Chapter XII

Cherry Syndrome

"So I really get to take Alchemy classes?"

"Whoa! Careful Hermione, don't get too excited."

"Oh shut up Ronald."

Harry and Ron informed Hermione of the news first thing, the next day. They were sat in the Great Hall having breakfast discussing the events of the day before. The best thing was that it was Saturday. No one had any classes to go to, aside from Hermione who at that moment had half the mind to hunt Edward down and begin Alchemy immediately. Unfortunately, no one had seen had seen neither him nor Alphonse all morning.

"Al was gone from the dorm this morning, they probably had something to do together." Harry provided, poking his food in thought. Hermione tapped her chin.

"True…bit odd though, don't you think?" She said but within seconds of this comment, Alphonse dropped into the seat beside her.

"Good Morning, sorry I wasn't there this morning; Ed wanted me to hunt down a book for him." All three of the trio turned their heads. Sure enough, Edward was now sat in his seat beside Roy as if he had been there all morning. Hermione watched the professor fiddle with the collar of his shirt before returning her attention to the matter at hand.

"What kind of book?" She asked. Alphonse shrugged.

"Nothing special, just something to do with protective spells." He replied. "I think it's probably something to do with the Order. Why he couldn't just search on his own escapes me."

"Maybe he just wants to spend time with his little brother before his work starts." Ron offered.

"Which is in five minutes for him actually. We should get going too." Harry said, rising to his feet. Alphonse followed suit. "Al, will you be alright? you barely ate anything. We can wait for you if you like." Alphonse shrugged.

"I don't eat much. It's ok, so where were you thinking of going?" He asked and Harry grinned.

"Quidditch Practice. You mentioned you wanted to watch didn't you?" Ron grinned at his friend's comment before they got to their feet and left the room.

Despite, what one may think, Alphonse had been telling the truth. Edward really had woken him up at five in the morning to have Alphonse help him to look for spell books. The librarian, Madam Pince may not inhabit the library however its doors were always open.

Yes, it had all been true except for the fact that the spells had not been for the Order. They had been for the Philosopher's Stone currently chained securely around Edward's neck. The Elrics had been hoping for a way to make it undetectable. Voldemort's interests may have moved on since his last attempt to win a stone however this stone was not from the wizarding world and whether the Dark Lord knew of it or not, it was so much stronger.

Edward's fingers went subconsciously to his chest, tracing the outline of the stone pensively.

"Professor Elric?" The blonde looked up only to be faced with the innocent face of one of his students. "Professor is everything alright?"

"Pardon me?" Edward blinked slowly, causing the girl to blush.

"I'm sorry; you just looked kind of…lost. I was wondering if you needed any help." The girl smiled. The cogs in Edward's brain finally seemed to kick into gear again.

"Oh no, thank you Miss…?"

"Bell, Professor, Katie Bell." She said humbly. Edward nodded.

"Thank you Miss Bell. No I was just a little lost in my own thoughts." Edward smiled. "I'll be heading to class now, thank you."

Katie acknowledged Edward's words with a small nod.

"Well then, Professor," she turned in the opposite direction on the way to her next class.

"Miss Bell!" Edward exclaimed. The girl stopped mid step and once again turned to look at Edward. He smiled. "Nice locket."

…

"Thank you Professor."

The Room of Requirement was a mess as always. It never really occurred to him how many people must want things to disappear. Whether it was evidence of a prank committed or a deep, dark secret, Hogwarts' students always came to the same place.

Draco walked hesitantly through the clutter in search of the object he had imprinted to his memory. He reasoned that it had to be towards the back, hidden from the world, because otherwise it would be in no way permitted to exist. It was this very sense of taboo that made Draco all the quieter as he inched his way through the room. No one may have been in the room at the time but he could not bring himself to do otherwise. The very rustle of his footsteps made him flinch.

