Firstly, I'd like to give a quick thanks to everyone who's followed, favourited or reviewed this story over the past few years! Seriously, it's amazing how people have even found it considering that it should be buried under a ton of other stories! Seriously, you guys are amazing.
There's been the usual delay reasons; school, university-entry exams, inability to login (had a '+' in my email), but I am now back! (And planning to stay!)
Unfortunately, the news is not going to be all good... While I do not plan to leave this story unfinished forever, busy schedules may ensure that it is not finished soon either. I've also been reading over my work and thinking "I wrote this?!". And for that reason, I will be at least partially re-writing Magik, and the new version will hopefully be a lot better than the current one! (Just... hope that I maintain the dedication to keep updating it...)
The overall plot is not set to change. (Names however, may change slightly.)
Also, since it's been many years since I last seriously wrote this fic, the planning files I had for it initially are all gone and thus this will once again return to the planning phase (though I have a pretty good idea what I wanted in terms of an overall plot). I have also been toying with the idea of re-acquainting myself with Harry Potter and Fullmetal Alchemist as it's also been years since I read/watched them.
Weekly progress updates are planned to be posted on my user profile (as it is far easier to update than chapters). In the meantime, consider checking out Less Wrong's Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. It's not a crossover, but it's very well written I personally found it fascinating. As a peace offering, I leave you the unfinished half of the last chapter, written as of... something like 3-4 years ago.
Chapter Thirteen - Disassociation
For greed all nature is too little.
~Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Blasted boy! Ungrateful wretch, that lazy slob. Who did he think he was; no freak celebrity had the right to have Dudley placed under such torture as that he had undergone; caged and penned as though he were some lowly animal, a mere creature with only lower-order brain capacity! For that matter, the treatment of their whole family had been unsatisfactory for the past month!
It had begun, of course, when the group of hooded men had stormed in, forcibly wrenching the door open (he maintained that the wizards had invaded the private sanctity of his home despite having opening the door once spying the luxurious limousine they had alighted from). From there, they had swarmed into the entrance hall of his house, communicating amongst each other with only pointed looks and flicks of the head. Like a vengeful flock of reapers, preparing to deal out divine justice to the wrongdoers, the hooded figures had swept forwards, effortlessly rebuffing him in silence.
Petunia, peeking around the corner, gasped once, sharply, before the lead figure flicked a stick at her (and only then had he realised they were holding gnarled sticks with fancy handles), in a sharp, yet somehow fluid, motion. Abruptly, Petunia's gasp had cut off, leaving the air feeling almost empty; eerily silent.
Vernon Dursley was not, by nature, a timid man. However in that instant he had felt briefly cowed, before outrage kicked in and his explosive temper reared its head.
"Now you ruddy see here! This is my legal property," He puffed his chest up self-importantly, "And I won't have anyone infringing on my spa-". There was something terrifying in the cloaked figure's gaze, reminiscent of the way that a wolf looks impassively upon a rabbit before it devours it, that choked him into silence.
His forced bluster had no effect on the enemy; what he firmly considered the hooded people to be.
Vernon, five hours later, would not remember what events transpired after that, nor where he was or what happened to himself, let alone the other members of his family.
All he would know as fact was that he was tightly bound by unrelenting rope in a room where shadows flickered over the walls, dancing away from the light of a lone candle in a slight inward niche of wall.
And how dare they do this to him! They had no idea whom they were messing with; he was a successful man set for an upcoming promotion (he estimated two weeks before aforementioned promotion). Power, prestige, these were both his! He would teach these freaks the lesson they had coming to them.
And then he would seize this fine piece of property that they owned as compensation for their treatment.
Harry was learning, perhaps not what he had originally set out to learn, but learning nonetheless. That is, he was learning that the book often made little sense, preferring to an archaic style of writing to complicate even the most simple things. And that listening to either Ed or Al explain it for ten seconds was more productive than ten hours of reading.
Which, mind you, wasn't saying terribly much as the writing style of the books made it hard to focus after the first ten seconds. There is, of course, only so much one can read in ten seconds, which perhaps makes it quite terribly logical that another's ten second summary explanation would be so much more effective.
But yes, Harry was bored. And the tattered, scrawnier-than-him rag of an excuse of a book wasn't helping.
Not that Harry was all that scrawny anymore; it was a testament to the skill - or perhaps the strength of sorcery - that Sara possessed that, within a week, he had gained enough weight to be classified as within the healthy weight range for a boy of his age and height. Just barely, mind you, but still firmly within it. No longer did his stick-like figure stick out like a sore thumb from the other children at school, marking him a easy target for any potential bullies.
In fact, physically there was very little different about Harry that set him aside from the other boys at school. No, whatever glamour Harry possessed now was entirely his own, though he owed it all to Alchemy. Alchemy set him apart from all the others now, alchemy and his friendship- for indeed it was friendship- with the elusive Elric brothers.
I'm also flattered to note that this fic is now also part of a community! (When did this happen?!). Major thank you to everyone who is and/or have been reading, hopefully the overhaul will happen faster than this update. (Otherwise, feel free to remind/shout at me over PM!) (Edit: fixed name, thanks freefall-gypsy!)