Chapter 11 Fun With Blocks and Letters Answered

It was early in the evening when the two Marauders watched in amazement. Hydrus had just deftly removed the horcrux from baby Harry. First, the immortal cast a Sleeping Spell on the child, then laid him on the padded coffee table. He then called up a piece of junk from his pocketspace, making a mental note to clean it out once again. Holding the item above the still red scar he incanted, "Repel aliena anima." Harry squirmed as the foreign bit of soul was removed from his forehead, but stayed asleep.

Hydrus called Tippy to take care of the baby, who would wake soon. He then put the cursed junk into a medium sized ceramic bowl. He called up his acid and dropped some on it and watched as it blackened. The screech of a dying soul was heard, leaving the two Marauders in stunned silence. Then it was over.

"Piece of cake," Hydrus said smugly.

"Who knew it was that easy?" Remus said with a bit of awe. "I mean, these are the Darkest items ever created. How could a simple Latin term work so well? And why hasn't anyone thought of it before? To use Muggle acid, I would have never thought of that."

"If there is one thing I've noticed about magicals, it's that they lose common sense and creativity the more they learn magic. No offense, guys, but you have to admit that the common wizard doesn't think for themselves. Even you, Remus, fell to gossip and believed the papers and not your heart," Hydrus explained. Remus looked down at his shoes sheepishly. This caused Hydrus's godfather to chuckle.

"Don't laugh, Sirius, you did the same when you took Dumbledore's and Pettigrew's word about Remus. I'm hoping that therapy will help you get back to thinking for yourselves. I know if I hadn't left the wizarding world behind, I might have lost my common sense. It's only all the stupid ridicule and gossip that kept mine where it is supposed to be."

The two men nodded in agreement. Hydrus cleaned up the mess with a Banishing Charm and Scourgify, put the bowl back in his pocketspace and then he got comfortable on the sofa. The other two settled in their chairs. By now, they each had their favorite seats; Sirius liked the leather recliner, Remus preferred the comfy straight back chair, while Hydrus always took to the sofa.

"Hey, Hydrus, you never told me how you got that wicked pocketspace above your shoulder," Sirius said, hoping to lighten the mood now that Harry no longer carried the cursed scar.

It was Hydrus's turn to look sheepish. "It was a bit of an accident, really. I was trying to make an undetectable extended bag, when I misquoted the spell and it backfired. So I have no idea how it works, I'm just glad it does."

The two men chuckled and then Sirius pouted. "That means I can't have one," he whinged.

"Well, you could try, but, I wouldn't recommend it," Hydrus said playfully.

"You could show us the memory, and we could give it a go," Remus suggested.

"Yeah, I can do that. I have a few pensieves in there somewhere," the time traveler agreed.

"So, what now?" Sirius asked.

"Tomorrow I'll call around and see about counseling. I'd like to see if my old therapist is working, but I doubt it. Maybe we can use the same clinic though," Hydrus said thoughtfully. "I also need to get to my shop and see how things are going. You guys are welcome to come along. You might get a kick out of what I'm selling, Remus."

"I would like that."

"I think I'll pass," Sirius said, wanting to spend more time with his godson.

Tippy popped in and let them know Harry was awake and asking for them. So they asked her to bring him down. They played with the now thin scarred toddler until it was his bedtime and then the three men talked over plans for the next day and soon went off to bed.

The next morning everyone woke bright and early. Hydrus, of course, made breakfast. He went for a light meal of scrambled eggs with cheese and toast. Harry as usual made quite a mess and this time Sirius volunteered to clean him up. When the two didn't appear after ten minutes, Hydrus and Remus went to find out why.

They walked into the bathroom that was for Harry's use and saw the baby, in a shallow bath, splashing a pitiful looking, bubble covered, large, black dog. The two burst out laughing and had to hold each other up. Padfoot gently removed himself from Harry, stepped out of the tub and shook himself off. He then morphed back into Sirius. "Oi, it's not that funny," he snapped at the laughing pair.

"How… how did you wind up being the one to be cleaned?" Hydrus asked between chuckles, all the while keeping his eye on the playing toddler.

"He kept crying," the dog Animagus said. "I know he likes Padfoot, so I changed, but he still wouldn't stop crying until I got in the tub," the still damp man defended himself, folding his arms across his chest and pouting.

