(Hi, everyone, Palleas here. I'd like to apologize for the typos in the last chapter, I forgot to review it before uploading, I won't be correcting it, though, since I ahve the tendency to change a few things here and there and I would end up with in a different direction. Anyway. finally finished this one. It's one of the last weeks of my school term and it's pretty busy, and I apologize if the story is getting crappy…

I'd like to thank the readers who keep up with whatever flow this story's going, your reviews lift up my spirits, and believe me, it's not doing very good these days. To a certain girl called oNarissa, thank you for that review, I was having a bad day and that instantly lifted me up. And to mic mic who solved my fence dilemma.)

The entrance doors opened as Merida and Jack came barging in, following the teachers, the storm raging behind them, Merida's hair was soaked, even with the cloak she had thrown over herself before they went rushing back to Hogwarts. Jack hurriedly pulled down his hood as they came in, the rain splattering on the floor as the winds blew in.

The Entrance hall was bright and warm, packed with students filling the air with endless chatter. The weather outside the castle had worsened since the rain began and the skies were as dark as night, the grounds lit by sudden flashes of lightning, thunder roaring through the corridors.

Jack's face fell as he saw the ruins of one of the main staircases trailing from the top of the marble stairs, almost blocking the path. The debris scattered down to the Entrance Hall where students gathered, shocked at the accident.

"Rapunzel was under there...?" Merida squeaked, clapping her hands to her mouth, her aquamarine eyes beginning to water.

The headmaster stepped forward, shaking away the shock that beheld them all, his brows knitted together, "STUDENTS! INTO ZHE GREAT HALL! ALL OF YOU!" he bellowed.

The students that were gathered in the entrance hall followed the headmaster's orders hesitantly, glancing back at the wreck.

Jack stepped closer to the wreckage, climbing up the marble staircase carefully, barely noticing the sharp fragments of rubble digging into the soles of his feet as he climbed up the steps, looking up. A quarter of the fallen staircase still hung up there, attached to the second floor, immobile.

"...how are we going to get from class to class now...?" a student whispered as they disappeared into the Great Hall.

But Merida and Jack had much more to worry about than

The wreckage were of fragments big as boulders.

It was a surprise Rapunzel lived.

He turned around, his lips a tight line on his face, frustration clear.

"She's must already be in the hospital wing, dear," Professor Tooth told Merida gently, laying a soft hand on the girl's wet shoulder.

"We have to go there!" Merida turned to her, yanking off her wet scarf, her hair still dripping, its bushiness gone and fell in long dark red locks over her soaked shoulders and back.

"Yes you will, but not now," she replied, ushering Merida towards the Great Hall, guiding her with a hand on the small of Merida's back, flitting in midair alongside her.

"But Professor-"

"The nurses will take care of her, she'll have to be left alone to recover for a bit," Toothiana smiled, her lavender eyes twinkling in the firelight with sincerety. The animagus professor flicked her wand in the air to conjure a towel and draped it over Merida's shoulders.

It was only then that Merida noticed herself shivering.

Merida bit her lip and followed Professor Tooth into the hall, the door closing behind them.

"Thank you for calling us, Bunny," North said as they were left alone in the Entrance Hall, glancing up at the broken stairs blocking the path to the upper floors.

"This is a disaster, mate..." Bunny replied, shaking the rain out of his fur.

"Sandy," Professor North turned to the Charms teacher, "Will you be able to fix this?"

Professor ManSnoozie looked up at him and nodded with a determined face a took out his wand and headed for the blocked marble staircase. Jack walked over to them, his staff by his side. Lightning flashed in the high windows, followed by a deafening thunder.

"How did this happen?" he asked, facing Headmaster North, "You said Hogwarts was one of the safest places in the world!"

"But not perfect, mate," Bunnymund interjected.

"How do you expect to protect whatever it is hiding in this school if you can't even protect the school?" Jack demanded, his voice sharp, "When you can't even protect your students!?"

"You talk like we intended for this to happen!" Bunnymund yelled at him, taking a step forward, but North held up his hand up, stopping him. Professor ManSnoozie was glancing back at them from the foot of the stairs and just let out a huff at the tension brewing.

