Welcome to Gaia! ::

Naraku sat in a secluded cabin, looking very much human. Unfortunately, he had little use for this form now that he had abandoned the castle. The only advantage it really provided was being small enough to properly fit within the cabin he now inhabited. This would hopefully be a temporary measure. He held the nearly complete jewel out in his outstretched hand. As powerful as the jewel was... he was rather bored with it. It just seemed so trivial anymore. There had to be something better... something complete and ready for him to use.

"Kanna." The white ghost of a child turned her head silently, without so much as the rustle of cloth. "Find something more powerful than the shikon jewel." If it seemed a strange command to Kanna, she showed no signs of thinking so. She flashed her mirror towards him, at first showing nothing but a vauge fog. Then, things came into focus. Naraku found himself staring at a substance that could not keep shape. At one point it was a bloodred stone, but at another it was something completely different...

"The Philosopher's Stone." Came Kanna's hushed whisper. "It can grant eternal life to the user," Naraku felt a grin spreading across his face. It was perfect. Demons could be killed easily and purified, but if he had eternal life, there would be no problem with a preistess coming around and getting rid of him. Then he could use the shikon jewel to become a full demon, and he would be invincible.

"Where might I find such a treasure?" He asked, greed clearly showing through his voice and sinister grin.

"Through the other side of the well..." This only made Naraku even more excited about this new source of power. He knew the well led to a different world. If that were the case, no one from this world would be capable of defeating him. He immediately summoned one of his venomous wasps, giving it quick orders.

"Find Kagura and the boy. We're leaving,"



It was a normal day for Kagome.

She was being chewed out for being late by an irritated hanyou, and Shippou was trying to stick up for her the best he could. The truth was, she hadn't really been late at all, but complaining that she had been just seemed to be Inuyasha's normal greeting. Kagome was now thoroughly convinced he was incapable of saying a "Hello" or, "Great! You're back, I missed you!". No, for eternity all he would say was "You're late" and proceed to argue about it.

Of course, the thought that she was arguing with something that was half demon of all things never really crossed her mind. Not anymore. It was all normal to her, she hardly found her gaze drifting to his dog ears or golden eyes anymore.

"Fine, you win, I was late, It won't happen again. Where are Sango and Miroku?" Kagome asked, trying to prevent Shippou from gaining another bump on the head courtesy of Inuyasha's fist.

"Pah, how should I know? Miroku's probably trying to flirt with all the pretty girls he can find, and Sango's causing him permanent brain damage as he does it," The hanyou gave a shrug and bopped Shippou once more on the head, just to remind him who was boss.

Kagome opened her mouth to say something before deciding against it. As the two other humans in the group weren't ready to go, it meant that they wouldn't leave for another few minutes at the least. It also helped prove her theory that Inuyasha had only started the fight for the purpose of a greeting, as it seemed likely if she were late they might have been waiting by the well. There were very few moments where she could really relax in the Feudal Era, she figured now was probably one of those few moments.



Sango was not happy. In fact, Sango was not just unhappy, but practicaly fuming.

Usually, it would have taken a lot to get her quite this angry, even from him. But Naraku's lack of actions had her on edge recently, and the fact that Miroku was off trying to woo women into "bearing his child" instead of figuring out why certainly wasn't helping. Yet... she knew smacking him over the head wouldn't help. Somewhere, deep within his perverted mind of his, she knew that he was just as worried as she was.

"So what about you? You are quite pretty. Would you like the honor of bearing my child?"

This did not keep Sango from seriously considering bashing him over the head with her Hiraikoutsu. That worry must have been buried very deeply into his mind, maybe knocking him in the head a few times would knock the thought loose.

She leaned against the side of a house, watching the monk's actions from afar. For now she'd leave him be...

Suddenly, Miroku's head shot up in surprise, and it didn't take Sango very long to figure out why. The taijiya quickly mimicked the action when she felt the huge amount of evil energy heading their way at top speeds. There was only one explanation.

Naraku.



Harry stared at the headmaster incredulously. "A Philosopher's Stone? But how? Didn't your friend..."

