CHAPTER 27: THE BRACELET AND THE RING

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TO TELL, OR NOT TO TELL

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It is now 20th of September 1992; Ed was reading a book about Alchemy and enchanting in the library. He was sitting alone, avoiding people, he rather not provoke anyone at his time in Beauxbatons, Fleur was already curious at him because of his ability to block her charm, and the rest was looking at Ed weirdly since he was brought to the hospital wing, turns out, he was brought to the place in the open, resulting in the immediate attention of the students. The official story is that he got into an accident when practicing alchemy.

In the two weeks after the battle in the Jakarta Black Market, Ed learned alchemy and enchanting with Flamel, he quickly learned it, although just the theory, he never practiced it, and right now, he was about to enchant his first item.

He closed the book he was reading and returned to his room. He took out a simple bracelet made out of wood that is rich with magic, he placed the bracelet on the desk, he sat on the chair and brought out the tools needed to enchant it. He grabbed the carving tool and slowly carved the word 'ecce enim in sanguinem' on the bracelet. After he was finished, he cut a wound on his palm, and he laced the blood that came out from the wound to the words that were just carved. Ed healed the wound using the white flame, and he saw the bracelet glowed red, and the words that were just carved turned red. He looked at the bracelet, and it was a success, he can sense his own blood from the bracelet, and from the looks of it, the blood in the bracelet will never rot and will never smell.

Then he took a parchment and quill, he wrote in the parchment that reads,

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Happy Birthday Hermione,

Always use the bracelet that I gave in this letter for you, you can throw the other one or wear it in another, as long as you wear this all the time. Sorry for the late gift. Also, what's this about you crushing over Lockhart? I thought I told you to be careful of him, ask Richard why I said what I said, I'm not restricting your freedom Hermione, I'm just a bit worried about all of you, that's all.

Sincerely,

Ed

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He rolls the parchment and ties it with the bracelet, then he walked to the owl office in the school because Ophelia isn't with him, he picked one of the owl and send the letter and the bracelet.

After that, Ed went back to the palace, he stroll around the building a little bit, taking his mind off things, and he went to the fountain in the middle of the palace. He sat in one of the bench, and stayed silent, resting his mind in the sound of moving water. But a couple of minutes later, he was interrupted by a blonde girl.

"It's calming isn't it?" said the girl with a thick French accent.

Ed turned around to see Fleur, walking closer to him, and eventually sitting beside him.

"It's my favourite place to rest," she continued, "The sound of the water has always had a calming effect on someone, plus, the water of the fountain is said to have the effect of youthfulness, so that's always a plus in my books."

Ed raised his eyebrow, "Really?" answered Ed, "I didn't know that, is that just a myth or is it true?"

Fleur shook his head, "I do not know, perhaps you can ask Master Flamel, it's his fountain after all."

Ed nodded, he wanted to stood up and gets away from the girl immediately, he didn't want unwanted attention from the boys at this school, but Fleur continued her talk, stopping Ed from leaving,

"I noticed that you avoid us since you've come to Beauxbatons, why is that? Is people here not nice?" questioned the Veela girl.

Ed snorted, "Have you seen the looks that people gave me every time I walked the corridors? It feels like they want to jinx me on the spot." Said Ed, "And of course there's you, you always tried to use your 'charm' on me every chance you got, it's making me quite annoyed."

Fleur chuckled, "Well, I can't do anything about the first statement, but for the second statement…" she got closer to Ed and whispered in his ears, "If you tell me about what tricks you use to block my charm, I will stop."

Ed shivered because of Fleur's breath, he stood up, shook his head and sighed, "It's Occlumency Delacour, I thought the daughter of a half Veela would know it." Said Ed while tidy his clothes, "Now that I reveal my secret to you, leave me alone will you? I'd rather not drive the Beauxbatons boys ire more." Said Ed while leaving the part-Veela to herself.

Fleur however, was a bit dazed, she thought about Occlumency, but how does a boy like him is a master of Occlumency? That's simply too absurd. But Ed didn't care about her thoughts, he just walked through the corridors and went to Flamel's office.

He knocked on the door, once he got the permission to come in, he opened the door and entered the room.

"Hello Ed," said Nicolas who was sitting on his chair.

