"To the Charmed sisters, the greatest gift given to men."
Another day of insanity with Grams.
Piper, you have to properly introduce yourself.
You just did it for me, Pheebs.
Well, now the reader knows that.
You act like someone is actually going to read this someday.
We're going to read this in the future.
Just to remember how strange we were?
And horny. You forgot that.
I knew you were going to bring that up.
Of course. It's way too funny.
It was embarrassing.
We have to explain.
You do it. You're not at all humiliated by it.
Admit it, Piper. It's hilarious. Okay then. Anyways, this horniness began with Grams.
That sounds so wrong.
Well that is how it began. Piper had Remus in her room. She closed her door without even thinking… An immediate oddity for her.
We were just talking.
Good thing because Grams walked by the door, heard Remus, and practically kicked down the door. Piper nearly had a heart attack, apparently.
What would you do if Grams did that to you and Sirius?
Get grounded for making out with a boy behind closed doors.
I should have expected that.
Yes, you should have. So then Grams kicked Remus out and lectured Piper for an hour about the proper way of interacting with boys.
It was mortifying.
Please. I've gotten that talk a million times. Hasn't really affected me.
I see.
I don't like that tone. It's not like I've tried anything.
Let's not get into that. You're my little sister.
Just wait until Paige starts bringing home guys.
She already has a boyfriend.
Who is it?
She won't tell me.
Sounds like a repeat of last year.
This time I'm not getting into it.
That's good. You're a good big sister, but when it comes to love…
I suck.
You meddle. That's the problem.
I won't be doing any meddling this year.
Right…
What is that supposed to mean, Phoebe?
You can't help it. You have to meddle. At least we'll have some new adventures to take on. Demons will be popping up occasionally… we might have to deal with a warlock or two… magical creatures galore…
You actually enjoy that stuff?
Yup. You do too.
Demon hunting is hardly fun.
You get to blow them up. You love having powers.
Bah!
Your power's cool. You need a moment… POOF—you get it.
All our powers are great.
And the Power of Four is pretty great.
Look at us. We're romanticizing about our powers.
It's a good thing. Whenever we're cursing our gifts, we can look at this entry.
I chuckled. "We should have kept this out more." I flipped back to the boys' entry. I stared at it solemnly, thinking back to the time when we had no worries. We had had our duties as Charmed Ones, but we had no clue about the future. I wish I could go back. I'd definitely make a few changes. Too bad I can't. It was strange how things went. Is this all a part of some divine plan? Were we destined to end up here? I shook my head. I'm getting way too philosophical. I wonder if it's Morrigan.
A wave of fury washed over me. "I never should have trusted you, Wormtail." It ended as suddenly as it had started. Empathy sucks. Lately I had started to feel what Voldemort was feeling. I had a horrible fear that it was because of my dealings with Cearbhall. Of course, I should be punished for that. I still carried the guilt of that experience. It wasn't something I was ever going to forget.
"You were in pain," Prue said. "And you need to move on. You have your powers; you have your son. So you made a mistake. We've all screwed up before. Lingering on your mistake won't help you or Nick. It just attracts trouble. You know that well enough."
"Reading my thoughts, huh?"
"You can't hide your guilt. I know you too well, Phoebe."
"But what if I opened up a Pandora's box? What if that is what allows Voldemort to get to the boys?"
"You never forged a full connection with Cearbhall. You didn't sign the paper completely."
"He was a tricky demon," I said. "What if he did something else? What about when he had that spell on Chris and I?"
"If you keep questioning yourself, you'll only make things worse. He didn't do anything. We would feel it. The bonds of sisterhood are strong."
"But—"
Prue waved her hand. "None of that. I want you to look at your son. Will you ever let Voldemort come near him?"
I looked at my little boy. "No."
"Good. What happened to my confident sister?"
"Motherhood does a lot to you."
"It makes you stronger. You can handle this."
"Thanks."
"Keep up that love," Prue said. "It'll help Nick."
"None of this makes sense." I put down the book. "We can't find anything else regarding the prophecy about us."
"We'll just have to wing it, then," Piper said.
"Don't we always?"
"Yes. All we have is a few pieces. We have an entire timeline to go through." The task of figuring out our path was a lot harder than we had expected. It was starting to seem impossible. That was quite discouraging.
"So let's try to put the pieces together," Prue said. "We'll start at the very beginning."
"Morrigan's promise?" Paige asked.
"Yes. Morrigan made that promise knowing that it would stop evil from gaining too much power. Many years pass and Dumbledore finds her. There must be a connection there," Prue concluded.
"Dumbledore is the most powerful wizard of all time," I said.
Piper shook her head. "It's more than that, though that did help. He was a connection to us. Morrigan needed a way to contact us. Dumbledore happened to come across her. She was able to guide us using him."
