Don't own HP or FMA

"Talk"

'Thought'

Chapter 14

Ed made his way into Hogsmeade. He knew this was going to be a hard battle to fight. He had to convince Izumi to move up to the castle for some medical treatment. Ed sighed to himself. He hoped she didn't kill him. He loved Izumi, he really did, but she scared the shit out of him.

"Edward, I am glad you are here." Ed glanced up and saw Lust staring at him.

"Yeah, I got your message." Ed replied. "How bad is she?"

"I believe it would be best if you got her some medical attention." Lust replied.

"I guess it's that bad, but the problem is her accepting the help." Ed responded as he made his way into the house. He went up the stairs and knocked on Izumi's door before entering. "Izumi?"

"Go away Edward."

"I came all the way down here, and this is what you have to say to me?" Ed looked at his former teacher. She was laying in bed with Wrath sitting next to her.

"Go away."

"I can't. We are all worried about you. Roy has set it up with Dumbledore for you to come with us to the castle. They have a Hospital Ward in the castle. They can take care of you." Ed replied.

"I'm fine."

"You are bed ridden." Ed replied. "Listen. We can do this the easy way or the hard way. Either you come with me under your own free will, or I'll take you back by force. Your choice."

"You wouldn't" Izumi challenged.

"I would." Ed clapped his hands and held them over the bed.

"Fine. Let me get ready." With that Izumi got up and hobbled her way to the bathroom. Wrath looked over at Edward.

"Thank you Edward." Wrath stated.

"I wasn't lying when I said we were all worried for her. She is just as important to me as she is to you." Edward replied. "You don't have to worry; I'll take care of her while she is at the castle." Wrath gave a small smile.

"Good, otherwise I'd have to kill you."

"I'd like to see you try." Ed replied as Izumi walked out of the bathroom, dressed.

"Let's go Edward," Izumi stated as she made her way down the stairs. Edward and Wrath followed her. When they arrived at the bottom of the steps, Scar helped Izumi with her jacket. If the situation would have been different, Ed would have laughed at how domestic a month with Izumi had made Scar. Lust than handed him a small suitcase with some of Izumi's things, before the two Alchemists were pushed out of the house. Turning, Ed started to make his way towards the castle. He walked slower than usual so that Izumi wouldn't have to push herself as they made their way to the castle. The usual thirty minute trip took about an hour and a half to do with the pace Izumi went at. Ed had to bite his cheek from yelling at her to hurry it up. Finally the two of them entered the castle, and Ed escorted Izumi to the Hospital Wing. He then introduced her to Madame Pomfrey. With his job completed. Ed said his goodbyes to his teacher as he made his way to the Great hall for some dinner. Life at the castle was about to get a lot more interesting.

Ed entered the Hospital Wing. He was surprise to see Madame Pomfrey arguing with Izumi. Izumi had only been there for two days and already Madame Pomfrey looked as if she wanted Izumi gone.



"Izumi? What's going on here?" Ed asked. He was surprise to see that Dumbledore was also in the room.

"Well Mr. Elric, we are offering Mrs. Curtis here a potion that will grow back her organs, yet she refuses to take it." Madame Pomfrey stated. "It could very well save your life." She looked pointingly at Izumi.

"I don't want it." Izumi glared at the nurse.

"Mrs. Curtis, why don't you want to take the potion?" Dumbledore asked calmly.

"Izumi, take the potion." Edward stated.

"No." Izumi replied. "I can't take it."

"There is no shame in wanting to live." Ed stated. "You have paid your debt. You have a choice of living or you can die. I for one don't want you to die, and I know that both Alphonse and Wrath don't want to see you die. But you are right; we cannot make you do anything that you don't want to do."

"So you guilt trip me, Damn it Edward when did you become so good at guilt trips?" Izumi asked as she snatched the potion out of Madame Pomfrey's hand and drank it. She gave a small grunt when she felt it start to work.

"I learned from Alphonse. You have any idea how long it took me to get use to Alphonse's puppy dog eyes whenever he wanted to keep a stray cat." Ed chuckled as he moved to sit down next to Izumi. He grabbed her hand and gave it a squeeze. "Madame Pomfrey, Headmaster. It's alright. I'll stay with her."

"I'm not an invalid. You know Edward." Izumi growled through clenched teeth. Ed smiled at her.

"I know that Izumi." Ed turned to them. "I'll call if something goes wrong."

