Who: Harry Dresden & Ed Elric What: The wizard is showing the alchemist magic Where: Harry's lab When: Backdated to before the tribbles happened Warnings | Status: None | Complete
Harry regarded the small blonde with a neutral expression. He was halfway to offering him a stool so he could see better, before he decided against pissing him off so early on into the conversation.
Ed had messaged Harry on the network, and the wizard had offered to show the kid some magic. It was the one thing Ed had been excited about seeing and honestly, Harry couldn’t blame him. Magic was freaking awesome. And he loved showing off. Maybe he and Ed had more in common than either of them believed.
“Your brother is really fantastic with wind and air,” Harry said, “but so am I. Granted, my cyclones are much smaller..” He held up a hand and called air, and air answered so that a tiny tightly controlled little cyclone blew into line from his palm and whirled off over the table where Harry blew it.
It spit every single piece of paper off the table and sent them floating through the air onto the floor.
Crap.
Harry released the magic, scowling.
Damnit.
“I saw him create a shield around Texas and himself, it repelled ice, water, and rock fragments.”
Granted, it wasn’t like Harry’s kinetic domed energy shield, but it was still damned curious. “I wanted to see if I could do something similar.”
***
Honestly magic should have been against everything Ed believed in since his main belief system was based in science, but he was living in space. On a giant stupid head. There were wizards and weird AI things and giants everywhere, so who was he to say magic had no basis in reality? By that theory neither did alchemy the way he and Alphonse were able to do it. So when Harry offered to show him of course he lept at the chance, he still had a lust for learning in spite of all the shit he’d been through recently. Some of that spark still existed.
Ed could see just fine thank you. It wasn’t like they had to squint over the same book after all. If it came to that, Harry would be kneeling before he accepted a stool. Ed watched the little cyclone blow and grinned as it destroyed several innocent papers in its path. Wind was pretty impressive. Al had chosen his element well. Some day he’d ask to see what he could do, but Ed himself didn’t get the opportunity to show off much. His alchemy was destructive and heavy handed and he knew it. It came with the weight of being the Fullmetal Alchemist.
The last time Harry had done magic, Ed had been unconscious so he couldn’t tell how it worked with his own eyes. This time he paid complete attention. To the point of hyper focusing on how Harry conjured it. The gears in his head working in attempt to see if he could do the same things.
“Yeah, he said he passed the National Alchemists exam...and to do that you need your own specialty. Each of us have one.” Ed tried to even do the same little hand gesture that Harry did, unsure whether or not he could do anything at all with it. ---
Harry snorted, watching Ed move his hand around as if it would reproduce the magic. It wouldn’t. The motion had nothing to do with it. Maybe for the Harry Potter kids running around.
But then, Ed wouldn’t know that.
So Harry just shook his head, stepped closer, took Ed by the wrist to force his hand out straight forward, fingers splayed and palm facing outward.
“It directs the energy. The energy comes from inside you. In combination with the words. But the words I use are keyed specifically to what I believe. It won’t work if you don’t believe in it. Magic is all about faith. Not some pseudo religious bullshit, but the solid, strong belief that it will do exactly as you mean for it to do.”
Harry mimicked the motion with his own hand, murmured a word, and sent a stream of liquid that turned into spears of ice streaking across the lab. They impacted with the wall on the other end and shattered into shards, spilling over the floor.
His eyes turned back to Ed.
***
Ed knew shit all about magic, alchemy wasn’t magic. Alchemy was the energy that flowed through the universe but magic looked like something else. Magic looked like something beyond his understanding, but he wantedto understand. Hell he wanted more than that. He wanted to do it. Once he got something in his head there was very little stopping him. Even if it looked ridiculous, and he could tell it did when it drew laughter from the Wizard and he narrowed his eyes in a grumpy manner. “What, it looks like what you did. Maybe a little less...flourishy.” Ed smirked as he watched Harry step toward him and raised an eyebrow as he was corrected. He didn’t seem to mind that part. Harry knew what he was doing and Ed had seen that. Well partially.
Looking at his hand though, he frowned slightly. “What happens if you don’t believe?” Getting human transmutation wrong had cost him dearly, would magic? He looked warily over at the older man and then at the ice spears that rushed past them.
“....I want to.” He grinned. “Because that was fucking cool.” Watching them shatter as they hit the floor sparked even more interest. Ed had liked that part. “How..do you believe in things that much?” Belief was shaky with Edward. Science was solid. Science he understood. ---
“Heh, yeah, turns out Winter is pretty cool when it comes to magic. Don’t tell anyone I said that.” Because Winter was a bitch. And inwardly the Mantle was laughing, a dark little sound that sent a chill down Harry’s spine. Step by step, wizard, you’d lose yourself to that influence.
Harry peered at Ed, furrowed his brows and lowered his hand to his side.
