The door slammed open, revealing an angry looking Ashley, her wand in hand. Everyone in the DA froze, turning to face her as she surveyed the group until her gaze landed on Merida. Tadashi slowly walked towards her, uncertain as to what she would do.
"Um, Ashley? Are you okay?" He asked nervously, her eyes flicking towards him before once more focusing on Merida.
"Merida, get out here. I've warned you before, to never so much as look at a Slytherin. You didn't listen. I told you what would happen if you didn't listen." Ashley said, her voice full of anger, poison practically dripping when she said the house's name. Merida looked around the room, making eye contact with her friends. Jack gave a small nod, moving his gaze in an attempt to find a way out. He saw the door off to the right but immediately dismissed it as he saw Ashley looking there occasionally as well, her wand slowly drifting towards it. Behind was a promising window, one that could open enough for them to get out. And with a simple Accio spell, they could summon brooms beneath the window. It might seem a little extreme to some, but given the fact that a crazy 6th year looked like she wanted to fire a spell at them, he thought it was just right.
He made eye contact with Hiccup next to him, glancing towards the window. Hiccup gave him no confirmation, but slowly moved his wand to just behind his robe. A soft blue glow remained hidden only due to the position of Merida
The window popped open, a soft breeze flowing through. Rapunzel, having caught onto what they were planning, kept her eyes on girl, taking slow steps towards her.
"Ashley, would you like to talk to me?" Rapunzel said softly. She took a deep breath,understanding that what she was about to say would hurt some, but also that it would be needed to keep the blonde girl's attention. "I'm from Hufflepuff. Remember, the house of loyalty. You can talk to me. You are very kind, aren't you, looking out for those in your house. Keeping those who are evil away from those the headmaster trusted you with. Won't you talk to me?" with each sentence, she took another step towards her, keeping her voice calm and peaceful. Ashley turned to face her, still glancing back at between Merida and Jack while ignoring Hiccup and the slowly opening window.
"That right, I have been looking out for them for years. But how does this traitor repay me? By talking to a Slytherin. How dare she. How dare she talk to that Slytherin. Does she think she is above me? Because she's not. She's below me. I'm the one on top. I'm the gryffindor prefect. I'm in charge. So I make the rules. And I say all slytherin must die!" By the time she finished her rant, she was practically yelling. She threw herself at Jack, wand out with a spell on her lips when he gave the signal to the others. With a boost from Hiccups wind, the four threw themselves out of the window, wands out calling forth a spell.
"Accio Broom!" Jack called, a broom flying up under him. He reached out and pulled Rapunzel on behind him. At the same time, Hiccup called out a slightly different spell.
"Excresco" He called, causing Toothless to grow and fly under him, allowing him and Merida to settle on to his back. They could all hear a screech from above, Ashley shooting spells half hazardly at them and they flew to the ground. One on the ground, they all looked up to see a broom wiz towards the open window, floating next to it to allow the blond on. With one glance at each other, they four friends hopped back on and took off, each taking a turn to glance at Jack as he tried to formulate a plan. Stealing a glance behind, Hiccup saw Jack and Rapunzel trying to keep up with the fast dragon, Ashley slowly catching up. Merida clung to his back as she too looked back. Both of them knew they were in trouble. Ashley was the best chaser on the Gryffindor team, a fast flyer and deadly accuracy that didn't help when they were trying to dodge the stun spells aimed at each of them.
"Accio brooms!" came identical calls from the two girls, hopping on to their own brooms once they had caught up. Toothless had to slow down to let Merida make the short leap. With that, the four speed off, splitting in four different directions trying to see who the crazy hogwarts student behind them would go after. It only took her a second to choose the slytherin house as her target, barreling after him with the speed she was known for. Fortunately for the boy, his friends anticipated this and were soon behind the two students.
"I'll help Jack, you two girls try to find some way to stop Ashley. We can't do anything if she's out of control and shooting spells at us." With those few words, the trio split up, Hiccup urging Toothless to fly faster, watching the chase going on below him and helping Jack speed up with a bit of wind.
The two girls quickly returned to the DA classroom to find the students still there, along with several teachers. Professor Easter was the first to ask questions once the girls entered the group.
"What in the world is going on here? You girls know you are not allowed to use the brooms without professor Toothia's permission."
"Sorry professor but it was an emergency. Ashley came in here looking crazy, pointing her wand at us. She kept spouting stuff like how all slytherins were evil and how I was going to pay for talking to a slytherin." Merida explained.
"And where is Miss Greavey now?" Professor Toothia asked, looking around the room.
"Chasing our friend Jack as we speak. Please professor, you have to stop her." Rapunzel pleaded.
