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.

11. Chapter 11: Same Old Secrets

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: The story was never abandoned, just neglected. I ended the last chapter with the claim that I would try and get the next one out sooner. Instead, I didn't update for over 2 years. Funny how time flies.

Anyway, as usual I don't have much of importance to say, other than thank you again to my supports and friends on this site. You're the people who had time and again stopped me from dropping this story with my horrendous attention span.

I hope those of you who remain and everyone who subsequently finds this story enjoys this latest chapter.

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(Last Time)

When the cheering died down, Bagman then presented each of the Champions with the eggs they had been made to surrender as soon as they had left the arena.

First Krum, then Delacour, and finally Gaara. He considered his performance and decided he might need to put some more effort into planning his performance for the next Task if he wanted to win the Tournament. He had been too focussed on just succeeding in the Task and not impressing the judges.

He also considered the heavy golden egg in his hands and whether there was any more significance to it beyond a trophy. Based on the scratches and small dents, Gaara determined this was not actually the egg he had retrieved from the Hebridean Black. He wondered if he could locate the one he had originally had and switch. From the damage to this one, he guessed it was probably Potter's.

Bagman continued his commentary. Telling everyone that the next Task would be officially announced the week before, and it was to take place on the 24th of February. One thing he added, which caught Gaara's ear, was that the Champions had already been given everything they need to prepare ahead of time.

So, the egg (most likely whatever was inside of the egg) was a clue, but then one mystery still remained: what had really happened to Potter?

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Back in the changing room, Gaara was relieved to be able to change back into his own clothes and be away from the deafening clamour of the spectators still roaring and clapping in the stands. Even with whatever had changed the seal holding back his hateful prisoner, Gaara worried that two more of these Tasks, being surrounded by the squalling crowds, would end in bloodshed.

Then again, pretty much anything involving him could potentially end in bloodshed.

He would have gone to find a quiet place to relax and kill some spiders, but the Ministry had stationed guards at each of the exits. Whether this was because of his rebellion during Potter's Task, or because one of his traitorous professors had warned the Tournament organisers that he was a flight risk, wasn't immediately clear. Either way, escaping would now require more trouble than it was actually worth.

Feeling refreshed after a quick wash and getting into cleaner clothes, Gaara glanced at his egg (which he was still convinced was really Potter's) and wondered if someone would carry it back to the castle for him if he happened to leave it in the changing room.

Probably wasn't worth the risk.

Noises, the fading excitement of facing down a dragon, the weight of the egg in his arms, the freezing temperature outside, and the niggling mystery in the back of his mind of what had happened to Potter set Gaara's mood to a dangerous low.

"Come along, you can worry about your makeup at the Ball." The Ministry official barked as Gaara exited the tent.

Add yet another person mistaking his possession/insomnia marks for makeup to the list of reasons why someone might die in the next hour…

Krum and Delacour were already waiting outside, and Krum was holding his egg in one hand whereas Delacour was carrying hers using magic. Now, as strong as Gaara was, he could have carried the solid metal egg for miles without breaking a sweat, but he wished he had his sand at the ready to do the heavy lifting so he could free up his arms. The six Ministry workers flanking the three Champions reminded Gaara a little too much of the armed guards the Kazekage used to send to escort Gaara.

Somehow Gaara knew these men and women wouldn't put up as much of a fight if he…

Gaara took a deep breath. No killing people.

Not even that rude one from earlier.

Not even using the knife he'd left in his robes during the event.

Not even by dropping back to walk behind the others and then discreetly…

Gaara shook his head.

There wasn't any conversation between them as they walked. The Champions were supposed to be competing, plus two of them weren't particularly friendly.

And the guards either resented serving as (not-so) glorified babysitters, or they had been ordered not to fraternise with their charges. Likely both.

Then again, they were combat-specialist witches and wizards working for the Ministry, but who weren't wearing Auror uniforms. Gaara suspected these men and women, who hadn't been allowed into the Auror program, were used to feeling a degree of resentment.

He would have liked to share that observation with Draco. The blond would have appreciated the cutting insight. Even if his fellow Champions would have enjoyed it as much, Gaara didn't feel like making conversation with them.

So, they walked several miles to the castle in silence, punctuated only by the sound of their shoes rustling the fallen leaves and the occasional shriek coming from the forest. Everyone else in their travelling party flinched or turned to look in the direction of the sounds around them.

Maybe these Ministry workers weren't just there to keep Gaara in line. Maybe they were supposed to provide some form of protection.

Gaara wasn't overwhelmed with confidence in them. Frankly, he had a higher regard for Krum and Delacour than the Auror-rejects surrounding them. At least the Champions were looking in the right direction when the shrieks sounded.

Even without much sand with him, Gaara wasn't too concerned. At this time of day and in this part of the Forbidden Forest (not to mention after however many people had trampled through to get to the stadium), there wouldn't be any acromantulas bigger than palm-sized anywhere nearby. The shrieking sound was coming from a peculiar bird that liked to scream at larger animals. Gaara wasn't entirely sure why they did this.

Still, when he was traversing the forest with people unfamiliar with its inhabitants, the birds did provide some small entertainment.

At the castle there was to be a (mandatory) reception following the Task. Like many of this particular Tournament's festivities, the reception was a new addition from one of the great minds at the Ministry. As such, it wasn't open to just anyone, and it mostly served as a way for Fudge to show off the Champions to his supporters and other notables in a closer setting. The press would also be on hand to snap more pictures of the Minister for Magic standing amongst the Champions, making him seem more relevant to the event than he really was.

Fudge was an expert at making himself seem more relevant than he was. It was how he'd stayed in power so long.

The group came to the castle but it was still empty, with the spectators only now being allowed to start back to the castle, and those within the castle being shut in their Houses while the important people were visiting. Gaara could hear, however, the telltale sound of a string quartet coming from the Great Hall ahead.

"Your Minister does know how to throw a celebration." Krum said quietly, though his gruff voice carried enough that the guards probably all heard the thinly veiled criticism too.

"He's a buffoon." Gaara said, not lowering his voice at all. He knew he should be more circumspect or political in his approach but the administration already knew he didn't like them, and he was certain the feeling was mutual.

The group were met at the entrance to the Hall by a pair of well-dressed men who were evidently Ministry grunts deemed more acceptable to mingle and be seen in high society. The guards who'd accompanied the Champions this far looked perfectly happy to hand off their charges at the threshold.

Now shepherded by the new pair of handlers, the three Champions stepped into the Hall without a word between them or to their guides. The polite conversation and conspiratorial whispers in the Hall went silent as word of their arrival spread. Gaara looked around but since there were so many guests (and all of them had at least six inches on him), he could only really see the front row, smiling at him and the other Champions present.

A round of applause rose from somewhere in the back and suddenly everyone was clapping. Gaara didn't understand why. The three of them had faced a dragon (and been applauded already), and now they were apparently being applauded for having made the walk back to the castle (under escort). Maybe he was missing something. Were the eggs supposed to be heavy enough to be considered a challenge in and of themselves?

Aside from the constant guard that had watched him between the stadium and the Hall, and the hundreds of witnesses all watching him now, Gaara's attendance at the post-Task reception had been ensured by Dumbledore's orders. Apparently partaking in the Tournament (as per their deal) meant Gaara also had to attend all of the accompanying events and trivialities. With that directive in mind, Gaara was less than pleased to find that Dumbledore, who was supposedly in charge of this school and its students, hadn't bothered to attend the reception himself.

If the old man didn't have to come, Gaara didn't see any reason why he should stick around. And if Dumbledore quibbled over their deal, Gaara could use a lawyer's dodge and claim to have attended, albeit briefly.

But, still, the problem of the guards and the witnesses would make immediate escape trickier than he'd like. If he had his sand, he could have managed something quickly enough (remote controlled sand causing distractions had been pretty much the only tool in his arsenal on the handful of infiltration missions they'd bothered sending him before the Suna-Konoha war).

It was just as Gaara had sighted the open door at the back of the Hall, through which he believed he could make a discreet escape, that he also spied Draco across the room. Before the antisocial redhead could begin moving through the crowds, using his stature to its single advantage, Draco spotted him.

Draco might have been looking at something in his general direction and not seen him amongst the dozens of others in his eye line, but the look on the blond's aristocratic features betrayed his thoughts in a bizarrely un-aristocratic fashion.

With none of the subtlety that Gaara had planned to employ while crossing the Hall, Draco stormed directly at Gaara, giving the demon-container only long enough to conclude Draco must have been invited to the reception because of his status as Gaara's personal guest. Presumably that meant Luna and Sirius would be around here somewhere. A quick look to the buffet table revealed Sirius wasn't in the room (the man would have been either at the buffet table or the drinks table).

"You used the bloody dog?!" Draco's whispered indignation drew Gaara's attention away from trying to find Sirius.

Draco appeared… Gaara wasn't sure. He was quite good at reading Draco's expressions now (after many months of practice), but he couldn't place this one. It definitely wasn't just anger or embarrassment (common expressions).

"I thought you did quite well, Gaara. I only hope your dragon, and Fluffy of course, weren't too upset or hurt by the Task." Luna said from behind Draco, having followed in his wake through the bustling crowd of wealthy and influential witches and wizards.

Gaara nodded to Luna for complimenting him and ignored Draco until he could work out what the correct response was. He didn't think he'd done anything to apologise for. Should he smile? No, that was almost never the right one. Ask if Draco was feeling okay?

That could be it. He might circle back to asking the question if a better response didn't come to him.

In the meantime, since Gaara was staring blankly at him again, Draco continued in his not-quite-hushed-enough tone, "Why on Earth didn't you ask for some help if you were so stuck for ideas?! Relying on that stupid bloody-"

"Now, now, Draco, what have I told you about playing nicely with your friends?" Lucius had apparently noticed his son marching through the crowd and come to see what had caused the excitement. He wasn't surprised in the slightest to find his son talking with Gaara.

Draco had stiffened at his father's abrupt arrival in the middle of his tirade. He would have to explain himself later for acting so emotionally at a party. By the way his father was gripping his shoulder, he had better come up with a good excuse.

Narcissa was stood by Lucius's side looking immaculate, as always. She smiled her stony smile down at the three teenagers. Gaara had always been impressed by that political smile. It looked like she could hold it for hours without it faltering. Yet more proof that time spent practicing to smile wasn't really wasted time.

"Being of personal acquaintance, I thought it only polite to come and pay our first congratulations to you, Gaara, for surviving your encounter with the dragon. No matter what those judges decided, I must say I was altogether impressed that you were able to find such a creative method to complete your Task without needing to use any complicated magic."

For Luna and anyone not intimately familiar with the inner workings of Slytherin, that might have actually sounded like a sincere compliment and not a cutting remark about Gaara's lack of magical ability or his low score. However, even Gaara had noticed the congratulations were for merely surviving the dragon and not for his performance.

Even if he had been about to continue his own long list of (more blatant) insults on the subject of Gaara's stupidity, Draco didn't like the way his father had put it. Somehow it seemed harsher.

Narcissa coughed into her hand unconvincingly to insert a break into the conversation before restarting it skilfully.

"From our seats, your acrobatic display was very impressive indeed. And to have tamed a Cerberus that large… Well, I think the judges were quite unfair."

Gaara rolled that statement over in his mind before deciding it was, at least on the surface, a sincere compliment.

"Thank you." He said, directing it only at Narcissa.

"Yes, from where we were sitting, it looked almost like you weren't using magic at all." Lucius added, smirking at the impunity with which he could smack Gaara around (only verbally, of course).

"Oh, perhaps that was because you were seated further away. I thought I saw him use a spell to make him lighter on his feet." Luna added. She appeared to be completely oblivious to the fact that she had just inadvertently slighted Lucius's privately-bought box three rows above the honoured guests and the judges.

"Yes, perhaps that's it…" Lucius drawled, not-quite glaring at the young girl whose face didn't betray any hint of mocking (and Merlin knows he was looking).

"Oh, Lucius, there's Viktor Krum with the Minister. You said you wanted to catch them both today. Let's kill two birds with one conversation." Narcissa said, wrapping her arms around one of his and gently guiding him away. "It was lovely seeing you again Gaara, and miss Lovegood. We'll speak again soon, Draco." She added.

"Yes, very soon." Lucius said to Draco, not addressing the boy he rather disliked and the girl who'd just insulted him.

Draco looked back to his friend and his friend's friend (he wasn't ready to admit he was friends with Luna (he wasn't actually sure if he was)). Draco didn't know whether he should worry that Luna wouldn't be invited to the next Malfoy party or that she would be. If she was, Draco might need to make excuses for her not to come. While she would be the youngest by a decade, she would certainly not be the first attendee to one of his father's parties who had insulted him and met a gruesome fate.

There were rumours (that would now incur heavy litigation were they to be uttered aloud) about one or two wizards who had paid such grievous insults to the head of the Malfoy family that they had attended a party at the Malfoy estate and were never heard from again. Probably rubbish, but Draco had stopped trying to access the three perpetually-locked doors in the mansion after he heard about it. His father probably had dangerous potions supplies in those rooms. Either way, Draco had decided, at age 10, that he would keep his nose out of it.

As he watched them move through the crowd to the densest area, where the sycophants and guards were surrounding Fudge as he tried to get as many people as possible to associate him with Krum, Draco wondered if his parents had even been invited to this reception. As out of favour with the Minister as Father was, Draco would be surprised if Father had been invited to the reception when he'd been excluded from the Ministry boxes.

Draco tried to put them out of his mind and focus on the matter at hand.

Gaara listened to a few more disparaging remarks whispered about him by his best friend, all the while glaring at any of the honoured guests who tried to smile their way into meeting him. When the highest scoring Champion was also a world-renowned Quidditch player, the other Champions could enjoy a modicum of peace even in a room filled with socialites.

It was almost amusing, the completely opposite stances Draco and Luna had taken over his performance. Draco seemed to feel nothing but contempt for what he'd seen, whereas Luna seemed to think it was a delightful method as soon as she'd been assured neither animal had been harmed. Though, it wasn't amusing in a way that might move Gaara to smile, more it was something he'd observed.

Speaking of observed…

"Where is Potter?"

"Oh, Harry Potter?" Luna asked, as if he'd ask about another Potter.

"Why?" Draco seemed affronted that Gaara would even say the name.

"He was missing after the Task." Gaara said, furrowing his absent eyebrows to really convey murderous rage to a passing adult who looked ready to interject.

Draco ignored the method for excluding the other party-goers. "Who knows? Probably off somewhere quaking in his boots."

"I don't think he was wearing boots." Luna said, casting her mind back.

"I know- I…" Draco trailed off. He composed himself with a sigh. "I think he was escorted off the field. They'll have treated any scrapes and burns he got by now. Maybe he snuck off. Who cares?"

Gaara nodded. He supposed it would make sense. If he'd been taken aside, he might have used the opportunity to hide somewhere if he hadn't been bound by his deal with the Headmaster. But, if Potter had just snuck off somewhere, why wasn't Sirius here? And where was Dumbledore?

Gaara didn't care for Potter (which wouldn't come as a surprise to anyone familiar with their interactions over the entire span of their acquaintance), and he wasn't a fan of butting his head into other people's business. That said, he had a vested interest in Sirius's ongoing happiness so…

Gaara sighed.

The three of them were near the main door to the Hall, so Gaara turned and walked towards it, a plan already in mind. When he neared the door, a Ministry flunky stepped forwards and brought Gaara to a halt.

"I'm terribly sorry but all three Champions need to stay until the end of the reception." He said.

"Bathroom." Gaara said simply. The closest one was the first floor boys bathroom, which had a window he knew for a fact he could fit through. He'd had to escape Draco giving him a lecture once. From there, he could easily scale the side of the castle.

"Again, terribly sorry." The officious man said, not sounding sorry at all. "We're going to be taking pictures very soon. You'll have to hold it."

Gaara considered insisting but he didn't want to imply that he couldn't hold his bladder for twenty minutes in front of Draco or Luna. Then again, he also didn't want to stay at this party for another twenty minutes…

Gaara turned and headed in the opposite direction, not sparing the Ministry employee another glance. Gaara had seen many waiters and waitresses wandering around with full trays of hors d'oeuvres, presumably coming out from the Hall's back entrance – his original escape plan. Draco and Luna were still following him, thinking he'd probably given up on running away or going to the bathroom.

Gaara couldn't risk his friends jeopardising his escape so he looked for a distraction. There was a tall waiter wandering past with a tray of drinks, none of which should probably have been served in a school or before five o'clock, and Gaara saw his opportunity.

Gaara's foot struck out and lightly tapped the waiter's shin at just the right moment to trip the poor man without the waiter himself knowing what had happened. Gaara's hadn't even broken his stride.

The calamitous racket the falling tray and smashed glasses caused drew the eyes of most of the Hall, as did the man's loud and fervent apologies from the floor as he tried in vain to clean up the mess before his inevitable firing. The bustling crowd, all gathering to see what had happened, trapped Luna and Draco. Meanwhile, Gaara continued on his way to the back.

When he got there, he was presented with the issue of the waiters and waitresses still coming and going. He considered the various techniques for sneaking through a guarded or patrolled entrance that Baki, Temari and Kankuro had all tried teaching him. Sadly, he didn't recall any of them at that moment. Instead, Gaara fell back on a classic of his own devising. He walked straight into the entrance and down the steps into the staging area where platters were arriving from the kitchen and being picked up by the waiting staff.

The one closest to him, who had been about to go back into the Hall, saw him and looked ready to tell him off for going back there.

Gaara stared at the man and glared in the way he used to when he was moments away from killing someone. Sadly without the rumours of past murders to inspire terror, the man receiving the glare was more unsettled by the wrathful child than afraid. Gaara noticed the lack of quivering so he added, "Say anything and I'll kill you."

Something in his tone, added to his glare, was apparently enough to convince the adult not to hinder the teenager's progress, and instead the man edged around Gaara and walked up the stairs so quickly that he lost one or two amuse-bouche from his tray.

The others in the trophy room were so busy setting up their own trays, ready to go up into the Hall, that most of them didn't look around to see Gaara wandering past. One waitress did see him as he was leaving out the back but she assumed one of the students had gotten lost and was quickly leaving again.

Gaara, now free to roam, considered where he might find the missing people. Sirius would be wherever Potter was. Dumbledore would be with them or in his office. Gaara considered trying the Headmaster's office first but decided try save that option for last. The old man was crafty and Gaara strongly suspected there would be some sort of monitoring magic around his office.

Potter would have been taken to the medical wing first to have his burns healed, but he would have been healed quickly and moved on. Potter's room in the Gryffindor tower was probably the best bet.

There was every chance that Gaara's absence had been noticed by now (and he would have to answer to Draco about it later), so Gaara would have to travel around the outside of the castle again. It would also help him avoid any of the students who had snuck out of their dorms.

As he walked vertically, Gaara wonder if perhaps Sirius had run off with Potter, as the man-child had threatened to do on a couple of occasions in the summer when he'd been drunk.

Gaara was probably more familiar with the outside of the castle's walls than anyone living. He was able to navigate his way to the Gryffindor tower easier than half the student body could by using the stairs and corridors. He continued upwards until he found the boy's rooms.

He checked the windows and knew he'd found the right room when he spotted Longbottom sitting with his back to the window, working on something at his desk.

Gaara continued to peer through the window, looking around for a sign that Potter or at least Weasley had been back there.

Gaara's head in front of the window had cast a show in the room, the movement of which had garnered Neville's attention.

Gaara finally decided that Potter wasn't in his room so he moved away from the window, but not before Neville had turned around and seen the unmistakable face moving out of sight.

Neville jumped to his feet and uttered a startled but incoherent sound. He looked around for someone to tell, to bring Gaara's spying and gravity-defying stunt to someone's attention. He ran to the window and flung it open, but by the time leaned out, there was no sign of Gaara.

Gaara, meanwhile, had walked down and around to the Gryffindor common room's windows to see if Potter was celebrating in there.

It took Gaara a couple of minutes to sort through the crowd in the common room, but eventually he concluded there was no sign of Potter, Weasley or Granger.

With the liberal proliferation of alcohol amongst the upper years, there wasn't much of a chance that Dumbledore was anywhere nearby. Sirius could have had a hand in it; Gaara wouldn't put it past Sirius to ship in half a dozen crates of fire whisky for the students just to give everybody a good time. But, again, there was no visible sign of Sirius.

So, where?

He figured the Hospital Wing was the next best bet for a lead. Potter would have moved on from there already, but he could look for clues or possibly ask Pomfrey in which direction Potter left.

As he walked back down the enormous castle, Gaara kicked himself for not checking there first. It would have been on the way to the Gryffindor tower.

When he arrived at the medical wing, he wasn't expecting to find his targets still there. But through one of the many windows, he was able to see Sirius stood with Weasley and Granger near a curtained-off bed. Dumbledore was at the far end of the wing, leaving with McGonagall.

Gaara surveyed the group still standing around, talking quietly, and decided he'd have a better shot of gathering useful intel with the Headmaster and deputy headmistress.

Gaara ran around the circumference of the tower to the other side, climbing up below the windows of the corridor outside of the Hospital Wings doors. It was rare Gaara really got to employ his espionage training in this world. It had been rare enough in his own world. Not only was it not his speciality, but even after he had started working to reform his character, Suna's council had wanted to prioritise sending their Jinchūriki on combat-oriented mission. Kankuro had often complained that his infiltration potential was being wasted.

Kankuro often complained.

Gaara switched from walking on the wall to climbing with his hands so he could get as close as possible to the window without being seen. He could just about hear McGonagall's heavy Scottish accent through the thick windows and the winter winds sweeping around the highland towers.

"-how could they have gotten in to dose the poor creature?"

"I'm afraid any witch or wizard determined to bring harm to a child is likely to be quite resourceful." Dumbledore said.

"But to curse a dragon's flames…"

"Yes, a truly Dark act. But, then, we must remember that these are the same forces we fought in the war. They may have been in hiding these past years, but their methods have always been cruel."

"The war seems like a lifetime ago."

"Thankfully it was a lifetime ago for most of the children, no more than scary stories they were told."

"Stories that are still coming back to haunt us today."

"Leaving yet another mark on the Boy-Who-Lived." Dumbledore sounded tired.

"And you're sure there's nothing you can do?"

"I'm afraid even I cannot heal a cursed scar. In years to come, the boy may seek out a way to heal it, but for now it will have to serve as another reminder of our inability to protect him from Tom's reach."

"At least the pain will fade soon." McGonagall sounded quite upset.

"Yes, something to be thankful for."

"After this, surely we can force Cornelius to see reason!"

"While I would like to think he could be reasoned with, these past months have shown that the Minister's reason cannot always been relied upon. However, there's a more pressing reason I won't try to stop the Tournament now."

"What possible reason could there be?"

"We know he is acting now, through his people, aiming for revenge against the boy. If we are able to call a halt to the Tournament, we won't know when or where they will strike."

"You mean you want to use him as bait?!" Her voice switch to a strained whisper at the last part, suddenly conscious that they were discussing Order business right outside the door to the hospital wing.

"Not bait, but it does provide us with opportunities to protect him. We know that Tom has always gone for spectacle, so his forces will most likely limit their attempts to the Tasks."

"But what can we do?"

"This heinous act will be declared a random act of malice but we can use it to request further security around the Tasks. Then all we need to do is focus their attention where it needs to be focused and stay on guard ourselves." Dumbledore said.

"And if they do not attack again during either of the next two Tasks?"

"After the Tournament is over, we can increase the castle's security without all of these people coming and going."

"And in the summer?" She asked.

"The wards on his aunt and uncle's home are still more than enough to keep him safe for the time being."

"That's not what I meant." McGonagall again hushed her voice, as if this was the only part of the conversation that they couldn't risk being overheard. "Sirius has been trying to adopt the boy since his exoneration. Cornelius kept them apart because of Gaara before, but soon we both know Sirius will manage to take him in, no matter what the Minister wants."

Dumbledore said nothing that Gaara could hear.

"You're not planning on stopping him, are you?" Minerva knew Harry's safety was the only priority that should matter, but she also couldn't stand the idea of keeping Harry from a loving home unless it was the only option.

"I don't think it will come to that." But Dumbledore didn't elaborate. "Could you go on ahead to the reception without me? They will want one of us there soon and I need a moment to think in peace before I join the party."

"Of course."

Gaara risked looking over the window sill a few moments later and McGonagall was already striding away and Dumbledore was watching her leave. The redhead climbed back to his feet and reached through the window, which had been open a crack to let some fresh air in despite the weather. He undid the latch and then climbed through the window without making a sound.

Dumbledore turned around to find Gaara stood only a few feet away. It was thanks to decades of experience that he was able to pretend he wasn't entirely surprised by the notable student's sudden appearance.

"It's considered quite rude in our culture to eavesdrop."

"It is the same in my own." Gaara said unrepentantly.

"And yet you seem quite skilled at it." Dumbledore mused. "Regardless, I would appreciate it if you would announce your presence in the future." He had enough spies in his life.

"Yes." Gaara agreed, he expected the old man would appreciate it if Gaara would announce his presence and not spy on any other conversations. Of course, Gaara had no intention of actually stopping…

"Seeing as there's no sense in pretending you didn't hear what you heard, do you have any questions?" The right questions from Gaara would tell Dumbledore how much the redhead had heard.

"You are prioritising your fight with Voldemort's followers over Potter's safety." Not a question as much as an accusation. Gaara had surmised this was the case but he was also looking for confirmation.

"Could it be that you have come to care for your schoolmates at last?" Dumbledore said it as a genuine question, not in any way mocking.

Gaara stared flatly, not allowing the deflection to distract him.

"Could you have intervened during Harry's Task?" Dumbledore asked.

"Could you?"

Dumbledore didn't care for that insinuation. "Do not forget our deal, Gaara, or your primary purpose in this Tournament. You must try to win, but you are taking part to protect the Champions, including Harry. So far, you have failed."

Gaara hated that the old man was right. If this had been a mission for Suna, Gaara would have failed it already. Of course, he was disadvantaged by his ignorance of potential avenues of serious danger. Dragon fire might have been okay, but cursed dragon fire was a serious threat that would have necessitated Gaara's intervention apparently.

"Then I need to know when I should interfere. I will only have one chance. If I step in, I will be disqualified so the chance must not be wasted."

"A fair point, and I apologise, it's not your fault Harry got hurt. Please just do everything within your power to protect him."

"I intend to."

"And I intend to keep my end of our deal. I have found a rather promising avenue of research that I believe could finally offer some answers. Once the Tournament is over, we can discuss a way for you to go home, should you wish."

Gaara nodded. There was no way of knowing at this point whether Dumbledore did actually have some answers or if he was just teasing Gaara with false hope to make sure he fulfilled their deal. It didn't matter, he supposed. He had to do what Dumbledore wanted since the old man was his only chance.

"Did you at least visit the reception before you came here?" Dumbledore asked as an afterthought.

"Yes."

"Good. I don't suppose I could tempt you to return with me?" Albus knew he could force the boy to attend the entire post-Task event but it wouldn't be worth it. He only had so much sway over the boy based on their deal and he didn't want to see what would happen once Gaara stopped listening to his authority.

The Tournament would probably stop running as smoothly as it had (maimed fourteen-year old aside), that was for sure.

"No."

"Very well. I would ask that you try not to draw any attention to yourself until the esteemed members of the press downstairs have left. It would hurt our cause if you were to flaunt your disobedience for all to see."

"Our cause?"

Albus turned to the boy again. "All things in time, my boy. But rest assured that even if neither of us has been entirely forthcoming with the other, we are on the same side."

"Are we?"

It never ceased to amaze and disturb Albus, conversing on equal terms with a child. A child who could well turn out to be a liability rather than an asset. Albus was long past the stage of his life when he was prone to making wagers, but gambling on this boy's loyalties seemed worth the risk. In the meantime, he would need to go and make some excuse for the boy's absence from the reception.

"Oh, and Gaara?" Dumbledore said, turning back to the boy.

Gaara didn't respond.

"I have allowed Professor Hagrid to keep certain magical creatures in the Black Forest over the years, including a three-headed dog that he cares for very much. I would dearly like to continue allowing him to keep the creature but if it makes another appearance near the castle or the students, I will have it sent away." Dumbledore knew both Hagrid and Gaara thought of the dog as a pet but Albus had seen full-grown Cerberuses in Greece and the damage they could cause.

Gaara didn't respond. He didn't appreciate threats and he didn't like the thought of Fluffy being exiled. That sadly meant he couldn't use the same trick to get through the next task. Though, considering his poor scoring this time around, maybe that wouldn't have been a good idea anyway.

Dumbledore shuffled away down the hall towards the stairs and Gaara considered whether he should feel relieved to find an adult willing to treat him with a modicum of respect in this world or feel troubled that the man was using him so blatantly.

Speaking of troubled, Gaara very carefully opened the large door to the infirmary and slipped through the gap. He stayed close to the wall and moved very slowly, trying to remain unnoticed.

He could see clearer now, Potter was unconscious in the bed, wrapped up in bandages that covered most what Gaara could see of him. By his bedside Sirius sat with his head bowed, one hand gripping the bed linens since he didn't want to jostle Harry and cause him any discomfort.

Remus was stood next to Sirius, still and waiting. Gaara thought the scene looked eerily like grief. Perhaps they felt guilty for not rescuing Potter, who was injured in front of them, or for not forcibly removing him from the school when he was entered into the Tournament.

Gaara was actually surprised Sirius hadn't tried anything so reckless. What could have been holding him back? Regardless, the damage was done now and doubtless the Ministry would be increasing their security presence, which would most likely be ineffectual in preventing this 'Tom' from attacking again but would probably be enough to stymie Sirius for a while.

