"This isn't right," Magic practically snarled, the echoes of her voice shimmering through the air. "This isn't what we agreed upon."

"It is exactly right, exactly what we agreed upon," Death countered. "You wanted one opportunity to speak with your chosen, and in exchange I get one as well."

"To speak with your own chosen!"

"Now that wouldn't be fair."

Hydrus pinched the bridge of his nose and had to stop himself from uttering a prayer to the very being that was currently annoying the piss out of him.

"What do you two want?" he asked. "I was kind of in the middle of something."

"My servant will still be there when you return, and exactly as you left him and all the others," Death said. "Our older sister may control the flow of time, but pausing the game is no big thing."

Magic's annoyance was rumbling off of her like thunder. The table and empty chair both rattled, an annoying sound which Hydrus silenced by finally taking a seat and leaning his elbows on the table's surface. Like before, he more empathetically felt the two gods' emotions than saw them on their faces, or lack there of in the case of Death. In this instance, they had both cringed.

"Please be careful, Harry," Magic said. "You nearly destroyed the economy of Norway with your left arm, and did cause a three headed cow to be born in rural India with your right."

"I'll take care of the bovine," Death said, snapping his bony fingers. "Last thing we need is to annoy Brahma or any of the other muggle gods by riling up their own servants; they'll spoil the game."

As that little bombshell went off in Hydrus's mind, he sighed. "Right, well, either way can we get to the part where I get to leave? I've already told you, both of you, that I want no part in this war."

"I'd rather you have no part in it either," Death said. "The losses I suffered within the goblin people were not insubstantial."

Once more he was reminded of just how many of the diminutive creatures he killed. He hadn't killed a single one in the past time line, and now he probably had a hundred of their lives hanging off his belt. The probability fell into certainty if you counted Apophis's contributions as his familiar. Something about the way Death had said that bothered him, though.

Hydrus narrowed his eyes. "Then why did you tell them to attack me?"

Magic's annoyance rumbled through the void. "This is—"

"I didn't," Death said. "Unlike my younger sister here, I don't have time to interfere with every little thing you do in your day to day life."

"That doesn't mean they weren't your servants," Magic said. "They worshipped you."

"True, true." Death turned his attention towards Hydrus without actually turning his head. "That doesn't mean I requested it of them. Tell me, dear sister, in your various meetings with young Hydrus have you told him what your haetae did?"

An instant of fear, quickly erased by anger, then pleading. Hydrus wasn't sure if he'd ever get used to the alien feeling of near-universal empathy that seemed to permeate this void the two gods had set up their game in. He wondered if his own impatience was pouring through it in the same way. He also wondered what the hell a 'haetae' was.

"It is, we'll try not to keep you long." Death tapped one finger on the table. "And they are species of xiezhi."

'What the fuck are xiezhi?'

Luckily Death didn't answer any more questions Hydrus really didn't want to waste time having answered. "Go on then, tell him what you did."

"One of my servants was responsible for the attack on Sirius Black, Death's servant," Magic said. "All of the followers I commune with have since been informed that he is off limits, not to be touched."

Well, at least he didn't need to worry about whether or not the two gods knew how pissed he was. His own power might've been like a child's before a giant, but that didn't stop him from flaring it. In the real world, or at least the world more comprehensible than this void, that didn't look like much besides a chill in the air and a dampening of the light. It seemed things worked differently here though, and instead the magic was immediately visible.

It was like a gaseous oil slick, floating through the air in a rainbow-sheen cloud of obsidian. It spread across the void like the night sky until they were in more of a cosmic steam house than an empty, lightless box. Death's amusement nearly shattered the effect when it trinkled out of the deity.

"Very impressive, Hydrus." Patronization caressed Hydrus's cheek. "You remind me of my sister here at that age. Well, your body's age. By the time she was your actual age she was already a goddess."

"Wait, what?"

"Death—"

"He is my guest, sister." Death's lightning-bolt-like warning evaporated away the cosmic fog Hydrus had generated. "We shall discuss whatever I choose. Unless you'd prefer we break our agreement…?"

That apparent threat hung heavy in air. Hydrus's eyes danced back and forth between the two gods as he tried to decide what the hell that could mean. What agreement had they made? What were they, or at least his own goddess, hiding from him?

"Do what you will," Magic said. "You won't break our bond."

'For fuck's sake,' Hydrus thought. 'I swear to… Anyone besides these two that I am never making another bargain again.'

"A wise choice," Death said. "To answer your unasked question, Hydrus, no my beloved sibling was not always my peer. She was once a human, like you."

"As were you," Magic accused. "We all were."

"Not all of us, and I was hardly a human." Death's offence practically… No, it quite literally left a sour taste in Hydrus's mouth. "I was born long before the rise of humanity."

"Human, neanderthal." Magic 'stirred' the air above the table with one delicate finger. "It hardly makes a difference."

"Perhaps," Death said. "To a lesser species such as you were, anyways."

"Harry and I's species are still ali—"

"As I was saying," Death interrupted. "We were once as mortal as you are. But we rose above such trappings.

"I was an apex predator. I killed beast and man alike, feasted upon their flesh, took from them their strength and made it my own. I killed all that I saw until I became the embodiment of death itself." Death paused to let that sink in, but Hydrus just gestured for him to continue. "I may only be… I suppose I've lost count, at least a few aeons old, but death has existed for far longer than that. Just a hair short of life itself. My power is based upon that ancient wellspring."

"Great." Hydrus leaned back in his chair after carefully lifting his elbows off the table. "Dumbledore is going to be insufferable."

