Rebounds and Rabbits
The early morning sun cast misty shadows upon the school grounds of Hogwarts. Hagrid sang the school song lightly under his breath as he prepared for his day. Fang trotted besides him loyally stopping every once in a while to sniff at something on the ground before catching up with his master.
The first week of school was coming to a end and many of the students were still getting used to their yearly rutene. Fang barked happily as Stallion trotted out of the Forbidden Forest with a dead rabbit in her mouth. Hagrid laughed as he eyed the small kitten that fallowed her.
For some odd reason both Stallion and Gear had taken to the forest like ducks to water and Hagrid had a sneaking suspicion that they were there every night. Not that it was any of his business of course.
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Mustang sniffed and eyed the coffie cup sitting in front of him. The steam was almost mezmerrising in the early morning hours. With a yawn he picked up the cup and drained some of the hot brown liquid inside. He didn't understand how so many of the teachers could drink tea in the mornings and be so awake.
Though he was pretty sure that Madam Hooch had something a bit stronger to wake her up, seeing how she seemed so perky every morning. He'd have to ask her where she got her liquer one day if he remembered. The sound of nails on stone reached his ears as Stallion came walking into the room with her dead rabbit between her teeth.
Gear as usual was fallowing her. It wouldn't be long before he wandered off to find Edward, who was probably in the library with that weird girl Lynn again. Mustang smiled a bit as Stallion dropped her prize at his feet and proceeded to wag her tail.
"Thank you Stallion. You did a very good job." In response Stallion barked a happy bark and licked Mustang's hand.
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Edward hummed quietly to himself as he browsed the bookshelves. He wasn't quite sure what he was looking for yet but he'd know when he found it. Lynn hadn't shown up yet but would be there soon enough and then he'd have a bit of company. Gear would be along soon too. The kitten seemed to enjoy spending time in the library as much as Edward did.
He'd be sitting somewhere reading and then the next thing he'd know Gear would be curled up in his lap asleep or rubbing his head against his hand wanting to be scratched. He was still waiting for Lynn to keep her promise of stealing him away one day and he didn't doubt that she'd do it too. Not that it bothered him any because all the animals seemed to have their own ways of getting in and out of the student and teacher dorms without any trouble.
So even if Lynn did take Gear he'd be back the fallowing moring seeing how the kitten had taken a likeing to her as well. Soft singing alerted Edward that Lynn had arrived and was making her way towards his area. And as Edward rounded the corner to get to the other side of the bookshelf he ran right into her. They both jumped a but at the sudden contact and Lynn stopped singing.
"Good Morning Edward. I'm looking forward to your demonstration today." Edward couldn't help the laugh that escaped his mouth and soon for no reason at all Lynn was laughing too.
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Harry couldn't help but be a bit worried. Today was Friday after all and that meant that they had the demonstration in Alchemy class that afternoon. And some deep gut feeling told him that he might not like it as much as he was hoping he would. He had to agree with Ron on one thing though so far alchemy class had been fairly boring.
All they did was take notes and answer questions all class long. Though watching Malfoy get humiliated was always a plus in his book. It wasn't that he didn't like Edward it was just that the boy was more than a little strange. The way he acted seemed completely and totally out of place. He was always watching his back and if he cared to admit it he was a little scared of Edward.
Mustang too for all it was worth. Something about the two of them was just odd. They always seemed to be on guard. It was like they expected to be attacked at any minute. He wasn't sure what it was about them but for now he was going to leave it alone. He had other things to worry about.
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Mustang mumbled something under his breath as he drew a transmutation circle on the floor of his classroom. Every single one of his classes would be full today. Almost every teacher was attending one of his lesions. Because for some reason or another they all wanted to see what he had planned.
Jeez were they that eager to see they bunny bite the bullet. Finishing his circle ,well Edward's circle to be exact, Mustang stood from his crouch and stretched a couple bones in his back popping. Speaking of bunnies Mustang made his way over to a wooden crate in one corner of his classroom. Looking down through the mesh top gave him a perfect view of the four quivering animals hunched together inside.
Four plain white rabbits staired back up at him through the cage top. Black oil drop eyes seeming all to aware of their fate. For a second he felt sorry for the animals. Truth be told killing off defenseless animals like this seemed almost cruel but it was also necessary. That was also the reason that Edward was doing this one because he wasn't in the mood to kill the little fluff balls.
It was very likly that many of the teachers and students would find what they were going to do wrong on many levals but it was a needed demonstration. The students had to learn about things like this eventually and now seemed like the best time. It was school after all.
