Author's Notes: Here's chapter six! I hope you all enjoy it as much as the last :D Don't own them, like always.

Chris orbed back home alongside his brother, arriving in the conservatory. Sitting at the dining room table were his cousins, aunts, as well as his mother and father. The Book of Shadows was resting in the middle. It was hard for him to swallow the fact that his sister had been kidnapped. That kind of thing just didn't happen with them.

But then again, neither did that spell that Wyatt had told him they had been hit with. An Inhibition spell had an oddly familiar ring to it, one that Chris didn't really understand. That was the least of their worries right now, though. They were going to have to find Mel, and they were going to have to do it quickly. If they didn't, there was no telling what in the world was going to happen. That worried him.

"Hey," he said to everyone, only to receive a few dirty looks from his cousins. It was obviously in response to what he had done back at the club, and it made him flush red. There was nothing worse than being unable to explain yourself when you had clearly done so, and under the influence of a spell. He had wanted to be there, though…

He saw his mom move to stand from her chair. Piper stepped toward him and wrapped her arms around his waist, hugging him. Chris wasn't really sure why she had done it, but he didn't stop her, and he hugged her back, looking down at her.

"You all right?"

"I will be, once we find your sister."

Leo quietly cleared his throat. "Penny saw her being kidnapped by a demon. But—"

"But when Henry orbed Patty and I to where we saw her being kidnapped, she wasn't there." Penny shook her head. Her eyes were red and he could see that her mascara had run some. She had obviously been crying. "We weren't able to get there in time."

Phoebe, who was standing behind the chairs her daughters were sitting in, ran her fingers over Penny's light brown hair, gripping her shoulder. "It's okay, Penny. We'll find Mel."

"Were you able to identify the demon?" Chris asked.

"No," Wyatt said, and he sighed. "Penny didn't get a good image of her in her vision. Apparently whichever demon did it is a woman…we know that much. But other than that, we have no idea. There's dozens of possibilities."

"We're going through and marking the pages of the ones we know it isn't, thanks to Mom, Aunt Phoebe and Aunt Piper." Henry, who had been quiet up until then as he flipped through the pages, stopped just long enough to look up at Chris, before he lowered his head again. Henry then sat up very quickly, looking over a page in the Book. "Hey, what if we used this spell?"

Piper, who was still somewhat hugging Chris at that time, pulled away from her son and stepped toward the table to look at the page in question. "The protection from evil spell for the manor? I guess it could work. At least in keeping the rest of us intact…as long as we stay here."

"We'll copy it down and take it back to our houses, too," Paige said. "Which…we should be getting back to. I'm sure Henry's worried about us…"

"Coop, too," Phoebe said. "He stayed at Vicky's recital so he could pick her up and let her know what happened." She looked at her watch. "It's almost over, too, so they should be home soon. I told him to meet me back at the house."

"Do you need me to stay here, Aunt Piper? Uncle Leo?" Penny asked suddenly.

"Or me?" Patty chimed in.

"No, no, it's okay." Piper shook her head. "We'll be fine. Wyatt, Chris, Leo and I will work on this for now. But if we need any help, we'll let you know."

Both Phoebe and Paige moved towards Piper then, and the three of them shared a hug. When Phoebe pulled back, she said,

"Paige, could you orb the three of us back home?"

"Yeah…yeah, no problem. Henry," Paige looked at her son, "just head back home, and tell your dad that I'll be there in a bit, all right?"

"All right, Mom," Henry said.

In just a few seconds' time, the dining room was lit up with the familiar white-blue orbs as Paige, along with Phoebe, Patty, Penny and Henry all disappeared. This left Leo, Piper, Wyatt and Chris, all of whom looked at one another before looking in different directions.

Chris moved towards the Book of Shadows. "I'll…say the spell for the house, and Wyatt, could you get the crystals? We'll set them around the outside."

"Your mom and I are going to go up to the attic and see if we can't scry for her," Leo said.

"No, no," Chris disagreed. "Don't worry about that, Dad. Wyatt and I can handle it. You two don't need to worry about it. We took over for a reason."

"We can't just sit around, Chris," Piper murmured worriedly with a shake of her head. "You know that. We'll—"

"No, but you know Wyatt and I will do everything we can to find Mel." Chris glanced over his shoulder toward the stairs, watching his brother until he couldn't see him anymore. Afterward he turned to look back at his parents. "Just let us do it. You two have enough on your plates with the restaurant and Magic School."

