Author's Note: I think this may be the longest absence we've yet had - but it has brought forth rather impressive fruit. I'm proud to announce that this is the longest chapter yet. It may mess up my write-time and my plotting, but here we are. I hope you enjoy the chapter, and make sure you review and tell me what you think!

Disclaimer: FullMetal Alchemist and Harry Potter are owned respectively by Hiromu Arikawa and J.K. Rowling. I never claim otherwise and make no money from the online publication of this free-to-read fanwork.

The Scientist's Lament

Chapter 11

Flesh Wounds

Even at the height of summer, the chill of two a.m. was tangible. Stepping into the warmth of the Burrow was like entering a warm bath - the aches in Ed's shoulder and thigh immediately eased. They didn't disappear, Ed was never that lucky. But they eased.

"How did it go?" Mrs. Weasley asked. She was sitting at the table, across from the boy that had to be Harry Potter, and next to her husband. Mr. Weasley must have arrived while Ed and Al were outside.

"Fery vell!" Al said. "Tonks vill be taking me to buy a vand next veek!"

"You don't have a wand?" That came from Potter, and Ed could not help but glare at him for it.

"Ah," Al said, feet shuffling. "I only vound out zat I vas a vizard recently. So I'm fery behind in my mileschtones. I'm Alphonse Elric. You must be Mr. Harry?"

Potter blinked at his soup. "Um. That's me. Just Harry, yeah?"

"Right," Al said. "Sorry."

It was at that point that Potter looked at Ed. He looked supremely awkward, but Ed was not prepared to quite end his scrutiny. The boy was thin and sma- not freakishly tall for his age. Ed felt an immediate empathy there. But what else? His eyes were a vibrant shade of green and dancing nervously. Just like the other children, this boy had gone through a trauma. It was plain to see.

Ed's eyes shifted to Alphonse. His brother was calmer, now, but the jumpiness of earlier replayed itself in Ed's mind. He grimaced.

"I'm Ed, Al's older brozer," he finally said. "But you von't vant to get used to calling me zat. I'll be a teacher at zis Pig Vungus school ov yours zis fall."

The Weasley parents' head jerked up in unison. "Teaching?"

"What? But you can't be," Potter said, with a confused shake of his head. " Slughorn's the new DADA professor, I just got done convincing him."

Here the Weasleys exchanged a confused glance. Ed decided to ignore it.

"Nefer said I vould be teaching zis DADA," Ed said, flicking his antenna up and out of his eye for a maximum height advantage.

"Then what are you teaching?"

For whatever reason this was a matter of extreme importance for the boy. Ed shrugged. "Alchemy. Is an elective. Not sure vat years it vill be open to yet."

Potter tilted his head. "It rings a bell," he said, furrowing his brow. "Is it that thing that makes philosopher's stones?"

Ed scowled. "Nein," he said. Now Potter looked very confused, but Ed would be damned if he said any more on the matter.

Al winced, said, "Just take zee class," he said. "Iv you like science, you vill like Alchemy."

"It's a science?" Harry said with an unhealthy amount of surprise. Now that was ridiculous. If Alchemy 'rang a bell' with the kid it had damn well better have done so in the realm of physics and chemistry.

"I think everyone's tired," Mrs. Weasley said. "Arthur's had long day at work, and Dumbledore kept dear Harry out much too late."

"Bed sounds vondervul to me," Alphonse said.

"I'd tell you to go join Ron in his room, Harry," Mrs. Weasley said, "But I don't want to wake him. If Edward and Alphonse don't mind, why don't you share Fred and George's old room with them? I can pull out the spare cot."

"Don't vorry about it Frau Veasley," Ed said, waving a hand dismissively. "Al and I can share a bed vor one night."

"Oh," Potter said. "Thank you."

"Is vine," Ed said. "Just move in vis zee Boy Ginger tomorrow, yes?" Alphonse hit him squarely on the right arm. Ed winced.

"His name is Ron," Al said with a long-suffering sigh.

"Be carevul vis zee arm!" Ed said, glaring. But Mrs. Weasley was also glaring, and Ed made no protest on the subject of Boy Ginger's name.

"Oh sorry bruder," Al said, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.

"I am going to take a look at that arm, Edward," Mrs. Weasley said, rolling up the sleeves of her maroon robe.

"Vas? Zere's nozing vrong vis it!" Ed said, clutching at it nervously. One malnourished boy could be explained away, but a singularly shriveled arm on an otherwise healthy body?

"Tomorrow, Mr. Elric," Mrs. Weasley said. "I don't care what you say, I need to see it."

