Disclaimer: I don't own any characters.

Chapter 36

Despite the victory, the mood in the manor was a far cry from jubilant. Though they had won, they had suffered losses, and while it was to be expected, it didn't lessen the sadness that now hung over everyone present. Leo did his best, going around from person to person, healing whatever injuries he could. Food and water were conjured to help ease the post-battle exhaustion they were all feeling. And people sat in small groups recounting various stories and stages of the battle.

Harry, in somewhat of a daze, was wandering around the manor checking on people and thanking them for their help. His arm and hand were sore from the dozens of handshakes he was receiving and if he was being honest, he just wanted to melt into his bed and sleep for days. He wasn't the only one. Draco kept to himself as best he could, which was easier than he thought it would be since no one but the sisters, Snape, Hermione and Ron knew that he had helped Harry defeat Voldemort. Standing along the fringes, he tried to keep at bay the emotions coming from everyone. Sadness at the losses of friends and loved ones, relief so profound he felt like collapsing under it, the uncertainty of the future, and buried deep in most of them, a shred of joy, which at the moment, was smothered beneath everything else they were feeling. It was as if they thought it was too good to be true; like they couldn't let themselves believe that Voldemort was truly gone. He understood. If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, had a hand in it himself, he's not sure he would have believed it either.

He suddenly felt a particularly strong wave of empathy and surprisingly, guilt, aimed at him and looked up to see Hermione walking towards him. As she approached, he remembered Voldemort's threat and had to work to keep his face neutral and push down the memories of the rage he and Harry had felt in that moment. He noticed immediately that her eyebrows were knitted in concern and she was wringing her hands so thoroughly they were starting to turn a bit red. She stopped next to him, their backs leaning on the windows of the conservatory, and they stood overlooking the somber scene before them.

"How are you feeling?" she began, hesitantly.

"Me? I'm right as rain. I was just thinking of going for a quick run. I reckon I could be back before everyone's gone," he quipped.

"Draco," she admonished.

"It's Draco now, is it?" he asked, eyebrows raised. He knew why she had come. He could sense it. She had some kind of news to deliver and it was nothing good. What he didn't know was why she was feeling guilty.

She smacked him lightly on the arm. "You just helped save the entire wizarding world. I think that rates me using your first name, don't you?"

That stopped him short. You just helped save the entire wizarding world...he hadn't thought of it like that; hadn't really had time to. It certainly never occurred to him while the fight was actually happening. It was just...the right thing to do. The only thing to do.

"That's not why I came over," she said, breaking him away from his thoughts. "I...have some bad news."

"Who died?" He knew nothing else could be making her feel this way.

She looked up at him and he was surprised to see tears in her eyes. She took a deep breath before she said, "Your...your father." She hesitated and he could feel how absolutely wretched she felt. Then it all came pouring out of her. "After you went to help Harry, the fighting between the Slayers and the vampires was coming our way. Snape and Ron and I were trying to help; we couldn't let them get near the sisters while they were trying to close the seal. By that time, we thought there were no Death Eaters left, but I saw one about to hex one of the Slayers so I s-stunned him. And, and...one of the vampires grabbed him and bit him and his mask came off and -" she was properly crying now and struggled to finish, her words barely above a whisper, as if she couldn't bring herself to say them too loudly. "And it's my fault. I killed him. I killed someone. And it wasn't just a faceless Death Eater. It was your father and I'm sorry. I'm so sorry!" She put her hands over her face not wanting to see the hate she was sure would be aimed at her after her confession.

Draco was stunned by so much of what she had just said, but his father being dead was the least of it. He was sure that, given time, he would feel some kind of sadness, but he was also sure that it wouldn't really be his father that he was mourning but the life that he wished he had with him. This was why he gently took her wrists and pried them away from her face. Then he cupped her face in his hands and used his thumbs to wipe her tears away before lowering his hands back down by his sides. Her eyes widened at his display of gentleness, but his words shocked her more. "You have nothing to be sorry for. He chose to fight with those things and he paid the price for it. You were fighting for the people you care about. He was fighting for meaningless, outdated ideals. Don't waste another minute of your time feeling sorry or guilty for what happened. Besides, technically, you didn't kill him. The vampire did." With a considerable amount of effort, he was able to plaster one of his signature smirks on his face, if only to attempt to distract her and infuse some levity into an otherwise depressing conversation.

It worked. She blinked at him, stunned. "Did you just...are you arguing the semantics of your father dying? You're incredible."

