Finalized – Chapter One

I'm wearing my awesome flamel shirt today, I just HAD to take a risk. :grin:

:gasp: It's the dreaded Harry Potter Crossover! I'm sorry, I had to. This idea has been eating itself for months now. :laugh: But, my children, this is not cliche, I promise. You will see.

There's one thing I want to ask of you, whoever reads this. I would like help choosing which house fits Ed best. So far it's undecided, so if you want to get your opinions out, do it now. It's not going to be a vote, but it will influence my decision, especially if you explain (oh, I just chased away reviewers. Oops. :laugh:).

Disclaimer: Fullmetal Alchemist and Harry Potter do not belong to me. Several Arrows Later does not belong to me.

( 1 )

-[ Perplexing ]-

I am listening
I'm hearing every single word
I see breath and sighs and changing minds
I told myself not to remind me of the things I could've been
I told myself not to remind me

Recently he had started letting his hair grow out again. For a while now, he had left it short, and for several reasons. One was so that he would attract less attention. Someone who looked to be 12 living by himself was already strange, he didn't need to add to that with his already uncommon appearances.

The second was because it reminded him too much of that day. The Promised Day. The day his entire life had been taken from him.

He sighed as he pulled the overused black hair tie off of his wrist. He bundled his hair into a short ponytail that hung above his shoulders. It wasn't long enough yet to pull into a higher ponytail, but it was getting to be a hassle to leave it down, as it constantly tickled the back of his neck.

He pushed against the ground with his automail leg, sending the rusty swing he was sitting on rocking slightly, a loud creaking shooting through the air. One creak was followed by another, and another, each one softer and shorter, fading off into nothing. He was alone again, with only the voices crowding his mind to fill the silence.

Then there was another noise, the clacking of small wheels rolling across slabs of concrete. Edward slipped off the swings with practiced agility, darting behind a nearby slide to spy on the approaching stranger. By the sound of the wheels and the now easily detectable panting, the person was fairly young and dragging a large case behind him. Anything odd was worth investigating.

And this definitely qualified as odd.

A boy who looked to be about 14 or so, with a thin frame and average height came into view. He had short black hair, and round glasses over his bright green eyes. He was the one dragging the trunk, and it was obvious that he was having trouble with it.

Suddenly, Edward heard the creak of the swings again, and a growling came from behind him somewhere. The stranger apparently heard it too, and he whipped around to see where the noise was coming from. His eyes fell slightly to Ed's right, towards a clump of bushes. Ed glanced towards where the boy was staring, and caught a glimpse of bright eyes before his attention was dragged back towards the street. The boy had fallen back onto the curb, and a gigantic purple bus had stopped in front of him.

The growling had stopped, Ed noted, filing that away as a problem to worry about later.

A slightly scruffy looking man stepped out of the back of the bus and started talking to the boy.

Even though they should've been within hearing range, Ed couldn't hear any of their conversation. Confused, he picked up a small, dried leaf, and rubbed it gently next to his ear. The crackling rang loud and clear, so that crossed out the possibility of temporary deafness, however unlikely that may have been.

They definitely should have been audible, and by the movements of their mouths Ed could tell that they were both talking in a normal voice. There didn't seem to be any substance between them and Ed, and there wouldn't have been a chance to place it there since Ed had arrived at the park.

It couldn't have been alchemy, since no one here seemed to practice it anymore. He'd never heard of alchemy that could mess around with sound waves anyways, though he held on to the idea to research later.

None of the solutions that Ed had thought up could explain the situation. He was about to just give up and walk over there and ask when the boy was herded onto the bus and it... disappeared.

It didn't "disappear" as in "drive away quickly," it just... wasn't there anymore.

"Okay, what?" were the only words that could escape Ed's hanging jaw. He just stood there, staring, for a few minutes before he had the sense to go over there and investigate.

He tugged the sleeves of his black shirt down farther over his gloves self-consciously as he came out from behind the slide. He glanced around for watchful adults as he walked towards the street. When one was alone, and in a 12 year old body, one tended to attract a fair amount of concerned parents asking him if he was lost.

In Resembool, it hadn't been that uncommon to let older children roam free for the most part. Apparently, that wasn't the way things worked here.

But, if that was true, why was the young teen walking around with such a large trunk?

He stepped off of the curb, checked for approaching vehicles, and started feeling around on the ground. There had to be a logical explanation, whether or not the whole thing was real or a figment of his imagination. Worst case scenario, he had been drugged somehow, and seeing strange teenagers and three story, technicolor busses was a side effect. Hopefully, it had just been some sort of weird prank, and the area around it would be rigged with what caused the weird occurrence.

But he found nothing abnormal about the street or the places around it. He finished in the middle of the street, the cracked asphalt just as dirty as normal.

He sat back on his heels and sighed. It wouldn't have worked, he shouldn't try... Oh a whim, he closed his eyes and sent a tendril of he soul into the air around him. He bit his lip, trying to control the tendril enough to sense any energy around him.

At first, there was nothing, ans he silently berated himself for even thinking about the possibility. But then- there!- he found something.

It felt like trace amounts of alchemy, but it was a little different.

Ed's eyes snapped open only to see the headlights of the car heading straight for him. He heard the screeching of tires, and barely had the time to bring his automail up to protect his head before it slammed into him.

He hit the asphalt hard a skidded, his left side taking most of the damage. He heard two car doors slam and two sets of footsteps ran towards him.

"Oh my god!" a feminine voice shouted as she knelt down next to his still form.

"Honey, are you okay?"

Of course he wasn't! He looked up towards their blurry faces and tried to sit up, letting out a groan.

"Molly, we need to take him to a hospital!" the man said. Ed belatedly noticed that both of them sported bright orange hair, even more vivid than his own golden blond.

He grabbed the woman's wrist, glaring intensely into her wide eyes.

"No hospitals," he said, voice sharp and cold. Screw the helpless child act.

"No, you need medical attention." the man said, already going to pick him up.

"No. Hospitals!" Edward shouted, scooting away shakily, wincing as he did so.

"Arthur... Arthur, look at this!" the woman said, pointing to Ed's left leg.

"Damn it..." Edward hissed as his vision started to tunnel, realizing that his pant leg had ripped, showing the scratched metal underneath.

As his hearing started to fade out, he heard the woman say one last thing.

"Maybe we should..."

Then the black at the edges of his vision closed in, and he fell back to the asphalt.