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: For reasons beyond my control (and greatly to my own disappointment), I do not own the Fullmetal Alchemist or Harry Potter series. FMA belongs to the great and mighty Hiromu Arakawa, and HP belongs to the equally great and mighty J.K. Rowling. The idea of this story belongs to the not quite as great and mighty me. The story is my baby. MJade-1 is its only godparent :D

Author's Note: pum pum puhhh... i love when the plot thickens... when i'm reading. XD seriously, it's not all that easy to write when it all becomes story thick, but it's all worth it in the end. it's kinda been slow going over on my end of things, so... sorry 'bout that! not to mention the fact that i'm still trudging through my other fanfics, trying desperately to get them done before another two years pass... :P

sorry that this update took a little bit longer than usual. you all know i aim for an update every week, every two weeks if i must, but Mjade and i have come across a particularly nasty brand of writer's block. hopefully we'll manage to break through it soon and have weekly updates just like before.

but anyways, yes, Ed's oh so very smart and that's why i'm such an Ed fangirl. XD and... well, while Draco is indeed a bastard in many respects, that's... not what Ed said... i think some people are a bit confused. please take a moment to read that last sentence carefully. there are no typos there, i assure you.

all right, enough of that now. here's the new stuff! enjoy!

Chapter 27
Of Potions and Spy Games

Edward was sure now that Draco was guilty of two attempted murders. He was sure that what had happened to both Ron and Katie were Draco's fault, even if they hadn't been his intended target. It certainly explained why he'd been so annoyed to find out that Ron had been on the receiving end of his poison. No, Draco was aiming much higher than students that he personally found annoying. He was acting on someone else's orders. The orders of his "master"...

Though Ed was still left wondering why that would be and how this assassination plot had anything to do with Draco's frequent disappearances. He also found himself asking how Draco was able to use such indirect means and why he would opt to do so in the first place. Questions that all begged for answers.

He wanted to take the matter directly to the headmaster, to warn him somehow, but Ed knew that no matter how strongly he believed in them, his suspicions still weren't enough. However busted Draco Malfoy now was, once again, Ed was unable to get his hands on any proof. He'd searched the dorm for the poisons book that Draco had been reading, but was unable to find it anywhere. Apparently, the Malfoy heir had thought ahead enough to get rid of the evidence. It was annoying that Draco was clever enough to get rid of it. Sometimes Ed wondered if Draco was almost as smart as him.

So for the rest of the week and despite his increasingly foul mood as he continued to fail to find the evidence he needed, Ed stuck to Draco like glue. And just in case, he instructed Al to stand guard near the infirmary to keep track of everyone who came and went. He almost told him - in a very commanding, military-like way - to report everything he discovered back to him, but resisted. Either way, Al understood exactly what was being asked of him, which made Ed's life just little a bit easier to deal with.

Al set up his post in the farthest corner of the infirmary corridor. It was far enough away from the entrance to the infirmary to go widely unnoticed, but close enough to be able to see the faces of everyone who came and went. He didn't have to worry too much about being discovered since most of the student body still believed him to be an enchanted suit of armor; there were only a few people he really had to be careful of, including Harry, Hermione, and Ginny, who just so happened to be Ron's most frequent visitors. One girl that he'd learned to recognize as Lavender Brown also stopped by relatively often, though she never stayed very long and always left looking annoyed.

The next Saturday was bustling with activity. It was the day of the Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, and Al had been hearing Ron's loud complaints even from his post down the hall all morning. He apparently wanted desperately to watch (he hadn't been happy at all when Harry told him how he'd gotten a substitute), but Madam Pomfrey wouldn't let him; she felt it would overexcite him or something. What seemed to make things worse for Ron was the fact that his only visitor that morning had been Lavender Brown. Once again, she barely stayed for two minutes before leaving in a huff, and Al heard her whining about how the sickly and injured slept too much.

An hour or two before the start of the Quidditch match, someone that Al had never seen by the infirmary before came to visit Ron. His curiosity piqued as he watched her approach from the opposite end of the corridor. What did Luna Lovegood want with Ron?

He had to maintain his distance until she passed through the doors, since he was sure that someone like Luna would be able to recognize him and would want to greet him. Once she was already inside, Al moved cautiously toward the door with his back to the wall, straining to hear what was going on. Since Luna had never come by before and was certainly an unexpected visitor, he had to keep tabs on her. Or else risk Ed getting angry.

