Hydrus arrived in an empty glade, and patted a beaming Dobby on the shoulder for the apparition. He went to dismiss his friend but something caught in his throat. He… He really didn't want to be alone for this. Just the thought of going to the spot where he'd once buried his first wife, his first love, terrified him. His magic was already wild at the best of times these days, and the last thing he needed was to have a breakdown in muggle lands and destroy countless acres of forestry.

Besides, if there was one person in the entire world he knew would never betray him, it was Dobby.

"I have something to tell you," he said. "Something that might be hard to believe."

The elf nodded, sending his ears flopping. "Of course, Master Hydrus, Dobby will believe you."

"I know you will," he said with a smile. "Where do I even start…" He thought about his time with Dumbledore, and snorted when he realised he should probably just start there again. "My name isn't Hydrus Black. It's Harry Potter."

Dobby gave a confused frown.

"I was born in a timeline that was different from this one," he continued. "It was a much, much darker world. One where a dark lord rose to power a few decades ago, and killed more people than I could possibly count."

"Ohhh…" Dobby whimpered. "Poor Master Harry."

Hydrus barked out a laugh at the way the elf had immediately changed his name, but didn't bother to correct him yet. "My parents were killed when I was just a year old, and when the dark lord tried to kill me, his curse bounced back and killed him instead.

"I'm skimming a lot here, but when I started Hogwarts, he was trying to come back to life." Dobby's eyes widened. "Malfoy was your master in that timeline too, and in my second year he tried using one of the dark lord's artefacts to hurt me and my fellow students. You tried to stop me from coming to Hogwarts in order to protect me." He grinned as the elf gasped. "You went behind Lucius's back and pulled all sorts of tricks to stop his plan from working."

"Dobby would never betray his master!" the elf said, horrified. "Dobby promises!"

"It's okay!" Hydrus patted the elf once more. "Although it was annoying at first, I did appreciate what you were trying to do in the end. I even tricked Lucius into freeing you as payback."

Dobby beamed up at him again.

"Anyways, eventually the dark lord managed to succeed in his plans, and came back to life." Hydrus rubbed at his brow. "He launched a new war that, over the course of the decades it raged, left more of the magical population dead than alive.

"I lost everyone I loved. My wife, my second wife, my child." He took a breath. "My godfather, my friends, my mentor, my everyone. And I even killed some of them myself, in order to strike a bargain with Magic to send me back in time."

"Master Harry worships magic?" Dobby asked, and Hydrus blinked at the elf's recognition. "Dobby's mother was her servant too! She's a nice goddess!"

The elf was bouncing up and down at the apparent connection and Hydrus laughed at the exuberance. It was nice to finally meet someone who didn't shun his deity, even if it was 'just' a house elf. 'Just' a house elf had been, and now was once again becoming, one of his closest friends.

"Yes, I do." He showed Dobby his ring. "Unfortunately, I chose the symbol of Death as my sign of worship. It's lead to…"

He trailed off, unsure of what all was going on behind the scenes besides the apparent goblin war they'd started.

"Bad business." Dobby shook his head. "They's is doing bad things, Master Harry. You must stay safe."

"I'll try." He took a deep breath. "I made other bargains with her as well though, including trading away my romantic love for the ability to control The Trace. I recently broke that bargain."

Dobby gasped.

"And now I… Now I want to go see my loves' graves." He rubbed at his already sore eyes. "I was hoping you would keep me company."

"Of course, Master Harry!" Dobby nearly shouted. "Dobby would be honoured."

"Thank you, Dobby." He took a deep breath. "Come on."

The path to where he'd buried Ginny was as familiar to him as any hall in Hogwarts. He'd made this trek hundreds of times before he made the second bargain for the first time. Originally he'd needed to count out the steps to make sure he didn't lose his way in the forest, but he'd long since lost the need for that. Even now that the field wasn't the magically-corrupted wasteland he'd turned it into, the muscle memory came to him flawlessly.

Before too long, he'd reached a much younger Yew tree than the one he'd buried Ginny beneath. He plopped down to the ground and sighed. Logically he knew that his first wife wasn't buried here anymore, that her thirteen-year-old self was back at Hogwarts probably trying to catch his own fourteen-year-old self's attention, but this was all he had left.

"Her name was Ginny," Hydrus said. "She was my best friend's sister, a year younger than us."

Dobby stepped up beside him and nodded.

"When we first met I thought she was a bit weird. She had a huge crush on me because in that timeline I was a hero for 'killing' the dark lord." He chuckled as he thought back to the embarrassed gasps she'd give whenever he caught her staring. "When we grew up, after the war began, she became my whole world.

"Everyone expected me to be that same hero that the history books talked about, and she was no exception." He smiled. "The only difference was, she actually made me feel like I could live up to those expectations. She built me up, helped me out, and picked me up when I fell."

"A good lady," Dobby agreed. "A good lady for a good Master Harry."

Harry laughed again. "Better than I deserved. And she… She made me feel wanted." He brushed away a few more tears. "It sounds stupid and childish, but I didn't grow up in a good place. My aunt and uncle hated me, and treated me almost as bad as the Malfoys treated you."

Dobby whined.

"Having someone who wanted me so badly, who got jealous so much, who loved me more than anyone else in the world?" He shook his head. "It meant everything to me."

And maybe that's why Bella's affection had managed to break through to him too. If Ginny had been a bit of a 'fangirl' when he first met her, then the insane woman was a full-blown stalker. She practically worshipped him. Sure it was a perturbing fixture in their relationship that he was in a teenage body while she was at or nearing forty, but he couldn't particularly bring himself to care.

The reason she wasn't concerned about that boundary was his power. It wasn't like there would ever be some other teenager with strength like his; Dumbledore, Grindelwald, and Tom had all grown into their legendary statuses after decades of training. Harry had too, he supposed, he just managed to cram it all back down into a teenager's form.

And if such an adolescent did crop up, he'd just put them under his heel to make sure he didn't lose her.

"Master Harry?" He gave a hard sniff and nodded. "What happened to Miss Ginny?"

