Harry Potter One-Shots

PRNDL (Ron Weasley)

WORD COUNT: 872

"So... how do you... y'know... make it go?" Ron asked, rather sheepishly, looking very puzzled in the passenger seat of my car. I couldn't help but laugh at his adorable stupidity. I mean, obviously he wasn't stupid, but when it came to the Muggle world, he was about as oblivious as one could get.

"There's a pedal down here, when you push it with your foot it puts fuel into the engine and the engine works to turn the wheels and make the car move. The fuel is called gas," I explained patiently. In our relationship, patience was an extremely important trait, even more so now that I had decided to invite Ron to come and stay with my Muggle family for a week at the beach.

"And does it stop all by itself?" he asked, clearly getting more and more confused by the minute.

"No, there's another pedal, called the brake, which stops the wheels from turning so the car stops moving."

"But what if you're pressing on the gas and then you need the brake, and you're still putting fuel into the... what didya call it? The engine?"

"You only use one foot to operate the pedals, so you never get confused which pedal you need. Don't worry," I interrupted him before he could even ask his next question, "You learn which pedal is the gas and which is the brake first thing when you start learning how to drive."

"Alright... to be honest with you, I'm not sure I understand it at all, but you know better than I do, so I trust you." I inserted the key into the engine and started the car. Ron jumped a bit at the sound of the engine turning over, and I snuck a glance at him to check and see how he was doing. His face was unusually pale and his shoulders were tense, but he was trying to look somewhat at ease. As I began to drive down my street slowly, the tension slowly drained from his body, and he watched me curiously. In truth, I wasn't a very confident driver, having only learned last summer, and then promptly gone back to Hogwarts and forgotten all but the basics once school started, but I had decided not to tell Ron that small little detail. Besides, we were only running to the store, it wouldn't be a long journey. Two right turns, a straight shot, and then a left into the parking lot and we were there.

Without much incident, we arrived at the store and headed inside with our list of supplies from my mum. An onion, some milk, a loaf of bread, and we could pick out a little treat for ourselves with whatever money was left over. Ron's eyes widened as we walked into the store, and I realized suddenly that he probably didn't shop at a Muggle grocery store very often.

"There's so much food... what are these things?" he marveled, grabbing a package of fruit snacks. I couldn't help but giggle once again.

"They're fruit snacks, Ron. They're like candy, but flavored like different fruits," I explained patiently, adding them to the basket. That would be our treat for the day. Our walk through the store took nearly twice as long as my usual trip did because Ron was enthralled by the wide variety of Muggle treats and snack foods available in the aisles. I promised him that another day, we could come back and buy all the snacks he wanted to try.

Once we had all the things on my mother's list, plus our package of fruit snacks, we headed back to the car to begin the short drive home. However, when I turned on the car, a small light on the dashboard flickered on at me.

"Damn," I muttered, "We'll need to stop for gas."

"Erm... what?" Ron stuttered.

"It'll only take a quick second, you can crack open those fruit snacks while you wait for me," I explained, turning out of the parking lot and heading toward the gas station. Ron's bright ginger eyebrows furrowed even closer together.

"If you have..." he hesitated, "gas... can't you just wait until we get home? Did you eat something bad?" As soon as he finished talking, looking at me with a mixture of disgust, confusion, and sympathy, I burst into laughter. I felt tears rolling down my cheeks as I laughed uncontrollably at his reaction.

"Not like that kind of gas, Ronald!" I giggled, turning into the parking lot of the gas station. "Muggles put gasoline into our car engines to make them run, and we call it gas for short. I can't believe you thought-"

"Hey! It's not my fault I've never driven one of these stupid things before! How should I know you call it gas anyhow?" Ron frowned, his cheeks blushing a furious shade of red. I leaned over to give him a quick peck to reassure him.

"Don't worry, I'm only going to tell Harry and Hermione, and all your siblings, and all my friends, and Malfoy... but nobody else."

"I hate the Muggle world," Ron grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest whilst I hopped out of the car to refuel.