****Freddie and Ally's room****

When Freddie had been "pardoned" by Ben and enrolled on Auradon Prep she hadn't expected to have such a nice-ish experience on the school.

(How could they pardon her when she did nothing to deserve to be on the Isle?...

Well she had done some shit over the years back there, but wasn't that because she had been born and grew up with a bunch of villains?)

Sure, she couldn't openly read cards like she did on the Isle (that didn't mean that some of her curious classmates didn't ask and that she didn't do it for a price) but at least she could go to sleep with a full stomach and she didn't have to look behind her back every two seconds if she wanted to go for a walk.

The down side of all of this was that she couldn't see her father and sister.

Even if he missed her sister and knew that if she had asked for Celia to be brought to Auradon, she knew that it was not time yet as she was too young to be separated from their father, who in turn wasn't ready to be separated from another daughter.

What was Ben thinking when he listened to Yen Sid's suggestion to send Hermie here? She was thirteen, too young even by Isle standards and her parents actually loved her, unlike many others.

Dizzy was an especial case as she didn't have anyone to take care of her without Anthony there, it would be foolish to think that Anastasia could take care of another child as even if the Tremaine were trying to cover it up, the red haired woman was cracking up too much lately (between a few long episodes of sanity) and her two daughters were probably now searching where to live.

Of course Anthony would be denying it though one wouldn't know if he was denying it out of delusion or out of pride.

Freddie knew that her own mother was not okay on the head, that was why her father had separated from her and that was why he didn't allow visits.

(She also knew that he had wanted to take Uma with them when they left but he wasn't her father and Ursula wouldn't stand for it, Freddie always wondered what happened to Uma's father)

"What are you doing?" Ally asked interrupting her thoughts. Alice in Wonderland's daughter was sat on her bed with Yzla and Jordan while Tina and Mairia were reading some magazines while sat on the floor.

The voodoo girl didn't remember when the other girls arrived but shrugged it off as it wasn't unusual to have many people on their room as they liked when she read their cards and Ally was really popular among people (especially after becoming friendly with Audrey last year)

Freddie blinked a few times as she collected her thoughts and then simply said "Writing a letter to my father" Then added "Sometimes I wonder why they installed a phone booth at Bargain Castle if they are not going to let us use it"

"It's not like our parents would know how to use it" Yzla said shrugging "Most of them haven't been in front of a phone in decades, even before being sent to the Isle"

"True" Freddie conceded but added "Still it would be more practical than writing letters and waiting for a response, hell I even think that the goblins at the docks delay the letters in purpose"

"I don't write to my family" Yzla commented shrugging and getting sat on the floor "It's not like Yzma would know how to send a letter nowadays, she has been gone for a while, and Zevon is too focused on his revenge or something like that to really care to respond"

Freddie made a non-committal sound as she kept writing her letter trying not to think about Zevon and CJ, even when they never dated it made her sick to think about them together as there had been some attraction between them.

Why had CJ taken an interest on him when he clearly was head over heels for Mal was a mystery. Were all Hooks morons when it came to love?

"Zevon stole all the birthright jewels from the VKs, didn't he?" Tina asked curiously as she lifted her gaze from her reading, it was a science magazine and Freddie thought that it was strange for a princess to read something like that but she supposed that people could have different interests "I wasn't here for the Jewel-bilee, my sister Amelia was celebrating her engagement"

"Yes, he did" Yzla said frowning as she remembered how her brother gloated about it to anyone who cared to listen, which wasn't many but still "Oh, and congratulations to your sister"

Tina just nodded and gave her a smile as she returned to her magazine.

"Just after Auradon had so graciously decided to return to us our own jewels" Freddie muttered but realized that they all had heard her when Mairia said "Sound like typical Auradon, they do have some our jewels at their vault"

"Why would they do that?" The voodoo girl asked curiously and left the "with yours" unsaid but it seemed that the red-haired princess understood.

"Who knows?" Mairia simply said shrugging and then looked at her nails for a second before turning her head to Jordan and saying "I suppose that they will give me mine this year or the next, Hamzah got his on his Senior year, didn't he?"

Jordan nodded before saying "I got mine during Freshman year though, for some reason…I suppose that Beast didn't want to keep mine anymore"

"It was very generous of Beast to give back your jewel" Freddie snorted remembering that she had said something similar last year before the party. Then she noticed that all of them were amused by it a relaxed a little bit as she has been slightly wary about Mairia and Tina as she didn't know the girls that well and they were princesses after all, they could be like Audrey for all she knew.

"I suppose it was" Jordan said with some amusement.

