Disclaimer

I don't own Inuyasha, Harry Potter, FullMetal Alchemist or related characters.

Beginning Notes: Sorry to say, I've already worked the plot out all the way to the end, and I really don't see any way to add in Artemis Fowl. Sorry to all AF fans. Hope you enjoy this fic anyways. Believe me, there's still plenty of good stuff to come.

The Philosopher's Stone

Written by - Stripe and Shiechan

Chapter 4 - Discovery

-0-

Lord Voldemort was not in the greatest of moods. One might think that the Dark Lord would be in a relatively good mood; he had been returned back from his "death" after many years and now was able retrieve a stone that would grant him immortality. In fact, he would have been in a good mood.

If only it hadn't been for his incompitent followers. How hard could it possibly be to find a single stone?

He noticed that most of those incompitent followers were keeping a safe distance away. The cowards. No matter. Once he got his hand on that stone, he could rid himself of the more uselss members of his following.

Currently, the Dark Lord was residing in a vacant home which was thought to be haunted by the local muggles. Of course, this was really only a temporary measure. He had yet to find a suitable location for his base. It was much safer to keep moving around so those troublesome Aurors wouldn't catch his trail and find him. Not that he couldn't dispose of them, of course. That was a simple matter. However, if they did find his location, his forces were likely to be drastically lowered, even if he came out as victor.

And he'd rather not deal with that problem at the moment.

Outside of the room Voldemort had claimed as his, a few of his guards watched in horror as a single person walked by, deflecting all their curses with some form of hidden magic. There was no wand-waving or anything to show that he was doing anything to protect himself. Yet, somehow, nothing they did seemed to slow him down. Two guards gave each other a fearful look as he stepped right into the temporary resting chamber of the Dark Lord. This wasn't going to end well. Wisely, they quickly left the door unguarded.

Voldemort hardly paid a glance as he heard footsteps approaching his door. His Death Eaters knew better than to bother him at the moment. Whoever it was would simply have to face the concequences. He turned for a moment to face the intruder, who wasn't even one of his followers, it seemed, and shot a blast of green light out of his wand. He didn't even bother to watch the life drain out of the victim's eyes this time - hearing that thud as they hit the floor lifeless would be enough. He turned back to face the window he was looking out of, his almost non-exsistant ears listening closely for that oddly fufilling sound.

The thud never came.

The Dark Lord turned abruptly as silence met his ears, meeting the dull brown eyes of a boy who would have only just started school if he were a wizard. However, something about him made Voldemort honestly doubt that. With a frown, he tried to cast the killing curse again. Sure enough, the green light hit the boy dead on. The little life left in his eyes was drained as he began to fall forward. Voldemort was about to turn away in satisfaction until, suddenly, something changed. A deep purple glow emitted from the boy's back, and he caught himself before falling to the floor, standing in the same position he had been before the curse. He simply stood there, his eyes staring lifelessly, even if he seemed to be breathing.

Voldemort simply stared. This couldn't be right. Harry Potter was the only one who had survived the killing curse, and even then it was only because he had his mother there to protect him. This boy had nobody to save him. It didn't make any sense. There was no countercurse for the killing curse and there wasn't any shield strong enough to protect against it. Then how...

Something intriguing caught the Dark Lord's eye; something he hadn't noticed before. A deathly pale wisp of a girl stood in the shadow of the wall, holding what looked to be an ornate mirror. There hadn't been any traces of her presence before hand, it was as if she simply apparated here. However, as annoying as it was, was impossible to apparate without making the loud crack at your arrival. There had been no sound even similar to a crack, so she obviously got there through other means. As he looked at the girl more closely, Voldemort noticed something very strange about her mirror. Instead of reflecting the world around it as it should have, it reflected the face of somebody. Or something. What he saw somehow seemed too sinister to be an ordinary human being.

Voldemort smirked. This certainly seemed interesting. "Would you mind telling me who you are?" he asked the mirror as he strode over to the girl, showing no signs of fear or worry. Obviously, whatever was in that mirror was the boss here. And mirrors were easily disposed of if things went awry.

The thing in the mirror wore a smug look, quite similar to his own. "I am Naraku, a powerful demon. I am here seeking something valuable." Ah. So it was help he wanted then. Well, the Dark Lord's help certainly didn't come cheap.

"And would you mind telling me why my killing curse did not work?"