"She died in a raid, in the first half of the war." Harry shuddered at the memory. "Tom, that was the dark lord, assaulted our force's camp while I was captured. I wasn't there to save her."

Merlin, he could still remember the way he'd nearly done more damage than the dark lord had when he found out his wife was dead. He'd almost levelled the new camp, and the only thing that had saved him from making the worst mistake of his life was that Hermione had managed to save and preserve Ginny's body for him to bury. Back then his magic had been like a tornado; lethal and uncontrollable gales would sweep up around him and eviscerate anything nearby. His fear over tarnishing her remains was all that had stayed his hand.

He'd buried her in this forest, the site where they'd had their first real date. Ginny had complained that they'd never been on a proper date when they were… Sixteen? Maybe seventeen, and he'd managed to set up a picnic for them in the field he'd first arrived in. One thing had led to another, and he'd lost his virginity beneath the bows that were shading him now. It was the same spot he'd later proposed to her.

It was the only place he even considered laying her to rest in.

The memory of the funeral itself was still a blur, no doubt from whatever child he'd had with her. He carefully avoided touching those memories too closely, and shook his head before his arm destroyed itself for the thousandth time.

"She was a good woman," he said, voice hoarse. "I miss her."

"Dobby wishes he could meet her." The house elf looked almost as sad as Harry felt, though it might've just been how big and wet his eyes were. "Dobby is sorry, Master Harry."

"Thank you, Dobby." He wrapped his arm around his old friend. "I appreciate you being here."

They sat together in silence for a while as more memories of his first wife played out in his mind. The ones that were missing pieces he avoided, but the rest left him feeling melancholic and lonely. Ginny had been the one who'd taught him how to pursue anything and everything he desired, to not let anything stand in the way of what he wanted.

And right now he wanted to see Bellatrix.

But he couldn't. Not yet. There was another grave to see.

"Come on," he said, standing. "There's somewhere else I need to go."

Dobby brought him to Toulon, a coastal city in the south of France, and from there they began to spot-apparate to the place Fleur had once shown him. Technically he wasn't sure if the Trace would pick up on his casting or not since his soul and magic were both more than matured enough to avoid it, but he figured it was better not to risk it yet. He just pointed the elf further and further out into the ocean, and allowed his magic to guide him closer to the destination.

It was, in unofficial terms, a 'ley point'. It was common for magical creatures to, when their lives were coming to an end, find places of extremely low magical density in order to slip away in peace. Some of the most common spots they'd find were locations that were exactly equidistant from the ends of ley lines, and over the course of centuries, the places would become magical from all the spirits and magically charged corpses that would accumulate.

The island they were looking for now was apparently the traditional resting place for French veela. Once the less intelligent creatures stopped coming here, after it had lost its mundanity, the sentient species had taken it for themselves. They would lay their dead out in the open so that their bodies would 'return to nature', and their souls could have an easier journey onwards with nothing to weigh them down.

Fleur had made him promise to take her here if she died before him, and told him that she would do the same for him. At first Harry had worried it might be improper for a human to be laid to rest in the veela's sacred ground, only for her to tell him, 'I am the last of my kind. If I say it is fine, it is fine.'

When he finally spotted the small spot of land in the distance with his squinting, he pointed it out to Dobby and the house elf took them there in an instant.

To his horrified surprise, they weren't alone.

There had to be at least half a dozen veela as well as a pair of human men there already. They were all in glimmering white robes, had eyes as red-shot as his own, and were looking at him with just as much shock as he'd felt.

"Ah," he started, suddenly forgetting most of the French that Fleur had taught him as he tried to apologise. "D-Désolé."

"Qui es-tu?" One of the veela demanded, stomping towards him with fire in her eyes and feathers in her hair. "Pourquoi es-tu ici?"

"H-Hydrus Black," Harry responded. He struggled to find the words to answer 'why are you here?'. "Tristesse? Tristesse de la mort?"

He knew that wasn't right, but it was all he could think of.

"Désolé," he apologised again. "Je non… Ah shit, uh, je ne savais pas…"

"Why are you 'ere, child?" the veela hissed, her form slowly becoming more and more monstrous.

"To mourn!" he said, relieved to switch to English. "I didn't know there was a ceremony today, I apologise for intruding, I came to mourn someone else. Please forgive me, I shall leave."

"Non!" He jumped slightly as one of the two humans nearly-shouted. The man was old, everyone here was, and he wiped his eyes as he shook his head. "Venez, pleurez avec nous."

"Uh…"

Harry wasn't quite sure what the man had said, but the veela gave a harsh sniff and stomped back to where she'd been standing as the man waved him over. He followed the silent instruction after a confused glance to Dobby, and as soon as he was close enough the old man wrapped an arm around him and pulled him into a vice-like grip.

"Marie," the man said, pointing at the shawl-covered body of what Harry could only assume was his own wife. "Ma petite fraise."

'My little strawberry?' Hydrus thought. "Repose en paix."

He'd heard Fleur say that last line often enough at memorials to remember it easily. The man gave another hard sniff and nodded gratefully. He began speaking again, projecting his voice out so Harry knew he was no longer speaking to just him. Throughout whatever speech he was giving he didn't let go of the younger man, and although it was a touch awkward and more than a touch painful, Harry could tell by the cracks in his voice and the heaving breaths that the Frenchman was hurting. He could bear to be crushed for a little while.

When it came to an end the man finally released him with one last rib-smothering squeeze before patting him on the back and half-stumbling away. Harry stared down at the deceased one last time, wondering if it was better or worse for his own mental state that he'd had to leave Fleur where she lied after she'd cut her throat, and turned away to the east.

His second wife had made him promise to lay her facing this way, saying that she had 'already seen enough sunsets.' When he reached the water's edge, he knelt down on his knees and stared at the empty sky, the sun having already begun to dip into the west. Dobby joined him again, and this time knelt beside him instead of standing.

"She was amazing," Harry said. He would have to be careful of his phrasing with the potential eavesdroppers around. "If my first love made me feel wanted, then my second made me feel like I deserved to be wanted.

