Author's Note

So, in college. Everything's okay at the moment. Haven't really gotten into the big things yet that will hurt my head later on.

Now, before we began, you'll find out soon that I took the liberty of making a completely different way of spell creation for this story. It was creative thinking stemming from an Old Norse vocabulary I found, my five years of martial arts training, and what I could discern the spells J.K. Rowling created being Latin-based. I'll add the translations to the Old Norse words I use and please note, if anyone does know Old Norse, that I definitely did not use proper grammar for it. Just strung words together and called it good. Sorry for anyone who knows Old Norse or anything close to it.

Reviews:

ElektraVamp05: First, I don't mind the language. I curse way too much that if I did, I'd be seen as a hypocrite. Second, well, here it is! The next chapter! Third, thank you for the compliment. It means so much.

hixup: Tournament's next, but nothing else about that. I do have a plan for this series, so you'll find out. Updates will be, as they've always been, sporadic, but I am going to try to whip them up as fast as I can. We'll just have to see.

CHAPTER TEN

Training for the Task Ahead

Merida escaped the confines of her last class for the day. She loved Transfiguration, don't get her wrong, but seeing Jack's sullen, dread-filled face had her mad at herself. Why couldn't she mask her anger? why was she letting it control her relationships with her friends? Especially one who needed her support now more than ever. Her anger was spiking out of control, mixing between her anger at her mum, at the student body whispering about Jack's deceit and how could they trust a Slytherin after this, and the anger at herself.

"Merida!" a voice called, interrupting her monologue of anger.

Merida snapped her head up, looking around to see Hiccup making his way over to her. He was in a rush, but his face held that clever excitement when he was just starting to gather all the pieces he needed for a plan. Merida was a thousand times grateful Hiccup wasn't a prankster like her and Jack. The school would not last, especially since he'd be teaming up with them.

Merida remembered yesterday that Rapunzel had asked if she was willing to talk to Jack anytime soon. The redhead had said yes instantly. As much as her anger was still consuming her, separating herself from Jack and barely talking with Hiccup was killing her. She needed her friends just as much as they needed her.

Especially when she thought about yesterday ...

No, get off that track. You were fine.

"Whit is it, Hic?" Merida asked as he caught up with her.

"Okay, so I found out the creature Jack's going up against for the first task," Hiccup whispered. Merida blinked before leading the way into a series of barely traversed halls. Once they were far enough in, Merida turned to Hiccup eagerly.

"Sae? Which creature?" Merida asked.

"Dragons," Hiccup said, slumping his shoulders. So, that wasn't what had Hiccup excited. Then again, dragons wouldn't get anyone excited except for her brother Hamish. He was bent on being a dragonologist. Maybe even be the first to train one.

"How dae ye ken?" Merida asked, trying to think up a reason Hiccup had gained the information. Most of her ideas centered around things only her and Jack would do. Hiccup wasn't the breaking and entering sort just to get some information.

Hiccup sighed before launching into a tale of him and Astrid stumbling upon the encampment with dragons in cages. Merida smirked at that. Pure gold teasing material right there.

"Ye and Astrid?" Merida teased.

"Not you too!" Hiccup bemoaned sullenly. "I got enough of that from Jack and Punzie."

Merida laughed. She needed that. "Fir wye did ye need tae talk tae me?"

"I need your help to prepare Jack for this. I'm not innovated enough to see every spell as a weapon like you. But I do know spells Vikings use. If we work together on strategies for each dragon, Jack should be fine, right?" Hiccup explained in a rush, shrugging. He still had that clever excitement plastered over his face.

"Ah'll meet ye twa in the abandoned wing on the fifth floor. We'll get intae a classroom tae work on this," Merida said. "Ye gan find Jack. Ah'll scoop it oot now. Maybe find Rapunzel sae she can join us. Sometimes she's got good ideas."

Hiccup nodded before rushing off. Merida wanted to comment that Jack wouldn't be far. There was no need to run. But it was Hiccup Haddock. When that lad had a mission, nothing would stop him but himself. Having a little pep in her step, Merida went to search for Rapunzel as she took the long way to the fifth floor. It wasn't hard to spot the blonde, talking it up with Flynn Rider. Merida could spot her innocent act a mile away. That lass was going to cause so much trouble if Rider didn't watch himself.

