3/3

As the hour grew late, the owl having arrived deep into the night to avoid any questions about who the reclusive and lonesome professor was mailing, Sirius pored over the last note in the relatively short message, regarding his dear old friend, Pettigrew. Oh, how Sirius wanted to tear that rat limb from limb. The rage had been building constantly towards the traitor since his escape from Azkaban months ago, and it was getting to the point where he wasn't sure he could wait any longer to kill him. If Lupin didn't act soon, he would.

Sirius folded up the latest letter and hid it under one of the many loose floorboards, which held all of the precious snippets of information from his beloved Hogwarts. The scapegoat uneasily fell into a terrible and troubled sleep, haunted by the demons of his twelve year stay in hell, the only reprieve coming from the pleasant memories of his friends and family.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Draco tried valiantly to hold back a snicker as he watched Gaara squirm virtually imperceptibly in their current lesson, his roommate apparently uncomfortable surrounded by the veritable rainforest of vegetation that comprised the walls of the green-houses that held the third-years' Herbology classes. Professor Sprout seemed oblivious to Gaara's nervous shifting as he tried desperately not to touch any of the hundreds of plants that inundated him whilst still listening to the teacher's speech about Devil's Snare, the dangers presented by the plant and its uses in places like dungeons to protect valuables. Gaara did not, by any stretch of the imagination, have a universal fear of plants unlike his magical-aviophobia. Being a ninja, the desert-dweller spent a lot of his time jumping through trees when in another country, and was actually quite partial to his cactus garden at home, but when you grow up with an older brother who creates most of his poisons from rare and exotic flowers, you begin to distrust strange looking plants.

Gaara really hoped that someone was looking after his cactus orchard. Then again, it wasn't like it needed to be watered for a good few months.

In the mean-time, the red-head was trying to remember if the plant he was dangerously close to leaning on was of any relation to the scary purple plant in Kankuro's bedroom that he had been told never to touch. Other than Gaara's wariness, the lesson was largely uneventful. One of his patented Death Glares© soon shut Draco up.

The head of Hufflepuff house was happy to report in the staffroom that evening that her all-glass classroom had been left completely undamaged once more. As time went on, it became apparent to Professor Vector, the Arithmancy teacher and chief bookie of the Gaara-Classroom-Demolition pool, that her little prize horse was losing his taste for destruction. Minerva had to comfort her crying colleague after the revelation that she would be losing the hundreds of galleons she had been collecting on top of her wages.

Snape still didn't trust the little monster with his classroom, though.

One teacher, who'd had the luxury not to work in a confined space that could potentially be destroyed by the accident-prone transfer student, was Rubeus Hagrid. Despite the near-death experience of one of his third-year students, the threat of a law-suit from the boy's friend's father and his complete lack of academic expertise, the man continued to try and share his vast knowledge pertaining to magical creatures in the only way he knew how. That way being, showing the animals to the students; though, he had stopped forcing them into riding the beasts since his first accident.

During the teacher's latest escapades, detailing the behavioural differences of Hippogriffs and Pegasus's, Gaara stood far to the back of the congregation with the strongest conviction not to interact nor ride any of the monsters he was being shown. Gaara was NOT scared of the Hippogriff strutting around the clearing, he was just being cautious, respecting his foe's space.

Draco was eating possibly the loudest apple ever grown with great relish whilst he listened half-heartedly to the incompetent oaf's lecture that was soon drowned out by a loud, angry, whinny followed by, what the scared racoon-boy could only describe as, an indignant squawk. Hagrid, for all of his years of experience with the thousands of magical creatures that inhabit the Forbidden Forrest, hadn't considered that he had never seen a Hippogriff socialize with a Pegasus in the wild, and now they were fighting.

Inching further away from the rampaging beasts, Gaara decided, as did most of the class that the lesson was probably over for today. The Slytherin outcasts walked away from the open-air classroom in favour of a game of Wizard's Chess which was suspiciously like Shogi, for which Gaara had not lost a single match against Malfoy due to his tactical skills. He was raised as a demonic war machine; it was only natural that he could trump a teenager in simulated battlefield strategy.

