A/N Thanks for the reviews! I really appreciate them! I'm glad everyone (well at least everyone who reviewed) likes it up 'till now.
Yay! SaphiraIce passed her entrance exams!
to FantomoDrako: It would be really kind of you if you could point out the exact places where words are missing to me, so I could correct those for later readers.
Disclaimer: I don't own anyone or anything that you recognize from either Harry Potter or Fullmetal Alchemist.
Alright! On to the chapter!
A little bit later one of the human guards came down and pointed his wand at him. With a flick, Ed's clothes turned into a prisoner's attire. The man grunted and then walked away again. It wasn't long after the guard had gone that Ed's shock of being left there wore down and he felt really frustrated and kicked the wall of his cell. He had used his left leg out of habit, but it just made him cringe in pain. The wall didn't budge. There didn't seem to be any dementors on this floor at the moment, so his sanity was safe for now.
"What's your name, kid?" The man with the hoarse voice asked from the opposite cell.
"Kid? Who're you callin' a kid, you old geezer?! I'm eighteen, damn it! And shouldn't you be introducing yourself first?" Ed shouted at him out of pure annoyance at being locked in a tiny room in a depressing place.
The man looked taken aback by the old comment, but snorted. "Eighteen? Who're you kidding? At the very most you could be thirteen. If you still have that much energy in you, you better make sure you don't waste it. You'll need it in here. Anyway, the name's Sirius Black and I'm not old. So who're you?"
'Sirius Black? Sounds familiar...' "Ed Elric." He replied, sliding to the ground. The events of the day were starting to get to him, especially since he hadn't really slept.
"You don't sound like someone who'd kill people, but I guess that's just not really how things work, right?"
"I haven't killed anyone and I wasn't planning to. I was falsely accused."
"So we're in the same boat, eh?"
"Wait... you're the guy who supposedly betrayed the Potters?"
"Yep, sure took you long to figure it out. So, who turned a kid like you in to the ministry?"
Ed gritted his teeth at being called a kid, but he was simply too tired to shout again. "Dumbledore."
"That evil bastard! He was the one who killed Lily and James, you know!"
Ed sighed. "Yeah... I know."
"The evil- Wait... You believe me?" He sounded rather like Ed had just stated that the dead could come back.
"Yeah... I... Do..." Ed fell asleep before anymore could be said.
The sky was clear and it shone a pretty shade of red. The sun was setting. From the foot of the hill he watched the two at the top. His mother smiled at his brother, but her face rapidly contorted into a frown or maybe even a glare as she turned to him. His brother looked angry, too.
"Why couldn't you make me right, Edward?" She asked him, her face morphing into the grotesque shape he remembered from their basement. Her eyes started to glow that eerie red color.
"I-I-I tried!" He stammered. "I did, I swear!"
"It's all your fault we failed!" His little brother shouted.
They turned around and started to walk away.
"No! Don't leave me! Al! Mom!"
He tried to run after them, but his head collided with something hard and he staggered back and fell on his behind. The colorful scene spiraled out of his view and was replaced by the dull gray of the prison. He looked up to see that he had crashed into the door. A chill ran down his spine as he looked straight into the face of a dementor that was looking at him through the small barred window on the door. He felt himself shaking and his whole body was tense. Another nightmarish scene threatened to take over his mind. Luckily, the beast left him alone, and he sucked in a shaky breath. Screaming could be heard from the cells next door, the other inmates were probably going through one of their worst nightmares again. He watched the dementors fly past his window once more headed for the stairs.
Only after another long moment, he relaxed his tense body and slumped against the wall. He thought it was his tenth day there, but he wasn't sure. More than half of the time the dementors had been making him have nightmares and made him watch his most painful memories over and over again. He hadn't been able to talk to Black again, because one of them was always being hounded by the ghostly creatures. His fuzzy brain registered a small bowl with something akin to mush on the floor somewhere beside him. Ed slowly crawled over to it and dropped his whole body onto the floor. The aurors hadn't released his hands, but he had somehow managed to get his head free of the spell. Ed was feeling extremely weak, but he forced himself to lightly tip the bowl with his chin and then use his tongue to transfer its contents into his mouth. The screams next door died down, only somewhere down the long corridor someone was still screaming. Although he could be quite picky concerning food, he hardly took note of what was in his mouth. But it did its job; Ed was slowly but surely feeling less bleary. He had come to the conclusion that eating helped against the effects of dementors. Still, it wasn't enough to get him back to normal.
