Author's Note: Can you say filler chapter? Sorry guys. I wanted to get further, but this was pushing the limits of my usual word-count as is, and if I went any further it would need to be another two thousand words. :/

On the bright side, I managed to write 30,000 words of my original novel as my word count goal for Camp NaNoWriMo of July. Sorry for the absence, but I'm really excited about what I managed to accomplish. I finished the first skeleton draft of it and reached a combined total of just over 60,000 words. So once I flesh out transitions and add in some of the subplots I ignored it'll probably clock in at 150k.

And now, I can take a break to focus on The Scientist's Lament – I think I earned that.

Disclaimer: WolfishMoon doesn't own Fullmetal Alchemist or Harry Potter. They are respectively the property of Hiromu Arakawa and J.K. Rowling, and no claims are herein made to the contrary. She makes no money from the online publication of this free-to-read fanwork.

Chapter 17

Trains and Transitions

The next few days were spent dealing with Harry's paranoia. Ed understood, he really did. But having procured an Unbreakable Vow from the object of Harry's suspicion, listening to the endless stream of What If's was getting old.

Ed just reminded himself that if Draco Malfoy double-crossed him, he would die.

"Can we actually trust you?" Harry said to him Tuesday afternoon, deciding to spread his paranoia brush a little more liberally. Great.

"Vould be wise ov you, iv you didn't." Ed snapped the book he was reading on Gamp's Law shut. "In your position, you should be vary ov trusting anyone."

Harry slumped against the tree next to the one Ed was sitting under. "I'm glad you understand my position."

"Vhy are you here?" Ed asked.

"No one is taking my suspicions seriously, and it's getting old."

"Malfoy?"

Harry started, fingers digging into the soil by a large root. "How did you know about that?"

Ed snorted. "Granger told me, asked iv she should be vorried about you."

"Oh." Harry sagged back against the fruit tree. "What did you tell her?"

"I told her zat paranoia vould help keep you alive, provided you don't take it too far. To you, I'm going to say zat iv you don't trust him, be defensive and vatch vrom afar. Paranoia isn't useful iv you put yourself in danger." Ed stood up. "I hear you are a good fighter, but I can't know vor sure zat you can protect yourself until I haff seen it."

"What?" said Harry, looking up. "I can't do magic outside of school. I'd get expelled!"

Ed looked at him doubtfully. Really? "Is magic zee only way you can fight?"

"No!" said Harry. "I can fight."

Ed rolled his shoulders. "Zen come at me. I vould like to see."

Harry continued to sit at the base of the tree, a stupid expression on his face. Ed stuck out a hand, and Harry seemed to come to a decision. He reached up, took the hand, hauled himself halfway to his feet before he dropped again.

It wasn't the best opening move, but it was something. Ed grinned as Harry's momentum took them both to the ground. Ed rolled back to a crouching position, and threw a punch to Harry's gut. Harry doubled over, briefly, but recovered before Ed could take real advantage. He straightened just as Ed's elbow was about to come down between his shoulder blades, making the blow glance off almost harmlessly.

Ed dropped back to the crouch and took Harry out at the knees with a low wheel kick. Harry went down hard. Ed put a foot on his chest, careful to use his right. "Nice," he said. "Zat is better zan I feared."

"My cousin's the local boxing heavy weight champion," Harry said. "He likes to use me for practice."

There was a bitterness to the tone that indicated that Harry wasn't exactly a willing participant in these sessions, but it had given him something. Harry's hand wrapped around Ed's ankle. With the left leg as Ed's anchor, it didn't off balance him by much but it was enough for Harry to roll away and spring back to his feet.

Ed laughed, and was about to go at him again when suddenly there was Ginny. "You'd teach him but you wouldn't teach me? What kind of professor are you?"

Whoops.

Ed looked at Ginny guiltily. "Alright zen. I'm sorry, I vasn't sinking, and he technically isn't your mozer's son, so I didn't feel zat I needed permission. Iv you vant, you can come at me."

Ginny charged without any hesitation, channeling the rage that being left out had likely instilled in her. Ed saw the weakness in the attack, side stepped. She landed hard, but her fingertips had managed to latch on Ed's pant leg, so she didn't go as far as she might've.

