!MERRY CHRISTMAS!
I wanted to get this chapter out today because it's Christmas, so why not? I hope you all enjoy it and consider it my Christmas present to you.
Before I begin I want to thank Ryan, LaserKittenLucy, AnimeLover, Guest, RowenaMatthewJones, Speerut, 300Pasta and UNSeated4th for all your reviews. I think you guys are fantastic, your feedback always makes me so happy.
300Pasta – it was good to hear your speculation, I hope you enjoy finding out what happens.
Speerut – I liked your comment about one of the ghosts recognising Arthur. It will probably happen eventually, I'm still working it out at the moment.
Guest – To answer your question – Yes I was a teacher at an international school in Japan. I was there for a year and a half and it was amazing, I strongly recommend it. Secondly, you're a missionary? That's cool, my friends have a church in Tokyo, I went there often, I loved it. Also you like One Piece – we have a lot of things in common then :) . Finally (Because I know this is getting a little long). The countries I have visited include America when I was 6, Thailand (14), Fiji (20) and Japan (22, 24-25 (update & 27). Hopefully I'll be able to visit more countries in the future.
RowenaMatthewJones – I love your suggestion about having Japanese spoken in Italics. It took me a while, but I've finally gotten around to doing it – thanks again for the idea.
Special thanks to Unseated4th for editing my chapter (In exchange for the usual McDonalds ;)
And now to continue the story.
Entering the Great Hall
7 pm
Arthur's POV
Nearing the front of the hall, Arthur noticed Matthew seated at the teachers table. The younger nation was engaged in a conversation with the professor on his right. Upon noticing the approaching students however, Matthew ceased this conversation and gave a friendly nod towards his fellow nations. Arthur found himself giving a somewhat forced smile in return. He had pretty much accepted the unexpected change in roles, but he couldn't deny that seeing Matthew sitting at the teachers table stung a little. Pushing the thought aside, Arthur took his place among the crowd of soon to be sorted students and watched as Professor McGonagall brought out a very old, dirty looking wizard hat seated upon a three legged stool. As one, teachers and students all looked towards the hat and after a moment's pause the hat began to sing;
'A thousand years or more ago….'
A thousand years, Arthur thought, closing his eyes and smiling slightly as he allowed himself to recall the hat's very first ceremony.
At that time the Sorting Hat had indeed been 'newly sewn'. Arthur remembered a new, clean and smooth hat being placed in front of Hogwarts' first generation of students before it broke out into its first ever song. Arthur shook his head smiling. To think I'd be standing in front of the hat again after more than a millennia. Though last time I didn't have to use a magic necklace to look like a teenager.
Things had certainly changed over the past thousand years. When he had stood with the school's first generation of wizards, the students had only three years of education ahead of them, but as with Muggle education, discoveries over the past millennia had required student's education to be extended by several years. That isn't the only thing to have changed, Arthur reflected as he took another look around the hall. The number of students, teachers and ghosts had certainty grown over the years and while the schools infrastructure still looked as though it was from the Dark Ages, many other parts of the school had progressed as the centuries passed. For instance, Arthur highly doubted that any of the school's founders would have approved of the current school uniform.
Not that the school had a uniform then. Arthur recalled standing in his (what was then considered) fashionable tunic and tights alongside the other students, each wondering which of the founders they would be placed under. He remembered the excitement he had felt that night as each of the founders as well as the school's very first headmaster gave their speeches for the historic moment. He remembered the pride he'd felt that it was himself, as well as the other nations of the UK, that they were first to establish such a prominent magical school. He remembered the personal satisfaction he'd felt about beating Francis in this particular area. By three hundred years. He still couldn't help but smirk at the fact.
"Quirke Orla."
Arthur was suddenly brought out of his reminiscing by a jab from Francis, finally becoming aware that not only had the hat finished its song, but had also gone through almost all of the first year students.
"You might want to pay attention to what's going on," murmured Francis out of the corner of his mouth. "We're nearly up."
The nations watched as the final student was sorted into Hufflepuff, before the Headmaster finally stood. Arthur sensed restlessness behind him as students speculated over where the new transfer students would be sorted.
