So sorry about not updating, people! I had a writer's strike, but I will certainly NOT abandon this fic, even if I keep an irregular update schedule.

And also: WOW! More than 120 follows! Thank you so much, guys!

And I will just let this disclaimer count for the rest of the story: I do not own FMA or HP.

Chapter ten

Ed saw what looked like a firework go off and felt someone grab his arm and drag him off to the dormitories. It was Ron, Harry walking ahead of him. Ed found his way up the staircase awkwardly because of the new leg and sat down on the edge of the bed.

"I managed to convince Fred and George to set off one of their Filibuster's Fabulous Wet-Start Fireworks so that we could get you out of there," Ron explained.

"Oh, thanks." Ed noticed that Harry and Ron were staring at his face as if trying to behave politely, but they were obviously fighting not to look. "You're allowed to see, you know. And ask whatever you like."

"Where did you go? Who were those people?" Harry asked tactfully just as Ron asked "where's your arm, mate?"

"They're childhood friends of mine. The one in the armour, Alphonse, he's an alchemist thinking of coming here next year as an exchange student and wanted to see for himself. He's the one I've been sending all those letters to. I've known him for a long time. He's kind of like my little brother."

Ron and Harry looked at him with open mouths. "H-how old is he?"

"Twelve."

"Why does he wear that armour?"

Ed had discovered that these people would probably keep digging if he said the usual "it's a hobby", so Ed went with the next best option that would stop people from asking. "He got a disease when he was smaller and has a lot of scars. He doesn't like people seeing them."

Ron and Harry looked downwards with appropriate looks of sorrow.

"The girl is named Winry Rockbell, she's my mechanic. She's the one who designed my automail. She said my arm needs adjusting too, which is why it's gone."

"So she's an automail mechanic? Do you think she'd show me how it works?" Ed looked to his right, only now realising that Hermione was in the room with them too. He was a bit confused by her presence, but Ron and Harry looked okay with it, so Ed guessed he'd give her a chance.

"It's your funeral. If you show some interest, you better be prepared for a long, long lecture. But if you start throwing wrenches, I'll hit you, you get me?" Ed said. One thing was being hit by Winry, but there was no way he was going to be chased with a wrench by a witch that he hardly knew.

There was a knock at the door and Al came inside. Harry and Ron still looked intimidated by him, so Ed guessed that they were in for a surprise.

"Hi, Al. This is Harry, Ron and Hermione."

"Hi! I'm Alphonse El-heim. Elheim. But you can call me Al if you want to."

Smooth, little brother.

Harry and Ron were gaping stupidly. They had probably imagined some very intimidating sounds emerging from the armour, not that sweet, young voice.

Hermione was the only one who seemed to think about social etiquette and walked over to him and shook his hand. "It's very nice to meet you, Al. I hope you'll like Hogwarts."

"Thank you! I'm sure I will!"

There were a couple of knocks on the door and then Mustang came inside the room too, still wearing those ridiculous black robes. Ed only just stopped himself from groaning, reminding himself of his cover. Not having his uncle check on him after nearly getting crushed by a troll would be kind of suspicious. And so Mustang was wearing an appropriate look of concern mixed with anger.

Oh shit, he's not gonna lecture me, right?

He looked at Al, obviously having been informed that he was here too, for there was no surprise on his face. "Edward, are you all right? Professor Dumbledore told me you were back."

"Yeah, I'm fine." Ed really didn't want to have to get yelled at right now that he had his brother back.

Mustang walked up to him and looked down at him sternly. "Are you sure?" He was scrutinising him with the same look he had used as he asked that question ever since Ed had nearly got away with coming into the office with a broken rib. The man hadn't been too happy about that and didn't seem to trust Ed to be completely honest about his injuries since.

"Yes," Ed said. "It crushed my automail leg and that's it, I swear." Ed could feel the tension in the room. Harry, Ron and Hermione knew Mustang as their teacher and Ed had a feeling that they weren't exactly commonplace inside the dorms.

