hey so I'm back again with another chapter~ I hope you enjoy it!

DISCLAIMER: almost everything is not mine. I own my OC's (little shits) but that's it!

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Chapter Thirty Five: Just Leave It

Stoick looked down at his shaking hands before clenching them into fists. He grit his teeth to keep from yelling, because if anything he knew he would yell at himself. He wanted to punch something, he wanted so desperately to hurt something, to hurt someone, but he knew he couldn't. His knuckles turned white as he pounded his own fists onto his knees.

He was acting like a child, and he knew it. He shouldn't have done that he knew he shouldn't have.

I disowned my own son.

The thought hung around his head, taunting him, taking a stab at him like it was meant to punish him. He took in a shaky breath, and from the way it sounded it was like he was crying over someone who died. He blinked and he was surprised to notice that hot, angry, regretful tears had leaked from his eyes and rolled down his face into his beard.

I disowned my own son.

The realization cut him like a knife, tied his stomach up in knots, and threatened to force up everything he's eaten that day.

It wasn't fair and he knew it, he knew that he shouldn't have done it, he knew it was wrong. He couldn't see through his angry haze to see that it was wrong, so wrong, because Stoick loved Hiccup more than anything, even more so after Valka died, he was the one piece of family Stoick had left and even though they didn't have the best relationship, they were both trying their hardest and he knew that, and Hiccup was taking a huge step by telling him about his sexuality and even that he was in a relationship and…

Stoick ruined all that. He ruined any chances that his son would ever trust him ever again.

"THERE'S NO WAY YOU CAN TRY TO SUGARCOAT THIS. NONE AT ALL. WHAT DO YOU MEAN, YOU HAVE A BOYFRIEND!? HOW LONG WERE YOU PLANNING ON KEEPING THE FACT THAT YOU WERE A FAGGOT FROM ME? WHAT OTHER THINGS ARE YOU KEEPING FROM ME? NO. I DON'T WANT TO KNOW. YOU THINK YOU CAN JUST RUN AROUND AND DO WHATEVER YOU WANT AND EXPECT ME TO BE OKAY WITH IT? IM NOT. DON'T BOTHER COMING HOME. I HAVE NOTHING FOR YOU HERE."

"What are you looking for?" Toothless asked conversationally, looking up from his comfortable spot on Xavier's bed. Jack grunted at him in response, and dropped Hiccup's pillow, which he was previously looking under. He then moved around to the foot of Hiccup's bed and looked at the auburn haired boy's trunk. It was like he was at war with himself, before he took a deep breath, squatted down, and threw open the top.

"It has to be in here somewhere… c'mon, c'mon, c'mon…" Jack muttered, shuffling through Hiccup's trunk, looking for something.

"You are invading my rider's privacy for what, exactly?" Toothless asked, a little peeved that Jack would be going through Hiccup's stuff almost secretly. Well, it would have been secretly if Toothless wasn't in the room.

"Shut up, cat- ugh!" Jack said before putting everything back the way he originally found it as best as he could. He stood up, looking at the trunk with an exasperated expression. Jack then pulled his wand out of his robe's pocket and flourished it. "Accio letter!" Jack exclaimed.

"Oh, of course you would be looking for that." Toothless mused, feeling a little down that he couldn't put two and two together.

"He wouldn't let me read it, and he's still cracked up about it so I have to know!" Jack said, the letter flying into his hands. "Ha ha! Magic is victorious once more!" Jack said triumphantly, taking the letter gingerly out of the envelope (the same envelope that it was sent in, oddly, seeing how Hiccup obviously didn't want to talk about it and yet it looked like he treated it like a prized possession).

Jack's eyes flicked over the messily-written, smudged, crumpled letter once, twice, three times before he looked up. His fingers were shaking, with rage, with sorrow, with incredulity, he had no idea. He wanted to crumple up the letter too, light it on fire, bury it in the middle of the Forbidden Forest, get it away from Hiccup and make sure that he never had to read those spiteful words from the person that was supposed to love him unconditionally ever again. But if he did that, Hiccup was sure to find out and was sure to get mad at him, and Jack didn't want to give Hiccup a reason to turn away from him now, so he gingerly folded up the letter and tucked it back into the envelope.

"Satisfied?" Toothless asked.

No." Jack said, sniffing a little bit. "It didn't help at all." And he was telling the truth. The letter only made him feel worse about everything, because not only did he have to invade Hiccup's privacy like this in order to find out, but because Hiccup hasn't said a damn thing about any of this, not a word to him about his situation at all. It made Jack feel like crap and a piece of shit for going through his things. Jack slipped the letter back where it came from and shut Hiccup's trunk softly.