"Sirius, why did you think he needed a bath? You could have simply cleaned his face with a flannel."

"Well, I was going to, until I saw eggs in his hair. So, I thought a bath would be better."

"And you were correct," Remus decided to stand up for his friend, causing Sirius to beam at him.

"Sorry, sorry," said the still chuckling Hydrus. "Let's finish cleaning Harry and go outside. It's a nice day, probably one of the last of the season."

After making sure all the eggs were out of Harry's hair, they used a charm to dry him off, got him bundled up and went into the back yard, this time bringing the toddler some toys in hopes of saving the rest of the garden. Hydrus made a mental note to fence that off the next spring. It was cold out, but the sun was shining and they used plenty of Warming Charms to keep the toddler from getting a chill.

"You guys watch Harry for a bit, okay? I'm going to call the clinic," Hydrus said, after he played with Harry for a while. He went into the house and did just that. He made three evaluation appointments in a few days, and hung up the phone. He also checked in on his investments.

It was getting to be around noon, so Hydrus made a nice lunch of tomato soup and hot ham sandwiches. He called the others in and they all sat. Harry had lukewarm soup in his sippy cup and a half of a cheese sandwich (his favorite). The rest enjoyed the hot meal. This time Hydrus cleaned Harry.

"Ready to go, Remus?" Hydrus asked.

"Let me get my coat," was Remus's reply.

"Are you going to be okay alone, Padfoot? Tippy will be here to help, we shouldn't be long."

"I'll be okay," Sirius said firmly.

Hydrus nodded, picked Harry up, took him in the living room and placed him with his toys. After going to his room and putting in his grey contacts, he met Remus at the door. He pulled his coat on and the two men left. They Apparated to the alley next to the Cauldron and went into the pub. It wasn't crowded as lunch was just over. They made their way to the Alley and moved down the street to the shop; Home Appliances of The Future. It had taken a minute for Hydrus to name the store, but he didn't want his name in it. He decided to keep it simple, so that people would know what it was before they ventured in.

The store seemed to be quite busy as they wove through the moderate crowd. Remus looked around in fascination; Hydrus promised he could get a closer look while he did some business, so the two men parted at the checkout counter.

In the back room was a cheerful looking man with wispy white hair. He was going over the books and when Hydrus entered he looked up. "Mr. Black, sir, what a wonderful surprise," he said as he got up to shake his boss's hand.

"Mr. Parker, it is good to see you. Judging from the crowd, business is well?" Hydrus said as he shook the man's hand and then gestured to the chairs near the fireplace. The two men sat and got comfortable.

"Oh, it is indeed," Joshua Parker said. He was ecstatic about his position as store manager. When Hydrus had approached him originally he had his doubts. Now, though, he was happy to be here.

"That's great," Hydrus beamed. "I was wondering if there were any letters or notes for me. I'm waiting for a response from someone, and told them to leave it here."

"Oh, yes, yes, of course. A gentleman did come by and left you a missive. At first he was quite upset then after looking at your rune array and patent, he calmed down," Mr. Parker said as he got up and went to the desk to retrieve the note.

Hydrus let out a small sigh of relief. He wanted to work with the man, not make an enemy of him. Since his design was so different from Frostwell's, he was hoping this would be the outcome. Those hopes were dashed when he read the letter. In it Frostwell stated that while Hydrus's arrays were good, he worked alone, so they would be friendly competition.

After the immortal thought about it; he figured it was a good thing. The more inventions that were on the market, the sooner the magicals would start thinking for themselves. Since Frostwell mostly tinkered with small things such as book-readers and calculators, and Hydrus was selling large contraptions like the washing machines and tellies (which mostly sold to Muggle-born), they wouldn't really be competing.

Hydrus and Mr. Parker discussed the store and the profits and then Hydrus went to find Remus. He found him next to a dryer. The werewolf was reading the manual, trying to figure out what it was for.

"It's a dryer," Hydrus said, startling the other man. "It dries your clothes."

"This doesn't look like any machine I've ever seen. We magical folk usually use a drying charm."

"Yeah, but that leaves clothes stiff, this doesn't. I'll show you the one I have at the house."

