Peregrinum – strange, foreign, alien

(blah) : Amestrian

{blah} : Xingese

[blah]: English

The quiet, peaceful morning on Grimmauld Place, London was disrupted by a yelp of surprise.

Molly Weasley had opened the front door and expected to find the Muggle newspaper that Dumbledore had requested they subscribe to. She had most certainly not anticipated finding a bloody, sleeping boy on their doorstep.

Her mothering instincts kicked in, and she gently pulled the sleeping young man inside.

Edward awoke to the noise of heated arguing. For a small, hopeful moment he thought he was perhaps in Central and the voices belonged to Mustang and Hawkeye, but as he listened closer he realized with a sinking feeling that the voices used a language he had never heard before.

Damnit… alright Elric, time to get up and face the world… or whatever world I'm in.

Prying his eyes open, Edward ascertained that he was in a kitchen of some sort. He was laid out on a table with nothing but his boxers on. A cursory look about the room showed his clothes were draped over a nearby chair and thankfully free of blood. He went to sit up and retrieve them, but was halted by a deep ache in his chest. It seemed like every breath took a little more effort and caused a little more pain.

Oh, right, I just had a spear in me. At least that boy was nice enough to do… whatever he did. Was it Alkahestry? But there was no circle, he didn't even clap!

Moving slower this time, Ed gradually eased himself into a sitting position on the edge of the table. Casting a wary glance at the door from which the bickering was coming from, he lowered himself to the floor and quietly walked to where his clothes were. He had just started buttoning up his shirt when the door opened and several people barged in, still arguing. They hadn't noticed he was awake yet, so Ed took the time to observe them.

There was a rather large, loud woman who was doing most of the yelling. ["He's a boy, not a Death Eater Alastor!"]She was wearing a plain brown dress and an apron, and her hair was the brightest red he's ever seen. She was the motherly type, he could tell from the worry lines.

The other main combatant was a very scarred, rather old looking man. From the way he moved and walked, Edward could tell that one of his legs was fake. His voice was deep and grating. ["You need to learn to be more suspicious, Molly! You'll get us all killed!"] The man turned his head Edward almost gasped when he saw that one of his eyes also looked fake, it was a bright blue and whizzed about wildly in his head.

The last person, who appeared to be mediating between the two, ["Will you both calm down, your yelling is going to wake her up!"], was a pale, thin looking man with chin, length black hair and black eyes. He looked like he'd been handsome once, and was on the way to being so again, but Ed could see the creases on his face. The man had been though a lot.

A lull seemed to appear in the argument, and Ed's time of not being noticed ended.

They stared at him.

He stared at them.

Edward swallowed. ("Umm… hello. Can you tell me where I am?")

Sirius Black was having a rather interesting day. After all, it wasn't every day strange boys were found on your doorstep covered in blood. It was an almost refreshing change from the norm.

The Weasley children were all thankfully asleep, and most of the Order was either at their day jobs or on assignment, leaving only himself, Molly and Moody to deal with the unexpected visitor. Alastor had been dead set on leaving him in a gutter, but after a good look at the boy's left forearm he had to concede to Molly, though not without much argument.

The kid seemed harmless enough to Sirius, however he was very concerned that he could get though the Fidelius Charm. Was he a spy, or perhaps an Order member that Albus had hidden from them?

There was another shock after they had removed his clothes and saw that his right arm and left leg were metal and his skin was riddled with scars. Alastor became even more insistent that they be rid of him, though Sirius thought he might just be jealous at being outdone by a boy in the lost of limb department.

A sleepwalking Ginny forced the three adults out of the room for a bit, where they continued their debate at increasingly louder volumes. At that point, Sirius just wanted to shut them up before they woke up his mother's portrait. When they reentered the kitchen where they had left the boy, they were so caught up in their argument that they didn't notice he was awake and staring at them.

The first thing Sirius noticed was his eye color. For a moment he thought the boy must have been a werewolf before realizing that not even werewolves' eyes were so striking, they were more an amber color while his were liquid gold. Secondly, he realized that he was not a boy. Now that Sirius could see his face clearly, he was obviously a young man, perhaps seventeen or eighteen.

There was an awkward silence, before the golden-eyed man cleared his throat and spoke, disappointingly, in a language that reminded Sirius of German. ("Umm… hello. Can you tell me where I am?")

Alastor growled. ["Speak English, boy!"]

The blonde's eyebrows scrunched together. He tried again in a vaguely oriental sounding language. {"Do you speak Xingese?"}

Moody sighed. ["Translation spell it is then."] He took out his wand and pointed it at the newcomer who immediately reacted, moving out of the way. He kept his golden eyes on the wand with a doubtful but wary look. Alastor, of course, took the dodge as a hostile action and threw a stunner at the young man before either he or Molly could stop him.

All three adults were rather confused when instead of crumpling to the ground the target was lifted into the air. The stranger seemed quite unhappy with this and was yelling in the first language he used. ("Goddamed bastards! Put me down! What did you do?")

Molly stuttered. ["B-but, didn't you use Stupefy? I heard you say it!"]

["Yeah, I did."] Alastor's eyes narrowed and his wand lifted again. ["Reducto!"]

Both Sirius and Molly made sounds of disapproval, but that was silenced when instead of throwing the floating man across the room, the spell made the clothes he was wearing turn lime green.

The man stopped wriggling midair; instead he stared at Moody with a raised eyebrow. ("Really? Really? Why did you turn my clothes green of all things? And how?")

["It would appear,"] Alastor said, ["that magic doesn't work right around our young friend here."]

Sirius stared curiously at the straw-haired man. ["You think he's a Muggle?"]

Molly shook her head. ["There are anti-Muggle wards all over the place; we wouldn't have been to bring him inside if he was."]

The odd young man started babbling again in his language. ("Hey, could you guys let me down? Please?") He made gestures between himself and the floor. Alastor pointed his wand at him and used the stunning spell again which seemed to have the desired effect as the now lime green colored man fell with a thump.

Molly rushed to his side and helped him up from the floor. ["Oh the poor dear, he's had enough, don't you think?"]

Whatever anyone was going to say in reply was lost when the stranger started coughing up blood. The other three in the room stared in shock but the blonde merely smiled with bloody lips.

("Heh, I'm just like Teacher now.")

A/N: ... what? I just felt like writing. Don't get used to it!

The illustrious beta for this fic is none other than torihito!