January 1986

Hydrae had given his thoughts to Arcturus as well as to Sirius about how to go about arranging the play dates. As Harry had been isolated from other children by the Dursleys, other than Dudley, Hydrae felt that introducing him to more children should take some time. For the first few weeks, it was just Harry and Daphne who would be brought together, and initially it was just for some time to play in the gardens at the Black Estate.

Arcturus and Sirius had been starting to speak with several other families; families who were neutral or even light sided, but ones who would be cautious around the headmaster. One of the more prominent witches was Augusta Longbottom. She was not happy with the headmaster, holding him responsible for what happened to her son and daughter-in-law who had been very active in working with Dumbledore during the last war. At first she was hesitant to allow her grandson to get together with the Boy Who Lived, but Arcturus eventually convinced her that it would be good for both of the boys. Sirius, while not as close to Frank as he was to James, was still good friends with him and might be able to share some stories of Neville's father with the boy when he was at the Black estate playing with Harry.

By the beginning of January there were two days each week that Harry and Daphne would be together, plus there was another day that had them joined by Neville as well as Tracey Davis. Soon they eventually added another day that was a larger group which included Susan Bones, Hannah Abbot, Draco Malfoy-Black and Blaise Zambini.


~~~~MiB~~~


Arcturus and Hydrae were sitting in Arcturus' office in the new Black family manor.

"It has been wonderful to see the young ones getting along so well, and seeing young Harry actually developing friendships, and learning abut magic and his heritage," said Hydrae as he stared across the room.

Arcturus nodded slightly, "You have already done much to give your younger self a much better upbringing, but you know that you still have so much to do, or rather, we have so much more to do."

"The remaining soul anchors need to be obtained," said Hydrae as he looked back at Arcturus. "We have the crystal containers for holding them, but we still need the basilisk venom."

"You have already obtained the locket, and you will need to obtain the tiara and the ring," said Arcturus, "but, yes, we need to deal with the basilisk."

"It would be best to do so when we know that Dumbledore will be away," said Hydrae.

"There is an upcoming ICW meeting at the end of January, and of course the Supreme Mugwump will need to be there for the entirety of the meeting," said Arcturus. "We just need a way to get inside Hogwarts."

"That part will be relatively easy," stated Hydrae with a slight laugh. "The secret passage from the Shrieking Shack will only get us onto the school grounds and underneath the Whomping Willow, but the one from inside Honeydukes will get us into the main part of the school. I am not sure if the one through the portrait in the Hogshead Inn will work currently, besides, I would rather not risk Aberforth knowing we had entered the school while his brother is away. When does Dumbledore leave for the ICW meeting?"

"Probably on January 22," said Arcturus, "as the meeting starts that day."

"Next Wednesday? Then we enter the school on Thursday," said Hydrae. "If we go at night only the prefects will be patrolling the halls, in addition to Filch. Speaking of Filch, if we make it to his office, there is a particular artefact that I would like to obtain that should be in his possession there."

Arcturus raised an eyebrow, "That squib has a magical artefact?"

"Well, he came into possession of a map that was made by my father, with the help of Sirius and their friends," explained Hydrae. "Quite the remarkable charms project. It could have earned them a charms mastery if they weren't expelled for making it if anyone discovered what they had done."

Arcturus raised a curious eyebrow.

"It's a magical map of the school. It can show you where anyone is within Hogwarts," said Hydrae. "Quite useful for that particular group of friends with all of the pranks they would pull off. And luckily for us, learning the passwords to activate the map and turn it off is not an easy thing. Still never found out how the Weasley twins figured them out. So, if we enter through the passage from Honeydukes, we will arrive on the third floor behind a statue of a witch. Although there is a rock slide we need to climb to get into the castle that way."

"What was this about a whomping willow and a shrieking shack?" asked Arcturus, who had a scowl on his face at the thought of climbing a rock slide.

"Oh, yeah, the Shrieking Shack is on the outskirts of Hogsmeade. The students all claim it is haunted, due to howling noises they could hear about once a month," said Hydrae. "Although the building isn't haunted, it is where Remus Lupin, one of James and Sirius' friends, would go when Remus had his transformation into a werewolf every full moon. And the whomping willow was planted on the grounds near the entrance to the secret passageway. The willow needs to be tickled at a particular spot to stop it from attacking anyone who comes near the tree."

"Do we want to have Sirius help us with any of these tasks?" asked Arcturus.

"That would lead to Sirius asking too many questions about how I know so many things about Hogwarts when I supposedly have never been there," said Hydrae.

"I should have thought about that," observed Arcturus. "But if we enter the passageway through the shrieking shack, and deal with the willow, then we just have to cross the grounds and enter the castle that way."

