Chapter 2: Nostalgia
Before any of them really ever noticed it, it was the first of September, the day that the Hogwarts Express left for Hogwarts, the start of the term. Only this time, England and his Capital were both extremely nervous, not for themselves but for the other nations that London was going to have to (unfortunately) babysit.
As they stood at the station Audrey smiled at her companions as Arthur smiled standing back as they tried to figure out where the hell platform 9¾ was.
"Guys, you should really calm down!" Audrey said after a while as she told them all to stop. "All you have to do is well… walk through that wall!"
"You vant us to walk through a vall?" the German male asked her, raising an eyebrow thinking that she'd also officially lost it, leaving Audrey to roll her eyes.
"That really sounds familiar considering you guys said that about Diagon Alley didn't you Luddy?" she asked, using the nickname given to him by the bubbly Italian boy. "But if you guys are too scared to try it, I… offer myself to go first and dad can watch you guys to make sure that you all get through alright"
Looking to England for approval London smiled as she turned calmly walking through the barrier unlike most other kids, but then again this had been the way to get to Hogwarts for over a century. Waiting impatiently on the other side she tapped her foot, eventually seeing Italy stumble in at which point she quickly caught him before he fell flat on his face noticing how he immediately smiled up at her.
"Veh, grazie bella!"
"What happened?" she asked him suspiciously.
"Well we got into an argument and I got scared so Ge-Ludwig pushed me in" he finished with a pout before suddenly seeming to go back to a hyperactive little kid. "But then you caught me so everything was okay!"
A few seconds later both Japan and Germany came after them pushing trolleys with the bags from all of them, England right on their heels. "Here we are, Platform 9¾" Arthur announced proudly as he looked up to check the time. "And it's already 10:55 meaning that the train will leave in exactly 5 minutes so you should all get on the train… I myself should take leave before I attract any… unwanted attention"
"That's okay dad, I'll take care of these three and I promise I'll write a… um… well owl if anything happens" London said, grinning as they played something so it didn't look too suspicious as he kissed her forehead and walked away as she energetically led the way to the train while the bubbly Italian ranted about everything that he was seeing leaving Ludwig and Kiku to deal with all their luggage.
Once on the train they realised that most compartments were already full so almost awkwardly Audrey knocked in the door of a compartment, sliding the door open. Two boys looked at her, and she noticed the lightning scar on one boy's forehead. 'Well dad, I just think I found him' she thought to herself as she smiled.
"Is it alright if my friends and I sit here with you guys?" she asked with a massive smile that contrasted the blank looks of two of her friends, sitting quickly when Harry nodded. "Well I'm like Audrey Kirkland, and these are my friends Kiku Honda, Feliciano Vargas and Ludwig-"
"Beilschmidt" he supplied when she hesitated, using his brothers last name as he nodded seeming to frown for a moment before he regained his composure, Japan also nodding while Italy waved like a madman when she mentioned him. "Stop vaving Feli, they get the point you dummkopf!"
"So you're from another country?" Ron suddenly asked looking at them curiously.
"Ja, I'm from Germany, Kiku is from Japan and Feli is from Italy" he said bluntly while Audrey just smiled.
"But like, I'm English through and through" Audrey said, winking as she giggled at her friends.
"Well I'm Harry… Harry Potter" the black headed boy said shyly and Audrey nodded, feeling smug that she was right, but then again if she wasn't she figured she probably should've been destroyed in the Great fire of London for being such an idiot.
"And I'm Ron Weasley" the red head introduced himself.
"Pleasure to meet you both" the English girl replied with a smile being as polite as she could.
"Audrey… I'm hungry… do they have good food on board?" the Italian said suddenly as he pouted, only finding scones that were wrapped up in his bag and shuddered slightly while London laughed, tucking them into her own bag.
"They do, trust me"
"So are all of your family's wizards?" Harry suddenly asked leaving the countries and even London to glance at each other opting to stay quiet, London only for the reason that it would take too much effort to even explain it in a believable way.
"Er… I think so… I think that mum might have a second cousin who's an accountant but we never talk about him" Ron said shrugging.
