Edward had woken well before Harry despite the late hour when he had gone to bed. He had taken out his notebook and a pen as usual and began to write (in his mother tongue) some hypotheses about how magic worked. As he had already noted earlier, he was now able to discern certain magical currents and he could associate some with the telluric currents which they were supposed to use for alchemy according to the theory. Now, since Edward had learned the origin of the alchemy of Amestris, whose source of energy had always been that of the philosopher's stone, he was much more interested in the Dragon's Pulse, which was the source for using alkahestry. After all, it seemed like it was his father, the last inhabitant of Xerxes, who had taught alchemy to Xing, so that was the best way to do it.

Pensive, Edward wrote:

If it is, the Dragon's Pulse and what we call telluric energies could be the same thing. Now that I see these currents, would I be able to reproduce what May Chang was doing with her remote alchemy? If it is, the telluric currents could serve as vectors in the transmutation and in this case, the kunais used by this girl could be the equivalent of geometric points with mathematical data on them. By translating all this into mathematical and alchemical equations, this could give a more effective result than Alphonse's during his tests. And now that there is no more interference from this damn philosopher's stone, it will probably be easier for my brother and me to understand what-

Edward came out of his thoughts when he heard loud footsteps on the stairs. Soon, his door swung open and he saw Ron perform a great flying leap to land on Harry's bed. Knowing that the redhead had grown in the last few weeks, the landing was certainly more painful for Harry than for Ron. The curtains were opened wide and the light flooded the room. Edward looked at all the crazies, er, all the friends who came to welcome them and smiled as he saw his friend rubbing his head after the landing by the youngest Weasley boy. The questions and the answers between Harry and Ron and Hermione followed one another in the general excitement.

Suddenly, Hermione looked at Edward with a surprised look:

"Edward, you're here too! Everyone has been looking for you everywhere and we were really worried about you!"

"Hermione was madly worried about you but everyone else, we had faith in your ability to get yourself out of all possible situations without difficulty." Ron replied, half grumpy, half mocking.

"With all that's going on now, it's normal to be worried! And then, when we know what happened to Sirius..." Hermione commented, trying to approach the subject with the most delicacy possible.

"Did we miss breakfast?" Harry asked in his turn, to deflect the conversation from a subject he seemed determinedly unwilling to tackle.

"Do not worry about that, Mum is going to get you a platter: she says Harry is too skinny and Edward... She said the-word-that-should-not-be-spoken to say what she thinks of his condition." Ron laughed at Edward, who frowned, very displeased.

"I'm not…"

"It's not me who said it, it's Mum!" Ron defended himself before adding, "So what's up? You left with Dumbledore, you've had to have done some interesting things."

"We only recruited a new teacher," declared Edward without specifying the subject of the teacher in question.

"That's right ..." said Ron, a little disappointed, "We're going to miss a Defense Professor against the forces of evil now that Umbridge's gone. How is he? "

"Slughorn?" Harry said, glancing at Ed, who was hiding a mischievous gleam in his golden eyes... The Boy-Who-Lived hid a smile as to the farce he was going to play to his best friend and said, "He looks like a walrus. and he's a former Slytherin director ... "

He was interrupted when Ginny entered the room complaining loudly about a person who, in her words, was "driving her crazy." The discussion that followed was a little disconcerting for the two newcomers: from what Edward could see, neither Harry nor he knew who the girls were talking about with such acrimony or why Ron was defending her with such heat. The two boys were quick to get the answer when a radiant apparition entered the room in turn, and instinctively, the two young wizards pulled the covers over themselves abruptly.

The young woman in front of them was breathtakingly beautiful, tall, slender, with long blond hair and a light silver halo around her. She carried a huge tray with the contents of two breakfasts with plenty of food. A wonderful vision and straight out of a dream. Edward blinked several times in front of this beautiful woman and in his head, repeated the mantra 'I love Winry, I'm in love with Winry.' After repeating this incantation in his head several times, he was finally able to find the courage to meet the girl's gaze without blushing... at least, he hoped.

