Hydrus swallowed down his pride and allowed Bellatrix to cover their rear as he swung around to where they came from. To his relief, he felt the fluctuation in power behind him as she cast some sort of spell to disintegrate the projectiles heading from that way. The ones coming from his side he redirected into the wall with a spell that cost him more magic than he'd expected thanks to it normally relying on the Potter family magic. Before the unseen goblins in the dark could get another attack off, he conjured up a dozen snakes to lead the charge.

"Watch the back," he ordered. "Keep things simple, don't waste your magic, don't do anything to shake the walls."

"Hydrus!" Bellatrix demanded, even as he began to stalk forward. "What is—"

"Avada Kedavra." A bolt of green light ended the life of one of the goblins, and there were several screams as his artificial snakes began to latch on to their prey. "Keep moving!"

His command was met by a nearly inhuman screech that sent him down memory lane, back to when it had been he himself who had been fighting his love. "Filth! Scum! Vile!"

Now that Bella had snapped, he was positive that her side would be safe. He just had to make sure he didn't do the same. His love's safety might've been his highest priority at this point, but he had also chosen to go along with her 'seduction' in the first place for a reason: she was the most dangerous woman in the world at the moment. If there was anyone who could look after herself, it was Bella.

There was no telling how many total enemies there were, or even how many were just on her side, but he couldn't use his trump card till their rear was clear. Bella's wild and chaotic maelstrom of spellwork would hopefully destroy anything and anyone pulling up from behind, and once that was done everything would be alright.

Everything would be alright.

This wouldn't be like last time.

He summoned up another wave of serpents and sent them racing down the tunnel ahead of them. The goblins were somehow hiding themselves, perhaps with invisibility cloaks or some nonhuman magic that he wasn't aware of, but the reptiles had enough senses to nullify that advantage. Hydrus didn't have the faintest idea of how it worked, but Hermione had explained to him that they could 'see' heat, so he figured that should work here. Whenever one of the enemies revealed a weapon or made some noticeable movement, he launched a killing curse at them, not daring to waste more of his magic than was needed.

It was a pain to suppress the other aspects of his magic, but right now he couldn't afford to be distracted with dual casting a healing spell. There was already too much information flowing into his brain as he exuded his power as far and as strongly as he could to try and sense any trap-runes along the walls. Thus far there hadn't been any, but whether that was to lure trespassers into a false sense of security or because these old vaults couldn't be risked or because they were temporarily deactivated he couldn't tell.

Those had been what had killed so many of his people before. At least two dozen men and women had died down in these tunnels from lethal wardings that could end a life as easily as expanding a train carriage. He'd been the one to sacrifice those men and women, rigging an impromptu lottery to decide who would 'clear the way'. His soldiers had known he was sending them to be literal fodder for the rest of their attack force, and they'd gone forward anyways. That was the loyalty and border-line fanaticism he'd carved into their souls, and their only reward for it was that they were with Magic now.

Or at least, they had been.

It had been worth it then. They had discovered, and retrieved, one of Voldemort's horcruxes that was stored down here, Helga Hufflepuff's vaunted cup. One of the three he'd come in contact with, the other two being himself and the dark lord's diary. Dumbledore had been the one to discover, retrieve, destroy, and die from Slytherin's ring. They had assumed that Ravenclaw and Gryffindor would also have artefacts that been corrupted by the bastard with chunks of his soul, but they hadn't even come close to figuring out where they were, nor did they have any idea what the seventh one could be. It had been—

"Pestis Incendium!" Bellatrix called. Hydrus's head snapped back, and he immediately began to rewrite his plans as he watched the all-consuming fiendfyre pour from Bellatrix's wand. "Die! Die! Die!"

'Why do I have to love this insane woman?' He turned back to his side, and welled up enough of his magic to buy them some more breathing room. "Serpensortia Maxima!"

Like a break in a dam, snakes of all shapes and sizes came into existence. They slithered over and around each other to try and get to their prey first, and the tunnel was echoing with the sound of hissing and rattling in addition to Bella's insane cackling. Hydrus turned back to his fiancee and clamped his hand down on her shoulder, then started to drain her magic away.

"What?" She fell back and into the crook of his lame arm. "Hydrus? Wh…"

Once she was unconscious, he conjured a minecart and laid her down in it. He turned to the fiendfyre which was slowly beginning to encroach on them. The orange light was blinding, and the heat radiating off it was anything but comfortable. He took a breath, tried and failed to bring the Potter portion of his power to the forefront in order to make his next spell as efficient as possible, then decided to cast it anyway.

"Materventus!"

The spell had been one he and Dumbledore had created in his youth. His original family magic would use not only its wind-related aspects, but also the freedom related ones. The wind would stoke the flames, and the spell would 'whisper inspirations' to the fire, encouraging it to spread wildly and uncontrollably in whatever direction the definitely-not-directed wind blew. He had obviously come up with the first portion himself, and Dumbeldore had worn down his sense of rationality until he could at least believe in the latter.

The spell nearly refused to come to him now, and even when it did the winds were swirling with sooty ash that he worried would smother the flames instead of pushing them further into the bowels of the earth. As the fiendfyre began to roar away from him, slowly changing from a glaring orange to a noxious green, he breathed a sigh of relief and turned around.

"Is it time, father?"

"It is." Hydrus clenched his eyes shut as tightly as possible when Apophis became visible around his shoulders. "Prove to me that you deserve to call me such."

If it weren't for the hissing cry of elation that his wanna-be child let loose, Hydrus might've felt bad for saying such a thing to him. He blindly groped around for a second to find the minecart's edge, then began to push it forward along the track. There was still a din of serpentine sounds echoing around them, but as they moved forward, they all fell silent.

Soon there was nothing but the sound of the minecart creaking forward, the occasional cry of 'Fear me!' or 'For father!' from his familiar, and the sound of bodies slumping to the ground. Whenever he bumped into a corpse, he'd use his magic to toss it to the side. His flared power continued to feel out the walls before and around him for runes, draining him far too fast for comfort. The distant heat of the fiendfyre was fading and being replaced by the more typical cold, subterranean chill of Gringotts.

His legs and back were both beginning to ache from exhaustion, but he couldn't risk expending any of his rapidly decreasing power to push the cart magically. Just like with his original plan to learn numbing magic, he'd not actually followed through on his self-promise to begin working out, and once more it was coming back to bite him. This time the stakes were a lot higher than just carrying a scared child though.

