So... Here we are again! It's a good thing I had that buffer of chapters... first I took a 10 day trip from Minnesota aaaaalllll the way down to Florida to be a judge in Debate Nationals which. Florida why do you play the game where it's 88 outside, but the AC is set to 60 inside? It's a bad, bad game. Then my sister came to visit the whole of last week. I don't get to see her often since she lives in Colorado now. The moral? Buffers are Good!

I wanted a few things to move a bit more quickly in this chapter and the next chapter, but they didn't. So enjoy the extra words because these recalcitrant children will not cooperate.

EDIT! My wonderful beta, viscountfrancisbacon, noted that this is my fic's birthday! AYSTIAGI turns 1 year old today! In celebration, come and ask me some questions about the future of the fic over at my tumblr at BuffPidgey. I'll be more lenient on my no spoilers policy in celebration :)

Chapter Warnings: Canon typical violence (that wizards just are not prepared for), Umbridge

/

The next Wednesday, Harry spent the entire day reminding himself to rope Ed into teaching too. Last week going around and seeing to everyone's Expeliarmus technique had been fine, but Hermione had apparently found some book that looked into the benefits of physical fitness on spellcasting and Defense Against the Dark Arts while she had been looking for a tradition of fighting in alchemy apprenticeships, and brought the subject up herself.

"Is that why you and Malfoy keep passing out on the lawn in the morning?" Zacharias Smith asked.

"I only passed out the first day, thank you very much," Hermione replied. "And that pertains to something else."

"Does it really, though? Because I'm not sure how you making us run laps like you are is different."

"It is different," she insisted, "because that is for alchemy training, if you must know. Edward insists that alchemists ought to train their bodies along with their minds. Which is why he is going to be in charge of that aspect."

Ed, who had been watching Hermione's announcement with suitable weariness, leaned over and whispered, "Is she talking serious?" to Harry.

"Absolutely," Harry whispered back. "Good luck."

When everyone turned to look at Ed, he shot Harry a dirty look, but stood his ground against the weight of the entire club's attention.

"Hermione is not wrong," he announced. "I come here and see you read many books, this is good, but I learned that to train mind you must also train body. This is most important if you want to train to stay living!"

"You're not going to make us run laps until we pass out, are you?" someone asked.

"Yeah, cuz mate, we're here for learning Defense Against the Dark Arts," George said.

"Not alchemy," Fred added. "Especially if it involves that much running."

Ed held up one hand. "Not so many laps, no, but some running is good," he said. "If you are in fight, or if you are trying to keep away from fight, running is important if you do not want to get caught."

"How many fights have you been in?" Smith asked.

"More than you," Ed shot back. "You want me to show you?"

"You can't even cast first year spells properly!" Smith snorted, clearly unimpressed.

"I am not scared. Are you?"

Smith looked skeptical, squinting at Ed as if he could see the trick hiding up his sleeve. Harry realized then that Ed did look like an easy target; he wasn't very tall, and Smith was right about his magical ability. Harry had never noticed how… ineffective Ed seemed as a bodyguard. He had always boasted this air of competency that was backed up by the military bearing of Colonel Mustang back at Grimmauld Place, but here, surrounded by people with wands who knew how to use them, Harry suddenly wasn't sure how Ed was supposed to keep himself safe, let alone defend Harry.

A ring started to form around the two boys as neither of them backed down, and Harry thought the walls of the Room of Requirement were farther away than they had been.

"What are the terms?" Ron asked, snapping everyone's attention to him. "If you two are going to duel, you should at least have terms."

"If I win, we don't have to do laps," Smith said, immediately. "And give this muggle stuff a rest, work on real Defense."

"When I win, we do running," Ed announced, locking eyes once more with Smith. "And you do not question me about this again."

Smith drew his wand, holding it in front of him in the way Harry remembered from the one dueling lesson from second year. Ed made a small show of putting his wand back in his robes.

In the silence, Harry could hear Hermione's quiet scoff of, "Boys."

Fred and George were urging the rest of the D.A. away from the duel, and probably quietly taking bets. Harry wasn't listening.

"If you're not going to fight properly, you could at least not be rude," Smith said. "Do you even know how to duel?"

Ed shrugged. "Is very simple idea. We fight, but do not try and kill, and whoever stays standing wins, yes?" He wrapped one arm across his chest in some kind of stretch.

