Chapter 30

November passed by relatively uneventfully, with the exception of the mid-November school wide exam week.

All of them were sitting the main exams, with the exception of maths and English for Gil and Harry. Their teachers had written a special paper for them to cover the fundamentals and then what they'd covered since they'd joined the main class.

On the whole, the group had done quite well in their exams, Evie and Doug had taken great pleasure describing the argument that had broken out in the chemistry practical as Audrey and Chad were still lab partners. Although, in the others opinion, it was a shame there had been no repeat explosion.

Mal was grateful that Carlos had been helping her out with the maths work, she'd managed to scrape a B-, the teacher was even surprised at her result.

The two pirates had also officially managed to 'graduate' from Goodness 101 by passing the exam, this meant they were allowed to pick another elective subject each. Harry selected the woodwork course, he was still set on one day building a ship of his own whereas Gil selected a beginners French class, hoping to learn more of his father's native language. His father had attempted to teach it to him and his brothers when they were younger but Gil was convinced that all he had been taught was hunting terminology and swear words.

The prank they'd planned to carry out on Audrey after Family Day had gone off without a hitch. The gossip sites had been intrigued by the princess's new gothic look as she fumed her way through her school day. Mal had used her magic to also turn all her makeup black for the day. Hopefully it would teach her not to mess with the other girls. While the prank had primarily been done to help Jane they all knew Audrey had multiple targets amongst the residents of the girls' dorm.

Thankfully the first art lesson after Family Day that Harry had been asked to attend hadn't been anything like either had thought. They'd been taken to a smaller room in the art department where Flynn Ryder (or Eugene Fitzherbert depending on the company) had been waiting with a far nicer tattoo gun than the one they'd used on the Isle. She'd wanted to see the girl at work, it took all of five minutes for the young couple to decide on the necklace pendant design Mal had been sketching the week before. Just under two hours later Harry was the proud owner of yet another piece of ink work, Mal had fitted it in a space on his lower back. After Flynn had wrapped the artwork, apparently this was something you were meant to do and also regularly apply some special cream, Mrs Fitz said that no matter what Mal did during the art exam she'd have an A for the fine art section.

As the first weekend of December approached, and the weather began to grow colder, Mal stayed back after her magic class with Jane to have a quick word with Fairy Godmother.

"Would it be okay if Harry and I were to take Jane Darling into the town this Saturday?" She thought it would be polite to ask as the younger students were only allowed to go in if their parents had signed a form and they had an older student as a chaperone.

"Of course, dear, her parents signed the form - may I ask why?"

"Well she's pretty much adopted the two of us as older siblings and we're going to her home after Christmas. The least we could do is help her out with the gifts, and get to know her better." Mal replied with a small shrug.

"I'd seen her becoming close, very good idea - enjoy your trip" Fairy Godmother said, dismissing the girl with a smile.

On Saturday morning the girls were woken by loud, consistent knocking on their door. Mal just threw her pillow over her head hoping the old 'ignorance is bliss' saying would work and they'd go away. Thankfully Evie made her way over to the door.

Seeing who was on the other side she was surprised by their appearance at that time. Despite the walk from the boys to girls dorm being completely indoors the duo looked like they'd been outside.

"What's the matter you two? It's Saturday!" Despite Evie's early morning routine on week days she was much more relaxed on the weekends.

"THERE'S SNOW OUTSIDE" was all Gil said in a voice filled with childlike joy, getting Mal's attention. "and it's just like in the stories"

At this Mal made the effort to get out of bed, all she had been wearing was one of Harry's match day shirts. She spotted that both Gil and Harry were at the door and looking at the colour of their skin they'd been having a snowball fight.

"Mal, we're meant to be taking Jane into town in 15 minutes - she's in the common room ready to go!" Harry said to his girlfriend, however she spotted the devious look on his face. Unfortunately, for Mal, Harry was quicker than her half-asleep reactions and she was soon attacked by a snowball.

"HARRY! You'll get payback for this later" she said with a smirk before heading for the shower, the snowy slush dripping off her chin.

