Okay, here I am again! Who's excited to see Philip teach Mal some magic? Well, that's not all you're going to see this chapter. I think it's about time to say hello to a familiar face (we've seen him already and you've probably forgotten about him by now). Anyway, let's go to the reviews and then the next chapter:

pinksakura271: Thanks for reviewing! I'd pick Ben, too. It is mainly Cruella and Carlos' fault they are being hunted - I think he killed at least thirty of the Dalmatians as a kid. Doug's not the only one who's lost so many, but he sure is the prime example. We'll see when and if Mal will change. And thanks, I tried to have that moment from the movie in this story and I'm glad you liked it. We'll see if Mal is a good student and she definitely is on Philip's good side (for now) because it looks like she means well.

jaleftwich: If they see Philip teach Mal, they may calm down about her being around. And I like that movie. Thanks for reviewing!

Kingson24601: Thanks for reviewing! Yeah, I know Chad isn't everyone's favorite character, but I just gave him a good reason for being like that. Well, Philip has to be confident in Mal, he has to believe in her. He would blame himself if Mal would take Audrey away from him because he refused to teach her.

PurpleNicole531: Well, I wanted it to look a little like that scene, so mission accomplished! They may feel a little comfortable seeing Philip keep her "under control", which is another reason why he is going to do it. Yeah, for now Ben trusts her. Let's see if he truly can. Thanks for reviewing!

Decembra1998: Thanks for reviewing! It was all in her head, but the same happened in the movie when she imagined the statue came to life, so I guess it still counts. I hope certain parts didn't feel too expositional.

Enjoy!

-Writer207

The next morning, Mal only came out of her room to have breakfast, lunch and to go to Philip to learn how to cast spells the best way. Other than that, she stayed in her room to continue her scheming. Once it was time for her to go to the center of the camp, she knew what she wanted to get to the wand and what she needed to do once she had the wand in her sight. Now she just needed do what she had to do and learn what Philip could teach her. The more she knew about casting spells, the better her chance of success may be in the future.

Philip was already waiting for her. Eyes followed her when she walked to him with her spellbook in her hands, but she ignored them. They should really get used to her walking around in the camp. Philip watched her come closer when he noticed she was coming. He only talked when Mal could hear him.

"Are you ready?" He asked her and she nodded.

"I sure am," she responded and opened her book. Philip shook his head.

"We're not going to start with your spells," he said, "Before we will use the book, I'm going to teach some more of basic magic."

"Basic magic?" Mal asked. She hadn't really thought something like 'basic magic' existed. The only magic she knew was someone with talent for magic saying rhymes and wishing something would happen – and then it would usually happen. Philip nodded.

"Yeah," he said, "There are different levels of magic. Learning how to cast spells correctly is hard. I am only as good as I am because I kept training. I personally thought I got considerably better once I learned about the different kinds of magic." Mal nodded. She didn't want to sit through some theory about magic, but if it helped her become better, she had to listen.

"Go on then," she said, "What are the differences?" Philip smiled at her and then explained most differences.

"There's obviously the difference between good and dark magic," he started, "Good magic has been stronger than the dark variant since the beginning of time, but in these dark times it is much safer to use dark magic. Just one simple 'good' spell will attract all evil magicians, so we'll focus on the dark magic. Maybe one day, I can teach you some good magic. The differences between good and magic lay mainly with wand use and the effect of the spells on people. A spell for protection would be good magic and one to torture people would be dark magic." Mal nodded, to show she was still following what he was saying and because the difference between good and dark was as clear as the difference between night and day. Philip continued.

"There are three big levels in both: simple, intermediate and hard. These levels are made possible by effect of the spell. A simple spell would be opening a door, for example, while a hard spell would be transportation from one point to the other. Of course you can shout rhymes and make it work for all, but some spells do better when it doesn't rhyme. The simple spell use just a normal command. Like this," Philip turned to the door of the council building and pointed at it with the palm of his hand. "Open!"

No second after he had spoken that word, the door flew open. Some people looked surprised when they saw it, but Philip immediately shouted. "That was me, excuse me. Close!" The last word closed the door again. Some people focused their attention on Mal and Philip now, wondering what she was up to. She couldn't care less what they thought, mostly because she was too caught up seeing Philip, a former knight with not too much talent for magic, do this with just one word.

"Wow," she said. She would have done it, too, but it would have required a rhyme.

"It's simple as that," Philip said, "At least, it is for either trained magicians or people with talent. And I can say you undoubtedly inherited the talent from your mother." Mal nodded. With a mother like hers, it would be weird if she couldn't cast any spells at all.

