~Forever Charmed~

[nobi_fawkes]

Hello all. I think I've told you guys that I'd post this fic after I've finished Beyond Reach, but alas! it was not meant to be! So thanks to a wonderful mod who encouraged me to post this soon, I give you ~Forever Charmed~

I am not the wonderful JK Rowling who created these wonderful characters' parents, but I take full responsibility for the children and some of the adults.

I am also no one to do with Charmed either behind the scenes or in front of them.

However, I just want to play around with these lovely characters' lives.

Prologue: 7 years before

Phoebe was in her attic looking through her ancestral book, The Book of Shadows. She was looking through a page about empaths before a gust of wind guided her to “helping a young witch”.

“Thanks Grams! I've tried this already, so now am I supposed to wait around for an answer?”

“Mama? Are you talking to great grandma again?” Melinda asked her mother, walking in with her father, Coop.

“Hey, ladybug. I was just thanking my grams for bringing me back to this page.”

“You still haven’t got anyone then?” Coop asked.

“No! And it’s getting really frustrating!”

“Just keep trying.”

.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.

“Nenny, May won’t let me watch Digimon,” Cody complained.

“But I want to watch Pokemon, Nenny. Cody won’t let me though.”

“Mummy! Cody and May are arguing again.” She ran all the way up the stairs to her room trying to block out all the emotions whirling around the house. She couldn’t handle it and couldn’t handle all these people around her, so she often went to her room and enjoyed the solitude. But this time she couldn’t take it, in a desperate plea she cried out loud, “Somebody, please help me!”

The sound of a woman’s voice made her turn round and gasp. “Are you alright?” the woman asked in a rich American accent.

.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.

Leo Wyatt, Piper and Paige Halliwell were sitting by the table looking at the bills spread across on top of it.

“I want to move. There aren’t any demons here. Phoebe is off on that mission to help someone, and I’m just bored of this place. I want to move,” Piper grumbled.

“Piper, I’m surprised at you. You’re always so routed to the manor,” Paige said incredulously.

“No it makes sense. Look at it this way; the bills are low enough for one person to pay. But someone will have to stay here. The house is still vulnerable to evil taking control.”

“I agree. I’ll stay here and you should go wherever Phoebe goes,” Paige said decisively.

“What if it’s abroad?” Piper asked.

“You’ll just be an orb away if we get lonely,” Paige reassured her.

Wyatt, Chris and Patty, who were Leo and Piper’s children, entered with their twin cousins Megan and Rose, who were Paige’s girls.

“Oh my gosh! Where is Phoebe now? Wyatt, sense your aunt for me please and bring her back!”

.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.

“H-who are you?” she asked in a panic.

“My name is Phoebe Halliwell, and I responded to your call. What’s your name?”

“My name is Serenity Lupin.”

“Wow, like in the cartoon Yugioh? Oh and where am I?” Phoebe asked. “England or something?”

“Yes, you’re in London.”

Without warning a figure of a young boy sparkled blue and white and moments later a boy of around the same age as Serenity showed up chattering away.

“Aunt Phoebe, mom has been worried sick about you and when she tried scrying for you, you weren’t anywhere to be found. So she told me to sense you and I ended up orbing here,” he looked at Serenity and smiled slightly. “Hello, my name is Wyatt Halliwell, what’s yours?”

“Serenity Lupin,” she responded shyly.

“Like in Yugioh. Joey Wheeler’s sister?” Serenity smiled and nodded. The child took in his surroundings. “Where am I and how comes I don’t know your accent?”

“Wyatt, you’re in London. That is probably why your mom couldn’t scry for me.”

“London?!?! How did I get here?” the child was sincerely scared.

“You orbed,” Phoebe and Serenity said in unison.

“Renity!” boomed her mother’s voice. “Who has come in?!”

“Oh no, we have an alarm for when people come in. You’ll have to go,” Serenity said in a hurry, but by the time her words sunk in their minds, the door to her room opened, revealing a woman with shocking pink hair, holding a small baby in her arms.

Back in auror-mode, the woman whipped out her wand and trained it on Phoebe. “How did you enter?”

“Mum, don’t hurt them. They’re here to help me,” Serenity cut in nervously. At the mention of the word ‘hurt’ Wyatt cast a translucent bubble of a blue colour around him, his aunt and new friend. Tonks was taken aback.

“No, Wyatt, she wouldn’t hurt her daughter. Put your forcefield down.” He obeyed.

“Serenity, you don’t know them. They could be anyone,” the woman held her gaze on her oldest daughter but kept her wand pointed at Phoebe.

“One of them is a child, mum, he looks my age! Can’t you see he couldn’t do anything to me? Not to mention they don’t even have wands.” Tonks thought then lowered her arm.

“Come downstairs, you can meet my husband and children.”

“Is dad home?” Serenity said quietly, although her mother didn’t hear due to the noise in the living room.

The four of them trudged down the stairs and when they came into the living room both Serenity and Phoebe put their hands on their forehead as emotions hit them head on. They both looked at each other in surprise.

“The same thing happens to you.”

“Yes, you’re an empath.”

“What is an empath?” a male voice asked.

“Dad! You’re back from school!” Serenity jumped up into her father’s arms.

The children went quiet at the appearance of Phoebe and Wyatt and they sat on the sofa. Phoebe and Wyatt both took turns in explaining how they had got there and what their intentions were. Finally they explained that an empath was a type of person that could read emotions.

“Like a clairvoyant person, only they’re clairsentient.”

“Exactly, I’m both.”

The parents looked at each other and both said “The Divinations teacher.”

Key
The gust of wind thing is Phoebe's gran flipping the pages, ... she does that from time to time. She's dead by the way, but they can summon her to come when they need help.

[nobi_fawkes]

A huge thanks goes to Ginger who so kindly beta-ed for me. from no beta I have 3 now . Now more thanks go to Ginny, Hanz, Riz, Shy_Eyes, odena_xo, Raven, Eliza (who is my first beta), Sammy, Rayne, Amrita, Ren, Kim (my second beta) and Jamesthepeach (my only male feeder).

Chapter 1: In Hogwarts

“Dollar for your thoughts,” Wyatt asked in his still evident American accent as he approached Serenity with a dollar in his hand and a goofy smile playing across his face. She was sitting on the rug in front of the fireplace in the Gryffindor common room with a dazed smile and her hands in front of the fire, warming them up. Wyatt sat down next to her and stretched his legs out. Serenity noticed he had big fluffy slippers that resembled lions on his feet before looking back up at the dollar and Wyatt’s smiling face.

“Ooh! Ooh! Can I have it?” Serenity looked eagerly at the note just dreaming about adding it to her collection of currency. Then she went on to talking about the time when his aunt Phoebe came to help her, and then Wyatt just orbed right in and went off on a tangent about his ‘mom’ being worried sick about her, finally realising that he had no idea where he was.

“I was only nine; I didn’t have much awareness of anything.”

“You still don’t have much awareness of anything, anyway.”

“That is so not true!” he said defensively.

“Oh yeah? Name me one thing you are aware of right now.”

“I’m aware of your feet snuggling up closer to my lion slippers.” She gasped as she realised it was indeed true and she folded her legs shyly, blushing slightly.

Over in the far corner of the same room the twins, Leander and Niall Weasley, were impatiently looking at the portrait hole waiting for their twin cousins to come through. Next to them, though slightly apart, were Eliza Weasley and her two sisters, Caitlin and Samantha, talking with Wyatt’s brother, Chris Halliwell, about past demon attacks, on the comfortable bean bags that Chris and Wyatt’s mother, Piper Halliwell, donated to the school. The three sisters were extremely close to each other, and they owed it to the fact that there was only a year between each of them. Eliza and Chris were both fourth year students and were the closest friends anyone could imagine.

“So what happened when the demon came after you and Wyatt?” Samantha asked.

“He grabbed me like this,” he demonstrated by suddenly taking hold of the second year. “And did his forcefield, but I can’t show you that, because that’s his power. Then I orbed us away just after the demon threw a fireball at the forcefield, but it hit him back. Like this,” he held on to Samantha and transported her to the other side of the room and back to the spot they were at after she screamed.

“Wow! I love the blue and white light that shows up when you orb,” Caitlin commented.

“Will you tell me what orbing is exactly, Chris?” Samantha asked.

“Sure, Sammy. It’s basically transporting yourself from one place to another by sensing.”

“So if Chris or Wyatt want to go somewhere,” Eliza explained. “Then they just have to think up the place and–”

A loud burst of laughter erupted in the Gryffindor common room and all the inhabitants looked up to see Joshua and Jacob Weasley, George and Katie’s twin sons, had burst in.

“Quadrouble meeting!” Fred and Angelina’s twins shouted out in unison. This was not on a regular basis that this happened, but when this announcement was made, everyone knew they were in store for the biggest pranks known in Hogwarts history. Or as far as they were concerned they were the biggest played on the Slytherins with the exception of Jack and Christine Malfoy with whom they had been friends with since they were children.

In the corner next to the portrait hole was Cameron Creevey who was wrapped up in his coat and a blanket, sleeping. The poor second year boy was exhausted beyond measure, especially over his Charms work.

When Zephyr had heard his youngest sister’s scream, he looked over the heads of his cousin Hayley and his two brothers, Osiris and Alden, the former more commonly known as Oz, and saw she wasn’t there. A moment later he saw her and Chris appear at the spot that he initially looked at.

On the couch near the fire were the trio, Cody, Laertes and Robin. Laertes was playing a game of chess with Robin and Cody was trying to help her. So far the girl was losing miserably, with only a pawn and her queen still standing, whereas Laertes still had most of his pieces. The game sadly ended with Robin forfeiting the game.

She knew it would be a fool’s game if she tried to beat Laertes Weasley, son of the famous Ron Weasley who helped Harry Potter in his quest to defeat the evil Lord Voldemort and who now was one of the top aurors in the ministry of magic. Laertes was still to this day unbeaten, not even by his dad. He had to thank the various people for distracting him, therefore, rendering the game useless. When his father would come back, he’d find either the board messed up due to unforeseen circumstances or Laertes sleeping.

.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.

Emma Weasley, daughter of Percy and Penelope Weasley, was helping two young first years, by the names of Litton Longbottom and Bella Potter, with their levitation charms. Emma was still fuming over the fact that she had not become the Head Girl, much to her parents, especially her father’s, disappointment and had to take orders from the bigheaded Hecate Goyle. The girl didn’t seem any more special than her to Emma, but how she managed to become Head Girl was beyond her. All she ever did was get satisfactory marks, well ok, really good marks, but apart from that she lacked something crucial in a Head Girl that she believed she had.

“Emma?” Bella asked her cousin. “Are you sure I’ve got it?”

