Muggle Studies Lesson One

Lavender pushed herself out of her seat, though it took much more effort than she originally thought. Making her way up to the front before sticking her hand in the box and pulling out one of these 'Plugs'. She wasn't sure what they were, though recognized them slightly. Lavender took it back to her seat and sat down, staring at it. Half expecting it to do something, like any usual magical object would.

Pierre stood up, rolling his eyes at the Professor. Plugs. Really? Trying to remember just why had taken this class, he stood and grabbed a plug, still pondering the question. Sitting back down, he set it on his desk and went back to playing with his quill as he waited for the rest of the class to get their plugs.

Thomas quirked an eyebrow at what they were meant to be studying, a... plug? What exactly was a plug? He had no clue, and was already wondering why he had taken this class, it wasn't all that interesting really. He shrugged to himself, and was about to stand up and get a plug when Alli came and gave both him and James one. "Thanks Alli." He said, picking it up and twirling it around in his hand. What was it meant to be used for even?

Danni stood up and walked to the front, taking a plug from the box. She had been in enough muggle places to know that they were normally plugged into the walls of buildings, and also attatched to 'electrical devices' (whatever those were). She never had bothered to ask about them before, so she had no idea what the purpose of them was. She supposed this meant the lesson would be focusing on things to do with electricity. She returned to her seat, with the plug in her hand, waiting for the lesson to continue. She looked at the plug with little interest, turning it around in her hand.

James blinked a few times. He really was drifting off something chronic. He hadn't even handed in his paper, which was so empty of words, it was embarrassing. James hoped that the Professor wouldn't notice him, as he folded his parchment in two and pocketed it. No use handing in something so dismal, James thought. I'd rather get nothing than look stupid.

He looked down at the object that Alli dropped in front of him. What the heck was he supposed to do with that?

"Umm.. Thanks?" he asked, cursing himself for not paying attention.

Poking and prodding at the plug, whatever that meant, was doing nothing. What the hell was the point of this thing? Alli looked around at the rest of the class in boredom. Nobody really seemed to be doing anything interesting; they were all just waiting.

If nothing was going to happen on its own, Alli was going to try to make something happen. "What would it take for me to get you to stuff a firework in there and set it off?" she whispered to James in a voice so low that anyone trying to listen would have to be mere inches from her lips to hear what she was saying.

Eliza handed out plugs to everyone who hadn't bothered to collect them, again remembering who wasn't bothering to take part. Then she handed out a screwdriver to each sudent.

"Today, we are going to rewire a plug. Hopefully whilst doing so you will begin to have some understanding of how muggles use electricity instead of magic."

She picked up a plug for herself. She wondered just how many students would be able to do this seeing as when she had first tried she had found it extremely difficult, and she had had a muggle upbringing.

"First, everyone unscrew the top from the plug."

She demonstrated, deftly unscrewing the plastic casing to reveal the twist of different coloured wires inside.

Lavender took the screwdriver in one hand and the plug in the other hand, looking from one to the other. Professor Johnson demonstrated how to unscrew the top of the plug which Lavender watching closely.

"Right," She mumbled to herself before taking the screwdriver and poking it into the small slit the professor had. Lavender turned it and after several full turns the top fell off, clattering on the desk. She quickly picked it up, hoping no one had seen. Inside the plug was more colourful than she'd expected causing her to bring very close to her eyes to study it.

Danni watched slightly bored as the teacher unscrewed the top of the plug. She picked up the screwdriver with slight distaste. With difficulty, Danni tried to mimic the teacher's actions to unscrew the plug. This was more frustrating than it was 'educational'. It took her a solid two minutes until she could finally unscrew the stupid object, and even when she did. The wiring on the inside was a little confusing as she observed it up close. How strange.

She’d never really taken any muggle object apart before, so she had no idea what the wires were or what they were supposed to do. She was not learning anything new about ‘electricity’ and it was getting a bit boring. She’d hoped this would be at least just a tad more interesting than what it was turning out to be. She placed the top of the plug on the desk and frowned, her chin resting in her hand again as she waited to see what they would be expected to do next.

Liz jumped out of her dreamy stupor (had somebody slipped a daydreaming potion into her drink?) and blushed as the teacher had to hand her her plug. "Thanks," she muttered, holding it. She watched what the teacher did before beginning her disastrous attempt to immitate her.

First, she stuck the screwdriver in the wrong spot and ended up making a seperate slit in the plastic, which she immediately realize. Next, after finally finding the right hole, she screwed it the wrong way and ended up making it tighter. And, when she'd finally gotten the plastic unscrewed, she accidentally touched a wire in the wrong way and the whole thing became a jumbling mess. She groaned and slammed her head on the table. Motor skills were definitely not her forte.

Sami awoke from her little daydream, having drifted off into nowhere-land after she had handed in her quiz. A plug? She frowned, she recognized it from somewhere but what it was mystified her completely. She picked up the screwdriver that had seemingly appeared out of thin air, and began working it. She blushed profusely when she realized she was holding it the wrong way, and went back to fiddling with the tool. Everntually, she managed to unscrew the top after many struggles. However, it only unscrewed half-way, protesting when she attempted to use her hands to turn it the rest of the way out. She pouted, and left the plug on the table, glancing around the classroom to see if anyone else had gotten it.

Eliza could see how bored the class were getting.

"I can see that you don't want to do the beginner lesson. That's a shame, but I suppose, seeing as most of you are third years, we can skip to the next lesson. I think you'll find this a little more interesting."

She smiled, hoping that they would start showing a little more enthusiasm.

"Leave the plugs on your desk. Now, can anyone tell me how muggles communicate, and how it's different to the way we communicate?"

Lavender put the plug down, intreged to see what was going to happen next. Things had just got a lot more interesting.

"Muggles use hand held things don't they? That they carry about with them all the time, I've seen people talking into them on the street," She answered the professors question, not entirely sure what it was she was talking about. But she had seen muggles walking the streets of London holding small boxes to their ears and talking into them.

Thomas had been wrestling with trying to unscrew the plug, his only progress being him almost sticking the screwdriver thingy into his finger a good couple of times, which end of it was he meant to use anyway? He supposed that was obvious to most people, so he had looked around and imitated them, but even then nothing seemed to be happening.

He felt quite thankful when the topic was changed, but still would have thought that the Professor would've just kept them going at it. It might be something they needed to learn after all, right? He shrugged to himself, before raising his hand to answer the question, slightly confused about what the Professor meant. "They can... Talk to each other just like we can, can't they?" He asked. He was pretty sure they could, seeing as that's something anyone could do, Magic or Muggle, right?