Ed was startled out of a work-driven trance by a sharp knock on the door. He blinked a couple of times, bringing himself back to the present, and then pushed himself upright. "Come in!"

In walked the prettiest girl that Ed had ever seen: lustrous platinum hair that fell in a sheet over her shoulders, flawless skin that looked soft to the touch, sharp blue eyes, plump lips that were just the right shade of coral pink, breasts that curved enticingly under the bulk of her winter coat-

Ed forced himself to take a deep breath, trying to slow his suddenly racing heart. It wasn't like him to be so instantly flustered by a woman's looks; it wasn't like him to gawk at all, and the girl had clearly noticed his reaction, given her frustrated expression.

He shook his head sharply, trying to discard the distraction, and focused on her again. Now that he was looking, he recognized her: Fleur Delaceur.

"Afternoon," he managed, relieved that his voice came out mostly steady. His cheeks felt hot. "Did you need something?"

Her expression went from irritated to appraising, and she examined him carefully. "If you think that you can keep your head," she said tartly, "I heard that it was you that taught Cedric Diggory alchemy. I would like to learn also."

"Sorry," Ed said, embarrassed. "I don't know what came over me."

Fleur softened slightly. "I'm part Veela," she conceded after a moment. "From my grandmother. We do have that effect on men."

So it was a magic thing. Thank fuck. Ed rolled his shoulder, trying to shake off the last of the feeling. "Alright," he said. "Nothing I can't get used to. You couldn't attend classes for a while, they're a bit above basic at this point, but I could tutor you until you caught up. Sundays?"

Fleur smiled at him, giving him a firm nod. "After lunch, perhaps? How long should I expect them to be?"

Ed shrugged. "My normal classes run around two hours – it's too intensive for most students to stay attentive much longer than that. We can go longer if you can spare the time?"

Fleur considered. "Might I take a couple and then decide?"

"Sure," Ed said, rather pleased. He hadn't been expecting so many kids to be genuinely interested in alchemy. "Oh, hey- this might be a stupid question, but do you have any Muggle education? Math and science?"

"Beauxbatons students take math courses," Fleur said. Ed grinned.

"You'll have an easier time than most wizard kids then. The, what was it, the pureblooded kids had mostly never heard of it."

"Hogwarts is sometimes too traditional," Fleur said. She'd relaxed from the beginning of the conversation. "Should I allow you to return to your work?"

"Yeah, if that's all you needed," Ed said, glancing back down. He'd downgraded from a whole table full of books to a small stack of references, but he was still only just getting to mapping out transfiguration spells. "See you Sunday."

"See you Sunday," Fleur echoed, and disappeared back out the door.

Ed worked uninterrupted for the next few hours, only occasionally asking Dobby to get another book from the library or take one away, and in the early evening was interrupted by another knock. He sat up, frowning, but then a thought occurred to him and he almost smiled.

"Come in," he called.

The door opened, and as Ed had suspected, it turned into to be Viktor Krum, frowning intensely. He closed the door behind him, walked across the room, and stood directly in front of Ed's desk before he finally spoke.

"I would like to learn alchemy," he said firmly. Ed grinned.

"How does Sunday after lunch sound?" he asked. "Two hours to start, more later if you're up for it." At Viktor's look, he explained, "Fleur came in earlier to ask the same thing. I might invite Cedric too. He spends half of every class helping the other kids keep up."

"...Sunday afternoon is fine," Viktor allowed after a moment. "Two hours is also fine. Are you wanting anything in return?"

"I'm getting paid to teach kids alchemy, I may as well actually do it," Ed said dismissively, and then got an idea. "Actually. Is there a library on that big boat you came on?" Viktor nodded. "Then I might ask you to grab some reference books sometime. I'm working on some research for Dumbledore, and Durmstrang has fewer restrictions on Dark magic, right? Alastor mentioned it."

Viktor glanced down at his desk. "Ah. Are you a curse breaker, Professor?"

"Working on it," Ed said. Viktor almost smiled back.

"I can look for reference books," he agreed. "Is that truly all?"

"Yeah," Ed said. "I like teaching. If that was all you needed, though..."

He tapped the paper with the feather end of the quill, and Viktor nodded and left without another word. Ed smiled to himself and dove back into work, feeling warm. He hadn't expected to like that part of this job so much, honestly.

"Excuse me, have you- oh, Professor Elric!"

Ed glanced over quizzically, and then had to smile when he realized that it was Hermione, clutching an armful of pamphlets to her chest and hovering by the door to the Great Hall. Inside, he could see that many of the students had some, and a few were even flipping through curiously.

"Looks like you're finally getting some attention," he said.

Hermione nodded happily. "It's really helped to have a more solid set of aims and objectives!" she exclaimed. "A few of the students have house elves at home and I was surprised by how interested they were especially! I think we're really getting somewhere this time!"

"That's great," Ed said honestly. "Glad it's coming along better."

