The Alchemic, and Word of, Taboo
Chapter Two
SHUT THE HELL UP
Those words were the first things that greeted the new students as they filed into the chamber. Written on a large, black chalkboard, one could hardly miss those few authoritative letters that seemed to express everything going on in the head of the one who wrote them. And he was no where to be seen.
"Do you think he's alright?" Ron whispered to Hermione behind his hand, eyes focused on the board.
"Yes, why? Do you think he got hurt?"
"I mean in the bloody head, Hermione."
"Would you two shut up?" Harry demanded, peeved. He wasn't sure what was up with them but they had been doing nothing but arguing lately and over the most menial things. And he was fed up with it, ready to give both of them a good spanking.
"And to answer your question, Ron, you don't need to be sane to teach around here." Ron snickered at that but cleared his throat heavily at Hermione's disapproving stare that was focused on the two of them.
"But how old do you think he is, though? He can't be older than us. Do you think they'd hire a kid to teach us? Though, honestly, this is child's play anyw-"
"Good to know, freckle face," came in a low voice, causing Weasley to jerk around and slam his head into his desk as he missed the chair. Behind him was the blonde-haired professor with his entire five feet and four inches of glory. The room fell silent at seeing him but the professor only had eyes for one man. Ron rubbed his head and groaned. "I'm eighteen, for your information, you lanky bastard, so if I were you, I would take your seat like a good little boy before those freckles become a mass in the middle of your face because. of. my. fist." Said between clenched teeth and with growing emphasis, his fist was beginning to tremble beside his own head.
"Let it lie, Ron," Hermione hissed, grabbing his robes and jerking him into his chair.
Scant objections.
"Good choice. Now, unless anyone else wants to comment upon my… inadequacies, get your asses back in your seats, face your heads forward and take my words of wisdom to heart." Marching up to the front of the class, he turned and planted his feet firmly with his fists at his hips. He wasn't dressed the same as before. Now he was all in black with a long-sleeved red coat that was definitely not wizard robes. As ever, his hands were covered in gloves. His eyes surveyed the class with a piercing gaze. "Now, I sure as hell don't want to be here so if any of you act out of line, I will fuck you up good and thorough. If you don't want to figure out what it feels like to be six feet in the ground with solid rock to your chin, I'd-" He slapped his hand to the board beneath those four bold words.
"This is a no-nonsense class. Anyone acting out of line, disobeying any one of my rules will not only be kicked out but find out a little bit about my own sense of justice. Capisce?" he cracked his knuckles meaningfully. "Now that we understand each other, let us get started."
He twisted some, moving his hand and flipping the board over. On the back was draw a mass of intricate lines interwoven within two interlocking circles. Perfectly symmetrical. Beneath it was written two words: Equivalent Exchange. Leaning back against it, he jerked his thumb over his shoulder in its direction. "Tell me, does anyone know what this means? If you don't know this and have it buried in your brains by the end of TODAY, you will not learn Alchemy, not stay in this class, and look like a total dimwit for not understanding the most basic principle of Alchemy."
Hermione's hand shot in the air and his gold eyes focused on her face.
"Go for it."
"Humankind cannot got gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. That is Alchemy's first law of Equivalent Exchange."
Elric didn't look at her, instead, digging his index finger in his ear and gazing up at the ceiling then down at his finger as he flicked something away. "Read that verbatim, why don't you? That shows true inflexibility and lack of creativity. At least paraphrase once in awhile, will you? And I will be forever grateful."
Hermione blushed while Ron and Harry snickered. They weren't the only ones.
"But, this is quite correct. Absolutely nothing can be gained without something else being given up in the exact amount that is requested by the Alchemist." He lifted a finger, eyes narrowing. "If you do not understand this, you might as well get out. Especially if you do not plan to follow it. Alchemy has its own way of extracting its price. If anything happened at all. If you want a statue, you need the exact amount of matter you need to form it. You cannot take a pebble like this," he opened his palm, "and make it into a boulder. That just doesn't happen. Equivalent Exchange. One thing... for another."
If that was hard enough to drill into the minds of a mass of wizards and witches who could take what they wanted nearly from thin air. But, that wasn't totally accurate. It was still an understandable concept. The professor closed his eyes. "Now high-tail it out of here if you cannot accept that. Alchemy has rules. And lots of them. It is not "magic" but a science. I have absolutely no idea what you pussies who wave around twigs can do but you're gonna have to push that out of your mind if you want to work Alchemy. What you cannot do with your own two hands, you cannot do in Alchemy, got it?"
