CHAPTER 30: ABBOOOOOOOOOTT!

Canada had trouble concentrating on choosing new classes to take next year, to say the least. A short while before the Easter holidays, Harry had discovered that T. M. Riddle's diary was indeed unusual. Apparently it had shown him one of Riddle's memories – to be exact, the memory of him catching Hagrid with a monster and accusing him of opening the Chamber of Secrets. Harry, Ron and Hermione were now all convinced that their beloved friend Hagrid had unleashed a monster on the school.

They didn't think he'd done it on purpose, of course. Hagrid had always had an affinity with the kind of creatures that had no business being anywhere near a school, but it was never malicious. He just thought they were cute and misunderstood. So, much to Canada's relief, they all decided not to bring it up to Hagrid. It had been months since the last attack, so the panic had started to die down as people began thinking it was all over. One good thing about this was that people started being nice to Harry again. Peeves got bored of his musical taunting, Ernie Macmillan had stopped saying Harry was the Heir of Slytherin, and people stopped giving him a wide berth in the corridors. To make things even better, the Mandrakes were close to reaching full maturity, so Mrs. Norris, Collin Creevey, Nearly Headless Nick and Justin Finch-Fletchley would soon be up and walking and talking and living again.

Canada, however, knew one little detail that no one else did, and it was putting a damper on his good mood. If Scotland was right, and he usually was about magic, Tom Riddle was a young He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, so his testimony regarding Hagrid's guilt was murky at best. He'd tried bringing up this tidbit to America as soon as they were out of earshot of the others after Harry first told them what he'd seen in the diary.

America had just looked at him in that 'what the hell are you talking about, dude' kind of way. "Dude, where did you get that idea?"

Canada had felt a sinking feeling in his stomach. "From Alistair, eh. Don't you remember?" America just stared at him blankly. Canada groaned, burying his face in his hands. "Oh, no. No, no, no, no, no, you have got to be kidding me. How could you forget something that important?!"

America shrugged. "If I didn't remember it, bro, it couldn't have been that important, right? How do you know you're not the one who's misremembering? Is that even a word? I dunno, if it isn't, it should be!"

So Canada had gone back to his room to find Scotland's letter and mash America's face into it until his memory kicked in. But, of course, since the universe seemed to have it in for him, he couldn't find the letter anywhere. He looked through his trunk three times, went through every pocket of every jacket and pair of pants he'd brought, and looked under his bed several times. Eventually he had to give up on both finding the letter and convincing his friends that Tom Riddle was Voldemort. If he couldn't convince his own brother, what hope did he have of convincing Harry, Ron and Hermione?

So Canada wasn't in the best state of mind when he was given a list of subjects he could take in his third year. When he, America and the Golden Trio were having a 'figure out which courses to take' meeting in the library, he found himself staring blankly at his list without really internalizing any of it. Is this how Ron feels all the time?

Hermione was taking the whole matter very seriously, of course. "It could affect our whole future," she said, poring over her own list.

"Maybe your future, dudes…" America muttered in a voice so quiet only Canada, who was sitting right next to him, could hear. He was right, of course. It really didn't matter which courses the two of them chose, or what grades they got. As soon as they graduated, it would be back home and to work as a Nation for them. Realizing that made Canada relax a bit.

"I just want to give up Potions," said Harry.

"We can't," said Ron gloomily. "We keep all our old subjects, or I'd've ditched Defence Against the Dark Arts."

"But that's very important!" said Hermione, shocked.

"Not the way Lockhart teaches it," said Ron. "I haven't learned anything from him except not to set pixies loose."

"And that Harry isn't a very good actor," joked America. Harry gave him a playful punch on the arm. "But, seriously, dudes, isn't the job cursed? If we're lucky, Glinda's going to be gone by the end of the year. But if the next guy they choose to teach hero class ruins it, too, I am going to punch him in the face."

"You can't solve everything by punching people, Alfred," said Canada.

"Then clearly you aren't punching people hard enough."

The meeting ended with Canada no closer to making a decision than before, but luckily fate decided to smile upon him for once. A few days later, both he and America received what felt like a deluge of letters filled with advice from England, Scotland, Wales, the Ireland twins, and France. They sat together on a bench in the Entrance Hall after breakfast to go over it all.