His smirk grew more genuine. "I know." Then, because he was suddenly feeling very bold (call it post-battle endorphins), he leaned forward and wrapped her in a hug. He was pleasantly surprised when she didn't stiffen or pull away, and only hesitated for a short moment before wrapping her arms around him in turn. Her hair tickled his face as her cheek sat just below his shoulder.

"What are we doing?" she asked, awkwardly, regretting the question as soon as it was out of her mouth.

"It's called a hug, Granger. It's what people do with their friends, after surviving massive battles to the death against dark wizards and demons and -"

"Friends?" she cut him off, pulling back in surprise to look him in the eyes. Her hands rested on his waist, his on her shoulders, and they looked like they were about to do a very proper dance of some sort. They both realized this at the same time and hastily dropped their arms.

Draco was suddenly serious. He knew it had taken a lot for her to come and confess what had happened with his father. He felt the need to confess something in return. "He threatened you. Vol -" he hesitated but then forced himself to say it, "Voldemort threatened you when we were fighting him. He said he would make me do horrible things to you. And I just, we just...snapped. Both of us. It's what tipped us over the edge and gave us the advantage. So yes, Hermione, you are my friend."

She opened and closed her mouth several times but nothing came out. She was just staring at him like she'd never seen him before. "Hermione Granger, speechless? Now there's something I never thought I'd see. Call the Prophet," he huffed a laugh.

Just then, Harry and Ron walked over. "Why does Hermione look like a fish out of water?" Harry asked.

"I think I broke her," Draco admitted.

"Blimey, we've been trying to get her to shut up for years. How'd you manage that then?" Ron laughed.

This snapped Hermione right out of her stupor and she rounded on Ron with a glare to rival any that his mother had ever given him and slugged him right on his upper arm. "Excuse me?"

"Ow! I was only joking!"

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

Slowly, the manor emptied as people said their good-byes and attempted to go back to their lives as if the biggest battle of the wizarding world hadn't just occurred. The sisters were left with the trio, plus Draco and Snape.

The latter, however, began to excuse himself, explaining solemnly, "Professor McGonagall and myself need to inform the proper authorities of today's events, including the...casualties, and begin the process of selecting a new Headmaster."

No one really knew what to say to that but Phoebe was never one for awkward silences so she said, "I know we didn't know him long, but Dumbledore seemed like a great man." She patted Snape's hand gently.

"He was," Snape nodded and gave Phoebe's hand a slight tug. They left the living room to, presumably, see Snape off.

Piper, who was only just now getting a moment to breathe, found herself going into mom-mode as she faced the exhausted teens before her. "How are you all holding up? This isn't our first rodeo so, believe me, it's okay to feel...well, pretty much anything." She was met with a chorus of noncommittal grunts and 'hmmms' and uneasy shrugs. "Okay, just remember that no matter how you feel about what happened out there...we were fighting for the right side. Everything we did was to protect innocents everywhere."

Hermione, despite looking particularly uncomfortable, nodded slowly, obviously desperate for the validation. The others didn't look quite as troubled as she did.

Paige ventured, "Harry, do you want to talk about...what happened?"

By this time, Phoebe had returned from seeing Snape off and sat down to listen as Harry and Draco recounted the events that had transpired after the fiendfyre had been conjured. Everyone listened in a stunned silence as the two boys took turns speaking, never interrupting each other, adding extra bits of information here or there for context. It was clearly hard for them to talk about but they felt all the better for getting it all out.

"He used legilimency on us and then threatened Piper and...Hermione," Harry looked to his friend, not wanting her to feel anxious or afraid, but she gave him a small nod to continue, "then we just, I don't know. We were so angry and-" he wasn't sure how to continue.

Draco attempted to explain. "I could feel what he was feeling," he said jerking a thumb in Harry's direction, "and combined with what I was already feeling, it was like a cauldron bubbling over and I knew if I didn't get rid of it, my brain was going to explode. So I just...chucked it over to, well, you know, and then Potter blasted him and -"

"Hang on a minute," Ron interrupted. "You mean to tell me, that you defeated the darkest wizard of our age by chucking your feelings at him," he said disbelievingly.

"Uh, yeah. That's about right," Draco said and Harry nodded.

"No, that actually makes sense," Phoebe said turning to Paige and Piper. "Remember when Prue was turned into an empath? She defeated that demon by projecting everything she was feeling into him. And since demons can't feel...it vanquished him."

"But Voldemort wasn't a demon. And he could certainly feel hate. It's what drove him all these years. Hate towards people like me," Hermione said quietly.

