Phoebe
The boy appeared to be around sixteen years old. He had black hair, green eyes, and a lightning bolt shaped scar. I felt a nagging sense of familiarity as I studied him.
"Who are you?" the boy demanded.
"My name is Prue Halliwell. These are my sisters, Paige, Phoebe, and Piper. We seem to have summoned you here accidentally," Prue explained.
"My God," I breathed. "He looks just like James."
"Lily's eyes, though," Piper murmured.
"You are their son, correct?" Paige asked.
The boy hadn't relaxed. He was still on guard. "You don't know who I am?" He spoke it more as a statement, but there was still an edge of surprise in his voice.
"Sorry," Prue said. "We've been in the muggle world for the last sixteen years. We're completely clueless. And we're not going to harm you. You can lower your wand."
He looked each of us over, then he slowly lowered his wand.
"Might we hear your name?" I asked.
"I'm Harry Potter."
I smiled. "I remember Lily saying that she liked that name."
Prue looked into Harry's eyes in an odd way. Her eyes widened. She had obviously read his mind.
"What is it?" Paige asked.
Prue had begun to shake slightly, and she breathed through her mouth. Tears were now forming in her eyes. "They're dead," she whispered. A tear freed itself from her eye and slid down her cheek.
Dead? Lily and James dead? How could this be? Their faces flashed across my mind. It couldn't be… Not Lily… Not James…
Suddenly I was hit bluntly by waves of pain. I could see them dying. Then I saw different scenes in which Harry fought Voldemort. The last scene was possibly the most painful of all. Sirius was dueling with a woman. He was struck down...
"Phoebe." Someone shook me out of my vision. The room slowly slid back into focus. I looked at Harry. I was afraid to ask, but I had to know. "Is Sirius…" I cut off when I felt the pain from him. No, no, no. Sirius was dead... James and Lily were dead…
My breath came out in short gasps. I closed my eyes. My head felt light, as if I was about to pass out.
"Pheebs, we need to keep calm."
Paige's voice was very far away. I felt myself nod. "Yes. I'm fine," came my voice. I had to get control of myself. I couldn't lose my grip now. I forced myself back into the world and beat back the pain. I would not cry now.
We were down in the living room. I couldn't remember getting there. Harry, I noticed, seemed more relaxed. He kept stealing glances of me for some reason. From what I felt from him, he recognized me somehow.
"So those are our powers," Prue was saying. "Paige will be able to orb you home. Whom do you live with"
"My Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia."
"Well, we—"
Chris and Leo orbed in.
"Ah, just the ones we needed. We have to orb to England for a little while. Can you watch Wyatt?" Piper asked.
"Back up," Leo said. "Why do you have to go to England?"
"We summoned Harry Potter here, so we have to bring him back," Prue said evenly. "We have business there anyways, so we might have to be there for a while."
"You can't go back to the wizarding world," Chris said quickly.
We had all grown considerably closer to Chris following his encounter with Bianca. He turned out to be quite likeable. Of course, he couldn't reveal too much about himself, but he did change his attitude. I was rather surprised by this burst of mysteriousness.
"We have to."
Chris was obviously fighting an urge to tell us something. "Fine. Just be careful."
"Aren't we always?" Paige said as we grasped hands.
Leo only looked at us.
"What?" Piper questioned.
"Aren't you going to take your wands?"
Prue waved her hand and our wands came zooming down to us. "There. Let' go."
I didn't feel at all like going anywhere. I felt more like crawling in a hole. The full realization of Sirius's death had still not reached me. I was floating somewhere between denial and realization. It was a happy medium, but it would mean even more pain when the denial came crashing down.
Paige orbed us. We landed in a perfectly maintained home.
"AHHHHH! Bloody abnormal folk!" a purple-faced man yelled.
Prue wrinkled her nose. "Is this your uncle?"
He nodded.
"Sir, please calm down," Paige said.
"I won't have this kind of thing in my house! What if the neighbors saw?"
"Get out!" a horrible woman, who I recognized as Petunia, screamed shrilly.
Prue hesitated before she raised her wand and said, "Silencio."
They were robbed of their voices. Vernon began to pitch various things at us. Prue diverted their path and Piper blew up the others. The two seemed to be afraid of their powers and stopped.
"We are all going to sit down, and we will explain. If you don't want to listen, then we will be forced to use our powers. Do you understand?" Paige continued.
They nodded numbly.
"We accidentally summoned your nephew to our residence. It was completely unintentional, and we apologize for any worry his disappearance may have caused you."
Harry snorted.