"Good evening students," Dumbledore addressed the hall. "And welcome back to school this year. Now before we tuck in to our welcoming feast, we must first welcome not only our first years, but also our newest transfer students into our school body. It is not every year that we are able to accept a transfer student and to be able to accept four new students at once is something quite exciting. I'm sure each of you will be quite welcoming to these new students. So without any more from me, let the sorting of the transfer students begin!"
This is it, thought Arthur, glancing over to Alfred who was staring, blank faced up at the stormy ceiling. I swear, Alfred and Francis better remember what house they're meant to get into.
Alfred's POV
This is it, thought Alfred as he stared at the stormy ceiling above. He'd actively avoided magic for centuries, yet here he now was in a magic school, about to be sorted by a magic hat into a magic house. Even the roof here is magic, he thought. Though, it does look pretty cool – not that I'd admit that to Arthur.
"Francis Bonnefoy, 6th year," McGonagall called out. Francis stepped out of line, leaving a small gap between Alfred and Arthur. The Frenchman sauntered with confidence over to the hat, took his seat on the stool and placed the hat on his head. There was silence for a moment before the hat cried:
"Gryffindor!"
Beside him Alfred noted Arthur release a breath of held up air and become somewhat more relaxed.
"Well that's one down," Alfred commented quietly to Arthur.
"Honda Kiku, 4th year."
Kiku too went forward to be sorted.
"Only three more of us to potentially stuff up," Alfred continued quietly.
"One more," Arthur corrected softly. "I'm not going to make some dumb mistake and not get into Gryffindor, and Kiku knows the plan almost as well as I do – he's not going to slip up either." Arthur paused, watching as Kiku sat on the stool. "I must admit though, I'm almost surprised that I didn't have to give you or Francis a final reminder. This might actually go according to plan."
"Slytherin!"
"What?!" cried the British nation loudly, as Kiku took off the hat, gave the two nations a sheepish smile before heading over to the green-adorned table. "How-"
"Shut up dude," Alfred cautioned, noting the stares that Arthur was getting. "Do you want to cause a scene!?"
Arthur put his hand to his forehead. "Damn, what was he thinking?"
"I don't know man," Alfred admitted, as the professor called his own name;
"Jones Alfred, 4th year."
"Just don't dwell on it – think of what we're here for," Alfred advised quickly before approaching the hat himself. Standing in front of the stool, Alfred hesitated for a moment before grabbing the hat, sitting on the seat, and pulling the hat over his head, all in one swift movement.
The hat immediately fell down past his eyes, blocking his view of the hall. Alfred was just beginning to wonder what he was meant to do to get into the right house, when he heard a voice that was not his own inside his head.
'And here we have another nation,' the Sorting Hat said. 'I have not sorted a single nation in centuries and then I get four in a night. I certainty did not expect this ahead of me tonight.'
Right, thought Alfred, ignoring the bad pun and instead opting to question. Nations? How did you know about that? Did one of the others-
'No one told me – I am the Sorting Hat and therefore I know these things. It's what I do, I sort and I know things. Fear not for your secret though, as I am as good as keeping secrets as I am in finding them.'
Alfred tensed a little at this – he didn't much like the idea of a hat having this knowledge, even if that knowledge wouldn't be passed on. Seriously, a hat having a power like this? Oh, how he disliked magic.
'Oh my, well I suppose I can see where your dislike of magic comes from.'
The face of a girl from his distant past came to Alfred's mind. Hey! That's private, – "stay out!"
'Sorry, sorry, but it is part of my job as the hat to gather the information I need to place you in the correct house.'
Well instead of prying into places you're not welcome, Alfred thought in annoyance, I'll tell you where you should put me. Arthur told me that I need to get into Gryffindor, so hurry up and put me there. And don't screw it up like you did when you put Kiku in that snake house instead.
'Actually, Honda said he did not mind which house he went in.'
Wait really? Thought Alfred in surprise. I guess he didn't listen to the plan as much as Arthur thought.
