Hydrus glanced down at the bleeding hole in his leg, then back up at Sirius. The man was frozen in place, looking much the same as when Hydrus walked in on him murdering Arcturus Black; his mouth hanging open, eyes wide with brows furrowed, and all the colour drained from his skin.
"I'd say you fight like a bitch," Hydrus said. "But I barely have a leg to stand on."
That finally snapped Sirius out of the despair hole he'd dug himself into, and he coughed out a hoarse laugh. "Are you—"
"I'm fine, Deadbeat." Hydrus waved his hand, and the outermost portion of the wound closed. It'd be another minute or so before the inside finished healing. "You need to quit locking up every time you hurt someone, ya pussy."
"You're not just 'someone'," Sirius snapped back, glaring at him. "Believe me when I say I don't normally do that."
"If you say so," Hydrus said, allowing the madness through and drowning his words in patronisation. "I'm sure you're such a bwave wittle soldi—"
"Confringo!"
"Protego."
Hydrus shielded the blatant attack with ease then batted away his own shield. His father was looking to the side, grumbling and looking like a kid who'd just gotten told off.
It was hard to try and decide how strong Sirius was thanks to the fact that the man wasn't able to fight Hydrus on even ground. He could sap away Hydrus's magic in a panicked instant and that meant he could put holes in the former, or rather, current war leader. At the same time though, his wandwork was sloppy. He wasn't bad by any stretch of the imagination, Hydrus would've had him leading scouting patrols and conducting raids back in the other war, but there were miles of improvements to be had.
"It's unfortunate I can't break this stupid bargain already," Hydrus said. "It'd be a lot easier to teach you if we didn't risk one of us taking the other's magic."
"Right, cus I need so much teaching," Sirius said half under his breath. "You do remember the part where I'm a world renowned auror who's fame and notoriety gets me into, or forbidden from, any and every magical bar in the entire world, right?"
"You do realise if I didn't have the Black family magic, then I could name a grand total of seven witches and wizards who could kick the shit out of you?" Hydrus sniped back. "Maybe six, if the shaman I met in Ibiza isn't quite the same wand as he was in the last time line."
'Or staff, rather,' Hydrus corrected internally. 'What a bastard he was.'
"You know what? I'm happy being seventh best," Sirius said. "Seven's a good number."
"You sound like your grandfather," he insulted. "Ancient fuck always went on about numbers."
"Fuck off."
"You fuck off."
"You!"
"Y—" Hydrus cut himself off before he got up in one of their old vortexes. "Work on your wand movement. I can give you some exercises, and if you do them every morning and night, they'll help your ligaments' flexibility."
"Fine. Whatever." Sirius sighed and sat down on the ground. "But I'll have you know, I do plenty of wrist exercises already."
"Why on earth would y—" Hydrus cut himself off and wrinkled his nose in disgust at the perverted innuendo. "Oh fuck off."
The other man cackled. Then he cut himself off with a cough and shook his head like a dog getting dry as he relaxed further back on the ground. The madness must've accidentally broken out, and unlike Hydrus, he preferred to keep it buried at all times.
They'd been training for the better part of two hours, so Hydrus didn't blame him for letting his guard down. Sirius wasn't much of an endurance fighter, not like Hydrus was or Neville used to be. Honestly the best at endurance he'd seen since coming to this timeline was Krum of all people. The Bulgarian probably didn't have any more stamina than Fleur did in the third trial, but he was much better at managing it than she had been.
"Hey," Sirius said, pulling Hydrus from his thoughts. "You said I was the best man at your wedding right? What was it like?"
"That's—"
"I'm nervous about asking Amelia to marry me again, just talk me into doing it by saying how great your wedding was." Sirius patted the ground beside him, sending a pleading look at his son. "Come on."
"You have plenty of friends who got married, Deadbeat," Hydrus said. "I don't—"
"Come oooon," Sirius whined."Be nice to me for once. I'm not asking for some dark and sordid details of your life. Just tell me what your wedding was like."
Hydrus grit his teeth, trying to come up with some excuse not to open up to the man.
'Why?' he wondered, burying away his shame and guilt and desire to avoid having to face himself for what he'd done. 'He's right. It's just the wedding, and if he pushes further I can just… apparate him off the side of Castle Black.'
Nikau the taniwha might get mad at him for littering, but Hydrus could deal with it.
"Fine." Hydrus sat down a few steps in front of the man."It wasn't a big deal or anything. The only reason we had a wedding in the first place was because Ginny insisted."
Sirius nodded. "Sounds like she took after her mother."
"Hardly." Hydrus snorted. "Molly might've been a mother hen, but Ginny was more like a hawk, or an eagle."
"So still a bird?"
"For fucks sake…" Hydrus muttered at the double entendre. "Anyways. We were… Shit, I can hardly remember. I think I was nineteen? Maybe twenty? And she'd have been a year younger than me. We'd been together for… Five years?"
It was hard to remember the specific lengths of time. Not because of any sort of bargains though, he was too much of a child himself back then to have parental love for anyone. He just had more important things to deal with than worrying about calendars.
"I remember she was pissed as you wouldn't believe," Hydrus continued. "One of the twins… Must've been Fred. Fred found her a wedding dress somewhere, and when he'd first gotten it, it was a perfect fit. Dumbledore had to transfigure it a few days before the wedding though, she was beginning to show."
"Show?" Sirius frowned, then his eyes widened. "She was pregnant."
"Why do you think her brother's bullied me into proposing?" Hydrus chuckled at the memory. "She was pissed that she had a 'pooch' showing, nearly called the whole thing off. Luna talked some sense into her, as strange as that sounds…
"Originally Ron was going to be my best man, I never once even considered you, not even a little bit," he teased. "But you were in one of your usual funks ever since a real bad raid killed a lot of people a few months beforehand." Hydrus hummed. "I… I think my daughter might've been conceived shortly after that raid."
He shook his head. It was hard enough to keep his age straight, let alone the times he had sex.
"Wedding went fine. Albus officiated the ceremony, Luna was Ginny's maid of honour. Ron, Nev, and the surviving Weasleys were my groomsmen. Hermione and Hannah Abbot were Ginny's bridesmaids. It was a 'big' affair in the sense that the whole army paused to celebrate, no scouting or hunting the day before and after. The meal wasn't anything special, aside from the company.
"Short of actual immobilisations, that was the last time things ever came to a complete halt like that. Plenty of other weddings happened after, I presided over most of them." He hated doing them, it was boring and a waste of his time aside from the fact that Ron, Remus, and Hermione all agreed it was important for him to do it for morale's sake. "We always just scheduled things that needed doing around the events so that the people who wanted to be there could be."
"So you didn't deal with any nerves?" Sirius asked, clearly trying to bring the discussion back to the wedding. "James was a wreck the morning of his wedding. You'd have thought he was a Hufflepuff the way he was shaking."
