A/N – All rights to Disney, enjoy!
Chapter 35
Following the Ball, the final week of classes before Christmas were uneventful, many of the teachers had resorted to letting them watch movies in class knowing there was no point starting something new.
Between the weeks two double art classes Mal had managed to almost finish the painting she was doing off herself, Harry and Jane all dressed up from Saturday. Mrs Fitz had helped her sort out a way of getting it sent safely to London - something Mal had not even considered.
On Friday, some of the students began to leave around lunch time depending on how far they had to travel. Jane Darling wouldn't be leaving until after dinner that evening due to how flights to the UK worked. Harry and Mal would be going with her to the airport, which helped calm Wendy's nerves about her daughter travelling home by herself. The older two were also using it as an opportunity to see just exactly what an airport was and how it worked seen as they were making the same journey in just over a week's time.
Once Harry and Mal had headed off to the airport with Jane, the other VK's were meeting up in the treehouse to sort out the various Christmas decorations they'd managed to find. The older Jane was with them, she secretly loved that they couldn't go home for the holidays as it meant there was someone around other than her mother that she could spend time with.
During the first week off there was a huge amount of snowfall which allowed them to do everything from snowball fights to trekking round campus to try and find the best hill for sledging. Jay and Gil had even attempted to build an igloo, however it was barley finished before it collapsed in on itself.
In the evening of Christmas Eve the group of six made their way out to the treehouse where they were planning to stay the night and then exchange gifts the next morning. Fairy Godmother and Jane had invited them around to their private apartment for a Christmas lunch the next day which they'd accepted, sensible considering all they could really do was cookies or Evie's apple pie.
Everyone was in high spirits on Christmas morning, the 15 years they'd missed out on weren't going to put a damper on the holiday they'd learnt so much about since arriving.
Under their tiny tree in the corner of the room was the six presents to be exchanged as part of their secret santa, along with what Harry and Mal had gotten for one another.
Mal (from Jay) unwrapped hers to discover it was a small style tattoo gun, very similar to the one Flynn had brought to school the previous month. The guys in the room exchanged grins, clearly happy that more ink work was potentially on the cards.
Evie (from Carlos) received a voucher for her favourite sewing supplies shop in the harbour. She emitted a squeal seeing that but nearly passed out when she read the second bit of the 'gift'. Carlos had managed to arrange a 1-1 lesson with Anita Radcliffe, who was one of the most famous designers around.
Carlos's gift, from Gil, clearly had some thought put into it, especially as it contained a small treat selection for Dude. Carlos had recently become adamant that he wanted to become an animal doctor, and Gil had managed to get him some of the university level course books. While some would deem it a boring gift, Carlos was certainly very happy with it.
Jay (from Harry) was up next and looked at the peculiar shaped package, not too sure what it was. Inside was a pair of leather tourney gloves with his name, school team number and snake insignia stitched into them. Jay was touched, up until now all he and the other three had was kit borrowed from the school as they didn't have enough resource to get all the kit themselves.
Gil (from Mal) received two gifts actually, the first was a book in French - although the English equivalent was the sort you'd buy for a toddler as their first book. This gave the group a laugh, they'd all heard Gil attempting to speak the language and it wasn't great. However, he was getting good at understanding French spoken to him. The second, and real gift, was a series of pre-paid archery lessons for him. It was another thing his father had boasted about growing up and something Gil had been desperate to try since arriving.
Harry (from Evie) was the final one to open the secret santa gift. He opened it to find a glass bottle with a replica Jolly Roger inside, he was touched by the gift of the ship. While admiring it he spotted the true level of detail, he was stood at the captain's wheel with Mal at his side with CJ and Harriett both being located at other spots on the main deck. Someone had gone to an extreme length to sort this.
Soon they were all exchanging hugs between the group for their various gifts as they genuinely wanted to keep the identities secret. They really were their own family, especially when you looked at the effort that had gone in to getting gifts.
Harry and Mal then exchanged their own gifts between the two of them. The others, thankfully, gave them a bit of privacy - Evie had gone to make everyone hot chocolate, and the three boys were over at the pool table.
