Sirius was draped over Amelia's couch, reading a book that was an English mirror to the one Giannis was currently using as a pillow to sleep on. The boy had crashed out just an hour or so ago, and the Black Sheep was trying not to let it rankle his pride too much that he still hadn't gotten as far as the eight year old had in it. Everything about runes just seemed to twist itself around in his mind and then make its way right back out; all without leaving even the slightest idea of what he'd just 'learned'.

Giannis, on the other hand, had only needed his help when he came across a word he didn't know and had to ask Sirius to cross reference it with his own copy. The boy hadn't understood the difference between a 'capstone configuration' and a 'capstone conglomeration', but once the Black Sheep had explained what the three individual words meant on their own, he kept swimming along like nothing had stopped him. Although Sirius had thought Hydrus took the boy in due to sympathising with his situation, it was looking more and more like he just recognized the child's talent.

A woosh from the floo caught his attention.

"You look comfy," the newcomer said. "Aren't you supposed to be working?"

Remus had arrived. The werewolf was wearing his 'grown up' clothes, as Sirius liked to put it. Usually his old friend preferred to go about in comfy sweatpants and soft, baggy robes but today it was a proper and sleek outfit which was typically reserved for when he was talking to clients or dropping something off at the Ministry.

"We're in a holding pattern till we get the rest of the information we need," he said. The third task's attendance list still hadn't been finalised. "How was Hydrus?"

Remus glanced at Giannis. "Maybe you should take him up to bed?"

Sirius winced. If he shifted even slightly, the boy would wake up and need his attention again. He really needed to follow in James's footsteps and get a house elf, something that Amelia had already said he should do, but he'd blown off thinking it wouldn't be necessary. He'd lived all these years without a house elf, why did he need one now? But as it turned out, having a kid around really did take a village, or however that expression went.

Technically he did have an elf who'd listen to him, but…

He sighed, then whispered, "Kreacher."

To his surprise the elf appeared quietly for once instead of with his usual whip-like crack. It had a wrinkled snarl on its face, and Sirius was tempted to return the gesture, but for now it seemed like the elf was playing nice.

"Put Giannis to bed without waking him," he said. "If you do wake hi—"

But Kreacher cut him off by lifting the boy with a tweak of his finger. Giannis began to gently levitate in the air without so much as shifting, even his book had gone with him. The house elf was muttering, so quiet Sirius almost couldn't hear him.

"Mistress Bellatrix insists…" it said. "Mistress Bellatrix insists… Mistress Bellatrix insists…"

Like a mantra, the elf kept repeating it as he slowly left. Sirius watched him go with an impressed frown. He was certain the only reason the elf was being reasonable was because of those words, and the only reason his cousin would've insisted was because Hydrus had, but still. Maybe if his family didn't actually talk to him they wouldn't be so bad.

"There," he said. "How'd it go?"

Remus frowned. That wasn't a good sign. The werewolf handed him a folder, and Sirius opened it with a frown of his own. Inside were strange, blue-grey pictures of various bones. Each one was covered in runes, absolutely none of which he recognized, and as he looked through them he wondered why his friend was showing this to him.

"What is this?" he asked.

"Ah," Remus rubbed at the back of his head. "Technically not supposed to say, but I don't think Hydrus is gonna come breaking down the door on us. That's his skeleton."

Sirius's eyes snapped all the way open. "What?!" he demanded as his pulse began to race. "What do you mean that's his—"

"Relax!" Remus clapped a hand down on his shoulder. "It's just an X-ray!"

"A what?"

Remus laughed. "An X-ray, you pureblood idiot." Sirius's face flushed as Remus's laugh continued on. "It's a muggle thing. It allows them to take pictures of bones without needing to actually see them."

"You should've told me that to begin with," he grumbled. "How the hell does that even work?"

"No clue." Remus shrugged. "Either way, those are Hydrus's bones."

"Yeesh." Sirius lifted one of them up, heart still settling, and saw it was a picture of Hydrus's ribs. "Kid really does know how to overdo it."

"Did you know something about this?" Remus asked. "His arm?"

Sirius winced. "I mean, I knew his magic was hurting him. Is it bad?"

"Bad?" Remus repeated. "Sirius, he showed us his arm destroying itself. He gave us these, but I saw the bone." The werewolf shivered. "The kid acted like it didn't even hurt to burn his own flesh off."