Girl Ginger jumped to her feet and aimed an uppercut at Ed's chin, he leaned backwards to evade and landed a punch below her ribs. She grunted, but did not give. Setting up the blow had left Ed too close to her, and her knee found purchase in his own gut. She will be good at this, Ed thought as he geared up to pull on Ginny the same set of maneuvers he pulled on Harry, so that the boy could watch them. In seconds, Ginny was on the ground beneath his right foot.

"Zee two ov you are pretty evenly matched. You boz managed to land a hit each, and it took me roughly zee same amount ov time to take you out," Ed said, pulling his weak right arm across his chest. "I'm going to lead you bos zrough some stretches and zen I vant zee two ov you to spar."

Ginny and Harry looked at each other, shrugged, and mirrored the movement. He got through the set, disguising a few stances as additional stretches, and then set them against each other. It was gratifying to see the both of them with the firmer footing he had snuck into the lesson. It took a half hour before Alphonse noticed what was going on, giving them even numbers for practice.

"You aren't," he said.

"I needed to get Potter's mind off ov Malfoy," Ed said. "So I told him to fight me. Girl Ginger saw, and she vasn't going to let zat slide."

"Vell," said Alphonse. "Honestly I vas very close to giving up vis Ginny. Vas going to start teaching her vhen vee got to school."

Ed nodded – he'd thought that might be the case. "Zen I gave her a head start."

Ginny landed a solid kick to Harry's gut, and he landed between Ed and Al's feet. Alphonse grinned, and began to extend a hand to Harry but he leapt to his feet and back into the fray without it. Al blinked, and gave Ed an amused expression. In Amestrian, he said, "I think there might be some tension there."

Ed dissolved into laughter, and replied in the same, "I think you might be right, Al."

It turned out that both Harry and Ginny, along with most of the Clan of Red Hair, played a wizarding sport that was something like airborne rugby. Over the rest of that week, the skill transferred well. There were several moments where both Ginny and Harry managed to successfully tackle both Ed and Al from the front, fingers digging into the soft flesh next to their spines.

"Sports," Al said, musing. "Zey might not be as stupid as vee sought zey vere."

The four of them settled into a rhythm that last week – up and fighting an hour before breakfast, studying till lunch, and then back at it once the worst heat of the day had passed. With the extra partners, Ed reckoned that he and Al were nearing their original levels of fitness. Ginny and Harry weren't bad students, either. By Friday, Hermione and Ron joined them.

"Really don't see how this will help against wizards," said Ron. "But if you're all saying it's important?"

Granger expressed dislike over the idea, and so they set her on the simplest exercises. Her two cents were: "I hated gym in primary school, but I don't want to die."

Mrs. Weasley said nothing about the whole affair, but she continued to drag out her lawn chair to watch. "Take care of them," she told Ed privately. "I know you can, and I know you have the experience to pull it off."

So Al told her about the military. Ed looked to the ceiling, hoping that Alphonse left out the part about alternate universes. But Ed got her point – anyone to target the Brood of the Red Hair Extended Edition would have to go through him.

"I promise," he said, placing a hand on her shoulder. "I don't vant to see any ov zem dead."

"Neither do I." Whatever Al said to her had done the trick.

The regimen they developed did not have long to flourish, because Sunday September 1st dawned sooner than any of them expected. The animals – including Alphonse's kneazle kitten Eve – were all loaded into their respective carriers. Ed had packed his newly extendable briefcase days ago.

Outside, once again waited the similarly extendable cars. The Patron of the Red Hair had explained the night before that there would be an Auror guard waiting for them at the train station. Ed's heart soared at that thought – finally a sensible form of travel from these people!

The Auror guard was quick and efficient, but their size and relative prowess made Edward uneasy. Still half expecting to be double-crossed at the last second, Ed reminded himself that he could take them down in a moment. He just hoped he wouldn't have to.

As it turned out, he didn't.

After wading through the crowded train station, Ed stood with the group before the column between platforms nine and ten. Well. Maybe he'd spoken too soon when he'd rejoiced at sensible forms of transportation. "Vee haff to valk srough zee vall?"

"Yes," said Mrs. Weasley. "Harry first, so we can get him out of the crowd."

