Hermione shrieked as the door opened to reveal her friend, Harry Potter, who she hadn't seen for what felt like years. She had been at Number 12 Grimmauld Place with the Weasleys for weeks, helping out with the cooking and cleaning. When the news of Harry joining them a weeks ago had been announced she had thrown herself into the preparations with new determination. He would find himself more at home in a cleaner house. Now, with Harry walking in through the door, she could barely contain her excitement at the reunition of the Golden Trio.

"HARRY! Ron, he's here, Harry's here!" she cried, hugging him for all she's worth, "We didn't hear you arrive! Oh, how are you? Are you all right? Have you been furious with us? I bet you have, I know our letters were useless- but we couldn't tell you anything, Dumbledore made us swear we wouldn't, oh, we've got so much to tell you, and you've got to tell us- the dementors! When we heard- and that Ministry hearing- it's just outrageous, I've looked it all up, they can't expel you, they just can't, there's provision in the Decree for the Restriction of Underage Sorcery for the use of magic in life-threatening situations-"

"Le him breathe, Hermione." Ron interrupted, grinning with amusement while he closed the door behind Harry. Harry was momentarily distracted from his friends with the arrival of Hedwig, who landed on his shoulder before nibbling his ear affectionately. Hermione examined her friend while Ron continued talking to him, only to be brought back into the conversation at the sound of her name.

"Yeah, Hermione's already said."

"He seemed to think it was best, Dumbledore, I mean." She said, picking up what she had missed in a matter of seconds.

"Right." Harry sounded unconvinced and unbelieving.

"I think he thought you were safest with the Muggles-" Ron began, only to be cut off by an extremely incredulous Harry.

"Yeah? Have either of you been attacked by dementors this summer?" Hermione felt like crying. It wasn't supposed to be like this. Harry was supposed to arrive, and they would all catch up before heading off to dinner after the meeting had finished. Like old times at the Burrow.

"Well, no- but that's why he's had people from the Order of the Phoenix tailing you all the time-"

"Didn't work that well, though, did it? Had to look after myself after all, didn't I?"

"He was so angry, Dumbledore. We saw him. " Hermione could tell that her voice was taking on a more awestruck tone, but she couldn't help it as she relived the moment. "When he found out Mundungus had left before his shift had ended. He was scary."

"Well, I'm glad he left. If he hadn't, I wouldn't have done magic and Dumbledore would probably have left me at Privet drive all summer." Harry responded.

"Aren't you… aren't you worried about the Ministry of Magic hearing?" Her voice became lowered and more hushed with disbelief.

"No. So why's Dumbledore been so keen to keep me in the dark? Did you-er- bother to ask him at all?"

"We told Dumbledore we wanted to tell you what was going on. We did, mate. But he's really busy now, we've only seen him twice since we came here and he didn't have much time, he just made us swear not to tell you important stuff when we wrote, he said the owls might be intercepted-"

"He could still've kept me informed if he'd wanted to. You're not telling me he doesn't know ways to send messages without owls."

"I though that too, but he didn't want you to know anything." It was clear that, though she had followed his orders, she most definitely didn't agree with them. Realizing this, however, didn't do anything to ease his anger.

"Maybe he thinks I can't be trusted." Hermione was shocked that he had even suggested it.

"Don't be thick."

"Or that I can't take care of myself-"

"Of course he doesn't think that!" Hermione was beginning to loose her patience with her friend.

"So how come I have to stay at the Dursleys' while you two get to join in everything that's going on here?" Harry's dam broke, eyes flashing with emotion as his voice rose in volume. "How come you two are allowed to know everything that's going on-?"