"Bunnymund, was there anything strange when zhis happened?" North asked calmly, though his voice was gruffer and his accent thick.

"I came 'ere as quick as I could when I heard the crash," Bunnymund explained, crossing his arms, thinking deeply, "I didn't see anything with all the students running and screamin'. That Rapunzel girl had pushed a couple o' kids outta the way."

Jack was stunned at Bunnymund's explanation of the incident. Rapunzel just saved those students' lives...

Bunnymund let out a breath, not wanting to recall too much detail and just skipped ahead on his report.

"A prefect cleared out the rubble and got her out, rushing 'er off to the hospital wing."

"Then some of the students must have seen something," North said, stroking his snow-white beard in thought, "...the staircases of Hogwarts are much too sturdy to have fallen by accident."

"Lucky no one was on the staircase." Jack muttered, watching Sandy raise his wand, the broken fragments of the stone stairs rising up in the air, down to the specks of dust, "I'll check out part where the stairs broke off." he told them curtly and ducked under the floating debris and ran up the marble steps.

"Jack!" the headmaster called him back, but he didn't listen and kept going.

North let out a frustrated breath and turned to Bunny.

"I would like to talk to this prefect you mentioned, as well as every student who had a hand in the matter after this," he gestured to the floating masses of stone bringing themselves together at Sanderson ManSnoozie's charms.

The portraits were still taken aback from the scened they had witnessed, ladies in their puffy gowns fanned themselves furiously, the rest were gossiping, going from one frame to another.

"...oh, that unfortunate girl! she should have run away while she had the chance...!" a lady exclaimed.

Jack dashed up one staircase after another quickly. A few students who had been upstairs were coming down at the sight of the wreck being lifted to clear the way to the Entrance hall to join their housemates for the headmaster's announcement.

Then he reached the small balcony on the second floor where the moving staircase had broken off. One fourths of it still remained, unmoving. The ragged edges of the stone looked like a great weight had fallen on it, breaking it off. He climbed up its steps carefully, kneeling down to touch the edge. There were specks of black...

"Oi, Frost! You shouldn't be up there!"

Jack stood up straight, turning to see a freckly redheaded sixth-year appear in the open door behind him, his hair in disarray as if he'd been running around the whole day. Tall and lanky, he immediately recognized it as the Quidditch player who told Merida to try out for the Gryffindor team that morning.

"Hugo Weasley?" he said as he made his way back down to the second floor balcony.

"Ah, you remembered? Good," Hugo replied, joining Jack at the foot of the broken stairs, "Some afternoon this is..." he let out a breath.

"You were here?" Jack asked, holding his staff upright beside him, his other hand pocketed.

"I was heading off to Hogsmeade when it happened. That friend of Merida's got injured." he stated with a shake of his head, "Poor girl, she was bleeding everywhere."

All the air in Jack's lungs seemed to have disappeared. He turned to Hugo, alarmed.

"How is she?" he breathed.

"Better than anyone expected-the school healers patched her up quite well." Hugo reassured, though Jack could see doubt on his freckled face, then covering up for it with a sudden beam, patting the younger boy in the back, "Don't worry, mate! They can mend bones in a heartbeat! I've almost lost my legs once in a match-I was fine after they were done with me!"

But still...Jack felt like he should have been there and done something.

He was part of the Order, after all...

Rapunzel did what someone his place was supposed to do, in her expense.

"Now come on, they're gathering in the Great Hall, didn't you hear the headmaster's bellow?" Hugo grinned and made his way down.

"I'll be there..." Jack said silently, glancing back at the ruined stone stairs, then disappeared into the corridor behind him.


Merida sat in the Gryffindor table, apart from her housemates, clutching her head, her face hidden by a curtain of damp red hair, regaining their puffy frizz as the warmth of the hall dried her up. She pulled Professor Tooth's towel tighter about her, closing her eyes wearily.

The Great Hall looked like it did during their dinners, the windows dark and all the candles and fires lit, muffled thunder seeping through the stone walls, the sky on the ceiling as bad-tempered as the one outside.

"Oh, Rapunzel..." she heaved, barely listening to the talks of the other students.