Well that was depressing. Sirius sank deeper into his fiancee's couch and stared at the bones, suddenly wondering whether or not Magic had managed to do this to Hydrus painlessly. Did the kid feel pain?

"Albus certainly seems to like him though," Remus said, sitting down beside him, clearly about to try and cheer him up. "You'll never believe who all showed up." Sirius didn't bite. "Me, obviously. Aberforth Dumbledore, some man that I can only assume is a runes master, your cousin's daughter…"

"What?" Sirius looked up, brows furrowed. "Who?"

Remus grinned. "The cousin you like, her daughter."

"Oh, er, right…"

Remus sighed. "Nymphadora. Come on, do you really not even keep up with the Tonks?"

"It was easier just to ditch the lot of them," Sirius said, only mildly embarrassed. "Better not to talk to anyone who I'm related to."

Besides, it wasn't like Andromeda ever reached out to him either. Probably for the same reasons. Her leaving the family hadn't exactly been a cake walk for him to deal with; it put a fear into his mother that he would do the same thing as his cousin, and she made his life a living hell for it, as though that would somehow convince him not to leave. He could still smell the awful colognes his mother would dump on him in preparation for meeting potential brides despite only being a preteen.

"Well either way, she was there. So was Nicolas Flamel…" Sirius's eyes widened. Before he could ask about that, the werewolf kept going. "And so was Grindelwald."

"What?" Sirius's jaw dropped. "That's impossible."

"Not for Dumbledore's one and only apprentice apparently," Remus said. "I'll be working with him, the runes master, and another guy to try and figure these runes out. I've never seen anything like them."

'Thank Merlin,' he thought. 'At least I'm not a complete idiot for not recognizing them.'

As Remus continued to explain what the rest of them would be doing, Sirius's mind began to wander. He wondered if maybe, had he bothered to study this runes nonsense when Remus did, if he'd be able to go and help his son too. He wondered why it was that Hydrus continued to avoid him like the plague. He wondered if his son would ever love him.


Hydrus sat his napkin down on his plate and stood. "Check please!"

He sat back down, eye twitching at the way neither of his 'guests' had even reacted to the performance. Dumbledore was manoeuvring his chips around his plate, telling Grindelwald about some muggle invention regarding architecture. The other ancient wizard was watching it all with a stoney face, clearly bored but not saying anything to disrupt his old 'friend'. When the cheerier of the two lifted up one of the bits of potato and flipped it on to another which then acted as a fulcrum, the former dark lord's brows furrowed and he leaned in closer.

They were in an American diner and Hydrus had polished off his hamburgers and chips already. There were a few weary looking men scattered about the place, each nursing a cup of coffee and some greasy pile of food of their own, but the only thing that kept the silence away was the obnoxiously loud radio playing some rock song that sounded as old as the other two men at the table.

When the muggle waitress came over, hips sliding from side to side and a far too flirtatious grin on her face, Hydrus was actually relieved.

"That'll be fifty-one, twenty," she said, leaning down close to expose her cleavage as she sat the check down on the table. "You need anything else?"

"To get out of a country with a tipping culture." He dropped a hundred dollar bill on the table and waved her off, to her delight. "Are you two almost done?"

"Yes, yes." Grindelwald stood. "I'm going to the loo."

Without waiting for permission the 'prisoner' left and Hydrus turned a glare on his mentor. "I hope, for your sake, he doesn't expect these sort of accommodations every week."

"He's different than he used to be," Dumbledore quietly argued. "But still. He won't."

"Hmph."

He hated sounding like his 'great-grandfather' by grunting that way, but it was for his sake that he had to be so cautious of the other man. The war against Grindelwald had almost no effect on Hydrus himself, but that didn't make his crimes any less unforgivable. Thousands had died for his desire to forge a new world order, Grindelwald himself was directly responsible for hundreds of them, and that meant Hydrus had no sympathy for the seemingly pathetic man.

He smelled a faint hint of smoke, and retrieved the folded up scroll from his pocket, hoping to see Wormtail's name gone. Instead Remus's had fallen to ash, leaving a perfect cut out of 'Moony'.

"Seriously?" he muttered. "Couldn't wait even one day?"

"Oh my." Hydrus glanced over to see Grindelwald had returned. "Which one do you get to kill?"

"None." Hydrus folded the paper back up. "Are we good to leave?"

