Chapter 2

Ed laughed as he ran through his backyard. He and Al were racing to Winry's house to show her the tiny dog they had made from a pile of sticks and a nail. They ran and ran and ran, crawling under bushed and fences, going as fast as their short legs could carry them. The air was clear, the sun was shining, and all was right with the world. Seeing Winry's house, Ed gave an extra burst of speed and shot ahead of Al, laughing. The house was so close, so close he could almost touch it…and then it burst into flames.

Ed stopped and stared in horror. He could hear Winry crying, calling out to him, asking him to save him, pleading with him. He ran inside the burning house. Ed searched and searched, but somehow whenever he thought he had found her, Winry's voice moved and he had to look in another room. And another, and another, and another, and another, and then, when he opened the final door, a beam from the ceiling fell and hit him in the forehead and kept pressing and pressing and pressing…

…and pressing….

…and pressing….

Ed woke up. There was something pressing into his forehead. It hurt. A lot. Ed opened his eyes. There was a man dressed in a bright blue smock with purple and yellow polkadots in front of him, and he was pressing the end of a stick to Ed's forehead.

"Who are you and what are you doing in my house," the oddly dressed man asked while pushing the stick harder and twisting it slightly. Ed's forehead was starting to hurt a lot.

"I'm Edward Elric, and--," Ed started, but the man interrupted.

"A suspicious name! I bet you thought you could just tell me that and then I would let you continue to sleep in my guest room with your filthy boots all over the grunbludge-infused blankets that my dear Emily made with her own two hands, but I can tell you that you are wrong! I demand that you get out at once and you never come back until I send an owl with a proper invitation telling you that you are welcome to sleep here as much as you like, but that will never happen and I can tell you right now-," the man continued, but Ed had already had enough. His nerves were shot, and the stick still pressed against his forehead was starting to annoy him, especially as the man liked to twist it every two syllables.

"Listen, old man, I'll leave just as soon as you get that stick off of my head."

The man's eyes narrowed, just like Luna's had the day before. "Are you a muggle?" he asked.

There was that word again. "I don't know, are you?" Ed asked in what he thought was a condescending manner. It was hard to be condescending when you didn't know what you were talking about.

"Ah," the man said. He slowly lowered the stick.

"Daddy!" Ed looked behind the man to the doorway of the room. It was the girl from yesterday. Luna Lovegood. That was her name. "Don't point that at him! He's my friend!"

The man, Luna's father, looked a little sheepish and turned to face his daughter. "I thought maybe he was another Death Eater that would come to take you away from me again. I couldn't bare to lose you twice."

Luna smiled slightly and walked over to her father. "It's all right Daddy, he's just a muggle. And besides, You-Know-Who is gone. Harry killed him in May. You know that. Now stop being suspicious of every unsuspecting stranger that you find in the guest room." She patted his arm, shooed him out of the room, and turned to look at Ed. "Sorry about that," she said simply, and shoved a breakfast of slightly burnt toast, rather dry scrambled eggs, and thick, pulpy orange juice on his lap.

"Um, thank you," Ed said. He looked at her sideways. He wanted to hear more about this word 'muggle'—that apparently he was—and find out why Luna had gotten kidnapped, who the person they both knew but he didn't was, how he had been killed by a man named Harry, and what the heck it meant for blankets to be grunbludge-infused. Finally deciding that the only question he could ask without sounding like he was prying was the final one, he asked it.

"Oh," said Luna, "grunbludge is secreted by the grunbludge tree in the marsh in the backyard. My mum always used to go out and collect it every summer after the butterflies all leave, but before all the leaves fly away. That's when it's best. If you dip thread in it and then stitch the thread into something, it helps you sleep better and makes the blanket strong, as well as having a pleasant side effect of keeping moths from flying into your ears."

"Oh. Do you still collect it?"

"No. It's too dangerous. The trees don't really like it when you tap into them, so they might swing their branches and try to attack you. My mum had a way of calming them enough so we could do it."

"The trees attack you?"

"Oh yes, but they're definitely not as cruel as the Whomping Willow."

"The Whomping Willow?"

"Yes, but it's at Hogwarts, so you're safe from it."

"Hogwarts?"

"Yes, Hogwarts--," Luna began to answer his question, but suddenly clamped her hands over her mouth. "Oh no," she whispered quietly, eyes widening in horror. "I've said too much."

Ed looked at her scared face and knew that there was a secret in this house, one that seemed to control their lives almost as much as alchemy controlled his. And he also knew that if he didn't reassure her about the fact that he wouldn't tell a soul about it, he would be in deep trouble. He might get that stick shoved in his face again. "Don't worry. I'm a really good secret keeper. I have some of my own that I wouldn't want people to know about, anyway. So you don't have to worry. I won't tell anyone any of what you've told me." As an after thought, Ed added, "I don't really have anyone to tell anyway."

