Chapter Ten

"Where on Earth is he going?"

"I don't know dude, but it feels like we've been following him forever."

Team Fire-Breathing Hero-Burgers (minus France) were on a mission and that mission had been growing increasingly dull by the second. As it transpired, France was an incredibly boring person to tail and they found themselves having to stop and hide whenever France found a reflective surface he could admire himself in, which was every thirty seconds.

"If he doesn't go somewhere interesting soon, then I'm giving up," China said, echoing the thoughts of America, Russia and Canada. "Why is he so boring?"

England stopped in frustration. "Ugh, this could take all day and still be a total waste of time!" He knew that they should be working on Voldemort and his plan rather than following a fellow ally. He felt guilty knowing that the other nations were hard at work trying to help America and himself whilst they were doing nothing remotely productive. "We've got to split up," England suggested, "we can't spend all day doing this when we really should be finding a solution to our Problem-Which-Shall-Not-Be-Named."

"No need to be so dramatic," China muttered, rolling his eyes.

"What are you suggesting?" Russia asked. "You want some of us to follow France and some of us to help you?"

"Yes, Russia, that's exactly what I'm saying. Canada and America, you two can follow France." America whooped and high-fived his twin, causing England to roll his eyes." Russia, China and I will go back and try and see if we can come up with something." With that, England, Russia and China left, heading back in the direction of the Room of Requirement.

"Okay then bro, it's time to do some serious CIA-level shit," America whispered as he and Canada tried to maintain a safe distance from France, but it was proving to be increasingly difficult as France was constantly stopping and looking behind him. America was honestly surprised that they hadn't been spotted yet.

France walked into the Entrance Hall and then went through the massive double doors into the Great Hall. America and Canada paused before entering the room and they watched as France marched past the long Gryffindor table and into the Trophy Room.

"Why is he going in there?" Canada whispered as they followed him, "I swear no-one ever goes in there."

"Maybe that's why he's there," America replied with a shrug. They carefully eased the door open, pushing it slowly as to avoid any loud noises that would give them away; Hogwarts furniture was very old and prone to creaking.

The twins watched from the crack in the door as France, who was stood with his back facing them, conversed in hushed tones with a tall, freckled-face Slytherin. America had to strain his ears in order to hear them, he could just make out what they were saying.

"Are you sure that these will work?" France asked, his voice laced with concern.

The Slytherin boy scowled. "I told you they would, okay? I didn't get an Outstanding in Potions for nothing, you know." The obvious arrogance in the boy's voice made America cringed, it reminded him of himself sometimes. He hoped, he wasn't that bad. "Now, do you want them or not?"

France seemed to pause, it was obvious that he was unsure. "I... Yes, I'll take them."

The Slytherin's scowl turned into a sly grin. "Who're they for anyway? That weird Ravenclaw kid you follow around so much?"

The twins saw France's body stiffen and his tone was curt when he said, "That's none of your business, my friend." The Slytherin simply shrugged and it was obvious that he didn't really care. "How much do you want for them?"

"Two galleons."

They watched as France reached into his pockets, glanced at the coins and handed them to the Slytherin who nodded in return and placed a ribboned box into France's hand. "Pleasure doing business with you," the Slytherin said before starting towards the door.

America and Canada quickly moved away from the door and sat at the nearest table, pretending to be deeply interested in the enchanted ceiling. "It looks like it's going to rain," America said, a bit too loudly and Canada simply nodded in return as the Slytherin walked past, followed by France who, at the sight of them, concealed the box behind his back, smiled at them and walked away as quickly as possible.

"Well," Canada started, "that was weird, even for Francis."

"Tell me about it," America sighed, "and we still don't have a clue what that actually was." America abruptly stood and smiled tightly at Canada, who noticed that, for once, his brother's smile didn't quite reach his eyes. "We'd better go and tell the others that we didn't actually find anything out and hope that they've managed to do something remotely productive."

Canada, who couldn't really think of anything much better to do (apart from possibly the foot-long essay on Cross-Species Transfiguration for McGonagall which he still hadn't quite finished), nodded and joined his brother as he headed towards the Room of Requirement.

