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Chapter 50

Chicken Soup (Can) for the Soul

Hermione was sitting in the common room with Harry and Ron when Professor Elric walked through the portrait hole. He was not stomping as he walked, he was not storming, but he rather looked like he wanted to. Like some other sense of awkwardness was constraining his behavior.

He glanced around at the throng of Gryffindors that sat around the fire-warm room at intervals. Hermione withdrew her wand, beckoned him over, and cast a Muffliato.

"Zat masks conversations, right?"

"Yes," said Hermione. "Why are you here, Professor?"

Professor Elric grimaced.

"Bloody hell it's something bad, isn't it," said Ron.

"Room of Requirement?" Professor Elric said. "Alphonse will know to look for us zere."

Harry stood abruptly. "Let's get whatever it is over with."

Hermione knew that Harry was tired with the never ending stampede of revelations that their sixth year at Hogwarts had been so far, but he was looking at Professor Elric like he was some sort of portent of doom.

Professor Elric looked at the three of them as Hermione and Ron began to stand themselves. "Maybe," he said. "Maybe just Harry?"

Harry muttered something foul under his breath. Hermione's protectiveness roared in her chest.

"Aren't we constantly arguing because of information control?" Ron asked. "Harry's just gonna tell us whatever it is when you're done. Might as well tell all three of us at once."

Merlin, Professor Elric just looked pained at that. "It's not about hiding it from you," he said. "I promise. I would have tried to flag Harry down by himself ozerwise."

Harry seemed to detect something in Professor Elric's expression that Hermione was refusing to see, because he just nodded grimly. "I'll be back, guys," he said. "I'll fill you in."

"I don't like this," Hermione said. "I want every detail you can remember."

"Maybe you should take notes, just in case," said Ron. There was a smile in the corner of his mouth, and Hermione elbowed him viciously in the ribs. "But seriously. Details."

With that, Hermione let one of her best friends disappear through the portrait hole and out into the castle at large. "Fuck," she said simply and with great feeling. It was Ron's turn to elbow her in the ribs.

"I don't know whether to make fun of you for saying it or agree with you," he said.

Hermione sniffed. There was just something about the word that seemed appropriate.

The Room of Requirement was sparse today. A plain white room, a scrubbed wooden table with a small pile of books. An expanse of empty floor. A small box of chalk. Harry shuddered to look at it - was this conversation going to involve alchemy? Why?

"What exactly do you want with me?" Harry asked when the doors closed behind them. Alphonse had not beat them there.

"We finally got zee Old Man to talk," said Professor Elric, looking somewhere between pissed off and exhausted.

"Dumbledore?" Harry asked, just to be clear.

Elric nodded. "Yup. We all knew he was hiding more zan we knew, right?"

"He's always hiding things," said Harry. "I think that might just be his base state."

Elric actually laughed at that. "He has so much practice keeping secrets, you'd sink he'd be better at hiding zat he's keeping zem."

"You'd think," Harry agreed. "But let's get to the point. What was it?"

Elric gestured at the table, and several wooden chairs appeared around it. Elric jumped. "I know zee magic is in zee room already, but I'm always surprised when it responds like zat."

Harry eyed the chairs. "So it's bad enough that you want me sitting down?" He gingerly sat in one of them.

Ed sat across from him, one hand on his forehead both gripping his temples and pushing his bangs out of his eyes. "So I'm going to start by saying zat I sink I can fix zis. I say my alchemical specialties are earth and metal, but zat's just for zee official record."

"Keeping as many secrets as your boss, are you?" Harry demanded.

Elric didn't take the bait. "It's a habit. I'm trying to break it." he said. "But zere is literally no way I could have boiled down my whole life in a single conversation. And zis one's kind of implied by zee universe hopping. Earth and metal alchemists don't accidentally jump worlds."

That was true, and honestly Harry had been trying not to think too hard about the implications of alchemical dimension hopping. "What is then?"

Merlin, Harry wished that Elric's expression wasn't quite so heartfelt. "Soul manipulation," he said.

"What?" said Harry.

