A/N: As promised, my first Oneshot. I intend to do one for each movie. I know Merida is 16 in the movie, but I lowered the age slightly because A: I wanted to play with Post Character Development Merida for more than just the 7th year, B: I didn't want everyone's movie falling too close together, and C: compared to other Disney Princesses, I felt she looks and acts a bit younger.

Brave belongs to Disney and Pixar. This follows the film very closely, but I did add a few twists of my own to it.

As this takes place in my Hogwarts universe, between years 3 and 4, there will be spoilers for the first three stories, and of course, for Brave.

On with the story!

Some time ago, a little girl, no older than six, wandered into the highland woods. Pitch Black lurked in the shadows and watched as she made her way to an arrow lodged in the moss of a tree trunk. Just as the child pulled it out, Pitch moved, rustling the leaves.

He smiled as he felt the girl tense. She looked around anxiously. A bear nearby growled. Pitch had led the bear there earlier that day. He savored the girl's fear for a moment, but he had work to do.

He cast a spell and a little blue light appeared, making a beautiful, calming noise. The girl forgot her fears and turned to face it.

"A Will o' the Wisp." The girl chased after the blue light. She no longer noticed the low growls of the bear. Pitch was a bit disappointed that she didn't notice. While he had wanted her to go to the blue light, he wished she had expressed more fear of the wild animals roaming the Scottish forest.

"They are real!" the girl whispered as she tried to touch the blue light, only for it to dissolve. Pitch made a whole trail of the blue lights, dubbed Wisps, leading back to the child's campsite. As much as he hated to lose her fear of being lost in the woods, he had bigger things planned.

The girl chased after the blue lights, each one disappearing as she reached it. Unbeknownst to her, the large bear was also following the trail, and following the girl.

"Merida!" the girl's mother called out. "Come along, sweetheart. We're leaving now."

"I saw a wisp!" the girl called as she ran to her family. "I saw a wisp."

"A wisp? You know some say that Will o' the Wisps lead you to your fate."

"Oh, aye, or an arrow," the girl's father interrupted.

"Your father doesn't believe in magic," said the mother picking up her child.

"Well he should, cause it's true," the girl said. Pitch couldn't help smiling about how right she was. But it was time to enact his plan. The bear had caught the scent of the camp.

It loomed to attack the girl and her mother. The child let out a scream.

"Mor'du! ELINOR! RUN!" the father screamed. Someone tossed him a spear and they went into battle. Elinor took the child and mounted a white horse; they ran from the fight. With one swipe the bear broke the man's spear so the man quickly pulled out his sword.

"Come on, you!" the father screamed. Pitch laughed as the battle raged on. The sheer terror the man had felt upon seeing his wife and daughter in danger made up for any lack of fear displayed by the child. As each man faced the bear his heart rate surged. Pitch wallowed in it.

CHOMP! The bear bit the king's leg clean off. The bear would kill the king. Pitch had meant for it to kill the queen and princess as well, but no matter. What could a couple of women do? It didn't matter how competent they were, with no male heirs the other lords would fight over the land, over the alliance. Each would think himself the best possible king. They would fall to chaos, war and ruin. Pitch would have all the fear he desired when the entire land of Scotland was at war.

Pitch was so busy musing that he failed to notice the tide turning in the battle. Seeing their king in danger, the men drove Mor'du back. The bear, realizing that it wasn't going to win, turned and fled. Pitch looked on in disappointment.

That hadn't worked out as he'd planned. No matter. He collected a lot of fear. Even if it was small potatoes compared to the fear of a kingdom at war, it would sustain him.

For the next few months, the queen and her daughter lived in fear as the king's severed leg was treated. The queen was especially worried about infections, and other possible dangers. But the king did not suffer from any. He recovered just fine. As their fear was drying up, Pitch found a new source, many miles away, in the country of Arendelle.

There a little princess and her parents lived in fear so strong Pitch didn't need to go out of his way to scare them. Thus the little girl in Scotland was left alone and forgotten.

Many years later, Pitch Black found himself working at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry when he ran into the Scottish princess again. At first he was content to ignore her. Oh, he wouldn't hesitate to scare her if the opportunity arose, but he would have done that with any student. There was nothing special about this girl.

