1,207Tonks arrived and was almost surprised at how organised everyone still was. Her usually casual and chaotic coworkers were all lined up and stone-faced, following their academy training to a T, looking ready for war. There wasn't a single boot out of place or wand still holstered.
She doubted any of them except the most rebellious or studious had ever been where they now stood. They were in the Forbidden Forest, and any thrill she might've felt at finally getting to visit the long-quarantined area was lost amidst the dread she felt for the task at hand. Trees towered over them, there wasn't even a hint of the smell of the Great Lake from this distance, and the night sky was almost entirely hidden by the canopies above. An eerie silence that didn't suit the environment was swallowing them whole.
"Everyone listen up!" Scrimgeour's voice called, disrupting that quiet like a boulder dropped into the middle of a lake. "I will personally end anyone who fucks up today!"
They were supposed to be at the man's retirement party by now, so it was no wonder he was so worked up. The Black Sheep had appeared out of nowhere and stormed into his wife's office, then the pair both stampeded into the department head's. It had only taken a minute before all three were out in the bullpen, shouting for everyone to listen up.
Hogwarts was under attack.
According to the Black Sheep. his own grandfather, Tonks's great-grandfather, had come back from death and was set on killing Hydrus. He had attacked Hogwarts to do it. The man was apparently so powerful that they'd had to evacuate the entire school for fear of the children getting caught up in it, and it was up to them to get them out of there and off to safety before the horrors they'd been forbidden from ever running across killed them.
'Time to see if Aunt Alice's training paid off.'
The Longbottom woman had insisted Tonks call her that, and then forced the issue by beating Tonks senseless until she did. The former auror wasn't particularly powerful, or quick, or spell-verbose, but… She was just so slightly better at all of those things than Tonks was. She was by far and away the most balanced opponent Tonks had ever faced. Unless you counted 'feistiness' as a metric on the spectrum. The older woman made it a maddening shit-show every time they faced off with her antics.
Scrimgeour was wrapping up his speech, so Tonks took a breath and steadied herself. It was time.
They began marching at a breakneck pace through the forest, with their neat and orderly lines falling into suggestions rather than rules as trees forced them to widen and shorten gaps in their ranks. Something drove her to occasionally overtake her peers, and by the time they reached the edges of the ongoing battle she found herself near the front of the pack with the captains and Scrimgeour himself.
"Wands up!" the department head roared. "Mind the children! Attack!"
The battle began, and Tonks felt herself getting swept up in the energy of it all. She fought like a hellcat, ripping undead creatures apart like they were tissue paper and not backing down. Even after an inferi she thought the man to her left would kill took a swipe at her and dislocated her shoulder, she just popped it back into place by shoving it against the ground and continuing on. It was like someone had put her under a spell, a madness unlike the throes her mother went through.
These were her people. This was her school. This was her role. She was a warrior, a protector, and an auror.
She would be damned before she let these rotting fucks win.
Aberforth stared at the wall as he listened to his brother's old friend ramble on about the subtle differences he'd detected in the goats' milk since they'd moved into this land. Apparently it was 'earthier' and had a stronger 'head'. Despite his own amazement and wonder towards the hercine collective, as Quinn called it, Aberforth briefly contemplated ending his own life.
"Quinn."
"What?!" the insane man snapped, head suddenly whipping back and forth in search of a threat. "What is it? Where is it? What's going on? Wh—"
"Enough about the milk." Honestly, who the hell cared that much? "What's the plan for today?"
Aberforth had tried being content to allow the man to decide their fate. After the attack on Quinn's home, and his own shameful banishment from Britain on account of his crossing a boy far more dangerous than he could've imagined, it had felt pointless to try and lead his own life. Better to just sit back and play the passenger. But every man had his line, and it turned out that his own was somewhere between trekking the wastes of Arctic Russia and the slowly-growing realisation that his supposed guide had taken up the notion of nomadism.
"We continue east, of course!" Quinn said, stopping to get down on his knees and sniff a small tuft of grass that poked out of the hard, barren earth. "Not nearly enough feed for our saviours here…"
That did it.
"I give up." Aberforth began pulling on his magic. "I'm going home."
"Hm?" Quinn glanced up, a few stalks of grass being ground between his teeth like a cow chewing cud. "What? Why?"
Aberforth didn't even have the energy to answer. "Because I give up."
With a pop, he apparated to the doorstep of the boy who would be his end. He rapped his knuckles against the door and waited. The landscape around him was impeccably morbid, and it truly suited his mood as he waited to be let in. After another moment or two, the door opened to reveal a ugly, stately house elf.
"What is you wanting?" it asked, perfectly manicured and pointed teeth snarling.
"I'm here to speak to Hydrus," he said. "Take me to your master."
"Hmph. Kreacher smells filth." The beast looked him up and down, scowling, before eventually pulling the door open further and stepping aside, himming and hawwing the whole time. "Come in."
Aberforth did so and twitched when the door slammed in his wake. "Where is he?"
"Upstairs. End of hall," Kreacher said. "Kreacher is busy, too busy for unwanted interlopers."
The house elf vanished so Aberforth sighed and moved on. He found the stairway easy enough, and the door at its end was ajar with light pouring out from it. He made his way down the hall, trying not to get weighed down by the heavy magic hanging in the air like a noose above the gallows. When he got to the end, he knocked on the door frame and pushed the door open.
Hydrus was sitting behind a desk, with two empty bottles and a full yet closed one in front of him. An ashtray nearly overflowing with ashes and cigar butts sat beside them, and the boy himself was transformed into a man who looked like a perfect hybrid of Sirius Black and one of the Potters' lot. His eyes were closed, but they slowly opened then rolled over at the sight of Aberforth.
"What do you want, shit head?" Hydrus asked. "Feeling suicidal already?"
Something was wrong. His executioner looked like a man who'd just felt rain drops on his head after getting left at the altar, not at all like someone who'd just met someone they loathed.
"What's going on?" Aberforth asked, perhaps finding his redemption. "What can I do to help?"
Hydrus studied him, looking him up and down with half-lidded eyes and much more head movement than the gesture required. Eventually he shrugged.
"Hogwarts is under attack." He leaned back in his chair. "Go help evacuate if you want. The students should be in the Forbidden Forest, and the aurors and professors should be arriving soon if they haven't already."
"What?" Aberforth asked. "Why aren't you—"
"Or I can just kill you," Hydrus said. "Which would you prefer?"
Aberforth scowled. "Fine. Have your house elf send me where I'm needed."
"Dobby!"
Andromeda and Sissy were at the cauldron, preparing the potion. Her beloved was waiting. Waiting for her. Waiting for her to save him. She would. She would! She would be the one to save everything. She was a good Bella. A very good Bella, thank you very much.
Good Bella was in their bedroom and she threw open their closet, then began throwing clothes and robes aside to get to her special box. The box she kept the precious mementos from her time with her love's true form. The treasure chest of devilishly delicious delights. Eventually she found it, and brought it out and set it on the bed. There was no more time to hide it. Maybe no more need? Hydrus was acting weird. He'd break his bargain soon. He would love their children.
