The next few weeks passed quickly for Rapunzel. She kept busy with all her school lessons, taking care of Pascal, sharing in Merida's princess lessons and helping Mother Gothel. When she did have free time, she found herself unbraiding her hair and practicing throwing it so it would knot. So far, she'd only managed to get the hair to wrap around objects, it usually slipped free when she yanked on it.

Rapunzel always made sure she was alone when she practiced with her hair. Gothel would have a fit if she saw Rapunzel using it in that manner. She'd chastise her about not wasting her gift … or something. Sometimes Rapunzel felt Gothel cared more about protecting the gift than about protecting the girl.

On this day, however, Rapunzel pushed Gothel far from her mind (If she didn't, she would have to admit to herself that she'd lied to Gothel by not telling her where she was really going.) The princess climbed up the secret staircase that led to Ombric's chambers.

Halfway up, she spotted a curly flash of orange. It had to be Merida. Rapunzel quickened her steps to be even with her friend.

"Ready for today's lesson?" Merida asked.

"I hope. What do you think it'll be about?"

"Who knows? Not public speaking again, I hope."

"I thought you were comfortable speaking to large groups now."

"Comfortable, oh, aye. But that does nae mean I like it. Mum understands. Still, I suppose the lessons are necessary, if I'm ta stop the lords from murderin' each other again."

"Murder?" Rapunzel froze in her tracks.

"Relax, the lords made up. And they are nae fightin' now," Merida reached Ombric's door, "There's nothin' at all to be worried about."

Merida turned the handle, and the girls opened the door to find the room in shambles.

Both girls gasped. The room was full of clocks. Old clocks, all made of wood, and all broken into splinters. Faces of clocks were damaged. Hands were bent out of shape, pendulums stabbed clock faces.

Merida stepped inside, lifting her skirt so it wouldn't get caught on the splinters.

"Professor Ombric?" she called loudly. There was no response. Merida ventured further in. Rapunzel knelt down by the door and gently stroked a clock face. Even shattered, there was beauty in the stained glass fragments.

"Who would do this?" Rapunzel asked out loud.

"The same person who would smash teeth," Merida called back, pointing to a note stuck to the wall with an arrow. Merida read the letter, "'Thought I was only after Tooth, didn't you. Nope! I'll be comin' for all you guys, corrupting what's precious, and you'll never stop me! Signed, the Monkey King.' And I thought my handwriting was bad."

"I'll take that," a man's voice said. Rapunzel turned and to her left stood Ombric. She hadn't noticed him at all. He waved his wand and the letter flew off the wall and into his hand. He crumpled it up, then looked at the clocks. A wave of his wand and all the splinters piled into a rubbish bin.

"You aren't going to analyze them?" Rapunzel asked, thinking of Tooth's reaction.

"Certainly not. Waste my time giving into that wretched creature? Not so long as I'm a Guardian. I have much more important things to do."

"Then, you're one of the Guardians, too?" Merida asked. "Like Bunny?"

"Indeed. You could say I'm the first, though I suppose it ultimately depends on your definition. I was certainly the first earthling to serve the Man in the Moon, unless you count the Llama Landry."

"Wait, the Guardians serve the Man in the Moon?" Rapunzel asked in shock. "I thought that was just a legend."

"Legends are lessons, they ring with truths," Merida said, "but I'm not sure what the lesson of the Man in the Moon is. I don't really know that one."

"The story of the Man in the Moon is rather hard to find," Ombric admitted. "I only know it because I can speak moonbeam, and the moon told me so. Basically, the Man in the Moon watches over all humans, especially the children. For a long time, he was stuck on the moon, and so he recruited me and the other Guardians to help ensure happiness among the children. He dubbed us, 'the Guardians of Childhood.'"

"Okay..." Merida said, "So the Guardians are the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, and Mother Goose … who are you?"

"I am who I say I am, Headmaster Ombric, though you probably know me as Father Time."

"Father Time?" Rapunzel exclaimed, then bit her lip, "You … You won't mind if I tell Hiccup, will you? He's been a little hung up about your name … this might help him."

"Go ahead and tell your friends. Now that Pitch Black has been exposed, it might be better if the children do know we are watching. But why is your friend interested in my name?"

"Ahk, he ran across someone who defeated Pitch named Ombric Shalazar, and was trying to figure out how that related to you, Finnegan Ombric."

