It's been less than a month this time! *Dodges tomatoes*

Anyway, no time for a long author's note because it's gone midnight here and I really shouldn't be awake. Plus, my keyboard is dreadfully loud when I type on it. So, on with the story.

Disclaimer~

(Edited to sort some errors out~ :D)

Chapter Seven - Lime and Orange Fruit Cake

"Shit!" Ed fumbled with the two pieces of wood lying limply in his hands, joined by a rather fragile-looking piece of glowing... something. Ed wasn't sure what it was.

But that didn't matter right now, because it was broken.

And if even Edward Elric realised that breaking something was bad, then it must be pretty damn important, right?

He quickly scanned the surrounding area (namely the Gryffindor common room) for fellow students and, after drawing a blank, hunched over the splintered wood and clapped his hands as softly as possible. It was gone midnight, after all, and he certainly didn't want to wake anyone up.

He placed each hand gently on each of the two wooden halves (Thank god it was a clean break) and watched, tense, as the luminous blue light lit up the dim light in all shades of brightness. Not exactly discreet, especially since he was supposed to be keeping his alchemy a secret, but he had been told it was necessary for emergencies. And this was very much an emergency, right?

He grinned as the light faded and in his mismatched palms lay his wand, good as new.

Unfortunately, that grin was quickly swiped off his face as an intrusive voice was heard swearing bluntly (and really rather loudly) from the foot of the staircase to the boys' dormitory.

He swirled around, panic etched onto his face. "R-Ron?"

"What the bloody hell was that?" Ron, still in his pyjamas, was gawking at the newly-fixed wand that he swore had been broken by a clumsy Ed and a pile of heavy books a second ago.

"Um, that was-"

"Ron?"

Ed swore.

Harry rubbed at his green, spectacle-less eyes, squinting to make out the small, tense form of Edward in the light of only the fireplace. "Ed? What are you doing up this late?"

"I-I was-"

"That was bloody amazing!" Ron gaped at Ed slack-jawed, a look of awe and excitement spreading across his freckled features.

Ed glanced around nervously, hoping Harry wouldn't ask what 'that' was. "Uh, thanks."

Harry glanced between the two other occupants of the room, a totally nonplussed expression screwing up his face. "Er, did I miss something?"

Roy whipped around to the boy beside him. "Yeah! It was really amazing. Ed fixed his wand! Without a wand! And it was all glowing and everything-"

"Wait," Harry cut Ron off mid-ramble. "He broke his wand?"

"Yeah," Ron started again eagerly, "and then he fixed it again! But his wand was already broken, so he couldn't have used his wand-"

The rest of Ron's overflowing word volcano went ignored as Harry cast a suspicious gaze over Ed, who grit his teeth and began mentally screaming the vilest curses he could think of.

"Wandless magic?" Harry asked cautiously, taking a far more sensible approach to the whole subject than his dumbly impressed friend.

Ed closed his eyes, sighing gruffly and shaking his head. "Alchemy."

He received two blank faces in return, before Harry's eyes lit up and he let out an, "Oh!" of realisation. "Hermione was talking about that the other day! She was reading that book about it... But wait, isn't it a dead art?"

Ed shook his head, grinning weakly. "Not where I'm from."

"Where are you from?" Ron interjected.

Ed tapped the side of his nose. "Somewhere far away."

"Hmmm." Hermione stared at Harry for a while, her face a mixture of surprise, distrust and thought. "You say he fixed it without any sort of wand?"

Ron snorted, rolling his eyes. "He broke his wand. That's the whole reason he was fixing it, 'Mione."

Hermione whapped Ron on the arm. "I'm not stupid, Ronald! But did he clearly say himself that he was using alchemy? He could have used a potion or something."

Harry nodded, ignoring Ron's sulking over his surely bruised arm. "He said it himself."

"In that case," Hermione concluded with a nod to herself, "we're going to go and ask him about it outright."

"But wouldn't that be... a little rude?" Harry offered uncomfortably. "I mean, it is his business and all..."

Hermione shrugged. "He's to blame for answering you truthfully in the first place." She picked up her bag hanging neatly over the bench next to her, straightening. "Now, he isn't in the Great Hall eating breakfast like the rest of us, probably just to avoid us and our questions. So, I'm going to go look for him." At Ron's grouchy expression, she huffed, "Do you want to come or not?"