She was sure of it. Bella was sure of it. He would love them all.
When the box was open, she began gently setting aside the various things she'd taken from him. There was only a single strand of hair left after she'd taken the rest out for mixing with the Polyjuice potion. The nail clippings were lacking, but there had only been so many to take in the first place. Dobby, that wretched mongrel of a house elf, had done a fine job of helping her with trimming them. What a good boy he was. The skin motes were safe in the glass box she'd spelled them into. The blood and saliva samples were both safely contained in vials, right beside the third and most important sample she'd taken from her poor and unconscious love.
"Bella will save the day."
Albus stumbled out of his familiar's flames and immediately felt the hole in his being as the phoenix returned to Gellert. It was rare for him to tighten the bond that made him a warlock so snugly, mostly because of the longing and emptiness it left him with when their powers were no longer conjoined. Sitting across from where he stood was Hydrus, eyeing him up and down for injuries.
"Report," the time traveller said.
How strange it was to be on the receiving end for orders like that.
"I don't know if I can say I truly pulled my weight, but Gellert will achieve what we could not." He had to project confidence. "Do not make the mistake of underestimating him. He is—"
"He's the second biggest threat to our world's safety behind Arcturus himself," Hydrus said snidely. "Believe me, I'm not underestimating him. I'm just putting him to use until a time comes when I must put him underground."
"…Of course." Albus sighed and took a seat, rubbing at the palm of his wand hand. "We will succeed, Hydrus."
"Yes. Yes we will." A bitter smile appeared on his face and a short burst of silent laughter shook his chest. "This is the end of it, Albus."
They were apparently abreast to two different definitions of success. Albus sighed once more and moved on to massaging his pate, then ran his hand through sweat-drenched and knotted hair as he remembered it wasn't quite so thin these days. Despite the youth that his master's stone had blessed him with, the much less physical weight of his years remained as heavy as ever.
"Since I have you so pliable," Albus began, making a hint of a nod towards the bottles on Hydrus's desk. "Has Fate spoken to you at all about these events?"
Hydrus snorted. "The only thing she's done is taken me home after we raided the castle, then bitched at me for complaining about all the gods instead of just the ones we're dealing with."
So she had her eye on them. That did make him more optimistic, no matter how little it could mean.
"I recently redid the background of my portrait," Albus said. trying to change the subject. "I set it on a sunny, grassy, open field. I hope that it will improve the awful version of me's disposition."
"He's not that bad," Hydrus said, shaking his head. "He just hits a nerve with you. You did what you set out to; you made a portrait of the version of yourself that died in another time." He shrugged and reached for the bottle, but stopped himself before he took it, shaking his head in internal derision. "If things don't work out, and the 'evil' part him that shouldn't be there keeps going on, feel free to follow through with the threats I made when I first met the thing."
So far so good. Hydrus was still avoiding eye contact and had a depressed look on his face, but it was better than how they started. It was unfortunate that he ended things so had to keep going.
"Have you contemplated the ideas I—"
"Distract them with small talk unrelated to the matter at hand," Hydrus interrupted, doing a terribly wizened impression of Albus. "Do not waste the opportunity and bring up matters that you don't care about, always make use of the time we have, but get their brains working on something. Anything, else, besides that which makes them so miserable."
"I…" This was pointless. His apprentice clearly wasn't in the mood to talk. "I shall leave you to—"
"Should that fail," Hydrus continued on, still aping him. "Then offer to give them peace. Go and do something small for them, make them some small meal and leave it with them so they don't get the chance to refuse. Show them that they're still appreciated, make them feel indebted to you, force the bond between them and you to be stronger even when they're shutting everyone out."
Albus couldn't say anything. He had been about to get some food, trying to appeal to the one 'vice' of Hydrus's that he could approve of, his gluttony. He had not been trying to… Trying to do all those other things. Not in some codifiable, psychological trick sort of way. He was just trying to cheer up the boy, he wasn't… Wasn't…
"The candies you'se asked for, Master Hydrus!"
Albus glanced over and blinked at the sight of his own jar of lemon drops being sat upon Hydrus's desk.
"Thank you, Dobby." Hydrus gestured at the jar. "Don't you feel 'still appreciated', old man?"
There was a small smirk on his apprentice's face, especially after putting the accent on for just the two words. Albus shook his head, not able to match the smile. It was becoming more and more apparent how that other version had come to be. He hadn't been a broken man, whose words were spoken with malice and manipulation on the forefronts of his mind. The lessons he taught had just been explanations. Teachings. He had been trying to help a lost child find a path, and he'd given Harry the only one he'd known without any consideration paid to the sorts of sacrifices he'd made along the journey to still wind up as someone who could look themselves in the eye each morning.
That was where the failings in the portrait had come from, and what Hydrus had been saying all along. The other version of himself wasn't evil. He wasn't a monster. He was just a man who'd been left in the crucible of conflict for far too long, and thus didn't have the proper recipe to forge his own successor. Not once, not ever, had the other Albus given anything besides love and guidance to the man who sat before him; he'd just been blind to the impurities he imparted along with those things.
It drove Albus to wonder what sorts of flaws and toxins he was passing down to others in this timeline, blindly and without thinking. It made him consider men like Sirius Black, Severus Snape, Peter Pettigrew, along with countless others, and had him considering what he could've done differently to shape them into better people. It left him feeling like everything he'd done until now had been wrong, and that it might just be too late to fix things if today didn't go to plan.
It was miserable.
He did still take a handful of the candies to tide him over, though.
Somewhere far away from the chaos and turmoil, Coyote waited. His people were battered, some had been lost, but the whole was safe and sound. The future was Sister Fate's domain, so he didn't have much in the way of foresight, but what little he did have had told him that he'd made the right choice. He could've stopped Hydrus from using his people to plunge into Arcturus's den, but if he had done that, they would definitely have to be at the school now.
And that was far too dangerous an ask for them.
There was something truly dangerous at that school, though it had been completely hidden to his limited prescience. An ancient, by mortal standards, monster waiting to do… Something. He wasn't sure what, but that gap in the vision had been too much of a smokestack to ignore as just a cooking fire.
He continued to reassure himself that he'd done the right thing as he remained hidden in the small den he'd dug up for himself, just outside the ever-growing boundaries of the settlement his people were building. He had a proper home for when he was playing the part of Banjo, but right now he wanted some peace and quiet. Hydrus had done most of the heavy lifting in regards to healing the werewolves, but there had still been—
"Woah!"
Coyote lurched, looking to the entrance of his hole in the ground in shock as a small boy, a fledgling god, and a distant relative appeared.
"So cool!" The boy ran up to him and immediately buried his face into his chest. "Look, he's like a big version of you, Argus!"
The young grim barked, a regal and determined declaration of his intent to protect his master as he didn't back down from the much, much larger canine. The little cutie only came up to his boy's waist, while Coyote's head towered over them both, halfway to the ceiling of his little burrow despite laying down.
