Author's Note: This is an one-shot made for Gaara's birthday, but I have ideas to make it multi-chaptered if people show interest in it.

It would basically tell the story of how Naruto went from an unknown muggleborn orphan to Minister of Magic (in lieu of Hokage), set in an AU Harry Potter world.

This snippet's set during Harry's first year, and Naruto's and Gaara's seventh year.

Tomorrow was his best friend's birthday.

Naruto had a really, really special gift for him.

He had spent the whole Christmas break hunting for it – it was an ultra rare species of cactus that looked like a gray rock, and he had heard it had plenty of nifty uses on potions that created illusions.

Gaara loved cacti. He was still bound to his pureblood ideals of being the Head of his family and getting some political job or another inside the Ministry of Magic, but Naruto knew Herbology was his guilty pleasure. If he had his way, Gaara would probably turn into a botanist and spend his life engineering new species of magical plants, and traveling the world to collect existing plants.

Gaara didn't know what he had bought for him. Naruto had told him he would love his present once or twice... or maybe a thousand times. But still, Gaara didn't know.

So Naruto was fully justified in his panic when the dormitory door opened. He let out a squeak and swiped his arm over his bed to shove the vase into its box. Gaara paused by the door and raised an eyebrow when they heard a heavy 'thunk', as Naruto miscalculated his strength and sent the vase, box and all, to the floor.

He thanked Merlin it wasn't the sound of the vase breaking that he had heard. Putting dozens of protective charms on the little plant had paid off – he knew it would!

"Should I be worried?" Gaara already sounded worried as he studied him. Naruto laughed nervously, grabbing the lid and quickly closing the box before Gaara could see anything, shoving it under his bed.

"Worried about what? There's nothing to worry about." he said quickly. He had only been watering the cactus – he had to, every other day since the end of Christmas break.

Gaara narrowed his eyes. "I'll take that as yes. Are you planning to pull a prank on someone?" he crossed his arms, looking like he was ready to give him a lecture. Naruto pouted.

"Why must you think the worst of me?" he whined. "I'm not a little kid anymore, you know? I'm eighteen!"

"Then act like it." Gaara sighed, shaking his head. "Tell me what you're up to. I'll make sure you aren't caught, at least."

Naruto grinned. Gaara did cover up for him a lot, and he really loved that his friend did. Gaara didn't often show his affection for him, Naruto treasured each moment he did.

"It's nothing, I promise." his friend was skeptical. When the redhead pulled out his wand, the blond instantly knew what he intended to do and jumped to grab the box as it slid out from under his bed in obedience to the wordless summoning spell. "No!" Naruto squeaked.

"It's nothing." Gaara repeated slowly, his tone of voice making it clear he demanded an explanation.

"This is your gift, alright? I don't want you to see it yet!" Naruto groaned, tapping his wand on the box to cover it with a white package. To make sure Gaara couldn't easily lift the lid. He didn't intend to open it again anyways – Gaara's birthday was tomorrow, so there was no reason for him to water the plant again. He had used a nifty charm Gaara had taught him so the plant had something like sunlight inside the box.

Gaara didn't seem to believe him. "Why were you handling my gift at all? You bought it ages ago, it should already be packed."

"Well, what I was doing doesn't matter." Gaara studied him silently. Naruto hated seeing that look right at that moment – his friend was trying to read him.

"You bought me a plant." Naruto's first reaction was to scowl, so he couldn't deny and laugh it off without looking like a liar.

"I hate it when you pull those guesses out of the blue and they're right." he muttered. Gaara hummed, then walked up to his bed and lifted the small watering thing he usually used to water his cacti – Naruto had borrowed it for a moment. He blushed when he realized how Gaara had guessed. "Damn."

"Indeed." a faint smile curved Gaara's lips. "It doesn't need to be a surprise to be special, Naruto. I'm still grateful to you."