"Fine," Ron grumbled. "But I wish I didn't have to miss breakfast."

"Don't worry," Hermione assured him as he and Harry threw their bags over their shoulders. "I'll make sure we aren't late for first period."

Ron groaned loudly, earning a smirk and a sympathetic pat on the shoulder form Harry.

"Now..." Hermione murmured. "Where would Ed be if he was trying to avoid us?"

Harry sighed. This was becoming too much like a secret agent mission for his taste. "Uh... The Gryffindor common room?" he offered.

Hermione shook her head, deep in thought. "No... That's too obvious."

"The library?" Ron suggested half-heartedly.

"Again, obvious."

"Detention?"

Harry grinned slightly at Ron's suggestion. "Likely, but we can't exactly walk in on a detention, so we're gonna have to rule that one out."

"Oh!" Hermione exclaimed, stopping dead in her tracks down the deserted corridor. "The Ravenclaw common room! He's friends with Luna Lovegood, isn't he? He might be down there."

Harry nodded and began gently dragging a reluctant Ron down towards the Ravenclaw common room.

"Now what do we do?" Harry sighed when they stood outside the intimidating double doors. "We don't know the password."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Don't you know anything about Hogwarts? There isn't a password for the Ravenclaw common room. You have to solve a riddle."

Harry and Ron exchanged glances, before saying simultaneously, "I can't solve riddles."

Hermione sighed. "Unfortunately, I'm not very good at them either." She paused in thought. "Well, I guess then there's only one thing to do."

"What?" Ron asked.

"We wait."

Both boys stared at Hermione.

"Are you kidding?" Ron complained. "I don't want to wait here for hours doing nothing just to ask about some alchenny thing!"

"Alchemy, Ronald."

"I don't bloody care!"

"Shhh, you two! Someone's coming!" Harry hissed, wildly motioning for them to get out of sight and keep it down.

And, to Ron's great joy, Edward came strolling out of the wooden doors, humming tunelessly to himself and carrying a dangerously tall stack of old, tattered books.

"I bet you those books are on alchemy," Hermione whispered to herself as the three sprang out from a concealed place behind a huge, white stone pillar, scaring poor Ed to death.

"What the fuck was that for?" he shrieked at them. "And what the hell are you three doing out here, anyway?" Ed calmed down relatively quickly, though he was still a little flustered and disorientated as the trio joined him on his stroll through the winding corridors.

"We were just... uh..." Harry trailed off, unable to think of a good excuse.

"Cleaning the pillars!" Hermione leapt in with her rather suspicious reason, as Harry shot her a slightly worried sceptical look and Ron discreetly brought a hand to cover his face.

Ed shot her an odd look. "Really? But I swear I saw someone cleaning them yesterday..." he trailed off, deep in thought.

Harry and Ron exchanged shocked but amused glances. Someone actually cleaned the pillars?

"Oh, wait, no..." Ed muttered to himself. "That might've been Luna."

Hermione laughed nervously. "R-really? We were told they needed c-cleaning... Maybe nobody saw Luna cleaning the pillars so they assumed they hadn't been cleaned...?"

"Maybe..." But Ed didn't seem to be listening anymore.

Harry decided to push their conversation train out of the lake and back onto the track. "So, Ed, where did you learn about alchemy?"

Ron winced as thirteen books fell, clattering, to the floor.

"My house."

Harry bent down, helping Ed stack the scattered books back into a pile. "No, I mean... uh... how?"

"Oh," Ed chuckled. "My... father was a great alchemist. My brother and I used to go through his research notes and teach ourselves."

"Wow," Ron mused, impressed at any show of basic intellect.

"Are you good at alchemy?" Hermione asked as they carried on down a staircase.

Ed nodded. "I guess so. Lots of people tell me I am, so I must be."

"What about your brother? Is he good at alchemy too?" Harry piped up.

"Yeah," Ed said with a fond smile. "In a way, his is better than mine. He pays more attention to detail."

There was a brief silence.

"So, Ed," Hermione started slowly but casually, "where exactly do you come from?"

Ed burst out laughing, much to the surprise of his companions. "If I told you that, I'd have to kill you." He flashed them a playful grin.

