Disclaimer: I do not own either Harry Potter or Hetalia. They belong to their respectful owners.

What had he chosen? One of them was his time at Versailles with the Sun king, Louis the 14th, of course. It was grand, pompous and snobby - France loved it… Apart from the rest of his population starving and all that. It was a very conflicting time-period for him, but France figured that it would get his point across. For who else would have as lavish a taste as the noble class in France's "golden age". It was exquisite, if he should say so himself.

The memory he had chosen was a beautiful yet boring day, but he just needed to get his point across. And there was more to come after in some of the later ones. This was merely to start of gently and for France to show his wonderful country off in its prime… at least aesthetically.

As France and Dumbledore slowly fell down into the memory, the surroundings began taking shape until the entirety of Versaille was in front of them. However, this was still France's memory, so they quickly zoned in on him. As far as France could see, he was on his way inside the castle. He couldn't remember why, but he gave himself some slack. It were somewhere in the 1660s, and with all that had happened between then and now, it was understandable to forget "normal" and "boring" days. Though, he had been on his way to becoming one of the world's greatest powers. Oh, how he missed it!

Besides him Dumbledore hmm'ed.

"Versailles, of I'm not mistaken?"

"Oui, Château de Versailles in its prime. And 'zat is me", France said, as he pointed to a figure moving in and out between beautifully dressed noblemen and women.

"I see", was all Dumbledore answere. It was also easy to see, France thought. It was undeniably him, except his clothes wasn't robes, and his hair was done better than with a wand (although it really was surprisingly good at its secondary job).

When the two of them ascended to ground level, the memory-version of France was already on his way through the grand corridors of Versailles. France figured that he was on his way to the garden… which actually was more of a park than a garden, but you didn't say that to the King. He (memory-France) also seemed to move rather quickly through the corridors, which was odd, because God knows how much he dislikes (and disliked)being sweaty. With such a pace and temperature, France could only imagine how his past self must have felt. Additionally, there was now a curious lack of people around him. Normally, you would find a servant or nobleman somewhere in or outside the château, but the halls were suspiciously quiet. Present-day France had no clue as to why.

Or, that was until he entered the grand gardens.

"Ah yes, now I remember"

How could he forget? This was non other than the day the Portuguese had given Louis the 14th an elephant. It was the first time a lot of the people, including the King, saw an elephant. France had, of course, visited other countries, even at that time, so an elephant wasn't as exotic for him. It was for the rest though and thus a big deal in pre-revolution France.

"Is that an elephant?" Dumbledore asked, much to France's joy. Compared to some of the more secretive and mysterious nations, like his very own Angleterre, France loved to talk about himself and his history.

"Oui, it is", they were now so close that they could hear the voices of the crowd around the elephant. "It was a gift from ze King of Portugal to Louis in 1668, if I remember correctly".

"And that is the King of France?" Dumbledore asked, nodding towards the man in question.

"Of course it is! Non other than the King Louis the 14th, Le Roi Soleil! He was an amazing man, very elegant, with a good taste in interior design. Bien que (although) I must say, he did 'ave a habit of poking his nose where it did not belong. Opening letters and all that. But what country did not 'ave a fair share of censorship back in the days. Certainly not Angleterre".

Below them the scene played out. Since France had already experienced it once, he didn't pay that much attention. However, he could see that his companion surveyed the actions below them with keen interest.

Dumbledore looked a little bemused. "I didn't know that King Louis had an elephant".

"It is not a widely known fact, unfortunately. Nor ze plan at that time. You could say it came as quite ze chock for everyone, myself included. 'Adn't talked to Portugal for a while, even though I helped out in ze Restoration war against Spain. No one really liked Antonio at zat time. He did 'ave a bit of an inflated ego and lust for gold. The elephant was a gift from Portugal as a thank you for ze help in the war. Congo told me it was one of his when I met 'im later. But why do we not take a look at something else? This court is not zat interesting when you cannot talk to anyone".

….

If you didn't know what you were looking at, it didn't look like the memory changed at all - except for the lack of elephant. They once again looked at a château, but this time, it was surrounded by mountains. And it was hotter, except they couldn't feel it. But France knew, because this was his school: Académie de Magie Beauxbâtons.

