A/N: So... I've been busy. I am living my dream of working as a teacher in a school now. I love it!

Also, over the past year trying to get a grasp on 3D programs like Blender and MMD so I can make these stories into 3D comics. i would really love to make these stories I write into 3D comics or even small animations, but I just don't have the time or focus to fully devote myself to it. That is why I haven't been releasing most if any of the chapters I've been writing. Because I want to backpedal and make the ones I've released so far into 3D comics on DeviantArt or another website for displaying it. Maybe Tumblr. I don't know.

This is for ALL of my stories. Every... Single... One... Especially one like this one with the Once Upon A Time vibe.

Anyways, that's why I've been "away". If you have any advice or want to help me with this project, please feel free to message me, PM me, or leave it in a REVIEW.

Hope everyone enjoys the chapter!

Now enough of this crap! On with the show!

Chapter 10: Prince vs. Prince! Harry's Rage Against Draco's Pride!

Draco was unusually smug as he appeared in his bed chambers in front the Magic Mirror. The floating head raised an eyebrow to the prince's good mood.

"Well now, you seem happy… Who have you maimed?" Sidney, the name of the man in the magic mirror, asked of the prince.

"No one today, Mirror." Draco answered with the same smirk as a boy who had gotten away with stealing a cookie.

"Good," Sidney sighed, "No need to alert the guards to clean up a mess somewhere. And you even returned before your mother noticed your absence."

This made Draco scowl. "As if she'd notice anything with all her obsession in casting her stupid little curse. It's been days now, and she hasn't included me in any of this scheme!"

"That is because it is not for the faint of heart, young prince." Sidney shook his floating head sadly. "Your mother's pain and anger run deep. Deeper than she'll probably ever let you know. It started with her mother, and now she is making the same mistakes with you as her son."

Draco didn't understand what the mirror was talking about, especially since he had never heard mention of his grandmother, Cora Mills, aside from the fact that whenever he asked about her, his mother would snap that they don't speak of "that woman" and never will.

Sidney looked off to one side in memory. "I remember the day you arrived in this world… how Regina held you in her arms… The way Snow White gazed over you… Like all the love in the world sprang forth from them to you… Oh, what happened to those few happy years?"

"I have no earthly idea what you are rambling on about, Mirror." Draco turned from him and started pacing the floor. "My only concern is how to present myself to my queen-mother. Where is she at present?"

"She is visiting her dear friend, Mistress of All Evil, Empress of the Forbidden Mountains, the great and powerful Maleficent." Sidney said with a flourish of his head. Then he looked pained. "I would suggest very strongly to remain here until she returns. Maleficent will not be pleased to the reason for Regina's visit, and things could be going very badly. Your presence would only make things innumerably worse."

"I've always heard of the woman, but I've never met her." Draco tapped at his chin softly. "I think I might have met a child or relative of hers a while ago. He seemed to breathe flame and dress as I've learned people from the Forbidden Mountains do."

Sidney's face drained of color and his eyes became hollow holes. He was no longer Sidney Glass, but now solely the Magic Mirror. "Your encounter with Prince Harry was most unexpected. Your living afterward has left him vexed. Son to Maleficent, he has been for ten autumns past. Much like you to your mother in ten years last. What you have stolen is merely a bobble, but attempting theft again will your heart hobbled."

Draco's eyes narrowed halfway through the Magic Mirror's foreboding trance. The Mirror gasped as it returned to a fully fleshed face. It was once again Sidney Glass.

"You tried to steal something from the son of Maleficent?" Sidney at Draco as though he were insane.

"Tried nothing. I succeed!" Draco reached into his pocket and pulled out the crystal orb. "See with your own eyes, Mirror!"

Sidney's face zoomed to the surface of the mirror in which he was trapped. "What is that?"

Draco looked excited and greedy. "This is the Crystal Atlas!" the boy stroked the glass orb like a loving pet. "I overheard my mother and Rumplestiltskin discuss the few ways someone could escape the dark curse she was casting. He was telling her how it was lost in some place he couldn't get to. A place only brave and noble knights could access in the lands northwest of Bald Mountain. I researched the area and any mention of such places, and found in our grand library that the Hall of Valor appears there to the chivalrous and gallant."

