/AN –

(13/01/18) I am halfway through revising these chapters and ahhhhhh this is embarrassing why did I even publish this in the first place ughhh/

Alsooo sorry for the long wait on this chapter I had exams blahblahblah but I made this one a bit longer and the next one is mostly in my head and ready to write.

On a similar note, I'm not exactly the biggest HP nerd out there so if anyone spots something that is drastically wrong please do tell me because I will try to fix it. This especially includes the characterisation of the HP characters because I'm really just going on clips from the films here. I havn't read the books in years. (hint hint Dumbledore hint hint)

Anyways, thanks for reading and reviews are always nice ;))

/

Waking up feeling like crap seemed to be becoming a regular occurrence for Edward. It was early but even the dim lights in the underground made him squint and his mind felt hazy and slow. Despite this, Ed had no trouble recalling the events of the night before in all of its horrific detail. For the first time since he had landed on this side of the gateEd felt a little hopeless. He was out of ideas and without his alchemy on his side he felt exposed. Once again he found himself wondering what Al was up to right now back in Amestris. Had he managed to escape the compound they had been investigating?

Of course he did. I'd bet he's looking for me right now. Probably got Mustang involved too. When I get back, that bastard's getting all my paperwork.

Ed spent a while following that train of thought to distract himself whilst he sat on the damp floor of the train station. He wasn't really sure what to do next as he couldn't go back to his usual spot near the library- in fact it would be better to get as far away as possible, but he didn't know where else he could go. Two weeks had definitely not been long enough to learn much of the language he now knew as English, even with the help of that nice librarian, and what little money he had pickpocketed or found was barely enough to take him up the street. For a moment, Ed just sat where he was, gingerly resting his pounding head against the wall and watching the station as it began to fill up with more and more people.

It was barely five minutes later when Ed decided he'd had enough of the glances that the people around him threw his way. It was always the same look; sideways and anxious. It was interesting to see that even across gates, some things never changed; nobody dared look a homeless person in the eye. Ed supposed it was out of fear of the social obligation to give them some change.

In spite of the pounding in his head which only became worse as he made to stand, Ed gathered his coat up and slowly made his way back out into the open. Wearily, he fished his sliver watch from deep within his pocket and flicked it open. The poor device had sustained numerous nicks and scratches over the years and now Ed could see at least three injuries that hadn't been there two weeks ago. It was almost a miracle that the thing wasn't completely destroyed yet but Ed guessed that if you were going to give a state alchemist, well…anything, it had better be sturdy.

As he looked at the clock face Ed realised why he felt like shit. It was only five in the morning. Given the fact that it was well past midnight when he had arrived at the underground the night before, Ed concluded that he had had a grand total of roughly three hours sleep. If it could even be called sleep.

Pulling up his hood to blot out as much of the glare from the street lamps lining the path, Ed set off in a random direction. A thin sheet of mist obscured everything that wasn't a few feet in front of him and it was only once Ed found himself back at The River that he knew where he was. Sort of. The buildings were different and he was on the wrong side but at least he had a general idea of where not to go now.

Ed managed to walk about two miles before his automail leg port started acting up. Another half a mile and the constant small, shooting pains in his leg stump, paired with his killer headache forced Ed to stop for a moment to take a breather. He was fully aware that recently, he had been neglecting maintenance on his automail and it seemed that now was the time to pay the price. Equivalent exchange and all that.

The road Ed had chosen to stop in was narrow. As he sat on the curb to give his leg a once over he noticed that the houses were so close together that there was barely room for a single car to pass between them. Briefly he wondered how the residents could even handle driving in such a confined space as many driveways had large, fancy cars parked on them. It was obviously a rich part of the city; tucked away just far enough from the large glass buildings that you could be fooled onto thinking you were in the suburbs. If this world even had suburbs. Perhaps the whole country was like one giant city, Ed mused. He hadn't seen much of it yet so it was entirely possible.

Edward's thoughts were interrupted a moment later by an almighty screeching coming from down the road. It was the sound of a machine in distress and it was the kind of noise that would have made Winry throw a wrench at whoever was in charge of the upkeep of the machine. Alarmed, Ed jumped up and rolled down his trouser leg to hide his automail, watching as two bright lights made their way rapidly through the mist towards him. Ed was ready to bolt back the way he had come if the lights turned out to be the police but he had to admit that he was also intrigued as to what on earth could have made that ungodly noise. He certainly wasn't expecting to see a large purple bus appear out of the gloom.

