Hiccup

My head hurt.

Actually, come to think of it, everything hurt.

Why did everything hurt? What had happened? Why was everything so dark?

Well, for one thing, my eyes were closed. That might have had something to do with it. I opened them a sliver, noticing how dry and bleary they were. I felt tired, too. Why was I tired? I had just been lying on a bed, asleep.

I opened my eyes a bit more, trying to focus on my surroundings.

An arched stone ceiling was above me, shadowy and dim in what I assumed was evening light. A quick glance toward a row of windows confirmed this; the sun had set and the sky was greyish dark blue.

As I took in more of the room, I realised that I was in the school hospital wing.

Of course.

The tower.

Gothel.

That confundus had really done some damage.

I didn't even know how long it had been since we flew off to find Rapunzel. It could have been weeks. Maybe a month!

I scanned the rows of beds for any of my friends, but the only other person in the wing was someone about my size in the bed next to me.

It was probably a girl, though I couldn't really tell, as she was facing away from me. I didn't think I knew any girls who had the shortish brown hair that she had, and I decided to get out of bed to see who it was.

I cringed as I set my feet down on the floor. Everything ached all over my body, but I kept standing up anyway. I had a brief lightheaded moment as I finally stood up, and the crossed to the other side of the bed to see who the girl was.

It was Rapunzel, of course. I really should have known, shouldn't I? Her hair, which would have brushed her shoulders had she been upright, was spread over the pillow in a brown mess. Her face was pale, and I could see a few grazes on her skin.

That made me suddenly remember that I had been in that tower too. What injuries had I managed to come away with? I looked around for a mirror, seeing one down the very end of the long room. I reached it eventually, and took a good look at myself post-wizard-duel.

I was paler than normal too, and had a few cuts and scrapes here and there. The only really impressive one was a fairly deep cut on my chin, something that looked like it would probably scar.

I frowned. Surely I'd sustained something slightly more spectacular than that. I pushed up the sleeves of the hospital-issue pyjamas, finding nothing more than a few bruises. The same went for my legs.

How dismal. I had nothing to show off whatsoever.

I let the pyjamas drop back into place, and returned to my bed. I noticed for the first time that there was a glass of water beside it, which I drained instantly, then wished I hadn't. I had no idea how long it would be until someone came, and drinking water would at least give me SOMETHING to do.

I shouldn't have worried, because as I settled back into the pillows, the doors down the opposite end to the mirror flew open. Voices quickly filled the silent hospital room, and I smiled as I recognised them.

"Do you think they're awake yet?"

That was Merida.

Another person, a teacher I'd never met before, answered.

"I doubt Miss Corona will be up. Losing all of her power like that - all in one moment... I'm not really sure how long it'll take her body to pull everything together again. The boy, on the other hand-"

"He's awake!" Elsa cut through the teacher. She ran down the gap between the rows of beds and stopped in front of mine. Her smile was infectious, and I found myself grinning widely.

"When did you wake up?" she asked.

"Couple of minutes ago." I shrugged.

I looked up at the teacher who had been speaking before. She must have only been in her twenties, but she had choppy white hair. Her skin was tanned, and she wore pale blue robes. She must have been in charge of the hospital.

The teacher smiled at me. "I don't believe we've met before, Mr Haddock. I'm Kida Nedakh, matron."

She offered a hand to shake, which I took.

"How do you feel?" she asked, kneeling beside the bed. "You were out for a good five days. I hope you've stayed put for the time you were awake."

Oops.

"Oh, yeah, of course," I said. I'm a terrible liar.

Kida rolled her eyes. "Your friend here did the same." She pointed at Jack. "He practically sprung out of bed the moment he opened his eyes."

Jack smirked, which earned him a smack on the shoulder from Merida.

"I'll have you know that Elsa and I were never unconscious to begin with," she said. "So there's really nothing to gloat about."

Jack sniffed. "Oh, I'm sorry. Did you throw the chunk of mirror that killed Gothel?"

"Did you carry someone your own weight while flying on a broomstick for half an hour?"

"Did you hold out in a duel against an experienced dark magic user more than quadruple your age?"

"Oh, be quiet, you three," Kida said. I had a feeling she'd dealt with a lot of this already. "Mr Haddock, I'll have to ask you to stay in hospital overnight, but you should be able to return to classes as normal tomorrow. You're doing pretty well, and nothing is dreadfully wrong."

"Thanks," I said. "And by the way, what happened to Rapunzel's hair? Why did you cut it?"