"Yes, well, Draco—" Sidney started, but was interrupted as the prince continued on as though he had not spoken up.

"I was walking around for hours as an old beggar trying to lure knights to my false cries for help, but no one appeared." Draco smiled cruelly. "Then, to my great surprise, I happen upon a trio of boys around my own age should appear. I was curious, especially when they walked right past me without a second glance as I begged at their feet in my old man appearance. Normal children are much kinder than I, so I knew they had to be up to something. I followed them invisibly for a while before the son of Maleficent left their group and the other two ventured onward. They subdued three knights by pretending to be lost children chased by a monster, but in reality, the monster was controlled by them. They led the bound knights into a clearing which was nestled in the middle of a forest."

"That's all good, my prince, however—"

"So then a great shadow fell over the clearing, and there appeared Maleficent's son. I suppose now that he must be a dragon with his fire-breathing and all, but it hadn't occurred to me then." Draco shook his head to clear his thoughts. "Anyway, that's when they started telling the knights what was to become of them and how they would open the door to the Hall of Valor. The knights broke free, and one started praying. The trio of boys fought the knights, but then appeared a new challenge for them in the form of Dean of Camelot. I've never heard of any such place as Camelot, but who cares. It's not important. The boys fought Dean, but he proved very smart and crafty. He weakened their powers before using the environment against them. All but the son of Maleficent. His power proved to great to bind to simple child's tricks. He summoned a great ball of energy the size of a small kingdom in his anger. Then when his friends reminded him that they'd all be destroyed except him, he relented. I don't know why. It was curious. Why would you not destroy your enemies, even at the price of your allies?"

Draco turned back to the mirror with an inquisitive look.

Sidney shook his head sadly. "Just because you can, doesn't mean that you should. And just because it is a tactic your mother likes to employ in her armies, doesn't make it the right tactic to use. The child of Maleficent must have seen that even at his young age. Not a lesson I would have pegged Maleficent to teach…" Sidney shrugged nonexistent shoulder, "But I suppose even she would be changed by motherhood."

Draco pursed his lips. "But then he allowed his enemies to escape with their lives. He told them to flee. Who in their right mind would do such a thing as to let live such an obvious threat to their power?"

"Sometimes it's the better of outcomes." Sidney spoke wisely. "Who knows? They might need each other in the future, and then this Dean of Camelot would be in debt to the boy."

"Harry… You said it in your trance, and I'm sure I heard his name called a time or two." Draco tapped at his chin. "Harry. Harry. Harry." He tasted the name on his tongue and found it lacking. "Ugh, what a dreadfully peasant-sounding name. Just like Snow and Charming."

Sidney rolled his eyes. "As you say, my prince."

Draco waved it all aside dismissively. "He was weak then. It was foolish of him to let go. Such weakness will be his downfall. He and his two friends entered the Hall of Valor, and returned with the Crystal Atlas… which I promptly snatched from Harry's hand before teleporting as far away as I could. It took another few hours just to make it back into our borders here."

"Speaking of the Crystal Atlas—"

"It's rather plain-looking, right?" Draco hefted the ball through the air a few times, catching it repeatedly. "I was expecting more from some legendary object that Rumplestiltskin made passing mention of. He said it was beyond his and my mother's reach, and yet here I stand with it. Me. Prince Draco. The Evil Prince."

Sidney felt like his eyes would fall out if he rolled them any harder. "That is not the Crystal Atlas." He said firmly.

Draco did a double take. "What?"

Sidney gestured to the orb Draco held using his eyes. "That bobble in your hand is little more than a decoration of heat blown sand turned glass. It is not the Crystal Atlas. Had you been paying attention, you would have realized that it holds no magic whatsoever."

Draco narrowed his eyes. "What?" he snapped firmly.

