Finding Life's Second Truth

By: FlameXFullmetal

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Fullmetal Alchemist (Brotherhood). I never have and never will so yeah.

A/N: I had no idea that so many people actually liked this story that they would stay with it to chapter ten! Holy cow. Anyway, hopefully by the time that this is posted I will have gone back and replaced the old chapters with the revised ones that fix spelling, grammar and punctuation. Thanks to everyone for sticking with me this long. I have not had this problem on this story but it has been an issue on others so I felt that this needed to be included. If you intend to leave a review please keep the language appropriate and do not tell me to go kill myself. Thanks!

************************Sadists****************************

When entering Professor Elric's class the wizards had initially thought that it would be easy. However, after the intro that he gave they were quickly rethinking their positions. He seemed as if he intended on torturing them because he could. They had never really had a class that didn't require a wand either than the obvious ones. Those that had been in DADA with him were realizing that Umbridge had gotten off easy and that he could have tortured the teacher relentlessly. Turning their attention back to their teacher they noticed that he had moved to the board and was starting to write on it.

"Alright there are several things that you need to learn before you can even start to do alchemy. Unlike magic which has very few laws surrounding its use and limitations, alchemy has very many. There are three that you must remember before any alchemy can be done. The first law is the law of Equivalent Exchange. This states that in order to obtain something of equal value must be lost. In standard practice this is further broken down into two sub categories. The second is the law of Conservation of Mass. This law states that energy nor material can be created out of nothing. Therefore if you start with one kilogram of material you must end with one kilogram of material. You cannot add nor subtract and still hope to create something stable. The third law, the Law of Natural Providence, states that an object can only be transmuted to another object with the same base makeup. For example, you can only turn water into something that is still water in nature, such as gas or ice." Edward rattled off writing the words almost as fast as he was talking. The students that had been slow to get their quills, ink and parchment out were struggling to keep up. Actually, everyone was. They could also see that the boy was hardly even started.

"Now then I feel the need to inform all of you that I reserve the right to kick you out of my class as I see fit. So for the three of you in the back trying to use the quick quotes quill this is your only warning." He snapped without turning around. He then continued to write on the board.

"Moving on to the next set of three that you need to remember. Alchemy occurs in three phases: Understanding, Deconstruction, and Reconstruction. In order to perform any alchemy you must have a thorough understanding of the materials that you are using. For example, it is not enough to know that you have water, you must know that water is made out of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. If you don't know that then you will never succeed in your transmutation. Once you understand that then you can move on to deconstruction. In the water example you break the water into its three atoms. Reconstruction occurs immediately afterwards. You can then take those atoms and reform them into another material that has water as a base. If just using water then you are limited to gas and ice." Edward said as he turned around. He had finished writing and seemed to be letting everyone catch up.

"Questions?"

"Why can you only make ice and gas? It seems like a waste?" one student asked while still rapidly copying the words on the board.

"The law of providence." Was his only response. Somehow everyone knew he would respond like that and yet it caught them off guard.

"We can already do that with magic, so why use alchemy?" Someone questioned.

"Name?"

"Crabbe."

"Well Crabbe since it is a simple task tell me the spell that you have been taught by now that can take a field of grain and turn it all into bread." Edward challenged. Everyone in the room blinked as his words registered.

"As far as I know there isn't a spell for that." He admitted.

"Well see, if you make it that far in my class then it would probably be the fourth array that you learn." He responded making everyone's eyes widened.

"See magic can't do everything. There are quite a few things that alchemy can do that magic can't. I have already demonstrated to many of your teachers that by using alchemy in a combat sense it is possible to disarm and defeat any wizard." Edward lectured the oblivious teens. The looks that the whole class had was amusing.

"How? How can alchemy defeat a wizard?" A blonde spoke up.

"Draco glad you asked. This goes into the next rule of alchemy and then I will explain." He said turning to the chalkboard.

"I hope that everyone has finished." He said wiping the board clean. Several students groaned as they hadn't finished copying the notes. "In order to use alchemy a medium is required. In magic it is your wands. In alchemy it is an array. Arrays are circles that have formulas written inside of the through the use of runes." He said.