"Remember," Hydrus hissed between long, slow breaths. "When you see a light…"

"I know, I know," Apophis assured him. "Relax, father, I won't disappoint you."

He wanted to offer some reassuring words to the basilisk, something like 'I know you won't,' but he didn't want to mess with his third bargain.

Not right now, anyways.

He wasn't sure how many of the goblins he, his love, and his familiar had killed so far. As bodies continued to thump to the ground with whispered death rattles and the other sounds that accompanied the end of life, it became harder and harder to imagine Apophis hadn't slain the most. The sounds just kept coming, the immeasurable aura of Death continued to wrap around them, and Hydrus bore it all without an ounce of concern showing.

It hadn't occurred to him until now that the human magical community weren't the only ones whose population had been decimated in the first war against Voldemort. If anything, they'd gotten off the easiest. He'd thought that when Death and Magic were going back and forth about 'little goblin cults', the groups wouldn't be more than a few dozen strong. Even when the Daily Prophet put out fear-mongering headlines regarding the goblin war, he assumed it was just that: exaggeration and exploitation.

Now, facing down a veritable army of fanatical goblins that were throwing themselves at him like unwitting piranhas into a whirlpool, he finally understood.

'I don't know if you can hear my prayers, Death,' he internally began. 'But if you can, you're a fucking moron. I didn't want anything to do with this. I am more than happy to leave you and yours alone.' Apophis let out another cry of joy and there was a series of thumps as even more bodies fell to the ground, forcing Hydrus to shove them out of the way of the cart. 'So you better just take this one on the chin and leave me the fuck alone.'

"Father," Apophis hissed. "There's a light."

"Hide yourself." He was too exhausted to keep his tongue straight. "I will take care of things from here."

Once his familiar hissed out that he and his lethal eyes were gone from sight, Hydrus opened his own eyes. He held back a groan when he realised the light that Apophis had seen was little more than a pinprick in the distance, but he certainly wasn't about to scold the child for being too cautious. He portioned away another piece of his magic, and summoned more artificial snakes to surround and protect him.

'Might as well give this a shot,' Hydrus thought. "Dobby! Kreacher!"

He waited a few seconds, then sighed. Unlike human wardings, goblin runesmanship was able to stop house elves from coming and going as they pleased, and it seemed like he wouldn't be able to summon help until he was in the lobby. One of his serpentine retinue leapt through the air and bit at seemingly nothing until a goblin came into view, dropping to the ground.

"Just keep going, Hydrus," he muttered to himself as he began pushing the cart forward. "Just keep going."

Now that the artificial snake had expended its venom, he was down to just half a dozen of the serpents. He could summon more, but at that point he'd be pushing himself too close to magical exhaustion. It had been a waste to keep his magic flared in order to feel out runes, but it hadn't been the wrong choice to make. He had to remind himself of that. It wasn't the wrong decision.

"Just keep going."

Another one of his serpents struck and fell behind. Then another. And another.

He was still confident. There were contingencies on contingencies on contingencies still rolling around in his mind. Out of old habit, he removed the resurrection stone from around his finger and began to turn it over in his hand. Nothing happened though. He knew better. Dumbledore wasn't dead. His reflection couldn't be summoned up to guide and encourage him like he used to do in the past. He was on his own. That was fine.

He was fine.

"We're almost there, Father," Apophis whispered in his ear. "Just keep going."

"Just keep going…" he echoed.

Why was he so light headed? None of the goblins had landed a wound against him, so… When he finally took stock of himself, he realised it was his 'good' arm.

"Damn it," he muttered. "Stupid bargain."

A quick mental calculation told him he needed to heal himself. There was a chance of magical exhaustion knocking him out, but if he let the wounds stay he was guaranteed to suffer from the blood loss. The healing spell took out more of his magic than he'd hoped, but not as much as he'd feared. He could still move. Worst case scenario, Apophis would protect him and Bellatrix until either someone came that the snake trusted, or Bellatrix recovered and could push them forward once more. Everything would be alright.

He just needed to keep…

The light of the lobby nearly blinded him before his eyes adjusted. Once they had, he spread his gaze around the room he'd nearly toppled Bella's cart into to make sure there wouldn't be any other attacks. The wizards and witches around the bank were staring at him, mouths hanging open or covered with their hands. Goblins of all shapes and sizes had completely frozen up. The only thing brave enough to move was one of the little creatures that he vaguely remembered promising him that he would be safe down there, running up towards him.

"Scion Black!" the goblin called, as panicked and terrified as he'd ever heard one of the little creatures. "What happened! Why are you—"

"Your head and honour, wasn't it?" Hydrus said, voice rasping from the dehydration caused by his exertion and the suffocating fiendfyre. "I'll be sure to collect."

"S-, Scion Black, I…" Then the goblin's eyes went hard. "For Death!"

From seemingly nowhere the goblin produced a blade. The weapon went high, but it wasn't plunging towards Hydrus. The little monster was aiming for Bella. Apophis's emotions were a frenzy of hesitation and confusion that poured through their bond, so Hydrus knew his familiar wouldn't be able to stop the goblin in time. He was too tired to put a proper enthusiasm behind anything, so his impassioned 'cry' came as a simple, hoarse whisper.

"No." He burned through the last of his magic, detonating nearly the entirety of his right arm and the goblin all at once. "Dobby, Kreacher."

The elves appeared, and both immediately shrieked his name in a panicked, overlapping cacophony.

"Safe. Take us… Safe."

And his world faded to black.

Regulus stared at his family's house elf in confusion. He hadn't seen his friend this upset since the first time he revealed his 'hobby' to him. The bits of flesh connecting his ears to his head were bright red from how hard the elf was tugging on them, his whole body was trembling, and he kept stomping his feet as he tried to get the words out of his mouth.

"L-, L-, Little… Little M-M-M-Master!" he finally managed to get out. "Kreacher is sorry, Kreacher didn't know where else to take Lord Mast Hydrus."

"Hydrus?" Regulus asked, now completely baffled. "What do you mean? What happened?"