"You should not take it personally, Frost." Toothless said. Jack turned to look at him so fast that he was sure he should have popped a vertebrae in his neck somewhere because whoa wait did the dragon-cat just read his mind? "He just needs to come to terms with it himself before he can talk about it. Sometimes it is painful to talk about certain situations before you are ready."

"Yeah, I should know." Jack muttered, looking down at his feet as he struggled not to dig his fingernails into the soft skin of his inner arm, where it would hurt. He was so stupid, because of course Hiccup would still be trying to process this, he would still be wounded about his father's disowning him. Jack knew what it felt like. He went through the exact same thing when Emma died, and he was so stupid because Hiccup, or Xavier for that matter, didn't bring it up until he was good and ready and dammit, Jack, you're the worst boyfriend ever.

"Jack? Jack~" someone called, the door flinging open to reveal Hiccup standing there. "There you are. Found you." He said, flashing his boyfriend a little smile that wasn't genuine at all, but it was the thought that counted, right?

"Hey." Jack said, walking up to him and pulling him into a hug. The smaller of the two didn't pull away, and instead hugged him back, so that was some consultation to Jack's mind at least… consultation of what, Jack didn't know, but it definitely put his mind at ease.

"Everyone else is going to the Black Lake to skip rocks… or something like that." Hiccup mumbled against Jack's shoulder, his breath fanning over his neck. "You wanna go?" He asked.

"Depends." Jack said, letting himself break the hug even though he could have stayed like that for a whole year if you asked him to. "Do you wanna go?"

"Please don't start this." Hiccup said, chuckling a little. "You know we'll just be standing here forever asking the same question over and over again."

"Just answer the question."

"I asked you first!"

"I asked you second!"

"That doesn't even make any sense!"

"It makes complete sense~" Jack said, making a face at Hiccup before smiling. "No, I'm serious, what do you want to do?"

"Honestly?" Hiccup asked. Jack nodded at him encouragingly. "I want to go flying." He said in the softest voice possible. But his precaution was of no use, since Toothless' ears perked up and he looked over at them with his green eyes shining with what was the epitome of hope and curiosity. Hiccup cringed at the sight, and his heart went out to his dragon.

"Flying?" Toothless asked, almost like he couldn't believe his ears.

"Sorry, buddy." Jack said, giving him a sad smile. Toothless slumped disappointedly, and buried his head under his paws.

"That was the wrong thing to say, wasn't it?" Hiccup asked, smiling guiltily and hiking his shoulders so high up that they nearly touched his ears. Jack just gave him a look that sad, 'no duh' and he sighed. "Well, I guess it doesn't matter either way. Toothless and I both can't get what we want." He said.

"Yeah…" Jack said. "And I guess exploring the secret passages again is out of the question?" It was Hiccup's turn to give him a look, and it was Jack's turn to shrink in on himself. "Right, sorry." He muttered. The two of them stood there for the longest time, wondering what the heck they should do.

"We should just go to the Black Lake." Hiccup said. "It would be easier, plus…"

"Or we could just walk around a bit before he head over there. Just the three of us." Jack said.

"Jack, you know that I don't want Toothless to-" Hiccup said, almost like he was pleading with him, but Jack caught both of his hands with his.

"Look, we'll both be there, and we have magic. We can just hex the crap out of anyone that thinks they know anything." Jack said.

"And I think I am going a bit stir-crazy, just staying in here day in and day out. A quick break from this place would be a dream come true." Toothless said, getting up and stretching, before waltzing over to the two of them. Hiccup gave the dragon-cat a death glare.

"Whose side are you on, anyways?" Hiccup said. Toothless shot him an almost smile, something that would be a gummy smile if he were a dragon and that would have been a playful smirk if he were human. Hiccup sighed, taking the look as an answer. "Fine, let's go." Hiccup said.

Jack smiled, using his grip on Hiccup's hands as leverage as he pulled Hiccup in and kissed the top of his head. Hiccup scoffed, almost like the little kiss insulted him, and Jack laughed at the look he was given. He then dropped one of Hiccup's hands in favor of holding just one of his hands and lacing their fingers together. "C'mon, then." Jack said, tugging him along as he practically bounced out of the room, Toothless trailing behind them.

"So where are we going exactly?" Hiccup said, as they were walking down the stairs, Jack sliding on the short banister.

"No idea." Jack said, smiling as he hopped off it. "But it's not about the destination, it's the journey that counts."

