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Author: sonicdale Story: Make It So, Mister Potter Rating: Everyone Setting: Pre-DH Status: Completed Reviews: 43 Words: 3,238 "Harry, why didn't you take Muggle studies this year?" Ginny asked one day at lunch. "You know why," Harry said. "I'm swamped. I can't take another class, and besides, why do I need to be tested on how to work a toaster or what electricity is? I already know that." He continued to munch on his sandwich. Hermione harrumphed at him. "I'll tell you why he should have. The Wizarding world looks at things differently. And knowing only one side of the coin is not wise. You know how much harder it is for Muggles to do some things, as opposed to using magic! Why-" Harry held up his hand to cut her off. "Look, Hermione, I know you want me to know and fight better, but I can't handle it this year. NEWT level Muggle Studies needs some background classes and I don't have an elective to use. So drop it, Okay?" Hermione glanced at Ginny, who nodded. Hermione's lips made a line. "Well, then, would you help me help Ginny with an essay then?" she said, frowning slightly. Ron's mouth stopped chewing and dropped open. Neville stopped reading his Herbology text and stared at the bushy-haired girl. "Who are you and what have you done with Hermione?" Harry said, half smiling. "Since when do you ask me for help with homework?" "Since I get assigned an essay like this," Ginny answered, dropping a scrap of parchment in front of Harry's plate. He picked it up and read the assignment out loud: "Two feet. Give examples of magic in Muggle literature and entertainment, and explain how the author could have witnessed an incident of real magic and misinterpreted it in his work." Harry stared at the piece of parchment in his hand and thought for a few moments. "As strange as it sounds, that actually sounds fun." He paused for a moment. "I can think of a few... 'The Wizard of Oz' , 'Star Wars' , 'Sleeping Beauty' , 'Snow White' , and a few others that have either wizards, witches or magic." He looked at Hermione and saw she was scribbling away with a quill. "Don't stop," Ginny cried, pouting a bit. "You had so many there! Can you think of more?" "Who is the Wizard of Oz? " asked Ron, eyes still wide. "Is he a Muggle wizard?" "Nope," Harry said. He looked at the two redheads and sighed. "You probably don't even know who the Magician's Apprentice is, and why he's a mouse, either." Hermione laughed. "You got them on that one," she said to their bewildered looks. "I'd bet they would confuse apparition with Picard or Kirk's transporter." Dean Thomas' ears perked up and he turned away from Seamus' conversation about Quidditch. "Oi! Did I hear someone mention Picard? As in Jean-Luc? As in," and the boy paused, turning to Harry and said formally, "Make it so, Number One." Harry quickly finished off his bite of sandwich and turned to him. "We've been roommates for over six years and NOW I find out you're a Trekkie?" Dean smirked. "You've got to do something during the summer. I catch up on reruns," he said. Ron looked at Ginny and frowned. "You get the impression they're all speaking some foreign language?" She shook her head. "I've been taking Muggle Studies since my third year. I heard about some of the television shows they watch. Dean's talking about 'Star Trek', right Harry?" Harry nodded. "Yep. Sometimes I wish I could warp away on the Enterprise. Or use a lightsaber on a few Death Eaters I know." "Wait," Hermione said, tapping her finger on Ginny's parchment. "This is all well and good, but how does that help her with the-" "What's a lightsaber, Harry?" Ron interrupted, his eyes wide. "Is it some kinda sword?" Harry sighed. "Hermione, how about we take this up after classes today? I'm not sure Ron is ready to hear about 'Peter Pan' or 'Mary Poppins' right now." Ron huffed. "Peter Pan is a brand of peanut butter. I know that!" Harry started. Only Ron would think of food alongside 'Peter Pan'. Hermione snickered as Ginny looked back and forth from Hermione to Harry. "What is he talking about?" Ginny said. "Isn't Peter Pan a boy that has a fairy named Dinker-Tell?" Hermione sighed as Dean and Harry burst out in snickers, Harry trying not to laugh too hard at his girlfriend. "See what I mean, Harry?" Hermione asked. "Everyone gets confused and Wizardborns don't understand. Please, Harry, you've got to help me. I can't help Ginny by myself." Harry almost rolled his eyes but caught himself. "All right, already. I'll help," he said. An idea suddenly popped into his head. "Why don't