Chapter 6 Causing Discord

The week went by and there were no occurrences by Voldemort or his minions. It seemed he was truly hiding after the Longbottom attack, which made Hydrus' plans harder. The immortal had checked to see if he was hiding in the Riddle Manor, but it was empty. He had the thought that the… asshat was located in the residence of one of the Death Eaters so he called on all the victims that had died by his hand, set them on him and waited. They came back hours later and said they were unable to find their quarry. The Master of Death didn't know that the Fidelius worked on spirits, so he sent them back to the Realm of the Dead and concentrated on his other plans.

Everyone was sitting at the Potter's house, doing what they always did, when Hydrus decided to remind Sirius of the prank. "Sirius," he said, drawing the man's attention from the telly, "let's take a walk." He jerked his head to the door.

"What? Why? It's bloody cold out," Sirius said loudly, earning a smack on the head from Lily.

"Language," she stated, glancing at Harry, who was playing with that damn giggling bunny and not paying attention to the adults. She gave a sigh and glared at Sirius.

"Right, sorry," the younger Black grumbled and then turned his head to the older man with a questioning eyebrow.

"Don't you remember the great prank we want to pull?" was the vague answer.

Sirius rubbed his goatee and thought for a moment. "Oh, oh, yeah, that prank." He winked at James, who held up his hands in a way that said 'leave me out of it' as he cut a worrying gaze to his wife, who was giving him a 'you'd better not' look. Remus glanced up from his book-reader and shook his head to remind them he wasn't going and then returned to his research.

"Yes, that one. Let's go for a walk," Hydrus restated, getting up and gathering his coat. Sirius followed and the two started walking down the pavement in Godric's Hollow. "So if you have time enough tonight, we can start relieving Death Eaters of their treasures. Like I said, most of it is still at Gringotts, but I know for a fact they have stashes." He stuffed his hands in his pockets and looked over the picturesque town.

It was a quaint town and Hydrus noted that there were Halloween decorations on many of the doors and in the gardens, reminding him that is was almost the time when he lost his parents, and glad the Potters were now alive, the two thoughts clashed, making the immortal shake his head to clear it.

"I'll always have time for something like this," Sirius answered with a bounce in his steps, bringing the older man's attention back to the conversation. "Tell me what to do and I'll be there." He clapped his hands together and rubbed them excitedly. He was more than happy to get his hands on anything in those houses. He knew there were Black heirlooms in Bella's house and he would do anything to get them back. If only so he could thumb his nose at his dear mother.

So the two Blacks walked in the late September air and made plans to gut the Lestrange Mansion, since they were nullified. It was getting dark and they returned to the Potters for dinner. Lily had made some pork chops and potatoes with a nice green salad.

"What are you two up to," she asked, giving them the hairy eyeball.

"Plausible deniability," Hydrus said, forking a pork chop and adding it to his plate.

"You know one day that answer isn't going to cut it," she warned, still giving them the look while spooning some diced potatoes onto Harry's high chair tray. The tot grabbed them up and squished them in his hands, giggling at the mess and then tried to put them in his mouth, causing them to smear across his face. His mum just looked at him and sighed, then returned to her own meal.

"I know and I promise once the war is over there will be fewer secrets, but there are just some things that I'll be doing to end this conflict that you can't know about." He dished up some potatoes and took a bite, feeling a bit like a hypocrite. I feel like Dumbledore, he thought. Keeping things from the people I trust.

However, he knew that Albus kept important information that people needed to know. What the Headmaster held back could get people killed, while he was trying to keep anyone from going to Azkaban. Still it wasn't settling in his mind well and from the looks Remus was throwing him, he knew the werewolf felt the same.

"Fine, just don't get killed," she huffed and took a sip of her tea.

They talked of the men's classes and other mundane things, then after cleaning Harry and putting him to bed, they retired to the living room and settled with a movie. When it got to be around ten, Hydrus and Sirius excused themselves and went to commit their… prank… crime— whatever.

They popped to the Lestrange Mansion, just outside the wards. There were no lights on in the large, five story house. It was dark and ominous, with the moon reflecting through the trees, casting shadows across the front of the dark brown house. The fullness of the moon reminded the immortal to brew up the better Wolfsbane potion for Remus and offer him his cellar.

