~Chapter Nine: A Serpentis Os~

A/N: Ohai, I'm not dead! (insert rant about being so behind on life here…my apologies :P) Regular updates should and hopefully will ensue from here on out!

Oh, and the title translates from Latin to: From a Serpent's Mouth.

all things Harry Potter (c) J.K. Rowling

all things Fullmetal Alchemist (c) Hiromu Arakawa

"Harry!" Hermione shrieked, scrambling out of the bathroom stall she and Ron were cramped in to help Alphonse stand back up after falling in shock. "You gave us such a fright—come in—how's your arm?"

"Fine," Harry said, grinning and patting Al up on the shoulder before squeezing into the stall. "Sorry 'bout that, Al."

An old cauldron was perched on the toilet, and a crackling from under the rim told Harry they had lit a fire beneath it.

"We'd've come to meet you, but we decided to get started on the Polyjuice Potion," Ron explained. "We've decided this is the safest place to hide it."

Harry started to tell them about Colin, but Hermione interrupted.

"We already know—we heard Professor McGonagall telling Professor Flitwick this morning. That's why we decided we'd better get going—"

"The sooner we get a confession out of Malfoy, the better," snarled Ron. "D'you know what I think? He was in such a foul temper after that Quidditch match, he took it out on Colin."

"There's something else," began Harry, looking up at Al. "Unless you told them everything about last night already…?"

"No," Al said guiltily. "I promised Dumbledore I wouldn't say anything…but you didn't promise him anything, so go on."

"Wait," Hermione said, tossing one last fistful of knotgrass and throwing it into the potion before turning to look at Alphonse. "You snuck out to see him last night?"

Alphonse looked at her uneasily, recognizing the tone of her voice to be one of distaste for breaking the rules.

"Maybe…"

"Alphonse!"

"Come on, Hermione, I can't sleep anyway! Might as well do something with my time…"

"You could've woken me up, y'know…" Ron said with a frown. Al shrugged:

"Sorry, I didn't want you to get in trouble too."

"Yeah, Ron; he ended up getting caught by Dumbledore," Harry said, wincing at Hermione's shocked expression.

"You what?" she nearly shrieked.

"Man, I missed everything!" Ron said, to which Harry and Al cracked up at the aghast expression Hermione shot him. "Anyway, go on, Harry."

"Right; Dobby came to visit me in the middle of the night."

Ron and Hermione looked up, amazed. Harry told them everything Dobby had told him—or, rather, hadn't told him. Hermione and Ron listened with their mouths open.

"And then that's when Al came in," Harry continued, after which the younger Elric brother assisted the scarred boy in telling the rest of the night's events as much as he could without feeling as if he was breaking his promise to Dumbledore.

"The Chamber of Secrets has been opened before?" Hermione said once they had finished.

"This settles it," Ron said in a triumphant voice. "Lucius Malfoy must've opened the Chamber when he was at school here and now he's told dear old Draco how to do it. It's obvious. Wish Dobby'd told you what kind of monster's in there, though. I want to know how come nobody's noticed it sneaking around the school."

"I want to know why it seems like only me and Harry can hear it," Al spoke up. He froze when he saw that the other three were staring at him after stating this, though. "…What did I say?" he asked nervously.

"Nothing," Harry said with a frown. "It's just…that is a really good question. It must be the monster we're hearing, Al, you're right about that. But why can't anyone else hear it?"

"That's another question we'll need to ask Malfoy," Ron said, to which Harry and Al wholeheartedly agreed.

"Well…" Hermione began, and then looked up at the ceiling, contemplating something for a long moment before shaking her head. "Never mind me; I don't know why I thought of that."

"What were you thinking?" Al asked, but Hermione just shook her head and turned away from him to pour a bag of dead lacewings on top of the leeches in the pot. Ron took the empty bag from her once she was through with it and crumpled it up as he said to Harry:

"So Dobby stopped us from getting on the train and broke your arm…" He shook his head. "You know what, Harry? If he doesn't stop trying to save your life he's going to kill you."

Alphonse had already known just how fast news spread through Hogwarts from his and his own brother's encounter with being the center of all gossip. However, the news that Colin Creevey had been attacked and was now lying as though dead in the hospital wing had put everyone in the school into a silent state of panic. The air was suddenly thick with rumor and suspicion.

