DISCLAIMER: I OWN NEITHER HARRY POTTER NOR FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST!

Chapter Seventeen

By the next day, the rain had only gotten stronger. Ed's auto-mail ports had started to throb, but he ignored the pain the best he could. He didn't want anyone worrying about him. At lunch, Harry told Angelina about the meeting's whereabouts after she had told him and Ron that practice was cancelled. Hermione was giving Harry a look.

"What?" Harry asked thickly.

"Well…it's just that Dobby's plans aren't always that safe," Hermione replied. "Don't you remember when he lost you all the bones in your arm?"

"We used the Room of Requirement last year," Ed spoke up.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked at Ed.

"Why didn't you say anything this morning or -?" Hermione started.

"No one asked me," Ed brushed off, a flicker of pain crossing his face as he shrugged.

"What's wrong, Ed?" Harry asked.

"Nothing," Ed lied.

"Brother's auto-mail ports always hurt when it's raining or cold," Al spoke up.

"I could have given you some medicine for the pain, Edward," Winry said. "Granny gave me some before -."

"I don't want medicine," Ed interrupted. "I'll be fine."

"What did you mean about the passageway behind the mirror not being blocked anymore?" Harry asked.

"If I tell you, I'll have to wipe your memory afterwards," Ed threatened, grinning.

"Brother told me that he cleared it out with Alchemy so Winry could help him train for the last task in privacy," Al spoke up.

"Al!" Ed hissed.

"I bet that's not the -," Ron started.

"You finish that sentence and I'll shove -!" Winry started to threaten.

"I thought you said you used the Room of Requirement last year," Hermione interrupted.

"We did," Ed said. "We used them both."

Harry, Ron, and Hermione spent the rest of the day rounding up the people who had come to the meeting in the Hog's Head. At half past seven, Harry, Ron, and Hermione left the Gryffindor common room. When they got to the seventh floor, they saw that there was already a door there. Harry opened the door to see Ed, Al, and Winry were already in there. Harry, Ron, and Hermione went into the Room of Requirement.

"How long have you been in here?" Hermione asked.

"A few minutes," Ed answered.

He, Al, and Winry were sitting on the pillows in the room, reading books.

"What if you were caught?!" Hermione asked.

"We weren't gonna get caught," Ed scoffed. "Don't worry so much."

Hermione pursed her lips. By the time eight rolled around, everyone of the people who had been at the meeting in the Hog's Head was in the Room of Requirement.

"Well," Harry said, slightly nervous. "This is the place we've found for practices, and you've - er - obviously found it okay -."

"It's fantastic!" Cho exclaimed.

"It's bizarre," Fred said, frowning around the Room of Requirement. "We once hid from Filch in here, remember, George? But it was just a broom cupboard them…"

Harry explained about the Dark Detectors.

"Well, I've been thinking about the sort of stuff we ought to do first and - er -," Harry started.

"Don't you think a leader needs to be elected first?" Ed spoke up.

"Harry's leader," Cho answered at once.

"You need to have a proper vote first, Cho," Winry snapped.

"I agree with Winry," Hermione quickly said. "It makes it formal and gives him authority. So - everyone who thinks Harry ought to be our leader?"

Everybody rose their hands, and Ed and Winry just said 'whatever'.

"We also ought to have a name," Hermione said brightly. "It would promote a feeling of team spirit and unity, don't you think?"

"Can we be the Anti-Umbridge League?' Angelina asked hopefully.

"Or the Ministry of Magic Are Morons Group?" suggested Fred.

"That's too obvious," Ed reasoned.

"It should be Dumbledore's Army," Al said. "You know, since that's the Ministry's worst fear. It can be the D.A. for short"

There was a good deal of appreciative murmuring.

"All in favor of the D.A.?" Hermione asked bossily, kneeling up on her cushion to count the hands raised. "That's a majority - motion passed!"

She gave the piece of paper to Ed, Al, and Winry to sign and then posted it on the wall and wrote DUMBLEDORE'S ARMY across the top in large letters.

"Right," Harry continued after Hermione had sat back down, "shall we go on practicing then? I was thinking, the first thing we should do is Expelliarmus, you know, the Disarming Charm. I know it's pretty basic but I've found it really useful -"

"Oh, please," Zacharias Smith scoffed, rolling his eyes and folding his arms. "I don't think Expelliarmus is exactly going to help us against You-Know-Who, do you?"