"Punzie, come on!" Merida called out, motioning with her hand for her friend to get over there. Rapunzel gave Flynn a sweet smile before skipping over to the redhead. The Hufflepuff linked arms with Merida as the redhead lead them towards the shifting staircases.

"What are we doing?" Rapunzel asked cheerfully.

"Helping Jack with the first task," Merida said lowly, eyes narrowing suspiciously at her friend. "Ye dunno seem irritated by talking tae Rider for whae knows how long."

"He's okay," Rapunzel chirped. Merida watched her friend closely, noticing that little spark. It hadn't become a fire yet and Rider had to watch himself then. If Rapunzel was developing a crush on the smarmy Quidditch player, he had plenty coming for him. Merida would make sure he understood that.

"Whitever ye say, Rapunzel," Merida spoke as lightly as she could.

They made their way to the fifth floor and Merida quickly checked the classrooms as Rapunzel stood watch. Finding one that suited their needs—spacious with sparse furniture—they waited for the boys to appear. The door opened quickly with Hiccup shoving Jack into the room. Said white-haired boy was cursing up a storm.

"What the fuck, Hic?" Jack yelled, twisting to stand near the door as Hiccup closed it. "I could get here just fine on my own. You didn't need to go and herd me here."

"Training," Hiccup answered simply, as if it would answer everything about his behavior. Which, knowing Hiccup, it really did. The Viking walked over to one of the few desks and placed two different rolls of parchment on it, followed by a quill and inkwell. "Merida, come look at the dragons and view the spells I've listed on the other sheet. You're better at this than I am."

Merida shrugged and went to examine the parchments, pulling off her robe as she did so. She could see Hiccup already showing Jack some of the spells, or at least getting the Nordic pronunciation down, while they shed off their robes, and Hiccup his Ravenclaw blue sweater. Unrolling the first parchment to the dragons, Merida started wide-eyed at the detailed drawings and statistics below each one.

Merida worried for each dragon for different reasons. The Armorwing had the best armor around if anything was to go by. Getting past that would be a miracle. Reading about the Triple Stryke sent a shiver down Merida's spine. That dragon sounded dangerous by itself. Every little statistic and known abilities gave Merida the sense that size really didn't matter when it came to how dangerous something could be.

But the other two ... Merida was frightened by the lack of information. The Shockjaw only had the shot limit, which was a hefty nine. But the Windstriker didn't have a single statistic to its name. Which meant it was as reclusive as the legendary Night Fury, recently discovered, or the people who studied them never lived long enough to pass on their learnings for it. Luckily, it had one ability written down where the Shockjaw's was emptied. But it was barely anything. Just skydiving.

"Hiccup," Merida called, her voice wavering on his name. She looked at the Ravenclaw who cringed at her stare. She didn't even know what was emanating but she hoped it got her worry across.

"I know," Hiccup sighed defeatedly, a twist to his face. "We recently started to really study the Tidal Class dragons. At least we got a shot limit. Describing their fire is ... hard. The bio-electricity isn't just coming from their mouth but can jump across their skin to an individual."

Merida nodded with pursed lips, staring at the second dragon on the list. The Windstriker mocked her with its little information. She waved the parchment a little, staring Hiccup down. He understood.

"Plenty have tried to study them," Hiccup resigned. "But we don't even know where they have their home or anything. Berk rarely got them. To see one was rare than when a Night Fury would attack. At least we've seen them and recorded something about them."

"Just skydiving and type of fire," Merida snorted derisively, waving the parchment.

"At least it's something," Hiccup argued vehemently. "You won't get more than that. I even wrote to Gobber whose ancestors were constantly writing and editing the Book of Dragons. He knows just as much as Fishlegs does on this dragon species."

"Shite," Merida grumbled bitterly.

"Really? I had no idea," Hiccup muttered sarcastically.

"So, we got good information on two of the dragons?" Jack asked, steering the conversation.

"And crappy for the rest," Hiccup added.

"This sucks," Jack declared.

"Aye, it does," Merida agreed with a heavy sigh, placing the parchment down. She opened the second on, staring at the Nordic spells. Hiccup hadn't used the runic alphabet when he wrote them down, but seemed to try to get them as close to English as possible for easier pronunciation. She went through them, seeing it was more complicated spells to bound, block, redirect, and slash. There might have been something at the more fundamental level of the spell building that made it specifically used against dragons unlike the typical Latin spells they were taught at Hogwarts. But Merida couldn't tell what. That would be all Hiccup.

