Chapter 15 Two down, One to go

It was a beautiful July day. The sun was shining and there was a nice breeze. The family was enjoying their luscious back yard, with a picnic lunch of cold turkey sandwiches and crisps. Harry was running around the garden trying to catch butterflies. He was walking well now and his speech had improved greatly. The color ball was updated to more difficult to say colors such as purple and orange. He would be two soon, and the men couldn't wait to celebrate.

The rest of the males were thankful for the down time. All of their projects were time-consuming. It being Sunday they were taking a well-deserved day off simply watching Harry while seated in comfortable garden chairs, sipping tea and enjoying the sun. This put the time traveler in a joyful mood; this is what he wanted when he came back in time, for Harry to have a happy family. Days like this made everything worth it.

"So, Padfoot, how is the dating going?" Hydrus asked. He was glad the man had healed enough to start seeing women regularly.

The youngest Black had taken up dating one of the other therapists at the clinic. She was a nice lady, with brunette hair and dark blue eyes and curves to die for.

"Very well, thank you very much," the dogman said with a sniff. Then he laughed and said, "Faith is doing good, she has taken to Harry well. What about you, Hydrus, are you going to start dating? One night stands are only going to satisfy you for so long. Everyone needs a better half." He was speaking from experience, his womanizing days were over and he was looking to settle down. It would be hard, unless he branched out to the magical world or at least someone that knew of it.

"I don't think it would be fair to anyone I was serious with, what with me being immortal. I'd have to watch them grow old and die, while they'd know that I'd never meet them in the afterlife." He was sad about that, though it didn't stop him from having one night stands as long as the other party knew it was only once. "Besides, I have plans for the future that don't include anyone but me."

"What plans?"

"I'll tell you when the time gets closer. Don't worry; I'll make sure everything is going well before I implement them." He waved it off.

"Well, I like Faith well enough, though she keeps nagging me to come to my home. I'm running out of things to tell her," Sirius said getting back on topic, knowing the other man would be closed-mouthed about his secrets. Although they lived together there were still plenty of things they didn't share.

"Yeah, that would be disconcerting," the immortal said, "but we can't take the chance. Maybe you can get a flat in the city and use it for your bachelor pad, like the one I have set up, or you could just use mine."

The flat Hydrus had rented was a small, clean, one bedroom place. It was in a nice neighborhood without being overly impressive, making the immortal seem to be just a simple man looking for a good time. He didn't use his money to get women: that only brought out gold-diggers and he had had his fair experience with those in his last timeline. He used it many times just to get away from the responsibilities he had foisted on himself, well, and the occasional one night stand. It was also his and Harry's residence during the full moon.

"That's an idea, I wonder why I didn't think of it," Sirius said thoughtfully. Then he turned his attention to the other man, who had been sitting quietly, hoping to go unnoticed. "Moony?"

"You know I don't date, Sirius," the werewolf answered.

"And I told you, you did in my timeline. And that your son didn't carry your affliction," reprimanded Hydrus. Sometime Remus's fear of his werewolf got tiring and no matter what he and Sirius told the man, Remus was too set in his ways.

"Maybe I am just waiting for Nymphadora to come of age," the other man countered, and then grimaced at the thought. Tonks was just a child right now and it made him feel creepy just thinking about it.

"I wouldn't count on what I know to cement that. This isn't a time of war and that might be what brought you two together. With Voldemort weakening every day, that war might not happen. You should date among the magicals. What about that blonde in the book store? Sarah? She knows about your furry little problem and she doesn't care," the time traveler suggested. He glanced at Harry who was now playing in the sandbox, trying to make the dry sand stand up. Hydrus sent a small spray of water to the area in front of the tot to give him wet sand. Harry squealed with glee and was now attempting to fill his bucket.

"I'll think about it," Remus replied after a minute, making the other two groan. His tone of voice suggested that he wouldn't think that hard.

"Changing the subject, have your investigators found anything on our two evil women?" Sirius asked.

"Oh yeah, Umbridge's background contradicts everything she believes in. I have tons of blackmail on that bitch. I've got reports she's already trying to crack down on Muggle-borns with trumped-up charges," Hydrus said. He only needed a few more details and then he was going to snag that bitch right from under the Ministry's nose. "I need you to get the DMLE to investigate those reports, Sirius, talk to Scrimgeour or whoever is in charge right now."