After laying the tray on both nightstands, she began to kiss Harry on both cheeks and the poor boy blushed as if he had spent several hours in the sun. Then, much to Edward's surprise, she turned to him, examined him for a few moments before kissing him on both cheeks as well. The young Amestrian thought that his superior, Roy Mustang, would probably have given everything to swap places with him... as long as it wasn't in sight (or shooting range) of Riza Hawkeye. Breathing a great breath to calm his tumultuous, perhaps indecent thoughts, he managed to pay attention to the words of the beautiful young woman:

"I am Fleur Delacour, I had a little talk about you and I was told that you were very cute, I see that it's true and I think you would be fine with my little sister, Gabrielle, who is 11. If you want, I'll introduce her, I'm sure you'll be a wonderful couple..."

At that moment, the anger replaced Edward's state of stupefaction, which exclaimed loudly:

"I'm about to enter my sixth year at Hogwarts. That means I'm at least 15 years old and certainly older, I'm not old enough to be with a child who has just graduated from elementary school!"

"Oh, forgive me!" explained Fleur, "It's just that you look so... young."

The young woman could have chosen a worse term to describe Edward's condition; fortunately for her, she had not chosen the term small. Hermione and Ginny seemed disappointed not to see him rage, and suddenly Edward realized at that moment that he was probably the most dangerous place on earth except Voldemort's lair or the caldera of an erupting volcano: he was stuck with jealous girls. And the girls in question did not seem very happy to have a rival to Fleur's beauty next to them, even though she was already betrothed to Bill Weasley.

On one side, Edward could understand why the girls were denigrating Fleur: she sometimes seemed tactless but on the other hand, the young woman was trying to fit into the family even though Ginny and Mrs. Weasley did not seem most happy about her presence. The matriarch reproached her son and Fleur for getting married too soon and for not taking the time for reflection without realizing that her argument was specious since she had done exactly the same thing.

After Fleur's departure, the girls continued to complaining about Fleur, noting that they would much prefer to see Tonks married to Bill rather than the young Frenchwoman and they constantly extolled the merits of the young auror regarding her intelligence and her physical talents. Whenever one of the boys tried to defend the young woman, they saw themselves scorned for that simple reason. Suddenly, Edward had only one fear...

"And you Edward, what do you think of Fleur?"

...it was asking him that kind of question. Edward was a rather straightforward boy and he was starting to get angry about that. He answered frankly:

"I think you should leave Bill and Fleur alone, they are big enough to make their own decisions, including their relationship, and one year of dating and more than a year as a fiancé will be quite long in my opinion. Tonks may be in this state for a lot of reasons, Hermione, and not just because of Sirius' death, or anything else. Maybe stop trying to fit Tonks and Bill together, you're not their chaperone!"

"We are not trying...!"protested the two indignant girls; glaring at the blond teen with menacing eyes.

"I'm also in favor of the plan, make your peace with this wedding thing and do not try to put me in a bad mood or it'll end badly!" Edward scolded as he finished his sentence by snatching a mouthful of bread and chewing it vigorously to punctuate his point.

"I like that plan..." Ron muttered, glancing at Hermione.

Everyone decided to change the subject of conversation after that and asked for news from the family: the twins' shop was doing pretty well, Mr. Weasley was overworked and Percy Weasley, the third brother Edward had never seen, still refused to see his family by refusing to admit they were right. Harry decided to reveal important news: he was going to receive private lessons with Dumbledore. Everyone, including Edward, was stunned by this news and questioned him even more: according to Harry, the Daily Prophet was right and the prophecy basically said that Harry should be the one who was going to have to kill Voldemort since neither of them could live while the other survived.

