Chapter 14

Piper was the first to wake, and she was surprised to find herself in her room. Her eyes were slightly swollen from crying. With a heavy heart she remembered what had happened last night.

She walked quietly downstairs and found Harry fast asleep on the couch. Her heart broke for him a thousand times. She couldn't believe everything that he had been through at such a young age. She also couldn't believe that he had been so open with her. He really needed someone to be there for him. Sure he had his friends, but he needed more…parents…a mother. Or maybe he just needed to see his.

Even from the top of the stairs she could see the now jet black scar on his forehead. It sat conspicuously under his hair perfectly in view for the whole world to gawk at.

Poor kid, like he's not already recognizable enough, she thought. Good thing it's Saturday. He probably would have missed his first two classes already.

She sat on the couch next to him. She was about to wake him when Phoebe and Paige came yawning noisily down the stairs.

They froze at the foot of the stairs when they saw Harry on the couch and Piper's frantic attempts to shush them.

They tiptoed into the living room and gave Piper a questioning look. She pointed towards the kitchen and they took the hint and left. Once the distraction was out of the way, Piper went back to gently waking Harry.

"Harry," she whispered, while she gently stroked his hair.

He gave a small groan and slowly opened his eyes. When he saw Piper sitting there he gave her a small smile. He didn't even feel embarrassed. There was something about Piper that made him feel comfortable. She knew what he felt, she understood.

"Good morning, sleepy head," she whispered getting up off of the couch.

"Good morning. Erm, thanks…for last night," he said somewhat awkwardly sitting up.

"No problem. How does some breakfast sound?"

"Brilliant."

Paige and Phoebe ran back into the kitchen so as not to give away the fact that they had been eavesdropping. They threw themselves towards the table unceremoniously. Phoebe grabbed the newspaper and Paige was drinking from an empty glass.

Piper and Harry walked in and Piper eyed her sisters suspiciously.

"Paige, why are you drinking from an empty cup?" she asked with raised eyebrows.

"What? Oh, well I finished my orange juice and I was just about to get some more," Paige said getting up quickly and going towards the refrigerator.

"Right. Phoebe, why are you reading the paper upside down?"

Harry tried to hold back his giggles.

"Oh, well, it, um," she stuttered. "Well, it's not like we were eavesdropping if that's what you're trying to say."

"No, not at all," said Piper smiling and turning to look at Harry who was trying not to laugh.

After a great breakfast, Harry told the girls that he better leave before people started to worry about him.

"They'll probably think I got kidnapped if I don't make an appearance soon," he said glumly. He unconsciously touched his scar.

"I wish there was something I could do about your scar," said Piper.

"Me too," he said frowning.

"Hang on a second," said Paige. "Are we girls or not?"

"Paige, what are you talking about," Piper said a little irritably.

"Oh!" said Phoebe catching on.

Paige held out her hand and said, "Concealer." With a trail of blue orbs, a small and compact disk shaped object was now in Paige's hand.

"Paige, you are a genius," said Piper.

"I know," she shrugged. "Harry come here."

He walked uncertainly towards Paige and stared apprehensively at the small circular object. Paige opened it to reveal a small mirror on one side and a circular pad on the other. Underneath the pad was some sticky looking stuff. Paige rubbed the pad in the stuff and went straight towards Harry's head.

"What is that?" asked Harry dodging Paige's hand.

"Make-up." She tried again but he moved again.

"I am not wearing that."

"It will make your scar fade," said Piper gently. "And no one will know unless you tell them. It will probably look like it did before, if not lighter."

"Fine," he said grudgingly while Paige smeared the stuff on his forehead.

When he was done, he felt his forehead expecting it to be sticky but it felt normal. Piper handed him a mirror. He was afraid to look at it but figured it couldn't be worse than it already was.

What he saw shocked him. His scar was back to normal. In fact, it was even lighter than it was before. It was almost not visible.

He looked at Paige with a huge grin on his face. "Thanks!"

"No problem."

He turned to go. "Harry," Piper called. "If you ever need to talk, we changed the password. It's 'Prudence.'"

Harry nodded and left. For the first time in a while, he felt somewhat happy.

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

Draco sat in the Slytherin common room reading from his potions book. It had been a few days since he had written to his father and told him about the girls, and now he was eagerly awaiting a response.

He hadn't told anyone what he had heard the night of his detention. That was one piece of information that he wanted to keep to himself for the moment. All he told his father was that there were three new teachers that were supposedly writers for the Daily Prophet. He also mentioned that they had a spell book and that he doubted they were the normal kind of witches they were used to. The last thing he put in the letter was a question. He asked whether his father had heard anything about them and what they were really doing at Hogwarts.

He got tired of the book and decided to get the homework that Paige had assigned them in his room. When he reached it he found his gray owl perched haughtily on his night stand with a letter tied to his leg. He eagerly grabbed the letter and sat on his bed to read it.

Draco,

You did right by informing me. My sources tell me they are no ordinary witches. They are widely known in America as the Charmed ones and have killed countless demons over the years. There are now rumors surfacing that they are here to help in the destruction of the Dark Lord. Obviously we can not let this happen. Therefore I will ask you to keep a close eye on them. Gather any information that will be useful to us in a fight against them. Know where your loyalties lie and be prepared to fight to the death for our Lord. You may be handsomely rewarded.

Your father,

L.M.

Draco read and re-read the last two lines of the letter. They made a chill go up his spine. Be prepared to fight to the death? He wasn't so sure if he was ready for that. And a handsome reward would be pretty useless if he wasn't alive to enjoy it.

