4/8

The real wizard didn't see why his roommate couldn't express his emotions more... easily. He knew excess emotion was suited for the lesser Houses, but Draco couldn't remember the last time he'd seen Gaara smile, and he'd definitely never seen him laugh properly. It was either a chuckle or a series of smirks. Hell, Draco couldn't even imagine his impossibly stoic friend laughing heartily. It was actually quite the scary thought.

And Draco didn't need another reason to be afraid right now, so he stopped trying to picture Gaara exhibiting emotions like a normal person. He'd cast his most powerful silencing spells and wards around the room's writing desk, just so that whatever he'd been ignoring in his post wouldn't wake up his slumbering housemate. He would hate to wake up Gaara, for Gaara to do something impulsive, and ruin their status quo again. And quite apart from that, he didn't need his friend hearing what his irate parents had to say to him. Some things didn't belong in the ears of a teenager's friends, even if Gaara wasn't exactly the type to tease.

Draco picked up the earliest letter he had stacked and slid his silver, Malfoy-family-crested, jewel-embossed letter opener along the seam and pulled the parchment out. Sure enough, the dark green ink was styled in his father's overly elegant script, but at least it was a relatively short communiqué.

'Dear Draco,

Your mother and I have been waiting these past few days for your weekly owl but it seems that you've become so distracted at school that you have forgotten your duties beyond the walls of our house. You had best write as soon as you receive this or there will be dire consequences in line for you.

In your letter, I want you to tell me some more about your new roommate, Gaara. I gather he is something of a mystery but I want you to tell me everything you know. There have been some discrete inquiries floating around as of late and as the father of this Gaara's roommate, I have a right to know about him, not to mention that it is expected that I know. If he is a mudblood or some no name half-blood, worry not; I am on the board of governors and I will have him expelled from Slytherin if need be.

On an assuredly separate matter, I want to know what has happened between you and the Crabbe and Goyle boys. Their parents have been begging my forgiveness for some slight I might take over you falling out with them. Whatever has happened, I trust you will have fixed it by the time I receive your reply. I understand associating with those simpletons is troublesome but as you grow you will understand more just how necessary their protection is.

Begin writing your report immediately.

Yours sincerely, your father,

Lucius Brutus Malfoy,

(Head of the Pure and Powerful House of Malfoy)

P.s. Your mother sends her regards.'

Well, that hadn't been as bad as he'd feared, though Draco wasn't looking forward to openly refusing his father's order to re-befriend Vincent and Gregory. It wasn't as if he hadn't tried early on, at least, but they had seemed terrified of him, or more likely terrified of Gaara. They were unnaturally scared of his roommate before it became cool, so perhaps Lucius would allow him to forgo keeping the Crabbe and Goyle families on side in favour of something else. Maybe he could convince his father that Gaara had taken up the post, as he was pretty sure Gaara was stronger than both the henchmen-to-be put together, and his father would never accept that Draco had an actual 'friend' in the more traditional, Gryffindor sense. Frankly, Draco found it hard to grasp at times.

As much hope as he had been granted by the leniency in that first letter was soon turned to despair and doubled when he saw how many more weeks of letters there were to follow, including a fair few with noticeably more feminine handwriting on the addresses. That meant his mother had also gotten involved.

Of course, Draco had known his mother had sent him letters, probably a few of her own brand of howlers, but in the brief moments of reading his father's business-like letter, he had foolishly allowed himself to forget.

He carefully used his letter opener to crack the wax seal on the back of the envelope this time, not willing to test what happened when you opened a howler the wrong way. Fortunately his mother's first letter was somewhat less furious than he had anticipated. In fact, the entire letter really boiled down to how angry his father was, how she was beginning to worry, and wanting to know how he was doing. Oh, and she was also curious about Gaara. Who wasn't?