"Wait a minute. Petunia Evans? Is it really you? I haven't seen you in years. I believe the last time I saw you was when I was over at the Evans house. You rather didn't like me, did you?" I said with a slight smirk.
She glared at me reproachfully.
"As I recall, I levitated you to the ceiling after you called Lily some filthy names."
"Phoebe, this is no time for reunions. We have a lot to do," Prue said and removed the spell on the two.
"Boy, if you ever do this again..." Vernon growled.
"He did nothing," Prue interrupted. "It was entirely our fault."
He scowled at us, then made to rise. Before he could, Piper froze him.
"What a horrid man. Should I erase his memory?" Paige asked.
"Can't," Piper replied. "We'll need him to remember in case we need to get in touch with Harry. Well Harry, you're home and if you ever want to get away, just give a call for Leo. We'll be back soon. Lily would kill us if we left her son alone with Petunia."
We all felt a stab of sadness.
"Thanks, I think," Harry said.
Piper unfroze Vernon. Before he could say anything, we were out of the house.
Yet somewhere in the middle of getting back to the house, something caught us. We fell to the ground heavily. Looking around, I saw a strange net surrounding us. I couldn't see anything past it. However, I could feel that we were being dragged along the ground.
"Hey! What the hell?"
We yelled several spells and tried our powers. Nothing worked against our durance. After an eternity, we stopped and the net was thrust off of us. We jumped up, wands ready.
We were in a living room. The chairs were decorated with crocheted covers. It was obvious that the person owned quite a few cats. Around us were half a dozen wizards. They all had their wands pointed. "Expelliarmus!"
Our wands flew out of our hands. Prue sent the wizards flying into the wall and got back our wands. "Everybody just stop," she ordered.
The action mostly stopped. Those who had been knocked down got up. "What kind of Death Eaters are you? How are you able to use spells without a wand?" a middle-aged wizard demanded.
"Death Eaters? You think we're Death Eaters?" Piper said and laughed.
"We are the Charmed Ones," Paige said.
"Oh yeah? Prove it."
"Fine. Leo!"
Leo orbed in.
"This is Leo, an Elder," said Piper. "Who else would be able to call upon an Elder"
The man shifted his attention from us to Leo. "Is this true? Are they the Charmed Ones?"
Leo, who had been understandably bewildered when he had appeared, gained his bearings at this question. "Yes, they are the Charmed Ones. Who are you?"
"Arthur Weasley."
"You're part of the Order of the Phoenix, aren't you?"
"Yes."
There was a short silence as everyone eyed everyone else. "Well, you have nothing to worry about. All of you," Leo told us and orbed out.
We looked to Arthur. "Are we allowed to leave?"
"Actually, you are just the ones Dumbledore wanted to see."
CRACK. Someone apparated in suddenly.
"Ah, the Halliwell sisters. It's been a long time," Dumbledore said lightly.
Paige
In front of us stood Dumbledore, our old teacher. It had been years since we had last seen him. He looked very much the same. His eyes passed over each of our faces. He seemed very pleased to see us. "Professor!"
He smiled. "You have grown up a lot, Paige. You've no need to call me Professor. Dumbledore will do, thank you."
A warm comfort filled me. Dumbledore usually had that effect. His presence always made me feel that everything would be all right.
"I see you received my message. I didn't expect that you would be rounded up, though."
And he always could make us laugh. "So you sent that letter," Prue said.
"I indeed did."
"The other one too?"
"Correct. Now, I believe introductions are in order. This is Arthur Weasly. He works for the Ministry. Kingsley Shacklebolt. Alastor Moody. Nymphadora Tonks. Mundungus Fletcher. Dedalus Diggle." He turned to the wizards. "These four are Phoebe Halliwell, Piper Halliwell, Paige Matthews, and Prudence Halliwell."
I recognized Moody as one of Phoebe's former superiors.
"I remember Phoebe. You were one of my best students, even if you were a little cocky," Moody said in a rumbling voice.
Phoebe chuckled a little.
"So why were we rounded up, anyways?"
"That I am unclear on. What happened, Arthur?"
"Harry disappeared," Arthur said. "They brought him back. We were just being prudent."
He nodded. "Spell gone wrong, girls?"
"As usual," Piper replied. "So what's going on in the big world of wizardry?"
Dumbledore's expression turned somber. "Lord Voldemort has risen again. We're doing all we can in the Order, but we still need help."
We all avoided his gaze. We knew that we had been wrong to leave the wizarding world. We were partly responsible for all the things that had happened.
"And help from the Charmed Ones would be the greatest help possible."
"Of course we'll help," I said.
Piper and Prue both nodded. Phoebe was looking vaguely at the wall.
