AN: Hey, y'all! Kind of, sorta on time?... Anyways, good to see you all back, and I hope you enjoy the chapter! Warning!: I reserve the right to Creative Freedom with Humongous the Hotshot Hero. He's going to be OOC. Because reasons.

REVIEWERS!:

PeridotGreenHeart: I didn't go anywhere, I swear! I'm glad you're liking all of the characters, and I hope you have a good week, too! :)

ChaosDragonPrincess: Glad you liked it! It's more like the books than the TV show, but you're on the right track, so don't worry!

Raxacoricofallapatoreous: He's adorable! :3

BrawlerGamer: Well, Talia's a swordsmaster, so you can't get much better than that. Astrid, in my story at least, is actually two months older than Hiccup, making her a December baby! Haha, same!

Hope Quill: I make no promises that all of the characters will stick to their original characterization/roles. But I'm glad you like it! I spend a lot of time thinking and plotting, so it's nice when people take notice!

DHW: Thanks! I'm glad you like it! May I ask what Piche is?

Story Critic Kat: I know I technically don't have to worry, but I like keeping a regular schedule for my readers! I feel like it's the least I can do after receiving so many loving comments! Thanks for the feedback on chapter five; I was trying out a new technique, and it's nice to get some critiques on it! I'm glad you're enjoying all of my little nods to the books... Tip: the last full-length chapter of School of Bravery. I'm really happy about the positive feedback towards Talia's character in this, but don't worry, she and Hiccup are not romantically interested in each other. ;)


NOTES: It's hard knowing more than what you can say

Chapter 7: Nothing's Ever Simple

Outside the sky was grey with slithering, sliding clouds that hissed promises of rain and thunder. The green of the grassy fields and dense forest had darkened, and the lake water looked like liquid metal. The hard, stone walls of the castle looked menacing from the outside, but inside the halls, torches burned with light and warmth as students, teachers, and staff went about their morning routines.

Merida, having just finished breakfast, was on her way to Defense Against the Dark Arts when Jack and Rapunzel came up to her and told her that North wanted to see them before class. Unsure of whether or not being summoned by the Deputy Headmaster was a good or bad thing in this instant, Merida only nodded and the three set off for North's private office.

"What do you think he wants to talk to us about?" Merida asked as they climbed the large sets of stairs to get to the right floor.

"I don't know," Jack said, looking at Merida and Rapunzel as they walked. "The Guardians have barely said a word to me since we arrived, let alone included me in any of their meetings..."

"I just hope it isn't bad news." Rapunzel admitted with a small, shaky sigh. Merida didn't say anything, but shared grim expressions with Jack.

They walked in silence after that, keeping up a brisk pace until they reached North's office. They spoke the password and walked through the sitting room to the main office beyond, not bothering to wait for the invitation. Once they arrived, they found the four main Guardians waiting for them; North, Bunnymund, Toothiana, and Sandman. They were all bent over North's desk, but straightened as soon as they pushed the door open.

"Children, I'm glad you could make it!" North smiled as he rolled up the parchment they'd been looking at, but Merida couldn't help notice that it didn't quite reach up to his eyes as it usually did.

"You wanted to speak with us, Professor?" Rapunzel reminded him politely.

"Yes! Yes, of course." North said, rounding his desk so he could stand in front of them. Closer; more personal. "We wanted to ask a favor of you three."

"What kind of favor?" Merida wanted to know, looking at each of the Guardians as they fell in to complete the small circle.

"There have been some troubling developments in our investigations against Pitch. He's getting more and more active. And, in light of... recent events, the Ministry has started questioning our abilities to run the school and carry our responsibilities as Guardians." Bunnymund told them, his eyes shifting from each of them, to North, and back again.

"What developments are you talking about? And is that why Lady Tremaine is here?" Jack inquired, and Bunnymund looked like he wanted to say a few things, but North quickly jumped in.