"You're really getting philosophical on me now, aren't you?" Hiccup asked, laughing.

"No!" Jack said. "It's just the truth!" Hiccup rolled his eyes at him, trying to hide the smile that was spreading across his face but he couldn't. Jack took pride in the small upturn of his lips, because this time, it didn't seem fake.

"Well, you have an easy time switching between emotions." Toothless jested from in front of them, giving them a bored look. "Are you sure you are not bipolar?"

"Shut it, cat." Jack said, pointing a finger at the cat. Hiccup chuckled. When Jack looked up, he noticed that the people that were in the common room were all staring at them, looking at Jack as if he was crazy. The white haired male flashed them a smile that could have charmed the pants off of anyone without using magic before squeezing Hiccup's hand. "C'mon, I have an idea." He said, giving Hiccup the widest grin he could possible muster.

"Oh no, what is it this time?" Hiccup asked, letting himself be dragged out of the common room by Jack, following the lead that Toothless set.

"I would like to know as well. Any idea of yours is bound to be causing trouble somehow." Toothless said.

"Hiccup, your cat is a genius. The apple never falls far from the tree." Jack said, looking at the smaller auburn haired boy. Hiccup blinked at him.

"Did you basically call me Toothless' mother?" He asked incredulously, trying not to laugh at the ridiculous imagery that came to his mind.

"That's not the point, Freckles!" Jack said, laughing a little at his own… well, hiccup. "Devil Cat, over there, said my ideas always caused trouble, which is correct, and that is exactly what we are going to do." Jack said, a look slipping on his face that Hiccup's seen many times before and what he now called Jack's 'pranking face.'

"Oh, no, you can't be serious." Hiccup said, his shoulders slumping. He was faking, of course, because Jack's pranks were always loud and over-complicated and fun, but those were the reason why they got in trouble most of the times. It took Hiccup and Xavier to stable out the recklessness that Jack threw into the pranks, and Hiccup didn't know if he could be that much of a stick-in-the-mud to balance it all out himself.

"I'm dead serious!" Jack said. "C'mon!" He pleaded, seeing the obvious 'you've got to be absolutely crazy to think I'm going along with this' face that Hiccup had. "Think of it! How much trouble have we all gotten into, together, this year?" Hiccup looked at him, pursing his lips, because he knew that if he said the answer, he would either get a smartass comment or he would justify Jack completely.

"As long as you two do not get in more trouble than you already are, then I will object to nothing." Toothless said, looking at the two of them from over his little cat shoulder.

"Well, Toothless agrees." Jack said, smiling at Hiccup.

"Fine." Hiccup said, giving Jack a look and his hand a squeeze. "As long as it doesn't involve maple syrup." He added, raising an eyebrow. Jack groaned. "You were totally planning on making someone a syrup chicken, weren't you?"

"Maybe…" Jack said, looking down at his feet for a second. "No, not really. So unoriginal, you know? We've got to think of something… better." Hiccup rolled his eyes.

"I'm not helping you brainstorm. You think of something, I'll help you do it. But it's your idea to prank someone." Hiccup said.

"Aw, c'mon, Frecks." Jack complained. "We're supposed to be a team~" He said, batting his eyelashes and jutting out his bottom lip, making the best puppy-dog face he possibly could. Hiccup blinked slowly, and Jack huffed. "Okay, okay, fine. Does a murder scene sound good?" Jack asked.

"Definitely not. If someone thinks we're for real, we'll be in serious trouble."

"Fine. A haunting?"

"No one would be scared. There's actual ghosts at Hogwarts, dummy."

"Hey! For the record, I am not a dummy."

"Whatever makes you fall asleep at night."

"Okay, then… what about…?" Jack asked as they rounded a corner. Jack flinched, and his grip tightened on Hiccup's hand, pulling him back so that they were hidden around the corner, Hiccup's back against the wall and Jack's free hand pressed on the wall near Hiccup's head.

"What was that all about?" Toothless asked, looking at the two of them, indifferent by their position.

"There's someone over there." Jack breathed. "Perfect pranking material."

"What are we going to do?" Hiccup asked.

"Do you know how to do an Invisibility Charm?" Jack asked.

"You should know how to do one." Hiccup said, glaring at him for a second. "But, yeah, I do, why?" Jack smirked.

"Turn me invisible. Quick!"

When Hiccup did the spell, muttering the incantation under his breath and tapping the tip of his wand to the top of Jack's head, he slowly turned invisible, almost as if paint was poured onto his head and trickled down the rest of him.

