Lucius delicately sipped his brandy, eyes crawling over the rest of the room. To his right was Sirius Black, whose glass of whiskey was drained in an instant. Across from the Malfoy lord was Cygnus Black, sitting next to his brother Orion, both with whiskey on ice. To Lucius's left was Narcissa, beside her was Regulus Black, each drinking wine. Sitting between Regulus and Orion, across from Sirius, were Bellatrix and Hydrus Black. The Black heir was looking over a document already with an empty glass to match his father's floating beside him, while his fiancee was propping up their ward in her lap with one hand and holding a glass of vodka with the other.

She'd been bragging to his wife before the meeting began that she got the liquor from some German fashion designer.

'I should really have a talk with Draco about alcohol,' Lucius thought. 'Who knows if he inherited his mother's… Tendencies.'

They were in Castle Black's throne room, a relic from the time when lordly titles like his own and Sirius's weren't just political status symbols. If Lucius correctly remembered the history he'd studied when trying to woo Arcturus Black in order to get permission to woo the man's granddaughter, it had been built back in the iron age. A dowry from a Roman noblewitch to the Blacks' druidic ancestors, a marriage that had moved the family from advising kings to wearing crowns themselves.

Now that same family was gathered around a table drinking just past noon to kick-off a meeting that he'd more or less been forced to join.

"Right." Sirius sat his glass down. "I've decided, and my advisors agreed, that we should be holding meetings like this regularly to discuss family business.

"From now on, end of every month, it's all hands on deck at noon." The man gestured at his son. "If something that can't wait till then comes up, you talk to me or my boy. I, as the…" He sighed. "Lord of this house, and him as my heir, we will either handle it or we'll call an emergency meeting. Any questions?"

His tone implied that it wouldn't be a good idea to have a question, so the rest of them kept quiet.

"Good. First order of business, as a reward for his years of dedicated service to this family, I've decided to allow my father to continue to reside in Grimmauld Place." Orion's brows furrowed and Lucius hid his smirk with another small sip of his drink. "I will continue Arcturus's legacy by ruling from, and living in, the Black Summer Home."

A masterstroke, if Lucius did say so himself. He'd tried telling the Black Sheep that he should evict his father and cement his position as lord by returning to his ancestral home, but the man had nearly slapped him. So instead, he'd come up with this. Grimmauld Place would be used as a chip to balance any scales that the passed-over former heir was resentful over. Either that, or he'd have to admit the tradition wasn't worth anything, and Sirius would be free from the judgement of not living there anyways.

"Thank you, Lord Black." Orion tipped his head to only the slightest degree. "It is an honour, one that Walburga will no doubt be overjoyed to hear of."

The woman had been forbidden from coming, on threat of expulsion, by both Hydrus and Sirius. When Hydrus first told Lucius and Bellatrix to arrange this meeting, he'd made it very clear that his grandmother would not be welcome. Lucius had gone to try and convince Sirius that if they were going to genuinely bring this destructive maelstrom of a family together, then it wouldn't be wise to make enemies so soon and so definitively.

That time, the Black Sheep actually had slapped him.

"Right. You're up, kiddo." Sirius practically collapsed down into his chair as he apparently gave up the ghost on looking presentable. "What's on the docket?"

Hydrus cleared his throat. "We'll start with legal matters. Orion—"

"All but one party has dropped the charges against Regulus," the man said, not waiting for his grandson to finish. "The Smiths."

Hydrus nodded. "Narcissa?"

"Woman's an iron wall," she said. "Can't even so much as come near the subject without her going apoplectic. I had Xaviera try to approach her and she nearly bit the poor thing's head off."

'Would've been like trying to take a bite out of a puffer fish,' Lucius thought. 'I don't know why Zabini married that one.'

"I don't think she's ever going to let it go," Regulus said over the edge of his glass. "You'd know better than I, father, but it might be time to pursue other legal strategies."

"I'll take care of it," Hydrus declared. "We've got a standing invitation to go visit Lord Arnold, we'll just get the stupid cup back."

Regulus spat some of his wine back into his cup. "That's not going to happen."

"It is." Hydrus shot a cold look at his uncle that made Lucius uncomfortable. "If he isn't willing to sell it back at cost, then you'll just have to steal it back."

