Chapter 10

Episode - We Are Both

Harry, Ron, and David were running around frantically as Storybrooke Emergency Responders, volunteers, and fairies from the convent were delivering water, provisions and humanitarian Aid to anyone who had suffered injury or property damage at the hands of The Wraith.

With a combination of both the breaking of the curse and the attack of The Wraith the town was lawless in a state of chaos.

Harry and Ron were assisting the repair of property damage by the use of magic.

David came rushing over while everyone began rushing towards him apparently wanting the leadership of their prince.

"Henry," said David, "have you seen Blue? Mother Superior?"

"Yeah, she's over there, but everyone is looking for you." said Henry.

"Do we know where Mr. Gold is?" asked Red Riding Hood.

"Does the queen still have power?" asked Jiminy Cricket.

"I thought that I would at least find my boy." said Geppetto.

"Are the nuns still nuns or can they now date?" asked Dr. Whale.

"Seriously?" asked Ron with disbelief at the irrational and unprofessional remark. "That's your primary concern, whether or not the nuns can now date?"

"Well," said Harry, "they were technically fairies before they became nuns, and the fairies couldn't date. So I'd say no."

"Mother Superior!" David called out to the Head nun that was underneath an overhang full of water bottles. "Is it possible that there could be a Magic Tree on this side like there was in the Enchanted Forest that would allow us to cross realms?"

"It's possible." said the Blue Fairy. "But without fairy dust, there would be no way to access the magic. I'm sorry your highness, but I'm afraid it's hopeless."

"You will find another way." said Henry with hope and optimism. "In the stories things always seem hopeless before they work out. I'm sure that there will be some good news soon."

"Terrible news!" They heard a call from around the corner and then the Seven Dwarfs came rushing over. "Terrible news!"

"What's wrong Leroy, what is it?" asked David.

"We were investigating the town line, to see if the curse that always kept us within the town was still there."

He then pushed Sneezy forward to the front of the group.

"Sneezy, tell them who you think that you are."

"Why do you keep calling me Sneezy? You know who I am. I'm Tom Clark, the owner of the Dark Star pharmacy."

"You see." said Leroy. "When you cross the Town Line you lose all of the memories that you got back from the breaking of the curse. And then your 'cursed self' becomes your 'only self'."

It was then that everyone began talking to David all at once. He became overwhelmed.

"All right!" He called out to everyone as he raised his hands. "Everyone meet me in the large Assembly Room at the Town Hall in 2 hours. And I will tell you all my plan."

Flashback-

Voldemort's old abandoned secret hideout, One month earlier

The Death Eater, Nathan McAllister stood in front of a cauldron with a fire burning hot underneath it. Within the cauldron was a potion. A very complicated potion.

He held in his hand a wand, but not just any wand, it was a wand 13 and a half inches, Yew, and Phoenix Feather core. Voldemort's old wand. The wand that Voldemort claimed that he did not need any more after he had obtained the Elder wand from Dumbledore's tomb.

He was performing a very very difficult and delicate spell as he waved The Wand Over The Cauldron. Eventually the potion was ready.

He then held up the wand and in a firm clear voice he called out,

"Dark Lord, I summon you!"

It took a few minutes but eventually a ghostly wisp of smoke appeared in front of him. The ghostly wisp of smoke had a hint of a face.

"My lord!" said the faithful death eater. "I wish only to serve!"

"You have done well!" said an echoey whisper in the air.

The Death Eater then opened up a cage and pulled out a non-poisonous non-aggressive snake that does not bite.

"Let us begin, my lord." suggested the Death Eater.

The Wisp of smoke with the face then enveloped the small serpent and possessed it. The Death Eater then dropped the serpent into the potion.

He then held up a bone.

"Bone of the father, unknowingly given, you will renew your son." said the Death Eater in a loud clear voice as he then dropped the bone into the potion.

"Flesh of the servant, willingly given. You will revive your master."

He then slashed the wand over the front of his calf, slicing off a large slab of useless tissue that would not affect him physically. He then placed it into the potion and then with another wave of his wand the wound was healed.

