Harry groaned, it was nearly the end of the week, just a few more classes and then he would be free for two days. He spun at the sound of the loud annoying singing voice floating from behind. He knew that voice anywhere. Peeves, the resident Poltergeist who always found it amusing to sing about 'Potty' as much as he could. It was with a sigh of relief that he realized the song was not about him this time. Listening in hopes it was focused on Malfoy, he nearly died of shock.
"Widdle Eddie's got a girlie!" the poltergeist sang loudly.
The dreadful song was drown out quickly by the sound of Ed yelling, "WHO ARE YOU CALLING A MUNCHKIN?" After a moment, there was a loud thump and the crowd parted to show Ed had tackled the poltergeist. Luckily for Peeves, there was not much that the alchemist could do with only one arm. His right arm was still hanging limply at his side, unable to move it without extreme pain.
The boy who lived quickly rushed to Ed's side and pulled him off the poltergeist. "You'll only get into trouble, and we can not be late for Potions!" Ed let himself be pulled off slowly realizing that what his friend said was true. It seemed that Professor Snape and Colonel Mustang had turned into good friends, both had the same views. Children were horrible, and it was best to torture them whenever possible. Ed had always thanked the lord, even though he did not believe in God, for there being only one Mustang. Now, however, his faith in a lack of a god had increased. There were two Mustangs.
"You've been dragging your arm all week, what's wrong with it?" Harry asked curiously as they made their way to the dungeons.
Ed just shrugged a shoulder and gave him the typical excuse, "It was an old alchemy wound. I would have Madame Pomphrey treat it, but she can't."
"What about Professor Mustang?" the dark haired boy asked.
"Like I would let him near my arm!" the alchemist scoffed at the remark. "He would only make it worse!"
Harry couldn't help but laugh, though he fell silent as they entered the potions room. The pair split up, Ed to sit next to Neville and Harry to sit with Ron. Professor Snape swept into the room, cloak billowing behind him. "Take out your quills and parchment. Copy down the ingredients on the board and start making the potion. We will test it at the end of class," the man said quietly before stopping behind his desk. His eyes landed on Neville, "And don't screw this up too horribly, Mr. Longbottom."
The class painfully dragged their cauldrons out, except Ed. The alchemist had free reign in his classes; he could use his alchemy where he thought it applied and try to integrate the two. Before he could start to draw the alchemy circle, the door to the dungeon opened.
Many of the girls turned and sighed, the handsome Colonel was there, and might notice them! Ed shook his head and went back to drawing his circle, until he heard Mustang's words. "Professor, could I steal Edward? I have someone who needs to see him." Ed looked up surprised, his eyes flashing to the Colonel, and then Snape. Only between them did he notice a young blond girl standing in the doorway.
"Go, Mr. Elric," Snape said with a disappointed look. He would miss torturing the boy. Ed quickly gathered his things and followed Mustang out of the room, as the girls sighed. They would miss the two foreigners and their beautiful accents.
The girls' prayers were suddenly answered when they heard a loud female scream, "Edward! What did you do now!"
"No! Winry… don't!" they heard Ed yell before the door burst open and the alchemist sprinted into the classroom. He was quickly followed by a tall blond girl, of the class's age. She wore muggle clothes; a white tube top, jeans and a bandana. At her waist a muggle tool belt hung loosely. Though the most distinguishable part was the wrench she had clutched in her hand. "Edward!" The girl skidded to a halt and took careful aim. The wrench flew and hit the fleeing boy on the head.
"Winry! I didn't do anything! I swear!" the boy pleaded backing away from the advancing girl.
"You did too! Or else, why would I be here? You broke-" she was cut off by a swift word from the Colonel.
"Stop! The two of you are interrupting a class, let us move to my classroom," Mustang interrupted motioning for the pair to leave the room. The trio left the class quietly after gathering their things, though Winry's eyes stayed dark and locked on Ed as they moved.
The door shut and the silence of the room broke, Hermione, Ron and Harry all leaned in together. "She said he broke something," Hermione whispered.
"It must have been something important if she was that angry," Harry added thoughtfully. "I wonder what it was…"
Ron just sat there shaking slightly, "Bloody hell, I hope she doesn't ever get angry with me." The image of the flying wrench was still playing in his mind.
"Quiet! Get back to your work!" Snape growled causing the class to go silent again.
Mustang's classroom suddenly became very violent, as the trio walked in. "I can not believe you, Ed" Winry said quietly, the disappointment clear in her eyes. Sitting down at a desk, the young alchemist sighed, his head hanging. "Tell me what happened," the mechanic said after a few minutes.
