Chapter 1

Dear Arthur,

I'm afraid the Ministry has refused to acknowledge Lord Voldemort's return and they have sent one of their employees to interfere at the school and possibly inspect our teachers. Due to this troubling matter, I fear that my time as headmaster may be drawing to an end.

I write to request that you and some of your fellow nations come to Hogwarts to inconspicuously watch over young Harry as he progresses through his fifth year. Please send your reply back with Fawkes.

Sincerely, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore

Arthur Kirkland, more commonly known as the personification of England and the representative of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, reread the letter with a sigh. He had sent back an immediate yes to Albus, but he wasn't exactly excited. When he brought up the matter at the World Meeting the previous week, a surprisingly large amount of countries wanted to go. Sadly, America and France were a part of them. The Axis had agreed, as well as the rest of the Allies (even China, who had proclaimed that Western nations were immature for not being able to handle their own issues) and a number of others.

Today was the 31st of August. They would leave tomorrow. England sighed, rubbing his forehead. He hoped Albus knew what he was getting into, because he sure didn't.

England brushed his fingers soothingly along the head of his barred owl, Elizabeth, through the bars of her cage. Despite the rules, he brought both Elizabeth and his cat with him, though it hardly mattered since America was bringing his cat Hero and his bald eagle Liberty, and Prussia was bringing Gilbird along with his cat. He was also fairly certain that Poland was bringing his pony. What they didn't understand about cat, owl, or toad he'd never know.

"Hey, Iggy!" cried an obnoxiously loud voice.

"Ame- Alfred, I keep telling you not to call me that!" England sighed.

"Whatever, Artie, look at Liberty! She grew!" America grinned, shoving the eagle into the Brit's face. The bird narrowed her beady eyes and shrieked angrily at the British nation, who tried to back up and ended up with a gash in his hand.

"Ow!" He yelled, nursing the wound. "That thing's evil! Why isn't it in a cage?"

"Why isn't Merlin?" America countered. England glanced down at the orange and white Scottish Fold standing calmly by his feet. "Why is he called that, anyway?"

"For one thing, he's actually pretty well behaved, and for the second question, he's named after the wizard Merlin from the legends of Camelot. I told you that last time you asked, and the time before that, and the time before that..."

"Okay, okay! Well, come on Artie! Franc- is..." America caught himself and less-than-smoothly covered up his mistake."Francis is waiting with the others on the train." With that, America seized England's hand and pulled him eagerly past the curious onlookers and onto the train.

When they reached the chosen compartment for the Allied Forces, France laughed with a perverted grin and and pulled them inside. "Ohonhonhonhon~ Amerique and Angleterre were together? Doing what, I might ask?"

"Ew, shut up! That's disgusting!" America cried, shoving away the elder nation. Truthfully, his insides were squirming.

"As if." England snorted. The door banged open. An irritable boy with raven hair and glasses was arguing with a snobby-looking boy with blonde hair. The blonde-haired boy was the one who'd pushed open the door.

"Who're you?" he said rather rudely when he looked up and saw the crowded compartment. England smiled like a true gentleman and stood up to introduce himself.

"I'm Arthur Kirkland, and this is Alfred F. Jones, Francis Bonnefoy, Yao Wang, and Ivan Braginsky. Who are you?" England pointed to each himself, America, France, China, and Russia as he said their human name, and then turned politely back to the boys.

"Draco Malfoy. Are you new? I've never seen you before."

"Yeah, we're transferring for a new program that the headmaster is starting. I'm from England, Alfred is from America, Francis is French, Yao is Chinese, and Ivan is Russian. The rest of us are somewhere scattered over the train; one compartment would have been much too small for our group." England gave a little unamused laugh at the end of his introduction.

Draco gazed at him with a disdainful expression, then turned abruptly and walked away, purposely knocking into the other boy and sneering at him.

"Sorry about him. He's always been like that. I'm Harry, by the way. Harry Potter." Harry stretched out his hand, but England merely stared at him, baffled. How had he not recognized him? Elizabeth's cage slipped from under his arm and crashed onto the floor. The owl screeched furiously as her cage broke open and she took flight, spreading her wings and fleeing the compartment. Merlin gave a startled yowl and clawed his way up France's leg and clung to his face.

