A New Life in San Francisco

This chapter has a lot of talking in it and for those that don't like that, I am sorry but the information needs to be said. The plots going to move forwards soon though so please be patient.

Last time

'Oh shit.' James shook slightly as the man stepped forward. His red eyes glowing with arrogance.

"Looks like you slipped up, young Harry, or is it James now." Voldemort smirked at him. "How sweet to use your Muggle-loving father's name. You'll die the same way regardless."

James pulled up his magic as a last ditch attempt to protect himself but no matter what he was now he knew he'd never survive against so many Death Eaters especially with Voldemort at the helm.

Chapter 12; Explanations

Seattle Motel

James gulped slightly as those he faced aimed their wands squarely at him but before he could think of disapparating of there a series of rapid cracks echoed from behind him. He span to the side as he felt the pressing feeling around him that signalled that somebody had raised an anti-apparition ward. From the side of his eye he could see at least ten blue robed Aurors and probably more hidden in his blind spot.

There was a hesitant silence as the two larger sides eyed each other up but the Aurors obviously hadn't noticed Voldemort as the man had slipped backwards slightly and drawn up a hood.

"Harry Potter!" James whipped around as he recognised the voice. "You are under arrest!"

James' hands scrunched into fists and his arms began shaking. The wind picked up around them and started to fuel the fires as they whipped around trying to spread across the car park without any luck. Ron Weasley had made Auror.

All James could think of for those few seconds was the memory of his old best friend as he looked on in disgust as Harry Potter was carted off to Azkaban for life. But Harry Potter was dead now. He was James Evans now and he wasn't ready to give that up for anything on Earth.

"You never could see what was right in front of you could you!?" James yelled out towards the hooded figure of Ron Weasley.

"Me not see?!" Stammered Ron with a small laugh. "You're the one attacking a Muggle house with an army of Death Eaters at your beck and call!"

James glanced over his shoulder and to his horror the Death Eaters had turned their wands purposely away from him and passed his form to the Aurors. James didn't take his eyes off of them but even so he saw the figures of six people far off near the other side of the road. He didn't have time to worry about Muggles witnessing magic. He was about to be caught in the middle of a battle with both sides gunning for him.

"You've always been an idiot, Ron." James glared as his arms began to shake again. "I don't know why I ever wanted to be a friend to you."

"You threw my families love away for nothing more than murdering innocent people." Ron yelled with a shaking arm. "You killed your relatives and not only that but you drove Professor Lupin to kill himself!"

Ron had barely managed to vocalise those last two words when James felt his world burst into light. He could feel his magic flowing out of him like someone had exploded a water balloon in zero gravity. He felt it bunch up around him before it spiralled away. He opened his eyes just in time to see hundreds of spiralling blue streams flowing out of him in all directions. Some faded into the sky, some scorched the ground, others landing amongst the flames forcing the fire to explode but others hit the slow forms of Death Eaters and Aurors sending them flying away from him with blue threads of magic crackling around him.

James was only just able to see the stunned looks on some of their faces before part of the motel behind him, fuelled again by his own magic, exploded towards him. With his back to the building all he felt was the pain that spread through the back of his head. He fell to his knees as his vision blurred but that action probably saved him as no less than ten spells whizzed passed his head.

The next few seconds confused him. His darkened eyes seemed to fill with white lights and for a second he thoughts he was dying before the colours of the world blurred into that of an inside room. He felt himself being held up by strong arms and pulled up his magic again to blast the person away from him. The person must have realised the danger he was in since James was suddenly released and tumbled to the ground. His head hit a wooden floor and his sight returned to him along with his senses.

He bolted to his knees and stared around. He was in a living room with people all around him. He realised that his magic was still spinning around him, though more gently than before. He pulled it into himself and saw the crowd staring at him. He looked forwards immediately at Paige and her two sisters, Piper and Phoebe, both of whom he hadn't spent that much time with. Then there was Wyatt on his right and Chris was standing close by, as he was probably the one that had been holding him up before. On the sofa, though they had jumped to their feet were the two girls from the camp; Anna and Prue, Chris's younger sisters.

Behind the sofa though was someone that shocked James. He bolted to his feet and instantly regretted it as his head spun. "Gemma?!" He gasped out before noticing her clothing. "You're my Whitelighter?"

"Yes, James." She told him with a nod. "I'm truly sorry for the deception. Before we discuss matter we must raise the spell again. They will search for you again in seconds."

Despite everything that had gone haywire in his life over the last few days, James still found that he was nodding. He branched out his magic and met her own. He allowed her magic to guide and shape his magic within him into the now familiar hiding spell that she had cast on him before.

