DISCLAIMER: I OWN NEITHER HARRY POTTER NOR FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST!

Chapter Eleven

Friday dawned sullen and sodden as the rest of the week. The first class of the day was Alchemy, which, of course, was taught by Izumi.

"Put all of your wands away," Izumi said, as she walked towards her desk at the front of the desk. "You do not need them as I said the other day."

She got to her desk and stood behind it.

"Did everyone finish the essay I have assigned for you?" Izumi asked. "If so, and you have better, then come up here and deposit them onto my desk."

The students all got up and went to Izumi's desk with their essays. They lay them on the desk and went back to their seats.

"All right, then," Izumi said, crossing her arms, "today, we will starting from the basics. Mr. Potter, come up and get these papers and hand them out to everyone."

Hermione shoved Harry, and Harry went up to Izumi's desk. Harry reached out his right hand and went to take the papers from Izumi when Izumi suddenly grabbed his wrist. She looked at the back of Harry's hand for a moment and then let his wrist go, Harry feeling nervous. Izumi gave him the papers.

"Go on, now," Izumi said.

Harry passed out the papers and then sat down with one for himself.

"Does anybody know what it is on your paper?" Izumi asked, then adding while looking at Ed and Al. "Edward, Alphonse, do not answer. Miss Granger?"

Hermione, who was frantically waving her hand in the air, put her hand down.

"It's the Muggle Periodic Table," Hermione answered. "It is a table of the chemical elements arranged according to their atomic numbers. Muggle chemists and scientists use it on a daily basis, as do any of the remaining alchemists."

"Correct," Izumi smiled. "Ten points for Gryffindor."

Hermione beamed.

"I want every one of you to study this table," Izumi said.

"Why?" Draco Malfoy asked. "What point does it serve?"

"What point does it serve?" Izumi asked. "An alchemist has to know every chemical, metal, and every other substance in order to transmute -."

"But why bother when you can get whatever you can get with magic?" Draco asked.

"You can't get everything with magic," Izumi said. "In plus, you won't always have your wand with you. You might get disarmed."

"Only Mudbloods and losers get disarmed," Draco scoffed, as the Slytherins around him laughed.

"Really?" Izumi asked. "Mudbloods and losers?"

Izumi went towards Draco.

"Shouldn't you warn her?" Ron asked Ed in a whisper.

"Nah, she'll be fine," Ed brushed off. "It's Mal-fart you've got to be concerned for."

And in a flash, Draco was on the floor with Izumi's foot on his chest and his wand in her hand as the Gryffindors cheered.

"It's your cockiness that gets you, Mr. Malfoy," Izumi said, then turning to the Gryffindors. "BE QUIET!"

The Gryffindors stopped cheering. Izumi turned back to Draco.

"You should never, ever truly rely on magic," Izumi instructed. "It can turn its back on you as some people do."

She took her foot off of Draco's chest and let him get up.

"Get to your seat," Izumi said.

"I don't think so," Draco said. "My father will be hearing about this."

Then Draco grabbed his wand from Izumi, grabbed his bag, and then left.

"If anybody else doesn't want to stick around, then leave," Izumi warned. "But know this: if you do, I will report you to your heads of house and Professor Dumbledore."

Nobody else said or did anything.

"Now…," Izumi continued. "Let's move on…"

At the end of class, Izumi excused everyone except for Harry and Ed. She had them come to her desk.

"You two have detention with Umbridge, right?" Izumi cut to the chase.

"Yeah," Ed and Harry answered.

"Tell me, what kind of punishment did she give to you?" Izumi said.

"She's making us write lines for 'er," Ed said. "With these quills that use our blood as ink."

"How barbaric," Izumi said. "Let me see you hand, Edward."

Ed let Izumi see the back of his left hand.

"'I must not disrespect my teachers'," Izumi read. "What did you do, Edward?"

"I just called her by her name, that's all," Ed said.

"He called her Professor Toad Face and stupid," Harry said.

Izumi frowned. She should have known.

"I will talk to Professor Umbridge," Izumi said. "Just be careful, all right? Now, go to class. And don't get anymore detentions."

Harry thought that Izumi's warning to Ed was useless but didn't say anything. He didn't want to get his ass kicked. Knowing he would be late if he didn't leave then, Harry went to leave. When Ed didn't join him, Harry was about to speak up until Ed cut him off.

"Go ahead, Harry, I need to talk to Teacher for a minute," Ed said. "I'll catch up."

Harry hesitated for a moment and then left.

"What's wrong, Edward?" Izumi asked. "What is more important than your classes?"

"It's about Al," Ed finally replied after a few moments.

"What about him?" Izumi asked.

"I'm concerned about him," Ed said. "He's been acting a little strange."

"He's still adjusting, Edward," Izumi explained. "Just give him a little more time. He's still your little brother. Now, get going before you're late."

Ed sighed and then left a moment later, barely making it to class in time.

Tried as he might, Ed couldn't get detention from another teacher. So, at five o'clock, he went to Umbridge's office with Harry. After only two hours of detention with Umbridge, Ed threw down the quill and left, ignoring Umbridge telling him not to leave and to come back. Ed went to Gryffindor Tower and to the common room. Al, Winry, and Hermione were all shocked to see Ed coming in. Ed went to the table where Al, Winry, and Hermione were.

