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1932 – Berlin, Germany
“It’s dangerous for you to be here.” Albus Dumbledore turned around and saw a man standing in an alleyway near him. The man had blond hair, green eyes, and the biggest eyebrows he’d ever seen. Despite his young looks – Albus estimated that he was in his twenties – the man’s eyes seemed to hold maturity beyond his youth.
“I’m sorry, what?”
“It’s dangerous for you to be here.” The man repeated. So, he was British too then, a rarity you wouldn’t normally find in the German capital.
The man reached out and pulled the confused professor into the alley, narrowly getting out of sight as two others rounded the corner and walked past. They were carrying sticks in their hands, wands at the ready. Albus deduced they must’ve been more of Grindelwald’s men. His confrontation with Creedence must’ve caused more of a stir than he expected.
“…Good, they’re out of earshot now.” The eyebrow man let out a sigh of relief, or was it annoyance? It was hard to tell with his tone and their situation. “You and your associates need to leave. Berlin is no place for British and American wizards who hang around muggles, especially right now.”
Albus’s brow furrowed, “How do you-“
“Let’s just say I have a gift. It lets me know more than the average wizard. Now, back to the matter at hand-“
“Who are you?” Albus wasn’t going to let this stranger go on without so much as giving him a name. He was already on edge from everything that’s been happening over the last week! He certainly wasn’t going to put their mission in jeopardy all because of this rude newcomer.
“My name is Arthur… Arthur Kirkland.” Arthur begrudgingly conceded.
“Hello, Arthur. My name is Albus Dumbledore.”
“I know. You’re a professor at Hogwarts and your specialty is transfiguration. Armando was gushing with how good you are at what you do when I last spoke to him.” Arthur responded quickly. He seemed on edge. “Look, I can’t reveal how I know what you’re doing, just know that I didn’t expect this when I arrived to handle some business with one of the government representatives here in Berlin. I’m already late with meeting him. But Grindlewald is planning something big, and I can’t risk you or any of the others you’ve roped into this conflict getting killed tonight. You almost got caught just now.”
Albus looked the man up and down. All aspects of his brain were telling him to be wary of Arthur, yet something pulled at him, telling him to trust his words. He knew the Headmaster of Hogwarts, someone he and many others at the school trusted with everything. But more than that, Arthur, under his irritation and snappy attitude, seemed genuinely concerned.
“All right. But we’re going to do what we came here for.” Albus stated, then added, “I’ll try my best to be more discrete.”
“That’s all I can really ask for.” Arthur gave a sigh, this time though, the irritation was gone. “Take this alleyway and you’ll be in the clear as far as hostile wizards and witches go.” The blond man walked past Albus and out of the alley. When Albus tried to call out to him, questions still buzzing in his mind, he was gone. Had he apparated? No, there wasn’t a cracking sound. Vanished in the crowd maybe? A possibility, maybe, but if so then how did he do so that quick?
Oh well, he thought, he didn’t have time to dwell on it.
1943 – Hogwarts Castle, Scotland
In the decade since that mysterious encounter, Albus hadn’t seen or heard from Arthur Kirkland, nor had he been able to find out any information on the man. Sure, there were documents about an old Anglo-Saxon family that went by Kirkland going all the way back to well before Hogwarts was even established. There were even records of an Arthur Kirkland attending the very school during the earlier years, back when the four founders themselves taught. He wondered at the time if “Arthur” was a family name that was passed down and the one he’d encountered was simply the newest inheritor of the name.
There were moments, however, in the days after the encounter that he thought he’d seen Arthur, namely in the crowd of magical leaders in Bhutan when everything with Grindlewald and Creedence came to a head. He hadn’t noticed him right away, of course, but instead when he’d extracted and viewed the memory in the pensieve. He seemed on edge during the whole memory, only relaxing his shoulders once everything had calmed down. Just like that day in the alleyway, however, Mr. Kirkland seemed to vanish almost as quickly as he’d seemed to appear.
He'd almost managed to forget about the man, just passing up those encounters to sheer luck and circumstance. That is until the day the poor Warren girl was found dead in the girl’s bathroom. It had been a first year in Hufflepuff who’d found her, the poor child.
It had sent the staff and students into a frenzy; Hogwarts was supposed to be a safe place, especially now with the war across Europe and the Pacific being waged. Many students and staff had even opted to stay at Hogwarts over the last few summers to avoid the bombs with many still afraid to return.
He was on his way to speak with the headmaster when he heard another voice in the office.
“Can you really spare a moment away from the front?”
“No, but this is important, Armando. A student has died of mysterious circumstances, and another is being accused with no proof other than he liked to keep strange creatures as pets? That’s a cause for concern for not just myself, but my brothers as well. If we weren’t fighting a war, I wouldn’t be the only one here.” It was the same voice he’d heard 11 years ago. Albus looked into the room through a crack in the door that led from the passageway staircase to the office proper, and sure enough, he saw the back of a blond man roughly the same height as the one he’d encountered before. This time, however, instead of being dressed in a business suit, Arthur seemed to be dressed in a green military uniform.
