Uncovered

Chapter 4: The Punishment

MAL

Fairy Godmother walks out of the building leading the way for us. Before we follow her I turn to face Ben giving him a "it's going to be okay" look as I fix his collar. That's when I notice the wound on his cheek still bleeding slightly.

"Your cheek" I say quietly.

"It's fine" he shakes his head. He feels my concern and kisses the top of my head before grabbing my hand and leading me out of the building.

Could Fairy Godmother really know about the photos? I mean Evie said everyone reads Auradon Uncovered, but I assumed she meant everyone under the age of 30. Jane wouldn't tell her. Right? I try to think of other reasons she would want both of us. Skipping classes, out of campus on school hours, talking during history. I feel a little better for a moment. There are many reasons she might want to see me. But them the photos come back to my mind and I go back to feeling miserable.

We enter her office hand in hand. When she sits in her huge wooden desk Ben lets go of my hand. It's the first time we aren't touching in any way since he rescued me. We are no longer soaking wet but we are still wet.

"What in the name of all that good would let you decide that this was a good idea?" Fairy Godmother places a magazine with the pictures from this morning on her desk. "Or this?" Pictures from last week, "or this?" Pictures from after the coronation. "Should I keep going?"

"It's-" Ben begins to say but I can't let Ben get in trouble.

"It's my fault" I step forwards and Ben grabs my arm but I shake him off. "No Ben. It was my idea and we should never have done it. If you're going to punish someone it's me".

"Well your parents have been informed of the situation, but since their currently attending to business in Winter's Keep I shall be dealing with both of you". I take a deep breath before she continues. "This kind of violation would usually end in expulsion-"

"Wait..." I interrupt panicked, "You're not sending me back to the Isle are you?" I look back at Ben as tears form in my eyes. "I can't go back there. I can't". Ben steps forward and grabs my hand again.

"Mal calm down" she says reassuringly but anger still fills her voice, "under the circumstances thing have to be taken care of differently. You are not to be expelled; however you are suspended for the next 4 weeks. And that means no leaving campus, no extracurriculars or use of the facilities, and you will not be attending regular classes. For the next 4 weeks your classes will be supervised by me". My jaw drops. "As for you" she speaks directly to Ben now, "you are to attend to your royal duties and your are to take private tutoring only until you're parents arrive, then they'll decide what to do with you". She stands up and walks to the other side of her desk, where we are."Suspension would usually mean you are banned from class, but since Ben needs to graduate on time, and Mal had some credits to make up for from before she arrived, the board has made and exception". I have never seen Fairy Godmother this mad before. Not even when Jane grabbed her wand at the coronation. "You are both under strict curfew. I will tend to it myself that you are both in your respective dorms by 7:30 at night". We both open our mouths like we're going to whine and complain, but no sound comes out. "Have I made myself clear?"

"Crystal" we reply in unison accepting our defeat.

"I really don't understand what you two were thinking" she scolds one last time. "So are you going to explain why you're wet? And what happened to Ben's face?"

"Apparently I jumped off a waterfall" I say without thinking

"Apparently?" Fairy Godmother asks shocked.

"I saw her jump off and almost drown" Ben explains, "but when I got her out of the water she didn't remember jumping"

Fairy Godmother is quiet for a few moments as she thinks about what we just told her. "That still doesn't explain your face"

"I just ran into a branch when I was running to the lake" she steps closer to examine the wound.

"It doesn't look too bad, but I still want you to go see the nurse" she instructs.

We begin to walk out of the office when she speaks again. "Not you Mal" she says, "I still need to talk to you about something else". Ben looks at me and I know he wants to stay with me.

"Go" I tell him, "I'll find you after". I give him a quick kiss on his healthy cheek and then watch him leave. I turn around and give Fairy Godmother a slight smirk.

"Please take a seat Mal" I do as commanded as she fetches a tea set for us. God this is probably going to take a while if she's getting tea.

"Tea?" She asks as she pours herself a cup.

"No thank you" I respond politely.

"You're probably freezing" she pours me a cup ignoring my response. "Tea will warm you up"

I accept the cup of tea knowing she won't take no for an answer and take a small sip.

She takes a seat herself, but not on her big chair. She sits on the smaller chair opposite to the one I'm currently sitting on and takes a sip of her drink.

"You're probably wondering what happened on that waterfall" I stare at her confused, "I have been waiting for this to happen since the coronation"

"Waiting for what to happen?" I question placing the cup on the table and forgetting all about it.

"Up until now all the magic you've used has been dark magic" she explains, "but now that you've found the goodness in you your light magic wants to present itself. However, magic is very tricky. You've been dark all your life, and dark magic won't just disappear. While your light magic is getting stronger and stronger, your dark magic is fighting back. This battle you have within you between light and darkness will have its side effects. Today for example. You didn't decide to jump. It was an impulse. And these impulses can be pretty dangerous". She stops to take another sip of her tea.

"So..." I urge her to continue.

"So if you're not careful something horrible may happen. But there is a way to prevent these impulses. If you manage to get as much light magic in you as dark you might just be the most powerful sorceress of all times"

"More powerful than my mother?" I blurt and regret it immediately.

She looks worried for a moment, but it doesn't last long. "So much more powerful that your mother"

I look down in order to hide my smile, but she obviously notices. All I ever wanted was to make my mom proud, and show her how powerful I was, and i can at least do half of that.

"I am going to take you under my wing" she seems a bit less pissed than before but not by much. "I want us to meet for classes at least 5 time a week. We are going to attempt to balance your magic. And since I am now your own personal teacher, I don't think there's going to be a problem with scheduling" she stands up and begins to clean up the tea set. "You may go now. It's a little past 5 so you should take a hot shower before going to dinner. I'll have your new schedule sent to your room"

I get up and walk to the door hoping nothing gets in the way between me and that hot shower.

"Oh and Mal" I stop as I hear her voice again, "be careful. The slightest mean action could make you're dark magic go haywire". I take a deep breath already picturing my magic going crazy out of nowhere.