~Chapter Nine: Facing Desire~

A/N: Happy Holidays all! Thought this chapter would be appropriate to post this time of year. Not gonna lie I've been excited about this chapter for a loooong time; Christmastime at Hogwarts is sooo exciting! ^_^ Anywho, hope y'all enjoy, and I hope all of your wintertime holidays are as jolly as they could possibly be!

all things Harry Potter (c) J.K. Rowling

all things Fullmetal Alchemist (c) Hiromu Arakawa

Hi brother,

I'm glad your classes are going better, now that you said you've pretty much gotten the hang of wandwork. I wonder if I'll have as much trouble as you did at the beginning of the year, too next year when I go to that school. I seriously can't wait for that; it gets pretty boring sometimes here in Resembool without you. It's getting cold there, you said? That could be a bad thing for you, brother; you're still recovering from surgery, after all. Winry said that you better not be abusing her precious automail out in the cold rain and snow or else she'll never forgive you…I'd listen to her if I were you. You know how scary she can be, especially when armed with a giant wrench.

Have you found out anything else about the mysterious object hidden at the school? Do you still think it could be the Philosopher's Stone? I know you told me not to get my hopes up, but I can't help it; I want my body back, brother, and I know you want your arm and leg back, too. That automail seems like it's really hard on the body. I've been helping Granny and Winry out at the shop and they've had another customer—an older man who was in the war—come in to be fitted for automail. You should've heard his screams, Ed, they were terrifying. I think he screamed louder than you did when you had the surgery done, and that's saying something! I can't even imagine how awful that is, going through that. And then Granny constantly talks about the complications that could occur during recovery…I don't think she likes you being so far away while still trying to rehabilitate. But there's really nothing she can do about it now, and knowing how strong you are, brother, I don't think she has anything to worry about.

You remember Colonel Mustang, Ed? The man who came and talked to you right after the accident about having you work for the military as a State Alchemist? Well, he came back, looking for you, and needless to say he wasn't happy when we told him you had gone off to school out of the country. We were careful not to say 'magic school,' obviously; based on what we know about him, I'd easily assume that the Colonel might be a skeptic about magic, just like you are. Or were. You're not still skeptical, are you?

The rest of the letter continued on with talking about life back in Resembool, updating Ed on all he's been missing (which honestly, compared to all that's been happening at Hogwarts, is not much). In order to keep Al's letter from bleeding in the rain, Ed had quickly stepped inside the castle, stowing Nova beneath his cloak to hide her presence in the school, the rain progressively falling faster and faster down the cross-hatched window panes dimly illuminating the vast hallway in which he stood. When he finished reading his brother's words, he stared up into the dampened glass, thinking deeply about how to make everything work out for the better…

He sighed, knowing that the only way he was going to get any closer to the Stone was to make amends with his friends, if at all possible at this point.

~~*e.s.*~~

Christmas was coming.

One morning around mid-December, Hogwarts woke to find itself covered in several feet of snow. The lake froze solid and the mail was becoming more and more delayed every day. The few owls that managed to battle their way through the stormy sky to deliver mail had to be nursed back to health by Hagrid before they could fly off again. Nova, being the stubborn fowl she was, managed to escape Hagrid's care for quite a bit longer than the larger, older owls. But soon enough Nova was also beyond incapacitated, droplets of ice frozen upon her little beak, he feathers quaking under her shivering.

"Sorry, pretty, but yer no' doin' any flying anytime soon. Not if I can help it," Hagrid said as he ruffled her up in a fluffy white towel, attempting to keep her from getting sick.

"She'll be ok, right?" Ed asked concernedly, patting her chilly head. "I knew I shouldn't have sent her out that last time, but I could tell she really wanted to see Al, too."

"Yeh mean you wanted to talk to him again," Hagrid said knowingly. Ed huffed; the gamekeeper knew him so well. "Don' yeh worry, Ed, she's alright. I'm not gonna let her go out in that cold no more but she don' have frostbite or anything of the sort. Go back to class, now, off wit' you."

Edward obeyed, of course, though reluctantly. Christmas break was so close by that nobody cared about classes anymore. No one could wait for the holidays to start.

"I do feel sorry," Ed heard Draco Malfoy say loud and clear over the other voices in the hallway towards the dungeons, "for all those people who have to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas because they're not wanted at home."

He was looking at Harry as he spoke, clearly directing his snarky comment towards the orphan. Ed rolled his eyes, thinking to himself, I don't care where I am for the break, as long as you're not there, dumbass!

Ed knew it was true that Harry wasn't going back to his Aunt and Uncle's for Christmas, after overhearing that Ron and his family will be staying at Hogwarts, too. Ed himself didn't really care to take the time to leave the school, no matter how much he missed Alphonse. He made a mental note to make amends with his friends before Christmas, though—not that he cared too much about the holiday.

When he left the dungeons after a particularly chilly Potions class, he found himself standing behind Harry and Ron, whose paths were blocked by a large fir tree. Two enormous feet sticking out at the bottom and a loud puffing sound told them that Hagrid was behind it, obviously. Who else had the strength to carry such a huge tree?

"'Ello Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ed," Hagrid greeted them, his voice strained under the weight of the fir. Harry, Hermione and Ron, who were unaware of Ed's presence behind them, glanced backwards but did not greet the alchemist.

"Hi, Hagrid, want any help?" Ed piped up, walking past Harry and Ron and sticking his head through the branches.

"Nah, I'm all right, thanks, Ed."

"Would you mind moving out of the way?" came Malfoy's cold, annoying-ass drawl from behind them all. "Are you trying to earn some extra money, Weasley? Hoping to be gamekeeper yourself when you leave Hogwarts, I suppose—that hut of Hagrid's must seem like a palace compared to what your family's used to."

Ed's eyes widened slightly as Ron dived at Malfoy—just as Snape came up the stairs.

"WEASLEY!"

Ron let go of Malfoy's robes.

"Ah, hell."

"He was provoked, Professor Snape," said Hagrid, sticking his huge hairy face out from behind the tree. "Malfoy was insultin' his family."

"Be that as it may, fighting is against Hogwarts rules, Hagrid," said Snape silkily. "Five points from Gryffindor, Weasley, and be grateful it isn't more. Move along, Potter, Elric."

Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle pushed roughly past the tree, scattering needles everywhere as they smirked and shoved Edward roughly. The short blonde also made a move to beat Malfoy, but Hagrid grabbed the back of his robes, tugging him back to his side.

"Don' you start, now," Hagrid warned, looking back up the stairs for any sign of Snape.

"I'll get him," said Ron, grinding his teeth at Malfoy's back, "one of these days, I'll get him—"

"I hate them both," said Harry, "Malfoy and Snape."

"Come on, cheer up, it's nearly Christmas," said Hagrid. "Tell yeh what, come with me an' see the Great Hall, looks a treat."

