Chapter 35: Chapter 9: A New Humiliation 1/5
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.
A/N: Wow, I can't believe [insert number of] months have already passed since my last update! Since last time I published a chapter, I have breached a couple of meaningless landmarks: I've receieved over 100,000 views (of which a small number have become regular readers, it seems), my kind readers have written almost 400 reviews (one off!), and this fiction has passed over the 200,000 word mark.
Once again, within days of posting the previous chapter, I received a piece of fanart of tanuki Gaara. It was wonderful seeing how someone else imagines something I wrote. I would love to post a link or a place to find it, wonderful artwork that it is, but sadly I don't know that it is posted anywhere. Nonetheless, my endless gratitude to Spiral of Destiny.
Also, I wanted to give credit to Kurama's Foxy Rose for the cup bearer idea.
I actually lost about five pages at one point, very frustrating. It set me back a few days, more because I was upset than the time it took to rewrite it. It was the library scene or thereabouts and I thought I had nailed it the first time and then tried to recreate it.
On another note in this long winded AN, please read my new fic called Konoha's Dancing Leaves. It is a Naruto fic this time following a pacifistic gardener Naruto as he tried to stay with his good friend and supporter Hinata. Despite the fears certain sentences seem to have instilled in early readers, there will not be a harem (never would be), and there will be much more action in future chapters.
That said, I am not going to prioritise the new baby over this fic.
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(Last Time)
"Albus?"
"Everything is changing again, Minerva, just like it did on that night. October thirty-first, nineteen-eighty-one. But this time, no one but us will mark this date on the calendar as anything but the day that the children returned to Hogwarts, as they did every year."
Albus turned to her, and the twinkle was long gone from his eye. In those blue depths, she didn't see the familiar grandfather figure who had devoted the better part of his life to teaching children, instead she saw the battle-hardened eyes of a warrior wizard who had fought in both of the Great Wars and countless wizarding ones in between.
"The Ministry of Magic, our Ministry, is declaring war on us. I never thought I would live to see it happen." Albus murmured. 'But they're not really. They are declaring war on fear and the dark under their beds. They are declaring their war on Gaara and the change he might bring about.'
The Dementors were beginning to buzz and fly about agitated within their confines, and it soon became clear why: the ball of light burst and they exploded out like a blanket of smoke.
"I always used to like the view from up here." Albus commented as he turned back to the stairs. "It's a shame."
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"Welcome back to our illustrious Hogwarts, all of our returning students and teachers. I hope your break was used wisely and was not frittered away on celebration and merriment." Dumbledore announced to the full hall, enjoying the knowing looks that flew his way from even the youngest of students. He knew he was doing his job properly when even children knew what he stood for.
He took stock of all of the smiling faces around him, and knew he was definitely doing the right thing in not telling the children about some of the startling new developments around them. Perhaps it was wrong of him, a celebrated educator who was supposed to cherish and impart knowledge above all else, to hide a scary truth in favour of blissful ignorance.
One of the countless signs of his advancing age: his growing sentimentality.
Or maybe he was learning from his past mistakes. There were so many to choose from, it was inevitable that he learn a few hard lessons along the way.
And one such lesson was sat apart from his Slytherin compatriots, gingerly eating one dish or another. He had had to confront the visage of Tom when Harry appeared three years before, and he had taken a different route with the boy from Tom. But Gaara was more difficult.
Harry might have been Tom reborn, were it not for a few biographical factors and a few decisions on Albus' part, but Gaara was, and remained to this day, something of a mystery. But he knew from previous mistakes what not to do, and alienating such entities had never yielded anything but enemies. He did not know precisely where he was to guide the less-than-impressionable boy; but, if nothing else, he was having a magnificent effect on Lucius' son, who had been so indoctrinated by the time he arrived Albus had feared he was lost to the darkness.
Miracles from strange places, indeed.
Now, if only he could help Severus…
Draco hadn't appreciated the fact that Gaara had (most likely with malice of forethought) left all of his school supplies behind for Draco to haul back to school. Despite all the retributions and castigations he'd promised himself he would heap upon his roommate, the moment he saw Gaara sat in the Great Hall, munching on something or other, he just felt glad to see him. Yet another one of those instances where his upbringing and his friend's quite literal personal boundaries were the only things between Gaara and a hug.
"I'm glad to see you made it back here okay." Draco settled for passive aggression, still peeved about both his being ditched with the bags and because he had (admittedly naively) expected Gaara to send an owl confirming he had arrived safely.