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Edward sniffed as he waited for the classroom to fill up with both students and teachers. It was the second to last class of the day and Umbridge would be joining them for this class. All the other teachers had either already come or were coming for the next class. Edward smirked and looked down at his gloved hand. His other two demonstrations had gone well considering what he was doing. A few of the students had gotten sick and almost all the girls had cried in each class.
They wouldn't tell anyone from another class what had been done under strict orders from both him and Mustang but he had a feeling that a lot of the students who had yet to have class were very nervous. Students filed into the room slowly and took their seats with nervous or excited looks on their faces. Most of the boys looked like they were getting ready to watch a good duel. Umbridge was the last one to enter the classroom. The pink clad toad stood looking or a place to sit before Mustang called out to her.
"Your seats up here Professor Unbridge." Mustang pointed to a loan seat in front of the first row of desks. Umbridge smiled an almost sneer like smile and sat down her ever present clip bored in one hand and a bright pink quil in the other.
"If you don't mind Professor Mustang I'll be taking a few notes." Mustang's eyes narrowed a bit at the unspoken "whether you like it or not" before he smiled and nodded.
"Feel free. Everyone's here Edward you can start now." Edward nodded and moved out of his corner and into the center of the room. Her cleared his throat once and then began talking.
"Alchemy happens in three steps: Analysis, Deconstruction, and Reconstruction. The first step requires that you know what your material is make of exactly." Edwards held up a glass of water. "Water for instance is made up of two Hydrogen atoms and one Oxygen atom. This however is not all you need to know. You must also know the mass of your item. There's fifteen ounces of water in this cup. There for you can only create an item that uses your materials and weighs fifteen ounces." Edward placed the cup of water back on the table before turning back to look at the class.
"The second stage is simply taking it apart and the third is putting it back together in its desired form. Even skilled alchemists have to be careful when transmuting something new. Now there is one law above all else that must be fallowed. Human transmutation is a forbidden art. The act of bring someone back to life has been tried many times and every alchemist who tries has failed. Though we know everything we need to about the chemical makeup of the human body there is one thing that we cannot create. The human soul had no chemical make up. And that is what I'm going to show you today. That it is imposable to bring a dead creature back to life. We won't be using people of course."
Several girls squealed loudly when Mustang placed a dead rabbit in the center of the transmutation circle on the floor.
"Why not use all the materials a rabbit is made of Professor?" Edward growled low in his throat and looked up from the crate in the corner (he'd almost had the damn rabbit cought) and looked straight at Malfoy.
"Because Mr. Malfoy it would take far more than a week to find out how much of what each rabbit is made of. So by using dead rabbits we get everything we need in less than half the time and I get to gross out four class's full of students. Now be quiet." A loud squeal emitted from the crate as Edward cought one of the remaining rabbits by the foot and pulled it out of the box. The animals cries were matched by many of the girls letting out cries of shock.
"What did you think he was going to offer up what ever the rebound wants?" Mustang asked from his chair. His eyes darted to Edward and then to Umbridge. The woman had a front row seat to all the action. He still remembered the greedy look that had come into the woman's eyes the day she'd interrogated him. He knew damn well that she wanted to know how to bring someone to life. It'd get her in good with her boss. The rabbit still squealing in his grip Edward walked over to the transmutation circle and placed the animal down inside the circle before quickly touching the circle and pulling his hands back.
Loud gasps filled the room as the circle glowed blue and golden energy flowed around the circle. The rabbit sat completely still trapped by the energy moving first around and then through it. Then it all changed. Students screamed and Umbridge fell out of her chair as the golden energy turned into dark purple bolts that shot out in every direction. A few of the bolts came dangerously close to students. Mustang stood up from his seat and looked at Edward ,who was crouched by the circle ready to stop the transmutation if he needed to, before shouting.
"Calm down and sit back down in your seats. Everything's fine." One of the girls from Ravenclaw let out a terrible shriek as a boy from Griffyndor pointed to the circle.
"Look at the rabbit!" An almost shocked silence filled the room as the students looked at the goings on in the circle. Though still rooted to the spot the rest of the rabbits body was moving as if it was trying to escape. Bolts of purple lightning ran across the small creatures body and much to the disgust and amazement of the students most of one of its ears was gone and it was loosing more by the second. One of the girls burst into tears while other students began whispering things to themselves.
It only took about thirty seconds for the rabbits body to be consumed by the purple energy but to them it felt like an eternity. As the purple energy faded everyone's attention was shifted to the quivering lump of meat on the floor. What had once been a dead rabbit was now a quivering pile of meat and bones. One student managed to speak.