So the four of them followed Hagrid and his tree off to the Great Hall, where Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick were busy with the Christmas decorations.

"Ah Hagrid, the last tree—put it in the far corner, would you?"

"Oh, Professor," Hermione spoke to Flitwick, who was producing delicate-looking glass ornaments out of the tip of his wand, "it looks beautiful!"

"Why, thank you, Miss Granger!" Flitwick squeaked, bouncing happily at the young witch's praise.

The hall truly did look spectacular, even Ed had to admit that much to himself. Festoons of holly and mistletoe hung all around the walls, and no less than twelve towering Christmas trees stood around the room, some sparkling with tiny icicle, some glittering with hundreds of candles.

"How many days you got left until yer holidays?" Hagrid asked.

"Just one," said Hermione. "And that reminds me—Harry, Ron…" she paused, then spoke up, "and Ed?"

Ed looked up at the sound of his name, then nodded and approached Hermione.

"What's up?"

"We've got half an hour before lunch, we should be in the library."

"Oh yeah, you're right," said Ron, tearing his eyes away from Professor Flitwick.

"The library?" Hagrid said. "Just before the holidays? Bit keen, aren't yeh?"

"What for?" inquired Ed.

"Oh, we're not working," Harry told Hagrid and Ed brightly. "Ever since you mentioned Nicolas Flamel we've been trying to find out who he is."

"You what?" Hagrid looked absolutely flabbergasted. "Listen here—I've told yeh—drop it. It's nothin' to you what that dog's guardin'."

"We just want to know who Nicolas Flamel is, that's all," said Hermione innocently.

"Unless you'd like to tell us and save us the trouble?" Harry added. "We must've been through hundreds of books already and we can't find him anywhere—just give us a hint—I know I've read his name somewhere."

Ed knew this to be true; in all honesty, they've started going up to the library just about as often as he did, though they weren't researching the same thing. Ed grinned to himself; even though he was alone in his researching, he was a very large step ahead of the others in the quest for the truth.

"I'm sayin' nothin'," said Hagrid flatly.

"Just have to find out ourselves, then," said Ron with a shrug, and with that they left Hagrid looking disgruntled and hurried off to the library. Ed hesitated for a split second, then made to follow them. Just as he caught up with the trio, however, he was roughly shoved by Malfoy—again.

"Elric," Malfoy sneered. "I must say I was surprised it wasn't you snapped back there."

Ed brushed at his sleeve, as if contact with Malfoy made it dusty.

"The hell is that supposed to mean," Ed muttered, feeling absolutely exasperated with the ass.

"Y'know," Malfoy retorted. "You're the one whose temper is shorter than his height—and that's saying something-!"

Edward finally lost it; faster than either Crabbe or Goyle could blink, Ed's automail fist had collided with Malfoy's ugly face. A nasty crack resounded throughout the Great Hall, quickly catching the attention of Harry, Ron, Hermione, and just about every decorating teacher present. But Edward didn't care. He'd had enough of this Malfoy bastard; just as he clapped his hands together as if to perform a transmutation, however-

"EDWARD ELRIC!"

Ed gulped, quickly stashing his unclasped clap behind his back as he uneasily turned to face a furious Professor McGonagall. That was waaay too close, he thought, mentally kicking himself for being so stupid, so easily provoked. Professor Flitwick was quickly at the scene as well, squeaking slightly at the sight of Malfoy's horribly bloodied face.

"Ok, come on now, let's get you to Madam Pomfrey straight away!" the short Charms teacher said, helping the miserable-looking blonde up from the floor and leading him to the Hospital Wing. Crabbe and Goyle made to follow, then stopped and shrugged at each other. After one last glance at Edward, they ditched their friend and headed instead in the opposite direction to the Slytherin common room. Ed shook his head in disgust at the sight of such betrayal, but was quickly yanked back to his present predicament at the sound of McGonagall's voice:

"How dare you, Elric! What were you thinking?"

"He deserved it?" Ed spoke feebly under his unimpressed teacher's malevolent glower.

"In my office. NOW."

Ed sighed in resignation, glancing back to see if Harry, Ron and Hermione were still watching from their place upon the staircase. To both the alchemist's relief and dismay, they spared him the embarrassment of their watchful eyes and trudged on their way, leaving Ed in a very similar fashion as Crabbe and Goyle left Malfoy.

~~*e.s.*~~

It felt like a prisoner interrogation, being seated in front of McGonagall's desk, the very same one that she had so effortlessly transfigured the first day of class. Ed sat uncomfortably before his Head of House, wanting her to hurry up with the lecture, which after nearly a full minute of silent glaring would be a piece of cake to endure.

"…What has gotten into you as of late, Mr. Elric?" the headmistress finally spoke. "You do not pick fights like this usually. What's going on? Did you, Weasley and Potter get into an argument or something?"

You don't know the half of it, Edward thought sourly, though he found himself shaking his head rather than admitting that his only friends did not trust him.

"Then what is the matter?"

Ed thought about this for a moment. True, his mood had been continuously fouling out ever since the big stink that occurred between him, Ron, Harry and Hermione. But especially today his demeanor has become increasingly gloomy—especially after hearing that Nova was not going to be able to bring him letters from Alphonse during the break.

Ed sighed:

"I don't know, Professor."

McGonagall stared at him for a moment longer, then also sighed heavily. She then reached within the deep recesses of her giant desk and pulled out a detention slip. Edward watched her sign the slip for that evening, given the fact that this was the last day of classes before break, then signed it and handed it to him.

"You are very lucky that you were caught by me and not by another teacher, and you are also lucky I caught you before you did something you'd truly regret."

Ed gulped; so she did see him prepare to transmute…

"Even so, I'm afraid that the seriousness of your infraction will have to be reported to Professor Dumbledore."

Ed nodded in understanding; he knew as well as everyone else that fighting was a huge no-no at Hogwarts, and that there was a chance of expulsion for anyone who broke that rule. He wasn't worried about being expelled, however; Dumbledore pushed so hard for him to go to Hogwarts in the first place, why would he just outright kick him out for one broken nose/cheekbone/jaw?

"Thirty points will unfortunately be taken from Gryffindor—yes from my own house," she reiterated at Ed's appalled expression.

"You will report here tonight right after dinner for your two-hour detention," she continued, her voice rising with increasing sternness. "If you fail to attend, you will be facing dire consequences. Understood?"

"Yes, ma'am," he spoke automatically. McGonagall nodded curtly, and then dismissed him from her office with a wave of her hand, her disappointment in one of her own Gryffindors obvious in her frown. Ed paused for a moment before leaving her, wondering about whether or not to say one last thing that was on his mind to the Transfiguration teacher…then decided against it, standing from his seat and exiting the room's forlorn silence with a single slam of the door.