One would have expected a boy who couldn't speak would send more missives, but it seemed to Draco not for the first time that Gaara was uniquely suited to mutism. He imagined that Gaara hadn't spoken much more even when he was able.
'Welcome back.' Gaara sand had drifted up from his new expanded bag, presumably being used simply to store only his sand.
After a short blank stare as Gaara waited for the next part of the conversation, he gave up and went back to his dinner.
"Well, how did it go with Dumbledore?"
'Dumbledore?' Gaara kept his sand low to keep it out of the namesake's sight.
"You came back for the test, right?" Draco was now sceptical of his friend's early return. Though he had been curious to start with when Gaara had first mentioned going back since, Draco had wracked his memory, he had never known Gaara to follow anybody's orders when he didn't want to.
He knew better than to air his doubts since he would never pull an answer out of Gaara. The boy was uncommunicative, both literally and with his churlish personality, but he picked the most frustrating times to play up his mutism.
Meanwhile, Gaara was unintentionally ignoring Draco's conversation in favour of planning his next dementor hunt. He might not kill people here, the opportunities for a good (and morally justifiable) fight were few and far in between, but from what he had seen since he had arrived back in the Scottish highlands, there were plenty dementors around for him to slaughter.
Whoever was in charge of them had obviously decided that the previous (diminishing) number had been insufficient and had elected to multiply them tenfold. Highly irresponsible, reckless, excessive, dangerous… but Gaara found himself ultimately praising the move. It was the best form of entertainment he had in this world, and so far the prison guard creatures had seemed woefully inept at tracking down Sirius. The only other concern would be that they attacked the students again, which might include the two students he actually cared a mite for.
That being said, the administration at the school appeared to have strengthened their resolve and their remit to protect their students. He hadn't encountered one of the wraith-like creatures within five hundred metres of the school boundaries since that Quidditch match. Made him trek a little further to go hunting, but even he couldn't really faulty the move.
Of course, his freedom at the end of the Christmas break hadn't been all dementor-slaughter all the time. Though he had considered it…
He had played with Fluffy a fair amount, but only because he was passing through the woods to see Sirius and it was only a little bit out of his way to see the mutt. And since he had been there, he also continued his struggling attempts at teaching the dumb animal some much needed obedience.
Sirius himself had been very glad to see him, calling him Lily and refusing to say his real name even under threat of death.
He had been all smiles and attempted hugs right up until Gaara mentioned that he had passed the fancy broom onto Draco since the boy had needed it much more than Gaara. Then Sirius had gone from happy to sulky, and then downright distraught when he had been unhelpfully reminded by Lupin that Draco was on the Slytherin house team.
Lupin made his mischief much more subtly than the other Marauders, it was true.
It had taken all of half an hour before he was willing to look in Gaara's general direction, and even then he refused to stop sulking loudly.
Of course, an amused Remus told Sirius off for his behaviour since he had been warned that Gaara didn't like brooms and he was supposed to be the adult. Sirius had responded by blowing raspberries at the pair of them and turning into a dog.
As Sirius woofed scornfully in the corner, Remus discussed his plans for the upcoming shared tutoring session for Gaara and Harry. The adult knew that both boys greatly resented the other's presence intensely, and while he knew it would make his job that much harder, a little hubristic sliver made Lupin's ego bloat with the thought that the two students were fighting over him and his time.
He had always wanted to be a professor, since he was a teenager. It was gratifying for him to know at least a few of his students valued his teaching.
Draco continued to ponder why Gaara had ditched him over the break, ignoring the niggling doubt in the back of his mind that suggest that Gaara might have just left because he hadn't like it at Draco's home. That his manor was too small and poorly decorated, or that the food had been sloppy, that his bed linens hadn't had a high enough thread count. Admittedly, these were more Draco's kinds of issues, but there had to be a reason Gaara left early.
He knew for certain that he would be puzzling this mystery out for a while as well. He would have to add it to the list. In the meantime, at least the other Slytherins weren't going to such exaggerated lengths to sit away from Gaara anymore. It would seem that the Malfoy Christmas shindig had done something to repair a little of the damage Gaara had inflicted upon his own reputation in the previous term.
The feast was as lively as ever, but underneath it all ran the ever-present fear that had pervaded Hogwarts since Sirius Black and those assigned to capture him had targeted this school. Dumbledore had neglected to mention the newly increased presence of dementors, but not one student had failed to take notice of the swarms that were circling the grounds from afar. They didn't know specifics but they knew things had gotten worse.
