Chapter 2

Author's note: Not quite sure where I'm going with this story. It's just what I've been writing with inspiration right now. Enjoy.

"Very well." said Hermione. "We will talk to this Mr. Gold or Rumpelstiltskin. Ron, you stay here with the boy. Harry and I will go with them."

"Wait," said Regina, "will he be able to protect my son?"

Regina referenced to Ron Weasley.

"He has slain monsters and fought and defeated Dark Wizards time and time again." said Hermione Granger. "Plus he's saved both our lives a hundred times over. No harm will befall your son on his watch."

Harry, Hermione, Regina and Emma then left the room while Ron took a seat to watch the boy.

A few minutes later they were walking into Mr. Gold's Pawn shop. Behind the counter was a well dressed older man walking with a cane.

"Well, hello dearie," said Mr. Gold in an arrogant voice. "This is an unexpected surprise."

"We need your help to save Henry. He's under a sleeping curse." said Regina.

"Yes Mr. Gold, please can you help us?" said Emma.

"Well," he said, directing his comment to Regina. "That sounds like a true believer. Your Majesty."

Your Majesty? Thought Harry. I guess he's still looking at her as royalty.

It was then that Mr. Gold saw Harry and Hermione.

"Well, well, well. I never thought I would live to see the day!" he said with an amused smile. "Harry Potter."

"How do you know who I am?" asked Harry.

"Oh a thrilling Tale." said Mr. Gold. "You see, as I'm sure you're aware now, Harry Potter, we are all from a storybook universe."

Harry acknowledged.

"Well," Mr. Gold continued, "as I was searching for a way to travel the realms in order to get here, I did manage to make my way to several other realms. Several of which were very similar to this one and one of them had a storybook sci-fi/fantasy novel series, about you."

"About me?" said Harry with confusion.

"Yes," said Mr. Gold, "in fact I brought back some souvenirs from that Realm. Then brought them over to here with the curse." he said the last part as he looked at Regina.

He then reached under the counter and pulled out a stack of thick books. It was the entire seven book Harry Potter series. Harry took the book and immediately began flipping through the pages he examined random paragraph after random paragraph within random chapters.

"Are you saying…?" asked Harry, in confusion and disbelief and yes not quite certain on how to phrase the question.

"Yes," said Mr. Gold, "this universe is also a storybook universe. In fact I think every Universe might be."

"I thought that this was supposed to be a world without magic?" said Regina with confusion.

"That is not entirely true dearie." Mr. Gold explained. "Tell me your majesty, were you born with magic or did you learn to use it later?"

"I learned to use it later." said Regina.

"Exactly. You don't possess any magic within you. You see, in the Enchanted Forest, magic is everywhere in the air. Anyone in our world can call upon that magic and bend it to their will, if they are taught how to do it. Which is what you and I did. But as you have learned, magic Works differently in this world. As there is no magic in the air in this world. Which is the reason why you and I have no magic here. Our magical friends here though they have powers and can use magic in this world because the magic is 'within them' which in this world allows them to call upon the magic within themselves and bend it to their will with practice and training. But that is neither here nor there," he then looked at Emma and Regina, "you want to save your son."

"Can you do it?" asked Emma.

"The only way to break the curse is 'true love'." said Mr. Gold.

"Yes, but Henry doesn't have a romantic partner."

"True love, Miss Swan. The only Magic in the entire universe powerful enough to transcend Realms and break any curse. And I do mean absolutely any curse."

That's when Mr. Gold turned towards Harry.

"I believe our young Mr. Potter knows first hand the power of true love breaking any curse."

"What do you mean?" asked Harry.

"The killing curse Mr. Potter." said Mr. Gold. "The curse that is supposed to be unstoppable, unbreakable, and tell me, dearie, how exactly did you survive it?"

"My mother sacrificed herself." said Harry.

"Exactly Harry Potter. A mother sacrificing herself for her child! An act of love so powerful that when The Dark Lord cast the killing curse on you, the unbreakable curse, the unbeatable curse, the unstoppable curse, it bounced right off of you and destroyed him."

"Point taken." said Harry Potter.

"Well dearie, I just happen to have bottled some." said Mr. Gold.

"Bottled what?" asked Hermione, a little confused.

"True love." clarified Mr. Gold.

"You did?" asked Regina.

"Yes, your Majesty. And it's not just any old potion. I managed to create the most powerful potion in all the realms." Mr. Gold said with a sense of pride. "And I've been saving it for a rainy day."

