Updated November 29, 2021.
TW for accidental (non-fatal!) injury to an animal in Hiccup's scenes (it's Toothless).
Six Years Later
Off the top of her head, she could have thought of at least a thousand places that she would rather have been than there.
Perhaps on the pitch, darting through the clouds to the thunderous applause of her classmates, her vibrant curls whipping in the wind as she dove for a quaffle, like a fireball on a broomstick. Or on horseback, galloping through the glen with her recurve bow, despite what her mother had to say about ladies participating in such activities. Or in the cobbled courtyard of DunBroch Castle, swinging her sword in graceful, sweeping arcs as she charged her father during a practice duel. Or speeding through the woods on her broom, rehearsing aerial manoeuvres against the trees in place of rival players.
Instead, she was cornered and corseted in a suffocatingly stuffy ballroom.
House Dunbroch was in the Book of Gold, after all, one of three enormous books known as the Olympus Tomes, which served as a public archive of those magical families with the most highly esteemed and influential pureblooded lineages. The pages of the Olympus Tomes were regarded as proof of pedigree, and for those families listed within their pages, maintaining the status of their blood purity was of utmost importance.
Merida, however, thought the whole matter was rubbish.
It's tradition, Elinor had told her sternly. Your brothers will have their turn when they're of age. End of discussion.
But that had not soothed Merida's aggravation in the slightest.
Ai Zheng, the professional matchmaker that her mother had employed to assist with arranging her betrothal, never smiled. Merida couldn't help but wonder why someone who seemed to hate people so much had chosen to work in a role that involved interacting with so many of them on a daily basis.
Stout in stature and crotchety in temperament, few things seemed to make Ai happy, and Merida couldn't help the suspicion that perhaps she enjoyed making people as miserable as she was. After all, according to their motto, her matchmaking agency focused on creating unions that bring honour to your family. And Merida would have been willing to wager that happiness wasn't even a consideration in that equation.
But, honourable or not, Merida had no interest in marrying or entertaining suitors of any sort.
It was only Elinor's iron grip around her arm that kept the redhead in check. And so, Merida had taken to protesting silently, by refusing to speak to or even acknowledge her suitors. She could see the tightness in her mother's jaw and knew she'd pay for it later, but she didn't care. Fire and fury blazing was more her style anyway.
The Matchmaker made her way over to join them as Elinor made conversation with the family of a blond Ravenclaw boy in Merida's year. The boy was awkward, shy and hopelessly naive, but even if he'd been Prince Charming himself, Merida would have been just as determined to hate him. It was the principle of the matter.
Staring across the ballroom, Merida wondered if her friends were having as dreadful an afternoon as she was. Snovita was demure, but smiling as she trailed half a pace behind her stepmother during her rounds of the ballroom. Merida had managed to catch Aurora's eye as the blonde made conversation with the dramatic former captain of the Gryffindor quidditch team who'd graduated at the end of the previous year, but the redhead hadn't seen her since.
"Hm." Merida frowned as Ai's voice so rudely infringed on her ability to ignore the conversation. "Her wide hips will be good for bearing children."
Merida blinked, her freckled face flushing hot as she turned to gawk at the older woman.
"Don't be embarrassed, it's a good thing." Ai assured her, giving an appraising nod.
In an instant, her anger boiled over into white hot fury, like a cauldron left on the fire for far too long, her blue eyes narrowed dangerously as she yanked her arm free of her mother's grasp and whirled to face the matchmaker. "How dare you! I'm not a bloody broodmare, ye miserable old hag!"
The ballroom fell eerily silent as all eyes turned to them.
"Merida, calm down," Elinor forced a smile, but her tone had an edge that was razor sharp.
"A will do nothing of the sort!" Merida shouted, her cheeks flushing a furious shade of red as she glowered at her mother.
Elinor, whose mask remained diplomatically imperturbable, reached out to place a settling hand on her arm, but she yanked free once more. Reaching up with one hand, Merida's fingers deftly found the pivotal band that held most of her up-do together and pulled it free, sending three hours of her mother's work tumbling down her back and over her shoulders, without even breaking eye contact for a second.