"Disembodied souls, embodied souls, souls zat are embodied in weird ways." Elric looked like he was primed to keep talking, spew word vomit across the nearly empty Room.

Harry cut him off. "What does that mean for me? Is there something wrong with my soul?"

"No," Elric said. "At least, I don't sink so. Zee problem is more zat your soul is sharing space with Moldyman's last horcrux."

"Oh," said Harry. "Are you sure?"

"I haven't looked for myself yet," Ed said. "So not really. But zee Old Man sinks so."

Harry was sure. Harry had known before he even asked the question. "I think he's right," he said. He didn't know how to describe it further than that, explain why he felt so certain, but if Harry had thought Elric would ask for specifics, he was wrong.

Elric just gave a thoughtful hum.

"This means I have to die, doesn't it?" Harry said. He felt certain about that, too. It suddenly seemed like his entire life amounted to this, amounted to a moment of self-sacrifice to make another man mortal.

"Fuck no," said Elric. Harry looked up at him in surprise. "Zat might have been zee Old Man's plan, but what is zee point of having an alchemist on staff if you won't use his skills?"

"Is this something alchemy can fix?"

Elric nodded fiercely. "It had better be," he said.

"So you don't know," said Harry. "Great. Just tell me how long I have left to live, then. I'm sure we all want it over with sooner rather than later."

"Why are all you wizards in a hurry to die?" Elric said. "Absolutely not. Just because I've only separated souls from objects and not from bodies doesn't mean zee theory isn't cross applicable."

Objects and bodies actually didn't sound cross-applicable to Harry, and he would have said so if an odd sandy yellow creature, with plating instead of fur in most places, hadn't chosen that moment to step through the doors.

For an absurd moment, Harry tried to place exactly what sort of animal it was, even though that hardly mattered. That speculation halted when it grew upwards into an exhausted-looking Alphonse Elric.

"Since when are you an animagus?" Harry said.

"Since Saturday," said Alphonse, without missing a beat. "You went to get him already, Bruder? Shouldn't we have done some of zee maths first?"

Harry sent Alphonse a betrayed look. "I, for one, am in favor of telling me information as soon as you have it."

Alphonse nodded in his direction. "Fair enough. It just might have been a more reassuring conversation if Bruder and I came in wis some of zee variables sorted."

That argument would have held more water if Harry wasn't sure this weird alchemical attempt at destroying a living horcrux was doomed.

"Honestly," Ed said, "I didn't want to speculate. We'll get surer answers if we have him here for reference."

"Zat's true," said Alphonse.

"Please don't talk about me like Hermione talks about her textbooks," Harry said.

Alphonse gave him a gentle pat on the head, said "Of course. So sorry."

The gesture was already infuriating, and then they switched into German. Er. Amestrian.

"I didn't mean to leave me out of the conversation!" Harry said, but Elric and Alphonse were suddenly and abruptly absorbed in a conversation that would have had no room for Harry, even if it was in a language he could speak.

This conversation went on for several minutes while Harry sat there and stewed. It was easy to stew, with this sudden surety of his oncoming death.

He'd always felt like his connection to Voldemort was more tangible than a whispered prophecy, and now he finally understood why. He almost wanted to stew in it longer than Elric and Alphonse gave him time for. As abruptly as they began, their talking stopped. "What?" said Harry, when he felt their eyes on him.

"Can we examine you?" asked Alphonse. Like that wasn't part of the same problem of talking about Harry like a textbook.

"Just for the maths," Elric hastened to add, like Harry would hear 'maths' and let them do whatever they wanted rather than engage in a concept he could hardly understand.

Unfortunately, that wasn't exactly an incorrect assumption. Harry folded. "Fine," he said. "Where do you want me?"

"If you pull your chair a little further from zee table, we can draw a transmutation circle around you and zis will all be a little more controlled." Alphonse gestured out into the expanse of the room.

Ugh. Harry had known that box of chalk was going to get involved. Because of course it was. Why wouldn't it? "Right." He scooted his chair out from the table without standing, relished the scrape of the legs against the floor.

Alphonse winced slightly at the sound, gave him a pointed look.

