Hetalia and all related characters and elements are property of Hidekaz Himaruya and Gentosha Inc. Harry Potter and all related characters and elements are property of J. K. Rowling, Bloomsbury Publishing, and Arthur A. Levine Books.
~This chapter written by B.
Feliciano strolled back into the Magic Around the World classroom at lunch. He didn't mind being on clean up duty, although he wasn't sure what he did to deserve it. No matter, he happily dropped his stuff on his usual desk and got to work. Clapping erasers, picking gum from under the seats, straightening the desks. It wasn't a pleasant job, but Feliciano did it anyway, all the while humming the tune of Marukaite Chikyuu. He ran into a problem, however. There were no cleaning supplies in sight. In addition, he hadn't been at Hogwarts for long and didn't know any useful spells. Where is Professor Beilschmidt? he thought. He'd probably know what I should do. Maybe he's in the back office. I can ask him! He stopped himself. No, he was the one to assign me the job in the first place… He might get mad.
He brushed the chalk out of his hair and sighed. After some pacing and searching the room and its cabinets, he gave up. To his misfortune, the door to the back office was closed. Biting his lip, he knocked on the door.
"Professor?" he called. No answer. He knocked again, louder this time. "Professor!"
Professor Beilschmidt opened the door a bit, then sat back down and continued marking papers. "What is it, Mr. Vargas? I'm busy."
"Well, um… I'm sorry, Professor! I didn't mean to bother you, I just came because you told me to clean the classroom so I came in and I tidied it up a bit but I still need to clean everything and sweep the floors and polish the desks and to do that I need all the stuff for it because I don't know any spells or anything to help but I can't find any cleaning stuff anywhere and I thought you might know where I could find some… By the way, why did you want me to clean the classroom?"
The Professor glared at him. "Have you not paid attention at all in the past week? If you don't know a spell, why don't you look it up?" he asked sternly.
Feliciano flinched. "Please don't yell at me, Professor! I didn't know where to look it up and even if I did I didn't want to mess up and make the room even messier and so far I haven't gotten a single spell right! So do you know where I could find some cleaning stuff? And also I do wanna know why I'm cleaning this room because it's not like I spilled potions in this one like yesterday. Boy, I hope THAT never happens again, but the colours in the fire were so pretty! Maybe I should try again…" he trailed off.
"Absolutely not. I'm sure Professor Snape won't go any easier on you if you mess up again. I suggest you keep the potion-using to a minimum if you don't want to get stuck with writing lines for hours on end. As for why you're here today… You really don't realize when you speak out of turn, do you? Learn to put your hand up."
"Oh. So… the cleaning stuff? Is there like a supply closet I should know about?" He saw Professor Beilschmidt roll his eyes. "I'm sorry I'm bothering youuu~ If you want I can just make do with what I have! I'm not sure how clean I can get the floor using spit and the sleeve of my robe but I can still do it! I'll make sure the desks are shining even without polish if that's what you want! Please don't hurt me!" He started to cower.
"Fine. I, on the other hand, took the liberty of studying the basic spells before we got here. Watch me," he commanded as he got out of his chair. He went into to classroom and pointed his wand at one of the desks. He shouted something and the desk was clean.
"Ve~" Italy got a dazed look on his face, amazed by the magic. "How did you do that?"
"Were you not watching?!" the professor asked, frustrated. He was right, Feliciano hadn't been paying attention to the spell at all. He was distracted, as per usual. Not that he ever really paid attention to his surroundings, but today he was especially spacey.
"Oh, no, sorry." Italy blushed and stepped back, afraid Professor Beilschmidt would yell. He hated when people raised their voices at him.
The professor muttered something about Feli being a dummkopf and sighed. "It's pronounced 'SKUR-ji-fy.' Point your wand and say it. I may not be the Charms teacher but there are some things you just need to know."
"Oh, got it." Feliciano nodded with a determined look on his face. He tried… and messed up. He was holding his wand backwards. Looking down at himself, he realized he was really clean, but the filth on all the desks remained.
"Why can you not do anything correctly?" Professor Beilschmidt shouted, burying his face in his hands. "I try and try to get you to understand things, and you never do." He grabbed hold of Feliciano's shoulder. "You don't ever think before you do things, you have no common sense, you never pay attention.." One thing Feli could understand was that the man in front of him was not just speaking from a professor's point of view. Their past together consisted of many times where Feliciano screwed up. The professor continued on, pleading, "What does it take for you to get things?"
The small Italian looked up at him, opening his eyes completely for the first time in a long while. Tears appeared and he made no effort to brush them away. "I… I'm sorry." He messed up again. What his professor said was true, he could never get anything right. He couldn't answer him though, for he himself didn't know the nature of his absentmindedness. "I.. I should g-go. If skipping out on cleaning gets me in trouble more, th-that's okay. I guess I'll t-try again another day. Lovino wanted to talk to me about something so I, uh, I guess I'll see you later."
He scurried out of the room, leaving the professor standing there, speechless.