There once was a Princess with fiery red hair, and a personality to match its unruliness. She was best friends with the Dragon Tamer, who ironically once used to be afraid of dragons. Their stories have already been intertwined for a little longer than the rest of the big four's.

When Princess Merida was five, her father thought it best to teach his daughter how to start defending herself even without magic. War was here, and it has touched every corner of the land, and its chaos has just started infesting DunBroch. There has been a few sightings of Mor'du, the demon bear, after centuries of his banishment and disappearance.

After a session on the outskirt of the woods surrounding the castle of DunBroch, King Fergus and Queen Elinor accidentally took their eyes off of their daughter for a few minutes to talk to a harried looking scout.

Little Merida spotted a blue glow at the corner of her eyes, and turned to the forest. To her surprise, she spots little blue fiery wisps, leading a trail into the forest. As if in a trance, she followed the spirits, step by step into the darkness of the forest.

The wisps lead the young Princess to a circle of tall, imposing stones, and then abruptly disappeared, leaving her in the gloom on her own.

It wasn't until a shrill scream from Merida that her parents realized she was gone from their sides.

As they rushed into the forest to the source of Merida's screams, they could see a large, demonic black bear, tearing at a large, broken stump. Merida succeeded in avoiding the reach of Mor'du, but she can only hide in the stump for so long.

Luckily for her, her father rushed to her rescue, attacking Mor'du to distract him from his target, allowing Merida time to scramble out of her damaged hiding spot and into the safety of her mother's arms, who whisked Merida away on her horse.

That day, King Fergus lost a leg and gained a story he could tell for years to come. That day, Merida made a promise to herself that she would never again be a burden to anyone. Never again, would there be a need for someone else dear to her to come charging in and saving her at their life's risk.

Day by day, Merida grew better and better at bows and arrows. She was quite good at sword fights, too. Her requests for self-defense lessons in between her History lessons only delighted her father, who much preferred sparring than giving lectures about old, doddery kings of past.

Queen Elinor despaired at Merida's hobbies, and her preference for horseback riding and archery. The legend of Mor'du was one that has been tightly intertwined with the DunBroch clan's history, as far back as was recorded. It was said that Mor'du was once a human prince himself, the eldest of four. He coveted the throne, and as the heir apparent, he was confident he would rule after his father. His father, the king, was beloved by his people and he loved his subjects deeply. He could tell that his son was not fit to rule the entire kingdom, for Mor'du was arrogant and violent; far too bloodthirsty to make a good ruler.

Instead of passing his throne to just one son, the king, on his deathbed, made a decision to split the kingdom in four, and gave all his sons a chance to rule. Mor'du was furious at the thought of sharing with his brothers, and overcome by greed, he declared war on the other three princes. While Mor'du commanded a more powerful army, the battle remained a bitter stalemate.

Wanting desperately to end the battle and emerge the victor, Mor'du hunted for a spell, a potion, anything to make him stronger. He summoned for the best potioneers of the land, and ordered for a concoction that would give him the strength of ten men. The potioneers warned him of the possible side effects of such a powerful, cursed concoction, but his pride made him desperate. He downed the potion in one go, and while it did give him the strength of ten, it had a side effect: The potion turned him into a bear.

It was said that Mor'du could have reversed the curse if he would mend the bond with his siblings that was torn by pride, but he had refused and chose the form of the demon bear. He slew his brothers and their armies in cold blood, and tried to return to his army… but they only saw a ferocious animal and attacked. Angry, he slew them all as well, and what remains of the kingdom evacuated in fear and terror.

The legend says that Mor'du hunts for those who have the qualities the king of old had required: bravery, loyalty, daring and chivalry; a person who embodies the spirit of a true Gryffindor.

The reason why Queen Elinor despairs for her only daughter is because Merida exhibits all the traits, and has already been attacked by Mor'du once. She fears Merida has been marked as a target.

When Hiccup was four, he was forced to bear witness to his mother's death.

The Isle of Berk was famous for its variety of dragon inhabitants, more so than Romania. The people who lived there descended from a mix of Vikings and wizards, and both muggle and magical folk have just recently learned to co-exist with the dragons. Berk is home to a new dragon handling facility and a large count of dragon handlers, despite its laidback-ness and less-than-modern technology. Hiccup's mother was one of the many handlers, and had an incredible knowledge of the dragons.

