Cerri stared down the dog in front of her. The dog stared back, but his tail was wagging hopefully. Penny watched them both in open amusement.
"I don't know who you're trying to fool, but at least you showed more common sense than most wizards," said Cerri flatly.
Ever since the attempt by the English Ministry to bring her back through a fake marriage contract that fell through, Cerri had kept her eyes peeled for any unwanted visitors. It was only because of the upgraded wards around the house that she knew this was an animagus and not a real dog.
The dog at least had the decency to go around back to the garden which was strictly Cerri's part of the house since none of the others wanted to deal with it.
The dog turned into the one person who could ruin everything. Sirius Black.
Who was technically the legal guardian of Eris Potter, despite the fact her name was now Cerridwen Halliwell.
"So. I take it you're interested in being around for Cerri?" said Penny pleasantly...though she still had her wand in her hand. Sirius took the implied warning with ease.
"Like I'm going to let the idiots in England try to force my goddaughter and cousin back when she's better off away from their manipulations. Besides, Dumbledore pretty much ruined the only chance he had at my help bringing her back when he didn't bothered to look deeper at my supposed betrayal," said Sirius flatly.
"Just so we're clear Black, when it comes to magic the other girls are not ready for it," said Penny.
Sirius looked at Cerri.
"They're the Charmed Ones, meaning all hell is going to literally break loose once their powers are unbound, and I'm going to be stuck keeping them alive while they try to come to terms with the fact they have magic. Until then, they're considered squibs who know about their Wiccan heritage but prefer not to think about it. Personally I want to see the look on Lily and James Potter's face when they find out I've essentially cut them out of the family," said Cerri shrugging.
Sirius stared.
"Lily and James died."
"They faked their deaths and James abdicated in favor of his heir to keep up the ruse. Because they were stupid enough to do that without confirming I would be okay after Voldemort's supposed 'death', I cut them out of the Potter line and have currently rerouted almost all the gold to new vaults," said Cerri flatly, then her smirk turned pure Slytherin, "And the goblins were kind enough to take pictures of James Potter's face when he learns not only do I know they're alive, but I've cut them off from the gold."
Sirius had two choices. He could either stay nearby and insure his goddaughter was happy...or he could look for James. Then he considered how badly James' death had affected him and the fact that had he come forward he wouldn't have had to spend the last twelve years in hell. Sirius' face took on an unrepentant smirk.
"I'm just going to consider this a massive prank on him and then I'll punch him in the face when he finds out," said Sirius. James deserved that much. If he hadn't stayed in hiding then Sirius wouldn't have had to spend the last twelve years feeling as thought it was his fault for suggesting Peter.
Penny laughed.
"I happen to know there's a house two blocks down that's available for sale. I'm sure we can work out an arrangement with the American Ministry and the goblins so you can settle in."
"Consider me a private tutor when the girls get their powers. My family is from an old line of druids, and it shouldn't be too hard to get the old books from England."
Penny gave him a rather odd smile.
"The Black family is almost as old as our own, and the additions to the Book would be most welcome," she said.
The 'Book' of course being the infamous Book of Shadows which was the grimoire of the Warren clan since Melinda first awakened her potential as a magical Wiccan.
The problem was that it was dreadfully incomplete and only had the bare minimal of magical knowledge, considering Melinda had been persecuted by her fellow magicals when they discovered she was a Wiccan. Every Warren after that took care to avoid the magicals because they looked down on Wiccans. It was only recently that the attitude had become more apathetic than derisive.
Sirius had no love for his family after the row with his mother shortly before sixth year. As such he had no real reason not to hand over a bunch of tomes his family had been hoarding for centuries that he wasn't going to look at anyway. If he needed the information he could always ask the girls for it.
Penny was pleased that the book magically expanded to add the new information. She was, however, highly confused when a second book was created overnight that contained the less savory aspects.
The Book of Shades, as the title claimed on the first page, was the evil equivalent of the Book of Shadows. It held every dark ritual, potion and pretty much anything to turn a Wiccan evil in short order. It was also sealed with magic the moment it was created and would take the full force of all three Charmed Ones just to open the thing.
From what Cerri could tell, having taken a magical duplicate of both to Magic School, the Book of Shades was mostly a reference to the Book of Shadows. If the girls ever encountered anything in the second Book, it would automatically search for it and then produce a new page in the first on how to counter, destroy, or reverse it.
Penny was less than pleased at the reaction the White Council had to the new book's creation, even if they technically had no jurisdiction over them yet. Until the girls were unsealed, they couldn't do a thing to them.
At least, not until a minor accident during meditation involving Cerri and a ritual gone wrong from England.
Cerri had picked meditation for one reason, and one reason only. Occulmency, or the art of shielding the mind against outside influences. Sirius offered to teach her how to become an animagus, with approval from Penny.
Because the girls were still in the dark about the existence of magic, Sirius had become Cerri's private tutor in the subject. It was a trial run so he could help her teach the others about it once they unsealed their powers. And since he had found Occulmency made it easier to become an animal, or at least keep the animal side from taking complete control, he had told her the first lesson was to learn how to shield her mind.
Hence why she was currently in the meditation garden under the strict watch of the teacher. If anyone looked like they were goofing off or sleeping, then the teacher would walk up behind them and smack them in the head with a reinforced wooden ruler. It was very effective.
Cerri was proud to say she was one of the few students who had yet to be hit by the instrument.