'Perhaps, though you might want to speak to him about it before jumping to conclusions,' the hat hinted. 'Regardless of that, I had better get you sorted. I must say, I am glad you are not asking to be placed in Ravenclaw – that would be a bit of a stretch for you. And you are not always a hard worker, so I would not want to put you in Hufflepuff either. Atop this, you are claiming to be a Muggle-born? Then Slytherin is out of the question. So even if you had not asked it of me, the obvious house for you is…'
"Gryffindor!"
Immensely glad to be finished, Alfred ripped the hat off his head and hurried over to the Gryffindor table, taking the seat opposite Francis.
"You took your time," the French nation commented. "I was beginning to wonder if I'd end up being ze only one sitting here."
"Oh, yeah," Alfred commented, briefly looking over at the Slytherin table where he managed to make eye contact with Kiku, who nodded back. "Arthur's pretty pissed about that."
"Pretty pissed about what?" it was only then that Alfred noticed that he was also seated right beside Harry, Ron and Hermione as well as the elder red haired twins.
Berating himself slightly for not noticing something so obvious, Alfred stammered, trying to find a decent answer.
"We were all in ze same house at our last school," Francis nodded casually toward the bushy eye browed teen as he made his way to the Sorting Hat. "Arthur's been bugging us for weeks about getting sorted into ze same house here."
"Oh, yeah, that's right," Alfred said. "He wasn't too happy when Kiku didn't get into this house."
"He's still not," Francis observed, watching as Arthur slammed the hat down on his head.
"As nice as the idea is," commented Hermione as she watched the hat sort a grumpy Arthur. "It's actually pretty unlikely that all of you would be sorted into the same house."
"Yeah," Alfred grinned, "well you'll just have to tell him that when he gets over here."
"Slytherin!" cried the hat.
"What?!" cried the American nation before bursting into a fit of laughter.
"That moron," commented Francis, whom despite the situation, could not keep from smirking.
Arthur meanwhile was still sitting on the stool with something of a shocked expression on his face. A moment later, Professor McGonagall spoke up.
"And now the sorting has finished, we would like to once again welcome our new students. Mr Kirkland, if you would please move to the Slytherin table."
For a brief moment, Alfred wondered if Arthur would instead demand to be resorted. Thankfully however, he gave a quick nod to the professor, handed her the hat, and took a seat by Kiku at the other table.
It was then that Dumbledore stood, addressing the students. "Good evening everyone," he said. "We have a couple of announcements that must be made tonight, as well as a few new teachers to introduce," he waved his hand, indicating towards Matthew. "However I am aware that none of you are going to listen to that until you're well fed," at this comment, piles of food appeared on the empty platters in front of the students. "So tuck in!"
Alfred's eyes widened in momentary amazement as the previously clear platters were suddenly filled with food.
"Finally!" said Ron, piling his food as high as gravity would allow. "I thought that sorting would never end," he added, grabbing an extra chicken leg with his spare hand.
"No kidding," agreed Harry also piling his plate high.
"So it just appeared," Alfred commented, a hint of disapproval in his voice. He picked up one of the trays to confirm that they were not somehow connected to an under table convener belt or something of the sorts. "Magic food coming from nowhere."
"Well actually, according to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration, it's impossible for food to come out of no-'"
"Yeah that's the idea," Ron interrupted Hermione through a mouth full of food. "It's real good!"
Across from him, Francis picked at the food on his plate a little before taking a small bite. Alfred noticed the French nation's mouth twist with slight distaste before he gave a small sigh and continued to eat his meal. Smirking a little Alfred thought; Well, we're here for a year. Looks like we're both going to have to get used to the food.
"So you say it's good?" Alfred asked Ron. "I guess I'll take your word for it." Shaking off the last of the doubts he felt about the magical entrance of the food, he grabbed a chicken leg for himself and took a bite. Ron was right. It was pretty good.
"Looks like they've managed to find a new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher," Harry commented when they were about half way through dinner, nodding towards the Canadian nation at the teachers' table.
"He looks pretty young," Hermione observed. "Barley older than some of the seventh years… How did he get a job as a professor?"
"My guess is they couldn't get anyone else to fill the position," supplied George.