"I remember that party, I got mine during that party too!" Ally said with some excitement as she wasn't taking part of the conversation "That year Jane still had long hair…"

Freddie muted the conversations as she rolled her eyes with some amusement at how much Ally could go side-tracked.

She didn't want to her about their stuff, then she realized that she had just written the greeting and usual questions on the paper and wondered what she could tell her father that she hadn't told him already. The last time she had written home a few weeks ago, nothing had happened and the most interesting thing that had happened, she couldn't write about as she suspected that the letters were going to be checked.

The girl sighed as she wrote the usual: how she was doing in classes, how much she dreaded Remedial Goodness 101 (though she quickly added that Chad of all people had been enrolled on that class as punishment, that she was doing her best to fit in, that she missed them and that she hadn't heard about anyone interesting.

Sometimes she wondered if CJ was still alive, she hadn't contacted her at all after Zevon was sent back to the Isle and seeing her at the Jewel-bilee didn't count, though it wasn't like CJ actually cared for others.

Her half-sister, on the other hand, was known for caring for her crew (even when she didn't give a shit about her younger sisters) so she was inclined to believe that she was hiding somewhere near her side of the Isle, though there was somewhat of a chance that she was at Atlantica (ha, as if Uncle Triton would allow his half-sister's children to be there)

Freddie started wondering what could have been if she tried to become closer to Uma but shook the thought off when she remembered that Ursula had told her that it would have been better to drown her at the pier when she was born the last time they spoke. Also there was the matter that Uma barely acknowledged them when they crossed paths.

Then a bell rang and it signaled time to go for dinner and Freddie dropped her pen on the desk.

"Are you coming with us?" Ally asked putting a hand over her shoulder.

"Yes" Freddie said and then looked to the paper she had in front of her "You can get going, I'm going to send this letter first"

"Okay" Jordan said and then added "Hurry up, we are not going to save you a plate"

Freddie laughed a little as she rolled her eyes and then started to think about how to finish the letter.

****The King's office****

Ben was anxious.

It had not happened since the first time he reunited with the side-kick council back when he was still a prince, but at least after much thinking he had the solution for all their problems.

Now he was about to have a very big discussion with his father.

He didn't know who had told him about the incident but it didn't matter as someone would have told the press (at least Lumiere had taken care of the worst journalists and that included Snow White)

At first, he had wanted to keep Evie, Mal and (surprisingly) Chad with him during the meeting his father had requested but decided against it at the last moment as it would be better to face off his father alone.

And so, he had just asked one of his new assistants (he didn't know his name yet as he had been sent by his mother the day before) for some tea and biscuits, though he was almost sure that neither of them would have any but it would be good to have them if his father suddenly wanted a late afternoon snack.

He still felt that thing stirring up inside of him and he wanted nothing more than go to his bedroom and have some sleep, maybe have some tea first. But he knew that things weren't going to be easy and he could say goodbye to his bed for a while.

They hadn't find Hal yet and he was starting to get worried, the young king just hoped that the Westergaard wouldn't disappear up on a mountain in an ice castle (that wouldn't bode well for anyone)

Still, he trusted Jana to tell Queen Elsa the sufficient information to get her not freaking out too much and if something went wrong, the Snow Queen would have to solution for it and for some reason she seemed not to be totally against Hal as other were with their villain's kid.

The Árnadalr had sent a request to take custody of Hal, just as the de Chateaupers had done for Claudine and the Charmings for Anthony and Dizzy.

His parents had advised against granting those requests as it would have been problematic to keep an eye on the VKs, that would put the kids more on the public eye and other stuff he couldn't remember but it was related to the fact that some of them had living relatives in Auradon.

Mal had agreed when he complained about it because according to her they were wildcards (well, except for Claudine) and even if they had recommendations from Yen Sid, that didn't mean that they would not try something directly on their parents' enemy (or said enemy to them).

(Peter Pan had also sent one for Harriet and Big Murph but that brought another matter of problems entirely)

Ben had to finally decide not to grant the requests but he didn't outright close the door for eventually negotiating it.

"Your majesty?"

The brown haired boy just looked to the new assistant, who was giving him an uneasy look, and said "Yes?"

"His majesty, former king Adam, is here" The assistant said trying to emulate Lumiere's tone and failing miserably at it, Ben was slightly amused but decided to just said "Send him in"

The assistant went out of the room and after a minute or so, the former king was wearing one of his usual blue suits with a white shirt and a black tie, just as Ben had seen him dress all his life…the only thing that was missing from his usual image was the crown.

The crown that Ben was now wearing.

Ben had known that he was going to become king someday but hadn't expected to be informed that he would be crowned at sixteen. He tried not to think about that as he stood up and gave his father a firm handshake and then a hug which his father reciprocated after a few seconds but quickly let go.

