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You figure that the parks and the rest of the city will be packed during the period between Christmas and New Year, so you decide to enjoy the benefits of a muggle home instead.
“This is a computer. Think of it as a magic box that does things for you. This black box here is its ‘brain’, this is where it shows what you ask it to, and these things are what you use to interact with it,” you tell both Arty, Apollo and Helga, showing them the cpu, the monitor and the mouse and keyboard. It was a computer from five years ago, sure, but it still did the job. “Much like any magical artifact, you need to know how to ask the question in the right way. It is set in its way, and if you can’t manage to get it to do what you want it to do, it isn’t its fault. It’s <span class="mu-i">your</span> fault for now knowing how to interact with it.”
“So there are two levels in which a computer operates. First is locally. I have things which I stored in its mechanical brain, and if, say, a deadly spell were to destroy it, it would be lost. But, some smart muggles thought really hard about it and decided that it would be very interesting if one computer could speak with another computer, using its own arcane language. Thus, the internet was born, a huge, interconnected web of computers, spanning the whole world. And this,” you say, opening your browser. “Is how you search for things in this enormous mess that is the internet. For example, say something you’d like to know more about.”
“Uh… I don’t know,” Arty says. “The life of Harry Potter?”
“<span class="mu-i">Muggle</span> things. Wizards don’t generally use the internet, and the ministry keeps a close watch to make sure nothing leaks.” But, just to prove your point, you type ‘Harry Potter’ on the search bar and, as expected, the only results that show up are about Harrys who happened to own pottery stores. “See? Though if we look for something that leaked into their world, such as ‘Merlin’...” You type it in, and soon have the Wikipedia page open and you read. “Merlin is a mythical figure prominently featured in the legend of King Arthur and best known as a magician, with several other main roles. The familiar depiction of Merlin, based on an amalgamation of historic and legendary figures, was introduced by the 12th-century British pseudo-historical author Geoffrey of Monmouth and then built on by the French poet Robert de Boron and their prose successors in the 13th century.”
“But they think it is a myth?”
“Like all other magical things. Things like the Bigfeet and the Loch Ness monster are too big to cover up totally, so the ministry just hides them as legends instead. Anyone who sees them and talks about it is considered a crackpot.”
“You said before that muggles have landed on the moon,” Helga says in your head, and you relay the message to the others. “I don’t believe you.”
[Cont.]
