Ludwig walked around the Muggle part of the tiny Tuscan village he was currently spending his hard-earned summer vacations in. Great. Just great. What was better than getting lost in a stupid town and not being allowed (damn being sixteen!) to do a simple incantation that would simply bring him back home in a heartbeat? Shit.

He heard a distant noise, and he looked up at the clear, blue sky with a frown. Again with those flying things (planes, was it?) that Muggles used to kill each other. Now, not that he really cared. The Muggles were just... Muggles. They were not really like wizards, and as long as it concerned him, they could go on having wars for however long they wanted. Not like it could affect him or his family, anyway. They just needed a few, painfully easy spells to keep the "bombs" well away from their house, and they were also German. Apparently, the German Muggles had started a war with the Italian Muggles (it seemed that Grindelwald was the mastermind behind it, but his father would never really tell him), and as of now, the Germans had invaded Italy, which meant that every Italian, Muggle or not, had to treat him with respect, and every German, Muggle or not, treated him normally. So, all in all, life was not that hard. And besides, it was just a summer. In three months, he would be back to Hogwarts and forget about stupid Muggles and their petty wars. But in the meantime, he was stuck in the outskirts of the stupid village, with no one around that could give him directions and the inability to use his wand. He cursed and sat down against a olive tree, in the shade of its silvery foliage. He really wished he could spend the summer in a wizarding city, like London or Berlin, not in a fucking village swarmed in Muggles, where the wizarding population accounted to two wizards and three witches (one of which not even 3 years old) that didn't speak German anyway. And what was worse, his brother had decided that for the year he just couldn't come home for the vacations because of his job. Ludwig snorted. Job. Ah. As if Gilbert would sacrifice his holidays to his job. More like to a pretty Hungarian Gryffindor that he had just married.

Ludwig sighed. Wow. Just wow. His vacation had started merely a week ago, and he already wished he could just go back to school. Father was always worried and not talking much. Gilbert was away, training dragons and having the time of his life with his wife. Kiku, his Ravenclaw best friend from Hogwarts was back in Japan. Roderich, his Ravenclaw cousin, was back in Austria and not in any mood to talk to someone that was related to Gilbert. Berwald, his other Hufflepuff best friend, was in Sweden, probably pining over that stupid Gryffindor Mudblood Finn, and probably not in any mood to be writing. And so on and so forth.

Ludwig let himself lie down on the grass. His summer vacations were already starting to blow. Oh joy. Just as he was about to just take a nap in the shadow, he felt something fall very hard on him.

Feli had been walking carelessly, and didn't notice that there was something in her path. Or better yet, someone. A blond, blue eyed boy to be precise. As she was still draped over him, she started to let out a continuous stream of apologies, only to be stopped by the boy in question, who snapped in German "Watch where you're going, you idiot!"

Feli suddenly stood up and started to speak in German like a machine gun. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, ve, it's just, this is my spot, and it's usually empty, but now you're here, so yeah, I guess it's not that empty anymore, ve..."

The boy was looking at her in complete shock, as if trying to keep up with her fast words. Feli wanted to cry. She couldn't anger a German, or she could get in deep shit. She was a Resistenza member, and her twin brother and grandpa were too, so it would be better to just steer clear of him. But running away now would have been like declaring that she had something to hide, and she doubted that she could outrun the boy.

The boy finally seemed to find his words. "Uhm, calm down, it's okay. I didn't really mean to snap at you. Sorry about that."

Feli looked at him surprised. A German had said sorry to her, an Italian girl! That didn't make much sense. She took a moment to look at him. He looked tall and built even when he was lying on the grass, but he couldn't be older than sixteen. Maybe he was the son of some officer stationed in Italy...?

"Ve, yeah, it's okay. Uhm, what's your name?"

The boy looked a bit taken aback, but in the end he answered. "Ludwig Beilschmidt."

Feli gave a nervous smile and said "Ve, nice to meet you, I'm Felicia. Ve, so, what brings you to Italy?"

Ludwig snorted.

"The weather." he said coldly. The girl had not recognized his name. If she was a witch, she would have recognized it immediately, since it was the name of an ancient, powerful wizarding family, known all throughout Europe. It meant that the girl was just a Muggle. Which, by extension, meant that they had nothing to talk about.

But the girl didn't look discouraged. She was working for the Resistenza, and God knew they needed someone to speak German, and improving it with this guy meant that she could help them more. So she just sat down by his side and tried to start a casual conversation with the boy. She didn't notice the disgusted look in his eyes as she sat down.

"Ve, yes, Italy has really a nice climate, eh? It's always sunny in the summer! Ah, but we do get cold winters, and snow, and rain too, I guess..."

Ludwig decided that it couldn't get any worse. Oh joy. Now he was stuck with a Muggle who was going on about the weather... someone please Avada-Kedavra me.

But since it would be just too rude to not say anything, he answered.

"Yeah. How nice."

The girl smiled at him. "Ve, I know! What part of Germany are you from, Ludwig?"

Ludwig sighed in exasperation. Would she get off his case already! "... Berlin."

