Author's Note: And here's chapter three guys! I hope you like it!
Disclaimer: WolfishMoon does not own either Hiromu Arikawa's Fullmetal Alchemist or J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter. She never claims the contrary and makes no money off of the online publication of this free-to-read fanwork.
The Scientist's Lament
Chapter Three
Confrontation, Three Ways
Following that first day, Granger arrived a good fifteen minuets early. Edward snorted and generally ignored her as he graded the previous day's lab work. The labs reflected a general laziness and a certain ammount of inaccuracy. Generally. Granger somehow managed to write out her reports with a certain elegance that Ed had not seen since Hawkeye's millitary paperwork.
He hadn't been expecting even a single perfect lab. He shook it off, but then as days went on he began to seriously wonder what the hell she was doing in a summer class. The Ed of old would've asked her straight out, but he'd gotten better at subtlety. Or, Al had gotten more assertive, anyway. After two weeks of Alphonse's restraint, the two went to the principal first.
"Vhat gives?" Ed asked Jenkins. "Vhy do I have actually intelligent student in my class?"
"Bruder!"
"Now Mr. Elric," she said. "Every student has special strengths and weakne-"
"Oh cut ze shit. You know vhat I mean." Ed glared at the two of them and crossed his arms.
"Vat mein bruder means to say," Alphonse began, "Iz zat ze girl in qvestion - aces? - aces all ov her assignments. Ve cannot believe zat she vailed ze class vonce alvready."
Jenkins sighed and looked from one brother to the other. After a brief moment, she sighed again. "I'll look up the her transcript. What's her name?"
"Hermione Granger," Edward said, and Jenkins nodded, typing into the computer that sat at her desk. Edward was still amazed at the thing. Imagine if Winry saw one of those! His chest tightened painfully at the thought. Jenkins glanced at the file.
"Oh, that's who you're talking about," she said, peering over her lavender rimmed glasses. "She doesn't actually go here during the regular school year. She's asked to just take the bare minimum classes she can to graduate and take them in the summer."
"Vas? Really? Vhy?" Ed leaned forward on the desk, ignoring Alphonse's grip on his sleeve.
Jenkins shook her head. "I've no idea. I get the feeling that she takes some sort of specialized classes during the usual school months that neglect the more usual academic pursuits."
"Every student I know of who's done zat eizer finished high school first, or else swapped it, pursuing separate studies in zee summer," Ed said, rubbing at the automail port on his left thigh.
Jenkins shrugged. "I don't know her personally," she said. "So I don't know anything beyond that. Apparently she did the same thing in junior high."
"So iz she taking her classes zee summer after she should have alvready, or iz she taking zem zee summer before?" he asked, forcing himself to stop rubbing at the port. Jenkins was already suspicious, he knew, and this world was far, far, behind in prosthetic science. Of course they were far ahead in almost every other pursuit, so Ed didn't really understand the hold up, but regardless. Someone sussing out his automail would be more than an inconvenience.
"The summer before, so she would be going into her Third form," Jenkins said, glancing at the transcript. "That much I can tell you."
"So she iz year younger zan zee ozers. Is all really veird. I vonder vhy." Jenkins nodded in response to that, and Ed took it as a dismissal. He stood and gave Al a hand at standing. Together, they surveyed the room. After a moment, Ed looked at Jenkins and finally asked what he'd wanted to since first entering the office. "Vhy zee hell iz your vallpaper lavender?"
Alphonse tilted his head apologetically beside him.
Jenkins laughed. "Apparently it puts people at ease," she said. "Everything else is too spartan for a school teacher." She gestured at her lavender glasses, "You can see I use the effect liberally."
Ed nodded. He could understand that, putting out a soft exterior so as to hide steel. He looked at the pant leg that hid his automail. Yes, he definitely understood that. He settled on a simple "Understandable."
"Now you've got something out of me," Jenkins said, and Ed saw her mouth draw into a hard line. "What about you?"
"Zere is nothink about us," Ed said.
Jenkins shook her head. "There is," she said - and she said it in German. "I've never heard your dialect of German before - and I've traveled there extensively."
Panic clawed at Ed's throat, but he got himself together. "We're from some ass backwards little village you've never heard of," Ed said. "So our dialect is one you wouldn't necessarily be familiar with."
Jenkins's eyes narrowed behind her lavender glasses. "Feed your brother better," she said. "He's skin and bones."
Ed looked at her sideways.
"Don't blame my brother! I was sick," Al said, giving an admirable set of pitiable puppy eyes. "For a long time. I'm better now, but my body atrophied."
Jenkins nodded. "I care about my students," she said. "And while you may be faculty and faculty family, Ed is the youngest person on payroll."
Ed was full ready to launch into a NOT-SHORT-DAMNIT tirade, but was cut off by a heavy sigh from the principal's corner. "I won't pry too much," she said.
"We appreciate that," Al said. Ed put his atrophied right hand on Al's shoulder, nodded his agreement.
"Good luck with Miss Granger," Jenkins said switching back into English.
After a moment's pause, Ed decided to follow her lead. "Vee vill figure her out eventually," he said in English. "Zank you for zee info."
Hermione was in English when she she realized she'd left her Chemistry textbook in that classroom. And it was Friday too. She'd absolutely need it for the weekend. "Oh for the love of-" she cut herself off before she could say 'Merlin,' glancing nervously at the muggles around her.
"What's wrong?" the girl next to her asked.
"Nothing, Jessica. I just left my Chemistry textbook at that class," she said. Jessica nodded.
