~Chapter Eight: Suspicions~
A/N: that is all.
all things Harry Potter (c) J.K. Rowling
all things Fullmetal Alchemist (c) Hiromu Arakawa
"There's no hope left; they know your secret, Edward Elric. You know that no one will let you succeed."
Edward gritted his teeth in fury at the invisible voice that sounded strangely like The Truth echoing in his mind.
"Shut up, you bastard!"
"The stone's not at Hogwarts; you've made a grave mistake following Dumbledore to that idiosyncratic school. You FOOL!"
Ed really felt all hope leave him at that statement; his golden eyes widened in agony as he felt his guilt weigh him down, as if he had an automail heart pressing hard within his chest. Al's face appeared, and then disappeared before him, his last human expression of fear scorching his older brother to the core. Ed couldn't bear watching his little brother's torture over and over and over and—
"No! ALPHONSE!"
"AH!" Ed bolted upright beneath the sheets of his four-poster bed, quickly covering his mouth in sudden anxiety. Did any of the others awaken from his inadvertent shriek of terror? As he peeked around the room, though, everyone else seemed to be sound asleep. Perhaps his rude awakening had not been as rough on anyone else's ears as his own, or perhaps the scream only existed within the nightmare…
Alphonse.
Ed sighed heavily with drowsiness and unease; there was no way he was getting back to sleep now. So instead, he hopped out of bed and grabbed his wand, a quill, and a couple of sheets of parchment. He sat back upon the bed and lifted his dark wand up to his face.
"Lumos," he whispered, and the wand's tip illuminated softly. He set it down next to his spot on the bed and contemplated only for a moment before beginning to compose his letter to Alphonse:
Hey Al,
Sorry I didn't write to you sooner; you won't believe how fast-paced everything is here. I have so much to tell you about, starting with the first day, I guess. By the way, I ended up in Gryffindor, if you were wondering; they sort people into the different houses by putting a talking hat on their head and letting it decide. It was weird, and it almost put me in Slytherin…that would've been bad. I really hate Slytherin people. They're jerks, all of them! I can see now why Harry and Ron despised that House so much when they first told me about it. Speaking of those two, they're so far the two closest things I have to friends here; I think Ron likes me a little more than Harry does. Harry seems like he's always really suspicious about me all the time; gets on my nerves.
Oh, and you won't believe the snobby little smart-ass I met! UGH, she literally followed us halfway around the school the other night just to nag. Gave me a freaking headache; more on that later, though.
The classes are both a lot more interesting than I had anticipated and a lot more difficult as well. I'm taking Astronomy, Herbology, Transfiguration, Potions, Defense Against the Dark Arts, History of Magic and Charms classes this year, plus the occasional flying lessons. Those aren't very fun; I had an interesting time asking the teacher what the weight limit of the broomsticks was. You should've seen the look on her face—but it's a valid concern, this automail's heavy stuff, you know! Well…I guess she wouldn't know. I doubt that many of the professors know, actually, and none of the students have found me out either. I am constantly on edge with this secret; I even sleep with my gloves on nowadays, just to make sure none of my roommates catch a glimpse of my hand. It's all really nerve-wracking, Al. I feel like such a phony and a liar—that really is all I am now, isn't it? No one knows the truth here; I really have no connection to this school whatsoever.
Eh, anyway, back to the classes; Herbology and Astronomy are easy enough, but the ones requiring wandwork—Transfiguration and Charms—are giving me some trouble. I figured out that I can't use my wand as well in my prosthetic hand as in my human hand, which is odd because alchemy, which is SUPPOSED to be magic works just fine with my automail. Huh. Also, according to my Transfiguration teacher, Professor McGonagall, I have developed a mental block to magic because I've thought of alchemy as a science for all this time. Which really makes sense, if you think about it? After all, you of all people know just how much of a skeptic I can be!
Professor McGonagall also told me something else that makes me wary; she warned me about letting other teachers unknowing of my secret know who and what I really am. This confused me; aren't the teachers supposed to be on my side? Apparently not; this school is just too weird, Al. And kind of spooky; they have ghosts here!
The Potions teacher seriously pissed me off the first day, though. In fact, I got a detention from him and even got kicked out of the class. It was bad, Al; you see, he's the Head of Slytherin House; therefore he has favoritism towards his students and treats Gryffindors like crap. He was being completely unfair to Harry all class long, and eventually…well, I boiled over. I admit, bad move on my part, but dammit he pissed me off! It was worth it; the detention really wasn't that bad, except that he kept giving me dirty looks, the bastard. This guy is just creepy, though, Al; he has this gleam in his eyes that's just pure evil. It's disturbing; makes me think McGonagall's warning is a necessary one after all. I know for a fact that he does not know of the secret, and at this point I seriously hope he never finds out.
Ok, now I have to tell you about my least favorite person here; his name is Malfoy. Draco Malfoy. (and that's how he introduced himself! What an idiot…) He treats people not in Slytherin like dirt, and he's got this dumb, foppish attitude about him. I almost got into several fights with him; he made me, Harry and Ron so mad. Anyway, the other day he challenged me to a Wizard's Duel…whatever that is. I think it's a kind of battle fought only with wands. He told the three of us to meet him in the trophy room at midnight that night, and somehow our trio ended up traveling with two more people, and then when we got to the trophy room, THE ASSHOLE WASN'T THERE. In his place was the grumpy old caretaker, Mr. Filch, who was on the lookout for students out of bed. So, of course, we ran for our lives halfway across the school and eventually lost him by going inside some random door we found in the Charms corridor. However, that door just happened to lead to another corridor containing a giant, hungry three-headed dog ready to bite our heads off. I swear I'm not lying, Al, this is completely true! THIS SCHOOL IS CRAZY! The thing was disgusting, drooling on us and scaring the life out of this kid named Neville, who was one of the unwanted additions to the group. While in the corridor, however, I noticed that the horrible beast was standing on a trap door—which means it was guarding something. Earlier that week Harry had mentioned that when he went with him to Gringotts, Hagrid extracted a mysterious package from a random vault in the bank. Harry said he didn't see what it was, but he described the packaging as being small, able to fit in a coat pocket, in fact.
