Muggle Mayhem

 

Hello and welcome back to Muggle Mayhem! Last time we talked about an interesting Muggle contraption called a cellphone, and we were all disappointed to hear that we won’t get the chance to use them as students since electronic devices don’t work at Hogwarts. Fear not, dear readers, since owls are just as good as cellphones (or so we’ve been told). Now, this week’s Muggle object is not an electronic, but it does require electricity. Today, we will be talking about (drumroll please) … vacuums!

Now I imagine that you, dear reader, may have gasped at that strange-looking and even stranger-sounding word, because you may be asking, “what-the-heck-is-a-vacuum-why-do-Muggles-use-this-strange-thing?” Well, I am here to give you the answers you so desire. Vacuums are one of the many things that Muggles use to clean their houses. Specifically, vacuums are used to clean floors. They are made of a portion that rolls along on wheels on the ground and a long handle for the user to push it around with. As you push it around, the vacuum sucks up dirt and dust on the ground and stores it in a little bag or container that is attached to the vacuum somehow. This means that once that little container gets full of gross dirt and dust, it needs to be emptied. That sounds horrible!

Many Muggles complain about having to vacuum their floors (see the word is also used as a verb as well as a noun, it’s even stranger!). It can be a laborious task, given that you have to push this object around the entire house and if you miss a spot, there will be dirt left on the ground! However, it is what Muggles consider “a necessary evil” so you will often see them vacuuming several times a week or a month, depending on how clean they want their house. Another complaint that Muggles have about these contraptions is that sometimes they don’t notice something on the ground that they don’t want sucked up by the vacuum and then it gets jammed in the vacuum and can break it. So, watch out if you have little children and they’re always leaving their toys about! The vacuum might come along and eat their toys! Nobody wants that.

Oh, and I have forgotten the worst part about these machines! Not only is the act of vacuuming quite tedious and potentially dangerous for unaware items on the ground, but vacuums are loud and noisy too! They make a horrendous noise that instills fear in the hearts of children and pets everywhere. I am not sure how owls or toads react to vacuums, but common cats and dogs are often quite terrified of these house-cleaning machines.

 

So, what do you think, dear reader? Are vacuums as awful and terrible as their strange-sounding name suggests? Would you use one to clean up after yourself? If you’re ever in the Muggle world and come across one of these objects, beware of the noise and keep your precious items off the ground or you may never see them again! I hope you have enjoyed learning about this fascinating object and if you have a Muggle object that you would like to learn more about, send me an owl!

 

This blog was written with love by: Banhi Patil