Chapter 12 Stressful Days

The next morning Hydrus knew the other two men would be nervous, so he made a light breakfast of boiled eggs and soldiers. He gave Harry some dry cereal and a banana, and waited for the other two to emerge. It was a reluctant duo that came to the table. They played with their breakfast and sent pleading glances to Hydrus.

As if I have any true control over them. Hydrus thought. "Look, I know you guys are nervous, but really it isn't a big thing," he said calmly. "Just keep your talks non-magical and try not to use names. You can say things like, you were fighting a secret terrorist war. The main terrorist is gone, but his fighters are still out there. Tell about your losses and speak the truth, as much as you can, they can't help you if you hide things from them," the immortal said gently. "Remember you're doing this for yourself and Harry."

"They're going to want to know about my childhood," Sirius whinged. "You told me they always do."

"Well, yeah, I know that's a bit hard to talk about, but, I gotta tell ya, it helps. Besides, they'll only ask and if you're not comfortable they'll put it off until you are," he said calmly. He remembered how hard it was to accept that the Dursleys' treatment of him was actual abuse.

"I am more worried about me being a werewolf," Remus said, sullenly. "I cannot tell them about that, and it is my number one fear."

"That's a bit trickier, not much you can tell about that, other than it's an illness," Hydrus said, rubbing his chin in thought. "Or, you could just tell them you have bouts of uncontrollable anger, that you mostly have a handle on, but you fear hurting someone." Then he shook his head. "No, maybe not, they might want to observe and put you in a hospital for a few nights," he mused. "I'd keep that bit to myself, I know I just said not to do that, but in this case it can't be helped. You could just use the self-help books on yoga and meditation. Remus, you're a great guy and your fears are misplaced. You are one of the gentlest souls I've ever met. You've been a werewolf almost all your life, and only had one close call, that wasn't even your fault."

Sirius hung his head in shame and looked at his best friend.

"I forgave you years ago, Padfoot."

"Yeah, but if you want to get over that guilt you might want to tell your counselor about the prank that went wrong," Hydrus gently suggested.

"Yeah," Sirius replied, thinking over what he could and could not say. And the two men went back to pushing around their breakfast.

"Tippy," Hydrus called, when they were done.

"Master Hydrus is wanting Tippy?" the little elf squeaked. She had taken to wearing a child's dress; it was cute, pink and straight with no sleeves and a high neck. There was a huge daisy embroidered on the front. There were buttons down half the dress, which Hydrus thought would be the only way she would be able to get it over her rather large head. It wasn't anything fancy, but better than a tea towel.

"Hey, Tippy, how are you today?"

"Tippy is being bored, Master Hydrus is not letting Tippy do her job," the elf answered honestly.

"Hmmm," the immortal thought a moment. "It hasn't started to snow yet, so maybe you could clean up the garden, the flower garden needs to be fenced off, and it looks like we will need some of those trees trimmed. Do you think you could do that?"

"Tippy is a house elf, not a garden elf," she replied sadly.

Hydrus thought a bit more, and had another idea, "Tippy, sorry that I never asked, but can you read?"

"Tippy is reading very well."

So he called up one of his many book-readers and looked through the titles. He had raided all the libraries in London, not to mention all of the magical libraries, before he came back, so there was bound to be books on landscaping. He found a few, gave the reader to Tippy and showed her how to use it. "When you're not looking after Harry, this is yours to read. These books that I brought up are on landscaping, both magical and Muggle, so you can learn at your leisure."

The little elf's eyes lit up as she reverently took the reader and scanned the page. She then gently placed it in front of her dress. Hydrus never figured out how house elves hid things in their clothes, maybe they had pocketspaces too.

He shook his head out of those thoughts and said, "We have to be going soon. Harry has been fed and changed. He's in the living room playing with his toys. He's probably going to cry when we leave, but we can't take him with us this time, sorry," he explained. Had he known Harry would throw fits every time they left, he wouldn't have made the appointments on the same day. On the other hand, the other two men would need all the support they could get.

"Tippy will be taking good care of Little Master." She nodded her head happily.

"Thanks, Tippy, you're the best." He patted her head and went to find the other two men.