"There, I think that's good enough." Hiccup said, looking him over, well, looking over the supposedly empty space in front of him even though he knew Jack was still there.

"Watch." Jack's voice said in his ear, tugging on his sleeve for a quick second before he moved away, rounding the corner and sneaking up behind the person there.

Hiccup had to hide a little gasp as he realized that the person was actually Clint, who looked like he was pacing the corridor worriedly. He was worrying his bottom lip with his teeth, and his pale eyes were fixed on his feet, his arms crossed over his chest and his voice trailing off as he mumbled to himself. Hiccup didn't see it when Jack crouched down and placed his palm on the marble floor, but he did see when the frost exploded onto the ground and traveled all the way up and down the corridor.

It was funny to see Clint flail as he took the next step on the now-covered-in-ice-floor. His feet slid against the ice, his arms waving wildly as a "Fuck fuck fuck shit FUCK!" echoed through the corridor. Hiccup bit his bottom lip to stop himself from laughing out loud, because all he could think about was that Clint looked like a giraffe, you know, if you put one in an ice rink. Jack was doing the same, only he was bouncing around Clint as he floundered around. The ice got thicker and thicker, spreading up the walls in a beautiful fern-like pattern that was Jack's signature.

This only went on for a couple seconds before Clint lost his footing altogether, falling on his ass with a huge thud! Hiccup chucked at that, unable to stop the sound as it left his mouth. Jack cackled, his voice rebounding throughout the hallway triumphantly. If Toothless could roll his eyes, he would until….

A flash of realization shone in Toothless' eyes, and the acid-green orbs widened immediately, his pupils dilating.

"Jack, this is enough. Get out of here now." Toothless said, reaching out to the invisible teen.

Jack wanted to ignore the demand from the dragon-cat, but he found that he couldn't. There was something at the edge of Toothless' voice that made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. Jack stood from where he was crouched down right in front of Clint's face, because the guy's pained expression was priceless, no matter what anyone said. He wasn't hurt anyhow, because he was struggling to get up and rubbing his ass almost like he was offended at himself for falling. Jack glided almost effortlessly over the ice, skating without skates. He nearly tripped as the ice ended when the corridor rounded the corner. He tugged on Hiccup's sleeve, letting him know he was there, before taking his hand and leading the both of them down the hallway.

Hiccup was still trying hard no to burst out laughing as their walk broke out into a full-on run down the hall and into the nearest empty classroom they could find. Jack shut the door as gently as he could, finally allowing himself to laugh breathlessly from all the running.

"That was awesome!" Jack said, laughing his ass off and plopping himself onto the nearest desk. Toothless looked at them seriously.

"That was pretty great." Hiccup said, trying to stop himself from laughing. "Get over here, dork, so I can do the counter charm." He said, taking his wand out of his back pocket (where he hastily stuffed it as they left the scene of the crime). Jack got up from the desk, taking deep breaths to try and calm himself down, and put a hand on Hiccup's shoulder. Before the auburn-haired male could do anything, though, Jack leaned in and kissed him.

Hiccup made a surprised noise, the sound slipping out from the back of his throat, because how the hell was he supposed to know where Jack was? He was invisible! And the thought of Jack being there, but not being able to be seen… it was weird but not unappealing. Hiccup felt in front of him, his hands landing on Jack's shoulders, before winding them around Jack's neck, wand still in hand.

The kiss was light, not asking for anything more or anything less. Hiccup played with Jack's hair, or as much as he could feel anyways, and Jack pressed himself a bit closer to Hiccup as if he needed it, before breaking the kiss and moving away.

"You two are such idiots." Toothless said blandly.

"Where did that come from?" Hiccup asked, situating his wand in his left hand before reaching out yet again to find his invisible boyfriend. He finally caught his wrist and tugged him closer.

"Nowhere. I just wanted to kiss you." Jack said innocently as Hiccup did the counter charm and tapped him lightly on the head (he missed, and nearly poked his eye out, but that so wasn't the point right now). As Jack started to slowly come into view, like an old-time photo being developed, he looked at Hiccup thoughtfully. "Hiccup?"

"Yeah?" He answered.

"Are you okay? Honestly?" He asked. Hiccup raised an eyebrow. "You know, about the whole thing with your-"

"I know." Hiccup said tersely, cutting him off and cringing like the mention of his father brought him physical pain. "I know…" He repeated, his voice a bit more gentle this time around as it trailed off. "I think I'm more… shocked about it, than anything else and… but I…. I know I'll get over it." He said, almost like he was reassuring himself more than anything. "Just because my dad doesn't approve of us doesn't mean that I'm going to stop loving you." He said, looking at the nearly-fully-visible Jack. Said boy cupped his cheek and smiled at him.

