Author's Notes:
Alright, show of hands. Who thought that this fic would ever get another update? . . .Yeah, me neither. To be perfectly honest, I highly doubt that any of the people who read the first two chapters when I posted them six years ago (and posted reviews) are still around. But since I don' want to rule the possibility out, I should probably clarify a few things.
Obviously, my tastes and style as a writer have changed over the past six years. I've edited chapters one and two of this fic to reflect this, so if you did read it back then, I'd suggest to reread them to be up to speed, since a few things changed.
Also, as of right now, I don't really have a beta reader/anyone helping me with plotting this out. So if you notice any glaring mistakes (be they in regards to spelling, grammar, or plot), feel free to point them out. Chances are very high that I'll edit the chapter accordingly.
Now, going forward. . . I'm not gonna pretend like I'll ever finish this. But hey, the idea persisted in my mind for six years, so who knows? At any rate, my current goal is to at least cover the events of Philosopher's Stone, which should be reasonable enough. More notes on the actual contents of this chapter will follow at the end of it. . .
"I'm sorry for my delay, Mr. Hughes. You must know, I was seeing my younger sister off to her fourth year at Hogwarts. I hope I have not missed anything crucial?"
"Don't worry, Mr. Armstrong... you really have missed nothing," Maes sighed, as Armstrong headed towards his other subordinates, who were currently all interrogating employees. Sadly, Maes was hardly exaggerating: So far, most of the day had for him and his subordinates consisted of nothing more than interrogating employees of Gringotts that were around on the day of the break-in, with little results.
And it wasn't just this day, either. The entire past month had consisted of nothing but interrogating employees all day long. As the only wizard bank in Britain, Gringotts had a lot of employees, which in turn meant that there were a lot of people to be interrogated. This wasn't helped in the slightest by the fact that the break-in happened at a normally very busy time. And to make matters even worse, the goblins running the bank were so uncooperative that it made Maes wonder if they even wanted the case of the break-in to be solved.
Maes and his subordinates were only allowed to interrogate Gringotts employees for little over an hour each day, and the information that they actually got out of the employees, be they wizards, witches or goblins, were either completely useless, extremely vague, or both. The only positive thing about the entire ordeal was that the witches and wizards that they interrogated seemed to realize how annoying it was to deal with them. Many of them made several hints at them having received orders to generally reveal as little as possible to any outsiders, no matter whether they are ministry officials or not.
Whenever Maes had tried to bring up the subject of the employees' orders hindering the investigation more than helping it, the responses from the goblins in charge were always just about the same.
Oh, we are terribly sorry Mister Hughes, but you must understand that we as a bank need to uphold a certain secrecy in our business. After all, if we would be just sharing all the important information about Gringotts so freely, would the people still entrust us with their finances? You certainly do understand, Mister Hughes, don't you? And yes, we are totally and deliberately slowing down your work because you're a bloody wizard, and we'd much rather have it if some actual goblins were allowed to investigate this case. So maybe, if you're lucky, one of the idiots you answer to will realize that a wizard investigation will get you nowhere, and let goblins deal with goblin business.
While none of the goblins that Maes spoke to ever outright anything like that, they really might as well have done so, since it was just about obvious.
Due to all these reasons, the entire investigation had made barely any progress since it had started a month ago. Not even the identity of the vault's owner had been confirmed yet, as the goblin council was still debating whether or not sharing that information with them was a good idea. What they did tell him on the matter was that the owner had already been informed and had taken "measures", which, while fair enough, didn't help Maes or the investigation.
The only clue he did get was an unexpected letter he had received from Roy a day after he had left for Hogwarts. Apparently, Professor Dumbledore had a personal object moved to the school for safekeeping, which could mean that he was the owner of the vault. But then again, until the goblins actually confirmed that directly to them – or if Roy actually bothered to ask Dumbledore – there was no way to know for certain.
Beyond the identity of vault owner, everything else also remained a complete secret. They didn't know what the culprit wanted, they didn't know how they managed to enter and leave the bank – not to mention the vault – completely undetected, and most importantly, they had no idea how to find any of these things out. None of the Gringotts employees seemed to have seen something that could be of any use to the investigation... at least, none of the ones that they had interrogated so far had.
But after working on this case for a month, Maes was seriously starting to seriously doubt if the interrogation of the staff would have any results at all. By now, he and his team had already interrogated almost every employee that might have relevant information – that is, the people that actually were around during that specific time, and in the area between the entrance through which the burglar entered, and the actual vault.
In general, the entire past month seemed like nothing more than a waste of time to Maes, spend almost entirely in the one tiny room of Gringotts that they had received permission to use. Searching for any traces had brought them no results, the interrogation probably wouldn't give them any results. There was nothing that brought them even the slightest results. And worst of all, he had barely been able to Gracia during all this time…
As if on cue, the moment that Maes reflected on the unproductive month, Breda came over to him. If he had the slightest shred of optimism regarding the interrogations, Maes would have hoped that they had finally managed to get some results, but one month of no progress destroyed that hope before it even came up.
