Our Mother's Memories: A Family Magic Interlude

"Piper? Are you down here?"

The question came from Prue Halliwell, who stood at the entrance to the Halliwell's basement, which was located just off the kitchen where the eldest Halliwell sister had arrived, hoping to find a full pot of coffee and some left over doughnuts from breakfast, however she had aborted that plan after finding the basement door wide open, and the light bulb which hung from the basement ceiling casting it's light into the kitchen.

"The door was open and I know Phoebe wouldn't come down here." She unable to hold back a slight giggle as she thought of Phoebe's fear of the basement, which spawned during childhood, is a fear which still haunts her to this day. "Piper?" she called again.

There was no reply.

"Piper?" she repeated, this time in a louder tone.

After his sister didn't answer, Prue descended the stairs, treading carefully on the old wooden slats which made up the staircase. The Halliwell's basement wasn't a place they visited often, in fact it was usually only when maintenance issued required their attention that brought them down here. Their Grams had warned them away from the basement as children, and the habit of not venturing beneath the house had developed through their teenage years, and eventually became the norm as they became adults. And the lack of attention they had given to the room over the years was starkly apparent. Whereas most people would use the basement as a washroom, or as another bedroom, the Halliwell's lack of attention to the breezy room over the years had meant that the place had become very cold and bare, almost as if this room wasn't attached to the main house itself but existed as an entirely separate location.

As she reached the bottom of the staircase, Prue spotted her younger sister sat legs crossed on the cold concrete floor in the middle of a circle of opened cardboard boxes. Prue knew instantly which boxes Piper had been rummaging through because those were the only boxes they had stored in the basement of any real value. Apart from old kitchen appliances, old clothes which had belonged to various family members throughout the years and the odd piece of out of fashion furniture, the only items they had bothered to box up where those belonging to their late mother, Patty. Of course as the girls were only children when their mother passed away, most of her things were sorted by their Grams, Penny, so they had never been sure as to what was actually inside the boxes.

"Piper, what are you doing?" Prue asked, carefully approaching her sister, who was acting strangely out of character. She joined Piper on the floor, gasping a little as the cold from the floor made its way through her skirt, sending a chill to her legs. She wrapped her arms tightly around her upper body in an effort to warm herself up. "I thought we agreed that when we were going to look through these boxes, we'd do it together. As a family."

"I'm just reading," Piper said, her voice croaking, sounding as if she hadn't used it in a while. "I haven't looked at anything else," she added, keeping her eyes fixed on her reading.

"How long have you been down here?" Prue took a moment to look over what Piper was reading. It looked like a diary or a journal, and she faintly remembered her mother keeping a diary, although she was lost as to why Piper had chosen this moment to take it upon herself to find out what their mother thought of day-to-day life in a period that they couldn't remember, or depending on how early in Patty's life, weren't even born yet.

"I took the afternoon off," Piper answered, finally meeting Prue's gaze.

Prue looked at her watch, and she knew that it was definitely past six because she had been out all day looking for a new job after quitting her previous one just days before. She saw that it was almost seven, but decided not to say anything.

"I wanted to try and get my head around all of this…this…witch…stuff. And I thought that Mom would be a good person to ask," she said, half smiling as she angled the book so that Pure could see that it was in fact one of Patty's old diaries. Prue instantly recognised her mother's neat scroll, which caused a small smile to crease her face.

Since discovering that they were witches mere nights ago, the Halliwell sisters' lives had changed. A lot. They hadn't decided if that change was for the better or for the worse, however in Prue's mind, the less said about it the better. Phoebe had embraced her magical side, at least in the short term, and while she was still trying to get over her ex-boyfriend's betrayal, Piper hadn't really thought about where she stood on the whole debate yet. That was until this afternoon when she accidentally froze the whole kitchen when she thought a fire was about to break out. Of course she wasn't going to admit that to Prue, after the eldest sister has imposed a "no powers ban" on the three of them, a ban which Piper was happy to go along with.

"Piper, there is nothing to get your head around. This will all blow over, just let Phoebe have a bit of fun before she realises it also," Prue said, not really believing in what she was saying, but as the oldest, she felt it was her job to keep a strong head. She didn't know what was going to happen next, she didn't know if they would have to fight any more warlocks and she didn't know how she was supposed to get on with her life knowing that nothing would ever be the same again. "Hopefully."

