72Sorry for the late update, as you can see, I update this fanfic irregurally. So please bear with me
Beta-read by Oblivion772
In England's childhood he didn't have any friends besides magical creatures. No human friends nor nations. He grew up alone, isolated from his brothers. When he grew up, most people noticed how he had trouble making friends or simply talking to other people. He was rigid, hard to understand and mostly stayed away from others. Even his own people, his boss's underlings, have had a hard time approaching him. He is not as friendly as America or as flirtatious as France. He only has a few people he dared to call "friends", he always was very careful towards when it came to the human world, for fear of the consequences.
Every nation had experienced the loss of human friends at some point in their life. It was a hard lesson, a hard reminder that no matter how their appearances were similar to humans, they were different.
Nonetheless...
"Where is that git? Bloody idiot..."
England grumbled in annoyance. He had made spare time to visit Neville. That poor boy had broke his wrist and gone to hospital wing. Even though England always felt wary around hospitals, as they were a bad reminder of many dark memories in his long life, he had braced himself and visit anyway, just to find out that Neville had gone back to his dorm long ago. Then he sprinted, before the healer (he didn't know her name, but she looked warm and kind even though England had never been good at dealing with a medical environment) had a chance to ask about his pale skin and the bags under his eyes.
Once England thought he was far enough from the antiseptic odor, he slowed and stared at a nearby window. It was dark already, the dinner might have started, but England didn't feel particularly hungry today.
It was a good chance to look around though.
Almost everyone was at the Great Hall, so most of the corridors and rooms were left deserted. And to top it off, the light hadn't gone out yet so it was going to be easier to sniff around.
England chanted a simple charm to himself, to make him seem a 'blindspot' to others. It was similar to being invisible, but the difference being he could see himself perfectly but would be hidden from most, if not all others, the possible exception being Dumbledore.
The nation walked alone, strode through the long corridor without any fear. Maybe he should check into Professor Quirrel's room. Or maybe not. Maybe he should find a deserted room where he can boil his medicine and do a few of his nationly duties in private.
Hogwarts was a huge place with many hidden and magic rooms scattered all over the place after all. One of them should be fit to be his secret hideout.
As England walked along some secret passages, he stopped at a few doors, only to shake his head and begin again. Finally, he arrived at the seventh floor in left corridor.
England stopped, then turned to the wall. He didn't see any door but he could feel a magic room around there. The nation rubbed the hard wall. He didn't just imagine it, it was a hidden room.
Perfect.
With a magically hidden room like this, he needed a way to make the door appear. If only he had his magic ability at the fullest, he could just 'force' the room to appear, but now he needed to do it manually.
It took England more than a hour to solve the mystery.
He was a bit ashamed with himself, he had left his magical side for so long his sense got dulled. "Geez... I only need to pass it three times... Norway and Romania will tease me endlessly if they know this..." England murmured to himself.
The de-aged nation opened the door and confirmed the room had the transfiguration materials to fulfill his need.
Papers, yeah papers, pens, a cozy chair with mahogany desk, at the other side he found some tools that could be used to brew his medicine. A perfect hide-out for him.
IoI
England looked down at his letter with satisfaction. It had been two weeks but he hadn't gotten any news or letter from Scotland, so he decided to write one for him. There should be several files which only could be handled by him. Maybe Scotland just forgot about that or waited until the files piled to send them all to him at once. He didn't want to get drowned by his nation duties though, he would be losing sleep should that happen.
England folded his letter into a paper plane then walked out from his hide-out. Unfortunately, he couldn't use the usual owl mail system. He didn't bring an owl to school since he didn't buy any pet and there was the risk that the owl would be attacked to steal his letters.
The blonde nation opened a window then let his paper plane flight outside. It was using a special magic, almost similar with mail system of the magical government, but a margin stronger. Yeah, strong enough until the paper plane could stab Scotland's head when arrive, England snickered.
"Huh? What time is it?"
He hadn't noticed how the time had flown. The corridors were dark already. It could be past midnight. England sighed, even with charms, it seemed there would be times where he still had a hard time matching his time flow with the normal time flow for the human and wizard.