"Why is that?" asked Francis.
"Well, no one's been able to hold the job longer than a year in more than a decade," answered Fred. "The word is no one wants to accept the job any more since it's cursed."
"Cursed?" said Alfred with a slight frown.
"As if it's cursed," commented Ron sceptically.
"Well, maybe the job isn't cursed," admitted Fred. "But it would explain why no one has been able to hold the DADA position for longer than a year since before Bill started coming."
"Each year it gets harder and harder for Dumbledore to fill the position. People are starting to believe the rumours – especially given what happened with our last three DADA teachers," added George. "That'd be why he could only get a young guy to teach us."
"I don't know anything about the job being cursed," contributed Alfred. "But he's actually here as the new assistant teacher. Whoever the DADA teacher is hasn't arrived yet."
"How do you know that?" Harry questioned perplexed.
Figuring that it'd soon become public knowledge anyway Alfred said simply, "He's my brother, Matthew."
"Really?!"
"You do look pretty similar," Hermione observed, looking back and forward between the two siblings.
"Well, we are twi-oww!"Alfred jumped slightly in his seat as a foot kicked him hard in the shin. Opposite him sat Francis, who returned Alfred's glare with raised eyebrows and an expression that clearly read, 'watch what you're saying'.
"Are you ok?" Hermione asked in concern.
"Oh, yeah. I'm fine," Alfred reassured. Still rubbing his shin he added, "I think I just whacked my leg on something."
"But there's nothing under there to hit your leg on," Ron said, looking under the table.
"You'll have to excuse my friend," Francis said with a laugh. "He can be a bit of a clutz sometimes. He probably just kicked himself in ze shin by accident. It would not be ze first time would it, Alfred?"
Alfred glared at Francis. The fact that this final statement was true only added to Alfred's annoyance.
As though sensing that an argument might break out between the two new students, Hermione turned to Alfred and asked, "So Alfred, you're Muggle-born right? Your brother must be as well then?"
"Huh? Oh right," Alfred said, quickly going over the back-story they had practiced. "Yeah, we're both Muggle-borns. We could always do weird magic junk when we were kids. Then Mattie got his letter to learn magic and a few years later I got mine," Alfred quickly flashed a glance towards Francis. No kick under the table this time. It must have sounded believable.
"You just got a letter?" questioned Hermione, Alfred nodded. "I guess they must do things differently for the Muggle-borns in America. Over here, a professor comes to visit a Muggle-born. I'll always remember when professor McGonagall visited me…" Hermione continued sharing with the others about the day she first found out she was a witch.
The feast continued with the students filling up on the assortment of different foods on offer. Even Francis managed to find something he liked. Though when Alfred commented on this, Francis simply described the dish as 'tolerable'.
Finally after the last of the dessert faded from their plates, Dumbledore stood once again to address the students. As he was speaking, Alfred noted a grubby balding man standing to the side of the room, watching intently as Dumbledore rattled off a list of forbidden objects and behaviours. He must be the caretaker, the American nation guessed. He looks ready to burst if Dumbledore forgets any of his rules. The caretaker reminded Alfred vaguely of someone that he couldn't quite place – he didn't think the caretaker would be easy to get along with.
"Secondly for tonight," Dumbledore announced soon after. "I would like to introduce our two new teachers for this year, and since one of them is still to arrive," Dumbledore indicated towards the empty teachers seat on his right. "I will firstly introduce you to Professor Williams," Matthew gave a shy wave to the students as his name was announced. "Professor Williams is currently completing his degree in Magical Education at the Wizarding College of Bundimun in Canada. To complete his training and become a fully qualified professor, Professor Williams will be assisting in both the Astronomy classes as well as your Transfiguration classes alongside your regular professors this year."
"I thought you said you're brothers," Hermione whispered to Alfred, clearly unable to wait until the end of Dumbledore's speech to satisfy her curiosity. "Why do you have different last names?"
"Our parents divorced when I was little. Mattie went with our dad up to Canada, while I stayed in America. He took our dad's last name, while I took my mom's."
"If he's your brother, he must still be pretty young," Harry prompted.