"Ronald," came Luna's dreamy voice, "are you awake?"

"Luna, er..." He sounded just as surprised as Al was. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, Harry, Hermione, and Ginny told me what happened. Might as well see how you are doing, right?"

"Right... Well, I'm fine, thanks for asking."

There was a brief pause. "I didn't ask that," said Luna rather bluntly, though confused.

"Oh... well..." Ron was apparently struggling for something to say. "Never mind, then."

"Harry told me you were all right."

"Oh... yeah."

There was the sound of footsteps moving around Ron's bed. Al peered carefully into the room through the doorway to see what was going on.

"You know," said Luna, seating herself on the edge of Ron's bed, "I was poisoned once, when I was eleven."

Ron's eyes grew wide. "Really? You were?"

"But don't worry," she told him dismissively. "It wasn't like yours."

Ron relaxed, leaning back into his pillows with a relieved sigh. Luna looked at him solemnly.

"I was poisoned on purpose."

There was suddenly a look on Ron's face that was very clearly alarmed, as though there was no way he wouldn't be worried after hearing something like that. But since Luna continued to look at him like it was just a simple fact or it had happened to someone she didn't even know, he tried to hide it.

"Oh... That's... interesting."

"Well, I don't think he intended it to be potentially fatal, we were really young then after all. I guess he just thought it'd be fun."

"Why would anyone want to poison you, Luna?"

Luna shrugged, looking down at her hands. "I know what people say behind my back. I guess you could say I'm a popular topic to joke about. I'm sure you think I'm loony as well."

She turned to look at him with a sad smile on her face, replacing the usual dreaminess. Ron was taken aback by this change.

"Luna, I-"

"It's okay, Ronald, I don't blame you. And perhaps I can't really blame anyone else. I was never much like the other kids at all. I was told I dress unusually, I'm frequently ignored when I talk passionately about something, been made fun of for wearing butterbeer corks around my neck or use radishes for jewelry. So I guess I am a prime target for all the teasing and ridicule."

To say that Ron was shocked to hear this was an understatement. It was obvious from the look on Ron's face that he always thought Luna was oblivious to the way people treated her. This was possibly one of the few times he'd ever seen her make so much sense with her words.

"After I was released from the infirmary," she went on, looking thoughtful as she tried to remember things, "the boy who had poisoned me said, 'You survived, Lovegood? Weren't you just telling all of us that you'd one day see your mother in the afterlife? What, did she reject you as well? Well, I wouldn't be surprised seeing as how no one could stand how loony you are!'"

"What?" Ron seemed horrified and angry all at once. "Luna! You should have done something! You may be slightly... different than other people, but no one has any right to say that to you! Why didn't you tell a professor or fight back?"

"What difference would it make, Ronald?" she answered carelessly, looking down into her lap so that her long hair hid her face. "I don't think he really meant it. After all, we were eleven, and children can be so cruel sometimes. There's no use troubling yourself about it. I've been called 'Loony' most of my life, and I'm aware of it."

Ron looked at her seriously, frowning. "You deserve more than that, Luna. You can't just sit and take it."

"It's okay, actually."

She then turned toward Ron, smiling sadly and tears brimming in her eyes. Ron was taken aback to see this. He couldn't think of a single instance in which someone had seen Luna cry before.

"I mean, being with you, Harry, Hermione, Ginny, as well as being part of Dumbledore's Army... you know, it was almost like having real friends."

There was an awkward silence through which even Al was getting uncomfortable. He suddenly felt guilty for suspecting Luna of being up to something, simply because she was an unusual visitor and just a mysterious person in general. He started to inch away from the door when he heard the springs on Ron's bed shift as Luna got to her feet.

"I should go," he heard her say. "I'm commentating for this Quidditch match. Professor McGonagall told me to come early."

She turned to leave, but before she could get very far a hand reached out to grab her wrist. Luna halted immediately and turned around, confused. She looked inquisitively at the hand holding her wrist, then up into the face of its owner.

"I am," Ron mumbled quietly.

Luna blinked. "Sorry?"

"Your friend, that is," he repeated, making his voice louder and looking Luna right in the eye. "A real one."

She blinked again and then smiled. "I know... thanks, Ron."

