Hydrus woke to his heart racing, cold sweat coating his skin, and silence. He glanced about his bedroom to ensure nothing was wrong then took a long, silent breath to try and regulate the after effects of whatever nightmare he'd apparently been having.

The dreamcatcher Bella had given him still hung above their bed, but he wasn't quite sure what it was doing or how it worked. According to her, he hadn't been tossing and turning in his sleep or muttering things anymore, which was good. The problem was he was still waking up like this. It was like he was still having the nightmares, he just couldn't remember them and was paralysed through the night. As his heart came to a more relaxed rhythm, he slid out from underneath the covers and his love's loose grip, the sure sign that she was still fully asleep.

Had she been awake, it would've been like finding himself in a praying mantis's vice grip.

After a few stretches and a satisfying yawn, Hydrus's day began. He stripped out of his sleepwear and replaced the clothing with just a pair of sweatpants, then set out for the yard where he'd continue to keep his promise to himself to stay in shape. First came a few laps around the home itself to warm up, then some simple body weight exercises like squats and sit ups.

Push ups were a more awkward thing to pull off. He had to transfigure up a vase-like protrusion from the ground that he slid the remaining half of his forearm into, then make some adjustments to ensure it lined up properly with his remaining arm. He had done around two-dozen before he heard quick footsteps approaching him.

"Hydrus!" Giannis called. "Good morning!"

'It's nearly four AM,' Hydrus thought as he pushed himself up one last time. 'The hell is he doing awake already?'

"Morning," he said. "What are you doing out here?"

"I need you to put your magic in something I made," the child said. "Come on."

Hydrus straightened up and began brushing the dirt off himself. Neville and Perenelle were still reworking the landscaping out here which meant he was just about coated in topsoil from getting down in it all. He stared down at his ward.

"Gi—"

"Please!" the boy interrupted. "Sorry, I forgot, please come on?"

Shaking his head at the kid's lack of manners, he asked, "What is it this time?"

"A snake, so Apophis can have a friend." Giannis was staring at the little post Hydrus had made. "What's that?"

"Nothing." With a wave of his hand it crumbled back into dirt. "Just an aid for my missing hand."

"Oh." He was staring at Hydrus's limb now. "Does that hurt?"

"It's fine," Hydrus said. "Come on, let's see this new friend you made."

Giannis led him to his room where Hydrus was reminded for the thousandth time that although he might be a great deal wiser than the youth, in his own way, Giannis was in a league of his own when it came to intelligence. Kid couldn't tell you anything that didn't have to do with animals or runes or, more recently, alchemy, but the various papers and chalk boards and posters and diagrams that coated his walls spoke volumes to his growing expertise in those subjects.

Sleeping on Giannis's bed, which Hydrus noted was much larger than it had been the last time he stepped in here, were Apophis, Dobby, and Kreacher. The two house elves were sitting on opposite sides, with Apophis stretched out between them. There were a trio of lawn gnomes in the corner of the room, sleeping as well. They were recent would-be tenants that Giannis had caught trying to take advantage of the lawn development. Hydrus still wasn't sure how he was going to convince the boy to get rid of them. Lastly, on the windowsill, was Hedwig.

His former familiar and beloved friend immediately flew over when their eyes met. She landed on his shoulder none too gently, her talons didn't offer any of their usual restraint, but he could understand that. He hadn't exactly been 'attentive' as of late when it came to his owl, but at least Giannis was around now to make up for that. He smiled when she began to pluck and pull at his hair.

"Alright, let's see this new project of yours."

Giannis rushed over to his desk, and Hydrus was surprised when he handed over a tiny thing more like a worm than a snake. "Here, put your magic in it till its the right size."

"Right size?" Hydrus asked. "What size is that supposed to be?"

"Um…" Giannis paused to think for a moment. "Until it's too big for Apophis to eat like he did to Whiskers."

Unsure of who or what Whiskers was, but wanting to get this over with so he could grab a bath, Hydrus began to push his magic into the little wooden creature. He watched as the thing grew from looking like a twig, to a stick, to a proper branch. It was incredible to see the details grow and spread, and by the time it was nearing ten feet long it definitely didn't look like a worm anymore.

It was hard to try and say what sort of snake it was, it wasn't the flawless replication of some mythical beast like Leorex's golems had been. If anything it looked more like a half-way decent sculptor's imitation of an eastern dragon. Before too long he decided that it was enough, and at the very least it'd still be able to fit outside of the room.

"There," Hydrus said. "That should keep Apophis from being able to bully it too much."

"So cool!" Giannis shouted, startling the other occupants of the room awake. "Alright, hold on, I need you to wake her up too."

'Her?' Hydrus thought with a chuckle as the boy began carving something into the snake's underside. 'Didn't take long to become a real being to you, huh?'

"What is this?" Apophis demanded, sounding bleary for a snake. "What is this mockery?!"

"Settle down," Hydrus hissed back as the basilisk approached its new friend. "Giannis made 'her' for you to play with."

"Hmmm…" His familiar tasted the air around the creation. "I don't like it."

"Just give it a chance," Hydrus said. "Be nice to your broth—"

He gave a more human hiss when his arm began to sizzle. It felt like someone dropping a dollop of hot glass on his shoulder. Thankfully Giannis was too engrossed with his current work to pay him much mind, so he was able to heal the impromptu wound and vanish away the blood that had splattered across the room.

Giannis looked up. "Why does that happen?"

