Invert

By Marz

Chapter 7: Hogwarts

Ed struggled to keep up as they trudged through the snow. His automail was stealing the heat from his body, leaching it away until his chest ached and his lift hip went numb. He started to wish he had allowed Mrs. Weasley to stuff him into the bright yellow "because it matches your eyes" sweater she had knitted for him. He had it in the bag he carried, along with other borrowed clothes. She'd made a sweater for Al too. He had it stuffed inside his armor.

"Are we there yet?" Ed asked through chattering teeth.

"Quarter mile," Harry said.

They all wore cloaks, even Al. Ed didn't think there was much point in hiding their identity. The town they'd apparated to was locked down. No one even looked out their curtains when they appeared with a bang in the middle of the main street. The wooded path they now traveled was quieter still. Ed tried to hunch up more, but the cold continued to seep in. Hermione had offered to put a warming charm on him, but Ed had turned her down. He didn't like their magic. He still couldn't reconcile it with alchemy, but here they were, off to see a witch in the middle of the night.

"Look at the stars, big brother," Al whispered.

Ed looked up at the thin line of space exposed by drifting clouds. They hadn't been able to see the stars from the house in the city but now there was no other light to blind them.

"Even the stars are different," Al said, sounding enthralled rather then disturbed.

He didn't see how his brother could be so calm. They were so far from home they might never get back. They had no money, no authority, and nowhere else to go. They were following people they'd known for less than a week, who promised to solve all their problems and asked for nothing in return. Ed didn't trust them. He couldn't trust them, not until they asked for something back. Ed bumped into Harry when they finally came to the iron gates. They were closed against them.

"Do we knock?" Al asked.

"No, one second," Harry said as he waved his wand and a glowing deer shot out of the tip and ran across the grounds. They waited. A glowing deer, that made sense. Ed stomped his feet and looked back up at the sky. This couldn't really be happening. What if they were still in the cylinder and it was just making them hallucinate? That was easier to believe then wizards and witches and airplanes. Ed looked through the bars of the gate and saw movement, a huge shadow just barely discernible in the falling snow. It was too big to be human, but as it came closer, Ed saw that it was indeed a man, a man who made Al look small.

"Harry?" the huge man shouted.

Harry pulled back the hood of his cloak and his friends did the same. The man pulled open the massive gate with one hand and the small party hurried through. The gate slammed shut after them. As soon as the metal clanged together, the huge man snatched up Ron, Hermione and Harry in a bone-popping hug.

"He reminds me of Major Armstrong," Al whispered to his brother.

"Yeah," Ed said, backing away.

"Air!" Hermione squeaked, precipitating their release.

"What have yeh been up to? Who're yer friends?" the giant asked.

"Hagrid, this is Edward and Alphonse Elric. This is Hagrid." Hermione said, ignoring the first question.

"Brothers?" Hagrid asked.

"I'm the younger brother," Al volunteered before anyone could get the wrong idea.

"Are yeh?" he said, looking between Ed and the towering suit of armor. "Well it's just like me and my little brother Grawp. I'll have ter introduce yeh. But I suppose yeh have business up at the castle, first."

They followed the man up a hill to a rundown collection of collapsing stone buildings. Ed had a very strong feeling that he should start walking the other way.

"This is the castle?" Ed asked.

"Oh," Hermione said. "You probably can't see it, because you're not a wizard. Al, do you see it?"

"It's amazing!"

Ed looked over his shoulder a little bit jealously as he started up the steps. There was a scorched wooden door which opened at Hagrid's touch. Beyond the door was something much more castle-like. Torches lit the cavernous entrance hall, and it was free of snow. A huge staircase led up and several smaller halls led down. Ed was already feeling lost. Their footsteps echoed. Ed shook off his cloak and went to help Al out of his, which had caught on his shoulder spikes.

"Turn left," Ed said, tugging on the fabric. "No, your other left."

"You need to lift it-" Al complained.

SLAP!