Whirling around for her dramatic exit, Merida found herself face-to-face with her suitor, his face especially red against his blond hair. Eyes wide and mouth agape, he attempted to stammer out an apology of some sort, but Merida roughly shouldered her way past him, rolling her eyes. "Och, move, ye absolute roaster."
Ignoring her mother as she called after her, Merida strode across the ballroom, her hands balled into fists. Nobody dared to intercept her as she stepped out onto the balcony and slammed the French doors behind her with so much force that several of the door's glass panes shattered on impact.
Although the shop was called Gobber's Wizarding Equipment, Gunnar 'Gobber' Borksen himself was scarcely ever there. A close friend of Hiccup's father, he was often acted as Stoichko's right hand, the only hand that Gobber actually had to offer.
Big, blonde and outwardly curmudgeonly, Gobber had been friends with Hiccup's father since childhood and was practically family. But even with Gobber often acting as a mediator or a go-between, the relationship between father and son had always been strained.
Because Stoichko 'Stoick' Haddock was a fierce, bearded man, the type of man who could take on a dragon armed with nothing but his bare fists and still somehow manage to come out the victor, with brute strength and a mind for battle strategy, he was an intimidating adversary, even without taking his power magical abilities into account. And because his son was fragile and accident prone and regularly received near-failing grades in almost all of his classes, no matter how much he was pushed to succeed; a boy as different from his father as could be.
So Hiccup spent his summers working in Gobber's shop, sewing up tears in dragonhide gloves and buffing dung stains out of work boots, where he was conveniently out of everyone's way. And though his father had founded a company called Berkworks, which served as a contractor for the Ministry of Magic, taking on projects to handle the population control of magical beasts and supplying crucial beast-derived materials for the entirety of the magical world, Hiccup had been rejected from the company's prestigious internship program every year since he'd been old enough to apply to it.
He was the only teenager from the entire Isle of Drekey that would not be returning to school with impressive tales from a highly esteemed summer internship. In fact, he suspected that he might be the only person in the history of Drekey who had ever been rejected from the program.
Because situated at the northernmost point of the Hebridean Archipelago on what Hiccup often referred to as the meridian of misery, Drekey was also home to a colony of territorial dragons that resided on the island's wildmost point. It was because of this dragon colony that Drekey had been hidden from the non-magical world centuries prior, after muggles had begun to develop an aptitude for getting themselves killed.
Due to their proximity to the dragon colony, those who grew up in Drekey often had a particular proclivity for the line of work that Hiccup's father did. And so, Berkworks had become the heartbeat of Drekey; it employed every wizard family on the island. Everyone in Drekey had been employed by Berkworks at some point in their lives; it was practically a rite of passage.
A rite of passage that, for Hiccup, remained ever out of reach.
So while other Drekey teens spent their summers shadowing some of the most highly reputed hunters on Berkworks' payroll, Hiccup had spent the summer with only his own shadow for company. Instead of an impressive addition to his resume, Hiccup would be returning to school with only the knowledge that the most exciting thing he'd done in the last two months was recommend his favourite brand of wand polish to a willowy brunette from Beauxbatons, who had come to their hovel of a town on business with her stepfather, and resented every moment of it.
Somehow, Hiccup doubted that even twenty-seven and a half seconds of interaction with a pretty but irascible Greek girl was enough to redeem the otherwise crushing disappointment that was his summer.
He was considering this thought idly when suddenly a large tin of floo powder came crashing down from a back shelf and exploded against the stone floor of the small shop, startling him half to death.
Dropping the pair of dragonhide gloves he'd been repairing, he jumped to his feet, fumbling in his pocket for his wand. A lithe black creature darted along the back shelf, weaving around wooden chests and spare pewter cauldrons, lightning-fast and moving like a shadow as it bolted towards the back door. And at last, his hand found his wand. Green eyes narrowed with determination, he aimed in the direction of the creature.
And promptly lost his grip, his wand misfiring as it clattered against the floor.
He lunged after it, nearly tripping over a large wooden chest as he snatched his wand off the floor and dashed after the creature.
His mind was racing. A victory of any sort would surely get him noticed by the Berkworks recruitment team, and the more impressive his adversary, the more chance he stood of being reconsidered for their internship program. A dragon would be the ultimate prize. The colony of Hebridean Blacks that resided on the Isle had a reputation for being the most aggressive horde known to the wizarding world, so even a hatchling would put up a good fight. No matter its' age, subduing any dragon could change his entire life for the better.