They were with Harry, playing with the blocks he so loved, so Hydrus cleared his throat and jerked his head to the door. Tippy popped in the room and waited for them to leave. Sure enough when they were putting their jackets on, Harry started to cry and toddled to them with his hands held in the air. Tippy took the baby in a firm hug and led him back to the living room. Hydrus took a firm hold on Sirius's elbow and led him away. He knew it was hard, it was hard on him too, but they needed to go. Remus followed, though he kept looking over his shoulder. You could hear Tippy telling Harry they'd be back.

The trio drove to Ashford's Clinic and went to the reception desk letting the lady there know they were here. She handed them paperwork to fill out, and they did the best they could. Sirius had a bit of a chuckle at the questions about his family history. When they were done, Hydrus took the papers back to the desk and handed them to the receptionist. Now all they could do was wait.

The Clinic was rather large with three psychiatrists and fifteen therapists. So, they would probably be seeing different ones. The men were extremely lucky that it was not busy right now. Remus went first, and with a wary look to Hydrus he followed the middle aged female therapist into the back.

Sirius started to get more and more panicky, his knee was going a mile a minute, so Hydrus put a hand on his shoulder.

"It'll be okay, really. I wouldn't ask this of you if it wasn't helpful. I promise you don't have to talk about anything you don't want to. But, for Harry, try, okay?" he whispered to the anxious man.

"Right, right, for Harry," Sirius muttered. He firmed his jaw, like the Gryffindor he was, and stopped his bouncing knee.

Hydrus was the most concerned about the man next to him. Though he calmed down a lot in the last week, he was still prone to fits of anger. It was a good thing he had enough control to take it out on the video games. Hydrus was positive he was suffering from PTSD, and since it was only newly diagnosable in this timeline, he hoped the therapist would catch it. He was going to suggest potions, but he wanted to see if they were going to prescribe him medicine first. He might just need therapy.

Sirius was called and he stood straight and marched into the back room with a nice looking young woman. Hydrus let out a sigh of relief, Sirius would open up better to a young person.

"Hydrus Black?" a thin, tall, older man called.

"That's me," he said as he rose. He followed the man down the long hallway and entered the room indicated.

The office was like any other analyst office he had been in, a large messy desk with patient files stacked to the side, a bookcase full of diagnostic books and some self-help books, calming pictures of the sea, a few comfortable chairs on the other side of the desk.

"Good Afternoon, Mr. Black, I am Alfie Noble and I will be doing your evaluation today. You may or may not get me as your counselor later, it all depends on what we talk about in this session," Mr. Noble said as he sat on one of the comfortable chairs, indicated for Hydrus to sit in front of him, and pulled out a notepad and pen, poised to start writing.

Hydrus sat in the chair indicated. "Good Afternoon, Mr. Noble, please, call me Hydrus." He relaxed back in his seat and gave off a calm demeanor.

"Very well, Hydrus, what do you want out of therapy?" came the standard first question.

"Well, first let me start off by saying I'm a recovering PTSD patient. I've had years of therapy under my belt, and have been off medication for some time. I was only seeing my last counselor every three months for a checkup," Hydrus explained evenly.

"Can you give me the name of your last clinic, so we can send for your records?" Alfie asked as he made a note.

"Sorry, I'm under police protection. I wish I could, my therapist was great and helped me a lot," Hydrus said. He had thought about bringing his records with him, but the treatment wouldn't match the timeline.

"Oh, tell me how that came to be," the startled man looked up.

"I can explain it to you, but, I can't give any names."

"Yes, please, do. It will go a long way in evaluating you."

And so the next hour was spent telling about his childhood and the terrorist that hunted him and killed his family. Noble's eyes grew wider at each almost death experience Hydrus had as a child, but he did note the young man seemed to be in complete control. In the end it was decided that Hydrus would continue with an every three month checkup. The two shook hands and Hydrus was led back to the lobby. There two very emotional men were seated, though Remus seemed more concerned about Sirius. The immortal made his way to the front desk, paid the bills for all of them, made his appointment and turned to his friends.

"Come on, guys, let's go to get some tea," Hydrus suggested, thinking it would give everyone time to regain control before they went home. And knowing drinking alcohol would only make it worse, even if Sirius looked like he wanted to get pissed.

Remus took his friend by the elbow and led him to the car. They drove to the nearest diner and had some scones and tea.

After ten minutes of silence passed Hydrus asked, "Do you want to talk about it, Sirius?"

"Yeah, yeah, Ms. Goddard said that'd be a good thing, to talk to you two," Sirius said, coming back to himself.

