Disclaimer: Don't own any of these charactors FMA or HP

Lunamora: Sorry about being slow on all these chapters. My schedule is wack lately. I'll get the next one up as soon as I can. Until then ENJOY!

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Chapter 8

Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Al entered a round room with several chairs, a couch, tables, and a fire place. The main colors of the room seemed to be red and gold. No one was in the room at the moment. Al just assumed they all had classes then.

"Alright. Let's all find our beds then," Hermione said before turning to Al. She pointed to the left staircase first. "Up there is the girl's dorm rooms. Boys aren't allowed up there. The right staircase is to the boy's dorm where you'll be staying with Ron, Harry, and probably a few other boys."

Al nodded as Hermione turned around and started up to the girl's side. Al followed Harry and Ron as they went up to the boys. Harry pushed open a door but paused before entering. On different beds sat three boys all of which looked up at the new comers as they entered.

"Harry! Ron!" one rather porkly boy exclaimed.

Ron and Harry threw their stuff onto their beds.

"Hello, Neville, Seamus, and Dean," Harry said nodding to each of them.

All three looked at each other a moment then back to Harry.

"That's it mate," the boy sitting on the bed with the label Dean Thomas on it asked. "You're not going to tell us why you weren't on the train and no one's seen head nor tail or you since the end of last year."

"I'm not supposed to spread it around school so there for I can't even so much as whisper about it or the whole school will know," Harry said as Ron nodded in agreement.

"Well could you at least tell us what you are doing with a giant suit of armor following you around," Seamus Finnigan, or so said the label on his bed.

"I am Alphonse Elric," Al said bowing his head slightly. "It's a pleasure to meet you all."

The three boys jumped slightly.

"You mean there's a person inside that thing," said Neville Longbottom.

Al sighed slightly as Harry slowly said, "Yes."

Harry and come to the realization that as long as they had known Al he had never taken his suit of armor off. He looked over to Ron who was looking at him apparently having just come to the same realization.

"Al will be staying but none of us are attending any classes," Ron said as he began to unpack. "This should hopefully only be temporary."

"Hopefully? You guys don't like Hogwarts any more," Seamus asked.

"We never said that but there are too many things we could be doing rather then being cooped up here," Harry said as he began to unpack as well.

All three other boys in the room were silent, pondering all that had been said.

Once Harry and Ron finished unpacking they waved good-bye to the other boys and headed back down into the Common room. Hermione was already down there and had gotten the same questions from some other girls including Lavender Brown, who Hermione informed them she still didn't like very much but agreed to put up with her while they were there.

"Should we show Al around then," said Ron as his stomach growled. "I say we go to the kitchen first!"

"Excellent idea Ron," Hermione said. "I want to see how the house elves are getting along."

"Yeah," Harry said. He turned to look at Al and said, "That ok with you?"

"Sounds like fun," Al said.

"Then it's settled," Ron said.

All four marched out of the common room and out of the portrait entrance. They began their journey down the stairs to the secret entrance to the kitchen.

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Voldemort smirked down at the figure sitting on the ground in front of him.

"Very well done Envy," Voldemort said quietly.

"I try," Envy said now back in his normal form. "He lasted longer then I thought he would, I'll give him that."

Ed sat in front of the two figures completely unconscious. He had not broken under Envy's transformation torture but he almost had. Instead of giving up he had banged him head against the wall behind him and knocked himself out so he wouldn't have to endure the torture anymore.

"He is rather clever," Voldemort said.

"You have no idea," Envy said smirking. "I'll give another go after he wakes up."

"No, that won't be necessary, Furtun finally got his hands on so Truth potion," said Voldemort. "We'll have all that we need out of him in a matter of hours hopefully. Then we'll take a few hours to find out if alchemy can be performed by wizards or mix with magic. If not then we'll need Edward for just a bit more but if we do, he's all yours."

"That's very generous of you," Envy said.

"I may be a dark wizard but I am a gentleman," Voldemort said.

