Harry Potter and the Charmed Ones
Chapter 8
-Chris-
Following the very long and eventful first week, I slept in until noon on Saturday. In fact, I was sleeping so deeply that I vaguely remembered James trying to push me out of bed before finally forgetting about me and leaving. By the time I deemed myself rested enough, I woke up to find my dorm room empty. When I realized how sunny and nice it looked outside, I was not surprised to find the common room nearly empty as well.
I decided to go to the Great Hall to get some lunch before going onto the grounds and looking for James or Wyatt or Melinda and lying out to absorb some of the last heat of the year. James kept telling me how miserable England was in the winter, which seemed to last for ten months out of the year, so I knew I had to enjoy the warm weather while it lasted.
The hallways were all extremely deserted as I walked through them. My footsteps echoed with every step I took; I seemed to be the only one around for probably miles. Also, I still didn't know the castle very well and as this morning was the first time I tried to get from the Gryffindor Tower to the Great Hall alone, I found myself lost.
I sighed as I wandered aimlessly. At least I didn't really have anywhere to be. I wasn't sure what floor I was on or even what side of the castle I had ventured to, so I had absolutely no idea where to turn next.
Finally, I heard a noise that was not caused by me. It was far, so I wasn't exactly sure what it was, but I sped up my pace to try and locate the source. Hopefully it will be someone who can tell me exactly where I am.
After about fifteen seconds of me trying to power-walk towards the source of the noise, I heard a loud explosion and then a female scream. My blood ran cold, my heart started pumping, and I began to sprint. Oh shit, a demon got in… and it's attacking a girl… I prayed that I would get there on time…
I turned the corner to another hallway just in time to see a girl, who was probably around my age, throwing an energy ball at a demon. The demon screamed in agony and vanished seconds later.
I stared, my mouth agape, at the scene before me. All I could think was: what the hell…?
"Hey!" I shouted at the girl, who whipped her head around to face me.
She quickly conjured up an energy ball and threw it at me. I waved my arm so that the energy ball was deflected and hit the wall instead. The girl then turned to sprint away from me.
"Wait!" I shouted. She didn't stop so I orbed to the other side of the hall, directly in front of her. "Who are you?" I asked, grabbing her shoulders.
What I was not expecting was for her to kick me in the shins to get me to release her. I doubled over in pain and she turned around again to run away. I raised my hands quickly and waved them, sending her flying into the wall and hitting her head. She crumpled to the ground and lay still, unmoving.
It took me a moment to regain the feeling in my legs, and once I did so, I glanced up at the unconscious girl and mumbled, "Shit."
I approached her and turned her over. She was very beautiful, I noticed. She had dark skin and dark brown hair, which was fanned around her head. I stared at her for a little too long, admiring her facial features, before blushing and pushing the thoughts from my mind. I held up my hands in an attempt to heal her but, of course, it didn't work – unlike Wyatt, I was not born with the power to heal and it is the one power that I have yet to develop. Instead, I put my hands on the shoulders of the girl and shook her lightly. "Wake up," I said. "Come on, wake up!"
Starting to worry, I glanced over my shoulder, hoping that someone would turn around the corner. When I looked back to the girl, I saw her eyes open.
Immediately, I grabbed her wrists and pinned them above her head whilst straddling her. "Who are you?" I demanded.
The girl tried to squirm from beneath me but I was too heavy. After a moment of trying, she gave up, breathing deeply. "Let me go."
"I just helped you wake up," I said, "so you owe it to me to tell me who you are."
She glared at me. "You're also the reason I hit my head."
"Never mind that," I said. "Who are you? Are you a demon?"
"No," she said.
"So then you're a witch?" I asked.
She paused before nodding.
"How come you can create energy balls, then? I'm pretty sure there's only one witch that can conjure energy balls."
"I'm not the same kind of witch you are," she said.
"Huh?"
"I don't fight evil and protect Innocents, like your family," she growled.
I narrowed my eyes. "How do you know who I am? And, for that matter, I just saw you killing a demon, so how do you not fight evil?"
"Everyone knows who you are," she said. "Chris Halliwell, second son of a Charmed One."
"Oh," I said stupidly.
"Now, let me go!" she snapped.
"Wait! You still haven't told me what you are," I said.
She, however, was sick of waiting. She kneed me in the back to get me to let go of her hands, then threw me off of her. Just as I was scrambling back to my feet, she turned and shimmered out of the castle.
I rubbed my hand over my back, where I was sure a bruise was soon to form. What in the hell was going on? I still did not know what she was – she can't be a witch because she shimmered, but she can't be a demon because she just killed one.
