章 7: 4/4
The two conversed, albeit mostly one-sidedly, for the better part of an hour before the visitor was ushered out quite forcibly so that Gaara could have his last meal and sleep in the infirmary.
The last thing that they had talked about still echoed within both their minds long into the night due to the possible implications it held. Gaara had asked Draco, quite humbly in all of its written glory, if Draco could teach him the basics of spell casting.
Draco had been stunned that someone so clearly strong in so many ways would need help in basic magic. Gaara had explained half-heartedly that he had never used a wand before, having never needed to. Draco, still internally claiming to have no interest in such trivial matters as friendships, accepted the request under the pretence that it was merely because someone of his stature couldn't been seen to be alone all of the time and since his trusted goons had deserted him he needed a new companion.
Draco had offered his weekend to help Gaara train, having felt quite privileged, not a feeling he was unaccustomed to, to aid the boy who was clearly going to be a great wizard in no time. A perfect ally and a great example of his own abilities, to have taught a great wizard.
Gaara almost felt a sense of joy as he fell into his most deeply enjoyed state, at the thought that when he awoke he would be free of the gatekeeper of the eighth-circle of hell which had kept him in a perpetual state of boredom and half-death for the past week. Some might have claimed him to be melodramatic but he was a being who thrived on activity, having grown up as a warrior. It also didn't help that no matter how much he denied it, Gaara was influenced by the demon inside of him, only subtly but surely and Shukaku cried out for mischief.
OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO
Freedom; glorious freedom. Gaara literally ran out of the infirmary after he had been told he was allowed to leave, after he bowed to the woman who had cared for him. On his way out, after dressing, he strapped the sand back onto his back where it rightfully belonged before reforming his sand armour that had apparently been chiselled off of his body the night he had been admitted. The high-level shinobi had a little difficulty running with the sand weighing him down due to the healed broken bone. His leg, whilst almost completely fixed, was still sore and tender from its recent breakage so he was a little unsteady on his feet.
As soon as he had exited, he went straight to his room to find Draco. No matter how early in the morning it was, though it just happened to be just after six in the morning, Gaara was enough of a hard working ninja that he wasn't opposed to training near dawn. It was a new habit, the whole 'training' thing, but it seemed to help that guy with the bushy eyebrows so he decided that he would train until he was recognised; like him.
Draco, having had a long and boring first week back, had committed himself to a full morning's worth of sleep and relaxation followed by an hour or two of teaching Gaara how to use his wand in the evening. Draco was rich and privileged, used to a life of luxury, and he loved every second of it.
Gaara arrived back at the entrance of the Slytherin common room and stumbled across his first problem, the need to speak the password to gain entry. Gaara considered, briefly, the prospect of tunnelling through the entrance or one of the walls to get in, but decided against it as it would expose his sleeping quarters for the any intruder to just walk in. So, fighting his boredom once again, which had become a skill by this point, Gaara stood outside in the cold of the underbelly of the school for the next hour and a half, before one of the more studious teenagers had risen to get some breakfast on the first Saturday of the school year. The poor lad had almost fainted when he left his common room in the morning, expecting to see a handful of the other early risers out and about, only to find the scary new student, who had since been named Sabaku no Gaara, standing outside of the entrance of the Slytherin dorm in waiting. It was scary and Gaara didn't care as he walked past the frozen teen into the moderately warmer room to find his temporary sensei.
Draco hated many things: mud-bloods, Potter, Weasleys, Dumbledore, Potter, Divination, Hagrid, Potter, Crabbe & Goyle as of the past week, and Potter. But out of all of those insurmountable evils, the one thing Draco hated above all others was definitely being woken up early on his Saturday. When he was shaken, lightly, awake, he considered cursing the ghastly monster who would steal his precious time. But when he saw the ghastly monster, now identified as the recently released Gaara, he quickly decided against cursing the boy who was looking at him with something akin to disdain, if one was able to determine any emotional shift from the stoic face.
"What?" Draco said, not quite awake enough to put in place the proper etiquette required when talking with peers due to his tired state. "Go back to sleep if Pomfrey kicked you out of the hospital wing," commanded the Malfoy, as he turned over.
Gaara was not impressed to find someone whom he had respected, of all of the wizards he'd met, sleeping in so late and acting so grumpily in the morning, especially for a civilian; it wasn't as if he had to do any real work during the week.
Gaara assumed it would take a lot more to wake up the grouchy teen so he uncorked his sand and sent a tendril to sweep the young wizard off of his bed and onto the floor.
That woke him up.
