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Chapter 26- The Veil
"Is everyone all right!?" Ed called, doing a sweep of the thirteen, fingers hugging the Stone in his pocket, "Al?" he asked next, the concern for his brother by far the greatest.
"I'm fine," Al replied, still smiling as he turned the wand over in his hands.
"Professor?" Ed asked, turning to his father.
"Just a bit tired," Hoenheim responded with a warm grin.
"I think it'd be best if everyone went up to bed," Dumbledore said, a twinkle in his eyes, "You can all become famous in the morning."
The students, even Fred and George, were too exhausted to answer; they merely nodded and filed out of the room, dragging their feet.
"Sir, where is my brother going to sleep?" Ed asked wearily.
"There is already a bed set up for him in the boys' dorm," the headmaster replied.
"Thank you, sir," Ed expressed warmly, his words reaching way beyond the topic they were on.
Ed awoke to darkness, wondering what day it was and how long he'd been asleep. He checked the clock on the far wall: midnight. Exhaling, he rolled over and pulled the covers around his shoulders once more; another eight hours would do him good.
The next time he opened his eyes it was daylight and the clock read seven-thirty. He dressed and pulled the curtains back, noticing that Al and his friends were already gone.
He found them at breakfast, chatting jovially amongst themselves. Alphonse seemed amazed from the look on his face; it was a good guess that Harry, Ron, and Hermione were telling him stories about magic.
"Morning," Ed greeted, sliding into the seat next to Al and pulling the pot of coffee toward him simultaneously, "So, what day is it?" he then asked.
"Saturday," Al supplied, grinning at the shocked look on his brother's face, "I know; I was in denial myself until I saw the paper. They have moving pictures here," he exclaimed, "Can you believe it!?"
"Hardly," Ed replied good-naturedly, "Even after living with it for so long."
"By the way," Harry broke in, "you might want to keep the Stone with you at all times—the entire school knows what we did and I've already been getting requests for gold earrings and the like," he warned.
"Sure thing," Ed replied, "Thanks for the tip."
After breakfast, Edward made his way to Dumbledore's office in solitude. He had something to discuss with the headmaster alone. He regretted telling Al this, because of the slight look of hurt that he'd seen under his brother's agreeable response, but it was better than worrying him more than he already had. Ed didn't feel like explaining the urgency of the situation yet again.
He thought all of this as he knocked on the wall next to the Gargoyle. A few minutes passed and then the wall slid back, revealing the winding staircase to the headmaster's office. Dumbledore was waiting for him at their summit, his midnight blue robes swirling around his ankles as he escorted his student into the adjacent room.
"So, Mr. Elric," he asked as they sat down, "how can I be of assistance?"
Ed didn't understand how the mage in front of him could have known his agenda and asked him about it.
"Sir, how did you…?" he trailed off, not wanting to sound demanding; he needn't have worried, for a smile quickly spread itself across Dumbledore's ancient face.
"Name one time you have come to me with something else in mind and I will eat my shoe," he replied.
Embarrassment filled Edward as he realized what a highly unintelligent question he'd asked; Dumbledore was merely making a conjecture using recent events—it wasn't anything he himself wouldn't do.
"I was, eh, wondering if you knew anything about the Veil," he said, turning to the subject at hand.
"The Veil," Dumbledore stated contemplatively, "Another object of immense danger. Tell me, why do you want to learn about such a thing?" he asked.
"Well, the concept of it sounds a lot like the Gate, so I was thinking—now that I have the Philosopher's Stone—maybe it'd work…" Edward explained, his confidence in getting any information falling as he heard the irrationality of his own.
"Either you have always been one to take risks," the wizard sighed, "or you have gotten increasingly risky under the circumstances. What you are planning to attempt has not, and probably can never, be proven. Others would think you had some kind of a death wish."
"But not you?" Ed voiced, unsure.
"No, not me," Dumbledore replied, shaking his head, "I am willing to give you a chance to explain yourself before I make any deductions."
"I do take risks," Ed admitted, seizing his opportunity to prove the headmaster wrong, "But with all due respect, sir, the fact I am here shows I am not willing to walk blindly into something of this importance."
He said this with solid eye contact, letting the man in front of him know he wasn't making this up. Dumbledore still seemed unconvinced by the way his eyes seemed to match his frown.
"And if I don't have any information on the Veil?" the mage asked next to test his pupil, "Are you still planning on entering it regardless?"
To the headmaster's relief, Edward shook his head in a manner that could not be described as anything less than genuine.
"There is another way to cross the Gate," he said, "Granted, it'd take longer, but that's part of the price to pay."
"And yet you are trying to cheat that toll," Dumbledore pointed out.
"Time is short. I'm afraid if I wait too long, I'll return home to a graveyard," Ed replied, his voice softening as worry creased his brow.
The headmaster peered at his student for a moment, pondering what he should do. Then he nodded and Ed let out a relieved sigh; Dumbledore understood.
"You're just lucky I have information," the wizard chided, "If I had not been such a close friend of Nicolas Flamel, I wouldn't know anything; in fact, the secret of the Veil would have died along with him and his wife."
"I happen not to believe in luck," Ed replied with the shadow of a smirk curling his lips, "It tends to be unreliable."
"Yes, well, you ignore the fact that it follows you around constantly," Dumbledore said, "Anyway, concerning the Veil—I believe it would interest you greatly to say that this friend of mine, Nicolas Flamel, was also the only known maker of the Philosopher's Stone, but given the look on your face, I'd venture to guess you already knew that."
Edward nodded and this time he couldn't hide the smirk. However, the sly grin not only reflected the exhilarated feeling he got from his wide range of knowledge, but also the delight that Dumbledore was just as smart. Before tonight he'd never fully realized how much he enjoyed carrying out an intelligent conversation with the man. Perhaps, if the events weren't so pressing, he might have exploited it more.
"Very well," Dumbledore continued, "What you don't know is that Flamel built the Veil as a passage between the two worlds."
Ed's smirk instantly dropped and his brow became lined with confusion as he sorted out the headmaster's words.
"But, when we first met you said—"
"I told you I'd never been able to prove the existence of another world, true," Dumbledore intervened, "however, I led you to believe this so that the topic of the Veil wouldn't be brought up. I wanted to avoid the creation of the Philosopher's Stone this way, much as I did with Harry as well, since the only way to pass through the Veil is to pay the toll, whatever that is. Obviously, it seems as though my wishes were simply not to be."
Again, the expression on Ed's face changed rapidly. Now a frown occupied his visage as he spoke next.
"I could be home now, of you had told me," he said bitterly, "I could be fighting Voldemort right now!"
"It is not wise to dwell on what could have been," the headmaster replied in a authoritative voice, "because you do not know such a thing to be true. For one, you would have had less magical experience, and two; your brother would not have been around to save the day when you decided to create the Stone. So you see, you cannot hope to understand what could and could not have occurred."
Edward nodded dumbly; it was all he could manage after being reprimanded like that. Moreover, it irked him that he had not thought of the sequence of hypothetical events that could never be anyway. 'You're slipping,' his mind told him, 'You have to concentrate! You can't afford to screw up now!'
"So," he asked after resolving himself, "All I have to do is walk through the Veil, Stone in hand?"
"Supposedly," Dumbledore replied.
'Supposedly,' Edward thought, 'I really hate that word.'