Chapter 11: A New Strain 1/3

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: While the momentum was still working over from the last chapter, I managed to squeeze out this one as well. It has turned out to be the shortest chapter I have published thus far, but I don't think this will be an ongoing trend, rather I imagine the next chapter will be back to full length.

I usually have months to save up things to say here, so instead I will just say the usual: Please enjoy this chapter and take a moment to write a review.

Almost forgot to mention in my rush, I received another wonderful piece of fanart from the ever-generous Spiral of Destiny. I have a link on my profile to it and to the cover picture as well, for those of you who might like to see it larger.

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(Last Time)

"I will be having the mirror moved tomorrow morning. I liked to come down here and look at it every now and then, but I know there is no place in this castle you couldn't follow it to if you wanted, even if you understand the folly of the things you see. And it is about time I stopped looking at it myself."

Gaara turned back to the scene in front of him, savouring the sight for the remaining hours until it was taken away.

"Thank you for listening, Gaara. If there is ever anything you want to talk about, please don't hesitate to come to me."

'Thank you.'

Gaara hadn't turned to address Albus, nor did he acknowledge his leaving, just continuing to rapturously stare at the Mirror of Erised.

The next day it was indeed gone, hidden in one of the school's many Gringotts vaults.

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The fallout from the Weasley twins' masterpiece prank had been as spectacular as they had hoped. The different Houses either consigning themselves to abject humiliation by trying to communicate their anger or having to hold their tongue for a day. Even as they were both assaulted by various animal noises in their classes, concealing the sort of language that would have seen everyone lose House points, they laughed their silly laughs.

They had concluded at the end of the day, as they served their first detention of a very long stint, that it had been both a banner Aprils Fools and birthday. When their friends and housemates had started up again the next day with their accusations and insults, they had loudly pondered what they might do for next year.

More than a few would have pegged them for Slytherins had their inclinations been more malicious.

Not everyone hated the red-heads for their ultimately harmless prank. A couple Hufflepuffs, one or two Ravenclaws and a minority of Gryffindors had seen the humour of their situations, if only in hindsight.

Luna had rather enjoyed both the feathers and the bird speak. She had, what she considered, a very lively debate with an owl during her lunch period. She believed she had won in spirit if not content. The barn owl had an incoherent dialect but she didn't want to offend him so she hadn't mentioned it.

Draco had been indignant, threatening to notify his father of the trespass for the first time in months. Gaara noted that Draco hadn't actually written to Lucius about the prank, but it was still interesting to note how Draco regressed when faced with humiliation.

Gaara thought back to his own humiliations and how his father might have reacted to hearing about them. It likely would have led to a number of extra assassins being sent to kill Gaara during his time of weakness.

He would have asked, but his father was dead. Gaara wiped the smile off of his face before anyone saw it and thought him a fool for smiling at nothing.

"It was rather interesting, I suppose. Being unable to speak for a day. I think I can understand what you go through now. At least you don't have a forked tongue, though."

Gaara considered the shallow and narcissistic statement, but agreed to the last point. It did seem a little inconvenient to be sticking his tongue out all the time. And it would look ridiculous.

Speaking of ridiculous, those two idiotic pranksters had approached him yesterday after excluding him from their school-wide prank, to claim back their 'pranking crown'.

He had no idea what they were talking about, but agreed that they could have the crown if they wanted it. They had high-fived and run off when a bunch of seventh year Slytherins had spotted them.

The snakes hadn't taken to the prank in any sort of good humour, so the twins, and in fact all of the Weasleys, had become enemy number one in Slytherin. It was a mixed blessing to be knocked off of the top spot for Gaara.

The school returned to their prior darkened moods pretty sharply after another sighting of Sirius Black had been reported in Hogsmeade. The students had quickly forgotten their excitement or their anger and had returned to fear. Even the Slytherins were uneasy about Sirius Black because he wasn't a regular pureblood fanatic, he was a true lunatic.

The teachers tried to restore order, and some even attempted to lighten the mood by mentioning the prank, the Quidditch finals coming up, or even the end of year exams. Any distraction, but the children were still spooked.

Gaara, as he always was after reading one of these articles about Sirius, was equal parts worried and exhausted for and by his friend in the Shack. At least his friend back in his own world was capable of getting himself out of most of the problems he got himself into. Now, if only Draco and Sirius were so resourceful or capable, Gaara could sleep soundly at night.