He then pulled out a vile with a cork in it. Inside the glass vial was a red liquid. He pulled out the cork.

"Blood of the enemy, forcibly taken, you will resurrect your foe."

And he poured the vial into the potion.

And just like in the graveyard in the town of Little Hangleton, the Dark Lord rose out of The Cauldron, completely naked, but very much alive and in the flesh.

Lord Voldemort was reborn…(again).

Nathan McAllister then quickly draped a robe over the Dark Lord's shoulders, gave him his wand, and then stepped back and got down on one knee and bowed in respect.

Voldemort once again examined himself. He touched his face and his hands and his arms. But he felt something different. He tried casting several spells with his wand. The spells cast fine, but found that the Spells were less powerful and took a great deal of effort to cast. Normally he cast much more powerful spells effortlessly.

"You have done well my faithful servant." said the Dark Lord.

"My faith in you never wavered my Lord."

He then held out his forearm with his tattoo of the skull and snake.

"Shall we summon the others?"

"Not yet." said the Dark Lord.

"What is wrong my lord?"

"There are very few free Death Eaters left. And those that are free have long since betrayed me. The loss of the Malfoys for example."

"And then there's another problem, I have only one horcrux left. The security of my immortality is too diminished. Not to mention the portion of my soul that remains within my body. I shall need to take some time before I rebuild the Death Eaters. And then there's my magic. It seems to be extremely weak. Fortunately, there might be a way for me to restore it."

It was then that the Death Eater got to his feet and finally looked his master in the face.

"What is our mission, my master?"

"Patience my friend. We cannot rush anything." said the Dark Lord with wisdom in his voice. "Pack your bags McAllister. We're taking a trip to a town in the United States of America."

"What town in America are we going to?"

"Storybrooke!" said the Dark Lord with a maniacal smile.

Storybrooke -

Everyone was gathered in the assembly room of the Town Hall. Everyone was waiting for Prince Charming to tell them his plan for the town. Unfortunately he was a no-show, and Henry couldn't get him on a cell phone.

Harry and Ron were there. The people were actually looking up to them with a certain respect. Not something that they expected from muggles. Though since these were fairy tale characters from a magical world, he wasn't entirely sure if they constituted as Muggles.

It was then that the doors burst open. And in walked Regina. She had a smug look on her face.

When someone stepped in front of her she waved her hand and the man was telekinetically thrown against the wall.

Harry and Ron pulled their wands and took aim. Clearly she was now in full control of her magic which didn't seem to work before.

Granny fired a crossbow at her but Regina dodged out of the way and caught the arrow with her bare hand.

"Stay where you are!" Harry demanded.

"Regina Mills, as a law enforcement representative of the Magical Congress of the United States of America, you're under arrest!" said Ron in a firm tone.

"I'm sure you're good, Harry Potter." said Regina as she then opened her hand wide and a fireball appeared in the middle of it. "But you're no match for me."

"We shall see." said Harry.

"Stupify!" said Harry and Ron together.

The two stunning spells were deflected by a wave of Regina's hand where she then hurled a fireball at them. Harry deflected the fireball with a flick of his wand.

Everyone in the room scurried out of the way to get as close to the walls as they could so that Regina and the two wizards could fight in a wide open space.

This exchange went back and forth. It seemed to be a stalemate. For a witch with no wand, Regina was awfully powerful. The battle got more intense. Where then Henry stepped forward.

"Stop please!" screamed Henry.

The three battling Sorcerers stopped their attacks when Henry came into line of fire between them.

That's when Henry turned to Regina.

"Please, I will go with you if you promise not to hurt anyone here."

"Henry, that's not necessary, we can defeat her." said Ron.

"But that's just it." said Henry. "I don't want this. The fighting. Either she will get hurt, or you will get hurt, or someone else here will get hurt."

He turned back to his mother.

"Mom, please, for me. Just leave everyone alone."

Regina walked up to her son and gently caressed his chin.

"Good boy." she said with a smile.

She placed her hand on his back and then gently led him out of the room.

Harry, Ron and Ruby managed to run into David.

