Chapter 5
Ed woke to something heavy close to him. He opened his eyes with a grumble and saw a big fluffy thing between him and Al.
It was Al’s palla cat, Nelly. She had somehow gotten into the tower and in the room to sleep on his bed with the only two people she likes. Looking toward the window, he saw Irene still asleep. Grumbling, Ed carefully climbed out of the blankets and shook Al.
Al mumbled before sitting up. “Nelly” he smiled giving her a rub, which she purred at. “Meet you at the lake?” he asked. Al nodded. Opening the curtains, Ed climbed down from the bunk and checked the time, only six.
Changing into a black long sleeve shirt and pants, he made his way to the lake.
He started on his usual stretches until Al came into view and joined him.
They stretched, then ran laps around the lake, then sparred.
Once done, they quickly took a shower (Ed used Al’s in the room they shared) and changed. Ed was fixing his black cloak when they entered the Great Hall for breakfast.
Inside was already a few students eating and talking. Ed and Al sat by the blue team.
Ed filled his plate of three different types of eggs, toast, bacon, a full English breakfast basically, while Al only had eggs and toast, his stomach was still getting use to all the food he was eating.
Ed had made sure Irene had her food, which was a rat as she rested in his cloak pocket, and Nelly sat by Al as he fed her some of his food.
“Elric, good morning” Ed turned and saw it was Draco and his two bodyguards. “Hey Draco, and call me Ed, or at least Edward if you pratness can’t help but be formal” he grinned. Draco scoffed and sat by his table, but kept his eyes on the brothers.
“Oh, Draco, this is Alphonse, my brother, Alphonse, this is Draco, I met him on the train” Ed introduced.
Al smiled and waved politely “Hello”
Draco nodded “Morning”
Ed finished up his breakfast, and stayed seated, knowing Flitwick would be handing out their schedules. “So, enjoy your night?”
“Yes, the common room was luxurious and comfortable” Draco answered. “Missing home at all?” Ed asked as he crossed his legs, leaning against the table. Draco had his back turn as he had to eat as well, but he turned enough to give a side-eye glare.
Ed grinned. “I suppose, my mother will certainly miss me around the house” he said. “She will certainly miss speaking to me about architecture” he sighed.
“Architecture ain’t that bad”
“Not when my mother starts her obsessive rants about how our home was made” he finally turned around on the bench, finished with his breakfast.
“Sounds like when my friend rants about her obsession” Ed said. Draco nodded with hum, he eyed the palla cat “Is that your familiar Alphonse?” he asked. Al nodded with a bright smile that knocked both eleven years old at the cuteness. “Yes, this is Nelly, isn’t she a queen? She’s so beautiful” he rubbed her back, which had her purring as it look liked she was smiling at the attention.
“Be warned, she only likes me and Al touching her, and hisses at anyone else” Ed whispered to Draco.
The blond boy nodded eyeing the cat “And your snake? Is she with you?”
Ed nodded “She just ate, so she is digesting the rat as she takes a nap in my cloak pocket” he said.
“What species is she?”
“She’s a white Corn snake, she’s small for her age, but is slowly growing” he smiled.
“What about your Familiar Draco?” Al asked curious. Draco titled his head “I have an Eagle Owl named Ulysses” he said.
“Wow, an eagle owl, those are big” Al said more to himself then Draco. “I actually wanted to ask, why you have your familiars following you?” he asked. Ed sighed “I already had this discussion with my roommates, but it’s a culture difference I think” he waved his hand.
“Here, you see your familiars as glorified pets, where we are from, our familiars are trained with magic and are used to help us with our magical studies, they won’t stay with us all the time, Irene likes to hunt by herself and I know Nelly naps most of the day” he grins at his brother who stuck his tongue out. “But they will help us with classes when we ask, not that I think we will though. We see our familiars are partners other than a pet, one to bond with and trust each other” he said.
He felt Irene moved in his pocket and he shifted until she slithered out from her nap, and curled around his neck. She seemed to be judging Draco.
“Defiantly a culture difference, but I have heard of familiars being more then pets, but no one does it anymore, most of what they do is protect you, not help you with your study’s” Draco explained.
“One of my housemates was complete shocked she didn’t know about this information” he snickered.