"What is it that you need so early in the morning!" Draco had regained some of his proper composure after he swept himself off of the floor and wiped the sleep from his eyes, realising that he wouldn't be going back to sleep if the boy with the gourd had anything to do with it.
Gaara held up his wand and gave it a flick to gesture his desire to learn and practice its use. This earned a shocked and exasperated open-mouthed look from Draco who had assumed Gaara couldn't find his way to the dining room, or some other relatively normal problem, though, still not enough of a good reason to wake him up. To find out that the new student wanted to start leaning so early was like a ton of bricks falling on his head, make that two tons considering Draco agreed to tutor the boy in the first place.
"But it's seven-thirty in the morning!" Draco whined as he attempted futilely to get back into his warm and comfy bed only to be pushed back onto his feet by the same sand tendril that he would curse until the day he died… or woke up fully.
Gaara gave him an even look before throwing Draco's clothes at him, the latter having laid them out next to his bed the night before so he would have even less work to do on his most holy of days.
Grumbling to himself the entire time, Draco dressed while Gaara considered whether or not he would need his throwing knives and exploding tags. A quick look back to Draco who had just fallen over in the process of entering his trousers confirmed his sufficiency with just the wand and his ever present sand.
Twenty minutes after entering the room Gaara left with the slouching Draco following soon after at a slower pace. By the time they had reached the gigantic front door of the castle Draco was walking in his usual snobbish way, the only sign of his discontent was the dark circles around his eyes and the almost silent mumblings to himself of how much he hated being awake.
As they walked, some of the Gaara fan-club, which had been watching the doors of the infirmary for the past week in hopes of seeing the release of their idol, were shocked to see Gaara and Draco walk right past them. Each night they were ushered away at curfew and each morning they would return anew until they had to get to a class. The few that were just making their way to the great hall for breakfast were amazed to see not only Gaara out and about, but Draco sporting the new must-have look: racoon-eyes. Pretty soon everyone would be using eye liner to achieve the insomniac look.
Draco didn't appreciate all of the looks and giggles he got as he made his way out of the castle and onto the grounds. He could have sworn he heard someone laugh at his eyes; it wasn't his fault he had bags under his eyes. He was tired. What he didn't hear was that they were talking about how even the great and mighty Draco was following Gaara.
The noble Slytherin had asked Gaara if they could go and have breakfast first but the other had shook his head and carried on. As far as Draco was concerned, this was not shaping up to be a good day. Tired, hungry and mocked; he was certainly having a terrible Saturday. Still, he supposed he would get to see a prodigy learn to use his wand.
They arrived at a secluded grassy area soon after leaving the gates of the castle, having trekked a little further than usual to avoid any prying eyes. Draco stood in front of Gaara and decided to start with what the obviously gifted exchange student knew.
"So, if I'm going to teach you, I need to know what you already know," Draco said, waiting to hear about all of the advanced spells the boy knew and what basic ones he had overlooked.
Gaara shrugged his shoulder, probably for the first time in his life.
Draco gaped.
It took a few minutes to regain full brain function after that startling confession. He had to be sure, "Are you saying you don't know anything about spell casting?" The incredulity in the older boy's voice was as obvious as his bright hair.
Gaara nodded his head, feeling their first warning signs of embarrassment coming on.
"Well… I guess we'll have to start with some of the most basic spells. Wait, how are you not able to use magic yet you come from a pureblood family?"
Again Gaara shrugged, which he imagined would be a time saver for the future.
"Never mind," Draco said, not fully believing what he was being told but, knowing that saying anything wouldn't do him any good. "In any case, one of the first spells we learnt here was the floating charm." Draco took out his wand and gestured for Gaara to do the same. "Now repeat after me: 'Wingardium Leviosa'…" Draco said before catching his mistake and looking Gaara who looked back at him evenly, trying to hide his humour as he waited for his tutor to catch his mistake and realise that he couldn't speak much less copy his words. "… Sorry. I guess you'll just have to use non-verbal magic. Just imagine the words in your head and copy the wand movements. It takes greater control and a lot more skill but that shouldn't be a problem for you."
"So, imagine the words 'Wingardium Leviosa' and at the same time, swish and flick your wand like this. Wingardium Leviosa," Draco demonstrated on a rock lying on the ground, levitating it into the air before his face before dropping the spell sending it plummeting back down to Earth.
Gaara watched with avid fascination at the simple trick, and then looked at his jet-black wand. Swish and flick, Gaara practiced the motion before focussing his intent on a rock the size of Hagrid's head a few feet away. 'Wingardium Leviosa' He thought to himself as he focussed a small amount of chakra into the wand. Swish and flick.