"What's the blackmail," Padfoot asked eagerly. He loved using blackmail. With his family slowly, but surely, coming to his side, if only to bring the power of the Blacks down on the government, he had tons of blackmail. With him standing on the premise that Muggle-borns were descended from squibs and with Cassiopeia's research, they stood together to get the others to change their minds. It was a work in progress.

"Well, did you know her father was a mop pusher in the Ministry? He was also a Hufflepuff that believed in Pure-blood supremacy. I have no idea why he married a non-magical with that belief, but he was the one that taught Dolores her ideals. Her mother, as I said, was a non-magical and her brother was a squib, that belies all her believes that non-magicals steal magic or her mother would have been a witch, and she and her father would be squibs. The mum and brother were cast out of the family and disappeared in London somewhere," he recounted what he read. In his timeline, that information wasn't known, Dolores must have wiped it out.

"Huh, yeah, she comes off as a Pure-blood," Sirius said, thinking on how he could use that bit of information. Even in the low office that she was in, that woman caused all sorts of conflict at the Ministry. He had no idea why she wasn't fired.

"Well, if she's already up to her dirty tricks, it's time for me to get her out of the picture," he said, not noticing the wary looks between the other two. Then an idea popped into his head. "Hey, Sirius, I just remembered someone else who needs taken down. How would you like to prank someone?" Hydrus asked brightly, already going over ideas.

The Marauder perked up, it had been awhile since he pranked anyone. "Who? What? When? Where?" he asked rapidly.

"Marge Dursley. Let her dogs loose. Tonight. At her house. Then you're going to call Animal Control and let them know the dogs are running wild and that she is a breeder that kills."

"Great," the Animagus said, enthusiastically bouncing in his seat, rubbing his hands together in anticipation.

"Did you want to come, Remus?" Hydrus asked, turning to the other man.

"No, I think I will sit this one out," the werewolf answered. He was too tired to go gallivanting around England at midnight.

"Suit yourself," Padfoot said. He was going to have fun, with or without his old partner.

They spent the rest of the day playing with Harry, who loved the sandbox. When they finished their roast beef dinner, and put Harry to bed, the two pranksters started planning with Remus putting his two Knuts' worth in. Around midnight the Blacks left the house to the outskirts of London. They made sure there were no people on the street at this hour, even went as far as to cast a mild sleeping charm on all the houses to keep the residents from waking, especially Marge. They put up a containment shield to keep the dogs on this street, which would fall when they left. They then put dog repelling charms on their clothes, unlocked the fence surrounding the yard and opened the pens.

Most of the bulldogs jumped at the chance of being free and ran to the streets. Some were shyer and stayed in their kennels and had to be coaxed out. Sirius then went to the nearest phone booth and called Animal Control.

"Hello, this in Animal Control, how can I help you tonight," a bored male voice asked.

"You've got to come quickly. That Dursley woman's dogs are all running the streets. They're vicious and I'm afraid they'll bite someone," Sirius said in a shaky voice.

"What's your name? Where are you? What type of dogs? And how many?" the man fired off questions.

"I think they're purebred bulldogs. And I can't tell, but there are more than ten. Hurry, one is coming my way. I'm in phone booth. I was out getting the missus some strawberry ice cream and beets, she pregnant you know, and I saw them running towards me and I got in the booth and called you," Sirius rambled, trying hard not to sound excited. "That Dursley woman would kill me if I tell you who I am. She's mad, I tell ya. I heard her tell her helper to 'kill the bitch'; I don't know if she was talking about one of her dogs or the neighbor lady."

"What is the location?" the now alert voice asked.

"We're on Hyde Street. Oh, no, one has me pinned in the booth," he shrieked like a little girl, all the while had a huge smile plastered on his face.

Hydrus quickly transfigured a rock to a dog and made it bark.

"I've heard that woman trains them to attack anyone," Sirius continued. "She has also been known to drown the puppies. We, the neighbors, had talked about calling you before, but… OH, NO, it's trying to get in."