"Yes, Flamel has sworn off of his immortality potion. I am not entriely sure myself how it came into being, quite possibly another party entirely. Whether they are foe or friend I have yet to determine." He let out a heavy, very un Dumbledore-like sigh. "You realize the consequences if Voldemort were to get his hands on this stone? He would be invincible. I have the members of the Order out now to try and beat him to it, but I feel you should be properly warned."

Harry simply nodded, somewhat dumbfounded. "What do you want me to do about it?"

"You can't do much, by being bound to the school, but I find you and your friends have an uncanny talent to find out exactly what's going on. Prehaps encourage Ms. Granger to find what she can on alchemy, or take a few trips out about the school with that cloak of yours. I trust you will find out everything you can on the subject within the confines of this school." Dumbledore recieved an affirmative nod. "Good. Now off with you. I would hate to make you late to Transfiguration after all." The headmaster waved Harry off with a good-natured smile, and the boy wasn't eager to disobey.



She had felt it for a while, but Kagome still hadn't quite been prepared when Hiraikotsu came spinning threw the trees, signlaing the arrival of the massive evil that was Naraku. Startled, she reached for her bow and arrows, hoping she might be able to get a clear shot at the demon. Unfortunately, her bow was soon sliced in half by an all-too familiar blade. Looking up with a startled gasp, she saw the dull brown eyes of a child. Kagome had ignored the single shard standing on its own, Naraku's large shard had covered its prescence completely.

"Kohaku!" Sango came bursting through the trees on Kirara, now noticing her younger brother's prescence. Miroku was soon to follow, grasping the beads around his cursed hand, just in case he would be forced to use the kazanaa again. However, the constant buzz of wasps reminded him of his weakness, to which he seemed none too happy about.

No sooner had Inuyasha pulled out his Tessaiga did he need to use it to defend from the sudden blades of wind launched at him from above. "Damn, seems like Naraku's going all out this time." He growled, raising the sword from the ground after the blades had dissolved.

"Unfortunately, Inuyasha, we have not come you detatch your head today. We are intrested in other things." This gained a collective look of shock among the five of Inuyasha's group. If he wasn't after their deaths, then why did he bother to come to them unless...

Kagome was not too happy when she realized what was about to happen, but there wasn't any time to stop them. Within an instant, Naraku, Kagura, Kohaku, and Kanna had disappeared, a faint trace of posion lingering around the edges of the Bone Eaters Well. Without thinking, Kagome tried to leap in after the demon, but Miroku held her back. "Don't, Kagome-sama. Its too dangerous. He's left traces of his poison, you would die if you went in now.

"But... But my family's there! He'll kill them!" She tried to break from Miroku's grasp, but the monk wouldn't let go of her shoulder.

"You wont be able to stop him if you're lying dead at the bottom of the well. We need to wait for now." He let go of her shoulder as the young preistess fell to the ground, sobbing quietly.



"Brother... Are you sure this will work? Remember what happened with Mo-"

"Shut up! I'm certain this time. You're still alive, these theories are perfect... This will work! It has to!"

Both occupants within the room remained quiet, silently considering the possible consequences of their actions. The last thing any of them heard was a clap, followed by a large flash.

"What the hell was that?" Asked a none-too-happy Inuyasha, who had just experienced his first apparation. The five of them had met up with someone who called herself "Tonks." She had done some explaining that Naraku might be after a very powerful item which had just been reintroduced to the world, and it would help if they knew anything about him. Of course, since they knew mostly everything about him, Tonks had decided to just bring them to her "headquarters." She had told them to all grab hands, and then "poof," they ended up here. Actually, it was more like a "crack."

Edward sat up from the floor, where he had fallen after being startled by the crack. "What the... What'd he just say?" It sounded somewhat similiar to the language they used in Xing, but there were enough differences for him to know otherwise. A little kid with a large bushy tail popped up on the shoulder of one of the girls. Yes, something was very wrong here.

"What'd he say?" Shippou asked, staring at the blonde haired stranger sitting on the floor. Kagome frowned slightly, being the only one of her friends who even knew what language the stranger had spoken.

