Wild World
"Luna, dear, would you go out to the shed and tell Arthur that dinner's ready?"
The one night Mr Weasley got home before dinner was done and he'd locked himself up in his shed, tinkering with his Muggle odds and ends. Luna was fascinated… She'd played with different Muggle things in her mother's laboratory as a child. Her mother had believed, like Arthur Weasley, that wizards could learn from Muggle technology.
Luna knocked on the door of the shed. There was no answer. Fear gripped her round the throat and she choked with it. She closed her eyes but it was no solace—she merely saw her father again. Her eyes shot open. "Mr Weasley?" Her voice shook.
"M-Mr Weasley?" She opened the door with a bang. "Mr Weasley!"
He jumped up. Mr Weasley had had his head down, resting on a small Muggle camera.
"Wh-What?" He looked at Luna and focused his eyes. "Luna? Are you okay?"
Luna shook with a little sob and closed her eyes again. Again, it did nothing to help. She sunk to the floor.
Mr Weasley stood and walked to her. He pulled her to her feet and sat her on a stool at his worktable. He patted her gently on the back and let her cry. His silence freed her. She felt weight lifted off her shoulder, and she had no idea from what.
Looking around the magically enlarged shed, filled to the ceiling with mismatched bobbles and things, she found herself interested. Her eyes fell on the camera. "What's this?"
"Just a camera," Mr Weasley replied easily. His eyes had circles underneath them and Luna wondered when he'd last slept a full night.
"Yes—Where's the film?" Luna asked, opening a clasp at the back.
Mr Weasley knitted his eyebrows. "Film? What's film?" His eyes widened and he had the look of a much younger man as he addressed Luna. "Do you know about Muggle things?"
Luna shrugged and blushed gently. "I know a bit. My dad brings home Muggle magazines to compare layouts and I always liked reading them. Film is what makes the Muggles' cameras work. Without them there's no picture." She recalled the story she'd read about a person that took a trip somewhere they'd never see again and took loads of pictures, only to return home and find they'd forgotten film—and had no keepsake. That story was meant to be funny, but it made Luna cry.
He steepled his fingers. "Do you mean fillum?" he asked.
"I don't think so. Film looks like a little canister, with little knobbles, here and here," she said, demonstrating with her hands.
His eyes lit up. "You mean these!" he shouted, pulling a tub from beneath his feet. Inside there were hundreds of little tubes that Luna recognized from the pictures accompanying the article—she smiled.
Together they opened canister after canister, trying to maneuver the film into the back of the camera. Finally it fit, and they looked at it for a moment. Then they shared a look. "What do we do with it now?" Luna asked.
"We press this little button," Arthur replied, and he did so.
There was a flash as the camera captured a picture. "I have to show Molly!" Arthur exclaimed, smiling broadly and running out the door to the house. Luna stood and followed gleefully, wiping her eyes. She had no idea when she'd stopped crying.
That night everyone had a turn with the camera. Picture after picture was taken, and more when the canisters wore out and had to be replaced. Even Mrs Weasley was amused, if not by camera then by the excitement it caused. She liked to think that she had a fairly intelligent family, but honestly, a little contraption that clicks and flashes comes along and they fall apart in giggles. Her children laughed and prodded each other and smiled for the camera.
"How do we see the pictures?" Arthur Weasley finally asked the room at large.
Hermione burst into giggles as Harry poked her in the side. "Oh, alright," she said, laughing. "You take it to a shop and they develop the film for you."
"Excellent!" he said. "I'll take it on my way to work tomorrow. I have so much fillum to give them!"
The next day he went and gave them his film—they'd used ten whole canisters, snapping pictures of the clock and the cat and the pot and Crookshanks chasing Pigwidgeon and Molly levitating Crookshanks and that not stopping Crookshanks at all.
Once all the children saw that the pictures didn't move, they quickly lost interest. All except Luna, who pored over them with Mr Weasley for an hour and a half, until they were all sent to bed.
"Mr Weasley, can I have this one?" It was a shot of them all, taken by Luna herself. It wasn't perfect. Bill's head was completely cut off. Hermione had her head buried in Ginny's shoulder, and Ginny had forgotten to laugh. Fred and George were sharing a private joke. Ron was pushing Harry over, and Harry was nothing more than a blur. Arthur stood proudly beside Percy, both smiling for the camera. Molly had collapsed into her rocking chair, and Charlie was hanging over the side of it, teasing his mother.
"Of course, Luna!" he said with enthusiasm. "I have dozens more; they're so fascinating." Arthur packed them all away into his shed, for future research, and Luna packed hers carefully into a pocket in her bag. This is going right beside the one of me and Dad,she thought, and that thought sent her smiling into sleep. For the first night since arriving at the Weasley's, she slept soundly.
