Hullo dearies! It's been awhile, hasn't it? This was actually written a while ago and I wanted to get more written before I posted it, hence the wait, but alas, did not. I decided to post it anyway, because this is my favorite part so far. Enjoy!

Chapter 2

Rapunzel couldn't help but feel disappointed that she had already made three new friends and none of them were in her house. I mean, seriously, what are the chances of all four of them being separated? Of course, her excitement quickly eclipsed the minor disappointment.

"Students, please follow your prefects to your respective dormitories and get settled in. Class starts tomorrow make sure you get a good night's rest!" The hall was filled with the sounds of benches sliding on the stone floor and the clamor of hundreds of people talking.

"Ravenclaws over here!" Called an older girl with a light winter hat pulled over her straight brown hair. She smiled at the new students at they made their way toward her. "My name's Pippa, and I'm your new prefect. Follow me!" She continued speaking as they navigated the wide halls of the school. "The Ravenclaw common room is in one of the tallest towers at Hogwarts. This is the moving staircase you'll take when you go to the dormitories. Come on, keep up now!"

It took them a surprisingly long time to reach the tower, a fact that Rapunzel attributed to the massive amounts of the students clogging the halls and the distance they had to travel as a group. They came to a door with an eagle-shaped knocker, which Pippa banged once.

"The only way to enter the common room is by answering a riddle," she explained. The eagle opened its beak and said something that Rapunzel couldn't hear from her place among the students. Pippa must've, answered, though, because the door swung open and she ushered the kids through.

"Woah." The common room was circular with a tall domed ceiling painted with stars. It was furnished with bookcases, desks and chairs in midnight blue. Cushions, curtains and walls were decorated in blue and bronze and a marble statue of a woman stood near the entrance. Bronze eagles kept watch above the doorways.

"This is Rowena Ravenclaw, the founder of our house," Pippa said, gesturing to the marble statue. "The dormitories are through these doors here. Boys on the left, girls on the right."

Rapunzel climbed the staircase to her dorm, poking her head through the doorway at the top. This room was similar to the one downstairs but seemed... cozier. Tapestries with the house crest hung on the walls around rows of beds quilted in familiar blue and bronze. Their bags had been moved up already, it seemed.

Her things were sitting at the foot of a bed at the far end of the room near a large window, one that opened outward over h castle grounds. The view was incredible. Pascal jumped down from her shoulder to rest on the windowsill.

"This looks familiar, huh, Pascal?" She walked to her bed, pulled a square of purple fabric from her pocket and draped it over the headboard. "Another tower. Who'd've thought." Pascal climbed on top of the bedpost and frowned at her.

Rapunzel laughed. "Don't worry, we can leave this one whenever we want!" Pascal climbed into her hands and she sat on the bed looking out the window at the setting sun beyond the distant hills.

"Rapunzel Flowers?"

She jumped. A prefect was standing in the doorway. "Yes?" Rapunzel asked, standing.

"Professor Mune has asked me to inform you that he will not be able to speak with you tonight. Instead he has asked that you see the gamekeeper as soon as possible."

"Oh," Rapunzel said. "Um, where's that?"

"It's the building near the Forbidden Forest. You can't miss it."

"...Thanks," Rapunzel said, and the prefect disappeared down the staircase. she glanced at Pascal. The term "forbidden forest" wasn't exactly sitting well with her.

"You wanna go?" she asked. Pascal studied her and then shook his head decisively. "He said 'as soon as possible'," Rapunzel said, getting over her reservations. "We don't want to mess up twice on our first day, do we?" Pascal sighed and followed her down the stairs.

The courtyard was still and tinged a sleepy gold in the half-light. She would have to hurry; curfew would be enforced soon. Rapunzel stepped out onto the grass and spotted a hut silhouetted against a dark line of forest.

"Building, check; dark scary forest, check... Looks like that's it."

She walked out across the courtyard, feeling a bit apprehensive at the stillness. All the students were in the castle getting settled in. She reminded herself that she was obeying the headmaster and that she wasn't doing anything wrong. Pascal jumped down onto her arm and pointed at something with his tail. Someone was jogging across the grass ahead of her. Rapunzel squinted in the dim light.

"Hiccup?"

