Reviews:
Haku's Lover18 : Thanks, your review helped me work out what to do.
demonboy121986: I feel like canon Bellatrix would actually like Bellatrix, she'd hate it because it's muggle but like the idea of muggles beating the shit out of each other.
ReaperOfBalance: I'm not going to focus too much on the details of his boxing training but thanks, those are great ideas.
Chapter 9 -
"And we're done," Bellatrix smiled to herself, having finished setting up Hydrus's room. At first she had been content to allow him to keep the room just like how Regulus had left it, but then she had decided that she wanted her boy to have an original looking room. She had taken her wand out and started making changes to it, all the while getting Hydrus's opinion on all the changes she had made.
The walls were a reasonable shade of green, not too bright and not too dark, except for the wall behind the head of Harry's bed, that wall was now all black with the exception of the giant green snake with silver fangs that she had painted on the wall, evidently hoping to nudge her boy in the direction of a certain Hogwarts house. She had gotten him a new desk and a wardrobe that was magically expanded on the inside so it could hold enough clothes to fill up ten wardrobes. She also enchanted the ceiling so that at night it would look just like the sky outside, the hardest part was making sure that it wouldn't actually rain inside of his room or make noise that would keep him awake.
"It looks really nice," Hydrus complimented her, looking around the newly designed room.
"I'm glad you like it," Bellatrix said, affectionately ruffling his hair. Hydrus didn't seem to mind and actually leaned into her touch instead of trying to get away from it.
"Can we go and practise some more magic?" Hydrus asked hopefully, he couldn't help but smile when Bellatrix started looking at him with pride.
"Of course we can, my little prince," She said, placing an arm around his shoulders and leading him out of the room.
A few days later the newly formed mother and son duo flooed to Malfoy Manor to attend Draco's birthday part, Bellatrix had originally not wanted to go, not wanting her precious boy to have any more contact than necessary with her sister's slimy husband, but Narcissa had insisted and had promised that he would be perfectly fine.
They had both arrived in the dining hall, where a lot of other people appeared to be waiting. The vast majority filling up the massive room were adults, all of them dressed up to look as nice as possible. Bellatrix and Hydrus were wearing expensive black wizarding robes with silver lining, so they didn't really look out of place. The vast majority of people here seemed to be people that worked at the ministry, leaving Bellatrix to believe that Lucius was using Draco's birthday as an excuse to start working on gaining more political power. She noticed the Minister of Magic out of the corner of her eyes, he was there with the unfortunate sight that was his undersecretary, Dolores Umbridge.
Bellatrix's eyes narrowed as she recalled the last time she had met that repulsive woman and how she had tried to get her Hydrus into the custody of the ministry of all things and how she had tried to have him arrested for accidental magic of all things. Bellatrix had told her sister that she would not start any problems at the party, but if someone else did then Bellatrix had no problems with finishing it.
Bellatrix continued looking around and spotted Draco with his mother and father, talking with two families, one of which were the Greengrass family, the elder two having brought both of their daughters, while the other family were the Notts. Lord Nott was a foul looking, brown haired man while his wife was a rather plain looking brunette. With them was a young boy, skinny with brown hair, she guessed that he was the Nott's son. All of them were also dressed up in expensive clothes, clearly wanting to impress.
"Ah Bellatrix," Narcissa said in a pleased voice when Bellatrix and Hydrus approached. "Ah, and you've brought young Hydrus, it's good to see you again." She smiled at him.
"You too, Aunt Narcissa," Hydrus smiled at her. "Is that a new necklace?" He asked curiously, gesturing to the silver necklace she was wearing.
"Oh, this old thing?" She laughed, gesturing to the necklace whilst enjoying the attention of everyone nearby, quite glad that Hydrus brought it up. "It's just a little present that Lucius had gotten me for my last birthday," She told him in a casual tone whilst placing a hand on her husband's arm.
"Ah, and here we have young Mr Harry Potter," Lucius said, staring at Hydrus.
