47The ground suddenly began to shake. It cracked open and white light burst from it. I could see faces within the light. They were souls. I knew that they had been trapped by Voldemort. I didn't know how I knew that; I just knew it. It was so beautiful.
"They are finally free."
Ah, it was Morrigan. The light faded away. It was over.
"You defeated him?" Dumbledore asked. I could tell that he was surprised that we had not alerted him before we had gone after Voldemort.
"Harry defeated him. He won't be coming back this time. His body is gone forever, and his soul, if he had one, is trapped now," I responded. It had been a few hours since the battle. I was still half expecting that some demon would pop up at any moment. The dark world, however, was likely in chaos. The dark beingshad been greatly weakened. It would take them a while to get organized again, and when they did, I expected full retaliation.
"With his death, the souls that he had imprisoned were released. All those killed by his hand are now free," Piper said.
"He imprisoned them?"
"Yes," Prue said. "We don't know if it was intentional or not. He may have used a spell, but the odds are just as likely that he held them there using his unnatural life. He stole back a life that he did not deserve, and that forged a connection with those that he killed. Whether it was intentional or not, though, isn't the issue. All that matters is that he's gone."
"It never could have been done without you," Dumbledore said.
"No, it never could have been done without Harry," I said. "He's the real hero behind all this."
"Ah, but all paths lead back to you," Dumbledore said. "If you hadn't given him his gifts, he likely would have been unable to defeat Voldemort. You should be proud of yourselves. You have done a great deed. We all owe you our deepest gratitude."
Paige shrugged. "Eh, next week there's probably going to be another leader of evil. It's the cycle of darkness. We'll be able to handle it."
"Tonight, though, there is no reason to worry about that. As soon as the word gets out, there will be great celebrations. Unlike last time, this isn't a bittersweet occasion."
"I'm glad that it's over," Piper said. "We have some questions for you, though."
"Of course. I'll answer them as best I can."
"Well, you seem to know quite a lot about Morrigan," Piper started.
"True."
"So you would probably know what's going to happen next. Her promise didn't say anything about a particular evil. We were wondering if that means that we'll keep Morrigan's power."
"I believe that it would," he responded. "Morrigan gave her power to you in order to ensure the futures of all the other worlds. You were meant to destroy the evils in the worlds, but her power isn't restricted to that. You were given a great destiny. You are the Charmed Ones, and you will fight for the rest of your lives. Morrigan will make things easier. Because of her, you will receive the lives that you've always dreamed of. It seems that your future is quite free."
"That sounds good," Piper said.
"What else would you like to know?"
"Will Morrigan affect our children?" I questioned.
"She will be present with them, but her powers won't influence them. Wyatt, Melinda, and Nicolas will have a future much like yours. They will fight for good, but their destinies aren't as heavy as yours. That is because of Melinda Warren's promise."
"Ah. Morrigan won't have us go through any other weird things, right?" Paige asked.
"If you're referring to the time she took to prepare you, the answer is no," Dumbledore replied. "She has returned to her proper place. Her work here is done. I do believe, however, that you will have further contact with the leader of the Golden Dawn."
"Katana? Why would we have further contact with her?" She had done us a favor, and we grateful, but we weren't all that eager to deal with the Golden Dawn again. We would much rather prefer to settle into a calmer life. She wouldn't exactly bring calm to our lives.
"It's a guess, really."
"But what would make you think that?" Prue asked cautiously.
"I'll just say that I have certain resources."
He had that patented twinkle in his eye. It was unnerving in this situation. "Future resources?" Piper asked.
"I may see a godmother in your future," he continued.
"Godmother? Okay… We'll talk to Chris tomorrow," I said. "Right now, we should alert Fudge. He'll want to know all about the final battle."
"The whole world will."
"The Boy Who Lived and the Charmed Ones have rid the wizarding world of a great evil. Looks like they love us again," Prue said as she looked at the newspaper.
"It's fun being popular, isn't it?" I was in a very good mood. From where I was standing, the future was looking very bright.
"Even the tabloids love us," Paige said.
"How did we end up with more of those?"
"I was curious about what they would have to say about the final battle. Mind you, they did get many details wrong…"
"They couldn't get the story from us." They had tried, though.
"And they're not clear on who Morrigan is," Paige said. "Apparently they think that she was Dumbledore's wife."
"Okay, now that's just weird," I said.
"Not any weirder than Katana being Wyatt and Melinda's godmother," Piper said.
"Yeah, I didn't expect that at all. I wonder what brings us to that stage," Prue said.
"I guess we'll see," Piper said.