"Dylan seems to be the only one who recommended Arithmancy," said Canada, flipping through all his letters.

"Yeah, everyone else says it's really hard," said America, doing the same thing. "I wasn't expecting him to be the one to suggest it. He never struck me as, you know, the intellectual type." He glanced at his list of courses again. "Bro, everyone seems to really want us to take Care of Magical Creatures."

"The Kirklands do seem to really like them," noted Canada. "Francis said you'd probably be good at it, considering how you seem able to become friends with literally anything, eh. It seems like it might be fun. The lessons would be very hands-on." He looked down at his own list. "Muggle Studies would be pretty much useless for us."

"At least it would be an easy A," said America. "Or whatever it is wizards use for letter grades. Plus, can you imagine how hilarious it would be?"

"I don't think we should be choosing classes based on how much we'll laugh at the material, eh." Canada looked at his letters again. "Ancient Runes might be useful if we want to read anything really old."

"Dude, why would we want to do that? If we really needed to read something, we could just read the translation." Before Canada could point out that things were often lost in translation, America pointed at the last elective on the list and said, "What about Divination, bro? Patrick says it's a load of crap, but Arthur seems really into it, and everyone else is kind of 'meh' about it. What did Francis say?"

Canada checked the letter. "Eh… he said it might be worth a shot, and at the very least we could seem at least somewhat credible if we ever wanted to go into the fake fortune-telling racket."

America let out an exasperated puff of air that wasn't quite a sigh and shoved all his papers into his bag. "I'll just see what the Golden Trio are taking. See you later, bro!" America took off towards the Gryffindor common room.

Canada sighed, putting his own papers away. He didn't feel like he'd made all that much progress. It seemed that if he didn't take Care of Magical Creatures, all of Great Britain and Ireland might denounce any association with him, so he supposed that was one class decided on. He got up and started walking back to his own common room, since he didn't really have anything else to do. He was just thinking over whether to just take Muggle Studies in order to get an easy pass when someone crashed into him.

"Sorry," both he and whoever had crashed into him gasped as they fell to the ground. Sitting up, Canada saw that the crasher was Hannah Abbott.

She, remarkably, seemed to recognise him, too. "Sorry about that, Matthew, I didn't see you there," she said, picking up her bag.

Canada grabbed his own bag and stood up. "No, it's okay, I should have been paying more attention to my surroundings, eh."

He helped Hannah up to her feet, but before they could say anything else Ernie Macmillan appeared from around the corner. "Oh, Hannah, there you are!" he exclaimed, rushing over to them. "Where have you been? I wanted to talk about our courses."

Hannah let out a somewhat nervous laugh. "Oh, you know… around." Her eyes darted from side to side, obviously looking for an escape route. Eventually they landed on Canada. "You know, Ernie, I think I've pretty much figured out which ones I'll take, why don't you talk to Matthew about it?" With that she shoved Canada towards Ernie and fled in the same manner one might push someone into a pit full of bears. As she ran she glanced over her shoulder and mouthed, 'Sorry!'

Canada didn't have a good feeling as Ernie seemed to finally notice him. "Oh, Matthew, I didn't see you there! Have you decided on which courses you'll take?"

Canada found himself looking around for an escape route, too. "Eh… not yet."

Ernie grinned. "Excellent! Let's go to the library, I saw some books on Arithmancy that I wanted to check out…"

As Ernie grabbed him by the arm and started dragging him towards the library, giving a lengthy monologue about the pros and cons of Arithmancy, Canada had to fight the urge to shake his fist skywards and scream, 'DAMN YOU, HANNAH!'

A/N: hugs \(^-^)/ I had some trouble coming up with a reason for Canada not to just tell Harry 'Yeah, that kid is gonna grow up to be Voldemort, don't trust him'. Hopefully this one will suffice. Which courses do you think America and Canada should take? They're both definitely taking Care of Magical Creatures, but everything else is up in the air. And here's some more interaction between Canada and his fellow Hufflepuffs! I feel like he doesn't get enough of it. And I don't know where Kumajiro is in this chapter, I guess he's getting hugs from the house elves. Yay for a relatively short Author's Notes for once! NEXT CHAPTER: The Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff is cancelled. See you all next time!