“Then it won’t work. You can say the words and throw your hands around all you want, but if you don’t trust yourself…?” he shrugged. “Then there’s no point and the magic will never work. It’s all about intent, faith, and believing yourself. Even when you have nothing left. We’ll work on it though. Magic isn’t something you can learn overnight. You can’t learn to throw around gouts of flame right out of the gates. Or wind and water. I’d start you with earth. You have an affinity for it, so play with your strengths.”
Harry pat Ed’s back lightly.
“Come on, let me make you a potion.”
*** “You said that before. Winter. What is that?I don’t think you mean the season.” Ed asked with an eyebrow raised. When Harry spoke of Winter, he made it sound like a person or something. He looked at the metal hand he’d held out and frowned a bit, lowering it. “Maybe this magic thing isn’t as easy as it looks…” Harry made it look like a game of sorts the way he threw power around like that. Ed wanted to do that. Be able to throw ice like it was nothing. He wasn’t sure he could do much with air like his brother could, but maybe he could do something with ice. It looked cool.
“A potion? What kind of potion?” wide eyed, he followed after him-having to practically run to keep up with his giant strides. “My brother’s specialty is air, I think mine is something like Earth yeah….but there are other things I can do.” Ed didn’t often get a chance to show off what he could do with alchemy, this was going to be kind of fun if Harry actually let him.
There was one thing he could think of that he could do without destroying stuff in his lab. He stopped for a moment and pulled off the red jacket that he’d repaired only a few days ago as well as a white glove from his hand. In an impressive flicker of blue light as one hand touched the other the automail seemed to melt into a deadly blade before Harry’s eyes. ---
“I mean the season,” Harry replied. “Winter. The whole season.” He was its Knight. Imagine that. But Winter also had Queens (plural, yeah, three of them, all of which were his boss at the same time) and an entire court and even an opposing one in Summer. Harry cast a glance back at Ed, nodding a little. Yeah, he wouldn’t get anywhere if he didn’t believe he would. Magic was stupidly difficult to learn. Harry had learned by main force, it was do or die with Justin DuMorne. Nothing taught like a burned hand..
Pain was an excellent motivator.
But Harry wouldn’t do that with any of the kids on Knowhere. Not ever.
He didn’t have time to mull it over though, because Ed was stripping out of his coat and then he-
Whoa.
That was so cool!
“Jesus,” Harry breathed and immediately stepped closer. He’d never seen anything like that before. He wanted to touch it, to figure out how the boy had done it, and so smoothly. And quickly! Harry was staring.
He didn’t care.
***
“You make it sound like a person.” Ed commented. There was no way he would take on magic if it was presented like that. He’d had enough life or death situations already but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t try again. Work with his elements huh. He would have to think that over a bit more. Or maybe it wasn’t about thinking at all. Ed wasn’t entirely sure, but whatever it was it made his head hurt.
He’d have kept that coat on, but he really didn’t feel like fixing it another time. Piecing it together the first attempt had taken long enough. It was delicate work, and Edward wasn’t good at delicate things.That was pretty easy to judge just by the blade his automail had warped into.
“You can touch it, just not the blade. It’ll cut you.” The top of it was smooth enough to handle human touch without piercing through skin. The bottom would slice through flesh like butter. He was proud of his blade. “The military called me a human weapon since I started...I didn’t really know what it meant until recently.”
---
“It’s an occupation,” Harry hedged. There were some things you just didn’t want to talk about, and for Harry, the murderous influence that lived inside his mind was one of those. Winter was cold, stark predatory instinct and the Mantle of the Knight he carried was designed to be the perfect tool.
If only he’d give into Winter’s nature.
Harry shook himself mentally, refrained from touching Ed, because it would be weird for both of them if he just started scientifically fondling the boy’s arm to figure out everything he could on first inspection and then devise a way to get it off of him or produce his own later. Neither of those plans were a good idea, so the wizard just looked with his eyes, his expression immensely pleased.
“Yeah,” Harry agreed evenly. “I hear you. I’m a battle wizard more than a PI these days, but nothing like real combat zones to make you see how destructive you are as a weapon.”
They often just pointed Harry in a direction and let him go.
Crazy.
*** It was probably better that Harry didn’t touch it, but Ed probably would have stood there and pretended like it was fine when it would have been a bit awkward for them both. Just like that after a few moments of letting him stare a bit more, the hand slowly molded its way back to normal limbs just as easily as he’d created it in the first place. It was nice being heavy sometimes for this purpose. He didn’t have to worry too much about the automail being too light to take that kind of abuse. Of course he’d broken it a few times much to Winry’s dismay, but that’s why one had a mechanic.
“Battle wizard?” That sounded weird on his tongue, but he kind of liked it and tried saying it again as he watched Harry in return just as curiously. “What’s a PI?” He wasn’t sure what that meant. Maybe some kind of military? Harry didn’t act military though. Not like York anyway.
