"Hey, DJ," I said in a purr. I was at the Ministry. I had tried to deny it, but I really wanted to become an auror. I was made for it.
"Phoebe?" Diamond asked.
"You know it. I'm back to complete my auror training. I've been trying to keep up my column, but it's not the same anymore. So I've returned."
"Are you serious?"
I smiled. "Have I ever been the joking type?"
"Moody will be pleased."
"So you're back, Halliwell?" Moody said in his growling voice.
"Yes sir," I responded. "I want to be an auror."
Moody eyed me. "You're in it for the long haul this time?"
"Yes. I'm ready to train."
"I daresay that you don't have to go through the training. You're ready for the test now."
"Really?"
"You completed almost all of your training, and for the last few years, you've been fighting all types of evil. Well?"
"I'd love to take the test." I was definitely ready. I had often used my auror training in battles with demons, so it was still fresh in my mind. "Let's do this thing."
"I am officially an auror," I announced in a lofty voice. "Aren't you so proud?"
"That's great! When did you complete your training?" Piper asked as she busied herself in the kitchen.
"I didn't have to. I just took the test and passed with flying colors. Moody was pleased… Of course, I can never tell when that man is pleased." I grinned. "I'm going to be bringing the baddies to justice."
"Sounds like fun."
"Most assuredly." I sat down. My hand went automatically to the ring that hung on a gold necklace on my neck. I fingered the ring while I thought. "I've been thinking about that spirit."
"Spirit?"
"The one that talked through me. I think that it may have been Melinda."
"It's possible," Piper said.
"We could try to summon her spirit and ask."
Piper smirked. "Only in our family."
"Also, I think I know who Chris's parents are."
Piper whirled around. "Really?"
"Yeah. I checked around, and there's apparently a whitelighter named Michael Perry. I don't know if he's having an affair with a witch, though. Leo tells me that he has been disappearing lately."
"Whoa. You solved two of our mysteries?"
"I don't have much evidence yet. These are just theories." I continued to finger the ring. My thoughts were drifting away from my theories. Piper noticed. "How's the wedding coming?" I asked before she could say anything.
"Wonderfully. Everything is set for the big day. I can't believe I'm getting married in six days. I can't wait until the fifth." A dreamy look came over her face.
That's a good way to distract her. "And what about tomorrow?"
"Oh, that's all ready." She frowned slightly.
"What?"
"Well, when I asked Harry whether he wanted cake or brownies for his birthday, he was so surprised. His aunt and uncle never cared enough about him to recognize his birthday. I wish we had been there."
"So do I," I sighed. "Jason's coming to town."
"You don't seem very excited."
"I honestly don't know how to feel about him."
"What do you mean?"
"I just don't feel with him…"
"What you felt with Sirius," Piper finished.
I nodded. "But I can't compare them. Sirius was… I can't even describe him. I keep expecting Jason to be a good as him."
"If you feel like this, maybe you should break it off before Jason gets hurt," Piper said softly.
"Maybe."
"Should we tell Chris what we know?"
"Probably not," I said. "He seems to freak out whenever we find out more about him."
"Yeah." She seemed very happy.
"What are you so happy about?"
"Life is feeling good. I'm getting married, I'm going to have a baby, and I'm back in my old job…. Everything is going so well."
"Yeah." It's getting better.
"Four days. Four days!"
We were up in the attic, waiting for Prue to bring Harry. "Okay, Piper, you are way too hyper," I said. "You have to calm down so that Harry will be able to ask us questions."
"I'll try, but four days!"
Paige was staring out the window. She seemed to be lost in her own thoughts.
The attic door opened, and Prue came in with Harry. "Hey, y'all. The meeting can now begin."
"Fire away, Harry."
Harry had an interesting look on his face. "Why was I chosen to kill Voldemort?"
"Because you have Halliwell blood," Prue answered. "A small amount, of course, but that's enough to give you our powers. Though your abilities are not like ours, they are still powerful. You've displayed them in your training sessions."
"Why does everyone think that I have such great powers?"
I could feel his frustration. "Because you do. When you fight, you fight with all your heart. You can manipulate things in your own way. I know that's hard to understand, but you may be more in touch with your spirit's power than you know."
He partially understood what I meant. "Could I ask about Snape?"
