Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Scotland

“Interesting,” Severus mused once Harry had finished relating what he’d just seen. “If this . . . witch, and whoever else she has with her, are looking for the Source as we’re after Voldemort, then it means he can be killed, too.”

 

“I wonder how long it’ll take them to get here.” Harry retrieved his book from the floor where he’d dropped it. “Where can we put them?”

 

“We could always ask Albus to put them in some of the spare staff quarters,” Severus said. He closed his own book and put it aside, before getting to his feet and heading for the kitchenette. He thought he’d probably need coffee while they debated strategy.

 

“And how will we explain their presence to him? He doesn’t believe the vision was real,” Harry pointed out, twisting himself round to sit sideways on the settee to keep Severus in view.

 

“Well, they can’t stay down here in the dungeons,” scoffed Severus. “And Hogsmeade could be further away than we’d like, if the Source and Voldemort happen to find us before we find them.”

 

“The Room of Requirement?” suggested Harry.

 

Severus shook his head as he came back with two mugs. He handed one to Harry, who sniffed at it dubiously. “Yours is tea,” the older man assured him. “The Room wouldn’t work, because we couldn’t guarantee that nobody else would use it whilst they weren’t in it.”

 

“Really?” Harry frowned, puzzled. “I didn’t think there were that many people still here who knew about it.”

 

“Oh, Harry, did you really think you and your little group were the only ones who ever discovered the Room of Requirement?” Severus asked, amused. Harry scowled at him. “The students always find it, one way or another.”

 

“Fine, fine, the Room is out, too,” agreed Harry. “We can think of something; we should have a couple of days, at least—”

 

He was interrupted by the wards around Severus’ quarters shimmering. The two professors felt them flex, almost as if they were catching something and bouncing it off again, and then there was a muffled thump from the corridor outside.

 

“Owww!” they heard a voice complain, along with a second voice demanding, “What was that?!”

 

Wands instantly drawn, the two men were on their feet and aiming at the door. It didn’t sound as those whatever – or whoever – was outside had come to attack them, but better safe than sorry. Severus flicked his wand at his door, and it became transparent, allowing them to see what was going on outside.

 

Two women were picking themselves up off the floor. Harry recognised one of them as the witch he’d seen in his vision before.

 

“Hey!” he said. “Severus, she’s the witch I saw! The brunette.” He gestured to the woman on the right.

 

“How did she get here?” Severus wondered out loud. “They couldn’t have apparated – not all the way from America, and certainly not into Hogwarts!”

 

Harry looked at him. “Guess there’s only one way to find out,” he said, and started for the door.

 

Just as he reached out to touch the door handle, there was a faint musical sound, and a cloud of small blue-white spheres descended from the ceiling. Once it reached the floor, it materialised into yet another woman and a young man. Harry and Severus exchanged surprised looks.

 

“What are you guys doing?” the newly arrived woman asked. Even through the door, the professors could tell that she was biting back a smile.

 

“I couldn’t get in!” one of the other two women, the one Harry didn’t know, whined. “Something bounced me away.”

 

The young man snorted. “Did you ever think of knocking?” he asked, raising an eyebrow at the women, who looked at each other, sheepishly. He turned to the dark-haired woman beside him, who was very obviously pregnant. “Please don’t let her teach me manners,” he said.

 

“Hey!” the woman objected, indignantly. “My manners are fine, thank you very much!”

 

“Did you knock?” the dark-haired woman asked, knowingly.

 

The other one sighed. “Well, no,” she admitted.

 

“I rest my case,” the young man interjected. “So perhaps we should knock now?”

 

“No need,” Harry interjected, throwing open the dungeon door. He’d lowered his wand, but he didn’t return it to its holster. Just because they didn’t seem dangerous didn’t mean they weren’t. The two women closest to him jumped in surprise, and spun round to face him. “I’ve no idea how you got here, or through the wards, but welcome to Hogwarts.”

 

 

---

Piper watched with interest as this young stranger, who looked a lot like Chris except with darker hair, gazed intently at Phoebe, then turned to someone behind him and nodded.

 

An older man, taller and with eyes that looked black, although with the same coloured hair, appeared in the doorway too. His nose was quite . . . Roman, was the kindest she could come up with, but in a strange way, it suited him, and drew attention inwards and upwards to his eyes.

