A/N - Short chapter is short. I have no excuses. Though I did update a bit earlier than usual, so...equivalence? Also, just a heads up, all the alchemy talk in this chapter is based off of my knowledge from reading the manga/watching the show. If it's not accurate, then let me know.

"blah blah"- Speaking Greek

"blah blah"- Speaking Amestrian

'blah blah'- Thinking

*<*<*>*>* - Begin/end flashback

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, Fullmetal Alchemist, or Percy Jackson. Good thing too, or they wouldn't be nearly as good as they are now. They belong to J.K. Rowling, Hiromu Arakawa, and Rick Riordan. Just to be safe, I also don't own the song 'This is War' by Thirty Seconds to Mars.

Edward

"...so the 'structural matrix' is composed of the symbols, and all the symbols represent something, and that's what causes something to change form?"

Edward nodded at the girl sitting across from him. "Basically. Also, the size and detail of whatever you want to transmute depends on the size and complexity of your circle." Ed grabbed a spare paper from the disorderly library table and drew a simple transmutation circle. "This circle will transmute a small amount of stone into a perfect square. It's a simple transmutation, so the structural matrix is also simple."

     Susan nodded, tapping the end of her quill against her chin. She was one of Ed's more enthusiastic students; eager to learn and quite smart on top of it. Ed's outburst in the library had scared off most of his students, but she had approached him the next day as if nothing had happened.

     Edward wasn't annoyed; he actually enjoyed spending time with her. She was eleven years old, four years younger than him, and she reminded him of Alphonse in some ways. Intelligent, curious, and with a sarcastic streak that hid behind a sweet personality. Maybe it was because he missed Al so much, but Ed found himself being drawn to the aspiring alchemist.

"Do you have any siblings, Susan?" Ed asked. It seemed that in all of their meetings, they only talked about alchemy. Normally Ed would be fine with that, but he wanted to get to know her more.

Susan glanced up, startled by the sudden subject change. "Yes sir, I have a brother who's eight years older than me, and another younger sibling is due in two months." She smiled proudly at the mention of the baby. "What about you, Professor?"

Ed frowned in annoyance. "Seriously, stop calling me 'sir' and 'professor'. I'm fifteen, not thirty."

"Right, sorry," Susan said, a faint blush creeping up her cheeks. "I forgot."

"It's alright." Ed returned to her question. "I have a brother. He's a year younger than me."

Susan brightened, her brown eyes gleaming with interest. "Is he an alchemist too?" She asked eagerly.

Edward nodded with a smile.

"Is he as good as you?"

"Not quite, but he's still a great alchemist. He's definitely a better fighter," Ed added fondly.

"Does he beat you all the time then?" Susan asked mischievously.

"Every time," Ed sighed with mock despair.

"Is he in the military like you?"

Ed froze. "No." He replied quietly. "I would never let him carry a burden like that."

Susan sensed his change in mood immediately. It didn't stop her next question, but she did ask it in a more subdued manner than usual. "If you don't mind me asking...why did you join the military?"

     Under different circumstances, and with another person, Ed probably would have replied that it was none of their business and left it at that. But he knew Susan well enough by now to know that she wasn't trying to pry; she just wanted to know him better.

"There is something I need to do," he replied after a heartbeat of silence. "And the military has the resources to help me do it." He kept his gaze fixed on the paper in front of him, and the quiet murmurings of the library were the only sounds for several moments.

Susan sensed not to question him any further, and changed the subject. "So do you still see your brother a lot?"

Ed sighed, a familiar ache of loneliness creeping back upon him. "Usually I do; we travel together for all of my missions. But he couldn't come here with me."

"You must miss him a lot then," Susan said softly, scooting her chair closer to him. "My brother is a lot older than me, but we're still really close. I missed him so much when he first moved out. It's better now, but sometimes I wish I could have frozen time back when we were all living together."

'Freeze time, huh?' Edward thought wistfully. 'Yeah, I wish I could have done that. Back before mom died, and everything went wrong.'

"But," Susan said, a bright light coming back to her face. "If that had happened, then I wouldn't be getting a younger sibling, and my brother would never have met his fiancé, and I would never have come to Hogwarts. So even if I miss him, I'm still glad that everything happened the way it did." She smiled brightly at him, a hopeful look in her eyes.

'Oh,' Ed realized after a moment of her looking at him hopefully. 'She's trying to cheer me up.'

