Edward Elric faced the gargantuan entrance to the London train station, King's Cross. He had never seen such a structure, though he had traversed hundreds of miles in two different worlds. It had been two years since the day he had sacrificed himself to save his brother, Alphonse, and had somehow cheated the Gate, ending up on the other side, our side.

"Holy..." he whispered to himself, "Al, I wish you were here to see this, and Winry, too. She would have loved it here, with all its machines and junk. God I miss you!" He wiped away a stray tear with the sleeve of his long overcoat. Ed desperately wanted to go back to his world, but Alchemy, his special talent, didn't work on this side of the gate, making his desire nearly impossible to reach. For two years, he had learned about rocket science from a famous German scientist. He had done lots of odd jobs to pay for the tuition, and his never-ending appetite. But now, even after reading all the books he could find on science and parallel worlds, Ed was no closer to his goal.

That day, he had planned to take a train to Birmingham, England because he had read about a scientist who claimed to have found the secret to alchemy. "This world is so ridiculous!" Ed laughed as he thought back to the newspaper article he had read about the man, "They think all alchemy can help them do is turn lead into gold. They don't even delve into the endless possibilities it holds. Those idiots they call scientists here are idiots who wouldn't know alchemy if it punched them in their faces!" he smiled almost sympathetically as he watched all the people hurrying by.

Suddenly, something caught his eye. A pair of kids walked straight through the wall between platforms 9 and 10. No one had seemed to notice, but something was definitely wrong here, and he'd seen it before...

The answer hit him like a pound of bricks. The homunculus, Wrath, had walked through a wall just like that when Ed had first realized what a monster he was, and had chased him down. Ed's golden eyes widened at the thought, and he started sprinting toward the kids, luggage and all.

"Wait right there, homunculi!" He screamed, ignoring the stares he was getting because of the action, and kept running. One boy with dark, messy hair just like Wrath's had turned around, gazing at the running blonde kid in utter bewilderment.

Finally, Ed reached the confused Wrath look-alike. He confronted him with a cold smile and said, "So, you cut your hair, did you? And thought I wouldn't recognize you? Your really are dumb. What are you doing on this side of the Gate? Wait a minute... Oh shoot!" he smacked himself on the forehead with his left hand. "Dangit! I'm so sorry; I mistook you for someone else!"

"Um... that's okay," Harry replied, still wondering who the heck this short little kid was. "Are you a First Year?" he asked.

"A what?"

"Well, muggles can't see us walk through the wall, so you must be a... Oh, never mind! Come with me." He snapped, took the boy's hand, and dragged him through the wall.

"What the hell... where are we? How did you do that?" Ed couldn't believe what he was seeing. A huge, steam-powered train lay where there had been a wall. It was... magic.

No way, Ed inwardly yelled at himself. His teacher, Izumi, had drilled into him (literally) that there was no such thing as miracles and magic. So how could this be happening? He had just followed someone who looked like Wrath into a train station that hadn't been there just two seconds ago, and now, he couldn't come up with a better explanation than magic.

The mysterious boy broke the silence by saying, "Hey, by the way, what's your name? Mine's Harry Potter. You know, this is really strange. Like I said before, muggles have never seen us walking through that wall. The Minister of Magic himself came and put that spell on it. Maybe you should come with me to see Dumbledore, just in case."

"The name's Edward Elric. You talk too much, kid, but alright. I'll go with you, I guess. This is a lot more interesting than some idiot scientist anyway." Ed replied, none too politely.

"You're calling me kid? You're like a foot shorter than me. Plus, I'm fourteen. What are you, elev..."

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING AN ANT THAT YOU COULDN'T SEE, EVEN WITH A MICROSCOPE!!!!???!!!!" Ed started shrieking in reply to the 'short' comment, and Harry realized that height was a somewhat sensitive matter for this boy.

"Hey, hey, calm down! I didn't mean it that way! Just trying to start a conversation, that's all! I'm really sorry. So, where are your parents? You shouldn't roam around alone in London, especially because of Voldemort." Harry said, wisely changing the subject.

"Volde...who?"

"Oh yeah, you're a muggle. You don't know who that is. Oh shoot! We're going to miss the train! Hurry, get on!" They made a run for it, and climbed on just as the train started slowly pulling out of the station. "Whew, that was close. Let's find a cabin, and I'll explain everything." Harry stated, pulling his luggage behind him while looking for somewhere to sit.

"Hermione! Ron!" Harry called out. He had spotted his friends.