Ed and Al turned to see a red-haired girl had come into the entrance hall and was in the process of slapping Harry stupid.

SLAP! SLAP! SLAP!

"Ginny, stop!" Ron demanded, trying to catch the girl's arm.

SLAP!

Harry was making no move to defend himself. Finally Hermione had to grab the other girl in a bear hug to stop her.

"Not one letter!" the girl, Ginny, shrieked. "Not one letter in almost six months. I have to find out you've been hurt in the newspaper! What's wrong with you!"

"Looks like a split lip," Ed muttered to his brother as they watched Harry drip onto the floor.

"Who are they?" Ginny demanded, pointing at the Elrics. Her eyes widened as she took in Al. "I saw them in the paper this morning. You killed Greyback, didn't you?" she asked Ed as she shook off Hermione and marched over.

Ed nodded. "And don't slap me," Ed warned. "I'll hit you back."

She snorted.

"I just wanted to say thanks, for my brother Bill. Besides, I only slap boyfriends who don't call me for half a year."

"We broke up," Harry said in a small voice.

She headed toward Harry again, but Al rather forcefully caught her hand and started shaking it. "Hello, I'm Alphonse Elric. This is my brother Ed. It's very nice to meet you. Do you have any hobbies…?"

Al continued shaking her hand until a stern-faced old woman with a bun and glasses appeared behind Ginny. The girl shrunk a little under the woman's gaze, as if she could feel it on her back. The woman tapped her walking stick on the stone steps and the girl flinched.

"Ms. Weasley, return to the Gryffindor tower, and refrain from striking Mr. Potter."

The girl nodded and stormed off up the stairs.

"The rest of you, come to my office. Not you, Hagrid," she amended as the giant started up the steps.

Ed felt the hair on the back of his neck standing up. That woman was most definitely a witch.

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There were only two chairs, one behind the desk and one in front of it, but as they entered the room, McGonagall waved her wand and the chair in front of the desk stretched out into a bench. She pointed at it and the five teenagers sat. She took the headmaster's chair, and raised her eyebrow at them. On the walls around her office, several portraits raised their eyebrows as well. Her three former students shifted nervously. They hadn't told her they were coming, but Molly Weasley had informed her the moment they had left Grimmauld place. The armor and the small teenager were a much greater concern for her. The blond boy had been in Death Eaters' hands, and according to Molly, he'd used sacrificial magic to bring his brother's soul back from the other side and bind it. That took dark magic, very strong dark magic. But according to Molly and several other members of the order, the boy had no magic. He watched her every move with suspicious yellow eyes.

McGonagall looked at her students again. She did not speak. She waited. Hermione was the first to crack under the pressure.

"We didn't mean to just show up unannounced like this after missing so much classwork, but we have the mission and we're very sorry, but Al and Ed helped us out and really they've helped the entire Order, so we were wondering if perhaps you could make Al human again. This is Edward and Alphonse Elric, by the way."

The suit of armor gave McGonagall a shy little wave. The blond boy only watched her.

"That is why you are here?" McGonagall asked her former students. "The only reason?"

"No," Harry said rather boldly. "We want to look through the restricted section of the library, and go into the chamber as well."

"So you intend to stay for several days?"

"If we're allowed," Harry said.

Her eyebrow sank and those seated on the bench stewed for several minutes under the witch's gaze. She turned her head slightly, focusing entirely on Al.

"How did you come to be in your current situation?"

"I lost my body in an Alchemy accident, and my brother bound my soul to this armor. I was hoping that maybe you could turn my armor body into a human body, so I can be normal again."

McGonagall put her hand to her chin for a moment. They'd told Molly more then that. It was interesting what they left out. She wondered if Harry had prompted them. She didn't have enough time to do the task the school required of her, much less have excess to spend meddling in magic that bordered on dark. The voice in the armor sounded sincere, though, and afraid.

"Go to the hospital wing and wait for me there," she said to the armor, as she conjured up a guide globe and sent it on its way. "I will see what I can do for you as soon as I am finished with these three."