Ginny Weasley, who sat next to Colin in Charms, was beyond distraught, but Al felt that Fred and George were going the wrong way about cheering her up. They were taking turns covering themselves with fur or boils and jumping out at her from behind statures. They only stopped when Percy, apoplectic with rage, told them he was going to write Mrs. Weasley and tell her Ginny was having nightmares.

The sad thing was that Al knew Ginny truly was having horrible night terrors about the attacks. However, whenever Al tried to be a good friend and talk to her about why she thinks these nightmares are haunting her, she suddenly goes silent, or even mutters inaudibly about having to go somewhere and leaving Alphonse's presence altogether. Al was beginning to worry that for some reason, Ginny was keeping something dangerous that was going on outside of the attacks a huge secret from him and her family. Eventually she began to avoid him altogether; it had been over two weeks since he and Ginny had studied or even hung out together.

In the second week of December Professor McGonagall came around as usual, collecting names of those who would be staying at school for Christmas. Al strongly considered going back to Granny Pinako's house for the holidays, but quickly had his mind changed both by his own brother (who wrote in his most recent letter to Al: Don't you dare go back to Resembool for Christmas; you'll miss out on all the Wizard's Chess and, even more importantly, you'll miss seeing McGonagall drink way too much 'Christmas cheer!') and by the fact that Harry, Hermione and Ron were all staying at Hogwarts themselves. They had all heard that Malfoy was staying, which struck them as very suspicious; besides, the holidays would be the perfect time to use the Polyjuice Potion and try to worm a confession out of him.

Unfortunately, the potion was only half-finished.

"We're only going to find the bicorn horn and the boomslang skin in Snape's private stores…" Hermione informed them all, looking up from the potion with a grim expression. "We'll have to break in to get them."

"I think I'd rather face Slytherin's monster than let Snape catch me robbing his office…" Harry said with a shake of his head, to which Al agreed vigorously.

"What we need is a diversion," Hermione said matter-of-factly. "Then one of us can sneak into the office and take what we need."

The others looked at her nervously.

"I think either you or I had better do the actual stealing Hermione," Al pointed out. "Harry or Ron could get expelled if they get into any more trouble…"

He looked down at his big metal body, then back at Hermione. If he could have any sort of facial expressions in his current state of being, Al would have attempted a mischievous grin.

"Actually, I have a better idea!"

~~*e.s.*~~

Ed wondered just how he had gotten so distracted from his research. Usually it was Alphonse that was the distraction, but his little brother was not here right now. And yet here he was, trying to gather up enough strength to toss a twenty five-pound dog off of his backside as Shou Tucker's little girl, Nina giggled from the other side of the room.

"Hey chief, I'm here to pick you up," a voice from the doorway spoke. Ed could smell the light scent of smoke begin to permeate the air and knew Mustang had sent Second Lieutenant Havoc over. He struggled to look up at the man from his furry entrapment.

"…Mind if I ask what you're doing?" Havoc said with humor as Ed finally tossed the dog off of him and stood up straight.

"Uh, well…I guess you could say I'm just taking a little break from my research."

Shou Tucker looked at him curiously as he spoke:

"So did you find any useful data?"

Ed was about to answer when his big dog, Alexander, pawed Edward back to the ground once more. Tucker let out a soft chuckle and invited Ed to return the next day, much to little Nina's great delight.

Ed had taken to watching the skies frequently, especially after replying to one of Al or one of his other friends' letters. He was looking out the window as Havoc drove him back to HQ and only looked at the man when he inquired:

"So Edward; you going anywhere for Christmas?"

"Pssh," Ed replied, rolling his eyes and turning back to the window. Havoc raised an eyebrow, muttering that he'll take that as a no. Ed remained silent for a moment before explaining:

"I'm agnostic. The only reason I would bother going back to Resembool for the holidays is if Al was there, and I told him he should stay up at Hogwarts for Christmas. He'd enjoy spending time with his friends and seeing some snow than being stuck in this heat wave we've been having across Amestris."

That and he's got an Heir of Slytherin to sack, he silently finished in his mind.

"Hey, didn't he go up there to visit you last year, though?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"Why don't you go up and visit him this year?"