"We're not!" Ron interrupted desperately. "Mum won't let us near the meetings, she says we're too young-"

"SO YOU HAVEN'T BEEN IN THE MEETINGS, BIG DEAL! YOU'VE STILL BEEN HERE, HAVEN'T YOU? YOU'VE STILL BEEN TOGETHER! ME, I'VE BEEN STUCK AT THE DURSLEYS' FOR A MONTH! AND I'VE HANDLED MORE THAN YOU TWO'VE EVER MANAGED AND DUMBLEDORE KNOWS IT- WHO SAVED THE SORCERER'S STONE? WHO GO T RID OF RIDDLE? WHO SAVED BOTH YOUR SKINS FROM THE DEMENTORS?" Harry's voice, though he was already yelling, grew even louder as the emotions that he kept pent up inside broke out. Tears of frustration stung his eyes. Hermione looked close to tears, while Ron was just standing there, shocked to silence. For some reason his friend's expressions just made him feel even more pissed off than he already was. The red of rage began to tint his vision.

"Harry, we're really sorry!" Hermione finally stood her ground, voice rising from the meager whisper from minutes earlier, tears welling up in her eyes even more than before at her friend's rage. "You're absolutely right, Harry- I'd be furious if it was me!"

"What is this place anyway?" Harry finally started to calm down, much to the relief of Hermione and Ron.

"Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix." Ron replied at once, glad that Harry was no longer yelling.

"Is anyone going to bother telling me what the Order of the Phoenix-?"

"It's a secret society, Dumbledore's in charge, he founded it. It's the people who fought against You-Know-Who last time."

"Who's in it?"

"Quite a few people-"

"-we've met about twenty of them but we think that there are more…" Ron let his sentence drift off at Harry's vicious glare.

"Well?" he looked from Ron to Hermione and back again accusingly.

"Er, well what?"

"Voldemort! What's happening? What's he up to? Where is he? What are we doing to stop him?"

"We've told you, the Order don't let us in on their meetings, so we don't know the details-but we've got a general idea-" she nervously added, seeing the frustration returning to Harry's face.

"Fred and George have invented Extendable Ears, see, they're really useful." Ron said, hoping to distract Harry from their lack of information.

"Extendable-?"

"Ears yeah. Only we've had to stop using them lately because Mum found out and went berserk. Fred and George had to hide them all to stop Mum binning them. But we got a good bit of use out of them before Mum realized what was going on. We know some of the Order are following Death Eaters, keeping tabs on them, you know-"

"-some of them are working on recruiting more people to the order-" Hermione cut in.

"- and some of them are standing guard over something, they're always talking about guard duty." Ron finished, Hermione absent mindedly reflecting on how they were finishing each other's sentences like the twins.

"Couldn't have been me, could it?" Harry asked sarcastically, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh yeah." Ron realized, a sheepish look crossing his face at the obviousness of the answer.

"So what have you two been doing, if you're not allowed in meetings? You said you'd been busy." He demanded, putting his hands on his hips, rather like Hermione did when she was flustered, and pouting slightly.

"We have," Hermione said quickly, looking away before she could laugh. "We've been decontaminating this house, it's been empty for ages and stuff's been breeding in here. We've managed to clean out the kitchen and most of the bedrooms more. Sorry Harry but Sirius, though he tries his hardest, just isn't cut out for cleaning. I think we're doing the drawing room tomo-AARGH!"

With two twin cracks, Fred and George appeared in the middle of the room, scaring the bejeebers out of Harry, who did his best in resisting the urge to cry like a little girl. It worked, for the most part, reducing the scream to a little more than a whimper.

"Stop doing that!" Hermione cried, fed up with the twins after living with them for the past week.

"Hello, Harry," George grinned at him, mischief twinkling in his eyes. "We thought we heard you dulcet tones."

"You don't want to bottle up your anger like that, Harry, let it all out. There might be a couple of people fifty miles away who didn't hear you." Fred added, beaming an identical smile at Harry.

"You two passed your Apparation tests, then?" asked Harry, not in the mood for the twin's fun and games.

