Finding Life's Second Truth

By: FlameXFullmetal

Disclaimer: I do not own either Fullmetal Alchemist, Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood or Harry Potter. I do not make any money off of these story, although it would be helpful. This story was purely the work of a bored mind and I claim ownership of only the idea driving the story.

A/N: Hello there I just wanted to go over a few things before I get started. First and foremost a big thank you to MagicInTheStars for offering to be my beta and helping me fix the grammar, spelling and formatting errors! This is a Roy/Ed/Envy, Harry/Draco, Blaise/Hermione, Neville/Pansy fic. I despise Winry, Ron, Narcissa, Dumbledore and have my moments where I cannot stand all of the Weasley family but the twins. So there will be bashing of the worst kind. My spelling and grammar are near perfect but that does not mean that they are full proof. This story uses elements from the original FMA story line and FMA Brotherhood. For example, in FMA Envy has a really cool dragon form but in Brotherhood he looks like a melting T-Rex. Therefore, his original form will be from FMA and not Brotherhood.

However, I prefer the Brotherhood plot line better than the original. To me it makes more sense. Although, I will not discredit the original plot line's different sides of the gate theory, I like that idea as it gives so much potential. I will not have Ed lose his alchemy. Roy will regain his eyesight as it is planned in Brotherhood however, it will be earlier than the original plot. This story is post-promised day and takes place during Harry's fifth year. I WILL NOT LEAVE Harry with the Dursley's.

*********Finding Life's Second Truth***********

If there was anything that Harry had learned in his last year at Hogwarts it was that not everyone was who they seemed to be. People could change and it was not always for the better. It was because of this that Harry had begun questioning his friends, allies, and enemies since his first year in Hogwarts. After a whole month of review, he had determined that either he had the worst luck in the history of luck or he was being manipulated very well. The first thing that he had realized was that even though he had not been entered into the Triwizard tournament legally, Dumbledore had made no move to have him removed from it. He knew that there had to be a way out of it as every contract had a loophole. However, Dumbledore had not even tried to find it. Thus he had been trapped in the tournament and even he himself had to realize that he wasn't ready for a tournament of that caliber. His skills, while somewhat higher than some of his peers in certain subjects, were still not enough for that, in his opinion, barbaric tournament.

That had led him to the second of the revelations he had made about his last school year. If Dumbledore was in fact as observant and all knowing as every one claimed he was, then why didn't he notice that the teacher was a fake? In addition to that, Dumbledore had supposedly worked with this very person and could not tell that there was something wrong with him. So that led to one of two possibilities in Harry's mind and neither of them were promising. Either Dumbledore really was senile or he had knowingly and willingly allowed a possible threat to stay in the school without searching for the real teacher. Naturally, this would make anyone uncomfortable. However, after analyzing all of his other school years, he was leaning heavily towards the second option.

In his third year it was revealed to Harry that his innocent godfather had been arrested and imprisoned for killing his parents and being a supporter of Voldemort. However, what had annoyed Harry to no end was that Dumbledore had acted like he had known that Sirius Black was innocent the whole time and had done nothing to assist him at the trial and at the school. This had ended with Harry not being allowed to live with his godfather like he had wanted. His godfather having to run for his life and be wary about going outside.

Then there was second year in which Dumbledore had knowingly kept from Harry that Voldemort may have transferred some of his abilities to him and had let him suffer the whole year while knowing that the whole school believed that he was the heir of Slytherin. Furthermore, the headmaster had done nothing to try and find the Chamber of Secrets and had all but invited Harry to go look for it. He had also knowingly hired the fraud Lockhart but had done nothing to ensure that he was qualified to teach DADA. This had led to the whole year of lessons being useless. Finally, in his very first year, he had invited Harry into the school knowing that one of his staff had been acting strangely since an encounter with a dark creature and had not checked to see the lasting effects of said encounter nor had he inquired as to which creature had been encountered.

After doing an endless array of research, he had discovered that any number of creature encounters could have left the man as a safety hazard and the fact that he had a face growing out of the back of his head could not have been overlooked by healers. As such, no one, even him, had questioned why Dumbledore had been summoned away around the end of the year and no one had been making sure that the traps had not been bypassed and/or tinkered with. This had led him to believe that they had been told that someone else was checking on them and had ensured that they had not been bypassed. Seeing as Quirrel had not been one of the ones that had laid a trap for seekers of the stone, he had to assume that Dumbledore had not thought him trustworthy enough to protect it. So then why did he not keep a better eye on him?

Rubbing his head and leaning back at his rickety desk, Harry stared at the ceiling and sighed at the long list of reasons why Dumbledore was no longer trustworthy. Then he moved that sheet of paper to the side and began on his friend's list. He had very few personal friends and he knew that most of the people in school could not be counted as his friends and had thus not gained a high level of trust from him.