Shaking his head from those thoughts, Hydrus pulled out his blast gun and demolished the wards. Still no lights came on so he figured the Dork Lord wasn't in the residence. He handed Sirius an invisibility cloak and donned his, just in case. He pulled his holly wand and pointed it to their feet and added silencing charms.

"Why do we need these? There's no one home," Sirius asked, holding up the cloak.

"Tom isn't stupid, if he felt the wards fall he isn't going to do anything that will give him away. Just put it on and be quiet," the invisible man whispered fiercely. Sometimes Padfoot was so kid-like it was grating.

"Right, I can do that," the dogman said, hearing the tone. He put on the cloak and Hydrus grabbed his elbow so they wouldn't run into one another.

The two men made their way to the front door and managed to unlock it. The inside of the house was surprisingly clean and decorative, the walls were white with silver trim and the pictures were clean and moving. You could hear them call out 'Who's there?' making Hydrus thankful they put on the cloaks. The light fixtures were bright and shiny, like someone cleaned them regularly. The vases and busts were marble and gleamed in the light of the mostly full moon.

Well to Sirius it was shocking, but Hydrus had already done this in his last two timelines, so he knew how the place looked and where to go. They snuck quietly to the main living room on the ground floor and over to a blank wall. Hydrus threw some Peruvian Darkness Powder at the portraits, making them cry out. He then used his blast gun again and brought down the wards and the wall disappeared. Still nothing moved, so they figured no one was in residence and they removed the hoods of the cloaks and started emptying the space and were greatly stunned to find the Hufflepuff cup.

"I thought that was in her vault," Sirius said, looking at the goblet that appeared so innocent, but he could feel the taint. As he observed the golden cup with badgers engraved on the main vessel, he was glad it didn't have to be destroyed.

"She must have put it there after Tom fell, well, no, that's not right, because I got her before that last time. Maybe her husband did it when she disappeared, I don't know. Let's not look a gifted horse in the mouth. Now you don't have to deal with the goblins." Hydrus took the cup and threw it in his pocketspace with everything else they had gotten from the hidey-hole. "Just your mum," he added with a smirk.

"Right, are you going to show us how you get rid of those things?" Sirius asked with a grimace at that reminder, still pulling out the bigger loot and handing it to Hydrus.

"If you want," was the simple answer.

"What are you going to do with all this gold?" Sirius asked, waving to the huge pile of coins still in the space. "Hey that book is a family heirloom, mind not getting rid of it?" he asked when a diary was pulled from the vault.

"I have an account in Hellströms that's set up for bribes and funding of things like the orphanage." He waved the question away and started spelling the gold to fly into his space, while Sirius stood back and watched. "If you want I can split it with you, but isn't it better to use their own gold against them? I'll make sure to sort out your family things before I do anything else," he offered, still guiding the coins to his space.

"Nay, you keep it, we'll all use it. You still haven't told us how to get one of those… pocketspaces," the younger Black whinged.

"Oops, I kinda forgot. We'll do it tomorrow, after I get rid of Tom's soul piece," the older Black promised. "I don't remember there being this much gold before, they must have put it in Gringotts after I got Bella last time."

They finished off that part of the house and made their way to Bellatrix's bedroom, which like that of any pure-blood was separate from her husband's. She had another stash here and they went through the same motions and found many dark items. Soon enough they had covered the entire house, including the hidden basement. They hit two more houses that night and after Sirius got the Black items, they both went home very tired.

The next day, when Harry was down for his nap, Hydrus said, "While Sirius and I were pulling our prank last night; we came across one of the horcruxes. If you want, I can show you how to get rid of the damn things."

"I would be most interested in seeing that," Remus said at the same time Lily said, "Oh, I want to see", causing the other three men to chuckle.

"Right, so let's go into the kitchen," the immortal got up and led the way. He threw up a Muffliato, knowing there would be screaming, and pulled out a ceramic bowl, a dirty rag, the Hufflepuff cup and a bottle of acid. He held the rag over the cup and chanted, "Repel aliena anima." The soul piece floated to the rag and Hydrus dropped it in the bowl and poured the acid on it. The horcrux screamed as it died, making the Marauders and Lily cringe. "All done," he said brightly, cleaning up the mess.