This suggestion took Ed by surprise. That was actually a really good idea, after all. He remembered just how much Al's appearance during Christmastime at Hogwarts absolutely made his day—heck, not just that, but his brother's appearance helped him get over a huge wave of depression he was going through at the time. He remembered being extremely thankful to Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall for arranging such a reunion…

But this time was different. The school was a dangerous place, a lot of scary things were going on. Would Ed's appearance there only make everything worse for Al? He remembered the looks both he and his little brother received at King's Cross station, and Ed was tired of hearing about some of the comments people have made to Alphonse during the course of his first year at Hogwarts. What would they say to Ed's reappearance at the school? What would the Heir of Slytherin say—or rather, do. He and Al were technically half-breeds (they still were not sure if their mother had any magical blood in her…). Would Al become a new target upon Ed's return to the school?

Too many questions, far too many questions.

"That's probably not a good idea…I made a lot of enemies last year," Ed explained, "And the last thing I want to do to Al is make his first year at Hogwarts even more of a living Hell than it's been already."

Havoc frowned slightly in confusion but said nothing more than, "I see," much to Ed's relief. He did not leave the Christmastime conversation there, however.

"You should at least send him something, y'know."

Ed cocked his head to the side:

"…Yeah, you're probably right. But what should I send him?"

"Sheesh, Ed, how should I know?" Havoc said with a laugh. "You're his brother. If you don't know what he likes, then nobody knows."

Ed said nothing in response; Al liked books, like himself, and cats, and alchemy, and now, magic. Well, and sweets, but sending him candy would do him no good since he could not eat anything. Ed racked his brain for ideas for the rest of the car ride, and then finally gave up, telling himself he still had time to think about that. After all, he still has not received his most recent letter yet, either.

~~*e.s.*~~

Potions lessons took place in one of the large dungeons. Thursday afternoon's lesson proceeded in the usual way. Twenty cauldrons stood steaming between the wooden desks, on which stood brass scales and jars of ingredients. Snape prowled through the fumes, making waspish remarks about the Gryffindor's work while the Slytherins sniggered appreciatively. All in all it all seemed like a normal Potions class, with everyone just going about their business, trying to get their classwork done. Little did anyone know that Alphonse had drawn two intricate Transmutation circles beneath two particular student's desks just before class began. One lay beneath Harry's own cauldron…

And one was underneath Draco Malfoy's.

Harry's Swelling Solution was far too runny, but he had his mind on more important things. He and Al were waiting for Hermione's signal, and he hardly listened as Snape paused to sneer at his watery potion. When Snape turned and walked off to bully Neville, Hermione caught Harry's eye and nodded. Al stifled a chuckle as Harry looked behind him at the door, where Al stood behind, a Transmutation circle drawn upon the floor beneath him. As soon as he caught Harry's eye, he placed three of Fred's Filibuster fireworks from within his backpack onto the circle and placed his hands onto the chalk next to him. With this Transmutation, Al sent the fireworks first to Harry (where they appeared under his desk), who prodded them with his wand before nodding back at Al to send them to the Transmutation circle located right beneath Malfoy's cauldron. The firework was just beginning to fizz and sputter when it disappeared from Harry's desk altogether and landed right on target in Malfoy's cauldron.

"Duck!" Harry mouthed to Ron as Malfoy's cauldron exploded, showering the whole class. Al stood behind the door to the classroom laughing his metallic butt off as people shrieked as splashes of Swelling Solution hit them. Malfoy got more than a faceful and his nose began to swell like a balloon; Goyle blundered around, his hands over his eyes, which had expanded to the size of a dinner plate—Snape was trying to restore calm and find out what happened. Just before the greasy-haired Professor could reach his desk, Harry rapidly wiped away the chalked-on Transmutation circle with the sleeve of his robes. He knew the one beneath Malfoy's cauldron would be discovered, but the whole point in Al creating the diversion was to keep Harry and Ron out of trouble, so he made sure to remove any evidence pointing to them. Through the confusion, Harry saw Hermione slip quietly into Snape's office.

"Silence! SILENCE!" Snape roared. "Anyone who has been splashed, come here for a Deflating Draft—when I find out who did this—"

Harry watched as more than half the class lumbered up to Snape's desk, some weighted down with arms like clubs, others unable to talk through gigantic puffed-up lips. As this chaos was happening, he saw Hermione slide back into the dungeon, the front of her robes bulging.

