The Liars headed to Aria's house after school, none of them wanting to be alone after the latest text from 'A'.

"Can you show us your Book?" Spencer asked Aria the second she stepped through the front door.

Aria laughed. "Sure." She replied. "It's up in the attic."

The three girls followed Aria upstairs into the attic. They'd never been in there before as it had always been locked to anyone but Ella, who had claimed she'd lost the key shortly after moving in. The girls now knew that wasn't the case, however, and were excited to see the book of magic and all the potion ingredients and crystals that Aria had tried to describe to them once.

The attic didn't look like much to the girls. It was a mess and everything interesting appeared to have been packed away in boxes and chests. The exception was the large book on a wooden stand in the middle of the room.

"Is that it?" Emily asked and Aria nodded.

"Couldn't someone just steal it if it's out in the open like that?" Hanna wondered. "I mean its not like a wooden door would stop some fire-breathing demon."

"It can protect itself from evil." Aria explained.

"How?" Spencer asked. Aria raised an eyebrow, as if to say 'I'm a witch – do you really have to ask that?'

She walked over to the book and opened it, flicking through the pages as the looked over her shoulder at the names of creatures and spells with interest.

"There's a love spell?" Emily pointed out.

"Can you cast that on me? I need to find a cute guy."

"Han I'm not casting a love spell!" Aria exclaimed. "No personal gain, remember?"

"It's not personal gain, it's gain for me!" Hanna argued.

"I'm still not doing it."

"Where's the fun in being a witch if you can't do any spells for yourself?"

Aria laughed and squinted at a cushion on the couch, sending it flying in Hanna's direction. Spencer and Emily joined in her laughter as it hit Hanna square in the back of the head.

"I think that answers your question." Spencer giggled.

"That's not fair!" Hanna cried.

"There is one spell we could try if you wanted to see what it's like to be a witch." Aria thought as she reached a page in the Book that caught her eye.

"A power switching spell?" Spencer asked as she read the title.

"Yeah."

"Does it work with people who aren't witches?"

"I don't know. Does anyone want to try it?"

"I will." Hanna jumped at the chance. "What do I have to do?"

"Just read the spell with me, I guess."

Spencer and Emily took a step back as Aria and Hanna stood around the Book.

"What's mine is yours, what's yours is mine

Let our powers cross the line

I offer up this gift to share

Switch our powers through the air."

White lights rose from the two girls and switched places above their heads before landing in the other person.

"Did it work?" Hanna asked. "I don't feel any different."

"Try moving something." Aria said.

Hanna stared at a book on the shelf willing it to move but nothing happened.

"I can't do it." She sighed, frustrated.

Suddenly there was a knock at the door and Ella called out to them.

"Do you girls want to stay for dinner?" She asked.

"Yes please." Hanna said instantly and Spencer and Emily agreed.

This gave Aria an idea of how to get Hanna to activate her powers.

"Slow down, Han. You don't want to become Hefty Hanna again."

Hanna looked round at her short friend in shock as all the books came flying off the shelf, crashing loudly on the floor.

"And there's my power." Aria smirked.

"That was harsh, Ar." Hanna started until the realisation of what had happened kicked in. "Did I do that?" She asked and Aria nodded. "How?"

"My powers are linked to my emotions, you just needed to find the trigger. It gets easier after the first few times after you learn to control it."

When Hanna tried again to move the books she thought back to before Alison disappeared and how she'd felt when everyone would call her Hefty Hanna. Aria was right – it was easy when you knew how to trigger it. She was able to move one of the books and place it back on the shelf, and then another. To her amazement she almost felt like she had the hang of Aria's power. She wasn't as accurate as Aria was after weeks of practice but she could use it without getting angry.

Meanwhile, in the Underworld, Wyatt and Chris were talking to a demon.

"So you could get the Elders to believe that we aren't from the future?" Chris asked.

"At a price, of course." The demon replied.

Chris and Wyatt exchanged a look before Wyatt spoke up. "If all goes to plan, the Halliwell's will be even more powerful in the future. What if we can promise you immunity from them and anyone in our family line." He offered.

The demon considered their proposal for a minute before waving his hand. Black smoke appeared and rose towards the roof and seeped through it, apparently heading towards the Elders.

"It is done." He said before disappearing in flames.