"She was the most powerful witch around, and I was the most powerful wizard. She was as beautiful as she was intelligent, as dangerous as she was kind." He shivered as the memories of her allure washed over him. "When we were together, every moment that wasn't spent admiring her was used to wonder how the hell I'd gotten so lucky."

At first it had just been about the sex. They were both lonely, both in desperate need for distractions, and Fleur 'wouldn't settle for anyone less'. Their previous loves had died in the same raid, Fleur liked strong men, and Harry liked pretty women. Before long they'd stopped going back to their own tents or rooms or bunks when they were done. Not long after that they hadn't bothered to try and hide it from the others, despite the fear of how it would affect the few remaining Weasleys.

"She was so demanding," Harry said with a chuckle. "Everything had to be done her way or else. I can't count how many times we nearly split because… Because of my bargain. One day she finally battered me down enough that I gave in and fell in love with her."

That had been one of the best and worst days of his life. Fleur had been so overjoyed that she nearly burned their tent down. For him it was a delight to see her so happy, especially given her normally dour mood, but afterward the pain of Ginny's loss had struck him just like it had this time. If it weren't for his newly confirmed love, he'd have gone mad with grief again.

He shook his head. Surrounded by a group of emotionally charged Veela in the midst of the Mediterranean was no place for a breakdown.

"After that it was like night and day. I couldn't believe how much stronger her allure became." He shivered again. "Before it was just this whisper in my soul, telling me how pretty she was, how much I wanted her. Afterwards? It was… It was like this raging inferno that filled every last nook and cranny of my being. It didn't just demand my love, it redoubled it in return."

Merlin, some of the nights they'd shared…

"But it was more than that. There might've been one woman stronger than her that I knew, but I wouldn't have dared say it to her. She was the queen of our little patch of rubble." He grinned, pride flaring up within him. "And that made me the king. With her at my side, with her demanding to be at my side, I could hold my head that much higher."

"Another good lady for good Master Hydrus."

Harry laughed at the way the elf had switched his name back. "Another one better than I deserved."

When he'd first bitterly confessed to the awful idea that had occurred to him, sacrificing their remaining forces to try and turn back time, Fleur had actually supported it. She… Harry winced as her arm began to ache. She'd loved their entire family, and had taken the loss as badly as he had. He'd never managed to convince her to worship Magic as he did, but she never disagreed with his choice either. Apparently some great-aunt of hers, a full-blooded veela, worshipped Magic as well.

He still remembered kissing her good-bye as he laid her body down on the ground, taking the dripping knife from her unclenched hand.

"She was a strong woman," Harry said. "And I loved her more than anything else in the entire world."

And now he had his Bella. A woman that half the world knew, respected, and feared. A woman who loved him for the power he wielded, completely unaware that it's colour was a lie. A woman who saw him as a lord, and who demanded to someday be his lady, and who would settle for nothing less.

"Repose en paix," a voice said. Harry looked up to see the old man from before had wandered up to him. "Suis-moi."

Harry took the hand the man offered him and stood before doing as he was asked, to follow after him. They made their way back to where the body lay and one of the veela gave Harry an unlit candle before leaning over to blow on it. A small lick of flame escaped her lips, igniting the wick, and she nodded before giving another one to Dobby and doing the same.

Before long everyone on the small island was gathered in a circle around the veiled body.

The man who'd been crushing him earlier said a few words, then stepped up and sat his candle down beside body. Then one of the veela went and did the same, then another. One by one they all said a few words, some more personal and partially going over his head, others giving easily understood goodbyes. When it was Dobby's turn, the house elf said something in French as well to Harry's surprise.

'I guess it really wasn't Fleur who taught him that.' Harry licked his lips before saying what he always did at funerals and wakes. "Rejoin with Magic, and enjoy the greatest journey of them all."

When he set his candle down, he felt something flow through him, and as if of its own volition his magic poured out of him. The power felt warmer than normal, like the portion of him that was Dumbledore had somehow managed to wrest control over the rest, and he blew on his candle.

The circle of tiny flames came together in a whirling vortex of fire. The various oranges and yellows and reds began to change into an opalescent and iridescent tower of bright, blazing heat. Hydrus could practically feel the runes in his bones channelling the power, guiding the flames higher and higher. Dobby was clinging to his leg, either out of fear or concern, but he just kept doing what felt right. Eventually the candles had burned down to their bases and the flames slowly died out, leaving no trace of the deceased veela.

"Oh, merci!" Hydrus stiffened as one of the veela 'attacked' him, smothering either side of his face in kisses. "Merci, merci, merci!"

After her came the widower, and by the time he was done Hydrus actually had to use some of his healing magic to rid himself of the rapidly forming bruises from the man's sobbing hug. The same veela who'd nearly attacked him earlier approached.

"You are with Magic?" she asked, voice hoarse. "What are you?"

"I'm… Human?" he said, not sure what she meant. "And yes, I worship Magic."

"Feu et ciel…" Fire and skies. "I have never heard of such a thing."

"A friend taught me the ways," he said. "A centaur I knew."

The woman sniffed and nodded. "It does this old woman's heart good to know that there are humans coming to understand us. My friend would have loved you."

"I would have liked to have met her too," Hydrus said. "And thank you all for allowing me to stay, I promise it was just an accid—"

"Non." The woman shook her head. "Fate guided you here to us today."

Hydrus gave a weak grin at that, not sure if the woman was referring to the actual deity or not. One by one the others left, some flying away, some apparating. Eventually it was down to just Hydrus and the old man, so he made his way over.

"Um, merci." He bowed his head. "Au revoir."

"Au revoir," the man echoed, melancholic as he stared at the spot his 'petite fraise' had lain. "Au revoir…"

Hydrus patted the man on the back, then turned to Dobby and gave a nod. The house elf took him by the wrist, and with a pop they appeared back in the Hog's Head Inn, where he'd flooed to from the Black summer home.

"Aberforth," Hydrus said, waving at the old man who nodded back. "See you Sunday."