The ancient warlock had told him nearly right off the bat that the gods might not be quite all they made themselves out to be. Now he was finding out that Death had been some proto-human, cannibalistic shaman, and Magic…

"You already know your own goddess's story," Death said. "Or at least a mistold, misquoted, mistranslated version of it, conflated with the life of her great-great-great-great—"

"I am the ancestor, and was the namesake, of Morgana le Fay." A wisp of embarrassment steamed off of Magic's cheek before she glared at Death, sending a new, smaller wave of… something at the other god. "You're keeping him here too long. He's—"

"He is adapting," Death said. "Which brings me to the advice I wished to give you. Look at the board, Hydrus, and tell me what you see."

As much as Hydrus hated being told what to do, he hated how long this was taking even more. He stared down at the table, at the 'board', and found the same old wooden surface he'd already seen before. He was hardly a carpenter or an arborist and so had no idea what sort of wood it was, it was just plain and brown. It didn't seem to be split into separate planks, instead it was all one solid piece carved into a perfect squa—

Except, now it wasn't a square.

It had changed, was still changing, into a rounder shape like an untouched cross section of a tree trunk. Then it stopped being just a cross section, and was a full blown stump with roots sinking into nothingness. As the roots spread further and began intertwining with one another, a peaty earth began to fill in the gaps around them. When he looked back to the stump he instead found an entire tree. Before he could look up at the canopy, his sight began to pull away, like he was being lifted into the sky.

More trees appeared, as well as grass and other foliage. A river began to carve through the blossoming landscape. The river in turn fed into a lake where he saw a creature, some sort of aquamarine feline the size of a mastiff with an azure-blue, fiery mane. It was drinking from the lake but quickly became a speck on the surface of an entire planet.

Much like with the gods and their emotions, it was like he just knew what all there was to see, without actually seeing them in any sort of detail. There were countless lives all around him, too many for him to lock on to any one point and anchor himself with it.

It was overwhelming. He was hearing voices from every direction without understanding any of them. Even his own thoughts were being drowned out by all the information flowing into his mind. Beyond the things that were swarming through his senses, there were also less tangible things. Someone, or something, was feeling an indescribable amount of satisfaction somewhere. There was a wave of sadness rolling over an entire quarter of… Of everything. Some one… No, many someones… No, one thing with countless souls was watching him even as it swam past his point of recognition, before vanishing away.

It was too much. He tried shutting his eyes but the sights didn't stop. Colours that didn't exist, that couldn't exist, were still pouring in and shaping into things and beings that he couldn't comprehend.

Then it all vanished. He couldn't see anything.

There was a ringing in his ears, but nothing else.

He reached up to feel if his eyes were still there, but either the limb was gone again or he had lost that sense as well.

'At least I can hear myself think again.'

There had to be something to latch on to. All of his senses were gone, but there had to be something. He felt for his magic, but it was distant. Normally his power was a part of him, in body and soul, but he wasn't even sure if his mind itself was a part of him at the moment. When he reached for the power, tried to draw on it, nothing happened.

Panic began to bubble up inside him.

'No.'

Again Hydrus tried to pull on his magic, tried to force it out. In his time experimenting with Bella and his ability to draw on her magic, the further away she'd been the harder it had become. When they were stood on either side of the Study Hall, as far apart as possible, it had been nearly impossible to get more than a few wisps of her power. His own magic now felt like it was miles away.

'It is mine.' He again demanded his power move towards him. 'I will not be robbed of what is mine.'

He began to hear voices, tangible voices, again. They were distant, but he could almost make out what was being said. Two people arguing.

"You've killed him!"

"He still lives."

"Not for long."

"Then I will return him when that time comes."

Hydrus tuned them out. He didn't need to be returned, he needed his magic. He needed the only thing that had never betrayed him, never failed him, and that he had never betrayed or failed in turn. As he continued to exert every ounce of willpower he had, something broke away from the whole of his power.

It was moving towards him, slowly. Hydrus tried to latch onto it, but it was like it wasn't his own power at all. As it came closer, and as he realised it wasn't just moving towards him but slithering towards him, it became obvious what it was.

'Come, Father,' Apophis hissed in his mind. 'Come back.'

Now he was moving towards his power. He couldn't feel his familiar's grasp on him, but he sensed Apophis's strength all around him. While they moved back towards his magic, which he still tried to draw upon, the voices grew louder.

"Just what are you trying to pull?"

"If the human can't be convinced to stop playing for your side, then perhaps I can take him off the board entirely."

There was a scoff. "He may be powerful for a human, but he does not have the spirit for such things."

"Spirits can be broken and reforged."

The voices faded away once more as Hydrus finally got back to his magic. The first sense to return was touch, and the pain that came with it wasn't insubstantial. He took a deep breath and immediately fell into a coughing fit, blood or phlegm or both came rocketing out of his lungs. It coated his mouth in an awful, sick-tasting flavour that he immediately turned and spat out.

He felt around his face and realised his cheeks were soaking and sticky, and his eyes were entirely gone. That was fine. He'd lost and regrown those before. Hydrus tapped at his ears and although no sound came with it, he did find more of what he could only assume was blood dripping out of the canals. He'd start with those.

A diagnostic spell confirmed the ear drum was completely disintegrated, and the three little bones in either ear had all crumbled into flecks that he vanished away. As his healing spell did its work, the two gods voices came back into focus. He ignored them until everything seemed to be back in proper working order, then said.

"What th—"

He burst into another coughing fit. Again that awful taste filled his mouth and left him wondering just what the hell he was retching out of his lungs. When he finished and wiped his mouth off, Magic began to speak.

"Try not to cough on the table, Harry," she said. "I caught it, but you nearly—"

His anger raised the temperature of the void immediately.

"Don't get mad at me, I'm not the one who told you to look at the board."

"He survived, didn't he?"

Once more he began to tune them out so he could get to work on his eyes.

