Hidden Inhumanity

by ShadowedAuthor

Sequel to Silent Humanity – Into his second year in a strange world, Gaara struggles more than ever to maintain his sanity and wellbeing. The dangers are mounting all around, both to and from the displaced Jinchūriki.

3. Chapter 3: Same Old Story

Disclaimer: I do not own either Harry Potter (rightfully owned by J.K Rowling) or Naruto (rightfully owned by Masashi Kishimoto) nor do I make any money out of this fiction. I will also add that any sections or phrases in this chapter that bear resemblance to works by either author or from movies based on works of said authors is recreated in the same spirit of free usage and is not for profit.

A/N: This took a little longer than I had anticipated. A nasty case of writer's block combined with other draws on my time. I did manage to write the first chapter of another new story, if anybody would like to give it a look.

I hope you enjoy this chapter, as always.

Oh, and check out my new fic, Suna Suna no Naruto. People who enjoy this story will probably like that one since it features Gaara fairly prominently. It also already has a great cover by wonderful my supporter Spiral of Destiny who did the cover for this story as well. You can see it full-sized and other pieces of art based on my stories through the second link on my profile. To update those who are going to read SSNN or who have already, I plan to write the next chapter after this one has been updated (so, now).

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(Last Time)

Gaara felt trapped, but he could have escaped. He could run away and they would never know the truth. Better he be gone than them finding out this secret.

But he didn't run. He didn't jump to the door and keep running until his existence could no longer bring ruin and pain to his friends. Instead, he stayed sat where he was and looked up at Sirius and Remus, trying not to feel like the teenager he technically was.

"It's okay, Gaara, we're just worried. Take your time."

He took a deep breath.

"It started the night I killed my mother…" He started.

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It was time to come clean.

Deep breath.

"It started the night I killed my mother…" He began, with Sirius and Remus entirely focussed on his words.

Gaara paused; even after disclosing that damaging fact of his history he was struggling to admit the rest of the terrible secrets he held. This past year had been the first in his life where he wasn't surrounded by people who knew who and what he was. It had been a nice year, all things considered, but it was inevitably going end.

"My father needed a weapon… he was not a kind man. He wasn't a good father. He…" Now that he was finally doing this, Gaara did not know how to articulate himself. He took another suspenseful breath to centre himself.

"In my world, there are no wizards and the technological development is behind this world's. We have a type of magic but it is used differently and there are different types, different natures. Other than that, our worlds are strikingly similar. Similar animals, same human shapes. But in my home world there are also demons, the tailed beasts."

"You're joking, right? Demons?" Sirius spoke, regretting it when he thought he might have interrupted. The notion of demons conjured the Judaeo-Christian form of them but he guessed the word had different connotations to the off-worlder.

"Monsters, nine of them. Giant and destructive. And evil. As big as Hogwarts and comprised entirely of chakra, of magic." From the wide-eyed stares he was receiving, he believed Sirius and Remus understood what he was saying so far. "They destroy and kill, and they hate humans. My village possessed one of these demons and they used it to make a weapon. By sealing it inside of a container, they could harness its power for war."

"War?" Sirius asked, once again unable to stop himself despite the glare Remus sent him.

"War and killing. Both are common." Gaara knew this was an understatement but trying to express the harsh reality of his home was a task unto itself and he had other things to say right now. "Weapons, food, corpses, can be sealed into objects, for transportation, usually. Demons are too powerful, so they have to be sealed inside…"

One more word and the growing suspicion on their faces would be forever resolved.

"…humans."

Their wide eyes were back, either from the practice of sealing demons in humans, or because they had indeed pieced the truth together already. Gaara wasn't sure which. He continued regardless.

"My father needed a weapon so he sealed a demon in his unborn third child. Me. As a result, I was born prematurely, and in the process I killed my mother."

"Wait a minute, you're part demon?" Sirius asked, rudely glossing over the horror and self-hatred of that last statement.

Gaara tried not to let the sudden feelings of hurtful familiarity show on his face at being mistaken for the demon he contained. "It is inside of me, distinct but connected to me. It is a being of pure magic so its essence bleeds into mine. That is why I can control the sand. It protects me. But as a result of being a Jinchūriki, when I tried to sleep, the demon possessed me and rampaged while consuming my mind. I would have died from insomnia had it not also healed me."

"How long did you go without sleep?" Remus finally chimed in, intellectual curiosity mingling with his intense concern.

"Three years was the longest I went without possession."

"Three years without a full night's sleep?!" Remus could hardly imagine the sort of hell that would be.

"Without any sleep." Gaara corrected.

He could have stopped there. Surely, Sirius would have let him go without pressing for more answers, at least for now. But it was never going to get any easier, and more to the point, this would likely be his last opportunity to say everything. A demon was to be shunned, as was Gaara, and for good reason too.

"You mentioned something called a 'Jinchooriky', what is that? Is that you?" Remus asked.

"It means 'sacrifice', the ones who hold a demon and use its power."

"A sacrifice? What do you mean by sacrifice?" Sirius wanted elaboration.

"We are hated for what we are and what we carry. We live alone and we are usually killed in battle or by our comrades when we lose control."

"And your father did this to you, knowing all of that? He put a monster inside of you so you would fight for him?" Sirius was getting the impression that Gaara's father and Orion would have gotten along swimmingly. Swapped tips, even.

"He was the leader of our military. He had a daughter and a son; he needed a weapon more than another child."

"And that was the person who raised you?" Sirius continued, incredulous.

"No, my mother's brother cared for me, under my father's orders. He was nice but he hated me and I had to kill him to survive. I killed him and all of the assassins that came after, ordered to destroy me because I was unstable, by my father."

"He tried to have you killed because he thought you were unstable?" Remus asked, disbelief etched onto his face. Sure, it was not as if Gaara was entirely normal or well-adjusted, but surely he wasn't that bad, and nothing could justify a father ordering that, nor an uncle actually trying to do it.

"I used to be unstable. I let Shukaku control me; I listened to it."

"Shukaku? That's the name on the Map, the one you didn't want to talk about." Sirius exclaimed. That made a whole lot more sense now. "The demon inside of you is called Shukaku."

Gaara nodded. One last thing to say now.

"I… have killed people. Many people. Assassins, my fellow shinobi, enemies, civilians. Even children. I felt that I needed to."

Twin breaths caught in a pair of throats across the room.

There it was, everything laid bare. Gaara came from another world, he was a shinobi, a warrior, he transformed on the full moon for some reason, he contained a demon, and he had killed hundreds of shinobi, killers in their own rights. And innocents. So many innocents.

There were no more secrets.

"Wh- What do…You haven't...That's not you… You don't…" Remus was utterly lost for words.

"There's hasn't...You haven't hurt anyone since you got here, though; right?" Sirius' question was anything but rhetorical. He was honestly afraid that Gaara had hurt or killed people in secret, judging only by his own words. Sirius didn't want to believe the small boy was anything but inherently good, but if he was housing some sort of a demon, if he had truly killed…

This was all too much.

"No, those two men were the first humans I have killed here. I'm…I fought in a war a year before I came here. I battled against someone there, someone like me. But he was different; despite being a Jinchūriki, he had people precious to him. He showed me a different way. I no longer need to kill to validate my existence." Gaara thought back to that day in Konoha, as he often did, and the many conversations he had in the aftermath with his peer. "I can control Shukaku now, and my impulses are weaker. I lost control yesterday. My upset at seeing you hurt weakened my control for a moment."

Sirius thought for a second, wanting to tackle all of the big issues that Gaara had laid on them, but right now all he could process was the immediate. "Remus wasn't hurt until after you killed that first Death Eater with your knife, when you first showed up

at the battle…" He didn't mean it to sound like an accusation, but in a sense it was.

"That was a casualty of battle. I responded with deadly force." The way Gaara said it, without a shred of remorse that he had been subtly expressing until now, was chilling to the bone. His ability to switch between a scared, unloved child and a mature, battle-hardened warrior was one of his most disturbing.

Sirius sat back in his chair, his hand rubbing his face. He was tired and he was struggling to understand Gaara more than ever. Gaara was his friend, though he had always been a little off, but this was beyond the pale. What he was saying, what he was claiming, was monstrous. There was no other word for it.

Remus was saddened, by the reality these terrible secrets would necessitate, but also because Sirius and he had spent so much energy trying to socialise Gaara this summer and all that time the boy had rejected knowing such interactions were inherently dangerous. A lot like Remus had been when he first started Hogwarts.

Sirius looked up at Gaara and tried to discern some expression of remorse or regret, but as ever Gaara's stony countenance showed absolutely nothing on his face. Sirius would have had no idea what Gaara was feeling if the melancholic reminiscence had not drained all of the positivity from his seemingly monotone voice during his uncharacteristically long speech.

He had only been listening to Gaara's rasping voice for a couple months of sporadic short answers but Sirius was becoming rather adept at hearing the subtle intonations. As far as he could remember, whether by speech or by writing, Gaara had never communicated this much in one go before.

"I think I should go now." Gaara said, getting to his feet, ready to leave them both for good.

"No, stay there." Sirius said, assuming Gaara meant to go stand in the hall. He didn't want the boy wandering off right now.

If Sirius were honest with himself, he would admit that he was a little scared of Gaara right now, but in his confused state of mind, his automatic reaction was to keep the boy in sight and get him home until he could make a level decision.

"I think I'm going to get some sleep. I'll see you tomorrow." He patted Remus on his un-injured shoulder and rose unsteadily to his feet.

Gaara was waiting for his marching orders, some sort of dismissal. He did not expect Sirius to open the door for him and to lead him out of the room, the wing, and the hospital. As he stood in front of Grimmauld Place, he thought Sirius was being very kind and brave to allow him to collect his few possessions.

He was glad Sirius hadn't said anything to him. The silence was better than the scorn. When he stole a glance at the man's face, he knew his suspicion was right, that fear and mistrust had taken the place of affection and joviality and that he definitely had no home here anymore.

Sirius let Gaara in and then silently set the wards, locking down the house as he had seldom done before. Gaara walked on ahead, up the stairs, his face still devoid of emotion. Sirius wanted to say something, he knew he should be saying something, that James would have known to say something, but right now all he could do was stay silent and watch Gaara's feet disappear to the next floor.

It was only when he was alone, when he wasn't looking at Gaara and wasn't forced to think about what he had been told moments before, that he could finally open his mouth to say something.

"Kreacher! Get me a bottle of something. Anything strong."

By the time Gaara had collected his things and brought them downstairs, Sirius had already passed out, either from the booze or sleep deprivation and exhaustion. Gaara was again glad. No forced farewells. They could leave each other as friends.

When he tried the door, it was locked and warded. Looking at Sirius, he didn't think he would awaken any time soon.

Why lock down the house like this?

It then occurred to Gaara that this was what Sirius had decided, that Gaara was too dangerous to be let loose and he was to be kept locked up until something else could be arranged. Gaara was surprised to find himself as a prisoner. Not that he didn't deserve to be locked up, he had long believed that was the least he deserved, but he had not expect Sirius to be the one to do it. With the man's history and with his personality, Gaara hadn't thought he was capable.

Gaara carried his possessions back up to his room and waited. Eventually Sirius would wake up and Gaara could ask to be let go. Hopefully their past friendship would inspire some clemency.

Needing some proper rest and unable to sleep or read, Gaara settled down to meditate and clear his mind. Shukaku was still harping on in the back of his mind so anything to relax a little would ease his burden enormously.

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Sirius awoke sometime in the evening as the unseen summer sun was setting. His hangover was profound and he called for a restorative immediately or, failing that, the hair of the dog that bit him. When he downed the vial of hangover cure, he only then remembered why he had been drinking on a Friday morning until passing out. With no inebriation or hangover to distract him, he had to deal with the problem of what Gaara had told him.

And, more pertinently, what was he to do with that information? What was he to do with Gaara?

He looked at the stairs but he couldn't face seeking out his ward right now. He considered getting another bottle and writing off the day entirely but alcoholism ran in the family and besides that he couldn't avoid his problems forever.

He was getting hungry and assumed Gaara would be too so he called for his despised servant again. Suddenly, realisation struck and Kreacher's fear of Gaara was not so funny anymore.

After he sent off the despised remnant of his mother's cruelty, Sirius continued his musings. This house, that he had pretty much no choice but to return to when he found himself free and responsible for at least one full-time dependent, had begun to change over the past few months. Having Gaara and Remus and occasionally Harry staying here, it had started to feel like home, like he had at Hogwarts. With Remus in the hospital, and Gaara…the Gaara he knew before the revelation, gone, it felt cold and empty again. All that was left were his hated house elf and those terrible memories.

Soon he had his dinner in front of him and Kreacher had set Gaara's outside his door. Sirius poked at his food, forcing himself to take a few bites so his hunger would be lessened when his nausea, unrelated to his daytime drinking and hangover, had eventually abated. Many nasty words could (and were) spoken about Kreacher, often to his pinched face, but his cooking had always been to a very high standard. Not quite Hogwarts or Molly Weasley, but as far as a home cooking went it was perfectly enjoyable on most occasions.

Right now it had no taste.

He pulled out his radio in the evening and used it to avoid thinking about anything until very late into the night when he had a small chance of getting back to sleep. He managed to get only a couple hours of sleep which was good in a way as it made his body ache. It was satisfying for his body to feel as stressed as his mind.

Gaara did not appear to have emerged from his room yet, other than to eat even less of his dinner than Sirius had. Sirius stayed downstairs, afraid of encountering his houseguest on a trip to the bathroom. The knowledge remained, that he should go and talk to Gaara, but he was a coward and would continue to ignore and avoid his friend and ward for as long as chance and neglect would allow him.

He made sure to have food sent up regularly from breakfast onwards. Gaara would let himself starve rather than break the code of silence between them, it seemed.

The bearded coward was getting ready to start a morning of drinking when an owl came tapping on his window. Looking out, he was relieved to see Hedwig perched there. A beautiful owl, if ever there was one, and she seemed to be fully aware of this fact. He let her in and set out a bowl of water for her. He sat down and she stood staring at him from his previously untarnished, polished teak table, now sporting a number of talon marks. She did not seem to be in any rush to get back to Surrey so Harry had probably asked her to wait for him to reply.

She was close enough to his seat that he could have leaned over and stroked her snow white feathers, but a small scar on his right index finger had taught him to keep his hands to himself when Hedwig was around. Whether it was the scent of dog, his scruffy appearance, the look of disappointment whenever Harry returned from Grimmauld Place, or some other avian instinct, for some reason Hedwig seemed to bear some sort of grudge against Sirius and would not permit over-familiarity.

Beautiful but judgemental bird.

When she squawked, he stopped staring at her and turned to his letter. Hogwarts clearly did not give penmanship lessons anymore, sadly. Perhaps he could devote an afternoon over the winter break to improve his godson's abysmal handwriting. He pulled out his antique sterling-silver letter opener and sliced through the paper. It had been cursed to cut open the hand of anybody who tried using it, but since it was also quite pretty he had had the curse removed so he could keep it. It was also absurdly sharp.

'Dear Sirius,

Finally finished the last of my homework last night. Hermione insisted I had to get it all done and a terrorist attack is no excuse for delay. At least it's all finished now so I can wait for my results to come out tomorrow.

How is Professor Lupin doing? Have you heard anything more? And I hope you and Gaara are okay after that Ministry thing.

I'm looking forward to going back to the Burrow for the last week of the holiday. Ron asked me to pass on a message from Fred and George. They wanted to remind you of 'the stakes.' I hope you know what that means.

I'll tell Hedwig to wait for a reply. Be careful of her beak this time. I've told her to be polite but she seems to think she knows best.

Harry'

Sirius smiled at the letter, setting it aside, to add to his growing pile of correspondence from Harry. He walked over to his writing desk and set out his letter writing supplies. He had told Harry a hundred times to refer to Remus by his Marauder title or at least his first name (or any number of unflattering nicknames he had thought up), so Sirius had taken to playing dumb.

'To Prongslet,

You really must remember to use our monikers when writing official letters.

I'm afraid I'm not familiar with any "Professor Lupin", but if I hear anything about him (her?) in the papers, I will let you know.

Bandit and I are fine. The Ministry, in their infinite wisdom, has decided to send some people around to check on us but after that the matter will be settled. You need not worry about it.

I look forward to hearing about your results. And remember what I told you, I will be proud of you so long as your grades come in above the "Sirius Black line of slacking". I have no doubts.

I know what the twins are referring to and I will conclude that matter soon. If I happen to stop by the Weasleys next week, please know that it will not be to see you and any interaction we might have will be entirely by accident. With that said, I'll be there on Wednesday so make sure you have your broom ready to fly.

About the dream you mentioned yesterday morning, I have given it some thought and I would suggest you needn't worry about it. It was probably just a dream as you said. I will run it past an old acquaintance of mine who would know, just to be safe.

Always lovely to hear from you, my wonderful godson,

Your beneficent and glorious godfather,

Padfoot

P.s. Although you didn't ask, Moony is doing quite well. I'm going to see him this afternoon and will give him your best wishes.'

He smiled before penning the envelope and sealing it with his crest. He placed it on the tables and slowly slid it towards Hedwig, who lashed out with her beak when his hand came too close. He snatched his fingers back in time and chuckled at the fickle bird.

"Go on, back to Harry." He smiled, opening the window back up. "You know, if you were nicer to me, I might tell Kreacher to prepare some nice mice for you to eat."

Hedwig hooted at him before flying out, ignoring his offer, apparently.

