Chapter 5: Tutoring

Having agreed to help him with his studies, Hiccup and Astrid sat with Fishlegs at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall where no one else seemed to be at at that time since it was starting to get dark.

The trio sat with a lock in front of Fishlegs where Astrid says, "Alright, Fishlegs, so you need help with the Unlocking Charm."

Fishlegs nods. "I know there's a practical for that charm coming up, so I just want to make sure I don't disappoint my house…again."

Astrid nods. "Understandable. Alright, just show us what you're doing and I'll see where you're going wrong."

Fishlegs nods as he pulls out his wand, a 9 inch tan wand with a very bulbous tip and many bumps along the length, before saying, "Ok…here it goes…Alohamora." He says as he swishes his wand from side to side and flicks it, resulting in nothing happening. Fishlegs sighs. "See? I'm just a failure."

Hiccup tells him, "No, you're not, you just need practice is all. Astrid?"

Astrid comments, "You have the incantation right, so that's not the issue. Try it again, this time I'll pay attention to your wand movement."

Fishlegs nods. "Uh, ok. Alohamora." Again same motion of swishing and flicking, but nothing happened.

Astrid's eyes widen. "Ok, I think I see the problem." She pulls out her brown wand. "This is what you're doing." she swishes and flicks. "Now, for say the Lifting Charm, that motion is perfect, but for this charm you actually want to do this." She moves her wand in a counter clockwise motion before flicking. "Think of it like using a key to unlock a door."

Fishlegs puts his hand to his forehead. "OH! Different spells have different wand movements! I totally missed that!"

Astrid nods. "Exactly! Now, try it again, but do it like I just showed you."

Fishlegs then takes a deep breath, looks to Astrid then to Hiccup, who both nod to him before he looks down to the lock in front of him. He takes another deep breath before saying, "Alohamora." and turning his wand counter clockwise before flicking, causing the lock in front of him to open up.

Astrid smiles wide. "Perfect! If I was a Professor, I'd probably give you house points right about now. Keep practicing and you'll have that down in no time!"

Fishlegs smiles and looks to Astrid before saying, "Th-thank you, Astrid! No one has ever been this nice to me before."

Hiccup pats Fishlegs on the shoulder. "You've just been around the wrong people your whole life. On that note though, it is getting rather late, we should turn in soon."

Fishlegs nods. "Yep! I'll see you guys tomorrow!"

They nod and head out of the Great hall and into their respective Common Rooms where, in the Gryffindor room, Hiccup and Astrid go to bed feeling great about helping out a new friend, while in the Ravenclaw room, Fishlegs stayed up a bit longer practicing exactly what Astrid told him.

The next day, all of the students were, once again, gathered in the Charms Classroom, but this time there were four tables in the center of the room, each with a lock sitting on them.

Professor Flitwick stands on his podium before saying, "Good morning, class! I hope you all slept well! Now, as you know, today is your practical exam for the Unlocking Charm, Alohamora. Now, I thought we could have a bit of fun with this exam.

You'll notice that there are four tables in the center of the class. Now, each house is going to bring forward one student who will demonstrate the charm for me. Only 2 students from each house will be coming up today, one boy and one girl, so I suggest you choose wisely.

I will be judging you based on wand movement, incantation and execution of the spell and 30 points will be awarded to the house that performs the spell to the highest level.

I'll give each of you a moment to get with your house and decide who will be coming up. Now, off you go!"

So the houses gather themselves up and begin talking amongst themselves. Within the blue striped Ravenclaw group, Fishlegs says to the rest, "Guys, let me go."

Heather and the rest of the house get a weary look in their eyes. "A-are you sure, Fishlegs? We're a little behind in the House Cup," Currently, Slytherin was leading at about 450 points, followed by Gryffindor at 440, Hufflepuff at 430 and Ravenclaw at 410. "30 points could be huge." Heather says.

Fishlegs nods. "Yes, I'm sure. I've been practicing the spell and I think I have it down. Come on, win or lose we are getting points that can easily be made up."

The other students exchange glances before shrugging and having Heather reply, "Ok, you can go. I'll go for the girls." With that and a nod, the rest of the houses were just finished deciding.

So, one boy from each house stepped up to one of the four tables in front of them, all of which were facing the front of the classroom. Hiccup was standing in for Gryffindor, Tuffnut for Hufflepuff, Fishlegs for Ravenclaw and Snotlout for Slytherin.