Hydrae thought about that option. "Well, Filch's office is right next to the entryway, and he is usually patrolling other parts of the school at that time. So that may just work."

The two men made their way to Hogsmeade on the evening of January 23. Dusk had settled and they cast disillusionment charms on themselves before making their way to the Shrieking Shack. Once inside, Hydrae showed Arcturus the stairs to the cellar and the tunnel that would lead them to the Hogwarts grounds. When they arrived at the opening near the tree, Hydrae made a quick dive and a roll to the trunk where he found the knot, and pushed it causing the tree to become immobilised for a period of time. As Arcturus climbed out and observed what Hydrae had done, he shook his head.

"You could have just cast a stunner or some other spell at the trunk and accomplished the same thing, without all of the acrobatics," said Arcturus.

Hydrae stepped back and looked between Arcturus and the tree. "That would work?"

"You could have at least tried it," said Arcturus.

They continued across the grounds after recasting the disillusionment charms as well as silencing charms on themselves. Once they arrived at the main doors, the two hesitated. Hydrae listened against the door, and heard footsteps. He waved Arcturus to the side as the door suddenly opened.

"What is it Mrs. Norris? Something wrong with the tree again?" Argus Filch walked out and looked out across the grounds.

He immediately looked for footprints in the snow on the grounds, but as the students had recently had a snowball fight out in front of the school, the snow had all been packed down.

"That tree hasn't had problems in several years," commented the caretaker. "Lets go take a closer look." As he marched off towards the whomping willow that appeared motionless in the moonlight, two men entered the castle before the main door closed behind the caretaker.

"Now I know why you cast those additional spells to prevent the cat from smelling us," said Arcturus.

Hydrae smiled, but realised that Arcturus couldn't see it as they were both still invisible due to the spells.

"His office is just over this way to the right," said Hydrae quietly.

They made their way to the office, and Hydrae stepped inside with Arcturus keeping watch from the entryway to be sure no one else might find them. Inside the office, Hydrae looked around and found dozens of boxes filled with confiscated items. Hydrae shook his head again, wondering just how it was that Fred and George ever found the map.

"Idiot," Hydrae said to himself. Then he snapped his wand into his hand as he called out "accio Marauder's Map."

One of the boxes started to be pulled towards him and then the lid popped off the box and an all too familiar scroll came flying towards him. Hydrae grabbed the map, placed the lid back on the box and put the boxes back in their original order.

Hydrae stepped out into the entryway next to Arcturus and unfold the map as he stated "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

Arcturus raised an eyebrow as a map of the school appeared with two dots in the entryway, one named Arcturus Black and the other named H Black.

"At least the map didn't identify you as Harry Potter," observed Arcturus.

Hydrae nodded. "That might be awkward if anyone used the map and I was around." He looked at the map and smiled. "No one is between us and the girl's bathroom on the second floor," said Hydrae. "We should get going," he added.

The two made their way to the second floor easily as they did not encounter any of the prefects or faculty. Hydrae was hoping that Moaning Myrtle would not be present when they arrived, but to his frustration, she popped out of one of the toilets just after they walked into the girl's bathroom.

"What are you doing here?" she shrieked. "This is the girl's bathroom!"

Arcturus shook his head and tried not to laugh at the situation.

Hydrae sighed and then spoke up. "Myrtle, we are here to deal with the snake that killed you years ago."

"A snake? A snake killed me? All I saw was a large yellow eye and then I was stuck here in this bathroom," stated Myrtle. "That Riddle boy was mean, but everyone thought he was so nice. I heard him coming into the bathroom many times, and he never knew I would hide in here. He wanted to kill all the muggle born witches and wizards!"

"Yes, I know about Tom Riddle," said Hydrae. "And this is why we are here, to make sure he can't hurt anyone ever again."

"So, if you take care of the snake that killed me, and avenge my death, can I leave here finally?" asked the ghost.

Arcturus spoke up. "If you have been haunting this bathroom because of how you died here, then there is no reason why you can't pass on. If you so choose, that is."

"That's wonderful, I think," replied Myrtle. "But if you two die instead of killing this snake, you're welcome to share this bathroom with me!"

"Thank you for the offer, Myrtle," said Hydrae.

Then he turned to face the row of sinks, and he hissed. The sinks opened wide to reveal the passageway to the tunnel that would lead to the chamber. Hydrae looked at the opening and he definitely didn't want to slide back down the tube which was covered with spiderwebs and debris.

"Ginny must have had a way to make stairs to go up and down this tube like passage," said Hydrae as he stared at the opening.

"Don't expect me to go on a giant slide at my age," commented Arcturus.

Hydrae hissed again, saying the word 'stairs' hoping that would be enough of a command in parseltongue to make an easier way to go up and down the passageway. This was followed by a scraping sound as a stairway did form out of the stones in the small tunnel.

