Year One

Chapter 7: Muggle Questionnaire

"No, you don't get it! It's not run in any part by magic!" Maddy groaned. She was sitting in the Slytherin Common Room with a large group of Slytherins of all ages surrounding her. It was mid afternoon on a stormy Saturday in March and everyone was stuck inside. They had been doing homework in the common room when one of the third years had randomly asked how cars work. Maddy was by no means an auto specialist, but she had a general idea, so she tried to explain it. Somehow, it had evolved into others asking the muggleborn about other things in the muggle world.

At the moment, she was trying to explain that televisions were not magic at all. However, where she knew a little bit about cars, Maddy knew next to nothing about how a television worked. "Look, I know it's not magic, but I don't know exactly how it works. It has something to do with electricity and little tiny lights in the screen that make up the picture on it."

"But how do you explain how the pictures move?" a brunette fifth year witch asked.

"The TV gets transmissions from a network via signals through the air or cables in the ground and it plays out on the screen."

"That makes no sense! How could any of that happen without magic?" a sixth year snorted loudly.

"It just does! Trust me!"

"Okay, okay, we'll just have to trust you on the television. But what about just regular things like cooking? How do you do that without magic? Because even the house elves have some magic to help them out!"

"We use our hands," Maddy said simply. "And fire, or heat caused by electricity."

"But…"

"Hold up!" Maddy held up her hands. "Have any of you actually taken Muggle Studies?" She looked around at the third through seventh years gathered around her. When no one spoke up, she groaned and dropped her head onto her chest. "Right, that explains a lot." She raised her head again with a stern look in her head. "Okay, this is getting ridiculous because I can't explain everything."

"But you're a muggleborn!"

"Yeah, but just because I use the stuff doesn't mean I know how it works! Can you tell me how the expelliarmus spell works? Like, how does it make someone's wand fly out of their hand? What magical theories are there to explain it?" A few of the older seventh years looked ready to start explaining magical theory when Maddy raised her hand again and said, "Right! Only a few of you who have taken classes on magical theory know! So stop bugging me about super complex electronics and take a Muggle Studies Class!"

At this the first year got up and left the common room, her bag with her study material over her shoulder. Allison Longbottom followed in her wake. "They don't mean any harm," the mousy haired girl said quietly as they walked.

"I know, but it gets annoying. I get this every other evening you know, ever since they

started trusting me a bit."

"I know," Allison replied. "But you have to understand. All of the things that were new and exciting to you are old and regular to them. It's opposite. Even I'm interested in a lot of what you have to say even though my parents don't care about blood status."

They were nearing the library now as Maddy stopped and turned to face her friend. "Okay, how about this. We make a question box and they can put their questions in it. I'll go through and answer three to the best of my ability each night."

Allison smiled. "That sounds like a good compromise."

"Great, now can we go study in the library? I need to get this essay for Professor Ciprian done."

Allison nodded and the two girls continued onward towards the library.

# # #

As it turned out, the question box was a great idea! Unless there were extenuating circumstances, Maddy and a couple of the half-bloods and muggleborns from different years took turns each night answering questions. The Slytherin Common Room was packed every night during these question and answer sessions, and each time at the end, the floor would be opened for the green clad students to ask follow-up questions if they didn't understand something. Maddy learned quite a bit about wizard culture during these sessions as well, because the Slytherins would comparing the muggle technology to their own. Overall, the entire thing was a success! However Maddy still told the other Slytherins to take a Muggle Studies class. She even offered to help with the homework if they did. Of course the seventh years couldn't take Muggle Studies as they'd be graduating, so the questions continued on for the rest of the year.