Banausic: serving utilitarian purposes only; mechanical, practical.

July 28, 1996

Very slowly, as if it were made of fractured glass, Arthur slid the screw into place. Holding the screwdriver in both hands, her turned it carefully round and round, watching as the metal bits shifted ever so slightly, wrong angles writing themselves, a loose mess coming into alignment. He let the small satisfaction of it suffuse his tight muscles as he straightened and laid aside his tools, admiring his handiwork.

"Nearly there," he told the half-assembled blender before him, and leaned over to examine a manual filled with spindly, mechanical diagrams. He glanced several times between the diagram and what was before him, frowning. "Hang on a tick, there's something missing. Ah –"

Arthur turned and began rummaging in the bins behind his worktable. They were a mess of bolts and wires and parts that had been borrowed from every type of household machine imaginable, all heaped together with no particular organization. But after some searching, Arthur came up triumphant, holding a small, scored disk.

"That ought to do the trick, old girl," he told the blender, turning back to the table.

A shuffling near the shed door, cracked open so that he would hear Molly calling him in, brought his head around. A shadow seeped over the threshold.

"Someone out there?" Arthur called, trying not to let his mouth go dry. The children had often come to investigate the shed, to kneel on the workbench and sift through the nuts and bolts as he worked, or to sneak sweets from the stash on the second shelf, looking at the muggle things with varying degrees of interest. But it had been a long time since the shed had drawn their intrigue. The shadow stirred, but there was no answer. Arthur drew his wand. "Who's there?" he demanded.

"It's just me, sorry." The door edged open a little more and a scrawny figure emerged from the darkness outside, drowning in an overlarge sweatshirt and jeans worn through at the knees.

Harry hovered near the door, looking around with cautious curiosity at the alarm clocks, remote control helicopters, and what looked like part of an old vacuum cleaner with wires sticking out of it shoved in the corner.

"No need to be sorry," Arthur said amiably, stowing his wand away. He flashing an encouraging smile to assure the boy he wasn't irritable and bent once more over his blender. "Come on in. Make yourself at home. So, Harry, what brings you out this late at night?"

He could hear Harry's quiet, shuffling gate working its way around the perimeter of the small shed, stopping here and there to examine something. He didn't have to look up to feel the shrug that came in response. By now he knew the habits of teenagers well enough. There had been times when getting more than three syllables out of Charlie in one day had been like pulling teeth.

Arthur made a small noise of victory as the disk shimmied into place. "What are they up to in the house?"

"Chess," Harry offered.

Arthur hid a knowing smile. He'd seen too many matches between Harry and Ron to be surprised that Harry had ducked out.

"How many imaginary laurels has Ron won now?" he asked.

Another silent shrug.

"I've no idea how he got to be so good at chess," Arthur said, shaking his head with a soft chuckle. "The rest of us can barely remember how the pieces move. What keeps you humoring him with games?"

Harry didn't answer; his footsteps had stilled. Arthur glanced up to see what had caught his attention. He was peering at some of the photos tacked up all along the walls between tools and shelves stacked with plugs and batteries. They were all off-kilter snapshots that hadn't made it into Molly's scrapbooks, glares and tints and cut-off faces earning them secondary status. Harry had paused in front of one that had been taken when Ron was about six. Arthur had him in his lap, tickling him and making him writhe with laughter, firmly anchored by Arthur's other arm.

Harry looked away and Arthur quickly pretended he hadn't been watching.

"Want to help?" he offered instead, holding out a screwdriver.

"I'd probably wreck it," Harry muttered, shuffling his feet. "Never was very great with tools."

Arthur chuckled. "You know, the twins used to help me when they were little. You can't be much worse than them."

Harry cracked a smile that looked like it was a bit rusty. Arthur brandished a pliers at him, and Harry hesitated a second longer before reaching out a hand.

"Here, this bit's supposed to look like that," he explained, pointing to the manual. "I usually just keep fiddling until they match."

He watched surreptitiously as Harry, grinning, bent over to work on the wires. The weary look that had hung about him ever since he'd arrived shifted to one of careful concentration as he twisted and fiddled, glancing at the manual every few seconds. Arthur posed a few questions as they worked and Harry answered off-handedly, forgetting the teenage code of single-sentence responses.

"Aha," he said triumphantly, holding the small panel of connectors up for Arthur's approval, and light sparked in his green eyes.

Arthur felt that small satisfaction seeping through him as he laid heavy praise to Harry's technical skills, making the boy duck his head. He clapped him on the shoulder and didn't miss the way Harry's mouth quirked up. And Molly thought his muggle toolkits only fixed mechanical problems.

A/N: Exams are done! Yay! And I mean to pour a bunch of these out, but then I got distracted by another story idea…. Anyway, hope you are all approaching jolly holidays! You know, we are officially in the season of giving, so if you wanted to donate the review drive, we've got thirteen days to break the four digits and then I swear I won't beg and plead anymore! Hope you liked this bit. I know I haven't been very diverse lately with characters, but I figure if I'm only updating once in a while, I can't swing as many random side-notes. It turned out subtler than I thought it would, this bit, but I think that's better. I figure there were moments like these that we just don't get to see. I mean, Harry lived with the Weasleys for months during the summers. Anyway, thank you all for your wonderful encouragement! Love you!