Arthur

...

"I'm going to leave the two of you now," Arthur said as he placed the bag of flour he bought a while ago on the kitchen counter. He shuddered a bit as he remembered his encounter with the American brothers he met earlier. At least, the American-Canadian brothers. He almost forgot about Matthew being Canadian.

"Anything wrong, brother?" Peter asked as he opened the bag of flour.

Arthur shook his head immediately. "No, certainly not."

"Okay," Peter dipped his finger in the flour and tasted it. Arthur wanted to scold him for doing so - Peter would get a stomachache if he kept doing that. "Since you're all okay, why don't you join us in baking?"

Arthur sighed in exasperation as he turned to look at his naive brother. "Do you want this house burned down?"

Peter looked at his shoes instead, nodding. It was considered to be a Kirkland curse that unfortunately fell upon the eldest son: anything Arthur attempted to cook made an oven explode.

Arthur first made sure that Allistor and Peter were doing fine in the kitchen. When Arthur decided to leave things to them, he went upstairs to continue working on his poem. Opening his room which had the only balcony in their house, he took off his coat and placed it on the stand next to his door. No few seconds had passed, his telephone suddenly ringed.

"Hello? This is Arthur Kirkland," he said as he picked it up.

"DUDE! YOU HAVE TO COME QUICK, WE'VE GOT SOME GOOD NEWS!" Alfred's obnoxious voice blared from the telephone.

"Good grief, do you have to be so loud?!" Arthur yelled.

Alfred laughed from the other end of the telephone. "Ha! Sorry, didn't mean to get so loud...well, you have to get over here, quick! Mattie and I have some good news!"

"How good is it that I have to come over there?" Arthur asked.

Alfred laughed again. "Trust me, just get over here! It's really good! Matthew still hasn't recovered from fainting, though...it's really shocked us, you see...him, especially. Also, we're gonna need some help doing some stuff and, uh, how should I say this...oh! You're the only one who knows how to do this kind of stuff, or something. No idea, just get here, quick!" and with that, Alfred hung up the telephone.

"Bloody Yank," Arthur swore. He picked up his coat from the coat stand again and exited the house once more, despite pleas and complains from Peter to stay home and taste-test their cookies.

...

Alfred

...

"Matthew, wake up dude! Arthur's here any second now!" Alfred said as he desperately shook Matthew. Alfred tried different words to wake him up, before the right words popped in his head. "MATTHEW, SOMEONE STOLE YOUR MAPLE SYRUP!"

Matthew sat upright in a heartbeat. "Who stole it?! I swear, if I find them, I'll shower them in maple syrup and roll them down a steep and dirty hill-"

Alfred doubled up with laughter. "Yo, chill, dude! I was just messing with ya, trying to make you wake up."

Matthew groaned and was silent for a long time. "Is this a dream?"

"What do you mean?"

"Maybe we got that letter by a-accident, or it wasn't meant for us...surely there's another person in this world named "Matthew Williams" or "Alfred F. Jones" out there..." Matthew's voice faltered and his eyes widened as the truth sank in. "...Right?"

Alfred laughed. "You are the only Matthew Williams I know in this world, and there's probably no one else named Alfred F. Jones - oh hey, Arthur's here!"

The two brothers stood up from the floor, the snowy owl lying on top of the couch. Alfred ran up to the front porch and opened the door, revealing a very furious-looking Arthur.

"What in heavens do you call me for?!" Arthur scowled. "How good is this news that you have me scrambling to your house-" yet Arthur was cut off because Alfred immediately took hold of his wrist and ushered him inside, dragging him towards the living room where the snowy owl lay.

At the sight of the owl, Arthur immediately widened. "This is Hagrid's owl! But what's it doing here?!"

"T-That's why we needed your help, eh..?" Matthew said innocently.

From the inside of his brown bomber jacket, Alfred took out two pieces of paper inscribed with elegant handwriting. "This came along with it," he said as he passed it to Arthur.

Arthur read the two pieces of paper. Slowly, his eyes widened as he read the contents of the letter. It should take a lot less time to read a short letter like that, but Alfred guessed that Arthur probably reread it multiple times just to be sure.

"You...g-got..." Arthur said shakily, "...accepted...into H-Hogwarts?!"

Alfred's eyes gleamed in amusement. "Pretty cool, huh?! Well, Matthew did too...that means we'll be seeing each other at school multiple times!"

Mathew coughed to get their attention. "Well...the bird isn't going to heal h-himself, isn't it?"

Arthur placed the letter on the table and took out his wand from the pockets of his coat. Before casting a spell, Arthur turned to Alfred for answers. "What happened to the owl?"

Matthew laughed sheepishly. "I kind of...hit it over the head with my window."

Arthur's eyes widened in disbelief. He examined the snowy owl closely, before deciding, "Looks like some of its bones are broken. Simple fix." He swished his wand once before pointing it to the owl. "Episkey."

Immediately, a white light shot out from the tip of his wand to the owl. When the light died down, Hagrid's owl suddenly opened its wings and flapped it once. It hooted in delight.

"That's better," Arthur smirked in self-satisfaction.

"So...that's why we need your help," Matthew said. "W-We have no idea where Diagon Alley is...or King's Cross Station Platform nine-and-three-quarters. I was wondering if you could help us..?"

Arthur hesitated in silence for a while. Finally, he put his wand back inside his coat pocket and sighed.

"I could take you there," he said. "Just meet me in the marketplace at 10 o'clock sharp in the morning three days from now, okay?"