Secondary Magic

Chapter 2 - The Hogwarts Express

A/N - (Shiechan's too lazy to type anything this time around.)

Actual Author's Notes - Hah! Preformatted chapter! Take THAT AIM! Anywho, Inuyasha characters are introduced this time.And any of you wondering about pairings... They'll probably be canon, with a couple of strange crossover pairings thrown in for a small while. No slash most likely, though maybe some one-sidedness from Jakotsu if I decide to throw him in. 'Course, not like I am a big romance writer anyways.

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Upon seeing the disbelieving look on his younger brother's face, Edward decided it would be best to explain a bit more. "There's a charm on the barrier.Though it may looklike solid brick,the barrier actually leads to the platform.We don't have to worry about muggles that way. Just walk through the barrier when no one's looking and you'll be fine." Though Al still looked a bit skeptical over the whole ordeal, he trusted his older brother enough to give running into a solid brick barrier a try. Within seconds, there was no trace of the sandy-haired boy.

Edward soon followed, still finding itjust a bitakward to run into something such as brick, yetfeel no impact. This was simply one of the many things he wished to learn about the wizarding world. No doubt he could find out how the barrier was created through a couple of library trips at school. The school library was where Ed spent most of his free time, trying to get ahead of his classes by reading up on more difficult spells and tricks. He wanted to master all types of magic, to master how to control the world he lived in. He had been like this in his years of learning science, wanting to learn the laws of the world, but magic was much more powerful than science. Who needed beakers and special chemicals when all you needed was a wand?

After clearing the barrier, Edward found his younger brotherwearing an expression that resembled that of a small child's on Christamas day. Al had worn a similar expression on his first sight of Diagon Alley, though Ed had thought that after that, Al might not have beenquite asamazed by the wizarding world. Still,Edward supposed he must have acted like that when he first saw the Hogwarts Express. It really was an amazing sight. The train itself was magnificent enough, but the surroundings were not something that could easily be described as dull. Caged owls hooted loudly from from one perch to the next, several people waved around their wandsto show off a new trick,and (this was probably the part his brother liked best) cats of every shade of the rainbow weaved their way among the pillars of human legs, purring happily.

Edward himself paused for a moment, smiling as he took in the scenery. However, getting a good seat on the train came first in his mind at the moment."Come on Al. We got to get on," Al snapped out of his trance and nodded, following his older brother onto the train.

As it turned out, many of the other students had the exact same idea. Ed had been lucky to find a vacant compartment, despite the fact the train didn't leave for another fifteen minutes. The older brother had, as usual, stolen the window seat, and had already begun his usual hobby of staring blankly out the window, as if lost in thought. At this point he was basically dead to the world, and no one could easily snap out of him, unless they dared to call him "short." Not even Al was really sure what Edward thought about while he stared out the windows, or if he even thought at all. Whatever he was doing, it must have required large mental capacity, as he didn't even notice two other people join the compartment, apparently finding it best to take the first avalible space.

The first of the two was a boy about Al's age with dark brown hair and a splash of freckles across his nose. He seemed to be pretty nervous about going to Hogwarts, and as a result wasn't very talkative. He didn't even bother to give his name. The other was a girl named Kaede. She was a third-year Ravenclaw, the same as Edward. Kaede was a bit more talkative than the boy, and especially enthusiastic about taking Divination this year. Apparently her older sister was teaching the class, and there certainly didn't seem to be a bad thought in her head about her older sister. Alphonse was certainly glad that Edward was zoning off. He had heard Ed saying to Winry that Divination was the worst branch of magic, there wasn't any way to tell what was going to happen that eveningbased on whatwas shown in misty balls and tea leaves. Plus, Al could have sworn that she was staring almost longingly at Edward from time to time.

"So I guess you're Edward's younger brother, then?" Kaede commented, seeming to finally tire of her talk of the magic of Divination. "So what house do you think you'll be placed in?"

Alphonse shrugged half-heartedly. "I don't know," he said truthfully.

"And what about you?" The girl asked, turning on the freckled boy. "What house do you think you'll be placed in?"

"I don't know either. I want to go in Gryffindor, though," he said in a neutral tone, just barely audible over the train starting up.