The twins grinned as they proceeded to answer Harry's quite obvious question, before going on to tease their younger sibling. With a proud smirk, Fred introduced Harry to their latest product, the Extendable ears. Their plans to eavesdrop on the meeting were brutally slaughtered when Ginny announced that the door had been Imperturbed. Hermione sighed and sat down on the bed as they explained to Harry the deal with Percy and the Ministry. She had wanted to tell Ron and Harry about Edward, but what with Harry's fit and his obsessive hatred of Snape getting in the way, it was difficult to find the time to inform them of her latest friend. She really needed a second opinion on him, though he seemed like a nice enough guy, the perfect gentleman, some people were excellent at acting and making people believe in something that was not true. It would just have to wait until after dinner.

"Yeah, well, your name got dragged into the row. Percy said the only evidence was you word and… I dunno… he didn't think it was good enough." Ron glanced sheepishly at Harry.

"Percy takes the Daily Prophet seriously." Hermione snapped, rather annoyed, while the others nodded in agreement.

"What are you talking about?" Harry was completely clueless, looking from face to face for answers. Their expressions were guarded, they watched him warily as if expecting him to pop.

"Haven't- haven't you been getting the Daily Prophet?" Hermione asked nervously, attempting to breech the subject carefully.

"Yeah, I have!" Harry replied.

"Have you-er- been reading it thoroughly?"

"Not cover to cover," Harry admitted. "If they were going to report anything about Voldemort it would be headline news, wouldn't it!" they all flinched at the sound of the name, a conditioned reaction that made Harry twitch slightly in irritation.

"Well, you'd need to read it cover to cover to pick it up, but they-um- they mention you a couple of times a week." Hermione's tone became more and more like the voice one would use when talking to little children or a particularly dense person. Ginny and Ron agreed with her, backing up Hermione as all three of them attempted to keep Harry from bursting again while the twins looked on in amusement.

Fred and George fled the room as Mrs. Weasley came up to tell them dinner was ready. It progressed in a steady fashion. There was some tension among the adults, who were waiting for Harry to ask them about the goings on of the magical world, specifically what Voldemort was up to. Once dinner was finished, the dreaded subject was brought up, but by Sirius, not Harry. They were allowed to get a brief explanation of what was happening, though Ginny was sent out of the room. However, they had forgotten to put an Imperturbable Charm on the door, and scant minutes after it was closed an extendable ear could just barely be seen through the crack underneath it.

Thirty minutes later they were released, ordered to go to bed, and Ginny discreetly passed the ear to Fred, who pocketed it with a smile. Hermione hesitated in the doorway to the room that Ron and Harry shared. She wanted to tell them about Ed, but it was late, practically one in the morning, and there was always tomorrow. Still, the doxie cleanup would probably last all day, leaving her with no time tomorrow either.

"Hey, um, Harry? Ron?" Hermione asked tentatively.

"Yeah Hermione?"

"What's up?"

"Well, I wanted to ask your opinion on something, but I didn't get the chance."

"Aww, Herms, can't it wait 'till morning?" Hermione pouted in response to the red head's question, causing the tips of his ears to light up and he shifted uncomfortably where he sat. Harry grinned, gesturing to his bed in an invitation to sit. Taking Harry up on his offer, she bounced into the room, landing lightly on the bed.

"Well, I ran into this guy when I was at Diagon Alley…" Ron and Harry stared at her, mouths agape, and she trailed off apprehensively.

"Hermione! What if he was a Death Eater?" Harry cried.

"Yeah, Harry's right!" Ron piped up, face flushing red.

"He's really nice, much better than you two," Hermione glared. "The perfect gentleman." Harry scoffed.

"Yeah right," Ron nodded enthusiastically in agreement. "Some people can act you know. Look at Snape, though he obviously isn't good enough to fool me, he has Dumbledore convinced he's against Voldemort. But fine," Harry gave in. "Lets just pretend he's not a Death Eater. What's the big deal? So you met this guy who held the door open for you or whatever. What's it to us?"