"I know that. I was just making sure." Jack said quietly, almost like he was trying not to scare away an animal.

"Well, now that you two have gotten your sappiness out of the way, we should really be going to meet the others." Toothless said, a pompous flair in his voice. "Is that not what you wanted to do after all this time?" Jack's shoulders slumped, his head bending so that his forehead met Hiccup's shoulder.

"What now?" Hiccup asked, trying to keep the amused quirk in his voice unnoticeable, but he failed miserably.

"We've got to go." Jack answered simply, before standing up straight again like his spine was replaced with a metal rod. "Wait." He said, turning around and looking at Toothless. "Why did we have to run away from Clint anyways?"

Toothless said nothing.

"Hold on." Hiccup said, touching Jack's shoulder briefly to catch his attention. "You knew that was Clint, didn't you?" He asked, almost accusingly.

"Well yeah but…"

"You made him fall on his ass!"

"I barely even like the guy! Besides, he keeps giving you weird looks."

"He does?"

"He does."

"How come I never notice?"

"Because you're thick as all hell, Freckles."

"I am not thick-"

"This whole time when we weren't dating I was hitting on you, and you didn't notice a thing."

"Well, yeah, I was doing the same to you and you didn't notice anything either."

"Stop your petty squabbling." Toothless snapped, making Jack whip around and stop the little dispute. "The Black Lake? Now?"

"Right…" Jack said, rubbing the back of his neck and looking back at Hiccup, almost nervously. "Truce?"

"Truce." Hiccup said, smiling at him. "C'mon, we should get going anyways." Jack chuckled at how similar the dragon and his rider thought before they left the room and made their way to the Black Lake.

Xavier's POV

"Hey, has anyone seen Hiccup and Jack?" Cee asked, trying her best to skip a rock across the lake's surface.

"I haven't." Jay answered.

"Nope." Lauren said.

I don't even want to know what they're doing to be honest.

Sure, it was pretty boring at the Lake. There was absolutely nothing to do besides tell the twins about the Kraken and teased them with stories of sacrifices made to the Kraken in order for it to not eat students. Well, I thought it was funny before Lauren slapped my shoulder and told them that I was being an idiot. For all she knew, my story could have been true! But, I didn't argue with her. Jay didn't seem too convinced of my story anyways.

"Well, I did tell Hiccup that we were heading over here." I said, filling them in. "So either they come or they don't." That was wrong, that was very very wrong and I shouldn't have said that, I should not have said that. Lauren gave me a look and shielded myself the best I could against her gaze. I should not have said that oh my god….

"I hope they get over here quick enough." Jay said. "Maybe Jack would play the game I made up."

"Jay, I'm not going to let you get whipped around my some evil, barbaric tree!" Cee screeched, her voice getting so high that I swear she could have broken a couple windows if we were a bit closer to the castle. I guess that's how you knew she was serious, because she got all squeaky like that.

"The tree isn't technically evil, Cee." Jay said, a twist of sarcasm in his voice. "Just imagine trying to climb it-!"

"You are not climbing the Whomping Willow!" Cee argued.

"What are you guys yelling about?"

We all whipped around, turning on our heels to look at whoever said that. The first person I saw was Toothless… Toothless? I knew Jack could hear the cat, but the rest of us never could, so why would we hear them now-? And then I looked up and saw Hiccup and Jack trailing behind the cat, a huge grin on Jack's face.

Wow. I really was stupid.

"Jack! Finally!" Jay said excitedly, running up to him and grabbing his wrist. "I need your help with something." He said.

"Well what is it?" Jack asked, looking over his shoulder and Hiccup and shrugging at him. I couldn't blame him for being confused; usually Jay only really liked Hiccup, not Jack. Hiccup shrugged back.

"I need you, to tell her," Jay said, pointing at Cee, "that climbing up the Whomping Willow would be awesome." He looked up at Jack, eyes wide and innocent and practically begging him to agree with him.

"You can't be serious." Hiccup said, looking at Jay. "You'd be clobbered to death before you could even climb a branch."

"I've heard there's a knot on the tree somewhere that'll freeze it for a while." Jack said reasonably "So it's not impossible."

"Oh my god, he's really encouraging him, isn't he?" Lauren said, grabbing my arm.

"Yup." I said, before looking at Hiccup. "What took you guys so long?" I asked, absolutely horrified that the words came out of my mouth because I didn't know what I was going to get as a response, but Hiccup not breaking out with a rash-like blush was a pretty good sign.