I know that's what's through that trapdoor, that mysterious package. And I plan to get through there and see for myself sometime in the future. But first I need to do more researching; I need to be certain that it's really the Philosopher's Stone hidden in the third floor corridor.
So that's my hypothesis; I don't want you to get your hopes up just yet, though, in case I'm wrong. Who knows, Dumbledore may have lied to me and you. Magic may exist, but I'm still not sure it can help us out of our predicament. I'm a little more hopeful now, after seeing it at work for the past two weeks—you wouldn't believe how many times I've seen the professors break the Law of Equivalent Exchange with ease. It's astounding; everything we thought we knew, proven incorrect right before our eyes…well, my eyes, for right now, at least until you attend the school next year. I hope things will be better for us, better for you this time next year.
I miss you more than you know, Al. It's been torture, being away from you. I still have nightmares about that night…and it feels wrong, me being here in this strange, foreign place without you by my side. You're all I have left, you know, despite my new friends. After all, can you really call someone your ally if they truly know nothing about you?
Tell Granny and Winry I said hi and that I'm taking care of myself and my automail—I swear!
Missing you a ton, brother,
Ed
Ed folded up the three-page long letter and stuffed it inside an envelope, yawning hugely as he whispered to his wand, "Nox." After being engulfed in darkness, he slid the letter beneath his pillow, resigning to take it up to the owlery first thing in the morning before going to breakfast…or not. Perhaps his time would be better spent researching in Hogwarts' huge library. Ed sighed heavily; how much research would it require to be made certain that the stone is in the school? He wanted nothing more than to get Alphonse out of that damned armor, and to restore his own missing limbs. So I won't have to lie anymore. I'm tired of wearing this mask…
But what if it really is a hopeless quest that I've embarked on?
~~*e.s.*~~
The following morning was brisk and windy, causing Ed's ports to ache after only ten minutes outside of the castle. He grimaced as he walked the path towards the owlery, cursing himself for forgetting his fluffy Gryffindor scarf in the dormitory. Though the school's robes were thick and heavy and his gloves well-protecting, the wind still managed to flit beneath the material and bite harshly upon the tender skin on which the icy metal was attached. He also cursed the temperature, how it would never drop this low in Resembool, how this place was going to be torture in the wintertime 'cause the castle doesn't have a damn furnace. Roaring fires could only help so much, after all, especially down in the dark dungeons where the potions classes meet.
Upon arriving in the owlery, Ed immediately saw that he wasn't alone.
"…Hey, Ed," Harry greeted awkwardly, the memory of his accusatory conversation with the blonde the night before still ringing in his head. Ed simply nodded at him and made his way straight to his owl, letter at hand. Harry turned back to Hedwig, gently ruffling her feathers as he contemplated an apology, wondering if it was necessary or not. After all, it wasn't his fault that Ed was such a suspicious character…was it? Was he truly the only person that was suspicious of Ed? It certainly felt like he was…
"…Look, Ed, about last night…I shouldn't have talked to you that way. You were just asking questions, not interrogating. Sorry."
Ed looked at Harry with raised eyebrows:
"I didn't take offense to that, Harry. You have every right to accuse me of interrogating. It's not like what came out of that vault is any of my business."
He grinned:
"Apology accepted anyway."
Harry returned the smile, grateful of the weight being lifted from his chest. He nodded to the letter in Ed's grasp.
"Writing to your brother?"
"Yeah," said Ed, a guilty expression upon his face. "I meant to write sooner. Al probably thinks I've forgotten about him."
"I doubt it; he'll understand that you've been busy," Harry reasoned. Ed nodded in agreement, poking Nova awake with his cold automail hand. The owl jumped in surprise and glowered at her cruel, evil master for interrupting her beauty sleep. She blinked and cocked her head immediately after spotting the letter in his hands, however, excitement and eagerness taking over her anger momentarily.
"That's right, girl," Ed said, ruffling her feathers just as Harry had done affectionately to Hedwig not a moment before. "You get to see Al again."
The owl looked really eager at the sounds of that; she flew up from her perch and willingly offered out her foot for Ed to attach the letter to, and then took off immediately into the morning sun for Resembool. Ed smiled amusedly as he watched his petite little owl fly out of sight, the cold wind not hindering her want to see Alphonse one bit.
"Alright, I guess I'll see you all later, then," Ed said, leaving the owlery. Harry looked confused as he followed the alchemist out:
"You're skipping breakfast again?"
"Yeah, I'm gonna go to the library a bit before Charms."
Harry opened his mouth to ask what he could possibly be researching about for intensely, but then changed his mind at the last minute in an effort to stay on as good of terms as possible with the boy.
"…Ok then."
They walked through the doors leading to the corridor before the Great Hall just as Harry stopped walking for a moment, placing a hand upon Ed's cold automail shoulder. He quickly removed it after feeling the shocking temperature, and then quickly mellowed out his facial expression as Ed turned to look at him questionably.
"About the package; you asked last night about what it seemed to be."
"…Yeah," Ed said, putting an incredible amount of effort into sounding completely nonchalant.
"Well," Harry continued, "it was small enough to fit in Hagrid's coat pocket, and when he picked it up it looked to be about two inches long and kind of…I don't know, maybe rock-shaped? It's like I said, I didn't really get a great look at it, but it really was just a knobby little brown-wrapped package."
