Author's Note: FYI I wrote this finals week, I was in my last week of highschool, about to graduate, and I was writing fanfiction. What an adult.
Neville had been spending most of his time in the Herbology greenhouse with Professor Sprout, and occasionally Alphonse, who was still very interested in the screaming human-like plants that would somehow fix all of the petrified. Professor Sprout seemed glad for the help, especially now that Alphonse could actually help instead of sitting and watching. When they left the greenhouse that afternoon, the Mandrakes quickly started a party, which Alphonse looked completely bewildered at, but Madam Sprout assured was a good sign.
"We'll have everyone unpetrified in no time, they're nearly adults now," she assured, and the two boys grinned, heading back up to the castle.
"I'll see you at dinner, ought to go change first," he laughed, pointing at his muddy school robes. Alphonse laughed and nodded in agreement.
"I'm just about as muddy," he said, splitting off to his room, and he kept heading up the stairs.
He luckily didn't run into Filch, even if he had been helping to get his cat unpetrified, the man would still be angry if he realized he'd gotten the floor muddy. He entered the common room, racing up the stairs to get changed quickly, only to find their common room a mess, more specifically Harry's side of the room, although Ron's side was lightly trifled through as well. He quickly cleaned himself up before running down the stairs to find the pair.
He nearly knocked them off their feet as he slid to a stop at the table, earning curious glares from Al and Ed who were sitting with the twins as usual. "Harry, I don't know who, but your stuff's been, ransacked," he panted, hands on his knees as he caught his breath.
Ron quickly turned to Ginny sitting down at the end of the table. "Ginny did you steal the diary back?"
"Why would I- I thought you turned that stupid thing in a while ago?" She complained back. Ron shrugged apologetically. "Ron!"
"Forgot about it, sorry!" He defended. "Maybe they weren't after the diary then?"
"Why would Harry have a diary?" Neville questioned. The trio got up anyway, racing back to Gryffindor tower, Neville took another moment to catch his breath before running after them.
They were already leafing through Harry's things by the time he got back up there.
"The diaries definitely gone," Harry sighed.
"If it wasn't Ginny who could've taken it?" Hermione questioned.
"Draco knew about it," Ron pointed out.
"Unless Draco pulled an 'Us' there's no way he could've gotten in here. Besides it's not the winter holidays anymore, it's not like the common rooms completely empty at any given time," Hermione argued.
"Maybe it was Dobby?" Harry asked.
"What the hell would a house-elf want with a cursed diary," Ron questioned.
"Well, if it is cursed, he says he's trying to protect Harry right?" Hermione argued, "Not that he's done that great of a job so far, but if he thought it was dangerous, he might take it."
"So how do we track down a house-elf with a death wish?" Ron asked.
Neville, deciding he had no idea what was going on anymore, slowly walked out of the room, listening to his growling stomach, and finally taking it to dinner at long last.
Professor Ed reflected the calmer mood of the castle, with the exception of the break-in several weeks back, and instead of the usual stone alchemy that they'd been doing, he brought out some rather large fish tanks, filled to the brim with water.
"I think Mister Malfoy knows what we're doing, but today we'll be dabbling with ice alchemy," It's still not quite spring yet so there's not much moisture in the air, but we'll be doing the easier, and more direct approach, even if it isn't the most practical unless you're trying to add ice to a drink," he joked, drawing a large transmutation circle on the board. It wasn't the simplest, but it also wasn't the most complicated circle they'd ever drawn.
Luckily they all had plenty of time to draw them since it was a double block, and soon enough they'd slid the tanks over the circles, hands ready.
"You all know that ice is the solid form of water, and that ice is obviously, cold. It should be very easy for most of you, and there's little chance of rebound other than splashing yourself a bit if your not careful."
Ron Weasley, seemingly ignoring all instructions, slammed his palms down on the circle with little care, forming a large ice ball that splashed into the tank, soaking him, Harry, and Hermione almost instantly. The trio was silent for a minute before bursting out laughing, and everyone quickly joined in on the fun.
