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... Over the months, Ed's learned a lot of new things, one of them being "never stick your nose in where it's not wanted." But now it's too late to back out. Something must be done, before the situation gets any worse... 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: sorry this took so long... once again, real life intervened. --;; what a hassle the real world is. i'm on spring break now, by the way. and while ideally, i would spend the next week writing, i doubt whether or not i'll be able to. this vacation promises to be pretty busy... but anyways, once again, thanks for all the wonderful reviews. i love you guys. :D and i'm sorry you all had to wait for so long, just for this chapter... it's a silly chapter, really... not worth waiting for at all...

... well, okay, maybe it actually is. go ahead and read it, then let me know what you think. :P

Chapter 31
Interrogative Violence

It was hours before Ed next reacquainted himself with the world. As a matter of fact, a full night had passed. He found himself springing out of bed at five in the morning, still fully dressed in the previous day's clothes, looking around him wildly and trying to ignore the angry complaints of his stomach. Once he had regained his bearings, Ed sank back into his bed and covered his eyes with one hand, groaning.

He had missed dinner. And he fell asleep during his situation analysis period.

He tried to get back into thinking mode again, but quickly found out that his mind was lagging drowsily, rendering it near impossible to think properly. So he just lay sprawled out on his bed for a while, trying to figure out what to do next. After a few minutes, he got to his feet and threw a savage punch at his punching bag. Ed realized that it seemed just about to fall apart and wondered briefly if he should fix it or not. He shrugged the idea off for now and set about readying himself to head to the bathroom to shower and change his clothes.

After that, he was going to need food. Very desperately. And lots of it.

The other Slytherins joined Ed in the Great Hall later on, finding him surrounded by plates that had apparently been licked clean, a small stack of books next to him on the bench, a roll of parchment laid out in front of him, and a quill in hand. They sat down around him at once and started talking: Pansy had apparently picked up on some more gossip ("Weasley and Brown broke up, it's official!") and Zabini and Nott apparently felt the need to brag about how they had gotten their shiny new Apparition licenses, since Ed, Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle were the only ones present who hadn't.

"Shame you lot weren't there," said Zabini, smirking at Draco and giving Ed a piteous pat on the back. "I'm sure you would've loved to see the graceful artistry of an Apparition master at work."

"Please," Draco muttered, rolling his eyes. "As if I wanted to watch you all stand around and pirouette like a bunch of idiots." As though on cue, Crabbe and Goyle got to their feet and slowly spun themselves around, their arms arched over their heads. "If I wanted to be bored out of my mind, I'd have gotten tickets to the bloody ballet. I'm not into cheap, low grade entertainment, thanks."

This put a damper on Zabini and Nott's good moods. Even Pansy, who had also passed the testing, looked put out by the comment. Ed, on the other hand, was genuinely amused. He let out a small chuckle as Crabbe and Goyle sat back down, snickering to themselves.

"I'm actually surprised to see that you all made it back in one piece." He picked up his quill and leaned back, tapping the end of it thoughtfully to his chin as he ignored the horrified looks he was now receiving from everyone to whom the comment applied. "I guess I was sort of expecting half of you to come back in all mauled up, dragging your bloody, broken, and Splinched limbs across the floor, either half-dead or well on your way to werewolf-hood."

Expressions of fear and horror flickered across a few of the faces, and Ed had to try especially hard to suppress the smug grin that he could feel bubbling beneath the surface. In order to do so, he grabbed an apple off the table and bit into it with relish.

"That's not funny, Elric," Zabini said seriously.

"You shouldn't wish for something like that to happen, Eddy!" Pansy told him in scolding tones. "What if it had actually happened? What if I had been attacked by a werewolf?"

Ed shot Pansy a vaguely amused look as he chewed his food. 'If only I were that lucky.'

Zabini leaned closer to Ed. "What if Granger had been attacked by a werewolf?"