I gave up trying to find my way outside and just started walking as I pondered over what had just happened. I wanted to check the Book of Shadows to see what she was, but, at the same time, I didn't really want to tell my mom about the incident.
After a while, I found myself at a familiar set of stairs and finally realized that I was on the third floor. I wasn't particularly interested in lying out in the sun anymore, but I figured Wyatt was outside and it was he who I was looking for now.
I wandered outside and saw what was probably the entire student body lying out on the grass, under trees, by the lake, or in the courtyard. I meandered around outside for a while until I found Wyatt sitting with Molly, Fred, Sarita, Gary, and Jessica underneath a tree. They had their textbooks out and seemed to be studying for a test.
I approached the group and said, "Hey, Wyatt. Can I talk to you?"
Wyatt glances up, holding his hand above his eyebrows to shield from the sun. "Sure. What's up?"
My eyes roved over the other five faces staring up at me. "Um… in private?"
"Oh." Wyatt glanced at Molly before setting down his textbook and standing up. "Sure." I led him to a tree a little ways away, so that we weren't around anyone that could overhear us. We sat in the shade and he asked me, "So what's going on? Is something wrong?"
"No, I just had a question for you," I said. "But first you have to promise you won't tell Mom."
Wyatt narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "Okay…"
"Okay. So, I met this girl today…"
Smirking, Wyatt bopped me on the shoulder. "Oh, so that was this is about! Who is she? What year is she? Is she in Gryffindor? What's her name? It's not Lucy, is it? Molly told me that Lucy said she thought you were staring at her once –"
"No, no!" I said quickly, causing Wyatt to stop talking. "It's not like that – and Lucy really said that? I wasn't staring at her – she was sitting in front of that magical chess game and I was staring at that."
"Really?" said Wyatt thoughtfully. "I'll pass along the message… wouldn't want Lucy to forever think you were a creep."
I rolled my eyes, "Anyway," I said, "I was wandering around the castle today because I got lost when walking from the Gryffindor Tower to the Great Hall. I think I was somewhere on the third floor when I heard an attack."
"Like a demon attack?" said Wyatt sharply.
I nodded. "And I heard this girl scream, so I went running to go help, but when I got there, I saw this girl throw an energy ball at a demon and kill him!"
"She was a demon? What did she look like?"
"She wasn't, though," I said. "At least, I don't think. I managed to get her still so I could interrogate her – after accidently knocking her out – and she told me that she's a witch."
"A witch?" Wyatt mused. "You met another witch? Like, a witch like us?"
"I don't know," I said. "She said she was a witch and she vanquished a demon, but I saw her throw an energy ball, and I thought only you could do that. Also, when she left, she shimmered!"
Wyatt's eyes snapped up. "She shimmered? Well, then there's no doubt about it – she's a demon."
"But she said she was a witch," I protested, "and I saw her killing a demon!"
"So?" Wyatt challenged. "She can say whatever the hell she wants, but you don't have to believe her. You can't be so naïve as to think that everyone magical creature that says they're a witch is. Any old demon can say they're a witch."
"She didn't look like a demon, though," I snapped. "It wasn't like this guy with red skin and horns told me he was a witch – she looked normal."
"Demons can look normal, Chris," said Wyatt impatiently. "I feel like I'm talking to a mortal here. Shimmering is a demon only power. She shimmered, so she's a demon."
"But then why was she killing a demon?" I questioned.
"Maybe he pissed her off?" Wyatt said. "I don't know – but demons are evil, so you know that they kill each other as well as Innocents."
I frowned. It still didn't make sense. "But… she knew who I was. She knew my name and about Mom and everything. And she didn't even care about killing me or anything about the school. It's like she didn't even know where she was. If she was really a demon, wouldn't she have attacked me?"
"Not necessarily," Wyatt said. "Not all demons are part of the Source's entourage. You're right, she probably didn't even realize where she was, but that doesn't mean that she's not a demon. What likely happened is she was in the Underworld and some demon pissed her off, he shimmered here, she followed, she killed him, and then she left. That's all there is to it. And she's a smart demon, so she lied and told you she was a witch so that you wouldn't vanquish her. Luckily for her it wasn't me who found her, because I wouldn't have believed her. But you, Chrissy, are just so gullible."
I scowled. What Wyatt said made sense but for some reason it was just too hard for me to believe it. I knew there was more to that girl than she let on. However, I knew better than to argue with Wyatt. When he thought he was right, he didn't relent.
"It's okay, little bro," he continued. "I know it sucks finding out a cute girl is really a demon, but it happens to the best of us."
