Weekly Drabble Challenge - Little Whinging: Muggle Ads - Results

[mugglemathdork]

Before Harry found out he was a Wizard, he was a Muggle, and many Squibs live as Muggles. Hogwarts offers "Muggle Studies" as a course. Yet, there is a wide misconception about Muggles in general all through the Potterverse.

Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to write a drabble about the reaction of any HP character that reads or watches a Muggle advert with the slogan: "one second can change everything...live for now!"

The following form must be used when submitting your drabble responses to this post -

Name:
House:
Title:
Warnings:
Words:

Winners will be awarded 15, 10, and 5 points respectively.

All drabbles must be less than 500 words; All standard grammar rules, and MNFF submissions guidelines apply.

The challenge will be up for a week, and be closed exactly a week later (April 2nd.)

MithrilQuill and I will be judging them and posting results a couple of days later.

All questions should be referred to the Question Corner - Do not post questions here. Only drabbles!

Other than that...have fun!

~Gato Loco & Mith~

[bubblegumpinkhair]

Name: bubblegumpinkhair/ Lucia
House: Gryffindor!
Title: That Time of The Month
Warnings: It's main theme is a girl's time of the month and, erm, things that are associated with it (scandal!)
Words: 500

Normally I would’ve just taken a mouthful of that slimy green potion when it was That Time of the Month, but mum was very ill, preventing her from making it for me. Rather then possibly poisoning myself, Hermione suggested that I give the muggle way a try.

“Why not?” I said to her as she summoned a Muggle magazine from her room. “How bad could it be?”

Hermione just smiled as she cut a section of one of the glossy pages out with her wand.

We apparated to Muggle London, leaving the magazine open on the kitchen table.

*

“Ronald, I’m still a bit off-colour today, can’t you make your own food today?” Mum croaked. Deciding it was best not to argue, I went down stairs to fix breakfast.

I sat down five minutes later with a plate of slightly burnt sunny-side-ups.

I glanced down at a magazine as I brought a forkful of egg to my mouth. There was a picture of a smiling girl wearing all white and writing on some parchment. I read the header of the advertisement as I took a sip of my orange juice.

‘Why worry about it when you have more important stuff to think about? At Tampax, our products are designed to suit you and help you get on with life. One second can change everything! Live for now!"’

What was this rubbish? I flipped to the front of the magazine to see that it was called ‘Literature Literally’. I could tell that it was a Muggle magazine because none of the pictures were moving, and by skimming through and seeing that all the articles were about books, I could also tell that it was Hermione’s.

There were a lot more advertisements too, but they were for things I knew about, like cookies, or shoes, but none of this Tampax nonsense.

I stared back at the unnaturally attractive girl. Did this girl have ‘it’? How could Tampax’s product help anyone against ‘it’? What was ‘it’ anyways? Did I need something to protect myself against ‘it’?

At that moment Hermione and Ginny apparated into the kitchen. Ginny sprinted to the fridge and took out a jug of butterbeer and started guzzling it.

“What’s up with her?” I asked bewildered

Hermione just suppressed a giggle. “Oh, you know, there’s nothing like a good butterbeer at nine o’clock in the morning.”

I looked from her to Ginny before asking another, more serious question, “Hermione, what is a ‘Tampax’?”

Ginny sprayed a mouthful of liquid at the refrigerator and started laughing hysterically with Hermione.

“Did I miss something?” I asked angrily as they both wiped tears from their eyes.

“Ron,” Ginny said, clutching her ribs as she tried to control herself, “muggle woman use their products when it’s, um, ‘Their Time of the Month’.”

She whispered the last part before they both broke into another bout of laughter. My ears turned bright red with embarrassment. I didn’t say another word for the rest of the day.

[bertiebott12]

Name:Claire/bertiebott12
House:Gryffindor
Title: Bound and Drunk
Warnings: Substance Abuse, Slight Sexual Situations
Words:491
Explanation: I wrote this to warn young women of what can happen when you aren't careful.

“It means when Muggles go out, drink many alcoholic drinks, and then go out and drive,” Hermione explained.

Luna glanced at the paper in front of her. A caption, in white letters, stated: One second can change everything…live for now!

“Well, Hermione, no worries about me doing that. I can’t drive a car, anyways. Where do these people get alcoholic drinks anyways?”

“Oh, in bars and places.”

Hermione smiled at her, and left the room. But it still looks like he’s having a great time, Luna thought, contently.

