Yes, this is unspeakably late, I am aware of that. I keep promising quick updates, yet they never come. I am terribly sorry, and this will not happen again! No longer shal I lie to you and say that the next update will come quickly, because it most likely WON'T!!
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I still own nothing. If I did, there'd be yuri, and as all the characters of both fandoms are unspeakably straight, there is proof that I indeed am not Arakawa-sensei.
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Chapter 16: First Day of School
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Ed woke up a few hours after the sun as usual, but waaaay earlier than the rest of the dorm. He quickly changed into his robes, putting his red cloak on over them out of sheer impulse. Grabbing the Standard Book of Spells for year seven and his wand, Ed wandered down into the Common Room. He opened the book and began reading, processing all the information about the spells, then actually trying them, testing the authenticity with alchemy if possible. In the space of two hours, he'd finished the book and performed all the spells twice, always with the desired effect. Slightly bored, he went back up to the dorm to grab the texts for his electives, starting in on them right away. By the time the Golden Trio was up, Ed was interpreting complex math charts, while trying to memorize a list of planets simultaneously.
"What the hell?"
Ed looked up and saw them standing in front of him. "Oh hey, Harry, Ron, Hermione. How long've you been up?"
"About fifteen minutes. What about you?" Harry responded.
"Oh, a few hours. I'm trying to study for the placement tests I'm getting today, and the stuff for Astronomy and Arithmancy is harder to memorize than the normal spells and formulas," Ed said distractedly, copying down numbers as he spoke.
Harry took away the Arithmancy book and handed it to Ron. "Put that in his room before he starts writing the names of planets in instead of numbers." Ron nodded, and left despite Ed's protests.
"Hey, give that back! I need to study, if I'm going to take all 6th year classes the first term! I don't want to have to take the 5th year classes and supplementary lessons! Give me the damn book!" Ed yelled, only to have the Astronomy book shoved into his face.
"One thing at a time mate. I want you to be at NEWT level too, we don't want you killing yourself. You can't have the other one until you finish this one. Deal?" offered Ron. Ed glared at him.
"Fine," he said, looking around for a clock. "Hey, when does breakfast start?"
"Bit more than an hour. It's 7:30 now, and breakfast isn't until 8:45. So study now. By the way, Ed, why are you wearing that cloak?" Hermione asked curiously.
Ed shrugged. "It's comfortable, I like it, the robes are stupid, and it's what I normally wear except without the robes. Thanks for telling me the times. Come get me when you go to eat, 'kay?"
The Trio nodded, and walked off, complete with little golden chibi auras surrounding their heads. As Hermione tried to devise spells to make herself a matching cloak, Ed memorized most of the planets, and finished all the Arithmancy interpretation. He was left with time to kill so he walked over to where the Golden Trio was in deep conversation with Ron's girl-mini-me.
"There's something weird going on. I can tell."
"Harry, don't overreact out of paranoia."
"People can fool you Harry-"
"Yeah, I remember how Sirius died Hermione."
"Thanks Hermione, rub salt in his wound why don't you-"
"Shut up Ginny you know I didn't mean it like that-"
"What did you mean it like then?" said Ed, and they group whipped around to see him standing behind him. Harry and Ron relaxed, while Hermione visibly grew tenser.
"Oh, hey Ed," Harry said cheerfully. Ed sat on the couch next to the Ron-girl.
She held out a hand. "I'm Ginny Weasley. Nice to meet you. They've told me loads about you."
Ed smiled and took the hand. "Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist. Call me Ed," he said automatically, then kicked himself for the title-giving habit. "Dammit!! Agh!! Stupid military!! Grrr…" he muttered to himself, then remembered Ginny next to him. "Oh, sorry Ginny. I'm just trying to break this habit of title giving that the damn military trained into me. Just call me Ed."
Ginny smiled, eyes full of laughter. "It's cool. By the way, I'm a year younger than you and Ron's sister."
"Yeah, I gathered. So is it time for breakfast yet?" The wizards all automatically looked down at their watches, and then stood up.
"Yeah, the Great Hall's been open for about ten minutes. Lets go."
