Categories > TV > Charmed > Charmed of the Phoenix

Many Meetings, part I

by cflat 1 review

The Charmed Ones go to Grimmauld Place for a meeting.

Category: Charmed - Rating: G - Genres: Crossover - Characters: Paige, Phoebe, Piper - Warnings: [!] - Published: 2006-10-31 - Updated: 2006-11-01 - 2905 words

1Ambiance
Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Charmed or Harry Potter.

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Many Meetings, part I


"What numbers are we supposed to be looking for?" Phoebe asked her sisters, looking at several houses on her right. Every house on the street looked like it could use some fixing up. There were some houses that unmistakably looked like they could use a new paint job; there were also some houses that had a broken window or two, etc. All in all, this street of Grimmauld Place was not one of the nicest-looking streets around.

"Numbers 11 and 13," Piper replied, also looking around at the frayed houses. Strange place to pick for the location of the headquarters, she thought.

Before the Charmed Ones had come to England, the sisters had known that they would also be attending an Order of the Phoenix meeting in the middle of their vacation. They had known when the day was, but not the location or time.

Earlier that day, Tom (the bartender) had filled them in on the missing facts-they were to meet a couple of Order members by the houses 11 and 13 in Grimmauld Place. He hadn't told them the exact address because, according to Tom, only someone called the Secret Keeper could tell them that. When Phoebe had asked what a Secret Keeper was, Tom had just chuckled and told them that if he knew, then it wouldn't be a secret. But shortly after that, he had admitted to them that he had a suspicion of the only person it could possibly be.

Then, shortly after noon, Paige had orbed them to Grimmauld Place, London. Since she didn't know the exact location of the headquarters (nor did she want anybody to see their magical transportation), she had orbed them behind a tree (that had hid them fairly well) at the end of the street. Now, the Charmed Ones were walking down the street looking for the spot where they were to meet members of the Order who were supposed to then bring them to where ever the headquarters might be.

Up ahead, Paige caught a glimpse of what looked like two men and a woman walking to the sidewalk from a house; though which house, Paige wasn't sure as it looked like they were coming from in between the middle of two houses. When the men and woman reached the sidewalk, they stopped, and it looked to her like they were just chatting.

"Do you think that's them?" Paige quietly asked her sisters as she studied the three people as they walked closer to them. Even though they were not that close to them yet, Paige could tell that the woman's hair was shoulder-length and bright red, and she was a couple of inches shorter than the man standing next to her. The man next to her was tall, black, and bald. Unlike the woman (who wore a T-shirt and slacks), he wore robes similar to those she had seen at Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions.

The other man, well... his appearance was one Paige had never encountered before (even in all her time of being a witch). His thinning hair was a grayish color, and it was about chin-length. He obviously was someone who had been in many battles, since (Paige had noticed almost right away) he had only one regular leg, and there was a patch over his left eye. Plus there was also the factor that he had many scars on his face.

"Could be," Phoebe said, just as quietly, in reply to Paige's question, looking at the men as she walked with her sisters towards them.

"Hi," Piper greeted the men when the sister's were within hearing distance.

"Wotcher," the woman said in return.

"Hello," the tall man greeted them. Their companion, the battle-scarred man, merely grunted.

"Password?" he asked them before they could say anything else.

"Oh, right," Paige said, remembering that Tom had also quietly given them a password, just incase the enemy should, somehow, overhear the plans and decide to pose as the sisters- thus potentially give the enemy some valuable information on the Order.

"Fawkes the Phoenix." Phoebe answered. When Phoebe had inquired about the password, all Tom had said was that they would figure it out, eventually.

"Here," said the same man who had asked them for the password, as he reached into one of his pockets, looking for something. After finding what he needed from his pockets, he handed them a piece of paper. "Read this and memorize it," he instructed them. Piper took it and Phoebe and Paige looked over her shoulder to read it.

The headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix may be found at number 12, Grimmauld Place, London.

"Number 12?" Paige asked, looking at the men after she had finished reading the note. "What number 12?" Her sisters also looked confused. As far as they knew, Grimmauld Place didn't have a "number 12".

"Constant vigilance!" The scarred man growled at them as he took the paper from Piper. He stuffed it in his pocket. "Can't burn it now," the man muttered, more to himself than anyone else present.

Okay. Talk about paranoid, Paige thought to herself, as she glanced at her sisters.

"Just think about what you just read," The tall man advised them as he and his companions turned to face the houses. Exchanging another look with her sisters, Paige and her sisters also turned to face the houses. Paige took the woman's advice, and thought about what she had just read. Surprisingly, Paige had only gotten three words in before #12 Grimmauld Place magically appeared before their eyes, in between the houses 11 and 13.

