Star-crossed Lovers
"Star-crossed lovers" refers to any lovers whose affection for each other is doomed to end in tragedy.
"To create a door...to create a door..."
Paige was furiously flipping through the almost thousand pages of the Book of Shadows in the attic. A week had passed since her soul had rejoined with her body, but now she could no longer stand it. She had persuaded Piper and Phoebe to leave her alone for the late afternoon while they went to the movies. In the mean time, Paige had decided that the only way she could get peace at mind was if she could explain everything to her friends at Hogwarts. Strange, as she had dreaded the mere thought of the place only a day ago. Come to think about it only an hour ago too. But now, it was almost like she was being pulled towards the School.
Hence the 'create a door' spell. It was the only way for her to get there and...
"What are you doing?" She gave a yelp of surprise and spun around, coming face to face with Chris, the sisters' new White Lighter.
"Didn't anyone ever tell you it's impolite to sneak up on people!" She hissed him, annoyed that he would just show up like that. Usually White Lighters appeared only when called upon, and she certainly hadn't called for him.
"You're sisters asked me to come here, to make sure you didn't do anything you're not supposed to do. So, what are you looking for in the book?" He said, trying to glance over her shoulder.
"That's none of your business." She muttered, turning her back on him. She closed the Book and held it tightly against her chest as she hurried down to her room.
Placing the old book on the bed, she contemplated for a while how she was going to find the spell she needed. The Book was certainly not in alphabetical order, or in any order for that matter. She let out a groan of frustration, realizing she needed to come up with a spell herself. Closing her eyes, she tried her best to come up with something that might work.
She stepped right in front of her bedroom door and took several deep breaths. "Here goes nothing..." She muttered and held her right hand palm an inch from the wooden door.
"When you find your path is blocked, all you have to do is knock!" she chanted three times before knocking on the door. She took another deep breath, held it, and turned the knob. She closed her eyes and stepped over the threshold into the halls of Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry.
----
"Paige?" Chris knocked on the teenage girl's door and got no answer. "Paige, open up!" He sighed, it felt weird babysitting his own aunt, but Piper and Phoebe asked him to make sure she didn't get into trouble, which he feared was exactly was she was in right now. He knocked again, and again got no answer, leaving the only option to orb into her room.
"You know it's rude not to open..." He trailed off when he realized there was no sign of Paige in the room, the only thing there was the Book of Shadows lying closed on her bed. "Great. Just great."
He had to find her before she got herself in trouble.
---
She paced through the stone halls, the beat of her heart quickening with every echo of her footsteps. Strangely it did not take her a long time to get to the portrait-doorway of the Head Dorm, obviously the spell had opened a door in a more convenient place for her. All this time though, she had never thought about how she would actually enter the Dorm, because it was most likely that the password had been changed.
"When you find your path is blocked," she whispered, not wanting to wake the inhabitants of the portrait, "all you have to do is knock." and so she did. The portrait door swung open, creaking as it did and glancing inside, Paige found it to look exactly the same as the last time she had been there.
----
Approximately thirty minutes previously Hermione Jane Granger had been sitting on the cold, stone floor of her Head Girl bedroom. Next to her on the floor was a massive spell book, cracked open at what seemed to be the middle. The writing was old, but legible, and described some of the simplest yet most effective spells Hermione had ever come across. The one she was reading right now was a particularly fascinating one. In fact, so fascinating Hermione felt obliged to try it for herself even if it meant breaking at least twelve School rules to do so, including sneaking out after hours and breaking into the Restricted Section of the Hogwarts Library,
"Hear these words, hear my cry, spirits from the other side. Come to me, I summon thee, cross now the Great Divide!" The chanting words of the spell came out in a strong whisper, her voice heavy and clear. Hermione, who had kept her eyes closed throughout the chant did not dare open them again. The spell she had cast intending to summon Paige's ghost. A year earlier she would have laughed at the thought, but now, nearly two month's after 1/3 of the Charmed Ones death, it seemed like a perfectly reasonable thing to do.
She sighed. Almost five minutes had passed with her squeezing her eyes shut, but Hermione was having a difficult time coming to terms with the fact that the spell didn't work. Understandable, as Hermione Granger, arguably the smartest witch her age, had never come across a spell, charm, potion or incantation she could not master. And she did not intend this to be the first.
