Chapter 5 of 12
Meetings
After Paige’s disturbing comments and after explaining why they had invaded Chris’s privacy, a very annoyed Chris was sitting with them so they could discuss plans.
“We were trying to take a new approach,” Leo started explaining. “Not that we don’t think you were doing a good job, but fresh eyes sometimes can see what you missed.” He hurried to assure Chris as the boy had bristled and having seen everything through Chris’s eyes he now knew how much they had hurt him. How much they had to atone for, and the last thing he wanted was for Chris to think they were criticizing him.
Chris reluctantly nodded.
“How do you have so much information on these demons?” Paige asked. “We looked at the book and most of them aren’t there.”
“At first, when Wyatt expelled us from the Manor, we took refuge at Magic School. Gideon had managed to seal it from Wyatt after he had attacked the Elders. Dad and Gideon were the two last left. That is when we compiled most of this information and that was where headquarters was for a long time. Until the day Wyatt managed to break through Gideon’s protections and we had to evacuate. Gideon fell then, he gave us time to save a lot of the people that were protected there and I think he didn’t want to abandon the school. We managed to take our notes and some of the books with us,” Chris explained sadly thinking of his teacher. Gideon was a stiff but he had been fond of the man who had fought so hard for magic to be taught. He had loved his school and could never have left.
“Magic School?” Paige asked.
“Uh?” Chris asked.
“What’s Magic School?” Piper clarified.
“You don’t know?” Chris asked bewildered. “But-but-we went there- Paige taugh- er- I can’t tell you that.”
“Calm down,” Leo said putting a hand on Chris’s hand and tried not to wince when Chris pulled his hand back. “I never told them about Magic School. They obviously found out about it before you were born because I distinctly remember, from your memories, Gideon visiting in the hospital.”
“And Magic School is?” Piper asked.
“A school for Magic,” Chris replied simply.
Paige groaned and banged her head on the table, “It’s genetic! Leo passed along the irritating gene! We’re all doomed.”
Leo glared at Paige, “You know Paige, I can recall many instances in Chris’s life where Piper was complaining about him having your mouth.”
“Children, stop fighting,” Phoebe scolded. “So, obviously, with that name Magic school is a school for Magic, but we never knew there was one and who is Gideon?”
“He is an Elder and my mentor,” Leo explained. “He was one of the Elders who fought for mine and Piper’s wedding and he built Magic School to teach witches their craft. He had to fight for it too since most of the Elders were against it. It is located in another plane and there is a special passage to go there. When Wyatt first started attacking, as Chris said, we took refuge there and took whoever we were protecting there. Even mortals.”
“So they have all kinds of information about magic there,” Piper asked. Chris nodded and Piper glared at Leo. “And you thought this wouldn’t have been useful before because…”
“Didn’t cross my mind,” Leo smiled sheepishly.
“Please explain to me how I could have stayed married to him for so long?” she asked Chris with an exasperated tone.
“He was good in bed,” he answered simple. “Hey! Don’t glare at me that’s what your sister over there used to say when you asked that!” he said pointing at Paige. “In front of the innocent children!” pointing at himself.
Paige looked pensively and rubbed her chin, “That does sound like me.” She said unfazed by her older sister’s and brother-in-law’s murderous glare and Phoebe’s snickers.
“I think,” Phoebe tried to say between her laughter. “That we ought to get a hold of that information to see which of these is most likely to be our bad guy.” She said pointing at Chris’s enormous list.
“We could also check Magic School and talk to Gideon about the boys-“ Leo started.
“Hey! My sons are going to go to normal-“
“Which doesn’t necessarily exclude Magic School. I attended both,” Chris said simply. He had loved Magic School. He had loved learning in general. Wyatt called him a nerd, he might be, but he just did.
“So, should we all go?” Phoebe, “And you know, just see, keep our options open,” she said calmly to Piper who was scowling and huffing.
Chris went pale at the thought, he had loved Magic School, he had missed Magic School, but there had been so much death the day they evacuated. They had lost so many. Innocents who couldn’t fight back. He had a hard time coming back to the Manor after everything, but he had had to get used to it in the future after his family was killed. They had had to stay and live here even after finding Piper dead and the house destroyed. But he hadn’t been to Magic School since that day and after the emotional breakdown he just had, and let’s face it he was still having, he didn’t think he could just orb there like nothing happened.
