Cerulean Silver vs. Amber Gold
by hikaranko

Summary: Ed has been put on his stupidest assignment yet: babysitting. Well, that's not what everyone else would call it, but to Edward Elric, it's exactly like babysitting. But now Ed knows that there's something more to it, and he's gotten too involved to pull out... FMA/HP crossover. kinda sorta may possibly be slightly AU with HBP and with FMA. rated T for language.

Disclaimer: I, just like most everyone else, do NOT own either Fullmetal Alchemist or Harry Potter. I am nowhere near as cool or brilliant or creative as Hiromu Arakawa and J.K. Rowling. They rule. The only thing I own here is the idea of the story. The story is my baby. MJade-1 is its only godparent:D

Author's Note: sorry that this is kinda late. i've been pretty busy all this week with school stuff (ARGH, BANE OF MY EXISTENCE) and wasn't able to write very much. but anyways, here's the next chapter!

Chapter 22
A Chink in the Armor

The Slytherins (with the exception of Draco) all gaped at Ed with their mouths hanging wide open. Ed ignored them and just flipped to the next page in his book, frowning at what he found there. Yet another piece of useless information. When was he ever going to come across something he'd actually need to know?

"Why didn't you tell us it was your birthday yesterday, Eddy?" Pansy shrieked indignantly, obviously more offended than the others to hear the news.

"Why do you care so much?" Ed retorted, not looking up from his book. "And for the millionth time, stop calling me 'Eddy.'"

"Well, we might've been able to do something special," she said lamely, ignoring the last part. "Or at the very least get you some sort of present."

Ed rolled his eyes. "That sounds uncharacteristically charitable of you guys."

"Well, you're our mate!" Zabini told him with a grin, slapping him heartily on the back. "You're a fellow Slytherin! We're not completely wicked!"

He shot Blaise an annoyed glare. Ed knew perfectly well that the tall black boy was trying to get back on his good side (assuming he'd ever been on Ed's good side in the first place) so that he could continue to ask for homework help when necessary. Zabini had tried to get Ed to look over some of his and Crabbe's essay work even after insulting him; a request that was viciously shot down and - if it hadn't been for Al's interference - would no doubt have landed Zabini in the infirmary. Not the purest of intentions to want to give someone something for their birthday.

Crabbe and Goyle were just staring at Ed in dumb shock, probably only because Pansy and Zabini were. As for Pansy, for all Ed knew she just wanted to do some disgusting... thing that sluts like her probably did for boys they liked on their birthdays. He gave an involuntary shudder at the thought and quickly returned to his reading.

"Would you guys drop it?" Ed snapped irritably. "I don't see what the big deal is, it's just a birthday."

"Just a birthday?" Zabini echoed incredulously. "Just a birthday? You turned seventeen, mate!"

"Without telling us!" whined one of the Crabbe/Goyles.

"You're legal!" proclaimed the other one. "You're of age!"

"It's a very big deal!" Pansy finished, and then all of them looked quite satisfied at having supposedly set Ed straight.

Ed frowned. "Look, it's done, in the past, way behind us, water under the bridge, so let's all just forget about it and move on with our lives." He stole a quick glance at Draco. "No use moping around about something you can't do anything about."

Something about those words made Draco twitch in his seat as he stared into the fireplace of the Slytherin common room. Upon noting his reaction, however slight it had been, Ed smiled inwardly and settled comfortably back into the sofa to continue reading.

Pansy and Zabini frowned at Ed's words and, as Ed resolutely returned his full attention to the book in his hands, backed up to leave him alone. After five months of hanging around Edward, they'd come to learn that they weren't going to get another word out of him no matter what they tried, unless he was in a sharing mood (which, at that particular moment, he was not). Crabbe and Goyle also left Ed alone, retreating to the dormitory to prepare for their first class. Eventually, only Ed and Draco remained on the long, black sofa and they were going to have to get up as well to go to their Arithmancy class sooner or later.

It wasn't going to be a good day and Ed knew it. This was the day that Hermione shared all of their classes, which always put Malfoy into a particularly sour mood. Though from now on, it also meant that Al was going to spend the class period standing guard right outside of the classrooms. At the moment, Ed was a bit wary of his younger brother. When they'd parted ways the night before and Al found out about Ed's detention, he hadn't been very happy. In fact, Al had managed to deliver a good blow to the back of Ed's head, which he moaned sadly about all throughout his time with Snape. Though Ed was pretty sure that Al was over it by now, it never hurt to be careful.

