Chapter 8


It wasn't long afterward that I got another owl. It perched on the windowsill and fluttered its wings, hooting loudly.

"Okay," I said. "I'm coming!" I walked over to the window, but the owl carried no mail. Instead, it delivered a stick to me – short, brown, stumpy, without a single hint of green at its broken end. I turned it over, but it remained just an insignificant stick. I narrowed my eyes at it.

I turned my attention back to the owl, but it was flying through the night sky and landing in a nearby tree. I brought the stick to the main room.

Fred and George were huddled over a blueprint for what looked like a child's toy bear.

I interrupted them. "We have a problem." I held the stick up for them to see. "I just got some strange mail. The owl's hanging around outside, and it doesn't seem to be waiting for a response."

The twins stood up. "Is that a stick?" I nodded. "I think it was more important to track the owl than to communicate with me. "

Fred and George drew their wands and crept to the front door. They gestured for me to stay behind as they slipped out and closed me inside.

I tried to sit on the floral print sofa while I waited, twiddling my thumbs. But before long, I was on my feet, pacing across the rug and onto the oak floors. I turned when the doorknob turned with a click.

Fred and George came in, straight-faced. "We didn't find anything. Looks like the owl's gone now. No one's around either."

"What do we do?"

The twins exchanged looks. "Well, there's no immediate danger..." said Fred.

"And Order members are dropping by tomorrow..."

"So just hang tight until then and we'll ask for their help."


I sat down in the living room while everyone else was asleep that night, contemplating the problem with my mail. I was being tracked – I could figure out that much, but why?

The obvious answer was that I'd gotten priority over most other wanted people in the country somehow. But how? Through my research?

What should I expect from my tracker anyway? Merely death, or did my tracker want something from me too?

I needed to get my mind off of the suspicious mail Fred and George were going to have the Order look into, so I picked up a copy of Witch Weekly I found on Muriel's coffee table. I didn't particularly care for the gossip within its pages, but it was better than worrying all night.

I was perusing a column about some celebrity divorce when I started rereading and skipping lines. I dropped the magazine and stood up quickly. I couldn't fall asleep – I could only be pulled back to the Gate, and I didn't want that to happen!

But I started to be surrounded by white, despite my efforts to stay in this world. I encountered my emaciated body yet again.

"How many times do I have to tell you Ed isn't coming for us?" I shouted. "Let me go back – I have to figure a way out from the other side."

My body frowned at me, keeping its eyes directed straight into my armor's. It held out its hand. "It's safer for us to wait here."

"Wait?" I cried. "Wait for what? Ed isn't coming to save us."

My body just kept staring me down. It kept the frown on my face. And then I realized something about my body: "You don't believe me, do you? About nobody coming?"

"He's coming," my body said. "He's already come. He'll come for us here, where we'll be whole again."

I shook my head fiercely.

"Why won't you join me?" my body asked, finally lowering its arm.

"No!" I cried, backing away from my body. "No!"

My body sighed. I spotted it starting to sit down as I was thrown back into Muriel's living room. Free of the Gate, I could sit tight and wait for the Order again, maybe ask them for some books on advanced summoning charms.

But I knew the next morning, before the Order arrived, that I could not allow them to help me with my mysterious mail at least: I'd gotten more of it, mail outright threatening this time.

Come find me in the woods tonight if you value your brother's life. Come alone, and avoid the Snatchers.

My heart sunk. Was this the cause of Ed's MIA status?

I knew that I would go out into the woods alone that night. I just wished I knew what I was up against. But I did have the small consolation that whoever it was, they weren't on friendly terms with the Snatchers at least.

I closed my eyes and an image sprung to my mind: the image of my older brother lying on a marble slab, in exactly the same pose that Professor Dumbledore had been.

Unfortunately, I had already told the twins about my previous owl, and they still asked the Order for help. The Order had a shabby man called Remus Lupin go out to take a look that afternoon. He took off in a drab brown suit that wouldn't stand out against the trees, having asked me for the stick I'd received.

I quietly asked the other Order members that had come about some books while we were waiting for Lupin: Kingsley, and Lupin's nursing wife, Tonks.

When Lupin returned that afternoon, he carried a scrap of parchment, which he wouldn't let me see. He joined the other Order members in a meeting in Muriel's study.

Muriel was not allowed to join, much to her displeasure, so I made sure to disappear before she could join me waiting for the meeting to get out instead.

I knew it was bad, but I wanted to hear what was going on in the meeting too. At least part of it would concern me and my strange mail, after all.

I crept into Fred and George's stuff and picked up one of their Extendable Ears. I attempted to stick it to the study door, but the door repelled everything that came near it. I frowned, thinking of other ways to get in on the meeting.

