A/N: Hey guys! Wow, it's been a month since I last updated! You must hate me by now...sorry for the wait! However, here is the next chapter, and finally, finally, you can expect updates every two weeks from now on! :D Oh, and I almost forgot about this, Britain's little secret that Prussia used to blackmail him? Well, in the final chapter you'll all find out just what it was :D! *Cue evil laugh* The action is finally picking up here!
"This mandrake draught is supposed to turn the afflicted to their truly pure form." Britain held up the bottle of white powder and shook it carefully before pouring it into the mortar he was holding. "In the case of an ordinary human petrified, they would simply become ordinary humans again. But for a Nation, it's a little more complicated." He continued on, now adding some purple herbs and grinding them. Prussia leaned against the tree and watched boredly. Both he and Britain wore black cloaks and neither seemed too perturbed they were sitting in the Forbidden Forest.
"You almost done yet? This is lame." Britain ignored him and continued grinding the ingredients in the mortar.
"Mandrake, please." Britain ordered, and Prussia dug in the bag beside him until he found a bottle of green stewed up mandrake juice.
"You sure the mandrakes aren't a little too early? Professor Sprout wasn't using them yet." Prussia questioned all while the foul liquid was added. He'd hated those stupid unawesome little beasts! They'd bitten his fingers at least 5 times while he was stealing them from the greenhouses in the dead of night, at the same time trying to avoid the poisonous plants.
"The final ingredient will negate any effects the earliness might have." The blonde poured the concoction he'd created into the bubbling cauldron beside him.
"What did you even need me to help you for? You can do all of the potion-making yourself..."Prussia grumbled irritably. Britain glared at him and pulled a long silver dagger from his pocket. The albino's jaw dropped and he sputtered "You don't have to gut me for saying that!"
"I'm not going to, you idiot. As I was saying, the mandrake draught will return the afflicted to their purest form. For a petrified Nation, that won't mean the way they were before, it'll mean a completely human, completely mortal form instead!" Prussia looked shocked.
"You mean...he'll be human? There won't be a personification for the United States? Will he just dissolve if he's not a Nation?" The whole idea was hard for the Prussian to wrap his head around.
"I don't know for sure, and I don't want to find out. So, to counter the overzealous effects of the draught, we need something that America can relate too, something that he is, as well as something that is positive and negative to balance the effects. The positive will allow the draught to return him to his original non-petrified state, and the negative will stop it from turning him to his completely pure form-an ordinary human."
"So...what is it?" Prussia was now officially lost. Britain smiled grimly and drew the dagger quickly across his own hand, slicing it. Prussia gasped as Britain allowed his blood to ooze from the wound into the bubbling mandrake draught. Britain stared back at him, an odd look in his eye, one that unnerved Prussia even though he would never admit it.
"Our blood." Britain announced. He handed the dagger to Prussia who stared at it uncertainly. "Our blood is the blood of Nations, the same blood that runs in America's veins. He relates to Nations as he is a Nation himself. But our blood-." Britain had a mix of emotions cross his face now, anger, sadness, nostalgia, before settling back on serious.
"Our blood has been shed in a positive sense for America-as allies of America, alongside him as friends, just as he shed his own. But our blood has also been shed in a negative sense for America-he made us bleed when we were his enemies, just as we made him bleed."
"One Nation's blood wouldn't have been enough for the restorative, but the Nations that did give blood had to have been both his allies and enemies at some point. That's why I asked you, Prussia. This is the only way to bring him back." Prussia stared for a moment, then sliced the blade across his skin, dripping red droplets into the cauldron.
Hermione put her head down on the table, in frustration. She still clutched the odd photo in her hand. They both looked just like Alfred and the man who'd been at Diagon Alley with him! Of course Alfred was only 11, but this man in the photo looked just like him-only older. She guessed the man who had visited Hagrid, and who had been at Diagon Alley, to be Alfred's older brother. But that just added to the oddities that didn't seem to quite add up when it came to the foreign exchange students. Alfred was a muggleborn American, while his older brother-Arthur,( that was his name!) was an Englishman who'd obviously been in the wizarding world a long time. Was it possible he was muggleborn like Alfred? Yes, but he gave the air that he wasn't.
Hermione still wondered how exactly they were related, although it was entirely possible they could be half-brothers, or stepbrothers, or even adopted ones! But it would be quite the coincidence that these two would be the spitting image descendants-brothers in fact, of the two muggle soldiers in this picture who seemed to know each other quite well. But that was the only logical explanation she could think of. That was the only way they could look that much like the soldiers, unless they were the soldiers themselves, which was preposterous.