The transfigured dog started scratching on the booth. You could hear the other dogs barking all over the neighborhood.

Hydrus was bent over and trying to gasp in some air. He was holding in his laughter so much it hurt. Then he noticed the lights coming on in one of the houses, the sleeping spell must have worn off. He motioned to Sirius it was time to go and got a nod in return.

"We'll be there as soon as possible. Stay in the booth and don't try to fight the dog," came the stern warning over the phone. You could hear him shouting orders in the background.

"AHHHH, it's opening the door, it's going to bite me!" With that he dropped the receiver and ran from the booth screaming. After canceling his spell on the rock, Hydrus was hot on his tail. They got to the end of the street and Apparated out. They returned home and broke down in fits of laughter; Remus looked at them with fond exasperation.

"How did it go?" the werewolf asked.

"Without a hitch," Sirius said between chuckles and told him what they did, causing the other man to join in on their merriment.

"They'll grab all the dogs and put them in the shelter. Since they are purebreds they shouldn't have a hard time adopting them out. Then hopefully they'll investigate her puppy farm and lock her up," Hydrus added smugly. He was glad to see that that woman would get her comeuppance.

His thoughts wandered to the Dursleys who had disappeared from Britain. His detectives trailed them to America. They were still fearful of the magicals hunting them down and were unlisted. The only way they had been tracked was that Vernon didn't change companies, he simply asked for a transfer—idiot. The immortal was once again thankful that Dumbledore was under the impression that Harry was still with them here in Britain. Those monitoring charms were a godsend, they, along with the pictures Sirius showed and the Fidelius Charm, made the story believable. Still, he'd keep an eye on them, just in case.

A little while later all the men made their way to their beds. One down, two to go, Hydrus thought as he went to sleep.

The next morning there was a report in the local paper for Marge's area, which showed that over twenty dogs were taken by Animal Control, thankfully no one was bitten. Marge Dursley was arrested for having an illegal puppy farm and animal cruelty.

The week passed and soon it was Harry's birthday. Since the house was hidden they couldn't have the party there, so they went to the London Zoo, with some of the children from daycare and their parents. So it was a group of seven tots and eleven adults that traipsed the zoo that day. They kept it small, because chasing a bunch of toddlers was tiring and seven was the limit they felt they could handle.

"Uncle Padfoot, look pony," Harry said pointing at the elephant.

"That's an elephant, Harry," Sirius gently corrected, picking the boy up and placing him on his hip.

"Elfant," Harry tried the word.

"El a fant," Hydrus said, sounding it out.

"Elapant," was the next try.

"Close enough," Remus said mussing the toddler's hair.

And so it went with every exhibit, Harry and his little friends learned a lot of animal names that day and a large party was held in the family restaurant. The children enjoyed the lunch of burgers, chips and fizzy drinks, much to the concern of the adults. Then a large chocolate cake was brought out and Happy Birthday was sung by the parents and the staff, with the help of the off-key older children. Presents were nice, mostly toys to help with learning, but Harry, being the inquisitive child he was, liked them all. It was a good thing they held the party last, because now they could send all the sugar high children home and only have to worry about Harry. Judging from the looks they were receiving there would be payback.

That night the adults stayed up and had a few drinks to celebrate Hydrus's birthday. They talked about their good times in Hogwarts and the past gifts received from friends, as well as birthday pranks the Marauders did to each other. The immortal was content with that. He figured he'd stop celebrating when he got a bit older, it'd get tiring trying to remember how old he was after 100.

One weekday, during the first week of August, Hydrus snuck in the Ministry under his Cloak. He made his way to the Improper Use of Magic Office and watched the toad like woman gleefully send out missives. From the look on her fat face they were probably sent to Muggle-borns.

He crept behind her desk and stunned her. Then using the Elder Wand, so it would last until he broke it, he quickly turned her into a chamber pot and put her in his pocketspace. He'd have to figure out what to do with her later, but for now she was out of the way. Clearing any sign of him he left the office.

He had no idea where her father was, he disappeared a week ago. His investigators said that Mr. Umbridge was paid off by Dolores, since he would hinder her chances of moving up in the Ministry. Hydrus brushed the man aside for now, but would keep an eye open for him. Anyone spouting Pure-blood supremacy needed to be watched.

