tada!!!!!! sorry if i havent updated in awhile, or more accurately, i dont think i have at all since school started. but i blame physics. goddamn you physics!!!!! as in the class and the homework, etc. i really dont mind gravity and junk themselves, i just dont like having to actually know 'bout it. gahhhhhhh......there was a bunch of stuff i meant to say here, but i can't remember any of it.....wait, one of them was that Flitwick si the really short one, right? if he isn't, just pretend he is, cuasei ain't going back to change it. also(did i already say this last chapter or do i just think i did? well, i'll say it again in case i didn't) a couple chapters ago i said "mercury into gold" and i KNOW the expression is lead into gold, but the only one that is actually physically possible (nevermind make that chemically possible, or i suppose cause they've never been successful, it would be theoretically? possible) is mercury into gold. i'm kinda wondering why no one was asking bout that, but maybe you all already knew? hmmmmm? and...yeah....this chapter isnt the best so far, but i dont think it sucks, so give me ur honest opinion. thnks laters luvs ya bye go read it now!

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As the bell rang, Harry gathered his things and let out a sigh. As much as he usually enjoyed Professor Lupin's lectures, he hadn't paid much attention in class today. With all the

things going on in his life right now, homework didn't exactly make the short list. Ron patted him on the shoulder, interpreting the reason for the sigh only in part. "I really am sorry

about the broom, Harry. I overheard one of the teachers saying they might allow us another Hogsmeade trip before school lets out for the term. It's a while yet, but we'll make

sure to drop by the quidditch shop and pick up a broom catalog, right Hermione?" The bushy haired brunette was nowhere to been seen. A panicked look jumped onto the

redhead's face. "Oh no! I was doodling in the spell book the whole period! I need her notes if I'm going to pass this class! 'Mione! Where'd you go? Wait for me!" Harry watched his

best friend dash off through the hallways calling his other best friend's name. He made to go after them both, at a more leisurely pace, but Lupin's voice called him back into the

room. "Harry? Would you wait a moment? I'd like a word with you."

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Harry turned back around and made his way to the front row of desks, dropping his books on one, and leaning against it himself. "It's just that you seemed rather distracted and

depressed in class today. I was concerned that this had something to do with the occurrences at the last Gryffindor quidditch match?" Harry looked embarrassed. He hadn't

expected the professor to notice his behavior. "Yeah." He answered. He hesitated, then burst out "But why? Why do the dementors only affect ME like that? Am I just…" "You are

not alone in how they affect you, Harry, and Heaven knows it has nothing to do with weakness. Dementors are among the foulest creatures to inhabit the earth. They glory in

decay and despair, and they drink down the hope and happiness and peace around us that we work so hard to build, until the only thing left remaining is that darkness, those

worst memories and experiences of ours that would keep us from remembering the good in ourselves and others. The worst experiences of your life are much worse than an

ordinary person's. Its little wonder that you fell off your broom." "When they get near me, I can HEAR Voldemort killing my mother." Harry whispered. Lupin made a move as though

to grip the distraught boy's shoulder, but thought better of it. "I can't imagine what Azkaban must be like, trapped with those monsters EVERY day for years on end." Lupin nodded

grimly. "Most go insane, and lose their magic as well." There was a terrible pause. "It makes you wonder how Sirius Black managed to escape." Lupin looked up sharply. "Professor

Lupin," Harry continued. "You scared away those dementors that first day on the train." "Patronuses are only defensive charms, not offensive, and are difficult to use with more

than one dementor on hand." "Just the same…could you teach me how to use one?"

Lupin looked embarrassed and distressed. "I'm not an expert on the subj..." He paused at the look on his student's face. "Alright. I'll do it. But I'm afraid it will have to wait until

after winter break." For the first time Harry noticed the bags under his teacher's eyes. "I haven't been feeling too well of lately."

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The green eyes behind the thick black frames were torn between sympathy for his professor and annoyance at what he knew Lupin's sickness meant for the class. It was like

clockwork. "Why do you put up with him, Professor Lupin?" He probably should have been embarrassed by the fact that his dislike for the new young teacher was so obvious that

the older man did not even need to ask who he was referring to. "He's a good person, Harry. You just haven't gotten to know Edward, is all. And, I don't suspect either of us ever

really will. As outspoken as he may be on the outside, he's a very private person." "He doesn't go that deep! All there is to him is a rude, self-centered hypocritical jerk who doesn't

take anything seriously! What's there to understand?" Harry blurted out before he realized what it was he was saying. He knew he had gone too far. It was hard to tell if Lupin

was more angry or upset. It seems Lupin couldn't decide either. "I'm very disappointed in you, Harry. Disrespecting a teacher like that is not something I can just let slide by.