Professor Ed didn't seem to mind all the mess they were making, even after him and Alphonse were splashed by a rather surprising double-team by Crabbe and Goyle.
Draco seemed to be getting revenge on all of his housemates, using his advanced knowledge of ice alchemy to get them all soaking wet. Harry and Ron ducked behind a desk, quickly drawing the wood alchemy circle to make their army of ducks, just light enough that they floated on the centimeter thick layer of water on the floor.
By the time the bell rang everyone was soaking wet, and the classroom looked just as flooded as the corridor by Moaning-Myrtle's bathroom, wooden ducks floating around like a bathtub. Professor Ed casually dumped the whole mess into Lockhart's classroom to everyone's amusement, before using alchemy to dry the rest of the classroom.
Everyone's shoes squelched as they left the classroom, but no one seemed all that upset about it other than a few Slytherin girls, although Professor McGonagall didn't look all that impressed when they walked into her class, still dripping wet.
When Neville arrived to alchemy the next day, several fifth years were still sitting in the classroom.
"Sorry, am I early?" he asked quietly.
"Huh? Oh, didn't hear the bell ring," they excused themselves. The board was scribbled on with random doodles, but no alchemy notes.
"Did Professor Ed pop out?" Ron asked as the trio walked in.
"He wasn't here when I got here," Neville frowned, "I don't know if he was here last block either."
"Probably just sick again, it's been a while hasn't it?" Ron shrugged.
"Then where's Alphonse?" Hermione questioned. Hoenheim the ghost, apparently sensing the disturbance, floated down from the ceiling.
"Where's Edward?" He questioned.
"I dunno, where's Al?" Ron asked back.
"Alphonse was researching with me in the library… He's probably just in his office," the ghost floated through the dividing wall, returning a moment later with a frown.
"We saw him this morning," Harry confirmed with the others who nodded. The other students began to walk in, looking just as confused as they were.
"Do you know where the twins are?" Hoenheim asked turning to Ron.
"Uh, I dunno, Transfigurations maybe?" He answered, and the ghost sunk through the floor.
"I've got a bad feeling about this," Neville mumbled. The ghost and the twins appeared several minutes later in the doorway, with an old looking map.
It took a few minutes of scouring, but they eventually found Edward Elric's name and singular footprint, along with Draco Malfoy, Lucian Bole, and Heather May down in the dungeons. "I dunno who the last two are, but none of them are moving," George said worriedly.
"Maybe they're just doing ice alchemy and lost track of time?" Neville guessed optimistically.
"Heather May's in our house," Hannah Abbott said worriedly, "She said she was a muggleborn."
They all quickly took off to the dungeons after that, running down the stairs with the force of running bulls. One of the paintings overheard and quickly ran off to find Dumbledore, but they were already in the dungeons, apparently loud enough that Professor Snape came out of his classroom.
"What is the meaning of this?" He sneered, but everyone just pushed past him, going farther past the potions hallway, and down a maze that none of them had ever even gone down before, until they reached what looked like an abandoned classroom with the door opened slightly. Winry the cat outside was pittering on her small feet, clearly distressed. Even from here, they could see jagged icicles coming from the floor.
George was the one to push open the door all the way, to find their fears realized.
Professor Ed was half-turned to the door, metal arm open to the air, reflecting the blue glow off the walls. Malfoy and Lucian Bole were both seemingly turning towards the door, heads looking down at the ice. Heather May was crouched in the Professors flesh arm, facing the opposite direction of the door, but hand pressed down to the floor onto a somewhat hidden alchemy circle. She had probably been the one to freeze the room solid.
They were all petrified. Professor Snape joined them a minute later, looking sadly at the scene, before turning towards the right side of the room. While originally the girls attack seemed in vain, there was a rather large spike sticking out from the floor, covered in blood. Snape took off after that, trying to follow the trail before it completely disappeared, but the rest of them stayed until Dumbledore and the rest of the teachers arrived.
