This is a quick update because certain people (who shall remain nameless) were getting rather impatient!



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Chapter 25

Charm Undone

The walk to Harry's house took about thirty minutes. During that time, Cassie talked about various things - most of which Harry could not remember the second after she said them. He kept going over in his mind what was going to happen when they arrived at his house and a feeling of panic was dominating his thoughts. He had no idea what to expect when they arrived.

There were several possibilities of what could happen and most of them were not good. It would be hard enough to think of a reason to have her read the parchment with the address and think about it without her thinking he was insane. But he could maybe handle that if he had some guarantee that she would be able to see the house and get inside. What would be infinitely worse is if he gave her the parchment, she read the address, thought about it, and the house did not appear for her. After all, it would be a little hard to just say something like, "Well, I guess my invisible house is not going to appear for you. Let's go back to your house." Or, an even worse option is that she could see the house but could not actually get into it due to other charms Harry was not aware of.. Also, he did not think that even if everything went perfectly he could really explain why a house suddenly appeared out of thin air, so having her watch the house materialize was not something that would probably be a good idea. He always found it interesting but doubted that she would agree. Harry was wishing desperately that he knew more about how the Fidelius charm worked. However, when Dumbledore was giving him instructions, Harry had not thought to ask how he could get a Muggle into the house. And at this point, it was a little late to figure it out. Harry could really not see a good ending to this little adventure. Almost certainly, something would go wrong and then he would have a very hard time explaining the situation without revealing everything - and that was a conversation that Harry really did not want to have.

The closer they got to his place, the tighter his stomach tied itself into knots until Harry honestly thought he was going to be sick. He was trying to breathe deeply and relax but it was not working very well. He had given up answering Cassie at all and she, in return, had fallen silent as well. Finally, the rather tense silence was broken by Cassie who stopped suddenly in the middle of the sidewalk and said, "Harry." He stopped and turned toward her, noting with surprise her pale face.

"What's wrong?" She looked very upset and he could have sworn that he saw tear marks on her cheeks.

"That's a silly question," she said softly. "Obviously, I really blew it, didn't I?"

"What?" Harry was not sure what was wrong, concentrating so hard on what was going to happen in the next five minutes that he was having a hard time shifting gears in the conversation.

"It's obvious that you're mad at me for forcing you to bring me here, and I did force you, didn't I? I should have just accepted your original answer instead of insisting and I . . ." Her voice trailed off miserably and her breath caught in a strangled sob. "Let's just forget it, okay? It's not too late to just forget the whole stupid idea. You're a smart guy and I'm . . ." Anything after that was muffled by Harry's shirt because he had folded her into his arms and pressed her face against his shoulder, feeling the wetness of her face through his T-shirt.

"Oh, Cassie, honey, don't cry." He felt conspicuous, standing here on the sidewalk, holding her in his arms, so he looked quickly around. There was a low wall not too much further down the street where they could sit and talk for a few minutes. Plus, it would give him a chance to set down the shopping bag and rest his arms for a bit. He led her quickly over to it, pleased that although she was still quiet, she was not sobbing any more. As soon as they were sitting there, his arm wrapped protectively around her shoulders, she finished her sentence, interspersing her words with quiet gasps as she tried to regain her composure. Harry thought for one brief second that she even cried prettily.

"You're a smart guy . . . and I was rude to assume that you couldn't . .. figure it out yourself , , , and I just wanted to see where you lived, . . .and I couldn't figure out why . . . and I just . . . well, I was rude and . . ." Again, she fell silent, turning her face into his already-wet T-shirt as he awkwardly patted her shoulder.

"It's all right. I'm not mad, honestly." Harry really was not mad at her, never had been. He had known that sometime this issue was going to come up. And truthfully, in some small corner of his brain the thought of her being in his house, alone with him, away from the eyes of strangers or the loving concern of her family, where he could just relax and enjoy her company was very tempting. If things were different and he could just take her right into the house, he would have loved the idea of spending time with her there. He considered his options now in light of her willingness to back away from the whole idea. He could easily agree with her and walk her back to her house where he could leave the VCR and they could do something else today. That would probably be the smart thing to do. So why, that same small corner of his brain wondered, was he still considering walking her the last few minutes to his house and seeing what happened. He knew it wasn't just the idea of getting the VCR hooked up. Sure, it sounded like something he could enjoy, but he could certainly live without it.