Well, he could read more comfortably at night.

It was over lunch that afternoon, one of the few that Gaara bothered attending, that Hagrid approached him with an invitation to tea at his hut that evening. The invitation was extended to Draco as well, but the blond snob politely declined the chance for more rock hard cakes and tea out of cups that still smelled of whatever extra-strong brandy had last filled them.

Hagrid wouldn't say why he was inviting Gaara, but no one was in any doubt that Gaara would be safe enough meeting the man alone in his home.

Despite how powerful Gaara was understood to be, the rules still applied (as far as the teachers were concerned), so Hagrid told his student that he would come and collect him from the Slytherin common room at eight, after dinner.

God forbid Sirius Black run into Gaara as he was making his way to Hagrid's home in the dark of the night!

When Draco had posited that scenario, albeit with less drama, Gaara had wondered. Chances were, if Sirius were to encounter Gaara in a darkened hallway, he would probably scream, transform into a dog and run away with his tail between his legs. He certainly would if he had done something particularly crass to offend Gaara that day.

Gaara acquiesced to Hagrid's offer, if only to be polite to one of the friendlier professors in the school. Plus Hagrid happened to be the single largest man Gaara had ever seen in either world. The Raikage was large, as were a few of the Kiri-nin he had encountered, but Hagrid was twice as tall as Gaara at least.

It seemed like no one in this world knew how to fight properly, certainly nowhere near the level his own could, and he had heard that Hagrid did not have access to a wand for some reason, so his threat was further diminished. But if the red-head had learned anything from his time as a fuzzy, fluffy, super plush tanuki-demon, it was to not needlessly antagonise the beings larger than you if you can avoid it.

Plus he needed a night away from research, homework, slaughter and Draco, and his entertainment options were otherwise quite limited.

Ironically, Gaara garnered a number of confused looks from his housemates when they saw him in the common room after dinner like he was supposed to be. It may have also been to do with the fact that he wasn't with Draco and he wasn't reading. Many had debated the Sorting Hat's choice to place Gaara in Slytherin, partly because of his voracious reading habits, his brazen and at times plain naïve social skills, and because of the hat's peculiar reaction to whatever was in Gaara's head.

What was a strange sight quickly turned unsettling when Gaara didn't move in five, ten, fifteen minutes… He sat perfectly still, his eyes staring straight forward, blinking only occasionally. Of course, no one approached to see if he was alright, they were more than happy to wait for Draco, their resident Gaara-handler, to come and address the issue.

Finally a booming knock hit the hidden door to Slytherin and a couple of the lower years started to panic, loudly exclaiming that Sirius Black was there. A few of the more senior, sensible students started to sweat when Gaara finally moved and approached the threat. He looked fearless in the face of…

Outside of the common room stood Rubeus Hagrid, the least threatening professor in the school by popular vote. As the undeniably strange pair walked away, the Slytherins breathed out another sigh of relief and wished for the hundredth time that Gaara had burdened another House with his insanity.

Their walk up through the castle wasn't plagued by inane small talk, for which Gaara was immensely grateful. He had noticed since he stopped talking that other people often tried to fill the silence with their own voices. An awkward reflex, he imagined, but nonetheless annoying. However, perhaps because of his penchant for working with animals, or because of his simple nature, Hagrid had an estimable appreciation of prolonged silence.

When they got to Hagrid's hut, he offered Gaara a cup of tea and a fresh homemade cake. He accepted the first but declined the latter. He had experienced the giant man's baking before and imagined he would carry a fragment in his gut for years to come. The tea was no delicacy either, far too strong and using some of the generic heavy tea leaves he understood were common in this country. He longed for some real tea, not overcooked, not using these tasteless leaves, and not smelling of the whisky that had undoubtedly filled the mug before it.

Nevertheless, he thanked the man for the tea and began to sip it, waving off the offers of milk and honey.

"Thanks for coming and having a cupper tonight, Gaara. I've been a bit lonely lately, what with everyone on the lookout for old Sirius Black. Even the other professors have been too busy to come and pay a visit."

Gaara nodded along passively.

"I would've asked Harry, Ron and Hermione to come as well, but since Harry is a target of Sirius- Black, Sirius Black, it's too dangerous for him to leave the castle at night, even with a professor."