"David, where have you been?"

"Trying to catch Jefferson."

"Who?" asked Harry.

"The Mad Hatter."

"Who?" asked Ron.

"Alice and Wonderland." said Ruby.

"Is that a skin condition?" asked Ron.

"Regina has her magic back; she just crashed the town meeting." said Ruby. "The one that you were supposed to be at, and she took Henry."

"Well in all fairness he kind of voluntarily chose to go with her." said Ron.

"But now we have another issue. Everyone in town is afraid of Regina and thinks that we can't protect them, so they all want to leave. And anyone who crosses the Town Line will lose their memories and become their cursed selves."

So David had three choices now, one; continue to pursue Jefferson which was really a petty Pursuit with the desire to get back to Mary Margaret and Emma, or two; go rescue Henry from the evil queen, or three; head off the crowd that wanted to get out of town to escape the reign of the evil queen.

As much as he was a husband, father, and grandfather, he realized he had to choose the more practical priorities. Which was that the people needed their prince. He had already skipped the town meeting that he said he would be there to give them his plan. The people needed leadership. The people were loyal to him, Prince Charming. And he has to give them hope. And he had to give them a plan.

"Harry, Ron, can you two use your magic to teleport us to the Town Line?"

Harry, Ron, David, and Ruby all magically materialized out of thin air near the outskirts of town where a line of cars were approaching the Border between the boundary of Storybrooke and the outside world.

The car at the front of the line stopped as David stood in the middle of the road with his hands raised palms forward.

Dr. Hopper got out of his car.

"Out of the way, your highness." said Dr. Hopper firmly but respectfully.

"You can't keep us here." said Marco.

"Everyone, listen." Pleaded David. "You can't cross the town line. If you do, you will lose your original memories and become your cursed self."

"It's got to be better than staying here." said Dr. Whale. "Especially with the evil queen in charge."

"Listen everyone." David implored. "I understand. You're scared. You all want to leave. Particularly because of Regina. And don't worry about Regina. I will deal with her. I promise you that as your prince.

"But now there is the issue of the consequences of leaving. We all are undergoing an identity crisis right now. Within our minds we have both the memories of our cursed selves and our original selves; our memories and experiences shape who and what we are.

"It was a gift and a blessing when my daughter broke the curse. We all got the memories of our original selves back. And now you want to give that up? Well, you know what, you are right. I can't stop you from leaving if you really want to leave, but to give up your original self just to leave, bad idea. I was David Nolan for a long time under the curse, and he is a very real person to me, and I love him like a brother. But now I have Prince Charming in my head. Would I give up being Prince Charming just to be David Nolan? No. No I wouldn't.

"But you know what, I wouldn't make the other trade either. I would not give up being David Nolan to be just Prince Charming. I am no longer neither David Nolan or Prince Charming. I am both. And up here," he touched his finger to his temple, "both David Nolan and Prince Charming coexist together as one entity. We all, are both. Both our cursed selves and our original selves, and we should not give up our original selves. With this, we need to make a new life for ourselves here in Storybrooke, within the boundary of the Town Line. Let us rebuild our Happy Endings with the breaking of the curse and the restoration of our memories. Get a tent and some camping gear and go live in the woods if that's what you want. Take up writing software. Learn a new craft. Let us reopen Granny's and all the other restaurants. Let us reopen the school and have our children resume their education. Let's throw parties and celebrations and entertainment and be a happy real community that both lives and thrives with our original memories intact."

With the people of the Enchanted Forest listening to this encouraging pep talk from their Prince they all smiled and applauded and then decided to agree with him.

They approached the front door of Regina's house. David wielded his sword. Harry and Ron had their wands at the ready.

"You really want to do this?" asked Harry. "You want to go in there with just all guns blazing?"

"To quote Anakin Skywalker from Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, 'I prefer to think of this as aggressive negotiation'." said David.

He kicked in the door. They all rushed in in one quick motion.

"I want to see him." said David in a firm tone declaring under no uncertain terms exactly what he wanted.

