Now that the agreement was in place, Moody left to go do whatever he did in his spare time and Elric seemed to trust the agreement, as he didn't even turn to watch him go. In fact, he sat in the kitchen and seemed content to just watch Remus go about the kitchen trying to cook enough food for breakfast. Which was a bit nerve wracking. Where was Molly Weasley when you needed her? She would have surely been able to make small talk to fill up the silence. Then he remembered that she was tending to her husband in the hospital, and that thought sobered him up.

"Thank you," Elric said, breaking the silence.

"Sorry?" Remus said as he turned to face him, he had not been expecting that.

"For speaking on my behalf, thank you."

"Oh." Remus wondered if this was some kind of test. "You're welcome" He turned around again to keep cooking.

%%%%

Edward had gone through the five stages of grief at least twice in the last few hours.

First, there was the whole being kidnapped.

Then they had threatened to go after Al.

Now he was sitting alone in a kitchen with a man he had never seen before but who he found he didn't hate because he had spoken up for him before. That had to count for something. Sure the clap earlier had made him wary, but he probably would've known if someone else who had seen the gate were out there, probably would've seen him on promised day or something, so he let it go. The fact that this man also seemed to be the resident chef did not hurt either. If he had to stay with these people for however long it would be, he figured he didn't want to be on bad terms with the guy preparing the food. So he had thanked him for his earlier help. Now though, he was just sitting wondering how many people were in this house because this is the second carton of eggs that this man has had to scramble and he kind of looked like he was struggling since he was trying to make eggs, toast, bacon, sausages, pancakes and boil water all at the same time. Ed, personally, would've cried at this point, so he figured he'd help.

"Can I help you with anything?" He asked as he got up and walked towards the stove, straightening his clothes as he walked. The man gave him a strange look.

"Uh sure, just get those going for me would you?" He nodded towards a packet of sausages. "Place the ones that are already done on a plate if you would, the cupboard is the one on the left."

"Ok." As Ed started to do as the man asked, he felt he needed to know. "Not to be rude, but can you tell me your name and also how many people you plan to feed because you've got enough to feed a small army."

"My name's Remus." The man, Remus, said with a chuckle, "And we might as well feed a small army, there are teenagers in this house and they probably eat enough each for a platoon."

"Fair enough" Ed shrugged, remembering just how much he ate as a teenager and, if he were being honest, just how much he could still eat if he wanted to. Then he remembered just who said teens were. Yikes. Just as he was about to ask Remus to make sure, the door flew open behind them with a bang.

"Hey, Remus!" A man with shoulder length black hair, who Ed recognized as the man he had first run away from, stepped into the room and stopped short at the sight of him.

"Good morning Sirius." Remus started pleasantly, "This is -" He didn't get to finish, as Sirius moved towards them in large steps.

"You dare show your face here!?" He snarled, reaching out for Edward. Who, for his part, dodged him and set the plate of sausages he had been holding down on the table. He wasn't quite certain as to what he did to deserve this reaction, but he was certain that he didn't want to receive said reaction.

"Mind the sausages!" He chided, while wondering just how badly it would turn out if he ran away again. Then he remembered that Alphonse would probably flay him alive and tell Izumi where he was and what he was doing, and then he really would die. Maybe staying actually was the best option.

"Mind the sausages he says!" Sirius said disbelievingly. "That's what you have to say for yourself!? You come into my home on this day, the day before Christmas, and you say mind the sausages?!"

"To be fair I said more than that before to Remus over there!" Ed piped up, hoping to keep this a verbal encounter rather than turn it physical. Sirius seemed to have just remembered the other man's presence.

"And you!" He said turning and pointing at him, "You just let him in?"

"Moody brought him in Sirius, it's not like he could exactly knock." said Remus.

"What's that supposed to mean?" said Ed indignantly, he was very offended that they thought he couldn't knock on doors. "Is this because I almost punched you? I wasn't expecting the door to open ok let it go!"

"You tried to punch him!" Sirius squawked, putting a hand on his chest, turning to him, and turning back to Remus as if looking for signs of injury.

"No! No, no, no," said Remus addressing both of them and looking back and forth between them. "It was a misunderstanding Sirius, he didn't hurt me."

"And he's not gonna hurt you because I'm going to -" Sirius started advancing on Ed as he spoke.

"You are going to sit down and eat," Remus said pointing a spatula at him, and Sirius plonked down. "And you," he was pointing at Ed now, "are going to make sure those sausages don't burn, they're my favorite, that's the last pack, and if the teenagers get here and eat them all I will not be responsible for my actions."

"You got it." Ed gave a weak thumbs up, he wasn't afraid exactly, but he knew when he was beat.