"Maybe I should have studied my English better..." She muttered with a small frown. Communication might be a problem. She wanted to help these people prevent Naraku from getting the "Philosopher's Stone," but she couldn't do that if she couldn't even tell them what Naraku was.

Tonks wore a somewhat pensive look for a moment, crossing her arms. "Seems we have a language barrier to break..." Wordlessly, she pulled out her wand. "There was a spell that was supposed to fix that. What was it again... Yeah, that's right. Unilingua!" A pale yellow light shot out from the wand, hitting the others who had arrived along with her.

Edward watched as the spell was cast, raising an eyebrow. This seemed to be another person who was passing alchemy off as magic. One who seemed to think that by saying a few key words like "Abra kadabra," she could convince people that she could make magic. He didn't see the point in convincing him they were using magic; he knew alchemy well enough to know better. Though he supposed he might as well let the fools have their fun.

The silver-haired boy said something again, though this time he could understand it. "What's with the freaky lights? What did you just do?" The other four were muttering things to themselves, as if they had just discovered how to speak.

Well, Ed had to hand it to them. They were pretty good actors.



A few days had gone by since Alphonse had woken up, and his condition had improved immensly. He was still unnaturaly thin, but whatever the nurse had been giving him was was helping. He was able to speak normally again, though it was a bit of a surprise to see that his voice had gotten deeper. In the suit of armor, he spoke as a ten year old because that's how his soul remembered speaking. Now, with actual vocal chords, he had the more mature voice of a fifteen-year old. He had also relearned how to walk, which hadn't been quite as hard as speaking had.

Hermione Granger, the girl who had been with Professer Dumbledore, had taken the liberty of explaining everything to him. Amazingly, Alphonse hadn't found himself as surprised as he thought he'd be when he heard they were studying "magic." He also didn't jump to conclusions, like his brother, and assume they were learning a fancy type of alchemy either. She had also told him about Voldemort and his plans to use the stone for immortality. In return, Alphonse had explained his own story, after assuring them he didn't create the Philosopher's Stone himself. The story was lacking a few details, but it was passable enough. He didn't know how magic, which had no set laws, would affect the creation or usage of the stone, so he also promised to help them research it. He was also sure that learning a bit more about this magic would be helpful later on. And, as he had no classes of any sort to attend, he also had enough time to do the appropriate amount of research.

He now sat in the library, dressed in the typical student robes. Fortunately, the ones he had borrowed were baggy enough to hide just how thin he was. His hair had been tied back to keep it out of his face, as he didn't currently want to worry about cutting it. He almost looked like a normal student.

The only problem was, though Hermione had tried to explain it, Alphonse had absolutely no clue how magic worked in the first place. That meant he'd need to learn about that before moving on to any information about the stone.

He had already speant a majority of the morning studying magical theory. And he still had no idea how it worked.

With a small sigh, Alphonse leaned back in his chair, a feat he was unable to do as a suit of armor. He was getting absolutely nowhere. It seemed that the concept of "Equivilent Exchange" was ingrained too deeply into his mind for magic to make any sense whatsoever. He had tried, at one point, applying the concepts of alchemy to magic. It had made sense up to a certain point. The wand acted as the transmutation circle, the words for the spell acted as the formula, and the wave of the wand "activated" the transmutation circle. Then came the issue of equivilant exchange. For most spells, the air around the wand was transformed into something - a bolt of energy or something that caused various effects when it hit something. They might be able to turn the air around them into a different kind of gas, but most of the spells had purposes that were too specific for the wizard to simply be turning the air into a different type of substance. Plus, they wouldn't have had quite the right ingredients to create a gas like that anyways. His brain groaned at the thought of all of this. Had his brother been here, he'd have figured it out a long time ago. They could have figured out the mechanics behind magic, and already be researching the Philosopher's Stone. As it was, Edward wasn't here, but Alphonse was still expected to figure this out.