"Someone's got to get rid of the other circle," she hissed at Harry as she passed by him, "Or else Al may be expelled."

"On it," Ron whispered back, glancing at Snape's desk once again before ducking beneath the desks, making his way silently across the room towards Malfoy's cauldron. Al peeked through the small window in the door at Ron, wondering upon what his red-headed friend was doing. The plan was for him to get caught, wasn't it? Unless they had changed the plan behind his back…?

Ron finally found the Transmutation circle and rapidly wiped off the chalk, quickly making his way back to the other side of the room. He immediately froze once he saw Snape's long black robes sweep past him, his eyes bulging in fright as the furious Professor walked over to Malfoy's cauldron and scooped out the twisted black remains of the fireworks. There was a sudden hush.

Ron quickly stood back by Harry, the blood still obviously drained from his face and he looked at his friend and mouthed, that was a close one!

Did you get rid of it? Harry mouthed back, to which Ron nodded.

"If I ever find out who threw this," Snape whispered, "I shall make sure that person is expelled."

Harry arranged his face into what he hoped was a puzzled expression. Snape was looking right at him, and the bell that rang ten minutes later could not have been more welcome.

"He thought it was me," Harry told Al through the fit of laughter he and Ron had been holding since the end of class. As the four of them hurried back to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, they all congratulated Al on his ingenious plan, telling him how proud Ed would have been of him if he were there.

"Even though, if it weren't for me and Ron," Hermione pointed out, "You probably would have been expelled."

"I know, thanks for that," Al said for the umpteenth time. "I didn't think Snape would react that drastically."

"You obviously don't Snape that well," Hermione said as she threw the new ingredients into the cauldron and began to stir feverishly.

"Yeah…but still, that was the first time I had attempted to control two transitional arrays from a completely separate array in a completely different room! How cool was that?"

"It would be much cooler if I understood a single word you said," Ron muttered, offering Al an apologetic grin before turning back to Hermione and the potion.

"It'll be ready in two weeks," she said happily.

~~*e.s.*~~

"Why does your coat have that on the back of it?" Nina piped up from her spot on the floor, rifling through a random picture book as she waited patiently for Ed to answer her question. The Fullmetal Alchemist sighed, pressing his lips together as he attempted to think of a good way to explain the Flamel Cross to a little girl. He ended up just shrugging and saying:

"I thought it looked cool. Plus the black and red look good together."

Thought it 'looked cool.' Haven't I told that lie to somebody before…?

"Oh. Ok," Nina said, closing the book and adding it to a pile Ed had made next to him. He sighed in quiet annoyance as he took it away from the alchemy books and moved to put it back on its proper spot on the shelf.

"What're you looking for anyway?" Nina asked, ever curious.

"I really can't tell you, Nina," Ed said, sighing as he turned to face her. "It's not something for little kids to know about."

"But you're just a little kid too…" she began but stopped when Ed narrowed his eyes.

"Watch it," he said, the tone of his voice making her giggle instead of cringe. Ed sighed again, looking towards his growing pile of books and his limited notes. Though Shou Tucker's library and research was extensive, his and Al's case was a bit more complicated that anything the alchemist had worked on before, making this form of biological alchemy something much more and therefore slightly out of Tucker's division. Ed was stubborn, though, so instead of walking out of the house and completely giving up, he decided to stay and read more, if anything to at least keep lonely little Nina company while her dad cooped himself up in his office, working diligently on god knows what…

~~*e.s.*~~

"Gather round, gather round!"

Alphonse, Hermione, Ron and Harry moved with the large group surrounding the dueling stage, approaching carefully as Professor Lockhart emerged atop it to begin their dueling lesson for the night.

"Can everyone see me?" he said, grandiosely swishing his cape as he spun around to look at the entire crowd around him. "Can you all hear me?"

There was a pause, and then he flashed them all one of his award-winning smiles. "Excellent!"

Ron and Harry looked at each other and rolled their eyes as he made a show of removing his cape before finally beginning:

"Now, Professor Dumbledore has granted me permission to start this little dueling club, to train you all in case you ever need to defend yourselves as I myself have done on countless occasions—for full details, see my published works.

"Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape," said Lockhart, flashing them another wide smile. Ron made a quiet noise of distaste, looking at Harry.

"This was your idea," he whispered pointedly.

"Was not," Harry defended himself. "You're the one who got all excited when Seamus pointed out the poster."

"Well, I didn't know that Snape would be here," Ron hissed. "What if he—"

"Guys," Alphonse whispered. "Not here."

"Right," Hermione spoke quietly. "Besides, we got rid of the circles under the desks. The three of you are going to be fine, now pay attention!"

"Now, I don't want any of you youngsters to worry—you'll still have your Potions master when I'm through with him," Lockhart said with a wink. "Never fear!"

"Wouldn't it be great if they finished each other off?" Ron muttered to Alphonse and Harry.

Snape's upper lip was curling, an expression upon his face that was merely one step below murderous. Al had to give Lockhart props for keeping up his genuine smile; if Snape had been looking at him like that he'd been running as fast as he could in the opposite direction. He continued to watch with interest as the two professors turned to face each other and bowed, then raised their wands like swords in front of them.

"On the count of three," Lockhart told the silent crowd, "We will cast our first spells. Neither of us will be aiming to kill, of course."

"I wouldn't bet on that," Harry murmured, watching Snape baring his teeth. Alphonse found himself taking a cautionary step backwards.

"One—two—three—"

"Expelliarmus!"

There was a dazzling flash of scarlet light and Lockhart was blasted off his feet: He flew backward off the stage, smashed into the wall, and slid down it to sprawl on the floor.

Malfoy and quite a few of the other Slytherins cheered. Hermione was dancing on tiptoes. "Do you think he's alright?" she squealed through her fingers.

"Who cares?" said Harry and Ron together.

"I'm just glad he didn't fall into us," Alphonse agreed, peering over his friends as Lockhart got unsteadily to his feet. His hat had fallen off and his wavy hair was standing on end.

"Well, there you have it!" he said, tottering back onto the platform. "That was a Disarming Charm—as you see, I've lost my wand—ah, thank you, Miss Brown—yes, an excellent idea to show them that, Professor Snape, but if you don't mind me saying, it was pretty obvious- ah- what you were about to do; if I had wanted to stop you, it would have been only too easy."

"Perhaps it would be prudent to first teach the students to block unfriendly spells, Professor," Snape said in his typical low sneering voice, one eyebrow cocked in amusement at Lockhart's sudden flusteredness.

"…An excellent suggestion, Professor Snape!" the red-haired professor struggled to quickly recover, turning to face away from the Potions master and scour the audience for help. "Ah... Let's have a volunteer pair! Um, Potter, Weasley, how about you?"

Harry and Ron both took a step forward towards the stage, but were halted by Snape's voice:

"Weasley's wand causes devastation with the simplest spells. We'll be sending Potter to the hospital wing in a matchbox. Might I suggest someone from my own house?"

He stepped back, making to get off of the stage, his hands raised in a sarcastically wicked half-shrug.

"Malfoy, perhaps?" he said, finally turning his back towards Harry and roughly gesturing towards the fair-haired boy to hurry up onto the stage with Harry. Lockhart slowly made his way off of the dueling stage as well, bending to speak briefly in Harry's ear: "Good luck, Potter."

"This is going to end badly," Al whispered to Hermione, who could only watch in terror as Harry and Draco held their wands at the ready, both of them looking equally as determined to defeat the other.

"When I count to three," Lockhart commanded, "Cast your charms to disarm your opponent- only to disarm. We don't want any accidents here. One, two—"

"Everte statium!"

Harry stumbled roughly as Malfoy's spell hit him, mentally checking to make sure everything still seemed to be working before regaining his stance. He wasted no time and pointed his wand straight at Malfoy:

"Rictusempra!"

A jet of silver light hit Malfoy in the stomach and he tumbled over himself, landing pathetically in front of his head of house. Snape merely rolled his eyes at him, grabbed him by his robe and shoved him back before Harry.

"I said disarm only!" Lockhart shouted in alarm over the heads of the crowd as Malfoy quickly raised his wand back up.

"Serpensortia!"

