Professor Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore had a problem.
Voldemort was returning, of that he was certain. Professor Trelawany's true prophesy at the end of the last school year only confirmed his suspicions. He was also certain that Harry would play a large part in the war to come; Trelawny's only other true prophesy ensured that (if for no other reason than that Voldemort himself believed it).
Dumbledore was not worried for the fate of the world. The way events were playing out ensured Voldemort's downfall. Harry already had a life debt owed by one of Voldemort's supporters, and he himself had another man on the inside. The days ahead would not be easy, and the costs would be great, but he knew with every fiber of his being that the darkness could not overcome the light.
No, Dumbledore was worried for Harry. The events to come could easily claim his life. Even the upcoming tournament would probably play into his fate. Dumbledore and the organizers had done everything they could to keep underage witches and wizards—and therefore Harry—from being able to compete. Despite this, Dumbledore would not have gone forward with the tournament had the need for international cooperation and friendship been more important than ever.
"I need to make sure Harry survives," Dumbledore muttered to himself as he wandered the halls of Hogwarts. He paused, then amended his statement.
"I need Harry to have a life after Voldemort is defeated," he said, his voice rising in his conviction. He knew, possibly more than anyone else in the building save Severus Snape, that there is a huge difference between "surviving" and "living." Even if Harry were to survive the fight, his life would be meaningless without his friends. Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, even his father's friends Sirius Black and Remus Lupin had wormed their way into Harry's heart far quicker than he had expected.
"I need Harry to have a life after Voldemort is defeated." He glanced around, registering that he was on the fifth floor but not entirely sure where. He hoped Harry's train ride tomorrow would go well. After the unpleasant affairs after the Quidditch World Cup he wanted Harry to be able to relax and just be a normal student. Hopefully he would be eating Chocolate Frogs and Licorice Wands with his friends, maybe getting into a fight with the Malfoy boy, but hopefully not skating the edge of despair like Dumbledore was doing now.
"I need Harry to have a life after Voldemort is defeated." Skating the edge of despair was not going to help anyone, Harry least of all. Dumbledore sighed and tried to calm himself. He glanced around and noticed a door where he had never really noticed one before. Concerned, he slowly opened the door and carefully looked into the room.
He saw a boy and a girl that looked around Harry's age lying on the ground. The boy was wearing a green tunic with brown pants and a brown fur vest. His left foot had apparently been amputated and was replaced with what looked to be a sophisticated peg leg. The girl wore a blue woven shirt and a skirt covered in dull metal spikes. Her blonde hair was held up by a thin leather band but was otherwise untamed. Both of them seemed to be recovering from a fall or faint of some kind.
Collecting himself, Dumbledore walked into the room intent on introducing himself and getting their names. Stepping into the room, he heard the crinkle of a parchment roll. He kept one eye on the newcomers as he bent down to pick up the parchment.
"OW!" the boy yelled suddenly. Dumbledore steadfastly ignored him as he re-read the letter on the parchment. "Are we really going back to the punching?" the boy continued in his nasally voice.
"That's for getting us into this mess," the girl said as she looked around the plain room.
The boy rubbed his shoulder and looked at her with annoyance. After a beat it changed to expectation. When the girl failed to lose her anger, he said, "What about… you know, the 'everything else'?"
She shot him a dirty look. "Depends on what everything else is."
Dumbledore cleared his throat to draw their attention. "Mr. Haddock, Miss Hofferson, I'm glad you were able to arrive safely. I am Professor Dumbledore, and I would like to welcome you to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. If you'll come with me, we'll get you your supplies and give you a tour of the school before the other students arrive tomorrow."
The boy looked confused, but shrugged and moved towards Dumbledore. Or at least he tried to before the girl grabbed his arm and focused her dirty look on the headmaster. "And if we don't go with you?"
Dumbledore smiled. Ah, the tenacity of youth. "You're welcome to stay here, Miss Hofferson, but your transfer request—" He motioned to the parchment he held. "—states you need the full range of supplies, and I do not believe you would find them in here no matter hard you wished."