"Well, it's still a surprise!" Naruto told him. "I mean, you know it's a plant, and nothing else." he stared into his friend's eyes, challenging him to guess anything else.

"You're right." Gaara agreed softly, and Naruto grinned.

"It's a very special gift. I told you before! It will surprise you." he told Gaara with more conviction than he felt, but his friend didn't look skeptical this time.

"I'm sure it will. You don't need to hide the box, I'm not going to peek." Naruto pouted.

"Well, I'll keep it hidden, just to make sure." he pushed the box under his bed again.

"You're aware that cacti need plenty of light to thrive, right? How long have you had it hidden under your bed?" Gaara once again crossed his arms.

"I've got it, alright? It's safe and fine, and it has plenty of light and air. Trust me." his friend hummed, but didn't argue.

He also made no move to peek inside the box.

That year, January nineteenth fell on a Sunday.

Since Gaara was politically engaged with other wizarding families, every year he held a small party from six to eight at night – after classes, though that year they could have started earlier. Gaara didn't start earlier, and Naruto was more than happy to have his best friend all to himself the whole day. He loved spending time with Gaara. Specially when they were alone. He loved Gaara, period.

But that was somewhat forbidden territory for him, and he would rather not go there. Gaara was his best friend, and he would never take the risk of losing his friendship out of greed for more. Gaara couldn't find out he was gay. He had already lost enough friends because of that when he had found it out, at age eleven.

He choose to give him his gift before the party started, because he was anxious to see Gaara's reaction. So, when they were nearing the empty classroom Gaara had gotten authorization from Prof. Snape to use this year, Naruto grabbed his hand and pulled him into a nook behind a huge statue.

"Alright. You can open it now!" Naruto pushed the now properly wrapped gift box into Gaara's hands. Gaara curiously studied the box as he accepted it.

"...If you were going to give this to me before the party, why didn't you do it before we left our dorm?" Gaara asked, fond and exasperated. "I could have left the plant inside the greenhouse."

The greenhouse. Gaara had a weird, bottomless trunk you could walk in, and it was actually a damn greenhouse. It wasn't very big, it looked a little smaller than their dormitory, but the first time he saw it, it had still boggled his mind that such a huge room fit a box that size.

"I wasn't planning on it. But I want you to open my gift before you open all those suck-up's gifts!" a small smile curved his lips, but he didn't say anything. Instead, he carefully undid the wrapping, then peeked inside the box.

The look of surprise and wonder on his face was worth every single galleon he had paid for that overpriced little plant. "A mature Ariocarpus Fissuratus." he murmured. Naruto grinned. He never remembered the plant's name, but he felt even more excited to know Gaara recognized it.

"Yup! Happy birthday!" he fidgeted in place, trying to fight the urge to hug Gaara. He doubted his friend would appreciate any kind of touch, though he seemed to tolerate his half hugs well enough.

Gaara gave him one of his rare, big and genuine smiles. Naruto beamed at him – definitely worth it. "Thank you, Naruto." he carefully closed the box again. "I'm going to take it somewhere it'll be more comfortable. You walk on without me and entertain people in my stead for a few minutes?"

"Sure thing!" Naruto agreed quickly, reaching forward and squeezing his shoulder. "See you in a bit!"

Gaara was careful to find a place in his small greenhouse for the new plant, then placed a shield charm to protect it from any bugs which managed to get inside.

Once he was sure that it had the right amount of water, and that it was getting enough of the magically cast light, he took the box it came in and was surprised to see it was still heavy. He peered inside and saw two books. One of them was a manual on how to care for the plant.

The other didn't have a title on the cover, but Gaara instantly recognized it. It was Naruto's journal. He stared at it for several seconds, unable to explain the overwhelming emotion he felt that his best friend had extended such a gesture of trust. Naruto wrote in that journal every night, ever since he bought it on their second year. He had always been paranoid about hiding it from Gaara, now he wanted him to read it.