Then again, Sirius had proven that, with enough time, he could slip past the Ministry's best defences. Gaara would help, if needed. He believed he could make a convincing argument that his aiding Sirius was all in an effort to keep Potter safe if Dumbledore got upset.

The privacy curtain, stood behind Sirius and Remus, shifted a little, indicating someone else was there. Probably Granger and Weasley. With so many people in the room, it was fortunate they were all faced away from Gaara and the door, otherwise he doubted he would have been able to enter or exit as easily as he did.

Seeing Sirius sat there, looking so worried that he appeared ill was unpleasant. Gaara wished he could do something, anything to help, but his presence was bound to only make things worse. He was, after all, a 'self-loving demon'.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

It was all his fault. Sirius knew that Fudge and Crouch and Bagman and Dumbledore were to blame as well, but sitting by Harry's bedside this past hour since Dumbledore left had drilled home the inescapable truth that he should have pulled Harry out the second his name was announced.

If that madman Voldemort could declare war on the Ministry, surely the Head of the Noble House of Black could do the same. He wasn't looking to commit genocide, just save some children from being horribly burned or killed. Surely that would be good for a couple dozen followers.

Right?

Remus has pointed out one or two problems with Sirius's forming plan as he had wondered aloud.

"How can you stay so bloody calm, Moony? Look at him!" Sirius had whispered over Harry's anaesthetised body.

"Calm? I'm two shots of fire whisky from joining a werewolf pack and staging one of those promised werewolf coups."

"Yeah, I can see it now. You could head the Department of Fleas and Tics under the new regime."

"I think you'll find if either of us has a tic problem…" Remus trailed off. They'd made these same jokes before

They lapsed into silence, Sirius staring at Harry's sleeping face, the part of it visible between the bandages.

"At least Fudge wasn't stupid enough to try showing his face here." Sirius said. "I don't think I could have resisted throttling the life out of him if I saw him."

"I wouldn't credit him with intelligence just yet." Remus countered. "He simply hasn't bothered coming because there isn't a photo-op to be found here. He certainly won't want to publicise this." Remus gestured to the seriously injured child. "It might highlight the human cost of his tournament."

"We wouldn't want that…" Sirius was thinking again, so Remus quickly sought to head him off.

"Aside from Harry wanting privacy, I wouldn't recommend causing trouble with the Ministry just yet. Remember, until the adoption is finalised, there's still a lot Fudge can do to hurt you all."

Footsteps approached and Ron and Hermione reappeared from around the curtain. Sirius and Remus halted their clandestine conversation. The teenaged pair had snuck down to the reception in the Great Hall to see if they could spot any suspicious characters there. They were already eager to start working on the mystery of who had tried to kill Harry.

The Great Hall had been packed with dignitaries and notables, but both Ron and Hermione had agreed that quite a few of the guests they observed were suspicious in one way or another so the pair had come back to regroup and see if there was any change with their missing third.

"Sorry, I hope we're not interrupting anything…" Hermione said politely.

"Huh?" Ron concurred.

"No, that's quite alright, you've not interrupted anything." Remus smiled.

"How's it looking down there?" Sirius asked, correctly guessing where the pair had disappeared to.

Ron looked startled and about ready to lie when Hermione replied, "Busy. I wonder if they've tried to fit half of Britain's witches and wizards in the Great Hall."

"I bet Gaara's having the time of his life." Sirius almost managed a single laugh but it ended up as more of a sigh.

"He's probably okay. He'd scarpered by the time we got there." Ron said.

"Scarpered?"

"We heard some Ministry employees talking about it outside of the Great Hall." Hermione added. "He wandered off a while ago."

"Didn't stick around long." Ron said.

"I suppose we shouldn't be surprised. He's never been one for crowds or social events." Remus muttered. "He was bound to disappear if nobody was keeping an eye on him. I had assumed young Mr Malfoy would have filled that role again."

Sirius meanwhile was struggling to hide his panic. He hadn't even thought about how Gaara was feeling after the Task. He supposed he'd just assumed Gaara would be fine, but the boy had faced down a dragon, coming very close to the beast, and one of his peers had been injured.

Harry shifted a little in his sleep and Sirius regained his focus. Gaara would have to wait a little longer. Sirius could only be in one place at a time and Harry needed him more right now.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Gaara spent the rest of the day isolation after leaving the medical wing. He was avoiding the Ministry workers searching for him as well as the students who were on the lookout for one of their absent Champions. After the reception had ended and the Ministry presence left the castle, it was the latter group that proved to be the more tenacious. Gaara ended up having to sneak back into Slytherin after midnight, past the seventh-years who were still waiting for him. He could undoubtedly stay up later than all of them, but he was feeling fatigued and wanted to rest.

Though, as he snuck past his housemates and into his room, he didn't feel he would be sleeping that night, even with Draco already out. He was surprised to find his friend asleep already, having expected a renewal of his interrogation upon returning. Evidently Draco had assumed Gaara would hide out all night.

Instead, Gaara could relax on his own bed with a book and try not to think for a few hours. He commanded his sand to float above Draco's face so that it would block any light from waking him.

By the time Draco woke up the next morning, Gaara was again nowhere to be seen. Draco wouldn't have given it a second thought, since his friend seemed to spend half of his nights elsewhere, but then he noticed Gaara's bed. For someone who was apparently a member of his home world's military, Gaara couldn't make a bed to save his life. Apparently, the strictures of discipline varied significantly between their two worlds.

Of course, Draco couldn't make the bed either, but that was a sign of his good breeding rather than Gaara's slovenliness.

Since there was no sign of where Gaara had gone to after leaving their room again, Draco had to continue with his day regardless. He could save his scorn for when his best friend inevitably reappeared. Then again, if he awoke to a disturbed bed again, he'd start setting traps. No doubt Gaara could sneak past anything non-magical, but Draco felt confident he could find some wards to set.

He was still mulling over how much damage he could cause with his booby traps without severely maiming Gaara when he reached the Great Hall for breakfast. The fact that he'd skipped dinner, leaving him famished, didn't mitigate the reason why he had skipped that meal and now wished he'd had the strength of will to do so again. Eyes turned to him and he walked proudly to his seat, annoyed that he couldn't simple scamper over and shorten his exposure to the hall's intense interest. Sadly, a Slytherin, a Malfoy, couldn't possibly shy away from public scrutiny like that.

By rights, he should have been using his current platform to progress his own ambitions, but lately his ambitions weren't as important to him as they once were.

Draco sighed when his friends circled around him. Normally they could be counted upon to shield him from the pestilential attention of his fellow Hogwarts students, but now they held the same curiosity in their eyes and exhibited the same eager shifting of the plebeians. Moderate though their pureblood affiliations might be, these Slytherins were certainly no less interested in gossip than their snobbish housemates.

"So?" Roy Norbel asked.

"So, what?" Draco wouldn't make it easy for them. That was the price they paid for rudely failing to start the conversation with some banal pleasantry or other.

"Gaara has a hellhound?"

"It's an overgrown puppy, not a hellhound." Draco scoffed.

If Draco had known his blasé attitude, born from an intimate familiarity with Fluffy, might be misconstrued for bravery (the most reviled quality in Slytherins), he might have spoken with a bit more reverence.

"And you helped Gaara train it ahead of the Task?"

"Of course not. He didn't tell me anything beforehand." Draco wasn't usually so happy to admit ignorance but he'd rather be thought ignorant than complicit in absurdity.

"So he did it all himself?" Roy asked with far too much reverence in his voice.

"Of course he didn't." One of Draco's other normally-tolerable acquaintances piped up. "Loony Lovegood from Ravenclaw obviously helped him. She's into weird magical creatures."

"One problem with that theory," Draco said distractedly, his eyes now tracking a flock of owls flying into the hall, "All of her creatures are made up."

Draco ignored the haughty round of laughter and instead snatched his copy of the Prophet from an unfriendly delivery owl. He'd tangled with that owl before and while it hadn't scarred his hand, the nip it had given him hadn't been forgotten.

No bacon for that owl.

Draco watched it fly away with a screech and then turned to his paper, tuning out his friends who were still discussing Gaara's performance.

The Daily Prophet was dominated by one story that morning, but Draco had been there to witness the event, so he could skip whole sections of the paper devoted to providing, in greater descriptive detail than the radio broadcast, a retelling of each Champion's performance. Instead, he read the opinion pieces, which were also almost exclusively concerned with the Task and the Tournament.

He was surprised to find Skeeter's latest basis for a libel case included on the second page. With all of the factual reporting of the Task, he couldn't imagine how her toxic opinions had warranted inclusion so close to the front page. Her article predictably focussed on the "British" Champions and was as obviously biased as all of her previous articles about Gaara.

She seemed to relish describing Gaara's magical ineptitude and how he had relied on an illegal (it wasn't) and dangerous (it wasn't) beast. But the meat of her column was actually about Potter. Draco's eyes shot wide, as did many other eyes in the Hall as they read that part, when she described how Potter's accident hadn't been an accident at all or even just part of the danger of the Tournament. According to Skeeter's confidential source within the Ministry, the dragon had been 'tampered with' before the Task and its cursed fire had driven it mad and caused it to attack Potter with added ferocity.

Draco snorted a little. Only Potter would face a dragon and get himself cursed.

He carried on reading, finding only some of the columns worth reading. The general consensus about Gaara's performance had been that he was a peculiar or mysterious immigrant student who had displayed some impressive acrobatic/gravity-defying magic and that taming a Cerberus was unheard of for someone so young.

Other articles, whose authors didn't know about the tampering, were impressed by Potter's magical skill but didn't have nearly as much to say about his performance since they had seen so little of it.

Draco was just turning to the Sunday high society section when someone cleared their throat behind him. He turned to find two people he would dearly likely to avoid being seen talking to: the Weasley Twins. Somehow they made the rest of their shabby clan look almost respectable, with all of the nuisance pranks and mischief they managed to get themselves into.

The pair loomed over Draco's chair menacingly and demanded, very rudely, that Draco hand over their winnings. Draco was surprised by the bold behaviour until he realised that his friends had wandered away while he'd been engrossed by the paper and he was sitting alone.

"Trust Weasleys to act so petty over a few galleons and interrupt breakfast." He scowled.

"Hand it over rich boy." One of them (Draco didn't know which was which and couldn't possibly care less about spotting a difference).

"Obviously I don't have it with me." Draco's eyes darted around. People had taken notice of their interaction. He hoped that word wouldn't spread about this. To be seen as a delinquent debtor would be humiliating. This was his comeuppance for gambling, with Weasleys of all people. "I'll get it to you in the next few days when I have it with me. Now off with you."

"No-" One started.

"We want it all now." And the other finished.

"Poor people are so obsessed with money." Draco snarked. He would pay them in his own good time. Even if Gaara wasn't present and wouldn't be his henchman, he felt confident threats of physical violence might invoke some protective behaviour in his oft-neglectful friend.

"I'm not so sure about that. What about you, Fred?" Presumably George said to his partner.

"I don't think that's the case either. Maybe we should ask around, especially with some Slytherins who definitely aren't poor. Maybe they'll agree with us that you should pay what you owe." Presumably Fred said, already looking towards the nearest cluster of snakes they could harass and thoroughly embarrass Draco in front of.

"Fine! Fine. Wait here and I'll go and get it. Let it not be said that Malfoys don't always pay their debts."

"Nice try, little Malfoy." One said.

"We're not letting you out of our sight until we've counted the coins."

"You're worse than Goblins, you know that, right?" Draco said. "In any case,I'm not letting you into the Slytherin dormitory."

"Like we've never been in there before…"

"Not a chance, Weasley."

"Then we've got a problem, don't you agree, brother of mine."

"Indubitably, brother dearest."

"Is there a problem here?" Roy asked, standing behind the twins alongside half the Slytherin Quidditch team, who had apparently noticed Draco being menaced by the Gryffindor beaters.

"Nope." One twin said.

"No problem at all. Just catching up with our good friend Draco here." The other twin added.

None of the Slytherins could fathom a world where Draco Malfoy could be friends with a Weasley.

"Then you'd best be on your way." The newest member of the team, Alister Urquhart said imperiously.

"You heard him. Get lost." Draco sneered.

"We'll see you this evening. Or else." One twin said.

"Bugger off."

"Careful, Malfoy." One said.

"You'll never get a girlfriend talking like that." The other tittered as they both backed away.

Draco scoffed at the parting insult and pushed his plate away. He wouldn't be eating any more breakfast after that.

The rest of the team left again once the threat had past leaving just Roy to sit next to Draco.

"They might be right, you know." Roy said quietly.

"What?" Draco's head swivelled to look at his supposed friend.

"I just meant about finding a girl. Or do you already have a date?"

"For what?" Since when was his dating life, or lack thereof, the subject of polite conversation.

"For the Yule Ball. It's coming up fast and we all need dates to attend."

Draco had managed to forget the social event of the season, not that he'd ever admit it. Drat.

Not only did he need to find someone he could stand being around for several hours and who could dance without scuffing his shoes and crushing his feet, he'd also need to force Gaara to ask someone. A sad irony that it would actually be easier to find Gaara a willing date since Champions were the new "in" accessory this year.

Persuading Gaara that he actually had to attend might be the trickiest part, especially depending on the girl.

"Got your eye on anyone yet?" Roy asked.

"One or two." Draco lied. He'd been far too busy lately to pay attention to the fairer sex.

"I wouldn't take too long in narrowing it down. Everyone is being snapped up already."

Draco "hmm'ed" noncommittally as his mind ran over the possibilities. Owing to how most in the other Houses perceived him, the pool of young women who would be likely to accept his invitation was limited to those in Slytherin and someone from the visiting schools. And of those in Slytherin, there were many who found his new outlook on blood purity and 'cultural dilution' to be undesirable.

Draco's eyes swept to the Beauxbatons girls and down to himself. Well, at least he was impeccably dressed. Since he wouldn't be asking anyone during breakfast (because honestly, who would?), Draco slumped down into his seat. When he spotted Professor Snape approaching, Draco shot back in his seat so quickly he worried he'd strained something.

While Snape's esteem for Draco had dimmed since the start of his third year, the cold look on the Potions master's face indicated the man's approach was about one particular topic.

"Good morning, Professor."

"Tell Gaara that his guardian will be sent a bill in the coming days for the food that has gone missing from the kitchens." Snape said.

Draco resisted the urge to quirk an eyebrow, which would be a sure sign of disrespect. Gaara wasn't much of an eater so Draco couldn't imagine why he'd be stealing food, particularly when portion sizes at meal times weren't restricted and people could eat as much as they liked. "Food, sir?

Snape didn't appreciate the questioning but he granted Lucius's son the courtesy of an answer. "Much of this evening's prepared meat disappeared and Gaara was seen leaving the scene."

Draco didn't bother trying to deny Gaara had been the culprit. Not only would Snape not believe him, but Gaara was an eccentric and one couldn't assume any behaviour was beyond him, no matter how peculiar. Still, it did beg the question of why exactly Gaara had caused most of the Great Hall to eat like pescatarians for the evening.

What would Gaara even do with enough meat to feed hundreds of people-

…the dog.

"I'll pass along the message and tell him not to do it again." Draco averted his gaze.

"See that you do." Snape continued out of the Hall.

Draco groaned. That bloody dog. Gaara had probably spent at least a few hours with Fluffy following yesterday's Task, and brought along the meat for a generous treat.

Draco had no qualms with telling his best friend off for taking food that was supposed to be for the human population of the castle and giving it to the dog, but he doubted it would have much of an impact. Worse yet, telling him that Sirius would be paying for it might actually give Gaara the impression that it was all okay.

Gaara had some funny notions about money, Draco had noticed. He seemed to have none of the proper British shame usually attached to the subject, especially when costing someone money. If Gaara deemed that person to have enough, he didn't mind taking money from them at all.

Early in their friendship, when Draco would gift Gaara with something, Gaara ignored the customary feigned gratitude that he was supposed to show if he didn't happen to like the gift.

Which was another way of saying that Gaara was an ungrateful sod.

Draco opened his paper back up and turned to the society section that those detestable Weasleys had interrupted. A lot of the section was devoted to who had been wearing what to the latest must-attend event, the First Task and the reception that followed. Thankfully, mother and father had been seen looking on top form and no one was silly enough to reference their second-class seating. They'd be satisfied with the coverage they got.

As most of articles had recently done, this one also discussed what was coming up in the society calendar. The upcoming Yule Ball was THE event of the season that everybody who was anybody would kill to be at. Knowing the sorts of people that would be clamouring for a ticket, murder couldn't really be ruled out.

Normally Draco might have been somewhat excited about the Ball, ignoring the impending panic that would be involved in finding dates for him and Gaara, but there was an added complication. The Ball was going to be held on Christmas Eve, which was the day traditionally reserved for the Malfoy Yuletide Ball. The Malfoy event hadn't been postponed or moved since the War, and not for a hundred years before that.

Instead of the proper and traditional day, the Malfoy Ball had to be moved to Boxing Day. To say his parents were humiliated was an understatement. Father had considered holding onto his day but mother had discreetly discovered that some indispensible notables were intending to go to the Yule Ball instead of the Malfoy party. To move the event was galling, but it would have been an unforgettable stain on the Malfoy reputation to have the Minister miss their event, let alone their other close associates and allies.

That said, Mother had still managed to ensure that the best caterers would be busy preparing for the Malfoy event and the Ministry had to settle for the second best on Christmas Eve. Her planned menu requiring several days of preparation was purely coincidental, of course, and not at all a petty slight against the Minister and his party planners.

Thinking of his parents, Draco resolved to send his latest measurements to his mother that afternoon. She'd asked for them a few days ago and she wouldn't appreciate him leaving it until the last minute. His new set of dress robes would be perfectly tailored; he certainly wouldn't be seen in those Ministry-issue rags.

Mother had asked about Gaara's arrangements but Draco had assured her that Sirius was seeing to that. He'd made sure to check in with his cousin to make sure the man had indeed thought to commission some suitable robes, even though the implication that there could have been a lapse was quite rude. Sirius had said that not only had he engaged the finest tailor available, but he had also located a prized family heirloom for Gaara to wear, his grandfather's lucky bowtie.

"Are you thinking of joining the student tourney in two weeks?" Roy said, and Draco could only thank his slow reaction for not flinching when he was suddenly reminded that his acquaintance was still sat next to him.

"No, I don't think so." Draco said. "Those Durmstrang gorillas will be taking part and I don't fancy trying to compete with their brute force. Not when all of the fun spells will be against the rules."

"Like summoning poisonous serpents?" Roy asked with a snicker.

"It's not my fault that buffoon Lockhart didn't specify any casting rules." Draco was still bitter that Potter, of all the people in Britain, was a parselmouth and Draco was not. The blond didn't idolise the Dark Lord like he was supposed to, but speaking to snakes would still be cool. Typical that Potter would receive such a gift and then never deign to use it. "Whatever the rules, I'll leave the pointless brawling to the Gryffindorks."

Later in the day, Draco did pay off his debt to those lamentable Weasley Twins. That they insisted on loudly counting the money right in front of him was yet further proof that their kind shouldn't be allowed near the hallowed halls of Hogwarts. Filthy peasants.

The amount that he'd lost in the bet was probably more than everything contained in their single, pitiful family vault but it only made up a month of his pocket money. When he said this to them, they had the gall to try and hex him. It was only thanks for a few nearby Slytherins that they backed off after the first volley had been blocked and didn't try again.

Gaara hadn't shown up at all during the day, which Draco supposed he wasn't too surprised about. The redhead was clearly avoiding the increased attention following the Task. It might normally bother Draco that his friend had gone awol for so long but this actually provided a rare opportunity to work on his secret potion project without any interruption.

The Dreamwalker Potion was getting tantalizingly close to completion.

Despite being told that reading while walking would probably lead to him falling down the stairs one of these days, Draco had the evening edition of the Prophet in front of his face as he descended the stairs to the dungeons. He needed to undertake precise stirring of his potion this evening but he was also very interested in the article someone had shoved under his nose at dinner.

A press release from the Ministry had been printed and commented upon in the paper following that morning's revelation about the cause of the Boy-Who-Lived's injuries. The Minister's office had announced that an investigation had already been launched before the morning's article had been released, and that said article had been irresponsible to publish those details before the Ministry officially sanctioned the disclosure and it might hamper their investigatory efforts.

Draco very much doubted that the Ministry had actually started investigating already, or that the article had done any more damage except to Fudge's already tarnished reputation. The way the Ministry's press release worded things also didn't inspire confidence in their openness and honesty. They talked about how there had been an "attempt to disrupt the festivities that the hardworking witches and wizards of Great Britain rightly deserve."

It said nothing about how Potter was probably the target because all of the Dark Lord's followers who were still free still hated Potter. It didn't even describe it as attempted murder, just attempted disruption. Draco understood cover-ups, he hoped to enact a few himself one day, but to do such a poor job of it…

The press release was accompanied by a picture of a very self-satisfied Fudge and then there was Morbidus skulking behind him, haunting the picture and appearing to be perfectly still even in the moving photo. The press release even went so far as to pre-empt (accurate) suggestions that the Death Eaters might have been involved by saying that 'preliminary investigation strongly indicated that no known groups or organisations were involved.'

How efficient, deciding the Dark Lord's followers were blameless before the investigation even began.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Gaara showed up in their room on Sunday evening looking tired.

Sadly acclimated to Gaara's strange comings and goings, Draco didn't blink an eye and said in lieu of a proper and polite greeting, "Really, Gaara… the dog?"

Gaara paused but stayed quiet.

"You haven't been out there playing with it all day, have you?"

"No."

Draco sighed but he almost lost his composure and smiled.

Truth be told, only the first half of Gaara's day had been spent playing with Fluffy. He had gotten too cold to stand around watching Fluffy chase balls of sand fly around the woods so he'd started on a new project.

As far as anyone had told him, Voldemort was still dead or otherwise missing and out of communication, so someone from the Death Eater ranks had taken the initiative to try and murder Sirius's godson. That someone needed to be dealt with.

Gaara had agreed to try and protect Potter in the Tasks, but that responsibility might be impossible unless he could proactively handle the threat.

So, he'd thought a good start would be to try and find clues as to who had poisoned the dragon. To Gaara's chagrin, the thought had occurred to the Ministry as well.

Morbidus was already on the scene, directing many nondescript witches and wizards as they combed the stadium and the dragon staging area for twigs out of place.

Gaara stayed away and observed for a few minutes but either they weren't finding anything, or he was too far away to see whatever they were finding. In any case, Gaara didn't think there was anything he could do there.

Gaara didn't want to return to the castle a minute earlier than he needed to (which was probably dinner, since he was hungry and he doubted he would be allowed to continue to pillage the kitchens with impunity after he's liberated Fluffy's special treat). As such, Gaara took to wandering the surrounding area, beyond the tree line around the transplanted stadium, where he wouldn't be seen by any eagle-eyed Ministry investigators.

As Gaara walked carefully amongst the frosted leaves and twigs, trying to avoid any telltale crunching that might draw attention, he thanked the gods that his cloak had a warming charm on it. If not for magically-warmed clothing, Gaara would have been a prisoner in the castle for half of the year. As it was, he still preferred to settle in front of a fire.

In two hours of wandering the forest and staring at the ground, Gaara found only one item of interest. A small, smashed glass ampoule was lying amongst the roots of a tree. He knelt to get a better look at it, but with it being a standard Potions ampoule and empty, he doubted there was any value in taking it with him. He didn't have the magical skill to examine it so he was better off leaving it for the Ministry to find.

Gaara wasn't much of a detective.

Gaara wandered away. He was tired of sleuthing, it wasn't his forte. When the investigators identified the perpetrator, Gaara was confident that his skills could be of use then. He could track them down and… well… he was good at the hunting part and at what came after.

When Gaara had returned to their room, he settled onto his bed with a new book and started reading.

"Reading while slouched on your bed will hurt your back, you know." Draco said without turning away from his essay.

Gaara looking down at his body and then over at Draco. He thought about getting up and moving to the other desk to keep Draco happy, but considering how much he'd been bothering Draco recently, he figured this wouldn't be the straw to break the camel's back.

Gaara cracked open the detective novel he'd found in the school library's well-stocked but sadly underused fiction section.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Lessons on Monday were as distracted as the teaching staff had all predicted. Even after having most of the weekend to discuss the first Task, the conversations on the subject were still going strong in the middle of their lessons. Of course, it didn't help that Harry Potter had still not reappeared from his reported injuries, and Gaara had reappeared that morning after hiding for the entire weekend.

Gaara had been the centre of attention during breakfast. The fact that the red-head had achieved the lowest score for his performance didn't dim any of the enthusiasm and excitement with which members of every House approached him. Even the Gryffindors were willing to put aside the Champion (and House) rivalry and congratulate one of the Hogwarts Champions.

Gaara, needless to say, didn't enjoy the attention.

"You brought this on yourself, you know." Draco said in between bites of his jam-covered toast. "If you'd showed up yesterday, you could have just faced Slytherins and they wouldn't have tried shaking your hand or touching you on the shoulder. And then by this morning the Slytherins would have helped keep everyone else away instead of joining the queue."

Gaara could barely hear his friend through the din of questions and comments being cast at him from the wall of students surrounding him. Still, based on what he did hear of his roommate's I-told-you-so, Gaara sent a withering glare at the other that did nothing to scare away the people chattering around him. His ignoring them didn't seem to do the trick either.

Eventually McGonagall passed by and told everyone to go back to their own seats and eat their breakfasts. Gaara wanted to thank her but it looked like she was acting on her dislike of the Tournament rather than wanting to rescue the two beleaguered Slytherins.

When they had finished eating, both of them hastily left the Hall before anyone could follow. What they hadn't anticipated was one particular person waiting for them, or at least Gaara, outside.

"Good morning." Viktor Krum said, pushing himself off of the wall he'd been leaning against.

Draco looked down at his uniform to make sure there was no breakfast on it, even though he'd mastered not making a mess of himself during a meal before he could ride a broom.

Gaara nodded his greeting and Draco stuttered something out that was marginally less embarrassing than the last time he had tried speaking to the Quidditch celebrity.

"I wanted to say that I feel that the scoring you received was very…" He seemed to struggle to find the word, "harsh. Cerberuses are very difficult to train. It is impressive that it listens to you."

Gaara wasn't sure how to answer that. Animals in this word naturally liked him; most of them, anyway. He didn't think it was all that impressive that he had used his natural gift and the time that it afforded him around the dog to train it to follow basic instructions. Should he disagree? He wasn't supposed to do that with compliments, which this almost definitely was, but he didn't want to lie.

"Um, we can show you the Cerberus, if you'd like, sometime." Draco said. He purposefully avoided the dog's ridiculous name. "It's very tame, really."

"That is very kind of you." Viktor said to both of them. "Yes, maybe sometime you can show me." He didn't seem too interested in setting a time or day.

"I did not see your Task but I assume you performed well." Gaara said finally. He was quite proud of having thought up a compliment all by himself.

"Thank you." Krum responded, believing the strange wording to have been a result of his lacking sufficient fluency in English.

With his message delivered, Krum didn't hang around long. Despite currently being a full-time student, he had the appearance of someone with a lot to do, so neither Slytherin objected when he said he needed to leave.

In the lessons, as during breakfast, Gaara drew more attention than he would like and certainly more than the teachers appreciated. McGonagall was a pro when it came to wrestling back control of a distracted classroom of teenagers. So, even when Gaara himself was in the room, she was able to force wandering minds back onto the subject at hand: transfiguring simple materials in complex mechanisms. She had switched her lessons around as the challenge of turning a plank of wood into a clock would suitably divert their attentions away from that abhorrent Tournament.

Other professors found other ways to keep their pupils on task. Professor Moody could have used fear and intimidation to keep his class's attention, as he had with any number of fresh recruits to the Auror training programme. But, instead, he decided to use the opportunity to teach them an important lesson about the dangers of dragons and how to wrangle them (stepping on the toes of Care of Magical Creatures), particularly when they have been cursed. His lesson even included how to recognise the most common potion curses (a rare field of Potions that Snape refused to even discuss), and the use of magical creatures in combat, which was particularly common in Asia for several centuries.

"I've never fought or tried to use a Cerberus in a fight. In fact, I'd wager Gaara is currently one of the foremost experts on them in the country right now." Moody said with a smirk. "Care to share any insights, Gaara?"

Gaara considered his answer carefully. He didn't appreciate the lesson being drawn onto the subject of the Tournament, much less them asking about his pet, but since the professor was asking, and this was linked Defence Against the Dark Arts, he supposed he should answer.

"It is the same as most mammals, susceptible to operant conditioning and positive reinforcement."

While Mad-Eye Moody explained what those terms meant, Draco snorted into his hand and made it look like a small cough. 'Positive reinforcement'… meaning Gaara liked to spoil the overgrown puppy with treats every chance he got.

As the lesson went on, Draco hoped the oaf in the hut hadn't planned on discussing dragons or three-headed dogs during his own lesson or he'd find the subject entirely worn out.

As it happened, when they went to their first CoMC lesson of the week a couple days later, the novelty of the lesson's subject was the least of anybody's concerns. Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived (and then almost didn't) had returned to lessons.

The students were conflicted on how to act since their immediate inclination was to pester and harass the erstwhile missing Champion, but even the predominantly self-involved teenagers had some sense of decorum. That decorum was prompted in no small part by the raised, pink scar tissue running up the side of Potter's neck and onto his cheek.