Sidney continued rather casually. "I believe the young son of Maleficent… Harry, as you called him… has tricked you into stealing a fake when you thought his guard was down. A simple trick, but effective, I suppose."

Draco's face was filled with fury and he saw red. "WHAT!"

Sidney gave him a deadpan look, so used to Regina's anger that Draco's own temper did not perturb him in the slightest. "A good thing too. Your mother would be murderous to discover you had ventured so far from the safety of our lands only to return with a trinket."

That snapped Draco out of his rage. His mother could not find out about his failure. Not only would she be angry that he put himself in danger, but that he had failed so spectacularly as well. He'd lock him in his tower for a century or more!

He had to fix this embarrassment quickly.

"Slave in the magic mirror, come from the farthest place. Through wind and darkness, I summon thee. Speak! Let me see thy true face!" Draco intoned with his arms folded neatly over each other in front of Sidney, who gasped as Draco turned him slave to his will. A chilling wind swept through the bedroom, and the sound of thunder echoed off the walls as lightning flashed in the mirror's reflection. With a burst of flame and slow turn, Sidney was forcefully transformed into the ghastly green mask of the Magic Mirror.

"What would thus know, my prince?" he droned in monotone as what little free will he possessed had been stripped from him. This was not like his prophecies and random insights that he gave without conscious thought. Everything he was now… was the Magic Mirror on the Wall.

"Magic mirror on the wall, where hides the coward who tricked me with this glass ball?" Draco sneered as the haunting green mask of the Magic Mirror could be seen through a screen of thin smoke rising within the mirror itself.

"No coward is this boy, who sits within the mountains forbidden." The magic mirror rippled as it revealed the fortress of Maleficent before zooming in through its exterior to show the bed chambers of Harry. "Dark is his power, potential still very must hidden. Infamous is his mother, but his power outshines her own. Take heed to this warning, if you should approach their home."

"What, mirror? Speak!" Draco was growing impatient as he watched Harry ready himself for something through the mirror.

He had appeared without a shirt, and looked very toned for a boy their age. There were a couple of scars, and as Draco looked away from them he noticed Harry's hair was damp and dripping wet. Meaning the dragon boy was fresh from a bath.

Draco's fist clenched around the crystal orb. This fool was bathing and relaxing while Draco was humiliated.

How dare he?!

"Hair dark as ebony. Skin a peachy tan. Eyes like gems of emerald. Strength as great as man. If foe you make him, only ruin will follow. But go you must to confront him. Or else your heart will hollow."

Draco narrowed his eyes and turned the crystal ball in his hand a few times. He began to pace the floor in front of the magic mirror, thinking hard of his next move.

First the mirror had said that if he went his heart would be hobbled, but now it was saying that if he didn't go his heart would be hollow. That made no sense.

"Ugh, this is insanity." Draco snapped before turning back to the mirror. "Begone, slave in the magic mirror. Your purpose you have outlast. Now return to my eye, friend Sidney Glass."

The green mask in the mirror bowed once before the smoke obscured it from view. With another burst of flames, Sidney returned in a gasp, glaring at Draco.

"That was not a very kind thing to do, young prince." He said sternly, but Draco paid him little mind as he went over to his bookshelf and began turning through the pages of a spellbook. "When you do that… when your mother does it… I don't go to a very happy place. It is terrible. I hate it. If you need something from me, simply ask. I cannot lie to you, even if I wanted. I am your humble servant, always and forever."

"Humble servants talk less, Mirror." Draco drawled while snapping his book closed and replacing it back on the shelf. "Now then, if you wish to prove yourself a faithful servant, I do have a question for you."

"You have only to speak, my prince, and I will answer." Sidney's floating head bowed to him.

"What is the difference… between hobbled and hollowed… in terms of the heart?" Draco asked, seeming to puzzle out the question as he spoke.

Sidney looked perplexed by the question, but slowly came to an understanding as Draco watched his face.

"There is… much to your question. Probably more than you realize. Earlier I said in prophecy that your heart would be hobbled by going to confront Harry. That means that by the end of it all, you would be sad or hurt as far as your heart is concerned. However, as you turned me against my will into The Mirror, it said that your heart would be hollow without going. That means you have to go, or else you would be missing out on something that your heart would need to be complete; for better or worse."

