Ed kicked off his blanket and swore under his breath. Even though the day had long past, he still somehow dreamed of that night again. He tilted his head back and breathed heavily through his nose.
'It's over, it's over,' his breathing evened while he chanted in his head quietly. He flipped his legs over the side of his bed and noticed that Draco was gone.
'Did I really sleep in that long? Well, I should be getting up. . .maybe I'll go out to the field for a run. . .' he absentmindedly thought as he changed his pajamas for his school clothes. He thought about wearing his Flamel robe but decided against it. Didn't want any commotion about not wearing "proper house clothes." Like he cared.
He quietly padded through the dungeon to the exit before pausing. 'Should I bring anything? Hm. . nah.'
He slipped out and quickly navigated outside of the school to the field. His blond hair warmly caressed his neck and made sure that the breeze didn't make his neck cold. Before he reached the field, he saw a group huddled there. Squinting, Ed could see that they were Gryffindors. With more careful analyzing, he saw that Al was there too.
"Hey! Al!" Ed called and jogged over to the center of the field where Al and some kid were. Al jerked his head up when he heard his brother and nervously waved back. The other Gryffindors looked over and scrunched their nose.
"Hey! What are you doing here?" The captain- supposedly- of the Gryffindor team glared and Ed saw that Fred and George waved at him.
"I was going for a walk you see and the-" Ed started but was cut off by a loud sound that came from the other end of the yard.
"Well well, who is it I see here?" The sneering voice of Marcus Flint sliced through the quiet morning air and the Gryffindor captain whipped his head around and glared at his new target. Behind Flint were also a group of Slytherins. Al stood in front of Ed so he was unable to look at the exact members behind the tall Slytherin leader. The tall Slytherin briefly looked over Ed but didn't seem to recognize him with his hair down and turned back to the fuming Gryffindor leader.
"We had this field booked!" the Gryffindor captain complained.
"Well you see Wood, we have a note of permission from Professor Snape," the Slytherin captain sneered and handed the Gryffindor captain the note. Ed watched as Wood got from enraged to confused.
"New seeker? Who?" Wood looked up from the note questioning.
Flint sneered and stepped to the side revealing Draco Malfoy. Ed's right arm immediately inched forward to whack himself in the face. Al looked back at Ed and lightly grimaced. Ed shook his head and inwardly groaned while Flint showed off the fancy new brooms Draco's dad bought them.
'That kid. . .' Ed quietly sighed to himself at the pure stupidity of his house mate and was going to wander off when someone tapped his shoulder.
"What," Ed drawled impatiently and turned around to see the face of one of the twins and Al fiercely shaking his head in the back.
"Wait, aren't you. . .Edward?"
Ed rolled his eyes mentally, "Well, yea, how do you figure?"
Fred blinked, as if he really didn't expect any answer. "Oh, just wanted to say, nice hairdo. Its been a while since we have seen each other over the summer and just wanted to see if you were up to anything new."
Ed mentally groaned. It was too early in the morning for this. "Didn't your brother said I was not to be trusted? Ah, here he comes." Ed acknowledged Ron when he saw Ron get up from the bleachers with Hermione. However, he didn't walk towards them but rather towards the group of players on the field. The twins noticed and hurried over to the court and both Elric brothers trailed after them obediently.
"At least they actually have skill to enter and didn't have to, you know, buy their way in," Hermione challenged and raised one of her eyebrows and placed a hand on her hip.
Draco frowned and opened his mouth to give an insult back at her non-magical heritage but once he saw Ed, he found himself unable to answer. The shorter blond raised his eyebrow in both confusion and to challenge what Draco was going to say.
Flint didn't seem disturbed at Draco's reaction but rather easily drawled, "Skill? What would that do for a team that can't even catch up?"
"Yea, that doesn't help prove your point at all mudblood," Pansy popped up and sneered. She raised her eyebrows in disgust at Hermione's state of hair- fritzy as always. Pansy had snuck up behind Edward when she noticed that Draco was missing and ended up following Ed to the field and proceeded to slither over to the Slytherin Quidditch team.
"Why you-"
"You litt-"
"Pansy?!"
The girls in the Gryffindor team shrieked and Draco shouted in exasperation. Ron pushed up his wand and brandished it towards Pansy, "How dare you- eat slugs!"
Edward blinked as the entire scene changed. One second- Ron had threateningly held out his wand to attack Pansy and the next- Ron was wheezing on the group puking slugs.
"Ew. . ." Edward winced.
"Uh oh, seems like Ron's magical backfired. . ." always so observative, Alphonse frowned and started to make way towards Ron. "Um, can you stand?"
The Slytherins cracked up in laughter. Even Draco couldn't help himself from laughing and fell to the ground. Ed rolled his eyes at the younger's immaturity and approached him.