The first time he'd lost them had been the day Neville killed Blaise Zabini. They were still teens back then, and Hydrus was leading his first scouting mission. Dumbledore had sent them to check out a potential Death Eater stronghold, and it quickly became apparent that the potential was being met. The reason he so distinctly remembered Neville killing Zabini that day was that Zabini was the one who boiled his eyes out of his skull with a dark curse. Neville had comforted him with the words of 'They're dead, Harry. They're all dead.' the entire way back to their base.

Sirius had helped him through the recovery process, which involved a great deal of tinctures and elixirs that he no longer needed. The man had apparently had his own eyes regrown at one point, though he hadn't gone into much detail about why. In a weird, trauma-induced sort of way, the time they'd spent together was one of Hydrus's fondest memories of his father.

Or godfather, as the case was then.

When he was finally certain that the only step left to take was to actually open his eyes, he did so, then cast a few more spells to finish adjusting the corneas. When that was done, he was grateful to be in a lightless void where the only source of illumination was Magic's gentle glow.

"What you just witnessed," Death began. "Was a small taste of the world as it truly is. A glimpse into what your future could hold."

"Fuck you."

And like that, the tone of the room changed. The ebony black void warped ever so slightly as Death's shock and then anger turned the entire space into more of a sickly yellow. The god's empty hood slowly turned towards him, and Hydrus stared back with a scowl that didn't hold a candle to the reality warping emotion pouring off Death.

"I would suggest you mind your manners, human." The god reached out with a bony finger and cracked its tip down on top of the table. "You are a guest in our—"

"I was brought here against my will," Hydrus interrupted. "More a prisoner than a guest."

Even Magic was beginning to dim as Death's anger rose, but Hydrus refused to back down. He'd grown up scared of dying, as any sane person would. As he survived more and more harrowing encounters, and suffered more and more losses, that fear was winnowed away into a sort of ambivalence toward the subject. Of course, as more and more responsibility was hoisted onto his shoulders, that fear returned for the sake of his soldiers and friends.

But now? Here?

"Since you're too incompetent to keep your followers from attacking me, to stop them from showing up on my doorstep, you'll forgive me if I'm not too impressed with you." Hydrus leaned back in his chair. "I was only catching the cliff notes earlier, but if you're expecting me to start the magical equivalent of a powerlifting routine so I can be like you two, you've got another thing coming."

Magic's concern wrapped over Hydrus. "Harry—"

"It's Hydrus," he snapped. "Hydrus Black, whose father you nearly got killed."

Now it was Magic's anger flowing through the void, and crackling around like electricity. Her normally light, blueish aura was dimming into a more volatile purple and her glimmering, sapphire eyes had turned to jagged amethysts.

"Both of you have unabashedly tried jerking my chain back and forth in this nonsensical war over nothing but pride and power," Hydrus said, no more afraid of his own goddess than he was of Death. "But I'm telling you now I want no part in it. Leave me and mine out of it, or I swear to anyone but you two that I will take part, on my own side, and believe me when I say that I know a thing or two about war."

He knew he didn't mean that, which meant they probably knew he didn't mean that either, but that didn't mean he wasn't slowly coming around on the idea. As it turned out, getting one's mind turned inside out and forcibly expelled from one's body while your eyes melted out of your skull and your ears were shattered and your lungs were coated in an incomprehensible substance that he wasn't entirely sure wasn't the carbon of original creation, didn't leave one feeling particularly amenable.

Not to mention he still wasn't sure why he could still smell whatever that odd, many-souled thing was that stared back at him towards the end of staring at the board.

"Your father made his own choice," Death said. "He swore himself to me."

"Then unswear him," Hydrus replied. "Or I swear I will bring back the fucking crusades to wipe you and yours off the planet."

The pressure that had slowly been building up in the void was beginning to strangle him now, or at least Apophis was doing it out of fear. It was hard to tell. He was surprised neither of the two gods seemed to have noticed the serpent thus far, but then again the basilisk had been nursed on the energy contained within a Deathly Hallow. Perhaps the same invisibility that allowed the third hallow's owner to hide from Death was protecting his familiar now.

Hydrus didn't have much time to worry about his wanna-be child, though. His vision was fading once again, this time from lack of breathing as he still refused to cow himself before the god of death. He heard Magic call 'Brother!', but if that was going to stop the 'apex predator' it wasn't working yet.

"I order you to reign in your hubris, human." Death was speaking through Hydrus, he felt his ear drums once more eviscerate themselves under the pressure as the god spoke into his soul. "Before I pop your heart like a—"

Then it stopped. Everything stopped.

"That's enough, little brother."

He wasn't sure how he knew, but the woman who stepped into the void was the same thing that had stared at him, the thing with countless souls. Unlike the resplendent Magic or primeval Death, she looked… Plain. She had dusty, grey-ish blonde hair that only reached her shoulders. A simple brown dress. Her skin was darker than one would expect with that shade of hair, but it also seemed to be shifting paler and darker in a constant flow.

Death's caution and Magic's confusion splayed out before Hydrus, and he was much more in line with Magic.

"Who are you?" he asked.

She smiled at him. "Just a fan, and a misfortunate feature, of your life."

For a moment he was surprised to actually hear her, but as more sounds continued to pour in, he began to second guess himself and whether or not he'd actually felt his sense of hearing be destroyed.

"Hydrus," Magic said, voice hesitating. "This is…"

"Fate." Death's tone was far more neutral. "You have no place at this table."

"I disagree." A chair appeared, a match to the other three, and she took the seat while shaking her head. "Don't mind me though, I just like to watch."

A cloud of… Something poured out from underneath Death's hood. "Th—"

"That is what I've been doing," Fate interrupted. "Until you nearly killed my favourite actor."

Magic opened her mouth, but again her 'sister' cut in.

"Oh, settle down, settle down, Morgana." Magic turned green. "I won't steal your pet. I'm just here to…" She hummed. "Adjudicate? That sounds fancy, right, Hydrus?" She nodded to herself. "He was going to say 'Sure, whatever you say'. He's very agreeable, if you handle him correctly."

