Disclaimer for this whole story: I do not own any of the characters present, nor do I make profit off of this story. Fullmetal Alchemist belongs to Hiromu Arakawa and Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling.

Author's Note:

If you've read the original, welcome back. If you haven't, here's what you need to know. This is a rewrite. I must say it feels like so long ago when I started this, but apparently it's only been a year? Unbelievable! Oh well, a year's still a year, and I do hope my writing has improved since then. I had some problems with my old fic, and I just couldn't bear how bad it was... I hated how I basically regurgitated the movies. No more of that. So here's the same plot, only hopefully better. I probably would have just discontinued this but I had so many future plot points that I just wanted to continue.

Let me know if you liked it, and hint hint, reviews tend to influence me to write more.

「Sticks and Stones」

『Chapter One: Belly of the Beast』

Edward Elric was known for his recklessness. He had a tedency to act with vigor, every move with a purpose, with an end goal. However, that didn't mean he didn't make mistakes. Currently, he was up against a tough enemy. One homunculus was one thing, but to be fighting against both Gluttony and Envy? He was in a bit of a bind.

Having it so that he and Alphonse fought against Gluttony, since he couldn't swallow them due to their importance helped, and he even felt a tad bad that Ling had to deal with Envy all on his own. But Ed knew Ling could handle it. All was going well, as well as a fight against an immortal being could go, only for something to go wrong of course.

Having what seemed like an opportunity to take out Ling, Gluttony had opened his mouth (his stomach?) and was going to swallow the Xingese prince, when Ed and Envy had gotten in the path. Too late to correct his mistake, he swallowed all three without meaning to.

All was quiet for a few moments, and the fighting stopped as both Alphonse and Gluttony tried to comprehend what had happened. They both stared dumbly at the space where they had used to be.

In short, Alphonse Elric had never felt so terrified before. Of course he had gone through a lot, but never before had he been without his brother for support.

Edward... was simply gone.

"Swallowed them…?" Gluttony uttered, seeming to be unable to understand the situation he had put them all in.

Alphonse's shock was quick to become anger. He turned to the homunculus and tackled him to the ground, shouting out, "Brother! Ling! You swallowed them! You spit them out right now!"

Gluttony trembled under the large armor above him, and with disbelief clear in his voice, he whispered, "I can't. I swallowed them."

Al let out a small gasp, easing off of Gluttony. Said homunculus also sat up, his stomach closing and thus concealing the red eye that was eerily there. Full of denial, Alphonse let out a stunned murmur, "That's impossible... It can't be... Brother!" Punching the earth beneath him, he let out an echoing scream of frustration and terror.

What was he to do... What could he do?

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When he woke up that day, Professor Severus Snape had thought that it would be like any other day, mostly spent preparing for the students, who were going to be arriving in less than two weeks.

Boy was he wrong.

The potions master walked into the Great House as he normally did, with an air of superiority surrounding him like a cloak and a scowl fitted on his face. Nodding to the unusually short Charms professor as he passed, he reached the staff's table. He settled in his chair and began to eat his breakfast, making slightly unwanted small talk when prompted to.

He had been getting up to go to his office in the dungeons when it happened.

The nonexistent breeze in the room had picked up into a wind, slowly getting stronger until Severus's greasy hair was flying everywhere, much to his dismay. A circle of glowing blue light was etched into the air close to the ceiling, intriguing designs littering the area inside the shape.

"What on Earth?" Minerva McGonagall questioned in bewilderment. The strange sight had the professors in the Great Hall on high alert, everyone scrambling out of their seats.

Every professor in the Great Hall had their wands out and ready, pointing towards the mysterious glowing circle. No one dared to move, tense with surprise and slight fear. How was this happening in a secure place like Hogwarts? Soon, the circle turned a blood red color and the glowing grew brighter and brighter, eventually lighting up the whole room, momentarily blinding Severus.

And with a loud crack, the ominous light and the circle was gone, as was the wind. Once the dark dots were blinked away from his sight, Severus saw that a red figure was falling through the air. It landed with a deep thump, the Ravenclaw table it fell on cracking in half from the force.

For a moment, no one dared breathe, staring at the strange, unmoving figure. That was when, after studying the form, Severus realized two things. The thing was not an it, but a person, and that they seemed to be caked in a lot of blood.

