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

From the Author: I've said it once, and I'll say it again: please no character bashing. 'nuff said.

anyways, it looks like Al and Ginny are getting some support! hehe... but for those who are still skeptical, I know Al and Ginny is gonna be a little awkward, considering Al's... a soul in a suit of armor... but feelings are feelings, and they can't be controlled. ;) let me toy around with it for a while, and we'll see what becomes of them.

Chapter 23
Snowball Fight!

Ed shot a glare at a small group of random lower year students that were lingering nearby as he and Al walked out onto the grounds. The students gave a start and immediately scrambled away, throwing nervous looks over their shoulders as they escaped. Al turned to face Ed.

"Nii-san."

"What? They were staring."

Al sighed in exasperation. He knew that Edward hated it when people gawked and stared at Al's armored body and he had every right to. He just wished that Ed would give him a chance to get angry first for once. It wasn't easy to have such an overprotective and yet high maintenance older brother.

"Rumors sure spread fast around here, don't they?"

"Yeah." Ed groaned, ruffling his hair. "At least there are only a handful of people who know you're my brother and could probably recognize you in the hall. Everyone else thinks you're just a suit of armor that's been enchanted to spar with me."

Al laughed softly. "I'm not sure how to take that..."

Ed smiled. "In any case, looks like your secret's safe for now."

The younger Elric nodded his head slowly as they continued their walk. It wouldn't be much longer before they reached the spot that Al had agreed to meet with Ginny and the others for the snowball fight. Ed made a face at the layer of snow on the ground. It hadn't been snowing as much over the past few days. In fact, it had been raining a lot lately since February was fast approaching. What snow was left was mostly ice and water - it didn't look like it would be a lot of fun to play in. Sighing, Ed glanced up at his younger brother.

"I still don't think this is such a good idea, Al."

"You always say that, nii-san. I'll be fine, really!"

Ed was silent for a moment, still looking at him. "Al... You do know this is just... a temporary thing, right?"

"It's just a snowball fight, nii-san. It's not like I think it's going to last forever."

"That's not what I mean. Just..." Ed sighed, scratching his head as though the thought was irritating him. "Just don't get, you know... too attached, okay?"

Alphonse turned to his brother curiously. "What do-"

"Al! Great! You're here!"

Both brothers turned around at the sound of Ginny's voice as she ran up to meet them. She was bundled in her winter gear, though it wasn't quite as snug now that the weather was slightly warmer. She smiled at the Elric brothers once she was practically standing next to them.

"I'm so glad you could make it," she said, beaming. She then looked over at Ed. "Oh, are you joining us, Ed?"

He smiled slightly and shook his head. "I just had some extra time on my hands, so I thought I'd walk Al over here. But I guess I better take off now."

Ginny frowned slightly. "Oh, alright then. We'll see you later?"

"Sure," said Ed, shrugging his shoulders carelessly. He then turned to leave, but stopped suddenly to say one more thing to Al. "Be careful, okay?"

Al nodded. "Okay."

Ed grinned suddenly. "Play nice. Don't hit 'em too hard."

Al gasped, slightly offended. "I won't!"

"He'll be back in one piece," said Ginny, grinning. She took Al by the hand and began to pull him away. "So don't worry, Ed!"

She then broke into a jog, pulling Al along behind her. He waved goodbye to his older brother as they ran off toward the "battlefield." Ed frowned worriedly as he watched them go for a moment longer. He then slipped his hands into his pockets and headed back for the castle.

"He'll be fine," he told himself firmly, though he wasn't doing a very good job of convincing himself. "You've got nothing to worry about. He'll be just fine."

Ed stopped and looked off in the direction Al and Ginny had gone. Why was he getting the very distinct feeling that he had just sent Al off on his first date? And why did he suddenly feel like an anxious father?

"Alphonse! Glad you could make it!" exclaimed Hermione upon seeing Al and Ginny jog toward where she and several other boys had apparently been waiting. She turned to the dark-haired boy nearest her. "Harry, we have our fourth member!"

Harry turned around, pulling away from the group of boys he'd been standing with, and walked toward Hermione, glancing warily at Al as he did so. He was clearly intimidated by his appearance and height. Al looked away when he recognized the look in Harry's eyes, turning to talk more with Ginny.

