The Price of Truth

Chapter Two: The Lily and the Gate

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or Fullmetal Alchemist in any of its incarnations. Some dialogue paraphrased from FMA:B - Ep. 9.

Lily fidgeted with the hem of her borrowed shirt, trying to snag a stray thread and missing. She still wasn't used to her skewed depth perception and her head ached faintly as her one remaining eye tried to compensate.

Her whole body ached actually, a combination of being fitted for a prosthetic leg of something called automail, and of magical backlash, or possibly alchemical backlash. It was hard to know for sure. She'd been settled into a wheeled chair, unable to do much more than stand or sit with her new leg and having trouble with her balance because of her eye. It would take longer than Lily cared to think about for everything just to heal properly, and then there was what was shaping up to be a long rehabilitation to consider.

Arrayed around her on the chairs and couches of the Rockbells' living room were the Marauders, minus the fortunate Peter, and her best friend Severus Snape as well as the formidable Pinako Rockbell and her granddaughter Winry. Each of them sported and expression that varied between anticipation and apprehension. She'd explained a bit about what she'd done to herself to Pinako when the older woman had asked and Remus had peppered her with questions when she'd first woken up but now it was time to explain just what she'd done and just how badly she'd ended up betraying them all.

"So, I guess I should start by saying that this isn't our world," she said, taking a deep breath to try and quell the sudden trembling in her hands.

"Yeah, but what exactly do you mean by that, Lils?" asked James impatiently.

"She means exactly what she said, Potter. This is a different world, and one that is not ours," snapped Severus.

He'd been in a rare bad temper since he'd woken up to find them all displaced and making him share close quarters with the Marauders wasn't helping matters.

"Please, Severus, James, don't fight. Just let me get through this and then you can ask all your questions, and I'll answer them as best I can, I promise," said Lily.

"Go on then, Evans," said Sirius after a moment, "Get on with it."

"Right, well, my grandma was from this world. She was an alchemist named Aster Armstrong. She used to tell us the story about how she came here. When she was young and foolish her lover, who was an officer in the military, was killed in a skirmish with a nation called Drachma and she tried to revive him through human transmutation. When she made the attempt though, she was taken through something she called the Gate, or, sometimes—"

"The Truth," said Winry, eyes going very wide.

Lily nodded.

"She failed to resurrect her lover so she was taken by the Truth to live in the world beyond the Gate where she couldn't use alchemy, because it didn't exist."

"But alchemy does exist," James pointed out, frowning, "It's a muggle thing. Ancient muggle potions, trying to turn lead into gold, that kind of thing."

Lily waved her hand dismissively.

"It's not the same thing, I mean, yes, there are some of the same principles but…here, let me show you. Does anyone have a pencil and paper or a bit of chalk."

Wordlessly Pinako tore a small sheet of note paper from the notepad in her apron pocket and handed it off to Winry who grabbed a stub of pencil from the kitchen counter and gave both items to Lily.

She drew out a simple circle on the piece of paper and pressed the tips of her fingers to it. There was a flash of soft blue light and the paper was transmuted into a paper replica of a lily.

"So it's transfiguration, but with runic circles?" said Sirius.

"Not exactly. Alchemy isn't like magic. It operates on the idea of equivalent exchange. In order for you to gain anything you must first sacrifice something of equal value. So no conjuration for example can work unless you have all the basic components of what you want to conjure. Then you draw and alchemical circle describing how you want the components to be arranged."

"Cool," said Sirius, picking up the flower and examining it carefully, turning it over in his hands and then handing it over to James.

"So that circle, the one you drew in your mother's stillroom, was alchemy not runes," said Remus.

Lily gave a sharp nod.

"But you said alchemy doesn't work in our world," James pointed out.

"It doesn't, not without a spark. You remember, Sev, how I was obsessed with Nicholas Flamel for most of second and third year?"

"It would be difficult to forget," said Severus wryly, rubbing at the scar that ran along the outside of his right arm, a permanent reminder of a spectacularly disastrous exploding cauldron incident.

"He used magic and alchemy together to create the Philosopher's Stone, so I thought, I know a lot about alchemy already and I could use magic to power my circles and actually do alchemy the way Grandma described it."

"And I'd guess it worked," said Remus.

"It worked brilliantly. I was experimenting all summer. But then, last year, I realized that spells, even spells I'd already mastered, were becoming more difficult to perform. I was tired all the time and making no progress with my advanced Charms work. I thought I was sick or something so I went to see Madam Pomfrey, and I found out that my magic wasn't regenerating. Madam Pomfrey was baffled of course, there's very few knows ailments that cause that kind of problem and all of them involve very dark magic, but suddenly it all clicked and I just knew. Every time I used alchemy it would take the spark in return for the power to make the circle work, and not give it back. Equivalent exchange."

"I think I can see where this is going, Lils," said James, looking faintly nauseated.

"Lily, how could you?" demanded Remus.

"You stole our magic?" said Sirius incredulously.

"My parents were dead because of magic, because of Voldemort!" snapped Lily, "I had to do something, it wasn't fair! It wasn't even equivalent!"

"Alchemists," said Pinako, interjecting for the first time, "Always so quick to think they know what is or is not equivalent."

Lily subsided, temper deflating just as quickly as it had been roused.

"I'm sorry, so sorry, everyone, I-I thought I could take a small piece from each of you, not a lot, just enough to power the circle and make the transmutation work but—I don't know exactly what went wrong but what came out of the reaction, it wasn't—it was horrifying. I lost control of it then, the Gate, I saw it and I saw all of you there with me, and the Truth-like everything I ever wanted to know about alchemy was just poured into my head all at once, and it was too much and it hurt but I knew if I could just see it all again I would have the answer but, the toll, the price...it took my leg for my mum and my eye for my dad, but they weren't— and then we were pulled through by the Truth and dumped on the other side of the Gate."