At this, Naraku grinned evilly. "That," he explained, casting a quick glance over to the boy through the mirror, "is the power of the shikon jewel."

-0-

Edward had almost gotten used to the Weasley household. He was almost willing to accept the fact that the flying feather duster had a mind of its own. He was almost beginning to come to even like a few of the other members of the household.

However, he wasn't quite there yet. Edward had been there for nearly six days now. And still - all he wanted to do was go home. Well, at least a place that was more familiar to him. Even Central seemed more of a home to him than this place.

Regardless, the living room was where he had decided to live these past few days. It was more familiar to him than the rest of the house. The duster was absent at the moment, along with the other strange guests. They had taken rooms upstairs, apparently, and were hopefully keping to themselves for a while. Most of them were alright, they almost reminded him of a few people he knew. However, there was one that really ticked him off. And that one person was enough to make him avoid the group completely.

It was one of the ones that wasn't quite like a normal person - the one with the cat ears. He was so obnoxious and loud that Edward could hardly stand being around him. It was all the alchemist could do to keep from transmuting his automail into a blade and attacking him.

Just as Edward was about to continue his mental rant about the cat-eared person, a loud crack from outside diverted his attention. Mrs. Weasley had told him at some point that the crack was part of something called "apparating". To Edward, it sounded like the telportation he had seen in one of the few science-fiction movies he'd been to as a kid. Only without the complex machinery. Apparently that was how those other people had gotten here from so far away. Luckily, they didn't usually appear in the living room. The only reason they had done so the first time was because there were a lot of people to move, and Tonks had been thrown off by the large mass she was moving. Or something like that. Edward wasn't too concerned with figuring out the details at this point. Sure enough, a knock on the door occured only moments later.

Edward could hear Mrs. Weasley rushing to the door, asking for a password. Edward found this whole part of the procedure rather pointless. After all, no one so far had not known the password, but somehow it made the others feel secure. Regardless, he had found himself silently mouthing the words that came out of their mouths.

"Rasberry Tarts." This time, the voice belonged to a male who sounded rather tired, as if he had been running for miles. Ed heard the door open, which signified the man had been let inside.

"Alright, Remus. If you'd please go into the living room for the time being..." The alchemist narrowed his eyes slightly as he heard footsteps heading towards his "territory." The voice did indeed belong to a tired-looking man, who took a seat next to Edward as soon as he came inside. The boy did his best to keep from glaring at him, but did end up shooting one quick, nasty look in his direction.

So he was in a bad mood. What else was new?

Before long, Mrs. Weasley walked into the room, carrying a cup of tea with her. With a small smile, she handed it to "Remus", as she had called him. The man took a long sip before speaking.

"Dumbledore has sent me to inform you of what he's learned on his side of things." Edward raised an eyebrow at the name "Dumbledore". Sounded like some sort of old cooky wizard from a children's fairytale. "First of which, he's assigned Harry, Hermione, and Ron to look up information on the stone. They haven't found much yet, apparently." Mrs. Weasley gave a small "humph" in response.

"Well, what does he expect? They're just children, after all. He can't expect them to get very far..."

"In full respect, Molly, they have discovered certain points of interest that we never would have thought to look at. Hermione, espcially. If anyone has any chance of finding something in that library, they do." Mrs. Weasley gave him a look of defeat. She couldn't argue with that, as much as she may have wished to.

"Is that all?" she asked after a short moment of silence.

"No, no. Not at all. The next thing is probably the most important." At this point Remus looked about, as if trying to find someone who shouldn't be listening. "He says he's found somebody that knows of the stone, an alchemist, no less." Edward perked up at this, now listening more intently. There was another alchemist here? Maybe they knew how he could back to Central...

"Really? Dumbledore found an alchemist? I didn't know there were still that many around..." She cast a quick glance in Edward's direction, almost as if she were disapointed that she hadn't been the only one to find one.

"Yes, he has. I was rather surprised too. Though the boy was in rather poor condition. Seemed as if he hadn't eaten in weeks. Even said something about how he had been trapped in... a suit of armor was it?"

As this bit of information leaked out, Edward felt his heart beginning to pound hard in his chest. An alchemist stuck in a suit of armor? There was only one person he knew that fit that description. Then that meant that possibly...

He sat up straight, turning to look at Remus with wide eyes. "AL?"