"Because that's the only reason Gothel wanted her," Elsa replied. She scratched the back of her head. "I was the one who cut it - I used the bits of mirror - but after I did, she wouldn't wake up. Losing all the magic from it did something to her."

Elsa flushed red. "I really didn't mean to, though."

"Of course not!" said Merida. "I told you it wasn't your fault."

Elsa shrugged, unconvinced. After a moment of silence, Kida turned to my friends.

"I hate to be a spoilsport, but I believe it is high time for you to get to bed. I did tell you that your visit would only be very brief. Say your goodbyes, and then go back to your dormitories."

"But miss-"

"That's enough, Mr Overland. You may visit your friend tomorrow. Now go."

Jack reluctantly made his way up the aisle between the beds, Merida and Elsa lagging behind him. The door shut, the noise echoing around the room.

"I'll bring you some dinner," said Kida, "and then you need to get to bed as well."

I nodded.

The food I was given was okay, though there wasn't much of it. ("You haven't eaten for nearly a week; I don't want you heaving it all back up again.") I was given a glass of water to wash it down, and then told to go to sleep.

The hospital wing was dark as I lay, trying to drift off. The sky outside the long windows had settled at a deep blue, speckled with the occasional star. After a long enough time had passed that I'd begun to wonder what the time was, I knew there was no way I was going to get to sleep quickly. My mind was still racing from what I'd had to process in one very short evening, which included losing five entire days of my life.

I sighed, turning onto my other side. Now I was facing Rapunzel, whose body rose and fell steadily. Now that I'd had time to think, I realised that I remembered worryingly little about the whole tower incident. I didn't remember what happened to Rapunzel's hair, I couldn't remember Elsa duelling with Gothel, or Jack supposedly killing her.

A sudden noise interrupted my thoughts, and my eyes quickly pulled back into focus. Had that been...?

Rapunzel!

She had let in a faint gasp, which was certainly a change from steady breathing. I hoped that meant she was waking up.

Rapunzel stirred again, this time shifting under the covers. I sat up on the edge of my mattress and looked at her carefully. She opened her eyes slowly, and looked around dazedly.

She caught sight of me looking at her. Her eyes were still unfocused and confused, but she raised her head and opened her mouth to speak.

"Hiccup...?" she croaked, rubbing an eye. "What... where...?"

She trailed off. Her head jerked as she gave a small cough, and then dropped back onto her pillow. I sat forward on the bed, looking at her worriedly.

She opened her eyes again, this time much more alert. She gave me a faint smile, and propped herself up on her elbows.

"How long has it been?" she asked.

"They said five days," I replied.

"They?"

"The others. I only woke up this evening."

Rapunzel sighed, letting herself flop back onto the bed. I smiled, seeing her newly short hair scattered over the pillow. Rapunzel saw me grinning, and raised an eyebrow.

"What?"

"Your hair."

Apparently, she hadn't thought to look at her hair yet, and quickly raised a hand to it. She gave a shriek, making me jump.

"Oh my gosh!" Her shocked expression had melted away into a happy one.

"It's so..." She dragged a hand through the brown strands. "It's brilliant!"

I smiled. "It's not even that jagged, considering Elsa cut it with a piece of mirror."

Rapunzel laughed. "Really? When?"

I shrugged. "I don't know, I was still under the confundus. She told me after I woke up."

A tired smile stretched across Rapunzel's face as she nodded. Then she gasped. "Oh my gosh, I just realised! We kind of look like brother and sister!"

"What?!"

"You know. We both have green eyes and now brown hair."

"Oh."

"Anyway, I'm tired. What time is it, midnight? Do you mind if I go to sleep?"

"Oh, of course not."

"Okay then. Goodnight."

Rapunzel pulled the blankets up to her chin and shut her eyes. I lay back down myself, but stared up at the ceiling. You know when someone says something that wasn't supposed to be that important, but you end up thinking about it for ages afterwards? That was happening to me; I was still thinking about what Rapunzel had said about us looking like siblings.

I had always wanted a brother or sister, older or younger, from a very early age. I even remembered asking my dad how I could get one when I was about five or so. I didn't realise you generally needed a mother to produce a sibling, and that was something I'd never had.

I managed to fall asleep eventually, though I was still thinking about a brother or sister as I did so. I don't know why I was obsessing over it so much, but it may have had something to do with the late hour and the fact that I was still technically recovering from unconsciousness. Either way, I fell asleep and planned to stay that way until at least breakfast time.