Harry glared right back. He was going to make as much noise as he damn well wanted to! Of course, he moved more or less exactly where the Elric brothers wanted him, then sat quietly. He fidgeted only in unobtrusive ways.

He had never quite managed to break the habits of politeness that the Dursleys had instilled in him, at least when he was acting reflexively. Snape would tell anyone who'd listen that Harry had no problems rebelling against authority; that was true! But it was always an active choice, not something that came passively.

So Harry sat and watched and fidgeted as both Elrics circled around him, crouched, dragging chalk along the floor. Harry sat quietly and let himself fall into a trance, watching as the transmutation circle took form around him.

"It's beautiful," he said.

"It's familiar," Alphonse said. He didn't elaborate, but there was a wry twist to his mouth that Harry didn't recognize on Al's face. Not that Harry really knew Al. He thought Luna might be the only one who did, aside from Professor Elric.

Harry decided not to ask what he meant. It was just as well, because Elric sat back on his heels and dusted off his knees. "It's done!" he said.

"It is," said Alphonse, looking over it with a critical eye. Harry wondered what Al was looking for. "Are you ready, Harry?"

"I guess," said Harry.

"I guess," Professor Elric repeated. He looked up at the ceiling, said, "I guess zat's as good as we're gonna get?"

"Yup." Harry visually traced the lines of the circle. "Go for it. Don't really have anything to lose here, do I?"

Professor Elric, thankfully, was always direct. "You really don't. But checking seemed like zee ethical choice."

Harry scoffed. "Please, You'd do it anyway if you thought the alternative was me dying. Which you do."

Elric pinched the bridge of his nose. "Zat's probably true. But your opinion on sings does matter."

Harry looked pointedly at the box of chalk, which had appeared in the Room long before Harry had consented to anything. Neither Elric looked especially chastened.

Alphonse, at least, looked moderately empathetic. Ed just looked tired. Harry scowled. "Let's just get this over with."

Both Elric brothers shot him disbelieving looks. "Whatever," said Edward.

"If you're sure," said Alphonse.

Harry sincerely doubted that was true, and he generally had a preference for ugly truths over pretty lies, but he could appreciate what they were trying to do. Well enough not to call them out over it. "I'm sure," he said.

He gave them a dismissive little wave and leaned back in his chair. It was still fascinating, watching them work. They both got on their knees, touched their fingers to the outer rim of the chalk circle.

Blue.

The entire world lit up blue and Harry's general interest turned into outright captivation at the brilliant light, at the focus etched on the Elrics' faces. Time disappeared. Harry floated in the blue light of alchemy at every moment of his life, really. It was now, but it was also then. Then it was over, and it was never.

The Elric brothers looked at each other, slightly short of breath.

"Zee scar," said Professor Elric. "Zat's zee anchor."

Harry balked at this, because as much as he knew that the scar had appeared on the night of his parents' death, it felt as though it had always been part of him. Darkly, he wondered if that impression was just the horcrux protecting itself.

"Ancient Runes scholars would cry," said Alphonse.

"Right?" said Elric. "Sowilo makes no sense for a horcrux anchor."

"Maybe it isn't?" said Harry.

"No, it definitely is." Though the words were direct, Al looked apologetic for having said them.

"I knew that when I asked," said Harry. "Don't really know why I asked."

"Neither one of us were there when you, Ginny, and Hermione destroyed the diadem. Is there something that we should know?" Al had expressions of polite concern absolutely nailed.

Harry had to force his way through a massive wave of discontent to admit, "It protected itself. It didn't want to die."

Both Elrics looked at him sharply. "Are you protecting yourself?" said Edward.

"I want to," said Harry. "So whatever you're planning on doing, I think you should do it."

Alphonse broke into uneasy Amestrian - and again there was a flurry of conversation that Harry could not follow. He wanted to follow it though, desperately.

"If you can't stop talking about me like I'm not even here, can you at least do it in a language I can understand?"

Alphonse sent him an apologetic glance. Edward seemed both annoyed and contrite. "Sorry." Edward said. "Alchemical research. You know how academics get." Because Hermione was always treating Harry like a lab rat. Totally.