Other than that, the day was perfectly normal. It passed by without much event and continued to have the usual effects on the students: Ed left Arithmancy in a sleepy daze and Defense Against the Dark Arts with a scowl across his face. Al watched all of these happenings from a safe distance, being as discreet as he could be in his spy work. He wished he could look in on the classes and watch the lessons, but there was no way to look into the rooms from the hall.

It was some time during Ed's double Potions period that the brothers became fidgety. It wasn't as obvious with Alphonse since he was getting very good at controlling himself. He just kept looking up and down the corridor as though he were waiting for something to happen. On the other hand, Ed just couldn't make himself sit still all throughout class. While Slughorn lectured, Ed tapped his fingers on top of the table, shifted himself in his seat, heaved frequent, discontent sighs, and continuously glanced over his shoulder toward the door. He hated feeling restless and he could only guess that it was because of some unrelenting fear that Al was going to get found out and get in trouble. His overprotective big brother instincts had kicked into overdrive; he couldn't help it.

"What's gotten into you today, Eddy?" Pansy asked when she noticed Ed look at the door for what was probably the fifteenth time.

"Nothing!" he said quickly, turning back around in his seat and waving a hand dismissively in the air, a nervous smile on his face. "Really, it's nothing!"

The other Slytherins looked skeptical of this, but said nothing more.

When they finally got around to brewing their potions, Ed worked a little faster than usual. He usually worked at his own pace, not particularly caring whether or not he finished first or last. He did this just to irritate Draco (though it hadn't been too effective since second term began), because for whatever reason, Draco hated seeing him so laid back. But today's restlessness made him work quickly - at least on par with Hermione as they both made for the supply cupboard at the exact same time.

This behavior certainly seemed to interest Slughorn and he watched Ed curiously as he worked. Of course, that only annoyed Ed further. He'd been planning on finding some way to discreetly transmute everything to speed up the process, but couldn't with Slughorn watching him. He tried very hard to pretend the Potions Master wasn't hovering over him and could only hope that his favorite pupil (aka Harry Potter) would do something marvelous and awe-inspiring within the next few minutes.

Meanwhile, Al had finally spotted something of interest round the corner and walk down the dark dungeon corridor. He straightened his posture immediately, so he looked just like the other suits of armor that sparsely decorated the other floors. The person that had just entered the hallway was a young girl, possibly around Al's age, with a long mane of flaming red hair. It was hard to tell from the distance Al was at, but as she came closer he realized that her light skin was freckled.

A few feet away from the door to the Potions classroom, the girl stopped. For a long, silent moment she just looked at Al curiously. Al fought to keep very still. For whatever reason, he wanted to get a better look at this girl, but he certainly couldn't make any sudden movements while she was watching him. Eventually, she seemed to shrug off whatever thought she'd had and entered the classroom.

All heads looked up, away from their cauldrons, as the girl briskly entered the room. Ron gave her a funny look which she returned in full force as she made her way toward the professor. Slughorn beamed at her, finally turning away from Ed and his potion and opened his arms in a welcoming gesture.

"Miss Ginny Weasley!" he cried exuberantly. The girl smiled nervously. "To what do I owe this pleasant surprise, m'dear?"

Several of the Slytherins (especially Pansy) sneered in the young girl's direction, a few of them muttering about the Weasley family and "blood traitors." Ed just observed Slughorn and Ginny, thoughtfully stirring the potion in his cauldron. He glanced back over his shoulder toward the door and, catching Al trying to poke his head into the room, shot him a look that very clearly said "don't even think about it" and quickly motioned for him to go back to the hallway.

"You're doing it again!" Pansy accused Ed, catching him in the act. She turned around quickly to see what Ed was looking at, but Al had already ducked out of sight. "Honestly, what's with you?"

Ed made a face, turning back to his cauldron. "Call it overprotective instincts."

Pansy looked more confused than ever and turned to the other Slytherins as though asking for their opinions and interpretations. Ed snorted in annoyance when he heard Zabini say something about "the younger Elric." Perfect. It was just a matter of time before the rumor mill resumed its dirty work.

