Albus received a letter from an unfamiliar owl at breakfast in the great hall on Sunday morning. That in itself was not an unusual event since the headmaster was a known authority on many subjects and often received unsolicited mail. What caused Minerva to take notice was that on seeing the seal of the letter Albus opened it straight away and managed to absentmindedly butter his beard rather than his toast while his attention was occupied with its contents. On finishing it Albus handed the missive over to Severus who read it quickly before returning it.
"You knew?" asked Albus.
"Yes," said Severus, "but not the details. I spoke with Sirius about the items and David had got word of the events, but with the other events of the weekend my attention was elsewhere and I forgot to pass the information on. I believe I recognise the location he was hiding, but if he was there during the summer I saw no sign of him."
"Spinner's End?"
"Yes."
"If we can prove that it was demolished by Death Eaters you will be eligible for Ministry assistance to purchase a new home. There is also an ancient fund to ensure Hogwarts staff have homes to retire to if that fails."
"Thank you Albus," said Severus, "but it is unlikely that I will live long enough for it to be an issue." Had anyone else made the statement it would have been melodramatic, but Severus's close colleagues all knew that he had been living on borrowed time for years. As they left breakfast Minerva caught her colleague to offer her own assistance he brushed her off, though not unkindly. "I lived there for less than a month each year," he explained. "The house contained no belongings that I couldn't do without. In a way I am glad to be free of the obligation to return there. That house held few happy memories."
Minerva was not left to puzzle of the author of the letter or who 'he' was for long since Albus followed her to her office. Once they were alone she pointed out that he still had butter on his beard and he handed her the letter to read while he cleaned it.
"The news isn't good, but you must be pleased that Lord Crimson is communicating with you," she said when she had finished.
"I am, but the extent of his spy network bothers me, particularly since our own agents have not reported the incident. Severus knows who the agent is. He disappeared on Friday evening and went to Grimmauld place where David and Sirius were. It would make sense if the agent had been under the cruciatus curse for Severus to be called in to help, but David is a core healer, so Severus would only be needed if David were incapacitated."
"Which suggests that David is their spy."
"Except David can't be. Severus gave me his word that David was not a Death Eater. Not that he was a disloyal one but that he had never taken the mark or even sympathised with Voldemort's aims. I don't see how an outsider could have got close enough to get this information."
"I don't want to believe Severus lied to you either, but it is possible. It is also possible that David was injured in an unrelated incident and unable to help so Severus was called in unexpectedly. Halloween's a busy time so the revel must have been planned for a while for the participants to attend without being missed. If David left with Remus on a pretext so that he could actually spy on the Death Eaters and therefore there was a chance he would be injured and Severus would be needed to help him, surely they would have made sure Severus was available."
"Thank you my dear for being the voice of reason," said Albus pocketing the letter. "I was disappointed in Severus for not telling me what he knew but forgetting is human and he has done so much that I myself forgot that he could have a human weakness too."
"What do you want me to do?" asked Minerva. She actually wanted to know what Albus was going to do but knew better than to ask.
"Keep an eye on Severus, Remus and David as before but nothing more. I'm going to try to persuade Sirius, in his capacity as Lord Crimson's secretary, to book me an appointment with him. It is not too late for him to transfer to Hogwarts to finish his schooling. If you have any ideas for how to convince him to do so please let me know."
When David and Remus returned to the school on Sunday evening for the beginning of the weekly staff meeting (it had been postponed from Friday due to the Halloween feast) they were looking forward to their colleagues reactions to Remus's new ring. They had decided that it would be best for Remus to bond to David Antirrhinum, but for that name not to be associated with either David the teacher or the Crimson Lord. The Crimson Lord would have to reveal his full name during the wedding ceremony so that would be the best way of allowing him to keep his teaching job and a chance at a life outside the public eye. Once he turned eighteen he would have a lot more official duties since he would no longer be able to hide behind the idea that he was still at school. Neither of them would be likely to be able to continue teaching beyond the end of the school year, but they still hoped that David would be able to keep his false identity up so that he could escape the celebrity lifestyle from time to time. Remus was resigned to being unable to do so himself, but as Crimson Sire he would be less in demand anyway.