The boy turned back to the girl and gave his most encouraging smile. She glared at him before finally softening her expression into a scowl and following them out.
Part 1: The Year Of the TournamentRon elbowed Harry. "Who d'you think they are?" he said, pointing at the two taller students at the back of the group of first-years waiting to be sorted.
Hermione slapped Ron's arm down. "Honestly!" she snorted before turning with Harry to look at them. They didn't seem particularly noteworthy, just a blonde girl and a brown-haired boy that were… definitely not first-years.
"Never seen them before," Harry said. "Let's just see how they get sorted."
When the supply of first-years was exhausted, Professor McGonnagal turned to the headmaster and proclaimed, "Headmaster, we have two students transferring from the Dragon Academy of Berk who will be entering Hogwarts as fifth-year students." She turned to the two remaining students and said quietly, "When I announce you, step forward and put the hat on your head to be sorted." Satisfied that they understood, she announced to the room:
"Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third!"
Gathering his nerves, Hiccup walked forward to the stool, doing his best to ignore the mutterings in the hall that began as soon as his prosthetic foot hit the ground.
"Well, well, well, a child out of time?" the hat said in Hiccup's ear.
So we are in the future, Hiccup thought.
"Indeed you are, Master Haddock," the hat said in its distinctive drawl. "Now where to sort you…"
Ravenclaw sounded nice, Hiccup thought.
"Indeed, you do have the thirst for knowledge that drives the brightest Ravenclaws, but a courageous act like yours cannot go unrewarded."
Hiccup put his palm to his face so hard the slap echoed through the Great Hall. You mean unpunished.
"If that is your attitude, then I'm afraid you will have to suffer through GRYFFINDOR!"
With a resigned sigh, Hiccup got up and returned the hat. As he walked over to the cheering Gryffindor table he heard McGonnagal announce:
"Astrid Hofferson!"
Astrid's sorting was almost instantaneous, her having decided to be in the House Of the Brave as soon as she heard of it. She quickly ran over to the Gryffindor table and slid in next to Hiccup.
Hermione sighed in frustration. Why Harry and Ron would willingly continue to take Divination was beyond her. She was ready to crack open another book when a voice interrupted her.
"Excuse me..?"
She looked up to see the two transfer students—Hiccup and Astrid if she remembered correctly—looking at her hopefully, Astrid standing just behind Hiccup. "It's Hermione, right?" Hiccup said.
Hermione nodded. "How are you two liking Hogwarts?"
Their faces fell, Hiccup's more so than Astrid's. "It's…" he began. "We're adjusting."
Hermione did her best to give an encouraging smile back. "It'll take time. Don't worry, everyone feels homesick at one point or another."
Hiccup gave a weak smile in return. "Anyway," he said, obviously changing the subject, "we need some help studying and everyone says you're the person to talk to."
"Why would you need help?"
Hiccup blanched. "We, uh…" he stumbled. "There were… um…"
Astrid stopped his ramblings with a slap to the back of his head. Ignoring his mutterings of pain she addressed Hermione. "We've had an incomplete education. They put us in at 5th year just because of our age; they're still trying to figure out where our actual skill levels are."
Hermione nodded. "I was wondering why you'd be talking to a fourth-year."
It was Astrid's turn to smile sheepishly. "We actually got your name from a seventh-year."
Hermione was temporarily rendered speechless. She blinked a few times and decided to dive in. "So, what electives are you taking?"
"None," Hiccup answered. "But we're taking the core OWLs at the end of the year."
Hermione paled at this news. "It's your OWL year?" she yelled. "And they don't know your skill level? Are they—no, Dumbledore must know what he's doing. But still, how can they…" She visibly straightened and dug through her notes. "Never mind, but you'll need to start studying. What do your class schedules look like; I'll write you up a study schedule."
Hiccup let his head fall onto the book. "I like books, but this is ridiculous." He lifted his head up and glared dramatically at his two piles of books, followed by Astrid's three. "Completely ridiculous."
Astrid smiled knowingly. "Wait, does that mean you'd rather have a more practical education?"
Hiccup narrowed his eyes. "That's right, you're still a bash-it-with-an-ax kind of girl, aren't you?"
