DISCLAIMER: I OWN NEITHER HARRY POTTER NOR FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST!

Chapter Sixteen

Just then, Sirius's head appeared in the fire.

"Sirius!" Harry said.

"Hi," Sirius said, grinning.

"Hi," chorused Harry, Ron, and Hermione, gathering at the fireplace.

"Hello," Al said, going to the fireplace as well.

"Hey," Ed said.

"How're things?" Sirius asked.

"Not that good," Harry said, as Hermione and Al lulled back their respective cats so they wouldn't singe their whiskers. "The Ministry's forced through another degree, which means we're not allowed to have Quidditch teams -."

"Or secret Defense Against the Dark Arts groups?" Sirius completed.

"How did you know about that?" Harry demanded.

"You want to choose your meeting places more carefully," Sirius said, grinning more broadly. "The Hog's Head, I ask you…"

"Well, it was better than the Three Broomsticks!" Hermione protested. "That's always packed with people -"

"Which means you'd have been harder to overhear," Sirius said. "You've got a lot to learn, Hermione."

"And that's why I told her that she should have listened to me about having the meeting in the Three Broomsticks," Winry said as she came towards Ed with her auto-mail kit.

"Hi, Winry," Sirius greeted.

"Hello, Sirius," Winry greeted back. "Come with me to the fireplace, Ed, I need to be in the light."

"All right," Ed groaned.

Then he and Winry went to the fireplace where Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Al made room for them. Winry opened her case and then started to inspect Ed's auto-mail hand.

"Who overheard us?" Harry demanded.

"Mundungus, of course," Sirius said. "He was the witch under the veil. And we can't forget Edward."

Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked at Ed.

"But Edward wasn't at the meeting!" Hermione said.

"He was at the bar," Sirius said. "He had black hair, blue eyes, and glasses. And he was probably wearing Alphonse's coat. It was a pretty good disguise."

"What gave me away?" Ed asked.

"You have a habit of scratching the back of your head when you yawn and your hair style," Sirius said.

"Should've known," Ed muttered.

"Why didn't you join the meeting, Ed?" Ron asked.

"Because Brother wanted to prove that anybody could be listening in at a 'dodgy' place like that," Al explained.

Ron asked why Mundungus didn't talk to them, and Sirius explained that it was because the barman had a long memory. Then Sirius brought up Mrs. Weasley.

"First of all, Ron - I've sworn to pass on a message from your mother," Sirius said.

"Oh yeah?" Ron asked.

"She says on no account whatsoever are you to take part in an illegal secret Defense Against the Dark Arts group," Sirius said. "She says you'll be expelled for sure and your future will be ruined. She says there will be plenty of time to learn how to defend yourself later and that you are too young to be worrying about that right now. She also" - Sirius looked at Harry, Hermione, Ed, Al, and Winry - "advises Harry, Hermione, Edward, Alphonse, and Winry not to proceed with the group, though she accepts that she has no authority over either of them and simply begs them to remember that she has their best interests at heart. She would have written all this to you, but if the owl had been intercepted you'd all have been in real trouble, and she can't say it for herself because she's on duty tonight."

"On duty doing what?" Ron asked quickly.

"Order stuff," Ed said. "Ow! Winry, careful with what you're doin'!"

"I need more light, Ed, I can't help it," Winry said, then muttered, "Hasn't anyone heard of electricity?"

"Haven't you heard of using magic?" Hermione snapped.

Winry glared at Hermione.

"There's this thing called not wanting to depend too much on it," Winry retorted. "Oh, wait, you've never heard of it."

"All right, girls," Sirius said. "No need to get angry at each other. Anyway, it has fallen to me to be the messenger and make sure you tell her I passed it all on, because I don't think she trusts me."

"So, you want me to say I'm not going to take part in the defense group?" Ron muttered.

"Me?" Sirius asked, looking surprised. "Certainly not! I think it's an excellent idea!"

"You do?" Harry asked, his heart lifting.

"Of course I do!" Sirius said. "D'you think your father and I would've lain down and taken orders from an old hag like Umbridge?"

"But - last term all you did was tell me to be careful and not take risks -!" Harry said.

"That's because somebody was trying to whack only you off," Ed explained. "But this year, there's somebody who'd want to kill us all off! And learning to defend ourselves is the only thing that we can do!"

"Edward's right, Harry," Sirius said.

"What if we do get expelled?" Hermione asked.

"It was your idea!" Harry protested.

"I know it was…I just wondered what Sirius thought," Hermione shrugged.

"It's better to be able to defend yourself than to be killed when you could've learned how to defend yourself," Ed pointed out.

"I agree with Edward," Sirius answered. "It's better to know how to defend yourselves and get expelled than to stay in school without a clue."

"Hear, hear," Harry and Ron agreed.

"So," Sirius said, "how are you organizing this group? Where are you meeting?"

"Well, that's a bit of a problem now," Harry admitted. "Dunno where we're going to be able to go…"

"How about the Shrieking Shack?" Sirius suggested.

"I thought that place was haunted?" Al asked.

"No, it's not haunted," Hermione replied. "It's just a rumor that's been spread because Professor Lupin used it in school when he transformed into a werewolf. But that isn't a good idea because Sirius, Wormtail, and Harry's father could turn into Animagi. And I highly doubt that twenty-eight," then correcting herself when Ed cleared his throat, "thirty-one of us could fit under Harry's Invisibility Cloak. We'd need an Invisibility Marquee."

"Fair point," Sirius said, looking slightly crestfallen. "well, I'm sure you'll come up with somewhere…There used to be a pretty roomy secret passageway behind the big mirror on the fourth floor, you might have enough space to practice jinxes in there -."