Compared to the old-school castle of Hogwarts, Beauxbatons was a beautiful château which shone in the sunlight. The student body of Beauxbatons was bigger than that of Hogwarts, so the original building hadn't been big enough to house them all anymore. Somewhere in the mid-1800s, a bigger renovation took place - but only lasted for about three days, thanks to magic. Two new dorm-buildings had been built, in the same style as the old château, a girl's and a boy's dorm. The old dorms in the château had been remodelled to a larger library, new classrooms and some common areas, where the students could hang out and relax across genders. Apart from the two dorms and the main building, there was also the house where the magical creatures' class was held, in the back of the school, and the preschool building. Compared to many of the other magic schools in the world, Beauxbatons had taken after the Japanese Mahoutokoro. They had a day-student program, where children under the starting age could come and learn the basics, as reading and writing. They were also taught theoretical magic, since they had to wait until they became full student to actually practice magic.

However, the gem of Beauxbatons would always be the beautiful gardens that surrounded the château. There were a lot of small nooks where classes could be held and fountains where you could sit and relax. It was said that the fountain in the middle of the grounds possessed healing and beautifying properties. France had the feeling that it stemmed from him bathing in it once. He was eternally young and beautiful, so maybe the wizards came to the conclusion that it had to be due to the fountain.

This time, the memory also began with France walking through the grounds, though not as fast as in the other memory - this was more of a strolling.

There weren't any students around, so lessons must have had started.

"Professor Bonnefey!" a voice rang out from behind them - in French. France wondered shortly if Dumbledore spoke French, but quickly came to the conclusion that since he spoke Mermish, he also spoke French.

"Ah, Monsieur Delacour, what are you doing here, out of class?" Past-France answered the out-of-breath-student.

"I, huf, was, huf, looking for you! No," he said, taking in a big chunk of air, "I have a free period. But there has been an accident! Marionette Dupont tried to do the Aguamenti spell you taught last lesson. But now she can't turn it off. There's water all over the place".

"Where is Mademoiselle Dupont now?" France asked the frantic fifth year student.

"In the green room," he said, as they began to walk into the main school. All the common areas had names. The green room was popular with the older kids because of the difficulty of locating it. It was easily the most beautiful room, with big windows looking out over the garden. Luckily, France was there when the school was built, so he knew all the short-cuts. Where Hogwarts' corridors had a thing with changing the hallways and staircases, Beauxbaton's rooms had a tendency to move around. It was a test from the original builder. If you couldn't find your room, preferably with magic, you had no right to go to classes.

That was why the first charm they taught was the point me charm, so the first-years had a chance of finding their classroom. The most common classrooms were easy enough to find, they only changed between two locations. However, if you wanted to find the tower, another common-room, the old alchemy classroom or the Beauxbatons version of the Room of Requirement, you really had to know what you were doing. Those rooms had a tendency to disappear completely. No harm came to the people inside the rooms, they would merely turn up in a bush or sometimes a fountain as they exited the room. France had once been dropped off in front of a painting two floors above the ground - and it hadn't even been a nice painting! You could say it was luck that it was France which the room had decided to play a trick on, but France had always had a suspicion that the room didn't like him. They went far back, the Tower and him. Because, if course it was the Tower. That room had a mind of its own.

However, the green room was a bit easier, since it didn't just randomly disappear completely sometimes. If you looked at the weather, time of day and air humidity you could find the green room without much trouble. And France knew that it was on the second floor, just to the right of the library at that moment.

When they reached it, surely enough, there in the middle of the room stood Marionette Dupont, waving her wand wildly around. There was already a considerable amount of water in the room and the other students had wisely moved away.

"Professor" Marionette Dupont cried, tears forming in her eyes. "I can't turn it off again. Water just keeps coming out".

"I can tell by the condition of the carpet", past-France said. He had taught them the Aguamenti spell in their previous lesson, but he had also said that they should wait with performing it outside of class for some time. Exactly for this reason. The spell in itself was easy enough to perform, but difficult to turn off again.