Shit. Maybe the kid was more observant than he seemed.

"It's all your fault," Hydrus said, sarcasm dripping from his voice despite the honesty. "You and Apophis are just too adorable, I can't stand it."

The boy gave him a hard look, but he was at least a decade away before that could even begin to bother Hydrus.

"Why won't you tell me?" Giannis asked. "I can help."

"Are you done yet?" Hydrus said, ignoring the question. "I really need to go bathe."

"Ughhh," his ward groaned. "Almost."

He got back to work, and Hydrus began to rub at his shoulder. The visualisation of the phoenix helped prevent the proverbial cracks in his blessing from affecting his spellwork, but it did nothing to stop new cracks from breaking the balance even further, erupting in geysers of blood and magic. Maybe…

Maybe he should try and reforge his third bargain with Magic, reinforce it like they'd apparently done with his second bargain.

He wondered what such a thing would cost, and if there was anything he would really be willing to give up for it. As much as he appreciated her help in the other timeline, it wasn't like it had amounted to much in the end. She wasn't the one who'd sent him to the past, she'd just acted as a middle woman between him and Fate, whoever that deity was. Death hadn't been wrong to say that there wasn't much of a need for Hydrus Black in this world, especially not now that he had hooks firmly gripped on Bellatrix.

Hell, she was half the reason he was so torn about this. If it was up to her he'd snap the third bargain and pretend it never existed in the first place. As she had put it, 'I didn't mind settling for the growing fruit until I knew just how sweet the ripened juices were.'

She really had a… way with words.

The problem was Magic. Although he'd originally sworn off the 'nonsense' when Karthulf first introduced him to the faith, once he was in? He was in. Magic, the concept and not just the goddess who represented it, had been the greatest thing to ever happen to him. Turning his back on her would feel like doing the same thing to that which had saved him. His worship wasn't just out of a utilitarian sense of duty, it was out of a genuine devotion towards that which had unequivocally changed his life for the better.

"Hydrus?" He snapped out of his ponderings. "It's ready…"

"Right." He moved over to kneel down where Giannis had been working, and looked for the 'absorption' rune that he should pump magic into. "Here we go."

He began to pump in his magic, and was surprised at the volume it took. He'd have to 'nibble' off Sirius and Bella when he saw them later on. After nearly a full minute the runes began to smoke, and he stopped.

"Perfect," Giannis said. "Turn it on."

Hydrus shook his head at the return to lack of manners, and activated the rune scheme.

Immediately the snake came alive. A wave of magic spread across the surface of the wood it was carved from, turning the inflexible material into unliving flesh that flexed and stretched as its head lifted up into the air, turning over so that it righted itself. The golem was as wide around as Giannis himself was, and once it was fully 'alive' it stared down at the boy.

"Yes!" Giannis shouted. "Your name is…" The boy drifted away. "What should I name her?"

"Whatever you want," Hydrus answered. "I'm going to go take a bath, make sure you take one as well before Bella comes to get you dressed for the party this afternoon."

Something told him Giannis would still 'forget', but that would be his own problem to deal with when Bella found out. Kid really needed to learn about consequences…

Sirius hated Hydrus. He hated Bellatrix. He hated his father, uncle, and cousin-in-law. He hated every last person who had or even might've had a hand in putting him in the position he was in now.

He was sitting on top of a throne with a swelteringly hot cloak of charcoal fur and obsidian feathers, had an enchanted crown stuck to his head that only Hydrus could take off, and his ass had been kissed so much he was worried he might somehow actually find some lipstick down there the next time he caught the backside of his own reflection.

People were milling about the gathering hall of Castle Black, all dressed in fine robes and dresses. An orchestra had been set up in the corner, and their pleasant dance music did nothing to ease Sirius's mood. If anything, it reminded him of the awful muzak that played in muggle elevators, which he also detested. Why the hell did they have that weird dropping feeling when they stopped?

Beyond the dancers and the songs pulling their strings, there was a literal mound of presents and gifts, all for him. Enchanted tapestries hung on either side of the hall, artistic depictions of various moments in his life being 'knitted' across their surfaces and slowly changing as time passed. Even behind him, below the taxidermied head of Hydrus's manticore, were awards that he knew damn well he'd thrown away as soon as he'd gotten them. All in all it was the most grossly masturbatory event he'd ever been forced to participate in, and that included his debutante gala as a preteen that he'd originally been named heir at.

"More water, Master Black?"

"Thanks," he said without thinking. "Now beat it."

Kreacher, who'd snuck up on him, vanished away.

'How out of it am I if I can't even think of something rude to say to the little shit,' Sirius thought as he sipped the drink. 'I bet he's just loving this stupid party.'

The others hadn't noticed it yet, or at least Bellatrix had looked at him like he was an idiot when he brought it up, but something was… Different, about Kreacher as of late. His filthy loin cloth was a bit less stained, he rarely called Sirius a blood traitor, and now he was even doing things for him without being asked.

It was suspicious.

As the water didn't do a thing to satisfy his real thirst, he bemoaned his son for the millionth time. The 'kid' had hustled him into a bet to see if he could go the whole party without a drink, with a single question up for grabs. Hydrus had gone from refusing to tell him anything about his past, to weaponizing the privilege of hearing it, the little shit. Without thinking about it, Sirius handed the empty glass to the open air and Kreacher snatched it away.