“I’m positive. Now both of you can levitate things. Go on, you can do your other homework now.” She sat back in her chair and let her mind drift. At least Damian Crabbe hadn’t become the new Head Boy, otherwise she’d have done her nut. No, but it had to be her cousin Zephyr, eldest son of her Uncle Charlie and Aunt Lorena. The lady was nice enough but what on earth was she thinking when she left Spain for Bulgaria to work with dragons? Conversations with her brought her to the conclusion that she was an intelligent woman, but then she went off to tame dragons and marry her uncle. That said, she didn’t have anything against her uncle, but she felt as though he wasted his life on dragons as well. She was brought back to reality when she heard more of her cousins laughing with their friends.

“I think someone spiked Dawn’s drink again,” Stephane spoke about his cousin in a slightly French accent, watching her rolling on the floor laughing.

“Too… much… sugar… in… desert,” she managed. They all rolled their eyes in unison, which only made Dawn laugh even more.

“I won’t be surprised if Laertes accidentally knocked more sugar into a pie on one of his midnight excursions to the kitchens,” Chelsea Longbottom commented whilst laughing with her sister Kirsten and friend Sakura Thomas. Having calmed down, Dawn sat up straight and regained some composure.

“He’s so much like dad. Gets hungry around the clock, but if mum found out what he’s doing, which I will not do, then he’ll be in for a long lecture from mum.”

“Hey Bella,” Litton asked. “Have you done all your work?”

“Yeah, you?”

“Yeah. What do you fancy doing?”

“I don’t know,” she shrugged.

“Where’s Melinda?” the boy asked.

“Upstairs in our dormitory I think. I’ll go check if she’s there.”

After a few minutes, the girls came down. “Hiya Lit, what do you want to do?” Melinda asked.

“Go to Hagrid’s house?” Their eyes lit up simultaneously at the suggestion. They all raced towards the portrait hole and bumped into a fifth year girl.

.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.

Once Bella, Melinda and Litton got to Hagrid’s house, they had found it already occupied with Bella’s oldest brother, Caleb, and his younger friend Jeremiah, but when the two pairs exchanged greetings, the older two decided it was time to head back.

“Don’t stay out too long, Bella. You too, Litton and Melinda,” the big brother said.

“We won’t, Cale,” Bella answered.

“I have the map tonight so I’ll keep an eye out for you,” immediately Bella’s eyes assumed those of puppy dogs.

“I said we won’t stay out, Caleb. Don’t you trust us?”

“Well, little Bella, I trust Melinda and Litton, but I know you better than that.” The girl feigned a look of innocence.

Caleb just shook his head and went outside with his friend. “Let’s have a look at where everyone is,” his eyes scanned over the map looking at the common room where his cousin Melissa, and friends, Leah, who was Jeremiah’s sister, James and May all dwelt with their own friends.

“What about the library?” Jeremiah asked. His eyes scanned the area and fell on Christine Malfoy either studying or talking with her brother, Jack. Near them was their friend and Jeremiah's sister Raven Finnigan.

“I have a feeling they’re hating being in their common room,” Caleb pointed out the obvious.

“Whatever gave you that idea?” he said sarcastically earning him a good-hearted punch in the arm. The two walked off towards the library hoping to bump into their friends.

Well there you go guys. An extended prologue and a new post in one . Let me know if you like them in my feedback thread where you could find in my siggy

[nobi_fawkes]

Prepare for this monster post. It's LONG! Enjoy it, because I doubt I'd ever do as long a post as this. Thank you so much to Eliza and Jen who helped me out with it, as well as sammy-wammy, where would I be if you didn't say to me??? Or with the bit we were just talking about . And I mustn't forget my loyal readers, where would I be without you guys? So I give you all:

Chapter 2: The outside in Hogwarts

“Good morning class!” Professor Lupin, also known as Uncle Remus, chirruped to his fourth year class on a Tuesday.

“Morning, Professor Lupin,” the class all grumbled not so cheerfully.

“Come now. Today is going to be an interesting day.” The class perked up at once. “Now tell me how much of last week’s lesson you remember. Any volunteers?” after no hands up he picked a person at random. “Chris!” he smiled. “Enlighten me.”

“There are three unforgivable curses called the cruciatus, imperius and avada curse.”

“Well done, Chris and take 30 points for Gryffindor. Eliza, you tell me what the effects of these curses are.”

“The cruciatus curse tortures people so it looks like they are in a kind of epileptic fit, the imperius curse controls people and the avada curse kills people.”

“Correct once again, so 30 points for Gryffindor again. Leah, tell me what the incantations for these curses are.”

“The imperius is ‘imperio’ cruciatus is ‘crucio’ and avada is ‘avada kedavra’.”

“Great job, Leah; 30 points for Hufflepuff.”

The rest of the lesson was spent warding off the imperius curse until at 10:30 they all left for their next lesson. Remus was in an extremely good mood this morning, but the only thing left to do was floo call his lovely wife or floo directly to her office. Problem was that he had a lesson next with his seventh years and the only time he’d be able to get to her was at lunch time. It was a surprise when he heard his fire burst to life and out stepped Tonks herself.

“Nymph!” he shouted which made her cringe at the nickname and almost retaliate. He stopped her short as he explained, “What else can I call you? Tonks? Hmmm? Can’t very well do that now, Mrs. Lupin,” he gave her a mighty hug and kissed her bang on the lips. “What brings you here? I was going to come at lunch.”

“I couldn’t wait to see you and as I have the morning off, I thought to come and see you. Are you… planning on telling me something?” she asked with a smile.

“I was and I have something to give you too. Happy anniversary.” They kissed a bit longer than the last time but when Tonks’s tongue probed his lips, Remus pulled away in surprise. “A bit early for this… apart from… well you know… in the morning,” he gave a roguish grin, just like every time he talks about this subject.

“Happy anniversary to you, likewise. Is it a crime for a woman to want to kiss her husband passionately on their anniversary?”

“Oh by no means at all. It’s just that my class will start in about five minutes. You stay here though. Or you can be my assistant if you want.”

“I’d like that.”

.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.

Billie was with 4 children all aged 8 years old outside the Potter Manor. There was Julian, Tonks and Remus’s youngest; Aaron, Harry and Ginny’s youngest; Henry Jr., Paige and Henry’s youngest; and by far her favourite was Cassie, Phoebe and Coop’s youngest. Phoebe was the sister who she bonded closest to, even though her whitelighter was actually Paige.

“Aunt Billie? Can we play some quidditch?” Julian asked.

“Sure thing, Lian. Who else wants to play quidditch?” she asked in an excited childish way, and all the children jumped up and down with an arm in the air screaming ‘me, me, me, me, me!’

Small as they were, they were perfect for real brooms. Given that Harry and Ginny were Julian’s – and all his other siblings’ – godparents, and Aaron was Harry’s youngest child, both of them were superb quidditch players. Harry got them both started on children’s brooms as soon as they turned three years of age, and by the time they were seven, both had outgrown the childish device and began zooming around on the real stuff.

“I want to be the chaser!” Julian exclaimed.

“But I want to be the chaser, Ju-li-annn,” Aaron retorted.

“You can both be chasers on different teams,” Billie resolved.

Cassie gave a small hiccup and said, “Henry is going to catch the snitch, Aunt Billie.”

“Is he? Did you hear that, Henry? You’re going to catch the snitch.”

“I know, after fifteen minutes.” The two cousins looked at each other and smiled knowingly. Something seemed fishy to Billie and she had a hunch what it was. She made a mental note to herself to send Phoebe an owl about her suspicions.

From inside the manor came the ten year olds and Fleur. First to run out were Henry’s twin sisters, Megan and Rose. Then Micah Creevey was trying to catch up with the Halliwell twins. Lagging behind were the cousins Patty and Charlotte. Patty’s brothers were Wyatt and Chris who were quite a bit older than her and so they always treated her like a child. Charlotte was Cassie’s older sister and they had another sister called Melinda who was in her first year at Hogwarts. They were very close to each other and didn’t treat each other like children as there was only a two-year age gap between each sibling.

“Micah, will you be my keeper? We want to play quidditch,” Julian asked.

“Patty,” Aaron called, “will you be my keeper?”

“Yes, but Henry has to be on our team. He’s going to catch the snitch in 15 minutes.”

The three youngest children all smiled the same way as before and Billie’s suspicions were confirmed.

“I’ll be the human score board, so,” she turned to Fleur, “will you be the referee?” The woman answered in the affirmative and so Billie established the teams. “Does anyone else want to play?” Megan, Rose, and Charlotte answered they wanted to watch, and Aaron and Julian picked who they wanted. “On one team there will be Aaron Potter as chaser and captain, Patricia Halliwell as keeper, and Henry Halliwell as seeker. On the other team there will be Julian Lupin as chaser and captain, Micah Creevey as keeper, and Cassandra Halliwell as seeker.”

The children mounted their brooms, Fleur made a loud whistle on her own, and they all rose up in the air. Two of the balls were thrown and Aaron caught the quaffle, whilst the snitch hurtled out of sight. He streaked towards the hoops, aimed, and shot it through another hoop, fooling Micah. Before long, the cheering started from the spectators.

“Go on Henry! You can do it!!!” both the twins shouted simultaneously.

“Go Cassie! Catch that snitch!” Charlotte and Billie cheered.

From above they heard, “I’m not going to catch the snitch, because I told you Henry will!”

Billie noted down on her notebook 10 points to Aaron’s team. 5 minutes later, both the boys had 50 points each. The keepers were almost as good as the chasers, but the chasers were far better than each keeper.

Sudden movement from above alerted Billie to the seekers chasing each other. Cassie was in front by a mere inch then Henry overtook her. Billie could see the cheeky little ball fluttering in between Aaron and Julian then it darted off to somewhere else. She looked down at her watch and saw 5 minutes had elapsed since the beginning of the game. Fleur had the good grace to tell Billie that Julian scored 6 more goals. Impressed, Billie noted that down.

Aaron had possession of the quaffle and from a distance he threw it, but Julian intercepted it, raced to his hoops and scored. Julian scored once more with a bend in his throw. It seemed as though the ball weighed nothing by the way the boys threw it. It was as if the quaffle flew in less than one second of release from the hand of the thrower.

Billie looked down and saw Aaron still had only 50 points and Julian now had 120. If he scored four more goals and Henry did indeed catch the snitch, Cassie’s team would win. One glance at Fleur with her omnioculars and Billie realised Fleur must have figured that out too. She glanced down at her watch and saw ten minutes of the game had gone by.

She heard a ring of the hoops and saw Aaron had scored. Billie counted 60 points to Aaron and 120 to Julian. Cassie and Henry were at it again, but trepidation rushed through Billie as she realised it was too soon for Henry to catch the snitch. Her mind raced with ‘Julian has to score ten more goals’ repeatedly.

“Come on Julian! Score more goals!!! Go Lian, go Lian!” Charlotte started chanting the same with Billie, and Megan and Rose started rooting for Aaron to score so that their younger brother’s team could win.