Sirius was looking forward to seeing Harry again, of course, but he would have to keep his visit brief to keep the Ministry from complaining about undocumented contact. This way, he could still claim it was nothing more than a consequence.

More than the restricted and crowded visit he would get on Wednesday, he could not wait for his chance to take Harry school supply shopping at the end of the month.

He was supposed to be taking Gaara too…

Before he could be tempted into drinking those thoughts away, or perhaps raiding his potions cabinet for something more entertaining or numbing, he got dressed and headed over to St Mungo's to see and talk to Remus. It occurred to him, as he was locking the door behind him, that Gaara might have wanted to come and check on Remus, but Sirius quashed that thought, as he did with everything regarding Gaara at the moment, and continued onwards.

The door was heavily bolted when he arrived at Remus' room, which he resented. Clearly Care of Magical Creatures had managed to misinform an entire generation about the affliction of lycanthropy, particularly regarding the days and nights other than the night of the full moon and the danger a sufferer posed then. Rubeus could do a lot of good if only he were allowed to teach about werewolves, although apparently that was now the job of the Defence Against the Dark Arts curriculum. Dark "creatures" that needed to be fought and perhaps killed did not need "care."

Ridiculous.

He looked down on Remus, sat up in bed with a novel in his lap.

"Grandma, what an awfully big nose you have." Sirius smiled.

Remus sighed. He had heard all of the fairy tale jokes a hundred times by now, especially ones about Little Red Riding Hood. Sirius needed new material.

Sirius pulled out his little silver device and checked for bugs again and then came forward and flopped into the bedside chair.

"How are you doing?" Remus asked, trying to hide his disappointment that Sirius hadn't brought him any grapes.

"I think I'm supposed to ask you that." Sirius smirked, groaning. He needed to stop sleeping in his armchair. Did horrors to his suddenly thirty-year-old neck. "I'm fine." He lied. "How are you? They're feeding you, right?"

"Yes, they've been bringing my meals around like clockwork." Remus lied back. "I still feel like you look, but I'll be fine. At least I will be well enough to change tomorrow."

"Good. Harry sends his love. Still calls you Professor Lupin, you know." Sirius laughed.

"He'll get over it soon enough. In two weeks he'll have a new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor."

"Hopefully one that doesn't skive off work so often." Sirius smirked.

"I thought Gaara might come with you today. Did he not want to come?"

Sirius frowned. "Maybe… he probably didn't want to."

"You didn't ask him."

"He's been holed up in his room. I've been sending his food up to him."

"So you haven't talked to him?" Remus sounded alarmed.

"He's probably fine. I haven't been… I can't just talk to him like he didn't say anything yesterday. You heard what he said. He killed children. I can't just ignore that!" Sirius clutched his head.

"He is a child, Sirius. He needs help. He needs us to support him."

"You heard how he spoke. I care about Gaara, you know I do. I still worry about him, but the way he talked yesterday… it's too much. His burden, that demon or whatever, it's too dangerous. I don't know what to do. I'm just trying not to make him worse, you know?"

Remus coughed and then beckoned Sirius closer to his bed.

Sirius leaned in close to his ill friend, trying to make out what Remus was about to say to him. Remus turned to his best friend and punched him as hard as he could in the face, sending him sprawling onto the floor.

Sirius clutched his cheek, looking up at Remus, who was breathing hard from the minor exertion and clutching his jostled injury.

"You're being an idiot, Sirius. What's worse is that you know it, too. He's a boy that needs guidance; you can't just hide from him and get drunk like you're a teenager as well."

"I know that, but can you honestly say you would have done it any differently, Remus? What he told us he did, and what he is…"

Remus paused. "I'm ashamed to admit this, but to be honest, I was a little comforted by it. Don't tell Gaara this, but hearing that he possessed a monster inside of him too struck a chord. As far as I know, I've never killed or turned a human as Moony, but there are a few full moons I don't remember when I might well have. There's nothing I can do about those, but I know the feeling of housing something that might kill people."

"But he remembers it all, Remus!"

"I know that, and that's why he needs your help. I'd probably be a vegetarian if I remembered half the animals I had caught as a wolf. But I don't remember, and I only killed animals, and I had my mother and my father and then my friends at school to help me. Gaara remembers every person he's killed, and as he describes it, it sounds like his father not only failed to help but gave him the curse in the first place. You can't turn your back on him now, Sirius."

"I know that, but I don't know how to help him!" Sirius confessed. "He's a child, just like Harry, but he acts like a veteran half the time. Reminds me of Alastor, actually."

"That's because he is a veteran. He's fought in wars and killed."

"But he said he killed civilians, people who weren't fighters. I don't blame him, of course I don't, but how can I help him with that. I can't even imagine what goes on in his head and I'm supposed to be the one to make it alright for him, right?" Sirius looked closer to tears than Remus had seen him since his escape.

"Just continue to look after him like you have. Show him how a teenager is supposed to act. You're practically a teenager yourself, you're perfect for the job. His world was full of demons and warriors and war, but here he can just be a boy."

Sirius finally got back off of the floor and settled into the chair again.

"Are you saying I should just ignore his past and pretend he is just another normal teenage boy?"

"Do you really think that would work?" Remus smiled, "Gaara isn't a normal boy. He's not. There's no getting around that fact, Sirius. You can't treat him like a boy who was raised in a normal home. Treat Gaara like Gaara, like a boy who has seen and done things even you or I haven't seen."

"And the demon?" Sirius asked.

Remus sighed, "The same way you treated me. Treat him like you otherwise would and just be careful of when it acts up."

"How come you got to be the wise one?" Sirius griped.

"I had to balance you out." Remus laughed until he coughed. "You're going to need to be more careful than ever around the Ministry. If they found out about Gaara, about his burden and about him being a so-called 'human weapon', they won't stop. It won't be investigations or interviews, they will take him and use him by force. You know that."

"Yeah. I've no doubt. Still, we've managed to go this long without them knowing anything. They'll lose interest in Gaara eventually, even if it takes a few years."

"Only if he stops drawing attention to himself."

"I want to say he can have a quiet year this year, without a convict bothering him every couple of days, but what Harry told me has me concerned."

"What did Harry say?"

"Oh, of course, I haven't told you yet. Sorry, I forgot. With all of that's happened with Gaara, I suppose it's the only reason I could overlook something like this. Harry had a dream the over night, the night before the World Cup finals, and apparently he dreamed he saw You-Know-Who and some of his followers making plans."

"Plans?" Remus sat up in his bed.

"Plans to kidnap Harry and to plant a spy in the Ministry."

"But it was just a dream, just his imagination." The way Remus said it made it sound like a question to Sirius' ears.

"I'm not sure. Probably. Hopefully. I'm going to contact Dumbledore and let him know. If anybody has any answers, it's him. It was just the way Harry described it, he doesn't believe it was a dream. It probably is nothing but it's hard not to worry. Thought of another war starting, another generation being ruined…"

"I'm sure you're right, it's probably nothing." Remus agreed, neither sounding as convinced as they would like. Even a decade after Voldemort's downfall, he still had the people who battled against him spooked.

Downfall because Dumbledore had always maintained that his dissapearance did not equal death.

The pair took a while to mull over the two topics. Sirius continued, recounting as much detail of the dream as he could remember. They discussed it a little more, but it did not amount to much as they were both still resolute that it had to have been a dream and nothing more.

"What should I say to Gaara?" Sirius asked out of the blue when the conversation lagged.

"Huh?" Remus was caught off guard and had to consider it. "I don't know. You just need to remember that Gaara needs more than a bed or a place to stay, he needs someone to care for him."

Sirius felt unsure he could be that person to Gaara. As much as anything, Gaara needed a father, a family, and Sirius had about as much experience with those two things as Gaara did. Both Harry and Gaara needed help and needed a family and Sirius had grown up with Walburga and Orion and Regulus as his family exemplar.

"Just go and talk to him. I'm sure you'll say something that will piss Gaara off and break the tension in less than a minute." Remus smiled.

Sirius tried to mimic the expression, "Yeah, I'll talk to him."

Sirius went back to Grimmauld Place. As he walked in the door, he took five steps towards the stairs, intent on confronting Gaara and airing the problems before he chickened out and slumped into his chair again. He hoped Remus didn't punch him in the face again because of this.

His staircase seemed so much steeper right now, knowing the problems that were at the top of it. He knew he was supposed to go and confront them, talk to Gaara and help him through what was surely a difficult time, but the more he thought about it, the less he felt like he could.

He sighed, called himself a weakling and picked up his motorbike magazine. He was supposed to be getting it back from Hagrid soon so he had been looking up spare parts since he knew the half-giant would not have properly maintained it these past twelve or thirteen years.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

As Sirius awoke on Sunday morning with yet another hangover, two things occurred to him: that he might be developing that drinking problem he had been worried about, and that he hadn't actually seen Gaara since Friday morning. He would have been forced to investigate, to make sure that Gaara had not run off, but for the occasional stirring, toilet flushes and the reports from Kreacher which gave satisfactory proof that he could continue ignoring the issue.

He spent a couple hours killing time, even resorted to cleaning a little, before returning to St. Mungo's to collect Remus. Like the day before, the door was locked tight and Remus hadn't been brought any breakfast. Not that he would want to eat anything, the state he was in. Sirius hadn't seen Remus this sickly looking in a long time. The lycanthropy and the new curse still raging away inside of his shoulder clashing together to make the man miserable.

"You look like shit, Remus."

"Not all of us can afford the luxury of ivory moustache combs." Remus wheezed, trying to sit up.

"I switched back to the whalebone one, actually. Works better with the beard oils." Sirius smiled, twirling his moustache a little.

"I've already had my temporary discharge form slid under the door so we don't need to be waiting around." Remus continued his aching movements.

Sirius rushed over to him and helped bring him to his unsteady feet.

"In all seriousness, will you be okay tonight?"

"Don't have much choice either way, do I? If I could have a night off every once in a while, I don't imagine this whole 'werewolf' thing would be such a big deal."

Sirius snagged a wheelchair since one wasn't provided, and tried to ignore the blatant looks of fear and derision directed towards Remus as they slowly ambled out of the hospital. Sirius was dillydallying since he knew he would be on the receiving end of some scorn himself when they arrived. As far as Remus knew, everything was going swimmingly back at the house.

Sirius had called for a taxi earlier so it was waiting for them outside. He had foreseen that Remus would be too weak to apparate, and driving through London was a nightmare even on a Sunday, so he loaded Remus into the cab and also folded the wheelchair up and snagged it too.

He dumped Remus into the unpacked, stolen wheelchair and paid the cabby. When he was sure there was nobody watching, he levitated Remus' chair and Remus up the steps since carrying his ill friend did not seem like fun.

As he was opening the door, he turned back to Remus with a strained smile and said, "Oh, before I forget to mention, I didn't quite get around to talking to Gaara yesterday."

Remus' eyes shot wide but he bit his tongue when he noticed Sirius had timed the confession to come as they were near Walburga's portrait. If Remus tried having a go at Sirius now, the portrait would drown it out anyway, and the last thing his headache needed was the addition of that shrill woman's voice screaming on top of it.

Sirius dragged his angry friend to the drawing room and transferred him to a plush chair and poured him a drink. As Remus started up on the guilt-tripping, Sirius began to remember that time after graduation, when three of the Marauders had voted it would be a good idea to get Remus (the fourth and excluded Marauder from said vote) so drunk on the day of the full moon that Moony would still be drunk after transforming. Unforeseeably, it turned out to be a bad idea since drunk werewolves tended to be surly.

Funny in retrospect, but as a result they hadn't gone through with their other plans to have Remus smoke or take certain other substances before transforming.

Sirius shared this reminiscence and Remus scowled and remarked that Sirius had insisted for months after that they continue the experiment over the others' objections.

"Oh, right, now I remember. I still have some stuff that might be fun to try, you know…"

"Stop trying to distract me." Remus refused to laugh at his friend's antics. "Go and get Gaara. Evidently I can't trust you to do this on your own like an adult, so I will supervise."

"Fine." Sirius accurately mimicked a teenager and stomped out of the room.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Gaara had been reading the only book on his fourth year reading list the Black family library contained when he heard a great bellow, "Gaara!" come from downstairs. He was embarrassed to have dropped his book, having flinched so hard at the sudden exclamation of his name after two days of total silence and isolation.

Apparently it was time to face Sirius' wrath and judgement.

He was feeling stiff so walking downstairs for the first time in days was dizzying. He found both Sirius and Remus, who must have been sprung from the hospital for the night, sitting in the lounge, both looking rather grim.

Sirius stood as soon as he entered and as he walked towards him, Gaara guessed Sirius was about to hit him. He had his sand armour on so it would not hurt him.

Sirius walked right up to Gaara, watching him tense up, and pulled him into a hug. He knew Gaara didn't like close bodily contact but occasionally an embrace was the most powerful thing a person could say. Gaara's wide eyes indicated one message or another was coming through loud and clear.

"I'm sorry for being a rubbish guardian the last couple of days, Gaara. I should have come and talked to you but… I'm a coward." All while saying this, he hadn't let go of Gaara, suddenly wondering how long it would take for the tiny redhead to get too uncomfortable and try to escape.

Answer: 15 more seconds.

Noticing the squirming, Sirius wondered what Gaara would do. He had forgotten that Gaara, despite being so much smaller than him, was incredibly strong. Gaara pushed his way out of the awkward hug and stepped back, glaring at him.

"Under a minute to act like an ass. You've outdone yourself." Remus remarked.

"Come and sit down, Gaara." Sirius gestured towards the sofa while he sat back on his chair.

"I should go. If you will release the wards, I will leave. I will not cause anybody anymore trouble."

"What? Leave? Where are you going?" Sirius asked.

"Wards?! Sirius, did you set up wards around the house?" Remus was cross with him.

"No! I just put up a simple barrier on the door. Figured Gaara wouldn't try a window after that." Sirius said.

Gaara felt a little foolish, having fallen for the trick. He looked back the way he had come, intending to leave immediately through a window once he had collected his things.

"You're not going anywhere, Gaara. Well, not until you go to Hogwarts, and then you're coming back for Christmas. There are still some things we need to talk about," Sirius said, "but you're a Marauder now, our friend, and short of betraying us, you're a member for life."

"There's no escaping it, I assure you. I tried once or twice in the early days." Remus pretended to bemoan.

Gaara's breath hitched, despite no tears forming in his eyes, and simply nodded his head, unsure what words he could say to respond to this display of trust.

"Tonight, why don't you join us, Gaara? This might be your last change under a full moon. About time you experienced a Marauder full moon, right, Padfoot?"

"Right you are, Moony, my good man!" Sirius cheered. "So, it's decided, we'll all go to the woods tonight."

"Decided?" Gaara questioned, unable to keep up with the conversation.

"I think it's about lunchtime. Any chance you can eat anything without chundering it right back up?" Sirius asked crudely.

"Something dry, I would ask." Remus politely responded.

"Kreacher!" Sirius called.

The house elf appeared and looked very upset to be in the company of Gaara again. "Yes, Master." He simpered.

"Bring us some lunch. Something dry and easy for Remus, and something big for Gaara and I."

Kreacher bowed and disappeared.

"So, now that the hard part's out of the way, we can move onto more interesting subjects." Remus said cheerily.

"Tell us more about your brother and your sister." Sirius said.

"Temari and Kankuro?" Gaara had expected them to want to know about any number of things from his home world, like the nature of the demons, his past, the history of his world's conflicts, the political structure of his village, anything but his siblings.

"Yeah. You said they were kind to you, I want to know more about them."

Gaara mulled this over. How best to describe his brother and sister? "Kankuro wears makeup and dresses as a cat, and Temari is quite angry and tries to tell me what to do."

"Wait, I thought Kankuro was your brother?" Sirius said, worrying that he had forgotten which was which already.

"He is, but he wears war paint."

"And the cat thing?"

"A stage costume, in black. He's a puppeteer and it helps him hide."

"Hold on, so your brother is a puppeteer rather than a warrior like you?" Remus added.

"No, he is a warrior but he uses a life-sized puppet to fight. It is a specialty of my village."

"So, you use sand and he uses puppets to fight." Remus said, trying to imagine such a thing. "Dare I ask what your sister uses?"

"A large fan to produce wind." Gaara stated.

"What about at home, though? Surely you all must get some time off every now and then. What do you like doing?"

"Temari likes flowers and training. Kankuro likes his puppets. He talks to them sometimes." Gaara would be the first to admit he did not spend very much time with his siblings outside of training or missions. "We sometimes eat together."

Sirius and Remus smiled at that.

"You've mentioned that you had a friend that helped you, who was he?" Sirius asked.

"He is like you," Gaara said, nodding to Sirius, "and like Fred Weasley and George Weasley. Energetic and annoying, and liked to play pranks."

Remus had always thought Gaara and Sirius' acquaintance was the result of pure chance but it seemed that Gaara was drawn to annoying pranksters.

Never the most loquacious member of their group, Gaara failed to keep the conversation moving so it fell to Sirius once again to talk like a radio host. It was peculiar for Gaara, going from pariah and soon-to-be-exiled, to being right back in the middle of one of Sirius' stories about an ill-conceived practical joke or attempts to woo some lost love.

Gaara lost some interest in the latter type of stories and his eyes started to wander. As they had a number of times before, they landed on the Black family tree, filled with a millennium of Blacks all over the walls. It was a remarkable history, albeit futile apparently. There was only one Black left now, that Gaara had found, and he had been blasted off of the tree.

"I counted all of the disowned ones once." Sirius said out of the blue. "About fifteen, including yours truly. Although, I'd wager I am the only one to ever take up as head of the family afterwards." He smiled. It was a point of great satisfaction that Sirius was in charge of the nearly extinct family while actively supporting every cause his parents and ancestors reviled.

