Lesson no. 5
Finding an empty carriage proved to be more of a challenge than Ed had originally planned it to be. Finally, though, as he huffed and puffed his way to the back of the train, where more green-robed students were sitting, he found a perfectly empty carriage for himself. With some effort, he stuffed his trunk and other bags above the bench. It was times like that when he wished he had a wand. Of course, he had asked to get one, but Remus, and everyone else for that matter, had replied with a firm no. Ed had sulked, then got over it. He would’ve needed a teacher and a good bit of time and as of right now, time was a sparse thing. Whatever, he didn’t need a wand. How hard could wandless magic be?
The flashing green landscape outside his window was achingly familiar, as was everything that day apparently. Just as Ed was about to close his eyes to try and block everything out until he got to whatever that godforsaken place was called—Hogfarsh?— the compartment door slid open.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I wasn’t expecting anyone to be in here.” A young bug-eyed girl said. She was wearing blue and black robes. “I hope you don’t mind company. Everyone could always use some more friends, anyways. Don’t you think so?”
Ed blinked.
“Yeah, I guess so.” He said, watching as the cork-necklace-wearing girl took a seat next to him (no, not across, but directly next to him). Maybe it was a wizard thing.
“I’m Luna Lovegood, but everyone here calls me Loony Lovegood.” She said, swinging her clogged feet while staring unblinkingly at Ed.
“I’m Ed” he said slowly, “can I ask why they call you that?”
“Well I assume it’s because they think I’m strange. I think they got it all wrong, though. I’m as normal as they are.”
“I see.” If there was one thing Ed ever hated, it was bullies. “Well I think that is actually pretty rude, especially if you haven’t given them permission to call you that. How about next time someone calls you that, let me know. I’ll provide some adult intervention, yah?”
Luna’s face lit up at this and she nodded before pulling out a strange looking magazine titled The Quibbler and began reading it upside down.
The door opened again, and Harry, Ginny, and a pudgy boy Ed didn’t recognize peeked in, all dressed in red, gold, and black robes.
“Is it alright if we join you, Luna, Ed? All the other compartments are full.” Ginny asked. Luna nodded from behind her magazine.
“Where are Ron and Hermoine?” Ed asked as the trio sat across from them.
Harry coughed awkwardly, eyes darting from Ed’s to look out the window at the racing countryside. “The prefect carriage.”
Ed nodded and didn’t push the matter any further. Ever since Ed met Harry Potter, the boy sharply reminded Ed of himself when he was a teen. Too young for everything he’s done and seen. Responsibilities piling on and on, seemingly never ending. It was taking a toll, and he was going to crash sometime or another. Ed only hoped he had someone to crash into when the time came.
They rode in silence for a while, watching as the terrain outside the locomotive shifted from roaming hills into a more mountainous landscape. After a while, Ed excused himself and slipped out of the cramped compartment, hoping to stretch his automail leg a bit before they arrived at the school. As he walked towards the back of the train and into the final car, he noticed three students in emerald green robes lurking around the door of a compartment. Two of them were large, very large, taller than Ed by any means, and extremely thick-looking. The third’s face was partly obscured by a burly shoulder, but he seemed to be more on the lean side, his hair blond, almost white. When the boy turned around, Ed felt like he had gotten whiplash.
It was the boy from Truth’s gate. The sharp pain in Ed’s temple returned, but he pushed it to the corner of his mind and kept walking casually, strolling leisurely past the three students. He felt their eyes, HIS eyes, boring into his back as he passed. He slid open the emergency exit door (which didn’t actually lead to anything except speeding tracks and certain death) and slipped out onto the grate platform, sliding the door shut behind him.
Then he allowed himself to breathe. It wasn’t hard, not with all that air whipping around, so he sucked it up greedily, migraine receding slowly as he sunk down and onto the grate. Well fuck me. Ed thought, leaning back against the door and staring at the beautiful mountains.
The boy was certainly important to the mission, Truth made that clear enough. He could still feel the boy’s eyes boring into his back, even though the three students left the carriage a few minutes ago (Ed felt their footsteps recede). Ed’s neck tingled and he shivered slightly at the sensation of his gaze. He’d need to keep a close eye on the boy, keep him close. Perhaps he was even a friend of Harry’s.
Ed felt his consciousness slip away from him and he allowed it to drift, his eyes shutting for seemingly only a few minutes before being startled awake by a piercing whistle from the train.
