Chapter 1: In Which the Elrics (plus Alfons) Meet their Relations, and (Attempt to) Get their Letters.

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Harry Potter was bored. Very, very bored. Because the Dursleys did not trust him in their car, and Mrs. Figg was unable to watch him, he had been locked in his cupboard under the stairs until the Dursleys returned from their errand, of which they refused to mention the details to Harry. However, a few days ago he had overheard a tantrum of Dudley's, and from what he had heard, there were three children coming to live with them. Who these children were and why they were coming to live with the Dursleys was a mystery, but Harry pitied them, whoever they were.

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Dudley Dursley, meanwhile, was also very bored. He was sitting in the back of the car, with his parents in front. They were on their way to the train station, to pick up Dudley's three cousins who were moving in with them. Dudley was not very happy about this, to say the least. Having his cousins come meant that his second bedroom was no longer his, and would be used for his cousins. Dudley didn't want anyone in his bedroom, whether or not he actually used it, and he had made this clear through several tantrums. His parents had not listened, though (can you blame them? Like they really had a choice where to put them). And so Dudley sat sulking in the back of the car, waiting for the long and boring drive to end. He hoped that his cousins would be smaller than he was, so that he could bully them like he did Harry.

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"Big Brother, how much longer until we get to the station?"

"Not much longer, I think. We should be there in a few minutes." Ed, Al, and Alfons were sitting in the train compartment, just as bored as Harry and Dudley. Ed and Al were looking forward to meeting their aunt and uncle. It had been a delightful surprise to see their mother, after everything that had happened. They couldn't bring themselves to mention their attempt to bring her back to life, and Ed wondered if they had made the right decision in not telling their mother. If they had told her, would she have been able to prevent it?

Ed sighed, and looked down at his automail hand. With the help of Alfons, he had managed to use the schematics to transmute it to the proper size while still keeping every piece working properly, but the added density made it much heavier than it had originally been. His leg was the same way. It was a good thing that Edward was as strong as he was, or it would have been much more difficult for him to move. However, Ed wasn't nearly as fast as he had been, and nowhere near as agile.

"Did your mother mention what her relatives were like?" asked Alfons, cutting into Edward's train of thought. "I know she mentioned that they had a son, who was around ten or eleven, and I saw the picture she gave you of your aunt and uncle, but I didn't hear much else about them."

"Our mother said that she was a bit strict," replied Ed. "She also said that they 'disapprove of unnatural occurrences.' I'm not entirely sure what she meant by that, but I suppose it means that Al and I shouldn't use alchemy around them. Sorry, Alfons, but I guess we're going to have to wait to continue teaching you alchemy."

Alfons laughed. "That's alright, I don't think alchemy is ever going to be something I'm good at. I prefer rocket science."

Al grinned. "It's a shame that you couldn't help when they sent the first rockets to the moon. That was amazing to watch, though."

"Yeah, that was incredible. It's amazing how much technology has advanced since the beginning of the century," said Ed. "By the way, we've arrived."

The three boys hurried to grab their luggage and leave the train. There wasn't much luggage to grab, though. A long time ago, they had converted Winry's case for Ed's automail into a suitcase to carry everything they owned, which was the automail schematics, a few tools for maintenance, their passports (they had to travel often), some clothes, a few photos, and Ed's old research notes, which Al happened to be carrying when he went through the Gate.

As they left the train, Al immediately recognized his aunt and uncle from the picture their mother had shown them. Their Aunt Petunia was thin and blonde with a very long neck, while their Uncle Vernon was pretty much the exact opposite and had a very large moustache. As they had not seen a picture of their cousin, though, they were quite unprepared for the giant blonde hippopotamus, which was introduced to them as Dudley Dursley.

While the Elrics (plus Alfons) were somewhat prepared for the sight that awaited them, the Dursley were not. All three children were dressed in clothes that looked as though they had been around for a few decades (which they probably were), and were severely outdated and old-fashioned. All three were at least a foot shorter than Dudley, the shortest of them by about a foot and a half. The shortest one had gold eyes and messy gold hair that Aunt Petunia swore she would cut at the first opportunity that arose. While gold eyes are unusual, the other two children would have been able to bewilder the world's greatest geneticist.

If one were to see a black-and-white photograph of the two, they would automatically assume that the two were identical twins. In reality, though, their hair and eye colors were so different that they could not possibly have been related. While one bore resemblance to the shorter boy and had hair and eyes in the same color, only a bit darker, the other had white-blond hair and ice blue eyes, and bore absolutely no resemblance to the other child. Because the Dursleys were never the sort to believe in unnatural occurrences, however, they dismissed his unusual appearance as hair dye and a recessive genetic trait.

"You must be our aunt and uncle. It's very nice to meet you, Mr. And Mrs. Dursley," said Al. "We are very grateful that you have taken us in, on such short notice."

"Well I can hardly avoid doing a favor for Trisha," said Mrs. Dudley, somewhat relaxed by the polite way in which Alphonse had greeted them. Mr. Dursley glanced impatiently at his watch. "Hurry up," he snapped. "We haven't got all day. The car is right over there. Put your things in back and let's go." As they piled into the car and left, the Dursleys occasionally asked questions about the boys, but the car ride was mostly silent. It was very fortunate that the car ride hadn't been any longer, because Dudley had quickly gotten bored with the conversation and was about to ask Ed why he was so much shorter than his brothers when they pulled into the driveway.

"Here we are. Get your things and take them to the bedroom farthest down the hall, on your right," Mr. Dudley instructed. They did as they were told. Once they entered the room, Al began to unpack while Ed and Alfons discussed their relatives.

"They seem nice enough," said Alfons. "Although, I have to admit that this room isn't exactly big enough for three people." Ed shrugged. "I agree, but it doesn't really matter. We're probably not going to stick around for more than a few years, and we've stayed in worse places."