Currently, the young alchemist found it best to wait. He knew that Harry, Ron, and Hermione would be in the library to help him during their time for lunch. He could get some help and also ask some questions about magic then. And, judging by the sound of students filtering through the hallways, that wouldn't be too far off. Letting out some air, Alphonse closed his eyes and let his mind take a break from the intense thinking it had done for the past two hours. He started to relax, and possibly was even in danger of drifting off, until he suddenly felt one of the things he certainly did not miss while in the suit of armor.

Pain.

Someone was pulling on his hair, a feeling that was new to him, even before the armor. Up until this point, Alphonse had never had hair long enough to be pulled, so he could only guess as to why girls got so angry about it. Now he had a feeling he knew why.

"Well, what do we have here?" Alphonse didn't even need to open his eyes to guess what type of person her was dealing with. It was somebody who preferred everyone else be below their status, whether it be money, looks, knowledge, ect. And that somebody also had to be sure that everybody, especially newcomers, knew their place.

And Alphonse was sure he counted as a newcomer.

Cracking open an eye, he found his assumption was probably correct. It was a boy, probably the same age as Edward, with very light blonde hair. He wore a superior smirk on his face as he looked over to what Alphonse had been working on. The alchemist wondered for a brief moment whether he should try and move the books and notes quickly before whoever this was saw, but figured it wouldn't be worth the effort in the end. Currently, nothing about the stone had been written, meaning that it could pass off as a school assignment. Maybe if he didn't say anything, the other boy would leave him alone, and he could continue to wait for more friendly company.

Thankfully, the boy released his grip on Alphonse's hair. Unfortunately, he seemed to have no intention of leaving him alone. He reached out and grabbed the morning's notes, quirking an eyebrow as he read the contents. "What are you studying? First year material?" He asked with a sneer, again looking at Alphonse. Al, by no stretch of the imagination, looked young enough to be a first year. This was already getting off to a bad start.

"Just what year are you in anyways? Don't tell me they held you back a year. Or maybe they've decided to do a muggle exchange program this year... Seems like the kind of thing the old bat running this school would do." Alphonse continued to remain silent. He did not have particularly great experiences dealing with bullies, and this time his older brother wasn't there to fight them off. Of course, the last time Edward had needed to fight off a bully was when Al was seven years old. Bullies probably weren't after teddy bears or lunch money at sixteen. "Why aren't you saying anything? Are you too scared to say anything?" Alphonse felt his hand curl into a fist, but luckily he didn't need to worry about hitting the other boy with it.

"Geez, Malfoy. Can't you find anything better to do in your spare time?" A female voice came up behind the two of them, which belonged to a girl who looked remarkabley like Ronald Weasley. She had the same red hair, the same freckles; it would almost be alarming if the two weren't related.

Malfoy turned to face her, a smug sneer across his face. "And just what are you going to do about it, Weasley?" He spat out the last name as if it were something vile. Indeed, it did seem that she and Ron were related.

"What do you think I'll do about it?" With that, the girl brandished her wand threateningly. The other boy's face seemed to pale slightly, and he backed off, apparently deciding to find an easier target. The female Weasley placed her hands on her hips as she watched him walk off.

"Don't have your bodyguards today, do you?" She added the final insult before looking to Alphonse. "Hello, I don't think we've met. I'm Ginny Weasley." She held out a hand for Alphonse in greeting.

"I'm Alphonse Elric," he responded, shaking her hand.

"Oh! You're the one that Ron's been talking about. He doesn't trust you much from what I can tell. What are you doing here anyways?" She took a seat next to him, looking at the books he had strewn out over the table.

"Uh, studying."



Again, Naraku found himself sitting idle. However, this time it wasn't quite as comfortable as the cabin had been. He was hiding in a cave that Kanna had been lucky enough to find in her mirror. They still weren't quite to their destination, a place called "England," according to Kanna. However, this place was much farther away than he had anticipated. Even Kagura, who was used to flying over long distances, was rather worn out. He didn't bother to think of how Kohaku would have fared without the shard. For the moment, he was still alive and not complaining, so it wasn't Naraku's concern.

