To Jirachi at Sundown: Thank you soooooo much for the advice! I will definitely try to keep all of that in mind when writing. Seriously, you have no idea how helpful that was! And thank you to anyone else who has reviewed! Sorry that this chapter took a little longer…it was harder for me to write and I've been really busy with school.

"blah blah"- Speaking Greek

"[blah blah]"- Speaking Amestrian (Underlined wasn't working either. Argh! This will though.)

'blah blah'- Thinking

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, Fullmetal Alchemist, or Percy Jackson. Good thing too, or they wouldn't be nearly as good as they are now. They belong to J.K. Rowling, Hiromu Arakawa, and Rick Riordan.

Harry

"You mean you've never played quidditch before? Ever?" Ron stared in disbelief at Percy, Nico, and Thalia. "Why not?!"

"I told you, our school just doesn't do sports," Percy answered with obvious discomfort.

"What kind of monstrous school doesn't have quidditch?!" Ron didn't seem to be able to imagine that possibility.

Harry was surprised too. After all, quidditch was amazing! Why would any school, no matter how small, not have it?

"Well in that case, you need to come down to the quidditch pitch with us! I'm sure we can find some spare brooms for you to use!" Harry stated eagerly.

At the mention of brooms, the three wizards seemed to pale.

"Uh…no thanks," Thalia said nervously.

"Yeah, we, uh, don't really do well with heights." Nico added as Percy nodded in agreement.

"All three of you?" Hermione asked, surprised.

"Yeah…we…have a lot in common." Percy mumbled.

"I'll say!" Ron said, still looking shocked. "You all have bad dyslexia, you're all scared of heights, you all speak Greek for whatever reason, you even look alike! If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were related somehow! Are you sure you aren't at least distant cousins or something?"

The trio smiled in amusement and shook their heads, but Harry didn't miss the knowing glance that they shared first. He was really starting to worry about those three. They were almost as much of a mystery as the new alchemy professor.

"Well, if you don't like quidditch, then what about chess?" Ron asked hopefully, his face falling when the three shook their heads. "Well, then I'll just teach you," he said with determination. "You'd better not be afraid of chess pieces or something."

"Ron!" Hermione scolded.

"With them, anything is possible," Ron retorted. "You should know that by now Hermione." He hurried up to the dorm room and came back with a chess set. "Alright, the rules are simple," he said as he set the pieces on the board. "The goal is to put the king in checkmate." Ron launched into an explanation of chess rules, as Percy closely examined the moving chess pieces.

"I guess I'll try first." Percy sat across from Ron. "I might as well try. Maybe Annabeth will be happy if I learn a smart game."

"Who's Annabeth?" Hermione inquired. "Is she a friend from your old school?"

"Yeah…a friend…that's right," Percy said, though Harry noted sadness in his voice.

'That's not really surprising, I'm sure he misses his friends from whatever school they went to. I wonder what that school was like–no quidditch, probably not even many magical things given the way they've reacted to everything here. But that doesn't make sense. What kind of magic school doesn't have magic in the school? And is that were they learned Greek? The speak it so well…I guess there's loads we don't know about them. I'll have to make sure we get around to talking about it eventually.' Harry was interrupted from his thoughts by Ron's cry of 'check!'

Percy groaned. "I'm not very good at this. How am I supposed to get out of that?!" His pieces immediately began chiming in with advice.

"Just sacrifice the pawn! He's useless right now anyway! You can get rid of him, we don't need him anyways!" One of Percy's knights yelled up at Percy in his squeaky voice.

Percy stared at the piece in disbelief. "Wow, you aren't much like a real knight at all. Aren't you guys supposed to be all 'one for all and all for one?' What's up with that?"

Ron suddenly froze. "Wh-what was that Percy?" He asked, his eyes wide.

Percy looked confused. "Uh…one for all and all for one?"

Ron slowly stood up. "One for all…" he muttered. "All for one…one soldier…all of an army…" His eyes widened even more. "OF COURSE!" He shouted jubilantly.

"Ron! Don't be so loud, you'll wake Crookshanks!" Hermione scolded.

Ron was grinning too widely to be annoyed. "I've figured it out! I actually did it! I can't believe it! I thought I was a goner for sure!"

Hermione froze. Slowly she lifted her head from her book. Her eyes narrowed. Then she spoke in a low, rather dangerous voice. "What?"

Ron didn't seem to notice her mood, being to caught up in his realization. "The riddle! Professor Elric's riddle! The one that even you couldn't figure out, Hermione!"

Harry's eyes widened, and he saw Thalia wince. That was the wrong thing to say.

"Excuse me?!" Hermione's voice was slightly higher pitched than normal.

"Looks like I am smarter than you in at least one thing, Hermione!" Ron said happily.

Hermione looked as if she were about to explode. Harry didn't blame her. She had until the day after tomorrow to solve the riddle, and she hadn't been making progress as far as Harry could tell. Not only that, but Hermione had been heavily burdened with all of her work. She seemed to have twice as much homework as the rest of them, not to mention her research for Buckbeak's trial. Harry scowled inwardly at the memory of Malfoy's smug face.

