CHAPTER 42: ENGLAND EXPLAINS IT ALL
As he and Ron shifted the rock, America grew more and more frustrated. He could have just punched them all out of the way within a minute, but doing that would probably bring the whole ceiling down on them. Plus it would be really suspicious. So he ended up shifting rocks at what felt like a glacial pace, while Harry and Kumawhatever saved Canada and Ginny on their own. Even convincing the amnesiac Glinda that his name was actually Glinda the Sparkly Wizard provided only a short reprieve from his festering rage.
Finally, after what felt like far too long, they managed to make a gap just large enough for a twelve-year-old to crawl through. America immediately began to do so. "Alfred, what are you doing?!" asked Ron.
"I'm going to be the hero!" America declared. "HOLD ON, MATT, I'M COMIN' FOR YA!" And so the hero charged blindly into the villain's lair. Or attempted to, anyway. He charged for about a minute before crashing into something.
"Sorry," the something gasped as it fell to the ground. America nearly ignored whatever he'd knocked over to keep going, but luckily some semblance of common sense made him look at it. He froze mid-step when he realized who it was.
"MATTIE!" America didn't wait for Canada to get up, instead diving at him and giving him the biggest hug he possibly could right there on the ground. He's alive… thank God, he's alive! He couldn't remember ever feeling this happy and relieved in recent memory. He probably had been, and in about an hour he'd think of one so obvious he'd slap himself on the forehead for forgetting it, but nothing came to mind at that moment. He tried to put how he was feeling into words, but it came out as inarticulate yelling.
"Alfred?" America looked up to see that Harry was there, too, along with Ginny Weasley and Kumawhatever. "Er, I think you're suffocating Matthew."
"Oh. Right. Oops." America released Canada and stood up, helping his brother to his feet. "Sorry about that. I'm just so stoked you dudes are all right!" He gave all of them a good look. Ginny was pale and crying, Harry's robes were soaked in blood, and Canada seemed to be having trouble breathing (possibly from the hug), but they were all definitely alive. And… "Wait a minute, Harry, how did you sneak a sword in here without us noticing? And where did that bird come from?!"
"It's a long story," said Harry. "I'll explain once we get out of here."
America pouted at him. "Oh, fiiiine." He perked up again and grabbed Canada by the arm. "C'mon, dudes, let's go, then!" It wasn't long before the sound of shifting rock could be heard again. What, is he still moving them? The hole doesn't have to be that big! "YO, RON, I FOUND THEM!" America yelled. He heard Ron give out a strangled cheer and they turned the next bend to see his eager face staring through the gap he'd made slightly wider.
"Ginny!" he thrust an arm through the gap in the rock to pull her through first. "You're alive! I don't believe it! What happened?" He tried to hug her but Ginny held him off, sobbing. "But you're okay, Ginny. It's over now, it's – where did that bird come from?"
America rolled his eyes as he helped push Canada through next. "Harry says he'll explain it later. Along with the sword."
"He's got a sword?!" Ron peeked through the gap to look at it. "Yeah, that's gonna need some explaining, mate." He looked at Canada. "Oh, and it's nice to see you're okay, Matthew."
Canada smiled. "It's nice to be okay, eh."
America, Harry and Kumawhatever all climbed through as well. "Where's Lockhart?" asked Harry.
America chuckled. "Oh, man, you've gotta see this." Ron chuckled as well and the two of them led the others up the tunnel towards the pipe. Glinda the Sparkly Wizard was sitting there, humming placidly to himself.
"His memory's gone," said Ron. "The memory charm backfired. Hit him instead of us. Hasn't got a clue who he is, or where he is, or who we are. I told him to come and wait here. He's a danger to himself."
"Oh, he's got an idea of who he is," said America. He addressed Glinda. "What's your name, dude?"
"Glinda the Sparkly Wizard!" the professor replied cheerfully. America and Ron both fell into giggling fits. Canada and Harry looked caught between joining in and lecturing them.
Once they'd calmed down, Harry bent down and looked up the long, dark pipe. "Have you thought how we're going to get back up this?" he said.
America glanced at Ron. "Uh, I didn't. Did you?" Ron shook his head. "Oh. Crap." The fiery bird thingy swooped past them and fluttered in front of them, beady eyes bright in the dark. It was waving its long golden tail feathers at them. "Uh… is it shaking its ass at us?"
"He looks like he wants us to grab hold…" said Ron, looking as perplexed as the rest of them. "But we're all much too heavy for a bird to pull up there."