There was a single moment in which Ed panicked, but he recovered quickly. He had made up the whole "Death Eaters and werewolves are camping out in Hogsmeade" story just to scare Zabini. Hermione wasn't in any immediate danger. Just in case, he glanced over at the Gryffindor table to check on her. There was another moment in which Ed panicked even more when he failed to find her right away, but his nerves were soothed when he saw her stand up from her seat and exit the Great Hall. He noticed out of the corner of his eye that Draco had discreetly done the same and was now releasing a small breath of relief.

"Who said anything about wishing for werewolves?" Ed continued, turning his attention back to his books and parchment. "I was just commenting on the odds. The chances of an attack looked pretty good." He saw Draco give him another strange look and ignored it. "Now would you guys shut up already? You're distracting me."

But naturally, the Slytherins refused to shut up. The Apparition testing discussion was officially closed, but now Pansy had reopened the gossip box. Ed tried to block her voice out, but a few bits of information still registered in his mind. Like the fact that Ginny Weasley and her boyfriend Dean Thomas broke up ("Good news for Al," he'd murmured to himself). Or that Katie Bell had finally recovered from the opal necklace incident and was back in Hogwarts.

When he heard this, Ed suddenly looked up and leaned forward, his parchment and books temporarily forgotten. "She's back? She's okay?"

Pansy looked at Ed in surprise. "Yes, she's back and, unfortunately, looking perfectly healthy. Arrived not too long ago, I saw her come in."

"Oh..." He nodded slowly, lowering his eyes and absent-mindedly tapping the tip of his quill on the table. "That's good..."

She wrinkled up her nose distastefully. "Why on earth do you care, Eddy? It's absolutely nothing to do with you, or with any of us, really."

"Yeah," Nott agreed, giving Ed a strange look. "What would it matter if she ended up at St. Mungo's for the rest of her pathetic, miserable little life?"

The young blonde quickly looked up at Nott and frowned, narrowing his eyes. 'You would think like that, Death Eater.'

Before he could snap at Nott in response, Zabini slapped Ed heartily on the back, laughing. "Ah, but you forget, mates! Elric's got a soft spot for the ladies in Gryffindor! Can't say I blame him, really... Arses like theirs are terribly hard to ignore..."

Zabini slapped him on the back again and laughed even harder. Ed could feel his face turn red, though he wasn't sure if it was more out of embarrassment or anger toward the perverted Slytherin. His concern for Katie Bell was strictly a business concern; now that she was healthy again, he could ask her if she remembered anything of what happened that afternoon at the Three Broomsticks. His long standing suspicions were still desperately awaiting evidence, and an eye-witness account from the victim would certainly help out.

Deciding that he was probably better off letting Zabini's comment appear to be truth, Ed quickly got to his feet, gathered his things, loudly declared that they were distracting him from his work (which was true, in a sense), and left the Great Hall. This left the Slytherins whispering interestedly to one another about Ed's possible "Gryffindor fetish." Ed could still hear some of the things they were saying as he exited, but ignored them. They weren't important at the moment.

Current short term goal: track down Katie Bell for questioning.

Easier said than done. In order to accomplish this new goal, Ed had to figure out where, when, and how he was going to talk to her without looking conspicuous. After thinking this through several times, Ed realized that there would be no way of questioning her that wouldn't strike people as strange, so he was better off talking to her when she was alone. Though doing so would probably fuel the rumors that Pansy was already planning on spreading... Well, that was a blow Ed was just going to have to take. Sacrifices had to be made.

It was only during dinner that night that Ed found out about the Gryffindor Quidditch team having a practice session later on. Now that both Katie Bell and Ron Weasley were in perfect health and his team was once again complete, Harry wanted to have a quick meet to let them "get back into the swing of things." Ed secretly thanked Pansy for this information (though how she got a hold of it, he would probably never know) and immediately made plans to head down to the Quidditch pitch around the time their practice would be over.

