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"Edward," Lupin's voice was hoarse with wonder. "That was incredible. On your first try as well."

Edward stared at the stick in horror. He had done magic, against his own beliefs. He had broken all the rules of equivalent exchange. The wand clattered onto the ground and Edward felt unclean and desperately needing a shower.

"Wow," Harry stared at Edward in awe. Edward felt like crushing the stick under his heel. He was never going to use it again.

"That was really excellent, Edward!" Lupin gushed and Edward wished they would all shut up. It was not excellent. It was not incredible. It was wrong.

As Lupin handed them both Honeyduke's best chocolates, Harry blurted out suddenly,

"Professor Lupin? If you knew my dad, you must've known Sirius Black as well."

Edward glanced up too quickly that he got a whiplash. He groaned and clapped a hand over his neck. Lupin knew about Black? Edward could feel his heart racing with excitement.

"What gives you the idea?" Lupin said sharply.

"Nothing," Harry said. "I mean they were friends at Hogwarts too."

Lupin's face relaxed slightly.

"Yes, I knew him," Lupin said shortly. "Or I think I did. You guys better be off, it's getting late."

Edward grimaced. He had hoped that Lupin was more willing to give details about his old friend. Before he left the classroom, he heard his name and turned around.

Harry rushed up to him and held out a stick.

"Ed! You left this!" Harry panted. Edward's gold eyes widened at the sight of the stick and revulsion washed over him.

"I..." Edward thought about denying ownership of the stick but he reluctantly opened his gloved hand and Harry gave him the stick. "Thank you."

"You were awesome back there!" Harry exclaimed as Edward gingerly placed the stick into robes. All trace of dislike had vanished between them and Edward was a little perturbed by this sudden change of development.

"I didn't know you could actually use a wand!" Harry said and smiled sheepishly. "I thought you couldn't do magic and was some kind of outsider spying."

Harry looked momentarily horrified at himself before he amended quickly. "I mean, you come from Amestris right? Hermione said she read somewhere that it was a country that used to be a place where alchemy was practised."

Edward stopped walking and stared at Harry who was faltering in his sentences.

"A... and Hermione said that alchemists w... were on Voldemort's side before so we thought you had something to do with him."

"What kind of crap is that?" Edward said after a while. It was the stupidest thing he had ever heard. At first, he thought that his secret was exposed but Miss Know-it-all had taken the wrong lead and deviated further away from the truth.

At least he knew that the magic people believed in alchemists and he had to be very sure not to get caught or they would think that he was an evil Mortymort follower.

"Sorry," Harry muttered. "I guess I was being a jerk all this time to you."

"It's cool," Edward said. They rounded a corner and Harry veered away to climb up the stairs to the Gryffindor Tower.

"Ron too," Harry added before leaving. He looked away, not meeting Edward's eyes. "I know he may have gone overboard with the accusations. But I'm sure he doesn't-"

"It's okay," Edward said firmly and Harry gave him a grateful smile.

"Hey Ed!" Harry called as Edward narrowly avoided a rotten tomato thrown courtesy of Peeves. Edward turned around and saw Harry smile slightly. "See you!"

"Yea," Edward called back and headed to the dungeons. He had new lead that he intended to follow. Sirius Black and Remus Lupin. But first, he had to make sure his charge was safe.

Zabini told Edward that Malfoy was upstairs in the dormitories so that ended his search pretty fast. Edward returned to his own room and pulled out the old newspaper articles and books he had smuggled out of the library.

He tried to avoid touching the pictures of the paper which were moving around, as if alive. Edward was afraid that if he touched them, they might grab his finger and suck him into the newspaper.

Edward pulled out a sheaf of blank parchment and the candy quill he had bought from Hogsmeade. He sucked the candy as he studied the articles.

His pocket watch read eleven thirty and Edward had not found anything useful. His candy quill was dissolving also, making his fingers so sticky he had to wash his hands before writing anything. It was at eleven fifty that he found something promising. Edward had discarded the newspapers to one corner when he could find nothing remotely useful. The books were more useful.

One of them was a diary of some member of the Foldermort cult. It had been confiscated from her when she was sentenced to life imprisonment in Azkaban, a wizard prison guarded by dementors. Edward could not imagine how anyone could survive a lifetime in a place like that. Surprisingly, the library contained a lot of diaries. It was as if personal privacy did not exist in the hocus pocus world.

In the first page of the book, the name Sirius Black popped up and Edward quickly scanned it closely. It was a crudely drawn family tree and proudly emblazoned on top of the tree was the word 'purebloods'.

From the tree, Edward traced a gloved finger over the names. The owner of the diary was Bellatrix Lestrange whose paternal first cousin was Sirius Black. Bingo. Her sister was Narcissa Black which was crossed out and changed to Narcissa Malfoy. Edward held his breath and a smile spread widely on his face.

Next to her name, she had linked her to Lucius Malfoy and underneath Malfoy's name was the word 'pureblood'. Draco Malfoy's name was missing which meant he had not been born when the diary was written.

Edward punched the air victoriously. This meant that Sirius Black was Draco Malfoy's first cousin once removed. There was a distant relation. But it was definitely there. Maybe Malfoy was in danger because of a family feud? Or maybe Lucius Malfoy wanted his son to be like Sirius Black. After all, both Lucius and Sirius were part of Doldywart's cult. Then if that was the case, why would Lucius want Edward guarding his son?

Edward grabbed his bangs and tried to rip them off his head. This was making him come up with more questions than before.

Slamming the diary shut, Edward picked up another book on Death Eaters and The Great War and began flipping through the pages, studying them intently.

When he had finished, he was no better than when he had started. All he knew was that there was a blood relation and that Black had somehow betrayed the Potters to join up with Goldiwart. Lucius was also part of the Goldilort fan club. Apparently, Sirius Black's name had been removed from the family tapestry because of something he did. It made a little sense if Edward was following the family feud theory. Black was probably unhappy about this arrangement and decided to exact his revenge on his cousin's only son. Being a Death Eater, like Lucius, would mean that at some point of time, Black was close to the Malfoy family.

There were a lot of assumptions to be made and it was not enough to prove anything. Whatever the reason, Edward had to keep a sharp eye on Black and Malfoy.

Yawning, Edward closed the books and stacked the newspapers to one corner so he could return them back to the library the next day. He blew off the fire from his candle and got up to close the curtains. His hand stilled on the fabric when his eyes met a pair of glittering ones.

A huge bulky shape emerged from the bushes, still staring at Edward. It was the Grim. No, it was the big dog-human chimera. It was the same thing Nina had become but more intelligent and deadly.

Edward threw open the window wide and prepared to vault over the edge to confront the thing. Before he could jump out, the chimera disappeared.

The alchemist closed the window, and sealed it in by clapping his hands over the grill for good measure. It was a precaution, just in case the chimera came back again.

Angry at himself for being too slow, Edward sat on the edge of his bed and tried not to think about Nina and Alexander.