Chapter 6

Professor McGonagall slightly smirked as she handed the North American twins their schedules. Even though she was against such behavior, she would let it slide just this once because it was against Umbridge. Matthew and Alfred sensed her satisfaction and smiled at her. They looked toward their schedules. They had Defense Against the Dark Arts first. Both of them involuntarily shivered at that fact. They knew that Umbridge would make their lives miserable for pulling that prank on her. Next, they had double History of Magic, Alfred smiled at this; eager to annoy Arthur on his first day of school. After that, they had Charms, which didn't seem too bad to the nations

After breakfast, the students in the Great Hall quickly went to their classes as to not be late. The twin nations nervously went to their first class. They did not know what kind of hell Umbridge had planned for them. Reluctantly, they opened the door to the room. They both thought it would be best to sit in the back to be as far away from the pink toad as possible. The other first years were as nervous as the North American twins; after all, it was their first lesson at Hogwarts. Professor Umbridge had yet to arrive so some of the students were nervously chatting with each other.

"Hey, Mattie," Alfred whispered to his twin, "what do you think the toad will make us do for detention?"

"Why do you think I would know?" Matthew whispered back, a little irritated with Alfred for somehow convincing him to pull a prank on their first day of school.

"But you know everything, Mattie." Alfred whined. Matthew shot his brother an irritated look. Suddenly, the doors behind them opened with a loud clang. All of the first years became silent and looked towards the doors to the classroom. In the doorway, was the horrendous toad of a professor dressed in a shade of pink that hurt the eyes of anyone who looked at her. She shut the doors behind her with a sickly sweet smile upon her face. The sound of the doors shutting seemed to have a sort of finality to it for Alfred and Matthew. Professor Umbridge slowly walked to the front of the classroom in her pink high heels. Each step produced a loud clang that caused many of the first years to wince. Once she got to the front, she turned around swiftly to face her terrified students.

"Good morning class!" she greeted loudly in her high pitched voice.

"Good morning, Professor Umbridge." half of the class greeted back in a fearful and nervous tone. The pink professor tsked at the class.

"That will not do. Say it with more enthusiasm," she scolded the class in a sickly sweet tone, "Now let's try again. Good morning class!"

"Good morning, Professor Umbridge!" the entire class greeted with more enthusiasm than before. She smiled at them. Names were listed off as she took attendance of the students there, but when she reached Alfred's name, she paused. A small frown of displeasure formed when she looked at Alfred in the back of the classroom.

"Mr. Jones, would you and your brother please move to this front desk." as she ordered Alfred, she pointed to two desks directly beside her.

"Why should we?" Alfred asked in a rude tone. Beside him, Matthew hissed out his name in order to attempt to get him to stop talking. They already had detention on the first day of school, and Matthew did not want to add anymore punishment to that. Umbridge pursed her lips, trying to contain her rage towards Alfred.

"You will sit up here!" she screamed, surprising Alfred. Grumbling, Alfred moved to the front with Matthew close behind. Umbridge smiled to herself and finished taking attendance. The entire time she kept the foreign twins inside her peripheral vision. After she was done with attendance she began a very long speech about the class. The only thing that kept Alfred from falling asleep was the fact that Umbridge was giving the twins the Evil Eye.

"Now, everyone put your wands away, you will not need them this year in this class" she ordered the class. It was met with a large amount of resistance. One of the first-years in Gryffindor raised his hand. He was a small boy with pale skin and midnight black hair. The pink toad looked at him and called on him.

"Yes Mister …." Umbridge began.

"Blackwell, ma'am, Achilles Blackwell." the first-year said confidently.

"Yes Mr. Blackwell?" Umbridge asked.

"Professor, why are we putting our wands away?" Achilles asked as politely as he could. There were some murmurs of agreement from many of his classmates including Alfred.

"Mr. Blackwell, since you seem oblivious to the new curriculum guides the Ministry has set, you must be a muggleborn. As a muggleborn, you have no right to question how wizarding lesson are taught." she explained slowly while Achilles' bright blue eyes bristled with fury at the insult to his heritage. Alfred was about to make an argument with Umbridge when Matthew grabbed his attention and silenced him with a dark look. Alfred forced himself to calm down, he would complain about the pink monstrosity later. After her subtle insult to Achilles Blackwell, Umbridge continued on with explaining how the rest of the year would be while handing out their textbooks.

"Throughout the rest of the year, you will not be allowed to have your wands in class. Instead, we will be following a Ministry approved curriculum following strict theory lessons only." Umbridge lectured. Alfred groaned as he tried not to fall asleep as they read the first chapter of the useless textbook. The class finally came to an end, the students quickly filed out of the classroom. Alfred and Matthew were given a short lecture from Umbridge, reminding them to not forget about their detention at the end of the day. Once they were out of earshot, the twins began to talk to each other.

"This is bad." Matthew stated.

"Yeah, I know, I won't be able to sleep in her class without her noticing." Alfred answered back.

"Not that, you idiot! The Ministry is not allowing the students to learn how to defend themselves." Matthew explained to his twin. Alfred nodded in understanding.

