"Moony Manor." The floo flared green. "What the hell…"

Hydrus stared with furrowed brows at the veritable horde of books resting atop Remus's rickety living room table. The poor piece of furniture was literally bowing in on itself under their weight, and when Hydrus leaned in closer he saw the strangest amalgamation of textbook imaginable. Their subjects covered everything from magical creatures to underground urban infrastructure to teacher's manuals to…

Hydrus cocked an eyebrow at a rather worn out looking copy of a novel on top of the stack who's cover clearly said it wasn't particularly educational. If anything, the cover said it didn't belong anywhere near a school of children.

"Howls of the—" The paperback was snatched away from him. "I was looking at that."

Remus was glaring at him, a light tinge to his cheeks. "No, you weren't. You never saw it."

"If you say so," Hydrus said, chuckling. "I needed to get your opinion on something."

"Alright, give me just a second."

The werewolf cast a few spells, and the books that had previously been smothering his table quickly flew away and sorted themselves into piles. It was almost cute how they seemed to be organised by educational genre. After that, Hydrus had to try and translate what the expressions were that rapidly fluttered across his once and future professor's face.

First the man's mouth opened to say something as his eyes drifted down towards Hydrus's empty hand. He had been expecting something, and when he didn't see it, his brows furrowed in confusion. Then they widened, rolled, and the man shook his head. He shouldn't have been expecting whatever he was looking for. Finally the werewolf began to speak.

"Can I get you some tea?" he asked. "Oh, or coffee. I remember you drinking coffee at the Williams' place."

"Sure," Hydrus said. "Whatever's easier for you, no preference."

As Remus wandered away, shaking his head, the one time war leader plopped into the man's couch. It was funny how the werewolf was still so easy to read, but had become so impossible to understand. Hydrus had been able to recognize every little twitch and tell on his former advisor's face, but he hadn't the faintest idea what it all meant. Out of everyone who was different from his past life, it was Remus who left the weirdest feeling in his gut.

The Remus he'd known wasn't all that different from this one, there certainly wasn't the night and day difference between the 'two' werewolves like there was between Bella and Bellatrix Lestrange. There were just little things. The old Remus never would've confronted his ex over being lied to like this one had, but he would've supported Harry doing it for him. This new Remus had all but barked at Hydrus to get him to tell him what happened with Fenrir after just a whiff of the alpha werewolf's stench, the one he'd known would've found a more opportune moment. If Arcturus was still kicking, the old man probably would've said something about his spine.

Eventually Remus returned, a pair of steaming mugs in hand. "Here, Earl Grey. I don't know how much your palettes overlap, but it's your dad's go-to."

"Thank you," Hydrus said, still contemplating. "But something tells me that anything non-alcoholic doesn't deserve to be called his 'go-to'."

"Well," Remus laughed. "You're probably not wrong. When you showed up looking to talk I half expected to find a bottle of Corking's in your hand."

'That's what he was looking for,' Hydrus thought bemusedly. "It's not even noon yet, I'm not that much of a degenerate."

"Don't take it personally," the werewolf said. "You just really do look exactly like him. It's like you're a clone or something."

"So people keep telling me," Hydrus replied, a line he usually used with more vinegar when people brought the resemblance up. "So are you planning on becoming a city planner yourself or something?"

The conversation became easy, so he started to tune the man out. He still heard what he was saying, still responded at the queues with further questions, but he could review the memory later in the new pensieve he'd bought if it came to it.

Hydrus had come here to get Remus's opinion on the rat problem. He'd wanted to get the okay to kill him. Now as his advisor was summoning up one of the textbooks he'd put away earlier to show off some grand schematic, it was becoming harder to want to hear what he would say. On one hand, he might get the answer he wanted, but that didn't feel as vital anymore. Not from this version of his old friend, anyways. This one was excitedly stabbing his finger against pages and going on a rant about how he'd had no idea there was so much to consider.

This version of Remus… This version wasn't broken.

Harry had met his father's best friend on the trip to Hogwarts before his third year, and over the next two-some-odd decades the man hadn't changed much. Sure the werewolf had his ups and downs over the years, had those same rough nights all his soldiers had, but for the most part he'd been as stalwart a pillar for the rebellion to rely on as they could've asked for. He might've become slightly more cynical and a touch less warm over time, but certainly not to the same degree Harry or almost any of the others had.

He hadn't broken during the rebellion itself.

He'd broken in the first war against Voldemort, no doubt when James and Lily died. When Sirius 'betrayed' them and murdered the last marauder to boot. When he lost the only bastions of peace and joy his difficult life had to offer him.

