Chapter 33

The final bell of the school day rang out causing Harry, Mal and Ben to pack up their history books and notes. Ben had decided to transfer with the other two to ensure they didn't have similar issues with their new teacher.

Their new history class was taught by Miss Simmonds, a young English lady, who so far appeared to be a very neutral teacher. She'd displayed no favouritism towards the King and no harsh treatment towards Mal or Harry.

So far, they'd covered the regular topics, according to Ben, and at the moment they were spending a couple of lessons looking at the various old Kingdoms Christmas traditions. It was probably the most observant the pair had been in class. Ben realised it was due to their upcoming trip to London and their lack of celebrating Christmas until last year.

Since Evie's college weekend Harry and Ben had been getting on much better, making history class and Mal's life in general a lot easier. Besides the immediate group and the headmistress, Ben was the only other person to know that they had asked to talk to a professional.

The trio began walking towards Fairy Godmothers office, where their first session would be held and Mal started talking to Ben.

"Have you ever met this Dr Hopper before?" she asked him, hoping he'd detect the unasked question.

"Yes, he helped me prepare for becoming King. He's probably the most non-judgemental voice around here" Ben replied giving them a small smile. The fact that Mal was wearing her purple and green leather jacket for the first time in weeks was a true show of how nervous she was. Even Harry had opted for a more pirate style than usual - his bulky, buckled boots from the first week were back.

"Thanks Ben, see you at dinner?" Mal asked, grateful he'd answered a little more thoroughly. They had just reached the first office which belonged to Ben when he wasn't at Castle Beast. He just nodded and headed through the door. Mal smiled at the state of the room - clearly, he'd never be the most organised person.

Mal and Harry entered the headmistress's office hand in hand, neither sure of quite what to expect.

A comfy looking sofa for two was in front on the desk normally occupied by Fairy Godmother, however in her seat was a middle-aged man wearing a three-piece suit, a slightly receding ginger hairline and glasses.

Fairy Godmother was stood just behind the man, evidently she was planning on doing the introductions.

"Mal, Harry - thank you for coming so promptly" she greeted them as they walked in, indicating that they were to take a seat on the sofa. "This is Dr Hopper, who will hopefully help you in regards to your past."

At this the doctor offered his hand to the two teens who both shook it politely, trying to give them as warm a welcome as possible given the reason behind his visit.

Content that the introductions had been carried out the headmistress excused herself from the room. Once she'd left the doctor spoke up, "please call me Archie - Dr Hopper is far too formal!"

"Hopefully you'll find this time with me beneficial, you can see me as often or as little as you like - I will take no offence to whatever approach is best for you." he began explaining to them. "Your headmistress asked me to see you both together and on an individual basis. The reason I felt we'd be best starting off together is due to your shared experiences and that you may feel more comfortable talking in the presence of each other than just myself. Any questions so far?" he asked the teens.

"How much do you already know about us?" Harry asked

"I only know that you grew up on the Isle - beyond that nothing. I saw Mal and her friends at the coronation but I'm not one for following the gossip sites" he explained. "I was offered your files, but I prefer to get to know my clients for real, rather than read another person's opinion on them." he said with a small smile at the pair.

"Perhaps we could start by you telling me how you met each other and your relationship grew to what it is now?" he opened.

Between Harry and Mal they told Archie about how they met and kept up their friendship, defying their fathers in the process and then their secret and not so secret relationship. It took around 30 minutes for them to fully talk it out, the Doctor just sat there in silence paying full attention to what was being said along with their body language. Occasionally he would make note of something they said or did.

By the end of their story Archie had learnt more about the Isle than any book could ever have taught him, more from their body language and the words they didn't say then those they did.

"Thank you for being so open with me. It's clear you've been friends for almost your entire lives. Hopefully in our individual sessions we'll be able to talk more about your parents as you only truly mentioned your fathers when they tried to force you to no longer 'hang out', also when you were discussing the tablet you've got that allows you to talk to them."

"Also, you're both incredibly cunning, with strong survival instincts. The fact you stood up to your parents in a way is admirable - most children here wouldn't dare, yet you two had, and still have, such a strong bond you risked the consequences. About your time here at Auradon Prep - what do you do outside of classes? Any teams?" Dr Hopper asked, the line of questioning confused them, both expecting more questions about the isle. Perhaps he could see that it wouldn't be the wisest route just now.