"Good afternoon Master Flamel," said Ed while close the door, "I think I'm ready to make the enchantment."

Nicolas then looked at Ed for a second, then continued, "Yes, I think you are ready."

The old man then stood up, he brought up an enchanting table, and told Ed to fetch the ingredients. Ed went back to his room and took the ingredients, then he went back to Flamel's office, placing the ingredients on the enchanting table.

"What do you want to use as a medium Ed?" said Nicolas, "I have a necklace, a bracelet, and a ring ready to be used." The old man placed the three accessories on the enchanting table.

Ed pointed at the ring. "I'll use this, I have a necklace, and I already made a bracelet."

Nicolas nodded and took the other two accessories and place the golden ring on the middle of the table.

Nicolas then walked away from the table, but still close enough to watch the process, "Okay Ed, you need to carved on the ring the words, 'absconde me a curiosis oculis indignum', then mixed the ingredients together, after that soaked the ring with the liquid for a couple of minutes."

Ed then began working, he slowly carved the ring with the words, the gold dust scattered on top of the table, and sweat can be seen on Ed's forehead because of his concentration, and because it is a long sentence, it took a while to finish it perfectly. Roughly one hour later, Ed finished carving, he put the ring on the side and started to mix the ingredients.

"How much do I have to mix in?" asked Ed to Nicolas who's watching him closely.

"The blood, one bottle, the stew and the dust, three hundred grams will be enough." Answered the old man.

Ed just nodded and began pouring the blood, he mixed the Unicorn, Demiguise, and the newborn blood to a bowl that has been prepared beforehand, he stir it for a couple of seconds until it combined and started to put the stew and the dust to the mixture, once done, he stir it again until combined, making the colour bright red.

After that, he floated the ring and drop it in the mixture, he tapped the liquid with his wand, sending a ripple of magic. He looked at the mixture, and he started seeing some changes, the previous bright red slowly fading, turning into a transparent liquid. A couple of minutes later, the liquid turned transparent, and he can see that the golden ring in the bottom of the bow glowing red.

Ed looked at Nicolas and asked, "What do I do with the liquid?"

"Just throw it away, or drink it if you want, it's normal water now, all the contents of the previous substances were absorbed by the ring."

Ed grimaced, he didn't want to drink it, so he instantly throws away the 'water' and took the ring. He wore the majestic golden ring and examined it.

"Did it work?" Ed asked.

Nicolas shrugged, "You should try it, if you got a warning from the ministry then it didn't work."

Ed just nodded blankly, then he thought of his home and blinked instantly to the place, disappearing from Nicolas's office.

Ed appeared in the front door, he didn't feel like the trace magic activated, although he could sense a spatial fluctuation from the trace magic before, he didn't sense it now, which is a good sign, he summoned an ice flower from his hands, and again, no fluctuation. He was positive that it worked, he jumped from happiness for a couple of seconds, then he looked at his surroundings, he see a couple of protective charm in his house, 'Dumbledore didn't spare anything.' Ed thought, he scanned the entire surroundings, feeling the space around him, and saw that there are no traps from the killer, only the protective charms that Dumbledore placed.

After that he disappeared from the place once more and went back to Nicolas's office.

"I think it worked," Ed confirmed with the old man, "I didn't sense any space fluctuation from the trace magic."

Nicolas nodded and clapped his hand, "Congratulations then, you made a powerful artifact by yourself."

"Thank you Master Flamel, you are a good teacher." Ed bowed to the old man.

Nicolas smiled, "No worries Ed, I'm just doing an old friend a favour." Said the old man softly. "But I must admit, you are the brightest apprentice I've ever had, to learn the basics at only a couple of weeks, in unheard."

Ed shook his head amusedly, "Baldeth's gift is something all right, I used to be horrible at theories, but when I got the gift, I breeze through it."

Nicolas nodded in approval, "That's why Edwyn thought that the curse that comes along with it was for balancing the gift, but clearly he was wrong, it was a punishment for people who answered the wrong question." Then Nicolas stood up, "Well then Ed, our lessons have been finished, you can study the rest of the alchemy knowledge by yourself after I died in December."

"Then what do I do now?" asked Ed.

"You could just study other lessons, after all, you didn't attend any classes here except my classes right?"