Al stood up, bowed and left, and Ed followed him with a nod in McGonagall's direction. She watched their backs until the door closed behind them.

"Do you trust them?" McGonagall asked.

"We do," Harry answered for the group.

"Why?" McGonagall asked. "Moody told me how you found them. Have they given you a reason to trust them?"

"No reason at all," Harry said. "In fact, their story doesn't make any sense. They stick to it, though."

"So you trust them because you have no reason to?" McGonagall asked in exasperation.

"Crookshanks likes Al," Hermione put in.

McGonagall sighed. The more danger they were in, the wilder their behavior. No doubt her next words would fall on deaf ears.

"I've been going over the instructions left by the Headmaster. I believe I now have some idea of the mission Dumbledore sent you on. For some reason you are searching for objects Voldemort stole. If I could find out this much the Death Eaters must already know. I honestly think you would be better off passing this task on to the Order, and returning to school."

"We can't do that, Professor," said Harry. "It's halfway done, and if someone leaks out what we're doing, our chances of success will be greatly reduced."

"If you keep on like you have been, your chances of survival will be greatly reduced. You're covered in curse burns, Mr. Potter." With a flick of her wand the cap flew off of Harry's head and landed on her desk. "Albus lost the use of his right arm and then his life to this mission, and though you are talented, you are still nowhere near his level. I ask you again to turn this burden over to me."

"You know he cannot do that, Minerva," said the portrait behind her chair.

Dumbledore's portrait was gazing down on them with an expression of annoyingly calm benevolence.

"I know nothing of the sort," McGonagall responded sharply. "You never saw fit to share your reasoning and judgment, so I must trust my own."

She snatched up a quill and scribbled out three all-purpose hall and library passes. "You may retire to your old rooms in Gryffindor tower when you are finished. I will send the Elrics there as well. The password is 'defiance'."

They nodded and left. She waited until they were gone and transformed. As a cat, her injured leg didn't bother her nearly as much. She darted down the stairs.

The boy and the suit of armor were standing outside the doors of the hospital, whispering in a language McGonagall didn't understand. They went silent when they saw her coming, in human form again. She waved her wand and the doors sprang open.

"Inside. We haven't all night."

Poppy was still at her desk sorting through paperwork. The nurse dropped it the moment the armor entered the room.

"Sit," McGonagall ordered. The armor sat down on the nearest hospital bed, causing it to sink dangerously in the middle. The blond boy paced in little circles at the end of it.

"Poppy, this is Alphonse and Edward Elric. We may be attempting an animate human transfiguration in the near future. I would like you to supervise."
Poppy nodded but paled a bit. Animate human replicas were considered dark magic.

McGonagall turned to Al.

"I need to know how exactly your soul and consciousness are connected to that suit of armor."

"My brother did the transmutation," Al said through the translation spell. "I wasn't really there for it. Ed?"

The blond boy stopped his pacing and snatched the helmet off of the armor. The faint translucent face of a boy was visible beneath it, and through the boy the witch could see a symbol drawn in blood on the inside of the armor, between the shoulders. The blond boy pointed to the symbol.

"The soul is living," he started off in broken English. "The blood is living. The blood is iron. The armor is iron. They are linked this way so I can transmute and link one to the other."

"And this was all done through Alchemy?" McGonagall asked.

"Yes."

"Is he bound to the entire suit of armor or just the seal?"

"The seal. That can't change or he will come loose…"

"And this was done with Alchemy?" McGonagall asked again.

Ed nodded.

"I'm going to try something," McGonagall said, pulling out her wand. "Al, hold out your hand please."

The armor creaked faintly as Al obeyed. McGonagall placed her wand against Al's steel fingers.

"Verto…" she muttered.

Light poured from the wand. For a moment the steel shrank into pale fingers that twitched. Inside the armor, the blood seal flared.

"I can feel them!" Al whispered.

There was a pop and an outrush of air. The fingers at the end of the armored hand were steel once more.

"Something is fighting the change," McGonagall muttered.