"You have one? Of course you do, sorry, stupid question," Remus said as he put the manual down. "I have to say, you have a real good thing going here. Ready to go?"

"Yup, all done. Did you want to look around more? I have a lot of this at the house, I just thought you would like to see the things I don't have," he said. He then bent closer and whispered, "Mine stuff is better, didn't want to push too much advancement on the public."

Remus hadn't really looked over Hydrus's house, he had mostly been thinking about whether or not to move in. He still hadn't reached that decision. So, he nodded to the other man and they left the store.

Hydrus got a creepy feeling that someone was watching him and they didn't have good thoughts. He looked around, but didn't see anyone, so he shrugged it off for now and the two men left the Alley.

After they got back home, they found Sirius, as Padfoot, curled up on the floor and Harry sleeping on top of him, in that boneless way which only babies can do, drool pooling on the dogs fur. Hydrus called up a camera and the first pictures were taken. He then jerked his head to the kitchen and led the way, Remus following stifling his laughter.

"Come on, I'll show you the laundry room," Hydrus said when they were out of earshot. He showed the werewolf the marvels of non-magical technology. While Remus had spent some time in London, he always kept his house magical. So he had seen a lot of the machines, he just had no idea what they were for. After that they sat at the kitchen table and chatted over tea. They talked about the inventions in the shop and how they differed from the ones Hydrus had at the house.

An hour later they heard the other two awake and went to join them. "Good nap, Sirius?" Remus asked with a huge smile.

"Yes, it was actually," Sirius sniffed, nose in the air.

"Good, good."

They spent a good part of the afternoon trying to teach Harry how to build castles with his blocks, it was relaxing for everyone. A simple dinner of fish and chips was had and soon enough it was Harry's bedtime. Remus offered to do the honors. When he came back down a half an hour later, they settled in the living room, with tea and cakes.

"I sent another letter to Grandfather, asking him to tell Cissy to keep her money away from Death Eaters. Whether or not he will do so, I don't know," Sirius said, getting down to business.

Hydrus nodded, there was little they could do in that front, but if that didn't work he had no problem kidnapping the Death Eaters that got away, and putting them with their comrades. Judging from the reactions of the other two, he would have to do it alone. Oh, they would know it was him, but at least their hands would be clean.

"I still have a few people that need to disappear. They aren't Death Eaters, but the things they do cause a lot of misery for the public. Dolores Umbridge is the one who set up those Muggle-born camps. And Rita Skeeter was the reason for most of the populace turning on me. Her vicious quill caused many good people to fall," he said, ticking the two hated women off on his fingers.

The other two men exchanged worrying glances.

"Are you going to kill them?" Remus asked.

"Look, I know you guys think I'm unbalanced, but I truly only want what's best for magical Britain," Hydrus sighed, pinching his nose. "I really don't want to go down that path and if I can find a way not to kill, I will. The exception being Voldemort; however, if we get the horcruxes first that shouldn't be an issue."

"Unless he makes another one," Sirius said. "After all, he did before. This time you don't have a connection with him, so you won't know if he fades after we get the other two."

"When we get those, I'll make a trip to Albania, talk to the locals, listen to gossip," Hydrus said, already making plans; maybe he would use vengeful ghosts as spies. "Hey, Sirius, can you write to Marius and set up a meeting so we can talk to him. Also we need to get the Fidelius up soon."

"I can do that," Sirius said.

"Good, let him pick the place and time."

"Who do you want to make the Secret Keeper?" Remus asked.

"Remus, you cast the charm and I'll be the Keeper," Hydrus said. "Now that that's settled, let's play some video games. Remus hasn't tried it yet."

Sirius whooped, dove for the console and put in HALO: Reach, while Hydrus tried to explain the concept to Remus. The three men played into the night and made it to bed around three in the morning.

It was a tired trio that trudged their way to the kitchen the next morning. Hydrus decided not to cook and everyone had cold cereal. Sirius excused himself to write his letter and the other two played blocks with Harry.

"Unca Mooy!" Harry shouted, bouncing up and down, pointing at his rickety three block tower.

"Very good, Harry," Remus said, beaming at how happy Harry was.

"Unca Hyrus, Unca Hyrus, look!" the toddler yelled as he toddled to Hydrus, who was watching in amusement.