The appearance of the house was not what she was expecting for the headquarters of good guys. Instead of being bright and cheery, this house was the opposite. It was dark and blended in well with the rest of the houses on the street, although it was kept up better than the other houses. While Paige was studying the house, they walked up to the front door and then went inside.

The inside of the house was in no better condition than the outside. The atmosphere was like the house had been sealed up for a number of years, and only recently been reopened again. Paige could tell that the place had been empty for years because of the cobwebs that covered the chandelier, and several other places, although there was evidence that there had been some cleaning going on recently.

"So this is the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix?" Piper said, unimpressed. Like her sisters, she was also looking around the room they were in.

"Yep," the woman said as she started to walk away from the front door. "It's not much but-" As the tall man started to warn the woman, she tripped over an umbrella stand that was by the door.

"Oof!" She exclaimed as she landed on the ground.

"Are you all right?" Paige asked, trying not to laugh, but having a hard time of it. She went over to help the woman up.

"Yeah," said the woman standing up. "I'm fi-" The rest of her words were cut off as a woman started screeching loudly.

"Filthy! Get out of my father's house! Mudbloods! Muggles! Freaks! Get out!" A woman's voice screamed loudly.

"What the hell-?" Paige asked to no one in particular. She looked at her sisters, and saw that they were staring, with their mouths open, at something behind her. She turned around, and to her surprise, she saw a woman in a portrait.

Though she had seen plenty of women in portraits before, Paige had never seen one as real as this woman was. She even moved around! As neat as seeing a live, moving portrait was, this one was not pleasant to look at-or hear. The woman looked like she was fairly old in age, and she also looked like she hadn't seen the sunlight for many years, as her skin was a yellowish color. Above all, the worst thing about her was her voice. Her voice was extremely loud, annoying, and somewhat hoarse, as though she had done a lot of screaming lately.

While she was studying the portrait, the two men were trying to pull the moth-eaten curtain (that hung around the portrait) closed. Paige winced at the racket the woman was making. It was getting unbearable loud now.

As suddenly as the yelling began, it stopped. The woman didn't stop on her own, however. Looking at Piper, Paige's suspicions were confirmed. Piper's hands were still out from having frozen the portrait woman.

"Oh, thank God!" Piper exclaimed, feeling utterly relieved that the woman had stopped screaming-whether or not on her own.

"I hear you," Phoebe said, agreeing with her older sister. "Silence is good." When the woman suddenly stopped screaming her head off, the two men had also stopped with pulling the curtain all the way closed. Now, they, and the woman, were staring at Piper, with astonished looks on their faces.

"How did you do that?" The woman asked Piper, stunned.

Piper raised an eyebrow. "Magic?" she suggested. The woman rolled her eyes at the cliched answer.

"Who is that!" Phoebe asked them, staring at the still frozen woman.

"That would be my mother." A man's voice said from behind Paige. Startled, she whirled around to find that three other people had come into the hall during the racket-supposedly from the door at the end of the hallway. Professor Dumbledore was one of them. There was a man, standing behind Dumbledore, with greasy-like shoulder-length hair, and in front of them was the man who had answered Phoebe's question.

"Uh, your mother?" Piper asked the man. He, too, had shoulder-length hair (like the greasy-haired man) but it was not greasy. Although it was clean, it was not brushed as much as it could be. He also looked like he had had a few hard years, as his eyes had the look of one who had seen too much in his life.

"Yes," the man said, and muttered something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like "unfortunately". "Sirius Black." He said, holding out his hand for Piper to shake.

Piper shook his hand. "Piper Halliwell." She also introduced Paige and Phoebe at the same time.

"I'm Tonks," the woman said, finally introducing herself. Paige looked back at her. "That's Kingsley Shacklebolt," She said, indicating the tall, black man who was one of two men who had pulled the curtain shut. "And that's Alastor Moody." She finished, pointing to the one-legged man standing near Kingsley.

Sirius frowned. "You haven't introduced yourselves yet?" he asked Tonks. She shook her head.

"We hadn't gotten around to it yet," she admitted.

"Perhaps it would be prudent if we moved this conversation into the kitchen," Sirius and Dumbledore's other companion spoke for the first time. He stood farther apart from the others, closer to the kitchen door.

"And you are...?" Phoebe asked him. She didn't know if it was intentional, when the introductions were made, that this man was left out of the intros. She could sort of see why he was left out, since he was standing apart of the group, and so silently; it would be easy to forget he was present.

"This, Phoebe," Dumbledore spoke up for the first time, "is Severus Snape." He told her. "He is the potions master at Hogwarts."

"Really?" Piper asked, somewhat interested in those facts. She had known almost right away that she wouldn't like this man, but still... it was always nice to meet another person who was potentially as good at potions as she was.

"Piper is an expert at potions," Dumbledore informed Snape. He raised his eyebrows. "Intriguing." He sounded only mildly interested.

