A/N: I reached the document limit on this site again... And now I don't know what I can delete. I guess I just have to check through what I already wrote of some things and hope that I don't need to revise anything afterwards. I don't know, I just don't like not having the option to do an easy fix. But I can procrastinate and do all that later... After I type up this chapter.

The Ravenclaw characters aren't that important, since it was Al, I thought I'd bring them in, and besides, I need to figure them out anyway for New Lead. This worked out pretty well I think. Kevin, though, is really the only one who makes it past this chapter (I mean, they don't die, but they're really not in it... Maybe a mention or something though?)

I'm so tired and I don't even know why T.T

Bleh. Just bleh. Don't enjoy this. Just... Bleh. (No, I'm lying, just enjoy it anyway. Sometimes you just gotta ignore the author...)

I'm done here.

Coming Closer

His foot struck water. A large splash, a too-loud sound.

He kept on going. The rain wasn't stopping; he couldn't either. Not when he was so close.

He kept on running, running, running...

From the unknown. From the darkness. He didn't know which. Everything was too jumbled, too chaotic to be sure.

"Alphonse!" It was Mom's voice. Mom. Her name sprung thousands of memories, thousands of fragmented images of her smile. Al ran towards that light. One familiar voice in a world of unknown.

A world of blood.

Suddenly, it was all around him. Pooling above him. Chocking him, strangling him, stopping him from reaching out for Mom... Until...

Until there was no feeling left. He couldn't – he couldn't –

The Gate stood in front of him. Black arms reaching. He whimpered, tried to get away. He couldn't, couldn't.

"BROTHER!" A raw, primal scream ripped from his throat. He couldn't go in there again, lose everything –

And then he realized that he could feel his throat, the raw ache from his desperate cry moments before. He was alive. He still had a his body.

His panicked breathing gradually slowed. It was just a nightmare. Just a nightmare. He was in the dorms, where Alfons had taken him. Not outside in the...

He shivered and curled into himself. Why had this nightmare been so bad? Was it because of the memories?

"Lumos." A voice in the darkness. He recognized it. Alfons.

A light flashed on, burning brilliant, and Al's eyes flew open. There, he could make out Alfons' figure clambering out from his bed, a glowing stick in his hand, and other figures were soon following suit.

"Al? Are you all right?" Last night, they had come to some kind of agreement, a mutual understanding. They both had the same brother.

"Blimey, that was loud," someone else muttered. After a moment, Al hesitantly spoke.

"Just a nightmare."

"What kind of nightmare makes you scream like that?" another boy asked. Al grew uncomfortable.

"Just a nightmare," he repeated, and it seemed to settle them. But they didn't go back to sleep; tensions were too high.

"What do you think will happen to us?" A brown-haired boy say, despondently staring at the floor. "Now that Dumbledore's gone?" There was a long silence. No one knew. Al had never known to begin with.

"Who was Dumbledore?" he said at last, when the silence had dragged on for far too long. The one who had originally spoken shot him a glare.

"And who are you, mate? A Death Eater spy?"

"Stephen –" Alfons began, but Al cut him off, giving him a small smile.

"It's fine. I don't even know what a Death Eater is." This drew bewildered looks from the others. "My name is Alphonse Elric, and I came here looked for my older brother." He left out the part about the parallel worlds, and they seems to be satisfied with the answer.

"Yeah?" The speaker had dark, curly hair and a darker, serious look about him. "I'm Michael."

"Stephen," offered the brown-haired boy after a moment.

"Kevin." He had a slightly livelier look than the other two, but still, the bags under his eyes dominated over the rest of his features.

"I'm Terry." This boy even offered Al a small smile, barely a twitch of the lips.

"Anthony Goldstein." Anthony gave Al a serious nod, meanwhile taking in every detail of Al's face. Al returned the look.

"And of course, you know me," Alfons said. "Alfons." Al didn't know how he looked so steady after what happened yesterday. When he must've discovered that his brother was dead.

Still, Al gave a polite smile to the room, silently thanking the boys who so easily accepted him.

"It's a pleasure to meet you." A pause. "So what are the Death Eaters?"

The boys wasted no time spilling the tragic tale of Hogwarts.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

- Outside the Grounds -

It started here, with this man. A boy who had once been a student, yet had turned out so, very wrong. Now, he had returned to his school, and he would burn down the world in his wake.

"Is it ready?" The man asked. There was a muffled response, and then a large, eerie grin crept up his only vaguely humanoid face.

"Then let's begin."

Shouts of glee filled the midnight air.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

- Ravenclaw Dorms -

"– And then all the dementors and Death Eaters started causing trouble in the Muggle world too –" Suddenly, Kevin stopped talking and his face screwed up in concentration. "Am I hearing something? Is someone... screaming?" There was sudden horror on everybody's face as they imagined the worst, and they quietened. Soon, they too were able to pick up on the sound.

"No..." Al said slowly. "I think it's shouting. And... It's coming closer." The horror turned to apprehension and fright, and they pulled out their sticks (no, wands, Al reminded himself) from their pockets.