we go to the Room of Requirement after classes tomorrow? I have some ideas that should help everyone." --- Harry stood outside the Room of Requirement, thinking hard on what he wanted in it. He had in mind a particular idea, but wasn't sure if the room could pull it off. Hermione found him there a few minutes later, deep in thought, still staring at the door. "Harry, what are you doing?" she asked. "Aren't you going in?" Harry grinned back at her. "Not yet. I'm waiting for Ron and Gin. I want the shock value to be as high as possible." One eyebrow arched upwards. "Curious, Captain Kirk. I hope your efforts aren't wasted on my Klingon boyfriend." Harry guffawed. He couldn't help it — the tall Weasley acted like a Klingon on more than one occasion, and she hadn't seen Ron goof off in their dorm room. He remembered a sweet Ron had eaten that had given the redhead a pair of buttocks on his forehead... Harry was pulled from the memory as Ginny and Ron arrived at the door with Neville. A few others had gathered behind them: Luna, Seamus and Dean had come along. It was the core group of the DA, the group that had trained hard that year as Harry's main assistants. "So, are we going to do this tonight?" Ron asked. Harry smiled and put his hand on the doorknob. His eyes were dancing, his energy level higher than normal. It made Ron a bit nervous. Ginny noticed as well. "Harry, are you alright?" she asked. Harry turned the knob to the door and swung it open. They all craned their necks to see what was inside the room. Music poured from the brightly lit room, merry and loud. "Harry," Hermione gasped. "You didn't..." "Yep, I did," Harry said, grinning even more broadly. "Dudley begged for a trip there a couple of years ago, so I've seen loads of pictures. I just let the room fill in the gaps." The group was stunned into silence. Dean was the first to say something. "Damn, Harry. How did you cram Disneyland into one room?" "Disneyland? I thought it was Euro Disney," said Luna. "Don't you mean Disney World?" asked Hermione, garnering a glance from Harry. Hermione started to snicker and Harry chuckled a bit as well. "I was shooting for Disney World, but I think they're all pretty much the same. Anyways, I thought it would be fitting place to go over some of the real Wizarding things that make it into the Muggle world." He stepped through the door and the rest of the group followed like lemmings. Or at least Disney-fied lemmings. The door closed and faded into a brightly colored poster of a grinning mouse with a top hat on. "Um, Harry," Ginny said, her hand pointing. "Is that Cinderella's castle?" The rest of the group followed her gaze and saw the mythical castle shining in the sunlight. Harry waved the group towards a pathway. "Yes. It's the symbol for Disney, a Muggle business that makes children's stories into films and other entertainment. But I want to view the park from here." He pointed to the sign in front of him: Balloon Rides. See the park from the sky! He waved his wand at the gondola underneath the large, mouse-shaped hot air balloon and the wicker basket enlarged to hold all nine of them. "This is just one of the ways that Muggles fly - I've always wanted to try it, so I figured it would be the best way to see the park all at once." The teens paused for a moment, then scrambled to get in. Harry caught Ginny's hand and helped her into the gondola with a flourish and a bow. Ron was hesitant about flying in such a 'contraption,' and voiced his fears to Harry. "Don't worry. We're still in the Room of Requirement, so we're safe," Harry said, climbing in next to Ginny. "Up!" he said, tapping the gondola with his wand. The balloon immediately lifted off the ground with a sway, and then gently floated upwards. There were a few gasps from behind him, but when Harry turned to the group they had all taken up positions around the basket. The ground unfolded into an almost dizzying array of colors and they began to point out details in their view to each other. "Harry," Hermione said in a nonchalant voice, while gripping Ron's hand as she carefully regarded the ground disappearing below them. "This is nice and all, but why are we in a balloon when we were going to discuss Ginny's essay?" Harry laughed. "We all needed some fun, Hermione, and this way we can do both. Disney has a lot of magic in it — I did some research for you." He pulled a sheet of folded parchment from his pocket, opened it, and began to read out loud. "Walter Elias Disney. Born 5 December, 1901, died 1966. Muggle. An ambulance driver in the First World War. Father