I tried the window, but it had the same enchantments on it. I tried eavesdropping through the interior walls, and even the ceiling, but I never gained access to the secret meeting. I was just looking for loose floorboards in the room above the study when Fred came in.

"Alphonse, what are you doing?" I would have gone red if I could.

"I was just … looking for my lost Knut!"

I looked at Fred to see if he'd bought my lie. He cracked a grin. "I'm proud that your mischievous side is coming out right now," he said, "but you'll have to do better than that to eavesdrop on a meeting with trained Aurors in it."

I set the Extendable Ear down. "Is the meeting over?" I asked.

"No, we just need your expertise for a moment." Fred led me down to the study, where the others were huddled around a piece of parchment on Muriel's antique writing desk.

I counted the four Order members who were already in the house, as well as the faces of several Order members looking out from magic mirrors. I recognized the Weasley parents and Professor McGonagall joining the meeting remotely.

Professor McGonagall spoke to me. "I've mentored you in your research long enough to recognize a transmutation circle when I see one. However, I cannot read them. You, on the other hand, were studying alchemical theory for years before you came to Hogwarts. Can you interpret the circle on the parchment?"

I squeezed past the Order members who were shuffling to give me room to stand in front of the writing desk. I looked down at the parchment and the transmutation circle there.

My eyes went wide. I saw the same type of circle on the parchment that Ed used when he tried to bring back Mom!

I turned around and raced outside without a word to the Order. I strongly suspected the parchment I'd been shown was the same one Lupin came back with, which meant that it was set up by the one who was out in the woods, waiting for me. It was an alchemist looking for me. It was an alchemist who had captured my brother.

If Ed had been captured by an alchemist, he could easily defeat his opponent if only I went and freed him. Ed was even familiar enough with alchemy to know what to expect. The situation reminded me of the missions Ed and I used to go on together, but I had to hurry and save my brother.

I heard Order members running after me and calling my name. I payed them no heed. They could get tired from chasing me, but I couldn't tire out from running away. I smirked and dashed into the woods.

The woods were fairly easy to run through at first – a smattering of trees and very little undergrowth, but they soon became a difficult place for me to run. I ran forward anyway, pushing through the vegetation every time I got snagged. I slowly put more distance between myself and my pursuers.

I looked around. I didn't want the Order to stop me from finding the alchemist who'd come after me, but I didn't want to fall into a trap either. I still hadn't found any sign of the transmutation circle, although I'd passed a hunting trap or two.

I lost track of how long I spent running through the forest. Ten, fifteen minutes?

Finally, I saw a single, shadowy shape ahead. "Hey!" I called. "Give me back my brother!"

I didn't notice the spell coming until it had hit me in the side. I was knocked onto my back, immobilized. I was at the mercy of the shadowy shape ahead and its companion who'd jinxed me – a large man with severely crooked teeth.

The man came and stood over me. "What have we caught us tonight?"

The man barely had time to stop at my feet before a blue flash lit up the forest and a fist formed out of the soil. It rushed my attacker, who was knocked out for the count.

I saw a few more curses being fired over my head and trails of spikes and more fists forming out of the ground. I saw human shapes flying every which way.

Finally, I heard a weak, tenor voice call out, "Can you move?"

I couldn't even move enough to answer. I wasn't asked again by whoever it was the voice belonged to anyway. "Al, I..." the voice trailed off and stopped altogether.

I tried to place the voice. It didn't belong to anyone I recognized. It could belong to the alchemist who rescued me, even if all the alchemists I knew were in the woods were hostile or captive. It certainly didn't belong to a member of the Order – the Order hadn't caught up with me quite yet and didn't until a minute or two later.

I heard one of the twins first. One of them was startled by the alchemic alterations to the forest: "What are those earth fists?"

Another Order member noticed the people in the forest. "Those are Snatchers passed out," Lupin said.

Then, the Order found me. "And Alphonse!" the twins called. They knelt next to me. George performed the counter-charm to the immobilization spell, and Fred helped me up.

Fred started to scold me. "Why'd you just run off like that? You knew it was a trap for you, didn't you?"

I looked around. "Where's the alchemist?"

"Alchemist?" George echoed, but I didn't answer in favor of looking among the still bodies on the ground for any sign that one belonged to an alchemist.

I spotted a body at the edge of the battle scene. I couldn't make out details due to the vegetation and the shadows the body lay in, but I could tell that it was small and wore mainly dark-colored clothing.

As I got nearer, I started to make out more details. I could tell that the figure was had long blond hair and wore some sort of black symbol on a red jacket. When I actually got near the figure, I recognized him. "Ed?"

I ran the remaining distance and knelt down beside him. I examined him for major injuries and found a bleeding gash across his chest. I took off my shirt and pressed it against his wound as the Order joined me around my wounded brother.

"He's bleeding," I told the Order. Then quietly, with a smile gracing my lips, I said, "He came to save me."