A/N: First fanfic, hope you all like it. Feel free to leave a review when you're done~

I don't own HP or HTTYD, btw.

A Dragon is still a Dragon

The Triwizard Tournament. Highly dangerous with a death toll that continued to rise until it was discontinued, it was something that an awkward klutz like Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III would want to stay as far away from as possible.

But the gods hate him, remember?

Hiccup fidgeted nervously. He had been hoping for a nice, peaceful year. Okay, fine. He and the others had been blasted to England centuries into the future only a few months ago. There was no way that this could have been a normal, let alone peaceful, year.

His new friend Hermione had told him about the Triwizard Tournament when it was first brought up at the beginning of the year. As soon as she said it was mostly for glory, he had merely shaken his head, rolled his eyes, and said "gods, the things people will do for attention."

In retrospect, he really shouldn't have said that. It jinxed him. He was sure of it. Looking around once more at his surrounding, he tried convincing himself for the umpteenth time that this was only a dream. When that didn't work, he sighed and went back to attempting to understand how he had gotten himself into this mess.

Snotlout or Tuffnut would've loved being in his position. But nooooo, the only Viking who was perfectly content with keeping himself out of harm's way just couldn't be left alone in peace. Of course not.

Yes. That's right. Somehow, Hiccup had gotten himself stuck with the last thing he had wanted during his stay at Hogwarts: the title of Triwizard Champion. Go figure.

Looking around, he could see the other champions talking quietly to one another. Tension filled the air—Hiccup could understand why. It's not like they'd been told in advance what the first challenge was… right?

"Are you ready?"

Harry's voice snapped Hiccup out of his thoughts. He gazed up at the Boy-Who-Lived.

"Uhh… not really. I mean, it's not like we know what we're up against."

Harry fell strangely silent after that. Hiccup frowned. Glancing around at the other champions, he noticed that they had all gotten very quiet as well. He looked back to Harry.

"… You know what we're up against, don't you?"

No one said anything.

"Great. The only idiot out there is going to be me. Good to know nothing's changed."

XxX

Hiccup stared at the little model dragon in his hands. Dragons. The first task was dragons. He couldn't believe his luck. If it was just a dragon, this whole task was going to be a joke.

Or, at least, that's what he had been trying to convince himself for the past two hours.

This wasn't Berk. This was England, hundreds of years later. He wasn't going to be facing a Deadly Nadder, a Hideous Zippleback, or a Monstrous Nightmare. No, the dragon he was going up against wasn't one that he had ever read about in the dragon manual. There were no guarantees that the Ukrainian Ironbelly out there waiting for him was going to be anything like the dragons he was used to.

"Haddock! It's your turn."

Hiccup snapped out of his thoughts and got to his feet. Harry must've finally finished with his dragon, the Hungarian Horntail. He had taken the longest out of all the champions so far. Hiccup double-checked that his wand was in his pocket before he left the champions' tent and stepped out into the rocky pit. After his eyes adjusted to the sudden light, he quickly searched the crowd above him for his friends.

He found them standing with the other Gryffindors. As usual, Ruffnut and Tuffnut were beating the crap out of each other (it looked like Ruff was winning this time). To their left, Snotlout was chatting (read: attempting to flirt) with a Beauxbatons girl a few seats over, while Fishlegs seemed to be scribbling in a notebook, probably writing down the attributes of the Hungarian Horntail. Finally, there was Astrid. She smiled at him, then mouthed the words "good luck".

Hiccup gave her a small smile in return and redirected his gaze forward, scanning the rocks for the dragon. The Ukrainian Ironbelly was supposed to be huge, right? So where was it?

"Oh. It's behind me, isn't it?" It was more of a statement then a question.

He whipped around, teetering a bit on his prosthetic leg. Hiccup's jaw dropped. "Huge" was an understatement. Okay, it wasn't another "Green Death" or anything, but it had to be at least twice the length of a Monstrous Nightmare. Its scales gleamed, making it look like it was covered in glistening silver armor. Its blood red eyes glared at him, and a deep growl coming from its throat seemed to make the ground shake.