One day, however, the princess and a boy stumbled upon a herd of Night Mares in the Black Forest next to the castle. Pitch had been secretly building this herd up from the fear of students. He was planning to use it to bring the world to chaos.

Pitch was sure the children didn't understand what they'd seen, but he was equally sure that if the girl told her head of house, the dreaded Easter Bunny, that he would not only know what the horses were, but also know how to defeat them. The horses were new. They couldn't survive without the fear Pitch was feeding them.

All through the girl's first year, he sent her nightmares intended to scare her into silence. This had the added effect of feeding his Night Mares, so they would be strong enough to run if she did talk. Nevertheless, she never told any adult what had happened in the forest, but Pitch knew it was only a matter of time.

He manipulated the shadows to lure the girl and her friends into the woods where his Night Mares would kill them. Unfortunately one of the girl's friends had a secret weapon that could kill the beasts. His horses were wise enough to keep their distance. The children escaped.

The next year Pitch knew his time was running short. He decided to feed his horses with student fear. He kidnapped several children, transforming them into his Fearling servants. He caused panic within the school and almost managed to make the princess one of his victims. Once again, though, the ending was spoiled when the same four children called in Pitch's archenemy, the Sandman.

Pitch had to scatter his horses to prevent Sandman from dissolving them. Then the blasted Sandman wouldn't leave. He stuck around, preventing Pitch from sending any nightmares to the student body of Hogwarts. Instead, Pitch turned his attentions on the four children. He couldn't send Merida herself nightmares, so he focused on her mum. He sent her nightmare after nightmare showing how Merida would ruin the kingdom.

Evidently it worked as the queen sent out invitations to the other lords, proposing that their sons marry her daughter. Pitch was pleased. If the child accepted the arrangement she would be a married woman. Once married there would be no need to continue her education at Hogwarts. She would have to settle down with her husband and turn her attentions to raising children.

Of course, getting her to leave Hogwarts was less necessary since the blasted child had gotten him kicked out, but he wanted revenge. And taking Hogwarts away from her seemed like a good way to get it.

Now, Pitch watched from the shadows of Castle Dunbroch as Princess Merida came in from a long day of riding her horse. The girl took an apple and a plate of cakes as she joined her family at the table.

Her father was in the middle of telling his sons about how he lost his leg. The king had told the story so many times that it failed to generate even a spark of fear or worry from his audience. The girl even laughed. No one should be laughing at fear.

He didn't have to wait long before the servant brought a tray of letters. This was it. What he was waiting for. The queen opened the letters and read the responses.

"They've all accepted," the queen said. She broke out into a smile.

"Your father has something to discuss with you," the queen said to the girl. "Fergus?"

The king spit out his drink and tried to avoid speaking. Pitch smiled. Fergus's fear of speaking to his daughter wasn't quite the delicacy of a child lost in the woods, but it was a suitable appetizer.

The queen eventually gave up on her husband and took over explaining things to Merida.

"The Lords are presenting their sons as suitors for your betrothal."

"What? But...but what about Hogwarts?" the princess asked.

"Well, once you're betrothed, you really won't need any of that nonsense. The clans have accepted. They won't care if you've gone to Hogwarts," the queen retorted. Exactly what Pitch had expected. The girl pleadingly turned to her father.

"DAD?"

"What? I...you...she...Elinor?" Eloquent as ever, the king feared both his wife and daughter's wrath and refused to take a side.

"Honestly, Merida, I don't know why you're reacting this way. This year each clan will present a suitor to compete in the games for your hand."

"I suppose a princess just does what she's told!" Merida yelled. If only, thought Pitch. He wouldn't have had to get rid of her if she had just done what she was told.

"I won't go through with it! You can't make me!" The princess stormed off.

Pitch didn't need to stay. Since he wouldn't directly interfere, there really was no reason to. Of course the queen could make her. As he was leaving, he overheard the queen telling her daughter the story of an ancient kingdom.

Pitch knew all about the ancient kingdom. He had orchestrated that war, too. It was Pitch who had snuck into the eldest prince's dreams. Ever since the second brother was born, Pitch had constructed nightmares for the eldest. Nightmares where his father loved his younger sons more. Nightmares where the younger brothers tried to get rid of the eldest for the throne. Nightmares where their father bestowed the kingdom and all its riches on the younger brothers, leaving the eldest destitute.

