A.N: An Ed shaped cookie to the person who guises Ed's visitor.

Disclaimer: Alas woe is me, I own not HP of FMA, so sue me not, I am but a lowly student.

A Lesson In Alchemy

Ed didn't even realise he had fallen asleep until he heard a sound.

He jumped up and scanned the perimeter his eyes then falling on a man standing in the corner of the room next to the door, he was tall and wore navy blue robes, his shoulder length black hair was tied back at the nape of his neck, his pail blue eyes bored into Ed's.

"Who the hell are you!" Ed's initial reaction never considered polite.

The man merely grinned at him. "You're one weird kid."

Ed fumed "Who you calling weird, its you who are weird ones tying me up and taking my arm, which you are so gonna pay for, when I get back to Central I see to it that nothing good ever happens to you again"

At this the man only laughed a doggish sounding laugh that expressed real mirth. "I doubt you could do me anymore damage kid"

A feral smirk graced Ed's lips "Wanna bet?"

A sad expression passed over the mans face for an instant, but was then gone. "Love too but I don't have the time, you're going to see Dumbledore at some point, watch yourself around him, his kind of senile, but his minds a little too sharp for a guy his age, he likes all the cards in his hand, he'll leave you with nothing if you let him"

Ed blanked "Why are you telling me all of this?" He looked at the man searchingly.

The man smiled "I just think you should have the heads up most don't. I can't watch him turn anymore innocent kids into pawns..." Well that was cryptic.

"I'm no body's pawn, not the militaries, not yours, not anybody's." Ed growled staring down at his feet. He did what he wanted he was in control of his own destiny; no one would keep him on a leash.

When he finally finished brooding and looked up the man was gone, he had obviously left without Ed noticing, and he really had to stop fazing out like that.

He slumped against the headboard of the bed and sighed, this was getting a little too much, he hated waiting around, and he was already getting fidgety.

Then his stomach made itself known, he was getting hungry too. His day was just getting better and better.

--------

The door finally opened again and Ed just sat there glaring he would make his move just not yet, what entered wasn't what he was expecting, Lupin walked in with a plate of food in hand and a neutral look on his face.

Ed only looked at the food he was so hungry.

Lupin spoke "I thought you might be hungry" His voice even showing no emotion.

Ed looked up nodding slowly, could he trust this man? He was more welcome than that Severus.

Lupin walked up and untied him Ed remained perfectly still and took the plate offered him; he put it in his lap but made no move to eat it.

"It's not poisoned you know" Lupin smiled as if reading Ed's mind.

Ed started and in the end his stomach won the battle of wills and he dug in, it was good too.

Lupin pulled up a chair from the wall and sat waiting for Ed to finish, when he had they seemed to stare at each other, and Ed saw something in those eyes that was familiar but he just couldn't place it.

The silence stretched until Lupin looked away, and asked "How did you get out there, in the fire fight?"

Ed blinked not expecting such a question "I never intended to fall into that I was just…I was… with Al and…I cant remember" He looked up shocked, he really couldn't remember what had happened how he had ended up in that battle zone there was nothing there, just a void where the memory should be.

Lupin looked at his shocked face and realised he was not lying. "Al? You said that name before after the Deatheater had used the cruxatus curse on you"

Ed shook his head to clear it then answered "Al's my brother…." Then he registered what the man had said "Deatheater's? Curse? You're kidding right?"

Lupin seemed to pause for a moment then answered "The Deatheater's Voldemort's hench men." He stopped to see no reaction to the name and he continued "They cast the pain giving curse on you I stopped them and well…" He trailed off.

"You locked me up and take my arm for no good reason" Ed finished angrily for him.

Lupin looked directly at him "You must understand, you appeared in the middle of the fight… we didn't know who you were we only took the necessary precautions"

"Oh and do these precautions normally involve taking peoples limbs!" Ed growled.

"In your case yes, you could be a danger brandishing that blade around" Lupin clarified his voice remaining calm.

Ed was stumped he forgot it would still be transmuted with the blade. "Well I could fix that, so why don't you give it me back and we'll all be happier for it" He growled holding out his hand.

"I don't think I can do that, but maybe if you tell me how you ended up with such a limb I could see what I could do" He offered diplomatically.

Ed glared "It was an accident when I was younger, an arm here a leg there you get by, now give me back my arm!"

Lupin's brow furrowed and he looked over Ed, and then seemingly impossibly pulled his automail limb out of the folds of his robes. He looked down at it.

