Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Harry Potter. Sadly, Rowling and Kishimoto do, and I'd bet they aren't selling any time soon.

A Simple Mistake
By: TF

Chapter 03:A Staff Meeting and First Classes
(or Why You Don't Aim Spells at Gaara)

When Dumbledore called a staff meeting first thing Friday morning before breakfast no one was surprised. Since the story of the two boys had spread faster than humanly possible most of the staff had been expecting the summons, especially after a furious Snape was seen thundering down Hogwarts's hallways, his robes billowing out behind him like angry wings.

Holding the meeting the next morning gave Dumbledore time to properly mull the situation over, especially after he talked with McGonagall and Snape in his office. There was the problem of how the boys actually got into the castle, because they really shouldn't have been able to be summoned, no matter what mistake Harry made. But Flitwick had an idea as to what exactly had happened, and Dumbledore was content to let him explain the situation to the rest of the staff.

Dumbledore smiled as he entered the staff room and found that he was the last to arrive. Professor Snape was still looking surly due to Dumbledore's decision the night before, but the rest of the staff was looking at him expectantly. He took an open seat, smoothed his robes and beard, adjusted his glasses, and then started the meeting.

"By now I'm sure that everyone has learned of our new arrivals and how they got here," he continued smiling as he received nods from around the room. "After some careful thought I've decided to sort them into houses. Depending on which houses they are sorted into they will need to be taken on a trip to Diagon Alley. We will also have to perform some tests to determine whether or not they will be able to perform magic."

"If they can't perform magic, then why are we keeping them around like useless pets?" Snape asked. He had decided to move to a corner of the room where he could lean against a wall and glare appropriately.

"One of them can create what look to be visible clones of himself, and the other, Madame Pomfrey has reported, has managed to amass a gourd of sand from nowhere . This would suggest at least some magical potential, and even if they didn't have that potential, they were summoned into our world by one of us, and, due to even that alone, we wouldn't be right to put them out."

Snape snorted but fell silent as Flitwick spoke up, his squeaky voice carrying well around the room.

"I've been putting some thought into how the boys could get here with that spell, and I've come to what seems to be the most reasonable solution. The students were working on the Accio persona spell, which essentially moves a person that is in sight from their initial place across the room to the person casting the spell. Normally this is done by the caster concentrating on the person they want to summon while casting the spell," Flitwick waited until the rest of the staff nodded before continuing. "But due to Mr. Potter and Ms. Granger testing each other Mr. Potter put too much power into the spell and didn't concentrate on his friends, but on their hair color."

"So he ended up summoning these boys from who-knows-where because Harry put too much power into the spell and not enough concentration," McGonagall summed up, shaking her head at the students in her house.

"Precisely," Flitwick squeaked happily. "And judging by the boys' strange attire and habits I'm tempted to say that they're from another world. Theoretically it shouldn't be possible, but in this case that would be the only explanation."

"So we have two suspicious boys from another dimension?" Professor Sprout's voice radiated disbelief as more than one Professor echoed her feelings.

"That's the gist of the situation," Flitwick responded, looking a little miffed at the negative outbursts sounding around him.

"So it would seem that we're stuck with these boys until we find a way to send them home," Dumbledore said thoughtfully.

"How can we prove this alternate dimension crap anyway?" Snape asked in his best scathing teacher voice.

McGonagall answered this question quickly before anyone else could add to the uproar, "We can prove it easily. There are charms that enable large items to fit into small containers, which would suggest the possibility of alternate realities just for that purpose. Some argue that instances such as these are just properties of magic, but that still doesn't explain where some of the items come from when we wizards call them out of thin air. One such instance of this was Harry finding Godric Gryffindor's sword in the Sorting Hat, something none of us expected."

"Theories," Snape snorted. "All of those are just theories and unexplainable events."

"But theories are considered true until proven otherwise," Dumbledore was smiling brightly at the rest of the staff as he settled the discussion. "Now that we've discussed their origins, are there any objections to our plan of action?"