"Got anything new?" Maes asked, once the stout man had come close enough.
"As if," Breda snorted. "Not a single one of this bunch," he gestured towards the group of employees that were currently in the room "could tell us anything that we didn't already know. The only thing that's new is that after these guys, there is no one left for us to interrogate. After them, we had everyone who could have seen or heard anything relevant."
"I don't even know why I bothered to ask..." Maes said, making no effort to mask his disappointment.
"Routine?" Breda suggested, smiling weakly. "But regardless. What should we do now, sir?"
Maes scratched his head. "Tell Ross and Bosh to bring the Gringotts employees back to their work. I'll be with the rest of you in a moment."
Breda saluted, and did as he was ordered. Maes meanwhile went over to the desk that he had claimed for himself, where all the documents that were somehow related to the case lay. Transcripts of interrogations, a list of both human and goblin employees that might have relevant information, and among several other things, as well as the letter that Roy had send Maes a month ago. Looking quickly over them, Maes picked up the transcripts and the worker list, and went over to the other side of the room, where his subordinates were gathering around a square table that already had been in the room before they even began their work. On his way there, Maria Ross and Dennie Bosh passed him by with the Gringotts employees, some of which (namely, the humans among them) were giving Maes a curious look, following closely behind them.
Ignoring them, Maes sat down at the head of the table, throwing the papers down in front of him. "Please tell me that one of these workers miraculously remembered something incredibly important and helpful to our work before I got here."
"No such luck, sir." The answer came from Havoc, who put up his feet on the table. For a moment, Maes considered calling him out for it, but decided against it. There still would be time for this later.
"We have interrogated every single one of them, and not a single one saw, heard or otherwise knew something relevant." Breda elaborated calmly. "So I'll ask again, sir. What do we do now?"
"Yeah, that's the question here." Maes said, awkwardly scratching his head. "To be frank, I have absolutely no idea. The only thing that I think we can do right now is go over the transcripts once more, to see if there is anything that we overlooked so far, while I have a word with one of the goblin bosses to see whether there's some details that they have forgotten to tell us so far."
The general reaction to that announcement was hardly positive. While no said anything out loud, the prospect of sitting through an entire month's worth of investigation transcripts, just to find some details that they might have missed was hardly a promising outlook. Maes couldn't really blame his subordinates, however: His own nerves were already quite strained due to the tedious work. The thought of having to basically go through the entire month once more was not exactly exciting.
"Actually, sir..." Falman's voice broke through the uncomfortable silence that had ensued after Maes last words, "There is still something that you could ask the goblin bosses about. In the list they gave us of employees that would make sense to interrogate, I remember there being four names crossed out. None of these people have been here for our interrogations. There's probably a reason they're crossed out, but it couldn't hurt try to call them in regardless. I mean, it's better than nothing."
A wide grin appeared on Maes' faces. "Oh, fantastic! You're coming with me, Falman!"
"Huh?! Why?!" Falman asked, taken aback by Maes' unexpectedly enthusiastic reaction.
"Because you are the one with the good memory around here, not me! You remember every single one of these names, whereas I don't even recall seeing any of them crossed out, so you're coming with me to save us time!" Maes explained, speaking almost too fast for the others to understand anything. "And besides, you still have to explain to me why exactly you brought this up only just now. Now come on!"
With that, Maes practically jumped up, grabbed Falman by the collar, and stormed out of the room with him in tow. He wasn't even entirely sure why he was getting excited over such a trivial piece of information: The only thing that Falman had really said was that there might be four more people that they might have to put through the interrogation process, and even that wasn't guaranteed. But then again… after the tedium of the past month, just about anything that would shake up the process of the investigation was welcome. Not to mention that none of the goblins had bothered make any special note of the four mystery employees. Even if interrogating them was, for whatever reason, out of the question, Maes would still get an excuse to chew out the goblins for being such a pain in the ass to work with.
"Uhm… sir, could you please let go of my collar? I'd prefer to walk on my own," Falman's voice suddenly interrupted his thoughts.
Maes stopped. Without really noticing it, he had dragged the man halfway across the bank without really paying attention to him.
"Sorry," Maes said, and let go. "I suppose I got a bit carried away there."
"...It's alright sir, no problem."
"Right. Then come on! We have an appointment with the Head Goblin."
"Wouldn't it be better if we just send him a message to ask for an appointment? I can imagine that Head Goblin Alguff won't be too pleased if we just drop by uninvited."
Maes waves his hand dismissively. "That's a risk I'm willing to take. He shouldn't have too much of an issue with me dropping by, anyway, since it's also in his interest that we finally solve this case."
Falman said nothing in response. For a moment, they walked in silence. Then, Maes suddenly said, "By the way, I'm still waiting on the explanation on why you haven't told me about these four names before."
