Twins POV
The twins let themselves be led through the school and up the stairs to the nurse's office.
Upon seeing the familiar faces the nurse quickly ran over to the boys and ushered them to a bed.
"Are you okay?" she asked pressing her hand against Mathew's forehead.
"Did you have another panic attack, or did you black out?"
"Mrs. P we're fine. We just had a little accident during flying" Mathew tried to reassure.
"I would hardly call that a 'little accident', Mr. Williams. You two fell from twelve stories." Mrs. Hooch fussed.
"We really are fine" Alfred interjected.
"That's nonsense, I'm sure it's the adrenaline talking, besides do you have any logical explanation for how you possibly could have come out unscathed."
Alfred froze, mind trying to figure out some solution.
Seeing the two ladies waiting for an answer they would not receive, Canada decided to take things into his own hands.
"Ouch" He yelped.
Instantly the two women rushed over to his side.
"I think you were right Mrs. Hooch, now my arm really hurts"
Mathew sent America a wink and Alfred started to play along.
"Actually now that you mention it, mine is a little sore too."
"Go on Mrs. Hooch. You have a class to run, I'll take care of these two" Mrs. Pomfrey directed.
Mrs. Hooch nodded and walked towards the door.
On the way out she shouted back with a sly smile on her face.
"Take good care of new Gryffindor Double's team seekers, alright"
Then with a click of her heels she strolled out, her shoes echoing in the hallways.
Both boys were smiling so wide they thought they would literally disconnect from their faces.
"Congratulation boys, now lift your arms so I can put the dust on it".
Obeying both boys lifted up their arm and pulled down their sleeves reveling two identical scars.
Two lightning shaped scars.
Long ago
The two colonies were splashing aimlessly in the small lake by America's house.
Their guardian, The British Empire, was watching fondly while sipping on a cool glass of whiskey and lounging in his rocking chair.
It was a reasonably cool day as far as summers in America goes.
There was a light breeze coming in from the north and not a single cloud in the sky.
Everything was perfectly quiet and peaceful.
Until the wind suddenly grew sharp.
The small boys were too busy dunking each other in the crystal water to notice the drop in temperature, but England surely did not.
"Boys, out now, hide in the trees. Don't question me just go." he ordered
Being the 'obedient' children they were, they immediately got out and ran up to their older brother to question him.
"What's wrong Engwand?" the blue eyed brother asked.
"Y-yeah I'm scared" the other shivered.
"Me too."
"No time just go now, hide and don't come out unless I say to."
The two nodded and ran into the forest and ducked behind some bushes, still close enough to watch to watch their elder.
Both boys watched with anticipation and dread as the world grew silent.
They noted how the usual loud, vibrant forest was now hushed.
Not a single breath could be heard.
The bright daylight seemed to fade, leaving the entirety of the area bathed in an eerie red light.
Out of the red light appeared a man in a dark cloak.
His face was covered by the hood and the rest of him seemed to be almost clear.
He walked as if he was floating.
A perfect image of ghost.
They suppressed a whimper and leaned farther back into the brush.
The man in black steadily approached their older sibling.
England stood rigid and slowly took out his wand.
"Nice to see you again Mr. Riddle."
"Well I didn't know we were demoted from our first name bases" Replied the other.
"What are you doing here; you know you aren't welcome anymore."
"I am simply here to retake what's mine, my key to immortality."
The man in the cloak now was circling England.
"Did you really think I was going to give those boys up without a fight?"
Now he also had his wand raised.
The men looked each other in the eye, wands pointed at the others throat.
"I told you I will never give them to you. If you want them you will have to go through me."
"That can be arranged."
The man in the cloak yelled something the boys couldn't understand through the leaves and a shot of green light shot from his wand towards his opponents.
Expecting the attack, the eldest lifted his and shouted the same incantation and purple then shot out of his and started battling with the green.
Each was entranced in an almost staring contest with each other, neither blinking nor breathing or daring to move in fear of breaking their spell.
They stood like that for a while; sweat dripping down each mans forehead and arms.
"Oh Arthur" The other finally cooed.
"You never have been terribly good at magic."
The ghost shook his arm up and down in controlled increments.
The green beam started also deviate from its original strait line.
It was moving now like the ocean waves one after the other.
When the first wave hit the purple it flowed right over like water on the beach.
Each wave covering more and more of the violet beam until at long last one finally one struck England.
