Chapter 148: First Covenant

The day before final exams, Edward spread the Heart Prism notes across a library table and tried to reduce them to one page.

The task proved harder than the enchantment.

A useful summary had to tell a future bearer what the object could do, what it could not do, and how to refuse it. Edward crossed out phrases such as responds to danger and protects automatically. The prism recognized no danger and made no decision. It released one prepared barrier when an attuned bearer touched the seal and spoke the phrase.

Hermione arrived carrying three revision books and stopped beside the table.

"That is more than exam preparation," she said.

Edward covered nothing. Their work against Fenrir had ended the need for theatrical secrecy, and the design contained no dangerous spell. "It is the device I mentioned. A supervised emergency ward."

Hermione read the summary before asking to see the prism. That alone distinguished her from most of the alliance.

"'Attuned bearer,'" she read. "What happens to the magical sample used for recognition?"

"It remains in the breakable clay seal. Destroy the seal and the sample disperses."

"How do you know it disperses?"

"Snape tested for residue."

"How do you know his charm would find every kind?"

Edward opened the longer report to the unresolved questions. "We do not. That is one reason no one wears it yet."

Hermione sat down. "May I see it without touching?"

He opened the padded box. The Heart Prism looked unimpressive: clear crystal held by an open silver cage, with a small clay seal on one side. Hairline scratches covered the metal from repeated handling.

"It only holds a Shield Charm?" she asked.

"A brief shape based on Protego. It slows a padded practice bolt. We have not tested it against curses."

"And you should not start with people."

"Agreed."

Hermione examined the discarded pieces in the second compartment. One crystal had split. Another silver cage had blackened. "Keep these in the demonstration. If you show only the working one, everyone will imagine the failures were harmless."

Edward added the suggestion.

She found another problem in the release phrase. Flame Serpent Guard linked the object to the alliance. A student might hesitate to use it in public because the name disclosed membership, or someone might steal the phrase and target suspected members.

"The phrase itself isn't secret," Edward said.

"That doesn't solve the first problem."

They replaced it with "Protego Brevis," plain enough to describe a short shield without declaring allegiance. Edward made a note to ask Flitwick whether the Latin was acceptable before changing the reviewed sequence.

Hermione turned to the consent section. "Who owns the prism?"

"The bearer while it is issued."

"Issued by whom?"

"The alliance."

"Then the alliance could demand it back and claim the person damaged shared property by breaking the seal."

Edward disliked how plausible that sounded. He rewrote the clause. The bearer could erase the recognition mark at any time without penalty. The silver setting remained shared property only if that arrangement had been agreed in advance. No membership decision could depend on accepting, wearing, or successfully using a device.

"Better," Hermione said. "Still too many capital letters in the title."

He left Heart Prism unchanged out of stubbornness and admitted it.

They spent the next hour constructing failure cases instead of studying. What if the bearer wore gloves? What if two people touched the seal? What if the release phrase was spoken while the prism faced a friend? What if the crystal cracked invisibly after a fall? What if a person attuned it while under Imperius?

The last question stopped them.

A voluntary sample could not be meaningfully voluntary under magical coercion. The prism could not diagnose that condition. Edward added a witness requirement for attunement and a waiting period before issue. Hermione suggested that the witness ask the bearer to explain the purpose and risks in their own words.

"Astoria proposed the same principle for experiments," Edward said.

"Then Astoria was right."

Madam Pince approached with her arms folded. Edward expected a reprimand for filling a revision table with silver and parchment. Instead, she placed two butter biscuits beside the box.

"Eat before you invent another reason to miss dinner," she said. "And put the crystal away. The library is not a workshop."

They obeyed.

Outside the Restricted Section, notices for final exams covered the corridor walls. Students hurried between last-minute study groups, and the grounds beyond the windows showed the first green of summer. Ordinary school life continued around questions that felt large enough to consume Edward's attention.

Hermione balanced her books against one hip. "You promised I could help when it was ready."

"It is not ready."

"Good. Then I helped at the correct time."

She left for Gryffindor Tower. Edward carried the locked box to Professor Flitwick and submitted the revised phrase, consent clauses, and list of failure cases. Flitwick approved none of them on the spot. He promised to review the wording after exams.

That evening, Edward studied Transfiguration rather than altering the prism. It was a small act of restraint and therefore harder than another experiment.

The examinations passed without disaster. Edward performed well in Charms and Potions, lost marks in History of Magic for an answer that wandered beyond the question, and accepted Hermione's higher score in Arithmancy with only moderate irritation. His restriction on unsupervised fieldwork expired after the formal review, though the requirement for adult oversight of artifact research remained.

Before leaving Hogwarts, he met Flitwick, Babbling, Snape, and McGonagall in the Charms classroom. They approved summer tests on inert objects and practice bolts. They did not approve human trials, curse trials, wand attachments, automatic attacks, or any attempt to store emotion.

Professor McGonagall signed the final page. "This authorization ends if the work changes purpose."

Sirius signed beneath her as Edward's guardian. His handwriting sprawled across two lines.

The original Heart Prism, every failed setting, and copies of the reports went into separate padded cases. One would travel with Edward. One remained at Hogwarts. The written sequence went to the Black family archive under a seal requiring both Edward and Sirius to open it.

Hermione added a final register entry before the cases closed. It listed who held each copy, when the seals were checked, and whom to notify if anything went missing. Edward signed it, then asked her to sign as the person who had challenged the design rather than merely witnessed it.

On the Hogwarts Express, Edward resisted the urge to show Draco the box. The alliance would receive the summary first and the object only after its members had time to question the terms.

A covenant, Edward had decided, was not the magic inside a piece of crystal. It was the limit people agreed to keep when the magic tempted them to move faster.

The train carried him toward 12 Grimmauld Place with a cautious design, a long list of failures, and no promise that summer would turn either into a weapon.

That uncertainty no longer felt like weakness.

At the station, Sirius verified both cases before taking custody. Edward described Hermione's objections first, allowing the guardian to judge the design from its weakest points rather than its brief success.