I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist or Harry Potter

Chapter 20

Pain. Even through the darkness of her mind she could feel it – a constant, never-ending throb. It seared through the shin of her right leg, dimming slowly until it reached her ribs, where it flared once more to sharp jab. Eve groaned and managed to crack open an eye – the other was swollen and bloodied. What the hell? She stared up at the dark canopy of the Forbidden forest. Only faint glimpses of the night sky were able to peek through. Groaning again, she attempted to heave here self up into a sitting position, but she collapsed as soon as she put weight on her right arm. She swore as she realized that her whole arm was practically useless. Now she was on her side, her weight pressed uncomfortably on her ribs, which she suspected were broken.

"Damn it!" she swore under her breath. There forest remained eerily quiet. It was as though there were tens of people watching her plight, yet refusing to do anything. She attempted to move once more and felt her eyes water with pain.

"Damn it!" It hurt. Everything hurt. Defeated (but only temporarily), she chose to take a few deep breaths. In. Out. In. Out. In. Out. As she did so, she watched the path of a dark beetle that scuttled across the ground – darting from leaf to leaf. It stirred memories of her not-so-fantastic ant-eating experience during training. Compared to right now, that was nothing. Gritting her teeth she attempted to heave herself up once more.

1, 2, 3…

With a grunt of exertion, she managed to haul herself into a sitting position. In her condition it had taken a lot of effort, so her breaths came in shallow pants. Sitting up, she was able to inspect her injuries far easier. On her right leg was scratch that seemed very bloody, but Eve suspected was not that deep. With her left hand, she rubbed her Auto-mail, as if doing so would make it function once more. Alas, all it did was make her more keenly away of the loss of movement. She then moved her hand up to her face. Her right eyes seemed to be mainly undamaged – just bruised badly.

How the hell did she get herself into this mess? Her memory was blurry, but she could definitely remember the voice of someone she rather would not mess with. Envy. If Envy where here, it could mean serious problems for her mission, not to mention the safety of the rest of the school. She had to warn them, meaning she would have to somehow walk get to the Hogwarts building. Sliding over to a nearby tree, she used it as support to heave herself up. Immediately her vision was filled with black spots and she almost fell back down. However, eventually her sight returned to normal. Using the dappled light from the moon, she could vaguely see the edge of the forest. She patted the pockets of her cloak and uniform, search for her wand for extra light. It was not there. Swearing she glanced at the ground where she just lay. Nothing. Biting her tongue to stop her from ranting, she decided just to move forward anyway. She attempted to take a step with her left leg. The mechanisms were stiff and she almost lost her balance. This time, she felt no need to smother her thoughts: "Shit. This is not good."

The Trio hurried to the Hospital Wing, worried clearly etched on their faces. What had happened? Was she all right? Who had beaten up Eve so badly? Their footsteps echoed noisily through the empty halls of Hogwarts, everyone else was still at breakfast. No one had imagined that the strong, sarcastic and sometimes scary girl to be attacked. No one had expected that she would come out of a fight looking as though she had been the one who lost. And it scared them. It scared all of them.

Eventually they found themselves outside of the Hospital Wing. Harry exchanged nervous looks with Hermione and Ron – neither looked to keen to see the damage done to Eve. Steadying his nerves, he cautiously pushed on of the doors open. Sunlight filtered through the opaque curtains and gave the room and seemingly false cheer. Most of the beds were empty, except the one furthest from the door on the left. On top the sheets lay Eve – her red coat obvious against the cream colours of the infirmary. Her hands lay folded behind her head that stared straight up at the high ceiling. Slowly, they made their way forwards to the girl lying on the bed – cautious about disturbing her, especially in this state.

When they finally stood next to her bed, her golden eyes shifted to the three visitors.

"Eve…" Hermione started, her voice trailing off as she fully analysed the girl's injuries. There was silence for a while, before:

"What are you doing here?" Eve was the first to ask an actual question. Her eyes were hard as she stared up at them from her position. The golden orbs latched on to Harry and seemed to analyse every inch of him. He subconsciously shivered under her gaze.

"Shouldn't we be asking you that? What the bloody hell happened?" Ron almost shouted at her. His face was oddly pale.

"I just had a run in with some old 'friend'. He should be gone now," she replied clearly uninterested, her eyes finally drawn off Harry.

"Who was he?" Harry queried.

"Envy."

"Isn't that a sin, not a person?" Hermione asked.

"Well… yes and no. Mainly no, Envy is a person – if you could call him that."

"What do you mean by that?" Harry voiced their thoughts.