Al almost had to run back to his post to avoid getting caught by Luna as she left the infirmary, wishing that he could will his footsteps to be quieter as he did so. Thankfully, he just barely made it to safety and Luna walked back down the hall the way she came. He watched her as she left, a great feeling of respect swelling up with him. Luna had obviously been through a lot and took it all in stride; it took someone with great strength of character to do something like that. And if there was any one in the world who understood that, the Elric brothers were great candidates.

Ed's gold eyes swept over the crowd that was filing into the Quidditch stadium, scanning every face amidst the throng of people for Draco Malfoy's pale, sharp features. So far, he'd had no luck. He'd spent the last twenty minutes cursing him to hell, though over the last five minutes he contemplated sending him to Doors of Truth instead. Losing a limb or two ought to slow Malfoy down significantly... Though Ed wasn't sure he wanted to be held responsible and get forced to add another name to his list of bodies in need of restoration. But still. He knew - he just knew - that he should never have let Draco off for a bathroom break. The issue of Draco's bladder had pulled the lid over his eyes once. Ed felt like an idiot for letting it fool him again.

And stranger still, Crabbe and Goyle were missing, too. Both of them! Ed had never considered their absences to be particularly worrisome since they barely had enough brains put together to cause any sort of mischief on their own. But now that Ed gave it some thought, they disappeared almost as often as Draco did, and he was starting to suspect that all three of them were disappearing together. Which was definitely not a good thing. The mastermind shouldn't be disappearing with his minions. It meant nothing but trouble for Ed.

Pansy, Zabini, and Nott were already up in the bleachers, ready to boo and curse the Gryffindor team (Harry in particular) into oblivion throughout the match. As Ed thought about this, he rolled his eyes. The house rivalry thing was just a horrible idea, the way Ed saw it, not to mention boring, pointless, and - as he'd said to Pansy time and time again - it was getting old.

Ed frowned as he failed to find Malfoy's face amidst the crowd once again. "That's it," he muttered angrily to himself, and proceeded to push his way through the students to get back to the castle.

The corridors were practically deserted, which meant that almost every single Hogwarts student had gone down to the Quidditch pitch to watch the game. This made things easier for Ed as he broke into a sprint, darting as fast as he could up and down the halls, opening every unlocked door and scanning the empty classrooms in search of Draco. He stopped on occasion to ask some of the paintings and ghosts if they'd seen the Malfoy heir, but not many of them were helpful. The most any of them could do was say "yes, he passed here not long ago," but they always failed to remember which way he was going.

Ed was so preoccupied with his search that he didn't even bother to watch where he was going, his head swiveling from side to side instead of straight ahead. Which is exactly why, when he turned one sharp corner with his head turned to look back over his shoulder, he crashed violently into somebody and they both wound up tumbling head over heels across the floor.

"Hey, watch where you're goin'!" he yelled as he tried to recover from the crash, waving one clenched fist in the air.

"Sorry!" said the other person, adjusting his round glasses. "I was just in a hurry, and-"

They both looked up at each other at the same moment, disoriented and blinking as they recognized one another. Ed was staring straight into the bespectacled face of Harry Potter, who was staring back at him in surprise.

"Ed?"

"Harry?" he asked, just as surprised as the boy he was looking back at. "Uh... What're you doing up here?"

"I was just about to ask you the same thing."

"Oh... Well, I'm just lookin' for someone..." Ed quickly picked himself up, looking up and down the hallway. "Damn that guy, where the hell did he run off to?"

The young wizard's eyebrows furrowed in confusion as he stood up. "If you're talking about Malfoy... I actually just saw him."

A spark of excitement flickered across Ed's face, but was quickly replaced with a malicious expression. Evil plots concerning how he would go about torturing Draco for the next month filled his mind to capacity.

"Where? When? What was he doing? Which way did he go? Was he with anyone?"

Harry was obviously taken aback by the strange barrage of questions. He gave Ed a strange look, studying his face carefully as though he thought his mind had just been read. Ed suddenly regretted blurting all of those things out. He'd forgotten about his cover for just a moment and had suddenly gone into military investigation mode in front of Harry. If Ed and Harry were in any way similar (and Ed was quite sure that they were), those questions were suspicious. Especially coming from someone who was supposedly one of Malfoy's friends.

