Author's Notes:
I probably ought to clarify a few things about this fic. First the basics: As the summary hopefully clarifies, this fic is a kind of crossover where the Fullmetal Alchemist characters and concepts have always been a part of the Harry Potter universe. The version I'm using for this is the manga/Brotherhood canon since it resonates with me far more. Nonetheless, I'm not ruling out the possibility of me using some ideas or characters from the '03 canon.
The bigger thing I need to adress here though is that this fic began in 2012. Long story short, I wrote two chapters, started a third, and then didn't really do anything with it for six years. I didn't forget about the fic, though, and in 2019 decided to finally return to it. This however meant that the two chapters I posted needed to be edited to suit my current-day tastes and preferences, which is what you're seeing here. I could continue rambling, but I want to keep in mind that I might - somehow - still attract new readers, who might be put off by the overly long Author's Notes in the beginning. Lengthy author's notes will return for the third chapter though, reader beware. . .!

Harry Potter was in a joyous haze.
For only about eight hours now, it was his eleventh birthday. And so far, it seemed to be the best birthday he had in his entire life, and not only because from the looks of it, he wasn't even going to spend it with his aunt's family, the Dursleys. No, what really made this birthday so unbelievably wonderful was the unexpected visitor that had come the minute this day began: Hagrid, the giant groundskeeper of the Hogwarts school for wizardry and witchcraft, who, to Harry's enormous surprise, had revealed to him that he was in fact a wizard himself, and would be attending the school, starting with the next term. With just this revelation, he had turned Harry's entire life upside down. Suddenly, his parents, who he always thought to have died in a car accident, were well-known and respected members of the wizarding world, who had been killed by powerful dark wizard named Voldemort. Harry himself had become a celebrity due to the same incident, somehow managing to not only survive Voldemort's attack, but also seemingly defeating him for good.

And that was only what he had learned last night.
Right now, it was a sunny morning, probably around 9 AM (it was impossible for Harry to tell, since he didn't have a watch himself), and he was together with Hagrid on his way to London, where they would buy the things that he would need for school. The both of them were sitting in the boat that, after a little enchantment from Hagrid, took them back to the mainland without any need to row it. Away from the small island where the Dursleys had hoped to be safe from the never-ending stream of school letters, and towards an uncertain but promising future.

Since there was nothing that Harry or Hagrid could do but to wait, Hagrid had begun reading the newspaper that an owl had brought them earlier. Harry didn't mind, though; there were far too many things on his mind for him to think about. Not to mention that Harry had already learned a long time ago from his uncle Vernon that people did not take kindly to being interrupted while reading their newspaper.

"Old Bradley and his ministry o' magic messin' with everythin', as usual..." Hagrid muttered, while turning the page.

"There's a ministry of magic?" Harry asked, the question having slipped out before he could think it through.

"'Course there is. They obviously wanted Dumbledore fer Minister, o' course, but he'd never leave Hogwarts, so old King Bradley got the job. Competent 'nuff guy, but he ain't that popular with lotsa folk..." Hagrid said.

"King Bradley? I thought you said he was minister?"

"Nah, you got that right," Hagrid chuckled. "King's just his name. Dunno if it's a nickname, but that's what everyone calls him, so 's what I do."

"And, uh... what does the Ministry do?"

"Well, their main job is to keep it from the muggles that there's still witches an' wizards up an' down the country, and to make sure that nobody abuses magic. Nobody'd like somebody like you-know-who show up again."

At this moment, their little boat bumped into the harbour wall, having finished its trip to back to the mainland. Hagrid put away his newspaper, and together they left the boat, and made their way into the town. From here on, the trip to London, while by no means uninteresting, was a whole lot less eventful. During the trip, Hagrid proved himself multiple times to be rather unfamiliar with the 'muggle's' method of travel, and therefore left it to Harry to arrange as much of it as possible.

After only a few hours of travel, they had finally made their way to the place in London where, according to Hagrid, they would be able to purchase all the things that Harry would need for school: A small, dirty-looking pub named the "Leaky Cauldron", which none of the passers-by seemed to even notice, and made Harry doubt for a moment if any of what had happened so far was true after all.

