Some Years Ago.

Agatha Smith sat on a stool in front of more people than she'd ever seen in one place before, and couldn't stop herself from beaming. When the Sorting Hat she'd seen the others get a turn with was dropped on her head, she gasped when it began to speak in her mind.

'My, my…' the raspy-voiced thing said. 'You are a friendly one.'

"I try to be," she whispered. "Where do I get to go?"

She still had no idea which one she wanted to go to. Her father had told her she would do well in Slytherin, her mother had said Ravenclaw was best since she was here to learn. Her older brother was in Gryffindor, and she'd love to spend more time with him, but she'd also heard him say that Hufflepuffs got extra snacks, and that was hard to pass up either. Overall she supposed she'd be happy just about anywhere they put her.

'There's only one place for a sweet thing like you.' The hat shifted on her head. "Hufflepuff!"

A roar of cheers came from her new family, and she hopped off the stool and made it nearly five steps towards them before remembering she still had the hat on. She pulled it off, only mildly embarrassed at the cocked eyebrow Professor Dippet gave her. Once she'd given it over, Agatha returned to skipping towards the table. She took a seat between a boy, and a girl she'd seen get sorted before her, then immediately turned to the latter.

"I'm Agatha," she said. "You're Adeline, right?"

"Yeah." The girl only gave her a single glance before returning her attention to the sorting. "Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too!" Agatha said. She turned to the boy now. "Hello! I'm Agatha! I'm terribly sorry, but I can't seem to remember your name."

She didn't even remember seeing him get sorted for some reason. He had dusty blonde hair and dim blue eyes, and was wearing the same uniform all the rest of them were, though his seemed to be a bit big for him.

"Oh, uh, hello." The corners of the boy's lips turned upwards slightly. "And it's alright.

"I'm Gregory Herschel."


"Thank you, Mrs. Herschel," Hydrus said as she set down his second plate of bangers and mash. "I promise to actually chew this time."

The old woman gave a hooting laugh and patted him on the shoulder before walking away.

He was sitting in the corner booth of her restaurant, right beside Bella and across from Dumbledore, Dobby, and Remus. Bella had deemed the food unworthy of her consumption, but Hydrus was having to try not to hold it against her that she kept picking bites off his plate despite her misgivings. Dumbledore had gone for a simple steak, eggs, and toast combo, while Remus had listened to Hydrus's recommendation of getting the house special like him. Dobby was sipping on a milkshake.

Hydrus waved his hand to restore the privacy spell he'd removed in order to order another plate, then got back to the topic at hand.

"So," he said. "Death is a dick, Magic is a traitor, Fate likes to watch, and I might've let my mouth write some checks my ass is beginning to dread.

"You four are the only ones in the know, the whole know, and I'm not stupid enough to try and go at this alone." He magically cleaved off another bite of sausage, stabbed it with his fork and shovelled up some mashed potatoes, then swallowed down the bite after his promised chewing. "I'm taking all ideas here people, let them fly."

"We'll begin researching ways to kill gods," Bella said. "If they were mortal once, we can make them mortal again. Kill all three of them."

"No, not all three," Hydrus said, keeping most of the exasperation out of his voice. "Fate's the only thing stopping me from… I don't know, getting smited or something. And, I'm pretty sure she was never mortal. Death said not all of them were."

He couldn't quite picture that strange thing he'd seen when he'd looked down at the table. It was more like he could remember the feeling of the primaeval force it was born from, of countless souls, too many for his mind and memory to fully recall. Even trying to do so now made his ears ring and eyes water.

If there was any solace he could walk away from the deific encounter with, it was that he hadn't pissed off the oldest and freakiest one of the three.

"I think it might be best to hold off on any sort of god-killing plans," Dumbledore said. "Maybe I presume too much, but I expect Hydrus is just about done with his worship of Magic through Death's symbol, so perhaps their war is over and everything will just… Go back to normal."

Remus snorted. "In my experience, the more powerful someone thinks they are, the pettier the grudges they hold. I don't think either one of the two are going to let Hydrus just walk away."