But no.

Of course not.

"Hiccup!"

The voice, while being a hissed whisper, was still loud. I groaned, not wanting to open my eyes. The bed warm so warm and soft, and the air on my face was so cold. I just wanted to stay there.

Then the person attached to the voice shook me by the shoulder.

"Hiccup, open your eyes!"

I obeyed, and found my vision of the still-dark hospital wing was bleary. I blinked a few times and turned over to see who the person was. I nearly had a heart attack.

"Oh my g... Astrid, what-?!"

"Sh! Don't wake Rapunzel!"

I lowered my voice to a whisper, my heart still pounding and my cheeks flushing red. "Sorry. Why- what are you doing here?"

"I'm here to see you, idiot."

I turned an even deeper shade of red. "Right. But... why?"

"I was worried about you," Astrid said, though her facial expression seemed to be more mildly disgusted than sympathetic. "And Merida said you woke up, so I thought I'd visit you."

"Before the even the sun is awake?" I asked. "When do you normally get up, midnight?"

"The sun doesn't wake up, stupid. It's an inanimate object. Gods, you're weird."

"Sure. I'm weird, then. But why are you here so early? I was trying to sleep."

Astrid dismissed my protest with a shake of her head. "You've slept for like a week, Hiccup, you'll live. And why do you think I'm here this early?"

I really had no idea, so replied jokingly, "So no one will see you associating with the village disappointment?"

Her gaze dropped to the floor. "It sounds horrible when you put it that way, but yeah."

My eyes widened. "You mean you actually- oh. Um. Sorry."

There was an awkward pause.

"So... are you feeling better?"

"I was fine to begin with, I'm only here to wait for the effects of the confundus to wear off."

"Right." Astrid said. She fidgeted on the spot. "Good. Uh, see you around, I guess."

"Oh. Bye."

"Don't tell anyone I was here. No offence."

"None taken," I muttered, as Astrid closed the door softly. Of course, I was somewhat disappointed that she left so fast, and that she'd felt the need to visit me in the very early morning to avoid being seen, but still. She had actually come and talked to me. She maybe even cared about me. I couldn't wipe the grin off my face as I lay back down, attempting to get a bit more sleep before I actually had to get up for real.

Rapunzel began classes a couple of days after I started again, and then a few weeks passed without event. The workload certainly got harder, as exams were coming up. This was a fact that the professors took delight in repeating over and over again, especially when someone had done something wrong.

Passing notes? That's going to distract you from your work and you won't pass your exam! Got bored and started drawing instead of writing down what you're supposed to be learning? You're not going to hear some vital information, and you'll end up failing your exam! Sneezed in class? You missed point five of a second of the lesson - you're going to be homeless at the ripe old age of twelve!

Speaking of the age of twelve... my birthday was approaching quickly and I was honestly more anxious about it than anything else.

For one thing, it was my actual birthday this year. That doesn't make a whole heap of sense, but my birthday is on February the twenty-ninth, so I only get a real one every four years. That was kind of a big deal.

Another reason why I didn't want to bring it up was because my birthday was the only day that I thought about my mother (you know, because that's when she gave birth to me?). And while I'd never known her, thinking about it too much kind of made me wish I did.

I hadn't told anyone when my birthday was, and hadn't really expected anyone to try to find out, so I was surprised when the conversation came up at lunch one day.

The five of us were sitting in the library, half talking and half studying for the impending exams, when Rapunzel spoke.

"Am I the youngest out of all of us?"

Everyone raised their heads from their textbooks.

"Well, when's your birthday?" asked Jack.

"June."

"And you're still eleven, right?"

"Yeah."

"You probably are, then," he said. "I turned twelve in November, Elsa did in December-"

"How did you know that?" cut in Elsa. "You weren't even there."

Jack turned red. "Whatever. What about you two?"

"I'm in August," said Merida. "Remember?"

I did remember that now, come to think of it. Then I realised that everyone was staring at me.

"Um, February," I said.

"Yeah, I'm the youngest, then," Rapunzel said. "So what day is your birthday, Hiccup? It's the twenty-eighth now, so it must have already passed. You should have told us."

"Uh... no, actually." I said. "It's on the twenty-ninth."

Jack (predictably) laughed. "The leap year day!? That's brilliant! So technically, you're like three?"

I had a sudden flashback to our first conversation on the train carriage at the very start of the school year, when Jack had said something similar about my name. It was weird. The comment had seemed so nasty at the time, but now it was more like gentle teasing.