However, Naraku was able to recover much quicker than his subordinates. And as much as he wanted to leave, he didn't want to spend the time dealing with Kagura's complaining. He figured that, in the end, resting would be less troublesome than pushing the wind mistress's limits.

"Kanna." He figured that the pale demon would not be worn out either. After all, how could nothingness become tired? She turned to face Naraku, mirror flashing in the dim light of the cave. "Show me the Philosopher's Stone." The mirror became foggy for a moment as it searched, yet no image ever formed.

"The stone is being protected by a powerful barrier," she whispered softly after a few moments, black eyes dead as ever. Naraku frowned. This may not be quite as easy as he'd have believed. He might have trouble obtaining the stone with only his three subordinates. Plus, he wasn't sure if he wanted the stone as weak as it was. There must be a way to make it stronger somehow...

"Find anybody else who is seeking to use the stone." Kanna's mirror flashed for a moment, and ended on showing a frightening face. It looked no more human than it did snake.

"Voldemort," Kanna explained in her soft monotone. "A powerful dark wizard in this time. He seeks the stone for immortality, and leads a large group of less powerful dark wizards known as Death Eaters. He is feared by many, and most other wizards prefer to refer to him as 'You-Know-Who.'" Naraku pondered this information for a while. It sounded like he was quite powerful - prehaps too powerful to use as a pawn.

Then again, this wouldn't be the first time Naraku had tried to move a powerful pawn. He might as well risk it. "Give me his current location," Naraku demanded. Yes indeed. This Dark Lord was about to get an intresting visit.



Edward was not having a pleasant time at the Weasley household. For one, he didn't like waiting and sitting around doing nothing. Unfortunately, that was what he had been forced to do by the couple that owned the house, under the threat they'd give his position away. Apparently his "position" was knowing of the stone, and not performing human transmutation. Regardless, he had no wish to deal with the military or police or whatever they would have track him down. Second, there were no books to read. No real books anyways. They had a few fake "magic text books," which he wasn't going to read under any circumstances. They certainly didn't have any alchemy books, or even something on mechanics or science. The only other reading material they seemed to have were novels, many of which were Mrs. Weasley's cheap romance novels.

Needless to say, he'd rather have read the magic books.

Most of all, he was not too thrilled with the other visitors. They were the reasons that he wasn't able to do anything. One of the girls had explained that her friends needed to "adapt" to the new surroundings. Meaning that under no circumstances could they leave, in fear of creating too much trouble.

Edward didn't see what the problem was. It wasn't like he was exactly used to feather dusters flying around either, but he was handling it all just fine.

For lack of having anythingbetter to do, Edward had taken up residence in the living room. He had been forced to watch that stupid duster fly around the room several times a day. He was still unable to find a pattern to how it cleaned, or even how it was able to clean by itself in the first place. Very advanced technology, he figured. He'd just ask about it later, and hoped they'd offer a better excuse than "magic." His eyebrow twitched slightly. Just who did they take him for anyways? An idiot?

Yes, he was about ready to kill something about now. And in this mood, Edward was not at all pleasant to be around. Then, with precise timing,"Kagome," as she called herself, walked into the living room and sat down next to him. She looked somewhat embarassed, for whatever reason. Edward glanced over to her briefly.

"What do you want?" he asked after a few moments. She just sat there for a while, biting her lip as if trying to figure out what she was going to say. The alchemist almost wondered if she was even going to say anything at all.

"Well... I want to say I'm sorry," she began finally. "I know you want to start looking for this Philosopher's Stone we keep hearing about. My friends are probably keeping you from going, right?" Edward simply nodded. He wasn't going to bother making snide comments now, as much as he wanted to. She was trying to apologize at least; no need to make her feel worse. "They're just not used to this world at all. Not even this time period. They're a little bit confused and just need a moment to relax and take it in. I know you probably don't understand but it won't be too much longer." At this, she offered him a smile. Edward responded by crossing his arms and mumbling something that sounded like "Whatever."