The serpentine godling couldn't stand being ignored any longer and hissed, "This one is mine."
There was power in those words, strong and supple, with just a tinge of an epoch far beyond the little one's actual age. Whomever had been helping him grow into his own certainly knew what they were doing. Coyote leaned down and, to the delight of the boy and dismay of the serpent, licked them.
"Settle down, Little Brother," he intoned. "He is yours, and they." He nodded his head to the exit of his burrow. "Are mine."
Just a small, but ever growing, percentage of those who believed in him or whom he was responsible for, but still.
"Hmph." The young god's feathers slowly fell back down. "So long as you know that he is mine."
'Oh, he is going to be fun to play with in a few years,' Coyote mused as the little boy began climbing atop him. 'I wonder how many times I can trick him into thinking he's finally killed me…'
"What's your name?" the boy asked. "I'm Giannis!"
"I have so many names," he replied. "Would you like to give me another?"
You could tell a lot about a person by the way they—
"Clifford!" the human shouted, sliding off him so he could look him in the eye once more. "Like the big red dog! Your fur is kinda red!"
Coyote reared up at that. "It most certainly is not."
"What's wrong with red?" the fledgling god demanded, his bright crimson feathers rearing back up. "It's a regal colour!"
As the childish debate began, he felt a presence appear and then vanish away as quickly as it came. One of Brother Elf's brood, a particularly bright little star, so he paid it no mind. Probably just here to check on the boy who must be Hydrus's, sent here to be kept safe. He would have to inform his brother and fellow coterie member that he'd run across one of them; the other god always loved to hear when one of his brood was doing well.
Tonks carved out another groove into the enemy forces, but her reserves were running low. The aurors had spread out and formed a perimeter around the slowly retreating students, though the retreat had ground to a halt as the undead forces continued to swarm around them. The staff of Hogwarts, minus Dumbledore, had arrived at some point and taken some of the burden off their shoulders but it still wasn't going well. It seemed like the undead creatures were endless, schlepping and crawling out of the forest in a horde that had to have at least quintuple the numbers of their own forces, even if you included the students. She took a harsh, shuddering breath and forced a smile onto her face in defiance of it all as three more inferi began sloshing towards her.
"Diffindo," someone behind her cast.
She blinked and turned around once she made sure that the spell had killed all three of them. It was… Well, she supposed on a day like today she didn't mind referring to the boy as her 'cousin'. It was the Malfoy heir, looking as ragged as she felt though he seemed to be a good bit less tired.
"Take a small break," he said. "Keep an eye on things so you don't worry, but you're running out of magic, aren't you?"
"Back off, kid," she snapped, accidentally too harsh but too stressed to care. "I'm fi—"
The fifth year fired off another spell, and she spun around to see it turn one of the rolling, bloated acromantula corpses into ash that crumbled away as its momentum carried it towards them.
"We'll make it a competition then," the boy said. "Whoever can kill things first, Cousin."
"Now is not—!"
She was cut off as a roar brought everything and everyone to a standstill. It quite literally shook the earth and left many of the students quaking and covering their ears, though Tonks noted with some amount of begrudging respect that Draco hadn't flinched. When his face paled, she finally steeled herself and turned back to face whatever had made the sound.
Rising above the canopies at a speed that shouldn't have been possible, was a dragon.
It was stripped of all its flesh, with bones a light green thanks to the noxious magic visibly holding it together. The green power was spread out between the thin wing bones since there wasn't any leathery skin to make up the gaps, and inside the beast's chest was a massive and swirling core of the stuff. It ran between all the joints of the beasts, linking it together in one gargantuan display of strength and horror.
"I'll, uh…" Draco began. "I'll let you take you the first one for sporting sake."
"Son of a bitch."
The skeletal dragon roared once more, still loud enough to shake them despite how high up it was. Tonks prepared herself, but she knew it was hopeless. There was nothing she had in arsenal to stop something like this, let alone enough gas in her tank to pull it off. Still, she'd rather die on her feet than just give up.
Suddenly a pillar appeared in the middle of the crowd, raising just one man up to nearly a story above the children. For a second she thought it was Dumbledore and relief flooded through her, then she did a double take.
"Is that Aberforth?" she muttered in confusion. "From that shithole pub in Hogsmeade?!"
"Shields!" The ancient wizard roared. "Shieeeeelds you fools!"
And then the man began to gather up his strength, bringing a wild and comforting warmth to the glen they were in. Tonks gulped and prepared to try and shield whoever she could when Draco suddenly snatched her hand and began dragging her through the crowd towards the pillar. She couldn't even fight as she was battered with children getting shoved out of the blonde's way. When they reached the center he turned to her.
"Lift me up there," he said. "I can help, Hydrus taught me a powerful shield spell, but I need Aberforth's help."
"Kid, you're just—!"
"Wingardium Leviosa!" a voice called. It was one much too young to be in a hellscape like this. "Come on guys!"
Tonks yelped as several more apparent first years cast the charm, sending both her and Draco shooting up into the air before setting them down on the pillar. Aberforth turned to look at them, fear plastered across his face.
"What—?"
"I can help, conjoin your magic with mine," Draco again ordered someone much older than him. "Imagine the brightest fire you can, as bright and holy as possible."
To Tonks's surprise, the ancient wizard appeared relieved to have the burden taken off his shoulders as he placed his hand on Draco's own shoulder. Another surprise was someone else then placed their hand on Aberforth's. It was Potter's kid, Harold or something.
"I can help," the boy said. "I remember Hydrus's lecture on mixing magic, I'll fan his flames."
Draco looked like he wanted to argue, but he just looked back up to the dragon and Tonks followed his gaze even as she put her own hand on his shoulder. She didn't have much left to give, but she would. The skeletal dragon roared one last time as it reached its apex. Then it began to dive.
And Draco began to glow.
The Malfoy heir radiated magical power that left Tonks stunned that he could even handle it. Her own meagre contribution paled in comparison to however much Aberforth, and Potter through him, were no doubt giving him. Malfoy looked up at the dragon that was shooting towards them like a meteorite, and began to cast.
"Protegigante!" he bellowed, with an upward lilt that told her he wasn't done. "Maxi—" He'd frozen for half a second. "—ma…"
Tonks watched as the shield began to umbrella out around them, when suddenly a vibrant green snake the size of the Hogwarts Express rocketed up, not too far from where she'd stood a few moments ago. The massive beast was making a beeline for the dragon, and the two collided with a shockwave that nearly sent her tumbling off the platform Aberforth had raised. The light from the skeletal dragon's power illuminated the snake just enough to reveal amber-lidded eyes and rows upon rows of needle-shaped, sword-sized teeth biting into it.
Draco's shield ballooned just enough, just in time to stop the massive and seemingly living reptile's body from crushing them as it fell. It made a loud, gong-like noise that reverberated throughout her body in what had to be the most uncomfortable feeling imaginable. The cacophony only grew louder when the dragon and head of the snake fell some distance away in the forest, snapping and toppling the ancient trees, causing the breaking trunks to sound like muggle cannon fire.
