Edward
Ed was sure he was about to murder those damned red headed twins.

They were the pranksters of the class, he could tell. From asking ridiculous questions to intentionally making smal- comments about his height, the Weasley twins were a nuisance to Ed. Even when he sat at his desk, writing a letter to Al describing the wizarding world, from the technology to the unfortunately ignorant students and, of course, to the wonders that the wizards called 'magic' that surpassed the law of equivalent exchange, the Weasley twins continued to come in every 5 minutes with a new answer to his riddle.

"Ed!" Greeted Fred- or was it George? Ed didn't really give a rat's ass. This was the 5th time they've interrupted him within the twenty minutes. He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. He was beginning to wish he didn't tell them that they could go to him whenever they pleased. "What's with the long face? Aren't you happy to see us?"

"Not at all." Ed grumpily replied warily. He considered locking the door when he threw them out of the classroom. Unfortunately, Ed learned that the pair were smarter than they looked. They could probably uses some dumbass spell to unlock it or, hell, they might even just pick the damned lock."The hell do you idiots want?" George grinned.

"That's no way to treat your students~" He sang. Ed shot him a blank stare.

"Does it look like I care?" He asked. "Just...what do you want?" The twins merely grinned in response.

"We know the answer to your riddle!" They said in unison. Ed rolled his eyes with a small snort.

"You said that the last 4 times you've been here." He informed. "What dumbass idea do you have now?" If they were discouraged by Ed's choice of words, they certainly didn't show it.

"To be successful-"

"-you have to work together!" Fred finished. They both grinned, looking quite proud of themselves. Ed rolled his eyes.

"Incorrect. Now, get out." Ed was slightly disappointed when their facial expressions didn't change, discouragement nowhere evident on either of their faces. It made him a bit grumpier. Heh. Irritated because they don't look hopeless? He thought. Ah, I'm going to hell. "Why the hell are you two dolts still smiling?"

"Well, Mr. Ed, we've still got many more ideas to share with you!" George told him. Ed groaned. "Isn't that great?"

"Maybe for you," He grumbled. "Now, get the- oi! The hell are you doing, Carrothead?!" Ed snapped as the other Weasley twin snatched the paper off his desk.

"What's this, Eddie?" He asked him. He knitted his eyebrows together in confusion. "It's in a funny language." Len hissed.

"I'll give you a chance to give that back just because I'm feeling lazy today," Ed growled. Fred didn't seem to hear him. He blinked and squinted at the Amestrian writing on the paper.

"It looks slightly German...but it also sounds kind of...Asia- uwah!" The Elric, impatient and wanting to get his letter back even though the Weasley couldn't understand it, rushed forward and kicked the redhead in the back of the knee with his foot. Hard. Not with his automail one, as much as he wanted, since it would probably break his leg and he didn't want to get an earful from that bastard colonel. Turning quickly around and grabbing Fred's arm, Ed flipped him over. Once he was on the ground, staring up at the Elric wide-eyed, Ed snatched the letter out of his hand. The pair were quiet.

Rather than anger or outrage or even fear appearing on Fred's face, a rather large grin graced his lips and excitement and awe sparked in his eyes. "Professor! That was-"

"-Bloody amazing!" George finished for him. Fred sprang up quickly to his feet, George rushing over there as well. "Can you teach us that, Mr. Elric, sir? We promise to use it out of the goodness of our hearts!"

"Most of the time," Fred added. Ed scoffed and grabbed both of their collars, though the two were a few inches taller than him. Actually, a lot more than a few. Tall bastards.

"No. Now get out." He flung the door open and threw them out. George gave him a look that looked similar to a puppy being thrown in the rain. Ha. Puppy faces don't work on me. Ed thought, slamming the door in their faces and locking it without a second thought. Placing the paper back down on his desk, he gave a small sigh and sat down.

His breath hitched in his throat as he felt an intense pain around his ports. He gripped the edges of the desk, biting his lip so hard he felt the metallic taste of blood in his mouth. He didn't know what the hell it was, but when he entered Hogwarts, he kept experiencing pains around his automail. He brushed it off as a traveling side effect, but as the pains got more frequent and the aches got longer and more intense, he began to think that maybe there was something wrong with his automail. Like hell I'd call Winry...she'd kill me with that damned wrench... He thought, grinding his teeth. It's probably nothing, anyways. The pain finally began to subside and he relaxed, leaning back into his chair with a small sigh.

It'll go away... He thought to himself confidently.

That's what he told himself the last seven times.

Harry
"Gah! I haven't got a clue what Professor Elric means!" Hermione said, a distressed look on her face as she threw her hands up, slamming the book shut. They were in the library. Again. The riddle Profes- Ed gave them seemed to drive Hermione nuts. She spent nearly all her time in the library, now, trying to find the answer in a book. Harry was surprised that she hadn't read all the books in the library yet at this rate. "This is near impossible!" Ron shrugged.

