A Circle Broken

Disclaimer-See Chapters One and Two.

AN-I'm beginning to think that all my readers are ghosts, even if most people are busy reading DH...seriously guys, even if you hate it, leave me a review and tell me why. I don't mind constructive criticism in the slightest. Flames, however, will be used to roast both marshmallow and flamer to a nice crispy brown. Thanks again to XTahliaX, who keeps my muse equally parts threatened and happy. Remember Tals, Peanut Butter Cookies work best.

And regarding NCALMA, it stands for Northern California Magic Academy. Sorry, forgot to clear that up.

Chapter Three-Switzerland...or was that Japan?

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The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of great moral crisis maintained their neutrality.

- Dante

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Leo found Piper two hours later, sitting in a chair in the living room, looking out the window with a pensive expression. This wasn't an unusual occurrence since Samantha had been born, but Leo knew the minute that he got close that this was different than all the other times that she had been found brooding over her rebellious daughter. He quickly crossed the room and kneeled in front of her, taking her hands.

"Piper? Piper, honey, what's wrong?" She turned her head slowly to look down at him, and Leo flinched from the blankness that was in her eyes. Piper felt everything in extremes, from her love to her hate, and to see her feeling nothing was like being hit in the gut with a sledge hammer. Know he definitely knew that something was wrong. She blinked at him and smiled slightly, though there was no feeling behind it. "Piper? Are you alright?" She shook her head, and the smile faded away as if it had never been there.

"Samantha's gone." Leo frowned in confusion. His daughter always told him when she was going somewhere, even if she just yelled it to him while he was Up There, and he hadn't heard anything today...even though he had been busy.

"What? Did she go to Krista's?" Krista Shields was Samantha's best friend from NCALMA, and was often Samantha's outlet for when things at the manor were getting out of hand.

As they too often did. Unlike Wyatt and Chris, Sam had never had an easy camaraderie with the sisters, and the little arguments that the women of the house had, had often escalated into full out fights.

Fights that Leo knew weren't right but that he had never made more than a token attempt to stop. He was a whitelighter, he was supposed to save the innocent and guide the young witches of the future, including Samantha, but he had always deferred to the opinions of his wife, to try and preserve as much of the peace in the house as he could.

"No. She's gone! He came and took her away, had an order from the Ministry of Magic, whatever that is, and just took her! She didn't even fight him, just went with him like she was some kind of sheep! Leo," She looked at him, and this time there were tears in her eyes, "she told me I wasn't a good mother, that we weren't a family! How could she do that!? I've done nothing but care for her and try to make sure she was good!" She collapsed into sobs, and Leo gathered her up, rocking her gently.

But he did nothing to dispute her claims or make her feel better about what Samantha had said.

They were true, after all, and he wasn't going to lie. He might not have said anything to Piper in Samantha's defense, but he was not going to let her live in denial anymore. Her daughter was gone, and she was going to have to deal with the fact that maybe Samantha's 'sheep-like' acceptance of her biological father was a product of Piper's disdain, no matter how much she swore that she had been the perfect mother to her daughter.

He just wished he had done something about it before it had come to this. Maybe if he had, the family could have been saved and Samantha wouldn't be heading down the path that Phoebe had seen for her before she was even born. Piper's own actions had pushed her daughter down the path that she had been trying to keep her from.

They had no one to blame but themselves.

~*~*~

It was hours later before Piper had calmed down enough to be able to talk about things rationally. Leo waited to break the subject of Samantha to her mother until the Charmed One had a cup of tea in her hands, but he knew that no matter the calming effect of chamomile, Piper was not going to take anything he had to say well. After all she prided herself on being the best mother that she could be, and finding out that not everyone believed that was going to be a harsh blow to her ego and her feelings.

But it had to be said. Maybe the breach between mother and daughter could eventually be healed, and the Halliwell family could become what they were meant to be....or the vision could come true and they would all be doomed.

Leo wasn't sure which one was going to be worse.

"Leo? Leo, how can we get her back? You're an elder, surely you know something about this so-called Ministry? We need her back, if we don't, things could be really bad.." Piper was off on one of her tangents, and Leo couldn't help but smile, despite the situation. Piper's fierce emotions were one of the main reasons that he fell in love with her.

