Hydrus stepped out of the Potter family's floo, and was relieved to find the woman he was looking for already sitting on the couch before him. His mother stared back, set her book down, and stood. For some reason it almost stung to see the look of suspicion on her face. Almost, but not quite. He had assaulted her husband the last time he'd visited, after all.
"What are you doing here?" she asked. "Sirius isn't around."
"I had a favour to ask you, actually," he replied. "Do you have Professor Snape's address? I need his assistance on a certain matter."
As his mother looked him up and down, Hydrus took a deep breath. Unlike the last time he'd visited here, the air now smelled of lilacs and blueberries. Not much else besides that had changed, but he took a closer look around him, trying to see if maybe this time there would be that rush of 'home' he'd missed the first time he visited.
The trophies resting on the shelf on the opposite side of the room must've exclusively belonged to Harry and James, they were for an even mixture of quidditch and duelling on the top shelf, then as his eyes drifted lower they turned to exclusively quidditch ones, his father's no doubt. He tried to just focus on the pictures where it was just his younger self and his parents, but they felt… Fake. Or at the very least like he wasn't involved with them at all. He certainly hadn't kept his baby fat for as long as their Harry had—
"What do you need with Severus?" Lily asked, and Hydrus returned his attention to her. "Don't take this the wrong way, but him and your dad don't exactly get along."
"My father has absolutely nothing to do with me and the bonds I choose to forge," Hydrus said, frowning. "The IWC has recently asked me to academically assert something, and there is no one I trust more than my house head to guide me in such a task."
"What exactly would that be?" Lily pressed, scowling. "If this has to do with the veritaserum, I swear to god I'll—"
"Veritaserum?" Hydrus asked. "What's veritaserum got to do with anything?"
Lily blinked, then looked away, a faint tinge to her cheeks. It seemed she'd incorrectly made an assumption. Despite their disparately distinct personalities, the small mannerisms he saw in the woman were reminding him more and more of Dahlia.
"Never mind," she said. "Then what does it have to do with?"
"Is there something I can assist with?" Hydrus asked, trying to take control of the conversation. "I'm not sure what the matter is with veritaserum, but if its something that made you assume the IWC is negatively involved, I believe I'd be more than capable of helping."
"No, no it's fine." Hydrus almost grinned at how his mother tried to put an end to the line of questioning. "What did you—"
"Professor Potter."
She froze. He'd been tempted to flare his magic, but it felt wrong to do that to his own mother, so he'd simply used the tone of voice he'd learned over years of commanding soldiers. To further the effect, he folded his arms behind his back and straightened up his posture. He did it in a smooth, subtle manner so as not to give away the fact that he was intentionally positioning himself.
"If there's something Professor Snape needs assistance with, I owe it to the man to do whatever I can to assist him." God he would have to torture the poor bastard instead to make up for this. "Tell me what he needs, and it will be done."
"It's not that big a deal." Lily looked away, betraying her words and reminding him a lot more of Hermione now. "James 'borrowed' some veritaserum from him recently, and because that stuff is Ministry controlled, it's raised some questions."
Hydrus blinked. He thought back to his second encounter in Greece with Giannis and how quickly James had procured the sample for the 'interrogation'. Back then he'd thought the man had simply stolen it, but maybe it actually was with permission. How the hell were the two close enough to allow an interaction like that?
"Oh, that," he said. "Coincidentally, I was the one who ingested that borrowed potion. I think."
His mother's head shook back and forth for a moment. "What?"
"I'll take care of it." He relaxed his posture. "Now, do you happen to know where—"
"What do you mean you'll take care of it?" Lily demanded. "Severus hasn't stopped getting inspections because of the missing serum, and something tells me you can't just make that come to an end even if you were the one who drank it."
Hydrus sighed. He couldn't quite say his mother wasn't being fair, but she was certainly dragging things on.
"I mean Minister Shacklebolt thinks he's about to repay a favour to me, and I'm going to one up him, still leaving him in my debt." He waved his hand dismissively. "I'll get him to tell whoever needs telling to leave Snape alone, and that'll be that."
If there was one person in his rebellion that Hydrus didn't owe a drop of sympathy towards, it was the greasy bastard he had called his potions master. Throughout the entirety of the war the man never stopped complaining about his crippled arm, his lot in life, the fact that he could've been on the 'winning side'. He might've been the one to conduct the transfusion that on more than one occasion saved Harry's life, but he certainly didn't do it with a smile. He did it with a sneer and a curt word towards Harry's father and the situation that he seemed to think he and he alone was suffering from out in the wastelands of Europe.
But still. It seemed that in this timeline his mother cared for the git, and that meant he could get Hydrus's help. Snape didn't seem all that different in potions class than he had been the first go around, but it wasn't like Hydrus paid him much mind outside of half-listening to his lectures to make sure he hadn't forgotten anything for potions he was about to brew.
"Well… If you wouldn't mind…" his mother started. "Just… Just tell the minister that Severus didn't do anything wrong with the veritaserum so he should leave him alone."
Hydrus chuckled. "I can do that. Now, where does he live?"
Lily's mouth opened automatically, then shut. "You still haven't told me what you need him for, specifically."
His past self's words regarding his mother's stubbornness and refusal to lose came to him unbidden.
"The IWC is demanding I explain just what all I could use a basilisk for." He could redirect his intention of 'winning' their argument into letting her believe what she wanted for the conversation. "The reality is, I want to own one because I fucking love the idea of owning one, so I need Snape to come up with a list of things I can do afterwards to prove I deserve to keep one as my familiar."
Let the opponent think themselves better than you. Narrow the valley so that such thoughts could only lead them towards the answer you want. Never panic. Dumbledore, the Dumbledore he and he alone knew, had given him those words, and now he was using them against his own mother.
"I'm not sure it's wise for you to—"
"For fuck's sake. Apophis!"
His familiar revealed himself. The basilisk was growing almost too big to sit comfortably around his shoulders anymore, and it left its tail draped down in front of Hydrus's chest like a scarf. Lily slammed herself back into the couch, eyes squinted and arms held over her chest. Guilt stabbed deep into Hydrus's heart, but out of all the emotions in the entire world, that one was the easiest enough to bury away.
"This is Apophis. My familiar. I hatched him to decurse a ring, and was too much of a bleeding heart to get rid of him when I was done." He'd help up his finger to show off the Deathly Hallow as he spoke. "Now I'm just trying to get the government to give me the okay to quit hiding him, so he'll quit bitching at me, so I can quit going to bed every night with a soliloquy regarding how he shouldn't have to hide."
This is why he avoided her and James. Just like with Sirius, the less they knew about him the better. Basilisks were creatures of death and destruction, so raising one spoke volumes towards his own character. Even now as Lily slowly unwound herself and opened her eyes a bit wider, the fear pouring off her broke his heart.
"Some Gryffindor you are," he said, mockingly. "It's a wonder you weren't sorted into Hufflepuff."
And again like with Sirius, it made him feel better to push them away intentionally than let his genuine personality and situation do it for him. If he pretended to be an asshole in order to drive them away, then it gave him plausible deniability towards how they would react to the real him.
"Forgive me for not being prepared to have one of the deadliest creatures in all of history pop into my living room," she snapped back. "I'll be sure to apologise to the Sorting Hat later."
"I like this one," Apophis hissed. "She too may live."
"Shut up," Hydrus grumbled. "Now, will you give me Snape's address or not?"
Lily took a deep breath. "Fine, but only if you keep your word regarding the veritaserum."
"Swear it on my mum's grave."
Hydrus rang the doorbell and glanced about the small suburb of Cokeworth. For some reason the place felt familiar. Perhaps Snape had lived here in the original timeline as well and he'd seen it in one of their bouts of mind magic training, or maybe he'd just raided some of these homes after the war kicked off. Either way the locale was the least concerning nostalgic assault when he saw who opened the door.
"Hello," the woman said, eyeing him suspiciously from the not-fully opened door. "Who might you be?"
It was his Aunt Petunia. The woman looked exactly as waifish and horse-faced as he remembered, though maybe a touch less weathered than when he'd last seen her in an open grave Voldemort had left for him to find. Out of all the bodies the man had left for him to find like a demented house cat, Harry's muggle relatives were probably the least heart wrenching. Or at least they'd went on to fall down to that point in the rankings after he'd learned what it felt like to have people you actually care for die.
'Please tell me she just fucked up the address.'
"Forgive me," he said, having paused for too long. "I was told Severus Snape lived here?"
"He does," his aunt said. "What do you want with him?"
'Magic preserve me,' Hydrus thought. 'Don't think about it, don't picture it, just get this over with.'
"I'm one of his students." He bowed his head. "I was hoping to ask him for his assistance in an academic matter."