A low chorus of 'no' echoed around the room, and Dumbledore smiled brightly at his staff before standing in a swirl of bright cloth.

"If that is the case then, I am leaving the matter of Diagon Alley to their eventual head or heads of house, and the matter of a more permanent translation charm to Professors Flitwick and McGonagall. We will perform the basic tests for magical potential tomorrow morning before their trip to London."

Slowly the rest of the staff filtered out of the staff room after Dumbledore, discussing the recent events as well as classes and students as they headed up to the Great Hall where breakfast was being delayed for the soon-to-be-sorted shinobi. McGonagall and Flitwick waited until the staff room was emptied of everyone but them before they headed up to the infirmary to collect the new students.

Sometime during the night Naruto had curled up around his mission pack as he slept, and as McGonagall and Flitwick appeared in front of the two beds Naruto shot up, blinking sleepily with an imprint of his pack standing out in red on his cheek. McGonagall just sighed as she looked between him and Gaara who was looking at what seemed to be a collection of small scrolls and occasionally marking them in red ink with a bamboo brush.

Naruto asked a question, words tumbling out of his mouth in a foreign language similar to some in the Orient. After a moment the blond stopped talking and gave them curious looks while Gaara looked up and said a sentence that had Naruto blushing because of the obviousness of the situation.

"Translatio," Flitwick cast the charm over the two boys as he dug the two permanent translation charms out a pocket of his robe.

"Now that we can understand each other, I'm going to give you a run-down of the situation," McGonagall said, quickly taking charge as she looked the two boys over. "We have more permanent translation charms for you to wear for better understanding. While wearing the charms you will be able to speak in your original language as well as in English, but to speak in your normal language you will have to concentrate."

Naruto and Gaara shared a look as McGonagall continued, "Before breakfast this morning you will both be sorted into houses. After breakfast you will meet with your new head or heads of house as they assign you a guide to follow during class hours. Tomorrow you will be tested for potential magic and taken to Diagon Alley for supplies."

"What if we don't have magic?" Naruto asked, looking a little apprehensive as his eyes darted between the two teachers.

"You will be staying here regardless. Having magic would just help the situation," McGonagall explained.

The blond was still looking nervous, a nice contrast next to Gaara's cool look of indifference. McGonagall sighed quietly and Flitwick stepped up to show the two how to adjust their charms around their necks in a choker-like fashion while explaining some of the cleaning and general maintenance charms also included.

McGonagall was quiet as she and Flitwick led the two boys down to the Great Hall after they had been given the chance to gather up their meager belongings. Naruto had just shoved what looked to be one of his knives into his pack from where he had hidden it under his pillow overnight. Gaara had just stood up and strapped on his gourd, ignoring Flitwick who was hovering around him curiously. Both boys were discreetly watching their surroundings as they were led down stone halls.

They stopped for a moment in front of one of the many gargoyles as McGonagall disappeared behind the hidden door before reappearing with a tattered hat clutched gingerly in one of her hands. The two ninja didn't blink, chalking it up to something that happened normally around the castle. Traveling with Jiraiya had taught Naruto when to freak out and when to save it for later, and now was definitely a later situation, and Gaara was Gaara, stoic and composed when he wasn't acting homicidal.

McGonagall stopped them right in front of the doors to the Great Hall and turned around, pushing her glasses up her nose as she regarded to two boys waiting to enter. Naruto blinked up at the Professor as she started in on the ground rules being laid down for him and Gaara. A few times Naruto scowled and protested, especially when McGonagall started in on Naruto punching Gaara, but when Gaara ominously shifted his sand and glared Naruto decided that it was time to shut up before something was leaked. Once the boys had settled she continued and explained the sorting process they were about to undergo.

McGonagall sighed as she looked over the two again and saw Naruto edging warily away from Gaara and his sand. She almost just shook her head and left them standing in the hallway, but she was a teacher, and it was her job to at least get them settled before leaving them to their own devices.