"I don't know, all I did was put the stupid military jacket on!" gold eyes glittered with annoyance at the barest mention of the uniform.
"Alright, let me see it," she said quietly. With a groan, the small boy took his jacket and undershirt off. Then he pealed the glove off his hand. Winry approached silently and began an inspection. Her hands ran up and down the metal limb, testing, feeling for anything out of place. Finding nothing out of the ordinary with her hands, she pulled a screw driver out and began to unscrew the arm. It was time to start looking deeper. "Colonel, will I be able to take his arm off, or does it have to remain where it is?" she asked thoughtfully.
The man thought for a moment before nodding, "You may take it off. If it takes too long we should be able to transmute something to pretend to be his arm for now."
"Alright, let me undo this one screw and then Ed I'll remove your arm," Winry informed the golden eyed youth. He only sat there with his teeth clenched, he was better off than Al, no matter the pain. It was only a moment of pain while the girl pulled the limb free of his nerves. Al had to live years of pain without pain.
The arm was free and Mustang gestured for Winry to take the arm to his office to work. "I have a class coming in soon. That needs to be out of sight." Gathering a few pieces of wood, metal, and chalk he tossed them to Ed, "Make yourself an arm Full Metal, then come up here."
The alchemist quickly used the chalk to draw a transmutation circle and placed the material inside of it. Pressing his one good hand to the circle a flash of blue glimmered and then a prosthetic arm appeared in place of the wood and metal. Picking the arm up, he looked it over slowly, it was the right shape and had snaps to connect to his shoulder, but it was going to flap uselessly in the breeze. If he was to be attacked, he would be useless. And someone would notice!
There were footsteps and voices in the hall, classes were switching. With a sigh, Ed snapped the limb into place and picked up his white shirt. After a moment of staring at it, he looked to the Colonel, "Could you keep everyone out of the room. It's going to take me some time to get dressed."
Mustang held back a laugh as he stepped out of the room shutting the door behind him, "Yes, we'll have to wait a moment; Elric is in there with his girl friend."
"I'll kill you!" Ed shouted in his native tongue. After a sad moment of attempting to get his shirt on he finally gave up and called out, "Winry… help?"
The girl skipped out of the Colonel's office and stopped short laughing. Ed had his head and normal arm in the shirt correctly, but the wooden arm, was half stuck in the sleeve. With a grin still on her face, she moved to his side and fixed the shirt. Then grabbing his jacket she slipped it over the fake arm and helped button it up. "Think you can handle the glove, Full Metal?" she asked with an innocent look on her face.
At the glare she skipped back into the office and closed the door. It was time to get to work. "Mechanic freak," Ed muttered to himself as he pulled the door to the hall open.
The class looked as if the world had just ended, or at least part of the class. The girls looked at him dreamily, if somewhat sadly. Most of the boys looked put out, while a few gave him small smiles. Ed eyed them warily, as he moved aside for them to enter. "Good, Full Metal," Roy started, "I just informed the class that you will be teaching today's class while I help Winry."
"What!" Ed shouted outraged. "You help Winry? You don't know the first thing about-"
"I know more than you do about Alchemy, though you may not believe it," the man cut in tersely. "Continue where I left off in the last lesson and all will be fine," Roy smirked at the younger alchemist before slipping off into his office. Ed fumed. The Colonel was cutting his duty again! With several curses in his native tongue, Ed stepped to the front of the class.
A blond boy wearing green and silver raised his hand much to Ed's dismay. "Malfoy?" he asked annoyance clear in his voice.
"You are not fit to teach this class. I am certain once my father hears about this both you and that Colonel Freak will be headed back home," the boy said snootily.
Ed bit back the yell that was clamoring to get out. If he was going to teach the boy, he would do it the way he wouldn't forget soon. Pulling the piece of chalk from his pocket, he quickly sketched a transmutation circle on the floor and pressed a finger to it. The ground rippled and Malfoy's chair turned into a rocking horse. "Compared to me you are but a child in this field, compared to the Colonel, you are a newly born infant."
Malfoy's face was perfectly stunned and outraged, though many of the other students were laughing in delight at the sight. Ignoring the boy the alchemist continued, "I should have continued Mustang's lesson on basic transmutation history, but today I will delve into the uses of Alchemy. It can be used much as magic is, only in Amestris the whole population knows of Alchemy. It is not hidden." The temporary professor paused for a moment, then asked, "Has anyone heard of the Philosopher's Stone before?"
Harry raised his hand and spoke, "It was here, Ed, but was destroyed with Lord Voldemort tried to take it."
"It was here!" Ed's attention shot up and he focused on the black haired boy. "Someone destroyed it? Do they know what goes into making it!" He was outraged. So many human lives had been lost for the stone and one could just destroy it without a thought.
