Chapter 14: Books and Covers
It was a rare time of quiet for the four. They were tucked away in their usual spot in the library, quietly studying, or, in Jack's case, napping and using his open book as a pillow.
Rapunzel was a little on edge, seeing as Nana Gothel hadn't exactly given her permission for Rapunzel to leave the Hospital wing, but Dr. Sweet had cut in before Rapunzel's caretaker could speak even a word and gave a very fast and long speech about how she was young and needed to enjoy these years while she could, all the while pushing Gothel back towards the work that needed to be done in the Hospital wing and listing chores that he needed her to do while Rapunzel was off studying.
The whole thing was rather confusing and too fast to follow, so Rapunzel allowed herself to be pulled away from the adults by her friends as Nana Gothel struggled to get even one word in with the doctor.
A few hours after all of the excitement of the morning, the four found themselves studying in a rather lazy fashion. Rapunzel, herself, hadn't turned the page in her book for more than an hour, and Hiccup was struggling to explain the General Counter-Spell to Merida.
"I'm confused." Merida huffed, crossing her arms over her chest as she fell back against the back of her chair.
"Then you're thinking about it too much." Hiccup said for what must have been the seventh time, and yet he was still just as patient as when he had said it the first time. Rapunzel couldn't help but admire Hiccup's patience. "You have to clear your mind to broaden the effects of the spell. Just stay entirely focused on terminating any spells around you."
"But how can I focus on terminating the spells if I don't know which spells they are?" Merida wanted to know.
"That's the point. The General Counter-Spell terminates any spell from the Jelly-Legs Jink to anything as complicated as the Atmospheric Charms. You just have to clear your mind." Hiccup told her.
"Oh, all right." Merida sighed as she stood up and pulled out her wand, ready to try again.
"Now just focus on the spell itself, not what it's supposed to do." Hiccup instructed as Merida took a deep breath to steady herself.
"Finite Incantatem!" Merida cried and a bright, red light shot from her wand -just before it sputtered and spiraled down to the floor just on the other side of the table. Merida threw her hands up in the air with a loud groan and slumped in her chair. "What am I doin' wrong?!"
"Your hand movement was messy that time. With a bit more practice you'll have it in no time." Hiccup encouraged, but Merida just slumped forward onto the table like a opossum playing dead and made a face very similar to one, too.
"Maybe we should take a little break." Rapunzel suggested, giggling at Merida's quiet groaning as she shared an amused look with Hiccup who shrugged.
Merida just grunted in response to the idea, and Jack lifted his head at that moment, looking fairly confused after his nap.
"What did I miss?" Jack asked sleepily, blinking and then yawning widely as he stretched his arms out.
"Merida's just having some trouble with the Charms homework for this week." Rapunzel told him, and Jack nodded in understanding.
"Yeah, I didn't understand that General Counter-Spell thing at all. I was gonna ask Hiccup for help." Jack announced, and Hiccup groaned loudly, dropping his head onto the table with an audible thump.
"Well, would you look at that." A new voice made the four turn to find Flynn Rider leaning against one of the bookshelves that enclosed their spot in the library. "It had been such a long time since I last saw the four of you in the same place, I was beginning to think that maybe the rumors about it being 'just a phase' was true. It's comforting to see you all so annoyingly perky as always." Flynn said teasingly.
"Friendship isn't a phase and we're not even close to growin' apart, so why don't you go tell people to mind their own business, Rider?!" Merida snapped, glaring up at the older boy defensively.
"Whoa, easy there, carrot-top!" Flynn raised his hands in mock surrender, feigning hurt as he looked at them. "I just so happened to have come across a bit of interesting information that I thought the four of you would like to know, but sense you don't seem to be in a very good mood, I suppose I'll just be on my way." Flynn smiled coyly as he slowly started walking away.
"What are you going on about?" Hiccup sighed, looking skeptical and a little irritated. Flynn just gave them a bland look and checked under his nails for dirt, looking disinterested.
"Well, if you must know, there have been quite a few rumors running around the school lately." Flynn told them.
