Thank you for all the reviews! I really appreciated all the comments :) Just to be clear, this story is manga/brotherhood based, and also pretty closely follows the 6th Harry Potter book. Without further ado, here's the second chapter!

On a quiet country lane in Europe, the Burrow's crooked silhouette was highlighted by the last rays of the setting sun. Rusted cauldrons and spare boots littered the grassy yard, which was cluttered with other such debris, both magical and mundane. The air was still and peaceful, expect for the occasional hum of an insect or croak of a frog. The evening had gone on quite the same, undisturbed, except for a loud crack that had occurred earlier at the arrival of two wizards. One of them had been rather old with a long white beard tucked into his belt, and the other quite young with spiky black hair that would not lie flat. They had quickly disappeared into a nearby broom cupboard, and had not yet emerged.

Inside the spidery and musty shed, Harry felt as though he had come to an understanding with the aged wizard. He was glad that Dumbledore had confronted him about what had occurred at the ministry a month or so prior; it was something he was not sure he would have been comfortable talking about with the others before, and now he felt as though he could bear it. He knew he was going to be bombarded with questions about how he was doing the minute he stepped in the house; that was why he had been dreading coming back to one of the places that he felt the most at home. Now, however, he really believed he could march in there and take anything that came at him.

That was, of course, before they stepped out of the broom cupboard and were confronted with a wounded blond teenager falling out of the sky.


Edward Elric was panicking.

When he had attempted to stop the doctor's transmutation back in the bowels of Central Command, he had only thought of stopping it, not the possibility of doing harm to the transmutation circle and landing himself in more trouble. But that's exactly where he found himself, doing who knows what to a dangerous circle and possibly causing himself more grief than if he had simply gone along with it. Making things more difficult really seemed to be a habit of his.

He knew he had done something when he had broken apart the floor; the feel of the alchemy deconstructing him had changed slightly when his crack intervened with the array. It felt like he had been careening out of control one way, and then was violently shoved from that path and down another. Now he was hurtling towards the unknown, but he hoped at least it wasn't Father's lair. Anything had to be better than that…right?

He was currently hurtling through some white space, waiting to see what was going to happen to him. The space around him was bright, almost blindingly so, so it was all the more disorienting when that whiteness was replaced with the blue black of early night. He was subjected to the very uncomfortable feeling of each piece of himself being shoved back together, just in time to be pushed into the air…twenty feet above the ground.

He briefly saw an open marshy plain and a hill with a crooked house, the only structure besides which was a small shed near him, with two figures standing next to it…then gravity took hold and he plummeted to earth with a shout.

Hitting the ground, Ed skidded on his shoulder in an attempt to break the fall, his eyes scrunched up as the friction from his landing nearly burned through his coat. He did not see the rusty metal cauldron he had been flying towards, and so was completely caught off guard when his head slammed into it at full force.

Shaken, confused, and now seeing stars, he attempted to sit up and take stock of his surroundings…only to find that was much easier said than done. His wobbly attempt was greeted by two concerned faces hovering over him and some jumbled words that sounded like some sort of question, before the blackness at the edges of his vision consumed him entirely.


Dumbledore had seen many odd things in his lifetime, that was for sure. Enough, really, to not be all that surprised at any occurrence life threw at him. After all these years, he felt assured that whatever came his way, he could take it with concealed shock and a wise nod.

The minute he stepped out of the broom cupboard, he was proven wrong.

He and Harry had just finished a long overdue talk about the events at the Ministry, and now Dumbledore could see that the young boy was in a much better place than when he had first been picked up at the Dursely's home. Sure, the dark circles under his eyes were still there, and he did look rather underfed, (Molly would throw a fit) but it seemed as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders, lending him a new spring in his step and a light to his eyes. All in all, he felt that the night's events had all gone according to plan, from the persuasion of Professor Slughorn to his talk with Harry. Now all that was left to do was to deliver the young man into the waiting arms of the Weasleys.

