Chapter 2: Diagon Alley
"Damn it! I'm going to be late!" yelled Ed as he raced toward the train station. "Grr...why does Hughes keep calling me when I told him any gift was fine for his daughter? Oh wait, today's my birthday too... I didn't even get any cake!"
Ed stopped and felt his stomach rumble. "Uh... WAIT! The train!" Ed raced to the train even faster. He just got on the train as it was about to depart. 'Good I made it,' Ed said to himself. Ed walked around the train until he found an empty seat with a girl who looked about his age sitting in it. "May I sit down?" Ed asked the girl.
"Sure" said the girl. Ed realized she had a British accent. "So where are you headed? I'm going to England to meet up with my family."
"I'm going to England too!" Ed said in a friendly voice. "I'm going to someplace called Diagon Alley. Have you heard of it?" Ed opened a map to see how much distance it was between London, England, and Munich, Germany.
"You must be a wizard then," the girl said in a curious voice. "What's your name? I'm Hermione Granger. I haven't seen you at school; are you a first year?"
Ed twitched at the first year comment. "Are you calling me short or something?" Ed asked in a sharp tone, "This is my first year, but I'm sixteen! My name is Edward Elric."
"Oh sorry," said Hermione, "It's weird that Dumbledore waited this long to send your letter. Anyway, did you see the Quiddich games recently? They're really interesting, aren't they?"
"Quiddich…uh, never heard of it yet. I'm not that interested in sports," Ed said in a calmer voice, "Anyway what's this Wizard school like anyway?"
"Oh it's amazing! We've got enchanted halls and thousands of books!" Hermione went on excitingly for hours and hours until the train arrived at London. Hermione got up first, then Ed followed. "Do you know the way to Diagon Alley? I'll show you." She led Ed all around London until finally they reached Diagon Alley.
"So, what's with the robes?" Ed asked Hermione, "Some have weird hats and owls following them—they're really weird!"
"Oh, you call them weird, well, not many boys have long hair and are as short as a bean!" Hermione said furiously.
"Who the hell are you calling short! And I'm just saying there a bit strange; you don't see other people in London dressed in robes and weird hats!" Ed yelled extremely loudly so that many people heard them, including Ron and Harry who were walking over to Gringotts to pick up some money.
"Hey Hermione, you got here pretty fast," Harry yelled from a few feet away, "Who's your friend there? He looks too short to be a sixth year like us."
Ed got a demented look on his face. "What is it with you people calling me short? I'm not short!" Ed looked around to prove this and saw some midget guy; he ran over to him. "See, this is what people call short!" yelled Ed as he was pointing to the midget.
"You idiot!" Hermione cried as she ran up and slapped Ed across the face. "You idiot! You're very rude to make fun of a midget! They have no choice of being small! You probably just don't drink milk or something!"
'She's just like Winry,' Ed thought to himself. "Well, sorry for making fun of someone's size, I just thought it would be fun for me to do it for once. So, show me around; how long until we go to this Hogwarts place?"
"Well, first you have to get your books and your wand since you haven't been to Hogwarts yet, or any magic school for that matter. You have money in gringotts right?" Hermione asked Ed.
"Well um... no. I actually have no idea about magic or anything," Ed said with a grin. He noticed the three teens had a confused face. "So um, I know Hermione; what are your names?"
"Oh I'm Ron Weasley"
"And I'm Harry Potter" Harry expected a reaction from Ed but he just shrugged. "So Ed, do you live around here?"
"Uh...no I live in Germany with my dad." Ed stretched his arms out; he was tired from listening to Hermione talk about Hogwarts. "So is there a hotel here or something? I'm tired."
"Sure we'll go after we buy all our stuff." Hermione said in a happy voice.
Ed just groaned as they went to almost every shop to buy robes, books, Ed's wand, and more. They ended up spending a ton of money. They reached the hotel after hours of shopping. "So now can you please explain this magic thing?" Ed asked.
"Well, first it's weird that you know nothing about magic and you are going to Hogwarts this late in your life," Ron said curiously, "Anyway, magic lets you perform things like levitation and transfiguration."
"Oh well, I'll learn fast. There is a library, right? I'll learn fast." Ed looked at the window. "It looks like that owl wants to get in." Ed pointed to the window and went to open it. The owl flew in with four letters, each of them addressed to either Harry, Ron, Hermione, or Ed.
The letter read:
Dear student,
This year in Hogwarts you are required to take one of the following three classes. These classes are: Voodoo, Government, and Alchemy. Note - these classes start third term.
Your headmaster,
Dumbledore
"Hmm...well, none of them seem too interesting. Government—that's something we just wouldn't want to do. Voodoo—that's like evil and torture. And alchemy... that's the art Flamel did, right? I don't know much about it though." said Hermione as she checked out the list. She looked over at Ed who had a shocked look on his face. "Ed, are you all right?"
Ed looked up "Alchemy huh... so it can be done here," he said to himself. "Ah nothing; I'm fine. I think I'll take Alchemy—at least I know a bit about it!" Ed said so the others could hear.
"Anyway, we don't have to pick right now and it's late. Let's all go to sleep," said Harry as he went to turn the light in the corner off, "Goodnight everyone!" he called as the lights turned off. Instead of doing this, Ed took a walk to the lobby where there was a phone he could use.
"Bring, Bring, Bring," the phone in Germany rang until Hoenheim picked up. "Hello?" he said into the phone.
"Hi Dad!" came the answer.
"Ed! Grr...why did you have to leave today? This guy Hughes came here looking for you. He spent about five hours asking me where you were and three hours showing me pictures of his daughter!"
"Sorry Dad!" Ed said in a humorous voice.
"Well anyway, how've you been? Is it hard learning magic?"
"I haven't started yet, but listen; they have an alchemy class in the school! There may be a way home!"
"I see…Ed, look into it and call me if you find anything. It's late so good night."
"Ya, bye."
"Bye." Ed hung up and returned to the room; it'd been a long day and he was tired.