Twenty points from Gryffindor. But most of all, I feel sorry for you Harry, that you can't see your way past such superficial traits to a person's true heart." Lupin turned his eyes

away and began to shuffle the papers of on his desk. Harry knew when he was being dismissed, so he gathered his things and left.

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Later in the Gryffindor common room, he just kept replaying the conversation in his mind, cursing his big mouth and tried to think up ways to apologize to Lupin. But then suddenly

a single sentence clicked in his mind. "You are not alone in how they affect you, Harry." Who else reacted the same way he did? Oh…Professor Elric did, didn't he? That time on the

train, the dementors were much more interested in the blonde Amestrian than they were in Harry. And after the Quidditch match, he may have not ended up in the hospital, but the

professor looked very much like he was either going to collapse or throw up. Lupin said that the reason Harry felt the way he did around the dementors was because…oh. If

possible, now Harry felt even worse. But what horrible thing had happened to Professor Elric?

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Ed shivered, and pulled his cloak tighter around him. Winter was closing in, and the old castle was drafty. He had experienced worse winters, but he had been informed that

winters here were much longer than he was used to back home in Amestris, and the temperature would only continue to drop. He glared gloomily out the window. The grass on the

lawn was already beginning to glimmer with frost. "Beautiful, isn't it?" Professor Flitwick asked, as he walked past carrying a box labeled Christmas Decorations. "Wait until first

snowfall! Some years we get several feet!" He winked. "You and me had better watch out, eh?" The Charms teacher was even shorter than Edward, which had come as a great

surprise. The tiny man continued down the halls, whistling an overly cheery tune. Ed just scowled and rubbed his aching shoulder. Then he blinked in surprise and leaned forward

out over the sill. Something black and four legged stood at the edge of the forbidden forest. It was hard to tell from the distance, but it looked like it was staring back at him.

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The huge dog wagged its tail once, then trotted along the edge of the Forbidden Forest, in the direction of that murderous tree, and out of Edward's sight. This was the, what?

Third time now that he had seen that same dog? 'What is going on?' He turned quickly and pounded down the hall to catch up with the diminutive Charms teacher. "Wait! Flitwick!

Hold up!" The man obediently turned around and waited. "What is it, Elric dear boy? Did you want to help me put up the decorations?" He hefted the large box and dropped it into

Ed's hands, who staggered backwards under the unexpected load. "Good to see you getting into the Christmas Spirit! And that box was getting heavy. Come along." "Actually," Ed

began, shifting the box awkwardly from arm to arm as he walked. "I don't celebrate Christmas." "Jewish then?" "No, I'm not anything. I don't believe in God. But that's not the

point. This conversation has gotten way off track. What I originally intended was to ask if any of the staff members owns a dog?" Flitwick raised an eyebrow. "I thought you had

already met Fang." "I meant besides Hagrid." "No, none." "Any strays then?" "No. May I ask why?" Ed sighed. "No reason. This your room?" Ed maneuvered the door open with his

elbow and dropped the box onto the desk. "Thank you very much young man. If you were a student, you'd have won yourself some house points for your effort." The alchemist

gave a shrug and a smile. "I'm not a student, Flitwick. I don't get rewarded for doing good." The older teacher shook his head as his younger co-worker walked out, and began to

string up the lights. "What kind of kid doesn't celebrate Christmas?" He murmered.

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Harry stared down at his "early Christmas present", courtesy of Fred and George Weasely. Curly letters at the top of the yellowing parchment proclaimed: Messrs. Moony, Wormtail,

Padfoot, and Prongs: Purveyors of aids to magical mischief-makers, are proud to present The Mauraders Map. Beneath it, spidery lines drew out the Hogwarts grounds (complete

with seven secret passageways: 4 no longer secret thanks to a certain grouchy caretaker, one caved in, one placed directly under the deadly whomping willow, and one leading

straight to the cellar of Honeydukes in Hogsmeade. This was the one Harry was meaning to take advantage of) . Carefully labeled ink dots showed where every person in the

school was. Harry's own dot showed him to be standing next to the staute of the one-eyed witch on the third floor. Tapping the the stone hag once and whispering "Dissendium"

opened the passage. No lack of permission slip was going to keep him from going to Hogsmeade with his friends now.