But then again, Arthur had been at Hogwarts with Hagrid in 1940, which meant this soldier in the picture couldn't possibly be his ancestor in anyway. Hermione shook as she realized that. That meant...Arthur was the soldier himself! If the soldier was his father or something, Arthur would've been a very young child at the most, meaning he wouldn't be at Hogwarts at the time he claimed. Either that or he lied about it(which wasn't likely because Hagrid knew him as a fellow student in 1940). But the thing that was most overlooked was that if Arthur was a 16-year-old in 1940, then he should've aged much more than he had. He looked the same way he did in the wartime photo! Even if Arthur was aging slowly by magic, like many wizards, the aging process could only slow so much! With the aid of magic, at youngest he would look 40 years old, even though almost 50 years had passed and he should be in his 60's! Arthur only looked a little older than 20, which should be completely impossible! Hagrid must've overlooked this because Arthur was his friend and didn't ever think to ask about it.
The bottom line was that no human wizard, even with the aid of anti-aging magic could look so young after 50 years had passed. Even the Philosopher's Stone didn't stop aging that way, it only gave eternal life, not youth! So Arthur couldn't be an ordinary wizard...maybe he dabbled in the Dark Arts of unheard methods of anti-aging. Or maybe he was something else entirely. Hermione didn't know at this point what Alfred's brother could be, but she knew it wasn't human! And from this thought, another mad idea struck her.
If Arthur wasn't an ordinary wizard, then maybe Alfred wasn't. Maybe the other soldier in the picture was Alfred. Maybe none of the foreign exchange students were ordinary wizards! But if they weren't, what were they!? Her hands shook. No, no, she had to think on what she knew. Maybe something they had said would give her a clue as to what they were. Hermione thought carefully through all the conversations with them she could recall, but suddenly one thing popped out at her. Iggy. Alfred's nickname for Arthur. Maybe it meant something. Maybe it was some kind of code for a Dark magic or something!
It was obviously shortened for something, a word perhaps, but none she could think of in the English language. Was it some kind of American slang? Maybe it was a word Alfred picked up from a country America was close too, or allied with. Another idea sparked off in her head. One of the countries the foreign exchange students were from. Italy, Germany, Hungary, Austria, or...Japan. America was known to usually get along with Japan. So...Hermione grabbed a Japanese-English dictionary from one of the library shelves and began to pour over the pages, looking for any word that started with 'Ig'.When she found them, none seemed to click or make sense. But then...
She froze when she saw it. Igirisu. Hermione's finger traced the translation next to it. Britain/United Kingdom.
"Where am I? Everything is so dark..."Germany looked around, but it was like he'd landed in some sort of dark abyss. Nothing was in sight except pitch-black darkness. Germany realized, with a bit of delayed surprise, that he was an adult once more. How was that possible? He had just been at Hogwarts...hadn't he?
"Germany..."
"Who's there!?" Germany whirled around, eyes scanning for the source of the voice.
"G-Germany...help us..." the voice was weak, but now it sounded like several voices overlapping. Hair stood up on the back of Germany's neck.
"What sort of game is this!?" He called out again, this time angry.
"GERMANY! HELP US!" That one voice he recognized!
"ITALY! WHERE ARE YOU!?" Panic rose in the Nation's chest. Was Italy okay!? Had someone taken him? Was he hurt!?
"Right here Germany.~" A sweet voice said. Relief flooded him. Sighing he turned around. Only to bite back a scream. There was Italy, still in the form of a child...and several muggleborn students of Hogwarts. All of them were bleeding from soulless, black eyes, staring at him blankly.
Italy smiled cheerily at him, a chilling display combined with bloody lips and bleeding obsidian eyes.
"You didn't save us. Why...didn't you save us? It's because we're not perfect, right?" Germany shivered and looked down, unable to stand keeping eye contact, but then let out a scream. H-he was wearing...he was wearing that old uniform.
"N-nein! I'm sorry, I wanted to save you, I don't want something like this! Is there anything I can do!?" Germany gripped his head and looked up at the lost students, begging for an answer, begging them to tell him how to help them.
"You didn't save us...you can't save us...All well...NOW YOU'LL DIE!" They all spoke as one, and surged forward, coming for him!