Getting up from the stone floor, she reached for something in the drawer of her desk. The something was actually a white crystal given to her by Phoebe Halliwell before the former Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher had quit her job at Hogwarts. Clutching the crystal with both hands, Hermione closed her eyes again, and began chanting.
"Hear these words, hear my cry, spirit from the other side. Come to me, I summon thee. Cross now the Great Divide!"
----
Hermione was pacing around her common room, with as light steps as she could muster. By no means did she want to wake the Head Boy. It seemed, since Paige was no longer there, that he had no reason what so ever to be polite to her. In fact, he was beginning to remind her more and more of his father with every day that passed.
She slumped down in one of the armchairs. It seemed her usually straight-ahead mind suddenly had no idea which way it's thoughts were supposed to go. Never in her life had she felt so...so... She couldn't even think of the right word for it. If everything had gone how it should Paige Matthews Halliwell's ghost could turn up in her common room at any minute.
Though, any minute had never seemed more like an eternity than it did right now.
And when she saw the portrait hole slowly swing open, she felt her blood run cold. She couldn't believe it, it worked!
"Paige!" she screeched as she jumped up from the couch.
---:---
Paige Halliwell had not calculated this into her plan. That is to say, had she actually had some form of plan, meeting a wide-and-teary eyed Hermione Granger would not have been part of said plan. But it seemed that lately Faith had found a twisted pleasure in seeing her life go straight to hell.
"I knew it would work!" Hermione shrieked. "It just had to!"
"Shh!" Paige hissed. "Be quiet." Then she paused, a very odd look screwing up her face.
"You can see...Me?" she asked. After what Gabriel had told her, and what she had experienced when Darryl Morris came by the house and couldn't recognize her, she hadn't expected Hermione to.
"Of course I can see you." Hermione answered. "Though... I had expected you to be more, see-through."
"See-through?" Paige repeated. "Why would I be...Oh."
"Oh?"
'Oh holy crap. She thinks I'm-I'm a ghost!' Paige thought frantically. 'How are you gonna explain this one Paige?'
"Hermione..." she said slowly. "Just what was it that worked?"
"The 'Summoning of a Spirit' spell, what else?" Hermione said, an enthusiastic look on her face. "What's it like, you know, the other side? That is, if it's not to rude to ask or anything."
"Other side..." Paige said quietly. "It's nice, real nice. But Hermione, it's not what you think, I'm not what you think. I'm not a ghost."
Hermione's face went blank and hard. Paige could tell she was going through every piece of information in her head, to see if she had ever read about people coming back from the dead. Which, judging by the new expression her face bore, she could not locate.
"That, that's not possible." she whispered. "You have to be a ghost. You just have to. People don't come back from the dead. They just DON'T!"
"Please Hermione, you have to listen. They sent me back, the Elders. They need the Power of Three to keep the balance, They needed me."
Hermione looked positively broken as she slumped down on the sofa, like everything she had ever believed in had been ripped out from underneath her feet. She buried her face in her hands, refusing to look at the American girl no matter how much she pleaded.
"This can't be true, it just can't..."
"But it is. And, it's not that bad, is it? I mean, I'm alive aren't I?"
"Everything's changed Paige... It wasn't supposed to be like this." Hermione muttered.
Paige felt a sudden anger rise up in her chest. She stood up to her full height and glared down at Hermione.
"Then why did you call for my spirit in the first place!" she shouted. "Why did you want me here, when you can't even accept the truth! Would you have felt better knowing I really was dead!"
"No!" Hermione shouted then, and began to cry. "No. Of course not!"
"Then why!"
Hermione never got the chance to explain. Maybe for the best, she didn't really know how she would have anyway. The door to the Head Boy's bedroom slammed open, hitting the stone wall with incredible force and cracking down the middle. Draco Malfoy stood in the doorway, still dressed in school robes, with his wand pointed directly at Hermione.
"I swear Granger, unless you shut up right now, I will hex your mudblood tounge into knots!"
The reaction that played across the Head girl's face scared Paige beyond her wits. She looked like she really believed he'd do it... And that's just how Paige felt when he then turned and pointed to wand towards her.
"Who the hell are you?" he spat at her. He then returned his attention (but not that of the wand) to Hermione and said with a smirk, "Finally dumped Potter, did you?". Hermione looked appealed, and then confused.
"You must be kidding me, Malfoy. Or have you gone blind, perhaps?" Hermione said, angered. She pushed Paige a bit forward, gripping her shoulder. "You can't honestly say you don't know who she is."
