Post by StoryGirl83 on Jan 2, 2009 22:09:46 GMT -5
Chapter Seven – Problems Bigger Than Powers
........................
as............................
as............................
Hank Mitchell, the youngest child and only son of Henry Mitchell and Paige Matthews-Mitchell, was having a very frustrating day. He sat on the couch in the back den where his mom kept her magical supplies. In his lap was a large, untitled book containing spells his mom had taken from the official Halliwell Book of Shadows. It was mostly there so that his older sisters didn’t have to drive over to the manor to look up spells. He wasn’t even sure they considered him using it. After all, unlike his sisters, he could orb.
His eyes were scrunched tightly closed as he finished off his latest attempt at casting a spell. “. . . To be unseen.”
One of his eyes slid open and then the other. He looked around and sighed as he realized nothing had changed. “Nothing!” He exclaimed in exasperation. “Nothing, nothing, nothing. Why can’t I even cast a spell? What kind of witch can’t cast a spell?”
The sound of the doorbell ringing from the front of the house forced him to stop his self pity and head to the front of the house. He left the spell book on a table and closed the door to the den behind him. His sisters were upstairs working on something girly, he didn’t actually know what, but they weren’t going to answer the door. His dad was at work. He wasn’t quite sure where his mom was, but that only confirmed that it was up to him to answer the door. Besides that, it was most likely Uncle Leo here for his lessons and if anyone in the house heard the bell, they knew that.
When Hank reached the front hall he didn’t bother asking who was there. He just pulled open the door and offered Piper a half smile. “Uncle Leo, come in. I was wondering when you would arrive.” Except something was wrong. His whitelighter sensing powers were going nuts. This wasn’t what he thought it was, perhaps even this wasn’t who he thought it was. When Piper entered the house and closed the door behind her saying nothing, Hank grew only surer. “Is something wrong?”
“Yes.”
One word confirming what he was already sure of, but what was the problem? “Care to share?”
“A demon or something did something to my family last night,” Piper told him as dread filled Hank. “I’m not your Uncle Leo.”
“Uh,” he mumbled. He hadn’t expected it to be laid out quite that plainly or to be right that this wasn’t Uncle Leo. “Okay. Who are you?”
“Piper.”
Twin eye brows rose and Hank stared at her. “Aunt Piper? You sure look like Uncle Leo.”
“Yes,” Piper agreed glancing in a mirror in the front all, seeing her husband’s reflection staring back at her. “Our bodies and our powers got switched around.”
Hank frowned and looked at her. “Wait, so you have Uncle Leo’s body, but you have powers?”
“Chris’ powers as best we can tell,” she offered before chuckling. “Leo’s giddy playing around with Wyatt’s powers. I think he misses being a whitelighter.” Sadness filled her eyes as realization mingled with memory, “Which is my fault.”
“You know he doesn’t blame you,” Hank assured her, having had conversations on the topic with his uncle more than once.
“Yeah,” she admitted. “I don’t get it.”
“So are you just here to tell me that in person?” Hank asked confused.
“Nope,” she denied. “I was actually hoping that I could get your mom to brainstorm with me.” Looking at him with a smile, she hurried to add, “Or if you want I could try giving you some lessons in something. Leo’s said that’s what he’s doing.”
“Yeah,” Hank agreed, “he’s trying to help me learn how to use my whitelighter powers. Do you know anything about whitelighter powers?”
She chuckled, “Not much from experience, but I have two boys who are half whitelighter.”
Grinning Hank glamoured himself to look like first Wyatt and then Chris. His shoulders shrugged as he turned back into himself. “Yeah, but can they do everything a whitelighter can do or do they deal in witch powers, too?”
“They have both,” she admitted a little confused, “but so do you.”
“Do I?” Hank quirked a brow at his aunt, a gesture he had learned from her.
Piper quirked an identical eyebrow right back. “Is something the matter?”
“Probably not,” Hank waved a hand dismissively, trying to make it sound nothing like as important as it was to him. He didn’t like worrying people. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll go see if I can find Mom. I think she’s about.”
“You sure?” Piper asked, again.
“Yeah, I’m sure,” Hank told her, forcing his face to look carefree. “Switched bodies tops about anything I can come up with in my life.”
Piper laughed, assured that everything was all right, but she didn’t see the sadness in Hank’s eyes as he walked away and she didn’t understand her son’s powers enough to realize exactly how much they would be telling her if she only listened.