The rock started to rise a foot or so in the air, Draco looking on in awe as the heavy object was lifted without even the smallest sign of strain from the caster. The boulder was at eye level and Gaara hadn't even blinked in exertion, however, the rock started to shake precariously at which point Draco thought that even holding it so long was admirable. But soon after the shaking started there was an almighty explosion as the rock blew up right in their faces. Fortunately, like always, the sand shield protected Gaara automatically, only needing a little extra chakra to extend its protection to his friend.
"Why the bloody hell did you do that?" Screamed Draco, checking himself over for splinters and fragments of stone.
Another shrug was Gaara's honest answer, as he had done exactly what he had been told. He turned to his left and lifted his wand again, aiming for a rock further away this time and supplying as little chakra as he could. He repeated the spell and the effect was as violent as before
"Are you sure you're saying the right spell in your head?" Draco asked looked almost accusingly at his pupil who looked a little sheepish even when he nodded. It wasn't like Gaara to act sheepish but the entire experience of spell casting had been humbling, even if it was only the two instances.
"Okay, maybe we should try something a little easier," The platinum-blonde said, trying to think of the simplest spell he knew. The problem was, he couldn't think of anything simpler than the floating charm. Even near-squibs like Longbottom could cast it. "Aha!" Cried Draco, the finger that had been resting on his chin was now pointing into the air in triumph. "Try the Lumos spell," Draco said in happiness. Whilst the spell was a third year level, it was remarkably easy to perform and required very little magic to get at least a small glimmer of light.
Draco demonstrated, saying that Gaara should put as much magic as he could, into the magic to see what his power level was.
Gaara, not seeing any problem with gauging the level of his 'magic,' copied the motion and forced his vast amounts of chakra into the strong black wood. Both of the teens had expected a similar or smaller ball of light than Draco's, Gaara assuming that one needed more chakra to perform a spell than a jutsu. The outcome was unexpected. The ball of light was blindingly white, like a sun at the end of his wand that starkly contrasted the black of the wand itself. The flash didn't last long, having been cancelled by Gaara's lack of concentration when he went to shield his eyes.
"What the hell are you doing?" Draco was absolutely fuming at the problems he was facing. "How did you do that with a simple Lumos spell?" The fact that Gaara's light spell was so bright wasn't the issue, most wizards could perform one that luminous, but to do so during the day with the sun high in the sky was beyond imagining.
"This time, put as little power as you can into it…"
The lesson wore on all day and stopped only when the hunger-driven stomach cramps became too much for the young pureblood. So much for his perfect Saturday…
The next day followed much the same pattern with Draco trying, desperately; to teach Gaara to control his magic and power-down his spells, that seemed far too powerful for an untrained wizard. By the end of the second day, with so much blood and sweat put into it, the Malfoy child was close to tears of happiness, when Gaara was able to levitate a small rock without blowing it up for the first time.
The rock hit the ground, however, when the tanuki-host's attention was drawn to the crowd of people, standing all around them at quite a distance, started clapping and cheering at the, supposedly private, achievement. Now, Gaara was no stranger to the odd compliment or crowd of fans every once in a while, ever since the Konoha vs. Suna conflict; but when he saw one characteristic in many of the observers, he started to run, hoping that Draco would follow. The terrifying characteristic, shared by many people within the audience were a pair of drawn on black rings around their eyes, similar to the ones Gaara was born with, though he would always vehemently deny that he was born with the racoon look, in favour of the insomniac-excuse.
He would not stand idle as the swarm of fangirls descended upon him and his teacher/friend, so he ran for his life and for his sanity.
When they finally came to a stop, safe within the confines of the Slytherin dorms, Draco panted heavily before asking: "Who were they?"
Deeming this a serious enough question to answer, Gaara wrote out one word, simple enough, in sand, 'Fangirls.'
"Enough said."
That night, Draco slept like a baby, hoping beyond hope that he would be able to sleep past seven o'clock next weekend. Gaara, on the other hand, was hoping that none of his lessons would call on him to do any high calibre spells for a while, at least until he was able to control his power better.
OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO
The next morning was a slow Monday start, everyone trying to get out of bed before they were swallowed by their covers and forced to stay in all day; which, as tempting as a day in bed sounded, was unlikely to please their irritable head of house who had been in an extra bad mood this year. The roommates with hairs as red as blood and as bright as the sun were just as slow to rise as everybody else. Draco, being the normal teenager he was, no matter how much he denied, it couldn't find the exit to his bed no matter how hard he looked. And Gaara was sure he'd forgotten how to stand up, but wasn't willing to test his theory for another hour or so. Eventually, after another ten minutes of refusing to accept the reality that they would be getting up, both did rise to the occasion when they realised that the lesson they would be late for, permitting they had stuck with the original plan of skiving, would be Potions with Professor Snape. It wasn't like Gaara was afraid of the man, as he had pretty much proven he could defend himself against the man's spells, but he did respect that the man was his teacher for the time being and wasn't willing to show that much disrespect, especially when he had covered the potions lab with slime the week before.