He wished he had never written to his father. He didn't want to be responsible for gathering any information on anyone. Especially if he wasn't going to get anything out of it. Right now all he saw him self getting…was murdered. After all, they had killed countless demons over the years. Did he really want to get on their bad side…again? He was pretty sure that if he did anything to cause them harm, they would do a lot more than make him wear a pink apron.

He walked back to the common room, letter clutched in his hands. He sat on the couch in front of the fire and threw the letter inside. He watched it burn while he thought about what he was going to do.

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

Harry walked back to the common room knowing that he was going to have a lot of explaining and apologizing to do.

When he entered the common room it was totally empty save for two people.

Ron and Hermione were sitting on the couch…arguing.

"Honestly Ron, did you have to be so insensitive?" Hermione asked. "Gapping and pointing at his scar."

"You would have too if you saw it. It was bloody black," he said defensively. "Besides I tried to calm him down, but you know how Harry gets. Might as well try to keep a blast-ended skrewt calm."

"Was I really that bad?" Harry asked from the doorway of the portrait.

Hermione ran over to Harry and gave him a tight hug. "Ron's told me everything. I'm so sorry about…your scar!" She gasped when she looked up at it. "It-it's almost gone! But how?"

"It was black, well actually it still is but," he bent over and whispered something in her ear.

Her eyes widened and a smile appeared on her face. "Oh! Wow, I never would have thought of that!"

"I know, me neither," said Harry.

"Wait, that's not fair. What wouldn't you have figured out? And if you couldn't figure it out what hope is there for the rest of us?" Ron asked.

"What do you think? Should I tell him?" Harry asked her.

"Come on Harry," he pleaded.

After a few more minutes of taunting, they finally told Ron and he almost burst out laughing.

"Harry, you better not tell anyone else that," he said trying to be serious.

"Actually," said Hermione suddenly sounding very serious, "you should tell Dumbledore what happened. For all we know, it could have had a bigger affect than just turning it black. Maybe your connection to V-Voldemort has somehow changed to."

She saw the apprehensive look on Harry's face and continued. "I know what your thinking and he won't be mad at you. He'll understand why you did it, trust me. You should go see him later, maybe tomorrow, just to talk. Maybe you'll feel better."

"Only Piper makes me feel better," he mumbled under his breath.

"What was that, Harry?" she asked.

"Nothing." However, he had just remembered something. "Last night I ran into Piper and we talked and…" Harry told them some of the things they had talked about. He left some of it out because he felt like it should only be between him and Piper. However, he did tell them about one thing that he had been wondering ever since he had finished talking to Piper. "She said that she couldn't count the number of times that they had almost died or actually died. Isn't that weird?"

"I can understand 'almost died' because we've almost died plenty of times. But how could they have actually died when they're right here in the castle?" asked Ron bewildered.

"That's exactly what I was wondering," said Harry.

"Well, they aren't your everyday witches are they?" said Hermione in her know-it-all voice. "They're different. Their book has years and years of spells and magical knowledge in it. Imagine all the spells that are in there." There was a far off look in her eye, the kind of look Hermione always got when talking about a book she really wanted to read.

"Hermione, stop drooling and just ask them if you can have a look at the book," said Ron.

Hermione blushed a little and hit Ron over the head with one of the pillows that was on the couch. They had the common room to themselves and the pillow fight began.

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

Piper was cleaning up after breakfast while Paige and Phoebe looked at her expectantly. When she continued ignoring their looks, Paige finally spoke up.

"Well, are you going to tell us why Harry was here or not?"

"Not," said Piper pouring some left over coffee down the drain.

"Come on Piper," asked Phoebe. "And what happened to his scar?"

"Fine." She sat at the table. "He tried to use the spell that Paige taught in class on his scar and it turned black. I ran into him in the hallway and he was really upset. We talked for a while. I told him about Mom, and Grams and Prue because he felt like no one understood what he was going through. I just wanted to show him that everyone's been through something. He really has no one. We may not have our mother, but Dad's alive, and at least we have each other. He only has his friends." She finished and the other two were looking a little teary eyed.

"I wish there was something we could do," said Phoebe and Paige nodded.

"Actually I was thinking about it. Maybe there is something we could do. Maybe we could, you know, let him see his parents."

Paige and Phoebe exchanged worried glances before Paige spoke. "I know it would be for a good cause, but he never even knew his parents. Maybe if he sees them he'll get too attached, then it'll just be harder for him to say good-bye again. When I went back and saw my parents I couldn't bare the thought of loosing them again. I even tried to change what happened."

"Yeah, and then he'll want to see them everyday, but it doesn't work like that," Phoebe added.

"I know, I know. But I just feel so bad. I think…we need another opinion." She walked out of the kitchen and into the living room. She reached into a small vase that was next to the fire place and pulled out a pinch of floo powder. She threw it into the flames and said Dumbledore's name. In a few minutes, the headmaster's head was floating merrily in the fireplace.

"Good afternoon, professors. How may I help you?" he said cheerfully.

Piper once again launched into the story. She told Dumbledore about the scar and about the talk she had had with Harry. Then she told him of her idea. He became pensive for a moment before speaking again.

"I believe that it would do Harry a great deal of good to see his parents. Especially at a time like this when he is feeling very much alone. He needs to know that those who we love never really leave us. However, it must be stressed to him that this will be a one time occasion, even if it can be done more than once. He must not get too attached and he must know that he will not be able to see them again."

"What about…Sirius?" Piper asked cautiously.

"I am afraid that wound is still too fresh," replied Dumbledore.

"But what if he asks? Do we just say no?"

"It would depend on Harry's state of mind. Only if he understands that it will only be to say good-bye."

"He deserves that chance and a lot more," said Piper.

"Nothing could be more true."

With a small pop, Dumbledore's head was gone.