The man gave another nod as a goodbye, and Hydrus stepped out. He blinked in surprise when he realised there was a chill in the air, and the smallest flakes of snow sprinkling down around him.

"Seriously?" he muttered. "It's almost May…"

The snow was melting as soon as it touched the ground, leaving the earth muddy and wet, but the stuff's presence did give him an idea.


Amelia arrived home, sleep deprived and overworked, to discover her furniture floating around her house. She was almost tired enough to just pretend she hadn't noticed, but unfortunately her fiance and her fiance's best friend definitely noticed her.

"Bones!" Remus called. "Have you seen a folder around here?"

She blinked. "You do realise I work with a lot of folders, right?"

"No, no," Sirius said. "We mean a folder that's not for work. Remus had it with him when he came by last weekend, and now we can't find it."

"Uh…" She rubbed at her forehead. "I don't… Oh, do you mean the one with the runes?"

"Yes!" both men cried simultaneously.

"I put it in Giannis's room," she said with a frown. "I just assumed it was for him."

"Oh no," Sirius said.

He took off towards the boy's room, and Remus ran after. Amelia just sighed and followed along with trudging steps. When she finally caught up to them, her jaw dropped.

There were at least a dozen photos of bones taped to the wall, arranged into an almost perfect skeleton. Only the end of one of the arms was missing. The bones were covered in runes and were partially transparent at some points. Giannis was standing in front of the display, but had his neck turned back to look at them.

"Her Sirius, Miss Bones," he said. He turned back to the skeleton. "Do you know where the missing page is?"

"About that…" Sirius started. "Giannis, I'm sorry, you… Weren't supposed to see these."

The boy turned around properly now, frowning. "But Miss Bones gave them to me."

Amelia winced. "I'm sorry, sweety, I just saw some papers with runes on them and thought you'd left them in the living room."

"Oh." Giannis seemed a bit disappointed. "I thought they were a gift."

"Sorry, kiddo." Sirius knelt down. "They actually belong to Hydrus—"

"Oh!" The boy said, suddenly smiling. "There his bones! That's why the arm is missing!" He spun back around to look at the skeleton. "I get it now... The reason they're all scrunched together is because they moved back when he hurt his hand."

"What?" Sirius asked. "Is that… Bad?" He shook his head. "Wait, can you even understand them?"

The boy had wandered up to the photos and ran his thumb over the end of the crippled limb. "And that's why these go like this…"

"Giannis?"

"Oh, um, not really?" The boy turned around and shrugged. "I mean, I sorta get it, but I don't understand it?" His face scrunched up. "I can't figure out what they do, but I get how they do it."

"What's he saying?" Remus asked.

"If these things are as confusing as you say they are," Sirius said, switching back to English. "Then I think he's got a better understanding of them than you do."

Amelia expected the werewolf to bristle at the notion, but the man just smiled. "You did say he was picking things up fast. Runes are a bit like a foreign language, so it makes sense a young kid like him is able to grasp things we might struggle with."

"I guess." Sirius scratched at his stubble as Giannis ran over to his desk and began to scribble something down. "Sorry, kiddo, but we gotta bring these with us. Hydrus needs them."

"Okay gimme just a second." The boy ran over with a piece of paper and a crayon. He began to scribble something on the page against the wall. "I just wanna copy these ones down."

"Uh, I don't know if that's…"

"Done!" The boy beamed up at them. "Here, I'll help you get them."

Amelia turned to Remus as Giannis and Sirius began untaping the pictures. "What the hell are those?"

"Not allowed to say." The werewolf shook his head. "You saw for yourself what happened the last time I did."

She snorted as she remembered watching the most dangerous auror in the world struggle to fend off a raccoon. "Fine. But I'm going to take a nap, you idiots better not wake me up."

"I promise I'll get out of your hair as soon as I get them," Remus said with an apologetic grin. "Sorry about the furniture, Sirius will put everything back to the way it was before we started looking."

"He better."


Hydrus took a deep breath. He'd stalled long enough. Francis had enjoyed the visit, as had Hagrid, as had Professor Binns. The old ghost was overjoyed that someone had actually come to see him in order to ask about history, even if he kept going on about goblins despite Hydrus having asked about him having been the Triwizard Champion at one point.

Now it was time to face the music.

Just as he was about to open the door, it slammed inward and he was jerked inside. After a moment of panic, and a thought towards the prey of trapdoor spiders, he snorted when he realised just who it was smothering him. He hugged Bella back.

"Good to see you too," he said, voice muffled by her chest being squeezed against his face. "Should probably close the door."

It slammed shut but she didn't let him go. He laughed and picked her up with his own magic, finding it easy in her presence to smother the non-Black aspects of himself. He carried her through her office and into her personal room, then settled down on the bed.

"I missed you," he said as she finally loosened her grip a touch. "I really did."

"Mmmm, Bella missed you too." She gave him a kiss. "Say it again."

"I miss—"

"No!" She kissed him three more times in rapid succession. "Say you love me."

Hydrus laughed. "I love you, Bella."

"I love you too," she nearly squealed. "I love you so much, my little water snake."

At first he laughed, but the memories of his previous loves struck him once more. The laughter turned to crying, and Bellatrix picked up on it immediately.

"Hydrus?" He couldn't say anything, he just pulled her in closer and continued to sob. "Oh, oh oh oh, my poor Hydrus." She squeezed him back and placed a gentle kiss on his head. "It's okay. Bella's here."

And here was as safe a place as any for him to have a breakdown. It wasn't an explosion of righteous fury like it had been when he laid Ginny to rest. It wasn't like the time an entire 'class' of his soldiers had been wiped out by a muggle bomb. It wasn't like when he lost… It wasn't like in Dumbledore's office when the stress of the world finally made him snap.

It was just an emotional outpouring that his Bella was there to share with him. She continued to stroke his hair, continued to whisper loving words in his ear, continued to comfort him and help him through it.

Hydrus didn't know how long they lied like that, her asking nothing and him saying nothing in return, but before he knew it he'd let out everything he'd built up since storming out of Dumbledore's office.