All it took was one little nightmare to the king in which the kingdom fell to ruin by his eldest son's leadership for the king to choose to pass the kingdom down to all his children. The eldest son saw it as his fears coming true. After their father's passing, the eldest feared his brothers would try to take over without him. A fear Pitch only encouraged. The Eldest decided to strike first. War broke out.

Much fear was generated. But as the war continued, its fear waned. Too many had died, and those left were too tired to be frightened. The people needed something new to be scared of.

So Pitch summoned his Wisps to lead the eldest prince to a witch who lived in the woods. Pitch was quite familiar with this witch. She wasn't an ally by any means. The witch never knew that many of her customers had been brought to her by Pitch.

She gave the prince her signature spell without explaining how it worked, as Pitch knew she would. And sure enough, the prince turned into a bear. He used his new form to kill his brothers, then he turned upon his army. He killed many and scared the rest into leaving. The bear Mor'du was just as easy to manipulate as he had been when he was human. Though Pitch always remained in the shadows, the fear of the bear was another constant source of power for him. A fear nearly everyone in Scotland shared.

Pitch returned to his lair, now located under a ring of standing stones. He did not need to visit the Scottish princess again. Her fate was settled. The queen would make her choose a suitor, end of story. Pitch wondered whom he should target next. Maybe the Viking boy?

As he plotted out the next attack, he felt movement in the circle above. It was the Princess! She had fallen right into his stones. He didn't know why she was there, but he could tell from her current fears that the betrothal had not worked out as smoothly as he had planned.

"Angus!" she shouted through her tears. Pitch had only moments to decide what to do. He quickly cast the spell that made the wisps appear. Just as before, the princess followed them. Though Pitch had used them to lead her to danger twice before, the child still believed they were friendly beings. She followed them without question, right to the witch's cottage.

The princess entered the cottage without knocking. Pitch was slightly surprised that the girl didn't recognize the witch. After all, she was a Hogwarts Professor. He knew the girl hadn't taken Muggle Studies, but really, if she'd ever bothered to look up at the head table, she would have seen the witch.

"Your broom! It was sweeping. By itself," the girl noticed.

The witch tried to deny it, but when the girl heard the talking crow, she pressed on.

"You're a witch."

"Wood carver!"

"That's why the wisps led me here. I'm a witch, too."

"Wood carver!"

"You'll change my fate. You know more spells than I do! I couldn't make a bird talk, or move a broom with a snap of my fingers."

"Wood carver!"

The witch tried to refuse, but the princess didn't back down, not even when the witch magically manipulated all her sharp things to advance on the girl. The princess's persistence eventually won out when she unknowingly used her own magic to turn the witch's knives to her side. The witch finally agreed when the princess offered up her silver necklace.

"I want a spell to change my mum. That'll change my fate," the princess said. Pitch was rather surprised. He'd expected her to ask the witch to simply change her fate, as the prince did before her.

"Done!" the witch said accepting the payment.

The witch and the girl left the store, the witch snapped her fingers, changing the interior of the building.

The witch told the story of the prince, leaving out that he was now the demon bear Mor'du. Leaving out that he didn't get exactly what he asked for. Pitch loved this woman. She was just batty enough that she would never, ever fully explain things. She made the perfect pawn.

Merida watched as the woman brewed a potion. Of course, Pitch knew potions quite well, and he could have told the girl that the potion she was getting would turn her mother into a bear. In fact, he could have made the potion better. This one would only give the girl until the second sunrise. If the spell had been made properly, it would have given her three days. All good spells of this type last three days. But why ruin the tragedy the princess was about to bring upon her family?

The witch pulled a small cake from the cauldron.

Merida wrapped up the cake. As the princess was leaving, the witch started to remember the counter curse to the spell. Quickly Pitch shadow traveled Merida and her horse back to the ring of stones. No sense in letting her hear the antidote.

Pitch followed the princess back to her castle, eager to see how this played out. The queen had been terrified after the girl left, so when the girl returned, she was all too happy to make peace. The queen took a bit of the cake and immediately the change began. They had just enough time to reach the queen's room before she fully transformed.