Astrid grinned, but her face quickly fell. "I miss Stormfly," she muttered.
Hiccup reached across the table to hold her hand. "I miss Toothless," he said.
"We are going to see them again, right?"
Hiccup gulped. "Of course."
Astrid looked straight at Hiccup. "You're horrible at lying, you know."
Hiccup sighed. He was interrupted by a gaggle of first-years walking by chattering loudly. "I heard he used an age potion."
"I bet he told a snake to do it."
"Probably told a snake to hypnotize Dumbledore into doing it."
"Yeah, right; you can't hypnotize Dumbledore. It was probably Snape."
"But he hates Snape!"
"So it makes perfect sense!"
Astrid rolled her eyes at the sheer stupidity, but Hiccup glowered. "It's not right," he said.
"What isn't?" Astrid said. "That he's in the tournament?"
"That everyone's turned on him," Hiccup said. "Just last week it seems like everyone was saying how much of a hero he is, and now it's like everyone's listening to Snape instead."
Astrid nodded. Suddenly her face fell, as if she'd suddenly come to a devastating conclusion. "I'm sorry, Hiccup."
Hiccup raised an eyebrow. "What for?"
Astrid fidgeted with her hands. "For what we did back on Berk."
Hiccup waved his hand. "No big, I would've done the same. Can't fault you for that."
"Doesn't make it less right," Astrid said softly.
"Then help me do something about Harry."
"What can we do?" Astrid shot back. "Not only are we the new ones here, but we're up to our eyeballs in work. Honestly, I'm surprised we're picking stuff up as fast as we are."
"Well, we always had to learn stuff quickly on Berk; maybe we're just used to learning quickly." He shook his head. "Anyway, I don't think there's anything we can do to change the rest of the school's mind, but if there's any way we can help Harry, maybe helping him train or something, I'm in."
Astrid met his determination with a nod. "We can ask Hermione if she knows of anything we can do."
Harry tossed aside a copy of Men Who Love Dragons Too Much. "This is no good," he muttered, "this is for nutters like Hagrid who want to keep them healthy…"
Hermione looked over her stack of Dragon books at Harry, feeling the pressure of the first task just as much as he did. Before she could reply to his comment, however, she was interrupted by a timid, nasally voice.
"Having trouble with dragons?"
"You could say that, Hiccup," Hermione replied. Suddenly she turned to look straight at him. "Hiccup!"
"Yeah, hi…" Hiccup said, waving his hand weakly.
"You transferred from Berk Dragon Academy, right?"
"Uh…"
"Yes, we did," Astrid said, running up to the table. "Top of our class, in fact," she added with a pointed look towards Hiccup.
Harry spoke up. "Did they actually teach you anything about dragons there?"
Hiccup grinned and stood up a little straighter. "You bet they did. What's going on?"
Harry looked meaningfully at Hermione. She returned his look with a nod. Harry nodded back and turned to Hiccup and Astrid. "I have to get something from a dragon for the first task. So if you know of a way I can stun or slay the–"
"Slay?" Hiccup nearly yelled, prompting the other three to immediately shush him. He cringed under the scrutiny but continued, "Why would you do that?"
"What Hiccup's trying to say," Astrid said quickly, "is that we learned a… nonviolent method of… subduing dragons. We're not sure how much of it would apply to your situation, but we'd be happy to teach you what we know." Hiccup nodded his agreement.
"Alright," Hiccup said, "pretend Astrid over there is a dragon. A nasty, fireball-spitting–"
"I can hear you, you know!" Astrid yelled.
"My point exactly," Hiccup said without missing a beat. "Now, the first thing you need to do is disarm yourself."
He waited to let the point sink in. He was not disappointed.
"WHAT?" Harry yelled.
"Disarm yourself," Hiccup reiterated. "Drop your wand. Toss it out of reach, and make sure the dragon sees you do it."
Harry didn't move. "You do realize I'm trying to survive, right?" he said after a moment.
"If the dragon disarms you, you are prey and your life is forfeit," Hiccup continued. "If you disarm yourself, you're a potential friend. It sets the tone for the encounter."