The serpent didn't stay still either, it writhed about until it had fallen off the top of the gargantuan dome and was slithering away, only lit by the pearlescent light coming off the 'protegigante' shield Draco had cast, sending emerald rainbows in various directions as the light bounced off it's scales.
"That…" Draco panted, clearly on the verge of passing out from magical exhaustion. "That was a damned basilisk."
"What?"
Tonks, Aberforth, and the Potter boy had spoken in unison, which stole her gaze to them for a moment, but she spun around when the teen Potter's eyes widened in a panic. Behind them, approaching from the same direction the gargantuan basilisk had come from, was another snake.
"Shit, what is that thing?" Tonks demanded.
"Uh…" Draco half-started between panting breaths. "I think Hydrus said his name was Francis?"
The serpent, which looked like a mix between a python and a catfish thanks to its bulbous and flopping whiskers, was gliding towards them, but quickly made a turn when it hit the edge of the shield. It slowly wrapped itself around the spell's perimeter when Draco coughed, splattering the back of Tonks neck with a liquid she really didn't want to look at.
"I…" the boy said. "I think I'm done. I think we're safe."
The shield faded and Potter's son caught the blonde boy as he stumbled, saving him from falling off their platform. 'Francis' was still encircling the crowd, boxing them in and forcing them closer and closer together as it did so. The battle between a basilisk and a dragon would've been unignorable in any other circumstances, but right now Tonks had larger concerns.
"What's this thing doing?" she asked as the beast completed its encirclement and continued to coil upwards, making the people down below very, very intimate with one another. "Why is it—!"
She cut herself off when someone cast a spell at the snake, carving a groove into its side and causing it to jolt. The whole earth shook at the movement, eliciting a roar of yelps and 'ouch's from the crowd as they banged into each other. Francis reared his head up high, leaned it down towards the auror who'd apparently cast the spell, then shook his head. One of the beast's whiskers smacked the man in the face.
"I believe it's trying to shield us," Aberforth said, brows furrowed. "But… Oh, of course… But then… Does it…? I suppose…"
Tonks kicked the old man in the shin and he recoiled. He nearly fell off the platform himself now, but after a few seconds of teetering and windmilling his arms, he steadied and came to a stop. His glare could've killed.
"Talk out loud," Tonks snapped. "So the rest of the class can hear."
"I believe this one is our shield, the basilisk our sword," the man said through gritted teeth. "It's stopping us from seeing the other serpent's eyes."
There was no more room for people to squeeze in, and Francis had begun stacking up upon himself. It also felt like he was vibrating, and if Tonks wasn't crazy, and if the trees weren't growing at a rapid pace, they were sinking. Once there were two 'layers' to the snake's walls, it began criss-crossing between the circular sides to form a roof. She watched with an impressed frown as it circled around above with more core strength than she could've thought a giant like this could possess, until there was only a small gap near the center of the 'fortress'. It's head hung down just short of there, directly beside them and close enough for her to touch, and she supposed it could close it up just as easily if needed.
"Should we just stay here then?" Tonks asked.
"Yes," a new voice said. Tonks startled to attention as the platform beneath their feet expanded, allowing Captain Bones and Department Head Scrimgeour to join them. Bones took a deep breath. "Everyone! Remain calm! We shall stay here within… Within this guardian of the school's protection until it wears thin!"
"Should've left that last part out," Scrimgeour whispered, almost too quiet for Tonks to hear. "Bad for morale."
Bones flinched but didn't argue with him. Another massive bang drew a violin orchestra's worth of whimpers from the crowd. It didn't do anything good for Tonks's own nerves either, but now was no time to be reeling from that.
"Well, you did say you wanted a good team building exercise for when you took over," Tonks said, staring at two of her coworkers on the very edge of the crowd, both wincing as scales dug into their skin and they were smashed together. "I think those two are pretty close now."
Bones, Scrimgeour, and Aberforth all looked at her with such looks of disdain that it nearly pushed her over the edge. Her shoulders squeezed down tight on her jaw.
"Right, never mind."
Bones finally snorted and pulled her into a one armed hug.
Gellert stood in the shattered remains of the center of Hogwarts. Harsh British winds dug into his scalp, the piss-poor robes he'd been fitted with were trying to pull him over like the sail of a boat, and he was sincerely beginning to regret ever agreeing to study with the cute lanky boy he saw in the library all those years ago.
Across from him in the wreckage was Arcturus Black, teetering on the precipice of life and death. The monster was missing more than he had left, with both of his arms gone and a significant portion of his chest left gaping. His eyes were wide and filled with a quiet insanity that belied an endless maelstrom of chaos in their depths.
What fun it was getting to pick apart the man who had done the same to him. It was like Gellert was a child again, taking the wings from a fly. He'd never participated in such pathetic and trivial things literally, flies were far too weak and pathetic to ever be worthy of his attention, no matter how infantile he was. How was it impressive to tear their extremities off?
Lawn Gnomes, on the other hand…
"I will rip your flesh from your bones!" Arcturus roared, sending a wave of miasmic magic at Gellert wand and arm-lessly, which he burned away with a streak of lightning. It was cast between two bits of metal rubble in front of him. "I'll cut your fucking heart out and feed it to you!"
"What a generous host," Gellert patronisingly crooned. "You enjoyed the taste so much you decided to share? What a good little boy you are, Archy."
Arcturus shrieked more incoherent nonsense at him, and almost lost in it was, "Avada Kedavra!"
Gellert grinned and cast yet another elemental spell, this time summoning up a wall of ice to shield himself from the 'forbidden' curse. What a weak beast society was, banning such beautiful workings. The cracked ice wall shattered as he twisted the wand Albus had given him, and he stabbed it forward to launch the blades at his foe.
He'd spent nearly a decade trying to find the perfect 'element' to pair with his lover's immortal fire. Lighting, water, ice, wind, earth, and more. He'd even gone so far as to find a soul-altering ritual that would better attune him and any children he sired (which was a whole other 'bag of cats', as Albus would say, given his and his lover's genders) towards whatever element he chose. But things had fallen apart before he'd found one to settle on. That meant his mastery over many was undulled through anything besides lack of practice.
"Little Archy is getting grumpy, I see," Gellert once more mocked. "Do you need a nap, little one?"
The mad dark lord's berserking assault only told him he was spot on with his choice of insults. The man was built on iron-brittle pride, and treating him like a child seemed to do wonders towards keeping him off balance and unintelligent enough to take on a towering legend such as himself. It wasn't even difficult to parry away the various, half-verbalised spells Arcturus cast; they were powerful to be sure, but slow and uncamouflaged.
Gellert pointed the Elder Wand, the second most delightful instrument he'd ever held in his hands, at Arcturus and cast, "Crucio."
