That morning Mathew woke with a bang.
A literal bang that sounded a lot like a colt .45.
Instantly knowing the sound he bolted up to see his brother holding a smoking gun, a red head and a black haired boy staring wide eyed at him and shocked Neville Longbottom holding his hands up in the air.
Mathew looked right next to the shivering boy and saw less than a centimeter next to his ear was a bullet hole.
"Alfred!" he yelled, getting his brothers attention.
"How many times do I have to tell you to stop sleeping with guns under your pillow!" he scolded
America sheepishly looked down and put the gun in its holster.
Well as sheepish as one can look, holding a smoking gun.
"Hey, at least I gave a warning shot?" he offered.
"Besides" he continued more confidently "I grew up in the West and Florida, do you really think that's going to happen Matt?"
Mathew just groaned and laid back down.
"The one time you wake me up on a school day; you have to do it with a gunshot."
Alfred just shrugged and placed the gun under his pillow.
The other three in the room were frozen.
'Why on earth is Mathew so calm about this?' Harry thought 'Is this really that common an occurrence'.
"Uhh does this happen a lot?" He asked.
"Sadly yes" Mathew replied, the words getting muffled in the pillow.
"I see" Ron also added still in slight shock.
Neville, still trembling, just stuttered out "I-I just l-left my wand on m-my and Alfred's n-nightstand and w-was j-just grabbing it".
"Sorry dude, force of habit" Alfred responded calmly.
Neville just nodded and shakily reached for his wand on the nightstand separating his and Alfred's bed and dashed out the door, feeling grateful he had already changed.
"This is why you can never have roommates, Alfred" Mathew huffed.
"Remember when you pulled that stunt on Peter; I think you scarred the poor kid for life."
"Well…" Alfred tried defending. "I didn't know it was him, and he was putting my hand in warm water anyway. Also after that he thought I was totally badass, and started practically stalking me, so I got my punishment".
The other two occupants of the room were silent, not really having much to say after that.
After having enough of feeling the two's eyes burning into the back of his head, Mathew stood up yawning.
"Well I guess it's time to get up anyway".
Grabbing a Canadian flag sweatshirt and a pair of jeans he got up and walked to the closet/changing room near his bed.
Figuring to do the same America grabbed a "Party in U.S.A" T-shirt with the American flag on it, a pair of jeans, red white and blue converse and his signature jacket, and headed to his own changing room.
Not knowing what else to do Harry and Ron got dressed in their usual garb and went down to the common room.
While they were waiting for the twins they told Hermione what had happened that morning.
They all met by the big couch where they had dumped Alfred after what the students dubbed "The best potions class ever!"
"So you guys wanna go eat" Alfred asked, bounding down the steps.
They all nodded and began walking towards the cafeteria.
"So is that a common occurrence?" She asked, figuring it was a safe enough question to ask without seeming investigatory.
Mathew sighed and nodded.
"This is why he is never given any one to room with but me; he's a really light sleeper and sadly has ridiculous reflexes."
"Hey" Alfred defended, "I spent a lot of time in the south, so now I carry everywhere for safety."
The three looked at him wide eyed and Mathew glared at him.
"Alfred" he said warningly.
"Except around a school, yeah ha ha" He said quickly, obviously hinting it was a lie.
"Why are you carrying a gun in a magic school?" Mathew seethed.
"Because, I don't know any magic yet and I'm pretty sure Malfoy's out for blood, so you can never be too careful."
Mathew just sighed again, deciding to pick his battles and silently trudged along.
Quite honestly the trio wasn't surprised by Mathew behavior in the slightest; they would probably do the same thing if they had to deal with Alfred every single day.
They walked into the cafeteria and as soon as they sat down the food appeared and the birds.
A package was dropped in front of America and Canada with an English return on the side.
They both eyed it warily remembering what happened last time.
Deciding to take the chance, considering he could disappear if anything shot out, Mathew cautiously opened up the package.