 

The man laid a hand on the doorframe, and murmured something she didn’t catch, and something ran down the doorway in a shimmering, rippling curtain. “I have lowered my wards,” he said, with a pointed look at Paige. “You may enter my quarters, now.”

 

Ooh, that voice! Piper thought. It was deep and smooth, although with a hint of rasp that played pleasantly along her nerve-endings. She startled as her unborn baby suddenly awoke and turned over, then smiled and ran a hand over her stomach. Looked like mini-Chris liked the stranger’s voice, too.

 

Big Chris’ hand on her elbow made Piper realise that her sisters were already heading into the room. Following them, she was just in time to see one of the chairs near the fireplace abruptly change from over-stuffed to almost hard-backed. Phoebe and Paige were gaping at the chair, and even Piper blinked a few times. Chris was giving the men a speculative look.

 

“How did you do that?” Phoebe asked, glancing over at the men.

 

“Yeah, I didn’t hear any spell,” Paige agreed.

 

The older man raised an eyebrow at her. “I used a normal nonverbal Transfiguration spell,” he replied, folding his arms over his chest.

 

“I’m sorry, you used what?” asked Phoebe, peering at him in confusion.

 

“I Transfigured it,” the man repeated, more slowly this time. He glanced at Piper. “I thought this one would best suit for a late pregnancy.”

 

“Yeah, the other might look comfy, but trying to pull yourself out of deep cushions gets real old, real fast,” she agreed.

 

“Uh, I hate to sound like an idiot,” Paige interjected, “but what’s Transfiguration?”

 

Now it was the two men’s turn to gape – at them.

 

“You don’t know what Transfiguration is?” the younger one asked, finally. He exchanged glances with the older man. “But . . . aren’t you a witch?” he finally said, hesitantly.

 

“Of course I’m a witch!” Paige snapped, drawing herself up indignantly. “What does that have to do with anything?”

 

Piper could see where this was going – and it was nowhere good. She gave a short, sharp whistle to catch everyone’s attention. “Okay, people,” she said once they were all looking at her. “Perhaps we should all calm down and introduce ourselves before anything else. And I’ve gotta sit down.” She made her way over to the changed chair and sank into it with a groan. Orbing might have been easier than normal flying, but it had still been a long way to Scotland.

 

Looking abashed, her sisters settled on the couch, and Chris perched himself on the arm of it nearest to her. The young man settled in the other armchair, whilst the older one stayed standing stiffly beside the fireplace.

 

“Right,” the young man said, smiling warily at them all. “This is Severus Snape, and I’m Harry Potter.” He said it as though expecting them all to gasp in awe, but the sisters just gave him blank looks.

 

“Nice to meet you, Harry,” Phoebe said before Piper could speak up. “I’m Phoebe Halliwell, one of the Charmed Ones. This is Chris Perry, my sister Paige Matthews, and my other sister Piper.”

 

Piper raised her eyebrows at the oh-so-casual tossing in of their Charmed status. Or Phoebe’s Charmed status, at least. But, interestingly, both the other men – Severus and Harry – looked just as blank as the sisters themselves had looked a moment ago.

 

“The . . . charmed ones?” Severus finally asked, puzzled.

 

“Yes, the Charmed Ones,” Phoebe replied. Her brow furrowed when this still didn’t produce the response she was obviously expecting. “Haven’t you guys heard of us?”

 

Severus looked at Harry again, who looked back at him and shrugged. “No,” Severus said. “And you’ve apparently never heard of the Boy-Who-Lived.”

 

“The Boy-Who-Lived?” Paige snorted in disdain. “Who’s that? And what kind of a name is it, anyway?”

 

“I’m the Boy-Who-Lived,” Harry said. He was beginning to frown now, too. “And it’s about the same kind of name as ‘the charmed ones’.” He crossed his arms and gave Phoebe and Paige a pointed look.

 

Piper had to concentrate very hard not to burst out laughing as Harry and Phoebe gave each other identical puzzled frowns. The muffled cough from Chris at her side indicated that he felt the same amusement.

 

The sound of a throat clearing came from where Severus was standing. “Perhaps we should start from the beginning . . . ?” he suggested.