"I've been told to give this to you, professor," said Ginny, holding out a folded up piece of parchment. "It's a message from Professor Dumbledore."

Slughorn hesitated for a moment, a look of terror momentarily flickering across his face, and then took the note from Ginny into his hands. "Oh... Thank you, m'dear, thank you."

His reaction had gone widely unnoticed by most of the other students. Only Ed seemed to have caught it, what with the professor standing barely two feet away from him. His eyebrows came together as he watched Slughorn turn away and walk slowly toward his desk at the front of the room. Ginny had already turned back to head out of the classroom, pausing for a moment to say something to Harry and his friends. Ed spared them only a brief glance before looking back at Slughorn who, strangely enough, had suddenly torn the slip of parchment to pieces and quickly disposed of them with a flick of his wand. He raised an eyebrow, suspicious.

'Weird... What's gotten into this guy lately?'

Al tried to peer into the classroom a second time, inching slowly and carefully toward the open door. The first time Ed had caught him, but now the older brother was distracted by something. Al looked around the room in a single sweeping glance, trying to commit as much of the classroom's layout to memory as he could. Then, upon seeing that the red-headed girl named Ginny was about to leave the room, Al quickly moved back into his stiff position near the door.

She stepped back out into the hallway, shutting the door behind her, but didn't move for another moment. Al couldn't quite see her out of the corner of his eye and, wondering if she was still in the room, moved his head slightly so that he could see... Ginny looking up at him from the doorway. He tried to hide his surprise when he saw her, freezing instantly. They just stood there for a long moment of silence, staring into one another's faces. As the moments seem to stretch out longer and longer, Al slowly came to a very important decision. Now that he could properly see her from head to toe, he realized something: Miss Ginny Weasley was very pretty. He just hoped that she wouldn't be suspicious or - far worse than that - afraid of him.

Much to Al's surprise, she just smiled genially at him. "Hello there."

Then, giving her long hair a casual flip, she walked off, heading back out of the dungeons. Al was silent, left gazing after Ginny in surprise and amazement. He could have cried tears of joy. It was the first time since he'd been turned into a suit of armor that someone hadn't been intimidated by the sight of him on the first meeting!

Several days went by in the exact same manner as all the others before them. The only thing that changed was Ed's mood as it became increasingly better as he counted down the days until the end of his detention with Snape. He and Al were making it a habit to head outside before anyone woke up so that they could have about half an hour to spar every morning. This return to their usual routine made Ed more cheerful than most of his classmates were used to seeing him.

Though it also meant that Ed was rarely ever seen with the other Slytherins during the few hours before and after dinner. Taking advantage of the fact that Draco was still not fully recovered from his depression (though he did speak a little more often these days), Ed parted from them after his last period to find Al and hang out with him. He was always sure to tell the Slytherins not to wait up and to go to dinner ahead of him.

So they did. Not because Ed had assured them that he would catch up. Of course not! It was simply because they were Slytherins and wouldn't have waited for him anyway. Pansy, Blaise, Crabbe, Goyle, Draco and Theodore Nott made their way to the Great Hall in relative silence, throwing the occasional sneer at everyone in the years below them. And it was because of their great Slytherin pride that, upon seeing one of their favorite targets picking up her things off the floor, quietly scolding herself for dropping them, they couldn't resist the urge to make fun of her.

"Well, if it isn't the perfect little Mudblood," jeered Pansy as they approached. "What's wrong, Granger? Those books you carry around all day finally became too much to handle?"

Crabbe and Goyle sniggered at the comment while Pansy folded her arms over her chest, looking pleased. Hermione barely glanced up at the Slytherins, occupying herself with gathering her things and keeping her eyes lowered to the floor. She seemed to be murmuring something under her breath about ignoring them. Draco just looked on in silence, his face blank.

"Look at that, boys!" Pansy went on, now mildly amused. "She's bowing to us!"

Nott smirked. "Looks like Granger's finally come to her senses!"

While all the other Slytherins laughed and snickered amongst themselves, Hermione continued to do her best to ignore them. Draco looked away, his face still blank.

"Finally realized how superior we are to your kind, have you, Mudblood?"

"Damn, Granger!" said Blaise suddenly. "That's right, innit? Man, with that dress you wore at Slughorn's party, I almost overlooked the fact that you're a Mudblood."

