Chapter Text
"Mr Bones, I really must protest. Return to your seat immediately," Professor McGonagall ordered, frowning.
"I'm terribly sorry Professor," Al said breathlessly, his arms still wrapped firmly around Ed's neck. "But I haven't seen my brother for years and-"
"It's quite all right, Minerva," said an older man with light blue eyes and an extravagantly long beard. "Mr Elric here is something of a special case. "Pomona, if you could please kindly escort the boys out of the hall, we can continue with the sorting as normal. Mr Elric can be sorted last, to give them time to catch up."
Al let go of his neck to wrap both hands around his arm and tug him away from the line of first years, following in the wake of a kind faced woman with a riot of curly grey hair.
"I thought you couldn't remember anything, Al?" she said gently as she led them into a waiting room, with two purple sofas and a roaring fire in the fireplace.
"It came back when I saw Ed's face," Al said quickly. "That he was my brother."
"All right," she said agreeably. "Mr Elric, I am Professor Sprout, I am head of your brother's house."
"Hufflepuff," Al quickly supplied. "It sounds ridiculous I know, but we're under the greenhouses which is really cool, there are all these plants that come down from the ceiling, and it's super warm all of the time."
"It sounds great," Ed said. "How long have you been here?"
"I'm just starting forth year, and I landed in London four years ago, with no memories," Al said. "What about you, brother?"
"I arrived in London a few months ago with no memories," Ed said with a meaningful glance at his brother. "I've been studying hard to catch up with what I've forgotten though."
"Perhaps now that you're together and you've remembered each other, more will come back," the teacher suggested. "It has been curious that no one has come looking for either of you during the time you were under the care of foster families."
"Yes, it's a mystery," Ed said innocently. Al surreptitiously stepped on his foot.
"Who were you staying with?" the younger boy asked. "I was placed with the Bones family, they're nice. They have a daughter who is your age, Susan. She'll be in your year, I'll ask her to look out for you."
"Andromeda and Ted Tonks. They have a daughter as well, Nymphadora, we got on pretty well. She's already graduated from Hogwarts though."
"All right," Professor Sprout said, clapping her hands as a small light over the door flickered from white to gold and back again. "Time to get back into the hall."
The Elric brothers followed her dutifully, Al clinging to Ed's arm until they reached the sorting hat and he had to let go and be ushered gently to the Hufflepuff table.
Ed sat on the rickety stool and hoped that the hat was charmed against magical headlice as he put the scruffy article on his head.
'Hmmm, you're a tricky one, aren't you?' came a dry voice straight into his head, bypassing his ears. 'Very well rounded, I must say. You could fit in anywhere - brave, cunning and kind with a thirst for knowledge like nothing I've ever seen. Do you have a preference?'
'Not really,' Ed thought back to the hat.
'All right then, better be... RAVENCLAW!'
Ed knew from his reading that that was the blue and bronze house, so it was easy enough to find the right table once he'd passed the hat to a waiting Professor McGonagall. He didn't particularly want to sit down with the first years, and was pleased when, with an amount of pointed elbowing, a blond boy made room for him halfway down the table.
"Thanks," he muttered, sliding into the seat.
The headmaster, who turned out to be the man with twinkling blue eyes, made a brief speech that was interrupted towards the end by a short toad-like woman in pink. Judging from the reactions of the teachers and the other students, this was highly irregular.
"Who does she think she is?" the blond muttered.
"Shush, Tony," whispered a boy with dark hair and skin from across the table. "Don't draw attention to us. My father warned me about her."
"But-"
"Shush!"
The woman, Professor Umbridge, spoke to the room as if they were a group of toddlers who had visited for a playdate. Ed had never reacted well to that tone of voice even as a toddler, and right now it grated on his already frayed nerves, but he bit his lip and did his best to listen.
He wanted to be sitting beside his brother, or better yet getting both of them out of there so that they could figure out what to do next, but he was pinned in place. Perhaps he should have told the hat that he wanted to be in the same house as his brother. Al shot him a worried look from the Hufflepuff table and he did his best to smile reassuringly.
