Punzie POV

Merida and I left the crowd that had gathered in the corridor and left to go to the Great Hall. My mind was still trying to understand what had happened in the hallway. I had found Hiccup, standing over Jack with a large stick and his sword. When Jack had resisted, Hiccup had persisted that Jack tell him. Yet, as soon as Jack answered Hiccup's question, he let him go immediately, and gave him back his weapon.

Who knew that this much could have changed in only a year.

I looked over to Merida, who had hardly said a word all morning. I was worried for my friends. It was like new secrets were appearing everywhere, and they were slowly breaking us apart. Even I had secrets, but they couldn't hurt anyone. At least, I thought so. But it looked like even the harmless little secrets we keep are coming back to haunt us, and I'm not sure if our friendship can survive this much longer under these circumstances.

I cast another worried glance at Merida, who continued staring ahead blankly as we walked toward the Great Hall. She was obviously thinking hard about something, what exactly, I don't know.

"Hey, Merida." I said, waving a hand in front of her face. Merida blinked and looked over at me.

"Sorry, Punzie. Just lost in thought..." She said.

"Don't go turning into Hiccup on me. We've got enough thinking going on on his end." I tried to joke, using the same sarcastic attitude Jack and Hiccup often used.

Merida frowned, apparently not finding my joke very funny. I sighed.

"What's wrong, Mer?" I asked her.

Merida sighed, and turned to look at me. Her bright blue eyes were wide and they looked confused. She was struggling with something, and for a brief moment I worried if it was about her family, because the look of distress in her eyes could only mean it had something to do with someone close to her heart.

"I don't know Punzie." She answered. She looked like she wanted to say more, but kept silent. Didn't she trust me? I couldn't help but feel a little hurt that she was keeping things from me, but it would make me a hypocrite if I said I wasn't hiding anything from her.

There was an awkward silence between us before I tried changing the topic.

"So, the first task is supposed to start next week. What do you think it'll be?" I asked her, knowing how excited about the tournament she was. Merida's face instantly brightened, happy to be off the previous topic.

"I bet it'll have something to do with some crazy beastie, that attacks the champions." Merida said, making a three fingered claw.

"I wonder if they'll have to do any fighting." I said. "Maybe they'll have to duel each other, or fight with weapons."

"What if they have to tame an un-tameable beast?" Merida asked, seeming to like the idea of ferocious creatures attacking the competitors.

"Or if it's a battle of the wits in some sort of brainy challenge." I supplied, finding that idea more interesting than useless violence.

By now, we were both smiling, coming up with possible tasks that got wilder and wilder every time we suggested one. We entered the Great Hall, both of us smiling and went to sit down at Gryffindor table. The Gryffindors were always more accepting of our inter-house friendship, and while they may not approve o it, they didn't discriminate. Not to say the Ravenclaws did, but hey held a certain prejudice against other houses.

Merida and I began eating and before we knew it, the owls swooped in, delivering this week's mail and newspapers. Envelopes and rolls of heavy paper rained down from above, landing on plates and several students' heads. I looked to my right and saw Merida receiving yet another green envelope. Her mother wrote to her nearly every week, and Merida always wrote back, though not always with the same enthusiasm as her mother.

I too received a letter from my parents weekly, and was always adamant about writing them back, telling them about everything I could think of at the moment. I looked up from my mail at the sound of a shrill shriek piercing the air. The room dropped in volume very quickly, and it was just quiet enough for me to hear a familiar voice chastising his huge great grey owl.

"Volr! Ow, get off!" I heard Hiccup say, rather loudly. I stood from my seat as did Merida to get a better look. Laughter spread quickly through the hall, though it died down just as fast. I walked around the table with Merida by my side, and made my way to Ravenclaw table.

"I think someone missed you, Hiccup." I told him.

Hiccup was on the floor, with his massive owl Volr circling around him, buffering him with his huge wings and leaping on him playfully.

"I thought so-ow!" Hiccup swatted playfully at his owl. "Seriously, Volr! Off!"

The noise in the Great Hall began rising again, as students continued talking to their friends and reading their post. Eventually, Volr settled down enough for Hiccup to stand and dust himself off, with Volr perched on his shoulder of course. Although Volr appeared to be a gigantic creature, his size was very deceptive. While his wingspan was now close to 50 cm, he weighed less than 3 pounds, with most of his size coming from his dense grey plumage.

Hiccup sat back down in his seat at Ravenclaw table and gestured for us to sit beside him. Volr continued ruffling through his hair and pecking at his odd suit as Hiccup offered him a piece of meat from the table.

"No, Volr. Not the suit, the bacon." I heard him mutter to the owl.

I sat down beside him, the seats surrounding him oddly vacant. Merida sat opposite to us, staying silent. Hiccup looked up from Volr and looked at Merida. The two stared at each other for a brief moment before breaking eye contact. Hiccup turned a faint shade of red and Merida fiddled with her wand.

I frowned. What was going on with these two? Merida usually couldn't stop talking, and Hiccup would almost always crack sarcastic jokes with her. Thir silence was unnerving, and seemed to fill the space between us with awkward pause.

"What's going on with you two?" I asked.

Hiccup flinched slightly and Merida's head snapped up.

"Uh, nothing." Hiccup said. "Just tired you know. Lack of sleep."

Yet again, we lapsed into uncomfortable silence.

"Are you guys fighting?" I asked them. "Are you mad at each other?"

"No, course not." Merida scoffed, trying and failing to sound like her regular self.

"What are you guys not telling me? Does this have anything to do with what happened with Jack this morning?" I asked.

"It's nothing." Hiccup said, not looking at Merida or me.

"So something did happen." I said.

"What? No." Hiccup said, shifting slightly in his seat.

I sighed. "You guys need to figure this out." I told them.

"There's nothing to figure out, Punzie." Merida said.

"The blush on Hiccup's face is telling me otherwise." I said, suddenly feeling annoyed with them.

Hiccup's blush only deepened more as he stammered and tried to cover it up.

"Just please work it out." I told them. "I don't want-"

"Attention students!" A man's voice rang out across the hall, stopping me from finishing sentence. I didn't recognize this person. They didn't have an accent like Prof. North or Prof. Bunnymund, nor were they Prof. Toothiana or Prof. Sandy for obvious reasons. I looked up to the front, and saw none other than the Minister of magic, Conrad Noman.

The Hall quieted down, though it wasn't completely silent as students began whispering about the presence of the Minister of magic.

"Thank you." He said. He was a short, stout man and wore a grey hat, with matching robes.

"I am here to announce that the first task will be tomorrow, after midday meal!" He waited for applause. None came. Minister Noman cleared is throat and continued.

"Alright. Competitors, you are expected to be at the quidditch pitch first thing tomorrow, for preparation. I wish the Champions the best of luck, as I will be at the first task, judging alongside the other Ministry officials. Thank you." And with that, he stepped off the platform and left the Great Hall.

The noise began to grow among the crowd as students started talking about the fast approaching tournament. Many students began looking down the table, stealing glances at Hiccup who sat there, still trying to get Volr to stop pecking his suit. Eventually, Hiccup gave up and just told Volr to leave, since all the other owls had already vacated the room.

"What subject do you have next, Punzie?" Merida asked suddenly.

"Transfiguration." Hiccup and I said at the same time. Merida and I looked at him in question.

"What?" He asked. How did he know the schedule? It was completely different from last year's, and he had been away from the school for 16 months. He'd have to had learned it very recently, not to mention have memorize it, to remember.

"It's the bloody common room password all over again." Merida muttered.