All eyes turned towards the doors to the Great Hall opened and McGonagall and Flitwick swept in followed calmly by Naruto and Gaara. The staff was nervous, all of them, as they watched the two boys walking calmly under the pressure of hundreds of eyes. The staff meeting had done little more than inform the staff of the situation, leaving most of the teachers less than trusting about the whole situation.

Once the doors to the Great Hall had closed behind them McGonagall summoned a stool and rested the Sorting Hat on it, sternly calling the boys over when they reluctantly stood near the doors. Both shifted while Dumbledore spoke, but McGonagall couldn't tell if it was because both boys were agitated or nervous or both.

As soon as Dumbledore was done he nodded to his Transfiguration professor to continue with the sorting. Naruto was up first. He sat nervously on the stool as McGonagall settled the hat onto his head, paling at the voice suddenly in his head and tensing as it started probing around. Naruto was startled when the hat suddenly pulled out of his mind and roared out, "GRYFFINDOR!" but at least it was out of his mind.

Gaara looked even more reluctant than Naruto had to approach the stool. But with McGonagall calling him forward and Naruto steady but pale he squared his shoulders and sat stoically as the hat found what it was looking for in his mind, thankfully bypassing Shukaku before bellowing out it's choice of, "SLYTHERIN!"

Naruto wasn't sure how comfortable he was with being pushed towards a table of people he only vaguely recognized. Professor McGonagall was pushing him towards a long table on the opposite side of the room of the table that Gaara was being led to by the dark-haired Professor Snape. He wasn't too sure about leaving Gaara at a table full of people who looked like they would rather gut him than accept him into their ranks either. So he balked until McGonagall practically dragged him to an open seat and dropped him onto one of the wooden benches.

Gaara gave Snape a cold look as he took his own seat, ignoring everyone around him in favor of waiting for breakfast. His housemates were watching him with open suspicion, whispering amongst themselves as they gave him a wide berth while deciding what to do about their new addition. He didn't have to wait long. One of the older boys with platinum blond hair had risen from his end of the table and was clearing heading in the red head's direction.

As Draco got closer to the new boy he got a better look at the red head. Initially he'd been prepared to make a Weasley crack, but the closer he got the creepier the boy looked. It wasn't only the dark rings around his eyes, the lack of eyebrows, the tattoo, and the gourd, but the boy's whole demeanor in general. Personally Draco was happy that they got this one instead of the blond, but neither of the two would have been preferred.

"We're going to set down some ground rules here and now," Draco's voice was cold as he shivered under the red head's piercing gaze. "Now that you're in our house you will have to step up to our standards. We don't tolerate losers and crybabies."

Gaara watched the blond boy silently, noting the way his eyes were everywhere but on him as the blond started talking. Gaara watched impassively as two hulking boys came to stand behind the blond boy, looming over the blond's slimmer form in a clear intimidation tactic. The intimidation tactic did absolutely nothing to Gaara, most hadn't fazed him since he was five, and the few people who did make an impression (with the exception of Naruto) were quickly killed afterwards. Luckily for Draco he noticed this and motioned for Crabbe and Goyle to back off before the strange boy decided to do something rash.

"I'm telling you now, we don't tolerate failure. We don't tolerate mixed loyalties either. In this house you're either with us or against us, and believe me, you don't want to be against us," Draco said. He waited until Gaara nodded before continuing, "Now that we're clear, I'd like to welcome you to the Slytherin house."

Naruto scowled angrily as he turned to look at Gaara only to find McGonagall still standing over him at the Gryffindor table. She'd plopped him down onto the bench and had started standing over him once he popped right back in order to go sit with Gaara on the other side of the room. As he reluctantly sat down the second time she pointed out a few of the students that were going to be in his year, especially Harry, Ron, and Hermione who were sitting next to and across from where McGonagall had sat Naruto.