"Uhh. Hi."

The Ironbelly let out a mighty roar, bringing one of its feet crashing down towards him. Hiccup was barely able to roll out of the way of its four-foot-long talons.

Swallowing nervously, Hiccup staggered back to his feet. Taking a deep break, he let his arms fall to his sides. "I'm not going to fight you," he whispered.

This wasn't good enough for the Ironbelly, who opened its mouth and unleashed a stream of white flames. Hiccup dived behind a boulder just in time.

"I'm unarmed," he muttered to himself, "I don't have a weapon. What's it afraid of?"

Of course. Wizards didn't need weapons to control dragons. Chances were, most of the dragons in the Wizarding World wouldn't even know an axe if they saw one.

Slowly, Hiccup peered around the edge of the boulder. The Ironbelly was no longer breathing fire, but it was staring him down, refusing to let the tiny Viking out of its sight. It was daring him to make a move.

Hiccup rose to his feet again and stood in front of the dragon. He reached into his pocket. Like he expected, the dragon snarled, showing all of its knifelike teeth. The dragon knew his wand was in his pocket.

Hiccup moved behind the boulder again, away from the Ironbelly's prying red eyes. He took his wand out of his pocket and held it by the wrong end, so that it was aimed at himself and not at the dragon. He got back up and walked slowly out into the open, where the dragon could see him entirely. It was snarling again, eyes focused not on him, but on the wand he held in his hand.

"I knew it." he whispered.

Without another word, he tossed the wand to the side. It clattered to the ground and rolled far out of his reach.

Around him, Hiccup could hear the onlookers whispering to one another.

"What the devil is he doing?"

"Did he just do what I think he just did?"

"He's a dead man. That thing's going to eat him now."

"Bloody idiot!"

Ignoring them, Hiccup stepped towards the Ironbelly. He showed the dragon his empty hands, palms face up. It was risky. It was risky and he knew it. This dragon had no reason to trust him. He had not given it food, nor had he really any time to "bond" with it. Everything was riding on the chance that the Ironbelly would be curious enough to let Hiccup touch it.

"I don't have anything. I don't want to hurt you."

The Ironbelly stopped snarling. Still wary of the small human, but no longer feeling threatened, it allowed Hiccup to inch closer. Now, Hiccup was closing in on the huge dragon. He averted his gaze from the Ironbelly's eyes and had a quick flashback of the day he had befriended Toothless. Like he had done so many months ago, he held his hand out towards the dragon, but not touching it. It was the dragon who would make that decision.

"What's he doing?"

"He's barking mad!"

"Someone ought to stop this! He's about to get killed!"

"It's going to bite his arm off!"

Hiccup almost laughed. Well, if the Ironbelly decided to tear off his arm, at least he would have one matching set of limbs. He couldn't help but smile as he felt what seemed like warm metal brush against his palm. He let his eyes flutter open and looked at the Ironbelly. Its eyes were still trained on him, but it didn't move. Hiccup let his hand slide along the dragon's face and under its chin. He paused to see if the dragon would react to this in any way, but it didn't.

He grinned and scratched the dragon under the chin. It made a noise that could've been a growl, but Hiccup knew that the Ironbelly was purring just like a cat would. As expected, the dragon lowered its guard entirely and flopped onto the ground.

"I guess you guys haven't really changed in the hundreds of years since you made friends with the Vikings of Berk," he told the Ironbelly quietly, "A dragon's still a dragon."

Hiccup continued to scratch under the Ironbelly's chin until he was sure it would not move for a while, then withdrew his hand. He walked past it, careful not to make any sudden moves, and made his way towards the golden egg sitting right behind the dragon.

Unsure of what he was supposed to do, Hiccup looked around at the crowd up in the stands. There wasn't a single whisper. All eyes were on him. Feeling awkward, he picked up the golden egg. He nearly dropped it. It was a bit heavier than he expected it to be.

He glanced back at the Ironbelly, which still wasn't moving. He looked back up at the crowd, then over to the judges.

"Uhhhh… I-I got the egg. Am I allowed to go now?"