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The group walked down to breakfast, Ed finding Luna and sitting with her. After breakfast, the plates magically disappeared off the tables much like it had appeared the night before.
Professor McGonagall came around and started handing out schedules and talking to people about their classes. When everyone but him had received a schedule, McGonagall beckoned Ed to come with her. He followed her into a classroom that had a cauldron set up, several plants, a large dummy, and a lot of teachers standing around the sides of the room. Ed spotted Severus and gave him a small wave, which was promptly ignored. McGonagall headed to the front of the room and started speaking.
"Mr. Elric-"
"I'd prefer it if you called me Edward or Fullmetal m'am."
"No. Mr. Elric as you are new here and have only just begun studying magic, you need to take a small proficiency test to see if we need to give you supplementary lessons before allowing you to take NEWT level classes. Professor Sprout, could you start us off please?"
"Certainly Minerva," replied a small slightly pudgy woman, who walked up to Ed and smiled. "Please follow me over to the plants." Ed walked over and was faced with Devil's Snare, a Mandrake, and a Bubotuber pod.
"Please tell me how to deal with the situations I give you for each plant, and then repeat the following instructions exactly as I tell you them." Ed nodded and got to work, doing everything pretty well, except that he got some Bubotuber pus onto his automail, and his Mandrake didn't get potted very well. As Ed Scourgifyed himself, Professor Sprout wrote some things down on a clipboard, and then passed it to Professor Slughorn.
"Edward, m'boy!" he said boisterously. Ed liked that he didn't use Elric, but still disliked everything else about the teacher's manner. Especially the whole "m'boy" thing he kept using.
"I'm going to ask you if you know how to make several potions, and if you say yes, please tell me the basic instructions. Then please make a potion according to these instructions, and identify the end product. Not too difficult, eh m'boy?" boomed the man.
Ed shook his head. "Not really."
"Very good, I have high hopes for you. Now, please tell me how to make the Draught of the Living Dead."
This test went better than the last one, given that early alchemy was almost exactly like potions. Ed did everything perfectly, and Slughorn kept remarking at his apparent genius, and beaming at him in a way that Ed didn't exactly like. Next up was Severus.
"Hello Fullmetal."
"Hey, Severus. So you're a teacher?" Ed replied, raising an eyebrow.
Severus scowled. "It's Professor Snape to you, as I am your teacher. Now, please perform all of the following spells either on me, or on that dummy, depending on what it does." Snape listed off the Non-incantation names of the spells, watching Ed perform them perfectly with almost no surprise. He'd known ever since the boy had blocked his mind that he had more power than expected, more than the average adult wizard, and certainly more than Potter.
"Thank you Fullmetal," Severus said, after Ed Enervate-ed him from his Stunned state. "That will be all for DADA," he finished, passing the clipboard to McGonagall.
She proceeded to test him on Transfiguration, something Ed was especially good at, considering that it went against all of his principals and morals. His determination to learn it came from the fact that he might be able to conjure up Al's body, or something equally as unlikely.
Ed moved onto Charms, and after being asked what he wanted for electives, was tested in Arithmancy and Astronomy. He left the room feeling both confident that he would get into the classes he wanted, and apprehensive at the fact that none of the teachers had told him his score, but had simply scribbled on that damn clipboard.
Reaching the Common Room, he was relieved to discover that classes didn't start until the next day, and sank into a squishy chair. He spent the next few minutes listening to the Golden Trio talk about random shit, while zoning out. Finally he got really bored, and started heading out of the room, when he felt someone tap him on the shoulder. Spinning around, Ed saw Hermione next to him.
"Where are you going?" she asked.
He shrugged. "I'm just going to wander around I guess. Wish classes started today."
Hermione gave him a look of surprise. "That's weird, everyone else is grateful for the day off. Personally, I wanted to start today too, but they changed the schedule of classes this year because a few of the teachers weren't going to arrive until tomorrow, but since they showed up early, they're still waiting a day to start and yeah…" Hermione trailed off, staring into Ed's eyes.