"Lady Tremaine has come from the Ministry to pick up some of the slack at the school, yes, but it is still under our control." North said reassuringly. "We have come to some agreeable terms with the Prime Minister, and as for our investigations," North cut a warning glare at Bunnymund. "None of you should be worrying about such things. It is too dangerous for you three to be involved right now."

"What? But what about all that talk about training? What about us helping you fight Pitch?" Jack demanded, his fist clenching around his staff.

"That's why we're asking you to do this for us." Toothiana told him, looking at each of them in turn. "We have reason to believe that Pitch has reconnected with many of his old followers and is currently trying to raise his army once again. We're asking you three to not get involved. It's too dangerous for you to be off on your own, and we can't always be there to protect you. We need to find Pitch and put an end to his army before they can grow any stronger."

"We're trying to do it as fast as possible so we can get the Ministry off all our backs." Bunnymund confided to them, and Merida wondered just how much they weren't telling them and why Bunny seemed to be the only one against it.

"Until we can ensure the safety of the school, we must ask each of you to not stray from the path. Don't go looking for trouble." North said, fixing a firm gaze on them as he waited patiently for them to give their word. Merida looked over at Jack and Rapunzel, who returned her reluctant expression in full, and then they all faced the Guardians once again.

"We stay out of the way." Jack promised, and Merida nodded in agreement along with Rapunzel.

If the Guardians were focused on Pitch and the Ministry all year, then maybe they wouldn't notice Merida, Rapunzel, and Jack doing a little investigation of their own.


Not an hour later, Merida was seated in the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom with all the other fifth year Gryffindors and Slytherins. Jack sat with Mavis at the desk one forward and in the aisle next to Merida's, while Merida sat at a desk with Penny. They were towards the center of the classroom, the loud excitement of their peers all around them.

Tuffnut folded and enchanted a piece of parchment to fly around the room like a bird, and Gryffindors and Slytherins alike took turns at trying to knock it out of the air. The paper bird flew about the room in a large circle, swooping and ducking with each shift in the air, and then, with a hiss, it suddenly turned black and charred, the edges glowing with red embers. It floated down, falling on Ruff and Tuff's desk, right in front of Ruffnut. Both of them looked a little sad at the ruined paper bird.

"Good morning, Children."

Everyone turned towards the door, the source of the smooth and polished voice, and found Lady Tremaine standing there with perfect posture, her wand held elegantly in one hand. She started down one of the aisles between the seats, flicking her wand at the chalk board.

"Ordinary Wizarding Level Examinations." She said slowly, her voice sickly sweet as each word was written out by the floating chalk. "O-W-L's, more commonly known as OWLs." She further explained, turning to face them at the head of the classroom with her hands folded neatly in front of her. "Study hard and you will be rewarded. Fail to do so, and the consequences may be -severe." She finished with a slight shrug, and then gave a clipped flick of her wand.

Four stacks of books that had been set on the teachers desk began to float forward, along each row of seats. At each desk, a book from the top of the desk would fly out and plant itself in front of a student with a strict thump.

"Your previous instruction in this subject has been disturbingly uneven," Lady Tremaine informed them, and a book thumped down in front of Merida. "But you will be pleased to know, from now on, you will be following a carefully structured, Ministry approved course of Defensive Magic, -Yes?"

"There's nothing in here about using defensive spells..." Jack pointed out in confusion after lowering his raised hand.

"Using spells?" Lady Tremaine gave a peep of laughter. "I can't imagine why you would need to use spells in my classroom." She said, stepping over closer to Jack. Several of the other students paused at that, confusion written on their expressions.

"We're not gonna use magic?" Jack asked, his furrowed brow portraying his dislike of this idea.

"You'll be learning about Defensive Spells in a secure, risk-free way." Lady Tremaine tried to assure them, but the more Merida looked at the stupid book and listened to Lady Tremaine, the more she hated it all.

"What use is that? If we're going to be attacked it won't be 'risk-free'." Merida argued, letting her book fall closed and resting her arms on top of it.