It wasn't exactly a good sign but Ben ignored it as he returned to the desk and gave a quick look to the tea set and realized that the assistant had place scones instead of biscuits.

"I see that you have asked for tea" His father commented as he sat down on one of the seats that was in front of the king's desk "Two sugars, please"

The young king nodded as he served two teacups and decided to initiate the conversation as he knew that the former king would not do it, so after placing the tea in front of his father he cleared his throat and said "How have you been, dad?" Then added "How is mom?"

"We are both enjoying retirement" His father said with some amusement in his voice as if he was remembering a joke "She has been reorganizing the library…again"

"That sounds like mom" Ben responded with a smile. He would have liked to help her even when he wasn't one to love books that much even if he was considered kind of a bookworm as a kid.

"She has been also speaking with Aurora about some matter regarding Audrey" Adam said picking up a scone with some distaste but then placed it on his plate "I'm sure that Leah has also spoken to you…about the former arrangement"

"Yes" Ben said trying to find the words to elaborate more on it, he didn't expect that to be the first subject they would be speaking about. Didn't he know about Hal yet?

"So, you have been thinking about how to give the Roses a reparation for it?"

"I was thinking about throwing a ball so Audrey and Briony mingle with other royals and nobles, also Charming has written about Chad having to find a wife and the Fitzherberts too even if Rapunzel had not been pressing them on that" The brown haired boy said with some tiredness as he had discussed the topic before with some of his advisors and other people "I know that most of us already know each other but there is some nobility that goes to Sherwood Academy or are castle-schooled"

The former king snorted and then said "That isn't a bad idea but wouldn't it be better to suggest Kit to marry Chad off to Audrey and Anna or Milo to marry off one their sons to the younger one and be done with it?"

"Chad and Audrey broke up a while ago, the Charmings wouldn't agree anyway as they don't like the Roses" Ben simply said "And Milo's kids are already engaged to other people…and Leah would never consent her granddaughters to marry commoners even if Anna was born a princess, you know why Briony was taken out of Auradon Prep"

Adam just nodded, he had forgotten that Anna's sons didn't have any title as she had requested for them to be normal children…or as normal as they could be with two of them having ice powers.

"Speaking about Anna and her family, when were you going to tell me that Henri Westergaard has magic? That he froze the entire gardens today after a discussion with a princess" The former king bluntly asked looking at him as if he was responsible for that "Wasn't he checked when they arrived?"

"No" Ben admitted looking to his desk as if it was something interesting "As far as we knew he couldn't have a powers as his father is not magical and his mother's magic was learned as she was not born with it and highly improbable that she could pass it to her children, that was what Yen Sid wrote on his recommendation and Dr. Facilier confirmed it"

"How could you be so careless?! Do you think that you can trust their information after so many years on the Isle of the Lost?!" Adam shouted and Ben flinched as he knew that it would only escalate from there. The former king tried to calm down and didn't succeed at it, then asked through gritted teeth "Have you checked the other ones?"

"No" Ben admitted "None of them have a magical parent, only Hal and Freddie had one, Harriet's mother became fully human before having her and her twin and Hades' children are gods"

"You can't be that sure when we mostly don't know who is their other parent" Adam muttered and then gave a look to Ben, he waited for a few seconds that felt eternal to the young king "Find their birth certificates, find who is the other parent of all of them and take care of this"

"Dr. Facilier wrote that not all children on the Isle of the Lost have one as there is no Registry on there as Auradon didn't considered…necessary to establish one" Ben pointed out stressing the words he considered appropriate "We have to take his word and Yen Sid's, among the children that were brought born, also there is the matter at most of them only know one parent or were raised in not so traditional families"

Adam seemed a little bit loss of words for a moment, and Ben considered it a win but quickly sent the sentiment to the back of his head, then recovered and said "Then we should start considering to make a census of the Isle of the Lost and establishing some kind of registry for the kids, I suppose that Mal and Evie could help with that"

Ben was now the one lost at words, was his father implying that there would be more kids born on the Isle?

After a tense silence the former kings stood up as he picked up a scone and said "I hope to hear developments on this matter by our next meeting, goodnight son"

The young king blinked a few times before saying "Have a good evening, father"

When he was left alone in his office he ran a hand through his face and started wondering if there was a third/fourth generation being born at the Isle of the Lost.

****The Infirmary****

Opal, the granddaughter of Mama Oddie, had just raised an eyebrow when Hal and Eisa, both with drenched clothes but unfazed by it, arrived carrying a half unconscious Anthony to the infirmary under the worried gaze of Fairy Godmother.