England chanted his charm to make him a blind spot like before and walked back to his dorm quickly. He hoped no one noticed his absence, he needed to find an excuse why he was still at the outside of his shared room this late. It was quite unusual for a first year to break the rules about wandering about at night.
But before England could think of any excuses, he bumped into someone. He might be invisible to others, but it didn't make him physically transparent.
"Ooow... what the hell..."
"Ugh... what is- Arthur?"
England blinked to see his spy target, and several first years from Gryffindor in front of him. They looked about as shocked as he did.
"Come on, there's no time, Flich will catch us!" Ron scolded them, he pulled Harry up while England tried to process the situation. Before he could ask anything, they already started to run again.
"I already told you... Malfoy lied to you, this is a trap!" Hermione fumed as she ran.
"Could you shut up already? Just run!"
"I just want to go back to my bed..." Neville whimpered quietly.
"I don't understand any of this... you all owe me an explanation later.." England rubbed his temple. He couldn't believe it, he only took his eyes off of Harry for a few hours, and the boy had managed to get into trouble yet again.
"I could ask you the same thing Arthur, why were you outside of dorm? Aren't you as guilty as us?" asked Ron to him.
"I... tried to find Neville... but then he wasn't at hospital the wing, and I got lost," England half lied.
"Can we just focus on running? I think Flich is getting closer! Hurry up!" Harry shouted to them.
England sighed and ran faster. To be honest he didn't even believe Harry knew where they were going. But, he didn't want to raise any suspicion for leading the group back to their dorm. He just said he was lost earlier, it would be weird if he told them the right direction to get back.
"Wait... this is..." England slowed his pace, it was too dark to see the whole corridor but he knew this place was...
"Come on Arthur, Flich will caught us!" Hermione pulled on his hand to keep running.
"But wait, this's-"
They ran to the end of corridor, but unluckily the door was locked. "This is it! We're done for!" Ron screamed in frustration. Hermione shoved him to the side. "Move! Alohomora!" she chanted and they opened the newly unlocked door.
England closed his eye 'bloody idiot kids...' he cursed to himself while Neville pulled him into the room.
They slammed the door shut and focused on hearing Flich's echoing footsteps. England and Neville's eyes widened when they saw a very big dog with three heads in front of them.
Now he understood why Dumbledore forbid this room from the students. That crazy old wizard, there was no sane wizard nor human that should willingly put such a dangerous creature inside of a school!
Finally, everyone seemed to notice the dog, England turned back to the first years behind him. "RUN!" he shouted loudly. No one needed to be told twice, they were already running for their lives. England chanted a sleeping spell aimed at the dog so he won't follow them, and locked the door behind them(geez, Dumbledore needed to lock this door with a more complicated charm, so it couldn't be opened by a simple charm from a first year student, England noted), then followed the children back through the hallways.
It was good thing they finally ran to the right direction and it was no coincidence they didn't meet anyone along the way as it was actually the work of England's magic. England hoped they were to dense to notice it, maybe they would think they were just lucky.
Once they were inside of the Gryffindor's common room, all of them sprawled at the floor except England. The nation just quietly sat in a chair while trying to control his breath.
Today was so ridiculous. The nation glanced to the raven haired boy with glasses. This would be a very difficult under cover mission for him.
"What do they think they're doing, keeping a thing like that locked up in a school?" Ron finally asked. "If any dog needs exercise, that one does."
England agreed quietly. He really needed to talk to Dumbledore about that. It was too dangerous to keep a monstrous dog like that inside of school, not to mention the locked door could be opened with a simple "alohomora".
Hermione had quickly gotten both her breath and her bad temper back again. "Do none of you use your eyes?" she snapped. "Didn't you see what it was standing on?"
"The floor?" Harry suggested. "I wasn't looking at its feet, I was too busy with its heads."
"No, not the floor. It was standing on a trapdoor. It's obviously guarding something."
That was the only possible reason to keep such a dog inside of that room. There should be a better way to guard whatever need to be guarded.
Hermione stood up, glaring at them.