“...I can do some other things, but I can’t show you them.” He looked off at something in the lab and wandered off in it’s direction. Bad things, obviously. “...What kind of potion were you talking about before?” ---
“PI stands for private investigator. If something weird goes boom in the night, I look into it. From the Supernatural community… There lots of spooky things around that the regulars don’t want to admit to seeing, because it’ll get them put into a psychiatric institute by a jury of their peers.” Harry shrugged. “I’ve been doing that since I was about… 20 years old. These days, I’ve been in between one war or another.”
Harry watched Ed wander away, a pensive expression on his face.
Then he followed after the boy, tucking his hands into his pockets just briefly, “Oh,” his hands came out again so he could reach for something in passing--a cauldron. Which he washed with water over a basin, inside and out, before he dried it, then set it on the counter. “I just washed away the residue of other magic. Water and fire are both cleansing forces, but water grounds out magic.” Hence pouring water over the cauldron.
“Potions. They’re some of the most ridiculous and expensive pieces of magic you can do, but you can do just about anything with them. They suck because they take forever to brew, so you have to plan for that in advance. So we’ll give you a bit of liquid luck. Or would you prefer something to help you sleep?” Harry asked, raising a brow.
*** There was a lot to look at in the lab and Ed was glad for the distraction, he didn’t really have time to dwell on the things he couldn’t show Harry. Alchemists could do some terrible things when put in a corner. Ed was admitted to the military at twelve for a reason after all. The boy could make a weapon out of anything and even a human being themselves. He knew there was a risk of having to kill, but he hadn’t given it much thought since he’d arrived in space. It’d been weighing on his mind lately. Tex had made sure of that.
“Why would they be expensive? I thought you just collected your own supplies?” Ed asked with a raised eyebrow. He didn’t know much about magic, but if it was anything like alchemy he could imagine that wizards could go off and collect things like they could. He looked over the cauldron. “It drowns out fire too. Splash a little on Mustang and he’s basically a wet matchstick.” Ed said with a bit of a smirk, but that wasn’t a big accomplishment to know. He just liked the image it put in his head of a pissed off and wet Colonel.
“I have Cas for that. Luck on the other hand...Think I could use a little.” He admitted, his luck in space hadn’t been the greatest. ----
“I do, that’s why it’s expensive,” Harry gestured around. All of the items inside had been hand collected, bought from other people, bartered, or otherwise “accidentally” acquired. That was to say, ahem, illegal.
Harry chuckled at Ed’s remark regarding the Colonel. Harry wasn’t particularly fond of Mustang himself, so any chance at insulting him with Ed was a welcome one. The boy didn’t appear to have a good relationship with his superior officer, after all.
“Yeah, but he come do some weird shit with hydrogen atoms,” Harry replied caustically. He knew this, he’d seen him do it inside the lab. Roy Mustang was a creepy asshole. And scarily powerful with fire in a way that Harry would never achieve. Sure, Harry could throw out gouts and gouts of flame that could burn down buildings by main force, but Mustang? He had absolute control, a true master of his craft.
Scary.
Harry smiled again.
“Okay, so don’t go thinking this will solve all your problems or make you win the lottery or anything idiotic like that. Alright?” He paused for confirmation then continued. “Potions are made in eight parts, five for the senses, and a liquid base, something for the spirit, and something for the mind.”
He bent and started rifling through the drawers stacked under the table, drawing out ingredients. He put a collection of things on the table then stood up.
“Here, start with liquid,” Harry pushed a bottle of ink toward the boy. “Then we’ll do the five senses. One for each.”
*** Ed’s relationship with Roy was...complicated at best. He didn’t hate him, nor did he love the idea of being around him. They weren’t best friends, but he did respect the man to the best of his ability as a teenager could in his situation, forced to be a military dog. Roy seemed to respect that Ed had his own agenda for military usage, but neither of them were terribly close. Sometimes, Ed wanted to change that but really didn’t know how. There were..complications when it came to befriending your superior officer, but none of those really existed in this world as far as Ed knew. Roy was just human. Maybe one day he’d be able to talk to him more like an equal. Once he figured out how to talk to anyone like an equal. He struggled with basic social pressures, ones that came with complications were even more confusing.
“What’s the lottery?” That was apparently not going to be a problem for Ed. He had his own ideas of how luck should work. Maybe it could make him feel better in a bad situation, or maybe give him an idea when he was stuck for one. Like on his current project with Mustang,he felt like he’d hit a wall-and maybe a little liquid luck would do the trick. “Is that why they take so long?” The eight parts thing sounded kind of time consuming.
