A/N: So I move into my dorm room on the 21st. I'm trying desperately to churn out as many chapters as I can before that point, because once I head off to school, the updating rate is going to drop from 'every few days' to 'every few weeks,' and I know you guys are fans of swift updates. And gaah, as I'm writing this I'm being attacked by another plot-bunny. No, no no no, I'm not starting another story while I still have two in progress, must resist the plot-bunnies!

Also, since it might be little confusing, if Ed's speech includes the words 'the,' 'a,' or 'an,' (or if it's written in a different language) then he's speaking Amestrian. You'll notice that he leaves out definite and indefinite articles when he's speaking English. The language I chose for Amestrian only uses the definite article when being extremely formal, and doesn't use the indefinte article at all anymore. The verb 'to be' is also dropped a lot.

Ed had chased Ling all the way down the long street before the idiot prince had stopped to let him catch up right in front of the bank. "Come on, Ed, keep up!" said Ling cheerily.

"Bastard," said Ed, panting.

Ling was rather relieved to note that Ed had, for the moment at least, had forgotten their predicament in order to be pissed at him. "Now, now, is that any way to speak to an emperor?" he scolded.

They entered the double doors to a huge a chamber with long tables running the length of it. Ling wasn't sure what to make of the short-statured creatures working at these tables, and neither did, if the look on his face was anything to go by. They felt normal... ish. Their presences weren't quite the same as a regular human's (chimeras maybe?), but they certainly didn't fhave the feeling of a crowd like the homunculi, nor did they feel sinister as the homunculi did. But now that he was actually paying attention to the flow of chi in his surroundings, he noticed what did feel like a very small crowd... right next to him. 'How did I not notice before?' Ed's presence now felt like a much smaller scale version of Hohenheim's, which Ling now knew to be due to the philosopher's stone. 'Did Ed absorb what was left of Pride's stone by accident when he drained it? Is that why he still looks like a teenager?' He would ask about it later. For now, he was perfectly content to let Ed be the one to deal with the little chimera-people.

"Um," began Ed, tapping on the table to get one of the creatures' attention, "Hogwarts letter said to come here for money."

"Do you have an account here?" it (he, Ling supposed) asked, without looking up.

"No, it said something about..." Ed took another look at the letter, "financial aid.

" He handed over the piece of parchment.

"Your names?" the chimera asked.

"Edward Elric and Ling Yao."

"Griphook!" called the chimera. Another chimera of the same type appeared promptly. "Assign these two vault number six hundred and sixteen. Transfer one hundred and fifty galleons from the Hogwarts aid vault to their account, then withdraw thirty galleons from that and bring it up here."

Ling and Ed waited for a good half an hour before Griphook brought their gold, during which they had to sign multiple forms affirming their new ownership of 'vault number six hundred and sixteen.' Ed was on edge the whole time, Ling could tell that much. Likely he was racking his vast intelligence as to what exactly these bankers were. Personally, Ling didn't actually care all that much as to the answer. The bankers weren't trying to kill them, which enough for him at this point. He had learned long ago not to question favorable tides.

"Your gold, sirs," said Griphook, holding out a money bag to them.

"Ru'hiibi munit lubii!" said Ed, "Let's go, Ling, we got crap to buy."

"Would that crap happen to include food?"

"You just ate!"

"And?"

"Not a chance."

Ed read the supply list as they left the bank while Ling pouted. "The hell...?" There were wands on a school supply list? This place was insane! 'When I get my hands on Truth...'

"Hey, Ed,"said Ling, "Think we should go here first?" He motioned to a shop beside them.

Ollivander's: Makers of Fine Wands since 385 B.C

"Good grief, we've stumbled into an extra special freak show, haven't we?" 'I really am turning in Hughes, here I am quoting him...'

They went in anyway, and a wizened old man, presumably Ollivander, immediately hurried over from behind the numerous shelves of boxes. "Hello there! I don't recognize you two, are you Hogwarts students?"