The following pile of letters was akin to reading through a timeline of his father's temper, followed soon after by one of his mother's worry turning to indignation and then to anger. Repeatedly they threatened to come visit or even to pull him out of school. His mother mentioned that she might as well have sent him to Durmstrang if he was going to ignore her owls anyway. His father had also apparently been in contact with the other pureblood families attending the school, and had clearly broken the nib of one of his priceless antique quills when he'd stabbed out his letter regarding Draco being accused by the other Slytherins as a blood-traitor and for allying himself with the moderates. If he looked closely, Draco thought he could tell where in the letter his father had stopped writing to abuse the new house elf before continuing. But all the while, despite the occasional furious blot, his penmanship was exemplary. They just didn't teach that at Hogwarts anymore... shame.

At one point, his mother had even said that even though the Dark Lord had never broken into Hogwarts, she might well do it herself if he didn't answer soon.

The last letter was even more troubling as his father and mother had turned to a cold rage in their joint message, as apparently that scary inspector he'd disrespected had told on him to his father. And with the inspection regarding Gaara having been so high-profile and unsuccessful, both now wanted answers regarding his roommate. Draco swore his parents had forgotten there was a mass murderer trying to get into Hogwarts and a flock of Dementors flying around the grounds. That wasn't to say he'd be reminding them, as that would almost certainly lead to his mother making good on her threat to have him transferred to another school.

He'd been reading these upsetting missives for over two hours, not to mention listening to the threatening howlers, and was already awfully tired, but Malfoy knew that he needed to write back soon. Dumbledore had been steadfastly blocking his parents' attempts at visiting Hogwarts for one reason or another, but Draco couldn't rely on his good luck to last for much longer, not when that meddling quack of a headmaster was at the helm. He'd write it now and then send it off first thing the next morning.

'Dearest father and mother,

You have my most sincere and remorseful apologies for my discourteous silence these past weeks. Inexcusable that this lapse in judgement has been, I hope you will find it within yourselves to allow me to explain myself in spite of my trespass.

I will immediately assure you that I am otherwise well and unharmed, barring my distress as having you caused you so much anguish with my thoughtlessness. The reasons for not having replied in a proper and timely manner to your letters, inadequate though they may be, are due to my intense focus on the task I have taken upon myself. After you expressed your concern over my new roommate, I knew that leaving such a gap in our family's knowledge would be even more grievous and so I began to get closer to him and investigate him and his origins.

I have worked for the past month trying to gain his trust and his friendship in order to discern whether he is a fit ally for our noble family, having already established his utility in the form of his clear strength and intellectual prowess.

Of course, I was able to earn his trust swiftly; and I have discovered that Gaara is a refugee from a faraway desert wizarding community, but that he is strictly a pureblood of the greatest degree, according the community's isolationist customs. He moved to Britain following a civil war within his tribe that left him as the sole survivor, albeit with his voice cursed beyond repair. His ways are indeed strange and he is not accustomed to using magic in the proper British manner, though I am glad to inform you he is learning. But, most importantly, he is strong. Just the other day, he was able to best Potter with ease in a duel using only his brute strengths, not needing to plot to ensure his victory.

With these strengths and his estrangement from our society, I have taken it upon myself to teach him the proper wizarding customs to rid him of his silly foreign ones, and in return he will suffice perfectly as a replacement for those cowardly Goyles and Crabbes who broke off our agreement of their own volition (without any input on my part).

On the subject of those ludicrous accusations of blood-treachery, I trust you will see past the envy of those foolish peers of mine towards my claiming Gaara as my ally, manifesting their families' envy for our great legacy that far surpasses any of theirs. My distancing from them is purely for the sake of strengthening my ties elsewhere, sure in the knowledge that they will undoubtedly regain their sense when I see fit to deign their presences around me again. The moderates within the great House of Slytherin and their families are an untapped political well of power that I will be the first to exploit among my year group, as I am sure you understand.

The inspector you mentioned did see fit to approach me during his visit, but I made no untoward move against him or toward the Ministry, as he has obviously implied. I simply re-established our standing ties with the Ministry but denied him any of my findings regarding Gaara, as it was not his place to try and ferret information from me when my first allegiance is to my family. I will leave it to your discretion, father, whether you see fit to share any of this with the Minister or keep it between us in order to maximise Gaara's usefulness to us.

Now that my initial investigation is complete, I will be resuming my proper weekly reports undisturbed. I will leave you with my reiterated apologies.