"Get up. What made you think to do something like this? That is would make you cool?" Ed frowned and looked down at the boy that was laughing on his fours. Ed shook his head in shame and also approached the Gryffindors who were helping up the poor puking boy.
Ed ignored the small boy who held a camera tightly in his hands to assist in helping up Ron and took over for Alphonse. Ron didn't even have time to glare at Ed and could only attempt to keep anymore green slugs from dropping out. Ed patted Ron's back to try and help but only got a glare in return after the slugs finished dribbling down his mouth.
"Brother! Don't do that," Al scolded and Ed shrugged apologetically.
Right when they were about to show up in front of Hagrid's door, Harry shushed them and led them all behind a bush. Before Ed could question in annoyance, Harry pointed to his ear and gestured using his hand to the side of Hagrid's house. While Al tried to remember if there was a spell to cure Ron's misfortune, the others listened to the loud and eccentric voice of Lockhart.
"It'll be very easy if you knew what you were doing! I wrote a whole book concerning the topic as a matter of fact- surprised you don't have one! I'll get a copy and sign it immediately then send it over to you. Till next time then!" And the glittering professor bounced off towards the school.
Once Harry saw that Lockhart was gone, he ushered Ron up with Ed's help and Hermione shook Al out of his trance of thought and went to Hagrid's door. But before he knocked, hesitated and discreetly glanced at Ed out of the corner of his eye.
'Should I bring him in? He is a Slytherin. . .But I think he is trust-able so far. . .but that can be all just a trick! . . .But Al likes him and admires him very much so that should mean he is trust able?"
After a quick 3 second inner debate, Harry knocked urgently on Hagrid's door. Al noticed Harry's few seconds of inner conflict but ignored it seeing that Harry did allow Ed in.
Hagrid immediately came to the door and didn't look pleased but didn't seem upset at the sight of the children. He quickly let them in seeing the pain in Ron's eye and ushered him onto a couch in his hut.
As Ron puked some more slugs, Harry turned to Hagrid, "I heard Lockhart out there, what was he here for?"
"He was trying to give me advice on keeping kelpies out of the well- as if I needed his help," Hagrid informed. "As if I needed his help or advice for that matter. He also boasted on how he defeated some banshee or whatever- if even one word of that was true, I would eat my kettle!" He placed down a teapot and got cups on the table.
Harry looked taken aback by Hagrid's complaint and Al couldn't blame him- he had thought Hagrid was a very nice man that wouldn't complain about other teachers. 'Even if brother did say Professor Lockhart sucked. . .'
Hermione furrowed her brows and opened her mouth to rebuke him but before she said anything, Ed beat her to the punch by laughing out loud.
"I see you and I think the same Hagrid-" Ed choked through his fit of laughter and clutched his stomach whilst he continued to laugh. "I can't manage to take that man seriously- sh-should I even call him a man?"
Hermione fumed and coughed loudly, "Excuse me but I do believe there is a reason why he was chosen. I mean, Dumbledore did choose that man him-"
Ed thumped his head against the back of the sofa and cynically laughed, "As if- chances were, he was the only one available for this- last year was pretty crazy with that professor."
Al noticed how quickly the atmosphere had died down after the words "last year" left his brother's lips. "Um. . ."
"Oh yea, he was indeed the only man who would take the jobs- it's getting hard to get professors for Defense Against Dark Arts.," Hagrid agreed and set down his homemade fudge. "People are starting to think that the position is cursed- not many professors stay for long. " Ron wheezed and coughed up another fit of slugs into bucket. "So, what happened here?"
Al fiddled with his thumbs, "Well, one of the Slytherin girls called Hermione a bad word and all the Gryffindor girls got up immediately and so did the boys."
"Yea, Pansy called her something like, 'mudblood' and the whole Gryffindor team went bonkers- I believing it's a bad phrase?" Ed recalled.
Hagrid looked furious, "He didn't!"
"He did." Hermione agreed but elaborated, "but I wasn't sure what it meant since it was my first time hearing it but it must have been pretty bad?"
Ron clutched the base of his throat and explained, "It's an insulting phrase used towards people who are muggle-born- born into a non-magical family. There are some of the more pretentious wizard families out there and Malfoy and Pansy are undoubtedly part of those families. Those pure-blooded families believe that they themselves are the best and that the muggle-born wizards or witches have "bad blood" because they aren't entirely of a magical background. But I see no diff-" Ron was cut off when he got a sudden coughing fit and retched many slimes.
"So it's basically a phrase labeling those of non-magical background and making fun of their blood?" Ed hummed in disapproval and disappointment as he poked the fudge with a toothpick.
