It was possible that something had happened to the Muggle he had used to hold his secret. Forget possible, it was a certainty that the man had died. Harry wondered what had happened to Patrick Anderson. He hadn't been that old and had seemed perfectly healthy so perhaps some sort of accident. In any case, that did not matter. He had to recast the Fidelius Charm immediately.
He raced to his closet and pulled out his trusty old backpack that Dobby had charmed all those years ago. He had never really gotten around to unpacking the thing completely and he thought that the book and his notes on the spell should still be in there.
He was just about to start digging through it when a loud "JIM" rent the air. Oh yes, Luna. He looked up to see her glaring at him. Oh dear...Luna! In his panic he had forgotten all about...
"So, are you going to explain?" she demanded without a trace of her usual calm and unflappable demeanour.
"Uhh...Uhh...I don't really know where to start," he stuttered.
"Why don't you start by explaining exactly how it is that my boyfriend, the person who I thought I knew," she paused and seemed to be taking deep calming breaths, "is not who I thought he was. Explain how and why you are not Jim Dobbins and...and..."
"Yes...Yes, you're absolutely right...It's just that, I kind of need to...I mean I really should recast the Fidelius before..." he babbled.
"The Fidelius...Oh, well that explains how no one knew who you were but now...would you care to explain - why you did it and more importantly - WHY THE HELL YOU NEVER TOLD ME," she shouted.
"I tried to tell you, I did," said Harry.
"Really, I think I would have remembered that," she snapped.
"All right, all right, just calm down for a second okay," said Harry. "Damn, it's way too early in the morning for this sort of conversation. Let's just go to the kitchen and grab a cup of tea first okay."'
Harry was feeling getting increasingly nervous as he prepared the tea. He fretted about the time he was wasting. It was perfectly possible that Voldemort was on his way there, getting closer and closer even as he waited for the water to boil. Death Eaters and assassins could be preparing to storm his house. Unfortunately, he couldn't just knock Luna out while he went and found another person to be his secret keeper. Or could he? Perhaps a quick stupefy...He shook his head. No, that was a terrible idea. He couldn't do that to Luna. He just had to explain things to her quickly, then he could recast his Fidelius - there was a college student who lived a few houses down the street. He could probably use him and it would be easier if his secret keeper lived nearby. This time he would be keeping a much closer eye on his secret keeper.
He finished making the tea, poured it into two cups, handed her one and then sat down across the table from her.
"Well, to start with. You remember how things were like about ten years ago, right? Voldemort was back. No one was doing anything about it and I knew, I knew he would be coming to kill me sooner or later. Hell, out of the four years I lived in the British Magical world, he tried to kill me himself three of those years. So, I had to hide and the Fidelius charm seemed like the best way."
"Now, as to why I never told you - Do you remember the night you told me you loved me for the first time?" he asked. She glared at him as if she could not believe he was asking such a stupid question.
"Right, so...do you remember what I did right after you told me. I told you I needed to tell you something then I pulled a piece of paper out of my pocket and asked you to read it..."
"Yes, but it was blank and you seemed really surprised then you started babbling something about mixing the papers up and...you never did say what was supposed to be on that paper," said Luna.
"That piece of paper had my secret written on it and when you couldn't read it that was the first time I realised that I had made a mistake when I cast the charm. You see, the Secret Keeper can pass the secret on orally, but they can also usually write the secret down and anyone who reads that is let into the secret. The problem is that, it turns out that - when a secret is written down it has a limited shelf life. It doesn't last forever."
"I've never heard that about the Fidelius," said Luna.
"Yeah, most books don't mention that. I'm not even sure if it's widely known. After all, most people will destroy the written secret as soon as they've shown it to whomever they want to let in on the secret. Nobody keeps it written down for long - that would be horribly insecure."
"So why didn't you just get your Secret Keeper to tell me directly, or write it down again?" asked Luna.
Harry chuckled ruefully and said - "The problem was that I didn't really trust anyone enough so after I performed the Fidelius and I had the Secret written down - I obliviated the Keeper. Unfortunately, I also used the non-reversible version of the memory charm so..."
"That's...that's..." stammered Luna. For once, she was at a total loss for words. The wrackspurts had taken residence in her head the minute she woke up and were totally unwilling to vacate the premises.
"Right, so now you know. Does it...Has it made any difference in how you...you know?" asked Harry.
Luna gave Harry one of her patented looks. Even after all these years Harry still found it impossible to tell what she was thinking at times.
"Of course not Jim...I mean Harry. Hmmm, it's going to be difficult getting used to calling you that, even if it fits you better than Jim ever did" said Luna.
Harry laughed in relief. "Don't get too used to calling me that. I'm going to recast the Fidelius as soon as I can. All I need to do is find my old notes and the original book in which I found the charm in the first place," he said.
"You're going to need another secret keeper as well," said Luna.
"Yes, last time I just grabbed a convenient muggle. I could do that again. You know John, that college student who lives a couple of houses down. He might do..."
"Don't be stupid," snapped Luna, interrupting Harry. "You'll just have the same problem again. You can use me as your Secret Keeper this time. That will be much safer and better than you going around obliviating muggles."
Harry grinned. Luna was absolutely right of course and if there was anyone he could trust to hold his secret it was her.
He would have to hurry though. He had no idea how much time he had before Voldemort managed to track him down. Still, once he had the book it should not take too long. Say, half an hour to review the books and his notes from the last time he cast the charm then another half-hour to prepare the ritual circle and cast the charm. Then...
That was when his ward alarms went off. A wizard had been detected apparating onto their street. Harry flipped out his wand and waved it at a mirror that hung on one of the kitchen walls. It immediately displayed a map of the surrounding area. A dark red pulsating dot denoted the position of the wizard who was even then moving closer to his house. Harry waved his wand again and the mirror changed to show an image of the street. There, on the screen, it showed a man dressed in ridiculously flamboyant robes walking swiftly towards his house.
Albus Dumbledore had arrived.
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