"Mm," Hydrus agreed with his mouthful. He drank a swig of cider to wash the bite down. "I'm going to need to shore up our defences, and make things clear to their followers. I'm meeting with Arnold tonight to tell him to fuck off, I'll swing by the Forbidden Forest tomorrow to tell the centaurs and whomever else moved in to fuck off, and then…" he sighed. "Then I don't know. Guess just put up my guard and wait for the first shot across the bow."

"Didn't you say the gods can't directly interfere?" Remus asked. "If that's true, then what are you worried about?"

"I'm worried about you." Hydrus sat his fork and knife down with a sigh. "You, Bella, Sirius; especially Sirius. He might not be under any actual obligations to serve Death, but that doesn't mean the caveman and his followers will see it that way."

"Sirius doesn't need you to worry about him," the werewolf said, offering a smile. "He isn't famous for being a bad wand.'

"There are levels to such things," Hydrus said, rolling his eyes and holding his hand up flat in the air. "You have the… I don't know, the Amelia Bones'es and Remus Lupins of the world." He lifted his hand up a few finches. "Above them are the Bellatrix and Sirius Blacks." He lifted his hand up as high as he could go. "And way, way above them? You have the Dumbledores and Hydrus'es.

"And I'm not saying they're just gonna pull another fighter of our calibre out of thin air, Voldemort is dead and Grindelwald literally isn't half the man he used to be," Hydrus continued. "But there is a lot of room between our eschalon, and the rest of the world's."

"I'm afraid I have to agree with Hydrus," Dumbledore said. "We all need to practise extreme caution moving forward. "

"Constant, vigilance," Hydrus quoted. "So I hope you're ready to teach the crap out of some kids, Remus." He sighed. "They're going to need it."

Already he had been considering new things to do in Study Club with them. Mock duels with strenuous restrictions, war games between teams he'd pick out, competitions to design better and better defensive wards that built off the ones he'd learned from Hermione and Remus in the past. It would take some time, and not everyone would want to participate, but he could find ways of convincing them without telling them that the sky was falling. His younger self, Neville, Draco, and Blaise would all especially need to step up.

"And now I'm afraid I have to disagree with him," Dumbledore said. "Well, regarding the sentiment behind his words. Please still teach them to the fullest of your abilities, Remus." The ancient warlock sat his utensils down and slid his plate towards Hydrus. "No matter what forces may come, Hogwarts will never fall. And Hogwarts will always be a safe home for those who call her such."

"Please," Hydrus said, taking the plate and lifting up his fork once more. "I was in my mid-twenties before I'd faced more life or death situations outside of Hogwarts' walls than inside them."

"Not my Hogwarts," Dumbledore said. "And not with me as the headmaster."

Hydrus froze, the bite of steak and eggs hanging just before his mouth. It had been years, decades,since he'd felt the comfort of his former teacher's words, truly felt them settle over his shoulders like a well-worn, more than broken-in coat. It brought him a newfound strength of his own. It was like back in the Forbidden Forest when he was banishing away the banshee of Merope Gaunt, and the ancient warlock had conjoined his power with Hydrus's.

"Fair enough," the one-time apprentice muttered before taking the bite. "I'll be counting on you."

"So," Bella said. She hadn't so much as glanced at Hydrus's plate now that it was Dumbledore's leftovers, thankfully. "Back to my plan where we cut off the heads of the snakes."

Apophis appeared for a brief moment, and Hydrus snorted at the confusion and offence in the creature's body language. His familiar was gone as soon as he appeared though, and Hydrus scooped a bite off of his latest plate for the basilisk as a peace offering. The food vanished, as did the entire end of his fork, and he sighed as he transfigured it back into what it once was.

"It's an expression, sweety," Bella said. "The only way to deal with the potential threat is to deal with it."

"Bella," Hydrus said, leaning against her. "Am I a humble man?"

She furrowed her brows at him. "No? Why would you be?"

"Then take it all the more seriously when I say I am not going to hold a candle to either Death or Magic." He shook his head. "Even if all four of the… heavy hitters, in their primes, that I named combined our powers together, we wouldn't so much as leave a scratch on Magic, let alone Death." Hydrus gave Dumbledore a pointed look. "The two of them may have mortal origins, but their powers do not."

The old man frowned slightly, but after a moment he gave a small nod. "It would seem so."