"What does that even mean?" Draco's stormy grey eyes glared right into Sidney's own earthy brown orbs.

"It means that Harry could be the cause of both, or only one. He could be the indirect means to both prophecies coming true. Or he is merely a bystander to your fate. Anything and everything is subjective."

"This is pointless." Draco declared while turning on heel, "I'm going to retrieve the Crystal Atlas."

"Be careful." Sidney warned while wincing. "And don't let your mother find out. And don't let her know I had anything to do with this insanity!"

When Harry arrived home to his dark castle, he found his mother in a fit of rage.

And sorrow.

Harry quickly ducked his head to the side as flames hotter than the sun lashed at the spot he appeared. Thankfully their castle was magically protected, so nothing ever received any more than a few soot marks and scorch burns. His mother howled like a wounded animal, and Harry hurried to her side. He held her tight in his arms as she cried out in fury. His arms burned, but Harry didn't care as heat waves lashed at his skin. His mother was in pain, and she needed him.

"Mother, calm yourself!" Harry shouted, raising his own dragon fire in his body. It made him uncomfortable, but it was the only option before he was burned to a crisp himself.

It took an hour before her anguished fury cooled. By then it was only dry sobs as Harry soothed her, rubbing circles into her back. They were both in the middle of the floor, none of their furniture had survived the brunt of her wrath.

"Those nasty little good-doers turned me away!" Maleficent choked. "Snow White turned me away! I needed her help, and she dared to turn her back on me! Me! Mistress of All Evil!"

"Mother, what are you talking about?" Harry asked, wide eyes searching her face for any clue.

Maleficent stood with her son helping her to her feet. She began to slowly pace the room, arms holding herself tight as if keeping herself together merely through their presence.

"Snow White. And her precious Prince Charming." Maleficent spat with more hatred she had mustered in the last decade. It was one thing to be snubbed by Phillip and humiliated by Briar Rose, but this… "It was inconceivable!"

"What was, mother?" Harry asked, stepping closer to his frantic parent. "What did they do?"

Maleficent took a deep breath to calm her rage and sorrow. The ire inside her heart threatened just below the surface. "While you boys were off obtaining the Crystal Atlas, as your mothers we went to secure answers about the future and a protection even the Map of Worlds cannot guarantee. We sought out the Tree of Knowledge, but I knew we needed two of the greatest heroes to even get near it."

She glared at the floor, fists clenching around her. "Because everything favors those pitiful foolish heroes! ARGH!"

Harry didn't even bother to shield himself from the heat wave that washed over him like the tide. He had never felt his mother's fury, but it was scorching in its passion.

"Teaming up with them was our only option, but near the end of our journey those two wretched rats decided to skip out on us and approach the tree on their own."

Harry's eyes narrowed, "No."

Maleficent nodded, but there was a bit of a smirk on her face "Yes, but they got what they deserved. The tree rejected them… all because their baby-to-be has the potential for great darkness."

The speed at which Harry's jaw dropped was astonishing.

"Close your mouth, dear, because they still rejected our help," Maleficent looked to be holding back another lash of anger as she continued, "and even when I privately approached Snow White about protecting little Lily… my precious golden egg child… Not me, not you, not anything or anyone else but a child yet born… She denied me! The heartless wench! She denied my child a chance at life! My child! All because I am a villain!"

"Mother!" Harry caught her as she wailed in anguish and another wave of oppressive heat hit him smack in the face with her grief. Her agony. Her fury and rage. "Please mother, calm yourself. We don't need them."

"I hate them!" Maleficent screamed, a column of flame escaping her mouth to scorch the ceiling.

"We don't need them. We have the Crystal Atlas. We have each other! We will survive. All of us. You, me, and baby Lily." Harry took his mother's face in his hands with all his strength, forcing her to meet his eyes. "And we will survive. And I promise you… when we do survive… we will see Snow White and her wretched family suffer for this. Her, Prince Charming, their baby, the Evil Queen, Prince Draco. All of them!"