"Guys, go and wait in the common room, I'll send her your way when she's ready" Evie said to the two boys hoping Gil didn't have a snowball for her. Thankfully they both left the room.

When Mal appeared in the common room 15 minutes later she was wearing her red pirate coat, along with some black skinny jeans. Harry spotted the new shoes, they looked like Dr Martens boots but with fluff inside them. No doubt Evie had spotted them and bought them for her friend knowing she didn't have much winter stuff.

"Hey princess, more awake now?" he greeted her, with a soft kiss to her cheek remembering their audience.

"Yes, thanks for that lovely wakeup call - Hey Jane! Ready to hit the town?" Mal replied giving the younger girl a quick hug in greeting while rolling her eyes at Harry.

"I can't wait! Thank you so much for inviting me" the younger girl practically gushed, "what did he do to you?" she asked innocently pointing towards Harry.

"You're welcome, it will be fun. Apparently, he thinks a good way to wake someone up is to throw a snowball at them" causing both Jane and Harry to laugh, along with a few amused looks being exchanged between the rooms other occupants.

As they walked from the school into town easy conversation flowed between the trio. Jane was simply excited to leave school as the only time she'd been off campus was for a class trip to the history museum.

"That trip was so boring! Did you know they've got models of you parents in there?" Jane asked them conversationally.

"That's news to me" Harry replied, he'd never visited and had no real interest to visit either.

"I did, gave me the fright of my life when the four of us came across them. Have they put the spell book with my mother's sceptre?" Mal asked Jane, not revealing that they'd visited in the middle of the night to try and steal the wand.

Jane nodded that that's indeed where the spell book had been placed.

She then began to tell Mal and Harry about her various classmates, who her friends were and what they were all getting up to that day. It turned out she'd become quite good friends with Aziz's little brother, Abu, as they were two of the only people in their year who didn't already know a lot of the others given where they grew up.

Harry now knew who he had to keep his eye on for the rest of the year.

Mal asked the girl about her younger brother Daniel, to find out more about him as he was the only Darling they hadn't yet met.

"He's mostly just annoying and messy." Jane said with a sigh "I miss him though, but it's been nice to be away from him at the same time if you know what I mean?"

"Trust me Jane, if you spoke to my sisters they'll tell you they love not having me around anymore, according to them I was becoming a 'grumpy, bitter codfish'" Harry replied, fully understanding what it was like to have siblings.

Thankfully Jane didn't ask for an explanation just assuming it was typical sibling antics, neither Harry or Mal wanted to tell the young girl too much about what life was like on the Isle.

They spent the morning walking round the market square and nearby shops, buying various things for peoples presents. The VK's had decided to do a secret santa between them, and then just buy a gift for their boyfriends/girlfriends.

Harry had drawn Jay's name, and Mal had Gil's. They'd had a good time discussing ideas as they looked around at what was on offer.

As they walked to one of the town's cafes for lunch all three of them felt they'd had a successful morning having gotten everything they'd needed, except Harry and Mal's present for each other - but they'd have other opportunities to go into town.

Over lunch Jane asked the couple how they'd first met, from the look on her face it was clear she was expecting some fairy tale story.

"We first met when we were about six, we would help our parents out by doing some small tasks for them and we kept bumping into each other" Mal began to explain, trying to make life sound cheerful and more normal to what Jane would expect.

"We learned that if we teamed up to help our parents we'd have more time to play and have fun, so that's what we did" Harry continued "by the time we were 10 we were best friends pulling all sorts of pranks on the unsuspecting Isle residents" he said with a laugh thinking about what they used to do, usually with their respective gangs help.

"On the Isle relationships don't really exist but by the time we were 12 our feelings and actions were more than friends, you've got to remember we grew up quicker over there" Mal said spotting the aghast expression on Jane's face as she couldn't imagine having a boyfriend at 12.

"Have you read Romeo and Juliet yet Jane?" Mal asked her.

"Yes, at my old school we had to read it in class." she replied, not sounding too thrilled about having been forced to read Shakespeare.