"If you would stay in your seat I could actually get around to eating my own breakfast," McGonagall snapped, crossing her arms over her chest as she glared down and the twitchy blond. "So sit still until breakfast is over so that we can all eat."

Naruto hunched over and scowled as McGonagall swept back up to where the teachers were all calmly eating their breakfasts. After a moment he sighed and looked up at the Gryffindors watching him curiously. He glared around at them before watching them eat, just to make sure that nothing was poisoned. He'd performed a simple jutsu to test for poisons the night before, but with everyone eating that really wasn't necessary.

"So, where did you and the Slytherin boy stay the night?"

Naruto looked up to see the same bushy-haired girl who had been yelling at him the day before watching him curiously as he chose some eggs and bacon for breakfast.

He frowned at her before answering, "Gaara and I stayed in the infirmary. Why?"

"We were just wondering," she explained, still watching him. "You weren't in any of the houses, so you obviously had to be somewhere else."

"Well, yeah," Naruto said sarcastically, rolling his eyes when the bushy-haired girl huffed. "Why do you care?"

"Ignore her, she doesn't have anything better to do," the red head next to the bushy-haired girl smiled brightly despite the elbow digging into his ribs. "I'm Ron Weasley. This annoying girl is Hermione Granger, and the black-haired boy next to you is Harry Potter."

Naruto blinked and looked over at Harry who was watching Ron's breakfast disappear with avid interest. The blond watched Harry for a moment, concentrating until he could remember what exactly he had heard about the boy.

"Hey!" Naruto shouted, making more than just Harry's head turn towards him. "You're the one who pulled Gaara and me here!"

Harry's brilliant green eyes widened and he scooted as far away from the blond as the crowded bench would allow, hand hovering nervously around his hidden wand.

"Are you going to hurt me or something?" Harry asked nervously.

"No," Naruto drawled, shaking his head at the whole group as they visibly relaxed. "Sheesh, you guys act like I'm going to attack you or something."

"That was our first assumption, yes," Hermione said, absentmindedly rubbing the feeling back into the hand that had been squeezed by Ron.

"Well, you're wrong. Normally you would be right, but this situation is a little different than all of the others I've been in," Naruto said with a shrug.

He turned to look at Gaara and found him being confronted by a blond boy and his two goons. Naruto bristled, but a warning look from McGonagall stopped him from getting up and going to the other table. He had already tested her patience as much as she was going to allow for the day. With a growl he turned around, savagely stabbing his eggs as he glared at the table.

"Malfoy's already moving in. That boy's not even there for five minutes and he's already being harassed," Ron said in disgust, shaking his head at the sight of the blond and his goons.

"The red head is in Malfoy's house. He is the one who does the introductions," Hermione said with a scowl as she watched Draco sit down across from Gaara and motion for the rest of the group to join him around the new teen.

Naruto was silent as he continued to idly stab at his breakfast. Chopsticks would have been easier to use, but forks were easier to maul food with. He wasn't comfortable with being separated from the only person that he knew and being forced into the company of the people who had yanked him from his own world.

Naruto blinked as everyone around him started to get up, picking their bags up as they started to head out the doors of the Great Hall as they mingled with students of other houses.

McGonagall's magically magnified voice echoed around the hall as she called for the students she needed to remain behind, "Mr. Uzumaki, Mr. Gaara, Mr. Potter, and Mr. Malfoy, would you please stay behind and meet with your heads of houses."

Naruto hesitated as he stood up, resting his weight against the heavy table as he watched everyone file out of the large hall. Gaara had stood up and made his way towards Professor Snape, ignoring the curious looks he was getting from other students and his housemates. After a moment Naruto moved easily through the dwindling masses of people to appear at Gaara's side, watching Snape suspiciously. Gaara glanced over at Naruto and blinked before returning his gaze forward as they were joined on opposite sides by Harry and Draco.

Professor McGonagall joined their small group as soon as the last students were out of the hall, leaving them alone so that she and Snape could explain their situation without interference.