"I wish I had thought of this when I came here the first time," said Hydrae as he then proceeded to walk down the stairs.

Arcturus followed him down the stairs and then through the tunnel that led to the entrance of the Chamber of Secrets. They passed the large snake skin that had been shed by the basilisk in the past, and Arcturus just raised an eyebrow, realising how amazing it was that Harry had managed to slay the beast that was so large when he was only twelve.

They arrived in front of the seal to the chamber, and Arcturus stared and took it all in. "Kind of impressive that Slytherin created all of this," said the Lord Black. "Although, since no one has really seen this, it makes one wonder why he made it so elaborate."

"Some say it was because of his ego, considering what is necessary to say to summon the basilisk once we get inside," said Hydrae. Then he hissed 'open' in parseltongue and the intricate pattern of snakes on the seal to the door slid away and the door slowly opened.

The two men then walked into he chamber and Hydrae hissed again, calling for light in parseltongue and the magical lanterns lit up and illuminated the large hall. The two walked along and came face to face with the large statue of Salazar Slytherin.

"So, the basilisk will come out of there?" asked Arcturus.

"Yes, when I summon it by speaking to the statue," said Hydrae. "Let's get the roosters ready.

Arcturus pulled a box out of his robes and expanded it. Then he opened the box and pulled out several roosters who flapped their wings and flew around where they were standing for a moment, and then a sudden flash occurred, radiating from the ceiling, and the roosters all fell to the ground dead.

"What the hell was that?" exclaimed Hydrae.

Arcturus had his wand out and cast a few spells and frowned. "Someone, either Riddle or Slytherin himself, cast a protection ward around this room that would kill any roosters that were brought out into the open."

Hydrae frowned. "If Riddle created such a protection, why did he have Ginny kill all of Hagrid's roosters that year?"

Arcturus shrugged, and then suggested an explanation. "The wards were probably already set up in here by Riddle when he was a student. But once he had the Weasley girl release the basilisk around the school, he probably wanted to make sure that his little pet wouldn't come to harm when he, or she, was out and about."

"Makes sense," acknowledged Hydrae. "So now what?"

Arcturus shook his head. "You killed the basilisk with the Sword of Gryffindor once already."

"I did that in the future," argued Hydrae.

"My future, your past," said Arcturus. "It's a magical sword, and it came to you before, so it knows you. Time may be relative in this case."

"But the sword came to me in the Sorting Hat," said Hydrae.

"And just how did the hat obtain the sword?" asked Arcturus.

"I never thought about it before," said Hydrae.

"Well, think about it now," said Arcturus. "Just hold out your hand and think about the Sword of Gryffindor."

Hydrae shook his head. "Whatever," he mumbled, and then he extended his arm, opened his hand and waited a moment. "Nothing," he said, stating the obvious.

"Did you think about the sword? Did you ask for Gryffindor's help?"

Hydrae still had his arm extended, his hand almost waving in the air. "What? You mean say something like, 'Godric Gryffindor's sword come to me now!' Is that supposed to work?"

As he finished that statement he felt a large weight enter his hand, and being startled by what happened he dropped the sword that had appeared onto the floor with a loud crash. "Bloody hell," muttered Hydrae.

Arcturus laughed at him. "You're such a Gryffindor, but you better not drop that sword again."

Hydrae bent over to pick up the sword and Arcturus warned him to be careful with the blade.

Hydrae stood up slowly, holding the blade away from himself, "It hasn't come in contact with basilisk blood yet."

"Personally, I wouldn't want to risk it," observed Arcturus. "So now what?"

"I'll call forth the basilisk, and you get ready to blind it before it can kill us with its stare," said Hydrae.

Arcturus nodded and moved behind one of the columns in the room. "When the monstrous snake comes forth, close your eyes as I will cast a blinding light, forcing it to close its eyes. Then I will cast a spell to bind its eyes shut."

"That sounds like a great plan, although I expect that it may not have its eyes fully opened when it comes out, as the previous person to summon it would have been Riddle, the supposed heir of Slytherin ," said Hydrae. Then he turned to the statue of Salazar Slytherin, and spoke the words that Tom Riddle had said, "Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts four."

The mouth of the statue opened wide, wider than what looked like it would be possible, and the two men heard the sound of something sliding across stone. The large basilisk started to slide out through the opening. As the head of the great snake came into view, Hydrae noted that it had a covering over its eyes, like an extra lid.

A loud hissing filled the hall. Arcturus prepared to fire spells at the beast, but Hydrae waved him off.

"I am your new master," spoke Hydrae, the words coming out in Parseltongue, but it still sounded like hissing to Arcturus.

"You are not the one who visited me all those years ago," hissed the basilisk.

"But I am here, and I am happy to see you," said Hydrae.

"Has new master brought new food? The spiders in the forest are not that tasty," hissed back the basilisk.

There was a slight thud as the entire snake had landed onto the floor of the chamber.

"We do have something for you," stated Hydrae speaking in English.

