Chapter 4 – Healing and Five (or Four)
After the family (plus Hagrid, who'd been waiting patiently in the atrium bless his kind heart) left the Ministry of Magic building and got back to Diagon Alley, Hagrid took the boys to Gringotts after Lily had handed over the vault key to the friendly half-giant, completely trusting the man with her son and nephews, Piper and Lily stopped for a small warm beverage (tea in Lily's case, coffee in Piper's) at Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour. Florean was a man the same age as Lily, Paige and James were and he attended Hogwarts and was a Ravenclaw and good friend of Lily's. She often stopped to have a chat with the handsome, intelligent man after she had returned and learnt he had opened the shop she and James had loaned money towards, knowing it to be an excellent business venture and knowing Florean, with his level head, would run a very efficient and successful store.
"Petal! How are you?"
Florean asked as he walked up to Lily and embraced her warmly. The two had previously had a short romance of about half a year to be exact but the two had broken it off amicably when the two had recognised they didn't feel about that each other that way and he was falling for another person. James had been jealous at first once Lily had started to tolerate him in their 7th year and after he had found out but once it was revealed exactly who the man had fallen for he found himself helping Lily in her devious matchmaking schemes, which ultimately brought the two of them together after spending so much time around one another including their Head Boy and Head Girl duties.
Lily came to her senses as she felt Florean's thumb brushing a tear away from her cheek.
"James?"
Lily nodded slightly and she felt Piper put a hand on her shoulder and sent her a look. Lily didn't need Harry's telepathy to know that Piper was offering to call her husband's spirit later on. Lily smiled wistfully and nodded slightly.
"So Flor. How's the lover?"
Lily asks teasingly, her eyes sparkling much like Dumbledore's do.
"Why don't you ask yourself you great gossip" a female's voice called teasingly behind the Redhead, who spun round and launched herself at the woman.
"Piper, I'd like you to meet one of my closest friends, Marlene McKinnon. Marley, I'd like you to meet Piper Halliwell, one of The Charmed Ones and my big sister." The two women hug in greeting, with Piper sending a look to her sister.
"Lils, I thought you said that your friend Marlene died with her family?" Piper asks softly, trying to keep quiet enough that Marlene wouldn't hear her.
"It's fine Piper, technically I did. I was on the verge of death when someone came to my assistance, she was a Vampire and, having had enough of the bloodshed she had seen committed by the hands of Voldemort, had sensed I was still living and turned me. It was reported to the public I had died and became a shadow operative of the Ministry and the Order of the Phoenix. After the war, the Ministry, thankful for all of the work I had done for them, had released to the public that I had been taken captive by Death Eaters, had been forcibly turned into a Vampire, escaped and had been a major power and help in the downfall of several Death Eaters and even fought off Voldemort two or three times.
"Normally there would be prejudice against me and I wouldn't be allowed many of the stuff I had as Vampires were awfully discriminated against but after some campaigning, with myself and our friend Remus Lupin as the front of it all, all Vampires and Werewolves are now considered equal to wizarding citizens and given the exact same treatment as wizards. Now I am proud to say I am the History of Magic professor at Hogwarts, replacing Binns who had realised he was dead and moved on to Heaven sometime last year. I hear you've got loads to tell us young lady" Marlene explains as she, her boyfriend and the two other women sit at a table outside the shop, trusting their employee to keep an eye on sales for a short while.
"Mom! You really should have come to Harry and Aunt Lily's vault with us! It was like a rollercoaster ride and was so cool!" Chris ran up to his mother exclaiming, with Harry, Wyatt and Hagrid following behind.
"I hope you behaved for Hagrid boys" Lily says with a glance towards Harry and Wyatt, who nodded earnestly.
"They were great Lily, no worry. Well boys it was good to see you and I'll see ye at the castle" Hagrid boomed happily before he waves and walks away, patting Lily on the back softly.
"Boys these are my friends Florean and Marlene. Harry, they looked after you many times when you were younger, I doubt you'll remember but Marlene was the one who first took you flying, something I still haven't forgiven her for yet" Lily says with a kind smile towards her friend.
"This is little Harry? God alive, you've grown lad! Sirius bought him his first broom so I had to one up him somehow, how else is a Godmother supposed to cope" Marlene said with a small hug to Harry, who stepped forward and hugged her quickly, and a teasing smile to the fiery haired Angel.
