The Witching Hour

Crossover with Charmed. Cameron is a witch, a powerful one. Cousin to the Charmed Ones, she has shied away from that part of her life. What will happen when her cousins need her help? HouseCam.

Chapter Two: Aliyah's Advice

The days dragged by. Every two days, the number of demons received in the post doubles, and despite the numerous times that they had checked the book, they could find nothing. "Chris would have known," Phoebe muttered dark temperedly, before turning to Piper with a look of shock on her face. "Oh My God, Piper, I'm so sorry!" Piper waved it off, with a sad look plastered across her face while remembering her dead but still alive son.

Paige got a thoughtful look, and suddenly piped up. "Do you think Grams would know anything?"

Piper shrugged, and swished her head from side to side.

Phoebe nodded. "Well, she might not, but its still worth a try, Piper." She told her sister.

Piper rose an eyebrow, but nonetheless complied when they set up the spell to summon their Grandmother.

When the lights swirled and settled in the centre of the room, it was not, however, Grams, instead an eleven year old whom they had not spoken to for years. "Aliyah?" Piper asked.

"Helly-ho, Couserino!" Aliyah said by way of greeting. She stepped out of the circle and became solid. "Grams is busy! She sent me instead, and besides, I can explain this to you just as well as Grams can! Oh yeah, hi Paige! Never met you before! Don't think you've met me, either! You would have been five when I died, yes?" It was a rhetorical question, and Paige didn't answer her. Aliyah hardly seemed to notice, continuing on. "I'm your cousin!" After she had finished explaining exactly how and the like, she settled onto the ground and started talking to them.

"As you can see, I'm your cousin! You also have two other cousins! Annalise has sadly passed away in the eight years since you've seen her! It was around the same time as my dear cousin Prue, no?" Once again, a rhetorical question, no-one answered and let Aliyah continue with her dialogue uninterrupted. "Well, anyhow, that leaves only Allison left! And you will need her, because you need the power of three"

Piper looked irritated. "We have the power of three, Aliyah."

"Ah, you forgot to wait until I was finished! Now, as I was saying! You need the power of three with a difference to vanquish this demon!"

Paige looked confused. "What difference?"

Aliyah shook her head and waggled her finger in Paige's face. "You may be older in living year, but I'm still older that you! So you have to listen to me! And to listen to me, you have to wait for me to finish! Now, back to what I was saying, once again! See, this particular demon is rather tricky! He only goes after the most powerful witches! It's annoying because it requires three witches with active powers from the Melinda Warren line to be able to vanquish it!" the way that Aliyah told it made it sound like every sentence had an exclamation mark on the end of it. Piper and Phoebe sat and stared. Paige got the impression that they didn't much like their cousins. She frowned. "How come I didn't know I had all these cousins?" Her suspicions were confirmed.

"We lost contact about eight years ago," Piper explained. "So, we need Allison's help?"

Aliyah nodded. "That's where the phone book comes in, look under Cameron, bye!" She gave each of them a quick hug and was gone as fast as she had come, leaving Piper and Phoebe in very sour moods.

When Allison walked into the office in the morning, the first thing she noticed was a list of symptoms on the board. Stiffness of the neck, hallucinations, nausea…

Chase and Foreman were already lounging in the chairs and House had a pen poised. "Cameron, how nice of you to join us!" House said sardonically.

She merely plastered a smile across her face and examined the list of symptoms. "Come on people, differential diagnosis!" House ushered.

"" Chase suggested.

Foreman shook his head. "It's "

"Meningitis" Cameron pushed.

House sighed, rolled his eyes and in a rare moment of kindness, tossed her an envelope. "More detail on the symptoms if you want it, but since you were late, you missed out." Flipping the envelope over, she noticed a black square. Allison paled. She'd had four demons on Friday, please, please. Not here.

Eight demons appeared and Allison hardly had time to think. She went into witch mode automatically. Chase, Foreman and House were all looking at her with their jaws on the floor.

She flung up her keg and kicked one backwards, winding it. Turning to another, she blew it up. It disintegrated into a pile of dust. She flung a hand to the side, a demon flying along with it, slamming into the wall and disappearing. Wiggling a finger behind her back, a potion came flying into her hands. She muttered a quick blessing over it. She threw the vibrant blue potion at another demon.