After ten minutes of walking through the woods, it occurred to Draco that he didn't remember walking this way to get to the lesson earlier that afternoon. In fact, now that he paid attention to his surroundings, he didn't really recognise anything around him. Turning to his walking companion, Malfoy aired his concerns about their current location to which Gaara gestured noncommittally that he too did not know where they were or, more importantly, where they were going. As uninterested as the trained killer seemed to be, his sheltered friend was certainly starting to panic, further exacerbated by Gaara's aloofness.

They turned around after Draco insisted that he'd seen some of the creatures that came out after dark in the forest and that they weren't the kinds of things he wanted to meet again in a hurry. Another five minutes of walking and they were thoroughly lost.

The calmer of the pair, was so because, for one, he knew he could fight off almost any obstacle they came across, and two, because he had walked through the very same forest not so long ago and he had been without protection and heavily injured. The biggest danger Draco was in was annoying his walking partner too much and risking being knocked out. Gaara was considering whether it would be easier to just carry a quietly sleeping Draco instead of listening to his paranoid whining for the next few hours whilst he established where they were, when an idea came to him. The experienced assassin activated his Third Eye technique, making the panicking Malfoy jump and stare at the single strangest thing he'd seen his roommate do… today. The strange creation floated before its owner, as he covered his own eye and connected with the artificial one.

Whilst Draco silently debated whether this technique was creepier than the sand clone or not, Gaara raised the orb high above the canopy to get an eagle-eye view of the area. To the ninja's amusement, not only did he see Hogwarts far in the distance, he saw three oblivious teenagers hidden about a hundred feet away from him behind a bush. The three were whispering excitedly about something, and kept glancing suspiciously towards Draco and him. It was still only the middle of the day so Gaara, in one of his more mischievous moods, decided to continue his walk for the rest of the day.

Gaara pointed in an arbitrary direction, reassuring the nervous Draco as they began their day-long trek through the woods. He deactivated his extra eye when he was sure the Golden Trio, who had followed the two conspicuous Slytherins, were still on his trail.

Six hours later, Draco was not in a good mood, nor were the three Gryffindor pursuers who had given up the pretence of secretly following the Slytherins four hours ago. The only person on the hike who wasn't glaring at anyone was the person who was being glared at. The Suna-nin wasn't even close to tired by the time they reached the edge of the Forbidden Forrest, and had inadvertently learnt a particularly useful fact for the up-and-coming full moon.

Shukaku, even with all of his power as a tailed-demon, was an idiot and couldn't use any techniques more complicated than a super-enhanced belch. If the Ichibi were to take control in a week's time, then Gaara needed somewhere where the sand monster couldn't get to the students, and since the demon would only be able to use Gaara's body and not his own gigantic one, the perfect place had been right outside of his window the whole time. The Forbidden Forrest would trap the tiny-tanuki demon until the morning when Gaara could take control and use his Third Eye to leave. It would simply mean that he would have to leave most of his sand in the dormitory to avoid his inner demon from creating a miniature body to move faster. Gaara didn't want to take any chances and leave a defenceless population centre open to slaughter.

The four real wizards were sure that their guide had led them in circles all day on purpose, especially when the boy had let slip a thin sliver of a smile. Of course, the Slytherin and Gryffindors had never conferred or discussed this theory because, no matter what strenuous hardships they were put through together, they still hated each other passionately. Around two hours back, Hermione had tried to start up a conversation including their Slytherin classmates, which was completely ignored by Gaara who was still leading them around the Forbidden Forest with no intention change directions for another hour or so, and Draco listlessly indulged in the chatter, which surprised the conversation's initiator and her two close friends.