Breakfast was an uneventful meal, being that everyone involved was either too tired or studious to bother anybody else at that time in the morning. As they ate breakfast, Gaara saw Remus Lupin enter the back entrance to the great hall looking as sickly and pale as ever, which he could sympathise with. However, he had some business with the acquaintance that couldn't wait much longer. He waited patiently for Remus' eyes to look at him, during the teacher's surveillance of the Great Hall, at which time he gestured for Lupin to meet him outside with a stiff head nod.
Outside of the hall Lupin looked around as he exited the giant wooden doors, finding the boy he was looking for in one of the many nooks the castle had; the perfect place for secret meeting of a less than reputable nature.
"Good morning Gaara. I'm glad to see you're doing well. I wanted to come and see you in the hospital but I wasn't in the best health myself." Lupin looked ashamed by his neglect of his obligations, which Gaara thought was an overreaction but didn't dwell on something so insignificant.
'What is Sirius doing?' Gaara sand had zoomed out before the older of the two had even noticed. It was amazing how easily people in the wizarding world adapted to change despite their apparently ancient customs.
"I imagine you are referring to the sighting a few days ago," Lupin suddenly looked even more tired at the thought of their mutual friend's antics. "I haven't had a chance to talk to him yet but I assume he was merely bored. Always was an impulsive person. Caused unimaginable trouble for the four of us…" Gaara tuned out again as the tales of the stories about Lupin's childhood sprang up.
When Lupin had finished explaining something about a stink bomb, Fanged-Frisbee and an unfortunately placed family heirloom, Gaara turned back in and asked his next question, 'When can I see him?'
"There is a trip to Hogsmeade coming up soon, you can use it for cover and meet up with him then. You're going to have to sneak out of the castle, though, as you don't have your permission slip signed." The man said looking thoughtful. He had to think of which passage for Gaara to take that would be the least risky. The Whomping Willow route seemed a little risky for the boy, him being so small and frail looking. On the other hand, he was more than proficient with his sand and he had heard rumours that the boy had seriously powerful magic as well, if only a little unrefined. A few teachers had started to watch Gaara's lessons along with the students after the numerous explosions the day before. "The passage you should take is out by-"
"Mister Gaara, I do believe you're going to be late for my class; you'd better get going," Snape interrupted with the haughty look of derision that seemed as common place on his face as the look of illness of Remus'. "And Remus, are you determined to corrupt an already detestable child? You," He turned to Gaara with nothing less than pure contempt, "Get to lesson before I give you enough detentions that by the time you leave you'll, at least, be the same height as a six year old."
Gaara, in no mood to stay and listen to more ranting from the hateable man, walked calmly away, calling his sand back into its proper resting place.
"You'd better be getting to your class too, Remus," Severus sneered. His triumphant look of superiority over the secret werewolf was cut down to size when he noticed Lupin looking elsewhere. The man leaned out into the hallway, past Snape's bewildered face, and called out to the retreating gourd/back of Gaara, "See you later Lily!"
Lupin then walked off without even looking at Severus' enraged face, and onto his first class of the day. First years... too easy.
OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO
Class went better than the week before, Gaara managing to stay until the end of the lesson this time without destroying anything larger than a cauldron and a cauldron sized section of a desk. Though, if Snape seemed irritable before his encounter with his old school rival, he was utterly ferocious after.
Fortunately, the rest of the day was more agreeable to all those involved after the unpleasant Potions class. Even Care of Magical Creatures was a happier experience for Gaara, though it would have been difficult for him to have had a worse time in the class considering the precedent set last week. They observed a herd of unicorns, which seemed a little too fond of Gaara for his liking, as they relentlessly followed him around despite his silent protests and urges to use deadly force on them.
The next day was worse than the day before but still much better than almost dying from falling hundreds of feet onto the forest floor and hitting every tree branch on the way down. Gaara had to work through a third year charms class with no magical talent and far too much raw power. Suffice to say, that he was averaging one classroom destroyed per week so far this term.
OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO
"Can anybody tell me what is inside of this wardrobe?" Lupin asked his third year Defence Against the Dark Arts class.
"It's a Boggart, sir," Hermione Granger piped up, surprising several students with her sudden unexpected presence there.
