"And in this corner, we have the Fullmetal Alchemist! Edward Elric!" a microphoned voice announced loudly.

"Where are we?" Luna asked, dusting herself off.

"I don't have a good feeling about this…" Ron muttered.

It was a bright, beautiful day, not unlike the one they had just left behind. They stood outdoors, a few feet away a bunch of adults clad in blue military uniforms. There were hundreds of people dressed liked them, forming a ring around… well, something that seemed to be interesting.

"We should go and see what's going on." Hermione said.

Suddenly, there was a huge explosion.

"Or stay away…" Ron whimpered.

"Come on, fearless." Hermione grabbed Ron by the collar and dragged him in through the crowd. Harry and Luna followed suit.

"Excuse me, pardon me." Harry said as he bumped into the blue uniforms. Hermione and Ron shoved aggressively right through the crowd. They could see a tall dark-haired man standing in what looked like an arena, and in one hand, he held... a wand. He seemed to be muttering incantations, and when he snapped the fingers of his other hand, he produced explosions. They had reached the edge of the arena when Ron crashed headfirst into a small blonde boy wearing a red jacket, pushing to get to the opposite direction. There was a large and very distinct exchange of swearwords. They had started to hit each other, and Ron had to be held back by Hermione and Harry. The small blonde boy was restrained by something that looked like a walking, talking piece of armour carrying a cat.

"Colonel Roy Mustang, coming through! What's going on?" The tall man pushed through the crowd. He surveyed the new arrivals, and his eyes practically popped out of his head. He regained his composure within seconds, though, and was them, "Who are you? Why are you here?"

"This is really, really bad." Hermione slapped her forehead.

"So you see, we made a horrible, horrible mistake." Hermione explained. The Golden Trio + Luna were sitting in Roy Mustang's office. The small blonde boy and his armour-wearing friend were there as well, sitting across from them. A blonde woman who introduced herself as Riza Hawkeye sat between the blonde boy and Roy. Her dog, a black and white puppy, stood obediently at her feet. Hermione had finished summarizing their situation.

"Are you wizards?" Ron burst out.

"Excuse me?" Roy raised an eyebrow.

"Well, we saw you create explosions and you've got a wand… you can't be a muggle, can you?"

"That was alchemy." Riza Hawkeye proceeded to explain everything about alchemy and their world.

They listened patiently and amazed. Hermione pulled out a notebook and pen, and began taking notes. When Riza finished, Hermione explained about magic. Harry joined in as well, and told them about the Ministry of Magic, Quidditch, and even… Voldemort. Those people struck The Golden Trio as trustworthy. Harry explained about his last encounter with the Death Eaters, the prophecy, the Triwizard Tournament, Dementors and horcruxes. Throughout the whole retelling, Riza, Armour and even Small Blonde Boy seemed awed and impressed. Luna noticed that Roy, however, sat there looking almost bored. He only seemed to pay attention at the mentions of Voldemort and the prophecy. He occasionally drank out of a small, opaque flask he had stored in his jacket pocket. Harry wasn't looking at the Colonel, and eventually reached the subject of something he encountered in his first year called...

"The Philosopher's Stone!" the small blonde boy burst out. "You got the Philosopher's Stone! Where is it!"

"It was destroyed." Hermione squeaked, startled.

"WHAT!" the boy cried, jumping up and slamming his palms down on the table. He seemed to have performed alchemy without meaning to, because the table completely shattered. Ron, who had his elbow placed upon the surface, fell over. He cursed loudly, rising and rushing over to the other boy.

"What'd you that for!" Ron screamed at the smaller boy.

"Get your ugly, smelly face away from mine!" the boy yelled back.

"Don't tell me what to do, pipsqueak!" Ron screamed.

"Who are you calling a bug so small you can't see him without a microscope!" the blonde boy screeched.

"You!" Ron announced, and they started to fight. Harry, Hermione and the man in the armour attempted to separate them. A while and few spells later, they were finally pulled apart. Ron had managed to yank off the blonde boy's red jacket. The Golden Trio and Luna gasped. The boy's left arm was normal, but his right one was a prosthetic.

"Why don't you tell them why you want the Stone, Ed?" Riza suggested.

"I don't want to."

"I will," the man in the armour volunteered. He turned to the Golden Trio + Luna." My name's Alphonse Elric, and this is my big brother Edward."

"Big brother!" Hermione, Harry and Ron yelped.

"Wanna make something of it!" Ed glared at them.

"But then… how old are you!" Hermione squeaked.

"He's 15 and I'm 14," said Al.

"Blimey! They are getting smaller!" Ron's eyes bugged out of his head.

Al restrained Ed as he attempted to attack Ron again. Alphonse went on to explain everything that had happened. The Golden Trio was properly shocked, and even Luna appeared to be paying attention.

"So that's why we want the Philosopher's Stone," concluded Al.

"Well, I'm really sorry, Alphonse," said Harry, "but it's been destroyed. The only person that ever succeeded in making it is dead."

"Actually…" Hermione blushed.

"What?" everyone turned to her.

"Before we left, I sneaked into Snape's room, and stumbled across a secret room. It seems he was trying to make the Philosopher's Stone. He had books and notes about it everywhere, and there were some experiments and ingredients." Hermione said. Harry and Ron's mouths dropped right open. Luna noticed that a shadow passed Roy's face. "I doubt he succeeded, but..."

"Let's go!" Ed shouted.

"Wha-?" said Hermione.

"You're going to help us find the Philosopher's Stone!" Ed proclaimed. "You don't mind, do you, Mustang? It's not like we've got any assignments."

"Well, I suppose you can go…" Roy drained the last of the fluid from his flask. "Hawkeye, you'd better go with them."

"But, I…" Riza stuttered.

"Yes. You will depart tomorrow." Roy looked at Ed, Al and Riza sternly. "This is your new assignment."

"The Circle of Transportation." Roy looked down at the large circle the Golden Trio had drawn on the ground in the courtyard. "Yes. The only other way to travel between the two worlds, besides the gate. There's only one crucial ingredient lacking here..."

"Magic." Hermione nodded. "Come on, everyone."

Hermione, Ron, Harry, Luna, Ed, Al, Riza and Black Hayate (the dog) all stepped into the circle and faced each other. They stood in an alternating pattern of muggle-wizard-muggle.

"He's a snake-like man." Hermione reminded everyone.

"Really, really ugly." Ron added.

"Red eyes and slits for a nose," said Harry.

"Yeah, yeah, we get it." Ed, placed between Luna and Harry, rolled his eyes. "Let's go!"

Everyone raised their arms in the air. The ones that were capable of magic shouted the spell, and the glowing and wind started up again. Everyone thought of Voldemort as hard as they could, but of course, only three of them got it right. Luna's mind wandered off to that new book she'd read about ninjas, Black Hayate wandered about dinner (he hoped it'd be barbecued chicken, like last night's) and Riza, Ed and Al's depiction of Tom Riddle more closely resembled our favourite villainous Sannin…


Note: I know Roy Mustang doesn't use a wand. If you read on, you'll know what that's all about.