So there is no enchantress, just this really precocious kid who was in the castle library one day and accidentally stumbled upon this really old book full of fascinating symbols and words, and when he tried to read it he mispronounced some words and accidentally enchants himself and the castle. Parents turned to statuary, servants turned to living objects, the works.
When the father comes in, the Beast is furious. Like "HOW DARE YOU DISTURB MY STUDIES?!" but the father completely misunderstands the situation and sends Belle out because Beast was all "hmph I do need an assistant..." and the father assumes otherwise.
She comes in to find him already hip deep in books. He knows some of the most subtle magical arts, can speak several languages, and tries to find the original book (that somehow disappeared) so he can fix the spell. The rose is actually his first attempt at True Enchanting, and he proudly keeps it as a reminder and display. Belle, just as precocious and curious as he is, helps with the search and learns some things.
Meanwhile, the family wonder what is going on with the occasional visits, she's all "Oh yes I am learning a lot," because the Beast was, "If she is going to be my assistant she needs to straighten up," so she gets sent to his tutors and learns such things as Royal Etiquette, Palace Intrigue, History, Italian/Spanish/English as well as Rune Scribing, Alchemy, Lunar and Solar Scrying, and lots of other things.
Gaston, dumb as he is, still thinks he has a chance, despite her showing up in the latest Royal Fashions and with enough Royal Charm to impress any Royal. He slowly gets jealous, starts off badly to impress Belle, but she is like, "Not now, Beast and I are trying to find the best planetary node for this Elemental Summoning," and he just doesn't get it. He turns to blackmail and when that fails, he gets the town to riot and storm the castle.
With help of the Enchanted Mirror, Belle and Beast find out what happened and use their powers to turn them back to town. Gaston charges blindly into the castle, gets dazzled by the magic used to drive the villagers back, and stumbles upon the book that caused all this. Before Beast or Belle could stop him, he reads a few pages only to get enchanted into stone.
Beast thumbs through the book and finds the spell. Belle and Beast have a talk, find that no one really wants to turn back, and instead, unenchants the King and Queen. The four have a sit-down talk, with the parents very impressed at this graceful lady who has helped with their son's studies, and invite her to stay indefinitely. Meanwhile, the K/Q will head out to see the world.
Belle and Beast don't fall in love, but they do admire each other's love of knowledge, respect of magic, and other things. After this, they visit the town and inform what happened. Might have plans of a University of Magic in the town, or as a sanctuary of any Magically Inclined person. Who knows.
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