Beautiful Lily

Knowing magic

Mary-Margaret walked Henry back to Regina's large white house. Henry thanked Mary-Margaret for the escort and proceeded into the house and up the stairs into his bedroom. He opened his book bag and dumped all the library books he borrowed onto his bed. The book club meeting was interesting to say the least. He was more curious, if not, interested in seeing the reactions of everybody reading about themselves. The meeting was not as he had expected. Everyone took turns reading short stories from a book that Belle chose. At the end of each story they discussed the decision-making and ethics of each character. Were they relatable? Were their actions justified? What other options or paths could the protagonist have taken?

For the next club meeting they were to find a few books from within the library and discuss the stories they read. What are the morals? What were the choices? And what would you have done differently?

Henry only checked out a few books; Bedknob and Broomstick by Mary Norton and a book from the Classics section on The Mighty Hercules. Seeing that Bedknob and Broomstick was a much lighter and less intimidating read than the Hercules book, he dove straight in and began reading it. He sat on the end of his bed directly across from his bedroom mirror. He flipped through the pages quickly and read how the children in the book were forced by war to move in to live with a witch. He read how the witch, Ms. Price, turned Charles into a rabbit. He saw the words of the spell written directly in the book.

Filigree Apogee Pedigree Perigee

Could it really be that simple? He looked up from the pages within his book and looked at the mirror that was directly in front of him. He knew Storybrooke was a place of magic. He wondered. Could he wield magic?

He memorized the spell. He stared at himself in the mirror and chanted out loud, "Filigree Apogee Pedigree Perigee."

His nose began to twitch. Odd? Then suddenly he sprouted whiskers. His ears shot out and became elongated and he found himself engulfed in gold dust. He closed his eyes for a moment and when he opened them he discovered his form a lot smaller than usual. He turned his small body and looked at the mirror only to discover a small white rabbit staring back at him. The same gold dust encompassed him again and he was back in his normal body.

Henry was awestruck. He almost couldn't believe what had just happened, but it did. He performed it. He performed magic on himself. An excitement brewed within him, and he became enamored by the sudden and endless possibilities that lay before him. He marveled over his newfound abilities, smiling as he blurted out, "Woah!"

... ...

"Will you be coming home for lunch? I can whip up something light for you," offered Gold. Belle stood in the library's bathroom staring down at the pregnancy tests all confirming her pregnancy. When Belle didn't respond right away, Gold called to her again through the phone, "Belle? You still there?"

"Um, yes. I'm here... that, that would be great. Let me... uh... wrap up here at the library and I'll be home shortly."

She ended the phone call and continued staring unbelievably down at the tests. The gravity of her situation was too much to bear. A baby. Wow. She became frightened, overwhelmed by anxiety, paralyzed and numbed by the news. But why was she so afraid? What would be the price to having a child of magic? What did she know of motherhood? With little experience she had of the time she had with her mother, she realized that what she was afraid of was what she didn't know. So she resolved to finding out more information to ease her anxieties.

Belle disposed of the evidence in the bathroom and locked up the library. She looked both ways before crossing the street and headed toward her husband's Pawn Shop. She pulled out her keys and found the ones to his shop and opened it up. She felt weird entering the shop without his consent, not that it wasn't permissible of her to enter his shop, they were married after all; what was his was now hers and what was hers was now his.