MAGIC KINGDOM

a Disney/Hogwarts Crossover Fic

Author's Note: A shorter chapter exploring a particular aspect of the worldbuilding. A lot of Disney characters have specific abilities which don't completely mesh with Hogwarts-style magic. I considered ignoring them, making the characters just wizards, but then I realized that there are canon Potterverse characters with similar abilities, like McGonagall or Tonks.

5. SPOONFUL OF SUGAR

Shiny black shoes strode through the undergrowth, their owner paying no heed to how said undergrowth might damage said shine. Leaves clung to the hem of his purple robe, and again, the man didn't care. His younger years had been spent tromping through acres upon acres of woodland at a time. Besides, if the house elves didn't have to clean up after him, they sulked.

He knocked on the cottage door and heard the approaching thumps of large feet. The door opened and a large man peered down, his broad frame filling the doorway. He was a huge man with wild brown hair, large hands, and vaguely prehistoric silhouette. He opened his mouth to speak, but before he could address the man at his door, a dog poked his head out from between his legs and barked. The large man stumbled back, gripping the doorframe to keep his balance. "Gah! Pluto! Back!"

The hound wuffed and withdrew, and the large man stepped aside. "Please, come in, Headmaster."

Professor Robin smiled up at the man. "Thank you, Ralph."

Pluto bounded up to the Headmaster as soon as he was across the threshold, and began licking his face. Professor Robin laughed as Ralph told the dog to get down. Eventually, the hound acquiesced, trotting to his place in front of the fireplace. The embarrassed Ralph offered the Headmaster a tea towel, but the Headmaster tidied himself with a flick of his wand. "Sorry about that, Professor," the large man said.

The Headmaster waved it away. "Not at all," he chuckled. "Frankly, it's nice to have someone so happy to see me."

Ralph cleared a stack of newspaper off of the sofa. "Have a seat, sir," he said.

The Headmaster gladly dropped down onto the slightly saggy, floral-print sofa. "Thank you, Ralph."

"Can I get you anything?"

"You needn't go to any trouble on my account."

"Oh, it's no trouble, really," Ralph said, and began busying himself with the kettle. He returned shortly with a pair of mugs and a platter of misshapen cookies.

"Lovely," Robin said, biting into a cookie. "Mrs. Potts' recipe?"

Ralph nodded.

"Excellent. I love the ones with raisins."

Ralph took a sip from his mug of tea. The mugs had been made by students of Professor Mrs. Dearly's , but had been left behind unclaimed. Rather than discard them, Ralph took them off Professor Dearly's hands. They were huge, heavy, lumpy things, but perfectly serviceable. Professor Robin could just make both hands fit around his mug, while its sibling looked delicate in Ralph's broad mitt. "You're not just here for tea, are you?" Ralph asked.

Professor Robin considered the question. "Well, it's not the main reason," he admitted, "but a nice visit is always enjoyable."

The corner of Ralph's mouth quirked in a little bit of a smile. He had a great deal of respect for the Headmaster. He was one of the few people who didn't look down on Ralph, or condescend to him. "So, you're here about the, uh..."

"The errand I sent you on, yes," Robin said. "And thank you, again, for that. Much appreciated. Yes, I am here about the errand."

Ralph nodded. "What about it?"

"Were there any difficulties?"

Ralph shook his head. "No, the Gringott's goblins were very helpful," he said. "I handed them your card and the instructions for what you wanted withdrawn, and then they brought out the little package."

Professor Robin nodded. "Excellent. You, ah, didn't tell anyone else about what you were doing, did you?"

"Of course not," Ralph said. "Not that I really had any idea what you were sending me for, anyway." Ralph raised a heavy eyebrow. "What did you send me for?"

Robin munched a cookie. "Something I'm hoping will be unnecessary," he said, "but better safe than sorry."

"And what does that mean?"

Robin sipped his tea, regarding Ralph. The Hogwarts groundskeeper was a steady, entirely trustworthy fellow. He was also a great deal more intelligent than most people would believe. His gaze turned to the stack of newspapers, bound up with twine, ready for the compost heap. "The Daily Prophet has a very good crossword, don't you think?"

