Chapter 120: Terms with Dumbledore

Dumbledore returned to Grimmauld Place the next evening with Remus Lupin and a narrow leather folder from the Ministry archives. Sirius remained out of sight until the front door closed and Dumbledore confirmed that no one had followed them through the ward line. 

Edward had expected an argument about whether Sirius could enter Hogwarts disguised as a dog. Dumbledore ended that idea before Edward finished explaining it. 

"No," he said. "Peter knows Sirius's Animagus form. Bringing Sirius into a castle where Peter may be hiding would warn the very man we need to identify. It would also place students between two frightened adults with very good reasons to panic." 

Sirius opened his mouth, then looked at Edward. 

Edward nodded. "We reached the same problem after you left." 

"That saves us one disagreement," Dumbledore said. 

He opened the leather folder. It contained copies of the original reports from the street where twelve Muggles had died. The documents established the explosion, Peter's severed finger, Sirius's arrest, and the witness statements that had condemned him in public opinion. They did not contain a trial transcript because no trial had occurred. 

Remus read that absence twice. 

"I should have asked," he said quietly. 

Sirius did not answer at once. "So should I, about a lot of things. We can hate ourselves later. Peter is still alive now." 

That kept the conversation where it needed to be. 

Dumbledore set out the terms. Sirius would remain away from Hogwarts unless Dumbledore specifically authorized a meeting. Remus would verify the Marauder's Map before anyone relied on it. If the Map showed Peter Pettigrew inside the castle, two adults would witness the reading and preserve a written record. No student would be asked to seize Scabbers. Ron would not be told until the adults could protect him from a frightened Animagus. 

"And Harry?" Sirius asked. 

"Harry will not be used as bait," Dumbledore said. 

"I did not ask for that." 

"I know. I am stating the limit because grief has a way of changing what people call necessary." 

Sirius looked toward the cold fireplace. "Then tell him the case is being reviewed. He deserves at least that much." 

Dumbledore agreed to consider what could be shared without exposing the investigation. Remus would be present when the truth about Sirius became safe to explain. 

Edward wrote every condition down. 

A year earlier he would have thought the exercise excessive. Now he understood why it mattered. A plan written only around success concealed its worst assumptions. A plan that named who could stop it had at least admitted that the people making it might be wrong. 

"There is another matter," Edward said. 

He did not ask Kreacher to fetch the locket or the Basilisk fang. Neither dangerous object belonged on a dining table. Dumbledore already knew both from the joint investigation after the Chamber, and the originals remained under separate wards and shared adult custody. 

Edward instead placed three certified records beside the Ministry folder: photographs of the destroyed diary, photographs of the broken Slytherin locket, and a copy of the relevant pages from the black notebook recovered in the Chamber. 

Sirius leaned forward when he saw the locket. 

"Regulus," he said. 

Kreacher stood near the wall. His face tightened, but he did not look away. 

Dumbledore had already heard Kreacher's statement. For Sirius, however, the evidence changed an old family wound into something harder and more precise. Regulus had joined Voldemort. He had sent Kreacher with him. He had later learned what Voldemort had done to the house-elf, returned to the cave, ordered Kreacher to exchange the lockets, drunk the guarding potion himself, and died among the Inferi so Kreacher could escape. 

"He never told me," Sirius said. 

"Master Regulus thought Master Sirius hated everything he had become," Kreacher replied. 

"He was right." 

The answer was so immediate that Edward looked at him. 

Sirius rubbed both hands over his face. "And I still would have gone with him if he had asked. Both things can be true." 

No one tried to make that grief neat. 

Edward pointed to the copied notebook pages. "The Chamber investigation gave us a name for what the diary and locket were. We know Voldemort divided his soul and fixed fragments into objects. We do not know how many." 

Dumbledore's expression sharpened. "And we do not assume Peter knows." 

"I was going to ask whether he might." 

"He might. That is not a reason to interrogate him about matters we cannot yet prove he ever learned. Peter's value to Sirius's case is already sufficient reason to capture him alive. We should not overload that operation with every unanswered question about Voldemort." 

Edward accepted the correction. It removed the attractive idea that one prisoner could solve several problems at once. 

Dumbledore continued, "Nor will you resume private searches for objects that resemble Horcruxes. You may study approved copies. The locket remains jointly secured. The Basilisk fang remains secured separately. The Chamber notebook remains at Hogwarts under warded access." 

"Agreed." 

Sirius glanced at Edward. "That answer came suspiciously fast." 

"I have already learned what happens when I treat access restrictions as personal insults." 

"The library ceiling learned too." 

Edward ignored him. 

Dumbledore did not. A brief smile appeared and vanished. "Good. Then we can discuss the remaining question: what would make us abandon the Peter operation?" 

They listed the conditions one by one. If the Map could not be verified, they stopped. If Peter disappeared, they did not chase him through student dormitories. If Sirius broke the terms of his Vow, Dumbledore withdrew access. If any student became an immediate hostage risk, capture gave way to evacuation. If the Ministry became involved before the evidence was secure, Dumbledore would insist on independent witnesses before surrendering Peter. 

Sirius disliked the last possibility most. 

"They put me in Azkaban without a trial." 

"Which is why we will not ask you to trust the same process blindly," Remus said. "We will build a record they cannot erase by calling you unstable." 

Sirius looked at his old friend for a long moment, then nodded. 

The meeting ended without promises that justice would be quick. Dumbledore would document Regulus's actions, but public recognition could not expose knowledge of Voldemort's soul magic while the threat remained active. Sirius's innocence could be pursued only through evidence that survived scrutiny. Harry would learn the truth when telling him no longer endangered the attempt to capture Peter. 

Edward found the lack of certainty frustrating. 

It also felt more honest than certainty had begun to feel. 

Before leaving, Dumbledore collected only the copies he had requested. The originals stayed where the custody record said they belonged. 

Sirius watched the door close behind him. 

"So I do not get to sneak into Hogwarts as a dog." 

"No." 

"I do not get to catch Peter myself." 

"No." 

"And I have to wait for Remus to verify a map I helped make." 

Edward looked at him. "You wanted a lawful plan." 

Sirius sighed. "I had forgotten how much law resembles paperwork." 

For once, waiting was not the absence of action. It was part of the action, and everyone in the room had agreed to be bound by it. 

Nobody objected to that limit.