5. SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION
"Frozen dinners?" exclaimed Molly Weasley. "We trust you boys to feed us and you buy frozen dinners? And what is this about dinner being frozen, now? What happened to making your own dinner?" she ranted.
"Or making it appear by magic…" Ron muttered, shooting a glance at Moody, one of the two people in the house that could use magic.
Ron, Harry, and Charlie were subjected to listen to Molly rant for at least five minutes before she set them free so she could figure out how to cook these "frozen dinners."
She honestly could not figure it out… Yes, there were appliances in the kitchen, but the only one she recognized was the stove. She decided to ask the one person that would actually be of some help.
"HERMIONE!" she shouted up the stairs. Hermione, who had been in her room unpacking, ran downstairs, wondering if something had gone wrong.
"What's happened?" she asked nervously. She saw Molly fiddling with something in the kitchen.
"I need… I don't know what to do with these…" Molly muttered. She was slightly embarrassed that even as the best cook in the house, she couldn't cook a frozen dinner.
"You microwave them," Hermione said, pointing to the microwave in the corner of the kitchen.
"Microwave?"
"Yes, it's like… It's the same thing as cooking, really, but… I don't know if these microwaves are different than those in England, but-"
"Do I put them in?"
"Uh, yes. Put them in… Well, read the directions first. Let me see," she said, taking one of the dinners from the stack. My, it was a rather large stack, she thought, inwardly giggling. "Microwave for 4-5 minutes on high…" she trailed off. She took off the packaging, put it in the microwave and set the timer and it started to cook.
"That's… That's all you do? It cooks by itself? And why does it revolve?" Molly inquired.
"Yes, that's all you do," Hermione said, walking out of the kitchen before Molly could call her back to answer more questions.
"Hm… I don't like this…" Molly muttered to herself. Once the timer went off, she took it out, forgetting to put on oven mitts.
"MERLIN'S PANTS!" she exclaimed, dropping the food on the floor. It splattered across the shiny kitchen tiles. She cursed to herself and mopped up the spill with a rag.
"Molly, are you all right?" said Arthur Weasley, walking into the kitchen.
"Fine, fine," she said, shooing him away.
He walked closer, intrigued by the microwave. "What's this?" he asked curiously.
"A… Er… I don't know what Hermione called it, but it cooks food…"
"Let's put one in, then," Arthur said, shoving a whole dinner box into the microwave. He didn't notice that in order for the dinner to cook, he had to take off the packaging. He pressed buttons willy-nilly, just to see what would happen.
"Are you sure it's in right?" Molly asked him.
"Quite positive," Arthur said, eyeing the microwave as if it was something dangerous. They sat as the food revolved around the microwave.
BOOM. Suddenly smoke was everywhere, along with scorching food that now covered the floor, the walls, and the microwave. It had just barely missed Molly and Arthur.
The members of the house all ran into the kitchen, including Moody and Kingsley with their wands drawn.
"Bloody hell, what happened in here?" asked Sirius, inspecting the splattered food all over the kitchen. The other members of the Order did as Sirius did. None of them had ever seen a microwave, nor frozen dinner, nor splattered food.
"It… Arthur did it!" Molly exclaimed. Everyone in the kitchen looked at Arthur. Arthur put his hands up in defense.
"Hermione taught her how to use it!" he said. Suddenly all eyes were on Hermione.
"It was Harry's idea to buy the frozen dinners!" she exclaimed.
"But Snape was the one that went to the bank!" Harry said, preparing for a scowl from Snape, which he got.
"The Dark Lord…" he started, and then realized it was a lost cause.
Molly mopped up the food and Hermione spent the rest of her evening teaching everyone in the house how to microwave frozen dinners.