"Even mountains can be eroded," Bella said, pushing forward despite his disagreement. "If we find a way to sever them from their power, or to weaken their power directly, or—"

Hydrus silenced her with a kiss. "I won't try and dissuade you any longer, my love, but for now put the idea aside and help us out with our plans, hm?"

"Hmph." She pouted at him, but as tempting as it was to give in to her, he was no longer missing the experience needed to ward off such brunt attacks on his will. "Fine. We should put Giannis to work then."

"For what, defensive wards on the summer home?"

"On everything." Bella waved a hand through the air. "Our little angel is going through books faster than we can find them, if you tell him it's to keep that idiot father of yours safe, he'll work miracles."

"It'll have to wait a week." Hydrus began to finish off his meal properly. "He's grounded."

That was going to be his next stop today, dropping his ward off at the Potters. Giannis had been begging and pleading for forgiveness before he and Bella left this morning, but Hydrus didn't need the memories of his lost child to know that if you gave a kid an inch, they'd take a mile. He'd raised dozens if not hundreds of children to be soldiers, and he knew better than to let up early on a punishment that was well earned.

Besides, it was probably going to be a good thing for the Greek boy. These days it seemed like he hardly ever stepped outside of his room unless it was to eat or go visit Flamel to have some question answered. Being forced to actually interact with other children might inspire him to spend more time doing that. From what Hydrus had heard, Giannis and Hydrus's younger siblings, Sirius and Remus, got along wonderfully well.

Plus, it would inconvenience his original father, and that was always worth the effort.

"So what else we got," Hydrus asked."Their followers don't walk around with a sign of their allegiance on their arms like the Death Eaters did, so kinda flying blind here."

"I still believe the best strategy would be to shore up our defences," Dumbledore said. "For precisely that reason. We have no idea the scope of Death and Magic's forces, but we do know our own. We should focus on that."

"Of course you'd say that," Bella said with a sneer. "How typical."

The ancient warlock's eye twitched. "Miss Black, I understand the perspective you were raised on under the guidance of your grandfather, but—"

"How about this," Remus interrupted. "Hydrus may not be godly, but he is rich, famous, and powerful. The whole reason the gods started fighting was because of the potential propaganda from him using Death's symbol to worship Magic, so we'll use that against both of them.

"For now, we do as Dumbledore said, and make sure we're staying safe. But." He emphasised the last word with a pointed look at Bella. "We also get the message across to the two of them that if they start anything, we're going to throw the full weight of the Black family's majesty behind destroying their reputations."

Hydrus gave the other man an appreciative frown. "How so?"

"We're about to start the world's first werewolf colony, and you have at least one friend each with connections to giants and veela," Remus said. "We could start proselytising for… I don't know, Fate or some other god. With your family's connections, you can make it very sensible and profitable to worship whoever you say to worship."

Hydrus nodded and began to stroke Apophis's scales. It seemed like no matter what timeline he was in, his former advisor was still one of the very best in the game. He was just shy of Ron's eventual skill at such long-term planning, but there was definitely a period of time between Dumbledore's death and his best friend's prime that the rebellion very well might've fallen without him.

"I like it," Hydrus said. "We tell humans, a 'market' that Magic was desperate to get into, that we do not worship what we wield. We do to Death exactly what I accidentally did by choosing to worship his symbol as Magic's."

"Potentially," Remus said. "This needs to be a threat, a deterrent. Not a commitment."

"Of course," Hydrus agreed. "Believe me, I'm just being pessimistic, not enthusiastic."

Fate, the concept not the goddess, had a way of always making sure that things got as messy for him as possible. Or maybe it was the goddess. Everything had gotten so crazy as of late he had no idea anymore.

"May Dobby say something, Master Hydrus?"

Hydrus blinked at the diminutive elf. So far Dobby hadn't said anything besides trying to turn down the milkshake Hydrus insisted he accept.

"Of course," he said. "That's why I brought you here."

"Maybe, if Master Hydrus wants to, he could speak to Dobby's mother." The house elf looked bashful as he sat his finally empty glass on the table. "She worships Magic. She… Might know something that could help."

Hydrus frowned but immediately changed his expression when Dobby winced. "Of course I don't mind, my friend, but I don't want to put your mother in an uncomfortable position."