Everyone was shocked, even though Hermione received one literally when one of the Weasley gadgets exploded in her face, leaving her with a black eye. She finally got up but seemed more concerned about the news that had just announced than the injury. In Ron and Hermione's eyes, there was both anxiety about Harry's condition and hope as well, seeing how well their friend endured it with maturity and resolution. Edward admired his determination and he hoped with all his heart that he would be able to accomplish the mission of Truth without Harry having to fight. Each of them also wondered what kind of courses Professor Dumbledore would give Harry. Hermione already made assumptions about possible counter-spells, making a real list of everything he could learn with one of the greatest wizards of all times as a mentor.

Fortunately, her monologue was interrupted when Harry announced that normally they would receive the results of the OWLs today. Hermione screamed and ran down the stairs to ask Mrs. Weasley if any owls had yet arrived. The three boys sighed and decided to go down more calmly after getting dressed. Receiving his results did not really frighten Edward, who did not pay much attention to it, considering that he would not stay in this world forever, however, he was a little curious to see what scores he would receive.

The young Amestrian finally decided to come down and arrived at the moment when Hermione stamped with impatience, lamenting all the matters she thought she had missed. In her heart, Edward thought that Hermione looked like she had failed all her exams, but if that really was the case, then all classes at Hogwarts would be cancelled and the Earth would stop spinning at the same time. Basically, Hermione was just one of those annoying people who frightened others by lamenting their grades while having everything done. Hermione's scream was heard again as a group of four owls flew to the Burrow to finally land in front of each of the eagerly awaited recipients.

Edward quickly grabbed his letter and opened it calmly and detachedly, quickly went through the first sentences and immediately went to the scores while mentally commenting on his grades:

Astronomy: E (Predictably, he had learned the map of the sky at this time of the year by heart before taking his test.)

Ancient Runes: O (The test was very easy)

Charms: O (The result was as his reviewer had said)

Defense Against the Dark Arts: O (At the same time, he had contributed to giving illegal courses in this subject and he had not been handicapped by his slowness)

Arithmancy: O, (the calculations came naturally to him so he had no trouble succeeding)

Herbology: E. (Curse that Crabbe and his poisonous mushroom that made him lose points)

History of Magic: T (Very predictable, after all, he had only bothered writing a list of suggestions for improving the course and its subject matter)

Potions: O (He did not expect such a good grade, but it was pretty satisfying…)

Transfiguration: O (since it was his best subject, another score would have been amazing).

So in the end, Edward had eight OWLs, including five Outstandings, which was more than respectable. He got a T in History of Magic and it made him laugh a lot because of his feelings about it. In short, it was a great day. He glanced at the notes of the others: Harry had eight OWLs, including one Outstanding in Defense and one, to his surprise, in Divination. It must be said that he had scrupulously followed the advice of Edward to predict the departure of Umbridge and a change of Minister, two forecasts that had proved perfectly accurate... Ron had seven OWLs but no Outstandings. Hermione, of course, had ten Outstandings, and an Exceptional Effort in Defense. She was, of course, terribly disappointed.

Thus, the summer began auspiciously...

It had taken no more than two days for Edward to go mad from being locked in the Weasley's house. Even the young genius could only last a limited time working on his alchemical theories without needing to test them, which he could not do so surrounded by so many people. Conversing with Harry and his friends had gone well for a while but very quickly the topics of conversation had finally run out, especially since Edward could not share the secrets of his world. The rather large Weasley backyard had quickly shown its limits and the young man had quickly made the rounds. Soon, Edward had begun to get bored and when the young alchemist was bored, he tended to make decisions that were sometimes debatable and mostly reckless.

That's why, at the dawn of the third day spent in the Weasley's mansion, Edward had headed for the property's boundaries and had begun to focus on the magic surrounding the estate. The young blond wizard could now see magical threads intertwined forming an impenetrable barrier for anyone wishing to enter, taking the form of a huge dome protecting the house from land or air attacks. But Edward had often seen how wizards sometimes lacked practical sense: they had thought of the first two types of attack, but had they thought about the underground intrusions? After all, the alchemist was well placed to know that people were focusing on what they could see and not on the basement,