Ed scowled. "Nein."

"I'm afraid you don't have a choice in the matter," she said. "If you want to continue living here, you'll let me take a look at it."

"Sehr gut!" Ed said, growling. "I don't vant to live here, you gottdamn vizards kidnapped me und I vent vis it!"

"Wizards what?" Potter said with a yelp. "Why would the Order kidnap him?"

"Remus thought Edward might be a threat," Mrs. Weasley said. "Why, when he's clearly just a boy, I don't know. But it turned out that Alphonse was a wizard, so it was all for the best."

Ed felt Alphonse's hand land on his good shoulder and leaned into the warmth, fuming. He decided right then and there that Mrs. Weasley would never be privy to his actual age. Ever.

"How did you even come across them?" Harry said. "It's just so random."

"I teach chemistry in a high school," Ed said. "Granger takes summer school courses zere und I got too curious vor my own good."

"Oh," Harry said, deflating. "Don't know why she bothers." But that was so very obvious! Ed rolled his eyes. The boy was clearly not the sharpest tool in the shed. If this was the boy that the wizards were resting their hopes on Ed was sure that they would be sorely disappointed. He was sorely disappointed.

Ed decided that for once in his life he would take the path of least resistance, shrugged. "I'm going to bed. Is almost three in zee morning, und I haff lab reports left to grade. Alphonse?"

Al tried unsuccessfully to stifle a yawn before nodding. "Mr. Harry?"

"Yeah. Sleep sounds good," he said, looking down at his lap. "Thanks." With that the boy stood from the table and politely pushed in the wooden chair.

Well. At least Potter showed respect to the Matron of the Red Hair, Ed decided. Mothers were important. With that thought Ed left the kitchen and climbed the stairs, the other two boys trailing after him like ducklings.

When sleep came finally came, it was not Nina that Ed saw; equations swirled in his mind, curricula organized itself. And a class of eager students dressed in robes, starved from the saving grace that is science, chalked transmutation circles onto the stone floor of a wide classroom.

When Harry was awoken very late the next morning, he found that the strange brothers had already vacated the other bed.

"Where'd they go?" he asked, when the grog was blinked away, the pleasantries taken care of, and the topic of Sirius danced around.

"Out to the orchards," Hermione said, perched on the edge of the bed. "For their morning spar."

"Spar?" Harry said. Because that was mad, one boy still showed the signs of recent emaciation and the other was altogether too small.

"I don't know what their background is," she said. "But the two of them are both quite formidable. Or were. Or something. The point is, they heard about Voldemort and their reaction was to, 'Get back in shape. Oh, if our teacher saw us this flabby!'"

"Flabby?" Harry said. "But the taller one is a walking skeleton!"

"And he's got more meat on 'im now than he did! Dunno what to tell you, mate," Ron said. "But they're incredible."

"Are you talking about Ed and Al?" Ginny appeared in the doorway wearing a scowl the size of the moon.

"Did you ask them again?" Hermione said.

"Yeah," Ginny said. "And they said no. Again."

"I don't think they'll change their minds, Gin," Ron said with a shake of his head. "You've asked 'em about fifty times already."

"Oh. They'll change their minds alright," she said. "They'd better." Ginny wasn't looking at Ron as she spoke, Harry realized. She was looking at Harry with a hardened seriousness. He blinked, and Ginny had refocused her attention on her brother.

Everyone's mind was permanently drawn away from the Elric brothers when Fleur walked in with Harry's breakfast. She was followed by a cross Mrs. Weasley, and the information that she was quite suddenly engaged to Bill. The two of them disappeared as suddenly as they appeared, taking a furious Ginny along with them.

The quiet camaraderie of the morning disappeared entirely when Harry made the mistake of mentioning the pending arrival of the OWLs. Hermione left the room too, grabbing a flustered Ron by the wrist and taking him with her.

It took Harry a good minute to pull himself from his bed. When he managed to steady himself, he peered out the window. Harry hadn't been inside of Fred and George's room before, and now he was awake enough to be curious. Outside of this window lay the expanse of the Weasley property. And sure enough, up the hill between the rows of fruit trees, two blond boys moved with a speed and ferocity Harry didn't see often.

Maybe he was wrong. Both short and skinny had different strengths and weaknesses - and they knew enough about each other to be very evenly matched. Even from here Harry knew that neither was pulling their punches. Which was odd. He'd seen last night how protective Ed was of Al, though why Ed considered Professor Dumbledore to be a threat from which Al needed protection, Harry wasn't sure.

