Chapter One

Ed felt like something had decided that he made a rug. He body felt like people had been walking all over him for weeks on end. He could feel the bruises starting to bloom on his back and ribs. Even his automail limbs ached like it was winter, despite his being able to distinctly able to feel the warmth surrounding him. He could hear voices talking nearby but couldn't make out anything that was being said. Even the voices themselves sounded strange. He groaned as he felt a sharp pain bounce from one side of his head to the other.

The voices stopped talking. He could hear footsteps coming towards him. Ed tried opening his eyes to see who was walking over to him. Bright light lanced straight through his eyes, and suddenly a headache was pounding at his temples. He closed his quickly and then opened them again, more slowly. The light wasn't as bad this time and he gave a small sigh of relief. He saw a woman standing next to his bed, watching his ordeal with waking up. She gave him a kindly smile and had a polished stick in one hand.

Ed realized he was in a hospital. Kind of primitive, nicely furnished and very clean, but Ed could not see anything that looked even remotely like anything he was familiar with. "Where the hell am I?" Ed asked the woman, who looked like a nurse, standing next to him.

Watching her face revealed that Ed was in something even bigger that he knew as he watched her face as he spoke. Her face showed clear confusion at his words. The woman gave the stick in her hand a wave over him and gently pushed him back down into the bed when he tried to leap out of it at the motion. Feeling and seeing nothing happen to him, he was puzzled as the nurse gave a frown and then walked over to a cabinet to retrieve a bottle filled with a fizzy liquid. She gave it to him and made a gesture to show that she wanted him to drink it. Ed shook his head.

"No way lady. I have no clue where I am, what the hell is in this bottle or even who you are! Whatever that stuff is could kill me!"

The nurse frowned and again tried to get him to drink the fizzy liquid. Ed again refused with more vehemence. "Do you not understand no? I'm not drinking anything until I know where I am and what is!"

The nurse frowned and took the bottle back. She set it on the small table that was nearby and made her displeasure clear as she stalked off to a small office that was a few feet away. Ed could hear her talking to someone inside and that is when it hit him what had been so strange about the voices he had heard earlier. He couldn't understand a word that they were saying. Even the accents sounded off to his ears. Ed felt a cold chill creep down his spine.

******

After what seemed to be an eternity Ed could someone coming from outside the room he was stuck in. He had tried to get out of the bed only to discover that something was wrong with his automail. Afraid that whatever had happened to him had damaged the limbs in some way, Ed had stopped trying to get them to move and instead tried to plan on getting back home to Al and Winry and Granny Pinako.

The door opened and he caught a glimpse of a long stone hallway and the barest hint of something metallic. Turning his focus from that to the person who had came in, he could feel his jaw drop. The old man had a long white beard that was tucked into the belt at his waist. His nose was crooked like it had been broken at some point and he wore half-moon spectacles. He looked positively ancient. His bright blue eyes twinkled at Ed. Ed finally managed to tear himself away from staring only to be stopped by the outfit that the old man wore. It was a bright purple that was atrocious. There were faint sparkles that could be seen as the folds of the robe moved. Ed felt like he had stepped into the pages of the kind of books he hadn't read since he was a child.

The old man had stopped next to Ed and seemed to be giving him the same once over that Ed had been giving to him. Ed had never wished harder that his automail was working and not seemingly broken. He shifted uncomfortably in the bed as the old man seemed able to see right through him.

"Are you just going to keep staring or you going to say something, old man?" Ed challenged.

The old man gave a small chuckle and then pulled out a stick from somewhere in the many folds of his robe. Ed wondered what it was about this place and people having polished, shiny sticks. The stick waved over him and Ed could feel something wash over him. It instantly put him on the alert.

"What did you just do to me!"

"I merely cast a temporary charm that could allow you to understand me and for me to understand you. That is all. Now, to business. I am Albus Dumbledore. Who might you be?"

Ed glared at the man. He could certainly understand what the old guy was saying. He just couldn't figure out how someone waving a stick at him could do it. "Edward Elric," he mumbled sullenly at the blankets. "Where the hell am I? And how did I get to this freaky place?"

Dumbledore gave Ed a considering look before answering. "This is Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. As to how you got here, I was hoping that you could answer that. Do remember anything that led to you appearing here?"

Ed's mind went blank. Witchcraft? Wizardry? There was no way. That was impossible. Magic did not exist. There was only science, even in alchemy. Something could not appear from nothing. It wasn't impossible! "No. Stop joking and tell me where I really am, damn you!" Ed felt the confusion and fear mount inside him as he spoke and transform into rage.

Dumbledore didn't even appear to be taken aback at the abrupt mood change in Ed. "I can assure you, my boy, that magic does indeed exist and this is an institution where young witches and wizards learn how to use it."

"Prove it then! Show me that magic exists!"

Dumbledore looked to be amused at Ed's insistence that magic was a sham, but obligingly pulled his wand out again. "Very well. Wingardium Leviosa!" As he spoke the words, he pointed the wand at a small vase of flowers by one of windows. The vase slowly and steadily rose into the air and then hovered agreeably a few feet above the sill.

Ed felt like something had punched a hole into his chest. How was this happening? There were no strings or wires that he could see holding the vase in place. He could feel blood rush through his veins as he tried to work out how the trick worked. When no obvious solution presented itself, he collapsed against the pillows and glared at the old man who seemed determined to toss his world upside down.

"Satisfied? Perhaps now you can tell me whether you remember anything about how you may have arrived here."

"I don't know. I remember walking down the street with my brother when suddenly there was…" Ed trailed off as he realized that really he wasn't sure how he had got here. He could remember seen the transmutation array, the bright flashes of light as the reaction occurred but after that? Blank until he woke up here, where people seemed to believe in magic.

"Yes? What was there?"

"A flash of light. Then nothing. At least not until I woke up here. Where is here anyway? Besides apparently being a magic school?"

"Hogwarts is located in Scotland. And you? I don't believe I have ever heard the language you speak before."

Scotland? Ed had never heard of any place called Scotland. What had happened to him? Ed felt a sudden fear that he would never be able to get back and be able to restore Al's body to him. "Amestris. I've never heard of 'Scotland'." Ed carefully sounded out the strange word.

"Well I have never heard of Amestris before. Though I will admit there are many things I don't know, though this seems to surprise many people. Well, young Edward, I will let you get some rest. However you got here, it cannot have been a pleasant trip. I will come by again tomorrow."

Ed released a huge sigh as Dumbledore walked out. He leaned against the head rest of his bed and looked over at the vase of flowers sitting innocently on the window sill.