Remus, who had mostly been ignoring Edward's prescence in the room until that point, was alarmed by the teen's sudden reaction. He looked at Mrs. Weasley for a moment, as if silently asking whether or not it was safe to say anything else. Not wanting the information withheld from him, the boy tried to calm himself down enough to explain in better detail.

"My younger brother, Alphonse. He was with me before I ended up... here," Ed started. "I thought that he had been left behind or..." The alchemist found he couldn't finish the sentence. Remus seemed to understand.

"He did say his name was Alphonse Elric. And if I'm correct, he has mentioned his older brother a few times," the older man offered. Edward relaxed considerably, leaning back into the cushions of the couch. That meant that Al was in this crazy world too, and, most importantly, alive. He was alive and human. He hadn't been killed during the transmutation, he just hadn't ended up in the same place...

And, if that hadn't raised even more questions, the alchemist might have finally been somewhat content in this world.

-0-

Alphonse had quickly learned to rely on Hermione's knowledge of magic over Harry's or Ron's. Not to say the two boys were stupid, he couldn't really prove that due to the fact he knew little about magic himself and they hadn't had the chance to offer any help so far. Hermione was always the first to answer his questions, and usually came up with good, detailed explanations, so he hadn't had any reason to turn to the others for help.

At the moment, he was sitting at a table in the library with Hermione, Harry, and Ron. The two boys were working on homework of some sort, which Hermione had apparently already finished. She was picking apart a simple alchemical formula Alphonse had given her. Her brow was furrowed as she tried to find somewhat it connected to magic, apparently not having much luck. After a moment's silence, she began to speak.

"Alphonse, I noticed you haven't told us how the stone was made with alchemy," Hermione said eventually, brining up one of the many topics Al had hoped he wouldn't have to face for a while. Of course, he knew it was bound to come up at some point. After all, you couldn't translate alchemical equations to magical ones, assuming they could find out how, without first knowing the ingredients. Still, it was something he didn't want to admit. He had told the wizards that he and Edward had found the stone and used it - but not actually how it was made. Well, he couldn't very well avoid it now without raising suspicion. And he knew keeping it from them wouldn't do any good - it wasn't as if they were about to go and try to make it themselves.

"It was made from... humans," Alphonse explained in a soft voice, not daring look at any of their faces. "Live humans." Almost immediately, two pens stopped scratching away at parchment, and three faces turned to look at Alphonse in slight horror.

"Sound just like the kind of thing Voldemort would be after..." Harry murmered after a moment, his voice filled with a strange type of hatred Al hadn't heard from him before.

"Then... how did you get..." Hermione trailed off, not able to finish the sentence, but the alchemist knew exactly what she was going to ask.

"Somebody else made it and died in the process. Brother didn't want to waste the chance, so he took it before anybody else found out." The blonde-haired boy's tone was surprisingly simple and straight-froward, almost devoid of emotion. It wasn't the kind of voice the other three had heard him use before. "I don't really want to talk about it. I think there might be a way to bypass the human sacrifice by using magic instead. Its probably different." The older teens gave each other a wary look before returning to their previous tasks.

Alphonse tried to return to the book he was reading, but found he couldn't concentrate. He hadn't really thought the book had that much information anyways, so it wasn't as if he were on the verge of a breakthrough. Instead, his mind wandered to the memories of how the stone had come into being, thanks to Hermione's question.

The story wasn't entirely complicated. An anonymous alchemist had been going through small towns, completely wiping them off the map. Edward had been enlisted to find out who was doing this. And in the end, he had. Unfortunately, by the time he had, it was too late. They caught him as he was transmuting a large town into more ingredients for the Philosopher's Stone, just as he had done with the others, they later realized. Ed had called out to him at the last minute, diverting the man's attention for a vital few moments. This lack of attention caused the man his life as he was pulled into the transmutation himself.

After the eerie red light had dispersed, Ed and Al were standing at the edge of what should have been a town. The only thing left to show there there had once been anything there at all was a blood-red stone sitting in the middle of the desolate area. Edward had stormed over and picked it up with a disgusted look on his face. Al had felt similarly, though he hadn't had the face to express it.

Al had been a little surprised when his brother had stuffed the stone in his pocket and walked away, saying they'd head to the next town and go back to Central. The trip back had been more or less silent, neither brother wishing to discuss what had just happened. The only time it had been mentioned again was when Edward told Al of his plan to regain his body. They used an abandoned military warehouse, due to the fact they didn't want anybody seeing the light from the transmutation. Ed had drawn the circle, clapped his hands...