About an hour after dinner ended, he quickly shut the last book he'd been rifling through and brought everything back into the dorm. He then began to rummage through his trunk in search of Dumbledore's note that permitted him to be out after curfew (just in case). Only when he was completely ready did Ed choose to leave the common room. When the others asked him where he was going, he simply told them that his limbs were feeling cramped from all the reading he'd been doing lately and he needed to stretch them out.

It was easy to get to the Quidditch pitch. There weren't many students roaming the halls at that hour, so the school felt rather deserted. Outside, the weather was pleasant; not too cold, with a soft, warm breeze. When he felt it on his skin as he walked toward the pitch, Ed couldn't help but smile slightly. It felt like an eternity had passed since the last time he went outside and enjoyed the fresh air. It wasn't long before Ed was almost at his destination. He could see several figures darting about in the darkness overhead and Harry's voice could be heard giving out instructions. Ed didn't let his gaze linger ("Broomsticks. Feh.") and instead looked straight ahead of him as he walked.

Deciding it would be best if the other players didn't notice him, he made his way carefully toward the changing room and stopped several paces away from the entrance. Then, upon ensuring that no one else was around, he leaned casually against the wall and waited for the practice to finish.

Within minutes, Ed could hear the Gryffindors entering the changing room, whooping excitedly. Not long after that, several members of the team began to file out, still in high spirits. Ed withdrew from the departing Gryffindors, making sure that nobody saw him (Harry in particular would have posed a problem) as they left. He was happy to note that none of the girls had left just yet and continued to wait quietly for Katie to emerge.

Around the time that Ed was cursing the strangely long amount of time it took girls to get changed, Katie finally stepped out of the changing room. She was still looking back over her shoulder, smiling and waving to the teammates still inside.

"See you next practice!" she called happily, and then turned to walk toward the stairs.

Ed started at once, his head turning toward her. He had to act quickly, regardless of how awkward he was sure this questioning was going to be.

"Uh... H-Hey! Katie!"

Katie turned around, a confused look in her eyes when she noticed the small, blonde Slytherin boy walking toward her. His head swiveled from one side to the other, making sure that no one was watching. Katie did a quick scan of the corridor as though she wasn't sure if she was the one being spoken to.

"Er... hello...?"

He forced out a friendly smile, fighting against his own discomfort with the situation. He was almost tempted to blurt out, in his most business-like, military fashion, "Katie Bell? Edward Elric. I need to ask you some questions about your unfortunate incident regarding a cursed opal necklace at Hogsmeade. Do you have a minute?"

What actually came out felt just as ridiculous.

Ed waved. "Uh, hey!"

Katie raised an eyebrow, looking more confused than ever. "Have we met?"

"Oh, um..." He faltered, coming to a stop a few feet away. "I guess we never really met properly, but..."

He then peered curiously up into Katie's face. Couldn't she remember anything from the incident? He'd considered the possibility. In fact, he half-expected it to be the case so he wasn't too surprised. But still... Ed pulled away after a moment, shaking his head dismissively. Either way, he still had to ask and find out for certain.

"Well, anyway, I'm Ed."

"Oh." Katie gave him a strange look. "Erm... are you a first year?"

His left eye twitched. He had to fight very hard to keep his temper in check. It was somewhat easier since most of his pent up rage had been expelled upon breaking Crabbe/Goyle's nose.

"No," he managed to say through clenched teeth. In his head, he was screaming bloody murder.

Suddenly, Katie's face lightened in recognition. "Hang on a minute... I do remember you."

Ed perked up. "You do?!"

"You were there, weren't you? That day, walking back from Hogsmeade. Leanne told me about you. Edward Elric, am I right?" He nodded in response. She smiled. "I guess I owe you one. Thanks for helping save my life."

Ed smiled back. "Oh, it's fine. No problem, really. I was just in the right place at the right time, I guess. But, uh..." His smile faded slightly. "I was actually wondering if you, uh..."

