Life for Harry and his family went on regardless of their worries of imminent attacks. The Demonology and Wiccan Magic classes were quickly becoming favourite by many of the Hogwarts students, with a newfound popularity also rising within History of Magic due to the professors behind the three subjects. Every weekend, Lily and her sisters found themselves inundated with older students from their course wanting to absorb as much information they possibly could from the legendary Charmed Ones. Harry and Wyatt also seemed to be performing exceptionally well in their own classes, with Harry particularly excelling at Defence Against the Dark Arts (now being taught by Professor Dumbledore as a replacement for Quirrell), and Transfiguartion, while Wyatt proved to be quite adept at Charms and Herbology. Each weekend, while his mother and Aunts found themselves with the elder students studying for their OWLs and NEWTs, Harry used Professor McGonagall's classroom to spend time with all of his betrothed and attempting to try and better his relationships with each of them. Soon enough a holiday that Harry's family all found extremely difficult to deal with crept around, Halloween. Harry awoke on this particular holiday and yawned audibly while stretching.
"Morning Harry" Ernie said as he dressed.
"Happy Halloween" Justin wished the black haired boy cheerfully.
"Is it?" Harry said gloomily as he himself dressed and stalked out of the dorm. towards the first-year common room. Justin looked towards Wayne with a puzzled expression on his the other boys perplexed.
"Is everything ok with Harry? Do you think I offended him in some way? Did I say something to upset him?" Justin asked his roommates worriedly.
"Halloween is the day that You-Know-Who attacked his family and killed his parents. I'd say that today is a really tough day for them, even though they've been returned as Whitelighters." Ernie answered solemnly. Justin's eyes widened as he realised the mistake he made, he hurriedly dressed and rushed out of the room after Harry. As he entered the first year common room, Justin saw Harry sat near the fireplace, staring into the flames blankly.
"Harry" Justin started before Harry cut him off
"It's ok Justin, you didn't know, you're a Muggleborn so you wouldn't know what this day also stands for in the Wizarding World." Justin took a seat next to Harry and rested his hand on the other boys shoulder. Harry turned his head and gave his housemate a small smile in thanks at the silent comfort given to him. The door leading to the girls dorm opened and out stepped Hermione, followed by Susan and Hannah, who each gave their betrothed a hug in turn.
Once the rest of the Hufflepuff First Years joined them, the group made for the Great Hall. Once they had reached the Entrance Hall, they ran into the first year Ravenclaws, who also seemed to move around the castle as one whole body rather than splintered groups as the Slytherins and Gryffindors do. Wyatt immediately stepped away from his housemates and engulfed Harry in a tight embrace.
"How you doing cuz?" Wyatt asked softly. Harry smiled weakly at his blond-haired cousin and nodded softly saying
"I'm ok". Wyatt stepped towards him and embraced his younger cousin. The first-year Ravenclaws and Hufflepuff's walked into the Great Hall and Harry's eyes immediately scanned the room. Panic began to set into his eyes when he realised the person he was looking for wasn't there.
"Wyatt, where's my mum?" Harry turned to his cousin, who also did a cursory scan for his aunt.
"I don't see her either. Lets go and ask the other professors before we go sit down for breakfast. Maybe she's running late?" Wyatt said before the two broke off from their housemates and walked to the head table, a worried look passing their faces.
"Excuse me professors, have you seen my mother this morning?" Harry had asked, looking towards his adoptive grandparents and his godmother specifically.
"No we haven't I'm afraid my boy" Professor Dumbledore answered, further adding to the boys worry. He reached out via his Telepathy to their mind link.
"I can't feel her" he said panicked before he reached out and grabbed his godmothers hand, who quickly grasped McGonagall's, who held her husband's hand who reached for Wyatt. With all of them linked, Wyatt orbed to his aunt's personal quarters while Harry sent a Telepathic message to his Aunt's and Uncles. He'd tried for his father but he couldn't feel their link either. The group of five landed in the living area of Lily's quarters and Harry immediately broke off and ran to the bedroom his parents share. He'd knocked loudly and when he hadn't received an answer, he burst into the room to see both Lily and James lying there, seemingly asleep. McGonagall rushed over and waved her wand in intricate patterns over Lily, while Dumbledore did the same with James.
"I'm picking up extremely active brainwaves Albus. Its almost as if they're dreaming" Minerva says. Marlene was holding Harry and Wyatt's hand tightly, lending the two boys comfort as they all worried about Harry's parents. They heard movement on the stairs and the door to the bedroom burst open and Piper, Phoebe and Prue rushed into the room with their husbands (and boyfriend in Prue and Andy's case).