As they all walked into the Great Hall, intending to catch dinner as it started, they hoped to subtly slip into their seats without drawing any unnecessary attention to themselves. The usual hubbub and clattering present in the Great Hall came to an immediate halt when the doors revealed the absentee Harry Potter and his four classmates. The teachers, who had all been busy deliberating over their missing students and their unascertained fates, had been worried out of their minds for the past few hours when Hagrid arrived back at the castle minus five students. Well, most of the teachers had been concerned; Snape had suggested, with no small measure of gaiety in his voice, that they might have run afoul of some of the Dementors roaming the grounds, or been eaten by one of the Forest's various carnivorous inhabitants, or encountered a runaway mass murderer. Though, Severus was well aware that those sorts of horrific fates were unlikely because of Gaara's presence, which had proven to be lethal when needs be. Still, whilst it would have been lamentable to lose Mr. Malfoy, the deaths of the other four thorns in his side would have been a welcome relief.

So, when the quintet of wanderers returned to the pandemonium of Hogwarts, they had not expected to be welcomed so loudly by the Headmaster of all people, and certainly not so angrily.

Shouting through the roar of inquisitive students, Dumbledore commanded with his prevailing veneration, "Quiet! Misters Gaara, Malfoy, Potter, Weasley and Miss Granger, come with me!" He left no room for objection or argument as he swept past his teaching staff and out of the back exit of the hall. He didn't slow down on his way to his office, his rare anger showing through in perfect form as he sped through the empty halls of the school. Once the five had taken the long walk down the centre aisle, trying in vain to avoid as many stares and questioning glances as possible, they too left the hall after their principle.

Gaara shivered as he felt the accusatory and jealous stares of his fan-club on his back when he left the enormous chamber.

The corridor was eerie for the group, as they followed to where they assumed the Professor had left to in a hurry. None of them talked, not for Ron's lack of trying, he had made numerous attempts to start up a light-hearted conversation with his two close friends and even once with Gaara, but due to the tense nature of this latest walk and one student's mute nature, all were shot down quickly. The stone gargoyle that usually guarded Dumbledore's office was already gone, leaving the chilling steps behind for the troublesome students to climb. The only person not afraid of what they might find waiting for them at the top of the stairs was, of course, Gaara who had recently been debating whether or not it was worth him staying in the school for the rest of the year when he couldn't even find any useful information. He had decided to put off the decision for a little while, until he was absolutely certain there was nothing he could learn. And then there was always the possibility he might never find a way home, and if that was the case then he would need to associate with the wizarding world. He was fairly certain that he would stand out like a sore thumb in the muggle world… more so than in the wizarding one.

Up the winding spiral staircase the five trudged until they stood outside of the thick wooden door that the Headmaster must have shut after himself for dramatic effect.

"Come in." They heard the aging wizard's voice through the door, which sounded more exasperated than angry by this point.

Albus had been the most scared of all of the teachers because he knew precisely how much danger Harry and his friends had been in. In the Forbidden Forest, there was not only the potential threat of Sirius Black, but also the violent animals and the dementors that could easily have done away with them, and then there was Draco Malfoy who could very well have attacked the Gryffindors out of spite, and finally there was Gaara. That had been the real reason he had had the teachers out searching for three long hours along with many of the older students who had brooms; not the acromantulas, dragons and serial killers, no, Dumbledore had been frantically searching for them because he had been sure that Gaara had been the cause of their disappearance. He was right, but Gaara had no intention of killing his classmates, though he had briefly considered maiming Ron Weasley because of his irritating questions and never-ending forgetfulness in regards to the Sunagakure resident's muted condition. But Albus need never know that.

He watched the five guilty looking teenagers file into his office, even Gaara looked a little remorseful, but that might have been because he had been caught pulling a childish prank and was embarrassed by his similarity to a certain fox-faced shinobi back home. Nevertheless, the Chief Mugwump was not going to go easy on them because they looked sorry, he had to impress the severity of the risk they took today. Plus, sometimes he liked to play the 'bad cop,' it was kind of fun.

"Sit down, please." The voice was grave and scared four of them so much that they didn't even question the fact that there weren't any chairs for them to use. Hermione was about to sit down on the ground when five chairs appeared, as if by magic. They all took their seats as instructed, Gaara noticing and appreciating that his chair was in fact a stool. He gave a nod to Dumbledore in gratitude for the man's consideration of his unique back-wear.