He wished Amelia were here. If she was, he could've gotten her to help him bully Hydrus into letting him take this stupid getup off so they could dance. Or at least, if they had still been together they could've done that.

'When the hell does the denial step end…'

He continued to think bitter thoughts until a man who rarely allowed such things to continue wandered over. Albus Dumbledore was dressed in shimmering olive robes and had on some weird, matching, pointed hat with two folds sticking out of either side of it. Somehow he pulled the look off, but even a fashion-illiterate man's man like Sirius knew he looked a bit silly. Then again, Sirius was the one wearing a cape…

"Albus, glad to see you," he said. "What's with the, uh… Hat?"

"Oh, this?" The ancient warlock's eyes shot upwards and crossed slightly. "One of my recently graduated students just finished their summer internship, a research project to study the glass left behind after Hydrus's immolation of the inferi. They sent this to me as a souvenir."

The proud, are-you-jealous? smile the old man gave Sirius after saying that made him laugh. "I see. You having a better time here than I am?"

"Well, the parties I tend to frequent are usually a bit more…" Dumbledore glanced about the hall. "Well lit, than this one. But I certainly couldn't have imagined enjoying a party hosted by your family at all this time last year."

"Yeah, things are definitely changing." Sirius sighed. "All it took was me—"

The headmaster cleared his throat. "Be careful with your words, Sirius. You never know who's listening."

"Who cares," he grumbled. "Anyone at a party like this would probably respect me more for it. Present company excluded, of course."

"I suppose," the headmaster said, giving a sigh himself now. "Still, it doesn't do to dwell on such things. Look at the positives; look how happy Hydrus is."

It took the former auror a few scans of the hall to spot his son. He found him leaning against the wall nearly all the way across from him. The Malfoy kid was standing next to him on one side, and on the other was… Well, it was either a Zabini or Sirius was just racist. The three of them were all chatting amicably, and although it was hard to tell from so far away, it did look like Hydrus was smiling.

"It truly is incredible how much of an impact he's had on his classmates," Dumbledore said. "Before he arrived, I was a touch worried for young Draco's education. It probably wouldn't have affected his future much, but still."

"And the other?"

"That would be Blaise Zabini." Sirius almost breathed a sigh of relief. "He's improved by leaps and bounds as well, though he was more well rounded to begin with so it's less noticeable."

'Wonder what they were like in the future,' Sirius thought. 'For Hydrus to put so much effort into taking care of them.'

"It's not just those two," Dumbledore said. "It's almost the entire Slytherin house, either directly or in a ripple effect. Even the other houses are having individuals step up higher and higher thanks to him."

"What about Harry?" he asked. "How's he doing?"

Dumbledore laughed. Sirius shot him a look when it went on longer than he'd expected, but the old man just shook his head.

"James's son is doing well, but it was only towards the end of the year that he came around on yours," he said. "I'm hoping, if not expecting, him to begin shining this year. It was around this time that James himself started to, as they say, get his act together; was it not?"

"More like it was when he finally stopped acting out to get Lily's attention," Sirius said with a snort. "I bet if Harry finds himself a girlfriend, he'll straighten up too. Potters do best with a woman behind them."

Again Dumbledore laughed, and again Sirius was left confused at how much stronger it was than seemed appropriate. "You should ask for Hydrus's assistance in the matter, then. I believe he knows for certain who the best possible 'girlfriend' for young Harry is."

"Wait!' Sirius's eyes snapped wide open. "You know something that he knows, don't you?"

"Perhaps, perhaps." Sirius wanted to cry when the best company he'd had all night began to walk away. "Have a good evening, Lord Black."

'Bastard,' Sirius thought, as he put Dumbledore on the list of people he absolutely hated. 'Can tonight get any wo—'

"Lord Black!" He almost groaned at the newest arrival's presence. "What an honour it is to meet you again!"

Stefanos Stellavigil was swaggering towards him, the hems of his dress robes so close to bursting thanks to his muscles that Sirius wasn't quite sure how the man wasn't waddling towards him instead. Compared to the affable giant whom he'd met months ago, the 'new' Stellavigil lord was practically a gilded statue. He was wearing rings and necklaces galore, had shaved down the sides of his head and pulled the top into a short, almost-shimmering ponytail, and the smell of cologne hit Sirius long before the man's handshake did.

"It's good to see you too," Sirius lied. "How's the family?"

It had taken all of two encounters with the Greek to find out how to get him to not shut up, and therefore not force Sirius to come up with something to say himself. Like a moth to a flame, Stellavigil immediately caught fire and began going into excruciating detail about his wife and two daughters' lives. Everything from how big his youngest was getting, 'She might just wind up taller than me!', to how his wife was beginning to get the itch for another kid again, 'Wouldn't that be incredible?'.

It was hard to begrudge him for the enthusiasm, but that didn't make it any more of an interesting listen. Honestly, the real reason he hated meeting the man was just how… Overwhelming he was. It was like someone took all the parts of James that drove their teachers mad as kids, threw them in an overheated cauldron, and let them boil down to their hyper-exhausting concentrates.

"And you, my lord?" Stefanos asked. "How is your son doing?"

"Better than anyone else, the way he tells it." A quippy response, but not an unfriendly one hopefully, and enough to get back to putting the quaffle in the Greek lord's hands. "How's the politician's life treating you?"

"Better than my wife feared, worse than I'd hoped." Well, at least this might actually be interesting to listen to. "I think I've done just about all I can in my current position."