With a sigh of "mental," Harry looked Astrid in the eyes and tossed his wand aside.
Smiling, Hiccup continued. "Next, you might want to feed it something. Usually fish works, but we lived on an island so that might have had something to do with it." He tossed Harry a Chocolate Frog. "But since our dragon is Astrid, we're going to use chocolate."
"Funny, Hiccup," Astrid quipped.
"I thought so."
Harry unwrapped the chocolate. "So, do I just toss it to her?"
"No, let her come to you."
Harry held out the chocolate. Astrid put her hands on her hips and glared at Hiccup.
Hiccup sighed. "Patience is usually rewarded, Harry. Astrid, could you please help us?"
With a groan Astrid stalked up to Harry and snatched the chocolate from his hand. She took one bite and gave the other half back to Harry.
"Thanks, Astrid," Hiccup said, his tone lighter. "If the dragon likes you, they may share the food with you. Not always, though; I don't know if it's a friendship thing or if the dragons on the island just thought I was underfed."
Harry waved the chocolate awkwardly. "So, do I just eat this?"
"Yes, but pretend it's raw fish."
Harry paused with his mouth open, about to take a bite. "What?" he said.
Astrid smirked. "When they first met, Hiccup fed his dragon a fish, and Toothless regurgitated half of it back to him and wouldn't let him get up until he took a bite."
Harry turned to Hiccup. "You named your dragon 'Toothless'?"
Hiccup rolled his eyes. "I'm named Hiccup. Compared to that, Toothless is a normal name."
Harry reached into the bag to choose the dragon for his task. His dragon, with a black "4" painted on it, stood on two legs and had blue-green scales, looking like a prehistoric bird. Figures I'd get the weird one, he thought to himself.
The first three champions had gone, and Hiccup was feeling sick for two reasons. First, he was correct in his assumption that the world he and Astrid found themselves in treated dragons with only a little more respect than the Vikings of Berk used to (the only improvement being they weren't killed on sight). Second, the dragons were all nesting mothers. Even if the modern dragons were receptive to Hiccup's methods, the mother's protective instincts would make Hiccup himself wary about approaching no matter who the dragon was.
Astrid wasn't feeling much better, but while she did not necessarily condone the violence, it was easier for her to accept it. Until she saw the fourth dragon.
"Stormfly?" she said softly.
Hiccup snapped to attention. "What in Thor's name…" he said.
"STORMFLY!" Astrid yelled as she got up and made to jump the railing into the arena to go to her dragon.
Hiccup and Hermione, each on either side of Astrid, quickly grabbed her to keep her in place. "There's wards in place, Astrid," Hermione explained quickly. "We can't get in there, and they can't hear us."
"She's going to be fine, Astrid," Hiccup said, trying to calm her down.
"You saw what everyone did, Hiccup!" Astrid said, still struggling against them. "They'll kill her!"
"No they won't!" Hiccup said. "Harry's going up against her. He'll give her a fish, they'll be friends, and I know she's smart enough to tell the difference between her eggs and the fake one."
That calmed Astrid long enough for Hiccup and Hermione to guide her back to her seat.
"I hope you're right, Hiccup," Astrid said. "For your sake, I hope you're right."
Hiccup ignored the threat and watched as Harry entered the arena. "You got this, Harry…"
Harry took in the strange-looking dragon. Running through the instructions in his head, he turned toward the castle and hoped Dobby had come through for him.
"Accio fish!" he yelled. Two seconds later a large cod sailed over the stands and into Harry's arms. With the fish in one hand and his wand in the other, he slowly approached the dragon.
The dragon was clearly agitated. The spikes on her tail were raised and she was fidgeting from one foot to the other, scanning around for threats. She fixed one eye on Harry and calmed slightly, but her tail was still raised threateningly.
Maintaining eye contact, Harry tossed his wand aside.
The dragon watched the wand fall, and lowered her tail.
Letting out his breath slowly, not allowing himself to relax yet, Harry held out the fish.
