Chris was happily munching on a cookie and dipping it into his milk at the kitchen table. So yes, he’d done it before at Hogwarts and at the Weasleys but doing it at home was new for him. He watched as both his fathers sat seriously across him. Even though most of the spirits had gone back James and Lily were lingering a little while longer. Catching up with old times with Sirius and Remus, staying with Chris a little. They’d go back that night, and of course they could be summoned again.

They were all still a little high strung from the morning’s events and Chris was, well he was relishing in the feeling of freedom. He had never noticed, as it had always been a part of him, but the dark presence of Voldemort had been oppressing.

“What?” he asked worried at Leo’s and James’ stoic faces.

“Well- see-“ Leo started and looked at James.

“What, I’ve never done this, you have!”

“We agreed we both have to do this!”

“Okay,” James sighed and the smiled tightly at Chris. “Son, as you may have already experienced, there are girls,” he said lifting one hand, “and boys,” lifting the other. “And they are different.’

Chris choked on the cookie he was munching as he had gaping at his fathers and been unaware of air and cookie going down together. Leo and James promptly patted his back until his airways were free.

“WHAT?” he shrieked.

“Well,” Leo said embarrassed. “This is about sex son. We need to talk to you. I’ve already talked with Wyatt-“

“Wyatt talked with me! No need for that!”

“I’m afraid we can’t just rely on what a horny sixteen-year-old told you Chris,” James frowned.

“Hey! Wyatt isn’t horny!” Leo protested and at James’ raised eyebrow he amended, “He’s hormonal, it’s different. Never mind that, the point of this conversation Chris is safe sex,” he finished firmly and Chris whimpered.

---

Chris wobbled White faced into the living room where Piper and Lily had been talking.

“Chris,” Piper asked worried. “Peanut, are you okay?”

“No,” Chris shook his head and fell between the two women who traded knowing looks.

“Lily had something to tell us about your shield,” Piper said trying not to smile at her son’s state.

“Okay,” he said in a small voice.

“It’s just that you’ve used it before. That night, when we died,” Lily said and at Chris’s bewildered look she added, “Dumbledore was right. My sacrifice protected you from the curse but when the house started falling it was your shield that protected you from the debris.”

Chris frowned at that and sat up straighter, “That’s what I don’t get. Your sacrifice. Why not dad’s? And you couldn’t have been the first person to stand between a curse and their child, why didn’t they survive?”

“Because Voldemort gave me a choice and I chose to die for you,” Lily said.

“I heard that, when the Dementors were near. He told you to stand aside but you didn’t.”

“Why would he do that?” Piper asked. “I mean, it’s not like Voldemort has a hard time killing others.”

“Snivellus,” came the sigh from the door. Lily gave her husband a mock glare. “The old Snapey bat asked Voldemort to spare Lily and I guess he was one of Voldie’s favorite so he tried, very flimsily, I might add, to grant him his request.”

“Snape asked for your life?” Chris asked shocked. He’d never imagine Severus Snape of all people asking to spare a muggleborn, or anyone for that matter.

“I told you, Sev and I were friends. I think he felt a little bit more than friendship for me. Unfortunately I never saw him that way, or fortunately for him,” Lily jerked her thumb towards James.

“Sev?” Chris asked disgusted. Oh my God! Snape having feelings! For his mother no less! After the talk he just had that was just too much for him! He groaned and hid his face in one of the couch’s pillow.

---

Wyatt rested his shoulder on the doorframe and looked inside. he shook his head and sighed exasperated.

“See!” he complained. “That’s what you get for bringing up studying with a Headmaster!”

Chris looked up from his desk where he was studying and smirked at Wyatt.

“Just keeping my options open. I have a lot to catch up.”

“But it’s summer!” Wyatt whined.

“Dad thought of that when he drew up my study plan. If you stop whining I’ll be able to finish what I was assigned for today and then I’ll be able to go out to meet your friends,” Chris rolled his eyes. Wyatt had been bugging Chris to go out with him for days now. He wanted to show Chris the city and introduce him to his friends from school. Since they weren’t worrying anymore about who knew and who didn’t Wyatt had been allowed to explain everything to his friends. They had decided that they wouldn’t advertise who Chris was but that didn’t mean they’d keep it a secret anymore. So whenever the Elders found out and gave their little hissy fit, they’d just deal with it. Piper was actually looking forward to it. Chris had caught her rehearsing looks and sneers in front of the mirror as she said the speech she had planned. He found it very amusing.