That grin was totally innocent and joking, yet Harry could swear Ed was deadly serious. He shivered at the thought.

"Hush hush, class!" a sickeningly sweet voice called out over the ruckus. "Be quiet, please!"

Eventually, the noise diminished to a quiet hum.

"I am your new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. My name is Professor Umbridge, and I hope we can all be friends!" the repulsive woman giggled from the front of the classroom.

Ron groaned, perfectly in sync with the rest of the class. Even Hermione looked disappointed with the choice of teacher.

"Now, now," she reprimanded lightly. "That isn't the way to speak to your teacher, now, is it?" she giggled again, though it sounded more like a drunken hiccup.

Ed rolled his eyes. He quietly murmured, so only Ron next to him could hear, "Oh, sorry, you're our teacher? I thought you were one of the first-year transfiguration experiments that escaped from the lab."

Ron clamped a hand over his mouth to stifle the laughter erupting within.

Luckily, Professor Frog didn't seem to notice, and continued with her 'let's all be the best of friends' speech.

Malfoy, released from the hospital the day before, snickered, "As if I could be friends with something like that."

The rest of Slytherin started laughing, and, much to Harry's worry, he found himself agreeing.

"Now," she started sweetly, "We will be working out of the textbooks, so I hope everyone remembered to bring theirs. If you have forgotten yours, please share with the person next to you."

A third of the class began whispering to their neighbours.

A few minutes into the lesson, a Hufflepuff hand shot up.

"Yes, dear?"

She asked timidly, "When are we going to be doing practical work?"

The frog woman blinked. "Practical?" She pronounced the word slowly, as if it had never had the bad luck to be said by those lips before. "I believe you misunderstood me. We will not be doing practical work in this lesson."

That sent the class into an uproar.

"Why not?" a Gryffindor cried out.

"Because it is dangerous, and the Ministry has forbidden me to endanger my students!" the professor bellowed, silencing the class.

Oh well, Ed thought as he sighed inwardly. This lesson isn't going to be much use to me if all we're doing is reading some textbook. I could do that in my free time. He glanced around at his infuriated classmates. May as well do something worthwhile.

"Oi," Ron whispered from beside him.

Ed turned, one eyebrow raised in question.

"I forgot my textbook," he said with a sheepish grin.

Ed smirked slightly. "Have mine. It's not like I'm gonna be using it anyway."

Ron's expression drew into one of confusion as Ed lightly flung his textbook onto Ron's desk. "Why not?"

Ed brought an automail finger up to his lips, confusing poor Ron even more.

"Please turn to page seven-hundred and..."

Now, Ed thought, where did I put that paper?

He secretively rummaged through his bag, his face scrunching up in annoyance when he couldn't find the slip of paper he'd picked up just in case earlier that morning. He gave up on his bag and began to search though his pockets; his eyes lit up as the familiar crinkle of creased paper caught his ears.

He gently tugged the paper out of his front trouser pocket, wincing at the noise, before flattening it out between his desk and his automail hand when Professor Umbridge swirled around to face the blackboard.

Ed uncapped his fountain pen (he refused to use a quill) and began hurriedly scribbling on the crumpled scrap of paper, much to Ron's interest.

After a few minutes, Ron simply couldn't contain his bubbling excitement any longer, and he whispered (rather loudly), "What're you writing?"

Unfortunately, it was a little too loudly.

"Writing? But I do believe I asked everyone to read chapter seventy-four, not make notes on it. Am I mistaken?" Umbridge glanced around the class, taking in every unopened notebook and unused pen in sight. Her smile turned a touch sinister. "Mr. Weasley," she asked slyly, "who, exactly, were you questioning on the matter?"

At Ron's garbled throat noises, Professor Umbridge raised her eyebrows and batted her eyelashes unappealingly, leaving Ed unsure of whether he should have eaten so much breakfast that morning.

"U-um... It was... no-"

Ed rolled his eyes. "It was me, Professor."

Umbridge blinked a few times, eyeing up the new transfer student, golden eyes, tanned skin, metal arm and all. Where did they say he was from again...? "Oh really, Mr. Elric?" She trotted over to his seat in the middle row, staring scathingly at the crinkled paper lying in plain sight on Ed's desk, then met Ed's gaze, before glancing back down at the paper and picked it up between her chubby index finger and thumb, as if it might bite.

