6. Snake

Lovino and Ludwig rushed to Harry's bed in the middle of the night, woken up by his pants and cries. "Wake up!" Ludwig yelled as he jumped awake. The intense look in his eyes told them exactly what happened as Ludwig hightailed out of the tower with Harry in his firm grip while Lovino woke up Ron to catch him up.

They all met in Dumbledore's office, Harry, drenched in sweat. "In the dream, were you standing next to the victim, or looking down at the scean?"

"Neither." Harry answered. "Professor, I-"

"Regenald!" he interrupted as he approached the portrait. "Contact the medics, tell them Arthur Weasly is gravely injured, and his children will be there momentarily by port key."

"Professor, what is-"

"Felix! Get to the Fat Lady, and tell her to wake up the Weasly children and tell them the news."

Ludwig and Lovino watched as he hurried around the room. "Sir, Arthur Weasly is now in intensive care."

"Oh thank-"

"LOOK AT ME!" Harry exploded, causing everyone to jump.

Lovino nearly screamed, jumping out of his skin, and Ludwig held in a breath, taking a cautious step back as Harry's blue eyes flashed to a much darker, paler color. No one dared move as all eyes rested on Harry. "...Harry..." Ludwig whispered, too shocked to do anything else as Snape came in the room.

"You asked for me?" the man in black purred in his blank, expressionless way.

"Severus!" Dumbledore exclaimed, happy to see the very man he needed. "I'm afraid this cannot wait, not even 'til morning. Otherwise, we'll all be vulnerable." Snape snatched Harry's sweating wrist and dragged him out as Ludwig and Lovino faced the headmaster. "You boys should get to bed. You still have classes tomorrow."

With that in mind, they drifted out of the room and sat on their bunks fully awake. "You think Harry will be okay?" Lovino asked, hanging his head over the edge of the bunk to look at the German.

Ludwig looked over and sighed, laying on his elbow facing the Italian. "I know he's been through worse, but even if he wouldn't be fine, we can't just send Gilbert to Arthur."

"Why not?"

"Umbridge confiscated all the personal, and school owls to keep control of the post, remember?"

Lovino's face morphed into its usual scowl as he laid back in his bed. "...What do you miss most?"

"About what?" Ludwig asked.

"I don't know, home? A specific time?" he huffed. "...If you say that you miss WW2, I'm gonna-"

"I don't!" he shouted, careful not to wake anyone up. "...If anything, the World Wars were my LEAST favorite times." he sighed in thought. "...No one thought I would get out of my debt and depression after WW1. I had paper money flooding my country...just no gold to back it up, so it was useless. The second World War has most of my regrets...and is also what I'm most known for. 'Germany! The heartless, Nazi country against all Pols and Jews, wanting nothing more than to achieve World Domination with the Japanese and Italians!', yeah, that's a great reputation." he huffed sarcastically. (A/N: No offence intended with his general comment.) "No, I really miss...the Enlightenment Era. Back in the day when common sense was ACCTUALLY common. Science and art grew to have more importance, people questioned church, government, nature... There was this one man...I don't remember his name...but he posted copies of 95 things wrong with the church on every church door. Man! Did that man have guts, especially since back then, church ruled everything." he sighed dreamily before asking, "What about you?"

Lovino was fairly surprised at the question. "...What about me?"

"What do you miss? Your country? An era? ...A special some-country?"

"WHAT?!" The Italian tensed at the last suggestion. "I'm dating Sallin! You DON'T need to say 'special some-country'!"

"Just because you miss someone doesn't mean you love Sallin any less." he stated.

Lovino thought for a second before he sighed. "...Fine... Before I kissed Sallin, I asked her to come home with me for Christmas break, and she instantly thought I lived in Spain… If you tell ANYONE, I will slit your throat in your sleep…but, to tell you the truth…I miss the days I lived with Antonio in Spain." Ludwig was silent, giving Lovino room to speak. "I mean, not really that I miss those days, I just…I look back on those days, and think that, I was a complete little bastard to him. He only had my best interest in mind. How do I repay him? I never said 'thank you', I called him a bastard…I kept him shut out."

"…Antonio told me that you used to have it upon yourself to wake him up every morning."

The Italian sighed. "…Si…"

The German looked up in thought. "How did you wake him up?"

An evil smirk spread across his tanned face. "…If you want, Potato Bastard…I'll wake you up tomorrow with a similar…technique…" he purred, followed by an ominous chuckle. "Bunne notte."

Ludwig just stared at the top bunk in worried curiosity. "…Gute Nacht…" and though it was beyond difficult, he got comfortable and fell asleep.

The next morning, hours before classes started, when the sun was barely rising, Ludwig started to shift in his bed with a feeling of someone watching him. Next to his bed was Lovino, staring at him with big green-brown eyes. He looked down at the large ball in his hand, about the size and weight of his chibiself. He hovered it as high as it would go over the German's stomach, and dropped it.

The blond woke with a loud shout, surprisingly only causing the other boys to shift or grumble. Ludwig looked up at the smirking Italian with a scowl. "What was that?!"