"Well when our dad's, Hades and Captain Hook, found out they forbid us from even being friends and from seeing each other" at this the young girls face looked crestfallen, "however we weren't having it and orchestrated all sorts of ways to stay together, be it secret meet ups, fake fights between our gangs. Let's just say we weren't going to be listening to our Dad's" Mal finished with a smirk.

"Then Auradon happened, and I think you know the story from there" Harry finished.

"Wow that's so sweet" Jane said, causing a look of slight mortification to flash over the older two teens faces. "What do your Dad's think now?" she asked before taking a sip of hot chocolate.

"Well my older sister always knew what was going on, and Da worked it out after I changed when Mal left so he was actually pretty okay with it given everything. He's happy it's all worked out over here certainly" Harry said, giving Mal a beaming smile.

"Mine seems okay, although he did only find out the full extent of everything a few weeks ago so I can't really tell for sure" Mal said with a small laugh remembering the call they'd had after the tourney match party.

"Anyway, enough about us - tell us all about what we can get up to in London?" Mal asked, successfully distracting her from potentially difficult topics.

It felt like Jane was telling them every small detail about the city they were set to visit, it would be the first time either of them had been anywhere that wasn't the Isle, Auradon Prep or the local town. It sounded as though they had an action-packed week planned for when they were there from what was being discussed.

"What would you like to do before heading back to Boreadon Prep? Harry asked Jane.

"Could we go to the history museum? There were some questions I had that neither my teacher or the guide could answer that you two might?" she asked, adopting her best innocent expression hoping to win the pair over.

Mal and Harry had one of their silent conversations knowing that if she had questions it would most likely be related to the Villain wing. Both knew if they didn't want to tell her something they could just divert her attention long enough.

"Sure Jane let's go!" Mal said trying to sound enthusiastic. As far as she knew the waxwork of her mother was the closest thing to a human Maleficent currently around, hopefully she wouldn't find it as unsettling this time.

Harry, having never been to the museum, had no idea what he was about to be walking into. He had heard the four original VK's mentioning the adventures of their first night in Auradon but more to complain that because of Jay they had to go to school the next day.

As they walked into the grand welcome hall of the museum Harry was beginning to doubt she'd actually been there before as she was taking it all in. Checking that Jane was suitably distracted he whispered "I thought you'd been here before princess?"

"Yes, but we came in through a much less official back door, so this is all new" she whispered in response.

It came as no surprise when Jane took them straight to the villain's section, they were more surprised about the number of other visitors the area had. Seeing the amount of other people in the room they instantly adopted their Isle persona's which kept villains a good distance from them, hopefully it would work on the good citizens of Auradon - they were too recognisable to pretend they were anyone else.

Jane spotted the shift in them but she'd seen all six of them occasionally do it at school, she'd never ask them why but she assumed it was some form of defence mechanism.

"Do you know everyone in the room?" Jane asked while looking at all the models.

"Well we're direct descendants of three of them, another four are the parents of our closest friends, and the others we've had interactions with growing up" Harry answered with a shrug, while levelling a nearby family with a death glare, causing them to hastily move away.

"How accurate are the statues of your parents?" it was clear Jane was trying to ask easy questions to try to warm them up to whatever it was she wanted to actually ask.

"My mother is spot on, she really does look that evil and scheming on a day to day basis - if you were on the receiving end it was normally a good idea to make yourself scarce" Mal mused, "however they've totally messed Dad's hair up - you see he has a blue Mohawk that is actually on fire. It can also change colour to red if he gets too angry about something."

"Dad's is pretty good, his hair is shorter now but I guess that's what it was like back on Neverland" Harry said while reading the plaque next to his dad, "thank goodness they don't mention my sisters or I on this stupid thing!" Truth be told, the plaque didn't hold much information at all about them as people beyond their 'most evil' crimes.

Jane started fidgeting, not sure on how to ask the next question - or even if it was appropriate. Any unknowing person would have long left the area due to the VK's faces, so far she hadn't actually angered them, even if by accident.

