Hey! Hi! Thanks for continuing this far! My first chapters will be (hopefully) pretty frequent. Here goes nothing!
Chapter 2
(Ed POV)
[I want…]
Ed reached up, up towards his mother's feathery touch and towards the smile that was so warm it rivaled the sun. And then she bent and distorted into a heap of sticky black horror, her soulless black eye sockets staring in disbelief at 'her little man'. "E- Edward...my little boy...why.." Her face contorted. "WHY, EDWARD? WHY COULDN'T YOU SAVE ME?!"
He woke up panting and coughing. His stumps were screaming, but he struggled to his feet and ran into the bathroom. After fumbling the lock closed, he stripped off his gloves and leaned heavily on the chipped sink, staring into his reflection.
[My finger are hungry hungry HUNGRY wake me up!]
He looked away, not wanting to see his nightmares laughing back at him through his own eyes. Taking a few long, shaky breaths, he put his gloves back on and ran his fingers through his hair. Ed closed his eyes, then opened them slowly and walked slowly back to his mattress.
[Am I awake?]
Somehow, Ed managed to find his way back into the empty void of sleep.
"Wake up! Wake up, Ed!" A blur of orange bobbed in front of his dreary eyes. He groaned and blinked, the colorful blot refining into the face of the one Ed thought was called Ron. "It's too fucking early to be awake, Weasley." He rolled over, snuggling into the warmth of his blankets.
Ed was exposed to a harsh reality, however, when the blankets were pulled off. Now he was pissed. "What did I just tell you, dammit?!" He yelled, golden eyes burning with a tired fury.
[I could kill him. I could use this body's metal fingers to rip through his throat! I could kill kill kill kill KILL him the bastard!]
Pale with fright, Ron backed away. "Bloody hell, you really aren't a morning person!" Ed growled. It was too late to go back to sleep now, so he got up, stretching. "Have it your way, Weasley. I'm up." He began to perform some push-ups, then stretched against the wall. Ron watched him with bemusement.
"What're you doing?" The redhead inquired.
"Keeping in shape, Weasley. Just 'cause it turns out that you people think I can do this 'magic' bullshit doesn't mean I can just become complacent." Ed explained, rather exasperated.
Ron shook his head at the blonde and left the room. Ed remembered that there had been another in this room - what was his name? - Harry! It was Harry….Potter? Yes, Potter. He finished exercising and left the room.
He was sitting in the library, surrounded by stacks of dusty tomes when the bushy-haired one burst in. "Professor Dumbledore is here to take you to Diagon Alley….did you read all these?" Ed shrugged. "Most of them."
"But - this is only your second day - how?"
"I'm a fast reader. You said something about the old man?"
"Oh!" She said, having been distracted from her previous purpose by the books, "Yes, he's downstairs….in the kitchen. You should get going…" Ed could tell by her expression that she was still quite stunned, and grinned. "See ya later," he called over his shoulder as he left the room.
[That hair...I want to rip it out and listen to her screams cut through the blood-misted air like a knife of pure pain. I want to wake up...someone wake me up!]
The old man from last night was whistling an odd tune when Ed entered the dining room. "Hello," he said upon seeing Ed enter, "Are you ready to go? I have your supply list right here." The man flourished a piece of paper.
Ed still wasn't convinced by the whole 'magic' thing, so when Dumbledore offered his arm to the doubtful blonde and said something about 'Apparating' (Ed guessed it was teleportation), he was hesitant. Shortly after he gripped the old man's arm, he felt as though he was being sucked up by a straw. Luckily, the feeling didn't last too long, and they soon emerged in the middle of a bustling street.
Dazed, Ed shook his head vigorously and looked around. Everyone was wearing stupid-looking clothes, he noted. "Is this Diagon Alley? He asked the tall, elderly wizard, who answered his question with a small, amused smile. "Why, yes it is, Edward. Come this way, we should purchase a wand now."
Dumbledore turned and began making his way through the crowd. Edward, not wanting to get lost, followed him. It was very irritating to be unable to see above the heads of the crowd. He successfully caught up to the old man, who had stopped in front of a weathered-looking shop. Ed read the fancy, faded letters on a sign above the door: Ollivander's.
The inside of the shop was murky, to say the least, and dust swirled thickly in the meager light that made it through the grimy windows. Ed sneezed. "Who might this be?" An old man with bulging blue eyes had come from somewhere within the gloomy recesses of the shop and was now inspecting Edward, glancing inquiringly at Dumbledore.
"This is Hogwarts' new student. Edward Elric. He's here to get his wand." Ed scoffed internally. No duh! They were in a shop filled with wands, so it was pretty obvious what their purpose was.
[There are so many bodies outside….]
"What the hell are you doing?" Ed exclaimed as the old man waved his wand and several rolls of measuring tape flew into the air and began stretching themselves out along Edward's various widths and lengths.
Within a few moments, though, they soared back to wherever they'd been originally, and the old man retreated into the depths of his shop, muttering. Ed huffed. He thought all this was utter bullshit. All he wanted was to get home, to Al, and here he was buying a. Fucking. Magic. Stick.
It wasn't funny anymore. He hadn't even agreed to this. "Old man," he said, turning to Dumbledore, "Why the hell should I even go to this magic school of yours?" Dumbledore chuckled, light blue eyes twinkling.
"You're not of this world, am I correct?"
"How the hell...yes, old man."
"I suspected as much. Edward, I invited you to Hogwarts because it would be mutually beneficial for us. I would like to know more about your world, and you would have access to the largest library the wizarding world has to offer. I believe that you should be able to find some way to get yourself home, using the library."
Edward relaxed, seeing the logic. "Alright, old man, I'll go. Are there any restrictions on this library?"
"Yes, indeed there are, but I can arrange for you to have full access. Do you have any further questions?"
Ed shook his head, and then turned away and crossed his arms.
The old man - his name was Ollivander, right? - returned to the front of the shop, arms loaded with dozens of long, rectangular boxes.
For the next hour, they tried matching Edward with a wand. When asked, he'd lied and told them he was left-handed. It would be too much of a bother if anyone in this world found out about his automail; it had become apparent after meeting Moody that they didn't have such advanced prosthetics.
[He doesn't know I'm in here. I want to tear something open.]
It felt like he'd been stuck in the sneeze-inducing shop (Ed had no idea how Ollivander could spend his life in here) for hours when he'd picked up a wand ("Eleven-and-a-half inches long, slightly bendy ash, with - how unusual - the core is a hair from the valkyrie Göndul, and a sliver of bone from a dullahan. How strange. Hardly anyone matches with a mixed wand.") and silver curls had shot out of the end.
[I have always been here...]
The rest of their trip had passed without event. It had been hard to leave the bookstore, but when he did leave he left with armfuls of books. His robe-fitting had been the hardest part, since he'd refused to take off anything but his crimson jacket. But what Ed was happy about was his new cat.
Sure, it would have been more practical to buy an owl, but the golden-eyed, long-furred cat had reminded him of Al. Not in the physical appearance, the cat just had an Al-like air to it. Dumbledore Apparated them back into the house that had become Ed's place of refuge, and left soon after.
Ed was sitting unnoticed in a corner, petting the yet-to-be-named cat when Harry burst in, announcing that he'd been cleared of all charges.
[Let me out let me go let me kill and dye my hands red out out let me wake let me out!]
Thanks for reading yet another chapter! I hope it was okay!
If there are any edits you think I should make please let me know (you can do that, right? I don't know, I'm new to this site.)
Alright, that's all I can think of. Peace out!