Alarmed, Ed was struck with the sudden thought that the bus was kind of ugly as he watched the it hurtle down the tiny road towards him. He was completely at a loss as to how that monster of a vehicle could even fit down the street without knocking a few bricks off the houses.

A moment of panic passed as Ed's brain helpfully pointed out that there was no way the bus could stop in time at the current speed it was going at, and that if he didn't want to become an Ed pancake he'd better move. Not a second too soon, Ed flung himself back onto the pavement just at the bus screeched to a stop exactly where he had just been standing.

Speechless and slightly horrified, Ed could only watch as a greasy looking man stumbled off the bus and began lazily reciting something from the back of a strip of paper. If Ed had thought that he had even a slight grasp on this language, all hopes of that were quickly put to rest as the man slurred at him. He picked up a few words like "you" and "bus" but everything else was completely lost on the blond who just sat there. Eventually the man seemed to realise that the kid in front of him wasn't following a thing he was saying and he sighed deeply. In jerky movements he pointed a dirty fingernail at Ed then jammed his thumb back at the bus. A simple enough message. Get on. Ed was skeptical however. This was pretty shady, even for him but Ed could see other people inside and with his leg was still being a bitch, decided to hell with it and hopped onto the rickety bus.

The moment Ed was mostly stable, the bus lurched forward again and Ed just managed to grab hold of a pole before he was sent flying through a window. Now that he was inside, Ed could see just how grotty this thing was. There was a dingy, musty feeling and something smelt…off. The furnishings gave the impression of being in a house of someone who desperately wanted to look rich but couldn't quite pull it off, making the whole place seem disjointed and unplanned. Someone definitely needed to hire a new interior decorator. Ed wrinkled his nose.

A sudden violent lurch drew the teen's attention to the world flashing past outside the bus. Most of the other cars were passed so rapidly they were a blur and Ed had no idea how they weren't hitting any other road users, let alone buildings. Every time they seemed destined to crash the bus missed the obstacle by a whisker. It was almost as if the objects themselves were moving out of the way of the bus but that was impossible. Lamp posts couldn't just uproot themselves. Ed just put it down to the fact that his view was obscured by the quickly thickening mist.

It suddenly came to Ed's attention that he no idea where he was going. This pushed his earlier thoughts out of his mind and he considered trying to ask the conductor-man when he should get off. He was fairly sure he had the right vocabulary for that but there was no guarantee that he would be able to understand the man's reply. His eyes wandered over to where the man was standing, reading a newspaper at the end of the bus, seemingly unfazed by the erratic and frankly dangerous driving. He wasn't even holding on to anything. A strange movement then caught his eye and Ed squinted at the man's newspaper. Frowning, Ed made his way forward slowly, making sure to have hold of something stable at all times but never taking his eyes away from the paper.

The man didn't even notice Ed until the boy was right in front of him, poking at the paper which hid him from view with a determined look on his face. Ed's sudden appearance startled the conductor who wasn't used to being snuck up on by small children but other than a dirty look he ignored Ed and continued reading.

Ed on the other hand had just witnessed something he thought was impossible. The picture on the front of the newspaper was moving! And not just flicking backwards and forwards between frames like an old cartoon- this picture was as if someone had inserted a snippet of life into the paper. The picture itself wasn't particularly remarkable, just a few men walking through a street, but Ed was so intrigued that he forgot to keep his grip on the pole next to him.

One moment he was peering at the moving newspaper, the next he was face planted against a grimy window as the bus screamed and screeched to a stop, just missing a small tabby cat which was sitting in the road. Ed felt a tap on his shoulder and peeled himself away from the glass to see the conductor gesturing towards the exit. This was his stop. Ed had never been happier to get off a vehicle in his life and that included the time he had travelled in the same car as Mustang. That man could not drive for shit.

With no luggage, Ed quickly scurried off the bus before the driver decided to take off again with him still inside. The street he had ended up in was almost as dingy as the bus and the flickering street lamps sent an eerie shine through the mist. Once again, Ed felt a bit lost. He noticed that the tabby was still sitting in the road and Ed started towards it. He wasn't really sure why, but the cat reminded him of Al so when it started walking towards a large building which looked like one of the many inns back in Amestris, he followed it inside.