"He turned 20 back in July." Alfred said, not failing to notice the way a blond curly haired girl seated next to Hermione turned her head in interest at this statement.
Ron opened his mouth and began to make some comment about this, when there was a sudden flash of lightning and a tremendous crack of thunder, both of which were accompanied with the doors of the Great Hall bursting open. As one, all eyes in the hall turned to the newcomer in the doorway. Upon looking at the man, Alfred was reminded of the men of his younger years, when the world had been a tougher place. He remembered a time when men with such facial scars and missing limbs were not uncommon (especially in the years following war) – however the same certainty did not apply to the man's clearly magical eye. The man made his way toward the professors table, where he was introduced by Dumbledore as Professor Moody, the newly appointed teacher for Defence Against the Dark Arts. The man's magic eye continued to spin around, stopping for a moment on Alfred, before quickly whizzing off in a diagonal direction.
I don't care what Iggy says about the wizards, Alfred thought, tuning out as muttered conversations between the other students broke out. Magical eyes are creepy. Alfred continued along this line of thought for a while, wondering why 'Mad-Eye' (as he had overheard Harry call him) had a magical eye prosthetic, but didn't seem to have any magic in that wooden leg.
It was not until a very loud 'Your joking!' from Fred that Alfred finally realised that the Headmaster had announced that the Triwizard Tournament would be taking place at Hogwarts that year. Dumbledore began to explain to the students some of the details of the tournament. Much of the information Alfred had already heard during the many meetings Arthur had insisted on before the year began. As such it wasn't long before Alfred began tuning out, only filtering through some of the information.
It was only when Dumbledore began explaining some of the changes that the new tournament would be enforcing that Alfred began to listen again.
"In addition to the age limit on the games," (it didn't take a genesis to figure out that none of the students around Alfred were happy with this particular rule). "There are some other important rules regarding the tasks that must be explained. The first of these is the number of tasks to be completed throughout the year. In years gone by the champions were to complete three tasks.
"To provide a fairer and more eventful tournament, it has been agreed that this year the champions will complete in no less than four tasks. In addition to this, some of these tasks will allow the champion to choose a companion. I believe it will please some of you to know that while only students who are of age may become champions, there is no age restriction on which companion a champion may choose. Additional information about the champions as well as the rules regarding their chosen companion will be given to the chosen Hogwarts champion alongside the champions from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang when they arrive in October." With his speech nearly over, Dumbledore then gave the obligatory, 'behave in front of our guests' expectation and finally dismissed the students.
Almost at once, the students began making their way towards the main exit. Alfred stood, intent on following the others to finally see where he would be living for the next ten months.
"Alfred," before the American could take two steps, Francis pulled him gently by the shoulder and nodded towards Matthew, who was still seated at the staff table.
"Oh, right," Alfred muttered, quickly catching Francis' meaning. Sure, he and Francis probably didn't need to touch base with the other nations right away, but it was probably a good idea to meet with them quickly anyway. Especially considering things hadn't exactly gone Arthur's way as far as the housing went. Plus he was looking forward to hearing how Matthew's trip had been – Alfred had not seen his brother since he had left London, and a lot had happened since then.
"Hey, we're heading up now," George said. "You coming?"
"Actually, we must do something down here for a short while," Francis answered. "We'll come up soon."
"Are you sure?" questioned Ron. "It's your first night here, it can be easy to get lost."
"We'll manage," Alfred insisted. "We just need to check on something."
"And it can't wait?" Harry asked a little skeptically.
"Not really, it really is best we do it now," Francis said.
"Well if you insist, remember the Gryffindor Tower is in the east area of the school," said Hermione. "You can probably ask some of the portraits for directions if you get lost."
"When you get lost," Ron added.
"Also you'll need the password. I just heard from a prefect that it's Balderdash," said George. "You'll need it if you want to get into the tower, so don't forget it."
The two nations thanked their new friends, again assuring them that they would be fine on their own and that they really didn't have to wait.
"This way," Francis motioned to Alfred after the others finally left, directing the younger nation to a small room off the Great Hall where they found Matthew already waiting.