"Harry used it against Bodel-butt and lived, rat face," Ed said. "But if you think you're too good, you can leave."

Smith didn't move, nor did anyone else.

"Okay," Harry said, his mouth dry, "I reckon we should all divide into pairs and practice."

Everyone paired up. Ed and Al paired with each other as Winry paired up with Neville. That freed Harry to check up on everyone as they practiced the spell. Before they knew it, an hour had passed. Harry checked the Marauder's Map and let everyone go. Ed, Al, and Winry went with Harry, Ron, and Hermione back to Gryffindor Tower.

As the meetings wore on, everyone was doing better and better. At the fourth meeting, Hermione passed out fake Galleons.

"You see the numerals around the edge of the coins?" Hermione asked, holding one up for examination at the end of their fourth meeting. "On real Galleons that's just a serial number referring to the goblin who cast the coin. On these fake coins, though -."

"You cast a Protean Charm on them," Ed interrupted.

Everyone looked at Ed.

"How -?" Hermione started.

"I'm a prodigy, what can I say?" Ed smirked. "Anyway, the numbers correspond to the date and time of the next meeting. They'll grow hot whenever Harry changes the date and time and blah, blah, blah…It's a N.E.W.T. standard."

"Why weren't you put in Ravenclaw?" Terry Boot demanded of Hermione.

"Well, the Sorting Hat did seriously consider putting me in Ravenclaw during my Sorting," Hermione admitted. "But it chose Gryffindor."

"These are like the Death Eater tattoos," Harry observed.

"That is where I got the idea," Hermione admitted. "But you'll notice I decided to engrave the date on bits of metal rather than on our members' skin…"

"I prefer your way," Harry grinned.

"I don't know," Ed said. "A tattoo sounds pretty cool."

Winry scowled.

"Coming from the person who's afraid of getting shots," Winry scoffed.

Ed turned red in embarrassment as Al chuckled while everyone else laughed.

October extinguished itself in a rush of howling winds and driving rain and November arrived, cold as frozen iron, with hard frosts every morning and icy drafts that bit at exposed hands and faces. The skies and the ceiling of the Great Hall turned a pale, pearly gray, the mountains around Hogwarts became snowcapped, and the temperature in the castle dropped so far that many students wore their thick protective dragon skin gloves in the corridors between classes.

The morning of the match dawned bright and cold. When Harry awoke he looked around at Ron's bed and saw him sitting bolt upright, his arms around his knees, staring fixedly into space. Harry looked to Ed and Al who were almost finished getting dressed. Al had just pulled on his green sweater and sat down on the edge of his bed to pull his shoes on and tie them. Ed was about to pull on his blue sweater when he realized that Harry was looking at him.

"What?" Ed asked.

"Your shoulder," Harry said. "I didn't realize how your auto-mail was connected…"

"You just noticed?" Ed asked.

"Well, you've always left the dorm before any of us," Harry answered. "It looks swollen."

"Brother's shoulder and leg always gets swollen when it's this cold," Al spoke up. "He'll be okay. Brother, we promised Winry we'd meet her for breakfast so we could get seats together. Hurry."

"All right," Ed groaned, pulling his sweater on over his head. "I don't see why…"

Ed pulled the tie out of his hair, combed his hair out, and put his hair back up into a ponytail. He pulled his white gloves on, put on his red, winter version of his trademark jacket, and put on his trademark boots.

"See you at breakfast," Ed waved, as he and Al left the dorm.

At the Great Hall, Ed and Al found Winry sitting with Hermione and Ginny. Ed and Al sat with them.

"Where are Harry and Ron?" Hermione asked.

"Harry just got up, and Ron is sitting comatose on his bed," Ed replied.

"Edward," Winry scolded.

"It's true, Winry," Al insisted.

"Ron may just be nervous," Ginny said. "It is his first game after all."

A few moments later, Harry and Ron came to the table where Harry had told everyone that Ron was nervous.

"As long as you don't screw up, Ron, everything will be fine," Ed remarked.

"EDWARD!" Winry, Hermione, Al, and Ginny scolded.

Ed cringed.