"You can get it after this class. I'll go with you." For a girl who'd flunked Third form English, Jessica was very sweet.
"No thank you, I'll be okay," Hermione said, flushing deeply when her teacher told her to stop talking. She didn't like her English teacher all that much.
Though Al had put her textbook to the side, Ed had not actually thought Granger would come back for it. But she did.
"Hello, Hermione!" greeted Alphonse, as she stuck her nose around the door frame.
"Hello," she said. "I forgot my textbook."
"On zee counter," Alphonse said, "Vee had to get it out of zee vay."
"Right," she said. "Thank you."
As she put her textbook into her rucksack, Ed stood from his desk chair.
"Bruder," Alphonse said, warningly. Edward looked at him, sighed, and turned back to Granger.
"Equivalent Exchange. Mankind cannot obtain anyzing vizout first giving up somezing of equal value. You tell me vhy you only go to school in summer, I teach you somezing more complex zan basic Chemistry." He was reaching and he knew it, but his curiosity was through the roof. Granger looked up from her bag and her eyes widening, hand flying to her pocket. She seemed to catch herself, settled her hand on her hip and hardened her eyes in a way that Edward wasn't expecting.
He wondered what was in her pocket.
Alphonse admonished him in Amestrian. "Are you crazy, brother?" But Al's eyes trained themselves on Granger's pocket. Her stance had a wide - eyed innocent look that Hawkeye's had lacked, but she stood like the leutenant did when she was ready to draw.
Granger looked carefully at Ed's face before turning her attention to Alphonse and back again.
"The Law of Conservation," she said, shoudlers settling. "I'm afraid I cannot accept the deal."
Ed raised an eyebrow. "Vhy not? I can tell you for zee erudite you are. You vant knowledge."
She slung her bag over her shoulder and brushed her hair out of her eyes. The few centimeters she had on him seemed huge now. She was not quite battle hardened, Ed decided, but he found himself wondering what she'd seen despite himself. It was certainly not nothing.
Hermione was silent for another moment before she said, "It's not something I can tell."
Ed sighed, sat on the edge of his cluttered desk. "Zat, I do understand."
"Does that mean you'll teach me anyway?" she asked, slowly backing to the door. Her hand had inched down to her pocket, but she still maintained a faux casual stance. But it was the sort of stance she could draw from quickly.
Edward snorted, surprised at both the child's spine, and her stance. "Nein."
"Equivalent exchange, I guess," Hermione said, smiling. She straightened her shoulders and exited the classroom. "Have a good day, Professor," she called over one shoulder. "Alphonse." It was still at rather sorry attempt at being casual.
Ed had no idea why she called him 'professor,' but he suspected it had to do with all of the other oddness that surrounded her. He lifted his hand in acknowledgement and picked up his own bag.
What the hell was the girl into?
"Brother," Al said in Amestrian. "Stay out of it."
"But I want to know!" he said.
"You're like a dog with a bone," Al said. "But I'll admit I want to know too."
Hermione struggled to keep herself from running. She knew that only going to school in the summer was suspicious, but her teachers had never confronted her about it so blatantly before. She walked out of the high school as quickly as she could. Her mother caught her shoulder.
"What's wrong?" she asked. Hermione looked over her shoulder to see the Elrics walking out of the school, smiling and joking with each other. At the sight of her, they looked up, eyes going warily to her mother. Hermione gave them a tentative wave.
"Later," she said.
"It's one of those blond boys, isn't it?" her mother smirked at her, as though Hermione had a silly little crush. Hermione gave Jean an incredulous stare, but realized that she was just trying to lighten the atmosphere.
"Man and boy, actually," Hermione said. "My chemistry teacher and his brother. They're asking questions about my unusual enrollment."
Hermione's mother looked at her with bright hazel eyes. "You're worried."
Hermione nodded. "They're both mad smart," she said. "And it would be disastrous if they found me out. And not just for me."
Jean didn't respond to that. She probably doesn't even know what to say, the teenaged witch thought.
When she got home, Hermione packed up her robes, casual, formal, and uniform, bringing along only two sets of muggle clothing. It was time to leave for the Burrow. A month with her parents was wonderful, but the day was here and it was time for her to go back to the relative safety of Order and Weasley protection.
Ed cursed. Clearly, he'd been a little too bold in that whole manoeuver, he thought as he rubbed at his atrophied wrist. He had a feeling that Granger would not let anything slip now that she'd been warned.
"You have to lay off, brother."
She'd also clearly alerted a parent, and if the girl was into something dangerous, but still got picked up by a parent, then the odds are the parents were involved too.
He shared this with Alphonse, who sighed and said, "You need to stop obsessing, brother."
"Come on, Al!"
Alphonse sighed. "Fine," he said, before sharing his own speculations. "I don't think her parents are involved."
"What?"
"You saw the way Hermione reached for that weapon in her pocket," he said. "She was as ready to draw as Hawkeye on a bad day."
"So? What does that have to do with her parents?" Ed asked, fiddling with the end of his braid.
Alphonse readjusted his shoulder bag. "Her mother wasn't like that at all. In fact, though she seemed nervous towards the end of what we saw, she didn't channel that nervousness in the same way a soldier would - the same way Hermione did."
Ed was forced to concede the point.
Word Count: 2032
Now to that special part of the day where you critique my writing. Please be honest and forthcoming. I want to improve, and criticism helps tremendously.
Happy Thanksgiving to my US readers!
