3/6

When Sirius went out to collect Harry, with an assurance that he wouldn't be long, Gaara swiftly ran to the kitchen, collected a handful of bottled drinks and different long-lasting foods, and deposited them in his bedroom before darting back to the library to snatch up a dozen interesting, thick books. He wouldn't be able to outlast Potter's stay, but he would avoid it for as long as possible and skip the first few days at least.

Sirius would come and break the door down eventually, so Gaara would enjoy his peace and isolation until then.

The Dursleys had not invited Sirius in for tea, rather, they had insisted the man take their nephew/cousin and leave immediately before a neighbour saw him: a long-haired, bearded hippy, looking like a vagrant, and knocking on their door. As it was, if someone mentioned seeing him, they were going to have to lie and say he was a social worker or some such. It was bad enough they had a freak for a nephew, they wouldn't admit any personal connection to another one of them.

Harry didn't lament the short farewell.

When they apparated to Grimmauld Place, Harry was pleasantly surprised by what he saw. With the multiple warnings Sirius had sent him in his letters about the state of the Black family abode, Harry had been worried Sirius had chosen the Shrieking Shack this past year for its resemblance to home.

Harry thought it was funny that his relatives considered wizards like him vagrants, and yet here he was staying in a posh London townhouse with the equivalent of a wizarding aristocrat (not to mention that he went to school in a castle).

Harry's broad smile shrunk when Sirius led him to the grimy property in between 11 and 13. Inside it smelled of mothballs, dust and damp, and the décor matched the scent. It had been cleaned since Gaara's arrival, some weeks before, but Kreacher had only managed so much on his own, and realistically the house needed to be redecorated before some of the worst and most steadfast stains could be concealed or removed.

Still, as Harry walked behind his godfather's scrawny back, he considered the dirt a small price to pay to stay with family. He might even see about helping Sirius' house elf do some cleaning while he was here. He wouldn't want to be seen as a layabout.

Sirius forced himself to give Harry the tour he had failed to offer Gaara, which was a little easier now that some of the clutter and reminders had been removed. He had to remember to tell Harry which rooms he couldn't go into on their tour. In one of the rooms sat the stuffed heads of the previous elves that had served his family, which he had finally taken down last week. It wouldn't be good if Harry found those by accident.

As they came to the library, Sirius ducked his head in first to check that Gaara wasn't in one of his moods, but the redhead wasn't in there. He scarcely left that one room so immediately the scruffy man worried Gaara had figured out the ruse and had left the property to avoid Harry.

Instead, he discovered Gaara's bedroom door was locked.

"Oh, I don't think Gaara wants to come out and say hello, Harry. He is such a shy boy, you know!" Sirius loudly declared outside of the door, for Gaara's benefit more than Harry's.

Harry didn't say so but he was glad Gaara had hidden himself away like this. He had not been looking forward to seeing him, let alone sharing his godfather's attention with the contemptible Slytherin.

Harry knew he would end up exploring the house more thoroughly on his own and would probably check inside the dangerous and forbidden rooms along the way. Compared to Hogwarts, he couldn't imagine anything Sirius was keeping around the place was all that deadly.

For one, there obviously wasn't enough room for a giant three-headed dog.

After the tour, they both settled down in the kitchen for a cup of tea and they talked about the beginning of their summers, although almost every detail had already been enumerated in one of their many letters during that period. The host also introduced Kreacher and explained the protocol for dealing with the foul servant. Harry wasn't so sure about the treatment of the house elf, comparing it to how he saw Dobby treated, but then he heard the things Kreacher was saying about them and knew the mad old thing was as far from Dobby as any house elf could be.

"Oh, and be careful in the hallway by the door. Behind those curtains hangs a particularly foul portrait of my mother. Raises all sorts of holy hell whenever she's disturbed so it's best to tiptoe past."

"Okay." Harry said, taking another sip of his sweetened tea. He was only recently allowed tea at the Durselys, and never with milk or sugar in it. He had discovered the wonders of tea at school and like all good Englishmen, fallen in love with it. Although, Sirius didn't really have sugar, he sweetened his tea with honey, which worked just as well.

"Remus really wished he could be here but he's still looking for another job. About time too, bloody sponging werewolf, eating my coffee and drinking my food every day…" Sirius said, scowling comically.

Harry laughed. It felt god to laugh openly again.

"And I'm also sorry about Gaara. He'll come down at some point, I'm sure." Sirius said, hoping to inspire some amiability between the two warring teens. Perhaps one of the foreigner's more endearing idiosyncrasies would alleviate some of the tension.

"It's been very peculiar having him here this summer. You'll see that this week, too, I suppose. He hardly ever leaves the library. He really missed his bookish calling in Slytherin. He's not once tried to poison me since he arrived so I think maybe he was mis-placed."

"Not yet, anyway." Harry added.