"I remember you said you could gather the whole soul from a single piece," said Harry, fighting the bile that rose in his throat. "That you knew how. Do it. Do it now."

"Uh, no," said Edward flatly.

"That's what we were trying to figure out," said Alphonse. "But we think we should separate you and your horcrux first."

"What? Like move it?"

"Like move it," said Edward.

"What if it escapes?" said Harry. "At least if it's in me, we know where it is."

"What if trying to combine it while it's in you just kills you, huh?"

"Brother!"

"Then that's just the prophecy fulfilled, right? Dumbledore thinks I'm doomed and everyone says he's the greatest wizard alive!" Harry wasn't sure why he felt so strongly about accepting his oncoming death, but he did. He just knew that he and the horcrux shouldn't be separated. Not until fate had its moment. Or maybe it's just that he wanted it all to finally be over. "So do it!"

"I can move it," said Edward. "And zen you can finally be done wis Moldy! Like teacher, like student. Zis is a stupid moment to emulate zee Old Man."

There were layers to that statement Harry had no prayer of really understanding. He suspected that all sorts of secret covert things happened between the Elrics and the Headmaster and maybe even the staff this year. "I can't be emulating him if I have no idea what he's been up to," Harry said.

"I'll believe zat when you stop acting like you wish you had died last year, and zat dying soon might be a decent consolation prize!"

Harry had no idea what wishing he was dead had to do with the headmaster. And he didn't wish he was dead. Not really. He just wished the whole prophesied hero thing had happened to someone else.

"Listen, Harry," said Alphonse, gently cutting into the conversation. "If you let us do zis, your involvement can be over. You can be done."

That accurately identified what Harry wanted. Blast. "Fine," he said. "If you really think I can be free of all this, do what you want."

A shark-like grin appeared on Elric's face. "As I told zee Headmaster, my world isn't governed by prophecy. If anyone can get you out of a prophesied destiny, it's me and Alphonse."

"I can pretend I buy that argument." Harry looked at the transmutation circle they had used to inspect him. "Is this the same transmutation circle you need to separate me? Or?"

Edward looked critically at the floor.

"Zis has always been Bruder's wheelhouse more zan mine," said Alphonse.

Harry wondered why that was. Of the two of them, Edward might be more the type to charge recklessly into something dangerous, but Alphonse seemed more likely to follow the thread of forbidden knowledge into irredeemable plates. It threw off his sense of them, to know that Ed was the one who could manipulate souls - especially to Al's exclusion.

"Kind of," said Edward.

"Do you need me to move?" said Harry. "So you can draw something else somewhere else?"

"You should probably move," said Ed. "Because I don't want to bozer erasing zat one and we don't want it interfering. But we won't need to draw zee next one so big. Or on zee floor."

Edward glanced expectantly around the room and a tin can appeared on the table. Alphonse gave a sharp bright laugh before clapping his hands over his mouth. Harry wasn't sure what was funny.

"Are you not using a transmutation circle?" Because Harry knew Ed didn't need them for low-risk transmutation.

"I'll put one on zee can," said Ed. "But I'm breaking zee one on you."

"The one on me." Harry stood from his chair. "My scar?" Because the scar didn't look anything like any circle he'd ever seen - he'd passed primary school geometry even if alchemy was beyond him.

"Soul alchemy is weird," Edward said, seeming to guess at the source of Harry's confusion "At a certain point - way beyond what l've been teaching here - zee basics sort of fall apart. And I sink zee magical element might also fuck wis zee principles. Depending on zee transmutation. Sowilo isn't what I would have used, but an anchor isn't quite a transmutation circle in zee traditional sense anyway."

Harry wondered if this was another attempt to bamboozle him with information. "If it's not a circle, what is it?"

"It's a seal more zan a conduit." This was from Al, the supposed non-expert. "Of blood, usually. Your scar provided see blood."

Harry had a sinking feeling. "Will the can need one of these seals? If you're getting rid of the one on me?"

There were nods from both brothers.