Making his way quickly out of the building, he moved to get to his shop, where everyone thought he was going over paperwork in his office. He got to the office and pulled off his Cloak and seated himself behind the desk, just in time for his manager to enter.

"Ah, Mr. Black, I have been meaning to talk with you. It seems some of our customers wish to have a wider variety of movies. Some of the Muggle-raised would like— what did they call them? — oh, yes, science fiction," Mr. Parker said when he entered, taking a seat across from his employer.

"I don't see any issue with that, talk to the distributors and see what they have. It'll be interesting to see what magicals make of the Star Wars movies," he answered with a chuckle. Those American films had some good special effects for this time period. He should start carrying a wider selection of movies, now that the Disney ones had been so well received. Maybe he should open a store just for videos, something to think about. Or I could sell that idea to Frostwell, no, movies weren't gizmos, well, maybe, I'll think of something. "Keep only a few for now; we don't really have the space for more than fifty. So stick to best sellers," he said as an afterthought.

"I will get right on it," the store manager said as he picked up the phone to do just that. It had taken awhile to teach the man to use the device, but when all was said and done, Mr. Parker was thrilled to have a way to run the business without little use of Floo or owl. Phones were much more expedient. Now all he had to do is get other magical businessmen to use them. Setting up delivery to a warehouse they used for non-magical products, Mr. Parker hung up the phone and went back into the store.

Hydrus went over some invoices and worked out what he needed to stock. Getting the inventory for his store was easy. He would buy the non-magical equivalent from the distributors, have it shipped to the warehouse, update it and make it run on magic. He then had to update the manuals, with a note stating what they were purchasing and who the original manufacturer was. He had two other people who helped him with the rune array and the updates. The more futuristic stuff was still at his house or in the pocketspace, like the game console and TV. He was waiting until the better ones hit the market in the non-magical world to introduce them to the magical public.

Frostwell had opened his business, Wondrous Gizmos, and was the friendly competition that he promised to be. The inventor had a wide selection of devices for teens, like music players, book-readers and handheld electronic games, which at this time only played one game. These he had adapted from the non-magicals after Hydrus suggested he take a look at what they sold. The man was ecstatic at what he found and updated the Walkman players into a portable WWN with the option to play cassette tapes, which he had a variety of. His shop was doing well with the teen crowd. Like Hydrus, he had a warehouse and would buy, update and sell.

"Did you kill her?" came the out of the blue question from Sirius one evening a few days after the toad disappeared. The full moon had just passed and Remus was in bed early.

"I haven't killed anyone," Hydrus answered defensively. "You've known me for months now and you still think I'm a murderer. I'm actually hurt." And you could see the pain in his eyes; he thought they were past this and that he more than proved himself to the other two men.

"I… well… you see… Hydrus, you told us you didn't have a problem 'taking out' those two women," the other man stuttered. There was a look of remorse on his face, showing that he was sorry for asking. It was a question that had been bugging him and he didn't want to ask it, but he needed to know.

"Yes, but I also told you I was trying not to walk down that path," the immortal snapped.

"But you didn't say you wouldn't."

"Look, what happened with the Death Eaters was an accident. You know that. I'm still thinking on what to do with Dolores. I have a few ideas, but I'm undecided as of yet. I haven't told you guys, because I want you to have plausible deniability," the older man explained.

"So you're not going to tell us what you've done with her?"

"Nope, I'm going to keep it to myself. As far as you know, she simply disappeared. All you need to know is she's not dead. Look, I know you want to help, but this is something you can't help with. I'm only trying to make sure that she doesn't cause problems in the future. The way you can help is to make sure someone more evil doesn't take her place. Keep your ears open at the Ministry and an eye on the laws trying to be approved and who is trying to pass them. Sometimes the adage 'better the devil you know' is fact." He had thought about that and it was the only reason that Dolores was still alive.

"Right, I can do that," Sirius conceded. He could see Hydrus's point, no one could accuse him of anything if he didn't know anything.