Where the queen had been, a giant black bear now stood. Merida screamed. Finally, some real, pure fear from her. Despite giving her near constant nightmares while she was at Hogwarts, genuine fear from the princess was a rare delicacy. She usually jumped straight from reluctance to anger. He had managed to scare her a few times at school when her life was in danger, but the girl was remarkable at getting over it.

Still, the way she trembled beneath her mother's bear form was something to be proud of. But Merida's fear was nothing compared to the queen's. Of course, the queen had no clue she'd been cursed, so her first fear was that another bear was in the room with them. Pitch helped the queen's fear by making her shadow even bigger, even darker. The shadow trick couldn't work for long, though. Once the queen realized that Merida was staring at her, the queen's fear spiked.

Merida's fear slowly dissipated as the queen's panic took over. The girl didn't even tremble when her mother roared at her. This was no fun. Merida needed to be scared.

Pitch couldn't quite control the queen's actions, but in her fearful state she was easier to manipulate. Pitch directed her to leave the confines of her bedroom. The queen bear would be found, of course, and killed. Without the queen to broker peace, the task would fall to Merida and her father. Neither would be able to manage without the queen's help, and with her gone...even better, if it was discovered that the queen was the bear after she'd been killed, the princess could be charged with treason. Pitch changed his tactics. Being arrested for treason against the queen was a much more effective method of punishing the princess than marriage. It could cause a succession crisis, and if the father was the one who killed the queen...Pitch smiled as the king, having heard the queen's roar, led his men up to where the queen was fleeing.

Even Merida was fearful when she saw her father and his hunting party coming up the stairs, albeit she was more fearful that she would get into trouble than she was that her mother would be killed.

As Merida chased her mother through the castle, they ran smack dab into Maudie. The woman stared for a moment before taking off in a panic. Pitch could have danced. The woman was so flighty and frightened... if only the rest of the world was like her, Pitch would rule without question.

Merida enlisted her brothers to help sneak her mum out of the castle. The boys used Pitch's very own shadow trick to lure the men away. Pitch knew he should stop them, as they were not acting in his interest, but he was too impressed to interfere.

"Go on and help yourself to anything you want as a reward," Merida offered when the family reached the kitchen. Oh, this was too good to be true. The second the princess had closed the door, Pitch put a shadow on all the other food, save the enchanted cake her mother hadn't finished, ensuring the triplets saw only that.

The princess and bear returned to the ring of standing stones. Merida called for the wisps to come out. Clearly she didn't suspect that Pitch had conjured them. The princess was still convinced of their benevolent nature. He wouldn't summon the wisps now. Better to let the girl stew in her own foolishness. They did eventually find the path to the cottage without Pitch's help, but the cottage was now deserted.

"Oh wait." The Princess walked away and snapped her fingers - a feeble attempt to cast the same spell the witch had cast, but it didn't work for Merida. Pitch could have told her from the start that the girl's magic was a different brand than that of the witch. There was no way any ordinary witch would be able to cast the same spells. Merida opened the door several times, panic starting to overtake her. Excellent. She was starting to see that this spell could not be so easily undone as her normal Hogwarts mishaps. There was no professor to undo the enchantment this time. She would have to live with the consequences of her actions.

Pitch was about to turn and leave when the girl finally took a step past the threshold. Her foot tripped a wire and a potion fell into the cauldron.

The witch's head popped up from the cauldron. It wasn't like a floo powder connection when the head came through, as that was a live connection. No, the witch had enchanted this potion to play a previously recorded message. Just like her other spells, no regular Hogwarts witch would have been able to cast it.

Pitch debated whether or not to interrupt the message, as it directed the girl to pour a potion in it. In the end, he decided not to. She might suspect something if she noticed the shadows behaving oddly, not to mention there was possibility here. She would be much more terrified if she knew the full consequences of the spell.

"Fate be changed. Look inside, mend the bond, torn by pride." Sure enough, the instructions only served to confuse the girl. In her panic she thew all the potions into the cauldron, accidentally blowing up the witch's cottage. Well, she never was any good at potions.

Lightning flashed across the sky. In the old days that would have scared the girl, but the days of being frightened by nature were over. All she could do was wallow in her own misery.