He hesitated before continuing, unsure of the best way to pose his questions. He couldn't think of any way but to be blunt and direct. It wasn't very tactful, Ed knew, but he would at least get the answers he wanted.

Katie was looking at him curiously. "You were wondering if what?"

"Uh, listen," he said at last, lowering his voice and glancing around, "while we're on the subject... You don't happen to remember anything from that day, do you? You wouldn't happen to have... I dunno... caught a glimpse of who cursed you?"

He winced slightly at his own directness. It was such a strange question to hear from someone who was practically a complete stranger. Fortunately for Ed, Katie brushed the question off with an exasperated sigh, rolling her eyes as though she were sick of telling the story.

"Oh, that... People have been asking me that all day. It bothers me like mad, but I really can't remember anything other than walking into the bathroom in the Three Broomsticks..."

She let her voice trail off there and shrugged helplessly. Ed couldn't help feeling a bit disappointed, his shoulders slumping slightly.

"Oh..." He paused for a moment to think. "So then... whoever it was, they got you right the second the door opened, huh?"

"Well, now that I think about it," Katie continued, "I do recall seeing you there. With Malfoy and his friends."

Ed blinked. "Uh... yeah, I was there. But as for Malfoy, he... kinda vanished on us halfway through."

Katie raised her eyebrows in surprise, a look of worry in her eyes. "Vanished? Did he say where he was going?"

Edward shifted his weight uncomfortably. He couldn't tell this girl about what he had come to suspect about the incident! Especially not after all the new things he had learned since then!

'Damn, are all Gryffindors this perceptive? Sheesh, I'm gonna have to start avoiding them all.'

He frantically racked his brains for a decent cover up. "Well... he said he was going to the bathroom, but, see, he never came back. I went looking for him, but he apparently went back to the castle." He shrugged carelessly. "I guess the bathroom line was just to throw us off. Can't say I blame him... Parkinson was being exceptionally clingy that day."

Katie laughed softly, which let Ed relax. Draco owed him big. Too bad only Ed knew it.

"Yeah, Leanne and Ginny told me all about the scene she caused in the Great Hall quite a while back." Then her expression began to once again turn solemn. "But Ed... I don't think what Malfoy told you was a complete lie..."

Ed's eyes went wide and he stared at Katie in shock. "What...?"

The Gryffindor flashed a small, nervous smile and shook her head. "Well, okay, maybe I'm not entirely sure. I just... I just remember upon entering the bathroom, I was shoved roughly to the side by someone - I'm guessing now it could have been Malfoy - and, well, I lost my footing, and..." She trailed off, her brow furrowed thoughtfully.

"And that's when it all goes blank," Ed finished for her.

Katie looked back over at Ed and sighed. "Exactly. That's all I remember. I-I don't even know if I hit the ground."

Ed nodded thoughtfully, his gaze fixed to a spot on the opposite wall. Could it have been Draco? He tried to imagine Draco roughly grabbing her by the shoulders and shoving her to the side, wand drawn... It wasn't easy. It seemed much more like something one of the Crabbe/Goyles would do, not Draco. Maybe Draco looked like the type to shove people around, but certainly not girls. Ed was sure that he wouldn't stoop that low. He quickly shook the thoughts off for now and turned his full attention back to Katie. Now wasn't the time to be thinking in depth; he was hanging on every word Katie said, waiting for something really important to come out.

"Since I first came to last week, I've just kept thinking, wishing that I really knew what happened to me that day. Wishing I knew how I ended up with that opal necklace, knowing I was supposed to give it to someone... but having no clue who." Katie anxiously chewed on her lower lip and then finally turned back to face Ed. "Sorry I can't be of much help. But I really just... don't remember."