"Is it alive?" Edward stood from his spot on the floor and walked over to the lump nudging it with his boot a bit. The lump quivered but did nothing else.
"No. It's not alive. The heart is beating and the nerves are sending out signals but it's brain isn't working and it's not breathing. Whats going on right now is just the energy coursing through it trying to bring it back. It'll stop shaking in a minute or two when the energy runs out." Edward rubbed his eyes a bit before he looked up at the people filling the classroom.
"This is what happens when you try to bring the dead back to like. The bigger the creature and the more energy it requires the bigger the backlash. You can't bring the dead back to life. Thats just the way it is. Now I want a report on rebounds between six to ten inches done and it's due tomorrow. You'll find a book for each of you one the back table. It'll give you all the information you need and we'll need those books back so don't loose them. Class dismissed."
The students stood up from their desks and began walking toward the back of the room toward the four piles of books on the back table. Many of the students shot Edward disgusted and disturbed looks as they went. They would probably blame him for any nightmares. Several of the girls were talking to each other in low voices. A few were trying to comfort the girl who had started crying.
Edward sighed as he picked up the still twitching lump of rabbit and moved behind the blackboard to put it in a box with the other two that had been used earlier that day. Umbridge sat shaking in her seat, it had taken her a minute or two to get back in it due to shock at what she had seen. Her eyes were big and she appeared to be sweating. Mustang stood up from his desk and walked over to the pink clad teacher and placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Are you all right Professor Umbridge?" He asked in the most worried tone he could muster while being near the infuriating woman. Umbridge looked at him wide eyed for a moment before taking a deep breath and closing her eyes for a few seconds. The change was so sudden that Mustang was beginning to wonder it there was something wrong with the pink clad woman. A look of utmost calm covered her face and she smiled that fake girlish smile.
"Oh yes. I'm perfectly fine Professor Mustang." Mustang nodded and walked over to his desk and opened a drawer. He pulled a piece of chalk for a its box and began going back over his circle. Edward did all the actual rebound work so the least he could do was redraw the circle for him. Mustang cought sight of Edward's boots as the teen walked by him.
"Did you get all the notes you needed Professor Umbridge?" He asked as he eyed her clipboard. Unbridge looked down at her clipboard. She hadn't gotten everything she'd wanted but she didn't want to admit it. In fact the only thing she had managed to get was the lecture Edward had given before his demonstration.
"Yes Mr. Elric I did." Edward nodded and looked back at Mustang for a minute. The older man cought his eye and a silent conversation shot between the two.
"Do you need anymore information Professor? If you do I'm sure my dad wouldn't mind you borrowing a couple of our theory books." Edward turned and looked at Mustang. "You wouldn't mind would you dad?"
Mustang shook his head as he looked up at Edward and Umbridge. "Not at all son. Why don't you get her one or two before she leaves."
"Okay." Edward moved past Umbridge's chair and towad the bookshelf on the back wall. He returned a minute later carrying two books in his arms. "Here you are Professor." Edward said that sentience with such realistic enthusiasm that Mustang had to wander when the boy had become such a good actor. Umbrige simply nodded as she took the books from Edward and started walking toward the back of the room. She stopped at the door however and turned to look at Edward an almost cold look in her eyes.
"Don't forget Mr. Elric you have detention with me tomorrow." The door slammed closed as she exited the room and Edward turned to look at Mustang.
"She's a real bitch. She acted like I was trying to get out of my detention or something." Mustang shot Edward a look.
"It sounded like you were. But I do agree she's a bitch. She's going to be a real pain in the ass Ed." Edward sighed and leaned back against the back of one of the students desks. "I saw the way she was watching too. After the entail shock passed it looked like she was enjoying what was going on. It's a good thing those theory books I gave her were useless or we might have a problem on our hands."
Mustang nodded his head in agreement. "We'll have to keep a close eye on her. See what you can find out about her tomorrow in detention."
"Personality wise or what?"
"Anything."
Edward nodded. "Okay."
End Chapter
Sorry for the wait but I stopped working on chapters during NaNoWriMo and I had writers block before that. Pluse we don't have internet here at my house anymore (I'm actually typing this on my 98 downstairs and my fingers are freezing. See what I go through for you guys.) So I have to wait until I go to my friends house to update because thankfully her computer still takes floppy disks.(My computer won't burn CD's but will read them.) The last time I went over there I had just started this chapter and was just getting my bunny a bit fatter for this story. It's not as fat as I'd like it to be but it's getting there. So I hope you guys will forgive my lateness and still review. I needs them their like happy drugs for me and they boost my confidence.
