A/N: Moving on...and on..and on...
Ed glanced up from his coffee, saw the unfolded newspaper's large bold headline on the table before him, and frowned.
MINISTRY SEEKS EDUCATIONAL REFORM DOLORES UMBRIDGE APPOINTED FIRST EVER "HIGH INQUISITOR"
Hermione, Ron, and Harry were all bent over it, reading what looked to be a large article avidly. He returned to his coffee, and thought about his weekend encounter with the toad woman. His eyes found her easily enough at the high table; She was sitting there with her head held high and was overlooking them all with a self satisfied smirk on her face.
The toad woman's beady eyes swept over towards him and he swallowed the still hot coffee from his mug in several gulps. When he put to cup down, he made sure to look over to Harry, Ron, and Hermione instead, while his mind whirled about the problem the toad represented.
"So..vill you all have some time today for katas?" Ed said.
"Um..not so sure, mate." Ron said.
"Me.. uh.. neither." Harry said.
"I've got so many.." Hermione looked up with a blush, and then looked away quickly. "classes..and loads of...uh.."
Ed nodded as he looked at each of them. He then placed both hands on the table and stood.
"Ed..! Don't..We didn't mean.." Hermione said frantically.
"Harry. Ron. Hermione." Ed said. "If you find katas are not equivalent, dhen tell me so."
"It's not..well it.." Hermione stammered.
"We're wizards, mate..not..um.." Ron said.
Ed walked away, pretty certain by that point the conversation would go downhill real quick.
He spent the next class working on arrays for the 'vanishing snail' instead of actually listening to the drowning tinny voice at the front; the strategy seemed to work well enough as he didn't manage to fall asleep.
In potions, he received his paper on moonstones back along with the rest of the class. He snorted in amusement at the big fat zero scrawled in red at the top, knowing well he had done far better in his professional opinion on this simple a report.
'Not that it really matters.' He thought as he deposited the paper in the proper round receptacle (that seemed to munch it hungrily) and returned to the task at hand.
As he was adding the weird plant material-- that would act as a kind of litmus he supposed, changing the color of the simmering liquid from red to blue -- Severus walked by his desk and waved his wand over his cooking pot without even so much as a glance at his result. The liquid within simply vanished.
"Mr. Elric, you shall receive a zero for the day."
"Vhat..!?"
"I am happy to inform you that you have earned yourself an additional homework assignment. You are to prepare a report on ..ah yes, the next on the list.. the alchemist called 'Paracelsus'. Due by the next session."
"Vha..vhy..?"
"You failed to follow my explicit instructions regarding your measuring habits. Perhaps by the next session you will recall the.. correct.. method."
Ed scowled at the man, then slowly, sat back down. He jerked out his notebook and scribbled down equations for the remainder of the class. He so angry, he managed to not jump at the series of explosions that inevitably issued forth from Neville's side of the table. He glared at the round faced boy in his annoyance, which only made Nelville's eyes as round as could be in response. When the class was dismissed, Ed savagely kicked the door open with a loud bang! of his left.
Before he had gotten far along up the stairs, he heard Harry's voice.
"Ed..! hold up..!"
Ed didn't. He didn't even stop when he reached the beginnings of the courtyard, and when he reached the far end, he threw his collection of things the ground just before he punched at a wall with his gloved right. He heard a number alarmed gasps that told him the place wasn't entirely deserted. He folded his arms and began to pace instead of pulverising the wall like he really wanted, shooting a glare at the small indention he had made in the blocks every so often. He heard 'them' approaching long before he bothered to look behind him.
"Eddie-boy..!" FredorGeorge said behind him.
"Do not call me dhat." Ed spat as he flexed his gloved right in and out of a fist, checking it over for damage. "Ever."
"Just a friendly reminder to keep your temper with Umbridge. She's out to inspect classes y'know."
Ed nodded his understanding but continued his pacing. He heard two leaving. But he knew the other three were still standing there. He heard more and more people approaching as well, by the whispers and footfalls.
"Ed..come on, mate." Ron said tentatively. "Don't loose us more..."
"Wait, Ron." Harry said. "Ed...talk to us..what is it? Bad marks from Snape..?"
Ed shot Harry a glare as he paced.
"What'd you get..?" Hermione said.
"Zero." Ed said in an even tone as he paced.
"I know that..I meant for the paper.."
"..vas for de paper." Ed growled as he punched his own arm with a dull thunk!
"A zero..? oh! That's great!" Hermione said excitedly. "That's actually the highest.."
"'Iome..I don't.." Ron said as Ed again glared at them, and then to the approaching onlookers as he paced.
"This isn't helping.." Harry said in exasperation.
Ed looked hard at the green eyed..his FRIEND, he corrected himself..and frowned.
"Ed..? Come on..Out with it. What's wrong?" Harry said.
A few steps later, Ed stopped his pacing as he emphatically tapped his right against the unforgiving blocks of the wall.
"..Of all people to assign me to report on..vhy fukkin HIM?!?" Ed said in a low voice he knew didn't carry far as he glanced back at Harry.