"Well it's storming. So where is it?" demanded Emma Swan.

"Where it is, is not the issue." said Mr. Gold. "The issue is getting it. You see, I had your father hide it inside someone for safekeeping."

He then looked at Regina.

"Tell me your majesty, is our guest still in the basement?"

"You're kidding." said Regina.

"Not at all." said Mr. Gold. "Well, if we're going to save little Henry, we're going to need to retrieve the potion. And I'm afraid Ms. Emma Swan is the only person that can do it."

"No," said Regina. "I am the one who will do it. I'm his mother."

"With all due respect, your majesty." said Mr. Gold. "It must be Ms. Swan who does it. No one else can. And for that Miss Swan, you're going to need this."

That's when he opened a very long box and inside was a sword.

Harry observed the sword. It had remarkable craftsmanship, yes. Not exactly the sword of Godric Gryffindor, and not exactly Goblin made. But a fine sword nonetheless.

"What is that?" asked Emma Swan.

"Your father's sword." said Mr. Gold with a smile.

Regina and Emma paid their respects to their dying son at his hospital bed before they went to the Clock Tower where Emma would have to face Maleficent in Dragon form, by herself, armed with nothing but a sword. Regina had an altercation of some kind with a man who came to see her but nothing violent resulted from it.

Shortly after everyone had left the hospital room, as Ron Weasley was sitting there in the room keeping a close eye on the boy covered in electrodes and a breathing apparatus, a fair skinned woman then came in with a pixie cut black hair.

"Hello." said the woman. "I'm Mary Margaret. I heard about what happened to Henry. I came here to see him."

"Pull up a chair." said Ron.

She did.

"Ron Weasley." he introduced. "I was asked to watch him."

"I understand." said Mary Margaret.

"So," said Ron Weasley, "what storybook character are you in this town?"

"You mean from Henry's storybook?" asked Mary Margaret.

Ron who was still semi oblivious to the details of everything going on wasn't sure how to respond.

"Sure." said Ron Weasley.

"Snow White." answered Mary Margaret.

And once again Ron Weasley was oblivious to the significance of the name.

"You know Mary Margaret," said Ron Weasley, "for the life of me I don't know the story of Snow White. What is it about?"

"Really?" said Mary Margaret with disbelief. "You don't know the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs?"

"I could tell you the story of the Warlock's Hairy Heart."

"I don't think I know that one." said Mary Margaret.

"Well," said Ron as he then thought for a minute, "can you tell me the story yourself?"

"I will try my best." said Mary Margaret. "So, the story goes…Once Upon a Time, there was a king and a queen who were blissfully in love. They had everything that their hearts desired. Riches, servants, luxuries, a wonderful Kingdom that prospered and thrived." Mary Margaret explained with almost a subconscious instinct.

"But there was one thing they didn't have. A child. And then one day as the queen looked up into the sky and saw a bright star; she wished! She wished with all her heart for a daughter! A daughter with lips as red as blood, hair as dark as night, and skin is white as snow. And the wish was granted. The queen almost immediately became pregnant and then gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. And they called her 'Snow White'.

"But then one day, years after the birth, the queen fell ill and died. The king in his grief, to fill a hole in his heart, met a young woman skilled in the magical Arts,"

Okay, thought Ron Weasley, this just got interesting for a muggle story.

"and by everyone else's standards" Mary Margaret continued "was so beautiful she was referred to as 'the fairest of them all'. The King married again. But this new woman, Snow White's stepmother, she was jealous of Snow White's beauty. For she herself wanted to be the fairest of them all. She then spoke to her magic mirror, and she asked the question: who is the fairest of them all? For the magic mirror possessed the ability to reach out into the SpaceTime Continuum and extract any knowledge and information that was needed for any question."

What? Thought Ron. I have never heard of a magical mirror that could do that.

"And the magic mirror said that the Queen's step daughter, Snow White was the fairest of them all.

"The queen became so jealous that Snow White was prettier than her that she ordered her Huntsman to kill her. But the huntsman was loyal to Snow White, not the queen, and could not obey the command. The Huntsman told Snow White to run away and never return. The Huntsman instead brought the Evil Queen the heart of a slaughtered domesticated bore.

"When the queen then asked the magic mirror one more time who was the fairest of them all. The mirror still said that Snow White was the fairest in land. The Evil queen clarified to the magic mirror that Snow White Lies dead in the forest and that the Huntsman had brought her proof. The queen then held out the decaying blood pumping organ.

"The magic mirror then clarified that Snow White still lives. Fairest in the land. For the heart of a pig she holds in her hand.

