A New Beginning

Chapter Eleven

Back to School

Xerxes Academy

Arrivals Yard

Yuery and William arrived at exactly 7:55 as expected, two minutes behind Draco, two minutes before Huan. They stepped out of the box and stood beside Draco to wait for the rest of the children. Daily arrivals children were small in number and tend to stick together until the reach the cafeteria. Once Huan and Anya arrived, the group of children, including Huan, Draco, Yuery, Anya, Clara, Hiro, and Emiyo, as well as five others who never sat with them, began their walk through the garden.

William and Emiyo usually sat with them at breakfast then with the rest of their class at lunch, but today they planned to sit with their class since they all had reports due in their first class. Huan was disappointed as they waved off the younger two. "I don't like them having to wander off like that. Some of the younger ones aren't very nice." Huan frowned.

"Yes, we are all so very old." Hiro said solemnly, before rolling his eyes at his cousin. "They are fine, they aren't even as noticed as the tree of you being the younger ones."

"That's not how Amestris works you know. I can just NOT take the office, Dad and Yeye both said so." Yuery frowned.

"Yes, and then William will be stuck with it, just as if Anya said no…or Ping." Huan sighed. "Face it Yu, you're no different than the rest of us, born into leadership. No more politics! Let our Dads worrying about it for now. What did you choose for you essay?'"

"I wrote about the Ishbalan conflict and its impact on our interactions to this day." Yuery said.

"Boring. I wrote about the impact of the drought in the west on textiles." Clara smiled.

"I wrote about the trade agreement between Amestris and Xing, and how it was affected by the creation of the rails." Hiro sighed, "It was boring."

"I wrote about the Drachma war. It was interesting." Draco said quietly. "All of it is interesting, very different than the history I was learning before."

"I forgot to write a report." Anya frowned. "I was out all last week with the celebrations, but Princess Chen isn't going to give me an extension on that when Yuery managed to get his done! He was out too."

"Yeah Yuery, how dare you finish your homework on time, so everyone else had to." Hiro frowned, and then ducked when Anya tossed a bit of roll at his head. "Hey, throwing food it against the rules princess."

"Enough." Clara frowned, "Headmaster is watching."

"Professor Elric is always watching." Huan nodded. "He sees all, knows all."

"You know he's my uncle, right?" Yuery smiled. "He can and will tattle on me, so I agree with Clara, please stop."

"They are right. I do not want another lecture about the sin of wasting food. Father is very serious about food. Always." Huan nodded.

"Not proper manners for a representative of the throne? Food? Really?" Draco asked.

"Really." Huan said while Yuery nodded along. "He and Lt. Fuhrer Elric both refuse to bring station into their lectures, but food it always a lecture for me. My father is a bit obsessed with food. There's a reason it's always the first subject of trade."

"Our Emperor is well known for his concerns regarding food security." Hiro agreed. "It has improved the conditions of many of the outlying clans."

"My father would lecture on my behavior drawing attention to myself in an unfavorable light." Anya added. "Not all of us have the luxury of being unnoticed. Everything we do, as future leaders, is watched not just by our peers, but by those who seek to find weakness in our fathers. I have heard the lecture my entire life."

"Some of us are fortunate to not be as high ranking, I apologize to you all, I did not mean to draw attention." Hiro said. He hadn't thought about it, never thought about it, that he was friends with the three most important students in school, four if he counted William, but he was still uncertain if William considered him a friend.

Before the conversation could continue, Professor Tringham rose to release the students to their morning classes, and their group made their way to history and civics. As Anya expected, Princess Chen was not impressed that her paper was not only incomplete but that she had not yet picked a subject. She was granted an extension, after the lecture.

Afterwards, the class split, with the magic students heading toward Professor Lupin's room, while the others made their way to Headmaster Elric's nature lecture the other direction. Yuery was glad that he only had another year of magical prevention lessons before he could begin learning actual spells. As far as he was concerned, the spells would make control easier, much like learning arrays helped channel the alchemy and helped keep the magical accidents small.