Wand fling out of his hand Britten was shot back, head banging against an apple tree.
The boys watched in horror as the ghostly figure hovered over their mentor.
"Mr. Kirkland, I believe I have now got past you. It is a pity I can't kill you considering you would just wake up again no matter how many times I curse you".
The man then reappointed his wand at his old friend.
"But that doesn't mean I can't try"
The two couldn't help but let out a small shriek and the man's head shot to their hiding spot.
He looked back at the still figure on the ground.
"I'll come back to chat later old chum, first I got some business with the children."
The two colonies were now sprinting through the forest away from the invader.
They bolted away, leaping over logs, ducked under branches and weaved through the endless trees.
Not getting tired they kept running until he appeared in their path.
"Where are you going?"
Then the man grabbed one arm of each boy.
They felt an intense burning where the man's freezing hands touched their skin like dry ice.
Crying out the boys grabbed each other free hand and cried.
Next something strange happened, a purple light emanated from their interlaced fingers and spread through the boys' body's.
When the light reached the man's hands they crumbled into ash.
Next the rest of the man slowly started to decay into burnt remains.
After a few seconds all that remained was a black coat and ashes being scattered by the wind.
The two boys stood in dead air, grasping onto each other for dear life and trembling.
Footsteps came from behind them and then a pair of warm arms.
"Shh, shh its ok, big brothers got you"
The two still didn't speak or even stop shivering.
They traced the lighting shape scar on their arms where the man had touched them.
Their older brother was trying to get them to calm down but nothing would help.
They were permanently scarred both physically and mentally.
That was the day America got his fear of ghosts.
That was also the day Canada got his fear of the dark, because in the dark you can't see men in back.
An hour and many roles of useless bandages later, the boys were released to go to lunch.
They trotted down the hallway and into the main dining room and took their usual seats at the front of the table.
As expected, the other usuals were sitting across from them and immediately straitened up as they walked over.
Hermione looked like she was about to burst with questions until she saw the bandages around Mathews arms and ankle and the wrap around Alfred's head.
"Oh my gosh, are you alright?"
The siblings nodded and sat down; hoping that maybe that it would avoid questioning.
Mathew knew he should be angry at them for wanting to question them after they promised to stop integrating, but quite honestly he couldn't bring himself to.
'I mean who in their right mind wouldn't after someone fell twelve stories and didn't even get a scratch' he thought.
Guessing that the twins weren't in much of a talking mood, the three decided it would just be better to leave them to sulk in peace.
About ten minutes after lunch had begun; Hermione excused herself to the ladies room and strolled out of the cafeteria.
They continued eating until Harry asked concerned, "hey guys, you know it's almost eighty degrees in here, you should probably take off your jackets."
A Sytherin a table away also heard the question and was now pondering the same thing. Why were they always wearing jackets?
Both twins started chocking on their food and getting into a coughing fit.
'Oh come on, one bloody answer without them almost dying, is that too much to ask. For god's sake they fell off the top of the castle and didn't get scratch on them' Ron raved in his head.
After they had finished gagging, Alfred spoke again.
"Sorry we didn't hear you what did you ask again?"
"Why are you wearing your jacket in ninety degree weather?"
Mathew was about to come up with some awful lie until a prefect's voice went echoing through the room.
"Seven Trolls wandering around the school, immediately head to your safety stations."
'Seriously!' Ron screamed in his head.
Then he remembered something.
"Wait where's Hermione?"
Alfred jumped up and started running to the door with Mathew on his heels.
"In the bathroom, we got to save her. Don't worry Hermione the hero is coming!"
Following after them, the second year friends were chasing after them.
Conveniently leaving both nations bags unguarded.
An opportunity that a certain boy with an uncanny resemblance to a viper, definitely would not pass up.
So armed with a set of microscopic tape recorders and tracking devices he got to work.
When he was done, they wouldn't be able to breathe without him knowing.
What Draco didn't notice was someone was confidently waiting in the shadows for after he had finished.
They ran quickly to the ladies restroom and threw open the stall.
Inside they saw Hermione backed up against the wall and a troll standing over her.
"Hermione!" Harry yelled.
Going by his usual gut reaction (shoot first ask questions later), America took out a python revolver and shot the thing right between the eyes four times.
All the bullets hit the target dead on.
Then bounced to the floor.
"This is why I told you not to bring a gun to a magic school!" Canada scolded.
