I'm baccccck! And I brought a new chapter! Enjoy!

When Ed is deep in his research, there's not much that can bring him back to the real world. But there are some ways that you can get his attention. Shouting, for example.

"You dropped it on purpose!" A male voice roared from downstairs. "You knew he'd eat it, you knew he was on a diet-"

Ed looked up, a little spooked to see Al and Winry are also shocked by the shouting.

"Should we go check what's wrong?" Al asked tentatively.

The three of them reached the kitchen to see the Weasley family with a few additional red-heads and a boy and girl with black and brown hair, respectively. Mrs. Weasley seemed ready to tear them all a new one while all the others seemed to be nervous.

"What's going on?" Ed asked, sensing the tense atmosphere.

"Oh, Edward! Nothing much dear, why don't you meet Harry and Hermione here, not to mention Charlie and Billy. They just arrived you see."

"Thats alright Mrs. Weasley, we were just studying. If everything's alright we'll just go back to our room."

"Speaking of rooms, why don't you show Harry where he's sleeping, Ron?" the girl, Hermione apparently, said from the doorway.

"He knows where he's sleeping," said Ron, "in my room, he slept there last-"

"We can all go." said Hermione pointedly.

"Oh," said Ron, catching on. "Right."

"Yeah, we'll come too," George blurted, wanting to get out of the room.

"You stay where you are!" snarled Mrs. Weasley.

The Amestrian trio slowly backed away from whatever was going on in the kitchen, taking the steps two at a time to get to their room.

(ノ^o^)ノ

"So, who were those three blondes?" Harry asked after all the catching up was done.

"Don't you remember about the new land that the Ministry of Magic has made ties with?" Hermione asked. "I wrote about them to you. Apparently, the people there know little about magic, so they're sending everyone with magic to the magical communities to learn it. Hogwarts accepted the children and now those three are staying with the Weasley family."

"Dumbledore asked dad if they could stay, actually. They're not so bad unless you mention the short guy's height." Ron added.

"I see. And everyone's okay with this new land just popping up?" Harry asked, feeling suspicious.

"Well, they're not exactly new. There are records of them in alchemy books and texts. But they use a different name now." Hermione said.

"What's the old name?" Ron curiously asked.

"Xerxes."

～(^з^)-♡

By seven o'clock the boys were completely focused on their books and Winry was bored. There wasn't much she could do to help them, both mission-wise and alchemy-wise. It was times like these that made her feel distant from the brothers.

Just as she was about to take out her tools to build something, she heard a knock. The door opened to reveal the red-haired girl.

"We're eating out in the garden since there's not enough room."

"Yeah, just give me a minute." Winry said with a smile before turning to the boys. "Ed, Al, come on. It's time for food."

Al easily got his head out of the book, but Ed was a different story. "This might take a while... You can go down, we'll be right there." Winry said to the girl before she started searching for her wrench.

After finally getting Ed to let go of his book after a good hit from her trusted wrench, the trio went down to the gardens to see two tables groaning under the weight of the dishes from Mrs. Weasley's cooking. There seemed to be nine Weasleys, along with two add-ons sitting around the table and already getting ready to eat.

"Hello Edward, Alphonse, Winry. Come sit down, there's plenty of food for everyone!" Mrs. Weasley said in her usual welcoming way, but there was just a hint of something tense about her. Remembering the telling off she heard during the evening, Winry didn't bother to ask.

At the end of the table, Winry could see Mr. Weasley and another Weasley boy talking. The talking boy was technically a man, but there was something pretentious about him that made it easy to see that he did not understand what the real world was really like.

He suddenly cleared his throat significantly and looked down toward the end of the table where the three kids - Harry, Ron, and Hermione if she remembered right - were sitting. "You know the one I'm talking about, Father. The top-secret one." He said, raising his voice slightly.

'Yup. Definitely the pretentious type if he wants to show off to some kids.'

Winry saw Ron roll his eyes and mutter to Harry and Hermione, "He's been trying to get us to ask what that event is ever since he started work. Probably an exhibition of thick-bottomed cauldrons."

"Do you know something about this top-secret, brother?" she heard Al whisper.

"No, but I'm sure if it's that important Mustang will let us know."

The other Weasley brothers seemed to talk spiritedly about the World Cup while, at the middle of the table, Mrs. Weasley was arguing with her son about his earring, which seemed to be a recent acquisition. "... with a horrible great fang on it. Really, Bill, what do they say at the bank?"

"Mum, no one at the bank gives a damn about how I dress as long as I bring home plenty of treasure," said Bill patiently.

"And your hair's getting silly, dear," said Mrs. Weasley, fingering her wand lovingly. "I wish you'd let me give it a trim."

"I like it," the girl, Ginny, who was sitting beside Bill, said. "You're so old-fashioned, Mum. Besides, Edward seems to rock it very well."

"Hm?" Edward looked up from stuffing his face when he heard his name to see the matrons and the only girl of the Weasley family's attention on him.

"I really don't know how your mother is okay with your hair, Edward." Mrs. Weasley said mournfully, but Winry and the boys couldn't help but freeze.

"... Well, it is kind of hard for the dead to be displeased."

All talk around the table stopped at that sentence. Mrs. Weasley looked appalled at what she had unknowingly brought up.

"You guys are orphans?" Harry asked. There was something about the way he asked it which made it seem as if he understood.

'Of course he understands. He's an orphan too.'

"Yeah, all three of us are." Alphonse said. "Winry lost her parents when we were 5 or 6. Mom was gone soon after."

"The old man kicked the bucket a year ago or so. Not that it made much difference since he never was there." Ed said nonchalantly.

The table slowly fell into an awkward silence, and Winry couldn't handle it anymore. She took her wrench out and slammed it on Ed's head. "You Idiot! You just had to make it weird, didn't you!"

"What the hell, you crazy woman!"

As they both bickered with each other everyone slowly but surely went back to what they were all talking about, leaving the uncomfortable subject just a thing of the old.

Soooo, I'm dying. Studying shouldn't be this torturous. The only good thing is I'm being blessed by the Goddess of writing. And no, it's not JK (￣^￣). Bye!