There comes a time in your life...When you realize that if you stand still...You will remain at this point forever...If you fall and stay down...Life will pass you by...But by taking life step by step...You will see the wonders of the world...As well as the beauty in it...Take in all that you can…And store it in your memory...So you may remember...Always...
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"I swear that Gram's keeping something from us," Phoebe said with a suspicious look as she paced about as her sisters worked around the attic.
Piper and Prue frowned at their younger sister as they looked at each other before going back to the Book of Shadows and the potion they were making for a demon. "She's always keeping something from us, we have to find our way around our magical lives now."
Phoebe shakes her head, stopping her pacing to face her sisters, "No, no, this is different. I've always felt like Grams was keeping something from us and I have a feeling it has something to do with whatever happened two years ago at the Golden Gate Park."
Prue sighs and walks over to Phoebe, taking hold of her arms, "How about you help us in trying to kill the demon and look through the Book of Shadows with me?"
The younger Halliwell rolled her eyes but let the oldest turn her towards the wooden book stand to try and help. Phoebe gasped when she touched the book, seeing a hooded figure moving towards the Book of Shadows, which opened and started flipping to a page, the figure touching the book and looking at the page in which the book had stopped. Before coming out of her premonition, Phoebe had seen a discarded newspaper on the floor with a past date.
"What did you see?" Piper asked from the table holding the cauldron.
"I saw someone here with the pages of the book flipping on its own, and they were able to touch the book!" Phoebe tells them almost accusingly, "And it happened two years ago!"
Piper frowns at this, "Two years ago?"
"Yes, while we were in England!"
"Do you know what the person looks like?" Prue asked with a concerned frown.
"No, they had a hood over their head but it seemed like a kid as they were really short."
Piper shakes her head as she adds another ingredient into the cauldron, "Well, it must've been a good person if the book flipped by itself and let them touch it."
"Yes, but we now know that the book doesn't flip by itself–Leo!" Prue called out for their Whitelighter.
Leo orbed in, smiling towards Piper before suddenly seeing the serious looks on the sister's faces. "What?"
"Two years ago when we were in England, did you flip the book for someone?" Phoebe accused with her hands on her hips.
Leo frowned at her, "What? No!"
Before the sisters can say another word, a familiar female voice spoke up, "I was the one who had flipped the book for them."
Everyone turned to see white lights forming their grandmother, "Grams." Piper frowns.
"Her Book of Shadows didn't have a spell she needed for a demon that we had already vanquished and I just suggested that she comes her to write it down so she can have it in her book," Penny tells them with a shrug.
"She? She who?" Phoebe asked accusingly.
Penny sighs, "A family member that you've never met. Listen," she said before the sisters can argue who it is. "You will meet them but for now, you don't have to worry about her because she's in bigger trouble and I need to help her at this time. Be good girls, blessed be."
Piper made a noise before she and the sister's looked towards Leo, "What do you know?"
Leo, who was frowning from what he heard, shook his head. "I have no idea what family member she's talking about!"
"Family tree?" Phoebe asked her sister's.
"Family tree," they stated, going to the trunk in which it was hidden in.
They took it out and unrolled the parchment to take a better look at it. They had brought it out when Phoebe's past tried to kill her but didn't pay too much attention to it. That's when they saw under P. Bowen a list of family members in which they had never heard or met before. Phoebe made a sound and tapped at two names that she remembered four years before, both Piper and Prue looking down at the parchment. They were surprised that they had fourth cousins that they had never met and that there was a female after two generations.
Prue pointed at the female name, "Look at that name, Vixen Aquarius Black–the initials, VAB."
"That makes them, what?" Phoebe questioned confused, "Our fourth cousins?"
"Where's the letter that was left for us?" Piper questioned, going back to the trunk and looking through it, "Aha, here it is." she brought the letter over and saw that the initials were the very same as the letter that was left for them on Penny's gravestone.