A week after Dolores Umbridge vanished, an article was printed in The Times comparing her to Riddle. Both had a Pure-blood parent that married a Muggle. Both believed in the Pure-blood doctrine, even though they were Half-bloods. Both disappeared from Britain, to unknown locations.

The DMLE did their investigation and found the reports of her using her position to trump up charges on the Muggle-born to be correct. There were even allegations that she tried to kill off some of the Muggle-raised, but there was little proof. Needless to say, she was fired from her position. If Hydrus ever let her go, her reputation would be ruined.

This report caused Muggle-raised to go into an uproar. They wanted to have the laws against them overturned. A good deal of the Half-blood rallied to their side. The Wizengamot was frantically trying to regain control. Minister Bagnold was iffy on her stance, probably thinking it was about time she stepped down. There was a committee formed to go over all the laws passed in the last ten years, to see if the Muggle-raised protest were valid. Every letter that Umbridge sent out was now being reviewed and many of those charges were being dropped.

It was towards the end of August and Remus and Hydrus were standing outside an empty shop space in Diagon Alley with the woman, Sarah, who the immortal had tried to set the werewolf up with.

"So, Sarah, what do you think?" Hydrus asked the lanky blonde.

Sarah was a tall, thin, blonde woman with beautiful sky blue eyes. Right now she was tapping her finger on her chin in thought. "Let me get this straight, you want me to open a tea shop/book store? Where we would sell books and rent out book-readers to people who will then sit and drink tea while they read? Where did you even get such a concept?"

"America, actually, but they use coffee and not tea," the immortal lied casually. Well, he had, but it was in a future timeline.

"Do you really think it'll work?" the blonde woman asked. "Why don't you set it up yourself? Why do you want me to?"

"I don't want to be seen trying to take over the Alley. Two businesses, maybe three, are more than enough. I'll lend you the money, help you get up and running and then bow out."

She turned to Remus and asked the same question.

"I can't own a business here, I'm a werewolf. You know that."

"That's just stupid," she spat and then she put her thoughtful face back on and tried to decide whether it was a worthy business. "What'll we call it?" she inquired after ten minutes of thought. After all it was her dream to be the owner of a book store, though she never would have thought to add a tea shop with it. It was brilliant.

"Well, I'd call it The Tea Cozy, but I'm horrible at picking names. So you can call it whatever you want. It's your business," Hydrus answered, with a bright smile.

"I think something more along the lines of The Book Nook," Sarah said, her eyes roaming the store front already going over designs.

A week later The Book Nook was opened to the public, oh the wonders of magic. Bookcases lined the walls, while thirteen tables that sat four were in the middle. A small kitchen in the back baked pastries and made little sandwiches, along with tea. There was a small glass display to show what could be ordered along the back wall. There was a wire stand for the Frostwell Book-readers, to the right of the checkout counter that was in the front of the store. Those readers had an anti-theft charm on them and were rented out to the customers by the hour. If they wanted to purchase one they had to go to Wondrous Gizmos. There was a second floor that had more bookshelves and a few couches, tea wasn't served there. All the books in the shop had a time limit charm of ten minutes to browse them, after that they would disappear back to the shelf unless the book was put in a basket to be purchased or rented.

They didn't sell textbooks or older tomes, so they were of little competition to Flourish and Blotts. Mostly they encouraged people to buy and read fictional works, there were even non-magical mystery, fantasy, sci-fi and romance novels thrown in. This shop mostly catered to the young adult crowd. They did sell the Chocolate Frog Book, and many opinions were changing. Large portions of the younger public stopped affiliating any House with good or evil and were teaching their children the same.

The newspaper was going well, when they had first run an editorial on Tom Riddle, the subscriptions went through the roof. The commentary on Umbridge also upped sales. They kept printing articles on famous people and what they had really done in the past, which in turn made the Chocolate Frog Book a bestseller. Their government section did interviews with the politicians making sure to double-check the laws they voted on and talk to their coworkers, family and friends.

The back page annotations on Harry Potter did a lot to help keep the rumors down about the Boy Who Lived. Their section on non-magical news was well received by most of the Muggle-raised, who had little news of their former homes unless they had the time to go to London and get the papers there, which most didn't. The articles also brought reality to many Magical-raised; they were, for the first time, seeing everything they believed about Muggles was wrong. At this point in time, no one was sure if that was a good thing or not.