Somehow, despite that fact, he hadn't buckled. Memories of just how much Harry had dumped on that man's shoulders came flooding back to him. There were more straightforward burdens, things like tasking him to find out a way to track down Fenrir's pack so they could put an end to the nomadic monsters. Then there were the more subtle things. The way Harry, and he was certain other soldiers too, would just pour all their baggage into the man's ears and expect him to soothe their souls with kind words and understanding.

At the time Harry had kept an eye on him, not wanting to risk the man breaking. He'd been waiting for some sign, some signal that would tell him he needed to pull his advisor and perhaps the second most valuable man in the entire rebellion out of the fires. But it had never come. It couldn't come. It had come and gone years before he could've done anything to stop it. And so the man had been left to burn..

'Even if I don't believe in this,' Remus had said in his final words. 'I believe in you. I always have, and I always will.'

"Hydrus?"

Harry blinked.

"Hydrus, are you alright?" Remus was frowning at him. "You're, uh… Your eyes are leaking."

He snorted and wiped away the tears. "Give me a moment."

He needed… He needed to get back into character. He wasn't the Boy Who Lived anymore. He was Hydrus Black. He was a cold and dangerous pureblood with a chip on his shoulder. He was ambitious and proud, unquestioning in his certainty towards himself and his aims. He wasn't the sort of person who needed an uncle's shoulder to cry on. He was fine.

"Sorry about that," Hydrus said. "I appreciate your passion, Remus, but truthfully I zoned out a bit, literally bored to tears. CIty infrastructure just isn't all that exciting to me. I needed your opinion on—"

"Hydrus, are you alright?" Remus interrupted and repeated. "What happened?"

"Nothing happened." Hydrus rolled his eyes. "Just like there wasn't smut sitting on your coffee table when I walked in, got it?"

"I couldn't care less about that." The werewolf wasn't backing down. "Hydrus are you alright?"

"Lupin, I swear to—"

"Don't Lupin me," Remus snapped. "Hydrus, are you alright?"

"No!" Harry snapped. "So fuck off! Just tell me whether or not I can kill the rat and leave me alone!"

What the hell was going on? He'd been fearing this sort of confrontation from Sirius. Had weathered them from Dumbledore. Had willingly dealt with them from Bella.

But Remus?

"I'm not going to do that." Remus stood and moved across from Harry, plopping down onto the same table he'd been abusing earlier. "And you're not going anywhere."

"For the love of…" Hydrus threw up his arms. "I already have a therapist, I don't need another one. I promise, I was already planning to go talk to Dumbledore after this, so just leave me alone."

"No." He decided he hated this new version of the man. "What's wrong, Hydrus?"

"It's not your business, not your problem." He rubbed at his forehead as he stared at the ground. "Just—"

"Hydrus." There was still no weakness in the werewolf's tone, but it was more gentle now. "What's wrong?"

"I could pop you like a water balloon," Hydrus grumbled. "You do realise that right?"

"You won't though." Remus sighed. "Listen, I don't… I don't really do all this cloak and dagger stuff you and Professor Dumbledore seem to like, so here's cards on the table. All he told me was that, for some reason he wouldn't explain, you like and trust me.

"You're my best friend's son and for some presumably different reason you've given me more than I've ever dreamed of between working at Hogwarts and setting up a place for my people." He took a breath. "So when Dumbledore told me to all but assault you if I saw the chance to get you to open up to me, I said yes."

Hydrus scoffed and stared up at the ceiling as he realised what the ancient warlock had done. "That motherfucker outsourced my therapy."


Amelia tried not to let the exhaustion show on her face as she called the practice duel to a halt. The newest member of her squad didn't bother with such propriety, and the captain gave a bemused grin when Tonks dropped like a sack of potatoes. The younger woman was panting and already tugging off her robes to try and cool off. She tossed the heavy, but protective, garment aside and fell back even further to stare up at the ceiling.

"Not bad," Amelia said. "I can see why your AIs had so much praise for you."

"Yeah, yeah," Tonks droned. "Buncha bastards…"

Amelia just laughed and took a more proper seat beside the exhausted girl. She really had been impressed, though. For everything that Tonks lacked in subtlety and stoicism, she more than made up for with her wand and dedication. The woman was practically unflappable when it came to the job itself and the hard work needed for it.

It was a rare thing for Amelia to get a 'new' recruit. Normally she would just play the game and move others onto her squad when they'd sufficiently impressed her. Technically she had done exactly that this go around, but it wasn't like Goyle had put up much of a fight to stop her from taking in the Black Sheep's relative. Still, the girl was new, and when Amelia did decide to take a gamble on a new recruit, she liked to test them. 'Offer' to train with them after work, and see how long it took for them to stop showing up.

Tonks had already broken that record with ease. She did it with swears and whining galore, but she had done it. That meant Amelia would have to actually put some work into her instead of just trading her off for someone better if the opportunity came up, like she did with the other new recruits she got.