The sister's frowned as they read over the letter again, noting that they have yet to meet the mysterious teenager–for they made the math when they saw her birth year–and wondered when they would meet her as it seems that when they needed her, she wasn't there. Or has she been there for them without their knowledge, as they didn't know what type of power she had? Then again, since the sister's had all three powers of Melinda Warren it could be possible that the teenager might not even be magical. Phoebe takes hold of the letter and gasped as she got a premonition.
A teenaged boy with shaggy black hair and round-rimmed glasses held a stick with a red light firing out at the end of it while a pale, hairless man-being with slits for a nose also held a stick with a green light firing out at the end of it with a force-field surrounding the two and a few dozens or some hooded figures surrounding the force-field as well. Then a familiar teenaged girl appeared out of nowhere and throwing a bottle–a potion, more likely–at the pale man-being, the force-field falling almost instantly.
It was then that one of the hooded figures that had surrounded the force-field fired a green light at the female teen, which had her thrown back near a headstone with the name TOM RIDDLE and a statue of a Grim Reaper with large wings and holding a scythe just to the right. The female teen, however, did not stand up again, rather she was now staring up towards the sky, with lifeless eyes.
"Oh! Oh!" Phoebe's eyes widened with both horror and confusion.
"What did you see?" Prue asked impatiently.
Phoebe then explained all that she saw, her sister's and Leo frowning as they've never heard such magic before–even Leo. Suddenly, another Whitelighter had orbed in, his pale face holding such fear as he stared solely at Phoebe. Leo had recognized him and wondered why he was there as he knew he only had a charge that lived in Europe.
"Where did you see them in?" he asked quickly.
Phoebe frowns, "What?"
"The battle!" he told her hurriedly in panic, "The death of the girl in your premonition–where did you see it take place?"
"Who the hell are you?!" Prue demanded annoyed.
"It was some cemetery," Phoebe stuttered, "I never recognized it!"
"Did you see any names on the nearby headstones? Did they stood out to you?!"
Phoebe frowns, thinking back to her premonition, "Yes, it was a unique headstone of a grim reaper and a name, Tom Riddle."
Trent cursed and orbed away, everyone crying out for him to stop. "What the hell was that? Who was he?" Piper demanded of Leo.
"His name is Trent, he's another Whitelighter," Leo answered, shaking his head. "I'll try to find him and find out what's going on." Piper threw up her hands as he orbed out as she told him to wait.
"What the hell is going on?" Prue demanded, very confused just like her sisters.
454545
–October 30th–
Vixen ignored the activity around her as she thought about all that Trent had told her a few weeks ago. He had surprised her as Herbology had ended and she was walking with Harry, Ron, and Hermione to hang out as they had a half hour break before their next class. Harry had suggested staying outside to talk in private, letting both Ron and Hermione know that he and Vixen will be right in as Trent was adamant in speaking with them alone.
Both teens were stunned to hear what Phoebe had seen and become worried about the coming future. Vixen knew that sometimes what her cousin has seen cannot be undone and had to wonder if her death was in the works of Voldemort's return. Both teens figured that it was time to start their plan in stopping the Dark Lord's return, being careful into making sure that no one finds out. It was with that thought that Vixen had met Harry in the Room of Requirements with her Book of Shadows and her messenger holding a few items that she needed for a spell that she wanted to cast.
Harry had frowned as he watched Vixen sit in front of him, lighting two blue candles on either side of the book. "Okay, you're going to have to chant with me. I changed a bit of the spell from my cousin's Book of Shadow as we only need to listen and speak to each other through our thoughts and not everyone else's!"
Harry nods his understanding and leans forward as Vixen turns the book sideways so that they could both read the spell. He noticed that in parenthesis above the fourth sentence would be the ones he would be reading instead of the words below. He's actually seen a few spells with parenthesis in her book, with a note to the side stating to use if one person or for all involved in chanting the spell–i.e. To Hear Secret Thoughts spell.
"As flame lights shadow, And truth ends fear, Open locked thoughts to mind's willing ear, May the smoke from this candle into our ears only, Bringing innermost voices, To my mind in speech."
