Chapter IX

Cherry Syndrome

Harry plonked himself onto his seat at the Gryffindor Table, still cautiously fiddling with his nose. In all fairness, it had been a while since he suffered a broken nose. The last time being before Dudley knew that Harry was a wizard. Surprisingly, since that discovery the amount of abuse had dropped. Anyway, even back then Harry had just had to wait out the repair, so having it fixed by magic seemed a little too surreal for his taste. Even if he had suffered a boneless arm...but they did not speak of that.

"Harry, where have you been?" Hermione whispered, leaning forwards. The Sorting was just coming to an end and it would be rude to disturb. Harry sighed and beckoned Ron and Hermione closer. Al, despite the lack of invitation, joined in.

"I had a run in with Malfoy on the train." He muttered, once again reaching for his nose.

"What?" Ron and Hermione hissed in outrage. Alphonse took on a more concerned approch.

"Are you alright? Did anyone get hurt?" He asked, eyes wide with consternation.

"Well yeah, he broke my nose but Luna fixed it for me." Harry rushed so his friends would not overreact. "And I think Professor Mustang took quite the elbowing from Malfoy, when he tried to stop us. Otherwise, I think we're fine." He appeased. Hermione and Ron still looked worried but Alphonse merely grinned proudly.

"That's Luna for you. She learnt her healing spells from me you know." He gushed with his cheeks red.

"But how could you teach that?" Hermione questioned, "We don't learn healing spells until year seven." Alphonse and Harry glanced at one another.

"About that, I'm not really sixteen. I promised Harry I'd fill you in on the details tonight. Can you wait until then?" He asked sweetly and Hermione sighed. How could anyone say no to that?

"Well if you promise." She reasoned, leaning back.

"And finally Students," Dumbledore's voice shattered their conversation. The sorting had long since been over and the headmaster was now concluding the final facts of the speech. "As most of you may know, Delores Umbridge resigned last year as the School's Supervisor." A ripple of laughter passed through the students, as the true meaning of Dumbledore's words came across. "However, the Ministry of Magic insists that Hogwarts does in fact have a need for a supervisor. Therefore, we have replacements."

Harry knew that the groan was to be expected. Everyone had hated Umbridge, so the supervisors were not exactly going to be welcome with open arms. Speaking of which, where were they? New teachers were always sat at the table from the very beginning, save for Moody but Professors Mustang and Elric were no where to be seen. But of course fate had it that at that very moment the side door was flung open and two figures barged in. Students gasped, Alphonse sighed, Edward complained and Dumbledore chuckled.

"These will be the new Hogwarts Supervisors, Edward Elric and Roy Mustang. Professor Elric will also be taking on the class of Theory, available to years five and above." He summarised, gesturing happily towards the two.

Roy Mustang, being the heartthrob that he is, smiled disarmingly and waved towards the students. The females imparticular began exchanging hushed whispers. Edward, on the other hand, merely dropped himself into his seat and grumbled about having to sit next to Mustang. Roy joined him and the two started up another conversation in quiet tones until they felt the weight of thousands of prying eyes upon them. Dumbledore smiled patiently.

"You know last year, our supervisor held a speech. Would you mind?" He explained and both of them sighed and rose to their feet. Edward beat Roy to it.

"Hello Hogwarts, yes we're from the Ministry, don't hate us for it. That's annoying. We know that Umbridge was a c..." He was promptly cut of by a hand over his mouth. Roy shot him a "behave" look, before picking up where Edward left off.

"What I believe Professor Elric is trying to say is that we feel the need to rebuild the Hogwarts/Ministry relationship and hope to be both fair and helpful to you during this school yea...ARGH you little bitch!" Roy exclaimed, causing everyone except for Dumbledore, to jump as he quickly withdrew his now saliva soaked hand from Edward's lips. Edward smirked, washed his mouth out with wine and turned back to the students.

"Basically," He continued, placing his hands on the table "we will be holding detention but there will be no hand carving."

"Unless you call him short." Roy added.

BANG! Roy's head was slammed into the table and not very gracefully at that, by Edward. And that was how the speech came to a close. On all four tables, there were mixed reactions. There were the 'desperatly trying not to laugh' students, the 'Nooooo don't slam his handsome face' students, and of course the 'how do they expect to be taken seriously as teachers, if they act like a comedy act' students. The last one being mainly Hermione.