"Fate," Death said. "What do you want?"

Death's agitation was there, but it was like a retreating lion. Magic just seemed terrified, terrified and embarrassed.

"And Hydrus just wanted to get this all over with," Fate said, finishing his thought. "As to what I want, I wanted to make sure the game stays fair, and to make sure neither one of you decide that Hydrus isn't worth all the trouble he's causing you."

"I can—"

"No, Hydrus, not here you can't." Fate shook her head. "Outside of here, where our actions are restricted, I know you'd 'take care of yourself' just fine, but in here?" She let out a whistle. "No, no, no, no…

"So! No matter what Hydrus does, no matter what choices he makes." Fate smiled, and for the briefest of moments she changed. She was once again that ethereal, incomprehensible being that he'd briefly witnessed passing by, and it made his eyes hurt to even have caught a glimpse of her before shutting them. "He shall be under my protection."

"That's not—!"

"Hush, brother," Fate said. "You can still play your little game, I'll only step in if you try to do what you just did again." More smoke was pouring from Death's hood, and Hydrus finally recognized the emotion as fear. "Let the mortals play with mortals, and the gods play with gods."

The newcomer nodded again. It was as if she was putting extra effort into giving some sort of gesture for each sentence she said, whether it was a nod or a whistle or a hum. Like she wasn't used to speech and human communication which, from what Hydrus had seen 'behind the curtain', might not be an inaccurate assessment.

"I'm practising a great deal," Fate said, beaming at him. "You've been a great help with it. Now, if you wish to return, you may. I'm afraid I won't be interfering in the game, but you will be safe if you remove yourself from it entirely."

"No!" Magic butted in. "Har-, Hydrus, don't. Please. It was me who answered your prayers when you needed assistance in your war, and now I'm asking you for your help in mine."

He winced. If there was one thing he was weak too, it was being asked for help. Especially when the request came from someone he was deeply indebted to like Magic. She had been the one to give him back the ability to communicate with the beings who were wiping out his forces most ferociously. It was her who had given him the ability to recruit more people to cause. Her who had allowed him to bury away the pain of losing his child and facilitated the deal that sent him back in time. Before he could say anything, Death did.

"The deal is off." Something cracked like two gargantuan drumsticks smacking against one another. "It wasn't just Magic's servant who called the hit on your father, it was done under her orders."

Hydrus froze.

"And furthermore, it was her signs that led my goblins to attack your mate in their territory," Death said. "My sister was trying to hurt you so you'd forge and reforge bargains with her, just like in your original timeline."

"Death holds no power over your father!" Magic shouted. "He made a one-sided bargain with him to endear himself to you and left the other side ambiguous enough to mean whatever he wants, which means it's worth nothing."

Hydrus grit his teeth and slammed his fist towards the table, but it went through the air and hit nothing. He blinked. When he glanced around, Death and Magic were both gone.

"Now, now, Hydrus," Fate said. "No need to destroy Jupiter just because my siblings have raised your ire."

"I want to leave," he demanded. "Let me out of here."

"Of course." Fate waved goodbye at him. "Before you go though…"

A strange wave of something that was not magic passed over him. He looked down and saw he was now as clean as he had been before bleeding and coughing up that black substance. He felt at his ears and eyes and found any lingering stickiness they'd had was gone, as were the ghostly remnants of pain that always came from healing himself.

"I'll be watching," Fate said. "As I have been since my children first gave a sneak peak at your destiny. Try to put on a good show, hm?"

And like that, he was back in the gathering hall of Castle Black. Lord Arnold was still standing there, posturing with his nostrils flared and wearing that ridiculous suit of armour. The curious crowd was still watching them. Bella was half-way out of her seat, wand in hand though he had no idea where she'd drawn it from. They were all frozen in time.

"Oh! Before I forget!" Fate had appeared beside Arnold and reality around her seemed to bend ever so slightly. "Tell Bella that she should set up a box of sand the next time she uses her divination, the blood flows much smoother that way and I can see so much more."

"What?"

Arnold snarled at him. "I said—"

"Never mind that." Fate was gone and things were moving once more. "Come with me." Hydrus turned to Bellatrix. "I'll be right back."

He began to walk away and although he worried for a moment Arnold was ignoring him, the clanking of armour announced he was following. Hydrus led the vampire up several flights of stairs and a ladder, until they were up on the same corner tower of Castle Black that he'd intimidated Amelia Bones atop of. When they got there, he turned and slammed his magic down on Arnold, nearly breaking the floor out from underneath them.

"I invited you into my home and you have the audacity to threaten me?" he hissed as the vampire gurgled something in response. "I had to step away and speak with your god, but if I remember right, you claimed to have an army?"

Careful not to press straight down, he squeezed the vampire even harder with his magic, trying to imagine it was doing what Apophis had to bring him back to being a whole person again. The lord's armour began to crumple around him.

"Well, I don't see an army here now, so that means you have nothing to threaten me with." He heard bones beginning to crack, so he stopped. "My father and I will come to your home tomorrow evening to discuss whatever business it is you believe you have with him, and you will be a grateful and gracious host if you wish to live."

Without waiting for a response, Hydrus cast a banishing hex at the vampire and sent him flying out into the bay. He wasn't sure if an ancient vampire's regeneration could save it from a territorial taniwha, but even if he died it would only make the real reason they were going to visit all the easier.

Now that the most immediate problem was sorted, the reality of what he'd just gone through settled in. His goddess had betrayed him. Death had tried to kill him. Fate was apparently more than just a third party who'd facilitated his third bargain, she was some kind of… Voyeur.

'And I'm stuck with all three of them treating my life as some kind of joke.' He rubbed at his forehead. 'The fuck am I going to do next?'