"Or we'll get Chris to tell us." I smiled.
"He's still pretty tight lipped about the future," commented Paige.
"I don't think it would really make a difference," I said. "Everything has changed so much. I think that he could afford to tell a few things."
"But you can't force him to."
"Even though I am his mother."
"Yes, even though you are his mother," Paige said. "That's still so strange. I never saw him as a nephew until I started to think about it."
"Do think he's going to go back to the future soon?" My heart ached at the thought of losing him. I was actually stating to get a mother-son bond with him. I didn't want to lose him.
"His work is kind of done here," Prue said. "He saved Wyatt. We can't find any potential for evil in him thanks to Chris. That's why he came back. I don't think he'll be able to stay much longer."
"Well… Maybe something else still has to happen," I said.
"What makes you say that?" Piper asked.
"He's directly affected by changes in the past," I explained. "It makes sense that his memories would change. Maybe he would remember his past, but I think he would still have some new knowledge of this new path."
"We can't be sure of that," said Prue.
"I know," I said, "but I can't help but think that there's something else that has be done. It seems like there's one little detail that still needs to be adjusted."
"You're going to have figure that out. I'm through with all that stuff. I've figured out enough things."
"Yes, I have you to thank for finding out who Chris is."
"It's what big sisters do."
"You really are superwitch, Prue," I said.
"Superwitch?" she repeated.
"Yeah. You're fearless," I said.
"I'm not fearless. Did you see me with the snakes?" She shuddered. "I hate snakes."
"You're practically fearless," I amended. "You can take any demon, any day. You can handle any job that's thrown at you. If you were on Survivor, you would definitely win."
"While I earned the scorn of the others."
"Scorn?" Paige said. "How could anyone have scorn for you, dear sister?"
"I have a tendency to take charge," Prue said.
"Someone has to," said Piper.
"And I sometimes step on other people's toes," she continued.
"Hey, you get the job done," I said.
"So the end justifies the means?" Prue asked.
"Usually. I don't think we'd survive very long without you, Prue. You're the glue that holds this family together. If you weren't here, we'd probably go our separate ways and neglect our powers."
"I feel so responsible and important."
"You are. You're the head witch."
"I get a lot of titles. Superwitch… head witch… I like it."
"Then I hereby dub thee superwitch," I declared.
"It has a nice ring, I must admit. Though you do place me on a very high pedestal."
"Nah. It's not like you're infallible," Piper said. "You're hard to live up to as a big sister, but I know that you have your own little oddities."
"And what they be?" Prue asked.
"You're a complete control freak," I said.
"True."
"But you know how to control yourself, so you're completely free to control the world."
"That's next on my to do list."
"It feels good to be able to relax," Paige sighed. "We don't have the threat of the Titans or the Source or Voldemort. We can actually take some to time to be almost normal."
"Yes, and I think we'll be able glide byon thefew blissful weeks that are free of demons," I said.
"Yeah, the Underworld must be pretty traumatized," Prue said. "I doubt that they'll be able to summon up another strong leader. We keep wiping them out. It's definitely easier than it was back when we were just getting started."
"We made it more difficult ourselves," Piper admitted.
"That stuff was mostly done by me," I said.
"No, we all did some crazy stuff at the beginning," Prue said.
"I cannot recall any time when you used spells for personal benefit," I said.
She grinned. "There were a few occasions."
"When?"
"Back when I was just starting in the Ministry," Prue said. "I was significantly overwhelmed, and I kind of used a spell or two to get a pick up."
"Wow," Paige said. "I never even suspected that perfect Prue would ever need a pick up."
"I hid it well."
"I'll say." Life was starting to get some semblance of normality. We were starting to recover from the whole ordeal. It was looking like life was going to get easier now. I had only one thought on that: It's about damn time!
I scooped up Nick and balanced him on my hip. "It's evening out in the Ministry. Everyone in my department thought that we would have to clean up a big mess of magic, but things fell into place nicely."
"Yeah. Morrigan likes to keep things neat. The Department of Mysteries decided to add Morrigan's quest to the files," Piper said.
"I assume that you did the filing."
"They thought I was the best one for the job."
"I had no troubles at all," Paige said.
"You work with muggles," I said. "No muggles saw the things that went down."
"But we did have to take care of the Riddle house," Paige said. "The muggles stayed mostly away, but there were some curious ones."
"My department is always crazy," Prue said. "Accidental magic is undoubtedly the most dangerous form of magic."
"Can't argue with you there."
"It is time," Grams stated as she walked in.
"Time for what?" I asked.
"It's time for me to go," she responded.