"For today you will just be following your housemates to their classes," McGonagall said. "You should be together for most of your classes and for meals, but you will be separated in your houses at nights and during free periods."

"Mr. Malfoy you will be escorting Gaara, and Mr. Potter you will be escorting Mr. Uzumaki. Tomorrow you will be tested and then taken to Diagon Alley by myself and Professor McGonagall. I expect all of you in my classroom in five minutes," Snape said, eyes watching the new teens as they kept their faces carefully blank. Oddly enough their faces reminded him of soldiers…

Snape shook his head and glared, ridding himself of the image of the two as anything other than the stupid brats they were, even though Gaara was now in his house. McGonagall looked at him for a moment before giving both Naruto and Gaara warning looks as she and Snape left the two boys on their own with Draco and Harry.

Naruto and Gaara watched as Draco and Harry all but squared off against each other with looks that promised nothing short of death. Finally Draco smirked and crossed his arms over his chest, radiating a superior air that was obviously bred into him. Naruto winced at the feeling of déjà vu he had when he realized who the blond boy reminded of and found that Draco resembled a blond Sasuke.

"We should go," Gaara said, turning and heading towards the closing doors as Naruto scrambled to catch up, yelling loudly for Gaara to wait up.

Draco and Harry stared at each other for a few more moments before turning and following the two ninja exiting the Great Hall.

"Make sure to keep your Gryffindors away from the dungeons," Draco snapped as he watched Naruto nearly stick to Gaara's side.

"Same goes for your Slytherins. Keep them away and we won't have any problems," Harry growled back, keeping his hands carefully fisted at his sides.

"Come on! We can't find our way around, and you two are going really slow! What's the hold-up?"

Naruto's voice echoed clearly back to the two young wizards. They shared a glare before moving faster to catch up to their respective boy.

Snape glared at them as they entered, waving them to the open seats in the back when they entered about a minute late. Naruto and Gaara ended up taking the seats in the middle, acting as a buffer between the two angry boys. With a swirl of robes Snape turned back to the blackboard and continued writing the shield spells, their pronunciations, and their effects as if he hadn't been interrupted.

"Today we will be working on the most basic of shield spells meant to protect you from the simplest of hexes, jinxes, and malevolent charms. Today alone you will be able to vocalize your attacking spells, but in the days to come you will not be allowed to speak them out loud. You will only be able to vocalize your shield spells until you have them mastered to a point I will deem sufficient, then you will not be able to vocalize them either. This will also make your shields weaker, a perfect reason as to why you should all get better at internalized spells," Snape's explanation ended in a sinister hiss that sent shivers down the spines of every student that wasn't Slytherin.

"S-Sir? How will we know if our spells are good enough?"

Neville's voice had qualities similar to that of a kicked dog, as if he expected Professor Snape to look across the room and hex him for asking a question. Snape smirked, letting the question hang ominously in the air before answering it in his oily, low voice.

"You will know if you spells are good enough because I will be testing them personally."

Neville squeaked and slumped onto his desk with an air of despair as Hermione patted him comfortingly on the back. With a smirk Snape looked around the classroom one last time before starting to assign partners. Millicent growled as she was once again partnered with Neville, Hermione and Pansy shared glares, and Harry and Draco gave each other equally superior looks over the heads of Naruto and Gaara when Snape assigned them to work together.

"Gaara and Uzumaki, just keep quiet and don't make a mess. Otherwise, I don't care what you do."

Naruto shrugged at Gaara as Snape passed them by before they both pulled out a few scrolls and unrolled them across their desks. As hexes, jinxes, and charms started to fly through the air Gaara's sand started to swirl around his form, occasionally coming up to cover him and his desk in a partial sphere as errant spells came too close.

"Protego!"