Gaara had seen worse scars and burns. That said, he didn't hold a very impressive collection himself anymore. Almost all of the scars he'd accumulated when he first arrived in this world had faded along with the one that had disrupted his vocal chords, though the one in his shoulder that he received from the Uchiha during the Chunin exams was still there.

Gaara caught Draco staring at his rival once or twice during the lesson but the platinum blond kept his thoughts to himself and didn't say a word to or about Potter the entire time. Gaara suspected that was as kind as Draco could be when it came to Potter.

Harry didn't notice this not-quite-kindness, instead his focus was on everyone else blatantly staring at his face and neck. He wanted to touch the fresh scars again, to confirm they were as large and raised as they'd been when he saw them in the mirror that morning.

Hermione had been fussing over him since he'd escaped the clutches of Madam Pomfrey earlier, but Ron seemed to have forgotten about whatever had been driving his antagonism towards Harry recently. So, it wasn't all bad.

"Fleur Delacour and Viktor Krum came to see me yesterday, you know." Harry said.

"They did?" Hermione was pleased by the sign of sportsmanship. "Together?"

"No, a couple hours apart. I'm not sure if they knew the other was coming. It was nice of them to stop by, though." Harry didn't mention how embarrassing it was for his fellow Champions, who were only a couple years older than him, pitying him because he got himself burnt by the dragon. The only one to get injured in the very first Task.

"Did he visit as well?" Ron nodded his head towards Gaara.

Harry looked over at Gaara, who was staring off into space, and frowned. "No, I didn't see him." He hadn't expected Gaara to come by even if the others did. It just wasn't something Gaara would do.

"Well… I suppose…" Hermione didn't seem to know how to put a positive spin on Gaara's failings.

"Prat." Ron summed up his feelings succinctly.

"Should Hagrid be here by now?" Harry looked around but the only person missing from the class was the professor supposed to be leading it.

"Oh, he's been missing since the weekend. He's not taught any of his lessons this week." Ron said.

"Missing?" Harry thought his friend had underplayed how alarming that was.

"No, not missing." Hermione glared at Ron for his careless wording. "He's been hiding in his hut. He was quite upset after the Task so other professors have been covering his lessons."

"Is it because of what happened to me?" Harry didn't like how much of a narcissist that made him sound like. "Or is it because of Fluffy?"

"Well, I'm sure both of those things upset him but…" Hermione hesitated. "It's more to do with the dragon."

"Which dragon? My dragon?" Harry's head shot up. He hadn't given any thought to the dragon that scarred him.

"Hagrid's upset because the dragon got killed." Ron said.

"Ron!" Hermione scolded him.

"They killed it because it hurt me?" Harry felt surprisingly bad about that. The dragon hadn't done anything wrong, really. It had just been protecting its nest from an intruder while it was trapped in an arena, surrounded by thousands of screaming humans. Not to mention that it was apparently dosed with some sort of potion. It had no choice but to take part in the Tournament, just like Harry.

"It's not your fault, Harry. Whatever potion they used to curse the dragon's fire cursed the dragon itself. There wasn't any way to save it so they had to euthanize it. But, as you can imagine, Hagrid's been utterly inconsolable since someone told him."

"I heard Dumbledore had to confiscate his whisky personally." Ron piped up.

"That's just gossip." Hermione huffed, even though she had seen Filch stashing a couple of crates in a cupboard on the fourth floor when he thought no one else was watching. She was keeping that part to herself in case it ever made it back to Ron's older brothers.

Eventually McGonagall showed up. The professors were taking it in turns to cover Hagrid's lessons while he was indisposed, but Minerva felt the rota failed to consider how unfair it was to drag her, at her age, down from her office and out in the forest three times a week. And apparently, since it was a practical subject, she couldn't have the students come to her.

"Professor?" Ronald Weasley had his hand in the air.

"Yes, Mr Weasley." McGonagall fought to keep her voice steady so they didn't see how winded she was from rushing down the castle

"Um, Harry isn't feeling very well. We think he needs to rest a bit more. Can we take him back up to the castle?" Ron gestured to Ms Granger who looked as bashful as Minerva felt was appropriate. She assumed Ms Granger felt substitute teachers weren't a sufficient replacement and she wanted to go and study on her own, and the boys were taking advantage to skive off of their lesson entirely.

"If Mr Potter is feeling faint, I don't think we can expect him to go all the way back up to the castle." McGonagall glared at the trio as she pulled out her wand and transfigured a nearby tree stump into a chaise lounge.

Potter blushed and shook his head ardently. "No, it's fine, I'm fine professor. I'll just… take some deep breaths."

"Only if you're sure, Mr Potter." McGonagall turned her attention back to the loose collection of students. Hagrid was one of the sweetest men she'd ever known but he didn't have the firm hand needed to instil proper discipline. As such, the first five minutes of the lesson was spent arranging the boys and girls into some semblance of order.

The chaise lounge, as it turned out, wasn't needed.

After the lesson ended and the pupils were free to go get their lunches, the Golden Trio rushed over to Hagrid's hut to check on him.

Later in the day, Draco gracefully plopped down in the seat next to Gaara. "You'll never guess what I just heard!"

"No, I won't." Gaara agreed.

"Potter and his backup dancers managed to get that Skeeter woman kicked off the grounds again. They caught her trying to force her way into the oaf's hovel. McGonagall threatened to have her arrested if she caught her near the castle again."

"Good." Gaara didn't look up from his book.

"You know, you're just about the worst person to gossip with." Draco huffed.

"Thank you." Gaara responded distractedly. They were just about to reveal who committed the murder and he was quite invested as he had no idea who it would be. After his first foray into murder mystery fiction, Gaara had started working his way through every available book on the subject.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

In the first week of December, those students whose parents hadn't rudely refused the Ministry's generous offer of a free new set of dress robes were gathered together to get measured. Some were excited, others were embarrassed.

Naturally, as Draco might say, only an unfortunate few Slytherins were in line for their ministry-issue robes.

"Though, it's not too bad, really. It's not as if everyone in Slytherin doesn't already know who the poor ones are." Draco said. He really didn't know how snobby he sounded.

Gaara didn't respond. He'd never been that interested in money, but he had also been born to one of the richest shinobi in Wind, and money had never been a concern to him or his family even when Suna as a whole had been struggling.

There was a knock at the door and the handle rattled. "Draco? Gaara?"

Draco and Gaara stayed very still and didn't say another hushed word.

"I don't think they're in." They heard the voice say before the person walked away.

Draco breathed a sigh of relief. Along with the robe fitting, there were to be dancing lessons in the run-up to the ball. Not only did Draco already know how to dance perfectly well, but the sessions were being run by Professor Snape of all people. So, every Wednesday evening, Draco hid in their room with the door locked and the students who weren't as confident that they would be allowed to ditch the sessions pretended they didn't know Draco was still hiding in there.

Nobody would have even bothered to suggest Gaara attend a dance lesson run by Severus Snape.

In the end, the sessions usually had an attendance of around 20% since most of Slytherin had received dancing lessons from their families and nobody wanted to see Snape demonstrate a waltz. In Snape's opinion, his lesson's attendance was still 20% too high. He was a powerful duellist, a world-class Potions master, and an expert on any number of arcane and dark arts, and instead he was being forced to run dancing lessons.

It spoke of the unmitigated horror experienced that nobody who attended the classes was willing to speak of them.

Like a few Slytherins who hadn't undergone extensive training before Hogwarts, Gaara was able to rely on his friends to give him some much needed tuition. Draco hadn't been looking forward to teaching Gaara to dance, but since Gaara was a Champion who would be performing the first dance in front of a crowd, there really was no avoiding it (since McGonagall, Flitwick and Sprout had all been entirely unsympathetic and refused to add a single Slytherin to their own sessions).

While the pair were hiding in their room, avoiding the latest session, Draco spotted something shiny under Gaara's bed.

"Is that- that's not the golden egg, is it?" Draco couldn't believe his eyes. Surely his roommate hadn't stashed the prize from his first Task and the clue to the second Task under his bed. "What's that doing under there?!"

Gaara couldn't understand why Draco had to be so dramatic about every little thing.

"I didn't know where else to put it."

"But it's the golden egg from the first Task!"

"Would you like it?"

"What? No!" Draco massaged his forehead. "You're supposed to use it to find out what you need to do for the next Task." Draco snatched the giant egg out from under the bed and was horrified to find it had a thin layer of dust on it.

Draco polished the egg with one of Gaara's discarded robes in the laundry hamper.

"Have you tried doing anything with it yet?" Draco asked, examining it.

"Like what?" Gaara had tried keeping it warm for a couple days to see if it would hatch but he'd lost patience with that.

"It looks like it might open somehow." Draco's fingers traced the fine lines between the segments.

Gaara watched him work and fiddle with the raised, decorative part on top. He'd noticed the lines as well but he thought it was just from where the egg had been put together, and he'd tried twisting and pushing the top part but it hadn't moved.

Draco continued to try different directions and levels of force for a few minutes until he finally pushed it down and clockwise at the same time. It was very stiff, perhaps because of the small dents and scratches all over. The entire top part twisted suddenly, making Gaara sit up in his bed. Then the sides fell away and Gaara heard some of the worst screeching he'd ever heard in his life.

It was like a banshee had taken up karaoke in their bedroom. Gaara clutched his ears, trying to block out some of the noise that was making his teeth hurt and his head swim but it barely helped. He tried to command his sand to destroy the egg but he couldn't make it cohere into more than a spasming cloud around him.

Draco wasn't suffering as much and he was able to think clearly enough to lift the sides of the egg back into place and re-clasp the top.

Gaara pushed himself up from where he'd been curled into the foetal position and glared at Draco. If he decided that had been some kind of prank from the blond, Gaara would be seeking retribution. After a few moments, Draco pausing under the intense, glaring scrutiny, Gaara evidently didn't see any signs of mischief on the other's face and let it drop.

"What's going on in there? Are you alright?" Came a voice from outside and some knocking on the door.

Other voices in the hallway proved how many Slytherins had been hiding in their rooms rather than attending the dance lessons. And apparently everyone else had heard the terrible noise coming from the golden egg.

"I knocked a lamp off of the bedside cabinet, that's all." Draco shouted at the door.

There was a pause as the person on the other side and the others waiting in the corridor considered the obvious lie. They decided it wasn't worth trying to pry answers out of the Malfoy scion so they let the matter drop with a parting, "Just don't drop anything else."

Draco sighed in relief. While it would be okay if he revealed they were working on the Triwizard Tournament, he didn't want rumours to start spreading about how Gaara had made no progress since the Task or that they still had no ideas on what to do with the screeching egg.

As Draco traced his fingers lightly over the egg, making sure not to accidentally undo the stiff latch a second time, Gaara's sand snatched it from his grasp and pulled it out of Draco's reach. The sand coated the egg and Draco almost shouted for Gaara not to crush it, but instead the sand hardened and floated under Gaara's bed.

It seemed Gaara was done with the egg for now and didn't want Draco accidentally opening it again.

"So, what can we learn from that screaming? Did it sound like anything to you?" Draco asked, but Gaara had cracked open his latest book and seemed to want to focus on that instead. "You know, you barely got through the last Task. You can't just wait to see what happens…"

Draco stopped when he realised Gaara was actively ignoring him. He'd have to try that subject again later. In the meantime, there was another matter he had to discuss.

"Sirius says he still needs your measurements for the dress robes." Draco said. It was ridiculous that he had to be the messenger when he knew for a fact that Gaara had received an owl reminding him to send his measurements at least twice this week.

"The Ministry will provide them free of charge." Gaara said softly before turning the page.

"Made of sack cloth and string. They wouldn't be suitable for you even if you weren't a Triwizard Champion and the presumptive heir to the Black estate." Draco said. "Also, you would have needed to attend the fittings for the Ministry-issue robes if you wanted to receive them."

Gaara frowned. Dumbledore had left no room for ambiguity and told him he had to attend the Yule Ball as one of Hogwarts Champions. He had to participate properly like the other Champions.

"I will send my measurements tomorrow." Gaara said as a way of closing the subject.

"In that case, you'll need help taking those measurements." Draco said, knowing full well that Gaara would 'forget' tomorrow and put it off as long as possible. If Draco let it go on too long, Gaara might even end up wearing something off the rack. He shuddered to think of it.

"Tomorrow." Gaara said again, now knowing he would actually have to do it tomorrow. Draco had made it his mission so Gaara knew he would be better off just agreeing.

"By the way, you do remember that there are two balls, right?" Draco ventured. He was confident Gaara had indeed forgotten so he planned to periodically remind him so he wouldn't have a meltdown on the night.

"Two balls? There's more than one." Gaara paused in his reading but didn't look up.

"You've been told about this multiple times. Including at least once already by me." Draco snapped. Gaara still didn't look up. Draco made a show of sighing.

"At the start of the evening, you will be attending the ball in the castle where you will dance in front of the students and professors. Then, there will be a bit of dinner and then you will be whisked off to the Ministry for the real ball."

"Real ball?"

"Well, really, the one at the castle is the proper one. Traditionally that was the only Yule Ball for the Triwizard Tournament, but since Fudge has made this one all about showing off, he wants to get all of the important witches and wizards involved, so he's got another ball in the Ministry where there will be adults waiting to watch you, Krum, Delacour and Potter do another first dance and eat another dinner. Then you'll spend the evening there, watching everyone dance and chat and you'll be miserable."

At least Draco wasn't sugar coating it. Truth be told, he was a little jealous that Gaara got to spend the evening at the ball filled with the most powerful witches and wizards in Europe while Draco was surrounded by the same powerless boys and girls he spent his life around. And Gaara wasn't even going to appreciate it a little bit.

"You realise all of this means that you will actually need to learn to dance, right?"

Gaara hummed that he had heard. It might have also meant that he agreed, but there was no guaranteeing it didn't mean he'd heard what Draco said and intended to ignore it.

"Luna and I will teach you so we can all avoid lessons with our Heads of House. I don't imagine learning from Flitwick would be any better than learning from Professor Snape."

Of course, these sessions would have a second use. The sooner Gaara realised he would be taking Luna as his date, the better. Having them in close proximity during the lessons would be a perfect setting for Gaara to realise he should ask her.

Luna hadn't been around as much recently, possibly because of her own research projects, or possibly because the Yule Ball was nearing and Gaara had thus far failed to invite her or even acknowledge her as anything other than a good friend.

Draco sighed again. What a burden it was to be the friend with the common sense.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

In the morning, several owls arrived bearing invitations in their talons. The Malfoy winter ball was coming up and Narcissa had been writing invitations for days; her calligraphy was finer than many of the so-called professional invitation services other lesser families used.

Owls landed in front of each Champion, minus Potter, as well as the heads of the schools and Snape. A fair few of the students would be attending as well, but invitations would be sent to their parents.

Gaara had received his own invitation but Sirius had received one as well, since he was the head of the Black family and Narcissa's cousin, even if he was a blood traitor. His invitation made it clear he was invited but that did not extend to a guest. The Malfoys didn't want Sirius bringing his godson or that godforsaken drunken werewolf.

Draco watched Gaara's face as he read the invitation and when his eyes reached the end, Draco said, "Yes, you do have to go."

Gaara looked to him and then back to the invitation in his hand. He handed it to Draco and the blond made a note to respond in the affirmative on Gaara's behalf. It was good that Gaara left it to him; this way, Draco could be sure the response arrived in a respectful timeframe and in the correct form.

Not long after the flock of owls hired to deliver the Malfoy invitations had departed, another, more familiar owl, approached. It was bearing a small package in its talons and it headed straight for Gaara.

After bribing Sirius's owl with some bacon, Gaara took the small box and undid the twine tying it closed. Inside was a bundle of bubble-wrap protecting a plain brown wand and a note underneath.

'Bandit,

I trust you are well. I am still waiting on your measurements so if you don't want your robes trailing on the floor behind you because I gave them my measurements instead, send me your own soon.

Please find enclosed in the box a spare wand I picked up in Ollivander's. He said it won't be a good replacement but it shouldn't blow up with the first spell you cast. My apologies for the delay in sending this temporary wand.

Send me your dog whistle soon and I will have it mended hopefully before the next stage of the Tournament. I will reiterate here in writing that you are an idiot and I am tempted to send your refurbished wand to Draco for safe-keeping.

In response to your previous letter, which was precisely sixty-one words long, I must restate that Fluffy cannot live at any of the remaining Black properties. Of the estates left to me, none of them have enough space outside to house the dog. And to pre-empt your inevitable next question, no I will not be buying a new property just for the dog. Fluffy belongs to Hagrid.

When you next write to me, could you let me know how Harry is getting on? I understand that you don't talk to him very often but even your impression from afar would be good. I want to make sure that he is not telling me he's fine to stop me from worrying.

Your magnanimous friend,

Padfoot

P.s. Say hi to Draco for me.

P.p.s The dog is staying at Hogwarts.'

Gaara looked up from his letter and found Draco carefully inspecting the bubble-wrap like it was an expertly crafted piece of art rather than disposable packaging. The blond poked at the individual bubbles and seemed fascinated by the material since he'd never seen much plastic in his life, let alone something smooth and soft like this.

Once upon a time, even appearing mildly interested in anything muggle related was forbidden in Slytherin, but lately attitudes had softened a bit. The boy who was once the most ardent supporter of blood purity now appearing to be okay with muggle things might have had that effect.

"What is this stuff?" Draco asked Gaara as he was reading the letter.

"It's bubble wrap." Said Artemis Landry, a nearby fifth-year halfblood. "It's used to protect stuff in the post."

Draco scowled at the muggle information out of habit even if he'd solicited it.

"Try popping it." Landry added, interested in a pureblood's take on the material.

Draco wasn't entirely sure it was appropriate to damage it. Surely a material like this couldn't be very cheap. A muggle would have had to use their hand tools to make it since they didn't have magic it and was surely too delicate to go through one of their machines.

Gaara, who was also curious about it, leaned over and pinched a bubble between his thumb and finger and popped it. The redhead flinched imperceptibly at the sharp popping sound. Seeing Gaara do it, Draco tried it as well. It was nice. Draco did a couple more before he looked up and realised dozens of eyes were on him.

Draco blushed and made a show of discarding the bubble-wrap, announcing it was typical muggle rubbish. He quickly got up and left out of embarrassment but Gaara spotted that the discarded wrapping had disappeared along with Draco.

Gaara took out his own mangled wand and gave it one more look. He would miss having the dog whistle handy but he supposed he could just request an actual dog whistle or learn the spell. He hastily wrapped the wand in the parcel paper that had covered the box he received and secured it with twine. Fortunately, Sirius's owl had been helping itself to Gaara's neglected breakfast so he handed the poorly-wrapped wand to the owl and asked it politely to return to Sirius.

Sending the wand back to Sirius then and there would save Gaara a trip to the owlery later. It was far too cold to venture outside without a decent reason.

After the owl took off, Gaara wanted to try out his new wand. Magic had never been easy for him but he had been entirely unable to cast spells for a while, so he was curious what it would be like to use a wand that wasn't as 'well suited' for him as his true one was supposed to be.

Draco found Gaara's on his way out of the Hall, after the ashamed blond Slytherin had stashed the fascinating muggle curio in their room. He couldn't risk walking around with it.

"If you're going to play about with it, I'm definitely going to come watch." Draco said. He didn't mention that he wanted to make sure Gaara's didn't blow himself or the castle up. He also didn't mention that he wanted to see the state the wand arrived in so he could watch out for any whittle marks or holes.

His friend was an idiot and couldn't be trusted, as evidenced by the fact that Gaara had initially proposed trying his new wand out in their room. Draco redirected his roommate to the door and marched him out in the forest.

"It used to be a lot more intimidating in here." Draco said, looking around at the dense woods.

Gaara was listening out for Fluffy. They had intentionally headed in the opposite direction of Fluffy's usual area but the dog had a good nose and a tendency to seek out his friend the moment he entered the forest.

The results of Gaara's first test with his shiny new wand were explosive to say the least.

"And you wanted to try it out in our room!" Draco shouted, shaking the smoke and dust off of his robes. He had been standing back, behind his best shield charm and he had still been knocked off of his feet. "And I told you, you should have started with a basic charm!"

Draco's shouting was a mixture of anger and temporary hearing loss from the canon-like bang that had rang out from Gaara trying to cast a simple blasting hex. Trust the idiot to try and cast a combat spell on an untested wand. It might have almost been impressive and a sign that Gaara's magic was ideal for combat, if Gaara hadn't also been thrown backwards, even protected by his sand as he was.

Draco glared at his best friend as he rubbed his back. He would be visiting Madam Pomfrey. She would tell him it was just a nasty bruise, but Draco would need convincing that his spine and ribs weren't at least cracked.

Gaara stared at his temporary wand as he stood up again. All of the improvements he's painstakingly made in learning magic since he'd started at Hogwarts had been wiped out without his actual wand. And now he was supposed to be performing fourth-year spells.

He'd better get the information he needed from Dumbledore or else he had no hope of passing his end of year exams. Of course, he didn't care about graduating from school, but he doubted he would be allowed to hang around with Draco outside of holidays if he did get expelled.

"I think I will need tutoring again."

"Well don't look at me!" Draco said, continuing to dust himself off. He would end up doing it, of course, but until then he would repeatedly tell Gaara off.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Gaara was in a foul mood as he sat to watch the start of the duelling tourney. Actually, watching the tourney might have been entertaining for the seasoned warrior but he had brought his poor humour with him that morning. The redhead had treated himself to a luxurious six hours of sleep the night before and intended to eat a filling breakfast before attending the tourney, but Draco had used the rare instance of him being groggy to corner him and force him to submit to measuring.

The smug look on Draco's face when he had showed up to breakfast in the Hall after having visited the owlery almost sent Gaara into the forest.

Draco had not looked smug, he would contest, he was relieved. He had barely managed to force the irritable Jinchūriki to submit to having a couple of measurements taken before he had to retreat to a safe distance. He was pretty sure Gaara was more or less the same size as when he got measured for his robes ahead of the Malfoy Ball last year, so Draco sent Gaara's old dress robes along with the measurements.

As Draco had fallen into his seat, breathing heavily from having to run up to the bloody owlery first thing in the morning so that his stupid friend could wear something presentable to a ball he wouldn't begin to appreciate, he glared right back at Gaara. He'd barely made it back for the end of breakfast, so when the platters of breakfast foods disappeared from the table, signalling students should finish up their plates, Draco snatched Gaara's plate and claimed the redhead's breakfast as his own before they headed to the tourney.

Despite being December, the brilliant minds at the Ministry had decided to stage the duelling tourney outside. The school Quidditch stadium had been commandeered for the event since apparently the stadium used for the first Task was still being investigated and they were too cheap to build a new one.

"Couldn't they conjure one?" Gaara had asked on the walk over.

"They'd need a hundred wizards to do it." Draco said irritably.

Gaara considered the hundreds of witches and wizards that worked for the Ministry and decided it was probably more complicated than Draco was letting on.

The field of the school stadium was covered in row upon row of foldout chairs, surrounding a raised international-standard duelling platform. VIPs were seated up and away from the plebeians and schoolchildren in the stands around the circumference of the stadium.

A scathing comment on how they wouldn't be able to see anything from this far away had been on the tip of Draco's tongue when they arrived at their seats and found a set of omnioculars on each chair. After they sat down, Draco picked up both his and Gaara's pairs and held onto them. "You can have them back when the duelling starts."

Gaara watched the crowds starting to fill the stadium. He would need those magical binoculars back or else he wouldn't be able to see anything. Why did the organisers of this event equate status with altitude? Instead of sitting close to the action, he and the other Champions were sat in boxes as far away as possible. And across the vast Quidditch stadium was another box filled with various VIPs.

"I'm not sorry I'm late. I was talking to a particularly nice Auror outside. Nearly got her number too until her partner told her I was the big bad Sirius Black." Sirius said wistfully as he sat down, ignoring the fact that he was discussing such a crass topic in front of impressionable teenagers.

Nobody wanted to comment on the fact that even after he had been exonerated for mass murder, Sirius had somehow managed to get on the Ministry's collective bad side in less than six months to the extent that he was to be avoided by all personnel.

"Anyone know how long they'll keep us waiting?" Sirius said, looking around for snacks or something to distract himself with since Gaara had covertly snatched the omnioculars Draco had pre-emptively confiscated without the blond noticing.

"Shouldn't be too much longer now. Fudge has shown up so they won't want to keep him waiting." Draco said.

"I hope Harry doesn't take too much longer. The first rounds in these things have all the best surprises." Sirius said, checking his pocket watch.

"He's coming?" Gaara asked. Potter had been ducking the spotlight even more than seemed to be his inclination since the first Task.

"Of course he's coming!" Sirius bellowed. "He's just inherited James's complete lack of punctuality, that's all. I'd hoped Lily's chronic adherence to schedules and timeliness might have balanced it out a bit but apparently not. I just hope he's not still feeling self-conscious about his injuries." Sirius forgot the company he was keeping.

"You wouldn't think Potter of all people would be sensitive about another scar." Draco drawled.

"Not all of us have the same makeup skills that you have, Malfoy." Harry said from behind them, caught between glaring at his snarky rival and smirking at his own wit. Sirius snorted into his drink.

A well-timed and carefully restrained clip around the back of the head was the perfect method to stop Draco from saying something further and escalating the conflict to full-blown feud (again). Draco was a little wrapped up in his pent-up feelings of malice so he failed to appreciate that Gaara had just prevented him and Potter from ruining the tourney for everyone else.

Harry also did not notice his saving grace had come in the form of a light slap and instead took his seat next to Ron and Hermione. Ron had also been prevented from starting a fight by Hermione's hand smacking the back of his head, though she wasn't quite as gentle about it as Gaara had been. Clearly, Gaara noted, Ron wouldn't make as much of a fuss if his hair was mussed.

Sirius excitedly shushed all of the teenagers around him as Bagman stepped onto the arena stage and began proceedings. Gaara struggled to follow along as he was distracted by a flock of what might have appeared to be birds in the distance if he didn't have access to the Omnioculars. Instead, he could zoom in and clearly see the herd of Hippogriffs flying freely in the skies. The incident when he was thrown from one of those beasts and nearly killed had not slipped from his memory.

Gaara was so absorbed in watching the half-birds, he completely missed the assembled competing students from Hogwarts, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang marching on and off of the stage. He also managed to miss the first match between a woefully underprepared Gryffindor facing off against a determined and efficient Durmstrang boy.

"You know, your mum is gonna kill both of the Twins when she gets a chance." Harry said as the match concluded and George (at least, that was who he said he was) limped off the duelling platform.

"Mum was gonna kill them anyway after they tried entering the Tournament. They're on borrowed time so they're doing anything they like up until the Summer holidays when we go home." Ron said, sounding fearful. He wasn't the one in trouble but the wrath that would rain down on his brothers would be enough to make a dark lord blanch.

"Is that why I heard a big murder of crows had started nesting in the Ravenclaw tower last week and won't leave?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah, that was them. I only know because I heard them arguing about whether the crate contained ravens or crows." Ron said.

"It was crows." Gaara said absently while still holding the omnioculars to his face. The crows were really quite civilised birds if they were given some food and then left alone.

Gaara was dragged away from his lion-bird watching when Draco broke from his own trance, having been captivated by the duel. He would have liked to be a professional duellist, if it weren't such a lowly profession. He grabbed Gaara's wrist and pulled the omnioculars away from his face.

"You know, I can't help but notice that there aren't any Slytherins taking part." Harry said, glancing out of the side of his eye.

"Yeah, almost like they're all scaredy cats." Ron joined in, also not-so-covertly watching for Malfoy's reaction.

Draco of course heard them but he wasn't going to give them the satisfaction. "Gaara, you should watch. So far the only Gryffindor to take part was soundly beaten. I suppose that's what you get when all you have is courage and no skill."

Gaara looked down but both of the competitors had already disappeared so he had no idea what anyone was talking about. As always when that happened, he kept a straight face and waited.

Sirius noticed the growing taunts but he was too entertained to step in, and Hermione had ended up sitting at the end of the row so she wasn't in a position to intervene either. It suddenly occurred to her that both Harry and Ron had rushed to take their seats, leaving her on the end. Had they actually planned this so they could rile Malfoy up without her stopping them?

She was almost proud of them for coming up with a plan all by themselves.

Soon enough, the next pair stepped up, a Hufflepuff and someone from Beauxbatons.

"Oh, it's Cedric Diggory!" Hermione said.

"Who?" Harry asked, looked back at the tall boy down below.

"You know, from the World Cup." Ron said.

"Oh, him. Nice bloke." Harry said. Frankly, between the world-class Quidditch and the Death Eater attack, he'd almost totally forgotten Mr Diggory and his affable son.

"He can be nice all he wants. No way a Hufflepuff makes it past the first round." Draco said to Gaara.

"I wouldn't be so sure, Draco. Students from Hufflepuff have gone on to do many amazing things." Hermione sniped from afar. "Newt Scamander played a pivotal role in the war against Grindelwald."

"If you have to reach back fifty years to find a noteworthy member of their House, they're rubbish." Draco said.

Hermione was ready to provide sixty or seventy further examples of somewhat notable Hufflepuffs but she was thankfully interrupted by the start of the next match. She felt subsequently that Cedric Diggory's performance made her argument for her, and quite eloquently too.

"Well of course he'd beat someone from Beauxbatons. It's a glorified finishing school." Draco waved away the spectacle. No one was really listening to him at that point anyway as Sirius was chatting with the Gryffindors and Gaara…

"Stop watching the bloody Hippogriffs. They're a mile away. They can't get you!"

