“Okay, Mr Weasley,” Hermione began, stepping around the desk chair he was sitting on, “what do you want to do first?”
“Well, I’ve been wondering for a long time what the Muggles do on that spider web on their computers,” Mr Weasley said, staring at the blank computer screen in front of him.
“Yeah, Hermione, how do Muggles play on a spider web in that box?” Ron asked.
“It’s not actually a spider web. Muggles just call it the web or the Internet.” Hermione didn’t spare a glance for Ron as she reached down to turn on the power to the computer. He, Ginny, and Harry had accompanied Hermione and Mr Weasley on the trip to Hermione’s house, even though Ginny had to use Side-Along Apparation to join them. The three of them were at the end of the desk watching Hermione as she began instructing Mr Weasley on how to turn the computer on.
While she was reaching down to the power switch on her computer, Hermione kept up a running dialogue telling Mr Weasley what she was doing. However, she had a feeling he wasn’t paying much attention to her words as she heard a loud exclamation come from him as the monitor came to life. The wide-eyed, mouth-hanging expression on his face said it all.
“How did you get all those pictures into that box?” Mr Weasley asked, the wonder evident in his voice. He was clearly awestruck by the number of icons on Hermione’s computer.
“All of those pictures will take you to a different program,” Hermione explained, trying to hide the amusement that wanted to creep into her voice.
“Which one takes me to that net thing?” Mr Weasley almost fell out of the chair in his excitement about finally getting to use a Muggle computer. He couldn’t take his eyes off the screen because he was fascinated by the way even the images on a Muggle computer remained stationary.
“Well, you need to go to the blue ‘e’ on the screen and that will open up the internet.”
As Hermione said that, the other three moved in closer to see what Mr Weasley was doing because they all wanted to see the Muggle internet too. Ron moved to one side of Hermione while Ginny and Harry stood on the other side.
Mr Weasley reached up to the computer screen and pushed the blue ‘e’ with his finger and stared expectantly at the screen. When nothing happened he turned to Hermione with a dejected expression and asked, “Did I do something wrong? Nothing happened.”
Hermione, who had been slightly distracted by Ron’s proximity to her, turned back to Mr Weasley and tried not to laugh when she realized what he had tried to do. “No, no, you didn’t do anything wrong. You need to use the mouse to click on the blue ‘e.’ Touching the screen won’t do anything.”
“I have to click a mouse? Wouldn’t it squeak if I tried to click it? Besides, I don’t see a mouse around here.” Mr Weasley quickly looked around the computer desk trying to find a mouse to click so he could get to the internet.
“Are you sure about that mouse, Hermione?” Ginny asked tentatively. The idea of having to click on a rodent to use a Muggle computer seemed very strange to her, even though she thought a lot of what Muggles did was strange.
“It’s not a real mouse. It’s an electronic mouse.” Hermione reached down next to Mr Weasley and grabbed the oval shaped computer mouse sitting next to his right hand. “This is the mouse, and you move it around on the desk to get the arrow on the screen to go where you want it.” She moved the mouse so that the arrow was directly on the blue ‘e’ and she clicked it to open the internet.
A chorus of ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ sounded behind her as the internet opened up on the computer screen. The other four were fascinated by the webpage Hermione had set as her home page; it had the word ‘MuggleNet’ scrolled across the top of the screen.
“Oh, what is that?” Mr Weasley asked, curious about the webpage and what he could do with it.
“Well,” Hermione said, “that is a page all about Harry, actually.”
Four sets of eyes turned to stare at Harry as he felt a blush creep up his neck. He knew he was famous, but he’d had no idea that some Muggle had created a whole website about him.
“Is it really? Fascinating.” Mr Weasley turned from Harry to look back at the computer screen. He gently nudged Hermione’s hand off of the mouse so he could explore the screen in front of him and clicked on some words without really knowing what he was doing. Nearly jumping out of the chair again, Mr Weasley made a small noise as the page quickly changed and different words showed up on the screen.
It turned out he had clicked on the link to a page full of stories. Hermione, looking over his shoulder, saw that there was a story about the five of them standing in the room. “Why don’t you click on those words?” Hermione asked Mr Weasley, pointing him to the story title.
Following her suggestion, Mr Weasley used the mouse to move the arrow over the words before clicking again. This time, everyone except Hermione made astonished noises as they watched the pages change.
“I didn’t know Muggles had images that could move,” Ron stated, casting an accusing glance at his two best friends.
“Well, we don’t have pictures that can move, but computers have things called graphics that can make images on the computer screen move,” Hermione explained quickly. She didn’t want Ron to get going because she had just started reading the first line of the story. “Hey, listen to this. Somebody has written a story about us.”
Hermione proceeded to read the story aloud while the others listened intently. By the time she had finished, which had taken some time with all the interruptions from the others, the sky had turned dark.
Looking out the window, Mr Weasley gasped and shot out of the chair. “We need to leave now or Molly will skin me alive. I told her we were only going to be gone for a short time.” They all moved back from the desk and Apparated back to the Burrow. As the last one to leave, Mr Weasley cast a longing glance back at the computer sitting on the desk; it was the last thing he saw before disappearing from the room.