"His name is Hydrus Black," Bellatrix cut in with a heavy glare. "I would've thought that my sister had informed you of that by now,"
"Yes, yes, of course, forgive me, it had simply slipped my mind," Lucius said in a smooth voice before turning his attention back to Hydrus. "So, how are you enjoying your return to the wizarding world, Hydrus?" He asked in a conversational voice.
"It's really nice, Mr Malfoy," Hydrus said in a happy voice.
"That's good, you like it much more than the muggle one?" He asked with a small smirk.
"Yep!" Hydrus chirped, not even needing a moment to think about it.
"Of course he does," Lord Nott grunted. "What's not to love here in the wizarding world? The lad's also lucky enough to be with us, the height of the civilised wizarding world."
"I believe introductions are in order," Lucius said. "Hydrus, this is Lord Nott and his wife."
"A pleasure to meet you, sir." Hydrus said respectfully, bowing his head at him before doing the same to Lord Nott's wife.
"Good, you have manners," Lord Nott said in a tone that bordered on approval. "Introduce yourself, boy." He told his son, pushing him slightly in Hydrus's direction.
"I'm Theodore Nott," The boy said in a formal tone, holding out his hand.
"Nice to meet you," Hydrus said, giving it a good shake.
"And you remember Lord and Lady Greengrass," Narcissa said, gesturing to the Greengrass family.
"It's good to see you again, Hydrus," Lord Greengrass said, his wife gave Hydrus a nod before she started focusing on Astoria's hair which had somehow gotten messed up.
"Hi Daphne," Hydrus greeted Daphne who smiled at him.
"Hi Hydrus," Daphne smiled at him.
"Oh, I got you a present," Hydrus told Draco, pulling out a bag of sweets for him.
"Thanks," Draco grinned, reaching for the bag, only for it to be snatched from Narcissa.
"Not now," Narcissa told Draco. "You've already had enough sweets for today."
"But Mum," Draco started to protest but was quickly cut off by his mother.
"None of that," She told him. "You will spoil your appetite and then you won't be able to have any cake later." She told him, Draco's face had a constipated look, as if he was trying hard to work out a way to have both his sweets and cake at the same time. "Now, since Hydrus's is finally here, why don't you go and play with your friends?" She suggested. "You could show him the present your father got you." She added, causing Draco's eyes to light up.
"Follow me," He quickly told the other kids before walking away, the rest of the children sent questioning looks to their parents and went after Draco once they received confirmation.
"I couldn't help but notice the large amounts of ministry workers here," Bellatrix commented before giving Lucius a knowing look. "Never one to waste an opportunity, are you?"
"My dear, sister-in-law, I am quite sure that I don't know what you mean," Lucius said innocently. "These are just simply my invited guests for my sons birthday party."
"He certainly seemed like he's enjoying himself," Lord Greengrass commented.
"Why wouldn't he?" Lucius smirked. "He's been quite happy to have a large amount of presents today."
"Not to mention he now has a lot of friends to invite over," Narcissa smiled, despite being upset that she wasn't able to invite Andromeda. As much as she might have wanted to, it would not have gone well if the so called 'blood-traitor' had showed up to the party. "Not to mention he loves his latest pet."
"Whoa!" Hydrus gasped as Draco brought them to a massive room where his present was waiting for them. There were a few people coming in and out of the room, staring at it, gossiping whilst staring at it.
In the centre of the room, there was a large glass tank on top of a table. Inside the tank was a log, a few small trees, a small little hole filled with water and a small brown snake resting on top of the log, staying so incredibly still that it looked like it was sleeping.
"Your parents got you a snake?!" Theo said with disbelief.
"Yep," Draco said proudly.
"It's amazing," Daphne whispered as they walked over to it.
"Have you named it yet?" Hydrus asked as they all stared at it.
"Not really," Draco admitted.
"Is it a boy or a girl?"
"I don't know," Draco frowned.
