Chapter 3: First Lessons

Having arrived at Hogwarts and have been sorted into their houses, Hiccup and the other first year students wake up early the next morning in their dormitories, excited to get going with their first Wizarding lessons.

The first lesson was Charms, so after breakfast the students all put on their new Wizard robes, all black with stripes of either red, yellow, blue or green plus a symbol of their house mascot be it a lion, a badger, a raven or a snake and made their way to the third floor of Hogwarts and to the classroom.

Inside, a short man with brown hair stands on top of the podium as the students sit down before saying, "Welcome, class! So excited to see all of your new, bright faces. My name is Professor Filius Flitwick, head of the Ravenclaw house and your guide to all charms and spells.

In my class, you will learn all sorts of spells that will be crucial for both your time at Hogwarts and even outside school grounds.

Now, today's lesson involves a very basic yet essential spell that any wizard should know, the Levitation spell, Wingardium Leviosa. This spell can be used to levitate objects and make them fly in mid-air. Before we go about using the spell, we must learn how to move your wand to cast.

For this spell, a simple swish and flick movement is required. As I will now demonstrate." He pulls out his wand and swishes it from right to left before flicking it to face forward. "Now, you give it a go."

The students pull out their own wands and begin practicing the motion. Sat towards the back of the class, Ruffnut, who was wearing a robe with yellow lines and sat to the right of Tuffnut, moves her wand out to where it just smacks him in the face before moving it to the left.

Tuffnut, who wore the same colored robe, says, "Hey, careful where you swing that thing."

Ruffnut replies, "I will swing my wand wherever I feel like swinging it."

Tuffnut smirks. "Fine then." He swishes his wand to the left, jabbing Ruffnut in the ear.

Ruffnut grabs her ear saying, "Watch it!"

Tuffnut replies in a mocking tone. "I'll swing my wand wherever I feel like swinging it."

Flitwick hears all of this and says to both of them, "Hey! Quiet down you two. Don't make me take points from Hufflepuff."

The twins hang their head and reply simultaneously, "Yes, Professor."

Flitwick nods. "Alright, with that out of the way, let's try the spell out, shall we?" He flicks his wand, causing a feather to appear in front of all of the students. "Each of you will now attempt to lift the feather in front of you. Remember, the incantation is Wingardium Leviosa. So, go ahead and give it a go."

With that, everyone begins swishing and flicking their wands, saying the two words, with little to no success across the board. Astrid, who wore a robe with red stripes, looks to everyone and sees many of them struggling to even get their feather off their desk.

Astrid rolls her eyes and sighs deeply before doing the motion on her brown wand before saying, "Wingardium Leviosa." And in an instant, the feather lifts off her desk and she was able to make it fly up past her head.

Flitwick spots this and says, "Well done, Ms. Hofferson! You seem to have this down to the letter. 10 points to Gryffindor."

However, Snotlout, who wore a robe with green stripes and sat on the other side of the classroom, spots this and fake coughs a few times before saying, "*cough cough* Cou-Incendio." and suddenly, the feather burst into flames in mid-air, making everyone in the room, with the exception of Snotlout who sat there smug as can be, speechless.

Astrid looks to Flitwick and replies, "Professor, I am so sorry!"

Flitwick nods. "That is alright. Those feathers are cheap anyway. A bit more practice, and I'm sure you'll be levitating in no time."

Hiccup, who also wore a red striped robe, whispers to Astrid, "You ok? What happened?"

Astrid replies, "I don't know. I practiced this at home before coming here and that never happened! *sigh* Oh well, guess strange things do happen with magic."

The rest of the lesson went on with not much else excitement. Other students did manage to get their feathers a few inches off their desk, some up to their eye level, but that was about it.

Later that day was their first lesson in flying of a broom, so the students all made their way outside of the castle to the training grounds, where a spiked grey haired woman stood and each student had a broom to their left.

The woman addresses them. "Good day, class. My name is Madam Hooch, your guide to proper broom flying. Now, let's just get one thing clear, I do not tolerate insubordination and, by the end of the year, I expect you to follow all of my instructions to the T.

