Headquarters

"Do you remember meeting my cousin, Tonks?" Sirius asked David at breakfast a week later while David was dutifully reading the newspaper.

"Yeah, she's a metamorphmagus isn't she?" said David folding up the paper.

"Yes," said Sirius. "I was wondering whether you'd like to reveal your ability to her. She could probably help you master it more easily than Professor McGonagall can."

"I'd like that," said David. "But what do I tell her?"

"We'll just keep it simple," said Sirius. "As a member of the Order, Tonks knows not to enquire about where you are living. All we need say is that you've recently discovered you can morph and ask for her help. You can say that you have been working on it with Professor McGonagall – the Order all know you are having special tuition, they just don't know how special it really is."

"So I assume I meet her at headquarters? Can I visit Ron and Hermione too?"

"Yes. As soon as you are ready."

David did not need telling twice. His life at Lions' Den was safe, but a bit boring. Severus was rarely there, with his spying and pretending not to be associated with the Crimson House, he had little time to escape notice and visit. So they made the most of their lessons together. Sirius and Remus were often out too, on tasks for the Order, but they tried to be around for David whenever they could. David half wished he could live at Headquarters with Ron and Hermione but he understood that Lions' Den was much safer and more conducive to learning Zia magic. He would not have the Quirinius Cella or the library at Headquarters.

"You'd better look like Harry," said Sirius as David was about to step into the fire. David morphed his features and jumped in. He fell out of the fireplace in the hall of Headquarters. Sirius arrived behind him and held out his arm to help David back up. "Go find your friends," he said. "I'll call you when we are ready."

David walked up the stairs to Ron's bedroom, careful to keep his balance, but it was empty. He pushed out his senses and found a group of sources of magic in one of the rooms on the floor above. Those must be witches and wizards. He climbed the stairs and headed for the sources. David found an open door and peered in. Mrs Weasley was there with Ron, Hermione and Ginny. They were trying to clean a pair of black curtains. On closer inspection they appeared infested with Doxies. Ron and Hermione were trying to spray them with some kind of soapy liquid.

"Hello?" said David.

"Hello Harry dear," said Mrs Weasley. "We'll be with you in a moment." She put a bottle of spray down and backed away from the curtains. Ron, Hermione and Ginny followed suit. "Perhaps it is time for a break," said Mrs Weasley. "I'm sure we could all do with a cup of tea." She made sure they were all out of the room and locked the door behind them. David realised how dangerous Headquarters was for an underage witch or wizard who therefore could not defend themselves with magic. He would be easily uncovered as a Zia here unless he kept his wits about him.

Mrs Weasley began to descend the stairs to put the kettle on. The teenagers followed behind just out of whisper shot. "Thanks Harry," whispered Ron. "We'll take all the breaks from that that we can get."

There was a noise behind them and they turned to see a strange small creature trying to get through the locked door.

"Don't do that Kreacher," said Hermione gently. "You know you're not supposed to. Mr Black will be angry."

Kreacher turned around and looked at them. He seemed about to say something, and then saw David and his eyes widened before he scuttled away.

David looked after the disappearing House Elf. Kreacher looked terrible, even worse than when David had been living in the house. David could feel that something was wrong there, and dangerous.

"How are you Harry?" asked Hermione. "We heard about the hearing. They can't convict you they just can't. It's so clear."

"Clear to you maybe," said David. "But to anyone who thinks I'm a wizard… But it'll be fine. Dumbledore's going to help me."

"So why you here Harry?" asked Hermione.

"Sirius's idea," said Harry. "Wants me to meet his cousin or something." He met Hermione's eye and knew she had understood. She would tell Ron later. "I hadn't realised you were working so hard, makes me feel a bit guilty that I'm not helping you."

"Don't worry mate," said Ron. "I think you've got the worse deal, lessons everyday of the summer holidays with Snape!"

They entered the kitchen just as the kettle started whistling and were soon sitting around with cups of tea. Sirius and Tonks had joined Mrs Weasley before they arrived. Mr Weasley walked in behind them. He had a bright pink Frisbee in his hand. "Hermione," he said, "what do Muggles use this thing for? Lunch or dinner?"

"It's a children's toy," said Hermione with a straight face. "Like a Fanged Frisbee only without the teeth."

"Oh welcome Harry," said Mr Weasley spotting him. He turned back to Hermione. "So do Muggles have something against teeth then?" Hermione tried not to laugh, after all her parents were dentists. Tonks and David snorted into their tea.

Mrs Weasley gave her 'helpers' ten minutes rest before taking them back up to tackle the curtains.

"Mind if I stay?" asked Mr Weasley. "I've always wondered how morphing worked."

"I don't mind if Harry doesn't," said Tonks. David shrugged.

"Very well," said Sirius.

"So, show us what you can do," said Tonks. David looked intently at Mr Weasley and began to morph his head the way the books had suggested. Tonks was impressed as she watched David's head morph feature by feature into Mr Weasley's.

"Well done," said Tonks as Mr Weasley stared at David in astonishment.

David's features began to change again until he wore his 'David' appearance. Tonks looked at him in surprise. "That's your normal shape, isn't it?" she said. Mr Weasley looked between Tonks and David. He looked nothing like the Potters now.

