Ron was looking around him, genuinely intimidated by the seemingly endless stack of old books that surrounded him; the very same that Ed and Hermione were navigating with the ease that was associated with familiarity. It had been a unanimous decision, after Ed had shared the information of his alchemic knowledge with them, that he would be the only one who was to look through the alchemy books. It seemed to have been the right decision – as Ed had admitted to expecting, they were all coded and many were written in other languages. Ron had looked to his side as they sat around the desk that was only made for three, seeing Ed sitting on the floor beside him, legs crossed and surrounded by books as though they would create some kind of fortress that would actually protect him should someone decided that they had a vendetta that warranted an attack, and he could not understand even the slightest bit of the jargon that filled the pages.
He had never practiced a technique for extracting important information from texts as it seemed Ed and Hermione had and it was taking him a long time to laboriously work through the dusty pages of the books, some of which surely hadn't been touched in centuries. It hadn't been long before the faded lettering that filled the pages merged into a stretch of uneven, undecipherable greying black that drifted across his vision, gradually slowing as he looked over it with decreasing levels of enthusiasm.
"Ugh." Carelessly, he dumped the hick tome, beginning to grow heavy in his hands, ono the table with a resonating thud that echoed in the near-empty room and earned him a look of disapproval and a sharp shush from Madame Pince.
Harry looked at him, nodded one and set his own book down on the table in front of him, placing it with significantly more care than Ron had. He exhaled deeply, making a loud enough noise to awaken Hermione from her reading trance. She looked over them in curiosity as Ed continued to diligently work through his assigned texts.
"What is it? Have you found anything?"
Ron groaned again. "More the opposite, 'Mione. I thin' I've los' me will to live!"
"Honestly Ronald! It's just a little bit of reading."
Waving his arms before him frantically, almost knocking a few books off of the overly full table in front of them, he replied with no shortage of incredulity "A little?"
Ed shut his book, placing it behind him and casually picking his next one from a seemingly random place among his haphazard pile "Yes Ron." He confirmed so Hermione had no need to "A little."
"I think you two need ta pick up a dictionary." He complained "You can stay in here like crazy people bu't I'm goin' to bed. Harry, mate, you coming?"
"Sorry, Ed, Hermione. I have to agree with Ron. We've been here for hours and we haven't found anything. Besides, I'm too tired to read properly. Good night?"
"Good night then. We won't be too long. You are staying, right Ed?"
"I fully intend to stay until I am literally forced out of those doors."
Hermione beamed at that declaration as Ed merely stuck his face back into the heavy text that sat on his lap, spreading off-white lines of dust over his black school uniform. It hadn't been their first day of research but they still hadn't found anything and Ed wasn't sure just how much of his knowledge the alchemist had shared with the wizarding world.
Harry was still awake when Hermione came back. She was stumbling into the common room, empty apart from himself, while rubbing her eyes and yawning. She looked at him though bleary eyes that were fighting to stay open.
"What are you still doing up?"
"Homework for Snape. I forgot I still had to do it." He yawned himself.
"Are you nearly done?"
"Just finished it." He confirmed as he scooped up his ink, quill and parchment and began to retreat to his dorm. "Good night."
"Good night." With those parting words, they both retreated to their respective dorms.
Ed had checked out the remainder of his books that he had not gotten around to reading and had kept true to his promise of staying in the library until he was forced out. It was a Saturday so he was not particularly concerned about sleeping early enough to wake up on time and still retain his concentration the following day. That had been the direct influence between his choice to stay up, sitting on his bed with the curtain closed around him and his lit wand point acting as a reading light. He couldn't help but think that he was the only one awake in the entire building, except for, maybe, Argus Filch.
It wasn't until light began to wash into the room, creeping down the stairs slowly and failing to illuminate anything, that he finally found something that could be of help to him. It wasn't anything much, but the note from the author at the end redirected him to the writings of another author who he assumed was a friend of the one whose writings that he was reading.
At breakfast, he had shared the knowledge with Hermione who had instantly declared her own (non-existent) stupidity and declared that she had checked out the only book that the aforementioned author had ever written a while ago for light reading and would look through it later to see what she could find. Harry had accepted the news readily and Ron had celebrated, glad to finally be able to stop with his studies.
It was cold outside, as one would expect of Winter, but still that was where Hermione had found Ed that afternoon. Predictably, harry and Ron had been lounging in the common room, working through the homework that they had left to the last minute, but she hadn't been able to find the blonde Slytherin anywhere. She was doubtful that she would be able to find him there, but still she checked outside and found Ed basking in the winter sun, wrapped tightly in his cloak with his back pressed against a tree, sleeping lightly.