"Fawkes isn't an ordinary bird," said Harry. He turned quickly to the others and organized them into a line of hand-holding. He tucked the sword and – wait, did he have the Sorting Hat, too? What the hell was going on here?! Anyways, however he obtained them, he tucked them into his belt, Ron took hold of the back of his robes, and Harry reached out and took hold of Fawkes' tail feathers. Suddenly America felt lighter than he ever had before. Well, maybe except that time he swallowed all that helium by mistake. Boy did that not end pretty. He didn't have much time to reflect on it, because a second later they were all flying up through the pipe.
Soon enough they were all hitting the wet floor of Moaning Myrtle's room. As they all got up and dusted themselves off, the sink that hid the pipe slid back into place. Myrtle was goggling at them. "AHHHH GHOST MATTIE SAVE MEEEEEE!"
By the time America had managed to calm himself down, Fawkes had led them all to Professor McGonagall's office. He barely had time to wonder what lay within before Harry knocked and pushed the door open. For a moment, there was absolute silence and America realized how odd they must look, covered in muck and slime and (in Harry's case) blood. Then there were two screams.
"Ginny!"
"Matthew!"
It had been Mrs. Weasley and England, respectively. Mrs. Weasley, who had been sitting crying in front of the fire, leapt to her feet and, closely followed by Mr. Weasley, flung herself on her daughter. England, who had been staring at the wall, rushed over to Canada and began checking him over for injuries. "Are you all right?' he asked. "Are you hurt? What happened? Do you have any idea how worried I was? I nearly had a heart attack when Alfred sent me the letter! How could you do something so stupid?!" It was amazing how quickly he could go from worried sick to spitting fury.
"Hey, you don't even know what happened, how do you know he did something stupid?" said America.
"It ended with him getting dragged to the Chamber of Secrets, it couldn't have been anything smart," snapped England. He took a step back from Canada, and his anger seemed to dissipate at least somewhat. "Well, you seem to be all right. I don't know how you managed it, but there you are."
Reassured that England had calmed down, America actually looked at the rest of the room. Professor Dumbledore was standing by the mantelpiece, beaming with Fawkes settled on his shoulder, next to Professor McGonagall, who was taking great, steadying gasps, clutching her chest. Mrs. Weasley had now started hugging Ron and Harry. "You saved her! You saved her! How did you do it?"
"I think we'd all like to know that," said Professor McGonagall weakly. Mrs. Weasley released Harry, who hesitated for a moment before walking over to the desk and laying upon it the Sorting Hat, the sword and what remained of – wait, when did he get the evil diary thing? Then he started explaining things.
He started with stuff America already knew – the weird voice Harry had heard, the spider misadventure, how they figured out it was a Basilisk and where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets was… America sort of tuned it out. His attention only returned when Professor McGonagall said, "Very well, so you found out where the entrance was – breaking a hundred school rules into pieces along the way, I might add – but how on earth did you all get out of there alive, Potter?"
America actually paid attention this time, listening with rapt attention as Harry spoke of Fawkes' timely arrival and the Sorting Hat giving him the sword. Then he faltered and looked first at Ginny, then at Dumbledore. "What interests me most," said the headmaster gently. "Is how Lord Voldemort managed to enchant Ginny, when my sources tell me he is currently in hiding in the forests of Albania." While Mrs. Weasley expressed disbelief, America glanced at England and could almost see him making a mental note to have a word with Albania.
"It was this diary," said Harry, picking it up the bisected book and showing it to Dumbledore. "Riddle wrote it when he was sixteen."
Alfred grinned triumphantly. "See? I told you that book was evil, dude! The hero is always right!"
"Alfred," said England warningly.
"Fine, fine, shutting up now. Jerk," he added under his breath. England glared at him but didn't say anything else.
There was more talking, about Tom Riddle and how he grew up to become Moldyshorts and how Ginny was stupid for trusting his diary. Then Ginny was sent to the hospital wing, along with Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. "You know, Minerva," said Professor Dumbledore thoughtfully once they were gone. "I think all this merits a good feast. Might I ask you to go and alert the kitchens?"
"Right," said Professor McGonagall crisply, moving to the door. "I'll leave you to deal with Potter, Weasley and Jones, shall I?"
"Certainly," said Dumbledore. She left, and America got a funny sinking feeling that his heroics wouldn't be as greatly rewarded as he'd been hoping.
He was therefore surprised when England put a hand on his shoulder, along with Canada's, and said, "We'll just go wait outside, then. We have a lot to discuss."
Dumbledore nodded to him, eyes twinkling. "Of course, Arthur. Take all the time you need."