"That's—!"

"Enough!" The teen sent a shockwave of magic across the room that nearly made Lucius puke. "You were the greatest thief in the entire world, and you retired a failure. You now have access to the world's foremost expert on invisibility cloaks, the greatest runes prodigy the world has ever known, that prodigy's mentor and the oldest wizard in history, and…" The teen waved his hand dismissively. "A rather plucky pair of inventors who have quite the knack for getting into places they aren't supposed to be.

"So you can either fade into obscurity as a failure," Hydrus continued. "Or you can do it with some dignity."

Lucius carefully watched his cousin-in-law's reaction out of the corner of his eyes, just behind his wife's shoulders. The man was frowning, but the fear and weakness seemed to be gone.

"Fine," Regulus said. "Be sure to bury me somewhere nice."

"I will in however many decades from now that'll be needed." The teen returned his attention to Orion. "One of my schoolmates passed on a rumour to me that Scrimgeour is retiring soon, you know anything about that?"

"Please," Orion scoffed. "The man's been saying that for years now." Hydrus tilted his chin up and narrowed his eyes. "I'll… Look into it tomorrow."

"Thank you." Damn, the kid was good at that. "Lastly, where is the DMLE at with regards to the assailants who attacked Sirius and Arcturus in Knockturn Alley forever ago?"

"Still nowhere," the oldest one said. "They were spotless outside of what Sirius did to them. From the orient, obviously, but beyond that we have no idea."

"What part of 'the orient'?" Hydrus asked, sarcasm dripping from his lips. "Be more specific."

"It's all the same."

"You're wrong."

"It's the—!"

"Orion."

This time the teen didn't just pulse his magic, he flooded the entire room with it. If everyone had been pretending before that Sirius's place on the throne wasn't a facade, there was no doubt now who the most powerful person sitting around the table was. The only one not bowed over by the weight of Hydrus's magic was his ward, who was still just reading some book in Bellatrix's lap.

"You won't be punished for being wrong, Grandfather." Hydrus's voice seemed to echo in Lucius's ears. "There will, however, be consequences if you repeat your same mistakes. Do I make myself clear?"

He stopped flaring his magic and Lucius sucked in a breath in time with his entire side of the table. Orion and Cygnus both sagged down in relief, while Sirius straightened back up. Bellatrix just leaned over and gave Hydrus a kiss on the cheek before he began speaking again.

"I'm sure you've been doing everything in your power to find out more about the people who tried to kill your son and father," the teen said. "But if there is anything you can do to put some more pressure on the aurors, see it done."

As Orion collected himself to respond, Lucius spared a glance at Sirius. The man had the slightest frown on his face, but it was impossible to read what it meant. Was he proud of his son after watching him verbally eviscerate his father? Was he jealous of the boy's strength? Was he disappointed in him for not being a lackadaisical joker like himself?

Lucius wished he had a better understanding of the man he was supposed to advise, of what was going on behind those storm grey eyes.


'Fuck, this is boring,' Sirius thought as he continued to watch Hydrus tear his father a new one. 'Can't he just run these things himself?'

Normally he'd enjoy getting to watch the bastard get the riot act read to him, but Hydrus had made him promise to not have more than three drinks. He'd already gone through two and a half, and as the 'kid' moved his attention to Cygnus, something told him this wasn't about to get more interesting.

Hydrus asked about the family's finances, Cygnus explained that they'd taken a significant but not not worrying blow thanks to Regulus's defence, but that certain other financial drains were beginning to strain the coffers. He said it in such a way and with such a side eye that there wasn't any doubt he was referring to the heir's own spending habits. As was quickly becoming his son's go-to manoeuvre, he dismissed the problems.

"We'll just need to invest more," he said. "With Arcturus gone, we can begin making international moves. Find us some contacts in China, Germany, the States, and get to work."

"Unfortunately for us, I can't just pull those out of thin air," Sirius's uncle snarked back. "And because my father only just passed away, I haven't exactly had time to fill out an address book."

"Regulus, you dug this hole, help your uncle make some new friends." The man nodded. "As for more immediate liquidity, I know a few tricks that can be sold." Hydrus rubbed at his jaw, and Sirius realised that the boy probably used to have a real beard. "We'll need to spend money to make money, though. Find something that'll keep Lord Black more personally invested, buy him a quidditch team or something."

