Rumplestiltskin slapped the alarm clock he'd set up for himself in this makeshift... whatever it was called. He didn't particularly care at this moment. He checked the time again. 5:00. If he hurried, he might be able to find Belle's residence before she woke up. First, he changed the color of the blanket and then cast the locator spell.
He followed his wand until it lead him to an unmarked door. Quietly, carefully, he opened the door. What was inside surprised him. The room was surprisingly bigger than he expected. About the length of two and a half broom closets long and one and a half wide. Inside was a wooden table and a chair which took up a good portion of the room. There were no windows and the only light was the one streaming in from the door he opened. There was a second door on the wall to his right but he wasn't going to venture that far yet. But what really penetrated a tiny portion of his heart, was Belle, she was still shivering under a poor excuse for a blanket. Her smaller frame curled up underneath the table. The poor girl didn't even have a pillow.
He couldn't stop himself. He reached down and put a hand to her cheek. She leaned into his hand like anyone who was freezing to the touch would to anything warm. He took the blanket he brought and covered her with it. She buried herself into the newfound warmth. For the first time he'd seen her in the past 8 hours, she'd finally stopped her incessant shivering.
He couldn't do too much more without her figuring out that someone had found her instead of an answered prayer.
He took another look at her face. She really was quite beautiful. Her smile was new to him. It melted a small dent into his hardened heart. When he looked at her, he didn't see a potential threat. He saw her as a person. One that was practically defenseless and vulnerable. One that just took everything thrown at her. Why else would she be in this place? But why hadn't she fixed up this place? She had magic. Why not use it?
"Mmmmmppph," he looked down to find her stirring. She trapped his hand between her arms and her cheek. He tried to slowly pull his hand out as held stayed entirely too long. "No, please, don't go. Please," she pleaded. Her eyes were shut tighter than ever. She had no idea what she was asking.
"I have to," he told her as he rubbed her back gently to ease her into letting him here his other hand back. Any trace of her smile was gone and replaced with fear. "But I promise you, I will come back. I will not forget about you so easily," he told her.
She moved once more to squeeze his hand with her own before she let him go.
He closed the door behind him and looked at his hand. She'd held his hand willingly. And with such care that shook him to his core. If only it had been real. These Hufflepuffs need to be taken down off their high horses. Rumplestiltskin was the man for the job.
Rumplestiltskin headed back down the stairs to the dining hall for breakfast. His spot was open for him and he made his way quickly. "Zelena, Zelena," he called. He stopped to catch his breath. "Zelena, When did Belle spend the semester somewhere other than the Hufflepuff dormitory?"
"Oh, gosh, How long ago was that?" she thought hard trying to remember. "Years ago at least. The year Hook first hated Neil for taking Emma out on a date."
"I don't hate Neal for that," Hook tried to defend himself. "He purposely tried to cut off my other hand."
"Please, Everyone knew from the minute you caught Emma when she fell off the climbing rope in gym class you fell instantly in love with her. The only one who couldn't see it was Emma herself,'' Regina said.
"At least I'm not as bad as you and Robin Hood,'' he argued. "You two are so nauseating. Ever since that stupid carnival came into town and you two got "stuck" at the top."
"Well, At least I'm not pining over someone I was too chicken to ask out in the first place," Regina returned.
"If you're quite finished, I need to know the year," Rumplestiltskin said.
"Four years ago," Hook said sadly.
"Well, I've got some news that will blow your minds,'' he said. Everyone leaned in a little more. "Belle was never let back in. She's been living out of a closet for at least the past four years if not more."
"No way," Hades said.
''That's impossible," Regina stated. "How would she even do that?"
"Believe it," he said. "I found her this morning sleeping under a table with half a blanket to keep her freezing. If we play our cards right, we can set ourselves up to win the house cup before it's even begun."
"Why wouldn't she have made herself a bed?" Hook asked.
"Well, She might not believe deserves one," Zelena offered. "She may believe what she did was so bad she doesn't even deserve to be happy. She deserves to live only to suffer."
Everyone looked at Belle. She was wrapped up in the blanket Rumplestiltskin had given her this morning trying to warm herself with some hot apple cider. Her book was opened and lay in front of her on the wooden table.
"Poor lass," Hook said. "At least she got herself a blanket."
"I gave her that when I found her this morning almost frozen. She probably thinks it was a gift from above," Rumplestiltskin told them.
"Are we planning on doing something or not?" Hades asked.
"Not yet," he answered. "First we need to get her to be our friend. We need her to confess to what actually happened and what's happened since if we're going to drag Hufflepuff down far enough. No one would listen to us if she didn't even confirm what we've found. Then when they reassign her to a new house, she'll pick ours because we're the ones that rescued her. Then, We burn Hufflepuff to the ground."
"How do we get your plan off the ground?" Hook asked. "It's not like we're the cuddliest bunch of people.''
"We've all got her in some class or another," he started. "Just be friendly. If someone's already hanging with her, just play it cool. We start with two friends. I think Zelena and I have a better chance of getting her to open up to us than Hook or Hades here," he told them.
"You?" Regina questioned. "Why would anyone open up to you? You literally call yourself, The Dark One."