"I don't think there is a difference though? I mean, it seems like Hermione can do spells as well as Ron can and I think- Ron, you are a 'pure blood' right?-" Ron nodded, "and he is a pureblood! Isn't that kind of stupid to label someone like that even though they are just as good as a child of a family with pure magical blood?"
Hagrid nodded and agreed, "Well Ron, I see now why you tried to curse Pansy- but it is surprising. I would have thought Lucius' boy Malfoy to say such words rather than Pansy- not that she is any better."
"I don't believe that Draco is a hateful person at heart, it is just his upbringing that caused him to be that way, " Ed proclaimed before taking a bite of the fudge. Harry tried to stop him but failed and Ed found his mouth to be sealed by the fudge.
"Yea that may be true. As a Slytherin you must see that the most clearly?" Hagrid pondered and red-faced Ed nodded and head and chewed furiously. "Oh yea Harry, I also heard something interesting concerning you and your popularity recently."
Harry shook his head furiously and looked so frustrated that Hagrid continued no further.
"Alright. Want to see what I have growing? You too Ed," Hagrid motioned out the door and to a small vegetable patch outside. On the small patch of land, there were 12 huge pumpkins and Harry briefly thought about asking Ed to stand next to them but decided against them.
"H-hey Ed, h-how about you try standing next to those?" Ron chuckled while grimacing from the pain in his stomach. He noticed Harry looking at Ed and the pumpkin and decided if the boy-who-lived wasn't going to ask- he would.
It took Ed a while to get it but once he did, he turned with rage to face Ron and Hagrid had to hold the small blond back from hitting the ginger.
"That wasn't very nice Ron," Al smiled briefly before turning to Hagrid, "but jokes aside- your garden is dashing! The pumpkins are so large! What did you use to make them that big?"
Hagrid nervously glanced around then placed a hand behind his neck, "Well, I've been giving the pumpkins some help you see. . ."
"Oh, you used a charm for making them bigger? I see- wait- you actually have a wand?" Ed exclaimed after finally freeing his mouth from the pasty brownie. Ed looked astonished. He thought a simple gardener wouldn't have had a wand!
"Err, you see. . ." Harry looked reluctant to tell Ed the reason behind but Hagrid didn't miss a beat and bent down to whisper to Ed and Al.
"You see boys, I actually had my wand taken away from me before so I do have a wand but am technically not suppose to use it."
Ed smirked, "I see, you're a rule breaker?"
Hagrid chuckled a little and Harry had to wonder why Hagrid was so open to the Elric brothers.
"Does it change the taste of the pumpkin if you do that? Al curiously asked and Hagrid explained that engorging the size of the pumpkin didn't really decrease or enhance the pumpkin flavor.
Finally, Harry, Ron and Hermione had to excuse themselves head off for lunch while the Elrics decided to stay behind.
"Is there a reason why you are unable to use your wand?" Al gently asked Hagrid as they took a seat at the table again.
Hagrid coughed loudly and got up to get some more tea.
"It seems like a pretty sore subject to him. . ." Al muttered downcast.
"Well, everyone has their secrets I guess. It happens but I do think I need to talk to Draco. . . " Ed glanced briefly at his left leg. He bent down and started rubbing at the area where he remembered metal met flesh. It was a bitter memory and he had a gut feeling that Hagrid's circumstance wasn't at all pretty.
Al smiled, "I guess that is true. It doesn't seem like any of the teachers know about us. I don't think Dumbledore told them?"
"Nope, I don't think that man would give away our secrets like that. He seems trustworthy enough," Ed mumbled. "But I have a feeling that something isn't going to be right this year. Since last year was pretty chaotic, it would be great if that Dark Lord or whatever isn't coming back but- ugh- we have such a useless Defense Against Dark Arts teacher that if he wanted to attack us- this would be the optimal time," Ed complained and kicked his right foot over his left.
"But brother, I thought you loved adventures?"
"True Al, true."
I'm so sorry! School was pretty hectic for the past few months and I feel so guilty for not updating .
But thanks for those nice reviews ^^
I do apologize for this terribly slow update but to answer a questions!
No : The professors do not know about Ed and Al's real age. Dumbledore saw no reason to tell the other teachers- as long as they didn't cause too big of a trouble, he would not say anything. (So only McGonagall and Dumbledore really know all the details)
This chapter wasn't too eventful but I just wanted the scene with Draco "buying" his way into Slytherin as something Ed would want to change now that he has witnessed it first hand. This chapter doesn't have too much but winter break is coming up soon for me so I look forward to starting the next chapter and will try to make it long and update it as soon as possible!
Thank you GoddessDana, percab8531, coronadomontes, goodgirl275 (I love reading your encouragement), Falcrow42, and Cielo-Caelum!
(I'll try to get the trouble making ready soon ^^ Fred, George and Ed meet once again!)
(Oh, and sadly, I don't think a beta will make me update quicker Orz)