Remus rubbed his back and said, "Take your time, Padfoot."

"The questions were just so intrusive," the dogman said with a shudder, had he not just been talking to the analyst he wouldn't be opening up now. "I know you told me they would be, but I brought up things I thought I had forgotten about. It was really hard and emotional. She said I had to come every day for the next few months." His face looked torn between relief at getting help and sadness that he was so screwed up. "She said the psychiatrist will give me Muggle pills for anxiety and depression. I'm going to see if there are equivalents in potions."

"Well, we're here for you, if you ever want to talk about. It's good to have people to support you through all of this," Hydrus said sincerely, looking in the other man's eyes, showing him what he said was true. He remembered well that George had been a great help to him when he first went through all his therapy. He'd hate to think how much harder it would have been if he hadn't had that support. "There are better potions; we can brew some up later."

That seemed to relax the man a bit. "She did say something about my loyalty to Dumbledore as being unnatural, especially after I told her what he did to Harry. I didn't use any names, but I did tell her that he was a great man and leader, so I didn't understand his actions," Sirius said a bit confused.

"I've been thinking about that. Was there a loyalty clause in the oaths you took for the Order of the Phoenix?" Hydrus asked.

Both men's eyes glazed over as they thought back to when they joined the Order. Recognition came to their faces as they realized that there was indeed a sentence about being loyal to the leader of the Order until the group was disbanded. They both came back to the present and nodded.

"Yeah, there was, it wasn't specifically to Dumbledore just whoever was the leader and only if that leader made a vow to fight for the Light. But, how did Pettigrew break that oath without dying?" Sirius asked a little angry.

"I'm not sure, maybe it was because he didn't go against the leader, he went against members of the Order," Hydrus answered. Though, that didn't make much sense either, wouldn't the Order members make the same vow to fight for the Light. Since he wasn't there when they made the vow he didn't have the answer to that. It could be that Pettigrew used a false name, or reworded his vow, that sneaky rat would find a way to get around it, if he was already a Death Eater.

"So, we are going to be sticking up for Albus until he disperses the Order?" Remus asked also angry about that clause, it was too much like mind control.

"Yeah, but when the trials are over, he should be doing that, so it will only be for a few more weeks," Hydrus said, hoping to ease their anger. "Besides, you guys were only fresh out of Hogwarts when you made that vow and Dumbledore had made a good impression on the both of you, letting you do the things you did without reprimand. And with enough therapy, you might just find a way around that clause, if the Order starts up again. It's amazing what the mind can do when given the correct motivation."

The two men relaxed at that, Hydrus, so far, hadn't steered them wrong.

"What about you, Remus," Sirius asked, taking a sip of his tea, wishing for something stronger. "You don't seem stressed at all."

"Oh, not to make it sound like I am better than you, but, my therapist, Ms. Frankston, said that I am simply suffering from plain old depression and will overcome it in time," the werewolf answered. "She said my fear of hurting people can be treated with meditation and perhaps exercise. So you were right, Hydrus. She gave me a pamphlet on the grieving stages. She recommended that I only come to the clinic if I feel I cannot handle the grieving process myself. I told her I had you two and that I will be okay."

"That's Moony for you, always the calm and collected one," Sirius said with a sincere smile. They finished their tea chatting about happier times and went home.

Harry was very excited to see them and called each of their names, demanding to be picked up. Sirius, upon seeing his godson, firmed his resolve to get better and gave the toddler a big hug. He then handed him to Remus and went to kill a few pixel men. Hydrus watched him go with sad eyes, knowing exactly what he was thinking. Sirius didn't trust himself around Harry. Hopefully with time that will change.

Bit of a queasy scene

Hydrus decided it was time to go and check on his coma victims, so he asked Remus if he was okay with Harry. When the werewolf nodded he popped away. He reappeared in the cemetery and went to the crypt holding Lucius and Bellatrix.

When he got near he noted the door was ajar and the smell was overwhelming, he had to cast a Bubblehead Charm just to get inside. It took everything he had not to empty his stomach. There were body parts everywhere; the blood coated the floors and the walls. The two bodies laid on the stone coffins, their inside showing to the world. It looked like something had eaten them from the throat down. Bits of flesh were thrown around the crypt, there was an arm and a hand laying just inside the door. Their faces were untouched, except blood spatter, it looked like they were sleeping.

These two Death Eaters will never kill again.

