A Second Life

Chapter 7; A Pesky Bird

Halliwell Manor; Immediately after

Leo bolted to his feet as the three sisters, Billie and a fifth person came tumbling out of an orb onto the floor in front of the sofa he had been lounging on. Wyatt and Chris looked on in curiosity at the tangle of people before them and Chris uttered a soft laugh.

"Oh God that was close!" Piper stuttered out as she let out a breath.

"Leo?" Paige asked quickly, the slight bit of fear edging her voice working to get everyone's attention. "Can orbs be tracked or followed?"

"Well, yeah, not many things could though. Why?" He answered, raising an eyebrow.

"Get the boys out of here! I think I felt something following me!" Paige told Leo none too gently.

"Don't worry, the Elders set up a protection so that nothing could follow an orb into the house. You've got time."

Paige relaxed slightly as Leo told her this and so did Piper and Phoebe who had been searching the room with their eyes.

"So what happened?" Leo asked as Billie lifted the boys up to take them up to their room to play and to keep them safe.

"We got the innocent," Piper stated waving her hand at Damien who had been standing to one side taking everything in. Everything had happened a bit too fast for him to take everything in. "The Demons were killed."

"You killed them?" Leo asked cautiously knowing that something was up.

"No," Paige answered, "We kind of ignored the Demons. The bird showed up and suddenly lightning started flying around. We got quite shocked. The Demons somehow got fried."

"I thought you were just going to freeze everyone?" Leo asked Piper referring to the original plan.

"I couldn't get close enough to freeze them, and my freezing power only worked on one of the three lightning bolts." Piper responded defensively.

A short silence followed before Paige remembered that she thought they had been followed. Just as she was going to say anything a loud clap of thunder rocked the house.

Piper jumped the most before stammering out about there not supposed to be a storm that night.

For the first time Damien spoke up. "I don't think that's a normal storm." He said as he walked to the window. "I've never seen one before but I've read of them. I think it's a Dark Phoenix's work."

They were about to ask what he meant when a small lightning bolt slammed into the house shaking its foundations and before they could recover a ball of ice and lightning appeared behind Damien.

Piper was the first to react as she flicked her hands forward as she tried to freeze the attack but nothing happened and soon the lightning and ice dissipated to show a hovering black and silver bird. Paige choose to act next by shouting "Bay!" in an attempt to orb the bird out into the harbour. The bird looked like it would orb out but then the same lightning and ice that had heralded its arrival flowed around it and it was unaffected by Paige's attack but did turn squarely towards the three sisters.

In the last instant as lightning began to form in front of the bird Piper tried to blow up the intruder but it dodged the attempt sending the mirror over the fireplace raining across the room.

"STOP!"

The room went silent as the three sisters stared at their innocent like he was utterly mad but then they realised that his command had also gotten the attention of the bird who calmly wheeled around in the air and flapped its large wings to fly across the room and to the joint amazement of those in the room it settled on their innocent's shoulder.

Piper could only stare in indignation as the bird began to preen at a couple of ruffled feathers. "What the hell is going on?" She almost yelled making Leo wince slightly.

The man turned to look at the bird and seemed to listen careful for a few seconds before turning back. "Maybe introductions are in order. My name is Damien, I'm a Bird Speaker and this is Aberro; a Dark Phoenix."

Leo suddenly looked like he understood. "So the Demons that Phoebe saw were after you for being a Bird Speaker and Aberro…" he trailed off a Damien finished for him.

"He appeared just yesterday morning actually, I'd been attacked and badly burnt but he healed me and says he is protecting me until someone came to help." He explained.

"So you can talk to birds?" Paige asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.

"Yes." He looked like he was going to say more when he was interrupted by Piper.

"He attacked us though; at the park and just now." She said gesturing to the bird who looked up suddenly at Piper and then at Damien.

"He says to apologise, but he was only defending me at the park because he didn't recognise you. He was only expecting three people so when four arrived he tried to delay you so that he could reach me to transport me out." He paused to listen to Aberro again. "And the storm is because the protection on the house wouldn't let him enter so he had to weaken them slightly to enter, but he says not to worry; they are back up to full power except now they won't keep him out."

Whilst this conversation was taking place Harry was thinking to himself about everything. He was saddened by the fact that he had attacked his old Whitelighter at the park and then again when he had travelled into the room but that was just an automated defence to being forced around by the sisters.

He was also listening to Joel as he was informed by the council that his task of protecting Damien was over. The threat had passed and now the Halliwell boys were his sole concern. Harry could already feel the boys' presence upstairs and wondered at how powerful they really were.

'Damien?' Aberro spoke to his new friend, 'The threat against you is over, I have to stay here and protect these humans now but don't worry if you ever need me you just have to call out to me and I will come.'

He listened as Damien explained that Aberro wished to stay with the Sisters to protect the boys.

"Don't worry so much," Damien said when he saw their dubious looks, "I know you got off to a bad start but he didn't really mean you any harm."

Leo finally joined the conversation. "I've heard of Phoenixes mentioned as creatures of good. If one wants to protect the boys then we should let it, and it's not like we can stop him. They're immortal by what I hear, they can't be killed. But I have to admit the only stories I have heard involved them being creatures of fire."