Julian was repeatedly catching the quaffle, intercepting it and scoring goals, although Billie strongly thought Patty was doing that on purpose. Soon enough Julian scored nine goals and Aaron scored none.

Henry and Cassie were seen zooming around the pitch, but Billie’s heart started racing and could feel blood pumping in her ears. No… come on, Lian. Score one more goal! but Aaron had possession of the quaffle.

Aaron threw it towards the middle hoop, but Micah blocked it and threw it to Julian.

Henry’s hand closed around the snitch at the same time as Billie heard a hoop ring. The game had ended with the expected as well as the unexpected.

The children flew to the ground as Billie went over to Fleur. Cassie was running to her sister, and Henry was running to his sisters as well.

Before anything, Billie looked at the replay and saw Julian score the goal just before Henry caught the snitch. It meant that Cassie’s team had won. Everyone was shouting and screaming but the thing that touched Billie the most was Aaron’s comment.

“Well done, mate. You’ve beaten me at last,” the boys high-fived each other.

When they were inside, they each sat down and had a drink. Billie was switching the TV on, and most of the others were in the kitchen or elsewhere, when she heard a gasp from behind her. She looked at Cassie as she went rigid, and had the look that Phoebe wore when she had a premonition. Just as everyone came into the room, they all saw Cassie glow red and disappear after a flash of what looked like a heart. It was the same way her father teleports, too.

.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.

Phoebe was by her desk tucking a stray hair behind her ear. She was planning her timetable for the next week, when Trelawney walked in. Phoebe hadn’t noticed since she was absorbed in writing up her plans for the seventh years.

“Halliwell,” she said, passing by, making Phoebe jump. Trelawney stood behind her, intentionally making Phoebe tense up. “I see you’re planning your lesson. A bit late now, don’t you think?”

“Late? No, I don’t think so. This is for next week.” Phoebe said with a forced calm voice.

Trelawney huffed audibly, “Prophesising? What do you know about that? As if you’ve ever prophesised anything before!”

“I have, indeed, prophesised, Sibyll. A power I inherited from my greatest ancestor, Melinda Warren.” She paused for effect and got the result she desired; awe. “Every third child per family has had this power although I am the first to have got this special privilege since Melinda Warren herself.” Trelawney seemed incredulous as to her revelations. “I guess I can tell you my niece, Patty, my daughter, Cassie, and my nephew, Henry Jr., all have this power.”

“A pack of lies! You, the ancestor of the great Melinda Warren?! A Charmed One? Prove it!”

“Well how am I supposed to do that?! My powers aren’t active! Premonitions, empathy, and heck! Levitation isn’t a power of Melinda Warren!” both women were red-faced by this time with both their chests heaving.

“Momma, I’m scared,” a voice from out of the blue sounded. It was the voice of a child that Phoebe recognised. As she turned around, she found her daughter, Cassandra, standing with tears coming down her cheeks in single straight lines.

“Cassie?” a thousand questions buzzed through her mind, starting with how did she get here? “Come to Momma.”

Phoebe was glad for the distraction between her arguments with Trelawney, but genuine fear for her daughter was the predominant emotion she felt. Her feelings were mixed with Trelawney’s inadequacy and somewhat admiration.

“What made you scared?” she asked just as Trelawney left.

.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.

After the entertaining lesson the happy couple provided, both of them entered the professor’s quarters, with Tonks stumbling like usual. It was furnished with a four poster bed in Gryffindor colours, over at the far end of the room, an oversized armchair in the middle, a fireplace in front of it and a door off to the side, which led to the bathroom.

“Shall we exchange our gifts, sweetheart?”

“Oooh presents!” the woman looked like a child during Christmas; ready to dive into everything from presents to people. When Remus handed his present to his wife, Tonks thought it would be the usual – dress robes or the latest pair of shoes she’d been eying – and opening it, she felt disappointed for she found a blank piece of parchment and a grey cloak. ‘Hold it – grey? Does it look like I wear grey?’

Noticing the disappointed look on Tonks’s face, Remus urged her to try it on. She did so and went to the bathroom to see how she looked and with a shriek, she came bounding into the room screaming and launched herself on her husband.

You got me an invisibility cloak! This must’ve cost you a fortune!” she seemed more in awe than in bashfulness. All the while Remus had a smug look on, which Tonks admonished him on. “Hey what was that blank paper all about? Is that some sort of Marauder’s Map?”

“You can say that, but I like to call it Moony’s Map.”

“How do I activate it? It isn’t ‘I solemnly swear I’m up to no good’ is it?”

“No, not that. You’d say the place that you want to spy on and say you want to see that place. Take for example ‘I want to see Hogwarts’ you can see all the passages and people using them. Or maybe you say ‘I want to see The Ministry of Magic’,” he tapped his wand on the surface and the plan of the Ministry sprouted. Once more, Tonks was in awe and kept opening her mouth to speak but closed it once the words were lost to her. She looked an awful lot like a goldfish.

In the end she settled on, “BLOODY HELL!” in almost the same way Ron said it.

“Ron influencing you much?”

“Oh yes. But how on earth did you do this?”

“A marauder never reveals his magic.”

“Fine, but at least tell me how long you’ve been working on this for.”

“At least two decades.”

“You worked on this for two decades?! Did you do it continuously? Why did you take this on your own?”

“I didn’t do it continuously or on my own. It was all a project that us marauders were working on after our graduation. There

“Do you want your gifts? One is all yours and not so creative but the other gift you’ll have to share and is very creative. Take this one,” she handed him a rectangular package that Remus strongly suspected was his favourite chocolate. “Open it carefully though!” Remus gave her a pointed look, which spoke ‘does it look like I rip my presents open?’ “You can never be too careful,” she replied to his look with a sheepish grin. When it was open, finally, he wasn’t disappointed, as he found the best chocolates in the world as well as a voucher for a year’s supply of anything from Honeyduke’s. He was so happy that he completely forgot about his other gift, and closed the distance between him and Tonks with a long lingering kiss. When his kisses trailed her neck, she laughed a throaty laugh and asked, “Don’t you want your other gift?”

“Other gift?” he asked, puzzled, with a blank look on his face. “Ohhh, other gift,” he smiled in realisation. “Yes please.” He sat down on his bed.

She got up as if to get something but then sat down on his lap and settled his hands on her womb.

“You’re pregnant?!” pure joy emanated from their eyes, which left no room for doubt, but Tonks nodded just to clarify. “I love you,” he kissed her once again. “How far along are you?” he asked, drawing lines around her womb.

“I don’t know yet. I’ve only taken the pregnancy tests.”

“How many times did you do the charm and muggle way?”

“Well… I did the charm only three times because I thought I was seeing things, but made sure with the muggle tests with three different brands. But I still think a healer should tell me as well.”

“Only 3 times each,” he had a tight smile, which was threatening to widen and laugh. “Well, let’s get our kids and go to the hospital wing.”

Remus wrote a note to Serenity and Cody and another to May and proceeded to finding 2 students who could deliver it to them.

“How do you think they’ll react?” Tonks asked, nervously as they walked.

“They should be ok with it.” Remus answered offhandedly. “Which cartoon is it this time?”

“I don’t know… I usually start watching cartoons after I go on maternity leave.”

“Aye, you do.”

.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.

“After we played quidditch we got back down then I sat down. Aunt Fleur was going to start our lessons next. I was just sitting, momma, I swear I was just sitting, but I saw something scary in my head.”

“It’s ok sweetie, tell momma what you saw.”

“There were some flashes, they were quite long. There was a girl there on the floor shaking like she was cold or shocked or something and two people, a girl and a boy, were standing over her laughing. Then the flash changed and it showed the same people but the girl on the floor, her clothes were ripped and that was all I saw.”

From what Phoebe gathered, two people had entered the castle and tortured a student. Then they either did a nasty spell that rips clothes, or the alternative that made Phoebe shiver with dread was the girl was raped in the school. It could be worse though, perhaps another person from outside the castle hadn’t come in, what if it was another student? Fear for the student washed over her and she frantically wanted to know who the student may be.

“Sweetie? Did you see what the people looked like?”

“Yes, the laughing woman had dark hair, it looked black or brown and the girl on the floor looked like she had red hair, but I only saw her from the back. The man had blonde hair.” Great, Phoebe thought, all I get is hair colour. Then something occurred to her, she could see what Cassie saw, like she had done before.

“You’ve done great, sweetie, but I’m slightly confused about it all. I know a way that I could see what you saw, I just need you to hold out your hands and concentrate on what you saw. Will you do that for momma?” she nodded and carried out the instructions.

A glowing light between hers and her daughter’s hands filled the gap just like it had done before and Phoebe saw the most terrible thing. There was a boy and a girl, both of whom she couldn’t recognise, but identified as either fifth years or over, but the girl looked older than the boy. She had seen them both, but could not put a name to either. Her eyes averted to the girl on the floor and She saw that she had rightly assumed the girl was being tortured. She definitely had red hair, but she was horizontal on the floor and could only see her from behind. She wished she could change the angle from which she was viewing the premonition, but knew that depended on the person who viewed it first and their ability at foreseeing. There was an ear-splitting scream as the girl’s sunshine yellow top and black jeans were ripped and bloodied. That must have been one detail Cassie had missed. And indeed that was all Cassie saw.

Phoebe vowed never to let this happen. If only she knew who they sought to torment and when. It would be a weekend, and that much she was sure of, because students were required to wear uniform on weekdays, unless it was the vacation period.

Ok, buttercup, you’ve done very well. We just need to see the headmistress about this. I think she will appreciate that we told her.” They both started climbing down the ladders of the trapdoor.

“Momma… what does appreciate mean?”

“It means when a person is pleased with something.”

“Oh. What does person mean?” the eight year old asked cheekily.

Phoebe tutted in response and said, “Come on, follow me. You’re getting influenced by Megan and Rose.” So they made their way down North Tower just as Phoebe’s older sister, Piper, was going up it. Piper caught sight of her sister but not her niece.

“Oh no you don’t. Go right back up those stairs because this is not going to happen again.”

“Aunt Piper!” the girl squealed and jumped into her aunt’s arms. “We’re going to see the headmistress, because I had a scary premonition, just like momma has.”

Where what when did this happen? Phoebe? Explain to me please.”

She did and left her sister in awe, whilst walking down the stairs.

“So are you going to keep a lookout for all the red headed girls?”

“No, but I can’t just do nothing about it. It was terrible what we saw. I can’t let it happen.”

“If it helps then think back. What was her build? Was she chubby? Slim? Skinny? You must have some idea. What is your plan?”

“I’m telling you I have no idea. We need to see Minerva and ask for the pensieve. That way we can actually see her face. Are you coming with or not?” Phoebe turned to face Piper as they approached the gargoyle.

“Ok fine. Animagi,” she said to the stone gargoyle and it sprang to life. “I wonder what the next password is. It always seems to be related to the last one.”