But the pub, as it turned out, was entirely different on the inside. While it was not very well-lit, and filled with plenty of weird people, everything still gave off a fairly friendly and inviting vibe. When Harry and Hagrid first entered the room, everything was rather silent, with people only quietly talking to each other. This quickly changed when Tom, the old barman, recognized Harry, at which point the attention to every person in the room shifted to him. Quickly, Harry found himself surrounded by people who wanted to shake his hand, talk to him, or do whatever it is you do with celebrities. This was probably the first time in Harry's entire life that he had been in the center of attention of so many people who enjoyed his presence. Having been so far either ignored or shunned by the people around him in the best case scenarios, he simply did not know how to react to the situation, and had to rely on Hagrid resolving it by simply pulling him out.

Hagrid led Harry out of the pub room, and into a small, seemingly featureless, courtyard. One use of Hagrid's wand-umbrella later, though, the two stood in front of a passageway, leading to a sun-lit street, full of all kinds of magical shops, and even more people then there had been in the Leaking Cauldron.

"Welcome to the Diagon Alley, Harry." Hagrid said with a grin, seeing Harry's amazement.

As Harry and Hagrid stepped out of the pathway, a blonde girl at about Harry's age and a small old woman rushed past them, trying to get through the passageway before it closed again. For a moment, Harry looked after them, but his attention was quickly drawn towards the alley again. There were so many things to do and see that he just knew he wouldn't be able to see it all in just one day.

The place Hagrid led Harry to first, however was a snowy-white building, which easily stood taller than any of the small shops. As they made their way towards the building, Harry had a rather hard time keeping up with Hagrid, which was only partly because his steps were just so much longer than Harry's. The main reason however that Harry simply could not keep his eyes of all the amazing shops around him; it was like he was in a wonderful dream.

"Gringotts." Hagrid explained to Harry, as they got closer to the white building. "The only wizarding bank in Britain. Gonna need money if yeh wanna buy anything, after all."

But Harry was completely unable to look at the building. He could only stare at the guard standing at the door: A very human-like – but decidedly not human – creature with unnaturally long hands and feet and a long beard, behind which there was a clever-looking face.

"Yeah, that's a goblin." Hagrid said as they entered the building.

The room they found themselves in continued the trend that the exterior of Gringotts started: It was a vast, imposing marble hall, filled with wizards and goblins alike, all of whom seemed to be attending to some money-related business. After a bit of looking around, Hagrid and Harry went up to a free goblin sitting behind a long counter. Some quickly exchanged words later, another goblin appeared, who took them through one of the room's many doors, leading them – much to Harry's surprise – into a narrow stone passageway lit by torches, where a cart was waiting for them on railway tracks.

After a wild ride through the caves under Gringotts, they finally had arrived at their first destination: Harry's vault. It was filled to the brims with more money than Harry had ever seen amassed in one place in his entire life: Piles and piles of gold, silver and bronze coins lying around, filling just every corner of the vault.

"All yours. This should be more than enough fer yer seven years at Hogwarts, eh?" Hagrid asked with a grin.

Harry didn't doubt for a second that what Hagrid said was true – while he did not know how much the things he needed for Hogwarts would cost, he highly doubted that seven years at school would be enough to spend all of the money in the vault. The fact that Hagrid only took out a very small amount of coins, the absence of which was barely noticeable next to the rest of the gold, supported Harry's suspicion.

After Hagrid had given the bag containing the money to Harry, the goblin accompanying them closed up the vault again, before the three of them made their way to their second destination: A mysterious vault, which contained something that Hagrid was to retrieve for Dumbledore. While the general area of the vault barely looked different from where Harry's vault had been, there was something about this place that made Harry feel very uneasy. It was a feeling as if they were in the middle of a huge crowd of hundreds of people, all standing in silence. But no matter where Harry looked, there was nothing that looked off about anything around him, at least as far as he knew. It was just… unnerving, in a way that send shivers down his spine.

But from the looks of it, Harry was not the only one who felt like this: Both the goblin and Hagrid seemed to be a tad on edge as well, seeing as they both made sure to open the vault and empty it as quickly as possible. As such, Harry caught only a small glimpse of what had been in the vault: An object looking like a small package, wrapped up in brown paper. Considering the feeling that he got from this place, Harry was not sure if he even wanted to know what was inside the package.