"By that point I had killed no less than a dozen basilisks, two dragons, a tribe of giants, a hundred werewolves, and more dark wizards than you've ever arrested," Hydrus muttered. "I was more scared of what my pregnant girlfriend would do to me if I didn't marry her. I just wanted the whole thing over with so I could get back to work."
Despite the cold war between him and the Weasleys that broke out over whether or not to siege Castle Lestrange, he had been pissed about losing half that family and countless others in the raid. If he hadn't been, that claim about having killed so many dark wizards probably wouldn't be true. The months following the near ruinous battle had been some of the darkest he could still remember, filled with more blood and—
"Did you know how to dance back then?" Sirius asked. "I only ever learned cus it killed the mood for the fancier broads when I stepped on their toes at parties."
Hydrus snorted. "Hardly. She wasn't any better though. I'd gotten lessons back when I was a kid cus I was forced to go to the Yule Ball as champion. Minerva taught me the basics."
"What?" Sirius began to laugh. "Damn, you're worse than I was at your age, dancing with so many teachers. Well? Did you bag her too?"
"Shut up," Hydrus said with a scowl, flicking his wrist with the intent to send a burst of wind at his father. Instead a putrid cloud of smoke left Sirius looking like he'd just stepped out of a coal mine. He smirked at the much more effective sign of his annoyance. "I haven't 'bagged' any teachers, thank you very much."
"What? But…"
"Bella says we have to 'wait until we're married' for some fucking reason," Hydrus grumbled. "It's nonsense."
"That's… That is the best news I've heard all year." Sirius gave a grand and dramatic sigh of relief. "I might just have to rethink charging her an exorbitant dowry…"
"Shut up."
"You shut up."
"Fine." Hydrus stood, enjoying the look of panic and self-annoyance on his father's face. "I'm going to go get some lunch."
Sirius watched his boy leave and turned away, clicking his tongue in frustration. That had been going so well. He'd gotten so much from that conversation, even beyond the sentimental junk.
Harry had married Ginny. Sirius had suspected that since James's Harry was dating her now and the two seemed like a good match. Their daughter, Sirius's granddaughter, would've been born… Shit, he was bad at maths. He'd get Remus to tell him later. Technically he wouldn't be a grandpa until whatever day she would've born, and Sirius was planning to make sure and act up until then.
After then too, probably, but by then things would've settled down and he wouldn't need an excuse to be goofy.
Hydrus had also mentioned that Sirius had been in 'one of his funks', just like Remus had said the other day. Sirius hadn't realised he even had those, so it was good to know. Now that it was one-hundred percent certainly a thing, he'd be on the lookout for them to avoid any more dead parrots. Those things were bad luck.
After all, James had started dating Sirius's sister-in-law right after, and turned into a total square in the process.
The little things had said a lot, too. The way his boy mentioned things like 'scouting' and 'hunting' so casually really drove a stake through Sirius's heart. The kid talked about war like it was no different than that Black Garden thingy he was starting, like it was just run of the mill business. Sirius hadn't let go of his wand throughout the whole conversation, worried that his kid would start something to try and surprise him under the guise of training like Captain Moody used to, and now it was clenched tight in his palm.
'Hydrus is right, I need to get stronger.' He got to his feet and stretched. 'After some lunch. Kiddo's stomach is never wrong.'
Remus bounced up and down, a length of wrought iron chain spinning around him as he used it for a jump rope. Other werewolves were milling around, working out or resting, and the air smelled strongly of the species as a whole rather than just their individual packs for once. He'd originally begun building the gym after he was inspired by Hydrus's own workout routine, thinking it would be a good way to finally catch up with his much more wild and powerful 'siblings'. Instead it'd just lead to the lot of them joining him, and widening the gap even further.
"Oi, Lupin," a voice called. It took him a minute to slow down, not wanting to accidentally concuss himself with the chain. "Need you to get grandad off the newbie."
"What?" Remus turned, panting, then his eyes widened in a panic. "Shit!"
Fenrir was smashing his fists into someone's skull. The werewolf he was straddled over was clearly unconscious, and their face looked like something a child playing with muddy clay might make. Remus was sprinting across the gym, and by the time he'd gotten there Fenrir was already standing up.
The alpha werewolf had smelled him coming, and did as Hydrus had told him to and followed Remus's orders before they were even given.
Werewolf hierarchy, the savage and rudimentary one that Fenrir espoused and firmly believed in anyways, dictated that no one could order him around if they couldn't beat him in a fight. That created an awkward 'loophole' when Hydrus, who had beaten, captured, tortured, and nearly killed Fenrir ordered the monster to listen to Remus. Remus who, despite his recent efforts, was still by a wide and large margin the weakest member of the pack. So this was the compromise.
Remus didn't give out orders where others could hear, and Fenrir did whatever he thought the younger man wanted before any orders were needed. It was a messy and often infuriating system, but it was the closest one they'd found to something that worked.
"If he doesn't get up, throw him in the hole," Fenrir ordered one of his 'children', jerking his head at the fallen man, then at Remus. "You. Come with me."
He half-swaggered and half-stormed out of the gym. Remus growled at his back, then glanced down at the victim. The stranger's chest gave a hard heave as it rose up, then came a froth of bubbles out of his mouth as he exhaled. Remus wasn't a mediwizard and a half like Hydrus, so he knew he couldn't be of much help, but he knelt down nonetheless. He took the towel he used for mopping up his sweat and quickly wiped the man's face off as gently as he could.
Even a werewolf wasn't invincible to everything. Their most obvious weakness was silver, which could cut through them like butter and poisoned their blood on contact, but it wasn't the only one. Technically anything that could hurt a human could hurt werewolves too, it just had to work a lot harder to do so. Something like another werewolf's smashing hammer fists, which would obliterate a human's skull like a mallet through a watermelon, didn't have to work hard at all though. And unlike the species who society called their rivals despite the inter-people benignity, vampires, werewolves couldn't regenerate from literally everything.
They could still take a beating though.
"You." He nodded at the werewolf who'd brought him over in the first place. "Get me Jason, Terry, and…" Remus sighed. "And Banjo."
He fucking hated Banjo.
While Remus's 'nephew' went to do what he was told, he resumed his cleaning of the other man. Whoever this newbie was, he was fighting hard to survive. It was the least Remus could do to try and make sure the efforts didn't go to waste. They needed as many citizens in their fledgling nation as they could get. Each life was precious, even more so than what morality already dictated.
Even Banjo's.
"Brought 'em." The younger werewolf gave a hard sniff, probably mad he had to listen to the more senior man. "Bye."
He skulked away and Remus nodded at the three others. "You three are responsible for making sure he lives. If he dies, you'll regret it. Terry, I'll tell Fenrir who ate all his King Troll's Sweet Rolls. Jason, I will make sure Izzy finds out about those drawings you did of her."
