"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."
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