One of the large man walked through the barrier with Harry, who was clearly disgruntled by being escorted. Tough luck, kid. Ed was vaguely sorry that the kid didn't have an Alphonse to speak on his behalf to the smother-mother powers that be.

"If you'd like to try going next, Ed," said Mr. Weasley. "Just make sure you hold Al's hand as you do, or the barrier won't let you through."

"Best to do it at a bit of a run if you're nervous," said Mrs. Weasley. Ed glared at the both of them, slung his briefcase over his shoulder and poked the wall. It was undeniably solid until Alphonse grabbed his wrist. Then, his hand slipped neatly through the stone. What the actual fuck? Ed strode through the barrier, entirely unwilling to let his unease show. Harry and the stone faced auror were waiting on the other side when Ed and Al could see it.

Ed didn't notice them all that much - the scarlet steam engine that waited on the track made Ed's heart sing. Nothing like the oddly sleek trains back on the other side of the wall, this train looked like a more flamboyant version of the trains back home. "Look, Al!" he said, in Amestrian.

"Just like home." Al's voice was quiet with awe.

Their reminiscing was interrupted by Harry awkwardly waving at them. "Ron and Hermione have got a prefects meeting, and Ginny's sitting with her boyfriend. So it's up to us to find a compartment."

Boyfriend? Ed had been under the assumption that Harry and Ginny were at the very least unofficially an item. He gave Harry a confused look, but refrained from commenting. Instead, he turned to the business at hand. In the distance, he spotted the white-blonde hair of Malfoy. Better to keep Harry's eyes and mind off of him. "I bet zee train gets full quickly."

The three of them rushed to the edge of the platform, saying their goodbyes to the Matron and Patron of the Red Hair. Granger had helped Mrs. Weasley enchant another bag for Alphonse, so the two of them had no problem boarding, but they turned to help Harry who had the double problem of being laden with trunk and owl as well as being swarmed.

Oh. Ed had not realized that Harry was quite so famous. Ed took the trunk, as Al was laden by both bag and kitten, and pulled. "Come on Harry," he said. "Don't be avraid to shove."

"Right," said Harry, shouldering people out of his way. The hero-worship in the eyes of the people swarming him was plain, and Ed cringed in sympathy.

Once they were on the train, the crowd was no better. Several people seemed about ready to ask Harry to join their compartment when a young-sounding voice piped up from behind them. "Hi Harry!" "

"Neville!" said Harry with audible relief, and Ed decided to assume that the boy was a friend.

"Hello, Harry," said a girl with long blonde hair tucked behind her ears and abnormally large blue eyes. She looked and held herself nothing like Winry, but the color combination hurt all the same.

"Luna, hi, how are you?"

"Very well, thank you," she said. "Who are your friends? I'm afraid I've never seen them before."

"Oh, uh. This is Al and his older brother Ed. Al's a transfer student and Ed's going to be teaching here. So call him Professor Elric, I guess."

"I'm Luna," she said. "But most people call me Loony."

"Uh," said the other boy. "Don't call her that, please. I'm Neville."

"They fought with me last spring," Harry explained, and suddenly the unit of them made sense. Ed could see these two fighting along side Granger and Harry, Ron and Ginny.

"Pleased to meet you!" said Al, beaming.

"Likewise," said Neville. Luna hummed contentedly, and the five of them set off through the tight press of students.

When they found an empty compartment, Ed slammed the door behind them. The seemingly universal curiosity about Harry and his friends was oppressive.

"They were even staring at us!" said Neville, wonder in his voice. "All because of you, Harry."

Harry rolled his eyes, clearly unwilling to accept all of the acclaim. "It's because you fought with me at the Ministry, I reckon. The press featured all of us."

"I thought Gran would be furious! But she was so proud." Neville pulled his wand from his sleeve. "She even bought me a new wand, cherry and unicorn hair! We think it was one of the last wands Ollivander sold, he disappeared the next day."

"Taken," said Ed. "He vas taken." But Neville had already dove under the seat after a toad that had jumped from the pocket of his robe. Alphonse tightened his grip on the cat carrier. No need for a small interspecies battle right there in the compartment. Just like Mei's panda, Eve was a vicious little thing when she wanted to be, and her eyes were already following the toad with a predatory interest. She and Hermione's cat had gotten into a few scrapes, and even despite Crookshanks's superior life experience it was hard to tell who was the winner of them.