~~*e.s.*~~

Harry and Ron had saved Ed a seat next to them at the dinner table that night as a token of apology. They had both decided, what with the three of them being stuck in the giant castle during Christmas holidays, that it'd be best to try and patch things up with their friend. That and, truth be told, it was kind of strange without him around, like a certain piece of their friendship puzzle was missing. Hermione was the last of the quartet to arrive at dinner, however, not Ed.

"Where were you?" Ron asked as she huffily sat down. Hermione shrugged:

"I left something in the library and I wanted to run up and snatch it before dinner. Ran into Professor Sprout along the way, though, and we ended up getting into a big conversation about—"

"Some fabulous grade you've made on one of her assignments, no doubt," Ron interrupted. Harry grinned as Hermione rolled her eyes, the words obviously having been pulled out of her mouth.

"So how much trouble did you get into for slugging Malfoy, Ed?" Ron asked, changing the subject before Hermione chunked a butter knife at him. Ed looked up at the red head.

"…I have a two hour detention with her after dinner tonight, and she had to report about the fight to Dumbledore."

"That wasn't a fight," Harry commented amusedly, "that was a beating. And I love how neither Crabbe nor Goyle even bothered lifting a finger to help the jerk."

"Where is he anyway?" Ed inquired. Hermione swallowed her casserole before answering him in a clearly disapproving tone:

"Still in the Hospital Wing, doubtless. You did a lot of damage, you know."

"Yeah, it was great," Harry said, grinning. "You did what Ron and I have wanted to do since we met him."

"It was still not a very smart thing to do," Hermione said indignantly. "He could be expelled, Harry!"

"But he won't be," Ron said, his cheeks stuffed with baked ham. "Professor Dumbledore wouldn't do that right before Christmas."

Hermione seemed appalled at everyone's reaction to the entire ordeal. "Does no one else see fighting as a negative thing? You could've really hurt him, Ed."

"Yeah…maybe I was a bit too rough," Ed said, uncomfortably grasping his automail wrist underneath the table. "What can I say; I don't know my own strength."

But he did, and he was going to do worse. If he had gotten the chance to fully transmute…

"Oh well, what's done is done, and it still was entertaining if wrong," Ron said, waving off the entire conversation.

"So when do you leave for your skiing trip, Hermione?" Harry inquired. Hermione piped up:

"Tomorrow evening."

She eyed the three boys carefully; "You will keep looking for Flamel while I'm away, won't you? And send me an owl if you find anything."

"Will do," Harry said. Ed tapped on the table:

"Good luck finding an owl that can fly through the snow, though."

"And you could ask your parents if they know who Flamel is," said Ron. "It'd be safe to ask them."

"Very safe, as they're both dentists," said Hermione.

After a very short dessert of custard and cake, Edward bid his friends goodbye as he trudge down the corridors towards his detention with McGonagall. At this point, even the corridors were more festive-looking than usual, the figures in the paintings hanging up stockings over stoves and tossing strings of popcorn about their Christmas trees. Ed scowled at the sight of a stalk of mistletoe hanging over the doorway into the Transfiguration corridor.

McGonagall was already seated at her desk working on grading papers when Edward knocked. She peered up over her glasses:

"Enter, Mr. Elric."

As soon as the alchemist was seated in front of the desk, McGonagall began to brief him on what exactly he'd be doing during his detention. She stood from her desk and examined the four walls of her classroom as she spoke:

"You'll be doing something rather mindless, tonight: writing lines. I wish for you to write the sentence 'I must not fight at Hogwarts' two hundred and fifty times across the board, or until your two hours are up. Whichever comes first."

"Uhm, Professor?" Ed spoke out. "What board?"

McGonagall did not answer, but instead waved her wand above her head in a circular motion, bewitching the walls to bleed a dark black color from the ceiling down to the molding, making them into makeshift chalkboards for Edward's lines. After handing him a small box of white chalk, McGonagall simply sat back down at her desk and continued to diligently grade papers.

An hour and a half passed by quickly, three-and-a-half out of the four walls now covered in repeated sentences written by Edward. He had not uttered a word the entire time, which kind of disturbed the headmistress, so to speak, for Edward was not usually such a quiet boy. In fact, as he worked without any sort of emphasis to his writing, the short alchemist seemed more sullen and disheartened than anything.

"…What has gotten into you as of late, Mr. Elric?" McGonagall inquired, finally breaking the silence. "You aren't normally like this."

Ed paused for a second, then kept on writing as he asked:

"Like what?"

"Gloomy. Generally uninterested. Easily provoked, more so than usual. Has something happened, perhaps?"

Ed stopped writing altogether and sighed heavily; McGonagall's cat-like senses were rather unnervingly too precise to brush off. He spoke, not quite meeting her eyes:

"It's all of this Christmas stuff around the school; it's bringing me down."

"Bringing you down?" said McGonagall. Edward turned to look at her.

"…My brother and I haven't celebrated Christmas since before mom died, you see. We—well, I always thought that it would be wrong to be so happy without her. That's why it's bothering me that I get to be around such a festive environment without him; he'd love celebrating Christmas—heck, celebrating anything again. Al misses that, and…I miss him, Professor."

Professor McGonagall blinked, not expecting such an answer from a student. After a moment's pause she nodded understandingly.

"So you took out your sadness and frustration of being separated from your younger brother out on your anger with Malfoy."

Ed shrugged, knowing he probably would've slugged the boy regardless, but nonetheless he replied:

"Yeah, I guess that's it."

"Ok…ok, Mr. Elric," McGonagall said, taking pity upon the miserable boy as she glanced up at the clock upon the wall opposite of her desk. "You are dismissed. Try to cheer up and enjoy yourself with Harry and Ron."

Ed looked surprised at the stern teacher's gruff dismissal but did not look too deep into the gift. He made haste in shoving the pieces of chalk back into its little box and nearly forgot to grab his backpack as he soared out the door, his writing hand throbbing after all of those lines. Professor McGonagall flicked her wand with ease, commanding the walls to return to their original state, deeply pondering her short conversation with the alchemist…

~~*e.s.*~~

"I don't understand, mate," Ron said as he pondered his next move in the game of wizard chess he was playing with Harry. "How can you not like Christmas?"

"I just don't really believe in it anymore," Ed replied, observing as Harry attempted to pursue a counter-attack to Ron's previous capture of one of is rooks. Harry coaxed his knight forward (only after being repeatedly chewed out by the piece for moving him incorrectly earlier in the game), then turned to Ed:

"You don't have to believe in it to celebrate it, y'know."

"Yeah, I guess," Ed said, shrugging off the entire subject matter. Ron tapped upon his chin, and then sent his king forward, grinning from ear to ear: "Checkmate!"

"Darn. I knew I had lost after you got my last bishop," Harry replied, also grinning despite his loss. Ron then turned to the bored-looking Ed.

"Your turn; know how to play?"

"It's just like regular chess, right?" Ed inquired as he took Harry's place in front of the board. "Except that the pieces talk and move on their own…"

"Right!" Ron cracked his knuckles eagerly, as if preparing for a delightfully gruesome battle. "Good luck; white goes first."