A rather forceful spell was rebounded by the shield spell directly towards Gaara. At the bright flash of light Naruto looked up and yelped before diving under his desk as the spell headed for the red head. Naruto winced at the sudden explosion of sound as Gaara's sand dropped it's gourd shape, formed a partial dome around Gaara's body and shot out on the trail of the spell to slam the unfortunate shielder into the wall.

Screams broke out around the classroom as a wave of sand shot across the room and pinned Hermione to the nearest stone wall. She gasped and started to vainly squirm as sand encased her from the shoulders down, rendering movement practically impossible. Pandemonium reigned as everyone anywhere near a grain of sand scrambled to get as far away as possible.

Naruto growled as he emerged from under the desk and saw Hermione pinned against the far wall by a very familiar looking glob of sand. The blond looked over at the red head who was still reading his scrolls with an unconcerned air as his sand pinned the bushy-haired girl to the wall. A few hand seals later there were a few more Narutos in the room and all of them were ready to pile onto Gaara.

"Gaara! Hey, Gaara! Release the sand!"

One of the Narutos got onto the desk in front of Gaara and leaned forward until his face was pressed in too close. Gaara's head whipped up, nearly hitting Naruto's nose as the red head glared at the blond invading his personal space.

"Damn it, Gaara! Just release the sand already!"

Gaara gave Naruto a look on the border of annoyance and homicidal as all of the sand in the room fell limply to the floor. They shared a look for a moment as sand swirled and slithered across the floor and back to Gaara as the red head's gourd reformed in the leather straps on his back.

"I thought I told you two to keep quiet and to not make a mess," Snape's voice could have frozen hell as he swept over to tower over the two ninja.

"Hey! There were flashes of harmful light flying everywhere! It isn't his fault," Naruto shouted, waving one of his hands energetically as if it would help him make his point.

"YOU PINNED A STUDENT TO THE WALL WITH SAND!"

Every student winced and stopped whatever they were doing and stared at Snape with open mouths. Even the students who had been screaming about the sand and Hermione who was starting to yell at Gaara stopped what they were doing in order to stare at the only teacher who kept his composure at all costs.

"Uh," Naruto's stumbling retort was cut off by the sound of students happily filing into the hallway creating a din of happy chatter.

"Class dismissed," Snape snarled, still looming over the two shinobi. "I'll deal with you two later."

Naruto and Gaara left along with the rest of the six-year students, following Harry and Draco down to the dungeons. Once the Slytherins got over the fact that the sand pinned someone to a wall (pinned Hermione Granger, and she'd had it coming for years in their eyes) Gaara found himself surrounded by his smirking housemates as they clustered around him and Naruto and congratulated Gaara on a job well done. Half way to the dungeons most of the group split off, leaving Naruto and Gaara in the company of Draco and Blaise who were eyeing Naruto suspiciously.

"Welcome, welcome. Today you will be allowed to make a healing potion. Your goal is to make the best potion while I talk with our new students," Slughorn and his chins grinned over the small class as he lumbered over to the table Naruto and Gaara had claimed.

Hermione finally stopped glaring venomously at Gaara and shifted her dirty looks onto Harry instead, whispering angrily as Harry flipped though his potions book eagerly.

"So, you two are the new boys. What are your connections? Who is in your family?" Slughorn leaned too close to the shinobi as he leaned over the desk, making Gaara glare and Naruto wrinkle his face up in disgust.

When Naruto and Gaara were silent too long for Slughorn the man snorted and crossed his pudgy arms over his chest and exclaimed, "Well! We have two silent ones here. Don't worry, I'll get to you yet," before walking back to the front of the room to hover over various caldrons, especially Harry's.

"This guy is creepy," Naruto whispered to Gaara, shuddering as he watched Slughorn lumber around the room.

Gaara snorted and pulled out his scrolls again as Naruto started looking over his shoulder, ignoring the not-so-sly looks Slughorn was sending their way.

"Actually, this whole place is creepy. I can't wait to go home."

TBC…

Revised 2/18/06. Thanks to everyone who reviewed and the continued encouragement despite delays.