"Well how was I supposed to know trolls were bulletproof!"
Now much more interested in the double persons yelling than the prissy girl, the troll stomped over to the twins and Harry and Ron.
"Duck!" Mathew and America yelled.
All of them ducked and its club went right over the four boy's heads.
"Dude that thing is like a green Russia with a club instead of pipe."
"Not the time Alfred" Mathew whispered, huddled under the sinks like they were in the trenches.
"What are we going to do?"
"I have an idea" Alfred said then smirked mischievously.
Without a warning, he shot from under the sinks ran over to the wall.
Feeling grateful that he actually paid attention when the pilgrims were teaching him how to build houses, Alfred followed the wall beam up with his eyes and traced it to the spot where the troll was standing.
He punched through the base was and it started to crack like in his famous corny Hollywood hits.
The crack crept to over the troll and then suddenly the room around it collapsed.
"And Iggy said T.V would never help me, take that!"
Guessing that the troll was far from finished Mathew was the next to jump up.
He ran over to where the troll was smashed, but still fighting.
He took out his want and pointed it at the trolls head.
"Stupefy."
And with that the troll stopped moving.
America and Canada panted while the other three in the room looked around confused.
Their confusion was brought to a halt by footsteps echoing loudly in the restroom.
Snape and McGonagall looked at the troll passed out on the floor. Then they saw the three huddled in the corner shaking like the Baltic's, then the blondes who were sitting on a broken piece of ceiling on the monsters back, talking as if they were not sitting on well…
A broken piece of ceiling on a trolls back.
"Ahem."
The room turned and saw the teachers.
"What were you thinking you could have gotten killed, why aren't you at your assigned safe room?"
"Please don't yell at them Mrs. McGonagall" Hermione pleaded "They were looking for me, I thought since I had read a book about them, that I could a troll down by myself, but that is quite obviously not the case."
Everyone (except Alfred who apparently chose this moment to switch on Mr. Oblivious) looked at her shocked.
She was lying to a teacher to stop them from getting in trouble?
"I am very disappointed in you Mrs. Granger" the teacher scolded.
"I expect this kind of behavior from that one over there" she pointed at America who had fished a burger out of his pocket and was eating it lint and all.
"With his hero complex and all, but you I never would have seen this coming"
"Hey it's not a complex!" America complained, "I am the Hero".
"Sure you are Ame', sure you are" Mathew said boringly, patting his brother on the back.
Mrs. McGonagall ignored the two on the troll, and went back to trio.
"Now five points will be deducted from Gryffindor, now go to the safe room with them" she said gesturing to the other shaking teens by her side "there are still trolls on the loose".
She nodded and dragged the shivering fourteen year olds to their safe house a room away.
"You two" she said pointing to the Violet and Blue eyed nations.
"You are very lucky, very few can take down a full grown mountain troll and live to tell the tale. Fifteen points will be given to your house, and yes Alfred before you say it you were the hero."
"Woo-ho" the U.S.A cheered.
"Thank you miss" Canada thanked.
"Now you to scurry off before another attack happens. Your safe room is next door."
The boys hopped off, ignoring Snapes heavy glare and strode out of the bathroom and knocked on the door of their room.
"Safe house 1A" Mathew muttered and the portrait swung open.
The two stepped inside and it screwed closed.
When they first walked in they noticed two things.
One it was practically the temperature of the water Italy uses to boil pasta.
And two, it was dark.
Pitch dark.
Like the ghosts cloak.
Mathew whimpered and started shivering.
'Crap. What am I going to do; he's going to have another panic attack' thought America.
Canada huddled against the wall and started crying with his hands over his ears and knees pulled close to his body.
"Go away, go away, go away" he chanted.
"Leave me and my brother alone!"
"Some one, any one, we need a light NOW!" Alfred yelled.
No one answered immediately so America went pried his brother's hand off his ear and held it.
"It's ok Mattie; remember if we're together he can't hurt us"
He got no response from his brother so he asked around again.
"Does anyone have any light?"
Still, no one answered except one stupid Slytherin.
"Oh how precious. Not only is Madeline a wimp, but afraid of the dark too."
"Not the time Draco!" the trio yelled as Alfred kept trying to calm his brother.
He kept making rude remarks that went ignored by the people in the chamber, all who had eyes on Mathew.
Then Hermione got an idea.
"Lumos" she chanted with her wand, and it started glowing brightly.
