"Merida, there's a letter for you!"
The words were spoken with careful articulation by the lady in the long green gown, her dark braids swinging down her back as she walked gracefully yet quickly to her daughter's room. Softly, she opened the door, poking her head through the small space she created. "Merida?"
No answer. The queen sighed as she pushed the door open further, noticing a lack of the scream: 'Mum!' and a whirl of fiery ginger locks. The thought of her unladylike daughter's reaction almost made her scowl. Queen Elinor leant her head against the smooth door frame, closing the door silently.
Annoyed, Elinor strode away from the doorway, heading out towards the stables. Surely Merida must be spending time with her new horse, Angus. When she should be studying, of all times.
Elinor shook her head. She had told him, King Fergus, not to get it for her, but he had not listened. There would be a time for a horse but now? Itwould only encourage her. It appeared to Elinor that the gift almost seem to praise her for not following her mother's way. That would need to change.
The queen pushed the door open to the outside and scattered the servants. She hurried past the stable — lacking its contents — and hurried to the fields. "Merida? Merida!"
"What?" Elinor was right. Of course she was riding on Angus. Without permission.
She said loudly (it was not shouting, shouting is unladylike), "I've been looking for you all over the place! What have you been doing?"
Her daughter rode towards her, frizzy red locks tumbling down her shoulders, pale blue eyes narrowing as she slowed her Clydendale horse down, noticing the queen's red cheeks. "I was ridin' Angus. I— I finished my lessons!"
"You need to ask me for permission before riding so you can have a suitable guardian," she started, trying to contain her anger. "But, I came to tell you that a letter has arrived. For you."
Merida's face lit up with excitement, as she dismounted and began to dance around her mother with joy. "Is i' really fer me? Are ye sure it's fer me? Just me?"
"Merida, stop all that bouncing, it's unladylike," the queen answered, frowning slightly as Merida meekly stopped. "Of course it is for you."
"Where is i'? I want ta see i'!"
Elinor smiled gently at her daughter's foolish innocence. "It is back at the castle, waiting for you on the table. Take Angus back first!" she reminded Merida, as the girl raced off to her home, neglecting the horse that had just been the object of her affection.
"Mum! It says I'm a witch! And I have ta go ta a special school called... Hogwarts?"
Elinor snatched the letter from her daughter's hands, brown eyes scanning the letter, fists clenching as the information absorbed. "Merida, this is just a very cleverly planned trick. There is no such thing as magic!"
The blue eyed girl rounded her eyes at her mother, curls falling over her face in the very manner Elinor had to nag her about. She was doing it on purpose, trying to get her mother so annoyed that she would unwittingly scream that Merida could go to Hogwarts and seal a deal that couldn't be undone.
But Elinor wasn't like that. Elinor liked to think rationally and plan things unlike her rather spontaneous daughter, who took after a certain king.
"Bu' Mum, I have ta go! It may be ma only chance I have ta see the world!"
Elinor was not convinced. She snapped, "You are a princess, Merida, and you are here to learn how to be one!"
Her daughter silenced, not used to her normally restrained mother shouting at her. "Please Mum, ah need to. Besides, I promise I'll do all my princess duties in the holidays."
It was desperate but it did it.
Queen Elinor paused and fully contemplated the matter. Normally, Merida did anything to not have to do her duties and lessons, preferring the wild outdoors and the thrill of the hunt to the endless hours spent memorising her ancestors, the kings and queens of Scotland. If Merida fully dedicated herself to her lessons, she would learn a lot more than she had done so in previous years, as she would be concentrating instead of sleeping, listening instead of staring out of the window, learning instead of yearning for the dangerous outdoors. Yes, it seemed like a fair deal.
"I'll think about it," she begun. The princess' face brightened. "But that doesn't mean it's a yes."
The red headed princess just nodded and smirked from beneath her curls as she watched her mother walk away. Elinor was definitely going to let her daughter go to Hogwarts. And Merida had every intention of making sure that actually happened.