A/N: Hmmmmmmm, I'm getting the impression I'm losing readers on this one.

Also, for those of you still reading (and PAR thanks you), there was an error in the last chapter. You may have noticed it, maybe not. I'm not going to call attention to it. But it is being corrected and a revised chapter is going up as soon as Fanfiction.net lets me upload stories again.

And a happy Fathers Day to all you dad's out there. Especially to my own father. Happy Father's Day, Dad!

Oh, yeah. Short chapters, folks, so you get three of them this time.

That's all.

And as always.....,

Enjoy.

Chapter Six: And Then I Pressed This Button Over Here And The Screen Went Blank

Katlin woke up and, opening her eyes, happily realized it was still dark. Five hours or five minutes to sunrise, she didn't care. All she was interested in was she got to sleep a little bit more. Stretching out under the covers, she wondered if Orion had to leave early.

She rolled over, intent on rapping an arm over his chest.

But her arm met with an empty space in the bed.

Katlin paused, wondering where he had gone. Rolling back over to her side of the bed, she considered maybe it was just five minutes to sunrise and he had left without waking her.

But the clock read one in the morning.

Katlin lay in the darkness and listened. A sound had caught her attention in the past few seconds. She listened intently to it.

A soft tapping echoed through the small apartment.

With a deep frown, Katlin got up and pulled on a robe as she quietly slipped out of the room and followed the sound.

Not to her amazement at all, the sound led her to the small room where she kept her computer. Sitting before it was Orion, quickly tapping on the keys, then pausing as he moved the mouse around on it's pad next to him.

She stood for several seconds in the doorway, her frown deepening as she watched him. Finally she walked up behind him.

"I thought you didn't know how to work a computer?" She asked in a low, measured voice.

"Well, it didn't seem terribly hard watching you." Orion replied, giving no indication of surprise and never once turning around to her. "But I can't seem to get the stupid muggle machine to do anything."

Katlin looked over his shoulder, surprised to find the screen before her showing a dialogue box for her computer's properties.

"Well, you seem to have done very well so far." She replied dryly. "You've managed to get into my data base."

"This?" Orion stated, pointing at the screen. "That wasn't so hard. I sat down and pressed one of the buttons and the screen lit up. Than I just started hitting buttons." He added. "Like this." Orion demonstrated by hitting one of the keys innocently. Instantly the computer screen went blank. "Uh, oh." He stated dismally.

Katlin sighed as she reached out and turned the computer off. "I think that's enough for one night, Mr. Black." She stated formally.

Orion got up from the chair looking very apologetic. "Look, I'm sorry if I damaged it in some way, Katlin. It's just that I've never seen one before up close and...."

"And yet you managed to break into my database and fish about?" She replied, staring at him in the darkness of the small room.

"Database?" Orion asked innocently, turning back to the computer. "Look, Katlin, I don't know what I did. I pressed a button and the screen lit up. And I didn't think there was any harm in......sort of playing with it. I'm sorry if I did something wrong."

Katlin sighed as she looked back at the computer. She racked her memory over the few minutes before they went to bed. She honestly couldn't recall if she had turned the computer off or not. So it was entirely possible her lover was telling the truth. And since that was the scenario she liked the best at the moment, she decided to go with it.

Giving Orion a soft smile, she shook her head.

"There's no damage done, I'm sure." She replied, holding her hand out to him. "Now come on. Let's go back to bed."

Orion sighed quietly as he got up from the computer. He hadn't gotten as much as he had wanted, but he had gotten enough to accomplish what he needed. And the alternative to his evening wasn't all that disappointing.

That morning Orion was up before the sun, explaining he had an early meeting and still had to get to the house to change cloths before going in.

Katlin watched with a small smile as Orion pulled on his shirt, now devoid of any but a few buttons. Fair compensation, she felt, for her dress, which now had a new rip in it. One that started in the hem of the front and went clear to the neck line.

All in all, it had been a most enjoyable evening.

"So," he asked as he knelt across the bed to her, "was that sorry enough?"

Katlin gave him the same small smile. "It has promise."