Arcturus staggered back, but remained standing. The lunatic was too far gone for the spell to truly cripple him, too used to living in the throes of madness already, but it still threw off his rhythm. It was also just nice about getting to work off Gellert's built-up wroth towards the other dark lord. It was a balm to his soul to know he was causing unadulterated suffering towards his latest nemesis. All the others were dead by now, besides him, so it was a rare opportunity.
"DIE, DIE, DIE!" Arcturus frothed. "Avidiuskelvum!"
Gellert hadn't heard of that spell, and when his attempt to deflect it failed he desperately wished he had. The green arrow of energy was drilling towards him so he shielded it by bringing up a wall of earth. The spell bored right through and continued on. He began strafing to the side but it readjusted its course, and in a moment of panic, he took advantage of the fact that Hogwarts' primary ward structure was down.
He apparated behind Arcturus, and the spell followed him and struck the one who'd cast it. Arcturus fell down, dead.
"Ha!" Gellert snapped, a cruel, half-toothed smile crossing his face. "Struck down by… By… Struck down…" He'd fucked up. "Shit."
Arcturus reappeared. The man stepped out of a gap in reality that nearly broke Gellert's already-damaged mind when he tried to stare into it. He looked better than he had when Gellert first arrived, unbrutalised, unbruised, and undirtied thanks to his resurrection. The plan was in ruins. Albus's work was wasted. He was on his own.
"Whoops," Gellert said, dripping with sarcasm. "I suppose now I have no choice but to still defeat you."
It was pure, unadulterated bluster. But it was all he had as Arcturus, eyes no longer frenzied and wild, raised his wand and prepared to do battle once more.
Hydrus was impressed as he poured his first shot from the third bottle. He'd expected Gellert to be long gone by now, but since Fawkes was still staring off into the distance unconcerned, things must've been fine. With his buzz dying down and Albus bringing him back to sobriety with his presence alone, he'd decided to indulge once more.
"I thought you were done?" his grandfather asked.
"Same," Hydrus agreed as he threw the shot back. "Your boyfriend is tougher than I realised."
It wouldn't even be long now before the sun rose. Already the vestiges of twilight were showing up outside his window, grey light pouring from seemingly nowhere across the gloomy atmosphere of his backyard. An insepid yet morbid thought crossed his mind as he wondered if he'd get to see one last sunrise. Fleur had loved sunrises…
"Albus, I know you don't want to hear this, but be rational, okay?"
The not-so-old man looked him in the eye, the corners of his lips pulled down and there was a weary squint to his eyes. "Yes?"
"If, if," he was saying it with more insincere sincerity than he meant, but he could blame it on the alcohol. "I die, tell everyone everything. Let them know the full story. Hide nothing."
"You're not going to die, Hydrus," Albus said. "Fate said as much."
"Fate's already been wrong multiple times," Hydrus said. "Either way, will you do that for me?"
"…Yes."
"Good. Also, I know you won't force it personally, but make sure my dads and my mum and everyone else look after Bella, yeah? I've held back what she wants so much because of shit like this, but I really don't know how she'll turn out when I'm gone if you guys don't help her." He grabbed at his hair, technically 'combing' it but really just pulling. "Don't… Don't let her be alone. Don't ever take Giannis and Apophis from her, okay?"
"You know I would die for my students, graduated or otherwise, Harry,"
"Good. That being said, don't let Ginny or Fleur suffer either. You don't have to do anything spectacular for them, you don't have to make any big scenes." He threw back another shot of whiskey. "But take care of them too, ya know? I love them too. They both mean the world to me. It's just that Bella… Well, she's my responsibility right now. She's the one I love right now. She's… Well, they were my everything but right now she is my everything, so don't—"
Albus clamped a hand down on Hydrus's shoulder, stopping him from taking yet another dose of his favorite poison. "Hydrus, sometimes it feels like I've spent more time inside your mind than outside it. I promise I'll take care of everything. Trust your grandfather, young man.'
Hydrus laughed at the stern and stuffy tone the man put on at the end, allowing the manic, Black madness to escape him through the exit his mentor had provided. Merlin, what would he do without him?
Just as he was about to thank his grandpa, there was a flash of fire in the room, and Fawkes reappeared without either one of them having noticed their third's presence vanishing in the first place.
Gellert arrived, looking more meat than man in a pile on Hydrus's floor. Albus began squawking and tending, but Hydrus had gone cold. The only heat left in him was the alcohol burning up his gut. He set the still-full shot glass down and straightened out his robes. His eyes met Fawkes's, and the world faded into a wall of flame.
Space grumbled as another message arrived. He banished it away to somewhere no one would ever find it, because that particular sphere of not-space would get crushed in a few moments when he moved forward. There were always those little bubbles of not-quite-nothingness in non-existance, and they always broke like waves against a craggy shore when his expansion spread across them.
Why had he ever said yes to that mewling brat's request? The stupid former-hooman was always … no not hooman, human, he corrected himself. The stupid former-human always managed to get him to let his guard down, which was something not even his sister could lay claim to. She was still 'angry' with him for his grank. Still very pleased with it, too.
Space could tell. Space knew and loved his sister more than anyone. Space knew best.
So he ignored the update that the stupid former-human gave him, and kept pushing forwards. Kept expanding himself. Kept forging gifts for his sister. Kept existing, as he had done since he and his sister had begun.
Honestly, what even was a 'newsletter'?
Hydrus appeared in the wreckage of his home. His heart ached, both emotionally and supernaturally as he looked at the battered and carved out form of Hogwarts. His soul-bond with the school was still new to him, still unexplored, but thanks to his time working with deific power he could tell that was where part of the pain came from. His eyes landed on what was a not-quite-sane version of Arcturus.
The man wasn't weakened by Gellert and Albus's assault. The various reasons and explanations for that flickered through Hydrus's mind like a spinning rolodex, but eventually he settled on one. Gellert must've accidentally killed him. It wasn't an unplanned-for possibility, but it was only accounted for thanks to the plan they were on now. The catch-all, 'Hydrus dies' plan.
"Lord Arcturus!" Hydrus intoned respectfully. The other man snapped his head towards him like a wolf who'd smelled a wounded fawn. "I've come to discuss my terms of surrender."
A part of the plan he hadn't shared, one that might be fruitless and inconsequential but could also make all the difference for his people's future. Arcturus cocked his head to the side. The thorn in Hydrus's side began to stalk towards him, rocking back and forth with only a mild stumble, like drunken dragon hot on the tail of a wayward lamb.
"You dare…?" Arcturus breathed. "You do not have the RIGHT to—"
"Enough, General Black." A stiffening of the spine, a widening of the eyes, a hesitation in the movement. He'd caught Death's chosen off guard with that title. "The war is ending; are you a barbarian or a proper British military man?"
It was like watching a painting being born. The madness was brushed over with sanity, and Arcturus clamped it down hard and fast. After a few seconds of the other man's neck-wringing and shoulder rolling, the magic in the air faded away. Things were calm.
"You surrender?" Arcturus asked quietly. "You admit defeat?"
"Yes," Hydrus said. "Let us discuss."
