Chapter 115: Animagus Lessons

The morning after Sirius agreed to remain at Grimmauld Place, Edward found him in the dining room studying a photograph clipped from an old newspaper.

The Weasley family stood in front of a pyramid. Ron held a grey rat.

One front paw was missing a toe.

"That is him," Sirius said.

Edward did not answer with the same certainty. "It matches your description. We still need evidence that survives more than recognition from a photograph."

Sirius looked irritated, then nodded. "Fair. Peter was an unregistered Animagus. Rat. Small enough to hide almost anywhere."

"And if we confront Scabbers at Hogwarts without preparation, he can transform, take a student hostage, or escape through a hole in the wall."

"I know."

The words were controlled. The hatred behind them was not.

Edward set the photograph down. "Dumbledore wants Peter alive if possible."

"So do I."

Edward waited.

Sirius exhaled. "I want him dead. I want the truth more. Those are not the same thing."

That answer became the basis of the Vow they discussed later with Kreacher and Dumbledore. It was not a demand for obedience to Edward. It bound Sirius only to specific safety limits he had already accepted: he would not attack Peter before evidence could be preserved, except to defend a life; he would not reveal his presence to Harry without an agreed plan; and he would not leave Grimmauld Place to hunt Peter alone.

Sirius insisted on one condition of his own.

"If the plan becomes a way to leave Peter beside children for months while adults debate paperwork, I can demand a review."

"Agreed," Edward said.

Kreacher performed the old Black family Vow only after Sirius repeated each term in plain language. Silver fire wound around their joined hands, warm rather than painful. When the final promise settled, the light vanished.

No punishment was attached to disagreement. No promise required Sirius to obey Edward in unrelated matters. The restriction existed because Sirius knew his own anger could destroy the evidence he needed.

"Now," Sirius said, flexing his hand, "you wanted Animagus instruction."

Edward had expected the subject to feel exciting. Sirius made it mostly sound inconvenient.

"The first thing you learn is that becoming an Animagus is not choosing an animal you like," he said. "You do not select a phoenix because it looks impressive, a dragon because it sounds powerful, or a raven because the Black family uses one in half its decorations."

"I know."

"Good. The second thing is that the process is slow."

Sirius described the initial requirements. A Mandrake leaf had to remain in the mouth through a full lunar cycle. If Edward swallowed it, damaged it, or removed it early, he started again. The later mixture required exact timing and ingredients that Sirius would prepare in duplicate. The first transformation would occur only after healers reviewed the plan and Dumbledore approved a warded room.

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"James, Peter, and I did this illegally as students," Sirius said. "That means I know several ways we were lucky, not that our method should be copied."

Edward wrote that sentence down.

They began with theory rather than ingredients. Sirius explained the sensation of his own transformation: pressure through the spine, a moment of disorientation, then a shift in balance and senses. He could not teach Edward what animal form would emerge. He could teach him how to recognize panic during the first change and how to reverse before continuing.

Kreacher insisted on a healer's emergency Portkey for the transformation room.

Sirius agreed.

That surprised the house-elf more than an argument would have.

They inspected Edward's wands next because the ritual instructions referred to wand placement. Edward's own wand remained walnut with phoenix feather. The old oak wand with Unicorn hair that had belonged to Regulus stayed a practice wand and family keepsake. It did not replace Edward's own wand, and Sirius forbade using both at once during the Animagus work.

"Your own wand is the one accustomed to your magic," he said. "We remove variables, not add sentimental ones."

Edward returned the old oak wand to its case.

At sunset, they practiced only the harmless preparation: posture, breathing, and touching Edward's walnut wand to the correct point on his chest without casting. Sirius checked the motion until it became boring.

"Good," he said. "Boring is what you want before something dangerous."

The next subject was Occlumency.

Sirius was competent rather than exceptional, and he admitted that immediately. Azkaban had forced him to cling to certain thoughts and starve others of attention, but surviving Dementors was not formal training.

"I can help you recognize an intrusion and practice closing a surface thought," he said. "For advanced work, we ask someone better."

"Snape?"

Sirius made a face.

"Someone better who unfortunately may be Snivellus."

Edward wrote down qualified instructor and did not preserve the nickname.

Their first exercise used no Legilimency. Sirius asked Edward to recall the breakfast table in exact detail, then interrupted with questions about Isabella. Edward's concentration broke at once.

"That is the point," Sirius said. "Emotion redirects attention. Occlumency is not becoming empty. It is deciding what receives access while emotion is present."

Edward tried again.

By the end of the session he could hold the image of the table while Sirius changed subjects, but his pulse still jumped when his mother was named. That was not failure. It was information about where his defenses were weakest.

At lunch, Sirius returned to the newspaper photograph.

"Peter hid in plain sight for years," he said. "Do not underestimate him because his animal form is small."

Edward looked at the missing toe.

"I will not."

"And do not overestimate the photograph."

Edward raised an eyebrow.

Sirius smiled without humor. "You have been repeating that lesson at me for two days. I can learn."

They sent Dumbledore a written summary: suspected rat Animagus, missing toe matching Sirius's account, no confrontation authorized, evidence still incomplete.

Peter remained at Hogwarts with Ron. Sirius remained hidden. Edward remained impatient.

For once, none of those facts required immediate action.

Sirius also insisted on a written distinction between the two wands Edward used during practice. Edward's own wand was walnut with a phoenix feather. It remained the wand that had chosen him and the one whose behavior his teachers knew. Regulus's old oak wand with Unicorn hair was a family practice wand, useful for controlled exercises because its response was familiar to Sirius, but it did not replace Edward's own.

"If the old oak behaves differently, we stop and record it," Sirius said. "We do not decide that difference means destiny."

Edward glanced at him. "You are becoming annoyingly responsible."

"Prison was educational in all the wrong subjects."

The joke vanished quickly, but the rule stayed. They began with posture, breathing, and the unpleasantly repetitive preparation required before any true Animagus work. Sirius refused to rush because he had succeeded young. His own school experience, he admitted, had included three talented idiots and Remus trying to prevent the worst consequences.

Edward wrote that down too. Success did not make the method safe in retrospect.

For once, Edward did not resent spending an entire afternoon on a spell that produced no visible result. The lack of spectacle was part of the lesson.