"Without magic, because the Gate took it all as equivalent exchange for our survival, I gather," said Severus flatly.

He'd been trying to use his wand off and on throughout the past two weeks, they all had, without any success.

"Yes."

"And without any way back, that you know of," added Remus.

"Yes," said Lily in a smaller voice.

There was a long silence as everybody tried to digest the implications.

"So why did we come here?" asked James, "I mean, not that I'm not glad. You saved Lily's life and you've been so good to us, but why here of all places?"

"We were just incredibly lucky, I suppose," shrugged Lily.

"No," said Winry, frowning, "I think, it's because the Gate has opened here before. Right, Granny? It should be easier to open a door where you've already opened it."

"That could very well be the case, but I don't pretend to know for certain," agreed Pinako, puffing thoughtfully on her long pipe.

"Well, what do we do now?" asked Sirius.

"I don't know," sighed Lily, blinking back tears, "I can't even walk yet, and I don't even know where to start looking for a way back."

"I think we might know a good place to start looking actually," said Winry, thoughtfully.

"Really?" said James.

"But you said you weren't an alchemist," Remus pointed out.

"You want to take them to see Edward and Alphonse," said Pinako, a note of disapproval in her tone.

"Ed and Al are the only other people who we know for sure have even seen the Truth, let alone survived it," Winry argued, "And Lily might know something that could help them get their bodies back. It's worth a shot at least."

Pinako shook her head, "Youngsters. I'm not going to say I approve of what you've done, I won't insult your intelligence by lying either. I've known many an alchemist in my day, and all of them refuse to accept one crucial thing, some things, once lost, can never be recovered."

"I have to at least try though," Lily protested, "This—this whole mess is my fault, I should have known, I shouldn't have even—"

She took a breath to calm herself.

"I never should have attempted it. It was wrong. And I really shouldn't have lied to you all, tricked you into giving up your magic for me. That, that was unforgivable and I understand if you hate me, or if you can't bear to look at me. But, I promise I'll find some way to get you back to your families, there's got to be away around the laws of equivalent exchange, something…"

James was quick to get up and crouch in front of her wheeled chair, taking her hands in his own, "We don't hate you Lils, we're beyond furious, all of us, don't get me wrong, but we—I get it, okay. They're your parents. If I thought I could bring my dad back, if I didn't know all this, I'd think it was my duty to at least try. And I'll help you fix this. It'll be alright."

Lily could feel her brave face crumbling as this earned nods from all of her friends and she immediately burst into loud gasping sobs, throwing her arms around James' neck and feeling both incredibly humbled and elated when she felt the others join in. Even Severus deigning to put a tentative hand on her shoulder and give it a sharp squeeze.

In the background they heard the shrill ring of a telephone and Winry jumping up to answer it in the other room, while Pinako busied herself making tea to give them some privacy.

"Hello? You've reached the Rockbells, specializing in prosthetics and orthotics."

There was a long pause then, a loud incredulous, "Ed? Is that really you? Wow, so rare of you to actually call."

That caught all of their attention, because hadn't Winry just been saying she wanted to introduce them to someone called Ed? And Lily was quick to scrub at her face and attempt to listen in.

"Trip?" said Winry after a second, "Ugh, so it really was no good, after all."

There was another short pause.

"No, nothing. Nothing at all," Winry insisted, flushing slightly, "Anyway, what were you doing before your arm stopped moving?"

Lily, Sev and the three Marauders exchanged glances a bit confused.

"Again!" screamed Winry suddenly, making them jump, "How many times do I have to tell you not to use my automail for things like that! Idiot!"

There was a long pause as Winry gathered herself and returned her attention to the phone.

"I guess there's no helping it. Where are you in Central?"

She turned, her free hand on her hip, and regarded the group of them thoughtfully through the workroom door.

"I can be on the train to Central tomorrow, as long as you haven't completely destroyed my work again it should be a relatively quick fix."

Another pause.

"If you could have someone meet me at the station that would be good. Also…something happened here-no, no, Granny and I are fine. Shut up, I said we're fine! So I'm going to be bringing along some people I think you should meet."

A shorter pause.

"I'll say more when I get there, jeez, you can wait a few days. I'll see you soon. Bye."

She hung up the phone with a sigh.

"Edward's right arm giving him trouble?" asked Pinako from the kitchen, her voice deceptively mild.

"Y-yeah," agreed Winry sheepishly, tucking what looked like a loose screw into her pocket.

"You're taking us to meet them, right?" said Sirius, not even pretending he hadn't been eavesdropping.

"That's right," agreed Winry, "Lily's well enough now to travel by train, although I can't say it will be comfortable, we'll splurge and go First Class. I'll just take the cost of your tickets out of Ed's stubborn hide when I tally up his maintenance bill."

"Thank you Winry," said Lily, "And you as well Pinako, you've both been so kind and helpful when you didn't have to, and I promise I'll pay you for the automail as soon as—"

"Don't worry about it," said Winry, "If this whole mess ends up helping Ed and Al than that will be more than enough payment for us."

AN: I feel like I should warn you guys there will be Slash, Het and Femslash pairings in the course of this story (and while I won't reveal them here for those who want to be surprised if you have a concern that the pairings will make the story impossible for you to read you can always ask me about them in a review or PM).

Please review and let me know what you think!