Vwala! A chapter for Harry Potter and the Quadwizard Tournament! Hahaha! Ehem…well, I'm a still tryin' to come up with somethin' for the Gates story, I mean I've GOT something for it. Just the getting there thing and all this spontaneous procrastinating and stuff. Please don't kill me because of my excuses, it's a horribly bad habit of mine (though not half as bad as my memory). Well anywhozles, here ya go!

Chapter Eleven: Christmas in Gryffindor Commons

Edward woke with a start when something rather heavy landed right on top of his bed; sitting straight up he looked around quickly for the culprit that woke him. Alphonse was hastily getting off, he must have attempted to jump on the bed like he used to when they were kids, raising a tired eye brow Ed grumbled,

"What? What is it? What's going on?"

"It's Christmas silly, common you should see all the presents! Harry and the others are already down in the commons room, we've been waiting forever for you to wake up."

"Huh, oh right," Edward nodded, his composition changing from tired and slightly irritated to pleasantly amused, "gimmie a sec." He slipped out of bed and put a pair of slippers on, then followed Al out of the boys' dorms and down to the commons room. There Harry, Ron, and Hermione were all sitting around the fireplace opening their presents. Harry looked up and said,

"Look who finally woke up! I thought you were dead or something."

"Geez, who sleeps through Christmas?" Ron retorted.

"Oh you boys, leave him alone." Hermione scolded. Ed just heaved a halfhearted sigh and shrugged.

"Guess I was more tired then I thought," he said, "Now…which ones are mine?" Ed was rubbing his hands together with a mockingly greedy look on his face. Everyone laughed; Al pointed to a small pile of neatly wrapped gifts on a nearby table. Edward walked over and picked up the very top gift and sat down,

"Hey Al, this one is for you, it's from Winry." Ed smirked tossing it at his younger brother, apparently both their gifts had been mixed together. Al caught it and tore into it.

"Oh good! I was starting to run low." Al cheered, Winry had sent him an industrial sized can of oil so he could polish his armor.

"Heh, I've never seen anyone so happy to get oil before." Ron muttered scratching the back of his head.

"That's because you've never seen anyone who needed it like Al does." Ed laughed, "If he doesn't polish himself up every once in a while he'd get rusty and then he wouldn't be able to move very well."

"Yeah," Al nodded setting the can down, "Hey, this one is for you brother." Al said. Ed picked up the next package on the pile and examined it; this one was from everyone at Central Command. He'd been hoping it was one from Winry considering it probably wouldn't be something of odd taste. Carefully unwrapping the unfeastive blue wrapping paper with the State Hexagram on the top, Ed tossed the paper to the side.

It was…a military uniform? Edward held it up and looked it over; it was definitely a military uniform. A small note fell out of the front pocket of the blue jacket and landed at his feet, Ed knelt down and picked it up, upon reading the note his bewildered look turned into that of irritated rage.

"What the!"

"What is it brother?" Al asked.

"That no good…skirt chasing…" Ed was turning red now, "I'll get him for this…" he growled. Alphonse took the note from his fuming brother and read it out loud.

"Dear FullMetal, Due to the fact that you have gotten away on many occasions for not having and wairing the State issued uniform, we took it upon ourselves to investigate this matter. After recent discovery, that you in fact went to the issuing office and requested a uniform but was unable to receive one, we took it upon ourselves to investigate further. We just recently discovered that the reason why you didn't get one was in fact because the military did not make custom uniforms for those who were not of proper…stature. Therefore! Because of my rank I ordered one made just for you. Sincerely, Colonel Roy Mustang. P.s. I do hope they didn't use too much fabric."

Alphonse looked up from the note at his brother, who was failing to keep a very angry grimace from his face and said,

"Oh…heh…"

Everyone else though was laughing, when Harry was finally able to calm down enough to speak he said,

"Wow, your friends sure have an odd sense of humor."

"Yeah, but you can't help but think that's funny." Ron agreed. Edward just swiped the note away from Al and roughly rolled it into the uniform tossing it to the side grumbling,

"I do hope he finds the sense of humor in HIS Christmas gift. Let's move on to the next gift shall we." He picked up another box, this one for Al from the E.C. as well. It ended up being a new loincloth with the State Hexagram in the center. Edward then opened one of his, this one from Winry this time. It was a small tool kit, there was a note with this as well, and it said something about due to the fact that she wasn't able to be there to fix his automail herself he'd have to do it. There were also instructions on how to go about repairing his automail.

"I have no idea what all this means…" Edward said looking over the instructions. The two brothers then moved onto opening the gifts from Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Rons' mother had also sent them something; Edward got a sweater with a big gold 'E' in the center. Alphonse got one similar only it was his size with a large 'A' in the middle.

"Heh, I don't think my mum got the clue that you're a suit of armor and don't get cold." Ron laughed. Alphonse laughed too and said,

"Don't worry, I like it!" Harry and Hermione had gotten Al some books on magic, before, Al had mentioned being moderately interested in the history behind magic and how long it had actually been around. They all had gotten Edward books as well but with one or two of their own little things. Like Harry had added a book on Quidditch, Ron had tossed in wizards' chess set and Hermione added more books.

Finally Ed picked up the last gift, which was a rather large package and looked at the tag, he turned ghostly pale, then a rather pale green color.

"What is it brother? Who's this one for?" Alphonse asked.

"It's for the both of us…"

"Who's it from? I've only ever seen you make that face twice, and that's with Artimus and…Teacher." Al said.

"Heh…Al…are you read for this?" Ed asked.