"You hanging in there, Ed?" Sirius voice came from the other side, he sounded much worse than the other day. Ed supposed that the aurors' ethereal creatures had greatly lessened the effect the dementors had on him.
Ed groaned in response.
Ed heard a hollow laughter from the other's cell. "So, you actually believe me? That Dumbledore is evil?"
"Huh? What? Oh... Heard it from my dad... Indirectly..."
"Your dad? Who's your dad?"
"Hohenheim."
"What! That guy? He had a kid? Wait, but that doesn't even make sense... Why the hell are you so young?"
"I'll tell you if we ever get out of here alive..."
"What're the odds-" Sirius was cut short by the chill that swept through the hall again.
Ed crawled into a corner in his cell and hoped the dementors would just forget he was there. But he never had such luck in life.
And so the horror began again.
'Why in the world am I still living? I should just die... It would be a thousand times better than this nightmare... No! I have to live! For Al, Winry and Granny... And for Harry and Alphonse and Trisha...' He was once again staring at the ceiling of the hallway through the tiny window on his door. The hall was only illuminated by a few small candles and the light of day never reached this far underground. He really wasn't sure how long he'd been here now, maybe two or three weeks, or perhaps more like six or seven. Time didn't seem to matter in a place like this. He hardly knew when it was night or day. He couldn't tell dinner apart from lunch or breakfast.
"You still there, new guy?" Sirius asked once again.
Ed didn't answer for a long time; he didn't really know what the point of it was anymore. Finally he decided to answer, just so he wouldn't worry the other man who had tried to keep him sane. "I'm not really new anymore..."
"Yeah, but it'll get boring if I kept calling you Ed. And you're the newest guy around, so it doesn't matter."
Ed groaned. The temperatures were dropping again, which signified the return of their tormentors. Ed just lay there and waited for either the horrors of his past or his creative nightmares to engulf him once more:
It was raining and he was leaning against a stone wall. His metal arm and leg were destroyed. A large fist held his head. They were in an alleyway. A broken suit of armor lay to the side. He looked up past the fist toward the face of the man who held him. A large cross-shaped scar, dark skin and red eyes were the man's most prominent features. Ed closed his eyes and waited silently for his death to come, for his head to be blown to bits, but it never happened. The man released him, he felt it. Surprised he opened his eyes only to see the man walking towards the suit of armor.
"No! You can't kill him! Not him! No! Al!" He screamed and then the armor flew into bits. Tears trickled down his cheeks. "No... Not Al..." He whispered. The scene before him blurred and back he was in the prison. "No... Not Al..." He whispered again.
The walls seemed to be spinning and then everything went black. And then when he opened his eyes everything was white. And he realized that he could move his hands again. He turned around to face the gate. For a moment he didn't know what to do. His heart was pounding furiously in his chest. Would it open? Would he have to open it? He clapped his hands and placed them on the gate. He felt the energy rush through him and the huge doors swung open, but everything was still white. He blinked and looked around. It was snow.
'Al!' He shouted.
"Ahh!" His little brother, whose eyes he was seeing through, fell face first into the deep snow out of surprise. "Brother, you scared me!"
Ed forced up a chuckle. The bright sunlight on the snow nearly blinded his unaccustomed mind's eyes. It seemed cold, but Ed felt a warmth inside of him he hadn't felt in quite a long while since going to the freezing prison.
"It's so good to see you again, brother! I'm sorry; I haven't been able to get to you. I'm still searching for Mr. Mustang and it's taking quite long to cover all this snowy landscape by foot... Brother? Are you alright? How should I say this...? I feel like you're really tired and scared? What's wrong?"
For a moment Ed didn't know what to say, didn't know if he should say anything. He was just so glad that it had just been a nightmare.
"Brother, what happened?" Al urged.
'Al... I...' He paused a bit, it suddenly felt kind of embarrassing to tell someone an old man beat him up and tossed him in jail. 'I killed the basilisk and destroyed the diary.' He finally said and felt how Al raised his eyebrows.
"That can't be all. I would imagine that would make you happy and not depressed."
'After that, Dumbledore came and attacked me. I was defeated and then he got the ministry to put me in their prison.'
Al gasped. "Oh, brother! What do they do to you in that prison! Surely just being there wouldn't make you look like this! I mean, it feels as if you don't look well at all."
As usual, Al knew his brother inside out. But Ed was feeling immensely better now that his spirit was not actually in the prison.