James sagged after it was done as he felt just how much magic he had used to throw away the Aurors and Death Eaters before. He staggered and caught himself on the back of a nearby chair but the movement drove his knee into the low coffee table sending a sharp pain up his spin and to the back of his head. He placed a hand on it to try to sooth the pain.

"James?" He turned to face a concerned Chris. "Are you ok?"

"Just a little sore. You shouldn't have done that." James told him with a slight glare realising that it had been Chris that had orbed into the middle of a battle field to rescue him. "You could've been killed."

"To right you could've!" Piper raged as she rounded on her youngest son. "What were you thinking?"

James felt dizzy for a second but stayed on his feet as he listened to Chris stammer on with excuses. "You cant blame him, Piper." Paige joined in, in her nephews defence. "You've done the same things hundreds of times to rescue people."

"Piper's right, Paige." James spoke over the argument that was brewing just as Piper's husband walked into the room and stopped short at the sight of everyone in his living room. "None of you knew what you were up against. You could've all been killed in seconds if they had seen you."

"That's no reason to stop me from helping you." Chris tried to interrupt but James spoke over him.

"And now they know about you. It's only a matter of time before they find you and kill you for helping me." James' hand, still behind his head, twitched slightly in his aggravation and sent pain through the back of his head.

"They did what had to be done. What has passed had to happen." Gemma joined in. "It is your destiny to help them and their to help you."

"To hell with destiny!" James yelled making everyone jumped slightly including Gemma who he turned the full force of his anger against. "Destiny killed my parents because it said that Voldemort had to come after me! If it wasn't for destiny they'd still be alive."

He took a weak step towards her and his magic broke out of his guard again and swirled towards her. "Don't talk to me about destiny!" James yelled again. "I could've been happy if it wasn't for someone's screwed up idea of destiny! Get out!" James yelled and without his control his magic spiralled out as a spiralling blue jet and as soon as it hit her she burst into orbs and disappeared.

"What happened?" Leo asked his wife though she seemed to be in shock. James slumped down onto the sofa and pulled his hand away from his head with a wince. Blood was covering his palm. He heard gasps from Wyatt and Chris to his left before the sofa slumped close by as someone sat. He didn't realise quite how badly he was shaking until Chris' arm squeezed his shoulder. His head sagged down and he felt a warm tingling over the back of his head as he listen to Piper explain what had happened.

"We found him in Seattle. We arrived just before his he broke out a window and the building exploded." She said though James couldn't see her expression. "He made some sort of silver shield but it collapsed as he stood. A group of Wizards like the ones we saw before were talking to him. Called him Harry Potter but just as it looked like this man was going to kill him another twenty people arrived wearing blue robes but still holding those wands."

Piper paused in her explanation to shoo Anna and Prue out of the room to get a cold towel and a bowl of water and Paige took up the explanation. "This guy who James called Ron started shouting at James about how he was a murderer who killed his family and drove this other guy to kill himself. Something happened then and those blue lights we just saw spiralled out and sent everyone flying. Chris rescued him just before he got hit by those spells."

James slumped as the warm feeling ended and he felt somebody probing his right side where James could feel the blood caking his t-shirt. His head fell on his arms as the warm feeling spread again and he realised that someone was healing his wounds.

"I saw two of those blue robed ones fall to the ground by those green spells." Phoebe gasped, "I think they were dead." James couldn't help but swallow deeply as his throat constricted.

"Can I explain everything later?" James asked turning his head to the side to speak clearly. "What I did took a lot out of me. I need to sleep."

He let Chris guide him sideways and felt his head fall into Chris' lap as he let his eyes close as all the magical and emotional turmoil of the last day caught up to him and he fell asleep with Chris' fingers carding through his hair.

XOXOXOXOX

He woke up and the first thing he noticed was that the light was on, suggesting that he had slept away the rest of the day. He tilted his head and found a window to confirm that it was now just after dusk by the looks of the dim sunlight. He tried to bring his hand up to his head to check the wound he had gotten but was stymied by a rather well tucked in blanket around his body. He pushed down the instinct to shove off the strange item or rather the strange feeling of it. He'd never been tucked in before in his life.

He wrestled free his arm and prodded gently at the back of his head and was glad to realise that there wasn't any pain left or even a mark to show that he was hit by a piece of rock travelling at high speeds. He pulled himself upright and checked his side and smiled as when he discovered that his t-shirt was in perfect condition without even the smallest tear. He pulled it up to show his abdomen and was slightly shocked to see that not only was the gash in his side from that morning gone but so was the scratches from the shotgun and even the stab wound.

