Jack After the commotion of my parent’s departure, I was set free to do as I wished until dinner. I decided to take my own personal tour into some of the areas I found interesting earlier on. Somehow though instead of heading in the direction I had aimed for, I found myself in the gardens on the opposite side of the school. A lone, soft voice lulled me closer, and I looked around the garden in search of it, snapping a branch in the process. The voice stopped and someone stepped out in front of me, but in all honesty I wasn’t quite sure what I was looking at. She was a girl around my age to be sure, but it was as if she had grown right out of the garden itself. She frowned at me, “Are you nice?” “Yes. Are you?”
Her frown was instantly replaced with a brilliant smile, and she skipped over to me. I noticed she left trails of flowers in her wake instead of footsteps. After quickly fixing the branch I broke with a wave of her hand, she began animatedly acquainting me with all of her favorite flowers and animals. 
Still flabbergasted by her use of magic, let alone that fact that plantsims were real, I hardly noticed when someone else walked up to us. “Ivy, you’re doing it again. Our poor new friend here is going to have his head explode soon.” “Well at least only flowers will burst out and it will be beautiful.”
Ivy retorted, but I scarcely heard her. The new addition to our conversation introduced herself as Aurora, and immediately I knew without question that she was the most beautiful girl that I would ever lay eyes on. I was mad at myself for having sweaty palms when we shook hands, and I could barely utter a word as I stared at her hopelessly throughout the rest of our discourse. One thing struck my curiosity though as we proceeded to dinner. I glanced around at all the other students, thought about Ivy, and even myself. Everyone here was peculiar to say the least, even I was obviously different, but what about Aurora? What was she doing in a school like this?
Dinner was held in the grand hall which though pretty amazing held little claim on my attention. Once again I found my head spinning when it came to the people inside the hall. Apparently Maleficent had two sides: the normal and human side she put on for the parents, and then there was her ultra-dark headmistress and fairy side she showed to us. I held my breath when she paused by us as she headed up to her place at the head table. “Jack I trust you are settling in ok?”
I nodded slowly, somehow finding her dangerous despite her warm tone. She then turned to Aurora, “Are you sure you’re ready to go back to class. You don’t have to push yourself.” “I’m fine.”
Aurora said quickly without bothering to look up from her plate. Maleficent pursed her lips, and I was sure Aurora was in for it, but Maleficent just walked away. Aurora kept her head down, refusing to look at me, and Ivy just gave me a polite smile and then averted her eyes. Oh man, I really wanted to ask, but I knew now wasn’t the right time.
My school life here at Hogwarts vastly differed from before in one major way: I had friends. This freed me up in many ways, but mostly it just allowed me to be myself. And that person was determined to bring the delight of fear to everyone around him. Nothing brought me more joy than to see a person’s face contorted in pure terror. HAHA!! Well…in earnest I had trouble deciding if I liked Aurora’s smiling or horrified face more… “Ugh Jack! Why do you insist on scaring the beehickles out of me?!”
Aurora shrieked. I gave her a knowing smile, “Fear and doubt are signs of a strong heart. They push your heart, forcing it to strike out in new directions! Without them your zest for life might fade…as would your taste for fear. And believe me, if that were to occur, than my fun would be utterly in ruins.”
Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather came upon us then. The three fairies were absolutely inseparable which could prove itself insufferable enough, but what made it worse was their insistence on meddling in all of Aurora’s affairs. “I heard your shriek, are you alright?”
Flora directed the question at Aurora, but looked at both us expectantly. As if her voice was enough to command answers. Aurora sighed, “I’m fine. It was just a joke.”
Merryweather eyed me cruelly, “A joke huh? Some should take care with their jokes, as others might not be able to handle them.”
I was about to retort when Aurora flared up, “I can handle anything just fine thank you.”
She stomped off then, leaving the fairies gaping after her. I really wanted to ask…
I suppose I should report that there was one person in the school that I absolutely could not scare. There is also the matter of Maleficent, but not even I was foolish enough to attempt that. No, the person I mean is Bane, the brutish werewolf from the town of no-sense-of-humor, who lives on the street of must-hate-jack-skellington. I had tried everything, but all my attempts only ended with him abhorring me even more. So it was to my absolute surprise that I was the one to finally see his face in terror, but it was in less than happy circumstances, for I’m quite certain his face only mirrored my own. You see I wasn’t the one who caused the terror on his face, but Aurora. A few moments before my interaction with Bane, Ivy nearly collided with as she came running out of the upperclassmen bathing area. I was about to ask her what had she been doing in there when I saw the tears streaming down her face. In shaky bouts, she told me how Aurora said she wanted to go for a swim in the room, as she was tired of always being monitored and told what to do. I thought to myself that this was plausible, because their bathing area was more like a mini swimming pool than a bathing area. Ivy went on saying that when they were about to leave from the room, Aurora suddenly fainted and would not wake. I went in to see the truth of this, and sure enough she laid there, hardly drawing in breath. Instructing Ivy to stay with her, I ran out to get help, and that’s when I ran into Bane.