"So, the easy spells are simple commands."

"Right. The hard spells have the same principle, but they have to be spoken in an ancient language for it to be effective. The transportation spells are examples of hard spells. If I were to cast them in English, people would end up miles away from the intended destination, so it is important. We are not going to cover them today.

Then, there are the intermediate spells, which don't have to be in that ancient language, but work best when it is said in rhymes." Mal nodded, trying to remember everything Philip has said. she could use everything one day, if only to remember what the most efficient way was to cast a certain spell.

"So, what are we going to do today?" Mal asked him.

"You are going to try to open the door today. When you have done that, you're free for the rest of the day." Mal nodded. That was actually quite simple. Open the door, then continue the next day. Piece of cake.

Half an hour later, Mal still struggled to get that door open from her position. She had put all the power she possessed in that, all emotions in that one word, but it wouldn't budge, not even when Philip allowed her to stand ten yards away from it. In the meantime, Philip smiled while she attempted to open the door. The other members of the alliance stopped by and watched for a while, but soon left when they had seen enough or couldn't stay any longer.

"Okay, that's enough," Philip said eventually. "What do you think went wrong?"

"I don't know." Mal said, irritated because she couldn't do something as easy as open a door.

"You have to have peace with yourself to do it well," Philip explained, "I'm sure you've cast some spells before, and you've always felt good about it, right? Well, having peace with yourself means that you want to do the spell and that you feel good with the result. Many things can influence them. You may have to accept you're one of us now and that you're unable to go home. As for me, I couldn't accept that I was working with dark magic for a very long time." Philip sighed, "That was it for today. See you tomorrow. Same time, same place." With those words, he left Mal at the center.

When she looked around, people were still staring, but not as much as yesterday. She could only guess some members already got used to the increase of villain kids in the camp, or that they decided to leave her alone. Even if they were still staring, Mal didn't really mind. It could be a sign they were still afraid of her. They still didn't want to mess with her. She hadn't lost her reputation yet.

Then, Philip's words were sinking in. So I can't open the door because I don't have peace with myself. She'd agree to disagree: She was happy with herself and her choices. This would help her get the wand and would make her mother proud. To do that, Philip could help her. or maybe the problem lay with her attitude. The entire time, she had wondered why she had to open the door instead of skipping directly to the 'intermediate' spells.

"Hey, Mal," she turned around and saw Ben was coming to her. Play nice, she reminded herself before smiling in his direction.

"Hey," she said as soon as he was close enough to hear her, "So, shouldn't you be doing your job?"

"Not today," Ben replied, "I'm not old enough yet to do this on my own, so I share leadership with Philip. It's his turn to do the official things."

"That's smart," Mal said, "He's… quite capable to help you out." She hoped that was good enough for him. She never learned how to make compliments and she never would. Compliments were for peasants who begged for mercy. In this case, it was to complete her plan.

Ben nodded. "I trust him more than anyone else here," he admitted and then looked at Mal, "So, how are you?"

Mal was taken aback with that question. Ben cared about her. Nobody's ever asked her that question and nobody's ever cared enough to ask her. Not her friends, not her mother, definitely not all the slaves and peasants. The only thing that came close to it was Henry sometimes asking her if something was wrong when she was trying to conceal her evil side from him.

"I'm fine," she said, "Philip's helping me with my magic and I'm starting to feel at home here. And what about you?" Asking him how he felt may improve their platonic relationship and may lead to him trusting her a little more.

"I feel great," he said. Mal was going to ask if he was feeling a little nervous to meet the Fairy Godmother and have a protective spell placed on him, but there was no time. Philip walked out of the council building with a serious expression on his face, going in their direction.

"What is it, Philip?" Ben asked. Mal could have cursed. So close!

"Someone surpassed the magical defenses," he said. Ben's eyes widened and so did Mal's. "I already called the best warriors to stop the threat. They're coming now."

"I see you have a job to do," Mal said, silently wishing the intruder good luck facing off against the camp's warriors, "I'd better go."

"No," Philip said, stopping her from walking away, "You're coming with us."

"Why?" Mal asked, but Philip didn't answer her. She then looked at Ben, who nodded at her, as if he was telling her to stay. The warriors Philip had called arrived, giving Mal no chance to ask them why she had to come with them in private. Audrey was one of them. They looked at each other once and when Ben and Philip weren't looking, nodded at one another before ignoring each other completely. That's the way it always went, that's the way it would be.