"Professor, we can explain-" Hermione started in a panic, but was cut of by the headmaster's raised hand.

"Miss Granger, I do not care for excuses, so do not waste my time by telling them." The glare directed over the top of half-moon spectacles was chilling the five it was directed at. As Gaara listened to the tense conversation that was slowly progressing, he wondered why he had been invited to attend when it was no secret that he could participate no more than the colourful bird in the corner could. At that thought, he began to watch the bird as it leisurely pruned itself on its perch. He didn't know how much time had elapsed since he had turned his gaze to the fascinating red bird, but his attention quickly snapped back to the humans in the room when they decided to canvas his opinion.

"Is that true, Gaara?" Dumbledore looked more thoughtful now, but still concerned which led Gaara to nod slowly but surely. Time to see if luck was on his side today.

"Well, I'm glad we were able to clear that mess up. But, in the future, stay with your class when you return from Professor Hagrid's class. Now, if you hurry, I'm sure you can catch the end of dinner."

As they began to quickly move towards the door, all saying sorry and goodbye except for Gaara who gave another nod, Albus spoke up once again, "Harry, might I have a word with you in private? The rest of you should just go ahead, he won't be long."

Without any further ado, Gaara moved onwards quickly. He was hungry, bored and battling a major headache caused by a hungry and bored demon inside of him. The other three followed him, though the two from the house of gold and red were decidedly hesitant in their pace as they were leaving Harry to whatever the Headmaster had left to say after the, admittedly light, chewing-out.

They instantly divided into their different houses when they entered the Great Hall, once again earning the entire student body's attention. They all sat down in their regular seats, which for the Slytherins meant at the end of the table with the rest of the outcasts. Fortunately for the eating snakes, their house wasn't nearly as outright nosy as the Gryffindors who wouldn't let their returning housemates finish a bite without answering all of their questions.

The night didn't quiet down for any of them after that, as, when Harry returned, the questioning intensified for the Gryffindor so much that the Slytherin table could hear the noisy rabble loud and clear, leading Gaara to go to bed early to sleep off the worst of the headache that Shukaku was causing. The Tanuki-host was sure that it was related to the oncoming full moon, he just hoped his countermeasures would work.

When the red-head left the table, the previously scared Slytherins who didn't hate Draco, gained the courage to start asking him questions as well, causing him to move to the Slytherins who did hate him now. They weren't so much scornful as business like in their questioning of their peer, waiting to hear his reasons for cavorting with the worst of the 'Gryffindorks.' After some quick pomposity, in which he detailed the trick Gaara played on them to mess with the Golden Trio, leaving out his involvement entirely, he went on to describe how annoying they were and how much he hated them. The other Slytherins, who were quick to allow him back into their ranks, did not notice that during the lengthy list of faults he outlined regarding the three lions, he didn't mention blood purity or blood loyalty.

They did ask about Gaara, though, to which Draco said he was still a complete mystery. As far as Draco was concerned, he hadn't lied once.

The only person who had left the dining hall when the five returned, other than the teenagers in trouble, was Remus who needed to urgently send an owl to his good friend. Earlier, when the children had gone missing, Lupin had sent Sirius a note asking him to go out as Padfoot and search the forest for them. It was against his better judgement, but the thought of those five getting hurt or worse, spurred him into irrational action. Now that they had arrived back safe and sound, he needed to tell Sirius to get back to the safety of the shack lest he fall prey to one of the horrors of the woods.

Unfortunately, by the time the owl had arrived at the presumed location of Sirius, he was long gone; searching for his godson and his friend along with their friends. Magical owls can find almost anyone in the world if the address they are sent to is incorrect, but when an owl has a grudge against a person for, in this case, kissing the bird, said bird might just drop the letter there and leave it for the person to find whenever they arrive back. Even if that time is early the next morning, after having stayed out all night searching for the already found students.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

September thirtieth, the night of the full moon.