Before actually handing the gifts over Mal asked him, "will you be my new guns first victim?" indicating the new set currently next to her.
"I'd be honoured - perhaps something will inspire a design in London?" he replied, smiling at the girl opposite him. They were all still just wearing pyjamas, none of them planning to change until they had to head back to the school for lunch.
Mal handed her present over first, in true childlike fashion Harry ripper the paper off - he could hear Evie chastising him in his head. She'd got him a key - he pulled a confused face at her, not understanding the gift.
"It's for a small motor boat down at the harbour - I know you miss the sea" she spoke up, filling in the blanks. At this Harry gave her a wide smile, clearly imagining the possibilities. "There's one rule though, you have to submit a route to Fairy Godmother before you go anywhere - just so she knows where you're going if anything happens" Mal finished.
"Thank you so, so, so much Mali, I can't wait even if they are only small adventures for now" he replied giving her a quick kiss.
Then it was Mal's turn to open the offered parcel, she was no more careful when it came to the paper. Inside was something that Evie had actually helped him with, it was a digital picture frame that shuffled through various pictures of the two of them from the last term. Most of them were candid shots, mainly taken by Evie, Jane or Lonnie who had been drafted in to help take as many pictures as possible - some had even come from Jane Darling, Mal deduced, as the ones from their day out appeared.
"Press the button at the bottom" Harry spoke up, drawing the purple haired girl's attention to the lone button. Pressing it the screen changed to the video Evie had taken off the two dancing to Love Story at the Ball.
"Harry, it's beautiful - thank you" she said giving him a hug, to try and disguise the happy tears she was struggling to hold back.
The couple headed over to the pool table where Evie was delivering the tray of hot chocolate.
"Mmmm heaven in a mug" Carlos said, while almost inhaling the drink. Since his first taste in the limo on the way to Auradon he really had become a chocoholic.
"E?" Mal called, getting the other girls attention. "Thank you so much, guessing you helped find all those pictures?" she asked her friend.
"Sure did, but the whole thing was Harry's idea - you picked a good one." Evie replied giving her friend a small hug.
"And would you have said that back on the Isle?" Mal asked raising an eyebrow, mischief all across her face.
"When would you have told me? Before, during or after one of your little make-out sword fights we'd all get dragged into?" Evie retorted causing the room to burst out laughing.
"Fine, you got me there E" the purple haired girl said, still laughing.
Half an hour later they were changed and heading across the ground towards the headmistress's private apartment to have lunch with her and Jane. Mal had already sent all the gifts back to their respective owner's rooms - if she'd done the spell correctly they should be waiting on their beds.
They'd been into town on Christmas Eve to buy Fairy Godmother and Jane a gift for their hospitality - Carlos was the only one exchanging a proper gift, it was a previously made arrangement due to their financial situation. They had bought them a Christmas hamper on Doug's advice, apparently, they were a good thing to give hosts.
They were greeted warmly when they arrived, Carlos and Jane briefly going off to one side to exchange gifts. From their faces, both looked happy at what they'd received.
Conversation flowed easily around the dinner table, mainly talking about their plans for the second week of the holidays.
"Mal, Harry - what time is your flight?" the headmistress asked.
"7 o'clock tonight, although we won't get till London till tomorrow morning" Mal replied, still struggling to grasp the concept of time zones and how they were going to be jumping six hours into the future.
"And Evie you'll be spending it with Doug, correct?" she went on to ask, "Yes, Snow is picking me up tomorrow morning - everyone is at her house this year" Evie explained. Snow's house (actually a castle) was about a two-and-a-half-hour drive away in the mountains.
"Jay, Gil, Carlos - don't worry I've not forgotten about you. Jane and I have got a couple of activities in store for you next week" Fairy Godmother said, at this the three boys in question looked up in surprise that someone was making an effort for them.