Feli smiled widely. "Ve, really? I've been there, before the war started! It's a beautiful city! Don't you think that the Brandenburger Tor is fantastic?"

Ludwig looked at her without knowing what to say. The Brandenburger Tor was in the Muggle part of Berlin, and he had never had any business to take care of there, so he had never gone. He had just a vague idea of what the thing actually looked like.

"Uhm, yeah, kinda. It's just a big door."

Feli looked completely taken aback. "Just a big door! Oh my God! Ve, it's like saying that the Colosseum is just a crumbling building!"

Ludwig tried to rack his brains for this Colosseum she was talking about. Something told him that it had to do with Muggle Rome... what the hell did it look like again...?

"Uhm... I suppose you're... right...?"

Feli laughed whole-heartedly. "You haven't been around much, have you, ve?"

That comment piqued Ludwig. Just because he didn't get involved with worthless buildings, it didn't mean he had to look like an ignorant fool to this red-haired, Muggle nuisance of a girl!

"Hey! I've been around, okay?" he snapped.

The girl jumped back in surprise. "... ve, sorry, I didn't mean to offend you. I just wanted to chat a bit, so I can improve my German. You don't have to be rude, ve!"

Ludwig felt a bit sorry for having snapped at her for the second time. The girl honestly looked nice enough. He blushed and mumbled "Sorry. It's just... I don't really want to be here. I guess I'm taking out my frustration on the first thing that comes my way. Sorry."

The girl's yellowish eyes softened. "... why are you frustrated, ve?"

Ludwig threw his hands in the air. "Because of everything! About having to spend three months here instead of Germany or England, about having to be practically in hiding every single da..."

he stopped dead. He couldn't explain his frustration without talking of the wizarding world. And this Feli girl really had no business knowing about it. She was just a Muggle.

But she answered anyway, if after a bit of a pause. "... actually, I understand very well. There's just... ve, another place you really want to be instead of here, and you always have to be careful about who's around you, because you don't know if you can trust them or not..."

Ludwig looked at her, positively bewildered. How could that Muggle understand his feelings so well...?

"... you feel the same...?"

Feli looked as if something clicked in her mind. She looked back at him with a big, empty smile and said "No, no, of course, not at all! Why would I? Ve..."

Ludwig was not stupid. She was just trying to backpedal. And maybe he had a vague idea why. After all, he was German, and she was Italian. He figured that she wouldn't really want to get all buddy-buddy with one and tell him her own business.

He decided to let it go for this time. Maybe the girl could become a way for him to feel a bit less lonely for the rest of the long summer months in front of him... though it was better if father didn't know. If he knew that his son was talking to a Muggle, he would surely disown him. But he needed a distraction badly, or he would have ended up going insane with boredom... and there was something exciting about doing something to that his father disapproved so much anyway... Ludwig sighed. He was so desperate that even a Muggle could keep him entertained...

"Look, if you really want to learn some German, I could come and chat with you like this some other day..." he said tentatively.

Feli looked troubled. "I... ve, I'd love to, but... ve, how do I explain this..."

Ludwig rolled his eyes. "What? I'm not a... "soldier", or whatever you call them here. I'm just a guy who's stranded here in the middle of nowhere and would really like to have someone older than 3 to talk to. And believe me when I say that I absolutely don't care nor do I wish to get in the way of anything you're busy with."

Feli looked a bit taken aback. If her grandpa knew that she was talking to a German boy, he would kill them both. But this boy was clearly uninterested in the war, he seemed to not want to have anything to do with it... and besides, who ever said that they were going to do anything but talking? She let a more meaningful smile grace her lips. "I would really like that, ve..."

Ludwig felt something faintly stir inside of him.

It had been pretty much a month since he had ended up in that magic-forsaken village, but to Ludwig had felt more like a week. He remembered how strangely excited he was the first time he had met the Muggle girl. It made him feel like he was actively rebelling against his father, and the thrill of that was something that he had never, ever experienced, since he had always followed his orders blindly, and generally followed all the school rules religiously. But now, he was doing something as big as meeting a Muggle! Finally, there was something to relieve him of the terrible boredom that had plagued his week until then. But when she showed up, he couldn't help but notice how she looked really pretty in that green dress... but It had been really awkward too, so she had started talking and laughing like someone had cast a Speakeasy Spell on her. Until three weeks ago, when she had brought a soccer ball to a meeting. Oh, how many quarrels that day! Feli had explained to a completely disinterested Ludwig the rules of soccer, but he had interrupted her and told her to imagine how bad-ass could a sport be if it was played in the air instead of the ground with four balls. And Feli had brought him straight back to Earth, because even if soccer was played on ground and with just one ball, it was goddamn hard. But he was an athlete himself, the Keeper and Captain of the glorious Hufflepuff team to be precise, so he put up a good resistance, since he could actually understand the rules and thought that soccer, maybe, was not a waste of time after all...