"Nasty! Nasty! Nasty goblins!" Kreacher hissed, and Regulus's heart dropped. "Theys attacked him! Theys hurt him!" The Black scion gasped and snatched the elf's wrists, forcing his friend to let go of his ears which had actually begun to bleed. "Nasty goblins! Filthy goblins! Evil goblins!"

"Okay, okay! I get it!" Regulus squeezed his friend's arms, trying to calm the elf down. "It's okay, everything will be okay."

Kreacher whined. "Lord Master Hydrus was injured. His arm is gone."

"I thought…" Regulus started. "Didn't he already...?"

"The other one!" The elf wailed. "Now both arms is—"

"It will be fine." He finally released his hold on his friend, and rubbed the little creature's head. "Unless it was some dark curse that took the limb, he can be restored."

And even if it was some dark curse, he had contacts that might be able to assist. He had no idea that his nephew meant so much to Kreacher, and even if he had to give up his next trophy for a pittance, he'd happily do that if it helped settle his best friend's heart.

"Kreacher put him in the guest room," the elf said with a sniffle. "Mistress Bellatrix is there too. She is unharmed."

'Great,' Regulus thought with a sigh as he began to move towards where they'd be. 'Just what I needed.'

He'd kept up, mainly through the screaming rants of his mother, with the family's internal politics. Bellatrix had managed to sink her fangs into Hydrus as soon as the two met, apparently, and had manipulated herself into an engagement with her cousin's son. Regulus didn't doubt that as soon as that bastard Arcturus passed, his insane cousin would be the one calling the shots. If it weren't for how little he cared about the House of Black, he might've worried for their future.

When he stepped into the guest room, he was shocked to see another elf hurriedly pulling the blankets up over what he assumed was Hydrus's head. Next to his nephew, who seemed to have hit a massive growth spurt, was his cousin. The woman was pale and unconscious, but as Kreacher had said she seemed unharmed.

"Hello there…?"

The elf was biting its lip, and its eyes were shooting between Regulus and Kreacher. "H-, Hello! I is Dobby! Master Hydrus's house elf."

Kreacher growled at the other elf. "He is interloper. Unfit to serve Lord Master Hydrus."

"Dobby will take care of Master Hydrus," the elf said, ignoring its counterpart. "Please give Master Hydrus privacy, Mister Regulus."

"Yous dare!" Kreacher shouted, raising his hand up. "Little Master Regulus is scion of House Black! You's do not—"

"Dobby is Master Hydrus's friend." Now the other elf raised its hand. "And yous is leaving!"

Dobby's fingers snapped, letting out a sound like a firecracker going off, and both Regulus and Kreacher were blown out of the room like there had been an explosion. He slammed into the wall on the opposite end of the hallway hard enough that he felt the drywall bow inwards, and his friend crashing into him immediately afterwards pushed him even deeper into the wall. The air that had been squeezed out of his lungs refused to return as he gasped like a fish, and it took him several moments to even register that the door had slammed shut in their wake. A wave of power washed over the house, and the modern-day legend of a thief didn't need his experience or a diagnostic spell to tell him that the elf had just put up a ward he couldn't even dream of breaking through.

"Uh…" He and Kreacher both looked up to see his boyfriend Octavius had stepped out of their home gym, covered in sweat. "What's going on?"

Regulus held out his hand and Octavius helped him up. "It would seem my nephew is going to be staying with us for a little while."

"Oh." His boyfriend glanced back and forth from the guest room to him. "I know you said your family was a bit nuts, but…"

"Yeah." Regulus sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Welcome to the fucking circus."

Dobby paced back and forth, completely unsure of what to do. Master Hydrus was hurt. Dobby had wrapped the wound up with bandages, but he was still hurt. Master Hydrus's heart-mate was sleeping and out of magic. Mean-elf Kreacher wasn't helping. Master Apophis was a snake and couldn't tell him what to do.

"Mmmmmm," he whined, biting his fingers to punish himself for not knowing what to do. "MMMmmmmmmMMM!"

Dobby didn't know why Lady Bellatrix's magic was coming back so slowly. Dobby didn't know why Master Hydrus's magic wasn't coming back at all. Dobby didn't know why Master Hydrus was Master Harry now. Dobby didn't know who he could trust. Dobby didn't know what to do.

Master Apophis appeared and began to hiss at him. Dobby cocked his head to the side. "Dobby is sorry, Master Apophis. Dobby doesn't understand you."

The basilisk's mouth opened, revealing rows of needley teeth, but it stopped before hissing at him again. After a few seconds, Master Apophis's magic fluctuated and Dobby gasped as two rings landed in his palms. His master's familiar-son reached out and took one back, swallowing it, leaving just the one with the symbol of Master Hydrus's faith in Magic on it.

"Is… Is Master Apophis wanting Dobby to pray to Mag—" The basilisk cut him off with a hiss. "Then, what…"

Master Apophis's tail slammed into the ground like a whip. The basilisk looked around for a moment, then slithered up onto the bed where Master Harry and Lady Bellatrix were. He pulled the covers back down from where they'd been covering the new-old form of his master, then bit down on the human's shirt and robes and tore them open. Dobby gasped when he saw the red, raised flesh scarred into his master's torso, shaped into the same symbol on the ring. Master Apophis hissed again, slapping the mark with his tail.

"Dobby should not pray to Magic…" the elf started. "Dobby will not pray to Death." Bad-god Death was the reason Master Hydrus-Harry had become like this. "Master Apophis wants Dobby to do something else with symbol…"

Dobby tried to remember anything he could about it, but all that came to mind was the old fairy tale he used to read not-master Draco. As Master Apophis's tail continued to trace around the mark, perfectly in line with the circle portion, an idea came to him.

"Is… Is Master Apophis wanting something to do with the Resurrection Stone?" The snake stopped its tracing, and began nodding its head, tapping its tail gently on Master Harry's chest. "But Dobby doesn't—"

Master Apophis hissed at him again, and jabbed its head towards the ring. Dobby's eyes widened.

"Wait! Is Dobby holding it?" Again the basilisk nodded at him. "Oh! Oh! Oh!"

It only took Dobby a few seconds to figure out what, or rather who, Master Apophis would've wanted to see. There was only one dead wizard that Dobby could think of who could help, so he began to think of Slytherin's house founder as he turned the ring over in his hand. After a few seconds, a spectre of the man appeared.