“Maybe it’ll be marauders,” Cassie suggested. “Because Aaron’s grandfather, Uncle Harry’s godfather and their friend who betrayed them became animagi for Uncle Remus. And they were known as the marauders.”

The sisters looked at each other impressed and once they reached the top, they faced the door. Before they had a chance to knock on the door, it opened and they entered the circular room with Headmistress McGonagall behind the desk and various past headmasters of Hogwarts. Piper’s favourite headmaster was Dumbledore by far, but Phoebe’s was a rare choice; Phineas Nigellus.

“Ah, I see that you’re back again,” Phineas Nigellus said, “What is it this time? Trelawney messed up your work? And to think you kidnapped her daughter. Filthy half-blood.”

“Wait, Sybil has a daughter?” she looked around the room, first at Piper, who shrugged and had a look that said ‘how am I supposed to know?’ then at the portrait who had a blank look and finally at Minerva who seemed unperturbed by it all.

“What can I do for you, Phoebe and Piper? The little one looks so much like you, Phoebe, but what on earth is she doing here and how did she come in?”

“She’s my youngest daughter, Cassandra, and she hasn’t told me how she came here, although I have an inkling how she managed it. But I have something more urgent to discuss with you.”

“Momma?” Cassie whispered, “Is this the headmistress?”

“Don’t be frightened, Cassandra. I’m not horrible to little children who have done nothing wrong,” Minerva had a smile on her face, which went well with Cassie as she started talking about what had happened.

“I was with my friends and cousins playing quidditch and then after the game, I had this vision, momma calls it a premonition, and that was really scary.”

“Yes, and it’s not very clear as to who is in the premonition. There are two older students and one other younger student with red hair. The younger one is being tortured.” There was a collective gasp from all the headmasters’ portraits and Minerva.

“I presume you’ll need the pensieve to investigate who the students might be.”

“Yes, and your help as well. Will you enter the memory as well?”

“I will aid you in this endeavour. The safety of our students and staff is paramount.”

With that, Minerva proceeded to take the memory out and investigate it in the pensieve. When they entered the memory they saw the brunette girl with brown eyes with her wand pointing at the ground and they saw the back of the red-headed girl.

“I don’t know any of these people. I might’ve seen them around, but don’t know them by name,” Piper said in a low whisper.

“It’s ok, they can’t hear us,” Minerva said. “I know these two. Hecate Goyle, the Head Girl, and Damian Crabbe.” Phoebe had gone round and already seen the girl and her mouth was hanging open in shock.”

“Momma? Isn’t that Chris’s friend Eliza?”

“I think it is. But I don’t understand why Chris isn’t with her. They’re never apart. They’re like Wyatt and Serenity; the best of friends.”

“I think… oh no…” the headmistress was shell shocked when she saw Eliza’s clothes rip open and blood splatter everywhere. “How… how did they… they use sectumsempra? They used that wretched curse. How?”

They didn’t even realise they were back in the office until Albus cleared his throat. “What was it?” he asked.

“It was terrible. Never would I have hazard a guess that a student of this school, in this day, would attack, perhaps even kill a fellow student.”

“We can still prevent this from happening. It hasn’t happened yet, so we can still keep an eye out for Eliza and keep watch on Hecate and Damian. It’s not too late because the future can always change.”

After this meeting, the Halliwells went back to the muggle studies classroom, before lunch, to write a letter to Billie just to tell her nothing was wrong and not to panic because Cassie was safe with them at Hogwarts. She also said that Wyatt will orb her back as soon as she had her lunch.

.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.

The auror department would have been completely empty if it wasn’t for three junior aurors doing paperwork or simply chatting. Harry, Ron and Hermione were the three. The rest of them either had fieldwork to do or, like Tonks, had the morning off. These three had had their field day the day before in pairs. Ron and Hermione in one place and Harry and Cho in another. A few minutes before, Cho told them she’d be right back and disappeared off somewhere and when the trio were in a conversation about decreasing security around Hogwarts.

“We are not going to reduce security. How can you even consider it?” Hermione’s eyes were wide, her nostrils flaring and her face red as she argued with the men. “Three of your children are there,” she poked Harry in the chest, “and both of our children are there, Ron. We should be thinking about tightening security if anything.”

“I understand what you’re saying, but Hogwarts does not need so much security anymore,” Harry disputed.

“Harry’s right Hermione, there aren’t any Death Eaters on the loose, Voldemort’s dead and those Death Eaters that aren’t dead have the dementor’s kiss performed to them.”

“I still don’t think it’s a good idea. What if the Death Eaters’ children try something? What about their children?”

“If the Death Eater children wanted to do something, don’t you think they would have done it straight after the war?” Ron brought up.

“As for their grandchildren, the oldest ones are in Hogwarts in their seventh year and there are so many Order members there that it’d be impossible for them to do anything.”

“Not completely impossible. Now you can’t say the grandchildren won’t do something because it is possible–”

“Be productive, you three. We can’t have you arguing about your personal lives when the Minister of Magic and his secretary come in. Yes, he’s coming now!” Cho burst in saying. The trio rolled their eyes at her in unison.

“Cho, the secretary is called Percy and the Minister is–” Hermione was interrupted.

“Well at least have some respect for him.” The three of them knew they couldn’t win against Cho when they argued about what to call the Minister and his secretary, so all they could do was sigh in exasperation. A while later and the two people came in.

“Good afternoon Minister, Mr. Weasley.”

“Ah, Mrs. Thomas, there is no need for these formalities. The six of us are the only ones in this office now, anyway.” The Minister gave a small chuckle. Percy, Harry Ron and Hermione simply shook their head at him, whilst Cho gave a fake laugh. “Really, just call me Arthur. You know you wouldn’t have addressed me so formally if I was still working in the department of the misuse of muggle artefacts. What would you call me if I still had that job?” he asked more to himself than to Cho.

“Dad, we have some things to discuss with you. It’s about security around Hogwarts,” Harry, who had long since started calling his in laws mum and dad, broke through.

“Oh?” Arthur asked.

“Yes, these two think the security around Hogwarts should be decreased.” Scepticism in her voice was so obvious, even the dumbest person could’ve realised it.

“I take it you disagree with them.”

“Well of course I disagree, my children, nieces and nephews are there.”

“My children are there too! You can’t let this happen.”

“WOMEN! Too bloody paranoid!” Ron screamed. “Here me out; the Death Eaters are either dead or have had the dementor’s kiss done to them, Voldemort is gone forever this time and there are most members of the Order and other competent teachers in the school. We don’t need aurors to be stationed in Hogsmeade or outside the Hogwarts gates.”

“What we need is for as many aurors as possible to be doing worthwhile things like tracking down criminals.”

“I agree,” Hogwarts no longer needs such measures anymore. It’s time we let their own staff deal with the security inside the school.”

“Mr. Weasley, you can’t let this happen. What will happen when the Death Eaters’ grandchildren retaliate? Can the staff really look over all the students?”

“Has Hogwarts ever had any guards inside the castle? No, so why are you worrying about it now?”

“We should be more careful now because there are some who are of age and can use magic in the corridors. So now they could start using dark magic or even unforgivables.”

“And they always could have,” Arthur voiced. “If they were so keen on using dark magic, or indeed unforgivables, what stopped them from doing so before? One is bad enough, why not the other, and make a job of it?” Hermione fell silent but fuming, her eyes showing the rage inside her. Making a note of this, Ron got her some water, knowing that water usually calms her down. When he came back with it and handed it to her, he told himself ‘I should have expected that’ when she threw the water on his face.

.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.

At the beginning of lunch, in the great hall, Piper and Phoebe sat eating their lunch of roast potatoes and lamb chops with Cassie on Piper’s lap. After the heartfelt settling down Phoebe gave and an explanation Cassie gave, Phoebe decided she should eat her lunch, meet her cousins and sister then go back to Billie.

“What were you doing back home, Cassie?” Piper asked her niece.

“I was playing quidditch with Patty, Micah, Henry, Julian and Aaron. Micah was our keeper and I was the seeker.”

“What was Patty playing as?”

“Patty was the keeper on Henry’s team. Henry was the other seeker and Aaron was the chaser. Henry caught the snitch, but our team won, because Julian scored a lot of goals and Patty wasn’t quite such a good keeper. I think she is though but she wanted my team to win.”

“That seems fair. Henry gets the glory of catching the snitch but you win the game.”

“How did you get here?” Phoebe asked.

“I don’t know. I think it might have been like how dada goes away.”

“Can you show me how you did it? Why don’t you come to me then go back to Aunty Piper?” she did and they watched in amazement Cassie glow red and a flash of a red heart make her disappear and reappear in the reverse fashion onto her mother’s lap. Then in the same way, she went back to her aunt and saw her cousin with his friend enter the Great Hall.

“Aunty Piper, look! Wyatt’s there with Serenity! Momma, can I go there?”

“Of course you can buttercup.” The girl jumped off her aunt’s lap and bounded towards her cousin, shouting his name. Piper and Phoebe laughed at her enthusiasm whilst they saw Wyatt scoop Cassie into his arms and turned towards Serenity.

Piper observed them from afar and concluded that her baby really was growing up. Not only had his appearance changed, but his previously childish behaviour was developing into manliness. It was not even just Wyatt that had grown, but his friendship with Serenity was blossoming into something new. When they all came to England 7 years or so ago, Wyatt introduced Serenity to Piper as if she were a lost puppy.

“Mommy, look who I found when I orbed to London. Her name is Serenity, just like Joey’s sister in Yu-Gi-Oh.” Piper gave a feminine laugh as Wyatt smiled.

“Well it’s a pleasure to meet you, Serenity,” Piper greeted in her San Franciscan drawl, extending her hand and shaking it with Serenity’s. “My name is Piper Halliwell.”

“I’m pleased to meet you too, Mrs. Halliwell.”

Looking at them play with Cassie showed them in a different light altogether. They looked like responsible adults, ready to take on the world if not their feelings. Piper was anticipating the day when Wyatt and Serenity would enter the Great Hall with their hands and fingers entwined instead of their arms. Whether or not they recognised their feelings for the other was quite another matter though and would be one that Wyatt, or indeed Serenity, may take some time on.

“He really has grown up, hasn’t he, Phoebs?” her younger sister looked at her, intently, reading her eyes for any emotion and the only one she found was pride. Pride for what he is and what he has become.

“They all do,” she replied. “Your oldest baby is growing into a fine man and my youngest has got her first major premonition. Soon she will be starting Hogwarts and so will Lotty and Patty.” More teachers came in like Neville who taught Herbology. He came in with his son Litton, who Piper and Phoebe thought was the cutest thing they’d ever seen, and Litton’s friend Bella. Habit and forgetfulness always led him to the Gryffindor table and both Piper and Phoebe always shouted “Oi Neville! You’re a teacher now!” when he did that, and of course that was everyday. He walked up to them and waved. Then he settled into a chair next to Phoebe.