Draco sipped his sparkling cider with a scowl. Blaise, Michael, Tamina, and Daphne were still chatting amongst each other and laughing, but more specifically they were laughing at him. He'd been telling them about his journey to Mexico with Hydrus, about the chupacabra they'd killed, and they'd called him a liar. He had just been about to go and bring Hydrus over, but then that weirdo in the knight costume showed up talking about death and armies.

"How big did you say it was?" Daphne asked. "A bear? Was it more a grizzly, a black bear, a teddy—"

"Just wait," Draco snapped. "Hydrus will back me up."

"Back you up with what?"

The Malfoy heir jumped slightly, then turned and saw his maybe-sort-of-girlfriend standing behind him. She was wearing a frilly blue sundress that didn't at all suit the theme of the party, but definitely suited her. He immediately leapt to his feet.

"Luna," he said, smiling. "What are you doing here?"

"Hydrus invited me and my dad over to provide press coverage," she said, smiling back at him. "My dad thinks when he went all fluttery for a second it was him being replaced by a fake Hydrus, but I think it was him travelling back in time to that exact moment."

Draco frowned in confusion at her strange theories for what had caused Hydrus to… Well, 'go all fluttery' wasn't a bad way to describe that weird moment when it seemed like he suddenly shifted without actually shifting. His friends began to snicker, though, just like they'd been laughing at him.

"Knock it off," he snapped at them. Michael baulked, but Daphne, Tamina, and Blaise just kept grinning. "Sorry about them, Luna."

"I'm used to it," she said without a hint of hurt, her smile not fading. "What were you talking about?"

"Yeah, Malfoy," Blaise said. "Tell us again about your summer adventures."

His face flushed. He was telling the truth, and he was sure Luna would believe him, but her siding with him would probably make this whole thing worse. He began to tell her not to worry about it, but then her words repeated in his mind.

'I'm used to it.'

She'd probably been laughed at countless times, and unlike him, hadn't started pouting like a child.

"I was telling them about how Hydrus brought me along to hunt a chupacabra," Draco said. "We went to Mexico."

"Oh!" Luna immediately pulled out a notebook from the small handbag she was carrying, then set the purse on the table they were all sitting at. "North, east, south, or west Mexico? Was it arid, or humid? What sort of bait did you use?"

Again his 'friends' erupted in laughter, but Draco ignored them. "It was along the gulf, very humid and swampy, and I was the bait."

He'd left that part out of his original story, but he didn't particularly care anymore. If Luna didn't, then neither did he. And not only did she not care about the other children laughing, she was noting down everything he said. When she finished, she looked up at him.

"Are you okay?" He blinked at the question. "If you were the bait, did you get hurt?"

"Ah…" It was like she was trying to embarrass him. "Just a little scratch, no big deal."

He pulled down his collar to show off the scar the beast had left him with, and immediately the laughter at the table came to a halt. He'd been too embarrassed at the fact that he'd gotten hurt at all to show it earlier, but since Luna had asked he didn't want to hold back. She leaned in close, and he shivered when she reached out with the hand holding her quill to touch it.

"An almost perfectly circular bite mark…" she whispered, sending further sensations down his spine. "And I'm assuming Hydrus healed it, and he seems to know what he's doing, and even he couldn't stop the scar."

"He, uh…" Draco swallowed at how close she was. "He said that since it was a dark creature he couldn't stop that from happening."

"So they are dark creatures." She went back to taking down notes, to his disappointment. "I'd always wondered if perhaps they might actually be handling a potential threat in goats."

Draco cast a look to the side to see the others' reactions, but they were all still staring at his scar, not a smile in sight. Holding back the smirk he wanted to give at finally shutting them up, he fixed his robe and pulled out a seat for Luna. She took it while absentmindedly continuing to write in her notebook. He only caught a brief glimpse at what she was scribbling down, but it seemed like she was writing backwards so he had no idea what she was saying.

"Tell me, what did it look like?" she asked, smiling at him with pure, unadulterated curiosity and excitement. "Tell me everything."


Amelia watched out of the corner of her eye as her exfiance and his best friend chatted in the corner of the cell. They were keeping it quiet, but it was still frustrating to be ignored like this. Then again, if Sirius had tried involving her, she probably would've told him to leave her alone.

It was all so stupid.

She knew she was being stubborn, knew she could even be called childish, but that didn't stop what Sirius had done from hurting. She'd literally given herself away to help him, and sure it wasn't like he was a bad catch and that she suffered for it, but for him to still choose someone else over her? Based on what he'd said it wasn't quite as despicable an act as she'd initially thought, but still.

It hurt.

"By the way," Sirius muttered. "Remind me to tell James that Giannis is gonna stay with him for a week as punishment."

"How is staying with him punishment?" Remus asked. "He spoils his kids rotten."

"Don't ask me, Hydrus picked it out." Sirius sighed. "I… Can't really explain why he's the one making those choices, but just trust him."

Remus shot a look at Amelia, who was staring very pointedly at the corner of the cell opposite of them, then said. "Don't worry, I get it. He told me everything."

"What?" Sirius hissed. "He's literally got me bartering for the privilege of asking him questions!"

"Uh…" Remus cleared his throat. "You should… Be careful. You… You really don't want to know too much."

The air in the cell seemed to change. Sirius's magic was being smothered just like the rest of them, but the Black Sheep could definitely put up more of a fight against it.

"Why not?" he asked, voice not wavering despite his obvious anger. "Explain it to me."

"No." Remus's immediate refusal made Sirius's eyebrows furrow, and for a moment she worried he was going to go mad again, but he seemed to reign it in as the other man continued. "I'm sorry, but not only would that be a betrayal of Hydrus's trust, but you really don't need to know." The werewolf shivered. "I'm pretty sure I don't need to know, I don't want to know."

"You're not helping," Amelia said, jumping in. "Are you trying to make him snap?"