'They have these prison guards, they're not human. Simply put, they're called dementors and they make people lose hope and have nightmares. Apparently they can suck out your soul and that action is known as a 'dementor's kiss'. I was feeling really bad before I came here and I had this nightmare where you...'
Al understood what his brother was trying to say. "I'm alright Ed. There are no such monsters in our world. I'm fine, so don't you worry about me." By this time, Al had walked over to a frozen lake, his reflection showed a smiling face. Ed couldn't help but smile a little in response. "You can always come back through the magic plane. I'll be here for you."
'Thanks, Al.'
Al sat onto the ground taking out a sandwich he then started eating. Both were silent for a while, just enjoying the peacefulness of their surroundings.
"But, isn't there a way out of that place?" Al asked worriedly, breaking the silence in the process.
'I don't know, I suppose I could use alchemy, but my arm is still broken from my fight with the basilisk and my arms are bound by a spell, so I can't use them. Oh and Sirius Black, the guy who tried to stop Dumbledore from killing Harry's parents, is just opposite me. I should probably try and get him out as well.'
Al leaned back to lie on the snow and looked at the sky while thinking over the facts. "So wizards can't teleport out of the prison? I mean they would have done it a long time ago if they could, right?"
'Yeah, I guess so. They probably have some spell to prevent that.' Ed answered.
"If you could somehow use your hands then you could just make a tunnel out of there." Al said a little dejectedly.
Ed shook his head. 'I don't think that would work. The prison is surrounded by a lot of water and even if it was deep enough I don't have any idea in which direction I'd have to make the tunnel. I could just end up further out at sea.'
"How about swimming?"
'Hmm... It's worth considering, but I'd have to work out the finer points first.'
Silence descended upon them again, but this time both were thinking very hard.
"Brother, how do you think the anti-teleporting spell works? Do you think it's like a field, maybe a sphere that surrounds the area?"
'Possibly. If it was, then I might be able to get out by digging deeper.' Ed contemplated. 'But that's only if I can get my hands free and if Black can do the teleporting thing and if our theory is correct.'
Al nodded he seemed to have more hope now. "You can do wandless magic, right brother?"
'Yeah, I guess so. But I'm not sure if I have enough energy for it. It's difficult to recover in a prison, and I actually feel like my magic may be weakening there.'
Al nodded. "I was thinking if it was possible for you to force a counter spell through your arms, but of course I'm just speculating."
'Hmm... It might work. But as I said, I'd have to recover first, which is not easy in the prison. I'll test it out, but if it works I'll have to pretend like my arms are still immobile and I imagine that's going to be pretty though.'
"Right." Al said and then he fidgeted a bit before adding: "Maybe you should go back now. Staying here won't get you your stamina back. I know it must be horrible, there's no other way you'd be in such a bad state, but you have to sleep to get your strength back."
Ed sighed. 'Yeah, I know. But it's so much more relaxing here.'
"Whatever you think is best, brother." Al replied.
Ed really wanted to stay longer, he felt like his hope was coming back. But it wouldn't last, because he woke back up with a start at the sound of another prisoner screaming. The dementors apparently hadn't been able to rouse the alchemist from his happy dreams, so they ignored him as they flew back up.
When Ed was sure that they were out of earshot he asked: "You still alive old man?"
"Who're you calling old!" Black yelled. Although he tried to sound cheerful something in his voice betrayed him. Ed realized that the man was nearing his limits after twelve years in this hellhole without any breaks as Ed had just had.
"Can you apparate?" Ed decided to ask him.
The man snorted from his cell. "Of course I can! Which grown wizard can't?" The man paused for a bit then added: "But I'm sure you'll already know that you can't apparate out of Azkaban. They have these Anti-Dispparition-Jinxes in place..."
"Can you Side-Along apparate?"
"Yeah, I guess so." He trailed off sounding rather wistful.
"So, can you apparate without a wand?"
"Jesus, you sure sound happy today... Yeah I can, but what good is that?"
The teen ignored the question and shot another one back. "How does an Anti-Dispparition-Jinx work?"
"Ah, jeez... I have no idea. What're you trying to get at anyway?"
"It has a field of effect, it's spherical and this one here in Azkaban probably has a radius of about three kilometers. I too am really interested in what you might be up to, kid. Surely, you are not planning to escape? To this day no one has managed to break out of this prison without any outside help, I don't believe that a child would succeed after so many failed attempts by extremely powerful and dangerous wizards." The wizard beside his cell said.
