They moved like shadows and night blanketed them.
"There's Ron!" said Harry suddenly. Edward looked up and saw the Willow. A dark figure with bright hair was sprinting, shouting unintelligibly.
Two more figures appeared and Edward recognised Harry's and Granger's silhouettes. They were followed and overtaken easily by an enormous dog.
"There's Sirius!" said Harry. The dog seized Weasley and pulled him into the roots.
Edward gasped. There was a stranger among them. A boy shorter than the rest of the group. It was dark so it was hard to tell what the boy's colouring was. Maybe blonde, or brown? He was wearing the same filthy robes Edward was wearing and cussing with the same filthy language Edward preferred to use.
The tree flung the boy around like a ragdoll and one of the branches scored across his face, leaving a thin trickle of blood which Edward had not noticed before. Edward winced in sympathy for him.
"Looks even worse from here, doesn't it?" said Harry. "Ouch- look, I just got walloped by the tree- and so did you- this is weird-"
"So did I?" Edward hissed incredulously. "I'm right here!"
"And you're there too," Granger said.
"I'm right here!" Edward snarled, standing up abruptly and clenching his fist. The Gryffindors' eyes widened simultaneously and Edward turned furiously away from them. There was a roaring noise in his ears. Loud and harsh and he could not hear what his companions were saying.
His sanity told him he was angry although it was not their fault. His sanity told him not to worry; it was all a bad dream and he would wake up soon. His insanity told him that amidst the roaring, came a clear distinct clap of metal against flash. His insanity also told him that through his blood red vision, he saw the boy press his palms against the tree trunk and blue alchemic light emitted from them. His insanity told him that that was clearly an alchemic reaction, that the boy was most definitely him.
His sanity told his insanity to shut up.
The Whomping Willow lashed out some more before the branches crumbled and the three figures collapsed onto the ground.
"And there we go..." Harry muttered. "We're in."
The figures disappeared and Edward let out a low breath of relief. Seconds later, they heard footsteps quite close by. The geezer, Fudge, and two other men were making their way up to the castle.
Harry and Granger were whispering about the geezer but Edward ignored them. He sat down on the ground bitterly and the chimera made a soft crooning sound behind him.
Once the geezer and his party had left, the entire forest was eerily quiet for minutes.
"Here comes Lupin!" said Harry and Edward looked up. Lupin had the parchment in his hand and he looked around quickly before grabbing one of the branches Edward had severed from the tree and prodded a huge knot on the tree. The branches stopped whipping around. Lupin slid into the hole.
"Wish we knew about that earlier," Granger muttered.
"If he'd only grabbed the-," Harry gave Edward a sidelong look which the latter did not miss and made a vague gesture with his hand. "It's just lying there..."
"If I just dashed out now and grabbed it, Snape'd never be able to get it and-"
"Harry, we mustn't be seen!"
"How can you stand this?" he asked Granger fiercely. "Just standing here and watching it happen?" He hesitated. "I'm going to grab it!"
"Harry, no!"
Edward did not bother asking what they were talking about and looked pointedly away as Harry gave Edward yet another very significant look.
Before Harry could dash out of the shelter of the forest, Hagrid's throaty voice broke into song and he appeared, staggering up to the castle and singing horribly.
"See?" Granger whispered. "See what would have happened? We've got to keep out of sight! No, Buckbeak!"
The chimera was making frantic attempts to get to Hagrid again. Harry and Granger seized the rope until Hagrid disappeared and the chimera calmed down.
"Look," Edward whispered, catching their attention. The Gryffindors sat down on the ground beside him.
Snape was charging across the lawn towards the Willow. He stopped when he was in front of the thrashing tree and grabbed the thin piece of fabric Edward had seen on him when he first appeared on the Shack, out of thin air. And the same fabric that the Gryffindors had used which had let them disappear, into thin air.
"That thing makes you invisible!" Edward said, with dawning realisation and was confirmed when Snape prodded the knot, wrapped the cloth around his body and disappeared.
"Edward, look…" Granger paused and looked helplessly at Harry. She took a deep breath. "Yes, its called an Invisibility Cloak. It's Harry's. We didn't want to tell you about it because-"
"You didn't trust me, I know," Edward interrupted nonchalantly. He would not blame them. If he were in their shoes, he would not be trusting himself either.
"I'm sorry, even though Dumbledore says you're with us, there's too much we don't know about you. And because I also…" Granger took a deep breath and her eyes clouded. She shook her head frantically but her eyes still carried the troubled look.
Edward gave her a steady look and waited for her to continue. But she remained silent and stared into the distance pensively.
Sighing, Edward picked up a twig from the ground and drew a perfect circle. As he began to fill in the lines and shapes inside the array, he started talking.
"You're right about one thing," Edward said, joining the lines together inside the circle. He put his hands over the array and soft blue light began to glow. "I'm not one of you."
The ground around the array sank a little. When the light died away, a little metal replica of the chimera sat on it. Harry and Granger shared similar stunned expressions on their faces. The chimera was making weird chuffing noises from the sudden flare of blue light.
"I'm not into any of your hocus pocus stuff. I have never seen any of it until very recently. I come from a place called Amestris. Its where the rules of alchemy govern us."
"You're an alchemist?" Granger almost shouted. Her eyes darted around before she lowered her voice. "I've suspected as much from what I've seen but I can't believe you would admit to being one of You-know-who's supporters!"
"He's a Voldemort supporter?" It was Harry's turn to almost shout.
"No," Edward snapped irritably. "I'm not anyone's supporter. You people have a very skewed sense of alchemy. First of all, alchemists aren't gold makers. It's really harmful to the economy if there is an everlasting supply of gold to the world. Second of all…"
Edward crossed his hands over the circle again and the chimera replica dissolved back into the ground.
"Unlike magic, alchemy needs to come from something. It's called the Principle of Equivalent Exchange. You can't get something out of nothing. Which is why even though I've been here for almost a year, I still can't understand how magic works- how this works." Edward waved his hand at the Whomping Willow where everyone had disappeared moments ago.
"Then if you don't belong here, or even want to, why are you here?" Harry asked.
The entire protecting Malfoy thing still puzzled Edward. Black had already explained his role in the case. So what was Malfoy's part in everything?
"I can't tell you much but I can only say it's because my commanding officer said so," Edward replied.
Granger let out a half squeal of excitement. The chimera perked its head and looked wildly around before sitting back down in the ground again. Harry was tying the rope attached to the chimera around a tree trunk.
"You're commanding officer? That means you are a Special Alchemist! And you guys are military. But how can you be in the military? You're so young!"
"State alchemists," Edward said abruptly. Before he could explain any more, Granger's eyes widened.
"At the library the last time, you said your younger brother wears armour all the time. Could he be the Fullmetal Alchemist?"
Edward was mildly impressed by how fast Granger could put two and two together. It was not surprising though considering that Granger was known to be a hocus pocus prodigy.
"Actually, I'm the Fullmetal Alchemist."
"You? You mean you're the one they call Viagra on legs?" Granger paused when she realised what she had just said and blushed deeply. Edward reddened considerably as well.
Harry stroked the chimera's wings and glanced at Granger curiously. "Hermoine, what kind of books have you been reading?"
"I… I mean, it's not that you're not good looking. I mean, you are but I don't… I mean I could have…"
Edward grinned as Granger babbled away. He shot Harry a smirk. "Apparently, you people wrote a book about us. They made me sexy."
Harry gave him a grunt, in the universal man language which meant I acknowledge what you have said but I do not necessarily agree with you.
Edward returned a grunt of his own which translated to You just wish you were me.
Harry grunt-moaned and rolled his eyes.