"I suppose you don't know the proper manners, then," Smith said. Harry had to wonder if Ed was trying to rile him up on purpose. "You bow before a duel. It's only polite."

As Smith said that, the memory of Voldemort back at the graveyard hit Harry hard enough to knock the breath out of his lungs. He didn't see what happened next as he tried to catch his breath over the phantom sound of 'That's it, Harry, bow to death,' in his ears.

One of the twins gently pushed him back, and murmured in his ear, "You 'right, Harry? You look a little pale."

Harry nodded. "I'm fine," he murmured. He caught his balance and looked to where Smith and Ed were still standing.

/

"Ready?" Ron called out. Smith and Elric nodded. "Alright, go!"

Smith jabbed his wand through the air, shooting a jinx at Elric, who neatly dodged to the side.

"I see," Elric said. He looked between Smith and the path the jinx took, but didn't go for his wand. Ron felt almost insulted on Smith's behalf.

He needn't have, since it seemed Smith felt plenty insulted on his own. He fired off three more jinxes in rapid succession, not giving Elric much time to doge.

Elric ran across the room, watching Smith and dodging the spells as they came. He wasn't moving nearly as smoothly as he had the first time, but it was still impressive to watch him pelt across the floor to one of the piles of squashy cushions. Grabbing them, he flung several at Smith, who jumped back.

During the lull in Smith's spellcasting, Elric clapped his hands, then slammed them onto the ground that was now free of pillows. Energy crackled and a curved wall formed between Elric and Smith.

"Alchemy!" Hermione gasped from next to Ron, grabbing his arm and shaking it. "And it really does seem that he doesn't need the usual means of channeling the energy. He didn't even stop to draw a circle, and we've seen that his gloves don't have anything drawn on them..." she trailed off as Smith rose from the defensive crouch he had adapted when Elric had started throwing things.

Realizing he had been duped, Smith cursed, and yelled, "Is that the best you can do, Elric?"

Though he was out of sight, Ron could still hear Elric moving behind his wall. "One moment," he called over the crackle of another transmutation. The light from the sparks danced against the white of the Room of Requirement, and cast an intimidating shadow from the wall Elric had made.

However, Smith refused to wait. He cast a strong concussive spell at the wall. Cracks started to appear. Some of the younger students standing next to Ron gasped at that.

As the light from Smith's spell died, Elric launched himself over the wall, carrying, of all things, a spear. He ran full tilt at Smith, swinging the spear so that he was holding it two-handed.

"Expelliarmus!" Smith cried. A jet of red light flew from his wand as he stumbled back, away from the nutter running at him with a medieval muggle weapon.

Elric struck the ground with the spear and jumped over the spell, within reach of Smith. He landed, then swung the butt of the spear into Smith's side.

Smith hit the ground, hard, with a pained gasp, his wand flying from his grasp. Elric stood over him, the spear blade hovering over his chest.

"I win." Elric wasn't even breathing hard.

/

The kid on the ground didn't react to Ed's announcement of victory. Instead, he lay curled on his side, coughing and groaning.

Behind him, Ed could hear whispers from the other kids.

"Merlin!"

"Bloody hell, how'd he do that?"

"He just whacked him!"

They were an odd combination of impressed and alarmed. An uneasy feeling curled in Ed's gut as he listened; he felt he had made a miscalculation somewhere.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione moved out of the crowd. Hermione knelt next to Smith, and murmured something Ed didn't catch.

Ron stood over them. "Can you get up, mate?" he asked.

Smith groaned in response.

"How hard did you hit him?" Harry asked quietly as he came to stand by Ed.

The rest of the D.A. were still staring. Ed remembered the few times he and Al had been run out of small towns, and tried not to fidget with the spear he had transmuted.

"Not that hard, I do not want to break his – his – chest bones." He gestured at his ribs.

"Right..."

Ron nudged Smith with a foot, and Hermione slapped his leg away.

"He's conscious, he might as well say something, or I'm going to kick him!" Ron protested. "If he's going to be like Malfoy in third year, I want to know now."

That earned a much louder groan from Smith and a smattering of anxious-sounding chuckles from the crowd.

"I am not- not like Malfoy," Smith gasped, finally trying to sit upright.

"I was there when it happened, Smith," Ron said. "Though, at least you're not whining about your father."

That didn't sound very funny to Ed, but it seemed the D.A. found it hilarious. Laughter spread across the group, dissolving the tension in the air, and Ed allowed himself to relax.