Both men paled. Remus might not've been a match for either of them in a fight, but he had his own ways of getting Fenrir's inner-circle to listen to him. Terry's was the easiest bit of blackmail in his life, he'd found the bag the man had carelessly left behind in his room and immediately used it against him. Jason, one of the kids from Remus's exgirlfriend's camp, had always nursed a boyhood crush for Izzy and it hadn't been hard to find some humiliating proof of that fact.
"Yeah, alright," Jason mumbled.
"You got it." Terry agreed.
"What about me?" Banjo asked. "I'll do it, but you got any dirt on me, Dad?"
Remus growled. Banjo was a man at least twice his own age, closer to Fenrir's years than any child of Remus's own could've been. Unlike every other lone wolf who wandered into town, Banjo had decided to hook his wagon on Remus's unwilling hitch rather than Fenrir's. The American werewolf looked more like he was a mangy cat than any sort of canine, with long tufts of hair sprouting on his head around patches of baldness and quite a few scars. If it weren't for the fact that the most annoying man in the whole colony was also the closest thing they had to an expert on werewolf medicine, Remus would've personally made it his mission to get him kicked out.
"Shut up and do what you're told," Remus muttered.
It wasn't hard to track Fenrir. Even if the man didn't practically reek with musk and whatever cologne he doused himself in, it was obvious based on the other scents. A trail of fear, of submission, of fading anger from rivals who weren't stupid enough to challenge him. It was almost humiliating how easy it was to always know where the most evil werewolf in the entire world was after spending so many years trying to catch just his shadow.
When Remus got to the man's home, the largest one in the burgeoning town on account of his status, he didn't bother to knock before opening the door. Two of Fenrir's children were 'guarding' it on the inside, but they just gave him cheery hellos as he passed by. They were both some of Fenrir's oldest turnings, and they whole-heartedly believed in the man's demented sense of family. To them, their little brother had just come home.
When he got upstairs and pushed open Fenrir's office door, he found the alpha smoking a cigar, cutting another.
"Smelled you coming," Fenrir said. "You smell like Hogwarts. They treating you—"
"What the fuck was that?" Remus demanded. "I told you, no killing!"
The others down below probably heard him, the ones guarding the door and any others visiting. He didn't care. Anyone who could've been relaxing in their future mayor-slash-king's home was also in the know regarding Fenrir's true relationship with Remus, and more directly, Hydrus.
"I made an exception," Fenrir said with a grunt, handing him the cigar which Remus nearly crushed out of anger. "I don't like him."
"It doesn't matter what you dislike!" Remus shouted. "We need every! Body! Possible! The normal wizards will scoff at a hundred werewolves. Sneer at a thousand. Baulk against ten-thousand. And if we can keep stacking that number higher—"
"I don't like him," Fenrir repeated, as if that was anything close to a rational argument. "I want him gone."
"And I want Banjo gone but you don't see me throwing tantrums!" Remus corrected an earlier thought, there was one person he hated more than Banjo, and it was Fenrir fucking Greyback. "I leave you in charge because I want our people to be ruled by our people, not Hydrus just using your living corpse as a puppet. No! Killing!"
Fenrir growled but was staring down at the ground. Mentioning Hydrus was just about the only thing Remus could really do to reign in the monster. The memory of just how his nephew had broken the other man's spirit still haunted Remus's nightmares, which usually stayed his hand and stopped him from dropping the name, but there was a decent chance he'd walk out of here to discover that the latest member of their pack hadn't been able to survive.
"Do better, Fenrir," Remus said quietly, turning to leave. "I will do what's best for this nation, even if it means making concessions that I don't want to."
When he got back downstairs he found Jason waiting for him. "He's gonna live, Banjo said so."
"Good." Remus gave a relieved sigh. "What the fuck did he do to piss of Fenrir, anyways?"
Jason blinked at him. "Uh… It's cus of you. That was that serial killer from Mexico, you know… Lobo Sangriento?"
"What?" Remus felt like he'd been slapped. "What the fuck do I have to do with some killer from the other side of the world?"
He'd had to put morals aside for their people's sake. Any and every person who belonged here was welcome, no matter their past. So long as they put everything from there behind them, and left it there, all werewolves could call this place home.
"Oh, shit, you don't know." Jason swallowed. "It's, uh, that is to say… His name is Marcos. Marcos Stonefoot." Remus's eyes widened. "Miss Isabella's brother."
Izzy's older brother was a werewolf, and the reason she'd gone on to found her camp for wayward youths in the first place. He'd killed their parents, American purebloods with southern Native ancestry, and the only reason she hadn't joined them was because she'd been spending the night at a friend's house. Her brother had always been a sore subject for Izzy, tearing her between the horrific knowledge that he turned to the darker side of things in the wake of what he'd done, and the pity she felt for him since she'd known what had forced him to do it.
Remus had always thought she was being difficult for not just accepting that her brother could've turned things around and done good in his life instead.
Suddenly it occurred to him why that meant Fenrir's assault on the man had been 'because of Remus', and he grit his teeth. For the first time since hearing about his nephew Hydrus, he began to empathise with the time traveller's disdain for Sirius wanting to be his father.
"Fucking idiot," Remus muttered. He nodded at Jason. "Thank you for informing me. Keep up the good work."
James tossed the quaffle up for the millionth time that day. He was reclining behind his desk at work, and wondering what his Lily was up to. It would probably be another day or two before he had to get started on a new big arrest, which meant he was back to just sitting at work and pretending to be busy. He threw up the game winning ball from the last game of his senior year once more.
Earl Longbottom, his mate's younger brother, had been the team seeker back then and James had pitched him a scheme. Earl had agreed to go along with the ridiculous idea since he had another year before he'd graduate too, which meant he could have his own shining moment then. Instead of trying to catch the snitch, Longbottom had focused on just stopping Ravenclaw's seeker from getting it. That gave James time to rack up the points, get to a differential high enough that the snitch didn't matter, and the idiot on the other team had been so relieved to get Longbottom off his ass that he didn't hesitate to catch the golden ball and doom his house to losing the house cup.
Good times.
Now the old quaffle was just a prop in James's office, well worn from years of getting thrown about like this. It had gotten a lot more use ever since Sirius was fired.
They'd had a good thing going, him and his brother. James would do the easy part, going and getting all the facts and details and secrets. Then Sirius would lead the charge and destroy everything in their wake. His brother liked to think that he had tricked his sibling into doing the hard part, but James knew the truth.
It was easy to get people to do what he wanted, people besides Lily and the rest of his family anyways. You just had to know which smile to put on, which tone to use, which words to say. The paperwork only took a few minutes if you kept the forms half-filled with standard wordings, and then filled out the rest once you got the answers you needed. Approval from on high for whatever busts he'd built could take time, but at this point he'd greased enough wheels to have everyone but the minister himself willing to rubber stamp whatever he put on their desks without so much as reading it.