She knew he hadn't gotten a wink of sleep the night before and was slightly hesitant in waking him, though she finally decided that it was for the better. She shook him shoulder, waking him from the light, seemingly uncomfortable, snooze.
"Mm?" he looked up at her sleepily.
"I found it!"
He woke up instantly "What did it say?"
"That he was 'the only known creator of the Philosopher's Stone'."
Ed took a moment to mull over that "That's a lie." He concluded "Hermione, do you know what the Philosopher's Stone is?"
"It produces the elixir of life and can turn any metal into gold."
"I suppose Philosopher's Stones are different things in magic and alchemy then." He reasoned.
"What does it do in alchemy."
"I suppose that the best thing to call it would be a catalyst, it alters the rate and result of a transmutation. There are laws in alchemy and it allows you to surpass them. However, lots of people consider them a myth."
"You don't think that it is a real Philosopher's Stone?"
"I don't. If it were a real one, it would probably be under much stronger protection than you could find in a school. Besides, I know a fair bit about that man and the real stones and I've never heard anybody creating a link between the two of them."
"But it can still grant immortality." Hermione reasoned.
Ed sighed "Just because it's not real doesn't mean that it's not dangerous. Whether it's real or not we need to get it before anybody else can. Something tells me that it isn't safe."
Hermione relayed the information she had gathered back to Harry and Ron, the former instantly beginning to construct a conspiracy in his mind. He remembered their detention from so long ago, the one where they had found the strange, suspicious figure ready to attack and prying on unicorns. As he pondered it further he couldn't help but ponder the severe limp he had seen Snape suffering from.
As he saw his friends at dinner that night he shared his conspiracy. He found that it was met with no shortage of scepticism from Ed, though Ron did agree that it was a plausible explanation. Hermione just refused to believe that a teacher would act in such a way.
On the last day of that half Term, Hermione had found Harry and Ron siting at the Gryffindor table, accompanied by very few people. Ed sat by their side, acting like the honorary Gryffindor that they had accepted him as, nagging Harry about his complete lack of strategy in the game that was being played. She walked over to her three friends and eyes said game with a hint of disgust.
"That's barbaric." She spoke in response to one of the figures being violently torn down with a hit from the another.
"That's wizard's chess." Ron responded.
She eyed him "I thought that you were going home for the holidays."
"Change of plans. My Mum and dad are going to visit my brother Charlie in Romania over Christmas." He informed her before sending a look at Ed "Because they know what Christmas is in Romania."
"I'm not Romanian!" Ed exclaimed. "Anyway, we need to research on what the wizarding world considers the Philosopher's stone to be."
"He's right." Hermione agreed.
"But we've already looked everywhere!" the response received was spoken in protest.
The look that overtook Ed's face was nothing if not evil, the tone of voice used to accompany it sinister "Not in the restricted section we haven't."
"Why did we ever think that you were well behaved?" Ron groaned.
"That's on you." Ed told him as Hermione wrestled with her heavy trunk.
"How am I going to get this down to the train?" she asked, not expecting an answer.
"I'll take it down for you." Ed told her "This is getting sad." He jabbed a gloved hand over his shoulder, drawing the chess game occurring between the two Gryffindors to her attention as another of Harry's pieces was lost to one of Ron's.
"Thank you. Are you sure you're okay with it?"
"Absolutely."
"I've been meaning to ask," she began as they set foot into the cold outdoors "But why aren't you going home? You've said that you missed your brother and you're not going to see him when you have the chance to do so."
"My boss is a bastard. He'd make me work if I went home. Besides, he has requested that I stay here and investigate about the stone."
"Boss? You never told me that you had a job." They walked in silence for a moment as a follow up to her statement, Ed easily lugging her trunk over his right shoulder, until she stopped abruptly, met with a realisation that, for the first time since she could remember, she hoped was wrong.
"What?" he looked back at her, surprised.
"You were talking to Hagrid about State Alchemists. Where do you work?" Seeing him grow uneasy, she questioned him further "You're a State Alchemist, aren't you? I've always thought that you were smart Ed, so how could you be so stupid?"
"Necessity overcomes logic sometimes Hermione. I know I'm stupid, I know."
She didn't know why she was so upset "Don't you dare go and get yourself killed. I've been reading up on Amestris, you're just their weapon Ed! A child soldier!"
"I know." He sounded resigned. She knew she shouldn't question him further, besides, she hadn't much time left to board the train.
"I hope you realise that this conversation isn't over."
"Of course not. I doubt it will ever be."
He followed her into the train, slung her trunk onto the overhead rack and left with a simple wave of goodbye. She had never thought to question it before, but the realisation she had made had begun to make her question the odd, metallic groaning that followed Ed everywhere. She didn't know what it was but she knew that it wasn't normal.