Mustang scrutinised him for a few more seconds and then sighed. "I still can't believe you fought a troll out of all things. What did Winry say?"

"What do you think? She knocked me out with a wrench. She's setting things up upstairs now."

"Ah, of course. So how's your head now?"

"Dumbledore fixed it."

"Good." He turned towards Al. "Hello, Alphonse, it's good to see you again, I hope that you're doing well?"

"Yes, very well."

"I'm glad to hear it. Now if you four would excuse me, I would like to have a word in private with my nephew."

"Of course, sir!" Al said, walking towards the door together with Harry, Ron and Hermione.

Once the door shut behind them, Mustang looked down at Ed sternly. "Amulet off."

Ed did as he was told while Mustang took his own off. "Now, Fullmetal: please tell me how leading your charge to fight a troll is fulfilling your duty as a bodyguard?" he said, barely keeping his voice level. Ed opened his mouth to speak, but Mustang interrupted him. "And don't feed me the story that Granger tried fighting it on her own because she is clearly too smart to do so. So you better tell me just what the hell happened!"

"Why should you care? I stopped the troll, and Harry's unharmed and that's all you need to know."

Mustang sighed exasperatedly and sat down next to him. "We are undercover as an uncle and nephew and that means that I actually need to know what's going on in your life more than what I am expected to as your CO if we are to keep our cover. So tell me what happened."

Ed groaned. "Ron said bad things about Hermione, she heard him and spent the rest of the day crying in the toilets according to some of the girls. Then came the troll and we panicked. I tried to tell Harry and Ron to keep walking to the common room while I fixed it. They threatened to tell Percy if I went without them, so I told them to stay out of my way as we went because it was a fucking troll and Hermione had a little stick to use to defend herself! So we went, we somehow managed to lock it in with her, I fought it and as it fell, I crashed into Harry and Ron and so it fell on me because I had to push them away. So Hermione was nice enough to take the blame so that none of us were expelled. Happy?"

Mustang sighed. "Not particularly. So her being here, does that mean that you're friends now?"

"I don't actually know because I went to Resembool instead of talking to her."

"And all those rumours I've been hearing about you and her kissing in the broom closets?"

"NOT YOU TOO! I DRAGGED HER INTO ONE BROOM CLOSET ONCE! THAT'S ALL!"

Mustang looked confused. "And why did you do that in the first place?"

Ed really didn't want to admit to having his cover blown, but at least it was a hell of a lot better than having the bastard tease him endlessly about Ed's assumed love-life. "She read my mail and she knows about our cover and that I'm guarding Harry. I was not kissing her because, unlike you, I'm not a womanising bastard!" Ed growled. "Now can I please go back to talking to my little brother?"

Mustang, however, grew stern and alarmed. "She read your mail? You let it just lie about?! Why haven't you told me this before?! She could blow the entire mission!"

"So what was I supposed to do? She stole it while I was chasing Peeves because he stole my amulet!"

Mustang seemed to be in pain from the last piece of information. "You waited two months to tell me?!"

"It's fine! She hasn't said anything! I warned her to tell me if something unusual happens and not to investigate it herself. It scared her! She was scared by the information and learnt her lesson and she's kept her mouth shut and it's fine!"

"Fine, but I'm having a word with her too." Mustang said after a long, heavy, angry sigh. He took a look at Ed's missing arm. "How long does Winry think she'll be here?"

"The leg needs to be rebuilt from scratch and the arm needs adjusting, so a week since Al has sworn to make sure that she doesn't pull any all-nighters."

"So you're going to have to go a week without your limbs?"

Ed sighed. "Yeah. But at least I'll get to have a week with Al, though, so it's worth it."

"You know that this makes you an easier target?"

"I'm also being escorted by a large suit of armour! I'll be fine, now leave and let me be together with my brother!"