Making sure no one was watching him, Edward circled his arms and began digging the ground with his alchemy cautiously. It turned out that the magic barrier was sinking a few meters into the ground, which showed that precautions had been taken but it was much less dense than above the ground. So it was possible and even easy for Edward to create a tunnel under the ground to be able to leave the property without being seen ... The boy does not think any longer before starting his earthwork with infinite caution: the hole dug should not be too big to avoid touching the magic barrier and alert the whole household but it also had to allow him to pass ... Fortunately, he wasn't too-

Edward tried to forget that infamous moment when he almost admitted that he could be a little below average and concentrated on his task. As he progressed, he created elaborate alchemical traps to make sure he was the only person who could pass through here. Not even a rat could pass without being caught, which was precisely the goal because the young wizard had heard about Animagi. Finally, he emerged on the surface, on the other side of the Burrow's boundaries. He thoroughly inhaled the fresh air of the countryside with a cheerful look, rediscovering the smells of his childhood. Then, after taking a look around to make sure he was not spied on, he hid the entrance to his secret passageway with thick branches and moved a leafy bush of aromatic plants to hide his odour.

After taking these safety measures, Edward began to explore the surrounding area and eventually arrived at a junction: a small road in poor condition led to a forest while another went to a village ten kilometers away. name Ottery St. Catchpole from the signpost. For now, Edward was much more interested in civilization than in the forest, so he made his way to the small town with a sturdy step. It did not take more than an hour to arrive on the scene and he examined the place quickly to find his bearings.

The village was not as small as it had thought at first: it was big enough to house several small shops, a town hall with a post office, a primary school and a small library. It was naturally towards this last building that Edward walked: the books were not very numerous and not of a very great intellectual level but it was nevertheless enough to calm the thirst for knowledge of the teen, who could also stand to discover more on the muggle world and its inhabitants who, whatever the wizards say, were still in the majority in this universe.

Over the following days, the young alchemist spent most of his mornings or afternoons in the village: unlike the others, he wasn't tempted by Quidditch and hated the idea of traveling anywhere by broom. He was therefore not requisitioned to play in the Weasley garden as a teammate. Instead, the boy passed through his secret passage and took refuge in the public library to read. The encyclopaedias were an interesting source of knowledge but above all, the displaced Amestrian discovered the unsuspected potential of certain instruments such as computers that had spread in this world. He wondered if one day his world would discover this kind of innovation or if the alchemists would find something to replace this invention ...

No one noticed his absence as long as he was on time at meals and he regularly showed up at the Burrow. His friends sometimes asked him questions, but Edward told them vaguely that he was out working, which was not a lie in itself. Sometimes the young Ravenclaw felt a bit guilty about the risks he was taking when he went outside when it was forbidden, but he managed to get rid of his remorse without much difficulty: after all, he was extremely cautious, he continued to take precautions. and made sure there were no strangers in the area watching the Burrow. In fact, it could even be said that he helped the Order remain incognito by ensuring that no intruder could even approach!

After two weeks at the Burrow, during which he had read most of the town's library, Edward began to get bored again: Harry's birthday had been in a rather dark climate because during the celebration they had learned about the death or disappearance of well-known and even beloved people within the witch community. Two of the disappearances had been in the middle of Traverse Road, which showed how much the Death Eaters were no longer afraid of being out in the open and that they were starting larger actions. The dead man was the Headmaster of a school of magic that had been a former Death Eater who had betrayed his family and had fled his punishment, unfortunately for him, it had finally caught up with him.

The next day Edward received his list of Hogwarts supplies, which he scanned with a rather distracted eye. He also paid little attention to the fact that one of his friends was named Quidditch captain, even though he was happy for him. On the other hand, Edward was much more excited by the prospect of exploring the surrounding forest and perhaps even attempting some alchemical experiments to check if his theories were working. That's why, in the early afternoon, Edward, after passing through his secret tunnel, this time he took the direction of the woods and began his walk rather perky. He still had fondness for the country landscapes that reminded him of Resembool, and embraced some of his nostalgia.

