A/N: Hey guys! This is a continuation of the Golden Snitches-verse. This one-shot, told from Hiccup's POV, is a prequel to the next chaptered-story I will be releasing. Unlike Golden Snitches, this is Hiccstrid centric, though there are mentions of other pairings (Jelsa, Mericup). Happy reading and let me know what you think :).
Warnings: This fic contains mentions of non-descriptive animal abuse.
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Leaning against the fence, Hiccup watched as the sun dipped in the horizon, painting the sky with many hues of orange and red. He sighed wistfully, knowing it would be the last time in a long while that he would be able to enjoy peaceful moments like this.
"Our last night here, buddy," he whispered. "Well, for the next two months."
Toothless hopped on his shoulder, mewling softly and rubbing his face against Hiccup's neck. The three-legged cat was always able to read the Hufflepuff so well, only adding to Hiccup's suspicion that his pet was half kneazle. That, or incredibly intelligent for a cat.
Picking off a bit of gooey tuna from his sandwich, Hiccup lifted his finger and offered it to Toothless. The black cat made a contented sound and licked his finger clean. With only a single tooth left, it made it difficult for the cat to eat most foods so Hiccup was always sure to take tuna salad sandwiches from the Great Hall, if only to satisfy Toothless' love for fish.
"Yer not goin' to the last dinner?" Professor Gobber asked, as he hobbled out of his shack.
The Care For Magical Creatures instructor walked over to the pair, reaching out with his single hand to stroke Toothless' chin.
"And miss Headmaster Moon's speech about house unity, coming-of-age, finding our potential, and that time he battled a troll in the dungeons when he was a student at Hogwarts?" Hiccup asked, dryly.
Professor Gobber laughed. "He always tells the same speech, dinae he?"
Hiccup had to resist rolling his eyes. "Only has since I got here 6 years ago. All that's missing are the anecdotes about the power of knowledge and 'spreading our wings like a phoenix' as we take on the world. Or how 'we are the future'. I'm sure he has moving portraits in his office with motivational messages: 'Hang in there, champ!' You know, the one with the wizard hanging from his broomstick."
"Yer puttin' a lot o' thought into this…"
Folding his arms over his chest, Hiccup lifted a brow. "But you're not denying he has one of those portraits."
Professor Gobber merely shrugged.
"I can handle the 'hang in there, champ' motivational speeches. But the stories…they just never end," Hiccup said, with a dramatic groan. "He's worse than my father when it comes to reliving past glories."
"Aye, but your old man has many things to be proud o'," Gobber said. "It's not easy being a keeper at his age."
His tone bordered on the fanboy worship he felt towards Stoick Haddock, famed keeper of Puddlemere United. The reminder of his father's infamy made Hiccup feel ashamed of his lack of accomplishments. Not to mention he was about as good at sports as a Muggle attempting wandless magic. His failure to live up to his father's name and make it on the Hufflepuff quidditch team remained a sore spot for the Haddocks.
His expression fell as his eyes dropped to the metal prosthetic he had crafted to replace his left foot. He wasn't even a whole wizard, let alone the son his father had wanted. How would he ever live up to the Haddock name?
"Cheer up, lad,"Gobber said, placing his hand on Hiccup's unoccupied shoulder. He seemed to know what Hiccup was thinking. "I'm sure yer father's proud o' you."
"Yeah," Hiccup said, quietly. But even he couldn't lie to himself. Toothless' ears drooped.
Looking towards Hogwarts, Professor Gobber sighed. "Try not to stay out here all night. It's the Year End Feast. You should be enjoyin' it with friends."
Waving off the Professor, Hiccup forced a smile as he watched Gobber hobble up the path to the castle. Once he was out of sight, Hiccup frowned and walked around the fence to enter the makeshift yard Gobber had built. In the corner, resting against the steps leading to the back door of the shack, the instructor's large boarhound, Grump, dozed lazily. But his ears perked up as he heard Hiccup approach.
"Friends?" Hiccup mumbled, bending down to offer some of his sandwich to Grump. Grump slobbered all over his hand as he gulped down the rest of the sandwich, causing Hiccup to make a face.