"As I said, sir, there's most likely a reason these names are crossed out," Falman said. "I assumed that the goblins figured that there wouldn't be much of a point to interrogating these people, so I decided not to mention it. But now, that we're pretty much out of options..."
Maes nodded. "Mh. Yeah, fair enough. But we really need some kind of lead already. Merlin knows that Bradley and the media are getting impatient..."
Saying that Bradley was getting impatient was perhaps a bit exaggerating things, but it wasn't inaccurate, either. Since the beginning of the investigation, the minister had once per week send a note requesting any updates on what they had been found out – and every week, Maes had nothing to show except for the number of Gringotts employees they had interrogated. There had been no criticizing or demanding words from Bradley or any of Maes' superiors, but he could nonetheless tell that they weren't too happy that things were taking so long.
The media on the other hand had been a lot less ambiguous in their impatience. Even though Maes had denied any interviews for the Daily Prophet and forbidden his subordinates from giving any, they still had managed to learn that there was no progress, and published several articles about it. The only solace in this was that the articles were not written by Rita Skeeter, who seemingly considered Maes and his team to be too unknown to write about.
Before long, Maes and Falman had reached the door to the Head Goblin's office. While Maes' initial plan when he had set out had been to simply to storm in demanding answers, by now he had calmed down enough to know that this, while most likely very satisfying, would also be very stupid. So instead, he simply knocked.
After a moment, a busy-sounding voice answered, "You may enter."
Bracing himself for an irksome conversation, Maes opened the door.
The inside of the Head Goblin's office was a stark contrast to the dingy little office that Maes' team had been given to use. It was a wide-open room with a marble floor reminiscent of the one in the entrance hall. Several large, exquisite-looking carpets (that Maes was sure were able to fly, despite the ban on flying carpets) were strewn around various places. On Maes' left-hand side, there were several wide windows, providing an excellent view of Diagon Alley beneath them. Several expensive-looking tables, chairs and desks were spread around the room, and at the very end of it, there was the most impressive desk of it all, with the Head Goblin sitting behind it. In short: It was the kind of room that clearly meant to make a respectable and professional first impression to any potential business partners.
Sadly, this was not the effect any of this had on Maes. To him, it all just came off as unnecessarily pompous and pretentious. But then again, he wasn't the descendant of an ancient and well regarded wizarding family that had House Elves to wipe their butts, so what did he know?
"Ah, Mr. Hughes," The Head Goblin said, barely bothering to look up from whatever paperwork he was dealing with. "What an unexpected… pleasure. What brings you here today? Is there anything new with the investigation?"
"Sadly, nothing of the sort, Mr. Alguff. Me and my team have just concluded our interrogations of the list of employees that you provided us with. At first glance, nothing of them has seen anything that might help us."
"That is unfortunate," Alguff said. To Maes' surprise, it seemed to him like the goblin wasn't even pretending to be disappointed – at least not entirely. "If only the ministry would finally give in to our request to have a goblin oversee or at least aid you. Perhaps then we might make some steps towards solving this mystery."
"My hands are tied in that matter. Unless my superiors accept your proposal, I can't do a thing," Maes said. The thing was, he wasn't even opposed to having a goblin help them out. If anything, having a goblin on the team would help them deal with other goblins. But in spite of Bradley's infamously progressive politics, he had always remained firm on having no non-humans do any work for the ministry, meaning that nothing could be done.
"I am aware. But I am certain that you didn't just come here to talk to me about having finished your interrogations, Mr. Hughes. What else is it that you want?"
Wordlessly, Maes nodded towards Falman. Caught off-guard, the man took a moment to react, but then stepped forward. "Mr. Alguff, on the list of employees you've given us, there were four names that were crossed out. Sheska Zieliński, Heinkel Schmidt, Bill Weasley and Flora MacTavish. Since there were no further notes on any of them, we would like to ask for more information on them."
"Ah," Alguff said. "These four employees were removed from the list since all four of them no longer work for our bank. Let me see..." He went through a few of the papers he had on his desk, which apparently currently conveniently included the relevant documents. "Ms. Zieliński we had to fire on the 1st of August, due to… a poor work ethic. Mr. Schmidt has quiet his work at our bank to attempt becoming an Auror. Mr. Weasley and Ms. MacTavish are both Curse Breakers, and have respectively returned to Egypt and Sweden before the 31st of July. Their inclusion on the list was a mere accident."
"That means that there is at least a chance that Mr. Schmidt and Ms. Zieliński could have seen something… could you give us their adresses?" Maes asked.
"We would have to look them up, but that we could do."
Maes smiled weakly. This wasn't exactly outright lead, or anything they didn't have previously, but it was at least something. "All right then, that would be everything. Thank you for your help, Mr. Alguff."
Together with Falman, Maes turned around and made his way towards the door. Before he could however leave the room, the Head Goblin called out to him once more.
"Actually, Mr. Hughes, there is one more thing."
Maes stopped. "And what would that be?"