"There are always rumors in the school." Merida scoffed, rolling her eyes.
"But if you would let me finish..." Flynn gave Merida a pointed glare, his hands on his hips. Merida rolled her eyes again, but stayed silent. "...These rumors are different." Flynn clarified.
"How so?" Rapunzel asked, more curious than dubious, but she was still cautious.
"No one knows who started them. I've been looking for the past week, and nothing!" Flynn's expression turned a little more serious at that, and the four all looked at each other, their attention caught.
"Okay, but what's that got to do with us?" Jack wanted to know.
"Because whoever's spreading these rumors is no friends to you. They're saying the King and Queen of Corona don't approve of inter-House friendships and that's why Blondie's caretaker is really here. Another says you guys had some kind of a fight and aren't friends anymore. Another says that Daren and his friends threatened you all so you would stop hanging out. And there are a lot more, too." Flynn explained, actually managing to look a bit concerned for them.
"Bah!" Merida waved him off. "Who cares what everyone else thinks? They can mind their own business." She nodded with finality, her fists planted firmly on her hips.
"I'm with Meri on this one. What's the big deal? Rumors are just rumors, and they don't matter because we know the truth." Jack shrugged, not looking particularly stressed as he tried to balance a quill on his nose.
"Aren't you the least bit worried about what someone could do with those kind of ideas?" Flynn looked pretty annoyed, and from his tone Rapunzel guessed he was trying to hint at something that he thought was obvious.
"The only person I would worry about using those rumors for his own personal gain would be Daren, and he's not smart enough to think up such a plan on his own." Hiccup snorted lightly and looked down at the text books in front of him.
"Didn't anyone ever tell you not to under-estimate potential threats to your well being?" Flynn demanded. Hiccup just shrugged with a blank look in his eyes. Flynn huffed.
"Why do you care so much about what we do anyways?" Rapunzel spoke up, eying Flynn questioningly. "I thought you didn't want to ruin your reputation."
"I don't, but let's just say that the four of you have come into my best interests." Flynn smirked secretively.
"Is our friendship just a game to you? Or do you just have another bet to win?" Rapunzel crossed her arms, giving Flynn a sour look as he touched his chest, giving her a slightly shocked and impressed look.
"Was that cold calculation and skepticism? From Princess Perky herself?" Flynn asked, looking her up and down before grinning mischievously. "Well, tickle me pink! I'm impressed, Blondie!" Flynn chuckled a bit at his own joke, and then gave the four a salute as he started backing away. "Catch ya later, Puffskeins... Oh! And, just so you know, I saw a cloaked figure leaving the castle last night through a secret passage that just so happened to lead straight to the Hospital wing. The person had a red cloak and ran into the Forbidden Forest. The whole thing looked pretty suspicious to me. If I were you, Princess, I'd have a little talk with 'Nana' to see what she's been up to lately.
They could hear Flynn laughing to himself as he disappeared behind the bookshelves, and Rapunzel huffed indignantly. That Rider knew just how to get on her last nerve! And how dare he even mention that Nana Gothel might be up to something untrustworthy! Nana Gothel had served her family faithfully for years!
"Why does he always have to act that way? Are we his friends or not?" Rapunzel demanded, turning to her friends for an answer, her arms crossed and her brow narrowed angrily.
"Who knows? I imagine we'll never know for sure. Not unless he's forced to make a choice at some point." Hiccup didn't seem to disturbed by the topic, but it also took quite a lot to ruffle Hiccup's feathers. Rapunzel wasn't even sure if the boy had a temper at all.
"Don't let him get under your skin." Merida said to her. "You've got enough problems in your life without worrying about some stupid boy. That's what I tell myself whenever Jack tells one of his bad jokes."
"Hey." Jack said, giving Merida a small glare as she grinned back cheekily.
"I know you're right." Rapunzel sighed, sitting gracefully back into her seat. "I don't know why he gets to me so much, but the way he acts is just..." Rapunzel didn't even know how to word what she felt about the upper classman, but Merida nodded in understanding.