A fleeting thought on why whatever had eaten the two wasn't affected by the Draught of the Living Death went through his mind.

It looked like they had been torn apart by wild animals, but an animal couldn't open the doors. So Hydrus took a closer look, still trying to keep his lunch. Those were human teeth marks, so it must have been ghouls. He cursed himself for warding against humans and not magical creatures. He knew ghouls took up in abandoned cemeteries. He had thought it was only magical graveyards. Looks like he was wrong. He was going to have nightmares about this; it was a good thing that he was mostly over his guilt complex.

He decided to leave them as they were; he'd anonymously tell the families, hoping they'd get some closure. He closed the door, took down the wards and went to check on the others and was met with similar scenes. Using the Elder Wand he made sure all evidence of his magic was gone from the graveyard, and then he went back home.

He avoided the other two men until dinner; instead he went to his room and meditated on what happened and how he could prevent it from happening again. He still had to do something about the two hated women, but he didn't want their deaths on his hands if he could prevent it. Not after seeing and feeling that. He pushed the images to the back of his mind and concentrated on creating other plans.

He made some tentative plans and wrote them in his laptop. He then went to order dinner, since he didn't feel like cooking after that horrific ordeal. He had given Tippy the night off to read her book-reader. Not even thinking about it, he called for pizza to be picked up, hoping the other men would like the meatlovers, which they should. He then went to the living room and put on a calm face and played with Harry.

"Hey, Sirius, you ever have pizza?"

"No, Lily told me about it, but we never had any."

"What about you, Remus?"

"I have had some. It is easier to call out than to cook on the days after the full moon."

"Good, I don't feel like cooking tonight, so I ordered a meatlovers pizza for dinner. I hope you don't mind? Harry can have some of the crust, but I'm not comfortable with him eating the pizza. I've got some baby food for him."

"Nay, I don't mind. Hey, do you think I can feed Harry?" Sirius asked perking up at the thought. That should be something he can handle.

"Sure, but I got to warn you, he's at the age where he is going to want to do it himself. So be prepared for a fight. If it gets too much for you switch with someone," Hydrus warned in all seriousness.

When the time came, he went and got his order and put it on the table, calling his family to eat. When he opened the box, he realized that pizza was probably the worst idea he had all day. Swallowing down the bile, he gamely served everyone and then made the excuse that he wasn't hungry after all.

End of queasy scene

"Are you alright?" Remus asked in concern. He noted the immortal looked peaked.

"Just not feeling right, I'll tell why you tomorrow. I'm just going to go and work on my toy for Harry," Hydrus explained, then left the room. He sat on the sofa and took some deep breaths. Calming his stomach, he pulled his notes for the toy and started reading.

The two men joined him after they ate and cleaned Harry. Sirius tried to get the toddler interested in watching his HALO game, but the tyke only wanted his blocks. While the tot was busy playing, Sirius and Remus took their chairs and shared a look then cleared their throats to get the other man's attention. Hydrus looked up from his notes and smiled wanly.

"I'm not going to tell you tonight. Just know it is important, but not a priority," he told them and went back to his notes. He was almost there and should have a model ready soon. He would have to convert one of the studies to his lab. If the other two wanted to help they were welcome.

The rest of the night was spent, reading, playing with Harry or on the game console. Just a relaxing night after a stressful day.

The next day was cold and bitter, matching Hydrus's mood. He was right; he had nightmares of the carnage all night. He probably got two hours of sleep. He went and gathered the awake Harry and took him to the kitchen, this time making pancakes, which should be easy on his churning tummy.

Today was Saturday, so Sirius didn't have to go to the clinic. Hydrus figured he would have to teach the man how to drive a car, since it would be dangerous for the motorcycle soon. He'd ask him when he woke up. He was going to try and get them to use non-magical means of transportation, since CCTV cameras would be going up on all the streets in the future.

The dogmen stumbled into the kitchen, as usual, awoken by the aroma of breakfast.

"No meat?" Remus asked, piling his plate with pancakes and grabbing the syrup.

"Not today," was the succinct answer.

The werewolf looked up and noticed Hydrus was still a little pale, so he just nodded his head and added more to his plate.

Sirius was still drinking his first cup of coffee, so he just served himself some of the breakfast and tried to wake up more.

"Are you going to tell us what happened to make you so squeamish?" Remus asked gently.

"Yeah, when Harry goes down for his nap," Hydrus answered, and went back to his own meal.