Thankfully, Harry seemed to ignore the strange behavior for now. "On my way from seeing Ron, about five minutes ago. He was just walking down the hall with these two girls."

Ed drew back slightly, blinking. "Two girls?"

"Yeah..." Harry screwed up his face thoughtfully. "They didn't seem very happy."

"Weird..." Ed cupped his chin in one hand, his eyes to the floor. He echoed these facts to himself, searching for some shred of evidence to confirm his suspicions. "Two girls... Two unhappy girls..."

Here's what Ed knew. Draco Malfoy had left the Quidditch pitch to go to the bathroom almost forty minutes prior to that moment and had yet to come back. Crabbe and Goyle had been gone for about the same amount of time, give or take five to ten minutes. Malfoy was sighted walking in the halls near the infirmary, accompanied by two girls. Two unhappy looking girls.

Suddenly, it clicked in Ed's mind. He tried not to let it show on his face in front of Harry.

"Sorry Harry," he muttered as he turned to leave, "but I've gotta get going."

Harry gave him another funny look. "Oh... All right."

"So should you. I mean, I thought you were the team captain. Aren't sports captains supposed to be at their games early?"

This seemed to shock Harry back to normal, making him jump slightly in place. He scrambled to pick up his broom that he'd dropped to the floor and hurried away, waving a hasty goodbye to Edward as he went. Ed hurried off in the opposite direction, diving deeper into the heart of the castle. He didn't have much to go on in terms of information, but if Malfoy had bumped into Harry only five to ten minutes ago, he couldn't have gone far. He'd catch up sooner or later.

His mind went back to his collection of facts. The two girls. If they were unhappy to be with Malfoy, then he obviously hadn't been flirting or charming them into accompanying him to... wherever they were going to do whatever they were going to do. Which meant - based on Ed's observations of most normal girls when in Draco's presence - they probably weren't girls at all. He remembered what Draco and the Crabbe/Goyle had been saying the morning of their very first Apparition lesson. The phrases "it's awful embarrassing" and "keep a lookout" were echoing in his mind.

Crabbe and Goyle were being made to be Malfoy's lookouts... in the "embarrassing" guise of a pair of innocent girls.

They had to be using some kind of potion. Was there a gender-changing potion? Ed shuddered. He certainly hoped not. The thought of Crabbe and Goyle as girls made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. Polyjuice Potion seemed a likely candidate. That made loads of sense. But whose DNA were they using? Not Pansy's, hopefully. The idea of three Pansys roaming around was just as bad as female Crabbe and Goyle.

And where were they hiding the stuff? Ed's footsteps faltered slightly. Should he raid the dorms for their stock of the potion first? Or find Malfoy and try to figure out what the hell he was doing that required lookouts?

He wasn't debating with himself for too long before he heard footsteps other than his own echoing from somewhere down the hallway. He stopped short, spinning around in place to try and catch a glimpse of who was coming. No such luck. No doubt it was a teacher, or worse, that annoying caretaker, Argus Filch. Ed cursed under his breath as he quickly searched for a place to hide. It would be too suspicious for him to be caught wandering the halls while everyone else was down at the Quidditch pitch. So he jumped on the nearest doorknob, threw it open, and ducked inside of it. He waited for whoever it was to walk past, listening intently to the sound of their footsteps.

Ed looked around at where he'd ended up. It seemed to be a tiny storage room, not much larger than a broom closet and just as cluttered. He made a face at the mess. It barely allowed him much freedom to move. Several items appeared to have been shoved rather gruffly into the corners to make room around a large wooden crate. And on top of that large wooden crate...

His eyes grew wide. A cauldron? Ed tried to spring forward to get a better look at the cauldron and its contents, but the clutter of random objects on the floor almost tripped him up. Still he persisted and moved cautiously through the mess to get to the cauldron. He peered inside and found himself staring into a vat of what looked like thick, dark mud, bubbling away sluggishly. Ed frowned, recognizing it right away. It was textbook description Polyjuice Potion, still awaiting the addition of someone's DNA. Upon closer examination, Ed found the letters "D.M." engraved into the surface of the cauldron.

'Well, I found the stash,' he thought to himself. At first he felt his spirits rise at the prospect of having some evidence and had considered snatching the cauldron away, but found to his dismay that he'd have to leave it alone for now. 'I've gotta catch 'em in the act first.'

