DISCLAIMER: I OWN NEITHER FMA NOR HARRY POTTER!

Chapter Eleven

Ed stormed into the Great Hall and slammed his book bag down as he sat down at the Gryffindor table by Harry, Ron, and Hermione. They were startled by the ferocity Ed exhibited. Ed was dishing food on his plate by the time Winry caught up and sat opposite of Ed.

"What's the matter with you, mate?" Ron asked.

Ed sent a glare at Ron.

"Professor Trelawney thought he was born in the summer because she thought that Ed's stature and structure are…soft," said Winry.

Ed blushed in embarrassment as he started to eat.

"Blimey, mate," said Ron, starting to snigger.

"Ronald, it's not funny!" Hermione scolded.

"Don't worry, Ed," said Harry. "She called my 'stature' mean and thought I was born in midwinter."

"When were you born?" asked Winry.

"July," said Harry. "When is your birthday, Ed?"

"February third," said Ed. "Stupid old bitch."

Ron sniggered. He stopped when Hermione gave him a glare.

"Well, she had Ed and I plot what the planets and stars were when we were born," said Winry. "We'll be starting dreams next lesson."

"How much homework do you have now besides the moonstone essay?" asked Hermione.

"A foot-and-a-half long essay on giant wars from Professor Binns," Winry said, pausing for a moment from dishing some food onto her plate. "We have to get started on them tonight."

"Do you have any homework from Professor Moody?" asked Ron.

"Don't talk to me about that son of a bitch!" said Ed.

"What happened in his class?" asked Hermione.

"I don't want to talk about it!" said Ed. "I'm not hungry anymore. I'll meet you in class, Winry."

Then he left.

"Is he always this temperamental?" Hermione asked.

"Sometimes," said Winry. "I don't know where he gets his temper from though."

"Oh!" said Hermione. "I've found something out about that insignia on the back of Ed's trench coat!"

Then she pulled a book out of her bag, flipped the book to the correct page, and then put it down on the table for Harry, Ron, and Winry to see. It had the picture of Ed's insignia and a description of it just below it.

"Flamel?" asked Winry.

"Yes, it's his insignia!" said Hermione. "I knew I saw it before and I wanted to see from where. It has to do with alchemy since Nicholas Flamel was an alchemist."

"I've never heard of him before," said Winry.

"Of course not," said Hermione. "Only accomplished alchemists know about him. But since alchemy is a dead art, hardly anyone would know about him. It also doesn't help that he died a year ago."

"That's so sad," said Winry. "How old was he?"

"Six hundred and sixty-seven," said Hermione.

"That's impossible!" said Winry.

"Well, not exactly," said Hermione. "He had the Philosopher's Stone, but it had to be destroyed."

"Why?" asked Winry.

"Because Voldemort wanted it for immortality," said Harry.

"Oh," said Winry.

Winry looked down at her plate of food. She wanted to tell Ed about the Stone, but she knew that she shouldn't because it would break Ed once saying that it was destroyed. Winry vowed to keep it a secret.

"What's wrong, Winry?" asked Hermione.

Winry snapped out of her thoughts and smiled.

"Nothing," said Winry. "Just... Don't tell Edward about the Philosopher's Stone, okay?"

"Why would we tell him?" asked Ron.

"Just promise not to tell!" Winry insisted. "You have to swear!"

"We won't tell, Winry," said Hermione.

"No, we won't," said Harry. "We swear."

Winry looked at Ron.

"I won't tell," said Ron. "I'd probably forget anyway."

"Thank you," said Winry.

After eating, Winry went to her and Ed's next class. She saw that Ed was waiting for her at the doorway. Winry looked at him with a sad look.

"What's wrong, Winry?" asked Ed.

"Nothing," said Winry. "Are you all right?"

"Eh," said Ed, shrugging.

"What were you doing the whole lunch period?" asked Winry.

"Writing to Al and Colonel Stupid," said Ed.

"Edward," said Winry. "Let's get to class."

The next day, Harry, Ron, and Hermione had Moody's class just before dinner. And true to his word, Ron forgot about the Philosopher's Stone. When they got to dinner after the class, they saw that Winry was alone at the Gryffindor table and sat down next to her.

"Where's Edward?" asked Hermione.

"He's in the common room, working on the essays," said Winry. "He's skipping dinner so he could get them done."

"But he needs to eat!" said Hermione.

"Don't worry about him, he's done it before," said Winry.

"No wonder he's so short," said Ron. "He skips dinner so much."

"You better be glad that he isn't here to hear you say that," said Winry. "Or he would kick your ass."

"But he'd get detention or expelled!" said Hermione.

"He wouldn't care," said Winry. "What do you think about the Defense class?"

"I think it's absolutely terrible!" said Hermione. "Just…!"

Hermione didn't finish her sentence. She finished her dinner and then went to the library. Winry finished her dinner as well, but she conjured a Styrofoam container, put some food into it, closed it, and went back to the common room. When Winry got to the common room, she found Ed at the table by a window and went to the table. She put the container of food on the table. Ed stopped writing and looked up.

"You didn't have to, you know," said Ed.

"Yes, I did," said Winry. "You would be starving later, and you wouldn't be able to work anymore. That's what you get, Ed, when you save things for the last minute."

"Yeah, yeah, enough with the lectures," said Ed.

Ed pulled the container towards him. He opened it and started to eat his dinner. After eating dinner, Ed went back to his homework. Winry threw the container away. She got the sketch she was drawing on the day before and a quill and ink and sat down across from Ed. A few minutes later, they were joined by Ron and Harry.

"You don't mind if we work here, too, do you?" asked Harry.