"I love you," he said. "Thank you, Bella."

"I love you too, Hydrus."


Albus nodded along as Severus continued to explain the need for an upgraded greenhouse that students weren't allowed to touch. The headmaster agreed with the general idea that if they grew more of their own ingredients for potions class, it could leave a lot more room in the budget for other things. The problem was that the initial cost for building such a facility, let alone staffing it with a trained herbalist and arborist, wouldn't be offset for centuries with the already-discounted rates they currently bought supplies at.

A knock at the door cut off the potions master's next point, and before the headmaster could give permission to enter, the knocker already had.

Hydrus strode in. The 'teen' walked with a bounce in his step, only pausing for a moment to give a bemused grin at the realisation he'd interrupted the Saturday staff meeting, until he was standing between Rubeus and Minerva at the table.

"Excuse me, headmaster," the boy said unapologetically. "I was wondering if you or Professor Flitwick are deft hands at weather magic."

"Mr. Black," Minerva said, annoyed. "I understand you have some leeway as the school's champion, but we're in the middle of a meeting."

Hydrus leaned down to look at the copy of Severus's proposal that Rubeus had been reading. "About buying a new greenhouse? My family will pay for it."

Minerva scoffed at the blatant 'bribery'. "Young man, you can't just—"

"Come on, professor," Hydrus said with a laugh. "I had an idea for a group activity for the Study Club, something to help bring the houses together."

"Hydrus," Albus interjected before his Transfigurations teacher actually got angry. "As much as I appreciate your generous offer, Minerva is correct. You can't just barge into my office like this."

The boy gave him another bemused grin. What on earth had gotten into him? Albus had assumed, even hoped, there would be some change in his apprentice's demeanour since he'd broken his second bargain, but he hadn't expected him to be so…

"You got more problems on the docket or something?" he asked. "Cus believe me, I will throw as much of my great-grandfather's money at your poblems as it takes to get you to make me some snow."

Alright, now Albus was just curious. "Snow?"

"Mm," Hydrus confirmed. "I want, I don't know, four feet of snow across the grounds?" He nodded to himself. "I'm going to have the club build some snowmen."

"Why?" Minerva asked, almost offended at the proposition. "What on earth does that have to do with studying?"

"Well—"

"Hydrus," Albus said. "We'll discuss it. I'm afraid I have to ask you to leave now."

"Fine, fine." He waved his hand at the proposal once more. "You'll take care of that, Professor Black?"

"Of course."

Albus glanced at Bellatrix. Thus far she hadn't contributed anything to the meeting, just sitting in her chair as prim and still as a statue. It was completely at odds with how she'd looked the day before, giggling like a mad woman at a legless fly. Even now when Hydrus shot her a wide, genuine smile she kept up her stoicism.

"In that case, I'll leave you all be. Sorry again."

Hydrus waved then strolled away. The headmaster wouldn't have been surprised to hear him whistling as he went; just what had happened for him to become so…

"Well that was something," Lily said. "Why's he acting like the cat who caught the mouse?"

Albus glanced at Bellatrix, and saw the corner of her lip twitching and a mad glint in her eye. He decided to speak up before she did. "Hydrus recently went through a rather… Revelating, experience. Had a weight taken off his shoulders." He gave a half-hearted sigh. "It seems it's left him feeling rather… Peppy."


Hydrus gave Bella a quick slap to her bottom and ducked into the Study Hall fast as he could to avoid whatever retaliation she'd send his way for the parting 'gift'. It was eight o'clock on the dot, and the entirety of Team Fix Hydrus's Magic was already gathered in the quiet section of the study hall. He strolled over, humming as he went until he plopped down into the chair he conjured up.

"Evening, everyone," he started. "Thank you all again for being here. Let's hope I won't have to steal too many more of your Sunday evenings, eh?"

"Ah, welcome, Hydrus." Dumbledore stood. "Would you mind if I spoke to you in private for a brief moment?"

Hydrus shrugged and followed after his mentor until they were on the practicals side of the Study Hall where the older man immediately cast a privacy charm around them.

"How are you feeling?" Dumbledore asked. "I must admit I'm surprised to see you being so…"

"Confident?" Hydrus suggested, a bemused smile on his lips. "You were right for the wrong reasons, Professor."

"How so?"

"It wasn't love that I've been missing." Hydrus glanced towards the door, thinking of Bella for a moment. "It was the memories that went with it. I knew what to do, but not why I was doing it.

"I'd forgotten the way Ginny showed me how important it was to be proactive rather than reactive. All I knew was that I had to be on the move," he said. "I'd forgotten the way Fleur showed me that I deserved to be the one the world turned to. All I knew was that I was great."

"Hydrus…"

"But those memories are mine once more, and with them comes a new certainty in what I've done and what I will continue to do." He ran a hand over his jaw, then snorted when he realised it probably looked ridiculous without his old beard. "All that being said, allow me to offer you a word of caution, Albus."

The headmaster frowned.

"You dismissed the idea of that prophecy of yours being about yourself," Hydrus said. "But the man who I first met in this timeline never would've 'accidentally' told Bellatrix about the 'wall' I put up between us. He never would've tried to browbeat me with his power. He never would've manipulated me and mine until I eventually lost the power to control the Trace.

"Careful you don't lose too many of those pieces, Professor." Hydrus turned on his heel and began making his way back towards the others. Maybe now the ancient warlock would pull his nose out of his business. "Alright, let's get started!"

The first thing he did was check in with the runes experts. Remus had spread out the X-rays and Flamel, Grindelwald, and 'Hircus' were pouring over them, hardly paying Hydrus any mind. Remus explained that he'd tried researching various cultures' runes, from the Sumerians to the Polynesians to the Inuits, to see if there were any commonalities between them and the ones Hydrus had on his bones. The rat just said he would try his best.

After that, it was the visualisation team.

"Alright," he said. "Anyone got any ideas?"

"Nope," Aberforth said immediately. "You really made a mess with them picks."

"Yes, I'm aware." Hydrus tried not to be too offended by the flippant, almost-bored tone of the ancient barkeeper. "Anyone else?"

