Chapter 8: Professor Gold
Gold should have the father thing down already. He had been a father for almost three hundred years. Grant it, he had made one big mistake that he'd never forgive himself for. And now he had another chance, with another son and he was already afraid he was going to blow it.
He sighed heavily. Maybe he was being a little overprotective. He shouldn't have gotten so upset earlier when Harry was out, but it was just too soon. His son was still sick. Years of malnourishment marked the boy, which Rumple hadn't said anything about.
He hadn't said anything about a lot.
Like Hogwarts.
Who knew this world would have magic? That was something the Blue Fairy obviously had never made in her nefarious calculations when sending Bae away. But magic was very well here and alive in their world, though highly diluted from what he could make out.
Teaching Harry would be as much as a learning experience for him as for the boy. There was no way he was going back to that school. Regina hadn't told him everything, but enough where he intended on turning about half the staff into some sort of snail.
He hadn't turned a person into a snail in such a long time, he almost relished it.
Almost.
He sighed
"Mr. Gold?"
It was Harry, Gold turned away from his study and saw his son holding one of the books he gave him. It still amazed Gold how much his son reminded him at Bae at that age. Of course, Bae had been bigger than Harry, but the determined expression was still very much there.
Gold looked at him. "Are you hungry?"
Harry shook his head. "I'm fine. I have a question about the reading."
Gold raised an eyebrow. "Yes?"
"It describes magic differently than what…what I've been taught."
"Does it?" Gold said now really interested. "Tell me, how is your magic taught, Harry."
"It's channeled through an object." Harry said, "A wand. Your magic, it seems more charged by emotion."
"Magic is emotion." Gold said. "For example, the purest emotion is true love, hence the strongest magic is of true love."
"So channeling magic through a wand…"
"Makes it weaker." Gold said.
Magic through wands? Really?
Okay, so some of the fairies use wands and look at them. They were pathetic, if you didn't count that idiotic blue imbecile who had ruined Rumple's life and technically was the source of all evil in his humble opinion.
Of course, no one ever really cared for his opinion.
Well, Harry seemed to be listening. "You know, that sort of makes sense."
"Explain." Rumple said.
Harry then proceeded to tell Rumple about how his so called accidental magic had been stronger than his wand magic.
"Doesn't surprise me," Rumple said.
"Really?" Harry asked.
He was surprised the boy was questioning him, of course he wasn't surprised. Any so called accidental magic, had to come from strong emotions. The real source of Harry's magic. Not the spell theory that he explained to him.
Rumple shook his head. When he heard the story about a so called levitation charm. It was completely rubbish. Harry's friend, Hermione, was wrong. It didn't matter how the spell was said it mattered on the intent—something Ron didn't have by the very basis of events.
Harry looked at him. "Well, that was what happened?"
"Oh, I believe you." Rumple said. "But there have been languages before Latin. I'm sure the Ancient Egyptians didn't use Latin for their spells."
"True, I think there 's a course on ancient ruins."
"Exactly." Rumple said. "Language is a powerful thing, Harry. But it's just a way to convey our emotions and thoughts."
"So, essentially I could levitate a feather without having to try to pronounce Latin."
"Exactly." Rumple said. "You merely have to find the right emotion and then…"
Well, the book that suddenly floated from Harry's desk to Rumple's hands said everything that needed to be said.
Harry looked at him. "You did that without a wand?"
"Indeed." Rumple said. "I just focused my emotions and the book floated to my hands."
"It's that simple?"
Well, not really. It took lots and lots of concentration. But it was very simple for Gold. It was like blinking.
Gold sighed. "It's simple after time, dearie. You have to get control over your emotions first. And then it's clockwork."
Harry laughed.
"You don't believe me?"
"It took Ron nearly two weeks just to do that spell."
Ron clearly lacked magical talent. Rumple asked Harry how long it took him.
"Maybe a day or so. Once I got the pronouncement down it was easy. But what you're saying, I just had to will the thing to float."
"Pretty much. It's a bit more complicated than that."
"Of course," His son said.
"It's just about finding your trigger emotion," Rumple said.
That was true. And Rumple had found his trigger emotion very early on when becoming the dark one. Vengeance. Power. Even though he was the most powerful sorcerer in all of the realms, Rumple still had trouble controlling his emotions.
It cost him his eldest.
He sighed heavily. "Think of your accidental magic, Harry. Think about how you felt?"
A look came over the boy's face, that Rumple didn't quite know how to place. It still irked him, how he couldn't read Harry as he could read Bae. Yeah, you could totally tell that Harry was his son through Cora, not Milah.
Milah was ridiculously readable. Well, not to him the poor spinner that was married to her. But now, well, it was very obvious how Rumple could tell when Bae was lying. Milah's poker face was abysmal at best.
Cora though…
She knew how to keep her feelings bottled up. Oh, sure, when Rumple first met her there would be an occasional flash in her eye a smirk that would indicate she was up to no good, but most of the time Cora was very good at hiding things—unlike her daughter.
It was so hard talking to Harry. He just really didn't know how to approach the boy. Though it seemed the boy was opening up to someone: Regina of all people.