"What is this!" Salazar Slytherin roared. "You dare to—" The wizard was cut off with a gurgling sound, and after a few seconds, his wrothful expression was replaced with a mildly annoyed one. "It took you long enough, beast."

Dobby stiffened. "D-, Dobby is sorry, Lord Slytherin."

Master Apophis hissed at the ghost who rolled its eyes. "The child wants you to bring the 'old one' here."

"Old one?" Dobby asked, panic settling in him as he realised he didn't know who that could be. "Dobby is sorry, Master Apophis, Dobby doesn't—"

The basilisk hissed something else at the ghost, and the ghost turned and hissed back at him. The two began arguing back and forth, and Dobby stepped backwards, unsure of what he could even do to intervene. The basilisk's feathers were flaring up, the ghost's form was beginning to fluctuate, and both were practically shouting at each other as they hissed.

Suddenly, Master Apophis's magic flared up and seemed to devour the ghost's. Dobby had never felt anything like that before, and his jaw dropped when the ghost locked up and slowly turned back to face him.

"Go get the old one!" Salazar said. "The old one bonded to Fawkes! He has lots of face-hair, is very long, puts on bright colours, and Father trusts him!"

"Dobby wants to!" he promised. "Where is 'Old One' and Dobby will find him and bring him!"

"He is in the castle which belongs to the old queen," the ghost said. "It is a large, powerful castle. It is Father's home too. Soon it shall be mine."

A large, powerful castle… "Hogwarts? Is…" Dobby wasn't entirely sure, but he got the feeling that he was speaking directly to Master Apophis through the spectre. "Is Master Apophis referring to Mister Dumbledore?"

"Yes! That is the old one's name!" The ghost began to fade. "Bring Dumbledore the old one here!"

Finally having some form of direction, Dobby did as he was told. He transported himself into the headmaster's office, and found the man working on a painting of an old man. The ancient warlock turned to face him, surprised, and immediately tucked away his paintbrush and with a wave of his hand covered the painting.

"Hello there," he said. "You must be Dobby, am I correct?"

Dobby nodded. "Yes, I is Dobby. Master Apophis has asked me to bring you to Master Hydrus."

"What?" Dumbledore frowned. "Is he alright?"

"No!" Dobby cried. "Please help!"

Albus stared down at his apprentice's face for the very first time. The man who'd tried, and failed, to save the world. The scar that had apparently drawn all eyes to him was there plain as day on his forehead, another was carved into his chest of the symbol that had driven Albus and his lover into near-madness. His hair was roughly shorn into a close-cropped cut, and both it and his neck-length beard were fraught with early-induced greys from a lifetime of stress. Although his face was relaxed, his lips were still formed into a small scowl and there were wrinkles that didn't suit such a young man. He was well built, with lean muscles like a sprinter's.

Despite the fact that he was in his 'old' body, Hydrus's left arm was still missing from just below the elbow . Much more worryingly was how symmetrical it was with his right arm now, which was covered in a thick layer of overly-cautious bandages. A quick trip into the man's mind, a much shorter and less invasive journey this time since he just needed to know what caused this, had revealed what happened.

"Please don't worry over what I'm about to do," Albus said to the house elf and basilisk as he removed his robes and began to roll up his shirt sleeves. "There's something I need to confirm."

He removed the man's bandages and, moving as quickly as he could, reopened the wound and pushed the flesh aside. Blood immediately began to drain out, partially hiding the remaining bone, but he had only needed a few seconds to confirm his theory as to why neither Hydrus nor Bellatrix were waking up. He quickly closed the wound over, a half-baked job compared to what his apprentice was capable of, but it would have to do. He finalised his work by cauterising the flesh to make sure it wouldn't reopen, and the fact that the man wasn't awake to experience the pain was the one bright side to his current state.

"The runes are rearranging and repairing themselves," he said, mostly to himself, but aloud so the other two could follow along. "The process is a continuous drain on Hydrus's, and thus Bellatrix's, magical reserves and it's preventing them from regaining lucidity."

"Will Master Hydrus be alright?" Dobby asked quietly.

"He will, little one," Albus said, trying to reassure 'the most fanatically loyal friend you could ever ask for', as Hydrus had put it. "The question is just how long it will take."

And on that front, Albus had no answers. He and Gellert had spoken about the runes, and the headmaster had seen through his former lover's blustering and knew that no one on that 'team' was even close to understanding what was going on with Magic's handiwork. He could probably speed up the recovery process by gathering the rest of the Black family together to surround Hydrus with further sources of power to draw on, but the risk of them discovering his real identity was too high.

He was probably pushing things just by not taking Bellatrix away.

"Where are we?" he asked.

"Kreacher insisted we bring Master Hydrus to 'Little Master Regulus'," Dobby said with a frown. "Master Hydrus's body changed back to Master Harry's while Kreacher was talking to him, so Dobby hid him."

"Hmmm." At the very least he would have to come up with something to say to Regulus then. Hopefully the young man wasn't too put out. "I'll go and speak with our host. Please keep an eye on these two, okay?"

"Dobby will!" The elf's head slammed up and down, sending his ears flopping about. "Thank you so much, Mister Dumbledore!"

Albus chuckled and straightened himself up, cleaning his hands and putting his robe on once more. Before he could turn to leave, Apophis hissed at him, and poked his nose against Albus's wand. It took the warlock a few seconds to understand what he wanted, but eventually he thought he figured it out.

"Say 'ahh' for me." The snake opened its mouth wide. "Serpenstransfigura."

The basilisk slowly morphed from its bright-green, red-crowned self into a banana-like yellow. His feathers faded away, his body became thicker, and before too long he was a perfect replica of an albino Burmese python. Apophis looked up and down his body for a moment, before slithering onto Albus's arm and around his shoulders.

"I know Hydrus usually has you looking like a cobra," he said. "But I figured this would still be impressive without scaring your grand-uncle, hm?"

Apophis gave a short hiss that the headmaster hoped was an agreement, and the two made their way out of the room. It didn't take long to find his apprentice's 'uncle', and he discovered him sitting at a dining room table across from another young man as well as Kreacher, who was sitting atop a stack of books.

"Professor Dumbledore?" Regulus stood, eyes wide. "How did you…?"