The end of Malfoy's wand exploded. Alphonse, Ron and Hermione watched from a distance, aghast, as a long black snake shot out of it, falling heavily onto the floor between Harry and Malfoy. Alphonse heard a low, breathy voice yelp out in alarm and he looked rapidly between the two duelers, trying to place the voice. He froze in an instant when he realized that the voice he was hearing was not breathy, rather…but more like a hiss. Al turned his attention to the snake in front of Harry, staring as he heard it speak irritably:

"What is happening here? Why am I—what—who are you people?!"

It raised its head to strike as it panicked further, refraining from going through with its threat when Harry quickly said:

"Nonono, wait, it's alright! No one's going to hurt you, don't strike."

"Why shouldn't I?" the snake challenged, looking into the crowd towards. Enraged, cursing furiously, it slithered straight toward Justin Finch-Fletchley and raised itself again, fangs exposed, poised to strike. Al watched desperately as Harry took a threatening step towards the snake and shouted: "Leave him alone!"

Miraculously, the snake slumped to the floor, docile as a thick, black garden hose, its eyes now on Harry. Though it looked as if the worst had passed, Al could tell that Harry's strict commandment would only hold the creature's attention for a short while, and he gripped at his wand in silent anticipation, mentally preparing himself should he have to go up there to help Harry control the snake.

"…Vipera evenesca," Snape spoke with a wave of his wand, making the snake vanish in a small puff of black smoke. Alphonse sighed in relief, and then looked around in confusion. Everyone was staring at Harry, even Snape, though his expression was rather unexpected: It was a shrewd and calculating look, and it was obvious that Harry did not like it. Why are they looking at him like that, though…? Al thought, majorly confused.

"You understood him, didn't you?" Hermione whispered to Al. Alphonse looked at her.

"Of course I did," he said. "He spoke loud and clear, telling the snake to lay off…why, could you not hear him or something?"

Hermione looked at him in utter shock.

"Oh god," she spoke softly. "You're one, too."

Minutes later, Ron and Hermione had steered both Al and Harry out of the hall. As they went through the doors, the people on either side drew away as though they were frightened of catching something. Harry and Al did not have a clue what was going on, and neither Ron nor Hermione explained anything until they had dragged him all the way up to the empty Gryffindor common room. Ron pushed Harry into an armchair and said, "You're a Parselmouth. Why did you tell us?"

"You too, Alphonse," Hermione said, looking at the boy with a concerned expression upon her face.

"I'm a what?" said Harry.

"What's a Parselmouth, what does that mean?" Alphonse demanded.

"You can talk to snakes!" said Ron.

"I know," said Harry. "I know. I mean, I accidentally set a python on my cousin Dudley at the

zoo once—long story—but it was telling me it had never seen Brazil and I sort of set it free without meaning to—that was before I knew I was a wizard—"

"A boa constrictor told you it had never seen Brazil?" Ron repeated faintly.

"Yeah," Harry said, looking confused. "So?"

"What does it matter that we can talk to snakes?" Alphonse asked. "I bet loads of people here can do it."

"No, they can't," Hermione said. "It's not a very common gift, guys. This is bad."

"What's bad?" Alphonse said fearfully, looking over at Harry, who was starting to get angry.

"What's wrong with everyone?" he said. "Listen, if I hadn't told that snake not to attack Justin—"

"Oh, that's what you said to it?" Ron said. Al looked at him in disbelief.

"What do you mean?" he spoke up, defending Harry. "You were there, you heard him—"

"I heard him speaking Parseltongue," Ron said. "Snake language? You could have been saying anything, Harry—no wonder Justin panicked, you sounded like you were egging the snake on or something—it was creepy, you know—"

Harry gaped at him.

"I spoke a different language? But—I didn't realize I—how can I speak a language without knowing I can?"

"This doesn't make any sense to me," Al said. "I heard him, you guys…it was English, I know it was, every words was perfectly understandable—"

Al froze mid-sentence, realizing that every word that came from the snake's mouth had been easily as identifiable to him. It's just me, I'm the only one that understood him…

"Why does this all matter so much," Harry said miserably.

"It matters," Hermione said, looking at both him and Alphonse with a look full of concern, "because being able to talk to snakes was what Salazar Slytherin was famous for. That's why the symbol of Slytherin House is a serpent."

Harry's mouth fell open and Alphonse looked at her equally as horrified.