Worst of all, this feeling seemed to follow them all the way through their trip back to the surface, and even into the main hall of Gringotts. It was only once they stepped out of the bank into the bright sunshine once again that the feeling seemed to fade away, though it was not gone entirely. After the poorly-lit caves of Gringotts, the sunshine outside was blinding Harry for a moment, before he could adjust to the light. With the knowledge that he now actually had money to spend, all the shops in the Diagon Alley seemed even more inviting to him than before, if that was even possible. While the feeling of uneasiness was still present, it was completely overshadowed by the sheer joy that he felt; he didn't even know which shop he should check out first.

"Yeh best start by getting yehself yer robes, Harry." Hagrid said, nodding towards a shop called 'Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions'. "Say, would yeh mind doing that yehself? I need to get something to get over them cart rides."

Harry nodded, and so Hagrid left him alone. Rather nervous now, Harry made his way over to the shop. Before he could however open the door, it already burst open. A boy at about Harry's age with a pale, pointed face stormed, holding his head. He didn't even seem to notice Harry as he rushed past him, muttering something that sounded like "My father will hear about this".

Rather confused, Harry entered before the door could fall shut. Inside, he could hear a female voice chide somebody in the back of the shop.

"...Even if he did call you short, that doesn't give you the right to hit him, young man! You can be glad that he had already paid for his robes, because otherwise, I would have to throw you out! If you do something like this, I will definitely throw you out, if not ban you!"

At that point, the speaker seemed to have realized that somebody had entered, as the voice stopped, and footsteps could be heard. After just a moment, a squad witch came into his view, and gave him a somewhat strained smile.

"Hogwarts, dear?" She asked, just before Harry could speak up. "Got the lot here – another young man being fitted up just now, in fact. C'mon, come along"

She led him to the back of the shop, where there was another boy standing on a footstool, while another witch pinned up long black robes for him. The boy was quite short, being even a bit shorter than Harry himself. He had long, golden-blonde hair, which he kept in a braid, and eyes in the same color. For whatever reason, he was wearing thin white gloves. Madam Malkins gestured Harry to stand on a stool next to him, before slipping a black robe over his head, which she herself worked on.

"Hey. Are you alone, too?" The other boy asked in a curious tone after he noticed Harry.

"Yes." Harry replied.

"Where are your parents, then?" The boy asked.

"They're dead." Harry simply said. He didn't want to tell a random stranger absolutely everything about him. The moment he found out his name, he'd probably already know, anyway.

"Oh. Sorry to hear that." Said the other, compassionately.

"What about your parents?" Harry asked, getting more curious himself. This was already the best conversation he ever had with someone his age, though that was not a high bar to pass.

"My mother is dead, and my father... he left our family years ago. I'm here with a friend of mine and her grandmother. She's taking care of me and my brother. I convinced her that I'm able to buy the things I need myself, so she's currently getting everything for my friend." The boy explained.

"You have a brother? Why isn't he with you?" Harry questioned.

"He won't go to Hogwarts until next year, and he's... not feeling so well right now, so he stayed at home." Harry could hear that the boy didn't want to talk about this.

"...Ah." Was all that Harry could say. Did the boy's brother have some odd wizarding disease, or why didn't he want to go into detail about it?

"What's your name, anyway?" The boy suddenly asked, clearly trying to change the subject.

Harry braced himself. He already seen enough of the wizarding world to get an idea of what the reaction to this would be like. "I am Harry Potter."

"Oh. Wow." Said the boy, sounding almost dumbfounded. Madam Malkins and the other witch on the other hand both let out surprised cry, and began staring at Harry with wide eyes. "I didn't know that you're already going to Hogwarts this year. Uh, but, uhm… my name is Edward. Edward Elric."

Smiling, he reached out his hand to Harry. Or rather, he held out his right hand for a moment, before seemingly realizing something, pulling it back, and holding his left out instead. Though he was confused by this, after a short moment of hesitation, Harry took it, and they shook hands.

"Uh... who's that?" Ed suddenly asked, pointing to the front window, outside of which Hagrid was standing, holding up to large ice-creams to show that he couldn't come in.

"Oh, that's Hagrid. He's working at Hogwarts, and accompanying me." Harry said, smiling.

