I feel pretty guilty that I haven't updated this until Mother's Day, so even though she knows absolutely nothing about FMA, and thinks my fanficts writing is silly, I dedicate this long waited for chapter to my dearest Mom (for really no apparent reason).
--
Did y'all catch my brief name crossover last chapter? I own nothing besides my plot.
--
Chapter 15: Half of a House
--
Ed blinked in confusion, taking off the hat and examining it to see if there was any dust on the blood seal or something. Before he could find the source of the strangeness, the Hat opened its mouth to begin speaking again, and Ed dropped it in surprise.
"Now-"
"Ahh!"
"Don't drop me fool!"
"Sorry," Ed said weakly picking up the Hat, only just then realizing the sheer number of people staring at him in confusion.
"What the hell?" someone said loudly, and immediately the Hall exploded into noise. The teachers tried vainly to control the situation, but they were in enough shock as it was to really do anything.
"SILENCE," boomed Dumbledore from the Head Table. The Hall fell silent, Ed still sitting frozen on the stool holding the Sorting Hat.
"Now," Dumbledore continued, "This mild irregularity shall be immediately clarified. Do not be alarmed, for this HAS happened before. Now, before I allow you to dig in to this long awaited meal, let me say just a few words first. Flitter, Quid, Randur, and Faar."
Instantly, food appeared in huge heaps on all the tables, and while the other students dug in, Dumbledore grabbed Ed's arm and pulled the hat-bearing transfer out of the Hall and along several corridors, until stopping in front of a large gargoyle.
"Password?" the gargoyle asked absentmindedly. Ed jumped about a foot in the air and almost dropped the Hat again, while Dumbledore replied, "Acid Pops, please." To Ed's utter bewilderment, the gargoyle moved aside to reveal a thin spiraling staircase. Dumbledore stepped on it, and motioned for Ed to follow. He did, and as soon as he was completely stationary on it, the staircase began moving, much like the escalators in London, and the two ascended until stopping at a landing. They got off, and walked to a wooden door, which Dumbledore opened, and motioned for Ed to step inside. He entered, and was taken aback in awe.
There were huge filled bookcases, abtract and exotic instruments everywhere, about five globes, only on the first landing. To the side there was a large staircase leading up to a balcony-like landing filled with more amazing items, and in the middle of the room there was a large desk.
Dumbledore sat down behind it, saying, "Please, sit," to Ed.
He sat, slightly apprehensive as Dumbledore leaned down to look directly into his golden eyes with bright blue ones that pierced his very soul. Selfconciously, Ed barricaded his mind with the familiar transmuted wall formula.
Dumbledore leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes briefly. "Would you mind handing me the Hat, Mr. Elric?"
Ed nodded, and passed him the headgear. Dumbledore set it on the table and leaned down to look at it.
"You see Mr. Elric, while this sort of event has happened before, it was well before my time, and only the Hat has the specific instructions of what to do with you. We haven't had transfers since Grindelwald, and usually they came from another school, or were home schooled. This, coupled with your…unusual Sorting, leads to complications. Do you follow me?"
Ed nodded. "Yeah. Basically, most transfers know how to use your type of magic instead of a type completely unfamiliar to you, so you need to give me special lessons to learn your knowledge, and you need to resort to asking a Hat how to place me somewhere because someone as unique as me hasn't come to a school where they have to be slotted into a category for the rest of their lives, since the third generation after your Founders died. Is that correct?" he finished, not caring that he'd started semi-ranting.
Dumbledore straightened to survey the transfer, and chuckled. "Yes, Mr. Elric, you would be right. About all of your speech unfortunately, for what you say about us is absolutely right, even if it is from a cynical point of view. Because, while resorting to a Hat for answers is sad, it is the one that knows what to do with you according to the blueprint your mind gives us. So, lets ask it for advice shall we?" he responded, smiling at Ed.
Ed gave him his trademark evil grin in return, and leaned forward in his chair. "So how will we be doing this exactly?"
"You could just ask me what I meant by 'I don't know'. That would probably be the easiest method to use," butted in the Hat.
Dumbledore smiled fondly. "You would know best. So, Sorting Hat, since you never truly 'don't know' how to sort a student, how do you intend to place Mr. Elric into a House?"
"Well, he's a bit of an enigma that one. Knows how to both make and destroy me, knows about corruption, has seen altogether too much than is healthy, came here for a specific purpose, and is probably wishing I would stop telling you things about him. Don't worry Elric," the Hat suddenly said to Ed, "I don't tell anyone what I see in others' heads. If I did my seal would disintegrate, and I wouldn't be here anymore. So don't worry."
Ed gave a small sigh of relief, which Dumbledore picked up on almost immediately, but chose to ignore as the Hat continued.
"Now, because of his obvious intellect and loathing of non-training manual labor, he is almost the opposite of a Hufflepuff. He is cunning with enough ambition to be a Slytherin, but because he opposes screwing with human lives so much, that he wouldn't do very well in that House either. It is here that I have a problem. Elric came here for learning, but that learning was to help someone dear to him. He has much knowledge, but will use none of it because of the hurt they would inflict on others. So his Gryffindor/Ravenclaw sides are fairly equal. As he had no real preference towards either of his sides, I am going to merge him into both, rather like that Slytherin/Gryffindor combo all those years ago."