It seemed as if nothing could faze her, still she stood up to help them put the dark haired boy on the bed and signaled them to seat on the couch and wait.

"Is he going to be okay?" Hal asked trying to hide the worry on his voice, he couldn't show in front of them that he cared. Though, Eisa seemed to be the only one paying some attention to him and she was looking down to her shoes.

"We'll see" The older woman said curtly as she wrapped Anthony on a blanket, as the boy was more asleep than awake he didn't protest, and then took out a stethoscope "I have to check him first"

"Should I inform his relatives?" Fairy Godmother asked trying to sound calm and with her usual demeanor.

Eisa snapped her head up and if looks could kill, FG would have been lying dead. Some seconds later, the princess composed herself and said "I suppose that it would be sensible"

"Which relatives?" Hal jumped into the conversation.

"His family on the Isle and Cinderella, of course" Fairy Godmother said in a tone that neither of the teenagers liked as it seeming a little bit condescending.

Hal nodded a little bit uneasy, Anastasia had not been totally herself the last time he saw her but Anthony had said that the day he left she had been okay. The redhead started wondering if his sisters would even care (he knew that they weren't close) and not to speak about Lady Tremaine or the Duchess and her brood.

Also, why would Cinderella care about her step nephew?

"Could you send Ms Tremaine here?" Eisa asked in what Hal could interpret as a polite tone "I suppose that she would like to be informed about her cousin's condition as soon as possible, I sure would like to know if one of my family was injured"

"Then I shall be going" FG said, she seemed happy to let Opal and the two teenagers take it from there.

"Thank you, it's deeply appreciated" The princess said in a cold smile put a hand over her wrist in a way that Hal had been taught was a sign that the other person (especially if it was someone of a lesser precedence) was being dismissed.

The headmistress made a courtesy and then left very quickly. Both teenagers fell silent as they heard the fairy's steps getting more and more distant, then Hal asked almost in a snort "Ms Tremaine? Really?"

"Well, as a princess I have to know my manners and that's her last name, right? Didn't your father teach you that kind of manners as he was raised a prince?" Eisa simply said detachedly and then turned to Opal who was finishing checking Anthony's vitals, the princess sighed and asked "Is he okay? Is he going to be fine?"

The woman didn't respond for a while and just hummed a response, then she said as she pressed her hand on Anthony's thorax "He didn't swallow too much water…"

"That's good" Hal said optimistically and relaxing a little bit.

"But he is very cold, his limbs seem to be numb and may end up having hypothermia" The healer continued but saw the expressions on the teenagers faces and said trying to ease them "Or may end up having a cold"

"Then we may hope for the best" Eisa said and got near the bed before adding "Is he conscious?"

"He is in kind of a shock, it's part of the cold incapacitation that normal people experiment when exposed to freezing waters" Opal said and then asked "How this did happen?"

"What?" The red haired boy asked confusedly.

"You bring a wet, cold and half unconscious boy and didn't expect me to ask how did he end up like this?"

"Oh"

"He fell into the pool…" Eisa started to say and gave quick glance to Hal and said in what could be interpreted as her business tone "I'm sure that you heard what happened during the luncheon today…I was searching for Mr. Westergaard with Mr. Tremaine, we ended up at the sports' complex where we found him at the bleachers and we had to convince him to come with us… then because of the stress I lost control of my magic so the pool froze and my gloves fell over it as they were in my pocket, Mr. Tremaine wanted to retrieve them and suddenly the ice broke under his feet"

Hal was about to correct her but the princess continued after putting a hand on his shoulder as if to tell him to shut up and so he started to take notes on what she was saying "Then Mr. Westergaard, jumped into the pool and after a minute or so we finally got Mr. Tremaine out and brought him here because as he is…magic-less he would not be capable of healing himself without the help of a healer"

The woman fixed her glasses and after a long sigh she said "I won't ask you for more details about the event as you two may need to go back to your dorms to change your clothes for dinner..." She made a pause and then continued as she stood up and handed Hal a paper bag "Put your friend's clothes and then come back, he needs to change too. He may not catch hypothermia but a cold may not be out of question"

Hal bit his tongue and then said "Then I'll be back soon"

The redhead turned on his heels without another word and got out of the infirmary as he tried to keep optimistic but soon after his thoughts were filled with dread for what he had caused.

What would Dizzy say to him when she knew? Though there was a chance that she would believe whatever story Eisa created.

Why had the princess concocted such a lie? It wasn't like they were allies; they had just met an hour or so ago!

When he finally reached the dorms building, someone put a hand on his shoulder and he almost hit the other person as from reflex from living with Harald and Hansel most of his life.