"Students will raise their hands when they speak in my class." Lady Tremaine ordered, her back to them as she returned to her place of dominance at the front of the classroom. She turned back to them again, her paper-like smile set firmly in place. "It is the view of the Ministry that a theoretical knowledge will be sufficient to get you through your examinations, which after all is what school is all about."

"And how is 'theory' supposed to prepare us for what's out there?" Merida demanded.

"There is nothing out there, dear." Lady Tremaine assured her gently, as if trying to comfort a troublesome child. "Who do you imagine would want to attack children, like yourself?"

"Oh! I don't know, maybe dragons? Or Nightmares? Or Pitch Black?" Merida retorted just as obviously, refusing to back down, and the classroom fell deathly silent. Everyone knew exactly what Merida was talking about, and no one was going to argue with her.

Lady Tremaine frowned, completely distraught by Merida's defiance, and Merida couldn't find it in herself to not enjoy the sight of it. The pristine Lady of the Ministry took a shaky breath, and then started walking forward, addressing the class.

"Now let me make this quite plain." She began. "You have been told that a certain Dark Sorcerer has regained his full power in this realm once again. This. Is. A. Lie."

"It's not a lie! He attacked Mr. Crood's hut just last year! He's growing stronger!" Merida fought back immediately, wondering how on earth the Ministry had fooled themselves into believing that Pitch hadn't regained his powers. What exactly were the Guardians not telling them earlier that morning?

"Detention, Ms. DunBroch!" Lady Tremaine interrupted before Merida could speak out much more, retreating back to the front of the classroom again, but the fire-haired princess pushed on anyways.

"So according to you Hiccup Haddock dropped dead over a cliff of his own accord?" Merida shouted, slamming her palms on her desk and standing up.

"Hiccup Haddock's death was a tragic accident." Lady Tremaine told her, and Merida's hands balled into tight fists.

"It was murder! Someone had to let the dragon into the school! Who else could do that but Pitch Black?! You must know that!" Merida yelled back.

"ENOUGH!" Lady Tremaine shrieked, making everyone jump in their seats. "Enough," She repeated quietly. "See me later, Ms. DunBroch. My office."


Merida climbed up the steps to Lady Tremaine's office, her hands clenching and flexing at her sides in her frustration. She simply couldn't understand the woman's frame of mind. No one ever said it out loud because they were too afraid, but everyone could at least admit to the obvious possibility, and likelihood, that Pitch Black had been involved in Hiccup's suspected death, just like everyone had to admit that a dragon could not get into the school without being seen all on it's own.

So why was Lady Tremaine so hell-bent on trying to cover it up? What were the Guardians not telling them about the Ministry? Did the Ministry truly believe that Pitch Black hadn't fully returned? That he wasn't out there, building his army with each passing day?

Unable to figure it out, Merida decided to get the detention over with. Lady Tremaine would probably just make her do some reading or something, and maybe Merida could get some useful information to bring back to Jack and Rapunzel. With that in mind, she stepped forward and softly knocked on the wooden door.

"Come in." Was the dainty reply she got, and she pushed the door open. As soon as she stepped into the room she was blinded by all of the pink, and slowly began to register at least a hundred moving cat pictures enchanted on porcelain tea plates hanging on the walls. "Good evening, Ms. DunBroch."

Merida looked up at Lady Tremaine sitting in her pink chair at her pink desk in her pink clothes. The Lady was smiling her usual sickly sweet smile, and Merida struggled not to grimace.

"Sit." Lady Tremaine told her with a small nod to the extra chair and small desk set up to the side and in front of hers. Merida took her seat, and Lady Tremaine continued. "You're going to be doing some lines for me today, Ms. DunBroch." Merida said nothing and moved to open her bag so she could get her quill and ink. "No. Not with your quill. You're going to be using a rather special one of mine."

Lady Tremaine stood from her seat, picking up a quill from her desk, and then moved over to Merida, setting the quill in front of her. The quill had a long, curving feather with a black grip and a clean, silver point. Merida picked it up obediently, and listened as Lady Tremaine started speaking once again.