Sirius laughed but noticed the bitterness in Harry's tone. His treasured but temporary guest probably thought Gaara would try it.

Sirius tried describing some of the other peculiarities but gave up when it failed to lighten Harry's mood. It looked like the two would simply hate each other for the time being. Lupin would have a better shot at mediating, really. Sirius had always specialised in creating strife, not neutralising it.

Harry noticed the subject was winding down thanks to his lacking interest in discussing Sirius' other teenage dependent, but his mind recalled a question he had been holding for a long while now regarding the mysterious and irritating exchange student.

"You know I had the Map that you and my father and Professor Lupin made, last year, right?" Harry started, his eyes darting around to make sure the redhead hadn't decided to show up.

"Yes…?"

"I don't know if Professor Lupin mentioned it-"

"Harry, I'm sure Remus wouldn't mind if you dispensed with the titles now that he's no longer your teacher."

"Mr Lupin-" Harry started again.

"Hahaha. No… just, no, not mister. I've got to tell him that one! Call him Remus or sponger or Moony or something."

Harry blushed a little at the ridicule. "Well, I don't know if Remus told you, but when I saw Gaara's name on the Map last year, it was a little strange."

"He is a little strange." Sirius chimed.

"With his name, there was a second tag."

"He has a surname?" Sirius' eyes went a wide. Gaara never ceased surprising.

"I'm not sure. Surnames are usually written next to the first name on the same tag but Gaara's is written on a second under it. I thought he might have a pet but it never leaves or moves. Even when he's sleeping."

"Is it a long name?"

"Not really. It was…" Harry cast his mind back. He had never bothered to write it down since he could just check the Map again if he needed (before it was suddenly confiscated), or Hermione could remind him. "Shu…kakus…? No, it was 'Shukaku'. Yeah, Shukaku."

"So his name is Gaara Shukaku?"

"I don't know, I was hoping you might be able to tell me." Either because he knew Gaara or because he knew how the Map worked.

"I might know Gaara the best but he's never mentioned that name to me, I'll have to ask him about it." Sirius said, wondering just how many secrets a teenager could feasibly have. Surely it had to end somewhere. "Why have you never asked him?"

"I figured there must be a reason he hadn't told anyone. Like, he was in hiding or something. Plus he's an arse."

Sirius smile despite himself at that last shot. He thought it was very kind of Harry to consider Gaara's feelings and safety like that, especially in light of their antagonism.

"You were probably right. I take it Mr Weasley and Ms Granger know about it too?"

"Yeah. Hermione was the one who noticed the difference from other surnames." Ron was the one who suggested Gaara was in hiding, but he was sure Gaara was hiding from some foreign Aurors or something like that. Ron liked to make up theories.

"Well, I'm sure they wouldn't go around telling everyone about the Map so just leave it with me. You might have found a fault with the Map for all I know."

"Professor Lupin said the Map never lies." Harry said, lapsing back into is formal address of his former teacher.

"True. But Gaara has a way of confounding everyone."

Sirius planned to ask Gaara after Harry had left, since there were large parts of Gaara's secretive life that were best discussed in private. He suspected this would be yet another such one.

He would also have to ask Remus about it since he had confiscated the Map from Harry and should have seen the same thing. Why had he failed to mention it, though?

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

It was a few days later, the day after Sirius had finally decided to force Gaara out of his room (since he was tired of hearing the shower running at four in the morning), that Harry first heard the name Bandit.

Gaara had said hello and stopped at that when first seeing Harry. Perhaps it was the Englishman in him but Harry found it very uncomfortable not pretending to be civil with his sworn enemy until they did something to upset him. Instead, impressively, Gaara forewent custom and stuck to their antagonism.

It was a touch awkward so Harry went along with it and treated Gaara in the same regard.

Harry's first thought regarding Gaara, before the hostilities had begun, had been that the redhead was tiny. Granted, he had never been tall but after a month of not seeing him, the difference in their heights seemed even more pronounced. Rather than a fourth year, Gaara looked like he was about big enough to join third year. He refrained from saying as much.

Sirius had had such high hopes of reconciliation after he saw Harry trying to bury the hatchet and at least pretend to get along with Gaara. Then Gaara totally ignored the olive branch and continued his casual hostility to Harry.

Sigh. Nevermind.

Dinners with Harry so far had been lively affairs, with many stories of past misadventures and future plans. Dinners with Gaara typically also featured Remus and they also were filled with laughter and discussion. Even Gaara joined in on the conversations, if not the laughter, when it was just him and the two adults.

Dinner with Harry AND Gaara was not so boisterous. Sirius tried multiple times to initiate some sort of conversation but got little in the way of a response. Gaara could be standoffish at the best of times, and after being snubbed, Harry was perfectly content to follow suit.