Before Edward could say anything in response, Madam Malkin and the other witch finished their work at Harry's and Edward's robe respectively. As both of them paid up, Edward turned towards Harry. "Say, would you mind if I tagged along with you for a while? I'm sure that you wouldn't mind having somebody else around who can explain a few things to you, right?"

"No, I suppose I really wouldn't." Harry replied, grinning.

Together they left the shop, where they were greeted by Hagrid, who gave Harry a big grin. "Blimey, Harry! I leave yer alone fer just a few minutes, and yeh already make a friend! I told yer that yeh could do it. Though are yeh sure yeh're old enough for Hogwarts yet, kid? Yeh look a bit young."

As Harry quickly realized, what he was witnessing now must've been what had happened at Madam Malkin's shop shortly before the other boy had stormed out. In the fraction of a second, Edward's expression shifted from him staring up to Hagrid in awe to him gritting his teeth, while his entire head turned a shade of red that Harry didn't even know a person could turn.

"Who're you calling a shorty?! What else do you want to call me: A midget?! A half-pint?! I'm still growing, you walking mass of hair!" Edward essentially exploded, while trying to quickly climb up Hagrid, presumably to be able to reach his face and hit it. Harry meanwhile just watched, more than just taken aback.

Hagrid however only chuckled, picked Edward up by the collar, and placed him back on the ground, though not without keeping a hand on him to keep him in place. "Leas' yeh got a good temperament. What's yer name?"

"Gng!" Edward exclaimed, getting calmer by the second – though Harry could not tell for certain whether it was because his rage passed, or because he realized he couldn't attack Hagrid. "My name is Edward Elric."

"Elric yeh say... hmm," Hagrid wondered. "Reminds me of somethin'… are yeh perhaps the son of… Trisha Elric I think?"

Edward gave Hagrid a surprised look. "You knew my mother?"

"'Course I do. Saw her plenty of times when she was at Hogwarts. Was good friends with Lily, Harry's mother, too!" Edward and Harry exchanged a look. That really seemed like a very unlikely coincidence.

"Uh, Hagrid? Are you sure that's true?"

"Well… mighta exaggerated a bit there," Hagrid admitted sheepishly. "But they were at Hogwarts in the same year!"

Harry nodded. That sounded more likely.

"Me and Harry still gotta run a few errands to run," Hagrid meanwhile continued. "Would yeh want ter come along?"

"Sure. I already asked Harry about that myself."

Hagrid beamed. "Good! C'mon then, we still have a lot of things ter get. I say we go ter Ollivander's first – get yeh two yer wands. I suppose yeh don't have yer wand yet, Edward?"

"Just call me Ed. And no, I don't have my wand yet." Edward said. By this point, it was certain that he had calmed down, but Harry wasn't entirely sure yet whether he still held a grudge towards Hagrid or not.

Edward's anger notwithstanding, Harry was getting excited again. A wand – that was what he had been looking forward to the most. Based on what he had seen so far, it was what he needed to actually properly use magic.

As it turned out, Ollivander's was a surprisingly narrow, shabby-looking shop. The gold letters spelling the shop's name were peeling, and its front window was dusty. The room behind it was so dark, that it could barely be made out. As the three of them entered, a bell rang somewhere in the depths of the shop, behind seemingly endless rows of shelves, containing square boxed, which in turn contained wands, as Harry assumed.

Suddenly, an old man with wide, pale eyes stepped out of the darkness. "Good afternoon." He said, his voice soft and calm, as if he didn't want to disturb the silence in the room.

"Hello." Harry and Edward said awkwardly, one after another. Both of them were more than a bit disturbed by Mr. Ollivander's sudden appearance. Hagrid on the other hand seemed familiar with this, and simply sat down on in a spindly chair.

"Ah, yes... I already thought that you might come here today, Mr. Potter. You look just like your father when he was here to buy his own wand... except for your eyes. Your eyes are those of your mother... I do remember her clearly, too." After this, he turned his attention to Hagrid, and had pretty much the same remembering sessions as he did about Harry's parents. Then he finally turned his unsettling gaze towards Edward, who met it with a bit of a glare. "I cannot say that I recognize you, though... so who might you be, young man?"

"Edward Elric." Ed said. He seemed quite unsettled by Mr. Ollivander.