He wasn't the only one to reach that conclusion. Poppy, the school's head nurse, let out a gasp and rushed towards the still figure, worry yet caution in her eyes. Dumbledore wasn't too far behind, keeping a calm pace. The wand near his side, pointed at the body, was the only thing that betrayed a sign of precaution.

"Madam Pomfrey, Professor Dumbledore, wait! Yeh dunno wha' that could do—" Hagrid attempted to warn them, only to be interrupted quickly by Poppy.

"Just look at him, he's covered in blood! Plus, he looks like a little kid, he's so small. I can't— no, won't allow him to bleed to death while we just stand around and— and watch him suffer!" Her voice was like steel despite her worry, clearly not giving up.

The boy twitched rather violently at her words, but otherwise didn't move. Poppy didn't let that stop her from resting her hand gently on the boy's shoulder, rolling him over so his face was facing her. She suddenly let out a loud gasp and reeled back, "Oh!"

Severus made his way quickly over to them, gliding across the floor and halting next to the Headmaster in front of the boy. His eyes widen when he saw him. Blood coated most of the boy's body, as though he fell in a big puddle of the thick liquid. But, that wasn't the reason Severus was so caught off guard.

The boy's eyes were open, a deadly gold staring deep into his soul, making Severus very alert and uncomfortable. The boy murmured something that didn't sound English, slowly pulling himself into a sitting position. By now, every teacher was clustered around the boy. He said something once more, the words sounding like a question and Severus was sure that it was a different language, one he had never heard before.

Besides Severus, the Headmaster let out a shocked breath when the foreigner spoke. "Xerxesian?" Dumbledore was hesitant to say the name, almost unsure. There was an odd look in the old wizard's eyes, as if he were pleasantly surprised yet confused at the same time.

Severus briefly wondered just what Xerxesian was, before his attention was on the boy again, who had just passed out, his head thudding against the broken table. "Poppy," the Headmaster spoke, regaining his posture, "Take the boy up to the Hospital Wing, but make sure to restraint him, for we don't know what he could do. Everyone else, there will be an emergency staff meeting, taking place right now."

Poppy got to work right away, carrying the boy out using a levitation spell. Despite the boy's size, he was unnaturally heavy. Dumbledore decided the meeting would be perfectly fine taking place in the Great Hall, after all they had no time they could spare.

However, before Dumbledore could even start the meeting, Professor Pomona Sprout, the Herbology teacher, had cried out, "What are we going to do with the boy? How was he able to get past the wards and in Hogwarts? Where did he even come from?"

"Please calm down. Once he awakes again, we will ask the boy those very questions," Dumbledore reassured.

"Headmaster," Severus took the opportunity to question him, "What exactly is this Xerxesian?"

"It was an ancient language, one of which Nicolas Flamel spoke," Dumbledore confessed, looking puzzled.

Severus was silent, slightly confused himself about how a boy so young would know such a prehistoric language. No one else spoke and Dumbledore was about to begin the meeting when he was interrupted by a Patronus.

It was Madam Rosmerta's patronus in fact, the landlady of The Three Broomsticks, that came racing in. It was replaying it's message before it even came to a complete stop before Dumbledore. "Headmaster Dumbledore! You have to come quick! A boy fell through a glowing circle, but I don't know what spell that could possibly do that. Those of us here at Hogsmeade don't know what to do. The boy is hurt! Please come quickly," When it finished playing the message, the patronus vanished.

Everyone in the Great Hall was stunned. After a moment, Dumbledore took action, "Minerva, you are momentarily in charge here. Severus, Rubeus, come with me." He started walking out of the Great Hall promptly, with the other two following one step behind him.

【⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯】

As that was happening, another strange circle appeared in the air, this one located in Dumbledore's office. The light shined brightly around the room, making the odd trinkets sprinkled throughout the room glow.

Fawkes squawked loudly and dodged quickly to the left to avoid a falling object. It looked a lot like a hollow metal hand, something that would probably come from a suit of armor. The bird simply gazed at it with wise eyes, before flying over, picking it up, and setting it on the Headmaster's desk.

【⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯】

Dumbledore was greatly confused. So much was happening; one boy appearing out of thin air and now another one. How on earth did the boy know Xerxesian? Where did he come from? What was that circle? So many questions were racing through his mind, but he pushed it aside for now in favor of their newest arrival.