A white light washed over the room as the demon became a pile of grey powdery dust. She awkwardly upwards. She narrowly missed knocking over the whiteboard. A demon dived under her. She came back down to earth with a thump as the fallen demon was vanquished by her foot through its chest. With four left, Allison bit her lip and flicked her hands with the intent to blow the one closest to her up. Instead, it went flying into the ceiling, disappearing and raining the now familiar grey dust on the floor near House's stolen television set. She sighed and muttered to herself, "Well, that works too.

Noting the sheath on the outside of the robe of one of the demons, Allison beckoned towards it. The demon didn't seem to notice. Once she had it clasped tightly in her sweaty fists, she lunged toward the demons. The demon bent back, but Allison was quicker. Utilising her telekinesis, the athame plunged into the blackened heart of the demon. She stepped back and faced the last two.

One of them shot a fireball from the palm of their hand. It was heading for where House, Chase and Foreman were sitting. Allison's eyes grew round, and she ran over, holding her hands up against it. It deflected. The demon dodged and the fireball shattered the window. Allison pulled a face and the demon threw another fireball while she was distracted, and then another.

Flicking her hands up again, both fireballs deflected against the triangle shape of her hands, meeting and creating a huge fireball. It hit the surprised demon square in the chest, allowing it a throaty moan before it was instantly vanquished, becoming, like the others, a pile of dust.

Until now, the demon that she had winded had been lying on the ground. It got up, and its hood fell off in the process, allowing Allison her first proper look at her attacker. It had glowing red eyes and a hollow grey face, with a scattering of hair, not only where it should have been, but on its cheeks and forehead too. Allison shuddered and kicked it back down on the ground, before blowing it up. She wiped the sweat from her forehead, panting, and surveyed the room. Eight separate piles of dust lay strewn around the room. She looked over to the three men, only now thinking about their reactions.

Said men were, at the present moment in time, doing marvellous impressions of fish. House was the first to recover. He picked up the whiteboard marker, stepped around the dust and wrote on the board in a messy scrawl. 'Highly contagious,'

Cameron frowned, levitated over the mess, the damaged was already done, after all, and picked up the duster, about to wipe it clean and explain, stopping just before she did. Looking around at the damage, she got an idea. Frowning, she scribbled on the board, rubbing out and fixing it up, until she had a perfect spell to clear up the damage.

"Damage done by demonic drive,
For not much longer shall survive,
All the mess that has become,
By power of one become undone."

Piper Haliwell threw down the phone book in frustration. "I have rung up every single Cameron in this bloody thing and Allison isn't any of them."

Phoebe popped her head through the kitchen door. "Well of course not! Allison lives in NJ remember? The San Francisco phone book won't do anything. Ring the operator."

Piper put her head in her hands. Finally, half an hour later, she had Allison's address jotted down on a piece of paper and her phone number right next to it. She picked up the phone, and dialled the number.

After four rings, it picked up. "Hello, Allison Cameron speaking, how may I help you?" Piper breathed in a sigh of relief at Allison's familiar voice.

"Hi, Allison. This is Piper."

"Pippa! What a nice surprise? Why are you calling?"

Piper picked up a pen and started scribbling on a pad. "We need your help, in fact. We have an, uh, problem? Is there anyone else at your house?"

Allison shook her head, before realising that Piper couldn't see her. "No, why?"

"Right, good, well, see, our problem is demonic."

Allison froze. "You've been getting those letter demons too?"

Piper shifted the phone to her other hand. "Yeah. Um, look, how about we visit you? Is now a good time?"

"What, like, now kind of now? Pippa, how're you going to get here?"

"Paige'll orb us."

"Paige?"

"Oh, I forgot you don't know her. We'll explain when we get there. Can I bring my sons, though? I don't want to leave them here alone,"

"Of course, well, see you soon then," Allison hung up the phone, and leaned her frail frame against the kitchen bench.

Authors Notes:

I've had complaints about the length of the chapters. I agree, it is a rather poor attempt. All I can say is that this is not my main project. I'm nearly finished my main project, two and a half chapters left top write , then I'll be able to concentrate on this. However, I don't want to get your expectations up, as this never will be my main project. It will always remain on the side, to do whenever I feel like. Sorry, guys. But still, if you'd like to offer some ideas, it might get my creative juices flowing. ;) Bye for now

Sarah.