Oh Merlin, he hoped it was a dragon.
And then he had a clear shot.
He had never intended for that to be the moment to start testing the new spell he'd been working on all summer, but when his moment finally arrived, he couldn't, for the life of him, remember the incantations for any other binding spells. And his window of opportunity was closing fast.
"Conficio!" Hiccup shouted, pointing his wand at the animal desperately as it fled.
But amazingly, the spell not only seemed to work, but actually hit the creature, sending it crashing through the doorway and into the alley behind the shop.
"I hit it," Hiccup stared after the creature, mouth agape. Running a hand through his chestnut hair in shock, he couldn't help the giggle that escaped him "I actually hit it! And the spell works – oh, this is going to change everything!"
And with that, he scrambled forward to get a better look at the beast.
She was carefully scrubbing garden soil from underneath her fingernails when the owl arrived. Grinning apologetically from the sink as it perched on the windowsill and cooed at her, Rapunzel gave a little half shrug and watched as it began tugging at a thick beige envelope with its beak.
"Mother will be home shortly," She assured the owl, wiping her forehead with the crook of her arm.
Despite her curiosity, Rapunzel knew better than to take the letter the owl carried. Magical correspondence was charmed to disintegrate if accepted by anyone other than the intended recipient, Mother had told her so. And Rapunzel knew it was true, because she'd seen it firsthand, when she'd tried to accept a letter on her Mother's behalf several years prior. It had turned to ash in her hands before she'd even had a chance to read the name written on the front of it.
Mother had been positively furious, perhaps the angriest that Rapunzel had ever seen her.
And so, Rapunzel had never attempted to accept another letter again.
Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap.
After rapping its beak against the rectangular window panes impatiently, the owl flapped its wings, a clear reminder that it could and would fly off with the letter.
"I'm sorry, she'll be here soon, I promise," Rapunzel said, glancing up at the clock.
While not typically predictable in the times that she would come and go, Mother was never late when she was expecting mail. Especially not the letters that arrived in late summer every year.
Except, it seemed, for today.
"I wonder what's keeping Mother," She wondered aloud, drying her now soil-free hands on a nearby tea towel.
Thwack!
Rapunzel's eyes stretched wide as she watched the owl repeat its attempt to tear a very large section of weatherstripping off the closest windowpane. It hesitated for only a heartbeat when its round brown eyes met hers, before immediately continuing its mission to tear pieces from the wooden window frame, this time without breaking eye contact.
"Stop that, she'll be here any minute." Rapunzel said, hurrying over and shooing the owl away from the windowpane. "Well, aren't you a pretty owl."
A beautiful barn owl, the bird had silky pale golden feathers over its' head and wings, with a soft white face that resembled a full moon. Gently, she reached out to pet the bird, which nuzzled her hand as she leaned against the windowsill.
"Such a good owl, a hardworking owl." Rapunzel cooed at the bird as she pulled herself up to sit on the windowsill next to the owl. Careful not to touch the thick beige envelope it carried, she reached down to inspect the leather binding around its leg. "Do you have a name?"
Taking the brown leather thong in her hands, she turned it over and ran her fingers over the name that had been engraved on the other side, grinning at the unusual feel of the letters' divots and ridges under her fingertips.
"Dreamsand. What a pretty name!" Rapunzel exclaimed, delighted, as the bird leaned into her and closed its eyes, drinking in every ounce of her affection as she stroked its silky feathers. With a gasp, Rapunzel jerked her hands away from the bird, afraid she might accidentally touch and disintegrate Mother's letter as Dreamsand hopped onto her knee, the envelope still bound to her leg inadvertently smacking against her thigh as the owl scrambled onto her lap.
As Dreamsand settled onto her new perch, Rapunzel caught a glimpse of beautiful green script out of the corner of her eye.
And her heart stopped.
It was there, in emerald green handwriting on the front of the envelope.
Miss R. Gothel
The East Bedroom
Cottage in the Valley
Malham
An R, not an E.
No wonder Dreamsand had been so impatient. This letter wasn't for Mother at all.
It was for her.
