Melinda Warren

"Melinda Warren, you were an aberration. A powerful witch born to two humans with no innate magic, who would give birth to a line culminating in the most powerful trio of witches the world would ever know."

- Neena

Melinda Warren was a very powerful witch and the only child of two mortals, Charlotte Warren and Lawrence Cutler. She was born on October 31st, 1670, and possessed the powers of Telekinesis, Molecular Immobilization, and Premonition. She started the line of Warren/Halliwell witches, who, as prophesied by Melinda herself, culminated in the arrival of the three most powerful witches of all time: the Charmed Ones.

To The Warren Born
Early in her pregnancy, a mortal woman named Charlotte sought the help of a witch, presumably to help her abort her pregnancy. The witch, then called Isabel, was actually the very first witch. Isabel told her that the birth of her child was very important to "us all," and informed her that her child was magical since she gave her mother a premonition. The premonition told her that her lover Lawrence was never coming back. Isabel gave Charlotte a talisman in the shape of the Triquetra, which would lead her to Eva, a good witch.

Birth
Two years after the Halliwell sisters became the Charmed Ones, they were sent through a portal to the year 1670. They were sent to help Eva and her coven save a woman pregnant with a coveted child from an evil witch named Ruth Cobb. Ruth captured Charlotte when she went into labor, wanting to raise the child to be evil. The Charmed Ones, with the help of Eva and her coven, rescued Charlotte. With the recently acquired knowledge of natural magic, the Charmed Ones created a protective shield of good magic that Charlotte gave birth to her child in. Later, Charlotte revealed that her newborn child's name was going to be Melinda Warren, whom the Charmed Ones knew was going to begin their magical family line. (All Halliwell's Eve)

Most of Melinda's story after her birth is unknown besides the fact that she moved from Colonial Virginia to Salem, Massachussets during the Witch Trials. Sometime during her life, Melinda gave birth to a daughter whom she named Prudence. Melinda also created the Warren Book of Shadows, the most powerful and coveted witches' tome in the world.

Affair with Matthew Tate
During her time in Salem, Melinda had a lover named Matthew Tate who turned out to be a warlock. He used their "love" as a way to gain her trust and copy her active powers. He outed her as a witch, thus betraying her and making her realize his deceit. After finding out about Matthew's betrayal, Melinda concocted a plan of revenge. When Matthew came to her before her death to gloat, she tricked him into opening her Pewter Heart locket. Cursing the locket with a potion and a spell, Melinda locked Matthew into it, never to be released unless one of her descendants was to open it.

Death
After Matthew Tate outed Melinda as a witch, she was trapped and condemned to be burned at the stake. Melinda didn't use her powers to escape, as it would have confirmed her as a witch and put her daughter's life in jeopardy.

The Charmed Prophecy
The day Melinda Warren was burned at the stake, she prophesied the arrival of three sister witches, the Charmed Ones, who would be the most powerful witches ever. It is implied that it was a premonition, in her own words: You may kill me, but you cannot kill my kind. With each generation, the Warren line will grow stronger and stronger - culminating in the arrival of three sisters. Together, these three sisters will be the most powerful witches the world has ever known. They will be good witches and vanquish all kinds of evil. They will be known as the Charmed Ones.

Meeting the Charmed Ones
Nearly 300 years later, not long after Melinda's latest descendants Prue, Piper, and Phoebe Halliwell became the Charmed Ones, Melinda's locket ended up at Buckland's Auction House. Warlocks Rex Buckland and Hannah Webster wanted to prove that Prue was a descendent of Melinda Warren, thus confirming that she and her sisters are indeed the Charmed Ones. Thus, Rex acquired the locket and set things in motion for Prue to open it, which set the warlock Matthew Tate free.

Matthew tricked Prue to use her power on him, and eventually copied it. After Phoebe had a premonition of Melinda cursing Matthew into the locket, the sisters found out who he really was. With no known ways of vanquishing him, the sisters summoned Melinda from the afterlife to help them curse him into the locket again. Melinda seemed to already know who they were, and what her reason of being there was. After helping the Charmed Ones to brew the potion and finally cast the spell to trap Matthew forever, she gave the sisters a last goodbye, and told them that she couldn't stay because it wasn't her time; it was theirs. Before she left, Phoebe placed Melinda's hand on her chest which triggered a premonition of more generations of her beautiful daughters. Melinda was then released back into the afterlife, full of joy to see her dreams come true. (The Witch is Back).

Helping to reclaim the Heavens
"Blessed be, Paige. Blessed be."

- Melinda's first encounter with Paige.

Eight years later when Melinda's ancestor, the first witch, now called Neena, tried to unite the Heavens and the Underworld, Melinda and the other deceased Warren witches left the after life and she led the swarm against Neena's army. During this time, Melinda also met Paige, the fourth Charmed One, for the first time.

Powers and Abilities
During Melinda's lifetime, she practiced three Wiccan powers. Melinda's active powers are inherited by her descendants, though some of them are born with variations of her gifts, or either enhanced or less powerful versions of them. However, some of her descendants gained alternative powers as opposed to her three. Each of The Charmed Ones possess one of her active powers.
 * Basic Powers
 * Spellcasting: 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.
 * Active Powers
 * Telekinesis: The ability to move objects using only the power of one's mind.
 * Molecular Immobilization: The ability to slow the molecules of an object or a person down to the point that they appear to be frozen in time.
 * Premonition: The ability to see future, present, and past events in time.

Legacy
At Piper Halliwell's wedding to Leo Wyatt, the "something old" found by Phoebe was Melinda Warren's Blessing Cup that she drank from at her wedding. ("Just Harried")

It was revealed to Piper when she and her sisters travel into the future that she would eventually have a daughter who was named Melinda. A few years later when she got pregnant, she planned to name the baby Prudence Melinda after both her ancestor and her late sister, only to surprisingly have a son, instead. (Morality Bites, Baby's First Demon)

Eventually, Piper did have a daughter, naming her Melinda.

Trivia

 * For Piper's wedding, Phoebe found Melinda's blessing cup that she used at her wedding, though we never learn who Melinda's husband is. Presumably, her husband was the father of her daughter, Prudence and possibly left or died sometime before Melinda's affair with Matthew Tate.
 * Prue said that she and her sisters could always summon her, however Melinda wasn't seen again in the series, except for All Halliwell's Eve, when the sisters met her as a newborn baby and in Last Witch Effort and The Charmed Offensive as a ghost.
 * The family tree seen in Pardon My Past says that William Warren married Melinda Jackson. This is a mistake, as Melinda was born a Warren.
 * In the Book of Shadows, the title page says that the book was created in 1693. This wouldn't be possible since Melinda created it, yet died one year before the Book's written date.
 * She appears to be the first of the Warren line to name her child Prudence, which will be quite popular in the family well into the future.
 * Paige Matthews finally meets Melinda in Last Witch Effort.
 * Melinda's birth can be seen as a precursor to Wyatt Halliwell's birth: both Charlotte and Piper were kidnapped in labor; Melinda and Wyatt were prophesied to be extremely powerful children that could be swayed to great good or great evil.
 * The character is probably named after Mary Warren who took part in the real Salem witch trials. The show's creator and writer, Constance M. Burge, named the character "Melinda" after her niece.