Today's lesson was a surprise, in that they were all handed their first actual spell book. As they passed the book around, Professor Lupin began, "Now, I do not want any of you attempting to cast any spells until at least next year, but I felt, and the Headmistress agreed, that it is important that you all begin learning to read spells. Wand work can be tricky and dangerous when done incorrectly. Therefore, before any of you even consider touching a wand, I want you all to understand these basic spells."

"So, we are to learn spells without casting spells?" a fellow student, Amya asked. She rarely spoke in class and never spoke to Yuery. She was from Xing, but unlike Hiro, was not among Huan's cousins. She was one of the students that was afraid of offending the Royal Trio though.

"You are not learning spells, no. You are learning how to read spells, and as importantly, you are learning the dangers of spells when miscast." Lupin replied. "Does everyone have their book now? Our first lesson will begin now. Keep in mind the first chapter is about using meditation to center yourself before you can begin proper training."

Courtyard

Morning Break

Yuery sighed as he did his best to ignore the hustle around him as he read through his new magic book. He was determined to master magic as quickly as possible, as soon as he gained a wand. Draco sat next to him, also reading, while Hiro and the others talked about the history class that had come in second period.

"I'm not the only one who thinks it's strange we live on a continent that the rest of the world has no idea is even here right?" Hiro asked as he nudged Yuery in an attempt to get his attention. Yuery rolled his eyes before adjusting his glasses as he closed his book.

"Well, I lived in England. We never knew anything about it until my mother brought me here." Draco shrugged, "Mother may have known it. Severus certainly did since he already lived here."

"Knew what?" William asked as he sat next to his brother and offered Yuery an apple. Emiyo sat next to Draco, trying to read over his shoulder. Draco shut his book to glare at her.

"That the entire continent is hidden from the rest of the world." Draco said as he moved his book further away from Emiyo. "Do you mind? This is not meant for you."

"Why not? Knowledge is important." Emiyo pouted, "Why wouldn't we be hidden? We always have been."

"Actually, only the last four hundred years." Yuery said as he reopened his own book, "When Xerxes fell, we became hidden. At least that's part of it. I think it's more than that, but Dad hasn't really said."

"It's a book of magic, you are not magic." Draco added.

"You all think you know so much because you're older, but you don't." Emiyo pouted.

"Mi, don't argue." William rolled his eyes. "If my brother says we wouldn't understand, we wouldn't understand."

"Your brother didn't say it, Draco did." Emiyo argued.

"You wouldn't understand." Yuery said without looking up from his book.

"If you continue, I will have to tell my father that you were causing trouble and he will tell your father." Huan nudged his cousin over to sit between her and Draco. Draco smiled briefly before reopening his book. "You two are boring though, we only get a ten-minute break, why waste it reading? You have all night for homework."

"What else would we do? It's not like I will be invited into any games." Yuery frowned. Anya nodded as Huan sighed knowing as well that the three of them never were invited.

"Well, there's enough of us, we could play tag on our own." Hiro suggested. "Unless no one wants to."

With that the books were put away and the group began chasing each other around the courtyard, ignoring the other children who still made a point of avoiding the game. The bell rang soon enough, and they gathered their books before splitting up to go to their classes. William and Emiyo went left and the others right since they had a math class, while William and Emiyo had history.

"My father said as long as you wanted, you could stay for dinner tonight." Yuery offered Draco as they found their seats.

"Why don't I ever get invited to dinner?" Hiro pouted.

"Because you live in Xing?" Yuery shrugged. "Besides, you all are getting to come out during fall break to stay over for a couple of days."

"Still." Hiro sighed.

Draco agreed he wanted to stay for dinner as Princess Chen entered the room to begin their lesson. This was their largest class, shared with everyone in their year, so it contained thirty students altogether. Chen was strict though, so the classroom generally was quiet as they all listened to her lessons. Yuery found it funny that his Dad was always complaining about Princess Chen. From what he understood, they met as kids and didn't really get along. His Dad liked her now though, Yuery could tell by the way Dad complained about her. Dad complained about everyone, but there were the ones who annoyed him because they were his friends then there was everyone else.