An odd feeling in the air disturbed him the moment he left the shed. There was a heaviness to the air, and an uneasiness settled over him like a thick blanket; this felt almost like dark magic, but how could anything get through the so carefully placed protective enchantments, and so soon after they were cast? The Weasley home had been given every protection…surely nothing could attack them here?

Harry, sensing nothing, scrunched up his face in confusion at the old wizard as he stopped in his tracks, placing a protective hand on Harry's shoulder.

"What's wrong?"

Dumbledore took one more look around and resolved to not make much of a deal of it in front of Harry. There was no need to make him worry. If, by the time Dumbledore left the Burrow, this feeling still persisted, he would find the source of it then. If it was not an immediate threat, then now was certainly not the time to cause undue panic.

"Nothing." He stated, as calmly as possible. "Let's head inside, shall we? I'm sure Molly will be eager to have the chance to deplore how very thin you are."

Before they had taken one step further, the feeling intensified ten-fold. Dumbledore's head snapped up as brilliant blue lightning shot from a point roughly twenty feet above them. His eyes narrowed dangerously. Some dark magic, perhaps? It must have been extraordinarily powerful to have gotten through so many wards. But the lightning was not all that was in store for them. There were pieces of…something…coming together at the center of all the lightning, forming familiar shapes. A mouth, eyes, nose, a face; a whole body had taken shape now, complete with a long red coat and panicked expression.

"BWAAHHH!"

With a shout, the person, (whoever it was) was thrown to the ground violently, skidding ten feet or so. That was, before his momentum was stopped by a collision with one of the many cauldrons hidden in the long grass surrounding the Weasley home.

With trepidation, Dumbledore strode forth to confront this new threat, robes billowing in the wind and a frightened Harry held behind him. Reaching the figure shrouded in red, he turned the culprit over, fully intending to curse, jinx, or threaten some answers out of him…

Only to be confronted by the face of a young boy, his expression one of confusion and pain.

"What in the…!"

The words passed the usually so composed wizard's lips before he fully realized them. How had this happened? What was going on? How had this boy slipped past their defenses? And had it been by accident, or design?

Harry joined Dumbledore as the latter stared down at the boy, lost for words. That was, until said boy started to try to get shakily to get to his feet, only to slump back to the dirt.

"Whoa, steady there, stay still!" The advice was as much for the boy's protection as their own. "What are you doing here? Are you alright?"

The more he said, the more the confused look grew, before the boy's eyes rolled back into his head, his body going completely limp.

Dumbledore supposed he would have to take that as a no.


The old headmaster had a lot of trouble getting the mysterious boy into the house, and it wasn't just because of the security measures. A moment after he had passed out, the aged wizard decided it was probably a good idea to try and get the boy into safety and checked out. Not only had he suffered a probable concussion from the unfortunately placed cauldron, he could clearly see that not all the red on the boy's coat was the cloth. Blood was streaked across his clothing; the sooner they could treat him, the better.

Then maybe they could get some answers.

"Harry, help me carry him." Dumbledore said quickly. He received no answer; it seemed Harry was in a state of shock, staring down at the boy in disbelief.

"Harry!" That got his attention. "We must hurry, we need to get him inside!"

With a jerky nod, Harry moved to the left side of the boy, and Dumbledore crouched down on the boy's right. Carrying him was much easier said than done. One try at lifting him was exhausting. Grunting and heaving with all their might, they finally got him into the air and balanced between them. How could anyone so small weigh so much?

Dumbledore felt something hard and metal against his arm, and glanced down sharply. A proper look at the boy once more revealed that his right hand seemed to have some sort of armor on it, completely covering the skin all the way up into the sleeve. In addition, his hand was almost completely obscured by a sword of some sort, attached to the armor and stretching up into his coat. This boy was an enigma, no doubt about it. What was he doing with something like that on the end of his arm?