Rock-shaped? Fits in a pocket? Knobby little brown-wrapped package? It IS the stone, it HAS to be!
"I see," Ed said, unable to keep his voice from sounding slightly hoarse. He swallowed, hoping that his expression did not give him away at all, for at that very moment he felt like his face would break apart at the strain he was putting upon it to keep up his façade.
"Yeah," Harry said, shrugging. "It must be either really valuable or really dangerous, though, to require that kind of protection."
"Definitely. Probably both. Yeah," Ed stuttered, mentally kicking himself for looking so suspicious. He closed his eyes for a moment in order to gather his thoughts, then re-opened them. Harry blinked; the blonde bore such a look of dark determination! It was…scary, to see Ed like that…
"…We have to find out what's through that trapdoor," Ed said with finality. "Before it gets into someone else's dangerous hands."
Before I lose my chance of getting ahold of it!
Harry nodded in firm agreement; he too shared the fear of the mysterious item getting into the hands of someone evil, someone who would abuse its power…
Someone like Snape.
~~*e.s.*~~
The next month or so flew by in a massive blur to Edward, with all the homework and researching he was constantly busy with. He made sure to still spend some time with his friends, in order to look the least bit suspicious as possible, but he was beginning to get impatient. His research efforts were virtually useless, for the library lacked a good amount of necessary alchemy notes and journals that Ed knew he could've gotten ahold of if he had become a State Alchemist. He felt like he was caught up in a major impasse, stuck with nothing more than a hypothesis to work with, lacking the hard facts he needed.
He and Al had managed to keep in touch, though all the flying was beginning to wear Nova out. Especially with winter coming along hard and strong, and the little owl being to tiny and all, it was hard on her to be constantly traveling from Hogwarts to Resembool and back again. Turned out that Amestris was really, really far away from the school of magic.
"Cheer up, mate," Ron said the morning of Halloween, when the three of them had awoken to the scrumptious scent of baking pumpkin wafting through the corridors. He patted the tired blonde on the back as he took another bite into his pumpkin pasty he had brought down with him from breakfast.
"Yeah, what's the matter?" Harry inquired concernedly. "You hardly ate at breakfast."
"I'm just tired, really," Ed lied, which had now become as easy to him as breathing. "And I'm kind of missing Al."
"Ah," Harry said, attempting to be sympathetic but finding it hard to do so. After all, he didn't have any siblings at home to miss. The closest thing he had to a brother was Dudley, and was definitely not missing him.
"He's been writing, hasn't he?" Ron said through a mouthful of pastry. Ed nodded, frowning:
"It's not the same, though; I have never been away from him for this long before."
Harry and Ron looked at each other; Harry shrugged at Ron, hating the feeling of being at a loss for words. Ron contemplated something for a moment, then turned back to Ed:
"…Look, Ed. Al probably is missing you just as much as you're missing him. But, at the same time I bet he would rather you ignore that and have a good time here, especially since it's Halloween. Al wouldn't want you to be like this, thinking about nothing but him when you could be focusing on your classes or on delicious food. You get what I'm saying?"
Ed looked at him and grinned suddenly:
"Since when are you the expert on empathy, Ron?"
"Yeah, good question!" Harry piped up, laughing. Ron shrugged:
"Hey, I'm the one with the five brothers and one sister, y'know. I know how to deal with sibling issues."
They laughed some more at that comment, Ed feeling more grateful than ever for his new friends.
Things just got better for them once they walked into their Charms classroom just in time to hear Professor Flitwick announce that he thought they were ready to start making objects fly. They were all separated into pairs; Harry and Ed were partners (to Harry's great relief, because Neville had been trying to catch his eye). Ron, however, was the unlucky one to be working with Hermione Granger. It was hard to tell whether Ron or Hermione was angrier about this. After all, she hadn't spoken to any of them since the night they all got stuck in the third floor corridor together.
"Now, don't forget that nice wrist movement we've been practicing!" squeaked Professor Flitwick, perched on top of his pile of books as usual. "The swish and flick, remember, swish and flick!"
"Swish and flick!" Ed mimicked the squeaky midget professor, making Harry chortle at the absurdness.
"You want to try first, Ed?"
"Uh…" Ed was unsure, but nonetheless lifted his wand up in his human hand, mimicking the motion once before taking a deep, hesitant breath.
"Wingardium Leviosa."
As expected, nothing happened; Ed huffed, puffing his bangs out of his face. Harry attempted next but was equally as unsuccessful as the alchemist.
"Maybe we're saying the words wrong…?"
"Lemme try again," Ed said, grasping his wand in his left hand as he recalled what Flitwick had said about how to pronounce the Latin…
"Wingardium Leviosa!"
And with that, the feather obediently floated into the air—much to Ed and Harry's shock.
"Well done, Mr. Elric, well done!" cried Professor Flitwick, clapping. "See here, everyone, Mr. Elric has done it!"
"How'd you do that?" Harry said in awe. This was the first time he'd seen a charm work so well for the blonde. Ed shrugged, grinning:
"I guess it's just in the way you pronounce the words…?"
Ron, at the next table, wasn't having such great luck.
"Wingardium Leviosa!" he shouted, hitting the feather frustratingly with his wand. Hermione rolled her eyes at him:
"Ok, stop—stop," Harry and Ed heard her snap. "You're saying it all wrong. It's Wing-gar-dium Levi-o-sa, not Levi-o-sa."
"You do it, then, if you're so clever," Ron snarled.
Hermione rolled up the sleeves of her robe, flicked her wand, and said very matter-of-factly, "Wingardium Leviosa!"