And so, just as he stumbled over a discarded wheel (Merlin knows why that was there), he found it. Right in front of him, covered in dust but still an identical match to the one he had seen barely a fortnight ago. Shivers ran down his spine as his hand reached ever so slowly to the dust ridden curtain that covered it. But the hand never made it. Mere millimetres before he made contact, the sound of the door handles, accompanied by the heavy shifting of the door reached Draco's ears.

Draco's eyes widened and he did the first thing that crossed his mind. He ducked into the shadows behind the cabinet and waited for whoever it was to leave. The person did not, quite the opposite. The breath caught in Draco's throat as the footsteps grew closer and a soft, searching, humming floated through the room.

From the shadows, Draco watched as the Gryffindor boy slid his finger across a bookshelf that only contained three books. The rest of the shelves were occupied by trinkets and contraptions. However, despite all the interesting objects around, the boy went straight for the books. His dainty fingers reached out and expertly flipped through the book as if absorbing its contents. The amber eyes were reading so intently that they must not have seen Draco inch closer. After a non-committal look at the book, he wanted a closer look at the boy, because something seemed familiar. Perhaps it was the eyes, or even the posture, but Draco must have seen him before somewhere.

Suddenly the book slammed shut.

"Brother looked in entirely the wrong place. The really special books get left here." The boy mused and slipping both of the books under his arm left the room. After holding his breath for what seemed an eternity, Draco deemed it safe and stepped into the open. He looked at the place where the protection spell books had once stood and frowned. The boy had been his age and a Gryffindor. Whoever he was, it would not be hard to find out. The only problem was whether or not to let them on the other side know. Protection spells could be harmless but they could just as easily ruin their whole plan if they got into the wrong hands.

"One step at a time." He muttered under his breath before wrenching the cupboards door open and peering inside. "One step at a time."

"You know I'm worried about the students at this school," Edward huffed, taking the book from his brother's hands. "Today I actually had one of them ask me if there was a spell to make you smarter." Alphonse chuckled.

"And what did you tell them?" He asked, casually piling the papers Edward had left idly around the room.

"I told him that no spell in the world could account for his stupidity." He replied, as he made his way towards a seat.

"Brother did you really have to be that harsh? Isn't it a fairly reasonable question?" Alphonse asked, taking pity on the poor student. "I'm sure if there was such a spell you would be a regular user of it." He reasoned, however Edward did not seem too convinced.

"Yes Al, about as reasonable as: "Oh Professor Elric could you pretty please give these chocolates to Professor Mustang from me?"" He muttered, quite convincingly mimicking the voice of some of the fifth year girls who had approached him. "As much as I hate the guy, I don't think I'd give him spiked chocolates. Someone should really warn Slughorn about teaching these kids about love potions."

"Ah we talked about those the other day. Apparently you can smell the scent of the person you're destined for." Alphonse said cheerily. Try as he might, a bit of him would always remain a hopeless romantic. "I wonder what mine would smell like…"

"Alphonse that is so beside the point, I'm not even going to dignify it with an answer." Edward answered passively, as he opened the book. The trance that came over Edward as he read slowly began to take its hold but Alphonse's final quiet words did not manage to slip past his brother.

"I can guess what yours would be Brother." Alphonse murmured, eyeing the cloak in the corner of the room that was at least two sizes too large to be his brother's. "It's already here if you look hard enough." And with that, he dropped into a seat himself to begin a thorough reading.

Had Edward been in a more alert state he may have registered the words and provided an appropriate response. It would have probably been something along the lines of asking Alphonse what in God's name he was on about, but as it was, the words merely lingered in the air. Not that Edward did not hear them, oh no, he certainly did, but perhaps it was just too early to be considering precisely what meaning they entailed. So for now, the brothers just sat in a comfortable silence, saving the harder things for later.