"The Goblin Council has come to the conclusion to share the identity of the vault's owner with the investigation team. The owner is one Albus Percivic Wulfric Brian Dumbledore."
-7-
"Anyone sitting there? Everywhere else is full."
Edward looked up. It had only been a few minutes since the Hogwarts Express had left King's Cross. In that time, Edward, Winry and Harry had done little more than talk to each other. Though admittedly, as of right now, it was mostly Winry and Harry doing all the talking. Since she had (along with Alphonse and the rest of the Rockbells) spend the better part of last month not believing Edward about having met Harry, she was curious to question him about all sorts of details about his life. Harry, likewise, was rather curious about Winry, as Edward hadn't said much about her back when he had first met Harry at Diagon Alley – there had been simply too many other things to talk about.
Thankfully, thus far, the conversation had avoided the dreaded word that began with "a" and ended with "utomail". Of course, Edward knew that he could rely on Winry to not accidentally reveal that Edward himself used two pieces of automail. No, there was no risk with that; and even if she did, Harry wouldn't think much of it, given his muggle upbringing. The problem was rather that once the subject of automail came up, Winry would inevitably end up gushing for at least an hour about the prosthetics, which was not exactly a prospect that seemed too appealing to Edward. But the ride to Hogwarts was, as far as he knew, very long, and there was always the chance of it coming up at some point or another…
For now however, another boy had entered their compartment, and pointed at one of the three empty seats. The boy was annoyingly tall, thin, and had flaming red hair. Something about reminded Edward of something, but he could just no recall it.
"No, by all means. Come in!" Winry meanwhile said.
The boy mumbled something that sounded a bit like "'nks," and sat down on an empty seat opposite of Harry. He then looked around a bit awkwardly. "So… my name's Ron Weasley. Who are you all?"
Then it clicked for Edward. "Now I remember!" He blurted out. "Weasley! Mom used to mention that family living in the area! Didn't your parents talk about them occasionally, too, Winry?"
"Yeah, they did. But that's still no reason to just shout it out like that, Ed..." Winry said with a sigh. "My name's Winry Rockbell, and that guy who shouts for no reason is Edward Elric," She then explained to Ron, who had looked at Edward uncertainly.
"I've heard of you, too! The Rockbell automail shop is famous!" Ron exclaimed.
Edward winced. The a-word had been used. Thankfully though, Harry hadn't introduced himself yet, and Ron turned his attention to him instead. "And who are you, then?"
"Oh, I'm Harry Potter," Harry said, seemingly not at all bothered by being ignored for a moment.
Ron stared, his eyes growing wider. "Wha- you're really-?"
Without another word, Harry pulled back his fringe to reveal the scar. Just at that moment, the door to the compartment opened once more. This time, there was a pair of twins standing there, with the exact same hair colour as Ron.
"Would you look at that, George, little brother Ronnie has already made friends," One of them said.
"And we just left him for a moment, too! They grow up so fast, Fred," Said the other.
They were seemingly about to continue making fun of their brother when they spotted Harry, and more specifically, his scar.
"And- blimey. One of them would appear to be Harry Potter," George said slowly.
"Certainly seems that way," Fred agreed.
"And who are you two clowns?" Edward asked impatiently. The antics of these two were starting to get on his nerves. If they really were Ron's brothers, then he felt a bit sorry for them.
Simultaneously, the twins turned to look at Edward. "Aren't you a little you a little young to be at Hogwarts? I'll admit that first-year students are on the short side, but they're normally not as short as-"
He didn't get any farther. The moment Edward had realized where the comment was heading, and before Winry (or Harry) could hold him back, he had jumped of his seat dashed towards the twins, and delivered a right-handed punch to the twin's gut.
"What was that?! What were you trying tos ay?! I couldn't quite hear it! D'you want to fill in for your brother?!" Edward yelled, raising his fist in challenge towards the twin that was still standing, who stared at him, dumbfounded.
"Ed, stop that!" Winry yelled, got up from her seat, and pulled Edward back from the twins. After a moment, Harry joined her, and another moment later, Ron joined them, too. After a moment of resistance, Edward finally gave in. He had sent a message, and that was all that mattered for now. Still rather angry, he sunk back into his seat, and tried to ignore the glare that Winry was shooting him. Luckily, the look of awe that Ron gave him more than made up for it.
The still standing twin had meanwhile recovered from the shock, and was now helping his brother get back to his feet.
"Sorry about that," Harry said. "You know Hagrid, right? Ed was even ready to attack him over this, so I'd suggest that you refrain from this in the future."
"Duly noted," wheezed the twin that Edward had hit. "I guess that was a bit on us, too. That definitely was beneath our usual joke standard."
"Pun not intended!" added the other, noticing that Edward was already sending them another furious glare. "Honestly Fred, think before you speak. You need to pun-der about the potential ways something like this can be taken."
George smiled. "Correct you are. All right then, I feel it is time that we issue our apology… Ed, I believe your name was?"
