I HAVE NO EXCUSES! Seriously, I have nothing to explain why I haven't updated in so absurdly long. And it's a short chapter too. Ah, well. Several (hundred) thank-yous this time: first and foremost, to inkedvigilante (FOR THE LOVE OF PASTA, GO READ HER FIC RETRACE. NOW. IT NEARLY MADE ME CRY. MULTIPLE TIMES.) for drawing the adorable IceLiech cover art that's up now, as well as two or three others that may take their turns as covers! She is an epic Canadian ninja. But anyway. The ninjas-in-training are the reviewers, this chapter including xXNaidaXx, Crazy Awesome Neko, Equality4Puppies, zoewinter1, Shiralala, Iris99ify, and a shoot-ton of guest reviewers that would take too long to list. Honorable mention goes to my dear friend DarkDramaLady for her epic, epic rant on the House descriptions in chapter 4. Seriously, go look at it. And never, ever tick her off. I do not own Hetalia or Harry Potter, for if I did, inkedvigilante would draw the covers of the HP books and DarkDramaLady would be my betareader.

Chapter 10

The halls clear around Sasha Alexander as she walks, and even most of the first years know to shift away and content themselves with looking at her. She glances back to see if Charlotte is still behind her. She is, trotting at Sasha's heels like a loyal dog. They are on their way to breakfast, and everything is as it should be. Until they reach the Great Hall, that is. Those weird new foreign students are all sitting together, talking and fighting and laughing at the end of one table.

Her table.

No one sits at the Slytherin table unless they're in Slytherin. Not on Sasha's watch, anyway. She marches over. "Excuse me." She attempts to capture their attention sweetly, but to no avail.

A louder "EXCUSE HER!" from Charlotte caught their notice, though, and Sasha flashed her a grateful look before turning her gaze back to the odd visitors before her.

"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid you have all made something of a mistake. We sit with our houses, not all together. This is the Slytherin table, the next one over is Ravenclaw, then Hufflepuff, and the last table is Gryffindor." She points at each as she mentions it, her voice touching sarcasm on the last one. "I am sure this is but a simple mistake and it won't happen again, yes?"

They look at each other for a moment before one, a muscular Gryffindor boy with shaggy blond hair, stands up. "Of course. We don't want to… invade anyone's territory. Come along, Lili." A younger girl, also a Gryffindor and bearing a striking resemblance to the boy, gets up and follows happily. After a short silence, the others that aren't in Slytherin leave the table as well.

Sasha sits down as far from the leftover foreigners as possible, Charlotte taking the seat next to her. "Name, year, any information you've got, really, on the first boy who talked to me – bloody coward for a Gryffindor." She rolls her eyes and reaches for the toast that had just appeared on the table.

"Basch Zwingli, fourth year Gryffindor. The girl was his little sister Lili. Basch himself was in my Defense class yesterday. He sat in the exact center of the room – took great pains to do so – and sat alone, even though there are two other foreign students in the class."

"Names?"

"Gryffindors Ludwig Beilschmidt and Tino… something. Even the professor couldn't pronounce his last name. The Beilschmidt boy has a German accent and Tino indicated he came from Finland."

"And Zwingli's little sister? Lili?"

"Lili Zwingli, first year Gryffindor. I don't know much else about her."

"Still, a fine job for the second morning of school, my dear. Keep watching those Gryffindors."

"As always. Could you please pass the milk, Sasha?"

"Of course, dear."

-/|\-

As it is Wednesday, Russia is in the remarkable position of having no classes to attend until three o'clock in the afternoon. Having nowhere else to go, he stays in the Great Hall after the others clear out, practicing the transfiguration spells Britian had taught on a cup of pumpkin juice saved from breakfast. After several attempts at turning said juice to water, he finally manages vodka (but vodka is Russian water and therefore it counts, da?). As he starts to drink it, though, a shadow falls over him.

"Ivan," Norway greets simply, and Russia looks up at the Ravenclaw.

"Oh, hello, Lukas. Why are you here?"

"Arthur forgot to tell everyone, but we have a meeting place now for when we don't have classes. It's up on the seventh floor, just a bit past the portrait of Godric Gryffindor. The door will have a carving of a tree on it. I'll be going up there now, if you could find some others and tell them."

"Certainly, I will." Russia begins to gather his things, and Norway leaves without another word. After wandering the halls and even the library for a while and finding no other nation, Russia relocates the stairs and starts going up. The seventh floor is high, but not unattainable, and the room Norway spoke of is easy to find. The door itself is a grand affair; stained a shade reminiscent of honey, it features an extraordinary carving of a broad gnarled oak with a decent assortment of animals around it, most notably a bull moose and a bison. Russia pushes the door open and looks inside.