-Paige-
All I wanted to do over the weekend was relax and explore Hogsmeade, but unfortunately my sisters and I were stuck creating a spell to protect Hogwarts. And so, we were found on the back porch of Piper's and my cottage Saturday morning, discussing how to do it.
"There aren't any protection spells in the Book, are there?" I asked.
"There's one, I think," said Phoebe. "I don't know if it works, though. It would probably be safest if we write one ourselves."
"You know what else I think we should do?" Piper added. "We should have the kids say it with us when we cast it for extra power. And also, like our old Source vanquishing spell, we can call upon our ancestors. We have to make sure that this spell works, so we need to pull out all the stops."
Phoebe nodded. "I can get to work on writing the spell."
"And I'll make the potion," said Piper. "Paige, can you get the incense sticks and the cauldron and everything else?"
"Yeah, sure," I said. "And then I can help Phoebe with the spell."
It took nearly all day to complete the spell and for Piper to brew an appropriate potion. We were exhausted, but we still weren't done. We had to gather all the children (which took over an hour, simply because we had to somehow locate Wyatt, Chris, Melinda, Tamora, Kat, Prue, and Henry inside the huge castle and they all conveniently were not together) before orbing to the front gates of the grounds to Hogwarts.
We still had a bit of preparation to do. Piper set the brewed potion on a large rock and let the steam spill over and onto the gravel road. The three of us sat around the potion in a triangle while our nine children stood a ways away from us. To make the potion stronger, the three of us had to prick our fingers and squeeze a bit of blood into the potion. Within seconds after doing so, the steam started to turn red.
"Alright kids," Piper said, standing up.
Phoebe took the spell out of her pocket and bet down so that the kids could read it. "Repeat after me," she said:
"Prudence, Penelope,
Patricia, Melinda,
Astrid, Helena,
Laura, Brianna.
Halliwell witches,
From now 'till medieval,
Protect this castle,
From the wicked and evil."
The twelve of us chanted the song in unison and, as soon as we finished, a loud explosion rang from the cauldron. We jumped and glanced over to see a strange mist erupt from the cauldron and fly over the grounds in every direction. Within seconds, it disappeared.
"So, did it work?" asked Brianna.
Piper walked over to the cauldron and peeked inside. The potion had stopped emitting steam and the liquid inside sat still. "I think so," she said. "Something happened, at least."
"Good work everyone!" commended Phoebe. "Looks like we have successfully protected this castle from demons and the like. A job well done!"
"Can we go inside, now?" asked Melinda, her hands jammed in her coat pockets. "It's freezing!"
It was rather cold out. "Alright, let's go."
Melinda, Tamora, Kat, Prue, and Henry immediately latched onto either Chris or Wyatt to be orbed back into the warm castle.
"Mommy, I want to go to Hogwarts," Patty pouted to Phoebe as she grabbed my hand for me to orb her.
"Yeah, can we, can we?" Penny begged.
"In a couple years," Phoebe said soothingly as we orbed out.
-Phoebe-
The night after we blessed the castle, we found ourselves back at the Harry Potter house with the DA. Some people that we had met earlier were not there, but for the most part it was the same group of people.
"As you may have guessed by having this meeting called," Harry said, "the Charmed Ones were able to cast a spell to protect the castle from evil creatures."
"What did you do?" Percy Weasley asked.
"Spell and potion," said Paige. "Pretty standard. We wrote the spell to protect the castle from evil, so that will include demons, warlocks, and everything in between. Nothing evil will able to blink or shimmer inside the grounds anymore."
"Now," Harry began, "while the attack on the school on Friday night was rather frightening, we were able to get some answers from the demons as to what they are doing and what they want."
"You did?" Anthony Goldstein said as he and the others all sat up straighter. "How?
Harry nodded to my sisters and me. "The Charmed Ones interrogated the demons and were able to get some answers."
"What did they say?" asked Dennis Creevey.
"That one of the Source's main goals right now is to shut down the school," Piper explained. The occupants of Harry's dining room immediately began twittering.
"Why would he want to do that?" asked Lavender Gelson.
"And what are we going to do about it?" Padma Stretton added.
"So the school isn't safe then, is it?" inquired Alicia Wood.
"The Charmed Ones know the Source better than us all," interrupted Hermione, "but I think I have answers about his intentions. Hogwarts is one of the focal points of the magical community. Yes, there are other magic schools, but Hogwarts is one of, if not the most, prestigious. Hogwarts, along with the Ministry, are the two institutions that act as central points for our world. And since Hogwarts is home to the children of our world, it is more vulnerable than the Ministry. If either of them is in danger of being shut down, it would be Hogwarts, because parents would sooner worry about their children's wellbeing, especially when still in school."
