Title: Misinterpretations
Author: Jade S. Lee

Chapter 02: Researcher

She never knew that Professor Elric liked to read.

That was quite the understatement. Professor Elric liked to read - a lot. After that embarrassing breakfast in which Hermione had eaten at a record pace and clumsily gave the professor a sheepish farewell, Hermione had taken to avoiding the blond instructor at all costs.

Until one Monday afternoon during her free period when she spotted the professor in the library. How she had never noticed him before was beyond her. Sure, he had chosen a dusty corner at the back of the library away from the main study tables but Hermione still felt slightly annoyed. She was supposed to know the library like the back of her hand, she went there every day. What annoyed her even more was that it was Harry who found Professor Elric's secret corner and pointed it out to her.

Huffing angrily Hermione flipped open her Transfiguration textbook and started her homework. After ten minutes of trying to remember what Professor McGonagall's instructions for the homework were she gave up and looked at her two friends, both (miraculously) concentrating on their Divination homework. With nothing to do (Hermione having done all of her homework except for Transfigurations, she would ask Harry for the instructions later) she decided to investigate Professor Elric's secret reading corner. Carefully making her way to the back of the library, Hermione picked up a random book from the shelves and sat down on an old, musty smelling chair that was positioned so that she could clearly see the professor without being seen.

God she felt like a stalker.

He was sitting on the floor of the library casually flipping through a book. Well, he was sort of sprawled out on the floor, occasionally fingering his small reading glasses. A frightening number of books were lying haphazardly on the floor around him as well as pieces of crumpled parchment and what looked like bread crumbs, giving the indication that he had been in the library for quite some time. Although it looked like an uncomfortable position to be sitting in, the professor looked relaxed.

After her quick assessment Hermione started to feel a little foolish spying on the professor. What did she need to hide? She wasn't in love with him like the other idol-crazy girls (or in this case, good looking mysterious professor-crazy girls) in the school and she certainly was not a coward. With that resolve in mind Hermione stood to confront the Professor Elric until she heard voices whispering behind her. Quickly jumping into a narrow hall full of ancient books Hermione held her breath as she waited for the people to pass.

Great, now she was hiding like a fugitive. So much for not being a coward.

"Shh! Be quiet!"

"You're standing on my foot!"

A few shuffling noises could be heard as well as a stifled sneeze. Hermione guessed that there were two, no three, people in the hallway next to her. They were awfully loud, whispering wildly to each other and making loud noises. It was a wonder that Professor Elric hadn't noticed them yet. The voices also sounded female, probably some of Professor Elric's fans, thought Hermione dryly.

"Charlotte! He'll hear us!"

She wasn't called a genius for nothing.

The girl, Charlotte Winterton was the daughter of a muggle politician and president of the P.E.F club, short for the Professor Elric Forever Club.

How original, Hermione thought wryly.

Although many girls liked and admired the professor, only a few took their obsession to the next level. The P.E.F girls consisted of 10 girls from all years and all houses whose obsession with Professor Elric bordered on insanity. Charlotte Winterton, a seventh year Hufflepuff and the founder of P.E.F, was a feisty brunette whose melodramatic behaviour had earned her the nickname of Prima Donna.

Hermione had never really gotten to know Charlotte; they had had a few classes together through the years but had never really formed a friendship, or saw eye to eye for that matter. Hermione thought that Charlotte was ridiculous, always turning every situation into a soap opera and expecting that everything would be handed to her on a silver platter. On the other hand Charlotte had the impression that Hermione was an insufferable know-it-all, as Professor Snape had kindly pointed out some years before. For the most part Hermione ignored her, preferring to avoid the girl and her callous remarks of "teacher's pet" and "know-it-all".

"Who will hear you Miss Quirke?"

Hearing Professor Elric's clear tenor voice shook Hermione from her thoughts. Peering through a crack between two books, Hermione could make out Professor Elric's blond ponytail, as well as a good view of the three P.E.F members.

The one on the left, Orla Quirke was clearly nervous. She kept on stuttering non-intelligible responses and shifting around restlessly, refusing to meet Professor Elric's eyes.

"Sorry Professor," Charlotte said smoothly, stepping slightly forward and giving Professor Elric a level stare. "Didn't want to be kicked out by Goldstein for being noisy like last time. I just wanted to ask you a few questions about yesterday's lesson."

If there was one thing that Charlotte was good at, it was acting.

Professor Elric nodded, gesturing for Charlotte to continue.

"How come you said that the Philosopher's Stone real? I heard that it's just a myth."

The Philosopher's Stone! Hermione barely managed to clamp her hand over her mouth before she gave her position away.

"I never said that it was real. I said that with Alchemy, anything is possible, even the creation of the Philosopher's Stone. Although the chances of creating the it are very slim."

From the back Professor Elric looked a little...tense. His narrow shoulders were squared as if he were preparing for a fight and from her hiding spot he looked a little rigid. But she supposed that none of this tension could be shown on his face since Charlotte and her friends did not seem to notice anything.

Strange, he should believe that the Philosopher's Stone is a myth. And even if he knew that Nicholas Flamel had created a real stone it shouldn't make him so nervous.

"Oh, I guess that I did not hear the rest."

Another nod.

