A/N: This is set five years after the events of Deathly Hallows. Enjoy!
First Meetings
"You'll pay for that, Frost!"
A boy with snow white hair charged around the corner and flew straight into another boy. The boy had brown hair and eyes and was wearing Ravenclaw robes, clutching a leather journal to his chest. They both let out an exhale of air as they were thrown to the ground by the force of the impact. Frost – the first boy – immediately looked behind him and grinned when he didn't see anyone chasing him.
"Sorry about that," he laughed sheepishly, standing up and offering the other boy a hand up. "I'm Jack Frost, first year Slytherin."
"Hiccup Haddock," the boy accepted the hand up and gave Jack a wary glance as he dusted himself off. "First year Ravenclaw. Who did you manage to annoy so much that you managed to knock us over?" He had a faint accent that sounded vaguely Scottish to Jack's ears.
"Ah, a Gryffindor first year," Jack rubbed the back of his neck as if he was embarrassed. "Astrid Hofferson. I may have turned her hair green."
Hiccup snickered. He was often forced to be around Astrid and her group of friends since their parents were friends. Safe to say, they avoided each other as much as possible and mutually agreed that they didn't want to know each other when they weren't forced together.
"Better hope she doesn't catch you then," Hiccup told him. "She's got deadly aim and an array of hexes at her disposal." A small chirping noise interrupted them before Jack could reply and they both looked for the source of the noise. "Toothless!"
A small black lizard ran over to Hiccup and wriggled up his body until it was perched around his shoulders. It looked like a miniature dragon, and Jack noticed that a piece of its tail was missing, replaced by a red cut of material. The creature's eyes swivelled to stare at Jack for a few seconds before it settled its head onto Hiccups' collarbone and then seemed to go to sleep.
"What in Merlin's name is that?" He exclaimed, leaning forward to see it better, thus missing Hiccups' disapproving look.
"This is Toothless," Hiccup explained in a slightly cold tone of voice that Jack didn't seem to notice. "He's a Nightfury; they're a type of dragon. He's my familiar." The last bit was said protectively; he was too used to people reacting badly to his first friend/pet.
"Awesome!" Jack beamed at him, reaching out a hand to touch the sleeping dragon and then pulling away before he made contact. Hiccups' face softened and he smiled back at his new acquaintance. So far, everyone who'd met his familiar had reacted badly, which meant that he hadn't managed to make any friends. Even so, he wouldn't give up Toothless for anything and he was used to being ignored anyway.
"You can touch him if you want," he reassured Jack, reaching his own hand up to stroke over his pets horns gently.
"Best not," Jack smiled wryly. "Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus and all that."
There was a pause where they both wanted to talk but neither knew what to say. They were both unused to making friends. Any possible friends of Hiccups' were driven away by Toothless and Jack was also used to being on his own since his pranking nature often angered people before they could get to know him.
"Whichever of you two changed Astrid's hair green deserves a medal," a girl's voice announced in a Scottish accent, startling the two boys. "I have to room with the girl and I can't even begin to describe the torture that that is!"
They turned around to see a girl in Gryffindor robes looking at them questionably; she had bright red hair that looked uncontrollably frizzy. The teachers had often remarked during the first week of school that if they hadn't known better than they'd have thought she was the child of Ron and Hermione Weasley nee Granger.
"Um," Hiccup coughed nervously, shifting his weight onto his other foot and staring at the girl. "That was him." He pointed to Jack and offered them both a small smile.
"Jack Frost," he gave a small bow towards and grinned mischievously. "Pleasure to meet you. This is my friend Hiccup Haddock."
Hiccup shot him a surprised glance at the announcement and then blushed and began to fiddle with his journal. Jack smiled gently at his reaction and then raised an eyebrow at the girl, waiting for her to give them her name.
"Merida DunBroch," she told them cheerfully. "You have to teach me how to do that. If for no other reason than because I could threaten her with it."
"Be glad to," Jack laughed; he seemed like a very playful boy, constantly smiling or laughing. "I could even tell you how to curse her bald." Neither Merida nor Hiccup could stop the explosion of laughter that escaped them at the thought of a bald Astrid.
"It would be an improvement," Merida nodded. She was glad that she'd found people who seemed to think like she did. She'd been struggling to fit in, and now that she'd started talking to Jack there was no chance that she was going to go back to being on her own, even if it meant following him around until he agreed to be her friend.
"She can't get any worse," Hiccup agreed, causing Merida to take notice of him for the first time. The first thing that she saw was the small dragon wrapped around his neck, but then his words registered and she grinned at him.
"Cool dragon," she closed the distance between them confidently and ran her hand over the top of Toothless's head. "Hiccup right?"
"Y-yeah," he stuttered, a bit amazed by how fearlessly she treated Toothless. Though, he figured later privately, she was a Gryffindor. "His name's Toothless, he's my familiar."
"Lucky," she took a step back so that she was stood between the two boys. "I have a pet horse back home called Angus but since he's not my familiar I wasn't allowed to bring him."