She walked over and held the want up to Mathew.
In the light she could see his face and it wasn't pretty.
He was white as a ghost and had red tear stains running down his face.
Even his usually lazy curl seemed to be standing high on attention as if expecting death its self.
Hermione gave her wand to America who thanked her than held it to his northern twin.
Slowly his sobs began to quiet and his shaking turned to a slight tremble, which dissolved into nothing.
Mathew looked up, the rivers running down his cheeks already drying like the Rio Grande.
"T-thanks" he stuttered out, blushing at all the eyes on him.
America now walked in the center of the room and placed the wand so that it lit up the entire area.
"So the coward of Hogwarts is afraid of the dark, how did I not see this coming."
"Hey!" America yelled at the one person causing all this trauma.
"That 'coward' just hogged tied you during class on his first time on a broom and just made doubles seeker, along with his 'idiot American' brother!"
"Well at least I don't run screaming anytime a ghost comes within ten feet of me" Draco shot back.
If he kept this up there is a good chance he would be actually shot.
"You don't know what we've been through alright. So you have no right to judge. And I am NOT afraid of ghosts!"
He actually wasn't lying, he's not afraid of ghosts.
He is afraid of one, so he distrusts them all.
"Oh yes, tell that to anyone who has seen your 'strategic retreats'" Malfoy air quoted.
Alfred was now reaching for his pistol when he felt a hand grab it from behind.
"Alfred. No Guns!" Mathew reminded.
Huffing but agreeing anyways, America handed over his beloved python to his brother.
'Please don't remember the colt, please don't remember the colt' He pleaded in his head.
"And the colt"
'Dang.'
"Fine" he grumbled handing his brother the pistol.
Mathew walked over to his brother's bag and slipped each gun into its custom tailored slot.
'So that's what those slots are for. Well it's a start, I also need to find out what is in those blue bottles I found' thought Draco, fingering the small round containers of electric blue liquid in his pocket he found in Alfred's bag.
When he was digging through the twins belongings during the bathroom fiasco, he had found the bottles in a compartment.
From the other side of the room two girls stood.
"We have an idea" they chanted.
"What if" the one on the right said, "While we wait, we play paired truth or dare."
"What's that?" a student asked.
"Simple" the one on the left explained "it's just truth or dare, except that you take the dare and answer the questions in groups of two and have to answer for each other."
Neither twin wanted to play since if they picked truth there was a good chance they were screwed, but they didn't want to seem suspicious so the joined the circle that had formed around Hermione's lit want.
Everyone except the wand owner herself was joining in.
She decided that "someone needed to be the responsible one", so she got out a book and started reading, ready to pop in if any trouble started.
"So does everyone have a partner?"
The room nodded and they began.
"Okay Harry and Ron you go first, truth or dare"
The two thought over before choosing truth.
"Have you ever lied?"
Both boys looked at each other warily, deciding to answer the question honestly, just without details.
"Yes" Harry answered.
"Yes" agreed Ron.
The room let out the classic 'ohh you're in trouble' sound, before the one who gave the question, asked what they had lied about.
"Sorry" answered Ron, "The question was have we ever lied, not what did we lie about".
The girls pouted but moved on anyway.
The same process went on of mostly truths and a few dares sprinkled here and there until the circle came to Draco.
He smiled viciously and looked Alfred dead in the eye.
"Twin twits" he began.
"I thought that was George and Fred's thing" mocked Ron.
"Fine" he said rolling his eyes, "Colony twits. Truth or dare."
America's eye twitched. Did everyone just forget about the 'little war' called the revolution, or just did that to annoy him.
It was the latter.
The brothers looked at each other and disused it with their looks.
'We know this dare is going to be awful.'
'Yeah but we can't exactly do truth can we?'
"How are twins able to do that?" Harry asked Ron.
"I don't know but Fred and George do it all the time and it's freaky."
Their silent argument had now moved to full on arm movements, although not a word had been said.
Finally, looking defeated America mumbled out,
"Fine dare, happy now Maple twerp"
"Very and thank you very much for monitoring your language Alfred."
Not paying attention to the twin's antics Draco smirked maliciously.
"I dare you to take off your jackets."
The rest of the room sent Draco confused looks.
He had made it no secret that he wants the two dead, but he chooses something so trivial as a dare?
They were confused at least until they saw the Ex-Colonies reactions, then they understood immediately.
