Disclaimer: I do not, in anyway own the wonderful world of Harry Potter, or Charmed. I am just dabbling in the world they left for us.

Chapter 34

Don't Hold Back!

Three months ago

Halliwell Manor

Piper and Phoebe were sitting in the conservatory sipping on some tea that Leo had just made for the sisters in hopes to calm them down. Though it was not having its desired effect, it was keeping their hands busy. "Piper it is going to be okay, he said he will come and see us before he goes to bed. Besides he has to get his trunk." Leo said as he took a seat next to his wife on the wicker couch.

"It has been seven hours Leo, surely it doesn't take that long to get to a school and eat." Piper said exasperatedly.

Leo just shook his head and smiled and put an arm around his wife. "I'm sure everything is fine."

Then out of nowhere a resounding 'Crash' was heard in the other room. "Harry!" Piper yelled as she ran into the other room leaving her husband and sister in silence. But when she rounded the corner she saw that it was not Harry that had made the noise; it had been Paige and she was bleeding out onto the floor. Her eyes were glassy, unfocused and she was barely moving. "LEO, get in here!" Piper yelled out as she kneeled down next to Paige.

"What happened?" Leo asked as he ran into the room with Phoebe in a close second.

"You know as much as I do, just heal her."

Leo knelt down and positioned his hands over her wound. It was bad, not that he would tell the sisters this, but he was sure that he could save her. It took some time but in moments Paige was as good as new. "Paige." Piper said when she saw her eyes fly open. Then in one swift movement Paige was on her feet, knocking Piper over in the process. "What gives?" Piper asked as she too stood up.

"How long was I out?" She asked.

"Not long" Leo answered.

"Then that means he's tracking me" Paige said as she looked around the room.

"Paige" Piper exclaimed "What are you talking about. Who is tracking you?"

Paige turned to look at her older sister and also found Leo and Phoebe looking at her. She shut her eyes and took a few breaths, to calm herself down, and then said. "First of all I need to say that I am sorry."

"Paige, what did you do?" Phoebe asked.

"Well what makes you think that I did something?" She countered.

"You're feeling guilty and on edge, so spill it." Phoebe replied.

"Fine" Paige said, throwing he arms into the air "I went to the market again."

"You didn't" Piper said "Dammit Paige, we agreed to never go back there."

"No, you and Phoebe agreed, I just shrugged. But that's beside the point; I went there to see if I could find out how they knew that Harry was at the Alley. And the Demonic Market was the first place that came to mind." Paige said.

"Did you?" Leo asked, because not even the elders had any ideas; well none that they were going to share.

"No, they sort of just ganged up on me before I had a chance to "talk" with any of them."

"That's why you were bleeding." Piper stated.

Paige nodded and said "Yea, and it was about three on one. I got rid of two, but last one caught me off guard and he was powerful too, you saw what he did to me."

"Paige with a wound like that you should have called." Leo said.

"Well I guess that I was so busy orbing all over creation, to get him off my trail, that I kind of figured that I would be okay for a bit." Paige responded.

"And it's too bad that it didn't work." The demon said as he shimmered in behind Piper, Leo and Phoebe.

"Duck" Paige exclaimed when she saw the demon raise his hand with a fire-ball in the palm of it.

After the demon threw the fireball; which hit the Marble Statue causing it to shatter, the sisters stood up to face the one who had broken into their home. "Who the Hell are you?" Piper yelled as she struggled to get up.

"Someone who wanted to be left alone, but red here" the demon said, gesturing to Paige "Would not leave me alone. So I did what I do best."

"Okay so enough with the chit-chat" Piper said as she raised her hands to blow him up.

"Hold it" The Demon started "Now how fair is three against one?" and with a 'snap' of his fingers five more demons shimmered in.

"And they say we're unfair." Phoebe said.

"Did I tell you guys just how sorry I am?" Paige put in.

"Oh, we are going to have a very long talk missy" Piper said as she threw her hands up and blew up two of the demons "But first we need to deal with these creeps."

"Leo, get out of here." Phoebe yelled to her brother-in-law.

Nodding, he ran from the room saying something about checking on Chris. Just when he was about half-way up the stairs he looked down in time to see Piper blow up two more demons and hear Paige yell "Fireballs". The scream of agony that followed Paige's display of magic, could only mean that she had been successful in ending the lives of the extra demons. Which meant that there was only one left; the one who had summoned the others.

The demon yelled and began to fling energy-ball after energy-ball at the sisters; who had to duck out of the way, by diving behind a couch. "Piper, blow him up." Phoebe exclaimed.

"And risk hitting the Grandfather clock, no way, we can't afford to keep fixing that thing. Besides I don't have a clear shot." Piper replied and was about to continue talking but something out of the corner of her eye caught her attention.

