(Author's note: Hello readers, just so you know this is my first fanfic so please bear with me if the writing is a little off. I do appreciate reviews and advice if you're willing to give them but other than that I hope you enjoy the story) :)

I do not own How to train your dragon, Tangled, Brave, Rise of the Guardians or the Harry Potter series. All rights go to their individual creators.

The Letters

The letter found Merida at her home in the Scottish Highlands. Her mother Elinor had come running into the kitchen waving the letter in the air triumphantly – although still in a dignified fashion.

'Merida, it's the letter! You're in,' she cried, happily dragging Merida out of her seat and hugging her.

'Wha'!' Merida gasped, a few crumbs flying from her mouth, 'I can actually go?'

'O' course lass' cried her father Fergus as he rose from his own seat to pull Merida into his own excited hug. 'I'm so proud o' my kids' he continued happily while behind him the triplets were taking advantage of the sudden distraction to sneak as many cakes as they could from the table.

Later on when the excitement had died down Merida was left alone in her room with the letter from Hogwarts all to herself. No more lessons with mum, she thought to herself as she reread the letter again, No more of the same old borin' rules and expectations. She pumped her fist into the air and quietly but excitedly hissed 'Yes!'

When she was a child Merida had loved to explore the woods around her home and play with the wisps that inhabited it. One day, though, the wisps had taken her back out of the forest to her mother where they had been attacked by the demon bear Mordu who had been tracking Merida from the shadows of the trees.

They had only just been saved by her father who had barrelled in with wand and sword drawn. He fought the enormous beast off and send it back to whatever dark place it had emerged from, but at the cost of his leg.

Since then Fergus had walked with a peg leg and Merida had been home schooled by her mother. The next years had been nothing but arduous hours, trapped in cold rooms, where she was forced to learn line after line of history, literature and whatever else her mother thought she should learn.

She had also spent many a painful hour when her mother tried day after day to tame Merida's fiery, tangled mop of hair with comb, brush and magic but to no avail. Merida's hair always stayed stubbornly sticking in every direction and left her mother in nearly despairing tears and Merida with the feeling that her scalp was being stabbed.

Then she became a sister when the triplets were born, they got away with murder, attacking the poor housemaids and anyone else holding a plate of buns with all sorts of devious tricks. Merida couldn't get away with anything, her mother always kept her locked up teaching her how to behave like a 'proper' witch.

The only solace she found where in the lessons her dad gave her. Fergus' teachings were never in classrooms; instead he would take Merida outside and teach her swordsmanship, archery and all other kinds of amazing things (he'd even taken her falconing once but never again when both his and her birds had done nothing but attack his own face). In these lessons of activity and energy Merida had found herself but she wanted more – magic.

Every child who grew up in a magical family wanted to learn magic of their own and Merida was no exception. Her parents had told her of the amazing magic school Hogwarts and that one day they would send a letter for her. They themselves had waited for the day when Merida would be called with as much anticipation as she had – although for darker reasons.

In the meantime, Merida could cheer excitedly because, at last, she could start to make her own fate.

The letter found Hiccup in his hometown of Berk, the northernmost wizard-only village in the United Kingdom. It was a sturdy village on an island twelve days north of Hopeless and a few degrees south of freezing to death. It was renowned as the greatest dragon taming village on Earth, followed closely by the institute in Romania.

Hiccup had been in the forge he had once shared with Gobber working on a new saddle mechanism for Toothless when Tiny, a Terrible Terror dragon whose species were now being used by the Berk people as a replacement for owls, flew in through the window and dropped it on his head. Hiccup put down his tools and picked it up, looked it over and read it. Then he read it again.

Hiccup leaped out of the doors in a full run whooping with delight while Tiny flew behind him puffing smoke excitedly. He ran past and around several people on their ways to work, nearly knocking a few over before running across the wooden bridge leading to the dragon training pit. Originally the pit had been caged so dragons couldn't escape but that had been removed to turn the pit into a perfect dragon pen.

'Dad, dad!' he yelled happily as he descended into the arena, 'It's Hogwarts; I'm in!'

He stopped with Tiny settling on his shoulder as he saw a group of people in a huddle that consisted of all his training partners, his dad and several older members of the village. Hiccup noticed that all the young members had letters identical to his.

'Really, you got in?' Ruffnut (female twin) said mockingly.