Hiccup paused and looked back at her just as a huge black shape extracted itself from the shadows of the forest. It streaked forward with the unearthly speed and grace of a born predator, dragging the boy to the ground in the space of a second. The creature lowered its open mouth to Hiccup's face.

"HICCUP!" Rapunzel yelled, running forward. She stumbled to a stop. Hiccup was... laughing. He was laughing as a wet, pink tongue was smeared all over his face.

"Eww, bud! Seriously? Yeah, I was worried about you, too- I'm fine, get off, Toothless!" Hiccup propped himself up on an elbow and wiped his face on his sleeve. "Gross, dragon spit..."

The dragon regretfully stepped off its master and nudged him to his feet with an affectionate carefulness. Rapunzel stared at it in a mix of shock, fear and awe. It was a good thirty feet long and black as midnight, lithe and powerful, with large yellow-green eyes that stood out in the deep black of its face like a full moon. It made a rumbling cooing noise as Hiccup scratched its head, eyes narrowed in pleasure.

"Hohh, oh-h, okay," Rapunzel said. "You're- that's- that's your- he's your... Oookay..."

"Sorry, I forget most people aren't used to seeing dragons all the time."

"I thought you were getting mauled by some horrible beast- which you kind of were! It was just, sort of, love mauling."

"Yeah, well 'love mauling' is kind of a habit of his," Hiccup said. "Sorry if we scared you."

"It's fine. I'm just glad nobody's been injured." Rapunzel stepped forward timidly. "So this is... your dragon."

"Toothless, yes."

Toothless stretched forward inquisitively as Rapunzel drew nearer. She lifted a hand. "Can I..."

"Go ahead."

Slowly, Rapunzel stretched out her arm. She flinched slightly as Toothless sniffed at her hand, but didn't pull away. The dragon nudged her fingers encouragingly and she touched her palm lightly on his nose. It was dry and warm, oddly rough and smooth at the same time. Her hand stroked the scales gently before Toothless sat back and regarded her with large, peaceful green eyes. He cooed softly and flicked one of his ears.

"See, he doesn't bite—do you Toothless?" Hiccup said. Toothless glanced back at Hiccup at the mention of his name and smiled, lips twitching over soft pink gums. Rapunzel laughed.

"OI, GET BACK HERE, YOU—ah!" A round man came running from around the side of the hut and stopped suddenly when he saw them. "Students! Ge' away from that dragon!"

Toothless's ears flattened slightly and he moved closer to his rider. Hiccup placed a soothing hand on the dragon's neck and turned to the puffing teacher.

He was big, huge actually, tall and muscled and portly at the same time. A scruffy blonde beard covered his broad chin and long, jagged scars disappeared under the neckline of his robes. He moved surprisingly fast for someone with such short legs and a hobbling limp to boot.

"I'm Hiccup, sir; this is my dragon."

The man relaxed, realization dawning on his face. "Ooh, so yoo're the hiccup that thought it'd be a great idea to bring a dragon ta school!"

Hiccup frowned. "Ah, no, it's... Hiccup, that's my name-"

"So," the man cheerily strode forward and gestured at them, no doubt not having heard a word, "ye've come to take this beast off m' hands, then? Send it back from whence it came and all?"

Toothless gave the man a very unamused look. Hiccup fidgeted. "Actually, about that..."

"Oh, no, you're not goin' to tell me you want to keep it here? He's already made a disaster of the shed, my poor newts will never recover." The man's voice was gruff with a gravely accent, but had a teasing friendliness that counteracted his intimidating exterior.

"Are you the Care of Magical Creatures teacher?" Rapunzel asked.

The man folded his thick arms over his chest. "I am. Name's Belch. Don't ask me to demonstrate why."

"O-kay." Hiccup said, sharing a glance with Rapunzel.

"Professor, the headmaster sent me to talk to you," Rapunzel said.

"Aah, that he did." Belch said. "Something about a lizard...?"

"Chameleon," the girl corrected.

Belch waved a hand. "Yes, yes, anyway, we've had a case like this once before and I've already talked to Mune about it. We've decided that you'll be able to keep yer pet thing in the dormitories, common room, or outside. Not to your classes and preferably not in the hallways, but tha's more of a guideline really-just keep it hidden while the teachers are looking an' no one will know the difference." He trailed off slightly and then glanced back at them. "But you didn't hear tha' from me."