Just as Ed began to stand up, quite stiffly he must admit, the train whistled again and Ed realized that they had arrived. He quickly made his way over to the side of the railing where he promptly laughed out loud. There, sitting across a beautiful lake and between a dip in the mountains, sat a monstrous castle. Of course no one told him the school was a castle. It was huge and regal, grander than any sort of structure he’d seen in all his travels over the years. Ed’s eyes were glued to it until the forest around him obscured it from view, the smell of pine hitting the roof of his mouth as they pulled into Hogsmeade Station. Ed turned to go grab his luggage when a voice from below said, “Lieutenant Elric.”
Ed turned and was met with the sight of a tall figure draped in all black, peering up at him over a crooked nose from where he stood next to the train, white plumes of smoke billowing over his robes.
“That’s me.” Ed said from where he stood with his hand on the door. The sun was beginning to set.
“My name is Severus Snape,” Ed’s ears perked up at this. This Snape guy had been mentioned several times during the Order meetings, but Ed had yet to see him at one. “I’ve been sent to escort you to the castle and see that you’re all settled. Do not worry about your luggage, it will be taken care of.”
Ed nodded before vaulting over the railing and landing besides the greasy man, who turned and beckoned for Ed to follow him over to a waiting line of carriages. Ed recognized the large, black, horse-like creatures at the helm of the carriages, thestrals, from his reading. Only those who’ve experienced death had the ability to see them.
The man–Snape—motioned for Ed to board the carriage and he followed him in soon after, sitting on the bench across from Ed’s.
“So you’re a teacher?” Ed asked. Snape looked up and returned Ed’s gaze.
“I am. I teach the art of potion-making here at Hogwarts.”
Ed’s ears perked up at this. “Potions?” In all his readings, potion-making had seemed the most intriguing. It had many similar qualities to alchemy and could, to his knowledge, become very tricky depending on what potion you’re trying to brew. But it made sense, unlike the rest of the magical world. It was all measuring, adding, subtracting, and required very meticulous attention to details.
“Yes,” Snape said. “And I hear that you yourself are an alchemist?” He said, curiosity tinging the edge of his voice. Ed nodded and propped his feet up on the seat.
“Yup. Can’t say I’ve ever had the pleasure of teaching it though. I’m just hoping no one gets killed the first day.”
Snape snorted softly. “You will find that some students seem to attract chaos. Just be thankful the course is only available for fifth years and above.”
Ed quirked a brow. “Fifth years? I thought the old alchemy professor only opened it up to sixth years and above?”
“Yes, but I do believe Dumbledore mentioned something about ‘starting them young’. He also did mention that you yourself were quite young when you began the practice of alchemy.”
“Yeah, I guess so.” Ed said.
Snape made for interesting conversation as they were carried up towards the looming castle. He wasn’t the most pleasant little schnookum, but he was intelligent and witty, and made Ed laugh several times as they walked from the carriages and to the castle. Upon entering the castle’s huge front doors, he led Ed through the grand hallway and past a large door in which hundreds of students were filing through and taking their seats at long, wooden tables, each with a different color banner hanging above. Silvery ghosts flew about, shouting greetings. A few twisting corridors, moving staircases, and live paintings later, Snape stopped outside a classroom at the end of a torched hallway.
“These will serve as your classroom and room while you are here at Hogwarts. If you ever need anything, I’ll be in the dungeon below the Great Hall.” Snape said, turning to walk away. “Also, the feast will begin shortly, so do make haste to arrive on time.”
Ed already had a foot through the door before Snape was done talking. He would admit, somewhat reluctantly, that he had always considered teaching as a possibility back in Amestris. Winry pushed for it especially, since it would mean the end of his travels (at least temporarily). Ed hadn’t minded the idea at the time, since it would mean more wifey time, except in this case, he would be substituting his wifey time for research time. Ed had paid rapt attention at the few Order meetings he attended, but he still was not satisfied with limited knowledge he knew about the whole situation, especially in regards to how the freak Voldemort was alive. He had even been “killed” before, Moody even said. Ed made a mental note to follow up with Dumbledore after the Sorting Ceremony to see if he could squeeze some more information out from him about this “Tom Riddle”.
The door had shut behind him with a click as he strolled into his new classroom. It looked exactly like you would expect a classroom to look(except that it was in a castle)–row after row of desks, a larger teachers desk at the front of the room, next to which stood two chalkboards. Behind the desk was a stairway which led to a smaller door. The entire left side of the room was lined with dusty tables, and behind them, huge latticed windows allowed for moonlight to shine into the room. Ed breathed in the stale air.
This was home. For now.