Oswin sat in the middle of the floor in the attic, absently flipping through the pages of a copy of the book, one Piper had made, so Oswin could learn from the book too. It was a little past 3am and she was having trouble sleeping. She found it relaxing to look through the many passages and entries in the newly dubbed NoteBook of Shadows and would often sit up in the attic with it when she was stressed out or couldn't sleep. She wasn't sure why, but the notebook seemed to relax her. It may have been the fact that it connected her to many generations of witches.
She crossed her legs and leaned back against a nearby box. She stifled a yawn and ran her fingers along the page that held the spell that had given her cousins their powers. Large, hand-written letters spelled out 'A spell for invoking the power of three' at the top of the page. The door of the attic opened slowly, startling Oswin enough to make the notebook fall out of her lap. Prue wandered into the room, arms crossed and still half-asleep.
"Oswin," she yawned. "What are you doing up here? It's three in the morning." She walked over to the sofa that Oswin was leaning against and sat down.
"I know," Oswin sighed. She lifted the notebook up off of the floor and put it back in her lap. "I couldn't sleep."
"Is Derrik snoring again?" asked Prue. She leaned over Oswin's shoulder and looked down at the notebook.
"A little bit," replied Oswin. She leaned back against Prue's leg and looked up at her cousin. "Actually, a lot. Did I wake you?" Prue shook her head and pulled a blanket that was folded over the arm of the sofa around her shoulders.
"No," replied Prue. "Derrik did." Both sisters smiled Oswin got up and placed the NoteBook of Shadows back on its shelf.
"Sorry," she said softly. "I've tried to get him to where those nasal strip thingies, but he said there's no way he'd be caught dead wearing them."
"That's funny," said Prue sarcastically.
"Not funny," Oswin groaned. She grabbed Prue's hands and helped her to her feet. "Come, you should go back to bed. You have to work in a few hours." Prue groaned and walked slowly toward the door of the attic. She looked back at Oswin and shrugged.
"Are you coming?" Prue asked. Oswin nodded and crossed her arms.
"Yeah," she replied. "I'll be down in a bit." Prue raised one eyebrow, then turned and left the attic. Oswin listened to her cousin's footsteps move down the stairs, into the corridor, and into her bedroom. As soon as she heard Prue shut her door, she opened the NoteBook of Shadows and looked down at one of the spells that had been entered into the book centuries ago. "To swap identities?" she read sceptically with one eyebrow raised. The notebook suddenly flew out of her hands and landed on the floor across the room. "What the…"
An arm suddenly wrapped around her, holding her arms down and preventing her from using her powers. Another hand quickly covered her mouth to keep her from screaming. The demon holding her forced her closer to the book, just far enough that the book didn't feel threatened.
"This is perfect," the demon beamed. He looked down at identity spell that Oswin had just been looking at. The demon quickly chanted the spell that was scribbled across the page. Both he and Oswin were illuminated in a bright white, which lit the dark attic. Within a few seconds, the two of them stopped glowing and the room was dark once again. The demon let go of Oswin and stood back, looking at her with an evil grin.
"What did you do?" Oswin snapped. She ran over to the mirror to make sure she hadn't changed.
"This was too easy," the demon laughed. He approached the book confidently, expecting it to think he was Oswin. The book, however, couldn't be fooled. It slammed shut and slid across the floor, over to Oswin.
"Piper! Prue! Phoebe! Derrik!" Oswin called. She stared angrily at the demon. His smile faded and he suddenly looked worried.
"What the hell!" he snapped. "Why didn't that work?"
"You just pissed off the wrong witch, buddy," Oswin growled. She put her left hand up to freeze him in ice, but ended up encasing herself in ice. The demon looked at Oswin then inspected himself to make sure he wasn't frozen. He walked over to Oswin and looked at her in disbelief. He waved one hand in front of her face, just to make sure she really was frozen.
"Well, this is interesting," the demon laughed heartily. "This isn't what I had planned, but it could definitely have some benefits." He could hear the sound of hurried footsteps rushing up the stairs toward the attic. He took another look at Oswin, and then shimmered out of the room before the Charmed Ones could see him.
"Oh my god, Oswin," Phoebe gasped. She ran over to her cousin and tried shaking her to unfreeze her.
"Why is she frozen?" Prue asked in disbelief. "Derrik, how is she frozen?" Derrik moved quickly over to Oswin and put his hands on her shoulders.
"I don't know," replied Derrik. "She's a good witch. She isn't supposed to freeze. Plus, it's her ice, I don't know how this happened." He moved his hands around her and tried to warm her, but nothing happened. "Besides the fact that she's frozen, I think she's ok."
"So, this should wear off, right?" asked Prue. "I mean, when Oswin freezes things it tends to wear off after awhile."
"Well, I hope so," said Derrik. "But we don't know what did this. It's not like she can ice herself. Something demonic had to have happened to her."
"What do we do?" asked Phoebe. "We can't just leave her here like this." Derrik nodded.
"You two stay with her until she unfreezes," Derrik instructed. "I need to do something." He ran out of the room without waiting for a conformation from the girls. Phoebe, Piper and Prue stood silently, staring at their motionless cousin.