The day was difficult; an understatement as far as Gaara was concerned as he laboured through the day's classes whilst struggling not to summon some kind of sand weapon to slaughter the children around him. His fighting against Shukaku's influence didn't go unnoticed by his companion whose, although noble, ultimately useless help was appreciated greatly by the suffering Jinchuriki who elected to skip his final class of the day as he wasn't sure if he could stop himself from crushing the life from Snape.

Malfoy had been so concerned over his roommate's worsening headaches over the last few days that he had gone to Madam Pomfrey under the guise of suffering the headaches himself with the notion that he could simply take the potions to Gaara so that the boy could get some sleep, but Draco hadn't counted on her insistence that he drink it right there and then. He'd dropped into a deep sleep for the next six hours before awakening with an almost euphoric feeling like he'd gotten the best night's sleep in his life. He considered telling his relapsed-insomniac friend to go the infirmary but, by the way he was trying to hide his problem and pretend that everything was okay, Draco guessed any such advice would be quite offensive.

The teenage noble didn't know what was causing Gaara's ailment, so he resolved to help in any other way he could. That involved covering for him when he skipped classes, threatening to curse the people in the next room to theirs so that Gaara had a better chance at sleep or just helping with his homework.

But now, as Gaara prepared for the night ahead, he hid all of his weapons and valuables, including his hitai-ate which he stowed under his pillow. It wasn't really the most secure place he could have hid it in, but its worth was only sentimental. He also dropped the gourd next to his bed, unconcerned about it for the moment, only taking the care to extract enough sand to form a third eye when he needed before re-corking it. He briefly considered writing Draco a note to explain his absence during the night, but was saved the trouble when the boy walked through the door.

"Gaara; I need to talk-" He didn't finish his sentence as a quick chop to the back of his neck rendered him unconscious, courtesy of the person he had been concerned about. Dumping his friend onto his bed, Gaara did feel a little remorse for being so forceful with the civilian, but knew the longer he stayed the more dangerous things/he was going to get. Besides, this way he wouldn't have to explain why he was sneaking out of the school on the evening before a full moon.

He walked out of his room and then out of the Slytherin common room, thankful that it wasn't late enough for him to run into many people with problematic questions. He managed, by some miracle, to escape the castle without being seen by one person. Gaara didn't consider Filch as a person, and anyway, the ratty old man wasn't going to tell anyone he saw the scary little kid leave the castle when there were still so many left behind. As far as Argus was concerned, one down, countless more to go.

One factor Gaara hadn't considered when he made his plan of action was that whilst the forest was completely clear of dementors during the day; during the night was a completely different matter. The black-cloaked monstrosities were already beginning to swoop in and out of the trees as Gaara set off on his run through the woods. He had no doubt that when Shukaku took over his body that night, the demon would have little difficulty dealing with them, but whilst Gaara was still in control he was weakened without his sand and weapons. As he continued his run, he noticed the wraiths were drawn towards him and soon began to follow and catch up with him. Taking out the small measure of sand that he had brought with him, he formed it into a rudimentary kunai shape and shot it at the dementors. It flew right through them like the real knives had done before, until he struck one in the head whereupon it met resistance. Commanding the free-flying weapon to aim for the heads of the pursuing creatures was simple enough and it seemed to damage, and in some cases kill, them. When he'd killed five or so, they began to withdraw for the moment until night had fallen and they could return in greater numbers.

As the time stood, Gaara figured he had at least two more hours until sunset would arrive and the full moon would be unveiled. The demon-beast's screams were literally echoing in his head as he kept on sprinting desperately away from the children who would, no doubt, be ripped to shreds until Gaara himself was either killed or captured and then killed.

When the tired and pained teenage weapon finally came to a stop in a densely planted area, he knelt down and waited. He could see through the thick blanket of leaves above him that the sun was just pushing past the horizon. Already the familiar feeling of the mental seals on Shukaku weakening sprang to the forefront of his mind but then it was something different. As the last glimmers of solar light burst across the red-head's vision, he could feel a change occurring, but not as it had during the last lunar cycle or ever before.