Back at the Montgomery house, it wasn't long before Ella called up to the girls, telling them that dinner was ready.

"Should you two switch back before we go downstairs?" Emily asked.

"We'll do it after dinner." Aria replied as she shut the Book and headed downstairs, the other three girls following behind her.

Hanna had a noticeable spring in her step as she walked downstairs knowing she had the power of telekinesis.

Dinner went without incident, much to everyone's relief. Aria and her friends didn't let on that there was anything wrong, despite the looming threat from 'A' hanging over their heads. They all felt a lot safer in Aria's house with four witches around them than they had at school.

It wasn't until everyone was about to help clear up after the meal and that they realised that 'A' wasn't going to be so patient with them.

As if from nowhere, four demons appeared, each of them immediately focusing on a different girl. Ella and Phoebe quickly transitioned into 'witch mode', as Aria called it, from their years of experience fighting demons. Ella turned to the one focused on Spencer and made a move to blow him up while Phoebe levitated in the air and kicked another towards her, which was quickly blown up as well. Paige sent one of the dinner knives flying into the third demon, which was closing in on Emily. The demon burst into flames instantly, a pile of ash forming where it had just stood.

"Aria!" Ella called out as she noticed the one remaining demon getting close to her daughter. "The knife!" She yelled.

"I can't!" Aria shouted back, tears of frustration in her eyes when she realised why her powers weren't working.

Not wasting another second thinking about it, Ella moved into a position where she could easily hit the demon and blew him up. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief as they realised that all the demons were gone.

"Who were they?" Phoebe asked.

"And why were they only focusing on the girls?" Paige added. Phoebe raised an eyebrow for her to explain. "Think about it, we're the Charmed Ones, right?" She nodded. "You'd think they'd want to come after us but they didn't even try."

"So you're saying they were after Aria and her friends? I don't understand." Phoebe replied.

Ella's attention, however, was elsewhere.

"Aria, what happened there?" She questioned.

"What?"

"You froze up. You've never done that before."

Aria looked at the floor guiltily and Ella knew instantly that something was more wrong than she thought.

"What happened?" She asked.

"Hanna wanted to know what it was like to have powers and we saw a power-switching spell in the book." Aria mumbled.

"You didn't!" Ella shouted, making Aria jump. Her mom hardly ever raised her voice at her children, and certainly hadn't done it to Aria in years.

"I'm sorry." Aria cried. "We'll go and switch back." She said as she motioned to Hanna to join her in the attic.

"You think I'm leaving you two alone with the Book?" Ella asked incredulously before following behind them, furious.

"We should go." Spencer pointed out and Emily nodded in agreement, not much wanting to see Ella's temper get any worse.

"Yeah. Tell Mrs Montgomery we said thanks for the dinner. It was amazing."

"And thanks for saving our lives." Spencer tried to joke, but it was too son for all of them and her voice caught before she was able to complete her sentence.

"Wait!" Phoebe said, stopping them from leaving.

"Yeah, you can't just leave. Those demons looked like they were after you. How do you know more won't come?" Paige added.

Emily and Spencer exchanged a look, which didn't go unnoticed by the two sisters.

"What's going on?" Phoebe asked.

"We should tell them." Emily suggested and Spencer seemed to agree as she reached for her phone and found the text that 'A' had sent them earlier. She showed it to Phoebe and Paige who gasped.

"Why didn't you tell us about this earlier?"

"You all seemed to have a lot going on." Spencer replied.

"We did tell Leo though. He's meant to be trying to get us put on his 'account' or something." Emily assured them.

"I suppose that makes sense." Phoebe mused. "But don't hide things like this from us, ok? We want to keep you safe. You should ask Ella about staying here for a while until we find out who 'A' is and vanquish them."

Meanwhile, Aria and Hanna had just finished reciting the power switching spell in the attic.

"So do you have your power back?" Hanna asked.

Aria squinted at a nearby book, moving it with ease. "Yep." She smiled until she caught sight of Ella's glare.

"What the hell did you think you were doing?" She shouted. "There's a reason we don't use magic for personal gain. Things can get very dangerous!"

"We're sorry." Aria mumbled, looking down at her feet.