The room was filled with the scent of food, the clink of Sirius' fork against his plate, and the sizzling of the meat when Remus spoke up again.

"Sirius, do you want to tell us why you tried to attack Elric."

"Ed." Both wizards turned towards him. "Call me Ed." He repeated in what he hoped was a casual tone. It was weird being called by his last name, and if he was going to stick it out and live with them he might as well try to make it better for all of them.

"Ed then," Remus said after a pause.

"He refuses to teach Harry." Sirius sighed, "and isn't the whole point of him being here teaching Harry?"

"I was told the whole point is me not letting him die." Ed said in a mildly defensive tone, "Whether he could learn alchemy was more of a possible side effect. One which didn't happen."

"But it should have." Sirius accentuated his point with a bit of egg at the end of his fork.

"Could have. Besides, I'm joining your group for a bit to help you out." He didn't want to, but he did what he had to. "I'll just make sure he doesn't die, go back home, and we'll call it a day."

"But if you taught him it would be easier wouldn't it?" interjected Remus.

"Not necessarily."

"Oh come on!" exclaimed Sirius, "What do you want? A bribe?! I'm willing to bribe you to keep him safe ok? I'm rich I can do that! Name your price!"

"Sirius!"

"I don't take bribes," Ed said through his teeth. "Why are you so interested in his well being anyways? What is he to you?"

"I'm his godfather! I'm the only family he has!"

"It's admirable that you want to help him but I can't teach him alchemy!"

"Can't or won't?"

"Listen if you want him safe then go everywhere with him or something!" Ed wasn't here to solve all of their problems, just to help manage one, which was keeping Harry Potter from dying.

"If I could even go out in public I would!"

"Sirius!" Remus gasped.

The two wizards looked at each other, mild panic on their faces. It was clear to Ed that Sirius should not have said that. So, of course, he wasn't going to leave it alone, it was probably important.

"What does that mean?"

"I'm uh, I'm very sensitive to sunlight!" Sirius scrambled for an excuse.

"Might have bought it if you had delivered it differently, but sadly no." The cooking was done at this point, so Ed calmly served himself and then sat down to eat his own food. "The truth please."

"Someone was bound to let it slip eventually." sighed Remus as he sat down to eat his food, "Might as well get it over with."

"The thing is," Sirius said, and Ed noticed that he seemed a bit nervous, so he braced himself for the worst. "I'm a convicted mass murderer."

Ed spat out his eggs, "You're a what?!"

"And an escaped prisoner," Remus said calmly.

"What!?"

"All that without killing anyone."

"Tada." Sirius gave him jazz hands. Ed jumped up, banged his knee on the table, then slumped in his seat and banged his head on the table.

"Why is this my life." he groaned. "I need explanations, can we start from the 'all that without killing anyone' bit? There is a limit to how many mass murderers I can be pals with before I start to wonder why."

"He was falsely accused," Remus said between sips of coffee.

"Oh, so he can't go out because people still believe he did kill people? Wasn't there like a formal, sorry for fucking up your life, have some money or something?"

"Escaped prisoner." Sirius offered in lieu of an explanation. Which was not entirely sufficient for Ed as he didn't like to leave things like this open-ended, so he turned to Remus for a follow-up.

"He didn't get a formal trial so he escaped prison and is still on the run technically."

"Couldn't you sue for a mistrial or something? Get them to reopen the case?"

"There's a kiss on site order out for him, and no one will listen to him because they say he helped You-Know-Who first time around."

"Lies and slander." Sirius murmured into his mug.

"That sounds, not good," Ed said with a wince. He figured he'd look up the kiss thing later, now did not seem the best time to ask.

"It is not good." Sirius huffed.

"So he has to stay cooped up in here at all times." sighed Remus.

"Sounds terrible."

"It is terrible, I just want to go outside but no it's, you gotta stay inside Sirius, you gotta look out for Harry Sirius, you gotta sit and collect dust because you clearly aren't competent enough to take care of yourself," Sirius grumbled as he crossed his arms and kicked gently at the kitchen table.

"Let's not get into this again." pleaded Remus in a weary voice.

"I'm just saying - " started Sirius.

"Why not go out of the country or something? Sure you wouldn't be with Harry but there must be some form of communication you could use to keep in contact or something," said Ed.

"First of all, I don't want to leave him, so jot that down if you would, second of all the ministry's watching most forms of communication and travel so both me going out and talking to him later wouldn't work out too well."

"Huh." Ed slumped with his head propped up on his hand. "Then I got nothing."

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Authors Note:

Sorry for not actually doing it on a month to month basis! But, it's sooner than another year! Thank you for your continued support you guys! Also summer is coming soon, so I hope I'll be able to write much more then!