"We ended up pranking someone along the way here." Hiccup said, rubbing the back of his neck. "Sorry about that. We didn't know it was a timed thing."

"It wasn't timed." Cee chirped. "It's just that when we've got nothing to do, he gets ideas." She shot a dagger-glare at her brother. "Ideas that'll get him killed!"

"Slow down!" Lauren said. "First off, we don't even know if that whole knot-that-freezes-the-tree thing is real. And are you sure you want to climb that thing?" She asked him. Jay nodded enthusiastically, and his head looked like a bright red blur that anything else.

"It's the perfect tree." He said.

"Maybe we can ask the Headmaster about it. Sometimes they don't want anyone near the tree because it's a part of Hogwarts history." Hiccup reasoned.

"The whole castle is history." Jay said, giving him a deadpanned expression. Hiccup gave him a look. "Look, I'm just saying!"

"We aren't doing it!" Cee said.

"You guys are too small to be climbing a tree like that, anyways." Lauren said. "It's too dangerous."

"We've climbed worse trees." Jay said.

"Not ones that move!" Cee stressed.

"We're don't talking about the tree okay?" Jack asked, putting a hand on each of the twin's heads and ruffling their red hair quickly.

"So, you guys pranked that one guy?" I asked, looking over at Hiccup and Jack.

"Whoa, you guys pranked someone and didn't bring me along? Rude." Jay said.

"Shut up." Cee said, pinching in upper arm. Jay sent a glare at her and I could have sworn that he was going to tackle her.

"Yeah we did." Jack said, an excited lit in his voice.

"What did you two do this time?" Lauren asked, her hands on her hips and a 'oh gosh' expression spelled out across her face.

"Well, Jack froze the hallway and made Clint fall down." Hiccup said.

"Yeah, but Hiccup did an Invisibility Charm on me so I wouldn't get caught." Jack supplied. The two of them shared a smile. Toothless pawed at my ankle, and I bent down to pet him behind his ears.

"That's so cool!" Jay and Cee chirped.

"Clint?" Lauren asked. "How do you know him?"

"He keeps staring at Hiccup." Jack said, looking at her like it was obvious. "It's weird."

"Right…" Lauren said.

"Wait, you froze the hallway?" Jay asked, looking between Cee and Jack. "Like, ice everywhere in the hallway, right?"

"What else would freezing something mean?" Jack asked with a chuckle.

"That's… weird." Cee said. "Is that a spell or something? I haven't heard of any kind of spell that had to deal with freezing things. Fire, sure, but… not ice."

"Well, I guess I sort of had to fix that, didn't I?" Jack said, smirking at them. Jay squinted, almost as if he was trying to use X-ray vision to see through what Jack meant by that, but he couldn't. Right. They didn't know that Jack made his own spell and was effectively plagued by it… or something. Hiccup explains in better than I do.

"Anyways, so that happened." Hiccup said, trying to change the subject. We all sort of plopped down onto the ground without talking about it, sitting in a circle with Toothless sitting in front of me, getting all the petting that he was due. I didn't know why I was petting him. I don't like cats.

"Toothless!" Jack said randomly, almost like he was scandalized. Cee and Jay stared at him, and Toothless turned towards him slowly. "What… How?" Hiccup put a hand on his shoulder and was about to say something.

"What?" Lauren asked, confused. Jack glanced over and looked at Lauren instead of the cat, and then he looked down at the ground.

"Nothing, nothing, sorry." He said, shaking his head.

"Well that wasn't odd at all." Jay said, almost singing it. "So, this Clint guy." He said. Jack's eyes flashed up to look at Jay almost in shock, before they softened. "Why'd you want to prank him so bad?"

"Because I don't like him." Jack said grudgingly. "He's creepy."

"I mean, I don't like him much either, but I wouldn't want to drop him onto the ground by slipping on some ice." Cee said.

"You know him?" I asked.

"He's in my House." Cee said. "Though he doesn't act like it much." She added with a little frown.

"I just don't get a good vibe from him and neither does…" Jack said, before trailing off for a second, "neither does Toothless." He said.

"How would you-?" Jay asked incredulously before his eyes widened. "Oh. Oh~ I get it now. You can talk to him."

"I didn't know cats could talk!" Cee said, reaching across the small circle and scratching a spot on Toothless' back that made him arch into her fingers. "That's really cool!"

Hiccup shot a look at Jack, and Jack looked like he was either going to run away at any moment or like he was trying to be a turtle, his shoulders up to his ears and his eyes wide and begging to be innocent.