The tears on Maleficent's face were steaming hot as Harry wiped them away, once again helping his mother to her feet. She held onto him tightly, hugging him as though they might never see each other again.

"What did I do… to have such a wonderful child to call my own?" Maleficent said softly as she pulled back only enough to look Harry in the face.

"You opened your dark heart and home," Harry replied, getting another strong embrace from his mother.

"I'm going to prepare for the use of the Crystal Atlas," she said as she slowly pulled away from her son. "I might be in a fit through the night, but I will do what must be done. You, young man, need to rest for the night. I don't want to see dragon hide or raven hair of you until the dawn. You need your rest as a growing boy."

"I will be fine, mother." Harry assured, but then received a look from Maleficent that brokered no argument. He sighed and started for the door. "If you need me for anything at all, simply send a servant for me."

"Of course, dear. Sweet nightmares." Maleficent kissed his forehead once before allowing him out of her sight.

"Death to all good dreams," Harry replied as he left his mother's presence and went up to his dark tower.

Taking a bath was hard for a dragon. The water always bubbled and boiled if you didn't actively calm yourself to the point of being absent-minded. Then there was the constant sheen of steam that covered mirrors if you remained in the bath for even a second too long. The servants didn't mind it all much, but Harry found it a constant annoyance as he walked out the bath and through a misty fog of water vapor in a flame-proof magical towel. Finding his clothes was always a chore as his tower filled with a smokescreen of water mist. He hated opening the windows even more than the fog because it would leave him cold for hours with the amount of drafty winds that blew through the forbidden mountains.

For them being dragons, their territory was unusually cold all year around.

Putting on his bed pants, Harry struggled to find his shirt in the steamy fog.

"Let me help you," a voice called from near the window, and a chilling gust of wind swept through Harry's room before he could even react.

Fist clenched as they lit themselves on fire, Harry saw it was only the young Prince Draco sneering at him, crystal bobble still in hand. Seeing this, Harry relaxed himself and smirked, putting the flames of his fists out with a stray thought.

"Prince Draco," Harry called his name casually like an old friend. It had the desired effect of making the prince even angrier. "To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?"

Draco calmed himself by breathing deep and then smiled tightly. "Oh, I was just in the area. How are you, Prince Harry?"

"Just fine. And yourself, dear Prince?"

"I'm doing fine. Thank you."

Harry smiled sharply. "Are you? If I were you, I'd be absolutely furious. To have come so far, only to be outwitted by a traveler's trinket. I'd want to see my enemy skinned alive."

Draco shivered. Whether it was from rage, excitement, or disgust was hard to tell even for him. "It did come to mind, but I'm feeling unusually nice today. Hand over the Crystal Atlas, and I'll let you live."

Harry threw his head back with a bark of laughter. "Let me live. My, we certainly think much of ourselves, don't we?"

Draco scowled and took a threatening step forward with his hands appearing to give off a icy mist. "I'm serious. Give me the crystal!"

Harry dropped the act of good cheer, his masterful glare making Draco flinch for only a split second. "And so am I, oh prince. Leave! And never darken my castle again. I'll give you the opportunity to live."

Draco reacted fast to the guards who burst through the door. Three of them, swords already drawn. He froze them in place with his ice spell on pure instinct before making a wall of earth protect him from the onslaught of flames that poured from Harry's mouth.

Harry threw his hands over head with a clap, and a wave of darkness encompassed the room to where no light could be seen. It was as if Draco had suddenly found himself in the deep reaches of some far-flung cave.

Harry's wicked laughter echoed in every direction. Finally, Draco gave up on standing around in the darkness and created a fireball. Then another. Then three more, and had them scatter to every corner of the dark tower as one hung over his own head like a lantern.

"You should not have come here, Draco." Harry's voice came from behind, but when Draco turned there was nothing there. All the furnishing. All the things in the room had disappeared.

Were they even still in Harry's bed chambers, or were they in a completely different space?