Harry strode forward to the middle of the floor. "Right, Ed did win that fight," he said as the chuckles started dying down. "And running isn't a bad idea."

The laughter was immediately replaced by noises of protesting children.

"I –" Harry stopped. He took a breath, and something in his demeanor changed. "I've had to. Run. Sometimes, magic isn't the only thing that will keep you safe."

From the way he was talking, Ed knew Harry was thinking about Voldemort as he spoke.

"I had to run, before. And dodging spells, like what Ed did, that's important too. I don't know a spell that could block the Crutacious curse. And there's nothing that can block the killing curse," Harry continued. As he spoke, one hand started rubbing at the scar on his forehead. "And if you're ever in a position where you don't have your wand… there's a lot of good reasons to practice this stuff."

One of the twins raised his hand. Harry pointed to him.

"Alright, but, we don't have to do any running tonight, do we?"

Harry shook his head.

"I think tonight we might leave early."

Nobody objected to that. Ed watched as they all left, once more in small groups. They seemed to be less hostile than they had been earlier, but Ed saw how none of them looked at him.

Ron came to stand next to him as Hermione worked on a cover story with Smith and a few of his friends who were taking him to the Hospital Wing. "Where did you learn to do that?" he asked.

"My teacher."

"How many teachers did you have?"

"After I left school very young, only the one. She taught me and my brother alchemy, and how to fight. How to stay alive."

Ron looked at him, head tilted to one side. "You have to use those lessons often?"

Ed shrugged. "I am alchemist, so yes."

"Not just alchemy, the fighting," Ron insisted. "When you were in –" he stopped, and glanced at the remaining members of the D.A. who were still milling around, waiting for Harry's ok to leave. "When you were, ah, working in Amestris, did you have to do much fighting?"

"I am still working," Ed pointed out quietly.

"You know what I mean," Ron hissed back. "You seemed pretty comfortable taking Smith out like you did. What kind of practice have you had?"

Ed's fingers clenched in the loose material of his Hogwarts robes as he realized what Ron was asking.

He shook his head. "Sometimes, people do not like what I say to them, they get angry. Sometimes maybe I stop a person from hurting other person, but I never – I do not kill." He wished he could explain more fully without sounding – he didn't even know how he sounded. That was part of the problem.

It wasn't like Ed wanted to fight, or hurt people, but he knew that there were people out there who would hurt him and his brother. He knew that better than ever, since that day when Scar had come after him. He had to fight to stay alive, to keep walking forward. It was something he had accepted long ago, but he didn't even know the English word for 'coal mine' or 'assault'. He wasn't about to play charades until Ron understood that sometimes the Colonel threw him into fucked up political situations just so he could punch his way back out.

Instead of pressing for answers, Ron gave him a hard stare. Ed forced himself to return the look. Finally, Ron let out a sight.

"At least you know how to fight," he said.

"What, you think we send –" Ed stopped himself from saying something about bodyguards. "A bad fighter?"

Ron shrugged. "Maybe," he said.

Ed's brows rose.

"The Ministry can be fickle," he said. "And they don't like Harry this year, in case you haven't noticed."

"Maybe your Ministry do not like Harry, but I think he is not so bad."

After saying something like that Ed had to leave. He tried not to run to the bookshelves, feeling Ron's eyes on him all the way there.

/

Ten days after she started running laps, Hermione had built up enough stamina to actually begin thinking about Edward's riddle. She'd been tempted to look through the library to see if there was any reference to it in the alchemy books, but when Edward had seen the title of the book she was reading, he'd snorted and said that it was worse than useless. So she focused on doing laps. It was still horrid, and she still hated it, but she was getting better, which was a motivating thought.

Though, not as motivating as seeing Malfoy going through the same torture every morning. After that first morning, Hermione had been able to make it through the whole run, though Malfoy couldn't say the same. She had paced herself better that morning, and was able to savor the satisfaction of being the one to levitate Malfoy to the Hospital Wing after he had failed to learn from the previous morning. After that, Malfoy doggedly pushed himself every morning.

Hermione was sure that at least part of his determination was rooted in his "pride" as a Pureblood. The idea of letting a muggleborn being the only one to get proper alchemy lessons probably gave Malfoy nightmares or something, though she wasn't about to spend a lot of time speculating. Let the rich little bigot sweat it out; it'd be good for him.

