After some internal struggles and talks with my partner and, I decided that instead of rushing to rewrite what I lost, I'm going to turn this story into a series. In my mind, this story has always been divided in very clear "parts". When Roy and Olivier returned to Amestris, it was the end of part one, and this chapter marks the end of part two. I've decided to do things like this because in is the most feasible course of action with my current real life circumstances. Besides, this way I'll be able to delve deeper into this universe than what I'd originally planned (though I'm keeping the main plotline as it was).

And is the art for the story, created by the amazingwls-arts on tumblr :D

wls-arts dot tumblr dot com/post/168341891547/the-art-i-did-for-maisstories-royolivier-hp (you know how to fix the url)

The pieces are chapter 1 and 2 respectively, I guess you can guess the scenes ;) Despite all the real life issues, it's been really fun to work on this, and I hope to participate on many more events!

Chapter 7

It had been years since Olivier had studied anything related to alchemy in any depth. She had decided at a young age that the alchemist's path wasn't what she wanted in life, no matter for how many generations the Armstrong family had passed down its alchemy, and she had instead chosen to enlist and focus on attaining military achievements that would overshadow every Armstrong who had come before her.

While she still held that she wasn't interested in becoming an alchemist, she had no intention of going on this mission without having mastered the transport array beforehand. Roy was an exceptional alchemist, that was true, but there could arise a situation in which he was indisposed, and Olivier didn't want for them to be trapped in the other world in that case. They could also be separated at some point and need to return on their own, or any other number of circumstances could require Olivier to need to use this array.

That was why she was now studying the array, and asking Roy all the necessary questions about it. It was a complex array, and Olivier wasn't so arrogant that she couldn't recognise she would learn faster with the assistance of someone who already knew it. Roy, as the one who had originally modified it and who would be using it the most, was the logical option.

She had kicked her family out of the house now that she was ready to start practising with the array. She didn't want an audience or, worse yet, to have Alex trying to offer assistance. Beating him up would waste time she could have spent practising.

Roy set a pile of random objects on the large dining table next to a notebook and a few maps. He picked up a towel.

"Send this to the third guest bathroom in the ballroom area," he said, setting the towel apart from the rest of the objects.

Nodding, Olivier reached for the pen and started drawing the array.

Roy nearly ran into a frazzled-looking assistant in the entrance of laboratory three. The man yelped and held onto the coffee pot he was holding, barely keeping it from spilling. He looked up with a decidedly annoyed expression, his mouth open as if to snap something, but froze in place when he saw Roy.

"My apologies, I wasn't paying attention," Roy said, looking the man up and down. Yes, he definitely looked like he could do with a day or two of sleep.

"I-It's fine, sir," the assistant stammered, clutching the pot tighter. "I should've looked."

Roy nodded.

"Do you know where I can find Edward Elric?" he asked. Roy couldn't say he was surprised when the man grimaced at the name. According to Alphonse, Edward wasn't exactly patient with the other scientists, and treated them more like annoyances or little kids than colleagues.

"He's in room 2-C, sir. I was going there right now, actually. Mr. Elric ran out of coffee..." the man trailed off bitterly. Clearly, he didn't appreciate being relegated to running errands.

"I'll take that to him," Roy decided, and reached out for the coffee. "You should go home and get some rest."

The man looked so relieved that Roy felt sorry for him. He handed the coffee pot over with none of the protests that any government employee would usually display at the idea of giving a general such a task, and then hurried out of the main door.

Shaking his head in exasperated amusement —he was so glad Grumman was officially the one in charge of this project— Roy headed for the stairs. Room 2-C occupied half of the second floor of the laboratory, and Edward had taken over it from day one. The ground floor had Mrs. Curtis and her team, focusing on computer engineering, and Alphonse and his team who worked with the medical books. Mei Chan had the entire first floor, composed mainly of smaller laboratories, to work on the wands, and Edward's own project was on the second floor.

Roy didn't pass anyone on his way up, but once he reached room 2-C he found out that Edward wasn't alone. There were two men bent over a table, copying something from a book on a large piece of paper. Edward himself was sitting at the top of a high ladder and writing equations on one of the many blackboards he had placed all over the room.

"Tell me you're not exploiting your team," Roy said as a way of greeting. He saw the two men jump in place, but Edward proved he wasn't too absorbed by his work by turning around in place.

"Like you're one to talk. I've worked for you, asshole."

The two men looked at Edward with wide eyes, twin expressions of shock on their faces. Roy pretended he hadn't noticed them.