"I suppose," the former dark lord said, as if he'd been asking him. "Tell me though, what was that awful and loud device in the lavatory?"

Hydrus frowned in confusion until he realised what the man was probably referring to. "You mean the hand dryer?"

"Hand dryer?" Dumbledore said, eyebrows perked. "How does it work?"

"I don't know." He rolled his eyes. "You just push a button and it blows out air to dry off your hands. They're— Hey!"

Dumbledore was already making his way to the bathroom, but when Hydrus stood to grab him Grindelwald's foot clapped against the side of the booth's bench near the top, 'stopping' him from going after the childish, would-be pensioner. Hydrus stared at the bony leg, then up at frowning the man.

"Let him have his fun," Grindelwald said calmly.

"You do realise I could snap that limb like a twig, right?" Hydrus stepped forward as the other man set it back down. "And I can, and will, do the same to you if you keep this up."

Grindelwald sneered back at him. "Do not mistake my geniality for gentleness, child."

"Then don't mistake my patience for weakness," Hydrus said. "You're here because you're useful. The moment that is no longer the case, you'll either be going back to your tower or to a grave of my choosing."

The two men stared each other down, neither willing to baulk. Hydrus fingered the end of his wand in his sleeve, dreading the thought of actually having to draw it. He had no doubts that, with his mentor's aid, they could easily smite the ancient legend. But just the thought of having to clean that mess had his nose twitching, the amount of memory charms alone… As the tension continued to rise, however, Dumbledore's voice called out.

"Pardon me, gentleman!" Hydrus and Grindelwald turned to see the old man had poked his top half out of the restroom door, sleeves pulled up to his elbows and hands dripping with water. "I'll just be another moment."

Hydrus took a deep breath through his nose, then slowly sighed it back out. "Come. We're waiting outside."

Grindelwald grunted and followed him outside. They were somewhere in the American south so the air was damp and warm, and Hydrus immediately put up a small charm to ward off mosquitos. There was a lake nearby, street lamps were dotted down the street the diner was adjacent to, and the chirping of crickets was never ending.

"What the hell are those?" Grindelwald asked, nose wrinkled.

Hydrus turned to see what he was talking about, then snorted. "Swan boats."

There was a small stand near the lake with nearly a dozen of the things moored to its back. Unlike the originals in Boston, which were enchanted to attack anyone who got too close to the secrets buried at the bottom of the lake, these were simple and ugly. Half the paint was faded and chipped away, and they looked more like golf carts that someone had glued bike pedals and duck carvings to.

"How marvellous." Hydrus jumped slightly at the sudden arrival of Dumbledore, and glanced over to see that the old man's hands were still slightly damp. "It never ceases to amaze me what the muggles are capable of."

Grindelwald rolled his eyes. "Please, they're just… Oh damn it."

Hydrus agreed with him, but was at least glad the shoe was on the other foot now. The headmaster was already wandering off towards the stand, a bounce in his usually dignified stride, and he called behind his shoulder, "I just want to look!"


Nicolas Flamel entered his house, and as soon as he closed the door his robes began to fade away. His shirt and trousers both transfigured themselves from gentlemanly attire into a plush, wool tunic and leggings. Calliope, his seven legged cat, greeted him by headbutting his shin and he chuckled as he knelt down to pick her up.

"It's about time." He responded to his wife's jab with a smile that matched hers as she came around the corner. "I could've sworn we'd taught Alby better than to keep you up this late."

"It boggles the mind how lessons learned so slowly can be lost so quickly," he replied, leaning in to kiss her on the cheek. "Unfortunately, I've decided to help him. He's got quite the pickle on his hands."

"Good." She nodded as they made their way to the den. "You needed to get out more."

He shook his head at the contrast to her earlier complaint about him staying out too late, but settled down beside her on their couch made of a gelatinous cotton she'd synthesised some two-centuries ago. Calliope immediately used the opportunity to 'steal back' her freedom and ran off to climb on top of one of their cabinets. Nicholas wrapped an arm around his wife as she settled against his side, and he was reminded for the millionth time what made immortality so special.

"Did you have fun?" Perenelle asked.

"I suppose," he said. "That boy Albus picked up reminds me too much of his monster. Arrogant, blustering, dangerous."

His wife gave him a tight smile as he shook his head. "Alby isn't a young fool anymore, I'm sure he'll do better this time."