But at times like these it could be a problem. She would less inclined to listen to anything he said, if it went against what she believed, and he was definitely going to disagree with what she believed in. Now, if only he could find a way to couch what he wanted to say into diplomatic terms, and not make it sound like a betrayal.

"Piper, maybe she shouldn't come back right away." There, that should work. He wasn't necessarily going against her, but he wasn't backing her up either. She snapped her head up to look at him, and he flinched. Okay, apparently the way that he had phrased it wasn't diplomatic enough.

"What? Of course she should come back! I'm her mother, I raised her, he doesn't even know her! On top of that, he's evil! He'll turn her against us, he's already turned her against us! Samantha never would have said those things about me if he hadn't shown up!" Piper was ranting, her face turning red, breathing harshly. What Samantha had said had gotten to her more than she wanted to believe. But of course, being Piper Halliwell, she would never admit it.

"Piper, everything she said was true." Piper cut off her rant mid sentence and stared at him, her eyes wide. The manor was completely silent for the second time that day. Leo waited for the other shoe to drop, and he wasn't disappointed.

"What? How can you say that Leo? I'm a good mother! I have never neglected my children!" Her eyes watered, and he wasn't sure if it was from his betrayal or if she was beginning to see the light. He would put money on the former though. Leo sighed heavily, wishing that he could go back to how things were before, but knowing that it wasn't an option. He could no longer play Switzerland in the Halliwell World War. He had to make a stand.

"To Chris and Wyatt maybe, but you were never exactly a stellar mom when it came to Samantha, Piper. You always treated her like she had something to make up for, or like she had something to pay for. And it got worse after she went to the Academy." He had always wondered why that was, though he had an idea, and Piper had never seemed inclined to tell. "You started berating her whenever a letter was sent home from school, not even bothering to see if there was a reason behind what she was doing with her magic. It might not have been the way you would have used YOUR magic, but you didn't seem to care that her magic was different. Can you honestly look back and say that you treated her like you should have?" Leo was hoping to bring the mother that he knew Piper could be to the front, but it never quite happened when it came to Samantha. There was always something that seemed to be holding her back from loving her daughter like she loved her sons. Piper just glared at him in response, and he knew that he had failed in getting through to her.

"Leo, she shouldn't have been practicing magic like that! Who knows what she was getting up to at that school? And nothing, unless you're fighting demons, is a good enough reason to curse someone, or to jinx them, or whatever they call it! She had no reason just that she wanted to so she did! What did you expect me to do? Praise her? Tell her that it was okay she was using her magic like she was? Personal gain has never been something that the Halliwells believe in, and I can't believe that you wanted me to encourage it!" Leo noticed that she had cleanly ghosted over most of what he had accused her of, and focused on the most defendable charge.

"Piper, until you can come to terms with what you did to Samantha, whether you believe you did it or not, I don't believe that she should be here. Give her this time to get to know her Biological Father, she should have known him all along. Maybe he can shed some light on her abilities, since she doesn't have any of the powers that you three do, and you don't use a wand so you can't help her. Trust her to make the right decision." Leo stood up from where he was crouching on the ground and smiled at her. She wasn't ranting and raving anymore, and she wasn't crying either, so he hoped that he had given her something to think about.

Either way, he couldn't stay there anymore. He had to find Samantha and make sure that she knew what was going on here...or at least knew that no matter what, he loved her like his own child. He left with that thought on his mind, and so didn't hear what his wife whispered.

"How can I, knowing what she'll do if she's not a good witch?"

Piper let her thoughts drift back to fourteen years previous as her husband walked out of the room, seemingly more concerned with Samantha's wellbeing than that of the rest of the family. She could still remember the feelings she had when Phoebe told her about the vision, the vision that showed Samantha killing her family.

Flashback

Piper looked down at her two year old daughter, who was playing in her playpen with her older brother and smiled. They were everything that she could have hoped for, even if Samantha hadn't been planned she was perfect, and the baby that they were going to have in a few months could do nothing but make their family more complete.

She didn't think that there had ever been a more caring mother than herself, and that was the one thing that she could always count on to stay constant in her life. She would always care for her children ahead of caring for herself.

