Arthur had a small smile on his face as he sipped some tea in his room. Alfred had gone to teach their class, leaving him to take a break for once and relax with a nice book on magical theories. Unfortunately for him, his relaxation wouldn't last long. Shortly after he finished reading about a theory on how thestrals first came about, there was a sharp knock on the door. Cursing under his breath, Arthur hesitantly stood up, walking over to the door. When a series of more knocks repeated in short order, Arthur grumbled, "I'll be there in a second. Keep your pants on!"

Arthur swung the door open to face Alfred leaning on the doorframe, breathing heavily. His face was flushed red and he tried to gesture something.

Instead of trying to decipher Alfred's gestures, Arthur summoned over a bottle of water and gave it to Alfred. He was halfway through the bottle when he finally spoke.

"I need you to go supervise that creepy guy's defence class. Our old boss guy said one of us should do it, but I'm still teaching our class."

Arthur blinked. "Wait, you left the class by themselves? You need to go back quickly."

Alfred waved a hand absently. "Nah, I left them with France." When Arthur gave him a skeptical look he added, "Why do you think I ran here? Will you do it?"

Arthur sighed. "I suppose. Next time, tell me beforehand when the Headmaster tells us to do something."

After a few more minutes of pushing, Alfred ran back to teach class. Reluctantly, Arthur locked their rooms and left in direction of the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom. It wasn't that the class was intolerable. The problem itself seemed to lie with the teacher. Professor Moody, who literally came out of nowhere, set him on edge. When the Professor had noticed Arthur's narrowed gaze, he had quickly fled, not giving him a chance to look close enough the see him.

Soon, Arthur reached the classroom. Before he could knock on the door, a loud voice called out, "Kirkland, what are you loitering around outside for?"

Lips pressed together tightly, Arthur walked into the classroom. Moody was standing at the front of the classroom, wand pointed towards towards a jar with a spider on his desk. Unfortunately for Arthur, Moody's attention hadn't been on where he was standing. Arthur watched with wide eyes as Moody shouted, "Crucio!"

Arthur clenched his teeth as the spell just missed the spider and washed over him. As a nation, he was much more resistant to spells and damage than normal humans, but there was a lot of power behind this spell. Apparently, Moody was harbouring a lot of hatred in himself to be able to cast a spell powerful enough to affect him in such a manner. If a normal Cruciatus curse felt like getting stabbed over and over again, Arthur felt pinpricks of pain over his entire body. He stumbled back a little, but didn't make a sound. After all, he had been through a lot worse than a muted Cruciatus curse.

It took a second for him to refocus, but he could here the other students making a fuss. Honestly, it wasn't as bad as they were making it out to be. However, as soon as the made eye contact with Moody the spell ended.

Arthur tried to relax as his muscles ached a little, but refused to look weak. Instead he marched over to Moody and pointed his wand at him, even though he knew that he'd only need a wave of his hand to take down the Defence Professor.

"What do you think you're doing? Using an Unforgivable curse in a classroom full of children. It can send you straight to Azkaban." Arthur demanded.

Moody glared back at him, which was slightly unnerving considering the false eye whizzed about, seeing everything and nothing all at once. "I have permission from Dumbledore. I was showing the students using the spider. You just happened walk in at the wrong moment."

After a moment he added, "My apologies."

Arthur snarled. "The Headmaster has no control over the law. He cannot give you the authority to use forbidden curses, no matter what positions he may hold. I will definitely having words with him. I will not have you teaching these students Unforgivable curses with a demonstration. Either teach it in theory, teach something else, or dismiss your class."

There was a moment of silence. Arthur kept his gaze steady as he stared down Moody. After a few moments, Moody relented, "Class dismissed."

The class spoke in hushed whispers as they quickly packed their belongings and tried to leave. Many of them still looked shaken from seeing one of their teachers be hit with the Cruciatus curse. When Moody tried to hold Neville Longbottom behind, Arthur sneered, "I think not. Come along Mr. Longbottom."

Arthur left the room, Neville in tow. The poor boy was pale and his hands shook as he quickly followed his Professor down the hall.

"Where are we going sir?" Neville timidly asked as he was being lead down several hallways.

"We're going to the Hospital Wing, Mr. Longbottom. You don't seem to be in any state to be attending class or otherwise if you don't mind me saying."

It was quiet for the next few minutes. Arthur glanced over at Longbottom a few times, seeing him deep in thought.

