Envy had been pretty tempted to kill Lockhart after the whole debacle in the bookshop. He was just about to leave so as not to give in to the urge when the great Moron of Morons himself announced that he would be teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts this year.
Great.
Envy did not want at teacher who greeted everyone with a list of his achievements and flashed a grin at every girl who crossed his path, no matter the age. Talk about creepy.
Now, having finished his school shopping, he was taking a look around the place known as Knockturn Alley, features morphed so that he couldn't be recognized, and school supplies in a bag hanging at his side. It was dark, all right, and he could see why Mrs. Weasley wouldn't let her children come down here. Still, Envy found it fascinating—who wouldn't want to stare at human skulls and cursed artifacts all day?
. . . Well, maybe normal people didn't like this stuff, but Envy wasn't by any means normal.
Looking through the window of Borgin and Burkes, a shop which Harry had mentioned earlier, Envy peered at an array of creepy objects set in a haphazard line on the top shelf. Several books, undoubtedly about Dark Magic, a large jar with something green inside it, and a glowing blue clock. Nothing much to look at.
He was pushed out of the alley half an hour later by an older wizard who thought that Knockturn Alley was not the business of any children. He wanted to snap at the man that he was older than just about anyone in this world, but he knew his outburst would be passed off as utter nonsense.
With a huff, he stalked back up Diagon Alley until he reached the wall dividing the alley from the Leaky Cauldron, tapped it to let it know he wanted back through, and marched through the pub until he reached the door and left back into Muggle London.
'-'
Envy closed his Transfiguration textbook with a yawn. Two weeks was a bit of a while for him to take finishing a new book on the subject, but since Ian frequently burst into his room and interrupted him, it was no surprise.
Speaking of which, he could hear footsteps outside his room. With practiced ease, he shoved the spellbook under his pillow and folded his hands behind his head, staring at the ceiling as if he was just thinking about something.
Right on cue, the door flew open, banging against the wall behind it. Envy feigned surprise and jolted into a sitting position. He then groaned and leaned back onto his pillow. "What is it this time, Ian?"
The boy was almost floating in place with how fast he was jumping up and down. "Envy, guess what! Dennis came over with his brother, come on, let's go talk to them!"
Envy sighed. He remembered now—Ian had been babbling on for days about how his friends were coming for a visit.
Ian was already gone from the doorway by the time Envy hauled himself to his feet. Once he had survived getting down the stairs (he'd tripped), Envy could immediately see why Ian was friends with these other kids; all three of them were excitedly chattering away and each other and bouncing in place like there was no tomorrow. For a moment he thought Ian had multiplied.
Upon seeing that Envy had joined them, Ian did a little twirl where he stood. "Envy! This is Dennis and Colin!"
Envy began automatically tuning out Ian while thinking about how much the boy exclaimed, but came back to himself a moment later when the blond said something particularly loud about dinosaurs.
Not absolutely sure what he had said, Envy just nodded in agreement. Ian beamed, and he took that as a sign that it had been the sort of thing you're supposed to agree or disagree with.
"Hey Envy, do want to see a cool—"
"Nope." Envy sighed at the disappointed look on Ian's face. "I'm a bit tired. Maybe some other time."
Ian still looked a bit dejected. "Okay. . . ." Then a grin, which Envy would have thought was evil if he didn't know better, spread across the boy's face. "But you're coming next time." Mood back to normal, the seven-year-old turned back to his friends and the three of them bounced away to the common room.
Envy decided to compare them to rabbits.
'-'
Envy tapped his foot on the floor impatiently. At this point he had given up standing around and had loaded his luggage into a compartment on the Hogwarts Express. Now he was leaning against the wall next to the barrier leading to Muggle King's Cross and waiting for someone he knew to come through.
He checked his watch, a recently acquired item that Eliza had given him just in case.
10:49
A trolley rushed through the barrier, immediately followed by Hermione and her parents.
She looked around briefly and jumped when she noticed him watching her. "Oh, there you are, Envy! I didn't expect to find you so quickly."
He grinned. "I guess I've developed a habit of sneaking up on you. Come on, I saved us a compartment." He pushed himself off the wall and began winding his way through the crowded platform, the Grangers close behind, and climbed into the train once he reached it. He waited for Mr. and Mrs. Granger to help their daughter get her luggage through the door before moving on.
An unsure first year was standing in front of the compartment when they reached it, but Envy rudely shooed him away and pulled the door open, letting a disapproving Hermione enter first.
"Thank you." She pulled her trunk into the compartment behind her and began attempting to store it on the rack above. Envy sighed and got in behind her—it was obvious that the girl wasn't going to be able to get the trunk up on her own.
"Here." Their combined efforts soon had the luggage in its place. Envy swept some of his regrown hair out of his face and jabbed a thumb out the window. "I'm going back out there to wait for Harry and the Weasleys. You coming?"
She nodded and they both left the compartment and exited the train.
The amount of people still standing on the platform was decreasing at a fast pace as the students went to find seats, so it was easy to spot the redheads who had just come through the barrier. However, Envy noticed something wasn't quite right with the group.
He glanced over at Hermione, who also appeared to have realized that Harry was not to be seen among the Weasley clan, judging by the worried expression on her face.
Fred and George were the first to spot them, and they both grinned.
"Hello Hermione—"
"—Envy," continued the one who had not first spoken. "Listen, about that prank idea—"
Envy cut him off before he could continue. "Where's Harry?"
The Weasleys paused in their greetings and chatter and looked around. Apparently, they couldn't see Harry either.
