Fullmetal Alchemist and the Crimson Stone Chapter 6: Being Young, a fullmetal alchemist fanfic

Disclaimer: I do not own the copyrights to Fullmetal Alchemist and Harry Potter, as well as any other songs or other character references made in this story.

Fullmetal Alchemist

And the

Crimson Stone

A Fan Fiction Fusion

Tattoo Alchemist

Chapter 6: Being Young

Friday seemed to come fairly quickly, but to Edward Elric it only meant that he had two and a half free days to look for the book in the Hogwarts library. There was no question that there was homework to do, but Ed had managed to finish it a little more quickly than Hermione. Even though Ed didn't know it at the beginning but she was quite annoyed that Ed had not only completed the homework quicker but got higher marks than her. Yet, with the homework out of the way, he was free to look once again.

As Ed sat down in the library, he chose a seat near the window so that he could think up both his next report to Colonel Mustang as well as the next letter that he wanted to write to Al. He pulled out the response letter from Al and Ed read it for what must have been the fifth time:

Dear Ed,

It is true that I have missed you since you left for England, but Colonel Mustang has assured me that an eye would be kept on you by someone named Edmund Blackadder.

"The Tattoo Alchemist," Ed thought as he continued to read.

It still feels weird that only you had to go while I had to stay behind, but don't worry Lieutenant Hawkeye has been keeping me busy so that I don't spend so much time worrying about you. It's mostly paperwork kind of stuff, but I know that I'm giving a helping hand.

About this place you're at, Hogwarts, it actually sounds like a fun place. You said that you met some others there who might be good friends, brother. The ones named Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley. They sound like such good people so please tell me more about them in the next letter. That's the only thing I regret about not being there with you; the opportunity to meet them.

I have to go now, Lieutenant Hawkeye's telling me to get back to our duties. I look forward to the next letter, brother.

Your Brother,

Alphonse Elric.

As Ed sat at the window he found it even more difficult to write the letter to Al, what else could he say that he didn't say a week ago? That he's been in the school for that much time and yet found nothing? It seemed too morose of a letter to write. Purely out of his own boredom, he turned his head to look out the window to where he could see the front gates of the school, there he saw a gathering of students as if they were waiting for something. Maybe it was boredom or just simple curiosity, but Ed had got up from his chair in the library and headed down to the front gates.

At the front gates, in the center of the small crowd of students was Mister Filch and Professor McGonnagal.

"Alright," Filch grumbled at the students, "Anyone with a permission slip can come, everyone else stay put!"

"Go where?" Ed asked aloud as he scratched his head.

"The village of Hogsmeade," a familiar and feminine voice told.

Ed spun slightly to find Harry, Ron, and Hermione looking excitedly happy like the way people look when they're about to see an exciting movie. Harry and Ron (even though it seemed redundant) they looked like kids waiting to go to the greatest place to have the most fun.

"Where?" Ed asked.

"There's a wizard village just outside the school," Harry explained, "called Hogsmeade."

"What's there?" Ed asked

"What's there!" Ron said sounding very stunned by Ed's question, "There are lots of stuff and its loads of fun."

"They have Zonko's Joke Shop, Honeydukes candy store, and the Three Broomsticks if you want a drink," Harry had further explained with great relish about this place.

"We can tell you about it all day," Hermione pointed out to Ed, "But you'll just have to see it yourself."

Ed could feel himself scoff quietly under his breath, but as he gave it some thought he came to the conclusion that really there was nothing better to do with the day. Perhaps it was the boredom of having homework finished or maybe it was the quiet frustration that he had out of not finding the book, but whatever it was, he thought it wouldn't hurt to check the place out.

"Alright," Ed smiled, "Let's go then."

"Do you have a permission slip?" Hermione asked.

"Permission slip?" Ed asked stunned by the question, but as it sunk over him he never felt more like a kid at that moment. It was because of the fact that he needed a damn permission slip just to go to some town whose name was so suspiciously like the schools. He felt outraged by this when he heard McGonnagal call to him.