For a moment Ed just looked at her, sympathizing with her confusion and frustration. Why did Draco choose Katie Bell, of all people, to deliver the cursed necklace? She didn't exactly strike Ed as the best choice, but... No, Ed immediately refuted the idea. He probably just wanted to curse whoever came to him first. But if that was true, why had he decided to use a girl? If he hexed them the moment they entered the bathroom, it wouldn't have mattered if it was a boy or girl, so it probably would've been less suspicious of him to wait in the boys' bathroom. But he still chose to wait in the girls' room, even though if anyone had seen him go in there, he would've been in trouble. Ed had even been watching him leave for the bathroom... Hadn't he? He tried to remember, but his memory seemed to be failing him.

Pushing the thoughts aside to mull over later, Ed smiled and casually turned away, slipping his hands into his pockets and shrugging.

"Nah, it's fine," he told Katie brightly. "Don't worry about it. I guess I was just curious about the whole thing."

Katie smiled and playfully rolled her eyes. "As is everybody."

Ed grinned. "Can you blame us?"

She couldn't help but laugh softly at that. "Well then, is there anything else you wanted to know?" Edward screwed up his face so it looked as though he was thinking very hard, then shook his head "no." "I'd better get going, then."

"Yeah," Ed agreed. "Sorry, I didn't mean to keep you. You'd better hurry so that freak Filch doesn't catch you."

Katie nodded in agreement and turned to leave, but stopped abruptly. She turned back around and gave Ed an amused look. "By the way..."

"Yeah?"

She smiled warmly. "You know, you're not so bad... for a Slytherin."

Ed had to laugh at that. Katie's smile grew as she waved goodbye, then turned again to leave.

The next fortnight dragged on without much event. Katie's testimony had to be filed away in the recesses of Ed's mind, having given him no real, solid evidence or any leads to go on. His suspicions about the events at Hogsmeade that day remained exactly as they had been, so he put the matter on hold for now and remained focused on his other tasks.

With so much on his mind Ed tried to avoid getting sidetracked from his work, but found it was near impossible with Zabini and the others constantly harassing him. The library seemed to be the only place where peace and quiet was the norm, and since something about the smell of hundreds of musty old tomes calmed him he spent much of his time there. Although he had temporarily postponed his research on "how magic works", he sometimes wandered through the library, taking note of the interesting books that he would have to get around to reading later on. There were times Ed did his actual schoolwork, but mostly he was just thinking with an open book posed in front of him so as not to attract unwanted attention. If he ended up staying there for too long, Madam Pince, the librarian, kicked him out, which certainly served Ed's purposes in knowing when it was time to eat.

Every now and again he would meander up to the seventh floor hallway where Draco's magic wall was still waiting, a great unsolved mystery. He would often stop and glare at the empty stretch of wall, trying to see if he could will a door to appear and let him through. Since that first morning that Al showed it to him, Ed tried performing alchemy on it various times, all of which proved useless. The magic surrounding it was powerful, Ed had finally consented to that, but it certainly didn't mean he was okay with it. In fact, it made him angrier than ever.

His visits to the wall were relatively infrequent and Ed had to take extra care upon discovering that Harry was also making detours to pass the place. He cursed mentally when he realized that the boy knew something about the wall. He constantly had to restrain himself from leaping at him and demanding the information out of him. As such, Edward was officially avoiding direct contact with Harry; anything he knew about the Gryffindor trio, he learned through Alphonse via magic two-way mirror or during their occassional early morning spars.

The rest of the school, however, was alive with excited chatter concerning the final Quidditch match of the year: Gryffindor vs. Ravenclaw. Ed paid very little attention to the way everyone was behaving (what did it matter to him, really?): the Slytherins jeered at the Gryffindors when they passed a group of them in the halls between classes; insults were thrown left and right both in and out of class; some stupid chant had been revived about Ron being some kind of king (which often sent said boy running for the nearest bathroom, looking rather green and sickly). The Slytherins were obviously rooting for Gryffindor to lose magnificently; if they did, it would apparently be the first time they claimed fourth place in about two centuries. When Ed first heard that, he let out a low, impressed whistle and shook his head, feeling sorry for the heavy weight of expectation on Harry's shoulders.

