Prompted when someone asked "Maddie" on my Ask Maddie sideblog how she met Raven. The characters are about twelve years old in this scene. Written in Maddie's POV.
It wasn't too many years ago when Wonderland fell to the Evil Queen's curse, forcing Wonderlandians like myself to flee to Ever After. Soon after arriving, I began school here. I didn't know much about Ever After, but one thing quickly became apparent to me. Children here detested this one, shy girl in my class. They pulled her raven hair and mocked her violet eyes and left cruel notes on her things, all in the name of heroism and duty, because these children had ties to fairytale heroes or royalty and this little girl was the daughter of the Evil Queen.
When I first learned who she was, I was certainly perplexified. I thought surely the Evil Queen's daughter would be just like her fairytale parent, like most everyone with storybook lineage. She even dressed in her mother's style and she certainly looked like the Evil Queen. The more I watched her though, the more I realized that she was just a scared, raven-haired girl without friends and a victim of a villainous destiny. I felt pity, but I didn't think much of her after that. Until one day, the girl was pushed too far by her most persistent bully, Daring Charming, and in a moment of pure desperation, she cast out a magic like fire and sent Daring soaring across the room. For once, everyone in the school fell silent against her, laden with mild confusion and fear. Overwhelmed, she turned from the crowd and ran away.
After Daring was taken to the nurse and the crowd fell away, I made one of my most important decisions since coming to Ever After—I went to find the girl. A short while later, I peeked into the smallest girls' bathroom on the school's west wing, where I came across the schoolgirl, fat tears rolling down her cheeks. If you can imagine, the first thing that came out of my mouth was "If the bird flies north after the sandstorm, what color are its talons?" She regarded me with tear-stained cheeks and puffy eyes and then stuttered out a questioning word. I repeated myself and then, after the realization struck me, I giggled madly.
"What's so funny?" she asked, wiping away her tears.
"I forgot I was speaking Riddlish."
"Riddlish?"
"Yes, the main language of Wonderland, where I'm from."
"Oh. What does it mean?"
Seeing that she had stopped crying, I thought it okay to join her. "Oh, lots of things," I said, "depending on tone and pitch and how many pairs of socks I'm wearing. I just asked if you were alright."
The girl backed herself against the tiles on the far side of the room and held out her hand to stop me. Curiously, she thought better of the gesture and tucked her hand away again. "You shouldn't come any closer. I may hurt you…"
"Don't be silly! You won't hurt me," I assured her, crossing the room to meet her. I reached out and held both her hands. She cringed, a strange reaction to touch I thought. "See? Nothing."
She slowly lifted her eyes, a look of surprise crossing her face. "How did you know?"
I flashed a toothy smile, proudly tilting my chin up. "Because Daddy Hatter always says a rabbit knows no tragedy if it circles the burrow thrice before supper, which basically means someone with a truly good heart could never intentionally hurt another."
She frowned. "But I hurt Daring."
"It seems like your magic is pretty new." I shrugged. "It's not your fault you can't control it yet. Magic can be tricky." Then, I carefully lowered my voice. "Besides, that Charming boy wasn't being very nice, or charming! He deserved it if you ask me." A startling giggle bubbled up from deep in my belly, so loud that it echoed across the room.
She giggled into her hand, and then I began giggling too, and so the entire bathroom was filled with laughter, one laugh quiet and the other sounding rather mad.
After a time, she stopped and seemed to go into thought. "If you knew I couldn't control my magic, then how did you know I wouldn't unintentionally hurt you?"
I paused and looked at her. Then, gradually, a grin so wide it nearly went from ear to ear spread across my face. "I guess, somewhere deep down, I must trust you, and we must always trust somewhere deep down when it tells us things."
A flattered blush rose to her cheeks. "I trust you too," she decided aloud. And, with a bit of courage, she reached out for my hands this time and squeezed them both dearly.
"Oh, I just remembered," she said suddenly. "My dad tells me manners are important and you always introduce yourself to a new person to be polite."
"Of course!" I nodded furiously. "I'm Madeline Hatter, but you can call me Maddie."
She smiled softly, her eyes warm. "Hi, Maddie. I'm Raven Queen."