Chapter 114: Each Other's Secrets

Sirius did not ask Edward how Isabella died until the drawing room door was closed.

Kreacher remained by the wall with his arms folded. Dumbledore sat near the fireplace, present by agreement rather than pretending this was a private family reunion. Edward was grateful for that. Too many important conversations in the last year had gone wrong because secrecy made every choice feel personal.

"She died when I was six," Edward said.

Sirius's face tightened.

Edward kept the account simple. Isabella had spent years trying to manage Edward's unstable childhood magic while hiding from people interested in the Black family and in the unusual violence of his accidental spells. During one final crisis, she used a sacrificial protective working to save him.

The rite did not place another soul inside Edward.

That distinction mattered enough to say aloud.

"Part of my magic separated under the strain," Edward explained. "Fear, anger, and the instinct to survive became easier to feel as something distinct from ordinary thought. Mother's magic left a protective imprint in the same wound. I call that partition Ash."

Sirius frowned. "A personality?"

"Sometimes it feels close enough to one that the name is useful. But no. Ash is me. My magic, my instincts, my repressed fear and rage, shaped by what Mother left behind. Not a second person and not her ghost."

A small flame rose above Edward's palm. He let it burn for one breath and extinguished it.

"The fire affinity became stronger after the rite. That does not make every fire spell Mother's gift or every impulse her instruction. I have made enough mistakes by pretending dangerous instincts were special insight."

Dumbledore said nothing, but Edward knew the Headmaster had heard the admission.

Sirius looked at the empty hand. "Isabella always thought protection was something you built, not something you announced."

Edward swallowed. "You knew her well?"

"Well enough to know Regulus became unbearable whenever she entered a room."

For the first time that evening, Edward laughed.

The sound did not last. Sirius's gaze moved to Kreacher.

"You said there was something I should hear about Regulus."

Kreacher's expression closed.

Edward did not order him to perform his grief for Sirius.

"You can tell him if you want," Edward said. "Or I can use the recorded statement you already gave during the locket investigation."

Kreacher looked at Sirius for a long moment.

"Kreacher will tell it. Once."

Sirius sat down.

The house-elf began with the part he hated most. Regulus had joined Voldemort young, impressed by promises about pure-blood power and family restoration. When Voldemort asked for a house-elf, Regulus volunteered Kreacher.

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Voldemort took him to a seaside cave, forced him to drink a potion guarding Slytherin's locket, and left him among Inferi to die.

"Master Regulus had ordered Kreacher to return when his task was finished," Kreacher said. "So Kreacher returned."

Sirius's hands tightened.

Regulus listened to the account and changed. He learned enough to understand that Voldemort had hidden part of his soul in the locket. He returned to the cave with Kreacher, drank the potion himself, replaced the Horcrux with a false locket, and ordered Kreacher to escape with the real one and destroy it.

Regulus did not escape.

Kreacher's voice broke on the last sentence, but he finished.

Sirius stared at the floor.

"He was eighteen."

"Yes."

"And I thought he was still serving Voldemort."

Kreacher's anger flashed. "Master Regulus told Kreacher not to tell anyone."

"I know." Sirius pressed both hands to his face. "I know that is not your fault."

The admission startled Kreacher into silence.

Edward gave them both time.

Finally Sirius asked, "The locket?"

"The Horcrux inside it was destroyed this summer," Edward said. "Not by me alone."

He described only what Sirius needed: the diary in the Chamber had been destroyed by Basilisk venom, so Dumbledore, Amelia Bones, Kreacher, a curse specialist, and a healer tested the locket under controlled conditions. A fang was deployed through a shielded mechanism. Edward held no release cord. The Horcrux was destroyed, while the damaged locket shell and fang remained sealed under joint custody.

"Regulus's order was carried out with witnesses," Edward said. "Kreacher was the one who spoke it before the strike."

Sirius looked at the house-elf.

Kreacher lifted his chin, tears still wet on his face.

"Master Regulus's order is complete."

Sirius's breath left him slowly.

"I should have known him better."

Edward resisted the easy comfort that no one could have known. Sirius had been cruel to Regulus in some memories. Regulus had hidden behind family ideology. Both had made choices that widened the distance.

"You can regret it without rewriting him," Edward said. "He did join Voldemort. He changed after seeing what that meant. The change matters because the first choice was real."

Sirius looked at him sharply, then gave a tired laugh. "You really are his son. He hated being forgiven for things he had not admitted were wrong yet."

"I have inherited several inconvenient habits."

"From both sides, apparently."

The conversation turned back to Peter.

Sirius repeated the key details for Kreacher. Peter had caused the explosion, killed twelve Muggles, cut off his own finger, and escaped as a rat. Sirius had gone to Azkaban for the deaths without a proper trial. Dumbledore made no promise that the story alone would clear him.

"We need Peter alive if possible," he said. "A living Animagus, the missing finger, wand evidence, memories, and testimony would give the Ministry something harder to ignore."

Sirius's eyes went cold. "I spent twelve years thinking about killing him."

Edward believed him.

"Then do not pretend that urge is a plan," Edward said.

Sirius looked at him for a long moment.

"You say that from experience?"

Edward thought of the library fire, the closed bathroom, and every time he had called compulsion determination.

"More than I would like."

Dumbledore proposed the first practical step. Sirius would remain hidden at Grimmauld Place while he investigated Peter's history and the possibility of an unregistered rat Animagus. No contact with Harry yet. No independent hunt. If Peter was found, adults would build a capture plan designed to preserve evidence.

Sirius hated every limit.

He accepted them.

Later, after Dumbledore left, Edward showed Sirius the repaired section of the family tapestry. Sirius's own burned space remained black. Edward had not restored his name without asking.

"Do you want it back?" Edward asked.

Sirius stared at the damage.

"Not tonight."

"Then it stays as it is."

Sirius nodded.

They had exchanged secrets without turning either man's grief into authority over the other. It was an uncomfortable beginning.

Edward trusted uncomfortable beginnings more than perfect ones.

Sirius asked to see the written account of the locket investigation rather than relying on Edward's summary. Dumbledore produced the copy prepared for the joint record. The original dangerous objects remained under shared adult custody, separately warded, and nobody proposed carrying them through Grimmauld Place for the sake of a dramatic explanation.

That small formality changed the conversation. Regulus's last act was no longer a family legend that belonged to whichever Black spoke loudest. It had witnesses, dates, limits, and evidence that Sirius could challenge. Edward found the arrangement strangely comforting. Grief did not become less personal when it was documented. It merely became harder to reshape into whatever story the living preferred.