"So you probably know a lot of magic already" Harry said aloud while Ron shrugged.
"I heard you went to live with Muggles. What are they like?" Ron asked curiously.
"Horrible… well, not all of them. My aunt and uncle and cousin are, though. I wish I'd had three wizard brothers"
"Five, I'm the sixth in our family to go to Hogwarts. You could say I've got a lot to live up to. Bill and Charlie have already left - Bill was head boy and Charlie was captain of Quidditch, now Percy is a prefect. Fred and George mess around a lot, but they still get really good marks and everyone thinks they're really funny. Everyone expects me to do as well as the others, but if I do, it's no big deal, because they did it first. You never get anything new, either, with five brothers. I've got Bill's old robes, Charlie's old wand, and Percy's old rat" Ron said looking gloomily at the rat that he was holding, obviously annoyed by the fact that he had so many siblings.
"Zhere is nothing wrong vith getting hand-me-downs" Ludwig suddenly said startling the two others as the blonde looked at them with cold blue eyes. "My brother gave me a lot of his things as well" he said looking away as he thought of how Germany had at one point been Prussia. Hell, Prussia not only practically gave him his land he also gave him principles and helped him set himself up as a country! Japan nodded in agreement.
"Hai, I arso got stuff from my… brothers" Japan concluded after a moment of thinking about it, though he'd never really call either of them his brothers he supposed they were the closest, and he did originally get a lot of stuff from China so it made sense.
"You two also have siblings? Are they also coming to Hogwarts?" Ron asked, looking at the two questioningly.
"Ja, but our families vill not be coming, they live in other countries" Ludwig said, looking towards Japan who looked away from them but the one glance that he gave Germany and London told them to forget he ever said that he had siblings… and truthfully they didn't blame him considering they both knew about the strained relationships of the Asian countries, especially that between China and Japan.
"See there's nothing wrong with getting things from your siblings" Harry said trying to make a point while the boy in question just shrugged. "Until Hagrid told me, I didn't know anything about being a wizard or about my parents or Voldemort"
Seeing Ron flinch Audrey was the only other person in the compartment that understood why and mentally slapped herself, for never mentioning 'you-know-who' to any of the other countries that just looked on in confusion.
"What?" Harry asked looking as confused as the others.
"You said you-know-who's name… I thought that you of…" he trailed off sounded shocked, impressed and also nervous if not downright scared at the thought of the person who owned the name.
"Veh, what's wrong with saying a name? I mean I can say Voldemort too" Feli said innocently seemingly unaware that Ron flinched as Audrey turned to face him glaring straight at him.
"Feli just stick to saying you-know-who" she ordered before continuing in their 'universal language' that England had taught her a while back as some of the nations didn't want to learn English and vice-versa. "I'll explain it to you all later"
Their conversation continued, all the people in the compartment carefully avoiding the subject of Voldemort though Audrey kept thinking about how she wasn't scared of him, after all she was the capital of England, why should she be scared of a person who gave himself a French name that translated into flee from death?
'So not scary' she thought to herself in annoyance. 'He could've at least been a bit patriotic and not used something from that bloody gits language'
Yes she had a hatred of France born through being brought up by England, it was something that was expected and everyone knew that it would be that way since the beginning. Eventually a silence settled around the 6 children which they all found oddly comfortable, of course that was only achieved because Italy had fallen asleep and the others were all silently staring out of the window.
They passed by pastures filled with cows and sheep, open land that some of them hadn't seen in ages, especially London. She couldn't remember a time where she herself had looked like that, but sometime in the past she figured she did as she kept thinking trying to remember a bit if she could, wondering if she was formed before or after that space was taken over by the city she'd become.
Checking her watch she realized it was half past 12 and smiled as the door slid open, causing Italy to jump, rubbing his eyes as he woke up.
"Anything of the cart dears?" she asked politely looking around, causing Harry to jump up and Feli to beg, making Audrey laugh and just hand over her wallet which had about 6 galleons in it.
