'Why does everything revolve around snakes?'

Ed slapped himself.

'Not good, I guess I'm reaching my limit.'

He leaned back against the chair and stretched his arms. Ever since that incident at the dueling club, Ed realized that it was not a coincidence. The fact that Harry heard those sounds and he wasn't able to as well as the fact that Harry basically controlled the snake at the floor by talking to it. (The amount of sleep he lost over the discovery was not joke but sadly, the library was not open to students 24/7.)

Snakes.

Snape must have told Draco how to summon it to cause the panic as well as to produce some other kind of reaction.

Was it a clue to the beast?

What kind of snake could do such damage?

And once he found out what it was, how was he expected to access the snake without having the ability to talk to it or understand it?

He briefly took notice of the sound of angry foot steps on his right.

Professor Pince walked up to the golden-blond boy surrounded by books and piles of paper.

"Boy!" Ed jerked up to attention, "You've been here every afternoon and most mornings! Must I remind you to make sure to put the books back to where they belong?"

"But, Professor. . .Pince! I am looking for information on a snake, a deadly snake!"

"And why are you doing that?"

"Uh, I wanted to do some research on lethal creatures. . ."

"You need a teacher's permission before accessing restricted books on lethal beings!" Professor Pince declared before sweeping up the stacks of books on the table with her wand. With a flick of her wrist, she had all the books rearrange themselves onto the shelves. "I find it lovely that students are interested in research but don't you think you are doing too much?"

"I enjoy doing research. Knowledge is power but, I guess that's it for today," Ed pulled himself up from the seat he occupied and grabbed his bag.

Professor Pince watched as the golden-blond boy walked out of the library. Ever since the first time the child realized that the school had a library, he made frequent visits and had stacks of books piled on the table with the most random assortment ever. And then once his brother, Al, came to the school, she got used to seeing them together 4, 5 or at least 2 times in a week huddled together at a table. Ed would be furiously scanning through pages as Al took down notes.

"I don't trust Alphonse."

"Why? He seems so nice."

"But does that make sense? I mean, his brother is in Slytherin!"

"Justin, you should be careful. I mean, Harry is the one who is able to talk to snakes. You be careful too. Being muggle-born and all."

"Harry seems the most aggressive but I don't think I would put it past Alphonse to be doing something foul as well. . ."

The snow continued to pile on and Ed's automail ached.

"Brother you really should use Winry's kit. She gave it to you so that you may get rid of the pains."

"Nah, I have an inkling that its more like old phantom pains. I'm not sure how Winry's kit would help. The kit would be more helpful if a piece of metal was somehow digging into my nerves but I trust Winry's skills.

Al hummed quietly. He thought back to the conversation he heard few nights ago as well as the night where he somehow jerked awake when Colin Creevey got petrified. But how would he bring it up? Would Ed do something foolish? He didn't want to distress his brother or cause him to do anything silly.

Seeing his struggle, Ed looked up from rubbing his automail leg. Now that he was human, it was a lot harder for Al to hide his emotions since his facial expressions gave it all away. "Al, what's up?"

"Oh, um, I was wondering if we were going back home for Christmas break. My roommate was talking about it with his friends and asked me as well."

Ed chewed on his lip, "I am not sure. I personally do not want to because I feel like we are that close to finding out what is going on and if we go back now I am afraid I'll lose that momentum."

Al nodded in understanding. Whenever Ed set his mind to something, it was hard for anyone to stop him.

"I really think the clue here is snakes. I just don't know what snake or how exactly the snake is involved," Ed angrily pulled on his hair as he flipped through his thorough notes.

"Brother, remember how we mentioned Ginny Weasley seems to be acting a little fishy recently? Well, remember how I told you how she seemed to act very differently?" After receiving a confirmation from Ed, Al carried on, "Even if it's not her, let's say for example it is her. We have to find out how they are controlling the snake or if the snake is controlling them."

"So in that case they have to understand snakes. Or the snake is able to be that powerful that they could just possess the person."

"I don't think there are that many people who speak snake. Harry is the only one we know of."

"But who would brag about it? Draco seemed upset that Harry was able to speak snake. It seems unlikely that Draco is able to and no one from Slytherin stepped up and confirmed being able to speak snake. Even though it seems like something they would care to brag for," Ed followed up, remembering the conversation at the dorm after the dueling club. Draco had actually seemed scared. Maybe he should ask him again.

"That makes it a lot more confusing. I don't think there is something in the school that is able to possess or control a person."

"Maybe if we look at it from a different angle, maybe something is controlling the snake from an outside source that then controls a student into causing others petrification."

Al rubbed his chin in deep thought, "But the outside source must have a way to access the inside of the building because I remember reading in that Hogwarts is guarded with a magic that acts like a barrier. It shouldn't be possible for someone to randomly plant a beast in here either. And how would it hide?"

"Think back to the talk about the Chamber of Secrets. This has happened before. I would not be surprised if it's the same person controlling the snakes. And that means he was not caught before."

"Its been a long time since that happened but not long enough for the culprit to have died. But why now all of a sudden?"

"Yea. . . what makes this year special?"

"Staying here for the holiday?" Myrtle asked when she saw the younger golden blond walk into the restroom. She floated out of the toilet and up to where Alphonse was standing.

"Oh! Yea, my brother said he still had some things to think about," Al walked into an empty stall and sat on the edge of the toilet.

"You look fuzzled."