Gaara stared at Draco, as if to silently challenge the silly notion that he was afraid of the magical beasts. He wasn't afraid, he just felt like somebody should be keeping an eye on them.

"I Was there really not a single Slytherin who wanted to take part, Draco?" Sirius asked.

"No one that I know of, which is to say, no one worth mentioning. Slytherins wouldn't go in for this sort of thing." Draco said.

"Yeah, bunch of pacifists in Slytherin, I hear." Sirius smirked.

"Why would we take part? Honestly, acting like a bunch of gladiators on the stage for the entertainment of the unwashed masses, and you can't even use any worthwhile spells." Of course, Draco's true feelings about being the centre of attention and having adoring fans witness his triumphant battles wasn't a topic to be shared here.

"You mean dark spells." Sirius said.

"That's what I said, isn't it?"

"Say, Gaara, where's Luna?" Sirius said.

"I don't know. The Library?"

"She didn't want to come today?" Sirius asked.

"I don't know." Gaara said, now examining the crowd with the omnioculars.

"You didn't ask here, then…" Sirius sighed.

"No. I didn't ask Draco to but he came because he wanted to." It wasn't a complaint, more that he had expected Luna to show up if she wanted to come even without an invitation.

"You're hopeless. Worse than Remus. Go and find her now. It'll take you twenty minutes, so that'll give Fudge time for a short speech and you'll be back before the matches get good."

Draco smirked at someone else directing Gaara to act like a responsible human, and Gaara silently got up and left without complaint. As soon as he was out of the stadium and unobserved, he used his sand to fly him back to the castle.

"Where's Gaara going? Toilet?" Ron asked.

"No, he forgot to ask Luna if she wanted to come." Sirius said.

"Oooh, he's in trouble." Ron said and Harry snickered.

The precise nature of Gaara's relationship with Luna Lovegood was the subject of rampant speculation but Hermione was always quick to shut down the teasing if the boys ever got started. She didn't think Gaara would care one way or another but she knew Luna a little and didn't want her to be bullied or teased any more than she already was.

Draco would have liked to have stood up for Gaara's honour and take issue with the Gryffindorks mocking his best friend, but he suddenly found himself a little outnumbered by them. Plus it was tiresome to have to defend Gaara's continual idiocy.

Gaara meanwhile had already ascertained that Luna wasn't in the Library or the Great Hall, so the next best bet was the Ravenclaw tower. He breezed past the riddle on his way in: 'The more you take, the more you leave behind, what am I?'

"Footsteps." Riddles designed to be answerable by children and teenagers, no matter how academically inclined, were child's play, so he found it easier to enter the correct way rather than breaking in. Not that Ravenclaws who had spotted him trespassing recognised any distinction between his methods of ingress.

The crows were still perched on every available surface when he walked in. Flitwick had tried to shoo them all out but they didn't seem to care much what he wanted and he didn't want to hurt any of them by trying to force them out. So far, he was hoping Hagrid would return to work soon and help out.

Gaara walked by a couple of 'Claws playing chess and the way he casually strolled through the House like he owned the place made them nearly jump out of their chairs. Gaara in Ravenclaw tower was almost akin to an urban legend at this point.

Luna had been listening to music on the radio while she polished her shoes. She'd never bothered much before but ever since Gaara threatened those girls, no one had stolen her shoes at all. She looked down at the result of her polishing and saw the thick polish still clumping all over. She checked her book again but as far as she could tell, she was doing it right. Maybe she should have just learnt the spell instead?

She saw someone in the corner of her eye, one of her roommates probably, come in and she glanced up.

Luna nearly squeaked in a most undignified way when instead of a roommate she saw Gaara standing there, in Ravenclaw tower, in her room, in the girl's dormitory.

"Gaara, what are you doing here?" She asked when her brain had reset.

"Would you like to come to the tourney?" He asked, as if it wasn't already underway.

"Yes, thank you, I would like that very much." She said, dumping her shoes onto the old copies of the Daily Prophet she'd been using to protect her desk. It was the only good use for the rag, after all.

Luna didn't mention that she didn't particularly care for violence and the tourney didn't interest her terribly. She was just so flattered that Gaara had gone to the trouble of coming to ask her. She wondered who had reminded him to do it. Probably Draco. She would have to thank her second Slytherin.

"I'm not sure Professor Flitwick will like it if you keep coming into the tower." Somehow she'd never run into Gaara on one of these occasions but they had all heard the rumours.

"He's not said anything yet." Gaara said. "We can leave another way, though." He walked over to the window.

"Shall I meet you down there?"

"No, come with me. It will be faster." Gaara said, waiting by the window. Luna rather liked the idea of walking along walls like Gaara did, however he had said in the past that he did not think she would be capable of learning it.

Gaara opened the window and his sand flowed out, forming a solid platform just big enough for both of them to stand on just outside. Gaara confidently stepped out and onto it.

While Luna had always contained more lion in her than many of her fellow ravens, she was daunted by the prospect of stepping out onto the narrow ledge from one of the highest windows in the castle.

"Come." He beckoned her out and even held out his hand to guide her. She took it and tried not to blush. She didn't want to risk confusing him when he needed to concentrate on maintaining the platform. His sand control often seemed effortless, but there simply was no way in magic (from whichever world) that could be the case.

"Crouch down and hold on." He said, forming some hand-holds on the base of the platform.

And then suddenly they were racing down towards the ground like a rollercoaster without tracks to indicate when the ride might swoop or dive, seemingly at random. Gaara stayed standing perfectly straight, somehow holding on to the sand despite moving as fast as a broom.

Luna screamed at first in terror and then in joy as they flew at breakneck speed first down and around the castle and then in between the trees of the forest. Gaara had to slow down a while before they reached the stadium as he was concerned someone would hear Luna's screams and cheers.

When they stepped back into the tower where Sirius, Draco, Harry, Hermione and Ron were waiting, Luna's hair was in total disarray and Gaara was considering how to refuse Luna's demand to be flown around like that again. It was no effort on his part to fly but the screaming and whooping was unpleasant.

Harry and Ron took one look at the pair arriving together and Luna's messed up hair and Ron whispered, "I told you they were together."

"I doubt it." Harry said. While he enjoyed teasing Gaara, he really doubted that they were an actual couple.

Hermione shushed both of them. "Leave them alone." She didn't know what they were but she thought it was sweet.

Sirius seemed awful pleased with himself when they took their seats but Gaara chalked that up to the hip flask poking out of his pocket.

As the following duels took place, Gaara found himself underwhelmed by the battles between teenagers. He ended up day dreaming how he could most efficiently defeat each of them in combat but that was often the same strategy – exploit their stationary position, overwhelm their defences and then knock them out. He hoped the adult exhibition later would be more interesting.

The only other bout that caught Gaara's attention was when the second Weasley twin fought a Beauxbatons student. The fighting wasn't anything impressive but it turned out, according to Ron's insights, the Twins had entered this Tourney not for a lark or to prove themselves as the best duellers in the three schools, since they were clearly not, but to make a name for themselves and their mischief spells.

The two pranksters wanted to start some sort of practical joke business, Ron said, and evidently this was a way for them to display the wacky spells they had concocted on their opponents. Spells that turned their opponent's robes into a tutu, or sent out a spectacular array of fireworks, or messed with their equilibrium so they felt like they were standing on a steep hill. All of the effects were hilarious for the spectators to behold but mostly ineffective in a duel and only served to make their opponents angrier.

Gaara, who had started watching again after the fireworks, didn't believe for a second that it had been the Weasley's intention to lure his outraged opponent into a trap. But, nonetheless, the Beauxbatons boy was so incensed he had rushed forward to cast his hexes at closer range, and then whichever twin it was threw out a blind stunner while he was running away and he managed to knock out his opponent.

Nobody seemed more surprised than the Weasley twin himself.

"Ha! That's the way to do it!" Sirius was cheering and clapping more than anyone else in the stands.

"Trust a Weasley to cheapen a duel like that." Draco scoffed and Ron nearly dove for him. It was only thanks to Harry, Sirius and Gaara sat between them that a fist fight didn't break out.

The remaining Weasley, entered under the name Fred, was knocked out within thirty seconds of the next match. His Durmstrang opponent, named Alexei Korbichov, had seen the tricks and humiliation that his predecessor suffered and didn't take any risks. He was brutally efficient and the only solace Fred could take was that Alexei made it all the way to the final bout of the student tourney after trouncing him.

The duel between Alexei and Cedric Diggory was very impressive by any amateur standards. Even Gaara could appreciate the difference between their skills and the rest of the students that had battled that morning.

Of course, this didn't mean Draco would admit he might have been over-generalising regarding the Hufflepuffs and their collective lack of fighting ability.

Neither of the student finalists used a wide range of spells. Some of the crowd were discontent but Sirius remarked that skilled duellists often stuck to a few spells they knew well. Gaara would have liked to have seen more impressive spells but at least the contest seemed to include more speed than some of the others.

Cedric Diggory really only used stunners and shield charms while athletically dodging the heavy spells that Alexei shot back at him. Instead of shield spells, the Russian student had conjured an actual shield, which he levitated to intercept Cedric's magic.

Cedric kept at the same pattern of spells for a couple of minutes, but before Alexei could counter him, Cedric switched up his approach by casting a blasting hex at Alexei's shield, blowing up the physical object and making the other boy duck to avoid the debris.

While Alexei was distracted, Cedric ran closer and waved his wand to cast another spell, but before he could let it loose, Alexei thrust his wand upward and wordlessly cast a spell that threw Cedric onto his back.

It looked like Alexei might have just won it for Durmstrang but as he stood up straight again, he didn't notice Cedric's wand pointed at his chest while Cedric was lying flat on his back, looking upwards.

The spell shot out with a minimal movement and no verbalisation but it hit Alexei in his centre and he simple fell backwards, already unconscious.

The crowd went wild.

"Where are you going?" Draco asked the second that Gaara got to his feet. Normally, as a Slytherin, he would mind his own business or risk the embarrassing possibility that the target of the intrusive question was simply going to the loo, but Gaara could not be given the benefit of the doubt.

Gaara seemed confused by the question and then by the fact that everyone else was still seated. "Back to the castle. The duels are over."

"They haven't given out the medals yet and then there's the professors' duelling exhibition." Draco said.

Gaara looked down to see the contestants gathering back on the platform for the awarding of the medals. Then he looked to the exit.

"You've sat through most of it, you might as well stay until the end." Draco said. "It's not like you've got anywhere better to be."

Gaara disagreed. The castle would be nearly empty and he had just started a new series of novels. He was a fast reader so he could have sped through two of the books in the day he had to himself in whichever common room was quietest and warmest.

Gaara sat back down in his uncomfortable seat and pulled his cloak tighter around himself to fend off the cold Scottish wind.

"Any chance I'm going to get to see Snivellus knocked on his…" Sirius stopped his sentence in its tracks when he noticed the look Hermione was giving him. She had an uncanny resemblance to McGonagall when she was disapproving of his swearing (or impending swearing).

"No, Snape chickened out." Ron said.

"Professor Snape has better things to do with his time than making a spectacle of himself." Draco said until he realised that the usual backup he could have expected from any other Slytherin was absent and he was surrounded by people who hated his favourite professor.

"You can't tell me he's busy washing his hair." Sirius said.

Draco was about to retort when he realised he would be arguing (childishly) with a grown man old enough to be his father and not one of his peers. He suddenly found himself unsure how to act.

Despite greatly disliking the man himself, Gaara wanted to comfort his friend. "Don't worry Draco. I do not think Snape is washing his hair."

Draco wanted to glare at his roommate but he didn't want to discourage the attempt at a kind gesture.

The group were distracted when a number of professors walked on stage down below. There was a mixture of professors from the three schools, with some notable Hogwarts teachers amongst them.

"I can't believe Flitwick agreed to participate." Draco said.

"He's been quite excited about it, actually." Luna responded.

"Why would he be excited?" Draco asked and Gaara saw Ron nodding along.

"Professor Flitwick was an accomplished duellist in his youth. Didn't you know?" Luna said.

"What?" Draco said.

"What?!" Ron looked panicked.

"Is something the matter, Ronald?" Luna asked.

"It's nothing. Ron just made a bet with his brothers that one of the Durmstrang professors would win." Hermione spilled the beans.

"My, my, those two must be making a mint with all of these events for people to bet on." Sirius said.

"Honestly, who would be foolish enough to make a bet with those two?" Hermione huffed, totally missing the sheepish look on Draco's face that Gaara watched pass over it.

"…well… it's not like they'll really make me pay up anyway, right?" Ron looked nervous.

"Yeah, because they've always treated their precious baby brother with the utmost care." Harry laughed. After they took all of Ron's pocket money for the next eight months, Harry would get him some sweets.

"Oh, right…" Ron said mournfully. "Did I ever tell you about the time they tried to sell me when I was six?"

"A couple of times, actually." Harry said.

"We were at Gringotts and they were saving up for a new broom…" He began his tale, ignoring Harry's response. Time for another retelling.

True to his reputation, Flitwick dominated the adult tourney in each of his rounds. He was a perfect gentleman against Professor Sinistra until she tried to sneak a fast bludgeoning charm at him. After that, he sent her flying from the ring.

The only other duellist to make an impressive showing was one of the Durmstrang professors (not the one Ron had placed his bet on to win, he sadly clarified). Caspar Yelchin was the duelling tutor at Durmstrang and he fought in a very familiar style.

"He must be that Korbichov boy's mentor. It's uncanny how similar their moves are." Sirius commented, and Gaara concurred.

Gaara was certainly impressed by Flitwick's unexpected fighting prowess but it did raise one concern. The power and dexterity with which he moved and used magic to match his opponent for the sake of a simple duelling exhibition was already at the same level as what Dumbledore showed last year when Gaara had his meltdown in the Potions laboratory. He had assumed at the time and ever since that even the supposedly strongest wizard alive was someone he could fight (if the need arose) without too much concern.

If an ex-duellist, whose current professional speciality wasn't even combat, could put up this kind of a fight for a contest… clearly Gaara had fallen into the old trap of arrogantly underestimating his (potential) opponents.

Yelchin was almost equally matched against the diminutive Hogwarts professor but as the match wore on it looked like he might be gaining the upper hand. Gaara had no idea how old Flitwick was, since witches and wizards seemed to age slower than the humans of his world, but the Charms professors was starting to slow down. A couple of close calls and Gaara thought the match would be over soon.

And then in a move reminiscent of Cedric's match against Alexei, the tables turned.

Yelchin was targeting Flitwick's left side after he had started to limp with that leg a little, but it was all a trap. After the Durmstrang duelling expert cast another spell at that side, Flitwick countered with a stunning charm that was perfectly timed to catch his opponent off guard.

The crowd erupted with applause immediately after Yelchin fell to the arena floor and Flitwick straightened up.

"Ha! I can't believe he fell for that one!" Sirius yelled.

Gaara was feeling ashamed that he had also failed to notice the ruse when he was supposed to be a master shinobi. Maybe he should take Kankuro up on his offer of teaching him about lying when he got back. He'd rudely rebuffed his brother's offer before but his time in this world had forced him into contact with people more than he ever thought possible and he'd encountered a great deal of deceit.

Gaara was too distracted by his own thoughts to watch the ceremony to end the tourney.

"This whole thing's been completely wasted on you." Draco said as they were leaving. "How often do you think they arrange duelling tourneys at school for us to watch?"

"There was one today and one two years ago." Gaara said. "Once every two to three years?"

Draco pinkened. "No! That wasn't a tourney, that was just a demonstration and Potter cheated and ruined it anyway." He said, looking around to make sure no one who had actually been there was close enough to hear him and refute his version of events.

"Oh. Okay." Gaara said.

"I would have thought you of all people would have enjoyed duelling."

"Magic does not interest me." Gaara said, honestly. If it had been proper fighting, he would have been much more engaged with the event.

"I'm with Gaara." Said Luna, who was walking behind them. "I like magic but I don't much care for all of the fighting."

"I expect you would have preferred a spelling bee." Draco shot back.

"I've never understood why people do those. Spelling is awfully easy." Luna said. It was a little known fact that while Luna was easily at the higher end of the intellectual pool in Ravenclaw, she stood head and shoulders above any of her peers in her ability to spell.

Gaara could see Draco trying to think of something snide to say, out of habit, but nothing was coming to mind. Gaara interrupted, "I'm going for a walk."

"You're not going to the reception afterwards?" Luna asked.

"Are you joking?" Draco said. "The moment they told him the receptions aren't mandatory unless they're for the actual Tasks, they lost all hope of seeing him at them."

"I suppose that makes sense." Luna said. "Would you like some company, Gaara?"

"No." He started walking into the forest, his head throbbing from Shukaku's transmitted bloodlust following the otherwise uninspiring combat display.

"See you later, then." Draco said.

"Good bye, Gaara." Luna sounded disappointed but Draco wasn't invested enough to ask.

When it was just the two of them, they walked for a little while before Luna said, "How are your lessons going?"

"We don't need to make small talk, Lovegood." Draco said.

"Okay then."

"So, I suppose I shouldn't hang around for Gaara to come back, then." Sirius said from behind them, looking in the direction Gaara had disappeared.

Draco flinched but then tried to pretend he hadn't forgotten the man was with them.

"I wouldn't count on him being back for a few hours."

"You all forgot I was here, didn't you?" Sirius said.

Draco was quick to respond, "No, of course-"

"I didn't but I think Draco and Gaara did, yes." Luna said, most often honest to a fault.

"Fine." Sirius said petulantly before slowing down to walk with Harry and his friends.

"Where'd Gaara go?" Harry asked. They'd often wondered, the three of them, what Gaara actually did out in the forest all of the time.

"He didn't say. Probably going to see the dog." Sirius said.

"The dog? Do you mean Fluffy?" Harry said.

"Yeah. Good boy, that one. I spent some time around him last year. Not all big dogs know how to play gently with smaller breeds."

"Big dogs like a giant Cerberus and smaller breeds like a- whatever Padfoot is?" Harry asked incredulously.

"A Scottish Deerhound, I believe." Hermione piped up.

"Right you are, Miss Granger. I even have the pedigree certificate to prove it. Two hundred points to Gryffindor!" Sirius said. "Just tell McGonagall I awarded you the points and she should honour them."

"Fat chance!" Ron said. He'd tried it the last time Mr Black had given them unofficial House points and she'd taken them away instead.

"No points for you, Mr Weasley." Sirius said.

"Where did you get a pedigree certificate?" Harry asked quietly, but no one seemed to hear him.

"I won't see you again until the Ball in a couple of weeks." Sirius said.

"You know, most guardians don't see their charges at all during term time." Hermione commented.

"It's going to take a lot more than precedent and rules to keep me out." Sirius laughed. "I'm very much looking forward to seeing you and Gaara all kitted out for your first big ball."

"Actually, I think Gaara went to the Malfoy Ball last year." Hermione said.

"Yeah, that's what I heard." Harry agreed.

Sirius chose to ignore them. "Yours and Gaara's FIRST ball, how splendid."

"Woah, heads up, reporters at six o'clock." Ron said nodding towards them.

Sirius, Harry and Hermione all looked behind themselves but could only see students and guests from the tourney who were now walked back to the castle.

"No, six o'clock!" Ron insisted.

"Six o'clock is behind us, Ron." Hermione said.

"Are you sure?"

"Very."

"Oh, so that would make twelve o'clock the one that's right in front, then."

"Yeah, that's it." Harry said with a smile.

"I'd better tell dad that. He's been using that wrong for years."

They all shared a laugh before they remembered what the warning was and they saw a man wearing a trench coat, a fedora, and wielding a notepad and pen. He was accompanied by someone toting a wizarding camera but fortunately neither of the pair seemed to have spotted the notable quartet coming towards them.

"Come on, let's take the long way around." Hermione said, tugging Harry's elbow to lead him into the woods. After the last time they had gotten completely lost, she had learnt a compass spell to make sure she could always find her way back to the castle.

"Yeah, you go ahead, I'm going to have a friendly word with that gentleman over there." Sirius said, pulling out his wand and looking at the intruding reporters like a Scottish Deerhound might look at a pair of cats.

"Oh no you don't!" Harry said, pulling away from Hermione long enough to grab Sirius and redirect him to the forest as well.

"Is this the way Gaara went?" Ron asked.

"Yeah, I think he went this way." Harry said.

"So, there's a giant three-headed dog this way too?" Ron said, looking worried.

"Well, Gaara's probably gone to see Fluffy or he sometimes likes to go and fight the spiders in the forest." Sirius tapped his chin.

"You're saying if we follow this path, we're either going to find a Cerberus or an Acromantula?" Ron looked panicked now.

"I'm with Ron. I might be willing to give Fluffy another chance but I'm not going near Aragog again without a Ford Anglia at the ready." Harry said.

"No luck there. Dad had to come and get it the summer after our second year because Hagrid complained it was upsetting the Centaurs. Kept getting into races with them and tearing up the roots around their territory."

"No car, no spiders. Let's go this way." Harry took them in the opposite direction.

"That's probably a good idea." Hermione said.

"Yeah, those spiders are a nightmare. It's about time someone thinned out their numbers." Sirius said.

The four of them unknowingly walked towards Fluffy while Gaara continued on his way to the Acromantulas.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

In the morning, Draco read the paper as he always did and he wasn't surprised to find that many of the reporters were making veiled jabs at yesterday's tourney as an unnecessary addition to the Triwizard Tournament and an overall waste of Ministry funds.

Fudge had already reportedly thrown one of Ludo Bagman's underlings under the bus, stating that the tourney would have been a much grander event if it hadn't been 'so badly mismanaged'.

What Gaara couldn't understand, after Draco relayed it to him, was that nobody seemed to be fooled by the ruse, so why did they bother? Lies were the currency of his home world but at least they were effective enough to fool civilians. Here, everyone knew their elected leader was lying and yet nothing happened.

"Well, you have to expect a certain amount of bald-faced lying from politicians, but Fudge has been taking it a bit far lately. When the next election rolls around, he'll almost certainly be out." Draco said.

"Hmm." Gaara snatched the paper out of Draco's hands and started reading.

"You know, I would get you a subscription to the Prophet if I actually thought it would stop you from stealing my copy."

The reporters, other than disapproving of the event, spent a great deal of ink describing each of the bouts in detail. Clearly duelling was, like Quidditch, a popular pastime in Wizarding Britain and there were any number of experts at the ready to wax poetical about it.

At least one reporter commented early in the paper that Cedric Diggory had exhibited such commendable skill and spirit as to justify his replacing one or both of the chosen Hogwarts Champions, whose underwhelming performances so far in the Tournament left much to be desired. Draco scoffed and said that while Gaara's methods were ridiculous, he shouldn't be tarred with the same brush as Potter.

Showing remarkable restraint, the paper waited until the third page to show the first public picture of the Boy Who Lived with his new scars. Gaara and Draco both agreed it was a lot of fuss over a picture that barely showed any change from any other picture of Potter that had been run in the news lately.

Potter's visible scarring, showing on his neck and cheek in the photo, was mostly visible from the reddening of the skin. The photo being in black and white meant that one could hardly see any scar at all.

While Harry, sitting over with the Gryffindors, felt the customary sense of violation at the published photo of him and the vivid description that had been written to make up for the lacking photo evidence, he agreed that Cedric would make a better Champion.

"Better than Gaara too, if you're going on spellcasting." Ron said in between mouthfuls of eggs and bacon.

"I don't suppose Fudge would let us quit if we could get Diggory to agree to take our places. He seemed like a nice enough guy, he might just go for it."

"Harry!" Hermione gasped.

"Can't hurt to try."

"Ronald!"

"Hermione's right." Harry said. "Fudge would never let us quit."

"That's not my point and you know it, Harry!"

"Plus Gaara actually wanted to volunteer." Ron said.

"Honestly, I can't believe you two." Hermione said. Granted, this was the second time she had been shocked by something the boy's proposed this month, so it was below average, but she was still perpetually aghast at what her friends' minds got up to.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

"How many girls is that now?" Roy asked as the latest walked away.

"Three." Draco said with a blush unbecoming of his station. "Where do they get the idea that I can just make Gaara ask them to the Ball?"

Roy paused a bit too long.

"Surely not you as well." Draco stared hard at his friend.

"Well, it's what pretty much everyone thinks. Gaara doesn't really talk to anyone else, other than you and that Ravenclaw girl. And we've all heard you telling him to do things."

"That doesn't mean he does them!" Draco managed to keep his volume down since they were in the courtyard.

"Well, you're the closest we have to influence over Gaara. Otherwise he just seems to do what he wants. Even the teachers can't make him do anything."

Draco reflected on the irony that he didn't feel like he had any control over his best friend's actions and Gaara was actually being manipulated into participating in the Tournament by the Headmaster.

"Well, even if he does sometimes listen to me, he wouldn't if I told him to ask a girl out."

"Isn't it worth trying? That one said her friend would go with you if you sorted it with Gaara."

"They all say that." Draco didn't want to sound panicked but this whole torrid subject was reminding him of how hopeless his nonexistent love life was. "Besides, I think you and everyone else around has forgotten what Gaara's like just because he's made himself famous. He's still the same loner he always was."

Draco didn't bother mentioning that Gaara had been virtually nonexistent the last few days since he had been approached by another four girls to ask him out. He had bluntly refused them, of course, but it was a little-known fact that Gaara was stressed out by social situations he didn't understand.

So, even if he had no problem just saying 'no' and walking away, Draco knew Gaara would have been troubled by it afterwards. So, instead, he had gone back to hiding in the woods with the dog or killing spiders.

But, that did leave Draco to fend for himself; both politely declining on Gaara's behalf and trying to find someone suitable for himself.

Draco's first thought had been Fleur Delacour, but apparently that thought had been shared with just about every other boy in the castle. That didn't mean Draco wasn't disappointed when, just hours before his carefully crafted proposal was to be put into action, he heard she had already accepted an invitation to go with someone else.

As such, Draco had amended the wording and tried asking the second most eligible bachelorette from Beauxbatons. His tacky attempt was shot down immediately without explanation. Instead of reflecting on the impersonal and perhaps demeaning approach to asking girls out, instead he blamed his failure on his lack of a wingman.

Sadly, all of Draco's moderate friends were terrible with women and his pureblood friends would only set him up with someone of the right pedigree – and all of the pureblood girls he'd consider had long since been snatched up. And then there was Gaara…

Draco realised he'd need to restrategise when he noticed Mafalda Lavado on the prowl. After a few more attempts to ingratiate herself with various groups, and more than a few threats to curse her, Lavado had backed down over the past month or so.

That said, however, when Draco overheard her asking about whether Potter had already asked a girl to the Yule Ball, he was torn between his hatred of Potter and his abhorrence of Lavado.

He pulled up the hood of his robes and then grabbed a first-year Gryffindor who was walking in the direction on Potter's insipid little group. "Do you know who I am?"

The eleven year old looked terrified but still responded, "You're a Slytherin!"

"Perhaps you should have been sorted into Ravenclaw instead." Draco said. "Go and tell Potter over there to watch out for that Lavado girl. She's out to get him."

"O-okay." Draco suspected the boy would have refused to listen to a Slytherin's orders if it didn't involve an excuse to approach the Boy-Who-Lived and Gryffindor's Triwizard Champion.

Draco quickly left.

"It's impossible!" Ron wailed in despair.

"It's not impossible, Ron. If you just did your homework when you first got it, instead of leaving it until the day before Professor McGonagall is expecting it, you wouldn't have a problem." Hermione sighed. They had this discussion every time a professor set an assignment longer than twelve inches of scroll.

"That's impossible too." Ron complained.

Harry snickered at the familiar discussion but then he noticed a first year stood in front of them. With the way the younger boy was watching him, he half expected to be asked for an autograph. Usually the first years got that out of their system within the first few days of term.

"Can we help you?" Hermione asked.

"Uhh…" He looked nervous, glancing behind himself.

"Don't suppose he's here to ask you to the ball, Herm?" Ron tittered.

The boy blushed and looked about ready to dart away.

"Don't tease him, Ron!" Hermione scolded him.

"Well?" Harry asked. He tried to be polite to his housemates but he wasn't in the mood to have this kid staring at him while he tried to relax and forget that he still had most of his essay to write as well.

"Um, well, this boy told me to tell you something, Mr Harry Potter, sir."

Ron snorted loudly.

"Just Harry is fine." He said testily. "What did they ask you to tell me?"

"It was to watch out for Lavado. I think he meant Mafalda Lavado from Slytherin."

"Oh, not her again!" Hermione said.

"Great! At least with You-Know-Who I only have to worry about being killed." Harry said.

"Who asked you to tell us?" Ron asked.

"I don't know. He was tall and wearing a uniform."

"Someone taller than a first year and wearing a school uniform. That narrows it down…" Ron said.

"What about his tie? What colour was it?" Hermione asked.

"Oh! It was green!" The boy said. "He must have been from Slytherin."

"A Slytherin? What's a Slytherin doing sending messages through a firsty?" Ron said.

"Let's just be thankful they seem to be as wary of your cousin as we are." Harry said.

"Did they have red hair?" Hermione asked.

"He had his hood up, so I don't know." The boy said.

"What about his eyes? Did he have black rings around his eyes?" She tried again.

"Do you mean like Gaara, the other Champion?" The boy asked.

"Herm, he's going to know who Gaara is." Harry said.

"It wasn't him. I've seen him. I don't know who it was that told me. Sorry."

"No, that's okay. Thank you for passing along the message." Hermione said.

The boy stood there a few seconds longer like he wanted to ask something else but then he lost his nerve and ran away.

"We weren't ever like that, were we?" Harry said, watching the younger boy go.