Draco's hand shook as he created an offensive fireball. It shook with anger and elation, but never fear.

"I will have that crystal one way or another, Harry." Malfoy spat with great resentment, "Surrender it to me, or else end up like all others who oppose me. Imprisoned in my dungeons for the rest of your miserable existence. And you can be sure I will may your existence the very definition of miserable."

"Your mother threatens all with her dark curse, and you come here to seek the only way of escaping it. Well then, you have made your choice. You have elected to die a very painful death!"

Draco was surprised by the growl of Harry's voice. The blond prince wavered for a moment, but then gripped his fireball all more tightly as he took another step forward in the darkness, this time completely cemented in his stance.

"Why hide in the dark if you are so sure of my demise? Scared, Harry?" Malfoy crowed, his face now twisted into a cruel smile.

"You wish," Harry said softly, then Draco saw something rise from the darkness.

Mirrors. Mirrors all around him.

"I hear your family enjoy mirrors. Vanity seems to be a trait for you all. Even Snow White prizes herself as the fairest of them all. How cute."

Draco turned sharply to his right, "Because we are magnificent!"

Draco moved faster than Harry could have believed. His fireball went screaming right at him, and for a split second Harry thought that he had been caught completely off-guard by the sudden attack. He expected himself to crumple, unconscious, but the swiftness of his hand catching it was such that he and the blond prince were both thrown off balance.

Seeing that Prince Draco had started the battle, the raven-haired sorcerer decided that he would end it just as quickly. With a twist of his hand, the fireball grew in size before it flew out at his adversary. Draco was forced back a little to drive the flames away from himself, driving them at the nearest mirror that shattered on impact.

Harry was not done though as the remaining fires encircle Draco like a lasso.

Draco pulled back both his hands and pushed the flames outward, then brought his arms back in as the fire gathered and blackened until it was no longer there, but in its place a great black wolfhound growled and snarled in Harry's direction. The beast circled Draco protectively while the blond prince smirked.

"Kill him." He ordered, and the beast lunged for Harry's throat.

Harry sneered as he wasted no time in blasting the beast into smoke, which on his command re-formed and solidified in seconds to become a swarm of bats.

Draco cursed as the bats raced at him before he mustered enough power to freeze them in mid-flight with a cold spell. Then he gathered energy in one hand with a twist of his wrist. The bats convulsed three times before turning inanimate. They straightened and colored silver, becoming pursuing daggers that made an abrupt about-face, leveling themselves at Harry.

Harry made circles in the air in front of him as the daggers dove for any part of his flesh they could aim at. Hitting the air where he was making the circles caused the daggers to turn to dormice that scattered in every direction in the darkness never to be seen again.

"Not so fast, Eye of Newt!" Draco snarled, twitching his hand at a mirror next to the emerald-eyed boy where it warped to become a statue of reflection. Like a lone sentry, the statue grabbed Harry fast, and he gasped.

Then in a whirl of emerald flames he disappeared with a struggle to get free of the crushing arms.

Draco cast his gaze left and right, trying hard to predict where the dragon boy would appear next. But then he gasped himself as he found his mirror statue turning against him. It turned jerkily and went flying back toward him. Draco banished it to the darkness where somewhere beyond his sight it smashed against a wall and shattered into a heap of pieces.

"What's wrong, Harry dear?" Draco called out in a sneering tone, "You hide again just as we were having such fun! And here I was thinking you were out for blood."

"Not yours, Draco. Not yet." Harry called back, appearing from the shadows as easily as one did from a pool of water. He watched as the prince's face twisted into barely restrained fury.

Whatever spell it was that fired from Draco's hands, Harry used a piece of shattered mirror to deflect it to the ceiling, watching with some shock as it exploded and took off a chunk of the ceiling with a flare of purple embers from the spell's aftermath.

Harry whirled his hands overhead, and the pieces of broken mirror followed as they pointed their edges at the blond prince.

"First I want your precious sister, Snow White." Harry said as he fired off one shard of the mirror. Draco deflected it masterfully.