They weren't going anywhere, so Pitch turned his attentions back to the lords. As they slept in the Great Hall, Pitch put fear into their heads. The fear that this whole thing was a trick, fear that the King intended to take over their lands, fear that the princess was planning to marry someone else, someone outside the clans, who would subject them to new rules, new customs and take their freedom. He didn't have to spend very long with them. All they needed was a small seed, then it would grow without his help.

Pitch briefly checked his other enemies. The sun princess was safely locked in her tower. No need to send her any nightmares, Gothel was keeping good charge of seeing to it that the girl was afraid of everything. The Viking boy was sleeping soundly. Pitch ignored him. The teenager was already frightened of his father, and of dragons. Besides, if getting the lords to war against themselves didn't work out, maybe he could set them against the Vikings. No need to get rid of the boy prematurely.

The Frost boy was also sleeping soundly. Pitch sent him a nightmare, but he did nothing more. There was no need. The last year Pitch had planted the seeds of fear all over his village. While the summer had put many of those fears to rest, Pitch knew it wouldn't take much to get them started again. Already Jack was trying to disguise his white hair with dirt, in an effort to look normal.

Pitch continued checking on all the people he'd been sending nightmares well into the next day. Through it all, he kept one ear tuned to the Scottish princess and queen, but there wasn't much fear there.

The only thing he'd felt from them at all was a brief, mild fear when the queen ate poisonous berries. Pitch didn't care about their lack of fear; so long as they didn't find the counter curse, he was good. Then, suddenly as noon approached, he felt a spike of fear from the princess. The queen had become a bear, a real bear. She came out of it shortly, but it was enough to terrify the princess.

Much as he enjoyed her fear, it would be useless if she actually figured out how to undo the spell. She had already heard the cure from the witch. No reason to let her sit and try to figure out what it meant. Time for some new interference. Pitch conjured the wisps again, the queen started chasing them, and Pitch made one appear right above Merida's head, scaring the teenager as her mother lunged.

Pitch made more wisps, this time leading the princess and the bear through the forest and across the land. Why wait for them to run down their time? And the king wasn't going to be looking for the bear in the forest anytime soon. Pitch needed to take matters into his own hands to ensure that the queen never came back. He led the princess and her mother to the ruins of an old castle.

Pitch used a spell to make the floor collapse, trapping the girl in the abandoned throne room. The girl correctly guessed that it was the throne room from the ancient kingdom. She started to panic as she realized the spell had happened before. Looking around, she spotted skeletons of fallen warriors, and slowly she put it together, just in time for Pitch's weapon to attack.

Mor'du leaped out of the shadows at the girl. She ran, shooting her arrows at him, though they bounced harmlessly off. The queen panicked from above, unable to help Merida, and Merida was terrified that her weapons weren't working. Their terror was so real, so panicked, so delicious. Though they both escaped unharmed, Pitch didn't see it as a loss. They each produced so much fear. Pitch thought for a moment. He could let them struggle to race against the clock, arriving back at the castle just as the sun was coming up...or he could help them get back, and try to maximize their fear. He knew the fear he planted in the lords had taken hold. He wanted one last taste of the queen's fear as she saw her kingdom falling into ruin before she became a mindless animal. He chose to shadow travel them back to the ring of stones.

"Mum, we need to get back to the castle. If we don't hurry, you'll become like Mor'du!" the princess said fearfully.

Finally, true panic from the princess. Pitch was thrilled to see the girl in a proper state of terror.

"'Mend the bond torn by pride.' The witch gave us the answer. The tapestry." In an instant, Pitch's power boost from their fear dissipated. He couldn't let the girl succeed in undoing the curse. He wasn't sure that fixing the tapestry was the right answer. Until the girl had said it, he didn't even know a tapestry was involved. Eve Hallows had a way of making spells needlessly complicated, he didn't know if she should ever be taken literally, but he didn't intend to let them try. Shadow traveling them again was out of the question. They were too familiar with their surroundings, so reluctantly he let them reach the castle, hoping that the king and Lords could stop the women.

Sure enough, the lords were about to kill each other. Pitch hoped they would. Let the princess and the queen see what their fight had wrought. He was content to sit and watch as they debated what to do. The queen couldn't stop the fight in bear mode, at least not without getting herself killed. Either way was a win for Pitch. He didn't think the princess could end it either, which is why he made no attempt to stop her as she marched into the throne room. The calmness of her demeanor affected the lords and the fighting paused.