Both were now noticeably paler and were sending out obvious 'what do we do' looks to each other.
Draco leaned back feeling victorious.
"Yeah" another Slytherin in their flight class said.
"It's boiling hot in here and you two are practically wearing parkas, what are you hiding?"
Now the twins were really nervous.
"Well uh we don't want to because it's cold in here" tried Mathew.
He tried to fade out, but that only works if the room's eyes aren't on him in the first place.
"Nice try" a Raven Claw girl stated, "it is ninety five degrees in here because the air conditioners out."
"It has sentimental value" America attempted.
"I'm sure you won't insult the memory too much by taking it off for a minute".
Harry and Ron felt guilty for not even trying to help, but they were just as curious as everyone else if not more so.
Well Harry felt guilty; Ron still thinks they are going to light-hearted into the investigation.
"Stop sparing their 'feelings'. We need to know what is going on with them!" He often complains
Sighing but nodding the twins shot each other their secret military signal for 'make up the story as they go.'
Yes it is oddly specific, but when you have over four hundred years to develop them, they tend to become just that.
They both removed their jackets and placed them on their seats.
Instantly everyone's eyes were drawn to their arms.
Or more specifically, the large lighting scars identical to Harry's, only larger and looked deeper burned.
Everyone was stunned, but especially those who remembered the "Boy-Who-Lived" incident and connecting it to the scars.
These people consisted of Harry, Ron, Draco and Hermione, who had long since given up her studying.
They all were staring at the two, who were now trying to hide the matching burns.
"How did that happen!" shouted Ron.
"Yeah" agreed the room.
Draco's large smirk grew even bigger.
This was perfect for him; he would get them to admit their own secret, without even have to do any spying.
The twins were now looking frantic.
They started signaling to each other with their specialized hand gestures.
"What do we say?" Mathew signed.
"I don't know, you're the story guy!"
"I don't know, Lie?" Mathew signed again, saying lie by tapping each one of his fingers against his palm.
"I know that but what do I say" Alfred tapped against his palm three times.
These movements went completely unnoticed to everyone except Hermione and Draco who spotted it immediately.
'Oddly militaristic' they both thought.
"Fine" America signed off,
"You're lucky I'm a good liar"
He turned away from his brother.
"It's kind of embarrassing, when we were kids there was a book called 'Lightning Ally' and we booth were kinda' obsessed with it".
He lied the words coming smooth and natural out of his mouth.
People seem to forget all of the 'truth slanting' both his foreign and domestic politicians do.
He is their personification, and you know what they say; practice makes perfect.
"And there were a pair of twins in the books with a lightning scar called the 'burn brothers'. Us being the impressionable 'little angels' we were, we decided if we gave our self the scar we would get their powers. Long story short, it ended with two lightning scars, one very angry big brother and no video games for a week."
Video games sounded a lot more realistic than no books, which was their real punishment since there was no, you know, electricity back then.
Most of the students huffed in disappointment.
They had all hoped that maybe it was some super top secret spy mission or something more, well, actiony than two kids being idiots.
"That a good enough explanation?" Mathew asked, backing away from the crowd and trying disappear.
Sadly for him, it wasn't going to work this time either.
"Oh really, what's the series about" Draco asked, suspecting it was a lie.
Not because the delivery of the lie was bad (he'd hate to admit it, but Alfred was better than him). It was the fact that he knew that the series never existed.
While the twins were talking he had searched up the story on his phone and it came up empty except for a road in Florida.
"Because according to Google it doesn't exist."
Before he could answer a prefect opened up the door and called them all out to go to their dorms.
As Alfred and Mathew were walking out, Draco walked up to them.
"Remember" he said pointing to Alfred, "Natural born liars can't fool one another".
Alfred smiled secretively at him knowing that it would drive him insane.
"Yes I do know that. In fact actually I actually live by that motto" and without elaborating he hopped out the painting and dashed up the stairs.
America actually had no idea what he meant, but it sounded all James Bondish so he went with it anyway.
Knowing better than to stay with an enraged snake, Mathew chased after him.
As they walked up the stairs and into the common room they noticed how their heads were just that much closer to hitting the beam.
"Hey America" Canada whispered "we'll have to use the shrinking stuff and take our medicine tonight, lets sneak out at 12:00, I have the directions."
"Okay and I have the password written down on my phone" America replied.
Then the two went into their rooms, shut the lights (except the nightlight) and hit the hay.