Later came Lonnie and Henry. Lonnie had put on some leather armor. Since the alliance was a little poor and on the run, they couldn't afford that much armory so many, like Lonnie, had to do it with self-made leather armor. Finally, Chad arrived. Once they could see his face, he clearly was annoyed with two of the people.

"Do they have to come with us?" he asked.

"Yes," Ben and Philip said simultaneously. Chad grumbled in response, but didn't really say anything. When everyone was ready to go there, Philip lifted his hands and spoke the spell that would allow them to be near the intruder in mere seconds. Wind started to blow in their faces and everyone was pressed closer and closer to everyone while the surroundings faded away.

Mal had gotten used to this method of transportation, but she still couldn't stand the way she felt after jumping from one place to the other. All the others didn't seem to like it either, since it deprived them from oxygen for no longer than a few seconds, but they quickly recovered and went to the person who walked past their borders.

It didn't take long before Ben, Mal, Henry, Lonnie, Chad, Philip and Audrey spotted the person. Chad drew his sword as soon as he saw him, but Ben ordered him to put it away again until they were closer. They saw how the person stopped moving and how he put his hands in the air. The group walked closer to him and once they could clearly see him, Mal noticed he was just a boy. One she's met the day she saved Ben's life, the one who made her save Ben.

"Hadrian," Mal said and the boy nodded with a serious look on his face. Chad already grabbed the sword's hilt, ready to use it, and the others recognized the name as well. There was only one person who didn't know that name.

"Who?" Henry asked, looking at him. Apparently, Hadrian had never been to the Southern Isles, or else Henry may have known him.

"One of Hades' sons," Mal replied and Hadrian nodded.

"Yeah, that's me," he said, "I come in peace."

"Really?" Chad said, looking at the demigod, "Or do just want us dead?" Some groaned and Mal could only guess they were starting to get fed up with Chad's attitude towards some people. Even though his mistrust was permissible in this case, he always acted like that around the people he couldn't stand. Especially those with a doubtful or evil heritage. It seemed he only truly trusted his 'sister', Audrey.

"Chad…" Ben then said, but Chad didn't let him finish.

"Let's get rid of him," Chad said, "Wherever he goes, death follows."

Hadrian shook his head. "No, I go to places where people are going to die. There is a difference."

Before Chad could say anything else, Philip cleared his throat. "So, Hadrian," he said, "What brings you here? And how did you surpass our defenses?" Hadrian shrugged, slowly bringing his hands back down. As soon as he knew for sure nobody was going to attack him, he responded.

"I'm a demigod. What can stop mortals, can't always stop us." Mal looked around the group. Nobody seemed to be comfortable with his explanation, as he was implying all demigods could surpass their magical defenses.

"He's dangerous," Chad then said, as a response to Hadrian's explanation. "He can call his allies and break in whenever he wants."

"I'm mostly innocent," Hadrian replied, looking around at the group who surrounded him. He gave everyone sympathetic looks, but downright glared at Chad and, for some reason, at Audrey.

"Mostly innocent?" Chad said before anyone could prevent him from saying anything, "Then what are you guilty of?" Hadrian's facial expression didn't change, but Mal could see Hadrian was fed up with Chad's attitude and that he didn't want this conversation.

"Do you want to know something?" Hadrian began, "I'm guilty of knowing when people die and right now, I know two people in this place are going to be dead before this month ends." He paused to be able to look at everyone's faces after he said it. When he began to speak again, he looked directly at Chad. "I don't know which one of you will die, but I am getting a lot of negative vibes from your direction."

Chad was about to draw his sword, infuriated by the last part, but Henry, who was standing right behind Chad, stopped him from using any violence. Lonnie helped Henry stop Chad from punching the demigod. Hadrian simply folded his arms while he watched how the two struggled to keep their hothead calm.

Eventually, Chad let go of the hilt and instead pointed an accusing finger at Hadrian. "If you were talking about me, I swear I'll—"

"You'll, what?" Hadrian interrupted him. Mal thought he was purposely provoking reactions from the young 'prince'. She didn't know him long enough to know if that was the way he usually interacted with 'enemies' or not. "You're gonna kill me? If that's what you want, then do it. I don't fear death. After all, I'll be going home. But if you dare send me to my father, he won't hesitate to send you to yours."

That was the last straw. Philip immediately walked to Chad who had drawn his sword before anyone could stop him. He had placed the sword's point on Hadrian's neck. Hadrian didn't flinch once, even after seeing the rage in Chad's eyes. Mal's eyes crossed Ben's and she suspected they were thinking about the same thing. Maybe Chad will kill him.