"Where's Aunt Paige and Uncle Henry?" Wyatt asked the newcomers.
"Whatever's happening to Lily and James is happening to Paige as well" Prue replied as she stepped and wrapped Harry in a hug, while Piper did the same with her son and Phoebe went and stood next to her sister.
"Will me tying to get a premonition interfere with whatever is going on to them in any way?" Phoebe asked Leo as she went on her knees beside Lily's bed.
"I wouldn't risk it Phoebs. Same with you Harry, don't try using Telepathy on them incase it somehow spreads to you. I'm going to check with the Elders" Leo said before giving his wife a kiss on the cheek and orbing away.
"You wasn't wrong in your estimation that they're dreaming my dear. However, to be more clear, they appear to be having nightmares. Very bad ones through the way that their amygdala is lighting up like a Lumos Solem" Albus says after studying the scans he and his wife had been performing. He turns to the sisters and asks them
"Is there any particular Demon that you know of that can cause this much fear that would keep them in a nightmare such as this?"
The Charmed Ones' eyes narrowed as they replied in unison
"Barbas"
ttt
4 hours earlier
In a quiet puff of smoke a man appeared in the bedroom of Lily and James Potter. Immediately the intruder alarms went off, which awoke the husband and wife, who brandished their wands at the man immediately.
"Who are you?" James asked the man threateningly, pointing his wand at the intruder. The man threw a low voltage energy ball at James who immediately fell unconscious. Lily's eyes flashed dangerously and a powerful wind started blowing around the room. The man laughed evilly and waved his hand softly and said in a gravelly voice
"Your greatest fear is that you cannot be there for Harry and your sisters, just the same as your husband. How fitting that just by attacking one of the infamous Charmed Ones, I'm affecting them all and their progeny"
"I will repeat my husbands question, who are you?" Lily asked the man fearfully as she felt herself beginning to feel very tired and falling in and out of a deep slumber.
"Your sisters are very familiar with me my dear girl. I am known as the Demon of Fear. The name is Barbas, how wonderful to meet you" he smirked before holding his hand out and a grey smoke flew from his palm and wound its way to Lily and James, which entered them through their nose and ears. Lily fell in a deep coma, as did her husband next to her. Barbas chuckled to himself then smoked himself away to the other side of the world to see the youngest Charmed One also affected by his Fear Magic cast on her twin sister.
"Looks like they're more closely linked than anticipated. Would this cause a disruption for our plans I wonder" he mused quietly to himself before he smoked away back to the Underworld, satisfied with his work.
ttt
In the Present
Leo orbs back down to the bedroom of Lily and James, where finds the sisters have now moved their youngest sister, Paige, to join her twin and brother-in-law.
"You're right in your assumption of Barbas girls. Kyle and Sandra just confirmed it for me" Leo replied.
"So what do we do now? Can we find this Barbas and vanquish him mom?" Wyatt asked worriedly.
"We are damn well going to try" Phoebe growled with anger.
"But what can we do to help Mum, Dad and Aunt Paige?" Harry asked.
"There's nothing we can do sweetie in terms of helping Lily, James and Paige, I'm sorry to say it but it's all up to them" Piper replied as she wrapped an arm each around her son and her eldest nephew.
In Lily's fear coma
Lily's eyes flew open and she sat bolt upright, her breath coming out heavily and quickly. She looked to the side of her and saw that James was still beside her and, the same as her, had seemed to have awoken from a night terror. They held each others' hand and lent one another comfort silently, just basking in their being together.
"Lets go find Harry, I'm sure he's about ready to spend the day together as we normally do on this date." Lily said before standing and going to get dressed. However, when she went to pick up the trousers, she'd laid on the armchair in her quarters last night, her hand went straight through it. James had found his done the same when we went to the bathroom and his hand passed through the doorknob.
"Is this some new power? Intangibility?" Lily wondered aloud.
"Can't be Lil, I'm doing it to" James replied to her. Lily looked over at her husband and noticed that he was already wearing clothes, and when she glanced downwards, noticed that so was she. How odd she thought to herself before shrugging her shoulders and motioning James to follow her down to the Great Hall to have breakfast. As the two entered the Great Hall, Lily's eyes immediately drifted over to the Hufflepuff table in search of her raven-haired son. When she could not see him, her eyes went to the Ravenclaw table, knowing that Wyatt is an early riser and therefore would be at the Great Hall for breakfast. However, when she looked over at the Ravenclaw table she couldn't see him either.