He shrugged, not noticing, since he always held eye contact with people. "That kinda sucks. Anyways, wanna come with? The guys look like they don't want anyone interrupting their game. Feel like showing me around?"
Her eyes lit up at his words, and she agreed heartily, waving to her other chess-playing 2/3s.
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They walked around the castle, Hermione showing Ed all the classrooms, most of the offices, the kitchens, and the halls. She told him about the staircases, and the door passwords. She showed him the Room of Requirement, watching Ed transform it into a small room with numerous bookcases, a few nice corners between them, a bed, and materials for alchemical experiments. Ed looked around solemnly.
"This looks like a cross between one of the libraries and my room at Granny Pinako's," he said softly. Hermione looked at him and saw sadness in his eyes; along with an emotion she couldn't quite place. Ed shook his head to clear his thoughts, and headed out of the room.
"So is there a library here, or what?" Ed demanded suddenly. Hermione was taken aback. Normally that was the thing people thought of last when they walked around Hogwarts. People besides her anyways.
"Yeah, there is."
"Okay, what are we waiting for? I want to see it!" Ed said excitedly, and Hermione led him into the large library. Ed gave a total noncommittal sound similar to Winry-in-a-tool-shop squeals, and started browsing through the aisles. Hermione followed, surprised at his herself-like enthusiasm. She eventually had to drag him away, telling him there was more to see. Ed followed reluctantly.
Hermione took him through the grounds, around the lake, across the train tracks, to the edge of the Forbidden Forest, and decided they might as well pay Hagrid a visit. She started leading him to the hut.
"Hey Ed, we're going to go see Hagrid. Is that all right? He's great and all, so don't worry about him." Ed nodded, wondering who he was. Hermione walked up to the door, and knocked, calling "Hey, Hagrid open up. It's Hermione!"
The door opened and a huge man with a large shaggy dark beard opened the door, smiling at Hermione's presence.
"Hullo Hermione. Who's this now?" he leaned down to look at Ed. "Yur the transfer ain't ye?"
Ed nodded, holding out his hand. No titles no titles no titles no titles no titles.
"I'm Edward Elric. Call me Ed."
The big man took his hand. "Rubeus Hagrid. Call me Hagrid. Everyone does. Well come in now. Where's Harry and Ron?" he asked suddenly.
Hermione shrugged. "I was taking Ed on a tour of the school, and they didn't feel like coming."
Hagrid nodded, and the three of them had lunch, and had a pretty good time overall. The two students left laughing, promising to return again soon. Ed watched Hermione continue chuckling at the memory of the visit and smiled.
She's pretty cool. A lot better than her friends that's for sure.
A thought hit him and he laughed out loud. Hermione looked at him in confusion. "What's so funny?" she asked.
Ed shook his head. "Nothing. Just the fact that the only people here that I actually consider real friends are two girls and a first year."
Hermione smiled. "Yeah, well at least you already have some friends. I didn't have any until after my first Halloween here."
Ed was caught off guard by this. "What? Really?"
Hermione nodded. "Yup. I was the annoying rule-worshipping smart girl until Harry and Ron saved me from a mountain troll after crying in the bathroom. I actually lied to a teacher that day, and the three of us just kinda bonded. Everything else fell into place from there," Hermione finished, reminiscing. Ed nodded, bored, and after a few moments Hermione blushed, having forgotten he was there.
They went back to the Common Room, and pretty much hung out for most of the day. Harry and Ron asked why they missed lunch, and when they said they'd had it with Hagrid, they pretended to get pissed off, but it all ended in laughter. At dinner Ed sat with the Ravenclaws as usual, but pulled Luna over to sit by Jules and his brother. They joked around, and when Ed went to bed that night, he was slightly glad that there hadn't been any classes that day, as he'd made yet another friend from the outcome.
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Yes, I am a lazy bum for not making classes start yet, but I got really depressed today, because I saw something horrible, and to make a short story short, blame an hour of tears for this chapter's crappiness.
As said before, I'm not going to lie to you and say that the next update will be soon, but it should come in a loosely reasonable timeframe.