Book 1: The First Year (ROTBTD Hogwarts AU) (PREQUEL)

25. Hiccup's POV: Early April

A/N:

Jack, after meeting Hiccup: Haha. Loser. See you never.

Jack, that night, waking up in a cold sweat: Oh no that boy friend shaped

.°○.◇.○°.

The magic of Hogwarts after a recent festival was a strange thing to experience.

Ostara, the celebration of the spring equinox, had recently come and gone and the magic in the castle had changed along with it. What now filled the air felt clean and new. Spells cast with it were that much stronger, especially when they held focus in plants and healing.

The workings of the stairways and corridors went through their own changes. The way it all seemed to spring to life made it look like the castle hadn't even been awake earlier, merely shifting in its sleep. Now it made changes with a purpose.

Rooms not seen before appeared out of nowhere. Stairs no longer confined themselves to moving when no one looked, but did so even when people were on them. Finding shortcuts was no longer as simple as checking behind a tapestry or knocking on a certain corner. Instead it might also involve things like turning in place three times, or humming—not singing—a song to a certain beat, or solving a puzzle in a painting but only if the person belonging to it was elsewhere.

The fact that Hiccup had to learn all this from his seniors long after the fact was an insult in itself. A bit of warning from someone, say, the professors, or Prefects, or somebody, would've been nice, before he'd woken up post equinox to go looking for his usual shortcuts only to get turned around and late for class.

Not to say he was unimpressed by the changes. They were interesting—exciting, even. He'd come to school to learn all there was to learn, so this was just another opportunity for doing exactly that. Learning new things was a thrill and a challenge he never grew tired of.

But all these recent happenings had left him with some...complicated questions.

For example, he knew by then that the English magic was different in more than just the strange runes or how it was called upon and harnessed by others. Just as the castle changed its behavior, so, too, had it. It flowed deep into the school, deep underground, through the very bedrock that connected it to the land. And the changes in the land followed those of the seasons.

Which begged the question: was it the festivals marking the arrival of the seasons that brought about these changes, or were they what was needed for the changes?

Hiccup didn't know where to go to ask. Or which books to read to find out. It was hard enough trying to make all this make sense even to himself. What else to do but try to explain it in front of the librarian and hope she'd understand well enough to point him in the right direction?

She did more than that. Instead of shooing him and his stuttering off like she should have, she pulled out an extra chair and sat him down with a cup of peppermint tea.

"Like I said, I don't really know how to properly say any of this. Or if I'm supposed to be asking you about it—not that I don't want to! Just, it's just that I, um...want to say sorry for bothering you? Again."

Madam Jones swirled her tea, not so much looking annoyed or pleased as she did observant.

"I'll be the judge of whether it's a bother or not. You just try to get it out in whatever words you have and we'll see where it goes from there."