"No, I'm not three yet," I replied, playing along. "I'm turning three."

Jack snickered, provoking a shove from Elsa.

"Hey!" he protested. "That wasn't mean!"

Elsa rolled her eyes and went back to her study. Rapunzel raised her head. "So you're twelve tomorrow, then?"

"Three," Jack and I said in unison. I grinned.

Rapunzel smiled as well. "So... would you like a cake, then? Our dorm IS right next to the kitchen, so it wouldn't be any trouble."

"What?" I said, confused. "Why would I want a cake?"

"For... your birthday...?" Rapunzel said, apparently equally confused. "As in a birthday cake?"

"Birthday cake," I repeated to myself. "Is that a tradition or something?"

"Well, yeah," Merida said. "How do you not know what a birthday cake is? Where have you been living for the past eleven years, on an island in the middle of nowhere?"

Elsa covered her grin with a hand.

"The island in the middle of nowhere has a name," I said. "It's called Berk."

"Anyway," Rapunzel butted back in. "Do you want a cake or not?"

"Oh. Well. I mean... you don't have to-"

"I enjoy cooking," said Rapunzel. "It wouldn't be any trouble at all."

I shrugged awkwardly, just as the bell rang for class. "If you really want to, sure."

I didn't even remember it was my birthday the next morning. I got up, got dressed, and went down to breakfast without giving it a second thought.

I dumped my satchel on the ground before sitting down at the table and helping myself to a bowl of porridge. As I was about halfway finished, Elsa sat down next to me.

"Morning," I said indistinctly, through the porridge.

"Happy birthday."

I blinked. "Oh yeah! Um... thanks."

Elsa laughed. I noticed, not for the first time, that she covered her mouth with one hand when she laughed.

"I hope you're not too disappointed - I couldn't buy you anything - but I made you a notebook for your drawings."

She handed me a book, the outside covered with fabric and stitched onto a whole stack of mismatched sheets of paper. I opened it, noticing happily that it seemed to be bound together quite strongly, and that all the pages, while different shades and sizes, were all blank.

"Sorry that it looks a bit patched together," she said apologetically. "But I only had one day to make it."

"It's great," I said happily, and tucked it into my satchel. The number of times I'd gotten in trouble from teachers by drawing on my schoolwork were uncountable, so this would really make a difference.

Just then, I heard the flutter of wings in the air. Looking up, I saw that the daily post had arrived, owls swarming into the hall and dropping envelopes by the hundreds.

I hoped desperately that my dad had sent me something, but I realised quickly that I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up. The last owl left the hall without a single one coming near me.

I tried not to let my disappointment show, and looked back down at my breakfast. If Elsa noticed, she didn't say anything to me.

Next period was potions with Professor Cogsworth, a joint class with Gryffindor. I sat down between Elsa and Merida, noting half-excitedly and half-worriedly that Astrid was sitting on the other side of Merida. I was only one person away from her, which meant I could barely concentrate all lesson, and kept glancing sideways at her and turned bright red the two times that we made eye contact.

I kept thinking about when she'd visited me in the hospital. Did she even remember that? Of course she remembered that, it was only a few weeks ago. Well, maybe a month or so ago, but surely shed remember that. Just why had she visited, though? Was she just being nice, or trying to get house points or something? No, of course not. Astrid wasn't NICE to people for the sake of it, and she definitely wasn't looking for points. She had told me not tell anyone, for goodness sake!

So did that mean...?

"Mr Haddock?"

"What?" My eyes snapped back into focus from where they'd been staring into middle distance.

"I asked you a question. You should know the answer; would you mind sharing it with the class?"

"Um..." I could tell that Cogsworth knew I hadn't been listening, but he wasn't going to leave me alone until I'd admitted it. Elsa gave me an imperceptible nudge, and scrawled something in her book. I squinted at it.

"Uh, a bezoar stone," I said, still unsure of what the question had been.

Cogsworth sniffed. "Glad to see you were paying attention, Miss Arendelle. Mr Haddock on the other hand, at least try to look like you're listening."

"Sorry, sir."

At lunch, as promised, Rapunzel brought a cake.

"Honestly, Tiana did a lot of the work," she said as she handed out slices. We were all sitting on the ground in the courtyard, holding out napkins for her to put the cake onto. "I just iced the top. I would have made it, but she said I was doing it wrong and I guess she couldn't bear to watch."

