Part one...

August

Thunder cracked around the Island and bolts of lightning barely made an impact on the all-encompassing gloom that had settled over the main harbour. Storms were frequent on the Isle, but the sleeting rain was thick and ferocious, meaning that the streets were truly empty as villagers, villains and all manner of creatures sought refuge from the dangerous weather.

Evie had pulled her thickest winter cloak on and ran through the downpour and hail to arrive at the hideout she and her friends inhabited, completely soaked to the bone and freezing, but she didn't care, as long as she didn't have to spend the night trapped with her mother.

Thankfully, as soon as she had arrived, Jay, who had been there most the afternoon, had the log burner roaring and the attic of the warehouse was cosy and inviting. Carlos had stolen several flasks of hot chocolate and freshly baked pastries from an abandoned vendors cart as soon as the heavens had opened and so the friends ate heartily and were warm and fed.

The boys had retreated to their own private areas of the warehouse after a few hours, leaving the two girls to talk but the room had been plunged into darkness as the storm doubled its effort and the power had been cut shortly after that.

In the darkness, illuminated by the orange glow of the flames in the fire, Mal had confessed a secret she had been carrying around with her for nearly three months.

"I'm pregnant," she told the flames licking the logs, unable to face her best friend. Her nerves were eating at her insides and she wanted to throw up but Mal remained stoic on the sofa, a true vision of the girl her mother had raised her to be.

"Are you sure?" Evie's back was ramrod straight and she was crossing her fingers under the material of her dress, hoping that Mal had counted wrong or was simply late. She fought to keep her tone neutral. Raising a child on the Isle was hard, but Evie knew any child of Mal's would be doomed to live a life of crime under Maleficent's unmerciful thumb.

"I'm positive. It's Hook's," was all Mal had said before she was on her feet, her nervous energy making her unable to sit still.

Mal paced around the dark hideout, wringing her hands in front of her as she completed a circuit around the room, using her memory and the brief lightning flashes to navigate her way around in the dark. A million thoughts were zipping through her mind as she walked.

"Oh Gods above, you're making me dizzy!" Evie complained from the hearth of the fireplace after a while, rubbing her eyes as Mal slowed to a stop. "And all this stress cannot be good for the baby," she added which made Mal groan and resume the agonising fidgeting in the centre of the living area.

"Don't say that again!" Mal warned, wringing her fingers. "Don't make me regret telling you either," she added as a distracted afterthought.

It was then that Evie could hear the fear in Mal's voice. The blue-haired girl softened and she got up from her knees and interrupted Mal's circuit around the room.

"Mal," she began slowly, holding her arms out as an invitation for a hug. "I promise you won't regret telling me." Mal's lower lip trembled and she rushed forward, allowing Evie to wrap her arms around her. "I'm here for you both," Evie soothed her best friend.

Mal stiffened. "Me and this child or Hook and I?"

"You. You before anyone else and if you do have this child, then I will love and protect it like I do you," Evie told her truthfully. "Have you told anyone else? Does he know?"

Mal sighed and a bolt of lightning highlighted the tears on her cheeks. "No. My mother would demand I get rid of it or she would raise it. The boys will only worry and Hook's ship set sailed for a trip around the barrier a few weeks ago and has yet to return. You're the only person I trust with this," Mal sniffed and Evie led them to the reclaimed sofa.

They sunk into the cushions and held each other as the rain continued to hammer the roof and Mal cried. Evie was holding back her own tears when she untangled herself from Mal and reached over to the wooden crate they used as a coffee table.

When she sat back, Mal could just about make out the cream envelope in Evie's hand. It was made of thick, expensive paper and closed with a golden seal, an emblem of a blooming rose pressed into the hardened wax. Mal recognised it because she had been given one by a cloaked figure that morning.

Mal sat up and pulled her own crumpled letter from her back pocket. She smoothed it out on her thigh and held it up next to Evie's. She noticed that Evie had yet to open hers either.

"Open them together?" Evie questioned and Mal bit her lip and nodded.

Slowly, the girls used their nails to break the wax seal and open the envelope. The inside was golden and a single letter nestled between rose petals. Mal and Evie looked at each other and then simultaneously pulled out the letter, brushing the stray petals to the floor.

They read them silently by the firelight and when they had finished, Mal's letter was on the ground and both girls were crying. The noise brought Jay and Carlos out from their rooms and they quickly came to the girls' sides. Jay reached them first and wrapped both girls into his arms as Carlos picked up Mal's letter.

"We've both got one too," the white-haired boy told them. "Opened them an hour or so ago." His voice was thick with emotion and unshed tears.

"There's something I- I need to tell you both," Mal stuttered over the words and the boys joined the girls on the sofa.

"You're pregnant," Jay told her gently. "It's alright, I already knew," he said in reply to Mal's shocked gasp. Carlos, on the other hand, was stunned speechless.

"How?" was all Evie said, slightly jealous that Jay somehow knew.