"Such a good girl, thank you, Dreamsand," Rapunzel said, barely breathing as she untied the letter from the owl's leg and turned it over in her hands.
And there, on the back, pressed in scarlet red wax, was a crest she'd seen before.
The one from Mother's book, the one she'd read at least a thousand times.
She'd have recognized it anywhere.
Hogwarts.
It wasn't until Dreamsand tugged at her sleeve that Rapunzel realized that she'd been just starting at the letter. Using the heel of her palm to wipe away the tears that blurred her vision, Rapunzel drew a shaky breath and ran her fingers carefully along the sealed edge, hoping she could open it without cracking the wax seal.
HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY
Headmaster: Hubert J. Farnsworth
Dear Miss Gothel,
We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.
Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July.
Yours Sincerely,
Milton Grimm
Deputy Headmaster
It took not one, not two but three reads before the words finally registered.
She had received a letter.
And it was from Hogwarts.
Elation filling her chest, her heart felt so full that it was a wonder that she hadn't floated away.
Unsure whether to giggle or squeal first, she whirled around, making a sound that was somewhere in the middle as she covered her mouth with trembling hands while ecstatic tears blurred her vision.
Just glancing at the parchment pages was enough to make her heart skip a beat. There wasn't anything in the world that could possibly keep her down today.
Sitting on the front lawn in a fold-up lawn chair with a glass of lemonade, Jack was waiting.
Dressed in his favourite blue hoodie despite the moderate summer weather, Jack stirred his lemonade with a paper straw disinterestedly, the ice cubes clinking against the inside of the glass like some kind of water chime.
"FROST!"
There it was.
Jack sipped his lemonade. It had certainly taken Aster long enough to notice. But luckily, regardless of timeline, that was one thing Jack could always count on Aster for – to notice and to get very, very wound up over whatever it was he had done. It was Jack's favourite thing about Aster, truth be told, and it made him an irresistible target for magical mischief.
But one could argue that his penchant for trouble was a learning tool of sorts. After all, it encouraged him to expand his horizons. Magically speaking, of course.
Magic opened up a whole world of possibilities, because there was just so much more one could achieve than by muggle means.
Such as items of clothing that temporarily altered one's physical features, not unlike the Lop Earmuffs Jack had given his new foster brothers during his first Yuletide with their family the previous year. As a kindness to him, Mrs Mund had immediately insisted both of her sons try them on, and Jack had laughed so hard that he'd choked on his eggnog and half of it had come back up through his nose.
Roo was only little, so had taken it all in stride and spent the rest of the day hopping about with his enormous floppy rabbit ears. Aster, on the other hand, had no such sense of humour.
And despite having shared his family with Jack for half a school-year, and his home for half a summer, that hadn't changed.
"FROST!"
Jack took another sip of his lemonade and glanced over his sunglasses nonchalantly. "Problem?"
Jack had always felt his best quality was his ability to always find a way to have a laugh, no matter his circumstances. And so that's exactly what Jack had done.
Glaring at him through the mesh screen on his bedroom window, his foster brother stood shivering in a sleeveless bedshirt and boxers, nearly waist-deep in snow.
"Yeah, you." Aster growled. "You bloody useless bogan."
"What's the matter, Bunny?" Jack asked, feigning innocence as he pulled his sunglasses up to rest on the top of his head and readying his entire repertoire of Australian colloquialisms. "Why you sound as cross as a frog in a sock."
"Don't call me that."
"Don't call you what? 'Bunny'?" Jack pouted. "But it suits you so well."
"Oh, bugger off."
Jack made his way up to the window, and squinted through the mesh. "You know, you've got a little something, right there."
Jack gestured to one of Aster's shoulders, which had a small layer of snow forming on it.
"And what do you know, there'sa little over there too." Jack gestured to Aster's other shoulder, then looked up with wide eyes, gasping as though the cloud floating about a foot above Aster's head, roughly the size of a single mattress, was something he'd only just noticed."Why, it's a meteorological marvel!"
Aster's green eyes narrowed. "Oh, I've heard just about enough out of you, mate."
"What, don't you like snow days?"
"It's the middle of July, ya Drongo." Aster said. "What if a muggle were to see-"
"I didn't know you kept muggles in your bedroom." Jack said with a smirk. "Chill, Bunny, it's just a bit of fun."