Harry took a deep breath, pulled away from her a little bit, and started talking, slowly, thinking about each word before he said it.

"Cassie, I need to talk to you about something. I would love to take you to my house, I really would. It's just that . . . Well, I'm not really sure you're going to be able to get into it." She knitted her eyebrows together in confusion at that statement. He continued. "You know how you said I had a lot of secrets?" She nodded. "Well, this is one of them. Will you, um, will you do as I ask you to . . . and not ask any questions about it?" She nodded again, her dark blue eyes meeting his green ones, and he felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude at the trust she had in him. He continued, "If. . . if you can't . . . Well, if things don't work out and we can't go in, . . . You can think I'm nutters, alright, but try not to hate me . . . ." His voice went up, making this a question, hope in his heart that she would somehow be able to accept him, even though she thought he was certifiably insane.

"Oh, Harry. I could never hate you. And as for thinking you're nutters, I already know that you are and I haven't minded so far, have I?" Her smile broke through and Harry felt his heart jump in his chest. She really was the most amazing girl he had ever known.

"Thanks a lot," he laughed and hugged her again, enjoying how she felt in his arms. He took another deep breath. "We're not far from the house now, okay? It's just down another block or two." He must be crazy, he thought as he helped her stand up and picked up the shopping bag again. If he weren't, they would be walking the other direction, away from the potential minefield of his charmed house. Two minutes later, he stopped with her on the corner where they needed to turn. The time had come to tell her. "Cassie?"

"Yes?"

"This is going to sound really strange. Do you trust me?"

"I trust you, Harry." Somehow those four words conveyed to him a depth of feeling that threatened to overwhelm him. She really did trust him. He hoped he was not making a serious mistake trying to do this.



"Okay, then. You need to read this piece of paper and then you need to think about what is on it." Harry dug the now very well-worn piece of parchment out of his back pocket, reading it quickly himself as he handed it to her. The charm was very thorough. He had found that he had to read the address every single time he wanted to go into the house also, something he had not had to do at Grimmauld Place two summers ago. He supposed that Dumbledore had made this charm even stronger.

"That doesn't sound too terribly hard."

"It's not hard, it's just . . . um . . . strange. But there's something else, also." Harry just had a (if he could say so himself) brilliant thought. It really would be quite impossible to have her watch the house appear and he needed to do something to keep her from watching. "You have to close your eyes and . . ." he wondered for a moment if he dared say it, "kiss me."

Her eyes widened in response. "Are you sure about the kissing part, or are you just making that up to tease me?"

"No, I'm serious. And it has to be a good kiss, too. Makes it more likely to work."

She laughed. "Somehow I think you are teasing me."

"Maybe just a little, but I am serious about the kissing."

"Well, if you insist . . . ."

He took her hand and led her around the corner, standing with her in front of the house next to where his would appear, hopefully, in the next few minutes. She didn't seem to think anything looked strange or out of place, and Harry glanced around at the quiet street. He was vulnerable out here and he knew it. There was no one else on the street and he thought that they may as well get it over with. He glanced down at the paper, still folded in her hand, "Go ahead, Cassie."

"All right." She opened the paper, scanning it quickly and then her eyes met his.

"Think about what you read, now, and then close your eyes, okay?"

She closed her eyes and Harry allowed himself to think hard about the address also, for just a moment before he concentrated on the girl in front of him. He took her shoulders in his hands and bent toward her, meeting her soft mouth with his, amazed again at how wonderful it was to kiss her. She put her arms around his neck, and kissed him back with all the fervor she had the night before, and Harry tilted his head a little bit to deepen the kiss as he drew her closer. His eyes were open and he saw the house as it appeared as always with a soft pop. Of course, that did not prove anything. He had never doubted that he would be able to see it. The big question was if she would be able to. He drew away from her reluctantly, kissing her softly on the corner of her mouth to soften the departure, and her eyes fluttered open.