Ed nodded, "So I just stay in my room for the rest of the semester? That's…"

"You can socialize you know Ed, there are a lot of students that wanted to talk to you in this school as far as I observed, especially the girls." Nicolas advised with an amused face.

"Yes, but the boys looked like they wanted to kill me on the spot." Ed grimaced, "What did I do anyway? Is it school rivalry?"

Nicolas nodded weakly, "Yes, they never met another student that is not from Beauxbatons, so they want to test your ability of using magic, showing their school superiority."

Ed sighed, "What childish tendencies." He said while exiting the room, he then walked the garden a little bit, thinking about what he should do now that he had the ring. He sat on one of the bench in the garden. He's enjoying the now falling sun, he sat peacefully on the bench, listening to the birds chirping, and the breeze that enveloped the garden. He looked at the ring that he put in at his middle finger on his left hand, he thought about the Lucius problem,

'How can I kill him?' Ed thought, 'I don't know where the Malfoy Manor is located, if I want to find out about it, I either have to read the mind of Draco, or ask Narcissa, the latter is quite impossible, she probably won't tell me because she knows what I can do if I know the place… and I can't go back to Hogwarts right now, if I did, Dumbledore will know and he'd stopped me from 'Talking' to Draco. Hmm… can Dobby take me there? I think he can't, he won't snitch the family's manor just like that…' Ed sighed, "Oh well, let's just see how this will go Lucius." He then stood up and walked to his room to end the day.

The next day, Hermione was not in a good mood, she was walking to the great hall with Harry and Ron, the two boys were chatting about Quidditch training, but Hermione didn't listen, she was in her own thoughts, 'Why didn't he send any letters? Is he still mad because I tried to ignore his warning? Or is it because I haven't given him his birthday gift yet?' she thought worriedly, she was in a horrible state since her birthday on the 19th, Ed never sent her any letters, no gifts, nothing, she thought if he was mad at her or not, or he forgot about her birthday. She sat on the Gryffindor long-table, she thought about how her school year has been really horrible right now, Draco called her a mudblood, Ed never send her any letters, he only gave her Ophelia, and not to mention Ron's broken wand and the trouble that went with it.

Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted by Harry,

"Hermione, you all right?" he asked.

"Hm? Oh, I'm fine Harry…" Hermione said weakly.

"You look dreadful this couple of days, are you sure you're all right?" Harry questioned again, confirming her health.

"Yes, I'm fine, just a bit worried, that's all." Hermione answered dismissively.

Ron grumbled as he thought of something

"What?" questioned Hermione menacingly.

"It's not because of Ed is it?" asked Ron grumpily.

Hermione quickly denied it, "No, why would I be worried about Ed?" she glared at Ron, but a slight blush can be seen on her cheeks.

Ron shrugged, "I never saw you got a letter, which means you never got a letter from him, right?"

Hermione looked dumbfounded at her worries revealed, and Harry instantly continued, "Yeah, I noticed it also, is he mad at you?"

Hermione shook her head, "No, I mean, I don't know okay? Don't talk about it anymore." Said Hermione, glaring at the two boys.

The two just shrugged and picked up some of the food on the table, Hermione did too, but she only picked up a bit of food, and eat it slowly. Suddenly, owls started to flood into the great hall, and one particular owl flown to the Gryffindor table, dropping a small parcel in front of Hermione.

She was startled at the drop of the parcel, everyone looked curiously at Hermione, because like Ron said, she never got any letter or parcel from anyone, Hermione however, looked at the parcel with hope in her eyes, 'Maybe he's not mad at me after all.' She thought. She quickly opened the small parcel, she saw a simple wooden bracelet that has some sort of runes on it that glowed red, and a letter, or a note rather.

She read the content of the note and a bubbly smile appeared on her face, she closed the note, put it in her bag, and wore the bracelet on her other hand, her face is devoid of worry now, and shows a bright smile, her legs are swinging back and forth, and she took more food from the table, she put it on her plate, and eat it peacefully.

Harry and Ron looked at Hermione confusedly, wondering on her change of attitude,

"What's wrong with her?" whispered Ron to Harry.

Harry shrugged, "I've got no idea…" he whispered back.