"What? Why do you have to go now?" Prue asked.
"Voldemort is gone. There's no reason for me to stay any longer."
"Oh, Grams. I'm going to miss you," I said.
"Take care of Nick," Grams said. "He's going to turn out to be a great man."
"Did you talk with Chris?" I was quite surprised.
"Yes, as a matter of fact I did."
"But I thought you hated guys."
"He's my great-grandson," Grams said.
I smiled. "So you took a liking to him?"
"So to speak. I think that all your children will turn out quite well."
"Wow. This is new a side of you that I didn't know about," Piper said.
"I can't love my great-grandchildren?"
I smiled and hugged her. "Who's going to take over your job?"
"I'm not sure, but it might just be Katana."
"Who recommended her?" Prue asked.
"I did."
"I didn't expect that."
She smiled a little. "I'll keep watching over you. Patty and I will both be there."
"Do you really have to go now?" Paige asked.
"Yes. That was only a temporary life. I must return."
"Well, we love you."
"I know. I love you too, girls." She looked up, then vanished.
"I hate it when we have to say goodbye," I said.
"So do I, but she's always just a spell away," Piper said.
"Wait," Paige said. "We've been neglecting our duties as legal guardians."
"Say what?" Piper said.
"Oh, we should have done this right after we got home," Paige muttered.
"Should have done what?" Prue pressed.
"We need to call upon Lily and James, of course," Paige said.
"Yeah, that was really obvious," I said. "But now that you mention it, we really need to do that. It's been so long since we saw them, and Harry really should meet his parents."
"Were they trapped by Voldemort?" Prue wondered.
"Yes. That must be why I couldn't contact them," I said.
"Phoebe, you tried that without telling us?" Piper said.
"Like you didn't," I scoffed.
"Well… yes, I did. What about you two?"
"Yeah," Prue admitted.
"I thought I wasn't allowed to see them."
"So did I," Piper said. "But now it'll work."
"I can't believe it," I said. "We'll get to see them again. Harry will finally be able to meet them."
"But that won't happen unless we summon them," Prue said.
"Right. Let's do this." I put Nick down we got out the Book.
We said the spell and two forms started to appear. Red hair… Green eyes… It was Lily. Black hair… hazel eyes… James. For a moment, I was rendered speechless. It had been so long.
"Phoebe… Paige… Piper… Prue… How did we get here?" James asked.
"We used a spell," I said numbly. "This is amazing. We kept trying to contact you, but Voldemort had you trapped."
"How long has it been?" Lily asked.
"Sixteen years," Piper said.
"So Harry…"
"Yes, he's doing well," Prue said. "I'll call for him."
"How could he sense you?" James asked.
"Umm… Well, he can orb," Paige said. "That's actually our fault. It's a long story, but he'll explain. Harry!"
He orbed in. "What's up?" He stopped when he saw them. I saw the astonished recognition blossom in his eyes. This was a moment that I would never forget.
"Harry, we summoned your parents," I said. "You three have a lot to discuss. We'll leave you to talk."
We gathered the kids and left the room. "He finally gets to meet his parents. It's so wonderful." I had tears in my eyes. "What Voldemort did was awful."
"His counterparts would have continued his work in their own worlds," Prue said. "I'm glad that we didn't fail."
"Yes, now we can finally have the life you've always wanted, Piper," Paige said.
"What life?"
"A life without demons," Paige said. "Evil has been greatly weakened. We won't have to fight demons all the time."
"We'll be free to raise our kids," Piper murmured.
"We definitely deserve it."
Paige
"I still can't believe that you had a kid, Phoebe," Lily commented.
"You should have seen her pregnant," Sirius said.
Phoebe looked offended. "I wasn't that bad."
"She threw things at me."
"I threw one picture," Phoebe said. "Something had to happen to you."
"Well, I'm glad that you both came to your senses eventually," James said.
"We went through a lot to get there, though."
"Sirius's death… Piper's marriage to Leo…" Phoebe said.
"Piper, you married Leo?" Lily said.
"Yeah," Piper answered. "Wyatt is Leo's. Then the Titans broke out, we became goddesses, and Leo became an Elder."
"But in between all that, Chris appeared," Prue said. "Chris is from the future."
"He's Nick in the future, actually," Phoebe clarified. "He didn't know that because in his past, he ended up being raised by some muggles. Prue fixed everything, though."
"Okay…"
"It's another long and convoluted story," I said. "We have many of those." It was great to be talking with Lily and James again.
"Such as the Blood Bond?" Lily said.