"Dobby asked me to come here and check in on your nephew," Albus said. "He, and your cousin Bellatrix, are both suffering from severe magical exhaustion as well as a temporary inability to regain their strength. I'm not quite sure how long it will take for them to recover, but I appreciate you having allowed them to stay here until now." He folded his arms behind his back. "If you'll allow me another hour or so to go and find a place for them to stay, we'll get them out of your hair."

"Oh, uh, sure." Regulus jerked his chin at him. "What's with the snake?"

"Snake?" Albus blinked, feigning confusion. "…Oh! You mean Apophis."

The snake lifted its head up proudly, and Albus could almost imagine the snake's feathers splaying out.

"Don't worry about him, he's unharmed." He gave no indication for the joy that rolled through him at the bafflement the young men showed at his 'assumption' regarding their motives for asking about the snake. "While I'm searching for a safe space for those two, I do need you to follow through on your agreement to assist if a matter of life and death arose."

"Listen here, Mr. Dumbledore." The other man stood as Regulus stiffened, and he spoke with a distinctly South African accent. "I know you're some bigshot back in England, but this isn't—"

"Hush, Octavius," Regulus interrupted quietly. "I appreciate it, but now's not the time."

"Reg!" The other man turned on his boyfriend. "You can't just roll over like this for them. You promised you were done playing the games!"

"What do you need, Professor Dumbledore?" The young man obviously wasn't going to help, he just needed to hear what the request was so he could come up with an excuse to reject it. "Make it quick."

"I need you to go and speak with your brother." Regulus frowned and reared up in confusion. "I don't know how much time has passed since the incident that caused this, but you need to go and explain to him that his son is safe and sound, and not to do anything stupid."

"Professor, I—"

"Allow me to be clear here, young man." Albus gave a gentle smile that was completely at odds with the words he was about to utter. "If you do not do this, and do it quickly, your brother will lead the charge that thrusts wizarding kind into the goblin's war, and cost us thousands of lives in the process." His lips maintained their upward curve, but his eyes went cold. "So I suggest you go. Now."

Both of the young men had paled, and eventually Regulus swallowed and nodded. "Yes, sir. Kreacher, bring me to Sirius."

Sirius paced back and forth in his office. Something was wrong. Amelia had practically shoved him in here and told him he wasn't allowed to come outside no matter what, and even when James had arrived his best friend had just told him to trust him and stay here. At first he thought he might've forgotten his own birthday again and the office was preparing some surprise party, but as the minutes dragged on past an hour that idea was quickly scrapped. Just as he was about to storm out to try and figure out what was going on, there was a knock at his door.

"Come in," he said cautiously. When he saw who it was his mouth fell open. "Reg?"

His younger brother shut the door behind him, then glanced around the near-empty office for a minute before his eyes finally met Sirius's. "Brother."

"What are you doing here?" he asked. "The fuck is going on?"

"Where do I even start," his brother grumbled. "Before I do start, you need to promise me that for once in your life you'll shut up and listen to me, okay?"

Sirius frowned. "Regulus, what the fuck is going on?"

A million ideas about what might be wrong flowed through his mind. He'd obviously seen Amelia and James, so it couldn't be something to do with either of them. The fact that James wasn't locked up beside him meant it didn't have to do with Lily, their kids, or Remus. Which meant that something must have—

"Hydrus is fine." Sirius snorted as Regulus practically read his mind. "So just promise me you'll listen."

"If he's fine why are you—"

His brother's much smaller, weaker magic flared to life and Sirius flinched as the younger man began to shout. "For once in your life would you just shut, the fuck, up! Just once, just one time, could you not be a self-righteous, arrogant, domineering, patronising cunt and just fucking listen to me?"

"Alright, alright." Sirius held up his hands in a surrendering gesture. "I promise to just listen. Please tell me what's going on."

Regulus took a long, deep breath as his magic settled back down, as the madness faded away from his eyes. It took every ounce of self control that Sirius had to not be exactly what his brother had just accused him of being and giving a pitying look.

"There was… An incident of some kind." Regulus rubbed at his brow, clearly exhausted from more than just his magical outburst. "And like I said, Hydrus is fine, but he was hurt." A boiling anger began to rise up in Sirius's stomach, but he had promised to wait. "Professor Dumbledore is looking after him right now, and he all but ordered me to come here and stop you from starting a war."

"A war?" Sirius asked, voice cold and quiet, drawing a flinch from his brother. "What do you mean?"

"It… It was the goblins. He and Bella went to Gringotts to withdraw something, and they were attacked down in the vaults." Regulus's posture was tense, and he wasn't hiding the fact that he had a vice-like grip on his wand. "Bella's got magical exhaustion, so does Hydrus. From what your coworkers told me, the goblins got off a lot worse than they did."

"Where are they?"

"They're safe." Regulus winced as Sirius growled. "They're at my place, Siri. Kreacher brought them there, Dumbledore confirmed they're both going to be fine, so please settle down."

"Take me there, now," the Black Sheep ordered. "I'll see for myself if he's fine."

"I can't." Now it was Sirius's turn to flare his magic, and unlike the pitiful display Regulus put up before the whole room began to shake and freeze over. "I can't! His house elf won't let anyone besides Dumbeldore in. He kicked me out of my own damn guest room!"

Sirius reached out and grabbed his brother's collar, bringing the quivering man closer till their noses were touching. "If you're lying to me…"

"I'm not!" Regulus shoved him and Sirius let him go. His brother's push only sent himself backwards into the wall. "For Morgana's… It's becoming more and more obvious why you were always grandfather's favourite." Sirius tensed as his brother's words stung like a whip. "You're just like him."

"I, no, Reg, I'm sorry, I—"

"Whatever." Regulus straightened out his collar and robes. "Kreacher!"

The elf appeared. "Little Master."

"I'm done here." Regulus turned to Sirius and he winced. "Whatever you do, don't go storming into Gringotts like some pumped up 'hero'. All you'll do is make things worse, like always."

"Reg…" Sirius tried to find some way to argue with that. "I just… I'm sorry. You were right, about everything you said, I'm sorry."

"I'm well aware I was right." His brother's nose was up in the air. "Come, Kreach—"

"Kreacher, stay," Sirius interrupted, forcing the elf to lock up. "I am sorry, Reg. But I'm still coming with you."

"Sirius—"

"It's not up for debate." Sirius stepped up and placed his hand on the wretched house elf's shoulder. "Hydrus is my son. I will see him."