"You always said you were going to try and track down some of the disinherited and illegitimate lines one day." Remus said.

"Never got around to it." Sirius admitted. "I suppose I could do that now. I suspected, when I was younger, that my father hired somebody to go and kill the branches. Fanatical man."

"And did he?" Remus asked.

"Probably not. Blacks stopped having bastards years ago. Fertility rates and all that. A blessing for a bona fide lothario like me."

Gaara was unsure with what Sirius just said. Not just about the fertility rates, which did not seem like something that was supposed to be celebrated, but also about Sirius' boasted playboy persona. As far as Gaara had seen since he had taken up residence with the man, Sirius had not attempted much less succeeded in finding a woman to copulate with. Gaara suspected this was another side effect of his imprisonment and long-term exposure to the dementors in Azkaban.

It was probably for the best, judging by the misadventures pursuing females Sirius like to relay.

"I was surprised that your mother never formally disinherited you." Remus added.

"Oh, she tried. If I weren't the last Black left, I wouldn't have seen a penny from her. After Regulus got himself killed following You-Know-Who, no matter what that banshee wanted, the estate was to pass on to me. Old pureblood law." He snorted into his drink.

Gaara had never been able to find out much about Regulus, as he was a sensitive subject for Sirius even now. One thing Sirius had said, though, a while back, was that he had always been disappointed in his brother's choice to follow Voldemort. "I thought at one time that Regulus might even make it into Gryffindor like I did. My parents would have thrown themselves off a bridge if he had. Two Gryffindor sons. Regulus was a nice enough lad, when we were young, but he wanted to please our parents too much. It would have been perfect, though. You see, Regulus is the brightest star in the constellation Leo, the lion. Instead he was just another in a very long line of Black Slytherins, who followed a Dark Lord and got himself killed doing something evil."

Gaara never saw fit to ask any more after that disclosure.

The three of them talked for hours longer. Sirius bemoaning his parents, Remus complaining about a new ache or pain, and describing one of the many jobs he had failed to hold down in the twelve years he had been on his own, and occasionally after prompting Gaara had piped up, divulging some small fact about his family or friend or some observation of his home.

At one point, Gaara admitted he had been disinherited by his father as a final parting shot. Kankuro and Temari had simply re-divided what Rasa had left them to include Gaara.

Sirius had tried to propose a toast to disappointing or hated sons but Gaara knew it was just a ruse to get him to drink alcohol.

As afternoon started turning to evening, Sirius had Kreacher pack them a picnic supper and changed into something to go to the woods in. Gaara hoped that when he was able to transform as an animagus rather than were-tanuki, he might be able to retain his clothing as Sirius did when he changed. It would be so much more convenient.

Apparition to the New Forest left Remus heaving onto the floor and Gaara gripping a close-by tree so re-centre himself. Hearing Sirius laughing nearby did nothing to make Remus or Gaara feel better. Sirius began setting up camp and Gaara followed suit. They did not bother with tents since none of them would be sleeping, but they did start a small fire and unfold some chairs.

They had a few hours until the sun set and anyone would need to change, so Sirius began cooking some sausages over the fire and feeding them all. Such responsibility would normally fall to Remus but he was in no fit state to be dealing with fire right now. And Gaara couldn't cook.

As they ate, sparingly since Sirius had managed to burn most of the meat, Remus drank his Wolfsbane while Sirius made biting comments about having to buy it for his friend, attempting to be funny and still making Remus feel bad.

When the sun began to set, Sirius unwrapped the rest of the meat and left it on the ground, and began packing everything away. Meanwhile, Remus changed into a dressing gown since his wolf form, larger than his human one, tended to ruin his clothes when he changed. Ultimately, it was Gaara that changed first, simply shrinking down into his clothes and climbing out as a strange tanuki creature without making a sound.

Remus was sweating heavily, his change drawing near, but Sirius was perfectly fine as he stood up and slowly approached the freshly shifted boy.

He walked up to Gaara like he was some dangerous animal that might snap at him and at the last minute he reached forward. Gaara told himself that if Sirius tried petting him, he would bite him. Instead, Sirius smiled and balanced a dog treat on top of Gaara's small snout.

Gaara missed his chance to bite since he was so shocked but the indignity. Of course, the small bone-shaped biscuit fell off his nose in short order as he tried to command his sand to attack Sirius but only ended up glaring and growling a little.

Despite the awful state he was in, Remus joined Sirius in laughing as hard as he ever had. The look on Gaara's canine face was hilarious.

Gaara sat back on his tail and waited. It was with a certain amount of sadistic satisfaction that he watched Remus double over in pain as his own transformation started. Sirius changed into Padfoot to watch, knowing Moony would attack any humans within sight or smelling distance as soon as he got his bearings.

Sirius stayed a respectable distance away from Gaara since he was still fiercely glaring at him, but both sat and watched the much more painful transition.

Once Moony was all changed and breathing heavily, he turned and found to familiar animals waiting for him.

Gaara was still wary of the werewolf, even if he wasn't likely to attack him having drunk the Wolfsbane Potion.

All through the night they trio romped around the forest. Moony had a noticeable limp while Padfoot and Bandit got into a number of scraps as the former was too rambunctious and the latter was in a bad mood and trying to work through some issues.

The fights were still friendly and were broken up when Moony forgot about his injured front leg and joined in. Between them they also managed to stalk and take down a deer, which Moony was soothed by for the time it took to finish eating the thing. Padfoot had taken a couple cursory bites but Bandit stayed clear.

In the morning, Gaara was the first to change back, and unexpectedly too. This resulted in him having to dash away from the suddenly aggressive werewolf, while searching for where they had all stashed their clothes. Fortunately he was still a highly trained shinobi capable of evading a dumb animal, plus Padfoot ran interference whenever the wolf came too close to scratching or nicking the redhead with his teeth or claws.

When he was dressed again, he leapt into the trees and then led the wolf and dog on a final run around the woods, chasing him from the ground. When Remus finally switched back, he was in a very sorry state. The site of the curse on his upper arms was looking even worse than it had yesterday and was openly bleeding dark blood onto the forest floor.

As soon as the wolf was gone, Sirius changed back too and helped his barely conscious friend back to where his clothes were. Gaara leapt down and helped Sirius to carry Remus.

"You should train your body more. You are too weak." Gaara observed as they finally got back to the campsite.

Sirius grumbled, straining to carry Remus after pulling an all-nighter but declining to respond. Before they helped Remus put his shirt back on, Gaara applied a field dressing to his arm to stop the bleeding. "He needs to go back to the hospital."

"I know that, but they won't accept him back until tomorrow. Idiots think there's a chance he might wolf-out and start biting the nurses during the daytime. We'll have to keep him breathing at my place until tomorrow."

"Foolish." Gaara muttered.

"Come on, we need to get him back." Sirius said, taking hold of Remus' hand and pulled out his wand.

"No. I will carry him back to London." Gaara said. Sirius had, as always, questioned the necessity of bringing his gourd of sand with him.

"You'll be seen. He'll be okay from apparating." Sirius said. The last thing they needed right now was the Ministry investigating Gaara for a breach of the Statute of Secrecy as well as the mess a few days ago.

Gaara felt confident he could avoid detection, but since Sirius did not look like he was looking to discuss it, he grabbed onto Sirius' shoulder and prepared himself for the wizarding excuse for transportation.

When they touched down on the street outside of the house, Remus was groaning and his upper arm was bleeding freely through the bandages. Gaara rushed to his side and applied pressure while Sirius levitated him slowly up the steps. It was too early for pedestrians or residents to spot him, luckily, but he was more worried about how much blood was dripping onto the pavement at that moment.

They carried him up to Remus' de facto bedroom and Sirius told Gaara to bring his first aid kit from the bathroom. He was rubbish at stitches but his healing spells were even worse. As he worked on the cursed area, he got a close look at the damage the spell had done to the flesh there. After apparating twice and transforming, it looked as bad as it had done when Remus first got hit.

Gaara had stepped back to watch since he was still unfamiliar with most first aid skills.

When the bleeding was stopped, Sirius wrapped it again and stepped back too, admiring his handiwork. "It won't heal properly until they finish getting rid of whatever dark magic is in there, so this will have to suffice for the time being."

Gaara felt anger welling up inside of him again for the man who did this to Remus until he remembered he had already fulfilled that vendetta. He would have to get some exercise to work out his aggression or risk it bubbling up later.

Sirius and Gaara left Remus to have a rest while they went and had some breakfast. Sirius went to have a nap since he wasn't a young man anymore and needed his rest. Gaara waited until Sirius was gone and then snuck back into Remus' room and sat by his bed, reading a new book.

Gaara's animagus training was all but done at this point so it was time to refocus his research back on his original problem. It was disheartening to return to his old area since the longer he had looked, the less promising subjects were left for him to explore. Now he was onto an obscure branch of Arithmancy that was apparently known to affect barriers between the worlds. It was most likely referring to the afterlife or to the astral plane but long shots were all he had left.

Remus had, on occasion, tried to lend his expertise to Gaara's plight, but they quickly exhausted his limited knowledge of the more arcane topics of magical research. Sirius had tapped out long before then, even. The two men meant well, and they tried to help however else they could but they were not experts on theoretical magic. In his desperation, Sirius had pledged his resources to track down any rare or expensive texts Gaara might need.

Gaara had no idea what the five books he had requested so far cost but he imagined they were significantly more than anything he might find on a Flourish & Blotts price tag.

In the afternoon, Gaara took a break and went downstairs to get some water. There on the side table sat a piece of post that hadn't been there when they arrived earlier this morning. With Sirius and Remus asleep, and Gaara being the enemy, Kreacher had likely decided to wait until one of the adults awoke to notify them of a post owl having been and gone.

As he went to collect it, Sirius stumbled down the stairs, looking like a thirty-year-old man who had gotten scarcely five hours sleep after spending an entire night keeping a werewolf entertained and fighting a tanuki intermittently. He saw Gaara at the post tray and asked, "Anything for me?"

"No. Hogwarts for me." Gaara said.

"Hogwarts?" Sirius questioned. Then it clicked, "Oh, it must be your results! Well, go on. Open it!" He cheered, descending the last few stairs to read over Gaara's shoulder.

Gaara did not fully understand Sirius' interest in his assessment results but it seemed harmless to oblige.

Inside were a front letter and two additional pieces. He skipped past the other two and went straight for the one he knew Sirius would not leave him alone until he had seen.

It read:

'Pupil Name: Gaara -

Year: 3rd

House: Slytherin

Term: 1993-1994

End of Year Results: Theoretical/Practical

Astronomy: Outstanding / Acceptable

Care of Magical Creatures: Outstanding / Exceeds Expectations

Charms: Exceeds Expectations / Acceptable

Defence Against the Dark Arts: Exceeds Expectations / Acceptable

Divinations: Outstanding / Outstanding

Herbology: Outstanding / Exceeds Expectations

History of Magic: Outstanding / (N/A)

Potions: Acceptable / Acceptable

Transfigurations: Outstanding / Acceptable

If you wish to make any amendments to your choice of electives for next year, send an owl to your Head of House by no later than August 31st.

Professor McGonagall

Head of Gryffindor House

Deputy Headmistress'

Gaara read over the results. He had not failed any of his classes so everything appeared to be in order.

"You managed to pass Potions?!" Sirius couldn't believe it, snatching the parchment out of Gaara's distracted hands. "From what Moony was telling me, I thought for sure Snivellus would fail you!"

"I studied on my own and the exam was proctored by multiple professors. He did not have the choice." Gaara said.

"I can't believe Remus only gave you an Acceptable!" Sirius said, slapping the parchment for emphasis. "Your theory is great and all, but what's the point of conspiring to commit felonies with your professors if they won't at least bump up your grades." Sirius frowned. "That was how I passed my Defence Against Dark Arts in second and third year, with two different professors."

"I believe he may have graded me loosely already. I am not a proficient spellcaster." Gaara admitted this freely. His first year of learning to use magic had been humbling.

The diminutive redhead was disinterested whereas Sirius was lighting up one of his celebratory cigars and smiling widely.

"I'm very proud of this, Gaara." Sirius said, walking away with the grades. Gaara followed after wondering where Sirius was taking them since Remus likely wouldn't be awake for a while.

He followed Sirius into the kitchen and in there he found him pinning the parchment to the twenty-year-old fridge, in pride of place. Gaara tried not to let the juvenile commendation bother him so he walked back out.

He read the other letters now that Sirius was distracted with his cigar and comically large glass of brandy. The front piece was a confirmation of continued attendance at Hogwarts, which he smirked at bitterly.

'Dear Mr. Gaara,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted to continue your studies into the fourth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all additional necessary books and equipment as well as your end of year examinations results.

Term begins on 1 September.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall

Deputy Headmistress'

After what Gaara assumed to be the formal and perhaps even automatically written portion of the letter came a postscript in a different handwriting.

'P.S. I am afraid gourds and other large containers of magically imbued sand or liquids will no longer be permitted to be carried in the halls or into classes starting next term.

With apologies,

Professor McGonagall'

Gaara read over the note again and sighed. Mini-gourd it would have to be. He would keep full size in his room. He glanced over the required materials list and saw nothing he couldn't retrieve in a quick visit to Diagon Alley. He would ask Sirius to collect his things for him in the next week. Hopefully Gaara would not be required to attend too.

Another owl appeared at the window and Gaara took the letter from it. Having seen dozens of such letters carried by the same impressive owl, Gaara knew exactly who it was from and took it straight to Sirius.

"Harry has sent you a letter."

"Hedwig didn't go for you, did she?" Sirius asked, concernedly looking at Gaara's fingers.

Gaara glanced at them too and shook his head.

"Can you take Remus these potions?" Sirius asked absently, now balancing his cigar and brandy in one hand while holding out a vial and a small cruet for Gaara to exchange for the envelope.

Gaara nodded, making the swap, having no interest in Potter's latest letter. He walked into Remus' room and started to rouse Remus, who was still drowsy. As he helped the disorientated man swallow the tincture and potion, his mind wandered to last night. He had almost felt like he could control the transformation, as if he could stop it, but then he was a tanuki and it was too late. Still, he was sure he would be ready by next month.

Sirius read over the copied results Harry had sent as beamed with even more pride, slapping them onto the fridge right next to Gaara's. It would stay there for many months to come.

Harry did not say much else in his letter, just that he was happy with most of his results and could live with the rest. He asked what Gaara had gotten at the end, which Sirius was encouraged by. Recently the animosity between Harry and Gaara had seemed to die down a little.

Sirius hoped they would be best buddies by the time Christmas rolled around.

Even more encouraging was that Harry had remembered to call him Padfoot, even if he had forgotten Gaara's nickname.

Sirius took out his quill and paper and started his reply.

'To Prongslet,

I am very proud of you. I would have said that even if you were a dunce, but you actually got amazing grades so I can honestly say I am overjoyed and immensely proud. Bandit did as well as can be hoped with his unfortunate tendencies with regard to spellcasting.

Will you be continuing the same classes as last year? Bandit wants to switch both of his electives, I think.

I hope you have been lavishing that bird of yours with affection and treats this summer with the workout she's been getting. With the way she treats your poor old dogfather, I think she might unionise any day now.

Your proud and handsome godfather,

Head of the Most Dusty and Inbred House of Black,

Lucky S.O.B.,

Padfoot'

Sirius almost forgot to note down Gaara's grades, so he did so on the back and sealed up an envelope. He pulled a piece of cooked bacon from the fridge and approached Hedwig with a hopeful smile. She took the bacon and still squawked at him threateningly.

The long-haired, unemployed ex-con probably should have asked Gaara before sending out a copy of his grades, but he didn't imagine for a second Gaara would care in the slightest.

He went to Remus' room but Gaara had cleared out, probably hidden in his bedroom again. Sirius wanted to go and bother him, but no matter his boredom he understood Gaara needed some space to process right now. They had been crowding him these past twenty-four hours and while it had been a necessary and positive experience, Gaara was a solitary person and needed to work things out in his own head.

Plus, when Gaara got stressed he found Sirius' hijinks marginally less amusing.

He chatted with Moony when he regained consciousness for a few minutes at a time and ate his dinner in there too when Kreacher reminded him of the late hour.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Early the next morning, as soon as it could rightly be called morning rather than night, Sirius drove Remus back to St. Mungo's and shouted at every staff member he encountered until they admitted his friend. Of course they were still reluctant to let the known werewolf back in their doors and expressed this prejudice at every opportunity.

Merlin forbid they miss a chance to insult Remus!

Gaara had wanted to come this time, probably to level a few threats at the healers himself, but Sirius said he could manage that on his own and that Remus would be fine and back home in a week at the most. That had been a guess but it had mollified the angry demon-host enough to leave the task to Sirius.

He stayed with Remus despite the snooty nurse's insistence that he could leave his friend in their capable if 'busy' hands. He had 'politely' declined and watched as they helped him change into a hospital gown and took him to his protected room to perform their checks and pulled out the messy stitched Sirius had applied and tried to heal the offending wound.

Only when they had wrapped the cursed area in gauze and given him a cocktail of potions did Sirius feel it was okay to leave him to rest. He would be visiting at least once every day no matter how many scowls the nurses sent his way.

He would definitely be bringing Gaara next time. He had wanted to keep Gaara out of the re-admittance process since Gaara was a protective boy and might have taken the unfair treatment poorly.