"The queen then became furious. She then used magic to disguise herself. And then poisoned an apple. And where she then went to the House of the Seven Dwarfs that had granted Snow White sanctuary and lodging. When she got there in her disguised form. She offered Snow White the Apple. And Snow White ate the apple accepting the kindness of the queen in disguise.

"The poison of the Apple put Snow White into a death like sleep. Never to wake up.

"But then one day,..." she trailed off.

It was at that moment that Mary Margaret paused.

"Go on." prompted Ron Weasley as he was caught up in the story clearly fascinated.

"Hold on." said Mary Margaret as she held up a finger to be excused.

It was then that Mary Margaret reached under the pillow of Henry's hospital bed and pulled out the story book.

She then began flipping through the pages.

It was almost hypnotic as though she was under a spell.

She found the story that she was looking for.

She placed a hand on Henry's hand as she looked him in the face.

"Henry, I'm going to read to you from your story book."

Mary Margaret didn't know how but somehow deep inside of her the story felt all too familiar to her.

"Prince Charming was riding through the Enchanted Forest as fast as he could go." Mary Margaret read from the book. "Desperate to reach the woman that he loved that he knew had been fed a poisoned Apple by the evil queen. It was a cold day. There was a light layer of snow covering everything. He was following the direction of the Enchanted ring that was given to him by Rumpelstiltskin. It acted as a beacon to lead him to the woman that he loves. He followed the ring for hours until finally he saw up ahead the Seven Dwarfs that were Snow White's personal guard. They were standing around a glass casket. He dismounted from his steed and he walked over to them.

"I am so sorry, Your Highness." said Doc. "I'm afraid it's too late."

"No!" said Prince Charming in a tone of despair. "Open the casket!"

"Obedient to the prince, they lifted the lid of the casket.

"And, yes, she was beyond hope, beyond saving. This was her end. When Prince Charming saw his beloved Snow White in the glass coffin he knew that he had to say goodbye. He had to give her one last kiss!

"Prince Charming bent over the woman whose face took his breath away because even in death she was so enchanting with beauty. Truly the fairest of them all!

"I love you Snow!" Prince Charming said with deep emotion while tears poured down his face.

"And he touched his lips to hers.

"And when he did, true love proved more powerful than any curse! For the very moment that the skin of his lips made contact to the skin of hers a pulse wave of pure love rippled out and engulfed the entire land, washing away all of the darkness and replacing it only with light!"

Boy, thought Ron Weasley, these muggle fairy tales really have a flair for the dramatic. Especially with their weird and distorted view of magic.

"And Snow White's eyes opened and she took in a gasping breath.

"I love you too!" replied Snow White as she looked her handsome prince in the eyes. "You found me!"

"I will always find you!" Prince Charming said, half a vow, half a statement of fact.

Ron Weasley was truly moved. He was so caught up in the story.

Mary Margaret then put down the book and she placed her hand on Henry's hand. And tears began to well up in her eyes.

"Henry," said Mary Margaret with emotion, "I just want you to know that sometimes life doesn't always have a happy ending. But when I gave you that book I did it because these fairy tales inspire hope. Hope that you can have a happy ending when it looks like one is not in sight."

It was then that the heart monitor started beeping.

"What's going on?" asked Ron as he was clearly out of his element.

"Dr. Whale!" Mary Margaret called out.

Doctor Whale rushed into the room with several nurses.

"He's in cardiac arrest!" said Dr. Whale. "CPR! Get the paddles!"

They started pumping his heart while also pumping more air into his lungs. They then placed the electric paddles on either side of his chest.

"Charge to 200!" ordered Dr. Whale. "Clear!"

Ron Weasley watched in horror as the boy was jolted with a shock of electricity.

The monitor remained flatlined.

"No pulse, no sinus rhythm." said the nurse.

"Again." said Dr. Whale. "Clear."

Another jolt. Still nothing.

"Charge to 300!"

"Ready doctor."

"Clear!"

Another jolt. Still nothing.

"Doctor." said one of the nurses. "Nothing's working. He's gone."

Mary Margaret was crying her eyes out where she then buried her face in Ron's chest.

Ron put his arms around her to comfort her.

"I'm calling it." said Dr. Whale. "Time of death, 9:54 a.m."

Unable to handle the grief of what she had just witnessed, Mary Margaret ran out of the room, exited the hospital and ran down the street.

Ron Weasley, feeling that there was no need to stay here anymore, decided to go find his fiance.

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