To his surprise and delight nothing, shot, squirted or screamed out at him.
Instead inside the box laid a two small silver rings, one with a 'U.S.A' carved into it and another with 'Canada' and a note.
Dear Alfred and Mathew
I know it will be strange to go an entire message without insulting you but as you guessed I'm not really in a state of mind to do that.
These rings, when held together will glow make the user invisible.
I really do not feel like going through usual warnings and insults so I'll just leave it at this.
Mathew, you are in charge of the rings.
Alfred does not touch them without your permission.
End of discussion.
Sincerely Arthur
Impressed that England had gone the entire message without calling him a 'useless idiotic git', Alfred picked his ring up for examination.
Canada did the same and after they slipped them onto their fingers.
"Perfect fit" they said in unison.
"It'll turn them invisible." Hermione noted.
"Cool so now Mattie and I can sneak around the castle!" Alfred exclaimed excitedly.
Hermione shot him a warding look and he retracted
"Or get closer to magical creatures for studying" He offered.
Used to Alfred's antics she rolled her eyes and took out her schedule.
While this was happening Ron and Harry were in a deep discussion of who would win a fight. A Rabbit or a Toad.
Hermione interrupted the twos 'extremely important discussion, to tell them the day's schedule.
"Says we have flying with Slytherins first today"
"Cool! This is going to be so awesome, you know if it's going to be like riding a horse, did you know I love, love, love, love, love horses!" Alfred rambled.
"Oh here we go again" Ron whispered to Harry.
"Are you sure we don't want him to pass out?" He answered.
Alfred kept talking, only occasionally breathing throughout the entire breakfast, and completely disregarding the fact no one was listening.
Then the bell rung and the five walked out to the flying grounds.
"So neither of you has been flying before?" Asked Ron.
"Nope" answered America, popping the P.
When they arrived they saw two lines of brooms lying on the green grass.
The teacher told the students to each stand in front of a one, so the five lined up each next to each and as fate beholds it, guess who was standing across from Alfred.
"So ya'll never been flying huh, can't wait to spin circles 'round ya', Yankee" Malfoy said, mocking his Texas accent.
Using his true gift of ignoring people, Alfred paid no attention to the blonde across from him and instead to the teacher in the front.
"Okay" she announced, clasping her hands together. "Since we have a few new students" she sent a smile to the twins, "We are going to review the basics"
She looked down the line at all the children and smiled.
"Okay so now tell your broom 'up' and it should rise in your hand."
Not surprisingly Draco and Harry's did on the first try since Harry was the Gryffindor singlet seeker and Malfoy had made the doubles one this year for Slytherin.
Most of the others managed on the fourth or fifth since they were still rusty from the summer.
What was surprising was the fact that both brooms practically jumped into the brothers hands, even faster than Harry's.
The teacher looked at them and nodded impressed.
"Looks like we got some natural talent."
The twins beamed right back at her and held their brooms proudly.
The teacher was about to give the next instruction but she was cut off by the school intercom.
"Mrs. Hooch please report to the office"
Looking wearily at the students, not completely trusting leaving them alone, but deciding that if they did anything she wouldn't get in trouble anyway, she left yelling back at the students not to leave the yard.
Seeing that this was obviously free time, the twins walked over to a picnic table and sat down.
They took off their rings and set them on the table to examine them.
"Why do you think Arthur sent them?" Mathew asked.
Alfred just shrugged and let his brother continue.
He was trying to do that more often; he saw how upset Canada was getting lately for always being ignored.
Mathew was about to offer up his idea, until the familiar blonde with snake grey eyes walked up and snatched their rings off the table.
"Ohh what's this, your engagement rings, oh when are you getting married." He mocked to the twins.
"Hey!" Alfred yelled turning red in the face.
Fearing more for Draco's safety than the rings at the moment (who knows what Alfred would do after yesterday's events), Mathew politely asked for him to return the rings.
