DISCLAIMER: I OWN NEITHER HARRY POTTER NOR FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST!
Chapter Twenty-Seven
"But why, damn it?!" Ed yelled, pounding a fist on Izumi's desk.
Izumi was packing her stuff the next morning, and Ed and Winry and Al were in her office. They didn't care to go to class.
"Because I was fired, Edward," Izumi said, putting some papers into a briefcase on the desk and looking at Ed, Al, and Winry. "I can't stay where I'm not wanted."
"But we want you here, Teacher," Al said, quietly.
Izumi smiled at Al.
"I know you do, Alphonse," Izumi said. "But I also need to help Sig and Mason at the store back home. I have missed them."
"But, Ms. Izumi," Winry started, "do you think it wise to leave? I mean, Ed was attacked two weeks ago on his way to tell you something. I don't think it would -"
"The military is sending someone to teach you," Izumi interrupted.
"Who are they sending?" Ed asked.
"Professor Dumbledore hasn't told me, but he said that the new Alchemy teacher will be able to protect you all from any danger," Izumi answered.
"I thought you didn't trust the government," Ed remarked.
"I don't," Izumi replied. "But if I don't leave and I don't act like I'm suspicious, I'm afraid that something bad will happen. Is that what you are afraid that will happen if I leave, Alphonse?"
Al nodded.
"Please don't leave," Al murmured.
"Alphonse, everything will be all right," Izumi assured.
"No, it won't," Al disagreed. "It will just get worse."
"What do you mean?" Winry asked.
"I don't know," Al answered. "I just have a feeling."
"I am just an owl away, Alphonse," Izumi reassured.
Izumi then finished packing. A few moments later, she left through the fireplace. Ed, Al, and Winry gazed at the fireplace. Ed put a hand on Al's shoulder.
"Don't worry, Al, I'll protect you," Ed promised.
Al didn't say anything.
"I'll help," Winry agreed with Ed, putting a hand on Al's other shoulder. "No one is going to mess with us."
Al sighed and nodded.
The fifth year Gryffindors wouldn't have their next Divination class and Alchemy class until a few days later after the sacking of Trelawney and Izumi. At breakfast on that morning, Parvati was curling her eyelashes around her wand and examining the effect in the back of her spoon.
"I'll bet you wish you hadn't given up Divination now, don't you, Hermione?" Parvati smirked. "And I heard you don't take it anymore, either, Winry."
"It's a load of crap," Winry said. "And not to mention, he's just a horse."
"I agree," Hermione said indifferently, who was reading the Daily Prophet. "I've never really liked horses."
"He's not a horse!" Lavender reprimanded. "He's a centaur!"
"A gorgeous centaur," Parvati sighed.
"Still a horse," Ed muttered, taking a bite of a sausage and then looking at Lavender and Parvati. "Besides, aren't you two all weepy about bat-lady leavin'?"
"We are!" Lavender protested. "And don't call her a bat lady!"
Ed shrugged his shoulders.
"How is she?" Al asked.
"Not very good, poor thing," Lavender sympathized. "She was crying and saying she'd rather leave the castle forever than stay here if Umbridge is till here, and I don't blame her. Umbridge was horrible to her, wasn't she?"
"She'll be getting worse, mark my words," Al muttered darkly. "She'll want revenge on Dumbledore for hiring another part-human."
"She shouldn't have fired Professor Curtis," Parvati said. "Even though Professor Curtis was rough, she was still a good teacher."
Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ed, and Al agreed. After breakfast, Hermione departed for her Arithmancy class while Winry left for Potions. Harry, Ron, Ed, and Al followed Parvati and Lavender into the entrance hall, heading for Divination.
"Aren't we going up to North Tower?" Ron asked, looking puzzled as Parvati bypassed the marble staircase.
Ed scowled.
"Ron, how would you expect a horse to climb up that step ladder?" Ed asked. "It's goin' to be in classroom eleven. You would have known if you actually read the notice board."
Classroom eleven was situated in the ground-floor corridor leading off the entrance hall on the opposite side to the Great Hall. When Harry, Ron, Ed, Al, Parvati, and Lavender entered the classroom, they were surprised.
"Not too shabby," Ed muttered.
"No," Al agreed. "It looks a bit like the island Teacher dropped us off at."
"Sure does," Ed said.