She figured he wouldn't be able to spend all of it.
She found herself questioning that though when he walked back in with even more food than Harry had bought, finding he spend about 1 galleon on food and not realizing it gave her two galleons, refusing to take back the change. Audrey vaguely realized that she rolled her eyes as she thought about how strange and clueless Italy could be, but couldn't help smiling at how childish he was and how this age seemed to fit him perfectly.
"Feli, vhy did you buy so much?" Germany asked looking at all the food the Italian had brought with him.
"Well you see they had sooo much and I didn't know what to buy so I decided to buy all of it because they didn't have pasta!" the Italian explained himself causing Audrey to laugh and jump to his defense as she noticed Ludwig looking annoyed.
"Luddy don't worry yourself with it! We've got heaps of money anyway and well… he bought enough so all of us can share all the food because it's really good!"
"I suppose" he said taking a caldron cake and looking at it unsurely before taking a tentative bite, realizing that it was actually tasty and probably wouldn't kill him within the next few minutes he took another bite, only then realizing how hungry he actually was. Feliciano on the other hand had quickly grabbed a licorice wand biting into it eagerly before he beamed at all them.
"This is good-" he exclaimed before he was cut off by Audrey.
"But not as good as pasta I assume?" she asked, causing everyone in the compartment except Feli to laugh, as he quickly responded.
"Si!" more laughter echoed throughout the compartment as they continued to enjoy their snacks before Feli picked up one of the chocolate frogs, looking at it questioningly while Harry also looked at it for a moment turning to Ron.
"What are those?" he asked pointing at the packet Feli was holding before grabbing on for himself. "They're not really frogs… are they?"
"No, but see what the card is… I'm missing Agrippa" Ron replied without thinking about anything really as he continued eating his pumpkin pastry.
"What?"
"Oh… right you wouldn't know – chocolate frogs have cards inside them, to collect – famous witches and wizards. I've got about 500 but I haven't got Agrippa or Ptolemy" he said shrugging as Harry unwrapped the chocolate, looking at the picture of a man with half-moon glasses and long silver hair.
"So this is Dumbledore" Harry said quietly, though everyone in the compartment heard him.
"Don't tell me you've never heard of Dumbledore! Can I have a frog? I might get Agrippa – thanks" the other boy said taking one of the frogs while Harry skimmed over the back reading the information about the man in question.
"He's the headmaster of Hogwarts" Audrey said, in case he hadn't and also for the benefit of the other countries that probably had no clue what was going on, before Harry flipped the card, finding that Dumbledore wasn't there anymore.
"He's gone!" he exclaimed in shock, looking up at Ron who just shrugged unaffected while the three countries also exchanged looks.
"Well, you can't expect him to hang around all day. He'll be back. No, I've got Morgana again and I've got about six of her... do you want it? You can start collecting" he offered to Harry who accepted the card when Audrey spoke up again.
"If you want I can like give you Agrippa and Ptolemy, I'll send an owl to dad to send me the cards when we get to Hogwarts… I probably have like… about 3 or 4 of them" she said with a faint smile as Ron's mouth dropped.
"3 or 4? They're super rare though!" he exclaimed while Audrey just shrugged.
"Dad started a collection when he was a kid, he gave it to me when I was about 3" she said leaning back into the chair before another thought crossed her mind 'it helps that I've been collecting them since they were invented.'
Ron suddenly looked back to the pile of chocolate frogs when Harry shrugged.
"You can help yourselves to them, but you know… in the muggle world people just stay in photos" Harry said mentioning the muggle photos to them which caused Ron to look shocked.
"Do they? What, they don't move at all? Weird!" he exclaimed seeming highly amused while Japan quietly Italy started talking, eventually ending in him showing a couple of photo's with Prussia, Spain and France, and also a few where his brother was being hugged by Spain and looked like he was swearing at him and trying to attack the older male.
While Italy and Ron seemed focused on eating, Japan and Germany found themselves drawn to the cards much like Harry was watching them slide in and out of the place where their pictures where meant to be while Audrey laughed, occasionally talking about a certain witch or wizard that was mentioned on the cards.
