A/N – Longest chapter coming up! As always, Disney owns everything.
Chapter 34
During the remainder of the week they both had their individual sessions, when going in both had been told they did not have to discuss their sessions with anyone but they could if they wished too.
Once they'd both had their sessions Harry and Mal met up in the treehouse - the safest place to discuss their time with the doctor.
Dr Hopper had kept to his word and allowed them to be in complete control of the conversations. For the majority of Mal's session she mainly discussed what she'd been doing growing up with her friends, the chaos they had caused. She'd also mentioned a few occasions with her dad to the man along with the entire Shrimpy fiasco.
He'd noted the complete absence of the girl's mother in what she had discussed, as well as what her childhood home life had been like - he'd deduced that this subject was something he would have to specifically broach after the holidays.
With Harry's session, he'd spoke of his two sisters, it was clear to Archie that they were close from how highly the boy spoke of them. He could also detect some worry about how they were fairing without him there - however there was an element of overprotective brother in there. Harry had also shared the Shrimpy story, unaware that Mal had done the same. Unlike Mal, he did briefly speak about Captain Hook, although it was only very recent stuff. Dr Hopper's main aim was to discover the story surrounding his own Hook, from watching the boy's reactions to various things he could detect some trauma surrounding it. The simple fact that the metal trinket never left his sight got the Doctor's curiosity, especially when the boy had two fully functioning hands.
Throughout the school days, with only one full week left, very little new content was being learnt. It didn't stop Mal and Jay from complaining about their end of term English paper that was due on the last week of term. It was the only subject the pair shared, and they both despised it - who wants to read books written 400 years ago anyway!
When Saturday arrived, the day of the highly-anticipated masquerade Winter Ball, the school had an incredibly slow start. With most knowing they had a long night ahead they were making the most of having a lie in.
After lunch Evie and Mal began going around the girls' dorm to start dishing out the dresses and masks. Evie had enforced that Mal not see Harry for the day, to which Mal had responded, "It's a ball Evie - not a wedding!" before beginning to help push the dress trolley.
They were back at their dorm room just after 14:00, not long after Jane, Lonnie and Ellie arrived at the girl's room - they were all planning to get ready together. The younger grades, including Jane Darling's class, were having a formal lunch and small disco today rather than attending the ball, which was only for Juniors and Seniors. The younger Jane would be coming around later to take some pictures of the group of girls.
It took two hours for all the girls to get their hair and makeup sorted, Ellie had stepped in to do Mal's knowing that Evie tended to go overboard in comparison to the purple haired girl's desires.
A knock was heard at the door just before the dresses got distributed, Mal went to answer.
"Hey Jane! You look great! Come on in, how was the lunch?" she asked while stepping away from the door to let the younger girl in, where she was greeted by the others. She was wearing a dress that appeared to be made out of velvet in a shade of green so similar to Mal's she wasn't sure it was a coincidence, paired with a lovely little cream cardigan.
"It was amazing, the food was so good! I even got to have a dance with Abu at the disco" she beamed with a slight blush.
"Glad you enjoyed it - perhaps don't tell Harry that last bit or you'll have no life for the rest of the year" Mal replied with a smirk, causing laughter amongst the others. They'd all seen how protective he was over Mal, with Evie knowing what he was like towards Harriett and CJ.
"I remember when Anthony Tremaine asked Harriett out - let's just say he was lucky to walk away in one piece and poor Harriett was escorted everywhere by Harry" Evie reminisced. "Anyway, it's time to get the dresses on" Evie nearly squealed, clearly excited for the ball.
The younger Jane was helping the older teens out by helping them do the zips up on their gowns, the only person she couldn't help was Ellie who had an intricate lace up design which Evie would have to do up for her.
Once all the dresses were on and masks distributed Jane began taking pictures of the girls. Mal's mask was dragon themed to go with the dress, it matched the purple scales up the back of the dress. Despite her reluctance towards dressing up she had to admit the final look was good.
Looking round at her friends they were all ready. Ellie's dress was an icy blue at the bust that gradually changed to a silvery-white at the bottom, Evie had hand sewn in some snowflake themed detailing.
Jane and Lonnie were wearing their usual style of dresses, just in a full length version. Evie's dress was midnight blue with red stitching detailing. Her mask was the reverse to her dress, red with midnight blue detailing.
Once they were all ready, Jane began taking some shots of the five girls together, some with masks and some without.
Soon a ringing noise could be heard coming from Mal's bedside cabinet, the girl in question went to investigate - it was her Dad trying to video call, she remembered that he mentioned giving her a call to see her before the big ball.
