Finding Life's Second Truth
By: FlameXFullmetal
Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist or Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. Nor do I own Harry Potter. They belong to their respective creators and if I owned either one of them I would not need to make fanfiction. Furthermore, Ed would not have wound up with Winry and Harry would not have been stuck with Ginny. Now then a quick A/N and then the story.
AN: I'm back! I had originally intended to post this back in January but I got lazy. Anyway, a big thank you to everyone who has stuck with me so far and those that have commented. I did get a request to break up my bigger paragraphs though and I would like your opinion. Are they to big? I am use to typing much larger paragraphs and to be honest they are shorter on the site then they are on my computer when I am typing them into Word. If they are to long for some of you then I will try to break them up. Finally I did note in the last chapter that Envy was a girl in this story when someone pointed out the gender bending. However, I forgot one thing that occurred to me since then. Homunculus have no gender. Granted they seem to take on preferred genders as seen with Lust. However, Envy is strictly androgynous in both the original and brotherhood. I believe that to be one depiction of the nature of Envy. Now then onto the story.
***********************First Day*******************
The evening drew to a close quickly as the students ate and the final announcements were made. After dinner was over Edward immediately headed for the infirmary hoping that Pomfrey could do something about the pain in his leg and arm. He was so lost in thought at how long the task would take that he almost crashed into the medi-witch.
"Good evening Pomfrey, uh could I ask for a favor?"
"Sure." She replied leading the boy into the infirmary. Sitting on one of the beds Edward watched as the witch moved around the room taking note of supplies and laughing a little as she mentioned making sure she had enough skele-grow for the coming year.
"Truth is I have two prosthetic limbs and this weather is killing me." Edward finally said catching the witch's attention.
"Do you? May I take a look?" She asked and Edward nodded then hesitated.
"If you wanna see the whole limb then I'll have to remove my shirt and pants." He couldn't help but blush a little at the thought of disrobing in front of a stranger. Pomfrey nodded in confirmation that she did indeed want to see the whole limb in order to better decide the course needed to alleviate the pain. Stripping down he looked up at her nervously. The medi-witch was studying the limbs intently and after some time looked back up at the blonde alchemist.
"How do these work? I have never seen anything like it."
"Well they are bolted to my body and connected directly to the nerve endings. They then use the electric currents to move the limb in order to function as naturally as possible. This way they can mimic the natural movement of the limb that they are replacing." He explained. He then pointed to the port. "The limb connects to the port here. While the port is bolted down and unable to be removed safely, the leg and arm can be removed easily."
"Impressive, but that must have hurt terribly."
"Someone had to take care of Al and I couldn't do it in the state that I was in. I needed the limbs in order to move freely."
"How did this happen?"
"An eleven year old's stupidity." He replied. After a few more moments Pomfrey left the room and returned holding a salve.
"Apply this to the affected areas as needed for the pain. Alternatively, I can have Severus brew a potion that would help but the potion is limited to two doses a day."
"Could you use them both in conjunction with each other?" Edward queried.
"Yes you could. Most just choose one or the other."
"I'd prefer both especially if the weather is like this all the time. Just in case." Pomfrey nodded and informed the alchemist that she would ask Severus in the morning. Applying the salve quickly he dressed, thanked the medi-witch and headed to his room. Once he made it to his bed and dropped face first groaning. It was going to be a long year.
The next morning had Edward making his way groggily to the Great Hall. He hadn't slept well and in all honesty he wasn't sure he was ready to walk all over the castle to get to classes that were ridiculously spaced apart. Dropping next to the flame alchemist he grimaced at the sight of the pumpkin juice and looked around happily grabbing a pitcher of water.
"Rough night?"
"Shut it."
"Sounds like it. Just so you know Umbridge is clearly not happy with your exception to the dress code."
"That's fine. I always piss someone off by refusing to wear the uniform so I am used to that." Beginning to devour his breakfast he pointedly ignored the woman who was attempting to get his attention. Just as he finished his first plate he glanced at Umbridge who was glowering at him.
"What?"
"Not only do you appear to have no table manners I see no reason why you would be exempt from the dress code."
"Do you base all of your opinions off of first appearances or are you just that stupid?" He retorted. Next to him both Roy and Severus choked on their juice. Neither one, despite knowing the blonde, had expected that retort. Nor had the toad as she sputtered indignantly. When he received no reply he went back to eating and ignoring the woman. Just as she was going to retort McGonagall handed Edward his schedule. Groaning he slumped in his seat.
"What's wrong Fullmetal?"
"All of my classes today are on opposite ends of the castle. Do you have any idea how long it took me to get back to my room after I spoke with Pomfrey last night? I am never going to make it in time." He whined. Roy just laughed and shook his head.
"Of course you will. You are pretty good at dashing to get where you want to go on time. Remember when you missed the train by half a minute and actually chased it down and jumped on the back of it just so you wouldn't have to wait a couple of hours for the next one?"
