2 Fullmetal Wizard | Chapter 2

He heard a snort.

"Punched out police officer. You?"

Harry widened his eyes.

"What..?!"

He hadn't thought that this Ed was capable of that, and nearly stopped walking. The very idea of it...! Most of the time, whenever he glanced over at him in class, the guy had his nose in a thick book of one type or another. He seemed...as bookish as his friend Hermiome, which was really saying something.

Ed turned his head and smirked slightly at Harry.

"He started it. Called me short. Vhat of it?"

"A police officer. You just don't..!"

Ed waved dimissively with one gloved hand over his shoulder.

"Vhatever. I pay for it now. Equivalence, no?"

Equivalence?

Harry noticed then that he stood a good foot taller than the blond. He blinked. Ed flashed a toothy, and very evil looking grin at Harry. He's daring me, thought Harry. He wasn't sure just how old the blond was, but now...he wasn't sure if he wanted to ask. Once again, Harry found himself reaching for his wand. Ed's golden eyes quickly flicked to his hand, catching on to the movement, and he raised a single eyebrow. Then his face scrunched in confusion.

"That a...stick..?" Ed said.

Harry froze, not sure what to say. He supposed to a...muggle, a nonmagical person, a wand would indeed be just a stick.

Ed snorted a rough laugh, shook his head, and said something in a language Harry couldn't understand as he turned and resumed walking. Harry found himself following. In spite of himself, he joined the blond in the local library.

In the remaining weeks, it had become something of a habit. It helped that a note from the librarian kept the Dursleys at bay when he went home later than they liked. His relatives always liked to accuse him of the worst things imaginable. And the punishments, however creative, were something he'd rather avoid.

Today, it wasn't long before he heard the blond snort in contempt in the hush of the building. Harry was leaned back in a chair at the time. He had managed to find, of all things, "Hogwarts, A History", and was actually reading through it for once. He looked up at Ed as he came to the table, nose in very thick, dusty volume of something called "Advanced Theoretical Physics and Calculus: Theorms of Fractals".

"Vey off. Vey off. Vrong. Tch. Vat a load of crap...Can't they even carry the 2 right..? Humph..." He heard Ed mutter to himself, along with words in a language he didn't recognise except is sounded much like what Ed had uttered before when irritated. They had but a few days left of the class.
Ed looked over at Harry, and raised his eyebrows. Harry looked back.

"Found good book, ya? "

Harry thought quickly, knowing the book was forbidden to be seen by muggles. He smiled.

"Just for fun. Light reading you might say."

"Me, too. You have paper? I vant to vork on fixing this...uber crap."

Harry raised his eyebrows but provided the paper from his bag. He had that much from the Dursleys at least.

"...thank you." Ed said.

Harry nodded slightly. That was indeed a rare thing to for him to hear from Edward. If there was one thing he learned about the guy, it was that he had all the manners of an angry bull. Most of the time.

Harry watched as the pages of the notebook slowly filled up with Ed's lefthanded, barely legible, yet neat, scrawl. He was facinated and bored with watching the process at the same time. He vaguely remembered the spelled pens that wrote by themselves in the Hogwarts offices. How very different it was here.

"So. Class partner. You never told me. Vhat did you do to get that useless class?" Ed said with his head tilted down over his work.

Harry blinked. That was true. He'd forgotten. His answer at that moment was a quite intelligent.

"Uh..."

Ed stopped writing a moment, and looked up.

"Equivalent trade. I told you my own stupidity..."

Harry grimmaced, and looked away. By the corner of his eye, he saw Ed lean back into the chair and fold his arms across his chest. Work forgotten for now.

"I..should be going...it's late. " Harry said.

He saw Ed nod a slight nod. And then turn back to writing in the notebook.

"Don't forget the note from the librarian... " Ed said.

Harry nodded, seeing the slight smirk on Ed's face. Then got up to leave. He hesitated by the door.

He hoped Ed wasn't too hurt. It just...wasn't something he really wanted to talk about. And really shouldn't, either. Ed was a muggle. How could he even begin to understand the volitility of magic when anger and rage were involved? That's all he felt when he thought of his Uncle, Aunt, and spoiled rotten cousin.

Why was he even thinking this? He just met the guy a couple of weeks ago! It wasn't as if they were friends, close or otherwise, now were they? They were assigned to be class partners, for crying out loud...That's all.

Harry sighed. And then he went out into the night.

Ed watched as Harry's shoulders tensed up ahead of him, and noting that they were getting tenser with every step he took up the street.

The houses along this place looked nice and neat. Nearly every one of them had a car. (Facinating contraptions, but so very very different than those he was used to seeing.) Some were lighter and smaller. Others...well, they looked so heavy, they may as well have been tanks. They made good things to hide behind, though. Along with the manicured bushes and other foliage and whatnot. Especially in the dark. The only thing he had to do was avoid the artificial lights that were all around, which made following the boy somewhat more of a challenge that it otherwise would have been.

No problem. Ed thought.

Of course, sneaking like this was greatly helped by the fact that the street was relatively deserted at this time. And that this Harry kid seemed to have no situational awareness. What. So ever.

Harry finally arrived at a door, and Ed crouched down low behind a handy, manicured bush. The porch was dark. After a moment's hesitation, Harry reached for the doorknob and turned it. The door opened with small creak. Harry entered and closed the door softly behind him. The lights inside blinked on.

It won't be long, now. Any moment. Ed thought.

He took out his silver pocket watch from his pocket and flipped it open. 8 o' clock.

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