Sixth year had been particularly lonely for the Hufflepuff. With everyone well into puberty and noticing the opposite sex (or, in Tuffnut's case, the same sex), Hiccup had felt neglected for most of the year. Jack had ignored him the last few months as he rekindled his relationship with Elsa, Merida had distanced herself from Hiccup after a failed attempt at dating last September (they ultimately decided to be friends), and Rapunzel spent all her time mooning over Flynn. That is, when she wasn't heading the gossip mill with her cousin Anna. Their favorite topic, boys, was something Hiccup felt he had little to contribute to, despite being one.
To make things worse, Hiccup had yet to hit his growth spurt. He was now shorter than most of the witches and wizards in his class. And with few people to hang out with when he wasn't studying, or helping Gobber out, he felt like the only one who understood him anymore was Toothless.
"Like I have any friends," he sighed. Toothless swatted his cheek, causing Hiccup to smile sadly at his pet. "Except you, bud."
He shook the slobber from his hand but ultimately decided to wipe it on his jeans. He then pulled out his wand to scourgify them clean.
"Are you sure he can understand you?"
The voice startled Hiccup and he dropped his wand to the ground. He nearly stumbled on his prosthetic leg and Toothless hopped off his shoulder. As he retrieved his wand, he glanced over his shoulder and saw Astrid leaning against the fence, looking at him curiously. A blush colored his cheeks, spreading down to his neck.
Still in her quidditch robes, hair mussed from the game that had ended an hour before, she looked as beautiful in his eyes as she did on any other given day. But there was always something about quidditch that brought out a fire in her eyes, that made Hiccup's heart beat a little faster. This was Astrid in her element, all attitude and determination.
She pushed her bangs out of her eyes, looking at him expectantly. It was then that he remembered she had asked him a question.
"T-toothless?" he stuttered.
Toothless meowed loudly, mimicking a grin as his single fang stuck out his lip. Hiccup reached down and stroked him behind the ears. "You'd be surprised at how intuitive he is."
Hopping over the fence, red and gold robes billowing in the slight breeze, Astrid bent down to pet Toothless. At first, Toothless crawled back behind Hiccup's metal prosthetic, ears lowered and baring his single tooth. His past experiences as an abandoned kitten and tortured by a cruel wizard always made him distrustful of people.
"It's alright, Toothless," Hiccup said. "She's friendly."
Seeing the encouraging smile Hiccup gave him, he hesitantly inched forward and sniffed Astrid's outstretched hand. Satisfied, he rubbed his face into her palm and purred.
"He's gorgeous," Astrid said, giggling as Toothless' gummy mouth nibbled at one of her gloved fingers. Looking at his stump, his left hind leg, she asked quietly, "what happened to him?"
Hiccup paused, a chill running down his spine as he recalled the day he met Toothless. It still filled him with an angry fury, the scene he had witnessed when he was only 9 years old. "He was tortured by a wizard casting…one of the unforgivables…"
The color seemed to drain from Astrid's face. "…what? But why?"
"Who knows?" Hiccup said, with a bitter scoff. "Maybe he was angry at the world. Or just bored."
Even now, he could still hear Toothless' pained cry screaming at the back of his mind. It was a sound he'll never be able to forget.
"But those are illegal," Astrid whispered, stunned. She looked down at Toothless, who was bouncing around her legs and swatting after a grasshopper.
Hiccup tried to shake away the memories. Hearing someone else's pain was worse than when he'd lost his own foot. "They are. When used against a witch or wizard. Or a documented familiar." Maybe even worse than being witness to Toothless' pain was realizing how helpless he felt without the law on his side. "But Toothless was a stray."
"So you're saying the Ministry didn't intervene?" Astrid demanded, unable to believe what she was hearing. "Did you report it?"
The Hufflepuff shrugged helplessly. "I tried. But I couldn't even identify the wizard who did it. I was just a kid. And my dad tried using his name to get someone to take it seriously but…it's not the kind of case the Department takes on."
Astrid looked crestfallen as Hiccup moved closer to her, his metal foot creaking as he bent down to pick up his cat. Toothless purred and snuggled into his chest. Hiccup's expression softened. "But it's alright now. He and I have each other."
"It was nice of you to take him in," she said. "Most wizards wouldn't."
He knew what she meant. Most would overlook Toothless because of his special needs. That, or he would have ended up with some well-meaning witch or wizard who coddled him out of pity.