"I changed the name too!" she said enthusiastically, holding out a pamphlet to show him the new acronym. "Exploitation And Elf Abuse Erosion Association!" She grinned. "EA3 for short! Bitsy helped me with it. He didn't like the last one very much."

"Oh, you went back?" he asked curiously. She bobbed her head.

"Yes, of course! We got a lot of very good information last time, but there's so much more to discuss! There's still the issue of representation, and how they interact with the Wizarding legal system, and what they want us to tackle first...!" Hermione jumped. "Oh! Professor! I forgot." Ed raised an eyebrow, amused. "I think I've caught up on my chemistry, I've been studying incessantly since you mentioned it! Could you tutor me in alchemy now? Please? I've been looking forward to it so much!"

Geez. Work on top of work on top of work. Ed had to stop himself from smiling. "Sure. Do you have time after breakfast? You are going to sit down and eat at some point, right?"

Hermione nodded determinedly, and Ed chuckled and turned away, heading down the aisle with a warm feeling in his chest. He probably shouldn't be taking so much time for tutoring out of what he spent on the work Dumbledore had actually hired him for, but...

Ed really liked alchemy, that was all.

Ed went up to the head table to alone, keeping an eye on Hermione as she ambushed everyone who came through the door, successfully pestering most of them into accepting packets.

"Your weekly potion, Mr. Elric," Snape said curtly, setting a vial by Ed's elbow as he strode past.

"Huh? Oh, thanks." Ed picked it up and uncorked it with his teeth, then threw it back with a wince. "Hey, Poppy hasn't been running out of Solacium draughts, has she? I know I've been asking for a lot." Damn rain.

"No," Snape said. "She spoke to me about the situation and I have increased her stock accordingly. However, you should know that Solacium is somewhat addictive, and it is not the potion of choice for most wizards with persistent pain."

"No?" Ed asked, surprised. He'd noticed the increasing urge to take it, but he'd figured it was the phantom pains; he didn't get them with his automail, so their sudden return was less than pleasant, and there wasn't much else he could do for them except rub his stump until his body remembered he didn't have an arm anymore. "Damn, I didn't know. Wouldn't it be a pain to add another potion to your to-do list, though?"

"Not necessarily," Snape said dismissively, setting into a breakfast of plain eggs. "The typical potion for persistent pain is Sisyphus' Relief, which I am accustomed to brewing for Professor Kettleburn. I would simply be returning it to my usual rounds."

"Huh," Ed said. "Yeah, if you don't mind. Thanks."

Snape just nodded, and Ed looked back down to finish his own food, noticing that Hermione had finally retired to the Gryffindor table with her two friends. A thought occurred to him.

"Hey," he said. "Do you know why the imposter was targeting Harry Potter?"

Snape put his fork down and stared at him.

"Yeah, that's how the others reacted too," Ed muttered. Snape immediately picked the fork back up, feigning apathy.

"A child survived the curse that no man or beast can ever hope to defy," Snape told his plate, voice carefully neutral. "It is no surprise that the Dark Lord took personal offense to it, as did his followers, who credit Potter with his death." Snape sneered. "Ridiculous. The one who bested the Dark Lord was Lily."

Ed felt a stab of sympathy. "Poor kid. No wonder he hates drawing attention to himself."

Snape scoffed. "Actually, he takes immense joy in it, and pursues attention relentlessly," he said with disdain. "Were it not for his mother's sacrifice, he would be less than nothing."

"Yeah, well." Ed twirled his fork on the empty plate. "That's moms for you."

Something about his tone made Snape glance at him, frowning, but Ed offered up nothing else and Snape didn't ask.

Ed waited until Hermione rose from her table, and then hopped down as well, heading down the aisle. She waved her friends away at the door and waited for him, excitement gleaming in her eyes and almost bouncing with impatience.

"Can we go to the library?" she asked, as soon as he'd caught up. "I know you're going to teach me quite a lot, but I'd really like to be able to read in between lessons!"

Ed tried not to laugh. "Sure. I haven't gotten a good look at the alchemy section yet though, I've been busy. Might take a bit to pick something."

"Maybe a couple?" Hermione asked hopefully, and Ed gave in and laughed.

"Sure," he repeated.

It was a few staircases up from the Great Hall to the library, but luckily it was early enough in the day that it didn't matter much which side of the staircase Ed climbed. He let his mind drift a little, bringing up the earliest material that he and Al had covered. Then again, there was all of the stuff Hermione had already learned- maybe he could move her straight on to compound transmutations and-

"Jesus fuck!"

Ed's only warning before he fell was a split second of vertigo, his foot hitting nothing where he'd expected to find a step. The next second, his weight sent him tumbling down; his leg fell through all the way past his knee, his prosthetic slipped out from under him at the sudden imbalance, and his shoulder port clanged painfully off a stone step. He barely caught himself before his head hit it too.

"Professor Elric!"