Sirius snorted, but quickly realised the man wasn't joking. "Already?" he asked, then tried thinking of what Hydrus would say to smooth things over without offending the other man. "I'm surprised your office was so…" Shit, shit, shit. He was awful at this stuff. "Incapable of serving your purposes."

There, that sounded properly dramatic and 'pureblood'ish.

"It just means that I'll have to go even higher." If Stellavigil felt slighted, he didn't show it with his massive smile. "The quarter district elections will be coming up soon, I'm thinking of going straight for those and skipping over the octumnals."

Sirius didn't even fully understand how the British election system worked, let alone foreign ones, so he just nodded. "I… Or, I mean, we, never hate to see our friends doing well. I wish you the best of luck."

For a moment the Greek man's expression shifted. His head tilted upwards, his eyes narrowed slightly, and Sirius felt like the man was judging him. The Black Sheep's nostrils flared for a moment and Stellavigil's smile returned in full radiant splendour.

"You have my gratitude, my lord." He clapped Sirius on the back. "Your support means the world to me."

An idea occurred to him now. "In that case, do me a favour. Uncle Cygnus!"

The orchestra stumbled a beat and the hall came to a still at his shout, but he was already too damn uncomfortable to care about the stares. When his uncle looked over at him, lips still attached to the rim of his cup as if stunned, Sirius waved him over. Things slowly returned to normal as Cygnus strode over.

"What can I do for you, Lord Black?"

"This is Stefanos Stellavigil," Sirius said. "He's a Greek lord."

"It's a pleasure to meet you in person," Stellavigil said, holding out his hand. "We had a brief exchange regarding floo repairs after our Hydrus did what he does best."

'Our Hydrus.' Sirius thought. 'Man he lays it on thick.'

"It's a pleasure to meet you in person as well," Cygnus said, mirroring the other man's words, a trick he'd tried explaining to SIrius at one point. "I'm glad to see you come from so far away."

"That's why I called you over," Sirius said. "Hydrus wants more foreign investments, here's a guy who's powerful and foreign, figure it out."

He might be awful at linguistic games and political machinations, but he could bull-charge his way through scenarios well enough to get what he wanted in the end. If this didn't work, it would just get Hydrus to quit putting him in positions where he had to deal with people. And if it did work, who knows.

Maybe his son would trust him more than before.

The two other men began conversing, and Cygnus tactfully led Stellavigil away. Sirius watched them go and breathed a sigh of relief. Now there was no way things could—

"Lord Black."

Fuck.

Amelia had fulfilled his earlier wish and arrived, and the look of bored distaste she wore was the curling of the finger on the monkey's paw. She was wearing a shimmering white dress that left no mysteries as to the shape of what lay beneath, not that he was unaware in the first place. Her hair was pulled up into a decorative sort of bob that he had no words to describe, and it left him wondering what sort of fun it would be to watch the the whole display slowly fall apart after several hours of—

Amelia cleared her throat, and Sirius flinched. "Oh, sorry, uh, it's good to see you, er, Scion Bones."

She opened her mouth to respond, but another voice rang out.

"Miss Bones!" Amelia turned just in time for a bolt of living energy to tackle her. "I missed you!"

Giannis and Amelia fell. Sirius started to lurch to his feet, but they collapsed into him. The trio fell back into the throne. The throne fell over. The floor behind it collapsed far too quickly to be natural and they went tumbling downwards into a slide that began looping them further and further into darkness as they escaped from the light pouring down from the hole they entered through.

Now moving on instinct, Sirius wrapped his arms tight around both his love and his second son. He wasn't a large man by any stretch of the imagination, but in that moment he felt like he needed to be biggest person in the entire world as he moved with the flow of kinetic energy pushing them deeper into the bowels of Castle Black, turning his body this way and that to catch every blow they came across as they were swung back and forth like a ball in a muggle pinball machine.

The bumpers were a lot softer than he would've thought they'd be, for some reason.

First it was a slide, then it was some sort of rune scheme that instantly transported them to another spot in the castle, then it was a series of steps they bounced down as gently as balloons. It didn't take long for him to quickly lose all sense of scale and progress as they went through this chaotic maelstrom of traps and transportations. After what felt like an eternity though, they eventually just fell straight down for a few feet onto a rather uncomfortable cot.

For a moment, nothing happened. He was just clenching on tight to Amelia and Giannis, praying they were alright and that he hadn't fucked something up. Then his exfiancee shoved him away, and although it hurt at first, when she turned and puked he felt less bad about it.

"Shit, babe, are you okay?" He was too freaked out to care about the fact that she wasn't his 'babe' anymore. "What happened, did—"

Clang.

He spun around. In his moment of panic over Amelia he'd forgotten about Giannis and the boy had left his side, apparently onto the other side of metal bars which had just slammed shut.

"Giannis?"

"Sorry, Sirius, Miss Bones." The boy jumped slightly when something pounced onto his shoulders, but he and Sirius both relaxed when it turned out to just be Flamel's cat. What the hell was that thing doing here? "But you two need to talk."

"Talk… Giannis, did you do this?"

Sirius was stunned, but when he got to his feet he wobbled around for a moment as the adrenaline dumped out of his system and the 'voyage' they just went on caught up to him. It took a moment for his mind to clear, all the while he watched as Flamel's seven-legged cat clambered off Giannis's shoulders and into the child's arms. He heard rather than saw Amelia straighten up behind him.

