The four teachers flooed into the Burrow to discover the tables again set up and the guests preparing to sit down for a high tea. McGonagall immediately spotted Hermione and went over to check for herself that her protégé was indeed recovering. Once satisfied she moved to the table and sat down with Dumbledore. David and Remus made were greeted by a lively Snuffles who seemed overjoyed at their positive demeanour on returning. They sat down with Charlie and Tonks who were near the Grangers trying to shield them from Arthur's inane questions.
After a brief period of embarrassment for David in with the Grangers thanked him profusely for saving their daughter's life and he made sure to point out Neville's role, the meal was an enjoyable affair. As it drew to a close with a distinct lack of mint humbugs Arthur rose to speak. He thanked everyone for coming and expressed a hope that they would gather together on many more occasions. He mentioned the events in the orchard praising Neville, Charlie and David for their actions. Once he had finished the table was cleared and coffee produced. Some guests started to leave whilst others moved seats to talk to new people.
David watched Dumbledore head towards Hermione and then felt McGonagall's hand on his shoulder. She gestured towards Neville and his grandmother. David excused himself and the two of them approached the Longbottoms. They explained that David had been discussing his research with Professor Dumbledore and the possibility that Neville was suffering from magical repression which was not a widely recognized condition and so had not yet been picked up. David asked Neville a few questions about his abilities and those of his relatives, learning while doing so what had happened to Neville's parents.
"Well Neville," he concluded, "I think there is a strong possibility that you have magical repression. I can teach you to overcome it. It'll be hard work but what I'll get you to learn will be beneficial even if you don't suffer from it. Hopefully your memory and magical power will improve dramatically. I'm afraid the earliest I can meet with you is Wednesday though. Do you know how to use a phone?"
"Yes, Hermione taught me."
"Excellent, I'll give you my card," said David fishing one out and handing it over. "I'm afraid owls can't reach me. Give me a ring tomorrow and we'll set up a time to meet, if that would be alright with you Mrs Longbottom? It would help if you were also present."
Neville's grandmother gave her consent. McGonagall added, "I expect you to work hard Mr Longbottom. This could seriously improve your NEWT scores. David is willing to help you over the summer as a favour to me, so don't make him regret it."
"Yes Professor, thank you, and thank you sir."
As they moved off McGonagall turned to David. "I think you'd better give me one of those cards too," she said. "You didn't mention before that you couldn't receive owls."
"The place I live has no windows, and I travel around so much that any owl tracking me would get very confused. I suppose that now I have a proper job I had better think of purchasing an owl." The conversation drifted back to Neville and David explained the process of meditation which combated the repression. "It'd be good for you even if you haven't got repression," he claimed. "It promotes mental wellbeing. But if you have repression you have to talk about the events which triggered it and then come to terms with them so they no longer have any power over you. Meditation helps the process. If the person isn't repressed dealing with any traumatic memories should at least help them sleep better!"
"There must be more to it than that!"
"Meditation is very powerful. Using it you can manipulate your magical core. In simple terms that is how I was able to heal Hermione, but physical injuries are easier to heal than mental ones."
Charlie approached David and asked him if they could postpone returning to Romania until the next afternoon. "I've got tomorrow off you see, and Mum asked if I could stay so?" David readily agreed and then headed towards Remus and with McGonagall's help managed to rescue him from the school aged guests who were pestering him to find out if he would be teaching them or not. David arranged to meet Remus in London the next morning to go over the syllabi that Dumbledore had provided, and then left to say goodbye to their hosts. Molly insisted on inviting him to tea the next day since she had not had a chance to talk to him and he could leave with Charlie afterwards.
Once Remus and Snuffles had returned home and Sirius was able to transform and hold a conversation David's actions of the day were immediately dissected.
"I've replaced your 'maybe' with a 'yes," was the first thing Sirius said.
"No it's maybe." Sirius looked at him disapprovingly and Remus tried to explain. "I feel drawn to him, I need to be near him, to protect him and look after him, but I don't have any romantic feelings for him, just a sense of closeness. I'm hoping that it will develop into romance because to be attracted to him on top of the other feelings would be wonderful."
"You said before that you had felt that way about someone else, did that develop into romance?"
"No, and I didn't want it to."
"Didn't you like that person?"
"No I did, but I didn't want to lust after him," from the look Sirius was giving him Remus realised he did not buy that. He resigned himself to explaining. "Sirius, I felt that way about Harry. I think it was some kind of paternal instinct, but why would I feel paternal about David? He's probably older than me." He sighed. "It's too complicated."
David and Remus spent the next morning sitting in a muggle coffee shop going over the syllabi for the DADA OWL and NEWT and planning what to teach to each year group. They moved to the wizarding section of the British Library for the afternoon to browse possible textbooks. Just after four David left Remus to his reading and apparated to the Burrow for tea.
Later that evening Molly firecalled Sirius. "Hello Molly," he said, "how did the interrogation go?"
"Well David is a bit eccentric," she declared. "He wouldn't shake hands, didn't do so yesterday either. I have managed to establish that he is not in a relationship, but he declares his intent on not starting one either. The good news is that he is gay. Hermione managed to manipulate Fleur into giving him the full vela treatment. He laughed and told her that that might have worked when he was younger but he had since discovered that his interests lay elsewhere."
"That's a start," agreed Sirius.
"David did say that he wanted to get to know Remus better, and I gather he found out about Remus's condition yesterday so it obviously doesn't bother him."
The two proceeded to make a plan of attraction.