Chapter 119: A Clash of Ideals

Sirius recovered from surprise faster than Draco did. 

Draco learned about the phoenix-shaped Animagus form through an approved family conversation and immediately called it proof that Edward was destined for extraordinary things. 

Edward corrected him before Sirius could enjoy the speech. 

"It proves my Animagus form is unusual. I still cannot fly properly." 

"You are a phoenix." 

"A phoenix-shaped Animagus." 

Draco stared at him through the Floo. "That is the same thing with less dignity." 

"Good. Remember the less dignified version." 

After the connection closed, Sirius laughed until Kreacher told him to stop encouraging nonsense. 

The humor faded when they returned to politics. 

Edward had shown Sirius the first Flame Serpent charter, including the sections he had already revised after second year. Sirius read the original language twice: permanent leadership, preference for old families, centralized control over training and information. 

"This is not a school club," Sirius said. "It is the beginning of a government designed by a twelve-year-old who assumes he will be the sensible tyrant." 

Edward disliked the description because it was accurate. 

"The revised version removes blood-based offices." 

"Good. Why were they there?" 

"Old families have archives, money, and political access." 

"Those are resources. You turned them into a claim to rule." 

Edward paced once around the study. "Someone has to build order if the Ministry fails again." 

"Yes. Adults, voters, courts, officials, and people who can be removed when they fail. Not a secret circle of heirs who decide everyone else is too emotional." 

The argument sharpened. 

Edward accused the Ministry of imprisoning Sirius without trial, ignoring corruption, and allowing family influence to shape law. Sirius agreed with every accusation and still rejected Edward's original answer. 

"A bad institution does not become good because you put yourself at the top," he said. 

Edward thought of the Chamber notes, where Slytherin's later followers had written their own authority backward into destiny. 

"Then what would you build?" 

"I would start smaller than build a new order. Fair trials. Review of wartime imprisonments. Limits on Dementor use. School rules that protect students regardless of surname. Public records when the Ministry makes a mistake." 

"That is reform, not replacement." 

"Maybe replacement is what children call reform before they discover plumbing." 

Edward glared. 

Sirius grinned. "There. That expression is pure Regulus." 

The argument lasted until dinner and produced no grand settlement. It did produce a better question for the Flame Serpent Alliance: which changes could students responsibly prepare now without claiming authority they did not possess? 

Edward wrote down several. Fund access to books. Record discriminatory rules. Study safe defensive practices. Support legal representation. Build evidence before accusation. Design leadership that could be challenged and removed. 

No throne appeared on the list. 

Dumbledore arrived that evening to discuss Sirius and Peter. 

Sirius wanted immediate contact with Harry. Dumbledore wanted evidence secured first. Edward understood both positions. 

"Harry has a right to know who his godfather is," Sirius said. 

"He also has a right not to become bait in an operation to catch Peter," Dumbledore replied. 

"I am not asking him to catch Peter." 

"Your presence near him may cause Peter to flee." 

Sirius stood. "So I stay hidden while my godson thinks I murdered his parents?" 

Edward interrupted before anger broke the Vow's purpose. 

"Could Harry be told that Dumbledore is reviewing the case without being told Sirius's location?" 

Both men looked at him. 

"That tells him the official story may be incomplete," Edward continued, "but it does not force him into the capture plan." 

Dumbledore considered it. "Possibly. I would also prefer Remus present when the matter is explained." 

Sirius's face changed at the name. 

"You hired Remus?" 

"For Defense Against the Dark Arts." 

For several seconds, Sirius looked almost young. 

Then worry replaced it. "Does he know I am innocent?" 

"Not yet." 

"Does he know Peter is alive?" 

"Not yet." 

Sirius sat again. 

They agreed on a sequence. Dumbledore would verify the Marauder's Map with Remus before using it as evidence. If the Map showed Peter Pettigrew inside Hogwarts, the adults would preserve that observation and plan a controlled capture. Sirius would remain hidden until the plan required his testimony. Harry would be told only what could be shared without warning Peter. 

Edward asked the question he had learned to ask after too many plans. 

"What would make us stop?" 

Dumbledore answered first. "If the Map cannot be verified. If Peter disappears. If Sirius breaks the Vow or approaches the school independently. If any student's safety requires delay." 

Sirius added, "If the adults begin using delay to avoid acting at all, I demand review." 

"Agreed," Dumbledore said. 

The terms were not elegant. They left everyone dissatisfied in a different way. 

Edward had begun to trust that as a sign that a plan contained more than one person's wishes. 

Before Dumbledore left, Edward showed him the revised political notes. 

The Headmaster read them without praise. 

"You are moving from deciding outcomes toward designing procedures," he said. "Do not mistake that movement for arrival." 

"I do not." 

Sirius coughed theatrically. 

Edward looked at him. 

"He has been saying the same thing with worse manners all day," Edward told Dumbledore. 

"Then perhaps Grimmauld Place is educational after all." 

When the door closed, Sirius returned to the photograph of Peter. 

"I still want to tear him apart." 

"I know." 

"And I am still waiting." 

That mattered. 

Edward returned to the charter. His first political project had offered certainty, hierarchy, and the flattering assumption that power would remain safe in his own hands. 

The revised pages offered slower things: evidence, review, consent, removal, and the possibility that someone else could tell him no. 

They were harder to admire. 

That was another reason to keep them. 

The following morning, Edward rewrote the charter's emergency section. His first draft had allowed the leader to suspend ordinary rules whenever danger was severe enough. Sirius circled the clause so hard the quill nearly tore the parchment. 

"Who decides when danger is severe enough?" 

"The leader." 

"Then you wrote yourself permission to ignore every other rule." 

Edward started to defend the clause and stopped. The Chamber, Peter's case, and Sirius's imprisonment all offered different examples of what happened when emergency authority became its own justification. 

He replaced the section with narrower language. Temporary measures required a stated reason, a fixed end point, and review by people who had not ordered them. Student members could refuse dangerous assignments without losing status. Records would survive leadership changes. 

"Still ambitious," Sirius said after reading it. 

"Too ambitious?" 

"Probably. You are thirteen. Your natural scale should include homework." 

Edward ignored that. "Is it better?" 

Sirius tapped the clause about review. "It is harder for you to abuse. That is better than trusting yourself not to." 

The distinction stayed with Edward. Character mattered, but rules designed around perfect character were only wishes written neatly. If his politics were ever going to become more than adolescent certainty, they had to survive the possibility that Edward himself might be frightened, angry, mistaken, or absent. 

He left the revised page on the desk instead of declaring the argument won. It was a proposal now, something other people were allowed to criticize. That was a smaller victory and a more useful one.