"To be fair, we weren't exactly normal. Fighting Cerberuses, trolls and Dark lords." Ron said.

"I don't think you could call what we did fighting a Cerberus." Harry said.

"Okay, but we came closer than most people!" Ron said.

"I'm more concerned about the little beast that's apparently after me." Harry said.

"You know, my mum told me I have to ask her to go with me if I don't find anyone else. Mafalda complained to her mum who complained to my mum. So now I really need to ask someone soon. Not only is she pure evil, she's really annoying! And if that's not bad enough, I've got find someone for Ginny to go with."

"Oof." Harry sympathised.

"Don't worry, I'm not gonna sick her on you." Ron said. Her adoration of Harry had always weirded Ron out.

"What about Neville?" Hermione piped up.

"I don't think Harry wants to go with him either." Ron said, though Hermione couldn't tell if it was a well-timed sarcastic quip or he was genuinely that clueless.

"For Ginny, Ron! Neville really wants to go to the Ball but he's not very confident around girls."

"Or anyone." Ron said quietly.

"Well, at least that would solve one of my problems." Ron said.

"Yeah, all that leaves is finding dates for us." Harry moaned. "Don't supposed you have any leads on any girls?" He asked Ron.

"Are you joking? I don't know any girls." Ron said.

Hermione huffed but that didn't seem to get their attention so she coughed lightly.

"Oh, Hermione, of course!" Harry said, beaming at her. "Do you know any girls?"

Hermione felt her face redden but before she could work out if it was anger or embarrassment, she surged to her feet and stormed off.

"What's eating her?" Ron asked, watching her march away.

"Who knows? Maybe she's struggling to find someone as well."

"There's no need to make such a fuss about it!" Ron said.

"I don't know. Maybe she's got the right idea. The Ball's coming up fast. Maybe we should walk around and see if we spot anyone?"

"Together?" Ron asked.

"Is that strange? Then let's do it alone. Or not at all. Urgh. Why couldn't they just do a fourth Task and skip the Ball."

"It means a lot to me that you'd risk you're life an extra time to let me off." Ron genuinely looked touched.

"To be honest, I'd rather face another dragon if it meant I didn't have to ask someone out, let alone dance with them!" Harry said. "But only if the dragon wasn't cursed this time."

"Of course." Ron agreed. "You know, I heard even Gaara's got someone."

"No, I heard the same thing but it turned out to be a rumour started by a fifth year Hufflepuff who wanted to ask him out and wanted to scare off the competition." Harry said.

"Phew!" Ron sighed. "For a moment there I really did think I would be the last guy to find anyone to go with me."

"We can't be the worst out there." Harry complained. "What about Malfoy!?"

"I'm pretty sure he's going with Gaara." Ron snickered, earning a laugh from Harry.

"Okay, what about Crabbe and Goyle?" Harry asked with a smile.

"Probably going with Filch and Mrs Norris."

And suddenly the two of them were proposing names and trying to find the funniest dancing partner for them.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

"Did he tell you what this was about?" Luna asked as she walked beside Gaara to the distant classroom in a quiet part of the castle.

"No."

"What do you think he wants?" She said, looking around to see if any of the school's ghosts were about.

"To waste my time." Gaara said.

Luna hummed with a smile. As much as Gaara griped at being beckoned to attend a clandestine meeting in the evening, the fact that he had in fact shown up demonstrated how Gaara really felt.

Inside of the classroom, they found candles burning and the desks moved to the side of the room haphazardly. Gaara and Luna moved further into the room but whirled around when the door slammed shut and was locked by Draco, who stood there with a self-satisfied smirk on his face.

"Why did you call us all the way out here?" Gaara asked. He was chilly and wanted to get back to his latest book.

"It's for dancing lessons, right?" Luna said.

Draco blinked owlishly. "What? How did you know that?"

"You've cleared a space on the floor and there's a gramophone in the corner. And you wouldn't lock Gaara in a room unless you know it's something he won't want to do." She summarised.

Draco stared for a moment. He often forgot Luna Lovegood was an exceptionally bright person.

"A locked door will not stop me." Gaara challenged him.

"I know." Draco said. Gaara liked to establish control like that sometimes but he would have already started trying to escape if he really intended to leave. The locks were just there to emphasise that Draco wanted him to stay.

Draco had no idea why people thought he had some special way of relating to Gaara.

The platinum blond was nothing short of a gifted dancer (by his own estimation) so he had taken it upon himself to ensure his best friend didn't embarrass himself on the dance floor, and he only had a couple of weeks to do it.

As it turned out, when Draco demonstrated to Gaara what a standard waltz should look like, Luna was also a capable dancer.

"Oh, I saw some diagrams in a book I read. I'm glad I'm doing it right." She said, very pleased with her own performance while Draco scathed over the fact that she was so naturally gifted when he had taken countless lessons in his youth.

Luna had been invited because, in order for Gaara to learn, he would need a partner and it certainly wasn't going to be Draco. Plus, he figured forcing the two fools to spend more time together might prompt his idiot friend to ask his idiot friend's equally idiotic acquaintance to the Ball.

Of course, that didn't work.

Luckily, the time wasn't wasted. While it was clear that he had never danced before in his life and he was terribly uncomfortable with the physical contact, Gaara was able to pick up dancing with surprising speed.

Surprising until Draco remembered Gaara had been an accomplished martial artist (by this world's standards) and memorising a few simple body movements was child's play for him.

Draco watched Gaara and Luna dance across the dim room to the sound of Tchaikovsky's Waltz of the Flowers and mused that they would have been the picture of grace if Gaara didn't look like he was trying to make as little physical contact with his partner as possible.

Despite Gaara's discomfort and intense concentration on their steps, Luna had a wonderful time.

After the first session, Draco knew the intensive course of dance training he had planned for every other night between then and the night of the Ball would be unnecessary. A few more lessons and both of them wouldn't embarrass Draco (by association).

It was after the third and possibly final lesson (since Gaara's skin was evidently crawling from the close physical contact and he wouldn't keep showing up), that Draco decided he'd waited long enough.

"The Ball is nearly here. You need to ask someone to go with you." Draco said, overtly glancing across the room towards Luna who was browsing through Draco's record collection. He'd had to send several pitiful letters to his mother, begging her to have his collection shipped to Hogwarts. It was only after he admitted their purpose that she agreed.

His parents had never been fully on board with his enjoyment of 'popular' music created by muggles. Anything composed after 1800 was seen as 'frivolous'. Luckily Narcissa adored dancing and would indulge her son's rebellious musical tastes if it meant he kept up with his dancing.

"I will think of something." Gaara said cryptically.

Draco knew Gaara didn't mean he would think of someone to ask. He was perfectly aware that Gaara's ambiguous wording meant he would be looking for a way to avoid the Ball entirely. The worst part was that Gaara probably felt quite proud of his attempt at deception

"I'm just saying, you can't not go to the Ball. So, you're going to have to find someone to ask." Draco almost wanted to point right at Luna in the moment and cut through his friend's density.

Honestly, Draco was close to the point of pitying the unfortunate, overlooked girl.

And then Luna strode right up to Gaara and said, "You're taking me to the Ball, Gaara. Okay?"

Gaara's expression didn't register the shock Draco was sure he must be feeling. The emboldened girl had certainly shocked the Malfoy heir, and he wasn't even the focus of her attention. But, Gaara's face remained impassive, fixed. Draco might have thought Gaara really didn't feel anything either way about Luna's taking charge, but then Gaara didn't respond at all. For a full minute. Just stony silence.

Draco's eyes flicked between Gaara and Luna, but he couldn't bring himself to break the awkward silence that had sprouted in the room, and Luna herself was staring directly at Gaara, not giving an inch.

"Okay." Gaara finally cracked, his face still unmoving.

"Good. I'm glad that's all sorted." Luna said.

It was only after Luna had turned away to go and collect her things that Draco realised he had actually been gaping at the entirely unconventional sight of the girl asking the boy to the Ball, and that boy being Gaara of all people.

Given time, Draco would come to develop a more balanced view of the world, not so bogged down by juvenile conceptions of chivalry. In the meantime, though, he was gobsmacked by Luna's decisive actions.

While Gaara had yet to move and Draco was barely back to moving himself, Luna excused herself with a simple, "Good night." And ran back to the Ravenclaw tower.

As if Luna's departure had broken the immobilising spell that was over them both, Draco immediately turned to Gaara upon her exit and managed to exclaim, "Merlin's beard!"

Gaara turned to him slowly, either trying to look unfazed or only being able to move at a snail's pace while his brain was still finishing its reboot procedure.

"I… told you I would think of something." He said, before turning to leave as well.

Draco felt the pressure build within him bt before he could do anything to stop it, he snorted out an involuntary laugh and then he couldn't stop. He was clutching his aching sides from laughing so hard at Gaara's buffoonery.

Gaara had turned to see what was making Draco bellow with laughter. He usually tittered or snickered, it was rare to hear him chortle with abandon. He looked around but he couldn't see what would have caused it, then he did a cursory check of himself to make sure it wasn't something about him.

Draco was just about to calm down when he saw Gaara's clueless face looking around and then checking himself and he broke down in fits of laughter all over again.

Gaara got the distinct impression he was being laughed at but he couldn't work out why. The only people he'd ever known to be bold enough to laugh at him were Sirius and Kankuro. If he had to say, Draco was more like Kankuro – a darker sense of humour.

Still, the cause evaded him so Gaara decided to leave. Draco was apparently in a silly mood and he would probably appreciate being left alone until he could collect himself. And Gaara didn't enjoy the feeling of being laughed at. It didn't happen very often (because of all of the murdering and so forth), but it gave him a… some sort of feeling.

There was only one other person in his own world who had been brave (or, in reality, foolish) enough to mock him to his face. Did this mean that friends were supposed to laugh at each other? Even though it made him feel… something not good?

Gaara walked out and Draco tried to stop himself laughing. By the time he had managed, he was red in the face and taking deep breaths. For someone with no conception of comedy, Gaara could be absolutely hilarious.

After his breathing returned to normal and he had calmed down, Draco started collecting his things to levitate back to their room. He was glad he didn't have to worry about Gaara's date to the Yule Ball anymore but he admitted to himself that he felt jealous of how easy it was for the redhead.

Draco sincerely doubted there were any girls who were waiting for the perfect moment to ask him to the Ball. And he didn't know that he would be able to accept if they did. It just wasn't chivalrous.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

The next morning in the Great Hall, everyone already seemed to have the newest slice of juicy gossip, Gaara had been taken off of the market.

Tired of all of the girls trying to get to Gaara through him, Draco had let the news slip to Slytherin's most notorious gossips and they did all of the legwork for him. And, unlike last time that particular rumour abounded, Draco was on-hand to verify it – Gaara was conspicuously absent again for breakfast.

Luna found herself under a new level of scrutiny amongst her housemates. After Gaara had defended her aggressively, word had gotten around but no one really thought much more of it. And when he hadn't immediately asked her to the Ball, many had correctly assumed he didn't view their relationship that way.

Now, though…

Luna found herself under a great deal of scrutiny again and, for the first time that she could recall, she was the subject of envy.

People asked her what Gaara had said and done when he asked her to the Ball but she said she wasn't a fan of gossip. And that was all. The disappointment was palpable since Gaara was absent, and probably wouldn't share those details anyway.

Some had tried asking Draco but he was strangely tight-lipped about the particulars.

"Of course it's that easy for Gaara…" Harry moaned, staring at his bacon forlornly.

"What did you expect?" Ron said. "I was betting on Looney Lovegood the whole time."

"Ron! I've told you a million times not to call her that!" Hermione told him off.

"Yes, mum!" Ron shot back.

"I just can't believe he actually asked her." Harry said. "I mean, of course if he's going with anyone, he'll go with her, but I just can't imagine him saying the words."

"Well, you don't know, maybe she asked him." Hermione said, looking again to see if he had come back.

"The girl can't ask the guy." Ron snorted.

"And why not, Ronald?" Hermione rounded on him, a hundred arguments on the tip of her tongue already.

"Yeah, Ron, why not?" Harry snickered. It was nice not to be on the receiving end of Hermione's wrath from time to time. He put his foot in his mouth plenty but Ron really excelled at annoying her when it came to things like this.

"Well, I mean, you know… it's just not… you know!" Ron reasoned.

"First of all-!" Hermione started.

"Herm, as much as I think everyone around us would love to watch you tear Ron a new one, again, can it wait until we get back to the tower?" Harry said quickly.

Hermione considered it for a second before huffing, "Oh, I suppose." Then she took out her quill and a scrap of parchment to write a note to remind herself what she needed to yell at Ron about later.

Ron would spend the next hour trying to steal that scrap of paper so that Hermione wouldn't be able to remember why she was mad at him and would have to give up.

"Oh, how did it go when you asked Padma yesterday?" Harry asked.

Ron paled. "Well, not very well. She said firstly it was insulting to be asked so close to the Ball, and then she said she was Parvati, not Padma, and stormed off."

"Wow." Harry's eyes were wide. "That's rough."

Harry had dwelled on why he had struggled so much to find a partner for the Ball when all of the other Champions had to avoid people in the halls to stop the endless invitations. Was it his long, messy hair? His face? His clothes? The fact that half the school were still calling him the fake Champion?

When he's asked Hermione, she'd seemed strangely annoyed to be asked. It was rare, but occasionally Ron was more helpful than Hermione and this was one of those times.

"Is it because they're waiting for you to ask them?" He suggested.

"What?" Harry asked.

"Well, I mean, usually the boy asks the girl…" Ron wasn't used to anyone really listening to what he said.

"But Gaara's been getting loads of girls asking him?" Harry said.

"Yeah, but, look at him! Would you bet on him asking a girl out?"

"So, I can't get a girl to go with me to the Yule Ball because I've not asked anyone?" Harry asked incredulously. Could it be that simple? Did that also mean that, if he wanted the situation to be remedied, he would need to fix it himself?

Harry cast his eyes about the Great Hall but it looked the same as it always did. Even when he spotted a girl, how could he know if she would laugh in his face or tell him that she already had a date?

He was about to ask Hermione when the strangest thought of all occurred to him. "Hermione, you're a girl." He stated.

Hermione blinked and then her eyebrows rose in that way that normally meant she couldn't believe someone was being so stupid. Usually that was reserved for Ron. "I do worry for wizarding education if it's taken you four years to notice, Harry."

"Not, but, like, what I mean is… you're a girl, right?" He said, trying to work out the maths in his head to see if it would work. "That means, you and I could go to the Ball together."

"What?" Ron seemed aghast, as if Harry had just asked his mother out.

"Well, Hermione's a girl, and I need a girl to go to the Ball with me. It all works out. Isn't that right?" He turned to Hermione to confirm he had fully grasped the situation.

Hermione massaged her eyes. Why didn't she just tell that hat to sort her into Ravenclaw. Sure, it would have been boring but her friends would never have treated her like this in that House. She was just about to shoot Harry down in spite when she saw how desperate he looked. She sighed and threw him a life raft.

"Oh, fine!"

"Thanks, Herm. You're the best mate a guy could ask for!" Harry hugged her with one arm and suddenly all of the gloominess that had surrounded him for a week evaporated.

"Hey, what about me?!" Ron demanded.

"Well, I'm sure you'll clean up alright, Ron, but I don't think McGonagall will let me ask you as well." Harry said.

Ron blushed and scowled, looking remarkably similar to his sister who was sitting within earshot and realised she had waited too long and had missed her chance to go with the boy of her dreams because she was being coy.

Hermione was angry that her friends didn't even see her as a girl, but in some ways it was nice, she supposed. Without that dimension, their friendship was definitely simpler. And, by the looks of it, that wouldn't be changing anytime soon.

When news spread about one of the Champions having found a partner, the reaction was… lacking.

Harry had been expecting something more but Seamus told him, "Well, we all figured you'd end up going with Granger in the end, right? So, nobody's really surprised."

"Oh, so you figured either Ron or I would ask her?"

Seamus blinked and looked a little surprised. "Ron wouldn't do that to you, would he?"

"Do what?"

"Ask Hermione out."

"Why wouldn't Ron ask her out?"

"She's your girlfriend, isn't she? I know you three are close, but I reckon that's out of bounds even between friends."

"My girlfriend!?"

"Yeah, you two have been going out for a while, right?" Seamus said. "But don't worry, I don't go spreading gossip like some of the others. It's nobody else's business, that's what I say!"

"She's not my girlfriend! We aren't going out." Harry stressed looking around.

"What are you talking about? There's no use in trying to keep it a secret anymore. The cat's out of the bag, ever since that Skeeter article."

"Those articles are full of lies." Harry argued.

"Well, maybe, but we've all seen you and her hanging out. Awful chummy for just friends." Seamus quirked his eyebrow.

Harry tried to think of some reasonable argument that would burst this illusion but everything he came up with would only seem like more of a guilty denial. So, he settled for the most reasonable course of action and stormed off with a huff.

Hermione wasn't having a great time either, following Harry's thoughtless invitation.

Based on three separate comments she'd overheard, people were convinced Harry and her were already a couple because of that insufferable Skeeter woman's articles. She wondered if she could find Luna Lovegood anywhere nearby. Nobody liked to trash the Daily Prophet like her.

If that had been it, Hermione wouldn't have been all that upset. She'd been putting up with her insensitive friends for years, and her peers regularly got the wrong end of the stick. No, what had made her day truly lamentable was that shortly after she had accepted Harry's explicitly platonic invitation to watch him struggle to dance and complain about the Triwizard Tournament, Viktor Krum had also asked her…

Star Quidditch player, strong-silent hunk, Viktor Krum had called her cute and asked her out. And she'd had to turn him down!

She was going to curse Harry the next time he saw him. Or maybe not help him with his next Potions essay. Yeah, that would teach him!

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

It was exactly a week before the Yule Ball, after lessons had finished for the day, and Draco had summoned Gaara and Luna back for one more lesson. They had grasped dancing well enough not to need any more lessons, though Draco did notice the sour look she let slip when he explained there wouldn't be any more dancing practice.

Instead, he needed to take them through a refresher course on etiquette.

"Your mother already taught me how to act at parties." Gaara said, looking to the door.

"Yes, and that's why I called it a refresher. It's been a year since the Malfoy Ball and you've not practiced any of what my mother taught you. I won't have you embarrass my family by acting like a common slob at the Ball."

"Why would it reflect on your family?" Gaara questioned, appearing to casually walk around the room but in actual fact manoeuvring his way closer to the door.

Gaara didn't wander around rooms like this unless there was something interesting to examine, so Draco could see exactly what he was doing. He was regretting not locking the door. He thought the lack of dancing would be enough to stop Gaara from attempting to escape, but the prospect of embarrassing the noble Malfoy family had never made him behave before.

"I've read a number of etiquette books already." Luna piped up.

"How did you know I was planning on teaching the two of you?" Draco asked.

"Oh, I didn't, I was just working my way through the library." She said, examining the table he had carefully laid out.

It was ridiculous that Draco had to set the table himself but evidently the castle House Elves were under very strict orders not to do work for the students. As far as he knew, properly dressing a table was akin to a treat for House Elves.

Luckily, Draco's handheld guide to proper deportment did have a small section on the proper way to set the table – in case a member of the party accidently shifted something out of place and wanted to discreetly replace it when the servants were being negligent.

"I managed to lay my hands on a premium green tea from Asia, if it's of any interest." Draco threw out there. He'd been saving it for a special occasion – when he really needed Gaara to do what he said. As predicted, Gaara did stop moving, standing perfectly still like a dog waiting for its treat.

Soon, the three of them were sat around the table with Draco preparing tea. Of course, it was far too late in the day to be drinking tea really, and it wouldn't be served at the Ball anyway, but it was the perfect way to keep Gaara engaged while he schooled the pair of them on proper table manners.

"These aren't the school's plates and knives." Luna observed.

"Of course not. If you're going to learn, you'll learn with proper silverware and fine china. Not stainless steel and cheap porcelain." His mother had been much happier to forward a few place settings to ensure Gaara and his special friend were both suitably prepared for the Ball than she had been to send his music.

Though, the accompanying letter had spent three pages arguing against the removal of etiquette lessons from the Hogwarts curriculum. He was still drafting his response, taking extra care because his mother had once again mentioned that Beauxbatons still gave such lessons. He didn't expect she really intended to try and make him transfer anymore, but it was still best to take care just in case.

Draco took them through proper table manner, use of the different utensils, dinner conversation rules, and so on.

Draco was worried that Luna wasn't paying attention because she kept looking at Gaara instead of his perfect demonstration of getting up from and reseating himself at the table. It was textbook and she was missing it!

What was so interesting about-

Draco nearly fell out of his seat when Gaara abruptly shrunk in his robes and disappeared from view and Luna's hand darted out to catch his teacup before it could fall to the floor.

"What?!" He was about to dart forward to investigate what happened to his friend when a familiar fuzzy snout pocked up through the collar of Gaara's shirt.

"Oh, for Merlin's sake!" Draco slumped backwards. With all of the excitement over the past couple of days after he'd finally found a girl to go to the Ball with, he had totally forgotten that he'd planned this etiquette lesson on the evening of the full moon. "You're supposed to remind me when it's the full moon. What if there were other people here?"

Gaara crawled out from under his shirt and robes looked entirely unapologetic.

Draco noticed Luna set the teacup back on the table and it clicked. "You knew what was about to happen."

"Of course. It's the full moon." She too looked unapologetic. She was just mesmerised by Gaara's not-really-a-tanuki form.

Draco got up to check the privacy wards he'd set up and then added an extra ward to the door to stop anyone from barging in on them.

"So, what now?" He sat back down and glared at Gaara, who was sat there impassively.

"I'm rather enjoying the tea." Luna said. "I suppose we can't really continue your interesting lesson since Gaara's paws aren't very good at holding small things." She poured out more tea for each of them. "But there's no reason to let this go to waste."

Gaara watched and then stood on the chair to pick up the cup between his paws. They really were ill-suited to fine motor skills. It was difficult but he managed to bring the cup to his mouth but drinking was much harder when his face was the wrong shape.

So, Draco sat and had tea with a mad Ravenclaw and whatever Gaara was supposed to be.

"We've all seen what real tanuki look like, so do we have any idea what Gaara has actually been turning into?" Draco asked Luna, ignoring Gaara entirely.

"Well, I've made an extensive study-"

"No doubt." Draco muttered.

"-but I've not been able to find anything that quite matches. Especially the tail." She said, inching closer to the huge fluffy thing that was draped down the back of Gaara's seat and onto the floor like a rolled-up futon.

"I suppose it makes sense that someone from another world would change into something totally alien. Really, it's stranger that Gaara was human to begin with." Draco stopped talking when he noticed that Luna was subtly leaning down to touch the fluffy tail on the ground.

Gaara had been following Draco words but he noticed Draco's gaze and saw Luna about to touch him. And he growled.

Luna paused and looked to Draco.

"Oh, I wouldn't test him. He means it." Draco warned her.

Luna looked to Gaara's face, particularly his bared teeth, and backed away.

As soon as she had sat back on her chair, Gaara turned back to his tea.

"He's definitely become more of an animal over the last couple of transformations." Draco said.

"Does he not understand you when you talk about him now?" She asked.

"No, he understands perfectly well, he just doesn't care." Draco said, looking over at Gaara who was ignoring him.

Luna observed him as well and for the hundredth time tried to work out the mystery of these transformations. She just couldn't understand – it was as if there was some key piece of the puzzle missing. Why this shape? Why the full moon? Why did he transform at all?

Why did he have to be so fluffy and cute?

"You know, this reminds me of what it was like when you were mute last year." Draco said to Gaara. "You're not exactly chatty now but you not being able to speak was different." He said.

"I agree. It always felt like you were saying something even though you were silent." Luna sighed. "Now that you speak sometimes, you seem… quieter."

Draco paused. "Yeah, I'm not sure about that. You've not heard some of the daft rubbish he's come out with."

As curfew neared, Luna prepared to leave and tried her luck, "Would you like to join me in the Ravenclaw tower, Gaara. You enjoyed yourself last time and it's nice and warm up there."

Gaara hopped down from the chair and toddled over to the window seat to look out the window, ignoring her. He had certainly not enjoyed the last time he had been forced into spending the evening with her in the Ravenclaw tower, culminating in that humiliating ribbon being tied around his neck.

Never again.

"Don't be dim, Lovegood." Draco reasoned politely. "There are still people walking around the castle. Just because you managed to sneak him in once doesn't mean you're not definitely going to be caught the second time."

"But if I wait-"

"Unlike Gaara, we aren't allowed to stay out after curfew and all of the professors have been on high alert since Potter got himself cooked at the First Task. Not to mention all of the recent nocturnal activities amongst the amorous seventh years ahead of the Ball. Let it go, Lovegood."

Luna frowned in a rare outward showing of negative emotion and left with barely a curt, "Good evening."

"You couldn't pick a nice normal Slytherin girl to become obsessed with you, could you?"

Gaara glanced at him and then went back to looking at the moon out the window.

If Gaara had been able to speak, he might have said, 'She's better than Lavado.' But, alas, he was back to just thinking his snappy comebacks, without even the benefit of his sand to communicate.

Draco collected his things and was about to leave as well when he said, "Would you like me to come and let you into the dorm in a couple of hours?"

Gaara shook his head.

"Have it your way." And with that Draco left.

Gaara was more than used to the skin-crawling boredom of being stuck in one room while experiencing the night as an animal. Moving around helped so he paced the room for a while, and then he hunted for a book left over in the abandoned classroom. The dusty one he found was a history book that referred to Napoleon as a Muggle France's bold new leader.

Reading wasn't as easy in this form. Not only was it difficult to hold the book, but his attention span was greatly diminished. Sadly, the force keeping the ancient book together was the only magical thing about it, as the writing was some of the driest he'd encountered.

He absently gnawed on the corner of the book for a moment before he realised what he was doing and set it aside. Whoever found it next would probably just assume it had been done by the castle's non-existent rats.

By the time the hour grew late enough for the students to return to their dormitories, Gaara was literally trying to dig his way through the door. He could unlock the door easily enough, but it was cathartic to try tearing the door apart with his teeny tiny claws. Another crime to be blamed on the innocent and fictional rats.

The moment it was quiet enough, he opened the door and started running. It was only after he had turned a corner that he heard some students still wandering the castle. Apparently some of the upper years were lingering beyond their curfews.

A cautious, human Gaara would have known to go back to the safety of the classroom or at least proceed with care. Instead, tanuki-Gaara threw caution to the wind and sprinted through the castle at top speed.

The clattering of his claws on the stone floors drew several eyes towards him and the next day no fewer than eight senior students would report having seen an oddly familiar tan creature the size of a large dog running through the castle. It was only when they were discussing it the next morning that a few of them remembered they had seen the creature on a flyer handed out by that peculiar Ravenclaw girl last year.

The teachers would assure them that nothing harmful could breach the walls of the castle (a claim the older students were understandably sceptical of), but all the same the professors promised to increase their patrols of the castle and have Hagrid set some human traps.

Gaara didn't notice the student who saw him, he was tunnel-visioned, focused entirely on getting outside. He was feeling especially energetic that night.

Like a bullet, he shot out of the castle and into the dense body of the forest. He didn't have a destination in mind, he just wanted to run.

Around trunks, over roots, past stumps and bushes, he ran as fast as his four little legs could take him. His fur kept him warm enough despite the winter chill, and by the time he came to a stop, he was breathing heavily and he could hear his heart thumping in his chest.

Gaara could smell something in the air that seemed familiar. He didn't know scents really, but whatever it was something he'd come across before. His suspicions were proven correct when he trotted in that direction and he heard the telltale rumbling of his dog in the distance.

Fluffy evidently smelled him coming but it took some more sniffing before the three heads were all convinced he was a friend, though evidently they didn't recognise him as their master.

Fluffy was a lonely dog so he/they were overjoyed at the company even if it was late at night. However, that joy soon turned to frustration when the Cerberus worked out that tiny creatures weren't very good at playing chase and they couldn't play-fight. Well, they could, but they weren't much of a challenge.

Gaara on the other hand, while lacking some of his higher cognitive reasoning, was growing concerned with the way that Fluffy was starting to look at him like he would make a passable chew-toy. He knew that issuing a single squeak would probably sign his death warrant.

Fortunately, no matter whether he was presently in a human or tanuki body, Sabaku no Gaara did not squeak.

Since the tiny thing wasn't very fun and Fluffy wasn't actually nocturnal, the Cerberus wandered drowsily back to the doghouse that Hagrid had built him a couple of months ago.

Gaara weaved between Fluffy's legs, curious where the giant dog was going. Whenever he visited the dog, the beast didn't seem to be able to focus on anything but playing or food. The supposed-tanuki was surprised to find Fluffy arriving at a barn cobbled together from scraps of wood and tree trunks.

So this was the dog house that Hagrid had constructed for the redhead's pet. It was crude but he supposed it would do for now. Maybe he could spare some sand to make something more substantial…

He shook his head. He was getting too sentimental about the beast, or his animal brain was leading him to make bad decisions again.

Gaara trotted over to the wide open entrance to the construct to inspect inside. If the outside was any indication, the smell inside would stop him from staying longer than a few moments, but Fluffy wouldn't allow even that. The previously affable dog growled from three mouths and glared at him when he wandered too close to the Cerberus's lair.

Apparently the latitude extended to his human form was entirely absent in this one and Fluffy wasn't about to let a small creature move into his/their home. The Greek hell-beast was very close to deciding the previously amusing little thing was, in fact, a large squirrel with its bushy tail.