Now, broom flying can be fun as it is dangerous, I can't tell you how many students, even Fifth plus years, end up in the Hospital Wing for even the slightest wrong move on their broom, and I do not want the same to happen to you. We will begin with basic broom knowledge and techniques."

She goes to stand next to her own broom and says, "Start by standing to the left of your broom." Everyone does so. "Stick your right hand out, and say 'Up.'"

Everyone does just that. Upon first saying Up, Hiccup's broom basically leaps into his hand for him to catch, allowing him to feel the hard wood in his palm.

Other students follow suit, with varying degrees of difficulty. Some students, like Snotlout and Heather, who was wearing a blue striped robe, manage to get their brooms up after a few tries, while others struggled even further, saying 'Up.' over and over again.

Ruffnut, who got to the point where she yelled the word, said it so loud that her broom even got fed up and, like stepping on the wrong end of a rake, it leaped up and smacked her in the face.

Tuffnut chuckles to this before saying 'Up.' himself and having the same thing happen to his own broom.

Once everyone's brooms were finally up, Hooch addresses them. "Now, you will attempt to mount your broom and, one at a time, you will fly a simple circle around the rest of us. To the right, to the left, doesn't really matter to me, just as long as you don't hurt yourself.

Remember, control of the broom is all in the tip and where you point it. If you will, please place the part of the broom just above the bristles between your legs and hold onto just below the tip.

All of the students do just this. Fishlegs, who was wearing a blue striped robe, got on fine but found that his broom was dipping a bit due to his weight. He tucks his head in, hoping no one would notice.

Other students had a bit of a struggle getting on their broom, but for the most part they got on fine.

Hooch then says, "Alright, Mr. Haddock, why don't you go first?"

Hiccup takes a deep breath before lifting the tip of his broom up, causing the broom itself to levitate off the ground about 10 feet into the air. He then points the broom to the left and it moves forward a bit before he quickly changes the direction, causing both himself and the broom to perform a full, perfect circle around the others before he gets back to his starting point and does the same, but going to the right.

While in the air, Hiccup could feel the wind blowing through his auburn hair, himself and the broom moving in perfect harmony, and to put it simply it just felt…right.

Hiccup then moves back to his starting point and lowers himself to the ground, right where he lifted off. Hooch smiled wide as the other students give him a round of applause. "Spectacular work, Mr. Haddock! Most students can barely even get off the ground. How did you know how to do that?"

Hiccup shrugs as he was still gripping the broom handle. "I don't actually know. I've never actually flown before, but somehow sitting here on this broom…well…it just feels like this was meant to be."

Hooch nods. "Well, nevertheless, you have me colored impressed! 10 points to Gryffindor!"

Snotlout rolls his eyes, however, before, in a very quick move, he touches his wand and whispers, "Flipendo." causing the broom to throw Hiccup against the wall of the castle.

Hooch and the other students rush over to Hiccup where Hooch asks, "Hiccup? Are you alright?"

Hiccup rubs his head. "Yeah, I'm fine. What…happened though? I thought that the broom and I were getting along swimmingly."

Hooch sighs. "Sometimes the brooms just have minds of their own. It's nothing to be ashamed of, trust me."

Hiccup nods as Astrid helps him stand back up before saying, "I'll make sure he's ok".

Hooch nods says to Astrid, "You're a good friend." then to the other students, "Alright, continue on."

Astrid asks Hiccup, "You sure you're alright?"

Hiccup nods. "Oh yeah, I'm just a natural hazard to myself. It really is what puts the name Hiccup into place." He then looks over and sees Snotlout talking to a red haired, scarred faced boy with the same green striped robe with a big smirk on his face.

Hiccup clenches his fist before saying, "You know, I think that your feather catching on fire and my broom flinging me to the wall was a bit more of a simple accident."

Astrid looks to Snotlout then replies, "You…you think we were sabotaged?"

Hiccup replies, "I don't just think, I know."

Astrid nods. "Well, unless you have some hard evidence, I'm afraid there's not much you can do at the moment."

Hiccup nods. "Agreed. Just hope that this sort of thing ends soon."