"What will you be teaching?" said Luna, artfully changing the subject.

"Alchemy," said Ed. "I've heard zee science education among you vizards is rather lacking. If my brozer is going to go to school vis zem, the curriculum is going to be complete."

"Brother's a muggle," said Alphonse. "And neither ov us knew zat magic existed until zis summer."

"Wow," said Neville. "That's, uh."

"It must be quite an adjustment," said Luna. "I understand the frustration about the sciences – my mother was a researcher, and really there is no reason that science and magic can't go hand in hand."

"We've been vorking out zee equations," said Al. "And vee see no reason zat science can't be applied to it!"

"I like plants," said Neville, who had reemerged from the bench toad in hand. "Studying 'em is much the same whether they're magic or not."

Luna turned to Harry. "Will we be continuing with the DA meetings?"

Neville jumped and sent a pointed look in Ed's direction. Luna laughed. "I rather think Professor Elric would appreciate the initiative."

Harry and Neville both seemed to give up in that moment, and Ed recognized that Luna likely had a talent for dropping bricks in conversation. Ed gestured at them to continue. "Do zee homevork I assign and I really don't care vat you do in your free time."

"There's no point really," said Harry, after a pause. "Now that we got rid of Umbridge."

"I liked the DA." Neville stuffed the toad back into his pocket. "I always learned loads with you."

"I enjoyed it too," Luna said, and Ed knew she was going to drop another conversational brick. "It was like having friends."

And there it was. Both Neville and Harry visibly cringed.

"Vell," said Alphonse. "Vee can be friends!"

Luna's answer was cut off when the door to the compartment slid open. Ed rolled his eyes, pulled a book from his bag. Harry seemed a good enough kid, but Ed wasn't going to deal with his fangirls. Ed let himself get lost in his book as the conversation shifted around them.

Eventually Hermione and Ron found the compartment and as with the cars, the space shifted to accommodate them. It didn't exactly stop the compartment from feeling cramped, and Ed was suddenly grateful that he'd snagged the window seat.

Just as he was moving from one book to the next, a student poked their head in. "I'm supposed to deliver this to Harry Potter, Neville Longbottom, and Edward Elric?"

Ed stuck out a hand without closing his book.

"Bruder," Alphonse admonished. He took the note from the messenger and handed it to Ed. Ah. Another teacher had been relegated to riding the train. Reluctantly, he closed the book. It would be good to make allies of the other teachers. Tucking the book into the extendable briefcase and slinging it over his shoulder, he stood.

"Let's go, zen. Alphonse?" There was no way in hell he was going to leave Al in the compartment – Luna or no Luna.

What followed was one of the most awkward experiences of Ed's life. Slughorn liked to kiss up to people and network, but it was clear he was also not fond of surprises. Alphonse's inclusion in the party was one such surprise that Slughorn could not quite get behind.

"Vat," said Ed. "I'm protective. Sue me."

"A very good trait to have, young man, I am sure," said Slughorn. With a wave of his wand, an extra chair appeared. "Sit, sit!" and they did.

Ginny was sitting awkwardly at the other end of the table, and she shot the four of them a small wave and a halfhearted smile.

The whole dinner was clearly an attempt to curry favor with talented students, so why, Ed had even been invited he was not sure.

"They say Alchemy is a dying art you know, I'm very impressed to see that two such young men have mastery over it." Slughorn thrust a tray of pastries under their noses.

"Our father was –" Slughorn cut Alphonse off.

"Oh you were taught by your father! How sweet! Who exactly is your father?"

"Err," said Alphonse. "No. He left. We taught ourselves with the library he left behind."

"Trust me ven I say you vouldn't haff heard ov him," said Ed, laughing internally. "But he is a master, to be true."

"I shall simply have to meet him." Slughorn beamed, and Ed found himself calculating the difficulties of inter-universe travel. He snorted, but Slughorn ignored it. "I am so excited to count you among my colleagues!"

"Sure," said Ed. "Vat vill you be teaching?"

"An art quite similar to yours, I am proud to say." Slughorn looked very self-satisfied. "I will be taking up the post of Potions Master."

Ed supposed that of all the hocus-pocus, potions was the one that best captured the spirit of alchemy.