Lily and the two friends caught up for another two minutes and she explained how she was giving the trial Sirius deserved the next morning, and how she hoped to introduce her son to his Godfather. Marlene and Florean offered the mother/son duo to stay with them for the next three nights so Sirius can used to being free before being thrust into a completely new family (the Halliwell's of course). After some discussion with Piper, who reluctant to leave her baby sister alone at the other side of the world, Lily assured her that nothing can happen to her seeing as she's already dead after all and Harry, with how powerful he is and how skilled he is with using his, and the other sister's Powers, that Piper relented, but only after Lily had agreed to orb over for the other two days she's in the UK for at least an hour to speak as she and her sisters had grown so used to spending practically every hour of the day with their younger (older in Paige's case) sister. They then separated from Florean while Marlene joined the Halliwell and Potters on their shopping trip. She only worked the books of the store as some people (mostly the purebloods), despite all of the legal advancements they had made, were still prejudiced towards Vampires and Werewolves, and so had time to spend with one of her best friends, the other unfortunately being hospitalised in St. Mungo's.
"So have you heard from Alice lately? I've been meaning to orb on over and see her and my Godson." Lily asks curiously as they walk into Madam Malkin's and the two boys go and get measured for their uniforms.
"You mean you don't know?" Marlene asks with a tear in her eye and a trembling voice.
"What do you mean 'I don't know'? What's happened? Are they ok?" Lily asks frantically as she turns to Marlene. Marlene takes a deep breath and explains what had happened to a crying Lily, who leant against Piper for support while Chris, not knowing who this Alice is but knows his aunt is upset holds onto her hand tightly, which she returns with a watery eyed smile to her nephew. Piper asks Lily if she'll take Wyatt for his books while she and Chris pop home quickly. Lily nods and reminisces about the short girl she was close to with Marlene. Piper and Chris orb home and Piper gathers Paige and Phoebe.
"What is it? Has a Demon attacked the Alley?" Phoebe asks when she and Prue walk in to the attic, seeing Piper frantically leafing through the Book of Shadows. Paige orbs in and the pages turn on themselves and Piper says thanks to the spirit who had helped her.
"Lily's best friend Alice and her husband Frank were sent insane through torture and their son was left to be raised by his grandmother. Forgive me but I will NOT let a young child live without knowing his mother's love, we get to experience that now thank god but I didn't growing up and it's one god damn awful thing!" Piper said passionately writing the spell on a piece of paper before The Charmed One's orbed away via AirPrue. They land outside a large manor and Piper, not even waiting a second, knocks on the door loudly, which is answered by an elderly looking woman.
"May I help you?" she asks wearily, noting their muggle clothing but knowing they must be magical to be able to see the manor, and have good intentions to pass through the wards.
"Hi my name is Piper Halliwell and these are my sisters, Phoebe, Paige and Prue. We're The Charmed One's" she says while at first motioning to each sister then to Phoebe and Paige, while Prue then says
"I'm a Whitelighter". The elderly woman introduces herself as Augusta Longbottom and invites the sisters into her home and living room where a young child Piper assumes to be Lily's Godson joins them.
"We are here to offer you something I'm sure you would love. Did you know about our sister returning from the dead? You knew her as Lily Potter or Evans." Phoebe says to start off with. Augusta nods, as does Neville, who'd been told by his Gran that Lily was his Godmother.
"We have just recently heard of your son and daughter-in-law, we are very sorry to hear this and, after I did some research, I believe that we may be able to use The Power of Three, plus Prue's healing magic to heal them." Augusta looked at the sisters hopefully and Neville in awe, he had heard tales from his Uncle Algie how The Charmed Ones were powerful but he had no idea just how powerful they were. A jingling noise fills the room, and Prue, after excusing herself, orbs away, only to return smiling brightly.
"The Elder sure have changed a lot." She says mysteriously as her sisters look enquiringly at her.
"Well you think they would be grateful after the amount of time we saved their sorry asses" Phoebe says bluntly, causing Piper and Neville to snigger and Augusta to chuckle quietly to herself; appreciating the woman's honesty.
"They called Lily and I 'Up There' and told us they pulled some strings and made it so Lily and I are Wiccan-Wightlighter's like Paige and I get my old Powers back, Lily gets her Wiccan Powers and her wizarding magic back and they've made it so if more Power is needed we can either use myself or Lily to make it a Power of Four spell, or even kick it up a notch and make it a Power of Five spell, while also saying as long as none of us abuse it, their next gift to us will be we can use our Powers and spells and the like without worry of Personal Gain. Due to us being living now, they made James the Whitelighter for his son, while making the both of us Leo's charges, again in my case" all three sisters were crying tears of joy while Prue turned to Augusta and says in a confidant voice
"Madam Longbottom, the belief it may work is now a guarantee, and we won't even need Lily's help for it." Neville thanks the sisters, crying because he can finally get know his parents properly and not have to live through the pain of seeing them like that any longer. Paige orbs Augusta and Neville to the hospital so they can make the Healers aware and orbs back to her sisters to fetch them to where she senses the Longbottom family are. They land in a room devoid of people except for Augusta and Neville, two people who could only be his parents and a man they assume is a Healer as Lily had called them.