Piper sighed again. She was visibly worried, and that in turn worried Chris even more. Part of him told him not to let it show, but this was his family. He knew better than to try and pretend around them. Giving his mom another hug, as well as giving one to his dad, Chris gestured for them to head up the stairs before he gripped the Book and held it against his chest.

"All right, Chris. We'll leave it up to you." Leo wrapped his arm around Piper's shoulders, slowly starting to head for the staircase. "Let us know if you find anything out."

"I will."

Chris watched his parents go towards the stairs this time, and he blinked when Piper stopped them at the first stair. She looked at him and smiled very faintly.

"You have my full permission to not go to class tomorrow."

Despite himself, Chris smiled a little.

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It had been a smart move, kidnapping the girl.

At first Lilandra had wondered if it was even going to work. But then, her doubt had been misplaced, because theGrimoire had never steered anyone wrong in the past. It was simply the fault of those who had used it. And she, for one, didn't plan on losing her way or her focus. She was going to break this Charmed circle just as the Source had broken it some twenty-odd years ago.

It was possible. And it was in her grasp, right here.

Lilandra glanced up from her table at the other side of her lair, the sight of the youngest Charmed One passed out making her smile in a strange sort of way. It had been sheer luck that the spell had gotten Melinda out of the club and into the alleyway where Lilandra had been able to get her. The fact that her cousins hadn't followed her had been a little surprising, but for that, she was thankful. They were surely kicking themselves over it right now.

There were records—tales—about the Charmed Ones being turned over to the evil side. Each and every time, however, the plan seemed to fail, and the three witches promptly vanquished the demons or warlocks that had done it. This time, though…Lilandra had no plans of failing. She was going to poison Melinda with evil just like the Seer had when Phoebe was pregnant with the Source's child.

How long ago that was…

With the Grimoire beside her on the tabletop, Lilandra picked up a thin vial full of a thick, opaque green liquid. She carefully popped the cork off and tipped the vial over the mixing bowl in front of her. She only let the tiniest bit drop inside before she put the put the cork back on. Almost as a delayed reaction to the ingredient the potion popped, and a puff of smoke shot straight up from the middle of it.

"Now all it needs is some arrowroot…"

She got up just long enough to grab three leaves of it, and she stood beside the bowl so that she could carefully drop them inside of it. Three was likely pushing it, but since it was known as the obedience plant—the main ingredient in the potion for bending someone's will—she knew that she would need more than the average one leaf…especially for a Charmed One.

The potion gave yet another interesting poof, however the smoke that billowed from the bowl disappeared much quicker than before, and left a shimmering twinkle of gold that lasted for several seconds. When it, too, disappeared, she knew that it was ready. She picked up the pestle beside her and gently poked at the potion, then stirred it until it was a little less thick. Once it looked drinkable she put the pestle down and picked up her goblet, dipping it into the bowl to scoop out some of the potion.

Some of the smoke continued to slowly puff out of the goblet as she walked with it over to where Mel was. As she was lying on the stone table, Lilandra was able to pour the potion down her throat with little to no difficulty. A little dribbled off the side, but she didn't worry about it. It would dry and Mel would more than likely clean it up later.

After a few seconds Melinda began coughing suddenly, and she lifted a hand immediately to cover her mouth as she did so. Lilandra stepped back. Hopefully the potion had taken effect…it wasn't coming back up. That was an obvious step forward.

Mel, as she moved to sit up, sputtered repeatedly. But she didn't attack Lilandra, and that was good. In fact, she even turned and looked at her, blinking a few times.

"Where am I?" she asked a little groggily.

"That's unimportant," Lilandra said. "Whatis important, however, is the fact that you're not attacking me." She paused momentarily. "I want you to walk over there."

As if without needing another word about it, Melinda slowly moved to stand, and then she stepped over toward the corner, near a few barrels.

"Now, I want you to come back over here."

Again Mel did as she asked with no backtalk, and with no request as to why she should do it. The potion had worked, clearly, and that meant wondrous things. Smirking, Lilandra folded her arms over her chest. "Sit." Once Melinda did so, the older woman continued on, "I have a task for you."

"What?" Mel asked.

"I want you to continue acting as you had been tonight. You will do as you like, and only I will be able to tell you any different. Do you understand?"

"Yes."

