That evening found Ron, Hermione, David and the members of the Order of the Phoenix celebrating the long awaited freedom of Sirius Black. It had been decided that they would have a party at the Order's headquarters. Albus, as secret keeper, had revealed the location to David before Moody could protest which did nothing to prevent him staring suspiciously at David the whole time he was there. Although David had been hoping for this moment for years and had spent time in Azkaban to help it come about he found he was unable to enjoy the celebration. Sirius should be celebrating with his godson not a stranger.
Fred and George, being residents of headquarters, had a large amount of prank equipment on hand and ensured that the party was lively. Tonks helped it along frivolously using her metamorphmagus talents to entertain by changing her hair colour every few minutes. David felt a bit left out of things. Sirius had insisted on him being there since he had been the reason there had been a trial in the first place as well as the reason it had a favourable outcome. David had firmly reminded him not to tell anyone that he and the Crimson Lord were the same person.
David ended up sitting melancholically in a corner drinking butterbeer and wishing his former friends knew who he really was. He knew in his heart that Sirius would not have been freed if he had not spent time in Azkaban and thereby discovered his heritage as a zia but it hurt badly that he could not share this experience as a member of Sirius's family.
The party guests were astonished when Severus Snape joined them half way through the evening. "Severus, I am delighted that you have put aside your disagreements with Sirius and are ready to congratulate him on his acquittal," said Molly spotting him. "Albus said he had been unable to persuade you to attend."
"David reminded me that the trial would have happened over three years ago if I had not interfered and insisted that I attend," replied Severus distastefully. David may have forced him to come but he could still use the occasion to his advantage in ensuring that Lupin be dissuaded from his advances. Molly, he was sure, was part of the Lupin-David matchmaking conspiracy.
Severus continued to shock those present by stalking up to Sirius extending his hand and saying, "Black, congratulations on your acquittal and my apologies for my part it its delay." Ordinarily Sirius would have cut his hand off before shaking Severus's, but since Severus obviously wanted him to refuse he decided to add to the man's discomfort and shook his hand. Sirius smiled benignly as Severus glared at him and stalked off to find David. As soon as his back was turned Sirius scowled.
David's consolation as the event made him more and more miserable was that he was now inside the elusive No. 12 Grimmauld Place and could look for the horcruxes as soon as Severus turned up to help him. He watched the exchange between his father and godfather with some amusement and then left the room with Severus to try some summoning charms in the hallway. Unfortunately none of the expected items responded. Severus then admitted that when the Order had first moved in there had been a campaign to clean up the place and a lot of items had been thrown out. It appeared that they were going to have to look elsewhere. Severus suggested some discrete questioning of Mundungus Fletcher would be a good start; unfortunately he had taken off a few months before when Sirius found him stealing some of his silverware.
"How are things going between you and David?" Sirius asked Remus after the party had died down and most of the guests had departed. David had offered to cover Remus's lessons the next day so that he could spend some time with his friend.
"Good, until term started," said Remus ruefully. "Then things started to go down hill. He's a bit of an enigma."
"He must like you a lot. I wouldn't even have had a trial if it wasn't for him. He doesn't know me from Adam so it must have been because of you."
"He knew you were innocent before I told him. When I said that a friend of mine had been arrested for something he didn't do and was likely to be kissed without a trial he immediately asked if it was you."
"It came out during his testimony that he knew James and Lily well. Lily had left a journal which was to be read me as Harry's guardian, but it was set up so that David could read it too, so they must have known him very well. I wonder why they never mentioned him."
"He mentioned James to me once, but when I brought the subject up later I got the impression that their deaths are still a bit too raw for him. I get the feeling he either knew Harry or at least kept track of him. He has got Albus to re-examine whether Harry was guilty or not."
Sirius gulped. "There's a chance he was innocent?"
"Yes, and reading between the lines I think David thinks that Albus set him up, but I can't get much out of David on the subject. Come to think of it he is pretty tight on any non-academic topic."
"Perhaps I should have a chat with him later. It seems I really owe him - I wouldn't be around if he hadn't testified. Nor would I have had a trial."
"True; and he only found out from me about that by chance. I had no idea he would be able to help at the time."
"So forgetting the trial, what happened to make things difficult between you two?"
"He's been a bit distant. Things were going really well when he first moved in to Hogwarts. He told me that James told him to get to know me because he wanted him to marry me."
"Sounds like he gave you a good opening there!"
"I thought so, but he threw me into a wall when I acted on it. He apologised afterwards, said it was a reflex action and he didn't mean it, but things between us cooled for a bit. And then since the beginning of term I've hardly seen him except in classes and he has been spending a lot of time with Severus who has apparently known him for years."
"I wouldn't put it past Snivelus to be blackmailing him. That or in it for the money and status. I'm sure his slimy Slytherin mind is just in it for the power of being the Crimson Sire. Though from what I've seen of him I would hope that David would…"
"Back up a moment; 'Crimson Sire?' Are you telling me that David is Lord Crimson?"