She looked over at Ed, who was leaning into the armor peering intently at the seal.

"Don't know why that happened," Ed said, his voice echoing inside his brother. "You haven't…made different… the seal."

"I need a greater understanding of the magic you used to bind his soul," McGonagall said.

"Not magic. Alchemy," Ed corrected.

"Whatever it is, I need to know more."

"Then I'll tell you."

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It was familiar but at the same time strange. The desks and reading tables were in their usual spots, but the bookshelves had been rearranged to reduce the number of dark corners in which one could hide. The restricted section was guarded by the same woven wire cage, but now Harry could feel the security spells upon them as he grabbed the latch. His other hand held the pass McGonagall had given him, and it tingled as if conferring with the gate. It creaked open when he pushed and no alarm sounded.

"I'll be with you in just a moment," Hermione said. "I've a few other things to look up."

Ron nodded, unconcerned, but Harry couldn't help but notice his friend's slightly guilty expression. Harry tried to ignore the whispering and hissing of the books as he wiped the dust off their spines to read their titles. The Sundered Soul, The Eternal Torment, Lost in the Dark Realm, he stacked them up on the table in the center of the aisle. He looked over and saw Ron paging through Marked for Doom. Harry frowned. They'd looked through that same useless book several months earlier in a shop at Dover.

"Ron, help me read through these."

"Right," the tall teenager said, putting down the book he shouldn't have bothered to pick up in the first place.

Ron picked up The Sundered Soul and turned up the lantern. He started flipping through pages far too quickly to be actually reading them. Harry tried not to get frustrated. Ron was becoming less and less focused as the mission stretched on, and since Fred's run-in with the Death Eaters, Ron's attention span was even shorter.

Harry picked up his own book. Lost in the Dark Realm appeared to focus mostly on people who sold their souls or had them stolen. Dementors had their own chapter. Horcruxes weren't mentioned, but there was an interesting spell that used the blood of the soulless person to guide the soul back to its body. Harry took some parchment and copied it down, anyway. He'd just started The Eternal Torment when he heard a faint croaking from the lower shelves to his right. He knelt down and saw a fat lumpy toad sitting on top of the Encyclopedia of Torment.

"Trevor," Harry muttered.

The toad started to hop away but Harry's hand darted out and caught him. Ron was looking at the toad as well.

"Neville must've lost him here when he was looking things up for us," Harry said.

Ron nodded. "Before they got him."

They were both silent for a few minutes. Neville had vanished from the school only a few weeks before. There was no trace of him, but everyone was convinced he remained in Death Eater hands if he was alive at all. It was not as if the Death Eaters would get much from questioning Neville. He had been forwarding information to Harry and his companions, but they hadn't told him why they needed it.

"Maybe we should-"

THUMP!

Harry was cut off as something large fell over on the far side of the library. He and Ron drew their wands.

GRRRRRRRRRRWLLLLLLL!

The strange animal sound echoed through the room, causing the teenagers' hair to stand on end. Whatever it was it sounded very upset and very large.

"Hermione?" Ron whispered.

Harry nodded. Silently they crept out of the restricted section, wands raised. Their footsteps echoed as they moved through the stacks. They nearly cursed Hermione when she leaned out of behind a shelf.

"Did you hear that?" Harry whispered.

"I didn't hear anything," Hermione said in a normal voice. "Have you found anything useful?"

She was looking guilty again.

"We've only just started-" Harry said, at the same time Ron was saying "No". Harry gave the other boy an annoyed look.

Harry was about to point out they'd only gone over three books when the door creaked open. They all whirled, and saw a small blond head pop through.

"Hello, Ed!" Hermione said.

Ed started slightly and bumped his head on the door.

"Hey," he said, walking in.

His brother followed him rattling and clanking.

"Where is Gryffindor tower?" Ed asked, carefully pronouncing each syllable.

"Why?" asked Ron.

"McGonagall says…said…told Al and I to sleep there," Ed finally said, waving off his brother's attempts to give him the words he needed.