"You're both sad," the child said. "You have been ever since you broke up. You need to get back together."

"Giannis!" Amelia shouted, and Sirius was just glad he wasn't the one getting yelled at. "You can't just—!"

"What the hell…?"

Hydrus had arrived. The first thing Sirius noticed was the boy's hand, the small line of blood running down it from somewhere up higher on his arm, and the wand balanced precariously on the tip of one of his fingers. There was the slightest sheen of sweat on his brow, but his expression was calm. The air around him was tinged with a miasmic damper to the lights pouring off nearby wall sconces, but thus far Sirius hadn't actually felt any of their family magic pour out of him.

"Hydrus!" Giannis said, grinning. "You got here so fast! Look, I caught them!"

"Why?"

Finally, Giannis's smile broke. His 'best friend's tone brokered no amusement or support, it was as hard as the walls surrounding them.

"B-, Because they've been fighting," the Greek child said. "I want them to stop fighting."

"That's not your choice to make." Hydrus crouched down to look Giannis in the eyes, and Sirius winced at how cold he was being. "Do you realise how worried I was? I thought something terrible had happened to you, or Sirius.

"If you ever do something like this again without telling me, there will be severe consequences, Giannis. Do I make myself clear?" Apparently a more specific threat wasn't needed, the child just nodded back at him. "Good. Your punishment this time is that I'm sending you to spend a week with the Potters, where you won't be allowed to read or work on any of your projects."

"But—!"

"It's non-negotiable, I'm afraid." Hydrus scooped the child up, and finally turned to look at Sirius. "As for you two, how the hell did you let yourselves get adult-napped by an eight-year-old kid?"

"Like it's our fault," Sirius grumbled. "The kid turned this whole castle into some sort of fucked up trap to funnel us here."

"Speaking of which," Amelia said, speaking up for the first time since they fell. "Let us out already."

"No, don't!" GIannis butted in. "They need to stop fighting!"

Hydrus flicked the boy's ear and he flinched. "You stay out of this." He turned to Amelia and Sirius. "As for you two, consider this your punishment for not teaching Giannis some common sense while he was in your care. Kreacher will let you out when he's done cleaning the rest of the mess up tonight."

"What?!" Sirius and Amelia both cried in unison, with Amelia continuing on, "Hydrus I swear if you don't let me out I will—"

"Will what?" Hydrus interrupted, cocking an eyebrow. "Arrest me? Put me in front of the Wizengamot? Let's see how confident they are in the future head of the DMLE when they find out she got captured by a literal child."

Sirius's eyes shot back and forth between his son and ex, completely unsure of what to do. On one hand, getting locked in a dungeon was naturally at the bottom of the list of things he wanted to do, as was annoying Amelia. On the other hand, that would mean she and him might…

"You'll regret this," Amelia threatened. "I swear you will."

"I'll put the regret with all the others, right near the top of the mountain." Hydrus began to walk away. "Have a good night you two, don't do anything I wouldn't."

'Alright, SIrius,' he thought. 'Don't fuck this up.'

"I had no idea th—"

"Just shut up." His shoulders slumped in time with Amelia plopping down into the cot they'd landed on. "Just sit down, and don't say anything."

"Sure." Sirius trudged over and sat down beside her, but not to close. "Sitting down, shutting up."

Right. It was too late not to fuck it up. He'd fucked it up months ago.

"Remus!" The werewolf looked up from the odd hors d'oeuvre that he was trying to figure out. "I've been looking for you."

Hydrus was approaching him, so he quickly popped the stack of unidentifiable meat, cheese, and cracker into his mouth and washed it down with a sip of wine that one of the boy's house elves had given him.

"Hello," he said with a hastily crafted smile. "What can I do for you?"

He still wasn't sure how to handle his… He didn't even know what the 'boy' was to him after everything he learned. Up until recently he'd been the 'troubled, but well-meaning, prodigy', his best friend's son. Now he was a self-defensively mass-murdering war veteran trapped in a fifteen year old's body, his other best friend's son. And maybe older than he himself was?

He wasn't quite sure how old Hydrus really was, and if the 'teen' knew he wasn't sharing.

"Sirius and Amelia managed to get themselves parent trapped by Giannis," he said. "I need you to let them out of the dungeon before you leave for the night, whenever that is."

"They… I…" He tried to understand. "What?"

"Right?" Hydrus said, as helpful as a hammer in a glass submarine. "I figure I'll let them stew for a while, see if it actually helps out at all."

"Oh… Kay…" The werewolf shook his head. "How are you holding up?"

Hydrus looked him up and down. "Better than you by the looks of it. Have you been sleeping?"

He hadn't been. Despite the time traveller's attempted insistence, Remus had demanded to be shown memories to prove what he was saying was true. He'd seen Harry, but not his Harry, murdering people. He'd seen himself murdering people, other werewolves. He'd regretted asking to see it the moment he dipped into the pensieve and found Hydrus covered in blood staring down at a body.

Remus's own body.

And his hadn't been the only one.

"I'm fine," he lied. "Just busy getting ready for… Well, everything."

"You've done more with less," Hydrus said. "I'll take care of whatever you can't."

For some reason, that did take some of the weight off of him. As Hydrus reached past him to take one of the little finger foods for himself, it was finally occurring to Remus just how… How reliable the man truly was. He'd single handedly borne the brunt of the entire freedom-seeking world on his shoulders and didn't miss a step along the way. It almost made him feel silly for worrying about managing a few dozen werewolves, let alone grading students' papers.