"Jack, how far have ye gotten in yer Charms study?" Merida asked instead.

"Just finished chapter three of the seventh year curriculum," Jack answered, pulling off his shoes. Merida wanted to snap to put them back on. He'd be fighting in them when he faced off against a dragon. But she held her tongue. That could be for the next lesson, when Jack became more confident in his execution of the spells. She'll let him feel that reckless freedom he said he got when his feet were bare, when he could feel frost snake from his feet. He deserved it for all the shite he's been going through the past month.

"Good," Merida chirped in her devilish glee. That means he knows the charms that are correlated with the Nordic ones. "Ah dunno see the exact difference between Hiccup's spells and the ones in the curriculum. Ah dae, however, feel there is some. Hiccup?"

"It's more the second part of the spell," Hiccup began, that clever excitement bleeding into his voice while his face semi-neutral. This was something he was excited about then during this plan. "As you guys know, Vikings fight with wand and weapon equally. At a young age, you learn which is your weapon hand and thus your non-dominate hand is your wand hand. Well, Vikings had characterized spells solely for if you have a weapon and wand, just your wand, just a weapon, neither, or you are not using the spell to fight with. The last word in the spell indicates which one you are doing. Vápn means just a weapon, Skóðmeans with a weapon and wand, Vápnlauss means just a wand, Vætr means you are both wandless and weaponless, and no ending as such means you aren't using the spell in a fighting fashion."

"You guys made spells around that?" Jack asked in disbelief.

"The English had their way, us Vikings had our own," Hiccup said with a casual shrug.

"Is it like that in other cultures?" Rapunzel asked from where she sat, legs kicking the air.

"Don't know," Hiccup answered with another shrug.

"That is fir wye none of the Scottish witches and wizards understood yer spells," Merida guffawed. "Ye had a completely different set up!"

"Yes, and don't go spreading it around, Mer. You know how most still are," Hiccup said, fiddling with his fingers, shrinking in on himself.

"Ah will nae, Hiccup," Merida promised, hoping her eyes portrayed her seriousness. Hiccup still looked skeptical as he nodded his acceptance. Merida chewed on her lip as she looked at Jack. She'll figure something out for that later. First, she had to help prepare Jack for the upcoming task. "Which spell shall we dae first?"

"The binding one," Hiccup answered, taking the parchment from Merida's hands. "I'll direct im through it. You can watch and maybe notice something. I'm not the best at these."

"I'm fine with that," Merida said with a smile. This was the lightest she's felt since the start of the school term. She smirked at Jack. "But dunno think for a minute that Ah am nae watching how ye dae, Overland. After learning three spells, we'll be working on stances, physical stamina, magical stamina, and the Latin equivalents."

"What?" Jack yelped, pulling back.

"You heard her," Hiccup snickered.

"Dunno think Ah'll nae put ye through the ringer if yer stances are just as poor, Haddock," Merida reprimanded, shooting him a glare. Hiccup nodded shakily. Smirking, Merida went to join Rapunzel at her perch on a desk, robe pooling around her and homework spilling from her bag. Hopping onto the desk next to it, Merida kept her blazing gaze on her friends. It felt good to be back in the loop with the three of them. Rapunzel had tried to hide it, but Merida had known what they'd been doing. She was grateful that Rapunzel and Hiccup hadn't given up on them despite how much Merida had royally fucked up.

"It's good to have you here," Rapunzel said softly. "We missed you."

"Ah missed ye all, too," Merida relented with a soft sigh.

"The incantation is Binda Vápnlauss," said, interrupting the small moment as he explained the spell to an excited Jack. "The wand motion is a fast circle followed by a stab in the target's direction."

Hiccup demonstrated and Merida studied his stances and arm movements. He was sure of what he was doing, which threw Merida off for a moment. She had seen some of Hiccup's poor stances, lousy arm positions, and halfhearted wand movement through the years. Even at eleven, Merida had known it all and was shocked a fellow wizard who had been raised with magic around him didn't know the stances. Especially a Viking. It was simply studying, copying, and practicing repeatedly. Of course, at the time, Merida hadn't known how alienated Hiccup had been. Knowing now, and seeing the massive change that had occurred between the ending of fourth year and the present, Merida couldn't help but truly wonder what happened. It kept bugging her mind, festering as her curiosity whispered to dig.