The classroom floor had become mossy and trees were growing out of it; their leafy branches fanned across the ceiling and windows, so that the room was full of slanting shafts of soft, dappled, green light. The students who had already arrived were sitting on the earthy floor with their backs resting against tree trunks or boulders, their arms wrapped around their knees or folded tightly across their chests, looking rather nervous. In the middle of the room, where there were no trees, stood Firenze.
"Harry Potter," Firenze greeted Harry, holding out a hand when Harry entered.
"Er - hi," Harry replied, shaking hands with Firenze, who surveyed him unblinkingly through those astonishingly blue eyes but did not smile. "Er - good to see you…"
"And you," Firenze said, inclining his head. "It was foretold that we would meet again."
Ed and Al gave each other apprehensive looks, each thinking that Firenze was tense. When the door was closed and the last student had sat down upon a tree stump beside the wastepaper basket, Firenze gestured around the room.
"Professor Dumbledore has kindly arranged this classroom for us," Firenze said when everyone had settled down, "in imitation of my natural habitat. I would have preferred to teach you in the Forbidden Forest, which was - until Monday - my home…but this is not possible."
"Please - er - sir -," Parvati said breathlessly, raising her hand, "why not? We've bee in there with Hagrid, we're not frightened."
"It's not about bravery, Parvati," Ed said before Firenze could.
Everyone turned and looked at Ed. Ed was sitting against a tree trunk with his hands clasped behind his head and legs crossed at the ankle. Ed opened an eye.
"It's about Freezer's position," Ed continued. "He's been banned by the other horse things for doin' whatever."
"Professor Dumbledore warned me about you," Firenze said, as everybody gaped at Ed for his care-free attitude towards Firenze. "I am not offended. I have been banned by the others in my herd for agreeing to work for Professor Dumbledore."
"There are more of you?" Parvati asked.
"Did Hagrid breed you like the Thestrals?" Dean asked excitedly.
Dean flushed in embarrassment as Firenze turned to look at him, knowing immediately that he had said the wrong thing.
"I didn't - I meant - sorry," Dean finished in a hushed voice.
"Centaurs are not the servants or playthings of humans," Firenze said quietly. "Let us begin."
He swished his long palomino tail, raised his hand toward the leafy canopy overhead then lowered it slowly, and as he did so, the light in the room dimmed, so that they now seemed to be sitting in a forest clearing by twilight, and stars emerged upon the ceiling.
"Lie back upon the floor," Firenze instructed in his calm voice, "and observe the heavens. Here is written, for those who can see, the fortune of our races. I know that you have learned the names of the planets and their moons in Astronomy, and that you have mapped the stars' progress through the heavens. Centaurs have unraveled the mysteries of these movements over centuries. Our findings teach us that the future may be glimpsed in the sky above us…"
"Professor Trelawney did Astrology with us!" Parvati said excitedly, raising her hand in front of her so that it stuck up in the air as she lay on her back. "Mars causes accidents and burns and things and -"
"No, it doesn't," Ed scowled. "Being careless when doing things causes accidents and burns. You have to be careful all of the time when handling hot objects."
"Edward Elric is correct," Firenze said. "Professor Trelawney is a human. And is therefore blinkered and fettered by the limitations of your kind. Sibyll Trelawney may have Seen, I do not know, but she wastes her time, in the main, on the self-flattering nonsense humans call fortune telling. I, however, am here to explain the wisdom of centaurs, which is impersonal and impartial. We watch the skies for the great tides of evil or change that are sometimes marked there. It may take ten years to be sure of what we are seeing."
Firenze pointed to the red star directly above Harry.
"In the past decade, the indications have been that Wizard-kind is living through nothing more than a brief calm between two wars. Mars, bringer of battle, shines brightly above us, suggesting that the fight must break out again soon. How soon, centaurs may attempt to divine by the burning of certain herbs and leaves, by the observation of fume and flame…"
It was the most unusual lesson Ed had ever attended, and that was saying something. They did indeed burn sage and mallow-sweet there on the classroom floor, and Firenze told them to look for certain shapes and symbols in the pungent fumes, but he seemed perfectly unconcerned that most of them could not see the symbols in question, saying that humans weren't very good at that and that it took centaurs years and years to become competent. He finished by telling them that it was foolish to put too much faith in such things anyway, because even centaurs sometimes read them wrongly.