"I certainly hope so."

The last thing the world needed was another Grindelwald. Nicolas had told the 'young fool' that the other boy was a lost cause, but he hadn't listened, and the entire world had suffered the consequences.

He wasn't sure if he could, or even wanted to, survive whatever horrors would come with the next eventual war. He'd seen no less than five dark lords rise and fall in his many centuries of life, and it seemed like each one was more creatively cruel and vile than the last. The thought of potentially aiding the next and worst monster raised his hackles something fierce.

"Now, now, little sour grape." Perenelle tapped her head against his. "You worry too much."

"I worry just the right amount, for both of us together," he grumbled, a well-worn expression in their time together. "The—"

"Day you stop worrying, is the day we fall straight out of the sky." She kissed his nose. "I know, I know. Now tell me everything."


"Oh come on." Hydrus watched as the flamboyant letters Flamel had scrawled onto the scroll flaked away. "I don't wanna go to fucking France."

He was sitting atop the canopy of a swan boat as his mentor and Grindelwald paddled it across the surface of the lake. They'd 'borrowed' it at Dumbledore's pleading, and Hydrus had cast a notice-me-not charm on it so they'd be left in peace as the old man got to have his fun. The night sky was clear and star filled, and Hydrus glared at every last one of them as he shoved the paper back into his pocket.

"Everything alright up there?" Dumbledore called.

"I'm playing third wheel to wizard-Hitler and wizard-Gandhi," Hydrus snapped back. "So no."

He heard Grindelwald scoff, and mutter something about 'that drug-addled muggle bastard'.

"Just one more lap and we'll take him back," Dumbledore said. "It's a lovely night."

Hydrus rubbed at his forehead and sighed again. How the hell did things turn out like this?


Tonks quietly closed the door to her parents dryer and turned it on. It would be a long day at 'school' tomorrow since she'd basically gone without sleep tonight, but at least she wouldn't smell like the wrong side of a hog. As she stepped into the kitchen she saw her mother had awoken.

"Morning, mum."

The woman smiled back at her. "Hello, dear. I thought I heard someone come in."

"Yeah." Tonks gave a sheepish grin. "Tried not to wake you, but needed to get some laundry done."

"No worries, would you like some tea?"

She nodded and her mother grabbed another mug from the cupboard. There was some steam coming out of the end of the kettle, but it wasn't whistling yet. Tonks yawned as she sat down on the other side of the counter, and her mother tutted at her.

"You haven't been getting enough sleep," she nagged. "I've told you before it's not good for you, you need to get your eight hours every night."

"Yeah, yeah," Tonks grumbled. "How many hours did you get when you were apprenticing?"

Her mother huffed back at her, but couldn't argue that point. Both her parents worked at St. Mungo's, and everyone knew how strenuous that sort of schooling was. People studied for hours on end to pass exams that left them with nightmares, if her father was to be believed, and they sometimes worked for more than twenty-four hours at a time. Healing magic was a dangerous business where one mistake could make a problem ten-times worse, and so everyone who claimed to be a mediwitch or mediwizard had to be as near to perfect as possible.

"So what've you been up to?" her mother asked as the kettle began to whistle. She picked it up off the burner and began pouring it into the mugs. "Any problems at the academy?"

"Not there, no." Tonks watched as her mother poured some milk into the teas, and just a pinch of sugar into the one she handed over. "I did meet with Albus Dumbledore recently though."

Her mother blinked at her. "Really? What on earth for?"

"Um…" She wasn't sure how much she was allowed to say. "He needed some help for one of his students. I got to meet your cousin Sirius's son."

"Little Siri?" Her mother gave a smile. "I haven't talked to him in forever. He was the only one of those awful lot I could stand."

Tonks blinked. "I didn't realise you two were close."

"I wouldn't say we were close," her mother said with a pondering hum. "We just got along better than we did with the others." She snorted. "Certainly better than with Bella. She was such a little pisspot."

Tonks frowned as she watched her mother actually smile as she apparently reminisced. Usually whenever the woman talked about the Black family it was with a scowl or a sneer.

"So what was Hydrus like?" her mother asked. "I've seen the newspapers talking about him but I never bothered to look into it."

"I don't know." Tonks rubbed at the back of her head, still worried she might be saying too much. "He was a bit arrogant. A bit scary."

Now her mother frowned, a much more typical reaction to her old family. "Why scary?"