"Mister Elric?" She called

Ed turned to her, "Yes, Professor?" He asked in a sulking tone.

"I wanted to inform you that a signed permission slip to visit the village of Hosmeade had arrived by owl today along with a note addressed to you."

"To me?" Ed inquired.

McGonnagal had handed the paper to Ed who quickly opened up the folded paper, and on it was only one sentence that Ed read several times to make sure he wasn't imagining anything.

Enjoy being a kid for once.

- Roy Mustang

At first Ed wanted to yell, scream, and stop as he tore up the note from that arrogant and pompous colonel Mustang. Yet, in the next instant he felt happy, because he realized that now that he had a permission slip he can go into the town of Hosmeade with his new friends. He suddenly found himself smiling and thinking that he owed Colonel Mustang for this, but it was like the note told him, "Enjoy being a kid for once."

"Alright," Ed smiled, "Hogsmeade, here we come!"

As he crossed the threshold of the front gates he never felt more excited, the only other time that Ed felt that way was when he had a solid lead on the Philosopher's Stone. Still, as he walked with his friends, he was suddenly asking himself again why he wanted to go to that place. It was only half and hour later while Ed was still wondering why he was so excited to see this place that they had arrived.

"Welcome to Hogsmeade, Ed," Harry said to Ed.

The Place wasn't that huge, but then again it was called a village, so really what could Ed expect? It had a one-road main street while there were shops on either side of the street. At the same time there were people walking from one place to the next with their reasons of business or pleasure.

As Ed was looking around at the signs for different shops, his friends were debating about what to show him first. Harry was saying that they should go to Honeydukes, Ron wanted him to see Zonko's Joke Shop, and Hermoine wanted to show him "The Shrieking Shack". Already, Ed knew that he had to be the one to stop the arguing and so he went with the first suggestion.

"Let's try this place called Honeydukes," Ed had suggested.

Harry needed no more encouragement and he lead the way down the street to the shop called Honeydukes. Already at the front doorstop of the shop the place seemed to be blazing with color like the brightest start in the evening sky. All around in the shop windows were sweets that Ed had never laid eyes on before and in colors that were so pleasing to the eye that Ed wanted to reach into the window and taste the treats inside.

The desire only amplified once his friends had leaded him into the shop. The place was so crowded with students that they couldn't take two steps without bumping into another student. The annoyance of it was overlooked as Ed looked around at the treats piled in the bins and stacked on the shelves as Harry and Ron told Ed what each of them were. There were creamy chunks of nougat, shimmering pink squares of coconut ice, honey colored toffees, and dozens, if not hundreds, of different chocolates stacked neatly in rows. At one end there were several barrels of Every Flavor Beans, Fizzing Whizkees (they were floating sherbet balls as Ron explained to Ed), and along another wall were sweets that had "special effects" to them. There were Drooble Best Blowing Gum (which filled a room with bluebell colored bubbles that refused to pop for days) tiny black pepper imps (breathe fire for your friends!), Ice Mice (Hear your teeth chatter and squeak), peppermint creams shaped like toads (hop realistically in the stomach), and fragile sugar spun quills.

The sights, sounds, and scents permeated all through Ed and he truly became a kid in a candy store. He reached into his pocket for a few galleons and pulled out what he had of his supply for his rationed money. He knew all too well that he couldn't blow all his money on sweets, but he felt that it wouldn't hurt to have a little. He counted at least fifty galleons, twenty sickles, and eight knuts.

Using thirty of his fifty galleons, Ed managed to buy chocolate frogs, every flavor beans, as well as some special gumballs there were said to have different effects with each color. Though he never found out the effect of each color was never told to Ed, because his new friends wanted to surprise him.

The four of them left Honeydukes with two more places to go to on their list. Hermione wanted to show Ed the Shrieking Shack and Ron wanted to show Zonko's Joke shop. With the bag of sweets in his hand and twenty galleons in his pocket, Ed looked at his group of friends.

"Let's see Zonko's," he smiled.