"What made you want to be an auror, anyways?" Amelia asked.

"I'm starting to forget," Tonks carped. "I don't know. My parents always told me that helping people was the best thing a person could do. I knew I wasn't smart enough to get into Mungos, so I went with this instead."

"More like you aren't patient enough," Amelia 'chided'. "You're plenty smart."

"Whatever." Tonks groaned and sat up. "I'm gonna head home, drink a beer, take a shower, drink another beer in the shower, and then go to bed."

"I'll see you tomorrow then." Amelia stood then held out her hand to help Tonks up. "I've got a bit more paperwork to do."

"Thought you were all done for the day?" the other woman asked as she was forced to retrieve her robe from where she'd thrown it.

"A captain's day is never done." Something Scrimgeour and Shacklebolt, the two captains she'd gone through before getting promoted to the same rank, had told her countless times "Be sure to remember that when you get an office like mine."

The metamorphmagus snorted. "Right."

The two stepped out of the department 'gym' and parted, forcing Amelia to try and bury away the real reason she didn't want to go home yet.

It would be too quiet. Just like it had been ever since Sirius left.

Sure, a small part of that was Giannis being gone, but as much as she loved the child he was definitely a handful and a half. No, it was her idiot's sounds that felt the most absent. The footsteps, steady and confident as a drum march. The echoes of his laughter bouncing around the walls of their home. The wolf whistles he'd throw out like confetti whenever she so much as bent over to pick something up. The gentle, growling snores she'd eventually learned to fall asleep to.

All of that was gone now.

When she got back to her office, she was relieved to discover a scroll of parchment in her to-do box. That meant there really would be work. She shrugged off her robes and hung them on the hook beside a placard that listed her squad's collar counts. James was at the top, the new head-and-shoulder lead of the department let alone her squad. The other members of the team, besides their newest member, all had impressive figures as well. It wasn't quite as awe inspiring to any higher ups that came around and needed a place to hang up their own robes and coats now that the Black Sheep was gone, but it was still better than the other squads.

With a sigh, Amelia sat down and just did what she'd been doing since that awful day in the desert, and got back to work.

Unfortunately when she saw the crest crushed into the wax sealing the parchment, she realised that work was the exact opposite of what this was. The Black family's emblem stared back at her. Amelia's nostrils flared, and although she was tempted to just burn the stupid paper in her floo, another part of her whispered to open it.

She did so.

It was… An invitation. A formal one that, after running it through her 'rich family' filter, was apparently inviting her to Sirius's inheritance ceremony. Down at the bottom, scrawled to the side of what was probably a boilerplate text, was handwriting that must've belonged to Hydrus.

Miss Bones,

I know you probably don't want to come, but I still wanted to invite you. I heard Sirius is bringing another woman. I figured you'd like the chance to upstage whoever that is. If not, I would still like to see you there myself.

-Hydrus

She scoffed. Why the hell would she care who Sirius brought to some ridiculous ceremony? It wouldn't surprise her to hear the man had been shagging anything with a pulse and a hole since their break up. The only reason she wanted to go there now was to tear into Hydrus for assuming she would even—

"Bones." She looked up from the awful invitation. It was Scrimgeour with a small smirk on his face. "Glad you're still here, proving what I told you all those years ago."

"I just told my newest recruit the same thing a moment ago." As if it really were some auror business, she casually rolled the annoying parchment back up and put it back in her to-do box. "What can I do for you?"

"Wanted to talk to you in my office." He pulled his head to the side. "C'mon."

"Give me just a moment," she said. "I'm pretty sure that just needs a signature."

"Take your time."

The head of her department gave a nod then left. Once her door was shut, Amelia got to work. It was more likely someone incompetent like Goyle or someone inexperienced like Frank would be made the next head, but that didn't mean she could just stop trying. Trying was all she had left.

Her first order of business was to vanish away the sweat and odour that had built up while sparring with Tonks. Next she fixed her hair, then got to work fixing and adjusting the pins on her lapel. A quick polishing spell left them shining, and once she was certain the robes she'd put back on were completely wrinkleless, she made her way over.

When Amelia arrived, she found Scrimgeour with a cigar in his mouth and clipping another. She winced but quickly schooled her expression. If you wanted to get along with your boss, the best way to do it was to share whatever vices they indulged in, and that meant she had to gratefully accept the cigar he offered her and light it. Her eyes widened when she, despite her general distaste for the things, recognized how expensive this one must've been.

"What's the occasion?" she asked after puffing out a cloud of smoke.

"Just got back from seeing the newest member of my family." The department head's grin practically crushed the cigar between his teeth. "I'm a grandfather."

For once, Amelia gave a genuine smile at something the man said. "Congratulations. A boy or a girl?"

