Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or Charmed!

Summary: One day, Harry receives a letter from his mother who turns out not to be his mother and James is not his father either. His real parents are Piper and Leo from Charmed. Don't read this story if you can't imagine Ron and Dumbledore being bad.

Chapter Six: The Long Wait

Paige knew from experience that the worst part of a hospital visit was the waiting - waiting for what always seemed like hours with no news whatsoever. However, she didn't expect to feel so anxious this time. After all, she didn't even know this boy. All of her previous hospital waits were for family members. She supposed that their shared heritage must be the reason she was pacing the floor of the waiting room more than an hour after their arrival at the hospital. She so wanted to hear how Harry was - to reassure herself and to be able to give Prue some news, hopefully good. She could hear Prue's voice in her head, calling her name every ten minutes on the dot. And if she was this nervous, only God knew how Prue was feeling. Harry was her charge, she was supposed to protect him. It must have killed her to not be able to heal Harry.

The policeman that allowed her to come to the hospital with him, Paul Hrenn sat beside her so she had to act composed and professional. It had been a long time since she last worked a case as bad as this one and even then, she had had no connection with the victim back then. Because of that, it was much easier to stay objective.

Paige was yanked from her thoughts as a doctor approached them. "Are you here for Harry Potter?" he asked as he sat down with them, looking absolutely exhausted.

"Yes, please tell us how he is and what are his injuries." Policeman Hrenn told the doctor as he pulled out a pen and a pad of paper to record Harry's injuries.

"Oh, yes, of course. It is good that you pulled him out of that house when you did because our biggest problem was the internal bleeding in his stomach. Thankfully, we've managed to stop it but it took a lot of time and at one point we were afraid that we were going to lose him. However, he pulled through. Other than that, Harry had several pulled muscles on his legs, several of his fingers were broken and he had a badly sprained right wrist due to using it after already injuring it. His left shoulder is also sprained and he has a lot of bruises mainly concentrated on his back as well as his stomach and legs. Other areas are bruised as well but not as much although that doesn't mean much considering how bad his shape is. He will have to stay in the hospital for observation until we are sure he won't start bleeding internally again and it is recommended that he stay for the next two weeks as he heals since he will be in too much pain to move much if at all." the doctor told them as Paige's eyes filled with tears. She quickly turned her head and dried her eyes so they wouldn't notice.

"That is fine with the police department. Since his condition is so bad, we'll try to hurry up his hearing so everything is already handled by the time he can leave the hospital." Hrenn said as he finished writing up everything. "Is he going to wake up soon? I would like to get a statement from him before I go back to the station." he asked.

"We've given him a sedative and a strong pain killer when he was admitted. It should wear off in about an hour. But please don't take too long with him. He is going to be in so much pain and we want to give him another dose to get him through the night."

"I promise we won't keep him awake long. I just need him to answer a few basic questions. I can get the details when he's feeling better." the doctor agreed once again before leaving, stopping at the nurses station to hand her a chart.

Paige felt thankful that her colleague handled all the talking because she couldn't have said anything without breaking down and losing her composed cover. Once she was sure she could talk without breaking out into tears she turned to the helpful policeman beside her and asked, "Do you mind if I go get some fresh air for about half an hour? I'll be back in time for the interview with Harry."

"I don't mind at all. If I'm not here when you get back, you can find me at the cafeteria. I'm dieing for some coffee right now, even if it's probably bad coffee." he answered with a smile. Paige smiled back and hurried away, looking for the bathroom from where she would be able to orb to her sister.

xxxXXXxxx

Meanwhile, at the top of the Golden Gate Bridge Prue nervously paced around the small space. She really hated being out of the loop. She always did. It did make her a bit controlling but her sisters loved her despite that flaw.

After more than two hours of waiting and pacing, Paige finally orbed in and Prue immediately grabbed her and asked her for information.

"I don't have much time before I have to go back so just let me tell you everything before you ask any questions, OK?" Paige asked, not wanting to be interrupted during her report.

"OK, hit me with it." Prue agreed and Paige informed her of everything that happened so far. Prue felt horrible when Paige described how she had found Harry and absolutely wretched when she heard about Harry's condition. If she had known about the internal bleeding she would have healed Harry despite the need for evidence. After Paige finished her story and they both dried their tears Prue asked the most important question, "So what happens now?"

"There will be a hearing to get his guardians' rights over him rescinded and then he'll probably go to a group home." Paige answered.

"What would happen if we found his biological family?" was Prue's next inquiry. She might have promised Harry not to tell anyone but if it would save him from foster care she would gladly break that promise. She only hoped Harry would see it like that as well.

"Well, since they gave up their parental rights they would have to be investigated and if deemed appropriate he would be placed there instead of a group home with frequent visits from the social services. Do you know his biological family?"

"Yeah, but Harry just found out and I'm not sure if he would be willing to go to them. And they didn't abandon him. As you know from experience, being a child of a whitelighter was dangerous back then and they gave him to friends so he could be safe. His whitelighter father chose to have his memory of Harry as well as his lover blocked while his mother was a frequent visitor in Harry's life until something happened to block her memory as well. Originally, Harry was supposed to grow up knowing exactly who his mother was. His adoptive mother said in her letter that Harry called his biological mother Mama so obviously his adoptive parents were willing to share him with her. Because of that, I'm not sure if his biological mother ever gave up her parental rights completely. Harry was supposed to get more information from a bank but now that he's in the hospital I'm not sure how he'll get it before a decision is made." Prue explained.

"Hm... let me think about it for a while. I need to get back to Harry now. I've already been away for longer than I intended and since I want to be there when he's questioned I have to go. I'll tell the staff that you might come to see him so feel free to come visit tomorrow." Paige said and hugged Prue goodbye. "I love you, sis."

"Love you too, little sis. Thanks for helping with this." Prue said as Paige orbed away.

xxxXXXxxx

Exiting the bathroom she had orbed into, Paige was grateful to see that the ever helpful Paul Hrenn was still waiting in the same waiting room they had been in earlier. Walking towards him she offered him an apologetic smile accompanied by a verbal apology for making him wait, "I'm really sorry to have taken so long. My sister called and we were so lost in our conversation that I didn't notice the time."

"No harm done. Harry is not awake yet anyway. His doctor was here earlier and he said that it should only be a few minutes now. They'll check him out first and then we can go in." And with that they both sat down to wait for permission to enter Harry's room.

It was actually only ten minutes later, although it seemed like much longer, that they noticed a doctor coming towards them. He was frowning a bit but still seemed relaxed so Paige wasn't too worried. Once he got near, he beckoned them forward. "Harry is awake now. Like we predicted, he is in a lot of pain so please make this brief."

"We will, doctor. Thank you very much." Paige assured him as she followed Policeman Hrenn into Harry's room.

A/N: I managed to finish this four minutes before my self assigned deadline. It's almost midnight now and I haven checked this chapter over at all. Feel free to review with my mistakes although please make sure they're constructive. All flames will be tossed out with no regret.