Chapter Text
"Are you sure this will work?" Jay asked, looking at his bags of cookies. I had split the cookies up between him, Carlos, and Evie to make handing out easier. I had already shooed Carlos' grabby hands away from the goodie bags twice and removed four more from Jay's pockets. Sure, there are probably a couple missed but I won't pat him down for a few chocolate chips. The plan was to start handing them out at lunch since the Tourney game was scheduled soon after (and because FG had the other teachers marking my attendance to meals now).
First, we had to meet with Mal to give her the potioned cookies, though.
"Yes, I am sure. Baked goods are a direct line to trust. They may be small, but people who eat them are allowing a portion of trust that you aren't poisoning them. Why do you think that Snow White's apple worked? She trusted that the old woman selling apples wouldn't be selling bad apples. Our cookies come with a different kind of threat. The more people who trust us, the more they will tell us, the more information we have to use in the future. We can have a serious information ring here at Auradon if we play this right. These are already the children of the world leaders, politicians, and general high society. They like to brag, they like to flaunt. Cookies are a simple baked good that most won't turn down, an easy target to plant that seed." Their footsteps stopped and I turned to see why they had stopped. Both of them just stood, staring at me. "What?"
"... I thought you said you weren't a villain?" Carlos asked, looking a little dumbstruck. Jay's expression wasn't too far off from the same.
"I'm not?"
"Then what the heck was all that?!"
"My aunt had a gardening club. She made me bake for them all the time. She hated those ladies with a burning passion but she also wanted to be the best of them. Kinda just picked it up from her I guess. Huh, never thought Aunt Petunia would teach me anything useful." My brow furrowed in thought and I disregarded the looks my fellow VKs were shooting my way. "Then again, she was a villain in the most mundane sense of the term…"
We kept walking after that. Jay and Carlos started joking around with each otherI kept thinking back to the Dursley household and the similarities between them and the villains on the Isle. Surprisingly, the Dursleys were worse than most of the Isle parents. Jafar, The Evil Queen, Dr. Facilier, and many others had a genuine love for their children. Maybe more love for themselves, but they did love their kids in their own way. Some, like Cruella and Ursula, didn't really love their kids but still spent time and provided for them. Some parents, like Maleficent, loved their Heir more than their kid.
But it was still a rare day to find out that a child of the Isle had been physically abused. Villains were more likely to leave their children to their own devices rather than lock them in a cupboard until they were useful. As far as I know, no villain whacked their kid upside the head with a hot frying pan when the bacon burned a bit. Emotion abuse was a norm, generally neglect was the culprit with the occasional guilttripping thrown in.
Before I could ruminate further, Jay grabbed my shoulder and shook me out of my thoughts. "Hey, Mal is at her locker, let's go." he leaned in and said quietly. I gave a little nod of appreciation to his warning and headed to Mal, Evie at her side.
"Mal, Evie. How is everything going today?" I asked politely.
Evie perked up and smiled. "It is going great! I had-"
To my irritation, Mal cut her off. "It's fine, where are the cookies?" I saw Evie's face fall just a bit before she put herself together. I felt like red was creeping up in the corners of my vision. What is wrong with this girl? Rude, impatient, uppity. She was acting like a punk-rock Audrey.
"Yeah, in a minute." I snapped at her. Turning to the bluenette, I smiled and asked, "Evie, you were saying?"
She blushed just a bit but her face dropped even more when Mal turned to glare at her. "Umm, nothing important, it's fine. We can move on to the plan."
"See? Move on, where are they?" Mal moved her glare onto me again. As if it would work, that glare looked like a puppy frowning compared to Snape.
"You can wait for a minute, Mal. You are lucky I didn't just throw these out after you left." I had thought about it, actually. "Gods know your plan is wrong on so many moral levels that Aesop would be spinning in his grave."
While she stood there sputtering, I opened my bag and pulled out the cookies. I had only saved three of the them and had tossed the rest anyhow. No one needed a dozen love spell cookies. I would also hope she realized the spell used was an infatuation spell, not true love. Jay should definitely know the difference, what with his dad and all. Love cannot be spelled, wished, or forced into being.
