Participated in the following meme on tumblr:

"send me "Librarian!" and a page number and I'll grab the closest book, flip to that page number, and write a ficlet based on a random line of text from said page."

Prompt: Librarian! + 3 - narniangriff23

"'You are everything,' he says, eyes shining." Juliet Immortal, Stacey Jay

A/N: New EF AU! When Princess Emma was 13, her parents were killed during a raid on the castle by the men of former King George. He delivered the young princess to the Evil Queen, but Rumplestiltskin, never imprisoned in this timeline, rescued her from Regina because he knew he would still need her magic if he ever wanted to find Bae, taking her – and Belle, freed from her tower by the Huntsman when he realized that Rumplestiltskin was there to take Emma away – to the Dark Castle in order to mentor her. Pre-Gremma.

Emma knows what she is meant to do. Retake her kingdom, defeat the Evil Queen and King George once and for all. Find a way to open a portal to a world that doesn't even have magic, so that the Dark One can find his way to his son.

But just because she knows what she's meant to do doesn't mean that she can. Eleven years of lessons, and she can't even do the most basic magic. She feels more useless than anything.

Except when he's there. The Huntsman isn't supposed to be, especially not often, but he is friends with Belle and in return for freeing her his heart had been stolen away from the Queen. The only condition was, she could not know that. He was their spy in her castle. If it was up to Emma, he'd be allowed to do what he wanted – but it was not up to her. And she considers him a friend of her own.

He's there now, keeping his distance the way he always does when she's trying to get her powers to just work. He doesn't like the magic and she doesn't blame him.

As yet another attempt at conjuring a simple ball of light fails, Emma's eyes flutter shut. She can feel the frustration building, the fear that she'll never be able to get her parents' kingdom back so it can be ruled the way it ought, with kindness and regard for the people rather than the iron grip it's under at the moment.

Then there is a hand on her arm, gentle and calming, and her eyes snap open to see that he has come close the way that he never does.

"You don't need the magic, Emma. You're enough without it." She starts to shake her head, open her mouth to form a protest, but he continues before she can. "Your parents took their kingdom, and the only magic they had was a little help from the Blue Fairy. That was barely anything, and they still did it. You can do it too. You're their daughter. The people will follow you."

And maybe she hasn't made any progress, but she smiles anyway.