AN: Whew! Well, guys, another chapter for you! Thank you for all the reviews! I hope you all enjoy this chapter!

NOTES: Fragile Threads, Fragile Threads, Whatever shall we do with all these Threads?

REVIEWERS!:

BrawlerGamer: I enjoyed the chickens either way, and as far as Hiccup with the Nifflers go... I might try. I can draw kinda okay, but people are hard for me. I would love to see art of it though! Not only would it be adorable, but it would probably make my heart explode with joy to see someone do fanart of my story... Anyways~ Trust me, there will be plenty more bribery of cauldron cakes. They give Hiccup life. And I actually did, very seriously, consider having Mericcup, but I decided against it for the overall plot of the series and because I wanted to focus more on friendship than on any relationships. Also, I wouldn't be so quick to assume. There was more going on with that fight than you think. Hiccup probably would've lost whether Macintosh was ticklish or not. Bunny knows quite a lot, but he doesn't have all the pieces to this puzzle. And thank you, I quite like it, too!

Graceful Petals: Thank you so much! I'm so happy that you like it! And don't worry, I am determined to finish this entire series one day. Might take a while, but I will finish it!

HanyouExorcistAlchemist48: Hehe, might take a while before everything is out in the open, but I hope you enjoy it, nonetheless :)

C: Thank you so much for both of your kind reviews! You honestly do not know how much a blushed and smiled when I read them! And, yes, I did eventually get both of them. No worries, I've had a history of reviews doing weird things. But, anyways, I am so happy to hear that you like my story and think so many wonderful things about it! I know that the fandom has gotten quite a bit smaller, and sometimes I do wonder why I don't have many views/follows etc., but the regular reviewers I do have make it all worth it! You guys are so sweet and kind, and honestly this is one of the funnest projects I've ever worked on, so discouragement doesn't last long with this. Thank you so much for taking the time to write such kind and encouraging words, they are much appreciated! :3

Chapter 7: Feelings of Isolation

Weeks passed after that. Merida found that her mother had caught on to her escape routes after classes, and so the short-lived freedom was gone. Merida spent her mornings in class, her meals on the dais with her family, the Lords, and her teachers, and afternoons were filled with princess lessons. She hardly ever got a moment with her friends anymore, and they usually had to settle for being together in class.

Lucky for Merida, though, her father was thrilled to hear about Dueling Club and insisted she keep going. Her mother had no choice but to give her the time off, which Merida was endlessly grateful for.

More often than not Merida found her boredom lead her to thoughts of her friends. She missed them. She saw the other Gryffindors more often than she saw the others, and it made her squirm. She didn't like not being able to see her friends and talk to them and laugh with them. Their first two years they had spent entirely together. Even fought off Daren and his friends for trying to ruin their friendship. Now Merida just felt like another red tie in the hallways.

She'd never say it out loud, but Merida was lonely. Their friendship meant so much to her. It meant someone cared. It meant she had a place somewhere, she meant something to someone. She was more than just a Princess, more than just a Gryffindor. She wasn't the picture-perfect copy of her mother that all of Scotland expected her to be.

Not even Quidditch could make her feel quite like that, and Quidditch was one of her favorite things! It even took more of her time away from Princess Lessons with her mom. But if given the choice, Merida would've chosen her friends over preparing for the first game of the season. Camicazi and Eep seemed to notice it during practices, too, but they never commented on it. They would occasionally give her sympathetic glances, though, which made Merida feel a bit better, knowing that the older girls at least partially understood what a hard time she was having.

These were the reasons why, when it was finally time for Divination class again, Merida found herself walking quite a bit faster than the other students, and then giving up the facade of patience when she caught sight of Rapunzel's braid and Jack's snowy-colored hair. She ran down the hallway and would have fell over when she came skidding to a stop if all three of her friends hadn't reached out to steady her.

"Excited for Divination?" Rapunzel giggled when Merida turned to them, her hair tumbling all about and her breathing slightly labored from her sudden sprint.

"Well, of course she is! She's at the top of the class!" Jack pointed out, a slight pout taking over his features as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"That's not the only reason!" Merida argued, blushing slightly.