Wyatt had had to work his parents hard to be allowed this outing. They had been worried about safety but Remus had come to their rescue, “Voldemort is still regrouping and he barely has numbers to deal with England. He certainly can’t afford to come to San Francisco. Remember, Apparating isn’t like orbing, there is a distance limit. As do Portkeys and any other method of travelling the Wizarding world uses. It’s not easy for him to just show up here.”

After promising to orb home and call for help at the first sign of trouble Piper and Leo had allowed them. And now Wyatt was just waiting for Chris to finish his homework. Chris had talked to his parents about his Muggle studies and Leo had managed to draw up a schedule to help bring Chris up-to-date so he could keep up with his studies. He had looked into Magic School and talked to some of the teachers and they had agreed to let Chris study from Hogwarts just orbing for exams once the school year began. It would be a heavy load, especially since the next year Chris had O.W.L.s too but Chris was willing to do it.

“They’re starting to doubt me. Think I made you up!”

Chris shook his head at his brother’s whining.

---

“Are you sure you know how to do this?” Chris asked as Wyatt was about to turn the ignition on. Wyatt glared at him and Chris added, “Because we could just orb, you know?”

“Do you think they’d give me a driver’s license if I couldn’t?”

“Don’t know, Uncle Vernon always complains that they let anyone drive nowadays,” Chris said flatly.

“Shut up,” Wyatt mumbled and turned the jeep on and it gave a small jerk. “Ooops, that wasn’t supposed to happen. No worries. I’ve got it.”

“If you ruin the car, mom will kill you.”

“Relax!” Wyatt grinned as he pulled the jeep out of the driveway. “It could be worse you know? I could be driving dad’s car,” he grinned and Chris covered his eyes with his hands and yelled:

“I’M TOO YOUNG TO DIE!”

From inside the house Leo gently pulled Piper away from the window, “They’ll be fine. Wyatt knows what he’s doing and the car has airbags.”

“Humph, yes, thank god. Unlike the death trap!”

Leo smirked, he still had the car he had bought and rebuilt right before he was frozen by the Angel of Destiny. The same model as the one he learned to drive in. He had taught Wyatt how to drive in that car the previous summer, and the next one he intended to teach Chris. Piper had always affectionately called it ‘the death trap’. But she understood why he liked it, after all, ever since they had known each other she had been driving the same car, just exchanging it for the newest model every five years or so.

Wyatt hadn’t been able to get his driver’s license until they came back from Hogwarts because his birthday was during the school  year .The reason why Leo had conceded to his son’s pleading and taught him how to drive before he got his learner’s permit. He had already known of the plans to be in Hogwarts and there was no way Wyatt would have been able to learn there. Once they returned Wyatt rushed to do everything he needed to get his license and Piper only allowed d him to drive the car alone after he had passed her driving test. He smiled as he saw Piper get the cordless phone and put it in her pocket. He shook his head.

---

Chris yawned widely as he rubbed his eyes and made his way downstairs. He loved being able to have breakfast in his pajamas. Aunt Petunia never allowed anyone around in pajamas but Piper didn’t mind. She herself only liked to get dressed after her coffee. This month had been different from anything else in his life, he was finally being a part of a family. Not an unwanted burden or a wanted guest, in the Weasleys case, but a member of the family.

He had met Wyatt’s friends and they had been nice. Of course, after the novelty of getting to know Wyatt’s formerly deceased brother had passed they hadn’t been all that thrilled of having a fourteen-year-old cramp their style. But they showed him a nice time.

Wyatt had taken him to see all the places he was used to going, including his mom’s restaurant and P3 which they only saw by daylight seeing as Piper was clear that no one underage would be entering the club in working hours. Then Wyatt had taken him to the newspaper where Phoebe worked where Chris had blushed as Phoebe flaunted him around to all her coworkers.

The cover story for his death was that he had been kidnapped by demons, or for mortals, criminals, and that they never had found the body. Piper, Phoebe and Paige had spread enough blood at the “scene of the crime” to make it a foregone conclusion that a baby that young couldn’t possibly have survived (but you never know, miracles could happen), so for the mortal world the explanation was that they had found Chris. That the kidnappers had gotten cold feet, or a conscience and had dropped him off at a hospital in another town and Chris had then gone into foster care and been adopted by a British couple who had also been murdered a while afterwards. And thanks to luck, Piper and Leo had been visiting the very exclusive boarding school he was studying at and Piper noted the resemblance between them and her mother’s instinct spoke higher and a DNA test later they had their confirmation. Chris had been sure no one would buy such an outrageous story but apparently they were used to having weird things happening to the Halliwells because no one questioned it.

