A/N: I'm probably not going to post this next week. My husband surprised me with a little Valentine's getaway. :) So if I manage to get everything written by Thursday morning, I'll post then, but if not, then I'll be back on Friday, February 21st.
"It's not going to work, Al." George shook his head as he leant over the conference room table in Weasley's Wizard Wheezes offices. "That's far too detailed a process. I'd need to train people to do everything, nothing in your process allows me to flick my wand and walk away."
Al bit back his initial retort that this had been George's boiled brained idea in the first place.
"You do realize that it's blocking magic, right? It's done by hand to ensure magic doesn't leave traces where it can ruin the phone."
Ron wore a frown as he stared at the list of steps Al had written down.
"What's his name?" He muttered. But before Al could clarify, George spoke.
"I get that, Al, but we have a standard for the wages we offer. For how long it takes you to make the one case and what we pay our employees, I'm losing money making them this way. Explain again why I can't just make duplicates of your case."
"What was his name?" Ron muttered again.
Al didn't give it heed this time.
"It's just like I told you, duplicating it messes with the spell layering and makes the case and screen protector obsolete." Al shoved his hand in his hair. "I've made this as condensed as I can. If we change my process at all it will leave traces and ruin the phone. I've got more failed attempts in my flat than I ever want to count trying to do this differently. This is it, George, this is how it has to be done. If I have a breakthrough later I'll let you know, but if you want these on the shelves for Christmas, then this is how it's going to be."
George huffed and threw himself into the back of his chair.
Al tried not to glare at him.
"What is his name?!" Ron said again, this time with a bit more force.
"Who's name?" George snapped at him.
"The American car man!"
Al laughed, "You do realize you've just described a quarter of their population, right?"
Ron rolled his eyes, "No, I mean the first one."
Al blinked, "The first one?"
"Yeah," Ron nodded, "the one who made cars a thing."
"What do cars have to do with anything?" George groaned. "We're talking about our new Christmas line being short a product."
"Wait," Al felt realization dawning as he followed Ron's train of thought. "Are you talking about Henry Ford?"
"That's it!" Ron slammed his hand on the table. "I remember now! I was reminiscing with Harry and Hermione about the old Ford Angelina a few years ago and Hermione told me that the man who started Ford was the first to use a line to make cars and that cut time and cost and made cars available to most everyone."
"An assembly line!" Al grinned. "Ron that's brilliant!"
"What's an assembly line?" George sat forward again.
"Muggles use it for everything," Al conjured a piece of paper and pulled out his pen. "You have stations, run by people or robots…"
"What's a robot?" George frowned.
"Nevermind," Al chuckled, this was novel enough to explain without throwing robotics into the mix.
"In an assembly line you have stations run by people and they only do one or two, possibly three things, before passing it off to the next person, who does the next one or two things. It cuts production time because rather than one person or team having to keep checking their list to make sure they've done all hundred-odd steps, each person only needs to remember to do one or two things before passing it off. It cuts down on mistakes that way too. And it would work really well here!"
Al pushed the paper he'd been writing on towards his uncles. "See, the first person simply makes duplicates of our different case models. The next person casts these first two spells. Then the next person does just this one. And we go down the line just like that."
"I like it, George," Ron pulled Al's papers closer to him. "And I bet we could do this with other things we decided weren't cost-effective before. We could be the first Wizarding company with Muggle style assembly lines."
"I'd want to run a trial," George tapped his fingers on the table. "Let's send out a memo that we're offering some overtime to try out a new process, have them write down their input and ideas at the end, give them food after, you know the drill."
"I'd like to be there to help them know what they're doing, explain things better."
"Right," Ron pulled out a pen and started writing on the paper Al had used to map out his assembly line. "I'll text you once I have a firm date."
George handed him a piece of parchment, "Write down the days you know are not an option for you. We'll plan around your schedule."
Al jotted down the few days he knew he couldn't make anything happen and then wrote his course schedule out too.
"You spend this much time in school?!" George frowned at the course schedule.
Al smiled, "This is a light semester. I've had a semester with 26 credit hours before. I had to get all sorts of forms signed to make that happen, but it was worth it to get the professor I wanted for the class I needed."
George shook his head. "Hermione has let her crazy rub off on you."
"Eh!" Ron threw his pen at his brother. "That's my wife you're talking about!"
"And I love her dearly, Ron," George chuckled, "but did you see how many hours a day Al is in classes? It's amazing he hasn't morphed into a textbook!"
They laughed and Al caught a glimpse of the wall clock. Ellie was done with her last class.
"If you'll excuse me, I need to get going." Al slipped his pen back into his pocket.
"Hot date?" George teased.
"Something like that," Al grinned, feeling bolder than he ever had as a teenager about his relationships.
Ron winked at him. "I'll show you out."
George saluted his nephew as Al walked out with Ron and towards the fireplaces.
"Your aunt would very much like to meet Ellie," Ron spoke quietly.
Al rolled his eyes. "Mum told you about El too, eh?"
Ron grinned, "She's trying to push you to share your life with all of us a bit more. When you went Muggle, you fell off the planet for some of the family. We're all thrilled with what you're doing, but we do miss having you about. Just think of it this way, Hermione is a safe card. You're bringing your girlfriend who grew up in both worlds to meet your aunt who, to a lesser extent, also grew up in both worlds."
Al sighed; stupid logic and Ron's ability to wield it.
"Send me a text of when you want us over. We'll be there."
Ron put a hand on Al's shoulder and smiled encouragingly. "How about we do it after the testing of your assembly line?"
"Alright," Al nodded, "I'll talk to El, but that should be alright."
Al was surprised to find that his anxiety about El meeting Ron and Hermione wasn't nearly as high as he would have anticipated. But maybe that was because he hadn't told her yet. Ever the scientist, Al decided to test his theory and called Ellie as he sat down on his sofa.
"Hey, love, how did it go?"
Al sighed into the soothing sound of her voice.
"I think it went alright, we're going to give it a try in an assembly line format and see how it fares."
"That sounds brilliant!"
"Yeah, and after, Uncle Ron wants us to come to dinner with him and Aunt Hermione."
It was quiet for a beat and Al managed to find all his anxiety again.
"Al? Are you there?"
"I'm here." He swallowed.
"I said that sounds wonderful! Do you have a date yet?"
Al felt relief rush into him as he let out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding. Maybe next he'd figure out how to fix cellular service so it never skipped or dropped signal.
"Not yet, but I'll let you know when I do."
"Are you busy?" Ellie's voice had a sing-song quality to it that reminded him a bit of Aunt Luna.
"No."
Then his door opened and Ellie walked in as she disconnected their call.
"Me either."
She laughed as Al took three large steps to wrap her in his arms and kiss her soundly.