Hermione paused for a moment to shoot Zabini a hurt glare. Blaise just ignored it, turning to Crabbe and Goyle on either side of him as their laughing grew stronger. The Gryffindor looked back down at her things, reaching over to pick up the books she'd just checked out of the library. Nott grabbed one of them just before she could reach for it.

"'Magick Most Evile'?" He eyed Hermione amusedly. "Taken up an interest in the Dark Arts, have we?"

Almost all of the boys looked at one another, making ghost-like wailing noises in a mocking manner. Draco frowned in disapproval of their childish behavior. Hermione narrowed her eyes.

"Give that back."

"Woooo, scaaaary!" laughed Zabini.

Nott just smirked, waving the book around in the air. "Make me."

For a moment it looked like Hermione was seriously considering drawing her wand, but the anger that fueled the notion was short lived and the Slytherins knew it. Nott's smirk grew.

"Typical," he sneered. "Naturally Miss Goody-Two Shoes wouldn't dare try anything."

"Little Miss Perfect," spat Pansy. "Probably afraid of losing her shot at Head Girl."

"Probably afraid to lift a finger without her precious Potter around. Poor little Mudblood, of course she wouldn't be able to defend herself against people of our caliber!"

They all laughed as Nott continued to wave the book around. Hermione got to her feet and tried to grab it back, but the weedy-looking Slytherin boy effectively held it out of her reach. His laughter became louder and stronger as she kept trying and failing to reach for her book, backed up by his fellow Slytherins with their taunts and persistent mocking. Then suddenly, unable to contain herself any longer, Hermione drew her hand back and lashed it across Nott's face with a thunderous slap.

The laughter ceased immediately. Their faces suddenly hardened in anger.

"How dare you touch me, you filthy little Mudblood!" Nott hissed.

When Hermione didn't back down, Crabbe and Goyle moved forward and grabbed onto her, holding her in place as Nott strode dangerously toward her. Pansy just watched, a grim, amused smile on her face. Draco's eyes were elsewhere, not looking at Hermione, pretending that she didn't even exist...

"What do you think you're doing?" she shouted, struggling against Crabbe and Goyle's grip on her. "Let go of me!"

"How dare you disrespect your superiors, you little shit."

Hermione stopped struggling the moment she caught the cold fury in Nott's voice. Blaise suddenly looked somewhat uncomfortable as he watched warily.

"What are you doing, Nott?"

"Isn't it obvious?" he growled in response. "I'm going to teach this piece of filth a lesson in respect."

"Oh, come on, Theo-"

Nott cut him off. "One as low as this creature never - NEVER - strikes a superior pureblood!"

He then reared back one tight fist, preparing to strike. Hermione shut her eyes, bracing herself for the blow... But it never came. She slowly reopened her eyes to see what had happened and was immediately confused. It looked as though Theodore Nott had been frozen in place before he could swing his fist down. Only his eyes seemed to be able to move and so darted around in his head, trying to see what had happened to him. Everyone else was now looking at Draco, who had his wand pointed straight at their paralyzed companion. To say that they were all shocked would be an understatement.

"Malfoy...?"

"Let her go," he muttered darkly. His voice had been soft, just barely audible, but the look on Draco's face was enough to make everyone freeze up. "Lay one more finger on her, and you'll be sorry you'd ever been born."

Crabbe and Goyle immediately released her as though she were a hot poker and dropped their hands to their sides. Still acting as their leader, Draco motioned for the two goons to grab hold of Nott and carry him the rest of the way. As they moved to obey, Zabini reached over and snatched the book out of Nott's paralyzed grasp. Then, upon receiving some sort of signal from Draco, dragged Nott away.

Zabini hesitated before following, looking down at the book he'd recovered. He glanced back up at Hermione, who was just standing shock still in the middle of the hallway, her eyes wide. Then, quickly making up his mind, Zabini shoved the thick book back into Hermione's arms.

"Erm... Here."

He then walked down the hallway to follow after Draco and the others. Hermione remained silent for a few more moments, clutching the book tightly to her chest, not sure of what had just happened. She then shook her head, forcing the numerous scenarios that she'd thought up on the spot back out of her head, and hurried to the Gryffindor common room.