Shaking the thoughts away, Merida focused back on the lads. Hiccup had his weight, shockingly enough for a leg amputee, evenly placed between his feet. The wand movement he was demonstrating was fast, precise, and hit one of the desks dead on. Merida watched in fascination as the bounds wrapped around the desk in a heavy, dark gray metal. The creaking of wood let Merida realize that the spell was a continuously constricting one.

"Fuck," Jack breathed as the desk shattered beneath the spell.

"Dragons are stronger than a desk. The constricting aspect is to keep the wings and legs close and keeping the jaw shut. Dragons fight the spell viciously so, again, need that constricting feature," Hiccup explained, looking at Jack.

"What's the difference that the spell causes when you change the last word?" Jack asked, curiosity in place. Merida snorted. Trust Jack to wonder how a new spell system would work.

"For this spell, it fixes the constricting factor along with what type of binding the target," Hiccup explained with a shrug. "You got a weapon, the spell expects you'll be offing the dragon with it. Much more glory in Viking society for that specific reason. If you have neither, the force is fast and quick, killing the dragon with the strongest metal known in Viking society. With a wand, it's in between the two."

"What about if it doesn't have the last word?" Jack asked, eyes glittering and bouncing on the balls of his feet.

Hiccup smirked at that, as if waiting for Jack to ask that. Merida leaned forwards. Hiccup could be a little shit at times, almost as much as Rapunzel. If there was a way to show off—especially outdoing Jack Overland in something Charms-related—he took it.

"Binda," Hiccup casted with a lazier speed to the circle, but the stab was just as sharp and fast. The broken pieces of desk spun fast, splinters finding themselves and legs going beneath the top of the desk until the old desk that had been destroyed was standing in its decrepitude glory. "It's like Repairo. The verb binding means more than just constraining."

"That's amazing," Jack breathed, eyes twinkling. Merida kept her snicker down. She knew that look. Jack rarely got it now since he decided to study ahead in Charms, but it was his inquisitive face. Jack loved Charms and wanted to learn every single one—and that probably extended all the way to different cultures and languages now. "You guys take on incantation and with a combination of word or lack thereof, completely make a new spell that variates."

Hiccup shrugged nonchalantly. "Do it."

Jack nodded, getting into a perfect imitation of Hiccup's stance. His arm was steady, though the wand motion could use work, the stab not as sharp or the circle looking more like an oval. But that came with practice and Jack was also having to concentrate on a new vernacular, too. That was something Hiccup can help him with.

Jack's attempt was adequate. It wouldn't have gotten him an O if this was class, but nothing below an A. Hiccup nodded, told him what to fix, and do it again. Merida smirked a little. Hiccup was, oddly enough, teaching Jack perfectly of what needed to be fixed while telling him what he was doing right. Merida would have to say she'd never treat any students under her wing like that. She was hard on anyone who wanted to learn from her. Hubert had learned that the hard way when he asked her to each him how to shoot a bow. One good thing could be said about Merida's teaching style: it got results, and it got them fast.

With Merida's study of what Hiccup was doing and how the spell needed to be casted, she could really get on Jack's ass about this. Set up a way that he had to make them faster, quicker, more decisive. Targets—actual targets, not crummy desks they would have to fix every time—would be marked if they were the Latin or Nordic spell. Maybe with an "L" and "N" for the respected spells, different colors meaning different ones she wanted to use. Watching the binding spell go again, Merida pursed her lips. It reminded her of purple for some reason. Nodding her head, Merida decided the targets would be painted purple for that category.

Hiccup moved on while Merida kept thinking how to set up the target system for tomorrow. It was a redirection spell, something Merida didn't know if there was a Latin equivalent. The closest one she could think of was Protego, but she remembered Hiccup had a spell that was very specific to shielding. The stance was more light, ready to move at a moment's notice. When Hiccup cast the spell, he moved in the opposite direction his swishing wand was pointing an object Jack had thrown. Merida watched as the old eraser sailed through the air, landing on the floor with a puff of chalk dust. This reminded her of the color yellow: of the sun emblem from the Wizarding Kingdom in Germany and how their warriors were evasive and head-on rolled into a deadly mix.