"Fred and George told me it's blocked," Harry said, shaking his head. "Caved in or something."

"Not anymore it's not," Ed said.

"What do you mean?" Sirius asked. "If Harry said -."

Sirius broke off. His face was suddenly tense, alarmed. He turned sideways, apparently looking into the solid brick wall of the fireplace.

"Sirius?" Harry asked anxiously.

But Sirius had vanished. Harry gaped at the flames for a moment, then turned to look at Ed, Al, Winry, Ron, and Hermione.

"Let's go!" Al suddenly said.

Everyone turned to see that a hand had appeared amongst the flames, groping as though to catch hold of something; a stubby, short-fingered hand covered in ugly old-fashioned rings…

They all ran for it; at the door of the boys' dormitory, Harry and Ed looked back. Umbridge's hand was still making snatching movements amongst the flames, as though she knew exactly where Sirius's hair had been moments before and was determined to seize it.

The next day in Charms, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ed, and Al talked about what had happened since Charms was the perfect class to have a conversation. There was generally so much movement and activity that the danger of being overheard was very slight. Today, with the room full of croaking bullfrogs and cawing ravens, and with a heavy downpour of rain clattering and pounding against the classroom windows, Ed, Al, Harry, Ron, and Hermione's whispered discussion about how Umbridge had nearly caught Sirius went quite unnoticed.

"Umbridge has been reading your mail, Harry," Hermione said. "There's no other explanation."

"You think Umbridge attacked Hedwig?" Harry asked, outraged.

"Of course she did, Harry," Ed answered. "Why else would Hedwig be hurt? Besides, the Thestrals wouldn't harm the owls."

"What are Thestrals?" Ron asked.

"The things that pull the carriages," Al replied. "Brother said that we'll be learning about them this year."

"Then that would be why…," Hermione started.

"Why what?" Ron asked.

"You'll just have to find out when we learn about them," Hermione snapped, then looking at Harry. "Anyway, I've been suspecting this ever since Filch accused you of ordering Dungbombs, because it seemed such a stupid lie. I mean, once your letter had been read, it would have been quite clear you weren't ordering them, so you wouldn't have been in trouble at all - it's a bit of a feeble joke, isn't it?"

"Of course it is," Ed interrupted. "Umbridge just tipped him off. Once he got the letter, he would hand it over to the Toad Bitch. Harry, you're squashin' your frog."

Harry looked down and saw that he was squeezing his bullfrog so tightly its eyes were popping; he replaced it hastily upon the desk.

"It was a close call last night," Al said. "But if he had been caught, then he would be back in Marzipan."

"Azkaban," Hermione corrected as Ed shook with suppressed laughter. "Edward, shut up."

Hermione silenced her frog and then Harry's.

"Try Silencing your raven, Alphonse," Hermione encouraged.

Al jabbed his wand and the raven silenced.

"Well done, Alphonse!" Flitwick cheered. "I'm positive that you won't have trouble next year when we start speechless magic!"

Al blushed in embarrassment.

"Edward, you try," Flitwick suggested.

Ed silenced his frog with a jab.

"Congratulations!" Flitwick said.

At the end of class, Hermione stormed to the castle without Harry, Ron, Ed, and Al.

"Did I do anything?" Al asked.

"Nah, she's just jealous," Ron brushed off. "Let's get to the castle."

Then they all went to the castle and found Hermione and Winry in a classroom. When going over to Winry and Hermione, Winry gasped at the wet appearance of them.

"You're all wet!" Winry said.

"Of course we are," Ed replied. "It's a downpour out there."

"You need to dry yourselves off or you'll get sick," Winry instructed.

"Yeah, yeah," Ed remarked.

Ed clapped his hands and then placed them onto his chest. There was a flash of bluish-white light as Ed's clothes dried. Al copied his brother. Harry, Ron, and Hermione gaped at them.

"That's bloody brilliant," Ron said. "Will we learn that?"

"No," Al stated. "It can't be taught. Only people who have seen…"

"Who have seen what?" Hermione asked kindly, forgetting about her jealousy.

Then Al quickly left the classroom.

"Al!" Ed called out. "Al!"

Then Ed went after Al.

"What the bloody hell was that all about?" Ron asked.

Winry scowled and went after Ed and Al.

Ed was able to find Al just outside the castle doors. Al was sitting on the top stone step, his arms around his legs that were against his chest and his chin on his knees. He was staring off into space as rain pounded down onto him. Winry came and stood next to Ed.

"Al?" Ed asked. "Are you all right?"

"I don't want to go back," Al whispered.

"Go back where?" Winry asked.

"There," Al quietly replied.

Ed went to Al and sat down by him.

"You mean the Gate," Ed correctly assumed.

Al nodded.

"It was lonely there," Al whispered.

"But only your body was there," Winry said.

"I know, but…," Al started. "Sometimes, I have dreams that I lost hold of the Philosopher's Stone when I transmuted myself and I end up having to spend eternity there…"

"You don't have to go back there, Al," Ed assured. "Don't worry."

"You promise?" Al asked.

"We promise," Winry affirmed, placing a hand on Al's shoulder. "Let's go, okay, so we won't get sick."

Al nodded again. He and Ed both stood up and went with Winry inside the castle. Ed and Al alchemized themselves dry. Ed clapped his hands and placed them on Winry's shoulders. With a flash of light, Winry was dried off. Ed kept his hands on Winry's shoulders for a few moments longer but then took them off.

"Let's get to class," Ed said.