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"It's not fair! How come Fred and George never showed it to me! No offense Harry, but why'd they give it to you? I'm their brother!" "But Harry isn't going to keep it." Said

Hermione, as though the very idea was ludicrious. "He's going to turn it in to Professor McGonagall." "No, I'm not!" Harry said, cringing under the glare from Hermione. "But what

about Sirius Black? He could be using one of those passages on the map to be getting in and out of the castle! The teachers need to know!" "He can't be getting in that way. The

only one still usable is the one I just took inside Honeyduke's, and its not exactly like he could just walk through the door without being recognized." "You did." Hermione pointed

out. "That's different." Ron draped his arms over the shoulders of his two friends and began sterring them across the street. "Don't go ruining this glorious oportunity, 'Mione! Come

on. Lets's head over to the Three Broomsticks for some butterbeers before we have to head back to the school. The bloody ministry gave the Dementors rights to patrol, well, more

like plague the streets after dark. Don't wanna be here when they show up. They're downright creepy." Hermione glanced over at Harry anxiously, then nodded her agreement.

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A few minutes later found them sipping hot and foamy butterbeers at a table near the back, brushing the last flecks of melting snow from their clothes and hair. It felt good to be

indoors. Just then the door opened, sending a wave of cold air into the room. Harry looked up to see who had entered and nearly choked on his drink. Both Ron and Hermione

pushed down on Harry's head, forcing him under the table as Professors McGonagall and Flitwick, followed by Hagrid and the Minister of Magic himself, Cornelius Fudge, walked

past. Who know what they would do if Harry was caught off of school grounds without permission. Fortunously, the group did not seem to notice the students and sat down at a

nearby table, a decorative Christmas tree blocking their view. All the same, Harry stayed crouched under the table. 'This isn't good. How long are they going to sit there? I need

time to sneak back to Honeyduke's if I want to make it back to the school before someone notices I'm missing!" The teachers' conversation drifted over to the three's table. "So,

what brings you to this neck of the woods, Minister?" came Madame Rosmerta's voice, the tavern's owner who had taken a seat with the others. The reply came after a moment of

hesistation, and then in a soft voice. "What else, my dear, but Sirius Black?" Harry's mind froze amidst generating several absurd escape plans. 'Maybe hearing this is worth the risk

after all.' But just at that moment, he saw a student sized figure in a rust colored cloak, the hood still up and snow still blanketing its shoulders, making its way toward his table.

'Great, just great. This is exactly what I needed.' Harry thought sarcastically, and nudged Ron's foot to get his attention, and pointed toward the approaching student. He heard a

groan in reply, and a whispered "Who is that anyway? It's Neville, isn't it? It's probably Neville. He always shows up just in time to ruin everything." "Ron!" That was Hermione's

voice. "Just when it was getting juicy." Ron finished. "He means well, Ron. It's not his fault we're always breaking the rules." The two visible members of the three tried to pretend

they hadn't seen him, but it was no use. Neville had seen them and was headed over anyway. And they could only hope he wouldn't notice or question what Harry was doing

under the table. The feet stopped about a foot from Harry's nose. "Hey, Neville." Hermione managed to get out. "we'd invite you to take a seat, but we're actually…" "Not Neville."

An all too familiar voice said. Gold eyes gleamed up at her from under the hood, following by a flash of white teeth spread in a grin. "But good try." Professor Elric sat down, ignoring

the shocked looks and sputtered protests. "But for the sake of things, let's pretend I am. Now shut up so I can hear this." McGonagall's sharp voice cut out through the air. "How

are we supposed to teach with those horror's floating around?" "You're spying on them?" Hermione hissed under her breathe. Edward glared at her, annoyed. "It must be obvious

to you that few of the staff particularily like me, and none of them trust me. Why should they? I'm just an ignorant upstart Amestrian heathen. I don't even use your stupid magic.

But just because they didn't invite me to their little secret sharing party doesn't mean I'm not entitled to that information." Hermione looked pretty pissed off. "What's to stop me

from marching over there right now and tell them what you're doing?" He just smiled and held up three gloved fingers. "One, because then it will become very obvious that you

were listening in as well. Two, Harry here (there was an "Ouch!" from under the table) doesn't have permission to leave schoolgrounds. And thirdly and finally, you want to know

just as much as I do. If you go and bust up this little party now, you never will. They really are stupid for holding such a cloak-and-dagger conversation in such a public place. If you

let them realize that, next time they'll know better." Hermione fell silent, hating that he was right. "That's much better. Stay quiet, butkeep your lips moving so no-one suspects."

"What's more suspicious is that you're still wearing your hood up." Ron murmered, but after Ed's noncommittal shrug, as if to say that it couldn't be helped, he fell silent too. By this

point, a lot of the conversation had been missed, so of course the next words heard came as a shock. "You'd have thought Black and Potter were brothers! Inseperable!" That was

Flitwick. "Of course." Fudge replied. "Potter trusted Black beyond all his other friends. Nothing changed when they left school. Black was best man when James married Lily. Then

they named him Godfather to Harry. Harry has no idea of course. You can image the idea would torment him." "Because Black turned out to be in league with You-Know-Who?"