Hermione sighed, and told them about her day. By the end they were both thoroughly convinced that he was a Death Eater hell bent on befriending Hermione to get to Harry and find out his weakness, as well as secret information on the Order's actions. Exasperated, Hermione stormed out of the room to go to bed, muttering darkly all the way about the idiocy of her two best friends. Striding into the room she shared with Ginny, she swiftly tore off her cloths, not even taking the time to fold them up like usual and instead leaving them in a heap on the floor as she pulled on her pajamas. At least Ginny would be able to give her an unbiased opinion about him.

The following weeks passed by in a blur. Already done with catching up with the reading material, Edward itched to try out the spells that he had learned, just to see if they really worked. Since he wasn't allowed to practice magic while not in school, he had to be content with gathering more books, and already his collection was quite large. Remembering it all wasn't a problem. Leaving Alphonse without money was. Even with his deep pockets he couldn't afford spending all his money now on books; he could not leave Al back at home without any means of support. Instead he sat in a corner of the store all day, reading. The clerks didn't mind, they were enthused that someone shared their passion for learning. By the time he was supposed to depart for the school Ed had read, quite literally, every book in the store and was considered a permanent presence. He knew every detail (except for the extremely private part) of the clerk's lives. Many who entered the store believed that Ed and the employees had been friends for years, not the scant two weeks that had passed. On Sundays, when the store was closed, Ed retreated to his room, rereading his purchases.

One of the clerks, who was quite skilled with Charms, cast a spell on the purse Dumbledore had given him (which Ed fondly referred to as his black hole) that made the opening stretchable to the point of insanity. Give him a day and he could have Big Ben in his pocket. Thanks to this, the only thing he walked onto the train with was his black hole bag and Ammy. He had gotten direction from Tom on how to get to platform nine and three-quarters, and though he found it strange to walk through a wall, he entered the train with no problems. Pushing through the small crowd that partly blocked the hallway he secured an empty cabin for himself, and checked the time. It had taken less time to get there than he expected, so he had another twenty five minutes to spare. Sighing, Ed pulled out a book from his pouch and began to read as Ammy curled down right next to him on the seat.

With a barely noticeable jerk the train was off, bound for Hogwarts. Ed was startled out of his book as the door to his compartment slip open and a very soft voice spoke through the opening.

"Oh, hello there. Do you mind if I sit here?" Ed looked up from his reading to inspect this newcomer. Her dirty-blond hair reached her waist and barely noticeable eyebrows. She seemed like her head was always in the clouds, kind of like those drug addicts that popped up occasionally on the side of the street, but there wasn't the slightest scent of smoke or other questionable objects on her.

"Sure, go ahead." Ed gestured to the bench in front of him. "I don't mind." She smiled and nodded, taking a seat next to the window.

"I don't remember seeing you before. I'm Luna, Luna Lovegood, but most people call me Loony behind my back." Her matter-of-fact way of saying that people made fun of her threw Ed off, but he recovered his manners to introduce himself within a matter of seconds.

"Edward. Edward Elric, but I prefer Ed." She nodded to show that she heard him then turned to gaze out at the scenery. Getting bored after a while, Luna took out a magazine while Ed continued to read his book, completely oblivious to her actions. The train continued rumbling on, and for a moment the comfortable silence continued uninterrupted. Neither noticed when the door slid open then closed, but both were jolted out of their reading (though Ed glanced up once then buried his nose back onto his book) as the door slid open again, accompanied by a voice.

"Hi, Luna, is it ok if we take these seats?" A girl with bright red hair and freckles asked. Luna nodded her consent. The girl moved aside, revealing two boys standing beside her. One had messy black hair and vibrant green eyes, and looked to be quite lanky with a scar that was barely visible, hidden behind his hair. The other was rather round-faced, and rather pudgy. He was timid, and for some reason looked afraid of Luna, like she was crazy and would attack him the moment he moved. Luna nodded, giving them her permission.