“Good morning, Halliwells.” The women laughed and said,

“It’s the afternoon, Neville. What have you been up to?”

“I was just feeding my mimbulus mimbletonia. It’s really thriving,” he said with a smile.

They heard childish laughter in the hall and looked up to see Serenity carrying Cassie and making different faces using her metamorphmagus powers. The older girl seemed very content and Piper owed it to the fact that she was making the little one laugh so much and could feel all the happiness inside her. More and more students came flooding in like Melinda, Cody and May, along with the Weasleys, Potters, Longbottoms and Creeveys. Piper saw Melinda carrying Cassie when she looked up again after conversing more with other teachers. Minerva joined them after a while and the sisters knew she was watching over the Slytherin table.

“It won’t do to confront them,” Piper said. “We don’t know if that’s their intention yet.”

“No, you’re right. I have another solution though. I fear our security will have to be brought inside instead of out,” by this time her voice had trailed away and Piper could no longer hear Minerva. “I think we might need to set up the Order,” she said loudly enough for Piper, Phoebe and Neville to hear her. As was expected the former two were confused, but the latter looked startled out of his mind.

“What do you want to set up the Order for?” he asked her.

“What is the Order?” the two of them asked.

“The Order of the Phoenix is an organisation that fought against users of the dark arts. The first instance we formed must have been in the late 70s when a man called Tom Marvolo Riddle turned bad and called himself Lord Voldemort and terrorised the lives of muggles and wizards,” the story Neville told held the women in place that their vision disallowed them to see the whole hall was filled with students.

“We lost a fair few in the first war, including Harry Potter’s parents. Voldemort went after the Potters and killed Lily and James, but when he turned his wand on little Harry, the curse rebounded and would’ve killed him, had he not made horcruxes.”

“What are horcruxes?” Phoebe asked.

“They’re items a person holds dear but with fragments of a person’s soul in it. It’s a terrible thing to make a single horcrux but Voldemort made seven. You must kill a person in order to make a horcrux.”

“Oh god. So did Harry destroy all of them?” Piper asked.

“Most of them, yes. Ron, Hermione and Ginny went on a quest around 20 years ago to destroy these horcruxes and finished it a year or so after that.”

“Wow… must’ve been harder than what we went through.” Phoebe commented.

“Our lives were pretty hard too. I mean being attacked in your homes and someone we thought we could trust trying to kill your son really isn’t easy,” Piper countered. “It’s different, but you can see it’s the same.” Piper explained, “our problems looked like they were on a smaller scale, but they’re actually pretty big. Demons killing–”

“Piper stop!” she shouted. Neville could be seen shaking and the next thing they saw was his son, Litton, running to him, hugged him and rubbed him on the back.

“Dad, calm down now. I’m here now. It’s your Lit,” the boy was incredibly sweet that the ladies all gave a collective sigh. Piper cast her mind to the time when she woke up from her coma and saw a 3-year-old Wyatt leaning over her, apparently healing her. “Are you ok now, daddy?” Litton asked.

“Yes, thank you, Lit.” Neville kissed his son on the head and he felt special again. Piper could see the relationship between father and son was so great it was tangible. Litton went back to his friends with his father’s unspoken consent. When she looked back at Cassie, she could no longer see any of the Lupin children and Wyatt, Chris, Melinda and Cassie were fast approaching the teacher’s table with some of their friends.

“Have you all eaten your lunch?” Piper asked, whilst Cassie sat on her mother’s lap and ate more food.

“We have but Cassie hasn’t,” Melinda said. She glanced over at her sister who was wolfing down her mashed potato.

After she had finished, Piper had Wyatt orb Cassie back to his Aunt Billie. He complied after thinking about when Serenity would come back, but figured he would be back before she came back from visiting the hospital wing. He was anxious about why she had to go there. But then he thought it had something to do with her dad, as Cody and May were called away too.

.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.

Serenity, Cody, and May had made it to the hospital wing; they were by their mother’s side and had exchanged pleasantries already. Their dad was standing on the other side of the bed, his hands caressing Tonks’s hand.

Mum, why are you here?” Cody asked, after the introduction.

“I wanted to give his father his presents and get mine too. Then I thought I’d go see a Healer about something I suspected.”

“How long are you here for? You can share my dormitory if you want,” May offered.

“What do you need a Healer for, mum? Are you ill?” Cody asked.

“I asked the question first, Cody. Let mum answer mine first.” She turned expectantly towards her mother.

“What?” Tonks answered thickly. Oh, how long am I staying, not long. I have to go back before 2.”

“Will you answer mine as well? What’s wrong? Why do you need a Healer?”

“Ask Serenity, I think she knows.”

‘Are you pregnant?’ she mouthed to her mum, who answered with a smile and a nod. Madam Pomfrey came through before Serenity could get a comment in edge-wise. She performed a spell silently and Tonks seemed to glow, which made Madam Pomfrey to appear satisfied with the result, as a smile graced her face.

“Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Lupin. You are going to have a child.” The happy couple looked lovingly at each other, whilst the younger two children looked agape at their parents. Serenity was simply observing what was happening.

“Don’t suppose you can tell us the sex of the baby, could you, Poppy?” their father asked cheekily.

“No I can’t, Professor. I can tell you how long till the baby pops out though.”

“Oh, please do,” Tonks chirped up.

She soundlessly performed another spell and something unknown to the observers occurred, which made the Healer say, “You’re a month along, so the baby is due in about mid-May. As you know, the baby can arrive either earlier or later.”

The parents kissed each other on the lips and hugged closely. Cody and May were disgusted, but Serenity was unperturbed by her parents’ show of affection and ushered the younger two to the door. Before she left, she said loudly to her parents,

“Happy anniversary, mum and dad.”

An equally loud, “Thank you for remembering,” came from both her parents, which she laughed about as her father had a tone of mischief laced in his comment. Just as she took one footstep, her mum said, “You’ll make a fine Healer some day, Serene.” Words could not express what the girl was feeling, for all the words she knew would have been exhausted by the magnitude of emotions she felt.

“Thank you, mum,” she said simply. “I’m sorry I didn’t choose to be an auror like you.” A tear fell off her eyelashes.

“It was dumb of me to expect you to follow in my footsteps,” Serenity felt a hand on her shoulders and turned round to face her parents, her eyes brimmed with tears. Tonks pulled her to her bosom, holding her like she used to when Serenity was a toddler. “I was wrong to expect that of you when I wouldn’t have done it either.” They both chuckled tearfully.

“I love you, mum. I just don’t love your job.”

“I understand that now. Go off now, Wyatt’s probably waiting for you.” She winked at her daughter and turned round, which Serenity suspected was to laugh. Serenity looked aghast at her father at her mother’s implications.

“Mum!”

“Well of course I know you like the boy! I’m your mother and you’re my daughter.”

“I’m getting out of here before you say anything else.” With that, she left and headed off to the Great Hall, where Wyatt would no doubt be. But upon arrival, she didn’t know where on earth he was.

.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.

It was 1:30 in the afternoon and Ginny was straightening up a recently used bed in the maternity ward of St. Mungo’s Hospital. She heard a set of footsteps of what must belong to women’s shoes. She figured it must just be Penelope snooping around to see what she was doing. With all this snooping around, Ginny mused, she should’ve become a reporter. Worse than bloody Rita Skeeter! But when another pair of shoes came, one that quite clearly belonged to a man, Ginny turned round and saw one of her best friends, Luna Longbottom, with a dear friend, Dean Thomas.

“Good afternoon sir and madam.” Ginny thought ‘I’ve gotta tease them’ about, “Would you like a check-up to see if you’re pregnant?” she said, earning a good-hearted laugh with Dean and a raised eyebrow from Luna.

“What’s that supposed to mean, Ginny?” Luna asked, mock-angrily.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I couldn’t help it. What can I do for you two?” she immediately regretted asking that.

It was brought to our attention that you have ‘samadans’ lurking around here,” Ginny thought how much the war had changed Luna, but the one thing that remained was her wild theories.

“What are ‘samadans’?” Ginny asked exasperatedly.

“They are tiny little creatures that look like people who harm pregnant women and their babies. You have to let me find them. Please Ginny, please help me out here.” Ginny had long since given up on telling Luna these things don’t exist, but experience told her not to argue with the former Ravenclaw. She had no choice but to give in. after dismissively waving her hand, which signified ‘fine, go on then’.

“Luna? Have you heard from Neville in Hogwarts?” she asked, settling down in her office, near the ward, to do some paper work and saw she had an appointment in less than five minutes.

“No, but Litton has been keeping me up to date about the goings on in Hogwarts. Why?”

“I got an owl from Hermione saying Harry and Ron want to decrease security around Hogwarts.”

“Oh yeah, Cho also said something about that too. I suppose we don’t really need security outside it anymore because of all the Death Eaters and all. Seen as though all the actual ones have had the Dementor’s Kiss done to them. They’re really no danger to the teachers or kids.” Dean spoke up.

“I guess that’s true, but they’ll have to have a word with Minerva about this. It’s her final decision, after all. Are you done looking now, because I need you to go soon? ”

“I think our source might not be reliable then. We can’t even question him because it was an anonymous tip. But yes, we should go now. Come now Dean.” The man mouthed sorry to Ginny and got a silent laugh and a shake of her head in return, which meant ‘it’s ok’. Her patient walked through the door with her husband.

“Hiya Reine and Noel. How you feeling?”

.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.

After a long day at work, or so Coop thought, he turned to his wife in her teacher’s quarters before stopping over at Potter Manor and collecting his two children, Charlotte and Cassie and his nieces and nephew to teleport them back to Halliwell Manor in the evening. Consequently the time was 4:00, and he had a few hours to spare with Phoebe.

When he got in, he found his wife lying down on her four-poster bed without the curtains drawn. Exhausted as he was, he lay down right next to her and gave her a peck on the lips' and they both sighed at the same time.

“How was work?” Phoebe asked.

“Work was tiring. I don’t know why some people take so long to just admit their feelings.”

“Maybe because they have a lot to say and don’t say it in just a few words.”

“Ha-ha. I don’t mean it that way. They both like each other but they won’t admit it.”

“That sounds like…” she began, but decided not to say it. Coop knew what she was thinking, but didn’t give her the satisfaction of telling her she was thinking about whom he was working on today.

“How was your day?”

Phoebe took a while to answer, and even then she was uncertain about what to say. “It was… it was eventful to say the least.”

“What happened?”

“Cassie came here, and she has two powers now.” In shock, Coop bolted right up.

“How did she come? What powers does she have?”

“She had a premonition and teleported here.”

“What did she see?”

“She saw two students torturing Chris’s friend, Eliza. Minerva wants to talk to some aurors about patrolling the corridors night and day.”