Kagome's smile quickly turned to a frown. How insensitve! She knew that he had gone through a lot, but he should at least acknowledge her apology. She was trying to be nice; he should at least use some manners. Suddenly Kagome had a sense of deja vu.

This was exactly the kind of thing Inuyasha would pull.

Kagome suddenly found herself laughing, for seemingly no reason at all. Edward turned and gave her an incredulous look, one eyebrow raised slightly. "Sorry," she said after she had finished. "It's just that you're so much like him..." This didn't wipe of the confused look on Edward's face, but he didn't try to probe any furthur. He probably didn't want to know anyways. The two sat in silence for a while longer, neither thinking of anything to say. However, Kagome decided to break the silence after a few moments.

"Why are you after something so dangerous at your age?"

Edward gave her another confused look. "What are you talking about?"

"I mean, you're after this powerful artifact that Naraku's after, too. You don't seem that old to me, and you're by yourself, too. It just seems a little too dangerous, somehow..."

"Just how old do you think I am?" The alchemist asked, nearly fearing what her answer would be.

"Twelve... thirteen, maybe?" Kagome suddenly felt murderous intent in the air, and barely dared to look at the boy sitting next to her.

"I'm sixteen!" He growled out dangerously, eyes glinting dangerously. He was even less pleased at seeing Kagome look shocked at this fact.

"Oh, I'm sorry; its just that you're so-"

"Don't say it!" The dark-haired girl shut her mouth immediately after hearing that, having no intention of angering him any furthur. If this boy was anything like Inuyasha, he would not be very good company when enraged. Well, not that he had been good company before hand, but she didn't wish to see how much worse that could get. Quickly, she decided to turn the attention from his age and height.

"That doesn't change the fact you're still by yourself." Edward didn't respond to this for a while. If he had his way, he wouldn't be alone. His younger brother would be standing here, and they would both be tossing out ideas on the Philosopher's Stone and how to find their way home again. It wouldn't even have to be Al; anybody he knew would do. Winry, Hawkeye, Hughes -hell, even the colonel would be better than being here alone!

"I'm not usually by myself," he answered finally, eyes focused on the floor.

"Kagome! Inuyasha messed something up again!" With that, a little ball of fuzz landed directly on top of Edward's head. Kagome let out a large sigh and stood up.

"Not again..."



"Where are we going?" Alphonse asked with a frown, now being escorted by Harry and Ron through the complicated halls of Hogwarts. It was now late in the evening, and Alphonse had been ready to go back to the Hospital Wing until the two had stopped him, saying tofollow them.

"You can't stay in the hospital beds forever, you know. Don't see why you would want to. Bloody uncomfortable..." the red-head began, though it didn't really explain where they were going at all.

"Professer Dumbledore has arranged for you to be staying in the same room as us. You can't stay in the Hospital Wing because some people might start to become suspicious. And none of the rooms we have for guests are going to be good for you to stay in, with you still being unused to magic. He thought it would be best for you to sleep in the Gryffindor Dormitories," Harry continued, making things a bit more clear. Al nodded, affirming that he had heard. Still, he couldn't help but get the feeling that Harry was being a little stand-offish. Ginny too had said that Ron didn't trust him very much. It made sense, he supposed. Al would have been a bit wary of himself had he found himself in either of their positions.

Either way, it wasn't a very comforting thought.

"I see..." There was an akward silence for a moment, as none of them could think of much to say. All the three boys could hear for was the tapping of their own feet against the stone floor, which was almost eeire with the flickering lights. Al watched as the staircases changed positions again, which basically threw off any chance of him making a very efficient mental map of the castle. This place was unlike anything he had ever seen before, and now the young alchemist was starting to wonder if this was alll actually some strange dream. Then that, of course, brought up the question of whether it was a good dream or a bad dream. It was certainly good because his body was back, but bad because his brother was nowhere in sight and he was in an utterly confusing world.

Of course, even if this was a dream, that meant that he did, at least, have his body back. His inability to sleep in the armor meant he also had an inability to dream. However, he knew in the back of his head that this wasn't a dream. It was too realistic. Details here, such as faces and words, weren't blurred as they often were in dreams. Yet, sometimes it was necessary to trick your mind in order to remain some sense of normalcy.