"Damn it all, not more ritual bloodletting!"

Alphonse looked alarmed, and then intentionally soothing. "It doesn't have to be yours."

"We will have to break your seal, though." Edward added sheepishly. "When zee seal's a scar, zat probably means cutting srough it. I can use my blood for zee new one."

"Er. Thanks," said Harry. Because he wasn't going to say no to someone else volunteering for the worst part for once. "So are we doing this now?" That incited a fresh flurry of Amestrian conversation. Harry was starting to regret not bringing Ron and Hermione. They had wanted to come. They had been right there.

Or maybe Ginny, who definitely understood what it felt like to be linked to Voldemort. She'd have no compunction against doing what needed to be done. Harry wouldn't have to triple guess his motives if Ginny were here. He'd just do whatever she thought was right and that would be the right thing.

All Harry could do was wait, eyes on his trainers while the Elrics decided what to do with him. He never thought he'd be back to mistrusting his own mind, after the loss of Sirius. But here he was. He didn't trust himself to weigh in.

But suddenly, it seemed like his opinion was required. "We almost want to wait," said Alphonse. "We could spend more time wis zee equations. We could be more careful!"

"But we also kind of sink we should act now. While we're here. If being in a room wis a horcrux was unpleasant, having one in your head must fucking suck," said Edward.

Faced with this decision, every fiber of Harry screamed to say 'Wait. Let's get those equations right. Buy me more time!' But he didn't need Ginny at his shoulder to tell him what was right. "Now," said Harry. "We have to do it now, before I lose my nerve."

"Right," Alphonse gave his shoulder a comforting pat. "If you're sure."

"I'm sure," said Harry, before he could change his mind.

Elric seemed galvanized by this. He took Harry by the hands and tugged him completely clear of the first circle.

"May I?" said Alphonse.

"What?" said Edward. "Oh, Sure."

Al had his wand gently extended in one hand and the can in the other, Edward extended his left hand. "Finger tip," he said. "With the soul right here, I shouldn't have to visit the Gate, but, just in Case."

Alphonse gave a wan smile. "I love you Bruder. Good luck."

What? What had Harry missed, where this was suddenly an 'I love you' situation for the Elrics? But there was Edward saying it back, and Alphonse running his wand down Ed's finger, leaving an open wound, handing over the tin can.

With all the grace of muscle memory, Ed ran his finger smoothly over the can in the shape of Harry's lightning bolt scar. Sowilo, they'd called it. Incredibly, the blood did not drip. It stayed right in the shape Ed drew it in.

"Your turn," Alphonse said, businesslike now that things were under way. He turned his wand to Harry's forehead, and it stung as it swept across. Even without being able to see what Al was doing, Harry knew that the fresh cut managed to cross each line of his scar.

Oh, Harry thought as Al's wand lifted away. "Is that? Is that it? Is that all you had to do?"

But Alphonse spared no time to respond, because Edward was already placing a single finger tip to the blood seal on the tin can and blue lightning was crackling all around him.

It was then that Harry noticed the writhing mass that had appeared in the air above him - reveling in the sudden lightness of his own mind, he hadn't noticed it. Had that been in him?

Clearly, it was trying to escape, but the blue light of Edward's alchemy fought to contain it, drawing it toward the can and its blood seal. The light crackled, frizzing Harry's hair, and the mass of the horcrux vanished, sucked entirely into its new aluminium prison. The blue light vanished too, and Harry blinked, his eyes adjusting. For the first time that Harry could remember, his mind was entirely his own.

Word Count: 3,882

Date Posted: 9/5/2023

I was dithering about whether or not to rearrange things and condense the last three non-epilogue chapters into two, but I have decided to take the lesson in pacing to my next project and leave this one alone. So here we are! We are getting close, lovelies. We've got this chapter. The next chapter should go up the day after tomorrow. Two days after that, the last chapter and the epilogue will go up at once.

I feel like I've been saying "home stretch" for a million years now, but it just keeps getting more true.

The seasons are changing again - going apple/sunflower picking tomorrow, so here's to a Happy September for us all!