"I just bought this house…" Regulus mumbled. "Fine. See for yourself that you can't see him. Go, Kreacher."

And with that the siblings were transported to Regulus's house. Sirius glanced about what was obviously a dining room, clocked the other man there as not a threat, and turned to his brother. "Where's Dumbledore?"

"Here, I'm here." His former headmaster wandered in, some kind of yellow-white snake on his shoulders. "Sorry, you managed to come right as I was making a trip to the restroom. It's good you're here, Sirius."

"Where's Hydrus?" the Black Sheep demanded. "I want to see him."

"You aren't ready to see him." The headmaster stared Sirius down and he was forced to lower his hackles. "I believe you take some amount of pride in the fact that you've never succumbed to your family's curse. Are you really willing to throw that away for nothing?"

"I…" Sirius took a calming breath. "I was told that Hydrus is fine."

"In so as much as he'll live, yes." Albus reached up and stroked the snake, and it finally occurred to Sirius just who, or rather what, that python really was. "You were already aware of his issues with his magic, however. The side effects of using it, especially in great and uncontrolled quantities."

"Do you mean…"

"I mean he's currently missing the majority of his right arm." Sirius's heart sunk hard and fast. "And unfortunately for him, he's probably the most qualified person in the entire world to heal it, but is currently too magically exhausted to even wake up." The ancient warlock approached the stiffened wizard. "I believe it would be best for your own sanity to avoid seeing it for yourself. I assure you, Hydrus will be fine. I swear it on everything and anything you can name."

"The goblins…" Sirius started. "They did this because of Death, and Magic, didn't they?"

Dumbledore placed a hand on Sirius's shoulder. "I believe so. Hydrus went to Gringotts knowing that this was a possibility."

"Why?!" Sirius demanded. "Why the fuck would he do that?"

"Because he's even more arrogant than his father is." Sirius winced as the man somehow echoed his brother's earlier words, draining the righteous anger from him. "Bellatrix wanted to go there together to retrieve a gift for him, and he didn't want to disappoint her." The headmaster's magic pulsed as soon as Sirius's frustrations began to come up once more, completely smothering him. "I know the boy better than you do. Better than anyone does. Believe me when I say the absolute best thing you can do for him now is to simply wait patiently for him to recover, stop your family or anyone else from making moves on his behalf, and to act as though you never worried for him at all."

"But—"

"If he wakes to discover that you've made a mess of things, interfered in his affairs exactly like he's been worried you will?" Dumbledore leaned in close. "You will lose any and all progress you've made with him."

The headmaster was right. Sirius sagged down, feeling like an idiot for coming here. All he'd accomplished thus far was further alienating his brother, no doubt causing a tizzy back at work, and earning himself a lecture from a teacher he graduated from years ago.

"I understand how difficult this is for you, Sirius." The headmaster finally released his shoulder and sighed. "But look at it as an opportunity to earn more of the boy's trust. When this is all—"

Dumbledore was interrupted by an ear-piercing screech that would've put Sirius's mother to shame. The headmaster blinked and glanced back for a moment, before turning back around.

"It would appear that I misjudged your cousin's capability to recover." The ancient warlock bowed his head. "Excuse me, but I must go and see to her before she does something rash."

Moving faster than Sirius had ever expected to see such an old man go, Dumbledore sprinted away. The Black Sheep turned to face his brother and the man he now remembered had been with him at the second trial. Both looked as stunned and out of place as he felt after all that, and he sighed.

"Reg. Again, I want to apologise for all this." He rubbed at the back of his head. "I really appreciate you for… Well, everything."

"Yeah." His brother nodded. "You should go see Grandfather like Dumbledore said. You're the only one he'll listen to about all this."

Sirius nodded back. "Kreacher, let's go."

Bellatrix was hyperventilating. The last thing she remembered was being in the Gringotts tunnels and slaughtering the vermin who had dared to attack her little water snake. Now she was lying in a bed with a stranger who had that awful Magic woman's mark carved into his chest, and who was missing both his arms. Hydrus's house elf wouldn't shut up and was shouting her name at her. Her magic was almost entirely gone and not coming back to her at all. The madness was consuming her but there was nothing for her to give it other than herself as she bit down into her knuckle, gnawing the bone and spilling her blood across the bed.

"Bellatrix Black!" a voice roared as the room caught fire. "Settle down!"

She finally stopped, and realised the room wasn't on fire. The old codger was there. "Where am I? Who is this? Where's Hydrus? Is he alright? Is he—"

"Bellatrix!" The man crossed the room and grabbed her shoulders. "Settle. Down. Hydrus is fine."

The largest portion of her worries faded away. So long as her love was fine, everything was fine. She was fine. A long breath brought a wave of calmness over her, and she slowly untensed. Her hand was sore from where she'd bitten it, but that too was fine.

"Where is he?" Bellatrix demanded. "Bring me to him, now."

The headmaster sighed and conjured up a chair, and finally she realised that the snake which had begun to unwind itself from around his shoulders was probably her son. She held out her arms and Apophis slithered up onto the bed, entwining himself around her in a serpentine hug. He pressed his head against hers, and she cooed back at his hisses as she rubbed her cheek against his scales.

"Bellatrix, this is going to be hard to believe." Dumbledore folded his hands together. "But the man beside you is Hydrus."

She frowned and looked down at the stranger once more. "No it's not."

"It is." The obviously senile centenarian reached out and pulled the blankets back up over the man's chest, hiding the awful goddess's mark. "He didn't want to tell you, because he was frightened you might not love him afterwards, but this is his true self. He isn't Sirius's son by blood. He has only the faintest relation to the Black family, no more than any other of the Sacred Twenty-Eight."

Bellatrix's head shook in disbelief for a moment, until an old memory came to her. When she accidentally betrayed Hydrus. When he said he was scared she would leave him. At the time it had been such a nonsensical worry to her, but now…

"But, but, but…" She began to chew on her hand once more. "That doesn't make sense. I felt his magic. Hydrus is a Black."

"He changed his magic, his body, thanks to a bargain he made with Magic." Her eyes flared open. It was that bitch again. "He sacrificed his love for his child, the potential to love his children, for a body and magic that was a near mirror to Sirius's."

"His child?" she whispered. "He… He has a child?"