"Yeah…" Al nodded hesitantly. Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked at each other, then at the two brothers. Hermione asked cautiously,

"Is there something the matter?"

"Yeah…this gift…" Ed said pointing to it, he was looking at it as if it was about to spring to life and attack him without warning, "It's from…our teacher."

"Your teacher? You mean one from your school?" Ron asked.

"Heh, you could say that…she was the one who taught us alchemy back when we were kids." Alphonse said.

"Kids! Wait, you were kids when you learned alchemy?" Hermione asked slightly surprised.

"Yeah, we should talk about that later though," Ed shivered, "We better get this over with." Reaching out and very carefully started to tare the paper away from the box.

"Oh come on, you two are acting silly." Hermione said, "It's not going to blow up or something."

The two brothers just stopped and looked at her, it was only apparent on Eds' face but they all could tell that the two brothers were mentally saying that it was very possible and that if they wanted to live they'd step back. Edward went back to unwrapping the gift slowly until all the paper was set aside. The two brothers took a deep breath and opened the box, the two looked inside slowly.

"What…in the…world?" Edward said sticking his hand in the box; he pulled out an even smaller box. He looked it over then opened it, inside was a nicely engraved invitation.

"What is that?" Al asked. Edward took it out and read the invitation. Harry and the others had all leaned in close to get a look at it.

"…" Ed bit his lower lip and looked up and around worriedly.

"Brother? What is it? What did she send us?" Al asked, he had a slightly frantic sound to his voice. Eds' only response was a funny sound that was a cross between an exasperated moan and crying.

"You don't look so good." Harry said.

"She's…she's coming here…" Ed said, he looked like he was about to be sick. Alphonse jumped up involuntarily nearly toppling over and landing on the three young wizards.

"You're not serious are you brother!" he gasped.

"What's so bad about your teacher coming here?" Ron asked.

"You've never met our teacher!" Edward snapped, it wasn't out of anger but more out of nerves.

"No, they haven't Edward…" came a sudden voice from the direction of the portrait. Edward bristled and Alphonse ducked behind the table, but due to his size he wasn't hidden very well. Harry, Ron, and Hermione turned and looked up, there stood a rather young looking woman with long black dreadlocks pulled back in a high pony tail. She was in a white dress with black pants and a black jacket; this lady had a very stern look about her.

"Who are you?" Hermione asked, "How'd you get in here?"

"I used the password," the lady said, "I was invited." She then looked down at Edward, who was now cowering behind his chair and said,

"When I got this very interesting letter from a man named Albus Dumbledore saying that my two idiot apprentices had taken part in this tournament, he very kindly invited me to watch…and help."

"T…t…teacher? What do you mean…help?" Ed stuttered.

"For some task, it's a dual."

"Wait, you never told us who you are." Harry said jumping in; Edward shot him a look of pure shock at his boldness.

"Oh right, I'm sorry." She smiled turning to the three wizards; "I'm Izumi Curtis, Ed and Als' teacher."

"Wow! You're so young!" Ron gasped.

"Why thank you!" Izumi smiled looking rather flattered; she then glared at Ed and Al, "Such good manners these friends of yours have."

"Yes! Very good!" both brothers said simultaneously.

"But as I was saying," Izumi said getting back to business, "I was invited to be apart of one of the tasks. It's a duel between wizards and alchemists."

"So you believe in all this magic stuff?" Edward asked.

"I find it interesting, why, don't you?" Izumi answered. Edward just held up his hands saying he agreed with her.

"You think it's the next task brother?" Alphonse asked.

"It could be…" Edward said thoughtfully.

"So, Edward, you're the one taking part?" Izumi said, "Alright, lets' see this tattoo I heard about."

Edward obediently held out his hand and showed Izumi the tattoo on his hand; she looked it over until a frown drew across her face.

"I've never seen this kind of mark before, not even as a part of a transmutation circle." She said, Izumi then looked at Ed and asked, "Where's this girl I heard about?"

"Artimus? Oh she left, she said she'd be back later on." Edward shrugged.

"That so?" Izumi sat down on a chair and looked around the room until her eyes fell on the mess of wrapping paper, "Edward…Alphonse…"

"Yes?" they both replied.

"Get this mess cleaned up…afterwards we're going outside and training." Izumi said, she had the 'do it now or feel my wrath' look in her eyes and they knew to obey or there would be trouble. Harry, Ron, and Hermione had never seen two people clean up a mess so fast, if given the chance the two Elrics probably would have kept going if their teacher hadn't stopped them.

"So…" Harry muttered after the three alchemists had disappeared out of the commons room, "one of the tasks is going to be a duel."

"Yeah…" Ron sighed.

"Izumi seems like a nice lady." Hermione said.

"Heh, she seems to scare the living stuffing out of Ed and Al though." Ron muttered dryly. Harry though was contemplating what the headmaster was thinking in inviting another alchemist to take part in the tournament. Was it possible that he would have to duel against an alchemist? That would prove interesting considering he knew little of the art to begin with.

-To Be Continued-

Ack! I can't write anymore! (Tonight) Ack! Ack! Ack! I just had the surprise of my life! I'm still all 'OMG!' and '…' (I'm so speechless I can hardly think right). But anywhozles, I should have a few more chapters this week…for Hand in Hand and Millennium Awakening. I might have somethin' for Human Nature, still workin' on Gates (sorry guys! Just a wittle longer!). The Dawn of Haymaker is at a temporary stand still, the invisible elves don't want to work with that one, it could be a possible union or something (no offence to anyone, the elves tend to follow the world events more then I do so they know a lot about stuff). Review! –Hugs-