Immediately he tore into me for being in the upperclassmen bathing area, but this was one shouting match I would not let him best me in. Finally I got him to hear my story of Aurora’s condition, and that’s when I saw it, pure terror. “It’s never happened like that before…”
He said practically in a whisper. I raked my shaking hands through my hair, “Wait you're saying this has happened before? On multiple occasions?”
It was like hearing my voice snapped him back into his usual self, “Go back and keep an eye on her. I’ll be back.”
And with that he transformed into werewolf form and bounded down the hall. No answers, no nothing. I stalked back into bathing area and waited on pins and needles for him to return, and when he did I was expecting the nurse, Maleficent, anyone but them. He brought those fairies. I started to question whether he had returned to his senses after all, but then they started to work. They surrounded her and chanted in a language I didn’t understand. Lights of red, green, and blue surrounded Aurora, and I could already see some of her color start to return to her face. They raised her slowly from the ground, and walked from the room and down the hall until they were out of sight. 
Two days passed before we were allowed to see her. Ivy and I filed in her room, and found her sitting up in bed. She looked so much better. Aurora patted the bed around her, and we sat down. It was then that I noticed movement in the corner, and held my breath as I always did when I saw her. Maleficent finally made herself visible. “You can go now. I know that you have a lot more important things to do than to babysit me all day.”
Maleficent looked over Aurora, “No, nothing is more important, but I understand. I’m hovering. I’ll return a little later to check on you.”
As soon as she had left the room I found my breath, and I was done tiptoeing, “What is going on? What happened to you?”
Aurora took a deep breath, “Apparently, I was cursed as an infant by a dark fairy. Every so often I have sleep spells, and fall into deep slumbers that I’m not able to be awoken from for different periods of time. Usually they occur when I actually go to sleep. You know I’ll fall asleep and just won’t wake up for a while. I think everyone is so freaked out right now, because it happened in the middle of the day. Not to mention that the sleep spells have been getting longer now that I’m getting closer to my sixteenth birthday.” “What does that birthday have to do with anything?” “The dark fairy said that on my sixteenth birthday I would fall into a sleep like death, one from which I would never wake up from.” “There has to be something that can be done?! Something with magic or...something!” “Maleficent’s working on it, but I’m already thirteen. I don’t know how much more can be done in three years.”
I grasped her hand, “Don’t give up. We can think of something.”
She smiled at me. Sitting back I had another thought, “So you’ve known Maleficent for a long time then?”
She nodded her head slowly, “After the dark fairy cursed me, she killed my mother, and my father died shortly after from heart failure. Maleficent adopted me then and had taken care of me ever since.” “What about the meddlesome fairies?”
She and Ivy giggled at this, “She adopted them a couple of years before me. They’re my sisters. It’s their job to annoyingly look out for me. …Sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.”
Everything she told me that day stuck hard with me for weeks after that. I did my best to focus on school, but I was finding it difficult. Not that the school itself helped in this regard. The curriculum here was strange. Sure we learned the things you did in a normal school, but then you had classes like potions and divination. The true basis, however, was specialization. You found a path, and you focused your curriculum around that. For me it was creation. Inventing was my true delight, and combining it with my passion of frightening others was a dream. But as of late, I was on the verge of creating something truly revolutionary. Although not in the path of fear, it’s not to say that it didn’t align with my passions…
As time passed, it was regrettably as Aurora predicted, she was getting worse. The days of slumber turned into weeks, and with her deteriorating condition, she was confined to her room more and more these days. Once when visiting I found her in a chair facing the window. As soon as I entered the room she began to speak, “I’ve been having these weird dreams lately. Every time, I meet with this boy in a beautiful forest, and we laugh and dance, or sometimes just sit and talk. It’s nice. I admit I look forward to those dreams.”
My jealousy immediately kicked into overdrive, “They’re just dreams. They probably don’t mean anything, and besides he doesn’t exist.”
She turned back towards the window, “Mm, that’s true. I must be delusional. I spend almost as much time asleep as I do awake. I don’t know what’s real…or not.”