He could have sworn his classroom was cut in half by the time he was finished saying all that. Good. The more he could scare away the better. Hell, if they all disappeared, his life would be so much easier.
"Alchemy is the breaking down and rebuilding of matter. You cannot create or destroy it. You can diminish it to its most diminutive building blocks but matter can neither be created nor destroyed. Also known as the Law of Conservation of Mass. Thus, to be of any use to me, each and every one of you must have this memorized." He lifted a piece of paper and smirked. "Have this memorized by the end of this week and no later. The earlier the better. This, my friends, is the Periodic Table of the Elements."
Hermione grinned. "I learned that in grade school," she whispered to her two neighbors. "Its important to muggles."
Ron whispered back. "What the hell is it?"
"A tabular display of the chemical elements organized on the basis of their atomic numbers and chemic properties."
"English, Hermione. English. Pretend I'm an idiot."
Hermione gave him a long look. Before she opened her mouth and scowled. "You are, Ron. It's-"
"-a chart of the building blocks of all matter. The stuff everything is made out of. From the chair you are sitting on to the hair on your head. Everything on there can be combined with something else to produce what you see in the world." The professor looked displeased, the two of them having shut up the moment he began speaking, interrupting Hermione and putting in his own explanation. "Now can you two shut up and let me speak?"
He jerked around and stabbed his thumb into the array just beneath the words Equivalent Exchange. "Next, this is the device you use to use Alchemy. Got that? That in English?"
Ron frowned.
"A Transmutation Circle."
"Thank you for stating the obvious, miss. Do you want to be the professor?"
Hermione shook her head.
"I thought so. Now, this is a Transmutation Circle. An… Alchemic Array. This is absolutely necessary to produce all Alchemic reactions. Also known as Transmutations - the changing into another nature, substance, form, or condition. Water to Ice. Glass to Steel. Iron to Gold." Some whispers erupted from that. Gold, the magic word. Anyone who knew about "alchemy" would know it's sole reason for existence was to search for a way to produce gold out of another substance and for… immortality. Of course, Elric knew this.
"Also, transmuting anything into gold is a capital offense. Anyone doing this…" He looked meaningfully at them and cracked his neck. "Now, back to the Transmutation Circle. This device is used to conduct the energy of the Alchemist. Sort of like… your…" he snapped how fingers, looking for a word, "wands. You can cast spells with them because it conducts your, shall we call it power? Or I assume. I would guess your "magic" doesn't come from the wands themselves. Rather are conductors. Hence, it wouldn't be too hard to believe that it is possible for someone of great skill to produce a "spell" without the use of your conductor… the wand."
A hand shot up immediately. "So it is possible to do Alchemy without a Transmutation Circle, professor?"
Edward Elric's hands flexed behind his back, his chin tilting down some as his eyes closed. Harry lowered his hand and glanced once at his friends then back at their new professor. His gold hair covered his eyes a fraction before he tilted his head back and looked at those green eyes with his gold hues iron-hard. "It is not possible. We are not gods... Mr. Potter, is it? Nor shall we pretend to be so. Alchemy is a science with rules that must be followed at all costs. I suggest you keep that in mind." He turned away and moved to his desk and picked up a pile of papers. He slapped it on the desk of the student in front of him. "Pass these out. All of you will have these memorized and put to heart. Understand them. If you have questions, don't be a dumbass and not ask. Better to look like a dunce than a numskull."
Hermione picked up the chart and looked it over quickly. She lifted a brow and pulled it closer, not sure if she was reading it wrong or not. Slapping it on her desk, she quickly lifted her hand. "Professor! Are you sure this is right? The table isn't complete. You made it far too short to be-"
A vein popped in his temple and he jerked around grabbing the front of her robes and shaking her with enough force to make her head wobble. "WHO THE HELL DID YOU CALL MINIATURE SIZED, YOU PUNK?"
"Bloody hell? What the fuck is wrong with you?" Ron grabbed the back of his coat and tugged, trying to pry those vises from Hermione's throat.
"Eh? Eh? Who's the bean? WHO'S THE BEAN?"
"Professor!"
The Slytherins grinned.
Well, there it is...
I reread it through several times but inevitably there will be a few mistakes from tense mistakes to typos. I understand that ^^;
Though, if I put some incorrect information in, I would like to know... Of course, remember, this is based off of the original FMA rather than FMAB!
Thanks and much love!
( oh, and that review box... it's very lonely down there. just tell it you love it and it won't cry those lonely tears... ]; )