"They died." A strange mixture of relief and pity welled up inside her. "There's more to it than that, but I don't know how much I should say."

"What happened?" she whispered. "Did he break that one too?"

The headmaster shook his head. "The bargain was fulfilled via a rune matrix carved into his bones. When he sacrificed his arm to—"

Bellatrix suddenly threw the covers back once more, finally remembering that detail. The man's left arm was missing in the exact same way Hydrus's was, and the right arm was even shorter with bloody bandages covering the end of the stump. She still wasn't convinced that the headmaster wasn't lying to her, but if this really was Hydrus… She whined.

"He used the remainder of his magic in order to pyrrhically destroy a goblin who was about to kill you." Dumbledore sighed as he looked down at the man. "He really does love you."

Normally those words would send her into a fit of giggles, but right now… She supposed he was still handsome. Very handsome. But he looked more like that blood traitor friend of Sirius's than anything else. He had only been pretending to be a Black. His power…

"His third bargain cost him so much," Dumbledore mumbled, seemingly to himself. "If he still had this body, he'd be the most dangerous man in the entire world. Even if I and Gellert combined our might, we wouldn't be able to topple him."

Bellatrix froze. "Truly?"

"He didn't mirror Sirius entirely," the ancient warlock said. "He also retained a portion of his natural power, as well as small amounts of my own and Salazar Slytherin's." He shook his head. "The combination is too volatile, it's what caused his magic to become so caustic when he came close to breaking the bond by taking in Apophis and Giannis."

Bellatrix bit her lip. "I see."

"In terms of raw power it's probably equivalent, but now he has to choose between immolating himself or smothering the smaller aspects of his magic with the Black family's, thus losing nearly half its efficacy." The headmaster stroked his beard. "In his more natural state, the man is more a force of nature than an individual wizard."

A pleased moan escaped Bellatrix's lips. Very handsome indeed. She reached down and began running her fingers through his shortly trimmed hair, something that could be easily grown out. The greys just made him look distinguished, wise. She finally noticed a small, lightning-bolt shaped scar on his forehead and ran her thumb across it.

"Where did this come from?" she asked.

"From when he was a babe," Dumbeldore answered. "A dark lord on the rise, one far more vile than Gellert, attempted to end his life with the killing curse." Bellatrix stiffened. "Thanks to a powerful blood magic, the curse instead rebounded on the would-be dark lord and ended his life."

'Blood magic…' Bellatrix pulled up her sleeve and saw one of the two dots on her forearm had indeed changed ever so slightly in colour, and now perfectly matched the stranger's skin tone. "It really is him…"

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to stop myself from answering any more questions of that nature, for fear of breaking Hydrus's trust." Dumbledore stood. "I believe he'll be understanding of my need to explain what I have thus far to you in order to calm you down, but any more might be pushing it."

"Where are we?" Bellatrix demanded. "What happened to the goblins?"

"You're at your cousin Regulus's house. All of your assailants are dead, thanks most directly to Apophis." Bellatrix smiled wide at her baby and gave the snake a kiss. "I was going to attempt to find a place for the two of you to stay until Hydrus, and the runes that are currently draining your magics to repair themselves, are recovered."

"So he'll go back to his normal self?" she asked. "He'll be a Black again?"

"He will." Dumbledore frowned at her. "Do you truly only love him if he's—"

"How dare you," Bellatrix snapped. "He is mine, and he will always be mine, no matter what."

That annoying twinkle returned to the old codger's eyes. "Wonderful. Then I shall return to what I was doing."

"Don't bother." Bellatrix carefully manoeuvred her way out of the bed, not wanting to disturb her love. "I'll speak with Regulus, then I'll move him to the Black Winter Home, no one is there. You'll take care of matters at Hogwarts?"

"Of course," Dumbledore said, grinning slightly. "I would recommend leaning on Dobby's services for the time being. Kreacher may not be as loyal as you if Hydrus's true nature was revealed."

Bellatrix's nose wrinkled a touch, but she supposed if the elf had been good enough for her bitch of a sister then he would do for now. When the headmaster left, she made to follow but stopped and turned back to her not-so-little water snake. He was frowning even in his sleep, and once she found his robe's pocket, she fished around inside it for a moment.

"Here." She threw the box containing the stupid, awful, terrible gift she'd wanted to get him at the house elf. "Hold this up above his head."

With that out of the way, Bellatrix left to go and talk to her youngest cousin.

Arcturus Black sat in pain. Standing behind him on either side were his sons, Orion and Cygnus. Sitting across from him, puffed up like a rooster, was Minister Kingsley Shacklebolt. They'd been arguing back and forth the past half hour regarding how to respond to the goblins attack, with the cowardly minister wanting to at least make a demand for reparations first and Arcturus making his own demand that they simply march on the vile beasts.

He'd been a part of the short-but-violent Thirty-Second Goblin War in the sixties, and he certainly wasn't afraid to go back on the attack.

Just as the idiotic minister was about to repeat his same point for the millionth time, there was a clamour outside the office. Just as Arcturus turned and shoved Cygnus out of the way so he could see, the door slammed open and the most dangerous, retired hitwizard in the world went flying through the entrance. He slammed against the back wall, and in his wake, Arcturus's grandson entered.

"Sirius!" a woman's voice shouted. "I told you to stop!"

His favourite descendant glanced around the room, sending a dizzying touch of madness through Arcturus at his grandson's sheer audacity. Sirius measured up all four of them before turning to the minister. The woman who'd been shouting entered in after him, and finally Arcturus remembered her as the Bones scion.

"Sirius, this—!"

"Minister Shacklebolt." Sirius bowed and Arcturus frowned. "I am here on behalf of Hydrus Black, as his father, and Bellatrix Black, as her cousin."

"Auror Black." Shacklebolt was glaring at him. "Do you even realise what you've just done?"

The heavily scarred secretary that had been thrown through the door was slowly getting to his feet. "You bastard."

"I am." Sirius stuck his chin out. "I felt it was necessary. From this point forward, the Black family's stance on the matter I'm sure you were discussing has changed."

"Boy," Arcturus growled. "You—"

"Be silent." Sirius turned to Arcturus. "Or I swear to Merlin I will carve through all three of you until I'm the only one left who can make decisions for this family."

