HOOKED ↝ DESCENDANTS

[15]

Rosalie hurriedly left the room, pushing past the others in the doorway before the large oak door swung shut behind her, separating her from her friends still waiting inside Audrey's bedroom. She leaned her back against the wall in the hallway of the girls' dormitories, sliding down until she was sitting on the floor and pulled her knees up to her chest, hiding her face and attempting to control her frantic, frustrated breathing.

Why couldn't she have been strong enough to save Audrey?

"Want some company?" a voice asked as the door briefly creaked open and shut again, and she looked up to see Harry standing in front of her, but she simply stared at him for a moment before turning back to her knees, not giving him an answer. He sighed in response after a moment. "Suit yourself," he muttered before taking a seat next to her, though she refused to look at him.

The two sat in silence for a moment as Rosalie stared at the wall ahead of them. Harry held his father's hook in his hands, turning it over a few times before looking back at the girl sitting next to him.

"I never really had it easy," Harry said, shattering the silence between them. "On the Isle, I mean, though you probably figured that one out on your own. My father died when I was a boy, the croc finally got him after all this time, and then it was just me and my sisters. So, while my older sister Harriet helped raise my younger sister CJ, I started stealing, so we'd have something to eat at night. It was small, at first, pickpocketing change off old members of my father's crew, Smee was usually none the wiser, and then I'd use that money to buy food, maybe a small toy for CJ if we had more than enough to last us the week, though it was nothing glamourous.

"When I joined the Pirates as Uma's first mate, it gave me more than just an opportunity to provide for my siblings." Harry continued as Rosalie finally looked over at him, catching a vulnerable look in his eyes that she'd never seen before. "It gave me a purpose, something bigger than just myself. That's how I became the fearsome, daring, dare I say handsome Pirate that I am today." he finished with a slight chuckle, in an attempt to lighten the mood.

"Well, I wouldn't get too full of yourself," she retorted softly back in response.

Rosalie couldn't help but keep staring at the boy as he spoke. While she'd known none of the children on the Isle of the Lost had had an ideal upbringing, she couldn't have imagined just what horrors Harry had faced to become the young man she had gotten to know over the course of that night, and she was right. He really was just a scared boy trying to make his way in a world not meant for him.

"I never really fit in with the other royals around here." Rosalie said after a moment. "Since neither of my parents were raised royal, they run a bit of an unorthodox ship in Corona. Sure, I know my royal duties as a princess, I've sat through all the same cabinet meetings and know how to put on a show for visiting royal families, but as you mentioned earlier, I'm also the daughter of a thief who would have been sent to the Isle if he hadn't married my mom, and some of the other royal kids aren't super fond of that. Krissy and Ansel are my family, and we've always been close, but they know much more about what it takes to lead a kingdom than I do.

"I never really appreciated what I had until I met the other VKs." she continued, Harry watching her intently as she spoke. "Suddenly, my lack of being able to fit into the royal families seemed so minuscule compared to the struggles they'd been facing their whole lives, and it really changed my outlook on things. I stopped caring about who wanted me to sit at their lunch tables, or trying out for the cheerleading team, but I knew being myself and being around those who were important to me was what really mattered."

"And the healing tears?" he asked, flexing the arm that had been shattered only mere minutes before, but was now in perfect condition. "Have you always been able to do that?"

"I inherited it from my mother." she explained, and he nodded in understanding. "I trust you know the story of my mom and the flower. Magic isn't really used here anymore, so it wasn't something that I knew I could do when I was first growing up. When I was six years old, Krissy, Ansel, and I snuck out of a ball Snow White and Florian were throwing in Charmington. We were out in the courtyard, and Ansel bet Krissy she couldn't climb the tallest tree in the kingdom. While she was climbing, she stepped on a weak branch, and it sent her toppling back down to the ground. She broke her ankle. I started to cry, thinking we were going to get in trouble for sneaking out and her getting hurt, but the tears healed her, like they did to you.

"Not many people know I can do it." Rosalie said. "Krissy and Ansel, obviously, my parents once I told them. I'm not my mother, I can't heal to the extent that she can, and I don't do it unless I have to, since magic's retired these days, but in an emergency, I can heal minor injuries."

"You really are full of surprises." Harry said, a small smile gracing his face.

"I could say the same about you." she replied.

"They'll figure out a way to save her." Harry assured her. "Audrey, I mean. I've known Mal most of my life, and she won't give up until she does. It's like you said earlier. Something has to work, so we'll keep trying until it does."

"Thank you," she said, and he gave her a smile, rising to his feet and extending a hand to help her back up, which she accepted.

"Come on," he said, pulling her back up onto her feet. "We should get back inside. And Rosalie?" he asked.

"Yeah?" she asked in response.

"Don't ever try to hide the person you really are." Harry said softly. "I'd hate for someone to miss out on the real you, because that's someone beautiful."