We thought it over. "Makes sense."
"Then we find our Charmed powers. One of the greatest events that tied in with our powers is…" Prue paused, brow furrowed. "Any ideas?"
"Well, it has to be something that occurred when we were all in Hogwarts," Paige said.
"So it could only be from that span of time when we were just discovering our powers."
We all thought back to that time. "The biggest thing that happened then was our adventure with the Marauders," Piper said.
"But which specific part?"
"James's vision," I answered automatically. "That was the thing that we struggled with the most."
"Yes, but it can't just be the vision," Prue said. "We resolved that issue. It has to be something that we never resolved… something that we never figured out."
"This is impossible," Paige said, shaking her head. "It could be a tiny event. The truth spell… the event at the end of the year…"
But I was staring ahead with a feeling of sureness in my heart. The memory of James's vision was still very clear in my mind. "The greatest issue I dealt with was the time when James sent me to the alternate world. That led me to the vision. It was never resolved."
"That still doesn't lead to a solid conclusion," Piper said. "Is the issue with what you saw or is it with the universe itself?"
"I don't know," I responded. "We'd need another clue."
"Clue…" Prue murmured. "Morrigan must have been sending me a clue when she did the apparition thing."
"Apparitions and alternate universes…" I paused, then realization struck me. "Wait, do you think that the apparitions are real people from other universes?"
"I never thought of it that way," Prue said. "Now that you mention it, it would tie in with the voices that I heard in that dreams. They all spoke of different situations. It was almost like they were twists of things we had gone through."
"So we have to look at other worlds," Paige concluded.
"One piece of the puzzle is partially solved," Prue said. "After that, we grow up, go out into the world, and get sent back into the muggle world."
"An automatic set back for Morrigan," Piper said. "We were more concerned about being normal than about our powers."
"And sixteen years is a long time of waiting," I put in.
"Once we get back, we're opened up to Morrigan because we're using magic," Prue said. "She jump starts the system, bringing us right to her form."
"However, that kind of response takes a lot of power," Paige said. "Our powers come from our emotions. She used the strength of our most challenging powers to allow us to take on her form."
"Yet that created another block for her," Prue said. "When she was alive, she didn't use her emotions to posses her powers. That's something we still have to overcome."
"Is that all?" I wondered.
"That's all we know at the moment," Prue responded.
"Then let's try to fit in the other variable," I said.
"What's that?"
"It's more of a who. Chris."
"Why does Chris fit into this?" Piper asked.
"In his past, Morrigan never came to us," I said.
"That's because Paige was dead in his past," Piper said.
"Still, Morrigan has been with us for all our lives, right?" Prue said, catching onto my thought.
"I guess so."
"She would recognize the fact that we needed more help," Prue said. "She still would have given us power."
"That's true," Paige said. "So why didn't she?"
"I don't know," Prue said, sighing. "We've run into another brick wall."
"We could just ask Chris," I suggested.
"Yeah right," Paige scoffed. "You know Chris. He'll say that he can't tell us because it'll screw up the future."
"Like he hasn't already done enough of that," Piper said.
"True, but he won't tell us. He's too stubborn," Prue said.
"We're just going to figure it out ourselves, then," I said.
"It's not going to be easy," said Piper, frowning.
"Nothing ever is," I replied. "But we always get through it."
"Should we start right now?"
"I don't even know where to start," I said. "We can only analyze what we've been through so far. We can't factor in things that happened in Chris's past that didn't happen to us."
"We're just going to have to work with what we have," Paige said. "Chris prevented my death. If he hadn't, the Power of Four would be gone… Duh!"
"What?"
"Until the Great Four come… We came and then I went," Paige said, excitement in her voice. "Morrigan promised her power only to the four of us. She couldn't break her own word. It was much too powerful."
"Nice, Paige," I said, impressed. "Our muses must be working overtime tonight."
"Now we deserve a little break," Piper said.
"You three go," Prue said. "I'm going to keep working."
I eyed her. "Prue, don't you think you're getting a little obsessed?"
"Not at all."
"You've been working on this pretty much nonstop for a while," Piper pointed out.
"Hardly. I just want to figure this out."
"Okay, but remember that we're going to work this out together."
"I'll just get a head start."
"Just try to get some sleep."
"Of course," Prue replied.
"I mean it, Prue," Piper said. "I know you're pumped up about this, but you can't get obsessed. It's only the beginning of the summer. We don't need you spending all summer agonizing over this."
"I swear I won't." She held up her left hand, trying hard not to smile.
"The right hand is usually used in swearing," I commented wryly.
"Oh yeah…" The hidden smile came through and she immediately dove into another book.