Every house table rang with hubbubs, Professor Toothiana doing her best to settle everyone down, flitting to and fro, her turquoise robes iridescent in the light of the floating candles up above, the Head Boys and Girls, and the prefects trying to sort their housemates.

"...calm down everyone, we are still sorting this out...prefects, please handle your houses...!" she said in the calmest firm voice she could muster.

"...Merida?"

She looked up, her blue eyes clearly watery. Prefect Rose stood there, wearing her casual uniform. Her white sleeves rolled up and her Gryffindor tie jumbled, and her usually neat red hair a mess.

Merida's eyes widened at the bloodstains on her shirt.

"Rose-what happend ter you?" Merida gasped, sitting up.

"Oh? This isn't mine..." Rose replied, pursing her lips.

Merida turned away, knowing exactly whose blood it was.

"You helped?" she asked timidly, staring blankly in the air in front of her.

Rose sighed, settling herself beside Merida in the Gryffindor table.

"Helped carry her, that's all I did," she said, "I know she's your bestfriend that's why I came here to tell you that she'll be fine." Rose tried to smile, stroking Merida's back with a gentle hand.

"I should 'ave been here..." Merida muttered.

"Enough of that talk, there's nothing you could have done," Rose told her firmly.

"But-I saw the broken stairs, there's no way she'll be fine after tha'..."

Rose pulled out her wand and pointed it at the bloodstains on her shirt, the blots disappearing as she did.

"Lucky Scorpius was there," Rose said with a unbelieving chuckle as she cleaned her uniform back to its spotless form.

"Malfoy?" Merida turned to her. She remembered the seventh year. She suspected him of following them in corridors, but he ended up being the one leading them to the proper hallway to get to their first DA meeting. That had been one of her worst judgments of character, especially towards a Slytherin.

"Yeah..." Rose nodded, finishing off her uniform clean up by retying her scarlet and gold tie, "He conjured up a pretty decent Immobulus Charm, though of course the staircase was much too heavy and infused with its own magic than it came crashing down anyway. Still, it saved Rapunzel's life..."

Merida listened to the prefect intently. The first trails of relief seeping in, though she still wondered about her friend's state. She certainly would be better now, the hospital wing managed all sorts of injuries and maladies of the normal kind and the magical sort-but, no doubt, Rapunzel would have gone through great pain.

"Well, I better go, Al would want to know what happened, as well," Rose said, slipping out of the chair, "You can visit Rapunzel tomorrow, for now, I think the teachers would want everyone gathered and accounted for."

"Thank you fer helping her," Merida smiled up with reddish cheeks.

"See you later," Rose replied and went off towards the other prefects.

It was only then when Rose Weasley had left and the warmth seeping into her skin that Merida noticed she was all too alone at the Gryffindor table.

"Where's Jack an' Hiccup?" she wondered, looking about.

Neither were present in the hall. That feeling settled at the bottom of her stomach, the feeling that had been creeping up in the last few days. That feeling of loneliness she had somehow overgrown and yet returned with all her friends...slipping away somehow.

Everyone else seemed to have businesses of their own.

Especially Hiccup.

She had missed him, even if he was always about. Hiccup had grown different. Silent, kept to himself, like he had a secret he wanted no one to know.

And Rapunzel and Jack enjoyed eachother's company more and more everyday, she could see it everytime they talked, though the golden-haired girl always made time for Merida. Still, she couldn't help feeling left out. And with Rapunzel in the hospital wing...

"This weather better improve or I'll be in the hospital wing, meself..." she grumbled, staring up at the ceiling's sky, flashing with lightning within the dark gray clouds glowering sourly back at he.


Jack ran up the winding stairs soundlessly, hidden in the half-dark. He held his staff at his side, reaching the top, peeking to make sure no one was in the brightly-lit hallway. The corridor had no windows, though the rumbling thunder seeped through the gray walls.

Jack had his eyes on the prominent arched door. The Hospital Wing.

He somehow had to make sure Rapunzel was alright. That stair didn't look so light.

Besides...from what he saw, it didn't look like it fell by accident.

Someone or something intended for this to happen. Or at least it felt like it. But why?