"Alright, here you go. And Evie, one of those plates Jay is holding is for you to pass out as well. Tell people I made them if you want to but I would just say you made them. People trust 'The Trickster' even less than you guys. I also don't want to be associated with this if it goes south." I closed by bag and hefted it further up my shoulder. "I'm off. If I don't get something to eat, Fairy Godmother will have my head." She already made that apparent, showing up to the dorms and waking all three of us up because we missed breakfast. She gave us all granola bars and told us to not miss lunch or we would be in trouble, not that I want to miss it yet again.
I headed off to the cafeteria, joining the line of students with trays and ignoring the uncomfortable looks from the students around me. The food looked leagues better than any public school I had attended but was still a sight off from Hogwarts. Seeing as it was the day of a game, the lunch was an herb crusted chicken breast, served on rice pilaf with a side of roasted vegetables. The salad bar to the side had fresh and vibrant produce, not a wilted leaf in sight, with a wide array of toppings from the usual croutons and dressings to cranberries and diced chicken.
The sight was enough to make my mouth water. The eggs last night had definitely put my stomach growls to rest but they did not begin to address my true hunger. Even as hungry as I was, I knew to pace myself. After starving through my years at the Dursley house, I learned my lesson the first night at Hogwarts. Eating too much, too fast, especially with how rich some of this food could be… it was a recipe for vomit. I know to take it slow or have an equally empty stomach not long after eating.
Plate loaded with the chicken, rice, and veggies, I headed over to the salad bar. Before I could even join the small line, someone knocked into me from behind.
Hard.
Hard enough to send me crashing down to the floor. Luckily, it was too ingrained to protect my food so barely a grain spilled from my tray, balanced safely on one hand while the other was tucked to my side to brace for impact. I fell to the side and felt pain spread through my hip and even worse through my wrist. The hard linoleum was not kind to my side, I could already tell it would bruise, and my elbow also cracked against the floor. Unfortunately, it was my right arm that took the hit, the same one that had been deboned in my second year Quidditch match. It had never been quite the same since that incident and had been more fragile. On the Isle, it had already broken twice though they both healed well.
As it was, I felt a snap when my elbow hit the floor. Without a doubt, something was broken. The pain hit a few seconds later. Gritting my teeth, I looked up to see who had hit me so hard. A blonde jock, surrounded by more jocks,was looking down at me. He was same one from the dress rehearsal, and he was smirking.
"Watch where you are going, 'Trickster'," He said, mockingly.
"I will, if just to give your three brain cells a break. Obviously they are not performing at full function if they can't steer your hulking frame around without hitting someone." The pain from my arm was really amping up now.
The smirk disappeared, replaced by a frown. "Did you just insult me?"
"They really do need a break, don't they? Can't walk, can't understand English? Might need a new set altogether."
He reached down to grab my jacket two-fisted. He had only just started hauling me up when a shocked voice rang out. "Mr. Charming! What is going on here?!"
Yet another familiar face. I let my head tilt back and groaned. What exactly did I do to end up here again? Best my parent's killer, survive Vernon and Petunia Dursley, sleep on a lawn?
"Fairy Godmother, it isn't-"
"Oh, isn't it! Don't try that with me, Mr.Charming. It looks to me like you were about to attack Hadrian!"
The jock went white. "No! No, no, I-I wasn't! I was… was helping him up!" His little jock friends all nodded along, confirming his bs, and hauled me to my feet. I barely got my footing before he was letting go and stepping away.
Thankfully, another student was willing to stand up for a victim. "Fairy Godmother, that is a lie! Chad hit Trick-, um, H-Hadrian from behind and made him fall!" The brown haired boy called, adjusting his glasses. "He started it, Hadrian was just in line."
The Fairy nodded. "Thank you, Doug, for that enlightening information. Hadrian, are you hurt?" She looked as if she wanted to come over and start checking over me. Thankfully, she stayed where she was and just did a cursory look.
"Yeah, my arm is broken. Not bad but it is definitely broken. My wrist might be sprained as well." My tray was deposited on the nearest surface, the runners of the salad bar, and I started tugging my jacket off.
"Oh, Goodness, then what are we doing?! Doug, take him to the infirmary immediately!" The brunet guy hurried over to me but hesitated to do anything else, looking awkward as all hell. I handed him my jacket and bag, just to give him something to do. "And you, Mr.Charming, are in SERIOUS trouble, young man! Injuring another student, lying about it, OH will we be calling your parents. Ella will be so furious, her son treating someone else like this." She was almost shrieking now. "And on a Tourney Day, no less! Don't even entertain the thought of playing in that game!"