Ron Weasley led the way to the joke shop with a good solid bounce in his step giddy with anticipation to show Ed all the wonderful things that would be there. Turning the corner, Ed's eyes were greeted by the same kind of brightness that Honeydukes had, but at the same time Zonko's had its own uniqueness to show. Inside the windows Ed saw incredible things like at Honeydukes, yet each item that he looked at didn't stimulate his appetite for sweets, but rather caused a rumbling in his chest that caused him to burst out laughing. Yes, Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist was laughing, genuinely laughing, something that he had not done in years.

His friends led him into the shop where he got a better look at some of the products. There were flowers that when sniffed would either puff out gushes of water, splatter, cheese, fire smoke, or blast a cloud of farts into the nearby face. In small boxes around the counter there were fireworks gum packages, "chew and spit 10 different fireworks displays for your friends". Message gob stoppers, "Suck on them and print messages on your tome to make statements at your enemies." Whoopee cushions with "10 different farting noises" once they were inflated. Joke message cards for every occasion that at first was polite but the words inside morphed into the punch line. Secret message parchment whose ink would disappear when held by the unintended recipient, "perfect for silent classroom discussions!"

It was all so incredible to Edward Elric that he had forgotten his own cynicisms about the laws of Equivalent Exchange. He looked to his new friends who were standing around a table that was advertising a new product.

NEW!

SEE-THROUGH GLASSSES!

PUT THEM ON AND SEE THROUGH ONE LAYER OF CLOTHING

Ed scratched his head as he continued to chuckle at the thought of using them. His curiosity once again took hold of him and he reached out for a pair of the glasses to try them on. At least until Harry Potter reached down to pick up a pair. Ed watched as he slipped the rectangular shaped joke glasses over his round framed pair and looked around the room. That was when Ed started to panic, if they could really see through one layer of clothing, and then Harry might see his auto-mail limbs.

He watched, his heart racing as Harry's glance had turned to Hermione Granger who with a prudish and shocked look reached up and slapped Harry's hand so that the see-through glasses came away from his face. Harry had immediately set the glasses down and went over to the fireworks gum. Both Ed and Ron did get a good laugh out of it, but neither one could have seen that as Harry was walking away, Hermione was smiling at Harry.

Upon leaving Zonko's joke shop, Ed had the bag of sweets from Honeydukes in one hand and in the other; he had a bag with fireworks gum, some secret message parchment, and a pair of his own see-through glasses. All the while as they walked onto the street, Ed was laughing with them, and Ed understood fully what Colonel Mustang meant by "enjoy being a kid for once".

There was only one place left that Ed's new friends wanted to show him, the Shrieking Shack. Being led off the beaten down path of Hogsmeade to a small house on its outskirts, Ed felt like he was back home tracing another lead on the Philosopher's Stone with Al. He was half-expecting Al to come tromping up behind him, his armor shaking with fear and telling Ed that it's probably not a good idea, but no such sounds came.

The Shrieking Shack did live up to its name as Ed looked out at it. It was just a small two story house in the middle of a clearing. The "house" itself looked like it was ready to be torn down, the windows smashed in, wood slats missing from the roof, the bricks of the chimney broken, and the wood on the outside of the house peeling and broken like the skin of a dead snake.

"The Shrieking Shack," Hermione presented sounding like a tour guide as she sat her hands on the fence surrounding the house, "The most haunted place in Britain."

Ron leaned over to Ed and whispered, "She loves to tell these things."

"What was that?" Hermione snapped.

"Nothing," Ron smiled sheepishly as Hermione gave him a very suspicious glare that said I know what you're thinking.

"Well, well, look who's here!" A very arrogant voice called out behind them.

Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ed spun around to find Draco Malfoy strutting toward them proudly as he was flanked on either side by Grabbe and Goyle. Malfoy was looking especially smug, the kind that would make any normal person boil under their collar.

"Shopping for a new home then, Weasley?" Malfoy asked his sarcasm thick as hardened ice cream, "Bit grand for you then isn't it? Doesn't your family sleep in one room?"

"Shut up, Malfoy…" Ron said unable to look up at Malfory from his own humiliation.

