Book 1: The First Year (ROTBTD Hogwarts AU) (PREQUEL)

26. Merida's POV: Mid May

It was about mid-May when Merida decided that finals were invented by someone who wanted to torment her specifically. This, she reasoned, was a perfectly normal and logical conclusion to make, given the circumstances.

Either that or all the exam stress had finally caught up to her and she'd found another bucket of misery to pour into whatever pool of emotions she mentally laid at the bottom of.

It's not that she'd gone back to not paying attention in her classes again. She'd paid enough attention that year to write down notes and learn a thing or two. But her shorthand was awful and her writing looked like chicken scratch, and half the time she'd forgotten which notes to bring to which classes so they ended up being mismatched, misplaced, and not all that useful for learning anything from. The homeworks she'd scrambled to put together were with her professors, so she couldn't study from them either.

For finals, knowing "a thing or two" just wasn't going to cut it. There was no other choice. Merida had to study.

Her one saving grace was the fact that Clary let her borrow old textbooks again. Old textbooks meant highlighted parts, and helpful little notes in the margins. It meant that Merida could find and read only the important parts.

Her roommates were helpful and explained things if she asked, but half the time Merida either napped, messed around, or stared blankly at the lake window instead of at her textbooks. The other half she'd spend feeling sulky and jealous about how well her roommates and the rest of her House was managing while she'd be lucky if she absorbed a chapter in a day.

After a week of this, Merida exiled herself to the library to be miserable with the rest of the unfortunates who couldn't or wouldn't study in their dorms either.

Surprisingly, she met two familiar faces.

It was always after lunch. Merida would sit at any one of the big tables, and sooner or later she'd hear the sound of Hiccup complaining as Jack led them both to her.

"Every day you bring me here and every day I have to deal with it." Hiccup sat heavily, heaving his bulging satchel onto the table with a loud thud. "Don't you know how heavy all of this is?"

Jack flopped down into the seat next to him, one arm slinging around Hiccup's shoulder. "Yes, but you see, I'm still holding onto the theory that if I didn't come find you before lunch, you'd probably stay holed up in your room without food or sunlight or human contact until the finals ended, and I think that's sad. And I already told you I'd be happy to carry your books for you if you asked."

"Last time I left you alone with my things, you somehow found a way to make them and also yourself float to the ceiling."

"Well, it's not my fault you keep weird stones in your bag, so maybe don't do that."

Hiccup didn't bother with a reply, instead pointedly sticking on a pair of earmuffs and opening a book.

Jack turned to Merida.

"So, what've you got today?" Merida held up her Transfiguration textbook. "I see. Want me to help you study?"

"Sure."

He did not help her study. They ended up getting side-tracked with trading jibes, sharing childhood stories, and playing a seemingly unending number of tabletop games that Jack kept pulling out of his pockets, because apparently he was just as bad as Merida when it came to study sessions. But that was something she could live with. Even if she barely got anything done for finals, at least it was better than sitting there feel sorry for herself.