France had always wished that the creators of magic had made a way for a third person to turn off a spell performed by an underage witch or wizard. That would have prevented many disasters and made the job of teachers so much easier. But there had been no way for him to step in and stop it for her, so he, unfortunately, had had to teach her outside of class.

"Mademoiselle Dupont, you need to focus on the flow of the water instead of the amount of water. Forget how much water there is. You just need to think about turning a lever the other way. Cut off the flow. Then, when that is done, say Finite. But not before you have a clear picture in your head. Try now".

If she didn't have the clear picture in her head, she could very well set off an explosion instead. Magic had a tendency to explode at the least pleasant moments.

The poor girl closed her eyes and thought for a few second, until she said "Finite!" and stopped the water. France waved his wand, and then everything was back to normal. He then proceeded to give the girl a detention and explaining why he had said to wait with performing that spell. See, he could be a teacher if he wanted to.

"I take it you weren't the history professor?"

France had been so focused on the scene that he'd almost forgot that he had company.

"You guess right. I worked at Beauxbatons some years ago where I taught charms. I knew ze headmaster at zat time, and he called in a favour. But I 'ave enough charm to teach in the ze subject so I saw no problem. Although I had to read up a bit when I learned zat it was the spells. Fortunately I also 'ave enough practice with charms to teach in zat".

Dumbledore looked amused at the answer. It was, sadly, true. It wasn't one of his proudest moments. He could, however, say that his students both learned to charm and preform charms. He liked to think it was the point all along.

There were a silence, as they followed Past-France out of the common room and back to his own room, while the two of them returned to Dumbledore's office.

"'Ave I convinced you?"

Dumbledore smiled. "I have never doubted your word. Once I meet a peculiar man on a journey. He seemed to have no problem with telling me he also went by the name Scotland after he learned that I was a wizard. Then he began to complain about some law that forbade him to interfere with the magical community. He told me it was his little brother Arthur's fault, and if I ever ran into a "lad" named Arthur Kirkland, I should "run as if the devil was chasing me".

If France had to be completely honest, it didn't surprise him. A man both as old and as influential as Dumbledore had probably seen his share, so if anyone should know about them it would be him. Heck, France himself didn't keep the secret that well. There were countries out there who took the whole "keeping-it-a-secret" thing very seriously, like England and the people around America, but France really didn't have that relationship with his status. If some of his people wanted to know who he really was, he told them. And he suspected that Scotland had the same attitude. Or that he simply needed someone to vent to. He could also have had too much whiskey. France knew he liked his whiskey, and had joined him at several occasions. Overall, something England wouldn't be happy about.

"Zat sounds like Scotland, non? Always going a little overboard when he gets too much to drink", France mused. "Angleterre did not know, but he hardly speaks zat much with his northern brother, so it should not come as a surprise. Actually, there is a chance zat Scotland remembers nothing. I 'ave been drinking with 'im some times, and he often he does not remember what happened the night before. Sometimes it contains great opportunities, but mostly it is just inconvenient. Some good stories were lost on petite Écosse". France paused for a moment, trying to figure out where he was going with this. Nowhere it seemed, so he tried to turn the conversation around again.

"But zat is not what I wanted to speak with you about. Angleterre sent moi 'ere mostly to keep an eye on ze ministry's involvement with ze school. And the problem with ze dark wizard rising, even though he did not send me 'ere for zat, so do not tell him. But now mademoiselle Umbridge is 'ere, and she 'as a distinct ministry feeling to 'er".

Dumbledore sighed, suddenly looking his age. While France had been speaking, he had moved to his desk, where he sat down. The wizard folded his hands and looked at the country standing in front of him.

"Dolores Umbridge", he said, "is the proof of the minister's doubt. She is by no means a likeable lady, but she was the lesser of two evils."

So... Yeah... Hello again! This time we see the past-France, and to be honest, not much is happening in this chapter... However! I promise that some wheels are turning next time! It is almost done at this point, but I have some trouble with getting the dialog as I want it. But it should be here before another half a year, I will actually promise that.