It was Minerva who first noticed the ring. She congratulated Remus quietly so that the rest of the staff would not know if he did not intend to announce it and then moved expectantly to David and paused when she saw that he was only wearing his customary wooden ring. There was nothing golden. David held his hands for her to see and shook his head slightly before nodding in Remus's direction and smiling to indicate that he was happy with the match. Albus had also noticed the ring and at the end of the meeting 'innocently' asked if there was any other business whilst looking directly at Remus, and David who was sitting next to him. Remus replied without ceremony that he had formed a soul-mate bond and was likely to be engaged within the next few weeks.
The staff congratulated him and Poppy who was the chief gossip monger, possibly because she could not talk about her work due to patient confidentiality, demanded to know all the details about his bond-mate. He described a man with red hair which caused everyone's attention to turn to David who forced himself to blush as Remus went on say he was not very tall, was keen on quidditch and named David. He then smirked as the description continued to include blue eyes and an age gap of a couple of decades making Remus the elder. By this point the staff realised they had been had and returned their attention to Remus as the meeting broke up into informal chatter and David slipped away.
Later that evening, David apparated from his own rooms into Remus's. Their bond was strong enough for limited telepathy while they were in close proximity and it was enough to enable David to know when it was safe to appear in his bond-mate's rooms and when it was not.
"How was it?" David asked settling himself in an armchair as Remus lay stretched out on the sofa.
"Difficult to keep to the story. I ended up having to tell them that I didn't know about a lot of things which led to Pomona worrying that I didn't know enough about you to be signing my life away on. Explain to me why knowledge of your favourite childhood toy is important to our relationship?"
"Not a clue, perhaps you can tell if I have serial killer tendencies from whether I preferred Lego or teddy bears. Since I have no memory of my childhood toys you'll have to come to your own conclusion."
"As a baby your favourite was whichever one James or Sirius had just taken away from you to play with themselves. Pomona would probably say that indicates you're transient in your affections. I think it more likely that the human clowns otherwise known as my friends held your attention better than some stuffed animal could. I saw Minerva slip out after you, did she catch you?"
David groaned dramatically. "Yes, she invited me to play chess and then played appallingly because she was trying to prevent the emotional breakdown she thought I could have instead of concentrating on her game. I ended up having to give her the celibacy speech followed by an account of the week I spent at a monastery before I convinced her I was fine."
"You spent some time at a monastery? Were you trying to become a monk?"
"No, it was just something Grandfather Godric suggested I do after I returned. He pointed out that after spending time in the realms of the dead it was likely that I would feel the need to ponder matters of life and death and other great questions of the universe. He introduced me to a former abbot of a particular order which was mixed wizard and muggle. The abbot told me where to go and gave me a few messages for his living friends. They were really good at getting me back into the land of the living. They keep themselves out of the everyday affairs of the world and so they asked me not to write to them to tell them what I was doing, but also said that if I needed their help again I was welcome to return."
"Is that what you told Minerva?"
"Not really. I said the loss of my mentor hit me hard and I went on retreat. I left her with the idea that I'm planning to return at some point and so am practicing celibacy and am uninterested in romantic relationships."
Remus picked up on the wistfulness in his boyfriend's voice. "And are you?"
"I am planning on returning. Zias have life spans of two centuries making it likely you will predecease me by at least seventy years. Once I either have children to take over my duties or have given up on having any and you are dead I will probably wish to retreat from the world and move on from academic to religious mysteries." David was not speaking with conviction, to be honest he did not think he would live very long after his mission was accomplished. Once Voldemort was definitely gone he expected he would soon follow.
"We're getting morbid," said Remus. "Besides your calculations are flawed; you are assuming that I have the same lifespan as a normal wizard without taking my lycanthropy into account. I have never come across data on werewolf life spans; probably because few die of old age. Also the wolfsbane potion is a recent innovation and its long term affects are unknown, it could be an elixir of life or more likely a slow poison."