He did not want to jump to believing that Gaara might do what he did to the Death Eater who hurt Remus, but he knew exposing the surprisingly sensitive teen to the open discrimination was risky. The risk would be lesser tomorrow.

Hopefully.

As a passing nurse scoffed at him, Sirius stopped caring about the risks.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Gaara did not sulk but if he did he might have been sulking now. He had assured Sirius he would remain calm but evidently he would have to regain Sirius' trust. With everything that had happened this past week, it seemed like a light penalty for his transgressions.

Still, he not-sulked.

He spent the morning tidying up the library and sorting his piles of notes. He was planning on requesting a switch from Divinations to Artithmancy since the smell in the Divinations tower still made him ill and he had spent a lot of time studying Arithmancy for his independent research.

If he wanted to switch, he would have to take a short test at the beginning of term to prove he would be able to keep up with the student who had already taken the class for a year. He felt confident he would be able to perform well on any theoretical test they could reasonably expect him to take in September. He just hoped there was no practical wandwork required, otherwise he might have to spend another year drinking (admittedly rather well brewed) tea in Hogwarts' most pungent tower.

He would need to "ask Sirius' permission" before he could reply to Professor McGonagall, not that this infantilisation would present any real problems beyond his continually wounded pride. Sirius would respect his decision and rubberstamp any academic choices he made.

As he often had, Gaara suspected this attention and supervision by Professor McGonagall was as a substitute for his Head of House. Whoever had decided Severus Snape would make a good teacher should probably have someone overseeing their everyday decision making.

Another owl arrived and Gaara went to collect it, expecting it to be the second letter from Potter today. He really would have to ask Sirius to install a letterbox or limit the owls to no more than two or three a day. When he saw it was neither Potter's impressive owl nor Sirius' dull one, he read over the address on the envelope. It was to 'Mr. Sirius Orion Black', certainly not from Potter then. The return address was certainly not Privet Drive either, it was from the D.M.L.E.

Since this was going to be about him, Gaara ripped open the envelope. If Sirius was going to treat him like an unstable child, Gaara would do the same and check the man's post.

'Dear Mr. Black,

In accordance with the protocol outlined at the time of your interview on Friday 19th August, the DMLE is exercising its prerogative to perform an inspection of your home and follow up with any remaining questions our interviewers might have for you and your ward, Gaara. As stipulated in department guidelines, you have twenty-four hours to prepare for this follow-up interview and inspection.

Our investigators will arrive at 13:00 on Tuesday 23rd August.

Please ensure both you and your ward are both present at your home during this period. If you have any objections, contact our office in a timely manner and they will be considered.

Yours sincerely,

Amelia Bones

Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement'

Gaara read back over the letter and glanced at the nearest clock. It was Tuesday today and the time was twelve-noon, meaning they had sent the letter with only an hour to prepare. The letter was dated yesterday, and Gaara was sure if they tried lodging any sort of complaint the Ministry would claim the owl had gotten lost for a day.

Same political tactics, different world.

Still, this presented the problems of Sirius being out and the house being a mess of dust and dark artefacts. The dust he could ignore, but all of the illegal items would need to be hidden away.

He ran to the library first and collected all of the books that even he knew were objectionable and stuffed them in any suitable hiding places he could think of. It was sad to see the shelves with so many obvious gaps on them, but even the Ministry wouldn't be able to kick up a fuss over things that weren't there.

After he had stashed the books, he moved from room to room, taking everything Sirius had warned him not to play with and put it in the attic or the room Sirius regularly reminded him he was forbidden to enter because it was filled with dark objects. Of course, this just left them with a room absolutely cluttered with illegal and suspect items, but they would just have to find a way of keeping the inspectors out of that one room.

Forty-five minutes Gaara ran about the house before the door opened downstairs and he dashed to inform Sirius. With the emergency in front of them, he was pretty sure Sirius wouldn't begrudge him opening the man's post. As quickly and succinctly as he could, Gaara informed the man of what the letter had said and how long they had left, and after only thirty second of profanity, Sirius jumped into action and picked out the things Gaara hadn't noticed on his sweep of the house.

When they had collected most of the knickknacks from around the house and stuffed them into the absolutely forbidden room, Sirius cast a spell and the door melted into the wall and Gaara believed one would never know there was a room there at all, if they had not seen it before.

"They might notice if they look closely so we'll have to keep them moving around here." Sirius said. "Where did you hide the books?"

Gaara said, "They won't be found. I will move them back into the library later."

Sirius stared for a moment but resolved to ask about it later.

The inspectors knocked on the door five minutes early, sending Sirius scurrying to the entryway and cursing again, this time at their uncharacteristic punctuality. He looked back, wondering whether he should have made Gaara dress up after all, but yanked the door open after a final insistent knock rang out.

"Good afternoon." He declared with a flourish, smiling widely at the pair he held nothing but contempt for.

Gaara watched Sirius try to act casually and he almost wanted to smile at the failed attempt. Sirius has spent the last five minutes after finishing their stashing, pulling a comb through his tangled hair and working on his pristine beard. Gaara found Sirius' preoccupation with his beard peculiar. It might have been disturbing if he had not watched his older brother spend hours before every mission touching up his "war paint".

"Good afternoon, sir. Madam Bones should have informed you of our inspection today. We will need to look around your home before asking follow-up questions on the matters of your guardianship of…" He looked at a piece of parchment, "Gaara, and regarding the terrorist incident on the morning of August 19th. I am Auror Padley, this is Auror Unglestein." He gestured to the taller Auror standing behind him on the doorstep.

"Unglestein?" Sirius repeated.

"It is Austrian." Auror Unglestein said in a surprisingly posh English accent.

"Oh, well, very good." Sirius blurted out nervously. "Come in, please."

"We would like to perform our checks first, if you would not mind." Unglestein said as he walked past Sirius and to the stairs. "We will start from the top down. You may wait here."

"We won't be long." Padley added.

"No, I'll show you around. It's a big house and I wouldn't want you getting lost." Sirius strode forwards and slid onto the staircase before Unglestein could take his first step.

Gaara watched them walk upstairs and waited where he was. If Sirius didn't return in ten minutes Gaara would go and provide back up.

Nine minutes later they clomped back down to the ground floor together and Sirius was not in chains so Gaara assumed they had not found the cornucopia of illegal and dangerous items.

"Of course, the department can't afford to perform as many of these spot-checks as they would like, to keep everyone safe, but with such prominent cases such as yours and Gaara's here, we might make an exception. It's a publicity thing, you understand. Still, I shouldn't worry about the inconvenience too much. They wouldn't be too frequent, I don't think. Certainly not if your notoriety decreases, sadly." Auror Padley said.

"That is a shame," Sirius said, "but as private citizens it is to be expected that we be overlooked from time to time like that."

Gaara had listened to the entire veiled threat quietly. The implication was clear and desirable for both parties. Gaara would happily stay away from the limelight and Sirius would much rather find himself in the gossip rags rather than the front pages of the Daily Prophet yet again.

"Let's all sit down and get this interview over with. I'm sure you both have more important duties to be getting back to." Sirius said.

Both the Aurors were conspicuously quiet.

"Where are my things?" Gaara spoke up at last.

"Pardon?" Unglestein said as he turned back to the boy he had been ignoring.

"His gourd and his like knapsack thing." Sirius said, unsure of how to describe Gaara bag other than as a weapons pouch.

Padley pulled out his notebook, into which he had been jotting countless notes as he toured around the house, and flipped to the first page. "Ah, yes I see, I'm afraid they were destroyed. Both items. It says here that the gourd disintegrated and the sand could not be recovered, and your pouch was destroyed by the Department of Mysteries as it was deemed to be of a dark nature. You have the Ministry's apologies and can apply for compensation through the public liaisons office."

What Padley had not been told was that the pouch had not been destroyed so much as a detection spell used by the D.o.P. had ignited whatever explosive had been stashed in there. The gourd had in fact been handled with extra care after the explosion and despite the precautions they took it had spontaneously broke apart after a couple days. The sand was now being carefully analysed for any residual magic.

"Typical." Sirius muttered under his breath.

Gaara frowned but decided nothing would come of him speaking up about it. The gourd had already been replaced but that pouch had contained his only kunai and exploding tags. While complaining would not get him anywhere, he could still glare at the bearers of bad news.

"So, let us begin…" Unglestein prompted, pulling out his own notebook and pencil.

What followed was another tedious interview where leading questions were posed to both guardian and ward, and few if any real answers were given. They tried the same old questions nonetheless, especially wanting to know where Gaara came from and what his second name was since no one believed him when he said he didn't have one.

Surely it wasn't such a strange thing. It wasn't as if Gaara was a common name, and he was pretty easy to distinguish from amongst a crowd.

Sirius had helped Gaara with evading his questions and Gaara tried to reciprocate, though his radar for nuance was not quite as skilled as Sirius'. When it became clear to all that the only way the Auror pair would be getting any answers worth writing down would be with the liberal and illegal use of Veritaserum, they stood up and thanked their host for the tea they hadn't drunk.

"Of course, and please do stop by as often as your department thinks is necessary. Also, please talk to Madam Bones about perhaps retiring her owl as it appears to be getting a bit old. The Ministry is only a few miles away and it took a whole day for it to get here. I don't mind the lack of notice this time but if you would be so kind as to pass along my suggestion…"

"Of course, thank you for mentioning it." Auror Padley said, appearing to be in a bit of a rush to leave now that his afternoon had conclusively been wasted.

They left and once Sirius slammed the door shut behind them, he practically collapsed with the weight removed from his chest.

"You are good at bluffing." Gaara said from his seat, sipping on his water.

"Not as good as Remus. Used to steal half my pocket money at school during the monthly poker matches." He smirked. "He even managed to fleece Slughorn once, which is why McGonagall banned all gambling on school grounds. Threatened to expel us when she found out we were still playing cards. I wonder if she's still enforcing that rule so harshly?"

Gaara had never been one for games of chance so it had never been a pertinent problem. Plus, it wasn't like a silly moratorium would keep Gaara from doing what he wanted anyway.

"So, now that that's over, where did you hide those books?"

Gaara thought for a second and answered, "I found a servants passage upstairs…" He started.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Arthur had picked Harry up early on Wednesday morning, aiming to drop him off at the Burrow so he could still make it to work in time. Even though Harry was excited to get back to his world, six seemed far too early to be doing anything during the summer holidays. Even Aunt Petunia never woke him up before eight. It was the one small mercy she could be relied upon to provide him.

"Well, I'm sorry I can't stick around but there's work to be done." Arthur said in all good cheer before leaving again, flooing to the Ministry.

"Harry!" Molly bustled over, "Welcome back. Have you eaten yet?" She asked, already putting some toast under the grill for him.

No point in telling her he had already had cereal, especially when she had a dish of Irish butter and multiple jars of homemade jam on offer.

"Ron's supposed to have gotten up by now." Molly bemoaned, looking to the clock displaying seven a.m. She had roused her youngest boy and Hermione in Ginny's room half an hour ago to be ready for Harry's arrival, but so far none had come downstairs. Teenagers!

It was a few minutes later, as Harry was enjoying the full Weasley hospitality, that Ginny jogged down into the kitchen. As was customary, she still froze up in that first moment of seeing him and blushed bright red before ducking away again.

It was these routines that made his visits to the Burrow so comforting.

After Ginny had calmed down, she had returned to the kitchen and taken a chair as far away from Harry as she could, her milky complexion still stained scarlet, and mumbled a greeting to him. It was adorable, he thought.

Another ten minutes later, as Harry was feeling a little ill from being stuffed with toast (and a few freshly baked crumpets too), Hermione finally arrived, her hair still damp from the shower.

"Hello, Harry!" She smiled, running over to hug him.

"Morning." He smiled back. "Where's Ron?"

"Oh you know him!" She harrumphed and sat next to Ginny. "I just had to wake him up. Again!"

"Well, all the hot water will be gone by the time he does decides to get up." Molly scoffed, setting a laden plate in front of Hermione, which she smiled at but did not rush to eat.

Harry knew the girls did not like to eat as much as the boys, he and Ron had observed as much during meals over the past year. Ron had a convoluted theory involving a reverse correlation to the size of certain assets but Harry just thought most of the boys in their House were gluttons. Including himself.

The rest of the Weasleys trickled down at a pace that would make molasses jealous. Ron came last, scowling and complaining that all of the hot water was gone when he had gone to take his shower, and now he was left with burnt toast!

Ron was happy to see Harry again and they immediately tried to jump into a discussion on Quidditch in the aftermath of the World Cup since the results were being contested and the trophy was being held hostage until an enquiry could be held.

"Honestly you two! You can go on and on about Quidditch tomorrow when I leave. Until then, please try to keep it to a minimum."

The pair looked at each other, sighed, then Ron piped up, "Now that Wood's gone, do you think I should try out for the Keeper position?"

"Ronald!" Hermione scolded him for ignoring her words completely.

"Come on Herm, I'm sure it couldn't hurt for him to try out at least." Harry defended his friend unknowingly. "Angelina Johnson's taking over as captain so I don't see why he shouldn't go for it."

Harry patted a hurt Ron on the shoulder and Hermione tried not to scream at her two best friends.

After breakfast was finished with and Molly had politely refused Harry's habitual attempt to help with the dishes, before complaining that she had to do all the housework herself at her lazy children, the Trio retreated from the other Weasleys and went to Ron's room. They had to skirt around the twins on the staircase who would only let them pass once Harry had assured them Sirius was going to 'pay what he owed'.

When they were in the relative security of Ron's small room, Hermione started right away, "So, come on, time to tell me; how did you do?"

Ron looked sheepish, presumably having avoided telling Hermione last night when she arrived. She turned her gaze on him so Harry conceded and pulled out the parchment he had stuffed in his pocket when he was packing, ready for the inevitable interrogation she would put them through.

He whipped out his results and she studied them intensely while Ron made a show of looking for his own sheet, having retrieved it from his mother who had wanted to keep it with all of the other mementos she collected from her children.

With Hermione's set out on the floor with the other two, they were able to compare results. Hermione led the grades by a long stretch, except in the DADA practical exam where Harry had managed to achieve an Exceeds Expectation to her Outstanding. She tried not to let it get to her. Ron's grades were 'okay', his words, but Hermione made sure to point out all of his deficiencies so he might improve himself.

He did not receive the words with the sentiment from which they were spoken.

After Hermione had made her unrealistic plans to help the boys study harder this coming year but before she could start drawing charts to cement those plans, Harry pulled out a fourth piece of parchment, this one handwritten.

"What's that?" Ron said.

"They're Gaara's results. Sirius sent them to me." He said, flattening the creased parchment on the floor and seeing how they stacked up against Hermione's.

"Bloody hell, he managed to pass Potions!"

"I know. I wonder how he managed that. I thought Snape was going to kill him that one time."

"Snape wouldn't really hurt a student, Harry." Hermione chided. "I knew Gaara was revising in his own time, but I didn't think he could actually pass that way." Hermione seemed to be having a spiritual crisis with the knowledge that classes were not wholly necessary even to pass classes.

"Wanna bet." Ron snorted. "Did pretty well considering how rubbish he is at magic, though, don't you think?"

"That's what I thought. Plus he's never studied magic before last year, apparently, other than his sand thing."

"Probably just said that to get them to go easy on him." Ron muttered.

"If that were true, Hermione and I would have gotten better results than you in our first year, since we came from muggle homes."

"You did get better grades." Ron said, perplexed.

"Harry!" Hermione slapped him on the arm but failed to conceal her smile fully.

Ron frowned and scooped up his results sheet.

"You could both do much better in History of Magic." She said. Both boys had gotten Acceptables, and probably just scraped by to get them. They groaned and Ron threw a pillow at her making her shriek. A pillow fight ensued and Ron came out the victor, reclaiming some of his besmirched honour.

When they had calmed down marginally, Harry piped up, "Any guesses to who's going to be teaching DADA?"

"Well, the pattern so far is You-Know-Who, crazy prat, and werewolf working with a mass murderer… I'm thinking the Loch Ness Monster for year four." Ron said.

"He wasn't working with a mass murderer, just a wrongly convicted mass murderer who escaped from an inescapable prison." Harry smiled.

"You two should be more respectful. Professor Lupin was the best professor we've had."

"Padfoot says I'm not allowed to call him 'Professor Lupin' any more. If I do he said he was going to have to 'learn how to discipline an errant child' or something like that. I have to call him Remus or Moony or sponger."

"You can't be serious, Harry!" Hermione was flabbergasted.

"Actually, I think you'll find-"

Harry's witty rejoinder borrowed from his godfather was interrupted by Hermione's hand shooting out to cover his mouth. "Don't finish that sentence, Harry James Potter!"

He swallowed his words.

"He's nothing but a bad influence on you, you know that, right?" She said.

"He'll be so happy to hear you said that." Harry smiled.

"Just so long as you don't start listening to Fred and George. Those two don't half keep on about Sirius. They were annoying enough before." Ron complained.

"So, come on, Herm, who do you think will be the next DADA liability?" Harry asked.

Hermione huffed but answered, "They will be the best qualified person for the job, obviously."

"Because Quirrel and Lockhart were such brilliant picks." Ron griped.

"Well, I'm sure they looked like the perfect candidates on paper." She argued. "Anyway, Professor Dumbledore will have learned from those two so we should have a great teacher this year."

"Not like he's been doing the job for the last hundred years." Ron said.

"Actually, he's been teaching at Hogwarts since 1913 and became the headmaster in 1971." Hermione said.

"Enough about DADA." Harry mediated. "Hermione, what classes are you doing this year? I'm still not sure how you managed to keep up with all those classes last year."