"Yeah," Ed said, blinking away his initial surprise. "You're right. After all, if I hadn't come here then I wouldn't have met you, and I would have one less friend." He returned her smile with a grin of his own, pleased to see her whole face light up.

     Edward stood abruptly, pushing his chair back from the table, and began gathering the books and spare parchments. "I should get these back to the classroom before dinner."

"Here, I'll help carry them!" Susan eagerly began gathering supplies from the table.

"That's alright, I can get it," Ed assured her. "I'm sure you have better things to be doing."

Susan shook her head. "No, I want to help." She said it with such determination that Ed was surprised. She seemed to realize this, and blushed slightly. "I mean-well, it's silly really, but-" She hesitated. "Well, I made a promise to always help anyone who needed it, no matter how small and no matter what the risk." She looked at her feet. "I know, I sound ridiculous. There isn't much I can do to help people, and I probably won't ever make a difference, but I want to try."

"Don't be like that," Ed scolded. "That promise is more than plenty of people would ever do." He turned his head to smile at her around his books as they walked out of the library. "And besides, even little things like helping someone carry their books can make difference."

Susan turned and smiled again, back to her cheery self. Unfortunately, that meant she wasn't looking in front of her and almost ran into another first-year as they rounded the corner. The girl yelped and jumped out of the way, dropping her bag in her attempt to get out of their path.

"Oh, whoops!" Susan yelped, seeing that some of her books had spilled. "Do you need help with that?"

The other girl's eyes widened in shock when she saw Susan and she scooted away. "N-no, I'm fine," she squeaked. Hurriedly, she shoved her books in her bag. With a final frightened glance back, she practically ran down the hallway.

"Well that was odd," Edward commented. He stopped when he saw that Susan had stopped, staring at the space where the girl had disappeared, her expression one of long-concealed sadness. "What's wrong?" Ed asked, alarmed.

"It's nothing." Susan's voice was quiet again, and her face told a different story.

Ed raised an eyebrow but didn't comment.

"I know her," Susan said abruptly. Ed kept silent and let her talk. "We weren't friends, exactly; but our parents knew each other so we met up fairly often. We always talked about Hogwarts; what classes we were looking forward to, learning to ride a broom...and, of course, what house we wanted to be in."

Susan's voice trembled and she paused, her grip tightening on the books she was holding. "We both wanted to be in Ravenclaw. She was worried she wasn't smart enough. One thing she always told me was that she didn't want to be in Slytherin because she didn't want to be evil." 

Susan's voice had dropped to almost a whisper. "And then I got put in Slytherin. She was behind me in the line. I saw her face when I was sorted. She looked...horrified. Like she couldn't believe it. And ever since then she's been avoiding me, and runs away whenever we meet. It's like she thinks I was tricking her all those years or something."

They had arrived at the classroom. Edward had set his stack of books on his desk, but Susan was still standing in front of it, clutching the two books and inkwells that she had been carrying, trying to stop her arms from shaking.

"It doesn't matter that I'm a Slytherin," She whispered, sounding on the verge of breaking down. "I still want to help people. And I don't want anyone to be afraid of me."

Edward gently took the books from her trembling arms and set them on the desk. "You're right," he affirmed, trying to sound as gentle as possible. "It doesn't matter what house you're in. I think the whole sorting business is a terrible idea; it just encourages prejudice."

Ed laid his left hand on Susan's shoulder in an attempt to comfort her. "Everyone should be treated the same, and no magical hat should get to decide how a person is treated. So what if you're Slytherin. Even if no one else does, I promise I'll always treat you the same."

     Susan finally looked up, and Ed saw, to his horror, that she had tears shimmering in her eyes. To his even greater dismay, Susan lunged forward and wrapped her arms around him in a hug. He awkwardly hugged her back with his flesh arm, unsure of how to react.

"Thank you." Susan's words were slightly muffled and he almost didn't hear her. She abruptly released him and hurried out the door.

Ed was left standing in the middle of his classroom, slightly stunned and trying to figure out what the heck had just happened.

~o~O~o~

"So Ed, how's teaching going?"

     Edward didn't bother trying to stop the groan that escaped him as he turned away from his breakfast to face Remus.

"Not well then?" His fellow teacher asked sympathetically.

"It's not really their fault," Ed explained reluctantly. "It's just that alchemy isn't really meant to be taught in a classroom setting. It's better to learn from a private teacher with one or two students, three at most. Even though my classes have gotten smaller, I have an average of five students in each class. I have TEN students in one class! TEN! I can't teach alchemy to a class of ten students!"