"You'd better get this snow out of my sight-"
"Or else?" Jack finished for him, eyes narrowed as he met his brother's challenge. "Or else what?"
"Or else I'll report you to the Ministry for underage magic."
"I suppose you do have a point." Jack said, seeming almost defeated for a sliver of a second, before feigning a realization. Running a hand through his brown hair and grabbing his sunglasses between his fingers, he gave the taller boy his signature lopsided grin. "Too bad you can't prove it."
Without waiting for Aster's response, Jack hopped back away from the window and with a cheerful wave, broke into a sprint the second his bare feet touched the sidewalk.
Aster's voice followed him most of the way down the street. "Get back here, Frost!"
Merida breathed a long sigh through her nose as she stared out across the terrace at the ancient gargoyle on the corner of the building, the stone railings cool against her skin even in the warm summer air. Her fingers tensed like claws when she heard the door open and close behind her, and she gritted her teeth, readying herself for yet another row with Elinor.
But instead of her mother, it was two girls her own age who joined her to look out over the gardens.
"Well, that's one way to make an exit," Aurora said, nudging playfully with her elbow as she joined her in leaning on the railing.
Merida couldn't help but snort. "Pretty sure mum's goin' ta kill me."
Snovita patted her forearm. "Oh, dear,"
"This whole thing is doing my head in, A've had enough with the lot of it."
"Well, hopefully it won't be for too much longer," Aurora said.
"Too long already, if ye ask me," Merida replied, bracing her hands against the railing and leaning her full weight back. "The doaty old hag said A had 'child bearing hips'. What a load of naff."
"Well," Snovita said. "While it's certainly not the most romantic way to phrase it, it wasn't intended as a derogatory comment – it was supposed to be a compliment."
"In what world is that a compliment?" Merida huffed, rolling her eyes. "Ye best excuse me, A must go swoon over being publicly touted as a bloodybroodmare. A don't know how anyone could possibly hope to stay single, what with all that heartfelt romantic sentiment about."
Aurora bit her lip to cover a smile, and glanced away, maintaining her composure almost as elegantly as Elinor herself.
"Well, if you want to make a romantic connection, you could try actually talking to your prospective suitors," Snovita suggested with a small, graceful shrug. "Aurora said you'd have had lots in common with that boy from the Gryffindor quidditch team."
"But that's just it, A don't want romance or suitors," Merida said, frowning. "I'm seventeen. I don't want to get married at all, ever."
"I know it's difficult to see the romance in it at the moment, but perhaps you could come to love your betrothed, if you gave yourself the opportunity to get to know them," Snovita offered optimistically. "Arranged marriages can turn into love matches, if given the chance. Oh, just look at your parents-"
"My mother sent you," Merida said, her brow furrowed as she regarded her friends with narrowed eyes. "Didn't she?"
Aurora winced.
"Merida, please," Snovita said, pouting. "We're just trying to help."
"Help?" Merida repeated, stepping back from the railing. "How does it help me if ye take her side?"
"We aren't siding with-" Snovita began, but Merida cut her off.
"Yes, you are! Or ye wouldn't be out here, trying ta convince me ta do what she wants me ta do. A thought ye were supposed to be my friends, not hers."
"We are your friends," Aurora insisted. "And we want you to be happy-"
"No, yer not!" Merida spat, and both Snovita and Aurora flinched at the bile in her tone. "A cannae believe this! Some friends you turned out ta be. Well, A won't make that mistake again."
And with that, she strode past them, glowering as she climbed up onto the railing and in spite of her corset and abundance of skirts, managed to navigate her way down the vine-covered trellises that covered the building's entire outer wall from ground to roof.
Ignoring her two companions as they cried out after her, their voices strained, Merida aimed a solid kick at a shapely rosebush as she passed, and then, blinking back tears, stormed off through the gardens. "Traitors."
His heart pounding hard in his chest, Hiccup hurried down the corridor towards the narrow alleyway behind the shop. His stomach had butterflies and was tied up in knots all at the same time, tingling with a mixture of adrenaline, curiosity and validation.
He didn't have a plan. All he knew was that this would change everything. He'd managed to capture a magical beast and not only that, but he had invented a new detaining spell that actually worked. This was going to change his entire life. He'd definitely be able to get into the Berkworks internship program now.