"Honestly, last year was mostly planning to get the wand - and I mainly spent it with Evie, Jay and Carlos. It was difficult being so far from Harry, and then Ben got dragged into it. Onto this year, I've begun extra magic tuition with Fairy Godmother and Jane, I've also started the Art elective which is really enjoyable, even made a friend through it. Besides that, not much really." Mal finished with a shrug.

"Gil and I, the other boy who came over with me, spent a lot of the early weeks in extra math and English - let's just say the Isle education is lacking. I joined the tourney team and might try out for swords and shields after the holidays" Harry answered.

"Glad to hear your both finding activities you enjoy here and that you've made friends with other students who are not just from the Isle." Archie said, then took a look at his watch.

"Thank you both for your time this evening, until the holidays I'd like our sessions to remain like this - casual conversations, learning more about each other. Then next term we can start trying to work through some more difficult areas - is this okay?" he asked.

"Yes" replied the two teens, who began to slowly stand up sensing they were being dismissed. "Thank you for today, it was nice to talk to someone who doesn't know us or have any preconceived ideas about us" Mal said to the Doctor.

"No problem, I look forward to seeing you again soon" Archie replied with a gentle smile as the two left the room.

After they'd descended the stairs from the office Mal turned to Harry, "Can we go back to my room, so I can grab my other jacket then head to dinner?" Harry simply nodded, and they began to head towards her dorm room.

She was hardly in her room a minute before she was back out with her matching red leather jacket to Harry's that Evie had made for her. She truly loved it but preferred to actually wear Harry's as it smelt of him and was surprisingly warm. Harry just smiled at her when she reappeared, the necklace he'd gotten her proudly on display - she always wore it, even to formal occasions when Evie tried to persuade her to other options.

Once they'd reached the canteen and got their food they sat at the VK table which had the usual group with the addition of Ben joining them. This upcoming weekend was the last one before the school broke up for the Christmas holidays the following Friday and it would be hosting the masquerade winter ball.

When they sat down at the table it appeared to be what the other three girls were talking about, the poor boys attempting to be interested but from the looks on their faces they weren't quite as enthusiastic.

"Ohh Mal" Evie said spotting her friend, "final fitting for you after dinner" she nearly squealed.

"Fine E, but surely you know by this stage that it should fit?" Mal replied while rolling her eyes.

"Yes, but you never know, minor design changes" she responded with a smile.

At this Mal just rolled her eyes and began eating the lasagne that she'd picked up, hoping she wasn't expected to be an active (and enthusiastic) participant in this particular conversation.

While eating she could hear Jane gushing about the gorgeous light blue fabric Evie had made her dress out off, and how much she was looking forward to seeing all the masks.

For this Ball most of the boys had actually gone into town for suits as their fashionista friend had extra work on her plate due to the masks. Mal had actually been doing a lot of the sketches for the masks, however Evie was the one making them, but she'd been in charge of the concept designs.

Towards the end of the meal, the boys still looking tortured, Mal couldn't believe there was anything left to actually discuss. It was something that Jane said that caught her attention, "Can't believe Audrey just walked out of helping to plan this - at least that means I can use magic to get the decorations up" she muttered, the whole table knew how anti-magic the princess was.

"Why did she pull out Jane?" Mal asked, genuinely curious as from what she'd observed Audrey lived for these kinds of showy events.

"She refused to organise another event the VK's would just waltz in and ruin - this was just after the Halloween party" Jane replied.

"Right, I've had enough of her attitude and I'm off to talk to her" Ben said from the end of the table. He knew she'd been against the idea since he first suggested it but to still dislike them after they'd been here for so long and fitted in so well. With that the King left to go and find her.

The table descended into a brief silence, before Carlos spoke up, "Wish we could watch that volcanic eruption" causing laughter to break out at the table.

Not long after they'd all finished their meals and began to head off in separate ways. The boys were off to the amphitheatre to try and help the two pirates learn to rules for the swords and shields club. Doug and Lonnie were off to the library and Jane was doing yet more ball preparation work.

This left Evie and Mal who made their way back to their room - Mal just hoping the torture wouldn't take too long. This was the first time she was actually seeing her dress, she'd been putting this off for the last week.

Evie appeared from the wardrobe with a dress bag and when she reached her little workstation in the room she began to unzip the bag.