Dinner that night was quiet. Really quiet. Ed didn't understand what was going on when he rejoined the Slytherins for dinner. He'd entered the Great Hall late, only to find himself in the middle of some kind of silent battle between Draco and his crew. Crabbe and Goyle kept their faces lowered to their plates, avoiding eye contact with anyone. Pansy kept throwing Draco confused, frustrated looks while Nott shot him annoyed glares from where he was sitting several people down the bench. Only Zabini appeared to be normal, albeit a bit more quiet than usual, but all in all, Ed just couldn't figure out what he'd missed in the few hours he'd spent with Al.

He breathed an audible sigh of relief when dinner was over and hurried back out into the hallway to find Al before he had to head off to his final session with Snape. Once he stepped outside of the Great Hall, he quickly searched for signs of his brother, who he found about twenty feet away on the other side of the corridor. Ed separated from the other Slytherins and approached Al as discreetly as possible, which wasn't too hard with the massive crowd of students walking around.

"Well?" he asked once he was close enough. "How's it going?"

Al gave a small start at his older brother's voice, turning his head slightly to look at him. "Huh? Wh-What? How's what going?"

Ed frowned, mildly annoyed. "What do you mean 'what'? Your job, remember?"

"Oh, everything's fine. The only ones that go in and out of the hall are either students or faculty, and the only suspicious looking one is Mr. Snape. Nothing out of the..." Al trailed off as he noticed that Ed was looking at him strangely. "What's wrong, nii-san?"

"I noticed you've been acting kinda... funny lately," he said thoughtfully.

"What do you mean by 'funny'?"

"Like your head's been up on some cloud for the past couple o' days. Something I should know about?"

Al turned his gaze to the floor, silent for a moment. "Promise you won't laugh?"

"I won't," Ed answered with a nod of his head. "So what is it?"

"Well..."

"Edward? Alphonse?"

Both brothers turned around at the call of their names and saw Hermione walking toward them. They waved as she approached, Ed smiling slightly in her direction. His eyes darted momentarily in the direction that Draco and the other Slytherins had gone, then focused back on Hermione. After all, it would be troublesome if Draco saw him and Hermione together.

"Hi Hermione."

"What are you two doing over here?" she asked them. "Al, I didn't see you inside during the meal... Aren't you hungry?"

Al jumped slightly. "N-Not at all, Miss Hermione! I, um, already ate my dinner a while ago."

Hermione seemed somewhat suspicious of Al's response and turned to Ed as though asking for confirmation. "Really?"

"Yeah!" the older brother confirmed. "Since he's a guest here, he eats separately from the students, so... Yeah, he ate already, and, uh... he doesn't eat a whole lot anyway."

"That doesn't sound too healthy," Hermione commented, sounding worried. "Are you sure you're all right, Al?"

"Just fine! I wasn't very hungry to begin with, so..."

At that very moment, someone else came up toward Hermione, her long red hair swaying from side to side with every step. She looked back over her shoulder as she walked, over at someone who was slowly getting lost in the crowd.

"You know, Hermione," she said angrily as she came to a stop, turning back around with a flip of her hair, "I don't understand boys. Dean just completely-" She stopped when she noticed Ed and Al standing before her. "Oh, hello."

Ed half-smiled in her direction, mildly confused. "Uh, hi."

"Oh, I'm sorry!" exclaimed Hermione. "You haven't met before, have you?" When Ed shook his head "no," Hermione put one hand on the girl's shoulder as though she were a presentation. "This is another of my close friends, Ginny Weasley. She's from Gryffindor, too."

"Fifth year, though," Ginny said, smiling. She turned to Ed. "Hermione has told me about you, Edward. And you are...?"

As Ginny turned her attention on Al, so did the others. For a moment Al was silent, his body suddenly rigid and his gaze seemingly fixated on Ginny's face. If Ed listened really closely, he thought he could hear Al stammering something softly. He eventually got somewhat annoyed with the awkward silence and quickly elbowed Al in the side. This seemed to bring Al back to reality.

"Uh, I-I'm Al!" he blurted out suddenly. "A-Alphonse Elric! I'm his younger brother!" Al then suddenly looked down at his hands as he awkwardly twiddled his thumbs. "I-It's nice to meet you again, Miss Ginny."

Ed and Hermione's eyes suddenly went wide. Again? "You've met before?" they asked simultaneously.