"Harry you need to get out of here now" Piper exclaimed.

"What is going on and who is the big and ugly?" Harry asked as he too ducked out of the way of and energy ball.

"Somebody decided that they would try to find out how Demons found us at the alley and just happened to attract him" Piper said while glaring at her youngest sister.

"I'm sorry" Paige said, sounding to Harry as though this was not the first time she had done so.

"I want you out of here Harry, we don't need them to get you, so go back to school and we will contact you later" Piper said as she jumped up, turned to face the Demon and threw her hands at him causing him to explode and take the Grandfather clock with him. "HA" Piper exclaimed, but did so a moment too soon, because at the moment she had blown up the demon, five more shimmered in and began another onslaught.

"No arguments from me, I'm going." Harry said while throwing them a smile and a wave goodbye. Not a moment later he jumped up, ran to his door, yanked it open, grabbed his trunk, and thrust it and him through the open door.

As soon as Harry had gone through his door the sisters moved the fight into the conservatory, which would give them some more room. Piper had just blown up another demon when it happened. The air crackled, and sparked with magic as a light began to appear in the middle of demons and the sisters. Just when the light seem to be at it's brightest it stopped and there standing in between the sisters and the demons was a young man; who couldn't be any older than 22. He had brown hair that was short, but spiked up, and was wearing a white tank-top and some board shorts. As he looked around the room he saw the demons and the sisters looking at him in confusion, like he had something on his face.

He shook his head and gave a slight chuckle "You don't mind if I do the honors?" He asked looking at the Piper, Phoebe and Paige. He sighed and smiled as he quickly turned back to the demons and brought up his hand, and in one quick movement a jet of blue light shot from his hand and split into four, smaller blue lights and hit each of the demons, causing them to burst into flame and explode. Three more demons shimmered in just in time to see their comrades lives end.

"You still want to attack after seeing what I did to your friends?" The strange figure asked smirking at the three demons. They glared at the unknown figure and shimmered out. As soon as the demons were gone, the figure turned back to the sisters only to find them walking towards him.

"Alright, who are you and what do you want?" Paige said exasperatedly.

"Actually I was hoping that you could tell me how I got here." The figure said. Though at seeing the three confused looks he was getting he continued. "Look, about two seconds ago I was sitting on the balcony of a Jamaican Hotel having breakfast and now I am here."

"Who are you?" Piper asked.

"My name is Chris and I am from the future." He replied.

Piper looked at her sisters questioningly and after earning a nod from both of them, she called for out for her husband "Leo".

Leo appeared in a mass of blue lights with baby Chris on his hip. Giving a loud gurgle, baby Chris reached out for the stranger. "Who's he?" Leo asked as he backed from the unknown person in his home.

"He says his name is Chris and that he comes from the future." Piper said, glaring at the young man who was now rolling his eyes.

"Look I'm telling the truth, if you would just give me a second…" but he was cut off from saying anything else because Piper cut in.

"You need to hush." She raised one hand and made a gesture towards the stranger in effort to freeze him.

"Your power to freeze won't work on me." Chris said.

"And why is that?" Piper asked.

Chris sighed and said "Because I am a witch just like you and if you would just give me a minute to explain I could clear some of this up."

Piper looked at her sisters and Leo to see what they thought and was met with two shoulder shrugs and a "Why not?." from Phoebe.

Piper looked back to the young man and said "You have three minutes."

Nodding Chris began to talk. "Like I said before, my name is Chris, Chris Halliwell, and I am from the future." He paused and at seeing the shocked faces staring back at him he continued. "My older brother is Harry Halliwell and you just got him back due to the death of Sirius Black, may he rest in peace, and he started his sixth year of Hogwarts this year, and me, I mean baby me has just swallowed a marble."

The sisters and Leo turned and looked at each other. He had all the facts right, but one. "He hasn't swallowed a marble." Paige said nodding to baby Chris.

"Oh, well my mistake. But I am not lying about who I am." Chris said as he pulled out a piece of paper and began to write on it. When he was done he folded it, stepped forward and handed off the note to Phoebe who opened it and began to read.

"He's not lying." She said as she passed the note on.

After they had all read the note Piper looked at the young man claiming to be her son from the future and said "Okay, we believe you, but why are you here, how did you get here?"

"I was hoping one of you would know. Did any of you cast any spells recently?" Chris replied.

"No, none of us did, but…" Piper stopped as though a thought had struck her.

"What is it?" Phoebe asked.

"He would have thought that he was helping." Piper said.

"Who?" Paige asked.

"It's the only explanation." Leo said in agreement.

"Look, Paige and I are trying to follow, but you guys need to speak in complete sentences." Phoebe said exasperatedly.