After they'd finished the delicious meal, and offered to help clear up - they were turned down as today was the one day the headmistress used magic for the mundane tasks - they moved to the living area. They played a board game called Monopoly, apparently, a Christmas favourite. As there were only six tokens there was some team work involved. Once they got into it and understood the rules it turned out to be quite fun. Jane was explaining that you could even make your own - perhaps they could make an Isle one for the treehouse?
Soon an alarm was going off on Mal's phone, indicating it was time to head for the city's airport. Jay was the only one in the group with a drivers licence so he had offered to take them.
After a round of hugs, good-byes and thank yous they were on their way.
After Mal had given Jay a final hug at the airport the two pulled their new suitcases into the check-in area - frankly it was baffling. Once they'd eventually made it through bag drop they headed to security - thankfully Harry had packed his Hook in the suitcase, that would have been entertaining to explain.
Neither particularly enjoyed the scanners but it was over quick enough. Mal had to endure a lecture from the man operating the machine for not taking her camera out of the bag, it was only Harry's hand on her arm that stopped her angry retort of how was she meant to know.
They were then forced through a collection of shops before getting to the boarding gates.
"Harry, you can't buy that, we're not technically old enough" Mal said as she pulled him away from the numerous bottles of whiskey for sale.
"That's the one advantage of that lump of rock - no age restrictions" he huffed, but allowed himself to be pulled away.
Before long they were getting on the aeroplane, and were being guided to their seats. They were quite nervous about the actual flying bit, Carlos had attempted to explain the physics behind it but that didn't help much.
The safety brief genuinely had them worrying for their life - how could so many things go wrong!
Soon the plane was taking off and they were on their way, thankful they'd had a big lunch as the on-flight offerings were not at all appealing. Mal was soon asleep with her head on Harry's shoulder, with the pirates head resting on her own, also asleep.
It felt like minutes after they'd fallen asleep the captain was announcing their approach to Heathrow Airport, looking out the window they could see a misty outline of buildings that they could only assume belonged to London.
Thankfully they breezed through boarder force and customs and had collected their luggage of the strange spinning belt. Jane had told them that her and her family would meet them in the Arrivals Lounge (not that they knew what one of these was). They followed the signposts to this unknown lounge and the second they walked out they were greeted by a very excited Jane, who squealed "HARRY, MAL - OVER HERE!" rapidly waving at the pair to make sure they spotted her small form.
They both waved back at her and spotted Mr & Mrs Darling behind her along with her younger brother Daniel, who looked curiously on at the two strangers approaching.
Once they reached the group hugs were exchanged, "How was your flight dears?" Wendy asked, knowing they were new to air travel.
"Flight was good thanks, safety brief was worrying" Harry replied jokingly, Mal picked up "thankfully we managed to sleep most of the way".
"Danny, this is Harry and Mal" Mr Darling said in a way of introducing the two, the younger boy just waved nervously at them. He'd heard a lot about them from his sister, even seen pictures of the pair but it was different to actually meet them.
They were then lead out of the airport, and towards a waiting taxi that whisked them into the city to the family's Bloomsbury house. The style reminded them of what Cruella's house must have looked like at one point in time.
"Mal, you'll be sharing with Jane. Harry, you're with Daniel. Will you show them their rooms please?" Wendy said to them and then her children. When they reached the top of the stairs Jane took Mal into her room. It was a soft green colour with a 3/4 bed in the middle of the room, and a guest cot set up under the window seat. Mal could see that Jane was going through a transition phase, she could see dolls and teddies scattered around the room but also the start of a small make-up collection along with some fashion magazines.
"It's not much, but it's home - it used to be my mum's room when she was my age." Jane spoke up, clearly nervous to be showing her room off to the older girl.
"I love it Jane, it suits you perfectly - let's go see how Harry's settling in?" Mal asked, getting an enthusiastic nod from Jane. Harry would always be her favourite, but Mal was better for advice.
"Danny's bedroom is the old nursery, we used to share when we were younger." Jane informed as they went to the room located on the other side of the bathroom from her own.