Ed never did deem himself to be a particularly skillful chess player, but he did manage to stay in the game quite a bit longer than Harry did before finally being defeated by the unstoppable Ron Weasley. After that game Ed took on Harry, who proved to be a better match for his level of skill; he managed to beat him, despite Seamus Finnigan's stubborn chess pieces that were constantly picking fights with their Commander-In-Chief.

None of the trio had spent much time thinking about Nicolas Flamel, not even Edward, who was enjoying plotting ways of getting Malfoy expelled too much to remember that he was supposed to be a gloomy mess. They had the dormitory to themselves and the common room remained far emptier than usual, so they were able to get good, fluffy armchairs by the fire with ease. On Christmas Eve all three of them went to bed looking forward to the next day for the food and the fun, though neither Harry nor Ed were expecting any presents at all.

In the middle of the night, however, Ed found himself staring out the window at the swiftly falling snow, the ability to go back to sleep failing him desperately. Guilt awoke him from his foggy slumber. This is so wrong, he kept thinking, me being here, celebrating Christmas tomorrow without my little brother. He sighed, crawling out of bed in search of his alchemy book, thinking he might as well get some reading done whilst suffering from insomnia.

~~*e.s.*~~

"Harry! Ed! Wake up, it's Christmas!"

"Ughh," Ed groaned, his book still lying open upon his chest. He sat up as Harry ran out to the balcony overlooking the common room, then begrudgingly joined his friend. There they saw Ron standing next to the Gryffindor's Christmas tree, wearing a rather itchy-looking sweater.

"Happy Christmas, guys," the redhead greeted with a smile.

"Happy Christmas, Ron," Harry replied. Ed rubbed his eyes, yawning hugely due to sleep deprivation.

"What are you wearing?" the blonde asked Ron, who looked down at his sweater.

"Oh, mum made it for me, and it looks like she's made you and Harry one, too!"

"I've got presents?" Harry and Ed asked in unison, Ed suddenly perking up at the thought. Ron rolled his eyes:

"Well duh. Now get down here!"

They didn't need to be told twice after finding out they had gifts to unwrap; the two excited boys raced down the stairs in record time and plopped down in front of the tree, gathering up all of the packages with their names on it. Ed picked up the top parcel on his pile; the large, cube-shaped box was signed from Al, Winry and Granny Pinako. Hope you have a great break; we miss you! He unwrapped it to reveal a tin of cookies made by Granny, a couple of books and a letter from Alphonse, and a small, separately-wrapped parcel from Winry with a note taped upon it that read: don't open this in front of your roommates, its polishing stuff for your automail!

Ed laughed; leave it to Winry to buy a gift for his prosthetics rather than Ed himself.

His second present was a small package wrapped in thick brown paper from Hagrid, and upon opening it Ed found himself holding a small, beautiful, hand-whittled statuette of Nova. The alchemist also found a small note inside reporting to him about Nova's well-being, saying that she recovered quickly and is back in the owlery now with all the other student's owls.

"Weird!" he heard Ron exclaim and turned to see what amazed him so. The freckled boy pointed to a strange-looking coin in Harry's hand. "What a shape! This is money?"

"Money?" Ed also commented. "It doesn't look like much."

"Yeah, it's not," said Harry, laughing at Ron's expression. "You can keep it, if you want."

Ron looked so incredibly pleased at the kind Christmas gesture. Ed and Harry both turned back to their dwindling piles of presents and noticed that they each had a similarly-shaped package.

"I think I know who those are from," said Ron, turning a bit pink as he nodded toward the present Ed and Harry were examining. "My mom. I told her that neither of you expected many presents and—oh no," he groaned. "She's made you Weasley sweaters."

Ed had torn open the parcel to find a thick, hand-knitted sweater in golden yellow and a large box of homemade candy and fudge.

"Every year she makes us a sweater," said Ron, unwrapping his own, "and mine's always maroon."

"That's really nice of her," said Harry, trying the fudge, which was very tasty. Ed happily pulled his gold sweater on over his head, grateful for the warmth it brought him from knowing somebody kindly took the time to knit it for him.

His present from Hermione contained a large box of sugar quills from Honeydukes in London. He picked one of the pieces of candy up curiously, once again proclaiming every piece of the wizarding world to be utterly clichéd. Ah well, good candy, he mentally shrugged, popping another sugar quill into his mouth as he watched Harry shake his last silver-wrapped parcel curiously. He took out the card:

"'Your father left this in my possession before he died. It is time it was returned to you. Use it well.'"

Harry frowned. What was 'use it well' supposed to mean?

"Open it," Ed urged curiously from his perch upon the arm of the couch Ron was lounging upon, looking curiously at the redhead's box of candy from Hermione. "'Every Flavor Beans?'"

"Never had them before?" Ron said, offering Ed some. "Just warning you, though, when they say every flavor, they mean every flavor."

Ed was more hesitant with his choice after Ron's warning; the first bean he ate was a normal jelly bean flavor, strawberry, but his second piece made him wrinkle his nose. "Mashed potatoes," he spat, causing Ron to chuckle. Ed stuck his tongue out at the young Weasley, then turned back to Harry.

"Well, hurry up and open it!"

Harry obeyed and revealed the contents of the package to be something fluid and silvery gray. It slithered to the floor where it lay in gleaming folds at Harry's feet. Ron gasped.

"I've heard of those," he said in a hushed voice, dropping the box of Every Flavor Beans. "If that's what I think it is—they're really rare, and really valuable."

"What is it?" said Harry as he picked the shining, silvery cloth off the floor. It was strange to the touch, like water woven into material.

"It's an invisibility cloak," said Ron, a look of awe on his face. Ed raised an eyebrow at him:

"Yeah, right."

"I'm sure it is—try it on, Harry!"

Harry threw the cloak around his shoulders and Ron and Ed gasped.

"It is!" Ed said with disbelief.

"Look down!" commanded Ron.

Harry looked down at his feet, but they were gone. He tossed the coat off and looked back at the note that came with it.

"There's no name."

Ed and Ron looked at each other and shrugged: "It's still really neat that you've got one," Ron replied, going back to his candy. Just then the dormitory door was flung open and Fred and George Weasley bounded in, both bearing blue Weasley sweaters, one with a large yellow F on it, the other a G.

"Happy Christmas, all!"

"Hey, look—Harry and Ed have got Weasley sweaters, too!"

"Theirs are better than ours, though," said Fred, critically observing the gold and green sweaters upon the boys. "She obviously makes more of an effort if you're not family."

"What's all this noise?" another voice boomed from behind the twins; Percy Weasley stuck his head through the door, looking disapproving. He had clearly gotten halfway through unwrapping his presents as he, too, carried a lumpy sweater over his arm, which Fred immediately seized.

"P for prefect! Get it on, Percy, we're all wearing ours."