"What on earth are you talking about. We discussed this before and Ashley agreed to be less protective. She would never break her word. Besides, she was only doing the job of a prefect." Professor Bunnymund said, clearly looking unimpressed at the story the girls told him.
"It's true sir. She burst in here with her wand. If it weren't for the students quick thinking of leaving through the window, I believe she would have used spells worse than a simply stun spell." Honey Lemon said.
Before the professor could respond to the allegations, proof flew right in front of his eyes, in the form of his student chasing after the two first years with a wild gleam in her eyes and spells shooting from her wand in quick succession.
"Alright girls. We will discuss this more in a few minutes. Professor, I believe I will need your help. All students are to remain within the castle, understood?" The professor said, quickly hurrying off with the flight professor hot on his heels. The two girls waited until the door closed behind them before hurrying back to the window. They hopped on their brooms and flew out the window, several calls of good luck following them. The girls rose high into the air to try and find their friends in their mad chase.
"What are we supposed to do once we catch up to them? Shouldn't we leave this to the professors?" Rapunzel asked nervously, glancing towards Merida while the girl continued to look for their friends.
"We aren't leaving those two on their own. They're our friends so we need to help them." She replied, not willing to leave their friends midflight.
"I'm just thinking, we're still first years. We don't know as many spells as Ashley, plus we aren't as good at flying yet. Or at least we haven't had as much practice. What can we do?"
"Guess we'll have to figure it while flying." Merida replied, suddenly dropping down to join the two boys as they passed by, Rapunzel trying to catch up.
"Any ideas on how to end this." Merida called out to the two next to her. Hiccup took a chance to glance over his shoulder, urging his reptilian friend up next to his brown haired friend.
"Jack, hop onto Toothless. We won't be able to stay out of reach for much longer on the brooms." Hiccup said, receiving a small nod from the boy. Merida looked back herself to see the gap was slowly closing. Then Merida frowned, a sudden thought entering her mind.
"How has she not caught up already? She's one of the best chasers at this school." Hiccup frowned as well, having not thought of that himself.
"I don't know. We can ask her later but for now we need a solution."
"Hiccup, I'm going to hop over now." Jack called over the wind. Hiccup gave a small nod, drawing the dragon closer to the boy as the older student began a new volley of spells. Jack ducked down as a few of the spells flew dangerously close to where his head was just a moment ago. In a brief pause between spells, Jack hopped over to the dragon, the broom falling to the ground. Toothless remained undaunted by the extra weight, speeding up without Hiccup's urging.
"Uhh, looks like the school might need to get an new broom." Jack joked as he saw the broom splinter to pieces just before it was out of sight, the ground not providing a soft landing for the magical item.
"So, still have to figure out what we're going to do." The redhead prompted once more.
"I have an idea, but it's really dangerous." Another series of spells flew through the air, Toothless barely avoiding them.
"More dangerous than have a mad student hit us with one of her spells?" Jack still hesitated to reveal his plan. It was only when his stomach leapt to his throat as the dragon dropped to avoid the stun spell aimed at his head did he lay out the plan.
Without question, Merida flew up, slowing down just enough to drop behind the blond girl while Rapunzel followed the chase from underneath. The two boys on the dragon lead the chase lower to the ground, maintaining their breakneck speed. Students were slowly filling the windows as the group flew by, curious to see what was going on.
The group all flew to the bridge, toothless folding his wings and spinning as he passed between two beams. Merida flew over top of the bridge while the other two girls passed underneath. The chase lead around the north tower and back towards the Quidditch pitch as the group began to put their plan into action. Toothless suddenly dropped, sending him and the two boys on his back straight towards the ground with Ashley not far behind. Just before they crashed into the ground, Toothless pulled up, flying parallel to the grounds just a few feet below. Ashley kept pace with them, slowing down slightly as she came closer to the ground then speeding up as she continued the chase. She was soon slowed down though by the smoke coming off of the tail end of her broom. Above the group, Merida quickly put her wand back into her robe as her broom wobbled, still unused to casting spells mid flight.
Ashley screamed in frustration, glaring quickly at Merida before turning back to her target and sending a frenzy of spells at the two boys, not caring where they hit.
"Incendio! Incendio! Immobilus! Stupefy! Stupefy! Stupefy! Stupefy!" Streams of fire flew by, followed soon by a wave of red spells attempting to stun all three of them. Toothless managed to dodge most of the spells, though Hiccup was uncertain where his stomach ended up during the constant spinning. One of the many stun spells managed to hit the black dragon but it did not affect him, making Jack very happy to have switched to the dragon.
The fire Merida had sent earlier was growing quickly, causing the broom to struggle as Ashley tried to stay on course. Rapunzel stayed close behind the sixth year, watching as the broom spun out of control and sent the older girl flying. As planned, she sent a spell towards the ground where Ashley was going to land.