************************************************** *************************
That night…

A blond young woman walked into Franco’s Bar and Grill and 8 o’clock that night. Muggles were all around her, but the girl just wanted to escape from the Wizarding society for one night. She only wanted one night of fun, and the way to do that, according to Hermione, was a bar.

“Hey babe.”

The girl spun around, a smile already on her face, her earring dangling.

“Oh, hello.”

“Might I ask you what your name is?” the young man asked happily. He looked to be in his early twenties, had a muscular body, and dark drown shaggy hair.

“Luna. Is there anything you want?” Luna was interested, but knew to be safe. She had left her wand at home, right by her horned querut’s cage.

“Would you like me to buy you a drink?” His teeth flashed a grin.

“Well, is it alcobolic?”

“Alcoholic? Oh, no, it will only be a bit of juice.” Pumpkin juice, Luna thought.

“Sure!” She climbed up to the barstool, and sat down beside the man.

The man asked the waiter for spiced rum.

The waiter came back, and put a glass in front of her “Ooo! This is very good juice; it makes my toes tingle! This is better than the juice we have at school.”

The man winked at the waiter. “One more please, on me.”

After Luna had drinken both of them, the man said,” Why don’t I show you my car? It’s a new model.”

Luna wobbled as she stood up.

He helped her to the parking lot. He started showing her the car, and she climbed in.

She could see a beautiful glimmer in his eye, as they sat in the backseat. The driver drove off, turning onto the highway. The man reached out, and touched Luna's earring. "I love your earring. What is it made of?"

Luna just giggled.

Wow, that was depressing. Poor Luna.

[MissyQuill]

Name: Sammy/MissyQuill
House: Why, surely you now this by know, GRYFFINDOR!!!
Title: To Summan A Smile.
Warnings: None
Words: 450

“Now class, you will need these,” said Professor Flitwick, flicking his wand in the direction of the neatly stacked boxes in the corner of the room, causing a dozen or more cushions to fly out to the student’s desks, “ and remember to pronounce correctly, we wouldn’t want another accident like last time. I do hope you’re feeling better now, Mr. Black.”

Black immediately looks up and turns a shade of crimson. Apparently, some form of shame does live in him - rare, but definitely not extinct. Will miracles never cease?

“Come on, Sev, lets get these cushions and start practicing,” says Lily with a wink. She had obviously not missed Flitwick’s unintended jab either.

For some reason, she is very excited at the prospect of practicing the Summoning Charm she has been excellent at since her second year. I wonder why. None the less, I follow her to the clutter of desks at the corner yet unoccupied by those who may actually require their services.

“You want to go first?” she asks, taking out her wand and looking around the classroom, where cushions have already started half-soaring from their positions, only to come down in an ungentle manner and entirely coincidentally, on the head of those the caster is not too fond of.

“Come on, Lily, we have been able to do this spell for ages. I would know as I was the one who taught it to you. Why bother then?” I say, summoning my Potions book from her bag to work on some other, more interesting spells.

“Oh, come on, Sev, live a little. Remember that commercial we saw? The One-Second-Can-Change-Everything-Live-For-Now one.”

“Painfully well - I recall the advertisement in question was for a wig.”

“Well, the wig may have been stupid but they were right - you have to live life for today, or else face the… consequences,” she is actually levitating a cushion threateningly near my head.

“Lily, what is this nonsense?”

“You have until three,” she says as she holds up three fingers with her free hand and a smile on her face. One finger goes down, and the smile grows a little smaller, then the next finger follows, taking more of the happiness down with it.

As the third finger quivers, I aim my wand at the cushion, and it zooms around her head, touching her lightly on the shoulder before coming to a rest where it had started from. Its journey may not have been long but the result of it, unbeatable.

For there she stands, now making her cushion zoom around me, trying to catch me off-guard as she laughs merrily, provoking a slight twitch of the lips from me too.

[Elmindreda]

Name: Elmindreda
House: Gryffindor
Title: Different Ways
Warnings: none
Word count: 496

A girl was walking briskly along a park alley, through a maelstrom of autumn leaves, some yellow, some still green, some red, like her hair, and it was almost as if it was not the wind that set those leaves aflight, but the sheer power and decisiveness of her gait.

A young man was sitting on a bench, and it was almost as if the girl's retreating form was standing still, and it was him who was being blown further and further away from her by the hurricane seemingly raised by her wake.