Paige nodded. "That sounds about right to me. But also, with the school open, my sisters and I can protect the school. If the school closes, we can't protect the kids, and the Source knows this."
"To answer your other questions," I added, "My sisters and I, along with our children, cast a very powerful spell over the school so that no demons can magically transport themselves into the school. So the school is now safe."
"If the Ministry is in as much danger as Hogwarts," Parvati Thomas said, "then what should we do to protect it?"
My sisters and I glanced at one another. "Another thing the demons said," Piper stated, "is that the Source has spies in the Ministry. There's not really much that we can do with spies, because they are wand wizards. That's something that you guys will have to deal with."
Ron Weasley nodded. "We all know who the Voldemort sympathizers were. All the Death Eaters from Voldemort's time are in Azkaban, but there are still those who were friends with Death Eaters or sympathized with them that we can keep an eye on."
"Our biggest priority," Ginny Potter added, "is to make sure that the Ministry is not corrupted like it was twenty-three years ago. The DA has a lot of power in the Ministry and we must make sure that no one with ill intentions is able to take over."
Harry nodded at his wife. "Ginny's right. No Muggle-born hunts or Muggle killing, no Dementors ever, no Dark Arts in Hogwarts… none of that."
"That's all we can really do with the Ministry right now," Percy Weasley said. "But I think with all of us there, we can keep things under control."
"Most people's main worry right now is Hogwarts," Neville Longbottom said. "Obviously news of the two demon attacks have gotten out and I have received numerous owls from concerned parents about the safety of their children."
"Have any kids been pulled out of school?" asked Harry.
Neville shook his head. "Not from Gryffindor, and I'm pretty sure that none in the other Houses either. I think it would have been brought up – because usually once the first child is taken out, more follow quickly."
"Why would parents taken their kids out of school?" Piper asked incredulously. "The kids are safest there!"
"Not everyone sees it that way," replied Neville. "To a parent, they see the arrival of your family before the arrival of demons, and their first instinct is to remove their child from where the danger is occurring. Instead of seeing that you sisters are defeating these demons, they just see that demons are there."
I shook my head. "That's not good… we can't let parents take their kids out of school. They are so much safer with us there."
Neville shrugged. "We can't force students to stay here. If their parents want them out, they're out."
"I have a question," Michael Corner spoke up. "What is your next step past blessing the castle?"
I looked at Piper and Paige and frowned. "We don't know yet," I admitted. "In order to really know what we're going up against with the Source, we have to fight him, which is a huge risk."
"We're certain that He's not strong enough to defeat us yet, or else He could have already come to us personally," Piper said. "But all of these demon attacks could just be his way of luring us into a trap, which is a risk that we aren't willing to take. We can fight his demons no problem, but if he lures us into the Underworld and somehow traps us, then nothing is safe."
"And beyond that, we don't know where the Source is or how to find him," Paige continued. "Whitelighters cannot orb into the Underworld – the same way that demons cannot shimmer up to the Elders. So we would have to find a spell that could transport us into the Underworld. And even if we did that, the Underworld is huge. We wouldn't know exactly where he is, and he's likely to be very guarded."
"So basically, we can't do anything unless the Source comes to us," I finished. "And that won't be happening any time soon, because he can't defeat us and he can't get to us while we're at Hogwarts."
The others around the dining room table nodded. "So we should just keep our eyes out in the Ministry for now?" Luna Scamander said airily. "Seems easy enough."
Harry nodded. "I think we'll wait to hold another meeting until something new comes up. We know what we have to do for now."
Minutes later the meeting was adjourned, and Harry pulled my sisters and me aside. "I didn't want to ask this in front of everyone, but – you're sure that the spell you cast on the castle worked, right?"
"We're very sure," Piper said. "Of course, there's no way to test it, but if we go months without a demon attack we'll know we did something right. And our history with spells is pretty good, too."
Harry nodded. "Good. I trust you three."
"Now I have a question," I said, voicing something that has been bothering me the last few minutes. "Is there any way that we can be notified if a child is going to be taken out of Hogwarts? So we can talk to the parents and convince them they're being stupid?"
Harry chuckled. "You should talk to Neville about that. But I don't know – if a parent wants to take his or her child out of school, there may not be much that any of you could say that could change his or her mind."
"It's worth a shot," Paige said. "We're here to protect every single kid there. That means we have to try if parents are trying to take their kids away."
Harry nodded. "I understand. Talk to Neville, or Professor Flitwick or Professor Ulvaeous."
"We will." I nodded. "Thank you, Harry."