“I think Wyatt might still be a little cranky,” Leo said calmly imagining what was going through Chris’s mind. To be honest he was having a hard time shaking the images he got from Chris’s memories off of his head but at the same time he wanted to see the school and Gideon to convince himself that that hadn’t happened and wouldn’t. “Maybe Chris could watch him for us and so we can look around calmly.”
“Yes, yes,” Chris lunged at the chance. “I’ll stay right here. Babysit.”
“I thought you didn’t do babies,” Piper raised an eyebrow at Chris who had always been reluctant to do anything that entailed babysitting Wyatt.
“I- I do now. I’ll take care of him, I promise-I’ll-“
“Relax, I’m just kidding,” Piper said softly. “I trust you,” she said hoping he would understand that she really meant that.”
He looked away but nodded. Piper sighed, “Let’s go?”
“This is amazing,” Paige looked around at the vast library. They had gotten a tour of the school after being introduced to Gideon and she was enchanted by so much magic being freely done.
“We could have used this source of knowledge so many times in the past,” Piper agreed. “If someone had remembered yo let us know about Magic School,” she narrowed her eyes at Leo who in her opinion was very lucky she missed him so much and they hadn’t had time yet to be alone or he would have gotten reacquainted with the couch tonight.
Leo smiled sheepishly at Piper, but he honestly had never thought of bringing Magic School up, after all, Piper wasn’t the Elders’ biggest fan and Gideon was an Elder.
“This one can help too,” Gideon said handing another enormous tome to add to the growing pile that they were collecting. “I think maybe Christopher should have come with you, he would know better what information he has and hasn’t.”
“I can tell you that,” Leo said. “I saw his whole life,”
“Exactly,” Gideon pointed out. “You saw eighteen years worth of a life in a second. There is no way you can remember everything, even Chris can’t remember everything, but something that would stand out to him might not be the same thing that would stand out to you. You are doubly biased here. You saw everything from Chris’s perspective, so you only saw what he noticed, and then we have to add your perspective, what you would have noticed.”
Phoebe nodded pensively, “He does have a point there. I mean no one can pay attention to everything, if you had watched all the events as an unbiased spectator you still would have missed stuff that maybe someone else wouldn’t and would have seen stuff someone else would miss. Chris might have other details more fresh in his mind.”
“I know,” Leo said sighing. “But I don’t want to put him through this, not this close to him snapping. I might not have seen everything but I saw enough of what happened here,” he looked sadly around Magic School, “to know that the first time he comes here again is going to be hard. I- I just want to give him some time.”
“You might not have that time,” Gideon pointed out.
“Whatever happens doesn’t happen for another nine months, we can give him a few days,” Piper said firmly. She was not going to push, she had pushed Chris enough, now she was going to make sure she kept both her boys safe and happy.
Chris went to the door holding the bottle. He still couldn’t get used to babysitting his older brother. He opened the door and he had to work hard not to take a hard intake of breath and launch himself at the man in front of him, but by now he was a pro at this.
“Yes,” he said.
“Is Piper in?” the man frowned.
“No, er- they,” he looked uneasily to the outside. “Would you like to come in Mr. Benet?”
Without even asking how Chris new his name Victor just smiled, “Sure,” and entered.
“They went to magic school,” Chris said nervously tightening the bottle with both hands, “It’s a school for magic.” He finished lamely.
Victor raised an eyebrow at him, “Amazingly enough I figured that one out all by myself.”
Chris nodded a little ashamed, stupid, stupid.
“You must be Chris,” Victor said.
Oh goody. His mother and aunts most have badmouthed him to infinity and back and who knew what Victor thought about him.
“Nothing you heard is true,” he rushed to explain. “They wouldn’t have left me here alone with Wyatt if-“
“So you are not my grandson?” Victor asked.
“Oh- that,” Chris was taken aback. Really his family capacity for gossip was amazing. Not even twenty-four hours since they knew and apparently their whole network already knew. “Yeah, I, yeah. I’m not evil though.”