A few days before the match, Pansy had sent Ed away from dinner (before it had even started!) in order to find Draco, since he had once again failed to show up for the meal. He set out grudgingly, taking a long swig of his pumpkin juice and grabbing a large sandwich before doing so. He exited the Great Hall, took a few steps to one side so he was no longer visible to anyone inside, and stopped. Ed bit into his sandwich, surveyed his surroundings for a place to sit, and then settled for one of the steps on the marble staircase. He sat there for a few moments, enjoying what he had stolen away for his dinner.

He didn't need to look for Draco. He knew exactly where he was: on the other side of his magic wall, plotting Dumbledore's assassination and trying to figure out how to allow Voldemort's Death Eaters inside the castle. One of the Crabbe/Goyles was no doubt with him, standing guard in the deserted hallway. Ed would just make it seem as though he had gone to search for him and failed. It was best to keep Pansy as calm as possible by at least having some guise of making an effort to obey her. When angry, Pansy made a banshee's cry sound angelic.

Once Ed's sandwich was gone, he decided it was safe to re-enter the Great Hall. He got to his feet, wiped his gloved hands on his pants, and headed for the entrance. He prepared in his mind a decent story to tell Pansy about how he had searched the entire castle inside out but still came up empty. He was even making himself breathe heavily so his story was more believable. But as he walked back to where he'd been sitting at the Slytherin table, he slowed.

"There you are, Eddy!" Pansy exclaimed, turning in her seat to look at him. "Where's Drakey? Did you find him?"

"Bloody hell, mate," said Zabini, looking at the look of shock and horror on Ed's face. "What's gotten into you?"

But Ed hadn't heard either of their questions. He was staring at the figures of Crabbe and Goyle. Both of them were there, sitting at the table to the left side of Nott, gorging themselves on the beautiful meal spread out before them. Ed's false heavy breathing became real and he could feel his face go hot and cold at the same time, angry and horrified all at once.

"Wha... What are they...? How long have they...? When did...?"

Pansy followed Ed's gaze and then turned back to him, raising an eyebrow. "What, Crabbe and Goyle? They've been here for ages, came in with us, of course. You didn't notice?"

Ed slowly looked at her. "They have?"

"What's it matter if they've been here or not?" snapped Nott, clamping down on a spoonful of clam chowder.

He opened his mouth to reply, but stopped himself. What did it matter? Everything! But Ed didn't understand... What were they doing there? At least one of them had to be with Draco, standing guard outside the magic wall... Which meant he wasn't at the magic wall. Which could only mean one thing: he'd gone somewhere else.

"Bloody hell, Elric," Zabini laughed, turning back to his meal. "You need to pay more attention. It's only because of them being here that I noticed Malfoy was gone at all."

Nott rolled his eyes. "Bloody attached at the hip or something, these three."

Crabbe and Goyle hadn't heard a word. They were busy shoveling food into their mouths.

"That's why I asked you to go look for Drakey!" said Pansy in scolding tones. "So have you found him? Where is he?"

Ed stared at them all for a moment, his eyes wide. Where was he? Draco was in that decrepit bathroom on the sixth floor. He'd gone to his Pensieve's hiding place.

The real question was "why?"

Without another word, Ed spun around on his heel, ran back out of the Great Hall, and hurtled himself down the corridors. He practically flew up the stairs, taking them two or three at a time. He almost tripped once, but he'd recovered. His mind was suddenly in a whirlwind of confused questions: Why would Draco have gone back to his Pensieve? Why would he want to revisit that horrible graveyard and see that Muggle-born witch die at his feet all over again? What memory would he want to put in there now? Did it even have anything to do with the Pensieve? If not, then what was he doing? Why would he go back to that bathroom?