"Yeah," George piped up. "Even Harry and Ed got one."

"I—don't—want—" said Percy thickly, as the twins forced the sweater over his head, knocking his glasses askew.

"And you're not sitting with the prefects today, either," said George. "Christmas is a time for family."

Needless to say Harry, Ron and Ed were practically rolling upon the carpet with laughter as the twins frog-marched Percy from the room, his arms pinned to his side by his sweater.

The Christmas dinner served at Hogwarts that evening was the most bombastic meal Ed had ever consumed. There were a hundred fat, roast turkeys; mountains of roast and boiled potatoes; platters of chipolatas, and much more. There were huge stacks of wizard crackers every few feet along the table, and they proved to be the most awesome things upon the table. Ed obtained an interesting-looking tricorn hat, a miniature collapsible cauldron that sparked whenever it popped back up, his own crystal wizard chess set and a drawstring bag full of tiny live, slithering snakes. Ed was very pleased at the thought of using the snakes in numerous future pranks.

That afternoon all of the Weasleys plus Harry and Ed had a furious snowball fight on the grounds. It was Ron, Ed and Harry against the twins and Percy. The twins were constantly cheating by bewitching snowballs to follow the trio around everywhere they ran, so Ed took advantage of his alchemic abilities and doubled the size and strength of their fort when Harry and Ron weren't looking. As soon as they turned around though, Ed made sure he had his wand in his grasp to make it look like a spell instead of a transmutation.

"Where'd you learn to do that?" Ron asked in awe. Ed grinned:

"Hermione," he convincingly lied. "Who else?"

Afterwards they eagerly re-entered the common room cold, wet and gasping for breath. They ate a meal of turkey sandwiches and crumpets as they crowded around the fire. Harry and Ed took this chance to break in their new chess sets, a game that was obviously Edward's from the get-go due to Percy's assertive attempts at helping out Harry. Ron was easily the first one asleep that night, what with all of the turkey and sweets he'd eaten throughout the day and the fact that he was the only one in the trio who had nothing mysterious to bother him. Harry and Ed were both up much longer than the redhead, Ed flipping through the books he got as presents and Harry messing around with his invisibility cloak.

"I want to use this so badly," Harry said, causing Ed to peer up from behind his book. Harry looked over at him, narrowing his eyes in thought.

"What are you planning?" Ed asked, recognizing the expression on his friend's face as one of mischief.

"This is my way of getting into the Restricted Section of the library, my way of finding out who Nicolas Flamel is."

Suddenly Harry felt wide awake; practically the whole of Hogwarts was open to him.

"…Ok, I'm going," Harry decided. "You coming with, Ed?"

Ed was about to answer, but instead yawned.

"No thanks; I didn't sleep very well last night. I need to catch up on my sleep."

"Ok." Harry looked over at Ron, who grunted in his sleep, one of his legs hanging off the bed. "Should I wake Ron?"

"Nah, let him sleep off all that food he ate!" Ed laughed, yawning again. "You better find something good out, and tell us everything in the morning."

"Roger that," Harry said as he slipped the cloak on over his head a silently walked out of the dormitories, leaving Ed to his books on the very thing Harry was unknowingly looking for: alchemy.

~~*e.s.*~~

Ed was wrong about Ron.

"You could've woken me up," the redhead said crossly the following morning at breakfast. Harry shot Ed a glare over his goblet of pumpkin juice, to which the blonde simply rolled his eyes.

"You both can come tonight, I'm going back, and I want to show you both the mirror."

"I'd like to see your parents," Ed said eagerly, to which Ron nodded.

"And I want to see your families; your brother, Alphonse, Ed, and all the Weasleys. You'll be able to show me your brothers and everyone, Ron."

"Eh, you can see them any old time," Ron said dismissingly. "Just come round my house this summer. Anyway, maybe it only shows dead people."

"Yeah," Ed said, perking up slightly at the idea. "Maybe I'll be able to see my mom."

"I'd like to see your mom," said Ron before turning back to Harry. "Shame about not finding Flamel, though. Have some bacon or something, why aren't you eating anything?"

"Ah-CHOOO!"

Harry and Ron stared at Ed as he furiously wiped his nose after his uber-sneeze, his cheeks pinking slightly at their expressions.

"Gesunheidt," Ron muttered.

"…Sorry," the alchemist sniffed. "I guess that snowball fight finally caught up with me."

"Maybe you should go see Madam Pomfrey," Harry suggested. "You could be getting sick."

"Nah, I'm fine. Besides, I can't get sick; we've got a weird mirror to go see tonight."

~~*e.s.*~~

What Harry feared the most was that he might not be able to find the mirror room again, and with Ron and Edward also beneath the cloak, they had to walk much more slowly. They tried retracing Harry's route from the library, wandering around the dark passageways for nearly an hour.

"God, it's so d-damn cold!" Ed hissed annoyedly, shivering between Harry and Ron.

"I'm freezing, too," said Ron. "Let's just forget it and go back."

"No!" Harry hissed. "I know it's here somewhere…"

Ron and Ed looked at each other (which was quite a feat in such cramped quarters) and sighed. There was no use convincing Harry against something he had his heart set on. They passed the ghost of a tall witch gliding in the opposite direction, but saw no one else. Just as Ron started moaning that his feet were cold and Ed's teeth starting chattering relentlessly, Harry finally spotted the suit of armor that signaled the entrance to the room in question.

"It's here—just here—yes!"

They pushed the door open; Harry dropped the cloak from around his shoulders and ran to the mirror. There they were, just as they stood the night before. Harry's mother and father beamed at the sight of him.

"See?" Harry whispered, as if afraid that if he spoke too loudly the reflection would dissipate.

"I can't see anything, Harry," Ed commented, Ron nodding in agreement.

"Look! Look at them all…there are loads of them…"

"I can only see you," Ron said. Harry frowned slightly:

"Look in it properly, go on, stand where I am."

Harry stepped aside, but with Ron in front of the mirror, he couldn't see his family anymore, just Ron in his paisley pajamas.

"So what exactly is this mirror supposed to show?" Ed inquired of Harry, who shrugged unknowingly.

Ron, though, was staring transfixed at his image.

"Look at me!" he exclaimed.

"Can you see all your family standing around you?" Harry asked eagerly.

"No—I'm alone—but I'm different—I look older…and I'm head boy!"

"What?" Harry and Ed said in confused unison.

"I am!" Ron continued excitedly. "I'm wearing a badge like Bill used to—and I'm holding the House Cup and the Quidditch Cup—I'm Quidditch captain, too!"

Ron tore his eyes from this splendid sight to look happily at his friends.

"Do you think this mirror shows the future?"

Harry shook his head sullenly:

"How can it? All my family are dead."

"…Ok, move Ron," Ed commanded. "My turn to see this weird mirror."