And sure enough, their feather rose off the desk and hovered about four feet above their heads.
"Oh, well done, Miss Granger!" Professor Flitwick praised her exuberantly.
It was Ron's turn to be in a very bad mood by the end of the class.
"It's Levi-o-sa, not Levi-o-sa!" Ron mocked her in an annoying, high-pitched voice as the trio pushed their way into the crowded corridor. "She's a nightmare, honestly! It's no wonder no one can stand her."
Someone knocked into Ed as they hurried past him. It was Hermione. Ed and Harry caught a glimpse of her face—and were startled to see that she was in tears.
"…I think she heard you," Ed commented.
"So?" said Ron, but he looked a bit uncomfortable. "She must've noticed she's got no friends."
Hermione didn't turn up for the next class and wasn't anywhere to be seen all afternoon. On the way down to the Great Hall for the Halloween feast, the trio overheard Parvati Patil telling her friend Lavender that Hermione was crying in the girls' bathroom and wanted to be left alone. Ron looked still more awkward at this news, but a moment later they all entered the Great Hall, where the Halloween decorations put Hermione out of their minds.
"A school of magic would be all into Halloween," Ed commented as they took their places at the Gryffindor table for the feast. He tilted his head up to the ceiling where a thousand live bats fluttered from the walls and ceiling while a thousand more swooped over the tables in low black clouds, making the candles in the pumpkins stutter. The feast appeared suddenly on golden plates, as it had at the start-of-term banquet.
Ed was just helping himself to a baked potato when Professor Quirrell came sprinting into the hall, his turban askew and terror on his face.
"TROLL IN THE DUNGEON! TROOOOOLL!"
He stopped suddenly just before reaching Professor Dumbledore's chair:
"…Thought you ought to know…" he said breathlessly before collapsing to the floor in a dead faint.
There was an immediate uproar; it took several purple firecrackers exploding from the end of Professor Dumbledore's wand to bring silence.
"Prefects," he rumbled, "lead your Houses back to their dormitories immediately! Teachers, follow me!"
Percy was in his element.
"Follow me! Stick together, first years! No need to fear the troll if you follow my orders…"
"How could a troll get in?" Harry asked Ron as they climbed the stairs.
"Don't ask me, they're supposed to be really stupid," shrugged Ron. "Maybe Peeves let it in for a Halloween joke."
"I thought it seemed ironic that a troll should attack on Halloween of all days," Ed chortled amusedly. They passed different groups of people hurrying in different directions. As they jostled their way through a crowd of confused Hufflepuffs, Ed suddenly grabbed Harry and Ron's arms.
"Hermione. She doesn't know there's a troll in the school."
Harry's eyes widened: "oh no…"
Ron bit his lip.
"Oh…all right," he snapped. "But Percy'd better not see us."
Ducking down, they joined the Hufflepuff mob going the other way, slipped down a deserted side corridor, and hurried off toward the girl's bathroom. They had just turned the corner when they heard quick footsteps behind them.
"Percy!" hissed Ron, pulling Harry and Ed behind a large stone griffin.
As they peered around it, however, they saw not Percy but Snape. He crossed the corridor and disappeared from view.
"What's he doing?" Harry whispered. "Why isn't he down in the dungeons with the rest of the teachers?"
"Search me," said Ron confusedly, shrugging it off. Ed on the other hand was not about to let such suspicious behavior slide; he had a very good idea just where Snape was headed, and it wasn't towards the troll.
"…I'm gonna go follow him. I'll meet you guys back in the dormitory."
"What?" Harry hissed increadously.
"You're daft!" said Ron, yanking at Ed's robe. "You'll get caught for sure!"
"No I won't, let me go!" the alchemist demanded. "You guys go get Hermione, I'll take care of this!"
And before they could protest anymore, Ed slid out of his hiding spot and sprinted down the corridor after Snape, his robe billowing behind him.
Sure enough, once the young wizard had caught up with the skulking teacher, he could see the door leading to the third floor corridor before him. Being sure to keep a safe distance from the Potions master, Edward stood to the side hidden in shadows as Snape entered the corridor. Ed narrowed his eyes as he inched his way closer to the forbidden door.
"What are you doing in there…?" Ed whispered to himself, then jumped slightly when he heard a hungered growl emitting from within the corridor, followed by a scream of pain and shock, courtesy of the Potions master. Ed quickly made his way behind a column in the vast hallway he stood in as Snape barged quickly out of the door—but he wasn't quick enough. The black-eyed Potions Master glowered at the blonde boy, who gulped but held his ground. Upon first glance Ed thought something about Snape looked off, but now as he got a decent look at the greasy-haired man, he definitely notice how ripped up and bloody his pant leg looked. Snape hesitated, determining whether or not to get Ed right then and there or wait 'til later to get him. Just then, a loud commotion could be heard down the hall, and with that Snape broke eye contact with Ed and furiously charged away from the corridor leading to his imminent death in obvious frustration, oblivious to Ed's dark look following him into the damp darkness.
~~*e.s.*~~
"Ron! Harry!"
"Ed! There you are!" Harry said, running up to him.
"Did you see where Snape went?" Ron inquired immediately. Ed nodded, then observed his two friends; they appeared unscathed from what he could see.
"How was the troll?"
"Stupid," Ron said, rolling his eyes. "But we managed to save Hermione and earn Gryffindor five points. Oh, and we got caught, by the way."
"What?"
Harry nodded:
"Yeah, McGonagall, Quirrell and Snape. That's how we earned the five points, though we wouldn't have earned them without Hermione lying for us."
"Yeah, good of her to get us out of trouble like that," Ron admitted. "Mind you, we did save her."
"She might not have needed saving if we hadn't locked the thing in with her by mistake," Harry reminded him. Ron rolled his eyes:
"Touché."
