Meet the Big Five

Care of Magical Creatures

(Hiccup)

"They often felt over-worked and under-appreciated. Hence, in 1911, the Gargoyles went on what later came to be known as. . ."

I poked Jack in the arm. "Wake up!" I hissed.

Jack lifted his head and looked at me, all bleary-eyed. "Who're you?" he mumbled.

I rolled my eyes. We were in History of Magic class, and Jack was asleep. So far, I'd had only two classes with him, which were History of Magic and Herbology, and he was sleepy during both. I, on the other hand, was struggling to stay awake now, since I really wanted to see when the class got interesting.

Professor Binns had the kind of droning voice you'd never want on a teacher, especially a History teacher. And the fact that he's a ghost just adds to the fact. I could totally see him as a professional bedtime story-teller, or a eulogizer.

I like being at Hogwarts. It beats Berk on any day, since it's warm-ish nine months a year, and snows the other three. The food we eat here is delicious and filling, and the other students are nice (except for a few mean kids who make fun of my name-- I'm not pointing at any house) and the teachers are cool (well, most of them, anyway.)

The only downside are the pets.

Okay, so every kid here who has their own pet brought them to Hogwarts. EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. There's dogs and cats and horses and owls and other birds and goats and a pig and mice and toads and someone brought a sheep. My friend Rapunzel even has a chameleon that she carries around in her pocket.

All of this just makes me miss Toothless so much more.

Back home in Berk, after my daily stint at the armory, I would go see him everyday, and check out the progress on his tail. The last time I saw him, before he left, he was almost healed and capable of long-distance flight.

I really miss that.

I guess he's probably back to wherever he came from. With the other dragons. Or maybe he came back to Berk, looking for me, and Dad and the other Vikings killed him.

Nope. Not thinking about that.

Besides, Dad wrote to me yesterday, and he didn't say anything about a Night Fury. It was a long letter, detailing how he was ashamed that I chose to go to to Hogwarts instead of Durmstrang, even though every great Viking he knew went to Durmstrang. Then there were like three pages in there explaining why Durmstrang is superior to Hogwarts in every way, not only because they taught Draconology to the third-years (in Hogwarts, Draconology is a NEWT level course), but also because in Britain killing dragons is illegal.

That's nothing, though. I'm glad it was just a letter. My friend Merida got a Howler from her mum during breakfast yesterday. She started crying after that, and got really mad if we tried to talk to her about it.

So anyway, according to Dad, I'm supposed to learn about dragons in school and help the Vikings kill them during Winter and Summer break.

I didn't say anything, of course. I just wrote back that I'd settled in well, thanks for (NOT) asking and that everything was fine so no worries.

I wrote to Gobber, too. Gobber was the only friend I had left in Berk now. I told him how things were in Hogwarts, and (casually) mentioned that I was missing Berk and Dad and the dragons, and whether he'd seen any interesting new species lately. Then, after the owl was already on its way, I remembered that Gobber couldn't read.

Surprisingly, I've made friends here. (HA! Take that, you stuck-up Berkians!) All the other first-years were 11, so we kinda stuck together. They're a strange bunch of older, very different first-years, but we have fun together. Yesterday we had meals together, and some of us have classes together. I have Transfiguration, Charms and Care of Magical Creatures with Merida, Herbology and History of Magic with Jack and Defense Against the Dark Arts, Astronomy and Potions with Rapunzel and Elsa. In the evening we kinda hung out at the school grounds and just talked. It was the first time since Toothless left that I haven't felt so alone.