"We'll walk you there," Ron volunteered. "We're done for the night anyway."

Harry frowned, but didn't argue. As they walked down the hallway, Al meowed. The teenagers froze and turned to stare. Ed growled something in his own language.

"But big brother," Al replied, "It was all by itself."

Ed repeated himself, and Al's shoulders slumped. He opened his chest plate and pulled out Mrs. Norris, the school custodian's tattle-tale cat. Ed pointed at the ground and Al set the cat down. It rubbed against his armored leg and then ran off down the hall.

"Wow," Ron said. "That's Filch's cat and it hates everyone."

"Everyone likes Al," Ed said, as if this were a very annoying fact.

"Let's go," Harry said with a sigh.

The common room was empty when they finally arrived, but a fire was still blazing in the grate. Harry waved goodnight to Hermione, who went alone up to the girl's dormitory. Ed and Al followed Harry and Ron. Dean and Seamus were still up and Dean fell face first off his bed in a flurry of textbooks when they opened the door.

"You're back?" the tall boy asked as he picked himself up off the floor.

"Your bed's came back," Seamus pointed out. "Plus two more. Who are they?"

"This is Edward and Alphonse Elric," Harry said pointing to the boys in turn. "This is Seamus and Dean."

"Hello!" Al said, trying to sound friendly.

Ed just glared at everyone.

"Hi," Dean and Seamus said awkwardly. They both gave Al suspicious looks.

Ed shrugged, flopped down on the nearest bed, and started to snore.

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Ginny sat up and looked out the window. It was still dark outside, but something had woken her up. She found her shoes. She hadn't changed into her pajamas. She spent so many nights sneaking around the school she rarely bothered anymore. She crept down to the common room. The sound of snoring covered the sound of her footsteps.

The little blond boy with the bad attitude was asleep on a couch, and his brother, still wearing armor, was next to him. Ginny watched the boy, Ed, roll over and continue to snore. He was wearing a yellow knit sweater she recognized as her mother's handiwork. She jealously wondered why that hadn't been mentioned in her mother's last letter. The right sleeve had come up, revealing an arm made of steel. His armored brother was still awake, paging through a book and mumbling over words as if he were just learning how to read. Dawn was tinting the edge of the sky. She wondered if the boy in the armor had been to sleep at all.

Ginny ducked back up the stairs as Ed stopped snoring, yawned, and sat up. He said something to the armor boy, Al. It was a language Ginny had never heard before. The translation spell allowed her to understand Al's answer.

"Your snoring got us kicked out, remember?" Al said, sounding more then a little annoyed. "You wouldn't let them put a sound canceling charm on your bed."

"Oh," Ed said, before rambling off another long string of his own language.

"That's not a good idea, big brother," Al said. "Your back isn't healed at all and your chest is almost as bad."

Ed responded with a string of gibberish.

"A week is not long enough for third degree burns and a fractured sternum to heal."

Ed said something else and crossed his arms. Al reached out and poked him in the chest. He hissed in pain. Ed slammed his fist into Al's arm and there was a resounding clang. Ed got up and stormed down the steps. Al hurried after him. Like a shadow, Ginny followed. She didn't have an invisibility cloak, so she'd had to hone her creeping skills. The boys left the tower and wandered for about half an hour before they found their way into the courtyard by the Herbology greenhouses.

They walked into the center of the yard and just stopped. The air felt tense. Even though she was expecting something she still flinched when Ed moved. He darted at Al so quickly Ginny wasn't really aware of what was happening until she saw Ed flying backwards again and rolling to a stop in the snow.

"Are you alright?" Al asked.

Ed responded in his own language with words Ginny was certain weren't friendly. He got up and charged again.

CLANK

THUNK

CLANK

WHAP!

It was amazing to watch. Al was as quick as his brother despite the suit of armor he was wearing, and Ed was up and fighting again an instant after he went down. They fought as the sun inched up the sky. Ed was breathing heavily but Al didn't seem tired at all. The fight seemed to grow more intense instead of less as wore on. She was watching so intently she didn't notice students from all the houses were in the audience until one of the Slytherins spoke.