Hydrus picked up the cheering child and gave him a raspberry on his tummy. The tot giggled and wiggled to get free. Sirius came into the room looking around to see what all the excitement was for.

"Unca P'fut," Harry said and squirmed free of Hydrus running to his favorite Animagus. "Buil' alocks."

"Look at that. You did good, Prongslet," Sirius said, and then tickled the proud child.

"I wonder how he learned to talk so well," Hydrus said as he watched the two in the tickle fight. Well, it wasn't much of a fight, Sirius was doing the tickling and Harry was trying his best to get free.

"Lily," Remus answered. "She wouldn't let us baby talk to him."

"Yeah, I read something about that. I don't remember having much of a vocabulary when I was growing up. Then again, all I got were orders and reprimands from the Dursleys." He shook his head sadly at the reminder and then went to help Harry in his war against Sirius.

The four males played until it was Harry's nap time. Sirius was playing some Mortal Kombat with Remus, and was put out that the werewolf was kicking his arse. Hydrus was going over his non-magical documents.

Harry woke up and Hydrus kicked the two adults off the telly and set the child down to watch a movie on the alphabet which used fluffy animals to learn. Harry watched it for about five minutes and then waddled away to his toys. It was a start.

It was after lunch that a regal owl pecked on the window. Sirius got up and let it in, giving him some meat from the lunch as he removed the letter addressed to him. The owl ate his treat and flew away.

"It's from Grandfather Arcturus," the dogman said as he started reading. "Says here that he told Cissy to keep her nose clean or he'd chuck her out of the family. He also wants to meet with me tomorrow. And that I'm to come alone."

"That is a good sign, right?" Remus asked.

"You don't know Grandfather Arcturus; he's a righteous old bastard. It could mean anything from him agreeing to help or wanting to kill me and let the family name die," Sirius said worriedly. Arcturus was a puzzle to him, he had only met the man once when he was a child and he wasn't ashamed to admit his grandfather scared the crap out of him.

"He's too proud to let the family name die," Hydrus said, hoping to soothe that fear.

"Yeah, maybe."

"Anyway, we need his help, so…" Hydrus trailed off as he checked in on the toddler, who was still playing with his toys. He made a mental note to invent some that lit up to the touch, so he could teach Harry his colors.

"I'm a Gryffindor and a Black, I will face him with dignity," Sirius said, straightening his shoulders and firming his face.

"And you will do Gryffindor proud," Remus said, clapping his friend on the back.

"So, Remus, have you decided if you're moving in?" Hydrus asked.

"We will go with your plan for one full moon. You take Harry out of the house and I will see if your cellar will suffice."

"That's great, why don't you go and get some of your things tomorrow, while Sirius visits his grandfather?" the immortal suggested.

The werewolf nodded and the two dog men went back to what they were doing. Hydrus left to go and talk to his solicitor about a contract for Marius. He returned an hour later, with a smug grin.

The rest of the day was spent with Hydrus and Remus playing with Harry, and Sirius playing his favorite game, HALO: Reach. He was getting addicted and attempting to drag his best friend with him.

That night they cast the Fidelius charm, so that Sirius and Remus couldn't tell where Harry lived.

The next morning with heavy breakfast out of the way, Sirius went to see his grandfather, Remus went to gather some of his things, and Hydrus once more tried to get Harry to watch the kids' movie, with as much success as the first time. So, he spent the rest of the time going over equations for the color toy and almost had it figured out when a shell-shocked Sirius came home.

"Merlin, what happened to you?" Hydrus said as he guided Sirius to his favorite chair.

"He stepped down," the other man said, with a vacant stare. "We had a huge fight for about an hour, he kept going on and on about family loyalty. I told him that he was a deluded old fool if he thought Death Eaters were loyal to anyone except You Know Who. I thought for sure he was going to kill me and then he started laughing and handed me the Lordship. He said if I can stand up to him then I might be able to pull the Black family back together. There'll be an announcement in the Daily Prophet tomorrow."

"Well," Hydrus said as he plopped to the sofa, "that's unexpected. A bonus, but unexpected."

"We spent the last hour going over what that meant. I mean, I already knew most of it; I was raised to take over before I ran away, but he wanted to make sure," Sirius said, coming back to himself. "One thing he did say is I can kick Mum out of the house and make her go and live in one of the smaller houses. He doesn't want me to remove anyone from the family, but I can bring anyone who is magical back in. I mean, I can do anything I want, but these are his final requests. I have to meet with him again, soon, but this time he wants to meet you."