Ed shook his head:
"So that's where Snape went after the third floor corridor."
"What?"
It was Ron and Harry's turn to be shocked. Ed nodded amusedly:
"Yeah, the dog attacked him and he ran out, his pants all ripped and bloodied up."
"No wonder he was limping when we saw him, Ron!" Harry said, putting two and two together.
"Yeah, and he saw me following him, too."
Harry and Ron gaped at him:
"And you're still alive?" Ron exclaimed. Ed shrugged it off, then pursed his lips:
"For now, at least; I've got to be careful around him from now on, 'cause I know I've officially gotten on his bad side…"
They had reached the portrait of the Fat Lady.
"Pig snout," they said and entered.
The common room was packed and noisy. Everyone was eating the food that had been sent up. Hermione, however, stood alone by the door, waiting for them. There was a very embarrassed pause. Then, none of them looking at each other, Harry, Ron and Hermione all said "Thanks," and hurried off to get plates. Ed simply grinned at their awkwardness and continued thinking on about the corridor and Snape's threat to the stone of power within…
~~*e.s.*~~
As they entered November, the weather turned very cold—especially for poor Edward. He awoke with a dull ache in his ports each morning, wrinkling his nose as he gazed out the window upon the frost-covered campus. And if he was not properly bundled up, his steel prosthetics became deathly cold, like the icy gray mountains around the school and the crystalized lake.
The Quidditch season had begun, therefore the quartet (for the once-trio had added a new member since the troll incident) did not see too much of Harry around after school except for in the evenings during and after dinner. The first match of the season was to be played on Saturday, and it was to be an interesting one: Gryffindor versus Slytherin.
Hermione had become a bit more relaxed about breaking rules since Harry and Ron had saved her from the mountain troll, and she was much nicer for it. Even Ed managed to get along with her, and they soon became great studying partners, joining forces to assist their less intelligent friends pass with flying colors.
Sports and schoolwork were not the only things the Gryffindors were worrying with, however; Ed was continuing to spend more and more time in the library, and was rarely seen without his alchemy book he had bought at Flourish and Blotts on him (though he was extremely careful not to reveal the cover to anyone). He became more and more immersed in the Philosopher's Stone as the days went by, causing not only Harry and Ron but now also Hermione to be slightly curious if not suspicious of Ed's great interest in researching rather than socializing. For instance, the day before Harry's first Quidditch match was a busy one; the quartet had double Transmutations classes to attend, along with Harry having a double practice that evening to prepare for the match, obviously.
"Hey Harry," Hermione greeted him as he caught up with her and Ron on their way to Transfiguration class.
"Hey there, Hermione, Ron," Harry greeted them. "Where's Ed?"
"Library, probably," Hermione said matter-of-factly, her eyebrows knitting together with concern. "I certainly hope he isn't late to class. Professor McGonagall will have his hide if he walks in during another one of her lectures."
"I swear, the guy practically lives in the library nowadays!" Ron said, shaking his head. "He's a strange one."
"Ron, that's not very nice!" Hermione exclaimed. Ron replied with a shrug:
"It's true. You know those gloves he wears? The white ones?"
"Yes, what about them?" Hermione asked, still frowning upon Ron's rudeness.
"He never takes them off."
Hermione raised a skeptic eyebrow at him.
"It's true," Harry piped up. "We all share a dormitory together and neither of us has ever seen him take them off. He even sleeps in them. I know 'cause his bed's right next to mine."
"See?" Ron said defensively. "He's obsessed with them, Hermione!"
"Oh, come now," Hermione said, shaking her head. "He must have a good reason behind wearing them all of the time. Maybe they once belonged to an old family member and he wears them to keep them close."
"Or maybe...maybe he's hiding something," Harry pointed out.
"Oh, Harry, that's absurd. What could he possibly have to hide?"
"What couldn't he have to hide, Hermione?" Ron said. "I mean, Ed's very secretive about a lot of things."
"How so?"
"I don't know, he just is!"
"Ron, you're being absurd!"
"He's got a good point Hermione," Harry said. "That thing with the gloves is weird."
"You both are just making a big fuss over nothing!" Hermione exclaimed, throwing her hands up into the air exasperatedly as they passed a small stairwell bathed in color due to a large stained-glass window overlooking it. The cold rain from that morning was still dripping down upon the campus, causing the coloration to be rather watery in appearance. Ron's walking suddenly slowed significantly before coming to a complete stop just past the stairwell.
"What's up, Ron?" Harry asked curiously, he and Hermione stopping right next to Ron.
"...I'm so curious now. I wonder if Ed really is hiding something from us."
"Maybe he has a really ugly scar on one of his hands that he's embarrassed about," Harry said, shrugging. Just then, Ron's face erupted into a cheesy smile.
"Yeah," he began. "Or maybe he has, like, an indestructible arm made entirely out of steel or something."
The trio busted up at the ridiculousness of that statement, Harry slapping Ron on the back as he struggled to regain his composure so that they could continue on to class...
Little did they know that deep within the shadows of that little color-splashed stairwell lay a very shocked Ed. He slumped dumbfounded against the wall, unknowingly dropping his book, his ears still burning with Ron's words. What would they think, he thought shakily, if they found out that Ron was completely right? He gulped at the thought, eyes still widened with unease, his human hand gripping tightly upon his wrist of steel as he stared into the saturated stained glass.