“That’s probably wise, but what if it already happens despite all the measures taken? Shouldn’t you call in Elders as well?”

“Perhaps train Wyatt and Chris to be whitelighters. I know Wyatt is a whitelighter already, but like I said, she’s Chris’s friend.”

“That’s a good idea too. Tell Minerva later, because I want to be with my woman.” No sooner than the last word was uttered did Coop cover Phoebe’s mouth with his own. The whole day’s tension slowly dissipated as lips and tongues entwined, and memories were of no consequence to them. The kiss held passion and longing after weeks and weeks of not seeing each other. Mainly letter writing was the most common contact they had with each other. Coop forgot about his troubles getting people to fall for each other and later confessing it. All he could think about was how blessed he was to have this woman in his arms, inciting feelings that lay hidden for those weeks of not seeing her.

“Miss me much?” Phoebe joked.

“Night and day.”

.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.

“Eat up dears,” Molly instructed her husband, children, their spouses, friends, granddaughter and her spouse. “Reine, darling, eat some more. You’re looking far too thin for my liking.” Ginny and Reine smiled at each other and the woman obliged her grandmother.

“I’m not sure I can eat much more, but I think some chips would be cool.” Her husband, Noel gave her hand a small squeeze from under the table.

“You ok, sweetie?” he asked his wife, which she replied with a nod.

“How have your days been everyone?” Arthur asked.

“It was fine,” Bill answered, looking over at Charlie.

“Bill and I were increasing security around Gringotts. Can’t say anything else about that.”

“Fleur? How about yours?”

“It was very eventful. The children are learning very fast, but more and more of them are getting their magic. Little Cassie is a Seer, just like her mother and two cousins.” There was a round of all saying ‘wow’. “I think she has got something that her father can do, too. You know Coop? He can teleport.” Everyone murmured in the affirmative. “She did that straight into Hogwarts.”

“How does that work?” Hermione asked, whilst taking a bite out of her beef stew. "Are you sure other beings can’t teleport into the castle?” she asked as Ron and Harry shot her a look, knowing full well she was trying to get something over the two men. Fleur seemed to catch on, too.

“Only cupids can teleport.” Ron and Harry remained silent, but had smug looks on both of the faces. Noticing this, Ginny kicked his leg from beside him. “What is this all about anyway?” Fleur asked.

“These men,” Hermione spat out the last word as if it were a dirty word, “want to decrease security around Hogwarts, even though all of our children still attend the school.”

“There’s no point in keeping security around Hogwarts anymore.” Ron argued. “They didn’t do much good anyway when we were in our sixth, did they? We were still in danger, we still lost the person we love and we still managed to get out of it alive, Hermione!” Ron’s impact on her was so much even Hermione couldn’t argue with that. She thought about all the times she got into trouble at school and knew she couldn’t say she wouldn’t do it again. Another thing was that it would just be rude to think her children couldn’t do the same when they did it when they were so much younger.

“Well, we’ll all hear what Minerva has to say tomorrow. You do remember we have to go to her, right?”

“I wonder what she could want,” Lorena, Charlie’s wife, broke away from her conversation with her best friend, Rain.

When Lorena was just 11 years old, she got a letter from Beauxbatons, whilst she lived with her parents in Spain. When she had the option to choose her subjects, she took to a subject similar to Care of Magical Creatures. As soon as she graduated, she knew she wanted to become a doctor, but was greatly interested in dragons and how to tame them; this brought her to train to be a healer, but went to Romania to work with dragons. During the war, Charlie and Lorena met and worked together. The two of them got on pretty well, even through bursts of attractions flew, then after their attraction, relationship and several pet names, including Ren and Char, later Charlie asked Lorena if she would move in with him… in England. She served the Order and found there were many injuries inflicted by Death Eaters, so she decided to work part time in St. Mungo’s Hospital, in the spell damage ward. Since she didn’t have experience with healing, the most she got to do was mind the patients who would permanently reside there. There she met a woman who is now her best friend, Raine. Her friendship with her must have increased, she realised, when Raine got the other healers to let Lorena have an active role in this ward and let her actually heal. Then her life increased in meaning when Charlie proposed to her and they started a family, just the way she liked it.

“You-who?” Charlie said, waving his hand in front of his wife’s face.

“Huh? Wasn’t me.” Everyone except Percy and Penelope laughed. But really, what did you expect; the war to make Percy aware of jokes (even if they were dancing around in Dobby’s tea cosy)? No, the war didn’t change Percy much; if anything, he became more and more uptight, as work demanded more from him during that time, which eventually lead to Scrimgeour’s overworking and resignation. But of course, even this wasn’t done willingly; it took several people in the ministry, all the people of the general public and even some muggles, parents of muggle-borns, to overthrow him. When Voldemort was defeated and the known Death Eaters, ones that Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny encountered, was when everyone started to force him out and shouted for Arthur Weasley to take over as minister. After this, Percy’s workload decreased considerably, as there was hardly any work to do, what with order being back in place.

“What did you do today, Penny?” her husband asked.

“We were very busy today. So many people to help, I even had to work alongside healers because of how bad they were.” The three healers of the room looked identical in that they raised their eyebrow, but none of them actually dared word what they were thinking, ‘that filthy liar!’

In an attempt to calm down, Ginny asked the twins and Draco what they did today, when they both in turn revealed that they tested a new product on Draco, but cannot reveal what that may be. Penelope therefore accused them of being liars when Raine muttered “takes one to know one” just loud enough so that only Draco and Lorena could hear her. The two of them chuckled merrily at that.

Draco, out of everyone in this room, had changed the most. He had grown from the arrogant pure-blood of his first to fifth year, to the family caring adolescent in his sixth (and what would have been half of his seventh year). The other half of that year he grew to defy everything he learnt from his pure-blood maniac of his father and helped Harry rid the world of Lord Voldemort. It was during the aftermath of the ‘final showdown’, – where he proved himself valiant – as the reporters called it, that Draco had to go to St. Mungo’s Hospital after being put under the cruciatus by his aunt, a few stunners and a severe headache from the imperius curse. There he met Raine and after a few regular check-ups, he found himself going there more and more, even though he was fine already. His life was getting back to normal, living in his own flat, and getting a job as an auror. Then after about a year of dating, he decided to pop the question and she gave him two beautiful children. Not long after their stunning wedding she gave him two beautiful children. Except when he got over it, living unemployed didn’t sit well with the Malfoy man, (even when he did have a mountain-load of money) so he decided to work with the twins in their shop. It was mainly fear that kept him from not stepping foot in the ministry and resuming his job there.

Knowing what he was thinking about, Raine gave her husband’s hand a squeeze and gave him a look that only he could discern as ‘don’t worry, you’ll get another job’, in which he replied with a smile, blink and a nod.

Angelina and Katie were professional quidditch players, although on different teams. Katie played as chaser for the Chudley Cannons, which made her Ron’s favourite sister in law and Angelina played likewise as chaser for the Wimbourne Wasps. The two of them gave their husbands twin boys, but Katie gave George another child, a girl after the two terrors.

“So how was practice, you two?” Ron asked daftly. Seriously, how was anyone supposed to answer that question? And as expected, the two of them simply murmured that it was fine.

Last of all, dessert was served, which was Harry’s favourite treacle tart, when the questions were directed at Reine and Noel and everyone wondered where Tonks was.

“She said she was working slightly later than usual and just wants to stay home with Julian. Oh and she gave an owl bearing good news,” everyone looked up, expectantly. “Tonks is pregnant again.” Everyone burst into cheerful chatter, and then Ginny, Noel and Reine looked at each other.

Reine cleared her throat before speaking, “I have something to tell you guys as well,” the room fell silent again. “Noel and I are having our first baby.” Just like before, everyone started talking and congratulating the couple, while Molly began insisting again that she eat more food, using the growing babe to persuade her.

.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.

“Paige!” Coop called out and was rewarded with his sister-in-law orbing in immediately. Coop had gathered the children in his house. He had Megan, Rose, Henry, Charlotte, Cassie, Patty and Julian with him. Aaron went with his aunt to The Burrow for dinner already, and Micah went with his dad back home, but Julian was still waiting for his mother to come and get him and Patty was waiting for Leo. Billie had already gone back to her place. “The kids are ready to go home now.”

“Mommy!” The twins and Henry shouted and attacked her with a group hug.

“Hello, monkeys, let’s go. Daddy will be home early today, so we have to go quickly. Hold on tight and close your eyes.”

The children’s father, Henry senior, was a parole officer in San Francisco. He had been offered a promotion several times, but he said he was fine with his pay and duty every time his boss offered him one. Even so, he was given a pay rise.

“Mommy, I want to orb by myself, though,” all three complained. She allowed it and all four of them orbed away back to the Manor.

“Let’s play a board game until your mum comes, Lian, and your dad comes, Patty.” All four children ran up the stairs and searched for a board game to play, in the meantime, Coop started to prepare something for each of them to eat. “Mashed potato is always a good thing to make.”

As soon as he got started, the children came tumbling down the stairs, and he pulled back to see a box of scrabble in Julian’s hands.

When he came back to wait for the potatoes to boil, he saw almost half the board covered with letters. This particular board had been tampered with by Fred and George so that it showed the scores and shot fireworks every time they got a word. The rest of the game was not tampered with.

There was barely any talking going on, only careful planning of words to put down. Cassie put down her word as kneazle. Julian put down his word as ending. Coop went back to the kitchen to see if the potatoes were done and was pleased when he shouted “Dinner’s ready!” and the four came bounding in.

“Lian, that’s gross,” Cassie said when she looked at Julian eating his mashed potato with tomato ketchup.

“Is not, have you even eaten it?” he retorted.

“It looks gross.” Julian looked unperturbed, shrugged his shoulders, but pushed the plate towards her.

“Try some,” he offered. Cassie looked curiously at it, as if contemplating whether it was explosive or not before Julian chuckled and quoted his father, “It’s not poisoned, you know.” Cassie shrugged and then took a scoop of it with her finger and tasted it. She contemplated it for a while before squirting some ketchup on her mashed potato too.

“It’s nice,” she said.

Leo came in when the five of them had finished and Coop had the washing done. The kids were upstairs washing their hands and faces.

“Hi Coop. How was your day?” he asked in his usual American drawl, sinking down on the sofa that his brother-in-law was sitting on.

“Not good, but not entirely bad either. It was just a very busy day.” When Leo looked back at him, Coop clarified, “It’s just that people are constantly hiding their feelings for the other. And there’s another who I want to introduce to her life.”

“Well that sounds more interesting than my day.”

“What happened?” Coop asked.

“Well… nothing as such. I was just helping the kids in magic school come into their powers. There was nothing more than that.”

The next thing they heard was a herd of children racing down the stairs and Patty shouting, “Daddy! Daddy!” and embracing her father.

“Hi sweetie. Do you want to go home now?” Leo asked.