When Edward Elric stepped in front of the mysterious mirror, however, he found his reaction to be quite different from his redheaded companion's. His breath caught in his throat upon seeing the reflection; he bore an outfit different from his usual long black pants and read hooded coat, but it was not his clothing which startled him so, for in his reflection in the mirror, Edward had a human arm and leg. Mouth agape, the young blonde reached out with longing at the glorious image before him. Reality struck ice-cold as his steel fingertips rapped upon the glass, and Ed sighed, not taking his eyes off of the mirror's tempting image.

"Ed?" Ron asked, concern for his friend's uneasy behavior lacing his voice. Ed seemed not to hear, though, as he suddenly took a shaking step back from the mirror as he took in a second figure approaching him from behind his reflection in the glass.

"…Alphonse," Edward whispered, his golden eyes meeting those of his brother's in the haunting glass. His armor was gone, his blood seal gone, his soul reattached to its rightful shell. Ed felt his heart plunge into his stomach as his little brother smiled up at him, a sweet, innocent smile that he had missed so dearly.

"You can see your brother in there?" Harry asked, wishing to find out if one of his other friends saw something similar to what he had seen. Ed shook his head, though it was not at Harry's question; he was trying to shake off the reality of the situation, the reality that the reflection was false, that he still bore a leg an arm of metal and that Alphonse was still trapped within his iron prison—

"ALPHONSE! Alphonse, come back! COME BACK, DAMMIT!"

A sudden noise outside the corridor made Ron and Harry gasp, and Ron quickly lunged to tear Ed away from the mirror.

"Come on, Ed, we've got to get out of here, now!"

Ed didn't hear, didn't see; all he could see was Alphonse.

"Ed!" Harry yelled from the doorway, grabbing at the cloak frantically. "Come on!"

"NO! I won't leave him again!"

"Ed, he's not even really there!" Ron shouted in his ear. "He's just a reflection."

"…No," Ed growled defiantly. "AL!"

"It's no use; just drag his butt over here, Ron!" Harry said, and it took the both of them to drag the thrashing, despairing blonde out of the mirror room and away from his brother.

~~*e.s.*~~

Ed awoke with a start the next day, his eyes unpleasantly crusty from crying himself to sleep the previous eve. He achingly sat up, peering curiously out of the window to see that the snow still hadn't melted. He then looked up at the clock and discovered that he had slept through breakfast. That's weird, he thought; he rarely ever slept through a meal due to his monstrously growling stomach. Why was he so exhausted?

Just then, all of the events and ghosts of memories that had hit him the night before hit him once more, literally striking him like a bullet to the stomach.

Alphonse…damn, I did see you last night. The real you, not what you've become because of me.

All of the dark, melancholy feelings that had evaporated from his being on Christmas had returned ten-fold last night, reminding him of how depressed he felt right after the accident.

"…I'm going back to see him tonight," Ed decided out loud, tucking his knees to his chest, as if to try to quench the pain he felt there. "I have to see Al again."

An hour and a half later he plopped down into a seat next to Harry at the lunch table, dark bags lining his sullen eyes, his hair carelessly shoved into a loose ponytail rather than its usual neat braid.

"You ok?" Ron asked through his food. Ed nodded once, half-heartedly picking at his own plate. Harry's actions were very similar to the blonde's, his mind also wandering on about things that were not present at the time.

"Why don't we all go down and visit Hagrid after this?" Ron suggested hopefully.

"No…you go…" Harry replied. Ron frowned at his friends.

"I know what you two are thinking about, that mirror. Don't go back tonight."

"Why not?"

"I dunno, Harry, I've just got a bad feeling about it—and anyway, you've had too many close shaves already. Filch, Snape, and Mrs. Norris are wandering around. So what if they can't see you? What if they walk into you? What if you know something over?"

"You sound like Hermione," Ed muttered. Ron wrinkled his nose at the insult but kept to his point.

"I'm serious, guys, don't go."

"I have to see it again," Ed whispered to himself, though Harry could hear him well enough.

"What did you see in the mirror last night, anyway, Ed? Was it your brother?"

"Yeah, what made you freak out like that?"

None of your goddamned business! the alchemist wanted to scream, but instead he bit his lip, utilizing every ounce of will he had to keep hot tears from escaping in the presence of his friends.

~~*e.s.*~~

Ed did not leave with Harry that night but rather just snuck behind him the entire way to the mirror room. He didn't want to be alone with him in case he tried weeding Ed's image out of his mind again; it was bad enough that he lost it in front of him the previous night. As he slipped into the room behind the raven-haired boy, however, he heard another voice speaking with Harry from within.

"So—back again, Harry?"

Ed slid further into the shadows as he recognized Professor Dumbledore's voice, watching the scene from his hiding spot.

"I—I didn't see you, sir."

"Strange how nearsighted being invisible can make you; so you, like the hundreds before you, have discovered the delights of the Mirror of Erised."

Erised? What's that supposed to mean…?

"I didn't know it was called that, sir."

Ed watched as Dumbledore gestured to the inscription about the mirror's enchanted glass as he continued:

"But I expect you've realized by now what it does?"

"It—well—it shows me my family—"

"And it showed your friend Ron himself as head boy, and Mr. Elric reunited with his brother."

Ed frowned; so much for secrecy, Professor…

"How did you-?"

"I do not need a cloak to become invisible," said Dumbledore gently. "Now, can you think what the Mirror of Erised shows us all?"

Harry did not know the answer, though Ed at that moment had a hypothesis…

"…It shows us nothing more or less than the deepest, most desperate desires of our hearts. Now you, who have never known your family, you see them standing beside you. But remember this, Harry. This mirror gives us neither knowledge nor truth. Men have wasted away in front of it, even gone mad. That is why tomorrow it will be moved to a new home, and I must ask you not to go looking for it again. It does not do to dwell on dreams, Harry, and forget to live."

Harry remained silent for a long moment after that; then he spoke:

"Sir—Professor Dumbledore? Can I ask you something?"

"Obviously, you've just done so; you may ask one more thing, however."

"What do you see when you look in the mirror?"

"I? I see myself holding a pair of thick, woolen socks."

Ed remained still in his corner of darkness after Harry had left the room, headed back to the dormitories, doubtless. But Dumbledore did not move, much to Ed's disdain.

"…You may come out of hiding, now, Edward."

"I knew you knew I was here," Ed said sourly, taking Harry's place in front of the mirror next to the headmaster.

"Alphonse's image hit you hard the other night," Dumbledore spoke with pity for the despairing boy. "You two really do look very much alike."

Ed smiled slightly: "we used to get that all the time."

"It's the eyes."

"Yeah…"

"It's not your fault, Edward."

Ed closed his eyes, and then tilted his head up to the inscription upon the mirror:

"I show not your face but your heart's desire; it was the Sorting Hat that first told me that my heart's one true desire is to live for Alphonse, to make it my life's goal to fully restore him…and now I know that's right. I will do anything to fix everything."