"Yeah." He shook his head. "You really are something else, Hydrus."

"That's how I was raised," Hydrus replied with an accusatory wink. "Remember, dungeon before you leave."

And like that, the most dangerous wizard Remus had ever heard of let alone knew walked away.

As Amelia yet again banished away a terrible idea about how to start a conversation between her and her ex, she nearly sighed. Sighing would give away that she wasn't quite as tough as she was pretending to be, however, so she kept it locked up. Honestly it was surprising that Sirius hadn't broken yet, the man usually never shut up unless he was around someone he didn't like, and he definitely liked her.

She thought he'd been about to eat her the way he'd stared earlier.

It wasn't like Amelia wanted to talk to him, she was just sick of counting wrinkles in the stone wall across from them. Sick of listening to him breathe just a couple feet away from her. Sick of somehow feeling the heat pouring off of him and the ridiculous get up he was wearing.

Sirius had done what she'd told him to though, and had just sat down and shut up. He'd gotten up briefly at one point to try and get the door open, testing it from both sides and giving it a few kicks for good measure. He'd muttered a single, half-whispered 'excuse me' when he knelt down beside her to look underneath the cot for something they could use to escape. Beyond that he'd just done what he always tried, and frequently failed, to do, and listened to what she had said.

"Can I…" Sirius started, finally breaking, to Amelia's relief. "Can I say something?"

"If you must."

"I'd like to explain what happened that day, why I did it," he started. "And you can call it making excuses or unimportant or whatever else, but I'd really like to get it off my chest so… So I can move on if you don't care."

"You let the most wanted man in Britain get away because he was your brother," Amelia snapped. "You chose your family, who you claimed to hate, over me."

"I chose my brother, to try and save him, not my whole family," Sirius said. "Regulus… Regulus isn't like the others. He didn't need me saving him though, and I was too stupid to see that."

"Yes, your pompous, classist, criminal brother is nothing like the rest of your family." God, who did Sirius think he was talking to? "You do realise I'd met your brother before, don't you?"

"I didn't, no."

Amelia turned to look at him for the first time, and almost snorted. He was sitting with his face buried in his hands, like a child who thought if he couldn't see her then she couldn't see him. His shoulders rose up, then sagged back down in a growling sigh.

She'd known him long enough to know it wasn't intended to be an aggressive sound, but it didn't stop it from sounding like one.

"I… I never really went into detail about how I grew up, did I?" he asked. "It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows for me just because I was the heir. It was constant torture. Literal torture. Did you know these aren't the eyes I was born with? I had to regrow them after I failed to dodge a very dark, very illegal spell my own grandfather used on me."

Amelia's mouth fell open. Her own grandfather had once, before her father took over, taken a switch to her ankles for breaking his favourite ashtray. She'd thought that had been harsh.

"They called it training, preparation for when I became the head of the house," Sirius continued. "And when I left, when I got disowned, I thought… I knew it would be Regulus's turn in that hell.

"Turns out I was wrong though." The man scoffed. "My mother didn't let them anywhere near her baby boy, and Arcturus didn't want him as heir in the first place. I ruined your life goal and the relationship I had with the only woman I've ever truly loved for no fucking reason."

Amelia swallowed. "Sirius…"

"And then you know what I did? I stayed in that fucking hole for the next two days, heard my best friends coming to drag me out of it, so I apparated to my grandfather's." He was more spitting than speaking his words now. "I went to raid his liquor cellar, and instead the bastard attacked me. And I… And I fucking blew a hole in his chest."

"What?"

"I killed him, I snapped, I went bloody mad," Sirius emphasised. "And Hydrus showed up just in time to watch the body drop, and you know what he did?"

Sirius laughed and finally pulled his face away from his hands. There was… Something wrong with him, something different. His eyes were too wide, his nostrils too flared, his jaw clenched too tight.

'He's gone mad,' Amelia thought. 'He really has snapped.'

"He basically told me to put on my big boy pants and he dealt with it while I just kept falling apart." He turned to look at her, and Amelia got to look straight into the mad storm behind his eyes. "What kind of man kills his own grandfather, then needs his own son to clean up the mess?"

"My best friend, that's who."

Sirius's eyes came back to normalcy and both he and her turned to look at the newcomer. Remus Lupin, dressed in the exact same robes he always wore to the Ministry, was standing there holding a glass of wine. The mocking grin he wore was new, though.

"Really, Sirius?" he said. "You got locked up by your own kid?"

"He's deceptive!" the now-sane man shouted. "He was smarter than you when it came to those runes, wasn't he?"

"Still didn't lock me up," the werewolf said, grinning. "And don't worry, Bones, I know this is all on him and not you."

"Story of my life," Sirius grumbled. "Just let us out, would you?"

For a moment Remus froze, but then he tested the door and it swung open easily. The man's grin grew wider and he looked up at them, shaking his head.

"You didn't try just opening it by pushing from the outside?" he asked, a teasing lilt to his voice and one eyebrow cocked. "I know your hands fit through the bars, so I'm wondering if maybe you had an alternative motive to being down here."

Amelia's eyes shot towards Sirius, his jaw hanging. She had seen him try that… Hadn't she?

"Sirius…"

His head snapped towards her, he frowned, then stood. He mechanically moved over towards Remus, who was still smiling, and yanked him into the cell. Amelia's eyes snapped open when she realised what her idiot was about to do, but before she could say anything Sirius had slammed the door shut.