The Gryffindor common room was very noisy that evening. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Edward all sat by a window, Hermione checking Harry and Ron's Charms homework for them and Ed reading his book as usual. Harry felt restless for he seriously wanted his copy of Quidditch Through the Ages back from Snape, who had taken it from him that same afternoon. He needed something to take his mind off his nerves about tomorrow. Why should he be afraid of Snape? Ed wasn't afraid of the Potion's Master—he followed the hook-nosed man halfway across the school and even went off on him the very first day of classes! Why should Harry feel so threatened by someone who was threatened daily by a friend of an even shorter stature than himself? Harry chuckled internally at this thought, knowing that Ed would kill him if he knew what had just been said. Getting up, he told Ron and Hermione he was going to ask Snape if he could have the book back.
"Better you than me," Ron said, Hermione nodding once in agreement. Ed looked up from his book and grinned sarcastically:
"Good luck!"
"Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence, guys…" Harry retorted before walking away. Ed watched him leave the common room, wondering just how suspicious the scarred boy really was of him. He re-directed his attention to Hermione though as she asked him and Ron:
"Are you two going home for Christmas holidays?"
Ed shook his head; there was no point in buying another train ticket just to go all the way back to Resembool for, what, three weeks? There really was nothing there left for him anyway…except Al, of course.
"I don't think so," Ron said. "My parents have some trip planned, I think. Plus I'd rather stay here with Harry and Ed."
That's right, Harry would have no reason to go back to his home either, Ed remembered; the bespectacled boy was also an orphan. That was the one thing they had in common, except Harry had awful caretakers that would rather have nothing to do with his existence. Edward at least had Granny Pinako and Winry around.
"Wonder what Snape was doing in the corridor," Ron piped up suddenly, his lowered voice spiking Hermione and Ed's interest up again. "I think he's after what that thing is guarding. What do you two think?"
"I agree; he seemed way to sneaky on Halloween when I followed him to the corridor," said Ed.
Hermione, who seemed to believe that all teachers were essentially good and were always looking out for the well-being of the students no matter what, spoke on Snape's behalf:
"Maybe he just wanted to make sure the dog was still there and doing its job."
"I don't think so; you didn't see the expression on his face when he left the beast," said Ed. "Plus if he was just doing that, why'd the thing attack him?"
"Perhaps it's hungry…" Hermione said, but sounded less sure. Ron raised an eyebrow at her:
"I think that's the point of the creature; to eat anyone trying to get to whatever's in there."
"We sure need to find out what is in there," Hermione said, her brimming curiosity obvious. Ed remained silent as he flipped through his book, purposely not letting his friends in on his hypothesis on what's in the vault. Ron frowned upon his silence, however:
"What do you think could be in there?"
Hermione also turned to face Ed, who looked up from his book questionably.
"In where?"
"C'mon, Ed, don't play dumb," Ron said as he nudged his friend in the arm, though his underlying suspicion upon Ed's sudden nonchalance was showing slightly. "Surely you must have some idea."
Hermione looked back and forth from Ron to Ed, then back to Ron. She knew what he was up to, trying to get Edward to confess to something, but what exactly he was trying to weasel out of him she had no clue of. She didn't see anything suspicious about the blonde boy, except maybe that he occasionally got this scary gleam in his eyes when he was just sitting by the fire and thinking in the evening…
Ed raised an eyebrow at Ron:
"I have no clue. Something of sufficient magical power, obviously, 'else they wouldn't bother putting up defenses against thieves."
"Yes, I agree," Hermione intruded, forcing Ed and Ron to break eye contact. "It's probably something rather old, too, y'know."
Just in time, at that moment Harry sprinted into the common room, plopping huffily onto the couch next to Ron.
"Did you get your book?" Ron asked. "What's the matter?"
Ed and Hermione's ears perked up as Harry told the group what he'd seen in a low whisper.
"You know what this means?" he finished breathlessly. "Snape's after whatever the three-headed dog's guarding! And I'd bet my broomstick he let that troll in, to make a diversion!"
"I told you so, Hermione!" Ron said. Hermione's eyes were wide:
"No—he wouldn't," she said. "I know he's not very nice, but he wouldn't try to steal something Dumbledore was keeping safe."
"Honestly, Hermione, you think all teachers are saints or something," snapped Ron.
"I'm with Harry, I definitely wouldn't put anything past Snape," Ed countered. Ron raised an eyebrow at the blonde:
"…Just a moment ago you didn't have an opinion over the matter at all."
"Did so," Ed defended himself. "I agreed with you beforehand, dummy!"
Ron thought back, then smiled sheepishly. "Oh yeah."
Harry raised an eyebrow at the duo, then shook his head frustratingly:
"But what is the thing that Snape's after? What's that dog guarding?"
Whilst the quartet continued to talk about the mystery, forgetting entirely about their homework, they were left completely unaware of an unsettling scene unfolding outside of the Gryffindor common room's vast bay window. Though the school had many magical defenses against human and magical intruders, it was left completely open to anything of a non-human, non-magical sort. This would explain why there, deep within the rainstorm, lurked two inhuman creatures cloaked in darkness, circumspectly stalking the perimeter of the castle…
"It's cold, Lust!" whined the shorter of the duo, falling back upon his hindquarters as he hungrily sucked his pudgy thumb. "I want to get away from this place."
"Quiet, Gluttony," The tall, dark woman next to the stubby, obese creature snapped softly, her hooded head tilted up towards the vast castle called Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, her elegantly gloved hands resting thoughtfully upon her hips. "We can't leave until we know for sure that the boy is here; it was a rather nasty surprise when we turned up in Resembool and he was nowhere to be found..."
~~*e.s.*~~
The next morning dawned very bright and cold; the Great Hall was full of the delicious smell of fried sausages and the cheerful chatter of everyone looking forward to a good Quidditch match. Everyone, that is, except Ed.
"Is there anything we can do to convince you to go to the match?" Hermione pleaded one last time with the alchemist. Ed shook his head, offering his friends a small smile.