"That's why we channeled...love," said Harry blushing a little bit, though he couldn't for the life of him understand why he'd feel embarrassed to admit that he loved his friends, and Piper and the sisters. Apart from Hermione and Ron (and the rest of the Weasleys, of course), they were like the family he never had. "Dumbledore said once that love was the one thing Voldemort never understood. It's what saved me all those years ago in the first place..." he drifted off awkwardly, the teenage boy in him suddenly deciding that there had been quite enough talk of love.

"Never underestimate the power of love," Paige said with a big smirk on her face, mostly aimed at Draco.

Piper snorted "hippy" under her breath but no one heard.

Hermione peeked over at Draco, herself, and he suddenly found the wallpaper very interesting. She smiled slightly before slowly standing up. "I need to go. I need to see my parents. Tell them what I...what happened. And that we're all okay, for the most part." She gave Harry and Ron quick hugs before moving towards the front door.

Draco forced his stare away from the wall. He could still feel her turmoil and wished there was something he could do to help ease her guilt. "Do you want some company?" he found his mouth asking before his brain had really registered what he was doing. Draco saw that Ron looked like he was about to protest but Harry kicked him, hard, in the shin. He tried to recover by quickly adding, "I've never seen a muggle house before. I hear they're made of dirt?"

Hermione rolled her eyes and shook her head. Wordlessly, she offered her arm so they could apparate together. Draco said nothing as he stood beside her and looped his arm around hers, but he could feel how grateful she was, grateful and relieved. A little bit for his offer to accompany her, but mostly for not holding his father's death against her. With a loud crack, they were gone.

Ron was a bit beside himself. "Did she just - did Hermione just take Malfoy home with her?"

Harry put a hand on his friend's shoulder and said, "Malfoy just helped me defeat Voldemort. I reckon Hermione can take him where ever she wants. And unless you want her to sock you right in the nose, I wouldn't say anything about it if I were you."

Ron gulped but then stood himself. "Right. Well, I guess I better get home myself. I'm sure mum's beside herself. We'll talk later, Harry?"

Harry nodded and gave his friend a quick pat on the back before Ron orbed out.

"So," Harry began awkwardly. He was painfully aware that he, himself, had no where to go. After all, he was only staying with the sisters because of the threat of Voldemort, and that threat was now gone. "I'll just...go..." he began.

Piper raised her eyebrows at him. "The only place you're going is upstairs, mister. You change out of those filthy clothes and go straight to bed. I don't want to see you until you've slept for at least twelve hours," she said in her no nonsense voice.

Harry smiled gratefully at her and tried to fight the heat prickling behind his eyes. He was mentally and physically exhausted but he didn't want to be a burden to her, to any of them, for longer than he had to be. "Thanks. We can talk tomorrow about...after."

"After? What do you mean after?" Paige said confused.

"He thinks we don't want him here anymore," Phoebe said in a stage whisper, and Harry's face threatened to turn the color of ketchup.

"Well, I just know that you guys have a lot on your plates. With demons and Wyatt, and Chris, eventually, I guess. I don't really know how that works. But you have your jobs and your lives and I -"

Piper whistled loudly. "Harry, you can stay with us as long as you want. We want you to stay."

"Really?" He couldn't dare to believe it.

The sisters nodded, smiling, and Paige held her arms open to him. "Come on. Bring it in."

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

Two Weeks Later

"Harry! Come on, they'll be here any minute," Piper called up the stairs.

Harry came barreling down the stairs and nearly tripped off the last one but caught himself on the railing at the last second just as Ron orbed into the Manor. "Alright there, Harry?" he called going over and giving him a jovial slap on the back.

"Yeah, mate. Good to see you. How's your mum?" Harry asked carefully.

"As good as can be expected. She was a right mess at the funeral, as you saw, but after," he shook his head before continuing. "George tried to cheer her up by saying that Fred would have been glad the "better" twin had survived. As you can imagine, that went over about as well as a bat-bogey hex on a bride at her wedding. I've never seen George run so fast."

Harry gave a small chuckle before turning to Piper and seemingly continuing a conversation they had previously had. Multiple times. "Are you sure we have to give up our powers? If I kept mine, I could keep helping you fight demons. We've already vanquished 3 demons this week!"

"If that's something that you really want to do, you don't need my power," said Piper, smiling at his eagerness. "You're still a wizard, aren't you? Besides, I would have thought you'd had enough fighting to last you a lifetime."