of Animation, creator of Disneyland and other Disney creations." He paused, peering over the paper. "Everyone following? Good. Now what's the thing most Muggles don't know about Walt Disney?" "He was a wizard?" Ron asked. Harry shook his head. "Nope, not really. I found a mention of him in a Ministry reference book as one of the more 'bothersome American squibs.' I think the American Department of Magic tried his entire life to put a damper on his work, but they never really succeeded. He wasn't a wizard, but he knew about our world." Hermione's eyes goggled at him. "You mean he got all his ideas from real magic?" Harry shrugged. "His biography says that he was a very good artist. No, I figure he tread a fine line between make-believe and revealing too much about the Wizarding world. A rather razor-fine edge." Hermione nodded. "That would explain a great deal of the movies and stories he told. 'Cinderella' , 'Mary Poppins' , 'Peter Pan'." "Then there's 'Bedknobs and Broomsticks', " Luna offered, her eyes never leaving the view before her. "That had a reference to a Quikspell course of magic for witches." Harry hadn't seen the movie. "Makes sense. And there's a dragon in ’Pete's Dragon‘, and leprechauns in ’Darby O'Gill and the Little People', " he said. Seamus snickered. "I remember that. Didn't it have thestrals, leprechauns and other magical creatures? And someone my gran mooned over. Some bloke, er, James Bond?" Hermione laughed and Harry snickered again. Dean came to his rescue. "Sean Connery, mate." Ginny was scribbling on some parchment again. Harry glanced down at his paper and then just handed it to her. "I got this list from an American book I found in the library. It lists all the movies Disney has done since 'Snow White' that has some kind of magic," he said. "Most of them have some silly witch or wizard. Most are depicted as evil, though." Ginny spoke up. "Snow White; it had a talking mirror, dwarves that could have been house elves, and an evil witch." She snorted. "She even had a big nose with a wart, just like the Muggle idea of a witch at Halloween." Harry smiled. "Yeah, I thought of that one. 'Beauty and the Beast' had some transfiguration of people into animated objects. And 'Aladdin' had a genie and an evil sorcerer. Come to think of it, I remember that 'Bedknobs and Broomsticks' movie, Luna," he said. "Didn't the witch in it transfigure people into white rabbits?" Luna nodded. "She even did some enchantments and other curses." Ginny was scribbling like mad, trying to keep up with the stream of ideas. She looked up from her notes and gazed out over the edge of the gondola. "There's a lot there, but magic isn't just confined to Disney," she said. Luna pointed at Ginny's list. "Don't forget 'The Sword in the Stone'. It had Merlin in it, and from what I remember, it was pretty accurate," she said. Ron looked over Ginny's shoulder. "They made movies about Merlin?" he asked. "Who was the actor?" Hermione waved Ron off. "It was animated - you know, moving, hand-drawn pictures?" Ron nodded, slowly. " 'The Sword in the Stone' had a wizarding duel with a lot of transfiguration and such. The movie has Merlin teaching a young King Arthur." Ron looked impressed and looked out over the view of the park, with Hermione squirming closer into his shoulder. Ginny continued to write quickly, trying to keep up with the stream of ideas. Dean looked back from the panoramic view before him and entered the fray. " Tolkein did 'Lord of the Rings.' I have a Muggle cousin that loaned me a set of books when she found out about magic. It had wizards, creatures and enchanted rings. And magic swords." Hermione nodded. "And then there's Star Wars again. I guess a Dark Lord of the Sith on one side would make us the Rebels?" she asked Harry. "I guess so," he answered. "I did ask Professor McGonagall about transfiguring a wand yesterday after class. She gave me this charm." He waved his wand and muttered a spell under his breath. His wand immediately thickened and a beam of bright blue energy emerged from the tip with a hiss. The rest of the group jumped back from the burst of light, not really expecting it. "Harry!" Hermione yelped. "How did you make your wand into a lightsaber?. That’s … that’s …" She broke off mumbling to herself. Ron grinned and took the parchment and quill from her hands gently. "Is that real, mate? It looks real." Harry grinned, almost evilly. "You don't know the half of it. This thing can do crazy things, like cut through metal and almost everything else I've tried it on…" he paused as he fingered a switch