Sirius came under fire in the paper when he was almost caught trying to bribe someone into voting against a particularly nasty half-breed law against Veelas. Sirius got away with the attempted bribe with a bit of lying and turning of phrase, like any good politician. Since no money had actually changed hands, it was relegated to the back page, but he was now under watch and needed to be more careful.

"I can't believe you almost got caught," laughed Hydrus the night that article was printed.

"I can't believe it either," Sirius said chuckling.

"This is not funny, you two. It could seriously damage our plans," Remus snapped.

"Oh, leave off, Remus, this is a good thing," the dogman said.

"How is it a good thing?"

"It means that no one is exempt, which gives the public more reason to believe what we print."

"I'm just impressed with the way they had no problem running it. They know Sirius is one of the owners of the paper," the immortal said, sobering up a little.

"You should've seen the defiant look on the editor's face," Sirius laughed harder. When he had gone to the office the man had stood his ground and told Sirius that the article was factual and would be printed as such. He then told the Animagus that he really didn't want to work for a crooked politician. Sirius assured him that he was one of the good guys and would try and stay out of the spotlight from now on. That mollified the editor, for now.

"Still you need to be more careful, Padfoot. I would hate to see you lose your position in the government," the werewolf reprimanded.

"I'll be as careful as I can be," he promised.

"Still it's good that we have such honest reporters. We'll need that if anything starts to go wrong," Hydrus said, glad that they made those employees take that vow.

They talked about the article and how they were going to be more cautious until bedtime. When they finally went to bed, Hydrus was still waiting for the other shoe to drop. There had only been a few minor setbacks and each of those was taken care of with ease. He knew now that Dolores wasn't the one watching him, so it must be someone else he offended.

With so many changes, the Ministry was in an uproar. However, there was little to be done, since they had to go with public opinion. The one time they tried to get The Times banned, the community protested so loud they had to drop it. No longer were the crowds easily swayed. The old fogies of the Wizengamot were in a pickle. They had always just made laws and the sheep would follow. Now with their stories being printed in a reputable paper, they had to change their ways or step down.

There were still the Pure-bloods that tried to buy the votes, but Hydrus's little stash was much more than they could beat. With his accounts in Sweden the money was untraceable. Since the Black accounts were massive no one questioned where Sirius's 'donations' came from.

The relations with the goblins weren't going so well, since most magicals refused to give up goblin made items. The greedy bastards (in Hydrus's opinion) refused to listen to the talks. Some in the Ministry were afraid that a new rebellion would start if they kept trying. So that project was put on hold.

Skeeter was nowhere to be found, the detectives came up blank. After graduating she simply vanished. Hydrus knew when she would start with the Prophet, but he had little else on her history. So now he was in a quandary as to what to do about her. He knew he would take her out of the public as soon as he could and hope that a more vicious reporter didn't take her place. If that happened he had no problem snatching someone else. With The Times now outselling the Daily Prophet and the Quibbler, and magicals thinking for themselves, maybe he would just let her bury herself.

Then the thought came to him, She's a spy! She's probably working on blackmail material as we speak. If Pettigrew can live his life as a rat, Skeeter can do the same as a bug. But how to find her? She hasn't killed anyone, so setting ghosts on her won't work. While she's rather distinctive, she's still just a bug. Something he was going to have to tell his detectives.

He had told them that she was an Animagus, and a water beetle, but they were looking for a woman. Now they would have to set sights on an insect, and wasn't that going to be fun. He'd point them in the direction of the Ministry, if she was looking for blackmail that's where she'd be, or in the politicians' homes. It was a good thing that they were under a Fidelius and Sirius made sure only to mention the other two men in passing in his talks with others. He'd have to put Animagus Revealing Charms on the businesses so she can't sneak in.

So the next day, the older men of the house set about doing just that. They put the charm on the newspaper office, Hydrus's store and Remus's bookstore, just in case. Sirius whenever he talked to a fellow politician, made sure to cast the charm on the room they were in. They weren't going to take any chances on this particular woman. The Master of Death tried to call her parents, but no one came, so they must still be alive.