He heard a few steps from the other room and let the t-shirt fall to cover him again just as Piper Halliwell walked into the room with a tray with a small plate of food and a glass of water on it.

"Oh!" She smiled at seeing him sitting up. "I was hoping you'd wake up soon."

James slipped his legs over the side of the sofa he had fallen asleep on and wondered where Chris had gone. "I'm really sorry to have taken up your sofa for so long." James said since he had nothing better to say.

"I really don't mind." The brown haired woman told him with a grin. "I don't think my son would have had it any other way."

She sat beside him and rested the tray on the low table in front of him. He didn't really fancy anything to eat but gulped down half the water in one go. "Is he ok?"

"Who? Chris?" Piper said innocently. "He's fine. He's upstairs with Wyatt and Leo scouring the book for information on Wizards."

"Did they find anything?" James asked.

"Only about Wizards in our world. All evil and fight with staffs. As far as we can tell they don't have any relation to your world at all." Piper informed him.

"Are you sure you want to help with this?" James asked.

"Even if we hadn't already stopped their plans three times and even if the Whitelighter hadn't told us it was our destiny to help we still would." Piper told him. "Chris likes you, James. And even though I don't know you personally that well I would never allow something to happen that would hurt my youngest boy."

"You're serious?" James asked.

"Very." Piper told him. "We've done this ever since our Grams died, to stop now would betray all those that died to help us and that we couldn't help."

James looked at her steadily for a short minute before sighing. "Sorry." He muttered. "I'm not as used to family members coming to the rescue as you seem to be. No matter what I said to Gemma I do realise that our two worlds have collided and without us working together to buffer it everything will go to hell."

"Literally!" Scoffed Piper making James chuckle.

"How about I give everyone a crash course in the Wizarding World?" James offered. "Just grab about ten more of these glasses of water and lets go find the others." He downed the rest of the water before following a chuckling Piper into the kitchen where he grabbed the offered pitcher of water.

He assumed that the house he was in was Chris' childhood house. Halliwell Manor where Piper, Phoebe and Paige had lived together before they moved to their own houses when they had families. James could feel something within this house, something powerful but also something neutral. It wasn't inherently good like healing magic or wards but it wasn't malicious either.

James followed her up to the upper floor and then up a narrow staircase to the attic. The attic was tidier than his own childhood house but it was still cluttered. A table in the centre contained what James recognised as potions ingredients as well as a cauldron. The three men were standing around a stomach high pedestal in the centre of the room as they flipped through pages in a rather thick and old looking book.

"James!" Chris almost yelled thought the grin on his face belied his emotions. James smiled back at him. He barely managed to say anything back before he felt himself crushed in a fierce hug. He stiffened up under the onslaught but Chris didn't notice. He did however see the strange looks from Wyatt, Leo and Piper though. It was only a few seconds but James found himself glad when Chris pulled back.

James shrugged it off knowing that he was just uncomfortable with hugs. He'd only ever gotten used to Mrs. Weasley's and Hermione's hugs but they'd both believed him to be a murderer so his track record wasn't that brilliant.

"Did you find anything else?" Piper asked her husband to cover the tense atmosphere.

"Nothing, only a mention about Merlin." Leo told her. "I remember that he was a powerful Wizard in the early centuries of civilised Britain but nothing about wands or Wizards like these."

"How old is that book?" James asked as he stepped across the room.

"It's been with our family for centuries, ever since the witch trials." Piper told him. "Some of the articles date back to then, others are more recent. We basically add things to it as we learn about them."

"Is it protected?" James asked.

"It's spelled never to allow an evil person to touch it." Chris told him. He realised that Piper and Leo were both looking at him and realised what they wanted.

"You want me to touch it?" James asked with a raised eyebrow. They didn't say anything but Chris drew in a breath as if to argue with his parents. "Don't worry, Chris. I can understand their concern, especially after this morning."

With that, James reached out a hand and laid his finger tips on the top of the spine. Nothing happened and Leo and Piper both smiled at him. James reached out with his magic and felt around for the spells. They were complex and more so, they were unbreakable. They didn't allow access to the book for anybody who used magic, willingly, for evil purposes nor to those that wished harm to come to anyone of the Halliwell family. It was a intriguing bit of work all for just a book, though this book seemed to be intricately connected to every member of the family.

"What can you tell us about Wizards, James?" Piper asked.

"Everything really." James told them. "If you get everyone together that needs to hear this then I'll teach you everything I know about the Wizarding world."

"Wyatt, go and get you Aunts." Leo told his eldest son. Wyatt just nodded to James before disappearing into orbs.