They sat in silence before Harry thought, 'Did it work?'
Vixen grinned, 'Yes it did.'
Harry grinned in returned and laughed before they both blew out the flames from the candles. It was going to be a very long and hard year, especially with the Triwizard Tournament, but so long as they had each other and a bit of knowledge of what to expect in the future courtesy of Phoebe, they should be all right…they hoped. What Vixen had found out in their second year after Harry had destroyed Tom Riddle's diary was that Harry was connected somehow to Voldemort via-lighting bolt scar.
After consulting a few books while at home, with the help from her grandmother and Penny, the library at Hogwarts and Perseus checked out the library at Ilvermorny and found a sound reason in her cousin's Book of Shadows. It was a ritual that consisted of splitting your soul into either inanimate objects or living things in order to live longer, even when your physical body has been killed off. Per Penny, Vixen had torn the page out–making sure there was no other spell or potion on the other side–and burned it so that her sister's or any generation would use it. They had figured that a witch that had gone dark–like that of P. Russell–had written the spell in before the good witches have retrieved the book back.
The ritual had actually made sense and the reason as to why Voldemort was still alive after the death spell he sent to Harry backfiring. Vixen only needed to find out how many objects, inanimate and living, did Voldemort stored his soul into before dying himself and how to get rid of them. There was also the fact that Harry had a piece of soul of Voldemort within him, which was the reason how connected he was. The tricky part was somehow removing–or killing, however one wanted to see it–Voldemort's soul inside Harry without actually killing her brother.
'We'll find a spell or potion, Vi, don't worry!' Harry told her suddenly.
His voice startled her so badly that Vixen had jumped and dropped her goblet of pumpkin juice, a few of her fellow classmates asking if she was all right. 'I thought we promised to keep out of each other's head when deep in thought?'
'We did, but your thoughts are screaming loud and clear, which is why I said something.'
Vixen rolled her eyes as she can hear the smirk on his lips, 'So…what's going on?' she asked as she had just noticed other students.
She was in the Room of Requirements talking with both her grandmother and Penny about finding a way to find out how to find possessed objects with the bit of Voldemort's soul and had entered the Great Hall after the other schools had arrived. She had even put up a blocker on her mind so that Harry wouldn't have been able to talk to her or find out where and what she was doing. Her mind deep in thought, Vixen didn't even notice the other students until Harry had surprised her as her blockers were taken down unconsciously.
She noticed that there were several boys wearing deep blood red robes sitting with the Slytherin's, then turning around she saw boys and girls wearing pale blue robes that seemed to be made of silk sitting with the Ravenclaw's. Over the chatter, she heard Harry laughing, turning around she glared at her laughing brother, Hermione, and Ron asking him what was hilarious as others looked at him weirdly.
Knowing that she couldn't throw anything at him as it is highly improper behavior–not to mention it might start a food fight that the Weasley twins will keep going–and used her powers to slightly poking him in the leg–sharply. Harry yelped and glared over at her as he leaned forward and rubbed his leg as the icicle retreated back until it disappeared with no one none the wiser of what had happened.
"What the bloody hell, Vi?" he yelled at her.
Neither of them seemed to notice the slow flow of chatter as Vixen yelled back, "Keep it up and it'll be more than just a poke, pup!"
Harry threw up his hands, "Seriously? That's not even fair with what you can do and I can't do anything until we're close by!"
"Which is why you shouldn't make fun of me!"
Before Harry can argue back, a loud, echoing of someone clearing their throats got their attention, the two teens looking towards the staff table to see Dumbledore looking towards them with a stern look but with a smile on his lips. Both teens muttered their apologies and were about to go back to their dinner when a whistle from the entrance caught everyone's attention. Vixen was taken aback to see Trent with a concerned look and immediately stood from her seat, hurrying towards him. Harry had also stood from his seat, telling Ron and Hermione to stay put when they made a move to get up and follow.