With that comment Arcturus cast a spell to bind the creature's eyes shut.

The basilisk hissed with anger. It then lunged towards where it had sensed the one who was speaking to it, its massive jaws clasping tightly on an empty space. Then it realised that something had landed on its head. The basilisk started to rear back, however Hydrae thrust the sword of Gryffindor through the skull of the large snake, as he had apparated on top of the snake.

The basilisk thrashed in response to the assault, which caused Hydrae to fall to one side, away from where Arcturus was standing. Hydrae was still holding the sword which came out of the snake's head, and then the basilisk spasmed again, rolling on top of Hydrae.

Hydrae used his magic to push the giant's snake's head off of him and then he crawled backwards away from the now dead beast.

Arcturus came running around from the other side and stopped and stared at Hydrae and his eyes went wide.

"Now what?" asked Hydrae, who then felt a stabbing pain in his left arm. He looked down and saw that somehow when the basilisk rolled over, it managed to embed one of the fangs into his arm.

"Merlin's balls, why does this always have to happen to me?" moaned Hydrae.

Arcturus took a deep breath before speaking. "If only Dumbledore's phoenix could just show up and cry into your wound again.

Hydrae laughed slightly. "Not sure we want the headmaster knowing anything about what is going on here."

Hydrae took another deep breath and then looked at his arm. "It doesn't hurt as much as it did when I was twelve." He then reached with his right arm and removed the fang, leaving a small hole on his arm.

Hydrae and Arcturus both watched as the hole on his arm healed slowly over the next few minutes.

"Now what is happening?" wondered Hydrae aloud.

"Phoenixes are magical birds. Their tears are magical. Maybe you still have Fawkes' tears in your system," surmised Arcturus.

"So I could survive this anytime now?" wondered Hydrae. "Not that I want a repeat of this ever again."

"Either that, or you truly became the master of death and you just can't die," said Arcturus. "As you said, you used the deathly hallows to enable you to survive travelling back in time."

"I'll go with the idea that the phoenix tears are still active. The pain from the fang was nothing like what it was before," said Hydrae as he stood up but kept looking at the wound on his arm. "It is going to leave a mark, however."

The two men looked at the now dead basilisk. "It looks bigger in real life than it did in your memories that you shared," said Arcturus. "Do me a factor boy, and remind me not to get you angry with me."

The two men shared a laugh and Arcturus then started to look around. "So, did you ever explore this chamber? There has to be more to its secrets than just a large deadly snake."

"Well, no, actually," said Hydrae. "I never came back. And Ron and Hermione came down to get a fang to destroy at least one more soul anchor."

"No time like the present," said Arcturus.

The two wizards then started to investigate the chamber, and soon found a secret door to what must have been Salazar Slytherin's secret office. Using Parseltongue to state 'open' ended up being the simple password. Inside the office they found that there were several tomes, many written in older languages. They had been looked at by Tom Riddle in the past, and hastily put back on to the shelf as he was not able to decipher the information in the books. There was a pile of several books which had been left on the desk, and upon looking through them Hydrae and Arcturus discovered they had some information on old and powerful spells, but nothing about creating the soul anchors.

"The basilisk said something about eating spiders," commented Hydrae. "There must be another entrance to the Chamber if the basilisk was able to venture outside and eat them."

Arcturus nodded, and the two then began to explore the chambers some more. Using various phrases in Parseltongue, Hydrae eventually opened up a passageway to the room where the basilisk had come from. There were a large tunnel that left this room and eventually led to an exit. Arcturus and Hydrae found themselves standing in an opening to the Forbidden Forest. When they walked out and looked around, they could tell that they were near a den of acromentula.

Arcturus turned around and gaped. "We just came out of a large tunnel, but now it has disappeared."

"No, it's still right there," said Hydrae. "Maybe it's only visible to those who can speak Parseltongue."

"Convenient," said Arcturus. "It would keep the spiders and other creatures out."

"Well, now we have a way to bring in the goblins to render this beast," said Hydrae as he made his way back into the tunnel, with Arcturus following close behind.

Arcturus had thought they were walking back into a thick area of the forest when he suddenly realised that they were back inside the tunnel. He shook his head at the eeriness of the change, and he was frustrated at not being able to detect any change in his surroundings until they were clearly well within the tunnel.

When they arrived back at the body of the basilisk, Hydrae had Arcturus remove the crystal containers from the magical pouch, and then he grasped a couple of the fangs. Some of the venom dripped from the roof of the mouth of the basilisk and Hydrae collected the venom. Hydrae then dipped the blade of the Sword of Gryffindor into the venom, just in case he needed to have the power of the venom in the sword once again. The men then made their way back to the exit into the Forbidden Forest, and then they apparated back to the Black estate.