That just left the hard part, actually going and doing the damned things. Sirius loved that part, loved getting the chance to put the abuse he'd suffered at the hands of the rotten Black family to a justice-filled purpose, loved getting to experience the thrill of the risk. James wasn't a bad wand himself, but he had a wife and kids to think about. He'd die in a heartbeat for them or his brother or Remus or anyone else he loved, but doing it for the sake of the government's bullshit laws and legal system? That rubbed him something fierce.
Going out on jobs wasn't his cup of tea.
So, in a spiteful act of protest over Sirius's dismissal, he'd ground his perfectly working machine to a halt. He still more than met his quotas, still maintained his inherited title of best auror in the country, but he went no further. If Bones and Scrimgeour wanted him to do more than that, they'd damn well better hire his brother back.
His floo went off, and James caught the quaffle one last time as his son stepped out. He grinned.
"What're you doing here?" he asked. "How'd you sneak out?"
Harry brushed off his robes, sneezed, then shook out his head. "I snuck out through one of the passages you told me about to Hogsmeade, ran over to the Hog's Head Inn, and used the floo there. With old man Aberforth gone, no one could stop me."
James nodded along, proud of his boy's cleverness. "Nice. What's up?"
"What's the deal with Hydrus?" Harry demanded. "It's driving me insane."
It was hard not to laugh. He didn't know why his eldest had gotten it into his head that he had to solve the grand mystery of his godbrother, but he knew better than to bluntly try and warn him off of it. Lying didn't sit right with him either. What to do…
"Catch." James threw Harry the quaffle and the kid caught it with ease. "I tell you Sirius bought Nimbus?"
"You're ducking my question, and I don't appreciate it," Harry said matter of factly, launching the ball back and smacking it hard into Jame's palm just an inch short of where it would've nearly broke his nose. "And no, why'd he buy a Nimbus? Firebolts are—"
"Not a Nimbus," James said, rearing back and rocketing the quaffle forward hard enough that Harry took a surprised step back and coughed as he used half his gut to catch it. "Nimbus. The whole company. He's got that wunderkind of theirs going over designs for new brooms now."
"Oh yeah, uh…" Harry looked away like he was thinking, then slammed the quaffle into the wall. It ricocheted towards James's ear, so he leaned forward and used his weak arm to catch it just after it scratched his neck. "Giannis right?"
"Yeah, him. Was talking to Sirius about it, and apparently his boy makes you look like a turtle on the pitch, so they're going for even more forward propulsion than what Firebolt is doing."
"What?" Harry's jaw dropped, and he nearly missed the underhanded toss James sent his way, fumbling the quaffle around for a moment. "How much bloody faster do they expect them to go?"
"Let's just say I'm taking some of the boys from over in the DMT for a few pints after work today," James said, catching the distracted throw back as possibilities no doubt ran through his son's mind. "Gonna see if I can't talk 'em into letting me see some of the runes they use on the Knight Bus."
"Damn." Harry shook his head. "I guess those'll help with… Speed and turning? I don't know anything about runes."
"Yeah," James sighed, tossing the quaffle once more. "Breaks my heart. How are you supposed to live up to my invisibility cloak legacy if you don't know runes?"
Harry rolled his eyes. "I'll be too busy becoming a quidditch legend anyways, thank you very much."
His son's next pass was pretty good. For a seeker, anyways. James stopped it with just his middle finger, 'slapping' it back and redirecting the momentum upwards so it careened up towards the ceiling then landed with a smack in his awaiting palm. Yeah, he still had the touch. He grinned.
"Right, of course. I saw Ron's already laying the groundwork to get you on the Cannons." He whipped the quaffle back at his boy, and couldn't help but be impressed that the kid still managed to catch it. "Kid buried the hell out of poor Crabtree."
"Crabtree couldn't catch the snitch if it was up his own arse," Harry shot back, just turning the quaffle over in his hands. "Honestly, it'd be one thing if he was your age, but the man's almost twice it."
"Almost twi—" James caught the 'surprise' throw Harry interrupted him with. "He is well over twice my age, thank you very much."
"Hard to tell with how weak your passing is."
James grinned and stood. Harry's eyes widened and he backed up, but James knew there wasn't enough space in the entire department hall for the missile he was about to launch. Rearing back like one of those muggle baseball players his dad liked to watch, he prepared to execute his first born son.
"Wait!" Harry yelped. "Jeez, I'm sorry."
James laughed and lightly tossed the quaffle over before sitting back down. He might've been a good deal older since the last time he played in a real game, but he'd been working out a lot more since then. Someday he'd manage to beat Remus in their pissing contest of bear hugs. There was no way his favorite nerd worked out like he did.
"You should reach out to that Giannis kid, see if you can help with the brooms," James said. "I'm sure he'd love a guinea pig to test them out on before he gave one to Hydrus to try."
"Seems like a good way to break my neck if we're getting the Knight Bus involved," Harry grumbled. "Hate that stupid thing."
"How the hell can you whip around on your broom like an eel only to get motion sickness?" James asked with a laugh, their game of catch carrying on. "Honestly."
"It's completely different, I don't have any control over that demon," his son whined.
They went on for another half an hour or so, just chatting about various things brooms could do to be better. James was making mental notes of it all to pass on since he doubted Harry would actually bother to hit up Giannis. Their game of catch rose and fell in a rhythm to the tune of Harry's ego getting too big for him to handle, and James getting too cocky to let such things slide, and then both settling back down.
It was nice. He'd been feeling a bit insecure lately, and having this moment of familial intimacy with his son was doing wonders for his soul. Harry was grinning as he kept trying more and more elaborate tricks to catch him off guard, and that smile was worth any price.
Some of James's saltier coworkers liked to make snide comments about how James was some kind of psycho for the way he talked about breaking down criminals' own psyches. That couldn't be further from the truth though. He liked to know how he could break people down, sure, but it was only because that was the only way to know how to build them up further.
A lot of people, his brother included, thought of him like some kind of ingenious mastermind who shredded collars apart once Sirius dragged them into the interrogation cells. But that wasn't how James saw it. He genuinely did want to make sure the people who the Black Sheep drug in did their best to get back on the right side of things. In the past three years alone, he'd helped no less than a dozen of his arrests get proper jobs after their stint in the Ministry cells or, in one case, even Azkaban. The problem was that the only way to get such people onto the right side was to know what side they were on and why they were there in the first place.
For all his life, James had wanted to help people. He still remembered, clear as day, that moment when he was just four or five years old and his father wrapped him up in a hug tight enough to make him cry in pain. He remembered his father begging him not to go, even though he had no idea where the man thought he was going. His father just begged him not to leave, told him it was too dangerous, that there were too many on the other side. James remembered his mother stepping in to stun his father, and pull James out of the room, saying his father was just 'having a spell', whatever that meant.