"No!" Dobby yelped, then his already-wide eyes widened further. "D-, Dobby means, no, Master Hydrus, it won't be any bother for Dobby's mother. Once she knows what bad goddess Magic did, she won't pray anymore. It's just…"

"Just what?"

"Dobby's mother can't come see Master Hydrus…" Dobby stared down at the table. "Dobby is sorry."

"It's fine, Dobby, I promise." Honestly, it was going to take forever to get his old friend back. "Is something wrong? Can I go see her?"

"Well…" The house elf began to yank hard on his thumb like some sort of self-harming twiddling. "Dobby's mother is still belonging to the breeder man, so—"

Hydrus's magic pulsed through the Herschels' diner, shaking the entire building and sending several plates crashing to the ground in a shattering explosion. He held up his hand to apologise to Mrs. Herschel, then snapped his fingers to repair the plates and put them back on the shelf they'd fallen from.

"I wish you would've told me sooner," he said, his tone gentle despite his outburst. "Bella, go take Remus and introduce him to Draco. Tell him that he has a job, to liberate Dobby's mother and any other house elves there by any means necessary." He turned his focus on the werewolf who pulled back slightly. "I'm assuming you won't mind being the boy's guiding hand?"

"Uh, sure, no problem," he said. "Why though?"

"Because he's a fifteen year old who might get in over his head," Hydrus said. "And because you'll be a good influence on him."

"Right." Remus sighed. "If you say so."

"I know so, from personal experience." He turned back to his love. "And it goes without saying, no killing or harming your sister while you're there."

She groaned. "Fine."

"Alright, I think that's about all we can squeeze out of this little war council," he said. "Remus, don't forget about the other question I asked you, regarding the rat. Professor, keep a more international ear out for movement against me. Dobby, you're in charge of keeping an eye on Giannis and making sure he doesn't do anything educational for the next week." To finish his wrap up, he kissed Bella on the cheek. "Bella, keep being warm."

She giggled and kissed him back.


Dahlia Potter stared down at the letter she'd found sitting on her desk this morning. The wax was sealed with the sigil of House Black, which was strange since Hydrus usually used the old Deathly Hallows symbol. She'd been refusing to open it all day out of a mixture of stubbornness and embarrassment over her last interaction with the older boy, but she supposed it was finally time. With a sigh, she tore off the wax and began to read.

Dahlia,

I'll be dropping off my ward, Giannis, later today. He's being punished for kidnapping my father without telling me ahead of time. Please keep an eye out for him, he is the heir to my fledgling and reborn House Slytherin, and I don't want your father corrupting him too much.

With gratitude,

Hydrus Sirius Black.

Giannis? She vaguely remembered her younger brothers talking about the boy at some point, that he'd not been able to speak English with them. As she tried to recall more about what they might've said though, a thought occurred to her.

'Oh crap.' She jumped to her feet. 'Was I supposed to tell mum and dad?'

With that worry in mind, Dahlia ran out of her room and down the stairs. When she got to the living room, she found her mum reading a book and her dad with his legs in her lap, a sewing needle in his mouth and a seeing lens over one of his eyes as he held up seemingly nothing.

"Hey, so—"

Before she could get any more out, the fireplace came to emerald life and Hydrus and who she could only assume was Giannis stepped out. Hydrus was dressed up for some reason, and looked rather dapper. He had been gaining weight since the time she'd first laid eyes on him and he was wearing a fur-lined cloak that really showed off how much broader his shoulders had become as of late. He even had a cute little bit of stubble on his upper lip.

"Potters," he said. "I've brought Giannis."

"Uh…" Her father started, taking the needle out of his mouth and sitting down whatever invisibility cloak he was working on. "Okay? Why?"

Hydrus frowned and Dahlia's cheeks flushed over as her mistake was about to be exposed. "Did Sirius or Remus really not tell you?"

"Tell us what?" her mother asked.

"Giannis locked Sirius up in the dungeons without my pre-approval," Hydrus said. "As punishment, he's grounded and forbidden from doing anything remotely educational for a week. To that end, I was going to leave him here."

Her dad reared up slightly. "How is staying with us a punishment?"

Hydrus's head cocked to the side. "How is being around you not a punishment?"

Dahlia couldn't stop herself from snorting at the joke, and her dad whipped around to face her, betrayal painted across his face.

"What?" he demanded. "Why are you on his side?"