~~~MiB~~~


The day after Hydrae and Arcturus had ventured tot he Chamber of Secrets, Sirius and Hydrae had gone on a trip to Diagon Alley.

"I gave Harry a toy broom when he was a baby," said Sirius, "I want to get him one again, he seemed to be such a natural at it."

"He does seem like he might be a natural," said Hydrae, avoiding a smirk in front of Sirius.

"And while we're at it, we can head over to Zonko's," added Sirius.

"That is not happening, Sirius," said Hydrae. "Harry needs to grow up to be a wizard, not a Marauder, not a trouble maker."

"Where is the fun in that?" asked Sirius.

"There can be plenty of fun in that, when you actually let a child be a child," said Hydrae.

As the two were making their way to the Quidditch supply store, a voice called out to Hydrae.

Cassandra came up and greeted Hydrae with a hug and a kiss, and Sirius smiled and laughed at the wizard. "You're so lost already, Hydrae, you have no freedom left."

Hydrae sent a wandless stinging hex at Sirius who yelped, more out of surprise than pain.

Then Hydrae turned to Cassandra, "We can meet up for lunch in a few minutes. Sirius here wants to get a present for Harry, then we can meet up, just the two of us."

Sirius pouted, "What? I don't get to be a third wheel?"

"You're lucky we let you out of your kennel," stated Hydrae.

Cassandra laughed at the two, "I'm sure I'll see you around, if Hydrae invites me over to your home sometime."

She gave Hydrae a quick kiss on his cheek and the two made their way off to the Quidditch store.

"You are so wrapped around her finger," said Sirius. "You shouldn't be so caught up by anyone."