"Can't say." Tonks shook her head. "Everything's all hush-hush."

"Did he hurt you?" Her mother demanded, her own temper rising for once. "What—"

"No!" Tonks said quickly, worried she'd have to deal with one of the woman's legendary rants. "He's just, like, really strong." She swallowed. "Like, scary strong."

"Oh." Her mother's frown faded slightly. "Well what do you expect from Siri's kid?"

And now she sounded like the AIs Tonks already had to deal with. "God, I'm so sick of people talking about him. It's nothing but 'The Black Sheep this, the Black Sheep that' at the academy."

Her mother gave her a patronising smile. "Oh trust me, sweety, I get it." She laughed. "Growing up all your great-grandfather ever did was rant and rave about Siri. It drove my sisters mad.

"He's proper bastard, that one. Certainly won't see me at his funeral." She shook her head. "Just focus on yourself and everything'll work out. You'll be graduating soon, and then you can go and give Siri a slap whenever someone mentions him."

Tonks gave a bemused grin at the thought. "Oh yeah, I'll just walk up to the Black Sheep and smack him upside the head."

"You should!" Her mother nodded to herself at the idea. "Trust me, his skull is so thick he probably won't even feel it."

They both laughed. Tonks might've despised the fact that her parents had the audacity to name her 'Nymphadora', but that didn't mean she didn't love them. She couldn't even imagine what it would've been like to grow up the way her mother did, with a cold and cruel family who constantly put each other down instead of helping them.

Which made her think about Hydrus again, and wonder if perhaps that's exactly what he'd dealt with.

'I believe it would be good for young Hydrus to have more familial faces around him.'

"So yeah," Tonks said. "I'll be going to Hogwarts every Sunday to help out."

"Ha!" She turned to see her father had woken up, hair wet and slicked back from the shower. "Didn't you tell us you'd never set foot in that 'awful place' again when you graduated?"

Her face, and most likely her hair, both went pink. "Shut up, Dad."

He just laughed and leaned down to give her a kiss on the cheek, then stepped around the counter to give one to her mother. He began fiddling with the coffee machine, he was the only one in the house who actually drank the stuff, and her mother set about making some toast and eggs that Tonks would be extremely grateful for. She'd had to skip dinner last night, but she would finally get something to eat now.

As her parents started to chat about what they'd be doing that day at the hospital, Tonks took it all in and decided she'd try and be a bit friendlier next Sunday.


Hydrus stared up at the sky which was rapidly turning orange as he tried his best not to fall asleep on his feet. Somehow or another Dumbledore kept finding reasons to extend this 'day pass' of Grindelwald's, but they were finally back at Nurmengard, and the other two were inside so that he wouldn't have to deal with any more of their ridiculous conversations.

A part of him was curious if the castle could actually withstand having all three of them inside at once, or if that would overwhelm its runic 'pipeline' that drained its occupants' magics into a nearby ley line, but he certainly wasn't going to test that yet.

To his relief, Dumbledore returned after just five minutes alone with his old lover. There was a touch of red around his eyes, but Hydrus certainly couldn't begrudge him that. He might not've been able to feel such love himself at the moment, but that didn't mean he didn't remember his troops' relief after he'd made his second bargain, and the apparent mood change it brought upon him.

"All set?" he asked gently.

"Quite," Dumbledore said. "I'm grateful for your patience today, Hydrus."

"Of course." He bowed his head. "It was the least I could do for all your help arranging this rag tag bunch in the first place."

Dumbledore leaned against the wall beside him and sighed. "I know you don't have a frame of reference, but he really has changed a great deal."

"I'm sure."

"He used to be so… Bombastic. Like everything he did was some monumental achievement, every word he spoke a poem on its own." The old man slowly stroked his long beard. "I'm not sure if the change is for the better or if it's depressing."

Hydrus snorted. "I'm sorry, professor, but I really can't find it within me to have any sort of sympathy for the man."

"Nor do I expect you to," Dumbledore said with a sigh. "But I don't exactly have anyone else to share these thoughts with."

Hydrus opened his mouth to respond, but slowly closed it to get his own thoughts in order first. Eventually he said, "Well, so long as you don't hold me conversationally hostage like you did with the ties to get an opinion out of me, I don't mind just listening."

"Thank you." The headmaster gave him a tired smile. "I believe I need some more time to really process it all, but I would appreciate that."

