Spades here~! This is the first installment of what is probably going to be a mini series about Prussia's first days at Hogwarts. This is part of the youtube series 'Pottertalia' and everything written here is canon to that universe. Hope you enjoy!

It was eleven o'clock when the Hogwarts express rolled out of the station in a fog of hissing steam which drowned out the calls and cries of loved ones. Most waved, smiling with shinning eyes and a quivering lower lip, while others shouted warnings of good behavior (or so help them!) and everywhere younger children weaved between parents, bobbing in and out of sight, chasing the train until, finally, the platform disappeared from view.

Gilbert had found a seat in a carriage with his two best friends easily enough because Roderich's mother was so concerned about being late that they had arrived almost an hour early, just as the train was pulling in. With great difficulty they had managed to store their trunks on the railings above them, although Gilbert had to stand on his toes to help Roderich, and Elizabeta, who was almost a head shorter than them both kept trying to lift the cases on her own only to stand on Gilbert's feet and almost drop the luggage on all of them.

Once their trunks were securely stored, and admittedly it took longer than it should have, they found themselves in the awkward position of having almost forty-five minutes before departure and a teary Mrs. Edelweiss standing at their open window telling them to make sure that they cleaned their cauldrons properly and to eat well. She didn't want to have to roll her son home at the end of his first year. She'd already had to take the hem down on his school robes and she would not be buying him new underwear if he got too fat for his 'unterwäsche'!

Elizabeta and Gilbert had tried not to laugh at her serious demeanor, and Roderich was a lovely shade of red and relief when they finally started moving.

"She treats me like a child," eleven-year-old Roderich complained with a shake of his head once the station was safely behind them. "I hope no one else heard her, I'm sure she waited until we were in the most public place possible to tell me that."

"Kesesese." Gil snickered earning him a knobby elbow to his ribs from Elizabeta who seemed to have more sympathy for Roderich than her friend did.

"My parents would have said something similar if they were able to make it onto the platform," Elizabeta told him reassuringly. Her parents were non magic folk, or as wizards called them, 'muggles', and had been so confused by the passage way that even after trying four times had been unable to walk through the wall onto platform nine and three-quarters. Elizabeta had been forced to say her farewell then and there before breaking into a run and joining her two friends and Mrs. Edelweiss who were waiting for her outside of one of the glossy carriages.

Gilbert grinned at Roderich whose face was still hot with irritation and was actively attempting to ignore the boy by cleaning his glasses with the dark fabric of his robes. "Besides, everyone was too busy saying bye. I doubt anyone heard her," she continued.

"Better not get fat Roddy. I've seen her patch your unterwäsche before – your crotch is going to look like Frankenstein if she has to make them bigger."

Roderich crossed his arms with a huff, scowling at his best friend. "Frankenstein was the Doctor. And that's not funny, Beilschmidt. Why were you looking at my underwear?"

"She leaves it on your bed."

"I don't know what you're laughing at Gilbert," Elizabeta snapped haughtily, one brow quirked at the fair haired boy. "I've seen her patch yours as well."

"I never asked her to do that!" Gilbert bemoaned, his laughter extinguished immediately. He quickly added, "I threw them out anyway! I can show you, all my underwear is new."

"I don't want to see your underwear!"

Roderich sighed at the silliness of it all and checked his pocket watch; it was small and silver with intricate carvings etched onto the casing and his family name engraved on the back. He stuffed it away quickly and said, "We have at least five hours until we reach the castle, I would like to talk about something other than Beilschmidt's undergarments."

"We were talking about yours," Gilbert pointed out, but when neither Elizabeta nor Roderich humored him with a rise he let the subject fall behind them like the platform had done.

The train began to head out towards the countryside, zipping past acres of green land, over bridges and through tunnels which cast the carriages into darkness before blinding them again, filling the entire room with warm, summery light. Gilbert opened the window a fraction and removed his shoes so that he could fold his feet beneath his legs on the red, cushioned seats. When Roderich stood up to try to pull down his trunk again Elizabeta scolded him.

"We have all year to study, I want to talk to you before school starts."

"We have all year to talk, I would like to study before my classes. I have no intention of falling behind." Somehow, Gilbert thought that was a direct stab at him.