Of course, after that there was no way the Elders wouldn’t find out. As it so happened one of the teachers with whom Leo had talked about Chris’s schooling, a witch that taught math, had commented with her Whitelighter who had gone and reported the news to his bosses. Chris was very amused when an Elder called Odin banged on their door, Piper had explained to him that the Elders couldn’t just orb into the house anymore, and apparently Odin wasn’t a favorite of the family. He hadn’t been alone, he was followed by a few other Elders including a female one that unlike the others, who were very poorly concealing their fury, had a very pleased smile on her face and had smiled widely at Chris.

“So that’s him?” Odin had huffed annoyed sizing Chris up as if he was something to be squashed.

“Yes, what a miracle, don’t you think Odin?” Piper asked in a tone that made it clear she was being sarcastic and that everyone in the room knew what had really happened. “PAIGE! COOP!” not two seconds later Coop, Phoebe, Henry and Paige materialized in the living room next to Wyatt, Leo, Chris and Piper.

“That wasn’t necessary,” Odin said with a fake tone. “We were just here to congratulate you on getting young Christopher back.”

Piper flicked her wrist and Odin burst into thousands of lights to cries of outrage from almost all the Elders present.

“Oh, shut it. It’s not like he can die,” Piper snorted. “And I’ve been wanting and deserving to do that for fourteen years,” as Odin reformed she looked him straight in the eyes. “Let’s cut the bull shall we? You know we faked his death and you know why. So before you and your cleaner friends get any other funny ideas-”

“It’s not like we can,” the female Elder reminded everyone gently. “Too much has happened to erase the Boy Who Lived, hasn’t it, Odin?” she finished sweetly.

“He has no regards for the rules,” Odin huffed crossing his arms. “I will not excuse myself, we were looking out for the greater good.”

“Yeah, like Gideon was, right?” Leo glared at him. “If you had bothered to get to know him you would have realized that no one took the rules more seriously than Chris did.”

“And anyway, enough chit chat,” Paige waved her hand dismissively. “We’ll have to agree to disagree and you’ll just have to just swallow it, ah, ah, ah,” she lifted a finger as a few Elders made to protest. “Because if any of you even entertain entertaining the idea of touching a finger of Chris’s hair, or anyone else in this family for that matter, you can go look for help somewhere else the next time you need someone to save the world, and that includes the current problem with Voldie.”

“You can’t walk away from your destiny!” one Elder cried outraged. “We’ll-“

“You can’t do anything anymore, and we will,” Piper said. “As a matter of fact,” she pulled a piece of paper from her pocket. “This has just been waiting for you,” she smiled handing the piece of paper to the female Elder, “We want a vow from you. Magically binding. That one to be precise, that the Elders will leave my son, and anyone else in this family alone. That you won’t ever try one of your tricks with us again.”

“We will not be blackmailed by mortals,” an Elder that looked quite pompous and Piper was glad to say she did not know his name thundered trying to intimidate them.

Piper just raised her eyebrow, “Well, you have a choice, it’s either the vow or good luck next time you need to keep demons under control,” she turned to her family, “I imagine that after we let word get out that every single Halliwell is withdrawing from the fight and they are free to do as they please they’ll be quite happy, don’t you?”

The rest of the family had to work hard to bite their laughs as the Elders huffed, turned around and Odin turned back saying.

“We need to convene a council. This isn’t a decision we can make alone.”

“Well, don’t take long, you have till the end of the day.”

They had stalked out the door but not before the female Elder turned to Leo, “I knew you’d find a way Leo,” and left. At the end of the day all of the High Council Elders were there taking the vow in name of all the Elders. They weren’t stupid and the Halliwells hadn’t been sitting idly all these years. They had grown not only as a family but as an influence since they practically ran Magic School. If they publicly announced that they were forsaking the Elders, most of the magical community would too.

All in all it had been a busy month. He pushed the kitchen door open still half asleep and jumped a mile up as the crowded kitchen yelled:

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!”