Of Alchemists and Wizards

The First Task

My moment of peace was ruined when a crazy blonde lady entered my field of vision. Crazy lady was wearing a tight fitted dress in an terribly ugle shade of green with some sort of feathers or fluff around the cuffs of her sleeves and the neck. She wore glasses that threatened to slip off her nose and her red lips were the loudest thing of the day.

"Edward Elric, it is such a pleasure to meet you. My name is Rita Skeeter, and I am a writer for the Daily Prophet. How do you do?" she asks. Before I could process the whirlwind of information she had thrown at me and respond, she was speaking again. "Now, Mr. Elric, you're the new alchemy professor, is that correct?" she badgered. There was now a note book accompanied by a quill made of a green feather floating by her side, the quill poised to write.

"What the hell is this?" I asked, standing before the woman with my arms crossed over my chest. "I didn't agree with whatever this is," I pointed out, casting one arm out to the side in emphasis and exasperation. "What is this?" I pressed, but she ignored me.

"Oh, quite a sharp tongue the young professor has!" the woman practically squealed as her quill started to jot down some notes. "Would you please demonstrate some alchemy for me? I've talked to quite a few of your students, and they say you're quite talented!"

"I'm not doing any alchemy right now. It's a dangerous and delicate art," I explained. That and I didn't have any chalk on me. And there was no way I was going to transmute without a circle in front of his woman.

"Some other time then," she said with a wave of her hand, speeding right along. "How old are you, Professor Elric?" she asked excitedly. The woman had slowly crept into my personal space, and I took a few steps back, trying to get out of this entire situation.

"Seventeen, but what does that-" Crazy lady cut me off before I could continue.

"So young to be teaching an ancient form of magic!" she squealed again, her quill writing furiously. Ugh. This was worse than taking Winry to Rush Valley on the way to Dublith all that time ago. "You're no older than the 7th year and here you are teaching!"

"Age has nothing to do with how qualified I am as an alchemist," I ground out, quickly becoming fed up with this entire situation. If only there were no repercussions to launching this lady into the forest with a plateau made of earth. If only. "My brother is a year younger than I, and I can see him becoming the greatest alchemist the world has ever seen," I said truthfully.

"So you have a brother!" she cheered. "A year younger than you if I heard you correctly," she said, nodding along. A perfectly manicured hand came up to rest on her chin. "My! Two talented alchemists in the family! What about your parents? Are they alchemists too?" she asked, moving closer and closer to me with each word.

"I don't think you need to know anymore about my family. You've intruded quite enough already," I growled at the woman, taking a threatening step closer.

"So icy! Not in a good relationship with parents," she muttered and the green quill seemed to nod before jotting that down as well.

"That's not-" I started, trying to deter the woman from spreading the wrong information, but I was cut off by a screech of an owl. I looked up just as the little elf owl with golden eyes landed on my shoulder, presenting his leg to me. I recognized Winry's neat handwriting immediately, and quickly removed the letter from the owl's leg before the little bird was taking off back toward the owlery.

"Oh, a letter! From a special someone back home?" Rita asked with a wink.

"Winry's just-"

"Oh, so there is someone! Oh, how exciting. Please do tell me about her," the woman pushed. My mouth was open, a loud retort almost on my lips before a familiar voice was calling my name.

"Professor Elric! Thank goodness we found you!" I heard a voice call, and I looked over to see the Weasley twins heading my way. I never thought I would be so happy to see those two troublemakers. "Now you can help us answer this alchemy question we've been debating all day!" Without waiting for a response, each twin grabbed an arm and hauled me off away from the crazy lady with the green quill.

When we were finally out of both ear shot and eye sight of the blonde reporter, I allowed myself to breathe a sigh of relief. I looked up at the twins with a smirk on my face.

"You guys don't actually need me to answer a debate, do you?" my smile growing with each passing second.

"Of course not, Professor!" the one on the right said. "There was no way we were going to leave you with that vulture," he said.

"Well, thank you both. Dear Truth, couldn't even get a word out to end the conversation," I said through a breath.

"Heard a lot about her, Professor. Notorious that one," the other twin said. "Always writing crazy outlandish stories from so-called 'interviews,'" he continued.

"So that's what that was? More like a one sided conversation if you ask me," I huffed as I crossed my arms. The twins nodded in unison.

"Good luck with whatever he writes, Professor Elric. Nothing good coming from that woman," the first twin said. "Well, we're off to collect our winnings!" he said, and as quick as they had come, trhy were gone.

I let out yet another huff before heading back to the castle with Winry's letter held tightly in my fist. A ball of anxiety settled in my stomach in anticipation of Winry's response. Half of me wanted to open it now, but now that Rita was around, there was no way I was opening mail out in the open. I would just have to wait. And if the past few years had taught me anything, it was patience. I could wait five more minutes to read the response from the girl of my dreams. We would wait for each other, that much I knew. And for right now, that was more than I could have ever hoped for.