The painfully rational part of Hermione pointed out that if Malfoy was being motivated by spite, so was she. Fortunately, it usually followed up by allowing that spite like Malfoy's had gotten people killed, and as long as she didn't follow through on any of her vague plans to break his legs, no matter how tempting said plans were, her motivations were no one's business.

Edward's motivations were his own, as well, though Hermione wondered why he came down every morning, usually a few minutes after they started running. Some days he ran with them, but most days he set up on one side of the castle, away from the entrance hall and did various exercises. Some pushups, some situps, some exercises Hermione couldn't quite name, and stretches.

One day, she swore she had seen Edward do a standing split on the wall of the castle. When she mentioned it to the boys later, Ron had sworn that that was completely impossible. When Hermione had told him that it actually was, he tried it himself. Madam Pomfrey had been very disappointed to see them again so soon.

This morning, Edward was doing some of the stranger exercises. After Hermione and Malfoy had run their five laps, he approached them. Part of Hermione, the part that always wanted to know everything wanted to ask what the names of those exercises were, but she was too busy catching her breath. She was determined to greet Edward, so when he was within earshot, she took a few extra-deep breaths.

"Good morning," she managed.

He nodded to her, but said nothing, simply observing the way she had her hands on her knees, and the way Malfoy looked like he was about to fall over as he looked up to see who she was talking to.

As Edward stood there, silent, Malfoy looked up, and glared. "Well? Have you got anything to say?"

"Do you know answer?"

"Of course not!" Malfoy snapped. "I've been running laps like some- some- dog for days, and you've given us no hope of solving this! Who the bloody hell thinks with their legs?"

This time, Edward gave Malfoy his full attention. "You think this is hard? I tell you before, before I was learning alchemy, I stayed on an island with no food for a month. Here you have food, you have warmth, you have soft bed." He waved a hand at the castle looming behind him. "This is not hard! Not taxing! But you want help from me?"

Malfoy glared Edward down in the silence that fell after that question. He looked more uncertain as the silence stretched on, and on.

It was tempting to step in and say something, but Hermione held her tongue. She had agreed to Edward's terms, and she knew that he was going easy on her. On the both of them. Perhaps Malfoy lacked perspective – Hermione corrected herself. Malfoy absolutely did lack perspective. The only question was if his lack was from not seeing Edward during D.A. meetings, or from his… upbringing. She didn't think that he would lack perspective, one way or another, for long.

"Yes, I think I rather do want help with your impossible riddle," Malfoy finally said, standing up straight and sticking his chin out, as though trying to look down his nose at Edward. While Edward was short enough to do that, Malfoy completely lacked the kind of force to make the gesture look anything other than pompous.

"If you want help, then I will give you help. The same way my teacher sent help." Edward's expression was thunderous. "But know you ask for this."

Edward darted forward, and punched Malfoy in the gut. As he doubled over in pain, Edward kicked him across his ribs, sending him sprawling.

On the grass, Malfoy shuddered as Edward approached him. But Edward only knelt down and said, "I hear that your father is very powerful. I hear you are good at magic, but here you are, on ground. No magic here. No power here. No alchemy." He looked over and caught Hermione's eye and added, "Only me, only you."

Then, he stood up, and walked away.

/

Through the pain in his stomach and his ribs, Draco heard a voice.

"Can you get up, Malfoy?"

Of all the people to watch that, it had to be Granger. He groaned.

In two moves, Elric had felled him, without using magic or alchemy. With only two muggle dueling moves, Draco Malfoy had been utterly defeated. The worst part was that he had asked for it.

No, actually. The worst part was that Granger had seen it.

"Shall I take you to the Hospital Wing?" the damned girl asked again.

"No, you shall not," he managed to snap. "I am quite fine."

Granger pursed her lips. "Are you sure? The wound you sustained in third year seemed to pain you for quite a long time."

Draco did not snap at her. She wasn't worth it.

"If you're quite sure, I suppose I'll leave you to it," Granger said over her shoulder.

Once he was sure he was alone, Draco allowed himself to collapse back onto the grass. He would get up, once he was sure he could keep his composure.

The cold dew from the grass began to soak into this clothes. He would go back in, he told himself again. Soon.

/

They were more than half way down to Hagrid's cabin before they realized that nobody knew where Ed was. Harry felt guilty, but they were already on the grounds, and it had been so long since he had seen Hagrid that he really didn't feel like turning around.