"Who killed him?" she asked softly.
Dumbledore knew whom she was talking about. "Bellatrix Lestrange."
Phoebe's grip on her wand tightened. I could tell that she was fighting back tears.
"Phoebe, if you want to go home—" Piper began.
"No," she said loudly. "I'd like to know what happened. How was Voldemort able to rise? What happened while we were gone?"
He sighed wearily. "That is a long tale indeed. Do sit."
We sat down, anxious to find out what had happened.
"It all begins with a prediction. It was the prediction made by Sibyll Trelawney."
"That old hack?" I burst out.
"Yes. She predicted the arrival of the one who could defeat Voldemort." He closed his eyes. "The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches… Born to those who have thrice defied him..."
"Lily and James."
Dumbledore nodded, his eyes still closed. "Born as the seventh month dies… And the Dark Lord will mark him as equal..."
"The scar."
"But he will have powers that the Dark Lord knows not…" At this point he opened his eyes. "And either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives."
Prue was the one to speak the meaning. "Harry is the only one who can kill Voldemort."
"It is a heavy destiny, but he will bear it well."
"But he's so young," I said.
"That is precisely why we need you so much. We need to build up our forces. As I was saying, Voldemort killed James and Lily on that long ago day. He went after Harry before he killed Lily..."
"And she begged him to spare him. She created the ancient magic in him. It protected him from the curse," Phoebe said in a faint voice. She seemed to not be seeing anything. She blinked and woke up.
"Voldemort was not dead, though. He lived on, forgotten by his followers. Everything was quiet for a while. Then, during Harry's first year, he nearly got a hold of the Sorcerer's Stone. Harry defeated him."
He launched into the various stories of Harry's adventures. We were held spellbound. We were shocked when we learned the truth about Peter.
"Peter brought Voldemort back to life?" Piper asked incredulously.
"Unfortunately. He is now Voldemort's right hand man."
Last, he related the tale of what had happened during Harry's fifth year. During his explanation of Sirius's death, tears slid down Phoebe's face. She wiped them away quickly, but we had all seen.
At that precise moment, a wizard apparated in. He had a rather shabby look about him. He looked much older than I was sure he was. He seemed very familiar. Who was he?
"Ah, Remus," Dumbledore said. "I see you got our call."
Remus? Remus Lupin? My mouth hung open as I stared. My sisters had similar reactions.
"Sorry I'm late. I—" He stopped when he saw Piper. "Piper?"
Her face hardened. She walked stiffly up to him and slapped him.
"Piper!" I said, appalled.
"How dare you show your face here," she said in a hiss. "How dare you speak my name after what you did to me." She raised her hand again. Prue and I restrained her.
"Not now Piper."
"Just once more. Just let me hurt him," she pleaded as she struggled.
Remus looked at her, confusion in his eyes.
"Calm down, Piper."
She gradually did and we released her.
Remus opened his mouth to say something. He never got the words out, though, for Prue fell to her knees, clutching her head in agony.
We instantly knew what was wrong. "Thoughts are being forced into her head. Protection spell." The three of us muttered the spell in unison. Prue lay sprawled on the ground, knocked out but still alive. She would be okay. She had gone through this type of thing before, but it had never been so strong.
"Someone is playing with us."
It was late at night. We were at home in our bedrooms, pretending to sleep. Well, Prue really was asleep. The attack had taken a lot out of her. Piper was pacing in her room. I was lying in bed, wide-awake. I didn't know exactly what Phoebe was doing, but it seemed likely that the truth about Sirius had dawned on her. I knew that I would never get to sleep, so I got up and padded silently to Phoebe's room. The door opened before I could knock.
Phoebe stood before me. She looked completely disheveled. Her hair was a mess. Her eyes were red from crying, and her face was blotchy. "Oh Paige," she sobbed and threw her arms around me. "He's dead. I never got to say goodbye. I wasted the years being angry with him. I could have been there. I could have stopped his death. It's my fault."
"It is not your fault," I said firmly. "This is Bellatrix Lestrange's fault."
"But if I had been there, I could have helped him." She sobbed again. "I was so stupid. One fight and I was out of there. Voldemort was so powerful. Why didn't I see that? Why couldn't I just accept it?"
"He died doing good."
"That doesn't matter," she said bitterly. "I still should have done much more. I love him. I've always loved him. But my pride got in the way. I couldn't let it go and return to him." A fresh wave of tears began. "I love him. I want him back."
"I know, hon. I know. We're all here for you."
She didn't drop off to sleep until it was early the next morning. I hoped that her dreams were peaceful. The road ahead of us certainly was not.