Ed groaned, about the only response he could drum up with how much he suddenly throbbed. The fall, with his right leg going through and his left slipping down the steps, had twisted his hips painfully, and his thigh was lodged at an angle in the space between two steps. His shoulder was violently protesting the impact, and insult to injury, the elbow he didn't have was aching too, like it had been part of the fall.

"You know what?" he said to the rail in front of him. "Sometimes Hogwarts fucking sucks actually."

Hermione hopped down a few steps to offer him her hand, worry written all over her face. "I'm so sorry, that step is missing every other Friday – I've been going here so long I didn't even think about it."

"Sometimes whimsical does not mean fun," Ed muttered, and waved her off. Using a banister column for leverage, he hauled his leg out with a grunt, straightening himself out, and gingerly got to his feet again, wincing in pain. His face felt hot. He fucking hated falling down in front of people.

Luckily, Hermione didn't comment, and he took a ginger step over the trick stair, and they were on their way again, with Ed a little bruised up for his trouble.

"What was that clang?" Hermione asked tentatively, when they were off the staircase from hell.

"Huh? Oh." Ed reached up, pulling back his robes enough to expose the shoulder port. Hermione gasped, and Ed smiled a little. "Yeah. I usually have better protheses than this, but they're electronic, so..."

"They don't work in Hogwarts," Hermione finished for him, eyes wide.

"Nasty surprise for me, I'll tell you that," he said dryly. It came out a little more bitter than he'd meant it to. "Never mind that. There's a lot of places we could start, but I was thinking I'd move you straight on to compound transmutations and I can teach you how to design a circle at the same time-"

Hermione was easy to distract with alchemy, luckily, and with her new knowledge of chemistry, she had plenty of ideas for what things she might be able to turn into each other. Ed's good mood had returned by the time they reached the library, and Ed gave Madame Pince a wave on the way through, but didn't stop. He'd never taken from the alchemy section before, but he knew where it was.

Hermione helped him to drag a stand over, and he started pulling down books to flip through, explaining the pros and cons of each one as he did. This book had a lot on circles but very little on the math, this one completely misunderstood natural providence, this one was full of mistakes...

"You haven't explained natural providence either," Hermione said plaintively. Ed hummed, gesturing with the book in his hand in a so-so motion.

"That's because the concept is a little hard to define. Natural providence is the inherent value of a variable." Hermione squinted at him, and Ed snickered. "Variable in this case meaning whatever's going in or coming out of a transmutation... and value being in the sense of worth rather than just a number."

"How important something is?" Hermione suggested, and Ed grinned at her.

"Yeah, exactly. It's not something that matters a lot in same-material or compound transmutations, because as far as the universe is concerned, a rock that you can stand on isn't really any more or less important than a rock you can throw at someone. But it starts to become important with biological alchemy, and when you get into the metaphysical..." He closed the book and smacked it against his shoulder port. "You better understand what you're asking for, or you'll lose a lot more than your pride."

"But how do you determine the value?" Hermione protested, holding tightly onto the two books he'd okayed so far. Ed made another so-so motion and shrugged for good measure.

"You don't, really," he said bluntly. "Because natural providence isn't how much something matters to you, it's how much it matters to the universe. Its power to enact change, mostly, so where you really find natural providence is in human lives... or sentient lives, anyway. Body parts too." He tapped his shoulder again. "On a metaphysical scale, my arm isn't just my arm. It's all the time I spent in rehab, everything I can't do because of the time it takes to get my arm repaired, how much it slows me down when I don't have one."

"Professor?" Hermione asked tentatively, and he was already bracing himself before she continued. "What were you trying to do, when you...?"

The universe took them for my arrogance, Ed thought.

Ed weighed the possible consequences for a minute, but they were far from Amestris and Dumbledore had more or less promised. "I was trying to bring someone back to life. Dumbest thing I ever did. Al and I are lucky we came out of that alive." He smiled a little. "That's what happens when you don't understand natural providence."

"I still don't really understand," Hermione admitted, looking shamefaced. "I mean... how does the universe determine what something is worth? How does it know?"

"It's the universe, Hermione," Ed deadpanned. Hermione wrinkled her nose, and Ed laughed. "I mean it. You just gotta accept that it's out of your hands. You can make an educated guess, but you'll never really know what something is worth."

"How do you balance the transmutation then?" Hermione asked.

"You don't," he repeated. Hermione crinkled her nose again, looking frustrated, and Ed bit back a sigh. "Think on it. I'll see if I can find a better way to explain. Like I said, it doesn't really matter for compound transmutations."

Hermione looked disappointed, but she nodded, and Ed set the book in his hand aside and went to continue flipping through them. At the same time, he found his mind drifting back to the conversation, mulling it over.

It was hard to understand natural providence before you met the Truth; it was such a visceral experience that it was difficult for Ed to articulate. After that night, he'd simply understood: it did not matter what Ed wanted. It only mattered what he was worth, and that was no more or less than anyone else.