The room is perfect. Enormous bookshelves cover the side walls from floor to ceiling. Tables and chairs and couches upholstered with purple velvet sit invitingly in front of the bookshelves, creating a comfortable environment for studying. Curtains hanging from rods on the high ceiling are pushed to the far end of the room but, if closed, would cut the open middle area off from the study areas. A gigantic cabinet the same shade of the door occupies the middle of the far wall, and the floor is black carpet. Crystal chandeliers hang from the ceiling. Belarus, Germany, Switzerland, Finland, Japan, France, Hungary, Norway, Denmark, and Egypt are already sitting in various places around the room when Russia comes in.

"Big brother!" Belarus squeals happily when she sees him, jumping up from her chair. "Big brother, how were your first days of school? I haven't seen you very often since the beginning of the school year…" she pouts. Russia smiles slightly. He had been avoiding her as much as possible lately. He knows it's rude, but it would be difficult to explain his own sister's advances toward him to the other students, not that they dare talk to him too much.

"Natalia, Ivan, we should begin," Norway says, standing.

"Begin what?" Russia asks, pulling his sister off gently.

"Practice." The others gather as he draws his wand. "Today's lesson: Disarming. Expelliarmus!" Denmark's thin cypress wand flies out of his hand. Norway catches it expertly. "Pair up and try it. Natalia, this is third year curriculum, so you should sit out."

Hungary warily pairs up with Russia (Belarus, naturally, stares daggers at her), Denmark whimpers at Norway to give his wand back, and Japan and Germany are already practicing. Cries of "Expelliarmus!" resound in the large room, though only France is successful at disarming his partner, Finland, sending the wand halfway across the room.

"Very good, Francis," Norway says as most of the others congratulate him more enthusiastically. "What kind of wand do you have, anyway?"

"Ten inches, elder, phoenix feather, if I recall correctly."

"Really. Careful with that thing; it's powerful."

"So I've heard," France smiles. "Shall we go? It appears to nearly be time for the next class."

-/|\-

"Please, Eduard? Please? Just look it over?" America pleads. Estonia sighs.

"Jupiter's biggest moon is Ganymede, not Callisto," he says, pointing over America's shoulder at a line in that nation's Astronomy essay, "and it's Io that's got the volcanoes."

"Thanks, dude!"

"You're welcome. Just pay a bit more attention to what's beyond next time you send someone to the moon."

"Eh, NASA does that for me."

The evening of the second day of school is surprisingly peaceful. Second-year Astronomy classes had just let out and everyone is in the Room of Requirement doing homework (everyone but the first years, that is; their curfew was up at eight, and their Astronomy class isn't until midnight.).

"Alfred, do your own work!" Britain yells and turns back to Norway, whom he had been speaking to. "Are you sure it's time yet? We're hardly through the second-year curriculum. That's at the end of third year."

"You have it now, don't you?"

"Yes… very well. Tomorrow we'll have a mandatory practice for fourth years and up… I am hesitant about this, Lukas."

"Make it third years and up. They ought to see before they get it in Defense."

"Yes, that makes sense, being who we are. Do you care to make the announcement or shall I?"

"Go ahead." Norway chuckles. "This is why we take of this during first year at Durmstrang."

"And you also taught dark magic at Durmstrang until the second war ended," observes Britain as he stands. "Your attention, please, everyone! Mandatory practice tomorrow evening at seven for third years and above. Defense stuff. And bloody hell, Italy, don't forget your wand this time!"

Yes, yes, it's filler. But it's IMPORTANT filler. Mwahahahaha. So what do you think Iggy and Norge are up to? Anyone? Guess away! No spoiling it, DarkDramaLady and xXNaidaXx.

For the record, Eesti (who finally made an appearance; squeeeee!) was directly quoting Hermione in chapter 14 of Order of the Phoenix when he was trying to explain Jupiter's moons to America. I just had to.

The next chapter is already written (the next chapter is, in fact, the reason I began writing this story in the first place), so it'll be up in two days, maybe tomorrow if I get enough reviews... oh, by the way, people who voted Prussia in the poll (which is still there, everyone else!), he gets to be especially awesome next chapter. That's all I'm going to say. Well, that and that people wondering why Germany is placed in Gryffindor will get the beginning of their explanation.

For the record, the schedules are NOT entirely canon. To get everything to fit, I had to remake them entirely. That's why the nations get random breaks between classes when they go use the Room of Requirement. I also had to tweak curricula a bit, but that we can blame on Professor McGonagall being Headmistress, right?

Anywho, Sasha and Charlotte have something relevant here. And I still have only like half the important OC's introduced appropriately... gah. Wish me luck with that.

Kiitos! Nähdään myöhemmin! (Finnish)