The inn was just like any other inn Ed had been to. Homely, dark, filled with people. Ed felt more secure than he had in days. This was a setting he knew. Strangely, the cat had disappeared but Ed didn't think much of it, it had led him here and now Ed could mostly function on his own. He remembered the small amount of money in his pocket and had an idea. Since Ed had no idea about the value of all of the different coins and notes that were used here as money, he had saved a few from his pickpocketing and now had a small pocket full of change. He wasn't sure that it would be enough to buy anything but it was worth a try so he sauntered up to the bar and placed the money on the table. The bar tender looked at him strangely for a moment before gingerly taking the money and counting it. Ed held his breath that it would be enough for at least one night but his heart dropped as the man began talking to him. He groaned then flat out interrupted the bar tender before he could say any more.

"Different language here buddy, I don't know what you're saying." He said in the first Amestrian he had really spoken since arriving here. It felt good to actually talk to someone, even though he know they didn't know what he was saying either.

For what seemed like the thousandth time since Ed had arrived, the man made a little "o" shape with his mouth as he realised the language barrier between them. For some reason this made the man seem a little less hostile towards him as well. It was probably due to this as well as his, ahem, short stature that made the bar tender take pity on him, leaning back to take a key from a small rack behind the bar. He gestured at Ed who swiftly hopped off the bar stool he had been perching on and followed the man up a flight of stairs, away from the noise and hubbub in the main pub area.

The room he was shown to was small, with a single bed and simple furnishings. It was nice and a world away from Ed's usual lodgings of the concrete stairs outside someone's house. He realised that he must look like crap right now. Thinking back, that was probably the reason why the bar man hadn't seemed particularly pleased to see him. With this in mind, Ed made his way to the tiny bathroom next to his room and one look in the mirror told him all he needed to know. He looked gross. His hair was greasy and tangled, there was mud on his face and clothes and there was still blood on him from his scuffle the night before. He also became aware of the fact that he smelled like shit.

One of the perks of sleeping outside Ed thought cheerily.

It seemed like a heaven sent miracle that there was a shower in the bathroom and Ed barely hesitated before stripping off his clothes and turning it on full blast. He pretended that he didn't mind the fact that the water was freezing because this was the first clean water he had used in weeks, but he did gradually turn the temperature dial up to a more pleasant level. A full hour was spent in that shower, washing away all of the stress and anger and so much dirt Holy hell from the past two weeks of his life and by the end of it, Ed was in a much better mood. He had also had a few shower thoughts about what could be up with his alchemy that he would try out later. Right now however, he had two things to see to. First was his automail which was still twinging and the other was sleep.

Ed sat down on the slightly lumpy bed in the corner of the room and carefully opened the back of his automail leg to reveal a small switch. Ed absolutely hated disconnecting and reconnecting his limbs himself but he knew that it was necessary. With an absence of Winry, Ed would have to be extra careful with his automail whilst in this world, and that included maintenance. Grimacing, Ed flicked open the switch and an abundance of other gadgets and gismos that kept the leg in place then began tugging it out of the port. He was less gentle than Winry normally was and was rewarded with a few flashes of pain travelling down his stump before the limb was finally free. And hey, disconnecting the limb properly was a hell of lot less painful than having it yanked out. (Cough cough, Barry, cough)

Ed took a moment to compose himself and wiped the thin layer of sweat from his forehead with a slightly shaky hand. There was a reason he hated wearing this stuff. The next hour was spent working on the leg; fixing frayed wires, cleaning rusty joints and tightening bolts. There was a limit to how much he could do without any tools or alchemy, but by the time he was finished, Ed was satisfied that the leg wouldn't be a problem for a while. It took another two hours for Ed to complete the same procedure on his arm and then the two ports and by the time he had finished, Ed was absolutely exhausted. The moment his arm was reattached, he collapsed onto the bed and without bothering to turn the light out, simply became dead to the world.

Ed slept for a full ten hours. He would have kept on sleeping if it hadn't been for a commotion in the corridor outside his room. The voices of birds were overpowered by the rough voices of men shouting and Ed gracefully rolled out of his bed, onto the floor and kept rolling till he got to the door to listen to what was happening. Drama was always fun to listen to even when you couldn't understand it.