The Nordics were in the library attempting to figure out what Voldemort wanted from England and America, it was hard work seeing as none of them (except with the possible exception of Norway) knew anything about wizarding history.

"Okay, lemme get this right," Denmark began, causing the others to sigh. "Hey! I haven't even spoken yet." The rest of Team Sponsored by Beer, Puffins, Brothers and Wives muttered insincere apologies and begrudgingly allowed Denmark to continue uninterrupted. "So, we need to figure out what this- "Denmark lowered his voice, already aware of the kind of effect that name had on wizards. "-Voldemort guy is up to, but none of us really know who he is or anything at all about him?"

The others nodded sombrely. They had no idea how they were going to achieve what England had asked them to and, whilst they didn't wish to see England or America get hurt, they didn't really understand what they were fighting for or what Voldemort was really capable of.

"What we need," Norway stated, "is a way to find out who this guy is and was, what he's capable of doing and how much of a threat he really is."

"We know that's what we need to do," Iceland said slowly, rolling his eyes, "but how are we going to do it? I doubt that's the kind of thing you'd find in a book and, if it was, it'd be in the Restricted Section and we need a member of staff's permission to access there."

"I think I know a way we can find out stuff about Voldemort without having to use books," Finland hesitated as the others looked at him hopefully, "but I'm not entirely sure it'll work."

"How?" They asked in unison, causing Finland to shrink back at the noise.

"Well, why don't we ask that Harry Potter kid Denmark was telling us about? I mean, as long as we ask nicely and say that we suspect that he's back, he might, hopefully, tell us everything we need to know."

The others nodded in consideration and Sweden grasped Finland's hand and whispered, "I told you that you were smart and important." Finland smiled softly in return.

Norway hummed softly and pushed himself out of his chair, "I think that's actually worth a try, you know," he glanced at the clock on the wall, it was half past twelve, "It's still lunchtime so hopefully we'll find them in the Great Hall. Let's just hope he's willing to talk to a Slytherin." The others noted a tone of bitterness in Norway's voice that was not usually there.

Denmark rolled his eyes, "Come on Lukas, you know that doesn't really mean anything. Just because the majority of them are stuck-up asshats, it doesn't mean you are. Remember what the Sorting Hat said in his song? You're just ambitious, that's all."

Norway shrugged, but the others swore that they could see a faint smile on his face. He turned and started towards the door. "You coming then, guys?" he called over his shoulder. The others exchanged bemused looks with each other and followed the Norwegian towards the Great Hall in the hope that they could find out something useful.

"Honestly Harry," Hermione began, "you can't expect to succeed in school if you're constantly looking over your shoulder for dangers which aren't there."

"Well, sorry Hermione," Harry snapped, "but some of us have valid reasons to be wary, okay? I'm hoping that this year may be my year for once. The year where nothing happens."

"You'll be so lucky," Ron muttered as he dug into his pork pie, "everything always happens to you."

"Thanks for that Ron."

"No problem."

Hemione glanced over to the door of the Great Hall as Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Denmark and Norway entered. "There's something about those guys, don't you think?" she asked the two boys who shrugged nonchalantly, "it's like they know something we don't…"

"Well whatever they know, they're coming this way," Ron said, shuffling along the table in order to make room for the nations.

"Hey," Denmark greeted, sitting next to Ron whilst Finland sat next to Harry and Sweden sat next to him, Norway sat on the far side of Hermione and Norway sat to the other side of Ron.

"Hi Matthias," Harry replied slowly, almost hesitatingly, which Denmark understood because he didn't tend to talk to Harry all that much.

"We were wondering whether you could help us out a bit," Denmark said, deciding that just going ahead and saying it would be better than wasting time, "it's about Voldemort."

They all noticed Ron jump a little at the mention of The Dark Lord's name and Hermione gave out a little gasp. Harry, however, remained indifferent as though the name was meaningless.

"What about him?" Harry asked. "Let me guess, you want to know what it's like to fight him or something, is that it?" Harry had become slightly angry now. His voiced was raised and Denmark noticed that Hermione was giving him little warning glances every now and then, as though he had done this many times before. "If you've come to hear a story about a tragic hero, then I'm afraid you've come to the wrong place."

"Oh no, that's not what we meant- "Finland began before he was interrupted.

