After leaving Phoebe, Wyatt was having his own issues. At P3 Chris started rummaging through his bag."
"What are you doing?" Wyatt asked.
"I'm looking for the flute. I put it back in here and now I can't find it."
"We need to talk about what happened."
"There's nothing to talk about. I've lived with their mistrust for months, I'm used to it."
"You will be born Chris. I can't live without you! I need you in my life."
Chris sighed, "Let's concentrate on getting rid of Barbas and finding the elder. There's still time before we have to worry about my being conceived. Now I still need your blood." He said as he showed he found the flute.
"Why are you using mine and not just ketchup or someone who works here?"
"I don't go back on my word without reason. Even if it was given to a demon. Besides if he realized we double crossed him he might double cross us, if he hasn't already and alerted Barbas. I've found that a lot of upper level demons like Richerkvin tend to hold up their end of bargains if it can benefit them." Chris said pricking Wyatt's finger and making sure the drop went inside the flute.
"How is getting this flute benefiting him?"
"I don't think it'll be so much the flute as it will be used as bragging rights to gain the respect of lower demons and maybe upper level ones that he alone used the flute to finally be rid of Barbas. I doubt many other demons had any love of Barbas."
Xxxxxccc
After just sitting on the bench trying to think of what to do next P.J. spoke up. "Hey Mel, maybe we should go talk to that Richard guy. Maybe he can help us. He's the only other magic user we've met. We can't trust our family, we definitely can't trust anyone at magic school as we don't know who else might be working with the elder. We tell the wrong person and it could put us all in danger if the elder responsible gets wind of it."
"You have got to lay off the spy novels. The elder isn't part of some grand conspiracy."
"How do you know? No one really knows if he's working alone or has one or more people working with him. Just because Wy only saw Barbas, an Elder and no-one else means nothing. I mean think about that creepy headmaster and his little minion guy Sigmund at magic school that keeps staring at us and questioning us whenever we're there for more than a few minutes. How do we know they aren't involved in some way?"
Melinda hated to admit it, but Gideon did kind of creep her out and she was tired of either him or his friend keeping tabs on them. She knew there was no way they could know them or their relationship with the Charmed Ones. Still it was getting risky that they could know the elder responsible and get word to him if they ever accidentally let something slip while there. Other students didn't seem to like them there and if something slipped they could tell that Gideon guy. Then a thought struck her.
"I wonder why dad replaced that Gideon guy as headmaster? And why we've never seen or heard of him before."
P.J. shrugged, "Maybe he got tired of being headmaster and retired somewhere and offered Uncle Leo the job. Maybe he felt sorry for Uncle Leo after whatever it was that caused him to give up his wings."
"Yeah I suppose you're right."
"As for why we never heard of him. Well I don't really think it's that important for students to know former headmasters or former teachers. So I doubt the teachers would see telling us about former teachers or headmasters as a top priority. I guess if you wanted to know more about the history of the school but that's about it. We don't know anything about him. For all we know he's who we're looking for."
"I know he's a creep but I doubt he's who we're looking for. I mean first we don't even know if he even is an Elder and two why would an elder run magic school? In our time dad does it. So obviously there are no laws that say it has to be an elder."
"You're right, let's just concentrate on the issue at hand. I still think we should at least talk to Richard."
"Are you sure we can trust him?" Melinda asked.
"We don't have a choice at this point. We need help and it's not like we can summon anyone to help us. Our parents would find out if not the Elders if we did. Besides, even if we could summon someone without anyone finding out who would we summon? Grams already tried and failed. If she had more time maybe. But she might need access to the book and maybe the supplies. Without telling Aunt Piper everything she'd never allow us to do that. And before you ask about creating a problem at P3 for her to leave to take care of, she'd likely just have Uncle Leo come over to babysit Baby Wyatt. If not him, Aunt Paige or my mom. If mom came we might as well tell her everything as she'd be up under us the whole time. It'd be near impossible to convince Aunt Piper to allow us to babysit or convince her to take baby Wyatt with her."
"I didn't think about that. You're probably right." Melinda sighed. She hated it when her cousin was right. Thinking about it more Grams didn't seem to offer any solutions when she was here after learning the problem. She tried and it failed. They'd never be able to use the attic with her parents or Aunts up under them.
"Look let's try this Richard guy first then if that doesn't work we'll try something else."
"Let's do it tomorrow. It's late and I want us to get rid of mom's boyfriend first. That'll be one less obstacle between her and dad. See if you can sense them in the attic. If not we'll look for a spell to help you locate his true love. But can you do it without the ring?"