Luna lowered her hands from her mouth. She leaned in closer to his face, and Ed felt as though her big eyes could see right into his head and read every secret he had in there. He stared back and tried not to blink. Ed felt the hair rise at the back of his neck and his breath caught as she leaned closer until their noses were almost touching. After what felt like an eternity, Luna pulled back and he could breathe again.

"Okay!" she said and skipped out of the room, leaving Ed with a mind full of questions and half a cold breakfast.

When Ed finished his breakfast, he placed the tray beside his bed and lay back down, though not before removing his shoes. Mr. Lovegood had been right. His boots were filthy. As he lay there, Ed started to think. He was actually glad he had met a family with secrets. It gave him something to think about other than wonder if he had done the right thing and if Al was okay. So. The first mystery he would try to solve was what a muggle was. After all, if he was one, he might as well know what it was. Like Luna had said yesterday, if he was one, then he should know it, so if he knew it, then he should know what one was. Yesterday…that muggle word had been mentioned a few times…yesterday…in the sun…suddenly Ed sat up. Yesterday he had been in the cemetery. But then he had turned around and the cemetery hadn't been there, and Luna hadn't been there.

Ed took a closer look around his room, feeling suspicious of his own eyes. There didn't appear to be anything out of the ordinary. Ed went to the window and opened it. He sighed in relief as it slid open without too much trouble. At least he wasn't trapped inside his room. Ed looked out the window. That was odd. He couldn't see another house at all, and he was on the second level.

Ed turned around and shuffled slowly across his room. He turned the door knob and peeked his head out the door. It led to a long hallway with many different doors leading off. They all had very odd doorknobs. There were triangular ones, head-shaped ones, and even a hand that looked as though it would grab you before you could grab it. It had no staircase. There was probably one behind one of the doors. Oh, well. It seemed too much of a hassle to go and look for one. Ed decided to stay in his room.

It was very boring. Even though he had quite a few things to think about, he didn't know enough about this place and the people in it to do more than run his mind in circles. Ed liked to think they were very intellectual circles, complicated and intricate like a transmutation circle, but they were circles still the same. He was getting nowhere.

After thinking himself into a corner, Ed was ready for some lunch. The girl Luna seemed to be able to tell. She came into his room with a tray of cucumber sandwiches and a glass of ice cold milk. Ed was horrified.

"Um, I'm sorry, but I don't drink milk."

"Why?"

"Um…I don't like it."

"Why?"

"Because I just don't."

"Oh. Well, that's probably okay," said Luna. "Milk is the easiest thing to poison."

"Oh," said Ed, looking at the glass suspiciously.

Luna looked at the glass as well. Her eyes narrowed. "You're probably right," she said. "Someone could definitely have poisoned it." Ed blinked at her, surprised that she would actually agree with him. "I'll go dispose of it for you." She took the glass between finger and thumb and walked out of the room, holding it at arm's length. Ed stared after her, wondering why on earth she would know that milk was the easiest thing to poison. Whatever—at least he wouldn't have to drink it.

Luna came back just as Ed had gotten up the courage to nibble on a cucumber sandwich. She had brought him a glass of ice water and some more food—things that appeared to have more color and flavor that a cucumber sandwich. Ed snarffed the whole thing down (cucumber sandwiches and all) while Luna watched him with her big eyes.

"Is there anything else you need?" she asked.

"Well…" Ed thought for a moment. "Is it alright for me to be here? Your dad didn't really seem to like me. If you need me to go, then I'm okay with it."

Luna looked shocked. "Daddy not like you?! Oh, no, I'm sure it was nothing like that. He just is very protective of me. He loves me very much, you see, and I don't know what he would do if anything happened to me." She leaned towards Ed and lifted a had to her mouth like she was telling a secret. Glancing at the partially open door, she whispered, "You see, I was kidnapped a few months ago, and the entire house was destroyed. Daddy's only recently gotten over it and just barely put the house back together."

Ed leaned in closer, wanting to know more. He whispered back, "Why were you kidnapped?"

Luna's eyes widened. She shook her head, more to herself than at Ed, and turned away. Ed knew he wasn't going to get any more information at that time. He sighed and turned to stare out the window. Then he remembered. Giving Luna a sideways glance, he asked her nonchalantly, "How come after I left you yesterday the cemetery disappeared?"

Luna turned her head so fast her neck cracked. She looked stunned, horrified, and extremely panicked. "You saw that?" she whispered.

"Yup."