"It's really good," said Jack through a mouthful.

"Like I said, thank Tiana."

We sat in silence for a bit, chewing on the cake. After Merida finished her slice, she spoke.

"So did you get anything good?"

I assumed she meant presents, so I pulled out the notebook Elsa had made. "I got this."

Merida peered closely at it. "Looks a bit shabby if you ask me. Who gave it to ye?"

"Elsa did."

Merida laughed. "Right, right, but I mean from home. Did you get anything in the mail?"

From the corner of my eye, I saw Elsa stiffen. Yeah, she'd noticed my lack of communication from home all right, and she was more sensitive about it than I was.

I decided to give a truthful response.

"Uh... no. Nothing's come yet."

Merida shrugged. "You know it's weird, Hiccup, I don't think I know anything about your family. I know all about where you live, because Astrid told us, but she's never said anything about your mum and dad."

"Why don't you mind your own business?" Elsa said instantly, in an almost nasty voice.

Merida wrinkled her nose. "Well, excuse me for trying to get to know someone! I'll just keep my mouth shut and sit here like a meek little princess, shall I?"

"She has a point," said Jack to Elsa. "We know barely anything about his family."

"Maybe because he doesn't want to talk about it," snapped back Elsa.

"Why not? Is there some big secret? Now I really want to know."

"It's really not that big a deal," I said, shrugging. "My mum died when I was little, so now it's just me and Dad. See? Really nothing to kick up a fuss about."

Apparently mentioning dead people makes everyone go silent, or at least that's what happened after I told everyone.

"Um... sorry," said Merida sheepishly. To this day, I still don't know why people do that. They weren't personally responsible for my mother's death, were they?

"Do you miss her?" asked Rapunzel.

I hesitated. "I don't even remember her."

She had the grace to look embarrassed, though I didn't think I was bothered in the slightest. I'd meant what I'd said: I couldn't remember her, so I couldn't miss her.

But Rapunzel's words had unsettled me. I couldn't remember a single time when someone had talked to me properly about my mother, even Elsa had avoided the subject when she'd asked about my dad. I suddenly felt like I did miss her - this mother who I'd never really met, never talked to. I never asked Dad about her, because he'd yelled at me the first and only time that I did.

I wanted a mum.

I wanted my mum.

I just wanted a proper family again.

Everyone was staring at me, except Jack, who was suddenly incredibly interested in his cake crumbs.

Merida took a step towards me, her face uncharacteristically concerned. "Are- are you okay?"

I felt like I was about to cry, so I probably looked like it as well.

"I... I need to go to the toilet."

It was a terrible excuse, I could tell that none of them believed me even without seeing their faces, but no one tried to stop me. I ran across the courtyard into the castle and all the way to the Ravenclaw common room, dodging students and teachers and nearly tripping over half the stairs that I climbed. When I finally got to the door with the eagle on it, tears were threatening to spill over.

I reached up and tapped the eagle knocker against itself. With a sinking feeling, I realised that I would have to answer a riddle to get in, which meant I would have to speak out loud. I knew that as soon as I began to speak I wouldn't be able to keep it together any more, and I wondered if the eagle would be able to understand half-sobbed answers.

But to my surprise, the door unlatched and swung open before the bronze bird even opened its mouth.

When it did, it didn't ask a riddle. It just spoke in a low voice, quiet enough that I was the only one who could have heard it.

"Sometimes, the wizards who have shed the most tears gain the most wisdom of all in the end."

For some reason, the eagle's comment completely shattered any calm left in my body. I completely lost it, and began running flat out into the common room, up the stairs and into the first year boys' dorm. I swiped a sleeve over my wet face and threw myself onto my bed. I picked up the pillow, burying my face in it to mask any crying that might be heard, and to hide my face.

While people can guess you're crying while your face is hidden in a pillow, they can't know for sure. And right now, that was good enough for me.

AN:Thanks for reviewing (no one ever reviews this fic aggggh),and please feel free to suggest plot ideas.

OH! Actual important note! Okay, since we're basing the upload schedule of the fic off our school term, we won't be uploading for the next two weeks (during the holidays). However, we will be posting a second chapter this week, which will be the final chapter for first year. We should have a second year fic up by the 26th-ish (I think) of April, depending on where you live in the world, so be sure to follow us so that you get the notification.

Another thing! If you have any good ideas for a name that can be our equivalent of "Death-eater", please suggest them. We considered Night-mares, but those are the horses, not the people.

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