Gaara could understand that, even if it was a little silly. Sirius was likely going to hug Harry when he next saw him… which he would agree was a cruel and evil aspiration.

"And the other students are too afraid of him and of the dementors to come. So it's just been me and old Fang out here."

Hagrid had finally mentioned the dog still drooling over Gaara's lap as the surly boy ignored it.

"I got to admit, I have another reason for asking you out here tonight." Hagrid said, taking another swig of his own drink which smelled of anything but tea. "I know you've been looking after Fluffy lately and I wanted to say thank you."

Gaara perked up, wondering how much he would have to admit to.

"He's awful big, but he gets real lonely out there on his own. I'm glad you go out there and play with him, even if you're not strictly supposed to. I know you can look after yourself, no one who couldn't would be able to play with something as big as Fluffy. I expect you went looking for him after I told you and Professor Lupin about him. Don't blame you, either. You don't hear about a great big three-headed dog every day."

Gaara nodded.

"He's an indoor pup, really, but he can't stay in the school any more. He was scratching the floors and chasing cats. And McGonagall was afraid he might go for a student so they told me to find him a new home before the new term. I sent Norbert away, I couldn't get rid of Fluffy too. He's never known anyone but me."

Gaara calmly sipped his tea.

"So I asked Professor Dumbledore, I did. I asked him very nicely if Fluffy could stay in the forest, away from the kids and that, and I would make sure he didn't get into no trouble. He bugged the centaurs and the thestrals for a bit, but he leaves them alone now." Hagrid had been excitedly drinking his tea as he talked, never more at home than when he was discussing one of his precious animals.

What Gaara didn't tell Hagrid, and had no intention of telling him unless forced, was that he now considered Fluffy his. Hagrid had left him in the woods and Gaara had found him. He didn't care for the animal or anything like that, he just figured he would come in handy at some point.

Gaara had secretly wanted a summoning animal for a little while now, but couldn't find anyone willing to let him sign their contract. He hadn't asked Temari, though, since the incident with her Kama-itachi's sister was still fresh in everybody's memories. Unfortunate.

"Though, the centaurs have been a touch rowdy lately. Suppose I don't blame them, really, with all the dementors out and about. Plus they've never been happy about Professor L-" Hagrid stumbled, looking right at Gaara to check if he had noticed the slip, "about… erm… about the cold lately." Hagrid settled himself back in his chair, happy that he had avoided spilling the beans on Remus.

'I can imagine.' Gaara's sand added.

"Those nasty buggers have been upsetting just about everyone around here. My hippogriffs are usually such a lovely bunch," Gaara scoffed at that, "but now I can't let them anywhere near the student in case they attack them."

Hagrid's strange interests/obliviousness aside, Gaara did agree that the dementors that were once a nuisance had become a real danger since the beginning of the term. More and more he was finding strays wandering the forest a mile away from the demarcated patrols they should have been following around Hogwarts perimeter.

A couple more in the next few months would wander near the Quidditch pitch, and then not long after that they would catch the scent of all of those anxious and emotional teenagers in the castle and…

Well, Gaara wasn't entirely sure even he could stop that many of them at once.

He would have spoken to the Headmaster about these concerns, but one look at the man's wrinkled face over the past couple of months had said all he needed to hear. Dumbledore knew all too well how dangerous the current situation was, and for once the blame could not be laid at Sirius' dirty feet.

Gaara stayed for a little under an hour with the lonely groundskeeper, discussing, one-sidedly, issues both new and old. Hagrid had spent eight minutes lamenting over the slaying of Slytherin's basilisk last year since it had likely been the single largest snake to ever live.

Gaara would have enjoyed the expression on Hagrid's face if the man could see Manda. Or any of the boss summons, come to think of it.

At the end of the evening, Gaara politely declined the offer of baked 'treats' to take back and share with his friends and said his good byes.

It had been a nice enough way to spend an evening. Gaara wasn't a sentimentalist, really, but he appreciated that Hagrid was a kind man. The red-headed warrior had no desire to be surrounded by cloying acquaintances, but spending an hour or two with someone who so clearly wasn't a Slytherin was nice too. Relaxing.

Draco was already asleep when he walked in, having taken an early night. Gaara could hardly be accused of being noisy, but even as silent as he was, he was an intrusive presence in any room he entered. It was part of his intimidating/'evil' aura, he figured.

