Chapter 2

Brother went off on his own when Professor McGonagall came to hear my final answer, mumbling something about Colonel Mustang. I told Professor McGonagall by myself that I'd try Hogwarts out for a year.

Professor McGonagall acknowledged my decision and said that she'd come again the next day to take me shopping in London for my school supplies. She said that she'd come back again to pick me up for the start of term too.

She showed up the next morning with an empty jelly bean carton. She said it would whisk me and her off to London, so I waved to the Rockbells and touched the carton.

I widened my eyes at the sharp yank that the carton used to pull me and Professor McGonagall through a colorful vortex. I looked around wide-eyed when it finally deposited us inside some pub.

I looked at people in colorful cloaks and at teas stirring themselves. I stared at some of the customers who were chatting away. "I don't recognize that language," I said to Professor McGonagall.

She sent a spell at me right away. "That's English, which you'll be learning this year. But until then, you'll have to make do with translation charms."

Professor McGonagall then lead me through the back door of the pub. I saw nothing but a brick wall and a trash can out there. "Um, there's nothing here, Professor."

"Yet." She used her wand to tap on the wall a couple of times.

The wall moved, its bricks rearranging themselves into an archway before my eyes. "Whoa. That reminds me of when you use alchemy to make an exit, Brother." I turned my head to the side, but Brother wasn't there – just Professor McGonagall.

Professor McGonagall spoke almost softly as she said, "I think your brother would have a poor reaction to magic here, just as he did in Amestris, but you yourself can certainly take the opportunity to enjoy yourself."

I nodded. I followed Professor McGonagall toward a giant marble building, and as I did, I stared at such sights as a girl slowly turning as pink as her ice cream and a couple of children chasing a miniature broomstick. I looked at the shops too, one in particular catching my eye. "A bookstore? We've just got to stop there. Look at all those books!"

I turned to look to my side, but I deflated on seeing Professor McGonagall there.

Professor McGonagall said nothing about Brother, giving me a glance instead. "We will," she said. "You can only get your required textbooks with your grant money, but you can exchange your own currency at the bank if you wish."

"Okay." I still glanced around at all the new sights while I followed Professor McGonagall, but I remained quiet all through the bank trip. I did open my mouth here and there, forming the first syllable of brother, but I closed my mouth quickly each time I did.

I visited many shops with Professor McGonagall as we bought my school supplies, but I liked the bookstore the best. "Professor McGonagall," I looked up at her, giving her my best puppy dog expression, "I know I didn't bring any money, but would you mind if I just looked around a bit? I always read books with my brother back home."

I watched her scan the store's rows of shelves, her eyes eventually landing on an old witch waiting in line. "I suppose you could window-shop for a few minutes, but you must stay in this shop or you will be serving detention when the school year begins."

I thanked her and ran over to the shelves, giving a curious glance to moving books in a cage on my way. I read the plaques on the ends of each shelf, noticing that the shelves were sorted by subject and that the nearest shelf began with subjects starting in z. I walked down the front aisle, looking at the subjects on each shelf.

I reached the far shelf and gasped. "Alchemy?"

Indeed, alchemy was included among the subjects I could explore along the far wall. I reverently walked down that row until I reached the alchemy section.

I lost track of how long I browsed that section, but I had to tear my eyes away from a book called Aunteres in Alkemy Strange when Professor McGonagall cleared her throat behind me. "Time to go, Mister Elric."

I nearly got trampled as I followed Professor McGonagall through Diagon Alley. "Could I learn alchemy in the magical world?"

"You could study alchemy at Hogwarts once you reach fifth-year status, provided that there's enough interest in the subject for us to offer a class. But you should know that alchemy has been losing popularity for centuries in our world, and you should also know that alchemy might be different in the magical world than the alchemy in your country – but you'd have to ask someone more knowledgeable in the subject."

I wasted no time to pause between my next questions. "Really? Could I take alchemy at Hogwarts? Could I talk to someone who could tell me more? Could I somehow get a hold of some magical alchemy books?" I took a breath and slowed down. "I just really want to learn more about wizards and alchemy. I'll teach myself from scratch if I have to, but I'd rather learn what's already been figured out first."