He shrugged and pulled his shirt over his head. He took one last look when his glasses were readjusted. Harry may not have known much about the muggle equivalent of duelling, but Voldemort had taught him the ins and outs of a fight. And these two were good.

The fight finished with Ed on the ground; it hadn't taken Al long to regain his usual place as victor. "Sorry, brother," Al said with a sheepish smile and an extended hand.

Ed rolled onto his back and smiled. "You always win, Al," he said and took his brother's proffered hand. "I'm glad you're back to that strength."

His legs were wobbly when he stood, but all that engendered in Ed was pride and relief. Relief that his brother was better, pride that he himself could work his body to its limits and enjoy it again.

His right arm was still a buzzing ache, and he knew he'd have to face the music of Mrs. Weasley eventually, but he and Al snuck out while Mrs. Weasley herself was groggily sipping tea at the table. She was tired enough that she even forgot to harass them about breakfast. Not that Ed blamed the Matron of the Red Hair for that. It was more than usually difficult to drag himself out of his bed that morning, and a stack of unmarked lab reports still sat on the Red Twins's work bench.

Ed shook the thoughts of marking from his head, smiled at Al, said, "Let's go in and get some food, Al. Your potions are probably ready."

"Probably. We've been out here a long time." Al said, clasping his hands together. "What're you gonna do with Mrs. Weasley? I don't think you'll get out of showing her your arm."

Ed shrugged. Mrs. Weasley had a good head on her shoulders, he knew. "I wasn't all that good at keeping it a secret back home, either."

"True," Al said. But by his shifty eyes Ed knew that his brother wasn't reassured.

Ed sighed. "I don't see a way to get out of it, Al. And what's she gonna do with the information? What can she do? Nothing. The consequences of the taboo aren't well known here. Alchemy isn't well known here."

Ed kept his gaze steady, saw the exact moment that Al grudgingly accepted his logic. "Let's go," he said, extending his left arm for Al to lean on. Al nodded, and so the two boys went inside to face the music.

Very loud music it turned out to be. Mrs. Weasley, flanked on either side by Girl Ginger and the Fiance, had her arms crossed, wand dangling from the fingertips of her right hand. And she was scowling at them with the very wrath of God. Ginny and Fleur, by contrast, looked cowed. "Out!" she told the two girls. "I need to talk to Edward alone."

Both Ginny and Fleur bounded from the room like deer with wolves on their tails. With them gone, Mrs. Weasley looked between Ed and Al. She settled on Ed. "Are you comfortable with Al here?"

Ed nodded. "I haff no secrets vrom him."

The Matron of the Red Hair's glare was no longer focused solely on Ed. "Which means you knew about his arm trouble. I expected more commom sense from you, Alphonse."

Al flashed an awkward smile, rubbed a hand at the base of his skull. "I haff been tight lipped about brozer's issues vor a long time," he said, voice cracking high.

Mrs. Weasley's eyes narrowed. Ed sighed, sat down, slipped off the glove he still habitually wore. The Matron of the Red Hair was immediately attentive - Ed could see her take in the protruding bones of his hand.

Ed went to roll up his sleeve, stopped himself, and went to his shirt buttons. "Zee issue begins all zee vay at my shoulder," he said. "Iv you vant to underschtand, you vill haff to see it all." His voice was not shaking, but English was lead on his tongue. Al seemed to sense his anxiousness, for suddenly he stood at Ed's good left shoulder.

Mrs. Weasley was nodding. "I want to see it," she said. "I want to help. No one should be in as much physical pain as you seem to be. Let alone someone just barely out of childhood."

Ed's fingers halted at the buttons. "You vill haff to leave zee 'child' shit behind," he said. "I vas ten vhen I lost zis arm und I lost zee last ov my childhood vis it - but most ov it had levt me already."

Al nodded his support, and Ed took that to heart. But Mrs. Weasley was assessing him with a a harrowed look Ed had not before seen on her face. "Lost the arm?" she asked, somewhere between skeptical and horrified.

Shit. Ed looked away. He'd not meant to let that slip. "Ja. You heard me."

Her lips pursed together, skepticism clearly winning, but Ed ignored it and resumed with his shirt buttons. When the sweat-damp button down was shed, Ed found he could not look up from where it had fallen on the floor. He was just glad for the tank top underneath the shirt - the arm was enough to try and explain away.

A quiet gasp had come from Mrs. Weasley's direction, and her fingers prodded at the automail scarring. The port was mostly gone, but the evidence of the surgery was there to say. Bits of metal were still occasionally surfacing and working their way out of his skin. Mrs. Weasley had gone to one such location. It hadn't poked its way from Ed's flesh yet, but the skin was inflamed and swollen.