"Well, that turned out to be very useful. I have a feeling that Morrigan led us to do that spell. Now that I think of it, actually, it seems that Morrigan was the one who led us to make that power binding potion," Piper said thoughtfully.
"When did we do that?" I asked.
"Back at Hogwarts." Piper smirked. "It was the day that the green sea creatures showed up."
"Green sea creatures, huh?" Lily eyed the boys.
"Prue and I tried to punish them by not helping, but somebody—I won't mention who—took off the effects." Piper not so casually pointed at me.
"Hey, that was a long time ago," I said.
"I just wish that she had made it a little clearer. Then we could have taken Peter's powers away. We could have avoided this situation completely," Phoebe said. "It's just not fair."
"Pheebs, we're dead," James said. "There's nothing that can be done now."
"I know, but it's still not fair. You should be able to be with your son. Can't they grant you life like they did with Grams?"
"That was a different situation," Lily said.
"Could you two become whitelighters?" Remus asked.
"They can't let all people become whitelighters," Lily said.
"They let Sirius become a whitelighter," Phoebe pointed out. "That says something."
"Hey!"
"Oh, you know I love you, hon."
"You'll be able to summon us any time," James said.
"Yeah, but it's still different," I said.
"Then let's enjoy this," Lily said. "Exactly who is Morrigan?"
"She was an ancient queen," I said. "She had four forms, and she had a ton of power. She promised her power to the Great Four. She started giving us her power so that we could defeat Voldemort and kill all the Voldemorts in the other worlds. We had to master her power so that we could call upon her sword, and we had to do that before the end of the year or all the worlds would have been thrown into chaos and darkness. Prue discovered all that with the help of Katana, who is the leader of the Golden Dawn."
"The Golden Dawn is basically the wizard mafia," Prue said. "Chris introduced us to Katana because we apparently gain very strong bonds with Katana. Piper is apparently going to name her as godmother to Wyatt and Melinda. We're not quite sure why we get so close to her, but it seems that we will."
"She's going to become the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher because Grams recommended her," Piper said. "Grams actually didn't trust her at all before, but she had a complete attitude change. That might be relevant, but then again it might not."
"And if you're following all that, I'd be truly amazed," Phoebe said.
"I'm just going to pretend that I understood all that," James said.
"That's what we do."
"What else did we miss?" Lily questioned. "And exactly what did you mean when you said that you became goddesses?"
"Oh, that," Piper muttered. "Well, the Greek Titans were released from their prison, and they started their path of destruction. Paige got turned to stone, but Chris saved Phoebe. Paige eventually got freed, and Leo gave us the power of the gods. I became the Goddess of Earth, Paige was the Goddess of War, Phoebe was the Goddess of Love, and Prue was the Goddess of the Hunt. Leo did so well that he was able to become an Elder. I trapped the Titans using my anger over that, and then I lost my emotions. That was followed by a loss of my memories. Paige's spell."
"All in all, the last couple of years have been very eventful," Prue said. "I don't want to know what it would have been like if the magical world had been thrown in with that mess. That would have made an interesting what if for Aveline. Don't ask."
"What was it like in Voldemort's prison?" Phoebe asked. "Did you have any idea about what was going on?"
"No, we didn't. It was true nothingness," Lily said. "We couldn't feel the passage of time. It was hell. The only thing that made it bearable was the fact that we had each other." She squeezed James's hand.
"Aww," I said. "And Harry couldn't see you two even liking each other."
"What?"
"Paige!" Prue hissed.
"Oops. I wasn't exactly supposed to tell you that. But yeah. He saw into Snape's memories. Let's just say that it wasn't exactly your finest moment, James. It was during the time when Lily would have preferred to have kissed a Runespoor than you."
"The fifth year?" James said.
"Yes. We fixed that."
"You're definitely better than Petunia at raising Harry," Lily said.
"I still wish that his parents could raise him," Phoebe said.
"I wish we could too, but we can't," James said. "It would be great if we could spend more time here, but this is our destiny."
"You were meant to die like that?"
"Yes."
"Then why did I have that vision?" She looked to us.
"It was probably just a preparation," Prue said. "We know that that happens sometimes."
They looked up. "We have to go now."
"Now? But you have to stay longer," Piper said. "Can't you ask for more time?"
Lily shook her head. "No, we have to go back."
We said our tearful goodbyes and Harry took a few extra moments with his parents. It wasn't fair that they couldn't stay with him. But life wasn't fair. We would see them again, but now we had to let them go. For now, I thought and wiped away a tear. But we'll see them soon.
I hummed, a smile plastered on my face.