Hermione averted her eyes, "Well, I was managing my time very carefully and I did one during my lunch breaks." She rattled the lies off quickly. "Anyway, Professor McGonagall wrote to tell me that I have to reduce my class load this year. I'm dropping Divinations and Ancient Runes."

"Really? I would've thought you'd drop Care of Magical Creatures before Runes." Ron said.

"I thought about it, but then I would miss Hagrid's teaching. Besides that, Professor Babbling said I could still take the end of year tests with the other students so I just have to do what Gaara does and read in my own time."

"So you're just going to do the class anyway? You already spend all your time reading!" Ron exclaimed.

"It's not all my time, Ronald."

"I wouldn't joke, Ron. It's us that are going to suffer. When it's time to revise next year, Hermione's going to be far too busy to help us with those brilliant revision guides she makes."

Ron turned on Hermione, his eyes shining with unshed tears. He was just too pathetic to say no to at that moment. She sighed and started changing the study schedule in her head. Down to five hours sleep this year…

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Cornelius sat in his office, the lamps having been doused and the blinds drawn to stop his secretaries and those eagerly awaiting his audience from seeing him stave off his impending panic attack. They had just held a sudden vote of 'no confidence' in the Wizengamot, a vote he had only be made aware of three hours ago thanks to one of his lingering loyal members. The vote had swung in his favour but it was far too narrow to take any comfort in.

If it were not for a handful of witches and wizards who were more afraid of change than any follies Cornelius might visit upon the country, he would have been removed from office this afternoon and a snap election held in the coming weeks to determine his hastily prepared successor.

Still, no matter his victory, the narrow result made one message abundantly clear: he was on thin ice and it was on the fickle or expensive whims of politicians that he kept his office.

In his three hours, he had tracked down and harangued all of his supposed supporters that he could find. He had made as many threats as he had promises, including a few strictly outside the purview of his job. One or two had alluded to Lucius' hand in their persuasion away from Fudge's cause but would not confirm anything.

It seemed Lucius was taking his dismissal from Cornelius' confidence a tad personally.

The press had crucified him over the attack last week, and now they would all start up about who would take over the Ministry next, as if he was already out of the job. While they had taken the bait with regard to it being a terrorist incident and that the villains were outside of the Ministry, they had linked it to the dementor attack on Hogwarts, the year of terror caused by Black's escape, and the escape, civilian capture and then 'accidental' Kissing of Peter Pettigrew. They were painting it as a systematic failure from the highest levels of the Ministry of Magic, the result of lacking leadership.

One article had even gone so far as to suggest the next Minister for Magic would need to be ready for the rise of a Dark Lord, with this resurgence in Death Eater activity! Poppycock!

At least that Gaara boy was behaving himself, along with the Black malcontent. A small mercy, but perhaps he could put that particular issue to the back of his mind. The inspection of the Black household had yielded little of interest but the Aurors' observations indicated that despite his powers and the resulting dangers posed, Gaara was nothing more than an irrelevant teenager. So long as those two disappeared from his sight, he would leave them alone.

He was so close now to his salvation. He had to leak a few details to regain one or two vital votes but only to those wizards he knew would not be speaking about it to the press before the time came. When the story broke in a little over a week's time, they could come out and say they knew all along and increase their public profile and perceived importance.

Ludo was due in his office soon to make the final plans and discuss the first wave of publicity efforts.

It was a sad fact that meeting Bagman was the highpoint of his day, between staving off impeachment and then beginning talks with the head of the Ministry Workers Union to prevent an incoming strike action from the maintenance workers in their buildings. Although, there was also the floo conference call with the Siberian and French Ministers and trying to mediate between those egomaniacs trying to encroach on Britain's imminent good publicity. Finally he would be spending his evening and much of the night reviewing the draft budget to extend the Ministry's line of credit with the goblins. If his venture did not end up being profitable, whoever did take Fudge's job would find him or herself staring down the barrel of a fifth goblin rebellion.

In which case, Cornelius would be glad to retire and escape that mess. His successor would probably have to sell Wales to the goblins to stop another open war.

"Ludo Bagman is here for his one o'clock meeting, Minister." Came the voice of his secretary.

Groaning, Fudge rose to his feet and rubbed his eyes, "Send him in, and bring us coffee in ten minutes."

"Yes, Minister."

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Remus was enjoying the residual high of the last of the pain potions St. Mungo's had sent him home with as he relaxed back in 12 Grimmauld Place. Sirius was out, dropping something off at the Burrow. He was "just popping out for five minutes" and had presumably "lost track of time" about two hours ago.

The recovering werewolf was still weak and his arm was throbbing even through the haze of analgesics. The scarring was pretty impressive, Sirius had assured him when he been taught to redress the wound at the hospital.

He had insisted that Gaara come down to join him instead of staying sequestered upstairs as per usual. However, with Remus' injuries, they were rather limited in their activities, outside of Exploding Snap, Wizards Chess, or a discussion of DADA theory) but the adult was glad of the company and counted any time Gaara spent in the company of others as a success. No matter how bored the boy appeared to be.

Elsewhere, Sirius was enjoying the lively Weasley household while loudly complaining that he had forgotten his watch.

He had stepped away to conduct his small bit of business with the twins as soon as he arrived since they looked like they were about to start acting like loan sharks. As funny as that would have been to watch, Sirius knew Molly would spot them and put a stop to the whole transaction, which Sirius' code of honour would not allow. Blacks always paid their debts, unless they were one of the many Blacks who were broke and had lived on credit awarded to the Black name.

For decades during the nineteenth century, it had been seen as terribly common to actually carry or use money. Sirius had tried that once, at a restaurant, but the waiter had threatened to call the Aurors so Sirius had to make his date pay. She found it less amusing than he did and entirely failed to appreciate the history lesson.

Sirius would have liked to heft a full chest of galleons to the twins but in the name of discretion he had stored the full five hundred coins in a magically enlarged pouch.

When the business was concluded, and the rest of the ginger family were suitably puzzled, Sirius then spirited Harry away to Ron's room, kicking the indignant boy out of his own bedroom with an aristocratic wave of his hand.

As Sirius sat in the chair and Harry took the bed, they heard the clamour of Fred and George celebrating their winnings upstairs.

"How much did they win?" Harry asked, listening to what sounded like dozens or even hundreds of coins clattering on the floor above them.

"A gentleman never discusses money, Prongslet." Sirius smiled. "I will say that it should be enough that they will be in a very good mood for the rest of your stay, I should think."

"I think twenty galleons would have done that. How's Remus doing, now that's he's back at home?"

"Well, he doesn't actually live at my house but I can understand how you made that mistake since he never leaves." Sirius laughed. "And he's doing as well as can be expected. The curse sadly did nothing to fix his face, hitting his arm and all, but he's in good spirits nonetheless. He dragged Gaara down for a game of Exploding Snap as I was leaving."

"Hard to imagine Gaara playing that." Harry said, thoughtful.

"Not as hard as you might think. Boy never flinches. I can't play it with him anymore. Plus he has the reaction time of a cat."

Harry laughed. "I hope you don't mind, I showed Gaara's results to Ron and Hermione when she was here. I think she was a little jealous of his results considering where he started. I know that Ron's jealous of his Potions results. Keeps suggesting he and I should ditch the lessons and do what Gaara does and avoid Snape."

"I am always happy to encourage people to disrespect Snivellus but I wouldn't recommend burning that bridge just yet. You've seen how much of a bookworm Gaara is. I don't mean to be harsh, but I don't think that it's yours or Ronald's specialty."

Harry sighed but accepted the sad reality that he would be stuck with Snape for the time being, especially if he were to follow his dream and try joining the Auror program, which required Potions.

"How is Gaara doing?" Harry asked.

Sirius took a moment to consider the question, since Gaara was normally at best a sore subject and at worst Harry's enemy. "He's… well. Quiet as you would expect. Honestly, half the time I forget he can talk now."

"Yeah, I can imagine. How did his voice get healed in the end, anyway?"

Sirius froze for a split second, his mind jumping back to what he now knew of Gaara's nature. Of course, he quickly gave an excuse, "Finally got him on the right counter-curse."

"It was a curse that made him mute? I thought he got cut across his throat?"

"Well, it was a cursed knife; stopped anyone from healing him until we found the right counter-curse. Horrible bit of magic, that." He concluded.

"I guess it was. I'm glad you found it. Who did it? I mean, who cut his neck and cursed him? Was it anything to do with what happened at the World Cup finals, the terrorist attack?" Harry did not like manipulating Sirius, but he needed answers about that night and what part Gaara had played in it.

"No, that was a completely unrelated thing. The so-called terrorist attack was a Death Eater raid. Used to happen all the time during the war but we just called them attacks. I suppose if you call it a 'terrorist incident' it sounds less common."

Harry mutely nodded, always receptive to lessons and stories concerning the war from his godfather.

"What exactly did Gaara do that night?" When subtlety failed a frontal assault was needed. The Gryffindor style of diplomacy.

Sirius frowned, "Because of where he comes from, Gaara knows how to fight. He thought he needed to join the battle to help Remus, Arthur and I. He was wrong to do that."

"Where does he come from? He's never said and we all want to know, to get to know him better."

"He comes from far away. You don't need to worry about that. He just doesn't like to talk about his past, other than to his close friends. If you and he become closer, he might open up. I don't mind sharing his results but I can't break his trust and share things he would prefer left unsaid. You understand, right?"

"Of course!" Harry all but blurted out, afraid he had overstepped the mark and upset Sirius.

"Not to worry."

"So, you and he aren't in any trouble with the Ministry? You mentioned that inspection but you didn't say why they needed to do one. Ron said no one needed to talk to his dad afterwards."

"I suspect if they wanted to speak with Arthur, they would call a meeting in the Ministry where he works. But no, there's no trouble. We got into a fight, Gaara and I, and they just wanted to make sure we were okay and that Gaara was not upset. As a rule, teenagers aren't supposed to run towards battles, much less fighting in them."

"Did he hurt someone?" Harry pressed on.

Sirius sighed heavily. "Gaara was only trying to protect Moony and I, and the people he hurt were bad people. I don't think we should be talking about this anymore. The Ministry concluded that everything we did was justified and the matter is closed. Try to forget about it."

Harry pretended to agree.

After their serious chat, they moved on to a game of Quidditch in the back garden with most of the Weasley family present taking part, minus Mrs Weasley. The teams were divided with Harry, Sirius and Ron versus Fred, George and Ginny. Percy was busy at the Ministry with his internship but the other Weasley children decided to try to enjoy the afternoon without him.

Understandably Harry, Sirius and Ron won the first match so they switched up the teams several times.

After Sirius left, promising to visit Arthur and Molly sometime when the children were away, Harry dragged Ron away unceremoniously to share what Sirius had told him. This time it did not occur to him that he was breaching his godfather's confidence when he recounted what had been said, about Gaara having fought and hurt Death Eaters but that the Ministry was not upset over it.

"Sounds like it's what we thought. Gaara went and joined the adults. If one of his levitation charms managed to knock out a couple of those blighters, good to him."

"Yeah, you're right. I'm over thinking it. It's just…" Harry hesitated, "We saw what Gaara was capable of against those dementors, if he used that power against people… I'm just glad no one was killed."

"Well, they… Dad wasn't supposed to tell us, and I only overheard him telling Percy so that he didn't let it slip to Fred and George, but apparently a couple Death Eaters were killed. It was a few, maybe two or three, but two of them were killed by one person and Dad definitely didn't want Percy spreading who that was."

"You think Gaara killed two Death Eaters? By himself?"

"Not by himself, but if he was fighting with Dad and Sirius and Professor Lupin and the others there, maybe he got a couple lucky shots in, you know?"

"What else did your Dad say?"

"Not much, mostly about the Ministry being in a fuss at the time, and that they were ruled self-defence. No one's fault."

"Sirius said the Ministry weren't pursuing him and Gaara for hurting Death Eaters during the fight!" Harry's whispered excitement lasted only as long as his train of thought let it and then he realised what he was suggesting.

"We have to tell Hermione about this!" Ron replied, still riding the high of discovering the conspiracy.

"Let's wait till we see her next. I don't want to send this sort of thing by owl." Harry replied before going over to soothe Hedwig's ruffled feathers. "You know I didn't mean it like that, girl. I meant that the news should be given in person, not that you aren't a perfect messenger."

"Stop flirting with your owl, Harry." Ron laughed.

Hedwig screeched and Ron flinched and stopped laughing.

At Grimmauld Place, Sirius relieved Gaara from duty and allowed him to return to his peaceful solitude. Remus had bored the poor boy half to death, which was feat considering Gaara's chosen hobbies of meditating and spending days at a time reading six-hundred-year-old books on magical theory, often written in Middle English verse.

"I'll see you back down here for dinner." Sirius told him.

"No more junk food this week." Gaara demanded. Sirius' ambition to introduce Gaara to all the delights of this world had turned into a marathon of greasy and unhealthy foods that Sirius felt he 'needed' to try.

"But tonight's doner kebabs!" Sirius yelled after him.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

On the last Saturday of the holiday, Gaara was due to visit the Malfoy household again for the day. Sleepovers were for muggles, children and poor people, according to Draco, so Gaara would stay for dinner and return with Sirius in the evening. It was just as well since Sirius would probably have tried even harder to put his foot down on the subject, if Gaara had proposed to stay the night.

As it was, Sirius had ended up loudly admonishing Gaara over the boy's insistence that he stroll into 'Death Eater central' on his own, trying to order him to stay away from that house and refuse Lucius' invitation. Sirius had even tried to write a refusal on Gaara's behalf but redhead intercepted him and declared his steadfast intention to accept.

Sirius was surprised at Gaara's determination to visit Draco but he still tried to convey the dangers of going to Malfoy Manor after what Gaara had done at the World Cup. Gaara calmly told him that Draco was alone in the Malfoy house too and Gaara would not abandon him.

Sirius went and punched a wall for twenty minutes by the sound of it, but he did not try to stop Gaara anymore. He was upset that he hadn't been able to tell his fourteen-year-old ward what to do. He would need to work on his stern voice.

Maybe Snivellus would be willing to give him some tips if Sirius brought him some shampoo. Sirius smiled despite himself at that thought. He had pulled a similar joke in third year and it had been funny then too. Lily had threatened to curse him bald, but on balance it was worth it.

Snivellus never had used that shampoo.

Sirius had also relented when Gaara assured him he would be bringing his full gourd with him to the Malfoys.

If even one grain of sand was out of place when Gaara returned, Sirius would convene the Order himself and storm Malfoy Manor and burn it to the ground! When Sirius told Gaara this, he agreed and went back to his lunch.

Remus had agreed with Sirius' sentiment but decided to stay out of the argument.

On Saturday, Sirius insisted on dropping Gaara off at the door just so he could glare at his cousin's husband. He had planned to be invited in for a congenial cup of tea and then drag Lucius off to threaten him, instead he was waved off at the door like an expectant delivery driver waiting for a nonexistent tip.

"You may return for Gaara in the evening, after nine. Good afternoon." Lucius had said before slamming the door in Sirius' face.

So much for manners in the upper classes…

Gaara was led through the familiar and grand halls of the mansion to the enormous drawing room where Draco and Narcissa were waiting. Draco was clearly excited but was trying to suppress it in front of his parents, so he was hovering an inch over his seat and had a totally blank face.

The four of them exchanged proper greetings and pleasantries over tea, discussing their leisure activities since last they met and any mention of the World Cup was assiduously avoided. Anything straying towards anything substantive was quashed expertly.

Once the formal sit-down tea was done with, the boys were released to their own devices until lunch was to be served in an hour. Both walked briskly away to catch up properly and the adults watched them go like a pair of hawks.

"That went rather well, I thought." Narcissa said the moment the door shut after them.

"As could be expected, considering. Care for something stronger than tea?" Lucius replied, moving over to the well-stocked drinks trolley.

Narcissa looked down at her diamond encrusted wristwatch and confirmed it was after midday. "Just a small one, I think. It was too early to be having tea so we might as well have a snifter before lunch too."

"It couldn't be helped, dear. The boys wanted to spend a full day together. Merlin knows why. They will be living together soon enough."

"Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, Lucius. I trust you were cordial with cousin Sirius when he dropped Gaara off." She said.

"As cordial as I felt appropriate. I don't think he was going to be inviting us to any parties either way, do you?"

"The sort of parties my cousin would throw would feel quite unfamiliar to us, I am afraid." She tittered.

"It's not him we need, anyway. Your cousin can rot, but need I remind you of how precarious our position is at the moment? Securing Gaara's loyalties to our position would be an enormous boon to us."

"I want to leave the boys alone today, as much as we can. Gaara is clearly uncomfortable around adults but he made the effort to come here to see Draco. I don't know that the friendship between Draco and Gaara is as profitable as we might like, but they are undoubtedly close. We would be best to try and improve our image in Gaara's eyes on a personal level before propositioning him to our cause on an ideological level."

"That's a risky way to conduct this affair, you realise. We could waste months on making him warm to us only to reject the rightful world order in favour of his guardian's beliefs. If he is indeed ruled by his personal bonds more than any more pragmatic ones his House might suggest, we will never win out against the man who is caring for him."

"Perhaps…" She admitted, taking a sip of her gin and tonic.

"Our best chance is to make him see things from our point of view. After all, he and Draco are close, as you said, and Draco was raised in our world. Surely we can find some common ground from which to work on the boy."

"I would like to think so, but you must remember that Sirius was raised by Uncle Orion and Aunt Walburga. Upbringing isn't everything."