All that aside, he knew that Hermione must be irked that she was the only one who hadn't solved the riddle. Ron's obliviously delighted remarks were definitely not helping the situation. Harry stood up and slipped up to the dorm room, hoping to escape before Hermione went completely crazy on him too. He wanted Hermione to solve the riddle; not just so she could continue in the class, but also because he was beginning to get genuinely concerned for her mental health.

As it turned out, Harry didn't have to worry. The day of Alchemy class, Hermione triumphantly announced her success, a look of pure and utter relief in her eyes. Harry was immensely glad. There was no telling how she would have reacted if she, the smartest of the six wizards, had failed the challenge. They were able to enter the classroom eagerly, no longer burdened with the worries about Hermione.

"Hey! Shut up!" Professor Elric yelled.

The class was silenced immediately. They had quickly learned that the young professor did not like being ignored, and failure to listen to him ended badly; as did asking unwanted questions. The third years had grown to respect their alchemy teacher-in an almost fearful way. Well, most them, that is. The Slytherins were still put out about being taught by a fifteen-year-old muggle, and they weren't afraid to show it.

"Alright, now listen up. Everyone write down what you think the answer to the riddle is on a single sheet of paper and sign your name. When you're done, bring it to me. If you aren't all done in five minutes, then you can leave. It shouldn't take you longer than that to write the answer." The golden eyed teacher glared out at them. "What are you all staring at me for? It's not going to write itself!"

There was a scramble for quills and paper and then the scratching sound of writing. Harry wrote down his answer, signed his name, and stepped forward to place his parchment in Professor Elric's outstretched hand, along with the rest of the class. Soon the students had settled back into their seats.

"Now, I'm going to call your name and say either left or right, and you go sit on that side of the room, got it?" Everyone nodded in response to Professor Elric, who was holding the stack of papers. "Brown, left. Longbottom, right. Crabbe, left. Goyle, left." Lavender's face morphed into disappointment; she obviously didn't like her chances after those two names. "Malfoy, right. Zabini, right. Thomas, right. Finnegan, left." The two Gryffindors shot each other a disappointed look. "Potter, right. Weasley, right. Granger, right. Jackson, right. Di Angelo, right. Grace, right." Professor Elric set the papers down on his desk. "Congratulations to the people on the left; you now have a free period. Out."

There were excited whispers from the right side and groans of dismay from the left. Professor Elric turned towards the blackboard, but before he could write anything, Seamus Finnegan spoke.

"That's not fair!"

Professor Elric stopped, his hand halfway up towards the board. "Excuse me?" He said, his voice cold.

The Seamus looked almost like he regretted speaking, but he plowed on anyway. "That riddle wasn't fair! You didn't give us any clues, and we only got one guess! How were we supposed to answer it without knowing what we were looking for?!"

"Well, he's certainly as brave as a Gryffindor should be," Harry heard Nico mutter.

Harry eyed the professor nervously. They had all seen his angry outbursts, and they had all learned to avoid them whenever possible. Professor Elric hadn't moved, his back still the class. After what seemed like an eternity of silence, though it had only been seconds, he spoke.

"Not fair, huh? Well, I suppose you're right." Ed paused as the class exchanged confused looks. Since when did their professor ever admit to being wrong? They didn't dare speak as he continued. "You're absolutely right. I wasn't being fair at all. After all, here you all are stuck in this incredibly safe castle, not once in danger of starving, or in any danger at all! Why, when I was given this riddle, I had the advantage of being trapped with nothing but a knife, forced to hunt and kill my own food, attacked by a skilled fighter with just a knife to defend myself, and pushed to the brink of starvation, allowing the answer to become clear at last–and here you all are, not having any of those advantages!"

If possible, the class had gone even more silent. Professor Elric's voice dropped, and Harry could hear a hint of gleeful anticipation in it as he spoke again. "Well, I'll just have to remedy that, now won't I?" He turned around, finally facing the class. His golden eyes glimmered, accompanied by a smirk that looked almost evil. "Everyone on the left side; if you can hold your own in a fight against me, I'll consider giving you an extension. Your minds are obviously not trained well enough, but as you said, I didn't give you the proper bodily training." He pointed to Seamus. "You. Seamus Finnegan, right?"

Seamus gulped and nodded.

"Alright then. You spoke up first, so you can be the first to attack." Professor Elric clapped his hands together and placed them on the wall, and to Seamus's obvious horror, pulled out a spear. The professor whirled towards Seamus, his golden eyes gleaming. "Well, what are you waiting for? After all, you have magic and I just have a pointy stick. Shouldn't be hard, right?"

Seamus took a deep breath before pulling out his wand and stepping forward. Professor Elric's smile widened. "Everyone else please stand back. I don't want you getting in the way. Finnegan, you can use whatever spell you want. Just as long as you don't hit anyone but me."