"Oh yes, that unfortunate mix-up. I speak so many languages; when filling out the application for Hogwarts, I misread the documents. I put my first name where the last name should go, and in the place for first name I wrote the proper title for professor in Sea Slug. By the time I realized my mistake, the paperwork was submitted, and considering my purpose here, I decided to let it go."

"Your purpose here?" Rapunzel asked.

"To educate children, of course. I've been a teacher for a very long time. I was one of the first. It was my idea to train new wizards and witches, though I mostly only bothered with the children in my village in Siberia. Four of my students, two boys and two girls, rather like your little group of friends, thought it was such a grand idea that they left my village and started their own school for magic here in England.

"Anyway, after the first war with Pitch, I realized that I was being selfish. I wanted to protect my children while training them, and I did, but there were others in the world who would need to defend themselves in a world with so much fear.

"We thought Pitch was defeated for good, but he had unleashed a terrible fear over the world. I wanted to correct it. Being Father Time, I can travel to and from the past, though I am not allowed to interfere. I went back to find out when the world was more at peace, and then I sought to educate people in their history. But it wasn't enough. There was still too much fear and darkness. So much that in the future people will call this time period the Dark Ages.

"And so I asked the Man in the Moon what to do. He guided me to this school. He said something … he wasn't sure what ... would happen here. My time travels indicated roughly the same thing."

"If you can travel to the future, why don't you know?" Merida demanded.

"Are you not the one who said you can change your fate?" he asked with a gentle smile. "Fate is always changing. Divination can see some certainties, things that have already been set in motion, often things that cannot be stopped, but time travel, that is different. Time travel is like reading an unfinished book. You think you know what's going to happen. You can see the plot threads, the different lines, but it's not set in stone. It can be changed so easily. All you do is remove one person from a timeline, and the whole thing caves in on itself. The further you go in the future, the less certain it becomes. When I looked into the future, I could see big, and terrible things happening at Hogwarts. But I can't be certain of them. Some are nearly a thousand years in the future, and seem to involve some sort of … dark lord … or a boy with a scar … I'm not really sure. But there's a closer danger. Danger that may only be a year or two away."

He paused and stared at the Monkey King's note. Rapunzel got up the courage to ask, "Is the past as unclear as the future?"

"No. The past is a mirror. I can see what happened and when."

"Then why couldn't you find the missing students during our second year?" Rapunzel asked.

"I should clarify," Ombric stated. "The past is clear when it wants to be. Pitch must have been using a magic shield or something to avoid detection. Any spell that prevented him from being seen during the present would also protect him in the past. Not to mention it's a big place to search. No one knew exactly when those children went missing, which meant I had to go back to when they were last seen and follow them until they disappeared. Which I did, but I couldn't see where they went. The children just 'popped' out of existence right before my eyes. I tried pausing time and scouring the school, but remember, I have to check everywhere. It's a big school. And I can't stay in the past very long."

"So what's with the smashed clocks?" Merida asked.

"The other Guardians stayed more active in the public eye than I did. I assume the Monkey King does not truly know what is precious to me. He probably assumed it was clocks because of the whole Father Time thing."

"I take it it's not?" Rapunzel questioned.

"Of course not. The thing I love most in the world is my daughter. But the Monkey King already had his chance with her. We saved Katherine once, we will do it again. Now, I don't have to be Father Time to see you kids are late for your meeting."

Ombric lit the fireplace, "Have fun in your lessons, I must travel to the past and see if I can find out where this so-called Monkey King is."

Ombric waved them off, and Merida and Rapunzel jumped into the fireplace, traveling to Castle DunBroch for the lessons.


Hiccup sighed as he stared at his miniature catapult in his dorm room. It could throw a net pretty far, but he still didn't know how he was going to use it to kill a dragon. Should he attach knives to the net? What if it missed the dragon and hit a human? No. he'd leave the net as it was. He could worry about killing the dragon once he actually managed to catch it. What if the net stayed on the dragon, and the dragon just flew off?

"What's that?" William asked.

"Dragon killing machine," Hiccup replied automatically. William stared at him. Hiccup sometimes forgot that dragons weren't as common in the rest of the world.

"Okaayyy..." William said, starting to walk away. As William reached the common room, Hiccup heard him mutter, "And I thought the elf-boy was weird."

Hiccup sighed and kicked his machine. It was suppose to help him fit in on Berk, but all it seemed to do was make him stand out everywhere else.

Hiccup picked up his machine, checking the damage his kick had given it. A wheel had popped off, but no major damage. As he started screwing it back on, he replayed what he had just heard and it clicked into place. Hiccup dropped his machine and raced out to find William.