"That was three words," Jack stated, looking eager and apprehensive about the spell.

"Munr Vegr literally means different direction," Hiccup supplied, pointing his wand at the falling eraser before flicking it quickly at him saying, "Accio eraser."

The eraser sailed towards Hiccup, completely missing his open hand and smacking him in the face. Merida sputtered out a laugh. She could hear Jack's and Rapunzel's laughs and even, belatedly, Hiccup joined in. Peeking through her mess of hair, Merida snorted at Hiccup's white dusted face. Some of it had even gotten into his hair!

"Hey, Mer," Hiccup laughed out, dangling the eraser between his thumb and forefinger, "mind throwing this at Jack for me?"

"It will be my pleasure," Merida laughed, hopping off the desk and taking the eraser. Jack gulped as Merida stood in front of him, tossing the eraser up and down.

"Go easy for the first five so Jack can get a sense of the spell," Hiccup ordered. Merida snorted but nodded her agreement. She felt pride bloom in her chest at Hiccup taking charge of things. He was an heir, he needed to learn it sometime. It was good to see him growing into himself.

"Ready?" Merida asked.

Jack took a deep breath, dipping into the soft, yet deceitfully powerful, stance. Raising his arm, pointing it squarely at the eraser, Jack eased out a breath.

"Ready."

Merida tossed the eraser at the half power she'd apply if she meant it. Jack shouted, "Munr Vegr Vápnlauss!" his wand swishing to the side. His step was a second too slow, throwing off the spell. Merida kept from laughing as the eraser just barely missed Jack's face. The owlish look the Slytherin was giving had Merida snorting.

"Step as you cast," Hiccup fixed. "The whole thing is one fluid motion."

Jack nodded and did the spell again after Merida retrieved the eraser. By the fifth time, Jack had gotten better and Merida was anxious to throw the eraser again. Grinning smugly, Merida snatched the flying eraser from the air with ease, finding a perfect grip in her hand. Sharing a look with Jack, Merida waited until he gave a nod before throwing the eraser with everything she had. It was the perfect throw and power to rival any professional Quidditch Chaser. Jack cast the spell, the eraser slinging off across the room to bounce off the wall with a puff of dust. Rapunzel clapped, Hiccup congratulated, and Merida beamed at the shocked Jack. Then he was leaping. Laughing.

"That was awesome!" Jack yelled, flinging his hands into the air. Snowflakes fluttered at the motion as he kept leaping, floating in the air longer than possible. Merida grinned widely at her friend. She missed that carefree face. It was good to see it on him, even if it wouldn't last for long.

"It was!" Rapunzel agreed in her never ending enthusiasm. The two descended into a talk that Merida didn't even try to keep up with.

"That was nearly as fast as dragon fire," Hiccup declared as he walked over to her, eyeing the eraser and Merida. "You sure you didn't put magic in it?

"Maybe on accident," Merida laughed, simply happy. She needed this. All of it.

"No, that's good," Hiccup said with a nod. "We can do some actual fire later, but getting the eraser as fast as dragon fire can be is a good step for the spell."

They continued a few more tries, Merida putting all her effort into getting that eraser to fly at Jack faster every time. Most of the time, Jack deflected it, but there were a few that got through, clouding his face in chalk. It was hard to discern where his typical pallor ended and where the dust began, but every mishap was as funny as the first. Of course, Merida cataloged the ratio of fails to successes. A good three-to-ten ratio, but Merida still didn't like the odds. She needed to reduce it farther, making it near obsolete. Her friend was not dying. Not when they were mending their friendship.

Hiccup quickly switched to the proper shield charm. Merida watched as his stance became strong, wide spread and his center of gravity considerably lowered. Merida recognized it as one her da used for Protego, but it was different. She couldn't place her finger on it. Maybe it was because it was Hiccup and he tended to have a flare about his creations and magic: something that seemed so combustible and solid, it was contradicting. A paradox thrumming the small body of a Viking heir.

Merida blinked herself out of her thoughts by the sharp movement of the wand going straight up. Now that was different from Protego. Where one kept their arm steady and fixed on a shield spreading in a circle from the tip, it seemed Hiccup raised one up from the floor itself. It reminded Merida of the color green: of perfect protection in the earth.

