Silver and Gold
Disclaimer: I do not own FMA or HP, and a few lines from the book were put in here, but nothing too large.
Edward woke with a start as he heard a loud yell ring out through the common room. All the other students woke up too, as there were muttered voices in the room. He looked over and saw Ron hanging from his ankle as if an invisible hook was attached to his ankle.
"Sorry!" yelled Harry as he let Ron down. Everyone was roaring with laughter, and Ron sat on the floor rubbing his head. Ed thought it was some sort of attack at first, but then laughed it off as he found out that it was only Harry. Still, he thought that it was unhealthy that Harry was always sitting around reading his potions textbook. There could be something dangerous in there, and Ed thought that messing around with unknown spells was far from smart. He shrugged it off and fell asleep again as the laughter died down to a quiet whisper.
Apparently Ed wasn't the only one that was concerned about Harry, and Hermione had the same idea. After a long scolding, Harry got a letter for Ginny about his next "lesson." This was the first time that Ed had actually heard about these, but he guessed that whatever he saw Dumbledore and Harry doing was one of their so called lessons. There was a lot going on around Hogwarts, and the trio were being as open with Ed as he was being to them. He hated feeling useless with a situation, but he figured they could handle whatever they were doing by themselves.
"Harry, m'boy!" Slughorn called as he made his way over to the table. He was talking to Harry and Hermione about missing his "dinners," and Ed didn't even want to know about what that was about.
"Edward! Why don't you join us at our next dinner? You're one of the best potions students I've seen in a long time, and I'd love to hear about where you come from and your heritage!" Slughorn cheerfully said.
"Um I'd love to, but I have a lot of Quidditch practice and schoolwork to catch up on," Ed nervously replied. The last thing he wanted to do was have dinner with his crazy biased professor.
"Your luck is just as bad as Harry's! Well, I do hope to see both of you when you aren't so busy," he said dramatically while turning around to leave.
Ed sighed with relief, and Harry did as well.
"Okay Ed, we better get going if we want to get to Hogsmeade at the same time as everyone else," Harry told Edward as he pulled him up from the table. "We'll see you there!" He said to Hermione and Ron as they left the great hall.
"Where are we going?" Edward asked. He had no clue where he was being pulled, but just then they stopped at the Gryffindor common room.
"I have to get something really quick, wait here," Harry told Ed. He did as he said, and soon enough Harry came out holding a transparent looking cloak.
"What the hell is that?" Ed asked with a puzzled look on his face.
"It's an invisibility cloak! It's how I got into Hogsmeade unnoticed for the time I didn't have my permission form signed. I don't really need to use it now, but I don't want to lose you," Harry replied. "You're lucky you're short, or we might not have been able to both fit under it."
"WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO SHORT HE'S INVISIBLE WITHOUT THE CLOAK?!" Ed roared in fury back to Harry.
"Haha sorry, but it's true," Harry laughed as Edward scowled at him. He began pulling Ed again, and soon enough they stopped in front of a statue of a witch with one eye. It was really creepy, and it looked like it was following Ed's every move. Harry said a word that Ed didn't understand, and the statue eerily moved to the side.
"Well this is a new one," Ed exclaimed as they went into a dark passage. It seemed to last forever, but after about thirty minutes they reached the end.
"Make sure to keep this on, or else they'll see us," Harry said. Ed nodded, and they went up a trap door on the ceiling. They emerged into a dark cellar, and climbed up the stairs in the corner. Right as they went into the room, Edward had to hold back a gasp. They entered the biggest, most colorful candy shop he had ever seen. All types of magical candies and sweets lined the walls, and the colors were varied and bright. There was no place like it in Amestris, and Ed really wished Alphonse was here to see it. He considered buying some things, but then realized that Al wouldn't be able to eat them anyways until he got his body back.
Ed sighed and continued to follow Harry out the door, looking back at the amazing candy shop. When they left, they were on a long road lined with many shops and stores. It was the liveliest place he had been other than Rush Valley maybe, except the shops had magical supplies and gifts instead of automail. Ed shivered a bit from the cold, and Harry seemed to notice.
"Follow me, we can go get some butterbeer and meet up with Ron and Hermione," Harry noted. They went to a place called "The Three Broomsticks," and eventually found the table that their friends were sitting at. Someone caught Ed's eye though, but he figured it was nothing. 'There's no way that guy could be him… why would he be here?' He sat at the table with the others, but kept glancing at a table in the far back. The guy he was looking at eating food feverishly looked and acted exactly like Ling.
"Is something bothering you Ed? You haven't said anything since we got here, are you there?" Hermione asked after ordering four butterbeers. Ignoring her, Ed decided that it would drive him crazy if he didn't go and get a good look at the guy. He ripped off the invisibility cloak and stormed over to the other side of the room.
"Ling?" he asked the guy that still had his attention on his food. He looked up, and his eyes went huge.
"EDWARD? WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?" he yelled so that the whole restaurant could hear him. They all looked in their direction, and Ed quickly put his hand over the prince's mouth.
"Be quiet! I'm not supposed to be here!" he whispered. He grabbed Ling's shirt sleeve and pulled him into the back of a pub next door, so that nobody could hear them.
"How did you get here?! Did the portal take you here too?!" Ed exclaimed. He was as happy as he could ever be to find out that he wasn't the only one stranded in the wizarding world, and could almost jump for joy at the fact that his theories were correct.