"Oh no, not Edward," McGonagall sighed to herself. Flitwick and Sprout went off to find the blood trail with Snape, while the rest of them quietly entered the room. Dumbledore collected a sample of blood off the ice before melting it with his wand, freeing the petrified victims from the floor. Winry the cat rushed in, howling at Edward like it might wake him up.
Hagrid grabbed the two Slytherin's carefully before carrying them out of the room, but no-one seemed to figure out how to separate Professor Ed and the first year. Neville picked up Winry the cat, who seemed adamant on staying with her co-owner.
"Madam Pomfrey, could you escort the students back to their common rooms?" Dumbledore asked quietly, looking over the scene. They all were reluctant to leave, especially the Weasley twins. Neville had been ready to get a move on when he noticed something moving out of the corner of his eye.
"Professor Ed's not petrified!" he cheered, and everyone turned to him like he was crazy. "Well not completely petrified anyway, look!" he pointed at the Professors metal arm, which was slowly beginning to move and stretch itself out, with loud angry clicking noises.
"That stupid thing always did ignore half the magic spells it got hit with," the twins managed to laugh quietly. While Ed remained like a stone statue, the arm disagreed, motioning like it was holding a quill. McGonagall quickly pulled out one of her enchanted quills, and Lockhart generously handed over a piece of his fan mail for him to write on.
The metal hand carefully took the quill, clearly trying not to snap the thing as Minerva held up the unopened envelope. It wrote shakily and all over the place, jerking slightly the whole time, sounding something worse than nails on a chalkboard, but it wrote all the same. Eventually the hand dropped the quill before suddenly jerking to a stop with a loud metal click
McGonagall frowned and pulled the paper towards herself and Dumbledore trying to decipher the letters.
"I believe it says Basilisk," she frowned.
"Madam Pince?" Dumbledore requested.
"I'm on it," the witch replied, seemingly running off to her library.
"Madam Pomfrey, the students?" He asked again, and she was able to usher them off with little complaint.
Alphonse was reasonably distraught when he learned about his brother, while the rest of the student body fretted about the quadruple attack, that even managed to take out the professor who punched Peeves on a regular basis. Not to mention, the purebloods who previously thought themselves to be safe, realized how dangerous the castle was.
"All students will return to their House common rooms by six in the evening, no student is to leave the dormitories after that time, you will be escorted from classroom to classroom by your teachers, no student is to use the bathroom unaccompanied by a teacher. All further quidditch matches and practices are to be postponed, there shall be no more evening activities or classes. And Alchemy class is canceled for the time being," McGonagall addressed. The room was completely silent.
"It is likely, that unless we can catch the culprit or the monster behind the attacks, that the school will have to be closed down… If any of you, have any information on these attacks, or suspect anything, you know where to find me," she added, before leaving the common room. The Gryffindors immediately began talking amongst themselves.
"Alright that's a Gryffindor, a ghost, two Hufflepuffs, two Slytherins, and Professor Ed," Lee Jordan counted on his fingers.
"And Mrs. Norris!" someone shouted.
"So that's everyone but Ravenclaw right?"
"It's the heir of Slytherin you nimrod- it's a giant fucking snake monster."
"STOP SWEARING!"
"Well we all thought it was Malfoy, but he got petrified too," George grumbled. "How'd none of them die though?"
"Norris was in Moaning Myrtle's corridor, Creevy had his camera, Justin maybe saw it through Nick, and Nick saw the thing straight on but he's, you know, already dead." Fred pointed out.
"Professor Ed probably saw it reflected off his arm, and the rest probably saw it off the ice," George agreed.
"Can't believe his arm still worked though. Can't stop the fist of justice I guess," Lee mumbled.
Neville was so busy paying attention to all the commotion, that he didn't realize the Gryffindor trio had disappeared until he went to bed, and everyone but the two boys turned in.
Hagrid and Professor Dumbledore were gone the next morning, and Neville thought Hogwarts couldn't get any more dangerous.