Matthew's POV
Despite the Sorting Hat mix-up with Kiku and Arthur, Matthew had to admit that he had quite enjoyed the Welcome Feast. It had been a good chance for him to meet the other staff.
Yes, he had been at the school for the last day or so, and yes he had met some of the other teachers. But as with the years of World Nations meetings he'd become accustomed to, the staff had barely acknowledged him, as they had hurried around finishing off the last minute necessities before the students arrived for the year – only introducing themselves quickly before hurrying off to complete their tasks. Matthew had to admit that he had preferred it that way, as he was given the opportunity to explore the castle without the pressure of having to recite his carefully-constructed back story to overly nosey staff.
Professor McGonagall had been an exception to this however, as she would be one of his supervising teachers in the coming year. Only that morning he had sat down with her to discuss the methods and teaching strategies she used, and to outline what students were to learn in each lesson depending on their year level.
As the feast began, Matthew had found himself sitting next to Professors Flitwick and Sinister, both of whom he had found easy to talk to. That, combined with the food he'd eaten had made for a pretty decent Welcome Feast. That being said, he had looked forward to the ceremony ending so as to meet with his fellow nations. Maybe plans changed after I left London. They might have decided to go into houses other than Gryffindor. Matthew had caught Arthur's eye. Or maybe not.
Finally the feast ended. Matthew managed to make eye contact with both Francis and Kiku at their respective tables, nodding his head towards a nearby door that lead to a small, quiet room where they could talk.
Entering the empty room, Matthew was quickly joined by his fellow nations.
"Yo Iggy, what's with the two of you getting into Slytherin?" Alfred asked upon seeing Arthur and Kiku, the latter of whom was shutting the door in order to keep their meeting private.
"Ask him," Arthur said stiffly, indicating towards the Asian nation.
"Look Arthur-san, I am sorry I could not give you a proper explanation during the feast, but there were too many students around. As you have said, we must try to avoid bringing attention to ourselves, and by discussing the sorting results openly at the table, we would have been doing just that – even if we did not use English."
"Well there's nothing holding you back now," a clearly angry Arthur responded. Switching to Japanese he added, "For what reason did you throw our plans out the window and decide to do your own thing?"
"Mathematics."
"…. Excuse me?"
"We need to live here for the next 10 months while bringing as little attention to ourselves as possible. Already we've gained attention just by being transfer students – but that was unavoidable. What was avoidable however, was how much extra attention we could attain during the Sorting Ceremony."
"And what exactly do you mean by that?" asked Francis.
"Have any of you actually considered the likeliness of all four of us actually getting sorted into Gryffindor?"
The resounding silence was answer enough.
"Well, I was thinking about it as we were walking into the hall, and I realised something. Francis would be sorted into one out of four possible houses – as would the rest of us. That means to figure out the chances of all four of us getting into Gryffindor and not one of the other three houses we basically have to times four, four times over. To get to the point quickly, the chances of all four of us getting into Gryffindor was one chance in two hundred and fifty six. Now I know the hat does take personality and attributes into consideration, but all the same, the chances of us all getting in are very small."
"That makes sense," said Matthew, quickly doing the math in this head. "Although given your different personalities, the chances may not have been that small - it still would have seemed strange if you had all been placed in the same house."
"Pretty smart dude – I wouldn't have thought of that."
Matthew thought he heard Francis mutter, "No surprises there," under his breath.
"When I spoke to the Sorting Hat I just told it to put me in any house aside from Gryffindor. I think you all know what happened next."
"The hat called out 'Slytherin' and Arthur flipped his shit," said Alfred, before turning to Arthur. "Speaking of… None of that explains why you got into Slytherin."
Arthur began to turn a bright shade of red. "That? Yes. Um, well as you might have noticed, I was a little shocked following Kiku's sorting."
"A little?"
"And as such I may not have been paying close attention when the hat gave me the opportunity to choose my house."
Francis laughed at this. "Well, if you were not listening when ze hat gave you ze chance to be in Gryffindor, you can hardly blame it all on Kiku."
"That's right," Matthew smiled. "It's not fair to entirely blame your result on Japan."