Lucius scoffed. "This is all moot. We do not have the time for the safest approach. My patience and my waning influence with Cornelius is being turned by the old circle into signs of weakness and betrayal. Cornelius has my department under more pressure than ever and with those two oafs still missing, I have not had the requisite time needed to increase my presence amongst our old friends. Some are starting to question my protection of Gaara, especially after what he did to Grimes and Dagnes. Some of them understand the power I could be bringing over to our side, but most believe I am being sentimental."

"Lucius, my love, I have heard you called a great many things but never a sentimentalist." She chuckled. "But you are correct as usual. We might have been on the inside during the last war, but a new one is going to start soon and everyone is beginning to stake their places where they think things will end up. The Dark Lord has not returned to us yet but we may have to make our move before then."

"That is more of a risk than I had anticipated taking." Lucius frowned.

"Yes, well, you always were too cautious about these things. That is exactly what these upstarts are sensing, I fear. They want a commitment or a sign of your intentions before you're forced to declare."

"Precisely what I wanted to avoid. With what I sacrificed during the first war, you would think I could be granted some lenience." Lucius took a swig of his whisky.

"Quite the opposite. You are expected to set the standard. If you don't make your move, if you associate with known enemies, you will be judged more harshly than anyone else. There's nothing else to be done about it, my dear." She said.

"Hmm, you're ability to always be right is the only reason I still hold any position of wealth or authority, you know that?" He smiled.

"Of course. Now, I may agree that we need to induct Gaara sooner rather than later, but do not forget what Draco confessed to me yesterday."

"Yes, how can I forget? Still, I could not care less about Gaara's personal grievances against me. You will have to take the vanguard position this time. If only Draco could be counted upon to do this himself."

"With the changing times, it is a miracle Draco does not question our judgement more than he does. It would be dangerous to put so much pressure on his beliefs at the moment. When he has his Mark and is serving the Dark Lord personally, he will lose his doubts." Narcissa chewed her olive.

"As countless young men have before him." Lucius smiled.

Outside, the weather was uncharacteristically warm for so late in the season so the pair had taken a stroll around the grounds. They had been idly chatting as they walked but when Draco was sure they were away from prying eyes and ears, he abruptly changed the subject.

"Okay, spill it now, what happened that night? I left my tent and found you gone and two of my father's friends unconscious on the ground." Draco's father, who hadn't been involved at all in any way whatsoever in the attack had alluded to Gaara's involvement the day after. Draco had neglected to add to his question the minor detail that he had been the one to take off those men's masks before the Aurors arrived, so they weren't arrested as suspects.

Truth be told, Draco had been upset by being forcibly involved in Gaara's violence and his father's political activities (doubly so considering he wasn't sure he even liked the Dark Lord's ideas anymore), so he wanted answers.

"I did join the fight and I as arrested. They released me without charges." Gaara was tired of discussing what had happened over a week ago. More importantly, he knew he would eventually have to disclose the full truth to Draco someday, to fully explain what he had done, but it was too soon after Remus and Sirius.

As they walked they had drawn a small following of peacocks and Gaara could hear the ruckus coming from the kennels they were approaching so he asked to see the Malfoy library's new acquisitions.

"Sure, but what did you mean when you said you joined the fight?" Draco wanted the details his father had been too upset to share. Gaara had clearly done something he shouldn't have and it was only because he had prevented to Death Eaters from being captured that he had been allowed back in the house.

"It's not important. I can protect myself."

In the library, Draco quietly asked how Gaara's animagus training had been going.

"Well. I will be able to control my transformations by the next full moon." Gaara replied, skimming through one of the interesting books Lucius had bought at auction.

"Luna's going to be heartbroken to hear that. I think half the reason she's your friend is because of how much she adores your other form." He laughed. He had exchanged a single letter with her this summer and it had been largely on this topic, which he had indulged her in.

At that moment they heard a light knocking on the door and Narcissa let herself in. "I'm sorry to say that Lucius has been called into work for a few hours. Some crisis or another has demanded his immediate attention, so it will just be the three of us for lunch."

"It's nothing too serious, I trust, mother?"

"Nothing more than the usual incompetence, I'm sure." She bemoaned, drawing them both out and towards the dining room. Gaara was reluctant to leave the interesting book there but Draco whispered that they would come back later.

"It's lovely that you could join us today, Gaara. I do get so lonely when Lucius is called away and it's only Draco and I here." She smiled down at Gaara.

Draco stifled his embarrassment from his mother and looked down at his friend too. Gaara was quite a bit shorter than him so it felt strange knowing this height-impaired boy was strong enough to fight his father's men.

The table was set more modestly than Gaara had seen it at previous luncheons, though this was a strictly relative observation. Whether this was because Lucius was gone or because of some unknowable seasonal shift, Gaara did not know, but he could guess where he was expected to sit so he took his seat.

Draco pulled the chair out for his mother which Gaara had seen Lucius do many times before. It was part of 'chivalry' or 'chauvinism', different people used different words, evidently. Gaara imagined trying to pull out the chair for his sister, the only woman he knew well, but he figured she would be as perplexed as he was, with added hostility.

It was a light lunch of cold meats and pâté with more small talk. Narcissa asked about Gaara's other friends from school (the plural form was an exaggeration). She politely engaged them both on the subject of Luna Lovegood, which Draco did his best to keep positive. It was difficult to avoid any insults or funny stories regarding the scatterbrain. The hostess also asked after any friends Gaara had back home, which he dodged with practised ease.

Despite Draco's well-founded fears that his mother was taking over for his father in their continued attempts to sway Gaara over to the Dark Lord's service, she made no mention of politics or 'taking sides' or anything like that. As far as he could tell, she had totally forgotten how father had been insisting they treat Gaara.

For all of Draco's inherent Slytherin prowess, he was still young and some nuances slipped by above his head. Gaara had been anticipating the same attempts at brainwashing, even with Lucius out of the house, so he had spotted a common thread in Narcissa's comments and threads of conversation: she kept bringing up the past and tradition, how his family had been when he was younger, what he thought of Hogwarts' founders, what his favourite history book was, his favourite period of history, the importance of different modes of passing down knowledge through the generations, the different lessons they had placed Draco in as a child to acclimate him to their world, what Narcissa's and Lucius' courtship had been like and their parents…

It was a fast paced chat that seemed breezy until Gaara had noticed this trend, that she was espousing the virtue of traditions and old values in spite of modern sensibilities. Also she kept the focus on friends and family and how one should prioritise such people over strangers.

It was brilliant, Gaara thought. He had witnessed a number of high level negotiations in the last few months he spent in his own world, and of what little Gaara noticed, Narcissa Malfoy née Black would have put a number of those ambassadors to shame with her tact and circumspection. It looked like Draco had not noticed at all, which was for the best.

Sadly, having discovered the scheme by some miracle, it was much less effective in persuading Gaara of anything but of the debating skills of the hostess.

He enjoyed the lunch, though.

After they had finished and Narcissa allowed the boys to leave again for a few hours, Gaara told Draco, "Your mother is very clever."

"I know, I'm sorry about that. She was at the top of her class in Hogwarts, knows lots about Magical History." He said. "I think she likes having someone to discuss it with. Father isn't much for academics, unless it's directly applicable to work."

"And you use Magical History lessons to catch up on sleep or do homework for other lessons." Gaara said.

Draco laughed but looked behind them to make sure his mother had not heard it.

"Have you been practicing on your broom this summer?" Gaara asked. He did not care about Quidditch (this he could not stress enough), but flying was the only exercise Draco could be counted on to perform without prompting.

"Yeah, I've been out most afternoons when the weather is fair. I would be out the other days too but Mother is afraid of me getting struck by lightning. Even when there's no lightning or thunder. A rain cloud is too risky!" He complained.

Gaara considered this to be a sensible amount of caution since the only benefit would be an afternoon flying. It might be the only exercise Draco got but it was not worth slipping off a wet broom or getting struck by lightning.

As promised, they returned to the library so Draco could spend an hour of his valuable Saturday watching his best friend flicking through his father's new books. He resorted to coughing loudly into his hand to get Gaara attention, to express his abject boredom and that they needed to find a new activity. This procedure had to be repeated four or five times before Gaara got the message, which before the redhead thought was only indicative of Draco coming down with a cold.

Draco showed Gaara the manor dungeon which he had been prohibited from showing Gaara before, when his father was there, since it was a terribly distasteful place and best left forgotten (until it was needed). Gaara was not as enthused as Draco thought he might be, perhaps because their House was in Hogwarts' dungeons, or because Gaara had seen much worse dungeons back in Suna and they tended to have captives and prisoners in varying states of torture still hanging from the chains.

He did not share these thoughts with Draco, instead he opted to observe that this dungeon was pleasantly clean.

When evening came around and the pair were summoned downstairs by the dinner gong, Lucius had returned looking grim. Dinner was a less tactful repeat of lunch, with most of the conversation flowing by Gaara, though not from him. Lucius was less adept at pretending he did not dislike dealing with children than his wife, so he made more direct attempts at gauging his son's guest's positions without all of the clever misdirection and varied topics.

He asked, near the end of the third course (of four), whether Gaara would like to join Draco and he at a social gathering of Lucius' old friends. It was posed entirely as a choice, with Lucius speaking of important contacts and connections he might gain and the many things otherwise he might learn, not obligating Gaara to come and thus not obfuscating any of the clear ramifications of attendance implied.

If Gaara agreed, he would be going to a Death Eater introductory meeting, but if he refused, he would be solidly rejecting the cause. Draco had definitely caught on to this one, but no matter how much sweat poured down his face, he could not speak up against his father's plans here and now. Never in front of company, and hardly ever out of sight either.

"I am afraid I'm incredibly busy preparing for the coming school year this week so I cannot attend. I hope you both have a pleasant evening." Gaara's answer turned Draco's skin white and muted Lucius for the remainder of the main course and the whole of dessert.

No one wished to add a further cheese course onto the meal so they retired to the drawing room with the adults planning to smoke.

"Mother told me last year that she would curse my tongue out if she ever caught me smoking. Said I would have to learn to live without speaking like you." Draco whispered as they walked out of the dining room.

Draco smiled at that. Narcissa was an amusing woman.

"You two go on in, I think Gaara and I could use some fresh air before the after dinner lethargy takes hold." Lucius said, smiling and ushering Narcissa and a reluctant son into the room.

"I thought we were being rather clear at dinner." Gaara said. He felt no need to supplicate or show such British respect for the host now that Draco was out of earshot. They were both adults (in one way or another) and would talk as equals.

"Quite," Lucius sneered. "However, I do not believe you are aware of the full ramifications of your refusal here and now. Soon, you will need to make your choice and pick a side in this war. You may either join the Dark Lord and achieve greatness you had never dreamed of and fight alongside Draco, or you can face him and join those muggle-loving fools. Or else you can run away and abandon your friend. The choice will be yours, and the deadline for deciding is fast approaching, you know that."

"I gathered as much."

"If you choose incorrectly, there will be no more mercy. I can only extend my hand in friendship so many times only to suffer having it slapped away, before I will assume where you stand. And if you chose to fight against us again, the Dark Lord will kill you, enchanted sand or none."

Lucius seemed to have said his piece but before he could conclude their talk and leave, Gaara stopped him and reciprocated the sentiment. "Draco is not you. He sees things differently and will be allowed to make his own choices. If you stop him, if you do anything to harm Draco, I will kill you, Dark Lord or none."

The vicious glare on Gaara's face, similar to the one he had worn on the battlefield after the World Cup finals, drove home the message adequately.

Lucius almost snarled, his nose wrinkled so deeply, "Have it your way! Your guardian will be here to collect in ten minutes." And that was that. Lucius had his answer now, no more mercy. He would maintain the ambiguity with his circle but he knew there would be no turning the redhead from his path.

They walked into the drawing room to find Narcissa holding a lit cigarette between her fingers, and Draco equally trying to appear like he had not simply been waiting for Lucius and Gaara to finish their chat and join them.

Conversation was sparse in those last ten minutes before Sirius was due. He had actually arrived fifteen minutes early to pick Gaara up but he had been turned away at the gate until the appointed time.

As Gaara was leaving, he shook Lucius' hand and had to refrain from trying to crush it. Narcissa offered her hand to be kissed again, while Draco shook like his father. Shaking Draco's hand was an awkward gesture, but it was better than the more familiar/informal hug, in Gaara's eyes.

"I'll see you on the train." Gaara said as his parting words before snapping his eyes back to Lucius. He had every intention of following through on his words if Draco was hurt.

"Did you have a nice time?" Sirius asked when Gaara and he were alone.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

On Tuesday night, Harry, Ron and Hermione were sitting up late in Ron's room, the female of their trio having come for another sleepover earlier that day and having snuck over from Ginny's room for this private conference. Tomorrow Harry would go back to Sirius for a trip to Diagon Alley (along with Gaara) and then stay at Grimmauld Place for one last night of the summer before catching the train on Thursday morning. Hermione was going with the Weasleys to Diagon tomorrow, but it would be separate from Harry. He loved his friends and the Weasley family as a whole, but he wanted to cherish one last day (almost) alone with his godfather.

He was going to work out, over the coming quiet year, how to stay with Sirius fulltime next summer, or even for winter. Sirius had made claims that Harry would be coming to stay for Christmas, but he was uncertain whether or not they would be allowed.

Harry still had not clue as to why he needed permission to visit his father's best friend as much as he wanted.

"You must be joking." Hermione sighed.

"Come off it, Herm. You know he's capable. You saw him take down those dementors!" Ron whispered, aware that his mother's superhuman hearing would catch them if they spoke above a very particular volume.

"Says the boy who thought Gaara was You-Know-Who's illegitimate child." She retorted.

Ron blushed. "Well, we still have no proof he isn't."

"Face it, he might be a little strange but Gaara is not a monster. He doesn't kill people. He doesn't suck people's blood during the night, no matter what those Ravenclaws were saying."

"Never known a Ravenclaw to be wrong yet." Ron said.

"They thought I was the Heir of Slytherin in second year." Harry chimed in.

"Well, you are a bit more snakey than we might like, but we've come to terms with your impairment, mate." Ron laughed.

"I have to admit, I was wrong about him. I've talked to him a couple time at Sirius' and he's weird but he's never attacked me or anything. He even told me about th…" He trailed off when he realised how much of a gossip he was becoming.

"Told you what? What did he tell you, Harry?" Hermione jumped on the nugget of truth.

"I was right, wasn't I?!" Ron exclaimed, almost breaching the safe speaking volume.

"No, he's not Voldemort's- They're not related, Ron." Harry sputtered out. "He told me something about when he was younger, when he was wherever he comes from, but I don't think I should tell anyone."

"Wait, so has he told you where he comes from?" Hermione had been desperately curious about Gaara's origins, devoting a few afternoons this summer to research his personal clothes and his other distinctive possessions and markings, trying to narrow down what cultures or countries he might come from, but then she realised his was probably a hidden magical community and would not be contained in any of her muggle books.

Sadly magical geography was almost nonexistent so trying her other books would have been fruitless.

"Go on, mate, you have to tell us. We're not just anybody!" Ron said.

"Please, Harry. We'll never find out what's really going on unless you share it with us. We could help." Hermione added.

"Well, I suppose as long as we don't tell anybody else, it would be okay. But you can't let Gaara know I told you." Harry started.

"Because he'd kill you." Ron interjected.

"No, he wouldn't, Ron. Stop saying that!" Hermione said.

"Look, we were talking and I don't remember how it came up," Harry said, "but Gaara told me he killed his uncle when he was young."

"Blimey! Really?" Ron said.

"How young, Harry?"

"I'm not sure, six or seven I think he said. Really young." Harry answered.

"It must have been an accident." Hermione said, brow creased thinking about Gaara blaming himself for an accident like that. It must have been devastating.

"Maybe, I'm not sure. He didn't give me any details, but he said his family hated him and he did it to protect himself. I don't know if he meant to kill him, but he seemed pretty sure he did."

"Bloody hell…" Ron breathed out.

"Ron!" Hermione would not abide by Ron's potty mouth. "It must have been an accident or at worst self-defence."

"I don't know about that. He wasn't really defending himself when he took down all those dementors. Looked like he was enjoying it." Ron said.

"Lay off, Ron. He acts strange but he's not a bad guy, really, is he? He saved us, and everyone else, and he caught Pettigrew, and saved Sirius. It must have been self-defence, and if he did hurt someone in the terrorist attack, it was probably because he had to. Remus was in the hospital for a week thanks to the fight. Gaara must have protected him." Harry said.

"I never thought you'd be the one defending him." Ron said.

"I'm with Harry," Hermione said, "He was only a child."

"That's what he says, anyway. He still killed someone, and he probably killed a couple more people at the fight. That makes him a murderer in my books." Ron argued.

"I killed Quirrel in first year. I suppose that makes me a murderer as well, then, doesn't it?" Harry bit out.

"I don't mean it like that, mate. Plus Quirrel had You-Know-Who on the back of his head. It doesn't count."

"You can't keep blaming yourself for Professor Quirrel, Harry. Professor Dumbledore said the unicorn blood and possession would have been fatal for him anyway, remember. It's not your fault!" Hermione laid her hand on Harry's shoulder comfortingly.

"If you hadn't done that hand thing, he would have got the stone and You-Know-Who would be walking around again." Ron said.

"I guess you're right." Harry conceded, still unconvinced there was any difference between him killing Quirrel and Gaara killing his uncle or those Death Eaters. "Thank you for talking some sense into me."

"I think we should call it a night. You're leaving early with Sirius and we have to get ready for Diagon Alley, Ron."