"Er oops? You knew he arranged the trial so I assumed you knew that too. Yes, David is a zia, head of the Crimson House and leader of the Crimson Fellowship and hence the Crimson Lord."
Remus looked perplexed, then horrified and finally hopeful. "Sirius, do you realise that that means that he is seventeen? It was in the Prophet over the summer that he had been sworn in. The previous Lord Crimson, David Dragon, died in 1989 and as I recall everyone thought that that was the end of the house, but then his grandson turned up out of the blue this summer when he wrote to the palace to arrange his inauguration for the day of his majority.
"Come to think of it, he did look a bit young when I took the pledge. Nothing like what he looked like in the court room so he is probably a metamorphmagus, I think I'd heard that that ran in his family."
"Sirius, there's more. The date the Crimson Lord was installed was the 31st of July; hence he was born the same day that Harry was born. Think about it; he knew about you and immediately went to help; he believes Harry was innocent and pretty much hates Albus; he refuses to say which school he went to just that 'he was only there a few years.' He agreed to go to Hogwarts because he thought Hermione was in danger. That journal of Lily's was set up for him to read, but she never mentioned him. He was really not keen when I kissed him which would be understandable added to which the only person I felt a connection to like David was Harry."
"Sounds like you're convinced, but it could just be wishful thinking. Albus said he had seen Harry being buried, and from what you say I get the impression that Albus does not know David is Harry because he would never have given someone of Harry's age a teaching job, so Albus is not in on the conspiracy."
"That's where the theory falls down isn't it?" agreed Remus. "David is capable of teaching to NEWT level yet Harry only spent four years at school and then spent most of the time since then in Azkaban."
"Azkaban?" growled Sirius. "Albus assured me that he was in St Mungo's. He used to take him messages for me."
"No, apparently he was in Azkaban. David mentioned it after we visited the Dursleys - who are alive apparently and sold Harry out knowing he was probably going to die - and Kingsley was quite put out. Apparently it - Azkaban - was not supposed to be common knowledge."
"I am getting the feeling that a lot of people have been lying to us," concluded Sirius bitterly. "You know, come to think of it, David was extremely keen to get that journal off me after the trial. I would imagine that if he is Harry then that journal would explain his parentage so that in the event of Harry being orphaned his guardian, i.e. me, would know his heritage and be able to prepare him for it."
Remus considered for a few moments. "I think we should ask David for the journal. If he is Harry he will probably tell us since he wouldn't want us to just read it blind."
"But if he is Harry what do we do? I'm not particularly pleased with Albus at the moment what with the whole 'he's in St Mungo's' business but shouldn't we tell him?"
"Well, David dislikes him. When he met him in July he told me 'under no circumstances leave me alone with that man.' Ultimately if it comes down to a choice, who would you go with Albus or Harry?"
"Harry," said Sirius firmly. "He's my godson and so far I've managed to leave him to grow up with muggles who hated him and to end up in Azkaban. He's probably repaid me by saving me from the kiss so it's about time I started living up to my responsibilities. You?"
"If David is Harry then I trust him. As you say, he saved you; he has also saved Hermione's life twice, once at serious risk of losing his own. Since he started working with Neville Longbottom Neville's grades have improved hugely. David is also an excellent teacher. Forget the fact that I'm in love with the guy. I'll stand by him."
"Yes about that Mr Moony. I'm not sure I approve of you having impure thoughts about my godson."
"I assure you I have had broken bones which prove your godson is perfectly capable of taking care of himself. Remember the whole point of coming of age at seventeen is that that is the age that soul-mates become physically attracted to each other. My feelings towards David/Harry changed the day he arrived at Hogwarts this summer, which would have been Harry's seventeenth birthday. Besides Prongs wanted us to marry."
"David told you that - you realise he can't possibly remember anything Prongs said, and Prongs would hardly have decided that Pronglet was destined for you at age fourteen months. Anyway, when did you work out you were the soul-mate of either of them?"
"With Harry - about a month after I resigned from Hogwarts. I realised that I had always known when he was in trouble. There had been times when I had become anxious for no apparent reason and that stopped after I left and there was a distance between us. I knew someone at Hogwarts was my soul-mate and I narrowed it down to him. With David - I didn't really know but I've suspected it since I felt the same way around him to when I was around Harry. When we visited the Dursleys and they told us what they had done to Harry; I could feel David's anger even after he had left the room to cool down."
"But you haven't told him have you?"
"Not yet, Severus has been making it appear that they are involved. We don't know what Severus's role in all this is. David claimed that Severus knows him better than anyone else alive. But why would Severus help Harry?"
"How is Harry able to boss Snivelus around?"
"How did Harry learn all he did?"
"What happened between Harry and Albus?"
"If Harry's a metamorphmagus why did nobody notice?"
"How did Harry escape from Azkaban?"
"How did Harry end up in Azkaban?"
"And what the hell actually happened that summer?"
"How did Harry end up with a reference from Nicholas Flamel?"
"I think Mr Moony that Mr Padfoot will be accompanying you back to the old alma mater tomorrow evening. Mr Pronglet has a lot of questions to answer."