Flitwick nods to this set up before saying, "Alright, let us begin! You first, Haddock."

Hiccup nods before pulling out his black wand and saying, "Alohamora." before turning it counter clockwise and flicking it, causing the lock to open up.

Flitwick nods. "Good! Alright, Mr. Thorston."

Tuffnut brings up his wand, a tan 10 ½ inch wand, and says, "Aloha-mora." before turning the wand clockwise and flicking, making the lock shoot off of the table and nearly hit Flitwick in the brown haired head, had he not reacted in time.

Flitwick replies to this, "Yeah, you're trying to unlock the lock not fling it towards me!"

Tuffnut smacks his head with his wand. "Stupid wand! Stupid wand! Stu-" However, that just made the wand fling him to the seats.

Flitwick sighs. "Are you alright, Mr. Thorston?"

Tuffnut rubs his head before standing back up. "Oh yeah, Ruffnut and I take blows like that all the time."

"He's right." Ruffnut adds.

Flitwick sighs again. "Moving on. Mr. Ingerman, you're up next." All eyes were now on Fishlegs, especially the eyes of his own house, and he could hear his heart beating with every second that passed. Flitwick then clears his throat before saying, "Whenever you're ready, Mr. Ingerman."

Fishlegs closes his eyes and lets out a deep sigh as he thinks about the training he's been giving himself and what Astrid had taught him. After opening his eyes, he turns his wand counter clockwise and flicking before saying, "Alohamora!" and in an instant, the lock opens up.

Flitwick, Hiccup, Astrid and the other Ravenclaw students smile wide and start clapping to his success. Flitwick comments, "Nicely done, Mr. Ingerman. Alright, last up for the boys, we have Mr. Jorgenson."

Snotlout rolls his eyes to Fishlegs's success before looking to the lock in front of him and saying with all the confidence in the world while simply flicking his wand, "Alohamora!" However, instead of opening up, the wand explodes right in his face, giving him a look of total shock.

Flitwick nods with disapproval. "Well, looks like some more practice is in order for you, Mr. Jorgenson. Alright, next up we have the girls."

Switching out seats, Astrid stepped up for Gryffindor, Ruffnut for Hufflepuff, Heather for Ravenclaw and a black haired girl named Erika for Slytherin.

Astrid, Erika and Heather successfully unlock their locks while Ruffnut's lock just sat there on her table from her swishing and flicking her wand.

Once the girls were finished, everyone waited a bit as Flitwick tallied up the scores for those who went and found the winner. After a few minutes, he has everyone quiet down as he says, "Alright, I have rounded up all of your scores.

Now, as a reminder, I based your scores on wand movement, incantation and execution. While many of you excelled in the incantation, I can tell that some of you need to work on your wand movement. However, I do have a winner here.

In 4th place, Hufflepuff..." The twins and the other yellow striped robed students look down in shame. "in 3rd place…Slytherin."

Snotlout stands up and yells, "3rd? Oh come on, that's a bunch of dragon dung!"

Flitwick reminds Snotlout, "And whose lock exploded in their face, Mr. Jorgenson?"

Snotlout sat there speechless for a minute before sitting back down, arms crossed and pouting. Flitwick nods to that and says, "Moving on. Now, it was a difficult choice for second and first place, but based on what I saw today, I did make a decision. In 2nd place…congratulations to…Gryffindor!"

The Gryffindor students high five each other for getting second while the Ravenclaw students' faces light up with excitement. Flitwick adds, "And that means that, the winner of today's practical and receiving 30 points is…Ravenclaw! Well done!"

Heather nearly leaps out of her seat as she hugs Fishlegs and the other students, well except those wearing green on their robes who just gave a golf clap, gave them a round of applause. "We did it, Fishlegs!" Heather says.

"Yeah! I can't believe it!" Fishlegs replies.

Flitwick then adds, "Now, I would like to give a special shout out to Mr. Ingerman, who seemed to show the most improvement on the spell than the rest! Keep this up, and many great things will come your way!"

Fishlegs just couldn't believe it. For the first time in his life he's being commended for something that he did, he felt like there wasn't anything he couldn't do.

