The next morning with heavy breakfast out of the way, Sirius went to see his grandfather, Remus went to gather some of his things, and Hydrus once more tried to get Harry to watch the kids' movie, with as much success as the first time. So, he spent the rest of the time going over equations for the color toy and almost had it figured out when a shell-shocked Sirius came home.
"Merlin, what happened to you?" Hydrus said as he guided Sirius to his favorite chair.
"He stepped down," the other man said, with a vacant stare. "We had a huge fight for about an hour, he kept going on and on about family loyalty. I told him that he was a deluded old fool if he thought Death Eaters were loyal to anyone except You Know Who. I thought for sure he was going to kill me and then he started laughing and handed me the Lordship. He said if I can stand up to him then I might be able to pull the Black family back together. There'll be an announcement in the Daily Prophet tomorrow."
"Well," Hydrus said as he plopped to the sofa, "that's unexpected. A bonus, but unexpected."
"We spent the last hour going over what that meant. I mean, I already knew most of it; I was raised to take over before I ran away, but he wanted to make sure," Sirius said, coming back to himself. "One thing he did say is I can kick Mum out of the house and make her go and live in one of the smaller houses. He doesn't want me to remove anyone from the family, but I can bring anyone who is magical back in. I mean, I can do anything I want, but these are his final requests. I have to meet with him again, soon, but this time he wants to meet you."
"Me, why in Merlin's name, would he want to meet me? I'm just a nobody born to a squib," Hydrus exclaimed.
"Don't know, but he does."
Hydrus shrugged and brought up an important question. "With Bellatrix presumed dead and the Lestrange brothers in prison, can you get the horcrux from her vault?"
"Yeah, those greedy goblins will do anything for payment. There's tons of goblin made silver at Grimmauld Place I can use," Sirius said with a nod.
"As long as it's you and not me, I can't stand goblins. Why don't you unwind a bit, play some war game or something, and then later you can see your lawyer about adding people back in the family. Hey," Hydrus said excitedly, just realizing something, "you can add me to the family. Or maybe not, since the tree will put me in a weird spot," he added thoughtfully.
"Nay, the tree will leave you free hanging; it can be explained away as you being a son of a squib." Sirius waved it away. "Besides, I think your name is already on the tree or Grandfather Arcturus wouldn't know about you. I didn't mention you in our talks, so it caught me by surprise when he asked about you."
"Oh, okay. I wonder what's taking Remus so long. He should have been back ages ago."
"Don't know," Sirius said, turning to the front door. Then he shrugged and put in his favorite game and got lost in the zone.
It was forty minutes later that Remus came in looking irked. He dumped his boxes next to the door, flopped down into his chair and ran a hand through his hair. "We put that charm up just in time. I was packing some things when Albus came through the Floo. We had tea and talked of nonessential things, and then he asked if I had heard from Sirius. I told him I had. He then asked if Sirius had taken Harry away from the Dursleys, and I told him that Sirius hadn't been near the place."
Hydrus grumbled under his breath about nosy old men.
"He asked if I knew where Harry was, and I told him that as far as I knew he was with his family. He tried for an hour to get me to explain further, but thanks to the truth and the charm that is all he got out of me. Thank Merlin werewolves have a natural mental shield. That is what took me so long. Oh, and he did say the Dursleys were gone," the werewolf finished, and then got up to get some tea.
"Huh," Hydrus said, watching the man leave the room, "I didn't think it'd be so soon. Mrs. Figg must've been there long before I thought." He then looked at the happily playing Harry and shrugged. With the blood wards and the Fidelius no one will find them. Hopefully, with Remus only stating the truth, as he knew it, and the monitors on the wards, that'll be enough for the Headmaster to not question further.
"I need to write my lawyer," Sirius said, abandoning his game and leaving the room.
Hydrus put his notes away and sat down on the floor with Harry. "It's just you and me, kid, what say we build some more blocks?"
"alocks!" Harry bounced. And that is just what they did. Remus came back with his tea and settled into his chair with his book-reader. Sirius appeared twenty minutes later and went back to his game. They had a nice family evening.
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