Was it because of the one the order was after...? Or was it the cursed person himself causing all this?

"Overthinking," he muttered to himself as he crept up towards the door, opening it a crack.

The lights in the hospital wing were dimmed, pale spidery shadows danced on the walls and floor as the flames in their containers flickered. Gray clouds were visible through the tall arched windows, lighting filling the room with light every now and then, whatever sunlight than had been behind the storm was fading as the dark day faded into an even darker night. The nurses were gone, or so it seemed.

Jack slipped in, closing the door behind him cautiously, squinting his eyes for any sign of Rapunzel.

Sure enough, on one of the beds in the middle of the room, a form lay sleeping, golden hair glinting in the pale light.

Jack drew near, relief settling in. She didn't seem that hurt, at all. Or at least quite well for someone who had been collapsed on by a staircase.

The school nurses had undone her braid, her hair falling down the side of her bed, pooling on the floor like flowing gold. Her face was blank, deep in dreamless sleep, pale as death, a small patch of bandages set on her cheek. More bandages were on her left arm, and though her right arm was in a cast, Rapunzel looked like she was only having a cold.

A chirp broke into the air. Jack turned to the nightstand beside Rapunzel's hospital bed. A patch of the brown wooden surface turned a bright live green. Pascal stared up at him, squeaking.

"Hey there, little guy..." Jack greeted quietly, picking up the chameleon.

Pascal chirped hysterically waving his little front legs almost exactly like Hiccup does when he talks quickly.

"Hey, hey, calm down, she's gonna be alright," Jack told him with a grin, though he wasn't sure of it, himself, "You were there when it happened, right?"

Pascal nodded determinedly with a squeak.

"Good," Jack smiled, glancing down at Rapunzel, "Now if only we could understand what you're talking about like she does..."

He stood there for a moment, thinking, his snow-white hair almost glowing as lightning flashed, then set Pascal over his shoulder with a sigh.

"Come on, let's get to the Great Hall," he said, swinging his staff at his side as he turned to leave, then changed his mind halfway and turned back.

Jack bent low over Rapunzel and kissed the tip of her nose lightly. She stirred a bit, like a dream had begun in her head.

"Get well soon, kid," he smiled and pulled away.

Pascal glared up at him, grumbling menacingly with his little green arms crossed as they left the hospital wing. Jack just smirked.

"What? It's a nip on the nose..."


"...Professor ManSnoozie has now successfully repaired 'ze staircase on the second floor, but students are advised to be watchful and careful around the said staircase..." Professor North said as he stood at the bronze owl podium on the raised tier at the head of the Great Hall. Students were attentive, most huddled together with friends, looking all mixed up out of their black uniforms.

"We still do not know how this happened, but if it be the doing of certain mischief-makers, know full well that this is not joking matter and persons responsible will be punished accordingly," the headmaster continued, his tone dark, which made everyone's heads turn.

If it had been a prank...it certainly went too far.

"But fear not! The teachers and prefects will be watching out in case anything else happens!" he said in a brighter note.

Merida rubbed her nose, her cheeks flushed, still covered up in the towel.

"Hey," came a hurried whisper.

She turned to see Jack slip into the seat beside her, Pascal leaping off his arm and on to the table, squeaking a hello at Merida.

"Where did you get 'im?" she asked in a hush as everyone craned their necks in order to see the headmaster better as he continued his speech.

"He was with Rapunzel,"

"You...you snuck into the hospital wing?"

Jack blinked, and turned his eyes to the podium, "Yeah, I did. Why?"

"N-nothing," she stammered, looking to the teacher's table.

A dark form passed behind the headmaster, catching her eye. Professor Black had slipped along the side of the Hall, unnoticed in the shadows and behind the teachers, hands folded behind his back casually and took his usual seat at the high table, eyes seemingly scanning the room as he did.

"...where had he been?" Jack said in a low voice, pondering.

Merida turned to him, "What der ye mean?"

"Nothing," Jack said and rested on his elbows on the table, his staff leaning on his shoulder.

All of the students, without exception, were sent back to their dormitories immediately after dinner, all curfews set earlier than they usually are. the weather didn't improve anyone's mood.