"But Snape is the Potions Master!" Harry said, standing up in his chair. Ed looked at him strangely, shook it off. Perhaps Snape was a particularly good teacher, and Harry was sad to see him go.

"Why, Professor Snape will be taking up Defense Against the Dark Arts, of course."

Well maybe this Snape person wasn't leaving but Harry still looked stricken. "But," he said. "But."

"But what, dear boy?"

Harry sat back down. "Never mind," he said. His face was dark, and Ed knew better than anyone what that meant. Ed vowed to keep an eye on this Snape person. At least Alphonse well knew how to defend himself.

The lone green-robed boy among the bunch looked amused, and Slughorn reached across the table to put a hand on his shoulder. "I do regret not having the opportunity to be your Head of House."

The boy dipped his head. "My mother always speaks highly of your classes. I'm honored to be able to take them." Slowly, Slughorn – Ed couldn't think of a nickname any sillier than the name the man already had – worked his way around the table, plying his future students for their connections and their talents.

Yikes.

Ed resolutely vowed to watch over the students this man decided to pray upon. Maybe Slughorn could help them network, but he doubted he was giving out anything for free.

The conversation then turned to Harry Potter, the concept more than the boy himself, and the Battle at the Department of Mysteries. The boy in green made a disdainful noise, only to be thoroughly brought down by Ginny.

Interesting to know that she was already hexing her enemies, five minutes into being allowed to do so again.

"Zee vay I heard it, you all put yourselves in a stupid amount ov danger," Ed said.

"Shove off," said Ginny. "We were trying to do the right thing."

"Bruder!"

Ed shook his head. "I vould haff done zee same," he assured, and Girl Ginger settled. "I'm proud to teach people who aren't afraid to fight. But I've learned over zee years zat my example isn't alvays zee best one."

When the little party was finally over, Ed learned how the relatively unconnected Ginny had made it into the gathering. "He saw me hex Zacharias Smith," she said. "Thought it would be detention, rather than dinner."

It was then that Harry seemed to have an idea. Oh no. Harry made his excuses to Neville and Ginny, pulled an odd looking cloak over his shoulders, and simply vanished. Shit. "I'll go after him," Ed said, tugging Alphonse after him.

"Don't vorry!" Al said. "Vee'll make sure nozing happens to him!"

In his peripheral vision, Ed could see Neville and Ginny look at each other and shrug. But his eyes were zeroed on the ground, watching for disembodied feet. Now, whatever it was that made Harry invisible worked considerably better when it was only covering one person, but very occasionally Ed could see the flash of Harry's white trainers, and again they seemed to be following someone.

"It's the boy in green," said Alphonse, and from there they followed him as opposed to the occasional glimpses of Harry's feet.

Zabini – if Ed remembered rightly – disappeared into a compartment and the door was open just a little too long. Ed swore, and Alphonse carefully tapped his head with the massive ash wand. It felt like a broken egg trickling over his hair. Eeewwww. But then Al was tapping his own head, and in a trickling motion, his body began to blend with the hallway beyond them.

"It's not as good as whatever Harry uses, but it should be good enough that they can't see us through the door."

Ed nodded, and pressed his face to the glass. Inside, the boy they had made their deal with was sulking. Ed knew that he wasn't sixteen like most people were sixteen, but this was ridiculous. "Is this just because he wasn't invited to Slughorn's thing?"

"Looks like," said Al, shaking his head.

"The fuck?"

Inside the compartment, a pretty girl was draping herself across the blonde boy's lap. "Well, clearly Draco, Slughorn has no taste."

"I don't need you to tell me that, Pansy."

She looked momentarily hurt, but shook the expression off quickly. Ed rolled his eyes. "Seriously?"

"They look kinda-" Alphonse paused, tilting his head. "Sweet?"

"Adorable," said Ed. In truth, Malfoy looked like he was merely putting up with the attentions. "I'm sure it's not because our erstwhile partner thinks of having a girlfriend as a status symbol."

Al winced and Ed knew that as naïve as Al might be, he saw what Ed did. A boy desperately trying to cling to the trappings of his status. "He just has some growing up to do," Alphonse said, taking the defensive.

"You're only a year younger than him, Al."