The war behind his foe's eyes was obvious. The mad, rage-fueled monster demanding he fight versus the Lord of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Black demanding propriety. And if Hydrus was correct…
"Very well," the man said with a sneer. "If only so I can prolong the enjoyment of your humiliation."
After all, there was always the chance that Death just stuck with Arcturus as his chosen. It wasn't likely, as far as Hydrus's ponderings could tell. Arcturus wasn't one to bow the head to anyone, even a god, so he'd probably been annoying the shit out of the deity. More likely than not, as soon as this war was over, the position as 'chosen' would be returned to Death's favorite toy: Dracula. That didn't mean Arcturus would just go away though, and just in case, Hydrus wanted some insurance.
'Absolute fucking nutjob,' Hydrus thought, summoning up and transfiguring rubble into a sturdy wooden table and two thrones. He made sure that Arcturus's had penises hidden throughout its motif. One last act of rebellious nonsense before he met the end.
"I won't play games and put on airs," Hydrus said. "We both know that, at the end of the day, you hold the most cards. The only one I have is that, if you don't agree to my terms, I will be a thorn in your side for decades to come. I've fought a guerilla war against a monster that even you wouldn't be able to defeat, and I say that not to insult but out of genuine experience and inability to stop him."
Arcturus said nothing, the two sides of him still clearly doing battle.
"First, and foremost, allow the members of House Black to exist in peace. You may resume your position as head of house, but only if you allow them all to form a new, separate branch untainted by your influence." Earn some subtle goodwill by putting the family his foe held above all others as the biggest prize. "Those who wish to stand at your side, as I'm sure you'll find obvious and reasonable, are more than welcome to. But allow Sirius and Andromeda and anyone else to make a clean and unmolested break."
Arcturus scratched at his moustache, and Hydrus didn't miss the way the nail dug into the flesh and drew a thin line of blood that evaporated away.
"This isn't an unacceptable term," Arcturus said. "Is that all?"
"Hogwarts. You will leave this place, and no matter what, never set foot in or influence it again. No matter what happens, no matter what changes, you will leave our ancestors' work to the will of those who have inherited their grace."
Another appeal to the rational side of Arcturus's psyche. The man was a patriot to his core, and Hogwarts was one of the country's pillars. Its history went further back than the Ministry itself's, and had even been headed by members of the Black family before.
"That coward Dumbledore doesn't belong here, look what he's done to it!" Arcturus snapped, the madness temporarily winning. "This is all his fault, the spineless buffoon!"
"Then allow him to pick a successor and step down," Hydrus said. "I'm sure he's more than ready to take a break considering he's regained his youth."
"Hmph." Arcturus's eyes were twitching in a unsteady rhythm, like he was having a stroke. "You push, wretch."
"It's a surrender, and a negotiation," Hydrus soothed. "I only have one last request, one that is non-neogtiable in any way, shape, or form."
"Oh?" The man bared his teeth at him like a whinnying horse. "Non-negotiable, is it?"
"Bella loves the two 'children' we adopted." This truly was the one thing he wouldn't negotiate on. There was no way of knowing how Bella would fall after he was gone. "One is my familiar, the basilisk which you met. I assume you won't have any objections to his continued presence."
Arcturus scowled but said nothing.
"The other is a muggle-born prodigy. He has already turned the ward scheme in your former dwelling from what it was, into something that there will be studies done on for centuries to come. His inventions are already making the family money, hands over fists. He isn't going to be adopted into the House of Black, he is to be the heir to House Slytherin." He was rapidly spilling out details, trying to make everything clear. "You will never have to acknowledge them or—"
"Is this a joke to you, charlatan?!" Arcturus roared, standing and slamming his fist into the table. "You make light of the position I've put you in!"
Hydrus made to politely argue, but gasped when his magic started getting syphoned away like there was one of the suction tools a dentist used in his soul. It was going too fast, and even when he began fighting back and trying to stop it, he was losing ground. It was like trying to pull a bull back by a rope tied to its horns.
"I am done with these games," Arcturus snarled, power flowing out of him as his body was too small to handle the massive quantities of power flowing out of Hydrus. "I am going to—"
He was cut off as a piece of wood stabbed through his heart at an upward angle, from behind him where Hydrus couldn't see.
'What?'
Bella was naked and sitting up on a bed of stone. Runes, decorative and functional alike, were carved into its sides and surface that chaffed at her flawless skin. She was in the secret basement of Castle Black, where the Black family's witches always held coven rituals. Her sisters were preparing for the second of two rituals, drawing more runes around the dias with a paint made of lamb blood and leviathan oil. While they did that, Bella stared down at her nude form, at her stomach.
At her womb.
Her hands gently grazed over the skin above where new life had just been planted. Her baby. Hydrus's baby. Their third. The first one they conceived themselves. Well, somewhat conceived. All the parts were theirs at any rate.
'When mars is in, distance of spittle's reach both,
Moon, Jove, and sin.
With branch of yew, inspired by Wodin's wroth,
Impale thine foe true.
With blade across throat, of virgin mother thou doth,
See thine foe smote.
Their soul is struck, their power tossed to a froth,
All gone amok.'
A Visigothic curse ritual translated to Norse and then to proto-French and then to Old English and finally modernized English, all while being butchered with attempts to keep it rhyming. It had originally been Bella's plan for stopping Hydrus's own power from running wild and hurting him, and it seemed now her work might not go to waste.
No. It definitely wouldn't go to waste. There was no more room for 'might's and 'maybe's.
Bella would save her love.
"Mistress Bellatrix." She turned to see Kreacher had arrived, feet carefully placed to avoid stepping on any of the runes. "Kreacher is finished checking on Giannis. He is doing fine, and playing with big dog."
'Argus is a good boy, why can't Sirius be more like him?' Bella thought. "And Hydrus?"
The house elf hesitated for a moment, his ears folding inward and his teeth showing. "Lord Master Hydrus is speaking with Filthy Blood Traitor Grandfather Dumbledore."
"Hurry up!" Bella suddenly snapped at her sisters who both froze. "It's almost too late!"
"We're almost done, you brat," Andromeda snapped back, looking back down and resuming her painting. "This is my last rune."
"And… I'm… Done." Sissy stood up and tucked the paintbrush she'd been using behind her ear, leaving a brown streak in her platinum blonde hair. "Are you really sure about this Bella?"
"Yes." She pressed down on her stomach where her future baby was. "We need to make sure your nephew still has a Daddy when he comes out, don't we? Don't we? Yes we do, yes we—"
"Done," her least favorite sister said, standing up as well now. "Get the grimoire, Narcissa."
"On it."
'Still as bossy as ever,' Bella thought, shaking her head. 'Heh, that tickles.'
She continued to giggle as her hair danced along the nape of her neck until Andromeda pushed her back down onto the table. Her eyes snapped open to glare at the other woman.
"What?"
"According to the house elf, Gellert just returned and Hydrus left." Bella gasped. "Hold still, we only get one shot at this."