Flitwick then says, "Well, I simply couldn't be happier with the results, and I think you all have had enough excitement for the day. Class dismissed." Everyone grabs their books and start to head out before Flitwick says, "Except for Mr. Haddock and Ms. Hofferson. Would you two please come and see me?"

Hiccup and Astrid look to each other before shrugging and stepping up as the other students left. Flitwick adjusts his bow tie before saying, "So, I hear that you two gave Mr. Ingerman a bit of a tutoring lesson."

They nervously nod as Astrid replies, "Yeah, we did."

Flitwick nods before asking, "You know he's not part of your house right? So why would you help him?"

Hiccup replies, "Well, Professor, that didn't really matter to us. Fishlegs was a friend in need so we decided to…help him. Didn't seem like the colour of our robes mattered." Astrid nods in confirmation.

Flitwick grins to this. "I admire that. I think it's fantastic that you two want to help someone that isn't on your house. Heck, I think that the other students could learn a thing or two from you two. 10 points to Gryffindor."

Hiccup and Astrid smile wide as Hiccup replies, "Th-thank you, Professor."

They then walk out of the classroom where Fishlegs hugs them tight. Well, maybe a little too tight. "I can't thank you guys enough for helping me!"

Hiccup replies, while being barely able to breathe, "Uh, that's great, but you can let us go now!"

Fishlegs realizes what he was doing so he backed away. "S-sorry. Got a little carried away there."

They cough a bit before Astrid replies, "It's fine, really."

"Well, isn't that just touching?" Snotlout says as he walks up to the other three, with a huge smirk on his face.

Hiccup asks, "What do you want, Snotlout?"

Snotlout shrugs. "Nothing. I just wanted to congratulate Fishface here for his 'big achievement'. Let's-let's hear it for Fishface everyone!" he gives a fake clap. "Course, I suppose it would've been better if he did it…on his own."

Astrid replies, "Fine, you caught us, we helped out a friend. Something you clearly wouldn't know about."

Hiccup then says, "Let's just go."

He, Astrid and Fishlegs begin to walk away before Snotlout replies, "Yeah, that's right, Fishface, walk away with your little buddies to back you up. I guess that's just how all Mudbloods are."

Fishlegs stops in his tracks at that word, the word he was hoping to never hear again, and Hiccup and Astrid stop with him. Fishlegs's eyes widen as he turns around and asks with his voice quivering, "W…what did you just call me?"

Snotlout's smirk somehow gets wider as he shrugs. "I'm just saying, seems like all Mudbloods around here just love to hide and seek help from whatever and whoever they come across."

Hiccup and Astrid look to Fishlegs in concern as tears well up in his eyes. "H…h…how did…you know?"

Snotlout replies, "Let's just say a little birdie told me."

By that point, everyone in the hall was turning their eyes to Fishlegs as Ruffnut asks, "Fishlegs…is this true?"

The tears were now at Fishlegs's chin as he rushed off to get as far away from the others as he could while Hiccup and Astrid first give him death glares before running off after him.

Fishlegs had made his way back to the Ravenclaw Common room where he sat on one of the blue sofas with Hiccup and Astrid at his side, just like the previous day. Fishlegs then says, "Well…that's it, now everyone knows my dirty secret!"

Hiccup then says, "Ok, that's it, Snotlout has officially gone too far."

Astrid replies, "I agree, but what can we do about it?"

Hiccup thinks about that for a minute before replying, "Maybe someone should give him a taste of his own medicine."

Astrid raises a brow to that and asks, "What do you mean?"

Hiccup sighs and asks, "Either of you know anything about defensive magic?"

Astrid's eyes widen. "Whoa, Hiccup. If you're gonna do what I think you're thinking, then you better forget it."

Fishlegs wipes his tears before adding, "Astrid is right. We're first years, if we get caught using defensive magic on school grounds, against another student, I'm pretty sure we'll lose more than just house points."

Hiccup adds, "Well we can't just let Snotlout continue on the way he's been. Maybe…maybe if I talk to Flitwick he could teach me a spell or two."

Astrid sighs and replies, "Well, if you're gonna convince him to do that then you better come up with a really good excuse to do so. You probably shouldn't even mention Snotlout's name."

Hiccup nods. "You're right. Look, I promise that I won't even do anything unless Snotlout does something first."

Astrid nods. "I guess all I can do is wish you good luck, Hiccup."