"Woah calm down, I'm happy to see you too." Ling grinned. "Ever since I landed in this little town, I stayed at an inn, and ate all the food they had. They kicked me out, so I've just been jumping between all the different places. You wouldn't believe that they don't treat me with respect here! Every time I tell them I'm a prince of Xing, they look at me like I'm crazy! Not to mention all the really weird alchemy they use here. It doesn't look like anything I've seen, even from Amestris."
"That's because it's not alchemy," Edward said. "It's actual magic."
"You're joking!" Ling laughed. "Magic doesn't exist, even I know that!"
"It's true! This place is crazy, they don't even follow the laws of Equivalent Exchange! I've been trying to figure out a way to get us back to where we came from, but unfortunately I haven't been able to find anything other than the fact that we're trapped in a parallel world."
"Woah, that's crazy!" Ling said. "You keep doing that, and I'll stay here and enjoy myself while I'm here. You don't happen to have any money do you? They're going to arrest me sooner or later if I don't get any…"
"No! I'm not going to give you any money!" Edward growled. "While you've been living in luxury over here, I've been forced to go to 'magic school' at the place called Hogwarts not far from here. They'd probably let you stay there too, if you asked."
"There is no way I'd go to school! Who do you think I am? I'm perfectly fine staying here, just keep me updated and try to smuggle me some food or money if you can. I'll look through the bookstores and ask around though to try to figure out something too, don't worry," Ling laughed.
"Fine, just don't get kicked out or anything! If we get out of here we're going together!" Ed scolded him as he walked out of the pub. The trio was probably still waiting for him at The Three Broomsticks, and he didn't want to keep them waiting. Ling waved to him as he left and continued to eat, like usual.
"Who was that?" asked Hermione as Ed came back.
"Yeah and why didn't you introduce us to him?" Ron whined.
Harry just looked a bit annoyed about something in the corner, but seemed to agree with them.
"Oh it's nothing…" Edward spluttered. "He's just someone I know from my alchemy school, no big deal."
They didn't seem very convinced with his answer, but what else was he supposed to say?
"Well you might as well not put the cloak back on Ed, since everyone's already seen you. Luckily nobody really knows who you are so it doesn't matter," said Hermione sharply. "Your butterbeer came too, you better drink it before it gets cold."
Edward looked at the foamy orange liquid sitting in front of him, and took a sip. It filled him with warmth, and immediately made his ports feel ten times better from the cold. He sighed in relief at the delicious butterscotch taste and heat, and drank it down in just a couple sips.
"It's good, isn't it?" Ron smiled.
For the rest of their time in Hogsmeade they went to a few more shops, and Ed gawked at all of them. He especially liked the joke shop, Zonko's, and mischievously grinned at a few of the pranks he found. He'd have to try some of these ideas back home on the colonel, especially the ones that included squirting water at the victim. He spotted Ling a few times running from people that he probably ate food from, and Ed couldn't help but to giggle.
Once they finally decided that the cold was getting too much for them, especially Edward, they started to make their way back to Hogwarts. He had the invisibility cloak back on, but the other three made sure that he was still with them every once in a while. After they neared the castle, they began to notice an argument between who Ed recognized as the chaser, Katie Bell, and her friend. The argument became angrier and louder as it went on, and eventually they heard an extremely loud shriek, followed by desperate screams.
They ran towards the noise, and didn't expect to see what they did. Katie bell was floating midair, and her arms were outstretched at her side. With Ed's quick reflexes, he threw off the invisibility cloak and ran out under her, catching her just in time. She was writhing and twitching in his arms, and he could barely hold her. The others came over and saw, and Hargid eventually made them move out of the way. Ed saw a necklace poking out of a package, and began to reach for it, before he was yelled at not to. Hagrid ran her back to the castle, and she was still twitching and screaming, as if in a trance.
"I've seen that necklace before, Harry said while staring at it. "It was on display in Borgin and Burkes ages ago. The label said it was cursed. Katie must have touched it."
Ed then remembered that he had seen Katie holding the package when he was talking to Ling, and she wasn't acting like herself. He made sure to tell them, and they all still stared at it completely confused. Ed used his right hand to pick it up, while the others flinched.
"Don't worry, it won't work through the gloves," Ed lied. He didn't actually know if that would work or not, but he knew it wouldn't effect his automail because it wasn't actual skin.
They followed Hagrid back to the castle, still confused about the action that just took place. 'There must be something behind this, it wan't coincidence that a girl was carrying around a cursed necklace.'
When talking to McGonagall back at the castle, Harry tried to put the blame on Malfoy, but even Edward knew that an accusation without evidence would get him nowhere.
Alphonse,
Events here are beginning to take an interesting turn. I met up with Ling at Hogsmeade, so at least I'm not all alone anymore. He agreed to help search for info while he stays in the village, which gives me some extra help. A student was cursed on our way back, and it was definitely not just a random occurrence. Something much larger than what I thought could be happening here. I just hope that it don't involve the dealings of what we've been going through.
Stay strong,
Edward
A/N: Fun Fact: I referenced the chapter title in the book to the title here, (Silver and Opals) because I thought that gold could represent Ling in a way. I'm pretty happy with how this chapter turned out (especially the short rant that I laughed pretty hard at) and I would really appreciate any form of feedback! Thanks ;)
