Hello once again!
Sorry to leave you on a bit of a cliff hanger at the end of the last chapter. This took me a little longer than expected.
Firstly a quick shout out to judaiandjohan, alfrediscri, 95Jezzica, 300PASTA, SwordMasterZ, MoonKishi and Guest (you know who you are – I don't though). Thank you so much for your reviews last chapter. I love writing, but seeing your reviews and feedback on my last chapter made me so happy, I love hearing what you have to say about it.
And thank you to UNseated4TH who not only reviewed, but edited this chapter (at the small price of a McDonalds snack wrap). Hopefully we got all the mistakes, but if there are still some, I come back and fix them later.
Also, just a quick note to my American readers. I use British spelling, not American spelling when writing. So if you see a word that you think is spelt incorrectly, this may be why. If not, then it could have been spelt wrong, mistakes do happen after all ;D
And without any more from me, please enjoy the chapter.
Hogwarts Express
4:30pm
Kiku's POV
"I'm leaving."
Kiku grimaced as the door came free from its supports and the American nation stormed off.
"What do you mean you're leaving?!" Arthur demanded. Climbing over the broken doorway he could be heard calling after Alfred. "You can't just go, we're on a speeding train and it's storming outside – get back here you bloody wanker!"
Looks as though they have both forgotten the part about not drawing attention to ourselves, Kiku thought, shaking his head as he noticed the startled expressions the other students in the compartment were wearing.
"I must apologise for my friends' behaviour," Kiku began in an attempt to somehow make up for what had just transpired. Ron, Harry and Hermione turned their attention from the broken doorway to Kiku who found himself stammering, trying to come up with a plausible excuse. "Eto... we have been very busy over the past few weeks, with our move to England. I feel as though that is largely behind what you have just witness," Kiku inwardly cringed at how weak the explanation sounded.
"I've never moved overseas before," said Hermione, giving Kiku an assuring smile. "But I did move around England a few times when I was young. It can be pretty stressful."
"Thanks," Kiku returned the smile before turning to the broken door. "I think I had better go and make sure they are alright though."
"Sure thing man," nodded Ron.
"Guess we'll see you when you get back," said Harry.
Jumping over the door, Kiku headed in the direction he had seen Alfred, then Arthur go. They were no longer in sight.
But this is a train, I will have to find them eventually,he reasoned as he began walking at a fast pace down the corridor, checking the compartment windows as he went.
Kiku had nearly reached the end of the train without finding any sign of his fellow nations, when he heard his name being called from behind. Looking around he saw Francis stepping out from a door labelled; 'Storage, employees only'.
"Francis, have you seen Alfred and Arthur?"
"Oui, they are just in here," he gestured to the compartment behind him with a nod of his head. "I heard those two passing ze compartment I was in. So did everyone else for that matter. So much for keeping a low profile – though they do look pretty funny when they fight, especially now that they look so young. Would you not agree Kiku?"
Kiku simply rolled his eyes in response. Ducking under Francis' arm, Kiku entered the storage compartment. There he found Alfred and Arthur, standing about a meter apart from each other, clearly in the middle of a heated argument.
"Seriously, what were you thinking!?" Arthur was asking, anger clear on his face.
Kiku blinked in surprise for a moment. It was in Japanese, meaning that this was an argument that was not meant to be understood by fellow passengers.
"That should be pretty damn obvious!" Alfred retaliated. "A whole year without technology while being surrounded by a bunch of magicist assholes!? Maybe I could put up with it if I could use my games, but now I find out technology won't even work there! What a joke! It's like hopping into a time machine and going back to the dark ages, but without the awesomeness of actually travelling through time."
"Alfred-san," Kiku said, stepping forward and into the argument. "I understand why you're unhappy. However, considering our mission, as well as the school work that we will be required to complete to progress at the correct level, you are not going to have time for technology anyway."
"An excellent point," Arthur agreed. Continuing quickly he added; "And I think you're being unfair to most of the children we've met today, calling all of them 'assholes'. Harry and his friends seem like nice kids. I for one thought it was great that we were able to sit with them. I mean, what were the chances of that?"
"Oui," Francis (to Kiku's surprise) agreed with Arthur. "You did not seem to have a problem with them when I left."
"Ok fine," Alfred conceded. "The kids that we met first aren't assholes. But I'll bet you they still think they're better than Muggles," looking at Arthur, Alfred continued more seriously; "We've been through this before Arthur. You know why I hate this stuff."
