Fullmetal Wizard | Chapter 71

Then the thing descended from above and landed with a deafening boom. A great, dark, SOMETHING. An object of some sort. It was so large, it looked as though it extended well beyond the ceiling, and filled the entire drawing room. Whatever the object was, it was covered in what looked like runes. The front, that which faced Ed, the part Harry could see easily, appeared to have some sort of elaborate carving on it. Harry blinked, trying to puzzle it out. It mostly reminded him of a tree. Or rather, the roots of a tree.

Ed turned around, golden eyes steady, and jaw set in a stubborn line. Hands at his sides.

'Ed's worst fear. This must be Ed's worst fear. He's in front of the boggart.' Harry thought. As deadly as Ed had seemed the previous night, he wondered what Ed would do...what --weird thing --would he make the boggart change into in his version of defensive magic.

Mrs. Weasley glanced at Harry with a worried, pleading look, tears streaking down her face, and then looked back at Ed. At that moment, as impossible as it seemed, he realised that Ed, whom he had been actually scared of since he'd come back to the Black house, was truly in real danger; He realised that Ed had no way to defend himself against a boggart.

"Bloody...H-he doesn't know it's not real.." Harry said, and fumbled for his wand.

Mrs. Weasley let out a piercing shriek, eyes looking at the thing Ed was facing. Harry looked as well, and nearly gagged at what he saw.

A figure had appeared, made of the whiteness. It stood in front of the large object. It's right arm was flesh and blood, and it ended at the shoulder. The left leg, also flesh and blood, ended mid-thigh. Blood freely dripped from these two limbs onto the what passed as the ground in the whiteness, pooling beneath the thing. The thing grinned widely and spoke to Ed in what sounded like his language.

Ed replied in the same language and gestured, pointing at himself with his right metal thumb, and waving dismissively with his left hand at Mrs Weasley.

The thing of whiteness nodded, still grinning as if filled with mad joy, and vanished. The great object with the elaborate carving split in the middle, and creaked open, revealing an inky darkness that went on for infinity. A boy, looking much like Ed, just a bit taller, blond hair, gold eyes, emerged. Body not much more than bones held together with skin. Harry was amazed to see him able to move at all. This boy stumbled towards Ed, and he heard Ed make a small, pained noise. The boy's face twisted in anger and hate.

Harry felt a hand on his shoulder and startled. He hadn't realised he'd been frozen to the spot...unable to do anything but watch. He heard the boy as he yelled in Ed's language.

"What's going on?"

Professor Lupin stood right behind him, hand on his shoulder. Right behind him was Sirius, followed by the limping Moody. Lupin looked from Ed, to the cowering Mrs. Weasley in the corner behind Ed, then to the boney boy before the carved the thing of darkness--the very whiteness of the room, and seemed to understand in an instant. Pulling out his own wand, he rushed between Ed and the boy and said, very firmly and clearly,

"Riddikulus!"

The whiteness and everything else vanished. A silvery orb hung in the air over where the boy had stood. Lupin waved his wand once more and the orb vanished in a puff of smoke.

Ed's head flinched back, and he closed his eyes. He took one step back, then another. Mrs. Weasley sobbed behind him, her face in her hands. Ed rubbed the bridge of his nose with his left hand, and scowled. Harry watched him frown.

Lupin looked first to Ed, then to Molly. Lupin reached for Ed's shoulder, face full of concern.

"Ed..?"

Instead of looking towards Lupin's voice, Ed looked at the doorway. Harry could clearly see his eyes. They nearly glowed with an inner fire, looking like molten gold even in the dark room. Ed pushed Lupin's hand away and marched towards Harry. Once he was at the doorway, he roughly pushed them all aside in his sudden rush to get past them. Harry turned and watched him head toward the stairs...stomping hurriedly up to the second level, nearly at a run.

Harry blinked, and turned to follow. Moody grabbed his arm and stopped him.

"Leave 'im alone. He needs it after being fool enough to face that boggart with no wand. I saw him kick Molly's away."

There was crashing noises above them. Ed saying things in that language loudly.

"He doesn't know. He..didn't know it was a boggart." Harry said, and jerked his arm away. "I've.."

Harry heard Ed stomping back down the stairs. He turned and ran just as Ed reached their level. Ed was faster by far and soon outdistanced him, nearly stepping down to the ground floor when Harry had just reached the fourth step down.

"Ed..Ed!!" Harry called. "Hey!! ED!!"

Ed turned down the hall, completely ignoring Harry.

Harry desperately wished he could apporate...Hurriedly taking the steps two at a time as he heard Ed's stomps getting ever closer to the door. He rounded the corner and took a breath.

"ED!!!! " Harry yelled. "IT WASN'T...!!STOP!!! LISTEN TO ME!!!"

Ed had his hand on the knob. Jiggled it forcefully. Harry heard something like a growl as he ran down that hallway. It had never seemed so long before. Harry heard the distinctive sound as Ed slapped his mismatched hands together, and felt his stomach flip.

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