"That was a pretty good kiss, Cassie. Hopefully, it worked." He turned her in his arms so that she was facing the house but he didn't dare ask if she saw it.

"Oh, it's cute, isn't it? It seems to be a nice neighborhood. Kind of old-fashioned looking, but friendly. How do I know if the house is going to let me in?" Harry felt such relief at her statement, that his knees almost gave out under him. She could at least see his house, and had not noticed that it hadn't been there when they walked onto the street. Harry had never really thought of the place as cute, but then usually he was hurrying. Speaking of hurrying, they had better. He walked forward with her quickly to the foot of the stairs and looked up to the door. There was only one more hurdle to get over. The nosy doorbell and his ridiculous password. He stepped up onto the first step, and she followed him. She didn't fall through the step onto the sidewalk or get stuck in any sort of magical trick staircase, just followed him up silently until they came to the door. The doorbell immediately started in, exactly as Harry had feared. "I am quite sure that she would not be on Dumbledore's list of approved visitors. A Muggle? Honestly! How do you know she is safe?" Harry did not really hear the rest because he had clamped his hand over the doorbell, hoping to muffle any further sound. Cassie was looking around for the source of the noise, thinking that someone else on the street was talking. He did not correct her assumption. Harry bent close to the doorbell and said very clearly, "Sir Cadogan." He thought that if this door didn't open immediately, he was going to have to get violent.

"Bless you." Harry realized with a smile that she thought he had sneezed, but then the door swung open on silent hinges, and he pushed the door open wide, stepped inside, and reached out a hand to help her across the threshold. She stepped through into the coolness of the entrance hall, and Harry could have jumped for joy. It had worked! The doorbell was continuing its lecture and without Harry's hand covering it, it was much easier to understand. "I really must protest this blatant . . . ." Harry slammed the door quickly, cutting the little speech off and then he started doing up the locks quickly behind them, anxious to get the house invisible again. She watched with a raised eyebrow, but said nothing, maybe considering having six locks on a front door a minor oddity compared with what she had just done. She also did not mention hearing someone talking outside the door, a fact for which Harry thanked every lucky star he ever had. He didn't want to have to explain that.

She turned toward him. "I guess it worked, huh? Whatever we did? Must have been a good kiss." He took the piece of parchment out of her unresisting fingers, setting it on the hall table, and smiled.

"It was a great kiss."

"I was thinking, though," she said laughing, "that maybe we should practice a little, just to make sure we get it perfect."

"I think you may have something there." Harry set the bag with the VCR down on the table next to the parchment and turned toward her. The sense of relief and joy that he felt at this moment was incredible. She was leaning back against the door, smiling at him, and he moved closer to her, intent on starting practice immediately. Then, a quiet snore permeated his consciousness and he had a sudden thrill of horror. The portrait of Sir Lionel was in his living room, and it sounded like he was snoring, as always. That might be a little hard to explain, even though she seemed willing to overlook most odd things. "Um, Cassie. Will you wait here just a second? I have to move some stuff out of the living room."

"You don't have to clean for me. I don't mind if you have stuff around. I'm used to messy brothers." She reached for his hand, trying to tug him toward her.

"This could be a little embarrassing. Just give me a minute, okay?"

"Well, if you insist." She pouted a little to tease him, and he wanted to kiss away the sulky grin she flashed but instead he ran quickly into the living room, grabbed the noisy portrait and moved quickly into his bedroom, where he set it on his night stand, facing the wall. He shut the bedroom door behind him and moved back into the entrance hall to find her standing where he had left her, looking around the bare entryway. This house, which had always seemed to him like a gloomy prison, suddenly seemed warm and friendly, and he honestly thought at that moment that he would be content to never leave as long as she stayed here with him.



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P.S. The title of this chapter has confused some people. The charm was not removed from the house, it was just "undone" temporarily to let Cassie in - presumably not what Dumbledore had in mind.