"Sort of," said Ed, scratching the back of his head, "We just got letters today."

"So late! That would explain why I don't recognize either of you. I remember every wand I've ever sold, you see, and I remember everyone I've ever sold a wand to."

Something in the man's voice made Ed think he was telling the truth.

"I am Ollivander, and you two?

"Edward Elric," said Ed.

"Ling Yao."

"Excellent, excellent," said Ollivander. "Now, if you would just hold out your dominant arms..."

Ling held up his right arm, and a tape measure (wait, a floating tape measure?) started measuring him. Ed hesitated for a moment, which Ollivander noticed.

"Ambidextrous?"

"Well, I was right-handed, but..."

"If you were born right-handed, then it's best the wand is wielded with your right hand," said Ollivander.

Ed hesitated for a moment more, then held out his, still gloved, right hand. Ollivander made to remove the glove, and Ed quickly closed his hand. "The glove's not coming off, old man."

"I'm afraid I must insist, the measurements will be off-"

"Then adjust the results," snarled Ed.

"Just take off the glove, Ed, I don't think he's gonna let us out until you do, and he doesn't seem the type to tell other people's secrets," said Ling, who was still being

measured by the evidently OCD tape measure.

Ed glared at Ling, but relented. Ollivander's eyebrows raised into his hairline. "Interesting, and it's all steel?"

"Technically a carbon-titanium mixture, but close enough. And works same as flesh arm."

"Then it shouldn't matter," Ollivander said firmly. He disappeared behind the shelves, but they could still hear his voice loud and clear. "You have a very interesting accent, Edward, where are you from, if that's not too intrusive?"

"Israel," he said, remembering the bogus story he made up for Tom the barman.

"We're both from Tel Aviv," piped up Ling, who gave Ed a conspiratorial wink. "My father worked for his father."

Ed suppressed a smirk at this. Well, Hohenheim was the fabled Western Sage after all, not to mention the Eastern Sage as well.

"Israel? You're very far from home then."

'You don't know the half of it,' thought Ed.

Ollivander came back out again carrying two armfuls of small boxes. He opened two of them. "Gorse and unicorn hair," which he handed to Ed, and, "Oak and dragon heartstring," which he handed to Ling. "Well, give it a wave!"

They did so. There was a familiar flash of blue sparks which Ed immediately recognized as an alchemic reaction. The wands themselves didn't fare so well, and had twisted and distorted themselves so that they no longer held any resemblence to wands.

"Curious, very curious," said Ollivander, who seemed very calm for a man who's merchandise had just been destroyed. "You're not from Israel, are you?"

Ed and Ling looked at each other guiltily. "No, sir."

"I haven't seen that kind of reaction to a wand since..." his eyes brightened, "Tell me, boys, does the name Ori'haat mean anything to you?" He seemed to take their expressions as an affirmative. "Then you are both alchemists, yes?"

"He is, I'm not," said Ling.

"But you are still from across what is known as the Gate, if I am using the correct term."

"You know it?" said Ed, stunned, "How?"

"I don't actually," admitted Ollivander, "I don't even know what Ori'haat means. Another wandmaker, named Gregorovitch, sold me those words, among other things, when he was planning his retirement. He didn't know what they meant either, but he said that a man with golden hair and golden eyes taught him a new wand design and instructed him to only sell it to those who would recognize the terms. And as both of you just have..." he went to the back of the store again and returned with two more boxes, this time round instead of rectangular. He opened them to reveal round wooden discs, the diameter roughly half that of Edward's palm, with a single gemstone embedded at the center of each. They were accompanied with leather bindings, likely to strap the disc to the hand. "Rowan, with a core of agate," said Ollivander, handing one of the discs to Ling. The other he handed to Ed, "Hazel and onyx."