Eve shrugged. "Just that he isn't human," she said simply, as if it were perfectly normal to battle 'non-humans'. Or perhaps a better word was: 'monsters'.

"What was he doing here, in Hogwarts?" There was no reply. "Was he after me?" When Eve gave slight nod, Harry almost felt sick. It was his fault. It was his fault. If Eve had not been his bodyguard, he would have died. Since Eve was his bodyguard she had gotten seriously injured. Memories of Cedric Diggory and the Graveyard came to the front of his mind.

"Hey," Eve's voice said, snapping him from his thoughts. She was looking up with concern. "It wasn't your fault. I'm fine. You're fine. We're all fine." Her voice was firm. "Plus, he underestimated me," she said with a small grin. "I am a witch, after all." Eve waved her wand infront of the Trio's face and chuckled whilst they stared at her awkwardly. Did she no realise how severe the consequences could have been? Harry wondered. Yet, he remained silent as her chuckles subsided.

Eventually, her laughter died down, and Harry suddenly realised how still the rest of her body was. For a second, it seemed as though she was standing still as the world moved around her at a dizzening pace. Eve's face was frozen in a smirk, her eyes closed. But, it was only for a second, and her eyes opened to reveal golden orbs that focused on him. They seemed different somehow – older, indifferent and slightly more cruel. Her gaze did not leave his face and Harry had the sudden urge to jerk back from the bedside.

"Is there something wrong?" Eve asked, her voice breaking through his thoughts. It were as though she was completely innocent of the look that she just sent his way.

"No," Harry muttered. "No, its fine." A nervous tick suddenly filled him and he glanced around the hospital wing. Empty. Not even Madam Pomfrey was to be seen.

"I don't think so," Eve said, her voice clearly expressing her disapproval. Harry refused to meet her eyes. "You know you can tell me anything, right?" A pause.

"Wait, repeat that."
"I said, 'you can tell me anything'," a slightly annoyed Eve said. It seemed an odd thing for Eve to say. Usually, she was the sort of person who would prefer not to show any sort of weakness – even infront of friends. It was…odd. Nothing quite fit together.

"Do you remember when we were running short of time last week for the Herbology assignment and you dragged me aside?"

Eve nodded. "Yep. It was about how I thought that you should start to pick up your grades to make it less easy for the Toad to pick on you. Why, what about it?"

Immediately, Harry sprung away from the bed and withdrew his wand from his cloak. Hermione and Ron looked downright surprised, whilst Eve just looked unimpressed.

"Hermione, Ron, get away from the bed." Harry said, his voice not trembling, his wand trained on the Eve sitting on the bed. "That's not Eve."
"Harry, what are you talking about? Who else could it be?" Hermione asked confused.

"Yeah, who else could it be, mate?" Ron quipped. The Eve didn't say anything.

"Didn't you think it was funny that Eve would walk through the Great Hall in her appearance? Whilst she is arrogant, don't you think it was odd that she would willingly show her injuries to the school?"

"Harry, that's hardly enough reason to accuse her of-" Hermione started.

"She didn't even flinch at the word 'short'!" Harry almost shouted. It seemed to be the turning point. Up until now, the Eve had remained silent – her golden eyes were drilling holes into Harry's body. But, as soon as he had said those words, the Eve on the bed began to laugh. The three looked at her with wide eyes as she clutched her stomach and laughed. It was a throaty and cruel and nothing like Eve's.

"Well, well, well," Eve said – except it was not Eve. Eve's mouth moved, yet it was not her voice that came out. The voice was pitiless, mocking. Whilst it was Eve's face, it was now distorted into a malicious grin that stretched unnaturally across the familiar face.

"After calling her Fullmetal Pipsqueak for so long, you'd have thought I would have remembered that one!"

The warped laughs continued and the three edged away from the infirmary bed. Half-way to the door, the manic laughter stopped.

"And where do you think you're going?" the fake Eve had started to get off the bed. The ruthless gold focussed on them. Out of nowhere, red energy began to crackle around the fake Eve. Harry, Hermione and Ron watched in horror as they saw Eve's body shifted into someone they had never seen before. It wore a cropped top and shorts with long strands of green hair. On its thigh was a red tattoo depicting a snake eating it's own tail. It grinned.

"You're not getting out of here alive."

Thank-you for reading. Reviews would be appreciated.

Thank-you to those who read or reviewed my previous chapters.

I apologise for any spelling or grammar mistakes. I also apologise for such a long wait between chapters and the fact that this is rather short. My only excuses are: school, homework, school, exams, holidays and the fact that the story file corrupt. Once again, my apologies.