"Me, why in Merlin's name, would he want to meet me? I'm just a nobody born to a squib," Hydrus exclaimed.

"Don't know, but he does."

Hydrus shrugged and brought up an important question. "With Bellatrix presumed dead and the Lestrange brothers in prison, can you get the horcrux from her vault?"

"Yeah, those greedy goblins will do anything for payment. There's tons of goblin made silver at Grimmauld Place I can use," Sirius said with a nod.

"As long as it's you and not me, I can't stand goblins. Why don't you unwind a bit, play some war game or something, and then later you can see your lawyer about adding people back in the family. Hey," Hydrus said excitedly, just realizing something, "you can add me to the family. Or maybe not, since the tree will put me in a weird spot," he added thoughtfully.

"Nay, the tree will leave you free hanging; it can be explained away as you being a son of a squib." Sirius waved it away. "Besides, I think your name is already on the tree or Grandfather Arcturus wouldn't know about you. I didn't mention you in our talks, so it caught me by surprise when he asked about you."

"Oh, okay. I wonder what's taking Remus so long. He should have been back ages ago."

"Don't know," Sirius said, turning to the front door. Then he shrugged and put in his favorite game and got lost in the zone.

It was forty minutes later that Remus came in looking irked. He dumped his boxes next to the door, flopped down into his chair and ran a hand through his hair. "We put that charm up just in time. I was packing some things when Albus came through the Floo. We had tea and talked of nonessential things, and then he asked if I had heard from Sirius. I told him I had. He then asked if Sirius had taken Harry away from the Dursleys, and I told him that Sirius hadn't been near the place."

Hydrus grumbled under his breath about nosy old men.

"He asked if I knew where Harry was, and I told him that as far as I knew he was with his family. He tried for an hour to get me to explain further, but thanks to the truth and the charm that is all he got out of me. Thank Merlin werewolves have a natural mental shield. That is what took me so long. Oh, and he did say the Dursleys were gone," the werewolf finished, and then got up to get some tea.

"Huh," Hydrus said, watching the man leave the room, "I didn't think it'd be so soon. Mrs. Figg must've been there long before I thought." He then looked at the happily playing Harry and shrugged. With the blood wards and the Fidelius no one will find them. Hopefully, with Remus only stating the truth, as he knew it, and the monitors on the wards, that'll be enough for the Headmaster to not question further.

"I need to write my lawyer," Sirius said, abandoning his game and leaving the room.

Hydrus put his notes away and sat down on the floor with Harry. "It's just you and me, kid, what say we build some more blocks?"

"alocks!" Harry bounced. And that is just what they did. Remus came back with his tea and settled into his chair with his book-reader. Sirius appeared twenty minutes later and went back to his game. They had a nice family evening.

The next morning Marius's reply came via owl. In it he stated that the owls were getting noticed and he preferred the non-magical mail, he would give them an address when they met. He gave a time to meet at a park and a phone number to call to respond. Sirius, after being shown how, called the man and confirmed they would all be there at one.

So at noon they all bundled up and buckled in the car. Hydrus, using the directions from his book-reader, drove to the park. He had to wonder why the man chose such a setting, but then again dealing with the Black Family, he might just be very cautious. The phone number was probably a pay phone. The immortal didn't blame the man; the Blacks were notorious for killing off unwanted members of their family. Hydrus was surprised that Marius, Andromeda and Sirius were allowed to live; then again Sirius had the backing of Harry's grandmother, Dorea Black. Black family customs gave him a headache. In his timeline they were mostly dead, so he didn't have to deal with them.

Arriving at the park, they got out of the car and wandered around, Harry was in a buggy with a blanket that had a warming charm, and searched for the other Black. He approached them, with a curious look on his face.

"I recognize Sirius from the newspaper, and from the description in the letter, I'm assuming you're Hydrus, but who's the baby and the other man?" the tall dark-haired man asked. He looked like a Black, long black hair, grey eyes and an aristocratic face. "By the way, thanks for dressing like a Muggle," he said with a bite in his voice. "I was worried that you'd show up in robes or dressed outdated, like most of your kind." Yeah, he was bitter. They all ignored the tone; the man had a right to be angry.