Eventually, to fill the silence and perchance lighten the collective mood, the host tried suggesting a trip to visit Lupin in a couple days. In his excitement, he let slip that Moony wanted Bandit to see his considerably smaller collection of books.

Gaara had not been happy to hear his nickname disclosed to someone outside of the two idiots that had devised it, although he was certainly glad of the change from Lily now more than ever.

Harry was also less than happy to hear that not only had Gaara usurped his place in his godfather's home, he had also been given a nickname like a Marauder. He briefly considered that the other Marauder names had been devised from their animal forms and that Gaara didn't have one, but was more caught up in the immediate sense of betrayal.

Sirius, hyper aware of his wards' discomfort had been watching their reactions constantly to see if anything produced a smile or if anything he said was likely going to cause one to lunge over the table at the other. So, he saw when Harry's face turned sour at his mention of Gaara seeing Remus' books. It took him a moment to work out why Harry had been upset, and then his mood plummeted to match the others.

Obviously Harry was feeling left out.

That night, after Gaara had walked out of the room so that Kreacher could clear the table (and with no intention of returning any time soon), Sirius tried once again to apologise for the situation.

He dearly wished he could explain it in full.

The best he could do was provide Harry with some happy memories during the short periods they could see one another; and part of that was giving Harry a nickname. It went against convention to do so without an animal form to base it off, but the Marauders, lazy lot that they had been in school, had never bothered writing down any bylaws. Plus Gaara had been Lily for the better part of year before they knew about the fluffiness.

"Prongslet?" Harry repeated, less than impressed.

"Well, it was either that, after your father, or you can be named after your mother. She didn't care for her nickname either, much. But if you really want, you can be 'Little Miss Bossy Boots." That joke had led to the first time Lily had sent a curse at James' head.

It certainly hadn't been the last.

"Prongslet's fine." Harry said, now worried his mischievous godfather would want to use a mocking female title instead.

"Good." Sirius said, throwing his arm around Harry's shoulders. "Now, I have to say, from what I have heard of your school performance so far, I am not impressed."

Harry was suddenly worried. Was he not doing well enough in his classes? He thought he had been doing pretty well, all things considered. Certainly above average but below Hermione and most Ravenclaws. Maybe Sirius saw that as a failure? He had never had a relative take an interest in his grades before so maybe he had been coasting along…

"I mean, sure you've snuck around a fair bit, but where have the pranks been?" Sirius said, the same stern expression set on his face that only seemed to surface in times of jest. "Those Weasleys have been running amuck for years without a challenger. I hope you understand that your nickname means you're unofficially part of the Marauders now. You have a legacy to live up to."

"Unofficially?" Harry didn't really think there was anything official about his father's group of friends.

"Well, there's an initiation, but it involves a werewolf and a squeaky toy, as well as a particularly long stint in detention resulting from a prank. I think it would be best for everyone concerned if we held off on that for a couple years."

"Yeah, sure." Harry said thinking he could live with being an unofficial member.

"There's a match on soon, we'd best get to the radio or we'll miss our exalted Minister's opening remarks."

"I know I never miss a chance to hear him speak."

"And that makes you a fine patriotic wizard, my dear boy."

The radio had been a gift from Orion for Sirius' tenth birthday, an extravagant gift at the time since it was an entirely frivolous item and promoted the liberal, progressive political elements. It had stayed in his room until Sirius was banished, and then it was moved into Regulus' room.

His little brother had always been jealous of the thing but had never been given one because it was in-part blamed for Sirius being sorted into Gryffindor.

Sirius had found it when he first arrived back, along with some others of his possessions. He'd left most where he found them but reclaimed the fully functional radio that now sat in the drawing room.

"Ah, good, it's still in pre-game."

"Who's playing tonight?"

"Nigeria and Senegal. Not the best teams separately, but these two have been competing for years. Or at least they had been the last time I was free for a match."

"I heard Senegal were caught cheating during the last World Cup. Their Seeker was found to be using a magical eye."

"Really? Wow. I'm surprised they were let back so soon. Usually a team gets banned for at least the next three Cups for that sort of thing."

"The rest of the team managed to convince everyone they knew nothing about it. I only heard about it because Ron saved the newspaper clipping with a picture of Senegal's Captain punching the Seeker so hard the fake eye popped right out. That went some ways to convincing people, I bet."

Sirius roared with laughter. He would have to find a copy of that picture.

"I've been meaning to ask you something." Sirius said.

"Yes?" Harry reluctantly turned away from the radio. Apparently, despite the excitable radio announcer's predictions of violence between the rival teams' fans, both sides were perfectly amiable.

"Well, I happen to have a few tickets to the World Cup finals next month and I figured, with you being the youngest Hogwarts Seeker in a century, you might know someone who wanted to go."

Harry gasped. "You're joking, right?"