Piper looked at Leo to see if he thought the same thing and after giving a nod to the positive she turned back to her sisters and said.

"Harry."

Hogwarts

December 14th.

The image of a snowy Scottish sky rained down flakes that disappeared into nothingness over the Great Hall. Four three-story pine trees dwarfed the teachers who sat on the dais. White lights peeked out from behind dark green needles, winking at the students who sat at four long tables enjoying honeyed ham and gingerbread cookies.

Christmas had come to Hogwarts.

Harry and Hermione were picking at their bread pudding on either side of the table from each other. Hermione had her potions book open next to her plate and she was thumbing slowly through the chapter on sleeping potions. With Christmas came exams, and no occasion diverted Hermione's attention from what was most important: good marks. Next to Harry, Ron was taunting his little sister from across the table where she sat next to Hermione, staring at nothing in particular.

Ron laughed like Father Christmas and looked at Ginny, winking. "So, little girl, what do you want for Christmas?" He changed his posture to mimic a child in Santa's lap, his voice came out shrilly, "I want a pony, and a dolly, and to defeat my brother in our duel!" Ron flipped back to Santa mode "Ho ho ho! I can make you a dolly, and I can bring you a pony, but I'm afraid nothing will help you win your duel, young lady. You'll just have to face the fact that he's better than you!"

Harry laughed slightly and coughed on a piece of ham. Hermione's grip on her fork stiffened. Ron leaned forward, hoping for a reaction, but Ginny was still staring at the wall above his head.

Ron sat back then elbowed Harry. "Not even a blink, mate, can you believe it?" He grinned broadly and turned back toward his sister, "Looks like she's got Flynn on the brain."

Ginny's eyes darted to her brother's face, then down to the table, blushing bright red. Hermione put down her fork completely and looked at Ron. "Don't listen to him, Gin. He's just sore because he couldn't beat you in practice."

Ron pounced on the challenge, "That's why it's called practice. You just wait. I've got a few things up my sleeve."

"Like what?" Harry asked, still amused.

"Oy, mate, who's side are you on? I gave Malfoy a good go, didn't I?"

Hermione answered, "Ron, you've been relentless today. I think we're all ready to see less talk and more action."

Just then, Professor Bixby came down from the head table to stand on the edge of the dais. "My friends!" he called.

The hall grew silent. Ginny stiffened. Ron looked in horror at the slight, gangly man as though he was about to pronounce a death sentence for the young wizard. Instead, he lifted his hands and simply said. "It's time."

The stone walls vibrated with the sound of the massive benches scooting back and robes rustling as students got up from their tables. A wand wave from Bixby sent the tables to the side and conjured the intimidating dueling platform. Amid shouts from Gryffindor and jeers from Slytherin, Ron and Ginny approached from the opposite sides, climbing onto the circular structure and standing at its edge. The students pressed closer, some thumping their hands on the platform. They quieted when Bixby spoke again.

"Master and Miss Weasley, tonight is an historic night. Never in my time of dueling have I seen two such capable wizards from the same family, let alone seen them duel. Despite your affections, remember that the match is not over until one opponent subdues the other. Having seen each of you fight two duels already, I would encourage you not to hold back in any way."

Ginny looked back at Hermione and relaxed a bit, smiling. Harry tried to catch Ron's attention, but he was staring at his sister and gritting his teeth.

"Good luck," Bixby finally said. Students backed off from the platform as a shimmering blue dome began to rise over the stage. Wands at the ready, Ginny and Ron bowed to each other and began to circle slowly. The students began to shout again as the dome finally closed. Above the din, a bell tolled.

Surprised cheers went up when Ron fired off the first spell. "Langlock!" Ginny had little time to respond. She moved her wand as though to perform a charm but her lips would not part. The Gryffindor boys hollered. Ron pumped his fist in the air.

Ginny's eyes lit with rage. She looked at Hermione, who only nodded. Ginny's wand hand flew through the air and without a word the familiar red streak of a disarming spell shot toward her opponent. The beam hit Ron in the shoulder of his wand arm, knocking him back and sending his wand flying.

"Wordless magic? But you're a fifth year!" Ron protested as he dove for his wand. His hand closed around it as Ginny circled once more, breathing audibly through her nose. She stopped and turned her left shoulder toward him as he got up from the floor. With her left hand she motioned toward him and the signal was clear: Bring it on.

The crowd was deafening now as brother and sister began to fling spells at each other, neither uttering a word as they dodged, defended, and shot back. At one point Ron caught Ginny with a stupefy curse that sent her reeling, but she recovered quickly and countered with a bat bogey hex. As Ron stumbled toward her, undaunted by the large, bright green bogey that had just fluttered from his septum, Ginny shook her head and flicked her right wrist. Ron stopped dead in his tracks as a thin layer of stone spread from his legs up to his neck.