"Then I want to watch as Prince Charming is beheaded while admiring her dead corpse." Another two shards, another block.

"Only then will I come for you, oh prince. I will make your death feel as if it was eternity in length." Three shards this time, and Draco was beginning to sweat from concentration as each time Harry fired off pieces they shot off faster and faster.

"And your mother will see it all as I hang her from the tallest tower in all the lands!" Harry began to fire off shards indiscriminately. Draco threw up his arms, using a blunt force of magic to shield himself from injury. "Right before I end her miserable life for daring to tear apart my family!"

"Shut up!" Draco shouted, and the open air between him and Harry became charged with the arcane as Harry felt water at his bare feet.

Draco's hands went through one, long, fluid motion as water began to be pulled from the air around them and off their sweaty foreheads. The raven-haired prince only had enough time to gasp in shock as water jerked and slushed up toward him. The water pooled together as it advanced in and around the young sorcerer, rising up and covering him like a cocoon of molten glass.

"You can have Snow White and Prince Charming when my mother finishes with them. But no one in this life or the next will touch my mother!" Draco yelled, "Certainly not you! And you certainly will not get the better of me, you overgrown lizard!"

For a few seconds Harry was visible only as a dark, rippling, faceless figure, shimmering and indistinct where his blond opponent held him trapped. He was clearly struggling to throw off the suffocating mass.

Then he burst free like a wild torrent of air had been let loose from a flaming cannon in all directions. The detonation threw Draco back and the water fell in a great splashing crash out onto the floor, slopping wildly at the walls and soaking Draco's shoes.

Light had returned to the room at last as the darkness receded into the corners as if fleeing Draco's might. But the sight before him gave the young prince pause in celebrating his victory.

Harry was indeed drenched from head to toe, his raven hair no longer messy, but instead falling wet and clingy to his face. His bare skin was steaming as though fire brewed beneath every muscle, and when the young dragon glared up intensely with one lone emerald eye, Draco knew true fear to pierce his heart.

There were no words as Harry threw out a single hand and held it as though gripping a mug. Draco felt instantly as though that hand were around his throat, but the other boy was clearly across the room.

"Is this what you so desired, oh prince," Harry seethed quietly as he conjured the Crystal Atlas to his free hand. Draco choked, but glared coldly into Harry's eyes while doing everything to alleviate the pressure around his neck. "Is this not what you came to die for?"

"I will… e-end you… dragon!" Draco spat through clenched teeth, even as his face went red.

"No," Harry sneered, "but you will certainly die trying."

Draco stopped scrambling for his throat and let his hands clench into fists at his sides. Harry had taken it to mean the boy was giving up and accepting the inevitable.

But just as he was about to apply more pressure—enough that Draco would be unconscious and prisoner to his castle—the blond's fingers shot from his palms and the mirrors all around them exploded in a shower of lights.

"What the—?" Harry was forced to let go of his magical grip on Draco's neck when the next second all the broken pieces rose up only an inch off the ground and shot at him from all directions all at once.

In a great column of green flames surrounding him like a message from hell, Harry reduced the broken glass to ashes.

The ground at Harry's feet shook and warbled with audible sound, and Harry felt himself stuck in mud before he realized that Prince Draco had somehow trapped the lower half of his body within the floor like a man in quicksand.

"Not so smug now, are we, oh Prince?" Draco had vanished the water from the room while his other hand went through his once perfectly styled hair. But it was no longer that way. Now, even reaping it back did not get it to stay tame. His hair looked much like Harry's own wild and untidy bangs, but the blond still somehow managed to make his hair look much more controlled when Harry gave it another glance.

Draco walked over and grabbed the Crystal Atlas, but Harry had a death grip on it.

"We both know you'll die before you pry this from my hands, Draco." Again, Harry irked him by cooing his first name with mocking sweetness.

With a snap of his fingers, Harry began to slowly rise from the quicksand like a vengeful ghost. He and Draco locked eyes, glaring as emerald green clashed against stormy grey. The hole in the floor beneath his feet quickly filled and solidified.