Sirius's face flushed over. "I'm not that bad, I can control it."

"I'm not trying to 'help' him, I'm warning him," Remus said, and Amelia blinked at the hostility she detected. "I'm not afraid of him 'snapping'."

"Settle down," Sirius chided quietly. "I'm fine, she's right to be mad at me."

"Why?" Remus asked with a scoff. "Because you made a morally well-intentioned, but romantically suicidal move? Regulus is changing for the better because of you, and that could've been ruined if you let her take him."

"Oh, please," Amelia snapped. "Like anything would've happened to that spoiled brat."

"The act inspired Sirius to figure that out," Remus immediately retorted, and once more the future head of the DMLE was taken aback by the normally friendly man's demeanour. "And if it cost him his relationship with you, at the very least it'll mean he won't have to deal with constantly tiptoeing around you and your sensibilities."

Sirius exclaimed a 'hey!', but Amelia was too taken aback to notice. "Excuse me?"

"As soon as he started dating you, he wouldn't shut up about you," the werewolf said. "Constantly worrying about embarrassing you, about offending you, about doing anything wrong. Sirius loved you to death, and was so worried you'd dump him he couldn't actually enjoy it."

"Remus!" Sirius nearly shouted, punching the other man in the leg. "Knock it off!"

"No!" Remus glared at her and Amelia leaned back. "She constantly made you feel like you needed to prove yourself when you don't. You're now one of, if not the, richest men in all of Britain. You are without a doubt the most legendary auror in the profession's history. You treated her like a queen!

"All for her to throw it in your face over one fuck up." Remus's hand cut through the air. "You deserve better."

"Better doesn't exist!" Sirius roared, and Amelia leaned even further back. "She deserves to be treated that way, and clearly I'm not good enough to still be an auror, and she did not make me feel that way!" He had definitely snapped now the way he was looking at his friend. "She made me feel like the luckiest man in the world."

"Oh, so lucky," Remus said with sarcasm dripping with every syllable. "That's why I had to spend half my Friday afternoons trying to convince you she wasn't going to break up with you over whatever trivial thing she scolded you over lately."

Amelia's cheeks flushed over. "I didn't scold him!"

"You called him an idiot because he didn't know whether or not he should dress up for some stupid work function," Remus countered. "You legitimately had him wondering if he should ask his mother for advice, his mother!"

Again Sirius made to punch the other man in the thigh since they were sitting beside one another, but Remus caught him by the wrist. The Black Sheep's eyes widened and Amelia felt a small bit relieved she wasn't the only one shocked by the … By the werewolf's reflexes. It was suddenly occurring to the future leader of the aurors that she and Sirius were trapped down here with a man who could rip them limb from limb without any magic.

"Do you realise what that means for someone like him, all the things that awful harpy did to him?" Remus asked. "You were—"

"Knock it off!" Sirius shouted. "Remus, please, I'm begging you to stop. You're going to ruin any chance I have left."

"I don't care," Remus said. "You might've loved her, but that didn't stop her from making you miserable, which made me miserable."

It was like all of Amelia's worst insecurities during her relationship with Sirius were being brought to light. She'd always thought she'd been too harsh on the man, but it never seemed to bother him. He just laughed it off and redoubled his efforts the next time. She didn't actually think he was an idiot, it was just a pet name if anything. She… She hadn't actually made him miserable, had she?

"And besides," Remus said. "It's not like you'd ever have the balls to actually ask her for a second chance, so who cares."

"Fuck you, Remus," Sirius snapped, finally pulling his wrist away. "You don't understand."

"Oh I understand plenty."

Sirius shot to his feet, and Amelia was taken aback at the way he stared at her. "Amelia, will you please give me another chance?

"I promise, I've… Well, I don't have everything sorted with my family, but I do have a better grasp on things now. I promise now that I'm not an auror I won't get in the way of you getting your promotion again. Maybe I can even help? I can ask Hydrus." Sirius took a breath, and Amelia wished he'd just stop, it was so—. "I'll do anything. I love you to death, and I miss you so much it hurts. I miss you calling me an idiot, and snuggling together at night. I miss—"

"Would you stop!" Amelia shouted, almost repeating what he said earlier. "You're embarrassing me, please."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean—"

"Don't apologise either!" she continued. "Please, Sirius, I lov—, I mean, no!"

Amelia glared at Remus, and found the werewolf with his hand covering his mouth looking past the bars of their cell. His eyes were scrunched together though, and it was obvious what he was doing now. Sirius turned to look too, and he glared the same glare as her.

"You—"

"Coward," Remus interrupted. "Tell her about how you were so drunk you cried whilst telling me how much you loved her."

Now Sirius's cheeks flushed over. "Shut up!"

Her idiot plopped back down beside the werewolf and glared at the opposite corner of the cell on her side. She buried her face away in her hands, and hoped that it wouldn't be much longer before that house elf of Hydrus's set them all free. Sirius begging her to take him back definitely wasn't echoing in her mind while the time began to trickle past.


James Potter, the supposed lord of House Potter, sat on his recliner as he flipped through the Daily Prophet. He rarely ever read the newspaper, but since there was going to be a Wizengamot meeting next weekend he didn't want to look like an idiot if he missed out on some 'big news' that the other members of his bloc wanted to talk about. Normally he didn't give too much thought to whether or not people thought he was dim, but considering he needed their votes to make sure nothing too terrible got through the legal body, he made an exception for the stuffy so-and-so's.

"James?" He looked up to see Lily stepping over towards him. "Could you ask Remus to stop by soon so I can go over our lesson plans together?"

"I'll do it right now," he said with a grin, glad for the excuse to get away from his 'homework'. "Anything else I can pass along?"

"Nope." Lily leaned down and gave him a long kiss on the cheek that ended with an exaggerated 'muah' sound at the end. "Take that for the road, though."