"What are you fighting about?" Andrew Harper shouted.

His words echoed off the walls of the courtyard.

"We aren't fighting. We're sparring," Al corrected, blocking another of Ed's kicks and sending him tumbling back again.

"Doesn't seem like a fair fight, you against the little guy," the Slytherin boy drawled.

"Who are you calling short?" Ed demanded in careful English.

"You, obviously," Harper called back.

Ed starts telling him off in his own language.

"What's he saying?" the Slytherin boy demanded.

"Nothing nice," Al replied.

"Duel," Ed finally ground out.

The gathered crowed started to chatter among themselves. Ginny saw bets placed.

"Brother-" Al started to chide.

Ginny didn't understand the exact response, but the "quit nagging me" was obvious. Al backed up muttering.

"Duel," Ed repeated, not taking his eyes off of Harper.

Harper snorted. "As if I don't know you'll run off to the Headmistress the second you get a scratch on you."

Ed rolled his eyes. "Duel or shut up."

Harper pulled his wand, and without pause fired off a curse.

Before the "reducto" was half out of his mouth, Ed was moving. A lunging step brought him out of the line of fire. He sprinted toward Harper, who was trying to cough out another blasting curse, as his first had only singed the flagstones of the yard. Ed's foot snapped up, knocking Harper's wand aside, and Ed's left hand struck Harper in the center of the chest. The much larger boy fell over and curled up wheezing. Ed smirked as his brother approached him. Ginny could hear Al muttering about knocking some sense into who ever taught his brother the word "duel".

Harper's friends were in shock for a moment, but then they had their wands out and pointed at the boy who had taken down their leader. Ed didn't seem the least bit put out. He grinned as he faced them.

"Next?" Ed asked.

Ginny smirked to herself. This kid likes to fight even more then I do.

Al stepped up next to his brother and pounded his fists against his chest, startling everyone with the clang. The Slytherins kept their wands aimed at the two boys, clearly not intending to take them on one at a time. From what Ginny had just seen she didn't think that improved their odds much. She wouldn't mind in the least if Harper and his goons had their heads handed to them, but if they were caught dueling there would be detentions and trouble of a more boring nature. Ginny sighed. I should probably break this up. She drew her own wand and crossed the court yard to Ed's side.

"Mind your own business Weasley," Corman Ashby said nervously, as he helped Harper back to his feet.

"Beating the snot out of Slytherins is my business. It's also my hobby and my favorite way to review hexes," Ginny said.

Harper staggered a bit as he got up. He gave his goons a significant look and they backed off, lowering their wands. They started wandering back inside. Harper stopped in the entrance way.

"This isn't over," he threatened.

Ed sprang forward and his elbow connected with Harper's jaw. Harper slumped unconscious to the ground.

"Now it's over," Ed said with a grin.

Ginny couldn't help but smile back.

"Is there food around here?" Ed asked.

"The Great Hall is this way," she said.

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He hurried down the steps. He'd been in detention, making up the potions assignment he'd missed while in the hospital wing. The sun had set hours ago, and the halls were dark, but he didn't think they were dark enough. Andrew Harper found the latch by feel, and opened the door to professor Snape's old office. The Headmistress had sealed it off rather then reassigning it, but her seals were not as strong as the spells the Death Eaters had provided him with, before the beginning of the term. He went to the small tarnished mirror that hung between two shelves of rotting ingredients. It was the only thing in the room not covered in a layer of dust.

"They're here," Harper said, without preamble.

Snape's reflection stared back at him. The former teacher's hair was hanging in his face more then unusual.

"Have you found out how the boy performs his spells?"

"No sir. I wasn't able to provoke him…sufficiently," Harper said, trying not to wince when his jaw clicked.

"And the armored one?" Snape asked.