"Alright Mr. Elric."Dumbledore stated as he dragged Madame Pomfrey away. Once they had left Edward looked down at Izumi, a thin sheet of sweat appeared on her forehead as she let the potion re-grow her organs. Throughout the whole ordeal Ed held Izumi's hand. He knew it was his job, as her oldest student to be there for her, and he would be, he would be there the whole night if he had to, because to him, Izumi was the closest thing to a mother he had.

Harry looked at his friends. He was amazed at how much things had change in such a sort amount of time. In the course of a few months, he had gone from being the boy who was hunted down by just Voldemort and his Death Eaters, to getting involved into a huge mess that included Homunculi and a civil War. He thought back to how Ed was before the incident with Scar. He had figured that this was the spot where things started to change. Ed was so happy and light-hearted. He had forgotten that Ed had just come out of a civil war; he was an orphan who only living family member was his younger brother. To Harry, he seemed like anyone else. He didn't seem like the kind of person who neck-deep into such problems. Ed didn't seem like the type to have so many demons on his mind. But when he saw him in the Room of Requirements, Harry was shocked. This was not the same person he had known previously. This was the result of war-torn veteran. Harry was scared; he was terrified at how easily his words broke the once strong friend he had. He had no idea what Ed had to go through in order end up like he did. But it seemed as if Roy Mustang did. He had a feeling that Ed had lied to them about how well he knew Mustang. How the two of them got along and how well they could deal with the events astounded Harry. They worked better together than two Aurors did, if they had known each other their whole life. This made Harry question everything Ed told him. But what hurt him the most was the fact that Ed confirmed the fact that his parents were indeed turned into homunculi. Ed had already taken the steps to destroy the Homunculus. He never would have expected the hot-headed teen, would be able to mature himself so quickly that he would be able to do the unthinkable. Harry sighed to himself. He wanted to forgive Edward, but he wasn't sure if he could.

Draco heard Harry sigh, and he noticed the troubled look on his face. He had a vague idea what Harry must have been thinking about. Everything Edward had told them, changed the way they would look at him. Ed was not the same person he was before. Edward had always been the temperamental 

Teen who you just wanted to provoke. He had noticed that sometimes in class Mustang would provoke Ed, if anything for a laugh, and he could see the small smile that broke out on Ed's face when he thought none of them would notice as he yelled about how much a bastard Mustang was. Draco could see that Harry was still a long ways from forgiving Edward, and to be honest, Edward didn't seem like the type to want to be forgiven. In the course of a year, they had seen many walls being both thrown up and broken down in terms of Edward's past. There had been times when he would smile, but his eyes had become grave and depressing. It was at those times that Draco worried about Edward. For him to become so broken, Draco shuddered to think what he went through when he was back in his home country.

Ron was confused. He would admit that this was somewhat normal for him. But if he were to say that the teen that lived with his family was capable of desecrating his best friend parent's grave, he would have laughed. After all why would he? But then there was the business with the Homunculi. He didn't understand why it was that they were after Edward. He was also confused with the relationship between Mustang and Ed. They seemed like they had known one another for many years, and because of this they knew a lot about one another. But Ed had said they barely knew one another. He had no idea who to believe. Ron just wanted everything to go back to normal; back to before they knew Ed had lost his leg. Back to when life was as simple instead of having to keep a constant eye out for Homunculi.

Hermione looked down at her book. She had been on the same word for twenty minutes. She tried to think of all the reasons to why Ed would do such a thing to Harry. She could understand the urgency, but she could not understand why he would volunteer to do it. Why he had said he had done it before. When Harry had started to accuse Edward, Hermione had never seen a person look as broken as they did then. And while what Mustang had told them was harsh, but it was also true. Hermione had never been more thankful that he arrived when he did. Otherwise Harry would have continued and she was worried as to when he would have stopped. She could tell, call it women's intuition, that there was something between Mustang and Edward that they weren't telling them. The conversation between them gave them away. The way Ed had pleaded with Mustang to stop talking, to stop chastening them. Even after being cut down by Harry, he still thought about them. But even though they were older than him, he had called them 'children'. The Ed they spoke to was an Ed they had never seen before, they might have caught a couple of glimpses of him, but they had never seen him as they did that night. It was in hopes of never having to see that Ed again that she replied to Edward's question. Her answering caused a sparkle to re-enter his eye. And for that she was grateful. She was just worried about how the others would take to the new Ed, this Ed was the battle-harden Ed. She had seen some of the effects on the Aurors they had gotten to know within the Order, but the only one that came close to Ed was perhaps Tonks. While she kept her cheerful self for everyone to see, she didn't let what she has seen show. Hermione just hoped that Ed wouldn't end up like Moody, someone who was constantly worried about getting attacked.