After a few more minutes, they had reached the Hospital Wing. However, before Arthur could open the door, Neville said, "Professor Kirkland, I'm not well because of the Cruciatus curse. I thought Professor Moody was going to use it on the spider, and I thought that was bad. The truth is that my parents," He paused here for a moment and continued, "My parents were tortured to insanity by Death Eaters shortly after You-Know-Who died. Seeing you under the same curse today...all I could hear was screaming, but you didn't even make a sound."

Arthur spun to face Neville. "Neville, I'm sure your parents were formidable people. I'm just different. The Cruciatus curse is a horrid abomination that for all intents and purposes, should not exist. The fact that the curse did not affect me as hard as anyone else does not speak or diminish the bravery your parents must have had to be able to shield you until you were taken away. If they had told their torturers where they had hidden you, I doubt you would be standing here."

Without giving Neville a chance to respond, Arthur quickly ushered him into the Hospital Wing, and started to stride rather quickly towards the Headmaster's Office. A dark aura formed around Arthur, no, England, as he tried to keep his magic from lashing out. It wouldn't help his cause to harm a student right before he tells Dumbledore what happened. His memory of the event and all of the witnesses are all the evidence he needs. If Dumbledore even tries to deny it, he'll take it out on his hide.

-This time skip is brought to you by the reminder that APH England was the British Empire and can kick your arse into next week if he wanted to-

Bang.

"ARTHUR!"

Harry looked up from his history work to see someone who looked similar to Professor Kirkland - except with dark red hair - slam the classroom door open. Professor Bonnefoy, who had just walked in to watch them as Professor Jones left for a few minutes, looked shocked which was fair enough. The class ignored their work in favour of watching the intruder.

"Alistair! Your brother is not 'ere right now." Professor Bonnefoy said, his French accent becoming thicker.

Alistair, who was apparently Professor Kirkland's brother, frowned. "Where is he? I need to speak to him."

Just as Professor Bonnefoy opened his mouth to respond, Professor Jones charged through the door, face flushed and breathing heavily.

"Wha-what," Professor Jones panted as he tried to regain his breath, "What's going on?" He didn't seem to notice the tense atmosphere.

Immediately, Alistair spun on his feet to face Professor Jones. "Where is Arthur?"

Professor Jones frowned. "He should be helping the weird creepy guy-" He shot a look at the class as if daring them to say otherwise. Harry wasn't about to do so- Professor Moody was rather off-putting. "with his class. I think it's the Defence Class or something."

Professor Bonnefoy rolled his eyes then immediately looked horrified at himself.

("How could I allow myself to perform such a...how you say...plebeian gesture?")

("Francis...you literally just rolled your eyes. Calm down.")

("Calm down?!")

"You mean Defence Against the Dark Arts. Le Professeur of that class is almost certain to push him. I fear Moody may not be in one piece by the time class ends." Professor Bonnefoy said snootily as if the thought of Professor Moody overpowering Professor Kirkland was absurd.

Suddenly, a third person appeared in the doorway. The Professors and Alistair spun to face Professor McGonagall who was peering at them in a confused manner.

"What on earth is going on in here? Professor Jones, why is Professor Bonnefoy here and who is this?" She asked, gesturing towards Professor Kirkland's brother who smirked at the sound of her Scottish accent.

"I'm here to see my brother Arthur. I heard he was teaching History of Magic here with Alfred and I have some urgent news."

Professor McGonagall frowned. "In that case you better go to the Headmaster's Office. We can't have people walking in and disrupting classes." She shot a look over to the class who immediately looked away or down at their desks. Harry intensely looked at a page on Ancient Egypt and pretended to be reading it.

Professor Bonnefoy nodded. "I'll stay here. Alfred, mon ami, find Arthur and go with Alistair. I can teach the rest of the class."

"But," Professor Jones protested.

"Non," Professor Bonnefoy immediately shot back.

Harry watched as the visitor, Professor Jones, and Professor McGonagall left. There was something about Professor Jones and Professor Kirkland. Harry wasn't sure exactly what it was, but he was determined to figure it out.

AN: I've decided to go with Option A and end this story with the Goblet Of Fire. Don't worry, we still have more chapters to go. After this story, I'll be starting another Pottertalia story, with America and England set during the Order of the Phoenix and possibly beyond that. Thank you for all of the replies. I appreciate it very much. Until next time!

-Madsinator (12/28/18)