The class watched the alchemist with keen eyes, eager to know what had upset the blond, when he shook his head and continued, "Well there are a number of fake philosopher's stones floating around the world as well. There was one in Lior, a fair city, if you ignore the fact that the head priest used the stone to convince his followers he could bring them back from the dead and tried to turn them into an army. You see, the real stone increases an alchemist's powers; the rules of alchemy are destroyed. Once can attempt human transmutation without consequences, one can make things out of nothing." Ed clenched his teeth, the anger rising, "There was a girl there; just the thought of getting her beloved back had her joining the priest, until his sins were openly aired in front of the city and his stone proven a fake."
Riveted faces stared at Ed as he spoke, "Alchemy could have made an army, if it had not been for two people lucky enough to stumble upon it." He paused before nodding towards the office, "Alchemy kills, as the Colonel could easily tell you. Even other alchemists are not completely safe. Nor will wizards be."
With cold eyes, Ed motioned towards the door, "If you do not want to learn Alchemy leave now. But let me tell you that, when you are tied to a chair missing an arm and waiting for a man to kill you, alchemy may save your life. A wand is only useful when in your hand, Alchemy is always there."
The class sat fixed in their seats staring at the alchemist. It sounded as if he had experienced those things, but he was just a boy and so short. He was still a student, too. The idea was shaken out of their heads, when he grinned. "But at least you aren't attempting to learn alchemy, or do research with the Colonel and his Lieutenant breathing down your neck and shots being fired at your head."
A/N: Well hope everyone enjoyed this chapter! I was planning on a different ending, but decided that it would be too much for one chapter. So next chapter or the one after I'll put that part in. Let me know what you think, please!
Now for some responses to reviews, man do I have a lot of them! Thank you all so much!
Tenshihijimushi – Goodness is that a hard name to spell! We'll see about the fan girl bit.
Crazy-anime-inu – Well I'm just happy that it wasn't me getting flamed! I've been either an emotional wreck or extremely exhausted everyday I've worked on this! I'm just amazed someone can actually make sense out of it!
OblivionDragon – Love you too, sweetie! Costa Rica here we come!
BlackMercifulFaerie – Hope you still think this is good! I've been putting off homework to do it and keep getting yelled at. Let's hope it's worth the pain! . And a thanks for pointing out the mistake, I really have no idea why I said green and white. I was probably extremely sleep deprived. As for lines in between, I've tried but it won't show up when I enter it into the system. I'll see what I can do though… will be fixing the first two chapters this weekend hopefully.
Silver windflame – Thanks!
WildfireDreams – Thanks and will try!
Warden of the North – Oopsies! I'll get the changes made and up this weekend. I couldn't remember when I was writing it and my friend has more than half of my FMA manga at her house…. still…. Thanks for letting me know!
TokyoKitty16 – Ha ha, thanks so much! Let's hope I keep him in character. And I'm pretty sure I just killed Winry's character, but I've not had much of an encounter with her yet.
K – Thanks!
CEED – Sounded like a good idea, but I couldn't go there exactly. But I hope this works instead! Let me know what you think!
Madison – Thanks! I'll try to keep the updates daily, but college applications and just plain school might spread them out a bit.
Qtip – Thanks! This soon enough?
L33Tbunny – Thanks and the pace will slow down and bit and then pick up again later. Enjoy!
Cathelina – Thanks! Riza at Hogwarts is possible, but I'm not quite sure if she will be. Though, not for a few chapters if she does come in.
AnimaBaya – Thanks for pointing out my mistake, I'll get it corrected this weekend. Still have no idea why I said green and white… Perhaps it's telling me sleep is needed. Thanks for the review!
Death's Alchemist – Such a happy name. :P I'll keep it coming, no need to worry! Thanks!
Fullmetal Shinobi – Glad you liked it! And glad to know that I'm not the only one with my odd sense of humor! Thanks!
Anndev – Thanks, I waste quite sure if I was going to have an alchemy class this chapter, but a friend's suggestion and your comment made me decide to!
Ceosel – Thanks for the information on the house colors. I will keep that stored away for future reference. I really have no idea why I said green and white (perhaps I was trying to make it a slytherin and changed my mind halfway through). The differentiating between FMA and HP is hard, though. I had lines in between when written, but they do not show up when I upload the chapters. I'll keep experimenting and hopefully find a way to fix it. Thanks so much!
Mizu no Youkai – Thanks, but you're just reading HP and the Goblet of Fire? If you haven't read the 5th book this will most likely have a ton of spoilers of you! I hope I don't ruin the book for you! meeps