And now, every time they met, Feli brought him books about Muggle art (even it the pictures didn't move, they were very impressive anyway), or brought some home-made Muggle food. But Ludwig was also starting to see how many secrets he had to keep from her. He would have loved to bring something from his world for her to see, like a moving picture or a broomstick, something that would take her breath away, but he clearly couldn't. It bothered him that he could not impress her the same way she did to him, but he had no choice. Chatting with her with one thing, but revealing her about magic? It would have been something close to high treason in his father's eyes. And the law stated that there must be a very serious reason for revealing magic to Muggles without ending up in Nurmengard shortly after. But, even through his fear, he had also noticed that Feli looked exactly the same as him. It was difficult to notice because of her sunny, cheerful personality, but it was there. She was hiding something too. Probably something to do with that stupid war the Muggles had to deal with. Not that Ludwig really cared about that. It was something that really didn't bother him. If he had to be frank, the thought kind of scared him a bit, because Feli was not a witch, so that meant that she was extremely vulnerable to those "firearms" and "bombs". But Feli seemed to be getting on relatively well, and had not been wounded thus far, so why should that change now? Or at least he hoped so.

He looked up from his History of Magic homework and let his gaze rest over his calendar, where he made a note of every "appointment" he had with Feli. He frowned a bit when he saw that it was still two days till they could meet again. He sighed and went back to his homework, when his father knocked on his bedroom door.

"Ludwig? I'm coming in."

Ludwig turned around on his chair, but didn't get up. His father had already let himself in anyway.

"Hello, father. What is it?" he asked, only mildly curious.

Gerhart shrugged. "Nothing, just glad to see that you do spend some time with homework. Usually you're always out at this time, and I've been meaning to ask you where exactly you run off to."

Ludwig immediately froze. Did father know about Feli! ? Did someone tip him off? He really, really hoped not, or he would end up in a very bad situation.

He swallowed, but managed to keep his voice even as he spoke.

"Nowhere really, I just walk around the town. There's really not a lot to do here, and I can't even use magic."

His father nodded and sat down on the bed. "Look, I'm sorry that you have to spend your holidays here, but you know that we have no choice, right?"

Ludwig scoffed. Father was always saying that. "I don't have a choice." "It has to be done." "There's no other way." and so on and so forth. Oh, if only Ludwig knew exactly why his father was so troubled. It must have been a really big deal, or else him and Gilbert would have never gone to Hogwarts instead of Durmstrang, and would be allowed to send owls home, they could have seen their father, their only family, more than just three months a year...

But father never said why. And quite frankly, it made Ludwig very angry. He was sure that Gilbert knew already, but father would not tell him. It simply wasn't fair. Wasn't Ludwig the best student of the two? Didn't Ludwig become a prefect? Did father think that he was still eleven years old?

With those thoughts on his mind, he coolly answered "You always say that. But you never care to explain anything to me."

Gerhart looked up, a weary look in his eyes. "... Ludwig, please, don't start this again..."

Ludwig got suddenly very irritated. There he was again! He was not going to explain!

"I'll start it again, instead! Why don't you tell me? Do you think I'd go around and tell people? You just don't trust me enough! I'm sixteen, I'm nearly of age, you have to tell me the truth as to why, for all these years, I've had to pretend to not even know your name, and why did I have to go to school in Britain, and why we have to spend the summer in this stupid village instead of London or Berlin, and..."

"ENOUGH!"

Ludwig shut up immediately. Father almost never raised his voice.

Gerhart got up from the bed and said in a very clipped voice "You are not to know yet. When you'll be of age, I'll tell you. Until then, you have to do what I tell you to, and if it means that you get to spend your summer in the middle of nowhere, then be it. You wouldn't understand. You'll thank me for this one day."

But Ludwig was having none of that.

"I'll thank you for this! ? Are you even listening to yourself! How could I thank you for always keeping secrets, not trusting me and treating me like a child? That'll never happen!"

Gerhart didn't look impressed. He sighed wearily. "Ludwig. If you'll ever have someone that you need to protect, you'll understand. Until then, you won't. And this conversation is over."

Ludwig didn't think so. "No, it's no..."

Gerhart stood up from the bed, gave Ludwig the hardest gaze he could muster and simply walked away.

Ludwig waited until his father and gone downstairs to slam the door really hard.

Before people start raging and saying "Germany in the duffer house? Hufflepuff and not Slytherin/Ravenclaw/Gryffindor? Do you really think he's that pathetic?" I should explain you my train of thought: Hufflepuff is the house of the hard-workers. And Ludwig is one. Thus, Hufflepuff. Plus, remember that Ludwig is German. He was supposed to go to Durmastrang, so he didn't really know all the House prejudices in England, and he was quite happy to end up in HUfflepuff. And same with Berwald. He's such an hard-worker too!

Plus, before someone decides that I'm just going to butcher Harry Potter, I should say that I just bent the story a little bit to fit in Gerhart (who by the way, is Germania), but believe me, I did a huge research concerning Harry Potter timelines, enchantments, rules, laws, the whole nine yards. I tried to stay as true as possible to the story. And I think I succeeded.

Hope you'll enjoy this chapter, and if you do, drop a review!

Stay tuned!