On his door was a sign saying 'NO GIRLS ALLOWED, or you'll become a codfish'. Mal had to try and hold back her laughter at the sign, she could only imagine what Harry must have thought of it. Jane clearly paid the sign no attention and waltzed straight into the room.
"That stupid school still hasn't taught you how to read Jane" was the greeting they got from Daniel, clearly referring the sign which caused Harry to chuckle.
The boy's room was a similar style but the decor had a distinct pirate theme to it, a fake treasure map adorned part of the wall. Mal spotted an old, worn out Peter Pan hat on the bedpost and a small wooden sword leaning against it.
Harry was sat on the window bench watching the brother and sister quibble about rooms and door signs, the hook was already on his belt hoop. You can take Harry to London, but not the pirate out of Harry.
Daniel seemed just as nervous about the rooms week long guest, "sorry for the slight pirate obsession, mum brought us up on tales of Neverland, and Pan, and Pirates - suppose I never expected I'd actually meet one!" he said causing Harry to smile.
"Nae bother, I see you have a sword" Harry said indicating towards the wooden one, "how about a little pirate fight?" he asked indicating to his weapon of choice, the hook.
Danny had already grabbed the wooden sword and was making progress to try and attack Harry with it. Harry did a great job of making it look like a hard fight - both clearly having a bit of fun. The girls were having fun cheering on whatever male was winning at that moment.
"Lunch is re- what is going on in here?" Wendy said as she entered her son's room.
"Hi mum! Look I've got an actual pirate now, much better than Jane" Danny replied, still pointing the sword at Harry.
"Glad you're making friends dear, anyway, lunch is ready." Wendy replied.
They trooped down the stairs to the dining room where there was a light lunch of sandwiches and various salad style plates.
It turned out the Darling's live a five-minute walk away from The British Museum, which was their destination that afternoon. For the two teens, it was quite an interesting museum as they knew very little about the country they were in or its history.
Mal's favourite exhibit was the Lewis Chessmen, a set of chess pieces that had been found on the Isle of Lewis that were made out of walrus ivory and whales teeth - the level of detail was what she found fascinating especially when you considered they were about 900 years old.
Jane and Daniel were far more excited to go to the nearby Shake Shack afterwards, predictably Mal went for a Strawberry one, whereas Harry opted to try a root beer float - basically a fizzy drink with a scoop of ice cream in it.
By the mid-point of their week in London they'd had quite the adventure. Living in London it was a tradition of theirs to have a day out at the shops just after Christmas. The stand out shop had to be Hamleys, a huge toy store covering seven floors. Harry and Mal had never seen anything like it, every floor had some different kind of toy - some construction, others dolls or cars. They'd visited Fortnum & Masons one off the city's iconic department stores, all four of the kids had left with a small box of luxury chocolates.
They'd also visited the Tower of London and St Paul's Cathedral. Thankfully being a VK didn't single you out in London the way it did back in Auradon, otherwise they would never have been allowed within a square mile of the British Crown Jewels.
The annual Winter Wonderland theme park was still in the city, and they'd spent the evening there. Going on all the big rides at least once, and eating their body weights in sweets.
Much to the relief of Mr and Mrs Darling it appeared that Daniel was just as taken with the two teens as Jane was.
It was halfway through their trip that Jane and Danny's grandparents came round to pick them up to take them out for the afternoon. Mr Darling, or Adam as he insisted, would be taking Harry out for the afternoon - they were planning to go to HMS Belfast, they'd seen it the other day from Tower Bridge and Harry had seemed keen to visit.
Wendy used the afternoon to take Mal to the National Portrait Gallery knowing that the purple haired girl was a keen artist herself and incredibly talented if the painting they'd received for Christmas was anything to go by.
She also wanted to use the opportunity to get to know her more.
They were walking through the room containing works by Vincent Van Gogh when she spoke up.
"Thank you for helping Jane out with that Audrey girl" Wendy said, looking at Mal.
"Not a problem, she's a permanent thorn in my side - can't have her picking on everyone else at the same time." Mal replied with a small shrug.
"What was the reason behind her picking Jane?" she asked, genuinely curious if the younger girl had any theories.
