Melinda Halliwell

Melinda Halliwell is the youngest child and only daughter of Piper Halliwell and Leo Wyatt. Originally just a witch, she was made into a Whitelighter-Witch by the Elders and is the younger sister of Wyatt and Chris Halliwell. She is named after her powerful ancestor Melinda Warren who began the Charmed legacy.

Her powers include the powers of Telekinetic orbing and Hovering. Additionally, Melinda possesses the basic powers of a witch; the ability to cast spells, brew potions, and scry for lost objects or people. Furthermore, if the need was great enough she and her brothers may one day be able to access the Power of Three, the collective power of the Charmed Ones.

Pre-Birth and Birth
In 1999, when Piper and her sisters visited the future, in the year 2009, she meets her and Leo's only child, a daughter, named Melinda.

In 2002, when Piper became pregnant, the family assumed that the child would be a girl as was the rest of the Halliwell clan and Piper prepared to name her Prudence Melinda, in honor of her late older sister, Prue, and her ancestor, Melinda Warren. However, the child turned out to be a boy, Wyatt.

Piper found out she was pregnant with their third and final child in mid-2006, a little after the Charmed Ones' last Battle, resulting in her birth in early 2007.

Coming Into Her Powers
"How did those potion bottles get up there?"

- Piper when she sees the knocked over potion bottles above her soup

Melinda came into her powers about a year after her birth. Her mother was cooking in the kitchen whilst holding Melinda when the baby "conjured" a couple of potion bottles above her mother's soup, causing the soup to create vines that attacked her as well as her mother. Melinda enjoyed the spectacle, but Piper, after unsuccessfully trying to cut the vines, had to call in the help of her two sons Wyatt and Chris to help her.

Becoming Twice-Blessed
"The Elders hoped to alter the prophecy of the Twice-Blessed. That the firstborn children of the family would inherit the Power of Three. Making Wyatt, Chris, and Melinda an even more powerful force for good than the Charmed Ones"

- Kyle to Leo and Paige

Being that Leo was mortal when Melinda was conceived, everyone was shocked to discover that she miraculously had the power of telekinetic orbing. Leo goes to The Heavens with Paige to question The Elders. There, they are approached by newly appointed Elder, Kyle Brody, who informs them that since Leo was a Whitelighter for so long, his magical abilities became ingrained within his DNA despite his being mortal, passing those genes onto Melinda. The Elders decided to interfere and caused these whitelighter powers to manifest in Melinda so as to alter the prophecy of the Twice-Blessed Child.

They wanted to make Chris and Melinda twice blessed like Wyatt, which would allow the three first born Halliwell children to inherit a more potent Power of Three so that in the future they would be a greater force of good than the Charmed Ones. However, the Angels of Destiny realized the errors of tampering with people's lives after understanding that was the entire reason why Neena, the first witch, decided to bring about the apocalypse. As a result of this, the Angels of Destiny absolved Wyatt, Chris, and Melinda's statuses as twice blessed, making Melinda a normal Whitelighter-Witch. Melinda still retains her power of telekinetic orbing because once a witch receives an active power it becomes an attachment such as an arm or a leg and wouldn't be right to just remove.

The Altered 2009
"Don't worry, mommy. I promise I'll do what you ask. I won't use my magic again, ever."

- Melinda making a promise to her mother.

When the Charmed Ones traveled to 2009 to visit their future selves, Piper discovered that she had a little girl, Melinda. Although she is the youngest child of Piper and Leo, in this future, Melinda was the only child of the couple. Piper showed Prue a picture of Melinda in a pink and purple ballet costume, suggesting she liked to dance and/or took lessons.

In the wake of Nathaniel Pratt's witch hunt taking over this future, her parents had forbidden Melinda from using her powers in order to protect her. In this future, her name was Melinda Wyatt, taking her father's surname. Because Leo was still a Whitelighter in this future, Melinda was probably part Whitelighter as well.

The Dark Future
No evidence of Melinda's existence during the alternate dark future that Future Chris came from was ever given. However, Chris' testimony that their father was never there for him makes it likely for Melinda never to have been born, since the reason why Leo was never there for Chris was because his work took him away from his family too much.

Powers and Abilities

 * Basic Powers
 * Spell Casting: The ability to cast spells and perform rituals.
 * Potion Making: The ability to brew potions.
 * Scrying: The ability to locate a person or object by the use of a scrying crystal, a map, and sometimes other tools.
 * Mediumship: The ability to see and commune with spirits of the dead.

Whitelighter Powers Other Powers
 * Active Powers
 * Telekinetic orbing: The ability to transport objects with the use of orbs.
 * Remote Orbing: The ability to orb other people from one place to another.
 * Hovering: The ability to rise a few feet in the air, and float in one place on a swirl of orbs.
 * High Resistance: This power causes her to be resistant to powers such as Fireballs and other lethal powers.

Etymology

 * Melinda: The modern name Melinda is a combination of "Mel" with the suffix "-inda". "Mel" can be derived from names such as Melanie meaning "dark, black" in Greek or from Melissa meaning "honeysuckle" in Greek. It is also associated with the Greek word meli meaning "honey" and with Linda meaning "gentle, soft, tender" in Germanic.


 * Halliwell: Derived from any of the several places named with the Old English pre 7th Century elements "halig" meaning "holy", plus "well(a)", a well or spring.

Notes and Trivia

 * Paul Ruditis tweeted that, out of all the Charmed Ones' daughters, Melinda is the oldest, the Tamora and Kat Mitchell are the middle ones, and P.J. Halliwell is the youngest.
 * Out of all nine Charmed-children, Melinda is the third oldest.
 * In Forever Charmed, Piper is visibly pregnant in Phoebe's wedding scene (due to Holly Marie Combs' real life pregnancy) however it is suggested that Piper is pregnant with Melinda at this point - which would tie in with the timeline for Season 9.
 * Although Melinda is born after Wyatt and Chris, an Alternate Realities of her is shown before them in Morality Bites, Wyatt is first shown in The Day the Magic Died and Chris is first shown in Oh My Goddess! Part 1.
 * Paul Ruditis stated in an interview that though Melinda's unnatural destiny as Twice-Blessed was absolved, she will retain her active power of telekinetic orbing, likening a witch's active power to an arm or a leg that just can't be taken away.
 * In the novel Leo Rising, there was a dark-haired girl with the boys that Leo didn’t recognize. Something about the way she moved reminded him of Piper, but he didn’t get to witness her actions for long. Chris was halfway through saying her name "Mel-" before Wyatt interrupted.
 * However, it is possible that she might inherit Piper's molecular abilities, since Piper wasn't much of a fighter and most of the time all she did in battle was flick her wrist to freeze or blow up the evil.
 * If you look at the pictures of Melinda activating her powers, you can see the resemblance to Piper, when using her powers.