"Buy him a—" Cygnus cut himself off with a scoff. "Are you trying to bankrupt this family?"

"Just take out a loan from Gringotts," Hydrus said. "Believe me when I say we have a line of credit as long as their king's."

Sirius snapped his fingers. "That reminds me."

Immediately all eyes were on him. He managed not to wince, but he really hated moments like these. Everyone looking at him, the centre of attention, expectations raining down upon him just for speaking up. It was why he'd latched on to James so soon after they met; if there was anyone in the entire world that could outshine the heir to House Black, it was the gilded social butterfly himself.

God he loved that man.

"Found out Nymphadora blew through all the money you gave her already," he continued. Hydrus frowned. "Apparently she took out a nasty loan from another family and needed almost every last knut to pay it off. It was, uh… It was the Lestranges."

"I'll take care of it."

'That's what I'm afraid of.'

Unlike last time, the most dangerous 'teenager' the world had ever seen didn't elaborate as to what taking care of it would mean.


Apophis slithered across the craggy shore on the perimeter of his second castle, the first if you didn't count the old queen's which would someday soon be his. Father wouldn't notice his absence while he was away, and the gathering he hosted was far less exciting than the ones the basilisk conducted. Besides, he was here for a reason.

He was not afraid of the waves that slammed against him. He did not clench against the spikes of stone out of terror, but for balance. He was not at all worried that the sea would sweep him away and drown him in a powerless death that his gaze and fangs could not save him from. He had been raised in the depths, was guided by his uncle who claimed the seas as his own; he did not tremble as he continued to make his way forward to remind himself of those facts.

As king of all serpents, he was the embodiment of fear, not its victim.

That he was willing to come out into these treacherous waters was proof of that, and would serve as a reminder to himself of that fact whenever he needed.

When yet another wave came roaring over head and completely submerged him, Apophis quickly decided that he'd done enough to prove his unending bravery, and prepared to leave. Before he could turn all the way around though, a shape began to rise out of the waters.

'Uncle Francis?' he wondered. 'No… Much too big.'

The hydrus that rose out of the sea behind Castle Black-Apophis II was nearly twice as large as his uncle, perhaps even larger than the old queen herself if his father's story about her was true. The interloper shook his head, sending water everywhere as his whiskers flopped about. Apophis reared up and wished his feathers weren't getting weighed down by all the moisture.

"Kneel before your king!" he demanded. "Kneel before Apophis! Son of—!"

But the hydrus didn't acknowledge him, his mouth was already wide open and completely obscuring his eyes from Apophis's lethal gaze. It lunged at him as if he were no more important than a garter snake.

'Fine,' Apophis thought. 'I'll kill you from the inside.'

But just as the much larger serpent's mouth came close enough for him to strike, it was jerked away. Apophis blinked his third eyelid back shut, and watched as a hand even larger than the hydrus's head strangled the ancient reptile. It broke his neck and, with a strength larger than the young basilisk could imagine, threw the sea serpent out into the ocean.

"Finally," a voice boomed. "I had been looking for the interloper."

Apophis looked up at this strange newcomer, and had no idea what it could be. Its head was like that of a shark's, its body like that of a snake's, and its arms were some sort of lizards but with human-like hands on the ends. He stared in awe as the being leaned in close to him.

"And who might you be?" it asked. "Hm?"

The basilisk reared up. "I am Apophis! Son of Hydrus! King of all serpents!"

"I see." The monster pulled back. "I am Nikau, taniwha of these seas. I shall allow you to live for your service in attempting to kill the interloper."

"Allow me to…" Apophis hissed at the 'taniwha'. "These lands are my—! …My father's! Who are you to claim them?"

"The lands are his, but he has given the seas to me," the taniwha said. "I shall forgive your trespassing on account of your ignorance."

"Ignorance!?" Apophis reared up to his full height, not caring that it was a pittance compared to the leviathan's own size. He feared the sea, not the so-called monsters that lived there. "Ignore this!"

He opened his eyes, truly opened them, and stared deep into the being's own.

The taniwha stared back.