"Go on then," he said. "Open it again."

Remus's smile faded away. As he began trying to push it from the outside, Sirius plopped back down on the cot beside Amelia, grinning a self-satisfied smile. She glared at him.

"Did you seriously just extend our stay in the dungeons for the sole purpose of proving a point to your friend?" she asked. "Sirius?"

"Very serious, yes," he replied, before looking like he'd just had cold water dumped on him. "Oh, shit, uh… Sorry, er, Bones, I… Wasn't thinking about… Uh…"

Amelia sighed and now it was her turn to put her face in her hands. Why did this moron have to be the one she lov—, definitely did not love.

"You're a dick," Remus said when he finally gave up trying to open the door. "You know that, right?"

"Says the idiot who got captured by the idiot who got captured by 'his own kid'," Sirius said, mocking. "Serves ya right."

"Yeah, yeah…" The werewolf pressed his back against the wall and slowly slid down it. "Don't mind me, you two get back to whatever heart to heart you were having."

"We weren't having a heart to heart," Amelia denied. "We were just talking."

She never should've came to this party, and she definitely never should've thought it was Hydrus who'd asked her to come. He'd called her a lot of different names in the times they'd met, but never 'Miss Bones'. If she'd known Giannis had been the one pushing for it, she would've just invited the boy over so she could try and explain that she definitely, certainly, absolutely was not getting back together with Sirius.

Instead she was now locked up in a dungeon with him and his friend.

Sirius sighed. "I don't suppose you brought any food, did you? I'm starving."

Suddenly, in the middle of the room, a table appeared. A literal mound of jerky covered one half, and on the other half were brownies. Brownies just like the ones she'd described to Giannis as being her favourite food when he'd visited her to ask seemingly random and innocent questions. Which meant that there would probably also be…

The sound of a band that hadn't been popular since her mom was in Hogwarts suddenly began echoing throughout the dungeon, and she wanted to cry.

"Oh shit, it's your song," Sirius said. "Er, I mean, your mum's song."

As her ex began to dig into the dried meat and his best friend watched them both, shaking his head, she fell backwards onto the cot and stared up at the ceiling.

At this point she was going to get back together with Sirius just so she could ground Giannis for even longer.

Hydrus finished off his dance with Bella by spinning her away from him till they were both just holding on to the ends of the other's hand, pausing, then dipping into a bow which she matched with a curtsy. The music began to transition into another song, but he was getting bored, so he pulled her back in so that they were arm in arm and began to lead her to the sitting area.

"I really wish you hadn't let Giannis keep them down there," Bella said through a smile that completely masked her tone. "Or at least let Sirius come back up. We're picking up some awkward looks."

"They're looking for the lord of House Black," Hydrus replied easily as he pulled out a chair for her. "And in Sirius's absence, they turn to the true one."

His love giggled and he held back from laughing along with her. He was beginning to realise there had been an upside to the Black family being so internally distant to one another, and that was that it kept them from feeding off eachother's madness. Magic preserve him if Sirius and Bella ever both got on the same page with him about anything and one of them snapped.

His musings were interrupted when a small glimmer of magic passed over him, and he cocked his head over slightly so Bella could mutter whatever she'd put up the silencing spell for.

"I was speaking to Lady Zabini about that toad, Smith," she said. "If need be, with the proper subornation, she wouldn't be against taking care of the problem for us."

Hydrus considered it for a moment. "No, not yet. She hasn't been unreasonable considering we did steal an irreplaceable family heirloom from her."

"And we've offered her an unthinkable amount of money in return," Bella argued. "She is being very unreasonable."

"If, after returning the cup to her, she still refuses to see reason, we may explore alternative options to the situation." To seal the deal he took her hand and placed a kiss on its back. "You know how I feel about wanton murder."

"Yes, yes…" she sighed. "You always make things so difficult for yourself."

"Well, at the very least I can agree with you there."

His fiancee dismissed the silencing spell, still not letting go of his hand, and he was content to just sit and stare at her. Memories rolled through his mind as his eyes traced over the contours of her face. She was a beautiful woman, her strength was enough for him to take pride in and to test himself against to make sure he never got too rusty. She was as knowledgeable about ancient magics as anyone besides those who had practically been around when it was written, and she was very warm. Add on the uniqueness of her morality, or lack thereof, to contrast his own with?

He was an incredibly lucky man.

"I love you, dear," he said. "Besides the thing you've been constantly asking for, is there anything I can do for you?"

"I'm fine, my little water snake," she said, leaning over and kissing him on the cheek. "Since you won't give me what I actually want…

Hydrus shook his head, grinning at her refusal to back down from that. Before he could tease her about it, Kreacher appeared.

"Lord Master Hydrus," the elf said, a gnarled sneer on its face. "There is a… Thing here to see you."

Hydrus frowned. There were a great deal of possibilities that a 'thing' could be when Kreacher said it like that. "What, or who, is it?"

"It is claiming to be a lord," Kreacher said, nearly spitting as he spoke. "Is nasty, vile creature."

There was only one 'lord' who wasn't human that Hydrus was familiar with, but what on earth was Arnold doing here?

"Go ahead and invite him in and take him to me," he said. "Mind your manners, please."

"Yes, Lord Master Hydrus."

Kreacher popped away and Bella leaned over. "Why is the vampire here? And why are you letting him in?"