"I'm not!" she exclaimed. "I just… Thought it was funny."

God, she hated boys, including over-grown ones like her father. Hydrus was just standing there smirking at her misfortune; he was somehow worse than her brother Harry in moments like these. Luckily, it seemed like he was ready to move things along since he turned back to her father.

"I did come here for another reason too," he said. "Sirius needs a favour. He needs to borrow whatever your best invisibility cloak is, it's to keep Regulus safe."

"Safe from what?" her mom asked. "What's going on?"

"Uh…" Hydrus scratched at the back of his head. "Long story short, we're going to be visiting a vampire lord who worships death, and while Sirius and I tell him to leave us alone, Regulus will be committing a small bit of robbery to retrieve an artefact he'd previously stolen and needs to give back to get the last person still pressing charges against him to back off."

Dahlia turned to her parents to make sure she hadn't temporarily gone crazy, but since they looked just as stunned and confused as she did, she assumed that wasn't the case. What the hell was Hydrus talking about? Vampire lords?

"Well that's…" James started. "A lot."

"Tell me about it." Hydrus sighed. "Anyways, we all know my uncle can look after himself on the burgling front, but I'd still prefer to give him every advantage possible."

"Can we get back to the part where you're having a man out on bail commit another robbery?" her mother asked. "Are you insane?"

"What an awful question to ask a member of the House of Black," Hydrus said dramatically. "I am insane, thank you very much, and no less a person for it."

Again Dahlia snorted at him, but this time it was her mother who turned to look at her. "Dahlia, dear, did you need something?"

"N-, no," she mumbled, not wanting to admit she could've warned them ahead of time. "Just wanted to say hello to my housemate."

Ugh, what a stupid thing to say. Even if it did get a smile from Hydrus.

"Hello to you too, dear god-sister," he said, making her wince at the reminder. "Anyways, is that a 'no' to the invisibility cloak, or…?"

"No, no." Her father stood and sighed. "I'll go get one. Giannis, the twins are upstairs in their room if you wanna go play with them, alright?"

"Yeah, alright," the boy said. Dahlia was surprised to hear him speaking perfect, Britishly-accented English. "Thanks, Mr. Potter."

"We'll be picking you up next week, Giannis," Hydrus said. "Have fun."

"I won't," the boy grumbled sulkily. "Bye."

Dahlia watched the boy trudge away, wishing she could feel some pity for him, but still unsure how not doing something educational was a punishment. Before she could ask, her father returned holding up what she could safely assume was one of his cloaks.

"Here," he said. "It's the original."

To her surprise, now it was Hydrus wincing. "No, thank you though. Can you get me any other one? Your second best cloak?"

"What?" her father said. "Why?"

"Well…" Hydrus let out a long sigh. "I really don't feel like dealing with a second Deathly Hallow in my possession."

"What?" Dahlia asked. "What do you mean?"

The Deathly Hallows were a children's fairy tail. Her father had read the book to them as kids, even as her mother always went for more muggle tales. The youngest brother asked for a wand that could kill anyone, the second oldest had picked a stone that could let him talk to his dead wife, and the youngest and wisest had picked an invisibility cloak to hide from Death himself. Was her father's favourite cloak supposed to be…?

"Listen," the older man said. "This is just—"

"It's a Deathly fucking Hallow," Hydrus said. "And I would prefer not to be around such things when I already hold another."

He held up his lone hand, and for once Dahlia truly recognized the symbol on the ring wrapped around his finger. Was that supposed to be—

"The resurrection stone," Hydrus said. "The wand is held by Dumbledore, after he somehow defeated Grindelwald, its previous owner. What you have there is the last piece of the triumvirate."

Her father was frozen. He was running his thumb over the cloak's surface, and staring at it like what Hydrus was saying was true. But that was ridiculous. It was just a fairy tale.

"My familiar—." A snake suddenly appeared, stacked tall around Hydrus's shoulders like a scarf. She wasn't sure what kind of snake it was, but based on the way both her parents locked up, it must've been dangerous. "Not now." It faded back into invisibility. "Was nursed on the magic of the stone, and the last thing I need is for him to get super-charged off of its triplet."