The twins held out their hands to him. Edward eyed them warily. Right now, they seemed tasteful enough to make any jokes about his height in the future... but they way they behaved made it seem like jokes and trickery were second nature to them. If his assumption was correct, they might just try to slip in jokes about his height at a later point, to see if they could pass it off without him noticing. Then again, he was probably overthinking it. If nothing else, he could just continue to be distrustful of them later on.
"So, am I supposed to shake just one of your hands? One after another? Both at once?"
The twins laughed. "However you like."
Edward shook their hands one after another, making sure to not use his right hand on accident. If he had used his right, it would be near impossible to hide the fact that he had an automail, and he was quite happy with Winry being the only person at Hogwarts to know about it. That fact spreading would, sooner or later, just lead to questions he'd rather avoid…
"Splendid!" Exclaimed one of the twins – Edward had already forgotten which one was which. "Now, as we were trying to say before we got… distracted: We're going to the middle of the train – Lee Jordan's got a giant tarantula there. Just in case you're overcome by the sudden urge to see your family, Ron."
Ron let out a grunt to make it clear that he got it. The twins, satisfied by this, left.
"Thank you," Ron said to Edward the moment the door had been shut. "You have no idea how annoying those two can get."
Edward laughed. "Oh, I think I got a pretty good idea already."
"Can you please not encourage him?" Winry asked.
"I'm with Winry on that," Harry added. "I don't think they're going to like it at Hogwarts if you always react like this to- well, you know."
"Not my problem everyone always feels the need to point it out..." Edward grumbled. As if he wanted to correct people over constantly commenting on his height! If everyone just stopped doing it, it would make life just so much easier. Just like how a new conversation topic right now would make life easier.
Thankfully though, Ron was far too curious about Harry to dwell on the subject any longer. Just like Edward had last month, Ron asked question about question about Harry's scar, what he remembered from the time – as if there'd be so much to remember for something that happened when he was just over a year old – what living with muggles was like. Winry, likewise was very interested in this, as she had only been able to to ask Harry a few things before Ron had shown up. As Edward had already heard most of these things, he just stopped paying attention to the others, and stared out of the window for a while.
After some time however, Harry had told everything about himself that he could, and so it was his turn to ask Ron and Winry about themselves. As Edward realized this, he began paying attention again, because he, too wanted to know more about Ron.
That, and he potentially had to steer the conversation away from the dreaded a-word.
"I've got five older brothers," Ron explained. "Bill and Charlie already finished Hogwarts – Bill's working as a spell breaker for Gringotts and Charlie is in Romania studying dragons. Percy is in fifth year and a prefect – can't go five minutes without mentioning it. And Fred and George… well, you already met them," He said, glancing at Edward. "I also got a younger sister, and she's gonna start going to Hogwarts next year."
"Wow," Harry said. "I wish I had a family of wizards… I mean, I have – had – but… well, I mean, all of you already know a lot more about magic than I do. I bet I'll the worst in the class."
"Don't worry about it. My mom was muggle-born, and she got through it all without any problems," Edward said.
"And family doesn't really have to do much with it, anyway!" Winry agreed. "Ed and Al are like members of my family, but I don't understand a thing about- the stuff they already learned." Edward shot a glance at Winry. Was she talking about alchemy? If so, why was she avoiding the word? If Harry asked about it, he'd have to explain it, so why avoid it?
"You can be glad that you don't have any siblings to live up to," Ron said, before Edward could figure out what Winry meant. "Bill was Head Boy, Charlie captain of the Quidditch team, Percy's a prefect, Fred and George are… notorious. And me? I don't even know if I'm gonna end up in the same house as the rest of my family."
Harry was confused. "Houses? What do you mean by that?"
"Ohh, right, you wouldn't know about that! Well, at Hogwarts, there's four houses that everyone gets sorted into: Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin. They all have some traits that they pick people by, but… to be honest, I don't remember those right now," Edward elaborated.
"Ah," Harry said. "And in which houses were your families?"
"For me, everyone was in Gryffindor," Ron mumbled reluctantly. "So of course, everyone expects me to end up there as well…"
"My mother and Granny Pinako were both in Hufflepuff. Dad actually wasn't even at Hogwarts, since he's a squib. He went to muggle schools instead."
"Mom was in Gryffindor," Edward stated. That was all that he had to say on the matter.
"What about your fa-," Harry began, but immediately shut up once he noticed Winry shaking her head. Edward was thankful for the gesture: He really didn't want to talk about the old bastard. Neither today, nor any other time. Besides, it wasn't even like he knew in what Hogwarts house he had been. Mom had never mentioned anything about that, and they had first met outside of the school. For all Edward knew, the old man had never been to Hogwarts.
Harry and Ron meanwhile exchanged a confused look, but said nothing.
"And what house would you want to be put into?" Harry asked instead.
"Gryffindor would obviously be best," Ron said. "Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff I could also live with. Just as long as it's not Slytherin – a lot of dark wizards like You-Know-Who were there."