Ginny only smiled. "Uh-huh. Just a brief 'hello' in the hallway."

Ed shot Al a sharp look that seemed to say "what the hell were you thinking?" Alphonse didn't notice it since he was apparently too distracted by the sight of his fidgeting fingers. Thankfully, neither did either of the Gryffindors. Ginny's smile grew warmly.

"You know, boys," she said, glancing briefly at Hermione, "tomorrow... Well, since it's the weekend, Hermione, Harry, Seamus, Dean, my brother Ron and I are going to have little snowball battle. Maybe you two would want to come join us?"

A slight frown formed on Ed's face. As fun as that sounded, he was going to have to refuse. First of all, he had orders to carry out concerning keeping watch over Draco. Secondly, he wasn't particularly keen on running around in the cold snow for a long amount of time. Once he was auto-mail free, then maybe. At the moment, the idea wasn't very appealing.

"Uh, I'd love to," he said, "but I'm gonna have to take a rain check on that. I've actually got something planned with the Slytherins."

Ginny looked a little disappointed to hear Ed's reply, but quickly shrugged it off and turned to Al, taking a step closer to him. "Well, how about you, Al?"

Al jumped slightly, his head immediately snapping upward to look at Ginny properly. "Me?" She nodded. "Oh, um... I don't know..."

"Oh, come on, Alphonse," insisted Hermione. "You could be on our team. That way I won't get pummeled by Ron's snowballs as much."

Ginny suddenly reached out and laid a hand over Al's arm, looking up into his face. "It'll be fun! We'd love to have you join us!"

As always, it was hard to tell with Alphonse and his armored body, but he seemed to blushing furiously. The younger Elric glanced up at Ed, who had inched away when the girls had started to converge on him. He gave Al a stern look and slowly shook his head, making a discreet cutting gesture across his neck with one hand. Al turned back to Ginny and Hermione.

"Um... okay... If you insist, Miss Ginny."

Ed slapped his forehead. Ginny grinned.

"Brilliant!" Hermione said cheerfully. She turned to leave. "I guess we'll catch you tomorrow, Alphonse! Wish you could come too, Edward."

"Yeah!" He forced out a nervous laugh as he returned to normal. "Maybe next time, right?"

Hermione smiled and began to walk away. "Of course!"

"Anyway," Ginny said before following her friend. "It was nice to meet you two. Ed and Al, right?"

Both brothers nodded, Ed slipping his hands into his pockets. "Yep. And it was... Ginny, right?"

Ginny nodded as well, smiling. As she turned to go, Al took a step forward.

"It was very nice to meet you, too, Miss Ginny!" he said, his voice bright and enthusiastic.

The red-headed Gryffindor sighed and turned back around, giving Al a slightly weary expression. "Do me a favor, Al?"

"Um... yes?"

"It's Ginny. Just Ginny. No 'miss.'" Her smile suddenly became even warmer. "We're friends, after all."

With that, she waved goodbye and followed Hermione down the corridor toward Gryffindor tower. Al watched her leave, practically mesmerized by the swaying of her hair. Ed had spent the last few moments watching his younger brother, as though he were analyzing him. Then, as the realization finally dawned on him, Ed's face broke out into a teasing grin.

"You really like Miss Ginny," he said, imitating the way Al had teased him before. "Don't you, little brother?"

Al didn't need a human face for it to be obvious that he was blushing.

Author's Note: hello, "Miss Ginny"! yes, another pairing has been created, simply because i think it would be adorable. Alphonse Elric and Ginevra Weasley... hehehe. and Malfoy slipped up again. oooops! Nott is slowly becoming quite evil in my mind's eye (not really sure why) and Zabini... well, i've grown to like this Blaise Zabini that i've created, he's quite a lot of fun. weird and sex-obsessed, but fun! it was actually really hard to write all those things that the Slytherins were saying to Gra- i mean, Hermione (dammit, Slytherins are rubbing off on me!) because... well, i've never actually witnessed anything like that first hand. just in movies and other books. i grew up in a very culturally diverse environment, and i've never heard anybody insult anyone based purely on race or heritage, so i didn't have a whole lot of experience to work with for that scene. thanks once again to MJade-1 for the idea :P

as a side note... if Ed ever promises not to laugh at something you tell him... don't believe him XP