"That's it?" Lily asked in amazement. "Just a simple spell in Latin and few drops of acid? That's bloody amazing" her face was filled with awe and joy as she all but bounced in place at what else could be done to other Dark items.

"Language," James said with a smirk.

She hit him on the chest and said, "Prat."

"You'd be surprised how many Dark spells are easily gotten rid of. That crystal I have for the Dark Mark is a simple Finite in parseltongue," the immortal said as dropped the charm.

"How did you discover all of this?" Remus asked in astonishment. He too was gobsmacked at the ease the Dark artifact was cleansed with. He had been expecting a great show of magic, possibly bordering Dark. Maybe his impressions of the time traveller were incorrect. He would have to rethink things.

"Believe it or not, I read it in a non-magical fantasy book," Hydrus shrugged as he led them back to the living room and plopped into his chair. "I don't remember which one, but I do remember it was about flying horses and heroes and it combined magical and non-magical living. I got a lot of my ideas from books like that. They're on your book-readers." He shrugged.

"Why did you read muggle books in the first place?" James asked as he cuddled next to his wife, who was still paying very close attention to the immortal time traveller.

"I was trying to find every theory on time travel there was and kinda got caught up in the stories," Hydrus answered with a sheepish look.

"They are pretty inspiring," Lily confirmed, remembering her readings from when she was a little girl. Many hours were spent in fantasy lands, fighting dragons, being rescued by a prince and being a queen of fairies. Petunia hated that she would get so caught up in her novels. That girl had no imagination.

"I might just have to read more of them for my research," Remus said, having never thought of that.

Hydrus pulled out a Chocolate Frog Book and asked, "Speaking of books. Who wants to be the one to publish this one?" He held it up so they could all see it.

"What is it?" Sirius asked, grabbing said book up and reading the first page.

"It compiles all the Chocolate Frog Cards and gives a broader history on who the people were and which Hogwarts House they were in. Its sole purpose is to reform the thinking that only Slytherin produces evil or Dark Wizards," Hydrus answered, looking at the Marauders and hoping they didn't make a big deal of it. He knew Lily would be on his side.

"Why would you want to do that?" James asked. His face scrunched in distaste. "They're Slytherins."

"So was Merlin," the immortal deadpanned.

"What?!" came the yell from two different Marauders.

"You didn't know that?" Lily asked, looking at her husband. "I thought everyone knew that. It's on his card." She took the book and flipped through the pages, found Merlin's and pointed it out. "What I never understood was how Merlin was in Hogwarts at all. I mean, Muggles have him dying 500 years before the founding."

"We did a bit of research and found out that his birthdate was wrong in the stories, he was over 100 years old when he attended. A lot of the new students were adults, since the school was new and none of them had any experience. So the doors were open to everyone, of all ages," Hydrus explained, then looked at the male Potter with a lifted eyebrow.

"Oh," was Lily's answer as she too turned to her husband.

James had just finished reading the entry. "They're right, he was in Slytherin." He looked to Sirius, who was still unconvinced, so James passed the book over to him. "And it does say he was an adult student."

"That's the type of attitude that this book was written to change" the time traveller explained, a bit disappointed in James, but knew Sirius would react that way. He shouldn't be surprised, after all James had been a bully during his school years.

"So what needs to happen to get this book published? I think it is something I can do from behind the wards," Lily said, looking to Hydrus.

"Do you have a solicitor?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Have them contact the Frog Company and start negotiations on using their cards. Make sure you bargain with them and get their permission first. Then tell them you want pay for all their research. Wait a week or two and just owl this book to a publisher and market it. If we do set up a mall, then there will be a tea/book shop to sell it in," the time traveller explained, pulling another one from his space and handing it to her.

"What is a tea/book shope? I mean, I understand what it might be, but could you please explain it in greater detail," Remus inquired, stealing the book from Sirius and ignoring his 'Oi'.

"Well, it's a place where you can rent book-readers by the hour, if we get Frostwell to invent them soon, or customers read the books they purchased, while taking tea. We had it set up so that they could read one book for ten minutes then they would have to put it in their basket or it would reshelf itself." Hydrus pulled out another book and handed it to Sirius. He raised a questioning eyebrow to James and his dad just shook his head and shared with his wife.

