In America's opinion, it was pretty cool that Dumb Whore had allowed him and Russia to stay. After all, the guy had no obligation to do so. He could have told them to fuck off, like England had been more than happy to do.

Hogwarts was...surprisingly smaller than he remembered. But then, it probably had something to do with the fact that he was no longer a few feet tall.

It was still pretty awesome though.

"Hey dudes!" he called out to a nearby group of students. They shot him odd looks and made no move to reply. America paused his stride to study them for a moment, taking in the green on their uniforms.

"Hey," he said, "you guys are those Slither-whats-its, right?"

They all simultaneously sneered at him.

"...Creepy."

America continued on his way.

He thought about England's reaction to his and Russia's arrival; it had gone exactly how he'd expected. Sure, he could joke as much as he wanted about how Iggy would be fucking thrilled to see him but the truth was, he knew it would be the complete opposite. It was actually kind of sad...the last time he'd been here, things had been so great...

...Then again, it wasn't as if things had been like that for a long time...

A loud giggle brought him out of his thoughts. America turned around, his eyebrows raising when he caught sight of the people standing behind him.

"Hey dudes," he said.

The two girls giggled again.

America inwardly frowned; it was actually kind of creepy how synchronized things were around here...

"I'm sorry," giggled one of the girls. "I don't think I've ever seen you before - are you a new student?"

"Uhh..." America thought for a moment. Did he have a cover story for why he was here, or was he just some random who happened to be in the school?

He decided to go with the latter.

"I'm just some random who happens to be in the school," he told them.

The two girls giggled in response.

"Oh, that sounds brilliant," said the other girl. "Do you have a name?"

"Err...sure..." America stared at them for a moment, wondering what the hell they found so funny. "I'm Alfred."

"Oh, I love your accent!" The first girl who had spoken shot him a large smile and - unsurprisingly - giggled again.

"Really?" America blinked in surprise. "That's...weird. Usually you British dudes tend to hate everything about the US of A. Well...at least Iggy does..."

"I'm Lavender," the girl told him, fluffing up her blonde hair as she did. "And that's Parvati."

She nudged the girl standing beside her, who mirrored her friends actions.

"Well...cool, I guess." America smiled at them. "So, you guys students here?"

"Oh yes," Lavender said, nodding her head. "We're fifth years - are you a fifth year?"

"No," America replied. "I told you, I'm just a random."

"Oh right..." Lavender pouted slightly. "Well, that's too bad. I think it would have been brilliant if you were. We need more...foreign accents around here."

"You should say that to Iggy," America laughed. "He'd have a heart attack."

"Oh," Parvati said, "is 'Iggy' American too?"

America stared at her for a moment.

"...You should say that to him too."

"So, Alfred," Parvati said (was it just him or had she put a lot of breath into that sentence?). "Want to come to the lake with us?"

Beside her, Lavender batted her eyelashes.

"Wow," America murmured, his eyes widening. "You have freakishly long eyelashes."

Lavender beamed at him. "Thank you."

America frowned slightly because, well...that hadn't been a compliment. Oh well; if she wanted to take it as one, he didn't have too much of a problem with it.

"I can't go to the lake," he apologized. "I mean, I would but uh...I have stuff to do. Yeah, that's right - I have stuff to do."

Lavender pouted, while Parvati looked disappointed.

"That's too bad," she sighed.

"Yeah," Lavender agreed. "But then...maybe we'll see you around sometime?"

"Well maybe." America shrugged. "I mean, I'm going to be here for a while..."

The two girls giggled again; America inwardly cringed.

"I have to go," he told them. He headed away, trying to keep his pace slow and not...well, not run off.

Once he had rounded the corner, he sighed and shook his head. In all honesty, a walk around the lake would have been nice...however, the thought of spending time with those two girls, while they giggled at empty air was...slightly disturbing actually.

...Maybe they saw things that weren't there, like Iggy did...

...

Neville didn't quite know what was going on, or what the freakishly tall male standing in front of him was trying to say, but whatever it was, it didn't seem good.

"I'm sorry," he said, trying to keep any inklings of fear our of his voice. "What's going on?"

The man smiled; despite the seeming pleasantness of it, Neville was sure that he wasn't imagining the menacing edge to it...

"You will become one with Russia, da?"

"Russia?" Neville swallowed, heavily. "You mean...that country?"

The smile grew larger.

"Er..." Neville lowered his eyes and coughed, awkwardly. "I don't...really understand. I've never been to Russia."

The man didn't seem bothered by this. "That does not matter - you do not have to have gone there to become on with it."

"I...do you want me to move there?" Neville's brow furrowed. "No thanks...I mean, I'm sure it's a great place, but -"

The man's hand drifted across something; Neville's eyes widened when he caught sight of what it was.

A pipe.

"I will be seeing you, da?" The man nodded his head, before heading off in the opposite direction. Neville stared after him, his eyes wide.

What the hell had that been about?

...

"You know," Ron said, taking a seat down next to Harry and Hermione. "I was just talking to Neville, and the bloke was ranting on about some 'tall creep with a pipe' who was asking him to become one with Russia."

Harry raised one eyebrow. "Is that supposed to mean something?"

"Well, yeah." Ron nodded his head. "I thought it might have something to do with those strange blokes that showed up yesterday."

Hermione lifted her head slightly, her eyes lighting up with curiosity.

"Do you mean the ones that were with Professor Kirkland?"

"Yeah," Ron replied. "Those ones. Weird that they're still around, huh?"

"No," Harry responded, bitterly. "Dumbledore's a real fan of Kirkland, isn't he?"

Neither Hermione, nor Ron, made any move to defend either of their professors.

"We need to find out what's going on," Hermione sighed. "What we saw in that penseive...it wasn't normal. People don't just die and then come back to life."

"I know," Harry muttered. "You'd think that would tell Dumbledore that something was wrong. No one can be that blind."

Ron frowned for a moment, looking thoughtful. "Do you think Dumbledore knows about it?"

Harry shrugged. "Maybe...not that I would know about it if he did." He glared, bitterly.

"I don't know whether Dumbledore knows about it or not," Hermione responded. "Whatever it is, I think we need to find out what's going on. Something isn't right."

"You think those new blokes are like the Professor?" Ron stared at his friends questioningly. "He seems to know them pretty well."

"He seems to hate them pretty well," Harry muttered.

"It doesn't matter if he loves them or hates them," Hermione replied, firmly. "We just need to find out what's going on. If they're involved..."

"...Then we need to start paying more attention to them," Harry finished.

Ron grimaced slightly. "If this means spending quality time with them, I am not having anything to do with the bloke with the pipe."

...

"You know, Flying Mint Bunny," England sighed. "I bloody hate America - hate him with a fiery passion that rivals that of the fires of hell."

"I love you," Flying Mint Bunny told him.

England smiled slightly. "I know you do."

Flying Mint Bunny stared at him for a moment longer. "You should probably stop drinking that."

England took a swig from the bottle of alcohol he was holding, and stared miserably at the wall.