From what he could make out of the speech, it seemed that the Ministry of Magic, the same Ministry that had placed him with the Tonks family, was closely scrutinising the Hogwarts curriculum. He didn't yet know enough about the school to know if that was a good thing or a bad one yet, so the best thing to do would be to wait and see and form his own opinions. Just because Umbridge seemed to be a deeply unpleasant person, that didn't mean that the organisation that she was representing was bad, after all.
"I'm Anthony Goldstein," the blond introduced himself as soon as the lukewarm applause for Umbridge died out, offering his hand.
"Edward Elric," Ed replied, shaking it.
"Michael Corner," said the dark boy that had been arguing with Goldstein. Ed shook hands with him as well, and then Terry Boot and Padma Patil.
"We'll introduce you properly to the others after dinner," Patil promised him as the plates in front of them suddenly filled with food.
Other than a strange obsession with pumpkin juice over all other possible beverages, the dinner was delicious. Ed filled his plate with sliced roast meat and potatoes, adding a spoonful of peas and carrots as an afterthought.
He ate apple pie for desert, craning his neck over to the Hufflepuff table to see Al doing the same. It wasn't as good as Gracia's apple pie, but it wasn't bad.
Stuffed full, he followed Michael Corner out of the hall, as Goldstein and Patil were prefects and so in charge of the first years.
"Welcome to Hogwarts," the teenager said as they climbed a large stone staircase. "We're in a tower, same as the Gryffindors. All the prefects were briefed about you on the train, and Tony let me and Terry know once their meeting was over. You don't remember anything, huh?"
"Not a thing," Ed lied.
"At least you speak English, even if your accent is weird. And you managed to test into fourth year already, so you must be a quick study."
"Yes, I've enjoyed learning it all," Ed was able to say honestly. "I'm hoping to catch up by Christmas."
"Well, normally I'd say that's impossible, but if anyone can do it, it's certain they belong in Ravenclaw," Corner said cheerfully. "It's a bit of a mystery, first your brother and then you. We knew about Alan, of course, as his foster-sister is in our year, and Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw have always been friendly. Not like Slytherin and Gryffindor, brrr! You don't want to get in the way of that house rivalry."
"Alphonse," Ed corrected him. "I guess he must have forgotten everything, including his own name, but Al is short for Alphonse, not Alan."
"Alphonse? That is a strange name, it sounds European. Maybe you studied at Beauxbatons before?"
Ed shrugged. "I'm afraid I don't remember."
"Comprenez-vous cela?"
"What?"
Michael laughed. "Guess not," he said cheerfully.
They approached a tight spiral staircase already full of students from other years and queued for a moment before they were able to climb up to an open door. Ed's leg burned from the unfamiliar activity, the muscles in his new limb protesting. He vowed to step up the exercises the medic had given him to do and tried to keep the relief from showing on his face when they finally reached the top.
"Usually it's closed and you have to answer a riddle," Corner explained as they stepped into a room lined with bookshelves, a thick blue carpet covering the floor. The ceiling was painted to look like the night sky and Ed was pretty sure that some of the stars were actually twinkling. There was a roaring fire in one corner, surrounded by well worn armchairs and sofas, and plenty of reading lamps scattered on small bronze side tables or hanging from chains that dropped down from the ceiling. "This is us. What do you think?"
"Looks awesome," Ed said honestly, wandering over to the closest bookshelf to take a look at the titles.
"There are books here that you won't find in the library," Corner promised him. "They're all left by previous students, they belong to the house rather than the school. It's tradition that when you graduate you leave a book to add to the collection, and copies of all published works by ex-Ravenclaw students are shelved here."
Goldstein and Patil arrived then, with a small group of wide eyed first years. They split the group by gender and took them through different doors. The doors to the dormitories were either side of a large marble statue of a witch in flowing robes.
"The dorms are actually below us, we're at the very top of the tower here. Keeps us fit, having to go up to go down, so I think they did it on purpose as Ravenclaws are inclined to sit and read whenever possible."
Corner lead the way to a small suit upholstered in blue with bronze stars printed on the fabric, where another boy seemed to be already waiting for them. He was taller than Ed, with brown hair and eyes. He reminded the alchemist of a spaniel, earnest and soulful.
"Terry Boot," he introduced himself, holding out a hand to shake. "Call me Terry."
"Edward Elric, my friends call me Ed," Ed replied.