"Elric, Elric... ah, like Trisha Elric? I remember... ten and a quarter inches, made of hawthorn. Unyielding, yes... a solid wand, nothing too outstanding about it. How peculiar, though… I cannot seem to recall your father's wand… let alone how your father even was…"

"Look, can we please just get to our wands?!" Edward shouted, his loud voice ringing through the quiet shop.

Mr. Ollivander blinked, surprised by the sudden outburst. His confusion barely lasted a few seconds though, before he was back to his regular quiet self. "My apologies. You are correct, yes… there is little use to dwelling in the past. Now, Mr. Elric, Mr. Potter. Which one of you would like to go first?"

Before Harry could even think about it, Edward spoke up. "I'll do it."

"Very well then... which hand is your dominant one?" Ollivander asked, as he pulled a tape measure out of one of his pockets.

Before answering, Edward hesitated. "I... used to be right-handed, but that... changed recently. I'm more left-handed now."

Mr. Ollivander raised his eyebrows. "It changed? What exactly are you talking about?"

"I'd… prefer not to talk about it," Edward said sounding not too happy with the subject.

"I must apologize again, Mr. Elric, but this might be important information. I'm afraid that I must insist on learning the reason."

Edward shot Harry and Hagrid an apologetic look, before turning his back so that only Mr. Ollivander could see his front side. He then did something for Mr. Ollivander to see. Harry had to try his hardest to not attempt to sneak a peek. He could also tell that Hagrid was equally curious, if him leaning forward on the spindly chair he was sitting on was any indication.

"Ahh… yes, that explains it," Mr. Ollivander said thoughtfully, as he stared at whatever Edward was showing him.. "How long ago was this?"

"Just a few months. I'm still recovering."

"A difficult period, I imagine… well, it is only appropriate to consider your left arm your wand arm, then. Just a moment." With that, he went away, vanishing among the long row of shelves. Edward meanwhile did something else, and then turned back around to Harry and Hagrid. Hagrid, caught off guard by this, quickly moved back, resulting in the spindly chair making a loud crunching noise. Edward looked a bit unhappy at the two of them, but said nothing.

A short moment later, Mr. Ollivander returned from the depths of the shop, carrying a small box. "Try this one, Mr Elric. Ten and a third of an inch, elder wood, unyielding, and a core of dragon heartstring. Not exactly the most common combination, but excellent for transfiguration. I am certain that this one will gladly accept you... you see, it is always the wand that choses its master, not the other way round."

With a skeptic look on his face, Ed took the wand out of the box with his left hand, and swung it. The moment he did it, the wand erupted into a small firework of golden sparks.

Mr. Ollivander was delighted. "My intuition has not failed me! That would seven galleons then, Mr. Elric – or do you have any objections to this wand?"

Ed only shook his head, and paid up.

After this, Mr Ollivander started to look for a wand for Harry, which ended up taking a lot longer than finding one for Ed. For whatever reason, Mr. Ollivander's judgment kept being off, and so the boxes with 'wrong' wands piled up to their side. But the more wands turned out to be wrong, the more Mr. Ollivander seemed to get into the search. By the time that they finally found the right wand, Harry's arm was getting numb from all the swinging, Ed had sat down on the floor next to Hagrid, leaning on him to doze. Hagrid, too seemed to be getting tired.

The wand that ultimately turned out to be the right one for Harry was made of holly and had the feather of a phoenix as its core. According to Mr. Ollivander, the same phoenix that had also given the feather for the wand of the wizard that was responsible for the death of Harry's parents and his lightning-shaped scar on his forehead.

Like Edward before him, Harry paid up, and the three of them finally left the shop. There were still many things that they had to purchase, including books. Ed stayed with Harry and Hagrid throughout the entire time in which they were running these errands, talking with Harry about all possible things, such as what they were expecting out of Hogwarts, general questions Harry had about magic, or Harry's life with the Dursleys. But no matter what Harry asked, Edward was hesitant to tell him much about himself. All he could really learn was that he had a younger brother, his mother was dead (which Harry already knew), that they were living with the family of a friend who would also start Hogwarts this year (which Harry already knew but Edward elaborated upon), and that he really liked alchemy, one of the subjects at Hogwarts (which got Harry rather curious).

