Harry watched as Ed staggered back a step at the entrance hall of the castle. He leaned his head back and closed his golden eyes as if in
relief, forehead dripping with sweat.
This time, Hermione had accompanied them up the stairs. Harry saw a lot of worry in her face as she looked at Ed.
Out of concern, he, Ron, and Hermione made sure they were the last to file up from the Greenhouse, silently consenting to keep Ed's secret as he
struggled past the anti-Muggle charms in his own manner ahead of them. It was clear to Harry it was not an easy thing, however Ed was managing
to do it.
As hard as the effort was on Ed, it was just as hard for them to witness.
Hermione lunged to catch Ed when he stumbled about halfway up, but both Harry and Ron warned her off with hurried waving of hands. Ed caught
himself, and leaned against the wall. One hand bracing him upright, Ed began to chant something under his breath. When he looked up Harry had a
clear view. He heard Hermione gasp, and knew she saw them too. Ron rushed up a few steps to look for himself.
"Bloody.. hell.." Ron muttered.
Ed's eyes.. they had taken on that unnerving molten gold look to them that Harry had last seen that night Ed had faced the boggart, and they
were fixed on the top of the stairs. Harry, on impulse, waved his hand in front of Ed's face, but Ed didn't so much as blink in response.
Instead, he took another step up. Followed by another. Before long, he was no longer leaning on the wall.
Now that they were safely inside, Harry was anxious to hurry on and head to the Great Hall. He was starved and wanted to eat SOMEthing before he
had to do whatever Umbridge had in store for him. He glanced back to Ed, and smiled. Ed had opened his eyes once more, and they were just his
ususal..unusual shade of gold.
"Hungry?" Harry said.
"'Hungry' is not vright vord." Ed said, and he wiped his forehead with his left gloved hand. As he did so, his stomach growled loud enough to be
heard over the general din of hallway echoes. He glanced at each of them, and nodded the small nod that Harry knew as his way of saying thanks.
They made their way to the entrance of the Great Hall, where they sat together.
"Ed..um..About Luna Lovegood...." Hermione began.
Ed's eyes widened, and he sputtered into the glass he was drinking from.
Ron blinked in amusement, and leaned his chin on one hand as he chewed on a chicken leg.
"Dere iz noting to be speaking about." Ed said as he wiped his chin with a spare sleeve of his robe.
"Really." Hermione said. "You don't say..."
"I do say." Ed looked over at her. "Dhere is noting."
Ed's face certainly looked convincing, but Harry was debating with himself at that point. He certainly remembered the look on Ed's face on the
train when he saw Luna sitting on the bench. The expression there was much much more than the simple recognition. He had witnessed how Ed's legs
just seemed to be unable to support him at that same exact moment, and how he had slid to the floor like he was made of jelly.
Ed glanced at him rather quickly when he took a breath, so instead of what he was going to say on the matter, he said:
"Five 'till five. Gotta go."
"Vha..? Alvready?" Ed said, and then got up from the table.
Ed smirked when he heard the honey-sweet voice of the pink monstrosity and adjusted the cuffs of his sweater to make sure the metal wrist of his
right hand was covered as Harry opened the door. He widened his eyes at the 'pinkness' of the room that served as her office, and looked on in
horror at the collection plates, each with a large printed, and animated! kitten sentenced to wear a bow about the neck, that graced one wall.
Doillies and lacy tablecloths were on nearly every surface. And there were numerous vases of dried flowers all about.
"Good Evening, Mr. Potter. Mr. Elric." Ed heard as he stepped into the room. He saw the toad-woman standing in front of the desk..her robes
nearly matching the flowery design of the tablecloth. Ed closed the door behind him, and met her beady eyed gaze with his own.
"Evening." Harry said stiffly.
Ed grunted, and folded his arms.
"Well. Sit down." Pink-toad flicker her eyes to Harry, and vaguely waved her hand to one small lace covered table, with a straight backed chair
beside it -- this one against the wall. Then, she looked to Ed and waved to another, similar looking table against the wall across the way. Ed
rolled his eyes. By the piece of parchment on the table, he knew what the task would be: writing lines.
"Professor Umbridge, before we start..I wanted to ask--a favor..." Harry said.
"Oh, yes?"
"Well, I'm..on the Griffindor Quidditch team and I was supposed to be at the tryouts on Friday and.."
"Oh. no. No. This is your punishment for spreading evil, nasty, attention-seeking stories, Mr. Potter. And punishments cannot be adjusted to
suit the guilty one's convenience. No, you will come here at five o'clock tomorrow, and the next day and on Friday, too. And you will do your
detention as planned. I think it rather a good thing that you are missing something you really want to do. It ought to reinforce the lesson I am
trying to teach you."
Ed watched as she looked over Harry with a wide smile plastered on her face. Harry looked very angry, but within moments, he dropped his bookbag
beside the straight backed chair and sat down.
"There now. We're getting better at controlling our temper already, aren't we? Now, you're going to be doing some lines for me, Mr. Potter. No.
Not with your quill." She added, as Harry bent down to his bag. "You're going to be using a rather special one of mine. Here you are."
She handed Harry a long black quill.
"Harry, I want you to write 'I must not tell lies'"
"How many times?"
"Oh, as long as it takes for the message to sink in." Pink-toady said "Off you go."
She turned to look at Ed.
"Mr. Elric..you need to go sit over there."
"Vwhat will you give me if I do?" Ed said.
"I remind you, Mr. Elric, that if you refuse to take this detention with me, that you will be facing certain expulsion from the school. I should
think that would indeed be a great tragedy if that were come to pass. Considering how fortunate it is that a..Muggle ..born.. like yourself is
here at all?"
Ed frowned, and turned to go to the seat. He roughly pulled it back, and flopped into it.
"You too, will be writing lines. Here is your quill." she said as she handed him a quill that looked identical to the one she had handed Harry.
Ed took it with his gloved left hand. "I want you to write, 'I shall fully accept the authority of Professor Umbridge at all times.' Your
instructions are the same as for Harry otherwise."
Ed's nose wrinkled in distaste, but he brought the quill down to the parchment.
"Vwhere is the ink?" Ed said.
"Oh..you won't need any ink." she said with the slightest suggestion of a laugh in her voice.
Ed shook his head, but began.
As soon as the sharp tip of the quill scratched the paper, something like red ink flowed from it. As he wrote the first line, he felt a stinging
pain on the back of his left hand, and a familiar tickle in his chest at the same time. He frowned, looked at the back of his hand, and watched
as blood weakly seeped through the cloth. He immediately put the quill down, and pulled off the glove.
:::
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