It was no secret that Merida had taken to Divination like a fish to water. Professor Robinson quickly discovered this and would always turn to her if the others were having trouble making predictions or answering certain questions. Her friends were convinced she had the Gift of Visions and Sight, but Merida brushed them off, telling them it was just a fun class and that was all. Which was true, for the most part, Divination had quickly become Merida's favorite subject because it was fun and interesting, the teacher was great, and, as an added bonus, all three of her friends were in the class with her.

Before anyone could say anything else, Professor Robinson showed up, running exactly ten minutes late, just like always. She opened the door and the students filed into the classroom. They all found their seats as Professor Robinson set her bag on the table and pulled out a stack of small books.

"Now, as promised, today we will be looking at each others tea leaves, so while I am giving my lecture I want you all to pour yourselves some tea and drink it. It's a pleasant mint flavor, by the way." She added as the students began following her instructions.

On each table there was a tea pot and two or three cups with saucers. Each table had a different set with different colors and designs, and a couple of the cups and saucers didn't match, but Merida enjoyed all of the different tea sets.

Rapunzel poured their tea, being much better at it than Merida, and didn't spill a single drop, which Merida thought was rather impressive. Soon the room smelled of mint and the warm tea was very soothing after being so stressed those past few weeks.

"Very good. Now, what I have here is something we'll be starting in a few weeks, which is Dream Interpretation. I want each of you to keep a Dream Journal. Write down anything you can remember, whether you think it's prophetic or not, and bring it to each class because you'll never know when I'll ask for it." Professor Robinson grinned mischievously and used her wand to send the journals floating out to each of the students. "This will be one of your hardest assignments, but for some of you -" She paused, letting her eyes drift to Merida, then to a few other students. "-it may be a good way to determine whether or not you have the Sight."

Merida took her journal looking curious. This sounded interesting, and if Professor Robinson thought she should give it a try then she would. Merida looked at her friends and found that Rapunzel looked as curious as she felt, Jack was mumbling something about never being able to remember and empty journal, and Hiccup didn't look too thrilled at all.

Soon after that Professor Robinson finished her lecture and told them to finish their tea while she finished writing notes on the black board. Merida was thankful for the extra time because she still had more than half her cup left.

Naturally, all of the students started to chat between sipping their tea, so Merida turned to her friends and decided to ask them what they had been up to for the past couple of weeks, seeing as their lives had been turned upside down and they now spent the majority of their time apart.

"Well, I've been really busy helping at the Infirmary with Dr. Sweet. He says I'm getting really good at all the spells he's been teaching me. He says that soon I'll be good enough to start practicing more intermediate level spells." Rapunzel replied, smiling happily.

"That's great, Punzie. It must be a lot of fun then," Merida said, happy that Rapunzel was having such a could time helping in the Hospital Wing.

"Oh, it really is! Dr. Sweet even said that maybe the next time he sends Nurse Eudora to The City of Magic for the special herbs I might get to go with her!" Rapunzel told them excitedly.

"Wow, that's where the Ministry of Magic is! And the Aurors' Headquarters! Wish I could go." Jack leaned onto his elbows that were resting on the table he shared with Hiccup so he could get closer to the conversation.

"It's certainly an honor." Hiccup agreed, subtly moving the tea pot so Jack wouldn't knock it off the table and break it, spilling tea everywhere.

"From what I've heard you two have gotten into enough trouble just here at Hogwarts." Rapunzel crossed her arms, looking up at the boys with a raised eyebrow and a sneaky smirk.

Jack and Hiccup at least had the decency to look a little sheepish, seeing as more than half of the school's male population now had pink hair because of the dye the two had put in the second floor's shampoo supply.

"It'll wash out!" Jack reassured them, but he could barely contain his giggles, and Hiccup snorted at him.

Some of the boys sitting near by must have guessed what they were talking about because they either glared or gave Jack and Hiccup a thumbs-up and a grin. At least what Jack said was true, and most of the dye had already faded from their heads after three days, leaving only small locks of hair and hard to reach places still colored by the sparkly pink mixture they had made up.

"Should I even ask what else you've been doing with your time, or should I not hear this in case I get in trouble for being an accomplice?" Merida eyed them suspiciously, but her grin was making it hard for even her to take herself seriously.