'Of course he did. They lowered the standards when they let you in' retorted Tuffnut (male twin) who was then concussed by a bucket thrown by Ruffnut.

'You all got one too' he said incredulously – of course they had he thought, it's not like I'm any more special than they are.

'Aye you've done well son' Stoic said encouragingly, coming over to give Hiccup a gentle slap on the back that nearly sent the skinny boy sprawling on the floor, 'And after all you and yer friends have done for the village I can only imagine what you'd do for the school' – burn it down probably, he thought privately.

'I don' suppose' he continued innocently, 'that you'd think o' leaving Toothless here?'

'What, leave Toothless!' Hiccup gasped. All of a sudden there was a general scramble in the group behind Stoic with yells of 'Night Fury!' and 'Get down!' as Toothless, having heard his name, came jumping down and landed on some of the slower Berkians. 'How could I leave Toothless dad?' Hiccup asked, laughing as the dragon nuzzled him.

Stoic nodded understandingly, you couldn't separate those two now with several spells and a team of Gronkels pulling them apart. He knew he'd have to write to the headmaster explaining the situation and asking for special permission, he wasn't looking forward to it.

Stoic had met Hiccups mother, a muggle, outside of Berk and had slowly introduced her to his world, teaching her the ways of his village and how it was the only wall of defence between one of the largest dragon nests and the muggle world further south.

Unfortunately it didn't last as Hiccups' mother died when giving birth to him; she named him Hiccup as a sort of gift in the hopes of preventing Stoic giving him something worse as was the tradition of Berk.

Stoic had been left alone to raise his son to be a true warrior and leader so that he could follow in Stoic's footsteps. It was surprising then that Hiccup had aged into a skinny and inquisitive boy so unlike his father. Stoic had apprenticed him to Gobber in the hopes that he would know how to raise Hiccup in a way that Stoic hadn't thought of.

Hiccup for his part had wanted to be just like his father, a dragon killer renowned throughout the world. That is until one of his latest dragon capturing devices had actually caught a night fury, the most elusive dragon. He had hunted it down in the hopes of proving himself to his father but at the crucial moment he…couldn't do it. He'd cut the ropes that bound it and let it escape.

After that he and the other recruits had been trained by Gobber, as magic was illegal for underage wizards to use (and in any case practically useless against dragons) it was customary for Berk soldiers to train with all manner of weapons and shields. After the first lesson Hiccup had felt something was off with the Night Fury; a dragon would always go for the kill, so why didn't he?

He'd tracked it down to a small hollow in the forest and discovered he'd damaged its tail leaving it unable to fly. Over time he'd bonded with the dragon, bringing him fish and naming him Toothless for the way he could retract his fangs.

As the months went by he trained with Toothless to learn to fly together using a saddle and prosthetic tail fin he invented. Toothless also helped teach him many harmless ways of taking down a dragon that helped to bring Hiccup fame amongst the villagers.

It didn't last however as he discovered not only the location of the dragons' nest but the terrible Hive dragon that controlled all the others and then Stoic had discovered his relationship with Toothless.

Long story short Hiccup had had to save Toothless from his father on the shores of the dragons' nest and then with Toothless save the village from the enormous Hive dragon.

They'd succeeded but Hiccup had lost a foot in the battle and had needed Gobber to fit him with a prosthetic limb of his own. It was funny really, now he and Toothless were only truly whole when they were together.

At the age of ten Hiccup had been the first dragon rider and the first to prove that everything the world knew about dragons was wrong. Since then he and his friends had helped to rebuild Berk to be a dragon taming village rather than a hunting one. Now, a year later, he was going on a new adventure to Hogwarts – and there was no way he'd be leaving Toothless behind.

Rapunzel was never sent a letter from Hogwarts. She had been a special case and so had been given a visit from the head of the school himself. Professor Nicholas St North had asked if he could have a moment with her alone and, after her parents and the ever present aurors had left, he spoke to her in a serious but friendly voice.

'Now miss Rapunzel why don't we get down to zhe tax of brass. You have an incredible skill that I have never seen before and that is very rare these days. I would like you to come study at my school, it is evident to anyone that you have magic and we could teach you to control it far more than you already can. What's more is we can keep you safe until zhis hole mess blows over, Hogwarts is very well protected you know' He added encouragingly.

Rapunzel had sat there, absentmindedly brushing her golden hair that ran down into a heap on the floor. Then she looked up, looked around as if to seek guidance from the universe itself, looked back at North and asked 'Will I get to make friends there?'