America was just relieved to be avoiding whatever punishment Dumbledore was surely doling out, and let England drag him and Canada down the hall and into an empty classroom without complaint. After casting some sort of spell on the door the older nation turned to look at Canada. "All right, Canada, how did you end up down there?"
Canada seemed surprised to be called by his nation name. "Eh, what do you mean, England?"
England rubbed his forehead. "I'm not in the mood for games right now. Just tell me why Riddle saw fit to drag you down into the Chamber of Secrets."
"Yeah, bro, I was wondering that, too," said America.
Canada stroked Kumawhatever's fur for a few moments, staring mutely and miserably at his feet. Eventually he took a deep breath, sat down in a chair, and started talking. "I'd better tell you the whole story. I was in class this morning, and I heard someone in the hallway, eh. I thought it was odd, so I snuck out and saw it was Ginny. She was acting oddly, so I followed her all the way to the corridor where the first attack happened. Then she noticed me, and I guess she must have summoned the Basilisk, and then I…" His voice cracked and he closed his eyes, apparently unwilling to continue.
"You looked it in the eyes," said England. Canada nodded, lips still pressed firmly together. England went over to sit next to him and somewhat awkwardly put a hand on his shoulder. "I… really don't know what to say. Was that your first time… you know…"
"Dying?"
America jumped at the word coming out of Canada's mouth. "Wha- dying?! What are you talking about?! Y-you mean you just got really hurt or something, right?"
England sighed, and explained, "No, he doesn't. In the magical world, there are many things that instantly kill. The Basilisk's stare is one of them. When a nation encounters such a thing, they die. It's only for a few moments at most, but it's… awful." He shuddered. "I don't know exactly how it works – nobody's exactly eager to test it thoroughly – but I suppose there needs to be some sort of balance. A life for a life. So in order for the nation to come back, one of their citizens dies in their place."
Canada gasped. "What?! You mean one of my people is…"
England nodded. "Yes. You probably had some sort of vision of their final moments before you woke up." After a few moments of Canada staring into the distance with a horrified expression, England prompted, "So, you woke up, and then…?"
Canada jerked back to attention. "What? Oh, right. Well, I woke up, and then Ginny dragged me into the Chamber of Secrets. After a few minutes I guess Riddle must have stopped possessing her, eh, because she went back to normal and started crying and told me about the diary. Then Riddle must have started draining her life force, because she passed out, and he appeared. He wanted to know how I'd survived the Basilisk's stare. I didn't tell him, of course," he added hastily. "He didn't like that. He said he'd get the answer out of me once he was alive again. Luckily, he never got the chance."
England was silent for a few moments, eyebrows drawn together thoughtfully. Then he said, "Hopefully the real You-Know-Who is unaware of what his… 'memory' was up to. If he had some sort of psychic connection to it and saw and heard everything it did, then the safety of nations everywhere could be compromised. I'll have to speak to Albus about that." He stood up. "Well, thank you for answering my question, Canada. Let's see whether Dumbledore is done rewarding your friends."
America frowned. "Huh? Reward? Whatchu talkin' 'bout, England?"
England smirked. "What, you didn't think he was going to punish you for saving the school, did you?"
A/N: Long chapter today, but I didn't feel like them all just getting out of the chamber was enough for a chapter, so ta-da! HUGS FOR EVERYONE! \(^-^)/ Thanks for all the encouragement hugs. Now for Q&A! To 95Jezzica: I dunno if I'll add those parts. I'm pretty much working solely from the books, but maybe I'll have England get an injury from it or something. To Marzue: Ah, yes, My Immortal... I'm currently going through a playlist of that, but it's so awful even a good funny dramatic reading can only be taken in small doses. Thanks for the compliment! Of course, if I actually do receive major criticism I'll probably be pretty discouraged, but in theory it would be a good thing! To freiejj: I only started getting into Hetalia last year, too! And I feel so honored. To SoulxMakaLover37: Now I kind of want to have Hungary show up in book 5 to hit Umbridge with a frying pan and shock her with her... er... preferences. To MeoTheRandom: I think you're right. No nation, not even Canada, has a completely pure and nice history. To Cindar: I might include a reference or two. We'll see. To TheChibitalian: I tried to Google it, but my internet's being stupid. So I'll say 30 kilograms per minute as a random guess. To RussianMochi: I think I've figured out the answer to the first question, but I don't want to give spoilers. But I can say that Umbridge is going to notice America's accelerated healing. Don't worry, I don't think you're annoying or stupid. Thanks for sticking around! Pages Left (after skipping things): 2. NEXT CHAPTER: Canada's thoughts on the end of another school year. See you all next time!