"Oh, and no more of these long-ass nights." Hydrus yawned again. "If you try something like this next week, I'll haul his ass back here by myself."

"Yes, yes, of course not."

Hydrus narrowed his eyes at the ancient warlock. "I mean it. I'm not just going to go along with it like I did this time."

"I know."

"I'm serious."

"I'm sure you are."

Hydrus groaned as he suspected the headmaster would just keep trying to repeat tonight. 'God, why did I have to get stuck between these two. I've got to be the most uncomfortable third wheel in the world.'


Amelia pinched the bridge of her nose as she finally discovered where her husband-to-be had been all night. The man and his friend Remus were both passed out on her couch, Sirius on top of the werewolf, and three bottles of alcohol were sitting on the table in front of them. When she'd gotten in late last night, she'd just hoped her fiance was off at the Potters' working with James, but it seemed that had been too much to ask for.

She sighed and grabbed the folder that was sitting on top of the living room table and opened it up, fearing that the idiot had left out something to do with Operation Niffler, but saw the top page was just a bunch of hand-drawn runes.

'Probably something for Giannis,' she thought as she closed it and stared down in frustration at 'her' man. 'Honestly I thought he was bad enough with Potter.'

"Get up." She kicked the couch, and both men jerked awake, blearily looking around in confusion. "You know, when we first started dating, I was worried I'd come home and find you in bed with another woman."

Sirius snorted and slowly stood. "As if I'd ever cheat on you." He yawned and winced as he rubbed his forehead. "And as if Remus could ever pull a hot piece of ass like me."

"Sorry, Bones," Remus said as he sat up and stretched. "I can't promise it won't happen again, but I can at least say it doesn't happen that often."

"He means the part where he gets wasted," Sirius said with a smirk. "You're stuck with me."

"Unfortunately for you." Amelia reached out and flicked his ear, earning a wince and a pout. "Go get ready for work, I'll take Giannis to the Weasleys this time."

For once the man didn't grumble, probably just glad to skip one of his usual 'chores', and she gave a nod to Remus as she left.

When she arrived at the boy's room, she found him reading the runes book Sirius had given him. She still wasn't sure if it was wise to give the boy such an advanced textbook, but since he couldn't actually use magic properly yet she figured it couldn't be too dangerous. Giannis didn't even notice she'd arrived until she sat the folder down on his desk.

"Ah!" He jumped up. "Miss Bones!"

"Hello, dear," she said as he gave her a hug. "Are you ready to go?"

"Oh, um…" The boy looked away sheepishly. "I haven't showered yet…"

She tutted at him, but reeled in her annoyance when she saw the fear in his eyes. "It's alright. Just go ahead and get cleaned quick, okay?"

"I'm sorry," he mumbled. "I got distracted."

"I said it's alright, sweety." She knelt down and ruffled his hair. "I know it'll take a while to believe it, but I promise no one's going to hurt you here."

Giannis nodded. "I know." He took a breath. "Hydrus promised me."

Amelia faked a smile at that, but it seemed his own reminder helped the boy calm down. Giannis ran off to go and get clean and she sighed.

Hydrus Black. The boy was about as petulant a teen as you could ever imagine, and unlike the countless runner-ups, he was terrifyingly strong. When Sirius first told her about the boy and said she should clear up room in the budget, she thought he was exaggerating or blinded with fatherly pride. After she'd seen him part the ocean down to its base though?

It was like when Sirius first joined the auror corps, but about ten times worse. Her fiance might've come from the Black family, but everyone had heard about his falling out with them and the way he treated everyone equally. He might've been powerful enough to raise some red flags, but socially he was in the clear. Hydrus, on the other hand, was nothing but red flags. Even Minister Shacklebolt, her former captain, had told Scrimgeour to start keeping a file for the boy.

'I really hope I'm right about him,' she thought as she left to go and make sure her fiance hadn't just gone right back to sleep. 'Both for Sirius's sake, and just about everyone else's.'


"I've spent a lot of time reviewing your memories," Dumbledore said. "And I believe I've come to a conclusion that you might not like."

Hydrus snorted. "What's that?"

They were in the headmaster's office, as was becoming typical for their nightly appointments. Rumours had begun to spread that the headmaster was taking him on as his apprentice, and although it drew some ire from people who felt it wasn't fair, it wasn't like anyone could stop them. Not only was Hydrus the school's champion, he was also the head of the Study Club.

