Muggle Items
September 1999
Hermione checked to make sure she had everything she needed in her charmed bag once again before stepping through the Floo. She was filled with excitement for what she was going to do today. It had been talked about tons of times, but it was finally becoming a reality.
She was going to teach the Malfoy's about Muggle items. In the two and a half months since Lucius had been out of Azkaban, his acceptance of her in his son's life had improved drastically. After a month of wanting to do this, she knew that now was the right time.
Narcissa, Lucius and Draco were already sitting in the library when she stepped out of the flames. Lucius, while being accepting of her in his life, was still hesitant to learn anything about Muggles. Narcissa and Draco were excited to learn something new and with the amount of time they liked to spend shopping in the muggle world it was about time they learned more about it so they weren't completely confused with what was going on around them.
She sat across from the three Malfoy's and placed her bag on the table, "So, I have all of the basic items you could need in the muggle world. Some of it has been shrunken down to fit in my bag."
She reached deep into her bag until she grabbed the thing she was looking for. A phone. "This is a phone. Lots of people in the Muggle world have them and they're quite useful. Their purpose is for talking with other people. They're much more convenient than sticking your head in a fireplace or using owls. You can call people from all the way across the world and unlike owls you don't have to wait for a reply, you can talk with people live with these devices."
"There is no way a muggle could have invented that." Lucius said, "I mean, talking to somebody across the world in live time without an owl or Floo call is impossible. A muggle couldn't possibly be smart enough to make something like that. It sounds fake."
Hermione rolled her eyes, "Muggle are actually smarter than you think they are. Muggle technology has improved quite a bit in the last few decades. We have the television, light bulb, car, etc. I'm sure you'd be very impressed if you went into the muggle world."
"It is quite an extraordinary place." Narcissa said, "It was a bit overwhelming at first but after a few trips going there you get used to it."
"Are you saying that I'll have to go into the muggle world?!" Lucius asked, sounding appalled. "It's one thing to accept a muggle-born into our family but a completely different thing if you expect me to interact with them."
"Father, you're going to have to meet her parents at some point. They're very interested in meeting you and it's about time you went into the muggle world. I can assure you that people don't live in shacks and some have really lovely homes." Draco said
"Yes, the Granger's house is quite lovely. Muggle aren't barbarians, they're quite intelligent and lots have great manners. They know a lot about our history and are very well-spoken." Narcissa added
"The whole point of me teaching you about muggle stuff is so you can meet my parents. We're meeting with them next weekend. Now can I continue?" Hermione asked
Lucius grumbled something but said nothing else. Hermione smiled at him and pulled another item out of her bag. "This is one thing you'll really need." She said, holding the plastic card in front of the three Malfoy's, "It's a credit card. It holds money on it so you don't have to bring cash everywhere. I can understand it's been annoying to transfer magical money into muggle money."
"How does that work?" Asked Narcissa, "How can something like this hold a bunch of money on it?"
"Well like I said before, muggle technology has advanced quite a bit. You have to go to the muggle bank to get one. They tie it to your bank account and put all the money on the card. Whenever you buy something it takes the money off the card. It's not too complicated but I'll have to show you how to use it another day." Hermione replied
Draco picked up the card and eyed it closely. He flipped it over a few times and looked over the numbers closely. He seemed to be confused about the item but also in awe.
"It's magic." He said, "There is no way they could do this without magic."
"It's called technology, Draco. Surely you would know that muggles are quite smart, they wouldn't have survived if they hadn't." Hermione retorted
"But how? It's all very impressive but somebody couldn't have come up with this." Draco said
"Well people started off with an idea many years ago but didn't have the technology or they had something that was just off by one step so they couldn't make it before. Now we have more resources to make this stuff." Hermione said
Narcissa was now studying the card intensely. She had seen them a few times when they were out shopping in the Muggle world but had never seen one up close or even knew what they did.
"Lucius, do you have anything to say?" Hermione asked
"It sounds fake to me but if I'm going to spend any time in the Muggle world I'd like to blend in as much as possible. I'd hate for people to find out I went into the muggle world." He said the last sentence like he sounded disgusted, which he probably did.
"Oh don't worry, people already think you've gone into the Muggle world. And besides, the war is over and all your friends are locked up. They won't be able to hurt your feelings from there." Hermione replied
Lucius leaned back against the couch and crossed his arms over his chest. He still looked less than pleased to be in the room.