"Does that mean you don't want this?" he asked, raising the coffee pot so Edward would notice it.

Predictably Edward rushed down the stairs.

"Hand that over," he demanded, holding a hand out. Up close, the dark circles under his eyes were very noticeable.

"How long have you been awake?" Roy asked him suspiciously, holding onto the coffee.

Edward shrugged.

"Dunno. What time is it?"

"Way past midnight. It's Wednesday."

Edward paled.

"Crap."

"How much trouble are you in?" Roy asked, smirking in amusement.

"Winry is going to kill me." Edward said without a trace of doubt. Roy had seen him at the Armstrong Estate for dinner on Sunday, which gave him a very good guess of how long Edward had been here.

"Let me guess, you left on Monday and haven't even called?"

Edward shrugged, his eyes going to the coffee.

"It'd be a terrible idea if I took that and stayed a few more hours, wouldn't it?"

"An extra spanner to the head, I'd say."

Edward sighed, glanced up at his equations, then back at the coffee.

"I'm probably getting that spanner anyway. She's always asleep by now with the baby," he said, nodded to himself, and reached out for the pot again.

Roy handed it over this time, and followed Edward to the small table with clean mugs piled on it.

"Maybe you should send your team home. They look ready to pass out," Roy suggested. Edward blinked, and Roy had the sudden certainty that he had completely forgotten he wasn't alone before Roy arrived.

"Oh, right. You guys can leave that for tomorrow," Edward said, turning to the two men for a moment before reaching out for a cup. They wasted no time in obeying, stopping only to mark the book page and grab their things. Roy wondered if they had been here since Monday as well. "What're you doing here anyway?" Edward asked. He filled his cup and reached for the sugar. He still refused to drink milk, but had decided that military-issue coffee was much more bearable with an unhealthy amount of sugar in it.

"I have a job for Sheska," Roy explained, reaching for a cup himself. "The brass has finally agreed on some basic information for me and Olivier to take to the meetings, and we need someone to compile a file on it. I figured she'd be the best candidate for the job." Roy set the cup down and brought out the list of requirements the brass had agreed on. "I have some instructions for her here."

"Aha. That doesn't explain why you're here; you could've given that to Al or Mei in the morning, you know they stick to a normal schedule. Teacher too."

"Yes, but then I'd have no excuse to drop by the lab," Roy said. He offered the document to Edward, who took it with a snort.

"Don't change anything," Edward said, pushing the coffee pot at Roy.

Roy nodded, holding back a relieved sigh. He really needed to stimulate his brain somehow in between endless meetings. Aside from teaching Olivier the array, he had done little more than sit through stuffy meeting after stuffy meeting for weeks.

"I'll just point out any mistakes."

Edward snorted.

"You wish, Mustang."

Olivier stepped out of the bathroom to find that Roy hadn't moved from his spot on the bed. She had woken him earlier, but now he was back to sleep.

"Mustang," Olivier said, approaching the bed. Roy mumbled something unintelligible. "Mustang!"

"Mmhhh? Lemme sleep," he said into the pillow, eyes closed.

Olivier rolled her eyes.

"Get up, we're due for a meeting in under an hour."

"'M tired."

Olivier stopped next to his side of the bed, grabbed the pillow and pulled. Roy was holding onto it so tightly that she ended up dragging him halfway out of bed.

"Up. Now."

"Oh, come on," he complained, sounding far more awake. He forced his eyes open and squinted at Olivier. "You know they'll just bicker about how much we should boast of our military achievements. Grumman'll eventually say to keep it down to avoid appearing threatening. You don't need me there."

Olivier raised her eyebrows. It was sort of impressive how Roy could go from sleepy mumbles to perfectly coherent in under a second.

"When did you get back?" she asked, because he rarely complained this much about having to get up for a meeting.

"...What time is it?"

"Just past seven."

"Then around an hour ago."

Olivier snorted. She really should have expected this when Roy said he would go leave the instructions at the laboratory last night.

"It's your fault you spent the night up going over whatever distracted you. Now get out of bed before I drag you."

Since Dolores had left for Hogwarts, Cornelius had arranged to have the letters delivered to and sent from her office. It had taken some persuasion on his part, but Dolores had eventually agreed to have her office be the meeting room for these talks, which meant it had to be significantly modified. Lucius had kindly provided a long list of suggestions for the reception, once a date was scheduled, and Cornelius had ensured that a team of house elves would see them ready by the time their guests arrived.