"Hey Dad!" she greeted as he popped up on the screen, as usual he was in his lair.
"Wow Mali, where's my little girl gone?" he asked seeing her with her hair all pinned up in a fancy style and elegant makeup on her face.
"She's still here Dad, don't worry - she's just been forced into this for the evening" she replied with a smile, "I'm going to hand you over to Evie so you can see the whole dress" with this the tablet got transferred to Evie who briefly greeted him before flipping the camera view round to Mal who was slowly spinning on the spot so he could see the front and back off it.
"Got to admit Evie you've got quite a talent there! Might even commission you to make me a new Soul Stealer jacket" the God said to his daughter's best friend. "Thanks Hades, might take you up on that - gives me a good excuse to work with more leather." with that she handed the tablet back to Mal.
"You look beautiful Mali, hope you have a good evening - make sure Hook behaves himself!" Hades said, earning an eye role from his daughter.
There was another knock at the door, most likely it was the boys arriving to escort them downstairs.
"That's the others here, gotta go Dad - love you!" Mal said while hanging up after receiving a wave from him.
As she was putting the tablet away Evie had let the boys in. Gil was taking Ellie to the ball as friends, although she was sure from what she'd mentioned in art the other day that the girl would be very happy if it progressed to more.
When she turned around she couldn't help her jaw from dropping when she saw Harry. The only sign of his pirate self was the guy liner surrounding his eyes. His hair had been styled with gel so that it was side parted with the longer side being styled down one side, swept away from his eyes. He was wearing a dark green and black tartan print 3 piece-suit with a black tie. In Mal's opinion he looked absolutely stunning.
"Wow, Harry, you look gorgeous" Mal managed to stutter out.
"Talk for yourself princess, you're ravishing." he responded, pulling her into an embrace. Both vaguely aware that Jane was still buzzing around with Mal's camera taking more pictures now the boys had arrived.
Harry spotted the younger girl, "Jane! How was your lunch and disco?" he asked giving her a quick hug.
"It was amazing, can't wait for Christmas now!" she beamed in response, thankfully following Mal's earlier advice about not mentioning Abu.
At that Ellie and Gil came up to the trio, it was astonishing how they interacted with each other.
"Jane? Can I borrow that camera so I can take one of the three of you together?" Ellie asked, she received a nod and the camera got handed over.
Soon she was snapping photos of the three together, giving Mal an excellent idea of what to give the Darling's as a Christmas present - she would paint out one of the pictures. Evie's creations really did look wonderful when they were all together.
Just before the group of older teens left for the night Jane got all 10 of them to stand together for a group picture. With that done Jane uploaded the photos onto Mal's laptop and headed back to the common room and hang out with her friends.
All the older teens were heading downstairs, in a mirage of colour and splendour. Many dates for the evening were meeting up in the common room, squeals could be heard passing between the girls as they saw their friends all dressed up for the evening.
The evening began with a formal dinner held in the canteen, although the inside would never be recognisable as what they were all used to. The tables were all dressed in formal table cloths, each hosting a winter floral centrepiece.
The tables were big enough to hold 12, allowing the VK's and their dates to sit together. Each seat had a glass of champagne, with a full bottle residing in the ice bucket. The meal would be waiter served, allowing uninterrupted conversation to flow over the three courses.
The meal served was delicious, it was a traditional Christmas dinner according to Jane, Lonnie, Doug and Ellie.
When pudding was served Mal had to admit that Christmas pudding with rum sauce was an incredibly close runner up to strawberries.
"Gil, Harry - what do you think of the food?" Evie asked, knowing how different it was from the usual fair.
"So good" Gil replied while trying to scrape every last drop off sauce out his bowl, "although Brussel sprouts are honestly the devil's food" he said while pulling a face, Harry nodding along in agreement.
"Sausages, wrapped in bacon and dunked in cranberry sauce is my new favourite" Harry said with a wide grin, although most disagreed about the cranberry sauce element.
Soon Fairy Godmother gathered the rooms attention, "Good evening everyone. May I say you all look wonderful this evening. Please can you show your appreciation to our wonderful catering team for their lovely meal?" at this a light round of polite applause filled the room. "Now that you've all finished the meal, let's head over to the ball room for the festivities to continue."
With this they began to make their way to the main ball room. There was a small queue forming by the door as there was an official photographer taking all the couples pictures on the way in. Evie had insisted that they all wait and get the official momento from the event.
Around 10 minutes later they were all in the ball room.
