Chapter 4: Snotlout

The next day, the students had their first Potions class located in the dungeon of the school, near the Slytherin Common Room.

Everyone, except for Fishlegs who seemed to be missing, was gathered in the class lined with beakers, test tubes, all sorts of liquids and solids, and cauldrons waiting for their teacher to show up.

Hiccup leans over to Heather and whispers, "Hey, have you seen Fishlegs?"

Heather shakes her head and replies, "He wasn't at breakfast. I wonder if he's ok."

Just then, the doors jerk open, and in comes a medium length, black haired man wearing a robe just as dark as his hair. He stands to the back of the class, in front of a large table, before saying in a deep, monotone voice. "Greetings. I am Severus Snape, head of the house of Slytherin and your master of potions.

Before we begin, I must tell you all this one thing, and I do not repeat myself. In my class, there will be no excuse for silly wand waving or incantations so mispronounced they make my head explode, or your own, whichever comes first.

Now, I do not expect you all to-"

Just then, Fishlegs bursts into the room with his robes barely on his arms and his hair a complete mess saying, "Sorry! Sorry!"

Snape says to him, "Ingerman. You are late."

Fishlegs nods. "I-I know. For some reason my alarm didn't go off and-"

Snape interrupts, "Do I look like I have the time and patience for your silly excuses? 20 points from Ravenclaw."

Fishlegs's eyes widen. "T-Twenty? But, sir, you have to understand I-"

"Would you like it to be 30?" Snape asks with a much louder tone.

Fishlegs blinks before looking to the others in Ravenclaw, who all shake their heads telling him to not try it. He sighs before saying, "N-No, sir."

Snape nods. "That's what I thought. I suggest you take your seat before you become even more insufferable. Though, at this time, I don't see how THAT can be possible."

Fishlegs nods. "Yes sir." before sitting with the other Ravenclaw students who were giving him a slight glare.

Snape then continues, "As I was saying before I was interrupted, I do not expect you to master the art of potion making. That being said, I'd like to end the year with less holes in my cauldrons than normal. We will begin with today's lesson, the cure for boils, a potion so easy to make that even a half-wit hippopotamus could make it." He looks directly to Fishlegs. "Perhaps today's the day we'll find out if that's true." Fishlegs hangs his head in shame.

Snape then snaps his fingers and says, "Everyone gather for a demonstration. I do not repeat myself so I suggest you pay close attention and take detailed notes." They all get up and surround Snape, who stood over a cauldron with various ingredients in front of him.

Snape begins by saying, "The ingredients for this potion are as followed…"

Half listening to Snape, Hiccup looks over and sees Fishlegs shaking like a leaf in an earthquake while he writes down what Snape is saying, though Hiccup also noticed Fishlegs was using the wrong end of his pen. Hiccup nudges Fishlegs before whispering, "You ok?"

Fishlegs snaps from it and replies, "Y-yeah! Totally!"

Hiccup then points out, "Really? Because I usually write using the part of the pen where the ink comes out of."

Fishlegs looks to his pen and realizes the mistake before flipping it right. "Sorry, it's just-"

"Ahem!" Snape interrupts, making the two boys look to him. Snape growls to them. "Well, perhaps we should see if you two have been paying attention. Haddock, what are two of the main ingredients for this potion?"

Hiccup was a tad nervous at first, but then he replied, "Uh…dried nettles and snake fangs."

Snape blinks to that before looking even angrier, if it were possible. "…You got lucky. I suggest you continue to pay attention before you pay using house points. Anyway…" he continues with the lesson as normal.

Once the demonstration was complete, Snape says, "There you go, the easiest potion in the world. Now, are you waiting for nettles to dry? Get to work!"

They all rush to their tables, grabbing the ingredients they need and a cauldron and begin working. While working, Fishlegs flips through his notebook saying, "Oh, these notes are driricawl scratch. I don't remember a single thing Professor Snape said."

Heather whispers back, "Just take your nettles and-"

"No talking during practice." Snape says, making Heather stop and shrug before mouthing, 'sorry'.

Everyone was going along, brewing their potion when suddenly, Hiccup's potion started turning blue and his cauldron was shaking. He whispers to Astrid, "Hey, Astrid, is it supposed to do this?"

Astrid looks over. "Not unless you mistook the horned slugs for regular slugs."

Hiccup replies, "I'm sure I grabbed the right stu-"

"Get down!" Astrid says as he pushes Hiccup down before the cauldron explodes and sends a bit of smoke into the room.

Once the smoke had cleared, Hiccup and Astrid get up and see Snape standing there, glaring at them. "Haddock! I thought I made it clear that I wanted LESS damaged cauldrons this year. Though, given your mother, I am not surprised."

Hiccup replies, "The stuff about my mother are just rumours!"

Snape replies, "And there we go. With one excuse comes more." He gives Fishlegs a side eye before looking back to Hiccup. "20 points from Gryffindor. I suggest you clean up this mess before I take even more points."

As Snape walks away, Hiccup couldn't help but look to the Slytherin table where Snotlout tried his best to hold back his smirk look.

Hiccup groans to that. "What is that guy, Snotlout's, problem?"

Astrid sighs. "Well, his Dad is apparently this so called great wizard that actually taught Defense Against the Dark Arts here one year, but of course that job is jinxed and he got fired because he got caught teaching first years how to blow things up."