Cerri was in the middle of building her shields (one of the few approved activities in the garden) when she was hit with a wave of strange magic.
One minute she was building walls in her mind, the next she was in an area that could be mistaken for heaven.
"Are you a new White Lighter?" asked a male voice in surprise. Cerri looked around and realized she was in what was clearly a meditation garden.
Cerri looked at him in disbelief. Then she noticed her outfit and her eyebrows twitched rampantly in irritation. She was going to hex whoever did this to her!
"No, I am a Wiccan witch who was meditating when something interfered. If I find out who caused this they'll wish my grandmother got to them first," growled Cerri. She noticed her voice had slipped into another language. Yet another point to her soul being in the wrong place.
The man looked shocked before he recognized her.
"Cerridwen Halliwell. How did you end up here?"
"I was trying to build up mental shields when I got hit with some strange magic. Next thing I knew, I was here."
"This is bad. If they Council finds out you're here..."
"Any clue how I'm supposed to get back?"
The man looked slightly panicked as he picked up an alert from the Council about an intruder or possible new member. He gently pushed her out of the garden with the words "Try visualizing your magic! If you've been practicing Occulmency you should know what it feels like by now! Go!"
Cerri concentrated on her magic. It took her a few seconds, but once she had a good grasp on it she yanked hard. She woke up back in Magic School with a concerned teacher standing over her.
"Ms. Halliwell, what exactly just happened?"
"I have no idea, but if I find the idiots responsible they'll be wishing Grams was the one who found them first," said Cerri rubbing her head. She had a massive headache.
After the incident in the garden, Cerri had been forced to lay off magic practice until they found what exactly sent her to the realm of the White Lighters.
It wasn't until two weeks later that they found out the British had tried a long-disbanded ritual tournament trying to force the 'Girl-Who-Lived' back and the fact she had changed her signature enough to slip past the net had caused an unusual reaction.
Because she had instinctively drawn on her magic, it sent her to the White Lighters.
According to Sirius, one of her Black ancestors had been a White Lighter who had a child with a witch before he died. Amazingly, the half-breed was never discovered and he married a Black.
Which resulted in Cerri accidentally awakening a heritage she never knew she had. Which meant that the girls had the potential to awaken it as well.
It was just extremely unlikely.
It also opened up an entirely new can of worms Penny just didn't have the patience to deal with.
Four teenaged girls with hormones? Easy. Teaching an abused almost fourteen-year-old about Wiccan rites? Not a problem.
Ask her to deal with the idiocy of the White Council because of something the girl had no part of outside of instinctual use of magic to save herself?
She passed that on to Sirius. Let him deal with those idiots.
Sirius looked at the man in his house who wanted to take Cerri away for 'training'. Unfortunately for him, Penny had been very descriptive of what White Lighters were and the fact that they had a strict rule about not allowing newbies to contact their family once they became part of the group.
"Denied. I am not losing my goddaughter twice just because you insist she needs to become a White Lighter despite the fact she's still alive. If you want to train her so damn bad, then you can send someone down here to do it while allowing her to remain with her family," said Sirius with a flat glare.
"She needs training. We cannot have a White Lighter on Earth without supervision. She would be targeted by demons at the very least."
"And the fact she currently the blood-sister of the Charmed Ones, who still haven't unsealed their powers, is of course of no consequence?" said Sirius sarcastically.
"What."
"Cerridwen Halliwell. She gave up her Evans heritage in exchange for becoming a full member of the family. Now, all three of the sisters adore her like she was one of them, and I don't think they'll appreciate the Council essentially kidnapping their youngest sister. Might make dealing with them a bit difficult when they unseal their powers. And then there's the fact Cerridwen's birth name is Eris Potter," said Sirius, grinning wider the more the White Lighter paled.
"Eris...Potter?" he said, mouth suddenly becoming very dry.
"As in the Girl-who-lived," confirmed Sirius. This was way too much fun.
"I'll have to confer with the Elders about this."
"Oh please, take your time. Cerri's currently on leave from Magic School because whatever awakened her White Lighter powers is playing merry hell with her magic," said Sirius cheerfully.
A few days later a second White Lighter showed up. Only this time Cerri happens to be at Sirius' home looking through his books. She might not be allowed to use magic until her core settled down, but that didn't mean she couldn't study.
The second the man saw her face he blinked.
"So you made it back then?"
Cerri's jaw dropped.
"You're the White Lighter who made sure they didn't find me when I was stuck!"
"I may be a White Lighter, but there's no way I'm helping the Elders capture a fourteen-year-old kid who did nothing wrong."
"Well in that case you're welcome to stick around. Like I told that other idiot, we don't care if you train her, but we do take offense if they tried to keep her from her family," said Sirius.
"So what's your name?"
"Call me Leo."
"Call me Siri, and this is Cerri," said Sirius.
"So where do we start?"
"This might take years you realize. Training someone with these kind of powers won't be easy. At the very least we'll have to come up with a way to keep the Elders off your case when you finally make it up to the area we usually stay in without them trying to remove you from the family," said Leo.
"Meh. Just point out that if they remove her from the Halliwells, she won't be inclined to end Voldemort for them. Last I checked there was a prophecy, which was why James and Lily went into hiding to begin with," said Sirius shrugging.
"I think that's the only reason they didn't just grab her when they found out where she was," admitted Leo.
"So where do we start?"