There was a hissing sound, and Hydrus hissed back. The way it slid off his tongue sent uncomfortable shivers down Dahlia's spine. How did he do that? It was like he was working an entirely different set of muscles to make the sound come out of his throat and through his teeth.

"How…" Her father started. "How do you know?"

"I just do." Hydrus dismissed the conversation with a wave of his hand. "May we please borrow a different one? I have a party to get to."

"Yeah, sure." Dahlia watched as her father absentmindedly continued to feel at the cloak and began to walk away. "A Deathly Hallow…"

Once he was gone, her mother spoke up.

"Can someone please explain to me what a 'Deathly Hallow' is?"


BBaRtS


Chapter 56, a day late and a few thousand words short. No real problems writing this time, just hella busy with Christmas stuff. In fact writings so smooth at the moment that, although I'm not committing to it, I will say there's a chance there'll be an extra chapter around the same length to make up for it this week. I hope you're all having a Merry Christmas or any other holidays you might be celebrating around now.

Someone pointed out I'm now in the top 1000 most followed HP fics on FF, which is pretty nifty. We're coming up on the one-year 'anniversary' of when I first started posting this fic, and it's crazy how far it and I have come. I like to think my writing has improved a lot since that first chapter, I hope I'll continue to get better, but we'll see!

Anyways, I'm hungover as hell from Christmas Eve Jackbox and movie night with the homies, so let's get on to reviews!

" I will be sad when this story is over." - Me too in some ways, but in other ways I'm looking forward to finally being able to put the 'done' stamp on it and move on to other things. There's still a ways to go mind you, but we're definitely past the midway point by a good bit as well.

"Giannis isn't actually getting punished for his shenanigans" - Hydrus knows what punishment would work best on his nerdy almost-adopted child lolol

"I was so expecting James to get locked in there with them somehow" - I was tempted, just do a whole bit where he just casually walks in before any one can tell him what's up and the door slams shut behind him haha

"I wonder how far death got into changing hydrus into a God?" - In that moment, Death was more just showing him the sort of possibilities of existence there are. The deities are so conceptually above the mortals that he literally had to show him where the bar even was that he needed to reach, though as we saw at the end, Hydrus wasn't the only one who got that peak.

"I would love, somewhere, a list of bargains and what Hydrus sacrificed and got for them." - Life of the centaur who introduced him to Magic for the ability to speak with snakes, his romantic love for control of the Trace, his parental love for the runes that changed his body into what it is now (plus the memories of everyone he felt those kinds of love for went with that), and the lives of his last surviving followers for the actual trip back in time, with Fate being the one to actually perform the feat and Magic acting as the middle-woman. And for your other question, I think prophecy was originally in chapter... 6? 7 maybe? It was the first Dumbledore POV, I remember that.

"Why wasn't James invited to the big party?"- Because Bellatrix was in charge of the guest list and he's a Potter lol

"we're no closer to learning about what Death/Magic are fighting about." - I made sure to reiterate what started their game in this chapter, it was explained to Hydrus in his first meeting with the duo, not that I blame anyone for forgetting something that happens in this long-ass fic lmao

"Remus was super rude to Amelia … Not cool Remus." - Sirius needed a kick in the ass to get over himself and actually ask the question he'd been desperate to get out since they broke up, so Remus acted surly to do just that lol. He's got a pretty good handle on how to handle Sirius (and James)

"Apophis is starting to scare me!" - He's just a silly lil snek, doing silly lil snek things

"Why can't Harry drop his Hydrus persona with Bella, give her all the loving she needs, and then go back to being Hydrus Black for the rest of the riffraff? I mean, what's stopping him?" - I mean, he pretty much does. He talks/thinks he's just putting on a snobbish pureblood persona, but it's rooted in a genuine place of his own arrogance. Plus, she LIKES him acting like that, and he knows that lol

"Speaking of Magic... do none of them (in the dungeon) have their wands?" - They have them, but those are wizarding cells, and ones that Giannis had been fiddling with to make SURE they couldn't escape from. No magic allowed, like in the Ministry holding cells.

And that's all for this week, potentially. Like I said I can't PROMISE a second shorter chapter just because commitment is the bane of my existence, but it's not unlikely to happen. Thank you all so much, as always, and I suppose this week especially for the follows lol. See you all either on Wednesday/Thursday, or the weekend, love you all, lessthanthree!