The rest of the breakfast was eaten in silence. When the table was cleared Hydrus excused himself to write some letters. He typed up a letter for each family that he knew about, telling them that their family member was dead, how they died, where they could find the remains and left them unsigned. He would send Bellatrix's to Arcturus. He printed them out and tucked them away to post later. He'd have to go to the Alley to get them sent off. He still had plenty of non-magical disguises in his pocketspace. This way there would be no tracing them back to him.

He went and joined the family. He sat with Harry and tried to get him to say the colors of his toys. Harry got 'lue' and 'ed' right, most of the time; it was still a work in progress. After a half an hour of that, he told the other two he had an errand to run and he'd be back before lunch.

With a blonde wig and blue contacts, he posted the letters, got that feeling of being watched again (which was weird, because he was in disguise) and hurried home, making sure to remove the wig and contacts before entering the house. Everyone was still in the living room doing what they always did. Harry saw him come in and immediately waddled to him, held up his arms and demanded, "Up".

"Hey, Prongslet, you ready for lunch?" Hydrus asked as he settled the toddler on his hip and tickled his chin.

"Cheese," was the giggling response.

"You're as bad as Remus with chocolate," he mock growled at the tot and tickled him again.

"Are you feeling better?" Remus asked as he joined them.

Hydrus walked to the kitchen, put Harry in his highchair and started pulling stuff for a salad. "Yeah, I do. That errand I ran helped."

Remus went to the pantry and got Harry some jarred toddler food—spaghetti. Harry upon seeing it started to demand cheese. Remus gently talked the toddler into eating the pasta; he was really good at that. They had read that too much cheese might not be good for him, so Hydrus was insistent that they attempt to get him to like other foods.

Hydrus finished the salad and made some roast beef sandwiches and called Sirius in. They ate a nice meal and talked of nonessential things.

"Hey, Sirius, do you know how to drive?" Hydrus asked. "The motorcycle isn't going to be safe soon, if you ever get it back from Hagrid," he explained at the quizzical look. "I don't remember if I told you this, but the government is going to start putting up more of those CCTV cameras on the main streets, so Apparating is not a good idea."

"Well, it's been awhile, so I might need a refresher. Lily taught us the summer of sixth year," Sirius said rubbing his chin. "Do you think we should warn the Ministry about those cameras?"

"I'll write them an anonymous letter soon. I might just casually drop the newspaper articles in the Alley. If I remember correctly there was a lot of protest about them," the immortal said and then turned to the werewolf. "What about you, Remus, do you drive?"

"I was not around that summer, so, no, I do not know how to drive," Remus answered.

"Do you want to learn? We can get another car for you two. With Padfoot having daily sessions, it might be better," Hydrus suggested. "Sirius can buy his own, now that he is all Lorded up."

"Don't remind me," Sirius groaned and went back to his meal. Then he realized what Hydrus said and perked up, thinking about all the wicked sports cars he'd seen on the telly.

"Do not get too carried away, Padfoot. Remember you have a child to care for," Remus reprimanded gently.

Sirius waved it away. "I can get more than one," he said, still dreaming.

"So how about it, Remus, you want to learn?" Hydrus asked again.

"Sounds like it would be a good idea."

"Alright after our talk, I'll take you out and show you the basics." With that everyone returned to their meal. When they were finished Remus took Harry to get cleaned and down for his nap. He then joined the other men in the living room.

"So, what happened to put you off your food," Sirius all but demanded, tired of waiting.

"I went to check on the Death Eaters; needless to say they will never kill again. I didn't do it, they were dead when I got there," Hydrus said quickly, when he saw the horrified looks. He told them about how the ghouls had gotten them, but held back on the carnage. They were grown wizards and could figure it out on their own. He then recapped his errand, leaving out the being watched feeling. The entire time his voice was steady and his face contrite. "So, you see I didn't want them to die that way. I was still undecided what to do with them exactly. I was actually thinking of wiping their memories and binding their magic."

The two listeners shared a glance and then looked back to the immortal. They could see he was telling the truth and Sirius broke the silence first, "I thought ghouls only fed in magical graveyards."

"No, they go wherever there is a dead body," Remus explained. He was more versed on magical creatures, being one himself.