"I can't believe it. His own son gets attacked and he still uses his position to get rid of Dumbledore!" Ron ranted as they were escorted to breakfast the next morning.
"Besides Hagrid had some fuzzy thing, not a basilisk," Harry argued.
"It couldn't of even been him. Malfoy was right, he was framed," Hermione agreed.
"Yeah but we can't prove it can we? Written evidence by a possibly inanimate object doesn't count, what baloney," Ron fumed.
Despite McGonagall's earlier warning, she still handed out the sign up lists for electives the next year. Either as a sign of optimism or a distraction, everyone stopped thinking about the events the day before. He signed up for ancient runes, maybe it could help with alchemy, divination, care of magical creatures…
"Can we give up the core classes?" Harry asked, turning to Hermione and Ron.
"I wish," Ron grumbled, "I would've given up Defense…"
"Ron! Defense is a very important class!"
"Hermione, a first year stabbed the world's scariest monster with an icicle the size of Neville," Ron said pointedly, "not by badly reenacting how Goldilocks killed his first werewolf." Hermione turned to him, annoyed. "Oh come on, look at him, ever since we figured out what that stupid monster is, he's been twitching like a rabbit!"
Neville turned to the staff table, where Lockhart was nervously eating his breakfast, turning about every five seconds to Professor Ed's empty seat, despite the fact that the teacher never sat there when he was around.
"Lockhart is- Sorry Hermione- but he's useless, Professor Ed, the fist of justice, is petrified, Dumbledore-gone, Hagrid, who could probably suplex the damn thing, is gone. Unless McGonagall takes off her hat and snakes come out, or Snape finally unleashes his fangs, we're screwed," Ron grumbled.
The Alchemy classroom, while it wasn't officially being used, had turned into somewhat of a study lounge for students who didn't have classes, since no-one was allowed to just hang around in the castle anymore.
Alphonse, despite being very upset about his brother, still continued helping anyone with alchemy who wanted to, and even began making gloves with stone and wood alchemy circles on them for anyone who asked. The ability to turn the floor into a staircase down to the next floor was very appealing now that there was a giant snake sliding around with zero care for blood heritage.
The Weasley twins had written a somewhat funny, but still very sincere note to Professor Ed on the chalkboard, which read as:
Day 6,
Today we did nothing, but lose our minds and cry… no food… no water… I miss Edward 3
We've missed his guidance, his ability to punch Peeves in the face, now the only person
upset with being short are the house elves and Professor Flitwick. Harry and Ron are even
more out of control, the castle is now filled with nothing but stone ducks, and they have
eaten all of our textbooks. Sometimes when they feed, we have to hide in Lockhart's room.
We need you Edward, we are empty without you
3 the weasley twins
Hoenheim the ghost became somewhat of a chaperone, mostly to students coming and going from the library, sticking around Hermione mostly as somewhat of a personal guard, not that he could do anything but yell rather loudly, but he still technically counted.
They heard a commotion from downstairs before a section of the floor cleared, and a staircase came from downstairs. The fourth years stomped up the stairs angrily, most of them wearing an alchemy glove or two. Lockhart began to climb the stairs, but George Weasley sealed the floor in his face with a rather satisfying smack.
Alphonse looked surprised by the intrusion, but didn't say anything.
"Idiot's trembling in his boots, and then still has the nerve to say if 'he were in Professor Ed's position the basilisk would be dead, but there's no reason to worry since Hagrid got taken away," Fred raged, kicking the floor for good measure, "Uh actually you'd be dead you idiot, and Hagrid couldn't hurt a fly," he grumpily dropped down onto one of the desks.
Hermione didn't even look up to argue with him, and kept reading her book. Lockhart tried coming up the long way, but Alphonse promptly sealed the door shut without even looking up from where he was teaching Ron actual Ice alchemy.
Lockhart didn't come back, and Alphonse opened up the door when the bell rang, several ghosts waiting outside to escort the students, Hoenheim, as always, escorting the Gryffindor trio.