Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Harry Potter characters. All I own is my original characters and settings that will come up later is the story.

I am rewriting/adding parts of this story to improve it and get rid of inconsistencies. If you see any let me know. Tell me if it's improved if you've read it before. And if you're a 'virgin', so to speak, just drop a line and tell me how it's going.

I'm going to make a calendar and post it on my website to explain the time duration of all this. There are days in between some of the chapters that explain Harry's changing behavior. As time goes by he's adjusting to his environment. I'll post a note when it's up. It might take some time.

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Harry yawned and stretched his arms above his head. "So this kid is trying to set his Dad up on a date?"

Cali slid back onto the couch, her mug of coffee clutched between her palms. "Yes."

"And this woman who's engaged to another man falls in love with him despite the fact that she's never met him or even seen him?"

Cali sighed with a smile and sipped the steaming liquid. "Yes. It's so romantic."

Harry snorted. "Romantic? It's stupid."

Cali kicked his ankle. "Don't mock Sleepless in Seattle."

Harry rubbed his ankle and hid it under the pillows out of her range. "It's a good movie. It just doesn't make sense."

She waggled her finger toward his face. "That just shows that you have to watch more movies."

Harry shrugged and ripped off another strand of licorice. "Well that is probably true since I never watched a movie before tonight."

Cali shook her head and squirmed lower into the cushions, laying her head against the arm. "That is just so weird." Her eyes dropped closed.

Harry took a gummy bear off the end table and set it in her hair. "Well if you grew up with relatives that resented your existence you'd be deprived too."

She cracked open her eyes. "Your life sucked. Got it. But you do have to admit that you're lucky not to have ended up with a wizard name." She shook her hair and lifted the green bear off her leg between two fingers.

"My friend Hermione is muggleborn." He dogged the bear and watched it land on the bookshelf.

"Ouch." She gulped her coffee. "Her parents just wanted her to get beat up, didn't they?"

Harry blinked his eyes until his vision cleared and grabbed a chocolate bar off the table. "You say I've got a normal name and I got beat up."

Cali forced her eyes open and twisted to face him. "By who?"

"My cousin Dudley and all his friends." He picked at a string coming loose around a button on the back of the couch. "Everyone was too scared of them to come near me."

"That really sucks. Stupid wimps." Cali stretched toward the pile of candy. The box of gummy bears floated to her hand.

The bag of gummy worms didn't even shift on the table. Harry sighed. "You have to show me how to do that."

Cali smirked and pulled out a bear. "I think you should figure out how to do it yourself." She growled at the green bear and tossed it to him. She extracted a red one from the box and munched happily.

Harry ripped the bear's head off. "How am I supposed to do that? I don't even know what kind of stuff you can do."

Cali dropped her coffee onto the table. The liquid sloshed out and advanced toward the edge of the table. "Let's watch a movie with magic! That's how I learned most of the obscure stuff I can do." She giggled. "Dad freaked out. He insisted that I cease and desist doing things contrary to the laws of physics. Then I made the mistake of asking what the laws of physics were and ended up taking every science class imaginable. There are so many things you shouldn't be able to do. It's really cool."

Harry watched her gesturing hands still. What to take from that? Seemingly unimportant afterthought tacked onto the end of what she was saying. Which means she wants me to respond to that. So-- "There are movies with magic?"

Cali frowned and flung another green bear at him. "Hell yeah. Hundreds. Thousands. Millions. Insert evil laugh here because I can't do it well. Let's see which ones we have." Cali scrambled over and opened the cabinet. "Labyrinth-no, Interview with a vampire-no, Buffy the Vampire Slayer-no, The craft-Hell No. If there was ever a crappy, unrealistic magic movie that is it. Oh! Practical Magic." She turned. "It's a romantic movie though. You up for it?"

Harry sighed. Not even an explosion for ignoring what she wanted to talk about. We're spending too much time together. "Good movie?"

She hugged the box to her chest. "I love it. And Marcus likes it too."

Harry smiled and grabbed another chocolate bar from the pile. This one apparently has crisped rice in it. Why would you put rice in a candy bar? "I'm up for it."

Cali pushed it into the VCR and hopped back to the couch. She snuggled up next to him. "Maybe after this I'll show you how to do one thing from the movie."

Harry smiled. "Really? And break further whatever rules you broke just by letting me know you could do magic without a wand?"

Cali smacked his arm. "You are too smart for your own good sometimes. Yes. I broke rules. But you can either do it or you can't because you've been using a wand, so I can't see what I've got to lose. So I will show you one thing, but not with pins. Bad consequences. As you will see."

"That was so cool!"

"Told you so." Cali laid her head on his shoulder. "So what do you want to learn how to do?"

Harry played with her fingers, twisting her ring around her finger. "Can you do the fire thing?"

Cali stood, grabbed his hands, and pulled him up. "That is my personal favorite." She walked over to the fireplace. Two white pillar candles flanked a painting of a building, the inscription simply 'The Academy- 1982.' She blew out and the wick flickered into life. "Your turn."