"Will!" Hiccup called. The other boy stopped as Hiccup reached him, "Will, what about an elf-boy?"

"You know, your friend. The freakish ice elf. Figures freaks like you would flock together."

"But who told you he was an ice elf?"

"It's all over school. Everyone knows. Everyone knows he's the one who made it snow inside, too. What I said before was true. He is the one who made Crispin disappear."

Hiccup didn't bother to correct William. There was no arguing with someone who'd made up his mind. But it did prompt Hiccup to walk around the common room interrogating the Hufflepuffs.

Hiccup started with a first year girl.

"Do you know anything about my friend Jack Frost?"

"Who?" she asked looking up from her book.

"A fourth year Slytherin boy who doesn't wear shoes? Walks around everywhere with a staff."

"You mean the ice elf?"

"Yes. How did you know he was an ice elf?"

"Gosh … I just knew. I feel like I've always known."

Hiccup tried several other students, but all their answers were the same. Somehow, they just knew he was an ice elf. Fortunately for Jack, not very many of them blamed him for the attacks a few years back. But the fact that everyone knew something that should be a secret troubled Hiccup.

On an impulse, Hiccup left the Hufflepuff basement and made his way to the lake. Outside, the wind nipped his nose, but Hiccup didn't mind. It felt kind of like Berk. A few other students were out enjoying the Saturday. Hiccup stopped a few and asked them about Jack. Like all the Hufflepuffs, they just knew what Jack was. As Hiccup was about to give up, a seventh year added,

"You know, I'm not sure exactly when I knew he was an elf … sometime during the summer. Yes... I remember. I had a dream, no, a nightmare, about it."

"About Jack?" Hiccup asked excitedly.

"No. About elves. In my dream a whole tribe of them attacked me. They all had white hair, pale skin, blue eyes, and bare feet."

"Jack's eyes are brown," Hiccup said, more to himself.

"I know. I already said it wasn't him, didn't I? But it was after that dream that I realized Jack was an ice elf. I didn't know anything about them before."

As Hiccup walked back to the castle mulling over the information, he noticed Jack flying overhead. Jack saw him and landed, giving Hiccup his trademark crooked grin.

"Jack..." Hiccup started, not wanting to hurt his friend's good mood. Jack had spent enough of the past years with melancholy, "are … are you being treated differently?"

"Yeah, finally," Jack said, still grinning. "The other Slytherins still won't talk to me, but at least they stopped making jabs at my sister."

"I meant about being an ice elf?"

"Nah, why?"

"Just curious. I heard someone talking. I thought I should check with you … you know, seeing how much trouble we got in last year when we ignored you."

"Thanks, but so far this year is great. Mother Nature isn't exactly on my side, but being neutral sure beats being against me. The only thing I hate are her punishments. Pitch's punishments were pure terror. But Emily Jane's? Their torture."

"Torture?"

"I mean going through her dad's stuff! It's boring. At least the scary ones were a little fun. But there isn't anything fun at all about sorting out Pitch Black's office. Torture."

Jack glanced at the sky, "I gotta go finish cleaning out the gutters. Mother Nature told me that tonight is going to be the last rain of the year. If I do a good job cleaning up the castle grounds she said she'd let me help make the first snow of the year."

As Jack was about to wave his staff and fly off, Hiccup asked one more thing, "Anyone giving you a hard time about elves?"

Jack paused, "Derek's mentioned it. He threatened to have me expelled. But nothing came of it."

"How did he know?" Hiccup wondered allowed.

"I assumed Pitch told him," Jack said as the breeze lifted him into the air. "He was always doing stuff like that. I'm not sure how he knew I was an ice elf, but I can just picture him telling Derek."

Jack flew off leaving Hiccup alone with his thoughts. He wandered back up to his dorm room mulling things over. What did this all mean? Was it part of another attack? If it was, it didn't seem to be hurting Jack. Maybe he should let it go. Everyone knew Jack was an ice elf, but no one besides William and Derek seemed to think less of Jack because of it. Unlike Hiccup's failure to kill a dragon. When he reached his room, he looked down on his slightly splintered machine. Jack was fine. No sense in worrying about something that wasn't even a problem. Much like his suspicions about Gothel, this was probably nothing.

Hiccup picked up his machine and started to work on it. Better he invest his time in trying to get his father to love him, or better yet, get a girl to love him. Especially if that girl happened to be Astrid.