Yours sincerely,

Draco Abraxas Malfoy

P.s. I trust both you are both doing well in my absence despite my recent wayward behaviour.'

Ninety-nine percent lies, but his parent probably wouldn't find that out for a while, and by then there will hopefully be something more important happening to distract them from killing him. He thought the history he'd invented for Gaara was quite good. He might have to tell Gaara about his tragic past if Draco's parents were ever to meet him. But then, it's not like Gaara would be quick to correct their assumption regarding him, worst came to worst, he'd just bat Gaara's sand out of their air before he accidentally told the truth.

He folded the parchment and cast the wax with his precious customised seal before placing it atop the pile of books he'd be carrying to his lessons the next day. While they weren't much good for conversation, Draco did miss his old henchmen and their reliable offers to carry his books for him. The blond wouldn't dare ask Gaara to do it.

He turned off the light as climbed under the covers, remarking silently to himself that even Gaara's sleep-deepened breathing was totally without sound also. The pale red-head was practically a ghost, though Draco could only wish for the ghosts to be as quiet as his roommate.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Draco talked sedately to Gaara as they got ready for classes that morning, holding his one-sided conversation so fully that he could almost have forgotten that he wasn't getting any replies. The only responses he might get were Gaara occasionally glancing up at him before continuing with his own preparations again. As dense as Draco could be around friends (perhaps narcissistic is closer), even he might have considered whether he was forcing Gaara to listen to his unending talking.

Without any answers or real responses, Gaara might well have been completely ignoring him the whole time, waiting to finish his own preparations before ditching his annoying roommate. Draco's neuroses didn't usually stretch to this kind of depressive rumination, but with Gaara, socialising wasn't a given, especially after nearly a month without any sustained human contact that Draco was aware of. But lo and behold, as Draco was finishing up packing his quill and ink into their case, Gaara stood there and waited for him! Gaara even followed the blond all the way up to the owlery so that the Malfoy could attach his letter to his somewhat neglected eagle-owl.

It was lunchtime that same day that Draco received his reply. The owls were only supposed to come in the mornings and the students could then trek up to the owl tower if they were expecting anything in the evenings, but Draco, being the scion of the most respectable pureblood family in Hogwarts, was exempt from such paltry rules as far as he could see. There was also the fact that both McGonagall and Dumbledore hadn't been in the Great Hall at the time, and Lucius really did believe his letter was of such dire importance that the lesser rules of the great wizarding institution shouldn't hamper him, and so he had told Draco's ill-tempered owl to go straight to Draco and not wait around on its perch all day long.

A few heads turned when the single owl swooped into the hall and dropped the letter into Draco's lap, with expert accuracy, before banking around and flapping back out of the same window, not having landed once. Even Snape gave Draco a withering stare at the blatancy of his flaunting the rules and Draco had the good sense to sweep up his message and exit the Great Hall looking as if he had just received an order from the Minister himself, not from his parents telling him off for not telling them he was okay for a couple of weeks.

Not for the first time, Draco wished he was in Potter's situation, never needing to negotiate these difficult family relationships. Of course, these feelings were strictly fleeting and would never ever be voiced. Plus he had added benefits, like parents and endless monetary resources...

And he didn't have to wear glasses.

As Gaara followed Draco back to their room, apparently having nothing better to do during his lunch break than to spend some 'quality time' with Draco, the taller of the two looked to Gaara and wondered what his father was like.

Draco, along with a few others that witnessed Gaara's encounter with the boggart, gave serious consideration to the woman that Gaara had impaled being his own mother. Of course that raised many more questions, but Draco could swear he'd seen Gaara's face in the woman's. But, seriously worrying mother-son relations aside, it also raised the question of Gaara's dad. What sort of man was he? Was he around when Gaara was growing up?

Gaara was first and foremost a mystery, but the Potter-proclaimed-'ponce' wouldn't be so intrusive as to question Gaara about his family. Not after his roommate, hours after spearing the woman's visage, returned to their room even quieter than the mute boy was given to being and sporting red raw eyes. No one saw Gaara cry that night, but one person had needed to pretend he didn't know that it had happened.

