Chapter 41

Not What You Seem

Edward waited patiently in the headmaster's office for his brother to join him. Albus insisted that both of them were there at the same time which made Edward even more curious as to what this was about. He was expecting normal teacher business as the finals were starting tomorrow and Edward didn't hold a proper review session which he knew the students so desperately needed, but it wasn't that. If it was, the old man would have told him by now. So Edward waited in the chair across from the man's desk and they each took their turns looking anxiously at the time wondering when Alphonse would possibly show up. Edward took the time to massage his shoulder out a bit as the surgery he just had still pained him. He knew it would be a while till he fully healed but there was no use in letting his arm go stiff especially now that he had his real one and it needed quite more than a simple oiling to keep it strong.

The door finally opened with Alphonse stumbling through it with heavy breaths. He seemed to have run all the way there as if he forgot about the meeting all together. Edward knew that he was with his friends nearly the entire day, they were probably curious as to his new body, and he lost track of time. Albus clicked his tongue disappointedly at the younger Elric though not without a smile.

"You seem tardy for once, I would have expected that from your brother," Albus said not without a jab to Edward's self confidence.

"Hey!" Edward growled defensively but the man just laughed it off and rested his arms on his desk. He took in a deep breath as he started to get down to business on why they were all there. Edward and Alphonse glanced at each other as they waited through the pause the headmaster took. He seemed to be thinking things over in his head as if he was thinking about how to approach the topic at hand which everyone was still curious about.

"Edward, remember before you had left Hogwarts that you told me that whenever you touched a wand it would explode?" Dumbledore said thoughtfully.

"Well, yeah, but it doesn't happen all the time…. Just… a good portion of it... ," Edward said hesitantly. Albus nodded his head quietly in process.

"And what did I tell you?" He asked, elaborating on the question. Edward thought for a moment, his memory challenging him for a moment. He had been on so much adrenaline and in quite a decent amount of pain then not everything was clear.

"I think you said something… about muggles and wands…," Edward muttered as he couldn't pull everything back. Again, Albus just nodded his head. The young professor was getting really agitated with his silent answers and he wished that the man would have just continued on with the subject but he seemed to be taking his time.

"Yes, Edward, I said that muggles have no effect on the wands that they pick up. It could be just a simple stick to them," he said calmly. Edward's eyes widened but the man continued with his explanation as if in hope of clearing any questions from his mind. "Edward, when a wizard or witch gets their first wand it isn't them who chooses. It isn't like picking a new pair of shoes or an owl from the pet store, it is something much more substantial than that. A wizard might test out hundreds of wands at a time until he comes across the one that chooses him."

"So wands have a consciousness now?" Edward asked him stupidly.

"But how do you know the wand is right for you? They wouldn't do anything without the right spell," Alphonse asked a better question, making up for Edward's. Dumbledore smiled as he pulled his wand out of his sleeve and gave it a little swish. Small sparks flew out of the end like sparklers, gentle but with a firey glow that to Edward seemed almost entrancing.

"The wand will react to you, some violently, some not at all, but once you find the right one, something magic will happen."

"That sounds really cheesy, Albus. Of course something magic will happen you're a wizard! You do magic stuff all of the time," Edward complained.

"Yes, but Edward, how did you?" Albus reverted the question back on him. Edward froze and frowned as he thought about what the man said. He didn't like where this was going.

"What are you getting at here?" He yelled angrily. "I am a muggle I can't-"

"And yet you did, Edward. How could a muggle ignite a wand. How could a muggle have such a resistance to the imperiatus curse? Simple really. You are not a muggle." Edward jolted up from his seat and slammed his fists on the table so hard that they stung, a new sensation his right couldn't feel until just a few days ago.

"I am a muggle. If I weren't why couldn't I see magical creatures when I first got here? Why couldn't I get through the platform? All wizards and witches can get through the platform 9 ¾ . I couldn't. I couldn't even see Sir Nick the ghost until Hagrid put that spell on me. I was warded off by antimuggle charms at the quidditch world cup! I am a muggle, there is no possible way that I can't be one!" Edward scolded the man. Alphonse softly called his name and tugged on the sleeve of his robes to beckon him back into his chair to calm down. Against his will, Edward found his legs slowly lowering him back in his seat resentfully. Albus didn't look surprised by his outburst. It was as if he expected it. Instead of retorting the man simply sighed.

"Edward I have been thinking about this for a while and I have come to the conclusion that not only you but also your brother are wizards," he said steadily. "I started to think about this whenever you started to have those vivid nightmares. At the time we thought it was the linkage of the minds through the legilimancy that was causing you to see the future with the other wizard's divinations however it wasn't. It was you. You were dreaming of it the entire time. As I remember you had a couple of these occurances before you ever even met Alastor am I right?"

"Yeah but-" Edward started but he was cut off as the Headmaster continued.

"This therefore breaks that theory in half as you had connections to divinations before even coming in contact with the spell. However you still couldn't see structures or creatures without the amulet that we gave you. But Alphonse," he continued, turning to the younger brother, "you could."