"Well she hates me because my mother might have put her mother under a sleeping curse, and she's decided I'm as evil as her. Anyway, she doesn't really like any of us VK's and she realised Jane was becoming friends with us and she wasn't happy about that at all - but we stopped it all hopefully." Mal said with a devious smile.
"Do I even want to know what you did?" Wendy asked wearily.
"Do you know that I have magic?" Mal asked, receiving a nod in response, "well let's say her perfectly pink wardrobe and matching makeup got turned black for 24 hours" she finished struggling not to laugh at the memory. Thankfully Wendy found the idea quite entertaining herself and was laughing, relieved that the prank was nothing serious or harmful.
"Have you not missed your family over the holidays?" Wendy asked her, she'd felt slightly guilty to be inviting them over the festive period.
"My family is Harry along with Evie, Jay, Carlos and Gil. My mother is a gecko who would probably try to curse me if she saw me again and could access her magic. I miss Dad but we would never have been allowed back to the Isle anyway and I've got a tablet I can FaceTime him on which is nice." Mal replied.
Wendy just nodded as she'd absorbed the girl's words, not really sure how to respond to it. At that the purple haired girls phone began to ring, pulling it out she spotted it was her Dad - again internally thanking Carlos for connecting the two pieces of tech together.
"Wendy, do you mind if I take this, it's my dad - you're welcome to say hi to him if you want?" Mal asked, receiving a no problem from the older lady.
That's how, stood in one of the world's most famous galleries, Mal and Wendy Darling ended up video calling a God.
"Mali! How's London treating you?" he greeted his daughter.
"Still wicked Dad, much better than Auradon - I've not been judged once for being from the Isle, or at least not openly." she smiled back at her Dad.
"That's excellent, London souls always had a way about them, good or bad, such a strong mind" Hades reflected, causing Wendy's eyes to comically widen. While she knew who the girl's father was it was something else entirely to hear him talk about his job.
"Anyway dad, guessing you wanted to talk to Wendy, not me?" she asked him, as they'd only spoken two days ago.
"Yes please Mali" he replied, with that the phone was handed over and the girl continued to look round the artwork.
About 20 minutes later Wendy reappeared and handed the girl back her phone, she'd spotted when she locked it that the lock screen was the selfie her daughter had sent her when they'd taken her to the market earlier in the month.
"Thank you dear for letting me talk to him, your father seems like a good man" Wendy said.
"He is, sorry about the soul thing earlier - that's dinner table chat for us" Mal replied, giggling at the memory of Wendy's face.
"Unfortunately, on that note, we'd better start heading towards the restaurant for dinner" Wendy said looking at her watch, before the pair started heading towards the exit.
"Thanks for bringing me here, it's nothing like I imagined" Mal admitted with a small smile.
The group of eight, when you included the original Mr & Mrs Darling, were all meeting at a Covent Garden restaurant before heading to see a performance of The Lion King. Mal could still remember the day Jane had found out, she'd almost bounced across the canteen towards them to tell her - it was clear the show was a favourite of the girls.
By the looks of it Harry had a good afternoon at the ship, "He knew more than the naval staff that actually work on it" Mr Darling had exclaimed when they'd arrived.
"Growing up on a ship, you're always learning something" Harry replied with a smirk, hoping to keep the something vague.
Not long behind them were Jane and Daniel with their grandparents. Unfortunately, the meal was a bit frosty as the elder Mr & Mrs Darling hated the whole Neverland 'fiasco' and still couldn't quite believe their granddaughter had gone off to school and befriended Captain Hook's son of all people. However, they were perfectly lovely to Mal, it was clear they knew nothing about her own family history beyond her having to grow up on the Isle.
The Lion King was everything Jane had described it to be and more. Hopefully Mal would be able to turn some of what she'd seen that evening into artwork, one day she might even get to visit Africa.