"That's the guy you told me about?" Harry asked Hermione. When Hermione nodded in response, he lowered his voice to a whisper. "I thought you said he was only fifteen."

Fortunately for Al, he didn't hear Harry's whisper. After all, ignorance really is bliss.

Hermione's jaw dropped open and she smacked Harry's arm in a scolding manner. "He is fifteen! Honestly, Harry, don't be so insensitive."

Harry winced slightly, rubbing at the spot that had been struck. Right at that moment, the other boys walked over to join them. One boy with sandy hair was grinning mischievously, rubbing his gloved hands together.

"Okay, you lot ready to get pummeled and-" He stopped talking immediately the moment he saw Alphonse looming over everyone.

Two of the other boys - a tall black boy and a shorter boy with a round face - exchanged confused glances while Ron took on a more worried expression. He eventually turned to look at his little sister and opened his mouth to speak.

"Er... Ginny, what exactly is that you've got attached to your hand?"

Al gave a start upon hearing this comment and immediately looked crestfallen. Hermione spun around and smacked Ron even harder than she had Harry, which solicited a small yelp of pain and surprise from him.

"RONALD!"

"Hey! Bloody hell, that hurt you know!"

Ginny shot her brother an angry glare. "Just ignore my brother, Al," she said pointedly. "He's a bit slow on the uptake. Be sure you use small words if you intend to talk to him."

Ron scowled at Ginny, but she turned away from him, throwing her chin into the air in an act of defiance. Hermione rolled her eyes and then moved toward Al, pulling him forward.

"Everyone, be nice," she chided them. "This is Alphonse Elric. He's Edward's younger brother."

Al clasped his hands together in front of them and bowed automatically. "You can call me Al. It's very nice to meet you all."

There was a moment of awkward silence as all the boys exchanged confused looks. "Edward, as in... the exchange student from Germany?"

"The blonde half-pint in Slytherin?"

Al shifted his weight uncomfortably from one foot to the other. If Ed had been there, these boys would have been killed by now. "Y-Yeah..."

"Yes he is," chimed in Ginny with a smile. "And he has been so nice as to join our team. So it'll be me, Harry, Hermione, and Al against you lot."

The black boy looked Al over from head to toe and frowned. "Hang on a minute," he said in a disappointed voice. "I'm finding this a little unfair now."

"Oh honestly, Dean," sighed Ginny, rolling her eyes. "Just a moment ago you were worried that I was going to be bombarded by snowballs. Now we've got Al, so you needn't worry anymore."

The boy named Dean frowned. "But..."

"No, I agree with Dean, Ginny," said Ron, sagely nodding his head. "Maybe we should go back inside and play some Wizard's Chess instead."

Ginny turned to look at her brother and smirked. "You're not scared, are you?" she teased. "Just a moment ago, weren't you saying that whoever we brought would be of no challenge to you?"

Several of the boys' faces fell slightly. The round-faced boy looked apprehensively at Al, slowly inching away from him. Hermione and Ginny couldn't keep themselves from grinning. Harry was smiling as well, but he was looking at the other boys with sympathy in his eyes.

"We didn't want to disappoint you, Ron," teased Hermione, "so we recruited Al. Honestly, how much fun would it be if it weren't a challenge for you boys?"

Ron glared angrily at Hermione while the other three boys looked even more apprehensive than before. Harry bent down, scooped up some snow in one hand, and began to carefully shape it into a ball. He grinned at his friends.

"Well... Nothing like a suit of armor by your side!"

He then hurled the snowball at Ron's chest, hitting him with a heavy thump. Ron looked down in mild shock at his sweater, now dampened by the snow, then back up at Harry. And with that, the snowball fight commenced.

He stared out the window, frowning slightly at what could be seen beyond the layer of glass. A snowball fight. An innocent snowball fight, childish and meaningless. His silver eyes narrowed as he watched the figures dart around through the snow. The corners of his lips turned downward and for a moment he wanted to look away, but his body wouldn't obey him.

"I hate the snow," he muttered to himself.

"Yeah," came a voice from behind. "I don't like it either."

Draco turned slightly to see who was there and found Ed approaching him, his hands tucked into his pants pockets. He glared at Ed as he walked up to the window and looked outside. Ed frowned slightly when he saw Al shielding one of the Gryffindors from an onslaught of incoming snowballs.