"W-well, sir-" Alphonse stuttered but the man didn't seem to want him to argue.

"We never gave you an amulet Alphonse. Even though you possess no body, the magic still prevents any muggle life forms from seeing warded buildings or invisible magical creatures."

"So what's your explanation for this?" Alphonse asked gently. "How… how can we do somethings, but not others?"

"If you would, may I please test a couple of things out?" He asked lifting his wand. Edward and Alphonse glanced nervously at each other and both, after a short while of silent arguing, came to an agreement and shrugged. Edward didn't want the man to do magic on him, not with how angry this whole mess was making him. He didn't ask for any of this. However instead of whipping his wand around and casting some crazy spell, Dumbledore turned it around and handed it to Edward. He looked down at it cautiously, kind of afraid to take it. After seeing what those things could do he didn't want to pick another one up ever again, but the man as well as his brother were urging him to take it and eventually he reached his hand out and wrapped his fingers around the wood.

"Now, what do I do with it?" Edward asked after Albus studied him for a few minutes with nothing happening. Dumbledore thought carefully and nodded his head as if coming up to a solution to some unknown answer.

"You know the spell Wingardium leviosa, correct Edward?" He asked. Edward frowned and rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, how could i forget?" He grumbled as he remembered the horrifying night of the Quidditch World Cup where he was flung around in the air relentlessly by it. He hated that spell more than anything. In fact, he loathed it. Though he never really came around any vile offenders of it since the World Cup, his students would often enough like to suspend his office supplies in the air so that he couldn't find them. It was a horrible spell and Edward hated it. He scoffed silently under his breath, "Not like I ever performed it though."

"Well Edward you are going to have a little magic lesson. It is rather simple, all first years can do it. All you need to do is focus on the object you want to levitate and then swish and flick your wand. Make sure to speak clearly though-"

"Okay, old man, I got it," he muttered. Edward tried exactly what he said on some old quill that was lying on th desk. Nothing happened. He tried again, and again but without any luck. Just as he started to become self conscious that he was waving a stick around in the air and muttering nonsense, he noticed he feathered quill twitch slightly. He stared wide eyed at it before he gently lifted the tip of the wand to see the feather, rather resentfully, follow it up. Edward let out a little yelp and tossed the wand back across the desk to the old man, making the quill fall lifelessly back down to the table as a result.

"WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT!" Edward exclaimed loudly he almost heard the shock in his voice. "What the fuck did I just do… how?"

"Edward, try to calm down. Let your brother try and let me see what happens," Albus told him gently. Edward was still shaking with pure fright and he wanted anything than to keep quiet but with the pleading look in not just his brother's but the headmaster's eyes he was forced to try and calm his nerves down. With a trembling hand he passed the wand off to his brother. Alphonse didn't even look like he wanted to take it at this point but he didn't fight like Edward did. His pale hands grasped the wood and Edward could see his knuckles as he held the wand stiffly. He looked nervous and Edward could tell that he was rather uncomfortable with the feeling as he clutched his stomach with his free hand. It must have been butterflies or something, either way Alphonse didn't feel it in so long he didn't like it. Just as Alphonse was going to go through the motions, the wand spat fire and ignited in a fury of flames. Alphonse quickly dropped it in complete fright and nearly bolted out of his chair. The ball of fire that had ignited out of the end ricocheted across the room before dispersing into the wooden frame of the door. Dumbledore didn't look amused, but just plainly curious as to what had happened.

"Holy hell!" Alphonse exclaimed absolutely surprising Edward. Alphonse rarely cursed Edward could count the times on both hands, but when he did it was for a really good reason. This reason was that he almost fried everyone in the room with a fireball from a magical stick. "Wh-what happened? Oh my god, I am shaking," he stuttered as he noticed his body actually reacting to something for once. Edward could see that he was excited for the new feeling he was getting but also still terrified from what had caused it. "Professor, what happened?" He asked again.

"Edward, you… explained to me the gate before in the Hospital Ward. And I have come to the conclusion that this thing is interfering with it somehow-"

"What do you mean? Everyone has a gate you idiot," Edward retorted without caring who he was talking to. "The students all have gates. It is what lets you do alchemy in the first place. If it was interfering with magic they wouldn't be wizards."

"Unless…. Brother," Alphonse said as he too was thinking about it at the same rate as Albus was. "Brother, they never opened their gates. They never met the truth. Dad, you, me… we all opened it."

"But why does that make us wizards?" Edward demanded.

"It doesn't," Albus told him. "Magic is passed through blood line. You were born a wizard, Edward. You and Alphonse."

"But-"

"We have a book-"

"A book?" Edward questioned in absolute disbelief..

"A magical book-"

"Oh great-"

"That has the ability to identify magically born children in the case that they were raised in muggle homes and didn't know of the kind. It writes down their names so that when they come of age we are able to send them a letter and invite them to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

"And…. Are we on this list?" Alphonse asked curiously. Albus nodded his head.