"Hey, whatcha reading there?" The third girl (whom Hermione had never met before) asked, squeezing past Charlotte and nodding her head at the book that Professor Elric was holding.

"I'm researching the effects of Apparition on a body." Was Professor Elric's clipped response.

"What sort of research?"

What a nosy girl, thought Hermione.

Professor Elric seemed to agree as well because he waved his hands around theatrically and told the girl that it wasn't anything important and the details would bore them.

"But apparating is so cool! Ever since my sister passed the test she's been apparating all over! When I pass it I'm going to apparate to Hogwarts instead of taking the train. It's too long!" Charlotte suddenly gushed, clasping her hands in front of her face in an excited manner and stepped in front of the other girl, once again getting Professor Elric's attention.

"You know that you can't apparate within Hogwarts. Did you not read Hogwarts, A History?" Said Professor Elric, his voice taking on a slightly reprimanding tone.

Ah, music to my ears.

Charlotte seemed to visibly deflate at this response for a moment, but quickly recovered by steering the topic towards the upcoming Halloween feast.

Knowing that the next topic of conversation would be dull, Hermione leaned back into the shelving unit to think about what had been said. It seemed that Professor Elric knew a lot about the Philosopher's Stone, more then he was letting on. He might have come across it in his readings, since he seemed to be quite the avid reader judging by the pile of books still lying on the floor in the corner. But why was he doing research on Apparition? Was it connected in any way to the Philosopher's Stone? And why would he be studying such things? He taught Alchemy which, in Hermione's opinion, was a subject that had no practical use in the wizarding world.

Hearing a chorus of goodbyes, Hermione turned her attention back to the scene just as the three P.E.F girls rounded the corner of the hallway. Without the girls to pry information out of Professor Elric, Hermione found there was no use in her staying. She would just have to wait until the coast was clear before she made her exit.

Upon hearing the professor's footsteps fade Hermione raced the opposite direction towards her friends. By the time she got back to the table she felt winded, her breath coming out in short gasps and her cheeks flushed. Before Hermione could even compose herself she was bombarded with questions from her two friends.

"Where'd you go 'Mione?" Ron asked suspiciously, giving her a worried frown when he saw her dishevelled appearance..

"H-huh what Ron? I went to, uh to find a book." lied Hermione, hoping to the gods that Harry and Ron would not notice that she was blushing profusely, or that her eyes were trying avoid their accusing stares.

Or that she was lying through her teeth.

She really did not want another round of teasing from the two boys about her infatuation with the professor. Nor did she really want to share with them what she learned about him just moments ago, not yet anyways. She needed to find out more about the professor before she could jump to conclusions. Besides, there was no need to worry Harry about the Philosopher's Stone since it was still a touchy subject for him and he was already busy puzzling over Malfoy's strange behaviour.

"You were gone for quite some time Hermione. Must've been hard to find that book." Harry said coolly, his gaze flitting curiously towards the worn book clutched in her hands.

Hermione felt puzzled for a moment before she realized that she was still holding the book she had picked up earlier. In all the excitement she had forgotten that she had it.

"Yes yes, I've been wanting to read this one for a while. It's quite interesting. Very interesting indeed." Giving her two friends an innocent smile and making a show of staring interestedly at the book for good measure, Hermione pretended to busy herself with putting away her things.

"We didn't know that you found Kama Sutra so interesting"

Orla Quirke is I think a Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw girl that is 3 years younger than Harry and the gang. I just needed some random younger girl, that's all.

"Goldstein" refers to Anthony Goldstein, a Ravenclaw Prefect.

Charlotte "Prima Donna" Winterton. Some character that I made up. Inspiration came from the character Carlotta in Phantom of the Opera and Motoko Minagawa (she's the president of the Prince Yuki fan club) from Fruits Basket. I wanted someone who was painfully obnoxious and full of herself like Carlotta, but someone who was obsessive to the point of craziness like Motoko. The names Charlotte and Prima Donna I got from Phantom of the Opera (An English-y version of the name Carlotta and the same nickname she had) and the last name I googled it (dunno that many British last names. This one has ties to English politics so it served it's purpose)

Professor Elric Forever Club (P.E.F club for short). I don't know what came over me, must have been watching the first episode of Fruits Basket again and seeing the crazy fangirlness or something but I just made this up….stupid name, no? Well, you'll be seeing more of them unfortunately.

A.N: Well, here's the second chapter! I seriously did not think that I would have the motivation to write a second chapter at all. A lot of things have been happening to me lately so I haven't had time to write anything. ANYWAYS, besides that I'm not too sure where I'm gonna take this story. I have a few ideas of what to do but nothing is definite, I'm just hoping that it'll write itself. I'm glad that I rated the story as I did though, because I have a potty mouth and would like to write something that's more mature (hopefully). I might have to change the genre too, possibly add angst/drama (I can try) or horror……well, I'll think about it in the meantime.

ooh yess,

Disclaimer: Full Metal Alchemist is owned by Hiromu Arakawa and a whole bunch of other companies and Harry Potter is owned by J.K. Rowling...too bad.

Thanks to cuylerjade and Quandtuniverse for telling me who owns FMA and cuylerjade again for helping me out on the last part

Until next time!