Eventually that ended when Audrey heard Ron warning Feli about Bertie Bott's Every-Flavor Beans.
"Bleaaargh - see? Sprouts" Ron said glumly and shuddered as he threw the bean away while Audrey smiled, picking up a brown one and seeming to analyze it for a second before popping it into her mouth, grinning at everyone else.
"Toffee pudding" she said reaching for another one when Feli did the same, popping it into his mouth and his eyes widened.
"Spaghetti!" he cried out happily causing those around him to laugh. "Not as good as Italian pasta but still…"
They continued that until Ludwig grabbed the last one, popping it in his own mouth as his lips twitched up into a slight smile, everyone else looking at him curiously.
"Liver" he explained getting shudders from Ron and laughter from all the others, though he didn't see why.
Looking out of the window London noticed that instead of the farmlands that seemed orderly they'd reached an area that seemed wild and untouched by humans, trying to once again imagine her city as something other than a city filled with people, though it was by now more sanitary than in past years and her rat infestation was no longer existent.
There was a small knock on their door which caught their attention right before the door slid open revealing a boy that looked like he'd just been crying.
"Sorry, but have you seen a toad?" he asked them and continued to wail when they all shook their heads. "I've lost him! He keeps getting away from me"
"He'll turn up" Harry consoled him as they then watched the boy leave when Ron once again spoke up.
"Don't know why he's so bothered," said Ron, "If I'd brought a toad I'd lose it as quick as I could. Mind you, I brought Scabbers, so I can't talk."
"Well Kiku, Feli and I all brought cats but they seem to have gone off to look around or something" London said shrugging. "They'll turn up eventually, especially if I have one of those two around" she joked but it was true, she had seen North Italy with about 11 cats around him once and that was before the others started showing up!
"Well scabbers might have died and you wouldn't know the difference," said Ron in disgust much preferring the idea of bringing a cat. "I tried to turn him yellow yesterday to make him more interesting, but the spell didn't work. I'll show you, look..." the boy started looking through his bag to try to find his wand, eventually managing to pull out the old, battered looking thing. "Unicorn hair's nearly poking out. Anyway..."
Right when he was about to say the incantation, much to Feliciano's delight, the compartment door slid open again revealing a girl with bushy hair. Audrey immediately smiled up at her.
"Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one," she said and Audrey's smile faltered for a second as she winced at the bossy tone that the girl was speaking with.
"Nup, we haven't seen anything… we haven't even seen our own pets!" Audrey replied with another smile plastered on her face as she looked at the girl though she realized she was more focused on the wand in Ron's hand than what she was telling her.
"Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see it, then" the girl with the bushy hair said as she started walking into the compartment sitting in a faired squashed place between Audrey and the wall making Ron look shocked and somewhat shy even.
"Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow" he said, nothing happening. While Feli pouted Ludwig sighed, as the spell sounded like some sort of nonsense that wouldn't work, much like Arthur's so called spells, whereas Audrey snickered immediately realizing that it wasn't a real spell anyway.
"Are you sure that's a real spell? Well, it's not very good, is it? I've tried a few simple spells just for practice and it's all worked for me. Nobody in my family's magic at all, it was ever such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course, I mean, it's the very best school of witchcraft there is, I've heard… I've learned all our course books by heart; of course, I just hope it will be enough… I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you?" she said quickly causing the kids to raise their eyebrows, well except for Audrey who'd learnt this at least 3 times previously.
Hell she'd taught at Hogwarts before so of course she should know the bloody curriculum!
"I'm Ron Weasley" Ron grumbled, looking away from the girl in front of him feeling quite insulted by her within the 2 minutes they'd known each other. He already disliked her.
"Veh, I'm Feliciano Vargas bella" he said making Audrey roll her eyes. He was meant to be 11 but he was already flirting with the girls, this would definitely be an interesting time going through Hogwarts!
"Ludvig Beilschmidt"
"I'm Audrey Kirkland, and that's Kiku Honda" she said introducing the quiet Japanese boy once again.