The attempt to actually get moving was excruciating. Dumbledore's dying hand throbbed with the exertion of even gripping the kid, and the curse was just in its beginning stages. They couldn't keep this up much longer. How were they going to go two more steps, let alone into the house?

And then Harry made him feel like a complete fool.

"Uh…Sir?" He gasped, sweat glistening on his face. "Wouldn't it just be easier to levitate him in?"

Well, that was certainly one way of going about it. He had been so lost in the abruptness of the event, he hadn't thought things through as he usually would have. Dumbledore couldn't remember the last time he had been this flustered, and allowed himself to chuckle at his stupidity. It seemed he really was getting old.

"Yes, that would probably be for the best."

Once that was figured out, getting him up to the house in the work of a moment. Tapping urgently on the door, the old wizard hoped someone was awake to hear him. This would be infinitely more difficult if everyone were in bed.

He needn't have worried. Almost instantly he was greeted by Molly's nervous voice, filtering through the door.

"Who's there? Declare yourself!"

"It is I, Dumbledore, bringing Harry." Unsure how to continue, but feeling it was unwise to not mention the urgency, he added "…And one injured."

The door flew open, revealing Molly, her hair in disarray and in an old green dressing gown looking frantic. "Injured? Who?" Her voice flew up an octave and her brows drew together in concern, then crumpled in confusion upon seeing the unfamiliar face of the floating stranger. That changed immediately the moment she realized what she was looking at.

"A child? Oh Albus, what happened? Hurry, get inside!" With a hasty step away from the door, she ushered them into the cozy kitchen, the only other occupant of which was a rather disheveled and depressed looking Tonks. Her heart shaped face turned so fast to see the boy, her mousy brown hair whipped into her eyes, obscuring her vision for a second. The moment she got a clear view, she stepped back and looked as though she was about to shatter the mug in her hands, she was gripping it so tightly.

"Is that…blood?" Her voice wavered, high in anxiety. Ah, yes. She had always hated the sight of blood. That was her one disadvantage as an Auror, Dumbledore mused. That, along with her debilitating clumsiness. But, with her amazing metamorphmagi powers, she was more than qualified for the position, and a great asset to the Order.

"Yes, now let's go see what we can do about that." Dumbledore said briskly. "Molly?"

"Yes, of course!" The plump mother rushed past the floating boy and onto the stairs, beckoning to them. "Let's go find him a bed."

Harry's attempt to follow them up the stairs was met with limited success. He seemed to go unnoticed until after the first landing, where Dumbledore turned around to look at him with a twinkle in his eye. "Why don't you go join your friends, Harry?" he suggested. "I'm sure they're anxious to see you."

It was true on both sides. Harry very much wanted to see them as well, but he also wanted to know more about the mysterious boy. What kind of magic was that, with all the blue lightning? And where had all those wounds come from? They certainly weren't all from just landing at the Burrow; much of the blood had already been dried onto his coat and black clothes. Obviously, something had happened even before his crash at the Burrow.

"You're staying on the second floor, dear," directed Mrs. Weasley distractedly. "Fred and George's old room."

With a sigh, Harry nodded and headed for the second floor, pulling open a door on his left. Smelling of gunpowder so strongly that the flowers in the window did nothing to hide it, the twin's room was cluttered to say the least. Sealed cardboard boxes were stacked up around the walls, almost to the ceiling. Harry assumed that they were all for their joke shop. The room felt much more like a temporary warehouse than anything else, but it was still cozy in its own way. Oh well. The mystery of the boy would have to wait until morning. Harry was so exhausted that his eyes drooped as he eyed the bed. He barely had time to get into his PJ's before he collapsed onto the covers and was instantly asleep.


Again, any comments, reviews, or advice you may have would be appreciated! And if anyone catches a spelling or grammar mistake, please let me know! I try, but I've really never been the best speller in the world. Exhibit A being the mistake in the story title for the first day or so haha :P

Thanks for reading!