Ralph blinked. "Uh, yeah, I guess..."

"Very good with their research," Robin continued. "So many sensationalist journalists like to publish stories without concrete facts." He sipped his tea. "I'm sure you've heard a few stories from less than reliable sources, haven't you? People gossiping in the shops, the pubs, that sort of thing?"

Ralph narrowed his eyes at the Headmaster, who looked back with benign politeness. Something clicked into place, and Ralph nodded. "Yeah, one or two things," he said. "Now that you mention it."

Robin tapped his fingers on the mug. "Do you happen to remember the secret phrase from last week's word jumble?"

Ralph glanced over at the stack of newspapers. "The word jumble?"

Robin nodded. "Something about a pound of cure?"

"'An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure'?" Ralph suggested.

"That's it," the Headmaster replied brightly. "It was on the tip of my tongue." He smiled at the groundskeeper and selected another cookie. "Are these cranberries?"

0-0-0-0

"Vanellope, lovely to see you. Please, come with me into my office, where we can chat."

The girl gave a nervous half-smile and stepped into Doctor Poppins' office. The school doctor's office, like the infirmary, was an odd blend of what Vanellope had come to think of as "muggle" and "wizard." Amid the filing cabinets, informative posters and other apparatus she associated with doctors' offices, there were diagrams listing the symptoms of pixie pox, jars and bottles of mysterious potions, and a teaching skeleton wearing an old-fashioned nurse's uniform.

Vanellope was at least 82% sure the uniform was a joke.

"Is there something wrong?" the girl asked.

"Goodness, no, of course not" Doctor Poppins replied. She pursed her lips for a moment. "Though, I would like to discuss the...possibility."

Vanellope's eyes widened. "W-what?"

The doctor held up hands in a calming gesture. "No, no, that's not what I mean at all," she hurried to say. "Please, have a seat. No, what I mean to say is, you have a rather unique talent, Vanellope. It takes years of study to learn to apparate properly-even many adult wizards can't do it."

Vanellope hugged her arms to herself. "Yeah, it's pretty great," she grumbled.

Doctor Poppins regarded her with sympathy in her bright, blue eyes. "I know it doesn't feel like it right now," she said, "but you'll come to appreciate it for the gift it is."

Vanellope scowled. "You mean like when it almost kills me?"

Poppins shrugged. "I didn't say it would always fell that way. Anyway, that brings me to the reason why I called you here."

The girl eyed Doctor Poppins. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I've discussed the situation with Professor Rafiki and with the Headmaster," Doctor Poppins said. "Do you know what an Inhibitor is?"

Vanellope shook her head.

"They were first developed to control dangerous criminals," Poppins explained. "We thought they might help here."

Vanellope's eyes bugged open. "What!? But I- I'm n-not-"

"No, no, that's not what I meant, either," Poppins interrupted. "Oh, dear. No, an Inhibitor is a device which allows a wizard to... put a leash on their abilities."

Vanellope frowned. "A leash?"

There was a knock at the door. Poppins sighed. "Perhaps that isn't the best analogy," she said, standing to answer the door. "Ah, you're here," she said to whomever it was on the other side. "Please, come in."

She held the door open to admit a student, a tall, athletic-looking, Hufflepuff boy with wavy ginger hair and blue eyes. "Sorry I'm late Doctor," he said, stepping past her. He spotted Vanellope and smiled at her, and moved to shake her hand. In the process, though, he caught his foot on the corner of the Doctor's desk, tripped, stumbled, and fell head-first into the wall, before dropping to the floor.

Vanellope watched in wide-eyed horror, expecting to be shoved out the door as the Doctor tended to a medical emergency.

"Good heavens," Poppins gasped, rushing over. Instead of checking on the boy trying to push himself to his feet, she examined the rather large chunk of masonry he'd knocked out of the wall with his head. "Well, Signore Intagliatore can get that fixed in a trice." She looked down at the boy. "All right?"