"Since you are the son of my… Associate, I shall guide you back to where you belong." The taniwha scooped Apophis, and the rocky craigs he'd been nestled across, up in just one fist. The basilisk bit at his palms, but his teeth found no purchase in the scales. "Should you wish to visit again, I hope you'll do so with more manners."

And like that, he was dropped in a pile of rubble back on the cliff surrounding the sea. Although nothing sharp got past his scales, the drop left Apophis a little woozy and dizzy. After a moment to recover, he huffed and began slithering towards his father.

Why on earth had he given away Apophis's grounds to some other legendary creature?


'Why the hell did she have to bring the kid?' Regulus internally bemoaned, wishing he could light up one of his cigarillos. 'He isn't even a part of this family.'

And the kid certainly didn't seem to be enjoying the show the same way he was. It seemed like Hydrus had some method of torturing everyone here. He was boring the hell out of Sirius, spending Uncle Cygnus's money, talking down to Regulus's father, calling Regulus's only pride a failure. If he started praising his father over Bella and asked Cissy about her hair roots he'd pull off the perfect game.

"Bella," Hydrus said. "Any general family matters Sirius should be aware of?"

"In the vein of spending money," Regulus's cousin started. "We will be starting a new scholarship program for certain…" Her nose wrinkled. "Disenfranchised, peoples."

Regulus snorted and grinned. He looked around the room and found he was the only one.

'Oh.' He stowed away the smile. 'Wasn't a joke.'

"Excuse me?" Orion asked.

"In addition to helping rehabilitate our family's image so that Hydrus can continue his research into the dark arts more freely," Bella continued. "It will also allow us to scout out those who are uniquely talented in order to be adopted into our fledgling cadet branch."

Regulus began to tune out the shouting. Orion was going on about how improper the notion was, how filthy non-humans and muggleborns were. Lucius followed it up by explaining how much of an embarrassment such things would be to the Black family name, and thus his own through association. Cygnus scoffed at the notion of such 'investments' ever paying dividends, calling it an even greater waste of their already tightening resources.

On and on and on they went. Hydrus seemed to be listening to it all, sipping more alcohol, nodding along to their words like they were actually saying something new instead of stating the obvious at a higher volume. When they finally wound down, Hydrus sighed.

"To borrow the words of a dead man," he said. "The lot of you need to grow some damned spines."

And like that, Regulus was grinning again. Arcturus was probably already half-rotted and yet here he somehow was, bringing his children to heel from beyond the grave. It was obvious there was no love lost between Hydrus and his great-grandfather, not if the teen's actions immediately following the man's death were anything to go off of, but here he was pretending like he gave a damn in order to manipulate the others.

"I do not make the moves I do for tomorrow's sake, nor the day after that's, nor the day after that's." Hydrus stood and began to slowly walk around the table. "I do it for the sake of the next decade, next century, next millenia. This family is a stagnant pool of festering swamp water, and if we do not make strides for our betterment, we will fall."

The teen stopped behind Regulus's uncle.

"Cygnus, you and I shall keep this family afloat, but you might never see a knut of true profit until after you're beside your father in the family cemetery. You will not, however, go without" He moved along to Lucius. "Lucius, unless you wish to continue being this family's only… How do I put this politely? Unless you want to keep being our only bitch, I think you should be particularly supportive of my efforts to find new people to delegate tasks to."

Regulus tensed when the teen stopped behind him. What the hell had he done? He'd kept his mouth shut, hadn't said—

"Orion." Hydrus placed his hand on Regulus's shoulder, and he tensed up as the boy leaned in so that their heads were side by side. "For some reason, I don't see my uncle here having natural born children any time soon. So unless you want the only potential grandchildren you'll ever have to come from Sirius, and grow up hating you, I suggest you start lightening up regarding blood purity.

"It will take generations for this family to recover its numbers, to become what we once were." Hydrus finally returned to his seat. "And that's only if we begin changing things. If you don't believe we have the strength to overcome any obstacles created by beginning to bring up muggleborn stock, by turning them into devoted, but lesser, relatives, then tell me now." Hydrus folded one leg over the other and leaned back in his chair. "So I can burn you off our family tree so that you'll quit weighing us down."