As Hiccup looked at Astrid, a deep blush colored her cheeks, her eyes dropping to his metal foot. "Not that there's anything wrong with—"
"It's alright, Astrid," he said, also feeling a bit embarrassed. He scratched the back of his neck with a nervous laugh. "Most conversations are 2 parts pity and 3 parts awkward when you have a stump for a leg. It's not the worst I've heard."
He meant to make her feel better but seeing the guilt on her face made him realize he said the wrong thing. The following silence was unbearably awkward and his mind raced quickly for a change in subject. Her bright quidditch robes caused him to blurt out, "So…great game today! You sure showed those Slytherins!"
He expected Astrid's expression to brighten but, instead, she frowned. "…we lost."
Hiccup's face reddened. "Oh, uh…right. I would have known that if I—you know, you guys rarely lose so—I thought—"
Smooth, he mentally chastised himself.
"Kristoff's graduating so he's more put off by the loss," Astrid replied, with a shrug. "There's always next year."
Toothless stretched his paw down as Grump sniffed Hiccup's jeans in search of more food, pawing gently at the boarhound's muzzle. Hiccup recognized the cue and set his cat down, watching as Toothless began playing with the slow-moving Grump. He exchanged a small smile with Astrid, who also found the pets' play time endearing.
"Hey, why aren't you at the year-end feast?" Hiccup asked. He only just realized how out-of-character it was for Astrid, one of the most social and popular girls at Hogwarts, to be avoiding her last chance to be with all her friends for the next 2 months.
Surprisingly, her face went a brilliant shade of red as she dropped her eyes to her feet. Wait…was Astrid blushing?
"You weren't there so I came looking for you," she admitted. She awkwardly shifted her weight between her feet. "Merida said I'd find you here."
This time, it was Hiccup's turn to blush. "You were looking for me?"
The question why sat on the tip of his tongue but he was so stunned by the revelation that he couldn't quite choke the word out. When she was finally brave enough to look into his green eyes, she seemed to read the confusion that shone brightly in them.
"We have one more year until we graduate," she answered. "Pretty soon, we'll be getting ready for the N.E.W.T.s, going to our last classes, saying goodbye to our friends…I don't want to regret anything."
But her words only confused him more. The sudden determination in her eyes went against everything he thought he understood about their relationship. After six years of classes together, only speaking on the rare occasion that involved a mutual acquaintance, he knew hardly enough about her to even call her a 'friend.' "What would you regret?"
"Not doing this."
With little warning, she grabbed him by his yellow shirt, pulling him closer as she pressed her lips softly against his. Hiccup was so shocked that he could only make a surprised squeak, nearly swaying on his foot as his eyes widened. His lips tingled from the almost foreign sensation, an electric shock pulsing through his blood as his heart raced against his chest. When she pulled back, he could only stare at her in awe, his mind unable to form a coherent thought.
After a few awkward moments, he managed to say the only thing he was able to think in the silence. "But…you never talk to me…you never even sit with me in class," he said. His voice wavered as he blurted out, "I didn't think you noticed me."
"I noticed," she said quietly. Beneath her blush, Hiccup noted the splash of freckles splayed across her nose. It made his heart skip a beat. "I just never said anything."
"…we barely know each other…" he added, thinking how strange it was that everything he thought he knew could do a complete 180 in a matter of moments. The long-time crush he had on her was a well-kept secret that not even his closest friends knew about, let alone something he had even admitted to her.
"Then let's change that."
He was taken aback by the determination in her eyes. To Hiccup, all of this seemed crazy. Girls weren't supposed to notice him. He was the scrawny, awkward kid from Hufflepuff, who played around with Muggle gadgets and was always tinkering with magical devices. Merlin, he was half convinced that the few dates he had with Merida were done out of pity by her.
But seeing how Astrid looked at him, her eyes shining with something he couldn't identify, he understood what this was. It was the start of something new, something different and a chance to change the course of his life at Hogwarts. He had a feeling that his life was about to get a whole lot more interesting.
Taking his hand in hers, Astrid's fingers sent a pleasant tingle where they poked through the holes of her quidditch gloves. He could get used to this. "One more year left. Let's make it count."
Hiccup squeezed her hand back. It was all the confirmation she needed.