And then... Al had found himself here - human - with Edward nowhere in sight.

'What happened to Brother when I came here?' Al wondered, staring at the book he was holding without reading any of the words. 'Did he get pulled into the transmutation too? Is he... dead?' The younger brother mentally shook his head. No, Ed wouldn't let himself get caught in the transmutation like that. Plus, they had the Philosopher's Stone, why would Equivalent Exchange ask for Edward too? He probably just didn't get sent to this place with Al. He was back in Amestris, reporting to the colonel like he should be.

And he probably thought he'd messed up the transmutation. He probably thought Al was dead. Alphonse sincerely wished that Ed wasn't blaming himself, though, knowing his brother, there was little doubt he was. After all, he blamed himself for just about anything that went wrong whether it was in his power or not.

Giving up on trying to read the book again, Alphonse looked out a large window in the library, looking out on the almost cloudless sky. 'I hope you're alright, Brother...'

"Hey, Al," the young alchemist looked back from the window, looking to see who had called him. Harry had apparently finished his homework now, as the quill had been set down and the parchement rolled up. "You haven't really told us much about your brother. He's an alchemist like you, right?"

Alphonse nodded, setting his book down. He wasn't sure where the sudden interest in his brother had come from, but it was more than likely that the older boy just wanted a distraction. Actually, It offered him a distraction too. Al decided it best to respond.

"Yeah, he's recognized by the state, which is basically the highest level you can get to. You're tied to the military, though, so not all of the greatest alchemists apply, even if they know they could make it." Of course, Alphonse knew exactly who he was referring to. Their teacher, Izumi. Who, unluckily for Edward, held a deep set hatred for the military.

Ron, hearing the oppurtunity for distraction, perked up and now looked quite interested as well.

"Your brother's in the military?" It wasn't Harry or Ron who asked this, but instead Hermione, who looked up from her studies.

And none of them got any more work done that day.

-0-

Roy was filing through paperwork, as usual. And, also as usual, he was not too thrilled to be doing so. After all, what at all was interesting about paperwork? It just required a signature. Which wouldn't be so bad if there wasn't a large stack of papers which required the very same signature. Again. And again. And again.

At least today it seemed there would be a slight distraction - a very small one in fact. A very small, blonde aclehmist by the name of Edward Elric. Col. Mustang had called Edward down yesterday so he could report on his latest mission. However, the alchemist had never shown up. He assumed it was probably a small rebellion of some sort. Today, he had told Lt. Hawkeye to find where Fullmetal had gotten off to - no doubt she would return with him kicking and screaming in a few moments.

And there was no way he could hurl insults at the youngest state alchemist and do paper work at the same time, was there?

Ah yes, his plan was perfect. Only a little longer now, and his hand could have a break from signing his name on all of these fourms...

For the next few minutes, Colonel Mustang was surprisingly efficient with signing fourms and filling out troublesome paperwork. It was no doubt due to the fact he foresaw a distraction which gave him some form of twisted hope. Unfortunately, he wouldn't be getting quite the distraction he had been hoping for.

Roy was somewhat surprised when he heard a polite knock on his office door. He had expected to hear Fullmetal's shrieks of anger from halfway down the hall. Ah well. Maybe Hawkeye had found a way to muffle his shrieks and yells. Or maybe Al had found a foolproof way to contain his older brother's temper tantrums.

That would be the day.

"Come in," he said firmly, still looking as if he were dutifully filling out his paperwork. Riza Hawkeye opened the door with only the noise of the doorknob turning signaling her arrival. No one followed behind her. Roy raised an eyebrow. This was not a good sign.

"Where is Fullmetal?" he asked, setting his pen down abruptly. Sure, he might have made jokes about not being able to see him over the edge of his desk, but that was simply a joke to get him riled. Edward wasn't really that short. Unless maybe he'd shrunk? As ridiculous as it sounded, Roy sat up a little bit straighter in his chair, just to make sure.

"We're not sure, sir." Lt. Hawkeye explained. "When I went to the hotel they were staying at, the room was empty. There was a suitcase left behind, so it seemed as if Edward and Alphonse had simply left on a brief outing. However, when I questioned the people at the front desk, they claimed they had seen the two leave in the evening two nights ago. They haven't been back since." Mustang pondered this information for a moment.

