The next morning Marius's reply came via owl. In it he stated that the owls were getting noticed and he preferred the non-magical mail, he would give them an address when they met. He gave a time to meet at a park and a phone number to call to respond. Sirius, after being shown how, called the man and confirmed they would all be there at one.
So at noon they all bundled up and buckled in the car. Hydrus, using the directions from his book-reader, drove to the park. He had to wonder why the man chose such a setting, but then again dealing with the Black Family, he might just be very cautious. The phone number was probably a pay phone. The immortal didn't blame the man; the Blacks were notorious for killing off unwanted members of their family. Hydrus was surprised that Marius, Andromeda and Sirius were allowed to live; then again Sirius had the backing of Harry's grandmother, Dorea Black. Black family customs gave him a headache. In his timeline they were mostly dead, so he didn't have to deal with them.
Arriving at the park, they got out of the car and wandered around, Harry was in a buggy with a blanket that had a warming charm, and searched for the other Black. He approached them, with a curious look on his face.
"I recognize Sirius from the newspaper, and from the description in the letter, I'm assuming you're Hydrus, but who's the baby and the other man?" the tall dark-haired man asked. He looked like a Black, long black hair, grey eyes and an aristocratic face. "By the way, thanks for dressing like a Muggle," he said with a bite in his voice. "I was worried that you'd show up in robes or dressed outdated, like most of your kind." Yeah, he was bitter. They all ignored the tone; the man had a right to be angry.
"Marius—I assume—you look like Regulus," Sirius said a bit sadly as he shook hands with his long lost relative. "This is Hydrus, as you guessed, and the other man is Remus. We can't tell you who the baby is, yet. Not until we know each other better."
"Then why, in God's name, did you bring him?" Marius growled. "It's bloody freezing out here. Stupid wizards."
"He needs to get out of the house more, he's been cooped up for ages. Besides, the blanket is warmed," Sirius defended their actions. In all honesty, Harry had thrown a fit when he saw they were about to leave and none of the men could calm him. Since they were pressed for time, they decided to bring him along.
"Fine, whatever, let's get him out of the cold air. There's a rec center over there that has a room we can talk in," the other man said, waving his hand to his left. So they all set out to the rather plain looking building that had the sign stating it was Baldwin Park's Recreational Center.
The building was split into three large rooms and a few offices. There was the sports room where kids could play indoors, a meeting room, which is where you could rent the room for your club meetings and a study room with a small library and a dozen tables that held eight to ten people. Marius rented the meeting room for them and when the door was closed, Sirius threw up some security wards.
"While I'm happy to get a bit of revenge on the Black family, how are we going to make you my grandson? You said the name of my son, Patrick, name is on your birth certificate, why?" the wary man asked, getting straight to the point.
Hydrus was lifting Harry out of his buggy and removing his heavy winter suit. He'd be warm enough in just his little jeans, tiny snow boots and jumper. He didn't want the tot to overheat. The rest had already taken off their jackets. When he was done, he set the toddler on his lap and handed him his car keys. He then turned to the upset man and gave a sheepish look and held his hands up in supplication. "When I did the adoption I needed a relative the magicals wouldn't look for, so I looked on the tree and saw your name blasted off. I did a bit of research and found out you're a squib, that your sons were dead, so I used it. I figured we could just say Hydrus is a family name."
Marius grunted and nodded at the simple explanation and said, "I don't like it, and I'll tell you here and now, if this wasn't a way to get back at the family that dumped me, and if I didn't know better tried to kill me, I'd be a hell of a lot angrier. Now tell me why you need this so bad."
"Well, since you can't take a vow, I brought a contract for you," Hydrus said, pulling said contract from his pocketspace and handing it to his hopefully soon to be faux grandfather.
Marius growled again and snatched the contract. He read it over and saw that it only stated that he couldn't tell anyone what was discussed here today. He grunted, pulled a pen from his shirt pocket, and signed. It wasn't like he could lose his life or magic if he told anyone.
The next two hours were spent with Hydrus relating everything Marius needed to know, mostly about his childhood, how the wizarding world turned on him (hoping the man would relate) and anything he did in the non-magical world. Why he felt he needed to go back in time and how this story would help him. He was thinking that he really didn't need the man's permission, but it would help if anyone were to investigate. The only thing they had to do was come up with a reason Hydrus was still alive, when the rest of the family was dead.
From his research in the future, Hydrus knew Marius had two sons, they each had one son. All of them died mysteriously. It was his belief that someone in the Black family killed them off when the grandsons showed no signs of magic (more than likely on Voldemort's orders, so no heir would pop up later and the Black Lordship would go to Draco). What he needed to do was refine his tale and get Marius to agree to it.
After hours of discussion, they came up with a story that when Hydrus showed signs of magic as a baby, he was adopted out, since the family was still bitter. When he found his birth certificate and heard about his birth family's murder, he hid. He had gone to Marius, who told him to get lost. That he was only surfacing now because of the inheritance that was left to him by his squib godfather, who is still unnamed. It wouldn't hold up to deep investigations. Hopefully the magicals would more than likely never search out Marius. Marius was mollified that Hydrus didn't want to casually use the name and he knew that it was only a courtesy that they told him anything.
During that time Harry was passed from man to man, until he got fussy and was given some snacks, and soon enough went to sleep on Sirius's shoulder.
They parted ways with the exchange of phone numbers and Marius's address, in case the magicals hunted him down. Hydrus said he'd set up a P.O. Box soon.
Back at the house, Hydrus reminded them of their appointments the next day. The other two men groaned.
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