"Oh!" Hydrus blinked when the door opened completely now, and the suspicion faded away from Petunia's eyes. She almost looked… Excited to see him. "Of course, come in! I had no idea; you aren't, um, that is to say, you don't look particularly… Magical."
She had whispered the last word and Hydrus stepped in at her invitation. "I didn't want to confuse your neighbours, figured it was best to dress more subtly."
"Of course, of course." Petunia was practically strutting away, waving for him to follow. "It's so nice to meet you, Severus is always so cagey when it comes to his work, you have to tell me everything."
'Is that right…' the time traveller thought. "I'm surprised, he should have a great deal to rave about given his position. Is he here—"
"I'll go fetch us some tea."
Again the woman practically danced away, and Hydrus was left with no other option but to fall back onto the couch of… Of his Aunt, who apparently was living with and maybe but not yet certainly in a romantic relationship with a man he could barely stand to look at. He couldn't stand to look at either of them. If it weren't for the thoughts towards the atrocities the pairing were potentially but not certainly committing by being together it almost made sense.
'I might actually throw up,' he thought. 'I'm going to have to kill one or both of them.'
"Are you alright, Father?" Apophis quietly hissed in his ear.
"I'm fine." He wasn't, but he didn't need to have his memories of whatever kid he had before Giannis and Apophis to know you didn't tell children that. "Keep yourself hidden."
Annoyance rolled off of Apophis and into Hydrus from their bond, and he could almost hear the basilisk saying that he already was going to do that. For all the shit Snape had given him back in his original time at Hogwarts for being an 'arrogant attention-seeker', Apophis was twice as bad. The not-so-little serpent truly thought of himself as some sort of king, or at least a prince since Hydrus was still around.
He regretted spending so much time thinking of his familiar when he heard Petunia's clicking footsteps returning.
He should've spent more time settling his stomach.
"Here we are," she said, setting down a tray of what was supposed to be finger sandwiches and a tea set. "I fixed a little something in case you were hungry."
The sandwiches looked like they'd been cut up with a plastic butter knife with how sloppy and uneven their sizes were. They were made from white bread, and seemed to contain an unidentifiable, wet deli meat and a pale-yellow cheese. She was pouring the hot water from the kettle into a pair of coffee mugs with tea bags resting at their bottom. There wasn't a pitcher of milk either, so he'd have to take it as black as his name.
"There we are," Petunia said as she set the kettle back down. "So tell me, what's your name?"
He was allowed a moment to think about how to answer as he took his first bite of one of the sandwiches. They might've been shoddily made, but he'd lived off of far, far worse than this before. It wasn't like they tasted bad either, he just didn't feel it fair to not judge the woman who'd once tanned his ass for not properly seasoning an egg on her own cooking.
Snape was apparently being 'cagey' about his job. That meant for one reason or another he didn't want Petunia to know about his, as far as Hydrus could tell, average to above average career. His aunt did seem to know it involved teaching magical children. Just not much more than that, maybe? So now the question was, how did he punish two of the most awful, but not outright evil, people he knew for shagging up with one another?
"My name is Hydrus Sirius Black," he said after carefully setting down the remaining bite of his sandwich. "Order of Merlin First Class, also known to many as the Hogwarts Prodigy, the Black Saint, or Magic's Chosen. I am the son of Lord Sirius Orion Black, also known as the Black Sheep." He took a breath. "I am the heir to the Most Ancient and Noble House of Black. Heir to the once extinct Most Ancient and Noble House of Slytherin. Apprentice of Headmaster Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, Order of Merlin First Class." He took a sip of his still-steeping tea. "Head of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry's Study Club. Outside advisor to the Society for Werewolf Advancement in the Magical Population.
"And last, but certainly not least, I am a member of House Slytherin, the school house that Severus Snape is head of." He bowed his head slightly. "And might I ask who it is that I am speaking with?"
Petunia was stunned, as he'd intended. It hadn't been that hard to figure out why Snape might be so quiet about his job, so all Hydrus had left to do was play the part his oh-so-honourable head of house would expect him to perform.
"I—" The woman cleared her throat. "I'm, I'm just Petunia Snape. I'm Severus's wife."
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Snape." Hydrus set his mug of tea down and finished off the bite of sandwich he'd left behind. "I need to speak with Professor Snape regarding a certain matter the Minister of Magic is going to ask me to…" He paused, feigned confusion at her own confusion, then understanding. "Ah, forgive me, you can consider the Minister of Magic to be the, well, the magical version of your own prime minister."
Petunia's unsure frown when he'd said Minister of Magic all but confirmed what he'd suspected; that Snape had kept just about everything from the woman when it came to magical society. No doubt a worry carried over from the way Hydrus's aunt had always resented her younger sister for being the 'special' one.
It was going to be fun crushing the man's peaceful home life.
"Anyways, he's going to ask me for something soon, and I would like to request Professor Snape's guidance on the matter." He picked up another one of the little morsels. "It will, at least in part, involve the subject he not only has mastered, but teaches."
"I see…" Petunia looked like she was staring at the muggle king, or queen Hydrus supposed, themself with how tense she'd become. "Do you… Interact with the, um, minister a lot?"
"As little as I can help it," Hydrus said with his nose up in the air, doing his best impression of one of the Malfoys. "Honestly, the only reason the man was even elected was because my great-grandfather didn't completely hate him. Once I've graduated it won't be too hard to put him and his in line."
God, it almost felt good to put all the lessons his soldiers had drilled into him to work again. He'd been forced to practise how to act like a pureblood snob for hours on end once they were on board with his plan to go back to the past, and although it'd paid off initially, it hadn't taken long for him to no longer need them. Getting to use his sardonic, drolling tone on his aunt to torture both her and Snape, who had done a lot to improve the skill, was even tastier than the finger sandwiches.
"Wow." Petunia wasn't even making an effort to hide her shock anymore. "I had no idea Severus had such… Impressive, students."
The woman was, however, making an effort to not embarrass herself or Snape. It wasn't going well for her, but Hydrus at least had to her credit for trying.
"Of course he does," Hydrus said. "His godson—"
"He has a godson?" Petunia was leaned forward now, mouth hanging open. "Who? Why?"
'Shit.'
He didn't actually know if Draco was Snape's godson in this timeline. He had been the last go around, and Lucius had given some kind words towards the potions master in this one, but that wasn't a guarantee. Still, that was something he could easily deal with. He'd set everything up well enough that he could bully both the family and the man into going along with what he said, regardless of the previous truth.
"I wouldn't worry about it, the boy's parents are under my protection, and the child himself is a yearmate of mine, one of my closest friends," Hydrus said. "Draco Malfoy is his name, heir to the Malfoy family, son of my fiancee's younger sister."
"Y-, Younger sister?"
"Mm," he hummed, too busy sipping his tea to answer properly. "My fiancee is Bellatrix Black, my father's cousin. A beautiful woman, as powerful as they come, and, obviously, rich and noble."
He laughed at the 'joke', like it should be obvious that just because Bella was a Black, his father's cousin, she'd be rich and noble. Another one of Dumbledore's lessons. If you assert an assumption, and you have the listener's trust or respect, they'll be embarrassed at not already knowing what should apparently be obvious. That would make what you said stand all the more firmly.
"I don't know what I'd do without my Bella," he said, not taking the pressure off for even a moment. "I hope you're taking care of my professor as well as she's taking care of me, the man deserves nothing else."
A bit sexist, but fitting for the role he was playing. He'd spent the time until now building up himself, and now it was time to firmly cement his false respect for the man.
"Of course," Petunia stammered, cheeks red. "I had no idea Severus was so… Highly regarded."
"That's so incredible to me." Hydrus shook his head. "The man is too humble for his own good. Do you know he's the youngest house head Hogwarts has had in over two centuries?" He tore off another bite of one of the few remaining finger sandwiches, swallowing it down quickly. "And of my own house no less! I don't just mean that's the house I was sorted into, either. It was my ancestor, Salazar Slytherin, who helped found the school and thus had one of the houses named in his honour. I couldn't be more proud to have him representing my family's legacy so well."
God it was hard to act so long winded. He sipped and finished the last of his tea.
"It was that same ancestor who—"
"Petunia!" a hoarse, partially-muted woman's voice called from somewhere up the stairs. "Petunia!"
His aunt's face paled. "I'm so sorry, um, Mr. Black, i-, it's just my mother. I'll go see what she needs and—"
"I'll join you." If that was Petunia's mother, that meant… "I know you meant no offence, but it wouldn't be right for a wizard of my standing not to greet the eldest member of a family whose home I'm a guest in."
"That really isn't nec—"
But he was already standing and making his way towards the stairs. There were three doors on the second level, only one of which was open, and when he stepped up to it he found a rather shrivelled up old woman lying on a bed. Her hair was cut into a short, not-quite-stylish bob, her eyes were squinting at him, and she had the blankets pulled up to just around her chin.