"He is supposed to be your bodyguard," Ron said, musing aloud. "Shouldn't he be here? If we go back then – nah, we're just going to see Hagrid."

Harry nodded. "Yeah. We're fine. We've got the Cloak. The worst thing that could happen would be getting caught."

"Right, so let's hurry up!" Hermione whispered, pushing on the boys' shoulders.

Seeing Hagrid again was – intense. It was a relief to see him again of course, back in his hut where he belonged; but his face looked horrible, as if one of those giant winged horses from Beauxbatons had been tap-dancing on it. Hagrid's reluctance to explain his injuries only made Harry more uneasy. Hermione had claimed that a visit to Hagrid would cheer him up, and it did, but even at Hagrid's there were so many reminders that this year was – different. Painful.

The knocking on the door brought one more painful reminder as Umbridge strode into the hut like she owned it.

"My name is Dolores Umbridge," she said, loudly and slowly. "And this is Edward Elric." She gestured behind her, where Ed was standing, watching the proceedings with a bland expression.

Harry hadn't even noticed him walk in. When – why was he here? Why was he here with her?

"Dolores Umbridge? Don't you work for Fudge?" Hagrid asked. "What're ye doing at this hour with – isn't that a student?"

Umbridge tried to look down her nose at Hagrid, who was easily a meter taller than her, but she strode further into the cabin while she said, "Mr. Edward Elric is a guest of the Ministry at Hogwarts this year. He will be in your fifth year class. I felt that it would be good to introduce you now, to avoid any… upsetting confusion on Monday."

"I'm sure I would'a learned about Mr., er, Elric before –" Hagrid started to say before Umbridge cut him off again.

"While I was Senior Undersecretary to the Minister, I am now the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, as well as the Hogwarts High Inquisitor."

Umbridge badgered Hagrid with questions, and the whole time Ed stood there, looking practically uninterested in what was happening.

He looked like he didn't care that Umbridge was poking around Hagrid's life, and he didn't object when Umbridge used Ed as an excuse to pry even more. Harry felt his nails digging into his palms. Ed was supposed to be on his side; he wasn't supposed to be hanging about, helping Umbridge!

Ed managed to get back to the Tower before they did. Harry was about to throw open the curtains of Ed's bed, but Ron grabbed his arm.

"Hold it," he whispered.

"Don't you want answers?"

"Merlin's beard, yes, but not in front of –" Ron jerked his head to indicate the rest of the dorm, everyone else asleep in bed.

Harry hesitated, and Ron added, "Hermione probably wants to be there, too."

Finally, Harry allowed himself to be pulled away. But in the morning, Harry swore, Ed would explain himself.

/

Ron had a hard time falling asleep after visiting Hagrid. There were too many things swirling about in his mind; Hagrid's weird injuries, Umbridge's visit, the way she talked to Hagrid and how it crawled across his skin, and Elric being there. His dreams were a jumbled mess of his Aunts speaking very condescendingly to Hermione while he couldn't get Elric to stop reading, so when Hermione shook him awake, he was more relieved than annoyed.

It was barely six in the morning when Hermione pulled him and Harry out of their beds. It should have been a given that Elric was still asleep.

It should have been.

Looking at the empty bed where Elric was supposed to be, Ron wanted to start swearing, but he knew if he woke anyone up, Hermione would get caught, and then she would do something Drastic, and nobody wanted that.

But really, where the bloody hell had Elric gone?

Hermione waited until they were back in the common room before she proposed that he and Harry come down to run laps with her. Instead of doing that, Harry and Ron went down to wait on the steps while Hermione ran laps, on the off chance Elric would show up. Because Ron was not about to run laps before sunrise.

He would, however, comfortably watch Hermione run laps while Malfoy struggled to keep up before sunrise. Malfoy shot them a poisonous glare then pointedly ignored them while he… well, it looked more like flopping than running.

Ron sat on the castle steps in the pre-dawn not-light next to Harry and listened as the two sets of footsteps got farther and farther away. Harry had pulled his knees up to his chest, and rested his crossed arms on top of them as he gazed out into the dark mists on the grounds. It was a quiet, contemplative scene, and Ron kind of hated it.

Brooding over things had never really helped Harry, and Merlin knew that over the summer Harry had had more time to worry and overthink things than he needed.

"Hey Ron," Harry said, before Ron had a chance to break the silence himself. "Do you think Ed is really on our side?"