"Harry! We were worried you were going to miss the train! Where were you? Ron and I passed through to Platform 9 ¾ , and boarded. We didn't realize you weren't there until we were already inside. By then, it was so crowded, we couldn't go back outside to look for you. Hey, who's the kid? Inquired a brown-haired girl with almond-colored eyes who was sitting next to a red-haired boy whose freckles covered a large portion of his face.

"I am NOT a kid!!!" yelled a very angry Ed.

"Guys, careful..." Harry tried to warn his friends before Ed exploded again.

"You sure look like a kid to me, and a tiny one, too." Said the boy who Ed presumed was Ron.

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING A PIPSQUEAK MIGDET WHO YOU COULD STEP ON WTHOUT EVER NOTICING, YOU SON OF A BITCH!!!!!!!!!" After a LOT of shouting, punching, and words no person should ever speak, Harry was on top of Ed, trying unsuccessfully to keep him away from Ron. Hermione was backed up in a corner, and Ed was trying to get a hold of Ron's neck so he could strangle him. They all had scratches on them from Crookshanks, Hermione's cat, and Ron had a bloody nose.

"Well, well, well. Looks what the house elf just dragged in!" said a boy who had just stuck his head in the doorway of their compartment. His hair was bleach-blonde, slicked back, and held there with so much gel, you could see the individual droplets clinging to the roots.

"Hello, Malfoy. Long time, no see," replied Harry in a strangely cold voice that Ed thought didn't suit the young teenager.

"You should know better than to be impolite to your superiors, Harry. Who's the new kid? I heard he was a mud..."

"Leave him alone, Malfoy!" shouted a very angry, irritated Hermione.

"It figures that a mudblood would stick up for their kind. Anyway, I'll be going now. You people are hardly worth talking to." He was so busy insulting them, he didn't notice Ed's arm plunging toward his head until it was too late. The punch hit home with a dull, resounding, "THWACK," and Malfoy fell straight into the narrow corridor of the train.

"And THAT'S for calling me 'kid'" Ed finished off with a content look on his face.

"Bloody hell! That was a good punch! Anyone who hits Malfoy like that is my friend! Even if they did hit me first..." Ron stated, shaking hands with Ed.

"Aw, it was nothing, really," Ed replied, smiling, "Sorry about trying to strangle you, though. I guess I'm a tiny bit sensitive about my height. Who was that guy, anyways? He sure creeped the heck out of me!"

Hermione surprised Ed by talking, "That was Draco Malfoy. He's from Slytherin, and thinks he's better than everyone because his family is Pureblooded. That means that everyone in the Malfoy family is a Witch or Wizard."

"Oh, well that explains a lot. He's some sleezy old rich boy that thinks money can always do the talking for him, am I right?"

"Quite right!" Ron said, bursting out laughing, "I've never heard a better description, even from Harry!"

"Let's just say I've had a lot of experience dealing with bastards like him" Ed said with a shudder as a certain State Alchemist popped into his mind. Anyway, what's all this bull you're talking about that Voldemort guy? And Dumbledore?" Ron and Hermione flinched when he said the Dark Lord's name

"Okay, we better start from the beginnin,." Harry sighed, "You see, we live in secrecy among the muggles, or non-magical folk. Hogwarts is a school for young witches and wizards, to teach them to control their powers. Dumbledore is the Headmaster, and a very respected wizard thoughout the world. Voldemort, who was once hs student long ago, turned evil. He commited mass murders, and had many horrible followers. Thirteen years ago, Voldemort came to my home, and killed my parents. They sacrificed themselves to save me. When he tried to kill me as well, the spell backfired, crippling him. It made him so weak, he had to live off of unicorn blood. It gave him a half-life. My first year in Hogwarts, he tried to steal the Philosopher's Stone. Are you all right?" Ed had jumped up with the mention of the Stone.

"You...you've SEEN the Philosopher's Stone? Where is it? I need it, please, you need to tell me where it is."

"Sorry, Ed, but Dumbledore destroyed the stone. He didn't want He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named to get it."

"Dammit, every time I have a lead... Wait a minute! Dumbledore made a stone, didn't he?"

"Yes, but..."

"That means he might be able to tell me how to make it! Sorry, you can continue your story, Harry. I just want to... nevermind. It's complicated." Harry, Ron, and Hermione stared curiously at Ed. What wasn't he telling them? Harry shrugged, and returned to his story. All through the train ride, Ed grew more and more astonished at the amazing things Harry had gone through.

"What a life! Almost as bad as mine..." he said mysteriously, as the train pulled up at the station. They had arrived at Hogwarts.