"Iv you vere to cut into zat spot," Ed said - his voice was shaking now, and still he refused to look at her, "you vould vind a piece ov metal zere."

"Metal?" Mrs. Weasley asked, "By Merlin, why metal?"

Ed shook his head. "Iz long schtory."

"If I'm to help you at all, I'll need to know it." Her eyes had gone steely, and the tremble in her voice had lessened.

"Nein." There were places Ed would go, and there were places Ed would never go. "Iz none ov your business, und zee whole sing is healink better zan I had hoped."

Mrs. Weasley's mulishness was not to be flouted. "It could heal better," she said. "You may be a muggle, young man, but your brother is a wizard and there is no reason you shouldn't reap the benefits."

"To train zee mind one must virst train zee body. Zis goes part und parcel viz zat training," Ed said. "I haff alvays - alvays - brought my body back on my own. Zere is no reason to change zat because ov zis hocus pocus!"

For several seconds, the three of them just stood there. Each shook with the forces of their own determination. Ed was not going to back down - but Mrs. Weasley seemed prepared to out-stubborn him.

"Winry made him a prosthetic!" Al said.

"Alphonse!" Ed made to stop him - in Amestris, Al would never have dared. But Al would not be stopped.

"An Alchemist needs two hands to do zier vork, so Winry und Grandma took all zee medical science zey knew and zey made him an arm." With the last of Al's sentence went Ed's energy. He pulled out a chair and fell into it in one motion.

"What?" Mrs. Weasley said. "Made him an arm?"

"You heard Al," Ed said. "You heard him. It vorked fery vell vor a long time."

"How did you get it back?" Mrs. Weasley too had fallen into a chair, and her words came out in a whisper.

Ed deliberately closed his mouth and shot Al a warning glance when he opened his own mouth. We've told her too much already, little brother. Please don't tell her. Please. But he needn't have worried.

"It vas a burst ov accidental magic," Al said in the boldest lie Ed had ever heard him say.

"You saved your brother," The Matron of the Red Hair said with a teary smile.

Ed could not help but be impressed; Al nodded, looked somberly off into the middle distance, said, "Vee didn't know vat had happened - brozer's arm vas back, too thin vor life und sctill expelling zee metal of zee prosthetic, but it vas back. My own body, vich vas severely wounded in zee same accident, vas also restored.

"Vee couldn't explain it to our friends. Winry? Granny? Zey vould haff hit us viz wrenches vor dabbling in zee vorbidden! So vee came to London, hoping to hide avay from all zat vee knew."

"You poor things," Mrs. Weasley said, folding her hands around her wand.

She bought it! Ed could have sung. She bought it she bought it she bought it!

"Well," she continued, "We will start out small. I can't put you on Alphonse's potion regimen because we don't want quick growth to cement in the metal bits, but I can get out the pieces that are surfacing."

Ed jerked up. He should have known that showing her meant that she would do something about it, but years of port maintenance had made him somewhat over-sensitive to people handling his right shoulder.

"Vas? I don't sink is necessary, Frau Veasley," he said. "Zee arm is healing quite vell on its own, und it vill continue to do so, I believe. No hocus pocus needed!"

But Al was not about to let that slide. In angry, fast paced Amestrian, he muttered, "Just let her do it, brother. You're not helping anyone by sitting around weakened and in pain! What would Winry say?"

Ed had never yet won a fight he had with Al, and he didn't win this one.

The Matron of the Red Hair stood menacingly over him, potion bottles tucked in her apron pocket, bucket of hot water in her left hand, wand in her right, and two fluffy towels hanging off her elbow.

"One potion is for the pain," she said, setting down the bucket. "The other will be applied topically and will help close up any incisions I have to make."

"Vine," Ed said, gritting his teeth. "Just get it over zis."

And she did. With rather more precision than Ed expected, Mrs. Weasley cut into the two swollen abscesses on his shoulder. She pulled three pieces of plating and a wire from them, muttering about barbaric muggles all the while.

In Amestrian, Ed said to Al, "Lets make sure she never finds out about the leg, hey?"

"Agreed."

Word Count: 3,400. Yes. We've finally broken the 2,000 word barrier. The longest chapter of any of my multi-chaptered fics (obviously, I've written a few longer oneshots).

I had not intended for Mrs. Weasley to ever see Ed's arm. Ever. But somehow she not only out-stubborned Ed, she outstubborned me. It seriously messed over my plan for this chapter - Al was supposed to get his wand in this chapter - but here we are.

Tell me what you thought!