"That is a marvelous idea." Lily's eyes lit up at the prospect. "If we can get the mall up, I want to operate that shop!" She wiggled in her chair at that idea.

"Of course you can," Hydrus said with a fond look. "Remus, if you want we can set up a loan and you can own and operate a similar book shop in London," he offered as he turned to the werewolf, who looked up from his reading. "It can have non-magical in the front and magical in the back."

"Let me think about it," Remus said as he looked up. He gave Hydrus a considering look and then went back to the Frog book.

Hydrus shrugged indifferently at the wary man and perked up when he heard Harry wake. He told Lily he'd fetch him and went up the stairs. He changed the nappy and took the tot downstairs and pulled out a new toy, earning a dark look from James, which was returned with a mischievous smile.

This toy was like a board with huge colorful numbers imprinted on it that lit up when touched with magic. So when you pushed a number it would light up and say said number.

"Harry," Hydrus said, "Look." He pushed the number one, it lit red and said 'one'.

Harry squealed, clapped his hands and started pushing all the numbers at once, causing a lot of noise, making the parents glare at the older man. The child pushed the number three and it lit green and said 'three' and Harry chimed out 'tree' the toy then said, 'correct', causing Harry to clap and press all the numbers again.

"Want to tell me why all educational toys are so loud?" James gritted through his teeth.

"How else are they supposed to learn if there is no voice to tell them?" the oldest Black smirked while the youngest just laughed at the Potters' plight. "Seriously, there's a volume control." He once again lowered the volume and the toy quieted down, making Harry frown and bang on it harder.

Sirius continued to laugh and no amount of glaring made him stop. It took five minutes for him to be reduced to chuckling and then he said, "Hydrus, you said you'd teach us that spell." He waved his hand at Hydrus' left shoulder.

"Right, who wants a pocketspace? Raise your hand," he said with a knowing grin. Every adult hand shot into the air, then little Harry thinking it was a game, threw both his hands up and giggled. "Oh, no you don't, Prongslet, you play with your toy, while I take care of the adults," Hydrus said picking the toddler up and placing him and his new toy in the playpen.

Remus, James and Lily all wanted theirs over their right hand, while Sirius once again got his on his right hip. Lily cooed at all the mothering things could use this space for, while the men were thinking of things like playing pranks.

It was getting late and there would be an order meeting soon. Sirius once again asked if he should call Albus and this time Hydrus agreed. So the younger Black flooed the Headmaster and told him he was bringing his cousin to the meeting. When it was time, they gathered their coats and went to the Vances'. They were met at the door by Emmaline and she questioned as to who the new guy was.

"It's okay, Emmaline, this is my cousin Hydrus. The Professor knows he's going to be here," Sirius said with his most innocent look.

"Fine, you'd better not be pulling a fast one or I'll hex your bollocks off," she warned as she led them to the dining room.

"Who the hell it this?" Moody demanded, pulling his wand to the newcomer.

"Whoa, Moody, he's invited," James said, standing in front of his son.

Hydrus had to hold back a chuckle as he put his hand on the younger man's shoulder and moved him out of the way. "I am impressed, Mr. Moody, that was some quick drawing." He put his hands up to show they were empty and left them in front of his body in a nonviolent gesture.

"I don't give a ruddy damn if you're impressed or not. Who the hell are you?" The wand never wavered.

"My name is Hydrus Black, I'm Sirius's cousin. I was one of the men who fought the Dork Lord at the Longbottoms'," the immortal said, his hands still in plain sight. He looked at the man he used to admire and was a bit shocked to see he had both eyes and less scars.

"You'd better be telling the truth, laddie, or I'll make sure you never say anything again," the soon-to-be retired Auror warned, sitting and putting his wand on the table in front of him, his hand never leaving it.

"Right, now that you all know who I am, do you want to introduce yourselves?" Hydrus inquired, looking around the room at familiar and unfamiliar faces.

"NO!" Moody shouted, when people opened their mouths, "Constant Vigilance! You have no idea who this man is, we only have their word." He waved his free hand to the three known pranksters. "They've already shown they were in poor judgement, with Pettigrew. That and he hasn't taken a vow yet. You will wait for the Headmaster," he yelled, pounding his fist on the table. He glared at them as if inviting them to defy his words.