"Exactly!" said Ron. "Now the whole school's gonna think you guys are his great-great-great grandsons, or something—"

"No," Alphonse said, stepping forward from his spot next to Harry. "No way!"

"I'm not. We're not," Harry spoke with panic he could not quite explain.

"This is stupid," Alphonse said, shaking his helmet, refusing to believe what his friends were trying to tell him. Hermione knitted her eyebrows together, looking back and forth between the two Parselmouths.

"He lived a thousand years ago; for all we know, you could be."

~~*e.s.*~~

Blood…I want blood…

They all must die.

Kill… Kill… Kill!

Time to kill...

Harry stopped mid-step as he saw the shadowed figure of Alphonse standing at the bottom of the staircase in the Gryffindor common room. It was the dead of night; they were probably the only two students in the dormitory still awake. But ever since the incident with the snake a week ago—when the both of them found out that they were Parselmouths—Harry had not been able to get through a full night's worth of sleep. He was not about to achieve that tonight, either, with the monster crawling around the school's corridors like that.

"…We have to tell somebody, Harry," Alphonse said, fear lacing his voice. "I hate being able to hear it and not being able to warn anyone."

"I know what you mean," Harry said, stopping in front of the younger boy and sighing heavily. "But who could we tell? Surely you're not thinking of Professor Dumbledore."

"Who else, Harry?" Alphonse said, catching himself as he heard his voice rise in panic. He made a sound that resembled clearing his throat (even though he currently had no throat to clear) and then asked again: "Who else could we tell?"

"Hermione and Ron can't do anything about it," Harry thought aloud. "So far they're the only ones we've told…we could try Professor McGonagall, but that may be as equally bad of an idea as Dumbledore."

Al sighed, and then paused.

"…You're wrong."

"Huh?" said Harry as he looked up at Alphonse.

"Hermione and Ron aren't the only people we've told everything to," the armored boy said.

Kill…

"I can't just stand here and listening to that," Harry said, rushing out of the common room.

"I'm coming with you!" Al said, clunking after the bespectacled boy as quickly but quietly as possible.

They ran down along the corridors, pausing at the end of each to listen to where the voice was travelling. In the darkness lit only by the occasional candle or oil lamp, Alphonse could feel fear settling in as he made his way through the spooky scenery alongside Harry.

…KILL…!

Harry stamped up the stairs and turned along another corridor, which was particularly dark, much to his and Alphonse's dismay; the torches had been extinguished by a strong, icy draft that was blowing through a loose windowpane. They were halfway down the passage when Harry tripped headlong over something lying on the floor.

"Harry!" Al hissed, stooping over to help Harry up. He froze suddenly when he caught sight of what the boy had fallen over. Harry stood without Al's help, squinting to see; suddenly, he felt as though his stomach had dissolved.

"…Not good," he whispered faintly to the stone-silent Alphonse.

Justin Finch-Fletchley was lying on the floor, rigid and cold, a look of shock frozen on his face, his eyes staring blankly at the ceiling. And that wasn't all. Next to him was another figure, the strangest sight Harry and Al had ever seen.

"It's Nearly Headless Nick," Al said shockedly. The ghost was no longer pearly-white and transparent, but black and smoky, floating immobile and horizontal, six inches off the floor. His head was half off and his face wore an expression of shock identical to Justin's.

"We have to get out of here," Harry said darkly, taking one, and then two steps back away from the two petrified people—or rather, student and ghost.

"But we can't just leave them here," Al said, to which Harry grabbed at his metal arm.

"Al," he said, looking him urgently in the eye. "Look at who we are, the only two Parselmouths in the entire school. Look at where we are, standing next to two—two—victims, one for each of us. They already think we're Slytherin's heirs, Al, if we stay here—"

As they stood there panicking, however, a door right next to the two of them opened with a bang. Peeves the Poltergeist came shooting out.

"Why, it's potty wee Potter and the little metal Elric!" cackled Peeves, knocking Harry's glasses askew as he bounced past them.

"Peeves," Al said exasperatedly. "Buzz of, will you?"

Geez, I sound like Edward now! he thought, remembering how Ed constantly complained about this Peeves character, telling Al how many times he nearly attempted to beat the Poltergeist because of his annoyance.