"You know," snapped Draco irritably, "you randomly appearing like this is really starting to get on my nerves, Elric."

Ed smirked inwardly. He casually shrugged his shoulders. "What can I say? It's a talent."

"Good, have you acquired the talent to disappear as well?"

He twitched slightly in irritation. 'No,' he thought angrily. 'But I'm pretty sure you have.'

He turned his head slightly to properly shoot a glare at Draco. The Malfoy heir ignored it and looked back out the window.

"Why don't you go work on that and leave me the hell alone?"

Ed said nothing and just turned to look out the window again, watching Al's snowball fight from afar. It seemed like Al was doing more defending and guarding than actual fighting. His frown deepened slightly. Al was so good at combat that he should have been creaming the opposition. However, it seemed like he was making excellent work of protecting the Gryffindors, which was - in a sense - his real job. Ed's eyes followed the shape of Al's armor as he hurried across the field, tossing another snowball at who he was assuming to be Ron Weasley, before flitting toward a familiar bushy-haired girl.

He glanced back at Draco, whose silver eyes were looking at the same figure. Ed then pulled away from the window and moved to press his back against the wall.

"She'll never know if you won't tell her," he said softly.

He braced himself slightly, half-expecting the Slytherin to scowl, glare, yell, or otherwise become infuriated somehow. But much to Ed's surprise, Draco remained silent. There was nothing. No reaction to the very blunt mention of his feelings toward Hermione at all. All he did was lean his forehead against the glass of the window, his eyes glued to Hermione as she laughed and threw as many snowballs as she could.

"She's not a part of my life anymore..."

Ed turned to look at Draco, trying to mask his surprise at hearing the quiet, somewhat forlorn tone in his voice. Draco stayed still for a moment longer until his breathing fogged up a section of the window, making it difficult to see through.

"The way I never was a part of hers..."

Then, without uttering another word, Draco backed away from the window and walked off, leaving Ed behind. Ed just watched him leave, not moving a muscle to follow him. Some part of him knew that he should. He had to. That was his job. But he didn't. He just watched silently as Draco turned a corner and vanished out of sight, a slight, almost sad frown on his face.

Slowly turning his gold eyes to look back outside and at the snowball fight, Ed moved so that he was in Draco's spot by the window.

"Well, that was tiring," said Hermione, pushing some of her hair out of her face.

Ginny flopped back down onto the snow, laughing heartily. Hermione seated herself on a large stone nearby, leaning forward on her knees to catch her breath. As tired as she was, she still had a bright smile across her face. Al stood a few feet away from the girls, not quite sure what to do. Since he was lacking in a physical body that could tire out, he wasn't at all worn out from the fight and didn't feel the need to rest like everyone else did.

The boys in particular seemed to be completely wiped out. He glanced over at the other boys on the other side of the clearing. All of them were lying in the snow, looking like they had been left for dead on the ground. Harry was standing amongst them, playfully nudging each of them in their sides with the toe of his boot and telling them to get up.

"I can't believe we won this time!"

"I had so much fun!" laughed Ginny. "Did you see the look on Ron's face? You were loads of help, Al!"

Al gave a small start, turning back to face Ginny and Hermione. "Really? You think so?"

"Oh, absoutely!" Ginny told him with a warm smile.

An invisible blush grew on Al's face and he quickly had to look away, unable to maintain eye contact with the youngest Weasley. Hermione glanced at Al, then back at Ginny. A small, knowing smile made its way across her face, which she covered by wiping her face with her hands and trying to tame her bushy hair.

"I must look like a mess! Maybe I should take a shower..."

Ginny sat up, turning to look at Hermione with a broad smile. "Why Hermione?" she teased. "Afraid someone's watching you?"

"Don't be ridiculous, Ginny!" Hermione scoffed. "Who'd be watching me?"

"Oh, I don't know..." The redhead looked away, pretending to look thoughtful and smiling in a teasing manner. "I just so happened to catch a glimpse of Malfoy looking out the window when you were strategizing something with Harry."

"What?" Hermione sighed in exasperation. "What would Harry got that interests him now?"

"That's just it," Ginny went on, her smile growing more mischievous like she had just caught the juiciest piece of gossip in the world. "He wasn't looking at Harry."