"Well, yeah, I mean, I have...but this is different. I never had a choice in fighting Voldemort, not really. He was always going to come after me. I had to fight to live. But this, helping you guys, this is something I can choose. After I finish at Hogwarts I can train as an Auror and be even more help."

"Let's cross that bridge when we get to it," said Piper. "We never intended for the spell to be permanent. It was just to give you an advantage in the battle. And anyway, we can't risk upsetting the balance of power by essentially having two sets of Charmed ones running around. Although, I doubt the Power of Three was replicated when we cast that spell," she said thoughtfully, then shrugged.

With a loud crack, Hermione and Draco apparated in, hand in hand, which no one failed to notice.

Hermione immediately ran over to Ron and Harry and crushed them with hugs while a smirking Draco sauntered over and hugged Piper.

"You don't call, you don't write," Piper began, admonishing the blonde teen.

He had the grace to look ashamed for a moment before falling back into his smirk. "First I had to deal with the press. If I'd known being a hero would be this much of a pain in the arse, I never would have helped." Piper gave him a look and he continued quickly. "Then I had to deal with my mother, which was...a lot. Despite everything that happened, she doesn't approve of my...friendship with certain individuals," he eyes darted to Hermione before returning to Piper. "So I told her that if she couldn't accept who I was now, that I was taking my inheritance and pissing off. She basically told me never to contact her again," he shrugged, trying to play it off like it wasn't a dagger to his heart but Piper saw right through him.

"Well, I'm sure since you're filthy rich you could find somewhere to live that's better than this dirty muggle Manor but if you want -"

Draco's head snapped up. "Are you serious? I can live here?" Piper just wrapped him in another hug and Draco chuckled. "First Potter, now me. What are you, collecting wayward sons?"

Piper smacked his arm. "Alright, enough chitchat. Let's get these powers out of you three."

Draco walked over to where the trio stood under the chandelier near the stairs. Looking at where Harry stood with an arm around Hermione's shoulder and Ron's hand on Harry's shoulder Draco realized for the first time that he didn't feel out of place amongst them at all. Quite the contrary.

He held his hand out. "Harry," he said with a nod to his former nemesis.

Harry grasped his hand in a firm shake. "Draco."

The name was barely past Harry's lips when a most peculiar thing happened. The chandelier above the four of them began to glow with a beautiful, warm blue light and a strange twinkling sound seemed to permeate the air all around them. They stood there, frozen, looking at each other, at the ceiling, at Piper and just waiting for something to happen.

It was over as suddenly as it had started. The boys and Hermione immediately looked over at Piper, their faces full of questions, and to their surprise Piper looked absolutely stunned.

Hermione walked over to Piper and raised her hand as if to put it on Piper's arm, but when she did, a picture on the wall beside Piper's head went careening off the wall and smashed into the opposite wall. The young witch let out a squeak of surprise. "What was that?"

"No!" Piper said, her hand flying to her mouth in surprise.

"Piper? What's going on?" asked Harry looking from Hermione, to Piper to the chandelier and back in rapid succession.

"It can't be. It's not possible," she was muttering. She picked up a vase of flowers from a side table and held it in her hands. "Hermione, can you just...wave your hand at this vase?"

"What? Why?" Hermione said, voice high.

"Please," Piper insisted.

Hermione looked at the older witch dubiously but did as she was told. She waved her hand at the vase, using the same motion she would use to playfully backhand one of the boys, and the vase flew from Piper's hands and smashed against the wall. Hermione looked down at her hands in disbelief.

Draco walked over and took both of Hermione's hands in his and pushed them down by her sides. "Oookay. How about we put these away until we find out exactly what the hell is going on here," he said looking meaningfully at Piper.

"That was Prue's power. And the chandelier. You were all together. But four? It should be three. Unless...this is the next generation? It could be new...stronger." Piper was babbling nonsense as far as the four teens were concerned.

Suddenly, Leo orbed in looking frantically around. "Piper, what happened? The Elders are, well, I've never seen them so...excited. They started going on about a new power being constituted. Something stronger than the Power of Three?" He stopped when he took in the four utterly confused teens and his shocked wife.

Slowly she looked up at them all and smiled. A very big smile. "Leo, say hello to the new Charmed Ones."

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

A/N: To anyone reading this that has read the whole thing...thank you so much for taking the time. This fic is my baby and I'm actually so proud of it. I know there's much that could be improved but I truly love the overall story and I really enjoyed smashing together my favorite media. I can't believe how many years it's been since I started this and it feels so good to finish. Thanks again for reading! And if you feel it in you to leave a review, I would really appreciate it 3