Regina got up. But she didn't seem angry or appalled at this act of breaking and entering. Rather her face showed a form of conflict.

"Where is he?" demanded David as he brought the end of his sword close to her face.

"Henry," Regina called out, "could you come downstairs please? David is here to see you."

Then directing her words back towards David, "You won't be using your sword."

"I will fight anything you conjure." David said definitely.

Harry and Ron were ready to hex her at a split seconds notice, though she had shown an ability to deflect their hexes and jinxes.

"You misunderstand David." said Regina, clarifying. "I mean that you won't be needing your sword."

She placed the back of her hand against the flat side of the blade and gently pushed it away.

Henry then came down the stairs. Regina then walked over to him and then knelt down so that she was face-level with him.

Regina had a solemn look on her face of conflict as though she was trying to say something, but she found it extremely difficult to get the words out. But then finally she just said it.

"Henry, you're going to go home with David."

Henry paused and had a confused look on his face.

"Really?" said Henry, a little surprised.

Ron, Harry, and David were equally surprised.

"Yes."

"But why?"

"Because I don't want to be like my mother." said Regina, a tone of bad memories in her voice. "Henry, as you are aware from your story book, like myself my mother was a powerful sorceress. When I was younger, a little older than you, my mother controlled me with magic. She had my life planned out for me and she wanted me to do everything her way. Told me it was for my own good.

"Henry, I love you. I want you to live here at the house with me. But if you don't want to be here then it's no fun. Henry, I want you to live here at the house because you want to be here. I want you to love me; but I want you to love me on your own terms. I want you to love me because I've earned it."

She paused. Still a lot of conflict in her.

"Henry, I don't want to be the Evil Queen anymore. I wish to formally renounce my life of villainy."

She paused again, continuing to collect her thoughts.

"Henry, I promise, I will never do anything to hurt you, nor allow anyone else to hurt you. I want to be the mother that you want me to be. I want you to be able to brag to everyone about how I'm the best mother in the world. Henry, I want you to trust me. I want you to walk into the room and be happy to see me. I want you to sit in the room with me and feel safe. So until that time, I'm going to let you go.

"Now, go get your bag, be a good boy, behave yourself, brush your teeth and comb your hair, get to school on time, and do everything David tells you to do."

She then kissed him on the forehead and patted him on the back to go up the stairs.

A little cautiously, Harry and Ron slowly lowered their wands while David also lowered his sword.

"I do have one question, Your Majesty." said Ron Weasley. "The Enchanted Forest? The place where you sent my fiance, Mary Margaret, and Emma? Does it still exist?"

After a lie, Regina was a little hesitant to tell the truth now, but she decided that for Henry's benefit if you're going to come clean you got to start somewhere.

"Yes Ronald Weasley." said Regina. "Yes, the Enchanted Forest does still exist, but I have no idea how to get back there."

"And when Snow, Emma, and Hermione were sent there?" asked David with a new bit of Hope in his eyes.

"It is…highly unlikely…that they died upon arrival. So, I don't know for sure, but statistically by odds, yes they are still alive."

She looked at David and Ron as they pondered this concept with relief that their loved ones were still alive. But the conundrum that Crossing Realms was extremely difficult.

"I can see that my last statement has just embarked you on a quest." said Regina. "I have just one request to make of you David."

"Go on." said David.

"Take care of Henry."

He then touched his fist to his chest and nodded his head.

"On My Honor as a noble Knight, you have my word."

Henry came downstairs with his backpack and jacket and headed out the door with david. Harry and Ron had their wands ready while Regina exuded a posture that she was not going to fight back. Harry and Ron looked at each other and conveyed an unspoken message to each other.

"You know Ron," said Harry, "we did give the Malfoys a second chance. And Professor Snape got a second chance."

Ron thought about that for a moment.

"You know, Your Majesty" said Ron, "I made a verbal declaration back at the Town Hall that I was placing you under arrest. I suppose I can rescind that arrest order if you truly are a dark witch trying to redeem herself."

"Thank you." said Regina. "I won't let Henry down."

Harry and Ron then took their leave.

Please Review!