"NEIN! I'M SORRY!" Germany came up in a sitting position, his skin chilled with cold sweat. He took several shuddery gasps for breath, and looked wildly around. The Nation breathed a sigh of relief as he realized he was in his bed at Hogwarts. He was still in the form of an 11-year-old...He looked to his side. And Italy was all right, sleeping next to him. Germany put his head in his hands. "What an awful dream..."
...
"Wait a minute! Feliciano!?" Germany roughly shook his ally. Italy blinked and stared up at him.
"~Ve, is it morning, Lud?" He asked sleepily.
"No! What are you doing here!?" Germany wanted to scream, but his common sense won out and he did his best in whispering. By some miracle he hadn't woken the other Slytherins with his cry from that nightmare, but he didn't want to take any more chances.
"Romano wasn't back from following Harry yet, and after what we saw in the Room of Requirement I was too afraid to sleep alone." Italy admitted.
"...How did you even get in here?"
Italy didn't reply, but instead shook his head sadly, still unsettled from the events of earlier that day. The door suddenly cracked open to the room, and Germany quickly pulled his covers up over Italy, hiding him. Heart pounding, he readied to launch himself at the intruder if need be. A quiet voice came.
"Ludwig-san, I'm back." Germany's nerves relaxed and he quickly followed Japan out the door into the commons, dragging Italy with him.
"Kiku, what did you find out?" He asked quietly, his face illuminated by the green flame of a candle Japan had placed on the desk.
"Hagrid-san is not the Heir of Slytherin. Also, the monster that is the monster of Slytherin makes spiders flee before it. Harry Potter and his friends have agreed to share any information about the Heir of Slytherin or the monster they discover with us. We will do the same for them."
"What? Harry was out talking to Hagrid too?" Italy asked at the same time Germany whisper-shouted,
"What!? You told him about us investigating!? We did that so he wouldn't have to, and so he'd stay out of trouble!" Japan held his hands up in a peace-making gesture.
"I'm sorry Ludwig-san, but we need all the help we can get so we can solve this mystery faster. The longer this beast runs wild, the more chance a muggle-born will be killed. Apparently, Harry learned of your screaming the other night Feliciano-kun. That's how he knew Hagrid might know something about the Heir."
"Feliciano..." Germany growled at the trembling Italy.
"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to! It was in the heat of the moment, and I was freaking out!" Italy shook his head frantically.
"Please tell me what you and Hungary-san learned." Germany grimaced and placed a hand on his forehead.
"Not much...when we went to the Room of Requirement, there was something...something inside." Germany had never seen something disturbing like that, and his heart beat wildly at the memory of it.
"Inferi. Zombies. Lots of them." Italy supplied, now really shaking like a leaf. Japan raised his eyebrows in shock.
"But the ghosts said once Sir Nicholas is revived, we have to gather all 4 of the House Ghosts in the Room of Requirement to learn the complete message the Four Founders left behind." Germany paused his face taking on a haggard expression as he continued on. "Of course, even with all the ghosts gathered, we can't use the Room of Requirement if those damned creatures are in there."
"Someone put the inferi in there to make it harder to receive the message. Probably the same one who commands whatever monster that petrified Alfred-san." Kiku tilted his head in thought. The silence that followed signaled that all of them were still baffled by this whole mystery.
"I'VE GOT IT!" Hungary came running in, looking incredibly thrilled. Austria looked up from the Ravenclaw table and quickly followed after her towards Germany and Japan.
The Great Hall was bustling at the lunch hour, so few noticed the Gryffindor girl rushing to the Slytherin table. She nearly tripped in her excitement. By now, Italy and Romano had joined them, and saw that she was clutching a page from a book. "I know what Slytherin's monster is!" She told them in a hushed voice. Japan held up a hand, making her stop before she could explain. He remembered his promise to Harry and quickly gestured for him, Ron and Hermione to come over. Germany grabbed his arm and a message passed between them in a heated glare, something like:
We need to keep them out of this.
I gave them my word.
But we should handle this ourselves.
Harry deserves to know, this is his school. We're telling him.
But-
We're telling him.
They broke off angrily, as the trio joined them. Hermione was giving them a very strange look, and Germany wondered what that was about.
"I know what Slytherin's monster is." Hungary said with bated breath. "After what we saw,I began looking up a way to defeat those...those creatures in the Room." She frowned, careful not to mention any specific details to the trio, who watched her curiously. Throwing a frying pan point blank in one of the monster's face and then slamming the door shut was all she could do last time. It was downright embarrassing she hadn't been able to do anything, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because it directed her to this very research.