"Er, I think Mum was red haired," said David looking at Sirius for help.

"Yeah, and your grandfather had blue eyes," said Sirius sending Tonks a warning look.

"I suppose you wanted to be like your parents, so that would explain how you were almost a carbon copy of James Potter. Far too like him in many ways. It would have been a subconscious morphing."

"Yeah," said David. "Like not needing a haircut after a disastrous one Aunt Petunia gave me. I just subconsciously morphed my hair so that I would never need one."

"Okay," said Tonks. "Let's get started. So you can mimic someone else, superficially anyway. Now you need to practice the smaller changes that lend character; the shape of the fingernail, the lobe of the ear and so on. When you have managed that we can move on to the harder changes of build, weight and height."

Tonks demonstrated small morphs and David copied her, paying attention to her tips on how it felt. Sirius got bored after ten minutes and left the room, taking Mr Weasley with him.

After an hour David was tingling all over. He had been morphing his skin and flesh so much that it all smarted a bit. Tonks recognised the feeling and drew the lesson to a close, promising that they would start on bone morphing next lesson. David left the room to find Sirius and instead walked into a pair of Weasley twins.

"Who are you?" they asked together, wands raised. David realised with dread that he was still looking like David rather than Harry. After all that morphing his skin felt bruised and anything other than his natural shape was difficult to maintain.

"Ah Cuthbert," said a voice behind him. David twirled around to see Tonks standing behind him. "These are Messers Fred and George Weasley. Fred, George, this is my friend Cuthbert…"

Fred looked intently at 'Cuthbert.'

"Harry?" he said, spotting the scar under David's curls. "Well, this is unexpected."

"Come with me," said Tonks, waving her wand down the hallway and sending a Patronus message to Sirius. She ushered them all into the now deserted kitchen looking more serious than the twins had ever seen her. The twins sat down in silence and David sat down opposite them. In walked their father and Sirius Black.

Sirius spoke first. "Fred, George, Harry being a metamorphmagus is an Order secret. You need to keep it for Harry's sake."

"Of course we will," said Fred.

"You can count on us," said George saluting Sirius.

"Nobody will find out that Harry is scared of rabbits from us," agreed Fred.

"Boys, this is serious," said their father.

Fred and George stopped playing about and looked serious. It was a strange look for them.

"Change back Harry," said Sirius.

"I can't," said David. "I've been morphing so much this last hour I can't do anything more."

"I'm sorry," said Tonks banging her head on the table. "I should have realised that would happen given how new Harry is to this. I worked him too hard. Any experienced metamorphmagus would have known to stop before this happened."

There was the sound of footsteps outside the kitchen and Sirius immediately waved his wand at the door which shut and locked itself. They had to get David out of Headquarters without any of the remaining children seeing him. Then Sirius thought about it. Ron and Hermione already knew; that just left Ginny. This was seeming more possible.

"Mr Black," said Fred looking at George. "We apologise for tricking Harry into eating those sweets…"

"We should not have been testing them on him…" continued George.

"His appearance should be back to normal within a few hours," said Fred.

"Brilliant," said Sirius as angry pounding could be heard on the door.

The twins plan worked as far as Ginny was concerned. She had no difficulty believing that David had been on the receiving end of one of the twins' products. Everyone else went along with it and within ten minutes Sirius and David were back at Lions' Den and breathing a sigh of relief.

"Sirius?" said David. "I saw Kreacher. How did he get like that?"

"He shouldn't have come anywhere near you," said Sirius angrily. "I'll have a word with him. I didn't want him to see too much of you. He's loyal to my mother's portrait more than to me, I'm worried about what she might tell him to do with that knowledge. To answer your question though, I don't know… he's always been strange, even for a House Elf."

"Okay," David paused. Something had been on his mind for a while, and perhaps this was as good a point as any to approach Sirius with it. "Sirius? You know how we do stuff together, you and me, cos you're my godfather and everyone thinks you're my guardian?"

Sirius looked at David in concern, but nodded.

"Well, sometimes I feel like I know you and Remus better than I know Father. I mean, you've introduced me to your cousin, you play pranks on me. When I've been ill in the Hospital Wing, you're the one who's been there for me..."

"David," said Sirius. "What are you trying to say to me?"

"I, I suppose, I've just been thinking... It's just Ron talks about his Dad, Hermione talks about her parents, but I've never really felt the urge to say much about Father. I know I'm not to say anything about him, but now I feel it's been too easy to keep that promise. Because, because, I don't really have much of a connection with him."

David glanced up at Sirius who was listening quietly, and decided to continue.

"He's just this person who punishes me when I'm bad. Or teaches me things like Legilimency because the headmaster told him to. I feel sometimes like I haven't got a father."

Sirius was looking intently at David when he came to a halt.

"David," said Sirius. "I think you need to talk with your Father about this not me. But, perhaps you should think about what you want from him. Your father and I are very different people. It's only right that you have different relationships with each of us, but if you're unhappy with how little you see of him, and it sounds like you are, then I think you need to talk with him and see whether you can make some changes."

"Can't you..."

"No," said Sirius. "This is something you and your father need to work out together or nothing will change. Come'on Small One, let's go find him."