DISCLAIMER: I OWN NEITHER HARRY POTTER NOR FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST!

Chapter Twenty-Six

Ed was the talk of the school for a couple of days, but only for a couple of days. Two weeks after Harry's two dreams, Harry found himself to be kneeling on the floor of Snape's office, trying to clear his head. He had just been forced, yet again, to relive a stream of very early memories he had not even realized he still had, most of them concerning humiliations Dudley and his gang had inflicted upon him in primary school.

"Get up, Potter," Snape ordered.

Harry didn't say anything as he got to his feet.

"That last memory," Snape inquired, "what was it?"

"I don't know," Harry answered. "You mean the one where my cousin tried to make me stand in the toilet?"

"No," Snape replied softly. "I mean the one with the Amestris Military uniform in a dark room."

"It's…nothing," Harry lied.

Snape's eyes bore into Harry's. Remembering what Snape had said about eye contact being crucial to Legilimency, Harry blinked and looked away.

"How do that man and that room come to be inside your head, Potter?" Snape asked.

"It -" Harry started. "It was just a dream I had."

There was silence for a while, then…

"You do know why we are here, don't you, Potter?" Snape scolded. "You do know why I am giving up my evenings to this tedious task?"

"Yes," Harry answered stiffly.

"Remind me of why we are here, Potter," Snape drawled.

"So I can learn Occlumency," Harry grumbled, glaring at a dead eel.

"Correct, Potter," Snape said. "And dim though you may be" - Harry looked back at Snape, hating him - "I would have though that after two months' worth of lessons you might have made some progress. How many other dreams about the Dark Lord have you had?"

"Just that one," lied Harry.

"And this is the one you had when Mr. Elric was attacked?" Snape questioned.

"Yes," Harry answered. "I didn't mean to have him get hurt."

"Then you would have told Professor Dumbledore who that man was instead of lying to him," Snape admonished.

"You don't understand," Harry accused. "Even though it's your job to be Dumbledore's spy in the Death Eaters, it doesn't mean you'd know everything Voldemort is doing or who he is with."

"And I suppose that is why you feel it important -," Snape started.

"I don't want these dreams, Snake!" Harry snapped.

"Then you should be compelled to practice Occlumency better!" Snape snapped back. "I just think that you are a lazy and sloppy -!"

"I am not!" Harry interrupted.

Before Snape could say anything else, a woman screamed from somewhere outside the room. Snape's head jerked upward; he was staring at the ceiling. Harry could hear a muffled commotion coming from what he thought might be the entrance hall. Snape looked at Harry, frowning.

"Did you see anything odd on your way down here, Potter?" Snape asked.

Harry shook his head. Somewhere above them, the woman screamed again. Snape strode to his office door, his wand still held at the ready, and swept out of sight. Harry hesitated for a moment, then followed. The screams were indeed coming from the entrance hall, they grew louder as Harry ran toward the stone steps leading up from the dungeons. When he reached the top, he found the entrance hall packed. Students had come flooding out of the Great Hall, where dinner was still in progress, to see what was going on. Others had crammed themselves onto the marble staircase. Harry pushed forward through a knot of tall Slytherins and saw that the onlookers had formed a great ring, some of them looking shocked, others even frightened. McGonagall was directly opposite Harry on the other side of the hall; she looked as though what she saw was watching made her feel faintly sick. Izumi was standing beside her with her arms crossed and had an angry look on her face. Ed and Al and Winry were standing by Izumi with identical expressions

Professor Trelawney was standing in the middle of the entrance hall with her wand in one hand and an empty sherry bottle in the other, looking utterly mad. Her hair was sticking up on end, her glasses lopsided so that one eye was magnified more than the other; her innumerable shawls and scarves were trailing haphazardly from her shoulders, giving the impression that she was falling apart at the seams. Two large trunks lay on the floor beside her, one of them upside down; it looked very much as though it had been thrown down the stairs after her. Professor Trelawney was staring apparently terrified, at something Harry could not see but that seemed to be standing at the foot of the stairs.

"No!" Trelawney shrieked. "NO! This cannot be happening… It cannot … I refuse to accept it!"

"You didn't realize this was coming?" a high girlish voice, which belonged to none other than Umbridge, asked. "Incapable though you are of predicting even tomorrow's weather, you must surely have realized that your pitiful performance during my inspections, and lack of any improvement, would make it inevitable you would be sacked?"

"You c-can't!" Trelawney howled, tears streaming down her face from behind her enormous lenses, "you c-can't sack me! I've b-been here sixteen years! H-Hogwarts is m-my h-home!"

"It was your home," Umbridge corrected, her toad-like face stretching in enjoyment as she watched Trelawney sink, sobbing uncontrollably, onto one of her trunks, "until an hour ago, when the Minister of Magic countersigned the order for your dismissal. Now kindly remove yourself from this hall. You are embarrassing us."