Gaara took note of the inhospitality and backed away. For the first time in a long time, Gaara was reminded that his dumb pet was actually a hellhound many times his size.

Gaara ended up sprinting away after one bark from the dog. By the time Gaara's rational brain kicked in again, he realised he didn't know where in the forest he was and he couldn't retrace his steps because Fluffy might make good on the threat implied by those growls.

A year ago, Gaara would have had to worry about encountering Aragog's spawn in this nearly defenceless form, but he had decimated their population. It had actually become a time-consuming task to hunt down any of them larger than one metric Padfoot in size. Now, without acromantulas and werewolves, the Forbidden Forest was almost hospitable to travellers.

Gaara's ears flattened against his head when he realised he had managed to jinx himself without saying a word when his aimless walking brought him into a webbed area. This wasn't Aragog's layer – he knew where that was and had avoided it during his hunts because he knew the giant spider was Hagrid's friend.

This meant he was in another areas frequented by a lot of the spiders. And even if the bigger ones were gone…

Gaara turned to see a group of spiders the size of dinner plates scampering toward him from behind.

He ran forward, deeper in the spider den, hoping he hadn't missed any of the larger spiders.

Sadly, while he had been effective at hunting down the larger variety, he had neglected the smaller spiders and there were a lot of them left.

He didn't think they recognised him as the being that had been slaughtering their brothers and sisters for months; they probably just thought he would make a good snack to share.

But Gaara was nobody's snack.

In the years to come, those small spiders that survived would tell of a mighty battle between the strange tailed beast and their siblings. It lasted for hours and while attempts were made to poison the creature, its claws and tail proved too mighty for the young spiders.

A triumphant Gaara finally made his way back to the castle with a spring in his step, full of accomplishment.

It was in this smug spirit that Gaara lost all caution and waltzed right into the castle kitchen in full view of the busy elves, who all stopped to stare in fright and bewilderment at this dishevelled creature walking into the kitchen like it owned the place. One of the bravest elves stepped forward brandishing a small, elf-sized carving knife.

"Shoo! Shoo, you… thing!" It said, waving the knife at the unknown animal.

Gaara had had a few run-ins with the House Elves before and knew that they abhorred violence unless it was to protect their masters. Since Gaara was nowhere near any witches of wizards, they would much rather scare him off than attack.

So, Gaara locked eyes with the shivering elf, shakily holding the knife to its chest now, and stepped past it and stole the slab of bacon that the elf had been in the process of carving.

"No! That's for the young'uns!" The elf dropped the knife on the chopping board and tried to grab the other end of the cured pork belly.

Gaara growled and sank his teeth deeper into the salty meat. He was the slayer of spiders, he deserved meat!

The game of tug-of-war was watched by over a dozen elves but the only one who felt bold enough to try and aid their comrade was whapped aside by the monster's swaying sandy tail.

"No, let go!" The wrestling elf tried to twist the meat out of the animal's iron grip, but teeth sunk into the slippery pork had an advantage over bony fingers and soon Gaara had wrenched the bacon out of the other's grasp and darted away feeling even more triumphant.

He was the slayer of spiders and conqueror of elves.

He ran through the corridors until he found the room he had left his clothes in and then proceeded to eat a slab of uncooked bacon.

When the sun fully rose, Gaara had a stomach ache and felt mortified by how he had acted the night before.

Maybe he should revisit his plan to resist the transformation? He hadn't been that badly injured. He would just need to make sure Draco wasn't anywhere nearby.

Speaking of keeping Draco away, he would have to make sure none of his exploits from last night made it back to him. He would be impossible to live with if they did.

How could he stop the elves from telling anyone?

At that moment, one of the elves was bowing low in Dumbledore's office, offering to flog himself for this unforgiveable failure.

"That really will not be necessary, Mipsy." The old man sighed. "The students will not be malnourished if one of the tables has to go without bacon for a single morning."

"Please, Headmaster, sir! This one has failed you!" Mipsy wailed and started to smack his head against the stone floor.

"Enough of that!" Dumbledore didn't like raising his voice to the elves but nothing short of that would break one of them out of this horrid habit instilled by one of his predecessors.

"But the children is going without their bacon!" Mipsy sobbed into his school-issued pillowcase.

"I am sure the boys and girls of Slytherin will be able to manage one day." Dumbledore said. "Now, you had better return to the kitchen and finish the breakfast preparations."

Mipsy bowed so low his ears flopped onto the floor before he backed away and then disappeared with a click of his fingers.

Dumbledore took a sip of his morning brew, trying to dispel the constant chill that pervaded his ancient bones. He studied his tea cup and tried to compose a new version of his decades-old reminder for students not to bring strange animals into the castle.

He thought the choice of owls, cats or toads was perfectly generous.

Then again, this creature that the elves and several students had reported seeing last night had been sighted before in the castle multiple times. Either one of the students had exceeded his wildest expectations for teenagers keeping a secret, or the creature was coming or going rather than staying in the castle.

Or someone had mastered animagus magic and failed to report it to the Ministry as required by law.

Then again, he tended to keep an eye on the goings-on of his old subject and he didn't think there were any students at the level where they could attempt that impressive feat of advanced transfiguration magic.

Though, he had been wrong about this before.

With the Triwizard Tournament, Albus wanted to instil some sense of order in his otherwise chaotic school, but unidentified creatures roaming the halls was more what he might have expected on a 'normal' year. It was almost refreshing. And a bit of stolen bacon here and there wasn't worth commencing a hunt through the castle.

To be on the safe side, maybe he would ask Hagrid to set some humane traps around the castle for a week or two and see if they caught anything – other than Mrs Norris.

Albus checked his day planner and was relieved to find he had a few hours free in the afternoon. That would give him time to respond personally to the inevitable wave of angry letters from the parents of the current Slytherin cohort, baying for blood because their precious son or daughter was deprived of one breakfast food for a day.

Draco had sent a letter to his father about the bacon and he would have sent another complaint to the Ministry of Magic if he hadn't been so shocked by the report of how brazen the unknown magical creature had apparently been when stealing the bacon.

Gaara had skipped out on breakfast again but Draco would be hunting him down later on to give him a proper telling off. This was getting ridiculous. He was beginning to think he would need to lock fluffy-Gaara up on the full moons.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Gaara observed that Christmas morning was less excitable than his first one. Though, he reflected, this might be because he had no particular attachment to this world's winter festival, so he drew most of his insight about it from Draco, who was much more sedate.

While the platinum-blond had managed admirably to conceal how blue he was feeling because he was being kept apart from his parents during the holiday period, he simply couldn't muster the same exuberance he had exhibited on Christmas morning the year before.

That said, Draco's spirits did immediately lift in the morning when he opened his door to find a stack of presents in the corridor waiting for him. The elves had been working hard to gather all of the gifts that had been delivered over the past couple of days and distribute them to their intended recipients.

Far from bemoaning the increased workload from all of the students being kept in the castle over the holiday period, the elves were thrilled. They loved the added challenge.

Draco ferried in armfuls of colourfully-wrapped packages and deposited them on his bed. It was only after he had cleared the doorway that he realised he had ignored the two unequal piles that the gifts had been sorted into and assumed everything was for him.

With a small blush, Draco then started to check each present and hand over about a quarter to his disinterested roommate.

After the division had been made, Gaara once again marvelled at the Malfoy family's total lack of consideration for the welfare and weight limit of magical owls, several of which presumably had to transport the mound that was currently compressing Draco's mattress. As Gaara surveyed his own modest pile, he was relieved to see that none of them were conspicuously broom-shaped. Sirius had learnt his lesson there, then.

In all, Gaara received a number of interesting books, some clothes, and other practical gifts that Draco scoffed at. Draco meanwhile had been given many trinkets and silver items – including a silver toothbrush with bristles made out of an endangered magical creature, a silver button hook, a silver straight razor (despite Draco's face being absent of any significant facial hair to date), and a journal with solid silver covers.

It all seemed entirely excessive, but Gaara guessed Mr and Mrs Malfoy were feeling bad about not being with Draco and were trying to compensate by spending a fortune on things he didn't need.

He already had a vermeil button hook that was even more ostentatious, but Draco clearly preferred silver to gold (and Gaara was 87% sure this was purely because gold was associated with Gryffindor, rather than any other consideration of taste or how it complimented or clashed with his colouring).

Draco seemed pleased with it all, showing each pointless item to Gaara one after another, but then he was tidying it into his trunk and getting dressed for the morning. Like any other morning.

Gaara shrugged – as far as he was concerned, December 25th was indeed just another date like any other. Although, that wasn't strictly true this time around – tonight he would be expected to debase himself for the entertainment of the Wizarding public once again.

As they reached the Great Hall, Gaara had expected to spot Luna sat at the Ravenclaw table already, but she was curiously missing. Gaara was distracted from this absence by Draco soaking in the good cheer in the Hall. Like many of the others, particularly amongst their housemates, Draco had brought a few of his presents to the Hall to show off.

The students were demonstrating the toys and trinkets they thought were the coolest or of the most value. Some of the first years could be seen stuffing their personal favourites back into their robes when they realised their preference might have been more childish than their peers' or their presents were more modest.

Draco was in his element. No one could boast like he could. He was even so caught up in the positivity of the Christmas spirit amongst his peers that he forgot he had planned to go and harass the Gryffindors for their comparatively more (sensible) modest gifts.

Gaara brought one of his books to the Hall since he was apparently expected to sit around all day in leisure ahead of the Ball, as if the lifestyle of a civilian didn't already feel like a holiday most of the time.

Albus didn't want to admit that the Tournament had actually yielded a positive result, but it was wonderful to see the entire Great Hall filled with such happy boys and girls, able to forget the dangers and tribulations of the year and instead revel in their presents and each other's company. He looked to his colleagues and they all seemed to be enjoying the cheer as much as him, those who were present.

Sadly, as usual, Severus eschewed joyous occasions and instead chose to wallow alone in his chambers. Albus had decided not to force the younger man to attend this unofficial celebration if he didn't want to. Being surrounded by happiness was more likely to upset Severus than cause some sort of Scrooge-like revelation.

He would dearly like to help Severus to overcome his personal demons and become a happier person, but that sort of magic was regrettably out of Albus's reach. And shamefully he knew he couldn't afford for Severus to overcome his darkness or else he might not be prepared to do what was needed to protect the world.

Albus rested his heavy head on his steepled fingers and tried to cast away the sad thoughts for a short while and instead enjoy the happiness of children who had not yet had to grow up and make the sorts of compromises and that tainted any moment of personal happiness Albus experienced.

Well… most of them. After a while, as the students were still lively and discussing their presents and the messages their parents sent them, he saw Gaara rise to his feet and exit the Hall. He was far too much of an adult for his own good. He was probably going to find somewhere quiet. Or else, he might have been heading to the same place to which Rubeus had disappeared ten minutes earlier.

Gaara might be an adult in many ways, but he displayed a charming youthfulness about the Cerberus.

A thought occurred to him and Albus's head shot up. He looked for someone to warn after a moment he thought better of it. It would probably be too late by now.

If it wasn't a mysterious new creature stealing bacon from breakfast a week ago, it was Gaara stealing large sections of cow from the castle's refrigerated chamber.

Later, he would ask Minerva to forward another invoice to Sirius in the New Year. In the meantime, now that he had made a reasonable appearance at breakfast, he had other matters to attend to. He wouldn't be needed again until the evening when the Ball was close to starting.

Meanwhile, Gaara was indeed already on his way to give Fluffy its/his/their Christmass gift. Draco seemed to think it was ludicrous to give presents to an animal, but Gaara believed the dog would appreciate the treat even more than Draco had appreciated his own gifts.

Gaara's eyes widened when he stumbled upon Hagrid, a full deer hanging over one shoulder and a crossbow dangling from his other hand.

"Gaara what are you…?" The question died in Hagrid's throat when he spotted the beef from the kitchen. "Headmaster Dumbledore won't be happy if you took that from the kitchens."

"It's a present." Gaara said, as if that would excuse the theft.

Hagrid wanted to tell the boy off for stealing, and for trying to bribe Fluffy (who was not Gaara's dog) but the way the boy glared blankly at him made him pause. He had never quite worked out how to talk to the boy. It really was like they were speaking a different language.

The half-giant decided to dock some House points quietly when he was next in the Castle. He didn't think it would make much of a difference to Gaara's behaviour but what else could he do? Assigning a detention would just mean he would have to watch over Gaara after school. Neither of them wanted that.

Hagrid ignored the tiny fourth-year and continued on his way to give Fluffy his Christmas treat.

Gaara, in turn, ignored the enormous man and tried to keep up with the gargantuan steps he was taking. He didn't want Hagrid to arrive first and for Fluffy to fill up on venison before the dog could even set eyes on the side of beef. Clearly Gaara's gift was superior.

Hagrid seemed to notice the diminutive boy trying to keep up and he increased his pace a little too.

By the time they reached Fluffy's barn-sized doghouse, both were running.

Fluffy watched them arrive and six eyes locked on not to its/his/their kind and generous masters, but on the two great big pieces of meat they brought with them.

Fluffy jumped up and charged forward

"Fluffy…!" Hagrid said in a warning tone, but behemoth hellhound continued towards them so Hagrid dropped the deer and stepped out of the way. Gaara frowned. What right did the professor have to claim Fluffy as his own when he couldn't even command the beast properly?

Gaara dropped the side of beef, feeling the ache in his muscles from carrying something heavier than himself while running, and brought his fingers to his lips.

Hagrid had been about to dive back over to shield the senseless child from the overgrown dog's trampling feet but instead he marvelled as the piercing note of Gaara's whistling stopped Fluffy in his/their tracks.

Hagrid would have wanted to compliment the boy for showing such skill in the care of magical creatures, but Gaara looked to him and it might have been a trick of the light, but he thought he saw a smirk of the boy's face.

Gaara pointed to the ground and Fluffy reluctantly sat down, all three tongues out and panting, drool making small streams on the forest floor as the dog continued to look at the meat, eyes only glancing back to Gaara periodically to see what he wanted.

When Gaara was satisfied with Fluffy's obedience, he slowly took a few steps back and to the side, and then clicked him fingers and the dog lunged.

It was at that moment that Hagrid realised their mistake.

Two pieces of meat for three heads…

Usually Fluffy shared one piece or ate out of the same bowl, but whenever each head could take possession of something, they became remarkably territorial.

So, while the left-most and right-most heads happily bit down on their respective venison and beef, the middle head was left to growl and try to reach for one of the others' pieces.

"Fluffy! Share!" Hagrid tried to tell them, but the outer heads weren't listening. They moved away from the centre and chewed as fast as they could. The middle head then resorted to nipped at the ears of the others.

Gaara watched all of this and wondered if he had time to run and find another deer or a boar.

Probably not. Fluffy would have scared off everything near the doghouse.

Hagrid continued to try and tell them off but Gaara ignored him just like the dog(s) was(were). He walked towards the beast, heedless of Hagrid's warning shouts to keep away.

Gaara whistled again, expecting the same compliance and received barely a twitch of an ear.

Fine. If they wouldn't behave, he would rescind their gift. He stepped towards the beef only to receive a low growl from the left head.

Gaara stopped. His pet had just growled at him. That would not stand.

He stepped closer still and slapped that head's nose, equivalent to flicking a normal dog's nose. Fluffy's left head did not care for this treatment and for his sometimes-master trying to take his food, so he did what any reasonable hound would do and gave a nip in response.

A nip from a hellhound of Fluffy's size was like a bear trap snapping onto one's shoulder.

Fortunately, Gaara's sand armour was more than capable of repelling bear traps and dog teeth.

"Bad dog." Gaara said.

Immediately the dog-head let go, mostly out of guilt when he realised he bit his master. Then there was the feeling he was in trouble. He didn't want to be a bad dog. Gaara stepped forwards and grabbed a hold of the beef and started dragged it away from the left head. Then he approached the right head, which had more sense than his left counterpart and released the deer after only a growl.

Gaara dragged the deer over to the beef and stared at the three heads, who all looked suitably cowed.

Hagrid meanwhile was trying to process whether he was witnessing the second-coming of Newt Scamander or an idiotic child who had almost been killed.

That said, he had no idea how the boy was standing after taking a bite from Fluffy. The last time Fluffy bit the groundskeeper, he had had been out of action for a week.

Gaara turned his back on the stupid dog and pulled out the silver dagger Draco had given him last Christmas. The thing was useless for fighting because of the jewels in the handle, but the blade was just long enough for a bit of amateur butchery.

It was nice to revisit old hobbies.

Hagrid watched in wonder and disgust as the boy deftly cut through flesh and between bones until the deer and cow were split into three even piles. He stepped back and cleaned his hands and the blade with a handkerchief that was embroidered with the initials 'DM'.

Gaara stepped back again but just as Fluffy was about to pounce, his hand shot up and he held up a warning finger. "Stay."

Gaara turned and walked a few more paces away. Each of Fluffy's heads were twitching and his/their paws were tensed, waiting to jump up at Gaara's command.

Gaara walked over to stand in front of Hagrid. He stared up into Hagrid eyes and clicked his fingers. Fluffy dove into the piles of meat and happily tore into them, forgetting his/their earlier infighting entirely.

Gaara considered it a worthy use of his time to demonstrate his superior mastery over the Cerberus but the December cold and snow soon drove him back inside. He didn't like that Hagrid had stayed behind, but Gaara knew his dog wouldn't soon forget his true master.

Gaara was heading for the warmest spot in the castle, inconveniently situated in the Gryffindor common room, when he heard a sound with which he was very familiar.

Someone was crying.

Oh well. Crying children in a school, Gaara had learnt, was quite typical. And, more importantly, it was none of his business.

Gaara continued on his way. With all of the students at leisure and wandering in and out of their common room, it wouldn't be difficult for him to 'sneak in' (read: walk brazenly in because they knew they couldn't get rid of him).

A sob from that same person, a girl. She must have been hiding in a nearby empty classroom.

Two more steps and then he heard a whimper. Why was this bothering him?

He'd heard crying before – he'd been the cause of more than his fair share of it in the past. Even since he'd come to this world, he had heard people crying in the school many times as well. Younger, older, Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs, Slytherins, boys and girls. And he'd ignored each and every one of them. So, why?

A whimper

Gaara sighed. Something about this was bothering him and he wasn't busy in any way so he couldn't see any harm in at least seeing who was crying.

One glance inside the classroom and he immediately saw blonde hair. Luna.

He approached quickly but she seemed to be unhurt, except for a thin cut and a bruise on her cheek. Her eyes were red, and even as she looked up at him from her position, sitting against the wall, she struggled to contain her sobs.

"Oh, Gaara," She started but had to take a deep breath. "Sorry. I… caught myself on a nail and it upset me." She tried to smile at him but it wasn't convincing. She'd clearly been attacked.

For a while, Luna had been left alone by the bullies for the most part. Luna hadn't wanted him to know about the teasing or snarky remarks her bullies continued to lash at her so he had respected her choice and let her handle it. But Luna wasn't a violent person and didn't like to fight.

And someone had hurt her.

"See Madame Pomfrey." Gaara said. He cared but he wasn't any use to her. He couldn't heal the cut on her cheek any more than he could offer emotional comfort to her. He had a different role to play.

"Wait, Gaara!" That was all he heard from her before he darted out of the classroom and started to run all over the castle.

His chances weren't great but if they were still loitering about the castle, he might be able to track down these bullies. Though, as his mind focussed on routes to search the school, he didn't have a clear idea of what he'd do to the people who hurt his friend if he did find them.

It took him twenty minutes to work his way up the castle and find a trio of girls smoking and laughing in an old office. He might have passed them by if he hadn't recognised them. He wasn't very good with faces or names, but he had seen these Ravenclaws around Luna before.

"What do you want?" A brunette asked him, probably a fifth-year.

"Did you hurt Luna Lovegood?" He asked, stepping further into the room.

The brunette snorted and another girl, with hair almost as red as his spoke up, "Aww, is Romeo out to avenge little Looney Lovegood?"

Their sneering would have put a number of Slytherins to shame.

"Yeah, has something happened to our Looney?" Said the last of the three, with dark hair and a cruel smirk. If their obnoxious tone hadn't been enough of a giveaway, the ring on the dark-haired girl's hand that had just a fleck of red staining the small inset sapphire was all the proof he needed.

"You." He stepped towards the girl with the ring, eyes locked on the evidence.

The girl seemed to realise what he was looking at. "Oh, this?" She licked her thumb and wiped it off. "Just a bit of jam."

He took another step forward and they seemed to realise they were dealing with an angry Champion who had only recently fought a dragon, not to mention his exploits against the dementors.

"You can't prove we did anything!" The redhead told him. "Ask Lovegood. Go on, ask her."

Gaara had no doubt Luna would want to avoid being labelled a snitch. And a professor might have just talked to them. But Gaara had met people like this before, all his life. And while he had committed countless wrongs in his childhood, his method for dealing with bullies who treated everyone around them with cruelty was effective.

There were no witnesses and if he worked quickly, there wouldn't be anyone close enough to hear him.

Gaara continued forward as the dark-haired girl rose to her feet. "Go on, run and tell Snape or Flitwick and see what they say."

Gaara was shorter than her by a couple of inches but he showed no hesitation in grabbing a hold of the front of her robes.

"Eww, are you trying to grab a feel?!" She again sneered, but she didn't take her eyes off of him.

"I bet he is!" The brunette jeered.

"I also knew he was a weirdo!" The redhead added.

"You're not going to hit a girl." The black-haired girl challenged him, glaring right back at him. "So why don't you just piss off."

"I don't care if you're a girl. You hurt my friend." Gaara said. And that was all there was to say.

The sand burst out of his mini-gourd and intercepted whatever hex or curse the redhead had tried to hit him with. The brunette tried next but her spell couldn't penetrate is defence either.

Thinking he might be distracted by controlling the sand, the black-haired girl drew her wand and tried to cast a wordless stupefy spell on him. His meagre sand defence wasn't needed that time as his free hand caught her wand and he snatched it out of her grasp.

Gaara dropped it to the floor and then his hand went from her robes to her neck and started to squeeze.

The other two realised that this wasn't just bluster, the Champion was choking their friend. And the intensity in his psychotic eyes indicated to them that he wasn't just sending them a message.

"Let go of her!" One of the girls screamed, but Gaara wasn't interested in which one. Their time would come.

Then both girls tried to physically remove him but his sand, though not the quantity he was used to, was more than capable of repelling them.

The black-haired girl thrashed and tried to strike him but a loose wave of sand blocked her as well.

"Gaara! Let her go!" Luna shouted from the doorway.

That did get Gaara attention, albeit briefly.

It might have seemed like he was still focussed on doing the young lady harm, but at that moment, he was concentrating on not crushing her larynx. Mother Shukaku sounded so pleased, encouraging him to avenge his friend, to stop this girl from bullying any other innocents.

"Gaara, I told you to stop!" Luna had pulled out her own wand now, aware that Gaara may not be capable in that moment of exercising rational judgement.

"Oh, for Merlin's sake! Put that girl down now, Gaara!" Draco commanded as soon as he entered the room. "I can't leave you alone for five minutes!"

Gaara ignored him as well.

Draco strode up to him but didn't bother pulling out his wand. "Put her down this instant, Gaara."

"She hurt Luna." He ground out, maintaining his grip.

"Yes, and she's perfectly fine. Less than a minute with one of Madame Pomfrey's potions and there won't even be a scratch left on her cheek. And you're here throttling Ravenclaws because of what? Making her cry?"

Luna blushed at the reminder being aired in front of the bullies who had caused her distress.

"Gaara, for the last time, put her down, now!" Draco told him. Gaara glared at him but that was enough of a distraction to interrupt Shukaku's influence.

Gaara glared at his best friend in the world and then realised the dark-haired girl was starting to turn blue. He didn't even know her name.

He dropped her and stepped back so her friends could see to her while she coughed and wheezed.

"More than anyone, I appreciate that you're protective of your friends, but this was excessive." Draco lectured him.

"We're going to have you expelled for this, you freak!" The redhead yelled at him now that the threat seemed to have passed.

Draco cleared his throat a little but seemed to disregard what she had said, and continued to talk to Gaara. "If you're upset, you can rely on us as well, you know. For instance, if someone threatened or hurt one of my friends, I'm not such a brute that I would physically attack. I would be inclined to petition the contacts eager to please my family, and there are quite a few of them. Those contacts could draw customers and suppliers away from the businesses of my antagonists' families, causing them hardship and even driving then to ruin. Then, when their families were penniless and destitute, I could use my own savings to swoop in and snap up those languishing businesses for knuts… It would probably take me one or two letters." Draco seemed to become lost in thought by the end, before he added, "And that's before I even enlisted my father."

All three girls had stopped shouting threats and even the dark-haired girl was just rubbing her neck and looking at both of the Slytherin boys with a degree of fear.

Luna, meanwhile, was getting progressively more annoyed by the pair. She would have been fine if Gaara had stopped and said one kind word to her. Even Draco might have sufficed to help her calm down. Instead, one had gone and attacked her bully and the other had now threatened their families.

Suddenly she could sympathise with Hermione Granger. Dealing with two male friends was exhausting. The mixture of testosterone and each boy's unique personal issues made friendship with them almost most trouble than it was worth.

"What's all this ruckus in here about?" Professor Flitwick shuffled into the disused office, peering over his glasses at each of the inhabitants.

A second-year boy had rushed into his office to tell him they'd heard shouting coming the room. And in the room he found a pair of Slytherins, one of his third-years and a few of his fifth-years, one of whom was clutching her neck. And Lovegood had a bruised cheek.

Even if he hadn't been pushing two centuries, Filius would have been able to put two and two together.

"Nothing, Professor Flitwick." Draco Malfoy said a bit too quickly.

Filius ignored the snake's hiss and looked to his own ravens. They each looked afraid, even after he had arrived to offer them protection. Something was definitely amiss.

Gaara wouldn't speak so he didn't bother addressing him.

"Miss Lovegood? Would you care to elaborate at all?" He had always appreciated he dedication to the truth.

"Nothing to worry about, sir." She said, offering him about the least convincing lie of the lot.

"We overheard one of the girls here having some difficulty with her tie so we came to see if we could offer some help. In the spirit of Christmas, and all." Draco said, his smile not nearly as charming as he thought it was.

"Y-yeah. My tie." The dark-haired girl agreed.

"If you will all insist of lying to me, I will have to leave it at this for today, with the understanding that it does not go any further. Now, Sarah, you should probably go and ask Madame Pomfrey to look at your neck. Luna, go with her and have your cheek seen to."

Luna didn't want to leave with her chief tormentor but neither of them would speak a word or even look at the other the entire way to the medical wing.

"Heather and Victoria, please go back to the tower. The Ball is only a few hours away and you don't want to miss out on the excitement up there." Flitwick's tone did not convey excitement and the remaining girls fled in that same spirit.

"And you two. I will trust that this matter is settled once and for all if the girls have decided to keep it to themselves. But if anything like this ever happens again, neither your father Mr Malfoy nor the Minister himself will stop me from seeing the both of you expelled." He said firmly. "Am I understood?"

"Yes, professor." Draco , averting his eyes.

Gaara didn't respond until Flitwick fixed his surprisingly cold eyes on him. "Understood."

"Fifty points from Slytherin for each of you. And a week of detention a piece as well."

Draco's eyes bulged, for once legitimately feeling like the innocent party. But since he had made those same protests every time he had been caught for something he actually had done, he decided it probably wasn't worth starting up now.

Flitwick left the room feeling none of the Christmas cheer he'd been filled with ten minutes previously. He really did have his doubts that he would have been allowed to give the boys more than a few detentions. Not for a little bruising.

Not to mention that those girls were notorious bullies and Luna a notable target. He would keep an eye on the girls for a while to make sure they didn't try to retaliate, and he suspected he would be keeping Gaara in his sights a long while after that.

Severus might have been a troubled young man with a few too many stains on his character to be burdened with whatever game Albus was playing against Riddle, but he was normally a reliable (if a tad dramatic) judge of character. His treatment of Gaara had been reprehensible since the boy arrived, but at the same time, there did seem to be something off about him.

But, then, Filius's judgement could hardly be relied upon. He had thought Tom Riddle had been a delightful young student.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Students weren't permitted to have guests enter the Castle before the Ball, and even parents weren't strictly allowed to enter without a valid and pressing reason.

'Valid and pressing' had been strictly defined by the Deputy Headmistress following numerous attempts to visit over recent months from more than one insistent and bothersome parent.

Of course, the most insistent and bothersome of them all had found ways around the pesky rules, as he always had.

Even with the increased security prior to the Ball, Sirius had managed to get into the Castle, "And I didn't need even need to bribe anyone or use a secret passageway."

Draco was only half-listening as he carefully inspected his brand new robes, picking off and flicking away an imaginary piece of lint. Of course, there wasn't really any lint. His robes were spelled to resist any and all imprtfections.

It made him smile to think that someone had spent years to develop that spell. A perfectly suitable use for a mediocre life.

Sirius tried to ignore the snobbish look Draco had gained as he daydreamed and admired his new robes. If it weren't so obviously below the station of a Malfoy, Sirius thought the boy would have been quite suited to a life in fashion. But, then, he truly believed Draco was wasted on the Malfoy family and the future that required of him.

"McGonagall will have you removed if she finds out you're here, I expect." Draco broke away from his admiration to say.

"Oh how little you know, tiny Malfoy." Sirius said. "I have a perfectly legitimate reason for entering Hogwarts today. Even McGonagall can't get rid of me now." He said.

He said this in one of the quieter rooms in the Castle, far away from where the Deputy Headmistress might find them. While he had concocted a brilliant plan to get into the school, he didn't think she would care about his legitimacy.