"Spongify!" came a loud cry from the naturally calm girl. Ashley bounced a few times before the ground returned to normal and she remained on the ground, stunned by what had transpired. By this time the two professors, who had struggled to keep up with the group finally caught up, landed. Professor Toothia sent ropes to tie the girl as she gained her bearings and reached for her wand, her eyes never leaving Jack.
As professor Toothia brought the older student back inside the castle, Professor turned to face the four students in front of him. His face held a deep frown as he stood silently, scrutinising each of them in turn. Finally he gave a heavy sigh.
"Look, you guys shouldn't have done anything there. First years are not allowed to use brooms outside of class without a teacher's permission. Not to mention you aren't allowed to use spells on other students." Jack flinched, knowing he was the one who suggested brooms in the first place. Rapunzel bowed her head, not one to break any of the rules while Merida faced the professor, meeting his eyes. "That being said, nice one. You kids got her too the ground and no one else got hurt. You did good. The professors will take it from here."
The four friends were left to stare as professor Bunnymaud returned to the castle. They glanced at one another as wide grins took over their faces. Rapunzel was the first to move, pulling Merida and Jack close while she laughed and grinned. Merida glanced at Jack who shrugged his shoulders and put one arm around the blonde girl while reaching over to pull Hiccup into the large group hug. Not to be left out, Toothless nudged his head between Hiccup and Merida while giving his own namesake grin. The group laughed at his actions before breaking apart and returning to the castle themselves.
"Well students, that concludes another year. Congratulations on a fun and eventful time at Hogwarts and we hope to see many faces next year. With that, let's eat." A flourish of the headmasters arms brought food to cover every inch of the long tables. Jack gave Hiccup a big grin as their eyes met, waving back excitably to Rapunzel from across the room as Merida rolled her eyes at their antics with a smile of her own.
"So, what exactly was up with Ashley?" Astrid asked, having stayed in the DA room during the high speed broom chase. After the professors brought Ashley inside, they had questioned the four of them about what had happened, as well as some of the other Gryffindors who had talked about Ashley before but were not believed.
"The professors said they aren't sure what happened. They think she just went off the deep end. Apparently she keeps screaming about how Jack was going to kill us and how all of the other houses were plotting to take down Gryffindor. How she came up with that we have no idea. She had always hated Slytherin and us being friends was too much." Merida replied, barely getting the explanation out as she was pulled into other conversations, everyone wanting to know what had happened and how four first years were able to stop a sixth year. Not to mention out flying the best chaser on Gryffindor's team. The others weren't having any easier of a time, not even Jack.
"Alright, alright. That's enough let's give her a bit of room." Glimmer said from her seat next to the brown haired boy from Ravenclaw. Hiccup began to relax only to jump when she began her typical stream of conversation. "Seriously though, how did you guys out fly her? She's literally the best chaser at this school right now. She's almost better than great aunt Ginny. And she was pretty good. Plus you guys were throwing spells like it was normal. That's hard for everyone, even sixth years like me. How did you guys figure out what to do? You told Merida to fly above? 'Cuz that was smart. And having Rapunzel underneath was perfect. Just in case things went wrong, right? I mean right as in correct, not if everything went right. And then having…" At this point Tadashi came to the young boys rescue, putting a calming hand on her shoulder.
"Let's give them a bit of space." He said. Glimmer pouted in protest but she agreed, causing Hiccup and Fishlegs, who was being questioned just as much for his friendship to the others, to heave a huge sigh of relief. They finished eating and returned to their room to finish packing everything.
Hiccup finished quickly, wandering around the castle before he had to leave. He soon found himself in front of the Hogwarts crest that led to the school common room. He pressed his hand to the invisible door, lighting up the Gryffindor symbol and pushing it open. Unexpectedly, the room was not empty. Rapunzel was twirling around the center of the room, her long hair spinning around her. Jack was lying on one of the couches, his legs hanging over the edge and his wand in his hand, sending red and green sparks into the air. Merida was sitting front of the fireplace near Jack, waving her wand in sync with the flames. All three glanced up as they heard him enter.
"So, you guys had the same idea."
"I just wanted to say goodbye to this place before I went home." Rapunzel said, out of breath from her dancing. "Plus I don't have to worry too much about my hair in here."
"Ya, this place you can let your hair down." Merida said with a grin, sharing a short laugh with Jack. The four shared a small smile as they all looked around the empty room. The rest of the students were finishing up their own packing. They were all silent, none of them wanting to break the calm feeling they all felt. Finally Hiccup broke the silence.
"We should get going. The train will be here soon." The others nodded, all of them slowly moving towards the door.
"Then I guess we'll see each other next year." Rapunzel said, smiling brightly as the group split up and headed home.