"Thanks," the girl replied. They stowed their three trunks and a cage with a white snowy owl in the luggage rack, then they all sat down, the boys somewhat uncomfortably, on the seats. "Had a good summer, Luna?" The girl broke the silence.

"Yes," Luna replied. Ed noticed that she was staring at the boy with black hair. Inwardly he shrugged and returned his concentration to his book. It was really not his problem if she didn't like him or something, she was the one that gave them permission to sit. "Yes, it was quite enjoyable, you know. You're Harry Potter."

"I know I am." The black haired boy- Harry- Ed corrected himself, replied.

'Ah so that's Harry Potter. He doesn't look like all that, but then again appearances can be deceiving.' Once again, he shrugged and withdrew his (nonexistent) input from the conversation. The pudgy one glanced nervously at him, and opened his mouth as if to ask his name but thought better of it at the last moment. Luna turned towards the other boy, eyes filled with a curiosity that Ed remembered seeing before in Al when they were children.

"And I don't know who you are."

"I'm nobody," the boy hurriedly replied, unused to the non-threatening attention of an outsider.

"No you're not," the girl sharply admonished. "Neville Longbottom- Luna Lovegood. Luna's in my year, but in Ravenclaw."

"Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure," Luna sing-songed, slightly giggling mischievously before raising her magazine (once again upside down) enough to hide her face. Harry turned toward Edward, suspicion clear in his eyes, turning the atmosphere from cherry to hostile in a matter of milliseconds. Not that Ed noticed –or cared- as he had gotten to the stage where he would block everything out.

"Who are you?" (AN: I'm Canada…*) He gave him a once over, taking in the strange looking cat on his lap, golden eyes, and odd dress. Edward, not hearing him, continued reading. "Hey! I asked what your name is." Harry gave Ed a not-so-gentle shove, startling him out of his book.

"Excuse me?" Edward raised one eyebrow as he struggled not the throttle the teen.

"Yeah, I was talking to you. I asked what your name was," his smirk resembled that of a fox. "Judging by your size, you must be a first year." It took all of Ed's self control to not bash in Harry's head right then and there, though once he remembered his mission (and how mad Mustang and Alphonse would be if he blew it) the job became much easier. However, it didn't prevent him from gritting his teeth so hard his jaw hurt later.

"Edward Elric, though I prefer Ed." His forced smile turned predatory as he starred down the boy who lived. "And I'm not a first year." He spat, glaring. "I'm transferring into year five, an exchange student, you might say." Grimm satisfaction filled Ed as Harry's visage changed to surprise. The only indication that Luna was listening to the conversation was a slight rising of eyebrows at his change of tone. Silence ensued as the stare down continued.

"G-guess what I got f-for my birthday?" asked Neville after gathering up his courage to break the silence. Ed's gaze flicked across to Neville, lips twitching upwards in a small smile at the boy's courage. He returned to his book, exactly as he was before Harry had so rudely interrupted him.

"Another Remembrall?" guessed Harry, secretly glad to have an excuse to break gazes with Ed.

"No, I could do with one, though, I lost the old one ages ago… no, look at this." He dug out a small gray cactus that was covered in boils and planted in a small clay pot. Ed, who recognized it from one of the Herbology books he had read, raised his eyebrows. Mimbulus Mimbletonia were supposed to be exceedingly rare. The book he had read didn't say much other than that, but it did have a, quite detailed, drawing. Seconds later he was proven correct by Neville's proud exclamation of "Mimbulus Mimbletonia. It's really, really rare, I don't know if there's one in the greenhouse at Hogwarts, even. I can't wait to show it to Professor Sprout." Ed retracted himself from the conversation (which no one knew he was paying attention to anyway), returning to his book only to be, once again, jolted out of his reading by the explosion of a fowl smelling, dark green slime that coated the inside of the cabin. He groaned, the stupid brats had poked one of the boils. The kitten, gone unnoticed and undisturbed until then, shot up from her nap with a yowl when the sap coated her fur, unsuccessfully trying to shake it off. Ed, who had almost gotten a face full, starred aghast at his slime covered book that was his unintentional shield.