"Oh looks like 'Madeline' lost her confidence since yesterday".
Alfred, not wanting to risk the rings safety in a fight, also politely (well as politely as he could), asked (certainly not threatened to chop him into pieces) for the rings back.
"Oh so now the cowboy has lost it too, well if you want the rings you'll just have to go get them."
Then Draco jumped on his broom and started flying.
Both brothers looked up shocked for a second, and then smirked.
"Oh dear brother of mine, I say it is time we take a little trip back down memory lane eh!" Mathew snickered.
"I couldn't agree more, dear brother" He purred.
The both walked over to their bags and Alfred pulled out a Cowboy hat and Canada a Mounties.
Then Alfred ran over and grabbed some spare rope used for tying down stray brooms.
"Now" Alfred said letting his full Texas twang come through, "Let's go an' hogtie the little varmint".
"Couldn't agree more eh."
Then booth stepped onto their 'steeds' and started to fly.
"Yeeehah! Jus' like ole Lady back home" Alfred whirred.
"Now lets catch'm eh" Said Mathew speeding towards him
America caught up to Canada and threw him the other end of the rope.
"Jus' like cattle" Alfred stated.
"Just like cattle" Mathew agreed.
They booth sped up and passed by Malfoy, the rope pulling him forward.
The twins started looping the rope in opposite directions, tying him up like a pig ready for roasting.
When felt like they were sufficient in their work, booth boys stopped and lowered down, bringing a thrashing Malfoy with them.
"Thank you sir" Alfred said, taking the rings out of Malfoy's hands.
Malfoy was now kicking and screaming to be untied.
Alfred was temped (very tempted) to just leave him like that, but that would be 'un-heroic' so he and Mathew untied him anyway.
Once done the two walked to their brooms hand in hand and took a bow.
Deciding to take a victory lap the two floated back up in to the air.
Draco was furious, if you wanted to put it lightly.
'How on earth did the Canadian and the Idiot beat me on a broom!' He thought. 'That is it, now I'm out for blood'.
Then he got another idea.
Draco walked over to the case where the balls for quibidch where held and opened it.
Instantly the Golden snitch flew away to who-knows-where.
The good thing though was the two buldgers were heading straight for their targets.
The two were just jokingly flying in circles when the first came almost knocking Mathew off his broom.
"What was that!" he squeaked.
"I don't know but it's coming back!" Alfred yelled, narrowly dodging it as it came for a second run.
"I think we have to catch that to stop it" Alfred said pointing to the golden ball flying in every which direction.
"I don't think playing Wild West is going to be much help here" Canada yelped making a hard break to the left.
"WW2" Mathew yelled. "Might be a better choice"
"WW2" Alfred repeated and with that the hats were off, the rope dropped and their smirks replace with serious expressions.
"Just don't slip in too far ok, remember what happened with the launcher" Mathew shouted back to his brother while weaving out of the way of the bludger.
"Sure thing" America yelled back, also avoiding his.
The two raced off maneuvering through the metal balls trying to kill them.
"Who designed this game anyway; I can bet it was Germany, you know he likes his hardcore stuff"
Ignoring the slip of the tongue they flew right over the gleaming sphere.
The problem is when they literally slipped.
Or were more correctly described, pushed off by the other two, much larger spheres.
On the way down the grasped the gold in between their connected hands and crashed to the ground.
When they crashed onto the grass below, the problem wasn't that they were hurt (aside their pride), no that would have been too easy.
Take a trip to the nurse's office, get a quick healing spell and everything would be fine.
The problem was they weren't.
Not even the slightest bit.
Now they have to explain how they fell from twelve stories and didn't even bruise anything except their ego.
The students surrounded them as the bludgers fell useless on the floor.
They both stood up, completely unharmed and everyone was gasping.
No one more than Draco Malfoy who would be lying if he said that he didn't hope that they would be paralyzed for life (or not have one anymore) from the fall.