Hermione was silent for a moment, looking at her friend like she'd sprouted a second head. "But you just said he was-"

"He was staring rather intently at you."

The brunette was stunned speechless for another moment, then suddenly let out a small, nervous laugh. "How could you possibly know that, Gin? He could have been looking at anything. Why would Malfoy be looking at me?"

"I don't know, I was about to ask you the same question..."

By this time, Al had moved closer to the girls in interest. Though he had to admit that he was rather confused by what he was hearing from Hermione. After all, Ed had told him that Draco and Hermione had some sort of relationship - a relatively intimate one, by the sound of it - which was supposedly the very reason that he was in Hogwarts.

"But..." Both Ginny and Hermione turned to look at Al when he spoke up. "Aren't you... friends? With Mr. Draco?"

"Draco Malfoy..." Ginny snorted in a quite unladylike fashion. "Hardly."

Now Al was even more confused. "But... Aren't Mr. Draco and Miss Hermione... together?"

Both girls rounded on him, their eyes wide. "WHAT?"

Al jumped at the shock and horror in their voices. He certainly hadn't been expecting that reaction.

"A-Alphonse," Hermione stammered, gently massaging her forehead like this new information was giving her a headache, "where in the world did you get that idea?"

Ginny, on the other hand, was no longer in shock. In fact, she looked sublimely amused. "Well, Hermione, here's something you haven't told me!"

Hermione quickly rounded on her best friend. "Haven't told you what?"

"My brother told me you two were dating," Al told them a bit lamely.

This seemed to excite Ginny even more. "Is that true?"

"No, of course it's not true," said Hermione firmly. "Alphonse, I'm sure you just misunder-!"

"Is he a good kisser, Hermione?"

A scandalized look immediately appeared across Hermione's face. "GINNY!"

Al wanted nothing more than to shrink and disappear. He couldn't shake the feeling that he had just done something horribly wrong. He wasn't sure if he was angry at Edward for misinforming him or afraid of what would happen to him as a result of screwing something up.

Ginny scooted on her knees through the snow to get closer to Hermione, her bright eyes glimmering eagerly. "What? I'm sure all the girls would want to know! Where does he place his hands? Are they on your waist, around your back, or upon your-"

"GINNY!" Hermione's entire face was red, though whether it was in embarrassment or anger was anyone's guess. "THAT'S ENOUGH! Draco Malfoy's hands have never touched any part of my body and they never will!"

The youngest Weasley began to laugh heartily. "I was just kidding, Mione. I know you would never go for him."

This seemed to calm Hermione significantly, though she was still frowning at her redheaded friend in disapproval. Al shifted uncomfortably, stealing glances at the girls in front of him.

"So... You're not..."

"Together?" Hermione finished, her tone slightly defensive and snippy. "No... Never."

Al fell into a thoughtful silence. "That's weird... I mean, my brother told me that Mr. Draco got really jealous when he went to the party with you, Miss Hermione."

The girls both rounded on Al again in surprise. Hermione looked completely shocked while the excitement in Ginny's expression flared back up in full force.

"Excuse me?"

"Well, this is interesting! How jealous? Did they fight over her, Al? How violent was it? Any broken bones?"

Al flinched slightly. "Umm... I..."

Hermione whapped Ginny lightly on the arm. "Ginny, would you stop it?"

Ginny grinned. "Oh Hermione, I'm sure Al is just teasing you." She turned to look at Al, still grinning. "Aren't you, Al?"

"Uh..." Alphonse honestly didn't know how to answer that.

Even so, his response seemed to have been good enough for Ginny as she turned back to Hermione with a light laugh. "See? Nothing to worry about, Hermione!"

Al shifted his weight uncomfortably again. He wasn't too sure about that.

----------------

Somewhere deep in Hogwarts castle, Ed gave an involuntary shudder. He suddenly had a very bad feeling that some part of his plans had just fallen apart...

Author's Note: look how Al has become part of the Gryffindors! and oh, the trouble he's caused... by accident of course XD

so anyways, yeah, short chapter in which it's been fun to muck around with Al. there's not a whole lot for Ed to do at the moment other than follow Draco around, and we should all know by now that he's always doing that, so i thought i'd focus a little more on Al for this chapter. hooraaaay for short transition chapters! XD