"I'm usually Michael, it's what I'm used to," Corner added. "And Anthony goes by Tony. You're welcome to join our study group, we meet with some other students from Hufflepuff twice a week in the evenings and sometimes on weekends. We'll all be happy to help you get back up to speed."
"Sounds good, thanks," Ed said as the prefects arrived and dropped into the remaining seats with twin sighs of relief.
"I don't think I was ever that short," Tony said contemplatively, staring at the ceiling.
"Or asked so many questions!" Padma added. She straightened up and looked over at Ed. "Sorry, Edward. Don't let my complaining put you off, if you have any questions feel free to ask them."
"I'm alright, thanks," Ed grinned at her.
"Good," she smiled back, before looking over at Terry. "Did you finish the book on ancient runes I sent you last month?"
As Terry and Padma fell into an animated discussion of the book, Tony pulled out a chess board, which he set on the end table between himself and Michael. "Fancy a game?"
Ed had been introduced to Wizard chess at the Tonks' house over the summer - Andromeda was a vicious player - and he watched the game for a few minutes as Tony and Michael sped through the opening moves, before the lure of the bookshelves was too much. He perused the overflowing shelves, wondering if here at last there might be a mention of alchemy. He was burning to know how it differed from his own.
*
The unexpected bonus of starting the fourth year was that Al was in several of his classes, immediately abandoning the rest of his house with an apologetic expression to make a beeline over to his brother.
"I know you'll have advanced ahead soon enough," he murmured as they poured over their history of magic textbook while the ghostly teacher droned on about Goblins at the front. Honestly, if Ed hadn't been to Gringotts he would have thought that the whole thing was made up. "I want to spend time with you while I can."
"How come you can't move up with me?" Ed whispered back. "You're more than capable, if I am."
Al shook his head. "It's not just the knowledge, it's the strength of your magical core," he explained. "I found a book on it in second year. I'm a little younger, so my core isn't as developed. Oh, don't worry - apparently it's purely to do with age and hormones and things, so not practising magic at all up to this point won't have affected you negatively."
"That seems unscientific, but all right," Ed nodded. "What is with this class?" he changed the subject. "The books I read over the summer were far more comprehensive, and covered more than just Goblin Wars, but the curriculum here seems to be nothing but. What about the founding of the three European Schools, or the Schools in America? What about the implementation of the Secrecy Act? Where's the section on famous Witches and Wizards?"
"I know!" Al whispered back with an agonised expression. "I've been doing some self study during these classes. I think it's the government."
"What?"
"The Ministry of Magic, I don't think they want the population all that informed. We saw it back home, with the Fuhrer. It's targeted ignorance."
"It's a crime, is what it is," Ed grumbled. "I could put together a better program, and I've read, like, three books on the topic and I've only just arrived."
"Anyway, brother, we should focus," Al reprimanded him. "Now we're together, we should focus on getting home."
"Should we?" Ed asked before he could help himself, and Al stared at him in astonishment. Al, sitting beside him, with freckles on his nose and concern in his warm golden eyes, in his own body.
"What if we go back through the Gate and it takes the toll again?" Ed continued, waving his new arm in emphasis. "The foster family I'm with seem like decent people, they'll probably give me at least the opportunity to get a job before they throw me out. We can make a new life here."
"What about Granny, and Winry? Al hissed. "And Hawkeye and Mustang?"
"I'll miss them of course," Ed said at once. "But they don't need us. They don't need us to be happy. Our hunt for the stone was disrupting their lives. Without us there, Winry can carry on learning to be a mechanic from the old hag, and Mustang can focus on becoming Fuhrer and fixing Amestris."
"You've already thought about this," Al concluded. "Will any argument I make change your mind?"
"We need to learn to be wizards in any case," Ed pointed out sensibly. "Running around half trained won't help us - that's why we found Teacher in the first place, remember? And here no one will be throwing shoes at us for getting it wrong."
"But once we graduate, you're willing to look into how to get home?" Al pressed.
"At least how to send a message," Ed agreed. "To let them know that we're alright. Call it a secondary focus."
"Ok brother. What's the primary focus?"
Ed felt a wolfish grin stretching his cheeks. "To be the best alchemists this world has ever seen, of course!"