Chapter 19: America Can Be Philosophical, When He's Sleep Walking

Harry, Ron, and Hermione were talking to Sirius when America came down the stairs. He was unusually quiet, but he seemed to be mumbling to himself. There was a frustrated look on his face as if he were in a situation he didn't want to be in.

Sirius went to leave but Hermione stopped him. "Wait! I think he's just sleep walking."

"Oui. Don't wake him. I don't know what he's dreaming about, but I do know he's armed, eh." a voice said from the shadows. "You might as well stay Mr. Black. I've already seen you. Besides, I don't plan on telling and even if I was, they'd forget what I said. And if Alfred wakes up, he probably won't remember this. He never does, eh."

Matthew stepped out of the shadows. He looked exhausted but was keeping a watchful eye on his twin. For once he didn't have his polar bear on him. He carefully lead his brother to the couch and sat him down. He sat down on the floor himself.

"You mean he does this often?" Hermione asked.

"Oui. More often than you'd think." Canada replied. "Just ignore what he says." He turned to Sirius. "So you're the famous Sirius Black, eh. You don't seem like a mass murderer. Then again, the Ministry's full of shit from what I've seen. I'm Matthew Williams and this is my twin brother, Alfred F. Jones. Our older frére is the history of magic professor."

"You're French." Sirius stated.

"Canadian actually." Matthew corrected. "But mon papa is French. Al's American and Arthur's British."

"Sounds like you have family all over." Sirius chuckled.

"Oui. Italian, Spanish, Vietnamese, Australian, South African, Portuguese, Mexican, and Indian. There's probably more but I can't think of them now. Arthur also has another little brother that lives with this Nordic couple and their friends. And I think Alfred adopted a couple of people from the former Soviet Union as his siblings." Matthew said. "So oui. We have family all over."

"I thought you said you brother was French." Ron said.

"Oui. Francis is technically mon frére, but he prefers I call him Papa because he took care of me after my mother died." Canada lied. It technically wasn't a total lie, but he wasn't going to go into details of how he was actually found in a forest in Canada back in the 17th century. Arthur wouldn't be too happy if he said that. "Then he and Arthur got it a fight and Arthur won custody of both Alfred and me, eh. But enough about that. Just continue your conversation. I'm going to be here until Al decides to go back to bed."

The Golden Trio continued their conversation until Sirius decided to leave. Ron went to bed but Harry and Hermione stayed.

"Say, er, Matthew, would you and your friends like to join Dumbledore's Army?" Harry asked.

"Oui. Where do we sign up, eh?" Canada replied.

Hermione handed him a paper with a bunch of names on it. Matthew could feel some kind of curse flowing through it, but he knew it wouldn't work on them. Besides, it was only if someone told Umbridge. So Arthur would be okay to tell.

He signed his, Alfred's, Feliciano's, and Ludwig's names. Then he gave it back to Hermione. She and Harry went to bed, leaving the nations alone. He pulled out a book to keep himself from falling asleep.

"Mattie? What are you doing here?" Alfred finally asked after about an hour of sitting there.

He was half awake, half asleep. Matthew knew he was still in his dream, so he had to be careful with what he said. Depending on what the dream was, the wrong thing might cause America to panic.

There was a lot of dark stuff in America's past and it haunted his nightmares. Certain things were more touchy than others. So when he was sleep walking due to a nightmare, then Canada had to tread carefully with his words. It was important that he didn't ask about where he was. Alfred would usually allude to what he was dreaming about.

"My boss sent me here for diplomatic reasons." Canada replied. "What are you doing here?"

"My boss is making me fight in this damn war." America said bitterly. "This thing was a mistake from the beginning. Just because my people and my government support it doesn't automatically mean I do. The rest of the world tends to forget that. Anyway, if my boss wasn't lying to them and they knew how bad it really was, then my people wouldn't support it either."

"What do you mean?"

America scowled. "I'm supposed to be fighting an idea. You can't use weapons to fight an idea. You have to use diplomacy and hope your strategy and ideas are better than your enemy's. Here, the enemy looks the same as the people that are supposed to be protected. And if the wrong person is killed, then our allies turn against us." A look of complete and utter frustration crossed his face. "My people are dying for a lost cause and my country's name is being dragged through the mud. It's things like this that make me want to go back to isolationism."

"Then we'd only see each other at meetings, eh." Canada pointed out. "And you're not one to give up easily."

The American sighed. "You're right Mattie. It's just so frustrating sometimes. But I signed up for this when I left Iggy, didn't I?"

"Oui. You did. But if you hadn't then you wouldn't be you. And though you are insufferable sometimes, you are mon frére. We had each other before we had England and France. I can't imagine you any different." Canada told him.

"Iggy was right about certain things. I really should start listening to him better. And there's a lot of thing I regret. But I wouldn't change a thing." the American mused.

A smile spread across the northern twin's face. "Neither would I. But dare I say that my little brother is growing up, eh?"

"I guess so." Alfred laughed sleepily. "Just don't tell Iggy or I'll never hear the end of it."

Matthew chuckled. "Oui, don't worry Al. Your secret's safe with me. It always is."

"Thanks Mattie." America replied before yawning. "I might not always act like it but I do love you."

"I love you too Alfred." Canada said. "Now let's go back to bed."

"M'kay. Night Mattie." the American mumbled before drifting back to sleep.

"Bonne nuit." Matthew said as he lead his twin back to the dorm.

He knew America wouldn't remember the conversation in the morning, but it didn't really matter. And the Canadian wasn't exactly planning on telling anyone. Nobody would believe him anyway if he told them. Besides, it was nice to share a secret with his brother even if he was the only one that knew about it.

America/Canada brotherly bonding time. Of course America was half asleep when they were bonding but still. America's not a complete idiot. He's serious when nobody else is around. And the nation's are officially in the DA. Anyway, thank you so much to my reviewer and followers. If you see mistakes, please tell me. I don't own Harry Potter or Hetalia.