"She shrank to the size of the love in her heart," rang in the silence of her stale dorm room. The darkness that surrounded Mal used to be comforting in a small way, but now it just reminded her of what she'd forsaken: evil and ... her mother. But instead of feeling remorse for abandoning her roots she felt a strange excitement. For once she had something to look forward too, but her puzzlement and the reason she was still awake come from Fairy Godmother's words that still hung in the air round her.
"She shrank to the size of the love in her heart,"
"How," Mal thought aloud. Evie startled Mal with an incoherent response, but Evie's beauty sleep hadn't been disturbed. Mal returned to her line of thinking. "My mother would never put a spell of the kind on herself. But she didn't do it and I didn't do it then... Fairy Godmother? But how could she? She was frozen at the time. So what then?"
Mal sighed to herself wondering if she'd ever know the answer. But she remembered the fact that her mother didn't disappear, she had a little love in her heart. "Now my question should be is that love for me or for herself?" Deep down Mal knew the answer, the love was for her. If her mother had absolutely no love for her she would've destroyed Mal and her friends when they first defied her. The fact that Maleficent only tried to scare them into obedience spoke volumes to that fact.
Mal finally smiled. Although her mother never complimented her, never fully approved, and NEVER made her cookies, she at least loved her in her own evil-laced ways.
She'd been doodling during Auradon History when the squeak of the door caught her attention. Jane shuffled into the room with an office request form, knowing it probably wasn't for her Mal returned to her doodle. Mr. Crane cleared his throat before continuing his lecture.
"Mal," he called. "Fairy Godmother would like to see you in her office. Right away."
What could this be about? Mal had been on her best behavior all day. She took a quick peek at Carlos, his eyes were big with worry. Mal winked, hoping would ease his mind. She had no idea what this was about, but he didn't need to know that.
"Oh," Mr. Crane interjected. "Take your stuff. It says here that you won't be back." Now Mal knew Carlos would worry. She gather her stuff and tentatively followed Jane out the door.
"So..." Mal questioned Jane, "Do you know what this is about?"
Jane shook her hand, "I was surprised too when I got the order to come get you."
"Did she seem stern when she gave the order?"
Jane thought back for a second, "No. In fact she seemed more excited than stern."
This gave Mal some hope. She would hate to be called into the Head Mistress's office for misbehaving on her first week of being Good. She stood outside the large oak doors, slowly breathing, prepared for what waited for her. Strangely as Mal lifted her fist to knock she felt a fair surge of power tug at her.
"Come in, Mal," the Head Mistress called for her. "How are you doing child?"
"Confused as to why I'm here." Fairy Godmother smiled while motioning Mal to sit. That surge of power tug at her again, but once again she ignored it.
"I'm sorry for the dramatics but I wanted to meet with you, and I was getting impatient." Mal shot her a raised eyebrow. "You made a big decision last Friday, and I want you to know that I'm here to support you."
"I appreciate that," Mal smiled.
"But I actually brought you here for another reason." this is when Fairy Godmother got both giddy and a little frightened. "I want you to humor me. When you held my wand did you feel anything?"
"Did I 'feel' anything?" That power surge flowed through her veins a little stronger this time. "Yes, actually." Mal thought back to the coronation and the emotions associated with that day. "I felt a peace. Like maybe it belonged in my hand. I knew in the instant that I commanded it from my mother's grip."
Mal watched as the older woman slowly nodded her head. "I asked, Mal, because in the time that I've been owner of the want only a handful of others have beheld it's power."
"Really? Did they feel the same way?"
"Well no. In fact you witnessed how it rejected Jane, that's how it reacted when the others held it, but at a more intense degree. the only reason it didn't harm Jane is because in a small way it could sense her kinship to me."
"But mother held it with no apparent lacerations."
"You mean besides the fact that she's now the size of you palm?"
"You told us that she did it to herself," Mal corrected.
"Yes, by touching the wand," she stated. "See the want cast a gradual spell, and my belief is that it took advantage of your mother's confusion during you brave act of rebellion to take effect unnoticed."
"But I held-" Mal shot out of her seat. "Am I cursed too?" Fairy Godmother tried to reply. "I am, aren't I? That's why I'm here it's just waiting to see it's work manifest."
"Wait," Godmother interrupted. "You think it's here?"
"I know it's here!"
"How?"
"I can feel it! I can feel it tugging at me." Mal realized the implications of that statement, and Fairy Godmother hurried to fetch the object in question. Mal backed away fearing for her life. "Please don't."
"Mal, I swear to you that it has not and will not harm you." The smiling Mistress assured. "I just want you to look at it."
Author's Note:
Many of you have commented on the parallels between my story and Chereche's "Changing Owners" Story. This is because Chereche gave me permission to adapt and continue on with the story plot. Chereche had no interest in continuing in this world, so I asked permission to continue for her. So please stop commenting about that and look at the Author's Note that I wrote in the prologue. I have permission and their endorsement of my story at the end of theirs. I would never have written this if I didn't have the support of the original author.