Thinking about his son liking the Evil Queen better than him made Rumple want to gag. He tried not to let it get to him (much). Mainly, because he was just glad Harry opened up to someone.
At least Regina had a big mouth. He was able to find out a lot of stuff from her. Like about the cupboard.
Seriously, the Dursleys should be glad he couldn't leave Storybrooke just yet.
And Regina admitted to him that she probably didn't know the extent of everything that happened.
"He's holding back." The queen said when he invited her over for tea—yes, they did that.
"Of course, he's holding back." Rumple said. "He barely knows you."
"He's told me a lot, I just…well, I suspect there are some things I really don't want to know about. That school is bad enough."
Oh, yes, Hogwarts Witchcraft and Wizardry. The one magic lesson that he had with his son, he had decided the school was ran by complete idiots.
Seriously, using wands. His son was not the Blue doxie. Er…fairy. Doxie seemed to fit her better even though she was a permanent member of Team Good.
Harry's voice snapped him from his thoughts. "Um, the accidental magic thing, I felt a lot of different things. A lot of the times I was angry. I wanted to, uh, get back at my relatives…my teacher. She, um, told me I was a liar when…some kids they were bullying me and I…"
He was rambling and scared half to death. Where was a calming potion when you needed it?
So, anger triggered the boy.
Surprise. Surprise. He was a product of two dark magic users after all.
Rumple sighed. Nothing from his past parent experience told him how to deal with telling your kid they used dark magic. You didn't want them to think they were a monster. And channeling such emotions could play some serious havoc on the psyche. Look at Regina. Look at Cora. Look at even him.
Rumple blamed the fact that he couldn't control his feelings for why he let Bae go. If he could've let go of power of control, then maybe he…no he couldn't think about the past. He had to rationalize how to explain to his son that dark emotions were the key to his magic.
Rumple sighed. "Those feelings are strong emotions. Your magic reacted to them. Use them to channel your magic. Not the wand."
"Does it work on every spell?"
Well, except light magic it worked. No reason to go into particulars right now. "Pretty much anything." He finally said.
"You want to try to levitate that book for me."
Harry gave him a dubious look. "You said it took a lot of effort."
"Well, consider that your assignment for the day." Rumple said. "Levitate the book without a wand. Here, I'll show you some breathing exercises to channel your emotions."
Harry shrugged and for the next hour and a half, Rumple showed him how to meditate. They stopped only when Belle came home and called for him to go down the stairs.
Rumple looked at his son. "Continue practicing. When you think you've got enough focus, try to levitate the book."
Harry nodded.
Rumple went down the stairs and was surprised with the frown his girlfriend wore.
"What's wrong?" He asked.
Belle shrugged as she slipped out of her heels. "It's probably nothing."
It wasn't nothing. Belle never had a frown on her face, but she looked upset.
"I'm not going to turn anyone into a snail if that's what you're worried about."
Belle laughed. "I would hope not. But no. It's just…Emma Swan is at the library."
That was weird. Everyone knew Emma Swan had only read one book in her life—and she acted proud about that. He looked at Belle. "You think this is about Harry?"
Belle shrugged. "I don't know. She acted like she was taking Henry to the library so he could check out the Sherlock Holmes series. But he didn't check out a single book. And she asked me how to use the microfilm reader."
"Surprise, surprise." Gold said with a sigh. "Harry did go into town the other day."
"I doubt she'd be interested about a random boy in town."
"Sweetheart," Gold said. "Admit it, you're worried."
"I'm sure they wouldn't do anything, Rumple."
He shook his head.
She raised an eyebrow. "They're not that bad."
He just shook his head. "It's not them I'm worried about."
Belle sighed. She was worried about the same thing that Rumple was—Cora finding out. Regina had told them of her close encounter with the woman the day Harry had came home. And Rumple had will done it with the wards. But even though the pink Victorian was a magical Fort Knox, he still didn't feel like it was a safe enough environment for his son.
"I almost have that potion done." He said.
His girlfriend raised her eyebrow. "Really?"
"Yes, three doses." He said. "Enough for me, you, and Harry. Though I don't think he really needs one. Still having an extra dose wouldn't hurt."
Belle nodded. Though originally not keen on the leaving Storybrooke idea, it was making more and more sense. It was the only thing that made sense in Rumple's opinion. He didn't want to be here with his son when the Cora apocalypse hit. Especially since he knew it would undoubtedly involve a slew of Charmings in his shop. And like always, Belle would try to guilt him into helping them even though he had no obligation too and quite honestly, if they wanted to save the day they needed to figure out the damn thing themselves.
He never told Belle this though.
He didn't want to sleep on the couch.
Which he was pretty sure what would happen.
Belle sighed, "You shouldn't worry that much, Rumple."
He glared at her. "You were the one panicking about Emma in the library."
She sighed knowing he had a point. "So, how's Harry…"
At that point a book came flying in the room and almost hit Belle's head.
"What the…"
"Good," Rumple said. "He got the hang of it."
Belle looked at him utterly confused.