Francis, Matthew and Alfred continued to laugh. Even Kiku was now grinning at the situation.
"It's not funny!" Arthur shouted, slamming his fist onto the table in front of him, splintering the wood.
The other nations stopped laughing, stunned at the level of the sudden outburst.
"Kiku gave you a pretty good explanation as to why he didn't keep to your orders," said Francis, who was no longer smiling. "And to keep ze attention off ourselves, his plan makes much more sense than yours. Maybe you should get over yourself, realise that your plans are not always ze best and accept what has happened."
"That's not why..." Arthur began quietly, before turning to the Japanese nation. 'Kiku, I'm not angry at you, you were right about changing houses. It is a better idea than all of us getting sorted into same house."
"Then what is the problem?" Kiku prompted.
Arthur hesitated, as though considering which words to choose.
"I guess…. Well, we've only just started our year here and already things are not going to plan," his eyes briefly rested on the adult Matthew. "What if things continue getting messed up at the last moment? We all know why we're here – to stop him returning. What if we don't? So many of my citizens died because of my indecisiveness last time," Arthur said, eyes on the ground before barely choking out in English, "I don't think I could handle failing my citizens like that a second time."
"It's not your fault," said Alfred in an uncharacteristically soft voice.
"Heh," Arthur scoffed.
"'Last time,'" said Francis looking between Alfred and a miserable looking Arthur. "'It's not your fault'. Is there something ze two of you would care to share with ze rest of us?"
"No."
"Arthur, they agreed to come on this mission to stop him. You owe it to them to tell them what happened."
Still Arthur did not speak.
"Fine, then I'll do it."
"Ok, ok. I'll tell them," Arthur finally conceded. "Just, try not to think too badly of me once you know."
Beside him Alfred rolled his eyes, but otherwise remained silent.
"All of you, of course, remember the Wizarding War that ended 13 years ago. The man leading it was known as Lord Voldemort. A man that I not only believe never truly died, but is also regaining his former strength. Hence the reason we are here, undertaking this mission at Hogwarts."
Matthew nodded along with the others, wondering where this story was going.
"As fate would have it, Alfred and I met the boy who would later become Voldemort decades before he split my country. Back when he was still a young boy named Tom Riddle." Arthur paused to let the others process this revelation. "It was summer, sometime in the 1930s. I remember him saying at the time that he was six years old and already there was something wrong about him. I remember being quite unsettled by a vibe that seemed to radiate off the child. What was even more unsettling was the way he used his magic to harm another boy he had been arguing with. If I hadn't been there to stop him, I'm pretty sure his first murder would have occurred that day. Not long after that, Alfred arrived. I think he had to grab something he'd left at the world meeting – I can't quite remember any more. Anyway, I no longer wanted to be around the boy. Thankfully I had the sense not to discuss any nation related secrets in front of him. Despite his age, instinct told me that this was the last human I wanted knowing our secret."
"And you are sure he never discovered anything about the nations?" Kiku asked, a hint of concern on his face.
"Pretty sure," Arthur confirmed. "If he had, he would have come looking for me during the last war."
"Well then, you did your job," said Francis, clapping Arthur on the shoulder. "You kept your mouth shut about us and he never came looking. It doesn't seem like there was anything else you could have done."
"Thank you Francis. See Arthur, that's exactly what I've been telling you for years now."
"And for years I've been telling you that it wasn't enough!" Arthur sighed, before continuing, "Alfred, do you remember what I told you later that day?"
Alfred frowned, trying to recall the distant memory. "It was something about him having the same feeling that some of your other citizens gave."
"Exactly. Even as a six-year-old child, Voldemort gave off the same vibe as some of my worst tyrants and mass murders ever. And yet I did nothing about it! I didn't even send that letter of caution to the orphanage he lived at, as I had vowed to do that day, let alone actually warn the wizarding community that they were about to invite a mass murder into their world!'
"Mon Cheri, even if you had done that, I don't think a simple letter or two would have made a lot of difference," Francis said gently. "Failing to send a letter is not something you should feel such guilt over."