I cursed myself for my cruelty, took her hand in mine, and then placed it over my heart, “This hand here, this heartbeat, these are real. I know that dreams can be so alluring, and reality so harsh, but I’m here for you always. Don’t give up on us yet. Don’t give up on me. I’ll find a way to save you.”
She smiled brightly, “Like true love’s kiss.”
My heart skipped a beat for a moment, “What?” “You know, true love’s kiss. It’s the most powerful magic in the world.”
She laughed musically, and I laughed along with her unsure if she was joking or not.
As Bane sent another scowl in my direction, I wished I could be anywhere else. Aurora’s latest sleep spell had her nearly miss her fifteenth birthday. Thankfully she had awoken just shy of a month before, and Ivy and I were determined to help her celebrate even if she was confined to her room. The only problem was Ivy wanted to make the cake herself, and use Bane’s kitchen to do it! Bane graduated last term, and had taken up the mantle of groundskeeper. I mean this guy seriously hardly left the school. I shifted uncomfortably in my chair as he scowled at me. Thankfully, Ivy called him over to help her with the cake. He was all smiles for her though. Honestly when had those two gotten close?! With cake in hand, the celebration went off without a hitch, and we stayed up well past lights out, with Maleficent’s permission of course, laughing our heads off. The celebrations couldn’t last, and the next year passed by way too fast. Aurora’s sixteenth birthday finally arrived.
The effects took over immediately and she was lost to us by the start of the day. We all stood around in subdued silence, but as usual I was the first to break it, “Maleficent, did you not find anything? You’ve been searching all this time.”
She hardly met my eye, her face filled with anguish and something…, “I wish…There was nothing. Nothing to undo…”
Undo? I finally recognized the other look, guilt. Everything clicked together in my head suddenly, “You’re the dark fairy. You cursed Aurora.”
I said flatly. She finally looked at me fully with wide eyes, “I tried to reverse it so many times, but I cast the curse in such a way that it could not be undone by any such forceful magic. You must know I’ve regretted it for so long.”
Her remorse was falling on deaf ears. A quick glance over at Ivy showed that even she was disgusted, “Your regret does nothing for her. She still lies there practically dead because of you.”
She shook her head is if that would keep my words from reaching her. I looked around and found the fairies’ eyes all downcast, “You all knew.”
They refused to look at me, but at that point I had had enough anyhow. I picked Aurora up, and proceeded to take her from the room. Maleficent blocked my path, but flinched when I glared at her. “What are you doing?” “I’m going to save her. I don’t care how long it takes, but if you think during another second of that time I’m leaving her with you, then you must really be crazy.”
I brushed past her without another word, and headed down to where I worked on my creations. 
It was time to put that invention I had been tweaking to work. I called it a hibernation chamber, taking inspiration from bears in the winter. I placed her inside the chamber, and stopped for a moment. “True love’s kiss huh?”
Bending down I pressed my lips to hers, and stood up waiting, but nothing happened. Shaking my head I closed the chamber, and continued on with the settings. Of course it didn’t work. There was no such thing as true love’s kiss. How could I believe in such a thing? I was a guy of science after all. With everything appearing to be in order, I set out for the next order of business, getting out of Hogwarts. Snatching my phone out of my pocket, I looked at the five numbers I had programmed in it. Mom, Dad, Timon, Pumbaa, and him. I pressed the last name, and waited anxiously while the phone rang. My mother had always said I could call this number if I needed help with anything of this nature, but I had a load of reservations. Would he really help when I had never even met him? He answered after only two rings, and after I gave him a quick overview of my situation and my location, he told me he would be there soon. Before I could securely place my phone back in my pocket, I felt a surge of energy near me and tensed up. A man appeared before, and I immediately recognized him as Sebastian from my parent’s description. He gave me a polite smile, “Hello Jack. We can go whenever you’re ready.”
I started to tell him I was ready now, but the door suddenly burst open. Ivy and Bane rushed over to us. “We finally found you.”
She gushed out. “Yeah. I was just about to take off though.”
They looked over the hibernation chamber, “This will keep her alive?”
I nodded slowly, “Until I can cure her, yes.” “You don’t have to leave. There must be a way.” “You know there isn’t. Not with Maleficent here…”
Sighing she gave me a long hug, “Take care of yourself and Aurora.” “I will.”
After shaking hands with Bane I turned back to Sebastian, “Ok. I’m ready.”
He placed one hand on my shoulder and one on the chamber, and before I knew it Hogwarts was long behind us. “Are you alright?” “I think so.”
My stomach was still turning in circles. He gestured to the dark town before us, “This is Halloweentown.”
