"Harry," George said, "don't be a stranger, okay?"
"I won't," he promised, "you don't be either. If you need a place to get away, call Kreacher. I'll give him permission to tell you the secret." And with that he made his way out of the shop, feeling a little better about his friend. He did some shopping, getting robes, books and potion ingredients. Not spending too much time in the Alley, since he was still hearing gossip about Harry Potter being a Dark Lord.
Some witches were speculating that since he wasn't returning to Hogwarts it only confirmed their beliefs. The young man had no clue how that information got to the populace, but he knew they were grasping at straws. Anything he did would be seen in a bad light, making the young man more determined to be shot of these stupid people.
Oh, not everyone thought he was the new Voldemort, most of the Muggle-born beggars felt that he was their savior, but since the camps killed a lot of them, they were the minority. Hydrus made a mental note to do what he could for them, before he completed his plans. Maybe offering up one of his houses as a sanctuary, or leaving money to charity in the will he was going to write. Not that he could leave much, as he needed his fortune with him. But he could part with a few thousand galleons.
Shaking himself out of those thoughts, the new Black left the Alley. He made his way back to Grimmauld Place and started his research once again. He was determined that the absurdity of the wizarding world wasn't going to put him off his path.
Hermione and Ron didn't come to see him before they went back to Hogwarts. They did send him a joint letter explaining that they made up and were still together. Hydrus shook his head and washed his hands of that particular bit of news. Hermione was a big girl and could make her own decisions. He did have a feeling that it was Ron's whining that kept the two away. Molly owled him and invited him to the Burrow again, and this time had Arthur state that Harry was welcome anytime. He turned down the offer, stating he needed to keep up with his studies.
George was a constant visitor. He used Grimmauld Place as a refuge from his Mum, who was trying to get him to move back to the Burrow. The two men spent a lot of time on the inventions, going over the notes and getting a better understanding on how it was done. It only took days for them to make a magical joy buzzer that was based off the research. It was a small, yet useful start.
The weeks went by quickly, with the research and the planning. Finally Hydrus got a laptop to work in the house. He hadn't figured out how to upload books into it, but he did get it to work on the Internet, by having the non-magicals come and hook him up. He had had to put illusions all over the house to make it look normal. After they put the lines in, he took it from there, by casting a Confundus charm on them, making them think they had finished the job. Having access to the World Wide Web made his research go much faster, with search engines and mass webpages on theory, he had more information.
It was during those weeks that he decided that he would seek a mental health specialist. The counselor he was seeing diagnosed him with survivor's guilt and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. They were slowly, but surely, making progress on his nightmares and flashbacks. He, of course, didn't tell her everything, just that most of the people he loved died due to a serial killer that was after him and that he had escaped from the man many times.
He told her about the Dursleys and how they blamed everything on him, plus, the abuse they did to him as a child; the isolation, the cupboard, the constant put-downs and the meager food rations. It took a few sessions to make Hydrus understand that it was actual abuse, and that it wasn't his fault. When she asked where the Dursleys were now, he just shrugged and said he didn't know and didn't care as long as they were out of his life.
The counselor made sure the young man knew that it would take years of sessions to get him over his trauma. The young man sighed and made sure he had enough money to pay for them, if he was going to do what he needed to do then he couldn't go off halfcocked.
These sittings also made him do some deep meditation on his past. He came to the conclusion that everything that happened in Hogwarts was a test, maybe not set up for that purpose, after all how would Dumbledore know that Sirius was going to break out of prison. However, the headmaster and the staff, never once stood up for him, letting the then Harry weather the storms with only a few people standing by him. It also made him realize that Dumbledore was working behind the scenes to make those trials harder than they had to be, why else would the staff treat him so different than other students.
Those deep thought sessions did make him appreciate the times Ron and Hermione came to his rescue. He knew that were it not for those two he would have failed any challenge put before him. However, it also made him angrier at the times Ron deserted him or Hermione over petty things. Conflicting emotions of the redhead made sleeping harder, but, he was working his way through them.
The more he went into his past the steadier he came to an understanding with himself. Now the anger could be channeled to more useful things, like his studies. Oh, he was still going to get his revenge, but if he was in control then it would be sweeter.
The counselor suggested that he rid himself of anyone stress inducing and to work on improving himself and let others move on without him. It was a work in progress, because he didn't want to lose Hermione, but he wanted to cut his ties with her boyfriend.