"Girl," he answered. "She looks just like my boy did though, poor thing."

Amelia politely laughed at the 'insulting' joke, not wanting to enjoy it too much and risk offending him. She really hoped this wouldn't last long. She was good at kissing up to brass and showing off for them, but wasn't quite as skilled at schmoozing with them, as Potter called it. It's why she always sent the man to do it for her if she could. Her new best auror was an expert at it.

"So yeah." Scrimgeour's tone changed now. He had removed the cigar from his mouth and was staring at the cherry cinders of its end. "Seeing her made me think of him. Made me think of just how much I missed…" He stuck the cigar back into his mouth, giving it a hard pull and rolling the smoke around his mouth before slowly blowing it back out. "It's time for me to retire, Amelia."

Her heart dropped. She'd hoped she'd have more time to try and earn back her spot.

"You've more than earned it," she said. "I know you'll be an amazing grandfather, sir."

He snorted. "I don't know about that, but I do know you'll do a better job here than I will there."

That… He didn't mean…

"Here?" she tested.

"Come off it, Bones." He waved the cigar at her. "You've known for half a decade now I was just keeping this seat warm for ya."

"No!" Amelia nearly yelped. "Well, I mean, I used to… To think that I had done a decent job of… Setting myself up for… things…" She shook her head. "But that was before Operation Niffler."

"Niffler?" He was staring at her with furrowed brows. "Bones, ya caught the guy. Sure the Black Sheep might've stuck his foot in it, but at the end of the day the rich folk quit bitching at the minister, which means he quit bitching at me, which means you did your job."

"But…"

She was so stunned she nearly missed ashing her cigar. Scrimgeour shook his head and relit the dimmed bit of tobacco for her.

"I hate to have to be the one to tell you this," he said, a touch of sarcasm to his tone. "But as much as we go on and on about justice, at the end of the day, we don't get paid for the stuff. We get paid to make sure everything works the way its supposed to work. Sometimes that means putting a murderer behind bars, sometimes that means not hounding the favourite son of the Head Opposing Barrister when the little shit gets caught with his hands in the cookie jar."

"Then…" She felt stupid for even asking, but she needed to hear it. "I'm going to be head of the department?"

"Once I finish doing all the shit that needs doing before I can retire," Scrimgeour confirmed. "Congratulations, Amelia. You've earned it."

"Thank you," she said, almost automatically. "I… Wow."

She'd done it.

The Bones family, in one form or another, had been the skeleton of Britain's legal system since long, long before she had been born. Whether on the judicial side, the enforcement side, the penal side, or any other side that was involved in processing and handling criminals. Just like Tonks had helping people, Amelia had been raised on an ideological diet of justice. Unlike Shacklebolt, who wasn't satisfied with the position, this was her end goal. Already ideas of what all she could change were flooding into her, she had to tell…

She didn't have anyone to tell.

Her father would be proud of her, sure. Her mother would probably give her a congratulatory hug and pat on the head. Her brother would call her a good influence on her niece. Amelia would have done exactly what they'd expected her to have done, and although they'd be happy, they wouldn't truly care.

Not the way Sirius would.

Would have.

Scrimgeour put out the whittled down remains of his cigar, having burned through his much faster. "Tell you what, take the chair for a spin now. She's comfier than she looks, and I wanna go see my grandbaby."

She gave him a polite and cordial goodbye, but it was hard to muster up more than that. Once he was gone, she put out her own cigar and sighed.

Unlike most purebloods, her parents had never pushed her for marriage. That's what they had her brother for. He was the one responsible for keeping their line going, and although he'd had a slow start, her niece Susan now had a gaggle of little brothers. All she'd been expected to do was something, anything, that kept their family's reputation strong in the face of their diminishing number. When she'd come to the end of the 'appropriate' age to be married by, Amelia had stepped over the threshold with her head held high and confidence in her step.

Even now, it wasn't like she wanted to be married. She was still a pureblood scion of decent means, still politically powerful thanks to her upcoming promotion, she could have whoever she wanted. It was all that idiot Sirius's fault. He was the one who'd made this long expected moment so miserably lonely instead.

'He's basically catatonic,' Amelia thought, repeating the words Hydrus had told her regarding the man after their break up. 'So much for that.'

She wondered who he would even bring. As far as she knew, all his cousins were already spoken for. It was a rude and bitter thought, but it assuaged some of the anger she felt for him. Still, as she ran through her mental list of people her exfiance knew, there was no one in particular that stood out as a potential date. The man himself had said as much when he first asked, first seriously asked, her to marry him. Practically the only people he spoke with were the Potters and Remus.

She snorted at the idea of him taking the werewolf to the ceremony and began making her way back to her office.