"Don't remind me I almost died. I couldn't breath and Al wasn't helping he was just standing there laughing!" Edward huffed. Roy snickered a little more and shrugged.
"Well if you are that worried maybe you should finish your food and start out to your first class which appears to DADA." Groaning even louder Edward finished his food and headed out of the room. Just as he left a loud cracking sound could be heard as Dumbledore's chair snapped cleanly in two down the middle. As the older wizard hit the ground and everyone in the Great Hall stared in shock no one noticed Eve's knowing grin. As the door fully closed behind him Edward gave an evil smirk. He had planned that one with Eve the day before. If she had done the transmutation beforehand it would have broken too soon. So Edward had done it when he entered the room.
Just as he entered the classroom the other students filed in and started to take their seats. Edward shrugged and took the seat on Harry's other side forcing Ron to choose another seat. While the pain was bearable it still slowed him down a little. Not even a minute later the toad herself entered the classroom. As she headed to the front of the classroom, Edward couldn't help but look around the room and grimace at all the pink.
"Alright class first we will go over the syllabus." She said. Edward tuned her out and continued to observe his surroundings. 'Pink, pink, pink, doily, pink, pink, doily… My god she has no decorating sense!' He thought to himself just as he felt a sharp jab to his side. Focusing back at the class he noticed everyone staring at him.
"Could you repeat the syllabus for us Mr. Elric?" she said in a tone that reminded him of molasses.
"Sure, we are going to read a book with absolutely no useful knowledge in it all the while hoping that we can pass our OWLS this year. Furthermore, you have no intention of actually teaching us anything." Edward said yawning. Delores began to turn an unhealthy shade of red as she attempted to control her temper.
"That isn't even close."
"Really? All I see on the board is read the book and discuss theory. As such in a more direct version you have no intention of teaching us anything and definitely no intention of allowing us to practice the spells that we will need for our OWLS. I have also read the book that you assigned and I am one hundred percent certain that it is nothing more than a load of bullshit. It has no actual spells in it and all it does is discuss the theory behind the spell. I don't care what anyone says, if you don't know how to perform the spell by using the proper incantation and wand movements then you won't be able to perform the spell regardless of how much theory you know." He growled. He already hadn't like the woman before she was in the school and he liked her even less now that he knew that teaching the kids to defend themselves was going to be a lot harder.
"I see no reason why you would need to practice spells in the school it is perfectly safe." She hissed in reply.
"So you are saying that four years ago someone didn't attempt to steal a very powerful artifact from the school that had been stored here. Three years ago there wasn't a basilisk slithering around the school petrifying the students and that Ginny Weasely wasn't kidnapped and almost killed. Two years ago convicted killer Sirius Black didn't break into Hogwarts and stand over a student's bed with a knife, kidnap a student breaking his leg and escape from custody along with an animal deemed dangerous to the populace. Last year there wasn't a tournament where a student got killed, a convicted death eater impersonated a member of the staff and almost succeeded in killing Harry? From what I've heard lady the school is not very safe at all and teaching the students how to defend themselves should be on the top of the curriculum." He hissed back. The room was dead silent as the two faced off. No one had ever heard a student speak to the staff like that and they were honestly waiting to see how Umbridge handled a student that she couldn't give detention to.
The pink clad toad was on the verge of exploding. She had never been so disrespected in such a manner and never by a child! Taking a few deep breaths to calm herself she turned away from the students so that they didn't see the rage etched on her face. Since he was also a teacher there was little she could do to punish him for his behavior. The most that she could do was report him to the ministry and the headmaster. Turning back around she looked at the room.
"First of all Mr. Elric the curriculum I am teaching was approved by the ministry and as such proves that it an approved method of teaching. Second of all I want you to watch your language in my classroom and third you may be a teacher yourself however this is not your class and as such you are in the role of a student. I would expect that you would have learned to respect your teachers by now."
"First off you are the undersecretary to the minister meaning that the approval doesn't mean shit. Second of all what does a government with no teaching experience know about how to teach a class? Third, respect is earned not given and you haven't done anything worth earning my respect. Fourth, I will not watch my language as you say since I have yet to learn a spell that allows for me to WATCH my language. Finally, I understand that this is your class and all but if you were serious about creating a safe learning environment you wouldn't have turned the classroom into a very nauseating and distracting shade of pink with doilies on the wall. Nor would you have turned the room into a fire hazard with so much fabric so close to the candles."
"I want everyone's book open to page two and I want all of you to do the assigned reading. Now!" she practically barked. As everyone hurried to obey she saw red as she noticed four students staring at her in boredom.
"Why aren't you opening your books?"
"I already read mine." Came Hermione's reply.
"Read it again. Well you three?" she queried of the three transfers.
"It was boring so after we read it we burned it." Came a chorused reply. Umbridge didn't know whether to strangle them or scream.
"You burned your textbooks?" She said incredulously.