"So what are you going to do about it?" Remus asked as he reached for his goblet.

"Ramp up the difficulty until enough of them drop out," Ed said matter-of-factly.

Remus nearly choked on his pumpkin juice. "But don't you want them to learn alchemy?" He sputtered as he recovered.

Ed shrugged with indifference. "Honestly I couldn't care less."

Remus looked aghast. "Why don't you just split the class in half instead?" He suggested tentatively.

"Huh. I never thought of that." Edward replied. "But then I would have more classes to teach and less research time."

     Remus looked like he was about to reply, but was interrupted by the arrival of the owl post. An owl swooped down and deposited two letters in front of Edward. His spirits lifted greatly, as they always did when he received a letter from his younger brother. He was slightly annoyed at the second letter, which looked to be from Colonel Mustang, but that was overshadowed by Al's letter. He tore open the Colonel's letter first, wanting to get that one over with.

Fullmetal,

     I know this is a little late, but I have noticed something strange about your recent relocation. It seems that someone may have been influencing you being chosen for this mission. I don't know why I didn't notice before now, to be honest. There isn't anything that can be done, so don't have a conniption over it. I thought you would like to know, in any case. You can thank me later. In the meantime, don't do too much property damage and please try not to cause any international incidents. I have enough paperwork as it is.

Colonel Roy Mustang

The Flame Alchemist

     Ed frowned as he finished the letter, questions assembling themselves in his mind. Why would someone want him to teach at Hogwarts? Were they trying to get him out of the way or something? Was Al in danger? Well, obviously not because he was holding his little brother's letter, but would he be in danger eventually?

     Mostly he was just mad though. If someone was pulling strings to ensure that he got sent away, then that meant he probably wouldn't have been sent otherwise. And that meant that he could be back with Alphonse right now, getting something useful done!

"Ed, is everything alright?" Remus's concerned voice snapped Ed out of his musings.

"Yeah, fine," he replied easily, wiping all traces of concern off his face. He read through Alphonse's letter, and was glad to see that his younger brother was doing just fine. He paused with a frown when he came to one of the last paragraphs.

     I spoke with Winry recently about your automail. She says that you need to be very careful once it starts getting cold enough to snow because your automail will freeze up and maybe give you frostbite. She wants to give you northern automail so that isn't a risk, but she doesn't know how she'll be able to travel that far. You should try to arrange something; I don't want you to get hurt because of the cold. Be careful until then.

'Now that I think about it, metal and cold don't really mix well. Good thing it hasn't gotten too cold yet. Though it'll be getting even colder now that November has started.'

"Hey Remus," Ed said. "Is there any way for you wizards to transport people quickly over long distances?"

"Of course," Remus answered. "Portkeys, apparating, and the Floo Network."

Ed blinked. "...I have no idea what any of those words mean."

Remus laughed. "A portkey is made with an object and can be programmed to transport anyone who touches it at a certain time. Apparating is performed by one wizard and takes practice to accomplish, but it can take you pretty much anywhere. The Floo Network is set up in fireplaces; you go in one and come out at your destination, as long as the fireplace is hooked up."

Ed blinked again, processing the new information. "Right...so which one could be used to get someone over here from Amestris?"

"Oh, do you need to get someone over here?"

"Yeah, my mechanic," Ed explained. He didn't have to explain the 'mechanic' part; Remus had found out about his metal limbs when he took him to the hospital wing the first day.

"Are you having trouble?" Remus asked, worried.

"No, but I need an upgrade for the cold. So do you think that she can get up here somehow?"

"I'm sure Headmaster Dumbledore can arrange something. I'll speak to him about setting up a portkey this weekend. Does that work?"

Edward nodded gratefully. "Thanks." He stood up from the breakfast table. "I have to get ready for my classes." He left the Dining Hall, slightly worried about Winry's visit, but mostly glad that he would be seeing someone familiar.

'Usually I see her because I broke my automail doing something dangerous. I guess it's kinda nice that I can see her and not have come from a life-threatening fight. After all, I'm at a school. I'm not really in any danger here.'

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Fear. Real, bone-chilling, immobilizing fear. What a feeling.

As your face goes white in terror, you never know if it will be the last time. As a barely audible whimper escapes from your paralyzed body, you never know if it will be the last time. So as you cower within the feelings of dread and dismay; cherish them. For you never know if it will be the last time.

A/N - For those of you who don't want to look it up, a 'conniption' is a fit of rage or hysterics.