"Who're you?" his grandmother demanded. "Where's Petunia?"
"I'm here, mum." His aunt squeezed past him, careful not to touch him as she went. "This is Hydrus Black, one of Severus's students, he came to visit him."
Petunia sounded… Desperate?
"Oh." His grandmother, he didn't even know her name, wiggled up in the bed a bit and leaned over. "What do you want?"
To Hydrus's surprise, the guilt that came up at him this time wasn't quite so easily buried away. He'd never really considered what it was that made his aunt the way she was. The cantankerous wretch had always hated magic, hated him, and although he knew she had just been jealous of her sister and the attention it got her, it never really connected in his mind what that implied about his grandparents.
"As I told Mrs. Snape, I'm here to visit her husband, the potions master and head of House Slytherin at Hogwarts." Magic, he couldn't believe he was doing this. "Your daughter and I were actually just discussing how vital he is towards a rather important matter when you called. Was there something you needed?"
"Just wanted to see who had knocked." His grandmother settled back down into the bed, apparently uninterested. "You can go now."
Hydrus's eye twitched.
Why did he always have to have fights with old people?
"I would suggest you speak with a little bit more respect towards me, madam." Both Petunia and his grandmother froze. "I am, without question, the most powerful wizard in the entire world. I came here out of respect for your son in law, so I will not be disrespected in turn."
He'd managed to reign in his magic and madness from actually leaking through, but his temper was just about at a boiling point. Unlike before, it wasn't the past Dumbledore's words who came to him, it was the new one's.
'You must ask yourself why it is you feel the way you feel,' he'd said in one of their meetings. 'It might not save you from the anger or anxiety or sadness that comes up from inside you, but in understanding it, you might better resist it.'
In this case, it was immediately obvious where his disproportionate anger was coming from. This woman, his grandmother, the way she'd treated her eldest daughter, was the reason he himself was treated so poorly throughout the first fourteen years of his life. Why he never had someone to call a parent before Sirius came around. That didn't mean his aunt was off the hook for her own part in his suffering, but it did pass some of the vitriol off of her shoulders.
And, like Dumbledore had said, knowing that made this a bit easier. He was still angry, but it felt much more manageable now.
He turned to Petunia. "My apologies. I'll make sure to explain everything to Professor Snape when he arrives."
To his 'relatives' and his own surprise, the man did just that. Snape stepped into the room and his eyes snapped to Hydrus before widening. His muscles clenched, his back went straight, and he took a deep breath.
"Scion Black." Snape bowed his head. "To what do I owe this privilege?"
"Stop that," Hydrus chided. "I know we're out of school for the moment, but that doesn't mean you need to start grovelling to me. Especially not in front of your wife and mother-in-law."
He wanted to die. This wasn't how this was supposed to go at all. He was supposed to build himself up, build Snape up, then ruin Petunia's mood by revealing that her sister's own husband was a far higher standing man than Snape in magical society. She'd feel insecure, Snape would get henpecked, everything was going to be perfect. Now he was actually building up the man.
"Severus, you didn't tell us to expect company." Once more his grandmother was scooting to sit up in the bed. "Just because you live with us, it doesn't mean that—"
Snape cleared his throat. "Hazel, I shall speak to Scion Black in private regarding his unexpected visit. Excuse us."
"Honestly," the woman continued even as Snape 'gently' pulled Hydrus into the hall. "Who does he think…"
The potions master shut the door, his shoulders heaved up and down, and he bowed his head. "Scion Black—"
"It's alright, Professor." Hydrus ran his hand through his hair, settling down entirely now. "If there's anyone in the world who can understand having an embarrassing family member, it's me."
To his surprise, Snape actually snorted. The man really did have a sense of humour in this timeline. How odd.
"May I invite you to my office to discuss what business you have with me?" Snape said. "To avoid any further… Embarrassments."
"Very well."
Snape led them to the floo, and they stepped into it then out into Hogwarts. The office was certainly a lot tidier than Hydrus had seen it, with sheets covering most of the furniture and absolutely nothing out of place. Just like his first night at the school, Hydrus conjured up a chair that matched the potions master's to sit in. The man himself took a moment to grab a quill and roll of parchment from a draped-over shelf before bringing them over to his completely bare desk.
"Now then," Snape said. "To what do I owe the privilege?"
"Before we get to that," Hydrus said. "Are you Draco's godfather?"
The potions master blinked at him. "No?"
"You are now." Damn it, now he'd have to come up with some reason for that. "I had planned on telling Lucius first, but it came up when I was talking to your wife first."
"Might I ask why?" Snape asked. "Cygnus Black was his godfather as far as I knew."
"Don't worry about it. If I told you, then Draco might find out, and I want him to figure it out on his own." More like he needed the blonde to figure out some plausible reason for him to have done this. "Anyways, I came here for this."
He'd paused to gather his thoughts, but apparently Apophis thought that was supposed to be his introduction. The basilisk came into sight, and to Snape's credit, the man merely frowned.
"I am Apophis!" the snake hissed. "Son of Hydrus! Fear me!"
"Would you stop," Hydrus said. "This is Apophis, my familiar, and I'm going to need your assistance in convincing the IWC that he should be born in the first place."
"I see." Snape's stoicism was almost impressive. "What do you need?"
"According to Professor Dumbledore, they'll need me to come up with hypotheses regarding what a basilisk could be useful for." He began to stroke Apophis's feathers to try and cheer the pouting toddler up. "I've already used his stomach acids to decurse an ancient artefact, used a concoction of his venom and phoenix tears in a blood transfusion to protect me from almost all manner of toxins, and I've become very familiar with how much of pain in the ass it is to deal with his shed skins."
Trying to get rid of them was nearly as difficult as transfiguring spellproof steel. The best solution he'd come up with thus far was just feeding them to Francis. The massive hydrus actually enjoyed them, said they tasted like nguruvilu, whatever the hell those were.
"I see," Snape repeated. "And you would like me to come up with more potential benefits for the basilisk?"
"Exactly," Hydrus said. "And they don't need to actually be all that likely to work out, just whatever you can think of that could impress the IWC enough to get them to sign off on my permit."
The potions master had been scratching his quill across the parchment he'd gotten rapidly, and once he was finished he set it down. "I understand. I'll take care of it."
Where the fuck was this version of the man during the war? This version who, without even so much as a grimace, did what he was asked to do. Hydrus sighed.
"Can you bring me a vial?"
"I can," Snape said. "But I don't believe I have anything on hand that won't be dissolved by basilisk venom.z'
"That's not what I need it for," he said as Snape waved his wand and called out the summoning charm. "I… Might've noticed how excited Petunia was to hear about you, and thought it would be fun to get a bit hyperbolic with my respect towards you and how much weight that carries. I figured it would be another part of my payment towards this venture. I didn't know your mother-in-law was so much less enthusiastic regarding, well, you."
For the first time, Snape actually flinched. Somehow he could stare down a basilisk without so much as a quiver but just the mention of Petunia's mother left him wincing. Hydrus began to draw the memory of his encounter with the women out of his mind, pulling it into the vial.
"This'll at least make sure you aren't going to be blindsided by the brags I gave about you." When he was finished he slid the bottle forward. "I'll also be taking care of the Ministry getting up your ass regarding the veritaserum, and if there's anything else you need, please don't hesitate to ask."
"How did you hear of that?" Snape asked. "The only people I've spoken to about it are—"
"Professor Potter told me." Hydrus waved his hand dismissively. "She's who I got your address from. I swear, that woman is so protective of you it borders on ridiculousness."
A small smile crept onto Snape's lips. "She's Petunia's sister, she's always been like that."
"Well, tell Petunia to tell her sister to get off my back," Hydrus grumbled, hating how his plans of torturing Snape had completely gone in the opposite direction. He stood. "I'll leave you to the memory and mother-in-law drama. I have some more work to do today."
"Right." Hydrus took a deep breath. "Back in the saddle."
He was sitting on a broom high above the Black Summer Home, taking in the entire property grounds. From this high up the area looked even more dismal than actually being in the middle of it all. The small manor was surrounded by nothing but dry, stone-like ground that almost resembled sun bleached bone. There was an uneven circle of clear space surrounding the building, and beyond that was nothing but centuries-old dead trees that were only left standing by the grace of whatever morbidly minded arborist had once planted them. After the trees was nothing but a thick, muggle-diverting mist that kept him from seeing the brackish mires that had once drawn the equally miserable family to acquire the land in the first place.
'Home sweet home.'
With the visualisation of a phoenix locked firmly in his mind, he began to work some intent-only magic. He put up a protective shield around the manor itself, just in case his other workings got a bit out of hand. Next came a spell that once had destroyed the entirety of the family's ancestral castle.
"Sanct Obliteratus."