There were some protests and some nods in agreement. Hydrus just shrugged and sat between James and Sirius. "He's right, sorry I asked," he said with a casual lift of his shoulder as he put his hands on the table in clear view of the paranoid man.

It was at that time Dumbledore came into the room, noted the tension and looked around. He spotted Hydrus and his eyes lit up with inquiry. "Good evening, everyone, I see we have a guest this evening. Am I to assume this is Sirius' older cousin? The resemblance to Sirius is uncanny," he said as he took his usual seat.

"Albus, may I present my cousin from my father's side, Hydrus Black," Sirius said seriously.

"Good evening, Headmaster," Hydrus said with a nod.

"Ah, it is a pleasure to meet you, my boy," the old man said, noting the grimace at the words 'my boy'. "I do want to thank you for the potions. They have been most helpful. Would you perhaps give the directions to my friend, Poppy? She is in charge of the healing for the Order as well as Hogwarts."

"Sure, I have little problem with that," Hydrus shrugged and pulled out the recipe, handed it to James, who passed it along. "Be warned it is patented so she can't sell it."

"Thank you, very much." The old man said putting the parchment in his robe, "Now then, I would like for you to tell us what had occurred at young Frank's house and why you felt the need to take two lives," he said, stroking his beard, the twinkle in his eyes dimmed a bit.

"Well, I was visiting Sirius at the Potters and Lily got a strange feeling that we should get to the Longbottoms…" Hydrus said, reciting mostly the truth, leaving out his banter with Tom. "As for taking lives, I'll tell you the same thing I told Remus, it was either take the lives of the Death Eaters or innocents would've died or been insane. I chose to protect the Longbottoms." He finished with a shrug and grinned at Frank, who gave a heartfelt smile back.

"Alas, I feel you could have stunned them and left them to the Aurors," the Headmaster said with a disappointed look.

"Alas, I feel we're going to have to disagree on that," the immortal jibed back with the same disappointed look, making the Order members look at each other in confusion.

"Do you not think that all life is precious?" was the rebuttal, the twinkle completely gone from those old eyes.

"I feel that those men and women made their choices to be evil," came the stoic answer. "They only want to kill or thoroughly maim. Why should I not retaliate in kind?" Hydrus asked with a tilt of his head. "Is my life not precious?" he rebutted.

"Of course, my boy, however we should endeavor to never meet violence with violence," Dumbledore said gently, but firmly.

"Then your look on the value of life is obscure," Hydrus stated flatly.

Many at the table nodded and voiced their agreement, while many others disagreed and took up the Headmasters side. They all stopped with Dumbledore held up his hands.

"They can be reformed," Albus said firmly.

"No, they can't," Hydrus returned in kind.

Everyone fell silent at that, not very many people so blatantly disagreed with their leader.

"Does that not make you a Dark Wizard?" the Headmaster asked, his magic starting to pour off him.

"I can take a vow to you and all that are here, that I am not nor will I ever be a Dark Wizard," Hydrus said calmly, not a bit impressed with the magical flare.

"That would put my mind at ease," the Leader of the Light said, relaxing his magic and stroking his beard again. He was looking at the young looking man with puzzled eyes. To be able to kill and not be Dark was not something he entertained often.

"Mr. Moody, I have to pull my wand," Hydrus said, cutting a look the man whose wand was once again raised toward his head.

"You do anything suspicious and I'll blast your head off."

"Fair enough," Hydrus said as he took his holly wand out of the wand holder that he had placed there just for the meeting. "I, Hydrus Williamsford Black, swear on my life and magic that I am not, nor will I ever be, a Dark Wizard and that I have never taken the life of an innocent, so I swear it, so mote it be," he intoned, the blue light sealing the vow.

Everyone relaxed when he didn't drop dead. Well, not Moody, but he did lower his wand.

"James, are you sure you can entrust this man with your secret?" the Headmaster asked, turning his eyes to the messy-haired man.

"Dammit, Dumbledore, why did you have to ask that? Now you've endangered his life," James yelled, standing up and causing his chair to fall.

"I have told you, I trust everyone at this table completely," the old man said calmly.