Chad's face had steadily dropped with each sentence but even the threat of his parents didn't compare to not being able to play Tourney. "What?! Fairy Godmother, I'm one of the star players! The team needs me, it is less than 3 hours to game time!" I snickered while looking over my arm. The purple was already starting to set in, just as I thought. From the elbow and already trying to move down my forearm to where I
"Well, perhaps you should have thought about that prior to this incident. Office, NOW." She turned to us and said, "And what are you still doing here! Get to the infirmary, we will hold a secondary meeting between the Charmings and the Royal family after you are treated."
That put a hard brake on my forward movement. "Woah, hold on! Why do we need to get the Royals mixed up in this?" I questioned.
"Seeing as you and the other children from the Isle either do not have parents available for emergencies, the Royal family are your guardians while in Auradon. And now that you are actively in a medical incident, Queen Belle in particular will be contacted to oversee the resolvement."
I guess that would make sense…
It still didn't sit right with me but I suppose if that is how all of this was going down, I would just have to deal. "Alright, I guess. Um, can I take my tray with me?"
"We will set aside a portion for you to get after infirmary. Nice and hot, it shouldn't take long down there."
I threw a longing glance at my chicken, the golden hue with herbs calling to me. "Fine." I went through longer without. The granola bar this morning was more than the Dursleys gave me most days.
Doug led me to the infirmary and stuck by me while Nurse Kluck tutted and made me a cast. Her title was actually a misnomer as she had indeed gotten her doctorate. Apparently, she had retired early from her service to Maid Marian to achieve her dream, a dream the noblewoman had whole heartedly supported for her friend. She started as a Nurse here at Auradon Prep and stayed on after she graduated. Lucky for me as it meant she was fully qualified to splint, wrap, and cast my forearm in plaster.
I watched the last round of neon orange gauze wrap around the cast. "Honestly, you are lucky that a fall like that didn't do worse, with your history." Oh, the woman had been angry when he explained the other two breaks he had suffered through without medical intervention.
"I know, I know. It wasn't exactly my fault, though. Couldn't really help this one."
"Maybe next time, just drop the tray and catch yourself with your good arm, kiddo." She turned and put the orange roll down, picking up a marker and turning to me. "And because I put it on ya, I get to sign it first." I laughed and held my arm up for her, thankful that she wasn't one of the people who just keep guilting you for getting hurt ~ahem Madame Pomfrey ahem~. She drew a little smiley face just above my thumb.
"Doug, you want in on this?" I offered once she was done.
He sat up in the chair he had claimed, confused. "Wait, why me? I haven't really talked to you before this happened. Wouldn't you want your friends to be the ones to sign it?"
I shrugged. "If that is how I wanted this to go, I would get two actual get well drawings from Evie and Carlos, something inappropriate that I would have to black out from Jay, and nothing from Mal because she would just glare at me and storm off. Plus, I have never had a cast for people to sign, I think it could be fun. And you did stand up and call out Chad for being the instigator, so if anyone deserves to sign it would be you."
He took the marker from me and wrote a small 'Get Well Soon' on the outside of my elbow, his name right below it. I had to crane my neck to see it. "Thanks, man. Hey, do you think you could lead me to Fairy Godmother's office? I know she said there would be food for after this but I would rather just get that meeting over with. I might pull a runner if I have to sit and think about being in the same room as her, Queen Belle, Queen Cinderella, and Chad."
Doug winced in sympathy. "I do no not envy you right now. Never thought I would be happy to spend my afternoon at a Tourney game."
The walk to the office didn't take long but it felt like hours. Doug must have felt the tension and anxiety in me building up because he also tapered off the conversation a few minutes in. We finally arrived outside of the ornate doors, doors marked with a fancy title card announcing the Headmistress's Office.
"Good luck, man. At least you aren't the one in trouble, eh?"
"Usually would be but miracles do happen. See you, Doug."
He ran off and left me to face the doors alone. Up close, I could see the craftsmanship that went into building these doors. Hidden details like little pumpkins were carved into the molding, birds were engraved on the placard, a single glass slipper hidden near the handle of each door.
"Hopefully this doesn't turn into a mess."
I grabbed the knobs, turned, and pushed them open.