"You mean Voldemort?"
Ron and Winry winced. Edward did, too, but it was more of a reflex, and he didn't like it.
"Y-yeah, him!" Ron said, sounding both shocked and impressed. "I never thought you of all people would say his name!"
"I'm not trying to be brave or anything, saying the name. I just never learned not to."
"Either way," Edward said, "Reputation or not, I don't think Slythern can be all that terrible. I think any house is fine."
"Knowing you, it'll probably be either Gryffindor or Ravenclaw," Winry suggested. "Personally, I'm leaning towards Hufflepuff, but something like Gryffindor would be fine, too."
With that, there was nothing left to really talk about with regards to houses. It seemed however that there was another question on Harry's mind.
"And what's this 'Quidditch' you mentioned earlier?"
At once, Ron's eyes lit up, and Edward quickly began to realize that Quidditch was to Ron what automail was to Winry. He immediately launched into an in-detail explanation about the rules of the game, the functionality of the balls, the various player roles, and national as well as international teams. And not just that: He went deep into the history of the sport, tactics and fouls.
Edward, who only had a passing interest in the sport, was blown away by the sheer information that was being dumped on him. Winry, who was in pretty much the same boat as Edward, just sat there in disbelief on just how much a person could talk about this topic. Accordingly, neither of them really contributed much to the discussion, other when Ron asked them about their personal opinions on things like favourite teams. Harry on the other hand seemed to get more and more excited for the sport by the minute, which was at least something.
At some point during this extensive lesson on Quidditch, an old lady pulling a trolley with various sweets, drinks and pastries opened the door to their compartment and asked if they wanted anything. To the surprise of everyone else, Harry pulled out a surprising amount of money and bought some of pretty much everything the lady had to offer, which he kindly shared with the others.
As Harry never had any of the things that were for sale, he got very interested in just about everything, from the pumpkin pastries, to the Bertie Bott's Every-Flavour Beans, to the Chocolate Frogs and their cards. Even though his first card was only one of Dumbledore, he eyed it like it was made of gold, and even read out the text on its back.
"Albus Dumbledore, currently Headmaster of Hogwarts. Considered by many the greatest wizard of modern times, Professor Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood and his assistance to renowned alchemist, Van Hohenheim. Professor Dumbledore enjoys chamber music and tenpin bowling."
At the mention of the name "Hohenheim", Edward's expression froze. In silent anger, he grit his teeth and clenched his fist. That was just like the old bastard… famous enough to be mentioned on a Chocolate Frog card, and yet, he couldn't even be bothered to return home to his own family…
"Ed? Is something the matter?"
Edward looked up. Harry was giving him and odd look.
"He must've bit his tongue," Winry helped out. "Believe me, that happens far more often with him than it has any right to."
"Yeah, that's it!" Edward agreed, silently thanking Winry for her quick thinking. The answer seemed to satisfy Harry, though he did continue looking at Edward oddly. Ron meanwhile seemed to have either not noticed, or not cared.
Either way, all four of them resumed eating, drinking, and lightly chatting shortly after. It didn't take too long for the next interruption to happen, though, as the door to their compartment slid open once more. A round-faced, tearful looking boy came in.
"Excuse me, have you seen a toad at all?"
All of them shook their heads. The boy wailed. "I've lost him! He keeps getting away from me!"
"He'll turn up," Harry reassured him.
"I hope," said the boy miserably. "Well, if you see him…"
He left.
"Don't know why he's so bothered," said Ron. "If I'd brought a toad I'd lose it as quick as I could. Though I guess I'm not one to talk."
He reached into one of his pockets and pulled a fat, grey rat, which was asleep.
"His name's Scabbers. I got him from Percy after mom and dad got him an owl for becoming Prefect."
"Is he asleep or dead?" Edward asked sceptically. The rat looked so out of energy that it could honestly be either.
"Good question. I honestly don't know. I tried to turn him yellow yesterday to make him more interesting, but the spell didn't work. I'll show you, look…"
He rummaged around in his trunk and pulled out a very battered-looking wand. It was chipped in places and something was glinting at the end.
"Unicorn hair's nearly poking out. Anyway-"
He had just raised his wand the compartment door slid open again. The toadless boy was back, but this time he had a girl with him. She was already wearing her Hogwarts robes.
"Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one," she said. She had a bossy sort of voice, lots of bushy brown hair and rather large front teeth.
"He literally was just here to ask us about that," Winry said, sounding annoyed, a sentiment which Edward shared. The girl however wasn't listening. Instead, she was looking at Ron's wand.
"Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see it, then."
She came into the compartment and sat down on a seat opposite of Ron. Ron looked taken aback.
"Er – all right."
He cleared his throat and recited something that sounded more like a simplistic poem than a spell. As to be expected, nothing happened.
"Ron, you do know that spells are usually directly derived from Latin? Whoever gave you the spell must've been pulling your leg," Edward said.