"That's a shame," Jack lamented. "Maybe we should try to sneak him in next year."
The casual way he mentioned the thought that they'd still know each other in a year's time reassured the others that he wanted to try and be friends as much as they did. Merida snorted at the idea of sneaking Angus into Hogwarts while Hiccup shifted Toothless so that his arms wouldn't go dead from the weight on his shoulders.
"Hey!" A cry caused them to look around in confusion, when they didn't see anything; Merida led the way to find out what was going on. They soon came across a scene of a blonde girl who looked like she'd drunk a hair growing potion and an older boy with black hair and pale skin. The girl was scowling at the boy and had her wand out. "Give him back!" Jack was the first to notice the green shape in the boy's hand and realized what was going on. He recognized the older boy as Pitch Black; a fifth year Slytherin.
"Watch this," Jack whispered to the others, kneeling on the ground and placing his hand flat against the stone floor. Hiccup and Merida watched curiously as ice began to form under his hand and flow away from him, leading towards Pitch. When it reached him, Pitch slipped and the green shape escaped, jumping into the girls waiting hands.
"Come on," Merida grabbed the other girls hand and began to drag her away, shooting glances back at Pitch as she did. He was starting to stand up and seemed really angry at what had happened. None of them wanted to be around when he gathered his bearings enough to remember how to use his wand.
"Thank you," the blonde girl leaped forward and hugged Jack tightly. Behind his back, Merida and Hiccup snickered, knowing from how he'd stiffened that he'd been surprised. "He took Pascal off of me!"
She stepped back and showed them the little chameleon, placing him on her left shoulder with a soft smile. Her golden hair was plaited and looked to be around ten feet long; they dreaded to think how long it would be when let down. She was wearing Hufflepuff robes and pink flowers in her hair.
"You're welcome," Jack smiled uncertainly before shaking his head and offering her the same bow he had Merida. "Jack Frost, at your service."
"Rapunzel Corona," she giggled, turning to look at Merida and Hiccup curiously. "Are you all first years too?"
"Yeah," Merida brushed her hair away from her face impatiently. "I'm Merida DunBroch."
"Hiccup Haddock," he gave her a small wave, jostling Toothless and causing the dragon to wake up and blink at them sleepily. He yawned, showing them his empty gums and the reason behind his name.
"And who's this little guy?" Rapunzel smiled at the dragon while Pascal shied away to hide behind some of his owners hair.
"Toothless," Hiccup introduced, patting the Nightfury's paws, without a wince, when he dug his claws into his skin. "He's a Nightfury and my familiar."
"Do you ever get sick of repeating that?" Jack smirked, thinking about how many times he'd heard it in the brief time he'd known the brown haired boy.
"Yes," Hiccup groaned, shoving his little book into a pocket inside of his robes. "You wouldn't believe the amount of times I have to say it."
"I can help with that!" Rapunzel grinned innocently and pulled out her wand, waving it over the space above his head and murmured the words of a spell. Jack and Merida watched curiously while Hiccup shrunk into himself and had to visibly force himself not to jump.
"Perfect," Merida giggled behind her hand while Jack just burst out laughing, staring about Hiccup's head. Hiccup sighed and waved a hand over his head but couldn't feel anything.
"Okay," he mock glared at them while Rapunzel smiled proudly at her work. "What's she done?"
"The words: 'This is Toothless; he's a Nightfury and my familiar' are now written above you in purple writing," Jack informed him once he'd calmed down.
"At least I won't have to repeat myself anymore," Hiccup said after a moment of gobsmacked silence. "Thanks I suppose."
"You're welcome," Rapunzel had a spark in her eye that clearly showed that she had a mischievous side. Hiccup couldn't believe his luck; it seemed he'd found three troublemakers to be friends with. On the Brightside, at least they were his friends and weren't freaking out about Toothless like everyone else – including his family – did.
"This is great," Merida cheered. "We have a friend in every House. That means we'll have a friend in every class!"
"That will be helpful," Hiccup agreed. Jack was leading the way outside while the others followed him out. Finally, they ended up sat outside by the lake in front of one of the trees there. Immediately, Jack took his shoes off and let his bare feet rest in the grass; Rapunzel watched him curiously and then copied his action. "Isn't that cold?"
"Nah," Jack laid back so that he was propped up by his elbows. "I don't get cold. I have an affinity for winter according to the Headmistress. North, my main guardian, had guessed as much though when I froze one of his workshops."
"Your guardian?" Merida repeated before she realized how insensitive the question might sound. "Sorry, you don't have to answer that."
"It's fine," Jack smiled reassuringly at her. "I'm Muggle-Born, but my parents died when I was little. By that point I was already showing signs of magic, so my sister and I were adopted by a wizard: North Clause. He runs a magical toyshop and his friends are down as our temporary guardians if anything happens to him."
"Is your sister here?" Hiccup asked, gesturing towards the school vaguely.
"Nah," Jack shook his head. "She's only nine, but she hasn't showed any signs of magic yet. She says she doesn't mind though. What about you guys? Any siblings here?"