The forest was much more peaceful than the one around Hogwarts: unlike the latter, it was populated with no magical creatures, only wild animals that Edward recognized without difficulty and could observe without much difficulty. Hearing a stream, the boy ends up being drawn near a very calm clearing and hidden deep in the woods: no one would disturb him here, which meant that he could practice his alchemy without witnesses bothersome. The alchemist began by opening his notebook and he classified his hypotheses in the order in which he wanted to test them: the alchemy of Xing was obviously in the first place and without further delay, the genius began his experiments.

He first had to find a line of telluric energy, which represented no difficulty. The Burrow had been built on one of these energy lines and Edward had only to follow it to the forest, as it passed through this clearing. The young scientist suspected that a large number of witch dwellings were located near these lines of telluric energies and he would not have been surprised either that the greatest establishments of the magic world are at the intersection of these energy lines. After all, the wizards thought they were using the magic of the telluric currents, so it made sense that they chose to build their homes near where they were the strongest. And on the one hand, even though the wizarding population used the energy of the Gate of this world for the most part with their wands to produce their spells, it was also true that they were able to use part of the tectonic energy and the energy of their souls. Edward had concluded from his latest research that when wizards did that, they did either what they called wandless magic or accidental magic.

Magic had begun to fascinate Edward just as much as alchemy: it was far less irrational than he had thought at first, and explaining it was one of his greatest pleasures. It obeyed precise laws, though different from those of alchemy, and the young scientist liked to construct theories on the subject, especially when they complemented his hypotheses on alchemy. He had even started writing some of them in a separate notebook but in English so that they would be understandable by the wizards. Of course, Edward was careful never to mention alchemy in this specific research to keep his promise to the Truth- but at the same time he wanted to help advance research in this world. Maybe he could arrange with Luna for her father to publish his research in The Quibbler...

But in the meantime, the most urgent thing for Edward was to learn how to use alchemy in Xing's way. He wanted at all costs to show May Chang that he too was able to do the same thing she did and he refused to admit that he could be less strong in a field than this girl who dared to call him short! It was perhaps petty on his part and probably a bit childish but Edward was not known for the ease of his character and he was determined to prove to this girl that he too knew how to use this foreign alchemy. On top of that, Xing's alchemy had been created largely by his father, and although Edward had long resented Hohenheim, he had to admit he was a genius in alchemy.

The young alchemist began to draw the line representing the energy current of the Dragon's Pulse and he tried to throw freshly transmuted Kunais onto this line so that they formed a circle approximately correct on it. After more than two hours of training, the boy was still no more advanced: indeed, in the field of throwing precision, Edward Elric was not good at all, in fact, one could even say that he had no precision. The precise aim had always been something that he had been criticized for in alchemy as well as magic and in this area, it seemed that Edward was not progressing, having always been more used to fighting in hand-to-hand combat than by means of throwing or shooting weapons...

After several hours of intensive training that only resulted in frustrating him more and more, Edward finally gave up throwing his knives and collapsed into the green grass grunting. This time, it was sure, he would never be able to equal the little Xingese girl in his discipline and it annoyed him more than anything. He sighed and stared up at the cloudy sky above him while mumbling swear words in his native tongue as he ruminated over his failure.

"Are you trying to attract Crumple-Horned Snorkacks by speaking that language or are you trying to get the Nargles away?"

Edward straightened up at that well-known voice and stared at Luna, who was gazing at him with his usual dreamy smile.

"Luna, what are you doing here?" asked the young alchemist before realizing that his question was bordering on rudeness, although the young Ravenclaw did not seem to mind.

"I was walking around when I heard strange noises: I thought they were grunts of Crumple-Horned Snorkacks although they growl like that only when they are in the moulting period or they don't get what they want but in fact it was you."

"Do you often walk around here?" Edward asked, raising an eyebrow as he tried, unsuccessfully, to decipher what Luna had meant.

"I live on the other side of the forest but you do not live here, should not it be my place to ask you questions?" Luna asked, tilting her head to one side.