Kreacher suddenly popped in again, tearing at his ear with one hand and holding the lightning-struck branch of yew that Bella had retrieved months ago. "Mistresses! Kreacher is not being able to get Lord Master Sirius!"
"What?!" Bella demanded, sitting back up. "Why not?!"
"He is not being anywhere Kreacher can reach!" The house elf was hyperventilating, clutching the branch tight to his chest. "Kreacher is bad elf, Kreacher is failure, Kreacher is … Is … Kreacher will do it. Yes. Kreacher won't fail, nonononono."
Andromeda locked up. "Wait, Kreacher, you can't—"
But the elf was already gone.
"Do it, do it now!" Bella snapped, laying back down.
Andromeda looked at her, anger flashing across her eyes for a moment, but she pulled the dagger up nonetheless. She gave yet another pointless warning to hold still, so Bella froze up. Slowly, carefully, Andromeda lowered the dagger to the flesh of Bella's throat. When it was settled, she nodded at Sissy, who began to read the ritual spell in its original tongue.
Slowly, like a master calligrapher penciling their master piece, the blade crossed Bella's throat, breaking the skin but not piercing too deep. Given how fair her skin and how dark the ritual was, it was unlikely she'd walk away without a scar. That was fine though. A small price to pay for love's salvation. It felt like hours passed as one of her sisters spoke, the other cut, and power flowed from all three of them. Andromeda finished cutting in perfect time with Sissy finishing her reading, and Bella began to spasm.
Pitch black runes from all around the room began to glow, then smoke. Bella gasped for breaths, finding only the smallest amounts of air to take in as an obsidian black miasma began to pour from the wound on her throat. It spiraled up and out of her, sliding through the ceiling as though it weren't there. She could feel the power of all three of them channeling through the working, and fought to give it everything she got.
'It's gonna be okay, Hydrus,' she thought as the billowing working finally began to fade. 'Your Bella will save you.'
Hydrus stood as Arcturus stumbled to the side. At first his gaze was locked on to the wound, but it quickly snapped to the one who'd stabbed his foe.
"No…"
Kreacher was standing there, the damned suicidal creature. Already the house elf was beginning to fade away like mist in a gentle breeze. His beloved companion looked at him, watery tears in his eyes.
"Kreacher is sorry…" he said. "L—, Lord— … Friend Hydrus."
"Kreacher you…"
It was too late. The house elf was gone, lost to the cosmic punishment of any elf who deliberately hurt a human. The one-sided covenant between the two species meant that Kreacher had been destroyed, down to his very soul, and lost forever. Hydrus had thought he'd never have to see such a sight again after the species was lost in his own timeline, and now he'd seen it in such god-vision clarity that it left him speechless.
"Agh!" Arcturus roared, struggling to rip the burnt looking branch of wood out of his torso. "That filthy, ungrateful, pathetic mongrel!"
The words were lost to Hydrus as he tried to contain his own madness and emotions. He'd honed his mind's ability to lock away such feelings when a loved one died to a razor's edge. His eyes focused on Arcturus, trying to convert the emotion to rage at his foe while the screaming villain tried his best to stare the branch out.
Then a bolt of lightning that seemed to somehow glow in reverse struck the dark lord. The bolt was writhing and crackling, looking more like a captured serpent than lightning. It screamed in pain as Arcturus did the same, writhing through and into the evil man. Even without his 'god eyes' fully on, Hydrus could see the man's soul was shattered.
Hydrus put forth what little deific power he had to his eyes now, and saw the full extent of the damage. Arcturus, in the deific plane, was even larger than Apophis's spectral form. He stood like a dim colossus, glowing much less vibrant than the basilisk did, but putting off a much more deadly feeling. No, not more deadly. More… Akin to death itself. Less murderous, more murdered? What strange things deific power made Hydrus feel.
Ah. He'd gone mad again.
He threw aside the table separating him from Arcturus and the dark lord's head snapped towards him. The other man stumbled back as Hydrus approached.
"Stay away from me, you filth!" he shouted, spittle flying from his lips. Hydrus could see the man's power sputtering and frothing as he failed to apparate away or cast anything. "I can still drain your magic!"
That was true. Hydrus was still having to fight back against the drain, but with so little left it wasn't hard to keep a lid on it, even now that he was insane. His enemy had made a serious miscalculation, however.
"I don't need magic, you incompetent fuck," he spoke, sounding out each word like he was repeating himself to a hard-of-hearing toddler. "I'm just gonna beat the shit out of you."
"We are not animal—!"
Hydrus cut the other man off by driving his knee into Arcturus's testicles. Death's chosen stumbled back with a wheeze, then fell onto his back. Blood was still draining out of the hole in his chest, though it was stemmed to some degree when Hydrus knelt down on top of him, placing his knees on the man's arms.
"Did you know," He began, raising his one hand. "That when I was a boy."
Crack. His fist smashed into Arcturus's nose, breaking the cartilage and splashing his face with a spritz of blood.
"My cousin was a fat little boy."
Crack. He struck again, bouncing his foe's head against the earth.
"And every day after school."
Crack. He aimed for the eye this time, and was rewarded with a squelching pop as the man's eye was smashed.
"He and his friends would do just this to me?"
Crack. Of course, 'Big D' had never beaten him this viciously, and Harry had never gone still like this vermin had.
"Every day they beat me black and blue."
Crack.
"They spat on me."
Crack.
"They insulted my parents."
Crack.
"They really, really hurt my feelings."
Crack, crack, crack.
"So really, I suppose I am a 'saint' for only going this far."
There was no more cracking as his fist continued to pound down, the remains were to wet and fleshy to elicit such a sound. Now it sounded like more of a splat each time he struck, and that was hardly the sort of sound to have an insane monologue to. He remained silent for the remainder of his impatient mutilation, waiting for a resurrection that would never come.
Arcturus was no longer Death's chosen.
Death had already won their war.
He'd taken a family member.
Half the war was over.
Sirius groaned in relief as there was finally room to break away from the bony teenagers whose elbows and fists had been digging into his back, and the slimy, wet snake that had been crushing his front. He'd been doing whatever he could to help with the evacuation when the two behemoth serpents arrived, and since Scrimgeour had said he'd kill him the next time he saw him for ruining his retirement party, Sirius hadn't been able to escape from the crowd like his wife had.
He quickly morphed into his grim form and., using the beasts muscles, leapt onto the back of the catfish-snake-thing. From here and with the superior vision the canine had he could see the remnants of Death's forces were retreating.
'Oh no.'
He turned back into a human and immediately tried apparating back to Hogwarts, but the outer wards of the school were still standing strong. With a leap, he took off into the forest to try and hit the invisible line that stopped him from checking on his son.
'Please, please, please.'
Madness was welling up inside him and he was almost tempted to let it out. He eventually caught up with the retreating undead creatures, and without caring about his reserves blew them apart with wild magic. Some of the ones that he passed because they weren't in his way froze over for a second, but then pointedly ignored him. After the first incident, nothing stood in his way.