The dragon approached slowly, sniffing around as if checking to make sure the wizard actually was giving her a fish.
When she was close enough, Harry tossed the fish towards her. She deftly grabbed it out of the air and swallowed it in two bites. Turning back to Harry, she gently nuzzled his chest.
Less nervous, Harry followed Hiccup's advice and started scratching her. She leaned into it, obviously enjoying it. Harry slowly worked his way around her neck until he got to the pressure point underneath her chin.
The dragon froze and collapsed to the ground in ecstasy. The whole process was actually more comical than Harry was expecting, but the dragon was out cold. Slowly, not entirely sure she wouldn't wake up, Harry made his way over to the golden egg.
As soon as he picked up the egg, the wards and silencing charms dropped. The applause was slowly building, as half the crowd was still in shock at what had taken place.
The noise was still enough to wake up the sleeping dragon, though. With a squawk she shot to her feet and ran over to the nest. She saw the strange egg in the wizard's arms, but he seemed to have been careful with the other eggs. As gently as she could (which, being a dragon, wasn't very gentle), she herded him away from the nest and back towards the tents.
"Ok, ok," Harry muttered. "I just needed this, that's all," he said, a smile slowly growing on his face.
The dragon cocked her head, but she suddenly stared intently at one particular part of the crowd. Harry followed her gaze and saw Hiccup and Hermione holding back a struggling Astrid, screaming at the dragon as if her life depended on it.
The dragon squawked again, then nosed Harry back towards the nest. Harry backed up a couple of steps, and the dragon fixed him with a pointed look that Harry wasn't sure how to interpret before loping across the arena to the Gryffindors.
When she saw Stormfly coming towards her, Astrid gave one final tug and pulled herself out of Hiccup and Hermione's grips. She vaulted herself over the railings and landed cleanly in the arena. She took two steps towards Stormfly before she closed the distance and the two embraced, Stormfly nuzzling Astrid while Astrid gripped the dragon's neck.
"I missed you so much, girl," Astrid whispered, blinking the tears out of her eyes.
The next fifteen minutes were pandemonium to anyone involved in putting on the tournament.
The judges were arguing intently over how many points Harry should be given, since his methods were obviously unconventional, but that was understandable as they were judges and therefore going to argue.
Harry, Hermione, and Ron finally reconciled, with Ron having seen Harry's life flash before his eyes at least twenty-two times before Harry even entered the arena, but that was understandable to anyone that knew that group.
The real chaos was around the dragon handlers, and Charlie Weasley in particular.
"You can't keep a dragon!" he bellowed.
"You don't even know what kind of dragon it is!" Hiccup yelled back. "None of you do! I'm telling you, she belongs to Astrid."
"Well she obviously wasn't taking good care of her," Charley said. "We found her and that other dragon in the Forbidden Forest just wandering around. Did you think you'd just hide her out while you went to school?"
"We didn't know they were here," Hiccup said. "We showed up at the school a day before the express arrived, and they weren't with us. Ask Headmaster Dumbledore!"
"Look, kid, I'm sure a dragon sounds like a nice pet to have, but they're dangerous crea—GREAT MERLIN!" Charlie yelled as he dived out of the way of the dragon flying directly towards them.
Hiccup just smirked as he let himself get picked up in Stormfly's talons and they flew off.
"Did you get him?" Astrid yelled from atop Stormfly.
Stormfly squawked back and affirmative.
"Head to the forbidden forest!" Hiccup yelled. "I think Toothless is there!"
"On our way," Astrid said with a grin.
There was no awkward moment where they waited for the other to make the first move. There was no delay.
As soon as Stormfly released Hiccup on one end of the clearing he began charging as fast as he could on his fake leg toward the dark dragon charging from the other end of the clearing. Though, to be fair, when they did collide the dragon behaved more like a puppy, pinning Hiccup down and licking him all over his face. Hiccup for his part just scratched his dragon back, laughing and crying at the same time.
"Toothless," he whispered. The dragon stopped and looked down at Hiccup, his toothless grin nearly splitting his face and his eyes dancing with mirth. Hiccup just smiled back.