The next morning Izumi awoke to a strange feeling. Whenever she woke up, she usually felt some pain, but now, all she seemed to feel was nothingness. It frightened her. She glanced down at her hand and saw a head of gold. She realized that Ed must have fallen asleep while sitting with her. She knew that sleeping in that position did awful things to your back, but no matter how hard she tried she couldn't help the smile that appeared on her face. She knew that taking the potion would rid her of her pain, and that it didn't take the reminder of what she did away. But Ed's words got to her. She knew she was like a mother to him, Alphonse and Wrath. She was happy that Alphonse and Edward saw her as a mother figure, and she didn't want to leave them alone again. The same with Wrath, after Sloth had died, he was left alone, and it was only after time spent with her, that he got over the lost of losing the one person that he saw as a mother. She knew that no matter what happened she couldn't leave them alone again.

"I see that you are awake. How are you feeling Mrs. Curtis?" Izumi looked up to see Madame Pomfrey looking at her.

"I feel fine. It's kind of weird actually."Izumi stated as she slowly moved her hand from Ed's and moved her hand to the top of his head. Madame Pomfrey cast a glance over at the blond.

"I didn't have the heart to wake him." Madame Pomfrey admitted, she than looked up at Izumi. "I cast some spells on you while you were still asleep and all of your organs seem to be doing nicely. You should be able to leave in a few days."

"Thank you. I have a feeling that if I was gone any longer my charges might have destroyed the house we are living in." Izumi replied casually, her eyes still on Edward. This was the first time in a long time that she had seen him look so peaceful. Knowing that her job was done, Madame Pomfrey left the Alchemists alone.

Dumbledore sighed as he looked at McGonagall and Snape. These were two of his most trusted faculty and he was unsure on how to progress with the knowledge he had been given. It seemed as if Voldemort was going to be very active, and very soon. Yet what concerned him the most was how Voldemort now wanted Edward Elric instead of Harry Potter. He had had the boy in his school nearly an entire school year and he knew next to nothing about the boy.

"Albus, what are we going to do?" Minerva asked as she looked at Dumbledore. She had never seen him look as old as he did right then.

"Nothing for the moment. There is nothing we can do. We have to wait for Voldemort to make the first move before we make ours." Dumbledore replied.

"What of the Homunculi?" Severus asked.

"We hope that Mr. Elric's friends can help us with that when the time comes."

"But spells don't work on them." Severus stated.

"I know that, but it seems as if Mr. Elric and his friends have a way of battling them that is effective." Dumbledore replied. "We can only hope that it will work against the Homunculi when they decide to attack." With that the three of them fell silent as they began to contemplate their situation.

The next week flew by. Izumi returned to the house she had been staying at, much to Scar happiness; he was fed up of the two homunculi he had been put in charge of. Izumi soon fell back into her routine. Ed had started to talk with his friends again, and had made it a point not to run from the room as soon as Harry entered it. Life became the norm as everyone began to prepare for their finals. Ed, Hermione and Draco had become residence of the library as they began to study. It seemed that with everything Ed had been doing, he had failed to grasp the full concept that going to school meant you had to pass the tests they gave at the end. The second week of May was near a close when Harry finally went up to talk with Edward.

"Ed…"

"Harry its okay."

"But."

"You don't need to apologize, what I did was wrong. You had every right to."

"I shouldn't have said those things though."

"You were upset. I understand. I never blamed you for anything you said. I know I've messed up in my life. After all, I'm only human. And if it means anything, I'm sorry."

"Ed…"

"Yeah."

"Don't worry about it. I mean, I know I should be mad, but I know you would have never done it if there wasn't a proper reason."

"Thank you." Ed smiled. He was glad that this was over with. He knew that he shouldn't have been forgiven as easily as he was. But he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. With that said the two of them reentered the library to continue to study.

With the peace established between the five friends life continued on for them, they had no idea just how much their lives were going to change in the course of the following days.

Hope you like. I'm sooo sorry, I thought that I had put this one up. Please Forgive me.