A special gift indeed. Gaara ran his fingers over the cover, but instead of opening the journal, he stored it back inside the box and closed it. He had to return to his birthday party now, he would read it once he returned to his bedroom.

Because it was their last year of Hogwarts, several of Gaara's friends had decided to extend their meeting once the party was over, drinking alcohol they had smuggled in during the last Hogsmead weekend and talking about what they intended to do with their lives once they graduated.

Naruto had burned himself out being a social butterfly and drinking more alcohol than he was used to, and he was out like a light as soon as they returned to their bedroom and he lied on his bed, nearly ten that night.

Gaara only took off Naruto's boots and belt to make him a little less uncomfortable, then closed the curtains on his bed. Their roommates were asleep, so he grabbed the gift box Naruto had given him and sat on his bed, closing the curtains to have some privacy and creating a small ball of bluish light with his wand so he could properly read.

He tried to open the journal, but it wouldn't open. Naruto had forgotten to remove the protective charms. "Figures..." he murmured, waving his wand and removing each of them. Gaara had helped Naruto find or create all the charms, so he knew how to undo them.

He opened to the first entry and smiled when he saw how awful Naruto's handwriting had been back then. Before Gaara had gotten through to him how important good calligraphy was considered by the wizards who could make him the Minister.

The first entry described Naruto's purchase of the journal, and how awed he was that it would never run out of pages. Gaara could barely remember the time when Naruto was fascinated by every little, common happening in the wizarding world. Looking back, he could appreciate those few times, even if he had felt nothing but scorn for Naruto's muggle background back then.

But Naruto adapted to the wizarding world quickly, and by the time they were thirteen, he was never surprised about anything. Even when it was something he didn't know, he pretended he had known it all along. He was extremely thorough in his attempts to gather the respect of their year mates – all of them.

He ran his eyes over a few of the entries, then closed the journal and opened the back cover. As expected, he saw three blank pages, and the last entry. He started to read it, expecting there to be some message for him there.

Tomorrow's Gaara's eighteenth b-day! I'm so excited, I really hope he likes the gift I got him. It was damn hard to find it! I've been having dreams about his reaction to it, fantasizing it a lot. But no matter how grateful he is, it's really sad none of them will come true. I would love it if he tore out all my clothes and screwed me right on the ground of that weird greenhouse of his, hell yeah!

Gaara froze as he reread that sentence several times, unable to fully grasp it's meaning with a single reading.

He turned the page and began to skim each of the last entries, a bright blush burning his cheeks when he found out one of them was a very explicit description of a wet dream about him that Naruto had had a week ago. Reading it with a little more attention, he knew now why Naruto had been blushing and avoiding him for a whole day then – he didn't think he could look Naruto in the face right now, with all the images those words had conjured in his mind.

As he read an entry after another, he realized Naruto was sexually attracted to him. More than that, it sounded like Naruto was in love with him. He didn't know what to do with that information.

From what he read, it seemed like Naruto was terrified that Gaara would read his attraction in his body language, and reject him as a friend because of it. But Gaara had never even had a clue. He had no idea.

Giving Gaara his journal was probably his way to confess his attraction without being drowned in self-doubt and fear. But he didn't need to be afraid, Gaara would never turn down his friendship because of a failed romance. He didn't understand why Naruto would even think that – Naruto should know he was an important friend to him. His most important friend. It was Gaara's fault if he hadn't managed to get that across to him.

But... He still didn't know what to do with Naruto's attraction. He had never seen Naruto in that light before tonight, but reading about his wet dream and imagining it made him almost painfully aroused.

Even now, it was embarrassingly easy to conjure images of Naruto in less than innocent positions, and it only made his predicament even worse.

So he did find Naruto attractive. He just had never thought to dwell on that idea before.

Naruto was attractive, and he was important to him. Could he accept this implicit proposal?

The way he had done it, Gaara could easily just slip his journal back inside his drawer and pretend nothing had ever happened. Naruto was probably counting on that, if he was rejected. But that wouldn't be right.