Taking the bottle of ink with his fleshy hand he looked it over. “What’s this going to do?” Was he meant to write with it? Ed looked over the various things Harry had pulled out and began pouring it into where he was told. “This kinda reminds me of the farm. You can’t create something out of nothing, sometimes we had to mix things back home to get results we wanted. When Al and I were first learning, we did things often like this.” He picked up one of the glass beakers on Harry’s desk.”I used to lose track of time completely when I got into it.” Simpler times.
---
“The lottery is when you win a lot of free money,” Harry replied, nodding his head in approval as Ed did instructed with the ink. “And no, they take forever because you have to let them sit for hours at a time.” While Ed busied himself with the ink, Harry gathered a small kerosene lamp he’d converted to hold the cauldron instead of the beaker. Lighting it, he ignored it for the moment and leaned his forearms on the table, supporting his weight.
He smiled a little. Ed was disconnected from his passion with alchemy. Whatever had done it hadn’t yet let go of its hold on him, which was unfortunate for him. But Harry was sure that, in time, it would come back. The kid just needed space and time to rest.
Harry had been the same way after he’d…
After he’d burned his adopted father alive.
The wizard pushed the remaining ingredients toward the boy, “Apples for taste,” He said. “Go ahead and cut it open then toss the whole thing in. Iron for touch. You’d be surprised how difficult iron is to come by in Space.”
And so it went through each of the ingredients. Harry lit a piece of paper on fire,instructed Ed to waft the smoke into the cauldron (for smell), then called on him to give the more abstract ingredients. A memory of Al for sight, and Ed’s own laughter for sound.
Then the wizard told him to rip a page from a book for mind, and lastly requested blood for his soul. Just a few drops, directly into the cauldron.
When it was over, Harry reached for his will.
*** “Hm.” Ed responded to the Lottery comment with a lack of interest, money didn’t mean much to him anymore. “Money is a burden on someone who travels for a lifestyle.” He rarely even carried any. When he needed it the money lived in the National Alchemists bank, but he rarely did. “I’m gonna have to sit for hours?” The blonde made a face. The last time he’d sat that long was on an abandoned island Izumi thought would be great training. Nope, it’d been great for nightmares though. He shuddered at the thought of sitting around that long, but did what Harry had said with the apple.
Resting sounded good, but unfortunately he wasn’t sure he was going to get much of that with Al around. Or even Roy. He accidentally smashed a side of the apple with the automail hand of his when holding it still to cut it with the knife, and looked up a bit sheepishly. Soft touch wasn’t very good, but he was better at cutting stuff with his flesh hand. “Is it still okay?” Did it matter if it looked pretty?”
As Harry enlisted his help in creating the potion, Ed felt a little better about things in general. Giving him a direction to go on, or a task to involve himself in would also be beneficial if his world started spiraling downward mentally. He got tunnel vision and would put all his energy into whatever task he was given to make sure it came out correct down to the letter. He was a State recognized Alchemist after all, not a title easily gained by anyone much less little ambitions twelve year old him.
Ed watched Harry reach for that will with another raised eyebrow. “What are you doing now?” ---
“No, the potion sits. This is the hardest part of making them,” He said. His will gathered at the edges of his fingertips, Harry turned his attention down to the potion in the cauldron (which he’d moved onto the burner) and stared at it for a moment.
“You have to will it to life otherwise you’re just boiling a bunch of crap. Remember what I said about magic being about faith? About believing? This is why it matters.” Harry looked up, without meeting Ed’s eyes, and then he funneled his will out into the world and down into the depths of the potion, focusing his attention and his intent there. Believing the potion would do as they designed it to. Several long moments passed before Harry felt the magic lock into place. Then he released his will, smiled a little, and said.
“Now it sits. Come on, we can do some other stuff while it brews.” He turned the flame down then gestured Ed to follow.
*** “Oh.” Ed said a little sheepishly in response as he looked it over. “I duno why but I expected it to smell like shit. Like the stories. But it kinda smells good.” The stories in the books he’d seen with witches often involved ridiculous things in potions, like rats tails or squid eyes or something along those lines. He was glad none of those things were in this potion. He didn’t know if he could “will” something like that to turn into anything good. Harry said it was all belief, so he was going to try a little of that.
The blonde nodded. “I remember.” He watched with curiosity as Harry stared at the objects that all mixed together. It was kind of funny for someone so cranky to have so much belief and wonder when it came to magic. He really wouldn’t have imagined that from Harry Dresden had he been asked to give a brief profile on him. He wouldn’t have listed Belief in the ridiculous as one of them. He seemed so practical. It was easy to believe in him when he said stuff like that. Ed didn’t feel ridiculous in starting to hope and even maybe believe just a little that it would work. “I haven’t believed in anything for a while...but I think I’ll try on this.” If belief worked it would do wonders for his confidence which was in all kinds of ruins at the moment, but he smiled a little as he looked around and gave a little nod.