"Leo! Can you come here for five minutes, could you fetch Sam with you possibly?" Piper called into thin air, causing the wizards to look at one another confusedly, which turns to a startled look when Leo orbs into the room followed by Paige's father, who she kisses on the cheek in greeting. Piper then turns to the Healer and says
"Okay, here's what you need to do. I need you to cast your strongest mind healing spell you have. Leo, Sam we need the two of you to use your Healing Powers on them. We will then use the newly made Power of Four and help along with the healing. We think this will work. After it has Leo, I want you to fetch Lily, Harry and Marlene here, while me and the girls can take over with the shopping for Harry and Wyatt's school stuff. Is everyone clear?" After she receives nods of confirmation she holds out her hands on both sides which Prue and Paige take with Phoebe taking Prue's free hand and pointing her left hand towards the couple and Paige pointing her right hand.
"Reparifors Mentis Maxima" chanted the Healer and an associate he called in while their wands at Frank and Alice. The two Whitelighter's held their hands over the young couple's body.
"Repeat after me" Piper says before saying
'Magic we ask you hear our prayers through the steeple, help the spells and Powers heal these people'. The four sisters then chant the spell and white lights fly from the two end sisters hands and circle Frank and Alice's bodies, which float for a minute and their vision clears.
"Mum? What happened? Where are we?" Frank Longbottom asked in a wary and tired voice, Augusta broke down into tears and Neville rushed passed the four sisters towards his mother, hugging her tightly. The Healers and the Halliwell's and those related to them in the room leave the small family of four to reunite in private and the Healers to spread the word that the process was a huge success and the Longbottom's were finally healed thanks to The Charmed Ones. Sam said his goodbyes to Piper, Phoebe and Prue and told Paige he'll call by her house later if she didn't mind, which she shook her head at fondly, giving her father a kiss on the cheek in departure as he orbed away. Leo then orbed away and returned with Lily, Harry and Marlene while Prue orbed to keep an eye on her older nephews and leave the other sisters to explain their deed.
"What's the matter? Prue and Leo said it's urgent? Has something bad happened? You know that I've been revived and can help you guys now right? James is now a Whitelighter and will be returning with us! Isn't that wonderful?!" Lily exclaimed with worry then elation, with a wide smile on her face at the mention of her newly reunited with husband.
"We've got some news for you both" Phoebe said after she and Paige are introduced to Marlene. Lily and Marlene look at one another and Marlene suddenly recognises exactly where they are.
"We're outside the door to Frank and Alice's room in St. Mungo's" she states, Lily looks at her sisters who begin to grin wickedly.
"What have you done?" Lily asks warily, a smile playing at her lips, she then looks to her son, knowing he's probably heard what his aunts did in their thoughts.
"Won't work. We've been thinking of everything we can so even he doesn't know." Paige says proudly, with a ruffle of Harry's already messy hair, which Piper tutted at and dragged him infront of her to tidy it up, or attempt to anyway.
"It's true Mum, do you know what it's like to hear the alphabet to be repeated over and echoed another four times is like" Harry whines as he tries to escape his aunt's grasp.
"Why don't you come in and find out" a voice familiar to Lily and Marlene calls out, who squeal, grab Harry and pick him up by his arms and barge into the room and then barrel into Alice's awaiting arms, tears streaming down their faces.
"Harry, I'd like for you to meet Alice and Frank Longbottom, my other best friends, and Marlene and Sirius's competition for the titles of your Godparents" Lily says, with a teasing smirk to Marlene who drags Harry against her possessively and sends a playful glare towards Alice says
"Mine".
After introductions are made and Lily meets Neville for the first time since her return and the boys start to rebuild the friendship they once had ("You used to be like brothers, sometimes we swore you were twins, when one was hungry when around one another, so was the other. Neville is actually only a day older than you Harry" Lily informed them). Lily, Marlene, Augusta, Harry, Neville and finally Frank and Alice turned to The Charmed Ones and say
"Thank you" in unison.
(A/N: So, that was the latest chapter of Harry Halliwell. I hope you like it! I was supposed to have Harry and Wyatt getting their wands in this chapter, but it seems Frank and Alice Longbottom had other idea's. So that will be happening next chapter, and possibly even the introduction of a certain best-friend with bushy hair and buck teeth :P Please leave me some reviews, that would be much appreciated! Sorry for not uploading for a while, i've yet again been swamped by coursework, and am still at this moment so the next upload may take a while. Don't lose hope though, I WILL carry on with this story. My other one, i'm not too sure on seeing as I've lost motivation to keep writing it due to hardly any reviews and not sure whether it will be worth the very little leisure time I have to carry on with something people are not that fussed on. Bye Bye for now loyal readers! x)