The students were anxious even after dinner, the nightly sumptuous feast didn't take their minds off the accident. Things like that don't simply happen at Hogwarts. The castle itself is magic, bound by leligimency, it can think for itself like the sorting hat, though it was not as human-like, and it certainly did not fall apart by chance.

The Slytherins were not as worried, with their common room in the dungeons, as well as the Hufflepuffs whose residence are in the basement floors near the unseen kitchens. But as for Gryffindor and Ravenclaw with their residences perched in the higher floors, in the towers no less, it was an issue whether to cross the staircase that had fallen.

Most skirted their ways along the corridors, but there are those confident in Professor ManSnoozie's magic to cross the said staircase, though i was clear they were holding their breaths.

"...Gryffindors, please follow along, thank you..." Al called at them, beckoning them into the second floor corridor, not taking the risks to have his house use the stairs just yet.

Merida followed behind Jack, absentmindedly following his back as they made their way up, her head far away to look where she was going.

"Rapunzel will be fine, ye'll see," she muttered to herself.

"Password?" the Fat Lady's voice resonated over the heads of several students packed together in front of her portrait.

"Sun Rampion," Al replied with a tired sigh. everyone filed in as the warm welcoming common room was opened to them.

Everyone was glad to be back in the Gryffindor tower, gathering by the fire, going up to their dormitories, doing all they can to feel warmer in the cold of the storm.

Merida slumped into an armchair by the fire, separate from the others, instead of changing into dry clothes, she just sat there, too tired to stand up anymore. Her hair was still damp, framing her pale face as she looked around the room scattered with Gryffindors.

Everyone looked a tad bit sullen in their own way. Pascal, most of all, jumping on to a desk and curling himself up, turning blue. Literally.

Every Gryffindor knew Rapunzel, Merida knew that was no exaggeration. She befriended everyone she sets eyes on. From the first years to the seventh years. Always jolly, cheerful and sometimes too excitable to try and calm down.

Everyone loved her.

Merida sank deeper into her chair.

"Yeah..." she huffed. Rapunzel was nice, never knew when to get mad. And pretty as a flower.

She shook it away. Why was she feeling jealous of Rapunzel when her best friend just got into an accident?

Still, she couldn't help but think it.

Jack stood by the window, staring at the squalling clouds, flashing with lightning. The grounds were drenched in water and shadow, the castle walls dreary with rain battering down on its roof tiles. The Whomping Willow at the edge of the grounds waved its branches in the wind angrily, twisting and turning like a child with a nightmare. He could almost hear the owls in the Owlery screeching. A bit of the lake that was to be seen was black and raging with waves, and the dark forest even darker.

"...I'll write to Mum about this, though I'm sure gossip's already flying..." a first year told her friend as they passed by, "Oh, hi, Jack."

"Hey there, Jack."

Jack grinned in reply, though it was gone as soon as they disappeared up the spiral stairs.

"...does this mean we'll have to postpone the DA meeting?" Rose's voice said from somewhere behind him.

Jack didn't move from his spot by the window and listened in.

"No, of course not, if anything, we should move it earlier," Al replied, "We'll have to teach them defensive spells in case this happens again..."

"Yeah, you're right..." Rose gave in.

"So how is she?"

"Rapunzel?"

Jack just leaned his forehead on the glass, only half-listening now, knowing full well that Rapunzel broke her bones.

"...she's alright, only a bit worse than a quidditch accident, I'd say, but she'll get through..."

Jack touched the surface of the glass window lightly with the tip of his finger. Frost bloomed on it peacefully, unlike the thunderstorm outside. The fern-like pattern of ice swirled on the glass, the shape of the sun appearing.

It would be days before the Gryffindors would see Rapunzel alright. And days before anyone of them could see the sun again.

"...every Gryffindor here?" Rose asked her brother Hugo, sitting by the fire.

"Er...I think so."

"Well, be sure, the headmaster wants everyone in early. No exceptions."

"Everyone's here, relax..."

Merida suddenly sat up and called out to him from across the room.

"Jack!" she said, a tone of worry in her voice.

People in the common room turned at the sudden outburst.

"What is it?" Jack said, turning away from the window.

"Where's Hiccup!?"