"But we both know I'm not fifteen like most people are fifteen."

Ed snorted, knowing that he'd just had the same thought, he peered back into the compartment. He wondered where exactly Harry had hidden himself. "I swear if we have to sit here for the rest of the night to make sure Malfoy doesn't do something stupid, I may just go in and sit down next to them."

"We probably will," Alphonse said. "But barging in would accomplish exactly nothing. Wait, look. I think Malfoy just noticed Harry."

Ed groaned, and half to cause a diversion and half in the hope of oblivion, he slammed his head against the door of the compartment. Everyone inside flinched, looked. Malfoy stood up, strode to the door, yanked it open.

"No one here," he said to the cabin behind him, but his eyes were focused on the disillusioned Alphonse.

"Don't do anysing stupid, Draco," said Al, and Malfoy didn't flinch. Face carefully unconcerned he turned back to his compartment and resettled himself next to the girl. Alphonse switched back into Amestrian. "Was that wise, brother?"

"It worked, didn't it?"

"I think Harry's planning on staying here for the rest of the ride," Al said. "We can either wait here for the ride to end, or we can make our way back over here later."

Ed contemplated that possibility. "We're almost at Hogwarts."

"You do know what it's actually called!"

Ed rolled his eyes. Hogwarts was an astronomically stupid name – it would be hard to forget. "Of course I know what's called. I'm teaching there starting tomorrow."

"We are close." The hazy blob of Al's chameleon body twisted to look down the almost empty corridor. Groups of one gender or another were briefly stepping out of compartments to allow the occupants inside to change their clothes. "I should put on the uniform."

"It's a stupid uniform," Ed said.

"You think all uniforms are stupid. I can count on one hand the amount of times you wore your dress blues."

Ed shrugged. "I'll wait here. You go change."

The sound of footsteps was the first indicator that Al was doing as suggested. Safely past what was visible from the window to Malfoy's compartment, Alphonse winked into clear view. Ed shuddered. He was going to have to square with Al being a wizard eventually, but he wasn't happy about it. Alphonse disappeared into the compartment they started in, Luna and Hermione waiting outside of it already changed, and Ed tried not to feel like he was losing his brother.

Alphonse wasn't out of sight for long, and part of Ed wondered if he changed his clothes with magic. He certainly looked the part, stepping back outside in black robes that reached the floor. Ed felt vaguely nauseous at the sight. Even knowing that there was a fairly ordinary school uniform underneath it didn't help when all Ed could see of it was the knot of a white tie. Atop his head was the legendary black witches' hat. None of the other students were wearing their stupid hat, why did Al have to wear his?

Alphonse tapped his wand to the tip of the hat, and once again took on the colors of the corridor behind him.

When the blur was close enough to once again truly distinguish, Ed forced a smile. "You look like a wizard."

"Weird, isn't it?"

"What explanation did you give the group?"

"Just that we're keeping an eye on Harry," Al said, the ripple in the corridor indicating him moving closer to Malfoy's compartment door, stepped back as it opened. The pretty girl stepped out of the compartment, her uniform in her arms, and headed to the back of the train. Her eyes might have lingered a little too long on Ed's quasi-visible blob, but he could see her dismiss the oddity as quickly as she noticed it.

"You're getting paranoid, Pansy," she said aloud, cross.

Rightfully paranoid, Ed decided. If this girl ended up being one of his students, he would have to find a way to get that across to her. Rightfully paranoid.

She disappeared into the loo at the back of the train, ostensibly to change clothes, while Malfoy and the male contingent of his posse changed inside. "We're almost there," Ed said.

The girl, Pansy, returned to the compartment in her robes just as the train came to a remarkably smooth halt. When Malfoy said to go on without him, her eyes became dark and hard. But she gestured at the other boys to follow. Ed and Al caught the door as the biggest of the boys let it go, slipped inside the compartment.

The door shut almost as it should. Malfoy, at this point, already had Harry on the floor.

"Let him go," Al said, flickering into sight. Harry looked relieved, insomuch as his expression could even change.

"Now why should I do that?"

"You vant Moldy-man dead, yes," Ed said. Al tapped his want on his head, and Ed knew that he was now visible. He looked down at his torso. Yup. Visible.