On New Year's Eve the family group headed to the banks of the River Themes to watch the city's annual celebrations. When midnight struck Jane and Daniel were too absorbed by the fireworks to notice Harry and Mal sneak a few kisses. When they broke apart they admired the show being put on, the grandest fireworks they'd ever seen in time to music blaring out from hidden speakers.
Evie had sent Mal a message to say that she was watching the London celebrations on the TV but sadly couldn't spot her friend. Mal just laughed, given how busy the celebration was it would be like trying to spot a needle in a haystack.
Before they knew it, they were in another of London's black cabs heading back out towards the airport to catch their flight back to Auradon. After dropping their luggage, they bid their goodbyes.
"Thank you so much for having us Mr & Mrs Darling, London is truly amazing" Mal said while giving both adults a quick hug, followed by Harry.
"Keep up that sword practise Danny, and you'll be on the team at AP in no time" Harry said to the younger boy, managing to raise a smile to his face. The poor boy looked like he would be in tears the moment the three headed into the security queue.
"Bye mum, bye dad, bye Danny. I love you all so much" Jane said, a lone tear escaping down her face.
Final hugs, and promises to get in touch when they landed were exchanged and the group went their separate ways.
The flight back was more enjoyable as they had Jane to keep them company, much to Wendy's relief. They were sat in a row of three, Harry with the window seat, Jane in the middle and Mal at the aisle.
They spent a good portion of the flight going through all the pictures Mal had taken on the trip, Jane helping label where they had all been taken. Mr Darling had borrowed the girl's camera when he's taken Harry to HMS Belfast, it was nice to see pictures of him dressed up in the navy uniform for visitors to try.
"Harry, keep to the pirate look please" Mal said when flicking through them, causing the man in question to laugh.
"Don't worry princess, I prefer the high seas to what they do" he replied with a grin.
"Look guys, here's the pictures from winter wonderland" Jane exclaimed pointing towards the screen. The picture currently up was of the four kids ice skating, Jane and Danny looking like naturals with Harry and Mal clinging onto the wall for dear life.
"Somehow don't think ice skating will ever be our sport. You and Danny are so good at it though!" Mal said with a smile.
"Mum used to take us to figure skating lessons" Jane replied with a look of mock horror on her face, causing the elder two to laugh.
They spent the rest of the flight watching movies to pass the time, eventually touching back down in Auradon.
Thankfully Jay was there waiting for them to take them back to school, his usual smirk on his face as he greeted them.
"Good trip guys?" he said while helping them get their bags in the boot.
"It was amazing, they have my brothers approval" Jane replied with a wide grin. Jay just mused her hair in response.
"It was great Jay - you'll need to go some day it's so different from here" Mal replied, "yeah they drive on the wrong side of the road for a start" Harry chimed in, earning an odd look from the thief.
When they got back to the school they split up and headed towards their respective dorm rooms to unpack and try to get sorted for the new term.
Evie was already back in the dorm room and started speaking a mile a minute to her friend, asking so many questions about her trip Mal didn't know where to start.
"Here E, look at these while I try and sort my case out" Mal said handing her laptop over so Evie could leave her in peace for five minutes to try and unpack.
"London looks so good M, we totally need a girl's trip with Lonnie, Jane and Ellie in the summer" Evie said giving Mal her laptop back.
"We do! That would be fun. Annnnd, look what I got you" Mal replied holding out an object to Evie.
It was a silk scarf with some of the designs from The Lion King, she'd seen it and instantly thought of her friend.
"Thanks, Mal" she said hugging her purple haired friend. "Is this from the musical you saw?"
"Sure is E" Mal smiled in reply.
After Evie had extracted every last detail from Mal about her trip, and in return Mal had heard all about the blue haired girls trip they fell into their usual Sunday routine.
Before they knew it they were both ready for classes the next day, with Mal being the first to turn in - the flight having left her exhausted as she'd been awake for almost 18 hours at that point.
Once Evie was certain her friend was fast asleep she pulled out her phone to finally reply to a text message she'd received almost two hours earlier. 'She's out for the night, common room in 5 minutes ~ E'.
With that the girl made her way out the room almost silently to avoid waking her friend.