Hey…

Here's your chapter. Better late than never, right?

I don't own Hetalia.

Chapter 7

Half Right, Half Wrong

Gilbert must have the worst luck with curses in the world, or the best, because so many have been put on him since so many have broken.

However, this one was temporary and Gilbert would never find out it was a curse.

.

Ludwig woke up at five fifteen, and was immediately struck by the lack of activity from the room to his left: Gilbert's room. Usually, if Gilbert wasn't awake by five, he was sick, and so Ludwig took care in being quiet as he entered his brother's room.

Sure enough, Gilbert was asleep, looking feverish and sweaty. Ludwig waited patiently for his brother to wake for a minute, then decided Gilbert looked a little green and got a bucket in case Gil threw up.

The Prussian boy woke at six, by which time Ludwig had done most of his project-work he was supposed to do today, and coughed. Ludwig wordlessly handed him the bucket and Gilbert promptly threw up.

"I'll go to school today to get your homework," Lud offered.

"That'd be great," Gilbert choked out, before throwing up again. "Oh, yuk," he complained.

"But I have to clean this up!" Lud joked.

"Oh, don't start. You know I-" retch "get sick less than you."

"Your immune system must be the product of all those fights you lost as a child, so you got dirt in all your wounds."

"I never lost a fight! Well, except to that psycho Hungarian with the frying pan. Him, I lost to once."

Their banter had kept Gilbert's mind off the fact that Ludwig was going to go get his homework, but as a lull in the conversation started, he remembered something important.

"I have to see Vlad today!"

"Who?"

"The vampire dude, the Romanian, the only other red-eyed and pale-skinned person in the school?"

"Oh, Vlad," Ludwig nodded in recognition.

"Right. You have to find him sometime before lunch-"

"I'm getting our homework and leaving anyway-"

"I wasn't finished. I was supposed to meet him at lunch. Tell him I'm sick and throwing up, and tell him I'll be there in a couple'a days when I get better. Hopefully this is only a 24 hour flu or something."

The last sentence was mostly talking to himself.

"I didn't know you hung out with Vlad."

"I didn't, until yesterday."

"What changed?" Ludwig asked, but Gilbert stuttered out an answer about just meeting and finding things in common. "Hey, Lud, you wanted me to make more friends."

"Hmm."

Ludwig left a short time later, after writing himself a note and signing it from Opa. Opa allowed the two boys to forge his signature on sick notes as he was often not present when they awoke.

Ludwig returned soon from school. "Your history teacher assigned a project today," he announced, plopping a small folder of papers on Gilbert's desk.

"That's nice. What did Vlad say?" Gilbert asked, sitting up on his bed with a laptop on his lap.

"He mentioned that he would continue to see if you came to school. He said he's looking forward to working with you. What project are you doing?"

"An experiment, if you will." Gilbert smirked, trying to remember what he was quoting.*

Ludwig sighed, knowing he would not get a straight answer out of his older brother.

.

Two days later, Gilbert felt well enough to go to school, so he did. Vlad was there, and at lunch to two sat at Gilbert's table.

"I got the spell!" Vlad cried excitedly.

"Great! Can you do it on me right now?"

"Yeah. Wait a minute..." Vlad rummaged in his bag. "Here."

The Romanian boy pulled out a thin stick of wood. He brandished it at Gilbert, who stood still.

Vlad began chanting under his breath, twirling the wand. When he was finished, Gilbert stumbled and crashed to the ground...

.

"Oof!" Gilbert squeaked. He put his hand to his head. "Wow, sudden vertigo. Imagine if all your memories randomly swapped themselves out."

Vlad eyed him curiously. "What changed?"

"It turns out, François and Antonio used to be my besties, and their names were Francine and Cheyenne. Cheyenne was dating Lovino and Francine was dating Arthur."

"But Arthur hates Fran... Francine!"

"Yeah, well. Anyway, you hung out with that Norwegian kid a lot."

"Lukas hates my guts."

"I know, everyone's relationships were changed."

"Oh, that's weird. Okay, I need you to hold this-"

Gilbert gingerly took the wand.

"Point it at me-"

Gilbert did so.

"Now say, 'Repetum Incantare.' Say it."

"Repetum Incantare," Gilbert repeated firmly.

Vlad too grew dizzy and quickly sat down at the table. "Thanks. Wow, that's really weird!" he commented, grabbing his wand and putting it away.

"Told ya," Gilbert laughed, assuming he had just performed the memory spell on Vladimir.

"So, I can't cancel the curse. But do you who can?"

"Arthur?" Gilbert guessed.

"How- oh. Your best friend's boyfriend. Hey wait, yesterday you said Matthew took a curse off you..."

"Nah. It was Mattie, Arthur, and Lovino combined."

"Yeah. That makes more sense. Anyway, Arthur's good with curses, so we need to get him his memory back."

"So we just wave the wand at him and say the spell..."

"Ahh, nope. You see, it's easier said than done. Every magic user puts up wards, and Arthur's are strong. Really strong."

"Best child at magic in the country..." whispered Gilbert, remembering what Matthew had once said.

"How'd you know- gah, I keep forgetting you were his friend. The magic is fighting back!"

"That's not good..."

"No, it isn't."

"How do we fix it?"

"Well, I'd say go and search out the one casting the magic, but... judging by the strength of the spell, I'll need someone else's help. Preferably Arthur's as that's his forte."

"And back to Arthur. All right. I got this. All I have to do is get Francine involved."

Vladimir paused, shook his head, and asked, "Who is Francine?"

"François is actually a girl, remember?"

"Is he... sorry, she... cross dressing?"

"No. Forget it."

"Why? What were you talking about?"

"Hey, I have a question," Gilbert stated suddenly. "Can you see your own aura? 'Cuz if you have magic on you, then the aura is bicolor, right?"

Vladimir looked shocked, and slowly stood up and backed away. "Who told you about auras? Is this a trap? Why am I even over here?"

"I give up," Gilbert sighed.

End of chapter

*If you guys can figure this one out, review with the answer. Winner gets an imaginary cookie and a shoutout!

~Em