"What would you have done if we hadn't been there earlier?" Ella asked. "Hanna you have no idea how to vanquish demons. And Aria you should've known better. I expected a lot more of you and certainly wouldn't have unbound your powers if I didn't think you were ready."

"Mrs Montgomery…" Hanna started. "Don't blame Aria for this, it's my fault. She tried to tell me it was a bad idea but I wouldn't listen."

Aria shot her a glance, wondering what she was doing, but didn't speak up. Hanna was known as the reckless one of the group, especially since Alison had first disappeared. It wasn't beyond the bounds of plausibility that she pressured Aria into saying the spell. A selfish part of her was happy that Hanna was taking the blame for what happened but she also did want her mom to bind her powers with everything that's going on with 'A'.

Ella didn't say anything for a while, making both girls worry about what she was thinking. It was a technique she'd picked up while teaching, knowing that the anticipation made things seem even worse than they were. It seemed to have had a good effect on her classes. Aria and Hanna squirmed uncomfortably under her contemplating gaze. After a few more seconds she decided they'd suffered enough and began to speak.

"Hanna, I think you should leave." She said, her voice scarily calm considering she'd been shouting at them moments earlier.

"You can't!" Aria spoke up.

"I don't think you're in a position to decide that, Aria." Ella warned.

"I am if 'A' is threatening to send demons after them!" Aria shouted back.

"What?"

"They got a text earlier today. 'A' said that we wouldn't be able to protect them all the time. That's why I asked if they could come round. I'm sure as hell not making it that easy for them."

Ella sighed. "Why didn't you tell me this sooner?" She asked.

"We didn't want to worry you. You have enough going on right now."

"If you're in danger I'd rather know than not."

"I know. I'm sorry." Aria apologised.

"Let's go downstairs and we can figure out what to do about this." Ella suggested. A part of her was still furious at Aria and Hanna for being irresponsible with magic, but a bigger part was more concerned for their safety in light of this recent information. She knew she'd have to lecture Aria again later but that wasn't a priority in her mind any more.

The three of them re-entered the living room to see her sisters deep in conversation with Emily and Spencer. They all looked incredibly worried and she came to the conclusion that the girls had told them the same information as Aria had let slip to her.

"I take it they told you too?" Ella said, interrupting them. Phoebe and Paige nodded.

"What are we going to do?" Aria asked.

"You girls are going to stay here for the next few days. We won't leave any of you alone for long enough for a demon to find and attack you." Paige summarised.

"It's not ideal but we don't have any other options and Leo isn't answering our calls." Phoebe added.

"I bet he'll answer me." Ella pointed out, annoyed at him for not showing up. "Leo!" She called out. Within seconds he had orbed into the room. "Why didn't you come when they called?" She asked him, dangerously close to blowing him up already, especially as she was still pissed off with Aria and Hanna.

"I was helping another charge." He defended himself, putting his hands up slightly in surrender.

"Did you find out if you can help us?" Emily asked him.

"The Elders don't like giving Whitelighters mortal charges, unless they are future Whitelighters themselves." Leo started. "However, given the fact that you're hanging around with the Charmed Ones all the time they said they might be willing to make an exception."

"Why?" Phoebe asked.

"Do you even have to ask that?" Leo replied but no one looked any less confused. "Being around you guys is dangerous. Just look at what happened to Andy." He reminded them. Phoebe and Ella looked solemn at the thought of him and it didn't take a genius for the rest of them to guess what had happened. "If they are being targeted by something supernatural, which we strongly suspect they are, there's got to be a reason. That was argument enough for the Elders to consider it. They were going to send someone down this evening, once I'd had a chance to talk to you about it."

"So when are they coming?"

"Now." Leo replied as he heard a jingle in his head from the Elders.

A sudden flurry of white lights appeared before them, even brighter than the ones that came when Leo orbed in.

"Hello, I'm Gideon." The Elder introduced himself. Leo, Ella and Phoebe nodded at him while everyone else seemed to shy away, nervous. They'd never encountered an Elder before and weren't quite sure how to act around him.

"Gideon was my mentor during my early Whitelighter days." Leo added.

"It's nice to meet you." Paige said, gaining some of her confidence back.