Ed strapped the thing onto his right arm, noting with some measure of relief that the size and placement of the disc would make it difficult to accidentally crush if he were to, say, clench his fist. He noticed that the way the leather straps bound the round disc was reminiscent of a simple transmutation circle. The gemstone at the center began to glow brightly, and Ling's did the same.

Ollivander was beaming at the success. "Excellent, most excellent! Those will serve you well, no doubt about it!"

He had refused payment for the wands, claiming that they weren't truly his own work, and Ed and Ling left the shop to retrieve the rest of their supplies. True to Ed's word, the very next thing they bought, along with the uniforms, was a shirt for Ling. Or rather, they bought some yellow cloth and Ed transmuted it into a xingese style tunic. "It'll do," said Ling.

Ling had to physically drag Ed from the bookstore once they had the first three years worth of textbooks ("But, but, but, but, but..." complained Ed. "You're twenty-two, Ed, act like it please," groaned Ling), and Ed had to do the same to Ling when they were passing the ice cream shop ("So hungry..." groaned Ling. "Not a chance, squinty-eyes," said Ed). They now stood in front of Eyelop's Owl Emporium.

"Hey, Ed, can I have ten galleons?" Ling was looking down a less than savory-looking cross-street.

"What for?" Ed asked. He knew that Ling could more than take care of himself down a dark alley; he was more worried about him buying total junk.

"There's something I want to find. I'll meet you at the pub."

Ed sighed and handed over the gold. They had plenty of it, after all. "Just don't-" Ling took off in the middle of Ed's sentence, "-waste it." He sighed again and went into the shop. Cages and cages lined the walls and hung from the ceiling, all holding owls who were staring at him.

"How can I help you?" The shopkeeper bustled over to him. "Here for a new owl?"

"I guess."

"Well then, you've come to the right place! We have the best selection anywhere in Britain, ask anyone!"

As the lady went on about the store and owls in general, Ed's eye was drawn to a smaller cage. "What's the story on this one?" he asked. The occupant of the cage fixed him with a beady black eye and cawed at him.

"That thing? I can't imagine why you'd want him. Some idiot dropped him off at the store claiming he'd been trained as well as any owl. Who trains a crow to carry mail, honestly? They're bad luck, the lot of them."

Ed made his decision immediately. "I'll take him."

"Really? Well, no skin off my teeth if he pecks out your eyes. I can't say I'll be sorry to see him go. Ten sickles."

Ed paid the woman and went outside. He looked the crow squarely in the eye. "I bet you're smarter than all those owls put together. There's more to you than meets the eye, isn't there? I think I'll call you Miles."

'Miles' seemed content with his new name, cawing cheerfully.

Ed did indeed find Ling waiting for him in the Leaky Cauldron. Into his hand, Ling dropped nine galleons. That was when Ed noticed what he had bought: a dao sword, similar to the one he had carried in Amestris. "The shopkeeper couldn't wait to get rid of it, said it was 'a piece of muggle trash,' whatever a muggle is, because it didn't some kind of nasty curse on it," Ling explained.

"Looks like we both got cast-offs," said Ed, holding up Miles for Ling to see.

"Huh," said Ling, peering at the bird, "I've heard crows are clever enough to give humans a run for their money, but I guess these wizards are the superstitious types. One man's trash is another man's treasure, right?"

Ed tossed him a couple of galleons. "I'm going to bed, I've had enough of these 'wizards' for today." He went up to the room they had rented and sat on the bed. He pulled out the picture of his family and looked at it fondly. Winry was holding Trisha, and Maes was sitting on Ed's shoulders, playing with his ponytail. 'I promise, I'll find a way back. There's got to be a way.'

A/N: About their wands: Rowan is said to be a very protective tree, and agate represents devotion, so that fits Ling. Onyx represents dermination, and I picked hazel because Ed has seen the truth. There's a legend that Fionn Mac Cumhail gained wisdom from the first three drops of a stew which was made from a salmon which had ingested hazel nuts.

ru hiibi munit lubii!= Took long enough!