"Yeah it is. Toothless must really just be that smart." I said, trying to dig Jack out of the hole he was in with Hiccup now.

"OH MY GOD. CEE!" Jay practically screamed, smacking his forehead with his hand and looking at Cee with wide eyes. He clambered to his feet and grabbing Cee's hand, tugging and tugging, trying to get her to stand up with him.

"What? What?" Cee demanded, resisting.

"What's going on?" Lauren asked, trying to be a mediator.

"I forgot! We forgot! We have to go!" Jay said. Cee was going to argue again, and Hiccup and Jack were giving the two weird looks, and then Jay tugged on Cee's arm insistently enough to get her to stumble onto her feet. "Pitch, remember? We have to get him to change his mind by tomorrow!"

"Right!" Cee said. "Bye guys!" She said.

"Bye?" The rest of us said as the two ran back to the castle as fast as they could.

"Okay, does anyone know what the heck that was about?" I asked, looking at Lauren, Hiccup and Jack.

"We literally just got here." Hiccup said, holding his hands up almost defensively. Jack nodded at me, like he was going to say that all along and Hiccup just bat him to it. I rolled my eyes at them, because I wasn't really expecting an answer from them, but I needed to voice my confusion somehow. Lauren laughed at the two of them.

"I can't believe he wanted to climb the Whomping Willow…" Lauren said, more to herself that anything else. "Crazy…" She muttered. I smiled at her, because I couldn't believe the twins either. They had to be crazy or something. "Hey, so…" Lauren said, perking up a bit and looking at all three of us. "You can talk to Toothless?" she asked.

"Yeah. I thought you knew!" Jack said.

"Obviously not." I deadpanned, giving him a dull glare. Jack sneered at me.

"Yeah, from what I've gather from the big baby over there is that I'm more receptive than the rest of you, so my mind is more open to the… something or other his mind works on." Jack said, shrugging at the last part because there was no way he could put it into words. I could see it in his eyes that he was stumped. I petted Toothless a little bit more insistently, even though I swear I hated cats.

"That… actually makes some kind of sense." Hiccup said. "You know, how it's like kids can see things that older people can't because their minds are more open. It's sort of like the same thing, right?" Hiccup put his hand on Jack's hand as he talked, looking triumphant like he just put the last piece of a very complicated puzzle together.

"I get it!" Lauren said.

"I guess it does make some sense, but that just sounds like you're calling Jack a huge child." I said, smirking.

"Well, at least I know how to have fun." Jack said, crossing his arms over his chest and turning away from me, sticking his tongue out mockingly.

"Oh save that for Hiccup." I mumbled, trying hard not to laugh at my own crude joke.

"Oh my gods." Hiccup said lowly, hiding his face in his hands. Jack looked at me in disbelief. Lauren elbowed me in the ribs. I laughed at them, unable to hold it in despite my resolution not to.

"That was terrible and you know it." Jack said, the beginnings of a smile forming on his face.

"It was genius, thank you, I'll be taking my award now." I said, grinning.

"I'm just… going to pretend that never happened." Hiccup said, excavating himself out of his palms and looking at all of us, his cheeks red but returning back to normal slowly. "And wait!" He said suddenly. "Aren't you the one that's traumatized by that one time-?"

"I DON'T NEED REMINDERS!" I said loudly, pointing at him accusingly and stopping him from continuing his sentence. That day haunts me, and it will haunt me until the day I die. When I walked in on them that one time when they were making out was a completely different story. And besides, what if I walked in on them actually doing it?! No… I don't think so. I don't have an issue with my best friends being together but there's no need for things to get steamy while I'm in the room!

"Am I missing something?" Lauren asked.

"No."

"Yep."

"Shut-"

"I won't ask then." She said, raising her hands up. "I'm just glad this little monster's outside." She said, trailing her hand down Toothless' back and instantly gaining his attention. He ambled towards her, obviously saying something either funny or stupid because Jack chuckled a little. "It seems like it's been forever since he's been outside. Because of the sight scare, huh?" She said, looking up at Hiccup.

"We all think it's best if he stays inside for now." Hiccup admitted, smiling sadly. "There's no point in getting other people suspicious about his weird behavior." Lauren nodded, looking down at Toothless again and tugging him into her lap. "I miss… going out at night, though." Hiccup said quietly, his voice a million times more depressed than I thought it would be. We flew almost regularly in Quidditch practice! Did he really miss flying with Toothless that much? Or was he just feeling back for him because he couldn't fly with all the suspicion around.