Berk was not excluded from the reach of the war that broke out against Pitch and his Fearlings. Pitch had sought to spread chaos and fear, and what better way than to cause a dragon outrage? Pitch's Fearling army attacked Berk Isle, startling the volatile dragons and killing some of the dragon handlers. The attack sparked large scale confusion and sent the dragons into frenzy; they trampled everyone and everything, set fire to the village and destroyed what seems to be half the island.

Unfortunately for Hiccup and his mother, they were right at the facility when the attack happened. His mother was explaining to Gobber how to tell apart Zippleback heads: which head spewed gas, and which head sparks it. Hiccup was there because his father, the Chief of Berk Isle, was busy with his daily duties.

The Fearlings caught the entire facility by surprise. They nipped at the dragons and destroyed several nesting mother's eggs, broke the locks of several dragon pens and killed the handlers they encountered.

Hiccup's mother stood just a tad too near the Deadly Nadder whose nest and pen was destroyed; she was caught in the trajectory of the Nadder's tail spikes.

When Gobber brought Hiccup's father, Stoick, to the scene, it was already far too late to save her. As she lay in a steadily growing pool of blood, she managed to pass on a last message to a terrified and distraught Hiccup in her dying breath.

"Do not blame the dragons, Hic."

Ever since the fateful day at the facility, Hiccup had been terrified of dragons. He couldn't remember everything, but he remembered his mother's words… and the dragon that had shot its spikes at her. It was hard not to blame the dragon for the death of his mother, despite her message.

After the war had ended, Berk was never the same again. Too much death and destruction on both the humans and dragon's ends, and grudges weren't easy to let go of. Dragons began attacking the village for food, and humans, now deprived of their dragon handlers, fended off the dragons in the only way they remember how: by killing them.

They were descended from Vikings and wizards. They had the weapons and magic, the means to stun and kill or deter the dragons from attacking. They were built for this.

But Stoick worries for his son. Hiccup does not seem to have the Viking built, and was scrawnier than all the other kids. Stoick also knows that all magical kids' exhibit signs of their magic around the age of five to six, but Hiccup hasn't shown a single sign thus far; he is almost eight years old. Not a single magical accident. No floating, no unexplained explosions, nothing.

If Hiccup was too scrawny to lift a weapon, too terrified of dragons to even face them, and had no magical abilities… Stoick worries for his son, as he does not want his son to be called useless.

God knows the boy is bright and quick witted. But it was not enough. Berk wasn't a place for the smart and clever anymore, not since they changed the handler's facility back into a killing arena. Berk required the heroic and the strong (much more so was expected from the chief's son). In his worrying for Hiccup's future, he set Hiccup as Gobber's blacksmithing apprentice when Gobber was home from his job at Hogwarts.

Stoick worries. But all Hiccup sees is disappointment.

Stoick never stops trying to rid his son's fear of dragons, though.

His attempts to rid Hiccup's fears by giving his son the notes his wife had written (the ones that he could recover from the disastrous night, anyways) got the most promising results thus far (Attempt #1: Tossing Hiccup in front of an angry, flame covered dragon is not the best way to get rid of dragon phobia. Attempt #2: Handing Hiccup a hatchet that he can't lift doesn't solve Attempt #1's problem. In fact, Attempt #1 should never be tried ever again.)

He also tries to bring Hiccup along whenever he is called to handle dragon infestations outside of the island; Berk is still one of the few places whose population handles dragon attacks daily without much casualty.

When there was a request from the royal family of DunBroch regarding a growing infestation of Terrible Terrors, Stoick brought Hiccup along with him. It wasn't Stoick's first time in DunBroch; he and Fergus were good friends, and had met each other years back when they were younger. Stoick knew that the DunBroch family had a daughter, just a year younger than his son. He also knew that Merida was headstrong and independent, qualities he hoped his shy son would develop. So he brought Hiccup along in hopes they would be friends.

Hiccup tries his best to live up to his father's expectations.

Merida didn't seem to like Hiccup from the get go. She poked at him, teased him for his scrawniness, and pranked him almost constantly throughout their stay in DunBroch. Hiccup endured everything she threw at him with much patience and silence, which bored Merida and surprised Elinor; she did not think anyone would have the patience for Merida's antics.