Luna looked more panicked than before. "Oh dear," she croaked. "Now the Ministry's going to send its Man-eating Swarl Monkeys after us." She clasped her hands tightly together and ran out of the room.

Ed stared after her, thinking that if it scared her that much, she shouldn't have talked to him in the cemetery in the first place, but also that now at least he might start getting some answers. Feeling only a little remorseful, Ed lay back down on his bed and stared at the moth that had flown in through his open window. He chuckled quietly to himself, remembering his conversation with Luna earlier about moths and grunbludge-infused blankets. He turned over and decided that an after-lunch nap would be perfect.

Unfortunately, the moth had other ideas. It kept buzzing closer and closer to his ears, and Ed kept getting more and more frustrated as he kept swatting and it kept coming back. Finally fed up, Ed crawled under the blanket and pulled it over his head. He was at peace, finally able to sleep without that annoying—

Buzz.

Ed groaned.

Buzzzzzzzzzz.

Swat.

Buzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Swat.

Buzzzzzzzz—

Glomp.

Ed froze. Something had grabbed the moth mid-buzz. He peeked out from under his blanket and looked around. Everything appeared to be normal, except there was no moth. Ed felt something move by his leg. He gulped and looked down, expecting the worst.

Nothing could have prepared him for what he saw.

In the seam of the blanket there was a tear. The tear was munching—the tear was chewing—on the moth that had just previously been flying around Ed's head. Hardly able to believe what he was seeing, Ed sat there stunned. It wasn't until the moth was destroyed and the blanket belched and settle itself back down on his leg that Ed's brain started working again.

My blanket eats things thought Ed.

Then he screamed. He shoved off his carnivorous blanket, scrambled for his boots, opened his door, and ran out of his room. Ed grabbed the first doorknob—a square one with an odd looking symbol on it. He pushed the door open and was almost completely covered by a sudden downfall of white sparkly powder. The pile on the floor underneath him started weaving itself around his legs. Ed quickly slammed the door shut and almost pulled his own skin off as he attempted to wipe the powder away.

Ed scrambled through the hall, trying each door with each different doorknob as his panic mounted. The head-shaped knob screamed at him, telling him to mind his own business, the hand knob grabbed his and wouldn't let go, and behind each door that he was able to open, there was some new, frightening thing behind it—slime, flying teacups with wings, and even an empty room with something dark and sinister sitting in the corner.

Ed grabbed the final doorknob (an old, thundercloud shaped one) and opened the door to the staircase. Almost crying with relief, he rushed down the stairs and onto the first floor. He looked around and found himself to be in the kitchen. What he saw there was almost even worse than the floor above him.

The dishes were washing themselves. The fire from the stove was dancing. The rooster clock above the sink was strutting about, calling out that it was time to check the pigs. Ed turned around and around and saw more normal things turned abnormal.

Ed staggered out of the kitchen into the living room, leaning against the wall for support. He started at pictures that winked and waved, characters in one picture going into another. Ed's eyes moved from the pictures to the fireplace, which was glowing green. He stepped cautiously over, and backed away quickly as the fire sudden grew to three times its previous size. It swirled and licked at the edges of the mantel, and suddenly a person stepped in from the flames.

"Luna…," Ed said weakly.

She looked at him. Her big eyes grew even wider, almost filling up her tiny face. "Ed…."

"Well," said a man's voice from behind her. "It seems as though you've found us out."

Ed tried to see where the voice was coming from and who it belonged to. A balding man with red hair stepped out from the fire, followed closely by Mr. Lovegood.

The red haired man walked toward Ed with his had outstretched. "Hello, my name is Arthur Weasley. I live next to the Lovegoods. I'm a wizard."

Ed stared.

"And so is Mr. Lovegood. Luna is a witch."

Ed's legs collapsed from under him and he sat down. Hard. Wizards. Witches. That was impossible.

Completely impossible.

Well, there it is. Chapter 2. I don't like this one as much. Luna doesn't do as many wierd things. But Ed's found out about wizards and witches now. Even if I don't know where I want to go with the rest of this story, I know that at least he has to find out about things sooner or later.

I realize that Ed should probably have found out about whether or not he can use alchemy yet. The problem is, I don't know if I want him to be able to use it or not. I can't really picture Ed without alchemy, but at the same time, it would be cool if he did things in this story without alchemy. Or maybe a wizardly form of alchemy. That would be cool.

Whatever.

Anyway, I'm sorry if I got people out of character. I think Ed might be a little more mellow than he is in the anime, but I always find it fake when people try to make characters as dramatic as they are in anime. There are some things you can do with pictures that you can't do with words. There are also some things that only work when they're in anime. Like sweatdrops and veins popping out.

Sorry for the randomness, and I don't own anything except the plot.

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