He skidded to a stop when he reached the door to the bathroom and turned to face it. The hallway was completely empty and almost totally silent. Apart from his own, heavy breathing there was a familiar, strangled sound coming from the other side of the doors that Ed was standing in front of. He knew it. Ed recognized it as the sounds of Draco Malfoy crying. All of the questions he'd had just moments before immediately dissolved. Ed was almost afraid to enter the room.

There was another voice, he noticed after a second, a high pitched one that undoubtedly belonged to a girl. Which could only mean Moaning Myrtle. Was she... consoling him? Offering him her ghostly shoulder to cry on? It seemed ridiculous, but now Ed was consumed with an overwhelming curiosity. He wanted to know what was going on. He laid a hand on the door and entered, careful not to make a sound so that he wouldn't be noticed.

Ed took two steps into the bathroom and stopped. Draco was standing with his back to the door, his hands clutching either side of the sink before him. His white-blonde head was bowed so that Ed couldn't see his face, his whole body shaking. Ed was rooted to the spot. Though he had heard Draco crying before, he hadn't seen it. He hadn't even been able to imagine such a proud boy crying, tears streaming down his face. But here it was before him, real at last.

What Ed wouldn't have given to be blissfully ignorant of this moment for the rest of his life.

Moaning Myrtle could be seen peering over one of the cubicles at him, a sad, worried expression on her face as she looked at the boy. It seemed as though she was also about to cry, ready to burst into sobs at any given moment.

"Don't," she crooned from her cubicle. "Tell me what's wrong... Please..."

But Draco didn't answer her and instead gave out another strangled sob. He shook his head, his hands clutching the sides of the sink even harder. Ed could see his knuckles turning white. He tried desperately to think of something to say, but couldn't. What could he say?

"Don't," Myrtle crooned again, inching forward slightly through the wall of the cubicle. "Don't... Tell me what's wrong..."

The door to the bathroom opened slowly, the soft squeak of the hinges giving the newcomer away. The sound was just enough to bring some movement back to Ed's limbs and he turned to see who had entered. He would have to get rid of this person, whoever it was. Ed turned... and found Harry Potter, awestruck, standing in the doorway.

Myrtle was unaware that Ed and Harry had entered. Her attention was solely fixated on Draco. "I can help you..."

"No one can help me," said Draco, his voice trembling. "I can't do it... I can't... It won't work... and unless I do it soon... he says he'll kill me..."

Ed could only stare at Harry in horror. He wanted to yell and throw him out, but he wouldn't be able to do that without Draco noticing. They had intruded on his moment of weakness, and if Ed had learned anything about Draco Malfoy, it was that he was a very proud creature; he wasn't going to take to this development well.

Just as Ed was about to shove Harry out the door, Draco gasped suddenly and gulped down some air in a manner that made it seem almost painful. Then, with a great shudder, he looked up into the flu-cracked mirror. And he saw, quite plainly in its reflection, Harry openly staring at him with Ed standing near the door, a concerned look on his face.

Exactly as Ed thought, Draco didn't take this development well. Not at all.

Draco wheeled around and drew his wand in a flash. Ed raised his arms in a gesture of surrender, but his worried expression remained largely in tact. He swallowed anxiously, making slow movements toward Draco as though he were dealing with a fidgety, trigger-happy rabbit.

"Now, Malfoy... Before you even-"

But apparently, Harry had already drawn his wand on instinct and Draco sent a non-verbal hex in their direction. A wall lamp, merely inches away from Harry's head, shattered. Ed raised his arms protectively over his head as the pieces of it rained down on him. The dark-haired teen threw himself sideways, flicking his wand, but whatever spell he had cast, Draco blocked it. He raised his wand again, ready for another.

"No! No! Stop it!" squealed Moaning Myrtle, her voice echoing loudly around the tiled room. "Stop! STOP!"

Without thinking, Ed sprang at Draco, grabbing onto the wrist that held his wand and effectively holding him back. He tried to raise himself higher to intimidate Draco into backing off, but the boy had a good foot on him in height.