These weren't observations Gaara had made about himself, mind you. Draco had flat-out told him he was intrusive and scary. Gaara had just assumed these things were linked.

A few days later, Gaara was on his regular rounds in the forest, killing the dementors that had strayed into his path and any acromantulas unlucky enough to wander into his line of sight.

He had decided after his recent conversation that he wouldn't harm Aragog or Mosage since they had been Hagrid's pets at one time, like Fluffy. He wasn't interested in stealing them or trying to teach them tricks, but he wasn't about to kill them either.

Plus, he had already claimed one of Hagrid's pets, even if the man didn't know it yet, and didn't want to go around killing the rest.

The other acromantulas, though, like the one that had cornered him on the full moon, were fair game in his eyes. An abundant and killable resource like the dementors.

He was circling around their territory, looking for some of the larger stragglers, when he heard a thumping on the ground. It was too frequent and soft for Fluffy, not to mention miles away from where the dog usually roamed. Moments later, after Gaara had called his sand to attention, a pair of large adult centaurs galloped into the area, drawing their bows as soon as they saw him.

They circled around him, but he didn't trouble himself about that. An arrow from the back was as dangerous to him as from the front. He wasn't worried.

He waited until they had finished 'surrounding' him before crossing his arms. If they shot an arrow, he would get to hunt something new and more humanoid. Shukaku would be thrilled.

Neither of the two males loosed an arrow, instead, one of them trotted forward and introduced himself, "Hello, I am Firenze. We have been looking for you, Gaara."

Gaara nodded.

"My people have tried to avoid you since you came to this land many moons ago. You are host to a great evil, and that maliciousness permeates the air around you. For those who can comprehend it, you are suffocating to be near. For those of lesser awareness, you can be alluring. The hungry wolf to the hunter, and the playful dog to the foal."

Gaara had to readjust his arms lest that uncross in shock. He wasn't so sure what the last comment about the dog had meant, but he gathered that these horse-people had somehow stumbled upon his secret. He might have killed the pair, just to be safe, but that would entail massacring the rest of the centaurs as well.

Why couldn't they have just tried to kill him or something…?

It was never simple.

"We do not know what you are, the stars have been unclear, but we know you are a stranger to this place, to our stars, and you have a role to play here."

'A role?'

Both of the creatures flinched when the sand moved, but the one named Firenze spoke again, "I am sorry. I do not read the human language."

Gaara sighed. This was a new and irritating addition to his muteness.

"There is disagreement in our people as to what you mean to this world, but I have elected to come and meet with you, and to tell you what we know. Very soon you will be forced to bear your soul, and in so doing you will risk it."

Gaara tuned out the following diatribe about which distant star or planet was in convergence with which. He had come out this night to blow off some steam and enjoy the night air. Instead he was being told about his destiny and the danger to his soul.

If he wanted to listen to this sort of stuff, he would show up to more of his Divinations lessons.

"You are dangerous. You wear the skin of a boy but house you evil. The stars cannot offer guidance, so I have been allowed to pass our wisdom to you in the hope you might avert the disaster to come. Are paths will cross again," He spouted off more about Mars, "For that time I will try to learn the humans writing, so that we may talk properly."

Their message delivered, Gaara nodded his thanks…? Acceptance?

He nodded, since he couldn't effectively communicate any other way, and they trotted away again.

Gaara turned ninety degrees and walked further into the acromantula territory, hoping for a big one to try and eat him. This headache was only going to get worse, so he would have to work/kill through the pain.

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Classes returned to normal pretty quickly, the adolescent predispositions towards drama allowing them to move from angry, to amused, to afraid, and back to the baseline angst within the space of a couple of days. Fear and anticipations still floated in the air, but now the student body were focussing on upcoming events. Some were interested in the Summer Holidays only a few months, away, some (Ravenclaw and Hermione Granger) were eagerly awaiting the end of year exams that others were dreading, and some were focussed solely on the scheduled Quidditch finals between Gryffindor and Slytherin.

The match was certainly the most discussed in the Great Hall, as far as Gaara could hear. Their third match up this year, apparently even the Minister of Magic was considering attending.

Draco was supporting his House by turning a (sickly) shade of green whenever the match was brought up.