They lost track of how much time the four of them spent in that clearing, just enjoying each other's company for the first time in nearly three months, when Charlie Weasley, Headmaster Dumbledore, and Hagrid approached the clearing.
Immediately the two dragons got between the invaders and their riders, Stormfly raising her tail and Toothless growling and showing his not-toothless mouth.
Dumbledore held up his hands. "Peace, Dragon," he said calmly. "We're not here to take anyone away."
The dragons calmed, and Hiccup approached the group.
Dumbledore smiled. "Mr. Haddock," he said, "I wasn't aware that the Berk Dragon Academy involved actual dragons. Do we have you to thank for Mr. Potter's performance today?"
"Yes sir," Hiccup said.
"Do you mind introducing us?" Charlie said.
Hiccup narrowed his eyes, remembering Charlie's earlier threats to confiscate the dragons.
"I promise," Dumbledore interjected, "that both dragons will be allowed to remain here in the forest provided they are not a danger to the students in the castle."
"Will we be able to visit?" Hiccup asked, glancing back to Astrid to make sure they were on the same page.
"As long as you are accompanied by Hagrid here. The forest is forbidden for a reason, and there are dangers that should not be dismissed even by one with a dragon."
Astrid nodded her approval and said, "This is Stormfly. She's a Deadly Nadder, is incredibly vain, and likes to wake me up at the crack of dawn."
"You'd get up at the crack of dawn anyway," Hiccup muttered, earning a slap to the back of his head. Rubbing his head, he motioned to his dragon. "This is Toothless, called such because… well, can you show them, bud?"
Toothless retracted his teeth and smiled for the group.
Charlie stared in awe. "And what is he?"
"He's a Night Fury. Before I… met him, no one on our island had ever seen one before. We called him 'the unholy offspring of lightning and death itself.'" Hiccup glanced at Toothless before smirking and adding, "Still do, sometimes."
Dumbledore turned to Charlie. "Is everything in order?"
Charlie nodded. "Thank you for allowing us to borrow one of Hogwarts' dragons for the tournament; we will leave them in your care now, Headmaster."
Gryffindor tower was a party that night. Harry's unconventional approach to the dragons coupled with his flawless (to them) victory was all the excuse the Weasley twins needed to sneak in a case of Butterbeer and celebrate.
As the festivities wound down, a random first-year yelled out, "How'd you do it Harry?"
The noise level quickly dropped as everyone else listened in.
Harry shrugged. "I just did what Hiccup told me to. I was just lucky enough to get a dragon that would listen."
"What'd Hiccup tell you?" the same first year said.
"How'd he learn it?" the girl next to him said.
Harry shrugged and looked toward Hiccup. Hiccup tried to wave it off, saying "It's a long story."
"We've got time," Hermione said, giving a smirk towards Astrid who shoved Hiccup out into the center of the room.
"Yeah, tell us," Weasley Twin #1 said.
"We're all ears," Weasley Twin #2 said.
Hiccup sent a halfhearted glare toward Astrid. "Well, okay then. Get comfortable, this could take a while."
Most of the students sat down where they were, leaving Hiccup as the obvious storyteller in the room. A few of the portraits even shifted their positions to get a better view.
Hiccup allowed himself to smile. "This story begins on the isle of Berk. On the map, it's two degrees north of 'hopeless,' four degrees south of 'freezing to death,' and solidly on the 'meridian of misery.' The village is… sturdy. It's been around for hundreds of years, but every building is new…"
Harry held his hands up to the bonfire. "So, I think I get that Stormfly and Toothless are intelligent," he said, turning to Astrid and Stormfly. "So why did she act the way she did during the first task?"
Astrid opened her mouth to answer, failed to find one, and turned to Hiccup with a slightly lost expression.
Hiccup smiled and picked up the thread. "Well, those eggs weren't her eggs. She wasn't actually nesting in time for the tournament. However, she did still have the desire to protect those eggs. She could tell the difference between the real eggs and the fake one, so she was okay with you taking the fake one. And when she saw Astrid, she shoved you back towards the eggs so you could watch them."