“I want to stay here with Lotty, Cassie and Lian.”

“I suppose we can stay for a bit longer.” So the grown ups talked about nothing in particular whilst the children played a DVD on the TV. It was the first Rugrats movie when Tommy’s brother was born.

An hour into the movie, the doorbell rung and Tonks came in.

“Wotcher Coop, how you doing?” the tired, pink-haired auror greeted.

“I’m ok, come on in.” they walked into the sitting room and Tonks was greeted by the sight of four children and an adult watching a movie cartoon.

“Wotcher Leo!” she greeted the man.

“Hi Tonks. How are you?”

“I’m tired, but elated.” The man had a confused look, so she explained. “It was basically paperwork at work, so I was bored, but then I found out that I’m pregnant. On my anniversary no less.” Julian’s head snapped up.

“Have you seen daddy today?” Julian, like his eldest sister, Serenity, loved his dad. Tonks was always glad that all her children took after their namesakes. Serenity was always the one to put others needs first even when she had other problems of her own to deal with just like the girl in Yugioh who was introduced as a blind girl made sure her brother and friends were happy. Cody was definitely a people’s person, no matter what he said he always turned out to be the nice guy, exactly like the Cody in Digimon, series two. May was the competitive one, the one who liked a challenge, but knew when to back down, which was not exactly the same as May in Pokemon Hoenn League. Then there was Julian who was seen with a smile on his face constantly. She hoped that he would not come to be exactly like his namesake for when Julian in Cardcaptors was no longer happy, he was beginning to fade, just like how Tonks felt when Remus kept rejecting her. That was what drew her to Julian and decided that she was going to name her son after him. She wondered what this little one would be like and who the namesake will be.

“I have and he says he misses you a lot.”

“What about Nenny? Did you see Nenny?” the boy kept asking, his eyes small with happiness and anticipation.

“I did see her and she told me to give you a big hug and a spin for her,” he obliged.

It was about 8 pm when Leo and Tonks decided to go to their own homes and let their children sleep. Tonks even had to carry Julian back home as he had fallen asleep already.

So you guys made it, huh? Tell me if you liked it and let me know this month and a half hasn't been wasted. And to meeeeeeee (sorry, couldn't help it )

[nobi_fawkes]

Hello everyone!!! Firstly I'd like to say to my wonderful baby cousin, Saara who is 1 today, to my lovely character Serenity aka Reni and my wuvvy Daddy you all know who he is.

Thank you to adam_12, who has not yet started to read my story, but beta for me nonetheless, to Jen for trying, to Eliza, Riz, Hanz, Amrita, Sammy, and Rayne for feeding me I should also say that it's a long one, but nowhere as long as my last

Without further ado, I give you:

Chapter 3: Turmoil in Hogwarts?

“Looks like yours and Ron’s plan backfired, Harry. At least all we have to do is get the aurors from the outside into the inside.” Tonks said, trying hard not to slip on the muddy ground. The weather took a terrible turn from yesterday’s mild, sunny weather to a gloomy, wet and bitter day today.

“Yes, and we’ll have to do it quickly because the students will all be changing for their second lesson,” he said, purposely avoiding her first comment.

“HARRY!” Tonks screamed as she fell to the ground. She was spared from a muddy bottom when Harry’s reflexes ensured he caught her. “Thanks for that.”

“No problem at all. We don’t want anything happening to the bub, do we?” Tonks started shaking her head.

“Nothing happened in my other four pregnancies when I slipped.”

“Well, it was a while since you had Lian.”

“Harry?! Are you implying that I’m old?”

“What? An old lady with pink spiky hair? And the attitude of a teenager? I don’t think so. Besides, you’re only a few years older than me, what would I be saying about myself?” he fixed her with a sarcastic look. “Back to business now, I’ll go to Hogsmeade, you go around the grounds and tell anyone to meet us in the entrance hall. There we can tell them where to go. If only we could see where to station them.”

“We can do that. Leave that to me though.”

The two aurors went their separate ways and tried to gather as many aurors as they could in the entrance hall. After a good half hour, the aurors were all there and Tonks, who was surprisingly clean, was giving orders as to where they were to be stationed using Moony’s Map and what to look out for. Even if it meant listening in on private conversations, they’d have to spy on each and every student. The easy part was almost done; it was just another matter to get more people to fill the empty spaces. The grounds with Hogsmeade was one thing, but inside the castle was quite another. For now they would have to make do with these guards and make them patrol the corridors all on their own.

With nothing else left to decide as far as security measures were concerned, the pair of aurors left for the headmistress’s office to explain to her what they had done and what else was yet to happen. As soon as that was done, Tonks checked her map to see how the guards were doing and Harry watched in amazement. That done and the pair walked back to Hogsmeade so that they could get a butterbeer and apparate back to the ministry.

“So Remus gave you another Marauder’s Map, huh?”

“Well sort of. This one shows more, like the ministry building or anywhere else. He said he’s been working on it for quite some time.”

“Was Remus the only one to make this map?” Harry asked, knowing that Tonks would catch on as to why he was asking.

“He wasn’t the only one. Your dad and Sirius helped in some parts, but he continued it after Peter escaped, Sirius was captured and your parents d-died.”

“Did my mum know about this?” Harry had a sad look on his face; this happened every time the topic of his parents came up.

“I don’t know, Harry. Remus didn’t tell me.” She touched Harry on the arm just as soon as they made it to the pub. “Look, Harry, I know you are upset about what Remus told you about your mum, but you have to let go. You have children of your own now and you have to focus on them. Remember to include them as well as Ginny in your life. Especially when you feel like brooding.” Deep down Tonks knew she had got through to Harry, but she still felt inclined to comfort him some more.

The two got takeaway butterbeers delivered to Tonks’s place and decided to have them with the children just as a small break.

.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.

Hell was breaking loose in Chris’s head. Pain, crying, wailing, screaming all at the same time. It was unbearable. He’d had migraines before but it was nowhere as near painful as this. What was happening to him? Why could he hear these people? Was it all in his head?

It wasn’t like he couldn’t hear anyone else; no, he could, but that only added to his distress. It was a blend of sounds and it was utterly confusing.

One thing that wasn’t confusing was the looks everyone was giving him. They might look to comfort him, but all they did was rouse his anger. He spent most of the day in frustration with everyone that crossed his path. His usual polite manner remained no more and he snapped at everyone, including his mother, who snapped right back at him. The two of them would definitely not be talking for some time until one of the two relented.

So he took it upon himself to take himself away from everyone. He left in a huff for his next class, leaving Eliza severely disappointed.

At least the rain that was falling was drowning out some of the noise. If only his next class would be outside.

“Chris!” he heard from behind. He was confused as to how she found him. She caught up with him, when he was near the oak front doors, “Chris! Why did you run off? We have the same timetable, you know.”

“Eliza,” he groaned and said in an American accent. “Just leave me alone. I don’t want to know you. I don’t want to know anyone! Just **** off.” What Chris was banking on was Eliza running off in tears, but he was taken aback when he received a sharp slap and the giver storming off. Instead of satisfaction over being left alone, Chris felt dejected and terrible. He had never fought like this with Eliza before. She was his friend and only wanted to see what was wrong with him. He was still rooted to the muddy ground and was unaware that he might just get stuck in the mud. His mind was screaming at him to run after her, but his legs would not act on it.

The doors opened and his gaze met with Serenity and Wyatt. Wyatt looked as though he was going to say something but Chris silenced him with a look mixed with anger, pain and frustration and Serenity took a sharp intake of breathe. “Leave me the hell alone, Wyatt.”

“I didn’t say anything or do anything!”

All of a sudden, Chris’s legs started moving and brought him to push past his brother and take off towards his next lesson. He didn’t know where he was going, but apparently his legs knew well enough where to go. When he reached his destination, he tried finding Eliza, but saw the next seat was already occupied. He found a seat at the back of the class and flopped down on it.

He hadn’t even noticed when the class started or finished, nor did he realise where his feet were carrying him. He might’ve even been in DADA and not known what was going on. He wanted his dad. He wanted him badly. It had only been about two weeks without him, but he was already missing his dad. The two of them had a pretty good relationship, but not as strong as his and Wyatt’s, as Leo was mainly a caring person and a loving father. Something told him Chris had some kind of whitelighter thing going on, but had no idea what it was.

Two minutes of standing in front of Eliza made him realise where his legs delivered him to. He couldn’t see anyone else in the room except for her and was seriously considering apologising to her for his previously rude behaviour.

“Well what do you want to say to me?” Eliza asked coldly.

“I – I… that is… I… am sorry.” Eliza’s look betrayed no emotion. “I’m sorry for being rude to you before and I should’ve just… I don’t know what I should’ve done. I just shouldn’t have done that to you.”

“No, you shouldn’t have. But because you’re my friend and I value your friendship, I’ll give you benefit of the doubt. Now come on, let’s eat. It’s lunchtime now.”

The two didn’t mention anything about Chris’s behaviour, but Chris knew he couldn’t stay mad at his mother, especially since it wasn’t really her fault that he was feeling the way he did. So he relented and sought her forgiveness after telling her what was up.

“Why don’t you go to Wyatt? He could help you with it. It sounds a lot like something that would happen to a half whitelighter rather than a witch.”

“I think that too, I’ll just go now anyway. Thanks mum. I love you.” The two parted.

.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.

Straight after a long and eventful day at school, Eliza hid behind a suit of armour and inspected the Marauder’s Map, and looked for the name Zephyr Weasley. She found his name in the Gryffindor tower, probably in the common room then looked for Chris, who was on the grounds. Pleased with this, she smiled, erased the map and as quickly as she could, tried to make it to the common room.

Her plan was not fool-proof though as she bumped into a bunch of Slytherins and surprisingly knocked them down. As she scrambled off the floor and said sorry to them, she realised who she was apologising to. She retreated and felt her back to someone’s front. She turned round and saw the most vibrant blue eyes she had ever seen with blonde hair that was gelled back. Next to him stood a girl who also had blue eyes but had long chestnut brown hair. She knew the girl as Raven Finnigan, a kind of family friend, though only on appearances. The boy was Carlyle Crabbe and she didn’t know how he got his good looks. She’d seen his father and to say he looked like a troll would’ve been an understatement. The two of them were holding hands. The hand that wasn’t joined to Raven’s hand clasped on Eliza’s shoulder and the boy spoke in a commandeering voice.

A guard came round the corner to break up anything that might ensue, but he needn’t have come as Carlyle already took matters into his own hands.

“Damian, Hunter go now; Heath, Hecate, you too. Don’t give me a reason to speak with you later.” It was obvious the people feared him enough not to disobey his commands because they abandoned all signs of confronting Eliza and turned tail without even muttering anything.

Eliza’s frame was shaking under Carlyle’s grip and Raven, noticing this, told Carlyle he was holding onto Eliza too hard.