"I have one last item that I wanted to show you. You two-" she pointed at Narcissa and Draco, "- already know what this is. I've shrunken it down a lot because I don't want to ruin your library and it would be too big to fit in my bag." Hermione pulled out her mini replica of a car.
"This is what muggles use to get around. It's not as useful as a broom, Floo, Apparition, or Portkey but it's what they made without any magic involved. It can fit different amounts of people in it at a time. Some cars are made for two people and some can fit over eight people."
"This is the most realistic thing you've show us today." Said Lucius
"It's because magical people have similar ways they can travel but I'll take it." Hermione said, "Draco, Narcissa you'd know what this looks like in real life and you've both been in one before. I thought it would just be nice to show Lucius."
"So that's it?" Asked Lucius, sounding bored
"Yep. Pretty much everything else in the Muggle world is the same except they don't have house elves and a few other minor things. The only thing I should warn you about is they don't know about magic, which you already knew so as long as you don't use magic next week we'll all be fine." Hermione replied, "We'll just be at my parents house for the day and we'll slowly work your way up to you being around other muggles."
---
The Next Week
Lucius grumbled to himself as he prepared to Floo to the Granger house. He was not excited to meet muggles, even if they were his sons-girlfriends-parents. He had never ever wanted to interact with Muggles and had only done so on rare occasions that were about business.
He felt his wife stand beside him and take his hand. When he stared down at her she was staring up at him, smiling. She reached up on her tippy-toes and gave him a kiss on the cheek and told him that he'd do great.
She was dressed in a muggle dress that rested right above her knees. It was rare that she wore anything that didn't go below the knees but from what he had been told, Muggles showed a lot more skin than Pureblood's did. He didn't like it at first but one look at her in Muggle lingerie had been more than enough convincing.
Draco walked down the hallway dressed in muggle denims and a fancy shirt from his closet. His son had been wearing muggle clothing more and more often and Lucius thought he looked quite dashing when he wasn't dressed in all black.
"Are we all ready to go?" He asked
They didn't have to wait for Hermione because she was already at her parents house. Lucius took Narcissa's right arm while Draco took her left and they apparated together. Lucius was not very happy about the walk from the nearest Apparition point to the house but said nothing more than a few comments.
Lucius noticed that nobody did live in shacks and the neighborhood looked decent enough. They stopped walking outside of a brick building with flowers lining the front of the house. Lights were on inside and people were moving around the front room.
"What do you think?" Asked Draco
"It's...different from what I was expecting." Lucius replied
Narcissa took his arm and began walking up to the house. He followed closely beside her while Draco practically ran to the door. Hermione was the one to swing the door open and embrace Draco first before going over and exchanging greetings with Narcissa. she paused at Lucius and stuck out her hand. He took her hand gently and shook it before quickly pulling away.
"Let's get inside, the wind is quite chilly today." She said. Hermione led the three of them into the house. Draco and Narcissa greeted Hermione's parents nicely and walked past them into the living room.
Hermione's father held out his hand to Lucius and with great hesitation, Lucius grasped the man's hand and shook it gently. He did the same to his wife and resisted the urge to wipe his hand on his robes after. Hermione noticed and rolled her eyes but said nothing on it. She led him into the living room where everybody would be sitting.
"Welcome to our home." Said Hermione, "I hope it is to your liking although I'm still not sure what you like so I can't be sure how you feel about being here right now. You're a very hard man to read."
"What is that?" Asked Lucius, pointing to a strange contraption.
"That's the television. You can watch cartoons, sports, the news, movies and other sorts of stuff on it. It's quite interesting and I think you'd like it once you saw how it works." Draco replied, "If we had this in our world, we would be able to watch Quidditch from home for free."
"Sounds fake." Said Lucius. He seemed to say that a lot when it came to muggle devices so Hermione, Narcissa and Draco decided to stop trying to explain everything that he believed to be fake.
Hermione's parents entered that room at that moment with a tray of Hermione and Draco's favourite snacks.
"Lucius, it's a pleasure to finally meet you, Narcissa's told us a lot about you." Said Jean
"The feeling is mutual. I hear about you and your husband a lot from these three." Lucius said, pointing at Draco, Narcissa and Hermione.