"I didn't see it at first. Hundreds of names could be added at once but if you look back far enough there you are." Edward and Alphonse looked at each other, each with shocked though rather doubting faces.

"Why couldn't we actually do magic until this point though? Maybe it made a mistake-"

"I have a theory," Albus tossed up, not letting Alphonse interfere with him. "Having opened the gates of truth, you each gave up your bodies to access this ultimate knowledge, the power to do alchemy without a circle. But… as you have described to me, this knowledge is vast, it is suffocating, and in gaining it you might forget a few things-"

"We couldn't have simply forgot-"

"And you are right about that," Albus said to Edward. "But I fear that two powers of amazing strength can not live in the same body together. Upon accepting one with opening the gate you had fenced off the other. The bits of magic that you were able to do, like Edward's unconscious access to divinations and spells, and Alphonse's ability to see through wards and enchantments, is the magic that seeps through the cracks under the door. The power never went away but by opening the Gate you had chosen precedence of alchemy in your life. Unopened, magic and alchemy can live in peace together in their basic states. An equilibrium in a sense."

Silence ticked through the room as Edward and Alphonse stared at each other for a while. This was a little too hard to believe but yet it had made sense. They were each able to do something neither of them thought was special because they had just pushed off the reasoning behind magic. But now, that they actually looked at it, muggles weren't able to do the little things that they were able to do. The only explanation for his was that they were wizards. Edward looked down at his chest and noticed that he wasn't even wearing his amulet anymore. It had fallen off in the heat of battle on the Promised Day and he was likely never to see it again. And yet, without it, he got passed the muggle wards in Hogwarts.

"If what you say is true," Edward muttered as he pulled his thoughts together, "Alphonse will never be able to use magic. I don't have a gate anymore. If he tried to give his up he would be stuck in the realm of Truth forever."

"But I got alchemy brother," Alphonse stated matter of factly. "I do admit, though magic would be nice and all, there just seems to be a safeness to alchemy that magic just doesn't have." He chuckled a bit a the mere thought of it. "I read a book once in the library where a spell made kumquats grow out of someone's ears. I think that is a problem I would rather avoid. But you brother, you can't do alchemy anymore. This could be a great opportunity for you-"

"We do have room at the school, and would be willing to teach you, that is, if you are willing to keep teaching the students of course. Your resignation isn't full filled as of yet. You still have time to decide," Albus offered.

"I think I am good with being just a muggle," Edward stated flatly. The headmaster looked a little surprised at this answer and Edward didn't blame him. Anyone in the world would be willing to jump at the opportunity to learn magic, conjure things at a whim, levitate and do amazing things with a flick of the wand or a few strange words. However Edward smiled lightly as he remembered a few words from an old acquaintance that would stick in his memory forever.

"When I gave up my alchemy, Albus, the Truth actually asked me if I was willing to lower myself to just a normal human being. Though alchemy is special, it isn't what makes us special. I think the same answer I gave him should apply here too. Though magic seems amazing, I am perfectly fine living without it," Edward told him, and the headmaster smiled calmly as he seemed to understand. "Anyways," he chuckled, "I might still be able to teach but to have an alchemy professor that can't even do it isn't really someone to look up to. The students would surely eat me alive."

"You know what they say, if you can't do, teach."

"You're right at that one," Edward laughed at the old man. "However, I think in this case it is better if I just leave. After all, with the way the wizarding world is headed right now, this would just give the ministry another reason to try and kick me out even if I might be a wizard now."

"What do you plan to do then, after you hand in your resignation?"

"I think I will just spend some time with Al… and Winry and everyone, maybe just travel. Alphonse, you wanted to go to Xing to study with your girlfriend right?" Edward asked nudging his younger brother in the ribs. Alphonse turned violently red and stumbled to try and come up with a defense but it was weak and Edward easily just plowed over it. "Maybe I will take up magic on my own, but not here, not in this tension. I feel like the wizarding world is sure to explode someday, but if you need any help you could try to call us. I am sure Mustang would be glad to give you some of his firepower even if he is blind."

"I will hold you to that, Edward," Albus said standing up from his chair. He walked around the desk as they stood up with him and offered out his hand. Both Alphonse and Edward shook it in turn, all of them with great smiles on their faces. It was like a deal between friends. "Edward it was nice having you these past few years. Thank you."

"It wasn't like i wanted to come here, but… I am going to miss everyone," Edward replied with a weak smile. Dumbledore chuckled and nodded his head in agreement as they all walked towards the door of the office waiting to be dismissed.

"Edward," Albus said with one last thing just as the two Elrics were about to leave. Edward stopped and looked back at him wondering what it was now. "I believe you have a few students that would like to meet the both of you before they get sucked away in finals. Minerva has them in detention in her room. I think she threatened to keep them there for the rest of their lives so I don't think that you have to worry about them leaving anytime soon."