"Can you all do that?" James asked as he stared at the orbs as they disappeared out of the window.

"Only those with at least half Whitelighter blood in them." Chris told him. "Wyatt and I can do it flawlessly now and so can Aunt Paige. Dad used to be able to do it before he became mortal. Anna and Prue are learning but they haven't got it perfect yet. They tend to leave people behind or end up off target. Aunt Paige's children can sometimes do it if they are really scared or angry. Aunt Phoebe's side just do that Heart travel thing they do where they just glow and fade out but they can only do that if they are travelling to somebody they know."

James gave him a really confused look which just made Chris go slightly red. "Well, it made sense to me." Chris groaned.

James just laughed at him and Piper and Leo chuckled at him. "Don't worry about it, Chris." James smiled at him warmly. "By the time I'm finished tonight you be confused about what your own name is."

Chris groaned again just as Wyatt appeared with Phoebe on his arm closely followed a few seconds later by Paige. She looked to Phoebe straight away. "I hope it's ok with you Phoeb's but Henry's working tonight and Ashley and Matt at yours."

"What about Joshua and the twins?" Phoebe asked curiously.

"The twins are out at a friends birthday party and Joshua is out at the cinema with his potential girlfriend." Paige sniggered slightly.

"Joshy's got a girl?" Wyatt seemed to cheer up about ten notches at this information.

"Leave off Wyatt or do I have to remind you about your first girlfriend?" Piper told him sternly.

Chris actually giggled at this before leaning down slightly to James' ear to whisper, in advertently brushing James' cheek in the process with his close cut stubble. "First was this scrawny bint of a girl with this squeaky voice that nobody liked. Though that was better than the demon he dated when he was seventeen."

James couldn't help but laugh at the imagine of the tall blond man falling for somebody like Lavender at Hogwarts with her annoying voice. James turned slightly to whisper back. "It makes me glad I'm into guys."

Chris winked back slightly and James suddenly felt as if all the tension he was holding onto evaporated. Chris still liked him after everything that had happened since that kiss. Paige suddenly realised that he was there and was in front of him in an instant.

"James. I'm so happy to see you up and about." Paige smiled widely.

"It'll take more than forty men and an exploding building to kill me." James smiled back. "Though I think it was really due to my luck and to Chris that I am still standing here."

"Why did you want us all here?" Phoebe turned towards her older sister.

"We cant find anything on these Wizards in the book so James has offered to teach us everything he knows." Piper told them both.

"Bare in mind I was only in that world for six years before they locked me up so I don't know how everything works." James said tiredly.

"You know more than us." Wyatt pointed out.

"Why don't you all get comfortable then and I'll start. I'm not much of a story teller though so please don't interrupt." James took a gulp of water as Piper, Wyatt and Phoebe settled onto the old sofa in the room. Paige and Leo grabbed seats on tall high stools and Chris lingered on the arm of the sofa. "Right. Where to start? As far as I know every country on Earth has a hidden Wizarding World, some are more up to date with the modern world but others aren't. I know for a fact that there is a school called. Salem Academy in Eastern America that caters for the Wizarding population in America but I don't know more than that I'm afraid."

James started pacing slightly as he itched behind his ear and played with his hair as he ordered his thoughts before continuing. "The most concentrated region is in Europe especially in Britain which is the most powerful Wizarding country. They are still in the 1600's when it comes to normal technology but their Wizarding military, which were the ones in blue earlier, are the most powerful and best trained in the world." James sighed. "There are three schools in Europe that teach magic to all magical children, whether they have non-magical parents, half and half, or are Pureblooded. They teach magic from the ages of eleven till eighteen and are all boarding schools. Hogwarts is the largest and is somewhere in Scotland and is where I went when I turned eleven and was told about who my parents were and who murdered them."

Chris flinched slightly as James' eyes turned cold for a brief second before going emotionless again. "There is a major civil war on at the moment in Britain between the man who murdered my parents who calls himself Voldemort and the Ministry of Magic who are incompetent fools only interested in lining their own pockets with gold whilst keeping the population in place." James decided to side track and tell them of Voldemort's life. "Voldemort was born Tomas Riddle. He was placed into an orphanage at birth and grew up to hate the world. He went to Hogwarts and made a name for himself before disappearing after he graduated. Ten years later Voldemort emerged and began collecting followers that he dubbed as Death Eaters. They waged a war of terror which almost drove the Wizarding World into complete chaos. By the time I was born half of the Ministry officials were allied with him and people were scared to even venture outside or even speak his name. They still call him He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named or You-Know-Who."