Naruto deserved a straight answer, whether it was yes or no. He also deserved an honest answer, which was why he decided to give a possible romantic relationship serious thought.

He wrote down a note for Naruto, letting him know he was working on a very sensitive potion and that he would be away the whole day tomorrow. He left it on his night stand, then pocketed Naruto's journal and locked himself inside his greenhouse to think on his own.

Dinner was still being served when he left his greenhouse, but he didn't bother going to eat. He had eaten fruits, and that was enough for him. He just sat on his bed, already ready to go to sleep, but waiting for his friend so they could talk.

Naruto looked extremely worried when he returned from dinner. He had hoped his friend wouldn't take his note as a rejection, but it seemed he had.

But before he could correct Naruto's erroneous assumption, his friend huffed. "Someone stole my journal." Gaara hesitated, then watched him with a confused frown. Naruto ran his hand over his hair. "I sure as hell hope whoever has it isn't planning to do anything nasty with it, but I'm not feeling very optimistic." he mumbled as he sat on his bed and hugged his knees. "Now I wish I'd put a self-destruction charm on it like you'd told me to."

Gaara stood and walked towards him. "Naruto." he interrupted his rambling, and Naruto looked up at him, pale and anxious. "You..." he began, but Naruto interrupted him.

"Listen, Gaara. I wanted you to know you're my best friend, whatever happens. So..." It was Gaara's turn to interrupt him.

"I know where your journal is." he said quickly. Naruto's eyes widened with hope.

"You saw it? Did you take it away from someone? Thank Merlin! Did they manage to break past my security?" Naruto eagerly reached out. Gaara sighed and took the journal from his pocket, placing it on Naruto's hands.

"It was inside the gift box you gave to me. I broke the security charms, because I thought you wanted me to read it." Naruto's fingers clenched on the book, and he paled several shades.

Then he nervously laughed. "Well, shit! You didn't read anything, did you? I don't use good grammar in there, it's kind of embarrassing." he tried to play it off, but Gaara could see how terrified he was by the look in his eyes. "Sometimes I just ramble about nothing..."

"I've read it." he cut through Naruto's rambling, and his friend's complexion turned green. "Two dozen entries, just about. I apologize, I didn't know I was invading your privacy against your will. It was inside the box you wrapped for me." he sighed, crossing his arms.

Naruto opened his lips, but he had a hard time getting any words out. Gaara decided to continue, since they were both alone in the dorm. "When I saw your last entries," he began. Naruto walked backwards and sat heavily on his bed, looking sick. "I thought that you'd given me your journal in order to indirectly propose we change our relationship. It seems I was wrong." he shook his head. "I just wanted to let you know that, if you do want it, I wouldn't mind dating you."

"W-Wait! Really?" A high pitched squeak that barely resembled words left Naruto's lips. Gaara frowned.

"Yes. I don't understand why you're so concerned about this. Even if I was against it, I would never have given up on our friendship, Naruto. You mean a lot more to me than a single disagreement, I thought you knew that." his voice was quiet, a bit strained.

Naruto broke out in laugher. It looked more like he was having a nervous breakdown, rather than thinking something was that funny. "I-I always forget. You wizards don't care if people are gay." Gaara wasn't sure how to respond to that.

For one, Naruto rarely dissociated himself from the wizarding community in general, and whenever he did, it meant something was very wrong. For another, he was using unusual vocabulary, and Gaara didn't know why. "I do care. I want you to be happy."

Naruto laughed more, but this time, it sounded a little more authentic. A measure of relief crossed his expression. "It's not... Nevermind, it doesn't matter." he vigorously shook his head. "But, aren't you worried that I'm a muggleborn?" he swallowed. "Do you want to hide...?"

"No." he said quickly, interrupting him. "I've never hidden our friendship, I'm not about to start hiding this. I don't care what others think of my association with you, I thought I had made that clear?" he was starting to feel upset now. He had never considered he was that bad at conveying his emotions, at least positive ones. People knew when to fear him, always.