No one said anything. Once more Regulus turned his attention to the child sitting on Bella's lap, the boy Hydrus had chosen to be the 'heir' to the cadet Slytherin family, and found the kid still just reading his book. Despite having just been called a lesser, the kid didn't seem to care at all, too engrossed in…

Regulus narrowed his eyes.

Was the kid reading a grimoire by Nicholas Flamel himself?

"You do realise," Sirius chimed in for what felt like the first time in forever. "Orion already has a grandson, right?"

Hydrus scoffed. "Supposedly."

"That's it." Sirius folded his arms over his chest. "Call me your father or I'm kicking you out of this meeting."

"Excuse me?"

"I'm in charge here," Regulus's brother said, a wolven grin on his face. "Say I'm your father or I'm kicking you out."

"Are you…" Hydrus scoffed. "Motherfucker I will—"

"Technically counts."

The Black family's heir's brows furrowed in confusion, then shot open and rolled over. It took Regulus another moment to figure it out, and then he began to laugh. He just couldn't help it any more; this was what his family was becoming? As the laughter continued to rock him he leaned against Narcissa, and more felt than saw her shaking her head.

Once he'd gotten back to a relative sanity, he straightened back up, and lifted his glass as Kreacher filled it once more with wine.

"To the House of Black!" he called. "It's good to be home."


Bellatrix lifted her glass out of politeness, and narrowed her eyes at the fact that Kreacher had refilled Sirius's glass for a fourth time to allow him to join in on the toast. Her little water snake's glass levitated higher in the air as well, and eventually the other members of their family joined in and drank.

So far, things were going well. Better than she'd feared, worse than Hydrus had hoped. He'd already had to remind the others of his authority on more than one occasion, nearly had it undermined by that cur Sirius, but thus far no one had managed to successfully derail any of his plans. She hadn't thought this meeting, and the ones to follow, were necessary, but Regulus's laughter had been enlightening.

It wasn't about getting the weaker members of their family's opinions.

It was about bringing them together.

"To further accentuate your future lord's point," she said, holding up a letter. "Already one of his chosen have earned a spot in a well-regarded social club. Only their second female member, and the youngest one by far. Her runesmanship on the Slytherin scion rings was apparently very impressive."

For the first time all meeting, Giannis looked up from his book. "Runes?"

"Yes," Hydrus said. "I had her design a rune scheme to be imprinted on the Slytherin family's rings. Once you've learned enough, I'm sure you'll want to improve them."

"Can I—"

Bellatrix cut him off by placing a kiss on top of his head. "Not now, dear. We can discuss matters regarding that family once we're done here."

"Fiiine," he groaned. "I shouldn't have come."

"I warned you," she said. "Now, as I was saying. If, by some miracle, any of you discover other talented muggleborns, be sure to alert Hydrus or myself. It won't be long before other families begin to try and emulate us, and we want our pick of the litter."

She doubted any of her relatives, besides Sirius, even knew a single muggleborn let alone a talented one, but it wouldn't hurt to put out the word. If they knew what was good for them, they'd find some with their own initiative.

"Or non-humans," Hydrus added. "Considering the rotating menagerie Giannis seems to keep around, there's a particular half-giant I'm looking to bring into the fold."

Bellatrix's eye twitched, but she didn't let her disgust show any further than that. Apophis and Hydrus both liked the oaf, and it wasn't like he was becoming a Black. Plus, he might actually do some good in protecting her baby from the awful, filthy animals he liked to collect.

"That reminds me again," Sirius said, and Bellatrix stopped herself from glaring at him. "Talking to Ted, uh, Andromeda's husband, he thinks she might actually want back in. Just have to press a bit."

"Good." Hydrus turned to Cygnus. "Go to her, conspiratorially, and in secret. Tell her that now is her chance to return, that Sirius and I are soft and won't say no. Beg her to take this opportunity while it lasts."

"As you say." Her father bowed his head. "It will be… Good to have my daughter back."

"What about Nymphadora?" Sirius asked. "I don't think she'll be too happy if she shows up to work and suddenly finds Black crest on her tit."

"I'll take care of it," Hydrus said. "Yet another boon to having this cadet family, I'll take her in first."

Bellatrix wondered if the girl was really worth all the hassle. Already one of Hydrus's pet projects that had supposedly been worth a damn in the war, his war, had turned out to be a weak-willed coward. What if her niece was no different?