“Don’t worry,” Victor said patting his arm and leaning forward. “Your mother was very quick to call me and explain how I had to forget anything she might have ranted to me before, and that if I ever told you I would be banned from the house. So we’ll keep this little talk among ourselves.”
Chris smiled, that was so like his Grandpa. Just go over his mother head and let him know that everything wasn’t just as perfect as she’d like to depict but that’s okay because life isn’t perfect.
“So, why don’t we steal some of those cookies your mother has always handy and get to know each other?” Victor said pulling Chris over to the kitchen. He didn’t even startle when Chris poised his arms and Wyatt orbed himself into his brother’s arms.
“I was going upstairs to give him a bottle,” Chris shrugged.
Paige looked at her watch and then at the pile of books in front of her. She sighed and looked at the others who were still browsing for other books. She bit her lip.
“Er- guys- sorry,” she winced. “I really have to go. Don’t look at me like that; some of us have boyfriends waiting for us.”
“Uh, boyfriend, yes,” Phoebe jumped. “Forgot about that, gotta go to. Give me a ride?” she asked Paige.
“Sure?” Paige nodded and grabbed Phoebe before anyone could complain and orbed out. Gideon just stared at the spot.
“Are they always like that?” he asked bewildered.
“Pretty much,” Leo said biting back a smile as Piper huffed and glared at the spot her sisters had been seconds ago.
“We should take this home so we can look calmly, er- that is if we may?” Piper added at the end, remembering to be polite at the last second.
“Of course,” Gideon smiled. “Just remember to bring them back.”
“Will do,” Leo nodded.
“Oh, and Leo. I think I might have an idea of how we can figure out who is after Wyatt. I’ll contact you all later.”
“How?” Leo asked.
“I want to do some research to make sure we can use this but as soon as I have this figured out I’ll talk to you. Won’t take long,” Gideon said. “I just need to look into bonds a little closer.”
“Bonds?” Piper asked.
“Yes,” Gideon said. “Hopefully our guy underestimated Chris’ and Wyatt’s bond and we can use that to our advantage.”
“How?” she asked.
“Not sure yet,” he said. “I’ll tell as soon as I know myself,” he answered going away and leafing through one of the books.
Piper looked at Leo, “He is weird.”
“Yeah, but he is very old?” Leo smiled at her. “He is entitled to.”
“You have to understand,” Victor said as he took a bite of the cookie he had just dipped in the milk. “Your mother is very defensive of her family. They have been attacked to many times these last years and lost Prue, she’s scared of losing someone else.”
“I know,” Chris said taking a bite of his own cookie as he held the bottle for Wyatt who was on his lap with his other hand. “But there is defensive and then there is aggressive.”
“Oh, but that is Piper’s stile when she doesn’t like what she’s hearing. And there is nothing she likes to hear less than that she might fail. She wouldn’t have given anyone who appeared here saying she failed a chance. She probably never even took a good look at you after you uttered those words. Because if she had, she would have seen her face Leo’s eyes, Phoebe’s nose and from what I hear Paige’s mouth.”
Chris smiled at his grandfather’s description. He had heard that many times in his life, “I never said she failed.”
“No, you said Wyatt got hurt and in Piper language that translates into “she failed”,” Victor said wisely. “And then her goal became to prove you were lying and she did not fail.”
“But she didn’t. She was a great mom. She always took care of us. No one saw the attack coming. They attacked the three houses at the exact same time so they couldn’t call the other for help. They didn’t have a chance,” Chris argued.
“Yes, that is very rational and all, but in all the time you’ve know your mother, when was she rational?” Victor asked and when Chris made a silent ah with his mouth Victor nodded, “See?”
Chris nodded and startled at the sound of an angry voice, “Who are you calling irrational here? I’ll have you know I am very rational thank you very much! Right Leo?” Piper glared at her father from the door she had just crossed. When no sound came from her husband she repeated hissing, “Right! Leo!”
“Oh, um, yeeeaaaaaaaaahhhh,” he said slowly and unconvincingly.
Piper huffed and walked to the table. She took Wyatt from Chris, grabbed the milk, refilled Chris’s cup to the brim and took a cookie. Chris just stared at his cup bewildered.