"I'm going in because like you said, I am The Dark One. She's The Crazy Girl. Why not clear up our titles?" he said. "I open up a tiny bit, she opens up a tiny bit, before you know it, she's fallen into our plan perfectly."
"From what I've seen, Belle has always been open to anyone," Zelena said. "If she believes Rumplestiltskin is her friend, she may believe that he'll be her protector and who better to protect her than The Dark One himself."
"Exactly," he agreed.
"So Rumplestiltskin will take point on this mission, all agree?" Regina asked.
"Aye," everyone answered.
"Great, Let's take Hufflepuff down,'' Regina said.
"Once and for all,'' Hook finished.
Rumplestiltskin grabbed his tray, walked past the other tables and sat down in front of Belle. It was time to get this plan in motion.
Belle was still slightly shivering. She didn't know how or who left her the blanket but for now she was happy to believe for once in her life she had a fairy godmother looking out for her. Any other option would mean that someone knew and she wasn't ready to face that possibility yet.
Her belief was soon shattered when none other than Rumplestiltskin Gold sat himself down right in front of her. Her shivering was now not as much from the cold as it was from fear. She'd never met the man in person but with his reputation, it was hard not to know about him. He was tall, really light brown hair that reached his shoulders, blue eyes and a grimace that could scare a bear. He was always in her potions class but he'd never talked to her once. It was once said that The Dark One could read your thoughts. She couldn't let that happen. Not yet.
"That apple cider doesn't seem to be working for you," he said before he took a bite of his food.
"Wha… What?" she asked. She was sure she misheard him.
"Your cider, dearie, it doesn't seem to be warming you up very well," he restated.
"It takes a little while before it kicks in," she told him.
"Tell me, Why is it that you shiver so much?" he asked. "I've seen you the past couple of days and you're always shivering."
"I, um, I, I, I'm afraid I have nothing warmer and you can only get so warm in a place with no heating," she told him. She sneezed.
It was small but Rumplestiltskin didn't find it that unpleasant. She covered her mouth and nose. There were plenty of worse sneezers out there.
"Why don't you make yourself some warmer clothes?" he asked. "I'm sure you'd stop shivering if you made yourself a sweater."
"I can't. I caught a cold and if I try casting and I sneeze during the middle of it something terrible could happen and it'd be all my fault," she told him.
Before she could say anything else, out of nowhere she was wearing a pretty cherry red sweater. It was the warmest thing she'd felt or even had in a while. She snuggled into her sweater unconsciously.
"Luckily for you, dearie, I haven't been sick in a very long time," he told her.
She smiled for the first real time at him. Rumplestiltskin found that it didn't mind it terribly.
"Wait, I've heard about you You don't give anyone anything without a price. What do I owe you?" she asked before she sneezed again.
"Looks like you're a slight bit smarter than I gave you credit for," he said. "This time, the price is that you stop that incessant shivering. It's very distracting. The next one will be a bit steeper."
She smiled at him again, "Thank you."
Rumplestiltskin hadn't been smiled at like that before. It was… unsettling. He liked it but he shouldn't. He wasn't here to make an actual friend. He was here to destroy Hufflepuff. He shouldn't want to put that outlying lock of hair back behind her ear where it was supposed to be. "So tell me," he said needing to move his thoughts in another direction. "What is your first class of the day?"
"Oh, I have Advanced Potions with Mr. Snape," she answered. "What about you?"
"I have that too," he told her.
"Cool," she said smiling a touch brighter. She looked down at her hands for a second before her smile vanished slowly. "Can I ask you a question? I have nothing to trade for an answer but um, why did you decide to sit with me?"
Rumplestiltskin felt that this was a question that didn't require that much of an exertion of energy. "Like I said, your shivering was distracting. I didn't feel like being annoyed."
"Yeah but you could have easily switched places with your group and not have had to look at me," she said. "No one's sat with me in years, much less even talk to me. Why now? Why me?"
That was a more difficult question to answer without telling her everything or crushing what was left of her frail heart. "I'm The Dark One. You're The Crazy One. I thought you might like something to keep you warm that would stop you from shivering so that I could finally concentrate. Look at that, it worked."
She had finally stopped shivering. She hadn't even noticed that. It was just so natural for her to be shivering that it was a miracle her body didn't just do it subconsciously. Her smile reappeared.
Rumplestiltskin stood up with his tray. "I'm gonna go throw this away and get ready for class. I trust I'll see you there?"
"Yes, of course," she told him happily.
"See you later Belle," he told her.
"See you later Rumplestiltskin," she promised him.
And with that, he left to do exactly what he said he would. The fact that the way she said his name was… something, was not traveling around his mind for the whole time until he saw her again. Course not. Nor the way she smelled like sugar cookies. Not in the slightest.
Regina turned back to the group and said, "We all agree that this isn't just about Hufflepuff right?"
"Oh my gosh, yes," Cruella De Vil said.
"That was so obvious it was almost unbelievable," Maleficent agreed.
"We all remembered what happened during the time of Her," Hook said.
"Even he didn't deserve that," Zelena said.
"I haven't seen him this excited about a person since then," Regina continued.
"We all agree not to get in his way less we be smited by the wrath of The Dark One. Aye?" Hook asked.
"Aye," everyone answered.
Please R&R, It let's me know if this should be continued.