"Yeah. Al and I have eidetic memories so we didn't need to read it again and well Eve said she had no intention of reading kindling and pretending that it was a useless book again." Edward replied offhandedly. Umbridge was in shock. The three of them seemed to want to make her life miserable. Sitting at her desk she fixed the three of them with an impassive stare. After a second she pulled out three copies of the book and motioned for them to come and get them.
"No thanks." They chorused in perfect unison. Taking a deep breath she once again calmed herself.
"Either come get your books or you will be asked to leave the classroom." She said in that molasses tone again. Much to her disbelief the three of them stood and grabbed their bags.
"Bye!" Edward chirped. Leaning down he whispered to Harry to control his temper. "She is working with the minister to suppress moldy short's return so she will be looking for any reason to give you detention. Play it cool and you can vent later?" Harry nodded as the three of them walked out. Umbridge groaned as a headache set in. It was going to be a long year.
Once that class was over the students filed out into the hallway and headed towards their next class. For Edward that was potions. Luckily he was already in the basement. He had headed down much earlier and he was glad that he did. The dampness of the dungeon made walking a little more difficult and slowed him down even more. When the rest of the class filed in there were treated to the sight of Severus and Edward engaged in a philosophical debate while Eve and Al played wizard's chess. When the occupants noticed the rest of the class they stopped what they were doing and in Al and Eve's case packed the chess board away. After everyone had taken their seats, with Edward and Harry sitting next to each other again, Severus fixed the room with an icy glare.
"With this year being the year you take your OWLS expect that the potions will be more complex and that I will expect a degree of precision and acceptable work to be turned in. There is no reason that you should have difficulty with the basic instructions by now. Now with that said, instructions are on the board and you have 45 minutes." He said as everyone quickly began working. A few times Edward had been forced to whisper some advice to Harry after noticing his work so that they didn't both explode. With their familiarity with mixing compounds the Amestrians had finished early and were merely waiting for time to be called when Edward smelled a peculiar scent. Looking around he noticed that instead of the violet color that the potion should have been giving off, Ron's potion was giving off a putrid green color and the scent was worse. Twitching in irritation he realized that Al and Eve had noticed as well. Drawing on the floor quickly catching Severus' attention, Edward created a dome of stone around the potion just as it exploded. Edward's eye was violently twitching as he realized that the dome had barely held.
"Do you have any idea how dangerous that was?!" he exclaimed.
"Weasely! Did the instructions not say to brew the potion on medium high and stir counter clockwise for precisely forty three strokes?" Snape snapped. The startled Weasely nodded meekly.
"Well I do believe that I will be seeing you for detention and I want you to go to Pomfrey's and get your eyes checked. There should have been no reason to mess up the potion bad enough to turn it into acid." He snapped as the terrified redhead only nodded and bolted from the room. "Ten points from Gryffindor for your classmate's inability to read and ten points to Slytherin for your quick thinking Edward." Nodding he leaned back into his chair and laughed as Al transmuted the dome full of acid into a very harmless form. The rest of the day leading up to Alchemy was pretty uneventful. However, Edward couldn't help but wonder why the toad hadn't deducted points for his lip. Striding into the alchemy class he laughed as he saw Roy's eye twitching in irritation.
"Are they that bad?" he asked in amusement.
"I had to explain to a class full of seventeen year olds what 'equivalent' meant." He growled. Edward snickered. As the class he was to teach filed in, he smirked noticing a lot of familiar faces from his earlier classes. As everyone took their seats he glanced at the carefree way they were acting and shook his head in disgust.
"Alright everyone. Put your wands away you will not need them. Take out your quills, ink and parchment. If I see anything else on your desk I will confiscate it and not give it back. Furthermore, quick quote quills are forbidden. Write your notes out yourself or get out. I don't want anyone to think that this is going to be an easy class to pass. You will be taking notes and a lot of them. Then you will do practical work which will include a lot of drawing and finally when I feel you are ready I may let you attempt a transmutation. Questions?" he barked startling everyone at the change in demeanor.
"How do you expect us to do the work without our wands?" One rather clueless Gryffindor asked.
"Hah! Alchemy is an entirely separate subject from magic. There is no wand waving or incantations in alchemy. Only hard work, memorization, constant repetition and the ability to listen and do as you are told." Edward replied happily. The look on his face absolutely screamed of a sadist in his element. Then a sparkle entered his eyes. "Oh just so you know after this you have phys. Ed with Izumi." The whole class gulped in fear at the implications implied by his voice. Edward on the other hand was absolutely loving the look of sheer terror. He could get used to this.
************************T.B.C******************
A/N: Hi there well here is the ninth chapter. I didn't get all the way through the first day like I intended but I think that I should leave it here. Anyway the next chapter will be Edward's class and perhaps some more Edward vs. Umbridge. I only remembered the point system after they had left her class so sorry about that and yes I brain farted halfway through the chapter. I apologize if it got bad. As always point out the mistakes and I will get around to fixing it eventually. Ja!