I grimaced. "What do you want to know about him?"
"Well, you seem to have a problem with him. What's that all about?"
"That mostly revolves around Piper."
"What do you mean?"
I took in a deep breath. "Imagine what Piper was like when she was a teenager. She was quiet, withdrawn, studious… She was my complete opposite. Of course, she still is, but that's not the point. Lucius had a little gang all his own. One of his followers was Snape. Every year, those idiots would torture Piper. They couldn't beat her in dueling, so they resorted to words. At that time, those words really hurt her. On several occasions, I ended up attacking them… then I would get detention. Anyways, they really started to get on her case in our seventh year. She took it for a while. Then she kind of snapped.
"One day, Snape was saying some really terrible stuff about her. I swear, he was really in the zone." I frowned. "Well, she was taking it, as usual, then he started talking about our mother. I was about to kick his ass when Piper charged at him. She knocked him to the ground and started wailing on him. She broke his nose. He was a real mess. I was cheering her on when Paige came along. She had become a mini Prue by then, so she broke it up and healed the little dickhead."
None of my sisters bothered to admonish me.
"After that, they stopped bothering her. They were afraid of her. But I always felt the hate from them. I don't like Snape at all. He's not a nice man." I stopped. "But I don't feel evil in him. He still hates us, but he won't betray us."
"Why does he hate you?" Harry asked.
"It's such a stupid reason, but he hates our strength. He hates the fact that we have so much power. He feels that we don't deserve it. How does he treat you?"
"Erm… Like we're enemies. He hates me."
"Because of your father, I'd assume," Piper said.
"Yeah. I saw what happened."
"You mean you saw the fifth year?" I said. "How?"
"Pensieve. Everybody… everybody says that my father was so great, but… how could he be so wonderful if he did that?"
"Snape was in direct conflict with James as well as us. Our fifth year was the worst. I'm not going to try to defend what he did. James knew what he was doing. It was wrong. But your father was a good man. He saved our skins a number of times. Fifteen just happened to be a bad year for all the Marauders. James didn't have Lily, Remus didn't have me, and Sirius didn't have Phoebe. They were all hormones," Piper said. "I can't believe that Snape still isn't over that."
"I can. Snape has always been full of pride. How does he treat you in Potions?" Prue questioned.
"He makes it as difficult as possible."
"As I expected. We could teach you about potions. Snape probably did it all wrong."
"You'd really do that?"
"Of course. Believe it or not, we actually like you."
A rush of familiar energy filled me. "Jason's here."
"Jason? I thought he wasn't coming until later," Prue said.
"So did I. I'll be back in a jiffy." I slowly descended the stairs. Jason was there, waiting. "Jason, you're early."
"Yeah. I couldn't wait." He took my hand and got down on one knee.
Whoa! What is he doing?
"Phoebe, I'm in love with you. I know we haven't been able to see each other much, but I know that we're meant to be together. I want to spend my life with you. Will you marry me?" He revealed a diamond ring.
"Jason, I…"
"I call upon Melinda's soul, I ask her to appear to me, show yourself, let me see." The candles flickered out. "Grr. Fine then. Don't appear." I closed the book. I couldn't say that I hadn't expected that the spell wouldn't work. I wasn't focusing on the spell at all. I was pondering Jason's proposal. He was in love with me. Was I in love with him?
Somehow I ended up in the living room, where Piper was sitting with Wyatt. "I couldn't get her spirit to appear," I tried to say. It came out, "How can you see into my eyes like open doors?"
"What?"
"Leading you down into my core where I've become so numb without a soul. My spirit's sleeping somewhere cold until you find it there and lead it back home." Why was I talking in Evanescence lyrics?
"Phoebe, you're not making any sense."
"I know," I tried to say, but it came out, "Wake me up inside. Wake me up inside."
"Is this some weird joke?" Piper asked.
"Call my name and save me from the dark. Bid my blood to run before I come undone. Save me from the nothing I've become."
"Paige, Phoebe's talking in lyrics."
"Now don't just walk away pretending everything's okay and you don't care about me." Paige seemed to have lost control over her ability to speak also.
"You too?"
"I know it's just no use when all your lies become your truths and I don't care." Paige grabbed a pad of paper and scribbled a note.
Piper read the note, then looked up to Paige. "You can't talk normally?"
