"I've been expecting you, love," the enchantress was saying. "What can I do for you?"

"I've, uh, got something to tell you," Gaston told the swirl of shimmering blonde hair before him. It was strange... he could tell she was beautiful, really, really beautiful. More beautiful than Belle, even. Well, Belle was only the most beautiful girl in town. Maybe he'd had his sights set too low. But anyway, he could tell this woman was beautiful, it was in every movement she made, in the way she seemed almost to glow – and yet, somehow, he couldn't seem to focus on her features. He could tell her face was perfect, but he couldn't quite make it out. He was, though the word did not feature in his vocabulary, dazzled by her.

The vision planted a mug of ale in front of him and swept off into another room. "What is it, darling?" she called back.

"Well, it's about the prince."

"What prince is that?" Gaston didn't notice, but there was something subtly different in her voice.

"The one from my kingdom. You turned him into a Beast." He stopped, suddenly. What if she got the wrong idea? It probably wasn't wise to offend an Enchantress. "Uh... which I think is great, by the way. Too many princes around. We need more Beasts – and hey, what better way to..." He trailed off, it was beginning to dawn on him that magic that could turn the prince into a hideous creature might also be capable of doing him some damage. Was it safe for that kind of power to be in the hands of a woman? It made him uncomfortable, anyway. Who was the authority that gave out magic? Maybe once this was in the bag he'd go and see him and ask him if he'd thought this giving-power-to-women thing through properly. But in the meantime he needed to focus on the... job... at... hand...

The Enchantress had come back into the room, only now she was Belle. Well, not quite Belle. She was Belle in his dreams about life after his wedding day. She was Belle without that sharp look in her eye that he was sure came from too much reading... Belle with a little smile turning darkly-rouged lips, Belle with longer eyelashes, more curves in more of the right places. Something stirred in him and he fought for control.

"Too much?" she asked. "I heard this was your type." She leaned in. "And I figured you deserved a little treat for coming all this way with information for me." She stroked his cheek and smiled. "Now, what was it you wanted to tell me?"

Gaston took a moment for himself before continuing. It wasn't a surprise, of course, that she couldn't resist him, but a sharper instinct than his animal one was telling him that this level of involvement with an Enchantress could seriously jeopardise the plan, if not the rest of his life. Best to stay focused. "Uh. Yes. It's about the prince."

"You said, darling."

"Yes. Well. He's...um. He's gone back to his old ways."

She withdrew, frowning. "What do you mean?"

"He's gone back to being bad. Shouting at his servants, that kind of thing. Uh... withdrawing hunting rights. Not buying his round at the tavern." Gaston hesitated. These were certainly the worst things he could think of, but they didn't seem to be having the desired effect. He floundered. The Enchantress was a woman. What would she think was bad? And just now she looked a lot like Belle. It gave him an idea. "He won't let Belle read!" he burst out.

Now she looked shocked. "What?"

Gaston picked up the thread and ran with it. "He won't let her read any books! He says it's not right for a woman to read! He says she'll start getting ideas and... thinking." He shuddered. "Awful, right?"

She looked away, folding her arms. "I can't believe it. He seemed to have learned so much."

Gaston shook his head. "I'm just so sad about Belle. I asked her to marry me, you see, we had the wedding all planned out – and then he took her and I guess she felt she had to marry him because he's the prince or a Beast or whatever, and now..." He sighed. "I just feel like she deserves better than that, you know?"

The Enchantress took a few steps away and stood with her back to him. "Well," she murmured, barely loud enough to hear, "I guess it is time for the test."

"What's the test?"

She turned back. "Oh, it's just a little rule we have in the magic community. If you're going to go around reforming people you want to make sure you're doing it right, right?"

"Yeah." Gaston had no idea what she'd just said, but agreeing with her couldn't hurt.

"This is kind of a secret." She narrowed her eyes and gave him a little smile. "But I can trust you, right? I mean, you came all this way out of the goodness of your heart."

"Exactly. What's the test?"

"Well, after a little time has gone past, sometimes we cast the spell again. If the desired change has really taken hold, then it will break straight away. Sometimes we do it when they're sleeping and they never even know. But if it hasn't..."

"He stays a Beast, right?"

"Right."

"So you can't just... turn him back into a Beast? With all the awful stuff I just told you about?"

She shook her head. "I'm afraid not. I trust you, of course, but... well, those are the rules." She wrinkled her nose, then winked. "I'll be right back, honey."

She rolled her eyes as she walked away. Idiot, she thought. It was funny, actually, he was like the prince's peasant twin – or the prince as he had been. He'd changed, she knew it for sure. It was just that lately... well, she had been having some doubts. He was better, no question, but...

The truth was, she felt guilty. She had twisted fate. Not just to reform the prince, that had all been in accordance with magical guidelines. But getting the girl there... What were the chances of an old man happening upon the castle and then his beautiful, good-natured, patient, understanding daughter showing up to rescue him and making a bargain with the Beast exchanging her freedom for his? Slim to none, right? Their love was real, alright, meddling with that would have undermined the whole thing, but... well, without her involvement, Belle's life would have turned out differently. Which was fine, as long as this version was better, she could sleep easy.

So maybe it would be worth doing the test. What she had told Gaston had been mostly true. The test did exist, but it tended to be applied at random... and it almost never failed to give positive results. Now that she thought about it, she was a little nervous. What if he wasn't reformed? It wouldn't look good for her.

But then she thought about Belle again. Not to mention the expression on Gaston's face when she undermined his horsedung story in five seconds flat. Yes, she would enjoy this. She snatched up the hand mirror from her dresser and walked back out to face him.

"Let me just check he's sleeping," she said.

"Right," Gaston said, slightly disappointed that he wouldn't at least get to see the prince suffer a bit. Having him briefly turned back into a Beast while he slept didn't quite seem worth the journey.

"Show me the prince," she said. The mirror glowed green for a moment, then she examined the image. There he was, alright, sound asleep next to Belle, his nose nuzzling into her pillow. She nodded at Gaston. "Right. Here we go." She focused hard. She'd learned a lot since she'd cursed him the first time – and she ought to have done, in twelve years. Cursing the servants had been – and she was embarrassed to think about it now – an accident. She narrowed her eyes. She wouldn't be making it again. She stared harder and harder at the image of the sleeping prince, aiming a fine beam of concentrated magic at him. Beast, she thought. Beast beast beast beast beast... NOW!

She released it. There was a moment of sound vacuum and then the power was gone. She glanced up at Gaston, then back at the mirror, and waited.

Pain ripped his dreams in half.

It seared through him, cauterised every inch of tissue, stretched him, bent him, crushed him, tore through him looking for secret places that the burning hadn't reached and destroying them. Hair ripped through his skin so fast that it seemed to burn and fangs shot from his gums like bolts from a crossbow, embedding themselves in his lips. He howled in muffled, bloody pain and it was then that the final agony hit him: a scream, her scream.

He opened his eyes and there she was, frozen half-upright, tangled in the bedsheets, her face white and shining with sweat.

Slowly, horribly slowly, he lifted a hand in front of his face. It confirmed what he already couldn't deny.

He was awake, and he was a Beast.

Back in the cottage, the Enchantress sank into a chair, unable to utter anything but garbled versions of ancient arcane swearwords.

Gaston grinned. "I'll see myself out," he said.

I'm really pleased with this chapter! I hope you liked it!