"Lil, Marlene isn't at the Head table, but Quirrell is" James says with a hint of fright in his voice. Lily's eyes narrowed and she tried to summon on her Atmokinesis abilities. But try as she might, she couldn't seem to call on her Wiccan abilities and so she resorted to try a vanquishing spell Phoebe had taught her.
'Evil that has taken root, my might and strength now makes you moot. To end your deeds and malicious lark, I vanquish thee to the deepest dark.' Lily and James await for a result of her spell, when one doesn't happen, James suggests that he try orbing away to ask the Elders if there is anything they know about the situation. He tries to do just that but is unsuccessful. Before Lily can say anything though, he doors to the Great Hall open and Professor McGonagall walks in followed by a troop of first years.
Lily looks through the crowd and sees a familiar head of bushy hair.
"There's Hermione" she said, and soon her eyes fell upon her son. But he didn't seem like the young boy she had given birth to and had raied alongside her sisters once she had been revived and made a Whitelighter. He seemed meek and very nervous, he didn't make eye contact with a single person and he flinched from physical contact with anyone he got near. Lily and James watched their son and Hermione be sorted, though this time they were Gryffindors like them and not Hufflepuffs like they knew them to be.
"Lil, I think we're in an alternate reality or something. Didn't Paige say that she once reached an alternate reality once when she orbed at the exact same moment that Cole and the Avatars changed the world so that she died and never met your sisters or became a Charmed One?" James asked his wife, who nodded as she kept her eyes glued to Harry.
"I think we're in a reality where it was never revealed that I was adopted, and Harry never went to live with my sisters" Lily whispered fearfully.
•••
In the Present
Leo had orbed Lily and James back to the Manor, hoping that if Lily and Paige were near one another that their Magic would help each other through their Twin Bond. As he orbed in he saw his wife using the scrying crystal necklace and a map of the world, Phoebe sat in a meditative state and Harry sat between the two with hand on each of his Aunts. Leo deduced that he must be using his Augmentation power on them to strengthen their abilities to help them get some information on Barbas. Prue meanwhile was nursing Paige, dabbing her forehead with a damp cloth.
"Any luck?" Leo asks as he lay Lily next to Paige, and Andy (who'd come to help Leo) lay James next to Lily.
"Nanna Min has excused me from classes until Mum and Dad are cured of whatever this curse is" Harry said before explaining that Piper is scrying for Barbas while Phoebe is trying to get a Premonition about either Barbas' location or what he did to Aunt Paige and his parents. Phoebe gasped and all eyes turned on her as she had her Premonition.
"It was Barbas. He turned up late last night as Lily and James slept which set off their alarm system. He somehow got through the Hogwarts Wards. He cast this nightmare coma curse on them, and he then came to our homes, saw Paige had already been affected, likely by her Twin Bond with Lily, and went away." Phoebe explained.
"The Elders have said that its safe for us to try and contact them Telepathically. However, they're not sure if it will work because they might be too deep in what's happening to them we night not get through" said Leo.
"What if me and Harry did the same thing as we did when we met the Spirit of Hogwarts and I Astral Project ourselves into their minds and try and get through that way?" Prue asked from where she knelt next to her youngest sister.
"Good idea honey, Harry do you feel up to helping Aunt Prue?" Phoebe asked Harry, who nodded hesitantly.
"You don't need to be frightened sweets; we'll get them back safe and sound" Phoebe soothed Harry as she pressed a kiss to his head when she felt a wave of worry from him through her Empathy.
"But what if this Barbas attacks while we're helping Mum, Dad and Aunt Paige?" Harry whispers quietly.
"He won't honey, me and your aunts have had a few run ins with this particular demon and we're still here to tell the tale." Phoebe says comfortingly to Harry, who nods before taking Prue's hand. She closes her eyes and Astral Projects herself inside Harry's mind, as she did before. He then proceeds to reach out Telepathically to his parents and Aunt Paige.
(A/N Well it's been a while since you all heard from me! The reason why is because I've got myself a new job where I'm constantly busy. I am now a teacher in my old school! I am still working in my other job as well so this means I work every single day of the week and don't have a lot of time for myself. Hope you all enjoy this long awaited for chapter! Please leave a review and let me know what you think! - PotterheadedWhovian)