"Marius—I assume—you look like Regulus," Sirius said a bit sadly as he shook hands with his long lost relative. "This is Hydrus, as you guessed, and the other man is Remus. We can't tell you who the baby is, yet. Not until we know each other better."

"Then why, in God's name, did you bring him?" Marius growled. "It's bloody freezing out here. Stupid wizards."

"He needs to get out of the house more, he's been cooped up for ages. Besides, the blanket is warmed," Sirius defended their actions. In all honesty, Harry had thrown a fit when he saw they were about to leave and none of the men could calm him. Since they were pressed for time, they decided to bring him along.

"Fine, whatever, let's get him out of the cold air. There's a rec center over there that has a room we can talk in," the other man said, waving his hand to his left. So they all set out to the rather plain looking building that had the sign stating it was Baldwin Park's Recreational Center.

The building was split into three large rooms and a few offices. There was the sports room where kids could play indoors, a meeting room, which is where you could rent the room for your club meetings and a study room with a small library and a dozen tables that held eight to ten people. Marius rented the meeting room for them and when the door was closed, Sirius threw up some security wards.

"While I'm happy to get a bit of revenge on the Black family, how are we going to make you my grandson? You said the name of my son, Patrick, name is on your birth certificate, why?" the wary man asked, getting straight to the point.

Hydrus was lifting Harry out of his buggy and removing his heavy winter suit. He'd be warm enough in just his little jeans, tiny snow boots and jumper. He didn't want the tot to overheat. The rest had already taken off their jackets. When he was done, he set the toddler on his lap and handed him his car keys. He then turned to the upset man and gave a sheepish look and held his hands up in supplication. "When I did the adoption I needed a relative the magicals wouldn't look for, so I looked on the tree and saw your name blasted off. I did a bit of research and found out you're a squib, that your sons were dead, so I used it. I figured we could just say Hydrus is a family name."

Marius grunted and nodded at the simple explanation and said, "I don't like it, and I'll tell you here and now, if this wasn't a way to get back at the family that dumped me, and if I didn't know better tried to kill me, I'd be a hell of a lot angrier. Now tell me why you need this so bad."

"Well, since you can't take a vow, I brought a contract for you," Hydrus said, pulling said contract from his pocketspace and handing it to his hopefully soon to be faux grandfather.

Marius growled again and snatched the contract. He read it over and saw that it only stated that he couldn't tell anyone what was discussed here today. He grunted, pulled a pen from his shirt pocket, and signed. It wasn't like he could lose his life or magic if he told anyone.

The next two hours were spent with Hydrus relating everything Marius needed to know, mostly about his childhood, how the wizarding world turned on him (hoping the man would relate) and anything he did in the non-magical world. Why he felt he needed to go back in time and how this story would help him. He was thinking that he really didn't need the man's permission, but it would help if anyone were to investigate. The only thing they had to do was come up with a reason Hydrus was still alive, when the rest of the family was dead.

From his research in the future, Hydrus knew Marius had two sons, they each had one son. All of them died mysteriously. It was his belief that someone in the Black family killed them off when the grandsons showed no signs of magic (more than likely on Voldemort's orders, so no heir would pop up later and the Black Lordship would go to Draco). What he needed to do was refine his tale and get Marius to agree to it.

After hours of discussion, they came up with a story that when Hydrus showed signs of magic as a baby, he was adopted out, since the family was still bitter. When he found his birth certificate and heard about his birth family's murder, he hid. He had gone to Marius, who told him to get lost. That he was only surfacing now because of the inheritance that was left to him by his squib godfather, who is still unnamed. It wouldn't hold up to deep investigations. Hopefully the magicals would more than likely never search out Marius. Marius was mollified that Hydrus didn't want to casually use the name and he knew that it was only a courtesy that they told him anything.

During that time Harry was passed from man to man, until he got fussy and was given some snacks, and soon enough went to sleep on Sirius's shoulder.

They parted ways with the exchange of phone numbers and Marius's address, in case the magicals hunted him down. Hydrus said he'd set up a P.O. Box soon.

Back at the house, Hydrus reminded them of their appointments the next day. The other two men groaned.