"That 'Paracelsus' guy?" Ed heard the shrug in Ron's voice. "But..He's a cinch. There's next to nothing on him in the library...Right 'Iome?"
Ed swallowed his bile and went back to visually examining the indent in the block. He slapped his palms together and touched the wall. in a flash of light, the indent was gone.
"Ed..?" Harry said.
Ed exhaled his exasperation in a half-growl as he walked to his pile of things on the ground.
"I..tink.." Ed said angrily as he picked up his notebooks, glancing now and then to the gathering crowd of onlookers. "No. Make dhat I know. Just how I vill do dis."
He watched Ron and Harry nod to Hermione as the warning bell rang. As Ron, Harry and he headed over to the North Tower, Harry raised an eyebrow.
"So..um.. can I ask..um..?"
"Don't." Ed interrupted angrily with a raised hand. "Not now, anyvay."
The next class was not Ed's favorite..in fact he found it largely a big waste of his time. Just like the next one with..
"Greeeeat. Just who I wanted to see." Ed said in Amestrian as he saw the pink toad herself enter from the silver ladder, clipboard in hand. He nearly got up and walked out, but Harry and Ron waved at him to sit back down. He did so with his arms folded across his chest.
The Professor, she with the eyes magnified by thick glasses and numerous shawls, looked decidedly nervous to Ed when she saw the pink toad. She had them take out the 'Dream Oracle' book, and begin interpeting one another's dream. She then walked to his pouf, as he still did not have a partner in the class to work with.
With a sigh and a roll of his eyes, he handed over his "dream diary" when she asked for it. As she glanced over his entries, he saw the pink toad look over her shoulder.
"There are quite a few entries here, and though I am quite happy that you have taken this to this class with such enthusiasm..I find you have me confused, Mr. Elric." She said in her mystical tones. "I..simply cannot read any of this at all."
"I do not tink or dream in Englich." Ed said simply with a shug.
"I should think that anyone with a tinsy bit of intelligence would know to translate such things to our common language for the purpose of such classwork." the pink toad said in a girly voice.
Ed narrowed his eyes at her uttering of the hated word, and the insult of his mind, but chose to ignore the toad woman as though she did not exist.
"I vas planning on translating it by next class session." He continued, "Finding de vright vords in dis language of yours is..difficult ...I have no vish for de meanings getting lost."
The Professor smiled a brave little smile. Looking supremely pleased at the news of his effort, she got up from the pouf and moved on to another student. The pink toad shadowed her closely with the barest parting glance aimed back at him with her beady eyes.
Ron leaned over and looked at his open notebook.
"Hey mate..Isn't that notebook you use in Transfiguration?" Ron whispered.
"..swore I saw you writing in it 'History of Magic'." Harry added in his own whisper.
"She doesn't have to be knowing dhat." Ed whispered back, idly working on more equations for the "vanishing snail" on the next page.
"Blimey..Here she comes.."
"..think up a dream quick..!" Harry whispered in a panic.
"I thought one up last time..its your turn.."
"How about..uh.."
"..fishing peacefully on a deserted island..?" Ed whispered.
"Yeah..good one Ed..thanks..!"
As he observed the pink toad throughout the inspection, it was clear things did not go at all well for the shawl covered Professor. It did not help matters that she fell into a sort of "show buzy" routine, in which she foretold numerous gruesome deaths for Harry in particular when she looked his dream journal over.
At the bell, the pink toad was the first down the spindly silver ladder. Ed was certainly not looking forward to the next class at all, but he knew he had no choice but to attend the thing. He was the last to shuffle into the room, but he flopped into the seat that Harry had managed to save for him. He didn't bother to take out his copy of 'Defensive Magical Theory', having already read through the thing entirely. Instead, he took out his notebook and flipped to where he had left off on the "snail".
He had the song of alchemy wrapped about his mind..but that was abruptly interrupted by an outburst of Harry's.
"Yeah, Quirrell was a great teacher, there was just that minor drawback of him having Lord Voldemort sticking out of the back of his head."
'What did I miss now?' Ed thought, glancing between the toad and Harry.
The silence in the room stretched and stretched.
"I think that another week's detentions would do you some good, Mr. Potter, " Said the pink toad.
Ed flexed his hands into fists and was about to stand, but heard the slap of a hand on his unfeeling shoulder port. The weight there, unbalanced as it was, forced Ed to stay seated. He narrowed his eyes, then glanced over at Harry. His friend glared at the pink toad with a distinct defiant frown on his face.
"Not this time, Ed." Harry whispered to him when he sat back down. "I can handle this."
The pink toad herself graced them all with a sleek little smile as she settled herself once again behind her desk.
Ed scowled at her, but turned back to his notebook. She..in silence.. remained behind her desk, oblivious to his activities.
Once class released, he immediately sought out a secluded area..one which he had seen near the 'quiddy' field. Once there and fully satisfied he was alone, he angrily took off the hated!uniform and his outer shirt and tossed them atop his notebooks. Right arm shining brightly in the remaining sun, he performed kata after kata..one blending seamlessly into the next.