"You will answer to no one but me. You will not fight demons, you will not learn spells, and you will not make potions. You will tell your family that the kidnapping scarred you badly and you don't want to remember it. You will tell them that you vanquished me with your powers, but that you can't remember what I looked like. If they try to get you to think about it, I want you to become frustrated, cry and clam up. You will not, underany circumstances, release any information about what you saw here."

Mel simply nodded. "Okay."

Lilandra looked back to the Grimoire, as well as her batch of the will-bending potion. She raised an eyebrow upon returning her gaze to Melinda. "Tomorrow night, as with every other night, you will wake up at two in the morning, and we will meet outside so that I can bring you back here. If you are not out there, I will kill you."

Again, Mel nodded. "Okay."

"Now." Lilandra gripped Mel's arm and pulled her off of the table. There Mel stood while the other reached for her nearby dagger. A few whisks of it later and the younger witch was covered in cuts and scrapes. She was wincing and shaking from them.

With her hand on Mel's wrist Lilandra then shimmered out of her lair and into a separate part of the underworld. This part she knew had a weak block from the powers above; here they would be able to hear her calls.

"Call for your brothers to find you, and tell them what I told you. Remember. If you do not follow what I tell you—and I'll know—I will not hesitate to take your life."

As she shimmered away, she could already hear Melinda's frantic cries for her brothers, Wyatt and Chris.

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With his parents now upstairs, Chris took the Book and stepped into the sitting room. As it was the center of the manor, it was the best place to cast the spell. And with his brothers placing the crystals outside…

He looked over the page in front of him, clearing his throat. "For every witch in every hour, send us now the greatest power. Brick and mortar, wood and stone, protect our center, protect our home."

Almost instantly a strange burst of energy shot from the book in all directions. Chris noticed it coating the walls of the manor as if the energy had exploded on them. They all glowed gently for a moment before it faded away, leaving them as they had been just seconds before. He wondered just how long the spell would last…if it would even last that long at all. If they could just throw up that kind of protection spell whenever there was danger, he doubted that half the things that had happened over the years would have even happened at all.

Closing the book shut, Chris clutched it to his chest and started up the stairs to head toward the attic. He saw Wyatt hunched over a table with a map spread across the top of it, clearly scrying for where their sister was. His stomach felt like it was in knots—they hadn't dealt with something like this before. But he was the one that told their mom and dad that they could handle it.

And they would. Chris wasn't going to give up hope.

"Damn it!" Wyatt exclaimed suddenly, slamming his hand down on the table. The scrying crystal tumbled down onto the wooden floor beside him with a quiet sound.

Chris stepped further into the attic and headed toward the stand to set the Book of Shadows back onto it. And even though the answer was obvious, he asked, "Crystals all set?"

Wyatt, looking visibly frustrated, glanced upward at his brother, appearing somewhat surprised, too. "Yeah. I just finished. Thought I'd try looking for Mel with the crystal, but…"

"No luck." It was pretty obvious that his brother was angry. Chris, who was generally the level-headed one, was going to have to keep them both calm, or otherwise Wyatt's attitude was going to brush off on him, and they were going to have problems. He rested his hands on top of the Book. "Did you try sensing her?"

"I thought about it, but if scrying doesn't work, sensing her isn't going to, either."

Wyatt was looking much more distressed than Chris would have thought him to. The other's powers usually gave him a strong sense of comfort, a lack of worry. But here, he seemed almost like he was already losing hope. It wasn't like him.

Chris moved towards his brother, reaching up to grip his shoulder. He was surprised when he noticed Wyatt wincing and pulling back just the slightest bit. He raised an eyebrow, which Wyatt saw, and which made the older one sigh.

"I…"

Confused, Chris asked, "What's the matter?"

Wyatt stayed silent for a moment. Then, "Chris…why didn't you tell me?"

Chris was even more confused now. "Tell you what?"

Now the blond was looking uncomfortable. "…God, Chris, don't make me say it."

It was then that Chris finally got what he was talking about. And the unfortunate thing was, it made him flush. That had been happening way more than he wanted it to lately. Pulling his hand back, he used it to rub at his face. He sighed.

"Seriously," Wyatt said, sounding a bit firmer this time.

"I don't know," Chris finally settled on saying.

"You don't know? God, Chris, how can't you know? That's kind of a big thing to just not—" Wyatt paused. He had stepped back from the table—as well as his brother—and had a somewhat cross look on his face. "You can't just not say something like that."