"Just like we trusted Peter," James all but spat in his face as he leaned on the table.

"James, it's okay," Hydrus said, putting his hand on the man's arm. Sirius righted the chair and the two Blacks guided the irked man to sit.

"No, it bloody well is not okay. He had no right to spill my secrets while he keeps his own," the male Potter gritted, still glaring at the leader.

"I am just as protected as you are," Hydrus said calmly. He then turned to the Leader of the Light and said, "He does have a point. You had no right telling that. It was his secret to share or not. You took that from him with little thought to his feelings or wants. Is this how you run everything in your little group? Just doing what you will and damn the consequences." He waved his hand to the others at the table.

"No, you both are correct, I should have pulled James to the side and asked in confidence," Albus said with remorse in his eyes. "I am truly sorry, James, I did not mean to upset you. I only wanted to make sure that you trusted someone you know little about." The twinkle did not come back to his eyes as he did his best to look remorseful.

"And, pray tell, how do you know how much or how little he knows about me?" the immortal inquired with the lifting of an eyebrow.

"I have never heard of you until a few weeks ago, therefore, James could have only known you for that amount of time," the Headmaster said in a reasonable tone.

Hydrus chuckled and said, "Wow, you're a bit full of yourself." Making many start to shout in protest.

"And why do you say that, young man?" the Headmaster said steadfastly, looking over his half-moon spectacles, after gaining calm.

"Do you really think you know everyone that everyone at this table is associated with? I mean, they all have lives, met people and get to know them without having to tell you who those people are and what they talked about. Or do you really require that of this group? Because I have to tell you, that is not a way to gain trust," the immortal lectured and looked around at all the sheepish faces at the table and came to the conclusion that they did tell the Headmaster everyone they met and what they talked about.

"It is imperative that I do know who is talking to whom so that things like young Peter do not happen," Albus defended his actions.

"And yet it happened anyway," Hydrus said and then waved it off. "Do you offer the same courtesy?"

"I am the leader of the Order of Phoenix, Headmaster of Hogwarts, Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards and Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot and there are many people that I associate with that have nothing to do with this organization," was the answer, still defensive.

"When do you have time to sleep?" Hydrus quipped back, dropping the argument for now. "I mean, you're old and hold so many positions, really, when do you sleep?" he tilted his head in innocent confusion.

"Two of those positions take up very little of my time. I sleep quite well, thank you. You need not concern yourself with my affairs," was the mild reprimand.

"Yet you feel you can concern yourself with everyone else's. Look, I get you want to protect your Order, but they are allowed to have lives outside your radar. Field of influence," he reiterated at the confused looks.

"I agree," came the voices of James, Sirius, Frank, Gideon, Fabian and a grumbling Moody.

"I was going to ask if you wanted to join the Order, but, alas, I can now see that you would cause too much discord. So I will have to ask you leave this meeting," Albus said, once again looking over his glasses and giving a disappointed look to the disagreeable young man.

"One thing before I go, I'd like to offer you the same wards that I put up on the Potters and the Longbottoms," the time traveler said, not the least bit put out by the demand to leave.

"Are these wards harmful in anyway?"

"No, they will simply stun and bind anyone with ill intent," Hydrus said.

"Very well," the Headmaster conceded.

"I charge one hundred galleons," the dark-haired man said.

"You would charge an organization with the sole purpose of taking out Voldemort," Albus asked, shock showing on his aged face.

"Both the Potters and the Longbottoms had no problem with a man trying to make a living," Hydrus lied, knowing that he hadn't charged the Potters, but they were family, mostly.

Frank nodded in agreement. "They are well worth the money," he said defensively. "You should pay the man. He does good work."

"I will think upon it and let Sirius know when I have reached an answer. Now, I must insist that you take a vow to never reveal this place to anyone or submit to having the knowledge taken from your mind," Albus said in a benevolent voice, as if it was no big thing to ask.

"No one gets near my mind, old man. I'll take your vow and go." So he recited a quick vow to never tell of where the Order met and took his leave.

"I'm not sure I like the way you treated my cousin, Albus," Sirius said, cutting a glance to James, who was holding to his anger by a thread.

"He was disrespectful to the Headmaster," Dorcas said, glaring at the younger Black.