"Don't worry too much about it, Punzie. After all, you're not going to be able to get along with everyone you meet in life." Merida assured her.
"I guess you're right." Rapunzel agreed, looking down at her hands folded in her lap. Jack reached out and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, making her look up at him.
"Slytherin is a bit different from the other Houses in some ways. We can't really be very open with our thoughts and beliefs." Jack informed her, and Rapunzel furrowed her brow in confusion.
"Why would your House make you all hide your opinions from each other? Don't you want to know what your other Housemates think about different things?" Rapunzel inquired.
"Sometimes." Jack shrugged a bit weakly. "Most of the time it can be a bit dangerous to speak openly. You see, Slytherin consists mostly of pure-blood wizards and witches who come from pure-blood families and, well, they have very specific ideas about who should be allowed to learn magic and who shouldn't." Jack tried to explain. "Daren, for example, he hates us because we go against the House segregation that he learned from his family."
"But you're not a pure-blood. You're half Winter Sprite. And Mavis is half Vampire." Rapunzel pointed out.
"That's the whole point. See, if we went around talking about all of our views on everything, Slytherin House would be divided among itself, so it's kind of like a silent rule to not talk about that sort of stuff." Jack confessed. "Because of the silent rules, the people who are best at keeping their thoughts to themselves are generally the most popular. I'm kind of at the bottom of the popularity chain because my friendship with you guys openly expresses my beliefs that inter-House friendships are good."
"Well, that is just the... Silliest thing I have ever heard!" Rapunzel spluttered, unable to grasp the amount of absurdity. "Why should pure-bloods decide how a House conducts itself? Everyone should be free to express themselves whenever and wherever they want."
"It's a little more complicated than that, Punzie." Jack chuckled weakly, scratching the back of his head. "But the whole point is: Flynn can actually be a really good friend when he wants to be. He's helped me out of a couple tight spots before, and, well, if he tends to act kind of weird it's because he's been on his own for a while now."
"What do you mean?" Merida asked, finding their conversation more interesting than her Astronomy homework.
"Well, I'm a half-blood, but I'm not the only one in my year, so it makes things a little easier for me. Mavis and I tend to stick together as fellow half-bloods, and there are a few others in our year, too. Flynn was a Muggle-Born, and he was the only one in his year. He had to learn the Slytherin game fast and really well just to get his year-mates to stop picking on him. At least, that's what Kenai told me during our first year."
"So you're saying that all of the stuff he tells us is his way of helping us and trying to be our friend?" Rapunzel asked, already starting to feel a little guilty about the way she treated Flynn.
"Kinda, yeah. It may not seem like it, and he definitely wouldn't say it out loud, but Flynn likes us, and he's trying to help us in the best way he knows how." Jack smiled.
Jack, Merida, and Hiccup all turned back to their studies soon after that, but Rapunzel was still lost in thought as she stared mindlessly down at her Defense Against the Dark Arts book.
She felt as if she had judged Flynn to quickly, and it bothered her that she had been so quick to judge his character. Just because he wasn't what she was used to seeing in people, doesn't automatically make him bad.
If what Jack said was right, then Rapunzel had him pegged wrong from the very start and she was going to have to make up for that... Somehow.
AN: Hey, everyone! So, I'm plotting out this whole series, and I've come to a very important interval where I can't decide what to do! It's rather horrible. I can't make decisions to save my life. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the new chapter! Leave a review to let me know what you think!
NOTES: Never judge a Book by it's Cover.
REVIEWERS:
TheBlueRing: Always put school first, it's super important and you don't want to be stressed out later! Trust me, I totally get it. Rapunzel's new place in the Hospital wing is the start of a very important arch in the overall story. Gothel's plans are classified. And friendship fluff is the best fluff! :)
BrawlerGamer: Oh, trust me. There will definitely be a Umbridge later on in the series, but it won't be Gothel. I'm personally super excited for it. And feel free to share whatever you like! I love cool music! :)