Sirius had managed to convince one of the guards to let him in because he was hand-delivering the new robes to one of the Champions and the son of the Malfoy family.

While parents weren't allowed to just enter the castle whenever they wanted, a deliveryman was able to come and go with impunity.

He had offered to take Draco's robes with him when he last saw Cissy, and while she had reservations, fearing he might be stopped and Draco would have to do without, ultimately she decided she trusted her cousin to deliver them more than a reasonably-priced delivery boy. Really, she was bitterly jealous that Sirius would get to be there when she couldn't.

Sirius had offered to bring her along – each delivering a different boy's robes, but she couldn't stoop to pretend she was a servant of any kind.

So, Sirius had arrived alone, carrying two boxes under his arm and wondering how he should spend the money he had brought to bribe the guards (if they hadn't believed he was really a deliveryman). Perhaps charity? Or maybe a new cane? With a lion's head!

One look at Draco reminded him that he might end up looking a little too much like Lucius. Then again, maybe it would be fun to mimic the prissy man again the next time they met.

Gaara had been curiously… well, not quiet… it would have been curious if he weren't silent most of the time. But he seemed distracted to Sirius at that moment. Something had clearly happened, but neither boy was forthcoming so he let it remain between them.

Who was he to butt in to their business? A responsible guardian?

"In fact," Sirius said, breaking the silence. "I have a cunning plan to get into the Ministry Ball later on."

"How are you going to manage that?" Draco looked every bit as doubtful as his tone suggested.

"That's for me to know and you to find out." He said before turning his full attention to Gaara. He had given Gaara his box but the redhead hadn't opened it or even cracked a lid.

"You know what?" Sirius plucked the box back out of Gaara's hands. "I think you should hang on to these for now." He gave them to Draco who nodded and kept it close with his own. "We wouldn't want them to go missing between now and the Ball."

"I wouldn't lose them." Gaara said, looking towards the box but not trying to reclaim it.

"Sure." Draco said. "All the same, I think I'll keep them for now."

Gaara glared at him. He still had a headache from Shukaku's screaming earlier, Draco had been angry about him not killing that girl ('not killing' and 'almost killing' were apparently very different concepts to Draco), and now he was being treated like a child.

He wouldn't have lost the box. He would have destroyed it. On purpose.

What Gaara didn't know was that Draco had taken the precaution of ordering a set of perfectly respectable, if a little modest robes, in Gaara's size week ago. He had every faith that Sirius would deliver on his promise to outfit Gaara but he knew the redhead would try something to avoid having to actually attend either of the evening's events.

He had several other contingencies in place.

"While of course I applaud your industry and I appreciate your ensuring our robes were delivered safely, I'm afraid we must get on. There's only an hour until we need to head to the student Ball. I can't believe I've let it get this late." Draco seemed to be genuinely distressed as he checked his watch.

"It won't take an hour to put on robes." Gaara said.

"Easy for you to say. Some of us take pride in our appearances." Draco scowled. He checked his watch again to see if they were somehow already late for the Ball after thirty seconds had elapsed.

"Hold up just one more moment." Sirius said, but Draco gained a suspicious look, as if Sirius might hold them up a few more minutes just to tease him. "You'll remember I said I wanted to give you a Black family heirloom to wear to the Ball." He said to Gaara.

When Gaara failed to react, Sirius turned to Draco. "Okay, you'll remember that I mentioned I wanted Gaara to wear an heirloom to the Ball."

"Yes, I do recall something to that effect."

Sirius turned back to Gaara and held a small box in his hand. "Well, this is something that my father got from his father, who commissioned it around 1915. It's one of the few Black heirlooms I really care for, so please wear it for me tonight." He said with a soft smile, holding out the box in front of Gaara.

Draco leaned in and grabbed it. "Of course. Gaara would be honoured."

Gaara continued to glare.

"Go on, Gaara. Promise or he'll never let us go." Draco warned him before realising his mistake. "Or he'll come with us and embarrass you at the student Ball."

Sirius smiled. He doubted he'd get away with it but it was a tempting offer.

The put-upon Jinchūriki sighed. "I'll wear it."

"Tremendous!" Sirius said before he tried to hug Gaara. The insomniac sidestepped the attempt and moved out of reach.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Gaara waited until Draco had begun to primp and fuss over his hair before he started dressing himself. He felt twenty minutes was more than generous – it seemed rather silly. But after Draco's threats to burn Gaara's book led to the platinum blond pulling out his wand, Gaara figured he could simply dress and then resume reading with the remaining fifteen minutes.

"Do you need any help dressing?" Draco offered. It was well below his station to offer, even for a friend, but his friend happened to be hopeless.

"I haven't needed help dressing since I was four."

"Then prove it and get a move on. If you're late, they'll crucify you for it. Not to mention what they will think of me for failing to ensure you were ready on time."

Gaara had no interest in clothes so he paid little attention to the fine (albeit starchy) pleated white tuxedo shirt with pearl buttons he took out of the garment box. Nor did he pay any mind to the silk trousers or the stiff black Oxford shoes polished to a mirror shine.

He didn't give a second thought to the blue open robes with gold embroidered patterns curling around the cuffs, down either side of the opening and on the lapels and shoulders.

Draco stepped back to look at the ensemble critically when it was on, after Gaara had threatened him to stop trying to straighten his already straight clothes.

"Well, they certainly aren't traditional but Mr Black does have good taste. Obviously they wouldn't be suitable for my colouring but I do think they suit you." The impact of the superb clothing was emphasised by the fact that Gaara almost never dressed up. "If you'd only listened to me earlier. If we had more time, I might have been able to do something with your hair."

Gaara felt jubilant that he had managed to avoid at least that indignity. While he did not care about being finely accoutred, he very much disliked how restricted he felt in this clothing and would not abide having that muck slathered in his hair just so it was stick flat to his head. He couldn't imagine ever volunteering for that treatment.

Then came the final touch, Sirius's gift.

Gaara opened the satin-covered jewellery box and gritted his teeth, furious with himself for being foolish enough to give his word to that man-child.

Inside of the box was a diamond-studded bowtie. Garish in the extreme, but the most galling aspect was that the ends were loops, which, when it was fastened, would look like a bandit mask.

Sirius's grandfather…

He shouldn't have been surprised by the lie, but somehow he just hadn't seen it coming.

Draco tried and failed to conceal his snickering as he dutifully helped Gaara to put it on. Not only had Gaara given his word, even if the irate redhead had considered the promise voided by Sirius's deceit, he didn't have an alternative readily available. Draco claimed not to have any spare bowties or formal ties, and Gaara had to wear something.

Draco stepped back and finally gave Gaara his approval (which he apparently needed). Draco spread his arms to show Gaara the full effect of his own robes, made of some dark fine material with pinstripes that seemed to… glitter.

Draco was waiting for him to say something so Gaara considered his options. "They look… expensive." He said honestly.

"Thank you." Draco said proudly. "The pinstripes are Swarovski Crystals. Of course, father took some convincing but mother understands the importance of showcasing quality at such high profile events."

Gaara considered that he had gotten off lightly with his gold-embroidered robes and ridiculous bejewelled bowtie. He couldn't imagine even the wealthiest Daimyo in his own world wearing what must have added up to thousands of crystals all over his robes like Draco now was.

Still, while Gaara's first instinct was to criticise the excess and poor taste, he could see how happy it made Draco to wear the robes, so the redhead reserved his thoughts for later.

Draco practically dragged Gaara along when he thought they might be late to meet their respective dates. To rush dressing was bad, but to show up late for a rendezvous? Unacceptable!

Gaara didn't understand at all but he had finished the chapter of his book so he was at a good stopping point anyway.

The hallways were filled with a mixture of upperclassmen in their fanciest robes and envious underclassmen wishing they had been old enough to attend.

Draco garnered a few looks because his robes were so much more… more than everyone else's. Gaara got a few second glances because of his own fine robes with their rather unique and elaborate design along with the eye-catching bowtie.

A few people paid them compliments and Draco returned them, then whispering to Gaara how shabby they looked or commenting on how the quality of the silk in their robes was clearly inferior.

Gaara marched onwards, trying to ignore the sea of vivid colours. He had never before appreciated how monochromatic most of the Hogwarts uniform was until his eyes had to bear the strain of all these different styles and bright colours.

Draco and Gaara had agreed to meet their respective dates by the staircase so that they could at least make a token effort toward escorting them into the Great Hall. Gaara had asked why they needed to do that but Draco had stopped explaining the apparently inexplicable rituals relating to these events after the thirtieth-or-so 'silly' question.

When they arrived, Luna had been waiting for them, wearing a fine dress in a shade of matching blue that made Gaara think Sirius had been in communication with her.

"Oh, Gaara, you look very smart in your robes. And I like your bowtie."

'Of course she likes the bowtie,' Gaara thought.

"Hello, Luna." He greeted her and then said nothing more.

Draco ran his hand down his face and groaned. "Sorry. You look very nice, Luna." He said as a matter of course.

"Thank you, Draco. You look good in your robes too. Very shimmery." She stepped a little closer to him, and with a soft smile said, "And you needn't apologise. I know who Gaara is."

Draco smiled back. Lovegood's obliviousness set his teeth on edge normally, but when she exhibited some of that famed Ravenclaw insight and intelligence, she was perfectly tolerable to be around for short periods of time.

"Are you excited?" Luna asked Draco. Gaara was trying to worm a finger in between his neck and the starched collar of his shirt and didn't seem to be in any sort of mood to converse.

"Of course." He was a little distracted as he was determined to spot when his date arrived. It would have been the height of poor manners to fail to acknowledge his own date while carrying on a conversation with another girl.

Gaara had once told Draco he could fill a book with all of his inane rules and procedures of proper conduct, and Draco had shown the redhead the two books he'd brought to Hogwarts on that very subject. Despite his generous offer to share them, Gaara had yet to crack the cover on either.

"Good evening, Draco." A girl said in a heavy French accent, appearing from amongst the crowd.

"Bonsoir, Celeste." Draco said back.

Celeste de Beauvoir was a beautiful girl with the chiselled aristocratic features and manners that should have meant she was taken off the market long before Draco had worked up the nerve to ask her to the Ball. But unlike some of his more xenophobic housemates, he had actually been willing to ask the discerning girl in French.

Apparently she, and several other girls from Beauxbatons, felt it was only appropriate that they be asked in their native tongue since they had been making the effort to speak English throughout the school year.

Luckily, it just so happened that Draco's French was flawless, owing to his good breeding, diligent mother and the fact that the Malfoys descended from a French line.

"Tu es radieuse ce soir." He said, taking her hand and kissing it gently.

"Of course I appreciate the compliment, and in my own language no less, but it might be rude to speak when your friends might not be able to understand."

"Ne t'en fais pas, je parle français." Luna said with an equally flawless French accent.

Gaara watched on impassively. He was used to people talking around him about things he couldn't possibly understand.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Gaara. I have heard so much about you, and I saw your courageous performance at the First Task. The judges were very unfair to you!" She said, offering her hand to him.

Gaara knew by now what was expected but he didn't feel like playing along. Mrs Malfoy was an exception. "Hello."

Celeste withdrew the hand smoothly so it didn't become awkward. "Celeste de Beauvoir." She introduced herself to Luna.

"Hello, I'm Luna Lovegood. I like your dress."

Celeste was wearing a black dress with glimmering crystal embellishments. Luna supposed Draco had actually coordinated his ensemble himself. Not that she had begrudged Sirius contacting her on Gaara's behalf.

"Thank you, Luna. Your dress is also beautiful." Celeste responded.

"Well, we'd better get in there." Draco said, practically bubbling with excitement. He offered his arm to Celeste and she happily took it.

"We'll see you in there." Draco said.

"Why are they going in without us?" Gaara asked, finally paying attention to what was happening around him.

"McGonagall explained it to us. Everyone else will enter the Great Hall and wait, then the professors all enter and then finally the Champions." She said with a smile.

"Oh, okay." He knew he should have brought a small book, but Draco threatened to tell the Weasley Twins he wanted some sort of prank war if he didn't behave like a gentleman. So he waited.

Dozens more couples passed them by, all dressed to the nines and sporting big smiles. Many paid Gaara and Luna compliments or said hello. Luna did what she could to courteously return all of the good will, but Gaara ignored every one of them.

He did, however, notice that all of the pairs of males and females were linking their arms, so when Luna slid her arm around his, he didn't immediately disengage.

Another unfathomable part of the ritual.

"Good evening, Gaara." Fleur said cordially as she arrived alongside a boy Gaara didn't recognise. "This is my date for the evening, Stephen Angrol."

"Hello." Gaara said again, but then the conversation lapsed. Had he forgotten something?

Luna knew Gaara would never remember (if he had ever known he was supposed to) introduce her, so she picked up the conversational ball again. "I'm Luna Lovegood."

"A pleasure." Fleur said.

"Nice to see you, Luna." Stephen said. He was a seventh-year Ravenclaw and while he had never said more than two words to her before, everyone in the House knew of loony Luna Lovegood.

"Good evening, Stephen."

"I had feared we would be last." Viktor said, arriving shortly afterwards with a seventh-year Slytherin girl on his arm.

"Viktor, this is Stephen." Fleur started.

"Good to meet you." Viktor said, on his best behaviour for the social occasion even though he clearly wasn't comfortable in his militaristic formal robes.

"And you." Stephen said.

"And you've already met Gaara, of course." Fleur said quickly, understanding Gaara would not participate. "And this is his date, Luna Lovegood."

"A pleasure." Viktor kissed Luna's hand like a pro. "I am escorting Estelle Larkin this evening." He said.

The girl smiled but didn't say anything. While she might have been in the same House as Gaara, she was an ardent blood purist and did not wish to become friendly.

"So, we're just waiting on Harry Potter, it seems." Fleur said, looking around. The last trickles of non-Champion attendees were now entering the Hall, stopping to stare at the collected Champions in their finery only briefly.

"Well, I might have known Mr Potter would be late." McGonagall sighed as she approached.

"We're not late, professor!" Harry exclaimed, rushing down the stairs with Hermione's hand in his own, dragging her along faster than would have been safe even if she hadn't been teetering on high heels.

"I will be the judge of that, Mr Potter. Now slow down before you and poor Ms Granger fall the rest of the way down the stairs." She called up to them.

Harry did indeed slow down, looking back at Hermione to make sure her arm was still attached.

"See, I told you we were late." Ron complained from behind him, having jogged at a more sedate pace.

"I didn't argue with you." One of the Patil twins said from beside Ron. Gaara could not tell the twins apart and he had no interest in trying. He knew too many names as it was.

"We should have left at the same time as Ginny and Neville." Hermione scowled, trying to regain her breath and straighten her hair, which she had somehow managed to wrestle into a much neater configuration than her usual mane.

"Yes, you should have." McGonagall cut in before they could discuss it any further. "Now, Mr Weasley and Ms Patil need to take their places in the Hall without any further delay."

"Sorry professor." Ron groaned, leading Padma by the hand without a glance back at her. His casual disinterest in his date made Luna acutely aware of the similarity between how the two redheads treated their dates. But, with one glance at Gaara's furrowed brow and the way his lip was almost twitching a little, she knew they weren't the same at all.

"Now that we are all present," McGonagall started, giving Potter another pointed looked, "let's get a proper look at all of you."

She stepped back and surveyed each of the pairs. Harry took a second to smooth down the fine robes Sirius had bought for him, along with his untameable hair, and stood next to Gaara and Luna in the line-up.

Gaara barely spared Potter a glance but in that glance he spotted something that reminded him of his own indignity.

At the front of Potter's neck there was jewelled bowtie even worse than Gaara's bandit mask. It was shaped like the silhouette of two opposing stag heads, horns and all, covered in what might have been diamonds or crystals.

"He told you yours was a family heirloom as well?" Harry asked, looking at Gaara's more modest bowtie with a touch of envy.

Gaara looked away and didn't confirm or deny that he had been just as gullible as Potter.

Harry had been told his was an heirloom from his own father, which Sirius had been safekeeping. Sirius had thought hard about the morality of invoking James's memory to play a prank on Harry, but he eventually concluded it was exactly how James would have liked to be honoured.

Gaara's skin was crawling from having to maintain physical contact for this long, coupled with the noise coming from the Great Hall even after the doors had been closed for some reason.

"You're being very brave. I know you're not happy with things like this but it won't be too long and then you can go back to reading." Luna whispered in his ear.

Gaara glared a bit more openly. He didn't like being handled, even if she was right.

Gaara spotted a group of group of adults descending the stairs from the corner of his eye. The professors were a mixture of tastefully robed and Dumbledore, who was wearing the most outlandish robes Gaara could remember seeing that evening.

"Good evening." Dumbledore said warmly, "I hope you are as excited for this evening as I am. The Triwizard Tournament is fraught with peril and hardships but tonight is all about enjoying ourselves. I for one cannot remember the last time I danced." The old man smiled. He expected it had probably been about twenty years ago, at another Ministry function. "Professor McGonagall, if you would…"

"Yes. For any of you who might have forgotten the order of events tonight," She started and Harry felt like he and Gaara had been called out by name, "You will enter the Hall hand-in-hand in the order you took the First Task. You will dance in front of everyone and then Headmaster Dumbledore will deliver the opening address. There will be some dinner, and after that the floor will be opened for the rest of the attendees to dance. Because you have another event to attend tonight, be warned that you will be expected to dine at the Ministry as well, so eat sparingly here. I will be coming to collect you in an hour, so please make sure to be somewhere we can find you."

She did actually look at Gaara when she said that last part.

"Take your partner by the hand and enter when the doors open." She stood back and inspected each of them. Gaara felt confident he would pass muster since he had already been given Draco's seal of approval.

The Head of Gryffindor did frown when she saw Gaara's bowtie and then soured further when she saw Potter's. She didn't know what the ridiculous items were supposed to mean but they smacked of Sirius Black's brand of mischief.

Then again, if that was all the mischief he managed to inflict tonight, she could rest easy.

Well… the Weasley Twins were in attendance so she could rest easier without Sirius planning things as well.

The doors opened again and the music drifted out along with the combined whispers of hundreds of excited teenagers. Apparently the doors had been closed so that the Champions could make a more dramatic entrance.

The Triwizard Champions and their partners lined up with Delacour and her date at the front, followed by Gaara and Luna, then Krum and his date, and finally Potter and Granger.

Luna pulled her arm out from its link with Gaara's, which he didn't resist, but he didn't offer her his hand either. She leaned over a little and snatched his hand.

"I know you're uncomfortable like this but please just bear with it for tonight." She whispered.

He glared but not specifically at her. He would rather go back to the dragon arena.

Fleur started forward, her head held high with grace. Gaara marched stiffly, eyes trained forward but not at anything in particular. He might have looked somewhat regal as well if his eyes weren't so glassy and unfocussed. Luna matched his pace and tried to look forward too but couldn't help her eyes drifting to and fro around the specially decorated Great Hall.

A stage had been set up to one side with a small orchestra, there were small tables dotted around the Hall, and at the front near the professor's table was the dance floor.

The hundreds of students were all standing aside for the procession of Champions and professors. The Champions followed Fleur, who seemed to know what she was doing, and went straight to the freshly polished dance floor. They all lined up facing into the room with their partners by their sides.

Potter had gained a blush on his face when he realised just how much attention was being focussed on him, but the others were more stoic.

The professors followed the Champions into the Hall but circled around the dance floor to their table.

Krum took his starting position, putting his free hand on Celeste's waist, Fleur's partner did the same and even Harry worked out that was what he was supposed to do and got into his starting position with Hermione.

Luna cleared her throat gently and Gaara came out of his self-induced trance wondering what people wanted from him now.

Looking to one side, there were two couples of boy and girl in what appeared to the starting position for a waltz, and there was another couple doing the same on the other side.

Logically, he supposed he was also meant be in that position with Luna. He put his hand between her hip and the bottom of her ribs, his fingers together, while his other hand, which was already connected to hers, was raised, elbow bent.

She seemed to be warm but he trusted that she was not ill. Her face bore no sign of the altercation from earlier that day.

"Madame Pomfrey healed the scratch very quickly. No harm done." She whispered. "I didn't need you to hunt down those girls for me, but thank you anyway. I know it's just how you show you care."

Gaara wasn't entirely sure about that, but he didn't say anything.

The conductor, who happened to be Flitwick for this piece, stepped up and tapped his wand on the sheet music holder. Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake waltz began to play and all of the dancers started to move in sync.

Gaara focused on the dance so it fell to Luna to appreciate the moment. She watched Gaara's face but it was totally impassive – this was just an exercise to him.

Harry was positively astounded that Gaara could dance. It seemed so incongruous with everything he knew about the other boy.

Hermione, on the other hand, had to focus on keeping her feet out from under Harry's. He had attended the dancing lessons but he was still rather uncoordinated and prone to stepping on her toes even when he wasn't distracted by all of the other participants.

She sighed, wishing Harry had worked up the nerve to ask a girl he really liked so she would have been free to say yes to Viktor Krum.

…Viktor Krum, who, as it turned out, was an accomplished dancer.

The four pairs danced through the entire song until the final note played. A round of applause rose up from the students and the professors joined in while the Champions went back to standing in line.

When the applause died down, Krum walked his date around the professors' table and sat there. Assuming he had paid attention to some directive Gaara had ignored, he followed him and took the next seat along. Luna had been distracted by something shiny hovering in the air so she was pulled along.

Once all of the Champions were sat at the head of the room in full view, Dumbledore rose again to speak.

"Truly wonderful dancing. All of our Champions continue to do our three schools proud. The Champions' first dance is one of many traditions tied to the Triwizard Tournament, and it is quite probably my favourite of all. Seeing these young couples moving with such grace is a treat for us all. But I'm not here to dwell on my love of dancing, I have the privilege of announcing the opening of the Yule Ball. Eat, drink pumpkin juice and be merry. Our House Elves have been hard at work preparing a feast for us all to enjoy. So, please eat your fill and then take to the dance floor."

Dumbledore had used his Headmaster's prerogative to go and taste a few of the delicacies being prepared for the event earlier that day. He didn't have the appetite he used to but his sweet tooth had only grown with his age.

The food that magically appeared outshone even Hogwarts' normally indulgent Christmas feasts. The selection on offer for most of the students was tremendous but the Champions had been given ready-made plates so they would stay in their seats and be seen.

There were only a couple of reporters in attendance at the student ball. Most had begged their editors to be allowed to cover the Ministry event instead, where there would be more celebrities and the rules about bothering the attendees wouldn't be nearly as strict. Still, the photos the attending reporters took of the Champions' first first dance would interest the public greatly.

However, more than a few subscribers to the Daily Prophet would complain in the morning that their moving picture of Gaara at dinner wasn't moving at all. Was there an issue with the enchantment?

Gaara was just staring ahead and counting down the seconds.

"Gaara, I know there is more to come later, but the elves will appreciate it if you at least try some of the food they cooked." Luna said.

Breaking out of his human-statue routine, Gaara looked back down at his plate filled with overly rich and fatty foods and started to pick at it.

Once the eating was done, the music started back up again and the students were all released to dance and/or socialise as they pleased.

Sadly neither option appealed to Gaara so Luna seized the initiative and pulled him up and back to the dance floor before he had the wherewithal to object. By the time he realised what was happening, he was already dancing again.

"Only the first song was mandatory for us to dance to." He said, looking around to see if the other Champions had returned.

"You're probably right." Luna admitted, continuing the dance. "But we can't be too careful. We'd better finish this song just to be safe."

Gaara glared at her, 99% sure that she was lying but still not detaching his hands from hers. Dumbledore was watching and he really hadn't paid enough attention to the details of the event when they were shared with him to know for sure if there was a second dance.

Besides, he wasn't always a good friend to Luna and this seemed to make her happy for some reason, so he would dance for an extra song.

He spotted Draco dancing nearby giving him a startled look, presumably wondering why he had returned to the dance floor. Draco truly was an exception dancer, proving once and for all that the blond could undertake physical exercise with a measure of dignity if the occasion called for it.

After the second song ended, Gaara marched off of the dance floor, his hand still held tightly in Luna's so she came along with him.

Gaara searched for and found a quiet spot in the heaving temporary ballroom. An empty table at the back of the Hall behind a couple of insulated friendship groups was the perfect place to seclude himself… with Luna. Then again, she was being uncharacteristically quiet so he didn't mind if she stayed near him.

They sat in companionable silence while Luna looked around the room, fascinated by all of the varied interactions taking place within sight. Couples arguing, some that seemed to be breaking up even, others dancing, or chatting, a few kissing before they realised McGonagall had also spotted them.

She turned back to Gaara in his impeccable robes and his wonderfully shiny bandit-mask bowtie. She was glad Sirius had taken her suggestion over his original idea of a silk cravat and a golden cravat ring. It would have looked nice but the bowtie was a secret they shared.

Gaara was sitting very straight again but his brows were twitching a little and he was avoiding looking at anyone. Luna had known all of this noise and human activity would be distressing for him. She pulled out her wand discreetly and transfigured a nearby plate into a pair of earmuffs (in the same Ravenclaw blue as his wonderful robes).

It took a moment for him to notice she was offering something, and then another moment to process what they were. He seemed reluctant to take them, perhaps because of some notion of warrior's pride or because he didn't want to lose one of his senses when he might be attacked.

Then the band started playing a fast rock number and he gratefully took them and slid them over his ears. He nodded his head in thanks and went back to staring into space. Luna sighed and went back to happily watching the party.

A while later, Draco shambled over, looking as tired as a boy who didn't routinely exercise after half an hour of dancing.

"You look like you're having fun." Luna commented as he fell back into a chair bonelessly.

Draco was about to make an overly-harsh remark about the fact that she didn't look like she was having fun but then he realised that Gaara wasn't just ignoring her like he often did, he was actually wearing earmuffs.

"Where on Earth did he get those?!" He gestured to Gaara's new earwear.

"I made them for him. He doesn't like lots of noise and crowds." She said.

"Of course he doesn't," He said, irritated that she thought she could teach him how Gaara worked, "But he can't just sit here and ignore you all night."

"He won't. When we go to the Ministry Ball in a little while, he won't be able to wear them at all. He'll be upset enough to have to sit through all of that – I don't want to make it worse by making him listen to everything around him now."

"You shouldn't baby him like that." Draco scoffed but didn't try to take the earmuffs off. "But he can keep wearing them for a little bit."

"Where's Celeste?"

"She's gone to powder her nose." He said.

"I don't think she needs to do that. It was a very nice nose even without powder."

"No- she- Nevermind…" He said, leaning back into his chair to watch the crowds. "It's pitiful, all of them out there wearing those Ministry-issued robes. I couldn't stand the humiliation."

"I think it all looks quite wonderful, and everyone seems to be having a nice time." She said. "But it's kind of you to be worried about people with less than you."

Draco scoffed and looked away, changing the subject.

He chatted with Luna for a few minutes before jumping back to his feet as Celeste approached. With a second thought, he reached back and pulled the earmuffs off of Gaara's head and threw them under the table.

"I wondered where you'd gotten to," She said, "But now I see you've split off into your own party."

"To get away from the rabble." He said smoothly, offering her a chair.

"A brilliant idea, Draco." She said.

"And how have you enjoyed the Yule Ball thus far?" She asked Luna and Gaara.

Gaara failed to answer her at all and Luna smiled, "It's been marvellous. And I think your nose looks lovely."

Celeste recoiled a little, struggling to maintain her smile. "Yes, well, thank you…"

"Celeste, you must tell me more about Beauxbatons. It would be good to know more about the school I nearly attended."

"I would be happy to." She smiled before recounting fanciful tales of how opulent her palace of a school was. Draco might have been insulted by the implied superiority of her school compared to Hogwarts, but he knew that his peers would have been saying equally arrogant things.

They stayed for a few minutes but when it became clear Luna would bring the conversation to a crashing halt every time she spoke and Gaara wouldn't contribute at all, he invited Celeste to introduce him to her friends and she gladly obliged.

As Draco glanced backwards, he could see the way Gaara's eyes weren't just staring, they were blank, and his fingers were gripping the edge of the table. Gaara wasn't irritated, he looked like he was in pain. Soon enough, Luna would fish his earmuffs out from under the table and he could settle down again.

Luckily, the few reporters present didn't find Gaara sitting in the back of the room to be as interesting as they did Victor Krum and Harry Potter switching dance partners for a song.

Harry hadn't wanted to dance any more but Hermione insisted and he didn't know how to refuse under the circumstances, and then she had come up with the idea to trade partners.

Krum's partner felt that she had lost out in this arrangement as she concentrated on dodging the young Boy-Who-Lived's clumsy feet. Meanwhile, Krum was twirling around with Hermione, both smiling.

After a few more dances, they all returned to their own partners and Harry was finally able to drag Hermione off of the dance floor.

They joined Ron and Padma at a table, and Ginny and Neville showed up not long after.

Padma seemed entirely discontent with Ron's company and eventually made an excuse and disappeared, probably to find her sister or one of her actual friends. Ron didn't seem to notice, instead he was glaring at his sister for watching Harry so forlornly. Neville, at that moment, was talking amicably with Hermione.

Harry wondered if Gaara had escaped somehow, despite a professor being stationed at the exit presumably to stop just that, when he couldn't spot the red hair anyone in the crowds around the room. He did see Malfoy coming and going and exchanged the usual glares when their eyes met at a distance.

He was in the middle of one such glare when an approaching form drew his attention and he found himself looking at Professor McGonagall. It took a second for him to realise that he had kept the same scowl on his face when looking at her and had to wipe it off quickly before she took offense.