The boy stood and shook the dust and gravel from his hair. "All good," he replied.

Vanellope was still wide-eyed, but now it was from total bafflement. "You- he- uh-"

"Of course," Poppins said, "where are my manners? Vanellope von Schweetz, I'd like you to meet Hercules Iroikos."

The boy gave a sheepish grin and sat in the other available chair. "Nice to meet you."

Vanellope blinked. "Uh, it, meet you," she replied.

"I was just beginning to explain the concept of Inhibitors to Vanellope," the Doctor said. "Perhaps you could shed a little light on the subject."

"Sure thing, Doctor," Hercules said. He unbuttoned his cuffs and rolled up his sleeves, exposing his sinewy forearms. On his wrists were what Vanellope first took to be cuff bracelets, until she saw that they had no visible clasp and were far to snug to fit over his hands.

"What...are those?" she asked.

Hercules grinned, turning his wrists, causing the bracelets to catch the light with an almost metallic gleam. "Inhibitors," he said. "As you may have noticed, I'm not like a lot of wizards."

Vanellope glanced over at the divot he'd knocked out of the wall. "No, I get that."

"Like you, I have a built-in magical talent which has nothing to do with wands or spells," he said. "A lot of wizards do. Some can turn into animals, or see the future, or fly. You can apparate. I'm, like, crazy strong. And thankfully, really hard to hurt."

"That's pretty cool, actually," Vanellope said. "Way better than just disappearing and reappearing places without wanting to."

Hercules nodded slowly. "It probably seems that way, yeah," he said. "But that-" he pointed to the damaged masonry, "-is nothing compared to some of the damage I've done before. Imagine breaking everything you touch. I couldn't open doors without crushing the handles; not that it mattered, because I ended up ripping the doors off their hinges, anyway. I could hardly dress myself without ripping my clothes to shreds. And, I was less coordinated when I was your age than I am now, if you can believe it." He shook his head, expression clouding over. "I could hardly control the movement of my own body. I couldn't leave the house. I was a hazard to everyone around me. I felt like-"

"Like a freak," Vanellope said in a small voice.

Hercules nodded. "Exactly. But, then, our family doctor put these on me," he said, holding up his wrists. "It basically put a stopper on my magic. I've never been so happy to put on pants."

That got a snort of laughter from Vanellope, which, in turn, got a bright smile from Hercules.

"A lot of people freak out about the concept of Inhibitors," Hercules said. "I guess the fact that they're used on wizard criminals kinda gives them a bad name. But they helped me live a relatively normal life."

"But, don't you have the same problem when you take them off?" Vanellope asked. "Or do you have to wear them forever?"

"I would have the same problem, yes, and I would have to have to wear them forever, yes," Hercules answered, "if I wasn't working to learn how to control my talent. The Inhibitors allow me to learn how to use my powers on my terms. Eventually, I will take them off for good, and I won't have to worry about my powers using me."

"Pretty lame at the end there, but I think I get it," Vanellope replied. She looked over at Doctor Poppins. "So, you're going to put some of those magic handcuffs on me?"

"Well, in a manner of speaking," the Doctor answered. "The Inhibitor will be keyed to you and your specific talent. It will prevent you from apparating uncontrollably, but leave you access to your wizardry. Eventually, you'll be able to apparate only when and where you choose."

Vanellope looked over at Hercules. "And you're really okay with this?"

He nodded. "More than okay. I don't have to worry about destroying everything, and it lets me play Quidditch for my House without anyone accusing me of having an unfair advantage. As far as the game is concerned, my talent just stops it from hurting too badly when I take a bludger to the head, and you can't really call that cheating. In fact, I'm not the only Quidditch player at Hogwarts who has to wear Inhibitors."

Vanellope considered this. The notion of not having to worry about blinking out existence was a tempting one, indeed. At the same time, it felt like being punished for something she couldn't control.

"Ultimately, it's your choice," Doctor Poppins said. "We won't force you. It's just an option."

Vanellope fingered the hem of her sleeve in thought. "Do they have to look like those?" she asked.