"Aberro is a Dark Phoenix, they are cousins to the ones you've heard of but just control ice and lightning instead of fire and air. They are more offensive but much rarer." Damien quickly explained.

They chatted for a few minutes more as Aberro shook off the tiredness he was starting to feel from conjuring a storm and it seemed Damien noticed it as he eventually suggested he get going. Aberro lifted his head and flapped his wings gently and waited for Damien to give Piper his number in case they needed any books on birds of any kind.

He trilled a boosting song more for himself then for anyone else but did note as all in the room suddenly became more awake and then he and Damien disappeared into a cloud of ice and lightning once again.

Aberro took ten minutes saying goodbye to Damien, his first charge, leaving him a small vial of Phoenix tears in case of emergency and also a few loosened feathers from his fight with the sisters to remember him by. Eventually he left Damien's second and smaller house on the outskirts of the city and element travelled back to the sisters' house and deciding not to awake the sleeping boys he appeared instead in the kitchen where the three sisters, Billie and Leo sat around the counter drinking what smelt like hot chocolate.

The whole room jumped slightly at his arrival and watching intently as he flew down to the table in front of Leo. Harry studied the man in length. Joel had mentioned that he was an ex-Whitelighter and had in one way or another helped keep the sisters safe for over eight years. He knew he owed the sisters for Jason's life, without them both he and his bonded would have been killed that night. A voice in his head reminded him rather cruelly that Jason wasn't his bonded any longer and he felt pain once again but pushed it down.

He hopped across the table, accidentally upsetting a bowl of sugar on the way, to look at the other new girl. She was younger than the sisters about his age actually and it confused Harry that Joel hadn't mentioned anything about her to him.

Next he turned to the closest of the Halliwell sisters, he knew that the one that had been trying to blow him up must have been Piper and he knew which Paige was so that meant that this one had to be Phoebe, the middle child. She did surprise him though when she brought up her hand and began to stroke him behind his ear making him lean into it involuntarily.

Next was Paige who he studied while he listened to them talking about him. He heard Piper mention a raven several times but decided to ignore it. Paige hadn't changed in the last few days although he could detect a sense of loss in her eyes and he didn't need his Legilimancy to know that she was mourning his death and that cheered him up slightly. She mourned him as a person, not like a martyr like the rest of the Wizarding World would.

Piper was the last one at the table and he watched as she methodically refilled her mug and then her husbands. He remembered her best as the person that had helped him defeat the Death Eaters in that cell and he mentally noted that she tended to freeze things first then ask questions later and that was if she hadn't blown them up first.

One thing had been bugging him since arriving in the room though and that was the smell of the chocolate and he decided to just give in to it and with once hop and a flick of his wings he was in front of Leo again and his beak was in the man's drink. He loved hot chocolate, and especially now with everything that had happened recently.

He gave Leo a smug look as the man yelled out in mock anger and gave the group a trill of amusement that cheered them all up before he hopped to Leo's other side closer to the spilled sugar bowl where he preceded to lick up some of the sugar.

Laughter filled the room for the first time as the women watched Leo and Aberro fight over the mug of chocolate. Eventually even Leo was laughing and Aberro had to admit to himself that he really needed some sleep. He flapped his wings and soared onto Paige's shoulder and rested his beak lightly on the top of he ear and closed his eyes to put the point across.

If a bird could purr he would have when Paige started to absentmindedly stroke his neck.

"Right," He heard Piper say, "It's almost three, let's get to bed. We'll see what the Book of Shadows says about Phoenixes in the morning. Aberro?"

She sounded almost hesitant, most likely that she was addressing a bird. Aberro raised his head to look at her sleepily which gave her the confidence to continue. "Where do you want to sleep? Do you want to stay with Paige?" Aberro thought it over and nodded his head slightly.

He knew he shouldn't try to cling to his old world but he couldn't help it. It was only two days since he had died and he had spent half of that talking to mystical beings of one kind or another. Paige was his last link to Jason no matter how little they really knew each other.

Aberro barely recognised being settled on the back of the Vanity chair and he just stared out of the window as memories of him and Jason flashed through his mind. The empty space inside of him grew as each memory reminded him of his lost bond and more importantly his lost love. With a mournful trill almost too quiet to hear he tucked his head under his wing and cried for the first time in a long while.

Across the room Paige regarded the Phoenix as she settled into bed. It reminded her of someone but she couldn't even start to think of whom. When she heard Aberro's trill of mourning she almost felt her own heart bleed. 'What could upset a Phoenix in this way when only two minutes ago it was fighting with Leo over chocolate?' She decided in that instant to keep an eye on it. She rolled over in her bed as she placed her head on the pillow and a tear leaked out of her own eye as she realised that for the last day she had completely forgotten about her lost charge with that thought came the horrible image of Jason as he found out Harry was dead.

Her night was a plagued by nightmares as Aberro's was.

A/N; All of my chapters for my other stories are on my laptop which is being borrowed by a family and therefore I cant write more on those stories at the moment, hence I am putting work into this one. I could do with some reviews though otherwise I might just not bother.

Charmedsisters; Jason will find Harry. But he can't sense him when he is a Phoenix…hint hint

Thanks to my few other reviewers. I know others are reading this story, please just drop a line. I do accept anonymous reviews. You don't even have to say anything profound, I just want to know that more than just three people read my last chapter!