"Go ahead," said Ed, waving a hand. "Don't care. Just don't say 'short' again."

"You heard that?" asked Ron.

"I hear a lot of things, Ron," said Ed.

Then Harry and Ron sat down at the table by Ed and Winry with their Divination stuff. As Harry and Ron worked on their Divination, Ed worked on his essays and Winry worked on the sketches. An hour later, Ed finished his essays. He stretched his arms out. Winry was still working on the sketches. Harry and Ron looked at Ed as he gathered his things to take up to his trunk.

"You're finished?" asked Ron.

"Yup," said Ed. "About time too."

Then Ed took his stuff up to his trunk. When he came back down, he got back into his seat and picked up one of the pieces of parchment with scribbled calculations and looked at it with a raised brow.

"What's this supposed to be?" asked Ed.

"For Divination," said Ron, running his fingers through his hair. "Professor Trelawney wants us to make predictions for this month."

"Predictions?" asked Ed.

"Yeah," said Harry.

"Why don't you make it all up?" Ed suggested. "I'm sure she won't be able to tell."

"Edward!" Winry scolded, looking up from her sketch.

"What?" asked Ed.

"That would be cheating!" said Winry.

"Not necessarily," said Ed. "Don't forget that we're going to be working on dream stuff next lesson. Are you going to put every dream down?"

"I'm not going to tell you," said Winry.

"Fine, then I won't tell you either," said Ed, then turning back to Ron and Harry. "Make it up. I would."

"All right then," said Ron.

He swiped the jumble of scrawled notes off of the table (Winry snatching up her parchment) and dipped his quill into some ink and started to write.

"Next Monday," Ron said as he scribbled, "I am likely to develop a cough, owing to the unlucky conjunction of Mars and Jupiter." He looked up at Harry. "You know her - just put in loads of misery, she'll lap it up."

"Right," said Harry, crumpling up his first attempt and lobbing it over the heads of a group of chattering first years into the fire.

As Harry and Ron worked on their predictions, Ed helped in suggesting things for them to predict as Winry scowled and got her stuff and went to another table to work on her sketches. The predictions grew steadily more tragic as another hour passed. The common room around them slowly emptied as people went up to bed. Crookshanks wandered over to them, leapt lightly into an empty chair, and stared inscrutably at Ed for encouraging Harry and Ron to do their homework incorrectly as Harry looked around the room to try to think of another misfortune.

Winry came to the table, clutching the sketches close to her. Ed looked at Winry.

"Yeah, Winry?" asked Ed, Ron and Harry looking at Winry as well.

"I'm going to bed now," said Winry. "I need to get up early tomorrow so I can send these off to Granny so she can know what I need."

"What are they anyway?" asked Ron.

"It doesn't concern you," said Winry, scratching behind Crookshanks' ear. "Ed, you should get to bed too."

"I'll go to bed in a minute," said Ed.

Just then, Hermione came in through the portrait hole with a sheaf of parchment in one hand and a box whose contents rattled as she walked in the other. Crookshanks jumped out of the chair and Winry went to Ed's side.

"Hello!" Hermione said. "I've just finished!"

"Finished what exactly?" Winry asked.

"You'll see," said Hermione.

"So have I!" Ron said triumphantly, throwing his quill down.

Hermione sat down, laid the things she was carrying in an empty armchair, and pulled Ron's predictions toward her.

"Not going to have a very good month, are you?" Hermione asked sardonically as Crookshanks curled up in her lap.

"Ah well, at least I'm forewarned," said Ron.

"Getting trampled by a rampaging hippogriff?!" asked Hermione. "Don't you think it's a bit obvious you've made these up?"

"How dare you!" Ron said in mock outrage. "We've been working like house-elves here!"

Hermione raised her eyebrows.

"It was just an expression," said Winry. "Besides, Ed helped them."

Hermione looked at Ed.

"What?" asked Ed. "It's not like you like the subject anyway."

Hermione pursed her lips.

"What's in the box?" asked Harry, after putting his quill down and pointing at the box.

"Funny you should ask," Hermione said with a nasty look.

She took off the lid and showed them the contents. Inside were about fifty badges, all of different colors, but all bearing the same letters: S.P.E.W.

"Spew?" asked Ed, picking up a badge and looking at it. "You want people to have badges saying that they'll throw up?"

Harry and Ron laughed as Winry scowled.

"Not spew!" Hermione said impatiently, her face red. "It's S-P-E-W! It stands for the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare."

"Never heard of it," said Ron.

"Of course not," Winry replied. "Hermione's just started it. She wants us to join. We'll be the first members."

"And you think, Hermione, that we want to walk around wearing badges saying 'spew', do you?" asked Ron.

"S-P-E-W!" Hermione said hotly, as Ed laughed at what Ron said. "I was going to put Stop the Outrageous Abuse of Our Fellow Magical Creatures and Campaign for a Change in Their Legal Status - but it wouldn't fit. So that's the heading of our manifesto."

"How do you know that all of them are being abused?" asked Winry.

"Enslavement is abuse!" Hermione snapped.

"Well, you can count me out of your liberation front thing," said Winry. "I'm going to bed. Edward, you better get to bed as well."

"Edward isn't a child," said Hermione. "He can do as he wants!"

"I know that," said Winry. "But I don't want him to have to join some ridiculous group."

"It's his decision!" Hermione argued.

"Oh, wow!" said Ed, looking at his wrist. "Look at the time! It's later than I thought! See you in the morning."

Then Ed left the common room and went to the fifth year boys' dormitory. Winry smiled and waved.

"Good night, everyone," said Winry.

Then she went to bed.