On one of the few occasions Hydrus went to check on his shops he heard a disembodied female voice whisper in the air. "Death doesn't need a Master."
He whipped out his wand and whirled around to see who it was, causing people to look at him funny. They hadn't heard anything.
"Are you alright, Mr. Black?" a middle aged man asked at the freaked out look on the immortal's face.
"Yeah, sorry, I thought I heard someone," Hydrus said, running a hand down his face. "Must have been the wind. Thanks for asking," he said sincerely, lowering his wand and clapping the man on the shoulder.
"No problem, glad you're okay," the man said gently. And with a shake of his head he wandered off.
"I'm starting to look like a right nutter," the time traveler mumbled to himself, making him look like just that, causing people to edge away from him. When he noticed he chastised himself and put on an innocent smile and made his way to Fun For All. After getting a good report from Ellie, he went to Home Appliances of the Future and got a nice report from Mr. Parker, with whom he never had the same casual relationship he had with Ellie. His eyes kept flitting from face to face in the Alley as he made his way home.
"It has to be someone who works in Diagon Alley," Remus concluded, after they heard what happened. "These things only happen to you there, so they have to see you to cast these spells."
"You're right," Hydrus agreed, making him brighten at the small clue. "I'll have my investigator cross check everyone."
"Do you think it could be someone you employ?" Sirius asked, going over the shops workers.
"No, Mark cleared them," he said, waving that away. He was thinking about what shops were in the Alley and who he knew there. He picked up the phone and called Mark to let him know what they thought, the detective promised to do some checking and hung up. The chat turned to a more relaxing venue and soon the men went to bed.
The floating words stopped in the sky, but the whispers became more frequent. Every time he stepped into the shopping district he was assaulted with those disembodied words. It got to the point that reports on the businesses were done by phone calls.
The agency came up with a small list of suspects that they were looking into. Most of the women on that list couldn't pull off the spells that haunted Hydrus. The others he dismissed as being good people.
Hydrus decided that it was time to get away for a while, so he told the others he was going on vacation with Grace, hoping that the woman plaguing him wouldn't follow. They went to Sweden to relax and enjoy the hospitality of the country. They spent a week camping in the forest and visiting the Viking Magical village, Fredriksson's.
The old-fashioned marketplace, with the colorful robes and clothing styles made the country a very nice place to visit. They made sure to pick up gifts for everyone and spent a lot of time walking the trails and looking at the non-magical ruins; though Hydrus had a feeling some of them were forgotten magical villages. The runes carved into the stones, peeking out of the grass, in the parks were fascinating and Grace was enthralled with the language.
The two went home completely relaxed. Grace had to catch up on her missing class assignments and Hydrus had to correct all the homework he had assigned Harry.
In the week they were gone nothing bad had happened, thank Merlin. Harry and Sirius visited the Grangers with Neville and Luna. The Weasleys had begged off, stating that the younger children had not behaved that week and couldn't go anywhere.
An article ran in the Quibbler about the discovery of the Crumple-Horned Snorkack. There on the front page, in glossy colored photos was an ugly creature that looked like a cross between an armadillo and a unicorn, with its round armored body, shiny white coat and bright blue eyes. The horn on its head was indeed crumpled. The story that followed depicted the exciting tale of how the Lovegood family finally found the creature and how they were going to study it in its natural environment. This caused the publication's subscriptions to soar, making Hydrus feel better.
The whole family was all settled in the living room playing the video games and generally having a good time. Harry was sitting next to his Uncle Padfoot watching him get demolished by Uncle Remus.
"Uncle Padfoot," Harry said, getting the man's attention. "Why do you keep playing this game with Uncle Remus when he always wins?"
"Sometimes you just have to keep trying no matter how many times you lose," Sirius answered with a big grin. "That way when you do win, you'll feel great. One day I'm going to beat your Uncle Remus and he's going to have to work harder to beat me. This pushes us to do better." He mussed the child's hair and turned back to the screen just in time to see his avatar die. "Cheater," he accused.
"You were the one to get distracted," the werewolf defended himself with a smirk.
"Let that be another lesson to you, Harry. Don't get distracted," Sirius said seriously.
"Oh, okay," the child said, not really understanding.
"You'll figure it out," the dogfather said, and then started a new game.
"Harry," Hydrus said, looking up from the homework he was correcting, "come here a minute. I want to explain one of the questions you asked."
....
Can't wait to read ahead by more than 60 exciting premium chapters.
Then Join my p*atreon right now.
Link: p#atreon.com/InfinityWeaver (Remove the #)
Free members can unlock 2 chapters.