Once out of Hogwarts and beyond the anti-apparition charms, Dumbledore and the two Professors with him apparated the rest of the way to Hogsmeade. Hagrid, who couldn't apparate, took to holding onto the headmasters' arm. When they got there, it chaos. Madam Rosmerta and several others were packed around an unmoving form. Others were backed away, wands out and shouting at those near the boy to get away.

"Professor Dumbledore! Quick, over here. The boy is waking up!" That was all Madam Rosmerta really needed to say, because Dumbledore was soon heading towards the mysterious figure. When he got near the form, Dumbledore noticed the boy was rather young with long black hair and black eyes. He took a moment to process where he was before he began yelling things in the foreign language, "Where the hell am I? Who are you people?"

"Please, calm down. We are not going to hurt you. Do you know the golden boy?" Dumbledore said in the strange dialect, taking a few moments to try and figure out how to word his statement, and the boy stopped. He quickly pieced together what the old wizard was trying to tell him, before his eyes lit up and he nodded rigorously.

"Take me to him," The boy demanded and soon, Dumbledore was helping him up.

Once the boy, who had mentioned his name was Ling, was on his own two feet, Dumbledore let go of him. Ling promptly fell to the ground, looking a tad paler than before. Dumbledore nearly let out a chuckle, pretty sure the boy was muttering for food when he was on the ground, but he wasn't positive. Dumbledore quickly apologized before helping him up again. Ling waved it off.

"Are you injured?"

"I'm fine, let's just go."

"Oh, alright." The Headmaster briefly thought about further questioning the raven-haired foreigner about his health, but decided against it, choosing to instead ask more practical questions. "Where did you come from?"

"Amestris," Ling hesitated, unsure of how much he should be revealing, before shrugging and adding "West of Xing, South of Drachma, Northeast of Creta… you know" at Dumbledore's confused look.

"No, I am afraid I do not know."

That really seemed to throw the boy off, "Where exactly am I?"

"You are in Hogsmeade, Scotland. Near Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Now take my arm, dear boy," the Headmaster said, his words getting lost in translation. Ling hand no idea what he said, but grabbed a hold of his outstretched arm anyway as Dumbledore continued, "It will get us back to the castle much quicker."

"Erm, alright then..." Before he could finished getting his words out, they had disappeared within an instant. Ling grabbed ahold of his stomach, gagging. He felt like he had just been forced through a straw. He didn't like that rather unpleasant process. When he was done losing his lunch, he straightened up only to be met with a giant, ancient looking castle. It wasn't as great as the Emperor's castle back in Xing, but it was still pretty impressive. "Wow..."

"Right this way to your friend," Dumbledore told him, leading him to the Hospital Wing.

【⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯】

Edward Elric was really, really confused. One moment he, Al, and Ling were fighting Envy and Gluttony, and the next moment he was falling through the air of some giant room. He could remember the sharp pain of landing on his head and then a few seconds later someone rolling him onto his back and speaking some foreign language. Ed had not recalled ever hearing that language before, and that was something considering all the languages he knew. Shortly after that, Ed could remember everything fading to black.

Edward found himself blinking awake in a large white room. Starting at the whiteness of the ceiling, he panicked for a moment, reminded of the Portal of Truth, before he realized the white was more of an off-white, with patterns flowing across the ceiling. It very much was not the gate, much to his relief, but where was he? As he looked around, he noticed the place screamed hospital.

Oh how he hated hospitals.

Edward attempted to sit up, but there was something holding him down. Why couldn't he move his limbs? Struggling against the seemingly invisible restraints, he writhed on the bed, thrashing his head back and forth. He was not one to be contained. Despite being held down, his automail was acting odd. It wasn't listening to the signals his brain sent the limbs, laying limply at his sides. Frustrated, he threw his whole body weight into moving, and ended up falling to the floor with a loud noise.

At the loud, abrupt sound, a woman hastily entered the room. She looked worried and kind, so Ed guessed that she was the nurse of this place or something of the sort. He continued to struggle on the ground, frustrated the invisible weight holding him down was still present. The lady said something he couldn't understand, while patting the air as if to tell him to 'calm down.' Ed just glared her, not in the mood to be messed with, when a door on the far left side of the room banged open, and in came a familiar prince

"Ed!"

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