A Second Life
A/N; I thought I would just clear up a few points for any charmed fans…I am not that up-to-date with seasons 4-7 so I might miss a few bits here and there…if anyone notices these please mention them in a review and I will either try to change it or put a mention in about it if it would disrupt my story. I'm not going to attempt to keep events with season 8.
Chapter 2; Angels and Devils
Halliwell Manor; The next day
The Halliwell sisters lived in a large house that to those without magic seemed amazingly and misleadingly simple, but on a magical level ebbs of power flowed around and into it in a vortex of power that didn't effect most who tried to gain entrance.
One such person who had easy access was Leo, the sisters' ex-whitelighter and husband to the eldest of the three. He had played an integral part in the sister's lives since they came into the powers and well valued for his knowledge of the Magical World around them.
At the moment he stood in the kitchen before the window in a ray of the morning sunshine listening to the chatter over breakfast. For once all three sisters had nowhere to be and they used the time to be lazy and spread the morning meal as it was now ten o'clock.
"So what are you and Leo planning today, Piper?" Phoebe's light voice asked.
"Nothing really, any ideas love?" Piper asked over her shoulder at the man behind her. "Maybe we could all go over to the cinema. I heard there were a few good films on." She offered when Leo only shook his head in the negative.
"That's a good idea!" Phoebe agreed enthusiastically before turning to the last occupant in the room, "You up for it, Paige?"
"Sure, why not?" She muttered in her normal way, "Billie was supposed to be heading over to study some of the books we salvaged from Magic School but she can always meet us there and study afterwards. I'll give her a call."
As if she had heard the whole conversation Billie walked into the room with a loud greeting making Pipers hands twitch in surprise, a small habit she had gotten since gaining her power to make things explode with her hands.
She of course was all for the trip to the pictures and was soon talking about all the new films that they could see, completely forgetting about her previous chore of studying in favour of discussing which actor was the cutest.
"Oh yeah," she suddenly cried, "Did you guys hear about the attack last night?"
Piper was suddenly very alert, "A Demon attack?"
"No, well I don't think so," She replied, "It was another of those terrorist attacks in England, a town library was attacked in the late morning, so about 3am here. Thirty-eight people are known to be dead and another six missing!"
"Oh my god!" Phoebe's hand flew to her mouth in horror, "That's awful, could it beDemons?" She asked looking over Piper's shoulder at Leo.
"I don't think so, it's not like Demons to attack so openly, nor kill so many without a reason." He thought for a few seconds, "Though the missing might have been taken by Demons for some purpose, but the Demon world isn't as active in England compared to over here."
The four women watched him as he started thinking again and Piper passed him that mornings so far unread paper when he asked for it. He flipped through the pages and started to frown slightly as he read an article.
"What is it Leo?" Phoebe asked curious as she got a weird feeling up her spine, a feeling she had learnt not to ignore.
"It's nothing really, just a hunch." He noticed them all looking at him so he quickly folded the paper and put it back on the table where Piper immediately opened it to try to find out what had bothered her husband so much. "Don't worry about it. I am sure I am just getting overly worried."
"Leo?" This time it was an unfamiliar voice which spoke his name and everyone snapped their head towards the front door where the voice had originated from even though they couldn't see the person there.
"Luke, is that you?" Leo called out heading towards the visitor. It was Luke, an old Whitelighter friend that he hadn't seen in a long time. "I thought you were charged with watching the Magic in England?"
"That's right," He smiled, "I need to talk to you for a moment. Alone." He added when he saw the four witches in the doorway.
"Sure, come into the conservatory. Girls, do you mind?" He looked pointedly at them as they tried to follow.
They reluctantly left to finish their breakfast and spent at least twenty minutes waiting for the two men to finish talking trying to overcome the urge to eavesdrop on whatever subject was important enough to spend this sort of time talking about.
Just as they were finishing the washing up the two men walked into the kitchen but after an introduction of names the man Luke orbed away after mentioning that he would be around if Leo needed him and that he would leave everything to him.
"So what was that all about?" Phoebe asked almost impatiently.
"It was actually a message for you Paige." He said turning to the latter. "It seems they have got a new charge for you."