"Hmph." The old soldier settled back down, proud of his grandson's spirit. "Arrogant shit."

"As I was saying," Sirius continued. "Hydrus and Bellatrix are both alive. They're recovering from magical exhaustion, and a self-inflicted wound on my son's part. Until he has awoken, our family will not be making any moves, and will oppose any stance towards war."

Arcturus shot to his feet, ignoring the stabs of pain it caused. "You spineless little—"

Sirius drew his wand before he'd even finished, and launched a paralysing spell that pushed him right back into his chair. His grandson holstered his weapon as the Lord of House Black impotently glared at him.

"Only once my son is up and moving will a decision be made as to whether or not to go to war." Sirius folded his arms behind his back. "That decision will be final."

Shacklebolt slammed his fists into his desk as he stood. "You do not bark orders at me, Auror Black. We go when and where I and this Ministry demand."

"And do you really think I don't have the pull to push things one way or the other?" Sirius asked. "Can you even imagine what happens if I call in every favour the various members of the DMLE alone owe me?" His grandson leaned forward and the minister's secretary stepped forward, as though he could do anything to stop him. "I may not play the bullshit games you did to get to where you are today. But if I did, I promise you, I will win."

It seemed for the first time since Sirius's arrival, Shacklebolt realised what he was dealing with. The Black Sheep wasn't just a departmental phenom, he had the familial backing of the most powerful house in the entire world. He had linked arms with the Potters and Longbottoms and Bones and more. Arcturus would have no choice but to back the boy's decision as well, and that meant the Malfoys and all the other sycophants would fall in line with them too.

He would've hugged his favourite relative were it not for the fact that he currently wanted to flay him alive.

"Sirius, that's enough." Bones had stepped up and grabbed his arm. "You've said what you wanted to say."

His grandson didn't relent though. He just kept staring down the Minister of the most powerful country in the world, and eventually the other man gave in.

"I can maybe hold off on proper actions for a few weeks." Shacklebolt rubbed at his forehead. "But if this interferes with the Triwizard Tournament, I'll have no choice but to make some move."

"If my boy isn't back together by then?" Sirius shook his head. "You'll have to chain me down to keep me from killing them all myself."

BBaRtS

And there's another prime number in 37. We saw the conclusion to the cliff hanger I left y'all on, and the fall out of the fall out. Wanted to share these two reviews/comments to highlight a problem I have lol

"... he wouldn't be dumb enough to put on the gaunt ring. Seems like the author just couldn't think of either a propper way to do it."
Vs
"I see an edgy 14 year old. Too much wish fulfilling."

I don't mean to slander or belittle either one of those comments, both are 100% accepted, and welcomed responses to my story. Please do not reply to them at all. The reason I shared them is to show off the antithetical feedback I get sometimes.

I wanted to share them because I want to give examples as to why I might not jump right on any advise someone gives. Early on in the story, I swore up and down in the ANs that the only OC who'd be making waves is Apophis, but as anyone who's read this far can see, obviously Giannis has grown into his own proper, important B character. That's based largely on the MANY responses people have given to him.

It's difficult to find what advice is just one person voicing their displeasure/support for something, versus a consensus opinion that drives me to change the way I write. I'm not gonna get up on top of some artisanal, hand-crafted soapbox and say that writers should write what's 'in their heart'. I wanna make money someday and get good at this shit. I wanna become a professional author, but I'm still learning how to receive, learn-from, and use the feedback I get here, so thank you for your patience.

Speaking of group feedback though, let's get onto the reviews and see what y'all think of something to start off with!

"Since you asked about AO3 tags vs FF - in general, a story would have more tags than yours does currently ... might add more characters (Dumbledore, Weasley twins, Sirius Black/Amelia Bones.) Also 'no bashing,' 'adventure', 'mystery', 'Powerful Harry' BAMF Harry', 'Parseltongue', 'Betrothal' 'Ritual Magic' 'Ritual Suicide', 'humor', 'drama', 'Triwizard tournament', 'Canon divergence 4th year', 'Unhealthy Relationship', 'harem'" - As this person referenced, I don't know anything when it comes to AO3 tags. Do the rest of y'all think I should add the ones listed here, or any others? If I don't hear any complaints I'll go ahead and throw 'em on there cus everything sounds about right, except maybe 'harem' given the circumstances, but I also don't know the AO3-cultural subtext behind it. I really, REALLY appreciate the feedback on them cus I'm an un-oiled duck on that front.

"What a cliffhanger! I'm always surprised when the chapter is finished. Your notes at the end are quite long and I always forget about that and think there's more chapter left 😂 Love this story!" - Sometimes I wish I wasn't such a narcissistic tit who likes to read himself think, but then I remember I'm exactly that, and do it anyways lolol

"What's "terrible" about it? The writing is better than 99% of HP fanfics out there." - Just want to reiterate here, I'm totally cool with people saying my story is terrible, and although I appreciate people defending it in comment threads, it really isn't necessary. The only comments that I want to/will remove are those that have nothing to do with the story, or are grossly offensive/uncalled for.

"Had to look up what degloved meant, I regret going to the images D:" - I'm so sorry to anyone else who had this experience. I first heard the term in high school welding class a decade ago, a precautionary tale regarding a man who degloved his finger thanks to a conductive wedding ring, and it didn't even occur to me it might send someone down a rabbit hole lolol

"I love the way Hydrus just spun Dumbledore's attempt to be his conscience into a support group somehow. It really was masterful, and for once put Hydrus in a position to be the voice on Dumbledore's shoulder." - I like showing the side-effects of the side-effects of the bargain breaking. He didn't suddenly gain the ability to do that, he's always had it, he just now has the confidence to do it.

"The fact that the two most antagonistic Black sisters were in the same space for more than five minutes and nobody lost a limb ... I wonder if that will come up later." - I'm glad I finally have the full cast of the family around to use now. The House of Black and their interpersonal dynamics are definitely a large part of the story for me.

"It's half of the Goblin nation versus Hydrus and Bella." - I hope I properly showed off here that it WAS a fuckton of goblins, but that humans aren't the only ones who benefited from no Voldemort, and later we'll get to see a better scale of just how many are involved in this cult war.

And that's all! Thank you all so much for the kind reviews, turns out 'cliff hangers' really do inspire people lolol. See y'all next Saturday, love you all, lessthanthree!