"Sirius," said Hydrae, his tone more sombre, "you need to seriously change your attitudes about women and dating. A one night stand may be Sirius' idea of a relationship, but that is not a serious relationship, and yes all the puns are intended. You do need to grow up. Your emotional maturity was stunted before you were sent to that horrible island prison. Your best friend managed to grow up before you graduated from Hogwarts, why can't you?"

Sirius stopped himself before he gave a quick and snarky reply. "Maybe I just never found the right person to grow up with."

"You never will if you continue to be a marauder at heart and don't take life seriously," said Hydrae. "You laughed when you realised you had been framed by the rat. You didn't take the responsible action of protecting young Harry. Don't keep making the same mistakes over and over again."

Sirius stood there with a look of shock on his face. Then he frowned, and closed his eyes tight. A moment later he shook his head and his broad smile had returned.

Hydrae raised an eyebrow.

"We all have our secrets, and I'm not about to talk about mine right now, here in Diagon Alley. Maybe later," said Sirius softly.

Hydrae raised an eyebrow. "Fine, we'll go get Harry his toy broom. We'll bring it back to the estate, let him and the others have some fun, and then you can tell me about it over some of your grandfather's Scotch. No, not the Ogden's fire-whiskey, but a proper Scotch."

Thirty minutes later Sirius was back at the Black estate, and Hydrae was sitting down to lunch with Cassandra.

After they started on their meal, Cassandra put down her sandwich and just shook her head.

Hydrae gulped and leaned back, a feeling of shock coming across him as he watched Cassandra's gesture.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"This isn't working," she said simply.

"What's not working?"

"You, your name," said Cassandra.

"My name? What's wrong with my name?"

Cassandra took a deep breath. "Look, I told you, I read up about you. You were all over the local papers. From out of no where this wizard who was so great at duelling takes Australia by storm and it turns out he is the lost heir to the Black family. Westley was a different name, but that's okay. Then your grandfather, or grand uncle, or who ever Arcturus is to you, well, he shows up and says 'you're a Black' and 'you need to change your name.' I mean, who does that to people? You're an adult but you have the wrong name?"

"You don't like my name?" Hydrae was bewildered.

"Everyone knows the Blacks have used star names or constellation names, but Hydrae? For real?" Cassandra shook her head.

"You do know the story of the hydra? Cut of its head and two grow back. You can't kill the hydra, not easily," said Hydrae.

"Cut off your head and there will be two of you?" scoffed Cassandra.

"No, but I am not that easy to kill," said Hydrae. "Let's just leave it at that."

"Fine, the theory is cool, but it doesn't work," said Cassandra.

"So now what?" asked a puzzled Hydrae.

"What you need, is a nickname," stated Cassandra.

"A nickname?"

"Yes, a nick name," asserted Cassandra.

"This is all about a nickname? You made me think you were about to break up with me," said Hydrae, taking a deep breath.

"Can't break up with a hydra, he'll just come back twice as difficult, I mean twice the problem," said Cassandra with a laugh.

"So, a nickname," said Hydrae. "What kind of nickname?"

"Hyd sounds stupid," said Cassandra. "Hadrian is too formal. You're already taking care of your cousin, the famous boy who lived, so Harry is out."

"Sounds like you have been thinking about this for a while," said Hydrae.

"Of course I have," said Cassandra, turning her nose up slightly and then adding a smile. "Maybe the second part of your name. Do you even have a middle name? Oh, that's right, the Lord Black gave you his name. So, no, that won't work either. Which leaves us with calling you 'H', and that just won't do, or using part of your name. So, how about 'Drae'? That sounds less ridiculous. Or at least it does to me."

"Drae? You want to call me Drae? That sounds too much like Draco, and he is already in the Black family," added Hydrae. "That just wouldn't do. It would be too confusing."

"I'm not dating a five year old boy," protested Cassandra. "And no one would confuse you with the spawn of Lucius Malfoy."

Hydrae smiled at her comment. "I would hope not," he said with a slight laugh.


~~~MiB~~~~


AN: Life and work have made progress on the story a little slower. I do read the reviews, and some may have noticed slight changes in the story based on those reviews.

Edited on 12/19/2022