"A week or two ago you stayed the night here but you were throwing up as soon as you got up. Continued for the few days you stayed but you didn't have food poisoning because everything you ate, I had eaten too," he explained as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Only other explanation I could think of."

"Is it his?" Carlos asked quietly. Mal had always only been entangled with one man.

"Yeah. You three are the only ones who know though."

"What are you going to do?" Jay asked.

"Whatever you decide, we are all here for you Mal," Evie said seriously.

Mal smiled at her friends and looked at the letter Carlos had passed to her. "It looks like we're going to Auradon and maybe the baby will have a better life there."


September

Mal, Evie, Jay and Carlos had packed their clothes and belongings into bags and cases, slowly taking their possessions from their parents' houses and moving it the hideout without raising suspicion.

All of them knew that their parents would refuse to let them leave for Auradon and so the quartet had only frequented their family homes when called upon. It was a good job that the four usually spent more time at the hideout and had the majority of their belongings there.

A car had arrived and the four had successfully left the Isle without encountering their parents or actually informing them. On September 5th, Mal guessed she was roughly eleven weeks along and had relied on her friends to help her come to terms with the fact that she was carrying a child, a truth she had distanced herself from. And it wasn't just any child; the perfect mixture of one of the most ruthless villains on the Isle and the strongest witch in the past century according to the rumours.

As the had limo pulled up in front of the school's courtyard, the quartet had been greeted by the headmistress, and a prince and princess. Prince Ben, the royal who had decreed that villainous kids from the Isle should be educated, had shown the four around and looked confused when Evie and Mal rushed off to a toilet for Mal's morning sickness to pass. The four had then been escorted to dinner and left to their own devices to make their way to their rooms with a map from the Prince.

"So we're not going to mention the b-word situation at all?" Carlos had asked when the four found the boys' room and let themselves in.

"No, not until its necessary," Evie replied as she sat on the closest bed. "Oh, it's soft!"

Mal had taken to subconsciously resting a hand on her flat stomach. "What's going to happen when I start to show? Or if word gets back to the Isle?"

Jay wrapped the girl in a hug. "We'll just take everything one day at a time, like usual."

For the rest of the month, the VKs had settled into life at Auradon Prep.

The girls had blossomed in class. Evie had become a top contender with her grades and achievements whilst also undertaking classes in fashion, sewing and textiles. She quickly became the person to go to if you wanted a custom design or needed help with chemistry work.

Mal had kept her head down, only using her magic when she was alone with the VKs, but she continued to practise her skills and hone her talent. She was serious about making a good name for herself in Auradon and Fairy Godmother had taken her under her wing to develop and widen her magic skills for the better.

Her pregnancy had also caused her mood to swing dangerously and she became withdrawn from her peers as many were quick to blame evilness for her sudden changes in attitude. Mal also began to gag at certain smells or foods and none of the VKs ate anything with oranges in it as the smell of the citrus fruit was enough to make Mal throw up.

The boys had also settled in. Jay was one of the best sports players at the school and was seen as a catch for anyone to date. Carlos had taken a shine to animal husbandry and was on the polo and horse riding teams, working himself to become one of the most trusted students when it came to the animals.

Both boys had always been fiercely protective over the girls, but with Mal's predicament, she was never far from one or the other and she was rarely left alone, but she preferred it that way and was grateful to her friends more than ever. Everyone at the school knew if they needed Mal, they should expect to find Jay, Evie or Carlos faithfully by her side.

October

October arrived with cold breezes and infrequent dustings of frost on the ground, and Mal, now just under four months along, was thankful she was no longer experiencing morning sickness, but she was suffering from heartburn and fatigue more often than not.

Evie and the boys found Mal's scattered pregnancy brain hilarious as the purple-haired witch forgot or misplaced things. In the third week of October, as the leaves began to fall and the school broke up for the Hallowe'en half term, the four VKs remained behind and they scoured the library's vast magical collection for anything to help with the pregnancy.

Over the week that they were the only students at the school, Mal brewed a tonic with Evie's chemistry knowledge and she and Jay researched about both pregnancy and potions to mask the symptoms. On Hallowe'en, the final day of the half-term holiday, Carlos had stumbled across a spell to hide the slight swell of Mal's stomach.

With Evie and Jay sat on either side of her, Mal wrote a letter to the Pirate, whose ship had still not returned to the Main Harbour of the Isle according to Carlos. They gave the letter to Fairy Godmother and by this time, Mal was certain Fairy Godmother suspected something but she never approached the subject. The headmistress simply doubled their private magic lessons and helped Mal conquer health and domestic spells and promised to deliver the letter before the end of the month.

If they were in public, the VKs referred to the baby as 'the bird' and spent a long time planning the next few weeks. Evie was beginning to tailor some maternity clothes for Mal. The witch continued to use the spell Carlos had found to hide her bump during the day but when she was alone in her room on the weekends or after classes, she lifted the magic and marvelled in the sight of the bump above her pelvis.