"Yes, well, I hope it's all pleasant stuff. Would you like a tour of the house? Dinner should be ready soon and it's something we could do in the meantime." Said Charlie
Hermione smiled and pulled Draco up. Jean and Charlie sat down to talk with Narcissa while Lucius sent a glance in his wife's direction and followed the teenagers out of the room. They led him to the front door first before going into her parents' office and to the bathroom across the hall.
The main floor consisted of a bathroom, office, dining room, living room, kitchen and a small sitting room.
The next area Hermione showed him was the backyard. It was a normal background. It had a small garden in the corner, a barbeque (Which they now had at the Manor), a table fit for four people and a fireplace.
Lucius was quite impressed with the first floor. He followed Draco and Hermione up the stairs that were by the front door. They stopped at a landing that had four doors. There were three bedrooms, one was Hermione's, one was her parents, and the other one was a guest one. The fourth door was another bathroom.
Hermione's room was just as Lucius expected it to be. The walls were lined with bookshelves that had a mix of muggle and magical authors. She had various awards from things she did when she was little and pictures of her friends lined the walls.
"So, what do you think?" Hermione asked
"Your house is impressive. It's bigger than I thought it would be and the neighborhood is nice. Your room represents you...a lot." Replied Lucius
"I like her bedroom. It's a perfect mix of magic and muggle." Draco said, "Not to mention that I'm the only boy who's ever been in here. I feel very special." He said the last part with a smirk and Hermione fought the urge to punch him in the arm.
"Anyways, that's the whole house. Any questions on any of the items?" Hermione asked
"What are all these awards for? I didn't think you did anything other than read all day." Lucius asked. Draco scowled in his direction but Hermione only smiled and walked towards all the awards.
"I played the piano and did ballet when I was really little. I stopped piano when I was ten and ballet when I was eight." Hermione said
"We have a piano at the Manor, I'm sure you could use it, that's only if you remember how to use it." Lucius said
"I remember a few songs, but they're the really easy ones and I'm not sure if I'd remember the whole song." Hermione said
"You should try again sometime. I'm not sure if I've shown you the piano room yet, I probably haven't." Draco said
"No, I don't think you've shown me that room yet. You'll have to show me the next time we visit. Now I think we should get downstairs to see what the others are talking about and dinner should be ready soon."
Lucius followed Hermione and Draco out of the room and back down the stairs to where the others were sitting. Narcissa was chatting away about her newest charity to the Granger's while they listened intently.
"Good, you guys are back. Dinner is ready." Said Jean
She led all of them into the dining room where an exquisite meal was placed on the table. Lucius was surprised to see that the table was set properly, with the utensils in the correct spot. He pulled out a chair for Narcissa before sitting on his own. They both gently placed napkins in their laps and sipped their drinks without slurping.
Lucius took notice of how well behaved the Grangers were at the dinner table. Their fork didn't constantly scrape across the plate and they weren't slouching. They were acting far better than a lot of Pure-blood's did.
The meal was delicious and cooked well even though it wasn't made by a house elf. He had been informed the day before that most muggles did not have somebody to take care of daily tasks in the home and usually did them all by themselves. That had been a shock to him.
"What is it you do for a living?" Lucius asked
"We're both dentists. We're what you would call teeth healers, although I'm sure you just use magic to do that." Said Charlie
"And Muggles need teeth healers?" He asked
"Yes. We don't have magic to keep them clean and to fix them. It takes years of schooling and practice to perfect it." Jean said
"extraordinary. Teeth healers. I didn't know such a thing existed." Lucius said
"They're quite important in our world." Jean added
Lucius didn't know much more to say. He didn't know anything else about the muggle world and what kind of things they did. He had no idea what sports they played and they didn't know much about Quidditch because Hermione was never interested in the sport.
He shifted awkwardly in his seat and folded his hands in his lap. Narcissa noticed and placed a hand in his and leaned in to say, "We can go right after dinner, you've done such a good job. You'll get a very special treat when we get home."
Lucius smiled at her and placed one hand on her thigh. "I like the sound of that," He whispered back
The rest of dinner went by really smoothly. Lucius was behaving less awkward and kept his hand on Narcissa's thigh for the rest of the night. Conversations went by smoothly and Lucius managed to make everybody laugh a few times.
When it was finally time to leave, Lucius bid everybody goodbye and followed his family through the Floo. He quickly said 'goodnight' to Draco before basically dragging Narcissa to their bedroom.