James chuckled slightly before continuing. "Just after I was born a Seer, applying for a job at Hogwarts, had a premonition that told of a child, born at the end of July to parents who had defied Voldemort three times, who would kill him. There was two children who matched the description, myself and an old friend of mine called Neville. Voldemort chose me and came for me on Halloween when I was one. He killed my parents and by some miracle when he cast the killing curse on me it backfired and drove his soul from his body.

"Because I survived a curse that no other had ever lived through and 'killed' Voldemort I was hailed as a saviour. The 'Boy-Who-Lived.' They raised me on a pedestal and expected me to save them all from everything even when I was a child placed into my Aunt's house with her family even though my Aunt despised my mother and anything to do with magic since she was a non-magical person." James explained with anger lingering behind his words. "To cut a long story short, I grew up without knowing about magic and then was thrown back into a world which expects everything from you and when they don't get it they blame you."

James briefly told the story of his years at Hogwarts, of Voldemort return, of his Godfather death and then of his trial and imprisonment. "There are three different sects looking for me now, according to Gemma. The Ministry and Order of the Phoenix, run by my old Headmaster want me back in prison for murdering my family until they work out how to use me to kill Voldemort. The Death Eaters and Voldemort want to either kill me or turn me against them. Either way, everyone wants me for my powers. I've never met anyone that didn't turn out to only want that."

"Until now!" Chris stood and move over to him before hugging him. James relaxed slightly this time but pulled back after a few seconds and pushed Chris back to the chair so he could finish.

"That's about it for the history." James said before downing a glass of water before starting on Magic itself. "I don't know how your magic works and with only five years of schooling I don't really know how mine works or how it used to work should I say. Basically all Wizards require a Wand to cast and focus spells. They say a Latin incantation to trigger the magic but they have to learn how the spell works and practice using it to get the result they want. These spells cant be used without a Wand but they can more or less do anything. They can cast curses that boil your blood or turn you inside out. They can heal wounds or create defences against spells cast at you. There are literally thousands of spells that can be cast with only a moments concentration and a memorised word." James explained patiently, "There are also wards that take years to master and need more in-depth castings but I don't know any of those apart from how to take apart the Anti-Animagus wards that were on my cell."

He let that sink in before continuing. "There are only a few things possible without a wand. Apparition is the instantaneous transport of one or more people across any distance. You don't need a wand to do it since it is like accidental magic which all children do when they are emotional." James looked at them all with a smile before he vanished with a pop followed instantly by another pop as he appeared behind Leo and Paige's chairs. They span at the second pop but James was already back where he was beforehand. "Most apparition is accompanied with a crack sound like a car backfiring as they displace so much air around them but with proper training and an innate ability you can get it down to an almost silent pop if you concentrate properly."

"What about your Panther form? Is that another Wizarding spell?" Wyatt asked.

"It's a Wizarding ability but it doesn't need a spell. A few Wizards, about ten percent, have a animal form that they can turn into. They are always a non-magical form but they have the magic and intelligence of the human form." James explained. "The change doesn't require a wand and whilst in the form it hides your magic. Since I learnt how to turn into a Panther whilst in Azkaban they don't know I can do it and whilst I am in my form nothing can find me. I travelled across most of America in that form. I nearly got shot by a ranger once though I think I scared him more than he scared me." James said with a grin to lighten the mood and Wyatt and Chris laughed slightly at the image.

"I don't know what else to tell you really." James finished off. "But if I think of something important I'll tell you."

"What about that magic you used earlier?" Piper asked. "That was rather impressive."

"I don't really know how to do that." James admitted. "Supposedly I have magic from both worlds. If I get my wand back I can cast those spells I learnt before I came here but I can also do a few things. According to my Whitelighter I'm a seer but I haven't really had much experience with that except for seeing Josh shot in his bed." James told them with a shudder. "Also I have something called Power of Suggestion but I'm still learning how to control it enough to get the results I want. I suppose that when I got angry I tapped into that one."

"Who was Ron?" Wyatt asked but regretted it when James violently winced like he'd been slapped.

"He was the first friend I ever had. We grew up at Hogwarts together. He was one of the first to tell me what a disappointment I was when they convicted me. That memory was one of the worst I had to live with in Azkaban." James sighed. "I don't want to go back to that world. I'm happy here."

"We don't want you to go anywhere either." Chris told him sternly. "We'll work together to defeat them and once we do you can live here with us."

James looked at them all one by one and saw the same thing with all of them. "Are you sure?"

"We're sure, James." Piper told them.

XOXOXOXOXOX

End Chapter