"You're right," Arthur nodded darkly. "A few letters would have done nothing to stop Tom Riddle from becoming Voldemort. Even if I had have handed one to both the Prime Minister and the Minister for Magic in person, it would not have done anything meaningful. Failing to send the letters is not what I regret. What I regret is not taking the boy's life while I had the chance."
There was a long moment's pause as the gravity of his words sank in.
"Arthur…." Francis started. "This – what he did to your country – to your people….. It's not your fault."
"That's right," contributed Matthew as Alfred and Kiku nodded their agreement. "And even if something didn't feel right about him as a child, you had no way of knowing for what he'd end up doing. If you had of taken the life of a child just because of what he might end up doing as an adult, that would have made you the bad guy."
"I would prefer to appear as the 'bad guy' for a while if it meant stopping what he did."
"That makes sense to me," said Kiku. "If I thought one of my citizens would bring the same kind of destruction that Voldemort did, I would definitely kill them."
The others looked at the Asian nation in shock at this statement.
"That does not make it right though," he added quickly.
Kiku's brutal honestly seemed to click with Arthur, who chuckled slightly at this and said, "No, I guess you're right. Though I still wish I had of done something."
"Well, what do you think we're doing here?" Alfred said in something of an encouraging voice. "It's true, we can't do anything about the past – as much as we might wish we could. You can continue holding onto your regrets and you can keep asking your 'what if's. But that's not going to achieve anything, so instead you need to look forward. Learn from what's happened so you can avoid repeating it in the future."
Arthur muttered something about wishing he could have got that statement on tape. Alfred continued as though there had been no interruption. "The fact is that like last time, your instincts told you that something was not right. This time you're acting on those instincts. And this time, we're here to help you. And I'll tell you something now, Arthur. With five of us working together, there's no way in Hell that the Volde-jackass is going to regain his power!"
Finally Arthur smiled. "Thanks guys," he paused. "But stil- I mean. You're right, we'll do a good job this year. And you know, maybe Slytherin will be an interesting place to be. Salazar was an interesting fellow, after all. Maybe he liked his pure-bloods a little too much, but he was an interesting man regardless."
"Just as long as you don't go making friends with that Malfoy asshole," Alfred said.
"I don't think you'll need to worry about that."
"Actually, speaking of houses and students, it's already nearly half past 11," Matthew informed the group while looking at his watch. "You lot better get moving or you'll get into trouble for breaking curfew."
"What about you?" asked Kiku as they headed out of the room and into the now empty Great Hall.
"I'm a teacher, I don't have a curfew."
"Discrimination!"
"Alfred, I'm pretty sure a teacher not having curfew does not count as discrimination."
"It's still not fair," Alfred grumbled, following after the others despite his words.
"So, I guess we will see you all tomorrow," Kiku said as the five of them gathered in a small group.
"Guess so. G'night then."
"'Night."
"See you in the morning."
There was a pause after the final of the 'good nights' had been said.
"So, does anyone know how to get to our dormitories?"
And another chapter done and dusted (Though I may come back for a bit more dusting if I find any mistakes – I've been over it a few times, and so has my sister, but you never know.)
So mini celebration time; I've known since I published the last chapter, that I wanted this chapter out on Christmas day. I also really wanted to get to 100 followers, and at one stage I didn't think it was going to happen (When the number when backwards instead of forwards). But then, with only about 5 minutes to go till Christmas, it happened. 100 followers. Yay.
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this Christmas chapter (Even though it had nothing to do with Christmas). Consider it my present to you. If you want to return a present to me in the form a review, I would love that.
Thanks again for reading.
Next time;
Classes start. That's basically it, I haven't written it yet, so I can't really get more specific than that, but it'll be good – I have a few fun ideas.
!HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Update 3rd July 2018
And finally I've finished editing the existing chapters. This includes putting the Japanese conversation in italics (as described in the author notes of last chapter).
As for what comes next, I've got two chapters written! I just need to publish them. So after an unintentional hiatus that lasted since Christmas 2016 – the next chapter will be out in less than a week.
Also – did anyone pick up on the Game of Thrones references? There were two of them