"Edward!" Winry said. "Your hand!"

"You need to go to the hospital wing!" Hermione said.

"If I did, then Pomfrey would tell McGonagall or Bumblebore and they would confront that psychopathic bitch," Ed said. "And if I'm right, then that could mean trouble."

"Here," Winry said. "Give me your hand."

Ed gave Winry his hand as Winry had taken out a handkerchief. Winry wrapped the handkerchief around Ed's hand to try and stop the bleeding.

"Is Harry coming?" Al asked.

"No, not yet," Ed answered. "I couldn't stand being there, so I split."

"You could get into trouble," Hermione said.

"I don't care!" Ed snapped. "I didn't want to let that bitch continue to - !"

"I didn't say that what you did was wrong, Edward," Hermione interrupted.

Ed didn't say anything as he sat down next to Winry since Al was by Hermione.

"Where's Ron?" Ed asked.

"He's trying out for the Quidditch team," Al answered. "He's trying for Keeper, whatever that is."

"It's like a goal-keeper in Muggle football," Hermione explained.

"Oh," Al said. "I'm glad you got away, Brother."

Ed didn't say anything as he looked at the back of his left hand that was covered with Winry's handkerchief. The blood had soaked through. A few minutes later, his hand stopped bleeding. He took off the handkerchief and cleaned it with a flick of his wand. Ed gave the handkerchief back to Winry.

"Thanks, Winry," Ed said.

"Don't mention it," Winry said.

"I'm goin' up to bed," Ed said. "I'm beat."

"Night, Brother," Al said.

"Night, Ed," Winry said.

"Night," Ed said, waving as he went up to the fifth year boys' dormitory.

"What?" Winry asked, a few moments later.

"Nothing," Hermione answered, smirking.

Winry rose an eyebrow. Al chuckled. He knew what Hermione was smiling about.

Pegasus jumped up onto Al's lap, and Al scratched behind Pegasus's ears.

"Are there any shape-shifting animals besides being a were-wolf?" Al asked.

Hermione and Winry looked at Al.

"Why?" Winry asked.

"I just had a dream a few nights ago about Pegasus turning into a real Pegasus with a golden horn," Al said.

Hermione looked at Pegasus.

"I don't know," Hermione said. "Pegasus looks to be half-kneazle, but other than that, I don't think he could."

"I know," Al said. "I was just wondering."

"There's nothing wrong with that, Al," Winry said. "It just proves that you still have an imagination."

"What does that supposed to mean?" Al asked.

"I'm just teasing, Al," Winry laughed.

Al frowned.

"Come on, lighten up," Winry said. "Let's get to work on the homework."

"Okay," Al said.

The next morning at breakfast, Ed, Al, Winry, Hermione, and Ron were talking about various things when Harry came bounding into the Great Hall, joining them at the Gryffindor table.

"Someone sure is happy," Ed commented.

"Quidditch later," Harry said happily, pulling a large platter of bacon and eggs toward him.

"You sure it's not because you just got lucky with Cho Chang?" Ed asked, grinning.

Harry blushed.

"Don't be stupid," Harry said. "That's not it."

"If you say so," Ed said. "Oh, there are the owls."

Owl and Sara came to their respective owners and held their legs out. Ed got the letter off of Owl's leg while Winry got the letter off of Sara's leg. Both owls flew off as the Daily Prophet owl came to Hermione and then flew off after being paid. Ed opened his letter and read it. It was from Mustang.

"Blah, blah, blah, blah," Ed said, folding up the letter a moment later.

"What did it say?" Al asked.

"Oh, Colonel Stupid just wants me to check in from time to time," Ed answered.

"But I thought you were -?" Hermione asked.

"I am, but the military just wants to know if I'm still alive and kickin'," Ed brushed off. "I will owl back later when I feel like it."

"You should send an owl back now," Hermione said.

"What are you, my boss?" Ed remarked. "I didn't think so."

Hermione pursed her lips. Then she went to read the Daily Prophet. Ed looked at Winry as Al spoke up.

"What did you get, Winry?" Al asked.

"It's from Granny," Winry answered. "She just said that whenever I need to make Ed more auto-mail just to owl her so she can send me the things I need."

"Well, that's good," Ed said.

Just then, Hermione gasped and read out the article about Sirius being spotted in London. There was also an article about Sturgis Podmore getting arrested for trying to get through a door and being sentenced to six months in Azkaban. After discussing the possibilities of how Sturgis was possibly being framed (Ed bursting out in laughing when Ron suggested that Sturgis was lured to the door), Harry and Ron went down to the Quidditch field to practice. Ed, Al, Winry, and Hermione, however, went back to the Gryffindor common room to do their homework.

Al wanted to watch the Gryffindor practice session after lunch, but he had so much work to do that he couldn't.

"I didn't know that there would be so much homework," Al said, after lunch.

"Well, it's O.W.L. year, so of course there'll be a lot of homework," Hermione said. "But you'll be able to finish it in time unlike some other people."

"You mean Harry and Ron," Ed stated.

Hermione didn't say anything.

"Don't worry, they'll be able to finish it, Hermione," Al reassured.