“Brother, don’t be rude” Al chided slapping Ed on his shoulder.
More students had showed up as they were talking. Ed noticed Evelyn was sitting close by.
He took in her appearance since last night he was too busy eating and wanting to sleep.
She had the same platinum blond just like Draco’s but she had striking light green eyes. She was eating her breakfast quietly close by.
He could see Dean and Hugo becoming fast friends. Dean had light coloured brown skin and black hair, with dark green eyes.
Hugo had brown hair, tanned skin and brown eyes. The two were speaking fast as they ate their breakfast. He didn’t see Takashi anywhere near by, but he knows he looked Xingese with black hair. Draco had turned to sneer at a dark skinned boy who grinned at him “Draco, getting in a relationship without me?” the boy teased. “Leave me be Zabini” Draco sneered. Ed shook his head “Man Draco, that’s not how you make friends”
“Not like your any better brother, you want me to bring up Ling again?” Al teased.
“Don’t you dare! That idiot prince is not my best friend!” he yelled.
Al just laughed. “And who are you? Didn’t think Draco would know anyone that would be another house other than Slytherin, he’s just like that” the kid grinned at Draco’s glare.
“If you must know Zabini, this is Edward Elric, and his brother Alphonse Elric, I met Edward on the train” he told the boy.
“Neat, I’m Blaise Zabini, nice to meet you” he grinned at the two. “Nice to meet you too” Al said politely while Ed just nodded in a greeting.
Ed had grabbed a piece of toast as Blaise sat down and teased Draco about his friendship making skills, which had the pale boy blushing to his ears.
Al joined in at some point, teasing his own brother, which Ed flicked him on the forehead for.
Before more teasing happen, Flitwick came over to them. “Elric, your schedule!” he said cheerily. Ed took the paper and scanned it over. He noticed some magic on it, and turned it over to see a map. “Cheers, thanks Teach-uh Professor” he smiled. Flitwick smiled back “You better get going, don’t want to get lost on your first day” he told all around him.
Draco got his own from Snape a few minutes later.
“Seems out first class is Transfigurations” he said as he checked over Draco’s and Blaise’s schedule.
“Let’s go, better get to class early then late” Ed grinned. Al also stood, holding Nelly, which was a feat in its own since she was as big as Al, “I’ll see you later, Ed, I will be in library for the morning and I’ll meet you for lunch here” he told his brother.
“Remember, no food in the library” he said in a reprimanding tone. “I know I know” Ed groaned before smiling “See you at lunch!”
He walked out with Draco and the Slytherin, just as Harry and Ron ran in. “Better eat quickly, classes are going to start soon” Ed warned as Draco and Blaise chuckled.
They made their way as Al disappeared. “Now, where do we go?” Draco asked. Ed gave a smirk “I don’t know, how about you ask for directions?” he asked smugly.
“I am not asking for directions, that’s beneath me!” he yelled. Ed rolled his eyes “It’s a logical thing to do if you don’t know where you’re going, you ask for directions, you’d be an idiot not to know that” he smirked as Draco sputtered and Blaise laughed. “And there is a map at the back of your schedules, the teac-professors wouldn’t leave us that lost” he said showing his schedule.
Draco grumbled as he read the map. They followed Draco’s lead as Ed waved and greeted the painting.
“I actually meant to ask, Edward, but is your brother younger then you?” Blaise asked. “Yup, one year younger, and before you ask, one of the teachers is our temporary guardian so Al is being watched by the staff when I have class” he explained.
Blaise nodded with ah of understanding not asking more.
They finally found the classroom, after Ed tricked Draco into asking a painting for directions, and proving he was right, they entered. Finding only a few students sitting, Ed sat in the front close to the windows, Draco behind him with Goyle next to him while Blaise went to his friends at the back of the class and Crabbe behind Draco.
Ed took out the transfiguration textbook he had already read and memories to look over the Transfiguration alphabet again.
He heard everyone speaking quietly as they waited for their teacher to arrive.
Soon the tall Scottish professor came out of her office and Ed noticed when she was in front of him to put his book down.