"It doesn't show," Jack stated in the silence. Merida had noticed that, too. It was unnerving. Hiccup rolled his eyes.

"Merida, throw the eraser," Hiccup commanded, wand still raised comfortably in the air, like he was lofting a shield for a high aerial attack.

Narrowing her eyes, Merida tossed the eraser in her hand for a bit, took aim at a lower spot—no way could the spell cover that area; the regular Latin one didn't—and threw with all her might. The eraser bounced off the invisible shield and Merida had to duck to avoid being hit. She looked at the dust smudge it left then back at Hiccup's smirk.

"That's amazing!" Rapunzel called out, laughing.

"Why is it invisible?" Jack inquired, leaping on the chance to learn more about a spell. Merida rolled her eyes as she went to get the eraser again. Though, she was curious. Viking spells were starting to show how versatile they were and how every little detail was thought out. Wand motion: how languid or sharp it was. Incantation: which words combined or didn't to form such a spell that reacted to what the caster had on hand or not; Stances: they were perfectly fitted to the motions needed and used the entire body, like a true fighter; something very few witches and wizards knew how important that could be in spell casting.

"Dragons have superior eyes," Hiccup said and Merida snorted. She could name plenty of dragon species that had poor eyesight. "Not in the way you're thinking, Mer. They have a special lens in their eyes that helps them pick up on higher frequency levels. Because of that, translucent isn't as good as invisible when it comes to them. They can still see it and know to wait for the spell to wear out and fire or fly off while the spell is in place. It's been tested throughout the Archipelago, but the findings never hold merit here because everyone just thinks us Vikings are being paranoid."

"Well ..." Jack trailed off.

"Yes, okay, we are somewhat paranoid," Hiccup relented with a bite to his voice, "but that doesn't mean what we discover shouldn't hold merit. In fact, it should hold more for going so far as to discover more about dragon anatomy and physiology than any other fraction of witches and wizards have ever accomplished combined."

Merida blinked at Hiccup's heated glare and venomous words. She never realized how much people had passed off as Viking paranoia. Even she had to admit she's done it more than once. A new combination of runes that made the iron used in weapons have a higher melting point; the dragon eyesight phenomenon; the grievous number of deaths by dragon hailing from the Barbaric Archipelago; most Viking Tribes sent their children to Durmstrang because it had the best martial magic in the known magical world.

"Let's get back tae practicing," Merida declared, tossing the eraser in her hand.

Jack nodded, dropping into the stance. Merida noticed how it lacked the strength Hiccup had given it. She wondered if with such a tiny object—one she would send sailing as fast as before—could break it apart. Taking in a deep breath, Merida threw on the exhale.

"Hlíf Vápnlauss!" Jack yelled, flinging his wand into the air. It was a little shaky and wasn't held aloft in the same way Hiccup had. It was almost like Jack didn't know what to do with it—which wouldn't be shocking. The eraser connected with the shield, but instead of flinging back, it seemed to push through some clear molasses before flinging into Jack's chest. Huffing out a breath, the Slytherin stared at the white dust coating his black sweater.

"You need to give it strength," Hiccup reprimanded, walking over to Jack and kicking one of his legs with his flesh one. Merida snorted as ti helped the white-haired boy fall into a deeper, much stronger stance. "Hold the wand almost like it is a shield when you get it to the top." Hiccup demonstrated the motion he was talking about. "Other than that, you did good. Perfect timing and all that."

"You are so helpful," Jack muttered sarcastically. Hiccup rolled his eyes and tossed the eraser back to Merida.

They kept going, Jack improving exponentially after the first mistake. Merida was relieved about that. A shield charm like what Hiccup was describing was important. If the talk about dragon's having a wider range of frequencies they can detect was anything to go by. Merida was trying really, really hard to take Hiccup's word about it being true, but she was Scottish born and raised. The prejudices of Viking paranoia and hardheaded idiocy were as ingrained in her as her rebellious nature. She might say Hiccup was different, but realizing the Scots had been just as wrong about Vikings was a hard pill to swallow. She'll get there, someday. It just might not be soon.

As the lesson wound down, Merida felt her stomach growl for food. It was quick glances between the four of them before they began to gather their robes and exited the room in pairs. Rapunzel was adamant about talking to Jack, the two descending into some discussion on the different cultures within magic. Merida pulled a face. She'll gladly talk to Hiccup.