They reached their room with half an hour before their next class began so Gaara moved over to read, standing up. Gaara's ability to stand still for long periods of time was just one more reason why he was a singularly unsettling person. Especially since Draco knew how heavy that 'gourd' was and that Gaara didn't always use his ability to lighten the load.

While Gaara read from one the countless books he had borrowed from the library since arriving, having finished all of the required reading materials that had been purchased for him in Diagon Alley, Draco sat back down at his desk and opened his missive. It was comprised of two separate letters:

'Dearest Draco,

I was very reassured to receive your letter this morning, and to that end I will shortly forward it to your father at work so that he may share in my relief. I am pleased that you are thriving, and your friend Gaara sounds lovely. We will have to have him around so that you can introduce him to the family.

I cannot immediately speak for your father, but your slack communication was a thoroughly heartless move and I trust you understand the pains it has put us through. Nonetheless, as you seem to have been anything but idle in that time, I will not pursue any punishment for when you return for the winter holidays, but I cannot say for sure whether or not your father will feel the same way.

You will resume your regular letters from now on, otherwise Albus Dumbledore will not stop me from personally marching into Hogwarts and removing you by force. It is not unprecedented for Malfoys to be homeschooled and I will not have you disappear from your family like my 'notorious' wayward cousin did.

Be cautious of the dementors and I will hear from you again soon.

Love,

Narcissa Malfoy'

'Dear Draco,

As your mother has stated, your lack of decorum is reprehensible in and of itself, not to mention the worry it has inflicted on us, but I will allow you to forgo punishment in this matter in reward for your diligence in pursuing our family interests. This Gaara is a promising ally and you acted astutely in reserving your finding for my ears before divulging them to the Ministry.

Your mother has suggested to me that Gaara join us for the winter holidays, provided he doesn't have any other engagements, so that we may take his measure personally and further introduce him into our family's circles. You are to extend our invitation at your earliest convenience and forward his answer quickly. You have found a precious tool in your work, as no other families are working to curry his favour. I was astounded by your progress after hearing from multiple outside sources that he did indeed best the Potter boy in a duel with ease. Such a feat is nothing to be scoffed at.

I will continue to make my own private enquiries regarding what you've told me, so that I may solidify our new ally's place in our society. There are several groups looking into this child's past and not all of them have his best interests at heart as we do.

Continue with this work, and do not let your grades slip below those befitting someone of your standing. Also be on the lookout for Sirius Black as no matter what affiliations he may have had, they were beyond top secret to everyone and he is likely to be a dangerous lunatic after being in Azkaban for so long.

Yours sincerely, your father,

Lucius Brutus Malfoy,

(Head of the Pure and Powerful House of Malfoy)'

Draco would have to think on having Gaara stay with his family. It was a daunting prospect for both of the teenagers, especially with how uncooperative Gaara could be when he wanted to. But then, it actually saddened the manipulative teen to think of Gaara spending the Christmas break all alone in the freezing cold castle when most of the Slytherins would be gone... well, the stoic transfer student might actually prefer the peace and quiet, but Draco couldn't possibly imagine that it was healthy for someone like Gaara to go so long so frequently without any social interactions. He'd end up killing someone, surely.

Frankly, that Gaara hadn't killed anyone by now was the really weird part.

He looked at their clock and reviewed his next class' assigned chapter, knowing that the old salt McGonagall wouldn't let him slip by if he hadn't memorised the chapter be the time he went in there. All because he'd transfigured Weasley's chair into a giant, orange coloured, wooden rat.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

The next day was a much anticipated lesson for many of the Slytherins and Gryffindors, as never had anyone seen Snape so angry as when he'd announced that Gaara was to be readmitted to his classroom. And then there were the numerous hilarious accidents Gaara had incited, although those were more appreciated by the Gryffindors because of their senses of humour and because they didn't have to sit next to the disaster waiting to happen.