"But we might not be placed in the same house! Who knows how often we will see each other." She insisted, earning an overly dramatic sigh from the brunet boy who ceased his shuffling and forced his trunk back.

She smiled delightedly when he sat back down across from them, ignoring the way that Roderich glared at a smirking Gilbert who didn't even have to open his mouth to tease him. 'Na na. You just got told off by Eli,' he heard Gilbert silently say and did his best to focus on Elizabeta who had pulled out a packet of cards and was dealing them out, placing seven cards down next to Gilbert, then next to Roderich then in her own lap.

"What are we playing?" Roderich asked, never all that impressed by muggle games but willing to indulge her after she had defended him and his underwear.

"We don't have a table… so, go fish. Gil, do you remember how to play?"

"Of course I do." He lied. Coming from a pure blood line, Gilbert didn't often play muggle games. In fact, Elizabeta was the first muggle born friend he had ever made, and he had only met her through Roderich who was her neighbor and a half blood.

"Excellent!" She said cheerfully, a wide smile pulling on her cheeks. "Roderich, do you have any fives?"

"Go fish."

"Do you really think we won't be placed in the same house?" Gilbert asked Elizabeta, cutting in as Roderich was about to ask him if he had any tens.

She shrugged her thin shoulders, tipping her head to the side without taking her eyes off her fanned cards. "No… I don't think so."

"Which house do you think you'll be placed in?" Gilbert asked, and then with a grin that threatened to split his face said loudly, "wait, which house do you think I'll be put in?"

Elizabeta looked like she would rather not answer, shaking her head. "I don't know. Roderich will probably be placed in Ravenclaw though. He seems like a Ravenclaw, doesn't he?"

"As long as it's not Slytherin," Roderich began, "It doesn't matter where I'm put."

This comment was followed by a moment of shocked silence, Gilbert and Elizabeta tensed and Roderich looked up from his cards again in confusion.

"Gilbert's parents were in Slytherin." Elizabeta said quickly in the sort of good humored tone people use when making light of a horrible subject. "I don't think it's such a bad house."

Gilbert's smile was gone without a trace and his white eyebrows were burrowed so fiercely it looked as though they might get knotted in the middle. "Yeah, Edelweiss, what's wrong with Slytherin?"

"Nothing." Roderich said in a tone of false confidence, like he could easily right this misunderstanding by standing by his statement. "They're not all bad, they just have a reputation. I doubt you'll end up there either, Gilbert." He said reassuringly, almost sounding bored by the conversation. He looked down at his hand again, shuffling two cards over. "Any tens?"

"Roderich." Elizabeta cringed and Gilbert leant over, slapping the cards out of his hand. "Gilbert!"

Roderich puffed out his chest, glaring back in a defiance that contradicted his posture which was pushed back into the seat, arms crossed and tense.

"My dad's a doctor and he came out of Slytherin!"

"Your mum did too and she's in Azkaban."

"Don't talk about my mum!"

"Boys! Enough! There's no such thing as a bad house! Gilbert-!"

"You think I'll end up there too, don't you Elizabeta?" Gilbert turned to her with a snarl. She opened her mouth to shout at him to sit down and behave before a prefect heard them, when she saw something in his eyes. He looked angry, too angry – almost desperately angry. Like it was something he was holding onto. But, having known him for almost five years, she could see beneath that. Gilbert's nostrils were flared and his eyes were glazed over and Elizabeta remembered the last time she'd seen him like this.

His dad had yelled at him in front of her once after he'd found out that Gilbert had taken his broom out to show her in the yard. Gilbert had looked angry, even pretended for a while that he was furious with his dad, but really he had been upset that he had been caught and scared of the punishment that would follow once she was gone.

That was the same look, the same glassy eyes and heavy breathing that she had been just as helpless to fix then as she was now. "I don't think that." She said firmly, a tentative hand reaching out, waiting for Gilbert to push her away like a wounded animal. When he didn't she breached the distance, her strong hand like an anchor, pulling him down to sit beside her again. "And even if you are then it doesn't matter."

Roderich sighed, "Gilbert, listen-."

"I'm going to find Kohler." He stood again quickly, eyes deliberately avoiding Elizabeta's as he exited the carriage, slamming the door shut and leaving his black sneakers on the ground next to where Roderich's cards lay scattered.