"It's like no muggle contraption I've ever seen before, and to be used as a weapon…"

Ed tensed he didn't like people handling his automail it made him feel violated it wasn't just a hunk of metal it was his arm.

"How will you fix it?" Lupin asked looking up at the agitated boy.

Ed ground his teeth, putting the arm back on would hurt like a bitch but he could do it, he had seen Winry do it a thousand times and he could even make the tools needed to put it back on properly not as good as when his automail mechanic did it but still he could get by he'd lost his arm enough times to know.

Ed figured he wouldn't get it back that easy so he would have to do this the conventional way, he sighed and reached in his pocket and pulled out a piece of chalk Lupin tensed but when Ed showed him the small stump of white mineral, for any alchemist a must have, he relaxed and Ed drew the necessary transmutation circle on the blade under Lupin's scrutiny he brushed the mark with his fingers and with a flash of blue his arm was just that now void of the blade but on the floor as Lupin had dropped it not expecting such a reaction.

Ed looked at the confused man he had the stick in his hand again and was looking slightly shocked. "What never seen alchemy before?"

Lupin looked at him gone out "That's like no alchemy I've ever seen"

At this point Ed would have crossed his arms and looked superior, but with one arm currently on the floor he only managed to wrap one arm across his chest which didn't really hold the same affect. "Well you can't have seen much, nearly all alchemic reactions have similar affects" He glared at the offending stick. "Can I put my arm back on or are you going to poke me?"

Lupin blinked "What?" The look on his face was odd almost like he wasn't actually seeing Ed at all but someone else in his place.

Ed looked at him strangely, and slowly reached for his arm not taking his eyes off of the man in front of him.

Lupin moved to protest then seemed to think better of it, he lowered his stick and stepped forward and looked again at the metal arm now in Ed's hands.

"Will it be difficult to put on?" He asked tentative as if he wasn't sure of himself.

Ed couldn't help but smile there was something about this guy that he liked "Not really, it'll hurt but that won't be a problem"

Lupin nodded, something told Ed that this guy was all too aware of pain.

Ed shrugged off his coat and pulled his shirt off revealing the metal socket and scaring, a little self conscious with Lupin looking at his abnormality, he did his best to ignore the man and concentrated, it would be just like when Whinry put it on, not too painful but he could handle it, also attempting this one handed didn't help, but he'd be damned before he asked for help.

"Here goes…" He muttered, at least there was no rush or pressure like the last time he had to do this, no syocopath after him, now or never.

He pushed the limb into its socket with a 'shicth' noise, and then a lacing of pain as his reconnected nerves took their place in controlling the hunk of metal.

Ed grit his teeth and held in a shout, screwing up his face in pain and breathing erratically he sat for a moment breathing through the pain that was becoming an ache then a throbbing.

He opened his eyes and looked at his automail then at his fingers he made them twitch, then bend be flexed them and then made a fist, he bent his wrist then his elbow then the shoulder, the final jolt of pain as something clicked into place, he winced, then smirked at least he got the docking right, the reactions were a little sluggish but that could be tuned out he supposed, all in all it went better than he had hoped.

He looked up to see Lupin looking at the now working limb with a sort of cautious curiosity.

"How does it… I've never seen a prosthetic limb like it…" The greying man trailed off.

Ed admired his mechanics work he had said on more than one occasion it was the best in the world, it did help that the young Rockbell lived breathed and dreamed automail.

"Its directly attached to each of my nerves so it moves how I want it with the added bonus that it had no direct nerves throughout it so I can't feel pain, which can come in useful" Ed smiled at the man as he retook his seat, not sure why he confided so much in the quiet man, his smile slipped as he realised that he was wasting time.

Lupin obviously noticed his sudden melancholy state and spoke. "You truly have no memory of how you got into the forest last night?" The question was stern but not cruel.

Ed stared at the man searching "No I have no memory. It's just gone…"

Lupin nodded not looking away from the teen.

Ed felt oddly un-nerved as he stared into those eyes seeing something he recognised, a feral almost inhuman rage deep within this man a rage he had seen, in the eyes of the homunculi. He felt his insides freeze with fear, but then he saw that it was under the surface, buried, trapped, Ed could live with that it was that there was something about this man that Ed felt he could relate to.

He blinked and looked away sighing, he was not use to so much soul searching it was far too abstract, and he was a scientist after all.

Lupin got to his feet and moved too the door he stopped looked back at the boy, "I'll be back" Ed found it strange that the man felt he had to say that almost reassuringly, a look of sad understanding on his face, but then he was gone.