"Put it down, Malfoy!" Ed shouted over Myrtle's pleas. "He didn't do anything!"

But Draco was clearly in an emotional rage. The tears were still fresh on his cheeks, still pricking at the corners of his cerulean silver eyes. He wrenched his arm away and shoved Ed to one side, knocking him into one of the cubicles. He was thrown roughly onto the toilet, his forehead colliding with the side of the porcelain seat. Ed's head throbbed and for a moment, Myrtle's shouting seemed to fade in and out of his senses, the world before his eyes spinning. He squeezed his eyes shut, clutching his head in his hands as he tried to get a hold of himself.

There was a sudden, loud bang that seemed to reverberate in Ed's ears. He groped around for support and pulled himself back up to his feet as a thousand sounds hit him in a single, powerful wave. He emerged quickly from the cubicle just as there was another bang and a bin behind Harry suddenly exploded. Ed launched himself forward, not caring which boy he caught as long as one of them stopped throwing curses and hexes at the other. He had apparently lunged at Draco and, grabbing him forcefully by the shoulders, pushed him up against one of the walls. This made Harry pause for just a moment in his attack, breathing hard as he watched them warily.

"Just what the hell do you think you're doing?!" he yelled into Draco's face. "Put that fucking thing down right now!"

He didn't listen and instead moved past Ed, wand extended and trained on Harry. He shot out another hex which just missed hitting its target. Harry gave his wand another flick, but his jinx must have backfired off the wall, right behind Draco's ear, and smashed the cistern beneath Moaning Myrtle. Myrtle let rip an especially deafening, ghostly scream at the explosion. Water poured out everywhere, all across the linoleum floor. Ed turned to look at Harry, his gold eyes flashing.

"STOP IT!"

Neither one of the boys seemed to be paying any attention to him, or maybe Myrtle's screaming had completely drowned him out. They both took a step forward, their eyes locked on one another. Then suddenly, Harry slipped on the wet linoleum floor. And for one fleeting, terrifying moment, he was left wide open.

Draco Malfoy raised his wand, his face twisted in pure, brilliant fury. His silver eyes glimmered dangerously as he looked down at Harry. Ed knew, in an instant, what he was going to do. Draco needed to unleash his frustration with his master, vent out his rage toward his uncontrollable circumstances, inflict physical pain equivalent to that which he suffered emotionally on a daily basis on someone... And there was but one way he could think to do that.

Ed's eyes went wide and he charged forward again. He brought himself right up in front of Draco, his back to where Harry was sprawled helplessly across the wet tiles. He would take the wand away before Draco could make the mistake of using the Cruciatus Curse. That one curse could rob him of his last shred of innocence, irreversibly turning him into Voldemort's kind. Ed wasn't going to let that happen, not after he had come so far. Not if he could help it.

"Cruci-"

"NO!"

And then, taking Ed completely by surprise, he heard Harry bellow out words that he'd never heard of or read anywhere before.

"SECTUMSEMPRA!"



Author's Note: DUN DUN DUUUUUUNNN. cliffhanger desu! and we finally have a little bit of a fight scene!! but it's largely between Harry and Draco and was, for the most part, originally written by the great J.K. Rowling (bows humbly toward original author). though Ed jumping in is, of course, not her writing. XD

heehee... upon reading this through again, i think i really do like this chapter. :P this is the beginning of the part that i was most anxious and excited to write for. too bad i had to end the chapter just as i got to it... oh well! hehe, i actually would've jumped to these scenes much earlier, but i'm uncomfortable with the idea of skipping more than a month of Hogwarts' life. hence the many transition chapters. hopefully these next few chapters will make up for all those. :P

anyways, as always, please leave a review if you're enjoying the story! heehee, i'll try to get the next chapter up as soon as possible. :D apologies in advance for any delays i may encounter before then.