"I'm no expert with this sort of thing…" Tonks said carefully. "But maybe a hurricane?"

"Why a hurricane?"

"Well…" she started. "Their windy, like the Potter family magic. They're made from hot and cold patches meeting in the sky, hot like fire?" She shrugged. "And they block out the sun, making it dark, like the Black family power."

He nodded. "And for Slytherin?"

The auror cadet winced. "That I'm not so sure of. I mean, in theory they could go on forever, for that immortality part you mentioned…"

That... Made a little sense? He tried fitting that into his magic, tried pushing his power towards that conjoining, but already he could feel it getting rejected. A quick, more controlled use of his power healed the small wound the attempt caused.

Hydrus shook his head. "That won't work. Maybe if there was some storm that'd been going on forever it would've, though. We'll keep trying."

Dumbledore cleared his throat. "What about a forest fire? The trees burn, the winds carry the flames to other locations, they bring death in their wake, and I've always found them to be quite prideful."

"Prideful?" Hydrus turned to the man, head pulled back and brows furrowed. "How can a fire be prideful?"

The headmaster shrugged. "They simply are."

"I… No, not to me they're no—"

"And I told you!" Quinn shouted on the other side of the room. "If these marks are dug deeper than these marks, it could completely change this from a two-dimensional matrix into a three-dimensional one!"

"The bones would not allow for such variance!" Flamel snapped back. "He's a human being, not some neanderthal!"

Grindelwald was sitting in his chair, arms and legs 'bound', a small smirk on his face. "Perhaps whatever process he used modified the density of bones as well?"

"Exactly!" Quinn said, snapping his fingers at the dark lord. "If it is a three-dimensional matrix, it could change everything!"

"Or it could be wild goose chase that will multiply the possible schemes by a thousand!"

"He has a point," Grindelwald said, switching sides. "Perhaps it would be best if we eliminated the simpler possibilities first."

"That's—!"

"Enough!" Hydrus snapped. "Just look for yourselves."

He stood and made his way over, shooting a glare at his mentor's former lover as he moved, then he went through the same process he had last week to show off the bones. It hurt worse than the time Fleur had lost control of her form after one of Hermione's experiments went wrong, but he hadn't flinched then either. When the skin was finally clear, he held it out for the old wizards to inspect.

'I swear to Magic herself,' he thought as they began poking and prodding, sending sharp jabs of pain down every inch of his body. 'I am not going another day without learning some anaesthetic spell.'

The pain nearly tempted him to tell them to fuck off when Flamel actually brought out some instrument to measure the depth of the runes, but luckily the alchemist only did three before Quinn agreed that they must all be the same.

"If you're going to fight again, do it quietly," Hydrus ordered as he began to patch himself up. "Or else I'll chop off one of the rat's fingers."

"I didn't do anything!"

Hydrus nearly snapped at him, but Remus silently did it for him. The time traveller's eyes narrowed at the way the werewolf's lip curled, revealing his teeth, and at the almost inaudible growl vibrating through the man's chest. Pettigrew winced and looked away.

'Seems something happened between those two…' Hydrus thought. 'Maybe I'll get to kill the traitor regardless of how well he keeps secrets now.'

He made his way back to Tonks and the Dumbledores. "Anyways, what else we got?"

"Are you alright?" Tonks asked. "That can't have felt good."

"I am, and it didn't." He ran his hand through his hair. "I'm used to it."

His former soldier, the only woman who could potentially have had a stronger claim to Fleur's title as strongest witch in the rebellion, frowned but nodded. "Well, what about a black hole?"

"A what?"

"You know," she said. "A black hole. Like in space."

Hydrus shrugged. "I guess they haven't taught us about them in astrology yet."

"No they're like, really far out in the universe," Tonks explained. "They're these immense voids where everything, everything, gets sucked into them. Black holes are simultaneously the hottest, like fire, thing in the universe, and the coldest."

Aberforth was staring at the woman like she was crazy. "Right."

"What?"

"Just a big space-hole." The man snorted. "The goal is to convince the boy of something that matches all his powers, not trick him into believing in something you made up."

"I didn't make it up!" Tonks's hair flashed a bright, angry orange and her brows grew nearly as bushy as the old man's for some reason. "My father told me about them. Maybe if you spent a little bit more time learning instead of playing with goats you'd have heard of them too."

Dumbledore hummed at his brother. "Perhaps it would do you some good to learn how to—"

"No, stop." Aberforth brought up a clenched hand, like he wanted to strangle the other greybeard. "Quit trying to make people think I can't read."

Hydrus sighed and began to rub at his forehead as his own 'team' began to squabble. Although he couldn't disagree with any individual one of Dumbledore's choices for this team, except the rat, it seemed as if the ancient warlock hadn't put too much thought into group dynamics.

"How about this!" Aberforth said, apparently cutting off one or both of the other two members surrounding Hydrus. "Since we're going with make believe things. Why not a god?"

Dumbledore stiffened but Hydrus cocked an eyebrow. "A god?"

"One of the muggle ones." He waved a hand through the air. "The part of your magic that's Slytherin seems to be the hardest piece to fit into anything, so let's start with it. What's more 'proud' or 'immortal' than a god?"

Hydrus nodded. The man had a point.

"From there you just need to find one in charge of things that the rest of your powers fit in," Aberforth said. "Take Odin for example. Ain't he the god of wisdom, healing, the gallows, poetry, and about a half million other things? Just find one who's got fire under their belt, as well as wind or chaos or freedom, and cold or death or darkness."

"You might be onto something," Hydrus said, thinking back to that old movie he'd watched back with the copper owl and the gorgon. The Dursleys had only brought him along begrudgingly after Figg cancelled on them for babysitting. "I only know real gods, unfortunately. Anyone know an expert on the muggle ones?"

A wince from Tonks, a frown from Dumbledore, and an 'are you serious?' look from Aberforth were his only responses.

"Right." He sighed. "Kreacher!"

With a whiplike crack the elf appeared. "Lord Master Hydrus."