"That was Fred," Ron grumbled. "Shoulda known better than to trust him on that."
Edward nodded understandingly. "That makes sense."
"Don't worry about it," Winry said. "We're all going to Hogwarts to learn better, after all."
"Goodness, yes!" said the girl that had accompanied Neville. "I can only hope that I do well in class. Nobody in my family's magic at all, it was ever such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course, I mean it's one of the very best schools of witchcraft there is, I've heard – I've learnt all our set books off by heart, of course, I just hope it will be enough – I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you?"
She said all of this at an alarming speed, which nearly made Edward worry that she might run out of air before she could finish talking. Nonetheless, he was impressed. Despite her bossy and talkative first impression, she seemed quite alright.
"I'm Edward Elric," he said, as Winry, Harry and Ron were too busy to exchange bewildered looks with one another. "And I think learning all of our set books by heart should be more than enough. I only really glanced at a couple of them, and read the alchemy one. Far too simple for my tastes, though."
"I'm Winry Rockbell," Winry quickly said before Hermione could say anything about alchemy. Now there was no denying it – she was steering the conversation away from alchemy. Why?
"I'm Ron Weasley," Ron muttered.
"I'm Harry Potter," said Harry.
Just like Winry and Ron before her, Hermione's first reaction was to be star-struck, in her own unique way. She mentioned how she had read about Harry in several books, much to his own surprise. Thankfully, her awe, if it could even be called that, was rather short-lived, and before long, she was talking about subjects again.
"You know, I was quite surprised to learn that subjects such as English, Math, Biology and Physics. I really had not expected there to be such a big overlap between what they teach at muggle schools and what they teach at Hogwarts, but then again, those are rather useful skills. I just hope that in at least one of our classes we learn a bit about automail, I read about the basic concept in a few books, but I really would like to learn more about it!"
Time itself seemed to freeze for Edward. The a-word had not just been spoken, but spoken by someone who wanted to learn more. With sheer dread, he saw how Winry's expression lit up in much the same way as Ron's had when Quidditch has been brought up.
"Oh, you would? You see, my parents own an automail shop, well, it's really more of a family business started by my grandmother. The Rockbell automail shop is actually quite famous! If you want, I can tell you everything you want to know about automail, like how they work, how they're used-"
"Harry? Ron? I think we should help Neville go look for his toad," Edward said, getting up from his seat, and practically pulling the two out of the compartment to join a very confused looking Neville. As he shut the door behind him, he could just see hear how Hermione excitedly began to ask a plethora of questions.
"What's that for, Ed?! Why did you drag us out like that?" Ron asked once the four of them had taken a few steps away from the compartment.
"Believe me, you do not want to be there when Winry talks about automail," Edward explained. "She's a total gearhead – I doubt that she'd be able to tell Hermione everything she has to say before we get to Hogwarts."
Ron looked stunned. "Point taken."
"Er… I'd like to know what automail are, though," Harry noted.
"Metal limb prosthetics," Edward shortly said. "If you want more detail, you could always just go back to the two."
Harry considered this for a moment.
"Where did you last see your toad, Neville?" he then asked.
"I don't know… he got away shortly after the train left King's Cross. When I noticed, I started looking for him in this direction."
He pointed in the train's direction of travel.
"Well, let's get to it, then," Harry said.
And so they searched. Just as Neville however, none of them had any luck: No matter in which compartment they asked, no one had seen any runaway toad. Questioning like that, they moved through one carriage after another. At the very least, most of the people they asked were friendly enough about the whole thing, promising to tell in case they saw anything.
Of course, this meant that not everybody was this helpful.
Edward realized right away that the particular compartment they were at now would not be helpful when he opened the door. The reason was simple: Sitting inside was the pale boy with pointed face that he had met at Madam Malkin's shop, together with two boys that had so much mass that it was hard to believe that they were first-year students. When he noticed that someone had entered the compartment, the pale boy looked up, and immediately fixated on Harry.
"Would you look at that! So it's true what they're saying. Harry Potter is indeed on this train! I was just considering to head out and have a look for myself," He said. Then he noticed Edward. "And… you."
"Hi there," Edward said, raising his right fist as a little reminder as to how their last meeting had ended.
For now however, the pale boy seemed to be far more interested in Harry than in either Edward, Neville or Ron. He got up from his seat and held out his hand to Harry.
"My name is Malfoy. Draco Malfoy. These two are Crabbe and Goyle. Since you are, from what I hear, rather new to this all, Potter, I'll make you an offer. You'll soon find that some wizarding families are much better than others. I could help you telling the right sort from the wrong."
Harry looked at Edward, Ron and Neville, then back at Draco and his… whatever they were to Draco. Edward somehow doubted that they could really be considered friends. Harry seemed to agree.
"I don't know, I think I'm doing pretty well so far."
"Oh, don't sell him short, Harry! Maybe he was presenting himself as an example of the wrong sort? I doubt he has the self-awareness, but you never know," Edward suggested.