Trent took hold of Vixen's arm as soon as she reached him, pulling her through the doors with Harry following before they closed shut. In all her life since she met Trent did he ever come to Hogwarts and show himself in front of everyone that was a wand user. In regards to what's to be happening this year, however, whatever it is was at that moment was extreme enough for him to come to her right away.
"What's happened?" Vixen asked right away.
"Phoebe is starting to ask questions and I think she is close to finding out where you live. I've been trying to make her, and their cop friend, to forget your names and switching addresses around. But with her premonition…" he trailed off, "But all the sister's know about you and your brothers now and they want answers."
Vixen sighs as Harry hugged her shoulder, "What about the memory spell?" the two turned to him in curiosity, "I mean, it worked well for two years. I'm sure it'll work again."
Trent shrugged at his charge and Vixen shoves a hand through her hair in thought. "It could work, and I can make our names invisible on the family tree."
"Is there any way to stop Phoebe from having a premonition of them or us?" Harry asked curiously, "At least until they officially meet?"
Vixen and Trent frowns, "I can always double check the Book of Shadows or I can just make a spell?" the Wiccan witch said softly.
"I'm putting my bet on you making up a spell," Trent tells her honestly.
Vixen nods, "I'll have to be careful with the wording. Okay, keep me updated and come get us in Harry's room about eight tomorrow. I'll do the memory spell on the sister's and an invisible spell on the family tree."
"I guess we'll be a bit late for classes in the morning?" Harry questioned with a grin.
Vixen rolled her eyes, knowing that Harry would have had a fit if he didn't go with her. "We'll get some food on the way before going to classes."
Trent chuckles at the two teens, "Alright, go back in and I'll see you in the morning."
As he orbed out, the two teens walked back to the Great Hall, "What do you think will happen when they find out about keeping them in the dark about you?" Harry asked as he door opened.
"They're not going to like it," Vixen muttered as they stopped in front of the aisle between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff. "But I know that once they find out the reason why they'll understand."
"Best we return to our seats, everyone is staring and waiting," Harry muttered quietly.
With a nod, the two of them turned to their respective tables and walked back to their seats. 'Do you think the sisters would be asleep by then?'
Vixen sighs, 'I'm hoping that they will be. Otherwise, I can place a sleep spell on them. Can't really use our wands outside of school and in America.'
Harry snorts, 'Don't want to alert the Ministry idiots.'
Vixen nods but doesn't say anything as she takes a bite of her food. The two teens continue to talk about how to go about in making the sleep and memory spell as they ignored the introduction of Ludovic 'Ludo' Bagman–'He's Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports,' Harry told her later as they walked out of the Great Hall–and Bartemius 'Barty' Crouch–'He happens to be Percy's boss at the Ministry,' Harry also told her before they parted to their House common rooms. They stopped talking as soon as the desserts were finished and the food and plates were all gone from the tables.
Dumbledore spoke about what was going on for the year and then had brought out the Goblet of Fire where the participants will place their names inside before it chose three competitors to pass twenty-four hour mark. Barty continued on about the Triwizard Tournament, how there was going to be an age line and only those of age will be able to compete. Of course, there was a large commotion concerning the unfairness of this but Dumbledore quieted the entire student body down–especially the Weasley twins, who were only a year younger before they were of age.
Once Dumbledore had told the entire student body to go to bed, Vixen moved so that she can quickly get to her room and hide behind the curtains around her bed so she can get started on the spells so that they would be ready by the morning. She was almost near the entrance when it was suddenly blocked, the Wiccan witch wondering what was going on and if she needed to speak with Peeves one more time about his behavior. It was then that she saw the Durmstrang Institute's headmaster, Igor Karkaroff staring at Harry with surprise–as were the Durmstrang students.
Schooling her features, Vixen pushed her way through the Hogwarts students in front of her and said, albeit loudly, "Yes, that's Harry Potter." everyone turned and parted for her, walking in between Harry and Ron, "And he's my brother"–everyone who wasn't a Hogwarts student gasped loudly at this declaration–"so if any of you mess with him, you'll regret it!" she glares at the headmaster and then to the students, "It's bed time, get! You're blocking the doorway."
