Chapter 1 - A Toy Car

A/N - These stories will NOT be in chronological order, I just right them as they come to me. This first one takes place a few years after the battle at Hogwarts. Hope you enjoy :)

Harry entered the shed and cleared his throat to announce his presence, startling the thoroughly occupied Mr. Weasley. He looked up, surprised and bumped his head against the small shed-turned-workshop where he was working on his latest muggle contraption, what seemed to be a toy racing car. Normally Harry wouldn't disturb Mr. Weasley at a time like this, when he was obviously working on something, but he had to do this now – before he lost his courage.

"Harry, m'boy! Good to see you." Mr. Weasley's said rubbing his head. His smile was warm and genuine but did no less to ease Harry's nerves. His hands were sweating and he couldn't remember the last time he had been this nervous – perhaps when he broke into Gringotts? But no, not even then.

"I trust everything's going well at the Auror Office?" Mr. Weasley asked him with a polite smile.

"Oh - er, of course sir." Harry sputtered out distracted. "I was –er- wondering if I could ask you something?"

"Of course Harry, of course. But could you first just help me out with this? You see I found this muggle toy and it seems to run on eklectrikity but I can't figure out where to put the plug. I collect plugs you know." Mr. Weasley looked over at him proudly as if his plug collection was a great accomplishment to him.

Normally, Harry would have found this amusing but today he was too nervous and distracted to think of anything except for the task at hand. "Oh, er, I think it might run on batteries, but I was really hoping we could talk-"

But Mr. Weasley appeared not to be listening as his face had lit up as soon as Harry mentioned batteries. "Ah, of course! Now where did my battery collection go…" he appeared to have forgotten that Harry was in the room at all and was now mumbling over an old, rusty cauldron filled with muggle batteries.

"Mr. Weasley." Harry said loudly, beginning to get annoyed now.

"Call me Arthur." Mr. Weasley said absentmindedly, still rummaging through the cauldron.

This through Harry off slightly, he was so used to calling him Mr. Weasley, and the noise the batteries were making made him raise his voice "Right – er, Arthur. Well I don't really know how this is done in the wizard world but I asked Hermione and she said it was pretty much the same as the muggle way and muggles, you see have this tradition where… you see when someone wants, I mean to say when two people want…" Harry broke off, aware that he was rambling in his nervousness and that Mr. Weasley had looked up at him now as if holding back a smile.

What was wrong with him? Where did his bravery go when he needed it? He was a Gryffindor after all, he took a deep breath and thought of Ginny, his nervousness melting away as he did. He looked Mr. Weasley right in the eye and said unwaveringly and with all his conviction "Arthur, I love your daughter and I want her to be my wife. Ginny has meant everything to me these past few years and I want to be with her forever. I'm not asking your permission as that's for Ginny to decide but I'm asking you, as her father for your blessing."

When Harry finished his spur of the moment speech he was astonished to see that Mr. Weasley had tears in his eyes. He surprised Harry by pulling him in for a brief hug and then clapping him on the back.

"Of course I give you my blessing." Mr. Weasley beamed at him. "I know that you will treat my daughter right. And I already think of you as a son."

"You've always been like a father to me." Harry replied truthfully.

Mr. Weasley smiled at him a moment more before pulling away and chuckling. "You still have to ask Ginny though. I don't think she'd like it if she knew we were in here planning her life, for her."

Harry laughed, relieved by what had just passed. "She'd probably hex the both of us. Now I just have to get up the courage to ask her." Harry made a face.

Mr. Weasley chuckled "I was so scared when I asked Molly, sure I had to do something grand, but it didn't really matter. You know why? Because we loved each other, and I know Ginny loves you."

Harry smiled once again.

"Now could you help me finish this car, where do you think the battery goes?" Mr. Weasley was once again excited and Harry began to help, much more enthusiastically than he would have normally, incredibly relieved and happy to be with what he hoped would be his father-in-law.