"I don't know, and because I want to know," Hydrus said. "As annoying as it is, I am tangentially involved in this war of theirs. Better to not let uncertainties fester."

After a few minutes, a minute or so slower than Hydrus knew the elf could've brought the vampire in, they arrived. Immediately all eyes in the hall fell on them, or more specifically, on the ridiculous outfit Arnold was wearing.

The vampire had on a set of interlocking plate armour, with mesh chain mail peeking out from wherever the plates didn't completely cover. He had a matching, steel helm under his left arm, and in his right he carried a staff topped off with a human skull bound to the wood with strips of leather. Or maybe it was a vampire or werewolf skull, it all looked the same besides the teeth. As the newcomer's clanging footsteps marched towards them, Hydrus seriously wished he'd had a stronger drink.

"Schwarze Heilige," the vampire started. "I've come to speak with your sire."

Hydrus closed his eyes and took a long breath to stop himself from rolling his eyes. "I'm afraid Lord Black is currently indisposed. Any business you may need to discuss with him can go through me."

"Absolutely not," the vampire said with a scowl. "This is a matter between servants of Death, Magic's chosen has no place meddling in it."

Hydrus stood, and Arnold backed up. Although the guests of the party were polite enough to not actually gather around like school children watching a fight, they were all side-eyeing or even openly gawking at the affair. He stepped towards the vampire till they were mere inches apart.

"No one in my family is anyone's servant," he said. "You would do well to remember that, Lord Arnold."

"It's Arnulf," Arnold said. "And your father is in covenant with my god, just as I am, just as my army is. You would do well to remember that."

Just as Hydrus was about to flare his magic, the world faded away.

He was once more in the void of nothingness that Magic had taken him to once before. Just like last time, the only objects there were an empty table and three seats. The two gods each sat in one, their powers nearly unfathomable. If he'd compared his own and Dumbledore's magic reserves to oceans, then the two gods were like entire submerged worlds. Magic was scowling at her opponent, while Death ignored her in favour of turning to Hydrus.

"Hello again, Harry," Death said. "I believe it's time we had another talk."

BBaRtS

Chapter 54, at long last.

I have just not been in a good, motivated place lately, and this chapter especially was tough to navigate as big things on both sides of the plot are moving forward. We're at a point with this story where, as I've said, I'm done adding 'new' threads, and instead am just tying off and tying together the old ones. There was already another scene for this chapter that I wanted to add, but had to move it to next week's so that way this wouldn't be even LATER. I won't make up some crazy story about how the sky fell on me so I couldn't write; I just couldn't put fingers to keyboard for the life of me. Hopefully we won't miss a week again.

Anyways, enough about that, let's get to reviews.

"Hydrus uses GASLIGHT! It's super effective!" - Lol I'm glad people liked this moment as much as I did. I was worried some might think of it as further friction between him and Dumbledore like what happened after the inferi, but I think the lightheartedness made sure people didn't haha

"Also, she's not letting Sirius get away with an extra drink next time, that was surprisingly benevolent of her" - I don't think she and Sirius will ever be BFFs, but I do want to show that they're growing more tolerant of each other in little ways, like in this chapter when Sirius mentioned he'd gone to talk to her about Kreacher.

"Do you have with advanced chapters?" - I do not. Keeping in mind this is NOT me throwing shade at anyone else, it's just me describing my own personal feelings, I wouldn't feel comfortable making money off of someone else's intellectual property, legally or otherwise. If this was my original novel I wrote and couldn't get published or anything else where it is wholly mine, that'd be one thing, but since it's not I wouldn't. Plus, like we saw here recently, I ain't written enough in advance to make it viable lol

"I do love that [Apophis] has, as you put it, his own little story going on in the background." - It's almost time for him to become a bigger player in the story, but for now he's just doing his own thing. I said when he was first introduced he'd be the only OC to play a big role, which fell apart when people really liked Giannis as well, but it's about time to make good on that note's promise.

"Turns out giannis next trick is a pair of bracelets for sirius/Amelia that won't come off and magnetize yo each other for a "handcuffed together " scene" - Handcuffs? He skipped that step and Rube Goldberg'ed their asses straight to jail 😂

"Are we ever going to find out more about what happened to Merope and baby Tom?" - Yeyeye, it's just not time yet. The problem with that is how deeply connected it is to the story's climax, so it's hard to delve too much into it without cementing things I might not want cemented until we're closer to the end.

"You use 'bemused' a lot when you mean 'amused'." - I'm not surprised, for whatever reason I can never keep those words straight in my mind and it's obviously not something Google docs picks up on as a mistake. Thanks for pointing it out though, I'll be sure to keep a closer eye on that in the future.

"amigui el capitulo 44 no se encuentra disponible revisalo porfa" - If you can see and get to this chapter in the future, I promise its up on AO3. Technically it's up on FFN too, but the site is just dying so sometimes chapters won't show up for some people for some reason :/

And that's all! Thank you all so much for your patience, I know y'all say not to stress it but I do try my damnedest to get chapters out on time for my own validation. Hopefully, like I said, we won't run into further issues. If we do though and you're reading on FFN, check AO3's latest chapter for any personal updates, its way less of a pain to edit a chapter on there than it is on FFN so I was able to say that we're running a week late in the top-most notes. Again, thank you all so much for your support and kind words, thank you for reading, love you all, see you next weekend, lessthanthree!