Reaching the end of the alley, the girl stopped for a moment as a heart-shaped leaf was thrown into her face. Brushing it aside, she walked on.

The young man's hand darted forward, snatching the very same leaf from the air as it floated past him. He paused, looking at the fragile heart-shaped thing in his fingers, trembling against the gusts of wind, torn from its branch while there was still life in it, thrown too early to the mercy of the cruel world. His head turned towards the end of the alley, where no one was visible anymore.

The girl stopped on a stone bridge across a narrow river and watched the leaves float downstream, as a miniature fleet bearing flags of all nations, swaying lightly on the water. An occasional ripple would form as another ship joined their endless journey, landing slowly and gently, finally free of their wild flight through the air. One green leaf landed on the banister she was leaning on, right next to her hand. She made to brush it off and into the water as well when someone else's hand stopped hers.

Looking at her, the young man waited until a smile appeared on her lips before placing his arms around her and leaning in for a kiss.

Some moments in your life are too precious to throw away, an invisible quill wrote in the sky above the two.

Remember, one second can change everything… live for now!

The scene faded, giving room to unnaturally bright colors, abhorrently loud sounds and the subsequent appearance of a dignified-looking newscaster.

I turned and walked on, wondering exactly what form of madness I must have been suffering from to not only walk down a Muggle street instead of Apparating, but also to stop in front of a likewise Muggle store to gape at their ridiculous image- and sound-broadcasting inventions.

Whatever that madness was, I was forced to conclude in a few minutes, it could not have been worse than the one that followed. The one that made me replay the last words in my mind again and again, as if the invisible quill continued to write them in the air before me.

One second… change everything… live for now…

The same form of madness, apparently, made one prone to ask oneself deeply rhetoric questions.

What is one supposed to live for, if that second changed things the wrong way?

[Lord Great Chamberlain]

Name: Lord Great Chamberlain
House: Ravenclaw
Title: Few Days Remaining
Words: 500
Warnings: Emoness, Impending character death

A sharp pain surged through my head as I attempted to sit up. Pain was a regular part of my life now, the longer the years went on, the more it surged through my disease-ridden body.

It was going to happen eventually, and I had resigned myself to the fact that I would never be fully prepared for it, none of us can ever escape death, especially not in old age.

The good people at St Mungo’s told me last year that there was nothing they could do for a Muggle illness. I would simply die eventually. They suggested that understanding it might remove any anxiety I might have as my breathing becomes irregular, I become increasingly confused, and would start to lose my freedom, but there was no point in trying to understand something that I cannot prevent.

I’ve spent almost two years in and out of the hospital trying to reduce the number of symptoms I would have to endure in the final weeks of my life.

“I’m terribly sorry, Mr Potter, there’s only so much we can do for you,” they would say or “it’ll all be over soon, Mr Potter.”

Hardly words to inspire me in my last months alive, but I knew deep down that they meant well.

My illness has become so severe that I can barely hold my wand, never mind attempt to perform any kind of magic. I am locked up in a care home for wizards and witches unable to care for themselves. The carers here are friendly enough, and they take care of us as best as they can, but the outcome remains inevitable.

I have had some good days. Occasionally, they might take me into the grounds to enjoy some fresh air, the glorious sight of nature living, prospering around us, a somewhat, rare treat to the dying; a slap in the face. Look what you’re going to miss when you’re gone.

They think I am giving up in the hope that I will die quicker. They would be right.

I sometimes dream about the past: those awful years with the Dursleys, the adventures and difficult times at Hogwarts. All of the very good friends and family I had and lost over the years to murder, natural deaths, magic gone wrong; my wife and children moving on to living their own lives in other parts of the world, while I rot away here in this home, simply just another person that was once an important part of their lives.

An advert was in the paper yesterday. I thought it could be quite motivating to the youth of today, growing up in a world very different to the one I did. One second can change everything. Live for now!

How can you be motivated in death when you’ve seen loved ones die in your arms, their life stolen from them in the matter of a second? One second can change everything, and there’s nothing you can do about it.

[mugglemathdork]

Congratulations to the winners of this challenge -- they wrote original drabbles that had superb grammar, and didn't get hung up on just the Muggle Ad itself but integrated the slogan into their story flawlessly. Awesome job!

First Place:
Few Days Remaining by Lord Great Chamberlain

Second Place:
Different Ways by Elmindreda

Third Place:
That Time of the Month by bubblegumpinkhair