Before Snape had opened his door to allow them entrance, the long line of students conversed quietly about Gaara and his latest escapade into the lake. Ron was the focus of the conversations as he swore that his brothers hadn't had anything to do with it, or so they vehemently had protested. Many pointed fingers at countless potential pranksters, but no one suspected that Draco, talking to one of his moderate-friends, was really the mastermind, except perhaps Severus who knew better than to involve himself in Hogwarts' age-old tradition of pranks. He had scars from previous pranks he'd been involved in, and not all from the Whomping Willow or the Marauders.

One thing that many in the discussions agreed upon was that with no one having been killed or even attacked in retaliation, somehow Gaara had forgiven the perpetrator. Either that or he didn't know who did it, but very few within these conspiracy circles were rational enough to consider that was Gaara human enough not to instinctively know who had wronged him.

As a result of this passivity on the Jinchūriki's part, Gaara-fear was at a low within the school, though that obviously wasn't going to last long.

The door to the Potions room eerily opened on its own, Snape having apparently used his magic to freak out the front of the queue a little before he got his sadistic fix for the day. Everyone filed into the darkened laboratory, with Gaara bringing up the rear, having resigned himself to isolation for the lesson. Not all of Gaara's accidents were malicious attempts at Snape's life (and that was him being modest), so he thought it best not to work too close to his friend and roommate. Instead he sat himself down behind the Golden Trio and the rest of the Gryffindors, not quite appreciating that in this world, beating up a person wasn't forgiven in a couple of days. Gaara wouldn't have believed Draco if he'd told him that such non-existent injuries could be the cause of a longstanding hatred even when the losing party had started the fight.

Harry just seethed at the next desk in front whilst Hermione tried to calm him and Ron down before the two hardheads sprung backwards and tried to double-team Gaara.

In regards to the lesson itself and the work handed out, Gaara did exceptionally well considering his track record. As it turned out, his independent learning despite the lack of practical experience had allowed Gaara to excel in the short time he was away from the Potions classes. He was almost to an acceptable level by most standards, barring his actual potions making skills which were still comparable to Longbottom's, but even that was still a great improvement. The burn-removal potion he was brewing didn't harm anything or anyone and caused almost no damage to the classroom, except a little staining to the stonework under Gaara's desk. It was a personal best for the inept novice magician, even if it wouldn't help anyone with burns and might in fact cause burns when applied topically.

However, in spite of Gaara having almost reached the level of Failing rather than Burgeoning Terrorist, it made no difference in Snape's eyes. Further to that, he saw Gaara's improvement in his absence as a personal insult to his teaching skills, as if he took such pride in teaching Potions. With this in mind, he spent most of the lesson sniping at Gaara and calling him on any error he spotted with his eagle eyes, and some that he didn't spot.

After the potions around the room had been bottled, except the failures from Longbottom, Crabbe & Goyle, and Gaara, as the students were writing up their work, Severus walked around the classroom until he was at the back of the lab, right behind where the most detested red-head in Hogwarts was sat writing. That Gaara didn't tense up or show any visible sign of acknowledging Snape's hate-filled presence behind him fuelled his prejudiced anger and he waited there, looking for any tangible excuse to release what he'd been wanting to say to Gaara since he'd been forced to readmit him to his classroom.

The excuse that was given in the official report sometime later in Albus' office, after the relevant parties had been checked over by Madame Pomfrey was: cheating. Gaara had looked over to the other side of the room, where Draco and the rest of the Slytherins were, and Severus could only come to the conclusion that Gaara was trying to copy what his housemates had written, even if it wasn't a test and his targets were on the other side of the darkened room.

With every bit of acidity he could muster into his tone, Snape spoke evenly, "Is there no level of ineptitude that you are unable to sink into, you miserable excuse for a monster." It was the soft brutality of the words that caused even the spiteful Gryffindors in front of Gaara take pause and subtly turn their ears to the diatribe, except for Ron who was trying to find a clear route to the door from where he was sitting. He had the right idea.

"I do not know what prompted you to join this school, I can't help but blame myself for bringing you to the headmaster when I should have sent you in to the Ministry for them to lock you up. You have no place around these children because I know what you are and so does Professor Dumbledore. We can see it in your eyes, that darkness. Because we've seen it before in the murderers and monsters that we've met and fought, and they pale in comparison. That's how we all know what you are and what you are capable of."