"What?"

"I know the Order sent him, but, Umbridge said the Ministry sent him, too, and he's been meeting with Umbridge – last night, and the first night of my detention, at least. And he goes off and does who-knows-what. And, back in Grimmauld Place he said that bodyguarding wasn't his 'real' reason for being here."

Harry paused, glaring off into the night. Ron waited; Harry didn't sound like he was done talking.

"While I was at the Dursleys, he seemed like a decent guy. He hung about, and he never really seemed to mind what the Dursleys were saying," Harry said. Ron thought he had been past feeling guilty about leaving Harry alone all summer, but at the reminder that Harry had had to spend three months with arguably the worst muggles in the world, it swept back in.

Harry hadn't said much of anything about the Dursleys in his letters; Ron had taken that to mean they had – calmed down or something. But no, they were still the worst. He didn't know what the Dursleys had said about Harry, even in front of guests, but he felt like he could guess. It made his skin crawl.

"So he and I got along during the summer, but now…" Harry sighed. "I don't know."

"I dunno, mate," Ron said, leaning over, so he was leaning shoulder-to-shoulder with Harry. "I think if we could get some answers from Elric we might be able to figure something out."

"What do you think of him?" Harry asked, still looking out across the grounds.

Ron thought about it a bit before answering, and the silence that fell while he thought seemed to muffle even his thoughts. Eventually, he said, "He doesn't seem like such a bad person. I want to think that there's someone here who can help keep you safe, but you're right. He goes off to do his own thing, and that seems suspicious."

He thought a bit more, then added, "I'm not sure if him beating up Smith is sketchy or hilarious, though."

Harry burst out laughing, and Ron grinned.

/

Edward didn't come down to the grounds that morning. After her laps, Hermione stood and glared at the steps where Harry and Ron were waiting, and where Edward should be. It was a bit concerning, considering his behavior lately. Physical violence and meeting with Umbridge after hours was not, in Hermione's opinion, a positive pattern of behavior. She had hoped to get to the bottom of it this morning.

She led Harry and Ron back into the castle. When she came back from a quick shower and a change of clothes, they reported that Edward wasn't anywhere in Gryffindor Tower. He wasn't in the Great Hall, either, when they went to grab breakfast.

It was Saturday, so they didn't have class, which meant that they had time to go back to the Tower to grab the Marauder's Map. A quick glance told them that Edward was in the library, and they were off. When they arrived, it was quite clear that Edward had been there for quite some time. He had several books spread out in front of him, and quite possibly several more books' worth of lose notes spread out in various haphazard piles across the rest of the table. She tried to get a look at some of the books, but they were in Amestrian. A quick look at the notes, written in two different hands, and she saw they were in Amestrian as well.

Edward didn't look up as they approached, glaring furiously at a passage in a book he held in front of him. Even when they stood right next to the table, practically looming over him, he still looked through the book, muttering under his breath.

"Hey, Ed."

Edward reached for a quill, quickly scratching out an astonishingly perfect alchemical sigil. Hermione had never seen a perfect circle drawn in real life before.

Harry tried again, "Hey, Ed?"

"Hey, Elric, you in there?"

Still no response. This was getting silly.

Hermione drew her wand, and levitated the pages up out of reach. Finally he looked up.

"What you want?" He looked at Hermione, saw her directing his various research materials, and absolutely glared at her. "Give those back."

"Calm down, Edward. We just have a few questions for you," Hermione said. "Once they're answered, I'm sure we can leave you to your studies."

/

So apparently, I've been spelling the Russian word for Ed's title wrong this whole time. A kind Russian speaker informed me that I have been calling him "Slimy" every time I used 'Sal'noy' instead of 'Stal'noy'. So I have to go back and fix that. Such are the trials of someone writing in a language she doesn't know. But I do appreciate people pointing out such mistakes. (Special shoutout to Amelia Loves Anime who pointed out I have a bit of a time warp mistake last chapter. I thought I had caught it but... nope! I WILL fix that!)

I was also asked by someone why Ed's accent would get thicker- if you speak a language that's not your birth language, if you're tired, upset, sick, or what have you, concentrating on making all the proper sounds and doing all the proper grammar becomes harder than usual.

As always, you can find me at BuffPidgey on tumblr, and there you can ask questions and get answers RIGHT AWAY instead of waiting for the next update! You might also get hints on what else I'm cooking up.