"Well," Orion added, fingering the small diamond pendent around her neck, "perhaps I can add to it's validity."

Taking the pendent in his fingers, Orion pulled his wand out and pointed it at the little diamond in the center. Speaking a brief spell, he gently kissed it as he got up, meeting Katlin's confused stare.

"That's for the wards at the house." He explained. "As long as you're wearing that pendent, or at least have the diamond with you, you can enter and leave the house whenever you want without any danger."

Katlin stared back at him with a slight touch of astonishment in her expression. Orion met it with a mischievous wink.

"Now you can surprise me." He offered.

"That's very....kind of you." Katlin replied, fingering the small pendent with a pensive look as she watched him search out the rest of his cloths. "But aren't you afraid I'll give it to someone else and let them surprise you instead?"

Orion leaned over the bed. "No." He answered bluntly, giving her a quick kiss on the cheek. "I have to go. I'll see you later, Love. All right?"

"All right." Katlin muttered in reply as she watched him disappear out the door of the bedroom. A few seconds later she heard the front door close.

Still sitting in the bed, she held the small pendant up in front of her.

He had given her a way into his house. Now, despite all the wards, charms, and spells he had placed around it to protect himself, she could come and go as she liked. Whenever she liked.

Katlin paused at the thought, then quickly jumped out of bed. She got dressed in a pair of jeans and a T-shirt and finally stood in the center of her small bedroom. Clasping the pendant tightly in her hands, she visualized where she wanted to be. She hadn't seen it more than once, but she could picture it to the smallest detail.

When she opened her eyes, she found herself standing in the foyer of Orion's large estate home.

He had really done it! Katlin had been sure it was all some sort of joke, and when she tried it she would end up apparating to the middle of a junkyard or so. But as she stood looking about the foyer as the morning light filtered in through the two large glass windows on either side of the door, a small smile drifted across her face. She was already thinking up some interesting way to surprise him next time when she apparated back to her own home.

Just as the figure in the foyer disappeared, the large wooden door on the opposite side of the foyer burst open with a bang. The head and neck of a large, black dragon still had to work to squeeze itself through the opening as it gave an irritated roar which served to shake much of the surrounding structure of the house. But when it managed to make its way into the open foyer, it quickly glanced about, looking this way and that and sniffing the air. Finally, realizing it was very much alone, the dragon gave an irritated huff, causing two billows of smoke to blow from its nostrils. With one last disappointed look, it pulled its head back through the doorway. The cellar door slamming shut after it.

Q&A

UnrepentantReader: Actually, I found that a somewhat profound comment, Un. 'A brittle carefulness combined with all the hormones'. Like Werepup, I wouldn't bet against you writing on heck of a good short story. You certainly have an interesting, if not refreshingly new way, of describing things. Something so very badly missing in today's writing.

I thought this chapter was full of good lines. They tend to crop up when I get my characters alone for a little one on one. Since dialogue, at that point, is mostly all I have to deal with (well, maybe not all with Orion and Katlin), I try to make it as interesting and entertaining as possible.

Thanks for the reviews.

Werepup: What's on my mind? Oh, Dear, you don't ever want to go there. Especially if large, dark, empty spaces frighten you.

Actually, this story is Canon if you look at it timeline-wise. But to date, I don't think a single Canon character is mentioned in this story. Sirius might be once, but that is about it. Past that, I purposely tried to keep Canon characters out of the story. I wanted to see how a completely OC story would do.

But if you liked the two chapters, you'll love this posting.

Thanks for the reviews.

FAMILY LIFE

Erika: I'm so glad you're liking the story, Dear. It is one of my better efforts.

And thank you for liking the disclaimer. I put some serious time into that. But after reading all the standard ones, I found them a bit boring and fairly repetitious. I just wanted to do something different.

And I'm pleased you liked Sirius. I tried to make him actually as Canon as I could. Which, with as little as he has actually been in the stories, wasn't easy.

Again, glad you are enjoying the story, Dear. Thanks for the reviews.

All reviews are as of 06152003. If I missed you, let me know.