"Don't mind if I do."

Humming a song his dad always liked to hum, some old jazz melody from the twenties, he headed for his workshop. There he had to toss around a few things like tools and fabrics, but eventually he found his Sirius-and-Remus-finder. He probably should've come up with a better name for the little bit of divining equipment that let him locate his two best friends wherever they were in the world, but since he and Lily had been the ones to invent the thing it wasn't like there was any rush.

It was a simple device. It had stared out as a marble tablet, and not much had changed besides him and his wife carving some runes into it that she'd picked out. There were two brownish stains in specific locations where Remus and Sirius had dropped blood onto its surface at his request, and he pressed his thumb down on the former's stain.

"Party time," he said, reciting the tablet's activation phrase.

With a pop, then a whiplash-inducing shift of momentum as he was rejected from wherever he'd tried to portkey to, he arrived as close to Remus as possible. James frowned as he realised he was outside of some sort of castle. Where the hell was he?

Still frowning, James retrieved one of his invisibility cloaks from his pocket. It took a minute to unfold the thing, but when it was splayed out he wrapped himself up in it and headed towards the door. Once he was inside, and after more than a few wrong turns, he found himself in the middle of a party. The most hilarious party he'd ever not been invited to.

There were tapestries of Sirius everywhere, all sharing embarrassing details of his life. That was all that was needed for James to know that he wished he could've seen Sirius's face amidst it all. As he cast his gaze around the room, however, his best friend was nowhere to be found. Eventually he did spot Bellatrix however, and since Sirius was constantly complaining about the woman sticking to him like glue, he figured she'd know where he was.

And Sirius would definitely know where Remus was.

After a quick trip to test the food stuffs, he made his way over to where Bellatrix was and leaned in close.

"Pst." To the woman's credit, she didn't so much as jump at his sudden arrival. "It's me, James."

She was sitting at a table by herself, and took another sip of her wine before responding. "Lord Potter. To what do I owe the misfortunate honour?"

He leaned his head against hers, still trying to get a rise out of the woman, but she was like steel. "Looking for my buddy Remus, tracked him here, figured you'd know where he or my other buddy Sirius is."

"I don't know where your werewolf is," she said through gritted teeth. "And my cousin is in the dungeons thanks to my son."

It took a minute for James to translate that, but eventually he realised she meant Giannis. How the hell had Sirius gotten locked up by an eight year old? He put that thought away, however, in favour of pressing further.

"Well I'm assuming that'll be wherever the lowest point of the castle is," he said. "So thank you, dear… Whatever the godfather to one's children's cousin's familial title is. We are family, are we not?"

"You have no idea," Bellatrix said, and that time her words didn't quite make it past James's internal translation attempt. "Get out of my face before I tear yours off."

"Fine, fine." James decided to accept the loss before it got any worse. "See you later, cousin-of-my-godchildren's-father."

She turned to him, no doubt to snap at him for presuming the title of being Hydrus's godfather, but he was already away. Again it took him a while to find a way forward, and more specifically a trustworthy set of stairs, a few just looked way too sketchy, but eventually he made it down to what was either a dungeon or the worst bed and breakfast set up he could've imagined.

After he'd gotten to near the end of the hall of cells, he found both Sirius and Remus, a twofer.

"Well, well, well." He pulled back the hood of his invisibility cloak to reveal his face. "If it ain't Bonnie and Clyde."

"You better not be referring to me and Sirius, Potter," Amelia said. "I will demote you."

"Of course not," he said in an antagonisingly patronising voice. "I was talking to Remus and his girlfriend."

He knew he had free reign of the team now that Sirius was gone, and that meant he may or may not have let the power go to his head. There was no way Amelia would fire, demote, or transfer him now that he was the only big man on campus. That meant he could torture woman who'd nearly broken his brother as much as he wanted for the sin.

"Just push open the door and let us out," Remus said. "Door only opens if the person opening it is outside the cage."

"Maybe I will, maybe I won't," James said, enjoying the captive audience to his nonsense. "Can you answer my riddles thr—"

"James." Sirius's voice stopped him dead in his tracks. "Please just let us out. I don't want to annoy Amelia any more than I already have."

James swallowed. "Sure. Sorry, brother."

He pushed open the door and Remus and Sirius both groaned as they stood up. Remus made it out first, and in their usual greeting he held out his hand. James slapped his own into it, then pulled him in for a hug so tight it hurt. Mainly it hurt him, despite the fact that at this point he solely worked out to try and combat the werewolf's strength.

"Hahahahugh." He clapped Remus on the back to get him to let go of him. "One of these days, Remus. One of these days…"

"Mhmm," his friend said. "What are you doing here?"

James looked over and saw Sirius holding out his hand to help Amelia off the cot, and although she rolled her eyes she did take the hand. "Lily wanted to tell you she needs to go over lesson plans together."

"Oh, uh, sure." Remus's eyes began to drift away, like they always did when he was thinking about something too intellectual to interest James. "Yeah, yeah that could be helpful."

"Come on, love birds," James called. "I ain't gonna hold this door open all day."

"You don't have to hold it open," Sirius snapped back. "It just needs to be open."

"Well, if that's the case…."

He began to pull the door shut, but Sirius and Amelia both shouted for him to stop. He cackled and let go of the door frame, then turned to Remus. The other man was just shaking his head at the antics, grinning.

"You're such an asshole," Remus said. "Let's just get out of here."

"Alright, alright." James cocked an eyebrow at the other two. "Sure you two don't want an excuse to talk some things out? Some privacy?"

They both just glared at him, so he shrugged with his usual demeanour and began to walk away. Remus was in tow, and the other man quickly synced his steps with James's.

"Seriously, do you have to be so antagonistic?" Remus asked. "You have to be the reason that… Never mind."

