Ok - in light of a recent review, here is something that I've been meaning to say for a while but didn't think that I would actually have to: I love FMA - and I love it for many reasons. One of these is the characters - they each play a vital role in the FMA storyline (especially the anime), and I love them all - I've had a complaint that I spent too much time on them. Well, maybe, but keep in mind that I'm totally creating what happens after the FMA movie - I'm also inventing rules and backgrounds and explanations where there previously were none - I'm trying to stay true to the anime storyline, but if inventing something that wasn't there before makes my story better, then I'll do it - so long as it doesn't conflict with something else. Also, I write everything for a reason - sorry if some of you found previous chapters trivial, but like I said - each character is important to me, so I want to take the time to develop each one - becuase it's the details that are important, and those details are the key to this whole story. So anyway, read on! Tell your friends! Stay up all night reading it! Whatever you do, don't forget to enjoy the story - or review:)

I do not own FMA - but I am wearing my ultra-cool red FMA shirt with the flamel on the back:)

Chapter 14: "Magic"

"What in the world?" Ron shouted, staring at the girl holding Harry up by the throat. 'She's about our age,' he thought, 'But why is her hair silver? Like some old woman's?'

"Let him go!" Hermione screamed, rushing towards Harry and shouting "Lumos!" at the same time.

Harry, slightly panicking, used his wand-free hand to grasp at the arm holding him – he felt something hard. He pulled back the sleeve with a quick jerk and gasped.

"Oh – !" Hermione gasped, quickly drawing her hand to her mouth.

"What – what on Earth is she?" Ron cried, staring.

Harry could only stare in disbelief at the arm holding him up – it was made of metal.

Harry dropped gently to his feet as the girl let go of his throat. Her eyes began to close – she wavered, then fell to her knees, groaning, as if from pain.

"Errr…" she moaned, clutching at her sides while she lay doubled-over on the ground. "Please…" she hoarsely whispered, "Please tell me that you're not one of them…"

"One of who?" Harry asked quickly, kneeling down beside the girl – 'There's something about her,' he thought, 'Something that lets me know that she isn't really trying to kill me – she was just protecting herself – the same way we are. What was it? I saw it in her eyes – it's what scared me – there was something there… was it fear? Maybe, then, she's just… scared.'

"Harry!" Hermione cautioned him, "Be careful! She almost killed you!"

"Hermione, look!" Ron said, having lit his own wand. He pointed to the girl on the ground. "She's bleeding…"

"What? But still, that doesn't mean – "

"One of who?" Harry asked the girl again, cutting his friend off quickly.

"I don't know…" she replied weakly, not looking up. "They… they all wore masks… hoods… dressed in black… they said things… odd things… there was… green light… everywhere…" she panted, still clutching at her wounds.

"Green light – and masks? Harry, you don't think it's them?"

"Yeah, Ron, I do – Death Eaters."

"But then that means they're still around here somewhere! We have to go – now!" Hermione told her companions urgently.

"No… they're… back a ways… I stalled them… I hope…" the girl wheezed.

"Really?" Ron asked incredulously, "How?"

"Alchemy…" she replied quietly.

"Alchemy?" Harry asked, confused.

"Yes… that rock… behind you…"

"Yeah?" Ron asked, prompting her.

"It's the second one… the second one keeping them in…"

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked, all thoughts of escaping taking a back seat to her curiosity.

"It's a dome… They had tried to hurt me… kill me… they knew my name… But I tried… tried to fight back… I knocked them out… maybe some are even dead… I don't know," she said as she slowly began to sit back up, regaining some of her strength.

"Yeah? Then what?" Harry asked, curiosity and concern mixed on his face. 'Are the Death Eaters gone? Did this girl get rid of them? Or did she just hinder them a little? But how did she even do it?' the thoughts raced through his mind as the girl continued to speak.

"Well… after I noticed… that they all stopped moving, I used alchemy… to shut them off… I put a small dome over them… using the rock in the ground… it was really thick… to try and shut them in… but that was a while ago… I ran as far as I could, then made another dome… bigger this time, in case they were able to get through the first… hoping that they wouldn't be able to run into this one…"

"If they even got that far," Ron said, slightly impressed.