"How exactly shall he be merged?" Dumbledore questioned, who looked just as intrigued as Ed did impatient.
"Mr. Elric shall sleep in the Gryffindor dorms, but have all of his classes except for Defense Against the Dark Arts with the Ravenclaws. If he ends up taking NEWT classes with the rest of his year, this won't matter anyway, since the 6th years are all mixed in their classes together. For official things, he shall be listed as a Ravenclaw, and at meals, he can sit wherever he feels like; though probably will end up sitting at one of those two House tables. Ravenclaw would probably be wise for today, Elric," the Hat concluded, addressing Ed again.
Dumbledore nodded, picking up the Hat and setting it on a shelf. "Thank you. Now Mr. Elric, I am sure you are getting hungry, so lets go back down to the feast, shall we?"
--
They walked back to the Great Hall, Dumbledore sitting at the High Table, and Ed quickly walking to the Ravenclaws. He spotted an empty seat across from Luna and collapsed into it. Luna looked up from her pudding, and surveyed Ed questioningly, as he began to heap his plate with a huge pile of food.
"So you're in Ravenclaw then?" she asked. Ed shook his head while biting into a piece of roast.
"Hmm? No, I only have all my classes except Defense Against the Dark Arts with you. I sleep and have that class with the Gryffindors. It's rather confusing really," he finished, shoveling through piles of food as he talked, barely aware of his shitty manners.
Luna didn't notice either, as hers were rather crappy as well (though not as bad as Ed's), and nodded, accepting his rant. The two gorged themselves on pudding (Luna) and anything within reach that didn't visibly contain milk (Ed), while chatting about random stuff.
Luna told Ed about all the strange magical creatures she knew about, and Ed in turn told her about alchemy, his brother, Winry, and Izumi. They would interrupt each other's rants with comments and questions, and proceed to normal talking, but none of it really meant much. It was basically just friendship making talk, and when the meal was over, and Hermione walked over to show Ed the way to Gryffindor tower, they both promised each other they'd talk more the next day at breakfast.
--
Hermione led Ed away from the Ravenclaws, jealousy pulsing through her as she saw how well those two seemed to get along, and was brought out of her brooding by Ed's hand resting on her shoulder.
"Hey, you're a prefect right? Don't you need to show the first years the way too?" Ed asked curiously.
Hermione again battled the flush that arose every time Ed made contact with her, and shook her head. "Not really. Well I do, but Ron knows what to do, and also we're all going to the same place, so it's not really much of a problem."
Ed nodded, and followed Hermione through the castle. Hermione kept turning around to make sure he was still behind her, and was glad of the excuse to look at him.
He really is hot, she thought to herself. His eyes were entrancing, as well as his casualness around everyone.
Once Hermione turned to check on him, and tripped through the Vanishing step that Neville always forgot about, and was about to fall flat on her face when a strong arm caught her, and pulled her up. Hermione tried to turn, but couldn't see her savior because of her leg being stuck through the hole up to her knee, and she couldn't move without the person dropping her.
"Hold on, I've got you. Now pull your leg out. Don't be afraid of falling, I won't let you," said a slightly familiar voice behind her. Gingerly, Hermione pulled her leg out of the step, and set it on the one above it, turning to thank whoever had grabbed her.
Instead of Ron, as she'd thought, it was Ed. His arm unwound from around her waist, and there was a hint of concern in his eyes. Hermione's heart melted, but it froze up almost immediately afterwards.
Shit! He must think I'm a total klutz. She smiled at him as warmly as she could.
"Thanks Ed. By the way," Hermione continued, raising her voice so the staring first years could hear, "there's no step there. If you walk on that step, you'll fall through like I did, and Ed might not be there to catch you if you do," she said, smiling slightly at Ed. He returned her smile with his evil grin, and Hermione blushed, and quickly turned around.
"Hey, Hermione. Lets get to the Tower shall we?" called Ron from behind her. Hermione nodded, recovering her composure, and lead them to their destination, not once looking back at her crush.
--
Ed walked into the Common Room and found it full of red and gold tapestries, big squishy chairs, and a large fireplace against a wall. It was pretty late, so he followed Harry into the boys' dormitory. He found his stuff set up around a large four-poster bed. Drawing the curtains, he quickly changed into some clothes he could sleep in that didn't show his automail, and then stuck his head out to say night to those around him.
Falling back onto his bedspread, he went to sleep as fast as if he were back home somewhere in Amestris.
-
--
--
--
--
--
-
Is it so obvious that when in this chapter and the last that I was completely brain dead (in relation to creativity) and was getting names and random words from Pendragon titles, Runaways characters, and Beatles songs?
…well it is to me…if you really want to know where all my random references were from, I'll tell you guys.
--
Oh, on my profile, there's a poll for if I should edit the EdxWinry in this story. There are several choices, so go state your opinion. I really hate how I wrote it before, so if you guys would vote in that, I'd love to see what you guys think.
--
Tomorrow Ed gets to take his proficiency tests. Joy.
..
That right there was sarcasm. Write that down kids, write that down.
…I am such an abuser of inside jokes…