Collapsing to the floor, Gaara's last coherent thoughts were of fear and uncertainty at this new sensation that was so foreign to him. The seals on Shukaku weren't dissolving, but rather changing and transforming into something unrecognisable. But this unexpected change did not stop Gaara from feeling a change going through him as he lost consciousness, only to wake up an hour or so later.

Things were not right…

To be continued.

Omake:

You could call Gaara a whole host of things, many of which are unsavoury, but one label that had never been affixed to the Jinchuriki of the sand was 'paranoid.' So, when the sand user sat in an isolated corner of the school's library to study the various magical texts he had collected and began to feel a chill go down his spine like he was being watched, he could not help but fell worried. The demon-host looked around himself, trying to ascertain who was watching him read, but every time he looked one way or the other, he would get another feeling of being watched from another direction.

Over the next thirty minutes, Gaara performed the Suna Shunshin Jutsu four times to escape whatever elite tracking unit was following him and eventually he hid in the restricted section to avoid whoever was following him. He stayed hidden in there for another hour when he saw what had been on his tail.

The group of over twenty fangirls, who were all sporting their poorly drawn-on racoon eyes, had their wands out and ready. The group of crazy females had decided to capture their idol and confess their undying (delusional) love to him until he reciprocated that love. Gaara had a very different plan for his day, and it didn't include being abducted by a group of deranged girls.

He stealthily opened the door that separated the restricted and everyday sections of the library, and snuck past the rabid fangirls until he was at the exit of the library. Unfortunately, as he was just moving past the librarian's desk, he heard the terrifying call of "There he is!"

Jumping back to his feet, having crawled along the floor to escape capture, he picked up the nearest stack of books to him and began throwing them at the annoying women. He hit a few on the head, not feeling the slightest guilt for attacking the crazed fans, but before he could knock even a quarter out, they started to fire off stunning and freezing spells at him and the books he was throwing. The great 1993 Battle of the Library, as it came to be known, lasted all too briefly as Gaara ran out of books and was forced to flee. The fan club regrouped and followed after him, intent on capturing the object of their affections.

Similar to Gaara, Draco Malfoy had also been given many unkind names over the years, but one name he was rarely given was 'unlucky;' the sort of bad fortune, which would lead to one being in the completely wrong place and wrong time. For instance, in the path of your sociopathic roommate as he's being chased by almost twenty, mad girls who would do just about anything to get to him. By the end of that day, Draco would be know as the unluckiest person it Hogwarts for some time to come, after he had been literally thrown by his good friend into the path of the mob of crazy girls.

That day, Gaara escaped, but Draco didn't. He was stunned and taken back to the headquarters of the Gaara Fan club where he was interrogated for several hours about his treacherous friend.

That night, during dinner, Albus wasn't sure who was angrier; the student who had been kidnapped by the unofficial club that had sprung up at the beginning of the term that seemed to have developed an unhealthy obsession with the new transfer student, because he had been tossed to them by said transfer student; or the head librarian who had returned from her lunch break to find her beloved book repository in ruins. Dumbledore had had to comfort both a traumatised Slytherin and a crying Madam Pince for well over an hour. By the time they each had left his office, they had overcome their sadness and, in Draco's case, disturbance, and had moved onto anger. They were out for blood.

Dumbledore had also needed to set up an informal restraining order against the Gaara fan club. It was for everybody's protection.

A/N: I can't promise the next chapter will be any sooner but I will try to get one out in the next few months. And I am so very sorry for the continuing cliff-hangers, but I hope the next chapter is worth it. The next one is where I set up one of the main story lines, sort of. Also, I do not plan for this to be a short fiction but a rather long one.

Also, I fear I gave the impression that I didn't want to complete this project, which was probably because of that first chapter's author's note, but I do. I want to complete this series one day, but whether or not I can is a mystery. Please review and as always, I hope you enjoyed.