Well, I think it's safe to say you guys are anxious for another chapter, so here it is. Sorry I haven't updated in a while, but I've been busy with back to school preparation and last minute family events. Why must all weddings happen within the same week? Anyways, here is the much awaited, follow-up chapter to the triwizard tournament. Enjoy!

Hiccup POV

I strode out of the large brown tent with quick footsteps. The fields were abandoned, with only torn up pieces of turf and footprints left behind. The students had returned to the castle.

I breathed in a breath of fresh air. The tent had been stuffy, and the people swarming through it, asking questions and taking pictures, had been suffocating.

I looked up at the evening sky. I hadn't realized how late it had become, it was almost curfew. I needed to return to the castle, but was reluctant to do so, knowing only more suffocating people and endless questions lay ahead of me.

I sighed and looked down at the Viking shield strapped to my arm. I remembered how this very shield had nearly been the size of me, and now, I was twice the size of it. I felt no nostalgia, only a small aching in my heart when I looked at the shield. It was so familiar to me, but so distant at the same time.

I wasn't a warrior. The feeling of a wooden grip in my hand was foreign, and the heavy metal of armor wasn't made for my skinny frame. I was never born to carry a shield on my arm and an ax in the other. I am not a warrior, I never was nor ever will I be.

My entire life had been a foreign concept to me. An idea too difficult to grasp, a thought too fleeting to remember. The only thing I could understand were schematics and blueprints, orders from others, the heat of a fire in the forge as I worked each day in the hope of proving I wasn't useless.

Until I came here, to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Here was where I could succeed, where I didn't have to be the strongest or the toughest in battle, but simply a quick-thinking boy. Where I excelled instead of failed. I had escaped my fate as a doomed blacksmith and earned a new one, as a bright student and cherished friend.

This fate was one I could accept.

As I continued walking towards the castle, these thoughts swirled through my mind as I entered the large stone building. A few people congratulated me in the hallways, and I greeted them with stiff nods and quiet 'thank you's'. Clearing my mind, I had only one thought left to worry about; I needed to find Merida.

I walked past the boisterous Great Hall, where students still lingered even as dinner had finished. I paid them no heed as I continued towards Gryffindor common room, knowing Ravenclaw would be too over-crowded.

The woman in the portrait disguising the entrance to the common room was missing. I frowned. The Fat Lady was always in her portrait unless something important had happened. Where could she be?

I tapped the frame of the painting and the door swung open with a non-verbal unlocking spell. I entered the common room, eyes searching the thin crowd for my friends. Several shocked faces turned my way, as though they couldn't believe I was standing there.

Reluctantly, a few claps sprang up across the room. I gave a weak grin and an even weaker nod. I turned to a young first year staring up at me. I bent down slightly, resting my shield on the ground as I addressed the small brunette.

"Have you seen Merida Dun'Broch? Bright red hair, Gryffindor?" I asked her. She nodded silently.

"Where did you see her?" I asked.

"She was in the Great Hall." She told me, her voice ringing with an odd accent. It sounded European, though I wasn't sure where it came from. "Sitting with the Ravenclaws."

"Thanks." I smiled at her. I stood and exited the common room.

I took the moving staircase two steps at a time, careful to slow down when reaching the landings, which enjoyed changing directions every few seconds. I reached the bottom and continued walking towards the Great Hall. I should have checked inside before going straight to the Gryffindor common room.

I reached the large double doors and walked inside. There was no one inside but a few house elfs, cleaning up after this night's feast. I sighed. This felt like a wild goose chase.

"Are you looking for your friends?" Someone said behind me.

I turned around and came face to face with none other than Malum Puer. I looked away and adjusted the straps on the shield.

I decided not to say anything.

"Don't you ever feel out of place when around them? Like you don't belong?" He asked, malice dripping from his voice. "A single mudblood, surrounded by prestigious purebloods?"

I turned around and exited the Great Hall, trying my best to block out his harmful words.

"I would personally." He sneered. "Though I suppose you're used to being out of place."

I set my jaw. Malum wasn't a stupid bully, unfortunately. He was cunning, true to his house's nature. He thought his words through, and each of them was purposeful, a perfectly placed blow every time.

"It seems ironic, that you carry that shield upon your arm." He said, he walked beside and it took every ounce of willpower I had not to send him flying across the hallway with a jinx.

"Never a proper Viking, still not a proper Viking. You're not even a proper wizard!" He said.

I flinched at his words. They held truth, the sharpest jab of them all.

"What do you want, Malum?" I managed to say.

"I want nothing, Haddock, but to congratulate you on your victory." He lingered on the last word. "Have a good night." He turned and walked away, down the east corridor, making his way to Slytherin common room.

I let out a breath once I saw him disappear around the corner, out of sight at last. I looked down the shield and felt guilt. Guilt and betrayal and an array of emotions I couldn't even begin to understand.

I pulled the shield off my arm, holding it in my grasp instead. This crudely made disk of wood and metal had comforted me earlier, reminding me of home. Now, this shield painted simply with war decorations, had stirred up so much tumult within me I no longer felt excited from my victory of the first task.

I climbed the staircase up to Ravenclaw tower, finally arriving at the entrance. I was reluctant to enter, however, Malum's earlier words having done a number on my confidence.

"Who makes it, has no need of it. Who buys it, has no use for it. Who uses it can neither see nor feel it. What is it?" The portrait of the Lady in Blue asked me.

I stayed silent, lost in thought. The last line held the key, I knew it. See nor feel it... The only way you couldn't see nor feel it is if you were dead. The only thing a dead man needs would be a pyre. But this wasn't Berk, the countries a little further south normally didn't use pyres. They used-

"Coffins." I said aloud. "A coffin."

The Lady In Blue smiled kindly and the door swung open. Surprisingly, the common room was near empty, except for a few stragglers and a group of three people seated near the fire. I walked over to the large sofa directly in front of the warmly lit hearth.

"Hiccup!" Punzie was the first to greet me. "You won!" She sounded like she couldn't believe it herself.

"Yeah-yeah, I mean, that's great." I said, not completely focused on the fact I had just done the impossible.

"That was amazing! The dragon just... collapsed." Jack said. He perched atop the back of an ornate wooden chair. For some reason he never actually sat down somewhere, he was always perched upon something.

Merida stood from the couch and flung her arms around my neck. Startled, I took a step backwards, still not completely certain what was going on between us.

"You didn't die." She whispered in my ear. She pulled away beaming.

"I didn't die."