The barren ground began to turn over upon itself, ripping and breaking anything holding it together. A few of the closest snag-trees fell into the writhing earth. Hydrus frowned as he realised nothing was clumping together, and instead was making more of a sandy powder than proper, workable soil. He stopped visualising the phoenix, allowed his arm to start popping away, then cast an aguamenti charm that flooded the entire area.
Now things were looking more and more like the outermost marshes of their property. He tried solidifying the swampy terrain into something more habitable, but it just became the same hard and lifeless ground as before.
"Damn it," Hydrus said. "Dobby! Go bring some dirt here." A thought struck him. "Get it from the land that the goblins gave me." Another idea now. "Dumbledore said magical creatures have been flocking there to die, bring their bodies too."
He hated propping up such a thematically fitting motif for his family, using the corpses of magical beasts as fertiliser, but they really would work wonders on the abysmal terrain. With his orders given, he got back to 'tilling' the swampy earth before it could settle and flood out further. Eventually the deliveries started raining down around him, either massive clods of earth that were quickly swallowed up, or decomposing remains that began to fill the air with a smell almost as foul as those he'd experienced in the rebellion.
Almost, but not quite.
There were a few he almost regretted 'wasting' like this, such as a rather large unicorn who still had most of its mane remaining, but it was probably more respectful to just let them do what they were supposed to do in death: pave the way for new life. As his tilling went deeper and deeper into the surface of the earth, and as Dobby continued to drop more new material off, the chalky swamp began to turn into more of a black and brown and red mixture.
"Take a break Dobby!"
One last chunk of ground the size of an elephant hit the mud with a splash but then it stopped. After he was certain nothing else was coming, he began to compress it all back down. The ground had risen nearly a metre higher than it had been before, and trying to cram it all back down to the same level caused tremors that shook and dislodged a few of the remaining trees that were still close enough to the house to feel it.
Just as he was about ready to do another, less deep tilling, one side of the Black Summer Home exploded.
The magical shockwave knocked Hydrus off his broom, but he caught himself by grabbing hold of it with the crook of his crippled arm's elbow. For a moment the Firebolt bucked wildly as his weight rocked back and forth, cementing firmly in his mind why he could never play quidditch again. Grateful that he'd gotten himself back into better shape, he eventually managed to pull himself back up onto it with a groan of exertion.
"Hydrus!" a nasally voice called. The time traveller glanced down to see Sirius holding his wand in one hand, pinching his nose shut with the other. "The fuck is going on!"
'Why the hell is he home?' Hydrus thought. 'And why did he think blowing a hole in the wall was the best way to get out here?'
With far more caution now that he'd been reminded of his flying-related deficiencies, he lowered his broom and pulled up in front of his father.
"Why are you home already?" he demanded.
Sirius glared back. "Because despite what you seem to think, I was trained for the first fifteen years of my life on how to do this shitty job."
The new Black lord had received his first request for interference from their allied families, and unlike Arcturus who had enough tenure to his name to blow off such trivialities, Sirius had no choice but to step up and prove the family still deserved its spot on top of the world.
Requests for interference weren't common in this day and age. As Remus had explained it to him in the future, it was the political equivalent of two siblings asking an elder brother or sister to settle an argument when they didn't want their parents finding out and yelling at both of them. If two houses had a disagreement they couldn't bring to arbitration for one reason or another, they'd ask an agreeably respected and neutral family to decide. In this case, from what Hydrus vaguely remembered, it was some nonsense that they were clearly using to test the waters with the new lord.
"What did Lucius have to say about how you handled things?" he asked. "He was supposed to be babysitting you."
"Shut up," Sirius grumbled. "I did exactly what he wanted and made a firm and final decision. The Yaxleys have to quit bringing up livestock restrictions in Wizengamot sessions without the Carrows' approval, but the Carrows have to vote whatever way the Yaxleys do whenever someone else brings them up."
"Then what?" Hydrus asked, still not particularly caring about the issue. "You just stormed off?"
"They offered me a drink, I drank it, and told them to get stronger shit if they expected me to stick around." Sirius held out his hands, finally releasing his nose. "Happy—, oh god."
The man turned and puked onto the ground, and Hydrus snorted. Sure it smelled like death and rot around them, but it wasn't that bad. "Pussy."
"You try being part dog, see how well things work out for you," his father practically snarled back. "Now what the fuck is going on?"
"I'm gardening."
"Gardening?!"
Hydrus laughed as he turned away. "Go fix the damn wall and leave me to it."
"Hyd—!" His father's voice faded, so he turned back around. "…rus."
Sirius was staring up at the sky, head cocked to the side, and Hydrus followed his gaze. More running than flying towards them was… A cat? For a moment he wondered if the sphinx had decided to go back on their agreement and was coming to try to kill him, but as the silhouette grew closer and he realised just how many legs it had, that idea faded away. Before too much longer a giant version of the seven-legged familiar of Nicolas Flamel was 'hopping' down towards them, as if bounding between invisible stairs in the air.
"You!" Flamel's voice roared as the cat finally got in front of them. "You need to—!"
The ancient alchemist had hopped off the back of his familiar, landed in the muck, and slipped. His face made a comically loud slapping sound as it hit the mud and Sirius looked away gagging again when some of the substance went splashing towards them. For a brief moment Hydrus wondered if he was going to have to save the old man from asphyxiating, but Calliope hooked a claw into the back of his robes like she would've a mouse and pulled him up into the air. She set him back down and after a few moments and long breaths, the oldest man in the world opened his eyes.
"As I was saying." Apparently he was going to try and play it cool. "You need to get that buffoon you dumped on my doorstep out of my house."
Hydrus frowned. "That's a good idea, I could probably use him and Mrs. Flamel's help with this."
"No!" Nicolas shouted, sending more mud flying his way. "Leave my wife out of this! Ever since you brought her that boy all she's done is teach him and talk to him and cook for him; all without a single moment of alone time."
Hydrus could hardly keep his jaw from dropping. "Are you seriously jealous that your wife of over seven hundred years is paying more attention to someone else?"
"I'm not jealous," the alchemist huffed. "I'm bored. There's a difference."
"You gotta be fucking…" He trailed off then shook his head. "Sirius, clean Flamel up and bring him inside. Fix the wall. Then go get Giannis."
If the man wanted to act like a spoiled child, then Hydrus would be glad to provide appropriately aged companionship for him. Giannis might even learn a thing or two from him. Either that or Flamel would learn something from him. Hydrus landed in the mud and carefully got off his broom, tossing it to Sirius who was scowling as he caught it.
"Fine," the Black Sheep agreed. "But you owe me two more questions."
Hydrus grimaced. "That's not fair."
"Then do all that yourself, I'm your dad, not the other way around." Sirius stuck his jaw out, for once looking properly arrogant. "I don't have to—"
"One. You get one question."
Immediately the man's scowl turned to a wolven grin, and Hydrus came to a startling realisation.
"Deal."
'Son of a bitch,' he thought. 'That's what I'm supposed to do to him.'
Not wanting to wallow in the wake of getting beaten at his own game, he called for Dobby to send him to the Flamel's.
He arrived with a pop, and there he found Neville looking like he was playing tug of war with a particularly large dandelion. The boy had roots or vines twisted around his wrists and he was struggling to pull them from over his shoulder. There were several long grooves in the ground from where he'd obviously been dragged back on a few occasions. Perenelle Flamel was standing beside him, nodding.
"Keep it up!" she cheered. "You gotta show her who's boss!"
Since they were paying him no mind and Hydrus certainly wasn't going to rush on Nicolas's behalf, he just watched as the Longbottom scion continued to fight against the massive weed. It sent a nostalgic shiver of delight down Hydrus's back when the teen practically roared and his magic flared. It was nowhere near the iron-clad juggernaut he used to imagine Neville's magic as, but it was a decently well-protected squire. Or something like that. The Longbottom family magic was hard to mesh with.
Unfortunately for the boy, the dandelion roared back, and he was jerked back and onto his butt. The plant's whip-like appendages reared up and Neville threw his hands over his face, but Hydrus put up a shield that the herbological attack bounced off of.
"Ha, figured I'd see you soon," Perenelle said, finally noticing him. She stepped over a still frozen Neville and immediately wrapped Hydrus up in a hug. "How are you dear? I hope Nicolas didn't put you out too much."
"Please, like he could bully me," Hydrus said. He shielded another blow from the dandelion as it turned its attention on him. "Should I kill this thing or…?"
"Heavens no!" She turned to the plant. "Knock it off!" Its tendrils froze, then slowly settled down against the ground as she said to Neville, "See? Once you show her you mean business, she'll be sweet as little Calliope."
Putting aside the question he wanted to ask about that cat suddenly being several sizes larger than he'd last seen her, Hydrus instead asked, "Could I ask a favour of you and Neville?"
Perenelle turned back to face him. "A favour?"