Fuhrer Grumman had informed Cornelius in his last letter that he already had decided on who to send for the talks; Lieutenant General Armstrong and Brigadier General Mustang, whom he had described as two of his best generals. Unfortunately, Grumman hadn't provided any details on these generals that might help Cornelius cause a good first impression, which meant he only had his wit and some trustworthy advice to rely on.

Cornelius was drawn from his thoughts by the arrival of auror Kingsley Shacklebolt and his team. Rufus had handpicked them to be in charge of their guests' security, but first they had to cast all the necessary wards in the room.

Olivier glanced across the table, taking in every plate set out there, and thought one of the spells she had to master before their departure. Four plates shone a dim shade of purple, signalling that they contained a poisonous substance. She glanced up at Catherine, who smiled widely at her.

"You found all of them, Sister!"

"Good," Olivier said, nodding to herself. That was one spell she could cross from the list of necessary defensive magic she and Roy had compiled. "Your turn, Mustang," she said, turning her head to look at him. Olivier pretended she didn't notice the disapproving purse of Catherine's lips when she used Roy's surname. Her family didn't like that she rarely used Roy's given name and they made a point of showing it. It was because of some bullshit about couples and being more personal.

"Yours are over here, Roy," Catherine said, gesturing to the other end of the table. She threw Olivier a pointed look and Olivier rolled her eyes in return. Catherine may be shy with strangers, but she had relaxed around Roy a while ago and behaved with him the same way she did with any of her siblings.

Albus Dumbledore sat back in his office, going over Kingsley's latest report to the Order. Kingsley had learnt about the letters Fudge was exchanging with a leader from another world weeks ago, but today he had come back with two interesting pieces of information. Fudge had let it out that Lucius Malfoy knew of this operation, despite the fact that it was kept to the strictest of secrecy, which meant that Tom knew. Now Albus was waiting for Severus so they could talk about how to use this information to further Tom's trust in him.

As he waited, Albus thought about the second piece of information that Kingsley had brought: the names of their visitors, Armstrong and Mustang.

It was no wonder they had refused Albus' help if they were who he believed them to be, and it would be an incredible coincidence if they weren't.

Albus had worried about this large development ever since learning of it and the apparent militaristic nature of this nation, because a society like that could have a decisive effect on the war if they took part in it. He was still worried, of course, but he had a better feeling about things now. Olivier Armstrong and Roy Mustang had already proven that they had no issues helping muggles, and they had displayed a considerable amount of muggle knowledge in the way they had handled themselves back in summer, which didn't align with the typical characteristics of Death Eaters or blood purity supremacists.

Albus felt a small amount of petty satisfaction when he remembered Armstrong's first words during their meeting. Fudge was completely unaware that he had already made a bad first impression on his potential allies.

Roy closed his suitcase and shrank it with a wave of his wand, the spell effortless after months of practice to ensure magic came to him nearly as easily as alchemy did. Truthfully, convincing himself to stop questioning every spell and grimacing at them had proven considerably more difficult than learning the spells themselves. Roy's only comfort was that everybody who knew about magic —and who had the brain cells to stop to think about it— shared his discomfort with the lack of scientific principles behind it. Edward could still be caught muttering about it when he was particularly frustrated, and Alphonse approached his efforts of learning it with a mix of childish curiosity and scientific pain. Mrs. Curtis had decided to stop trying to explain it to herself altogether, and Olivier shared this mindset. The one most comfortable working with magic so far was Mei Chan, who had a much more philosophical approach to science than any Amestrian alchemist did.

"Are you done?" Roy asked, turning to the dressing room. He pocketed his tiny suitcase.

"Almost," Olivier replied. There was some rummaging and she walked out into the bedroom, carrying three uniforms and a beautiful long green party dress that her mother must have bought recently, because Roy hadn't seen it before. "You'd better have packed a suit, because if I ever have to wear this thing you're not getting away with your dress uniform," she muttered, and dropped the clothes next to her half-full suitcase.

"I did, don't worry. I don't have a death wish."

Olivier raised a sceptical eyebrow at him, but kept any comments to herself.

Roy turned to put on the coat of his dress uniform, then reached for his various medals. The brass had insisted that Roy and Olivier should arrive at the Ministry of Magic in full formal regalia as a way to show that they were decorated officers and that Amestris took these diplomatic negotiations seriously. The only part of the uniform they wouldn't wear were their caps; Olivier hated wearing hers, as it pushed her hair into her face in a very uncomfortable way, and nobody wanted to argue such a small point with her of all people.

Roy raised a hand to his head, but stopped himself before he could run it through his hair. He had slicked it back, and he didn't have much time to fix it if he ruined it now. They were on a tight schedule, everything for their arrival already planned out.