He now knew that his old man had been suffering from… What had Lily called it? PTSD? It was something a lot of vets had to deal with after the Great War. The man wasn't talking to him, he was talking to some probably dead comrade on the battlefield. He had been begging them not to go. He had offered to go in their place. He pleaded with them to let him be the one to die instead.
James still remembered those half-sobbed cries, remembered the sound a son should never have to hear from his father, and they still guided him towards what he was supposed to do.
Help others.
"Harry," James said. "You know I'd never tell you what to do. But you really don't have to worry about Hydrus. I'm already on it, and believe me when I say there's nothing you can get to that I can't. I'll let you know what I find when I'm certain."
Harry let the quaffle sail right past his head as he stared blankly back, suddenly remembering what he came here for. "What do you mean you're already on it?"
"Just cus you're stuck in school twiddling your thumbs, doesn't mean I'm not keeping up with things," James said, quirking his lip up to a smirk. "Like I said, just relax. I'm taking care of everything. Just… Please try and focus on your OWLs. You know I never tell you what to do, but it'll really make your mum happy."
"It's no fair!" his son snapped. "He's out there—"
"Harr—"
"I heard him!" James pulled back at his son's threatening tone, and the small amount of dust getting kicked up around his son's feet. Kid was getting to that age where his magic was flaring if he wasn't careful. "He was… He was talking about things that could hurt a lot of people. I need to—"
James finally flared his own magic, sending his quaffle whirling about the room as it got caught up in his gales. He approached his boy and knelt down so that he had to look up at him, hopefully making Harry feel more comfortable. A gentle smile, a hand reaching up to brush the boy's hair, the perfect recipe to settle the kid's nerves.
"I'm looking into it, kiddo," James said. "I'll take care of it. Just keep your mother happy, and we'll call it even, alright?"
Harry tried to refuse the cowing at first. "I can help."
"You can, but I can do more, and I want you to make my wife happy instead of being selfish and trying to be the hero yourself." His son responded better when you talked to him like an equal in these scenarios. "As soon as I know everything, I'll tell you. Alright?"
Technically not a lie.
"Alright," Harry sighed. James put his magic down and straightened up. "There's just something weird—"
"I know." James clapped Harry on the shoulder and pulled him into a hug. "Trust me, I know."
There. He hadn't lied. Had asked, not told, Harry to do something. Hopefully it would work out.
"Fine," Harry grumbled, hugging him back quickly before letting go. "As soon as you know something—"
"The whole picture," James insisted. "You of all people knows what happens when you only got half the information. Remember the time the Weasley twins had one of your classmates stuff your bag with a pair of Hermione's—"
"I get it!" Harry snapped, a flush rising to his cheeks. "The full picture." He sighed as he calmed himself down, trying to regain control of the situation in a teenage bid for dominance. "I just… I want to help."
"I know, and believe me, if things need it we won't hesitate to let you know." James leaned down and rested his forehead against his son's. "But just like I don't call you in to help me arrest smugglers and break up fighting rings, some things just don't need you around and in the way. Okay?"
"Yeah, alright."
"Good." James pulled up and away, moving back behind his desk. "Love you."
"Love you too," Harry said. "See you around."
James watched as his son stepped back into the floo and called out for Professor Flitwick's office, earning him a chuckle as James thought of Lily seeing their boy pop up out of nowhere. He settled down in his chair and stared up at the ceiling. What the hell was he going to do with his wayward 'nephew'?
What was he going to do about the alternate version of the boy who just left, who thought he was slick, who wanted absolutely nothing to do with his original father?
"And they have done it!" The commentator roared, his voice cracking in adulation. "The Chudley Cannons have defeated Sydneeeeeeeey!"
Amelia stood to clap alongside the rest of the upper crust that had been invited into 'their' box. Her father was practically foaming at the mouth as he roared in support for the players doing a loop around the pitch. She closed her eyes before rolling them, then smiled as Sirius pulled her against his chest and kissed the side of her head.
"Told you I'd get them a win," he muttered with no small amount of sarcastic celebration. "I know how important this was to you."
"Shut up," she whispered back, pulling away slightly to just take in his face. "Idiot."
"Your idiot," he insisted.
"My idiot."
Well, at least her father would be happy. The man was still hooping and hollering and swinging her mother around in celebration. A few of the distant guests were slowly shuffling out in disappointment, but the ones who were there as fans of the team were waiting for Sirius to say something. It honestly surprised Amelia how many people were such diehard fans for a team who hadn't mustered a single real win in years. What was even the point?
"Come on, we have the interview to get to," she said, remembering Cygnus's warning not to let Sirius skip out on it. "We need to— Hey!"
Sirius knelt down. Amelia tensed up.
His arm reached forward, and for a moment she thought he was going to be an ass and re-propose to her in front of all these people. Instead he just wrapped it around her knees, and scooped her into the air.
"Game went OT, that means I ain't gotta do shit," Sirius said, strutting away as she protested. "We got dinner reservations."
"Sirius!"
Despite her half-hearted gestures, he pushed his way through the sea of fans and reporters, flaring his magic on occasion to scare away the more persistent leeches. Eventually they were out of the wards and he apparated them to… Amelia blinked. This was where they'd had their first date.
"I figured a big win like today deserved a special dinner," Sirius said. "If we lost I was gonna make us go to the Herschels."
Amelia snorted, once more feeling the odd tingles in her chest as she realised what the significance of a place like this was. She had to at least be proud of him for not asking her to marry him in front of a bunch of cheering strangers who would've revolted if she said no, but this was still awfully public. Sirius quickly chatted up the maître d' and they were sat at, to no surprise from Amelia, the same table they'd had their initial discussions about her marrying him.
"So how's work been?" Sirius asked. "James isn't slowing you down too bad is he?"
Amelia rolled her eyes. "We both know he's half-assing everything he does, and the only reason I don't call him out on it is because he's still in the lead."
Their conversation continued and the dinner that eventually came was perfect. Unlike last time where Sirius kept half-stumbling over everything he said, or rushing over himself to talk about Hydrus, they just chatted about how things were going in the DMLE or about the plans for their family. Her love was in rare form with his jokes for once, keeping things only slightly flirtatious and keeping a smile painted permanently on her face. Everything seemed like it was careening into what would've no doubt been the perfect proposal when someone interrupted.
"Excuse me." Amelia turned around to see a balding man approaching Sirius, a hat held in his hand and pressed to his chest. "My name is Richard Fallwell, I'm a huge fan."
"Ain't you a fucking newsy?" Sirius snapped. "How the hell did you—"
"No!" the man yelped. "W-, well, I am, but no I'm not here for work. I was just having dinner with my wife. I'm so sorry to bother, I just, I'm sorry, I was just hoping I could, maybe, if it's not too much of a bother, maybe, take a photo?"