When the coast was clear, Ed snuck out of the closet and, after making a mental note of exactly where he was (fourth floor, near a bathroom), resumed his search for Malfoy in a much calmer manner than before. He'd ended up wasting a lot of time hiding in that closet from whoever had been patrolling and had lost a great deal of the hope he'd had of catching up to him. The halls were practically deserted, save for a pair of first-year girls he found on the seventh floor gawking at a tapestry of trolls in tutus and murmuring to one another. Ed gave them a funny look as he passed, which was apparently was enough to startle them and ended up dropping everything they were holding to the floor with a loud clatter. He didn't bother helping them; they were weird.

He gave up after another forty-five minutes, went down to the dorms, whipped out a quill and parchment, and wrote the shortest report he'd ever written since his mission began. Ed was sure Mustang wasn't pleased with him (always an extremely comforting thought), since his last several reports had each been shorter than the last.

Got a lead on what Malfoy's up to.
More details later.

Even in the usual code that he used, the message wasn't much longer than three sentences. Upon reviewing his "report," Ed tried to imagine the annoyance on Mustang's face when he received it and savored the thought. It would have been so much nicer if he could really be there to see it. It made him feel better to know that his foul mood would be spread around. He thought of training Eule to laugh mockingly, just to anger Mustang further, but soon found that owls were incredibly difficult to train and decided he'd save it for another time.

He left the owlery and reentered the castle feeling rather pleased with himself, but it was short-lived. The halls were filled with loud chatter, and Ed could only guess that the Quidditch game had ended early and everyone was back. But as he continued walking, he discovered that the loud noise wasn't the accumulative sounds of hundreds of students returning from the pitch - it was the hysterics of a group of about five Gryffindors. How they could make so much noise, Ed would probably never know.

They were all crowded around someone that was being carried urgently in the direction of the infirmary. He raised an eyebrow at the commotion, some part of him feeling extremely inquisitive about it and wanting to see who it was and what had happened, but he shook it off. He'd just ask Al about it later. Al would be sure to know.

Though he didn't have to wait to find out about it. When Pansy, Nott, and Zabini came back from the game, they were shrieking with laughter. Ed's eyes snapped up from the pages of the book and notes he'd been reading, his concentration suddenly shattered. These Slytherins had a talent for interrupting him in the middle of his research. It was slowing him down immensely.

"What the hell are you guys so happy about?" he growled.

He silently hoped the explanation would be short for once, but soon found out that would be too much to hope for. Everyone turned their gazes onto Ed, malicious grins on their faces. Then they quickly descended on him like a pack of vultures. Their voices garbled together as they started to relay different points of what had just happened without really waiting for anyone to finish.

"The Gryffindors-"

"That McLaggen bloke-"

"He's always been a prat-"

"-hit a bludger the wrong way-"

"-lost the match!"

"-but I'm starting to like him..."

"- and it smacked Potter-"

"Three hundred and twenty to sixty!"

"He was arguing with-"

"-right in the head, knocked him-"

"That about puts them-"

"-Potter throughout the entire game!"

"-clear off his broom!"

"-in their right place!"

"At least until he got-"

"HAHAHAHA!"

"Fell right outta the sky!"

"-injured, but... oh well."

Ed blinked. Their stories were so jumbled up that he had a hard time trying to figure out the right order, but he tried anyway. Pansy seemed to have gotten a hold of some sort of weird gossip, Nott was guffawing over how the Gryffindors had lost the game, and Zabini was talking about how Potter had been injured. Wait a second...

"Harry got hit in the head with a... What's a bludger?"

This comment made all three Slytherins fall silent and they each gave him a funny look. Then Zabini let out a great laugh.

"Bloody hell, Elric. You've really got to watch a Quidditch game properly for once in your life!"

Ed snorted, picking up his notebook and absently flipping through the pages. 'Like I can help that. Tell Malfoy to stick around long enough, then maybe I finally will.'

"Bludgers," said Nott, rolling his eyes, "are the heavy balls that the Beaters knock at the other team's players. You know, to knock 'em out of commission."

There was a bored, annoyed tone in the Slytherin's voice as he spoke, but at the same time Ed could pick up on a tinge of superiority. As though his knowledge of all things Quidditch brought Nott up a rung on the intellectual ladder. Ed frowned, not knowing what Beaters were or what it was with Nott and his bizarre sense of sadism, but chose not to bring either of these things up. Deciding that he didn't want to hear the information from Nott, Ed turned to Zabini.