Ron glanced worriedly at Ed, but Ed shook it off with a small smirk of confidence as the pink-clad perfume shop began to slowly read out what she could make out of Edward's untidy scrawl.

"'First, mix flour and sugar in bowl. Rub in three quarters of a bucket of-'" she cut herself off, squinting at the page for a moment before continuing, "'-margarine, but not too fast... Next, pour the... cow secretion?'" she gave the paper a perplexed look, "into the mould and add lime and orange juice-' what on earth is this, Mr. Elric?" she shrieked in frustrating puzzlement.

Ed tried his best not to smirk. Honestly, he did. "I believe the title explains itself, Professor."

Umbridge glanced up at the five words inked into the top of the page and double underlined. "'Lime and orange fruit cake'...?" she trailed off, a look of bafflement crossing her snub features, before shaking her head and slamming the paper back onto Ed's desk. "Mr. Elric, why are you writing a cooking recipe during my class?" she screeched.

Ed shrugged. "My friend wants it in time for dinner, to make for his girlfriend, so I have to send it off before lunchtime, and I didn't have any time to write it this morning."

Professor Umbridge turned as red as a tomato. "Detention, Mr. Elric! My class is for learning, not for writing messages to friends!" With that said, she stalked back to the front of the classroom, furiously muttering, "The Headmaster will hear about this!" under her breath.

As soon as the chaos was over and the tooth-rottingly sweet smile was back in place, Ron chuckled in amazement. "You really did all that just to write a recipe?"

Ed winked. "Not just any recipe."

"Hey, Ed," Luna greeted dreamily as everyone hustled and bustled themselves out of the classroom.

Ed offered her a placid smile. "Hey."

"What was that all about? You know, with the recipe?" she asked as she fell into step beside him.

Ed sighed light-heartedly. "Really, it's just a recipe for a friend. Okay, so he doesn't want it today, but so what if I stretched the truth slightly over that minor detail?" Ed grinned.

Luna smiled dazedly. "You're not a very good liar, you know. I'm surprised anyone fell for that at all."

Ed's eyes widened. "You..."

Luna nodded distantly, gazing out of the windows as they strolled past. "I'm very good at seeing lies. My father always tells me that. He says my mother was, too. It's a family trait."

Ed was suddenly reminded of Armstrong, and of his blonde-haired, blue-eyed sister, and immediately burst out laughing, much to the current occupants of the corridor's confusion.

"Not many people have that reaction to it, though," Luna commented, gazing on as Ed paused mid-stride and gripped the window ledge to keep his balance.

"Sorry," Ed smiled as the laughter died away, "you just reminded me of someone."

"Oh." Luna smiled. "Is this person very funny? It seems like they are."

"Um..." Ed hesitated. "Sometimes. In a slightly scary and annoying way."

Luna nodded, her gaze glued to the floor.

It took Ed a few seconds to realise. He quickly stammered, "N-not that you're annoying! Or scary! Or something. Just... oh, never mind," he grunted, turning his face away to hide the unwanted heat tinting his cheeks.

Luna giggled dreamily, softly brushing her right hand against his left, and causing another wave of furious blushing to grow on Ed's tanned face.

She gently pulled him around to face her, smiling slightly at Ed's irritated, flustered expression. She leaned forward onto her toes, until her nose was almost touching Ed's, and she whispered onto Ed's lips, her breath scented with melon, causing a warm shiver of some unfamiliar feeling to wriggle and dance down Ed's spine.

"You're interesting."

Those two words stubbornly refused to leave Ed's still tingling head for the rest of the day. He hardly spoke during lunch, and even Snape's mocking griping at his imperfect potion seemed to have no effect. He was stuck in a hazy dreamland, where all his thoughts eventually floated back to one girl in particular - a girl who'd been plaguing his mind more and more over the past week.

He stopped mid-step down the abandoned corridor, a determined, yet somewhat confused, expression on his face as he physically attempted to shake the annoying thoughts out of his head. Unfortunately, it only resulted in a very dizzy head and a nauseous feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"Dammit," he muttered, trying to overcome the thoughts verbally instead, "where is the damn Owlery?"