Naruto seemed to recognize he was upset, because he relaxed and grinned at him. "You did make it clear. I'm just... insecure, I guess." he finished in a mumble. "But... I didn't know you were g... I mean, that you liked... men. Dating men, I mean."

"I've never dated a man." he said quietly, his expression darkening when he thought about the only girl he had ever dated. The Rosiers had practically shoved their daughter on him, and he felt too awkward in romantic situations to untangle himself from that situation without difficulty. Bellona Rosier, on the other hand, she knew very well how to manipulate a man, and he almost didn't escape her.

Naruto chuckled awkwardly. "Y-Yeah... Did you ever date anyone other than...?" he trailed off when Gaara gave him a single shake of the head. "I thought not." he muttered under his breath. "But are you...?" he blushed, and said nothing else.

"I'm not opposed to dating you, if you don't mind my inexperience." he responded, but he wasn't sure what Naruto was trying to ask him. Naruto was definitely not inexperienced, however, and he was well aware his lack of knowledge might be a turn off.

Naruto scoffed, as if the mere idea he would care was ludicrous. He walked up to him, then stood awkwardly for a few seconds, before asking. "...Can I kiss you? I want to test something." he murmured.

Gaara felt a blush cover his cheeks. "Shouldn't we date first?" he was rusty on the mechanics of courting, but he was fairly sure it wasn't supposed to go this fast.

"We're already friends, there's not much we can learn about each other in a date. Can I?" he asked again, his voice not as quiet, as he stood right in front of him. Gaara swallowed, feeling strangely vulnerable when Naruto's eyes studied his lips with single minded focus.

The longer they stood like that, the stranger he felt. He was unsure whether it was a good or bad feeling, he only knew it was getting stronger "Y-Yes..." he barely finished the word before Naruto had a hand on his cheek, and was kissing him in a way he had never kissed Rosier.

He closed his eyes, too overwhelmed by Naruto's eyes looking at his own so intensely, but in a way he didn't know how to read. He tried to copy his friend's movements and reached up to place his hands on Naruto's shoulders, though he quickly took them back, not sure if he should be touching him.

Naruto's response to that was to wrap his arm around his waist and pull him very, very close as he continued to kiss him.

He had never realized Naruto's scent was that intoxicating. He was starting to feel faint, standing that close, and the kiss made him feel so many other things. He was overwhelmed.

He felt bereft when Naruto pulled away and took a step back, and he opened his eyes to see Naruto's intense gaze was on him. Naruto offered him a smirk. "You're definitely gay. Or perhaps you swing both ways, but I'm starting to doubt that." he shivered as Naruto's eyes ran down his body, uncomfortably aware of his own growing arousal.

"What's that supposed to mean? Is that muggle slang?" he asked quietly.

"Forget about that." Naruto dismissed, hugging him again and kissing his lips.

Gaara kissed back, but after several seconds, he pushed Naruto away. He was very, very close to the point where he was going to embarrass himself in front of him if he grew any more aroused. "Perhaps we should sleep." he cleared his throat, because his voice sounded strange. Naruto smirked at him.

"Are you sleeping in my bed?" he sounded innocent, but he looked far from innocent. Gaara could recognize it when Naruto was teasing him, so he scoffed and turned his back on him.

"Good night." he told him sharply, going towards his own bed.

Naruto chuckled. "Nighty night. I'm going to write in my journal." he told him cheerfully, turning towards his own bed. "Want to go on a proper date in Hogsmeade next Saturday?"

"Yes. We'll talk about it later." Gaara was already in his pajamas, so he only sat on his mattress and closed the curtains to hide from him. He heard Naruto chuckling again, seeming to find humor in everything now that he wasn't worried anymore.

He could already tell that accepting Naruto's unintended proposal was going to bring him far more trouble than he had bargained for. He just hoped he wouldn't regret it.