“Good Morning class” she started, stern and unwavering. “Before we start class, I ask you to put your wands away, there will be no wands in class for about a week” she said. Ed heard some people put their wands away and Ed realized he didn’t even have his on him, probably left it in his room. “Now, while I take roll, take out some parchment and your textbooks and start writing the rules of Transfiguration”
Ed did what was asked but felt it was a bit tedious to do it, he already knew the rules, even read second and third years books about it too. As they were writing, two students ran in, Ed ignored it for the most part until McGonagall started lecturing everyone on her subject.
As she spoke, he got more interested, as it sounded similar to Alchemy, just very different. He had to remind himself that human transfiguration wasn’t human transmutation.
“Most of your practical lessons won’t be happening until next week or in a mouths time, until then, we will be learning the theory part of Transfiguration”
Ed took notes, but mostly listened. This one girl in the red team asked a lot of questions and cleared up some of his own questions.
But someone was bugging him so he put his hand up “Yes Mr Elric?” she turned to him. “Professor, I wanted to ask about Human, human Transfiguration”
“You won’t be learning that branch of transfiguration until sixth-year Mr Elric” she said as a warning. She had gotten to know him during the mouth of course, so she knew of Ed and Al’s thirst for knowledge.
“I know professor, I wanted to ask if changing a human into something else is painful?” he asked.
McGonagall was silent for a second before she answered “no, even if the spell blacklashes, it shouldn’t cause pain to the caster” she said. Ed nodded.
And class continued as normal. Well normal enough for Ed. He had to remember what school was like before he dropped out. He struggled to sit still, and at some point, just started writing his own theory’s for Transfiguration that had him called out. McGonagall looked impressed by it.
The rest of the day was similar, no magic learning until they learned the theory, which was boring for the genius kid, but he couldn’t do much other then add in extra work to sedate his over energized mind. He was way ahead of his fellow students by the time practical’s started.
Potions was defiantly one of his favorite subjects, because while he knew everyone about it already, it was one of the most closest to science chemistry as any other subjects.
When they had their first practical, Ed had partnered up with Neville, as he could see the boy was very nervous about potions.
They worked together and followed the recipe to the point, but their potion still ended up not as what Ed wanted. It was only until the third practical lesson, where they had to work alone, did Ed ignore the instructions and do it his way.
He had literally thrown the book and written the recipe how he would have done it, after understanding how the potion was made and making it before hand to make sure (it did end up with his caldron burnt but he fixed it up with alchemy, Alphonse was not impressed)
In the end he came out with a perfect Wiggenweld Potion. Snape rewarded him with points and a rare smile, even bragged about it to the other students. It had Ed blushing.
Draco was jealous of course, but Ed just grinned at him.
He and Al hanged out in the library almost every day, so of course he met Hermione in there, introducing her to Al and becoming close friends as they went.
He had just came up there after classes, feeling his head dusty from History of magic, when he saw Hermione reading intensely by one of the many main tables “You know the tables by the back are much more comfortable”
“But they don’t have a big enough table for all the books I have” she said without looking up. Ed grinned, he had the same problem sometimes.
“Hey Hermione” he spoke. She looked up “Oh, Edward, sorry I was so engrossed in my book” she apologized. “No worries” he waved it off “I do the same”
He sat down by here taking out his homework to do “I hope you don’t mind me and my brother joining you? Al should be here soon” he said.
“Your brother you mentioned on the train?” she asked. “Yup”
Al soon showed up and joined them “Hello, I’m Alphonse, Ed’s younger brother” he smiled at her. “Hello, I’m Hermione Granger”
“What homework are you doing today?” Al turned to his brother. “Just working on Snape’s homework, he gave me an essay on how to make an Antidote to Common Poisons in the wild and in a rush” he explained.
“Wait a minute, that’s not the homework we were given” she looked over his work. “Oh right, I already handed that in, he gave me some extra credit to see where my skills lie” he shrugged.
“How could you have handed it in already, it was given out today?!” she nearly yelled. “I did it in one of our group studies, everyone was doing homework, since no one needed help for it, I did it, and handed it to get it over with”
She looked at him in disbelief and Al chuckled “Brother’s a bit of a genius”
“So are you, you should be in class already” he pointed at him. Al shrugged “Can’t change the rules brother”