"Oops, sorry, the Weasleys actually house me during the holidays but I was tired of being locked up at home so I sometimes leave without them knowing to go for walks, otherwise I would go crazy."

"That sounds like you, you were always like that at Hogwarts." said Luna.

"Except that in the Forbidden Forest, it was to go fight..." corrected the Amestrian.

"I feel like you're fighting all the time," the young Ravenclaw remarked enigmatically: "You fight against the evil creatures, against those who believe that devouring life will allow them to live despite everything, against those who want to dictate to you your conduct and those who claim to judge you, but above all, you fight against yourself. "

"To fight against myself?" Edward asked, a little taken aback.

"You confront your thoughts and ideas very much with those of others and often question them, but at the same time, you categorically refuse to change the values you believe in. You also fight against your own limits, constantly seeking to push them away, you should learn to rest sometimes."

"And you, what are you doing to rest?" Edward asked, raising an eyebrow at this tip.

"Well ... during the whole month of July, my father and I went to Norway and we tried to find Crumple-Horned Snorkacks. It was very relaxing because to attract them, you have to stay still, lying on your back. without doing anything except looking at the clouds to glimpse them."

"Yes, it must be nice." the teen smiled.

"Yes, but I think you do not like much rest so I think it's better to find the answer to what torments you ... So what's the matter?" Luna asked.

"It's just that I feel like I can not do anything!" Ed sighed, glaring at his kunais as if they had personally insulted him.

"When you feel like you're not going anywhere or lost, to find where you want to go, sometimes you just have to take a roundabout way." The girl pointed out, fiddling with her necklace of butterbeer bottle caps.

"Yes, but it's more complicated, I can not get those things right, and yet I've been training for hours!"

"Sometimes when you find yourself in front of a river to cross and you can not swim, you just have to build a bridge, but after that, there are lots of ways to build this one: it can be beautiful and majestic but sometimes a simple wooden bridge will suffice... Basically, it doesn't matter, the main thing is that you have managed to cross the torrent. You must not persist in trying something that you can not do- without that will you drown. "

"You're right, I did not think about it, thank you, Luna!" Edward said with a smile as he began to glimpse the solution to his problem.

"You're welcome, Edward, I hope we'll see each other again, I often walk around here so if you continue your walks, chances are we'll meet again.

And, as she hummed, the girl started with a step as light as that of a fairy, dancing strangely under the foliage according to steps and a music known to her alone. Edward looked at her thoughtfully, before shaking his head and laughing heartily as he thought about the strange conversation he had had with his Ravenclaw companion: Luna was decidedly chic to find the good answers while delivering them to his interlocutors in the form of strange parables... One had to be patient enough to know how to decrypt them but by dint of knowing it, you ended up knowing how to interpret the sibylline words of the girl.

The advice that Luna had just given him was indeed precious: it was no use to Edward to stubbornly attempt to throw the kunais correctly, since he was not obviously talented. On the other hand, he could try to find another way to achieve remote alchemy that escaped him. For the moment, it was better to start with small things, like learning alkahestry instead of trying to imitate May Chang who obviously had had to train for years to master this way to transmute. He had first to confine himself to what he could do instead of trying at all costs to imitate his little rival.

Pride had again misled him: wanting at all costs to match the Xingese, he had locked himself alone in his obstinacy without trying to find the solution by himself to the problem of alchemy at a distance. Now he knew he had to think and invent the solution to his problem by himself. Clearly, he had returned to the starting point except that now he was persuaded to do it! It only remained for him to try until he found the right solution!

The boy engraved a transmutation circle before moving away from a few steps and engraving exactly the same, still on the telluric current line. Then, concentrating, he tried to send the energy to the transmutation circle furthest away from him, but it was the one he had activated that metamorphosed into a statue. Result? A boring failure...

The young alchemist's stomach gurgled, telling him it was time to return to the Burrow: perhaps he had to follow Luna's other advice? To rest and reflect could only do him good at the point where he was...