"Then did you check the train station to see if they left?"

"Sir, their bag was still-"

"That doesn't matter. Check at the train station. Ask if anyone saw a suit of armor boarding a train. Or see if there were any tickets sold to anyone by the name of Edward or Alphonse Elric. That's an order. Now go."

Riza's expression showed that she was not very happy with this command, probably that she wished to argue another point. However, she wasn't about to disobey a direct order from anybody, especially not the colonel. She saluted quickly and mumbled "Yes, sir," before turning and walking out the way she had come.

With a frown, Roy returned to his paperwork, now entirely unhappy. His distraction was too short. And, if worse came to worse, there might be even more paperwork to fill out on Fullmetal's behalf. Honestly, he was really only trouble...

Still, despite everything, Colonel Roy Mustang could already feel the first strands of worry snaking their way into the back of his mind.

-0-

Kagura sat among the clouds, her feather drifiting back and forth as the slight breeze her fan created kept it airborn. Usually, this would be a rare moment of relaxation. However, that was not the reason she was floating in the air, so she was determined to loathe every minute of it.

Currently, the wind demon was assigned to take watch over some stupid castle. Why was it her job? For whatever reason, Kanna's mirror was unable to spy on it as usual. Some "powerful" barrier, if Kagura recalled correctly.

She really found herself hating that barrier right now.

At the moment, she knew that her "master" - how she loathed having to refer to him as that - was meeting with some powerful dark lord. She wasn't clear on all of the details - Naraku didn't trust her quite enough. But either way, it certainly sounded more interesting than what she was doing. She was watching a castle. A big freaking castle. It wasn't as if she could see what was happening inside, which was probably where anything important was going on. If anything important was going on. And, at this point, she was really starting to doubt that. The place had basically been dead for the past few hours. No signs of life, apart from a few splashes from the lake. Whatever was living in there was probably not of great importance, so she didn't concern herself with it.

Then, as if a sudden signal had been given, several small figures suddenly filtered out of the castle. At first, Kagura was unable to tell what they were due to being too high in the air. But, as she lowered her feather a bit closer to the ground, she was able to tell that they were humans, still relatively young. They were wearing strange clothing she hadn't seen before, mostly black. She floated a little lower, keeping a close eye on them. Most seemed to be laughing and talking to one another - having a generally good time.

Kagura's hand twitched slightly. Unfortunately, she wouldn't be able to ruin their fun. After all, that would give away her position, which would no doubt complicate things.

And it would earn her another painful, possibly fatal, heart attack.

Of course, Kagura's heart attacks weren't quick like the human kind. In this case, Naraku simply materialized her heart and gave it a good squeeze, reminding her who was boss. She hated it. Almost as much as she hated him and that oh-so-superior smirk of his. What she wouldn't do to see the pleasure of severing his head from his body...

She quickly snapped out of her thoughts, realizing that she was starting to float too close to the ground. Quickly, the breeze flowing around the father swirled faster, pushing it back up among the clouds. If she were high enough up, the feather would be almost indistinguishable amongst the bright sky and scattered clouds. Too low, however, and someone was bound to notice the fact there was a giant feather floating overhead.

Taking her thoughts off of Naraku for good, she went back to what she had been ordered to do. Directing her sharp eyes to the humans below, she began to concoct the absolute perfect way to ruin their day. Hey, she needed some way to keep herself entertained, right?

It wasn't as if she had anything better to do, anyways.

-End Chapter 4-

Ending Notes:

And even more HP characters to attempt to keep in character. Oh lord. I could really use someone to help proofread these chapters. Please? Pretty please with a cherry on top? I'll be forced to do puppy dog eyes!

Yes, I am aware those are dog ears on Inuyasha's head. However, I can't really see a situation in which Ed would find out what kind of demon Inuyasha is. So he shall now refer to them as cat ears. Because it amuses me for some strange, sick reason.

And remember, reviews help keep me motivated. Which makes me write and edit quicker. So if you want me to update, a review would be appreciated. Not pressuring you or anything, though. :3 I'm a reviewerless reader myself most the time, so I don't blame ya.

-Chapter 5 Preview-

So that green light had been meant to kill him... Then why wasn't he dead?

(Review Now!)