Everyone in the room had given up the thin pretence of subtlety and had turned fully to watch the rampage at the back of the room that was giving any other rant from Snape a good run for its money in terms of sheer spite. Draco, who had never considered getting in the way of one of his Head of House's attacks before, was beginning to as he watched Gaara's eyes widen and his brows crease. Gaara was a strong person, and he didn't seem all that emotional, but his armour had chinks in it and Snape was jabbing his knife in all the right places, if Draco was right.

"Didn't you think it was odd that everyone in this school is afraid of you? Of course not, you knew it would happen because that's where you came from. Some wonder what happened to you before you got here, but I think it's obvious: they were trying to rid the world of an abomination! But they just sent you to us instead."

Through this uncharacteristically brutal verbal attack, from the already acerbic man, Gaara had become perfectly still, holding the same understated look of pain on his face that very few would recognise as he received these words. It was only when Snape had brought up his home that Gaara had finally turned his head to look upon Snape in the corner of his eye.

Almost as if reacting to seeing Gaara's face, the snarl on Snape's own face became feral and his eyes lit up with rage unsuppressed for the first time in years. Nothing would stop Serverus' wrath this time, not one of his preferred students, Draco, jumping up and calling out for him to stop, nor the students standing from their chairs and backing away from the scene he was making. Nothing would stop him from expressing his anger, well... one thing did when he reached the climax of his uncommonly cruel and excessively personal denigration.

"I can't imagine how your family would cope with a cruel imposter of a good human being. They were probably the ones that made you darken my doorstep. Is that why you attacked that Boggart?" Instantly Draco took a step forward and called out again urgently just as the rest of the shocked classroom compelled their professor to cease his vocal breakdown. "You killed it because you knew it would reveal the truth, that you are a monster and an outcast! Who was she, your mot-"

Snape was cut off by an inexplicable sense of dread that shivered down his entire body and sent him into a cold sweat before he could identify where this terror had emanated from. The momentum from shifting so quickly from rage to fear was dizzying, so it took the veteran wizard a few moments of his eyes darting about the room looking for whatever his senses had seen fit to warn him about so strongly before he came back to the red-haired, green-eyed boy he'd just been attacking. Those eyes that blurred when he looked directly at them, those eyes filled with all too familiar hatred rather than the pain they had been displaying guardedly before.

"What are you?" Snape moved back a few paces and snapped out his wand, meanwhile the rest of the class began to feel the same sense of unknown dread wash over them like a heavy tide, the malicious chakra and killing intent being expressed in these inexperienced children simply as a paralysing panic, a strong desire to run and hide but simultaneously an inability to move a muscle. The only exceptions were the only two who had experienced this exact sensation before, and both Crabbe and Goyle fled the room without any by-your-leave, not stopping until they almost bowled over Professor McGonagall. By the time they'd reached the door of the Potions lab, Draco could have sworn he saw tears in more than one eye, but his own eyes soon darted back to the tense standoff where Professor Snape was still pointing his wand at the seated Gaara, who still wasn't fully turned towards the instigator but was glaring back at him with as much loathing as Draco thought any person was capable of possessing.

Snape's mouth opened one more time, gaping rather than to continue his verbal volley, and that was when all hell broke loose, along with a demon, it would seem. Snape had been staring into Gaara's eyes the whole time and in the instant after his mouth dropped open, those hauntingly green eyes flickered into something wrong, something inhuman. And in that very same instant, a wind began to tear around Gaara and Snape fired off a stunner as fast as he could. It was forbidden for him to curse a student, but this wasn't a student, it was plain for anybody to see.

This initial attack prompted the cork of Gaara's gourd to explode and a shield of sand to race out and protect its master, deflecting the spell away harmlessly. Snape moved back even further, putting some distance between him and the 'boy' who, with the decrepit manner and speed of an inferi, had risen from his stool to face the instigator with eyes of a demon in intensity but not form, it would seem. The sand continued to flow until eventually the gourd itself crumbled and joined the rest forming fragments of a shell around Gaara.