Professor Nicholas smiled back at her, hoping to disguise the sad twinge that creased his eyes, and replied 'Of course you will'

'Ok, can I bring Pascal?'

'Pascal?'

'He's on your shoulder'

'Bah!'

Rapunzel hadn't known her real parents as she grew up. Instead she'd been raised by Mother Gothel, a witch who had sung her the same song when she was a baby and taught it to her as a child. It was a song ingrained in Rapunzel's very heart as well as her special hair; it was a song about a flower.

Gothel had also forbidden her from leaving the tower that was their home because, as she put it, the world was a cruel place filled with terrible people.

Her only friend had been Pascal, a small chameleon whose egg had been laid in a small pocket in the bricks of the tower. He was far more intelligent than the rest of his kind (and some of human kind) and this had been because when Mother Gothel had enchanted the tower in defensive and cloaking spells his egg had accidently absorbed the magic.

This gave Pascal greater intelligence but also had left a chink in the tower's defence and it was this chink that had let Rapunzel be discovered.

One year ago, when Mother Gothel had been away collecting hazelnuts, two aurors had discovered and broken into the tower that she shared with Rapunzel. They had been tracking the dark witch for years and, at the end of their search, were very surprised to find a little girl.

She had been excited at first to be taken out of the tower that she had never left all her life, until she discovered they weren't taking her back; then she began to think back on her mother's warnings. The aurors had rushed her back to the ministry of magic to make inquiries and had discovered that they had saved Rapunzel from a ten year old muggle kidnapping case.

They had taken her to see her parents but she had refused to believe they were telling the truth. As far as she was concerned Gothel was her mother and nothing would change that.

That is until they'd taken her to her room were the little cot still stood, it had a sundial with a pattern of a sun on the face. When Rapunzel saw it she had staggered back, bracing herself on the wall as images of all her paintings on the walls of the tower flashed before her eyes and the same sun pattern emerged in each on, hidden in plain sight.

She had run to her parents, embracing them and crying because she'd found a family but her old world in the tower with Gothel had crumbled around her. Later the aurors had sat her and her parents down and explained everything to them, including the existence of magic and the true nature of Mother Gothel.

Gothel was a dark witch, a very old and powerful woman with a black heart. She had explored all forms of dark magic in the pursuit of immortality, breaking several magical laws and had been pursued ever since. However, it seemed that according to Rapunzel she had achieved her goal because Rapunzel only knew her as a young woman with night black hair who always boasted about her youth and good looks.

The aurors then believed it had to have something to do with why she kidnapped Rapunzel.

As the debate went on Rapunzel had struggled with herself whether to tell the men about her secret. Gothel had told her never to reveal it, that it would bring nothing but trouble, but Gothel had told her a lot of things that turned out to be lies.

The auras had asked her a lot of questions after she showed them and then sent for experts in the ministry and all top wizard hospitals, none of them could explain her gift. Only her father enlightened them when he talked about his desperation to find a cure for his pregnant wife's incurable disease.

During a walk to get some fresh air he'd gone off the track and had discovered a glowing golden flower growing at the edge of a cliff. The way it shined seemed to almost beg him to be given to his wife. The feeling had been so strong that he'd taken the flower back and fed it to Rapunzel's mother in a glowing broth. It had cured her and Rapunzel had been born with the same gold coloured hair.

Since her rescue Rapunzel's family had been kept under protective custody by the aurors to ensure that Gothel wouldn't attack them to retrieve Rapunzel. They had to move house a lot and were never out of sight of at least one auror, for Rapunzel's parents it was worth it to finally have their lost daughter back, for Rapunzel it was like being stuck in the tower all over again.

But now, a year later, she was being offered a chance to see the world, or part of it, and Rapunzel felt at last that her life was about to begin.

Jack wasn't sent a letter either; he'd in fact received an invitation to join a few years ago.

Jack had been born into a strong line of winter mages on his father's side and simply a strong magical line on his mother's. Like the rest of his father's family Jack would be taught the secret family spells of ice and snow that no other wizard knew, if only he'd stay put and crack a book open every now and then.

He didn't like studying and far preferred running around outdoors and playing tricks on his little sister when she grew old enough. He wasn't really one for work; he liked to have fun instead.

So far in his life there had only been two occasions when Jack hadn't thought in his usual playful and happy way.