"Jane, just ask what you want to - it can't be that bad!" Mal asked, hoping to get it over with.

"I don't understand, we've not studied the Olympus stuff yet, but from what I've read - how is Hades actually a villain?"

Mal just raised an eyebrow, amazed that a 12-year-old could see what an entire council of adults couldn't. She knew the only reason her dad was so okay with Isle life was because his eternal lifespan would far outlive the concept of the island prison.

"If you compare him to my mother, or even the Evil Queen, then he's actually relatively harmless" she began hoping to try and explain it to Jane. "See his only real 'crime' was to try and turn an immortal, mortal - Hercules. Technically not much wrong with that really. It was when he got that Megara involved to try and defeat Hercules - that's really how they decided to send him off. Someone had to take the fall for it all. Funniest thing is he's the most feared person on that rock, probably because he still has access to almost all of his regular powers" she finished.

It appeared however that Jane still had another question, although not directly related to the museum. "What's it like growing up in the place where all the 'evil masterminds' live? It's not like all the heroes live together - could you imagine the egos competing!" she finished with a snicker, reminding the older two why they were so taken with her.

This question caused Harry and Mal to momentarily freeze up, genuinely shocked by it that it took them a good few seconds to think up an answer, it was Harry who spoke up first.

"Honestly? It's a living nightmare. Most of the adults are constantly competing to be the most feared, then they force the kids to partake in the same competitions. By the age of 10 I was one of the most proficient sword fighters. Being a kid of one of the more feared villains almost painted a bigger target on your back, the lesser villains constantly trying to do something to the kids to tick the adults off."

"Basically you see things no child should ever have to, experiences too that just can't be comprehended. The amount of injuries we've had to help each other through is endless, and that's just from parental wrath, and I was lucky as I had one parent that actually cared about me and tried to protect me. The lack of magic is also a bonus, stopped my mother, Ursula and EQ from a full-on war" Mal summarised.

"Jane, can you give us a couple of minutes? Do you want to go to the Neverland room and we'll meet you there?" she asked her.

The younger girl just nodded, aware that she'd picked a difficult topic for them. She also knew they'd told her almost nothing which made her wonder just how horrific a place it was to grow up.

Once she'd left the room Mal and Harry just stood there hugging each other. They couldn't risk talking as they didn't know anyone in the room and the dark topics plaguing their thoughts were not for unknown company. Even the harsh reality they'd told Jane about was sugar coated, the initiations were bad enough. Both knew they'd need the other that evening if they had a hope of any sleep - their dreams would be plagued with their nightmare filled youths.

They soon realised that they were attracting a little too much attention, two VK's stood in the museums villain wing. As they headed out they shot their parents statues a final look, a small shiver running up Mal's spine seeing Maleficent stood their ruling the room.

Neither of them had been to the Neverland room before and were both amazed by the full-scale replica of Skull Rock that was the rooms centrepiece. From what they could see it was some kind of kids play area, if they were allowed in it would made a good picture to send to Captain Hook.

They spotted Jane over at the interactive map of the island, she was reading about Mermaid Lagoon.

"Would never have pegged you as a mermaid girl" Mal said, making their presence known.

"They just seem so magical and it must be amazing to see all that's under the sea" Jane replied while still looking at the pictures. "I need to get a picture of you two in Skull Rock, my mum always takes one of my brother and I when we visit."

With this she grabbed their hands and towed them towards the museum worker who was manning the entrance, who looked thoroughly bored.

"Excuse me? Can my friends go in and sit in the eyes so I can take a picture to send to their Dad's?" Jane asked getting the staff members attention.

The worker glanced up from her small desk and looked at who Jane was talking about and visibly recoiled at seeing the two VKs right in front of her.

"Your 'friends' are a bit too old for a play area" she drawled sarcastically, both at the request and the fact she deemed the two as her friends.

"Please, they never got the chance when they were kids - please" Jane was almost begging.

"You realise if you say no, we'll just scale the rock from this side" Harry said bluntly, hoping it would work.