Suddenly, a psychotic, teacher-fighting, insomniac, mute, mysterious sand-using, transfer student was no longer a real cause for fear. He was the least of anybody's concerns.
Well, except for Snape. That man really hated Gaara.
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Harry was ecstatic to see Ron and Hermione again, though he tried to not to show his excitement too openly. He was still a self conscious teenager after all.
They were glad to see him too, telling him each that they hadn't wanted to go home for Christmas but their parents had forced them. It was awkward, but Harry swiftly moved on to talking happily about what they had all been getting up to whilst separated.
It was towards the end of Harry's anecdote about how Dean had managed to set Seamus' bed curtains alight by touching one of the Irish boy's self-brewed sleeping draughts that he fell into more serious topics.
There hadn't been any movement from Black over Christmas as they had all feared, which they attributed to the fact that not one of the teachers had left the school over the break as half usually did. In fact, they had most often been found 'wandering' the hallways during various stages of the days and nights. Harry had frequently watched Professor Lupin patrolling the Forbidden Forrest, strolling out of the map's range and appearing hours later.
McGonagall had even gone so far as to camp out in the Gryffindor common room most days, sitting in front of the fire with one heavy tome or another.
It was both touching and wondrous to see his stern Head of House relaxing so openly in front of her lions. When one of the older students had asked, unable to hold back his curiosity, Minerva had simply said that it was her holiday too and it was warmer in her old House than her quarters.
Ron and Hermione hadn't believed it, and Fred and George, who had joined them in the middle of the story, had bemoaned their absence during their beloved professor's time of vulnerability.
"McGonagall probably wouldn't have risked sitting in the common room if the two of you had been here." And it was this awareness of the twin's mischief that kept Harry from mentioning the multiple times their Transfiguration professor had disappeared only to be replaced by a cat.
"I see Malfoy and his new henchman came back after all. I guess you can't curse someone long distance after all."
"Ron! I know that Malfoy is a monstrous little…" Hermione seemed to struggle to find the right word without appearing unladylike, "so-and-so, but you shouldn't go around starting fights. And I will assume you were just joking about the 'long distance curse' thing."
"Yes ma'am." Ron mumbled, continuing to glare in the Slytherin table's direction.
"And we should try to get along with Gaara more this year. I can't speak for his being in Slytherin, but as far as I know he isn't a blood purist at least. Apparently he's even friends with Luna Lovegood."
"Loony Lovegood? She's Ginny's mate. I remember they were talking on Halloween but I don't think they're really friends, Hermione." Ron scoffed.
"I heard on the train that he invited her to the big Malfoy Christmas party."
"My dad says that's just an annual Death Eater reunion."
"Honestly Ron, the Minister of Magic and dozens of other people go. They can't all be followers of You-Know-Who."
"Wouldn't bet on it." Harry grumbled, his animosity towards the pair of his Slytherin peers already well-set in place.
Hermione huffed, but even she couldn't deny she had reservations about anybody who would be willing to go to a gathering at Malfoy manor.
"Oh, I can't believe I forgot," Harry said, "take a guess at who arrived back early."
Ron had no clue, "Who?"
"The psychopath, Gaara. I saw him on the map a few days ago. He never came to the Hall until now, though."
"Do you think the map might be wrong, then?" Hermione asked, wishing again that Harry had let her properly examine it before he handed it over to the proper authorities.
"Maybe, but I don't think so. It's not been wrong yet for anybody else."
"How do you think he got back? The Express only makes the trip when everyone's going back and forth." Ron asked.
"Yes, but just the express train. There are trains going from London to Scotland all the time, and even a few magical ones that make the trip to Hogsmeade, though that's mostly for sightseeing."
"You think Gaara was sightseeing?" Harry was incredulous.
"No, I didn't say that. Maybe he took the Floo, or someone drove him here," She looked pointedly at Ron, "Maybe he took a broom. As long as he rested along the way, I don't see why he couldn't make it in a day or two from south England."
"Except that Gaara hates flying, I heard." Ron said. Seamus heard it from a fourth year Ravenclaw, who heard it from a 'Puff, who heard it from someone else, who heard it from one of Malfoy's lackeys." Ron said, more focussed on trying to remember the forgotten link.
"Why do you think he dislikes flying? He's certainly not afraid of heights." Hermione posed.
"I've seen him standing around in the high towers loads of times." Harry said, referring to his map.