The two kids nodded mutely.

Satisfied, the professor continued. "An' also you're hereby required to fulfill a certain amount of hours of your free time helping out in Care of Magical Creatures with yours truly.

"As for you," Belch said, rounding on Hiccup, "why you would possibly leave a large, highly intelligent and dangerous creature alone on school property without telling anyone about it is beyond me. I've got to say, kid, you've got some guts. That, or you're really stupid." He eyed the boy. "Haven't quite decided yet."

The students kept quiet while the Belch went on.

"This will be harder to sort out. Not to say we can't do it but... A dragon, really? Oh when the Ministry gets hold o' this..." Belch started walking back to the building which was really a mix between a hut and a cabin. "Come'ere, I got some questions for you. Oh-" he said, turning back to Rapunzel, "you can go. Run along."

Rapunzel stood frozen and watched the two retreating forms in stunned silence. She looked down at Pascal. "He's... nice." She said.

Dang Belch is so fun to write... and I love Toothless. Everybody loves Toothless. On another note, I kind of have an announcement to make...

This story is going on hiatus. I have TOO MANY awesome ideas for fanfics and original stories and I can't do them all dang it! Or at least not at the same time, and a story I've been plotting out for HTTYD has kind of booted this one out for a bit (it should be pretty epic, my deviantart has some (crappy) drawings). I still have a bunch of fun ideas for this story, but the Hoggywogs are just getting put to the side a bit. However, For Always will be continued!

So to make up for the break, I'm including the RotBTD Follower Pack, AKA a bunch of fun info and other stuff.

So yeah here we go:

List of teachers:

Manfred Mune- Headmaster, parallel of the Man in the Moon from RotG

Mr. Filth and his cat Toadstool- caretaker/Mr. Filch, parallel of Mildew and his sheep Fungus from HTTYD

Iris Fae- Transfiguration, head of Ravenclaw House, parallel of Toothiana from RotG

Lucas Nettle- Herbology, head of Hufflepuff House, parallel of Bunnymund from RotG

Professor Sanders- Charms, head of Gryffindor House, parallel of Sandman from RotG -noboddy really knows his first name since he's very quiet

Belch- Care of Magical Creatures, parallel of Gobber the Belch from HTTYD

Agnes Marrow- Divination, head of Slytherin House, parallel of Gothi (the mute shaman lady) from HTTYD -her last name is a reference of her using bones to predict the future in Riders of Berk

Matilda Sage- potions, parallel of the witch from Brave

Allan Trech- Defense Against the Dark Arts, parallel of Alvin the Treacherous from HTTYD

Ideas and Upcoming Stuff: SPOILERS!

-Each of the teachers/characters is a parallel of someone from one of the Big Four universes, but the AU is constructed so that the movies could have happened before the story begins, with the exception of Tangled.

-Astrid may end up joining Hiccup at school, in which case she'd be a Gryffindor and they'd get into even more dragon mischief.

-The Slytherin common room is under the Black Lake, and one of the most dominating features is the glass wall looking out into the water at the bottom. Jack takes understandable issue with this.

-Professor Nettle has a light accent that the students can't put their finger on. Many of them make bets and take guesses, but Jack finally discovers it when the teacher lets slip an Aussie insult, which Jack is quite familiar with, thanks to a certain someone. Instead of simply alerting the other students of the teachers true origin, Jack initiates an Australian slang-slinging battle in which both of them get a few kangaroos loose in the top paddock.

-The Quiditch Deputy Head and Flight Instructor may be a parallel of Flynn Rider, in which case there may be some New Dream cuteness, depending on what I decide. There may also be some mild Jackunzel cuteness.

-The charms teacher shrinks Jack's staff into a wand so that he'll be able to keep it on school property. Jack's not too fond of this and the little rebel learns how to switch it to staff-size and back by spinning it around his fingers baton-style. This encourages even more showing off.

-Jack is still the spirit of winter and retains all his powers. His friends think he's kidding whenever he makes a reference to being Jack Frost. He's totally not kidding. It's very interesting when they realize that fact.

And I'm afraid to say more because I don't want to give away ALL my cards, now do I? I'll see you guys soon hopefully! Adios my friends!

-inabox