"I would talk to the headmaster, Professor Dumbledore, if I were you. He knows more about alchemy than anyone else at Hogwarts, and he is usually available to talk to students. He could probably recommend some alchemy books in the Hogwarts library that you would find especially useful."

I beamed. "Then I have one last question, Professor: how can I keep in touch with my brother?"

Professor McGonagall gave me a small smile when I started beaming. "You can borrow the owls that Hogwarts keeps for students without their own owls to deliver mail. Now, you'll behave yourself between now and September first?"

I nodded, returning Professor McGonagall's smile.

Professor McGonagall pulled out the empty jelly bean carton once again. "Good. I'll see you on the first."

I took my things up to the room where Brother and I were staying. I placed my books on a nightstand and picked up Magical Theory.

I was interrupted a bit later by Brother, who was examining my books. "Al, why are all the books in another language?"

I looked at Brother. "I'm going to a country that speaks English, so English is the language my books are in. I can understand my books because Professor McGonagall did something to help me – a translation charm, she said."

I caught Brother frowning, so I quickly changed the subject. "When I was at the bookstore, I found an alchemy section."

"Anything good, Al?"

I shrugged. "I knew I can't get anything but my school supplies until I can convert cenz into wizard money. But I can tell you that the bookstore had a small selection of alchemy books, and the books were all pretty old. I'd never actually heard of any of the books." I looked Brother in the eyes. "I asked Professor McGonagall about alchemy, and she said that the alchemy that wizards do might be different than the alchemy you and I studied."

Brother sat down. "What does that mean for your research?"

"It means I have to find out why wizard alchemy and normal alchemy are different. If wizards are already known to be capable of using the same alchemy everyone else does and are just using a different technique, it means that I still don't know why I can't perform alchemy. However, if the two alchemys are different at a fundamental level, it could be a lead in my research."

I heard rustling pages, and when I looked over, I saw Brother making a face at a book he was flipping through. "Suddenly understanding a foreign language? Che." He looked at me. "Would that really make magic more believable, knowing that some alchemists experiment with the human brain? It's a con."

I sighed and held up my copy of Magical Theory. "I don't think whatever Professor McGonagall did was alchemy – she only had that stick. I don't know what's up with me and English, but if I can find any wizards' materials that can help me with my research, it's this book. I don't just trust what the wizards are saying either, but I do want to know what they're saying. I'm taking notes on this book, Brother. Will you look them over with me?"

Brother shook his head, turning away from me. "Al, I don't care what the scams are saying about the power they're using. But you should do your own research." I pleaded with Brother to stay and help, but he didn't even look back as he left the room.

I was all packed for school a few days later. I was all packed when Professor McGonagall came to pick me up and take me to the train station.

I gave my goodbyes to Brother and the Rockbells, but before I could touch the goblet that Professor McGonagall had brought to transport us to the station, Brother cried out.

"Wait!" he said, red-faced. He pointed directly at Professor McGonagall. "You had better keep my little brother safe. You had better make sure your school gives him a chance to sharpen his mind. Or you won't be forgiven."

"I'll assure you once again that Hogwarts is the finest school in the wizarding world, and it is safer than anyplace else." Professor McGonagall stared Brother down. He met her eyes and gave her a quick nod, still scowling.

He softened his expression and looked at me.

"I'll be fine," I said. "I'll keep in touch. I promise."

"Yeah."

I reached out and touched the goblet that Professor McGonagall was holding. I was whisked away to a train station that was filled with school-aged children and their families. Children were bustling around and loading luggage onto the train. They were having last-minute talks with their families and forming small groups of similar ages. They were speaking in a language that was, once again, foreign to me.

I looked at the gleaming letters on the train's side, but I could understand them just as well as I could understand the people around me. I looked at Professor McGonagall. "Um, Professor? I can't understand anything."

Professor McGonagall pointed her wand at me again, and I could finally read the name of the train: Hogwarts Express. "You will take English classes in the evenings. But until you master the language, you will have to see your head of house to have translating spells put on you for daily use."

I nodded. "I kind of expected something like that, being asked to step into a foreign environment." I thanked Professor McGonagall for the spell, then I was shooed onto the train.

