Chapter 107: The Train Home

The Hogwarts Express left Hogsmeade beneath a clear summer sky. Edward sat opposite Draco with an evidence receipt in one pocket and the approved Chamber extracts in the other. The locket and Basilisk fang travelled separately under Dumbledore's protection. The original notebooks remained sealed at Hogwarts.

Draco handed him a guest list before the train reached its first bend.

"Pansy, Theodore, Daphne, Samuel, and six others," he said. "All connected to families worth knowing."

Edward read the names. Several younger students had been included because of ancestry and omitted despite better conduct.

"The first five have worked with us and can challenge what we propose," he said. "The others have not. A banquet is not a reward for their surnames."

Draco took the list back. "You want the room half empty."

"I want everyone there for a reason they can state."

Samuel had experience assessing old spells. Daphne had questioned the limits of their defensive wards. Theodore kept records without turning guesses into facts. Pansy organised people better than either Edward or Draco. Each invitation named the work expected and made clear that attendance created no obligation to join the alliance.

Draco crossed out the remaining names with visible pain.

"My father would fill the room," he said.

"Your father filled Ginny's cauldron."

The words landed harder than Edward intended. Draco looked toward the corridor, where students from every house were returning home alive because the diary had been destroyed.

"I gave Bones my statement," he said.

"I know."

"I did not do it for the Weasleys."

"Accuracy does not require affection."

They spent the rest of the journey drafting the invitation. No promises of secret power appeared. Guests would review defensive extracts, discuss a charter, and decide whether future meetings had value. Dangerous material from Riddle remained excluded.

At King's Cross, Kreacher waited beyond the barrier in a pressed black coat. He took Edward's trunk, inspected him for injuries, and complained that the train had made him thin.

"It was one day, Kreacher."

"A badly managed day can do considerable damage."

Edward could not argue with that after the year they had survived.

They travelled to Grimmauld Place in a hired carriage rather than display magic near the station. Kreacher asked about school in careful stages, beginning with meals and ending with the Chamber.

Edward told him that the Basilisk was dead, the victims had recovered, and Hagrid had been released. He then explained the comparison between the ruined diary and Slytherin's locket.

Kreacher's hands tightened on his knees. "The fang can destroy it?"

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"It may. Dumbledore and a curse specialist are bringing both objects tomorrow. We test in the lower ward room with healers informed. You will be present."

For once, Kreacher did not protest that the task belonged to him alone. His eyes filled, and he looked through the carriage window until he trusted his voice.

"Master Regulus ordered Kreacher to finish it."

"Then you should witness the order completed. You should not have to die completing it."

The old house greeted them with dust, dark wood, and portraits arguing about whether Edward had grown. Kreacher had cleaned the occupied rooms but left the sealed lower ward room untouched for the visiting specialist.

Edward inspected it before unpacking. The chamber had a stone floor, two exits, ventilation to an empty courtyard, and no object that could catch fire. Dumbledore would add temporary shields. The fang would remain inside its silver case until every witness was ready.

Only after recording the room did Edward turn to the summer gathering.

"A simple dinner," he told Kreacher. "No gifts, no borrowed house-elves, and nothing taken from a protected creature."

Kreacher looked offended by all three restrictions. "The House of Black owns silver appropriate to guests."

"Use it if you like. They are coming to work, not to be purchased."

They chose ordinary roast, vegetables, bread, fruit tarts, and enough tea to support an argument lasting several hours. Guest rooms would be prepared only for anyone whose parents preferred not to arrange late travel.

Edward wrote each invitation himself. He attached the draft charter and a list of the materials available for review. The letter stated that no guest could copy an extract until Samuel and an adult specialist confirmed it was nonlethal.

Pansy answered first, adding three questions in the margin. Theodore accepted on condition that minutes would be kept. Daphne asked whether Hermione's mirror evidence could be included as an example of useful work outside Slytherin. Edward requested Hermione's permission before agreeing.

Draco's reply contained only a time of arrival and a complaint that everyone had become excessively procedural.

Hermione's answer arrived with Daphne's request the next morning. She permitted the use of her mirror notes on two conditions: Penelope received equal credit, and no one described the Flame Mask as the device that had saved them. The mirror had reduced direct sight; the parchment had remained folded.

Edward accepted both conditions and corrected the meeting packet before Kreacher copied it. He also added the staff warning that no student-made ward had been tested against a Basilisk.

"Miss Granger writes as if she expects Young Master to steal her work," Kreacher complained.

"She writes as if attribution should survive travel between houses. She is right."

Theodore sent a separate question about custody of the Chamber texts. Edward answered with the full route: discovered in the Chamber, secured by Dumbledore, examined under Ministry witness, originals retained at Hogwarts, selected copies released for study. A short answer would have been easier. The longer one prevented the gathering from turning Edward's access into a legend.

By noon, each guest had the same version of the charter, sources, and limits. No private promise offered Draco more than Pansy, and no family received a passage withheld from the others. Edward filed a master packet so later alterations could be identified.

That evening, Edward entered the Black library with his own walnut wand still secured in its holster. He did not cast. Underage restrictions applied, and the lower practice room remained closed until its wards were checked.

He placed the approved extracts beside Black family works on concealment, fire, and unsupported flight. Riddle's failures corrected several dangerous assumptions in the older texts. Surrounding the body with magic could displace air, distort balance, and hide the first signs of exhaustion. The notes described risks, not a shortcut.

Edward drafted a practice plan for Sirius to review if they found him and for Dumbledore to approve in the meantime. It began with balance exercises on the floor, moved to controlled levitation by an adult, and forbade combining flight attempts with fire until each skill was stable alone.

Kreacher brought dinner to the study and refused to leave until Edward ate it.

"Tomorrow will be difficult," the house-elf said.

"Yes."

"Young Master Regulus should be here."

Edward looked at the empty chair across from him. "Yes."

They did not make the absence into a lesson. They ate in silence while rain began against the windows.

The locket had survived Regulus, Kreacher, and thirteen years of failed attempts. By the next evening, they might know whether Basilisk venom could finally end the fragment inside it.

Edward felt no triumph at the prospect. Only the weight of a task reaching the moment when care mattered most.