EDIT: Re-upload. So I was moving this fic to another word processor.. and noticed I had an unfinished sentence at the start (silly me xP). Nothing else changed. Just as a note, 'Tōka Kōkan' means 'equivalent exchange'

Hello again *smile*

Hehe I already had some of this written up before, but figured that I'd wait for feedback before uploading.

Thank yous to TheBlackSeaReaper, Fluehatraya and DeathBySugarCube for reviewing =) I'm glad you like it.

Oh! Italics for emphasis, or spells. Italics in 'quote mark things' for thoughts.

Disclaimer: I don't own either Harry Potter or Fullmetal Alchemist

Chapter Two – Watch and Wait

Be Thou For The People

~Unofficial Creed of The Alchemists

It had been a week since the Rockbells had decided to take special notice of Harry Potter. Despite the amount of time, there was still no change in the treatment of the boy, nor any further incrimminating proof, or the discovery of any others who suspected his mistreatment.

Urey Rockbell ground his teeth together in frustration. Even a blind person would be able to tell that Harry Potter was being abused by his relatives, suffering from mental trauma and living in fear and distress. So why was it that out of the whole school, only he, Sara and Winry could see it. 'Because they're idiots' was the answer that came to mind, 'because they've been tricked by the Dursleys' was the rational answer that wasn't recalled.

Urey nodded absently to a teacher who had asked him something he hadn't heard. Though he had to suffer seeing the children push each other around (and be around those idiotic teachers) this way, information was much easier to obtain. Tōka Kōkan, as Edward might say.

"Harry! Let's have lunch together!" Winry's voice carried up to the infirmary and her father smiled. Winry was a good kid, if blunt at times. But as long as she was around, she could protect Harry from his blundering fat slob of a cousin. She took after her mother, kind, but she wouldn't take any nonsense, not without giving you a lump with her wrench. He smiled again, wryly this time. Perhaps giving Winry the Deluxe Wrench Set had been a mistake, but she seemed to have grown quite fond of it. Edward had been outraged, but then he'd suffered multiple hits to the head. Feeling his thoughts turn to the two brothers, he allowed his eyes to focus on random objects throughout the room. Edward, Alphonse, Winry. He wondered who it was that would end up proposing to his little girl. It didn't matter, only time would tell, and he had to be sure that he lived long enough to see the wedding.

That day, as Harry left for home, he found Dudley waiting outside the school gates, a nasty grin on his face.

"Think you could steal the girl away from me, freak?" Dudley punched him, breaking the glasses for the umpteenth time that week. This time, the tape wasn't able to hold the pieces together and the lenses shattered cutting through the delicate skin on his face.

Sara Rockbell frowned at the sound. Where there still students around? It had been the sound of glass cracking, but faint, it hadn't been a window that shattered.

'Something small, not a bowl – they're louder than that, this is... contacts or glasses. Maybe someone's fist hitting something.'

There was only one person she knew with glasses who had any chance of getting roughed up. Hastily packing away the medical equipments into the cupboard nearby, she reached for her cell. Maybe Urey was better positioned to deal with this.

The ringing of a cell phone made Urey's hand twitch slightly as he fixed a boy's sling. Just like Harry, the boy had been adamant about not telling who had beaten him up, insisting that he 'fell over' when he had a broken arm, and bruises all over his body, except suspiciously where the skin was not covered by the uniform. Maybe Dudley had more intelligence than they'd given him credit for?

The mobile rang again, insistently. Urey pinned the sling in place with the efficiency of one who had had years of practice with one had, answering the phone with his other.

"Hello. Urey Rockbell speaking, how may I help you?"

"Urey could you check the back gate of the school... I have a suspicion that Harry..." Sara (he could tell by her voice), trailed off, probably thinking of all the bad possibilities that could have happened by now.

"I got it, Sara." Urey glanced around for the boy, only to find him mission, most likely having crept off before being questioned again. He sighed and left. Children these days.

Unfortunately for Harry, there had been enough time between Sara hearing, calling, Urey picking up and arriving at the site for Dudley to re-break Harry's arm, give him a bloodied nose and a black eye and run off home. This time there was no wall to slump against, and the concrete path was stained red with his blood. All in all, it wasn't a pretty sight. Pain and nausea registered in Harry's head, conflicting with each other, he couldn't take it anymore, his eyes closed as he lost consciousness, lying in a pool on the sidewalk.

This was the image Urey saw as he swiftly strolled out the school's gate. Restraining himself from going after the bully (just barely), he snapped his head around. Nothing. No-one. Good.

Both Sara and Urey had sworn off magic years ago when they'd moved to Risembool – the military would have loved to get their hands on a new weapon, and hadn't used it since. Until now.

Essence of Dittany would help the cuts, and a blood replenishing potion would be able to replenish the lost blood. Broken bones he could fix in an instant. But there remained the psychological damage to be dealt with. He sighed. There was no alternative, Harry Potter would be sent to St. Mungo's, and the Dursleys issued a court martial (or what ever this world's equivalent was called), it made no difference what it was called.

Performing one last check for muggles, he pulled out his wand, and bandaged up the unconscious boy.

"Ferula." A mass of pure white bandages appeared, wrapping themselves firmly against Harry. Urey watched, hidden fires burning in his eyes, casting an appraising eye over his work. As a doctor, he knew the importance of staying by the wounded, as a person the thing he wished for most would probably be to chase down the ones that had done , he cleaned the pavement with a swish of his wand, all the while watching the bandages carefully. He did not revive the boy, figuring it kinder to leave him in a state where, for once, he need not feel pain or humiliation.

"Expecto Patronum" a brilliant silver-lined hound burst from the tip of Urey's wand, leaping over the gate as if it were real. Once on the other side, it turned back, flipped a ear at them, and bounded off. It never looked back.

Urey sent a sad, nostalgic glance towards the hound before grasping Harry's hand firmly. With a slight pop, they disapparated, landing amidst a crowd of white-robed wizards and witches. The Healers of St. Mungo.

No more assignments (Yay!) I'll probably have the next chapter out before the holidays (That's about a week from now so expect it before the 24th~)