"Do you need us to leave?" Billie asked, knowing that a Whitelighter's charge was supposed to remain secret to anyone but Whitelighters.
"That won't be necessary." Leo stated quietly, "You may be needed to help Paige at some point." He turned to Paige, "You're to start immediately as the danger he faces is becoming greater with each passing day. He is a young man in England."
"Is he a witch?" Piper asked.
"Not as you know it." He held up a hand to stall the questions, "Let me finish. All Whitelighters, at least normal ones, find out about all of the Magical World when they gain their powers, it is an area of Magic that we can all feel yet are banned from speaking of to our charges without express permission. You were never told because you never needed to know. Across the world is a hidden population of Magic Users that have become good enough at hiding that only Whitelighters and the top level Demons even know of their existence."
He paused to let this sink in. "I don't know why they want you to take on this Wizard as your new charge. I do know however that you have been chosen because of your ability to fight. You have express permission from the Elders to involve your sisters if you need the Power of Three however you must be careful, the magic they wield is far more practical than yours."
"They first appeared as a branch of Wicca magic, the ability to control the magic around them and manipulate it. They became far more numerous than you. In the end the true Wicca Witches like yourselves became ill as their abilities drew at their own magic and the majority fled to America."
"It's ok Leo, if this guy is worthy of a Whitelighter then I am sure he will protect me if needed and I can always orb out in an emergency."
"True, you have permission to inform him of your position and one other of his choice. However nobody else is to find out, it would be too dangerous. The evil he fights is far more dangerous then even the Source was. I am to give you this warning. Be wary of their magic, it can do anything from summon an object or create a glass of water from nothing to kill someone with a single word. Their most powerful weapon in common use is a beam of emerald green light that cannot be blocked by anything yet known by either side. If you see this light or hear the words 'Avada Kadavra' you are to leave very fast. We don't know what the 'curse' will do to orbs so be careful.
"So nobody's survived this 'curse' before then?" Billie asked intrigued.
"Only one, and nobody knows how." He looked at Paige.
"My charge?" She continued after she received a nod, "What's his name?"
"Harry Potter." He turned to look at Piper and the others as he said the next part. "According to Luke he doesn't like people making a big deal out of things. Like I said before Paige, be careful over there and be careful around Harry if he gets into trouble. He is bound by a prophecy far worse than yours."
Piper looked shocked, she had always hated the Charmed Prophecy and how it had controlled their lives, what could be worse than that. She voiced her thoughts to her husband.
"According to Luke it is basically Harry against the worst evil to wage war against his world. Either he kills this man or he dies and the rest of his world and probably our own falls with him. It is not something that we can allow to happen, which is one of the main reasons that you are going."
"Ok, when do I leave?" She said grabbing her coat.
Leo laughed at the attempt to lighten the mood. "You can leave now, Luke tells me that it should be almost 6:30pm there now, you can't orb directly to the pub where he lives and he isn't there now but this is the street it is on." He handed over a small map of the centre of London with a pencilled in circle on it. "The Pub's called The Wandering Myth. The building is surrounded in wards, for you to try to orb through them would alert them to your powers and probably drain your magic out of you and knock you out." He paused to look at their shocked faces. "Also some of the sleep potions probably wouldn't hurt; they have similar things over there so they won't draw attention to you."
"Can't I just orb to him? He's going to find out about me eventually anyway." Paige asked having never had to do this sort of sneaking around before.
"It'd be best if you introduce yourself as a normal person before chucking new information on him. He might even attack you if you suddenly appear. Plus he is busy at the moment and neither of you will want an introduction where he is at the moment. Luke also said a good person to start with is the Owner of the Pub. He knows Harry and his name is Jason Aberro though he didn't tell me their relation."
"Ok, I'll see you guys later then." There was a slight pause as she received nods from every member in the room before her figure splintered into a cloud of shinning white balls of light which hung in midair for half a second before spiralling up towards the kitchen ceiling disappearing along the way.
A/N; Thanks to my 4 reviewers.
Fiona; England is around 60 million, but if you include Scotland and Wales then it is higher plus this is slightly in the future so present stats aren't going to be the same…It is a bit of an exaggeration but not by much and isn't an important detail in the story anyway. Thanks for paying attention anyway.