"Yeah, we should go to bed," Ron agreed, "After one more game of chess."

Harry laughed and sat back to let Hermione take a turn. If either of them had a chance at besting Ron, it would be her.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Harry was due to arrive any minute with Sirius so Gaara hid away in his room as tradition dictated. He didn't anticipate any conflict on the trip to come, but nonetheless Gaara wished to keep his interactions with the Boy-Who-Lived to a strict minimum. Plus it would give Sirius more uninterrupted time with his godson, which Gaara was happy to maximise.

It was a couple hours later that he heard a soft knock on his door from the scarce house elf, signalling it was time to set out. Wandering downstairs with his small gourd and not much else since he had no money to bring with him and Sirius seemed to take offence when Gaara brought a book with him on any outings.

Sirius and Harry were waiting for him, with Harry offering a courteous, perhaps even friendly, "Hi, Gaara."

Gaara nodded and then proceeded to ignore him. Sirius noticed this snub but decided it was not an act of outright malice but rather disinterest. From his time as Gaara's guardian, Sirius was becoming something of an expert on the behavioural patterns of the captive Gaaracus Maleficus, otherwise known as the common household Gaara.

"So, are you both ready?" Sirius asked, his excitement mounting. He had not been school shopping since his own final year and the Marauders had often discussed taking Harry and any of their other children to Diagon Alley when they got older. Lily had tried arguing that it should only be the parents accompanying the children but James had quietly assured them they could all come.

No other children had been forthcoming, for which Sirius had mocked Remus freely, but Harry and Gaara was suffice.

"I've been looking forward to this forever!" Sirius cheered, picking up his coin purse.

"You visited Diagon Alley last week." Gaara commented.

"That was just to get a couple potions for Remus and some other stuff." Sirius said. "We're going school shopping!"

Harry's wide smile mirrored Sirius' enthusiasm, both unable to contain their joy at the thought of both Hogwarts and the pre-Hogwarts ritual.

"I remember my first trip to Diagon Alley. My father took me, as was the custom at the time, and I remember being shocked by all of the people not wearing robes. I'd never been allowed to go out in muggle London and of course my parents would never permit me to socialise with anyone less than four generations without 'impurity'. It was wonderful though, even with my father constantly commenting on the scum and the mudbloods. I just thought it was strange that they were allowed to leave the house wearing just trousers, without any robes on." Sirius laughed and Harry recalled his own first encounter with Diagon Alley, an opposite experience, seeing so many wizards.

They all left through the front door, climbing into the expensive car Sirius had pulled around to the front of the house. Sirius had taken Harry out in it a few times already, promising last time they would set aside an afternoon next summer to go to a racetrack somewhere and 'really let her loose.' Harry could not wait!

Gaara got into the back seat and let Harry ride shotgun. This was clearly an important day for the two of them and he was content to remain inconspicuous.

"Gaara, you're being too quite. It's a beautiful day and we're going shopping. Smile a little, at least." Sirius admonished, looking back at Gaara through his rear-view mirror. Gaara looked out the window instead, at the rain.

The drive through London was fun but ultimately more trouble than it was worth, according to Sirius, since there were no free parking spaces anywhere near the Leaky Cauldron and he was wearing the wrong shoes to be walking over a mile from where they did end up leaving the car.

Gaara wanted to tell Sirius that it would have been easier to floo there but since he hated magical transport and was fine with walking such a short distance, he kept his mouth shut. At least Harry was not complaining every four minutes about it. Gaara did not enjoy the rain much, though. They were all thoroughly soaked by the time they ducked into the grotty magical pub.

"Hold on!" Tom the barkeep shouted at them before they could leave the entryway. He flicked a heavy switch on the end of the bar, setting Gaara's paranoid instincts on edge, before he felt his chilly clothes warm and the water in his hair instantly evaporate.

Magic did have its uses, even if none of those uses were getting from one place to another.

"So, anybody for a pint?" Sirius asked, smiling. Harry laughed but Gaara suspected Sirius was eagerly awaiting a positive answer to that question one of these years.

They headed straight to the back of the pub, seeing no one at the bar they recognised. Gaara did not remember the Alley very well, having refused all of Sirius' invites to visit this summer. It was as colourful and busy and Gaara was sadly sure they would not be in any rush to get their shopping over and done with.

"So, where to first?" Sirius asked, enjoying the sight before him.

"I need to go to Gringott's first." Harry said, knowing the scarce sum he had left from his last visit would not last long today.

"Nonsense, I'm paying for everything!" Sirius declared.

"I can't let you-"

"You're not letting me. I'm not giving you any choice. I want to pay for your things and I am paying for your things. End of discussion." Sirius was proud of himself for putting his foot down, even if it was so he could treat his godson.

Harry was still looking unsure about the charity but a glance at Gaara, who was also having his supplies purchased with the Black family fortune, helped. Gaara did not appear to be at all ashamed. Of course, one could not count on Gaara to react normally to anything, much less about something as mundane as money and pride, but still Harry felt bolstered by a shared debt.

To Gaara, it did not even occur to him to feel shame in this situation. For one, Sirius wasted money left and right and insisted on buying things for everyone; and for another, Gaara was unused to carrying money. All his life, either Yashamaru or his siblings had dealt with keeping Gaara fed and clothed, with a brief period in between where Rasa had appointed a jounin to have food delivered to Gaara's apartment (who ended up becoming his jounin squad leader). Even after Gaara started going on missions and earning money for himself, his siblings had kept track of his personal finances. Just before he had come to this world, among his other domestic lessons, Kankuro had begun teaching him about money and how to handle it.

As Sirius withdrew enough money for all of them (several times over), he griped that Remus had been pestering him to hire an accountant to manage his significant assets before he managed to blow everything. He had gone on to say something longwinded about irresponsibility but Sirius had tuned out by then. He would talk to the goblins in a couple weeks and get them to make him money somehow.

He should probably ask Remus to repeat some of that conversation since he had no clue as to what an accountant was supposed to do for him.

"Where is Remus today?" Harry asked, more curious about which excuse Sirius would use than what Remus was really doing, since Moony always disappeared when Harry was visiting. He had worked out a while back that it was because of the custody agreement, whatever it stipulated specifically.

"He's at a job interview, actually." Sirius said, unaware that Remus was really painting his cottage to sell since he could save a fortune just moving in to Sirius' house fulltime. Sirius wouldn't notice anyway.

"Where?" Harry asked, now curious.

"Dunno. I'm sure he told me, but I was still a bit spaced out from his lecture about fiscal awareness." Sirius laughed.

After the bank, they headed over to Flourish & Blotts, with Sirius telling Gaara to keep his purchases to a minimum since they would have to carry all of the books for the rest of the day. Gaara still ended up buying at least five books not on his reading list but he was confident he could carry them.

A few time during the following hours, Gaara was pretty sure he spotted a Weasley or three in the crowds, but was glad to have avoided them. Troublesome family, the lot of them.

Harry was busy observing his co-ward, wondering about Ron's, Hermione's and his suspicions. All he saw was how truly uncomfortable Gaara was in such a busy area, constantly looking around and keeping his back to walls whenever he could. It was bizarre, these two figures in his mind: the Gaara that slaughtered dementors and may or may not have killed Death Eaters, and then there was this Gaara who was scared of crowds and was awkward as hell in social situations. Murderous Gaara versus oblivious socially inept Gaara.

Sirius had noticed this difficulty too, painfully aware the fact that Gaara had not been in public since they found out about Gaara's dangerous tenant. At this stage, he wasn't worried that Gaara might flip and kill everyone around them, he was just concerned that Gaara was upset by being surrounded by so many people (almost all of whom were bigger than him) and all the noise. When it looked like Gaara was getting angry, Sirius took them to eat lunch where it was quieter.

After lunch they went to collect Potions ingredients. "Are you sure you even need the ingredients this year? Last year you managed to get by without even going to the lessons, so this year maybe you need another handicap like no ingredients, or maybe you're not allowed to use a cauldron? What do you reckon, Harry?"

"Makes sense to me." Harry laughed, looking at a confused Gaara.

Sirius relented and bought Gaara his supplies and they moved on to Madam Malkins.

"I do not need new clothes." Gaara stated evenly. To his ongoing consternation, he had hardly grown at all this year, as far as he could tell, so his clothes, as long as they were not torn or otherwise damaged, would be suitable for the coming year as well.

"And you are getting them anyway." Sirius said in stride, no giving in to Gaara's indifference. "You're getting new shoes as well."

"My shoes are not worn out."

"One more word, young man, and I'm buying you two new sets of clothes and dress robes too." Sirius was getting really good at putting his foot down.

Harry openly laughed at this as he stepped in to the tailors. Earlier Sirius had tried to replace the Firebolt Gaara had given away to the Slytherin Seeker of all people, but Gaara's totally straight-faced reply had shut Sirius down and left Harry clutching his sides, "But I do not think Draco needs a second broom."

The day's shopping had gone remarkably well, with Sirius not even having to referee a pissing contest between his two favourite teenagers. They weren't buddies by a long shot, but they had at least stayed out of each other's way, so Sirius counted it as a resounding success.

Gaara had acquired all of the necessary supplies, and a few unnecessary ones, so he was satisfied.

Harry had had a great day, so he had no complaints.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Harry was in his sparsely decorated bedroom in Grimmauld Place and had been for half an hour. Sirius had sent Gaara and him upstairs for a few minutes so he could set up some sort of surprise for them. Gaara had mutely followed the instruction and padded upstairs and into his room too, which Harry thought was perfect since this would provide the perfect chance to have a private and frank talk with him about the World Cup at last.

He knocked lightly on Gaara's door, knowing the boy would have his head stuck in a book of some kind and not wanting to startle him. The door swung open and Gaara looked startled to find Harry standing there. He had thought Kreacher was relaying Sirius' call to go downstairs so he had not expected to find Harry standing there.

Gaara looked at Harry and then down the hall to the stairs. Harry followed his gaze and put it together, "No, he hasn't called for us yet. No idea what he's up to. Do you mind if I come in and have a chat?"

Gaara let him pass into the room and then waited a moment, considering whether to follow or just leave Harry in there. He decided he might as well hear the Gryffindor out.

Harry took a seat and Gaara sat on the bed and waited.

"Um, I wanted to ask… about… what happened at the World Cup?" Harry asked.

Gaara stared, as he often did, but did eventually reply. "I helped Sirius and Remus fight."

"I know that much but, it's just… we're stuck in each other's lives and we're going to be for a while, so we should get to know each other better. Something more happened that night and I want to know what it is."

Gaara frowned, "It is not your business. You and your friends tried to sneak into my hospital room once because you wanted answers and now you are demanding more. You're curiosity does not entitle you to answers."

"It's not just curiosity! Crazy things keep happening and we find out what and it's usually bad. Voldemort attacked the school two years ago, and then again a year ago alongside a giant snake, and then last year Sirius was running about and Peter Pettigrew was hiding in my friend's bed. Every time our investigating turns up something, it's a big conspiracy. And then you showed up and we're still trying to work out what's going on."

"I am not Voldemort nor am I affiliated with him." Gaara could think of no better argument.

"It's not just about him; we need to know because you're obviously not just some exchange student. You don't have a surname, and you won't tell anyone where you're from, and you can do all that stuff with your sand even though you didn't know how to do any magic before you arrived last year?"

It had become increasingly difficult to ignore the fact that Gaara was not just another weird schoolmate, even in a magical school, he was something dangerous and entirely beyond the scope of the schoolyard.

"I don't intend to divulge any more secrets to you. I have no interest in harming you or your friends."

Gaara wasn't sure if he appreciated Harry's interest/suspicion of him, or if he resented Harry's continued presumption.

"We will work it out eventually." Harry warned.

"Quite probably," Gaara conceded, "But that is a problem for another day."

Harry stood up and walked to the door, feeling defeated, but stopped halfway. "Does Sirius know, or Remus?"

"They know everything." Gaara admitted. He was sure in the belief that Sirius and Remus would not tell anyone what they knew.

Harry turned, surprised by that, but smiled. "If they know and decided you were okay then I'll try to not bug you about it too much. We'll still find out, though."

"Probably. Then you can make your own conclusions." Gaara said. He had been sure as could be that Sirius would reject him after finding out, so he was reserving judgement until Harry and his gang also worked it out. They might surprise him, or they would head the mob. One or the other.

Harry left him alone after that so Gaara assumed they could resume their avoidance of each other.

Another ten minutes later, as Harry was finishing sorting through his clothes to go in his trunk for the train tomorrow, he finally heard Sirius shouting from downstairs. He sprung up from his seat on the floor and practically ran for the stairs, eager to see what Sirius had in store. He caught a glance of Gaara also coming at a more sedate gait as the excited Lion flew down the stairs to the first floor.

There, he found not only Sirius but Remus as well waiting there. Harry ran straight up to his favourite ever professor and hugged him tightly.

Gaara arrived and asked, "What is the surprise?" He had not noticed Remus disappeared for the day.

"Don't worry, Gaara, there's more. Remus is just stopping by for a cup of sugar. I'll get back to looking for where Kreacher has hidden the sugar in a bit. For now, we're going to take a picture, all four of us."

"Entirely his idea, I must add." Remus said.

"The new and improved Marauders!" Sirius declared, pulling the antique-looking camera out from where he had set it after spending the better part of the last hour searching for it and putting it back together.

Harry was as energised as Sirius was, whereas Gaara was still underwhelmed.

"Alright, everyone together." Sirius said after setting up the tripod. "Closer than that." He looked pointedly at Gaara who was off to the side.

When the other three were together in the frame, Sirius pressed a button and ran to stand with them, settling in place as the timer buzzed away. "Now, everyone smile!" He yelled.

The camera flashed and left them all temporarily blinded. Sirius walked back over to the camera and fiddled about with something Gaara could not see but came away with a thin, photo-shaped wooden box which he promised would be developed soon, and he would send to them copies at school.

They sat around downstairs for a while that evening, with Remus getting Harry and Gaara to promise they would try to avoid trouble this year. The moment Remus stepped out of the room to go to the toilets, Sirius made them promise to ignore Remus' promise. Gaara had nodded both times, his mind elsewhere.

The evening was lively and jovial and Sirius never wanted it to end, but the hour grew late and Remus had to leave and the boys needed to go to bed, in Gaara's case to continue reading and maybe pack his possessions in his expanded trunk sometime in the early morning. Sirius had stayed up late that night, wishing he had a little more time before Gaara and Harry would have to leave.

Early the next morning, Sirius went upstairs and loudly woke his wards, or rather rudely woke Harry and startled Gaara who had been finishing his transfer of a quarter of the Black family library into his cavernous trunk. Gaara was confident Sirius would never notice the missing books since the only reason the man-child ever entered the library was to bother Gaara.

Harry stumbled out of his room looking tired and bedraggled, resenting his godfather in that moment, who was still banging on Gaara's door.

Harry yawned, "What time is it?"

"About six, I think." Sirius smiled manically. He had gotten maybe three hours sleep and was running on coffee and Pepper-Up potions.

Harry looked towards Gaara's door when it opened, hoping the moody Slytherin would be able to put Sirius down sufficiently so they might get at least another hour to sleep. Instead, Gaara stepped out fully dressed, looking as awake and aware as he ever did. With those ringed eyes, spotting bags under them was impossible, Harry thought.

Sirius smirked noticing the hope drain from Harry's blurry eyes. Gaara's insomnia finally had a use.

"Let's get some breakfast!" He said unnecessarily loudly, winding his arm around Harry's shoulder and guiding him back out when the tired boy tried ducking back into his room.

"It's too early." Harry moaned.

"Come now, it's not that early. Gaara's probably been up for hours." Sirius reasoned, leading them to the stairs.

"Days." Gaara clarified, quietly.

Breakfast was on the table when they got to the kitchen. Harry fell back into his chair and focussed entirely on keeping his face from smacking into the tabletop. "Can I get some coffee?"

Sirius thought for a moment, "Gaara, is it responsible to let a fourteen year old drink coffee?"

"In moderation." Gaara replied with no recognition of the irony inherent to the question. Harry was too drowsy to see it either.

Sirius smiled and poured Harry a mug of coffee and then slid the milk and sugar to him. Gaara asked for tea but Sirius insisted he drink orange juice in the morning. "I know it's an American tradition but it's got lots of vitamin C so no complaining."

Gaara sighed. Even if he had not been asleep, it was too early in the morning to be put through Sirius' excruciating attempts at responsible parenting.

Just as Sirius was piling his bacon and eggs onto a piece of toast, they heard a tapping at the window.

"It's early for the post." Gaara observed.

"I bet I know who it's from." Sirius groaned, collecting the letter and shooing the owl away without even a scrap of bacon. "Bloody Rita Skeeter. Been hounding me for weeks about an interview."

"Why not just do it and get her to leave you alone? Not like you did anything worth hiding." Harry said, his mind working at restricted but functioning capacity.

"You should read some of her articles." Sirius warned. "On second thought, I can't in good conscience recommend an impressionable mind expose themselves to such spurious rubbish."

"She lies?" Harry could not believe they were allowed to lie in a newspaper. Surely there were rules against that sort of thing.

"Habitually. I would tell her the innocent truth and would be public enemy number one by the end of the day, or a laughing stock. Either way, never trust a reporter, and definitely never trust tabloid writers like Skeeter."

"Noted." Harry said, spearing some bacon from Gaara's plate when he wasn't looking. Gaara looked back at his plate and tried to work out why it looked wrong. Sirius snickered but kept quiet.