Much later, he sat by the trio, covered in sweat but considerably less angry. He ate his dinner without saying a single word; his mind on other matters.
He had to stay up anyway, or so he told himself.
Ed made sure he was up in the common room, sitting in front of the fire when Harry returned that night from detention with the toad. He knew by the way Harry held his hand as he entered that the detention went much the same as the others the previous week. He leaned his elbows on his knees and weaved his gloved fingers together before his chin.
Harry sat down across from him with a grimmace on his face, gingerly holding a scarf to his hand. They sat in silence for a long time. Then Harry looked up and met his golden gaze with small smirk on his face.
"So..um."
"Hm.." Ed said softly. "Hold de scarf steady, and press vright here at same time. Vill stop bleeding faster dan how you have it now." Ed pointed to a point on his left wrist.
"Uh..thanks." Harry said and did so. Ed nodded a slight nod when saw that he had it.
"So.. um.. Dis.. Moldie-shorts. He has habit of.. showing up on the back of teacher's heads?" Ed said.
"Among other things." Harry said with a frown. "Ed. I..Just wanted to ask. Earlier today. When you were.."
"Yeah." Ed said as he looked away. He lowered his hands and made a disgusted sort of noise.
"If this is too.."
"No. no..it's not too... I just.." Ed paused with a frown and looked back. "I VREALLY don't like the guy."
"You KNOW him?" Harry said incredulously. "Paracelsus is over.."
"Yeah. You'd dink he be.. better person.. for all dat age... Equivalent exchange, Harry. Tell me about dis Voldemort. Details. Dhat 'sticking out of a teacher's head' ting you said vas.."
"Yeah I know...Creeped me out to see it and I was.." Harry scrunched his face in thought. "It was just my first year here."
"Vell. I vant to know exactly vhy everyone here is so..scared shit. In exchange. I vill tell you ..much.. of vhat I vill NOT be putting in dis report Severous vants me to do. Equivalence..?"
"I..dunno. Those katas weren't all that.." Harry said with exaggerated narrowed eyes. "Voldemort is kind of a big deal, you see, and.."
"I know him because ..he..is my father." Ed interrupted in calm, factual tones.
Harry's mouth slackened, and his eyes slowly widened in surprise. Ed watched as Harry tried several times to say something, but only end up staring at him with a kind of wonder on his face. After several moments of witnessing this, Ed nodded, leaned his chin on his right hand.
"Equivalence, Ed." Harry said. "Equivalence."
"De bastard vas goink by 'Hohemheim' last I saw him..." Ed began. "Hohemheim of Light...and if he kept his promise to me and stayed in de body I knew, he is dead. If he did not, I tell you he is dead to me, anyvay, because I vill not ever forgive him... "
The next day, much to Ed's annoyance, the pink toad was standing in McGonagall's class, clipboard in hand.
Ed still had not managed to "vanish a snail" and when he was given a mouse with the rest class, he frowned but took it as gently as he could with his gloved right. He then headed to the back area located beyond the array on display behind Professor McGonagall's desk. With a clap of his hands, he fashioned a mouse cage directly out of a tabletop, and he placed the mouse carefully within it.
He then settled himself onto the floor next to a bucket of snails, and took out his notebook, a stack of blank parchment, an inkwell, and a paintbrush. Soon, he was listening intently to the music of Alchemy in his mind.
He lifted his finger from the array, his fifth for the day and quickly surveyed his results: A failure once again. He picked up the arrays from the floor, and tore the papers to break the circles before tossing them both into the hungry wastebasket. He then took out two more pieces of parchment, dipped the paintbrush into the inkwell, and drew out two new arrays within moments. He fiddled with the amplifying runes, a stray arch here and there. When he was satisfied both were balanced, he placed them on the ground before him. Then, he reached for a snail.
Only then did he hear the sound of a quill busily scratching on a clipboard. .
"And whatever is our dear Mr. Elric doing in here today?" Came the little girly voice. "Hmm? Skuttling about on the ground like some..Muggle?"
Ed glanced towards the sound of the furious, incessant scratching and to his surprise saw that the toad woman was nearly leaning over him in her effort to literally look down her nose at what he was doing. He sat back onto his heals and glared up at her, careful to rest his forearms on his thighs to keep his hands well away from the arrays.
"An independent project." Professor Mcgonagall said coldly from the door. "As I recall, Professor Umbridge, you are here to inspect me, not to assess my students' progress in my own classroom for me."
The pink toad made a non-committal noise, and, with a last scratch of her quill to the clipboard, strode out with her head held high.
Mcgonagall's severe face was a study in cold fury as she firmly closed the door once the toad was past the door's frame. He found himself wondering how the inspection was going for the Professor as he looked on blankly at the door for several moments.
"Can't be helped." Ed said softly in Amestrian with a shrug, then looked down at his work. He touched a gloved finger to the containment circle's edge. The twin arrays before him activated as one.