She had always been a slender girl and even the sight of the small bump made her heart flutter in anticipation.

Would she be a good mother? Would she be allowed to stay and raise her child in conjunction with the school on Auradon? Would Hook ever meet the child? Would Maleficent try and take the child? The questions echoed through her head all the time but she didn't try to dwell on them.

November

Autumn was well and truly underway by the time November arrived. Not only was Mal happier about the cooler weather and the leaves and frost on the ground, but the spells and tonics she had cast and brewed over the half term meant she was comfortable and no longer suffering from a multitude of annoying symptoms.

Evie had been guessing the gender of the child for weeks but when Mal hit four months, Evie had taken one of her needles and dangled it on a thread above Mal's stomach one night in their room. The two girls watched as the needle swung back and forth like a pendulum over the bump. The old wives tale was enough for Evie to be convinced it was a boy and she began to list names she had been thinking about.

"I still think its a girl," Mal told her best friend. She had subconsciously been referring to the child as a girl but she had yet to voice it aloud.

Evie pouted and climbed into bed. "Jay thinks its a girl too but Carlos agrees with me, so I guess the bird will have to side with one of us."

Mal grinned as she eased herself into bed. "She'll listen to her mother," she told her best friend, resting her hands atop of the bump.

Evie snorted. "Yeah right. He's obviously going to side with me, his cool godmother," she laughed.

"Who said anything about you being godmother?" Mal asked, suddenly serious which made Evie sit up and look at her with abnormally wide eyes. "I'm kidding. Of course you're the godmother," Mal snickered as Evie visibly deflated.

"Oh my gods, I thought you were being serious and I was freaking out!" Evie complained through strained laughter.

The next morning Mal was called to Godmother's office before registration and she had a strange, uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach so she made Evie and her boyfriend Doug accompany her.

Doug had easily slotted into the friendship group, almost as if he had transferred from the Isle and grown up with the VKs. Evie and Doug began to date at the beginning of October and by the middle of November, Doug was as good as a VK and fully integrated into the group. Mal had asked Evie to tell him and he had taken the news surprisingly well and become one of Mal's main supporters.

"Do you think this is about the bird?" Doug asked the two girls as they climbed the main school's stairs to Godmother's office.

"What if she asks you to leave?" Evie worried aloud, gripping both Doug and Mal's hands with such pressure Mal winced and Doug whined.

"She won't do that. If anything she may just be offering support," Doug answered his girlfriend. Mal couldn't concentrate and she simply took in the surroundings, in case she was asked to leave the school that had become her home and could never return.

"You're freaking her out," Evie hissed, realising that Mal was paler than usual. The trio came to a halt at the top of the stairs and both Doug and Evie came to Mal's sides. She was breathing deeply, almost like she was out of breath or as if she couldn't breathe enough.

"Mal?" Evie panicked, gripping her arms to stop her swaying. Mal's head lolled forwards and her knees gave way but before she could fall to the floor, Doug and Evie were holding her waist and keeping her upright.

"Oh gods above," Evie panicked and she helped Doug half carry, half drag Mal to Godmother's office. "Help! Godmother, help!"

The woman looked up suddenly with wide eyes and a slack jaw. It took her only seconds to snap into action and she swept around from her desk, pushing past the two boys that had been stood shoulder to shoulder in front of her, and she used her magic to pull the chaise lounge from under the windows out and closer so that the couple could set the unconscious girl down.

"What happened?" Godmother asked, waving her wand over the girl and removing all of the magical enchantments she was wearing.

Both Evie and Doug winced as the spell concealing Mal's bump and the magic that held her hair in the elaborate updo came undone. Both physically reacted to when Godmother gasped but the sudden loud noise behind them made all jump.

When Evie and Doug had burst through the door, Godmother had been in consolation with two of the latest Isle transfers. The two pirates were shuffling under the Godmother's glare as she tried to hunt down her pen.

"It's here somewhere, don't you worry," Godmother told the boys as she rooted around her cluttered desk. "I think it's he-" but she never finished her sentence as the door was kicked open revealing a limp Mal in the arms of her friends.

Godmother forgot about the pen and gripped her wand, pushing past Gil and Harry to rush to the girl's side. No-one paid the two pirates any mind as the spells were reversed until Harry's silver hook was wobbling, piercing the mahogany wood of Godmother's desk.

"What the hell happened," he hissed, seething at the sight.

"Oh gods above," Evie whispered, gripping Doug's hand.

"And he is?" Doug whispered back, standing in front of Evie in a protective way.

"That's the father."


Hello, I'm back after a long break from fic writing due to university work (as i write this is am actively ignoring my english assignment) with part one of a possible three part story about a pregnant mal and harry!

Its for the lovely Christa and i was supposed to post this in November so i apologise deeply for the delay. Please leave me a comment, favourite and follow as it gives me motivation to write and ignore my pressing deadlines but which fanfic writer can argue with that?

Love, Pops xo