"Do you think it's another attack?" Stephen whispered. The Ravenclaw boys shared nervous glances, but Al was more confident. He and Brother had been in these kinds of situations before.

"Probably," he said. "But we can't waste any time here. Can any of you fight?" All of them, excepting Alfons and Anthony, visibly paled. "You might have to."

"What are you thinking? You want us to go out there?"

"Stephen." It was Anthony, his voice sharp and clear. "Would you rather stay here and wait for them? Listen, they're already almost at the castle." They could hear the shouts getting louder, and some already-pale faces turned whiter.

"But we don't know how to fight!" Terry protested. Stephen and Kevin too fervently nodded their heads.

"We weren't in DA like the rest of you, and Snape's barely taught us a thing this year!" Stephen added.

"Snape?" Alfons' voice was oddly cool. "He's a Death Eater. I saw him running with them, at the twoer."

"Snape!" Kevin burst incredulously. "Snape's a Death Eater? But Dumbledore –" He cut off, and the room fell silent. Now they could hear the noises as they became even clearer, crisp and loud even through the tower wall.

Al stood up abruptly, and six worried gazes turned to him.

"We need to go. They'll be here any moment now." Alfons too got up then.

"He's right. We have to warn anybody who doesn't know." That won startled looks from all of them, and they all hurriedly got up from the beds.

"I have to tell Ginny," Michael muttered, and somehow Terry managed a nervous snicker.

"Didn't she break up with you? Two years ago?" His voice came out too high-pitched and squeaker and Micheal was too preoccupied to take real offense, but it barely, just barely, lightened the atmosphere. And they needed that.

"Shut up," Michael muttered halfheartedly. He went to knock on another year's dorm door, and after a few moments of banging, it opened.

"Wha's happening?" A sleepy first-year mumbled. Michael pushed him aside and shouted into the room, "Death Eaters coming! Hurry up and get up!" Panicked shuffling, and soon a troop of first year boys came out. A few precious minutes later, they had all of the Ravenclaw boys out in the common room.

"Death Eaters? Again?" someone said. It sent a nervous panic through the room, and nobody seemed to be listening anymore. Al thought quickly. If it continued like this, then the "Death Eaters" would arrive and they wouldn't be prepared. No one would even be awake to resist...

He pulled a chair over and stood on it, like he'd seen Brother do so many times. It was eerily familiar to tower above others like this, to suddenly be the center of attention. Maybe that was why Ed had always drawn so much attention to himself... This had always made Al uncomfortable.

But now, the thought only reaffirmed the fierce conviction he already held ready in hand. He would find his brother. And right now, he would help these people.

It was only to be expected of the sweet, younger brother of "the Hero of the People" after all.

"There isn't enough time to sit around and talk," he began. "The Death Eaters might come back at any moment –"

But they had already wasted too much time. Somewhere below them, near the entrance to Hogwarts, there was an ear-piercing scream. Al gulped but continued speaking.

"We need to warn anybody we can before it's too late." Alfons had been right;t hat seemed to jolt most of them out of the mindless panic that had held them in it's tight, fear-ridden grip. Some pulled out their wands, savage looks on their faces. Al smiled inwardly. They'd do anything to protect those who mattered to them.

"We need to stick together and be careful," he cautioned. Now they were already riled up. "The most important thing is that everybody stays alive." Some brave faces were put up at this, many others only paled, but nearly every face held that determined gleam. They had a task, and they were going to do it.

Al gave them what he hoped was a reassuring smile and stepped off of the chair. When nobody looked eager to make the first move, he made his way to the door and opened it a crack.

"All clear," he said, and soon, an army of Ravenclaw boys were hopping down the tower steps. Some though, had stayed behind to get the girls out.

At the bottom, they split into three groups: one to warn each house. Different years were dispersed amongst the groups, and Al, Alfons, and Kevin were the only boys from the sixth year dorms to go warn "Hufflepuff."

"Do you really not have a wand?" Kevin asked. His own was held tightly in his hand. "I mean, how else are you going to fight?" Al flashed him a small, tense smile.

"I've got alchemy, and Brother's never won a fight against me yet." He frowned. No, that wasn't right...

"Alchemy?" This time, it was Alfons who had spoken.

"You don't know?" Al's eyebrows furrowed. "I thought that magic operated on the basis of alchemy, but I could be wrong... Do you know anything about Equivalent Exchange?"

"Equivalent Exchange?" Alfons shook his head. "Like equal trade?"

"Exactly. It's the founding principle of alchemy. In order to gain something, you need to sacrifice something." To sacrifice... Like Wrath had been. He forced the thought away, to instead concentrate on the present moment. "And it doesn't just apply to alchemy. It's a way of life." Alfons frowned.

"But that means –"

"Does anyone know the Gryffindor password?" A prefect at the front suddenly called. The group abruptly stopped walking and Kevin had to catch himself from stumbling into the person in front of him.

They had arrived.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

- Amestris -

"Hey, Winry." I grinned victoriously. "I think I finally found a way to get back to Al." She only gave me a sad smile.

"I'm glad, Ed..."