"There is nothing I hate more than a fool who can't take the hint to give up and die out when given the chance. No, instead boorish imbeciles like you decide to go charging headlong through my patience." The blond prince snarled with a tight grip on crystal orb.

"Determination and hellish fury are standard traits for my family, Draco," Harry replied plainly, "So is our hellish retribution."

"I would take your heart if I thought it was worth a damn." Draco sneered.

"Then you would find yourself burned worst than all the fireballs you could ever conjure."

"Lizard."

"Brat."

"You overgrown garden gecko!"

"You spoiled little egotistical Momma's boy!"

"How dare you!"

"How dare you!"

The two devolved to name-calling as they tried to jerk the Crystal Atlas from the hand of the other. With them being so close to once another, it was dangerous to use any manner of spell or curse when it could easily be deflected back with no time to counter their own magic. Yet, in their hand the crystal began to give off a warm glow of white. At first they didn't even notice it, so busy were the two young dark princes in their bickering that they were quite shocked to find it almost engulfing them once they did take notice.

The white light blinded them for a moment, and blinking away the spots in their vision found the two staring around themselves in another castle. This one brightly lit by torches on the walls as the staircases around them moved and changed of their own volition.

"What in the name of Morgana…?" Draco asked as he turned around, only to see that the paints hung along the walls were moving themselves as if alive.

"This is… It cannot be…" Harry muttered as from the top of the only non-moving staircase appeared an ancient wizard with long silver hair and an equally long beard. He wore multi-colored robes of shimmering purples and glittering blues. He looked down at Harry and Draco before giving them an amused wink.

The orb between them glowed again in the same blinding white light before they found themselves returned to Harry's bed chambers.

Harry blinked the spots out of his eyes before glaring at Draco. With a definitive tug, he snatched the Crystal Atlas back into his lone grasp. Draco was still shaking his head to right himself, but after a second he realized what had happened.

"What… What sorcery was that?" Draco asked, backing away from Harry a little. "You tricked me! What was that? What did you make me see just then?"

"I have no more time for you…" Harry said, looking between Draco and the Crystal Atlas. "I don't even know if what we saw was real or not. Begone from here. There is much I have to ponder."

"I'm not leaving until—!"

"I said BEGONE!" Harry thundered, and forced his magic around Draco, making the boy turn on the spot where the blond prince disappeared in a whirl of purple smoke.

With little thought and his mind racing, Harry didn't even bother to fix his room back to its clean state. He dropped to the floor at the foot of his bed, sitting with his back on it while gazing down into the Crystal Atlas.

The door to his room burst open five minutes later, and Harry became aware of two things. One, his guards were dead from one attack or another as they were no longer around, and thus had probably been killed by either him or Prince Draco in silenced agony.

And two, his mother was now in his doorway with a solemn look on her face.

"Regina came to the castle, and… she has the Dark Curse. There is no more time, my son. We must prepare with all haste." Were her only words as Harry looked up at her in silence.

They stared into each other's eyes, both looking drained of mental and physical energy. Harry rose in silence to his feet, summoning his attire to appear on his body as he followed his mother out of his room and down to their magical chambers.

Even as he helped his mother work, he could not keep his mind off what he and Draco had seen in the crystal orb. Was it real? Who was the old man in colorful robes?

Sadly, there was no time… No time for questions. No time for answers. No time for anything.

A/N: As far as ranking the children with magical ability, skill, and deadliness, I would put it like this:

Harry and Dean of Camelot are practically equal, but Harry is far more powerful in pure magic while Dean is far more skilled using spells.

Draco is only a step behind Harry and Dean as he is equally skilled and powerful.

Blaise is a shade lower than Draco, but a step above Ronald de Vil. Ronald uses magic for more mundane and sneaky things rather than for battle or to defeat his enemies. Ronald relies on brains and cunning more so than anything magic can offer him. He gets this deceptive attitude from his mother.

So what do you think about the chapter? Do you love it? Hate it? Want to hang it from the tallest tower in all the lands?

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Until Next Time, See Ya!