"Perhaps he and Ron haven't passed through the barrier yet?" Hermione speculated anxiously.
Envy almost slapped himself when he realized Ron was missing as well. It was hard to keep track of all these gingers. He really did slap himself at his next thought. "This is like the Floo powder incident all over again," he muttered. Was it possible to pass through the barrier and end up in the wrong place?
"I'll check on them," Mr. Weasley volunteered. He turned around and started walking back the way he had come, only to crash into the wall, and look rather ridiculous while he was at it.
Mrs. Weasley gasped. "By Merlin—! Arthur, are you all right?"
Mr. Weasley winced and gingerly touched his face. "Yes, I'm fine. What on earth is wrong with the barrier?"
Envy glanced down at his watch and interrupted everyone's confused, "I don't know"s. "Hey, it's almost eleven o'clock. The train's about to leave."
This sent everyone into a panicked frenzy. There was a moment of indecision before they left the barrier; they might be worried about Harry and Ron, but they needed to get on the train as soon as possible because it left at exactly eleven o'clock, without waiting for lagging students.
Ron and Harry still hadn't shown up by the time Mrs. Weasley had loaded them onto the train, so the two Weasley parents saw them off with promises to search for the missing boys after they left the platform. Then the train started and they were swept out of sight.
The group stood there for a moment.
Percy cleared his throat. "Well, I have a prefect meeting to attend to." Despite his pompous demeanor, his voice betrayed worry. No one pointed it out, however, and they allowed him to push his way through the crowded corridor to wherever the prefects held their meetings.
The twins glanced around. "Well, we'd better go find Lee." With that, they also left, shoulders tense.
Next to Envy, Hermione took a breath. "Let's go to our compartment, shall we? You can sit with us if you'd like, Ginny."
The red-haired girl nodded, and the the three of them squeezed their way through the dwindling crowd of students in the corridor and down the car to the compartment Envy had claimed earlier. About half the students had filtered into compartments once they reached theirs, leaving them a lot more room to move around. This also made it very easy to get to the door, look through it, and see the blond boy swinging his legs back and forth in front of him and sitting in Envy's seat. He was really familiar, but Envy wasn't quite sure why—he was mostly annoyed at the brat for taking his spot, anyway.
He pushed open the door with a small bang. "Get out of our compartment, pipsqueak."
The kid looked up and grinned. "I knew it was you!"
Envy blinked and stared for a moment, trying his best to come up with an intelligent response; "Huh?"
"You're Envy Novus, Ian's friend! It says so on your trunk."
It was then that Envy remembered. "Oh, you're one of Ian's clones—I mean pals." He momentarily forgot about the two girls standing behind him. "What are you doing in my compartment?"
The boy beamed. "I was looking for a place to sit, and this one didn't have anything in it except a couple of trunks, so I thought I'd wait around and ask to sit here, and then I saw the name on your trunk!"
"Right. . . ." Envy scratched the back of his head. "Well, you're going to have to move over a seat. I'm sitting there."
Colin (finally, Envy remembered his name!) moved without fuss, and soon all all four students were seated, Ginny's trunk having been stored above them.
Hermione struck up a conversation with a tentative Ginny, and Envy was left with the chattering Colin.
"So you're a wizard too, Envy?"
"Well," he drawled sarcastically. "I might be, seeing as I'm sitting on a train on my way to a wizard school."
"Cool! This explains a lot; Ian says you have some weird things in your room."
Envy sighed and had just about resigned himself to a day of chittering eleven-year-olds (he shuddered to think what Colin would be like on sugar) when there was a timid knock on the door and it opened. Neville poked his head inside.
"Uh, hi. Can I sit here?"
Hermione smiled. "Of course Neville!" She gestured to the open seat on the other side of Ginny, and from there the conversations spread to both sides of the compartment. Eventually the talk turned to family professions.
"My parents are dentists," Hermione put in after Neville admitted that his grandmother didn't work because she was old and that they had a fortune anyway.
"What do your parents do, Envy?" Neville asked.
Hermione winced, but Envy ignored her. "I grew up in an orphanage."
Guilt washed over Neville's face. "Oh, sorry."
"Do you have any family at all, if you don't mind me asking?" Hermione said.
Envy shrugged. "I don't think so."
An awkward silence fell, but fortunately Colin broke it.
"My dad's a milkman."
FINISHED! THE CHAPTER IS DONE, AND ONLY AFTER A LITTLE OVER TWO WEEKS! *celebrates* It would seem I'm getting better at updating. :D
Colin's dad really is a milkman, though. . . . XD
Anyway, a guest reply:
Guest: Even though the other Homunculus won't be there? Will anyone else from FMA be in the fanfic?
Nope, it's just Envy. :)
Thanks for getting me past the 100 mark on favorites and reviews! You know, I came back from a five-day camping trip to ten alerts and several favorites, it was quite a pleasant surprise. ^-^ (Meanwhile: *has a staring contest with the lizard that was crawling across the livingroom floor*)
I've decided Envy's owl is female. But of course, Envy doesn't know that. . . . XD
I keep forgetting to do this, but I'm going to shamelessly advertise my other in-progress fanfiction, Heist. It's not a crossover, just Fullmetal Alchemist, and its content includes Ed being a thief and Mustang catching him. ^-^ So if you'd like, please check it out!
One last thing, I drew a picture of Ian (or at least, his head) on whim and posted it on DeviantArt. I'll put a link somewhere near the top of my profile page for anyone who wants to see it.
-Quiet Leaf