"Hi," Hydrus said, waving at the snake. He was thoroughly surprised when the snake raised its head and stared right at him. "Hello Mr Snakey." Hydrus said.
"Greetings, Speaker," The snake replied, bowing its head slightly to him.
"Whoa, can you understand me?" Hydrus asked, looking like Christmas had just come early.
"Yes," The snake said simply.
"Hey Draco, this is amazing," Hydrus turned to Draco who was staring at him with a shocked look on his face. "What?" He asked, before looking around and seeing that Daphne and Theo were also staring at him. A further look showed him that even all of the adults were staring at him. The stares lasted for several moments before the adults started whispering to each other and many of them quickly left the room. "What?" Hydrus repeated himself after another short silence where everyone continued to stare at him.
"You...you were hissing at the snake," Theo whispered, looking between Hydrus and the snake.
"No, I wasn't," Hydrus frowned. "I was talking to it in English."
"No, you weren't," Daphne said with a slight shake of her head. "You were definitely hissing at it, promise."
"Could you understand it?" Draco blurted out.
"Yeah," Hydrus said slowly, not entirely sure what was going on. A short while later Bellatrix walked into the room, followed by the Malfoy parents plus Lord and Lady Nott with the Greengrass family bringing up the rear.
"Hydrus," Bellatrix said quickly. "Why are some people telling me that you are a parselmouth?"
"I'm a what?" Hydrus asked in a confused voice.
"A wizard or witch who could speak parseltongue is known as a parselmouth," Narcissa explained. "It basically means that you can talk to snakes."
"Oh," Hydrus blinked before looking up at Bellatrix. "I was just saying hello to the snake and then it started talking back to me and everyone is saying that I was hissing at it when I wasn't,"
"It sounded like hissing," Draco quickly spoke up.
"Talk to it again," Bellatrix told Hydrus, looking excited.
"What should I ask?" Hydrus asked, still somewhat confused.
"Anything," Bellatrix said before gesturing him to talk.
"Okay," Hydrus frowned before looking at the snake. "Excuse me, Mr Snake, what's your name?"
"I don't have a name,"
"Oh, my name is Hydrus,"
"I still don't have a name." The snake replied, doing its equivalent of a shrug.
"He said he doesn't have a name," Hydrus told the rest of the them, trying to ignore their stunned looks.
"This is amazing!" Bellatrix squealed before hugging Hydrus, sounding and looking like Christmas and her birthday had come at the same time. Hydrus was still a bit confused, but his mother seemed to be happy so he decided that whatever was happening couldn't be that bad.
"Incredible," Lucius whispered to himself while Lord and Lady Greengrass stared at Hydrus like he was a large pot of gold.
"Indeed," Lord Nott said, having heard Lucius. "The boy will make a fine addition to the Black family," He added before sending a look at his son, as if disappointed that he wasn't the one that was revealed to be able to speak parseltongue.
"Oh, we're going to have so much fun with this," Bellatrix whispered to Hydrus before letting him go and turning to Narcissa. "I do hope you don't mind sister, but I'd prefer it if Hydrus and I make an early exit. I'm sure that you understand that he and I do have a rather large amount of things to discuss."
"Of course," Narcissa said, as composed as ever, at least out on the outside. "I hope you don't mind if I escort my sister to the floo," She told Lucius, her tone may have been questioning but they both knew that it was not a question.
"Of course," Lucius nodded.
"Come Bellatrix, Hydrus," Narcissa told the two.
"Bye," Hydrus waved to the other children before Bellatrix grabbed his hand and escorted him out with Narcissa.
"I can't believe it," Narcissa whispered to Bellatrix once they were far enough away from anyone else.
"I can't either," Bellatrix grinned before looking down at Hydrus. "I am profoundly proud of you right now," She told him.
"Oh...thanks," Hydrus smiled up at her, not really sure what 'profoundly' means or why she was so proud of him but he decided to just be happy that she was happy.