"I want you to write; I must not tell lies." She said, and Merida's hands tensed again, her knuckles turning white.

"How many times?" Merida finally bit out, angry that she had to do this at all.

"Let's say... For as long as it takes for the message to sink in." Lady Tremaine answered simply, pulling at another string of Merida's temper. The Lady turned away, but Merida turned and called her back.

"You haven't given me any ink." Merida said, annoyance dripping from every syllable.

"Oh, you won't need any ink." Lady Tremaine assured her, and Merida looked back at the quill suspiciously, unsure of what that meant.

Settling into her work, Merida leaned forward and started writing. As Lady Tremaine said, the quill wrote just fine without ink, leaving behind a bright red ink that gathered into dark red pools at the end of each line. Merida finished her first foul line with only a slightly uncomfortable itch on the back of her non-writing hand, but as she began her second the itch increased to a burning pain like a tip of a dagger was digging into her skin.

Merida flexed and wriggled her hand as she gasped at the pain, she looked closely at her hand, wondering what was causing it, and noticed the bright red lines slowly etching themselves into her skin on the back of her hand. In a matter of seconds, 'I must not tell lies' was carved in tiny letters on the back of her hand, and all Merida could do was stare in awe-struck horror at the quill and the angry, irritated marks on her hand.

Lady Tremaine decided to notice she'd stopped working at that moment and came over, tilting her head in curious, innocent confusion. "Yes?"

Hatred and fury burned inside Merida's stomach as she looked up at the woman before her, but she forced the emotions down and carefully kept her face completely blank. "Nothing."

"That's right." Lady Tremaine smiled gently, and then she leaned down towards Merida. "Because you know, deep down, you deserve to be punished. Don't you, Ms. DunBroch?"

For a long, silent moment, they stared at each other. Lady Tremaine smiling her ugly smile that Merida wasn't quite sure was entirely sane anymore, and Merida keeping her emotions and thoughts completely guarded, refusing to give the wicked woman in front of her the satisfaction of further detention.

"Go on." Lady Tremaine finally said, turning and walking back to her desk.

Merida wasn't sure if she meant for her to keep writing, or that she was dismissed for now. Merida decided it was the latter, and quickly made her way out of the office before Lady Tremaine could stop her.


The smallest study hall was ironically loud with music as the older students of all the Houses lounged about together, commandeering the room for themselves. With it only being the first few weeks of school, homework was light and free-time was in surplus. Tadashi, Eep, and the other Quidditch Captains were discussing tryout schedules at one of the larger tables, Ruffnut and Tuffnut were selling trick candies of their own inventions, Mavis and Johnny were standing by the music box talking, and many others milled about as well.

Merida met Jack and Rapunzel in the back corner, the quietest place in the room, and sat on the couch with Rapunzel while Jack sat on the coffee table across from them. All three leaned in so they could talk quietly.

"Do you really think the Ministry could be that dense? The Guardians have been looking for Pitch since he attacked the school during First Year." Jack muttered after Merida told them about her detention with Lady Tremaine. Of course, she left out certain bits that weren't quite important at the moment.

"But did the Guardians ever report the attack?" Rapunzel whispered back. "That sort of announcement could cause a panic, and maybe the Guardians thought they could defeat Pitch before he regained his full strength."

"But that doesn't explain why they wouldn't tell the Ministry now. If the Guardians and the Ministry worked together, they could easily find Pitch and get rid of him. There are plenty of well-trained Aurors who could help with this sort of thing." Merida pointed out.

"Unless the Ministry is in a panic themselves. What if the Ministry wants to cover up Pitch, just like they're trying to cover up Hiccup's disappearance? There's a good chance the two are connected, so it's not that big of a stretch. Maybe the Ministry is so scared they're trying to pretend like there's nothing wrong." Jack suggested.

"I'd agree with that, but if there's one thing I've figured out today it's that we're going to need proof before we go around shouting out conspiracies, even if they are true." Merida told them, careful to keep her hands folded around the edges of the book she had open in her lap.

