Chapter 2
Hiccup tended to be teased a lot. He was scrawny and short for his age, and no matter how hard he tried to please everyone he always seemed to mess up. It didn't help that strange things seemed to happen to Hiccup, like that one time when he ended up on the school roof when running away from some boys who said they wanted to shove his head down the toilet. He tried to explain to the principal that he didn't know how he had gotten up on the roof, but she didn't appear to believe him. That was the afternoon that his parents revealed to Hiccup that he had magic.
"Magic?" Hiccup said, frowning. "I thought magic was just in fairytales."
His mother laughed. "No, sweetheart, magic is very real." She snapped her fingers and a plate of cookies flew from the counter to the table. She grabbed a cookie and took a bite, winking at Hiccup.
"Dad?" Hiccup said, looking over at his father for confirmation. He smiled.
"I can't do magic, only your mother," he stated, looking admiringly at his wife. Turning back to Hiccup, he explained, "We didn't want to tell you, in case you ended up not having magic. We couldn't be sure if you would inherit your mother's powers."
"So, wait, if magic is real… are the fairytales real?" Hiccup asked.
Both his parents laughed. "No," his mother said. "But if you want, I can tell you plenty of real stories about magic."
Hiccup's eyes lit up. "Please!"
Hiccup never really had a lot of friends, so he spent most of his time with his dad. His dad was an engineer, and he taught Hiccup how to build airplanes with some wood and a rubber band and how to construct a car using a mousetrap. His mother was not often at home because of her job at the Ministry of Magic (Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, Beast Division, Ghoul Task Force Leader), but when she was, she gave Hiccup magical devices to supplement some of his inventions, including a punching telescope that Hiccup used to make a miniature launcher that launched stink pellets.
When Camicazi, his mother's owl, dropped Hiccup's Hogwarts into his lap one morning, his father snatched it from his lap and read over the contents greedily. Hiccup frowned and said, "Dad, give it back!"
His father threw the letter back, stood up, and patted Hiccup on the shoulder. "You better be in Gryffindor, just like your mother!" he said, smiling broadly.
"You don't have to be in Gryffindor," Hiccup's mother said, looking at her husband reprovingly. "We'll be proud of you, no matter what house you get sorted into."
"Except maybe Hufflepuff," his dad said, to which Hiccup's mother gave him a sharp glance.