After class ended, Firenze told Harry, Ron, Ed, and Al to hang back and shut the door so no one would overhear their conversation.
"Alphonse Elric," Firenze said, looking at Al who had looked at Firenze when hearing his name, "have you practiced this before?"
"No," Al answered. "I don't know why I was the only one to see those symbols."
"Your eyes are not as innocent as they should be," Firenze said. "You have knowledge that -."
But Al didn't let him finish. Al grabbed his bag and rushed out of the room. Ed grabbed his bag and went after Al.
"Al!" Ed called out.
Ed caught up with Al at the front double doors.
"Al, are you okay?" Ed asked.
"I'm a monster, Brother," Al whispered.
"What?" Ed asked. "Who gave you that stupid idea?"
"Nobody did," Al answered. "I just…I'm sorry… I'm just being stupid."
"Don't let what horse-guy Freezer say get to you, okay?" Ed said. "He's just a high-and-mighty actin' horse dude who thinks everyone else is below him and his kind or whatever. Come on. Let's get to Alchemy to see who our new teacher is."
Al nodded. Then he and Ed went to the Alchemy classroom. Already there were Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Ed and Al sat by them.
"Are you all right, Alphonse?" Hermione asked.
"I'm fine," Al answered.
A few minutes later, the bell rang for the class to start. Everyone was wondering when the teacher would come when a voice spoke.
"All right, everyone, calm down," said the voice.
Ed froze at the sound of the voice and whirled around along with everyone else to see…
"Are you shocked to see me here, FullMetal?" asked the person to whom the voice belonged, Colonel Mustang.
"What are you doing here?!" Ed asked.
"The Fuhrer has asked me to be the professor of your teacher's class since she was let go by Professor Umbridge," Mustang answered, going to the front of the class and facing everyone while standing behind the desk. "He thought it would be a good idea."
Ed growled underneath his breath. Mustang smirked and then read the note on the desk that was left by Izumi.
"It seems that you covered quite a bit," Mustang said. "But you haven't covered enough."
"What more is there to learn?" Malfoy asked. "Alchemy is just a waste of -"
Just then, Roy snapped his fingers, making Malfoy's robes catch on fire. Malfoy yelped and started stamping out the fire. The Gryffindor's laughed.
"This glove that I am wearing on my right hand," Roy said, after everyone had quieted down and showing his right hand, "is made out of special reactive cloth. When rubbed together, it sparks. The rest is just adjusting the oxygen level in the air around what I want to combust, and then it explodes…like Mr. Malfoy's robes. I will be teaching you all of the techniques that are able to be done with Alchemy."
Parvati raised her hand.
"Yes?" Roy asked.
"Will you teach us how to 'transmute' without a circle like Edward and Alphonse and Professor Curtis can do?" Parvati asked.
"No," Roy answered. "That is something that cannot be taught."
"Then how can they do it?" Parvati asked.
"Let me put it this way, Edward and Alphonse and Professor Curtis are special alchemists," Roy explained. "They all have done stupid things in their past, but those mistakes have allowed them this ability. The mistakes they have made are not to be repeated because it would be illegal and stupid."
"Then why aren't they in your prison?" Malfoy demanded.
"That is none of your concern," Roy said. "Now, let's see what we can do for today."
After the lesson was over, Roy excused them all for lunch and held Ed and Al back. Ed and Al went to the front of the class and to Roy's desk.
"What do you want, Colonel Sarcasm?" Ed asked.
"Calm down, Edward," Roy said. "I'm just here because Fuhrer Bradley thought it would be best for me to take over the post so I can keep an eye on you."
"You mean to spy on me," Ed grumbled.
"Is that exactly what he said, Colonel?" Al asked.
"Yes," Roy answered. "Why? Did you -?"
"I just don't think I trust the Fuhrer," Al said.
"No, Hughes didn't either," Roy muttered.
"What do you mean by that?" Ed asked.
"I don't want to tell you, but if I didn't tell you, then you would find out from another source," Roy answered. "Hughes was murdered."
"What?" Ed gasped.
"We just saw him last summer!" Al said.
"Why aren't you investigating his death?!" Ed demanded.
"Because I've been assigned here," Roy answered. "The investigation is being taken care of, so don't worry."
Ed scowled and left the room. Al bowed in respect and went after Ed.