"I'm doing a bit of landscaping on some Black land, and it didn't occur to me until your husband showed up that you two might be a big help in the process." He helped Neville to his feet and banished away the grime covering the teen. "Our family magic has withered away all life in roughly a ten kilometre area, and although I've begun the process of tilling and fertilising the land, you would be the authority on the subject."
"Oo, that could be fun." She grabbed hold of Neville's shoulder. "What do you think, dear? Do you have what it takes to conquer the inhospitable terra firma birthed from one of the most vile and repulsive magics known to mankind?"
To Hydrus's surprise, an almost-confident smile appeared on his former lieutenant's face. "If you tell me how, I do."
"Wonderful!" Perenelle gave the boy a hug. "I'll be right back, I need my tools."
Sirius sighed and sat a glass and a half-decent bottle of wine in front of Flamel. "There. Anything else you need before I go?"
Technically he could've passed the man's list of demands to Kreacher to handle, but the only thing he had to look forward to once he was done with Flamel was a trip to see Bellatrix and grab Giannis. The two were visiting his uncle Cygnus so the Greek boy could 'meet his grandfather', and Sirius didn't even want to imagine how that shit show was probably going.
"I suppose not," Flamel said. He stretched at an angle, careful not to disturb the weird, shrunken cat which was sleeping in his lap, and began to pour the wine. "At least you've got the French stuff."
'Probably thanks to Hydrus,' Sirius thought, still disappointed there hadn't been any truth to the rumours that his son was secretly rendezvousing with France's Veela champion. "Right. Guess I'll go then."
With a sigh, he reached into the fire-poker holder for where he'd left the stupid sword Hydrus had given. Just as he finished fastening it to his waste, Flamel spat out his wine.
"Is that a hill blade?" the man asked, wiping the red drink from his mouth. "Why the hell do you have a hill blade?"
"A what?" Sirius blinked. "I don't know, Hydrus just makes me wear it whenever I go out."
"He gave you a hill blade without even explaining what it is?" Flamel stood. "Wait, why don't you already know what it is? What are they teaching you children at Hogwarts?"
Sirius rolled his eyes. "Goblin wars and not much else."
"It was the first goblin war!" Flamel snapped. "Back in the time of Merlin and King Arthur!"
'At least I can put off going for a while longer,' the Black Sheep thought. "Well you're slightly younger than my last history teacher, so maybe you'll do a less boring job of explaining it then."
To his surprise, the man didn't react at all to the potential insult regarding his age. If anything he looked enthusiastic that Sirius had asked.
"Back long ago, back when families like yours were just finding their footing in these lands, back before Hogwarts was founded, back when druids were still the leading magical authority in the world." Sirius had nearly interrupted Flamel's repetitive examples when he stopped to take a breath. "A young wizard by the name of Merlin was born."
"Please tell me you're not about to give me the man's whole life story," Sirius said. "I do have other things to get to."
If there was one thing that could put its finger on the scale in favour of going to see Bellatrix sooner, it was a lecture on history.
Flamel glared at him. "I'll skim.
"As I was saying, Merlin grew into prominence for many things, and eventually became society's first ever Grand Sorcerer. The title might've faded into near irrelevancy since those times, outside of our recent overlapping war with the muggles in my homeland, but back then—"
"What the hell does the Grand Sorcerer even do?" Sirius interrupted. "That's Dumbledore's job, ain't it?"
"Oh for…" Flamel swore and probably insulted him in French. The Black Sheep couldn't understand a word of it, but he'd been treated to such things countless times in countless languages, so he recognized the tone. "The Grand Sorcerer is responsible for maintaining peace between the magical and muggle worlds. Thanks to the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy it isn't as relevant these days, but back in Merlin's time it was incredibly important."
"Right," Sirius said. "Anyways?"
"Anyways, as the Romans pushed further and further into northern Britannia, the goblins took exception to the migration." Flamel folded one leg over the other as his cat wandered away, off to do whatever it was cats do when left to their own devices. "They didn't mind the smattering of human settlements scattered about the land, but the Romans were a bit more… consuming, than their Pictish counterparts.
"Eventually Merlin had to step in, and he did so with the aid of his muggle companion, King Arthur." He sipped his wine. "He told the goblins that not only could they wage war on the Romans, he would move with them, but only if they were able to defeat Arthur in a fair duel of blades. It might go without saying since we still live in secrecy, but they were not able to do so."
"Okay," Sirius said, still not sure what that had to do with him. "So then this sword is…?"
"That sword is what I can only assume is the…" Flamel scratched at his chin. "Seventh? Example of that same method being used to halt the goblins from going to war."
Everything clicked into place, and Sirius was almost laughing when he asked, "Are you telling me, that Hydrus didn't tell me, that he's set me up as the only thing stopping those cults or whatever from keeping their war going?"
"I'm telling you things you should already know."
As Flamel grumbled what Sirius could only assume was more insults in French, he sighed and turned to the floo. He really should've tried to negotiate for more questions.
Bellatrix glared at Sirius when the bastard walked in on her and her father discussing business matters. She quickly reigned it in, however, remembering for the millionth time that he'd become lord of their family. With a breath to calm her nerves and madness, she turned back to Cygnus and nodded her head.
"Let's go with handling the catering ourselves," she said. "We have two elves, we might as well put them both to work."
"Catering what?" Sirius asked.
She stiffened. "A summer party we're throwing soon."
"What are we throwing a party for?" he pressed, brows furrowed. "What's going on?"
"You should know better, Lord Sirius," Cygnus chastised to Bellatrix's relief. "The Black family does not need a reason to hold a social gathering. It simply serves as a reminder to the others that we are at the centre of our society."
Bellatrix had warned her father that Sirius wasn't supposed to know about his coronation so as not to spoil the joke she and Hydrus had worked up for him. Luckily the fledgling lord was an idiot, so he just rolled his eyes without the slightest amount of suspicion behind them.
"Whatever. Bellatrix, Hydrus wants to see Giannis." He waved his hand. "He thinks our little prodigy will get Nicolas Flamel off our backs."
Her eyes widened and her father coughed on what she could only assume was his own spit. The Black family's accountant stood. "Why the bloody hell is Nicolas Flamel 'on our backs'? What happened?"
"Fuck if I know," Sirius said flippantly. "From what I picked up, he's got some kid staying with… Wait, is that what happened to Frank's kid?"
"Giannis!" Bellatrix called. "We need to head home!"
After a few seconds, her little angel's footsteps came bounding towards them. He wasn't looking at all where he was going, nose deep in some book Dumbledore had gifted to him, and he ran headfirst into Sirius's legs. The pair went tumbling to the ground and Bellatrix couldn't help but giggle at the way her cousin's head bounced against the marble floor.
"Are you alright, sweetie?" she asked, kneeling down to pick up Giannis and completely ignoring the dazed Sirius.
"I'm fine." Giannis was rapidly flipping through his book to try and find his place, eyes darting between the pages and his grandfather as Sirius got back to his feet. "Are you okay, Sirius?"
"Yeah, yeah," Sirius said before grumbling, "Can't even be mad, I should know better when I hear you coming."
"Sorry," Giannis said quietly. "Where are we going now?"
"Back home," Bellatrix answered. "Hydrus needs us."
"Okay."
The boy had already lost interest in what was going on around him, back to reading his book. Bellatrix expected Sirius to storm off, but he actually began to talk to her father.
"I dealt with the Yaxleys and Carrows like we talked about," he said. "Malfoy was a bit huffy at me basically telling them to fuck off in the process, but not enough to actually say anything."
"Good," Cygnus said. "Well done. Your grandfather didn't suffer their little games at all, so you must be careful not to let them think that by showing up you're going to be led by the nose."
Bellatrix held back a pout. Even her own father had praise for the mongrel, all for doing the absolute bare minimum of what he should've been handling for years now.
'Whatever,' she thought as she nuzzled up to Giannis who grimaced at the distraction. 'I have my Hydrus now, and he'll be in charge soon.'
"Bella!" Giannis whined. "I'm trying to read."
"Come on," Sirius said. His nose was twitching, but he didn't actually say anything at her cuddling her baby. "Let's go."
At least he was doing a good job of listening to his son regarding manners and being nice to her. Unlike with Arcturus, Sirius recognized his place was firmly below that of her little water snake. The least she could do for his good behaviour was repay the favour.
"Of course, Lord Black."
He winced, she smirked, and the pair went to the Black Summer Home. When they stepped out of the floo Bellatrix almost vomited. Giannis nearly did the same and she quickly set him down in case he actually did and ruined her robes.
"What in the name of Morgana is that smell?" she demanded. "It's awful!"
"Rotting corpses." Through squinted eyes she saw Nicolas Flamel, the eldest and most storied wizard and alchemist in the entire world sitting on her couch. "That brat Hydrus's work."