"I've got to finish that report we've got due to McGonagall tomorrow, along with a bunch of other homework and research I want to get done. Plus I'm not really that into sports; someone come up to the library and fetch me after the game is done, though, alright?"
"Sure, mate. Whatever," Ron said, waving once to Ed before turning on his heel and heading straight towards breakfast, leaving Harry and Hermione behind.
"Hey," Harry said once he had caught up with the redhead. "What's going on between you and Ed? You two get into a fight or something?"
"They were kind of cross with each other last night," Hermione informed Harry. "While they were talking about the stone. Ron was being a bit rude with his questioning."
"Oi! Was not, he was asking for it."
"How so?"
"You saw him! He's hiding something from us; he knows something about that corridor, Harry, I can tell."
"Oh, Ron…"
Harry remained silent as they argued, for he completely agreed with Ron; Ed obviously knew something they didn't, and he was clearly unwilling to share for some dark, personal reason. And about Ed hiding something from the three of them—well, since when was Ed not hiding something from them?
Suddenly, Harry felt terrible, and not just because one of his friends may or may not be betraying him. In an hour's time he'd be walking onto the field.
~~*e.s.*~~
"Dammit," Ed hissed in frustration. "Don't any of these books say what you want them to say?"
He yawned hugely, stretching his arms out in front of him over his desk filled with numerous notes and books all on the same subject: alchemy. Except none of the books he was pulling out said anything useful about the Philosopher's Stone, other than a brief generalization about what it is. Nothing about the making of it, its whereabouts, or who discovered its properties—all of the important things Ed really needed to know.
Ed huffed, yawning yet again. The previous night was, once again, a night of sleeplessness for the young Elric, due to the obvious, plus his concern about Ron's unsettling suspicions. It was one thing to have Harry be keeping a watchful eye over him 24/7, but now Ron, whom Ed was closer to in many ways, including the fact that the redhead was the first friend he made in the wizarding world—possibly his first friend ever, actually. This was bad; how much could he possibly hide from Ron? He sighed; it really wasn't a matter of what he could hide, but rather what he needed to hide at all costs.
Ed glanced out the large window down the row of books his writing desk was located in; everyone was still out at the Quidditch match, therefore the library was mostly empty except for the librarian, who mostly kept to herself at the checkout desk, which was strategically located far away from where Ed sat.
After one last look around, Ed nodded in approval at his aloneness, then clapped his hands together in preparation for a transmutation. The young alchemist had been utilizing his alone time in the library as practice time for alchemy since the beginning of the school year, treading both carefully and eagerly at the same time. The last thing he wanted to do was get caught by anyone (including the librarian, who was one of the teachers in the school who did NOT know of Ed's past). He would only ever do a few simple, quiet ones whenever he did, but any level of practicing helped keep his skills fresh, really. But after shifting the floorboards and the stone base beneath them into many different shapes and tools, Ed frowned, his antenna drooping. He wasn't getting anywhere by just sitting and playing around with alchemy.
With that last thought of forlornness, he restored everything back to normal, then sat back down, lifting his quill up from its resting place in the ink flask…and yet again commenced in writing nothing useful with it.
~~*e.s.*~~
"Ed?"
Hermione, Ron and Harry looked at each other, and then Hermione gently shook the sleeping blonde's shoulder once more.
"Ed? Wake up."
"Urngh…" Ed sat up and rubbed his eyes, looking around at his mess of books. "Damn, what a mess." He looked up at Harry:
"How'd you do?"
"Gryffindor won," Harry said with a smile. "But that's not all we've got to talk about."
"We're going to Hagrid's for tea; want to join us?" Hermione offered. Ed nodded, frowning at his mess of books.
"I've just got to put all these up first."
"Here, we'll help," Hermione said, grabbing a small stack of leather-bound books near to where she stood. She read the covers curiously, raising an eyebrow at Ed before walking to the shelves where they belong.
"Alchemy?"
"Yeah," Ed said as he stuffed all his paper and writing utensils back into his knapsack. "I got bored so I just decided to pull out a couple of interesting sounding books to look through."
"And your subject for the day was alchemy?" Hermione chuckled. Ron and Harry also chortled at the silly comment.
"Your just like Hermione, Ed, with all these books," Ron said, flipping through one and shaking his head in disgust. "No wonder you're so bloody smart…"
Upon arrival at Hagrid's humble hut, the quartet were immediately greeted with an extra-cheerful, extra-slobbery Fang, followed by a bubbly Hagrid, who beamed at Harry for his great triumph in the game.
"Didn'a see you there, though, Edward," Hagrid said as he set a large teapot to heat.
"Yeah," Ed said, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. "I had a lot of homework I wanted to catch up on, y'know."
"Ah," Hagrid nodded understandably. "Well, yeh missed a good match. Also, something happened wit' Harry's broomstick."
"What?"
"Yeah," Ron explained. "It was Snape."
"Rubbish," Hagrid said, waving the redhead off.
"No, really! Hermione and I saw him. He was cursing your broomstick, Harry, muttering—he wouldn't take his eyes off you."
"Rubbish!" said Hagrid, who hadn't heard a word of what had gone on next to him in the stands. "Why would Snape do somethin' like that?"
Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ed looked at one another, wondering what to tell him. Ed decided on the truth, for once.
"I found out something about him," he informed Hagrid. "I saw him try to get past that three-headed dog-thing on Halloween. It bit him. We think he was trying to steal whatever it's guarding."
Hagrid dropped the teapot.
"How do you know about Fluffy?"
"Fluffy?"
"Yeah—he's mine—bought him off a Greek chappie I met in the pub las' year—I lent him to Dumbledore to guard the—"
"Yes?" the quartet of curious students said in eager unison.