"Moving on," Bellatrix said, smirking slightly for what she was about to say. "Lord Black, are you ready for your coronation ceremony tomorrow?"

"My what?"

She was so glad Hydrus had decided to save this for last.


Bellatrix rolled her eyes as she realised where Sirius was dragging her to. They stepped out of the floo and into Dumbledore's office, where they found the ancient warlock reading a dusty tome while wearing the weirdest pair of goggles she'd ever seen. When he looked up at her, it was like she was staring at a kaleidoscope of eyes.

"Sirius, Bellatrix!" He removed the strange eye wear and smiled at them. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Yes," Bellatrix said. "Why are we here?"

Sirius had insisted on 'borrowing' her after the family meeting, and unfortunately her little water snake had allowed it.

"Hydrus just found out that the Lestranges fucked over Tonks," Sirius said. "Normally wouldn't mind him scorched-earthing a bunch of bastards like them, but considering my cousin used to be married to a Lestrange, I'm worried he might make that punishment more literal."

Bellatrix giggled at the thought of her love getting jealous, but then something occurred to her. "Wait, how do you know that?"

"Well," Sirius started. "The other day Hydrus and I talked together for a long while, and he told me everything."

She narrowed her eyes at the dog. His chin was tilted up, unnatural for him. He was looking her dead in the eyes, something he never bothered with unless he was trying to threaten her. The only reason he'd try and threaten her now was if he didn't want her to disagree with him.

"You're lying," she said, venom dripping from her tone. "What really happened?"

Sirius just rolled his eyes and huffed. "It was worth a shot. He told me some things, including that."

"That's wonderful," Dumbledore said, eyes all gross and dewy. "I'm glad to hear the two of you are making progress."

"Why did we need to drop in for this little update?" Bellatrix demanded. "I do have better things to do, you know."

Who cared if her little water snake wiped the family off the planet? From what she'd heard, they were extinct in his time and the last living ones had tortured him. So had she, of course, but she had hundreds if not thousands of ways to make it up to him. The things she would do to him once he was back in his proper body...

"Because if anyone can talk some sense into him, it's Albus," Sirius said. "And if anyone can stop you from sabotaging the efforts to keeping Hydrus killing them, it's also Albus."

She glared at him, unimpeded by the stares of the rest of their family now.

"You might be surprised," the headmaster said as he stood. "But, still, better safe than sorry. Come."

"Wait." She pointed at the odd goggles he'd been wearing. "What are those?"

"Oh, a fantastical invention Hydrus devised to help counteract the lethality of a basilisk's gaze," the headmaster was grinning a loony grin. "I find them quite fun to read with, really stimulates the brain."

With yet another reminder towards the ancient warlock's senility, the trio left for the Black Summer Home. Eventually they found Hydrus in the dining room, eating a veritable feast. He glanced up at them with a raised eyebrow.

"To what do I owe the pleasure?"

Bellatrix pouted at the way he said the exact same thing Dumbledore had, but Sirius spoke up before she could. "Wanted to ask about your plans for Lestranges."

"I swear," he said. "If you're going to try and tell me not to—"

"We just want to make sure you're not going to do anything rash, Hydrus." Dumbledore folded his arms behind his back. "Something that would go against your agenda of building up the wizarding world."

Hydrus scoffed. "What on earth are you talking about?"

"We're talking about you going and genociding the whole damn family." Sirius snatched up a sausage from one of the trays surrounding Hydrus. "If there's just one thing this whole damn family has common, its that we get a bit touchy when it comes to our..." The wretch's nose wrinkled. "Significant others."

She spared a glance at Hydrus, and saw some hurt there. Poor baby.

"I was going to bankrupt them, not kill them," he said. "I was going to surprise my future father in law with the windfall, maybe take Regulus out on a test drive to see how he likes the toys we'll get him. Didn't want to spoil it."

Both Sirius and Dumbledore looked taken aback, but Bellatrix just frowned. That was hardly the sort of jealousy-fueled blood feud she'd been hoping for.

"Oh," Sirius said. "That's... Not so bad."

"Of course it's not." Hydrus glared at Dumbledore, so at least that was nice. "I don't know what sort of talks you're having with him behind my back, but I don't just go around killing people in cold blood for petty grievances."