But the sense of vindication in his worth as a wizard soured the minute he reached the hallway, and saw the red splatters across the walls and stone floor.
The stench of blood and fear hit his nose, and his own blood froze like ice in his veins.
His foot bumped against something black and furry, and when he looked down, he nearly lost his lunch as his stomach threatened to empty its' contents. On the ground at his feet was about seven inches of what looked like an animal's tail.
What had he done?
Following the sounds of panting and whimpering into the alleyway, he found the rest of the creature – fortunately otherwise in one piece – a large black tomcat with green eyes, struggling against invisible binds and bleeding from a stump where its' tail had been.
"No," Hiccup breathed, feeling his knees go weak. He put a hand against the wall to steady himself, unsure if he was going to be sick.
Conficio was intended to be a binding spell, a spell intended to restrain but not harm its' captive. Evidently he had managed to screw that up spectacularly – just like he did with everything else.
This spell was dangerous and unpredictable.
Hiccup would never use Conficio again.
Ever.
His body numb, he staggered towards the injured animal, desperate to undo his spell.
Hiccup knelt in front of the beast, determined to help despite the way the cat was growling and spitting at him as he approached. Waving his wand, the creature's magical restraints fell away and it lunged, sinking its' claws into his forearm and raking them along his flesh as it pulled itself close enough to strike his knuckle with its' teeth, drawing blood there too.
"Ow, ow – I definitely deserve this, but – ow – I'm trying – ow – to help."
Clenching his jaw, his breath came out as a hiss between his teeth and he squeezed his eyes closed as involuntary tears streaked down his cheeks. But at least the cat's attack had broken his trance. Grasping against the cobbles for the wand he'd dropped when the cat had latched onto his arm, he finally had a plan – but better late than never, right?
His fingers brushed polished wood.
"Impedimenta!"
With a flash of turquoise light, the cat froze. His vision still blurred by tears, Hiccup unhooked the creature's claws and teeth from his arm, ignoring the blood running down his forearm and fingers and dripping onto the cobbles.
Pocketing his wand, he scooped up the cat with his uninjured arm and hurried back into the shop, using his back to push open the store room door. Leaving red smears across the countertop, Hiccup swept everything off the bench and sent it clattering onto the floor, clearing a workspace for himself. Laying the cat down gently on the cleared surface, he closed the door to block its escape route, before hurrying to the cauldron to summon some water to clean both of their injuries.
There were bandages in the shop somewhere and he was sure he'd seen some kind of medical potions on a shelf near the front as well.
Making mistakes had always been his forte, but now he had an opportunity to give fixing one a try.
She wasn't a squib after all.
So many years she'd spent hoping, wishing, dreaming, about being a witch, about going to Hogwarts.
And now her dream was finally coming true.
Had her other letters just gotten lost? No, they couldn't have. Mother said that Hogwarts would have kept writing if they'd sent letters and received no response. So perhaps her magic had only just come through?
That had to be it. She must be a late bloomer, that was all. And now she'd finally get to go to Hogwarts and learn all about magic and witchcraft and magical everything.
Her heart was so full, she worried it might burst.
It had taken all of three minutes to write back to Hogwarts and tell them to hold her place, that she would indeed be joining them for the upcoming school year. Dreamsand had climbed onto her shoulder and nuzzled her cheek through a curtain of long golden hair, before gasping the folded slip of parchment with her beak and taking flight. From her seat on the windowsill, Rapunzel had watched Dreamsand soar over the garden, climbing higher into the sky before her' silhouette faded into the darkening horizon.
A few minutes later, Mother arrived home.
Rapunzel nearly squealed in excitement as she greeted her. "Mother, you'll never guess what happened!"
She wanted so desperately to throw her arms around the older woman, and tell her everything, but Mother was very particular about not being touched. As a child, Rapunzel had been scolded so many times for creasing her dress or messing her hair. So now, she waited, her news bubbling up in her chest like fizz, threatening to spill over at any moment.
"I bet I can," Mother said, sing-song, before Rapunzel could share her news. Pulling off her cloak, the woman handed it to her daughter to put away. "Let me see...you finished weeding the garden?"
