Chapter XI: Quidditch

The morning after they found out about the Dragonstones, Jack and Merida waited for their Ravenclaw friends outside the Ravenclaw tower. Jack dropped to his knees and begged Rapunzel to demonstrate to her friends how her hair worked by healing his broken arm. Not only was it keeping him from having some fun, but the cast was also making his arm smelly and itchy. So Rapunzel decided that he'd suffered enough from the injury and wrapped a strand of hair around his arm and sang. True to her word, her hair glowed as the magic within it mended Jack's arm. He removed the bandages, savoring the air that met his skin for the first time in a few weeks.

"Ah, it's as good as new!" Jack declared.

"You're welcome." Rapunzel replied.

"That was awesome, Rapunzel, but come on, let's get down to breakfast. I'd like to arrive in time for my first Quidditch practice afterwards." Hiccup told them.

They ran down to the Great Hall and took their seats at their respective house tables, where Hiccup piled his plate high with eggs, bacon, fried potatoes, some fruit salad, and a goblet of orange juice.

"Wow, you must be hungry." Rapunzel stated while looking at Hiccup's plate. He took more food than what was usual for him.

"I figured that I'll need my strength for today. I'm not too sure what Captain Vincent Bogs has in mind for today's practice." He replied.

"Ok then, I hope you don't stuff yourself. By the way, should we see Toothless today?" Rapunzel asked.

"I'll think about it, actually I should try to figure out how to stay in the air and land without crashing. Maybe he can help me out." Hiccup replied.

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To heck with the practice! Those are boring details! At least Hiccup found out what he was supposed to be doing during the game, learned how to spot the golden snitch, practiced flying drills with his team, and got his sapphire blue Quidditch uniform and the proper protection he would need. Hiccup found out from the pamphlet from Maleficent that each team was made up of seven players: Keeper, Seeker, two Beaters, and three Chasers. The Chasers earned points by throwing a large red ball, a Quaffle, into one of the three golden hoops on their opponents' side of the pitch. Flying about the pitch, there will be two black balls called Bludgers which had the job of knocking the players off their brooms, so the Beaters kept them away from their teammates, and Hiccup, the Seeker, had the job of catching the Snitch to end the game and earn his team 150 points. There was a sight catch though, the Snitch was a small golden ball the size of a golf ball, and it had a pair of silver wings that made it go wicked fast, and it was hard to see.

Captain Bogs was one of the Beaters, the other was a young girl in her third year, and two of the three Chasers on the team were also girls. It impressed Hiccup to know that Hogwarts believed that, like the Vikings, women were capable of performing just as well as the boys.

So after a rather intense practice, Hiccup met up with his friends and paid a visit to Toothless. They didn't bring any food for him this time, but the dragon seemed happy enough just to have some visitors. He kept nudging Hiccup and flapping his wings when they met up with him. Apparently, that was how the Night Fury asked Hiccup to turn into a dragon. During this visit, Hiccup had finally figured out how to fly at a smooth glide and land softly, earning cheers from his friends.

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It was the second week of October now, and it was the first Quidditch game of the year with Ravenclaw going against Slytherin. Chief Stoick the Vast had arrived by ship and made the journey to Hogwarts just to see his son's first game. Along with him, he brought: Gothi, Snotlout, Spitelout, and Gobber. They sat in the Gryffindor stands in the back row, just behind Jack and Merida, and it only took them a couple seconds to figure out who was the Chief and who was the Blacksmith. Jack and Merida greeted them and shook their hands, telling them that Hiccup's talked about them, in time before the announcer welcomed everyone to the game as Professor Pan stepped onto the field to remind the students to keep this a nice, clean, game and released the balls to begin the game.

The Slytherin Chasers took hold of the Quaffle first and began flying towards the Ravenclaw side of the pitch. As the chaser holding the Quaffle was nearing the Ravenclaw hoops, Captain Bogs held out his Beater's club, smacked a Bludger, which hit the tail of the Slytherin Chaser, causing him to spin out of control, and drop the Quaffle to be caught by one of the female Ravenclaw Chasers. She soared across the field and scored the first point for Ravenclaw!

The fellow Ravenclaws and supporting Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs cheered for her as she circled around the field to savor her moment of glory.

"Well now, that was brilliant! Good for her." Gobber stated from behind Jack and Merida.

"Yes it was a good score, but where is Hiccup?" Stoick asked. Merida looked behind her back to meet eyes with the Viking Chief and told him: "He's hovering above the game to stay out of the way until he spots the Snitch. He catches the Snitch, ends the game, and with the number of points he gets for catching it, it is most likely that his team wins the game." She pointed right up to Hiccup's figure in the sky and Stoick settled back into his seat. Hiccup's role in this team was fairly small, but some people would consider it to be the most important role out of all the Quidditch players.

From above Hiccup watched his team and kept a watch on the Slytherin Seeker. The Slytherin looked to be an older brown-haired version of Hans Isles, the boy who teased Rapunzel about cutting her hair, but in truth he was one of Hans's older brothers by the name of: Gregor Isles. Both Seekers watched for the Snitch as their teams scored points after points. At this point they were at Ravenclaw: 50 and Slytherin: 70. A couple times a Slytherin beater got lucky after smacking a Bludger into the hoops.

"Wow, you guys have good beaters." Hiccup told Gregor Isles in a nice tone.

"Thanks. Yeah they are doing pretty good today; sometimes Vincent can do a fine job knocking someone off of their broom. Though I think one of the Hufflepuffs holds the record of most opponents hit. Ravenclaw's not bad either, I enjoy playing them." Gregor replied.