She tried to calm the lords but they started to gang up on her. Any minute and the fighting would resume. Pitch just had to wait...

"SHUT IT!" Merida yelled, making the lords take a step back. She noticed her mother trying to sneak past. Merida quickly set out to distract everyone by reminding them of their friendship, apologizing to them and promising to do what's right. She even convinced them to postpone the betrothal.

This was going the wrong direction. Time to introduce new fear. Pitch mostly used his powers to make shadows longer or darker and bigger, but that wasn't all he could do. He pulled back the shadows on the queen, trying to make her more visible. If no one was going to marry the princess, the least he could do was ensure that the queen was killed.

Sure enough, with the shadows lightened, a clansmen noticed the strange bear.

Merida saw the man about to poke the bear. "Everyone to the cellar!" she shouted. "Let's crack open the king's private reserves to celebrate!"

The lords left to go to their drinking, the only fear left was that of the king, and it was the simple fear of running out of alcohol. The princess and queen left the throne room to get the tapestry. Pitch wasn't sure exactly what the counter curse was, but now that the marriage was off the table he had to figure out how to make the queen's transformation a permanent one.

"'Mend the bond.' Stitch it up," Merida theorized. Pitch wasn't sure if it would work. After all, the witch had given the same spell to Mor'du, and he had split a stone carving. How was he supposed to mend that? Still, why let them attempt it?

Before Pitch did anything, the queen became a real bear for the second time.

Pitch knew it wouldn't be long before the queen snapped out of it, so as quickly as he could, he went to the king and put a fear in his head that his wife was sick. Pitch didn't have so much power when the subject was awake, but it was enough to get the king to think of his wife. He left the cellar to check on his queen.

Merida started to fear as her father walked past her room, but the panic she felt was nothing compared to the anguish the king felt when he went into his wife's room and found her dress and bed torn to shreds.

"ELINOR!" he screamed. "It can't be true!"

He ran to every room in a full fledged panic. Pitch had no idea why this was the first time he'd noticed that his wife was missing. The queen had been a bear for over 24 hours. Didn't the king ever venture into her room in that time?

When the king checked on Merida's room the girl was attempting to pull down the tapestry, her mother still in full bear mode.

The king's fear for his wife transferred into fear for his daughter at the sight of the bear; Merida's fear for her mother was still very strong. This was what Pitch was looking for. The family fought. The king was knocked out and Merida was injured. The queen looked in horror at what she had done.

"It's alright, I'm alright, it's nothing. It's just a little scratch," Merida tried to say. But it was too late. Elinor was afraid, and Pitch was in control. He was able to make her see things she could have done, see that either she or her husband or daughter could have ended up dead. The queen fled, and Pitch guided her right into the arms of the clans.

Slowly the king came to, Merida turned to him, fearing for her mother's safety,

"Dad!" Merida tried to explain to her father that the bear was Elinor, not Mor'du, but he was too scared to listen to her.

"I'll not risk losing you, too." The king was so frightened for his daughter that it took almost no persuasion on Pitch's part to think of locking her in the room.

The king gave the key to Maudie with instructions not to let the princess out. Everyone was in a full on panic now. The clans were afraid of the bear, the bear was afraid of being killed and of hurting her family. The king was afraid for his daughter, and the Princess was afraid for her mother. And Maudie was scared of everything. If Pitch could have his way the entire world would feel like this. This was power.

The Princess attacked the door in every way possible, but to no avail. Her strength was nothing against the stone walls and the thick wooden door. After breaking the window she gave up and cried, or almost. Pitch wished he had darkened her room, but he was so enthralled by the fear levels of that family, he thought he had won. By neglecting to darken her room, the princess saw the object she and her mother had come up for in the first place.

The girl's panic calmed down. She was still scared, of course, but it wasn't a hopeless fear. More of the fear of not making it in time. She still had access to the tapestry.

She called to Maudie. The woman's fear skyrocketed. Fear of the bear, fear of disobeying the king and fear of Merida.

