Chapter Two

The sun shone high above the Victorian manor as Patty pulled into the driveway, to find Victor Bennett waiting eagerly on the porch steps. Victor, in his younger years was fairly handsome, his dark brown hair sat shaggily on his head, and he was dressed smartly in a dark blue buttoned shirt and black trousers.

"I'm sorry, I'm late. I'll get changed and then we'll go," Patty apologised, running up to Victor and giving him a quick kiss on the cheek before disappearing hastily into the manor.

"I'll get Prue then!" Penny called, feigning annoyance as she stepped out of the car.

"I'll get her if you like, Penny," Victor politely offered, strolling over to his mother-in-law.

"No need," she said, making sure she got to Prue first. Victor, being used to Penny shrugged this off and stood aside while she again, magically un-belted Prue from the car seat and lifted her out over her shoulder. "Victor, could you get the door," she asked while already striding towards the manor.

"Yes ma'am," Victor muttered under his breath as he slammed the door shut.

Penny strolled through the front door to the ancestral Halliwell home which still retained it's traditional décor from when it was rebuilt after the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. But that was how Penny liked it, and hoped it would stay for generations to come, it was after all decorated by her own mother and it was one of the only things that Penny had left of her mother, who had just recently passed away.

"Bye mom, see you later," Patty whizzed past her mother, dressed elegantly in a black blouse and cream trousers, her long dark hair was left as it was, down and over her shoulders. "Bye little one," she said to Prue blowing her a kiss as she jogged out of the house to meet Victor.

"I guess it's just you and me this after noon," Penny said, waving her arm in the direction of the front door to magically close it as she began up the stairs for Prue's room.

(X)

Prue's nursery was Patty's old bedroom, and Penny's before hers. They had redecorated it of course, now instead of the light purple wallpaper Patty had selected as a child, a light blue and white cloud print had been put up. It wasn't the most girl friendly room for an infant girl, but Victor insisted on making it a neutral design, just in case he got his wish of a son. This was a wish however, that Penny hoped wouldn't come true and thankfully hadn't. If Patty were to have any more children then they absolutely had to be girls. Boys weren't suited to being witches in her eyes, they disrespected the foundations of which magic was built and they abused the power which came from generations before them. No, absolutely no boy witches. And if Patty did deliver a baby boy, then the option to bind his powers until he was older was there.

"Sleep tight little one," Penny tucked the one year-old in tightly, kissing her forehead as the child drifted off to sleep. The moment however was disrupted by a cold presence, which Penny could feel from behind. Demon? She thought to herself, making sure she didn't turn around quickly in case something was in the room with her otherwise she wouldn't have time to formulate a plan. Slowly she turned around. Nothing. Get a hold of yourself Penny. Another glance from left to right told her that there was nothing else in this room except for herself and her grandchild. Or was there?

Suddenly she felt herself being thrown back, landing on and crushing a newly built shelf for Prue's soft toys, which luckily broke her fall. Staggering to her feet she took another glance around the room. "Who are you!" she demanded, eyeing up how close she was to Prue. If any harm was to come to her, she would never forgive herself. "I said, who are you?" she repeated, slowly stepping sideways to Prue's cot. There was no answer, but the cold feeling remained. "It's okay little…" she was thrown back again, feeling a hard thump on her face which flung her all the way to the door. Just as she was about to get back to her feet, she heard footsteps coming from behind her in the hallway. Not another one. Preparing herself for a fight, Penny rose to her feet, balancing herself with her arms and holding on to the door frame for support.

"Mom!" Patty asked, appearing at her mother's side. "What's wrong, what's going on?"

"Freeze the room, Patty, quickly!" Penny sounded urgent. "Now!"

Patty rose her hands and froze the nursery, not knowing exactly what the reason was, but from the state of her mother she thought it was best to act now and ask questions later.

"Wait here!" Penny said, running towards the small staircase which lead to the attic. "Keep that room frozen!" she called from the distance. Patty took a deep breath and stepped into the room, she did after all have to make sure her daughter was safe. Come on Patty. She took a slow first step over the threshold, but once she heard her foot step down on the floor, she quickly walked over to the cot where her daughter Prue was silently nodding off to sleep.

"Good girl," Patty whispered, running her hand over Prue's soft head of dark hair.

A few moments later Penny emerged from attic with a single vial in her hand, which she threw immediately to the centre of the room. "Come on, come on," she whispered, hoping that the potion would find it's way to whatever was in that room. After a couple of seconds, the potion began to take effect as it created a glowing red aura around what appeared to be a demon with the power of invisibility. They couldn't see the demon, but the potion allowed for them to see the outline, of a large, lanky demon, who was frozen in time just as he was about to conjure a fire or energy ball in his right palm.

Patty lifted Prue out of her crib and held her over her shoulder as she walked over to meet her mother just outside of the door. "What do we do now?" she asked.

"We vanquish him that's what we do," Penny replied, walking carefully over to a small toy box which sat in the nursery. She reached deep into the wooden chest, making her way past soft toys and dolls until she found a small velvet bag. She brought out the bag and took out the potion vial which was kept safely inside of it.

"Don't tell me you kept a vanquishing potion in my child's toy box," Patty said in amazement, she wasn't angry, just astonished at how resourceful her mother could be.

"Just don't tell Victor," Penny said with a grin as she hurled the small glass bottle towards the invisible intruder. "Let's hope this works, it's quite strong so it should do the trick." The bottled landed on the floor directly below the demon, as the vial smashed the the magical brew was released. The demon unfroze, screaming in pain as the potion hit him which created a ring of red hot flames around him. As he combusted, he disappeared into the demonic abyss known as the wasteland, leaving behind only a scorch mark on the wooden floor where he stood. "There we go," Penny smiled, dusting off her hands in pride.

"Oh, there's no way I'll be telling him about any of this. In fact, let's hope there's a spell to remove that scorch mark or we'll have to cover it with a carpet," Patty said, following her mother downstairs.

(X)

Downstairs they where met by an anxious Victor who was pacing in front of the doorway. "Come on, did you find your purse?" he asked, motioning his hands out of the door.

"Oh, no. Sorry, I don't need it," she stuttered handing Prue to Penny, making sure she didn't reveal the reasoning behind why she didn't find her purse. If Victor found out there was a demon in Prue's room he wouldn't be happy with either Patty or Penny. And it would make him resent the fact that his daughter was a witch even more than he already did, which although was something that he had never vocalised, Patty knew that deep down he wished that Prue wasn't a witch, and maybe even her too. "Let's go," she said, rushing past him and out of the door.

"Bye!" Penny called after them, as Victor hastily closed the door behind him. Bye Penny, she though to herself, cradling baby Prue in her arms.