Her little water snake had told her of his encounters with Flamel, and although he hadn't come away with much that left her impressed, seeing the man in person was certainly the slightest bit humbling. Everything about him, from the way he dressed to the way he sat to the way he sipped his wine, was flawlessly archaic and regal. It was like the man had stepped out of the pages of one of the countless books on decorum and manners she'd been forced to study as a little girl.
"Giannis," Sirius said as the boy pinched his nose with pages of his book. "This is Nicolas Flamel. He's—"
"Really?" Giannis did a one-eighty. He'd pulled the text away from his face and ran over, shoving it in the Flamel's face and nearly spilling his wine. "You wrote this?!"
Bellatrix blinked. Flamel furrowed his brows at it, frowned, then sat up straight.
"I am." He had a bit of a French accent, but that wasn't too detestable given his other notable qualities. "Why on earth are you reading it? It's far too advanced for—"
"How come you can't mix gold and lead?" Giannis demanded. He was flipping through pages so quickly it put his earlier turnings to shame. "Here! You said it was wrong, said it was obvious, but it isn't! Why can't I do that? Is it a physical thing, a spiritual thing, a conceptual thing, a metaphysical thing, or some other sort of thing you're gonna explain later that I haven't gotten to yet?"
Her eyes turned to Sirius, and found him looking at her with just as much confusion.
"It's none of those 'things'," Flamel said, disdain apparent in his voice for some reason. "And they are not 'things', they are foundational attributes that a given material has and is governed by."
"Well what's the fundamental attribute for it then?" Giannis asked. "Or whatever you called the things."
The alchemist huffed. "It's nothing! The study of alchemy was founded and funded by the universal pursuit of turning lead to gold; being able to turn a poor man into a rich one with nothing but the wit of one's mind and sweat of one's brow. If you were to mix the two elements, make gold a prerequisite to more gold, you'd be spitting on the heritage of all those who came before you."
"Oh." Giannis stared back blankly. "That's stupid."
Flamel sputtered as Sirius snorted and looked away, clearly biting his hand. "It is not stupid! It's a fundamental aspect to the art of—"
"I'm gonna mix them," Giannis said, turning back to the book. "I wanna know what happens."
The alchemist leapt to his feet and began to shout. "You little—!"
Flamel was cut off from his shouting when both Bellatrix and Sirius flared their magics, a dual madness forming between one another and flaming the other. The alchemist froze then slowly sat back down. Bellatrix settled herself quickly, but Sirius just kept staring the ancient man down.
"Don't talk to the kid that way," he said, his voice sending shivers of fear down Bellatrix's spine. "Or else."
Her cousin was nowhere near as powerful as Hydrus when it came to raw magical reserves, but there was something… Something colder about his power. Maybe it was just the massive gap between how he acted normally and what he was like when he was mad, going from being a clown-faced jester to the grim reaper itself, but either way there was no pleasure for her to find in the man's rolling energy pouring out across the room.
"It's no big deal," Giannis said. Bellatrix glanced down to find him unbothered by her cousin's display. "I'll just figure it out and make something so cool he'll see he's being stupid."
Sirius laughed. At first it was cold and slow, but it quickly turned to genuine mirth. He reached down and ruffled her son's hair.
"Damn right you will, kiddo," he said. "You hungry?"
"Yeah!" Just like his father, the one thing that always got Giannis's attention was food. "What are we having?"
"Kreacher!" Sirius roared. For some reason the man seemed to detest the house elf more than most others. "Get Giannis whatever he wants!"
Her son wandered away, back to reading his book, and Flamel settled down properly. His eyes were dancing between herself and Sirius. He looked like he was going to speak, but he froze up once again. Bellatrix turned to where he was staring, and found her other baby.
"Apophis!" she said. She was about to kneel down to give him a kiss on the cheek, but the serpent rose up to meet her, turning his head to the side to receive the affection. "Muah. Did you come to say hi to me?"
The snake settled back down, and her eyes ran along his scales till she saw he was coiled around something. The basilisk moved his tail so that it was hanging above Flamel's lap, then he dropped a cat in it. For a moment she wondered where he'd found the dead creature, but then it sprung up and meowed at the basilisk.
"Oh thank goodness," Flamel said, heaving a massive sigh. "I thought it had taken one of her lives."
Apophis hissed at the man, but jerked his head back when the cat stretched out one of its… many paws to reach for the basilisk. Her future husband's familiar hissed at the cat now, but it didn't pay him any mind and instead chose to keep trying to reach out towards him.
"Stop that," Flamel muttered, trying to keep a grip on the freakish mammal. "It doesn't want to play with you, my sweet."
Whatever. She'd lost any respect for Flamel the moment he shouted at Giannis, so if his stupid cat became her other son's food, then so be it.
"Where's Hydrus?" she asked Sirius. "You said he was the one who wanted Giannis here."
"I don't know," the man said. "He told me to get Giannis, so I did."
Bellatrix sighed. What was the point of having Sirius around if he didn't dig his own grave questioning her love when she herself couldn't or wouldn't? Her eyes drifted down towards the small dot on her arm where a bit of his skin lived beside a spot of Giannis's, but it would be difficult to come up with an excuse to—
The floo flared to life, and a grumpy looking Hydrus appeared alongside a woman she didn't recognize and the Longbottom failure. To her giggling delight, as soon as he saw her his eyes softened and he smiled.
"Thank Magic," he said as she stepped into his awaiting arm. "Was worried Sirius would've blown me off."
The Black Sheep reared up. "Fuck you."
"Terrible fathering."
"Fuck you!"
Hydrus just laughed and pulled Bellatrix in tighter. She didn't quite understand what was so funny about her waste of a cousin swearing at her love, but since it made him laugh, she would allow it.
"Perenelle!" Flamel got back up to his feet. "That brat of this brat's said he's going to mix lead and gold!"
"Who cares?" the old woman said, and Bellatrix realised she must've been Flamel's wife. "It's not like it'll do anything."
"I care!"
Despite the man's protest, he didn't hesitate to embrace his wife the same way Hydrus had Bellatrix. A part of her wondered how difficult it would be to kill the pair and take the philosopher's stone for herself so that she and her little water snake could love each other for that long. She laughed and pressed her face into Hydrus's hair.
Her love cleared his throat. "Neville, you already know Nicolas and Mrs. Flamel. That's Sirius, my father. You might run into Giannis, my ward, while you're here."
"Oh, uh." The Longbottom scion straightened up and practically marched over to Sirius to hold out his hand. "It's nice to meet you, Lord Black, I'm Neville."
"Just call me Sirius, kid." Sirius shook his hand. "Your dad's been showing off pictures of you to me for as long as I've been an auror. Me and my mate James dragging him off to hang out after work is probably the reason for half the bedtime stories he's missed telling you."
To the current Black Lord's credit, that did seem to work in taking some of the edge off of Neville. The boy even grinned. "You wouldn't believe how much he's complained about you. He said you're the reason he's missed half the bonuses he could've gotten."
Sirius laughed. "Damn right I am. With me taking all the arrests there wasn't enough left for his squad."
The Black Sheep's joy faded quickly, however, as he no doubt remembered that he wasn't an auror anymore. Her love's summer project winced and stepped back as Sirius looked away.
"Anyways." Hydrus took command of the room. "Neville, Mrs. Flamel, let me show you to the grounds so you can see rather than just smell what we're working with." He turned to Sirius. "You're off the hook for the day. When I'm done gardening I'll come see you to discuss our earlier arrangement." Next was Flamel. "Go speak to my ward. I don't know why you're going on about alchemy, but he recently worked out how to use some of the runes I showed you, and I figured you'd be interested in that."
Lastly he looked into Bellatrix's own eyes, and she batted her eyelashes at him.
"You do whatever you want," he said. "I trust you."
She giggled and gave him a kiss.
Hydrus took a long sip of whiskey as soon as he heard Sirius pop in beside him. He expected Sirius to bitch about Hydrus not actually going to see him, but that didn't happen.
"I'm checking here first next time," Sirius said. "Smart ass."
Hydrus grinned at having been read so correctly. He'd done exactly what Sirius had done to him the last time the man had asked a question. "Bold of you to expect there to be a next time. What's your question?"
Sirius didn't answer at first, instead grabbing the bottle and draining a good portion of it. The summer air wasn't exactly cold, but up here exposed to the elements it wasn't warm either. The stars they were both named after, Sirius out of tradition and Hydrus out of a desire to fit in, shown down upon them. He traced the constellations silently, just trying to keep his mind occupied and ready to answer whatever question his father asked.
"Right." The man sat the bottle down. "You've ducked this question before."
'Oh god.'
"Why do you not want to tell me anything?"
Hydrus took a breath. That was a hell of a question. It certainly wasn't one he wanted to answer honestly, and so he began to strategize ways of avoiding it.