He looked back into his brother face, touching the mirror with his human hand.

"…It is my fault that Al's like that. It's my fault he felt pain that night…it's my damn fault that the only thing holding my baby brother down to this earth is that stupid blood seal! I'm the one to blame, Professor…that's why I have to fix it all…"

Ed took a heavy, shuddering breath that made him realize how hard he was sobbing.

"…I have to fix Alphonse's life."

Dumbledore stood in silence as the boy wiped his eyes. It was hard for him to watch a student break down in such pain and agony, but he also knew that no matter what he said to try to make the boy feel better, it wouldn't work, because Edward placed the blame solely on himself.

"Edward."

Ed reluctantly took his gaze off of Alphonse to look up at his headmaster.

"You cannot continue to beat yourself up over this. You will make things right, one way or another. And you, Edward Elric, did not ruin Alphonse's life…"

Ed looked back at his brother's ghost-like reflection as Dumbledore finished:

"…you saved him."

~~*e.s.*~~

"Brother?"

Ed groaned, not wanting to wake up despite the nightmares he had suffered throughout the night. His bed was warm, and the dormitory was cold and dank, just like his heart. The mirror haunted his subconscious, just as Dumbledore said it would if he did not forget and live on.

"Brother? Ed?"

That voice…dammit, I'm dreaming again.

Ed begrudgingly opened his eyes.

"…ALPHONSE!"

"Brother!" Al shrieked as his older brother catapulted off of his bed and into his sibling. Harry and Ron woke with a start at the sound of the large suit of armor clanking and clattering to the floor under the weight of his ecstatic brother's embrace.

"Whoa, Alphonse! You're here!" Ron said in surprise. Harry's eyes widened at the sight of this person who must be Ed's iron-clad brother.

"Mhmm," the youngest Elric nodded happily. "Professor Dumbledore sent for me, inviting me to visit for a few days toward the end of the break!"

"That's so cool," Harry commented, feeling very envious of Ed at that very moment. "I'm Harry, by the way. Harry Potter."

"Alphonse Elric; nice to meet you. Brother's told me all about his new friends."

"I thought I heard a familiar voice," piped up the twin Weasley brother's in unison from the doorway. "Good to see ya again, Alphonse!"

Breakfast was more animated than it had been for the past few days, and when Ed looked up towards the teacher's table, he smiled up at McGonagall and Dumbledore, who based on the pleased looks on their faces must've been the ones responsible for sending Al to Hogwarts. Though there were not a lot of students at the school due to the break, Alphonse's appearance managed to cause quite the commotion amongst the small group.

"This place is amazing," Al remarked for the umpteenth time as he followed his brother and his friends out into the snow-covered courtyard. "Everything is so big and…and…"

"Magical?" Ed offered sarcastically, laughing as Al took a swing at him for poking fun at his mystified-ness.

"But seriously, I can't wait to go here next year, Ed."

"Yeah," Ed said, looking down at the imprints his boots made upon the crispy snow. "It can get pretty tough at times, though…"

Al proved to be quite the asset during the day's snowball fight, and between having him as a guard and Ed's cheating through transmutation, they easily creamed the older Weasleys. Alphonse looked cornered, however, when Ed re-emerged back into the school red-faced and frozen.

"You need to be careful still, brother," the younger boy whispered to his aching brother.

"I'm fine, Al."

"Did you ever open Winry's package?"

In all honesty Ed had completely forgotten about the 'gift' from Winry.

"No, what is it?"

"It has polishing stuff in it along with an ointment for ice burns caused by the freezing metal, since I told her how cold it got up here and how you were out in it daily."

"Ah," Ed said, guiltily rubbing the back of his neck. "Guess I'd better send her a thank-you letter of some sort, then…want to go and see Nova?"

They spent most of the remainder of the day up in the owlery or in the Gryffindor common room with Ron and Harry (who took it upon themselves to teach poor innocent Alphonse the ways of the wizard's chess). It wasn't until after dinner when Ron and Harry took it upon themselves to finally do a bit of researching on Nicolas Flamel that Ed and Al had the dormitory to themselves and the got the chance to talk about the stone.

"So have you gone back down to the corridor?" Al inquired. Ed shook his head:

"No; I'm not even going to try until I at least figure out how to get past that three-headed dog. Also, I need to at least get a rough idea of what else the teachers of the school could've put up to guard the stone, or else I don't stand a chance, even with alchemy."

"So you're almost certain that it really is the stone in there?"

Ed looked at his brother; even without his golden eyes, Ed could see the longing in his helmet's darkness, a longing from his soul to return where it belongs.

"Yeah. I am."

Al nodded once, then stood up from his seat upon Ed's bed to go look out the bay window.

"We're so close…" he whispered.

"And yet so far away…yeah, I know, Al. It's killing me, too."

"Brother—"

"No; don't. Professor Dumbledore already tried to tell me last night that what happened wasn't my fault. I know that's not the truth, though, Alphonse."

Al turned to face his brother:

"Last night?" he questioned.

Ed sighed, knowing that their conversation would eventually turn to the Mirror of Erised. He also stood up from the bed, taking his place by Al's side in front of the window as he told about the events that occurred the previous evenings. Al looked disbelieving at the fact that Ed had seen him once again in human form, but after seeing the look on his elder brother's face, he knew it must be true.

In the middle of his story, Harry had tip-toed up the stairs, but upon seeing the brother's having what seemed to be a very private conversation, he made to retreat back down to the common room…

Wait, a voice in Harry's mind said, stopping him in his tracks. This is your chance to learn something about Edward, something you've been dying to know since you've met him. Why give up this chance?

"And I felt the same way I did the night I had to watch you being ripped away from the world, Al; the agony of being all along hit me again, full-force, and…god, I knew right at that moment that I'll die if I fail you…"

"Don't say such things, Ed!" Al said, his voice cracking at the thought of being forever without his brother.

"But dammit, Al, what if I fail? What if you end up stuck like this forever, and all because of a stupid decision—a fucking evil idea on my part? I don't…I d-don't…"

Ed faced Al and flattened his shaking hands upon his little brother's hollow chest, the tears that threatened to flow judging by the crushed-ness of Ed's voice finally slithering sickeningly down his agonized face.

"…and how can I possibly make amends for all that I took from you? I…led you with hopeless, cursed dreams, my brother…I was a fool."

Harry's eyes were painfully widened at this point, his ears burning with what they'd eavesdropped upon. He bit his lip, guilt pounding through him and nearly burning as roughly as the curiosity that now brewed. Not much was learned upon this intrusion, no; on the contrary, Harry became increasingly more suspicious of the Elric brother's past, of their deep, dark secrets within…

~~*e.s.*~~

Alphonse left Hogwarts the day before all of its other students that had left for the holidays returned for their second semester of classes. His visit was just what Edward needed to feel better and to get back to his normal self-and just in time for school, too. Hermione returned the day before term started, was eager to be filled in on the boy's events at Hogwarts during the break. Upon hearing about the mirror incident, she was torn between horror at the idea of them all being out of bed, roaming around the school all of those nights in a row, and disappointment that he hadn't at least found out who Nicolas Flamel was. In fact, they had just about given up on ever finding Flamel in any of the school's library books, even though Harry was still sure he'd read the name before somewhere. Once the term had started, they were all back to skimming through books for ten minutes during their breaks. Harry, however, had even less time than the other three due to Quidditch starting back up again.