"Oi! Angleterre, kindly remove your cat from my face!" He yelled. In the chaos, Harry had realized the commotion his name had caused and slipped away with a rather sullen expression. England pried Merlin off of the Frenchman and scolded him. He pulled out his wand (yew, 12 inches, unicorn hair core) and repaired Elizabeth's cage. The owl, apparently sensing the resuming calmness in the Allies' compartment, flew back and perched stiffly next to Liberty. The cats- Merlin, Hero, L'Amour, Arun, and Aleksander-stared at the birds with hungry expressions.

"Let the HERO handle this!" America grinned. He picked up Elizabeth, put her in the luggage rack where she could safely survey her surroundings, and put Liberty in his lap. The eagle, which had so viciously sliced open England's hand just five minutes ago, settled comfortably in the American's lap with a contented air about her. England scowled at the injustice of it all and turned away with Merlin in his own lap.

A short time later, the train left the station and they were off to Hogwarts. The little group made mindless chitchat, except Russia who looked out the window in silence, gently stroking his cat. A light knock on the compartment door brought their attention to the snack trolley. "Anything off the trolley, dears?" An elderly woman asked with a bright smile. England smiled back and bought a few Cauldron Cakes. America, however, bought a complete shitload of candy. He bought a stack of Cauldron Cakes, a multitude of Licorice Wands, four packages of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, a few pouches of Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, and three boxes of Fudge Flies. The rest of it was whisked away before England could gape at it.

Luckily for the American's health, he decided to share. England, being the gentlemanly former pirate that he was, also pooled his snacks. It was only a few minutes later that the older Beilschmidt brother staggered through the door, completely hammered. Gilbird flew gloomily after silver-haired Prussia; Italy followed him with the closest thing to a scowl that he'd ever had.

"Gilbert's drunk again. Luddy told me to watch him." he whined. England grinned and got up, happily accepting the bottle of beer Prussia held out for him.

"Noooooo!" The others wailed. England downed a gulp of beer and refilled the bottle with a flick of his wand. The pair continued drinking in this manner until the door swung open again and Denmark entered.

"Drinking party? Count me in!" He smirked. The three of them laughed and told long, ridiculous stories as they continued refilling the bottle magically and drinking its contents. The train was almost at Hogwarts by the time America, being the 'hero' as always, stepped in and forced England's Hogwarts robes over his head.

"Iggy, you need to stop drinking. We're almost there." America said sternly. The island nation blinked blearily at his former colony, then nodded vacantly. France sighed in relief and shooed away the others, his nose wrinkled in distaste. "How are we going to get them sober again before we get there?" He whispered over his shoulder. China and France shrugged.

"I can smash them up with my pickax." Russia offered, holding up said object.

"Violence is not the answer to everything!" China snapped.

"Violence originated in Korea!" A sing-song voice trilled from nowhere.

"Go away, Korea!" China yelled. South Korea skipped cheerfully away, his robes billowing out behind him.

"You'll miss me soon, Aniki~" He sang. France cocked an elegant eyebrow at the elder nation.

"I know what you're thinking, France, and so help me I will stab you to death with a fork if you say it!" China snapped. France flushed and looked away.

Meanwhile, England was drunkenly trying to adjust his robes. Blushing profusely, America was assisting him.

"Screw this!" America cursed. England was still as drunk as ever, rambling on about what religion he was and how he was, quote-on-quote, 'the United-bloody-Kingdom and they were all just jealous of his power'. He also was wailing about how 'everyone he had ever bothered to get close to had abandoned him'. It was actually quite demoting to listen to; the others had long since quit trying to cheer him up (he really was a depressing drunk!) and fled, claiming that they needed to 'use the bathroom'. They had been gone for half an hour.

"What'dya think, 'Murica? Catholic... *hic* ...or Protestant?" England muttered, fiddling absently with the fasten on his cloak.

"You're an awful drunk, Arthur." America sighed. England sighed deeply and stared out the window.

"Hey, look, a castle~" he giggled. 'Shit...' America thought. 'We're here...'

Hogwarts, America had to admit, was beautiful. The castle stood proudly on the side of a cliff, with a huge lake on its grounds and an enormous evil-looking forest covering much of the land at the bottom of the cliff. A sense of foreboding stabbed through America as he stared at the tall black trees, but at the same time he felt a thrill of excitement. How much he wanted to explore that forbidding place!

Then he saw it: a skeletal black form, rather like a cross between a dragon and a horse, rising from the trees. It flapped large leathery wings and reared its head at the dark sky. Hooves struck out at the air as the train raced by, and by the time America had strained his neck for a second glimpse, it had gone.