"Nervous, Mustang?" Olivier asked. Roy turned and found her already clad in her own dress uniform, her suitcase nowhere to be seen.

"Somewhat," Roy admitted. One didn't go on a diplomatic mission to another world every day, and diplomacy itself was a very new policy in Amestris.

"You shouldn't be. This is nothing compared to Ishval, and you handled that well."

"Is that encouragement I hear, Lieutenant General?"

"Don't get used to it," Olivier said, surprising Roy. He had expected her to deny it, as was her custom whenever she complimented him in any way and Roy drew attention to it.

Roy mock-saluted her and Olivier snorted.

"Let's go," she said, turning to the bedroom door.

A conference room close to Fuhrer Grumman's office had been designated as the departure and arrival location for generals Mustang and Armstrong. Al had drawn, then double and triple-checked the array in the middle of it to send them off. While Brigadier General Mustang could clap his hands to use it, Lieutenant General Armstrong had been very adamant on her refusal to appear at the Ministry of Magic in general Mustang's arms, and neither of them fancied appearing there while crouching on the floor, so Al would be the one to activate it.

While their presence was unnecessary, the entirety of the brass had insisted on being here for the event, and so were Ed, Mei, Teacher and some of the scientists who had expressed interest in seeing the array in use. Today was a day off at the lab, because Winry had an appointment with the doctor for a routine check-up later in the day and Al had suggested they could all take advantage of Ed's absence to take a break.

Ed hadn't been very happy by the implications of Al's suggestion, but Winry had latched onto the idea and decided she and Ed would go shopping for the baby now that she was entering the third trimester of her pregnancy. Usually, Ed wasn't very fond of shopping, but he was clearly excited by the idea. In fact, he was going over the list of suggestions Winry had compiled with Mrs. Hughes' help now as they waited for generals Mustang and Armstrong.

Al couldn't wait for the baby to be born. Not only would he be an uncle, but he would get to tease Ed endlessly when he acted all dad-like. Al knew that Ed would be a fantastic dad.

The door opened and Lieutenant General Armstrong walked in followed by Brigadier General Mustang. They were both dressed in the formal version of their uniforms, by all appearances without any luggage save for Lieutenant General Armstrong's sword, though Al knew they must have shrank it —and he doubted he would ever grow used to what magic could do, no matter how much he studied or used it.

"Oh, here they are," Fuhrer Grumman said with an enthusiastic grin, the one Ed called his mad old geezer grin (and yes, Ed had said this around military personnel, much to said personnel's horror over his disregard for the Fuhrer). "I had a speech ready, but I figured you wouldn't appreciate it."

General Armstrong rolled her eyes, while General Mustang smiled in amusement.

"I believe we've heard enough speeches to last us a lifetime," he said, much to the Fuhrer's amusement and the annoyance of a couple generals. General Mustang had made it no secret in private that he abhorred the amount of speeches the members of the brass had given in the meetings of the past two months, and apparently some of the other generals were aware of it.

"Of course, of course," the Fuhrer said, nodding in understanding. "Then I believe all I'll do is wish you good luck. Alphonse?" he asked, turning to Al.

Al nodded.

"Everything's ready," he confirmed. "Here are Sheska's reports," he said, offering a tiny pouch to Brigadier General Mustang. In it he had put all of the reports the brass had approved from the admittedly immense pile of them that Sheska had written when she received the assignment. General Mustang accepted it and put it away in one of the inner pockets of his coat.

The generals walked into the array and settled in the predetermined positions, with Brigadier General Mustang standing a step behind Lieutenant General Armstrong, a standard for officers of a lower rank that Al knew they rarely bothered to stick to.

"Books, Mustang," Ed demanded rudely. Al held back a sigh, long since used to the fact that Ed and General Mustang's friendship would never be free of rudeness and jabs at one another.

"Of course. Try not to kill anyone while we're gone," General Mustang replied easily, earning a few discreet disapproving looks from other generals.

"Activate this thing, Elric," Lieutenant General Armstrong ordered, not bothering to wait for Fuhrer Grumman to give the order.

Al stepped forward and crouched down next to the array. He looked up at Brigadier General Mustang and smiled.

"Have fun with the wizards, sir," he said politely right before activating the array.

Ed cackled behind him.

Part I - End

I've marked the story as complete for now, but I'll change the status once I'm ready to start posting part two. Hopefully by early January (honestly, I so much prefer the series format from AO3…)

For updates on how the story is going, check on my tumblr: maisstories dot tumblr dot com :)