He blinked once or twice, seriously trying to match the face with a name. "Are you the Ravenclaw from last night? Or the Hufflepuff...No she was blond wasn't she..."
"You bastard!" Hermione hissed, balling her fist up. Whether she was a ghost or not, she couldn't believe he would say something like that in front of her.
Paige shook her head slowly. She had just realized something,
"He can't see me, 'Mione. No one was supposed to see the real me. The only reason you can is because of the spell." she whispered, so only Hermione could hear her.
"But he sees you!" Hermione said loudly, loud enough to catch Malfoy's attention. "He's looking right at you!"
As a matter of fact, Draco was looking right at her, wand lowered. She didn't doubt that he could actually see her, just not see...Paige. All he saw was a girl, dressed in muggle clothing and who was acting extremely strange. Too strange even...
"What are you on about, Granger?" he asked, a bit curious. "Of course I can see her, who ever she is."
Hermione let out a frustrated half-scream. "She's Paige, you dimwit! Paige. Matthews. Halliwell!" she shouted. "Can't you see that!"
It was obvious from the moment the words left her mouth that Hermione had gone to far. It proved its truth further not a second later, when Draco stood before her with his wand pointed directly at her throat.
"Don't you dare Granger, don't you dare..."
Paige stared wide-eyed at the display before her. Hermione was standing at her full height, not cowering in fear. Her brown eyes were alight and her face hard as she glared at the silver-blond teen boy.
"Why?" she dared, not backing down. "Why won't you believe it?"
"First of all, you are the only blind here! She looks nothing like her!"
"That's because you don't want to believe it is her! You don't want to believe she can come back, because you're afraid of things going back to the way they were. You're afraid Malfoy, you're nothing but a bloody coward."
"Picked up a few wise words from the Weasel have we?" he hissed. "Have you considered the fact that you're mental, Granger?"
"Because I believe it's her? Because I believe that's Paige? Look at her Malfoy!" she shouted, gesturing wildly at Paige. "Look at her and tell me that's not her!"
And he did. His cold, stormy eyes bored into her face and body, looking her up and down. And not for a second could she meet his gaze. He was nothing like she remembered him, in fact, he was everything Hermione had warned her he was, the first days at Hogwarts.
"I don't know what you and your friends were thinking while plotting this out bookworm, but you don't fool me." He cast one final glance at Paige and muttered, "Get her out of here." before storming back to his room and slamming the door once again.
Paige couldn't stand it any longer, she couldn't stop herself from crying. She broke down completely, falling to her knees on the cold floor. Hermione dropped to her side, hugging her tightly, and glaring at the cracked door at the same time.
"Paige..." Hermione whispered softly, running her hand over her friends hair. "Paige, please don't cry... Not over him..."
"They told me, told me no one would recognize me as Paige. And still I came here." she stared at Hermione with bloodshot eyes. "I just never listen, do I?" she said, laughing slightly as she wiped her eyes.
"Look," Hermione said. "We'll go to Dumbledore, right now. He'll know what to do."
"What can he do, when he can't even see me?"
"He's Dumbledore." Hermione insisted. "He'll see you," she gave a short laugh, "if anyone can see right through a persons exterior, to what they really are, it's Dumbledore."
But they never got much further than out the portrait hole. Half-way down the Head's hallway they were met by a blinding white and blue light.
"Shit." Paige muttered.
As the light faded, Chris appeared in the hall. Hermione looked awe struck and, forgetting the situation they were in, nudged Paige in the ribs and asked, "Who's he?"
"Chris," Paige whispered. "Our new White Lighter."
"What were you thinking!" he demanded, stepping up to them. "Do you have any idea what the Elders are gonna do when they find out?"
"They'll send me back to Celestine." Paige replied, almost mockingly. "I know."
"Send you back?" Hermione asked, but she was ignored.
"Then why the hell did you come here?" Chris asked. "Do you have any idea what it would do to your sisters, if they took you away again?"
"So I'm just supposed to let go of everything that's happened? Am I just supposed to pretend it never did!" Paige shouted. "You all think you understand what it's like, but you don't! I'd rather be stuck in Celestine forever than living this miserable excuse of a life!"
No one could say anything after that. Hermione, as clueless as she was about the situation, simply stared at the floor. Chris ran a hand through his hair.
"We need to leave, go back home. And I need to find the Cleaners, so they can fix this."
Paige said nothing, just roughly wiped away a tear that was running down her cheek. Hermione looked scared now.