On the second to last day of their stay, in which Stoick was almost done ridding DunBroch of the Terrors, Hiccup and Merida were found a little outside the castle grounds; Hiccup was fiddling with metal scraps and Merida was practicing shooting her arrows into the forest out of boredom, as she was restricted from venturing too far from the grounds while the dragons were still running amok. Her only playmate was Hiccup, but he didn't spar. He doesn't know how to ride a pony, let alone a horse. She has already challenged him to several races, to which she won all of them.

She was about to round on Hiccup after her last arrow, intending to drag him with her to go terrify Maudie for some pastries, when there was an inhuman shriek of pain. A large, colourful dragon trundled out of the forest, screeching angrily. Merida freezes; she's never seen a Nadder before, for they were not commonly seen in DunBroch's regions. Also, her last arrow was buried in the hind leg of the angry dragon, rapidly heading her way.

Stoick, Fergus and Elinor came out just in time to see Hiccup flinging something at the Nadder, distracting it from Merida's direction, shouting for Merida to run. Hiccup kept directly in front of the Nadder's nose, carefully (or more likely, fearfully) staying in its blind spot, while Merida scrambled away to collect her other arrows.

Just as the Nadder began to emit a noise like a rattlesnake, Stoick barreled into the dragon, giving it no time to react. Hiccup got out of the way as fast as he could so his father could do what he does best, and ran towards Merida's direction, hoping to help her collect her arrows in case they would need them. But Stoick was quick and efficient; he took down the Nadder by the time Hiccup and Merida finished.

From that day on Merida stopped teasing Hiccup, for he had saved her life. Hiccup got over his fear of dragons just a smidge more (it's not that easy to let go) and was thankful for his mother's notes. Stoick was proud of his son's quick thinking.

It is not to say that they instantly became fast friends on that day itself (they do eventually end up being best friends, though), but Merida began opening up to Hiccup and asking him about dragons whenever he visits, and he began taking a keener interest in the notes his mother has written in order to answer her.

But there definitely was a bond between them now that wasn't there before. Whenever they visit each other, Merida will always drag Hiccup away on 'adventures', and Hiccup would always help fix her bows and upgrade her arrows.

On Hiccup's 11th birthday, an owl arrived for him with a letter from Hogwarts, much to everyone's surprise. He still has not exhibited a single sign of magical ability, so it had everyone befuddled, including Merida. Hiccup was almost convinced that the letter had gotten it wrong…

… Until he accidentally set Gobber's mustache on fire during dinner. They weren't even anywhere near the fire!

The DunBroch family line were all proud Gryffindors, all except Elinor, who married into the clan and was from Beauxbatons Academy. Fergus had met Elinor during one of the Triwizard Tournaments held at Durmstrang. Both were not chosen as their respective school's champion, but that meant they were given time to mingle with each other.

On Merida's 11th birthday, she received two letters: one from Hogwarts, and another from Beauxbatons. Both claimed her to be accepted to their school.

For a few weeks, Merida campaigned to attend Hogwarts while Elinor tried to convince her tomboyish daughter to go to Beauxbatons, as it was a school 'befit for a princess'. Elinor had tried her best to stamp her daughter's boyish tendencies, her fear for the safety of her daughter from the Mor'du legend playing a huge part in her decision, but Merida had none of it. Sure, she endured her mother's princess etiquette lessons, but she always remained true to herself. Merida still continued her self-defense lessons from her father.

What swayed Elinor's decision, in the end, was when Merida pulled the best friend card: She complained up and down about how Hiccup could be bullied at Hogwarts, because he would be attending, too. Who would protect her best friend? Hiccup needed her!

Elinor conceded to Merida's choice, but it wasn't just because she thought Hiccup needed a bully deterrent. She felt that Hiccup balanced Merida nicely; he thinks things through rationally, while Merida reacts and leaps into dangerous situations headfirst. The boy was responsible where Merida isn't. He was good for her. The fact that they were both each other's only friends helped, too.

She didn't tell Merida verbally, though. The week before she was to send back a decision by owl post, Merida woke up to a brand new set of the Hogwarts uniform hanging on her bedroom door.

She then proceeded to wake the entire castle with her screeches of joy, and hastily wrote a letter to Hiccup, telling him to meet her at King's Cross station on the 1st of September.

They were gonna have so many adventures, she could just feel it!

A/N: And that wraps up the prologues and is the official start of the whole series! :) Chapter 1 is completed and already beta'd. I just need to get my ass to finish up Chapter 2 and 3 before I release it.