"So my money is on Philosopher's Stone." Ron commented as they traipsed their way around the corridors after dinner. Once again, neither of the Elric brothers had made an appearance. So as the trio made their way to the forbidden corridor that had been abandoned since their first year, they stumbled upon the topic of what they could possibly be up to. "Think about it, Edward certainly couldn't walk around with a diary around his neck. That would weigh him down too much." Harry laughed.

"Was that a slur on his height Ron, 'cause I'm pretty sure he'd have your head for that." He said. "Besides don't be too sure. I held that thing. The stone was pretty damn heavy. It was more like a rock really."

"Yeah but the Philosopher's Rock doesn't have the same ring to it does it?" Ron observed with a hint of laughter in his voice.

"I can see that you two are taking this seriously." Hermione tutted, crossing her arms. Her friends grinned at her.

"Always." They replied in unison to which she rolled her eyes and said.

"Well assuming Ronald is right, which would be a miracle in itself,"

"Oi!"

"Then why be so open about it? Last time we had to risk our necks getting through tasks to even see the thing." She continued, ignoring Ron.

"Well, maybe it's because Voldemort has better things on the mind right now. He's not after it specifically so fewer precautions need to be taken." Harry provided, shrugging.

"Or Elric is some sort of super wizard who could annihilate any thief within a second." Ron provided with an equally thoughtful expression. Hermione rolled her eyes.

"You idio…" But she never got to finish her sentence. Instead, a fourth voice joined the conversation, causing all three students to jump out of their skin.

"What's this I hear? Edward is a superhero? Well I never." Harry, Ron and Hermione whirled around to be greeted by the sight of, well let's face it; fate could have been nicer to them.

"Professor Mustang!"

"Oh wow perfectly synched as well. You know in the muggle world that's called a Korean answer." Roy said smiling at them. "But more importantly, it's awfully close to your bed times and what is this? You're heading in completely the wrong direction." He finished, raising a questioning eyebrow at them. Hermione, always quick to the rescue jumped in before the boys could say anything.

"It's my fault Professor. I wanted to research something in the library and insisted on Harry and Ron coming with me." She said putting on her classic, ashamed face. Roy smiled.

"That's quite alright Granger. Who am I to hinder a student's thirst for knowledge? But kindly leave it until tomorrow. I believe you will have plenty of time over the weekend. Run along now." Just as the trio made their way to leave, Roy's voice captured them once more. "And perhaps you can also find a map whilst you're at it. I wasn't aware that the library had been moved the West wing. "

Ron cursed under his breath and all three looked at the Professor in surrender. But Roy merely gave them a wink before he headed off.

"Sleep tight children."

Harry, Ron and Hermione watched the man leave curiously.

"He's quite cool you know." Ron commented in slight awe. "I mean, I thought he was a prick but he's saved our necks twice already and the terms barely started."

"I wonder where he's going." Hermione wondered, nodding absently at Ron's comment. Harry grinned.

"That's obvious. Edward's office is that way." He said as they all fell into step towards the Gryffindor tower. Hermione blinked in confusion.

"But they only have a meeting once a week; he has no reason to be there." This time it was Ron's turn to grin.

"Exactly."

"Brother, I don't know what it is…but hasn't something seemed off to you?" After three hours of silence and note taking, the two brothers finally dragged their chairs together to share results. Edward nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, I don't know what it is though." He said, putting his papers aside.

"I think I do. Harry's theory may just be right." Alphonse sighed wearily.

"You mean the one about Malfoy?" Edward asked. "You really think he's a Death Eater?" Alphonse nodded slowly and Edward sat back in his chair in thought. It was one thing if Harry said it. The boy had had a grudge against Malfoy since they had met but if Alphonse agreed with him then it was a whole other matter entirely.

"Well, maybe we should keep an eye on him." He suggested after a moment of silence. Alphonse nodded.

"Don't worry Brother, just leave it to me."

This was meant to be longer but I couldn't wait to upload it. I promise, even if that doesn't mean much, to have the next chapter out soon. Fuck my history test it can wait :P

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