"Hey, Snivellus," Sirius said, turning to face Snape (Paige had to bite her cheek to keep from sniggering at the embarrassing nickname Sirius had for the other man). "Looks like you got some competition."

Snape sneered at Sirius. "Shut up, Black," he said before turning around and walked briskly into the kitchen door.

"Old high school rivalry?" Phoebe asked Sirius, amused by the brief argument, though she knew she shouldn't be (after all, she was a grown-up with children now).

"Yep," Sirius said, cheerfully.

"Perhaps we should find some seats?" Dumbledore suggested to the group. With that, the remaining people headed into the door that Snape previously had gone into.

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During the next hour, the Charmed Ones learned that they had arrived a couple of hours before the meeting was to start (Dumbledore had done that on purpose so they could find the house with plenty of time before the meeting started) so they had time to talk with the present company.

As they waited for the start of the meeting, Paige ended up talking to a Mr. Arthur Weasley. It turns out that Sirius wasn't the only one staying in his house. Arthur had told her that he and his wife and children were also staying there. They had gone out for a couple of hours that day, which was why Arthur and his wife, Molly, weren't there to greet them. (They had arrived back shortly after the Charmed Ones and their company had entered the kitchen.)

While she was talking to Arthur, other Order members started showing up. By the time it was time to start the meeting, the kitchen was jammed packed with Order of the Phoenix members, though everyone had managed to find a seat.

Before she knew it, it was time for the meeting to start.

"If I could have everybody's attention," Dumbledore began, quieting down the members, who were talking softly in their seats.

Dumbledore saved Paige from having to tell Arthur how a light switch worked (it turns out that Arthur is fascinated with Muggle things-up to the point of obsessed.) Dumbledore waited until he had everyone's eyes were facing him.

"Thank you," Dumbledore said. "To the people who have returned- welcome back. And to the new members, welcome to the Order of the Phoenix." As he said the last part, Dumbledore's eyes briefly looked over at Piper, Phoebe, and Paige, who were sitting near Dumbledore.

"Now, to begin," Dumbledore continued. He looked everyone over before looking at Kingsley Shacklebolt. "Kingsley, I believe you wanted to start."

Kingsley nodded. "I did." He said. He then spent a good amount of time informing the members what the Auror's (the good guys that fight dark wizards) were up to. When Kingsley was done, Snape took over the floor. Paige was surprised to find out that Snape was a spy for the Order. Apparently, he was sort of on the bad guys good side, or something like that. They also spent quite a lot of the time discussing how to take down Voldemort's forces (When Dumbledore said Voldemort's name, the majority of people present flinched. Paige didn't get why people were so afraid to say his name- it was just a name, after all....)

The meeting broke up sometime after seven. The Charmed Ones waited until mostly every one had left before heading out. Originally, Paige was going to orb them home, but before the meeting started, Phoebe (who had ended up talking to Sirius) had found out of another Wizarding transportation-through a fireplace. Apparently, one was supposed to throw in something called a floo power, and then announce your destination after stepping in. Even though Sirius had told them it was completely safe, (as long as you spoke clearly) Paige was still hesitant about trying it.

"Oh, come on," Phoebe said. "It'll be fun." Paige looked at Piper, and saw that Piper also wasn't too keen about this type of traveling. Evidently, Phoebe was the only one of the three sisters who really wanted to try the fireplace traveling.

"It is completely safe," Molly Weasley, Arthur's wife, said soothingly. "Just speak clearly, and you will end up in your destination."

"Here," Phoebe said, grabbing some floo powder from by the fireplace. "I'll go first." She through the floo power in the fireplace and stepped in. "The Leaky Cauldron!" Phoebe exclaimed.

"Keep your elbows in!" Sirius yelled the advice to Phoebe before she was no longer in the fireplace.

"All right," Piper said, sounding a little nervous. "I'll go next." Paige watched as Piper repeated Phoebe's steps. Before she knew it, Piper was also gone. Now it was her turn.

"All right," she said sounding determined to do it. If my sisters can do it, so can I, Paige thought to herself. She grabbed some floo power and through it in the fireplace. She watched as it turned green, like it had done for her sisters. She then stepped in it. "The Leaky Cauldron!" She said, clearly. The last thing she saw of Grimmauld Place was Sirius standing on her left, waving at her, and standing next to him were Arthur and Molly standing next to each other with, Arthur's arm draped over Molly's shoulders. Paige then closed her eyes as the interior kitchen of #12 Grimmauld Place disappeared.


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Finally, this chapter is done! Sorry it took so long to get it out. I had a little trouble with writing this chapter, but I think it turned out okay.

For the part where Tonks tripped over the umbrella stand -- in the book, Tonks mentioned that that was the second time she'd done that. So, I decided to put in a first time.
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