The first thing he did was make a list for Hermione and almost immediately declared her trustworthy. She had done very little to break his trust and had barely reacted to his fame. He had actually had to try to gain her friendship and he could tell that she was still guarded about herself and still looking for a sign of betrayal from her friends. The twins had also quickly made their way to his allies list as they had been very open about how they had reacted to certain actions and had never tried to deceive him. If they had wanted to fool him, they never would have given him the Marauder's Map in third year as they could easily have given themselves away. Then he looked at Ron. The endless reasons why he couldn't trust him had made the reasons why he could nonexistent.

In the first year, Ron had almost made himself as close as possible to Harry and barely left his side. His actions were almost reminiscent of Wormtail to the original Marauders. As soon as Ron had heard his name, he had gone into an endless spree about the school and the wizarding world that had seemed helpful at first, but now seemed like it had been done in order to lower his guard. Then as soon as he had gotten to the school, Ron was almost too quick to point out that Slytherin house had a bad reputation and had somehow steered his determination to be in Gryffindor. He had not mentioned the other two houses and had made sure to dodge all of the questions that Harry had asked about them on the train. He was quick to alienate those that were intelligent to the circle that he had formed around himself and almost everyone in the circle had seemed to be fascinated with the fame that he had garnered by being the Boy-Who-Lived. If it hadn't been for Harry, Hermione may have never joined his inner circle of friends. Ron had also nearly alienated Harry last year when he got pissed off about Harry's name ending up in the cup and he had almost not come around. That meant that the slightest thing could break an already fragile friendship. Coupled with the fact that he had not heard from him all summer was disconcerting.

Ginny was another enigma. She seemed almost obsessed with him and he couldn't help but wonder if he had been being drugged as he seemed to grow more infatuated with the girl the more time he spent with the Weasleys. Of course, he had not been oblivious that the obsession had decreased last year as the Triwizard Tournament had taken much of the school's time and … That was it! He would have to ask Professor Snape about that later.

His thoughts as he began to get ready for bed had quickly turned to the whole Weasley family as he already had two people he could not trust from there. Mrs. Weasley had done a great job of pretending, but she hadn't allowed the fact that she treated him too much like her own child slip past him. At times, he was greatly uncomfortable at how she consistently attempted to take the place of his late mother. Honestly, she had been too quick to tell him how to get onto the Hogwarts platform and this had caused him to question her sanity. It had not been lost to him that the wizards were supposed to take extreme diligence in telling people about the magic barrier. He could have been attempting to discover how people had walked through a wall in order to do something dangerous with the knowledge, but of course he really was an innocent first year then.

Mr. Weasley had been another enigma. The first time that he had met the man, he had not seemed surprised that Harry would be there and, in fact, that led to the knowledge that he had been at the Weasleys for no more than half an hour when their Hogwarts letters had arrived. And of course, they had already been addressed. There was no way that the address could have been changed that fast in midair. Now he was going to have to ask Professor McGonagall how the letters got addressed.

His revelations had revealed that he could not trust either of the Weasley house heads and that led to the realization that the list was getting relatively short. Percy had immediately sided with the minister and that already made Harry uneasy and he had never met either of the other two Weasleys. He knew Professor Lupin was trustworthy, as well as Sirius as there was no doubt in his mind that they would ever betray him.

Then there was the matter of Draco Malfoy. Despite acting like a bloody arse all of the time, he seemed to be hiding something. Last year, he had tensed at the mere mention of his mother and had almost let the insult slide but then it appeared as if he had to force himself to react to the insult. Rubbing his head, he reached over and began petting Hedwig. Cooing happily, she looked at him with her knowing eyes and Harry nodded in agreement. There was definitely something about the Malfoy heir that didn't add up and he was going to figure it out.

'Something other than his rather nice assets….no don't go there.' Harry chastised himself. Lately he had found himself constantly forcing his mind away from the young Malfoy and he started wondering if he was in fact gay. Shaking his head, he climbed into bed and turned out the light, hoping to get some sleep before tomorrow.

***Amestris****

Edward was cursing his luck. The mission was supposed to be simple. Get into the illegal research lab, confiscate the illegal alchemy notes, and find the bad guys. Of course that was before he found that the lab was full of very volatile toxic materials, man-eating chimera, and the bad guys with a ready transmutation circle. Now he was adamantly attempting to stop the toxic chemicals from getting into an underground waterway, fend off waves of chimera, and call for backup. So far he had managed none of it. Turning a corner, he saw the perfect thing to make a detour for the waste and quickly made a barricade that caught a few of the chimera and detained the green liquid. Unfortunately, that had also barricaded him in with the crazy alchemists that were responsible for the chimera in the first place. This really wasn't his day. Taking a big chance, Edward slipped on a different glove, aimed at the ceiling, and snapped. If this worked, he may get the back up that he needed. Of course that didn't mean that he was going to be okay when the bastard learns that Edward had swiped a pair of his infamous gloves.