As Alphonse was trapped in his own thoughts, he almost didn't notice the two older boys in front of him stop and was only a few inches from running into Ron. Luckily, he caught himself before doing so. They were stopped in front of a painting of a rather large woman who, like the rest of the paintings, seemed almost alive as she moved around in her frame.

"Password?" She demanded, eyeing the three boys.

"Salamander Scales," Harry responded simply, apparently used to the whole process of talking to paintings. Alphonse was confused for a moment. Why did they need to tell the painting a password? His question was soon answered, much to his surprise, as the painting swung open, revealing a hole in the wall. Harry and Ron climbed through it, Al following close behind. Were normal doors not good enough for Hogwarts?

He soon found himself standing in a large room decorated in red and gold. A few faces turned to see who had come in, but most of the students were too focused on whatever assignment they were working on to notice or care about whoever had just entered. The only face Al recognized was Ginny's, and he considered waving to her but thought better of it. They had talked a little until Harry, Ron, and Hermione had showed up, but she wasn't really a "friend" quite yet.

Regardless of whether Ginny was a friend or not, Ron and Harry were still moving through the room, headed towards a set of stairs which branched off in two directions. Slightly disturbed by the lack of speaking for several minutes, Alphonse decided to try and start up a conversation again. It wasn't as if he was someone who couldn't stand no talking for a few seconds - he actually preferred dead silence when in the library. But it felt like he was a prisoner or something by just following them around without saying anything.

"So are there other people in the same room as you?" he asked finally.

"Yeah, three other boys," Ron said, turning to look back at Al for a moment. "Neville Longbottom, Dean Thomas, and Seamus Finnigan."

By the time that they actually reached the room, there was only one other boy in there, holding what seemed to be a toad in cupped hands. He was introduced to Al as Neville, and was then introduced to Trevor the Toad.

Later on, the other occupants of the room arrived, and Al assumed they must have not been quite as clued in on the Philosopher's Stone as Ron and Harry. They seemed somewhat excited to have a new roommate, and didn't really seem to question why he was there at all. Well, not until they asked what kind of spells he had learned.

Al looked to Ron and Harry for an explanation, but they looked just as clueless as he was. Time to come up with something quick.

"Well, the type of magic I use doesn't need a wand... It has different roots," Alphonse explained, deciding that it wasn't a total lie. Alchemy was easily confused for magic, despite being a science with concrete laws. "I came here to examine your type of magic," Again, he looked to Ron and Harry, who nodded to confirm it was a resonable response. He turned back to Dean, Seamus and Neville, who looked deeply interested.

"What kind of magic is it?" Neville asked.

"Um... Here," Alphonse clapped his hands to activate the transumation, and placed them on the floor. Mentally, he prayed this worked. Alchemy should work over here, but there was always a chance that it wouldn't.

He had no need to be worried. Within moments, the stone floor transformed itself into a small stone statue of a horse. Everyone in the room, including Alphonse, seemed amazed at the outcome at the outcome. The five students had their mouths open in awe. They had seen similar things in Transfiguration, of course, but never had McGonagal made something out of the ground.

Al clapped again and returned the floor to its original state, leaving very little evidence of the transmutation that had occured there. Though, somehow, transmuting felt different. He hadn't tried it since he had regained his body, but somehow being physically there changed something about it.

"That was amazing! Can you teach us how to do that?" Dean Thomas asked.

"Probably not," Alphonse answered simply. It was true. They only had to wave their wands to make something happen. They wouldn't believe that this was a type of science, and they certainly wouldn't devote the necessary amount of time to learn it. Besides, even if they would, it would be too strange trying to teach boys that were one year older than him. The other boys in the room, including Harry and Ron, seemed to deflate slightly at hearing this.

"Anyways," Ron started. "Now that we're all here, its time for the grand tour."

((Chapter Five))

((Chapter Seven))

((Chapter Nine))

((Chapter Eleven))

((Chapter Thirteen))