For Harry, who never really had a person that he could call a friend, being together with Ed and Hagrid was simply wonderful. Ed seemed to be barely bothered by the fact that Harry was apparently a celebrity of sorts to the wizarding world: He treated him like a normal person, which Harry didn't mind in the slightest. He would take turns with Hagrid to explain Harry various things that Harry did not know about yet, and even make a few jabs at some of Harry's misunderstandings about magic – which Harry, after a while, returned with jabs about Edward's lack of knowledge about the muggle world.

Edward only left Hagrid and Harry when they got back to the Leaking Cauldron, after buying all the things that the two of them needed. Before he left them, he promised to meet up with Harry on September 1st, when the term would start, and help him out.

But try as he might, Harry could not help but to wonder about what it was that Edward had shown Mr. Ollivander, just as he kept thinking about the object that Hagrid had gotten from Gringotts.

-7-

If there was one thing that Maes Hughes hated, then it was overtime – especially when he had planned a wonderful evening with his wife Gracia after he got home. But as a member of the Magical Law Enforcement bureau, this was however often enough sadly inevitable. So today, he found himself walking through Diagon Alley at a time when he would usually already have been at home for several hours. His destination: The wizarding bank, Gringotts.

Maes had already been getting ready to go home when a memo arrived that informed him of an undefined 'incident' at Gringotts, which required him and many of his colleagues at the scene as soon as possible. While this did not exactly have a positive effect on his mood, Maes still followed the order, since he full well realized the importance that this case seemed to hold, and obviously didn't want to give off a bad impression to his superiors.

By the time that Maes arrived at Gringotts, the entire main hall of the bank was already full of goblins and ministry wizards, all apparently trying to assess the situation, and search for any traces of magic left behind during whatever incident happened here. After a moment of looking around, he managed to spot his subordinates Maria Ross, Denny Brosh, Alex Louis Armstrong, and headed over to them.

When Maria Ross noticed Maes approaching, she quickly saluted, causing Denny Brosh and Armstrong to turn towards him as well. "Mr Hughes, sir!"

"G'evening, Ross, Bosh, Armstrong. Tell me, what exactly is going on here? You were awfully vague in the memo that you send me." Maes asked, addressing Armstrong.

"Truth to be told, sir, we don't really know what has happened here, either. All we know right now is that there has been a break-in. Mr. Mustang is currently talking to Head Goblin Alguff to learn the details of what has happened." The tall man said, keeping his voice low.

Maes raised his eyebrows. "A break-in? No surprise then that so many of us got called out here... with how much the goblins pride themselves in this place being absolutely safe, it's pretty much a given that they want this case to be solved as quickly as possible... so where are Roy and the Head Goblin now?"

"They're at the Head Goblin's office. Over there," He said, pointing at an imposing door at the other side of the hall that was exactly opposite of the main entrance.

"Right... I suppose I will go and see if Roy is already done. Resume your work in the meantime."

Without objection, the three obeyed, and did as they were told, while Maes made his way to the office. When he reached the entrance, though, the door already opened, and out of it stepped both Roy and his own subordinate, Riza Hawkeye.

"Hey there, Roy." Maes said with a grin. "Care to fill me in on what exactly happened here?"

While Roy's expression when he had left the room had been rather unhappy, it quickly lightened up when he recognized his friend. "Hughes! They called you out, too?"

"Sadly, yeah. If I had any say in this, I'd already be at home with Gracia, but orders are orders. But again, what's this with this break-in now? What was stolen?" He asked, as he slowly walked through the hall with Roy and Riza. While he was glad to see Roy, he still wanted to get the necessary things out of the way as quickly as possible. Gracia was waiting for him, after all.

Roy gave his friend a calculating look. "Ah yes, about that. The thing is: Nothing was stolen."

Maes was dumbfounded. "…Come again?"

"You heard me right. Absolutely nothing was stolen. Whoever our culprit was, they went for one specific high security vault, which was emptied just earlier today."

"Wow. This is what, the first break-in this bank had in centuries? And then they don't even steal anything... whose vault was it? Do we have any clues on how our culprit got in?" Maes got out, despite still being a bit speechless.