Philip placed a hand on Chad's shoulders. "Chad, can we talk?"

"No." Chad said, not even looking away from the Demigod of Death.

"Chad." Philip repeated his name calmly, not saying anything else. Eventually, Chad sighed and put away the sword. Philip guided him away from the group so they could talk in private. When Chad and Philip were far enough away from one another, Ben looked at Hadrian.

"Sorry about him," he said, "He doesn't really like death. So, what brings you here?"

"Well," Hadrian said, looking a little more relaxed now Chad was removed from this group, "I wanted to see the people who cared about me. Then I realized that the only ones who ever cared about me were you and your friends." Mal didn't know what to think. Apparently, Hadrian had been in the alliance once before. She thought it was sad that the only people who ever cared were alliance members. On the other hand, his lonely life may have fueled his evilness, which is always a good thing. The less people cared about him, the less he cared about them, and carelessness is a good villain trait.

So far, it also looked like the only people who cared about Mal were some higher ranking members.

"So you want to stay with us?" Audrey then asked.

"Sure," Hadrian nodded, "I only plan to stay this month as a guest. If your friends have trouble with another one like me, you could tell them my siblings and cousins were hunting me down because I didn't obey father. Tell them I will be gone by the end of the month." Mal looked at him. Wow, he really wants to stay with the resistance, she thought.

"Refugees are always welcome," Ben said, "You can come with us."

"Thanks," Hadrian said, final showing a smile. Then, nobody said anything else and were watched Chad and Philip in the distance. They were still talking to each other, the alliance members waiting for them to finish their conversation. From this distance, they could barely hear what they were discussing. Eventually, they came closer again. Philip, who now was carrying Chad's sword, stopped to take them back home, while Chad just walked past them.

"Where are you going?" Audrey asked him, but he didn't stop. He continued to walk while Philip explained the situation.

"He's taking a break," Philip said, "Lately, with everything that's going on, he's become stressed. It's too much for him. He's coming back after fourteen days." Then, without wasting any more words, he cast the spell that brought them all back to the center of the camp, not questioning why Hadrian was still with them.

Once they arrived back at the camp, Ben looked at the girls. "Lonnie, Audrey, will you two take Hadrian to his room?" The two girls nodded and walked with Hadrian to his room, while he couldn't stop looking around and often watching several members. Philip walked away while Ben told the girls to bring Hadrian away, since he had some paperwork and official camp things to do. That left Ben with Mal and Henry.

It's now or never, Mal thought. "Why did I have to come?" she asked Ben, "It was just Hadrian. You could've handled it without me perfectly." She did want to say things when Chad was threatening Hadrian, but she couldn't – the boys were always much faster. Ben looked at Henry and vice versa, which Mal noticed.

"You know why," she then said, "You both know why. Why aren't you telling me?"

"You came for the same reason I came," Henry eventually said, "It's easier to make the enemies agree with our terms when Chad threatens to kill us."

"What?" Mal then said, trying to understand what Henry just implied, even if the image was pretty clear.

"We never know if someone who could break through the defenses is willing to listen to us," Ben began to explain it a bit better, "You and Henry come with us and, if they want to kill us, you two can pretend you're still with them and hostages. Someone in the company threatens to kill you – normally, that's Chad – and we want to make them listen that way."

"Hey, they're never truly gonna kill us," Henry added, "Besides, this is probably the first time someone walked further than the defenses."

Mal was left speechless. Without further ado, Mal walked away from them, not willing to hear anything else. She couldn't agree with them on the part where she had to put her life in Chad's hands, but other than that she was happy to see even a little bit of evil in this camp filled with good people. She continued to think about Chad and how fourteen days may just be enough for someone to figure out who he is and where his loyalties lay.

Eventually, she wished Chad would run into one of her friends or other villain kids. Knowing what he was, Chad would probably be redirected to Lady Tremaine, who would want his head, too. Then again, he is a good warrior – implied when Philip called the best warriors from the camp to come and find the intruder. His temper and all that rage could have made him an excellent villain if Philip hadn't taken him with him.

Then, Mal wished that if someone found him, they would bring him to Evie. There, she could unlock his inner evilness and make him a valuable ally, one who would hurt Philip so much. Even if she didn't want Philip to see another family member succumb to the evil side, he would be a great asset.

The rest of the day was spent in silence and sitting in her room, trying to open the door from her bed. By the end of the day, the door slowly opened itself after more than a thousand attempts.