"How? By asking questions and disagreeing with the answers. Are we all supposed to just nod our heads each time Albus says something?" Sirius bit back, banging his fist on the table.

"Now, now, let us not fight amongst ourselves. Of course you are allowed to inquire and disagree with me," the Headmaster said, making calming motions with his hands.

"Yet, when one man does you accuse him of being a troublemaker and ask him to leave," Gideon pointed out with a huff. He agreed with everything the other Black said.

"He was doing more than questioning me. He was showing disrespect to our organization as a whole. We do not need such doubts brought up if we are to fight together," was the calm reply.

"Right," the Prewett twin said, folding his arms across his chest, "and if we agree with what he said, are you going to kick us out as well?"

"You are a trusted member of this assemblage," was the non-answer.

"Right," was the disgruntled reply.

And the meeting once again turned to chaos, while the Headmaster sat back and contemplated on the events of the evening. He let the arguing go on for about ten minutes and then told everyone to go home.

Hphphp

Hydrus returned to the Potters and entered the home. He thumped down in his chair with a satisfied grin plastered on his face.

"What did you do?" Lily asked, knowing that grin anywhere. James and Sirius had it often enough.

"Well, I might have started people questioning the old man's control," he confessed and gave her the highlights of the meeting.

Lily giggled and then sobered. "You shouldn't make an enemy of Albus. He's a very influential man," she chastised.

"Don't worry, I think I got him thinking about some things, but he is old and set in his ways, so it will take more than one meeting to change that," Hydrus said with a wave of his hand. "The guys should be back soon, so let's pop some popcorn and put in an action flick."

So they got up and did just that and they were ten minutes into the film when everyone came stomping into the house. James sat next to Lily, Remus next to them and Sirius took the other chair. None of the men looked happy.

"I'm not going to fight with you, Remus," Hydrus said with resolve at the look on the man's face. "I know you think I was out of line, but you keep your opinion to yourself and we'll have a lovely evening watching people blow each other up." He pointedly turned away from the werewolf.

"Right," the resentful man said and sat back to mull over the meeting, not the least bit interested in the movie.

It took a while, but soon everyone relaxed and started talking about the characters on the screen. The evening was uneventful from there, until everyone who didn't live there made their excuses and went home.

"So what happened? Hydrus was being vague," Lily asked, snuggling into her husband, who tensed at the question.

"Albus," he spat, "made Hydrus take two different vows and then kicked him out of the meeting." He was still very pissed at the treatment and accusations the Headmaster bestowed on his immortal son. "He made him prove he wasn't a Dark Wizard and then made him swear he'd never tell where the Order met."

"James," she said tentatively, "those aren't unreasonable vows. He is only trying to protect you guys."

"Lily, how can you say that?" the shocked man asked, pulling away and facing her. "That's our son."

"Yet, Albus doesn't know that," she said calmly, putting her hand on his arm. "Besides, after the blood adoption he is more like a cousin, and I think, for Harry's sake, we should think of him that way. I know Hydrus agrees," she added, noting that the older man never called them Mum or Dad.

That made him pause. It was true Hydrus never replied to them in a familial sense, and the Headmaster had no idea who the time traveller was. His anger lessened, but he was still miffed. "He also told him that he was causing too much discord," he paraphrased, trying to hold on to his anger.

"Which Hydrus told me was what he wanted to do," came the gentle argument.

"Really? Well damn," James huffed and rearranged them back into a cuddling position. They sat in silence while James considered what she said. If Hydrus' whole point behind his being there was to make people question the Headmaster, who was he to get upset? "Let's go to bed," he finally said, getting up and taking her hand.

"Let's," she agreed with a saucy wink, making her husband chuckle and kiss her firmly. Then he ran up the stairs and they once again stayed up late.

Hphphp

Hydrus hit two more houses that night, leaving Sirius behind. Everything he stole he already had from his last timeline, so he would have to figure out what to do with them. He could either sell the Dark books and items in Knockturn Alley or simply destroy them. Either way he didn't care. They were all on the book-reader anyway, so it really didn't matter.

He went home satisfied at the dissonance he started and fell into his bed with the mental reminder to brew Wolfsbane potion tomorrow.