"Do any of the Black libraries have books that could contain information on muggle gods?" He knew it was a long shot, what with the politics of the family, but it was still worth a shot. "We're trying to see if there could be any connection between such figures and ancient wizards and witches."

Kreacher's face had wrinkled at the request, but the explanation seemed to have lowered his hackles. "Kreacher will check. It will take a Kreacher a while, however."

Once the elf was gone, he turned back towards Dumbledore. "Do you know if Hogwarts would have such information?"

The headmaster shook his head. "I doubt you'll find any information on them outside of vague references in Muggle Studies texts."

"Great." He'd have to do his own research then. "Alright, let's keep trying then."

The other three kept throwing out potential solutions ranging from frozen flames to the concept of schadenfreude to some Greek, mythological goat. He felt bad having to keep shut the ideas down, but it wasn't like he could hide his feelings when the feelings were what mattered most. Eventually Flamel wandered over.

"Hydrus," the alchemist said. "Did you lose your arm before or after you had the runes drawn?"

"Before," he answered. "I had them adjusted afterwards."

"Adjusted…" Flamel tapped at his chin. "I see. Oh, also, Perenelle had a suggestion regarding the visualisation."

"Hit me with it."

"There's a species of cacti, native to Sudan, which must be regularly burned in the same manner in which we'd normally water more mundane plants." So far so good. "The needles are exceptionally toxic, deadly. Their pollen is carried away on the winds to populate themselves. Finally, assuming they don't suffer rainfall, disease, damage, or any other external factors, they could in theory live forever."

Hydrus frowned and nodded, that could—

"They went extinct three-hundred years ago," Grindelwald chimed in. "Hardly what I'd call immortal."

"Well you didn't have to tell him that!" Flamel snapped. "Now it'll never mesh with the Slytherin magic!"

Well it certainly wouldn't now that the alchemist had so harshly decried the notion.

"I was only trying to help," Grindelwald said.

"Gellert," Hydrus started. "I swear to Magic if your 'help' is so unhelpful because you want to keep getting out of Nurmengard, I will personally bury you beneath the damn place."

"I promise he isn't doing that, Hydrus," Dumbledore tried to assure him. "He's probably just nervous that 'our' team will beat 'his' team."

Grindelwald's mouth snapped open, but quickly shut once more as he no doubt remembered his 'vow'. The man gave a murderous glare to the headmaster, who smirked and turned away.

'I feel like I'm dealing with children,' Hydrus thought. "Why don't we call it here for tonight. The runes side should have a much better idea of just what it is they're working with now, and hopefully the visualisation side will have a better understanding of my view on… Pretty much everything."

"I agree," Dumbledore said. "Meepy, would you show the guests out once more?"

Most of the guests began to walk away with the Hogwarts house elf, but Quinn made his way over to Dumbledore instead. "Albus, I need to speak with you about the goats."

That, of course, caught Aberforth's attention and the other Dumbledore wandered back over too. "Goats?"

"Yes, yes, yes." Quin nodded to himself, gnawing on his already near-bald fingernails. "They've been strange lately. Thinner, dryer. They're leavings have become… Different."

"Sounds like they might have scours," Aberforth said. "Easy enough to deal with, tell me, how many goats are there?"

The paranoid man narrowed his eyes at him. "Who are you? What do you know of the hircine collective?"

"He is my brother, Hircus, I'm sure you remember him." Dumbledore patted Aberforth on the back, to the other man's annoyance. "He taught me everything I know about them."

Quinn's eyes widened. "I see. You! You must come, see if your brother's work is good enough."

Now the insane wizard was staring at Albus suspiciously, and Hydrus had to bite his lip to stop from laughing. Back in the rebellion, Quinn hadn't been much beyond dead weight and cannon fodder once the muggles got involved. He'd fallen apart like a house of cards at the first bomb drop and, if Hydrus was being honest, it hadn't been too easy to truly mourn the loss of the extra mouth when he eventually died.

It was of old age, ironically enough.

"Well, I suppose I can look." Aberforth's chest was a touch puffed out. "Come, what species are they?"

As two of the only men who could make the elder Dumbledore look sane left, Hydrus was surprised to see Tonks and Remus try to approach him next.

"Er, why don't you go first," the werewolf said to her. "I'll wait."

Tonks looked a bit miffed that she'd been put on the spot, her hair greyed a touch, but eventually she met Hydrus's eyes. "You need to take this back."

She held out the old coinpurse he'd left her, and Hydrus cocked an eyebrow at her. "Why?"

"Because it's too much!" she snapped. "I can't accept all this money, are you insane?"

"Please," he said. "Do you even realise how rich your family is? Has your mother never explained it to you?"

"We're not—"

"We are," Hydrus interrupted. "If I don't care what a priceless artefact that's been passed down our family for generations says, then I certainly won't care what you say either."

"Oh, so what," Tonks started, folding her arms over her chest. "So called 'family' gets to just bust into my place and nearly make me piss my pants whenever they want?"

"Of course not," Hydrus said, grinning. "Only I get to do that to my favourite future niece."

"Ew!" Tonks spat when she realised the implication of that relationship. "Please tell me you don't mean…"

"Just keep the damn coins," Hydrus said, not bothering to answer. "Believe me when I say that you being overwhelmed by just my pocket change only tempts me to give you more.

"Now, Remus, what do you want?"

The werewolf rubbed at the back of his head, looking sheepish. "So, kind of dropped the ball with keeping the folder private."

Hydrus frowned. "How badly did you fail?"

"Only Bones and Giannis saw it," Remus said hurriedly. "I promise. I just didn't want you to be surprised when Giannis no-doubt asks to see it again. Apparently Bones thought it was his since she saw the runes, and he didn't even bat an eye."

"Hmmm." The boy had written him a letter saying that he was working hard to learn runes; apparently he'd underestimated just how much work he'd been putting in. "That's fine. In fact, you can make him copies if you want." Hydrus snorted and jerked his head towards Grindelwald. "I'd love to see the look on that old bastard's face if he gets beaten to the punch by a seven year old."