The man offered up a sheepish smile and gestured towards a woman who only looked a third as annoyed as Amelia felt at the interruption. The lady caught her eye, then rolled her own, shaking her head in exasperation. Amelia smiled slightly, finally realising this truly was just a fan of the Cannons.
"Of course," Amelia said, standing up and holding out her arm for Sirius to take even as he grimaced at her. "Come on."
The photo didn't take long. The man posed between Sirius and herself, to Amelia's annoyance, pulling down his collar to reveal what she could only assume was supposed to be a cannon tattooed on his chest. He was grinning ear to ear, and even Sirius couldn't stop the befuddled smile from showing up on his face as the camera bulb flashed and immortalised the moment. As the man rushed back to his wife to check the slowly forming photo, her boyfriend paused and looked down at Amelia's feet.
She cocked an eyebrow at him. "What—"
Sirius knelt down. Amelia tensed up.
"Had a bit of confetti stuck to your dress," Sirius said as he straightened up and rubbed it off onto the table cloth. "Come on, dessert should be coming soon."
Stilling her stupid heart once more, Amelia sat back down. Dessert didn't taste half as good as it did last time since Sirius just threw that perfect moment in her face, but she knew that wasn't his fault. It had been Amelia who'd thrown that stupid ring back in his face in the Sahara, it shouldn't have been surprising that he was so hesitant to ask her to marry him. Her annoying 'future sister-in-law' Bellatrix might be convinced that her marriage to Sirius was nothing but the inevitable, but that didn't mean he was as confident. Maybe… Maybe she should ask the other woman to drop some subtle suggestions.
"All done?" Sirius asked as Amelia carefully napkined her lips. "Only one stop left today."
She smiled back at him which only made his own grin grow larger. "Of course."
To her surprise, after Sirius dropped the coins on the table to pay for their meal and then some, they didn't return home. She blinked in surprise as she suddenly found herself in the middle of a forested, craggy landscape with the sun just beginning to set despite the fact that it had been the middle of the night just a second ago.
"This is where Hydrus took me on his stupid hike," Sirius grumbled as he snapped his fingers, no doubt calling on Kreacher, and a blanket as thick as her legs appeared on the ground before them. "It was awful, but I thought it might be nice to see it at a time like this, and with a lass like you."
Amelia laughed as he helped her down onto the blanket. Morgana, she loved this man. They stared out over the canyon before them as the sun set, and it took her breath away. Leave it to Sirius to pull the double-prank, and let her think he wasn't going to do what she'd jokingly said when she told him to never propose in public again. This was the perfect place for a moment like this.
But the moment never came. They just sat there. On the comfy but annoyingly warm blanket. Watched the sun set, the stars come into view, and the moon rise over their heads. Nearly two whole silent hours passed of just her leaning against Sirius, and then laying beside him when he finally gave up on acting tough and just reclined. Now they were watching the clear night sky and still saying absolutely nothing.
"It's beautiful out here," Amelia said. "I can see why Hydrus liked it."
"Yeah…" Sirius agreed quietly. She glanced over and her eye twitched when she realised he was about to sleep. "It's perfect."
"Come on." She got to her feet, pulling him up as she went. "Let's put you to bed."
"Yeah, yeah," he mumbled. "C'mere."
He pulled her into a tight hug and began to slowly rock back and forth. Amelia just shook her head into his chest as he swayed, dancing to some silent song.
"You're about to pass out, you idiot," she said. "Let's get to bed."
"I know."
Sirius knelt down. Amelia tensed up.
Sirius lifted her up just like he did back at the damned quidditch game. "Away we go!"
She couldn't even be mad at this point. They reappeared in their bedroom and Sirius sat her down on the bed before straightening up and stretching, letting loose a guttural growl as his limbs stretched beyond what a normal man could've done. She could almost see the grim in him show for a second as he wrapped up his bedtime stretches.
"Oh, shit," Sirius muttered. He looked down at her feet hanging off the bed. "You been wearing those heels all day? Here, let me give you a foot rub."
He knelt down.
Amelia snapped.
"Would you stop!" She jerked her legs away from him. "You keep making me think you're gonna propose you—"
Sirius pulled a box from his pocket. Amelia's eyes widened and her mouth stayed open as he pulled back the lid to reveal her engagement ring with a new, golden band encircling the old one. He looked up at her with half a moon from the window reflecting in his eyes.
"I love you, Bonesy," he said. "Will you marry me?"
Amelia's heart caught in her throat. The stupid idiot. The absolute jerk. The complete and utter tosser. He'd been dragging her around all evening from the dumb quidditch game to the dumb dinner to the dumb cliff to the dumb bed. He'd been a model socialite to show off to the world. He'd been a wonderful and handsome date. He'd been a sweet and cuddly boy. He'd been about to massage her very sore feet.
"Yes," she said. "Of course I'll—"
He cut her off, pouncing on top of her and smothering her lips in his own. She thought about fighting it off but it was just too difficult to stop herself from kissing him back. Before she knew it he had the ring back on her finger, and she was wrapping her arms around him like the world itself might fall apart if she let him go.
Knock, knock, knock.
"No." Amelia fell back and stared at the ceiling. "I just imagined that."
Knock, knock, knock.
"It's not even my fucking kid," Sirius muttered, falling down beside her and joining Amelia in staring at the ceiling. "This isn't fair."
Knock, knock, knock.
They both sighed, and said in near perfect harmony, "Come in."
Giannis threw the door open, slammed it shut behind him, and jumped onto the mattress. He sidled up between them and shoved them both apart until he had enough room to put his elbows up around his head.
In that moment, Amelia considered whatever fancy Latin word they used for a mother killing her son.
"What's up with coconut charcoal?" Giannis asked. "I read in that newspaper that Hydrus likes that its a big deal in the Wizengamot, but I don't really…"
Amelia tuned him out and turned away, leaving that old shaggy dog story to her own shaggy dog. Leave it to her fiance to handle. She grinned as that word tumbled through her mind and as she fingered the ring on her hand, back where it belonged. Looking back on it all now, she regretted having thrown it at him. It wasn't the wrong move, Sirius himself admitted he'd been an idiot to do what he did, but she still regretted it. It wasn't logical, but she loved her man.
She felt like some stupid, hormonal teenager. But she felt good. Amelia hadn't been this happy since… Since the last time Sirius took her out like this. He did it a lot, the sickle slinging idiot. She smiled into the dark of her bedroom and listened with a fading ear as her fiance tried, and very obviously failed, to explain the complexity of a political minefield that had been going on for the better part of a century.
Amelia wasn't sure what about a beautiful day, a handsome husband, and the wedding proposal of her dreams had her so giddy, but she fell asleep with a smile on her face.