"Oh well." Jack said. "Once all this stupidity clears out of the way, we can go back to flying and staying up late and getting lost in the clouds, yeah?" I could tell he was trying to cheer him up as much as he could, his voice touched with a gentleness I barely heard (and I would be a little uneasy if it was directed at me, to be honest) and his smile a lot softer than before. I smiled a bit, looking down and shredding the little bits of grass that was under us.

Those two were so cute sometimes that it was hard to look at.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Madame Pomfrey asked, feeling the boy's forehead tentatively with the back of her hand and looking at him concernedly. "I could keep you in here for the night if you'd like."

"No it's fine." The first year said, brushing her off with a smile. "My mum gives me that potion all the time, I know it'll take a while to work."

"Well, alright then." Madame Pomfrey said, smiling. "If anything else gets worse, you come back immediately, got it?" she said, shaking her index finger in his face.

"Yes, ma'am!" He said.

"Good, then get out of here." She said good-naturedly, and the boy didn't take telling twice in order to hop off the bed and practically prance out of the Hospital Wing, his bruised arm temporarily forgotten. She wouldn't have normally done that, let a patient out before they were completely better, but the note from North clearly said to send him back as soon as possible. There was no way she would be starting a fight with the Headmaster because of it.

"Good day Madame Pomfrey." Someone said in an obvious I'm-in-pain-but-hey-look-I'm-fine voice. She's heard it too much during the past years. Since when did kids believe they can take on the world without getting a little bit hurt?

"For me, maybe." She answered, not even looking up yet, too busy with dressing down the bed the boy was sitting in. It was just procedure, something that became habit after a while and after all she's seen. "If you're here, there's obviously something wrong with you." She looked up, and saw a tall boy, with darkish skin and pale eyes, his long arms crossed in front of his chest and his lips quirked into a not-quite-a-smirk smile. "Sit." She said, directing him to a separate bed while she bustled about, putting the orderly bedsheets she had in her arms into a bin that would be cleaned by the elves and ready by tomorrow.

"Can't." The boy said simply, not an ounce of defiance in his tone.

"What do you mean, 'can't'?" Pomfrey asked, mimicking his tone.

"My ass hurts like hell, and so does the back of my head." The boy answered.

"And why is that?" She demanded.

"Fell." The boy said, before he backtracked. "Well, more like I slipped on some ice."

"Ice?" Pomfrey said incredulously. "Merlin's beard! Where'd you find ice at a time like this?"

"I guess it just found me."

"That's no excuse." Pomfrey said huffing. "What's your name?"

"Clint." He said promptly.

"Ah. Right." She said. "So you're head and your buttocks hurt pretty back do they?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Right then. I'll give you something for that. Are you sure you can't sit down?" She asked, concerned. If he couldn't lay down or sit down, there was no way she would be able to keep this boy inside her ward.

"I think it's sprained." He said, his hand moving to his backside and rubbing on it a bit, before wincing.

"Well, don't be going and doing that if you think it's sprained!" Madame Pomfrey practically shrieked. There was no way she would let him out of here now if he was doing that kind of stuff. The boy looked properly reprimanded, and she huffed. "You stay there." She commanded, giving him a hard look before bustling away to her potions cabinet.

"Do you know," the boy said, "that a dragon's loose in the castle?" He asked her, almost conversationally. Madame Pomfrey looked out of the corner of her eye to make sure the boy hadn't moved before answering.

"Of course there's no dragon loose in the castle." She answered, contradicting him. There was absolutely no way, and she knew it. Dragons were illegal, and besides, there was no way that an entire dragon could sneak past Headmaster North's protections. "That was just a rumor spread around by some barmy kid who wanted attention and to send the whole school into a frenzy." She dismissed.

"Are you calling me barmy?" Clint said, looking at her seriously as she came bustling back, already measuring out his dose carefully into a plain goblet.

"What are you on about, Clint?" she asked.

"I was the one that saw the dragon." He answered simply. She blinked at him and stared for a couple seconds, her hands frozen in place with the potion's bottle precariously tipped over the goblet so that the potion was balancing on the edge of the bottle. He smiled sweetly at her, as if he could tell or see or do nothing wrong.

"Are you sure that the fall hasn't gone to your head?"

I feel like my writing style has changed and everyone's out of character but I like this chapter so yaaaaay~

so yeah (Cee and Jay leave because of a headcanon inspired by BlueForestLeaf ;)

if you have any questions, feel free to PM me, message me on tumblr, or put it in a review! Thanks for reading!

Love you!

-HB