That set Chris immediately on the defensive. "Well, maybe it's because I knew you were gonna act like this! Want to alienate me a little more, Wyatt? Make me feel like I'm even more different than everyone else?"

"You—" Wyatt turned slightly red. "That's not what I meant to do, Chris, and you know it. I just—God, having to find out by catching you making out with some guy? Do you know what that was like, seeing that?"

"Do you know what it was like, doing it?" Chris countered. "I was under the influence of a spell!"

"An anti-inhibition spell!" Wyatt exclaimed. "All it did was let you finally get out and do what you wanted to. And it was obviously a real doozy."

Chris didn't have anything to say against that. If that had been the spell, then it had clearly done what it had intended to…

"And you weren't the only one hit by it. I was, too, and I can only guess that Mel was. Patty, Penny and Henry said she was acting weird when she left. I don't know why they didn't follow after her, but—"

"They didn't follow after her?" Chris asked suddenly.

"It's too late to care about that now," Wyatt continued, tone becoming sharp due to having been interrupted. "We've got other things to deal about."

"What, like my maybe liking guys?"

"I'd say it's way more than just amaybe, Chris, or do you need to get your damn eyes checked?"

Chris scowled. It didn't seem to deter Wyatt any, however.

"I just wish you would have told me. I'm yourbrother, Chris. I'm not going to treat you like crap because of it. Hell, I couldn't really give a shit who you like. That's your business, not mine. But you know we don't hide things around here. It just makes things messy and hard to deal with later. I need to know these things."

"Why?" Chris asked angrily. "Why do you need to know, Wyatt? Is it because you think you need to protect me from the big, bad world or something?"

"Yes!" Wyatt shouted. His voice boomed, and he threw his hands up, which caused Chris to flinch instinctively. "Yes," he repeated, though quieter. "All right? It's my job as your older brother to protect you, you idiot."

"I don't need you to protect me, Wyatt, I can take care of myself." It was an immediate reaction, and Chris said it before he had realized it was out of his mouth. He didn't realize it, either, but he had a somewhat childish look on his face.

"Like hell you can. You're more reckless than—" but Wyatt stopped himself, and he looked down.

Chris nearly glared. "More reckless than who, Wyatt? Come on, who?"

"More reckless than Aunt Prue, okay?" Wyatt said in exasperation. "More reckless than Aunt Prue. Mom's told us about her, we've read about her…she constantly put Mom and Aunt Phoebe before her, and look what happened." There was something like a faint shaking in Wyatt's voice that seemed to make him stop for a moment. "You act just like her, sometimes, Chris, and you know it. It's scary."

Chris softened his tone just barely. "Yeah, well, I—"

"No, what you need is to stop being mister super witch all the time. You're not the only one doing this. There's plenty of us to help. You don't have to take care of this family. So stop it."

There was nothing that he could say to counter that, because Wyatt was right; and the inhibition spell had reminded him of that, as well as of what their mom had said: Chris wasn't the family's caretaker. He didn't have to worry about everyone all the time, because they could watch after themselves, and others would do the same.

Wyatt looked down. "God, Chris, I just…don't want to see you die."

"Is that what this is about?" Chris moved towards the other again. He nudged him in the arm, raising an eyebrow.

Wyatt reached out and grabbed him, abruptly wrapping his arms around him in a brotherly sort of hug. "You gotta let us look out for you, too." When he let Chris go, he said, "And rely on us every now and then. We know what we're doing, too, you know."

Chris snorted. "I know that, Wyatt."

"Then start showing it."

That really was the bottom line. If he tried to fight it any further, he knew that he was going to fail, and that it was only going to get worse. This was the kind of thing that was going to take time—he knew that it wouldn't be so easily dealt with. At least now, though, he could start trying. Wyatt had yelled at him about it; his mother had talked to him about it; and the spell itself had shown him what life was like not having to worry all the time.

It wouldn't be too bad, hopefully.

"Yeah. Will do," Chris said.

Wyatt smiled. "See? Not so hard. You just gotta keep up with it. I'll help."

Just as he was about to open his mouth to say something, the sudden sound of his sister screaming entered his head. It was frantic, worried sounding, and even a little painful. He furrowed his brow to focus in on it. Mel was crying for both him and for Wyatt.

He looked to his brother. "Did you hear that?"

Wyatt nodded a little. "…Mel." He paused, during which time he gripped Chris' shoulder. "Come on, let's go."