Umbridge continued watching in enjoyment as Trelawney rocked back and forth on one of her trunks, sobbing. Just then, McGonagall and Izumi broke away from the spectators, marched straight up to Trelawney. McGonagall pat Trelawney on the back as Izumi gave Trelawney a handkerchief.

"It's all right," Izumi said, with a soft tone that Harry nor any of the other students had heard before. "You won't have to leave."

"Izumi is right, Sibyll, you don't have to leave," McGonagall comforted.

"Oh, really, Professors?" Umbridge asked in a deadly voice, taking a few steps forward them. "And your authority for that statement is…?"

"His," Izumi said, standing straight and putting her hands on her hips.

"Professor Curtis is right," a deep voice confirmed.

The oak front doors had swung open. Students beside them scuttled out of the way as Dumbledore appeared in the entrance. What he had been doing out in the grounds, Harry could not imagine, but there was something impressive about the sight of him framed in the doorway against an oddly misty night. Leaving the doors wide behind him, he strode forward through the circle of onlookers toward the place where Professor Trelawney sat, tearstained and trembling, upon her trunk, McGonagall alongside her.

"Yours, Professor Dumbledore?" Umbridge laughed. "I'm afraid you do not understand the position. I have here" - she pulled out two parchment scrolls from within her robes - "two Orders of Dismissal signed by myself and the Minister of Magic. One for Professor Trelawney and the other for Professor Curtis. Under the terms of Educational Decree Number Twenty-three, the High Inquisitor of Hogwarts has the power to inspect, place upon probation, and sack any teacher she - that is to say, I - feel is not performing up to the standard required by the Ministry of Magic. I have decided that Professor Trelawney is not up to scratch. I have dismissed her. And now I am dismissing Professor Curtis."

Dumbledore smiled and looked Trelawney and back to Umbridge.

"You are quite right, of course, Professor Umbridge," Dumbledore said. "As High Inquisitor you have every right to dismiss my teachers. You do not, however, have the authority to send them away from the castle. I am afraid," he gave a courteous little bow to Umbridge, "that the power to do that still resides with the headmaster, and it is my wish that Professor Trelawney continue to live at Hogwarts. Professor Curtis may continue if she wishes as well."

"Don't worry, Albus," Izumi said. "I'll go back to Dublith."

"Teacher, don't leave us!" Al spoke out. "We need you here!"

Everyone looked at Al. Izumi went to Al.

"It'll be all right, Alphonse," Izumi assured.

Trelawney gave a wild little laugh in which a hiccup was barely hidden.

"I'll g-go, Dumbledore!" Trelawney stammered. "I sh-shall l-leave Hogwarts and s-seek my fortune elsewhere like P-Professor Curtis."

"No," Dumbledore said sharply. "It is my wish that you remain, Sibyll. Professor McGonagall, might I ask you to escort Sibyll back upstairs?"

"Of course," McGonagall said. "Up you get, Sibyll."

Then she helped Trelawney up and guided her up the marble stairs. Professor Flitwick went scurrying after them and magicked the luggage into the air and had it float in front of him as he proceeded up the staircase after McGonagall and Trelawney.

"I'll be in my quarters," Izumi said.

Then Izumi went to follow McGonagall, Trelawney, and Flitwick. Before Izumi ascended the staircase, however, Izumi punched Umbridge, giving Umbridge a bloody nose. Dumbledore looked the other way, pretending he hadn't seen anything. Umbridge corrected her nose and stared at Dumbledore, who was still smiling.

"And what," Umbridge whispered, "are you going to do with her once I appoint a new Divination teacher who needs her lodgings?"

"Oh, that won't be a problem," Dumbledore said pleasantly. "You see, I have already found us a new Divination teacher, and he will prefer lodgings on the ground floor. And not to mention, the Amestris military will be providing us with a teacher of their own for the students."

"You've found -?" Umbridge shrilled. "You've found? Might I remind you, Dumbledore, that under Educational Decree Twenty-two -"

"- the Ministry has the right to appoint a suitable candidate if - and only if - the headmaster is unable to find one," Dumbledore completed. And I am happy to say that on this occasion I have succeeded. May I introduce you to the new Divination teacher?"

He turned to face the open front doors, through which night mist was now drifting. The sound of hooves could be heard. There was a shocked murmur around the hall and those nearest the doors hastily moved even farther backward, some of them tripping over in their haste to clear a path for the newcomer.

Through the mist came a figure with white blond hair and astonishingly blue eyes, the head and torso of a man joined to the palomino body of a horse.

"This is Firenze," Dumbledore said happily to a thunderstruck Umbridge. "I think you'll find him suitable."