"Might be something to do with that Hippogriff that dropped him a while back." Ron said, in between bites of roast pork.
Harry didn't answer, instead he looked over again to where he had last seen Malfoy sitting with Gaara. He flinched when he saw that Gaara's bug-eyes were pointing in his direction already and they made no haste to turn away.
Meanwhile, Gaara wondered if Sirius and Remus' best friend had been as annoying as his son. Surely not.
But then, Sirius' propensity to annoy didn't speak volumes to the respectability of James Potter. Nonetheless, as he stared over at Potter junior, he wondered whether he should try not to antagonise him since he was Sirius's godson and would likely be a factor in Gaara's life as long as he remained in this world.
Though, Gaara had always found, since he started to pay attention to people's feelings, that he had a way of inadvertently upsetting and unsettling those around him without any intention behind it at all. Kankuro would be a prime example to this, time and time again.
Temari said it was that he intimidated people, but surely he had done that much more when he was a murderer, and people looked a lot more annoyed now than they ever did then. Less angry now, mind you, but infinitely more annoyed.
Draco was thinking much the same thing, along the lines of: 'how come mother and father didn't try to curse Gaara?'
Narcissa had even talked about how nice Gaara had seemed, and something about him being a 'good investment.' His father had said, all along but doubly so after Gaara left, that the red-head could be useful but not to be overly dependent (read: trusting) of his new friend.
He had talked, briefly, to his mother about Gaara's boggart. He knew both of his parents knew about his own boggart, mostly from the slap he got from his father for suggesting some sort of family conflict to his schoolmates. His mother had looked on but said nothing, only rubbed his cheek and went back to writing thank you notes.
It was two days later that Narcissa had been saying how nice Gaara seemed, and had covertly asked what he was like in classes. And then she asked how he had reacted to his boggart, and absently asked what it was. Draco didn't see a point in futilely trying to hide it from her, so he told her about the woman, probably Gaara's mother, who had whispered in his ear and how Gaara had killed the thing.
Narcissa had been appropriately shocked, having long wondered like everybody else how much of a weapon Gaara's sand could be made into. She had also asked more about Gaara's family, if Draco knew anything, but he didn't really. Gaara's was as much a mystery to him as anybody, except that he knew Gaara as a kind and good person.
All the stranger, that he had been placed in Slytherin, really. He wasn't the most crafty strategist. He was more the blunt-force-diplomacy sort of tactician. Draco supposed there might be a hidden ambition that Gaara had never shared, or perhaps the secrets that Gaara kept hidden were done so purposefully and not just because he was absent-minded or uninterested in talking about himself.
Maybe there was the same darkness stitched into Gaara's heart that existed in all of the snakes. Gaara was a warrior in his homeland, but something told Draco that fighting hadn't been all that Gaara did to earn his traumatised disposition.
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The next morning, after a long night of trying to sleep with someone else in the same room again, Gaara entered the Great Hall to yet another day of drama. He swung by the gathering crowd stood by the middle of the Gryffindor. Draco followed presumably.
When there, he heard the nosy Granger girl yelling, "You have to, Harry! You don't know who sent it to you and Sirius Black might have put a curse on it."
"Aw, leave off 'Mione. If it was cursed, Harry would have already been struck by it. He'd been holding it since he got it, I bet." Ron defended his friend('s broom.)
Harry blushed at the revelation that he had fallen in love with his state-of-the-art broom. "Not all the time- Look, I'm not just gonna assume it's cursed because you say it is. It could be from anybody, Hermione. I don't want the Ministry or the professors breaking it while searching for non-existent curses." Harry was clearly losing his temper, judging by the tone of his voice and the size of Draco's smile. Gaara figured it might be worth butting in before Draco did.
"Well, then I might have to do what's best for all of us. I'm not going to let you risk your life over a silly broom."
While Ron saw red at that last comment, Gaara pushed his way through the crowd to the front.
'I received a Firebolt for Christmas too.' His sand quickly drew eyes and then open mouths, widest of all from Draco.
"Is that where my Christmas present came from?!" Draco was ignored by everyone but the Gryffindor team members present, who quickly uniformly swore under their breaths at the revelation that their Seeker's new advantage had been nullified.
"Well, if the prince of darkness over there got one, they're obviously not cursed," said Ron.
Hermione thought for a second, "They might just have cursed one and sent the other as a distraction." No one thought for a second that she meant anybody but the Malfoys sent the broom.
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