"Yeah, I thought the same as Sirius, so I didn't ward for them," Hydrus said, the more he thought about it the better he felt. Those people will never kill, rape or maim again. Even though he hadn't planned on seeing them dead, this was for the best. He kept those thoughts to himself and showed nothing on his face.

"It was an honest mistake," Remus said gently, bringing Hydrus from his thoughts. "It is not well known that ghouls hunt in the Muggle world. Besides, your letters were a sign of genuine guilt."

"Yeah, don't beat yourself up over it," Sirius piped in. "I'd've probably made the same mistake."

Hydrus let out a sigh of relief, he had been worried about how they would take it and he really wanted his family to stay together. "Let's get you to driving, Remus."

So the two men donned their jackets and went to the garage. Hydrus only pointed out the parts of the car and what they were for; he'd take the werewolf out when he knew what each was. When they were done, Hydrus grabbed Sirius and took him for a test run. Sirius wasn't as rusty as he thought, so Hydrus was comfortable enough to let the man use the car until he got his own. They were going to have to get magic-upped licenses for everyone.

They were playing video games when Harry got up and Hydrus remembered another letter he had to write. So he excused himself to his room and wrote the Board of Governors about the Room of Hidden Things. He once again used the printer and left it unsigned. It would be interesting to see what they'd do with everything.

He set up his lab and brewed the potions for Sirius, for which the man was thankful. They watched the telly to see if the non-magicals had discovered the carnage, and were relieved when they hadn't. Soon enough they all went to bed, worried about what tomorrow would bring.

The next morning after breakfast, Remus went and got the Daily Prophet, just to see if the story had broke. It had, the headline read:

Missing Members Found: Signs of the Dark Mark Confirms Suspicions.

The article that followed stated that Bartemius Crouch Sr. was the first on the scene. He ranted that someone had murdered his son, even though the investigation said it was the ghouls. No one could explain why so many members of the magical society were in the Muggle cemetery in the first place. It was only when the Dark Mark was found on all of the bodies (Bartemius Crouch Jr.'s included) that it was established that they were followers of He Who Must Not Be Named. The newspaper even printed one of the letters to see if anyone could identify who wrote them as they were wanted for questioning.

"Well, that's that," Hydrus said, after he read the paper out loud. "Good thing I made you take that vow, or you'd turn me in," he said jokingly as he folded the paper and placed it on the coffee table.

"That's not funny," snapped Sirius, making Hydrus wonder about his sudden change of attitude. "If anything ever gets out you could wind up in Azkaban. Then we'd have to take Harry and run."

"Why, the house is paid for, and under enough wards and charms you'd be safe here," Hydrus said confused. Then it dawned on him that the blood wards would fade. That would be bad. He had better figure out a backup ward, then again with the Fidelius they should be safe enough.

"Calm down, Sirius, you heard that they concluded it was a ghoul attack and they have no leads," Remus said, putting his hand on the other man's shoulder.

"I just don't want to lose anyone else," Sirius said, after he took a few deep breaths.

"You won't," Hydrus tried to sound reassuring.

"You can't know that. You've changed so much already, what you know of the future is useless," Sirius said with a bite. "I'm not saying it isn't for the better, I'm just saying we can't count on your knowledge."

"I made sure my magical signature was gone, there is nothing tying me to this." He felt sure this was true. "If it makes you feel better, I'll be extra careful about who I talk to and what I do in the future."

"Yeah, you do that. I'm going to go and brush up on my Occlumency," Sirius left the room, stomping his way up the stairs.

The mood was tense for the rest of the day, even Harry was fussy with all the strain in the air. It took until the afternoon to get Sirius to calm down enough to not snap at everybody, and that was only after Hydrus shoved a Calming Draught down his throat. The younger Black took to his room after that, and Hydrus had no idea what he did, but he came down to dinner in much better spirits.

Monday came and Sirius drove himself to the clinic and when he returned he was stressed again. He had a journal clutched in his hand and was looking at it with a grimace. He took it to his room and stayed there for the better part of an hour. When he reappeared, he settled into his chair and said, "I just want you two to know how thankful I am to have you in my life," he said uncomfortably, shifting in his chair and not meeting their eyes.

"We will always be there for you, Padfoot," Remus said, while Hydrus nodded in agreement.

"Well, good," the dogman said. He then put in his video game and got lost in the zone. The other two men shared a look and then shrugged; they weren't comfortable sharing their feelings either. So they went back to what they were doing before, and like many men before them ignored that that ever happened.