"No wonder Iggy hates them." Alfred stated. They both walked to their second class, wondering about what the Ministry may do in the future.

~~~~~~~~~LINEBREAK!~~~~~~~~~~~

Arthur paced in the front of his classroom. Even though he had taught at Hogwarts before he was still nervous. Afterall, the last time he actually taught at Hogwarts was before America decided to start his silly revolution. Arthur couldn't help but think that if he had been kinder and more fatherly to Alfred during his time as a student in Hogwarts he never would have rebelled against him. Arthur sighed, Alfred leaving him was probably inevitable. There was no time to dwell on the past.

Arthur's students started to pour into the classroom. They naturally went to their separate Houses. The Gryffindors sat to Arthur's right and the Ravenclaws to his left. Immediately, he spotted Harry Potter and his group of friends from the small crowd of Gryffindors. He smiled to himself, Harry looked like a very modest boy despite his fame; something that would greatly help him later on in life. After all of the students filed in, Arthur decided to start the class.

"Welcome fifth years, to History of Magic. I am Professor Arthur Kirkland, and this year I'll help you prepare for your OWLS. Now, before we begin, there are some class rules … " Arthur went on to explain the basic classroom rules to his students. Towards the end of the class time, he described how they were going to study for the OWLS. "Now, can you please tell me where you left off with your previous History of Magic professor. What was the last thing you covered?" As expected, Hermione immediately raised her hand. Arthur quickly glanced at the rest of the room to see that she was the only one that was willing to answer.

"Ms. Granger" Arthur gave her permission to explain the answer to his query.

"We left off with the Goblin Wars, sir" she answered, "We've only ever learned about the Goblin Wars." Arthur was surprised by this answer.

"You mean that none of you have learned anything about Merlin, the first Ministry, or the Witch Trials."

All of the students shook their heads. Arthur pinched the bridge of his nose. What was he going to do about this? It would take a long time to catch the kids up to where they should be in the class.

"Alright then, next class we will start with King Arthur and Merlin. Please look over chapters 1 and 2 of History of Magic Year 1 in the Library to get a head start." He waved his wand at the board behind him, "until then, let's start with an abridged version of what went down." As Arthur waved the star tipped wand, words and dates appeared on the chalkboard behind him. The rest of the class proceeded like a normal history lesson might take place; well, as normal as a class about the history of magic could be. Arthur felt joyful when he saw that his students were actually listening to him unlike certain nations he knew of.

Harry and Ron were pleasantly surprised with their new history of magic professor. Of course, no one could be as boring as Professor Binns, but they were not expecting to actually interested in the lesson. Hermione was barely containing her joy at the prospect of having a good new teacher in History of Magic. She was brimming with excitement for what the rest of the school year had in store.

"Wasn't that fantastic!?" Hermione asked enthusiastically. For once, Harry and Ron agreed with her, Professor Kirkland had a way of making his boring subject very interesting.

Suddenly, a pair of familiar twins rounded the corner and entered the Golden trio's field of vision. Alfred had an angry look while Matthew sported a worried expression. When the two spotted Harry, Alfred enthusiastically waved at Harry while Matthew shyly greeted with a small twitch of his hand.

"Hi Harry!" Alfred greeted in a loud voice while his twin whispered his own greeting.

"Hello Alfred, Matthew, how was your first class at Hogwarts?" Harry asked the two young siblings he met on the train. Alfred's face quickly became sour.

"That mean old toad lady didn't even let us use any magic, and Mattie and me had to sit up front with her!" Alfred exclaimed while his twin nodded in agreement.

"Mattie and I," Hermione corrected. Alfred turned towards her, seemingly just noticing that Ron and Hermione were standing behind Harry.

"Who are you guys?" Alfred demanded while Matthew slapped himself in the forehead at his twin's lack of tact.

"Sorry for my brother, he rarely uses his manners. I'm Matthew Williams and this is my twin brother Alfred F. Jones. We met Potter on the Hogwarts Express." Matthew told Ron and Hermione as they both looked guiltily at Harry for not being able to sit with him on the train.

"I'm Hermione Granger." Hermione introduced herself to the twins.

"And I'm Ron Weasley." Ron greeted after Hermione, "Did you say that you couldn't use any magic during DADA?"

"Yeah, and she said that we wouldn't need to use wands in her class. I'm majorly disappointed. I was looking forward to shooting magic spells at the old toad during class." Alfred pouted. Matthew sighed again while Hermione scolded Alfred on his mischievous thoughts. The Golden Trio looked among themselves at this revelation.

"This is … very concerning." Hermione told her two friends.

"Not being able to use magic in DADA," Ron shook his head in disbelief, "it's bloody mad."

"Well, I'm off to go annoy my big brother during his class and, hopefully, be able to completely embarrass him." Alfred stated and marched off to the History of Magic classroom.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~LINEBREAK~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As Alfred was happily skipping to the classroom, ready to annoy Arthur to his heart's content, he spotted Luna Lovegood in front of him. Alfred quickly brought her to the attention of his twin. They both stopped in their tracks when she looked towards them and smiled. Luna walked up to them, but made no indication that she was going to stop. She simply handed them a small piece of paper and walked away. After she vanished down the hallway, Alfred opened the paper, read it, cursed in several flavors of language, and them promptly handed it to Matthew. After reading the note, Matthew had a similar reaction. Luna Lovegood knew exactly who and what they were.

Why, oh why, am I so cruel. Hopefully I shall not take nearly as long since I am getting better with my chronic procrastination. The next update will be for my other story, and I did catch up on the Percy Jackson books (I'm a slow reader). I know there are a ton of grammar mistakes, but I wanted to get this out ASAP.