Alphonse groaned.

"I'm really sorry about my brother, you three. He's one of the most socially inept people I know." He explained, absently stabbing his fork into the food that appeared in front of him. Harry shot him a sympathetic look.

"I've suffered a few weeks of it, I can't imagine my whole lifetime." He laughed. Alphonse smiled.

"He is wonderful though and I firmly believe that any violence that occurs when Roy Mustang is in the room with him can be considered provoked." They all laughed this time, Harry included until he felt a chill down his spine. He turned to see Edward's golden eyes staring right back at his. They were most likely wishing a painful death upon him. So Harry jumped to change the subject.

"So, I wonder what Theory class is like."

Later that night, The Golden Trio sat in the chairs that they over the years had marked as their own. Alphonse joined them on the large, overly cushioned sofa and smiled patiently at them.

"So I decided that the best approach to this was not to tell any of you any lies." He reasoned and threaded his fingers together. Harry and Hermione glanced at each other. That was a first. No one ever gave them straight answers, that was why things often ended in chaos "In regards to our age, it depends how you look at it. I am eighteen but my body is well beyond sixty." He explained. "Ed is the same. We are alchemists and we come from another world. If you put it bluntly. Any questions?"

Alphonse smiled, knowing full well that they had a great deal of questions. After a pregnant pause, the three friends launched into their drilling.

"Why are you at Hogwarts?"

"Why did you offer to tutor me?"

"Is it in order to protect him?"

"Are you and your bother romantically involved?"

Alphonse held up his hand and looked at them.

"Ok first, we are at Hogwarts to collect information. It helps us stay close to Harry and is a nice break from the Muggle business. Second, we're tutoring Harry because of reasons I will not reveal and no it is not to protect him. And third, please excuse my language but what the hell Ronald? No, of course, Brother and I aren't. What gave you that idea?"

"Well..."

The conversation was cut short when the portrait door was flung open and in stepped the very brother they had been speaking of, along with two girls from Harry's year. They were nattering away eagerly at Ed yet anyone with an ounce of sense could tell that the blonde had given up listening to them ages ago.

"Alphonse, I came to see how you were doing." Ed said waving the girls to bed nonchalantly. "Have they cornered you?" He asked with a smirk. Alphonse whimpered.

"Ronald thinks we are a couple, Brother." Edward raised his eyebrows then let his face twist into disturbance.

"Really? That's sick Weasley, whats wrong with you?"

Before Ron could even begin to stutter an excuse of being scarred into thinking these things the conversation was launched back into action. However, try as they might, the Trio just did not seem to learn anything. That was until the next day.

"WHAT!" Harry spat out his juice all over Colin Creevey's face at breakfast. In his trembling hands he held the Daily Prophet. It was open to a long article and on the front was the picture of a man they all knew too well. Harry's eyes widened in horror as he continued to take in the information.

Hermione joined him at the table, grabbing a piece of toast and absentmindedly asking what was wrong.

"Sirius...he...Sirius has gone missing." Harry stuttered in reply, sending the article over to Hermione. "It says that after finally clearing his name, and shaving, he went missing in the Ministry about mid-july." Ron sat down.

"Listen... Mate." But Harry was not listening.

"Oh God what if something happened to him? What if it was Death Eaters?" Hermione frowned and quickly hushed him.

"Harry you can't talk about You Know Who around here. People think he is dead you know." Ron and Hermione took turns to explain. Their synchronization seemed to be getting better along with their relationship, Harry noted reluctantly.

"I have to find out." He snapped, slamming the paper down onto the table.

"I thought you might say that." Harry, Ron and Hermione whipped their heads around to find Edward, in his hand he held a wand which he was twirling lazily round his fingers and on his mouth he wore a knowing smirk. Behind him, Alphonse was stood, wondering how they were going to pull off his Brother's whim this time. Edward's grin widened. "That is why, Dear Harry, I have formed a class trip to the Ministry." Harry raised an eyebrow.

"Why would you do that?" He asked. Edward tutted.

"Because its a brilliant learning opportunity." He explained only adding 'and that bastard owes me money' as an afterthought.

It sucked I know but in my defense, the sixth book isn't the best. Nothing happens. I have to come up with more things and that takes time Dx So I am sorry about the wait. There is no excuse to it other than that I forgot completely about this story.