A/N: Yes I know that this is immensely shorter than the last three chapters. I'm going to try and keep up the length, but sometimes you'll just have to bear with me for the sake of the story. Anyway, as short as this is, here's the next chapter!

I owe a special thank you to all the reviewers- I'm glad you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it. I do try to make it original, but let me just say- you haven't seen nothin' yet!

IMPORTANT: To those people who haven't read the sixth book yet…

First off 'tsk, tsk…' ::waggles finger:: But I understand, it's quite an effort in and off itself to finish that book. Fortunately, you won't have to worry about many if any spoilers for quite a few chapters, so you should have time to read it if you haven't finished it yet. They still have the end of the year and the summer break to go through. And believe it or not, that should keep them busy till at least about chapter 12 or 13 in it's current arrangement. There will be spoilers eventually, but I haven't decided just how much of the Harry Potter HBP plot to keep, we'll just have to see…

This chapter is dedicated to my rather annoyed best friend 'Roy' who helps to 'inspire' my writings (lol). No really she does… And I owe her a terrible apology for constantly tempting her with sneak peaks at some of the more juicy moments of the story, such as Roy and Ed's first 'encounter', which effectively takes the suspense out of the wait in the story. Anywho, thanks for the inspiration points from the other night. Though none are in the story (yet) I will make sure to make mention of them and you in the chapters that they appear in. But I'm afraid to say, that may be a while of a wait.

Now on with the chapter!

Love, 'Ed' (lol… inside joke)

Chapter 4: The Trio

Sure enough, it was a minute till eight when Ed heard a knock on the wall outside his rooms.

"Come in," called Ed sleepily as he bent over to tie his boots.

The portrait opened to reveal Potter accompanied by a tall red headed guy and a frizzy brown haired girl carrying a mountain of books with her.

"Morning Ed," said Harry, crossing over to where he crouched tying his shoe laces. "Trust you slept well."

"Yeah, just got a late start. Something kept me up last night," said Ed with a smirk which Harry returned in kind.

"Whoa! Are you some foreign dignitary or something?" asked Ron, taking in the room.

"I guess you could say that," said Ed. Obviously he knew nothing about the circumstances of his arrival. 'Curious… I'd have thought Harry would have wanted to talk all about what happened- god knows I would if Al were here…' But then he remembered what Harry had talked to him about the night before, and he thought he might understand a little.

He straightened from the floor and stood, his hands on his hips in a way that seemed to just scream 'rebel' to Hermione. She had been analyzing him since they had come in. She didn't know why, but something was… off about this new comer. But Harry seemed to trust him, and that was a feat in and of itself, so she would give him the benefit of the doubt.

But that didn't mean she didn't have lots of questions.

"So how did you two meet," asked Hermione, looking between them.

A moment of tenseness crossed both of their faces before Ed cracked a grin, "That Dumbledore guy introduced us. I'm kind of stuck here for the moment due to… circumstances and lack of appropriate transport. Plus, my dumb ass… er- coworker got himself injured pretty bad so he's stuck up near the infirmary." A worried look flitted through his eyes though his grin never wavered. "Speaking of which- do we have time to stop by and see him? I haven't checked on him for a few hours and it's just down the hall…"

"Sure, classes don't start until 9 o'clock," said Harry, moving toward the portrait. "But we should leave now, just in case."

Ed nodded and followed the trio out.

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

"Madame Pomfrey, I'm here," said Ed, coming into Roy's private room in the hospital wing. Without waiting for her he led the others over to a bed towards the end of the room where Roy lay, still unconscious.

"Everyone, meet Roy Mustang- the biggest bastard in the world and womanizer extraordinaire. Bastard- meet Everyone," said Ed, though the man was still asleep.

"Don't you think that's a bit harsh?" asked Hermione disapprovingly. This man was older than them- to her it was as if it was a teacher (though Harry and Ron called Snape a bastard all the time).

"Hmm… nope!" said Ed with another of his grins that seemed to light up a room when he had one. Then he turned back to the man on the bed and the look on his face changed. Hermione blinked. He looked almost… longingly at the man. She shook her head and thought, 'No, he's probably just worried…'

"So what happened to him?" asked Ron, looking at the bandaging on the left shoulder.

"As far as we can tell, someone tried to carve their way from his shoulder to his heart," said Ed with a sigh. "Thank whatever deity that may or may not exist that the bastard is too stubborn to die…"

"Bloody hell! Who would do that?" asked Ron, sharing a horrified look with the others.

"The guy who used to control our government back home. Roy confronted him before we left."

"Damn! He must have pissed the guy off pretty bad, huh?" said Ron, looking at Mustang.

"That's alright. I'm pretty sure the other guy got the worse end of the deal," said Ed in a dark voice.

Thankfully the others picked up on it and decided to drop the topic.

"Hey! It's almost 8:30! We should head down if we're going to be on time for class," said Harry, looking down at his watch.

Ed took out his own watch to check its time against theirs. Surprisingly, it matched up.

"Cool watch," said Ron, looking at the outside design of the Amestrian crest.

"Thanks," said Ed, quickly trying to stuff it back in his pocket. Hermione was giving the clock an odd look, similar to when Winry contemplated what it would be like to take it apart.

"Well, let's head on down," said Harry, leading the way.

As Hermione looked over her shoulder, she saw Ed giving Roy one last emotion filled look before turning back to follow them. But she pretended to not have noticed.

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

The next three days passed much quicker for Ed now that he had something else to occupy his mind, and not just sitting around fretting over his injured 'coworker' as he had called Roy. Thankfully, plenty of time spent around military personnel gave him a knack at making up stories and cover-ups on the spot. He felt kind of bad about lying to these people he was beginning to see as possible friends, but sometimes it was safer for them to be kept in the dark, at least for the moment. The only one he found he couldn't lie to was Harry. The boy seemed to have some strange ability to tell when he was being lied to. And frankly it was starting to get annoying. He had finally had to just drag him away from his entourage and tell him to just go along with it.