The dark lord scoffed. "Please."

"Gellert," Dumbledore sighed.

"What?" the other man said, nose up in the air. "Your brother and the frog are both gone, and we both know they're the only ones you don't want knowing the truth."

Tonks's jaw was hanging. "Wait, I thought you said...?"

"He lied," Hydrus answered, shaking his head. "Remus, you bring Tonks back to the floo. I'll bring Thelma and Louise over there back to Nurmengard. Just remember to get Giannis his copies."

"Wait," Remus said. "You really think he'll be able to figure these out? Hydrus, these runes are insane. I thought I might pick up some sort of clue on their origin, but Flamel was rambling off country's I hadn't even heard of that he'd gone through."

"And that's exactly why Giannis might succeed where the rest of you can't," Hydrus replied. "He isn't coming into it with the expectation that they're based on some other 'flavour' of runes he can just study up on. It's all new to him, he has no preconceived notions of what should and shouldn't be possible." He sucked at his teeth. "If it weren't for the fact that Sirius would insist on coming along, using the excuse he needs to chaperone, I'd tell you to bring him with you in fact."

"You really think some child is talented enough to be here?" Grindelwald demanded, a scowl on his face. "I can barely tolerate this one and 'the rat's presence."

"I think that child has the potential to be the most existential threat our people have ever witnessed," Hydrus said, flaring his magic. "He could wreak havoc upon this world that would make your pathetic 'campaign' nothing more than a footnote in history."

Everyone in the room, Dumbledore included, was stunned.

"Of course, I don't intend to let him grow into such a monster." Hydrus shook his head and reeled in his magic. "Forgive me, I just get a bit protective of those under my care."

"It's quite alright," the headmaster said gently. "And I'm sure you'll raise him into a fine young man."

"Mm." Hydrus half-heartedly grunted. Apparently the old man would not be reticent to continue meddling. "Remus, Tonks. Have a good night."

Once the two were gone, he returned his attention to Dumbledore.

"There will be no delays this time." He looked deep into his mentor's eyes. "We're going straight to the prison."


BBaRtS


Chapter 34. We officially hit the half-a-year mark of me posting this fic since I started it on January 10th. Since then, we've gotten:

FF: 520 Reviews, 2566 Followers, 1927 Favorites, and 362,748 'Views'.

AO3 (Started posting here on March 5th): 133 Comments, 239 Bookmarks, 623 Kudos, and 48,334 Hits.

Those numbers are absolutely insane to me, and I'm extremely proud and grateful. Here's to even bigger numbers in the future!

Last week I was worried there might be some negative responses because of the tone shifts, but nah it was just people happy about the bargain breaking. On the other hand, I'm feeling really good and confident about this chapter, so that means I'll probably get blindsided lol. I hope I did a fine job of Hydrus/Harry really delving into his past feelings without it over staying its welcome, featuring both the 'angst' of it as well as the joy of having old memories returned to him. It was fun getting to call-back to the "breakdown" plot thread, with a very different, more healthy and less explosive outcome.

I hope as well that I set the right tone for how he's acting now. Despite Dumbledore calling it 'peppy', what I wanna aim for is him being more active, self-assured. He was already both of those things, but it was more of a hollow confidence, an aimless progression. Hydrus won't be like, a completely different person, he'll just be a bit more comfortable and have a more relaxed smile.

To any French speakers, my apologies if I butchered the language at all, beyond what Harry/Hydrus was doing as an amateur. To my fellow non-French speakers, I hope I did a good enough job with the context clues to not leave anyone too lost.

We also FINALLY got the second meeting of the group. Aberforth's suggestion of trying to think of the power as a muggle god is what my original plan was for the visualisation, and I'm sure y'all can see why I wasn't 100% happy with it considering the fact that a big part of this story is gods. It wasn't going to have anything to do with Magic and Death either, just a thematic parallel, but I thought it was too close/could lead to incorrect connections. I had been going through the Mesoamerican gods, Aztec, Mayan, etc for a specific one when I came to the better conclusion lol

Next week we'll get to visit some other old timers, see some snowy shenanigans, and more.

On to reviews!

"I hope him breaking the goddeses bonds doesn't inadvertently make him weaker" - I don't think it will inadvertently, but obviously he might run into issues with the Trace. Truth be told I haven't 100% decided if he'll still at least be able to use his magic freely outside of Hogwarts/wizarding areas, so I've left it vague for now. He definitely can't use it to track/hone in on people or hide others' underage magic anymore though.

"Are we going to get a run down of who exactly he loved in his past life? Ginny and Fleur I know for sure. Who is the last person though? Since I thought Fleur died for bargin number 3?" - Could be I could've been a bit clearer, but there's only one more person who he's missing memories of and that's the child he had with Ginny. It's been extremely vague with info on that because unlike with the two romantic loves, his parental love for the child was there from birth to death.

"*Insert obligatory "Fuck Umbridge" here*" - I tried to make her insufferable, but considering she's not risen through the ranks here like she did by latching onto Fudge's coattails in the original timeline/series, it's not like she has that same ability to bully others.

"Ohhhh I can't wait to see how the second meeting of the group goes. I imagine an orchestra made of chimpanzees would be more organized." - Grindelwald is such a shit disturber. Although we didn't see the build up to the original shouting match, I imagine he was on-task at first, saw Quinn and Flamel start to get a bit heated, and quickly decided that was much more fun.

"Not sure if you're a Kiwi or not but I super appreciate using/referencing a Taniwha as a part of your world." - I'm not, but this might be my favorite comment I've gotten thus far despite some of the amazing, loving messages I've gotten. For my own original novel that I wrote, I spent dozens and dozens of hours researching creatures/monsters/beings from various peoples' mythologies, and threw that in off handedly just because it was one that I'd learned about and found memorable. Feels like all that hard work on the other project FINALLY paid off in SOME regard haha

And that's that! Thank you all so much for the kind reviews, it was such a relief with my mixed expectations for the responses. Love you all, see you next Saturday, lessthanthree!