I will, Ted,' Andromeda promised. 'I'm sorry I ever doubted you.'