The students moved to the back of the classroom. Seamus had a determined look in his eye, though Harry could tell he was still somewhat afraid. He raised his wand and fired a spell at the golden haired professor. His aim was perfect, and the spell flew straight towards its target. But the target didn't stay still. Professor Elric jumped to the side and ran towards Seamus, who panicked and almost dropped his wand. Professor Elric was next to him in no time, and had kicked Seamus into the wall. Several of the girls screamed.

"Come on, that was pathetic!" Professor Elric didn't sound disgusted, or angry–he sounded more…disappointed? "I'll give you another chance. Come on, put up a real fight!"

Seamus stood up from the wall, looking a bit angry. He charged the teacher, apparently hoping to hit him at close range. Professor Elric had obviously anticipated this. With one arm he pushed Seamus's wand arm towards the ceiling, then swept his feet out from under him his leg, smacking his wand from his hand on the way down, and leveling his spear to Seamus's face. It happened so fast that Harry almost didn't register the movements.

The door banged open, revealing a worried looking McGonagall. "Mr. Elric, I heard screaming, is ever-" Her worry turned to absolute shock in half a second. "Mr. Elric! What on earth are you doing?!"

The object of Professor McGonagall's displeasure glanced up from where he had Seamus pinned to the floor underneath his spear. "Teaching." The professor replied mildly. "Is there a problem, professor?"

"YES, I would say that there is!" McGonagall seemed to have recovered from her initial shock, but she didn't look any less angry. "Would you please get that spear away from Mr. Finnegan's face?"

Professor Elric reluctantly removed his spear, allowing Seamus to nervously stand, wincing at his sore body.

"Mr. Thomas, please escort Mr. Finnegan to the hospital wing. And Mr. Elric, would you please explain exactly what you are 'teaching' to your students?"

The alchemy professor sighed and leaned on his spear. "He didn't solve the riddle, so I said that if he could fight me then he could have another chance," he stated bluntly.

The head of Gryffindor seemed to be having trouble staying calm. "But what does that have to do with alchemy?" She pressed.

"To train the mind, one must train the body. Alchemy requires both physical and mental strength. Because those that failed the riddle challenge are obviously lacking in mental strength, I decided I might as well test their physical strength before completely giving up on them. Seems that they lack that as well though. Oh well. It was fun anyway."

Professor McGonagall looked ready to give Professor Elric detention, and Harry that suspected she would do so if she were able. Seeing as she was not able, she had to be content with reprimanding him. "Mr. Elric, would you kindly refrain from attacking students in your further classes? That is, at least without some sort of protection put in place?"

"Ah fine, if you insist. I won't attack them inside anymore. I'll make sure we're outside if I do it again."

The aspiring alchemy students exchanged frightened looks. The Gryffindors and Slytherins finally agreed on something–this was going to be an interesting class indeed.

That evening, as the six wizards lounged around the common room fire, Harry decided to bring up the subject that had puzzled him to no end–or subjects, plural–he wanted to know more about the three exchange students. They had known them for two months, yet they were still such a mystery. Harry decided that the best way to start solving that mystery was to ask questions, so that's what he did.

"Percy, didn't you say that the divination professor from your school had given out actual prophecies? Real ones, that came true?" Harry figured that it was best to start somewhere safe before moving into more prying questions.

"Yeah, she did. How many has she given by now?" Thalia said.

"Well…that's a difficult question…" Percy said. "It really depends on how you–" Percy stopped himself abruptly. "Several. Let's just go with that."

"She's given several prophecies, and all of them have been fulfilled completely?" Hermione asked disbelievingly. "What is her name? I'd like to look her up if I can." It was obvious that Hermione was doubting the credibility of the so called prophet, but no one said as much.

"Her name? Its–uh–Delfon Ton Manteio." Percy answered.

"That's a rather exotic name," Hermione said, writing it down.

"Yeah, she's…Greek." Nico offered, though Harry thought that they all seemed to be holding back smiles.

"Oh, is that why you learned Greek?" Ron asked.

"Well, she encouraged it, but we made the decision ourselves." Percy said easily.

"Why Greek though?" Hermione said, puzzled. "It's not even a very useful language. And how did you even learn it so well with your dyslexia?"

The three wizards in question seemed to freeze for a moment before Thalia hurried to answer. "Ah, well, we learned mostly by verbal instruction. As for why, we just found the language fascinating."

Hermione nodded, but she still looked skeptical. Harry was willing to bet that the answers had not satisfied her, and the same went for him. He had wanted to remove confusion concerning the exchange students, but he had only succeeded in adding on more. 'I don't know what it is that they're hiding, but we'll find out eventually; that's for sure.'

A/N–As you have probably guessed, 'Delfon Ton Manteio' is Greek. More specifically, it is the English pronunciation of 'Μαντείο των Δελφών' which is Greek for 'Oracle of Delphi.' I know, very on the nose, but I couldn't resist. It just seemed like something Percy would do–even he isn't dumb enough to actually say Rachel's name, and he had to say something. I tried to put some fluff in this chapter to make it less plot-focused, which is what started the chess game, but then that turned into more plot…so yeah. I suck at fluff. Sorry, but hopefully I'll get better eventually. Sorry for the long A/N. Thanks for reading and please review!