"You really won't tell anyone?" Hiccup asked, collecting the parchments to shove into his bag.

"Ah will nae," Merida vowed earnestly. "Nae even tae my brothers."

Hiccup blinked before grinning crookedly.

"Thanks, Mer," Hiccup said as they walked to the door. "It means a lot."

Merida grinned as they headed to the Great Hall for dinner. Training one of the Champions of the Triwizard Tournament was calorie-burning.

Merida stumbled back into her dorm and unto her bed without preamble. She ignored the inquisitive questions of her roommates. After dinner, Merida had trained Jack viciously in stances and spells, doing them with him. Even having the boy run around the grounds before curfew, yelling creative curses to get him going. Jack probably hated her for her vicious routine, and would be sore tomorrow morning, but he needed it. He was fighting dragons for the first task. Who knew what the other tasks would be about? Merida would have to cover everything to keep him in a good physical condition that just playing Quidditch wouldn't give him.

Jack had complained, but did what Merida ordered him to do anyway. He probably understood this was her way of making up for her separation, of letting her anger rule the forefront of her mind. She was grateful for how readily he had welcomed her back into the fold. Burying her face into her quilt to hide her smile, Merida remembered how they had planned a prank while running, crunching out the plans through breathy gasps and stitches. Before leaving, Jack hadn't hesitated in hugging her. Though he smelled rank, Merida had hugged her friend just as tightly. It was good to have Jack in her life again. Life was always interesting with the trickster in it and a hell of a lot brighter. Not that Merida would ever tell Jack that. He had a big enough head as it was.

Merida rolled off her bed and went to work peeling off her sweaty clothes. Changing into her pajamas, Merida flopped onto the quilt and dug out the little journal from before. She still didn't know whose ti was. She ad asked around, but there was no K. Pitchiner in any of the three schools. Shrugging it off, Merida had kept it shoved into a bag for a while. But one day, when the dorm was all her own, she had taken it out and thought maybe it would be a good idea to rant across the parchment.

She just didn't think the pages would absorb her ink and respond.

Merida had, naturally, freaked out. She didn't remember anything in the wizarding world that could do this. But that fear had changed to curiosity quickly, and she began correspondence with the book. It was nice and helped her work through her anger. Maybe whoever had owned it had made sure it was a therapeutic book, helping whoever wrote in it work out their problems. It sure helped Merida out.

Dipping a quill into a half-filled inkwell, Merida began her writing.

Do you have any advice on how to fight dragons?

She needed Jack safe, especially after they just reconciled. Everything Hiccup was providing was well and good, but it wouldn't hurt to be over prepared, now would it? Dragons breathed fire and Jack's magic had adapted to remind anyone who saw it of winter: of ice and snow, of chilling winds and blizzards.

The best way to look at how Vikings have fought them.

Merida snorted. They were already doing that. Sure, Hiccup had probably modified the spells to fit for the more slighter Vikings who couldn't depend on force, but cleverness and well-placed blows. He was reaching Jack a perfect number of spells that would do so, and had plans on how to up the ante as November would soon be ending.

We're already doing that. Anything else that could be important?

Merida watched as her ink absorbed into the page before looping calligraphy scrawled across the parchment.

If you believe there is anything better than Viking martial magic to defeat a dragon, than it is clear to determine that you need to read a little more about Viking culture and books on dragons.

Merida sneered at the parchment, stabbing her quill into the inkwell to write back her retort.

I was making sure we had all our bases covered, but if you want to insult me, then I can go find a proper toilet to flush you down.

Merida slammed the journal shut at that. She wouldn't give it a chance to respond. It was almost as bad as keeping up with any of the varying diplomats she's met throughout her life. Cleverness and subtle threats were never her thing. It came at rare moments, when she knew it was with the utmost importance she does it that way. But other than that, her threats were as clear as the diamond on her mum's wedding ring. People always knew when they received a Merida Dunbroch threat, and no one took it lightly if they knew what was good for them.

Breathing out thought her nose, Merida put the journal back in her bag and flopped onto her bed. Her tired body demanded sleep and Merida was all too ready to give it.

Binda=bind

Munr Vegr=different direction

Hlíf=shield; cover, shelter

Vápnlauss=weaponless

Vápn=weapon

Skóð=weapon

Vætr=nothing