"So Harry got hit in the head with one. He okay?"

Pansy and Nott shot Ed incredulous stares, obviously unable to understand why on earth Ed cared about the Gryffindor's well-being. Zabini seemed momentarily disoriented for the same reason, but quickly shrugged it off in favor of answering.

"If you call getting your skull cracked open 'okay,' then sure, he's in paradise."

Ed's eyebrows knitted together and he lowered his research notebook to his lap. "His skull got cracked open? Damn, is he even still alive?"

"Oh, he's alive all right. Just holed up in the infirmary."

At this, Nott let out an annoyed snort and looked away, as though disappointed that the chance had been missed. Ed shot him a piercing look, muttering under his breath about twisted sadists.

It was still a long while before Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle came back. Nott had already ducked into his dorm ahead of the others, probably because Ed kept glaring at him every time he mentioned either Harry or Ron being in the infirmary. Blaise stayed in the common room, trying once again to distract Ed from his book, but looked like he'd just about forgotten about him once Draco entered. He leaned back in his seat with an amused chuckle and watched as Pansy immediately threw herself on Draco, ignoring the anger that marred his features.

"Oh, Drakey!" she trilled, wrapping her arms around his neck. "The match ended ages ago, I've missed you!"

Draco just glowered at Pansy and quickly pushed her off of him. He tried to follow Crabbe and Goyle into the dorm, but the Slytherin girl persisted, linking her arm with his and effectively holding him hostage.

"Did you hear about Potter?" she went on. "You must have heard about Potter, everyone's been talking about it!"

"Don't pester me with gossip, Pans."

"You haven't heard?" she gasped, as though it were a heinous crime. "You haven't heard the news about what happened to Potter?!? Where've you been all this time, what on earth have you been doing?"

"Pans-"

"Yeah, Malfoy. What the hell were you doing all afternoon?"

Both Draco and Zabini turned to look at Ed, Zabini's eyebrows raised in surprise while Draco's silver eyes narrowed. Ed made no move to meet either of their gazes and just flipped to the next page of his book, his golden eyes still following the lines written on the open page. There wasn't a trace of malice on his face, almost as though he'd asked the question simply out of harmless curiosity. But there had been a hint of aggravation in his voice that suggested otherwise.

"It's none of your business," the Malfoy heir grunted at last.

He freed himself from Pansy's grasp, saying something under his breath about how he was exhausted and wanted to get some sleep, and then made his way to the dorms. Pansy pouted for a moment, watching Draco like she was debating the pros and cons of following him there, and then rounded on Ed.

"Eddy!" she said scoldingly.

Ed glanced up from his book, raising his eyebrows in surprise as though he honestly didn't know what he'd done wrong. "What?"

"Why did you have to interrupt us like that? We were having a moment!"

A dumbstruck look replaced the false innocence on his face. "A moment...? Are you retarded?!? He was brushing you off before I even said anything!"

Pansy drew back in horror like she'd been slapped in the face. She opened and closed her mouth, clearly looking as though she'd never been more insulted in her life. Ed rolled his eyes. He partly regretted asking her if she was retarded. The answer to that should have been obvious to anyone with a brain. Pansy Parkinson was quite possibly the most mind-numbingly stupid girl Ed had ever had the displeasure of knowing.

"All things considered, I'm surprised you're still hanging around him," he said pointedly. "In case you forgot, which I guess wouldn't be too surprising, he's in love with someone else."

Zabini scoffed. "Elric, come on. What happened Valentine's morning was fun-" Pansy gasped in horror. "-but we all know Malfoy can't possibly be in love."

Ed glanced briefly at Zabini and then shrugged. "Coulda fooled me."

Silence fell over the room. Pansy suddenly looked like she was on the verge of tears, probably reliving "the great break-up" all over again, but was fighting valiantly against it. Blaise just looked shocked and confused, opening and closing his mouth and spluttering out random sounds. Ed grinned inwardly, returning to his book. He was pleased with the effect he'd created.

"So then..." Pansy gulped down some air, finally composing herself. "You... Do you know?"

The shock on Zabini's face heightened, his eyes growing wide as he stared at Ed. Ed was feeling more pleased by the minute.