"She spent two days camped outside my front door last week, trying to ambush me and find out 'my side of the story.'" Sirius said, even doing a smarmy impression at the end.

"She was?" Gaara asked.

"Yeah but you didn't go outside those days. I just ignored her and she went away eventually."

"Should have turned into Padfoot and scared her off, or sent Remus out there." Harry snickered.

Sirius chuckled a little but straightened up, "That might seem like a great idea at the time, and I will keep those two in mind for the future, but you can't go playing around with journalists, Harry. They will only write worse about you because of it. 'Sirius Black Sets Dog on Reporter' or worse, 'Sirius Black Sets Werewolf on Reporter.' That second one would probably get both Remus and I locked up."

Harry's eyes were wide.

"Just stay away from them, Pongslet, you too Bandit." Sirius said. Gaara nodded, confident he could blank any journalists trying to wheedle answers out of him.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

The drive to the station was quiet, being on a weekday midmorning, so Sirius kept taking his eyes off the road to spout out last minute pieces of dubious advice to his two teenage charges. Harry and Gaara accepted what he said so he would refocus on the road every time.

They parked up and the boys went and got trolleys for their trunks. Harry was always careful transporting Hedwig when she was in her cage since she didn't like being cooped up in it.

"I still say I should have got you an owl." Sirius said.

"I don't need any pets." Gaara replied, having told Sirius this at least a dozen times, but secretly anxious to get back and see how Fluffy had gotten on without him for a month. Hagrid could be absentminded.

"He can use one of the Hogwarts owls if he needs to." Harry defended Gaara, having experienced the pressures of Sirius' generosity.

King's Cross station was busy, as was to be expected, and a conspicuous number of the inconspicuous witches and wizards were staring openly at Gaara, Sirius and Harry. The notorious trio tried to ignore the plainly dressed magical folk who were all taking their turns walking through the barrier to platform 9¾ one by one. Since standing in an orderly line would arouse even muggle suspicions, they had to work their way around the station in a rough formation so no one would notice.

Harry had always arrived at the last minute with the Weasleys so the line had been nonexistent.

"Of course, some people just skip the line, and muggleborns can walk right on through since they don't know about the rules." Sirius said bitterly. They could have flooed to the platform directly but Gaara's aversion to magical travel superseded Sirius' wisdom apparently, so they had to take the slow route.

"How do you know when to move forward?" Harry asked, trying to work out where the next family were standing.

"Normally they don't keep looking at you, but the line runs along this platform here, and then over to number 6, and then to 9. And the best way to work it out is to look for trunks. People who have trunks, or owls, or both and no fashion sense whatsoever, are wizards. Keep an eye on them and if they don't move after three minutes, assume they're just unfashionable muggles and move forward. We'll be at the portal in twenty minutes at most." Sirius said.

"That seems unnecessarily complicated…" Harry remarked, looking around again.

"Well, it was made up by a handful of Hogwarts parents about five years after they started using King's Cross, since they kept having to obliviate upset muggles." Sirius said. "That was about 1860, I think. My father used to say that a better solution would have been to exterminate the uppity muggle rather than put us through the trouble."

Harry stayed quiet, as he often did when Sirius mentioned his atrocious parents. If anyone ever made the argument for muggle inferiority to Harry on the basis of his relatives, he would point them in the direction of Sirius' family and feel totally vindicated in his beliefs of equality.

Sirius guided Gaara and Harry along the ridiculous path that witches and wizards apparently followed to take their turns to get onto 9¾. If not for all of the staring, Harry would have been sure this was a prank Sirius was pulling on them.

When they did finally get to platform 9, Harry was eager to board the train at last. It paled in comparison to Gaara's, of course, but Harry's impatience was not inconsiderable.

Platform 9¾ was even busier than the muggle side of the station, with the entire width of the area cluttered with witches and wizards reluctant to let their precious children board the train and leave them for months. They walked through the crowds until they found a clear spot to say their goodbyes. As they had walked, a number had felt it acceptable to pat Gaara on the back and thank him, presumably for his actions at the end of the last term.

Harry grumbled on the other side of Sirius, resenting the lack of appreciation for the two times he had saved the school. The most he had ever gotten were a few apologies for insulting him earlier in the term for being the heir of Slytherin. As always it helped to see that Gaara was not enjoying the attention. He shivered every time someone clasped his shoulder warmly.

"Remember everything I told you, except all the wrong parts which I expect you to forget." Sirius said, hugging Harry firmly. "School's not all about the grades, although your mother would never forgive me for saying it was okay to slack off. Don't fail, but have fun. I'll see you soon, and don't forget to owl me all the time."

"I won't." Harry promised, "Try not to get into any trouble."

Sirius laughed and cuffed him lightly over the back of the head. Harry had spotted the Weasleys so he went running for them.

"I know you don't want to but…" Sirius pulled Gaara into an embrace to, holding on a little longer this time. "Be careful with your animagus transformations. The Ministry is out to get you and an unregistered animagus is a good excuse to arrest you." He let go at last, brushing the creases out of Gaara's robes.

"I know." Gaara stated. "Don't be alone. You need someone to stay with you, Remus or someone else."

Sirius stared into Gaara's eyes and blinked back a tear. "You're too straight-faced to say things like that Gaara. Try to have some fun this year too. Don't spend all your time reading. And I expected you to write to me too, or else I will orchestrate an unscheduled visit to the school again."

Sirius looked to where Harry had been walking and spotted something troubling. Harry had just walked into Draco (or Draco had walked into Harry, depending on who you asked), and they were now glaring at one another.

"Watch where you're going, Potter!" Draco hissed.

"You watch where you're going, Malfoy!" Harry bit back.

They both circled each other and then reluctantly turned away and continued in their respective directions.

Sirius turned back to Gaara who had watched the standoff as well. "I don't suppose you know why they hate each other so much?" It was hard to believe it was because of Lucius or the usual Slytherin/Gryffindor rivalry since Draco had seemed like a nice enough boy since they met.

"He was a bigot and a snob and Harry is obnoxious and headstrong." Gaara answered bluntly.

Sirius laughed loudly, slapping Gaara on the back. "Have a great year and do be careful."

Gaara nodded back at him and walked to meet Draco, doing his best to avoid as many congratulatory interactions as he could.

"You ready to go?" Draco said as a greeting, turning straight towards the train.

"Yes." Gaara liked brevity.

They stepped onto the train, Draco going first, and as Gaara climbed in after him, he noticed something. The throng of students vying to board after Gaara pushed him in after Draco, but the moment Gaara had noticed the skilfully concealed limp Draco was sporting, he knew exactly what he wanted to do next. Sadly, the people behind him kept Gaara moving forward into the train.

Gaara followed his friend to the nearest empty compartment and they settled in for the trip ahead. Looking out on to the platform, Gaara saw Lucius and Narcissa standing further apart than he had ever seen them stand in public, and Narcissa was looking less composed than normal. Gaara wanted to go out onto the platform and make good on his promise to kill Draco's father, but even the oblivious assassin knew it would be better to wait until a more private moment.

The hundreds of parents and children, Lucius' wife and child, and Sirius as witnesses would be pretty damning for him. Still, the time would come that Gaara would kill Lucius, of that he was sure.

He stared at Lucius until they made eye contact and the message was sent.

A few people tried to enter their compartment but Draco either told them to leave or Gaara held the door shut on them.

"They really should put locks on these doors." Draco laughed confidently, content that Gaara had not noticed his limp, resulting from a couple of nasty-looking bruises.

Gaara nodded, sitting back down after the latest attempt to join them.

A few minutes later, a polite knock was heard and before Draco could shout one his increasingly rude dismissals, Gaara opened it for Luna to enter. She was smiling brightly. "Good morning, you two."

"Good morning." Draco said.

Gaara nodded.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Harry, Ron, Hermione and the twins were all sat together, listening to Fred and George repeat the same pitch they had bored Ron with half a dozen times already that summer, explaining the plans for their joke shop to be built in Diagon Alley. They finished their impressive description with a complaint that their mother was not letting them start it up until they finished school. She had flatly refused to let Arthur co-sign a business loan with Gringotts until they were at least eighteen, and even then only for a small amount. They were going to have to look for a partner or an investor to make up their shortfall.

Harry enjoyed listening to their wacky ideas and inventions and their dream for the future.

"Did you find anything else out, about our research project?" Hermione asked quietly when the twins had finished.

It took Harry a few seconds to work out what she was referring to, and then frowned. "He's an ass but we shouldn't worry too much about him. Trust me." Harry affirmed in a whisper.

"If you're sure, mate." Ron said softly, wondering why Harry was downplaying things now.

"So-"

"What's this 'research project' you're talking-"

"About?" Fred and George said in their infuriating twin speak.

"Um… nothing…?" Ron lied so convincingly.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Sirius sat in his chair and dropped his car keys on the table next to him. Remus was due back tomorrow morning after he had settled some unspecified business, but until then Sirius would have to sit in his silent house alone.

Reaching over to the same side table, he picked up a new photo that had been delivered while he was out, already set in an ornate silver frame. He would send Gaara and Harry copies tomorrow in the morning post. For now, he simply wanted to appreciate the picture.

Harry was stood in front of him and Gaara was in front of Remus, nearly five inches shorter than Harry next to him. It was a moving/wizarding picture and it showed Sirius running into the frame, them all trying to stay still, and then Sirius' hand darting behind Gaara's head to give him bunny ears. Everyone but Gaara smiling as the flash went off, the light reflecting off the three pairs of damp eyes.

Sirius lost track of time as he admired the scene playing out on repeat.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Omake:

"He's not going to want to." Remus said.

"It's not about what he wants, it's about what's good for him." Sirius argued back, carefully tying a balloon.

"And a party is good for him?" Remus said from across the room, trying to get the other end of the banner to stick to the wall.

"Of course it is. His birthday consisted of me giving him a joke gift and you indulging your irresponsible habit of daytime drinking. He should have a party."

"It's not a habit, Padfoot."

"I think anybody that has to be carried home by teenagers because they got pissed in front of them at least has a bad habit. I was thinking of suggesting you join a program, to be honest, Moony."

Remus sighed heavily, giving up on the Spell-O-Tape and pulling out his wand to use a sticking charm. "I will admit that was not my best moment as a teacher, but I knew Gaara was responsible enough to keep everyone safe. Which is not my endorsement for you trying to get him drunk next week at the World Cup."

"You're going to take the wallpaper off with that sticking charm." Sirius said, blanking out that last part.

"And?"

"And nothing, just wondering what bright colour I should paint after I pull the rest of this mouldy paper down."

"A nice friendly yellow, perhaps. I'm sure your mother would love it."

"That's always my first thought when I make decisions: WWMCMD – what would my crazy mother do?"

"So who is actually coming?" Remus asked, picking up an un-inflated balloon.

"Who do you think?"

"Draco?"

"Yep." Sirius said, moving onto his fortieth balloon.

"Luna?"

"Yep."

"Anybody else?" Remus would not get into a race with Sirius about who could blow them up the fastest.

Sirius snorted, "No. He has two friends and he seems quite happy with them. Thought of asking Draco for some of their housemates' names and addresses, but Gaara doesn't seem to like any of them."

"What about Harry? They seemed to be getting on better these days, right?"

"I think they're just not at each other's throats at the moment. Best not to force them to hang out too often. Besides, I only have a couple days left with Harry, I'm sure he would rather not spend one of them with Draco Malfoy."

"Fair point. Reminded me of James and Snivellus, a bit actually, this past year. Cats and dogs." Remus acknowledged they were definitely racing to blow up the balloons now.

"Snakes and lions, more like." Sirius said.

"Except there's no Lily to mediate this time. At least Harry isn't much of a prankster and Draco wasn't much of a…"

"Prat?"

"I suppose prat works. So it will just be you, me, Draco, and Luna Lovegood?"

"Yep." Sirius said.

Remus wondered how many balloons they were going to inflate since the bag still had a lot in there and the drawing room floor was already covered. "Those two know about where Gaara comes from, right?"

"Yeah, he said so. Makes it a bit simpler, I think."

"When are they due?" Remus was getting light-headed now.

"About two minutes ago, I think. I thought I heard them downstairs, actually."

"What?" Remus jumped up from his seat but had to brace himself against the wing-back when his vision flickered from the sudden rush. "Gaara's going to hear them!"

"No he won't. I put a silencing spell outside his door about two hours ago so we wouldn't need to worry. He could guess anyway, you know how he is, but we might get away with it."

"That's a smart idea. But why, then, did we have to sneak by his door when we were bringing down the decorations?"

"I forgot I put the spell up." Sirius smiled.

"And you tell me off for daytime drinking." Remus muttered, eyeing the half-empty glass at Sirius' side.

"It's my turn!" Sirius mocked outrage. "Anyway, I'm not sure how powerful my spell was so you should probably go and get those two before they shout too loudly and spoil the surprise."

"Sure." Remus ducked out the door, wary of spotting Gaara's distinctive red hair as he went.

"Hello, welcome. Sorry no was here to welcome you, Sirius is… an idiot, really…" Remus sighed.

"Not to worry. I just thought I was early and that Draco was early too." Luna said.

"I thought you and Mr. Black might be decorating." Draco admitted, brushing the soot from the floo off of his fine robes.

"Draco, do me a favour, could you refer to him as Uncle Sirius today?" Remus asked. After Sirius got Harry to call Remus 'The Wolfy Scrounger' in his letters for a week, Remus had been trying to come up with some sort of revenge.

"Okay." Draco seemed less sure but agreed. Technically they were cousins once removed.

"What should I call him?" Luna piped up.

"How about Lord Black?"

"Okay." Luna said it with more excitement than Draco had.

"So where is Gaara now?" Draco asked.

"In his room but it's been muffled so he doesn't know anything." Remus said, leading them up to the drawing room.

"And you're sure he's going to like this?" Draco continued.

"It's just a small party, nothing fancy or crowded." Remus said, suddenly wondering the same.

"I think he will like it." Luna said, with a surety that could inspire confidence in nobody who knew her.

Stepping into the party room, Draco was less sure than ever, staring at the hundreds of balloons, the banner on the wall, the fairy lights, and the presents.

"I wasn't aware we were expected to bring presents." Draco worried, working out whether he would have enough time to go out and get something before the party actually commenced.

"Don't worry. Mostly just a few expensive books, some new clothes, that sort of stuff. It's not really a birthday or anything like that so I kept it simple." Sirius said.

"After I persuaded you not to get him the dragon scale belt with the solid gold buckle." Remus said.

Sirius grumbled while he finished setting up the last of the lights around the room.

"Thank you for inviting me." Luna said.

"Yes, thank you, Uncle Sirius." Draco said, trying out the assigned nickname.

Sirius spun around, unsure of whether Draco was actually playing a prank or if he genuinely thought it was a good idea to call him that. "You're both very welcome. We couldn't celebrate this without you two around, now, could we?"

"I think we're all done here." Remus observed the over-the-top decorations critically.

"Okay, you all stand away from the door. I'll get the light." Sirius waded through the balloons and turned off the lights once the other three had taken their places. He cracked open the door and shouted at the top of his lungs, "Gaara! Come here a minute!"

They all listened avidly, in the pitch darkness until, after several moments of nothing happening, Remus said wearily, "You forgot to take off the silencing spell, Sirius."

Sirius laughed and undid the spell and repeated the undignified yelling.

They heard a door open and close and then nothing. Gaara made almost no noise as he walked so they prepared themselves to trigger.

The door creaked open slowly, Gaara wary of entering the darkened room.

"Surprise!" They all chorused as Sirius switched the lights back on, throwing wide their hands and sending Gaara jumping back into the hallway in a fright.

"Ha ha, we got him!" Sirius cheered.

Gaara peered back into the room, now that the lights were on, and saw Remus, Sirius, Draco and Luna standing in a pool of brightly coloured balloons.

"Happy anniversary, Gaara." Sirius cheered and the other followed suit.

"Anniversary?" He asked, still trying to catch up with what was happening. There was a lot of visual sensory data to process.

"You came to this world about a year ago now and while I don't remember the exact date, we couldn't let the opportunity for a party go to waste." Sirius answered.

"It was all Lord Black's idea. We all know you might be homesick but we're glad you came to this world anyway and wanted to show you that." Luna told him, missing the flat look of understanding and loathing Sirius shot Remus.

Gaara looked again at the decorations and lighting and presents and foods laid out, glanced behind at his exit and then stepped into the room. "Thank you." He said quietly.

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A/N: I finally decided to cave and watch Boruto. From the first episode I get the impression that despite the heavily and necessarily derivative setting and story, they are trying to imbue it with as much originality as possible. I take a good deal of comfort in knowing that there is very little at this point that they could reveal about Gaara that would complicate my stories. Unlike the later parts of the original series, wherein every ten chapter or so a groundbreaking discovery was revealed, necessitating a rewrite of the lore, I don't believe there is much they could say about Gaara that would impact writers' current understandings or portrayals of his character.

That said, I am very interested in Shinki, Gaara's adopted son with the Magnetic Release bloodline. There's a very interesting story there, I just know it.

Just ended up watching a BBC documentary about Japanese wildlife and when they started talking about tanuki, I felt like I should be taking notes. Decided not to in the end since I figured it was unlikely that urban encroachment would destroy Gaara's habitat, forcing him to scavenge out of the bins. Although, if raccoons=trash pandas, what are tanuki (Japanese raccoon dogs)?

As I said above, I have written another Suna-centric story that readers of this fic may enjoy. Pop over and give it a read.

Regardless, thanks for reading this chapter. Take a moment to review if you can think of anything to say. I always appreciate and enjoy reading reviews.