The (not quite) Home Front Part 1

Celestia pulled herself up from her huddled position and looked around the platform for the first time. It was a horrific sight. The wounded lay on thin conjured stretchers, a number of medical personnel rushing around trying, in many cases in vane, to heal them. The station was packed, though that was mostly due to the wounded taking up so much space, there were remarkably few soldiers that were still standing, for the thousand-odd soldiers from the Ministerial Expeditionary Force (MEF) it seemed almost half were wounded in some way, whether it be from horrific-looking burns and blisters, or bullet wounds. The MEF weren't the only ones present however, a number of French soldiers were present, again mostly wounded, though there was a third group as well, one that Celestia didn't recognise. They wore uniforms similar, but at the same time distinct, from the standard British uniform they had been given, their armament was also different from the standard Lee-Enfield. She supposed they were some specialist force, much like her own, or perhaps part of one of the colonial armies.

Celestia shook her head, now was not the time to muse on the composition of the British Empire's army. No, she had a train to catch. Making her way through the crowd, Celestia made her way through the chaos, only to be thrown out of the carriage she had entered, and the next, and the next. Celestia finally found a carriage towards the back of the train. More than half the carriages had been turned into a makeshift hospital with both muggle nurses and magical medics doing their best to heal the wounded.

Her carriage was filled with a mishmash of French, MEF and the mysterious third group, despite this the carriage was fairly empty. Celestia tried not to think of what that meant. Collapsing onto a bench, Celestia let out a sigh. How much longer would this continue, from what she had heard the war had effectively stalled in the west, and while the eastern front was far more mobile it was not moving in a westerly direction, well at least not in the north. In the south it seemed much more even as the Austro-Hungarian and Russian armies were far more evenly matched than the Germans and Russians. Celestia had no idea what half of these countries were, or even how big they were, she'd have to purchase a map in Paris. Honestly, how did these muggles expect them to fight effectively if they didn't even know who she was fighting? The only names that were familiar were the Ottoman Empire, France and Russia, though both Magical France and Russia were kingdoms rather than the Republic and Empire their muggle counterparts were.

A rather hesitant "Um." drew her attention to her left. One of the unknown soldiers was staring at her, confusion written on his face.

"Yes?"

"I er, I don't mean to be rude but, um, aren't you a woman?"

Celestia stared at him as she tried to figure out his rather bizarre accent, it was like nothing she had ever heard before. It took a rather embarrassing amount of time for her to remember he had asked her a question, though he seemed more embarrassed than her. "Yes, I am. What of it?"

The man gulped at her challenging tone of voice "Ah, I was just wondering, you don't get women in the army, that's all."

"Yes well, my government doesn't see the sense in excluding half of the population from useful career paths."
The man looked even more confused "But aren't you British?"

"Well, yes. But not the British you're thinking of."

The man puzzled over her cryptic statement for a minute before his eyes widened in realization. "Ah, You're a witch!"

Celestia blinked at him incredulously "Indeed. Seems the Statute is less effective then everyone thinks."

"Oh, it's effective alright, the threat of having your memory erased certainly motivated me and my family to keep our mouths shut. My sister's a witch, goes to the Canadian branch of Hogwarts."

Ah, so that's where he's from, though Celestia, they were indeed colonial troops."Wait there are branches of Hogwarts?" This was news to her, though she supposed it made sense, seeing as she had yet to meet anyone from outside of the United Kingdom even though the muggles controlled one-quarter of the world, a figure Celestia found utterly ridiculous.

"Um, yeah, apparently there's one for each of the dominions, with the ones in South Africa and the Raj getting students from the rest of British Africa and Asia respectively. I'm surprised you don't know this."

"Yes well, magical Britain doesn't have much to do with the muggle side, and we don't have an empire so it never came up I suppose."

A rather uncomfortable silence reigned between the unknown man and Celestia, until, at last, she gathered the courage to ask a few questions that had been plaguing her. This man, whoever he was, was the perfect source of information about the muggle world.

"Do, er, do you mind if I ask you a few questions. I've never been in the muggle world before, and well, everything's a tad confusing."

The man looked shocked for a moment before grinning "I'm happy to help."

Although Celestia had asked she was rather shocked that he would, she had a million questions she wanted to ask, all vying to be the first to be put to words. Eventually one of them won, perhaps the most pressing given the situation.

"Sooo, what's this war about?"

The man stared at her for a moment before laughing, his blue eyes shining most pleasantly, "Now that is the question. I'm not entirely sure myself, but I think a Serb shot the Austro-Hungarian heir so Austria declared war on Serbia, Russia declared war on Austria, Germany on Russia, France on Germany, then Germany declared on Belgium to get into France easier, which brought Britain into the war, which of course brought the empire in. Though I have no idea why the Ottomans got involved."

Celestia blinked a few times trying to digest it all. "On that note, what's Germany? Oh, and Austria-Hungary, and Belgium?"
The man frowned not quite sure how to answer such a question"Well, Germany's a country that inhabits central Europe, it lies between France and Russia, Austria-Hungary stretches from the Adriatic to Galicia and borders Germany to the north and controls about half of the Balkans. Belgium is a rather small country that was part of the Netherlands and borders France, the Netherlands, Germany and Luxembourg." The man looked at her rather confused expression "That didn't really help, did it?"
"No, if anything I'm more confused."

The man laughed again "Europe is a rather confusing place." His face fell and he sighed "I can't wait to go home."

"Well if you're injured won't they send you home?"

"I'm not injured, and even if I was they would just send me to one of the hospitals in Paris. No, I'm on leave, but Canada's so far away I'd have to come back before I even got halfway there. So me and the other colonials spend our leave either in France or Britain, though I'll be staying in Paris." the man smiled woefully "Less to remind me of home."

Celestia felt it wasn't appropriate to pester the man with more questions. "Well me and the rest of the unit are being sent to Paris as well, perhaps we could meet up if I think of any more questions?"

The man smiled again, though less enthusiastically than before, Celestia felt herself blushing slightly, the man was certainly handsome, especially when he smiled, his skin was lightly tanned, his eyes a piercing blue, his hair a warm brown. Celestia just didn't understand why he invoked such a reaction in her. It was baffling. "Sure thing, but in exchange you'll have to tell me about the magical world, I want to know what my sister's got herself into."

"Well, if you can think of any, I'd be more than happy to answer them. Though I should say, I don't know anything about Canada, if I'm honest I don't even know where it is."

The man chuckled "It's a frigid wasteland just north of America."

The two spent the remainder of the journey to Paris chatting amicably about everything and nothing.

The train finally pulled up to the station in Paris and Celestia watched as the wounded were loaded off the train, where they were going she had no idea, but she wished them the best.
Celestia pulled herself up, slinging her pack and rifle over her shoulder.

"Well, this is my stop."

The man smirked "What a coincidence, It's mine too!"

They stepped from the train and Celestia found herself face to face with a rather irate Carrow. "Where on earth have you been Black? The MEF was supposed to be in the first three carriages, I told you this."

Celestia tilted her head slightly in confusion and opened her mouth to retort, but wasn't able to as Carrow started up again with a sigh "Well, no matter. We're to report to the French ministry, they're going to give us a place to stay when we're not at the front. Seems they want to ask us a few questions."

Carrow began to walk away before turning back a few paces away "Well? Come on!"

Celestia turned to the man "Well seems I best be off, see you around.." Celestia paused expectantly.

The man laughed "I never did tell you my name did I? It's Lee, William Lee."

"Black, Celestia Black."

The man grinned at her and left, presumably to find the rest of his unit, while Celestia trudged behind Carrow and entered the city proper.