They were her world.

And then Phoebe screamed from the attic.

"PIPER!" Piper looked at her children and then raced up the stairs as fast as she could in her five months pregnant state. Samantha and Wyatt would be fine in the playpen, neither one of them could do enough magic to get into that much trouble, (though Wyatt did have the tendency to orb places unexpectedly), they would be fine for at least a few minutes. She had to find out what had made her sister scream like she was on fire, or like the world was ending.

And it wasn't ending, as far as she knew. They had stopped that the week before.

She pushed the door to the attic opened and went in, looking around for a demon that she had to freeze, or an imp that was causing mayhem again, but all she saw was Phoebe standing over the book of shadows, a page clenched in her hands. Piper, knowing now that it was only a vision and not an immediate threat, made her way to her sisters side calmly.

After all, if it was a vision, they would have time to prevent it.

"Phoebe, honey, what's the matter? What did you see?" Piper unclenched the page from her sister's hand, noticing absently that it was a page about a school called Hogwarts which rang a slight bell in her mind, and then moved Phoebe over to sit down. "Honey? What is it?" Phoebe inhaled sharply, and looked at her sister for the first time since she had entered the room.

"Piper....it was Samantha." Piper immediately jumped to attention, moving to head back down the stairs and check that her daughter was alright, all the while sending rapid fire questions towards the shell-shocked Phoebe. "What? Was it a demon? How long do we have? Who was it?" Phoebe shook her head and grabbed Piper's wrist before she could get out the door.

"No, Piper. It wasn't a demon, and we have a while." Piper looked at her sister in confusion. If it wasn't a demon, and they had a while, then why was Phoebe getting all shaken up? She was normally calmer than this when she came out of a vision that took place a long time in the future.

"Then why are you so upset? If we have a while, we have time to prepare. We can do something." Phoebe shook her head, looking stricken. Piper moved slowly to sit beside her sister again; she was beginning to get a really bad feeling about this.

"Piper, a demon wasn't attacking Samantha....Samantha was attacking us." Piper froze, sure that she had misheard. That wasn't possible; her child was going to grow up like any other Halliwell witch, strong in the Light.

"What? Phoebe honey, are you sure? How do you know it was her? It could have been someone else...." Even as she said it, Piper knew that her excuses were hollow. For the last five years, Phoebe had never been wrong when it came to a premonition, especially when it concerned someone in the family. And, there was Samantha's father to consider....Piper didn't want to think of the implications of what she was hearing.

"Piper it was her! Believe me, I didn't want it to be her anymore than you do, but there was no doubt that it was her!" Phoebe sounded like she was in pain just having to admit it. "She was standing over us with one of those...wands that her father was so fond of in her hand. She said some things that you don't need to know, and then she killed us, just like that." Phoebe snapped her fingers for emphasis, though tears were slowly making their way down her face. "Piper, she's going to go evil if we don't stop her!" Piper was crying hard after her sister's recitation, and shaking. She had been told before that one of her children was going to go dark, and they had stopped it, but this time, she wasn't sure if she could do it. Samantha was a lot stronger willed than Wyatt, she took after her father in that respect, and Piper didn't know what she could do to keep her from going evil. She had been treating her like gold, her being the first Halliwell daughter of the new generation, and from Phoebe's vision, that didn't seem to have worked.

They were just going to have to find another way.

Minutes later, after the two Halliwells had gotten themselves under control, and made their way downstairs, Piper found herself staring down at her daughter as if she had never seen her before. She had seemed so sweet and innocent, and now the only thing that Piper could see was a monster that was going to kill her family.

She would not let that happen, no matter what she had to do.

End Flashback

That sentiment still held. She would do whatever she had to do to make sure that her daughter would not become the killer that Phoebe had seen all those years ago, even if that meant she had to go to England and drag Samantha back into her sphere of influence, against the law and against her daughter's wishes if necessary.

She would not let her family die.

AN-Well, that's the last Charmed chapter for a while. I had to tie up a few loose ends on that end of things, but the next few chapters will take place purely in the Harry Potter universe. Please, R&R, even if you hate it! Also, this is the last of the already written chapters, so the next update will be a while.