Whispered Madame Rosmerta. "Worse even than that, m'deear. You see…"

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And that was how Harry discovered that his parents had known the danger they were in, had cast a spell, the Fidelius Charm, that would make their whereabouts a secret to

Voldemort, even if he had been standing a foot away. He learned how Black was made the secret-keeper, and less than a week later, had shown his true colors, turning his back

on his supposed best friends in favor of the dark side of magic. And, apparently, the clincher was that not only did he turn the Potters in to their deaths, but he personally murdered

another of his and James's old school friends, a boy named Peter Pettigrew. All they ever found of him was a single finger.

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"…I met Black on my last inspection of Azkaban. You know, most of the prisoners in there sit muttering to themselves in the dark. There is no sense to them. But I was shocked at

how normal Black seemed. You'd have thought he was merely bored. Asked if I'd finished with my newspaper, so he could do the crossword puzzle. I was astounded by how little

effect the dementors seemed to be having on him. He was one of the most heavily guarded in the place, as well. Dementors outside his door every second of the day and night. We

hope to have him back there soon, but if dementors can't keep him locked away…we'll figure something out. I must say, You-Know-Who alone and friendless is one thing, but give

him back his most devoted servant, and I shudder to think how quickly he'll rise again."

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There was a clink of glass on wood. Someone had set down their drink. "You know, Cornelius, if you're dining with the headmaster, we'd better head back up to the castle." Said

Professor McGongall. There was a general agreement, and after the schreehcing of chairs sliding back, the pairs of feet in front of Harry made their way across the floor again. The

wind blew another flurry of snow through the now open door, before it closed solidly shut again. The teachers were gone.

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"Wow." A certain alchemist whispered. Harry climbed back up onto his seat, and glared at the Defense Proffesor. This was not the least bit funny. But he was shocked to see that

the teenager wasn't looking cruelly or tauntingly at Harry. Instead he looked…sympathetic. It wasn't an emotion Harry thought the teacher capable of expressing. "I gotta say, I

wasn't expecting that. Tough break." Even more amazingly, the blonde actually seemed a little embarrassed by the curtness of his words, and tried to amend it by saying "…Listen,

I know what it's like to lose a parent. My mom. It really sucks. And my best friend, her parents, and they were practically my own, they were murdered. They were docters. The man

who did it was one of their patients. And…just recently… I met the guy who did it. Not in a court, but in an alley, where he tried to kill me too…The world's small like that…" He trailed

off, then added sharply "Don't go repeating that to anyone. Just…know it's ok to be angry, but don't do anything stupid. I mean that. And when you sneak back in to the school,

don't let me catch you doing it, either." His hood was starting to fall back a bit, so the blonde tugged it forward again until his face was entirely in shadow, then got up and left the

tavern. The three students were left sppechless at the table. None of them quite knew what shocked them more, the revelation behind Black, or Elric's sudden outpouring. Either

way, it left them a lot to think about.

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aw jeez, it looked a lot longer on notebook paper. sooorrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyyyyyyyyy. anyway, THIS FIC HAS HAD LIKE A TOTAL ZERO OF ALCHEMY SO FAR!!! IMMMSOOORRRRRRRYYYYY!!!! i need to do that, real soon. something big, i promise. and that last bit was supposed to be sum harry and the gang bonding time with Ed, cause i realized i cant have them hate each other the entire fic long. but yeah...review please if you liked it, or review about the parts you didnt like. but please dont be mean. :( ummmm....guess thats it. p.s I BOUGHT THE SECOND PROFESSOR LAYTON GAME: THE DIABOLICAL BOX!!!!!! IM SOOOOOO HAPPPYYYY!!!!! and i officially have a fetish for guys in top hats: Layton, Frederic in Eternal Sonata, Ticky Mick from D. Grayman, the list goes on. thier even sexier than eyepatches!!!!! woot!!!! k bye will post more later when i get to it. OH YEAH!!!!! I JUST REMEMBERED I WANTED TO SAY THE REASONS POSTS WILL ALLLLWWWWAYYYYYSSSSS BE SLOW, OR IN BURSTS, IS CAUSE I LOST MY COPY OF THE BOOK, SO I HAVE TO USE THE LIBRARY'S, WHICH MEANS I KEEP HAVINGG TO RETURN IT, CAUSE THEY ONLY LET YOU RENEW IT ONCE.....