"Exactly," she told him faintly, eyes unfocused in the darkness.

"Alchemy? But that's practically a dead science! How do you know how to use it?"

"So…" she said airily, breathing becoming more steady, "this is the other side of the Gate, then…" her eyes narrowed and she stared at the ground, lost in thought.

"The… what?" Ron asked, looking lost.

"Honestly, Ronald, don't you ever pay attention in classes?" Hermione asked, hands on hips.

Ron shook his head.

Hermione sighed. "Ancient alchemists – and even some scholars now – believed that there was a passage way between this world and the next…"

"Oh, like Heaven, or something?" Ron asked.

"No – " the girl's voice cut in.

Hermione stared at her, finding it hard to comprehend why this girl would have the gall to try and argue with her.

"Not like Heaven…" the silver-haired girl said, "On the other side of the Gate… is a world… a real world… where Alchemy is the greatest science of all the others…"

"Kind of like magic is here." Harry put in, thinking about how every summer for almost seven years he had passed through a magic archway to reach Diagon Alley – leaving the world of Muggles behind on the streets of London.

"Magic…? Well, I suppose…" she said hesitantly, still looking at the ground, "what exactly is magic? How do you use it?" she asked, slightly confused. She had heard the word "magic" before, many times – often used by people who were unfamiliar to alchemy. She knew that "magic" meant wondrous things that many only ever dreamed of – but it could actually be used? In a way similar to alchemy? This was world was nothing like the one that Trisha had imagined her father being in…

"Well, there's no time for that, now, anyways – we have to get going!"

"Aw, c'mon, Hermione, why? She stopped them, right? You heard her!"

"Of course I did, Ron, but that's also exactly why we need to get going!"

"I suppose you're right," Harry said, "the Death Eaters have probably apparated their way out by now. We should probably do the same," he said as he began to stand up.

Trisha held onto his shirt-sleeve, keeping him in a crouching position. "I'm sorry," she said humbly.

"What?" Harry asked, his confusion evident.

"For earlier… I didn't mean to hurt you like that… you guys just scared me, that's all… You have to understand – I have no idea where I really am or how I even got here… I saw lights, and heard your voices… I didn't know if you were people I could trust or not… I'm sorry," she said again, trailing off.

Harry looked at her, thinking. 'I would be really scared, too – but what does she mean that she doesn't know where she is or how she got here? That's kind of suspicious, but she really does seem like she has no idea where she is.'

"That's ok," Harry said, getting to his feet, "We didn't know if you were someone we could trust, either – which is why put our lights out – if you really were a Death Eater, we didn't want to give you an easier time of finding us," he said.

"It's kind of funny, isn't it?" Ron asked happily, "She was frightened of us and we were of her – good thing we didn't attack you," he said to her.

"Hmph! I suppose, but let's get going already," Hermione said huffily. She didn't like this new girl one bit… there was still something about her that Hermione didn't trust.

"But – what are those? Death Eaters, I mean," the girl said, picking up a bundle of clothes on the ground, then sitting up and leaning against a tree for support.

"We'll explain that later, too – right now, hold onto our hands – we're going to apparate into Hogsmeade." Harry said as he helped the girl to her feet.

"Where?"

"Just hold on," Hermione commanded crossly, pulling the girl over to stand with them.

"Say, what is your name?" Ron asked as he joined his hands with Harry's and the girl's.

"Trisha," she said, looking up for the first time, silver eyes illuminated by Hermione's still-lit wand, "Trisha Elric."

Then there was a popping sound, and the group of four vanished, leaving the darkness of the forest behind them, the large rock dome looming ominously above the mist.

…

Wow! Bet you people weren't quite expecting that, were you? Haha! So, Trisha is finally over in Harry Potter's world! About time, huh? Oh, and no, none of you missed anything about the silver eyes - all will be made clear shortly! Mwahahahahaaa! Please review:)