"And that brings us to this." Jack said, holding up a small, folded piece of paper. "Nix came back just after lunch, and she brought back a letter from Mr. Arrow." Both Merida and Rapunzel perked up at this, wanting to hear what the Auror had to say about their concerns and inquires. "He said he can't send us his copy of the case file because it's locked away in the 'Closed Cases' vault, and he'd have to get permission from his superiors to get it back. But he told me that North should have a copy of the file somewhere in his office since Hogwarts was directly involved with the investigation."

"Well, that's a start, but the file could be anywhere in North's office, and there's no way we'll convince him to give it to us. Not after this morning." Merida grimace slightly.

"I know, but at least we still have a shot at getting it. All we have to do is find it." Jack replied hopefully. "And Mr. Arrow is on our side. He's still looking for new leads on the case, despite the Ministry closing it. He thinks there's a lot missing, too, and he says he'll help us in whatever way he can."

"Has he found anything besides the original evidence that was collected?" Rapunzel asked.

"Well, he's not sure if it's connected, but..." Jack glanced around to make sure no one was near by and then leaned closer. "There was an attack on a small village in Gabylonia a couple days ago. A dragon burned down an Inn and the neighboring barn. No one got hurt because something scared the dragon off, but just yesterday they found the dragon's body in the forest not far from the village."

Rapunzel gasped, and Merida felt her eyes go wide at the information. What was a dragon doing out by Gabylonia? The Knight's forced the dragons out of the kingdom decades ago, and now the dragons stayed in the far north.

"Mr. Arrow isn't sure how to describe what they found, and their examiners have never seen anything like it, but a lot of people are convinced it's Dark Magic. Some have even mentioned that it looks kinda like black sand." Jack continued, his eyes steady and his mouth a grim line. "It's not a definite connection, but if we could prove it somehow..."

"We could link Pitch Black to Hiccup's disappearance." Rapunzel finished after Jack trailed off. Jack nodded, and they all fell into a tense silence, each of them lost in their own thoughts.

Merida wasn't sure what to think. There were just so many piece to this puzzle, and they still had no idea how to fit them together. Not to mention her dreams. Merida wasn't sure if it was an effect of grief, or if she really was having visions of Hiccup's disappearance, or something else entirely.

"What's wrong with your hand?" Rapunzel's voice yanked Merida out of her thoughts, and the red-head looked up at the sun princess, forcing her expression to stay blank.

"Nothing." Merida replied, putting her right hand on top of her book so they could both see it.

"The other hand." Rapunzel said, not buying the distraction for a moment and grabbing hold of Merida's left wrist. Rapunzel pulled back Merida's sleeve, revealing the smalls scabs and scars that were still healing from her detention period. The words were still clearly visible, despite the impressive amount of healing her hand had managed in just a few hours. "You've got to tell Professor North." Rapunzel told her after a moment.

"No." Merida took her hand away, looking back down at her book. "The Guardians have got enough on their minds and we don't need the attention if we're going to keep up looking for the truth about Hiccup. And anyways, I don't want to give Lady Tremaine the satisfaction."

"Bloody Hell, Merida!" Jack murmured, his eyes flashing with icy anger. "The woman's torturing you! If the parents knew about this -"

"Well, our parents aren't here, Jack." Merida retorted, and for a moment her friends were silent, and then Rapunzel took a breath.

"Merida, you have to report this." Rapunzel said, keeping her voice as firm as possible, but Rapunzel was never very good at giving orders. She hated ordering people around. "It's perfectly simple, -"

"No, it's not!" Merida interrupted her, unable to stop herself. "Rapunzel, whatever this is, it's not simple. None of this is... You don't understand." Merida sighed, tucking her book back into her bag so she could leave. She couldn't bring herself to tell them about her dreams.

"Then help us to." Rapunzel pleaded, but Merida didn't respond. She glanced at Rapunzel and Jack one last time, gathered her things, and left.

She didn't miss the concerned expressions on their faces as she walked away.