Draco Malfoy glared at him. "Like you're one to talk when it comes to shortness! Who are you, anyway?"
It took Edward all of his mental strength to not just punch him then and there. Though looking at the others, he doubted that they would've held him back this time.
"My name is Edward Elric. And since I'm feeling generous, I'll also introduce you to a few other members of wizarding families of the right sort: These are Ron Weasley and Neville Longbottom.
Neville had told them his surname while they were searching.
"As if that weasel needed any introduction," Malfoy sneered. "My father has already told me all Weasleys have red hair, freckles, and more children than they can afford. As for Longbottom, the whole train has already heard about the idiot stumbling about who was lost his toad."
Edward and Ron exchanged a glance. Within a second, they reached an unspoken agreement to both attack Malfoy. Harry also seemed to be willing to join in. Neville seemed intimidated, but Edward didn't doubt that he'd have their back once it came down to this. Sure, behind Malfoy, his whatever they were had already gotten up and tried to come off as intimidating, but they were nothing that they couldn't handle. And rehab or not, having an automail would be quite the advantage…
But it didn't come to this.
"Excuse me, what exactly is going on here?" a voice behind them suddenly asked.
Edward turned and the others turned around. Standing there behind them was a girl, several years older and quite a bit taller than them, that Edward vaguely recalled as having been with the… sparkling family on Platform 9¾. She wasn't wearing a Prefect's badge, but she nonetheless had an aura of authority about her.
"We are helping Neville here search for his lost toad," Edward explained, figuring that it would be best not to say that they were about to punch a git in the face. "We were just about to ask Drago Selltoy here about it, but we got into a bit of an argument."
"A lost pet? I see! Then I, Catherine Elle Armstrong shall aid you in your search!" she proclaimed. "Have you seen this boy's toad, young Drago?"
In what was likely a combination of the deliberate misnaming, Catherine's appearance, as well her… general behaviour, Draco was seemingly too overwhelmed to be a git at the moment.
"I haven't seen any toad," He said.
"Very well then! In that case, let us continue our search! Though the aid of you three will not be necessary. You my return to your compartment!"
Before any of them could protest, Catherine had already slammed the door of Malfoy's compartment shut, and marched off, Neville in tow. Neville for his part was still processing what happened, but at least still had the help of someone else.
"Er… what do we do now?" Ron asked.
"I guess we'll just return to out compartment," Harry suggested.
"Might as well. With any luck, Winry's about done with her lecture on automail by now," Edward agreed.
Together, they headed back to their compartment. As they entered, Winry was still busy explaining automail to Hermione – who, amazingly enough, still seemed to be interested in it. However, Winry seemed to have already explained enough for her to notice that the three of them had returned.
"Oh, hey! Did you have any luck finding Neville's toad?"
"Nope, nothing. But an older student took over in helping him, and insisted that we return here."
"A shame you only got back now. Automail really are absolutely fascinating," Hermione said.
Edward made a face. "I'm sure they are."
"It is a bit of a shame that we probably won't be learning much about them at Hogwarts", Hermione lamented. "But the other subjects should more than make up for it. I'm particularly looking forward to alchemy."
Edward's eyes lit up. He had found a kindred spirit. From the corner of his vision, he could see Winry looking absolutely dreadful, but he barely noticed her.
"You like alchemy, too? What did you think about our book? I think it covers the basics not too well, and its introduction to transmutation circles has so many things missing about it! I think-"
"Oh, great," Winry said exhaustedly.
"What? What's wrong?" Harry asked.
"She said the a-word. I was really hoping we could avoid that."
Author's Notes:
Originally I thought about having Ling Yao show up to resolve the confrontation with Malfoy, but then I forgot to it when I actually wrote the scene, and then, when I remembered, I thought it would've been off to still include him. But he'll get his chance later, just you wait. . . and to spoil what will most likely be in the next chapter, he'll definitely be in Slytherin. Oh, there's a lot of potential with that. . .
But the "what could have been" aside, with regards to the "what is", I hope that Hughes' section of this chapter is interesting enough, even if there isn't much happening. I'll admit that writing any kind of crime drama investigation whatever you want to call it story isn't exactly my expertise, but I can try nonetheless.
For Harry/Edward's section, I once again found myself re-using canonical pieces of writing at points since I didn't exactly know how to shake things up too much. Again, I'll just have to hope that this works well enough.
I don't exactly remember 100% why I decided to have Catherine still be a Hogwarts student six years ago, but from my current point of view, it's simple. The idea of having an Armstrong at Hogwarts is simply too good to pass up, Alex and Olivier are too old, and the two others sisters are minor joke characters, so Catherine it was. I'll admit that her personality is a bit shifted to be more like Alex, but let's be real here: She barely had a role in the original FMA to begin with, be it manga continuity or '03 anime.
Last note: You better not play a drinking game with this chapter where each time I write about characters looking each other, you take a shot. I haven't counted the instances, but it feels like way too many.