It was pure agony- and raw frustration- that made Ed come back again and again to ask Draco. Do you honestly think that is what you want?

It wasn't like he could complain to Al on how frustrating the damn kid was acting (in fact, Alphonse seems to have something wrong going on with him as well).

But it was pure torture seeing the kid run around in circles- acting like he was in control of himself when in reality he just keeps repeating the same words over and over without them being his true feelings. Ed could swear on his automail arms and leg that the kid did not truly mean what he said- majority of the time. He was just stupid the other times.

But Ed tries to calm himself down and give himself closure by attempting to believe that Draco is getting there- that he will stop being the pawn of his stupid old dad and his old beliefs. Cause duh, dads can be stupid and overrated sometimes. But they can be great at times of course.

But Ed couldn't help the sinking feeling in his gut telling him Draco would get in some big trouble due to his father's beliefs and influence. 'Cause that kid sure needed to start thinking for himself.

And that was what Ed thought right before he hit a pillar.


"Brother! Are you ok?" Al asked after seeing Ed's bright red bump. Ed just groaned and plopped himself down next to Al in the library.

"I feel like I haven't slept in years. All this stupid talk is making me just want to hurl because it is so annoying," Ed simply stated and brought his face down to meet the library table. "And my leg started to act up again."

'That's the main reason isn't it!' Al laughed sympathetically. "Have you been using the kit Winry gave you?"

"Uh, honestly, no, but it's 'cause I saw no reason to," Ed meekly said and dragged a book towards himself and flipped to a random page.

"She's going to be really upset. Since there really should be no reason for your leg to be injured in a school."

"Well yea but someone tell her this is a new warzone."

"Brother! It has never been a warzone and has yet to!"

"It obviously will be soon, but anything new on your side?"

"Ginny Weasley has been a lot less active as before. In fact I worry because she seems just so lifeless. It was as if someone or something was disturbing her. I think it goes beyond the fear of the chamber. I think its something that is actually tangible!"

"Hmm, so you see that Ginny may be suspicious? Ok fine, not suspicious but like, someone involved?"

"That's what I think but we should still find out what is the thing we are involved with first."

"Of course, I'm not reckless enough to charge headfirst into a battle I don't know if I can win," Ed assured Al.

Liar.


"What. Is. This. Crap." Ed said with a deadpan expression as he tried to look over the sea of students to see the platform holding his "professor" Lockheart.

Zabini sneered and kept poking fun at Lockheart as he talked. So were majority of the Slyherins. They imitated how he spoke and speculated how badly he was going to be hit. Thank goodness Ed's crew were a bit more civilized.

"Hello everyone! Dumbledore has given me the permission to start a dueling club in case there may ever be a situation in which you must defend yourselves! And here, Professor Snape has volunteered to be my assistant for the day! He has told me that he also knows a bit about dueling as well! Not to worry, he shall be in one piece even after this!

Ed couldn't help himself. He snickered. "Does he think he can beat Snape for real? He wishes."

Lockhart held up his wand before his body and held it ready to blast a spell at Snape or to protect himself- not like he could successfully do it anyways. Snape immediately held up his wand before him and chanted, "Expelliarmus"

That obviously resulted with Lockheart being unable to defend himself and he was slammed into the nearest place. Who would have guessed?

But he quickly got off and patted his arms and legs. "Well that was only a demonstration! Such move is slightly too predictable but I decided that I should at least make it like a proper demonstration.

"So now you try it! Pair up with another person and have a try!"

Immediately there was a movement of people finding a partner. The movement wasn't big of course since majority of people chose to stick with their friends in the same house. Ed tried to maneuver himself over to where Al was but found it very difficult to since the Gryffindor students seemed hell-bent upon trying to push him out. But thanks to Snape pairing up the trio of Harry, Hermione and Ron with Slytherin folks, Ed was able to slip through much more easily.

Snape took a look at the Elric pair and stood in a quiet moment of thought. On one hand he thought it would be a good match up since both were equally matched in skill based off of observation but since they were brothers it seemed like they wouldn't be as competitive.

As if knowing what Snape was thinking, Ed turned to Snape and said, "Don't worry about us, go harass another pair or something."

Snape generally wouldn't have taken such comment lightly but the way how Ed said it amused him. He almost wanted to spoil his fun. Almost.

"Ok since this is only a practice, try not to hurt each other too much! Snape and I will make sure no one gets hurt!" Lockheart declared before letting the match start.

The moment the round started, both Elrics respectfully lowered their heads in a bow. Then they jumped at each other. Ed's hold on his wand was loose. He was definitely planning to use it simply for the sake of either defending or a surprise attack. Al seemed to have the same thinking and threw up a defense spell as Ed rammed himself into the shield with his automatic leg.

Al quickly rolled over to the side as the shield shattered. As his brother landed, Al bent to sweep his brother's feet off the ground then got up quickly to send a roundhouse kick.