Ed grumbled at the kid comment, but didn't answer. He was already deep in thought about what he could do to get out of here.
'Tunneling won't work; we'd have to go extremely deep into the earth. If we try swimming, we'll get caught before we can get anywhere, we would need a distraction...'
His neighbor had grown impatient by this time and started shouting: "Are you deaf, boy? I just asked you what you're planning! You better answer me, or I'll-"
Ed realized he must have space out, he would have liked to answer, but the chill came again. Silently a hooded figure floated through the air to the source of the noise. It peered closely at everyone it passed until coming upon the man who had answered the teen earlier.
'Three, two one...' Ed thought.
And then the man started screaming and screaming.
Ed pressed one of his ears against the floor to at least shield one of them from the noise, as he still couldn't move his hands. After what seemed like ages he finally quieted down and the ghostly monster glided back up. Ed breathed out a sigh of relief when it ignored him.
A few moments later, Black asked quietly: "Are you really trying to escape?"
"Yeah." He answered.
"How would you do that? Running to the surface is suicide, especially with so many aurors and dementors guarding the place. Besides none of us have wands, so we can't use magic or at least nothing powerful, maybe a Lumos or something like that."
"I wouldn't be so sure if I were you." Ed whispered, but obviously his conversation partner heard him.
"What do you mean?"
"Can you swim?" Ed asked, ignoring the question again.
"Ignoring me are we now? Yeah, I can swim, but why do you need to know that? You're not really thinking of running up several flights of stairs and then swimming far enough to apparate are you?"
"No and could you shut up for a moment? I'm trying to think."
"Okay, okay. But just one more question, am I included in this brilliant escape plan of yours?"
"If you shut up."
Black seemed perplexed, but stayed silent after that.
'Right so he can swim, but we'd probably need some support, swimming three kilometers is suicide. Maybe I could use a bit of the door?'
Ed moved closer towards the door and examined it.
'Okay, seems like real wood to me. Now, we need a distraction...'
Ed looked around his room, but didn't find anything. He decided two brains would work better than one, so he closed his eyes and tried to sleep, which wasn't very difficult, because he was tired anyway. As usual, the gate appeared in his dreams and he crossed it without a problem. The landscape that appeared before him was still snowy, but the sky was clear now and his little brother was walking beside a road.
'I'm back, Al!' He called.
Al was shocked, but this time he merely flinched.
'Ed! Have you tried it out? Did it work? Have you escaped?'
'No, I haven't tried it out yet, but I want to wait 'till I've got everything figured out.'
'Do you need my help?'
'Yeah, actually I do. What do you think I could use as a distraction. Let's assume I can get my hands back under my control and I can use alchemy.'
"Hmm..." Al intoned out loud while thinking.
A man on a donkey who rode by him looked at him strangely. Al smiled sheepishly at the man when he noticed.
'How dare he look at you like that-'
'Ed calm down! You wouldn't think it was normal too, if you heard someone randomly making noises! Anyway, let's get back to the subject. What do you have in the prison?' Al asked.
'Let me think... There are the walls and floor and a wooden door with metal bars, a small pillow. Then there's the food, I mean some kind of slushy thing, that's served three times a day and I might be able to get some wax from the candles in the hallway. You think we could make a dummy?'
'Yeah, that's where I was heading.'
'So, I'd have to transmute some of the stone into something my shape, place it sleeping on the floor and cover it with the clothes that I'll make out of the pillow.'
'You'd have to do something about the hair though...' Al commented.
Ed thought for a bit. 'I think I could cut it off and stick it there. I'm sure I'll find a spell to regrow it.'
'Magic sure can do a lot of things.'
'Yeah. Alright, thanks Al. I'll try and get some sleep now. Wish me luck.'
'Right, bye Ed! Good luck escaping! And please come back and tell me when you've escaped.'
Ed pictured his hands again and put them together, he stabilized his energy flow and then said clearly: 'Finite Incantatem!' And just like that he was back in Azkaban again. He wished he weren't, but if he was planning to get out of here for good this was the only way. He felt refreshed, yet tired after his visit, so he lay down and closed his eyes, testing out which position would be good to lie in so no one in the corridor could see any skin on his face. He finally woke up again, after what must have been many hours.
"Oi, Black!" He called, when he was sure none of the guards were around. "I think I've got it figured out."
A/N The chapter's a little shorter than usual, but I thought it was a good place to stop (Somewhat standard excuse for shorter than usual chapters).