"What did you mean then?" Harry asked, still slightly annoyed. Perhaps they'd caught him on a particularly bad day or something.

"We need to know about Voldemort," Norway calmly stated, "we need to know who is, what he's done, what he believes in, that kind of thing."

"What kind of wizards don't know the things You-Know-Who did?" Hermione asked.

"Our education was uh, limited, let's say," Denmark replied as the others nodded.

"Why do you need to know anyways?" Ron asked, studying the nations closely.

The nations exchanged looks with one another before Norway shrugged. "We have reason to suspect that he's up to something, that he's going to come back and that he's plotting something."

"Come back?" Hermione's shocked voice rang throughout the room, causing students from other tables to glance at them, "properly come back? In an actual form? But," she looked at Harry and Ron, "is that even possible?"

"I don't know," said Harry, "maybe."

The table fell into silence. The Golden Trio were wondering what destruction Voldemort's return would bring whilst the others were wondering why Harry, Ron and Hermione looked so fearful. Surely, he couldn't be that bad? He couldn't do that much damage, he was only one man after all…

"I'll help you," Harry blurted suddenly, "if there's any chance Voldemort is back, I'll help you guys figure out how to destroy him."

"Thank you, Harry," Sweden muttered, "but, it's not just us five that need your help, it's all of us. All of the transfer students, Alfred and Arthur especially."

"The two Gryffindors?" Hermione asked, "what have they got to do with Voldemort?"

"That's what we've been trying to figure out," Iceland said dully, as he pushed his light hair out of his eyes.

"Okay then," Denmark's voice was sharp and brisk, almost professional-like as he tried to bring the discussion to a close, worried that others might be listening to their conversation, "now that you're willing to help us, we need a place where we can meet."

"There's a load of disused classrooms that we can use!" Hermione said, "we can all meet in there at lunch tomorrow if you're all available."

Ron groaned. "Why do we always have to miss lunch?"

"There are more important things in life than your stomach, Ronald! Like, making sure You-Know-Who isn't about to make a comeback, for example."

Ron tutted and rolled his eyes, but said nothing more.

Norway turned to Denmark, "we'd better go. We can go and tell Arthur about what we've arranged before lessons start."

Denmark nodded, "yeah, that's probably a good idea. Let's go guys." The Nordics stood, waved to Harry, Ron and Hermione and swiftly headed towards the door. Finland glanced over his shoulder, mouthed thanks, guys, and they left.

"So," Ron started, "what was that about this year being your year Harry?"

Canada was exhausted. It had been a very long day, what with following France around, attending all of his lessons and then attending (at England's request) another meeting of Team Fire-Breathing Hero-Burgers (honestly, what was wrong with his brother?) where they bickered as though it was World War Two again and, as expected, they had accomplished nothing.

Canada knew he had a Potions essay to write, but he really wasn't up to it so he walked straight through the Ravenclaw Common Room and headed up to the stairs to his dormitory where he looked forward to putting on his pyjamas and getting into his nice, warm bed.

He got changed into his polar bear pyjamas, making sure to fold his robes and place them neatly at the foot of the bed. He then placed his wand on the bedside table and took his glasses off.

He was just about to get into bed when he noticed it. A small box was on his pillow, a white ribbon wrapped around it. He had seen that box before, down in the Trophy Room where a freckle-faced Slytherin boy gave it to France.

"Are you sure that these will work?"

"I told you they would, okay? I didn't get an Outstanding in Potions for nothing, you know."

The box had what looked like a gift tag on it and Canada squinted in the dim light to make out the inscription. To Matthew, with love, Anonymous. Canada unwrapped the ribbon and opened the box and found exactly what he had expected to find, an assortment of luxury chocolate. He placed the lid back on top of the box and carefully concealed the box under his robes, he knew better than to eat it.

Canada got into bed, sighing, and pulled the blanket up to his chin. "Oh, France…" he muttered, "where do we go from here?"

A/N: Hey guys! I bet you hadn't expected to hear from me again!

I'm so sorry that it took so long to update, I've been suffering from major Writer's Block and I've had so damn much going on, it's crazy.

Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter!

Thanks for reading :')

~BooksAreLikeChocolateButBetter