Mustang sighed and walked over to the door. "Just remember that there is also a potential mass murderer in this school too, so I suggest you keep your eyes peeled. Good night, Fullmetal."

"Sure, Colonel."

Mustang left and Ed slid his amulet back on as the others re-entered the dormitory.

Ed was woken by Ron shaking his shoulder, and Ed grunted. "No, wanna sleep."

"Sorry, mate, but we have classes."

Ed groaned and sat up, only to fall back into the bed sideways as he leaned himself on his right arm out of habit, meaning that he supported himself on empty air. "Right, troll." Ed groaned again, sitting up properly this time and moved to swing his legs over the edge of the bed, the spare getting caught in the covers slightly, but Ron had already moved to help free him before Ed could do it himself. Ed felt slightly embarrassed about it, but he mumbled a "thanks" because Ron was really just trying to help.

Ed got to his feet a bit awkwardly, his balance was seriously affected by the missing limbs and the spare leg, but he found his way over to his trunk and pulled out his robes, getting dressed slightly awkwardly as Ron stood there, looking as though he desperately wanted to help, but knew Ed well enough not to ask. "Where's Harry, by the way?" Ed asked, taking his school robes with him over to the bed before he began rolling up the left trouser leg with his left hand before carefully placing the spare leg inside it.

"Upstairs. He's trying to convince Hermione to come to breakfast, she's really interested in learning all she can about automail as we don't have it here. Al and Winry having already eaten breakfast doesn't help."

Ed nodded, happy that he had thought about arranging it with Al and Winry last night that they would have their meals when there were hardly any students around as it meant that they could hide the fact that Al didn't actually eat. Ed was a bit disappointed that he wouldn't get to be around his brother at mealtimes, but it really was the safest option.

Ron eyed Ed's tired face as Ed rubbed his eyes one at a time before he yawned and pulled on his shirt. "How much sleep did you get?" he asked with a concerned look on his face.

"Not much… it's a bit weird to sleep without my arm there, but I'll get used to it. It's only for a week after all." In fact, Ed had been forcing himself to stay awake after he woke at midnight, covered in sweat after having a vivid nightmare about the night the transmutation failed. It was most likely brought on by the sudden lack of his arm and Ed hadn't dared to fall asleep in case he started shouting in his sleep like he sometimes did and ended up saying something that got him arrested. Ed had fallen asleep sometime after six o'clock, meaning that he had got a total of about two-and-a-half hours of sleep. He had considered going upstairs and keep Al company, but Ed had a feeling that if he woke Winry up, then there was no way he'd manage to convince her to go back to sleep instead of working on his limbs as she could probably guess why he was awake in the first place.

"Oh, I didn't think about it, but I guess it must be weird not to even have your shoulder there," Ron said, looking at him with apologetic comprehension.

Ed shrugged his left shoulder and pulled on the black robes before moving on to the shoes.

"You sure you don't want any help with that?"

"Nah, I'm fine," Ed said, pulling open the top drawer of his nightstand before taking out a piece of chalk. Ed quickly drew a transmutation circle on the headboard of his bed and touched his hand to it, and next second he had a wooden shoehorn in his hand, meaning that he could get past the problem of tying his shoelaces.

And so Ed stood up a minute later, his feet now in his trademark leather boots. Ed put out his hand to steady himself, but otherwise he was doing good. He threw his school bag over his shoulder, causing his balance to be even more off, but he made his way to the dormitory door nonetheless, even if his pace was annoyingly slow in order to actually keep himself vertical. "Let's go, and thanks for waking me."

Ron looked even more concerned and sighed as he opened the door for him. "You sure you don't want me to carry your bag for you at least?"

"Yeah, I'm sure. I just need to get used to it, that's all. Don't worry."

And so Ed limped his way down the stairs, leaning heavily on the banister, practically hearing his little brother sigh at his stubbornness.