The Boy Who Lived wasn't a great planner, something that Dumbledore had pointed out countless times. He was great at following plans, carrying out both the letter of the word he received and the intent behind it. But when it came to coming up with his own layered, preventative, reactive, and nuanced schedules he was about as useful as a beater's bat in potions class. Still, he was a half-decent hand at improv, so that's what he would go with.
"How about this?" Sirius reared up to fight back, but Hydrus pressed forward. "Remus knows the answer to that one, ask him." His father froze. "If he's willing to answer you, and don't tell him that I told you to ask him, you'll have your answer. If he isn't, then I hope you trust him enough to just go along with things and not ask that again.
"Ask another question instead." Hydrus took another sip from the bottle, out of turn. "Since I didn't answer that one. Or tell me to just answer your first one, and I will."
It was a gamble. He really didn't want to tell Sirius just how foul of a person he was. He didn't want the man to know that the reason he refused to speak about his past and future was because he didn't want his father to be disgusted with him for the various things he'd done. So the risk was, would Remus rat him out, or would he stand behind his implied vow of integrity?
"Fine." Sirius snatched the bottle away from him. "Let me think."
Hydrus gave a sigh of relief. At the very least he wouldn't have to answer right this second. He'd been at war long enough to know that earning nothing more than breathing room was still a victory to be celebrated and lauded. As he stared back up at the stars, however, a burning sensation against his ass had him leaning against Sirius to reach back and figure out what the fuck was attacking him.
"The hell is…" His eyebrows shot past his bangs. "Oh. Oh fuck yeah."
He grinned a vicious grin as the final name on the list of participants in the group dedicated to fixing his magic burned away. With a madness-fueled cackle, he crumpled up the paper and tossed it into the rapidly dissolving mulch pit Neville and Perenelle had turned his yard into. He kept giggling even as Sirius elbowed him.
"What was that?"
"Is that your quest—"
"Fuck off!"
Hydrus's laughter redoubled. If there was one thing spending time with Sirius was good for, it was burning off excess energy towards the Black family's curse. He let it roll through him for a few more seconds before slowly settling down, wiping the tear from his eye.
"Don't worry about it," he said. "Just found out I get to kill—"
He locked up. Magic preserve him, he was trying to make sure Sirius didn't find out he was a borderline sociopath. Here he was giggling over the chance to do a bit of rat extermination.
"Sorry, madness got out," he said. "Don't worry about it. I'm not… I'm potentially not killing anyone."
He expected Sirius to go on a verbal assault immediately, but he didn't. Instead the man just picked at the label on the bottle of whiskey, peeling back the paper with the edge of his nail. That went on for a few seconds as Hydrus slowly untensed, but eventually his father did respond.
"I'll tell you when I'm asking the question," Sirius said. "Keep that in mind." The man took a sip of the bottle, then asked, "Do they deserve it?"
Hydrus almost gave an immediate yes, desperate to keep himself in his father's good graces, but stopped himself. Dumbledore, just about the only person whose opinion mattered more to him, butted in and repeated Sirius's question. Did Peter deserve to be killed?
"I don't know," he half-whispered. "I hate him. He… As far as I know, he isn't a good person. I don't know what he did, but the people I like hate him. He…" Hydrus hesitated, but the alcohol convinced him to just plough ahead. Sirius already knew he was a time traveller, so it wasn't like this was going to spoil that. "He did something awful in my past life. He was the reason Lily and James Potter died, in fact. But obviously he hasn't done that this time. Maybe I shouldn't kill him, or maybe I should. I'll decide when I see him."
There. Sirius had to be on his side now. He'd revealed the anonymous Peter was responsible for the man's best friend's death. There was no way his father could judge him for wanting to kill him now.
"James…" There was a crack in the man's voice. "James died?"
Hydrus blinked. "Everyone died, who cares if—"
But it was too late. Sirius was spiralling. The gentle wind around them redirected itself and began to chaotically spin towards his father. Death and gloom filled the air as the man who'd once warned Hydrus against the madness's effect on their family clenched up.
"James dies, huh." His father was collapsing in on himself. Their magic was spiralling towards him as Hydrus couldn't stop his own from pouring out of his reserves. "Where was I? That's my question, where the fuck was—!"
"I fucked Fleur." Like that the magical vortex that had begun to form with Sirius at its epicentre collapsed, and the Black Sheep's head snapped towards him. "In the other timeline. Her husband was dead, my wife was dead, we fit together. That's why I kept accidentally flirting with her." Hydrus heaved a dramatic sigh. "Fleur was the strongest witch in the world back then. I won't settle for any less than that, so now I've fallen in love with your cousin Bellatrix."
"I… You… Huh?" Hydrus grinned at Sirius's befuddlement. "What the fuck are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about whatever it takes to snap you out of it." He held out his hand and Dobby delivered another bottle without him having to say or think anything. "And you wonder why I don't talk to you about shit."
That last line felt a bit manipulative, but manipulating Sirius was exactly what he needed to do. A new fear had been born in Hydrus's chest, and that was the fact that despite his greater strength, he couldn't stop his father from stealing his magic. He might've 'inherited' the gift from the man, but considering his form was a diluted version of the Black Sheep, it didn't surprise him that he was weaker in that ability. That meant that, as of now, he wouldn't be able to win in a fight between the two.
Not without breaking his third bargain, anyways.
"Sorry," Sirius mumbled. "I… whatever. Here's my question. My one real question. Am I, or was my… My future self, the one you were talking about in your story back in Dumbledore's office? The one who saved you from the awful muggles?"
Hydrus sighed. "Yes. It was an abbreviated tale, but you won't find any lies in it."
Sirius's once stilling heart raced again. Hydrus had mentioned awful muggles adopted him. Who were they? Where were they? What did he need to do in order to—
"Don't let it get to your head," his son said. "You weren't the one to save me from them, Hogwarts was. You didn't get out of Azkaban till my third year."
Just like the veela revelation, it felt like Sirius had been slapped.
"Azkaban?" he asked. "Why the fuck was I in Azkaban?"
Hydrus just shrugged, grinning as he sipped. "They said you killed a bunch of people."
"What?"
Hydrus laughed. For some twisted and demented reason his son seemed to enjoy tormenting him. After a moment he recognized their family's curse, and it suddenly occurred to him that his son really was… Really was mad. Just like Bellatrix. Just like him, if his earlier actions were anything to go off of.
Some fucked up part of him was relieved to see that, to know that he wasn't alone.
"Don't worry about it," Hydrus said. "The guy I'm debating over killing? He betrayed the Potters so you went to kill him. He framed you for his fake death, killed a bunch of muggles in the process, and you got locked up for it.
"Now I'm stuck here wondering if him being useless and doing something to piss off Remus is enough to end his life." Hydrus sipped the bottle as Sirius's head snapped towards him. "Since clearly you aren't in Azkaban like you were my last go around."
The Black Sheep tried to push the fog in his mind to the sides, tried acting like the legendary auror he knew himself to be in order to get some more information out of the perp.
"It's hard to imagine," he muttered. "Everyone loves Lily and James."
"Not everyone." Hydrus scoffed and took another long sip from the bottle, inspiring Sirius to do the same. "You hate him… Remus hates him… I think Dumbledore hates him? I don't know. He's dropped some weird hints."
The first person that popped into his mind that Remus would hate was Peter, but that was ridiculous. Then he remembered that Dumbledore had said Giannis should name his rat golem Peter. Then he remembered Remus seeming a bit dodgy regarding one of the members of the Fix Hydrus's Magic Club. Then he remembered how much he hated that piece of shit.
"Was it Peter Pettigrew?"
Hydrus giggled. "Who is Pete—"
"Was it Peter Pettigrew?" His own madness was building up inside of him. "Don't act stupid."
Hydrus let out an exaggerated whine. "Who cares if it was? If you can't deal with the shit I'm dealing with regarding who's done what then and now, I'll never be able to answer one of your questions again. Quit trying to interfere with the past future and just let me handle the past future and it won't be such a big deal."
Well, they were definitely both drunk. Hydrus's slurred words and confusing speech made it obvious that the time traveller was, and the fact that Sirius understood what he was getting at meant he was probably in a similar state. Peter didn't necessarily deserve to die for what he'd done this go around, and even if he did deserve to die for what he did in the other go around, that didn't mean he deserved to die this time. Or at least that's what the thought Hydrus meant.
Sirius took another sip of the bottle, incorrectly hoping that would help clear his disoriented mind.
"Hate Peter." Just a few words to get his point across and avoid embarrassing himself any further than he already had. "For what he did."
"What did he do to get you and Remus's panties in such a knot anyways?" Hydrus asked, finally settling back down. He was over annunciating each syllable he spoke, a clear signal that Sirius wasn't alone in his inebriation. "Remus wouldn't go into detail."
