Harry Potter: Hydrus Black

The mansion was huge, with thirty bedrooms, one large playroom, a humongous dining room, and five studies for the children to do school work. There were a few offices on the ground floor, as well as a visiting area for those looking to adopt. The counselors were set up on the first floor. The rooms at this time were individual as there were only a few children in comparison to the amount of space they had. The staff also lived in the mansion.

They did hire three house elves, which they bought and then freed, for the cooking and taking care of the yardwork. Tippy helped a lot when that happened, letting the elves know that they weren't being punished and what they could do with their pay. She also instructed them on how to keep up the yards.

The yards were divided into four. The front yard was maintained as a pretty entryway, with trimmed grass and shrubbery. The backyard was a play yard with swings, slides and other playground equipment, plus an area for football. The side yard to the right was smaller and used for barbeques, outdoor parties and picnics. The other side yard was made into a vegetable garden that everyone worked in.

Remus used Hydrus's name to write to Frostwell and gave him the idea for the book-readers. The inventor said it was a wonderful idea and that he would see about getting one made soon, they were hopeful for next autumn. They didn't give the man any that they had, just a general sketch, because Hydrus wanted to make sure that Frostwell got the credit and the profits from them. Besides, how would they explain it?

With copious use of bribes, Sirius prevented the werewolf restrictions from happening. He was also working on getting better relations with the goblins, much to the immortal's displeasure. But, Sirius's reasoning was that he was trying to prevent what happened in the future from happening again. Hydrus couldn't fault that logic, but he didn't have to like the greedy bastards. Sirius also prevented a few Pure-blood laws from going into effect. He had quite a lot of allies now, and not all of them had to be bribed, just poked in the correct direction. That list came in handy.

It was now spring and Tippy was working hard on the garden. The flower bed was now fenced off. She was adding a small waterfall, which was warded against children. The trees were trimmed back and starting to bloom. A play yard was added with swings, a slide, and a sandbox. Needless to say, she was putting those books to good use.

The first Boy Who Lived book hit the shelf and Sirius fell on the publisher and author like a rabid dog. His lawyer sued the pants off them and the godfather threatened further action if it happened again. This action caused the Prophet to write a headline that accused the Black Lord of trying to keep the public away from their hero. Sirius gave an interview on the Wizard Wireless Network in rebuttal. He claimed that if anyone wanted to know about Harry all they had to do was ask, but he wasn't going to let rumor or speculation run wild about his godson. He even gave a few anecdotes about Harry's potty training and eating habits to show that he was still just a toddler and not the next coming of Merlin.

Because of this, they also started their own newspaper, since they couldn't buy any shares of the Prophet (It was mostly owned by the Ministry). They simply called it The Times, blatantly stealing the name from the non-magicals. They hired reporters that were made to vow that everything they wrote was true—to their knowledge. They didn't want anyone to die or lose their magic for printing something that would later be found out to be incorrect.

The paper was a medium success, somewhere between the Prophet and the Quibbler. The things they reported on were the government, social pages, sports and up and coming entrepreneurs like Hydrus and Frostwell. Every now and then there was an article on how well Harry was doing, showing once again that he as just a child. They even had a section on what was big news in the non-magical world. It was gaining subscribers with each printing.

Everything was going well, but Hydrus knew something would come up to ruin that soon. He was still getting that watched feeling every time he went into Diagon Alley. Besides, nothing ever went this smoothly for long, not for him anyway. Those thoughts made him jumpy and nervous. He started distrusting everyone he met, until such time they proved themselves not a threat. He made sure he never mentioned Harry or Remus. He cut his public time with Sirius in half, only being seen with him a few times a month.

The others in the house, of course, noticed the twitchy behavior and confronted him one night towards the end of spring.

"Hydrus, what's going on with you? You're all jumpy and it's got us worried," Sirius said when they settled for evening tea.

The immortal sighed and set his cup down. "Sorry, I'm not used to things going so well without waiting for the other shoe to drop. I mean, even when me and George were getting our revenge on the magicals, things would pop up that would throw plans off. So, I'm waiting for something bad to happen. I just don't know what," he said. "That and I can't shake the feeling that someone is stalking me."

"Let's go over a few things and see if we are missing anything," Remus suggested.

....

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