"Yeah I've done it once but I used a spell."
"Great so we have to find another way. If I wasn't worried mom would find out we used a spell on him I'd agree to it. Uncle Coop said you get into their hearts or something. Why can't you just do that?"
"Yes, you get in between their heartbeats but we'd need a ring for that."
"Can't you sneak into cupid land and borrow one?"
P.J. shook her head, "Dad took me and my sisters to Cupid Lane last year. The place is huge. Besides I can't just steal someone else's ring off their finger and I don't know if they have rings laying around or if they make it for each Cupid."
"What? You never told me that you went there!"
"Sorry there wasn't anything to tell. They gave us practice rings and gave us each a test. It was to tell us how strong we were in our Cupid powers since we're only half Cupid. Peyton was given a lot of praise after her test. I'm not surprised as her cupid powers have always been slightly stronger than her witch powers. I think me and Parker are about the same although I excel more in potion making than spells and she does better with spells than potion making. I think my witch powers are slightly stronger than my Cupid powers but I'm not sure. Anyway after the test they said I wasn't ready. I don't know what I did wrong. I mean I know I froze up for a minute but I still thought I did good. Dad told me not to worry. They'll change their minds. He'll practice with me, which he hasn't, he has been working with both Parker and Peyton a lot because the Cupid Elders gave them real rings."
"How? Are you sure they didn't just turn the practice rings into real ones?"
"I don't know. Maybe, they were taken into a room for a ceremony and came out showing the rings were different. Dad said they were no longer practice rings but real ones."
"Were the rings different before they went into the ceremony? If so maybe they just needed to confirm that they were successful in their match and make it official somehow changing the ring."
"I don't know. I was so upset at being passed over I didn't look at their rings. I guess it's not meant to be. You know what happened the one time I tried to use dad's, I failed, miserably."
"You can't give up now. You can't let the one bad experience keep you down. We were 7. I can't believe you didn't try again! You didn't ask to train?"
"Dad said no, that he'd teach me more when I got older. Looking back I often wonder if mom said no as when you and I started going out on more demon hunts she never said anything. Maybe she didn't want me to be a Cupid and wanted me to be a full time witch. I remember a few times dad and Peyton and sometimes even Parker hanging out. I wonder if he was training them?"
"At least Aunt Phoebe didn't mind us going demon hunting. Mom always yelled at me if she found out. It was worse when she found out I didn't tell Chris or Wyatt and went without them. I got stronger without them holding my hand. If I had given up that day or clung to Chris and Wyatt well we wouldn't be here. But if I had given up, my magic wouldn't have been strong enough to bring us here. I didn't let that one demon get me down. I went after another one later that same week."
"Wait you never told me that you went on a demon hunt alone! And I never tried again because Mom and Dad were so mad at the time. They said they were disappointed in me for lying and stealing. Mom grounded me and bound my powers for a month. Just like she did last month when she told me to be home by 5 for dinner and you insisted we'd be back in plenty of time. Then your bad luck stuck yet again and instead of the demon we came after you riled up a nest of hornet demons that don't lose your scent. They'll keep on you forever. Again Chris and Wyatt had to come and save us. Wy, stayed and kept them at bay with your powers having little effect while Chris returned to the manor to create a potion to kill them. Then they slimed us as they were destroyed. At the end of the day I got into trouble for skipping school and being late. She did help me get the bug slime out of my hair."
"How did she know you skipped school?"
"My last class gets over between 4:00 and 4:25 depending on how long the teacher's lecture runs or if we have a test that day. There would be no time for us to go demon hunting. I know you think I'm being ridiculous after all the times we skipped school and disobeyed and got grounded to let an incident when we were 7 to still bug me but it was. It was the first time I'd ever seen them so hurt, angry, sad and disappointed in me all at the same time. I couldn't let them down again. It was why I learned to clone myself. I don't have enough power to keep it up for a long time otherwise I'd always use it. As long as it never came into contact with family except Uncle Leo, Uncle Henry and Jr everyone else knew it was a clone at first site. I never forgot mom saying that. I did that one other time when I was 12 because I felt sorry for my music teacher. But I chose to use magic instead because I wasn't willing to disappoint mom and dad again by taking the ring and trying again."
"Ladybug, you have to try again!"
"I don't know. Why didn't you tell me or ask me to go after that demon with you? How were you able to do it? Weren't you grounded after what happened?"