"Why don't you just give up and guess or something?" He asked. Hermione's eyes nearly popped out of her sockets upon hearing Ron's suggestion. Harry winced. Everybody knew that you shouldn't doubt Hermione or tell her to give up as long as you wanted to stay in once piece. However, Ron, being the dense rock he is, continued. "It's not like anyone's gonna get it anyways. It's too ha- ow!" He yelped. Hermione had grabbed a book (thankfully, it was a softcover) and hit Ron over the head with it, glaring daggers at him. Ron rubbed his head. "What's wrong with you, woman?!"

"How dare you assume that I'm such a- a slacker!" She hissed. "You should really try harder to get the answer, Ronald!"

"Well it's harder now that you've knocked about half of my brain cells out with that bloody book!"

"What brain cells, Ron?"

"Oi!" Ron snapped. "Are you saying that I'm dumb?!"

"Obviously," Harry muttered under his breath. Ron didn't seem to hear him. To be honest, Harry didn't necessarily know why Ron was so offended. It was common knowledge that neither of them even came close to Hermione's level of intelligence, which, he supposed, made them...well...dumb, compared to the brunette.

"At least I know not to waste my time readin' every book in the whole bloody library!" Ron shot back heatedly. "It's useless, y'know!" Hermione squinted at him.

"You have no patience, Ronald Weasley." She told him with a small scoff. "The answer has to be somewhere in the library-"

"Nope." The trio whipped around to find their young, blonde professor poke his head out from behind a shelf. "It's fruitless to stay cooped up in the library." He paused, then snorted. "Never thought I'd say that..." Hermione looked horrified and dismayed at the news.

"But- but, Professor!" She protested weakly, dismissing his awkward shudder at her calling him "professor." Ron looked at her in triumph, smirking. "H-How are we s-supposed to find the answer, then?!" She looks like someone kicked Crookshanks, Harry noted. He felt a bit bad for her. Hermione had spent so much time in the library, the pressure of solving the riddle nearly crushing her. Harry was afraid that by the time the answer for the riddle was due, she'd be insane. Ron, however, wasn't so sympathetic.

"Ha! I told you!" He gloated, grinning at a shocked Hermione. "I was right!" Harry rolled his eyes and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

"Oh, come on, Ron. There was a good chance of finding the answer in the library." He said. He was afraid that Hermione would burst into tears any second. The deadline was more than two weeks away, and Hermione spent more than half of the time that was given in the library only to find out that the answer was never there. That was pretty rough.

"You look like someone just threw a puppy out in the merciless rain," Ed remarked, stepping out from behind the shelf, giving Harry a full view of his professor. His arms carried countless books that were stacked all the way up to his chin. The books wobbled and began to slide a bit to the left and Ed cursed quietly as he leaned a bit to the other side. "Before I spill everything on the floor and cause a bigass scene in the library and get skinned alive by the librarian, I'll give you a tip." Once the books were no longer in danger of falling to the floor, he stopped, a relieved look on his face and cast a look at Hermione.

"Go out." He simply said. Harry raised his eyebrows, and Ron looked gleeful.

"Like to Hogsmeade?" He asked. "If you insist, Professor!" Ed snorted. Harry was sure that he would've hit Ron over the head if his arms weren't full.

"No, you-" He sighed and cut himself off. "I mean take a look around nature. Take a hike, have a picnic, whatever. Observe shit around you." Harry frowned.

"But Professor-"

"Ed."

"-Ed." Harry corrected. "How is this gonna help us?"Ed rolled his golden eyes as if Harry was an idiot.

"It's a hint, not the answer." He snorted. "Figure it out. I'm sure you lot are capable." He cursed again, this time much more loudly, as about one or two books nearly fell from his arms. He earned a loud "shh!" from the librarian and a cross look. Ed shuddered.

"Anyways, I'm gonna go before I get smacked. See you guys around." He turned and walked away, swiftly. Harry, for a split second, could've sworn he saw a flash of something under the professor's sleeve. It had happened so fast that he was convinced that it was nothing.

But, then again, when Harry Potter thought of something to be "nothing" it was really anything but that.

fff im not sure if that last sentence made sense but aYE I UPDATED FASTER THIS TIME ARE YOU GUYS PROUD OR AM I GONNA GET MURDERED-

but serIOUSLY HOLY SHIT I NEVER EXPECTED THIS STORY TO GET SO MUCH ATTENTION!

Thank you, all of you, who took the time to read this hot mess of a fanfic! I really appreciate it! Reviews on the chapter are hugely appreciated, and, again, thank you all very much!

ciao~