Karkaroff bristled at this but seemed to have noticed something behind her threat and walked away with his students behind him without a word. Vixen looks away from his back and to the Durmstrang students to see some of them looking astonished at her, some with curiosity, or in Viktor Krum–the Seeker for the Bulgarian National Quidditch team, Ron explained the next day when she didn't know why everyone was drooling over him–case, looking at her with indifference.
Harry bids her goodnight, hugging her tightly, once they walked out of the Great Hall and went their separate ways. Walking down a set of steps and down the corridor with the rest of the Hufflepuff's and some Slytherin's–though they did go further down the stairs as their common room were near the dungeons. Vixen smiled towards the only still-painting in Hogwarts of a food-theme on the left and walked a bit further before turning towards the large barrels stacked in a shadowy stone alcove on the right. As she was the first one to get there before her other peers, Vixen tapped the rhythm of 'Helga Hufflepuff' on the barrel two that was on the bottom, middle of the second row.
Walking through the open doorway, the Wiccan witch made her way up the earthy and slop passage until she reached the cozy, round, low-ceiling room. Smiling at the familiar colors of yellow and black, Vixen bid some of her peers good night, needing to work on the memory spell, and walked to the right towards the girl's dormitories. Pushing through another round door that looked like the barrel tops, this time painted in golden yellow, she smiled as she remembered some of the awestruck first years entering the common room and the dormitories for the first time. Vixen continued to walk around the small slope, past a few of the barrel-top doors, until she reached the fourth one–which indicated the year she was in now–and entered.
Grateful that no one was in the room just yet, Vixen quickly changed into her pajamas, grabbed her notebook–a pen already stuck between the pages–and the Book of Shadows and climbed onto her bed, closing the curtains around her. She muttered the Lumos spell, the tip of her wand lighting up lightly, and started going through her book first to find the memory spell that she placed in herself when she had to use it on Phoebe two years ago.
Finding it, Vixen softly read over the spell before taking her pen and notebook and started to redo the spell for all the sisters. She read it over it a couple of times to make sure it was a good spell before doing the one for Phoebe. It was a bit trickier due to the older Wiccan witch needing her premonition and not wanting her to lose her power. It took until an hour and a half after midnight to finally get the spell right and she passed out with her notebook around her on the bed.
By seven-thirty, Vixen was running around the dormitory, trying to get ready on time so she can get to the Gryffindor's common room by eight. Grabbing her messenger bag, she shoved her notebook with the two spells inside and rushed out with a wave to her laughing schoolmates as she stumbled over her feet as she tried to put on her short and black combat shoes properly–the Wiccan witch flipping them off after her, which only made them laugh harder. It took her a minute to get to the location of the Gryffindor Tower–Vixen pleading with Hogwarts to return the staircase to the right floor she needed to go–and giving a quick hello to both Ron and Hermione as they were making their way down the stairs.
Harry merely shook his head at her and ushered her inside after giving the Fat Lady the password, yelling over his shoulder to his friends that he will see them in class. The twins had just walked down the stairs of the boy's dormitories and asked them what they were doing but neither Harry nor Vixen gave them an answer as they needed to be in the fourth year's room in a few seconds or Trent would be annoyed with them. They had just placed stealth spells on themselves after closing the door just as Vixen's Whitelighter orbed in, giving the Wiccan witch a look of knowing.
Vixen merely stuck out her tongue at him before taking hold of his hand, making him laugh before orbing to the Halliwell's Manor. They had orbed in the dark dining room, the trio grateful that the sister's, Leo, and both Wyatt and Christopher were asleep at that time. Vixen and Harry both may have had pushed the love and marriage between witch and Whitelighter–for even a blind person can see and feel the love that they had for each other! Their children, of course, were a surprise but it was well worth it to see the happy family.