Hiccup raises a brow to that. "Interesting. In any case, someone has to stop him, and soon."

Astrid pats him on the shoulder. "Don't go asking for house points to be taken from us. Look all of this could just be a phase, I'm sure that with time he'll grow out of it."

2 weeks pass and things hadn't really gotten better with Snotlout. He is still pulling pranks on others, not just Hiccup and Astrid, but since he is so sneaky about it they really have no proof that it was him that did it at all.

It was early afternoon when Hiccup and Astrid were just walking through the halls of the 4th floor between classes, talking amongst themselves when they look over and see Fishlegs sitting there on one of the benches, head in his hands and appeared to be crying.

They both sit at his side, Hiccup on his right and Astrid on his left, before Hiccup asks, "Fishlegs? What's wrong?"

Fishlegs wipes his tears before saying, "…Who am I kidding? I don't belong here."

Hiccup replies, "What? Of course you belong here. What are you talking about?"

Fishlegs replies, "But all I seem to do is mess up and/or cost points for Ravenclaw."

Hiccup nods and replies, "Well, if you're talking about that stuff with Snape the other day, he's kind of that way with everyone."

Astrid adds, "He's right. Unless you have green on your robe around here, he pretty much wants nothing to do with you."

Fishlegs slams his hands down to his knees. "No, you don't get it, it's not just that. Just today, I was practicing my flying but ended up flying right into a rack of brooms, knocking over and even breaking a few, and yesterday I was just holding my wand, admiring the look, when I accidentally set a stack of books in Flitwick's classroom on fire."

Astrid replies, "True. I had never seen a little man so angry before."

Fishlegs then adds, "And also there's…well…there's something else."

Hiccup asks, "W-what? What do you mean 'something else'?"

Fishlegs sighs. "I…I'm about to tell you guys something…but you have to promise me you'll keep it a secret, especially with Snotlout."

Asrrid replies, "I wouldn't even talk to Snotlout anyway, so you're good there." She holds Fishlegs's hand. "What's your secret?"

Fishlegs lets out a deep sigh before replying, "I'm…a Mublub" he said it so quietly that it was inaudible.

Hiccup asks, "W-what?"

The tears come back to Fishlegs's eyes as he replies, "…I'm a Mudblood!" he puts his head back into his hands as he begins sobbing all over again.

Hiccup and Astrid had to pause a moment to process that information as Astrid replies, "…W-what?"

Fishlegs nods as he moves his hands away from his mouth. "It's true…I'm the only person with magic in my family…and when my Dad found out he…well…he said to me…before I left for Hogwarts…'Good luck in your fairytale school, expect the locks to be changed when you get home!'" he now sobs even harder.

Hiccup and Astrid exchange meaningful glances as Hiccup replies, "Oh my god. I…I had no idea. I…can't even imagine what you must have went through."

Fishlegs nods. "I can't write home because my Dad threatened to kill any owl that happened to fly by, even if it wasn't holding a letter, I have no one outside of school to talk to about…ANY of this, I…I'm alone. *sigh* Maybe I'd be better off if they just took me home, wiped my memory of all of this and took away my magic. Could be better for my house at least."

Hiccup blinks to that. "C-can you do that? Strip away someone's magic?"

Fishlegs sighs. "Maybe…I don't know…wouldn't make much of a difference if I did know."

Astrid then brings Fishlegs's hand up and says, "You know what, Fishlegs? I think you just haven't found your calling as a wizard."

Fishlegs gives Astrid a side eye, the first time he had looked at either of them since they got there. "Y-you think so?"

Hiccup adds, "Yeah, I think she has a point! Look, everyone has something they're good at. Astrid is really good with spells and I've got a knack for flying. I think all we need to do is find what you, Fishlegs Ingerman, are good at."

Fishlegs wipes the tears and smiles. "Y-yeah! That could be it! I just need to figure out what I'm good at! Thanks, guys. Truly, I think you really did help me feel better."

Astrid adds, "And for anything else, we can help you!"

Fishlegs's eyes widen as he looks back to Astrid. "Really? But, we're not the same house, why would you want to help me?"

Astrid rolls her eyes. "Fishlegs, the colour of our robe is just a colour. We'd be more than happy to help out a friend in need." Hiccup nods in confirmation. "Like, ok, what's something you've been needing help with."

Fishlegs ponders that. "Well, we have a practical for the unlocking charm coming up and I'd love some help with that."

Astrid nods. "Then that's where we'll start. Meet us after class at the great hall, and we can begin helping you."

Fishlegs smiled wide. "Thanks, Astrid. Oh, hey, you do promise not to talk about…my secret to Snotlout right?"

Hiccup replies, "Don't sweat it, your secret is safe with us."

However, unbeknownst to them, a crow that was perched just above them was listening in and, as soon as they left, flies off and down into the dungeonesque Slytherin common room. The door opens for the crow, thanks to a student, and it flies over to a chair where Snotlout was sitting.

The crow lands on Snotlout's arm where he asks, "Well, Hookclaw, what do you have for me?" The crow whispers something into Snotlout's ear before his eyes widen and he says, "Oh, that is VERY valuable information." he pulls a dead mouse from his pocket and feeds it to the black bird before he rubs its head.