"Gross," Hydrus said, glaring at his future step-mother. "You're pregnant."
"Excuse me?" Amelia looked like he'd stabbed her. "Where do you get off—"
"You're fucking pregnant." He returned his attention to his breakfast, ignoring the looks of horror from Bella and Sirius both as the former was in the middle of seating Giannis and the latter looked like he was in the middle of a heart attack, leaning against the dining room doorway. "I can tell. Trust me."
Sirius fainted. Hydrus blinked.
"Holy shit!" He gasped, heaving up half-formed laughs in awe. "I once saw that man—"
"What do you mean you can tell?!" Amelia shouted. "Hydrus, I swear to Morgana I will end your life if this is just some stupid 'prank'."
He ignored her and moved over to his dad, holding out his hand as Kreacher passed over a knife. After tossing it away, the elf handed him the marker he actually wanted.
"Hydrus!"
"I just know." He popped the cap off and began drawing on Sirius's face. "I can feel it. It's the…" Wait. He didn't have the Trace anymore. "Fate!"
Bella shrieked. Amelia launched a curse. Hydrus turned to see a troll the size of a small giant bowing over to fit in his kitchen.
"Hello, Hydrus," Fate said in his daughter's voice despite the troll's body. "Sorry, I was in the middle of talking to the idiot who killed this poor woman I'm wearing so he could know his children's future." The goddess shook her scaly head. "Now he's never going to even have children the… The troll."
He supposed it made sense that Fate had non-human worshippers too, though he'd never really thought about it before. That it was something as stupid as a troll surprised him, he'd never known they were even intelligent enough to worship something. Maybe there was something to Quirrel's supposed gift for chatting them up.
"Speaking of kids," Hydrus said, capping his marker and wandering over amidst the confused stares of his love and Amelia. "How the fuck do I know she's pregnant? I broke my second bargain."
"What bargain?" Amelia demanded. "And why do you think I'm pregnant in the first place?"
"It's like Albus told you, the Trace isn't that hard to figure out," Fate said. Her voice suddenly changed and she spoke in the exact tone and voice of the man himself. "…reflect upon just what it is you've sacrificed for the ability to do what I can already do with just a bit of practice and time."
Hydrus rolled his eyes. "So, what? I lost the full suite of powers but I can still tell when my dad's fiancee is pregnant?"
"Congratulations on your engagement, by the way," Bella said demurely. "I'm very happy for you."
Amelia ignored her.
"Think of it this way." Fate reached down with her troll hands and grabbed up a singular scone off the dining room table. It vanished. "Before, you were driving one of those car thingies around on a road. It took you from where you were, to where you needed to go, every time. Now imagine, the roads are gone. The signs are gone. The lights are gone. You're driving in an open field." She vanished away another scone. "You can still drive, can't you?"
"Just…" Hydrus began. "Feels a bit weird. Why's this what came to me on instinct?"
"Probably because you—" Fate cut herself off with a huff that came out like a train horn given her current form. "Don't you start with me, young man. I'm leaving."
She disappeared.
"What the fuck was that?" Amelia asked, her normally tan skin had turned to pallor. "Who—"
"That was Fate," Hydrus answered, returning to his seat at the head of the table. "Goddess of time and divination. Don't mind her, don't know why she didn't pause you. But I can use enough of the trace to tell you got a magical baby in the oven."
Sirius gasped and sat up, looking around like someone must've knocked him unconscious. "What happened?"
"I knocked you unconscious," Hydrus lied amiably. "Serves you right for what you did to this poor woman. You filthy, philandering, no-good—"
"Sirius, I'm pregnant, we need to hurry the wedding up." Amelia was running her hands through her hair, truly showing her pureblood side for once. "Call… Shit, we're rich, I'm rich, call fucking Perenelle Flamel. We'll get her to do the flowers."
Hydrus grinned at the woman's panic. "Relax, Amelia, we'll take care of everything. You don't want Sirius for this, Cygnus can help."
"…Actually," Sirius said, getting to his feet and looking sheepish. "I… Might have good news if you wanna rush things."
"What?" Amelia said, snapping her head around to look at him. "What could possibly be good news here?"
"I never cancelled anything." Sirius sat down next to his fiancee. "Obviously that glade's still there for the location. But the caterers. The flowers. The band. Everything. They're all still on the books."
Hydrus stared at his father, and his own future wife stared with him as Amelia's jaw dropped.
"You asked me to marry you again last night," Amelia said. "We had everything booked for next week."
"I was too nervous to ask till recently." Sirius shrugged, looked down at the table and the plate that magically appeared there. "Took me a bit to work up the courage. I figured even if I did lose the deposits and what not, it was worth what little courage the reservations gave me to not lose them."
Hydrus's mind began to race. "Bella, take the week, work with Bones to make sure everything will roll smoothly," he said. "Sirius, get the invites out, lay on the pressure, bring Malfoy and Cygnus with you to make sure you do it right. Bones, if Bella gets out of line, take a breath and give her a second chance. If it happens again, then come to me. Dobby! Kreacher!" The elves appeared like twin lightning bolts behind him. "Top priority is this wedding. Everything else comes second. Any one complains, you have me deal with it. Giannis!" The boy looked up from where he'd been ignoring everything and stuffing his face. "No exceptions, no 'but you said's, you're on your best behaviour till 'Miss Bones' becomes Mrs. Black. Do you understand."
"Yes, sir!" Giannis chirped, grinning from ear to ear. "Everything worked out perfect!"
"Damn right," Hydrus muttered half-heartedly. "We got one week to make sure the world's most important wedding goes off without a hitch and sets a bar so high that it'll bend people's mind when my own overshadows it someday." Bella giggled. "Get to it people."
Son of a bitch. War on one end of the scale, family drama on the other.
He wasn't sure which was more exhausting.
"And so, in the darkest of times, and in the brightest of spaces, Merlin walked the earth and made merry wherever he went!" Gellert quoted. "He spread the seeds of joy and hope, to further encourage our people, imbibed them with the knowledge that one day they would—!"
"Would you shut up!" Arcturus roared, blood and gristle flying from his mouth and slapping against the other man's face. "I do not come here to hear you preach, you treacherous, ignominious wretch!"
"Would one day walk as kings!" Gellert roared back. "Kings above those base fools who called themselves the 'children of the lord' as though they were righteous!"
Gellert was being accosted by his captor so that the foul beast could feast on his flesh without pause. The former dark lord had decided to, as recompense for the one-sided transaction, proselytise to him like Albus used to do when he first locked him up in his own damned castle. The gospel Gellert spat was his own, created to awe and impress muggleborns who were desperate for something to believe in, relying on a history they couldn't possibly question since he'd made most of it up.
He'd written this bible for the purpose of bettering the entire world.
It would more than serve to annoy this pisspot.