 

 

---

Severus snorted internally to himself. Despite Harry’s numerous protestations about wanting a ‘normal life’ and to ‘not be recognised’, he was obviously put out that the women in front of them had never heard of him before.

 

The one with the incredibly short hair, Phoebe, he believed she’d called herself, was locked in a staring match with Harry, while the pale-skinned woman beside her – was that Paige, or Piper? he wondered – had her arms folded and a vaguely sulky look on her face.

 

The young man and the other dark-haired woman appeared to be stifling amusement, and Severus felt his own bubble up again.

 

He cleared his throat forcefully – wouldn’t do for Harry to think Severus was laughing at him, even if he was – to bring their attention to himself. “Perhaps we should start from the beginning?” he said.

 

“All right,” Phoebe agreed, finally dragging her gaze away from Harry’s. “We’ll go first.” She leaned back on the settee, making herself comfortable. “Through our maternal heritage, we’re witches.” She gestured at the four of them. Severus raised an eyebrow. She was including the young man as a witch? “We each have powers; one that came to us whenever we found out we were magical, and several others that have cropped up as our powers grew. My power is premonition. Last night, I apparently had a premonition whilst I was asleep.”

 

Severus opened his mouth to ask how she could be certain it had been a ‘premonition’ – and was that anything like Divination? – if she’d been asleep, but one of her sisters held up a hand.

 

“Don’t ask,” the pregnant one said, dryly. “She’s sure of it.”

 

“Anyway,” Phoebe continued, forcefully, glaring at her sister, “in my premonition I saw the Source of All Evil, along with some thing with red eyes, making plans to return from wherever they are. Now I don’t know about the other thing, but we’ve vanquished the Source, twice. We’d really rather not have to do it a third time.”

 

“Sounds fair enough,” Harry said. He glanced up at Severus, who nodded for him to take the lead, then sat forward in his chair, resting his forearms on his knees. “Back in the 1950’s a boy, a wizard, was born called Tom Riddle. He was born in an orphanage, and left there when his mother died just after. There was apparently something . . . not quite right about him. He liked to hurt people, and gain power over them. Eventually, he came to school here, at Hogwarts, and ended up indirectly killing a student.

 

“After he left Hogwarts, he gained followers, and eventually began killing people. By the time I was born in 1980, we were in the midst of war, and Riddle was winning. Some time before my birth, a prophecy was made regarding his downfall. Part of it was overheard, and taken to Riddle. There were two boys it could have been about, and one of them was me.”

 

“His family went into hiding, but were betrayed by a friend of theirs,” Severus took up the tale. “Riddle, or the Dark Lord Voldemort as he had renamed himself, killed Harry’s parents, but something went wrong, and his attempt to kill Harry backfired on him, turning him into nothing more than a spirit.

 

“When Harry was in his fourth year here, Riddle’s servant, the one who betrayed the Potters, did a ritual to return him to life. After that, we descended into war again, although the Ministry of Magic did their best to deny his return for almost a year, and really didn’t do much else after that.”

 

Harry continued, “It was discovered that Riddle was so desperate for immortality that he’d split his soul several times, creating things called Horcruxes. As long as they existed, he couldn’t be killed. It took me and my friends a year to find and destroy the damn things, but after that there was a huge battle, here at Hogwarts, and I killed Voldemort.

 

“Then, last night, I apparently had the same, uh, dream as you did,” he added, looking at Phoebe. “The thing with red eyes was Voldemort. He didn’t really look anywhere close to human at the end there,” he concluded, shaking his head in remembrance.

 

“So it sounds like we don’t want either of them coming back,” Paige said. She’d unfolded her arms and was listening so intently that Severus almost expected her to start making notes. “Okay . . . so how do we stop them?”

 

There was silence for a moment as they all contemplated this.

 

“How did you defeat the Source before?” Harry asked, curiously.

 

“We called on the power of our ancestors,” Phoebe told him. “How did you defeat . . . uh, your guy?”

 

“Voldemort,” Harry said. “Or Riddle, if that’s easier. He sent a Killing Curse at me, but it, ah, bounced back on him.”

 

“So you couldn’t do it again?” Paige asked, looking slightly disappointed.

 

Harry and Severus exchanged looks, then Harry raised his eyebrows in question, and Severus shrugged.