"I understand you were looking for Whitelighter protection?" He started and everyone nodded. "Leo is one of our best Whitelighters but unfortunately he's very busy at the moment and we came to the agreement that it would not be wise to burden him with the responsibility of three new charges." Ella raised an eyebrow at the word 'burden' but said nothing about it. He was willing to help and she wanted to be grateful for that."

"So who will be their Whitelighter?" Phoebe asked.

"As the circumstances are a bit out of the ordinary, we decided it was best to assign them to someone who is a bit more experienced in unusual cases."

On cue two more men orbed in.

"What are you doing here?" Phoebe asked the familiar men.

"The Elders have assigned us to be your friends' Whitelighters." Chris told her.

"Great." Ella replied sarcastically.

"We feel it's best for everyone if the girls are able to contact both of us." Wyatt explained.

"Is there no one else who can do this?" Phoebe interrupted.

"No one as qualified as Wyatt and Chris." Gideon said.

"We don't want any trouble. I've already explained to Mo… Ella what happened the other night. We just hope you can trust us again." Wyatt told them.

"I can see you have a bit to discuss. I'll be leaving you now. You know how to get in contact if you need me." Gideon said before orbing out.

"I seem to recall you not liking the Elders." Ella mentioned suspiciously.

"We patched things up." Chris lied.

Sensing that Ella wasn't going to trust them easily, meaning that the conversation could go on for a very long time, Leo cut in.

"If any of you girls get into trouble just call out for Wyatt or Chris and they can come and orb you out." He explained.

Hanna, Emily and Spencer nodded. None of them were completely trusting of the new Whitelighters, having heard what happened when they came for dinner the other night, but no one was going to turn down the protection that they were offering. If they could have even the slightest advantage over 'A' then they were willing to grasp it with open arms.

Once everyone had been properly introduced to their new Whitelighters, both Chris and Wyatt orbed out. Everyone else agreed to go home and call if they needed anything. Paige had given them all her number and asked them to promise to call her to orb to them if they couldn't get hold of their Whitelighters.

Once everyone had left, Ella turned to Aria.

"You and I need to talk." She said and Aria nodded her head sadly. The pair headed up to Aria's bedroom for a bit of privacy.

"Mom, I really am sorry about what happened earlier. I won't do anything like that again, I promise." Aria apologised.

"I know you won't, honey. That's not why we're here."

"Then why?" Aria asked.

"I want you to feel like you can talk to me about anything. Now isn't the time to be keeping secrets, not with 'A' trying to trip us up."

"I'm sorry. We didn't want you to worry."

"You know me, I'm a little neurotic!" Ella laughed. "I'm going to worry anyway."

Aria smiled and nodded, not knowing how else to respond.

"Now there is something else we need to talk about." Ella started. "Ezra."

"Mom I can't…"

"You don't know what I'm going to say." At this Aria stayed quiet, waiting for Ella to continue. "I'm not going to take the same stance as Byron on this because I'm afraid if I do I'll drive you away even more and I don't want that. Now I do want to make it perfectly clear that I don't approve of what you're doing but as it has been pointed out by my lovely ex-husband it would be hypocritical of me to split you two up. Ezra seems like a nice guy but if people find out about this you could both get in a lot of trouble."

"We're being careful. We won't let anyone find out."

Ella paused, grabbing her cell phone from her pocket. "It might not be that easy." She said, showing her the message she'd received from 'A'.

"Who are they talking about?" She asked as she read the message.

"Wyatt and Chris." Ella replied.

"Do you think we can trust them?"

"Gideon seems to."

"And Leo trusts Gideon. They wouldn't put my friends in danger, would they?"

"They'd better not." Ella warned. "But my point is that 'A' wants to out you and, while I'm going to try my best not to let that happen, I don't want you taking any risks. You have to think seriously about whether being with Ezra is worth the fallout when 'A' gets tired of playing games and sends that photo to the police themselves."

"Do you think I should tell Ezra about 'A'?" Aria asked.

"I think the more people you tell, the worse 'A' will try and make things for you." She replied honestly. "Now I'm going back downstairs to finish cleaning up. Can you make sure the girls all got home safely?" Aria nodded and Ella left her alone.

Ella was happy that her talk with Aria had gone well. She was certainly more mature than she was giving her credit for earlier. A part of her was tempted to go and find Ezra and have a serious talk with him but she figured it could wait. Aria seemed happy and there were more pressing matters on her plate right now.