"Come along, Potter, Ms Granger. It's time for us to go to the Ministry Ball." She said.

"Yes, professor." Hermione said.

Minerva led the pair of them, safe in the knowledge that Granger would ensure Potter moved at a reasonable pace. She hadn't seen Gaara for a while and she was just beginning to worry she would have to send out a search party when she saw his red hair at the back of the room. It was like a convenient beacon.

Soon, the Champions were following McGonagall out of the Hall to rapturous applause from the students who all noticed their unannounced departure.

Out of the Hall, they followed the mature teacher up the stairs while she privately smirked to herself about the impractical fashion choices of youth. Most of the young women had chosen to wear fashionably high heels to the Yule Ball, which might have been fine when sitting or even with light dancing, but they would be fortunate not to end up limping by the time they had finished climbing staircase after staircase. It was a rookie mistake.

That's why she wore flats and applauded Ms Lovegood for doing the same. Though, that wasn't the real reason Luna had elected to wear flat shoes.

When the group arrived, Dumbledore's office was empty. "Headmaster Dumbledore has travelled ahead and you will be joining him." McGonagall said curtly.

The more this whole event went on, the more Harry felt that the school's Ball had been a mere formality.

"You will floo to the Ministry foyer in pairs." She told them. "I won't be joining you but I have been told you will have an opportunity to smarten yourselves and brush any ash off of your robes on the other side before your formal entrance." She added at Potter's panicked look.

Fleur and her partner went first, clearly stating their destination and disappearing in flames.

Next, Gaara and Luna stepped into the fireplace. Luna took the floo powder and called out the destination for both of them while her other hand held Gaara's own. "Ministry of Magic foyer!"

Gaara had tensed the moment before the flames leapt up to consume them.

On the other side, they both stumbled out without any of the grace exhibited by Delacour and her date before them or Krum and his date after. Gaara might have felt self-conscious as a nameless Ministry worker brushed down his robes with a spell to remove every trace of ash or dust that might have adhered, but the way that Potter came crashing out of the fireplace made Gaara's own entrance look dignified.

It was nothing short of a miracle that Granger had managed to withdraw her hand as they arrived so Potter didn't pull her down with him. The unfortunate Ministry worker had his work cut out for him as he had to remove masses of ash from Harry's brand new robes.

The fireplace out of which they had all popped was cordoned off from the rest of the vast Ministry atrium by a tent.

"Ah, good, you've all arrived in one piece." Dumbledore said as he entered the tent. "Welcome to all of you. Professors Karakoff and Maxime are with the Minister at the moment so I have been asked to come and make sure you all know how this evening's event will proceed."

Gaara looked to make sure Luna was paying attention, which of course she was, so he could zone back out while Dumbledore explained.

"-And please remember that you represent not just your schools but all young witches and wizards in Europe." Dumbledore said in conclusion before leaving them again.

"Just follow my lead, Gaara." Luna whispered to him, having witnessed his inattention, and he nodded.

The Champions and their partners proceeded out of the tent in the same order as they had entered the Great Hall. As Gaara stepped out, he found the Ministry atrium had been transformed since he was last there. Everything around him was glittering like there were stars in the air.

The fountain was missing and instead, behind the hundreds of dressed-up adults, was an elaborate stage. In every way, this made the school's Yule Ball look like a small deal. This was undoubtedly supposed to be the main event.

The adults, comprised of every notable witch and wizard in the British Isles and a select few from around Europe, all watched the Champions intently like they were the evening's entertainment. Perhaps that's what they were.

Gaara allowed Luna to continue holding his hand as they followed behind Delacour on the narrow red carpet that was bordered by hundreds of onlookers and Ministry workers maintaining the separation.

So suddenly that Luna thought she felt Gaara flinch at the same time she did, the full orchestra off to the side of the atrium began playing a lively number to signal the triumphant entrance of the Champions to the party.

They climbed the steps up to the ostentatious stage where Fudge waited with a wide politician's smile. He was otherwise alone on the big stage, standing behind a podium and watching them close in.

"Our Champions, ladies and gentleman!" He announced when they all lined up, and a round of applause started.

From his vantage point on the stage, Gaara could see the room better now and it was astounding the excess these people went to. Champagne fountains, floating chandeliers to supplement the gentle light from the conjured stars suspended around the hall, and witches and wizards outfitted in the finest robes money could buy. And, to top it all off, a wall of reporters roped off at the back of the atrium waiting for their chance to mingle with the upper crust and score the scoop of the year.

Another thing he noticed was that Sirius wasn't present. He could spot Sirius's face even amongst the crowd and he didn't see him. Also, he expected Sirius would have done something obnoxious to gain his attention.

Never one to miss an opportunity to give a speech, Fudge cleared his throat and started on his carefully-written opening address.

Fudge introduced the Champions one at a time, ignoring their unimportant partners entirely. He talked about it being their second Yule Ball of the evening, but that the fine witches and wizards assembled there that night shouldn't envy the children as this was the place to be!

He talked about how he hoped this would be another welcome addition to the traditions of the Triwizard Tournament, to be taken forward into future Tournaments.

It was a brief speech compared to some of Fudge's others, which Gaara suspected was to keep the crowd happy. And soon enough the Champions were directed to descended back down to the main floor and take up positions for their 'first' dance.

Hermione was a lot more tense this time now that she'd experienced Harry's two left feet.

Luna, on the other hand, took immense satisfaction in her third dance of the evening. She wondered how she could contrive to get him to dance again either that night or in the future. The Malfoy Ball might be her best shot – she'd need to tell Draco to enforce mandatory dancing. He might agree, he could be helpful like that sometimes.

Gaara focussed on his movements but he did have enough attention to spare to observe his surroundings. The faces leering at all of them were unsettling. They weren't like the smiles and sneers of the Hogwarts attendees. These reminded him of his father, ambitious and cold, and of the faces he remembered seeing on the spectators at a travelling circus he visited with Yashamaru as a child.

Yashamaru had snuck him in and they watched half the show, with Gaara squealing and cheering along with the rest of the children, albeit from the back. They had to leave when another visitor had turned to offer to let the boy through to the front where the other children were watching but a panic broke out when they noticed who he was.

Before that emotionally scarring episode got started, Gaara remembered the faces of the people present – the look of entertainment on their faces.

Gaara realised he was now the dancing bear and the ring master holding the end of the chain, wearing hideously colourful robes, was standing away from the action, stroking his white beard.

"You should see if there is a dancing club at school." Luna said.

"Why?" Gaara asked. "Do you think Draco would like to join?"

Luna smiled. Even when he was hurtfully oblivious, Gaara did think about his friends. "Yes, I think he would, actually."

"Hmm." Gaara said.

Too soon the song ended and the Champions were ushered to a round table where Fudge and a few others were sat. Luna told Gaara that the others at the table were the Ministers for Magic from France and Norway. Apparently they wanted to eat opposite the celebrities of the moment.

"You were all wonderful out there." The French Minister for Magic complimented them collectively for their dancing.

"Yes, your dancing was very good." The Norwegian Minister concurred. "Where did you all learn to waltz?"

What followed was less about eating and more about making idle small talk. Fortunately, Luna was more than happy to pick up the conversational slack on Gaara's behalf. Though, Fudge wouldn't have described it so positively since the peculiar girl kept asking him and his esteemed counterparts about ludicrous conspiracies. It was humiliating!

Soon, the conversation shifted and Harry was peppered with a variety of personal and political questions, but unlike Gaara he didn't refuse to answer so much as kept tripping over his words. It got even worse when they asked insensitive questions about his recent burning or about the origins of his lightning bolt scar.

As in all occasions, the more mature Champions proved to be adept at fielding questions, including from senior politicians. They kept the conversation light and entertaining in a way that mystified Harry. If he didn't hate this kind of attention so much, he would have wished he could take notes on Krum's handling of invasive questions.

Eventually, the adults at the table stuck to only conversing with the more mature Champions. Whereas Luna had posited a number of unlikely theories and conspiracies, unsettling their dinner companions, Hermione Granger had gone three or four steps further.

The dignitaries had been expecting to chatter away and tease out some juicy gossip about the Champions. They had not signed up to be berated by a child about:

Their shared failures in promoting sufficient blood-equality legislation in their jurisdictions

House Elf rights

The total lack of integration of Muggle technology in the Wizarding world (and how Wizarding governments around the world were dropping the ball)

The utter barbarity of forcing Harry into the Tournament

It was only at that point that Fudge had intervened and forcibly changed the topic. And from that moment, no one addressed or acknowledged Hermione at all. She tried quietly talking to Harry but he seemed distracted, and she had Gaara on her other side. It was hard enough to get him to talk even when he wasn't having some sort of quiet meltdown.

Luna had watched in awe and regretted not raising one or two of Hermione's points before she too had been shut out of the adult conversation. She had often been impressed by Granger and more than once wished the older girl had been sorted into Ravenclaw instead of Gryffindor. She, of course, had nothing against the House of lions, but she felt they could have been friends if they were Housemates.

The excruciating meal didn't last forever, no matter how it may have felt at the time. Gaara once again ate almost none of the food on his plate. Despite it being 'fancier', this only meant that it was even richer and more nauseating than what had been served at Hogwarts.

He had held out in the hope that they might serve him something more palatable at his second dinner, but he now wondered if he should have just eaten some of the Hogwarts food. He offered Luna his plate since she didn't seem to have his reservations but she only told him she was fine with her own food.

After the dinner portion of the evening, the Champions were ejected from the table. Apparently none of them were allowed to hide at a quiet table near the back this time, so they instead had to face the enormous room of guests who were just dying to meet them.

Luna tried to shield Gaara a bit but no one wanted to talk to her, they just wanted a few words from Gaara. It was only after a few instances of him violently shirking attempted physical contact and wrenching his hand back from people trying to shake it that these strange witches and wizards stopped trying to make contact with him. Mostly.

The questions they threw at him were on all subjects, including but not limited to: Fluffy, his bowtie, the Attack on Hogwarts, whether he had been in league with Sirius Black before the acquittal, where he came from, his heritage, and the Quidditch World Cup Final.

He answered none of them to anyone's satisfaction and Luna tended to stay away from any of the more loaded questions, but she was happy enough to talk about Fluffy or about dragon welfare. She even managed to bring up the Quibbler a few times, and would continue to pepper it into conversation throughout the evening, so hopefully her father would receive one or two more subscriptions. Or a nice complaint letter that he could print.

Xenophilius Lovegood was covering the event as well but she hadn't spotted her dad anywhere yet. If she didn't run into him, she would look forward to reading his unbiased account in the next issue of the Quibbler. Though, she had hoped he could meet Gaara…

Gaara would not be fooled again so Luna could not draw him towards the dance floor no matter what she said and instead they had to settle for finding a quiet alcove to avoid the worst of the crowds.

Getting through the crowds had been a challenge even for Gaara. Normally he would have been able to barge his way through but he was holding Luna's hand at the time and it was like dragging an anchor through a political swamp.

Fortunately, despite what the jackals lacked in tact, they were at least cognizant of the peculiar Champion's foul temper. As such, none of them actually tried to physically impede Gaara when he stormed through the crowd with Luna very much in tow.

A few did try to catch Gaara's attention as he passed but fortunately Gaara had an ultimate defence that was particularly effective against the English: ignoring polite social conventions.

No matter how anyone tried to politely gain his attention or start a conversation, he didn't engage with them at all. Luna considered pointing out that Gaara was being quite rude but it seemed to be the point of his behaviour so she just followed along, glad to be included in his march.

On their way, Gaara did actually encounter someone who didn't want to talk to him. They passed between Lucius Malfoy and someone who bore a striking resemblance to Crabbe or Goyle (Gaara had forgotten which was which). The men seemed to be embroiled in some sort of quiet argument that came to a standstill when Gaara appeared. Both men sneered at him and waited until he had continued on his way before continuing their discussion.

He wondered where Mrs Malfoy was. She normally seemed to stay near Lucius at these events.

They went to the edge of the party and into a dark and quiet alcove. Partygoers could still see them but when it looked like they had purposefully secluded themselves, no one wanted to intrude on an intimate moment. Once again Gaara had weaponised British neuroses.

"I don't normally mind crowds but that was rather difficult, wasn't it, Gaara?" Luna said.

Gaara nodded.

"The decorations are very pretty, I think. I wonder what enchantment they used." Luna commented, marvelling at the beautiful lights hanging in the air all over the cavernous space. "When I get back to Hogwarts, I'll have to start researching it. I'd like to cast it in my room."

Gaara was only half paying attention but he looked around again, this time up at the glittering specks of light. They were nice but he would prefer the enchantment from the Great Hall, seeing the actual stars. However, since the Slytherin dorms were located under the Black Lake, the view of the giant squid and whatever else was down there would probably be less restful at night.

The other half of Gaara's mind was busy keeping the demon inside of him at bay. The death-count if his concentration wavered for just a moment would be catastrophic, perhaps the worst he had caused.

"Do they have parties like this in your world?" She asked.

Gaara turned his attention back to her. "Perhaps, but most likely not as large. My people are more understated. I'm not certain."

"Why not?"

"I wasn't invited." Even after Gaara had started to serve Suna rather than slaughter its citizens, people had known better than to invite him to social gatherings when he wouldn't want to go. "My brother and sister attended on my behalf."

"Do you think about them often? Your brother and sister."

Gaara considered his answer and settled on: "Yes."

"Do you think they're thinking about you?"

Temari would have been worrying herself sick after he disappeared and Kankuro would have locked himself in his studio to work on his puppets for days. After that… "I don't know."

"I think they are. Even across worlds or dimensions, you aren't someone anybody could forget easily. Especially family."

Family. It meant something to him, possibly a lot, but Gaara wasn't entirely sure what it was. Something for him to protect, something…

Luna violently flinching drew him out of his thoughts again. She didn't seem alarmed, she was just staring at something in a darkened corner.

"What is it?" He asked.

"Oh, it's nothing. I just wasn't expecting to see insects in the Ministry." Luna said.

Gaara hummed in agreement. It was surprising when the rest of the place was spotless, but it just went to show that nothing was perfect.

"I'm sure your brother and sister will be very happy to see you again when you… when you go back to your world." She said.

Gaara hummed again in agreement.

"Even if I'd rather you never left…" She added softly. He didn't respond, as if he hadn't heard her.

Luna blushed and considered going to find Harry Potter and Hermione Granger under some flimsy pretence. The wall of mingling adults convinced her to stay put. Better a hideously awkward moment with Gaara, who would fail to appreciate it, than try her luck with the vultures.

They sat in silence for a while, her watching the crowds, and he was… She wasn't sure. He might have just retreated inside of himself like he sometimes did, or maybe he was passively watching everything around them.

Sadly the lapse in conversation was conspicuous to those who had been watching for a gap, and soon they were approached by a portly wizard wielding a notepad and quill.

"I hope you don't mind…" He started with a friendly smile on his face that might have been disarming to someone else.

"No, you can have it." Gaara said, leaving the alcove after giving Luna a look to follow. She instead latched back on to his arm.

"Oh, actually, I was hoping-" The reporter tried to follow after them but Gaara swiftly led Luna into the dense crowd and manoeuvred between groups so that the reporter got caught in the swell of people. Along the way, several others tried to catch Gaara but he just kept moving until it almost became a game. Luna thought it was pretty fun anyway.

Gaara searched about to find somewhere else that he could hide but all around him were bodies, laughing and drinking and talking and talking and talking and talking…

Luna saw the manic look in Gaara's eyes.

"I think I saw Headmaster Dumbledore over there." Luna said, having to repeat herself in the noise.

Gaara looked and saw glimpses not of a white beard or half-moon spectacles but only the hideous colourful robes shined through the mass of people.

Moving with a new purpose, Gaara charged through the groups of affluent visitors, heedless of where he was shoving them apart or into each other.

Dumbledore had been keeping an eye on his surroundings while he talked with an old acquaintance from Hungary. It was that wandering eye that caught first sight of Gaara rudely pushing his way through the crowd towards him like a man with a mission. He sighed.

Gaara practically threw people aside when he finally reached Dumbledore, who had politely ended his catch-up with his Hungarian friend and waited for Gaara to come to him.

"Good evening, Gaara, Ms Lovegood." He said. "I'm afraid I didn't have an opportunity to say it personally earlier, but both of you look wonderful this evening. I'm particularly impressed with yours and Mr Potter's bowties. It's a pity we don't have more opportunities to dress up in our everyday lives. Don't you agree?"

"When does this end?" Gaara demanded.

Dumbledore checked his silver pocket watch. "No official ending time was provided but I suspect it will continue for several more hours at least, into the early morning."

Gaara glared at him but didn't say anything else.

Albus weighed up the possibility of keeping Gaara there for the entire event but, from the looks of things, he would be playing with fire. Any political gains he might hope to make by keeping his Champions there would be ruined if Gaara continued to treat the other guests so poorly.

With the way the boy was looking at him in that moment, there might be a real danger of violence breaking out.

"Would you both like to retire back to the Castle early?" He offered, kindly. He kept an eye on Ms Lovegood to see if she might be able to persuade Gaara to stay longer.

Luna looked to Gaara and then nodded, "Yes, please."

"Yes."

Dumbledore was disappointed but he counted his blessings that Gaara had come at all. "In that case, I suppose it can't be helped. I hope you both enjoyed the evening, even if only up to a point. Follow me and I will have a floo prepared."

"Thank you, sir." Luna said.

Gaara didn't say a word, he just continued to glare at the man who hadn't yet sent him back to the relative peace and quiet of the school.

Dumbledore turned and started towards the entrance the Champions had come through a couple of hours earlier.

Evidently, the two notables both moving together through the crowd drew the attention of one Ministry attendant or another and word reached the Minister almost immediately.

"Excuse me, Headmaster Dumbledore." Henrick Morbidus looked about as natural to a party setting as Gaara himself, even if he was dressed for the occasion. He had appeared out of the crowd like he had been waiting by the exit all evening. "Might I enquire as to where you are leading young Mr Gaara and Ms Lovegood?"

It concerned Gaara that this man, who he had noticed in the past bore an uncanny resemblance to a predatory insect of some type, knew Luna's name. Presumably he had made a note of the Champions and their guests, but Gaara had a nagging suspicion that her name would have been known to Morbidus even if Luna's wasn't in attendance.

"I'm afraid Gaara and Miss Lovegood are feeling a bit tired and would like to go back to the Castle."

"Oh, that is a pity." Morbidus's smile could not have been less comforting. "Might we keep them just a little while longer? Another hour or two? There are so many people who would like to make Mr Gaara's acquaintance."

"I'm sure they would, but as you are no doubt aware, children do need their rest. There will still be three Triwizard Champions in attendance and that will have to suffice." He said firmly.

Morbidus calculated his response for a brief moment, his face frozen, and he then eyebrows rose and his face brightened up in yet another approximation of a human emotion, "But of course, Headmaster. It wouldn't do to keep the young ones out past their comfort. I speak for the Minister and the rest of the Ministry when I say that we hope you've both enjoyed yourself at the Yule Ball. Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year."

The tall, gaunt man might have given a younger child nightmares with his smile. Luna, being made of sterner stuff, was simply uncomfortable under his gaze.

"Thank you for being so accommodating, Henrick." Dumbledore said.

"Yes, thank you." Luna said, then regretting drawing the tall man's attention directly to her. He smiled at her again but quickly turned to leave and address more important matters. Cornelius would be displeased that one of the Champions left so early but at least it was Gaara and not one of the others.

Henrick had spotted the ambassadors from the Japanese and Australian ministries a little too close together and he wanted to make sure no deals were on the horizon between their historically feuding ministries. The British Ministry was benefitting from acting as a go-between and he wasn't above sowing a little discord at a party to ensure Britain continued to flourish.

They passed throught eh curtains without any further impediments and the pair of Aurors standing guard backed away to give them access. Dumbledore stopped in front of the fireplace and passed the complimentary bowl of floo powder to Luna. "Go back to 'the Headmaster's office, Hogwarts' and it will still be open."

"Thank you, Headmaster." Luna said, taking a handful of floo powder in one hand and Gaara in the other.

"I will see you both tomorrow at breakfast." Dumbledore said, watching them step into the green fire.

"The Headmaster's Office, Hogwarts!" Luna said clearly and suddenly they were falling through the vortex of fire and fireplaces. By the time they landed on the other end, Gaara had to devote what little of his willpower he could spare from corralling Shukaku to keep his fatty dinner from making a reappearance.

Seeing Gaara turn a little green would have been fascinating for Luna if Filch weren't standing in front of them looking like he had just caught them breaking and entering.

"Well, well, well! What are you two doing here?" He demanded with a grim smile.

"We came back early." Luna said. She was one of the few students in the school currently aware of Argus Filch's tragic circumstances but it didn't make him any less upsetting when he set his mind on persecuting the students.

"We'll just have to see about that when the Headmaster returns!" He snarled.

Gaara had marshalled his stomach and regained his composure enough to disregard an adult's (self-styled) authority. Gaara walked forwards and Filch stepped in his path.

Gaara had had a long night, and that was after he had been stopped from killing those bullies earlier. Every human was on thin ice.

Gaara continued towards Filch and the older man looked like he was just as eager for a dust up with the boy.

Whether it was because Luna alone understood absurdity of a grown man getting into a fight with a teenager or because she had seen some sand shifting in Gaara's hand and she didn't want the custodian to die, she had to pretend to be Draco for a moment.

"Gaara, don't even think about it!" She said assertively. Immediately Gaara stopped his approach and whatever he had been about to do with the sand between his fingers. He glared at her, either because he was in a foul mood or because he had recognised she tricked him into making a sensible choice.

"Move out of the way." Gaara demanded but Filch only sneered and clutched his mop tighter.

Watching these two males gear up for a fight for absolutely no reason reminded Luna why she struggled with Gryffindors and most boys. She sighed.

"Professor Dumbledore sent us back. You can check it with him when he comes back through but it won't be for a few hours. We're going back to our dormitories because it's late and we're tired. If we've lied, the Headmaster will find out and we'll be in trouble then. Is that okay?"

Filch grumbled something under his breath and glared at the two of them, which Gaara returned in spades. Luna pushed Gaara from behind and steered him out of the office. He was normally better at controlling his anger problems and impulses than this; perhaps she had underestimated how stressed the evening's events had made him.

Luna was half-expecting Gaara to stalk away as soon as they reached the bottom of the spiral staircase from Dumbledore's office but instead he walked alongside her to the Ravenclaw dormitory. They didn't speak but it was still nice.

When they reached the stairway leading up to Ravenclaw tower, Gaara finally stopped and looked at Luna. They were standing close together and suddenly Luna's mind ran away with her, remembering a few of the romantic novels she had read. A boy and a girl at the end of the date… It was the perfect moment for a goodnight kiss.

"Thank you." Gaara said.

Luna sagged a little. She hadn't thought for a moment that it would really happen, but…

"You've been a good friend and I'm sorry I can't be a better friend to you." Gaara said.

Luna was struck by the emotional whiplash of the moment. "But…" She thought about all that she wanted from her friendship with Gaara but those expectations just made her feel selfish.

She put her hand on his shoulder. Even if he wasn't entirely comfortable with human contact, it felt important to make a comforting gesture.

"You're my best friend, Gaara. The best friend I've ever had. And friends aren't precisely what we want them to be all the time. You are your own person and you make choices, and sometimes they are wrong. Attacking those horrid girls earlier was wrong, but the important part is why you did it. You were trying to be a good friend and to protect me."

Standing so close, face to face, Luna thought she almost saw an expression flit over Gaara's face in that moment. Something in his black-rimmed eyes softened for just an instant.

"Please don't think you're a bad friend, Gaara. You're very important to me." Luna felt an impulse to live out one of those fantastical moments from her books but she took her hand off of Gaara's shoulder instead and simply smiled at him.

Maybe one day.

"Good night, Gaara. Thank you for a magical evening." Luna said. She waited for a moment and then turned to go up the stairs and answer the Sphinx's riddle.

"Good night, Luna." Gaara said to her back.

He climbed down the Castle, avoiding people slowly drifting back to their dormitories from the student Yule Ball just starting to wind down in the Great Hall. He wasn't in the mood to deal with people anymore that night.

Draco wasn't 'people', but the overly-pleased look on the blond's face when Gaara entered their room almost sent him back the way he came. It had been challenging to make it back to their room without being swamped by Slytherins looking for stories about the Ministry Ball or just to, once again, applaud him for being their Champion.

Gaara didn't know the saying 'cat that ate the canary' but it would have fit Draco's expression perfectly.

"So…" Draco started. "How was it?"

"Noisy." Gaara said, earning him an exaggerated huff from Draco.

"Honestly, what's the point of sharing a room with Hogwarts' Champion if I don't at least get the juicy details before anyone else?!"

Gaara shrugged unnecessarily and proceeded to his bed where he could start changing out of his formal clothes. He tore off the bowtie, which he had almost forgotten he was wearing, and threw it across the room.

"Be careful with that!" Draco said, jumping out of his bed to check on it. "Even if it's not really an heirloom, it was a gift and definitely expensive."

Gaara didn't care how expensive an insult was.

"Aren't you going to ask how my evening was?" Draco said when he had rescued the bowtie and hidden it away in his bedside cabinet.

"No." Gaara said honestly.

Draco rolled his eyes. "Well, I couldn't tell you everything anyway." Draco teased ineffectively. "It wouldn't be gentlemanly."

Gaara glanced at Draco's face, bursting to tell him something, but Gaara was too tired to indulge him, so he didn't prompt any further disclosure.

Draco's eagerness came to a boil but all he managed was a great harrumph and flopped back down onto his bed. He would try again in the morning when Gaara was in a better mood. Besides, he for once wanted Gaara to settle down early.

Probably for the first time since they started rooming together over a year ago, Gaara fell asleep before Draco. Draco had pretended to go to sleep and because Gaara was so exhausted, he didn't notice the falsehood.

A while after the light turned out and Gaara's breathing evened out, Draco reached into his bedside cabinet again and pulled out a vial. He had been working on his Dreamwalker Potion for months but it was finally done.

It was finally time to find out what Gaara was still keeping from him. He wouldn't ever need to tell Gaara he knew, but he did need to know. Maybe with that knowledge, he could help Gaara.

He drank the foul-tasting concoction and as the sludge moved down his throat, he did briefly panic that even as skilled in Potions as he was, he could have just poisoned himself.

He closed his eyes as a pain erupted in his gut and then his skin felt like it was tingling all over, and then it was being scraped by a million tiny particles.

He opened his eyes but instead of lying in his bed in the Slytherin dormitory, he was standing in a desert of some kind.

He was shocked and confused until he remembered what he had been doing. He must be in Gaara's memories. The magic-sand user from a desert country would have a desert in his mind, he supposed.

The description of the potion had been unhelpfully vague, so he hadn't known exactly what to expect. He had hoped it might be like those stories of Wizards and Witches who could scan a person's mind. He wanted to pick and choose the secrets he needed to know, he didn't feel like he needed to actually walk in Gaara's memories.

He would just have to hope he was in the memory he needed.

That said, looking around, he wasn't sure why this was a memory on Gaara's mind. There wasn't anything around to remember. Just wind and sand. He walked forwards, hoping to find something more substantial.

He was almost at the point of calling it quits and trying to leave when he spotted something interesting at last. There were various uninteresting rocky outcroppings in the desert but in front of him was an opening. He approached the cave and figured it could the point of the memory.

He wandered into the cave and found it went down into the ground.

Down he climbed into the dark until he found another opening into a new area, marked by the dim light shining from that area.

Though the crevice, he couldn't pay any attention to the size of the cavern or the torches illuminating the space. Every last slither of his attention was drawn to the sand-coloured creature that must have been at least as tall as Hogwarts and which seemed to be impaled against the wall of the cavern.

It was animalistic and bore a striking resemblance to the form that Gaara took once a month. But the way it thrashed and screamed and threatened reminded Draco of the one full moon he remembered Gaara not transforming.

The night that still gave Draco nightmares and that had pushed him to this extreme measure of invading his best friend's mind.

"You used to be magnificent! And now you're nothing but their pet! Something kept around for their amusement!" The behemoth screeched. And then Draco noticed that Gaara was standing before the creature on the cavern's floor.

"Demon, I am noone's entertainment. I will do what is needed to earn passage home. I will not let your hatred hurt the people of this world like it has our own world."

A demon! Draco had heard the term but he thought they were truly a myth, dreamt up by muggles who didn't know the truth about magical creatures or the natural world around them. Could this enormous beast, which was still screaming about killing humans, be the truth behind the myth?

Whatever Draco had expected to discover in this intrusion, it was not this. Gaara had met a demon.

When had this memory happened?

'Hold on…'

Something occurred to Draco as he watched his friend be berated by a monster many times the size of a dragon.

The creature referred to their own world. That meant this memory happened after Gaara had come to this world. But when had Gaara been to a desert, and how could he have a connection to this demon? Where could such a monster exist in Draco's world that he would never have heard of anything remotely like it.

And then Gaara glanced over his shoulder at the way the redhead had presumably entered the cave, and he saw something.

Draco wondered what this part of the memory could mean, what Gaara had seen when he was here.

Then Gaara's eyes shot wide and he said, "Draco?"

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A/N: Ooooh, drama.

Thank you for reading.

I wanted to take a moment to thank and give due credit to Flightshadow for the design of Gaara's Yule Ball outfit. They drew a variety of different versions of his robes a few years ago and it really helped me to visualise the event.

Cut & paste: 'I will honestly try to get the next chapter out in some semblance of expedience.

In the meantime, please leave a review.'