Kiku noted an odd expression that briefly passed Arthur's face at this statement and wondered if there was more to Alfred's current disdain than just the continual one sided prejudice of wizards to Muggles.
"That doesn't give you the excuse to attack a student!"
"The little shit had it coming!"
"You attacked a student?" Francis asked with a hint of a smirk.
"Almost," Kiku contributed. "Arthur stepped in."
"And a good thing too," Arthur continued. "Alfred, do you realise how much force you were putting into that punch?"
Alfred shrugged. "Nope."
Arthur lifted his hand, instead of its usual pinkish colouring, the hand was a mixture of black, blues and purples. "Well I can tell you it was enough to break several of the bones in my hand. You really must learn to control yourself Alfred, I don't even want to think about what would have happened if I hadn't intervened – the immediate failure of our mission would have been the least of our problems."
There was a moment's pause.
"I'm sorry," Alfred said, looking down at his feet.
"Look, don't worry about it. None of the students were hurt and I'm a nation, in another ten minutes this hand will be as good as new."
"No, not just about that," Alfred sighed. "That Malfoy kid got me at a bad moment, and even though he did deserve it, I shouldn't have tried to punch him."
"Thank you Alfred, now –"
"Next time I'll just kick him instead." Alfred stated cheerfully.
"Alfred," Arthur groaned.
"But seriously," Alfred continued before Arthur could reproach him. "I know this mission is important to you – and I guess to all of us if it means preventing another war – I shouldn't have let my feelings put the mission in danger. I'll try to be more careful from now."
"So you're staying then?"
"Hmmmm, yeah ok," Alfred said, scratching the back of his head. "I mean, I guess I am over 400 years old. What's one year?"
"That's great Alfred-san," Kiku smiled.
"Oui, it is good, because if he left, I would have gone too."
Arthur glared at Francis before turning back to Alfred. "I know this isn't easy for you, so thank you." Addressing the others Arthur continued; "Now that that has been settled, I just want to go over tonight. This is probably the last chance we'll have to speak in private before we get sorted, so I just want to remind you how important it is that the Sorting Hat places us all in Gryffindor. It should really go without saying that it'll make our task that much easier if we're in the same house as Harry." Having covered what he felt was important, Arthur turned and headed toward the door.
"Now, how about we go back to our compartment before we actually arrive at the school?"
With that, Kiku, Francis and Alfred followed Arthur out the door. Alfred paused at the exit, feeling the familiar console in his pocket. "It still sucks I can't play any of my games this year."
Ron's POV
The sky outside had turned from a dark grey, to black as night approached. Ron watched the rain continue to lash at the window and wondered briefly how there could possibly be that much water floating up there in the sky.
He was just about to question this when a magical voice resounded throughout the train's compartments, informing the students that they would be arriving at Hogsmead in about half an hour.
"Do you think they'll be coming back? We'll be arriving soon, maybe we should help them with their trunks," Hermione said, concern showing on her face.
"I guess they'll have to come back for those," said Harry as he pulled his own trunk out of the storage area. "That Alfred guy seemed pretty pissed off when he left though."
"Malfoy was pretty nasty to him," Hermione reasoned.
"Did you see the way he nearly flattened that git?" Ron said as he also collected his trunk. "Too bad that other transfer student stopped him."
"His name is Arthur," said Hermione matter of factly. "And it's a good thing he did stop Alfred. He would have been in big trouble before he even arrived at the school otherwise."
"Still would have been fun to see…. Bloody hell, this thing is heavy," Ron was trying to pull Alfred's trunk off the luggage rack. Abandoning attempts to lift it himself, Ron levitated the trunk to the ground.
"Hopefully they'll be back then to move them off the train," said Harry as he helped Ron move the rest of the trunks to the door.
It was not until the train was actually beginning to slow down that the transfer students finally returned.
"Hey, sorry about all that, it's just umm..." Alfred said a little awkwardly upon entering the compartment.
"It was Malfoy – trust me, we've all wanted to punch him at some point. Don't worry about it," Harry interrupted the awkward apology.
"Hermione actually did punch him a few months back," added Ron, a hint of pride in his voice.
"Nice," said Alfred, any remaining awkwardness instantly vanishing.
Hermione smiled a little bashfully before stating. "We'll be arriving soon. Let's start going now so we're not stuck at the back of the line." Addressing the nations she added; "We already brought your trunks down for you since we weren't sure when you'd be back."