"I have three younger brothers," Merida told them grumpily. "They're triplets and will no doubt be coming to Hogwarts in three years. I'm a Pure-Blood; my parents couldn't care less about blood purity, but they're still a bit old fashioned."
"I haven't got any siblings," Hiccup said as Toothless got bored of just resting on him and instead jumped to the ground and stalked over to Merida before settling himself on her lap. "My mum died when I was young so my dad raised me. I'm a Half-Blood but my dad's friends with Astrid's parents, so I had to grow up with her group."
"I pity you," Merida grimaced, patting Toothless absently. "What about you, Rapunzel?"
"I'm a Lost-Pure-Blood," she smiled at their expressions. When a wizard or witch was raised away from the Wizarding World but they weren't Muggle-Born, they were classed as 'Lost'. The most famous example of a Lost-Wizard was Harry Potter; raised by his Muggle Aunt and Uncle even though he was officially a Half-Blood.
"So you were raised in the Muggle World?" Jack questioned, purposely not asking about her parents since the only way a Pure-Blood would be Lost was if all family was declared either dead or unfit as a guardian.
"Sort of," Rapunzel shrugged. "I live with my birth parents now, but when I was born I was kidnapped by a woman who called herself Mother Gothel. She was basically a squib, only able to do one or two spells and even they exhausted her. I thought she was my real mother until a family friend found me when I was seven and returned me to my true family."
Seeing that she was uncomfortable about the subject, Hiccup quickly spoke up. "So, Jack has an affinity for winter, so any of you have any special gifts too? I'm really good with animals but that's it for me."
"I'm a great archer," Merida offered, reaching into the pocket of her robes and pulling out a shrunken bow and quiver of arrows. She tapped them with her wand while muttering words under her breath. A second later, they grew to normal size so that the other could examine them. "I can fire them while riding Angus; my horse." She added the last bit for Rapunzel's benefit.
"Cool," Jack picked up one of the arrows and tapped his finger on the arrow head. "You have to teach us how to shrink and grow things if I teach you those hexes."
"Deal," Merida laughed, shrinking the items again and placing them back into her pockets. "What about you Rapunzel? Any gifts?"
"I'm really good at healing people," she blushed slightly. "And my hair is powerful. I can move it, it feels weightless and it glows sometimes when I need it to."
"Different," Hiccup commented, whistling softly to call Toothless back to him. "Toothless has his own gift too. He can grow big enough to carry people when he wants to, but he stays this size normally so that he can stay with me at all times. I learnt how to fly him with his help and we try to sneak out as often as possible to fly when at home."
"My staff helps me fly," Jack confided, pulling out his wand. It was made of some sort of grey wood and looked like it was covered in trails of ice. He whispered something and made a motion with the wand, causing it to lengthen until he was holding a wooden staff with a curl at the end of it. It was made of the same wood as his wand and had the same designs on it. "This allows me to control the wind and my winter powers more easily. With help from the wind, I can fly as long as I'm holding my staff."
"Awesome," Merida breathed, staring at the staff. "This is so unfair. Both you two can fly and she has magic hair…you both have to promise to take us flying."
Rapunzel nodded eagerly with wide eyes, looking from Jack's staff to Toothless who was sat next to Hiccup and staring back at her. They both agreed happily once Hiccup had made sure that Toothless had no problem with letting Merida and Rapunzel ride him.
They talked for a little while longer before they were forced to split up and go to their House tables for the evening meal, Hiccup got some stares as people read the words floating above his head, but after a look at the dragon walking beside him they understood what it was about. Sure enough, they sat next to each other in every class because there were always two houses in each class, which meant they didn't have to be alone anymore.
Over time, they found out more about each other, like how Merida had fought against her mother who wanted to enter her into a marriage contract, the fact that Hiccup had a fake foot after he'd lost his in an explosion that Toothless had saved him from, how Jack had developed his winter powers when he'd fallen into a frozen lake saving his sister and ended up with white hair and blue eyes at the same time, and that Rapunzel didn't know how to feel about Mother Gothel and how she feared that she'd loose her powers if her hair was cut.
They became inseparable. The girls went on their promised flights and they were all constantly over at each other's houses over the holidays. They earned a reputation of being pranksters thanks to Jack and his mischief, and the teachers were constantly amazed in their first year when they saw how students from different houses could be best friends.
No one was surprised when in fifth year they ended up in relationships with each other. The only thing that shocked people was the relationships themselves; they'd bet that shy Hiccup would end up with Rapunzel since they seemed so alike. Instead, he somehow coped with going out with the confident Merida while Rapunzel ended up with Jack.
Jack and Merida argued so much that the teachers had been convinced they'd end up with another James Potter and Lily Evans, but even though they fought, they stayed best friends, treating each other as a brother and sister respectively. They were all protective of each other and Toothless and Pascal were often seen on any of the members of what the other students had begun to call the Big Four.
A/N: This is finished at last! I couldn't get this idea out of my head after watching a video about the Big Four at Hogwarts. I hope you like it, please review! :)