"Maybe," he smirked. Both Pansy and Blaise stared at him incredulously. "Are you guys that thick? You'd have to be an idiot not to have noticed..."

He paused thoughtfully. No, he took that back. Pansy and Blaise were idiots. Immediately, both Slytherins pounced on him, startling Ed so much that he dropped his book. He stared at it where it had fallen, frowning.

"Now I've lost my place..."

"Who is she, Eddy?!?"

"Tell us who! Tell us!"

Ed reached for his book, snorting indignantly. "Why, so you can bury her alive? I don't owe you guys anything."

"Please tell us, Eddy! You've got to! I'm simply dying to know who he's in love with, I need to know! Please, Eddy!"

"Keep calling me 'Eddy' and you'll never know."

"Oh, come on, Elric!" insisted Zabini. "You can't tease us with something this juicy and expect us to leave it alone! Spill the beans!"

While flipping through the pages in search of his spot, Ed twitched involuntarily upon hearing the word "bean." He shot Blaise an annoyed look and then rolled his eyes. It wasn't long before he gave up on recovering his place and, shutting the book with a loud snap, got to his feet and started for the dorms.

"It's not my business to tell," he told the others as he went. "If you really want or 'need' to know or whatever, go ask him yourself."

Then, without waiting for a response, Ed ducked into the dorms and out of sight. Pansy and Zabini were both left stunned in his wake, looking helplessly at one another.

Hermione exited the infirmary after visiting her two hospitalized friends the next morning. It hadn't been a very interesting visit. It largely consisted of filling Ron in on everything he'd been missing, which was mostly class stuff since he'd already heard everything about the Quidditch match. And on top of everything, Hermione was getting a sneaking suspicion that Harry and Ron were up to something and weren't going to tell her about it. She supposed that was all right; she was bound to find out sooner or later. It was sure to slip out at some point.

Once she'd walked through the doorway and stepped out into the hall, Hermione leaned against the wall and sighed heavily, closing her eyes. Being Ron's tutor all of a sudden was strange, especially since they'd just gotten out of that fight they'd been having for the past few months. She sighed again, running a hand through her hair, and then pushed off from the wall, ready to make her way to the library. But the moment she opened her eyes, something caught her attention.

She could see Draco Malfoy lurking in one of the distant corners of the hallway. For a moment, she wondered what he was doing there and automatically began to assume that he was plotting to do something horrible to Harry and Ron while they were resting in the infirmary. She was about to go back into the infirmary to warn them when their eyes met and Hermione froze. And suddenly she could hear her own voice echoing in her head...

"I want to believe that it's just a mask he puts on. ... When he looks at me... it's a strange feeling. Like it's some other person looking at me. ... somewhere deep down, he's a different person..."

It was her own voice saying those things. Not Ginny's, or Luna's, or anyone else's. Hermione couldn't make heads or tails of the thoughts that were going through her mind. There was a sudden rush of memories in which Malfoy was there. She could see him smirking wickedly, mocking and sneering at her, calling her Mudblood, and then, more recently, stopping Nott from hitting her...

Malfoy suddenly averted his gaze, a deep frown etched on his face, then quickly made his way around the corner and out of sight.

Hermione was momentarily stunned, similarly to the way she had been when the Slytherins had abandoned her in the hallway. For a brief moment she again wondered if Malfoy was plotting something... It was so confusing! Her feet faltered, moving first in one direction and then in another. And then suddenly...

She was knocked right off her feet.

Author's Note: i hate to have to stop on that note (hehe) but at least you have the insurance of knowing that there's more to come.

okay, not much to say about this chapter. it's kinda just been sitting around for a little while already, getting an occasional tweak, but there are some other things that needed to be taken care of before i put it up (which i still haven't completely taken care of, so the next update may take another little while). though it did take a bizarrely long amount of time to write the last few parts. i... can't remember why, but i know that it did. damn writer's block.

as you can see, Pansy hasn't given up on Draco. damn she's persistent. and Zabini is obviously a better person than Nott. Nott is evil to me :P and oh! i made another pairing. if you're getting tired of all that, it's the last one, i promise! there are just lots of couples i'd like to see in this FMA/HP verse i've created... i promise that's the last pairing i make!

so... hm. that's all i can say for now. please leave a review on your way out! you know how feedback motivates me. XD