"This is the last day of maternity leave," I said. Back to being an auror. There are a few new people on my list. Pregnancy rather made me quite spiteful.
"You're relieved, aren't you?" Piper replied.
"Not relieved. I just miss my job so much. I know I'll probably be dropping home every time I get a break." I'm going to enjoy work… but I'm going to miss my baby so much.
"Sirius will be taking care of the kids," Piper reminded me.
I smiled. "I can hardly believe that you're entrusting your kids to Sirius."
"I trust Sirius completely."
"Yeah, but I seem to recall you saying that you couldn't see him as a father."
She laughed a little. "That was back when we were just out of Hogwarts."
"Speaking of Hogwarts," I started, "do you know where Harry orbed off to?"
"He's at the Burrow for the day. You're turning into his mother."
"I leave that role to you, Piper. I'm just getting used to having one kid."
"You know why he went to the Burrow?" Piper said, smiling mischievously.
"Of course," I said. "Harry's in love."
"I know. It's so adorable."
"But they're still completely oblivious. Maybe we should give them a little push…"
"Ginny and Harry have to do this on their own. It won't take long, believe me."
The doorbell rang. "I'll get that." I walked over to the door and opened it. There was no one there. "Weird," I muttered.
Suddenly there was a loud crash in the other room. I walked in and found that hundreds of owls were flying around, knocking things over. "Piper!"
"What—whoa." She flicked her fingers. "Where'd they come from?"
"I don't know. Help me get them out of here."
However, whenever we moved an owl, it would unfreeze and go crazy. It took us a while to get all of them out. More time was added to the clean up.
"Well, that was an adventure," Piper said.
"Yeah. I'll go get some water."
As soon as I touched the glasses, an odd feeling overcame me. It was like an aborted premonition. That's never happened before. I brushed it off and went back into the living room.
"This water tastes kind of weird…"
"Mm…"
We both fell into a deep sleep.
"Wake up!"
"Wha?" I opened my eyes.
"Morning, sunshine," Paige said pleasantly. "You two were sleeping pretty deeply."
"How long have you been here?" I asked.
"A few minutes. Prue's going to be late, as usual."
I glanced at the clock. "We were out for a while."
"That's kind of odd," Piper said.
"Just like everything else in our lives. I'd better go check on Nick." I got up. My actions still seemed slowed, my thoughts slurred. I walked slowly up the stairs and opened the door. "Hey, my little boy." But something was wrong. I couldn't feel his presence. "Nicolas?" His crib was empty. He was gone… gone. I screamed and heard Piper doing the same.
"What is it?" Paige asked.
"Nick is gone!" I started to disapparate. I had to find him, no matter how long it took.
She grabbed me firmly, stopping me. "Phoebe, you can't look everywhere for him."
Piper ran in. "Wyatt and Melinda are gone!" She was near hysterics.
Paige took control of the situation. "Leo! Sirius! Chris!"
They all appeared.
"The kids are all gone."
"Damn it, we walked right into his trap. Those owls were a distraction. He must have put a sleeping spell into the water. He must have sent Wormtail. That's why there was no one at the door," Piper said through her tears. "He finally got them."
"How could we let this happen?" I said angrily. Come on Morrigan… Nothing happened. "We have to find them now." I couldn't even think straight. No wonder I couldn't call upon Morrigan. I didn't know what to do.
"We're going to take care of this."
"How? Voldemort is untraceable."
"Chris, I believe you have some explaining to do."
Paige
"You do realize that anything I tell you can change things completely, don't you?" Chris said. Sirius and Leo were trying to find the kids with the help of the Elders. We were taking things into our own hands.
"Of course," I said calmly.
"Sit, Chris," Prue ordered.
He reluctantly sat. He knew not to mess with Prue.
"You're the only one who knows exactly what happened," Prue said.
"If I tell you that stuff, there could be serious consequences. It—"
"I don't give a damn about the repercussions," Phoebe said. "You are going to tell us what happened in the future and exactly who you are."
Chris sighed, giving up. "I don't know who I am. I don't know who my parents are. I don't even know my real name."
"What do you mean?" Prue asked.
Chris took a while to answer. "My parents abandoned me when I was a few months old. A muggle couple found me and raised me. They knew about my powers early on."
"And what are your powers?" I had been curious about that for a while.
"I can orb, erase memories, manipulate life forces, and I'm empathic and telekinetic."
"Oh." I had never expected that he would be so powerful. His mother must be pretty powerful.
"What does Voldemort want with Wyatt and Nicolas?" Piper asked.
"He wants to turn them evil."
"We're not going to let that happen," I said firmly.
"Regardless, that's what happens in my future," Chris said.
"Both of them turned evil?"
He hesitated.
"Tell us."
