Chapter 116: Shared Goals
Chapter 116: Shared Goals
Edward and Sirius spent the next week turning suspicion into questions that could actually be answered.
They did not retrieve Slytherin's locket from custody. The Horcrux inside it had already been destroyed, and the damaged shell and Basilisk fang remained sealed under the joint arrangement established after the witnessed procedure. Edward kept only a certified photograph, the official summary, and Regulus's copied note in the study.
Sirius read the note twice.
"He knew Voldemort had made himself less than mortal," he said.
"He knew enough to steal one Horcrux. We do not know how many others exist."
"And the diary proves more than one."
"Yes. Two examples prove repetition, not a total."
That prevented the conversation from becoming another hunt for a number neither possessed.
Their shared priorities were simpler. Clear Sirius's name through Peter. Preserve Regulus's record without pretending his earlier service to Voldemort never happened. Prepare Edward to defend his mind and himself without turning every dangerous technique into a shortcut.
Sirius began the Patronus Charm with that last point in mind.
"A Patronus is the reliable defense against Dementors," he said. "It is also difficult enough that your first result may be nothing."
He demonstrated in the drawing room after Kreacher covered the hostile portraits. Silver light left his wand and formed a large dog that paced once around the rug before fading.
Edward watched the form disappear.
"Do not chase the animal," Sirius said. "The shape comes later, if it comes at all. Start with the memory."
Edward chose Isabella first.
That failed.
The memory mattered too much and carried grief inside the warmth. His wand produced a pale thread that vanished before it reached the floor.
"Again," Sirius said. "Different memory."
Edward chose something smaller: Kreacher complaining while repairing a cuff on his school robe, insisting that no heir of the House of Black should appear in public with loose stitching.
A thin silver mist emerged.
It had no shape. It barely lasted.
Sirius smiled. "That is a beginning."
Edward practiced only in short sessions. The result remained mist, sometimes dense enough to form a trembling screen, sometimes little more than vapor. Sirius never called it a corporeal Patronus, and Edward never tried to force a shape by exhausting himself.
Occlumency work followed a similar rule. Sirius announced every probe before attempting it. The first true Legilimency touch lasted less than a second.
Edward felt pressure against the memory of the breakfast table and panicked. Fire stirred in his hands.
Sirius broke contact at once.
"That reaction is why we do not surprise you."
Edward took several breaths until the heat faded.
Ash had surged with the fear. Edward recognized the sensation without treating it as another being taking control. The partition held survival instinct, repressed anger, and his mother's protective imprint. It could make danger feel immediate. It could not decide whether Sirius was actually attacking him.
"Again," Edward said after his pulse settled.
"Tomorrow."
Edward disliked the answer and obeyed it.
The Animagus preparation began at the next full moon. Sirius and a healer from St Mungo's inspected the Mandrake leaf before Edward placed it in his mouth. For the following weeks he kept it there through meals, sleep, lessons at home, and daily practice. If it tore, the process ended.
Kreacher found the entire procedure disgusting.
"Young Master sounds ridiculous."
Edward tried to answer with the leaf in place.
"Exactly," Sirius said. "Humility is part of the magic now."
The old oak wand with Unicorn hair remained in its case throughout. Edward used his own walnut wand with phoenix feather for every required touch. That distinction went into the written procedure so no later account could confuse the family heirloom with his actual wand.
They also built the first-transformation safety plan before knowing whether they would need it. The room would contain no loose glass or furniture. Sirius would remain in Animagus form during part of the attempt so Edward had an animal shape nearby without a human voice crowding him. A healer would stand outside the inner ward. Kreacher held the emergency Portkey.
"And if my form is dangerous?" Edward asked.
"We contain the room and let you reverse."
"If I cannot reverse?"
"We call the healer and Dumbledore."
"If the form can fly?"
Sirius added ceiling wards.
"If it can fit through the chimney?"
Kreacher sealed the chimney.
By the time they finished listing possibilities, the room resembled a place designed to hold an unknown magical animal rather than a stage for a triumph.
That was appropriate.
At the end of the week, Dumbledore visited to discuss Peter. He had checked school records and confirmed that Scabbers had been in Ron's possession for years. No legitimate record identified the animal as an Animagus. Dumbledore could not simply seize a student's pet on Sirius's accusation while Sirius remained a fugitive, but the missing digit and history justified further observation.
"The safest place to establish the truth may be Hogwarts," he said. "The difficulty is doing so without warning Peter."
Sirius leaned forward. "I can enter as a dog."
"And if a Dementor recognizes you near the grounds?"
"They do not recognize faces."
"They recognize minds and despair well enough to make the experiment unattractive."
Edward interrupted before the argument became personal. "Then we need a way to observe Peter inside the castle without bringing Sirius through the gates first."
Sirius's expression changed.
"There may be one."
He did not explain immediately.
Instead, he looked toward the study where old school memories had been gathering dust for years.
"James, Remus, Peter, and I made something when we were students," he said. "If Filch never threw it away, it can tell us whether a rat answers to Peter Pettigrew."
Edward sat straighter.
Sirius raised a hand. "Before you become excited, it belongs inside Hogwarts, and we are telling Dumbledore before anyone tries to retrieve it."
Edward sighed.
Sirius looked pleased. "I really can learn."
The same rule applied to the Marauder's Map. Sirius could describe how it had been made and what it was supposed to show, but memory was not enough to grant Edward private access to a device capable of tracking everyone in Hogwarts. Dumbledore would retrieve it through school authority, Remus would verify its behavior, and any observation related to Peter would occur with an adult present.
Edward objected only once. "If Peter moves before they finish?"
"Then the adults adjust," Sirius said. "You do not solve every delay by removing the person who can tell you no."
Edward disliked how often that lesson returned in different clothes.
He added another line to his notes: the locket, Basilisk fang, diary evidence, and Chamber records were not trophies. Dangerous originals remained under joint custody. When research was necessary, Edward received copies, photographs, or supervised access. The rule made study slower. It also meant a frightened thirteen-year-old could not walk into an argument with a Horcrux fragment in his pocket.
That was an improvement worth the inconvenience.
Sirius signed the page beneath Edward's name, not as an oath of loyalty but as a witness to the limits they had agreed upon. Kreacher signed beneath both of them after demanding that the wording about household objects be made even stricter.