"Now, don't ask me anymore," said Hagrid gruffly. "That's top secret, that is."
"But Snape's trying to steal it," said Harry.
"Rubbish," said Hagrid yet again. "Snape's a Hogwarts teacher, he'd do nothin' of the sort."
"So why did he just try and kill Harry?" cried Hermione. Ed looked at her with raised eyebrows; the afternoon's events certainly seemed to have changed her mind about Snape.
"I know a jinx when I see one, Hagrid, I've read all about them! You've got to keep eye contact, and Snape wasn't blinking at all, I saw him!"
"I'm tellin' yeh, yer wrong!" said Hagrid hotly. "I don' know why Harry's broom acted like that, but Snape wouldn' try an' kill a student! Now, listen to me, all four of yeh—yer meddlin' in things that don' concern yeh. It's dangerous. You forget that dog, an' you forget what it's guardin', that's between Professor Dumbledore an' Nicolas Flamel—"
"Aha!" exclaimed Harry in triumph, but then he stopped short with what he was about to say next when Ed suddenly spat all of the tea in his mouth out across the table in utter shock.
"F-Flamel?"
Everyone was staring at him curiously; ah shit, he thought, mentally slapping himself in the face. This could end badly.
"Do you know the name?" Hermione inquired. Ed looked at her, then at Harry, and lastly at Ron, who's eyes were narrowed slightly. Think, dammit, THINK!
"…Flamel? With an 'L?'" he asked yet again. Harry nodded; Ed pursed his lips as if thinking hard upon something:
"No, never mind, I thought I knew it. Different name that sounded similar. So there's someone called Nicolas Flamel involved is there?"
Hagrid looked absolutely furious with himself; "I shouldn't have said that…"
Ron turned to Hermione:
"Have you heard of him?"
Hermione shook her head sadly. Harry looked back at Ed once more to find him staring down at the table, biting his bottom lip thoughtfully. Just then, the blonde stood up.
"Well, thanks for the tea, Hagrid, but I really need to get back to my studying. I slacked off way to much while everyone was at the game."
"Yer welcome, Edward," Hagrid said, cheerfully oblivious to just how cagey Edward was acting. Harry, Hermione and Ron watched him walk out of the hut, then made up some excuse to Hagrid to go after Edward as fast as they could.
"Ed!" Ron shouted as the running blonde. "Wait up, what's the hurry for?"
Ed mentally kicked himself as he slowed to a stop, his red and gold scarf billowing in the cold winter wind, the clouds overheard that laid overcast all day beginning to darken and clump together. Ed winced as he felt a stone-cold sprinkle of rain fall upon his wind-blown cheek, wishing not just to hurry up and get to the library, but really just to get inside the warmth of the castle.
"I was going to see whether the library had any books on Flamel, of course," Ed said as he turned to face his friends. He didn't meet any of their eyes, though, and there was obviously something bothering him.
"…Ed? You know who Flamel is, don't you?" Hermione asked cautiously. "You just didn't want to say anything in front of Hagrid?"
Ed shook his head, attempting to look innocent:
"No, I really don't. That's why I'm going to the library; now, if you'll excuse me—"
But as he began to leave them, Harry grasped his arm.
"You're hiding something from us Ed."
Ed froze, refusing to look at any of them as Harry continued:
"You've been avoiding certain things lately, and then acting like you knew nothing about others, when in reality you probably have this entire mystery solved in that big head of yours."
Ed growled, turning towards Ron:
"Do you think this too?"
"…Yea," the redhead spoke out, standing next to Harry and crossing his arms. "Yea, I do. What are you hiding, Ed? It can't be that bad, that you have to hide it from your friends."
"I'm not hiding anything!" Ed yanked his arm out of Harry's grasp. "You all are wrong, I'm not keeping any sort of secrets from any of you!"
"You're a bad liar, Ed," Harry said, narrowing his eyes. Ed glared at him and Ron ruthlessly, knowing that no matter what else he said to try to defend himself, they would still continue to accuse him.
"…Bastards. I don't need this shit."
And with that he was off, leaving the trio alone in the frigid rain. Hermione looked exasperatedly at the
boys:
"Great. Now look what you've done. We're not going to get anywhere by treating him like this."
Harry and Ron looked at each other, wondering if they could've handled the situation better than that.
Edward ended up not going straight to the library after all. After the horrible confrontation he had just
endured, he just felt like being alone. Instead, he found himself sitting up atop one of the castle's many
great walls, seated next to a strangely animated-looking gargoyle, contemplating where to go
from here. He knew he was in trouble, now that Harry, Ron and Hermione knew that he was
lying to them. How does one keep on lying from this point, though, without losing his
allegiances?
On top of that, there was the stone to consider. Yes, of course Edward had heard of Nicolas Flamel, but
what precisely did he have to do with the Philosopher's Stone? Also, how exactly was Ed, a first-year
Hogwarts student, supposed to get past all the things guarding the stone? He had to get the
stone, he just didn't know how to go about doing so without using alchemy…
Unless he just said screw it all! and used alchemy despite everything else. After all, who was going to be
there to see him in the third floor corridor?
"…Unless magic is required to get to the stone," Ed muttered to himself despairingly. He sighed shakily,
the cold starting to really get to his ports, and collapsed his damp head into his lap. The alchemist knew
he was at an impasse, but there really seemed like no way out of this mess…
A cold tap on the shoulder awakened Ed from him gloom; when he looked up he saw that it was his
dampened little Nova, flying next to him, her talons bearing a letter with the word "Brother"
written on the front of the envelope in Al's neat scrawl. Ed blinked, then smiled gratefully as he took the
letter from Nova:
"Perfect timing as always, Al."
~~*e.s.*~~