Inside was a dark green ball gown, this made the girl wonder what Harry would be wearing as she knew her blue haired friend was trying to match the girls' dresses to what they had bought. When Evie showed the back of the dress to Mal she spotted the dark purple scales - this helped it tie into her mask design. Mal had designed that to be dragon like and had refused when Evie offered to alter the design.

Once the dress was on Mal had to admit that it was actually quite nice and did fit very well.

"Now you don't get to see the mask till Saturday but this doesn't need anything doing to it so, you're free" Evie said to her friend with a smile knowing she never enjoyed the fittings.

Mal hopped down from the pedestal and pulled on some leggings and her Auradon Prep jumper and headed towards her desk to try and get some homework done.

"How did it go meeting the Doctor?" Evie asked after they'd both been working away for about 30 minutes.

"Pretty good - he's the only person I've met who seems to see us for us, not our parents. He refused to find out anything about us beforehand so we've got a blank slate which is nice." she replied to her friend.

"That's great M, surely he must know who you are after last year?" Evie responded.

"Well he said he knows Harry and I are both from the Isle and he doesn't read the gossip sites so he's not seen much. The only time he's seen me before is when the four of us were at Ben's coronation." she filled in the gaps.

At this both girls went back to silently working on their school work. Hoping to get as much done before the holidays as possible. They asked the odd question back and forth if they were stuck but beyond that just kept their heads down.

"E, I'll be back in 10 - just need to go and see Ellie about some art stuff." Mal said as she made her way out of the room. She was gone before Evie could say bye, while she'd been truthful about going to see Ellie, art wasn't the reason behind it. She'd received an SOS text from the girl.

She knocked on the other girl's door, and the almost white haired girl opened it moments later - clearly expecting the visitor.

"Thank you Mal, just need some urgent magic help" she greeted Mal. For a few weeks, Mal had been passing notes on to her from Fairy Godmothers extra tuition to help Ellie get better control on her magic.

"Oh. My. God" was all Mal exclaimed entering the room, "good thing your roommate's not in - how did this happen?"

When Mal entered the room, everything was technically in its place but there was a good 3ft of snow covering everything in the room, you could be mistaken for thinking it was a Winter Wonderland.

"That's what I'm not sure on" Ellie admitted bashfully. "I was doing the meditation exercise and when I returned to the present this is what the room was like… this."

"Think it's safe to say you've got a different strand of magic to Jane and I - we've never done anything this wicked!"

With this Mal pulled out her phone to send a brief summary to Jane and see if she could come over - between the two of them they should be able to clear this up without anyone else having to find out.

A few minutes later there was a knock on the door, Ellie went to answer it - only opening the door a crack. "Hi Jane, uhm, now's really not the best time" she said to the other half-fairy.

"Ellie it's okay, I need her help to sort this" Mal called out. At this Ellie let her in.

"Bibbity Bobbity you weren't kidding in that text" was all the response she verbalised.

Mal and Jane looked at each other knowing what they were going to cast to remove it, taking hold of the others hand they began to chant together, "Revert this room to what once was, the snow must melt and ice begone." Mal's eye began to glow a vibrant green, and Jane's a light, but bright, blue.

After they'd chanted it a third time the snow began to melt - the only water damage the two girls couldn't fix were the damp books. They didn't want to risk damaging them with magic.

"You'll have to just let the books dry themselves or use a hairdryer - perhaps speak to you mom over the holidays about your magic." Mal said before giving the room a final once over. "Sorry but I've got to go, told Evie I'd be 10 minutes and that was about half an hour ago."

"Thanks for your help Mal" Ellie said giving the purple haired girl a quick hug causing her to momentarily freeze up.

With that she left the room and headed back to her dorm room. Evie had moved on from homework and was working on the final couple of masks.

"Sorry for being longer, ended up looking through her photography work." Mal said before her friend could become too curious.

"That's okay M, it's nice that you've become such good friends with her - I was worried you were on the path to piratehood" Evie said with a wicked grin, causing Mal to laugh. "Anyway, I'm heading to bed anyway."

"Aye aye matey - we ride with the tide!" she responded with a cheeky grin.

Soon both girls were ready for bed, Evie brimming with excitement at the upcoming ball, Mal simply exhausted from using the magic to sort out Ellie's minor accident. Both slept soundly, however Mal's dreams had an Isle edge to them - mercifully not nightmare plagued.

Perhaps seeing Dr Hopper would be helpful in the long term.