"If we knew how this person got in, it would already help us quite a bit. But all Head Goblin Alguff could tell us it that the thief entered the bank through a side entrance, killed the goblin guarding that entrance, cut off his hands, and the somehow made his way to the vault." Roy explained, keeping his voice low.

Maes stopped. "A murder, too? Why were the goblin's hands cut off?" This was really starting to sound sick.

"The vault in question can only be opened when a goblin touches it... at least that's what Alguff said."

"Hm. A loophole abuse, then. Well, I suppose that means we can rule out another goblin being the murderer. How exactly was the guardian killed?"

"Judging by the corpse, the murderer used an Unforgivable Curse."

"That too? Geez... and who is the owner of the vault in question now?"

Roy grit his teeth, looking very unhappy. "Alguff wouldn't tell us. He kept going on about that being confidential information, how the goblin council would first need to decide if they can even give out that information, and so on. He reassured us that the owner would be informed, though. If you ask me, he's just angry that we can't let the investigation be done by goblins."

"Well, well, well..." Maes said. "If that isn't just the kind of case that you've been waiting for, Roy! A dark wizard who doesn't shy away from using Unforgivable Curses, a break-in in one of the most secure places in all of Britain, the relation between wizards and goblins at risk… if you can solve this, you getting that promotion is essentially a given!"

For some reason, though, Roy himself was not caught up in his friend's euphoria in regards to the case. "Hmpf. As much as I'd like to take this case, Hughes, I can't. I'll have to hand it over to you."

"Huh? Why is that?" Maes asked, very confused.

"Don't tell me you already forgot..." Roy said, annoyed. "I'm leaving tomorrow. Professor Dumbledore just recently gave me his approval."

"Ohhh right, you're heading to Hogwarts tomorrow... getting ready for your new job as alchemy teacher, no?"

"Exactly. If I had known that something like this would come up, I never would have applied to the job..." He sighed. "But I suppose it would only shed a bad light on me if I were to move out of this now. At least King Bradley still has a big interest in education, so doing this will hopefully make a good impression."

Maes gave Roy a big pat on the back, almost knocking him over. "Ah, c'mon, Roy! I'm pretty sure that it won't be so bad. Have you heard the rumors that were floating around the ministry today? Harry Potter is finally going to be at Hogwarts! If you leave a good impression on him, I'm pretty sure that it'll also help your public image."

"I'd rather be recognized for my skill, Hughes, rather than by who I teach. If I want to be Minster of Magic some day, it needs to be because of my competence, not just because of my connection. But regardless… like I said, I'm leaving this case to you. And not just that: For the three years that I'll be teaching at Hogwarts, I'm putting you in charge of my men – Jean Havoc, Vato Falman, Kain Fuery and Heymans Breda – if you don't mind, that is. Miss Hawkeye is going to come with me to Hogwarts, to act as my assistant."

Riza, who, aside from her mentioning of Dumbledore earlier, had been silently following the conversation, nodded. "If I'm not looking out for him, he'll just be slacking off instead of preparing lessons and the like. It will already be difficult enough to get him the necessary teaching skills in just a few months."

Roy shot her an indignant glare.

"Hmm. I guess I can take this case... sounds like a lot of work, but with your men, I'm certain that I can get it done. That aside... good luck with your new job as teacher, I suppose?"

"I'll hopefully not need that. I already read some Muggle books on education, and the rest of the Hogwarts staff will explain me how they handle classes, so I think I'll be fine. But still, thanks, and good luck with this case, Hughes." Roy said, and made his way out of the bank, with Riza following him. When he reached the main entrance, he stopped for a moment, and turned around once more to look over the ministry employees at work. Riza had at this point already left the building.

"Oh, and Roy?" Maes said loudly enough for everybody in the hall to hear him, following a sudden whim.

"What is it, Hughes?" He asked, slightly puzzled.

"If you're already taking Miss Hawkeye with you as your assistant, you could as well go right ahead and confess your love to her!"

"Oh, SHUT UP!" Roy shouted, slamming the door behind him, while Maes let out a hearty laugh. Once he was sure that Roy was had left, Maes stopped laughing, and walked back to his subordinates, thinking about the case. The last known use of an Unforgivable Curse had already been several years ago – simply the fact that one was being used now meant that a dangerous dark witch or wizard was behind this. In Gringotts, all sorts of magical artifacts were being kept. Depending on who the owner of the vault was, it really must have been something interesting that was being kept there. And then there was of course the fact that a witch or wizard breaking into Gringotts could potentially strain the relationship between goblins and wizards, which had never been a completely peaceful one... no, this was by no means going to be an easy case.

