Title: Two Gryffindors and a Slytherin
Genre: Adventure/Humor/Romance
Pairings: America/England, England/Portugal, England/Romania and other pairings not yet set in stone.
Summary: Human AU. A series of stories set in the Harry Potter universe. Matthew is the Boy Who Lived and Alfred is the bane of his existence.
Disclaimer: Himaruya Hidekazu, J. K. Rowling and associates own these characters (with the exception of Portugal being an original character).
Rating/Warnings: PG-13. There will be some kissing involved but there isn't going to be anything sexual explicit. There's no actual slash despite the pairings. But there might be some blood and darker story is something that I hope to update on a regular basis. I don't plan on adhering strictly to the HP story-line. I'm not writing for profit and I'm just doing this for fun.

Chapter One

"I already told you that you should have asked him," Matthew said. "You shouldn't have assumed that you were both going together."

"But we always pair up together." Alfred frowned before he kicked the bottom of the desk and muttered darkly, "- well at least, we used to." Matthew glanced down at his desk and resisted the temptation to comment snidely on how few people were willing to partner up with Alfred nowadays. Instead, he pulled out his wand and cast a Tergeo, removing the ink splotches from the Potions essay that he had been working on for the past hour before his fellow Gryffindor had showed up.

"If you really cared about going to the Yule Ball with him, you should have asked," Matthew said tranquilly. "And you know how Arthur feels about things like these. He likes tradition."

"What are you talking about? I'm not getting up worked over whether Arthur's my date or not," Alfred leaned back in his chair. "I'm not interested in him in that kind of way." Alfred ignored the look of skepticism on Matthew's face and continued. "What bothers me is that he's too interested in playing House politics."

Matthew silently nodded his head in agreement. He couldn't deny that. From the first day they had met, it been clear to Matthew that Arthur was going to be Sorted in Slytherin. Now, Matthew wasn't the type of guy who believed in House stereotypes and he took great pride in the fact that he had been Sorted into Gryffindor and not Hufflepuff despite everyone's assumptions. The thing was, Arthur Kirkland was an exceptionally ambitious wizard with a deeply-instilled pride in Pure-Blood history and tradition. Arthur had gone through certain lengths to introduce himself to Matthew Williams, the Boy Who Lived and made a big fuss over who had the rights to do so. (Unfortunately, the English wizard made the common mistake of not knowing what the Boy Who Lived looked like. Matthew wouldn't have minded this so much- if it hadn't been Alfred of all people whom Arthur had mistaken for.)

"- and now, he's going with Catarina to the Yule Ball."

Matthew dipped his quill and raised his eyebrows. "What's wrong with Catarina?"

"Nothing's wrong." Alfred mumbled, "Except that she's a Slytherin."

"Arthur is a Slytherin and Catarina is his girlfriend," Matthew quickly raised his hand and to his relief, Alfred clamped his mouth shut. "I know that you don't like how Arthur can be sometimes. A lot of people don't. But it's a mistake to believe that their relationship is anything but genuine."

Alfred slid down in his seat, folded his arms and sulked.

"Forget about them. Find another date to bring to the Yule Ball," said Matthew. "What about Katyusha? She's a nice girl."

"I'm not dealing with her brother again."

Matthew began listing off several more names but each time, Alfred shot the choices down. Now, Matthew was seriously tempted to throw a book at him or something. He only had few more hours to go with his Potions Essay and he still needed to figure out what the Second Task was.

"You will find a date to the Yule Ball," Matthew practically growled at him. "I don't care if it's one of the Kitchen elves." He took a few deep breathes and then said in a calmer voice, "This shouldn't be hard. Just ask somebody."

Alfred paused for a moment, rubbed his chin and nodded a few times. "Yeah, you're right. What am I thinking?"

"Good," Matthew sighed. "Now, may you please let me get back to work?"

"Alright, alright. I'll let you get to it," Alfred rose up from chair, walked towards the end of the room and paused in the doorway. "By the way, do you have anybody you're planning on bringing?"

Matthew narrowed his eyes but didn't bother looking up from his textbook. "No, I haven't gotten around to it." He flipped through another page and squinted his eyes, trying to read one of the annotations he had scribbled in the margins.

A strange smile crept up on Alfred's face.

To be continued...