You would've thought Ed would've been able to find the Owlery by now, what with the constant reports he was sending Mustang and the letters he was sending Al and Winry. He even sent one to Havoc, and one to Izumi. And yet, still he couldn't manage to navigate the maze of corridors and moving staircases to find the damn place.

Ed stopped after a good forty-five minutes of searching, collapsing with a groan against a nearby staircase, lying face-up, sprawled out along the steps that were beginning to dig uncomfortably into his spine.

Fortunately, though, as luck would have it, when Ed finally opened his eyes to the heavens, he noticed a moving something in the room above him - a moving something strongly resembling an owl.

Ed grinned. He leapt to his feet, scrambling up the stairs in pride. This time it had only taken him forty-five minutes! That was a good ten minutes off his previous record.

When he reached the top, crumpled paper in hand, he glanced around, in search of the troublesome runt that was his owl. He found it, eventually, perched on top of another owl's cage, looking rather impatient.

"Geez, what's got you so wound up?" Ed whispered irritably at it as he strode towards it.

On closer inspection, Ed seemed to have received a letter. It had the military seal on the back, Ed noticed, as he tore it open and dropped the envelope on the floor.

Fullmetal,

Ed scowled, sighing inwardly.

Fullmetal,

It's good to hear about your progress with your research. Continue to find out as much as you can. We have many Generals here anxiously waiting for fellow armies to wage war with against Drachma, you know.

Ed snorted.

I look forward to your next report, whenever you bother to send one.

Colonel Roy Mustang

Ed grimaced. It was short, but sweet. He picked the envelope back up to insert the letter back in, but blinked when he saw another slip of paper shoved in there - definitely not standard military paper.

He yanked it out, unfolding it and scanning its contents, smiling as he did so.

Nii-san,

Yes, it's true. We are engaged. As much as you don't like Mr. Mustang, he is trustworthy. The wedding's due for next March, so I'd be happy if you got back before then. I wouldn't want you to miss your own brother's wedding. Though it would be just like you if you did.

I'm sure I'd be thrilled to be there! I just wish I could've found an excuse to go there with you. It's too bad I'm not a soldier, or I could've gone in your place. Socialising with people was never your forte, after all, nii-san.

Oh, and Winry and I adopted a cat! We found her abandoned on the street, poor thing. Winry was nice and let me keep it. I don't know what to call it, though. Do you have any suggestions? Other than 'Satan', please.

I hope you're doing well.

Al

Ed sniggered at the pathetic drawing of a cat Al had included next to his name. It was so pathetic it was cute, though Ed still found himself dreading meeting this cat in person. And that suggestion last time you picked up a cat was only a joke!

Ed glanced further down the paper, where he found Winry's familiar cursive writing.

Ed,

I'm glad to hear your research is going okay. I'm sure Al would love to be there, but unfortunately, he's stuck here with me. And the cat. Did he mention the cat? It's so cute! It's white. I wanted to call it 'Milky', but Al wouldn't let me. He said you wouldn't go anywhere near it if it was called that. Which is completely ridiculous of you, by the way.

How is your automail holding up? You better not beg me to go to wherever you are to fix it up. If you break it, you fix it. I'm not going over to a parallel dimension just to fix a bolt.

Anyway, I hope you can be back in time for the wedding. It'll be nice to see you again.

Winry

Ed smiled, folding up the paper neatly and tucking it back into the envelope with Mustang's letter, which he then inserted into his back pocket. He gestured for his irritable owl to take the envelope he offered it (though it was quite resistant), and he had to practically push it out of the window to get it to fly.

"Honestly," Ed mumbled, "couldn't they've got me a better owl?"

"Now what are you doing here?" Hermione asked from the doorway, causing Ed to emit a high-pitched squeak from his place by the window.

"What the fuck was that for?" he hissed loudly, wide-eyed.

Hermione raised an eyebrow. "Go to bed."

"I can be here if I want," Ed grumbled.

"And why are you here in the first place?"

"None of your damn business!" Ed snapped. "Stop stalking me, for fuck's sake!" And with that, he stomped his way out of the room, fury etching a deep red line in the air behind him.

Hermione stood in the doorway, quite nonplussed. "What on earth…?"

Extra-long (not really that long, but still) chapter to make up for the not-quite delay~

I hope you like it :3 Review~?