"Come on Prue, I know you don't really believe that. And it's not something that will just blow over," she said, looking down at her mother's diary. She had read through a good four years worth of thoughts and memories penned by their mother, who at the time of writing was trying to juggle life as a witch, a wife and a mother, and it didn't seem easy from what Piper had read. "Look at this, Mom spent years trying to deal with this, and we know where that got her. Don't we?"

A heavy blanket of silence fell over the room. Their mother had died in an accident in the lake which they spend many of the childhood summers, and although they had yet to learn it, she had died trying to vanquish a demon.

"Mom died in an accident," Prue said, catching a tear with the base of her hand. She didn't cry often, it wasn't because she didn't want to it was because Prue had almost adopted the role of Piper and Pheobe's parent after Patty had passed away. Their Grams was capable enough, but Prue had taken it upon herself to protect her sisters, and with such a responsibility came a hardness which even after all these years, Prue still had a hard time softening.

"I know. But reading through her diaries makes me think what exactly does whoever is in charge of all of this have store for us? She was always trying to be something. A witch. A wife. A mother. She never stopped, and the demons she fought took advantage of that, they never left her or Grams alone. I don't want that. I don't even know if being a witch is a good thing, I mean there has to be a reason why this happened to our family. What must we have done to deserve this?" Piper stood up, and closed the diary. She knew no good would come from getting upset at their predicament. She couldn't pretend like it wasn't happening like Prue, or relish their new magical abilities like Phoebe. Piper needed to find her own angle, her own way of dealing with things and after today's efforts she seemed to be even more clueless as to what that way might be.

"I just need some time, that's all," she said in a softer tone, calming her easily flared temper slightly. "We all do."

"Can I see that for a moment?" Prue asked, holding out her hand. Piper nodded and slipped the diary into Prue's hand.

"I'll be upstairs. I'll make something for dinner. Chicken?" Piper knew that cooking would take her mind off things, it always did. There was no place where Piper was happier than in the kitchen throwing together a feast.

"Sure, sounds great," Prue smiled.

As Piper ascended the stairs, Prue opened the diary, deciding that Piper had a point. It would be nice to know what their lives would be like if they were in fact destined (or doomed) to be witches forever, or at least the foreseeable future. She found an entry, towards the middle of the book and began to read.

November 2nd, 1972

I haven't had an awful lot of time over the past few days to sit down and document anything, but considering Mom's current situation has left me unable to sleep, I believe that now is as good a time as any to write this.

My life has become something of a balancing act of late. First I am overjoyed at the prospect of being a parent again, but I feel that the situation surrounding the demonic attacks has left me with no desire to celebrate. Victor and I have found an apartment, it's a modest two bedroom place, but it is going to be ours. Of course I still have the small matter of telling my mother who is going to be less than pleased that we are moving so far away. No doubt Victor will get the blame for that one!

However, there are more pressing issues to attend to first. Mom is for some reason or another the current target of demons, demons which we had never come across before, demons who don't appear to be in the Book of Shadows and demons whom until now we have been very luck to vanquish before they managed to kill us. Thankfully, that has all been taken care of up until now, but no doubt we'll be getting another visit from another resident of the underworld soon enough. Fingers crossed we won't. We simply need to get to the bottom of things, why is this happening, and why now? And why does my mother find it so necessary to become obsessed with vanquishing as many demons as possible at the moment? I think there is something going on with her, perhaps to do with her date with Ron? Perhaps something else? However, I believe that whatever is going on with her is tied directly to our current predicament. Now, if only I could get her to open up to me? Perhaps spoiling her with breakfast in bed in the morning may allow me to get past her guard?

Oh and before I forget – Piper. What a lovely name that would be, I shall have to remember to bring it up with Victor next time we discuss baby names.

Hopefully next time I put pen to paper there will be more pleasing news to report.

Prue closed the book and placed it back inside one of the boxes. "Wow," she whispered to herself as she rose to her feet. She couldn't even manage to evaluate her feelings for Andy now that she was a witch, and here her mom was juggling marriage, moving and battling the forces of evil. She smiled as she began for the stairs, realising just how amazing their mother actually was, but did she want her life to follow in the same footsteps? Not in the slightest.