"Could you look me in the eye and tell me that you're happy now?" Paige said and nodded.
"Is that a Michelle Branch song?"
"Would you tell it to my face? Or have I been erased. Are you happy now?" she said and nodded again.
"Chill out. What cha yelling for?" Prue said. She looked surprised. "Lay back. It's all been done before."
Piper looked at each one of us. "You're all taking in song lyrics?"
We all responded using different lyrics.
"I'm guessing that that's a yes. What… Oh." She looked off into the other room. "The werewolf's song," she whispered. "This must be the spirit's sign."
"You mean Melinda? Hey, I can talk!" I declared.
"Much better," Paige said.
Prue questioned, "What's the werewolf's song?"
"Nothing," Piper said quickly. But I could sense that she was excited.
"Go to him," I whispered.
"Yes," she murmured.
We all watched her disapparate. We looked at each other and shrugged.
"Hey, little man," I cooed as I picked up Wyatt. "You are such a cutie."
"What happened with Jason?" Prue asked from the doorway. "You keep broadcasting his name in your mind."
I hesitated before I answered, "He proposed."
"What did you say?"
"Nothing. I didn't have an answer."
"Why?" she inquired.
"I just don't know if I'm ready."
"Hmm… Are you being completely honest with yourself?" Prue asked gently.
"You know me too well. I guess I'm afraid that he can never be as good as Sirius. I think I love him, but…"
"Think? Phoebe, you have better be sure before you get deeper into this relationship. And no spells."
"I wasn't going to use a spell," I said innocently.
"I've heard that one before," Prue said with a smirk.
Paige
A scream shattered my peaceful dreams. I groggily got up and ran towards the source.
"I can't get them to stop!" Prue yelled.
"Stupefy!" Phoebe called.
"They won't respond to spells."
"Prue? Phoebe? What's going on?" I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and found that everything in Prue's room was flying around. As I watched, Phoebe gave an "argh!" of annoyance and surprise as she was lifted up and pressed up against the ceiling.
"Is this levitation or you?" Prue asked.
"I'm not sure. Where's Piper?"
"I'm right here. What the—" She flicked her fingers. Everything exploded. "Oops. Well, at least it all stopped."
"My bedroom's a mess!" Prue moaned.
"We'll fix it." There was quite a lot to fix, though. I began to swish my wand around, putting the room back in order.
"Hello?" Phoebe said. "I'm still stuck up here!"
"It must be your levitation, then."
Phoebe kicked and struggled, but she was stuck. She crossed her arms in an annoyed way.
"What the heck happened?" Piper asked.
"I had a dream about losing our powers," Prue said. "When I opened my eyes, everything started to fly around the room. It's like my telekinesis went crazy."
"Oof!" Phoebe said as she landed heavily. "I hate it when that happens."
"Are you all right?"
"Yeah, fine."
"We should all get back to bed. Prue, be careful with that telekinesis."
"Yeah."
It seemed barely a few minutes later that something else awoke me. I groaned. "Now what?" The house was silent. I didn't understand why I had woken up.
A strong feeling pulled me up and to Harry's room. "What's wrong?"
He was sitting up, looking most confused. "I had a dream about Voldemort. Wait. How did you know?"
"I can sense these things," I explained. "I guess it's a part of being part whitelighter. Now, was the dream like the other ones?"
"No," Harry said, shaking his head. "I didn't see it from Voldemort's view. I was watching from the side. I didn't feel what he felt."
"Anything else?"
"Well, it felt more like it was going to happen, not like it was going on. In all the others, I've always seen the present."
That sounded suspiciously like Phoebe's power. "Hmm… This may have nothing to do with your connection to Voldemort."
"What could it be?"
"It might be a premonition."
"Premonition? Like with Phoebe?"
"Yes," I said. "You do have Halliwell blood, after all. What did you see?"
"I saw him sending Wormtail to steal Wyatt and Phoebe's son."
"Well, that won't be happening for a while. We'll take care of it." I paused, then remembered the other thing that would provide a clue or two. "How's your scar?"
"Fine," Harry said. "It didn't hurt at all."
"Then it must have been a premonition," I confirmed. "Try to get some sleep."
He nodded.
His powers are much greater than we thought.
"Damn it!" Piper swore.