"Fine" she sighed, "be quick, and don't steal anything - we've got CCTV" Harry and Mal just rolled their eyes at this, it would take a long time before strangers stopped pre-judging them.

The two of them clambered up the play frame to reach the eyes, clearly designed for kids due to the small spaces they were having to squeeze through.

Once they'd reached the eye holes they both sat in one each and did a range of poses as directed by Jane, she even got one of the two of them kissing!

The exit to the play area was far easier than the way in, there was a slide that spat you out in the mouth of the rock, grudgingly the two admitted it was quite good fun when Jane asked. She also showed them the most recent picture of her and Daniel there.

They spent almost an hour in that museum room, Jane talking a mile a minute about everything her mother had ever shared with her. Occasionally she compared tales with Harry that he'd learned from his father - most matched up surprisingly well. The only real deviation was on the opinion of Peter Pan, which was to be expected. There was a model of Tic Tok in the room and Jane wanted another picture of Harry but this time one of him using his hook to pretend to catch the crocodile. Little did Jane know that he'd tried to do just that for many years on the Isle to try and make his father proud.

Just before five o'clock they headed back towards the school so they would make dinner, after the busy day they were all hungry. Once back at the school they split up and went to their different tables to eat after Jane had thanked the two for letting her get away from the school for the day.

Later that evening Harry and Mal were just sat in the girls dorm room, neither talking out loud but both were still thinking about the museum and the childhoods they had - if you could even call it a childhood.

Evie walked in and looked surprise to find the two just sat there, holding hands apparently staring into space.

"How did the grand adventure with Jane go?" Evie asked enthusiastically, not really understanding what the other two were up to.

"We went round the market this morning, she's managed to get all her presents sorted - be warned she might be coming round to ask for your wrapping help" Mal answered. Last year they'd discovered that Mal and the boys couldn't wrap a present if their life depended on it, but Evie could do a pretty good job at it.

"That's good, I'd be happy to help her out! What did you do in the afternoon, you only got back before dinner?" Evie asked, causing the two to trade a relatively dark look for what on the surface appeared to have been a good day out.

"We went to that stupid culture-history museum" Harry sneered, still not happy at the memories it resurfaced. "She took us to the villain's hall and asked us some questions."

This got Evie's attention as she knew the exact room they were discussing.

"She didn't ask anything dangerous?" Evie qualified.

"Not exactly, it was more what it brought up for us - she thinks we had a good afternoon at the museum which is all that matters" Mal replied with a small shrug. "We went to the Neverland room, and she took our pictures inside the Skull Rock and one of Harry trying to hook that stupid crocodile." As she said this she showed Evie the three pictures she'd sent to her Dad that would be shared with Captain Hook. One was a selfie of the three of them in the market square and then the two from the museum.

"They're nice pictures, she looked so happy heading out of dinner - you did a really good thing today. Harry do you want to stay here tonight, I remember what going to that wing did to me and I had a relatively sheltered life compared to what your parents put the two of you through when you were younger?" Evie offered.

"Aye thanks Evie. While I know Da cares for me in his own way some of the stuff he made me do was unforgivable." Harry replied in a tone Evie had never heard the pirate use and one Mal had only heard once just after his initiation. He sounded broken, and far older than his years.

"Thanks E - my mother's been plaguing my waking thoughts all afternoon, she'll be cursing my nightmares at this rate" Mal shot her friend an appreciative smile.

With this the two got ready for bed while Evie went to her sewing desk to continue working on some recent design ideas she'd been sketching. She's had a busy few weeks with the upcoming winter ball but most of that work was done now - just final fittings left.

Once she knew the couple were asleep she pulled her phone out to send a text to the other three boys to let them know what had happened at the museum. Gil responded almost instantaneously, relieved that his friend was okay and glad that Mal could help him out.

No doubt they'd have a group catch up at some point the next day. Evie knew the boys had a tourney practise in the morning so it would most likely be after lunch. Hopefully her and Mal could have a more girly morning as she knew they were both up to date on school work and no more exams before the holidays.