That probably meant he was just bringing some random girl he met at a bar to try and embarrass the rest of his family. The plot sounded like something he'd come up with as 'revenge' for being forced to come to such a ridiculous thing as an inheritance ceremony in this century. There was no way he really felt anything for whoever he was bringing with him. Hydrus had probably sent the invitation out of formality, and tried to use reverse psychology to keep her away with his little note at the end, because Sirius really was miserable and the teen wanted to keep her away from him.

Unfortunately for him and his father, Amelia was feeling pretty 'miserable' herself now, and that meant turn about was fair play.


"It came, Master Giannis!" Dobby squeaked. "Miss Bones response!"

Giannis let out a shout of excitement and leapt out of his seat. He ran over to snatch away the letter, tore open the seal, and immediately began to read with the aid of one of his bracelets.

"She said yes!" He crumpled the ball up and tossed it at Apophis who swallowed it down whole. "She's coming!"

Ever since he found out they were going to throw a party for Sirius's grandpa dying, he'd been preparing. It had taken a lot of coaching from Dobby on how to approach the other house elf, but eventually he'd managed to convince Kreacher to let him add an extra note to Miss Bones invitation. Kreacher said he only did it because 'Old Lord Master Arcturus' had wanted Sirius to marry her, but Giannis was pretty sure he wanted Sirius to be happy too. Burro had been the one to tell him what to say to get her to come, and he'd been right.

Now that he knew for sure the pair would both be there, he needed to get the rest of his plan ready. No matter what, he'd make sure they were both happy again, just like they'd made him.

As soon as he could figure out what sort of food and music Miss Bones liked, he could get to work.


Antoine Desilencio was a good man. He did his job well, even as boring it was this time of year, and that meant his eyes never left the slowly rotating, sand covered circle. If he was a great man, if he did his job perfectly, he would have had the camera ready before he noticed the small divot on the circle. Such marks weren't completely out of the ordinary, it could just be that he had missed some notice regarding a time turner being experimented on outside of standard perimeters, so he didn't particularly rush to grab the camera either.

In fact, by the time he'd turned back around to photograph and document what would've gone on to become a full blown line in the sand rather than just a small divot, it was already gone.

The poor man sighed and mumbled something sadly self-deprecating. This wasn't the first time there had been a moment like this recently. He was beginning to wonder if he should just retire already, if some minor but noticeable event had taken place in Britain's Department of Mystery's halls that had left him mentally unwell, and thus unfit for his job.

It was unfortunate, but she couldn't blame herself for it. The department really should have more eyes watching for ripples in the time stream.

Hopefully Harry would quit telling people things they didn't need to know and Antoine could get back to doing a sufficient job.

But even if he didn't, it wouldn't be long before such things stopped requiring her attention again.

By her scale, anyways.


Hydrus took in the fledgling grounds Neville and Perenelle had worked up, and gave an appreciative nod. He'd only stepped out here to tell the old woman to tell her husband to be nice to Giannis, the ancient alchemist had begun to yell at Giannis again, but she'd asked for his opinion. The two 'gardeners' were both smiling at him, with Neville's being an especially wide one.

"What do you think?" he asked. "It doesn't even smell anymore."

Hydrus laughed. "It definitely doesn't."

As he continued to look over their handiwork, however, he began to realise he recognised most of the plants they'd used. He couldn't name them, of course, but there really wasn't anything too outlandish. Even the trees seemed to just be plain old oaks and firs. There were a few oddities, like some flowers along the path leading up to the front door that wore brownish leaves and blossomed in shades of black, but beyond that…

"Mrs. Flamel," he said once he'd realised what must have happened. "You think he's ready?"

"Go ahead, dear," she said with a sigh. "I'll take care of it."

Hoping they had been on the same wavelength with that conversation, Hydrus began to pour his magic out onto the grounds. He avoided looking at Neville while he did so, not wanting to see the boy himself wilt, and so instead got to watch as the plants they'd spread did so instead.

In theory the foliage probably would've been fine for a few months if not years. The bushes would've slowly produced less berries, the grass would thin out over time, and the flowers wouldn't bloom again. With him actively forcing his magic on them? The process was happening much faster. The trees were shrivelling, the well-fed soil was drying up, and even the cobble stone path he assumed Perenelle had installed was cracking. When he finished, he gave Neville a moment to recover before turning around.

The Longbottom heir was sweating, and frowning, but at the very least he didn't look completely miserable.

Hydrus cleared his throat. "My family's magic—"

"He knows, he knows." The old woman gave her apprentice a pat on the shoulder. "And it's a lesson he won't forget again."

Neville opened his mouth, but took a few seconds to say anything as he apparently thought it over. "What all should I have learned?"

Perenelle beamed at him. "Good question. You learned about roots and rot, dear."