Roy wondered what he had done to deserve the treatment that he had to go through when it came to Edward. On his last mission he had not only succeeded in capturing the terrorists, he had leveled a village, destroyed a military base, and put himself in the hospital for a month. Then when he finally gets out of the hospital, he demands another mission so that he doesn't get bored. Just as Roy was thinking if the was going to have to court-martial his favorite alchemist, his door burst open and his personal secretary, favorite sniper, and Ed's brother strode in very quickly.

"Can I help all three of you?"

"Fuhrer sir," Hawkeye began, "We have reports from Fullmetal's location that indicate he may need assistance." Rot could already feel a headache starting.

"I want to be the one to assist my brother, if I may. It has been a long time since I worked with him." Al said in a strained voice. Al and Ed had managed to get in a disagreement on their last mission together and had almost wound up dead. Since then, they had been forbidden to work together.

"Fuhrer sir, there is a message from Izumi Curtis demanding to have General Elric's most recent medical files. However, she is refusing to fill out the necessary paperwork, insisting that she should not have to do it every time she wanted to update her records." His secretary was somewhat of a snob and if he could, he would have had her fired for having a slight holier-than-thou attitude with him.

"What has Fullmetal done this time?"

"There was an explosion followed by a large column of fire reported precisely three minutes ago in his general area and the nearby troops on standby are requesting permission to move in and assist." Hawkeye supplied in a very professional tone. Rubbing his head, he leaned back.

"Hawkeye, give them the ok. Al, you would not make it to your brother in time. Ms. Martel, if I have to tell you one more time that Mrs. Curtis does not have to fill out the forms again, I will have you demoted. When the reinforcements reach Fullmetal, have them pass on a message for me would you, Hawkeye?"

"What message sir?"

"I am going to kill him for stealing my gloves."

As the three left his office, Roy couldn't help but think about the past year. Edward and Alphonse had completed their quest to restore Al's body and instead of losing his alchemy, Ed had lost his newly acquired arm again and had an IOU with the gate, ready to be collected at a moment's notice. If he failed to do whatever the gate asked of him or refused, then the gate would take Alphonse again. The IOU must have been for a pretty big matter for as the gate had given, as collateral, Al's body and Roy's eyesight in addition to Izumi's organs.

It was about the same time that Roy had to stop denying his feelings for the enigmatic blond and start accepting as they could grow no longer. The gate itself had a sense of humor though. It had said that in order to ensure that the task was done when the time came, it was going to send Envy back as a chaperone of sorts. Which had at first infuriated Roy, but he had already gotten over it. What's done is done. Besides, he was finally Fuhrer, having been given the position three months ago when Grumman had been assassinated during a poorly planned press conference.

Opening his eyes, Edward groaned, noticing that instead of being covered in rubble and debris, he was in an all white space that seemed to scream 'blind me'. Sitting up, he looked right at the Truth and grinned.

"That didn't take long. Do you really need that favor now?"

"I am afraid so. There are other worlds that I am a guardian of sorts over. There is one world in particular that I have no sway over other than to watch as the people there continuously destroy themselves. However, if events continue as they are, I'm afraid that your world and that world will be in danger. If that world falls, so does your own as they are forever connected."

"What do you mean?"

"For every death, there must be life, for every shadowed place, an equally lighted place. For every world with equivalence, one without." The Gate paused, letting it sink in.

"Wait you mean you want me to go to another world and save the lazy SOB's that are destroying their own world and they don't have to mind equivalency?"

"I am afraid so. You are the only one that can. You are the only one that understands what too much power or the lack of appreciation for that power can do. In all of the worlds you, and a few select others are the only ones capable of learning both alchemy and the magic which is needed to save them from their own mistakes. In addition, there are a few over there that can understand the basics and concepts of alchemy and truly appreciate the knowledge and responsibility that it brings with it."

"Now you want me to teach these ungrateful bastards alchemy?" Edward's voice was beginning to rise in pitch and the gate itself could feel a headache beginning.

"That is correct. However, I did not say that you had to teach them all. You only have to teach some of them. I will allow you to be selective in your students. As such, I am also allowing you to bring a team with you. It cannot be a large team but a team none-the-less. These people will be permitted free passage with you and will be bound by the IOU that I have given, including your terms."

"How long do I have to pick my team?"

"How long do you need?"

"About three days from when I wake up."

"Good. In three days time, I will summon you back here. That is when I will send you and your teammates where you need to be. Also, since you cannot bring your mechanic, I will keep your automail in pristine condition while you are there."

"Deal. Now send me back bastard, before they think that I died in that explosion." As his world went black, Edward could have sworn he heard a faint whisper of "you did" but paid it no mind.

*****************T.B.C*****************

A/N: Well how do you like? Please let me know what you think. Also I am having a poll. What should Edward's familiar be and who should he take with him? I was thinking no more than three other people. If there are any questions feel free to review and ask them. I will try to answer them as soon as I can.