Thanks again Temo! Snow and Henry were wondering around looking for help. Yep you are correct, but think of it more as energy drain.

Flashback time!

***
Regina was tending the tree, her apple tree. She had brought back a branch that had fallen off of the one on her father's estate, when she visited the place for the last of her things. She and the royal gardener, who was well aware of how miserable the queen was in her new marriage, and was taking full advantage of her desire for escape, had grafted the tree branch onto a tree in the courtyard. It was now growing apples, which pleased Regina.
Her mother knew of the affair, but had said nothing more then a tense warning about messing things up, and then proceeded to tell her how to time her dalliances around her monthly cycle, so as not to give herself away, by conceiving children.
This of course, made Regina despise her even more, but she followed her advice.

Regina plucked an apple from the tree. Taking a bite, she savored the crunch. 13-year-old Snow interrupted her moment of serenity.
"Isn't it funny how you can graft a single branch from another tree and transform a useless old oak tree into a fruit tree." Snow babbled. Regina sighed. She put on a smile.
"Even the smallest of things, can transform a person." Regina replied. She said it with a smile, but an angry tone was present.
Snow raised an eyebrow, but didn't comment on the tone. "I was talking about the tree."
Regina forced another taunt smile. "The same applies to people."

Snow frowned, not understanding. "So can I try one?"
Regina nodded. She handed the apple she was eating to Snow. She wasn't enjoying it now anyway.
"I don't want the one you bit off of already." Snow complained.
Regina's emotional state was already off before she came to the garden, which is why she had come, and now her patience was shot. "Fairies, you can be so bratty."
Snow blinked. She looked like she had never been openly insulted for anything before. She was taken by surprise and looked a little wounded.

"She is just trying to share, Snow White. That is what people who care about each other do. They share things with each other." Cora had apparently been in the garden, perhaps just around the bushes. Regina sighed. So much for sanity restoration. Though she was glad her mother had softened the blow. She was feeling frazzled and wasn't sure she could have recovered so quickly.
Snow nodded. "Oh, I didn't think about that."
"That's okay, my dear." Cora crooned. "Go ahead and take a bite, so you can tell my daughter, what you think of her hard work."
Snow bit the apple. The apple was really good, Regina knew this, and Snow's face lit up. "It's the best apple I have ever tasted."
Regina gave a weak smile.

Cora gave a broad smile. "It's from our tree back at our old house. Regina loved standing under that tree and eating its apples." She gave Regina a cruel smile, that said she knew what really happened under the tree other then apple eating.
"Let's take leave of my daughter, Snow. Let her enjoy her small pleasure underneath her new tree. I want to show you something." Cora turned back to Snow. "Perhaps she will feel better later."
Snow frowned, but this time in worry. "She isn't feeling well? She isn't really sick, I hope."
Cora put her arm around her shoulder. "Nothing a few moments of silence and a reality check won't fix."
Snow didn't ask what she meant and looked over her shoulder at Regina who was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't even smile.
Snow frowned. "Are we sure, we should leave her all alone?"
Cora smiled tenderly. "Of course, mothers always know what's best for their daughters. Come let me show you a really neat trick."
Snow happily followed her, leaving Regina to sit at the bench beneath the tree, her tree, and weep.
When the gardener came by, Regina told him to go away.

Regina figured she must have been there for at least an hour before she stopped crying.
She was just getting up when Snow came back. She gave her a shoulder hug and then
she seemed to survey Regina, trying to gauge her emotional state.
"Want to see what your mother taught me?" Snow asked cautiously.
Regina looked up. She tried to push past her thoughts for a smile. Snow was trying to cheer her up at least. "Sure."
Snow picked up a rock from the garden wall. A fist sized rock. Putting it in Regina's hand, she then stroked it with her fingers, closing her eyes.
The rock transformed into an apple. A dark red apple, not like the apples on Regina's tree.
Regina could feel it's dark magic. She had felt her mother use it on her enough times, to feel the familiar crawling sensation. Regina paled.

"What..how...?" Was all she managed.
Snow smiled. "Your mother taught me, but I'm not going to share. A true magician never reveals his secrets, right?"
Regina bit back the urge to remark on that last statement. "What does it do?" She asked, fear settling into the pit of her stomach.
Snow frowned. "Do? It's an apple. Not a trained monkey."
Regina ignored this. She closed her eyes and tried to read the magic radiating off of the apple. It seemed soothing, like sleeping. It was a sleeping spell. A forgetting spell.
Regina shuddered.
"Well try it, it should taste just like a real one. I tried your mom's last one. Though hers was supposed to taste like chocolate apples. It was really good. " Snow babbled on.

Regina froze. Snow was doing dark magic. Something that Regina couldn't do. She had tried once in vengeance, to imitate her mother's magic, but had been unsuccessful. Her father caught her, and told her that you needed to be born with dark magic or obtain in from someone with dark magic, for it to work. He also told her to be glad that she hadn't received any. It brings many enemies and much suffering. Regina had growled that she was already suffering. But she had not pursued magic. Regina knew things could always be worse.

Regina looked up at Snow for the first time in real fear. Snow sensed this. "Your mother said it would help you not feel sad anymore."
Regina tightened her grip on the apple. "Snow, this is dark magic. What did my mother do to you?"
Snow frowned. "What? Nothing, I just learned a trick, that's all." Panic was rising in her voice. Fear.

Good.
Regina grabbed her arm. "My mother is not a nice person. Do you understand? If she did something to you, you would tell me, right? I am your mother after all." She rarely pulled this card with Snow, because she hated being her mother, but now she was frightened and needed Snow to be too.
Snow began to tremble. "She didn't do anything to me...she said I was a natural... I didn't know it was bad, I swear..." Snow's lip quivered. "Does this make me a bad person?"

Regina swallowed. "No." She meant it too. If Snow was, then so was she. She couldn't stand Snow, but apparently they were in this misery together. Nobody deserved a mother like Cora.
Regina had swirling questions in her head. She had to get to the bottom of this. Even if she hated Snow, she would be hanged if she was going to let her mother turn her into some sort of trained monkey. Unknowingly doing dark magic for her twisted plans.
Regina looked Snow in the eye. "I'm going to talk to your father, no you aren't in trouble..." She added quickly seeing Snow's doe eyes. "We will sort this out. But for now, no more tricks."
Snow nodded, still trembling.
"Now go have fun, pretend this didn't happen. We will talk again later." Regina added.
Snow ran away out into the gardens, tense and trembling.
King Leopold was definitely going to get grilled. He had a lot of explaining to do. And maybe he could get her mother expelled. Regina had heard that he used a hat makers services to lock away his most dangerous criminals. Regina tried not to get her hopes up as she approached the library where she knew the king was reading.