Yuery wondered sometimes if he and the other kids annoyed his Dad like other adults did, but he had never heard Dad complain about them so probably not. He had thought about asking William what he thought at what point. William was not the best at knowing how other people felt though. He knew he'd been thinking about it too long though when Draco nudged him as a test was being passed around.

Fuhrer's Mansion

William, Yuery, and Draco arrived in the parlor at three, Winry was waiting for them when they arrived, and lead them upstairs. "Dad wanted to be here when you got home, but he was called into a meeting. He'll be home soon… Draco your mom is coming to dinner, then taking you home so you three are free to go play until dinner."

"What about homework?" William asked and ignored his brother's glare. Yuery never really put off homework but on the other hand he had all evening to finish it.

"You have time after dinner." Their Mom shrugged. They had just arrived in the apartment, passing Ms. Bella on the way. "Draco, you haven't had a chance to meet Izumi yet, have you? Would you like to see her?"

"Yes, please." Draco said. He didn't have a lot of experience with younger children, only Yuery's siblings, but he had been interested in meeting the new baby when Yuery had brought it up earlier. She leads them into the parlor where Yuery's grandmother was holding a tiny bundle with the younger children playing on the floor around her.

William broke off from them and went to join Maes with the trainset. Yuery and Draco went over to look at the new baby. Riza offered to let Draco hold the baby, instructing him to sit back on the couch before setting the baby in his arms. Yuery smiled at Draco's barely hidden excitement before sitting on the floor in front of the couch to hug Lizzie and Sarah, who had come over to them as soon as they noticed them. Lizzie was still barely learning to crawl around, but she was fast already.

After a few minutes, Yuery and Draco wandered off to the boys' room to play with Yuery's toys. His Dad came in a little while later to say hello. They were busy building a castle tower when Dad came in, and Yuery waved without getting up.

"How was school today?" Dad asked as he ruffled Yuery's hair.

"Okay. We got a new magic book, and we covered water arrays." Yuery dodged his hand and tried to smooth back out his hair with a frown.

"We also learned about Europe and Asia." Draco added. "Yuery said that you said Cselkcess was only hidden four hundred years ago?"

"That's right. It was hidden with a spell after the fall of Xerxes." Dad nodded. "It is not a well-known part of our history though. In fact, very few people know that it was ever visible."

"How do you know then sir? Is it one of those 'leaders get to know' things that I shouldn't know about?" Draco asked, worried. His own Father had known several things that Draco wasn't supposed to know about. For the most part, those things had been hidden from him, but some of it his Father had told him anyway.

"Nah. It's one of those, I know about it because I own a bunch of books that no one else will ever get to read things." Yuery's Dad said with a shrug. "That doesn't mean it's forbidden knowledge, or Yuery wouldn't know it either."

"My Dad's ancestors came from Xerxes. That's why he has golden eyes and hair." Yuery added. "Hardly anyone is still around from Xerxes though. Just Dad's family."

"Oh. So, it's a not-secret secret." Draco nodded. "My Father had those."

"Do you miss you father?" Yuery asked curiously. Draco never brought the man up. Yuery's dad frowned at him in the way he does when Yuery says something he shouldn't in front of one of the generals but just waves as he walked out of the room. He was likely still near by in case Draco needed a grown up then.

"No." Draco said after a moment. "He made my mother sad and scared a lot. He was not a good man, and he belonged to a group of people who wanted to hurt people, Sev said."

"Oh." Yuery frowned sadly. "I'm sorry he wasn't nice."

"It's alright. Mother said I do not have to ever speak to him again, unless I decide I want to after I grow up." Draco shrugged. "I can't imagine I would want to, Sev is a much nicer man. Sometimes I like to pretend he's, my father. I know that's weird."

"Not really. I mean, you know I'm adopted, my mom didn't become my mom until after Will came along. My Dad and Yeye were both adopted too." Draco nodded at that, relieved Yuery didn't think he was strange for wanting to pretend sometimes that he had a different father. Before the conversation could continue, they were called to dinner.