"Fucked him over," Sirius said. "Supposed to be me, James, and Remus in the aurors. He got jealous. Leaked to Sergeant Lestrange that Remus was a werewolf. Remus got the boot for 'poor attitude'."
"Sergeant Lestrange…" Hydrus muttered. "Bellatrix was married to a Lestrange the first time around. She was really crazy then. I killed her."
"Good." Sirius took another drink. "Good, good."
"It wasn't… Wasn't good," Hydrus mumbled as he took the bottle and another drink for himself. "If it weren't for fucking Voldemort maybe shit wouldn't have gone so sideways. Maybe she could've been normal. Maybe you could've been normal. I don't know. I don't know what the fuck I'm doing."
His son fell back against the roof, and Sirius joined him. He stared up at the stars staring back at them, and wondered whether or not Amelia was looking up at them too. He missed his Bonesy. God damn it, why'd he have to fuck up what they had going? It was so nice.
"Hey," Sirius said. "You think me and Amelia are fucked?'
"I don't know, man," Hydrus said. "That's up to you."
Sirius sighed. That was the last thing he wanted to hear. If it was actually up to him, she'd just… just listen to him. Let him explain what happened. Let him do whatever it took to get her back.
"You know what's fucked?" Hydrus said, catching Sirius's attention. "In my time, you were a happy drunk. Now you're just a sad drunk. It's sad."
"Fuck you." This time his son didn't laugh, unfortunately. "I… I don't know. Sorry I'm not as cool as the other me."
Now that brought on a chuckle in his boy, and it eased Sirius's heart. "Don't worry. He got sad drunk at funerals sometimes."
Just how many people had died in Hydrus's time. His son had said, hopefully exaggerating, that everyone had died. Apparently Sirius, James, and Lily had all died, the boy's mother had probably died during birth like he said, so who else had kicked the bucket. Apparently he liked Remus, so maybe Sirius's other best friend had still been around? But if he had been, why didn't he take care of Hydrus?
"I might have to kill Giannis someday." Hydrus's non sequitur nearly sent Sirius over the edge of the roof with its abruptness. "Shit's been on my mind lately. He killed, like, a lot of people last time. But he's a good kid now, right?" Hydrus sighed. "I don't know, man. I can't love him for obvious reasons, but I also can't help but… But like him. I don't know. I don't know shit about shit… I don't know."
God, they really were drunk. Sirius laughed, Hydrus laughed, and the pair just kept up their enjoyment of the nonsense cocoon they'd built up around themselves. Sirius stared up at the stars again, and found them all doubled up over themselves.
"Yeah, I don't know either," he said. "But I'm glad to have you around to try and figure this shit out with."
"Yeah…" Hydrus muttered. "I'm glad you're around too, Sirius. I love you."
"I love you too, Hydrus." His heart could've burst out of chest. "I really fucking love you."
"Pussy."
"Fuck off!'
Hydrus cackled, Sirius joined him, and the duo's laughter faded into the distance around them.
Sirius woke with a start at the sensation of falling, and it was only thanks to years of training as both an auror and one of Captain Moody's recruits that he stopped his head from slamming into the ground. He cancelled out the featherweight charm he'd subconsciously cast during his descent and hit the ground with only a small thud. He pushed himself up into a standing position, and glanced around from where he'd fallen off the roof.
Neville and Flamel's wife had at least seemed to have done a decent job of burying away the rotting scent of the Black Summer Home's grounds. Beyond that nothing seemed out of place, so he made his way inside. His back ached a touch from having slept on the roof tiles, but that would be solved as soon as he was resting on his proper bed's comforting surface. The throbbing headache cracking against his skull would be the problem of the Sirius that woke up the next morning.
Once he was comfortably settled on the bed with the sheets and comforter pulled up to his chin, he began to drift off.
"Sirius?" His eyes snapped open at the sound of Giannis's voice. "Are you awake?"
'God damn it, shouldn't this kid be Hydrus's problem?' he thought. "Just got into bed, so yeah."
What was it going to be tonight? Would Giannis pull out a classic like 'where do babies come from?'? Would he ask about the meaning of life? Would he ask about—
"What's your favourite food?"
Sirius breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed like tonight would be an easy night. "I don't know. Jerky? I've eaten a lot of jerky."
Preserved meats were an easy enough thing to bring along for stake outs that could keep him in one place for days at a time.
"Oh." There was a long pause. "What's your favourite kinda music?"
Sirius sighed as he pulled one of the bed's pillows close to his chest, finally prepared to just call it quits for the night. He'd keep answering Giannis's random questions until he fell asleep, and hopefully his son's pseudo-son wouldn't wake him up to find out what his favour colour was or whatever the hell the kid would ask next.
"I don't know," he muttered, already drifting back to dreamland. "Grey or something."
"What kind of music is grey?"
'Music…?' Oh, right. "I don't know kid, I'll listen to anything."
"Oh." Another long pause. "What's your favourite colour?"
Sirius heaved a long, exhausted, and resigned sigh.
BBaRtS
Chapter 51, nearly-late again, but I just couldn't stop myself from putting more and more into it. This chapter is by far and away the longest one of I've written, clocking in at over 14,000 words. Since we're almost running late didn't get a lot of editing, but let's go.
We met one set of grandparents last chapter, this chapter we got to meet the other side. From what I remembered/saw there's really not much information on Lily's parents, and since I had made the Potters so 'nice', I figured it'd be better to do the opposite with Grandma Evans. She clearly favoured one daughter over the other, and that had consequences.
I was a bit worried about the Sirius/Hydrus discussion. Problem one is that I'm worried people might think it's mirroring/repeating what happened with him and Bellatrix, but I hope I made it distinct enough. Yes, Sirius and Hydrus were both drunk, but that wasn't WHY he talked to the man so much/gave so much away. He talked to him so much because he wanted to, and the alcohol just made it easier. The other problem was that I might've gone a bit too hard in showing that they were drunk with how muddled the dialogue got, but hopefully it wasn't impossible to understand.
Anyways, we're gonna run late if I run long, so let's get to reviews!
"More potent than Dragonpox, the elder Potters have caught American." - I was a touch worried people would be 'offended' by the Potters having gone freedom-pilled, but no one seemed to mind at all. I just needed something to make them distinct from the various other old folk Hydrus has met and/or beefed with thus far, and that seemed like a fun way to do it.
"SHOUT OUT TO RUBE GOLDBERG MACHINES AND MY GRADE 11 PHYSICS CLASS !" - They seemed like something both Dumbledore and Giannis would enjoy, I'm glad people liked that little detail lol
"to be honest Hydrus' issues and hesitancies are becoming a bit monotonous, story beat wise." - This just comes back to what I've been saying, that this story is very non-concise. It's like a regular work that's been streeeeetched out in order to give me more practicing. That means certain bits are going to get repeated more often than they should, but chapters like this hopefully show that progress IS being made in various things, in this case he's clearly getting over his fear of being around Sirius for example. The story beat you specifically brought up just hasn't gotten a chance to really be worked on more.
"I could write a genuine essay about why your Bella is a cat." - Bella is fun to write for, just those little moments where she goes from respecting a man to wanting to kill him in an instant, both for understandable and nonsensical reasons.
"Sounds like a breakfast from hell." - Just a big ol' loony bin of a dining room. I thought about having Lucius show up too in order to be the suffering straight man throughout it all, but there were already a ton of characters there. I really wanted to show off that Hydrus is building an absolutely ridiculous social network, standing as a contrast to how desperate for more soldiers he was during the war, and how alone he was when he went back.
"Poor Giannis. He still has some trauma to work through." - He's tough to write for. I have to carefully thread the needle of not making him into some rune god who will fix everyone's problems and be loved by everyone and yada yada yada, so that involves also having to show he's working towards everything he uses, that some people dislike him, that he has his own problems to deal with, and just in general trying to build up things I can use to say "No he's not a Mary Sue" in case anyone makes that accusation lol.
"WHO ON EARTH IS GREGORY HERSCHEL?!" - Wouldn't you like to know, weather boyyy
"We've got a real ensemble now, everyone with something cool going on in the background and also interacting with Harry (I would say also interacting with the main story line, but I'm not sure plot-wise there is a main story line?)" - I've been trying to internally quantify the 'main plot' for myself more, and I think I'd say it breaks down into two main things. Hydrus's goal of becoming politically powerful and protecting the world, and Hydrus's growth as a person and becoming healthier. The former involves things like the external god plot/their war, the werewolf society plot, Draco's plot, and more. The other involves his relationship with Sirius, the internal god plot with his bargains, the Black family as a whole becoming healthier, and more.
And that's finally all! Cutting it close with the weekend deadline, but we got there. Thank you all, love you all, see you next weekend, lessthanthree~