"Well yes, I did, but that's not quite it-"
"You know, I really don't know how you do it, knee-deep in the dirt all day long."
"Oh, it's nothing, really," Rapunzel tucked a lock of hair behind her ear.
"Then I don't know why it takes so long," Sing-song again, Mother smoothed her dress. When she noticed Rapunzel wilting, she rolled her eyes. "I'm just teasing, dear, you don't have to take everything so seriously."
"Right," Rapunzel said, nodding. Taking a deep breath, she thought of the Hogwarts letter up in her room, and felt that fizziness bubble up inside of her once again, and couldn't help but grin. "So-"
"And what about that pesky garden gnome, did you finally manage to get rid of it?"
"Not yet," Rapunzel ducked her head. "I almost caught it though – I'll try again tomorrow."
She'd gotten very close, but at the last second, the gnome had darted to the side and slipped right through her grasp. She'd spent half the afternoon diving after it, but it was a sneaky little thing, and surprisingly nimble, despite its' disproportionately large head.
"It got away again? Oh Rapunzel," Mother sighed. "It's ruining our whole crop of dittany, and you know I rely on that supply for the shop. I asked you if you could handle looking after that for me-"
"I can do it, Mother," Rapunzel promised. "I will do it."
"Are you sure? Because I still have time to order it from another supplier... well, if you're certain you can do this for me. I'm really counting on you, Rapunzel," Cupping the girls' face in her hands, Mother gave her a kiss on the forehead. "I'm so proud of you, my Flower."
Turning to her favourite mirror as she always did when she arrived home, Mother fluffed her curls and set about checking her reflection for imperfections.
Inspecting the corners of her eyes for crows feet, the woman had bored of her daughter's conversation. "Did an owl arrive for me?"
"Well, yes – and no." Rapunzel said, her smile lighting up. Her hands balled up under her chin, she did a giddy little dance, shifting her weight from side to side. "Sort of."
Her unusual response earned a suspicious look from her Mother.
"Rapunzel, you know what happens if you take a letter not intended for you-"
"No, it didn't – well, yes, there was an owl, and I was going to wait until you got home, but-"
"Rapunzel, you sound completely incomprehensible," Mother said, her voice sharp with an edge of waning patience. "You know it's annoying when you're inarticulate."
"Sorry." Rapunzel ducked her head again.
"You said there was an owl?" Mother prompted, turning to survey the windows with narrowed eyes. "Where is it?"
"That's what I've been trying to tell you." Rapunzel said. "The letter wasn't for you."
Mother's gaze snapped back to Rapunzel with an emotion she didn't quite recognize.
"It was for me."
"Really?" There was a sharpness in her tone that Rapunzel hadn't expected. "Well that is a surprise. And whoever was it from?"
"Hogwarts School!"
"Why on earth would Hogwarts be writing to you?"
"They've invited me to come and study magic for the upcoming school term."
"Surely they've made a mistake – they must have sent you somebody else's letter. You're a squib."
"But it said my name on it. 'Ms. Rapunzel Gothel, The East Bedroom'. My magic must have just come in late – I'm sure that happens sometimes."
"Well, I'm certainly surprised. Imagine, after all these years of thinking you're nothing special, and now you're a witch," Mother said, although she certainly didn't sound as surprised or as pleased as Rapunzel had hoped. "But how can you start Hogwarts now? Why, you're as old as I was when I left school."
"I'm sure it wouldn't be so bad,"
"You won't have any classmates your own age." Mother said. "It's really such a shame that your magic came in so late. It really doesn't make any sense to send you to Hogwarts now – you'd be an absolute laughing stock, surrounded by little children half your age."
"But I-" Rapunzel faltered. She hadn't considered that. "But I've already written them and accepted."
"You did what?"
Character Cameos:
Snovita Grimm - Snow White
Aurora Rose - Aurora / Briar Rose
Ai Zheng - Matchmaker from Mulan
Gunnar Borksen - Gobber the Belch
Erzsebet Gothel - Mother Gothel
Aster Mund - E. Aster Bunnymund
I want to give a shoutout for the awesome illustration of the Jack and Aster scene from this chapter that one of my friends did for me. You can find it on into-the-potterverse, my sideblog for this fic. I highly encourage you to come and check it out!