Chapter Text
The Wizard of Silence
Charmed/Harry Potter AU XOver
by Corwalch
Halliwell Manor – December 22, 1985
Patti Halliwell had just finished getting dressed for work, when she saw a column of blue-white light appear in her mirror. Recognizing it a whitelighter orbing in, she turned expecting it to be hers, but found herself facing a stranger. While she was certain she had never met him before, there was something familiar about him.
This Whitelighter appeared to be to be in his twenties or thirties, but she knew that he might be much older than that. He was blond and well-built, with the sort of boyish charm that was probably a big hit with the ladies.
Before she could say a word, he spoke up, “Miss Halliwell, my name is Leo. I’m sorry to intrude like this, but I must speak with you and your mother. I need your help for one of my charges and time is of the essence.”
Patti could see how worried he was about his charge and gestured toward the door. She led him downstairs into the sun room. “Please wait here. I’ll go get my mother.”
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Leo took several deep breaths as he prepared himself to meet a woman he hadn’t seen in over twenty years. In fact, the last time he had seen had been at the death of her first husband Alan in ’63. His death had hit Penny pretty hard and because of it, she had closed herself off from the free spirit she had been.
When Penny Halliwell entered the sun room, it was clear from the way she looked at him, that she didn’t remember him and her first words confirmed that guess.
“My daughter said you need our help, Whitelighter.” Penny Halliwell got right to the point.
“Yes, ma’am. As I told your daughter, I need your help to save one of my charges. He is living in England.” Leo told her. “His name is Harry Potter and he is five years old, but he may not make it to six if his Aunt and Uncle have their way. Harry’s parents were both magic users who were killed by a warlock named Riddle, when he was just a little over a year old. The warlock also tried to kill Harry but because of an old piece of protection magic done by his mother at the moment of her death, and his own innate magical ability, he was able to turn the spell back on the caster. Unfortunately, the returned spell wasn’t enough to vanquish him, but it did leave him almost powerless and without a body.”
“Could you please get to the point!” Penny demanded.
“Sorry ma’am,” Leo apologized. “About a week ago the boy became ill with a variant of strep that he caught from his cousin. Because the Dursley’s hate anything having to do with magic, including their nephew, they have not taken him to the hospital or to see a doctor. To be truthful, they really haven’t taken very good care of him since he came to live with them. They treat him as little better than a slave and think that abuse will drive the magic out of him. Up until now because of the nature of the spell placed on him by his mother, the Elders have refused to let me directly intervene, but that changed today. He is very ill, and if it is left untreated much longer the boy will die. As it is, he may be severely handicapped. I finally managed to convince the Elders, that the boy needs to be removed from their care, if he was to have any chance of fulfilling his destiny.”
“You still haven’t explained how this affects us. Or why you need our help.” Penny reminded him.
“I was getting to that.” Leo told her. “As I said because of the nature of his mother’s sacrifice and the final spell she cast with her dying thoughts, Harry is safest with blood kin, and that’s who the Elders want him to stay with as well. The Potters were wanded magic users and those in charge of the wanded magical community, left the boy with Dursley’s, because they were thought to be the boy’s only remaining kin. They didn’t know about your daughter, or your granddaughters, which means the boy would be safe here as well. Because of the wards surrounding the Dursley house, only blood kin, or Light magic users can enter to get the boy, which means that, because you are related to his only other living aunt and a white magic user, I can get you past the wards. What I need from you, Ms. Halliwell, is help getting him out of that house and a place for him to live, and maybe be loved, for the first time since he was a baby.”
Penny Halliwell stared at the whitelighter in shock for a moment, then quickly put the pieces together. There was only one person that both her daughter and granddaughters could be blood kin to -- Alan’s sister. She’d left San Francisco a few months after Alan’s death, and Penny had lost contact with her. “You’re telling me that my grand-nephew is in danger, from his own family?”
“Yes ma’am.” Leo nodded. “The other reason I came to you, is because the boy has one other thing in common with your family. While he will be capable of doing wanded magic, he comes from a long line of Wiccans. He is going to need training in how to use those gifts he inherited from the Talbot family line. We will also need to get his parent’s things from the Dursley’s, as well as his great-grandmother’s Book of Shadows. It was left to Lily by her mother, but because of Petunia Evans hatred of her sister, she hid the book along with the other things that were left to Lily in her mother’s will. I think that if Petunia had known what the book was she would have burned it, or at least tried to.”
A honking sound outside interrupted their conversation.
“Give us a moment, Leo.” Patti requested then called, “girls, Andy’s mom is here. Get your things.”
The was a rustling sound in the dining room and then three dark-haired girls came into the sun room. Even with their powers bound, Leo could already see how powerful they would one day be. These were indeed the Charmed Ones, though the littlest one looked more like a little imp right now, with that mischievous look on her face.
“You three have a good day with the Trudeaus.” Patti instructed as she and her mother hugged and kissed them. “And Phoebe, try not to get into trouble.”
“I be good, mommy.” Phoebe promised, trying to look solemn, but failing.
Once the girls were out the door and in the Trudeau’s car, they turned their attention back to Leo and what he wanted from them.
Leo looked back and forth between the two women. “Will you ladies help me to help him? Please!”
Penny knew from the expression on her daughter’s face that Patti wanted to help the boy, just because he was an innocent that needed their help. She was going to help simply because no child should be abused, especially by their own family. “If he really is Janice's grandchild then I owe it to her to try and help him.”
She turned to her daughter. “Patti, can you call in and tell them won’t be able to make it in today?”
“I should be able to, but what shall I tell them?” Patti wanted to know.
“In this case, the truth,” Penny told her daughter. “Your cousin’s child turned up on our doorstep this morning, very ill and you and I are taking him to the doctor’s. And while I’m gone, call Eddie, if the boy is as sick as the whitelighter claims, we’re going to need his healing touch in addition to modern medicine.”
As her daughter went to make the necessary calls, she turned her attention to Leo. “What time is it there?”
“About 5 or 6 in the evening,” Leo told her, relived that she had agreed so easily.
Some of the relief he was feeling, must have shown on his face, because she told him, “Don’t be so surprised, I may have a well-deserved reputation for being something of a bitch, which is why you want me to come with you instead of my daughter, but I won’t leave ANY child in a dangerous situation if I can help it. Give me a moment to get a hat and coat, then we can go.”
When she returned she told the whitelighter, “And once we’ve got the boy, I want you to get me everything you whitelighters have on this Warlock Riddle. If we’re going to be protecting the boy, we need to know what we’re protecting him from.”