"What?" James asked. He wrapped an arm around his best friend and pulled Remus into a lopsided hug. "I'm the reason for what?"

Remus laughed and hugged him back, once more eliciting a grunt from the man who constantly tested the boundaries of insanity by repeating the inevitable.

"Nothing," Remus said. "Love you, man."

"Love you too, Remus." James said. "Love you too."


Sirius was still standing in the cell, but so was Amelia. He still didn't know what to say, but Amelia hadn't said anything yet either. He hadn't even looked towards the barred door yet, and the reason why was that he couldn't look away from her, and thus far that meant he hadn't seen her look towards it either.

"So…" he said, finally breaking the silence. "That was a lot."

"Yeah, it really was," she said. "I don't… I don't know. About any of this, Sirius."

"Me either." He rubbed at his brow with the back of his hand. "But I did mean everything I said. I would… I would kill for a second chance, Amelia."

"Don't," Amelia said. "Just… Just don't, Sirius."

"Why?"

"Because-!" Her words cut off. "Just, just don't."

"Amelia, please, I'm begging you."

Sirius reached out towards her, hesitantly, but she didn't stop him. He placed one hand on her shoulder, then the other. He turned her towards him, just waiting for her to stop him, but she just let him turn her.

"I promise, things will be different now," he said. "Things have settled, as much as they possibly can for a man like me. I'm not your employee anymore, I won't get in the way of—"

"I got promoted," Amelia interrupted. "Once Scrimgeour's done retiring, I'm taking over."

Without thinking about it he brought her in and pressed his lips against hers. Reality set in quickly, however, and he realised what he was doing. He tried to pull away but now she had a grip on him and wouldn't let him go. That was all the intention he needed to press her down onto the cot, and show her just how much he still loved her.


Apophis stared down at what had apparently been partitioned aside for the wayward demigod known as Nikau. He was resting around atop and above his father's shoulders, but Hydrus was staring out into nothing, unlike him. Apophis was staring very distinctly at the being who thought himself above the king of serpents.

Unfortunately for Nikau, Apophis had been there for all of Hydrus's journey. He had seen and heard everything the real gods had said, including the one that Slytherin had claimed was his master. Death had wanted Apophis's father to become a god, a fine enough position for his father to hold, but his father had turned it down.

That was not a step Apophis would repeat.


BBaRtS


Fifty Five, still alive.

Coming in late, but not as bad as last week. I think I've really locked in on what it is that's delaying my writing, and that's how permanent everything is. I'm dealing with end-game related subjects now, and that means there's no taking back or altering the path of what I write. The notes are all still the same as I'd planned, but now I'm actually having to play them, and I can't reconsider the tempo any more.

Anyways, I'm drunk, let's get to reviews.

"I do hope that Sirius and Amelia can start to mend their relationship" - Well, they're certainly putting some of the pieces together, we''ll see where things go from here. Amelia went hard into growing up as a profession rather than a person, Sirius grew up with all the personality in the world without a drop of professionalism, now they have to deal with the fact that they think each other are both so damn hot.

"if you wanted to make giannis annoying, well done, you succeeded. I used to like the kid, now I think he is a spoilt brat." - Lol I don't think he's annoying, I think he's testing his boundaries. Kid has gone through the ringer growing up, and now he has not just an ounce of freedom, but as much as he wants 'so long as he can handle the consequences'. We'll see how he handles such things.

"For some reason I have the image of Arnulf getting stuck in the cell with them." - This comment nearly tempted me into doing just that, but since Arnulf/Arnold is a piece in this potential THREE WAY war that might be kicking off, I Just couldn't do it. I needed him to get traumatised, not bored to tears, by the Black family.

"As an aside, I think your concerns about making money off others IP is well-intentioned but misplaced" - Just want to double down on this and say it's not just about legalities, it's also about knowing what I would want to do as a writer. I want to make money off of things that are wholly mine and not directly bleeding from someone else's source material. I do appreciate the time you spent writing up your comment though, don't get me wrong, I just wanted to make clear it wasn't just legal hesitancy lessthanthree

"Oh shit, Hydrus just can't get enough of meddling with deities." - They're meddling with HIM, tyvm :( lololol

"Thanks for another update! Actually had me slightly worried, I've been following the story since the first month and it's the first time you missed a week. Hope you take it slow and don't rush yourself," - Now that I've got a grasp on what it is that's 'scaring' me off from writing I'm hoping I'll get a good hold on things. I gotta get back into the mindset I started writing this fic with, which is that I'm just writing fanfiction and can't let myself get weighed down by the consequences of my actions. I don't mean to demean the hobby here, but it's not like anyone's losing out if I fuck up a plot progression style and make a bad choice with how things play out, so I gotta just keep chugging along without worrying about the consequences.

"Why the cliffhanger 😭" - Because if I didn't end it there I'd have been even more late 😭

"Something tells me that his snake/dragon/golem has a few functions that he hasn't revealed." - It comes with 100% legless reptilian friendship potential and that's what matter most :)

"NOOOOO! We almost had Sirius and Amelia make up! We were this close to greatness! Damn you Remus!" - Ay Remus is ABOUT that life, man knows what he's doing even when he gets dragged into the game against his will.

"Sirius... really just imprisoned them there for an unknown period of time just to prove a point..." = Ay Sirius is ABOUT that life, man doesn't know what he's doing especially when he has the opportunity to drag someone else into the game against their will.

"Damn, Bella has the extreme thirst going on. I can't blame her. Hydrus has been leaving her high and dry for far too long. Mommy Bella needs some full adult lovin!" - A very strong factor in Hydrus's brooding atop Castle Black.

And that's all! Thank you all so much for reading, following, favoriting, bookmarking, subscribing, kudosing, reviewing, and commenting. Love you all, thank you all again, see you next weekend, lessthanthree!