But he didn't as soon as he noticed that the other person was Claudine who seemed to be about to ran away from him and there was a strange feeling building inside of him as he thought about how uneasy must make her feel to be around him.

Frollo hated magic beings and had tried to rally non-magical beings against them at the Isle of the Lost (though he feared Maleficent and Madam Mim as much as he hated them and after a talk with both of them he soon stopped ranting against them in public)

"Hi, I was just…looking out for you…" Claudine said after a gulp and looked down to her shoes, after a silence she frowned little bit before asking "How are you? Where are Anthony and Harriet?"

"I'm okay…thanks, I guess" He said awkwardly "I haven't seen Harriet since lunch…"

"Oh"

"Yeah" He said and started to scratch his neck before adding trying to sound calm despite the fact that a knot was forming on his stomach "Anthony…he is not fine but he could be worse…"

"What?"

"He is…" The redhead noticed that he was shaking and gulped a little trying to find his voice, what would Claudine think about him almost killing Anthony?

The blonde girl crossed her arms and had a concerned face but didn't ask anything, he sighed and then continued "He could be worse or so Ms. Opal says; I'm actually getting clothes for him…"

"Clothes?" She interrupted him and then tilted her head as she tried to piece the information given to her.

"I'll tell you later" He said in what he wanted to think was a reassuring tone and was about to put a hand on her shoulder but remembered that she disliked physical contact and he wasn't a Legume to oversee that "Just go and read or whatever you do when you aren't following Harriet"

Claudine was about to respond but Hal started to walk away towards his and Anthony's room, he didn't want to continue the conversation as it would eventually lead to him admitting that he almost killed his friend.

As we walked, he crossed paths with some of his classmates and other students, some seemed to be scared and other seemed to be curious though none of them said anything when they saw him.

(Though he suspected that they would be asking questions later when Anthony didn't show up for dinner)

The red haired boy was about to throw up from anxiety when he finally got to their room and then quickly went to the Tremaine's closet and just grabbed the first clothes he found, then he put them on the bag Opal gave him and for a moment considered if he should change his clothes.

He hadn't thought about how uncomfortable the wet clothes were making him until that moment; he had jumped straight into the pool as soon as Eisa had managed to break the ice under them when Anthony had fallen through it.

He had tried to call out for Anthony as he was focusing on not to freeze the rest of the water but soon realized that Eisa was trying to keep that from happening.

(Hal could only suppose that the princess was calmer than him and that was why they could save Anthony)

At least all the training his father made him endure at the only pool available in the isle, courtesy of Gaston who had constructed one, was useful for once. He had always wondered why they had to learn how to swim when they lived in an isle with crocodile infested waters and a magic barrier.

"I…we didn't expect you to be here so soon"

"Why?" Hal snapped not looking back and taking off his shirt, it wasn't like he wasn't accustomed to change in front of people as he had shared his room with both of his brothers…and Hansel's ex-girlfriend.

"It seemed that you ran away and in Auradon's experience that leads to building an ice castle on the top of a mountain"

"Well, there aren't any mountains nearby" He shrugged and went to his closet, while he rummaged through his shirts he added "Also, I think a desert isle would be more my style"

"Because your mother was a princess locked up on an island?"

"That and the fact that castles never had an appeal for me" He put on a black shirt and then turned his head "What do you want, Evie…and your name is?"

"Doug" The half-dwarf said and fidgeted a little.

"Mal asked me to check if any of you were back" Evie explained and looked a bit uncomfortable as he took off his shoes "Are you going to change…like, right now?"

Hal rolled his eyes and sighed as he saw Doug's uncomfortable face, at least he changed his shirt and then put on other shoes before replying "Not anymore, though it was quite rude to enter to my room without knocking"

"I told you" Doug muttered but looked away and that amused Hal a little but quickly decided to shut down a conversation.

"It isn't like anyone doesn't just barge in back there" Evie said and then tried to find Hal's gaze as she asked "Are you okay?"

"Yes" He shrugged.

"Anthony and Harriet went to search for you with…"

"Eisa and her cousin" Hal interrupted her "They found me…"

"What…"

"I wish I could give you details but Anthony is at the infirmary and I need to get back there as soon as possible" He interrupted her once again as he stood up and then walked between them to get out of his room.

"Wait!"

"Sorry, I gotta go"

Hal just hoped that he could avoid the conversation and the details a little longer but his hope died a little when he arrived to the infirmary and saw Dizzy, Harriet and Chad Charming beside Anthony's bed talking to Eisa who seemed to be as calm as he would like to be.

He also noticed the Chad was giving him a look that he didn't like.

And Harriet seemed to be fuming.