"I've never said you do," the ancient warlock said quietly. "Sirius came to me because he was worried for his own reasons, I just—"

"Just what, agreed with him?" Hydrus scoffed. "Get out, both of you."

Neither man said anything, and instead awkwardly shuffled away. She watched them leave, then turned her attention back to her love.

"I promise, I didn't say anything."

"I know you didn't, dear." Hydrus snapped his fingers, summoning their house elf. "Kreacher, tell Fenrir the hunt is off."

Bellatrix blinked. "The hunt?"

As Kreacher popped away, Hydrus nodded. "Like I would've stopped at bankrupting them for going after a member of my family."

She could ignore those last eight words.

"You were going to kill them for me!" She plopped into his lap and began drowning him in kisses. "Bella loves her precious little water snake."

"Yeah, yeah," he said in the few free seconds she came up for air. "Love you too."


BBaRtS


Chapter (3x3)+(3x3)+7+7+7+7+7, aka 53. Shorter than average by a good bit, but I was just feeling the holiday/winter blues this week and couldn't get more done. Next week we'll get the coronation party, which was supposed to be the second half of this chapter, and more.

This week we had the first, and probably only in-detail, family meeting of House of Black. Did I seriously set up Regulus for a one-man heist story? Absolutely. We also saw Hydrus set into motion something that'll have much larger consequences down the line in a flippant moment, but he had a lot of such moments this chapter, so we'll see which one it was that kick started something. Bella conveniently ignored that which needed ignoring, Regulus might've enjoyed himself too much, and Apophis?

Apophis really is just living his whole own little adventure that we just get random glimpses at now and then.

Anyways, on to reviews!

"changing them from male to female" - I'm not the sort to go back and edit (outside of what will potentially, at this point, be the last chapter I write in chapter 15) much, but as much as I wanted this little tiny scene to feel vague and mysterious, I saw a lot of people saying this/things like this. I wish I could go back and make make it more clear no gender swapping was happening. The POV was that of a female character's the entire time, not 'Antoine Disilencio's.

"Finding out that it was actually Giannis doing a one-man Parent Trap? Mind. Blown." - Damn it, we all know where this is going so this isn't really a spoiler, but now I HAVE to come up with something for Hydrus to say besides "You two seriously got Parent Trap'ed by an eight year old?" lololol

"It's really neat seeing Neville come into his own. Watching his student/teacher relationship with Perenelle develop is beautiful to see." - I don't know how many more like, 'training montage' scenes he'll have, but I'm happy with how his progress went/is going. Despite the way Bellatrix sees him, I think he's a good thing for Hydrus to see/have done.

"Oof. It seems like the Lestranges are about to be wiped off of the face of the Earth." - The hunt is off, sadly. Technically Hydrus got exactly what he asked for though; for Dumbledore to be there to tell him when to reign it in.

"*snorts* Yep, there's our Black Family Alcoholism, front and center lol" - Idk what you're talking about, clearly they're all well-balanced, non-dependency-issue-having, functioning members of society.

" "Ever since he found out they were going to throw a party for Sirius's grandpa dying" LMAO! Welp, that is definitely one perspective on the upcoming 'party'. I'm still unsure if Giannis is still just really young, or still just a bit sociopathic :/" - He didn't grow up to be a darklord in the original timeline for nothing~

" "No matter what, he'd make sure they were both happy again, just like they'd made him." Annnnd then he goes and thinks this - hardly the sociopathic train of thinking :)" - Like the best kinds of burritos, kid has layers.

"My goodness, [Hydrus] really is a pompous bastard, to be offended by interrupting a woman of such stature, power, and sheer knowledge. What an arrogant toe-rag" - He's definitely arrogant, but he's also the most powerful wizard in the world. He's got literal gods vying for his support. He gets used to being treated a certain way lolol

"Excited to see how this Lestrange business goes ahead." - I will say it's not over yet. He had to pull the 'I was planning on bankrupting them' line out of his ass, now he has to actually find a PG way to put them down.

And that's all for this week. Hopefully I'll be in a better mood next week and get some more writing done. Till then though, thank you all so much for the support and for reading this. Love you all, see you all next weekend, lessthanthree.