On board, I walked down the aisles, searching for an available compartment until I found one with two boys about my age.

One was looking at the other as though he were something smelly he'd peeled off his shoe, but the other was too engaged in waving to a middle-aged couple on the platform to notice. "Could I sit here?" I asked them.

"You might as well," the boy with the sneer on his face said. "You can't be any worse than him. Look at how enthusiastically he's waving to those low-lives. But then, that's to be expected from someone like him."

Neither boy protested as I took a seat. "I don't see anything wrong with waving to them. I'd be waving to my brother right now too, if he could have made it to this country to see me off. And my brother will always be my family after all, no matter what I learn differently at Hogwarts than how I would have learned things back home." I looked at the boy with a sneer on his face. "What about you? Don't you have anyone you want to wave goodbye to?"

He snorted. "I was taught to leave that kind of embarrassing public display to Mudbloods and blood traitors."

I gazed at him with heavy eyes. "That's too bad. Family's the best thing we have in life, and I always want to share the best of life with my family. I'm Alphonse Elric, by the way. Who are you?"

He told me his name was Malcom Baddock, and when I asked the other boy for his name, the other boy said he was Nigel Wolpert. The three of us talked for a while, although Malcom and Nigel spoke very little to each other.

We talked about our families sometime during the trip. Malcom came from a long line of wizards, and he had been expected to attend Hogwarts his whole life. He was expected to learn the way that proper wizards think and do things.

Nigel, on the other hand, was the first wizard in his family, but his parents were proud that he got the chance to learn magic. He had been told to give it his all. He and Malcom both had more support than I did.

I told the others that Brother and I were well-known researchers back home and that Brother wanted me to stay true to scientific reasoning. He was discouraging me from thinking like a wizard.

After I finished chatting with the others, I got out a picture of me and Brother. I gazed at it until it was time to get changed.

I set the picture down on the seat next to me. That would be the closest Brother would ever come to sitting next to me on the Hogwarts Express - that and the horrible memories that randomly came to mind as the train was searched by dark, hooded creatures.

I was sorted into Gryffindor with Nigel, and I watched Malcom get sorted into Slytherin. I kept talking to both of them over the first few days, even though they started acting weird because they'd heard strange rumors about me.

I took my notes on magical theory to the library within the first week. I browsed the library's alchemy section and checked books like Basik Theorie Alkemick and Cemyk Fylosofie against my notes.

I folded my arms on the table and plopped my head in them, letting out a quiet scream. "This just isn't the same stuff I learned."

I sat there for a while before I could bear to think about getting back to studying wizarding alchemy. When I finally sat up, I was surrounded by tables that were getting a little more full, and I caught other students gossiping about me – the first-year who never slept and never ate.

Before the other students could ask me if I really was a zombie or something, I packed my bag and checked out the library books. I headed to my own dorm in the Gryffindor tower, barely acknowledging Nigel as I passed him in the common room.

I dropped my bag next to my bed. Then I picked a picture of me and Brother up off my nightstand. "I sure wish you were here."

I set the picture down and got out a quill, some ink, and some parchment.

Dear Brother,

I don't fit in here at Hogwarts. I'm too scientifically-minded for the other students, and they gossip about my medical condition. I'm the only one who cares at all about magical theory – everyone else just accepts magic as magic.

It seems I'm the only one who cares about alchemy too. Although alchemy is offered as an elective for the older students, students here don't care enough about science to actually sign up for it.

Alchemy here seems different than what we studied together – even more so than how I thought it might be. I was left confused by just doing research in the library. I'll have to ask Professor Dumbledore – Hogwarts' alchemy expert – to help me understand it. I'll have to ask him to confirm that wizarding alchemy is truly different than Amestrian alchemy too.

If Professor Dumbledore confirms my suspicions about wizarding alchemy, I may be starting my experiments soon. I hope I can get the other students to understand more about science by the time I start. Anyway, I'm beginning to think I made a mistake coming to this school, but you'll support me at least, won't you, Brother?

Your younger brother,

Al

I folded the letter up neatly and put it in an envelope, smiling briefly at the picture on my nightstand. I quickly wrote a letter to the Rockbells as well before heading off to the Owlery.