Harry walked over slowly and stood next to her. "What am I supposed to do?"

She leaned against the mantel. "Have you ever done magic without a wand? You know, uncontrolled, emotional magic?"

Maybe they don't all go through that here. "Yes."

She nudged him forward and turned him to face the second candle. "Then you know it's possible. There's magic in everything. Every wall, every person, even every gust of air is infused with magic. Close your eyes. Feel it around you. It's right there for you to tap into. It lets you see everything moving." Her fingers uncoiled from around his arm. "The wick is right there. All you need is a spark, one tiny little spark. Blow on the wick, it will make the magic collide and poof, candle flame."

Harry closed his eyes. This was stupid. You couldn't make a candle light by blowing on it. You needed a wand, or at least a spell. But she did it. She lit the candle. I blew up Aunt Marge. Anyone would think that would be impossible without a wand. Dobby doesn't use a wand. When she was casting the spell I felt something around her. It was magic. If it felt like Hogwarts then the school is immersed in magic. We must draw on that. But it doesn't feel like it. I never noticed it until I felt it around her. Harry blew out slowly. It was everywhere, sparkling, shifting, and just waiting for someone to use it. He blew harder, seeing two sparkles collide.

"You did it!" Cali tugged on his arms.

His eyes popped open. The flicker didn't disappear. "I did it!" He pulled Cali into a hug.

"What the devil is going on in here?" Mom was wandering the school again. She wasn't wearing her bathrobe.

Cali turned her head, resting it against his chest. "Just lighting candles."

Mom sighed and rubbed her forehead. "Again? Don't you ever get tired of that trick?" She glanced at the wall. "And in the middle of the night?"

Cali moved away and held her hand in the air. She raised one finger. "One-no." She lifted a second finger. "Two- I was showing Harry." She crossed her arms over her chest. "He is my first successful student."

Mom's mouth opened and closed. "He managed it?!"

"Yep." Cali leaned back against him as Mom stared.

"Incredible." She shook her head. "Though your father is not going to be happy about you breaking the rules, I think his excitement will overshadow it." She ruffled his hair. "You seem like an entirely different boy Harry."

He smiled and ducked away from her hand. "I know."

"I take it from--" She gestured around the room, "--this that you'll be wanting to stay here with us?"

He tightened his arms around Cali. "Yes. That is--if I can."

Mom wrapped an arm around his and Cali's shoulders. "Of course. But--They are coming tomorrow. We can tell them that you've miraculously improved, but I'd like a stronger argument than that. If you have one that is."

Cali shifted to hug Mom too. "It's a spell. Tomorrow I'm going to try and find out what spell it is so I can work on a reversal."

Mom pulled back. "It's a spell?"

"Yeah. Once it's broken, well things won't be fixed, but it's a step in the right direction. Right Harry?"

He smiled. "Right." He looked at the two women in his arms. He barely knew them. He'd only known them for two weeks. Then again he'd only known Hagrid for a few hours before he'd gone off to London with him. It was nice here. It felt like home.

Mom wiped chocolate off Cali's cheek. "And the next necessary step is?"

"Candy and movies." They ran and jumped over the back of the couch, landing in a heap.

Mom laughed. "Be careful you two. And they'll be here around eight. I would appreciate it if you at least attempted to appear as if you two have slept. It would make things easier."

Cali grabbed a Twix bar. "I make no promises and break no contracts."

"Well I for one am heading to bed. Some of us need our beauty sleep." She kissed Cali's cheek and messed up his hair again. The doors to the lounge clicked shut.

Harry let out the yawn he'd been holding in.

Cali crunched into the candy bar. "Tired?"

Harry rubbed his eyes. "Yeah."

Cali tossed the package onto the table. "Wanna sleep?"

Harry shrugged. I have to stay awake to keep the dreams away. "Kind of but not really."

Cali laughed softly and brushed the hair off his face. "I've got the cure." A tape floated up and replaced the other one in the VCR.

Harry wiped his glasses on his shirt and slipped them back on. It wasn't any clearer. "What is it?"

"Lawrence of Arabia. Four of the most boring hours ever produced."

He pushed his fingernails into his palms. "This is supposed to help how?"

Cali pushed him down and lay in front of him, both facing the TV. "You get to sleep. And later on you can claim that you watched the movie."

"It can't be that bad." And it won't stop the dreams.

"Wait for the desert sun scene. You'll never want to see another grain of sand again." She closed her eyes and shifted, moving closer to him.

She's exhausted. She has a right to sleep. Maybe I won't dream if there's someone else there. "I guess we'll see."

"Um hum." Her eyes were closed; her arms pulled up and crossed over her chest.

Harry shifted, trying not to move her and rested his head on the pillow. I can always just watch the movie. I've stayed awake through History of Magic. How bad can this be? The screen was filled with camels, and random people, and--

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