"I hope you're pleased with yourselves. We could all have been killed - or worse, expelled. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to bed."
"No, we don't mind," he said, before turning to the others "You'd think we dragged her along, wouldn't you."
Ron stared after her, his mouth open. England only sighed then turned to Neville to check if the boy could still breath or not. Fortunately, he could but he still looked much too pale.
"Neville, are you okay?" England asked him while shaking the poor boy's shoulder.
"Y-Yeah... I just can't feel my feet..." Neville answered, voice full of fear.
"That is a shame, as I don't have any intention to give you piggy back ride to our room. Come on, you can walk." said England, he pulled Neville to his feet. The boy a bit stumbled and leaned to the nation. England snorted and dragged Neville along. He glanced back to Ron and Harry, maybe he should be worried about the curious light in Harry's eyes.
But, there shouldn't be anymore problems today. Or so he hoped.
IoI
England saw Harry's secret practice from the safe distant. He was a gifted boy, he could fly better than England himself. England could imagine Gryffindor winning the quidditch cup this year. Not that he cared, to be honest.
Why Hogwarts even needed to make four different houses, England never fully understood.
But, he wouldn't argue for now. He couldn't change it, even though he didn't like it.
England turned around once he saw Harry finish his practice. He wondered if he really needed to keep on eye on Harry 24/7. He didn't like to be passive about this job, he didn't want to wait for something to happen. He preferred preventing something rather than facing it.
But then again, the one time England took his eyes off from Harry, the boy barely avoided from getting eaten by a monstrous three headed dog.
Was the only time Harry safe from trouble when he was asleep?
The blonde nation groaned.
He didn't fancy losing his sleep, not when his body's condition was not it's best.
What a pain in arse.
Once he made sure Harry had gotten back at Gryffindor's common room, England decided to pay a visit to Dumbledore. Sometimes he wanted to strangle that crazy headmaster so badly, but he was also the only one he could talk to without needing to pretend to be a 11 year old kid.
"You sure look angry, Kirkland."
"Yes, since you won't make my job easier... is there any reason why I shouldn't be angry?" England asked with an irritated tone. The old wizard only smiled at him, not even looking irritated that England had disturbed his sleeping time.
England looked around the room, he saw all portraits of the previous headmasters look to him curiously. The nation sighed, he wondered if it was risky to talk like this with all of the portrait eyes into them. But, right now he didn't have any other choice.
"Why is there a three headed dog in this school?"
"Pardon me?"
"Don't play innocent with me. What's with that dog? For sure he is guarding something in the room at the third corridor. You need to tell me about that! Harry almost get himself killed by that dog!" The nation shouted at the headmaster.
There was no surprise in Dumbledore's eyes. It made England angrier since it meant that the headmaster had expected that to happen.
"But, he has you, I know you will protect him," Dumbledore replied. England snorted harshly.
"You got that right, but still-"
"As long as you keep an eye to Harry, he will be alright."
England shut his mouth. For a second he wondered if the headmaster knew he got careless and almost let his mission target get mauled by the dog. Since it was the almighty crazy Dumbledore, he probably knew about that.
"You don't need to tell me about that." England turned away his face to cover his embarrassment. "But for sure you can lock the door with a more complicated spell so it can't be opened with a simple first year spell."
"I'll see what I can do about that."
England rubbed his forehead. "How about you let me do it? I can make sure no one can enter the room beside you and I?"
Dumbledore chuckled slightly. England couldn't understand what he found as funny.
"You dare to leave a trace of your special magic at school, Kirkland?"
Now England really felt ashamed of himself. His face got red from embarrassment. "O-of course not! I just don't believe you will lock the door properly! Now please excuse me!" The nation hurried to get away to save some of his dignity.
Of course he couldn't let a trace of his magic inside of school. His special spell, his own invented charm. Like hell he would do that. If anyone noticed it, it could destroy his identity or even raise unwanted attention to the nation being.
The small chuckle England heard from afar made him more embarrassed and he practically ran back to his room.
He was so stupid! It was bloody embarrassing!
Tbc
Thanks for reading
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