"Thanks," Alfred said.
Ron's eyes widened in surprise as seemingly without aid of a spell, the American bent down and lifted the heavy trunk, proceeding to position it under his arm with ease. Before he could comment on this unusual display of strength however, a train horn sounded and the driver's voice was heard throughout the compartments announcing that they had finally arrived at their destination.
"Come on," said Harry, turning to the new students. "We'll show you where to go."
Hogwarts
Arthur's POV
Arthur squeezed a little more water from his robes in an attempt to make them at least a little dryer than their current dripping wet state. The obligatory trip that all new students, including those transferring to the school had to make across the lake had not been a pleasant one. Arthur strained to remember the last time he had been forced to be not only outside, but on water in such weather. It had happened often enough during his pirating days, but since then he had tried to avoid such weather. Something in the back of his mind told him that the last time had probably been during the Second World War. Whatever the case, he was glad to put the experience of crossing the lake behind him. At least my hand's back to normal, he thought as he finished squeezing water from his robes.
Satisfied that he was no longer dripping, Arthur took in the surrounding room that he and his fellow nations, as well as the first years found themselves in. It was a large, ornately decorated lobby of sorts, extending from the entrance hall. On the wall were large paintings, the subjects of which were all smiling and welcoming the new students. Arthur smiled at the look of awe that some of his young citizens – probably Muggle-borns – wore as they met and even spoke with some of the enchanted illustrations. Looking at the portrait of a knight speaking with a pair of first years, Arthur couldn't help but recall a time when it was not uncommon to see knights dressed in similar attire – from both his Muggle and wizarding populations all across his country.
"Feeling nostalgic?" Francis questioned, nodding towards the portrait, who by now had gathered more students as it began recounting some epic tale.
"What?" Arthur asked, jolting back to the present. "Yeah, I guess I am," he took another look around the room, from the marble floor to the glistening lamps above them. Quickly making sure no one was within ear shot, he added; "It's strange. It's been centuries since I was last here, and yet, while it does of course feel quite different, it also feels the same way it always has."
Francis nodded his head. "Oui, I haven't been here since ze last tournament and there are still children here."
"You know that's not what I was referring to."
"Francis-san, Arthur-san," said Kiku who, along with Alfred, had joined the pair. "I do not think that this is the time or place for such a conversation." Switching to Japanese he added: "Especially if you're going to be speaking about how long you have been alive for in front of the students."
"Yeah Iggy – with all that talk about keeping everything a secret, I didn't think you'd just blurt stuff out."
"I wasn't blurting anything out thank you very much. We were speaking quietly and no one was listening before you came butting in."
Alfred simply smirked in response.
"And you can wipe that stupid look off your face."
To his surprise the smirk did slip off Alfred's face and for a brief moment he thought that the American was actually complying with what he had asked. That was before an uncomfortable – almost scared expression crossed his former colony's face. "You didn't say there'd be any of those here," he said in strained voice, looking at something behind Arthur.
Turning around, Arthur saw the transparent figures that were appearing out of the wall at the back of the room. Most wizards, if asked, would swear that ghosts had always been a permanent fixture within the school, and that without ghosts, Hogwarts simply would not be Hogwarts. Arthur however could clearly remember a time before the ghosts resided at the school, whether they had simply not existed as ghosts at the time the school opened (which was the case for most individuals), or that they had moved into the castle from different locations varied from ghost to ghost.
Actually, thought Arthur. To say that there were no ghostly figures here at the time the school opened is not quite correct. At this school there has always been—
"Peeves!" said one of the ghosts as they glided across the room. "How many centuries am I going to have to repeat myself? That poltergeist has to go."
"What has he done this time?" asked the ghost of a sulky looking school girl.
"He's attacking the students with water bombs. The school year has not even officially begun and already he's being a menace."
"You know perfectly well what happened last time anyone tried to force him out, a few water bombs aren't worth the trouble, I for one don't want a repeat of 1876."
"That was a disaster, it took three days before things finally got back to normal," a Renaissance era ghost agreed. "That still doesn't make it OK though. Mark my words, the Bloody Barron will be hearing of this."
"New students!" said a rather fat ghost as he finally noticed the room full of children. "About to be sor—"
"Oh, don't pretend that it's just a coincidence that we all came through this room complaining about Peeves just as the new students arrive. I know you do this every year – you were doing it back when I was in first year," said the sulky school girl ghost from near the back of their group.