"He hasn't taken it off," Harper answered. "He's been in and out of the library and meetings with McGonagall along with his midget brother. They're hanging around with Ginny Weasley. My source in Gryffindor says the armored one doesn't sleep, or eat."

Snape nodded. It was the closest he ever came to praising his operative.

"Find a way to take the armor off him. Whatever is contained within is not human. Be prepared."

"Not human?" Harper asked. "He sounds like a boy."

"A boy who walks around in a two hundred pound suit of armor?" Snape asked. "A boy who was hit several times with the killing cures to no effect? It is not human. You will find out what it is and report back tomorrow night."

"Yes sir," Harper said.

Snape nodded and his image vanished. Harper hurried out of the dark office. He had two essays due tomorrow, as well as a suicide mission.

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Despite the late hour the Transfiguration classroom was occupied. Ed's eyes traveled over the diagrams the witch had drawn out on the chalkboard. Assorted organ systems were highlighted and he could see little notes and arrows pointing to the heart. He looked over at his own alchemic diagrams. He had to keep Al's soul stably bound while the rest of his body was being restructured.

"I believe I have a workable solution," McGonagall said. "We will use sealing charms to prevent the blood rune from fading, then the circle of steel on which the seal rests will be left whole and incorporated into the skeletal structure, while the rest of the armor to which the soul has been bound will be transformed into various living tissues."

Ed nodded. "Are you sure that will be enough contact to keep the living body integrated into the steel disk?"

Integrated. Ed was a bit impressed with himself. He'd picked up many useful words that day, but he still had a little trouble following McGonagall's words.

"As sure as I can be. I've never worked a transfiguration within these parameters before. Ideally we'd try an animal model first."

"Ed can't afford to lose anymore limbs!" Al said.

They both jumped. They had been so focused on their paper models they had forgotten that Al was still in the room.

"Maybe you could try turning my brother's automail leg into flesh and blood first?" Al suggested.

McGonagall shook her head. "Transfiguration is not a good way to deal with limb replacement. A trained healer with the right spells and potions can regenerate a limb, but making a new one and trying to graft it on has predictably bad results. If you wish your arm and leg to be regrown I can set up an appointment with St. Mungo's. It will take several weeks to regenerate and there is a long waiting period beforehand as well."

Ed's mouth hung open. "You mean you can fix this, too?" he asked in a small voice, pointing at the steel arm.

"But why didn't that man at the mansion have his regrown? Mr. Moody?" Al asked.

"Alastor is rather proud of his scars," McGonagall said, huffing slightly. "It's also rather costly. But I'm sure we can arrange something. "

"Al, can you excuse us for a few minutes?" Ed asked in his own language.

"What are you going to do, big brother?" Al asked warily.

"Nothing. Just take a walk, alright?"

Al did armor's best approximation of a scowl, turned and bowed to McGonagall. He then stomped off into the hallway.

"What do you want?" Ed asked the Headmistress when Al was out of hearing range.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"What do you want from us? What do you want for all this?" Ed demanded, raising his voice. His heart was hammering. "You know we don't have money. We're a world away from home. Your transfiguration is better than my alchemy, so what do you want?"

She looked offended. "I don't want anything, Mr. Elric."

"Bullshit! Nothing is free. Everybody wants everything. Whatever it is, take it from me, not my brother."

"Mr. Elric, I do not claim to understand your situation, or your background, but this is mine. I am a teacher. I spend my life preparing children for adulthood and helping them learn from their mistakes. I do not ask them to trade away bits of themselves for the help they need. I will not ask anything of the sort from you or your brother. I will, however require that you refrain from cursing. Which of my Gryffindors taught you that word?"

"Heard it from Moody," Ed said with a teenager's convincing honesty. "When are we going to try this?" he asked after an awkward pause.

"Saturday," McGonagall said. "It will undoubtedly take hours and I have classes the rest of the week."

Ed nodded.

"Good night Mr. Elric," she said.

Ed nodded again, and walked quickly out of McGonagall's classroom. In three days, his brother might be human again, and it didn't make any sense.