He tried apparating three more times before it finally worked, and when it did, what waited for him broke his heart.
Hydrus looked like somehow Sirius and James had a kid together. He was slapping a swollen, blood-covered, mangled fist into the ground where a head presumably used to be. Arcturus's corpse lie still beneath him, not vanishing away like it always did when he would resurrect. His son's eyes were dull and unfocused, and his whole body besides his uncrippled arm was loose like an unstrung puppet.
"Hydrus!" Sirius called as he approached. "Are you—"
When the time traveller turned to face him, it was all Sirius could do to not back away. There was no magic rolling off Hydrus, none of that god stuff he'd vaguely felt before, no harsh look to scare him off. It was an unseen and unspoken weight that slammed down onto Sirius from deep in his son's eyes.
"You always hated him." Hydrus tilted his head back as the corners of his lips turned further downwards. "You always insulted him."
"I…" Sirius glanced down at the mangled remains of his great-grandfather. "Yeah? He was a monster, he—"
"Kreacher." Hydrus limply swung his arm at Sirius, sending a few droplets of blood careening against his face. "You always hated him. And now he's gone."
"What?" Sirius surprised himself with the high-pitch of his voice when he said that. "What do you mean he's gone?"
"I mean he's gone, soul and all," Hydrus said, quiet and tired-sounding. "He was the one who struck the killing blow against Arcturus. It cost him everything."
Now Sirius did stumble back. Kreacher had saved them? Kreacher? He could already hear his brother's wailing now. Regulus would be absolutely miserable and inconsolable. Yes, Regulus would be sad. Regulus…
Sirius closed his eyes as tears began to wet them. 'Fuck.'
He was sad. Kreacher had finally started acting like a half-decent person, only to go and die? The little sh—, the family servant had finally begun to treat him nicely. Everything about him had been changing; he'd been getting better. And now he was just gone.
"Fuck," Sirius repeated aloud. "Fuck!"
"Just go home, Deadbeat," Hydrus muttered. "It's over. We won."
His son turned away, stared back down at the corpse, then to Sirius's horror raised his mangled hand once more. Sirius caught it just before it would've descended, and this time when Hydrus focused his attention on him it came with the weight of magic. The cold, dark power of the Black family crashed down on him but quickly faded away like it had just been a bucket of ice water getting dropped on his head. Hydrus slumped into him slightly, clearly exhausted.
"I said—"
"It's okay, son." Sirius knelt down and released Hydrus's arm, wrapping him up in a hug. "It's okay. It's over."
Hydrus stiffened, then his shoulders shook just once. "Not yet."
Lord Stefanos Stellavigil, Autumnal Lord of the South, future Magical Consul of Greece, stood with a proud smile on his face as he gazed out the window of his office. Today had been a victory, a triumph, as he heralded in a new era of financial legislature with his introduction of taxes on the sale of magically purified salt water. It wouldn't be long before the laurels of being head of state would adorn his crown.
After another few minutes of basking in the glow of it all, he moved to his fireplace and flooed home. There he was embraced by his loving wife, who had apparently been painting if the smudge of blue that he wiped off her cheek was anything to go by. He wondered when he would get to hang the next master piece.
Once he was done attending to her and lavishing her with love, he made his way down to the basement, where servants were forbidden from entering. The lights at the bottom of the stairwell glowed most of the way but quickly disappeared, then didn't return until he got to the end of the room where a single door's frame was aglow with light from the other side. He took an ornate key chained around his neck, hidden amongst a wreath of other golden necklaces, and slid it into the lock. After a few magical sparks traced their way up and down the key, the door shuddered then opened, leaving the key in his hand.
Inside the room was his shrine. It was an appropriately opulent work of art, with all manner of jewels, trophies, and artefacts adorning it. His many 'friends' had learned that he had a taste for the magically unique, and had given him several gifts that always went straight to the ever-expanding altar of his worship. None of them knew what it was for, of course, but they were happy to assume he just had the odd eccentricity of a collector.
And what sort of fabulously rich politician would he be with out an oddity or two?
His goddess hadn't ever said one way or another if she approved of the shrine, but since the good fortune kept rolling his way, he figured he should keep it up. He must be doing something right if she kept sending donors and backers his way. With a preparatory groan for what he was about to do, he knelt his massive bulk down onto his knees in front of the altar.
"Oh my goddess, Magic!" he said. "Thank you for—"
"It's almost time, Stellavigil." A voice rang out in his soul, forcing him to a bowing kowtow with the pressure. "Be prepared to move. An opportunity to… Truly achieve what it is you deserve is upon you."
BBaRtS
Chapter 89, and the conclusion of the Arcturus arc. Again, would've done more and expounded more on everything, but I'm trying to wrap this shit up. Next chapter will be a bridging chapter between this and the next climax, and I'm sure you can all guess what that one will be about.
I'm a little worried that people will take issue with how sexist the 'win' here can read as. Men did the fighting, and the women helped by getting pregnant. But at the same time I tried to show Tonks being cool/strong, and I mean... It's Bellatrix. That's kind of her whole deal. I don't think I've portrayed women poorly throughout this book, though I'm sure there's room for improvement, so I hope no one takes issue with the fact that victory came from getting pregnant and then 'slitting the throat' of the magically impregnated virgin.
I also hope I set it up well enough and it doesn't feel like an ass pull, considering all the reminders of Chekhov's Lightning-Struck Yew Branch lol. We had Hydrus or Bella first referencing it, then Bella going and getting the branch, then their little moment where Hydrus tells her to just chill, then her checking the telescope a few chapters back with Giannis, then last chapter was her blatantly saying she'd save the day.
I also hope that people like Arcturus's ending. The pureblood supremacist, the magical gentleman, dying to just losing his magic and not knowing what to do. Not some grand battle, not some epic collision between titans (though he did have those), but just getting kneed in the balls, then having his head caved in by a man driven to inherited insanity by the loss of a friend.
On to reviews!
"Time skips were totally awesome, went with the chaotic nature of the finale" (and all the other reviews that mentioned it) - Good I'm glad, like I said I was worried that it would be taken poorly. I got a negative review or two way back when, when I did the scene of Sirius confronting Lucius on Arcturus's behalf, but I think those literally stemmed from the fact that I put in a little '15 minutes earlier' headline to the section. Doing it without that seems to have gone much better.
"one in particular that stood out was your amazing take on Neville and Daphne!" - Lol I liked how I managed to abridge that scene, and that's a good example of where I'm trimming things to speed everything up. If I wasn't rushing I'd have written out a proper fight scene for Neville, but I think it worked out well nonetheless here.
"The battle starting up again so soon was a bit of a surprise." - Like you said, it made everything feel more urgent and was a product of this originally being just one giant chapter in my plans. I changed things slightly to fit the chapter format, but yeah that was meant to make things feel less like 'we're taking turns', and more like a proper dog fight to go along with Arcturus's character.
And that's all! Thank you all, love you all, see you when I see you.