"Shut up, Elric," said Malfoy. "Why are you even here? You're a muggle, aren't you?"

Ed shrugged. He wanted to see Malfoy's face when his appointment to alchemy professor was announced. This wouldn't give him quite the entrance he wanted.

"Zee enemy ov your enemy is your friend." Al flicked his wand at Harry, who promptly scrambled to his feet. He was not yet in his robes. "I know zat zee two ov you are not friends, but perhaps you should be."

"You can't trust him," Harry said, pointing his wand at Malfoy.

"Can't I?" Al said, and for a moment Ed was terrified that Al would tell Harry everything. Al seemed to be doing a lot of sharing lately. But he didn't. "He's in a fery bad situation."

"One he chose."

Malfoy scoffed, hand tightening around the wand he held. Alphonse put a hand on each boy's shoulder. "One his father chose," Al corrected.

"It can be hard to leave zee path chosen vor you by your fazer," Ed said. "Alphonse and I taught ourselves alchemy to veel close to our fazer, and even at zee time I sought he vas shitty bastard."

"Why?" Harry kept his wand pointed at Malfoy's nose. "If you thought he was such a bastard."

"Vee did it vor our mozer," Al said. "At least zat is vat vee told ourselves. Is zat really why? Probably not. Every child wants to veel close to zeir parents, whether zee parent deserves it or not."

"Yeah and what would you know of fathers, Potter," Malfoy said. "Where's yours?"

Harry forwent the wand and lunged at Malfoy. Al caught him on the shoulder long enough for Ed to get a firm grip on him. Ed glared at Malfoy. "Zee fuck, Malfoy?"

"Your overlord killed my parents," Harry said, trying to jolt from Ed's grasp. "And maybe I don't have much personal experience with fathers, but I know enough to know that Lucius Malfoy is a bloody piece of shit!"

"Yes," said Malfoy, crossing his arms. His wand dangled under one elbow, held by thumb and forefinger. But even so Ed could tell he was ready to draw. "And the Dark Lord is my overlord. So butt out."

Al looked at Malfoy exasperatedly. "Zat is not helpful." He turned to Harry, said, "Ve're staging a rescue. So are you in or not, Mr. Harry?"

Malfoy glared at Al unpleasantly enough that Ed wanted to let Harry go. Harry put up a particularly large fight, so Ed did. Harry rather unexpectedly did not lunge. He hastily snatched his wand from Harry. "What do you mean, a rescue?"

"Ollivander," Ed said. "Malfoy's our in, so vee are getting our friend."

"The last time I staged a rescue, it was a trap. The man I was rescuing hadn't even been taken, and he died trying to get me out," Harry said bitterly. Malfoy smirked. "Get that smirk off your face ferret. I put your precious father in Azkaban that night."

The smirk vanished, and Ed snorted. "Bos ov you need to stop zis bullshit. It's not a trap, Potter. Vee vouldn't haff even dragged you into zis iv you hadn't decided to put yourself in a stupid situation."

"Anyone can see your feet, Harry," Alphonse said, not unkindly. "You haff to be more careful. Now, you don't have to decide now iv you're going to help us, but I suggest vee go back to your compartment, get you changed, and go join our friends."

"You're friends?" Malfoy said, tucking his wand back into his sleeve. "I didn't figure the two of you for more of Potter's lackeys."

"Go to your friends," Ed said to him. He wasn't Potter's lackey, but he wasn't going to have this argument now. "Vee can talk about zis later. Alphonse, you should hurry iv you vant to catch up vis zee virst years."

"Right," Al said. "I forgot about that." He dashed from the room, and Ed shook his head.

"Let's go, Harry." Harry scowled, but complied. Ed gestured at him to hurry. "You have to get changed."

"Fine."

By the time they got there, their original compartment was empty. But quick enough, Harry was dressed in his robes and Ed had on his red outer coat. They just barely made it to the carriages in time for Harry to board, glaring morosely back at the train. Waiting by the snout of a very odd horse for Ed was the stern-faced woman Ed had met his first night at the Burrow.

"Come along now, Professor Elric," she said, and Ed could not quite deny himself the title of professor. Instead, he got into the carriage she indicated, pretended the horses didn't bother him, and wondered what Hogwarts would be like.

Word Count: 5,673

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