"For we are kings!" Gellert shouted, his voice echoing against the stones. "We are magic incarnate! The living will of the divine! We are, each and every one of us, the true rulers of these lands! Not those mud slinging savages who—!'
Arcturus cut his throat, and Gellert began to wait. He tuned out the man's blathering and puffery, even as the new dark lord sliced off his leg once more. There was nothing to be found in the words of the pathetic simpleton; Arcturus was nothing more than a base animal brought to a feast by his masters and told to dine upon his better. It had been some time since Gellert had become a vampire, so his throat healed quickly.
"Who claim to be pure!" Gellert continued, like nothing had happened. "We shall smite them into nothingness, just as whence they came! We shall purge the world of all those who stand in our way! We shall—!"
Arcturus cut his throat again with a bestial grunt, madness in his eyes.
"Shall burn their homes! Pillage their fields! We shall—!"
His throat was destroyed once more. It healed once more.
"Make ourselves a kingdom that goes from one end of the horizon to that same end on the other side!" Gellert cried, feeling the pain of his wounds and his dreams' patheticness for the millionth time. "We shall make ourselves a home upon the bodies of those who named us devils! We shall—!"
His head cracked against the concrete floor of his cell. His body didn't move. He gasped for air but nothing came to him. Eventually his body would rejoin with his neck, but for now he could have peace. He closed his eyes and waited to return to his unending, pointless sermon.
Giannis sipped his milk. Burro was sitting to his right. Next to the chickcharney was Koji the Kappa. Koji the Kappa always demanded you call him that, 'Koji the Kappa', like it was some sort of title. Next to him was Dobby, with an empty seat beside him for Kreacher who never showed up. Beside the empty seat was Apophis, stretching up and waving back and forth slightly as he maintained his rigid balance.
Next to the basilisk was an orangutan. Giannis wasn't sure where he came from. Or where he got the cigar. Beside the primate were Hedwig and Fawkes, sharing a perch though Fawkes seemed much happier about it than Giannis's owl did. Next to them was Eleni the sphinx, who seemed more bored than anyone to be there. Beside her and directly beside Giannis was another empty seat.
Argus had left it to sit down on top of his feet again.
"Alright," Giannis said. "Miss Bones and Sirius are getting married next week. It all needs to be perfect."
He'd been the one who put them back together, that meant it was his job to make sure they stayed together.
Everything was going to be so cool.
Hydrus reeled back from the slap. He'd expected it. Hell, at one point in time he would've thought it was hot. Fleur glared at him with half formed tears in her eyes now, though, so it was hard to take it for anything but what it was.
True, genuine pain from his former lover.
"'ow dare you?" the quarter-veela demanded. "You sink zat just because—"
"I think that I've been more than merciful." He had to lay it on thick, else she wouldn't get just how serious he was. "I would've ripped those harpies limb from limb if I didn't love you as a friend. Their god is my enemy, and the only reason you're not in the cells down with them is that you had the good sense not to worship Magic or Death yourself."
They were standing in the room closest to the foyer of the Grimmauld Place, a seating room meant to make a statement to any guests who came there, letting them know they weren't welcome. The chairs were uncomfortable, the walls were painted a hideous shade of greyish-blue, and the air itself smelled of death.
Fleur flared her magic, causing everything around her to catch fire. "I am not afraid of you."
"I know." Hydrus banished away the flames and repaired the damage with a blink of his eyes. "What's that change about anything?"
His former lover had demanded a meeting with him and, out of respect for her future potential, he'd decided to hold it in a house he hated above all others. Well, except the one on Privet drive. But he'd still give the title to Grimmauld Place for the sake of Sirius's own trauma. He certainly wouldn't mind if things got out of hand and she accidentally burned it down.
Her feathers began to show. "You can't just—"
"No, I very much can." Hydrus stepped up to Fleur and the woman stepped back. "Legally? Let's not talk about 'legally'. It's a load of bullshit and prejudice, we can both agree to that. Morally?" He leaned in close, his nose nearly touching hers and her aura faded into nothingness as he crushed it with his magic. "I got my own fucking grandparents down in those cells too. You think I give half a rat's ass about morals?
"I'm at war with gods, Delacour. I'm at war with beings who people worship for a faint and, more often than not, useless hope that their prayers will be answered." He finally leaned back, allowing the girl space that she'd desperately wanted but had been too shocked to ask for. "Your great-aunt is being treated well. She isn't being tortured, she's not dead; take it as the only mercy she'll get until Death and Magic know their place."
"Who are you to—"
"She asked me that same question," Hydrus interrupted coldly, startling Fleur. "I didn't bother to answer her, but I'll tell you, my friend.
"I am Hydrus Sirius Black." He flared his magic, imagining an ebony phoenix being reborn around himself to make sure he didn't blow out his arm. "I am the Black Saint. I am the favourite of Fate herself. I am the father to a fledgling god. I am a man who has seen the world end. I have survived the touch of Death himself." His magic continued to expand, and Fleur had fallen to the ground, completely recessed into her Veela form to try and stave off the cold. "And you should find a god to pray to for yourself, beg them to help ensure that all of those titles and feats are enough to see me win this war. Because if it isn't, you shall never see the ones I've taken prisoner again."
He finally stopped flaring his magic. His heart broke for the sight of Fleur, looking like a baby bird who'd fallen out of the nest far too soon for it to fly away. She was shivering and whimpering, tears streaming out of her clenched eyes.
'I hate myself,' Hydrus thought. 'Rotten indeed.'
"Take her to the Hogwarts kitchen, Dobby," Hydrus muttered, unsure of her address. "See to it that she recovers, then take her to wherever she asks to go."
Nothing happened. He sighed, realising the elf was probably busy working on Sirius's wedding and following the instruction to make that the top priority. It probably wouldn't be long before the elf could follow through on the order, but until then, Hydrus was forced to just stare down at his myopic handiwork. After nearly a minute passed, he got too uncomfortable.
"I truly am sorry, Fleur," he said quietly. "I promise I'm trying to do better."
She didn't say anything, still just whimpering, and then she vanished. He breathed a sigh of relief.
'Thank you, Dobby.'
"Sorry, Master Hydrus!" Dobby squeaked, popping up beside him. "Dobby was being busy helping hold up dresses for Miss Bella and Miss Bones."
"It's alright," Hydrus said, reaching down and gently patting his friend on the head. "Thank you for taking care of it."
Dobby looked up at him, eyes widened. "Dobby didn't, Master Hydrus. Dobby thought you was having Kreacher do it."
Hydrus blinked. "What?"
BBaRtS
Thank you all for the notes so far on things we want to see before story's over, I was glad to see a lot of things I already had plans for being asked about. Please keep them coming, or at least, if we end without something getting answered don't be mad at me for it lol
Love you all, thank you all, see you when I see you