"Harry Potter" Harry said, going last in their odd zigzagged introduction.
"Are you really?" Hermione asked, "I know all about you, of course – I got a few extra books, for background reading, and you're in Modern Magical History and The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century"
"Really?" the boy in question asked in confusion leaving Audrey to roll her eyes answering before the book worm could.
"Harry, considering your famous, and someone probably told you that, you should've like read a bit about yourself to find out the reason why you're like… famous! I mean if I was famous I totally would've"
"Well do any of you know what house you'll be in? I've been asking around, and I hope I'm in Gryffindor, it sounds by far the best; I hear Dumbledore himself was in it, but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad... Anyway, we'd better go and look for Neville's toad. You six had better change, you know, I expect we'll be there soon" the girl said, leaving before any of them could reply.
"Whatever house I'm in, I hope she's not in it" Ron said causing Kiku and Ludwig to frown a little exchanging glances at the red-headed boy threw his wand back in his trunk.
"That is rather imporite" the Japanese boy said to Ron, which just made him roll his eyes.
"Well do you want to be stuck with her for the next 7 years?" he countered, which made the others fall silent. Desperate to change the subject Harry decided to intervene before the quiet Japanese boy and Ron got themselves into a massive argument.
"So what houses are your brothers in?"
"Gryffindor" he said rather gloomily. "Mum and dad were in it too… I don't know what they'll say if I'm not. I don't suppose Ravenclaw would be too bad but imagine if they put me in Slytherin!"
Anger suddenly welled up in Audrey's chest but she kept it at bay, clenching her hands together in an effort to not deck him.
"That's the house Vol-, I mean, You-Know-Who was in?" he asked curiously, completely unsure if he was making a random assumption or was right in that.
"Yeah" Audrey piped up looking away for a moment as she tried to stop herself replaying thoughts from the last time that she was at Hogwarts. Voldemort was an adorable boy, perhaps a bit dark but still he had a lot of potential, something that Audrey had desperately tried to tell him back then. Obviously he'd taken it the wrong way… maybe it was her fault for telling him that, boosting his confidence.
Shaking her head she managed to break out of the thoughts when the door was flung open again, a boy with platinum blonde hair walking in, followed by two others.
"Is it true? They're saying all down the train that Harry Potter's in this compartment. So it's you is it?" he asked, seeming full of himself while Audrey rolled her eyes. This boy was a Malfoy through and through, she knew that already!
"Yes" Harry replied looking at the other two that flanked the blonde, as though they were his body guards or something.
"Oh, this is Crabbe and this is Goyle and my name's Malfoy, Draco Malfoy" he introduced when Ron gave a slight cough to hide the small laugh that he let out, making Draco look at him. "Think my name's funny, do you? No need to ask who you are, my father told me all the Weasley's have red hair, freckles and more children than they can afford" looking around the compartment he eventually found Audrey and also Feliciano who was cowering behind Ludwig and holding the girl tightly who seemed to just hug him back stroking his hair, carefully avoiding the suspicious curl on the side of his head. "You'll soon come to see that some wizarding families are much better than others. You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort, I can help you there"
Audrey who was busy glaring daggers into his head found herself with her hands too full to punch him, rather thankfully so bit her cheek to the point where all she could feel was pain, the metallic taste of blood running in her mouth though the wound would heal within a few seconds, or perhaps minutes.
Thankfully, Harry didn't take the offered hand. Otherwise she probably would've decked him instead!
"I think I can tell who the wrong sort are for myself thanks" he said, politely declining the offer while Draco sneered at them, Ludwig also obviously refraining himself from attacking the other blonde boy.
"I'd be careful if I were you, Potter. Unless you're a bit politer you'll go the same way as your parents. They didn't know what was good for them, either. You hang around with riffraff like these people, the Weasley's, and Hagrid, and it'll rub off on you" Draco said slowly looking around the compartment to find a pair of fiery green eyes meeting his.