Jack glared into his crystal ball. Divination was not being fun. Vigor the Visionary wanted to make sure everyone was actually tapping into their magical potential, and not just guessing things based on what they knew of their friends, so he made everyone split up from their usual partners. Jack ended up stuck with Derek.

"Okay," Jack started, trying to ignore the hateful glares Derek was giving him, "in your future, I see ..."

Jack opened his book and looked at the images. One was the image for descendants, the other, a ring. And the symbol for Slytherin.

"Your future will have some sort of ... family ring ... it seems important. And related to Slytherin."

Derek scoffed, "Lucky guess, but I already inherited the Gaunt family ring. My father gave it to me when I was betrothed to the last heir of Slytherin."

"Wait, what? You're betrothed?" Not that Jack cared about his bullying roommate, but they were only fourteen. How could two people in his year be dealing with marriages?

"I wouldn't expect someone of your status to understand. But those of us in a higher class have a duty to maintain. We must keep our bloodlines pure," Derek spat the last word, "and it so happens that the heir of Slytherin is very desirable, even if she is only 8 or so."

Derek looked down, with just a hint of reservation, Jack wondered if he was really okay with the arranged marriage, or if he was just saying it, trying to make it true. It almost made Jack feel sorry for him. Jack considered making a special snowflake with the cheering charm, but before he could, Derek scowled and grabbed his textbook.

"Let's see what your future holds!" he snapped, then grinned malevolently. "Oh, yes, I see ... I see everyone ignoring you."

Jack lost all thoughts of helping his roommate as Derek went on, "No one will talk to you. Or see you. They'll act like you aren't there, like you don't exist."

Jack tensed, Derek was just making this up, trying to hurt him, right?

"People will walk right by you, but when you try to reach out to them, they won't respond. You'll be alone and forgotten, forever! Even the few people who do acknowledge your presence won't seek you out, or include you. You'll be so lonely ..."

Derek might have gone on, but thankfully Vigor the Visionary ended the lesson. Jack grabbed his staff and stalked off before he accidentally froze something.

On his way down the stairs, Rapunzel caught up with him. For a few moments, they walked in silence. Jack looked at Rapunzel. She would never ignore him, would she? Then he noticed that she was crying. Instantly, he forgot all about his problems.

"Did you get a bad prophecy, too?" Jack asked. Rapunzel shook her head.

"No, it's ... it's Mother."

"What did Gothel do?" Jack growled.

"Not Gothel ... my real mother. I got a letter from her this morning."

"What'd it say?" Jack asked, slowing down.

"Maximus, the Captain of the Guard's horse that we borrowed last year? He ran away."

"What?"

"Apparently they were patrolling and he threw the captain, and ran off in search of something."

"Flynn," Jack said, his eyes lighting up, "We set him after Flynn last year! He must have found something."

Rapunzel wiped her eyes, "That's what I thought at first. And when I told Mother Gothel about it, she agreed."

"So what's the problem?" Jack asked.

"Gothel said that when they catch Maximus, they'll put him down. She said disobedient horses aren't kept. He'll be killed and it's all my fault." Rapunzel burst into a new batch of sobs.

"Don't worry Rapunzel, surely you can pardon him. The Captain of the Guard loves you. If you told him that Maximus was only following your orders, I'm sure he'd forgive the horse. Or you could write your mother."

"That doesn't work," Rapunzel said. "She still hasn't responded about me visiting Merida. Not even in this letter. Gothel is right, my parents don't love me."

Jack put his arm around Rapunzel, "At least you have both parents. Both my fathers ditched me. Even though you've never seen your parents, they must love you. They gave you that beautiful tower, they let you come to school. They send you presents on your birthday and Christmas. If they didn't love you, they would have just abandoned you. I'm sure they love you. Maybe your first letter was eaten by a dragon or something. Try again. And don't worry about Maximus. He's a smart horse. Smarter than most of those guards, I'd bet. They won't catch him."

"You really think so?" Rapunzel asked.

"I'm sure," Jack said. "Now come on, I'll race you to the lake. I just froze it this morning. Come see my frost before other people spoil it."

Jack took off running, Rapunzel close behind. If there was one thing that Jack was good at, it was turning sorrow into fun. Now, if only Maximus could find Flynn.


A/N: Sofia: I update every Sunday. Yes, I've seen all of the Dreamworks: Dragons episodes up to the first half of Race to the Edge. And come January 8th, I'll be watching the second half.