"Ooh," Malfoy smirked, "looks like Weasley's growing some backbone; don't need your mudblood girlfriend or Potter to protect you?"

Hermione and Harry looked at Malfoy angrily as Edward simply shrugged as he had his own comeback.

"You're on to talk about protection," Ed said, "since you need these two goons around you at all times."

"How dare you talk to me that way!" Malfoy spat angrily at Ed, "Snotty shorty!"

Ed's blood boiled instantly as he made his attack on the Slytherin trio.

"SHORTY?" Ed shouted as he punched Malfoy in the gut, "WHAT ELSE YOU WANNA CALL ME? A HALF-PINT-BEAN-SPROUT-MIDGET?"

Ed's punch had knocked the wind right out of Malfoy's lungs, but as the punch sunk in, Ed wasn't done with the Slytherin Trio or with Malfoy. He raised his other fist and began slugging Malfoy left and right.

"ARE YOU ALSO GONNA CALL ME A SUPER-HYPER-SMALL-CHIBI?"

Malfoy fell to the ground harder than a bag of garden river stones. Once Malfoy was down, Ed turned the left-over rage at Grabbe and Goyle. He went for Goyle first bringing up his right leg into a powerful roundhouse kick as he screamed;

"YOU CANNA CALL ME A PIPSQUEAK SO SMALL THAT YOU WANNA CRUSH LIKE AN ANT!"

Goyle went down without even the slightest struggle and there was only one left; Grabbe. To him, Ed had brought about his left fist that landed in Grabbe's face, right between the eyes that gave out a sickening crunch with a small squirt of blood as he flew backwards onto the ground. The second that the third of the Slytherin trio was down Ed's new friends had called out to him;

"ED STOP!"

Ed had stopped and looked at Harry, Ron, and Hermione who had looks of astonishment of what h ad happened. Ed had then realized that this was the first time that they had seen him fight other people and it was a side of Ed that separated him from being a kid. Not the fact that he fought, but by the fact that he fought expertly well and he didn't know what to say next. Thankfully, Ron Weasely had taken care of that;

"Bloody hell," He said astonished, "That was brilliant!"

"You're lucky that a teacher wasn't around or you'd be slapped with detention or worse expelled." Hermione had told Ed sounding just like old Aunt Pinako.

Ed had returned to his old self and scoffed at Hermione's comment, "You really need to look at your priorities."

"Well," Ron said sounding worried, "What do we do now?"

No sooner had Ron asked this that a very devilish grin crossed Harry Potter's face

"Hermione," Harry asked, "Go find Collin Creevy."

"Why do you need Collin?" Hermione asked.

Harry turned and smiled that devilish smile, "I have a plan."

"Yikes…" Hermione said quietly as she took off in search of Collin Creevy.

Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Edward Elric, and Colin Creevy were standing on the outskirts to the clearing for the Shrieking Shack when they heard a series of screams coming from the house. There were three of them, all panicked, confused, and disoriented.

"Get ready, Collin," Harry instructed to the third year Gryffindor.

"Right, Harry," Collin smiled as he setup his camera keeping the view finder on the path that lead to the Shrieking Shack.

The Screaming from the shack became louder and more panicked as the front door opened wide and out ran Draco Malfoy followed by his goons Grabbe and Goyle. The three of them had looks as if they were about to die within the walls of the Shrieking Shack.

The five Gryffindors watched as the Slytherin Trio came dashing out as if they were running for their very lives. The second that they came to the edge of the clearing, they were met by the flashing of Collin Creevy's camera. Normally, Malfoy would have stoped but he was too scarred to even think about such things as he kept running back to Hogsmeade. All the while Grabbe and Goyle were yelling; Malfoy! Wait for us!

As they continued to run, the Gryffindors that stayed behind were drunk with laughter and high from the plot that Harry Potter ha concocted. To sweeten it even further, they had photographs of the scared Malfoy that they had very insidious plans for. Even Edward Elric had to admit that it truly was a great plan to take them to the Shrieking Shack and photograph them running out.

To Be Continued…