"Ooooh," Peeves said, sarcastically acting as though he was scared of Al. "But what's Potter and Iron Man up to? Why're they lurking—"

Peeves stopped, halfway through a midair somersault. Upside down, he spotted Justin and Nearly Headless Nick. He flipped the right way up, filled his lungs and, before Harry or Alphonse could stop him, screamed, "ATTACK! ATTACK! ANOTHER ATTACK! NO MORTAL OR GHOST IS SAFE! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! ATTAAAACK—!"

"Shut it!" Harry and Alphonse yelled, both hopping to tackle the screeching Peeves to the ground and only managing to fall down themselves. Harry groaned, rubbing his head where he had inadvertedly knocked into Alphonse's armor as he brought himself up to a sitting position. He heard Alphonse clamber back to his feet as someone came running down the hallway, no doubt alerted by Peeves' call in the night.

"Professor McGonagall," Alphonse spoke, his feeble voice laced with horror as he took a step back as the Transfiguration teacher and their Head of House approached, her eyes wide. Harry too scrambled to his feet, standing next to Al as he pleaded:

"Professor... I swear I didn't—we didn't—!"

Professor McGonagall raised her hand to Harry, cutting him off mid-sentence with what was possibly the darkest look either of the boys had ever seen before in their entire lives.

"This is out of my hands, Potter…Elric."

~~*e.s.*~~

"...he can talk to snakes? What?" Ed spoke out loud to himself as he read Al's letter. "Where did that come from?"

Numerous thoughts ran through his mind as he paused in his reading, for he wondered if that was something Alphonse had acquired from seeing the Gate, like he had himself. But then he shook his head; that's not something the Gate would cause. It doesn't have anything to do with alchemy.

A soft hissing sound behind him startled him out of his thoughts. He spun around, looking around for the source and finding, in Mr. Tucker's beaten-down flower beds, was a small, green garden snake. Ed blinked; how convenient, he thought sarcastically. Maybe I'm a parsel-whatever too!...

Ed looked around the yard, making sure he was alone before shaking his head in disgust at himself and kneeling down next to where the snake sat.

"...hey. Hey you, scaley!" he hissed at the snake. Nothing happened that would give Ed the impression that the creature could understand him. He laughed at himself and made to stand back up until—

"Don't call me scaley. It's very offensive."

"Wha—?!"

Ed leapt to his feet; the snake was now holding its head up, looking at him with expectant black eyes, it's little black tongue flitting in and out of its beaked mouth.

"...Can you understand me?" Ed said back to the snake, to which the creature nodded its green head in understanding. The young alchemist was not sure if he believed what he was witnessing or not as he ran a hand through his hair and knelt back down in front of the snake.

"Not gonna lie, this is kind of weird for me," he told the snake as casually as possible. The snake made a weird hissing sound and threw his head back, as if laughing at Edward.

"You say that as if I speak to humans on a daily basis. How do you think I feel, short wizard?"

At that last sarcastic statement Edward lost it.

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING A SHORTY, SCALEY?!"

"DON'T CALL ME SCALEY!" the snake hissed back, folding its body back into a striking pose. Before it could attack the annoyed State Alchemist, however, Ed clasped his hands together and pressed them against the soil, creating a hard clay barricade around the creature. He turned his back to the snake's angered hisses and picked up Al's letter, reading through the rest of it more attentively.

"Harry's one too, huh?" Ed spoke out loud to himself before folding the letter up and stuffing it into his red coat. "Guess I'd better write back soon and let Al know that all three of us are now. This whole thing just keeps getting weirder and weirder..."

And to be honest, I'm still not entirely sure I understand what is happening up there, he thought concernedly. You better not be in any danger, Alphonse, or else I'll have to…

Ed glanced upwards as he felt a drop of rain hit him, and then two, and then a couple more. He squinted into the light drizzle, watching the approaching storm clouds swirl above him for a few moments before making his way up the steps to Shou Tucker's front door. He rang the bell once, waited for a minute, and then rang it again.

"Mr. Tucker?" he spoke loudly. "Hello-oo…?"

No answer. Ed frowned, trying the doorknob and finding the door to be unlocked. He stepped into the front room, saying as he did: "Mr. Tucker? It's me again; back to do more research..."

He frowned, peering into the gloom, wondering whether or not the man was home at all.

"Mr. Tucker…?"

~~*e.s.*~~