In comparison to Hans, who had the tendency to be a jerk at times and often reminded Hiccup of a prissier version of Snotlout, Gregor was polite and just seemed to enjoy himself.

After taking another look at the Slytherin Seeker, Hiccup glanced down in time to spot a Bludger heading his way and dodge it, and as the Bludger dove down, Hiccup caught the sight of a glint of gold and dove into the game!

"Look, Hiccup's spotted the Snitch!" Jack exclaimed.

"GO ON HICCUP!" Stoick boomed, causing the Gryffindors in front of him to cover their ears.

From the Ravenclaw seats Elsa, Rapunzel, among other Ravenclaw students were cheering for Hiccup as he dove after the Snitch.

"WHOO HOO! COME ON HICCUP, YOU CAN DO IT!" Rapunzel squealed.

However, Gregor Isles was right on Hiccup's tail trying to get at the Snitch too. However, due to his light stature, Hiccup was able to fly faster than Gregor.

Just a few minutes into pursuit, and Hiccup's fingers were just mere inches away from the Snitch. Closer…. Closer… Closer…

ZOOM, the Snitch ascended in a vertical steep! Hiccup and Gregor tipped their brooms upward to speed after the Snitch, but it took all their arm strength just to hang onto them at the speeds they were going.

"Wow, the boy sure has a handle on that broom." Gobber stated to Stoick. The Viking Chief nodded his head in agreement.

Ugh, if I was allowed to turn into a dragon I could have it by now! Hiccup thought to himself, but if Gregor was playing fair, then so should he.

Just after the Snitch passed the flags on top of the stands, it dive-bombed towards the Gryffindor stand. Down, down, down they went, to the point where they could see the whites in the Gryffindors' eyes. Gregor Isles chickened out and turned away from the Snitch to avoid collision, several Gryffindors were already ducking, but Hiccup leveled out just above their heads, turned upside-down, and reached….

BAM! Hiccup had passed over the Gryffindor stand, but the handle of his broom struck the edge of the neighboring Slytherin stand, sending Hiccup flipping tip over tail, while going into a chaotic descent. Hiccup struggled to get his broom under control, but only managed to soften his rough landing on the ground. The collision threw him off the broom and he landed flat on his back with a grimace on his face. He was alright, but where was the Snitch?

Hiccup looked to his left hand and opened it to reveal a small, shining, golden ball with little silver wings on the sides. Hiccup smiled to himself, got up to his feet, collected his broom, and showed off the Snitch to the cheering crowd. Bogs and his other team members were screaming in delight over their victory, as were Hiccup's friends and family.

"THAT'S MY BOY!" Stoick boomed as he jumped to his feet, as Hiccup just won the game for Ravenclaw. What happened was that he caught the Snitch as he was flying right over the Gryffindors' heads, and just before he collided into the Slytherin stand.

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After the game Hiccup had been checked into the Hospital wing at the insistence of Captain Bogs. After witnessing Hiccup's crashes, he wanted to know if he had sustained any major injuries; and it turned out that Hiccup had cracked his ribs when he hit the ground, and dislocated his right shoulder.

As he was laying in bed, with his chest wrapped up in bandages over a half hour later, Stoick and Gobber walked into the room to congratulate him. This was the first Quidditch match they've ever seen, and it was a real proud moment to see Hiccup excel at something physical other than being a blacksmith. When Jack came in to visit, he did not hesitate to tell the Vikings about Hiccup's first flight.

"Well son, I just wanted to say that I'm proud of you. Maybe we can make a Dragon killer out of you yet with that broomstick, and maybe with some archery training." Stoick suggested. From behind his father, Jack locked worried eyes with Hiccup. What was he going to say to that?

"I don't know, Dad, I've been reading up on dragons here, and I'm starting to think that there is more to them than we think. Besides, I'm actually liking the idea of being the village healer." Hiccup replied.

"Well, I didn't want to hear that, but there's still plenty of time to change your mind if you want. I'll let you rest now, and good show today Hiccup. I'll have to see another match." Stoick told him.

"Thanks Dad."

With Stoick and Gobber out of the room, Jack stepped forward and presented Hiccup with a covered tray of cookies, saying: "These are from Rapunzel. She said she made them in secret yesterday as a treat for your first game, no matter what the outcome was."

Hiccup lifted the lid to find the iced sugar cookies inside, and they had silhouettes of ravens on them made of chocolate chips.

"Wow, I would have to thank her later for these." Hiccup replied, taking a cookie. He and Jack shared some before the girls arrived to congratulate him too and to have some cookies as well.

"You make a good Seeker, Hiccup, and your Father was proud of you; maybe someday, you'll make a good dragon and he'll be proud of you for that too." Elsa told him.

"I wish that were so, but for now, he prefers me to become yet another dragon killer. Someday, Elsa, I will make him proud of my abilities, but you know what sort of opportunity I have in mind to reveal the dragon to him." He replied.

"So, Hiccup, do you want me to heal those ribs for you?" Rapunzel asked.

"No, but thank you, Vikings are so used to pain, it has become a loyal friend." Hiccup replied.

Throughout the day, Hiccup received more visitors, some came with little treats, particularly Ivan who brought him banana brownies. Even Gregor Isles stopped in to shake his hand for a job well done.

"You make for a good opponent, Hiccup, I'll look forward to playing against you, and when I'm in the stands, I think I'll cheer for Ravenclaw."

"Thanks for being a good sport." He replied.

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Now, Ivan came up with this pretty good idea for the fourth year, and I have to admit that I'm really looking forward to applying it.

So don't be shy, share your thoughts, and you may have an impact on the story.

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