"Its, recently I've been hearing things and hon-"

Al froze in the middle of his sentence when he heard chattering outside of the bathroom door and quickly closed the stall door, locked it and carefully balanced himself on top of the toilet seat.

"Sh! I don't want anyone to know I am here, " Al quickly gestured to Myrtle.

From the crack in the stall door, he saw Hermione scuttle in and look around suspiciously. She then headed to one of the stalls that was the furthest from him. Al assumed it was the stall that Myrtle told him had smokey stuff in it all the time.

Al heard Hermione mumbling to herself but from the distance he couldn't really hear what she was saying. Whatever Hermione was doing caused a bunch of black smoke to take over the room and he quickly covered his nose- just in case it was dangerous.

In roughly 5 minutes, Al heard 2 more people enter the restroom, Harry and Ron.

They scuffled over to where Hermione was and he heard them leaving from that stall and then going to other stalls. Not wanting to wait for them to leave, Al gingerly stepped down from the toilet seat and quietly escaped from the restroom.

Al trusted Myrtle to not tell them that he was in the stall previously. After turning down a few more halls, he coughed and breathed in the fresh air. Speaking of which, what were Harry, Ron and Hermione doing?

It was weird, Harry decided, that Hermione didn't want to go with them. Since she was the one that seemed very into the plan. Then again, maybe it was weird that Myrtle made no appearance at all- even though usually she would have immediately emerged and started to ask what they were doing.

Recently Myrtle had seemed interested in what they were doing for some reason and it wasn't like he was against it but thinking about now, it made no sense.

"Oh shoot, Percy"

Glancing up, Harry saw that it was indeed, Percy Weasley. He was wandering the halls suspiciously and before either Harry or Ron was able to call out, Percy flinched once he saw them.

"You-you second years! Second year Slytherin students, what are you doing loitering around?"

"Uh, we got confused about the way back to our dorm," Harry managed a lame excuse. Next to him, Ron had to recollect himself and not burst into laughter or in exasperation.

"We, uh, got confused and I think we picked a wrong turn."

Percy looked them both up and down with disbelief. "Whatever, you did not just see anything. Go off. I can't believe you Slytherins- getting lost after Christmas dinner, my, my, my . . ." Percy muttered under his breath and pushed "Crabbe" and "Goyle" down the hall and pointed towards the long tunnel towards a big door.

Before Ron even bothered to utter "thanks," Percy disappeared down the hall.

"Your brother is strange," Harry whispered under his breath.

"Tell me about it," Ron muttered right back then straightened up. "Uuuh. . . "

Harry looked expectantly towards Ron, seeing his faux confidence at the silent portrait. Ron frantically turned to Harry and shook his head furiously.

Crud, they only have a limited time as well.

Just as Harry cleared his throat, the portrait swung open with Draco Malfoy looking back at them, confused.

"Crabbe? Goyle? What are you two doing out there?"

Simultaneously, they both grunted. Draco stared at them and had them follow him to the common room where they sat down.

"Did you two enjoy dinner that much? Recently I haven't seen you two at the dining hall for nearly that long."

"Fine. Food tasted good," Harry grunted.

"The food does taste good," Ed chipped in from his seat on the couch. Startled, both Ron and Harry flinched. "But I didn't expect you two to loiter at the dining hall. I had something I wanted to share too."

"Elric has been telling me some of his Christmas stories. I can't imagine staying home to read all day!"

Ed snorted, "Reading is good, it provides a lot of information very quickly as well.

"Well actually, we. . . we wanted to ask. . " Ron started and fumbled with his hands.

"Are you not afraid of the beast at Hogwarts?" Harry spoke quickly. He made sure to add a grunt after. Just so it sounded more authentic.

Draco frowned. "I didn't expect the two of you to ask that."

"Why would we be afraid?" Ed asked, suddenly sounding serious.

"Its attacking people left and right." Grunt.

"I don't see that as something that is not scary." Grunt.

Ed narrowed his eyes at looked straight in Harry's eyes. "What do you know about it?"

Suddenly, Harry felt his hands get clammy. Was Ed suspecting them already? Sure enough, he turned to look at Ron and realized that indeed, the disguise was coming off!

"I- I have a stomach ache!"

"Me-Me too! Too much cake."

Quickly, the two of them got up without much stumbling and before Harry closed the portrait behind him, he took a glance at Ed again and saw him with a serious but concerned expression.

Concerned?

"I can't believe that happened to Hermione!" Ron shouted in exasperation. "Thought she was suppose to be the smart one. . .we also were not able to get that much information on the Chamber of Secrets. If only we got into the Slytherin dorm faster. . .

"Harry?" Ron noticed that Harry was spaced out and not responding to his talking.

"Oh! Sorry Ron. . . I was just thinking. . ."

"About what?"

"I don't think that Draco is behind the attacks because it didn't sound like he told Crabbe or Goyle about it. . . Even though it seems like something Draco would most definitely brag about- knocking out all non-pure bloods and all that but. . ."

"He did seem genuinely surprised that Crabbe and Goyle would ask about that. But if he isn't controlling it then how come he can be so fearless about that?"

"That's what I'm thinking. Ed's reaction when we asked him is what makes me confused. He makes it seem like something insignificant. But why would he be like that if he didn't know about it?

"Is Ed the one controlling the beast?"

Not dead yet
But yes, this chapter took me longer than I would have liked to come out. That's what happens when I keep losing my drafts.

Anyhow, see you all next time!