 

“We don’t know,” Severus responded, finally. “It was the same thing that happened the first time he tried it, but nobody knows just what happened that night, and the circumstances were different the second time.”

 

“I think your best bet is making sure they don’t return at all,” Chris interjected. He’d been silent up until now, obviously taking things in and thinking. “After all, they can’t do much if they’re trapped in a Demonic Wasteland.”

 

“Uh-oh,” Paige suddenly said. Everyone looked at her. “I don’t think that’s such a good idea.” She looked apologetically at Phoebe. “Cole managed to gain powers and escape from there.”

 

“Cole?” Harry queried.

 

Phoebe sighed. “Cole is . . . was my ex-husband. He was half human, half demon. His demon half got vanquished, but it apparently left a void in him. When we defeated the Source the first time, his powers ended up in Cole, and he became the new Source.” Her voice broke, and she bit her lip.

 

“We had to vanquish Cole, too, eventually,” Piper said, giving Phoebe a quick glance before looking back up to meet Severus’ gaze. “But because of his human half, he ended up in a Demonic Wasteland where all the other vanquished demons went. He discovered a way to gain their powers and he came back.”

 

“Unfortunately,” Paige carried on, “it meant he was invincible.”

 

“Really?” Severus folded his arms, thoughtfully, leaning against the back of Harry’s chair. “Invincible doesn’t usually mean completely invincible. There’s usually some weak spot, no matter how well guarded.”

 

“No, Cole was pretty much invincible,” Piper disagreed, shaking her head at the remembrance of the scene she and Paige had walked in on when Phoebe had been kidnapped by an Egyptian demon. “Believe me, nothing killed him. We tried, the demons tried, he tried! Nothing worked.”

 

“Something obviously worked,” Harry pointed out.

 

“It was something Cole did, not us,” Paige said. She shivered, remembering the alternate universe Cole had thrust them all into – one where she’d been killed before ever even knowing her sisters existed. “Believe me, it’s not something we can do again.”

 

Silence descended again, longer than before, as the six of them wracked their brains to come up with a solution to what seemed an insurmountable problem.

 

“This is not working,” Severus said, eventually. “I believe we all need a break, to go away and think about this for a while.”

 

“Perhaps we should sleep on it, then see what we can come up with tomorrow,” Harry suggested.

 

“Sounds like a plan to me,” Paige agreed.

 

“Well, perhaps not the sleeping part,” Phoebe added, “but . . . oh, you know what I mean!” She waved a dismissive hand.

 

“Would you like for me to arrange rooms here in the castle?” Severus queried. He wasn’t sure how he’d explain it to Albus, but he was sure he could think of something.

 

“No, that’s okay,” Piper said. She reached out a hand to Chris, who helped to pull her upright. “We’ll Orb home. I need to get back to Wyatt.”

 

“C’mon, Pheebs,” Paige added, getting to her feet. “I have to get back to work.”

 

“You didn’t quit your temp job?” Phoebe frowned at her sister as she, too, stood up. “Paige . . . !”

 

“I thought it best not to until we knew a bit more about what was going on!” Paige said, defensively. “You know that’s how the magical community finds me!”

 

“Paige, I really don’t think—” Phoebe started, but her voice was cut off as Paige grabbed hold of her hand, and the two of them disappeared in a swirl of blue-white lights.

 

“Sisters,” said Piper, wryly. “Can’t live with ‘em, can’t murder ‘em.” She smiled as Harry snorted with laughter. “We’ll probably come back around the same time tomorrow, maybe a little earlier.”

 

“And hopefully Paige and Phoebe will remember there’s a time difference,” Chris put in. This time, it was Piper who snorted.

 

“Yeah, we hope,” she said. She grinned at Chris. “C’mon, we’d better get back there before any major damage gets done. We just got the grandfather clock repaired again as it is.”

 

“Sure, Mom.” Chris smiled back, gripped her hand tighter, and they disappeared in the same faintly-musical swirl of lights.

 

The two wizards stared at the space where the four Americans had been standing.

 

“Mum?!” Severus said, surprised. “She doesn’t look old enough!”

 

  “Merlin, I wish I knew how they did that!” Harry added with a sigh of longing.