"Piper, what's wrong?" I asked.
"My powers have gone crazy. Everything I touch either explodes, freezes, or turns invisible. I woke up with my bed invisible. I've been trying to cook breakfast, but I seem to have the Midas touch."
"I'll make breakfast," I said. "You just sit down and try not to touch anything."
"How are your powers doing?"
"Well, my powers really can do much harm."
"The memory modification can."
"I don't think I'll have a problem."
"Well, be careful," Piper said.
Phoebe walked into the room yawning. When she saw me at the stove, she smirked. "Paige, you're cooking breakfast?"
"I don't think I like that tone, Phoebe," I said, glaring at her.
"Well, you've never actually succeeded at making anything more complicated than cereal."
"Ouch. Okay, you may have a point, but I am going to make a nice breakfast."
"Muggle way?"
"You know I can't. One magical breakfast coming up."
"Magical breakfast?" Prue came down wearing a suit. "Why isn't Piper cooking?"
"Everything she touches blows up," I said.
"You too?"
"Yup. Paige hasn't been affected yet."
"Yet?" I said. "You think I will be affected?"
"Yes," they replied in unison.
"Why are you wearing a suit, Prue?" I asked, catching her eye.
"I—" Her face became blank. "What?"
"Paige, you erased her memory," said Piper. "Did I tell you, or did I tell you?"
"Yeah, yeah," I grumbled. "I'm sorry, Prue."
"For what?" she asked dreamily.
"You'd better put on some sunglasses or something," Phoebe said.
"Right." I summoned a pair and put them on. "Prue, do you remember what you have to do today?"
"Um… I have to… Huh. I don't know."
"Wait, I know. You're meeting with that foreign guy, what's-his-name," Phoebe supplied.
"Throgmorton Lefkowitz," Prue said automatically. She turned to face me. "Did you just erase my memory?"
"Accidentally. Oh, Harry had a premonition last night."
"A premonition?" Phoebe repeated.
"Yes."
"Wow."
"Do you think he has any other powers? What?" Prue put a hand to her head. "You three are thinking an awful lot. I can't…" She closed her eyes. A few things rose up into the air, then crashed down to the floor. "Now my telepathy is acting up. What's going on?"
"Well, you said that the spirit was going to give us more power," I said. "Maybe this is a side effect."
"Well, this sucks."
Phoebe gasped and closed her eyes. That repeated a few more times. "I don't need to see every future moment," she said irritably. "Or," she winced, "every feeling floating around."
"Well I am not going to let this stop me," Prue said. "I have to leave."
"We all do. Where is…"
Chris orbed in.
"Chris. Where have you been?" Piper asked.
"Up there. The Elders are trying to figure out what happened and why you're getting more power."
"You mean they're clueless?"
"Yes. They're grateful, though."
"Why?"
"Voldemort's stronger than they expected," Chris said.
"Did this happen in your past?" I asked.
"No. In my future,you died, allowing Voldemort to destroy the remaining Charmed Ones."
"Ah. Well, we'll see you later," I said.
We all went off to where we needed to be.
"Paige, thank God you're here," Amy said. She looked completely frazzled. "We've got a problem."
"What is it?" I asked.
"A muggle found something really strange. We need you to check it out."
"Isn't that for another department?"
"Yes, but everyone decided that it would be best if you took care of it. You're better versed at this stuff," Amy said.
"Okay. Where is it?"
"Just outside of London. What's up with the sunglasses?"
"My power's acting up. I'll be back soon."
I landed in the exact area. There was no one around.
I could feel the power. It was a pulse in the air. It was all around me. I breathed it in, and it made feel a little dizzy. I carefully felt for the source. I found it and went over to it.
A silvery light shone up from under a rock. I knelt down and uncovered the source of the light. As I watched, the light changed to an image. I gasped. "A time rift. This could show me everything."
Suddenly, a fiery pain shot through my body. I cried out; my eyes went automatically to the problem. An arrowhead was sticking out of my shoulder. Blood was pouring out of my wound. It was tinted slightly by the poisons that had been added to the arrow.
"Darklighter's arrow… with an added touch," a voice rang in my ear.
The pain was terrible. With my last ounce of strength, I orbed home.
"Paige!" was the last thing I heard before I passed out.