"Cleaners?" she asked softly. "What, what are cleaners?"
"I didn't expose any magic." Paige countered. "There's no reason for them to come here."
"Yes, there is. We can get them to fix this and hopefully the Elders will let it slip, and let you stay."
"What are Cleaners!" Hermione shouted.
"Neutral magic beings that 'clean up' after magic has been exposed. Changes what happened, so magic stays a secret."
"But Hogwarts is a school for magic!" Hermione cried. "They don't have to do anything to our memory!"
"We have to leave. Now." Chris insisted, and Paige glared at him. But, very slowly and very reluctantly she walked up to his side.
"Wait!" the Head Girl shouted, looking beyond her wits. She couldn't believe this was happening. They were just going to take Paige away like that, and on top of it all make her forget she'd even seen her, that she was alive.
"You cant' do this! You can't just leave and not explain this to me!"
She didn't want anyone to come and twist her head into believing this had never happened, that Paige was still dead when she wasn't.
"Please..."
Paige only stared at her, eyes empty. She had brought this misery upon herself, and now Hermione too. Why did she never do what people told her, why did she always think solely about herself?
"I'm so sorry Hermione, I really am."
And with that she nodded at Chris, closed her eyes while grabbing his arm. The beautiful, bright light, characteristic of White-lighters, followed and Hermione dropped to her knees on the cold, stone floor.
---'---
Paige Halliwell closed the envelope and held it tightly between her hands. An owl was sitting on her windowsill, watching her with curious, if not slightly annoyed, yellow eyes. It reached its head forward and bit her hand.
"Why the heck did you do that!" Paige hissed at the bird, and cast a glance at her red finger. "Impatient little... I'm almost finished." she assured the animal.
She let out a deep breath and whispered; Call now, the powers blessed be, and make me friends forget, and make my friends, happy.
The bird cocked it's head at her, and stared, as if it thought she was crazy.
---'---
The sun shone through the enchanted ceiling of the Great Hall. The owls were coming in with the morning mail, and students were enjoying their breakfast. Hermione Granger's face looked only to the floor, not even at her friends. The one thing that finally made her look up was an owl, biting at her hand. She sighed and looked up at the yellow eyed bird, and the letter tied to it's leg.
Carefully she untied it and held it in her hand, treating it with wide eyes. It had her name on it.
Dear Hermione,
You're probably wondering how this letter came to you, when I could have possibly written it, because you don't remember yesterday anymore. And if you still do remember, you have to believe that I never meant for any of this to happen, any of it. To come and make your lives so chaotic, make my own life so chaotic.
But I met you, and I made friends, real ones. And I would give anything to keep that. But that wouldn't be fair to everyone but me. And personal gain is never right.
You don't deserve the pain of what has happened, you shouldn't have to remember what happened last night, and cry over it. You shouldn't have to remember, and you won't, not after reading this. You'll hate me, for a minute or two, and then you'll forget even reading this. I put a spell on the parchment. And no counter charms can turn it back, not even mighty Dumbledore can change things.
I'm so sorry. Sorry about everything. All I ask is that for the two minutes you can process this all, that some part of you forgives me for it. That you understand that I had to do this. That you understand that this miserable existence, erasing memories and friendships when things go wrong, is something I have to live with my whole life. That I will always remember everything, and if it is any comfort, and always be a little more miserable.
Hermione dropped the letter and it fell soundlessly to the stone floor. She shook her head, unruly hair flying about. Where was she again?
Empty brown eyes glanced around. Oh yes, Great Hall. Breakfast. And there's Harry and Ron, sitting in front of her. She turned her head. Teachers table. McGonagall, Snape, Flitwick, Hagrid, Dumbledore...
Dumbledore was looking back at her, clear blue eyes locked right onto hers. She blinked and turned her head back again, and started off a conversation with another student. Draco Malfoy caught her eye, and she stared back with eyes as empty as his. Classes started and she and the rest of the student body left, the letter lying forgotten on the floor.
I hope you can understand, that this, not demons fighting, and saving and ridding the worlds of evil, is what my life is like. That this is what it means,
To be Charmed.
...END...
--'--
It's a new year and I wanted to have this over with. Why is it so late, when I said two weeks? Because sometimes things don't go as planned, and I wanted this to be the last chapter, so it took a while before I was pleased. You might not like it. I don't think I care, sorry. I'm ending this in a completely different mood and mind than when I started this. And that's about all I have to say.