The argument seemed to be between two men who were screaming at each other like banshees. One had a slightly higher voice and Ed found himself silently rooting for that one in his head as things seemed to take a more violent turn. There was some banging and louder footsteps, then the sound of a body hitting the floor, accompanied by more yelling. Ed was beginning to get worried that they were going to do some serious damage to the building when the familiar voice of the bartender came to the rescue. The commotion immediately fell silent and Ed knew that that was the end of that. Opposing the barman was never a good thing, especially one with that glare.

Thoroughly awake now, Ed got up off the floor and made to leave his room. It was once again very early morning because Ed had stupidly gone to bed during the day, but at least that gave him more exploration time. Nodding at the barman on his way out, Ed left through the same door he had used to enter. He had seen numerous people leaving through a back entrance but they didn't seem like the kind of people he wanted to follow into a confined space.

For the next few months, Ed's life fell back into the pattern he had had before with the exception of now having a semi-permanent residence at the inn which he mysteriously hadn't paid for since he had arrived. Ed wasn't complaining however, and spent most of his days holed up in a small library he had found nearby. It wasn't as big or extensive as the one vack in the main city but bit by bit Ed found himself understanding more and more English. One evening he had even managed to hold a small conversation with the barman he now knew as Tom before he was interrupted by a burley group of drunk men asking for food.

During these few months Ed had also witnessed numerous questionable things. Many of the residents here at the "Leaky Cauldron" (a name which Ed thought was ridiculous) carried around sticks and were often dressed strangely in hats and robes. Animals such as owls and rats were also a common occurrence and Tom barely even batted an eye when a petite woman with a great brute of a dog walked in one evening. However, all of that was topped one evening when Ed witnessed a fairly young man prod his hat with his stick and the entire thing just changed colour. Ed was in the public bathroom at the time and had checked the scene thoroughly after for any trace of alchemy but he could find none.

From that moment on he was very aware of the strange people with sticks, following them around, watching them and attempting to listen in to whatever of their conversations he could understand. And that had lead him to his current predicament.

Magic.

Ed shook his head. Nope, there is no way that this is magic. Magic isn't real! Ed couldn't let himself believe that magic actually existed, yet that was the only explanation he could get out of these people. Magic. Magic. That was the only word he heard on a daily basis, but it just couldn't exist! Magic by its very nature, bypassed the laws of equivalent exchange and almost gave people the power of a philosopher's stone! Magic wasn't just something that Ed didn't believe in, it was something he couldn't afford to believe in. Magic was in fairy tales and anyone who believed otherwise was mad.

I must be mad. Ed therefore concluded as he stepped out from his hiding place behind some bins after watching a pair of stick-wielders form an arch in a brick wall. This moment had taken days to plan. Too many times Ed had seen people disappear into this courtyard, never to return again and now he thought knew why. He waited for the stick men to leave before darting through the arch into a bustling street. Behind him, Ed heard the grating sound of brick on brick and whipped round to see the arch had disappeared. Well, there was definitely no going back now.

Walking down this street was immediately one of the strangest things Ed had ever done. Every single shop that had been crammed onto this already overflowing street had something to do with this magic madness. Pet shops with unnameable creatures, trinket shops that moved, sweet shops that exploded and there was even a shop with brooms displayed in the windows as if they were fine ornaments.

All at once everything became just a bit too much for Ed. He wasn't sure whether he wanted to laugh, or cry, or scream, because right in front of him was an impossible street. It just couldn't exist. Everywhere he turned, there was magic. Magic. Magic. MAGIC. But magic was impossible. Right? Everything Ed had ever known and believed in was currently screaming at him that this. Was. Wrong! There had to be a logical explanation for- oh and there goes a rat just magically transforming into a cup.

Ed couldn't be sure how long he stood in there in the middle of the road, just watching. Somehow, his brain had decided to give up and he was left in a somewhat trance-like state. At some point, his legs must have started moving of their own accord and Ed began to shuffle through the crowd, taking in the strange sights, some of which made his stomach churn and others that filled him with awe.

It was only when he noticed that he was suddenly surrounded by small children that he was wrenched out of his trance and Ed forced himself to focus upon what were possibly the first children he had seen in the street since he got here. All of them were so small and there were so many. Slightly confused, Ed wondered just what exactly he had stumbled into. It was only when he heard what he recognised as the word "school" that he realised what time of year it was. Autumn. Back in Amestris, this was exactly when the new school year would have started and it seemed that was a parallel here as well. So these children were what...wizard students? Was that even a thing?

Time for some investigating.