Chapter 168: Fourth Year Begins

Sirius insisted on one final practice session before term.

The ballroom contained padded screens, coloured floor marks, and three clocks. No one carried an experimental device. Edward used his walnut wand. Sirius used a plain training wand whose strongest permitted spell could bruise but not break bone.

Remus supervised from the doorway. Kreacher held the stop bell.

"The aim is not to beat Sirius," Remus said.

Sirius looked disappointed.

"The aim is to reach the blue exit with the witness token and both members of your pair able to move."

Edward's pair was a jointed wooden figure charmed to resist being dragged badly. A brass token hung at the far end of the room. Sirius stood between Edward and both objectives.

At the bell, Edward shielded before moving.

Sirius's first Stunning Spell struck the screen, not the shield. His second hit the floor behind Edward and turned it slick. Edward shortened his stride, reached the token, and immediately lost it to a Summoning Charm.

He chased it.

Sirius bound his ankle.

Kreacher rang the stop bell.

"You forgot the person," Remus said.

The wooden figure remained at the starting mark.

Edward cut the rope and reset without arguing. On the second attempt, he moved the figure first and ignored the stolen token. He reached the exit with his partner but without the object.

"Better failure," Sirius said.

"The witness token represents evidence," Edward replied.

"Evidence can be recovered. A person cannot always be."

The third round forced a choice. Sirius sent harmless smoke across the direct path. Edward could spend time clearing it, enter without knowing its contents, or take a longer route.

He took the longer route, kept the figure between himself and cover, and used a basic Shield Charm rather than fire. Sirius tried to draw him into a duel with red bolts from the centre.

Edward did not answer. He reached the token from behind a screen, secured it inside his robe, and moved toward the blue mark.

A bolt struck the wooden figure's leg. The joint locked.

Edward could not carry both the figure and a full shield while moving quickly. He cast a Levitation Charm, keeping the figure low, and retreated in short steps. Sirius attacked the available cover rather than Edward, forcing another route change.

The blue exit moved.

Kreacher had been instructed to shift the mark once per exercise. Edward saw the new position, named it aloud, and changed direction without stopping.

He crossed with the token and figure. Sirius's final bolt struck his shield a moment before the bell.

"Six minutes," Remus said.

Edward had expected praise for finishing. Remus showed him the clock. The room represented less than fifty paces. Six minutes under real curses would be an eternity.

They reviewed each delay. Edward had spent too long finding the best route when a safe route was visible. He had cast two unnecessary revealing charms. Once, he had turned to locate Sirius after reaching cover, giving up the cover's protection.

Sirius accepted criticism too. He had increased the pace beyond the agreed level near the end.

"You wanted to make the finish dramatic," Remus said.

"It worked."

"It made the final bolt harder than the limit."

Sirius signed the record.

After a rest, they repeated the exercise at a slower pace. Edward finished in four minutes and used fewer spells. No flame appeared in either round.

They reviewed spell choice as carefully as timing. A basic Shield Charm had protected the moving figure better than Edward's hotter, less predictable fire. Levitation preserved mobility without damaging the room. Calling the changed exit aloud helped Kreacher and would have helped a human partner.

Sirius recorded his own error beside Edward's. The practice mattered because the experienced adult could exceed limits too, especially when pride turned supervision into a performance.

Remus signed only after both corrections were written. A training record that blamed the student alone would teach the wrong lesson about authority.

The lesson continued outside the ballroom. Edward packed his school trunk using a written list. He left the ruined Crest, rare materials, and private Albania evidence in the locked archive. He carried ordinary school supplies, the alliance whistle, and copies of the emergency contacts.

Kreacher tried to hide three healing potions beneath his robes.

"Madam Pomfrey said one," Edward reminded him.

"Madam Pomfrey is not packing for Hogwarts."

"One."

Kreacher removed two with deep disapproval.

Sirius gave Edward the small two-way mirror. It worked for family contact but could not bypass Hogwarts wards in every room. They agreed on scheduled calls and an emergency phrase that revealed no sensitive information if overheard.

"If Moody teaches you anything that feels unsafe, leave," Sirius said.

"He is a former Auror."

"That does not make every teaching method sound."

The Albanian inquiry had made them more careful with authority, not less willing to seek help. Edward could report to McGonagall, Dumbledore, Flitwick, or Madam Pomfrey. He did not have to prove a concern alone.

Before supper, Edward reviewed the alliance charter. The new clauses changed the purpose he had once assigned the group. It was not a private army or a pure-blood council waiting to inherit power. It was a voluntary network for training, mutual protection, and reform.

Membership did not confer rank outside the group. Ancestry did not guarantee competence. Decisions required evidence, recorded votes, and the right to withdraw. No display of power could settle an argument.

Those rules would be tested at Hogwarts, where status and rivalry made every promise easier to bend.

Draco contacted him through Floo. "My father says Dumbledore will announce the Triwizard Tournament tomorrow."

"He told you?"

"He told me not to repeat it."

Edward waited.

Draco sighed. "The irony is not lost on me."

"Do you know the entry age?"

"Seventeen, according to the final proposal."

"Then we observe."

"I could pass any test they set."

"That is not the rule."

Draco complained about foreign schools, Dumbledore's caution, and the injustice of being fourteen. He did not propose cheating.

Edward counted that as progress.

That evening, Ash stirred when a branch scraped the window. Heat reached Edward's fingers before he recognized the sound. He named the room, the rain, the packed trunk, and Sirius reading by the fire. The heat faded.

Sirius looked over the top of his book. "Red cushion?"

"Tree branch."

"Improvement in variety."

Edward laughed despite himself.

The summer had produced no army of enchanted gloves, no decisive victory, and no simple answer to Voldemort. It had produced a documented prototype failure, a stricter charter, a preserved witness record, and several people more willing to leave danger than chase it.

Those achievements lacked spectacle.

They were also real.

At breakfast, Kreacher sealed the trunk and checked Edward's platform ticket. Sirius transformed into Padfoot for the approach to King's Cross, where his wanted status still required caution.

Edward placed his walnut wand inside his sleeve holster. He would begin fourth year with less equipment than he had once planned and more ways to ask for help.

That felt like an exchange worth making.

Sirius locked the practice wands away and restored the ballroom. Ending cleanly, checking equipment, and returning the room to ordinary use completed the exercise.