"If I find that anyone has copied the array you will be kicked out as none of you are ready for this." He said drawing a quick array on the board. "This is a basic array that would be able to convert water into ice or gas. It is by using this medium that the transmutation takes place. I'm sure that you have already noticed but for those that didn't, it took me three seconds to draw the array. The average amount of time to draw a wand and cast a spell is approximately fifteen seconds for the faster more experienced wizards. Provided that they don't aim." Edward clarified making many eyes widen in shock.

"Since contact with the array is necessary to use it, maybe another second would be lost activating it. The transmutation time for novice alchemists is approximately two or three seconds. Five at most depending on the size of the transmutation. So at most a novice alchemist could draw, activate and defeat an experienced wizard in approximately eight seconds." Edward explained. No one in the class said a word. The knowledge that they could be defeated so easily was very scary to most of them. Especially the ones that excelled in dueling.

"However, some wizards can use magic without a wand." Ron protested. He had never compared the speed of spell casting versus alchemy in the two months that he knew them.

"As alchemists can do alchemy by skipping the actual construction of the array by using a pre-drawn array. Roy come here." Edward said waving the fire alchemist over. "As many of you can see the gloves that he is wearing have a circle on them. As such for this transmutation all he has to do is aim and snap. Because the array is accessible he can activate it without touching it with his other hand." Edward moved back and watched in amusement as Roy snapped and set the fireplace on fire.

"In case any of you are wondering that took less than two seconds." Roy chirped at their stunned expressions.

"I have not seen any wizards use wandless alchemy yet so it is safe to assume that this skill is usually a very high class one and not easily learned. Meaning that the probability of encountering it is slim to none. However, most alchemist that use it for battle can all do this." Edward explained moving back to the center of the room and erasing the array that he had drawn.

"Combat oriented alchemist train relentlessly in order to perfect their transmutation speed and accuracy. As such it is common for an alchemist with combat alchemy to use their alchemy in five seconds or less. Furthermore, most of them are very athletic and trained in martial arts. A muggle fighting style as you wizard would put it. Meaning that dodging your spells is child's play." He said calmly. The room wasn't daring to say a word. Everything that they had heard about magic being 'unbeatable' by some and praised as perfect was coming down on them.

"Similar to your ministry's Aurors, the military where we come from also uses alchemist. These alchemist are called State Alchemist and are usually the front line in any skirmishes that break out which take too long for the normal military to handle. For the most part all alchemist hold the rank of major. Roy and I are both State Alchemists." Edward explained making everyone's jaw drop.

"How high up are you in the ranks?" one student asked. The two alchemists shared a look and smirked. They had decided that Roy's status as Fuhrer would not be disclosed to anyone that didn't need to know.

"Generals. The highest level that can be achieved in the military back home without becoming the king." Roy replied. That was unexpected and some of the students that had been born in the muggle world were speechless.

"Now moving on. The only way that you will achieve anything in alchemy is if you know the periodic table of elements. Who here knows what I am referring to?" Several hands went up and the rest of the students quickly recognized that they were all muggle born or half and half.

"I thought so. It seems as if only the muggle world has any interest in how the world works and what makes the world. A pity. So much can be learned from science." Edward lamented. The students who had not heard of the table were suddenly feeling inferior when they had usually felt superior for having a head start on the others. Roy smirked and picked up a stack of papers and began to hand them out.

"What you are receiving now is the periodic table of elements. This will be your best friend and worst nightmare for the next few weeks. Once you have been memorized and proven your mastery of the table we will begin learning the runes used in alchemy. Next, clear off your desks. We are going to begin practicing how to draw circles." Edward said making a lot of the students sweat drop.

"We already know how to draw circles!" A Gryffindor exclaimed.

"Oh? So you can draw a perfect circle in under a second with or without looking at it?" Edward queried. He backed down quickly. "If the circle is not perfect and there are any flaws whatsoever in its design the array will most likely explode. This explosion is highly likely to kill you as well. So do you still not want to practice?" As expected everyone in the room shook their heads. No one wanted to die because they messed up.

The rest of the class was spent repeatedly drawing the same shape over and over and over. Some of the students swore that they were going to have nightmares about circles. By the time that he released the students he still had not had even one circle come close to passable. 'It's going to be a very long year.' Edward moaned mentally.