"I was only joking," Ed mumbled.

At the match, Ed got irritated by the Slytherins singing the 'Weasley Is Our King' song. Izumi didn't quite like the singing either.

"My dear Izumi, what is troubling you?" Dumbledore asked.

"You didn't say how cold it got in this country," Izumi grumbled, pulling her coat tighter around her.

Dumbledore chuckled.

"Of course it would be cold, Professor Curtis," Umbridge simpered. "This is, after all, a northern country."

"I wasn't talking to you, Dolores," Izumi snapped.

"Now, now," Dumbledore calmed. "Of course it would be different for you, Izumi. You are not used to the cold."

"I don't mind it as much as the stupid singing by those Slytherin brats," Izumi said.

"They are only children, Izumi," Snape commented. "Children will be children. Unlike your student Edward, they know when to -"

"Edward doesn't disrespect his classmates," Izumi cut off.

"I quite disagree, Izumi," Dolores disagreed. "He has -."

"Let's all just enjoy the game," Sinistra interrupted.

Just then, a coughing fit came over Izumi. Luckily, she had a handkerchief so she could cough into it.

"Are you all right, Izumi?" Dumbledore inquired.

"Yes, I'm fine," Izumi lied, stuffing her blood soaked handkerchief into her pocket.

"I can make you a draught if you would -," Snape started.

"Potions can't cure it," Izumi interrupted. "Excuse me, I need to go lie down."

"Of course," Dumbledore said.

Then Izumi left a moment later. Ed, Al, and Winry watched her leave.

"What's wrong?" Hermione asked.

Ed, Al, and Winry looked at each other and then at Hermione.

"Nothing," Ed lied. "I'm going to the castle."

"What for?" Ginny asked.

"I need to pee," Ed lied.

Then Ed left. Winry scowled as Al groaned.

'Couldn't Brother have come up with a better excuse?' Al thought.

When Ed got to the castle, he saw that Izumi was sitting on the front steps.

"Are you all right, Teacher?" Ed asked, out of breath as he stopped in front of her.

"I didn't realize how hard it would be for me here," Izumi replied. "You didn't tell me how cold it would be."

"I did, too, Teacher!" Ed protested. "I told you after you accepted the teaching job here!"

Izumi didn't say anything.

"Teacher, Al is still acting different," Ed said, sitting next to Izumi.

"How different?" Izumi asked.

"You know, getting scared for no reason," Ed replied. "Spacin' out, snappin' at people."

"He's not doing it all of the time, is he?" Izumi asked.

"No, but it still worries me," Ed answered. "Maybe I'm makin' a mountain over a molehill or something."

"Maybe," Izumi replied. "Maybe it has something to do with the Gate of Truth."

"He did say that he didn't want to be alone anymore," Ed remembered. "Do you think that he was -?"

"The best thing we can do is to not bother him about it," Izumi interrupted. "If he wants to tell us anything, he will tell us in his own time."

"I guess you're right," Ed sighed. "Teacher."

"What?" Izumi snapped.

"Nothing," Ed answered, standing. "I'm gonna go up to the common room. I don't wanna watch the rest of the stupid Quidditch match."

"No, you're going back to the match," Izumi ordered.

"Do I have to?" Ed whined.

"Yes, you do," Izumi answered. "You need to show some support for your House."

Ed groaned and went back to the stadium and sat back down by Hermione, Ginny, Winry, and Al.

"Why didn't you go back to the Common Room?" Hermione asked.

"Didn't want to," Ed replied.

"You mean, Teacher wouldn't let you," Al said in Xingese.

"Yeah," Ed replied in Xingese.

"What language are you speaking in?" Hermione asked. "It sounds Asian."

"It's Xingese," Al answered. "Brother was required to learn it in case he had to go there, so I decided to take the classes with him in case he messed up on what he was saying."

"Oh, thanks a lot, Al," Ed remarked.

Al chuckled. A few minutes later, the match was won by Harry. Ed, Al, Winry, Hermione, and Ginny went down to the pitch to congratulate Harry on winning the game and to see if he was okay from being knocked off his broom. When getting to the Gryffindor team, they overheard Malfoy trash talking Harry and the Weasleys. Before Ed and Al could say anything, though, Harry and George launched themselves at Malfoy.