“The parents and minister needed someone to blame…” Armando sighed, tiredly. Albus had heard the older gentleman hadn’t been getting much sleep since this whole problem began. He’d guessed the rumors were true. “As soon as we find evidence to the contrary, I’m afraid the expulsion will have to go through.”
“You humans and your need for someone to blame…” Arthur grumbled, “Exactly how this was started in the first place on Germany’s part.”
“Arthur, it isn’t that simple-“
“Is it though? There’s an issue so you blame the person who is easiest to use to get the crowd’s pitchforks to turn away from you. That’s exactly what happened according to the letters Francis received from Gilbert just before the Germans began to invade surrounding nations. It may be on a smaller scale and to one person rather than a whole race, but it’s similar enough.” Arthur sighed, annoyance very much present in his tone.
Armando Dippet was about to respond when a fairy arrived and seemed to whisper something into Arthur’s ear.
“Wha-? Oh you’ve got to be kidding me! That bloody idiot’s going to get himself killed!”
“Arthur?”
“Sorry, Armando, we’ll have to pick this up another day. Ame- Alfred’s proposed an invasion and claims he can get an insider in the Italian resistance by the southern tip to join. He and the others are meeting with them now and Alfred insists he’s ‘all the power they need’ if this turns out to be another trap.”
“Go. Do what you need to do. Oh, and Arthur?”
“Yes?”
“I’m glad to see you’re doing better. Two years ago, you were in rough shape. Thin, almost to the bone and burns…”
“It’s a war. Plus, that’s to be expected when you get bombed almost nightly.” Arthur took out a wand, a very, very old model if the star ornament on the tip was anything to go by, and with a CRACK, he vanished.
1960 – Hogwarts Castle, Scotland
Well, he was the new headmaster of Hogwarts. Professor Dippet had decided to retire, naming Albus Dumbledore as his successor. He’d moved in with relative ease and his phoenix companion, Fawkes, seemed to be settling in nicely.
Other than that, the summer day seemed to be uneventful until he noticed the green embers of floo powder manifest and then erupt in the fireplace. Normally it wouldn’t have happened due to the numerous enchantments prohibiting use of the floo network and apparition, you’d need the headmaster’s permission to do so. Yet here he was, watching as the flames died down to reveal a familiar blond-haired man with caterpillar-like eyebrows.
Albus blinked. If it weren’t for the fact the floo network had been used without his authorization, he would’ve surely thought he was dreaming when he realized that Arthur Kirkland still looked to be in his mid-twenties.
He stepped out of the fireplace and looked around, admiring the room. “Not really one to redecorate, are you?”
Albus had to stop himself from rushing at the man, had to stop himself from blurting out the numerous questions he had at once. “Who are you? And I don’t just mean your name, Mr. Kirkland.”
“Hrm… I guess Armando didn’t fill you in. Tell me, Albus, have you ever heard the term ‘nations’ used as a term to describe more than a civilization or land mass?”
Albus stopped at that question. Deep in his memory, back in the 1890s, he vaguely remembered reading about a creature that looked human, but in fact was the personification of a country. The knowledge, history, and stereotypes of said country taken shape, made flesh and bone, living for however long the nation itself remains. They represented both the magical and muggle sides in one body and were known to contain immense power most wizards could only dream of having: enough power to get past the charms and wards protecting the castle. He’d admittedly discarded this information as myth with the ignorance of a child who thought he knew everything.
Arthur, if that’s even his real name, smirked, “I can see the gears turning.”
“You’re a nation?”
“England, or Great Britain, or even the United Kingdom. Although to most outside of my kind and a few others, I’m simply known as Arthur Kirkland. As the main wizarding school for these isles, that being made up of myself and my three brothers, the headmaster is one of the few with the privilege of knowing our secret.”
“So, Professor Dippet…”
“He’s known since he took on the position. I have to say, he chose a good successor. Not only do you possess the elder wand, but you also are the only wizard Riddle is afraid of. You’re the best candidate for keeping Hogwarts as the last stronghold should the fighting break out nearby.”
“He hasn’t gone by that name in decades, a testament to the monster he became under my watch.”
“To my kind, it’s all the same. You can go my hundreds of names, but at your core, you’re still the same you were in the beginning. As for creating monsters unintentionally through neglect, trust me, you haven’t met my former little brother. We all screw up, but what matters is how we’re going to fix it.”
“’We’?”
“Yup, you and me, Albus.” Arthur sat in one of the nearby chairs, one leg crossing the other as he whipped out his wand (still with that old-fashioned ornament) and conjured a cup of tea from it.
“As much as I try not to directly interfere with human issues, there are instances where I’m both allowed and willing to step in. While I’ll still need to stay hidden from the public, which includes any enemies and allies we might happen to make, I can assist in aiding you from both the muggle and human worlds. I can help influence people to not notice me or someone else, as well as act as an advisor for how to go about fighting Riddle and his gang of goth rejects. Plus, if he somehow manages to learn about and swindle another one of my kind, then I can interfere directly and give you a fighting chance.”
Albus thought for a moment. Tom Riddle was gaining power and influence all across the wizarding world; many of Grindelwald’s supporters had even joined him as well due to the similarities in their beliefs. He’d need all the help he could get, and England seemed genuine.
Albus walked over to England and held out a hand to shake.
“When do we start?”