The girls cheered as Ginny sauntered toward her body-bound brother. No doubt recalling the now famous end of her battle with Cho Chang, the crowd began to chant, "Do it! Do it!" The shouts rose to fever pitch. The flame haired girl put one finger on her brother's forehead and pushed. Ron's toes came off the floor and he balanced on his heels for a moment before falling like a log and landing with a solid thud.

The students went wild. The dome fell and Ron was carried off the stage by Seamus and Jordan. Bixby motioned for Ginny to come down to him. She could hardly get through the crowd as they pressed in to congratulate her. When she reached his side, Bixby removed the lip lock, then motioned for quiet.

"Yes, congratulations to both Master and Miss Weasley for an outstanding duel! Our next round will not occur until the week of the ball. Tonight we will find out which one of our three remaining duelers will receive a break, and thus we will determine who the next dueling pair will be. Harry, Neville, will you please join us."

Harry made his way through the crowd while Neville, almost a head taller than most of his classmates, stumbled toward the dais as well. Harry stood next to Ginny while Neville stood on the other side of Bixby, looking almost proportionate compared to the gangly professor.

McCreedy fairly sneered as he brought the invisibility cloak to Bixby who placed three identically sized sheets of parchment in its folds and shook them. McCreedy then reached in for one piece of parchment which he handed back to Bixby who unfolded it. His eyebrows went up and he turned to face the crowd.

"It appears that Master Longbottom will take a rest for the next round and is therefore one of our final two!"

The Gryffindors and many others cheered. Harry clapped. A rock settled at the bottom of his stomach. It dropped completely when Bixby next spoke.

"Our next duelers, then, are Miss Weasley and Master Potter. I shall see you all next Monday after exams. Study hard and sleep well."

Minutes later Harry, Ginny, and Hermione climbed through the portrait hole and found Ron sitting in an overstuffed armchair near the fire. Fred and George were hanging banners and decorating the common room with "Go Harry!" and "Go Ginny!" banners. A rather large banner near the window already hung; it read "No Ron!" Large amounts of candy and butter beer lined thin tables along each wall.

Ron and Ginny exchanged a few looks, and Ron finally smiled as students began pouring into the room. Ron brightened further as his fellow Gryffindors congratulated him on the clever lip lock charm he'd employed.

Everyone who approached Harry, on the other hand, seemed confused. It was no secret by now to the school at large how he felt about Ginny. No one quite knew whether to wish him well in the match or apologize for his misfortune.

The party sped along for a few hours. Fred and George decided on musical entertainment for the evening, and they pushed back the couch and armchairs so students could dance. The buzzing bass vibrated the red and gold ornaments off the Gryffindor Christmas tree. The minutes flew by until Hermione stood in front of the fireplace and declared it was midnight and therefore bed time.

"We have exams in the morning," she yelled over the din as the revelers groaned and booed in protest.

A few minutes later, at Hermione's behest, Fred and George stopped the music and only then did the party begin to break up. Students of all years and genders drifted toward their beds. Harry lingered by the stairs for a moment. Ginny eventually came toward him on her way to sleep. She stopped at the bottom of the stairs and looked at him quizzically.

"Congratulations, Ginny. I… I didn't know you could do that," Harry said.

"Thanks. It helps to have the cleverest witch of her age as your coach," Ginny said.

"I… yeah, I guess it would." Harry looked down at the floor. What should he say? How should he put it?

"Harry," Ginny said, "I'm proud that we've both gotten this far, and if we didn't have to fight each other now, we'd probably be in the final together. This had to come. I've seen some of the amazing things you can do after your summer training. I have some more practicing to do, but I think I'm ready. I don't want you to hold back for my sake. Don't worry about hurting me, I'll be fine."

Harry shook his head. He had powers she did not and could not understand. Employing them would make the fight unfair. Besides, there was something else he wanted to say.

Ginny tipped her head and smiled. "What? Are you afraid Flynn will beat you up if I get bruised?"

Harry looked up. "What? No, that's not… wait, what?"

Ginny laughed, said again, "Don't hold back," and headed up the stairs.

A/N: I hope you all liked this chapter. And a round of applause need to go to RoseMarieLynn, who wrote the second part of this chapter. Now is when things are going to start to pick up. Though it may be sometime until I next update, due to my three jobs, and going to school full time…plus this is the week before finals. But have no fear, I will be trying my hardest to get something posted before Christmas.

Thank you all for reading this story, and please is you could just hit the button at the bottom of the screen so that you can REVIEW.

Mudbloodpotter.