A/N: Reply to Dominus Trinus: Yeah, it was hard to figure out what kinds of sounds I could use to describe what potion-making could sound like through walls/floors. The descriptions could have applied to demon vanquishing easily, but some of those potions were pretty loud, too!

Chapter Three

I was still worried about the attic. Phoebe had started making fun of me for it, even though she was just as scared as me when we'd heard those noises. I guess a few days was all it took for her to forget that. As for me, it was still hard to go to sleep at night, even though I hadn't heard anything since then. As far as I was concerned, either there was something scary up there waiting to come out again, or Grams was lying to us about not being able to open the attic door. I didn't know which was worse.

I was sitting on the couch by the fireplace, looking down at my homework, but not able to concentrate on it at all. Phoebe sat in the chair next to me, eating a snack that Grams had warned her would spoil her dinner. I was still trying to make sense out of the numbers on the page when a knock at the door nearly made me jump out of my skin.

"Afraid of the attic monster again?" Phoebe teased me. I glared at her while Prue got up to answer the door.

"Andy, hi," we heard her say from the hallway.

"Oooh, it's Aaaandy," Phoebe said. She leaned over to me and made kissy faces. I couldn't help but laugh. Since Andy was our neighbor, he'd been friends with us our whole lives, but Phoebe and I were pretty sure that Prue liked him now, even if she always told us she didn't.

"Hey guys," Andy said to us as he leaned his head into the room.

"Hi Andy," Phoebe and I answered together.

"Are you guys done with your homework?" Prue asked.

"I am, but Piper's taking forever," Phoebe said.

"Phoebe!" I complained. I was so mad I nearly kicked her.

"Piper, do you want me to help you with anything?" Prue asked me.

"No, I can do it," I answered, upset.

Prue walked over to me. "Then why aren't you doing it, sweetie?" she asked, concerned.

I sighed. "I can't concentrate."

"Are you still thinking about the attic?" Prue asked. I could tell she was getting annoyed with me about it, but she didn't want to upset me the way Phoebe had.

"The attic?" Andy chimed in.

"Piper thinks there's a ghost or something up there," Prue said, brushing off my fear as silly.

"I do not!" I argued, getting embarrassed again. "But I did hear weird noises up there! It could've been Grams..."

"I thought you couldn't get into your attic," Andy interrupted, confused.

"We can't," Prue reminded. She gave me a look which said that I should drop it.

"Unless she can get up there and she's not telling us," I continued. I didn't want everyone to think I was crazy. I wanted to prove them wrong. I just didn't know how.

"Why would she do that?" Prue asked.

"I dunno, maybe she's hiding something up there."

"Our Christmas presents!" Phoebe suggested. I rolled my eyes at her.

"You know," Andy said, "if you really think your Grams is going up there, you could always come up with a way to catch her doing it."

I sat up straight, now interested. "Like what?"

"Maybe some kind of trip wire," Andy suggested. "Something that would make noise when she stepped on it. Or maybe put paint on the stairs so she would track it through the house."

"Wow, Andy," Prue smiled. "Great detective work."

"Great?" Phoebe interrupted. "If we got paint on the carpet, Grams would kill us!"

Prue glared at her, but instead of looking back, Phoebe turned to me and made a kissy face again.

"Finish your homework, you two," Prue ordered as she and Andy left the room.

After thinking about it for a while, Phoebe and I came up with the perfect way to catch Grams. We found some string lying around, so we tied one end around the doorknob of our room. Then, we made our way up the stairs to the attic. Once we tied the other end to that doorknob, then anyone who opened the attic door would end up slamming our door shut!

As we came to the landing in the middle of the attic steps and turned the corner, however, I froze.

"Piper, come on, Grams'll be home any second!" Phoebe reminded me.

I didn't answer her. Instead, I was staring at the dark, old door. Even though we hadn't heard any noises in days, I was still waiting for that loud whoosh sound again, or worse, for the door to fly open and something to come out at us.

"Piper!" Phoebe said. She was three steps above me by now. "Just hand me the string," she said, annoyed.

I reached out a shaking hand and gave it to her. Phoebe walked up the rest of the steps to the door. As she was about to tie the string onto the knob, however, she stopped and instead put her hand on the doorknob.

"What are you doing?" I whispered.

"Might as well try," Phoebe answered. She shook and rattled the handle, and put her weight into the door, but it didn't budge. She shrugged. "Oh well."

"Just tie it on, hurry!" I said, panicked.

As she tightened the knot, I could swear I heard something creaking. Whatever it was, it sounded like it was getting closer, and closer...

"Done!" Phoebe said finally. We ran down the stairs so fast we almost fell.

It was hard to sit with our bedroom door open, because all I wanted to do was shut it and lock it tight. I'd been the only one to hear the creaking noises, and Phoebe was of course telling me again that it was the house settling, but after everything that had happened, I couldn't believe it.

We sat in complete silence as Grams came home and walked up the stairs. At one point Phoebe almost sneezed, and I got so scared until she got it under control. I don't know why we were afraid of our Grams - out of any place in the house, our room was where we were supposed to be. But somehow I feared that she knew what we were up to, and that if she found out, those sounds in the attic would be from us next time. I tried to shake the thoughts out of my head. Did I really think that about my Grams? Even if she was going up there for some reason, she probably wasn't doing anything strange. Probably...

The door to our bedroom flew shut and slammed on its hinges, jolting Phoebe and I from our thoughts. I quickly cut the string so we could open the door again, and we rushed out into the hall and up the attic stairs. Phoebe nearly knocked me off my feet when we got to the top, because I'd stopped dead when I saw Grams standing there.

The three of us stood on the landing in silence for a few seconds. Grams almost didn't have to say anything to us - just from her look alone, we knew we were in big trouble.

"Grams, why are you coming up here?" I asked before she could start yelling at us. I couldn't believe I was standing up to her like that. Usually when I was being punished, my stomach just felt like jelly.

"To find out where the string that was going all through the hallway lead to," Grams answered, untying it from the closed door behind her.

I gulped.

"I don't know why you girls are so obsessed with this attic," she continued as she gathered the string up from the stairs. "You know nothing can get in here."

"But..." I started, but I was feeling a lot less confident all of a sudden.

"Piper, I promise you that everything is okay," Grams said. Her smile faded quickly though. "Now, you two need to stay out of here."

I nodded as she passed us on the stairs and walked away, but her warning had made me feel uneasy all over again.