Arthur smiled a little as the older ghost became flustered, trying to deny the fact. It must have been close to three hundred years since he had last been to the school, but he seemed to recall hearing of the resident ghosts 'happening' upon the first year students' back then as well. It must have turned into tradition at some point. Turning to tell the others this, he noticed that Alfred was no longer with them. Looking around he spotted the American nation on the opposite side of the room, taking more than the usual amount of interest in a large decorative vase.
"I didn't know you were so interested in art," Francis commented as he, Kiku and Arthur joined Alfred. "You've never shown any interest when you visit my country."
"I think the problem is Alfred's fear of ghosts," contributed Kiku before Alfred could respond.
"Kiku!" complained Alfred as Francis and Arthur snickered. "I'm the Hero. I ain't afraid of no ghosts!"
"Your reactions to those paranormal movies we saw last week would suggest otherwise."
"I am not afraid of them," Alfred maintained. "I just don't like them. Like the way they can just move through walls without warning. What if you're sitting on the toilet and one pops in?"
"Well—"
"That was rhetorical Francis!"
"Actually Alfred-san, for the most part ghosts are not the spiritual monsters that Hollywood makes them out to be. Most of the ones I've met are quite friendly."
"Most?"
"That aside Alfred," Arthur commented. "Surly you know enough about ghosts to know that they often dwell in old structures. How could you find it surprising that there'd be some at Hogwarts? It's a millennia old castle for crying out loud. Of course there'd be ghosts here!"
"You wouldn't get this problem at a games arcade."
Before Arthur could respond, the doors to the room opened revealing the woman who had previously introduced herself as Professor McGonagall.
"We are ready to begin the Sorting Ceremony," she announced to the students. "First years, please form a line behind me and the transfer students please bring up the rear. Quickly now. Good. Follow me."
Arthur took his place at the back of the line. Here we go, our first night. The others better remember the plan.
Done! Another chapter done and dusted. This chapter marks the last one that was (partially) written when I lived in Japan. That was all the way back in July! The reason it took so long to get this thing to you guys is I originally wrote the two chapters as one, but upon finishing it a few days ago I realised it came to a little over 9000 words. I don't want my chapters being longer than about 7500 words, so I decided to split it in two (with next chapter being about double the length of this one). The next one will be out before the end of the year. I just want to edit first. I also want to clean up the editing for the chapters that I've already published, so I'll be doing that before publishing the next chapter too.
So as some of you may have guessed by my new profile picture, I am a One Piece fan. Was anyone able to pick up on the One Piece reference? I'll let you know what it is at the beginning of the next chapter, but I am interested in seeing whether or not anyone picked up on it.
The Ghost Busters reference is probably pretty easy to spot
Next time
The nations are finally sorted. Arthur has made it clear that they are to all get into Gryffindor, but since when does anything actually go according to plan?
Update 1st July 2018
Back again with another edit. In addition to the usual grammar fix-ups, I've now changed the way that the Japanese language looks when written. Originally I did nothing with the text to indicate that the characters had switched to Japanese, however one reviewer mentioned that this made it a little confusing. For this reason I now show Japanese being spoken using italics. While this does make it quite similar to the POV characters' inner thoughts, remember that inner thoughts do not include quotation marks, while Japanese does. For example:
"Hello" = a character saying 'hello' out loud in Japanese.
Hello = a character thinking 'hello'.
What I like about showing Japanese in this way is that I can also show whether or not the characters are switching between the two languages (which my bilingual friends do quite often). For example in this chapter, I purposely did not use italics when Alfred says "I'm sorry" because he is actually saying this part in English. I felt that Alfred would better show that he is genuinely sorry about what happened if he switches back to his native language when apologizing (I've been in this position myself, and that's how I felt).
The use of italics for Japanese also make it easier to see when they switch to the language while they are waiting to go into the Great Hall in the final part of the chapter.
Once again, I thank my reviewer Rowena Matthew Jones for making this suggestion. I don't know who you are (or even if you'll still be around after such a long hiatus), but I thought it was such a great suggestion, that I made sure to re-edit my story to incorporate it. As a teacher, I love constructive criticism, as it helps people to improve – so thanks again for your review.
And to my other readers, hope to see you review – just like with Rowena Matthew Jones , if I like your suggestions enough, you may see your suggestion become part of my story