"I don't know. For some reason, I don't really feel all that welcome here. And I don't really like the look of our cousin. He seems rather unpleasant to me," said Alphonse. Alfons shrugged. "Well, we don't know much about them yet, so it's probably unwise to jump to conclusions," he said, and glanced at the clock on the wall. "Let's go back downstairs, and see if we can't help with anything. It's about noon. We have plenty of time to talk later." As they went down the stairs and into the hall, they were met by and unfamiliar face.

"Um, hello," said Al. "Who are you?"

The boy seemed rather surprised to see the three of them, and it took him a moment to answer. "I'm Harry Potter. I'm a nephew of Mr. And Mrs. Dursley. And you are?"

Al introduced them, and then told Harry that they were also related to the Dursleys. In the conversation that followed, they picked up several useful pieces of information. They discovered that it was best to stay away from Dudley, as he liked to bully people he thought were weaker than him. Also, Harry told them that the Dursleys would not stand even the smallest mention of anything out of the ordinary, and hated to be asked questions. Harry was very friendly and talkative, and took an immediate liking to his three cousins. For the rest of the day they spent their time with Harry.

Later that afternoon, Dudley and his gang met, and Dudley decided to engage in his favorite pastime: Harry Hunting. Earlier, Harry had taken his three cousins to the park nearby, and so Dudley and his gang chose to head over there. When they arrived at the park, though, they changed their minds about the rest of their afternoon activities. When they arrived, they had seen Edward and Alphonse sparring, while Harry watched with astonishment and Alfons laughed at Harry's expression. One of Dudley's gang suggested that they weren't in the mood to go Harry Hunting and would much rather do something else, though everyone knew that there was an unspoken agreement to never, ever go Harry Hunting while he was with his cousins.

The rest of the day was uneventful, but in was what would happen over the course of the next few days that would dramatically alter the lives of four inhabitants of the Dursley residence.

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The next morning Edward, Al, and Alfons were greeted with a horrible smell upon entering the kitchen. They chose not to comment. For Al and Alfons, their silence was due to manners, but the only thing keeping Ed from saying anything was a glare from Al that promised lots of hurt if Ed opened his mouth. When Harry came in and asked what it was, Mrs. Dursley looked disapproving but told him that she was dyeing some of Dudley's old clothes gray for their school uniforms. Harry looked slightly depressed at this. As he sat down next to Ed, Ed muttered to him, "Cheer up. At least it wasn't the breakfast that smelled so horrible." Harry grinned at him.

Soon after Dudley and Mr. Dursley arrived, they heard the sound of the mail arriving, and Alfons offered to go and get it. Most of the letters that arrived looked to be average letters, but there were four that stood out from the rest. Each was made of a heavy parchment, and in emerald green ink the sender had written where they lived, even including the room that they slept in. Alfons had not sent or received a letter in many, many years, but even he knew that letter were not normally addressed in this fashion. The letters were for him, Ed, Al, and Harry. When he turned the envelope over he saw a strange wax seal bearing a coat of arms, but he didn't examine it very carefully before Uncle Vernon yelled at him to hurry up.

He gave all of the mail to Uncle Vernon, and the moment Uncle Vernon saw the strange letters he turned white. He showed them to his wife, who looked as though she would faint after she opened and read one of them. Ed gave Alfons a puzzled look. "What was wrong with those letters?" he whispered. Alfons was just as surprised as Ed. "I have no idea. They were addressed to the three of us and Harry. The way they were addressed was a little strange, but I didn't think anything of it."

Dudley started to yell that he wanted to read the letter, and Harry, who had overheard that one letter belonged to him, also demanded to see it. At this point, Uncle Vernon furiously demanded that they leave, and Ed, Al, and Alfons went back to their room while Harry and Dudley stayed behind to listen at the door.

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Over the next few days, the Elrics(plus Alfons) unanimously agreed that their uncle was insane. Letters kept arriving, and every time they found their way in Uncle Vernon boarded up more and more portions of the house. It wasn't until about thirty or forty letters exploded from the fireplace that Mr. Dursley really went insane. He made them all pack their bags and leave, driving away for hours and hours until stopping at a hotel. Needless to say, when the owner of the hotel came to tell him that about a hundred letters for them were sitting at the from desk, Uncle Vernon was less that pleased.

They drove off again, only stopping when Mr. Dursley left the car and came back with a long, skinny package whose contents remained a mystery to the other inhabitants of the car. After a while it began to storm, and a few hours later the four would-be recipients of the unusual letters found themselves huddled together on the floor of a hut on a rock surrounded by water. Edward was still trying to think of a reason why anyone would want to build a hut on a rock in the middle of nowhere, and Alphonse was starting to think that coming to stay with their mother's relatives was not such a good idea.

Glancing at his watch, Harry could tell that it was almost midnight. "Did you guys hear that?!" asked Alfons, looking the direction of the door. "I could've sworn I heard someone's footsteps outside…"

"It was probably just the waves hitting the rocks," said Harry. Just then there was a loud BOOM and the whole hut shook. Someone was knocking on the door.

"Or maybe not," said Edward.

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Hello, again. Thank you to the people who reviewed, because I always appreciate it. This chapter puts the Elrics and Alfons in the book around chapter three, but after this chapter I plan on having each chapter correspond with the chapter in the book. There will be two other characters from FMA that will show up later in the story, but I haven't decided whether to put them in starting with Diagon Alley or the Hogwarts Express. Sorry if it takes me a while to update the story, as I am a major procrastinator and it takes me a while to get focused on the story. Please, if you read, review! I know a lot of people don't, but it is motivating to see that people actually want you to continue the story.