"Jane this is fantastic!" Evie squealed, looking around the decorated room. There were giant, intricate snowflakes floating in the air. At the far end there was a small band, presumably there to provide the evenings music, and at the other side a small bar.
The first dance of the evening was announced, a traditional waltz of Auradon, and Mal felt a cold, metal object land on her shoulder. Turning around she saw the beautiful face of her boyfriend.
"Will you do me the honour of sharing this dance darling?" he asked with the most charming smile on his face.
"Of course, my dashing pirate" she said with a small giggle while taking his un-hooked hand and being lead off to the dance floor.
While they were twirling around on the floor she could see her friends also dancing, even Gil and Ellie were on the dance floor enjoying themselves.
The VK's didn't know any formal dances, Evie, Jay, Carlos and Gil had the advantage of being with Auradon kids they were able to help them along. Doug was properly leading, as per tradition. While Jane, Lonnie and Ellie were leading but trying to make it look as though it was the boys doing.
Mal had been 'trained' when with Ben but she'd never really paid it proper attention, and certainly didn't remember any of it six month later. So, Mal had nestled her head on Harry's chest, with their arms around the others waist Harry was leading them in slow circles, gently swaying - roughly in time to the music.
Looking down at his wee princess Harry softly murmured, "this makes me think of when we were ten - in that old church attack." This caused Mal to look up at him, a small smile on her face, "yeah, we could see Auradon's party lights, and we were pretending to be there."
They enjoyed the remaining couple of minutes of the music, doing their own form of dancing, not caring what anyone else thought.
When the song had ended, they moved off the dance floor knowing that some more formal dances were coming up - unfortunately Harry had only ever been taught a few Scottish Country Dances from his father.
Mal sat down at one of the tables at the edge of the dance floor while Harry went to get them a couple of drinks, she smirked in amusement at watching Audrey's attempts to get Ben to ask her for a dance. Mal had to admit that the Princess looked amazing, although that was to be expected for the price she had paid Evie for it. A full length pink dress with a fish tail end, the whole thing embellished with actual diamonds that she had to get Doug's help source from his family's mines.
Harry returned, handing the girl a drink and it was clear she was lost in thought.
"Penny for your thoughts?" he asked her
"While we were dancing, you were thinking about us as 10 year olds. Well I was thinking about what happened when we were 15…" with that she took a sip of the offered liquid, it was a drink she'd only had once before on the Jolly Roger - something called Irn Bru, a orange coloured fizzy drink that the girl would never be able to describe it's flavour.
"One of my favourite home memories Mali" he said, giving her a quick kiss on the forehead.
~Flashback~
Hook's Inlet on the Isle was home to the Jolly Roger in the main dock but also a small row of shops, each with flats above. Mal never quite knew how but Harry had managed to 'acquire' one of these as his own. All he had there was a double bed and an old record player he'd managed to grab off a supply barge.
When the pair were both fifteen, just a year away from Mal and her gang being sent to Auradon, Mal had come in search for him. She'd been wearing a short, tight, black leather skirt along with a form fitting purple tank top - no doubt one of Evie's latest creations. She had run into his apartment like an out of control hurricane, and similarly to the other week she collapsed onto Harry's chest and dissolved into tears.
"Hey princess, what's the matter?" Harry had asked her softly, trying to convey his love for her through his actions when he wasn't able to be open with the words.
"Just my mother, I'm her 'eternal disappointment', I wear the wrong clothes, keep the wrong friends, don't show the appropriate magical potential - she's kicked me out of the house" Mal sobbed.
"You've always got a place here Mali" he replied, trying to reassure her.
"Thank you, Harry," she said, briefly looking up at him, her face tearstained, "your dad would kill us both if he found me here with you."
"He doesn't know about this place, anyway I've got a surprise for you" with that he got up from the bed and moved over to his record player. He placed the needle down on the record already in place, old fashioned waltz music filling the small room.
"Dance with me?" he asked, extending his hand and doing a fancy bow. This caused a smile to cross the purple haired girls face, "Of course Hook" she said standing up.
Soon they were in a tight embrace, dancing in a very similar fashion to what they would be almost three years in the future.
He slowly pulled her face up to look at his, "Did I tell you how sexy you look in that little outfit?" this cause a small blush to cross the girls face.
Soon his lips were crashing down onto hers, dancing long forgotten - that lead to their first night of lovemaking that truly came from a place of love for each other, not a primal desire.