"Don't worry, Bunnymund's already given us detention for everything he knows about." Jack waved her off.

"An the stuff he doesn't know about?" Rapunzel raised her eyebrows at him.

"What Professor Bunnymund doesn't know won't hurt him. It's not like our adventures effect anyone besides us. It's the pranks he cares about, anyways." Hiccup shrugged.

"Where do you two even find the time to do these kinds of things?" Merida wanted to know.

Jack looked around to make sure no one was listening or paying attention to them, and then leaned down close. "Big castle. Even with the teachers and Prefects patrolling at night it's pretty easy to get around. Especially if you know about the secret passages." Jack whispered.

"Alright, what have you been doing that doesn't involve breaking school rules?" Merida asked, deciding that it was probably better if they didn't continue this in the middle of class, surrounded by plenty of ears that could possibly overhear them.

"Hm, well..." Jack looked thoughtful for a moment, rubbing his chin as he racked his brain, and then looked at Hiccup who shrugged.

"Oh, honestly! That's all you two have been doing?!" Merida exclaimed.

"Well, I have Quidditch training, but I figured you already knew that!" Jack retaliated. "But I guess I have been hanging out with Professor North after Charms. He's been giving me extra lessons with my staff."

"You've been having trouble with your staff?" Rapunzel inquired worriedly, but Jack shook his head.

"No, I've been doing really well according to most of my teachers, but North offered and I wasn't gonna say no to special training. Besides, it's only for a few minutes after Charms, maybe fifteen, tops? Sometimes half an hour when we get carried away." Jack explained.

"I guess Professor Robinson isn't the only one who's found a favorite student." Merida smirked, Jack gave her a rather dry glare.

"No, Professor North just offered to help because he knows I want to be an Auror when I graduate, and the testing for Aurors are some of the hardest in the world." Jack reasoned, but Merida just rolled her eyes. "But other than that, I've been hanging out with Hiccup and the other guys."

"The guys?" Rapunzel voiced the question on both their minds.

"Yeah, Hiccup, Jim, Flynn, and I have been hanging out a lot. Sometimes Tadashi will come along, too, but he's gonna be Quidditch Captain next year because Buddy Pine is graduating this Spring, so he's pretty busy." Jack told them.

"It's fun. We end up in the courtyards a lot, usually to throw around a Spark Ball." Hiccup gave a smile. "Aside from that, Mr. Crood has been letting me help with the creatures. I help him feed them, and he lets me hang out with them any time I want. He even mentioned the possibility of digging up an extra key so he wouldn't need to be constantly unlocking everything for me."

"Well, that doesn't surprise me much. The only teacher who seems suspicious of you is Professor Bunnymund." Merida commented, watching Hiccup closely for any kind of reaction, but his face was blank. He was like a statue, Merida couldn't see any emotion on his face at all.

Hiccup shrugged, his face still impassive. "Let Bunnymund do what he wants. I'm more worried about your situation. How's your mom?"

Merida frowned, glaring down at her near-empty cup. "Infuriating. Constantly expecting more. Never listens. But what else is new?"

"That bad, huh?" Rapunzel reached out and put a hand on her shoulder.

"I don't want to talk about it." Merida sighed, and her friends seemed to accept this pretty easily since they were in the middle of class, but they did look worried. Merida didn't bother trying to reassure them with a smile because she knew she couldn't manage a convincing one, but she resolved herself to talking with them the next time she got the chance to do so freely.

"Okay, that should be plenty of time to have finished your tea." Professor Robinson said, turning around to face the class as several students downed half a cup of tea to make up for the time they spent talking. Jack being one of them. "Now trade cups with your partner and see what you can find." Professor Robinson instructed, moving to the opposite side of the room as Merida and Rapunzel's table.

Merida took Rapunzel's cup, secretly very thankful for the distraction, and threw herself into the work of predicting something for Rapunzel. As she worked, though, her mind was plagued with worry and uncertainty. She felt like she had missed so much in just the past few weeks. Everything was changing really fast, and not for the better. She felt so separated from her friends sometimes, it was like she was on the outside looking in. They never saw each other any more, and Merida was missing everything!

And the only person to blame for that was her mother.