Then the triplets came in, now bears. The woman ran screaming, straight into the other two kitchen workers. Pitch made the baby bears' shadows darker, bigger and sure enough the women took off in a panic.

Maudie locked herself inside the kitchens, but with the triplet's knowledge of the castle's passageways, they quickly found her. When one jumped into her bosom, the poor women fainted from fright, and the children got the key.

They freed their older sister and the four children took off on Merida's horse, going as fast as possible while Merida stitched up the tapestry.

Pitch couldn't count on the princess to fail. He tried to make the bear cubs fall, to slow the princess down, but the children were surprisingly good at working together.

Meanwhile, Pitch had guided the queen to the ring of stones, where the men finally caught up to her. The mob surrounded her, tying her down.

Merida finished her tapestry. Pitch quickly intervened, making the wisps appear. Sure enough, the princess followed them. But they weren't for her this time. Pitch had shadow traveled Mor'du close by, he followed the wisps and the girl.

The King prepared to cut off Elinor's head, only for the princess to shoot his sword right out of his hand.

"I'll not let you kill my mother," Merida demanded. The triplets then raced in. The king seemed confused at the appearance of the bear cubs. (Again, Pitch was astounded the king hadn't noticed the triplet's absence in the last 24 hours). The king couldn't decide whether or not to believe Merida. Pitch knew he had to interrupt the fight. Her previous speech had convinced him that the girl was more persuasive than she let on. He wouldn't let her talk them into letting her mother live.

Pitch led Mor'du right to the ring of stones. The men charged, but were all knocked aside. Merida fired her arrows into the beast, but, as before, they did little damage. The bear knocked her down; Pitch encouraged his servant to eat her. As Merida screamed, a true shriek of terror, Elinor found strength. She cast off her attackers as she came to the defense of her daughter.

The bears fought, Merida scrambling to get out of the way. Mor'du made a bee line for the young girl, as Pitch directed. The queen pulled him away knocking him into one of the standing stones repeatedly before he cast her aside. As Mor'du made one final charge at the princess, the stone fell upon him.

His spirit, now freed from Pitch's grasp, nodded to the princess and became a real Will o' the Wisp. Pitch was sad to lose his servant, but as the sun came up over the trees, and the queen was still a bear, he figured he would soon have a new one. Until Merida noticed the sun too. The princess grabbed the tapestry and threw it over her mother. Then waited. The light touched the stones, and nothing happened except that Elinor turned into a real bear for the third and final time.

"No...I don't understand.." Merida started to cry. This was her first, deep fear, the first fear of the consequences. The first fear of being alone. The first fear of the future, "Oh mum, I'm sorry. This is all my fault. I did this to you... to us...you've always been there for me. You've never given up on me. I just want you back. I want you back, mummy. I love you,"

Pitch didn't know what truly did it, but the queen changed back, and like that, all the fear was gone.

The king was overcome with relief, and soon his only fear was that his clansmen would see his wife naked. Pitch could see there was nothing left for him here. He didn't bother checking up on them. There was nothing more he could do. The spells had been undone. There was no marriage to plan, no reason for the princess not to be in school next year. She and her family would most likely communicate better, and both she and her mother could stop the lords from fighting. If he wanted to make trouble, he could see that it wouldn't be between these lords, at least, not until they forgot what Merida told them.

Pitch returned to his lair, disappointed. None of his plans had worked out. The only consolation prize was the amount of fear he had managed to collect. That should keep his army fed until he could move onto his next plan. Maybe he should consider attacking the Barbaric Archipelago? Or get the Scots to attack it? This girl's little misadventure had, if nothing else, reminded Pitch what war felt like.

War had been on his agenda for a while now. Perhaps, if he got the tensions just right, he would be able to start a spark that grew into something even the princess couldn't control. Yes. For his next plan, he would need to start a war. The question was...who should the participants be? The Vikings vs the Scots? The muggles against wizards? Or was it time to take on the Guardians? He would experiment with them, test the waters, and make sure that whatever happened, no amount of diplomacy on Merida or her mother's part could dissuade the impending chaos.

A/N: See you all in Year 4: The Big Four and the Order of the Guardians: : / /ww w .fanfiction_n e t /s/11298411/1/The-Big-Four-and-the-Order-of-the-Guardians (replace the underscore with a dot)