The first had been at his father's funeral where he'd been consumed with grief and sadness while his mother, holding his one year old sister, held back tears for both their sakes. His father had been an auror, a good one at that, and had died a 'hero's death' as his partner put it. He sacrificed his life in order to stop the dark wizard Pitch Black's attempt to kill all the most powerful wizards on Earth in order to gain their skill and magic, it had worked and Pitch had been imprisoned within the shadowed cells of Azkaban.

His father had only left him one thing, a book that contained all the secret spells of his family with a note that said 'You'll get the hang of them even if I can't be there to teach you. I'm proud of you'

The second time had been when he and his sister had gone skating over what turned out to be thin ice. He'd had to think seriously while his brain simultaneously panicked with the fear of falling into the killing water and the greater fear of his sister falling in. He came up with the idea to pretend to play a game of hopscotch and actually hoped a few paces across the slippery ice to get closer to his sister. He'd then encouraged her to the same 'Come on' he'd said, 'just one, two…three!' On three he leapt, grabbed his sister and threw her to safety, unfortunately that meant he had thrown himself further onto the ice and with a terrible crack it shattered under his feet.

All Jack remembered then was that it had been dark and cold and he had been scared, he knew he must be dying and it terrified him. Then the moon had shone through the ice, which was strange because it seemed like it had been day only a moment ago, and he wasn't scared any more.

His mother and sister remembered searching for him for hours along the icy edge of the lake until the moon had risen. It was then that tiny cracks slowly appeared in the ice, growing larger and into the form of a body until it fell away to reveal Jack floating into the air. He hung there for a moment, gasped deeply and fell back onto the reformed ice.

His mother used magic to lift his body over the fragile lake and move it over to them. She and his sister had brought him home and cared for him as well as they could until he woke up the next morning at which point they nearly suffocated him in hugs.

Jack was different after that, not in personality because nothing could change that, but in other ways. His once brown hair had turned a brilliant white and he had grown nearly immune to the cold.

His magic had also grown far stronger than it should be for a child his age; he began to create frost on any surface he touched and even began to call on frigid winds to carry him, although he hadn't been very good at it and kept crashing into trees or suddenly dropping from great heights. In short, the ice magic of his forefathers had somehow grown within him.

After an examination at St Mungos, Jack's mother had been informed that his magical power was overflowing and that he would need to learn to control this magic now before it consumed him. This was also when the professors from Hogwarts had arrived giving Jack a conditional entry when he turned of age and a letter from the ministry informing him that he was permitted to practice his magical talents in small quantities so long as it was not in view of the public.

It hadn't been that simple though. Jack's mother had needed to buy him a wand and hoped that would be the end of it but at Olivander's shop every wand had rejected her son.

'I might have some in the back' Olivander had said desperately, 'I'll just go and check'

'What about this?' Jack had replied, picking up a wizards staff in the shape of a shepherd's crook from the wall in the manner of someone who'll pick anything up to see what it did, if someone had written beside a red button 'End of the world button. DO NOT TOUCH!' the paint wouldn't have time to dry before jack had pressed it.

'Oh that's just a staff. You wouldn't be able to use it. It requires special training and a lot of skill' Olivander explained as he scoured the shop for more wands.

Jack hadn't put it back though, when he picked it up the crook's centre had begun to glow a strange blue and ice began to form along the hilt, it had felt like it fit perfectly in his hand.

He'd played with it a bit, twirling it around until suddenly he clipped its end against the floor where ice began to appear in the exact same fern pattern that sprouted from Jack's fingers.

Olivander had dropped the wands he'd managed to scrounge in sheer shock.

'How incredible!' he'd exclaimed, 'and without any training'

'It's so easy. Who needs skill when you're me? Jack boasted proudly resting the staff on his shoulder.

And that was how Jack obtained his staff with Mr Olivander waving away any idea of money, 'It clearly belongs to him' he had said before turning back to his wand stacks still muttering 'Incredible' under his breath.

Since then Jack had done nothing but play around, testing his new magic, he even began to read his father's book although he never paid much attention to the spells that didn't have pictures.

By the present day he'd learnt how to send up flurries of snow into the air and then freeze the ground beneath people as they were distracted. With his staff Jack also learnt how to control the icy winds, using it to guide himself along the currents far above the clearing where his house lay.

But now, finally, he'd turned eleven and that meant the real fun was only just about to start.