The group had quickly become the school's most popular extracurricular activity, and for several reasons. You had students who just enjoyed having the spacious environment to duel and practice in, and some who loved being able to have quiet spaces to study in and dedicated tutors around to answer their questions. A large segment of students just liked having free quills, ink, and parchment to use for their homework. Finally, as the group continued to grow larger, it became more and more of an ostracization to not be in the club.

So he and Dumbledore hadn't gotten any sort of official inquiries for the apparent apprenticeship, and thus were free to meet every night.

Once he was done with his 'detentions'.

"Do you know why you lost the war against Voldemort?"

"Call him Tom," he muttered. "Feels weird to hear you call him that. And the answer is because we were never going to win from the start. I killed the bastard around half a dozen times, and he just kept coming back. We had no way of finding his horcruxes."

His forces had spent the first half of the war trying to find them. In the second half they were still a priority, but finding water, food, and shelter had taken the crown; not to mention the small matter of staying alive at all. Between the constant need for more men which stood against the constant fear of spies, Voldemort's love for surprise attacks, and the bouts of vulnerability the Dark Lord would purposefully show to entice Harry to attack? The sources of immortality had fallen by the wayside.

"True, but to take it a step further, it's my fault." Dumbledore folded his arms behind his back and looked away. "Had I not—"

"Enough," Hydrus snapped. "Don't blame him, you, whatever, or anyone else. It was my responsibility—"

"No it was not!" Hydrus flinched and actually cowered for a moment. Then he felt a sense of self-repulsion that he hadn't experienced since he was still sleeping beneath the Dursley's stairs. He never did that anymore… "It was my responsibility to train you. My responsibility to protect you. My responsibility to put 'Tom' down in the first place. And I failed.

"Had I not gone and fallen for the exact same trap you did, I would've been alive. I could've been the shield to your sword. A second queen on the chess board." Dumbledore pressed both his fists into his desk and leaned forward. "In a war between titans, the enemy had one, and we had two. Until I let myself get killed."

"It wasn't like that," Hydrus muttered. "I was stronger than you. Stronger than anyone. I should've—"

"Should have what?" Dumbledore demanded, leaning even further forward. "Killed an immortal? Saved the dead? What should you have possibly done?"

"I don't know!" Hydrus snapped, unable to properly control his magic as it tore through a part of his chest and most of his arm. "Something. Anything. But I failed and now I'm here so what do you want from me?" He loudly scoffed. "And why are you yelling?"

Dumbledore sighed and finally relaxed back down into his chair. "I merely want for you to acknowledge how fruitless your self-loathing is." He reached over and took one of his sweets, but Hydrus didn't much feel like taking one for himself. "You don't seem to respond to a gentle touch, so I tried something different." He unwrapped the lemon drop and popped it into his mouth. "You've had well over half of a peaceful year to come up with something you and your forces missed, but you still can't find an alternative solution to the problem you once faced."

"I haven't given it much thought," Hydrus said sourly. "I never said there was a problem with what I did."

"Really? You haven't once buried away the guilt at having had your friends, lovers, and family kill themselves in ritualistic suicide?" the headmaster pressed. "I'm willing to believe you haven't given it much thought, in an avoidance of guilt undeserved, but I refuse to believe you don't take issue with what you've done."

Hydrus glared at one of the blackened portraits of former headmasters. His own 'ancestor' lay behind it, a painting who'd once nearly gotten some of Hydrus's forces killed when they tried to hole up in Sirius's childhood home. Before he could figure out a lie to give, Dumbledore continued.

"Despite what you might think, I do know a thing or two about people, Hydrus," Dumbledore said. "How else could I so purposefully and directly eschew their common sense?" The old man smiled at him, but Hydrus couldn't be bothered to return it. "I want you to try and forgive yourself."

"The only people who can forgive me are dead," Hydrus said. "Your other self amongst them, so you can skip over the part where you say you forgive me as if that'll mean anything to me."

The headmaster sighed. "Will you please just try for me? Even if you don't believe it will work, please try to be kinder to yourself and think less harshly on your past actions."

"Why does it matter?" Hydrus demanded. "I don't let my emotions get in the way of my decisions."