"Alright I want everyone to pack their belongings and start getting ready to go. Two things before you leave take note that you need to head back to your dorms and change into your gym clothes. You have physical education with teacher next. Afterwards she will meet you all in front of the castle. Second either than beginning the memorization of the table, I want all of you to write an essay about one roll of parchment long on what you think the meaning of 'All is one, one is all' is." He reminded the students.

"Why did you call Professor Curtis teacher?" One student queried.

"She is the one that taught me self-defense and fine-tuned my alchemy. So she is my teacher." Edward said shrugging. For some reason the students got a sense of foreboding. However, they were all excited to leave. During the class he had made several students leave for their behavior and two more for trying to show off. They learned quickly that he was not going to put up with anything from any of them. None of them had any idea what that phrase meant but they were too eager to leave to put much thought into it.

"The essay will be due in one week. Any who fail to produce the right answer, and yes there is one, will not be welcomed back into the class. Anyone who fails to produce the essay itself will not be welcomed. If I find that you copied anyone else's assignment I will ask you to leave. When you figure out your answer do not tell anyone else. This exercise is for each individual to answer on their own. No group discussions." He called out as they left making many wonder what importance the phrase had in their alchemy class.

As the students began to gather in front of the castle after changing their clothes they noticed Izumi standing not too far away reading a book and seemingly ignoring their presence.

"For those of you that think it is funny showing up unprepared, you have two choices. You can run back to your house and change into your uniform and meet us back here in five minutes or you can take the class as you are. If you chose to take the class as is you will only receive a maximum of half the available points and will be forbidden from removing your robes to cool down. For those choosing to change if you are not back here in precisely five minutes then you will receive no credit for the class and will be barred from rejoining the group." She said as the class appeared in front of her. The students looked at each other and blinked. How had she known that some of them hadn't bothered to change?

"Alright it seems that you have all decided to stay in your uniforms so we will begin." She said after a few minutes.

"Professor Curtis? Why doesn't Edward and Alphonse have to take the class?" One girl asked miffed that he seemed to be exempt from some rules.

"Well for one Edward is teaching right now and for two he and Alphonse will be doing their P.E class later tonight with me. They are leagues ahead of all of you and having them join us now would yield no benefits. This class has two purposes. The first is to teach you that you are lazy and are far too reliant on magic to do everything. It won't take long before you realize just how much you don't do because of your spells. The second is to assist in your alchemy class. If your body can not handle the transmutation that you are doing you may very well die." Izumi lectured without looking away from her book.

"No offense Professor but it is kind of rude not to look at us while talking to us." Someone she couldn't see stated.

"Be that as it may, looking at a person while talking to them is a sign of respect. As of now none of you have earned my respect. You can even ask Ed and Al about this. I still don't take them seriously when we train." She said again not looking up.

"How are you going to know if someone slacks off then?"

"I trained Ed and Al when they were in a highly rebellious phase. I'll know. Now then I want everyone to look to their left. You see those flags? Those are your starting point. Since you are new to exerting yourselves I decided not to be too harsh on you yet. In about ten minutes you will begin from those flags and run straight along the path that I marked until you see another set of flags and back. Now I am going to teach you some stretches to warm up your muscles so you don't hurt yourselves." She said finally putting the book down. As she started on the basic instructions it was apparent that she was not looking AT them but instead NEXT to them.

It didn't take long for the stretches to be completed and she had them all lined up and ready. Izumi had found the whole warm up funny. Some of the students had no idea that they could actually move in certain ways and that they actually had muscles in places either than their wand arms and legs. Standing next to the flags she smirked.

"Alright if any of you get lost I might come looking for you. So I advise you to stick to the path that is clearly marked. This is not a race. That isn't until next week. Now get going." The students surged forward and she snickered at their looks. They thought that she was already a sadist because they couldn't see the other set of flags from where they had been standing. It wasn't far in her mind just about the length of two passes of a school track. Leaning back against a nearby tree she began to read her book again. From a window overlooking the front walk Alphonse gave the wizards a pitying look. None of them were going to be able to walk right when she was done with them. They would be to sore and might not make it back to their dorms. Shrugging he headed started towards his destination, the library.

**************************T.B.C***************************

A/N: Hey I'm back! I hope that you like this chapter. I honestly do not know how good it is but anyway it is here. I am working on a lot of things right now but as my schedule has been rearranged hopefully I will be able to update far more often. Anyway thanks for staying with me this long. Ja ne!