"That's how I woke up Antonio when we were living together~!" he answered in a way much like his brother. "…Except, I would literally jump on him continuously until he'd get up. Thank God you only take one "jump", and that I could find that ball~!" The German just scowled before getting ready for his day. That's the last time he tries to bond with Italia Romano.

Soon, Christmas break came and, though Lovino brought Sallin home with him and his brother, Ludwig simply sent his brother a Christmas card and went with Harry to House Black so he could keep a closer eye on him. He was happy to see Mrs. Weasly there, as well as Mr. Weasly. "Daddy's back~!" the woman announced happily, assisting her husband in his chair.

Ludwig took in the features of the man. Like the rest of the Weasly's, he had the ginger hair that was cut short. His eye color was undetermined because of the swelling in his face from, what he could only assume was, the attack Harry dreamed about. While Mrs. Weasly passed out presents, Ludwig went to meet Mr. Weasly face to face.

The man looked at the blond in front of him curiously. "I don't believe I've met you." he stated.

"My name is Ludwig Doitsu, sir." He introduced with a hand to shake. "I'm one of Harry's and Ron's…friends from school."

They shook hands before Mr. Weasly tilted his head to the side. "Why aren't you with your family?" he asked. "I'm sure they'd want to see you after a long semester."

"Mein Bruder doesn't even know I'm attending Hogwarts, and I don't have any other family really." He shrugged.

"Is your brother muggle?"

Ludwig shrugged a little. "…Yes and no…" he stated. "…He doesn't have magic, if that's what you mean."

Though he gave a confused look, Mr. Weasly smiled past it and shook his hand again. "Well Ludwig, you are welcome at the Weasly's! Happy Christmas."

"Frohe Weihnachten-I mean-Merry Christmas." He replied, not noticing someone coming up behind him until he felt an object slide in his hand.

When he turned, he saw Mrs. Weasly with a big, warm smile on her face, quickly pulling him in a hug. "Happy Christmas Ludwig."

He looked down at the wrapped box he held. It was fairly average as far as presents go, about the size of a textbook. Glancing at the tag that read, "To: Ludwig, From: Weasly's" Ludwig looked up at the woman. "You didn't have to, Mrs. Weasly." He stated. "I didn't get you anything."

She waved her hand dismissively. "Oh, posh!" she exclaimed. "What kind of Christmas would it be for you if you didn't get anything, or didn't see your family?"

He smiled gratefully as he hugged her again and opened the box. Inside was a home stitched dark red sweater vest with pale yellow hymning and the same yellow making up a large "L" on the chest. Zigzagged in the sweater in a seemingly random order were several shades of pale pink, and black with little bits and pieces of dark greens and blues. He smiled at her again and thanked her politely; putting it on since she just stared at him with her face frozen in excitement until he did.

Once all the gifts were passed out, Mr. Weasly proposed a toast. "To Harry!" he exclaimed, waiting for everyone's attention before he continued. "Without whom, I would not be here."

"To Harry!" Everyone else cheered, taking a sip from their beverage.

"Harry!" a voice added itself to the toast from the doorway. Ludwig and Harry both looked at the new man. He had long, wavy black hair along with a small black beard and mustache. His cloths were dark purplish brown that made him blend in the walls of the house. Ludwig was sure he saw that man before, but wasn't sure from where. He knows he heard his voice before.

Harry smiled and hugged him. "Serious!" he exclaimed in joy.

That name hit the German like a ton of bricks. Was that really the same man that talked to them from the fire place in the common room? He simply walked up and extended his hand once he and Harry separated. "Hallo sir." He stated. "I'm Ludwig."

Serious shook his hand firmly. "It's nice to finally meet you face to face. You look so different in person than you did from the fire place." He then turned to his godson. "Harry, can I talk to you for a moment?" With a nod from Harry, the two left to the other room. Ludwig couldn't help but listen in through the door. "…I heard that you dreamed of Arthur's attack as it was happening."

Harry sighed. "It was so odd!" he exclaimed. "Dumbledore thought that I was only seeing it, but I was really-" he cut himself off. "…I was the snake." Ludwig had to bite down on his tongue to keep from being noticed after hearing that bit of information. "Serious, what if I'm-" Harry cut himself off again, searching for what to say. "While I was in Dumbledore's office, there was a point I wanted to…For just a moment, I-" He attempted to recollect his thoughts again. "Serious, what if I'm becoming more like Voldemort?" he asked. "What if I'm becoming bad? I mean, I'm just so angry…all the time!"

After a moment's silence, Ludwig heard Serious step closer to Harry. "Harry, I want you to listen very carefully." He stated slowly. "You're NOT a bad person. You're a very GOOD person…who bad things have happened to. The world isn't separated into good people and Death Eaters, we all have light and dark inside us. It's what we chose to do with our abilities that make us good or bad." Hearing that, Ludwig decided it would be better if he just borrowed a phone from someone and call his brother. He hadn't seen him in six months, and it is Christmas after all.