Stormfly nodded at this and lumbered over to Harry to give him a gentle poke with her horn. Ron and Hermione laughed softly to themselves at the display.
Hiccup watched the exchange and turned to Hermione. "Are there any spells to talk to animals?" he asked softly.
"There's differing opinions," Hermione said. "I know Si—Snuffles said he talked to my cat once, but he's an animagus."
Hiccup couldn't decide whether to be disappointed or thrilled. "Is there such thing as a dragon animagus?"
"There isn't," Ron said. When Hermione looked at him, surprised, he feigned hurt. "I read too, you know." With a smirk he added, "Sometimes. Anyway, first I hear of animagi, I figure, 'I'll be a dragon.'"
"Why?" Hermione asked, completely exasperated.
"Because spiders burn easily," Harry deadpanned.
Astrid walked briskly through the library. She was unused to the weather being as warm as it was in the winter; now that it was nearly summer she was sure she was going to die of the heat. She checked herself at that thought; when did she get so overdramatic? She blamed it on being around children and left it at that.
She spotted Hiccup at one of the study tables, head in his hands with an old tome open in front of him. "Hiccup!" she called at as loudly a whisper she could manage.
Hiccup jumped, startled. He turned to look at her, the weak fake smile he used to wear in full effect. He started to get up, but Astrid was already sliding into the seat next to him.
"What's wrong?" she said.
Hiccup sighed. He should have known he couldn't pull the wool over her eyes. Without a word, he slid the book over to her. "This paragraph," he said.
Astrid read it. "Hey, it's about you!" she said. She kept reading. "Wow, Hiccup," she said, genuinely happy, "you made it into the history books."
Hiccup smiled, but still seemed on the verge of tears. "Keep reading."
Astrid looked back to the book. "'He helped guide and shape Berk for two years after ending the dragon war, but…'" She read the last sentence silently then looked back to Hiccup, her mouth open in shock.
"'But he disappears from the records after that.'" Hiccup bit his lip and tried to keep the sobs in. "We don't make it back, Astrid."
Astrid blinked back a few tears of her own and breathed heavily. Slowly, steadily, she tried to will the sudden panic out of her system. "Okay…" she said shakily. She took another breath. "Okay…" A little more stable. One more breath, let out slowly. "Okay." She looked Hiccup in the eye, and said calmly, "Get up."
At Hiccup's confused expression, she got out of her seat and stood up, motioning for him to do the same. He did, slowly, not sure what was going on—
Astrid hugged him hard. Harder than she did when he had emerged from his house after nearly dying. Harder than that first Snoggletog when his best friend hadn't shown up. "We'll be okay," she whispered.
Hiccup broke down. He gripped Astrid and sobbed into her shoulder, listing off everyone in the town he was going to miss: Fishlegs, the twins, Snoutlout, Gobber, his dad! Astrid just held him, knowing she needed to be stable for him; he'd be stable later, and she'd have a chance to break down. Mourning was nothing new to Vikings.
When Hiccup had calmed down, Astrid held him at arms length still in a loose hug. "Better?" she said softly.
"Better," he said with a weak—but genuine—smile.
Astrid smiled back. "Well on the bright side," she said, "at least Hogwarts seems to be a lot safer than Berk."
Before Hiccup could reply, another Gryffindor student ran up to them and said, "Come on, you two; we're going to miss the Third Task!"
Hiccup watched the countryside fly by as the Hogwarts Express sped back to London. Dumbledore had arranged for someone named Diggle to board Astrid and him while… something was organized. Dumbledore hadn't said much, but with Voldemort back he was understandably busy.
Astrid's maniacal laugh filled the cabin as she won yet another Exploding Snap game. Harry sighed and leaned back in his seat across from Hiccup.
"Harry?" Hiccup said quietly.
Harry looked up. "Yeah?"
Hiccup bit his lip. "I don't know what the future looks like," he said, "and I know you don't either." He looked Harry in the eye. "But Astrid and I are with you, no matter what."
Harry nodded. "Thanks." He blinked. "Be nice to have a couple of dragons on our side, right?" he said with a laugh.