"Seriously, you two can't even fall right!" he yelled, but was completely ignored.
What wasn't ignored though was the teacher running up to the two.
"Are you two okay? I saw the whole thing except who opened the box, I will have their heads!"
She looked down and saw that between the boy's clutched hands was the Golden Snitch.
"You two have never ridden a broom before, but managed to catch a golden snitch?" she gaped.
The two boys nodded, confused about what the big deal was, it was no different from riding a horse or flying a plane.
She stood with her mouth agape for a moment until she got back to her senses.
"I have to talk after you get back from the nurses."
"Mrs. Hooch we're fine, see" Mathew assured gesturing to the two of them.
"No of course you aren't, the adrenaline is just keeping you from feeling it" she insisted, leading the brothers to the office.
"You'll be fine so don't worry. Just a few spells and you'll be all fixed up."
The two let themselves be dragged, figuring it might get them out of interrogation.
They also pretended not to notice the four pairs of eyes glued to them burning with questions.
Well three with questions, one with rage.
"Well you'd think after last year, Malfoy would learn to stop taking peoples stuff."
Ron was talking to Harry about how they need to get more hard core in their investigations, while Hermione was pacing across the green and white striped field.
'How could someone survive, let alone get up from a twelve story fall? This is weird even for them.'
Hermione continued her monotonous steps while puzzling out any spells that could absorb that much shock and coming up empty.
Meanwhile Draco was at the same table the twins were examining their rings at, with his head in his hands and trembling with anger.
He doesn't understand, even Potter had fallen victim to a few of his tricks, but every time he tried to pull one on the twins it backfired.
Even when they fell off their brooms, they caught the snitch! And somehow they managed to not even bruise.
'I remember what Weasel said about 'Tony' being an alien, maybe they are ones too?'
'Okay now you're just being ridiculous' he argued in his head, 'just because they're crazy doesn't mean you have to lose your sanity too'.
Draco sighed and sunk lower into his bench. Now he just wishes he never met them.
He knows that he couldn't get them expelled.
Oh, he tried. On the day the day he met the two.
But apparently his father had important business with a relative of theirs named Arthur Kirkland, and couldn't risk his deal for a petty argument.
But even if he could, he wouldn't.
Now he is caught up in their case.
The mystery of the New World Twins.
Too him it sounds like a bad soap opera and he was the main character trying to catch the evil villains.
He is no longer satisfied seeing them leave, he wants to see them destroyed.
Hauled out in either handcuffs or body bags.
He wants to take whatever secret they are hiding and reveal it to the world.
'Who knows' he thought. 'If I figure it out before the three nitwits, maybe I'll be marked a hero for exposing them'.
He could picture it in his mind.
The cause of more of his agony than Potter had ever been, being hauled away by men in white.
Mathew trying to disappear like usual and for once not succeeding because all eyes are on him.
Watching his every move, like a caged animal at the zoo.
His dream of being noticed becoming his worst nightmare.
The best part though would be Alfred.
He could imagine based on the idiots ideals and ramblings that he would not do well without his freedom.
He would not do well in a small box.
He would be kicking and screaming to be released.
He would be crying out for his brother who would have been separated from him, and for once not be able to use his super strength to muscle away from the guards, with all that sedative in his system.
Now Draco was smiling a malicious grin and sent out an aura so dangerous that everyone within fifteen feet was scurrying away from the rotting bench.
Even Harry, Ron and Hermione sensed it and were actually frightened.
They had a feeling that they were no longer 98, 99, and 100 on the list anymore.
And that feeling was correct.
No, now only two names remained and were being repeated over and over in Draco's brain like a mantra, a motto.
A Promise.
'They will fall and this time I will make sure that when they hit the ground, they won't ever get back up'
'I hope the training as kids paid off' thought Harry.
'Because they have just entered a war and it won't end pretty'.