Every morning now the trio would come by his room, pick him up, check on Roy, then head on down to the Great Hall. Ed could still remember the initial shock and later embarrassment of his first breakfast down in the absolutely science-defying room.

FLASHBACK-FLASHBACK-FLASHBACK

The first thing he noticed was that structurally, the entire room was impossible. There was no way that all of the architecture of this building could possibly stand in the way it was designed, never mind for hundreds of years, as Hermione had said it had. The second was the impossible ceiling that arched above them. And this time he didn't mean the architecture, though it too was a stumping prospect.

"Is that… the sky?" asked Ed doubtfully.

"No, it's just an enchantment, though the sky outside really does look like that. It reflects whatever the outside weather conditions are."

"Okaaay…" said Ed, sitting down next to them at a table with a banner that showed a red background with a gold lion running rampant that hung by itself in the air above it. But soon he thought no more on it as he took in the massive amount of food stacked in front of him. He allowed one moment of blank salivation before he began to greedily dig in, earning disapproving looks from the nearby girls and hearty grins from the guys.

"That's my kind of man," said Ron, smacking Ed on the back before turning to his own plate.

"Boys," muttered Hermione and a red haired girl off to the side at the same time.

"Hey, you'd appreciate food like this too if you spent 90 percent of your time wandering deserts. wastelands and backwoods," said Ed, not even pausing from his gorging.

"Why would you be wandering wastelands?" asked Hermione suspiciously.

'Damn!' "Oh, umm…it's just that- well, it's just me and my brother, so in order to support ourselves, sometimes we have to travel around the country on jobs and such…and there's a lot of empty space back home, and most of that is desert, so you can imagine…" It wasn't exactly a lie, just not the whole truth…

"Oh, then is that Roy your brother?"

Ed choked on the eggs he had been trying to eat at the time at that question. Harry thumped hard on his back until they finally came up, leaving him coughing and gagging. When he was finally had himself back under control he turned to the offending question.

"Hell no!"

"Oh I'm sorry! I just assumed he was your older brother…"

"Nah, I'm the eldest, so I have to take care of my younger brother as best I can…"

"But how? Your only what? Thirteen…?" asked Ron.

"I'M 17!!!" yelled Ed, earning many strange looks as he banged his fists back down on the table, causing bits of egg and hash browns to fly in various directions.

"What? Oh! We're sorry! We just thought since your not that tall-"

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO SMALL A FLEA WOULD TOWER OVER HIM?!!!!"

Silence reigned in the hall for a moment after the outburst and Ed had a moment to think over what had just happened. He sat down (when had a stood up?! ) and began to hit his head on the hard wood, finally putting his face in his gloved hands, trying to pretend not to feel the hot stares from around the room. Finally conversations began to start back up and only then did he dare to peek out from between his fingers.

"Listen guys," he said, seeing their still stunned expressions after his outburst. "I'm… sorry ok? I have a bit of a… er- anger management problem, I guess…"

"Nah, it's ok, mate," said Ron sheepishly. He was just glad that he had been on the opposite side of the table at the time of the 'explosion'. Who would have thought that such a small package could pack that big of a punch?

"Look, I'll leave you guys to eat in peace. I'm going to head on up to the hospital wing. If you'd… well, I was just going to say that, if you wanted to stop by later, I would enjoy the company…"

"Yeah, sure Edward," said Harry. The outburst had surprised him too, but not nearly as much as the others. He had seen Ed explode once already on that Roy guy back at the Ministry.

"Alright, see you later then," said Ed, standing up and walking out of the hall, feeling the eyes of others follow him as he went.

What he didn't see was Hermione's suspicious look as she noticed the fist shaped dent left behind in the table where his right hand had hit.

END FLASHBACK-END FLASHBACK-END FLASHBACK

That first day was spent finding his way back up to his room and the hospital wing. It was tough but after three hours and 5 dead ends later he finally found himself in the familiar corridor. He spent a little while sitting next to Mustang, then decided that his time would be better spent familiarizing himself with the area so as to maybe avoid so many 'lost puppy' moments in the future. Now, three days later he could make it back up to the hospital wing area on his own with no problems as well as to the Headmaster's office and to a room on the west side that had an awesome window that showed the expansive estate on which the castle sat. He would often go there in the evening to watch the sun set and the first stars come out, letting his mind wander, and wondered whether his sacrifice, his prayer, had been answered back in that world apart. Occasionally he would find a piece of paper and a pen in the room, tucked away in a corner, and begin to write the things that came to mind. Words would flow out from the tip like the black ink that formed them. He wasn't sure whether they were any good, but they seemed to express his thoughts pretty well. And when he wasn't thinking of Al and his new predicament, he would think of him.

Ed sighed. He wasn't sure exactly what it was but… something had changed. He didn't even know how or when. One second he was the insufferable bastard and the next… well, he was something else. It had started with something like a twinge in the chest. But since he had been keeping watch over him and had plenty of time to ponder things out, it had grown to a full blown ache that had a tendency to throb any time he was in the same room with him. Urging Ed to look at him, move him into a more comfortable position, keep a cool clothe on him any time he began to break into a slight sweat, stroke a fringe of hair out of his face… it was maddening! He didn't understand it! And any attempts to analyze it objectively had proved useless. If he didn't know any better, he would have said he was…

'No, that's just not possible,' thought Ed, trying to push the thought away.

But in the dark recesses of his mind, he wondered…