My sisters stared at me. I tried to ignore that. "Paige, you are starting to freak us out," Piper said.
"What are you talking about?"
"You're so… perky. I thought you were the cynic."
"I was only a cynic because I was having some bad luck with love."
"And has that changed?" Prue said.
"You could say that," I said.
"You're finally back on the love scene?" Phoebe asked.
"Yes, I am. I meet a great guy."
"Tell us all about him."
"Well, his name is Lorenzo Alcazar," I told them. "He came from Port Charles. He's kind of dark and mysterious. He came here because his ex-girlfriend went back to her husband. He's a muggle, and he's tough on the outside, sweet on the inside."
"How long have you known him?" Phoebe asked.
"A little while."
"And you didn't tell us? I'm shocked."
"I just wanted to make sure that I had a firmrelationship with him before I went around telling everyone."
Phoebe considered me. "We'll let you go this time, but no more secrets after this. We have to meet him. Does he know about magic?"
"Yes, he does."
"Good," Phoebe said. "Not telling can lead to a lot of trouble."
"But in your case, it helped."
"My case was unusual."
"The unusual is usually the norm for us."
"I can't disagree with you there. I'm glad to see you happy, Paige."
A series of blue and gold orbs lit up the room.
"What is that?" I asked.
"I don't know. Chris?" Phoebe said.
The orbs collected together and formed Chris.
"Chris?" Phoebe said. "What was that all about?"
"Did you call me Chris?" Chris said.
"Yes, that is the name that you're used to," she said.
"As I recall, you're the one who named me, mom."
"But I thought you weren't used to being called Nick," Phoebe said.
"That's what you've called me my entire life," said Chris. He was looking at Phoebe like she was crazy.
Realization dawned on us. "It's really you, isn't it?" I said.
"Yeah."
Phoebe hugged him, crying. "I think everything has been fixed now."
"Wyatt isn't going to become evil?" Piper said.
"Wyatt evil?" Chris—rather, Nick said. "That's ridiculous, Aunt Piper."
"You were the last factor, Paige," Prue said.
"I was?"
"Your attitude had to change. Now it has."
"Now this is what I call closure."
"Life is absolutely perfect," I declared.
"Aren't you afraid of jinxing it?" Piper asked.
"Not at all. Everything has been wrapped up in a nice, neat package. I could really get used to this, and I think I shall."
"I hear you, sister," Phoebe said. "We've figured everything out and we've neatened up all the messes. I think we deserve the reward of a calm life."
"That's a definite relief."
"I still kind of wonder about the founders' swords, though," Phoebe said thoughtfully.
"Yeah, I did some research on that and—"
I swiftly interrupted her, trying to prevent certain disaster. "No, Prue! You are not getting into that. You'll end up dragging us on another wild goose chase."
"Aveline said that we're not going to be involved with that," Piper added.
"So we are not going to be dragged into it," Phoebe said. "We've gone through way too many trials and tribulations."
"This is over, finished, end of story," I said.
"Okay, okay," Prue said. "I didn't think that you guys would attack me just for doing a little research."
"We've been through too much over the years. We're not interested in any other quirks."
"Don't you even want to know that names of the swords?" Prue questioned.
"We already know about the Slytherin Prodigy and Godric's sword," I said. "That's enough for us."
"Well, the real name of Godric's sword is the Gryffindor Pride. The other swords are—"
"We don't want to hear it," Piper interrupted.
"The Hufflepuff Hope—"
"Not listening!" I sang.
"And—"
"We don't care!" Phoebe said.
"The Ravenclaw Fortitude," she finished.
"Are you satisfied now?" I asked.
"Yes. For now…"
"That's not funny," Phoebe said. "And you do realize that you're probably going to lead us right into a situation involving the swords, don't you?"
"Mentioning them will not call them to us."
"You said it yourself, Prue," I said. "Words have a lot of power."
"Especially in this family," Piper said.
"So choose your words carefully," said Phoebe.
"Or we'll duct tape your mouth shut!" I said.
"Oo, harsh."
"Ha!" Phoebe said. "Hardly."
"We could do a lot worse," I said.
She suddenly laughed.
"What?"
"You three are doing that thing again."
"What thing?"
"The thing where you keep each other's sentences going," Prue said.
I nodded at Phoebe and Piper.
"Hey, what are you doing?" She started back away. "Don't you dare. I'll hex you!"
"Tickle time!"
"Gah!"
A/N: thanks to all those who reviewed this story. Geminia, Ms. Marvel, Damia, Magical Princess, animalzoo, potts, Tabitha78, foxxy-chicca 911, you are wonderful.