"S-sorry, I haven't tried that before," Neville gasped "didn't realize it would be quite so… don't worry, though, Stinksap's not poisonous." Ed resisted the urge to chuckle as Harry spat out a mouthful.

"Too bad…" he muttered, receiving shocked looks from the other occupants of the compartment. He drifted back to his book after using his wand to clean the slime off of it, Ammy, and himself. Edward continued to read even with the interruption of Cho and Luna, who had accidentally kicked him while shifting in her seat. Even the entrance of Ron and Hermione went unnoticed. Ammy was hidden within the folds of Edward's rather large coat, and his face was covered by the book so Hermione didn't recognize him right away. She just looked at him oddly, she remembered seeing him before, but without his face she couldn't quite place it. It wasn't until Luna started laughing hysterically and Ed tilted his book to the side in order to see what had startled Ammy into impaling her claws in his flesh leg that Hermione recognized him.

"Ed! What are you doing here?" He started slightly, as he hadn't expected to run into her on the train.

"Hello Hermione," he set his book aside then nodded a greeting. "I didn't expect to see you again so soon." She grinned.

"Neither did I, but where's Ammy?" She questioned, looking around the compartment for the sleek kitten. "I don't see her."

"Ah, she likes to cuddle." His smile was genuine as he fished Ammy out from the folds of his clothes for her. "I'm here as an exchange student, just for a year. After that I'm returning home." The attention of the compartment was drawn from the two to Ginny, who had groaned loudly.

"That's why your name sounded so familiar. You're the guy that Hermione met at Diagon Alley!" Ed turned to Hermione, an eyebrow raised as a silent question.

"Well, I just told Ginny, Harry and Ron. Though, the latter two didn't pay much attention. We share practically everything with each other, and I must admit that you told me very little about yourself and acted quite…" she shifted apprehensively in her seat "suspicious sometimes…" Ed grinned to show that he wasn't mad at her.

"I suppose it's only to be expected, my brother and I share everything too," his smile expanded with the mention of Alphonse.

"I didn't know you had a brother!" Harry and Ron shared another secretive glance before sneaking out of the compartment. Edward ended up answering the numerous questions thrown at him by Hermione, Ginny, and even occasionally Luna until the two other members of the Golden Trio returned, his closed book laying next to him, forgotten. Edward resumed reading and, despite Hermione multiple attempts to being him into the conversation, managed to finish it by the time they had arrived at Hogwarts.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Fullmetal Alchemist.

AN: Here's the new chapter. I actually wrote chapter six, then remembered that I had to/ wanted to include Hermione telling Ron and Harry about Ed, so I went and added the beginning part. I hope that you don't mind, it makes it a lot longer I suppose, so it's fine. Sorry for taking so long, I get distracted too easily. XD I'll work on that. Incase you can't tell… I really don't like Harry. I've been trying to keep my writing as unbiased, but it leaks through at times. Honestly the 'screaming like a little girl' part…. I just couldn't resist! *pout* please don't blame me.

When I had Hermione describe Ed, I couldn't help but laugh. I was thinking what to say then was like 'Ok! Just describe England without the eyebrows, short hair, and green eyes and it'll all be good!' Hetalia has invaded every aspect of my life! And I know that Ed isn't usually gentlemanly, but hey… he is in a strange place (he doesn't even know where that place is, as the briefing neglected to mention that) and everything is different and stuff. Plus it would be pretty creepy for him what with the levitating objects and stuff moving on its own, so he's trying to figure out how he's supposed to act. He will become more….(almost) crude (but in a good Edish way) later on when he starts to figure stuff out.

*Hetalia. Again. But of course, how could I resist?

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