Ed nearly lost his balance the moment his leg seemed to break right through the shield but as his foot made contact with the ground, his footing was certainly destroyed by Al kicking his feet under him.

Ed stayed down, knowing that Al would send a kick to follow up and rolled to his right.

He jumped up and summoned a fire spell.

However, Al quickly countered that with a water spell right as he was turning around.

Without hesitating, Al followed up with a punch to Ed's chest. Ed deflected the punch with his arm and pulled up his foot to kick Al's stomach.

Al briefly winced when Ed's foot made contact with his stomach and skidded backwards due to the force behind the kick.

'Did he have to use the automail leg?'

Al crouched and threw his entire body weight onto moving forward to punch Ed in the shoulder. Knowing that Ed predicted that, he quickly switched to a roundhouse kick to the side of Ed's waist.

Ed had moved slightly to deflect the punch and had left his midsection open for Al to throw his leg into.

Ed pushed into his heel to try and control his direction and his footing.

He stood back up with a shield already in case Al tried to counterattack in that split second.

Al had swung himself around already and brought his elbow face-height and pushed.

Ed ducked and sent a kick backwards to offset Al. Having landed the kick, Ed lepted back.

Both Elrics raised their wands again and pointed it at each other.

"Cease!"

Sound flooded back into both Elric's ears and only then did they notice how loud the hall had become. Ed glanced up and saw a weird smoke hanging around the ceiling and Al dropped his wand arm to look at the still struggling students.

"Let's stop right here. Let's see. . . I think you guys need an example. . . How about- no? Alright then! We shall have Harry and Draco show us how it's done!" Lockhart spoke quickly and gestured for Draco and Harry to face off each other.

Ed and Al wandered over to the place where the two were going to face off each other.

"Guess he's too much of a coward to try again with Snape," Ed commented humorlessly- anticipating what show Snape was trying to put on. He saw how Snape specifically led Lockhart to choose the pair.

"I hope nothing too big will happen. . . Even though Lockhart seems useless, I think Harry can defend himself," the younger of the two anxiously said after seeing Professor Snape whisper a spell in Draco's ears.

Draco did not know what the spell would do but he trusted Snape and he did kind of want to exact revenge on Potter for what he did. He pointed his wand straight at Harry with the kind of confidence he saw on Ed- speaking of which, Draco took a quick sweep of the hall and he saw the two brothers standing and watching the spectacle. Feeling a further rush of confidence, he did not hesitate to chant the incantation that was spoken to him earlier.

Draco did not expect to see the black snake appear in front of him after the spell. He jerked backwards with fear. However, he remembered that Professor Snape and Ed were still watching him. He mustered up his courage to look at Potter and was delighted that he was also scared.

"Now, now, this is easy Harry! You just have to," Lockhart pushed his sleeves up and brandished his wand. Draco had no idea what Lockhart was hoping for to happen because the snake just got more angry after Lockhart's spell since it only levitated the snake but then dropped it right back down. Well, he didn't expect anything from that loser of a teacher anyways.

What Draco did not expect to happen either was for the snake to target Justin Finch-Fletchley. Quicker than anyone had time to react- Draco saw Ed race towards Finch-Fletchley out of his peripheral vision- Potter jumped forth and hissed at the snake.

. . He hissed at a snake?!

It seemed to work anyways and the snake stopped in his path of destroying Finch-Fletchley or whatever.

Instead of thanking his savior, Finch-Fletchley scrunched up his ugly little face and shouted, "What was that for!" And tried to stomp off but was stopped by the younger Elric.

Everyone else looked panicked and avoided Potter even after the snake was removed.

Afterwards, Draco caught up with Ed as they were leaving to class.

"Hey Elric, what were you going to do?"

"Huh?"

"I saw you move towards the snake, were you going to grab it?"

"Yea, snakes are not really that scary so I was just going to grab it or get in its way."

"Elric, sometimes I wonder about you."

"Sometimes Draco, I worry more about you. You can't just chant spells you don't even know of," Ed sighed and ruffled his hair in frustration.

"Professor Snape was the one w-"

"You can't always be like that. Because someone tells you to do something you do it? I like to think you're smarter than that Draco."

Draco was offended and felt the tips of ears redden. "What do you know Elric? I'm close with Professor Snape, I'm pretty sure he would have stopped the snake either way!"

Ed sighed and shook his head, "what I'm wondering is why the snake. . . Out of all the animals in the world he picked the snake."

"Well the Slytherin symbol is the snake so that makes sense," Draco replied confused. What was Ed trying to say?

"I know but why, why did he choose a snake and how come Harry was able to stop it. . . It's too coincidental. How Snape got you to summon a snake and somehow, coincidentally- Harry knew how to stop it. I can't wrap my head around the coincidences."


Finally updated, sorry for the long wait.

This chapter is sort of short but I don't have much time to edit it. I should have a better edited version up in two days or so. Just wanted this to be out. Have a great rest of the year!