It would be a complete lie to say that he wasn't shaken by this encounter. It seemed like something England would freak out over, but his judgement wasn't completely reliable in his current state. The former pirate slumped over the edge of the cushioned bench with a vacant smile, laughing at nothing.

"Hehehehe..." England snickered. "Alfie!" He latched onto America from around the waist. America blushed dark red and looked up at the ceiling, out the window, anywhere but his former mentor. "I love you~" America was completely red. In fact, it felt to him as though every drop of blood had rushed to his face, leaving the rest of his body tingling and numb.

"Ahahahahaha~" America laughed. "That's nice, Iggy. C'mon, we need to go." The Brit stumbled over the hem of his robes and followed America with a slight scowl on his face.

In the aisle they saw France, chatting up some girl. "Come on, Francey-Pants. Stop womanizing the entire female population of the world." America said, seizing the back of France's robes and dragging him away.

"Adieu! Owl me!" France yelled after her. The girl giggled and blushed before running off to find her friends.

"How old was she?" America demanded.

"11 or 12, not that it matters. Age has no significance in l'amour," France purred.

"11 or 12?! Francis, you're fifteen!" America yelled.

"Fusososo~ A player, just like always!" Spain snickered, appearing out of nowhere behind them. A sour-tempered Italian followed.

"Tomato bastard! You can't just leave me, what if I had gotten lost, eh?" Romano snapped.

"Ah, Lovi, you know that wouldn't have happened! At the worst, you would have run into Ludwig! He's been running around looking for Feliciano." Spain grinned.

"My stupid, idiot fratello! Always messing things up!" Romano sighed. "Well, I suppose I should go and help the potato bastard find my fratello. Bye." The bad-tempered Italian stomped off.

"That'll be easy, since Feli was following Gilbert the whole time." Spain said quietly. England, who was now leaning on America for support, hiccuped a laugh and swayed slightly. His cheeks were flushed and his eyes somewhat misty, but otherwise the fact that he was a drunken mess wasn't too obvious.

"Anyway, what should we do about the three of them? I'd look through my stuff to see if there was something, but we had to leave everything on the train."

"I'll take care of that." Said a low voice behind him. Norway nudged him out of the way and cast a spell over the drunken England. "That'll sober him up fast. I just fixed Gilbert and Matthias."

"Thanks Lukas!" America said brightly as the Norwegian walked away again. "By the way, I put the birds in the cages and the cats in their baskets, so you don't have to worry about that."

China, France, and Russia all gave their thanks to America and the five of them began following the other students to a worn-out path where carriages waited. These carriages were pulled by the same ghastly animals that America had seen earlier. Large, black, and dragon-ish, the horse were walking skeletons with huge leathery wings too big for their bodies. Their eyes were purely white and stared blankly at the five nations.

England stepped forward and stroked one of the two horse/dragon things. "Thestrals," he murmured. "They're really very gentle, and the ones here are quite tame. They're very smart, too." Russia moved forward and patted the thestral on its bony neck. It nuzzled into his scarf, snuffling quietly. England flicked his wand and a huge chunk of bloody meat appeared in front of the thestrals. The two attacked it with great gusto, and it was gone within a minute. England gave them a final pat and clambered into the carriage, the others following.

A moments silence as the thestrals started pulling them to the castle, then America spoke up. "They eat meat?"

"Well, yeah. Did you think that they would be vegetarians just because they have horse in them?" England scoffed. He seemed to be sobering up a bit, or at least regaining conscious thought. They pulled up next to the Nordics, who were all evacuating their carriage and giving the thestrals a farewell pet. Norway looked especially pissed off, holding up Denmark, who still seemed to be a bit out of it.

"Thank God Arthur's sobered up." America grumbled, shuddering as he imagined having to do that for England. "He's an annoying drunk."

"Ohonhonhonhon~ Was Amerique unhappy with Angleterre's behavior?"

"Shut up, France." America said stiffly, reverting back to France's country name.

"Oh, mon ami, don't be so cold!" France smirked, drooping an arm over America's shoulder.

"Get off me!" He muttered. "C'mon, we have to go."

Okay, so just to clear things up, I'll post the pairings along with a guide to who's going and what House they're in after the next chapter, which is the Sorting. :)

EDIT: 10/3/15- I am rewriting this story, which will hopefully inspire me to continue writing it. Thankfully this chapter wasn't as atrocious as I remembered it to be and required only a little touching up.