"And you said I was being morbid! Let's change the subject shall we?"
"Certainly, but I think a change of seating arrangement is required," said Remus a bit sheepishly. "Albus cornered me after the meeting and insisted that I bring you to the Yule Ball. He's been taking a lot of flack for hiring me so I can't really refuse."
"I expect he recognised the ring. It's a good thing that it is in my contract that I don't have to be here over the vacations then. Crimson can attend without David being missed. Could you hint to him that we do not intend on revealing Crimson until the wedding and so I do not wish to attend formally? But anyway, what has that got to do with seating arrangements?"
"Well," said Remus grinning, "As I recall you can't dance, and the main reason you can't, or rather won't, dance is because you don't want to have to have physical contact with your partner, right?" David nodded. "So I have seven weeks to get you able to dance or it will be blindingly obvious who my fiancé is. I've given it some thought, and I believe the first stage is to get you accustomed to physical contact with me. Later we can move on to dancing with me and then with luck by the end of term you'll be comfortable dancing with Severus, Sirius and Tonks too. Just don't change your behaviour in public and it'll be another layer in the disguise."
"I'm really not keen on this plan," protested David. "Can't I come down with a contagious disease or smash the bones in my ankle and end up on crutches or something?"
"No, firstly it'd be odd since Albus would expect David, as a friend of mine, to heal you and secondly if I let you run from this it'll be twice as hard next time."
"Perhaps tomorrow," said David standing up. "Goodni…"
"Stop!" ordered Remus before David could disapparate. "Come here!" He swivelled round on the sofa into a sitting position so that there was room for David to sit beside him.
"How the hell are you able to order me around?" David asked angrily as he moved towards the sofa.
"Before we acknowledged the bond I asked you if you understood what it would mean but I see you did not," said Remus resting his forehead in his hand resignedly. He patted the sofa beside him. "Will you sit down?" David stood still. "The bond won't force you to obey unless I am completely convinced that it is necessary for your wellbeing," Remus explained. "It won't work if the order is harmful. Stick your hand in the fire! See, nothing happened. When I stopped you from leaving I could do so because I was convinced that your phobia would increase if I allowed you to delay facing it."
"Does it work the other way too?"
"No," said Remus. "When we acknowledged the bond why did you cross your arms before taking my hands?"
"My grandfather David, who I'm named after, was a bit obsessed with the continuation of the family so he talked to me for a long time about soul-bonds and how important it was to find my soul-mate so that I could have children and the house wouldn't die out. He told me about the different ways to confirm the bond depending on the age I was and the age you were. He told me that if I was under twenty-five and you were over it then I should do it the way I did."
"And you've not done any research on the subject yourself?"
"No, the longevity of the family was his obsession not mine, I never expected to marry and so I saw no need to do any."
"Can I hazard a guess that your grandfather did not like Severus?"
"He did not approve of him at all. You're saying something about the way we formed the bond was meant to annoy my father?"
"Not annoy, more take you out from his control. Until the age of twenty-five unless you disown your parents or they disown you, parents have a certain level of control over your decisions. Seventeen is the age that soul-mate bonds exert a physical attraction and has come to be the age of majority for that reason. Muggles may marry at sixteen with parental consent but we can't until seventeen. The age of majority used to be twenty-five because that was the traditional age for a wizard to finish his education. Even after Hogwarts was founded wizards used to take apprenticeships after school until the age of twenty-five, now not even auror or healer training which are the most lengthy take that long.
"Because people could marry before completing their apprenticeships it was ambiguous as to whether the parents or spouse should be responsible for someone under the age of twenty-five, particularly if the spouse had completed his own apprenticeship. Thus the manner in which the engagement or in our case the soul-bond was formed demonstrated who had guardianship."
"So my grandfather set me up to ensure that my father lost his, er, 'paternal rights?' He must have really hated him to put the welfare of the house in the hands of a stranger rather than Severus whom his own son had chosen. Can anything be done about it?"
"I don't think so, but when you explain what happened to Severus you could offer to do some research on the subject, it might soften the rejection."