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BALLPOINT PENS FOR THE WIN (+ other muggle shenanigans)

Summary:

It's one normal morning at breakfast at good ole Hoggywarts when Harry Potter suddenly has an epiphone: why don't wizards just use pens n sht? It'd be so much easier when writing a three foot essay when you could erase a spelling error than just starting over.

...

You know what? He's gonna ask.

"Why don't wizards just use pens and pencils?"

...

"huh?"

Notes:

I just got a random head cannon of Harry being like: "Why can't we just use pens instead of struggling with stupid quills and stuff?" and the entirety of the dining hall being like, "...what?"

:)

CHAOS WILL ENSUE

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:

... Harry Potter walked into the dining hall at breakfast not looking forward to his classes the next day at all. He had a 3-foot long essay on the goblin wars due tomorrow in History of Magic, and it sucked. Partially because he really didn't care for it, but mostly because of the amount of times he'd handed in what he thought might be an at least okayish essay, only to get marked off on spelling errors that he didn't have the time to correct. That train of thought brought Harry's mind back to muggle primary school, when he could just easily erase things he spelled wrong with the eraser on the back of his pencil. Wait.

 

"Hey, why don't wizards just use pens and pencils?"

 

Silence.

 

"What?"

 

With a furrowed brow, Harry repeated his question, "Why don't wizards just use pens and pencils? It'd be loads easier than having to rewrite an entire essay due to one spelling mistake. Also, why even use quills? They're very time-consuming to learn how to use, and while sure, they do give you nice and loopy letters once you can actually use them, it's just a waste of time. And you need to bring an ink well with you. The whole prospect is kinda useless, if you ask me."

 

That took the entire dining hall by surprise. While half-bloods and muggleborns knew the struggle, they had never really given a thought as to why quills were insisted upon. The purebloods, though? Their only thoughts were "What in the everloving heck are pens and pencils?" and "What."

 

With everyone's attention on him, Harry took this as the chance to show them what he meant by that. And introduce them to Post-it notes. He'd rather not listen to another first-year whine about having to learn sticking charms, thank you very much. With a quick, wandless and wordless, accio, he had acquired the needed materials. A roll of parchment, a quill, an ink well, a ballpoint pen, a pencil, and a pack of Post-it notes.

 

[This action of a both wandless and wordless display of magic did not go unnoticed, but it was, however, overlooked for the moment.]

 

With even the professors leaning closer to take a (not very) discreet look as to what was going on, Harry announced, "This is a ballpoint pen." while pointing to said pen, "You use it by clicking the button on the back down and out comes the metal nib." He shows how to do so while explain in, much to everyone's benefit. He then unrolled the piece of parchment and wrote down a quick sentence. (Tom is the worst.)

 

Many were shocked at this discovery of a new writing utensil, especially those with no clue how it worked. Luckily, Harry took notice of people awed confusion and explained, "There's an ink cartridge inside, and the ball point of the pen rolls around to be continuously covered in ink, making the pen work as it does."

 

Harry moved onto the pencil. "This is a pencil." He said, once again pointing to the object in question, "It has no ink, but rather a stick of graphite running through it and an eraser at the end." He quickly explained, leaving a few with more questions than answers. He wrote down a new sentence (dumbledoOR is the worst #2.) and showed it off to the wix in the dining hall. People were quickly taken aback by both the sentence itself and the prominent spelling error (who writes dumbleDOOR instead of dumbleDORE???).

 

Harry then turned the pencil around and erased the spelling error, putting everyone into sudden shock. What??? It was possible to add CHARMS to muggle things???

 

Almost as if reading their minds, Harry quickly added, "The eraser has no charms on it. It's simply a regular eraser. Ya see what I mean???"

 

Still reeling from the fact that the eraser somehow didn't have charms on it, most of the student body and staff silently nodded.

 

Harry smiled and grabbed the pack of Post-it notes. He quickly realized he had nothing to Post-it note, so he once again did a wordless and wandless accio on his History of Magic textbook. "These are Post-it notes. They have an adhesive on part of one side, causing it to stick easily onto anything you put it on. Also, no, it too has no charms on it." Harry said. he scribbled down a quick sentence (Morgana was a badass.) and stuck it in his open History of Magic book.

 

"You would normally use this if you find something interesting or confusing in your reading, or just as a bookmark in general." He said finishing off his presentation on cool, useful muggle stuff. (For now.)

 

Numerous head slowly started turning towards the headmaster, Albus Way-Too-Many-Middle-Names Dumbledore. People were looking at him in dismay and confusion; how could he have kept such precious information away from them???

 

Albus, oblivious to the world around him (having taken out his magical hearing aids for some nice peace and quiet), was debating whether or not he should put his beard in a french braid or curl it magically. McGonagall sighed and stepped in for the headmaster. "We had no clue such item could be so useful, Mr. Potter. While it has been mentioned over the years, we have never had anyone demonstrate the usefulness of these muggle stationary items. I shall mention it to the board of directors to see if we can get it added onto the official Hogwarts list of school supplies. Thank you for your insightfulness, Mr. Potter." McGonagall said cordially before the dining hall returned to it's original state of controlled chaos, except now with whispers of how muggle stationary could possibly be so useful. (And how Harry was even able to do a wordless and wandless accio on multiple item without even breaking a sweat, but that's for a later date.)

 

Well, Harry thought that was an extreme success. Maybe he should do some more. Who knows? It could come in handy some day. Whelp. Onto breakfast. (Due to the buzz about the muggle stationary, nobody though to ask why Harry was eating so little, or why he was stiff in his movements. Oh well. Another problem for another time.)

 

(Said time will be soon, but what Harry doesn't know can't hurt him, right?)

 

...

 

'I think I should french braid it; see how it comes out.'

Notes:

that was fun. if y'all got any suggestions, I'm up for it. ty for reading :)

have a nice day/night!

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