'Oh god,' Hydrus thought, wanting no part of the woman's esoteric lecture. "Actually, real quick—"

"You recognized the rot of this place's grounds," Perenelle continued, unimpeded. "But you didn't think too hard about the root of that problem. You fixed the problem, but you didn't do anything to stop it from cropping up again.

"Now, you'll eventually get good enough at this to breed and raise brand new plants to suit your purposes, but for now you need to work with what me and nature give you." She shook her head. "Look! You only asked me for one recommendation, and look how they're doing."

Hydrus gave an appreciative frown when he saw that the flowers that lined the path did in fact look just fine. They had already looked a bit wilted beforehand, so he hadn't noticed they weren't changing with the rest of the grounds. He wondered whether or not to ask for some to give Bella.

"But no, you only asked me about the flowers, because they're too girly for you to have an opinion on."

Neville's face flushed. "That's not why! I just don't know anything about flowers!"

"Well learn!" She smacked him on the arm. "Girls like flowers! Or boys, whatever floats your boat."

Hydrus was about to save the stammering boy who'd once been a man strong enough to stand shoulder to shoulder with him, but the ancient herbalist wasn't done yet.

"Not to mention you only cared about the soil and plants themselves." Perenelle jabbed a finger in Hydrus's direction. "You didn't even ask him once what he wanted things to look like. What if he wanted a water feature, hm?"

The Black heir cleared his throat. "I really didn't—"

"Hush, I'm not done yet." Hydrus felt like the interruption had been a slap, and he was more shocked than offended at the woman's audacity. "If you're going to go on and on about how much you want to be a gardener some day, then you have to remember the people who pay gardeners pay them to tend to their gardens, not to make their own.

"I'll be darned before I let your talent go to waste." Perenelle folded her arms over her chest. "So you better shape up, got it?"

"Got it." To Hydrus's surprise, the boy hadn't withered away to match the grounds. He had just nodded along to the criticism. "I can do this."

"That's the spirit!" With another one of what was quickly becoming the woman's signature punches to her apprentice's shoulder, she turned to Hydrus. "Now, what can I do for you dear?"

He shook his head, still in a stupor from her earlier 'hush'ing. "Just need you to tell your husband to quit yelling at Giannis."

"Oh, don't mind him, he's just a big ol' windbag." She waved him off. "Trust me, you should've seen him when your little one showed up on our doorstep yesterday. I thought he was about to lose his voice the way he kept going on and on about this and that."

"Wait." He tried to process that. "Giannis 'showed up on your doorstep'?"

Again she waved him off. "Don't worry, he had that adorable little house elf of yours with him. And he gave it just as good as he got, he's a fiery one."

Neville had already wandered off to inspect the flowers that had survived Hydrus's assault. Perenelle was beaming at him. Hydrus was left to just pinch his nose in frustration as he was once again reminded of the fact that Giannis was seemingly uncontrollable.

'It's what you told him to do, isn't it?' he thought. 'Whatever he wants, so long as he can bear the brunt of the consequences.'

The problem with that was how worried he was that one day the kid would—

He sucked his teeth more out of surprise than pain when a piece of his arm popped. Without a second thought he dismissed the boy's future. Giannis was a good kid, he had Dobby watching over him, he would be fine. And even if he wasn't, Hydrus didn't owe him anything, let alone the wonders he'd gifted him with thus far.

He certainly didn't owe him the loss of his third bargain, and neither did Magic deserve whatever that loss meant for her.

He did not love the child.

"Besides," Perenelle said, as if just remembering something. "The fact that Nicky came here with me means he actually does like the boy. He just doesn't know how to deal with that fact."

Hydrus rolled his eyes and walked away.

He really hated old people.


Sirius let loose an uproarious laugh at Andromeda's impression of Narcissa. The pair were relaxing in the Tonks family's basement den, sharing a drink, and he was coming to realise how much he'd missed his 'big cousin'. Ted was grabbing another bunch of beers, and when he returned Sirius offered him a grin.

"You're a man after my own heart," he said as he took the bottle. "And I'm not just saying that cus your wife's made you into her gopher instead of making me do it."

"Shut up," Andromeda said. "You're lucky I even let you in with empty hands like that. What kind of a guest are you?"

"What kind of host only has muggle beer to drink?" he snapped back. "No offence, Ted, I love the stuff. She's the snob here."

"I'm drinking it too!"

"With a grimace!"

His cousin-in-law just shook his head as the two went on.

Sirius liked him. Andromeda hadn't always been so… Down to the earth. Back when they were young, she was like a slightly less snobbish, slightly more bossy, equally obnoxious version of his mother. It wasn't until they were teenagers that she'd started to mellow out, and although it had given him false hopes for her sisters, he was glad to see it hadn't ended when she walked away from the family.

"Mom! Dad!" Sirius winced at the sound of her daughter's voice calling from the other room. "You guys have any leftovers?"