"And can anybody tell me what a Boggart looks like?" The natural teacher again questioned his students as he looked at the faces around the room; Potter, check, Malfoy, check, Weasley, check, Granger, check, Lily, check, and check. All of the key players were there and ready. They were vital as they were all important to him in one way or another, if only by association. The week before had just been introductions to the class and the syllabus, so this week was the first real test of his teaching ability.
"Nobody knows what a Boggart looks like, as they assume the form of whatever the person closest to them fears the most." Again, Granger answered, reciting her perfect knowledge of most academia flawlessly.
"Correct!" Lupin announced, pleased that there was some base knowledge floating around in the pool of young minds. "There is a very simple way to defeat a Boggart, laughter."
The lesson continued as the Slytherins listened as raptly as everyone else, only when they heard they would be facing one of the monsters themselves. Gaara was genuinely interested about what some of his so-called peers were most deeply afraid of, himself included. As well as Gaara thought he knew himself, he honestly couldn't tell what his greatest fear would be. Though he had a big sand-monster-hunch as to what it could be.
Gaara thoughts were disturbed by the gramophone starting up, with a jazzy tune that sent the students into a rhythm as they lined up and began to face their fears, cast the 'Riddikulus' spell and laugh the monster into submission ready for the next person.
Gaara was standing behind Draco and in front of a handful of Gryffindors, which he was silently thankful for as he was actually looking forward to facing the one-tailed beast, and he knew that if Harry Potter were to have his go first, then a certain infamous Dark Lord might appear and that would just ruin the lesson for the rest of the class.
Next up was Draco who looked nervous, which was turned into terror when the Boggart turned into the one person he feared the most: his father. The tall and strict looking man wore sharp robes and held an even sharper cane, scowling at Draco the whole time. Soon enough the man was walking quickly forwards, towards a stunned Draco. The son was so afraid that he couldn't bring himself to raise his wand against his father, even when the father raised his cane, ready to strike him around the face.
Gaara surveyed the room and found half the class afraid, Slytherins, and half the class with looks of hatred, the Gryffindors. It seemed Boggarts were nothing if not informative.
"Draco, you know the spell," Lupin said encouragingly, ready to step in if necessary.
"Riddi-Riddik-Riddikulus" The defending boy stammered, still not able to pull off the charm. Gaara, deciding he wasn't willing to see his friend's father hit his friend in the face with the cane, no matter how funny it may have been, pushed passed the quivering teen to face his fear and beat the sand out of it.
The Boggart shivered before jumping into the air and started to spasm and shift before him. The shape that was left over after the change landed back on the floor surprisingly softly, making black rimmed eyes widen. Gaara's mouth opened and the slightest whisper met the ears of others around the room, indiscriminate to merely a whimper at the sight of…
To be continued.
Omake:
Madam Pomfrey had been the nurse at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for many, many years now; more years than she would like to admit. And, in all of the years that she had been tending to the sick and injured of the student body, she had never had so much trouble as she had had with Sabaku no Gaara. Well, other than the occasional escape attempt, as amicable as they were, he was as silent as a mouse the rest of the time. However well behaved Gaara may have been under her care, the fan-club that was stalking and harassing him was not so nice.
There had been ten times as many break-in attempts as there had been breakouts in the past week. She was tired, having to defend from the rampant fandom that had spread like wildfire from the silent mysterious red-haired teen.
It was after the fourth day that she finally started hexing the students who broke her perimeter; they weren't injured before they got into the infirmary but they would be by the time they left. She only treated the students who needed immediate care or were polite; sadly it was almost always the former, Gaara being a rare example of the latter.
The mute teenager's manners were the main reason she had insisted on keeping him so much longer than necessary in her care. The other reason was that he was so small and thin; she couldn't help but fuss over him, especially when he denied his need of her help so vehemently.
Still, when she had to let Gaara go, due to Albus, Remus and Minerva's insistence, she was sure to let Molly Weasley know about Gaara. She could not watch Gaara when he was outside of Hogwarts, wherever he would go, but she knew Mrs. Weasley, whom she had several dealings with previously regarding Mrs. Weasley's unruly children, certainly would.
On his way out, making a new record for quickest escape from a hospital, Gaara bowed in his ever-silent thanks.
Pomfrey looked around and shed a little tear… as she surveyed the damages done by the fangirls coupled with the copious amounts of sand all over the place. He was such a nice lad but so very messy.
A/N: Sorry about the cliff-hanger but it seemed like the right time to do it. Also I hope you like the omake. I might do more, I'm not sure. Well, till next time and all that jazz.
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