Vixen had helped cover their secret marriage with a concealment charm that she had found and practiced until she perfected it enough to hide her Wiccan items in her dormitory, and an incantation called Protego Totalum to be on the safe side. She knew that the Elders weren't happy that they were dating and it would have been worse when they found out that they were about to be married. After all the trouble that they had gone through to even be together, Vixen felt it was the least they could do.
Forcing herself to relax, Vixen nods to Harry and Trent, "Meet us up at the attic. It'll just be easier for the two of us to make our way there."
"Here, take this just in case, since neither of you can use your wands outside of Hogwarts," Trent tells them, handing over a small, white cotton bag with drawstrings.
Orbing to the attic, Vixen turned to Harry, nodding, "The memory spell I'll be okay to use on my own but I'm gonna need your help with the spell to stop Phoebe's premonition."
Harry sighs, "Okay."
Walking out of the dining room and up the stairs quickly to their right, the two teens moved silently, grateful that they had placed stealth charms on themselves before leaving Hogwarts, otherwise they would have woken the household. On the second floor and in the middle of the hallway which housed the three sisters, Leo, and both Wyatt and Christopher, Vixen took out her notebook and opened the page in which the string she placed to remember where the spells she had written were.
Before she can even start, two children orbed in front of them, the oldest placing a blue force field around them. Harry was taken aback by this display of magic at such a young age but Vixen was not as her grandmother and Penny had told her that the oldest child of Piper was to become Twice-Blessed–as well as being the first male witch to be born into the Halliwell-Warren line.
Kneeling, Vixen smiled softly, "Hello Wyatt, Chris. I'm Vixen, your cousin, and this is Harry a friend of mine." the oldest boy lowered the force field, not saying a word but tilting his head to the side in questioning, making the witch smile softly, "I'm only here to help, Wyatt, nothing more."
"Family," he whispered, Vixen nodding with a smile. "Kay," he said before both boys orbed back to their room, no doubt.
Sighing, Vixen, took out a pen from her bag and looked over the spell once more before making a few changes here and there. Reading it over under her breath, Vixen was satisfied with what she comes up with and gives herself a curt nod.
"Memories Past, Present, and Future, Of distant cousins, Will be locked and forgotten, Until three sisters Charmed, Husband and children, Are needed. So, In this Place, At this hour, Our evidence is now invisible."
The two teens watched as white lights were shown in the cracks of the bottom of the doors. The joy she felt that it had worked, Vixen looks over to Harry and holds out her hand for him, Harry clasping his hands with hers. They both looked down at the journal, Harry reading over the spell a couple of times, Vixen asking if he was ready.
"Ready," Harry sighs, "hopefully this works since I'm not a Wiccan."
Vixen smiles softly up at him, "Every mortal has a bit of Wiccan magic in them, despite not having any physical powers. Besides, you're a wizard, magic flows through you."
With a grin in return, the teens looked back down at the notebook and read in unison, "The one whose power to see Past, Present, Future, Will no longer see distant cousins and friends, Until all three sisters Charmed, Husband and Children meet, So Mote it be."
This time they saw a blue light in the middle door, the teens sagging with relief that it had worked. They moved quickly to the stairs leading up to the attic, opening and closing the door to see that Trent had already found the Warren Family Tree. They walked over to the table and looked down to see the Black Family on there and Vixen moved a finger over her father's name, seeing that her grandmother had placed a spell upon the scroll to magically have family appear upon it without anyone needing to pen it on.
Whispering the spell to make her family invisible, she watched as the lettering faded against the color of the scroll–sort of like a chameleon. Done with what they needed to do, the teens walked back to Trent, who placed a hand on their shoulders and orbed back to Hogwarts–not before orbing the scroll back to its place in the trunk.
454545
A/N: If you Charmed fans have noticed, I had Wyatt and Chris be born five years earlier, as well as Piper marrying her Whitelighter earlier on. I just felt like Prue needed to be there instead of Paige. Well, please let me know via-review or PM. A big thank you again for those who have stuck with me and to new readers as well! Thanks for the read!