"And you are going to the next game, right Ed?" Harry demanded of the blonde one day. Ed looked up at the black-haired kid and simply offered him an off-hand shrug of the shoulders. However, under Ron and Hermione's sinister glowers, Ed gulped and consented to attend the next Quidditch match…

Which was good because the quartet was met with awful news just the following day once Harry had returned from practice.

"Snape's refereeing?" Ed said with the same amount of shock Harry and the rest of the Gryffindor team had felt the day they found out.

"Don't play," said Hermione at once.

"Say you're ill," said Ron.

"Or that you've gotten a detention," offered Ed.

"Pretend to break your leg," Hermione suggested.

"Really break your leg," said Ron.

"No, legs are too easy for Madam Pomfrey to mend; you'll need to break something that'll be more difficult to heal—" Ed began, but was interrupted.

"I can't," said Harry. "There isn't a reserve Seeker. If I back out, Gryffindor can't play at all."

At that moment Neville toppled into the common room—an obvious feat due to the fact that his legs had been stuck together with what they all recognized at once as the Leg-Locker Curse. Everyone busted up at the sight except for Hermione, who hopped up from her seat at once to perform the counter-curse. Neville's legs sprang apart at once and he got to his feet, trembling.

"What happened?" Hermione asked as Harry, Ed and Ron listened in.

"Malfoy," said Neville shakily. "I met him outside the library. He said he'd been looking for someone to practice that on."

"Go to Professor McGonagall!" Hermione urged Neville. "Report him!"

Neville shook his head: "I don't want more trouble."

"You've got to stand up to him, Neville!" said Ron. "He's used to walking all over people, but that's no reason to lie down in front of him and make it easier. You need to pull an Edward on him!"

Ed raised an eyebrow at his redheaded friend.

"So that's what you call slugging someone now? Pulling a me?"

"Hey, it works…kind of."

"There's no need to tell me I'm not brave enough to be in Gryffindor, Malfoy's already done that," Neville choked out. Harry was the one who helped him the most; digging in his pockets for a moment, he extracted the very last Chocolate Frog from the box Hermione had given him for Christmas. He gave it to Neville, who honestly looked as though he might cry.

"You're worth twelve of Malfoy," Harry said. "The Sorting Hat chose you for Gryffindor, didn't it? And where's Malfoy? In stinking Slytherin."

Ed, Ron and Hermione all felt relief as Neville's lips twitched into a weak smile as he unwrapped the frog.

"Thanks Harry…I think I'll go to bed…D'you want the card, you collect them, don't you?"

As Neville walked away, Harry looked at the Famous Wizard card.

"Dumbledore again," he said, "He was the first one I ever—"

Suddenly he gasped, staring at the back of the card. Then he looked up at Ron, Ed and Hermione.

"I've found him!" he whispered. "I've found Flamel! I told you I'd read the name somewhere before, I read it on the train coming here—listen to this: 'Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood, and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel'!"

"Alchemy? Hey," Ron said, nudging Ed, "I'm surprised you didn't see his name anywhere in those books you were reading the other day!"

"Yeah," Ed said, frowning slightly in an attempt at semi-good acting. "That is weird."

Just then Hermione jumped to her feet, looking unnaturally excited.

"Stay here!" she said, and then sprinted up the stairs to the girl's dormitories. Harry, Ed and Ron barely had time to exchange mystified looks before she was dashing back, an enormous old book in her arms.

"I never thought to look in here!" she said excitedly. "I got this out of the library weeks ago for a bit of light reading."

"This is light?" said Ron, but he immediately shut his mouth under Hermione's glare. She flipped through a bunch of pages before finally thrusting the book down upon the table in front of them.

"Nicolas Flamel," she whispered dramatically, "is the only known maker of the Sorcerer's Stone!"

This didn't have quite the effect that she'd expected.

"The what?" said Harry and Ron.

"Sorcerer's Stone?" Ed asked, honestly bewildered.

"Oh, honestly, don't you three read? Look—read that, there."

She pushed the book toward them, and they all crowded around to read the passage Hermione had pointed them to:

The ancient study of alchemy is concerned with making the Sorcerer's Stone, a legendary substance with astonishing powers and many aliases, including the Philosopher's Stone, the Sage's Stone and the Great Elixir. The stone will transform any metal into pure gold. It also produces the Elixir of Life, which will make the drinker immortal.

There have been many reports of the Sorcerer's Stone over the centuries, but the only Stone currently in existence belongs to Mr. Nicolas Flamel, the noted alchemist and opera lover. Mr. Flamel, who celebrated his six hundred and sixty-fifth birthday last year, enjoys a quiet life in Devon with his wife, Perenelle (six hundred and fifty-eight).

"See?" said Hermione, when Harry, Ron and Ed had finished. "The dog must be guarding Flamel's Sorcerer's Stone! I bet he asked Dumbledore to keep it safe for him, because they're friends and he knew someone was after it, that's why he wanted the Stone moved out of Gringotts!"

"A stone that makes gold and stops you from ever dying!" said Harry. "No wonder Snape's after it! Anyone would want it."

"It's both valuable and powerful, just like we guessed it was," Ed said, sitting back upon the couch, his own book of alchemy upon his lap. "We were completely right."

"And no wonder we couldn't find Flamel in that Study of Recent Developments in Wizardry," said Ron. "He's not exactly recent if he's six hundred and sixty-five, is he?"

The redhead looked back down at the book and frowned.

"What is it, Ron?" Hermione questioned. Ron pointed to an illustration located in the lower right-hand corner of the page:

"That symbol. I've seen it before somewhere."

Harry and Hermione looked over Ron's shoulder.

"The Flamel Cross?" Hermione inquired, reading the little caption next to the symbol. "Where have you seen it?"

"On Ed's coat," Harry whispered, immediately recognizing the black pointed cross with the snake entwined around it. Ron and Hermione's eyes widened in immediate recognition as well, and the three of them turned to face the blonde, who was innocently flipping through his book. Upon closer look at the spine and cover of said book, the trio spotted yet another Flamel Cross embossed into the leather.

Ed looked up at them, eyebrows raised.

"What's up?"

Hermione blinked and pointed to the illustration in the book; Ed got up from the couch and looked curiously at what she was pointing at. Immediately his face blanched, and he gulped as he turned back to face his friends.

"…Ok," he admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. "Maybe I'm a little more into alchemy than I've let on."