"I'll have you know Mr. Malfoy that my blood is totally as pure if not purer than yours" the girl said sneering at him all pretenses of holding herself back gone. "And I'll also have you know that I'm from the oldest wizarding house in England and you probably don't know what I'm talking about but I take pride in that Malfoy so if you would please just totally leave"
"But we don't feel like leaving, do we boys? We've eaten all our food and you still seem to have some…" he said trailing off as Goyle made to reach for a chocolate frog. But before anyone else could do anything Ludwig grabbed the other boy and slammed him to the wall.
"I think zat you have overstayed your velcome and zat you should listen to Audrey before I do vorse to you" the German said in his thick accent as he had the other boy pinned anger swirling through the blue eyes as they glanced into scared grey ones, a few moments later letting go and making the other boy run out, screaming something along the lines of waiting until his father heard about what happened.
"Ludwig…" Italy mumbled looking at the German falling quiet when his eyes met his. Audrey looked at him sympathetically reaching over and putting her hand on his shoulder, meeting his eyes for a second before she nodded in understanding pulling away when for probably the 16th time that day the compartment door was slid open, the bushy haired girl back.
"You'd better hurry up and put your robes on, I've just been up the front to ask the driver and he says we're nearly there… you haven't been fighting have you? You'll be in trouble before we even get there!" Hermione exclaimed looking as all of them when the countries looked away. Audrey just nodded.
"Thank you" she said politely before standing up, pulling out her robes and quickly pulling off her jumper putting the robes on, something that everyone else started to do before they all sat down again hearing a voice echo throughout the train:
"We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time. Please leave your luggage on the train; it will be taken to the school separately."
While no one seemed to mind, Kiku didn't seem to like the fact that he was leaving his luggage behind at all. In fact he reluctantly stood and was almost pushed out almost hitting the person behind him but kept himself together.
"Firs' years, Fir's years over here! Alright there Harry? C'mon, follow me - any more firs' years? Mind yer step, now! Firs' years follow me!" the giant kept calling as Audrey did her best to drag the others along, especially Kiku who seemed to be putting up a fight considering there were people squashed up all around him, causing Audrey to laugh. "Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec"
As soon as Audrey saw Hogwarts again she smiled fondly at the castle noticing how similar it was and how it didn't change all too much in the hundreds of years that she'd been coming back, but the kids around her were all excited a collective 'oooh' chorusing out from them.
"No more'n four to a boat!" Hagrid called over to them which quickly resulted in the 3 countries and London in a boat, and looking to the side Ludwig saw that Harry and Ron were in a boat with the boy who'd lost a toad, and Hermione.
Quickly the fleet of boats seemed to move off at the same time, gliding smoothly across the water and the fact that it was so dark seemed to make it more mysterious and magical. Eventually it was over though, ending in Neville scrambling away from the boats to happily pick up his toad while Audrey turned and smiled at her friends.
"Now we all get to be sorted" she said with excitement that was easily told despite having been sorted so often in the past she'd forgotten how many times it had already happened. "And don't worry Feli, it's not scary!"
FaelwenofLothlorien: *giggles* I guess we all have a lot to love about Arthur but his cooking definitely isn't one of those things so understandable! Also thanks for that, that's why I put the explanations for the wands in because I decided to go in depth!
Zantetsuken Reverse: I'm glad that you liked the explanation of the wands, being a total HP fanatic I had to put them in for a reason otherwise I would've just… been unable to post it… *author may be slightly OCD*
Akumu Lee Crimson: Aw! I'm glad that you like the fic, considering though I write it for me I guess it's also for you guys because you're the ones reading it! And thanks… I'm trying to make Audrey not Mary-Sue I suppose ^-^
Anyway the sorting is the next thing on my to do list so I may take a while sorting that out but if you have any ideas or anything you want to see send a review and I might be able to organize something for you and put your idea in! Also tell me your thoughts, I love hearing them!
And speaking of ideas, because I'm going through the characters (most of them for fun actually) I'm wondering what houses you think they'd be in! There's so many I can see them in O.o, not to mention so many different opinions from different people (e.g. France being a Hufflepuff *author almost dies of laughter*)