It wasn't long before Mal was falling asleep in his arms, having forgotten the reason that brought her down to the docks, the last thing she heard him whisper was, "Tha gaol agar ort mo bhana-phrionnsa àlainn. Caidil gu Sèimh." As she drifted off to sleep she hoped she'd remember to ask what he'd said to her the next morning - she never did.
~End Flashback ~ (Scots Gaelic = I love you my beautiful princess. Sweet dreams.)
"Unfortunately, there's too much supervision for anything like that to happen tonight" Mal sighed, sounding slightly disappointed.
"Aye that may be so, but there's always the first week of the holidays, only the six of us, FG and Jane - and one huge school campus" he whispered with a cheeky smirk plastered on his face.
"Thanks Harry, the next week is now going to be the slowest in history…" she retorted, still thinking about the opportunities the holidays would present.
Soon the regimented dances music ended, and more popular music began to play. Soon Jay and Carlos approached with Evie trailing behind.
"Can we borrow our sister from you Harry?" Carlos asked.
"As long as you return her in once piece" he replied with a small smile, allowing Jay to whist the girl away. Clearly this song meant something to the four of them from the way they were acting - treating the formal dance floor almost like one found in a nightclub.
From his seat at the side of the room he could see a few other girls casting glances his way. Thankfully none wanted to risk Mal's wrath so they kept a safe distance. Gil was on the other side of the room entertaining Ellie, clearly telling some humorous tale from how she was laughing.
He could see Doug heading his way, his date had also been stolen by Jay and Carlos - the bond the four had was a unique one, it was actually quite nice to see it.
"Having a good time Harry?" Doug asked pleasantly. While the two had only limited interactions, they had a good level of respect for one another.
"It's better than we could ever have imagined back home on the Isle - I had a record player, you know? Mal and I were never great dancers but it provided us some light amongst the dark" with this the pirate gave Doug a small smile, he responded by giving Harry a small pat on the back. While he would never understand what life had been like for them growing up he enjoyed hearing the small ways they'd managed to make good memories.
"Tell you what Harry, I'll teach you one of Auradon's formal dances for the graduation summer ball - you'll be the King and Queen of the dance floor." Doug said offering his hand, which Harry shook in agreement, he's do anything to impress his dragon princess.
The next song to play was Taylor Swift's Love Story - a song that Mal and Harry had adopted as their own personal anthem, its lyrics depicting the best part of their story. Somehow Harry had it as a record and it formed part of his very small collection back on the Isle.
Mal was heading straight towards him, determined to dance to this song together.
Unbeknownst to the duo Evie was filming their dance together to this particular song - it had been the blue haired girls request at the music booth. Her best friend had come so far since the summer. The girl on the dance floor was so care free, laughing and spinning around receiving multiple kisses from her favourite pirate.
"When they do eventually get married, this video will be getting played" Evie whispered excitedly to Jane and Lonnie. The other three VK boys overheard this and started laughing - no doubt Evie had multiple sketches of the purple haired girls dress already.
"They're so good together, she shares the odd story in art depending on what she's drawing - normally if she'd come up with a tattoo design" Ellie spoke up, knowing that her artwork was almost a window to the girl's inner workings.
"But she's not been actually doing any of that since she came here?" Evie asked, certain her friend would have told her.
"I think Harry might have got another one on his back, just after family day - he winced slightly sitting down, the only time he's done that before is with the others on his back." Gil added in, this caused Ellie to look round at him, finally she understood the art class where Mal and Mrs Fitz both disappeared.
"Her fine art project, I saw Flynn Ryder in the department that day - he must have brought the gun. It explains where they all went." Ellie mused.
Before long the song had finished and the two were heading back over to the rest of the group - Evie's phone had already been placed back in her clutch. They were grinning like love struck fools, "Mal, what's wrong with your face? You look… happy?" Jay teased, earning a light punch from the girl in question.
Unfortunately, it was midnight before the students knew it and that was Fairy Godmothers official curfew for all events like this.
While walking back to the dorms it was clear that some new couples were emerging amongst the student population. While Gil and Ellie were still just friends officially, from the evening they'd had it wouldn't take long before it developed into something more.
As they were ascending the stairs, Mal whispered to Harry while looking at the aforementioned duo, "I feel sorry for you when you've got to tell CJ about this, you know she's always had a soft spot for him."
"You know, I might tell Harriett to tell CJ - seems safer…" he said before giving her a kiss and bidding her goodnight.
Shortly after Mal and Evie reached their room, staying up for almost another hour chatting about the evening. Both had had a lovely evening with Doug and Harry - both having been treated like royalty.
Soon they were asleep, and like the rest of the students it would be lunch time on the Sunday before they were awake.