"Gryffindor, huh? Oh, you're Sango's brother, aren't you? Kohaku, right?" He simply nodded, as if deciding that the conversation was over. There was silence for a while, and eventually Kaede decided that she would go and find where her friends were sitting. Al had decided, upon determining that no one else in the compartment was going to offer a good conversation, or even a conversation of any sort, that he would be better off doing something helpful. He had grabbed a book out from his school supplies, "A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration," and began to read.

It hardly seemed a minute before the food cart came rolling by, offering snacks of every sort. His stomach growling eagerly, he quickly got up to see what the cart offered. However, "Bertie Bott's Every Flavored Beans" and "Chocolate Frogs" were not something commonly seen at muggle concession stands. Still, he couldn't help but be curious as to what these snacks were like. The only problem was that he wasn't the one who had the money.

"Edward?" He turned back to his brother, who still showed no signs of life apart from breathing. "Um ... I'm hungry but a little short on --" Al sure hadn't meant to use that word, but it caught his brother's attention none the less.

"Who're you calling short!" The older brother turned his head, an expression of pure rage on his face. Height was a very touchy subject for Edward, and Alphonse had absolutely no clue why. He had never really been teased about it quite as much as he seemed to think he had been, some of thethings he came up with were rather ridiculous, and he was only insulting himself in the process.Still, Al knew that he had gotten off somewhat light because of blood relations. Some unlucky people could gain scars from using the wrong phrases.

"I meant money!"Al said, holding up his hands as if to defend himself. "I wanted to get a snack, and ..."

"Oh, right." Seeming to calm down quite a bit, Ed pulled out the small pouch which held the brothers' small amount of wizarding money. "Only one thing, though." He tossed the pouch over to Al, despite the fact that there was only a foot or two between them. Alphonse was hard-pressed to choose only one item off of the cart, but finally his stomach rested on the "Bertie Bott's Every Flavored Beans." Giving a small "thank you" to the witch, he returned to his seat with the snack in tow.

Alphonse Elric had never believed the phrase "curiousity killed the cat" to hold much truth. However, his views very quickly changed as he had the misfortune to first find the one vomit-flavored bean in the bag. Well, maybe it didn't kill the cat, but surely food poisoning was close enough for the phrase to hold some merit.

"You- Your face is so- so priceless!" Edward chortled, clutching his stomach. Tears streamed down his cheeks as he nearly fell out of his seat. This certainly did nothing to help Alphonse's nausea, as he pushed the bag of beans farther away. Thankfully, the other person in the compartment did not find the situation quite as amusing.

"They really mean every flavor," he said, with a small smile spreading across his face. "You really have to watch out sometimes..."

"I'm never trusting magic food again," Al stated, closing his eyes and resting against the back of the seat. Perfect. If all of the wizarding food tasted like barf, then he certainly wouldn't need to worry too much about eating too many sweets. In fact, he'd have to worry about the opposite problem. Starving to death.

"Don't worry, Al. Most of the food is pretty good here, even if the chocolate frogs do happen to hop away sometimes," Edward said reassuringly, finally recovering from his fit of laughter.

"Don't mention chocolate. Please don't mention chocolate."

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Thankfully, by the time the train ride was over, Alphonse had gotten over his previous nausea and even managed to choke down a grass-flavored bean. He had originally believed that it was peppermint flavored, but grass was much better than vomit.Thankfully Edward had managed to keep his laughter to a minimum.

Al, now dressed in school robes,caught his very first sight of Hogwarts while looking out the window. It looked much more like a castle than a school of any sort. It was surrounded by a large lake, and for a split second, he could have sworn he saw a large tentacle sticking out of it.

Alphonsehad anticipated sticking close to his brother when they got off the train,who would know where to go. Instead, almost immediately after getting off the train, heheard someone, a very loud someone, yelling out "First years here!" Instead, he somewhat grudgingly followed the voice, to find it belonged to a very strange-looking man. He towered over the students, literally being twice as tall as a few of the first and second years. As for hair, he had none, unless you included the small little curl at the top of his head and the bushy moustache.

"All first years over here!" He looked down at the group of children that were now gathered, most of them with either frightened or skeptical expressionsacross their faces. "Is this everybody?" he asked, voice still booming despite the fact he no longer need to call across a large number of people. He eyed them all carefully, as if one of them were hiding something important behind their backs. "Well, yes. This certainly looks right. Now follow me." At this,the man straightened up, which was quite a sight, and led the first years off toward the giant lake. Al looked ahead, and suddenly had a very bad feeling. Several small boats lined the shore of the cold, black lake.

-End Chapter 2-