“Oops, sorry, I forget my own strength sometimes,” he said, chuckling.

“I need to find my brother.” Eliza blurted out before running off towards the Gryffindor tower and this time, safely making it. She shouted “Pranks!” at the fat lady, who accused “Where?” then loudly laughing whilst opening the portrait and she crawled through.

She caught her brother reclining on the couch reading a book called Most Potente Potions. She looked at him and didn’t expect this. She knew he was in his seventh and final year at Hogwarts but he was never the bookish type. He was just the silent achiever. One you’d never see studying, but seeing all the great grades he came up with.

“Oh,” Eliza blurted, doing a double take. “You’re studying I’ll come back later.”

“It’s alright,” he said sitting upright. “Sit down, sis. Tell me what’s up.” As was expected, the common room started filling and the two of them had to resort to speaking in Spanish, as was their mother’s language.

“I’m worried about Chris. He’s been really moody and has been snapping at everyone. He’s never been like this before.”

“Do you think he’s unwell, maybe he’s got a headache?”

“But this is from last night and he was with me at the time, but all of a sudden he changed. He was smiling and stuff first, then the next minute he doubled over and clutched his head as if in pain. Then he stopped and started acting like a real jerk. I even slapped him because of it.”

“If he dares hurt you,” he stood up clenching his hands in a fist, “I swear I’ll kill him crushing his bones.” By this time he spoke through gritted teeth.

“Zephyr!” Eliza glared at him with one that was worthy of even her mother. “He would never hurt me.” Zephyr didn’t look like he believed her.

“El, he’s a guy, I know what I’m talking about.”

“Oh and I suppose you’re like that.” Her brother had a roguish grin.

“That’s silly, you know that I’m perfect in every way. Just like mamá.”

Eliza knew full well of Zephyr’s love for their mother. If anyone did something questionable to her, Zephyr would be on the case full on. It just made things even more understandable that the two of them shared a birthday. She didn’t know why he wanted to be a curse breaker, when he’d make a fine auror.

After shaking her head bemusedly at him, Eliza said, “Well I don’t know about you, but I need to do my homework.” She pulled herself up and just as she walked away, Zephyr grabbed hold of her arm, stopping her.

“He’s a good guy, but even the best can be jerks. Just… just give him time, you never know, it might have been just a one day thing. He should be back to normal soon enough.” They were both standing and embraced.

“Thanks mano,” Eliza said addressing her brother with his Spanish formality.

.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.

Wyatt and Serenity were walking in the corridors, talking about Chris. To say that Wyatt was concerned for his brother was the least you could say. Wyatt, Chris and Patty were always taught to have the utmost respect for people and not be rude to them. The three of them had lived their lives following that and to have Chris suddenly being rude to people, snapping at them and to the one person who taught them to behave that way was definitely a cause for concern for the brother.

“You don’t think…” Wyatt began, but then trailed off as he debunked that idea. He felt uncertain, very uncertain, and was trying to choose between conflicting theories, but the sceptic won out and Serenity could sense his inner turmoil.

“Matt? What’s the matter?” she asked as they approached the front doors of the castle. “I can sense there’s something wrong in your mind.” Wyatt remained silent, but kept opening and closing his mouth like a fish, as if to say something, but then backing out of it at the last minute.

“You know I’m your whitelighter?” she nodded in response. “Well I think Chris might be coming into his time to be one.” It was time for Serenity to play the fish this time.

“Well there’s only one way to know for sure.” Wyatt nodded in agreement.

“We have to call the Elders, but first talking to Chris would be best. We need to talk to him first.”

A few fourth year Ravenclaw girls walked by, each gossiping about Chris and his strange new behaviour. “Wow, hot topic for the day is Chris and his mood.” Serenity retorted.

“Tell me about it,” a voice from behind said. Upon turning around, the two of them were face to face with Chris. He looked haggard and in slight pain.

“Chris…” Wyatt trailed off. “I think… I think you should go out in the rain. You look like you have a headache or something. I’m sure walking in the rain should work.”

The fourteen year old took the advice without question. That left the two sixth years to make their way to the fat lady and the common room quickly.

“Why did you send him packing so quickly?” Serenity asked, sceptically.

“I don’t want to set him off or anything. He looked like he needed something wet to help him out.”

“Then why not get him the shower or something? You needn’t have sent him outside.”

“The walking will do him good as well. Now come on, we need to get you and your powers under control.” Serenity started physically preparing herself for her lesson. Wyatt loved giving her lessons, it made him feel happy knowing he was helping her, and it would be great practise to have to teach as well as heal. “First we’ll go to my dorm and practise somewhere quiet. Then we’ll go down to the common room and see if it’s worked.

“Yes, Mr. Halliwell.” Serenity addressed him as she always did.

“Miss Lupin, I would like you to tell me all the feelings you can sense.”

“How shall I go about it?”

“In whatever way you feel best.” She shut her eyes and went visibly calmer.

“I feel curiosity… there’s a lot of it… and… and there’s surprise… fear… nervousness… only a little bit, but there’s nervousness… and… and the most I feel is… love, there’s so much love that I can’t…”

“Ok, close off.” Her eyes snapped open. “Right… you felt some feelings of your own there as well as feelings of mine. What I want you to do today is to separate different people’s feelings.” She looked sceptically at him. “I think… what you should do is not close your eyes, but inspect people’s features. Now it’d be hard to do this when a person is an occlumency, but, the majority of people aren’t skilled in it. What I want you to do is focus directly at a person and tell me what they are feeling. This time you can tell me only what I feel.” This exercise was done successfully and so they made their way downstairs to the common room.

There they tried the same exercise, but then it was slightly harder because of the number of people that was there.

.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.

Eliza was sitting cross-legged on her bed in the girl’s dormitory trying to write a defence essay regarding the unforgivable curses. So far she had filled two inches of parchment when the homework was supposed to be a foot. She started mapping out a list of suspects to ask to help her with this particular homework, when she remembered she had the Marauder’s Map.

“I solemnly swear I am up to no good,” and with a tap of her wand, the whole school appeared. Her eyes roamed over the Gryffindor common room and saw Robin and her cousin Cameron over to one corner. They were both completely still so she figured they were doing some homework or another. Cody was nowhere to be found in the room and when she saw his name in the library slowly going up and down, she wasn’t surprised, as he was very studious, ‘Just like Uncle Remus, that one,’ she thought. Next she found Laertes with their cousin Hayley and she remembered him telling her not to disturb him if she saw him with someone mainly because he was tutoring. ‘Just like Aunt Hermione.’ Searching for the last person in her year, she saw him alone in the raining grounds, walking by the lake. ‘That’s weird; he’s nearly always with his brother or cousin if I’m here,’ but upon finding the former with Serenity and the latter in her dormitory, she thought he must be upset. Well of course he’s upset! He’s walking by the lake whilst it’s raining! No one does that in a good mood. “Chris!” she called out. When he didn’t orb in, she called “Chris! Mischief managed. Chris get out of the–” a loud jingle and a long figure of white and blue lights appeared followed by a dripping Chris Halliwell. “Chris, you’re soaking wet. Look at you and you’ve been crying.”

“It’s the rain. Got all over me.”

“Why were you out there? Let me dry you off, you must be freezing. Let’s go to the common room.”

“I’m fine,” the newly dried Chris said offhandedly. “Why did you call me?”

“Oh it doesn’t matter now.”

“Why did you call me?” he said more firmly. Eliza assumed her defensive stance.

“There’s no need to speak that way with me.”

“Please tell me,” his voice was barely a whisper.

“I need help with the essay on the unforgivables. But let’s do it on the rug in front of the fire,” she touched his face as his gaze went to her lips and hers fell on the same place of his. “You’re cold.” The parchment, quill and ink flew into his hand as he took her into his embrace and orbed them both in front of the fire. Wyatt then came up to them.

“Chris? Where have you been?”

“I was just outside,” the other three looked outside at the rain and Serenity raised an eyebrow but didn’t push the matter.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t stick around with you.”

“It’s alright. Will you make the fire bigger?”

“Sure. What are the two of you doing?”

“Essay on unforgivables,” Chris said. “Eliza is stuck on it.”

“Oh! Unforgivables, come on Wyatt, you remember that, don’t you?”

“Errrm… well yeah. What’s to forget?” Chris and Eliza both laughed at his expense.

“Do you both need help?” Serenity asked.

“No, it’s ok, Renity,” Chris said. “I’ve already done it.”

“Have you?” Eliza asked mouth agape.

“Don’t look so astonished! I did it last night in bed.” Wyatt looked pointedly at his brother.

“Wyatt, can I speak to you afterwards?”

“Of course; in your dorm, Chris.”

“Liza, let’s get on with it then.”

.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.*~*.~*~.

Chris was in bed waiting for his brother to come. Wyatt let him know he’d be about ten minutes before he could actually come; something about helping Serenity control her power. A jingle alerted him to his brother’s presence.

“Serenity grasped it then?” Chris called from within his four poster bed.

“She’s doing well. Did walking in the rain help?”

“Sort of. Did Aunt Paige used to go through this?”

“Yeah, she did. She still complains about it to me. Obviously it doesn’t happen to her now, but it scarred her memory,” they shared a laugh. “Anyway, what do you mean sort of? It worked for me… well, in the shower, anyway.”

“Come inside the curtain, Wyatt, I don’t need anyone overhearing this,” he got inside and performed an imperturble charm.

“Tell me, are your ears ringing? Can you hear lots of people crying?”

“Yeah, and I can’t deal with it. It hurts my ears, but in the rain it numbs it. Wets my hair and sort of wets my brain as well. But then I heard Eliza calling me and I came in. She noticed where I had been; thankfully she didn’t push the matter.”

“You really love her, don’t you?”

“Wyatt, don’t ask. I really don’t know.”

“Well one thing is for sure…”

“What is that then?”

“That you’re becoming a whitelighter. We’d better call Dad and Aunt Paige and the Elders.” They both simultaneously called for each of them and with a collective jingle three figures orbed into the inside of Chris’s bed.

“Dad!” both boys exclaimed and embraced their father.

“Boys!” he extracted himself from the two and looked at both at arm’s length. “Gosh, I missed you both so much.” Chris noticed Paige standing off to one side and went round to her.

“Aunt Paige! I missed you.”

“How come you called us?” the Elder behind Leo coughed loudly.

“I believe I know,” she said. “Is it about becoming a whitelighter?” she looked at Chris.

“Ah, yes it is,” Chris answered. “What do I do? Who will be my charge? Will I only have one charge? Or will I have a charge?”

“Have patience, Christopher. All you have to do is tell me if you want to be a whitelighter, you will start off with only one charge and yes, if you choose to be a whitelighter, you will be expected to look after her as best as you can.”

“She? A girl then? Who is she?”

“Eliza Weasley.” Chris felt as if his body was rid of all blood.