"It was all I could think of, but I came across something even better. Listen to this: The Basilisk, also known as the King of Serpents is famed for its large size, and venomous fangs, but above all its murderous stare. Anyone who makes direct eye contact with the Basilisk will suffer instant death. Spiders flee before it, for it is their mortal enemy!" Hungary finished reading from the page with relish, looking triumphant over her discovery.
Hermione gasped aloud. "You're right Elizaveta! Harry-the other day you said you heard a voice in the walls, the Basilisk is a snake, since you're a parselmouth that's who you heard! It must be using the plumbing to move around the castle!" Her face was flushed with success at the discovery of the monster's identity. Romano suddenly scowled however.
"But wait a minute, how is it that no one's dead if they stared the Basilisk in the face?"
Austria suddenly caught on as well. "Because no one did! Mrs. Norris saw its reflection in the water on the floor! Colin Creevey saw it through his camera, and Alfred," Did see its eyes directly and died but revived in a petrified state because he's a Nation. "must've seen it through Sir Nicholas! Sir Nicholas is already dead, so even though he got full blast of it, he can't die again and was merely petrified."
Ginny rushed around the Great Hall, wondering where Harry and Ron were. She had to tell them! She had to tell them about her diary before-! Suddenly, her eyes lost focus, and her mind went into a dreamy state. Sorry, Ginny. I can't have you spoiling things for me, now can I? Go get your little friend like I told you to earlier. You should've left the diary with him like I said. But now you can make up for it. These thoughts of another rang through her mind as commands, commands she couldn't disobey.
"Feliciano?" Italy was surprised to see his friend. The rest of the group watched her curiously, but had wisely shut up so she wouldn't overhear their revelations. Ginny had a cheerful, if mischievous smile across her face. "Come on! I have a secret I have to tell you! It's really funny!"
"Uh, Ginny right now we're in the middle of something important so maybe-" Italy looked a little distressed.
"Go on Fratellino, don't keep a girl waiting, whatever you miss, I'll tell you later!" Romano snapped, so Italy feebly nodded and followed Ginny.
"Ginny, what is it? I think we're not supposed to leave the Great Hall unless we have permission...Ginny?" They were deep into the hallways of Hogwarts, and suddenly Italy felt his heart drop as he realized just where they were. The message left by the Heir of Slytherin still gleamed a sinister red along the wall. He shivered.
"Ginny, I don't think we should-"
"Shut. Up." The red-head hissed. Italy froze, suddenly afraid although he didn't know why.
"G-Ginny?" She whirled, her wand pointed in his face.
"Imperio."
"All right...this should do the job." The Hospital Wing was silent, only occupied by the petrified students. Them, and two particular Nations, still dressed in black hooded robes. Britain pulled a small vial from his black robe's pocket and glanced at Prussia, who was watching pensively. Before them, in a bed, lay the petrified 11-year-old America. Seeing him like this again made Britain's heart twist, it reminded him too much of them times during America's colony days when he was hurt by the Seven-Years war. Carefully, he pulled the stopper from the vial, and poured the foul green liquid right into America's sky-blue eyes.
They held their breath, and waited. America's skin suddenly became less waxy and more colorful, his limbs relaxed, and suddenly he gave a sputtered cough. He gasped and hauled himself up to a sitting position, taking in slow even breaths. "-the hell?" He croaked weakly.
Britain was utterly thrilled. Jubilation shot through him and sweet relief too. He felt like breaking out in an old jig his brothers taught him, and the Nation's hands were shaking from excitement. "America!" Britain couldn't help it, he cried the boy's name with sheer happiness. His younger brother blinked for a moment and stared at him with slowly blinking eyes.
"H-how do you feel?" Britain asked shakily, now trying to contain himself a bit better.
America wanted to say 'terrific', but instead opted for the truth. He said the first things that popped into his head as usual. "Like I got run over and then splattered across a wall." He paused for a beat, staring at Britain. "Why are you dressed like a giant bat?"
In the hallway where the Heir of Slytherin had first struck, two young students had vanished. A new message had appeared on the wall, below the second one.
Their skeletons will lie in the Chamber forever.
A/N: That's it for this chapter everybody! Please feel free to leave a review! Thanks for reading! :D