"Nor do you let morality stop you from killing or maiming others who do not deserve it." Dumbledore stared him down and Hydrus nearly rolled his eyes. "If you can't even have mercy on yourself, how could you possibly have it for others?"

He made to speak, but the old man cut him off.

"This is not your world." Fawkes whistled from the corner of the room and Hydrus winced at the judgemental sound. "There is not a war going on here. There is no dark lord terrorising people. There is no need for The Boy Who Lived.

"You want to stop any new dark lords from rising? That's wonderful, please do so." The headmaster folded his hands together, pressed his elbows against the desk, and rested his head on them. "But I will not allow you to become one in the process."

"I won't," Hydrus said quietly. "I'm just doing what is necessary."

"No, you're doing what you were taught to do," Dumbledore replied. "But if a deaf, grey-eyed mutt like me can learn how to use a 'hand dryer', then you can learn a few new tricks as well."

Hydrus snorted as his mentor smashed the tension like it was a sheet of ice, and the headmaster chuckled along with him. Hydrus stood to leave, the need for a proper signal to end their meeting entirely unnecessary. "I wouldn't worry about the hand dryer thing. They never worked for me either."


BBaRtS


Thirty-one in the books. Some bouncing back and forth as people almost immediately 'betray' Hydrus, and next chapter we'll see the consequences of that. We also got to see Dumbledore really starting to try and forcefully break through to Hydrus, even as others' fears grow. We'll see how this new approach works out for them.

I don't know why but this chapter was a pain to write, I hadn't made any progress on it besides a few dozen words here and there until Friday evening. I might've just burned myself out a bit with how much I wrote after getting over being sick, but either way I don't feel like next week's will be as strenuous.

On to reviews!

There was some general back and forth discourse in reviews talking about LGBTQ+ characters, I think cus I mentioned it briefly in an AN? Either way, won't really be regarding any criticism on that front. It's going straight into the box of stuff Idgaf about people complaining about anymore, alongside the problematic nature of Bella's side of the pairing as it stands, there being too much angst, and Hydrus's missing arm lol

"you wanted free thinkers but Luna isn't there?" - Dumbledore's the one who arranged the group, and I feel like Hydrus is able to be so relaxed about the 'secretive' nature of the project without the school children around. Though, we did see how well that went for him this go around...

"though you did botch Lockharts name" - Ah, good catch. Idk why I mixed those two names up, I'll fix that when I post this chapter.

"Hi love the story. I think you did this on purpose but harry forgot 1 person: giannis. Despite not knowing anything about runes he is clearly gifted and could help in small ways. You've probably already thought of that tho ;)" - Maaaaybe. Lol he IS a runes prodigy, but as we saw this chapter he's still technically a complete novice with them. We'll see where he goes from here, however.

"a tidbit for your mind to chew through. Miriam Margolyes, (the actress who played Professor Sprout in the movies) recently did a nude photoshoot with Vogue. Do what you will with that info." - You keep that forbidden knowledge to yourself

"Grindelwald is such a mood" - I'm enjoying getting to flesh him out. I didn't/won't watch the Fantastic Beasts movies, so I have no idea what he was like in those, but I enjoy finding a way to make him totally different yet very compatible with Dumbledore. We got to see just why Dumbledore compared Hydrus to him as well as a brief description of what he used to be like in comparison.

"Where's pettigrew's backstory? I'm kinda feeling out of loop" - It'll come in time. What we've seen thus far is how timid his wife and daughter are, Dumbledore seemingly used Legilimency on his wife and didn't like what he saw, but beyond that we'll see. The headmaster has plans for him, plans that might've changed after seeing what he did.

"Poor Francis should have gotten to come to he's adorable lol" - I loved seeing this and the follow up comment, given what happened for the second trial lol. We haven't yet seen the last of Francis yet either, but I do try and space out mentions and moments of Apophis's own plans so that they/he don't become obnoxious.

There were some suggestions as to what sort of visualisation could work for Hydrus's magic as well, and I'll say at the very least that they'll come in handy as suggestions for the next meeting's dialogue. I'm assuming that's what the review of "Zero Kelvin Flames" was supposed to be, though I admit at first I was confused as to who Kelvin was and why his flame reviews were so awful there was apparently a watch dog keeping track of them hahaha. For now I think the one I've decided on fits better, but we'll see if someone has something else in the mean time.

And that's all! Thanks so much for the kind reviews, less-than-three, see you all next Saturday!