As yours truly doesn't really remember how old Al is when Ed recovers his body, in chapter 51... she'll just be assuming that he's 11. Please remember that TCoS takes place two years after Ed goes through The Gate, and this story is set right after he goes through the Gate... k? So Al (the real Al), is still quite a little kid.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: To my brother

"The seat of the 'Defense Against Dark Arts' teacher is empty!" Hermione said, glancing at it now and then.

"It's always empty the first day..." Ron answered uninterested, eyeing Schneid out of the corner of his eye. "Won't you ever eat" He finally asked, not being able to restrain himself any longer.

"No, I'm not really hungry..." The sin-in-disguise said, eyeing with distrust the many dishes before him. Used to eating only once in an irregular while, he reluctantly took a sip from the oddly-colored pumpkin juice. It tasted funny. He let out a defeated sigh. If he wanted to blend with those immature, hormone-driven teens that surrounded him, he'd have to do better than that.

He could start by actually eating.. but... eugh. For the sake of going unnoticed he took a bite from something that looked like... well, he didn't really know what it looked like, but who cared.

Ed, on the other hand, had all the people surrounding him, sweatdropping. "Man, I think I have food all over me..." Seamus, who was sitting next to him, whined. "Ehehe..." Ginny giggled uncomfortably.

Ron, on the contrary, was beaming. "See? And mom said you didn't eat enough..." He rested his head on his palm and his elbow on the table, and kept on looking at Ed with an amused (and sincerely admired) face.

"Hey guys, look over there!" Hermione said, grabbing immediately Ron's and Harry's attention. Envy's eyes discretely diverted towards the spot she was signaling, too. Anything for a piece of information that could be valuable and get him out of that anthill...

A smirk he didn't bother to hide curved his lips upwards.

"Look at that teacher!" Hermione chirped, and if Harry hadn't known better, he'd have said she was kinda... indignant.

"He's hardly older than us!" Ron exclaimed, delighted, "Perhaps he'll have some mercy when the final exams come...!"

Luna's quiet, purposely scary voice floated behind him, making him jump in surprise. "Don't you think he looks awfully... familiar...?"

The four of them turned towards Ed. "Hey Ed..." Harry began. Ed looked at him (food all around his mouth), the flare in his eyes meaning 'this has better be worth the interruption...'. Harry shook his head, and just pointed towards the teacher. Ed's face became completely serious all of a sudden.

"Al?" He muttered under his breath, his eyes wide in shock.

:ooo:ooo:

Alphonse Elric sat upright, as if a bolt of electricity had shaken his whole body. What had that dream just been

"Brother..." He whispered sadly, telling himself that he shouldn't cry. After all, a boy of 11 was big enough to hold back the tears. His brother didn't need him weeping, his brother needed to be pulled back from the other side of the Gate, and that was what he was going to do. And so, now more than ever, he was determined to learn all he could from his alchemy teacher, Izumi.

And he was determined to know... why he felt that he knew the guy of the dream, the one with the curly blonde hair and violet orbs. He was determined to remember... where he had seen those artificial, cunning eyes before.

:ooo:ooo:

"The new 'Muggle Technology and Mechanics' teacher, you might mean?"

"'Muggle Technology and Mechanics'? What on EARTH is that?" Ron asked, panicking at the name of the subject. Hermione shook her head, and said, "It's a specific subject, and it's only taught in the seventh year. We'll be having it... lemme see..." She produced a timetable from her pocket, "Mm... on Tuesday mornings, from 9:30 to 11:00.."

Nearly Headless Nick cleared his throat and continued, "Ehem, yes, mr. Alphonse has been recently taken in, since the Headmistress heard of his excellent academic development in Germany, and his desire to become a professional in the various areas of----" And he kept on speaking and speaking, but no one was really listening. Edward himself was too stunned to be able to utter a word.

"Alphonse, you said?" He asked, perhaps not too politely, but there was a relieved bewilderment in the way he spoke, that made 'Shchneid', who was all sprawled out on a couch, lift one eyelid lazily and pay some attention to the conversation.

Nearly Headless Nick looked at him with mild surprise. "Effectively, mr. Alphonse Heidrich..."

Ed smiled sadly, and said, under his breath, "Yeah, I guess... it'd never be really him..."

"Huh? Did you say something, Ed?" Ron asked, as he took a break from annoying some scrawny owl he insisted on calling 'Pigwidgeon' or something like that.

"No, I didn't." Ed answered tiredly, and started going up the stairs towards the boy's rooms. After he left, Gryffindor's Common Room fell into silence.

Schneid bit back an annoyed growl. Having a native German lurking around certainly didn't seem nice for his plans. Was he actually fated to have such a foul luck? He -almost- winced at the thought of the hours he could have spent idle, and were wasted in learning stuff about a country he'd never even been to, or previously heard about, in a world that wasn't even his own... to have a high chance that his plans were rendered useless by some petty teacher-wannabe.

:ooo:ooo:

Envy walked the steps that went to the boy's dorms tiredly, and frankly, in a bad mood. Some clock downstairs marked tediously that it was already 4 am. The homunculus walked into the room without waking anyone, and actually giving his night-vision some use. After all, if you looked carefully, his pupils were cat-slit. They worked like a cat's, too.

Envy would have loved to stay as away as he could from the former FullMetal Alchemist, but the only bed left was one that, conveniently, was on top of his. He did a ridiculous effort to keep back a growl that would wake any of those unnerving teens up.

All this was becoming uncomfortably personal.

"I only came to this stinkin' place to find him... that bastard... joining that old, noseless geezer was only to make my way around here more easily. He's the same as Dante: the means to the end."

But if the means took too long to lead him to the end... wasn't it wise to change of means? Envy fell asleep tugging annoyed at that question.

"but the only bed left was one that, conveniently, was on top of his." You know, those double beds that are one on top of the other? I don't remember their name

R&R! n.n