on the side of his wand/saber and the blue beam snapped off. Another quick word and the metal wand morphed back into its regular wooden shape. Harry tapped the edge of the gondola with his wand. "OK room, try Cloud City," he said. The group stumbled a bit as the gondola under their feet solidified into metal deck plating. Luna and Ginny both oohed and ahhed at the billowing, colourful clouds now visible through a large window in front of them. Dean began to chuckle. "Nice, Harry," he said. "This reminds me of an Arthur C. Clark quote, um, one I can't remember. Something about technology and magic…" Neville, who had been absorbed in the sights, spoke up. "I remember that from Muggle Studies. It was, er, 'Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.' Or thereabouts." Harry was nodding right along. "That works. If you take a microwave and show it to someone who uses fire to cook, it would seem like magic." "Right," Hermione said. "Heinlein said that 'One man's 'magic' is another man's engineering.' That fits as well. Most of the technology in 'Star Wars' and 'Star Trek' has had some basis in science, but still seems like magic." Dean pointed to Harry's wand. "Lightsabers for one. Blasters and phasers are energy weapons that look like spells cast from a wand. And Trek's transporters would look a lot like Floo or Apparition." Ginny was scribbling away again. Harry waved his wand at the door behind them and it swooshed open. Through it came a figure instantly recognizable to the Muggleborns. A short, squat figure rolled though the doorway, his round dome and blue and white paint shiny. He beeped and whistled upon seeing Harry. "Artoo!" Dean exclaimed, and he and Harry rushed to the little droid. Hermione was doing another impression of a goldfish as Neville laughed quietly. Harry and Dean were inspecting the little droid as it beeped to the group. "What is that?" Ron asked Hermione. "What's an Artoo?" "It's a robot, a self-contained machine that can communicate and do other tasks," Harry answered for her. "This one is an astromech droid. It can navigate a starfighter and other things. It was in the 'Star Wars' movies." "Blimey, Harry!" said Dean excitedly. "How did you make this?" The group surrounded the little droid as it happily displayed its different appendages and tools. As Artoo squirted Ron's foot with some oil, everyone began to laugh. Harry patted the droid on the silvery dome before answered Dean. "I think the Room of Requirement has been listening to my thoughts a bit too literally. Next you'd expect us to …" The room shifted again, this time the floor changing to a plush, tan carpet and the window dissolving into a large, blank screen. Artoo had disappeared, and the group stared as Dean and Hermione both began to jump up and down like little children on Christmas morning. The long, graceful lines of the room highlighted the two levels, the first level sporting a center chair and flanking chairs. Two other chairs were situated a ways in front of the others, with sloping desk-like surfaces that were lighted. The rear wall opposite the screen was full of lighted workstations that beeped, hummed and flashed. Dean grabbed Harry's shoulder. "Mate, I will NEVER be able to repay you for this. I've … I've dreamed … dreamed of being on the Enterprise, but…." Harry chuckled and led Dean to the Captain's chair. "Care to take the bridge, Captain?" he asked. Dean's eyes were like saucers as he sat into the coveted chair. Wiggling a bit, his face melted into a half somber, half excited look. "Well, Dr. Crusher, what do you think of the ship?" he asked Hermione. The bushy-haired girl nearly leapt into the chair beside him. "All systems are functional, Captain," she said, struggling to keep a straight face. Ron turned to Ginny and grumped. "This is all well and good, but it seems a bit off the wall, don't you think?" Ginny smiled. "Hey, it makes them squeal like a Weasley on Christmas morning, so I'm okay with it," she said. She grinned at her boyfriend. "Seems to me that Harry's running a bit amok with the Room, though. Next you'll expect us to be on Captain Hook's ship with fairies." "Uh oh," groaned Ron as the Room changed again. ---The End--- A/N: This was a low blood sugar induced one shot. I've always wondered what wizards would think about Disney: here's my answer. The last part, with the Room of Requirement basically being a holodeck -- that was inspired by a few Trek episodes and some fun email between darlintonks, Crys, my wife and myself. Hope you enjoyed it! Special thanks to BJ for his beta skills! |