"I'll go fix something for her," Andromeda said as she got to her feet. "You boys keep having fun."

"There's the proper pureblood lady I always knew you'd beco—"

He had to duck out of the way of the bottle she threw at him. "And clean that up!"

With a laugh, a quiet one so as not to alert Nymphadora he was here, he did so with a few turns of his wand. It was funny. Just a few… No, maybe more than a few, years ago that would've actually been a compliment for her. Now she was throwing beer bottles and telling him to do the cleaning himself.

"Don't be surprised if she drags Nymphadora down here," Ted said. "You know she can't leave well enough alone."

"Yeah, you're probably right." He sighed and sipped his beer. "Even if she does, I'll just say I'm sorry and take the licks. Can't imagine what she's going through at the department. Everyone there loves Amelia, and I really fucked her over with this one."

"Don't stress about it too much," the other man said. "I know it doesn't even things out, least of all to you all things considered, but for as much as you probably pissed them off, my wife's never been happier."

Sirius snorted. "That right?"

"You ask her a thousand times if she'd choose between me and the House of Black, she'd pick me a thousand times," Ted said, nodding to himself. "I know that for a fact. But I also know, deep down, even if she isn't willing to admit it to herself yet, if she could have them both she'd want that instead."

Sirius frowned. "Hydrus offered…"

"And she said no." Ted was still nodding, and Sirius was beginning to suspect the congenial man was a bit of lightweight. "But give her some time. I know her better than anyone else, and believe me when I say she hasn't stopped talking about the past and—, here she comes."

The Black Sheep had to give the mediwizard credit, he was only just now beginning to hear Andromeda and what he presumed to be Nymphadora's footsteps coming down the stairs. The pair of witches got down to the bottom, and he was surprised to see the pink-haired young woman didn't look all that put out to see him. That was a rare thing for aurors and family alike these days, and she was both.

"Black Sheep," Nymphadora said. "You're welcome for the beers."

The girl jumped when Andromeda pinched her. "Don't act like Hydrus wasn't the one to give you all that money, young lady."

"Mum!"

Sirius laughed. "Thank you either way. It's good to see you." He hesitated. "How you holding up?"

"Fine."

He didn't need to be an auror, or a former auror rather, to smell that was a lie. Still, he gave a head-shrug and raised his bottle.

"To being fine."

Andromeda plopped down on the love seat next to him, leaving her daughter to take the recliner she'd previously been sitting in. "I put the soup back on the stove, if either of you two want some more."

"I'm good," Sirius said. "You should have my boys over some time though, they'll put you to work at that stove."

"You know you and yours are always welcome here," Andromeda said, managing to divert her eyes in a warning to Nymphadora for only a split second. "You're family."

"I don't know, the resemblance is slim."

He took the walloping she gave him upside his head with a smile as Ted shook his own head and Nymphadora rolled her eyes.

"So," the youngest one there said. "What are you doing here?"

"Drinking your beer apparently," Sirius said without thinking, waving the bottle at her to prove his point. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to enjoy a nice meal with my par—"

"She's in debt," Ted said. "Or she was. Paid it off with Hydrus's money, spent the rest on a couple of six packs, still won't let us help her out besides feeding her."

"I don't need your help!" The poor girl's hair had gone from pink to red to back to an even brighter shade of pink. "Since I helped Hydrus, I just need to stack up a few more paychecks, finish buying some furniture, and I'll be fine."

Sirius was confused now. "How the hell did you get a loan bad enough to need all of however much money my son gave you?"

If there was one thing the young woman's grandfather had succeeded in drilling into Sirius's head, it was that his son wasn't exactly 'thrifty'. In the old timer's words, the boy 'practically melted galleons' every time he touched their finances. Considering what Sirius had roughly learned about the not-quite-teen, he probably liked Nymphadora, so there was no way he hadn't drowned her in coins.

"She didn't get it from Gringotts," Andromeda answered. "Went to some classmate of her's family."

Sirius frowned as Nymphadora tried to hush her mother. "Which one?"

"It's fine!" the girl snapped at him. "I'm the one who agreed to it, I'm the idiot here, it's fine!"

"Which one?" Sirius slowly repeated. "If you don't tell me, I'll tell Hydrus, and believe me when I say he won't need to ask you to find out."

"God, you're as bad as…" Nymphadora trailed off. "Go ahead. Tell him. I don't care."

Sirius narrowed his eyes at his niece, but Andromeda cut him off. "It was the Lestranges."

"Mum!"

"Damn it," Sirius muttered. "Why'd it have to be them."

He didn't know how good his son's post-drinking memory was, but his own was phenomenal. It had to be. Otherwise he would've gotten beaten for forgetting half the shit his grandfather had 'taught' him. The kid—, the man, had said Bellatrix had been married to a Lestrange before he went back in time.