"Yes well, I believe my comrades are itching for an update on the Philosopher's Stone. Do you have anything new," Envy asked.

"Yes actually. We have pulled our resources all over the wizarding world and many in the muggle world. We have learned that using magic to create it would not work but instead create something different all together. We found that since it can only be used to enhance alchemy the only way for it to be a true Philosopher's Stone is for it to be created through alchemy. If it created with magic it will become what we call a Sorcerer's Stone, an elixir for eternal life," Voldemort said. "Though one must be pure of heart to create the Sorcerer's stone at all and there is also no need for causalities."

"That is unfortunate," Envy said. "I will report this to my comrades and return with any information they have to give you."

Voldemort simply nodded and followed Envy out of the dungeon. Once the door was closed Ed looked up to it. He had woken up some where in the middle of the conversation but had stayed still to see what he could find out. He had caught Voldemort's findings, though he had not caught the part about the Truth potion.

"Interesting," Ed muttered to himself.

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Ron reached up and started to what seemed like tickle the pear in a portrait of many different fruits. Al looked around the giant empty room they had entered a moment before. There were lots of long tables and benches set up into four rows as well as another one on top of a stage.

The portrait swung away just like the portrait of the Fat Lady. All four companies stepped inside. They were instantly surrounded by several small wrinkly creatures. Al almost jumped and would have if he had not been so afraid that he might step on one.

"Harry Potter is back," squeaked a little brown one who wore what looked like a sack as clothing. "Dobby has missed his and his friends."

"Hey Dobby," Harry said to the little wrinkled thing. "Do you think we could have some food? We just arrived and we're kind of hungry."

"Anything Harry Potter wishes he will have," Dobby squeaked happily.

All the little creatures rushed off to gather food and a few helped to start to boil water for tea.

"Dobby this is our good buddy, Al," Ron said pointing over his shoulder with his thumb to Al.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Dobby," Al said.

"Oh no, giant master Al, the pleasure is all ours," said Dobby obviously awed at Al's size.

The four retreated to a corner where they could talk and would be out of the way of the house elves scurrying over the floor. The elves pushed mountains of food into their hands as well as tea and a bottle butterbeer. Harry, Ron, and Hermione immediately dug into the food but Al just looked down at it, sadly.

"Whath tha mather Al," Ron said through a mouth full of food. "Not hungry?"

"He has to be hungry, he hasn't eaten since…," Hermione said trailing off. "Well actually we've never seen you eat, Al."

Al took a sharp intake of breath.

"I'm just not in the mood to eat, I guess," Al lied.

Harry glanced suspiciously in Al's direction but let the subject drop for the moment. The three continued to eat the food the house elves kept pushing on them. Soon the group had finished their meal. They all thanked the house elves for it as well as some bags with food in them for later. The four headed out of the picture frame. Harry, Ron, and Hermione waved to Dobby before the picture swung shut.

"You think we should just go back up to the dorms," Ron asked already searching through the goodie bag.

"Um…," Al said.

"Al, do have somewhere you would like to go," Hermione asked turning to the giant suit of armor.

"Does this place possibly have a library," Al asked shyly.

Hermione smiled. Harry and Ron gave each other a look. Hermione looked to them and scowled but then looked to Harry with a pleading face.

"Alright! Hermione, why don't you show Al the library? Ron and I will go check out what's changed around the school," Harry said slowly.

Hermione squeaked with happiness. She grabbed Al's arm and dragged him towards the door of the Great Hall. Ron and Harry just watched until they were gone.

"What'd you make of Al not ever eating anything, mate," Ron asked.

"I don't know. We don't know enough about this alchemy he and his brother use," Harry said. "I'm not sure if he's even human, but we'll eventually find out."

Ron nodded and both boys headed towards the door as well to explore the school.

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Lunamora: Ok guys. I'm sorry to say that I'm not going to give you hint for the number of reviews you have. It's too restricting if I haven't already written the chapter so if I did already write it before I posted the chapter before it, I will give you hints.

Peace out!