"Only Wyatt turned evil. No one knows what happened to Nick. That's why I came back. I came to protect them."
"You did a pretty poor job," Phoebe said.
"Look, history's different for me," Chris said. "Originally Voldemort came and got them himself. That spell would have stopped him."
"So what happened to us?" Piper asked.
"You got Wyatt back for a few years. Then he joined Voldemort and destroyed Prue and Phoebe."
Piper shivered. "I still can't believe that my son will grow up to become so evil."
"Why didn't Piper and Leo try to get him back?" I asked.
"They did," said Chris. "After a while, Voldemort got tired of their efforts and had them killed. Wyatt, of course, had a problem with that and started to fight with Voldemort."
"He became good again?" Piper asked eagerly.
Chris shook his head. "He wanted seniority. Their fight allowed Harry Potter to vanquish Voldemort. Wyatt took over and destroyed almost everything. I was part of the resistance. I was chosen to go back."
That brought up the subject of Melinda. "But Melinda's powers were better suited," Phoebe said. "Why didn't she go back?"
"You really don't want to know about this."
"We do," Piper said. "We have to. Tell us what happened to her."
He looked away and began to speak. "Melinda was always the biggest threat to Wyatt. Her powers were almost as great as his. He couldn't kill her. He tried to bring her over to his side, but she refused. The fact that he allowed her to live was a sign of weakness. In order to keep up his image and keep her away, he put her under the Imperius Curse. She fought, but he was stronger than she was. Still she kept fighting. Eventually her spirit broke. She became an empty shell with no free will."
The image of my niece flashed before my eyes. I couldn't see her as a puppet. I couldn't see any of the things that were happening. They seemed so unreal.
"Is that all?"
"Yes." For once, he seemed sincere. Ah, but Chris is particularly gifted at covering his lies.
"You had better not be lying to us," Prue said.
"I'm not."
"I'm going to ask you another question, and you had better be truthful about it. Why doesn't my telepathy work on you?"
"I used a potion to block it," Chris admitted.
"To stop us from finding all this out?"
"Yes. That's the only reason."
"One other thing." She looked deep into his eyes. "Why did you send Leo to Valhalla?"
"I didn't," he said quickly… too quickly.
"I know that you did," Prue said. "Before you used the potion, I heard your thoughts. I kept quiet because I chose to trust you. Tell me the truth now."
"I didn't want to get into this," Chris said.
"That's too bad, Chris," I said. "We've gone too far to go back."
"Voldemort tried to take Leo's powers. In my past, he did. Wyatt's protection weakened. That was one thing that helped Voldemort to get to Wyatt."
"You were trying to protect Leo?" Piper said.
"Yes."
"Why didn't you just tell us?"
"That would have screwed everything up."
"Chris, everything has already gone to hell. My son and my daughter have both been captured by Voldemort. You came back to change the past, so here's your big opportunity. Here's your shinning moment! Do something. Change this before it gets screwed up again."
"I'm sorry," he said quietly.
"What?"
"I should have been honest with you," Chris said. "You're right. I could have prevented this, but I screwed it up."
We were all taken aback, but the shock of the disappearance made it impossible for us to feel anything else. "Well, this is what you came back to do," I said. "Help us stop Voldemort before the past repeats itself."
I couldn't imagine what Piper and Phoebe were feeling. They had lost their children. It must have been horrible for them. They didn't know what Voldemort was doing to them. They didn't know what Voldemort planned to do. To not know… that had to be the worst part. They were both so powerful, but now they probably felt helpless. I could see it in their eyes. Their great powers hadn't helped. I could sense that they felt like failures. I didn't know what to say or do for them.
I'll just have to help them out. We have to get those kids back. We can't lose them. We can't let Voldemort turn Wyatt evil.
"Did Voldemort do something to Wyatt while he was a baby to get him to turn evil?" I asked. The question had just occurred to me.
"Yes," Chris confirmed. "He put a spell on him that would lead him to evil. You didn't fail him, Piper."
How did he… Oh yeah. He's an empath.
"We can fix this, right?" Prue said. "We can stop Voldemort from doing anything to them… can't we?"
"Of course. You have the upper hand. You know what he's going to do before he has a chance to think of it."
Chris is pretty handy…
"How can we fix this?" Prue asked. Piper and Phoebe seemed to have run out of questions. Poor things.
"It's risky."
"That's fine." The fierce quality of Prue had been turned up to its maximum. Voldemort didn't stand a chance.
So why is doubt sneaking into my heart?
"You can turn to the Golden Dawn. It's only a slight chance, but it's all we have right now. You're going to have to trust in me completely."
We looked to each other. "We'll do whatever you ask. Just help us get back our kids."
We have the Power of Four. We have Morrigan. I just wish that I could stop feeling so hopeless.