"What?" Andromeda asked. "Are they… Off limits or something?"

He was starting to see what Ted had meant when he said that SIrius's cousin didn't exactly hate the family she came from. She looked genuinely interested to know what sort of problem there was between the Blacks and the Lestranges.

"No." He shook his head. "I just don't know if I trust him not to wipe the whole damn family out."


BBaRtS


Chapter 52, finally managed to upload on a Saturday again, woo

Remus got another new job. Amelia's on her denial-fuelled warpath. Giannis is Giannis. Sand or something. Gardening happened. The Black family continues to recover.

I'm drunk af. Wrote this chapter drunk af. Edited it drunk af. Let's roll.

"Wonder if anything goofy will come of his horticultural efforts? " - Not yet, but as we saw here progress is being made. I wanted to show that Perenelle is building up Neville exactly the way Hydrus wanted, that even in the face of terrifying and object failure Neville doesn't buckle like he did with the duelling gym, and that there's hope for the Black Summer Home yet.

"i'm glad to see that Sirius is getting close to the truth" - And yet, somehow someway, Remus beat him to the punch. I didn't exactly spell it out, but a certain someone is making sure the Unspeakables don't notice the way Hydrus is fragrantly revealing he's fucked with time. I think Sirius will have worked up the courage to finally ask Remus the question Hydrus told him to ask last week, next week.

"Hydrus decides to distract him and the first thing he thinks of is "I fucked Fleur"." - Say this much for Hydrus, he knows what'll catch his dad's attention.

"my absolutely most favorite reoccurring bits are the "Everybody knows Greg" bit and a scene starting off with Dumbledore talking about something as if it's the most severe of all situations but it turns out to be completely innocuous" - Dumbledore's just Dumbledore doing Dumbledore things, but I'm looking forward to continuing to dissect the mystery behind Mr. Herschel. What the hell has he done that made it so all these old folk know him without Hydrus being able to casually find out on his own.

"Also, Snape being terrified of his mother-in-law and Harry/Hydrus actually kind of feeling bad for him is pretty funny, too." - I wasn't planning on much for Snape when I started this story, but I accidentally made a fun comparison to him and Hydrus early on. I implied he lost his arm to remove the dark mark, annoyed Harry with his bitching about it, and I liked getting to toss that in enough to give him some more attention. Plus his changes more directly oppose Remus's. Snape was a belligerent supporter of Harry, Remus was an unwavering one. Now Remus is the one pushing back against Hydrus while Snape does what he's told. Fun fun fun.

"More Mothering Bella is nice. Even if her children are a deranged future dark lord and a basilisk, her interactions and thoughts are sweet." - What a pair of scamps those two are. I like how she's 101% on board with them being her kids while Hydrus is doing his damnedest to ditch his own feelings towards them.

"I love seeing how others respond to her too, it... Grounds it?" - I feel like this is a big part of separating those moments, and thus this fic, from being crack fic. Yeah she's crazy, but it is very much known in this world that she's off her rocker; it isn't an unimportant feature of her character.

"Don't worry to much about the deadline, a few day extra for a good chapter is worth it. " - I hope I don't give off the impression that I'm like, upset about the deadline. Like I've said, I write this fic because I want to get better at the profession of writing, and deadlines are a part of that. My bitching about them is just the inside peak at the making of the sausage as I try and get good enough for such things.

"SNAPE AND PETUNIA. DID NOT SEE COMING. BRAIN EXPLOSION!" - How dare they :(

"I wonder why Snape has been keeping so much from her?" - Hydrus's assumption (Which may or may not be true) was that Snape didn't want to upset her. Petunia grew up hearing about how much better her sister was because she was magical, so he wanted to distance her from such things as much as possible. Whether or not Hydrus was right, now he's just about plunged the pairing into the depths of the wizarding world.

"Giannis giving Flamel the child equivalent of a middle finger was incredible!" - They're a fun pair, the unwitting prodigy and his unrelated forebearer butting heads over tradition vs innovation.

"Oof, Sirius is stronger than Hydrus in regards to the Black family magic." - Nah that's fine, don't even worry about it, barely an inconvenience.

" "Swear it on my mum's grave."... arsehole! lol" - If there's one thing I think a lot of fics miss about Harry, it's his smart ass nature. He can get lippy and quippy when he wants.

" "Society for Werewolf Advancement in the Magical Population" *blinks* *facepalms* Thanks, Hermione" - Be proud of Hydrus for coming up with it on the spot. He learned from the best.

And that's all! Thanks for the reviews and comments, thanks for continuing to read this thing thats stolen my weekends from me this year, thank you all for being here. Love you all, see you all next weekend, lessthanthree.