Maes sighed. He sure had his work cut out for him.

-7-

When Rubeus Hagrid arrived back at Hogwarts, it was already late evening. The journey back to the school had taken him several hours, since he was unable to use any of the travelling methods more commonly used by wizards, such apparating, brooms or floo powder, meaning that he had to use the Hogwarts express to return. During the entire time, the feeling of uneasiness that he had felt since his visit to Gringotts did not leave him. While at first, Hagrid blamed it on the effects that Gringotts carts usually had on him; by now, there was no more denying it: This feeling was caused by the thing that he had retrieved from the bank for Professor Dumbledore.

By the time that he reached Dumbledore's office, Hagrid was not too far away from becoming a nervous wreck due to the constant exposure to this feeling. As such, he was just glad when after a firm knock on the headmaster's office door, the response in the form of a clear "Enter." came.

As Hagrid did as he was asked, Albus Dumbledore stood at in front of the window, looking out into the night, his hands behind his back. Without a word, Hagrid walked up to the headmaster's desk, pulled the brown package from the depths of his pockets, and placed it on the table. "Here yeh go, Professor Dumbledore. This is the thing yeh asked me to get fer yeh. And… I hope yeh don't mind me askin', but just what is this?"

Slowly, Dumbledore turned around. While normally, there was a vitality in his eyes that made it easy for people to forget his age, right now, he just looked as old as one would expect a man his age to look. Silently, he went over to his desk, picked up the package, and started unpacking it, revealing something that resembled a thumb-sized, crimson gemstone. "This, Hagrid, is something that an old friend of mine, Van Hohenheim, gave to me many years ago. This is a Philosopher's Stone. I'm certain that you have already heard of it?"

"Yes, sir, I have heard of it... but why does it make me feel so weird? 'Cuz it's doin' that, right?" Hagrid asked, relieved that he could voice his concerns.

"I'm afraid I can't tell you that, Hagrid. All you need to know is that I fear for the stone's safety, and would like to keep it at Hogwarts. Can I count on your help when it comes to preparing safety measures for it?" Dumbledore spoke slowly and silently. He seemed to be rather tired.

"'Course, sir. Yeh know that yeh can count on me." Hagrid reassured him.

"Good, good... but leaving that all aside, how was your trip with Harry?" Dumbledore asked, now getting livelier.

"It was even worse than yeh feared, professor. Harry didn't know a thing 'bout magic, and these muggles even told him that his parents died in a car accident, of all things... but he's still a nice boy. He even made a friend the moment I left him alone. Edward Elric."

"Edward Elric, you say? Interesting... but regardless... thank you, Hagrid. That is all for now. Good night."

Despite being dismissed like this, Hagrid did not move. Nervously, he began fuddling with his coat. "Uhm, professor… there's one more thing, actually."

Dumbledore raised an eyebrow. "And what is that?"

"It's about those muggles, sir. D'yeh really think that it's good to keep Harry there? They was terrible to him! Yeh should've seen 'im – scrawny like yeh wouldn't believe, all while their own kid was fat enough to count fer two! An' they had him sleep on the floor!"

"I can understand your concerns, Hagrid," Dumbledore said, sighing. "But it is absolutely necessary for Harry to stay with his family. That is sadly something that I can't change."

Hagrid slumped down. He knew that there was no point in arguing about this. After wishing the professor a good night himself, he left the room. Once Dumbledore was absolutely certain that he was gone, he picked up the Philosopher's Stone once more, and examined it closely.

"The devil's research, hmm..."

Author's Notes:
Why the "-7-" to break between different narratives, you might ask? I like its aesthetic, and the number fits both series. Seven Harry Potter books, seven horcruxes, seven deadly sins. . . just seems apropriate.
More on the content, I'm aware that a lot of the Harry-Edward section is pretty basic with regards to differences from HP canon. But hey, it's the main characters of the crossover meeting - there isn't much I could do to drastically depart from canon, given my approach to this. I just hope my writing somehow carries it.