"Nope, I bought a bunch of tickets. Best seats in the house. We're gonna be able to accidentally throw our popcorn on Fudge and his cronies all game. There's going to be camping and singing, barbecuing, and lots of drinking for those old enough."

"Ron's going to be so jealous!" Harry said, imagining the delights of his first professional Quidditch match, and international finals as well!

"Maybe; I am an amazing person to sit next to. But as far as the rest goes, I don't think he has much to envy. I happened to notice a particularly large block of seats in our box had been bought by the Weasley family months ago when they first went on sale."

"Wait, so Ron's whole family are going and he never mentioned it?" Harry wasn't too much of an adult to admit he was a little hurt by this.

"That doesn't sound like something a friend of yours would do. Owl him tomorrow and see what he says. There's a decent chance he didn't even know."

That actually made a lot of sense to Harry. Mr Weasley must have used whatever was left of his lottery winnings to buy so many tickets to such a nice box; he was probably waiting until closer to the event to spring it on the family.

For the rest of the radio game Harry was even more excited than a good match usually made him. He really couldn't wait to go and see everybody together and to watch the game live, and to be camping…

Harry wondered if this was how most children felt about Christmas.

After the match had concluded with a stunning victory for the Nigerian side, it was already quite late and Sirius wanted to visit the zoo with Harry in the morning so they started to turn in.

"Oh, and Harry?" Sirius said as they were parting on the landing.

"Yeah?"

"It's probably best if you don't mention the tickets to Gaara. I'll tell him later."

Harry agreed but honestly couldn't imagine a conversation between himself and Gaara that would lead to that sort of discussion. It was difficult to imagine any conversation with the surly redhead, beyond an exchange of insults.

Meanwhile Sirius was considering when it would be best to tell Harry and Gaara that Gaara was going too. Neither would be happy about it. Probably best to wait until closer to the date.

Probably.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Gaara had been enjoying his solitude for the most part. With Harry there, Sirius had been too busy to bother Gaara, and Remus had been banished, so Gaara was allowed to spend all of his time researching and practicing his meditations for the first element of the animagus transformation. Both of the adults in his life told him he would have an enormous advantage in this stage thanks to his propensity for silent contemplation.

Gaara was more concerned about the fact he needed to 'quiet his thoughts', according to Sirius. Did that mean he needed to relax and stop thinking, or did that mean his mind needed to actually be quiet? One meant he just needed to do what he could already do; the other meant he needed to get the giant demon within to shut up for the first time in fourteen years.

Over the course of Harry's stay, Sirius tried to spend some time with Gaara every day so that he didn't feel left out, no matter how much Gaara shunned such attention. Still, Sirius was more than used to the curmudgeonly teen's evasions so he persevered. Plus, Gaara was receptive to specific assistance. He might avoid socialising or chatting, but when Sirius wanted to discuss a pertinent matter or share some insight into his research, he was very agreeable.

In light of the tickets Sirius had showed him, Harry was buzzing for days, despite Sirius occasionally darting off to spend an hour or two with Gaara, and despite the fact that the redheaded shut-in would apparently be joining them at the World Cup. He had seen Gaara at a few Quidditch matches at school but his attendance had apparently mostly been a cover for Sirius sneaking onto the grounds or in order to watch Malfoy. Harry told himself Gaara probably wouldn't even go to the match, or if he did he would sit at the back, probably with a book or something.

However, the excitement over the World Cup finals eventually faded to a pleasant memory and Harry was left with the most annoying housemate conceivable. They spent little time in proximity, mostly passing each other in the expansive house's halls or during meals, but such meetings were always tense.

Gaara thought Harry was immature and overly reactionary, and Harry… well, Harry thought a lot of unflattering things about Gaara too, some of which were not as factual as he liked to believe.

It wasn't a big thing that set Harry off. Gaara couldn't pinpoint the cause of the argument days after the fact when he had time to break it all down in his head. He had been walking back to the library with a glass of water when he had spotted Harry coming in the opposite direction. Normally whenever they crossed paths like this, they would say hello, nod heads, give some indication that they had seen each other, (and always avoid eye contact). It was the smallest courtesy but it was the best either could do.

Gaara walked right on past Harry and failed to acknowledge Harry's magnanimous "Evening." That was it.

Instead, Gaara had been dwelling on a new magical array for his quest to find his home world and had totally ignored Harry's greeting. Harry had unfortunately not known about the important equations being run in Gaara's head at that very moment and took this as a total dismissal. And it just rubbed him wrong.

"You're an arse!" Harry hissed, unsure whether to keep walking and leave it at that or wait for a response.

Gaara paused and looked back at Harry, staring at him for a few seconds too long. It was just as the Boy-Who-Lived was starting to wonder if he had been unduly combative like Hermione was always scolding him for being, when he finally got a response.

"You're a child. I am busy."

"What?! I'm the child?!"

"I'm busy." Gaara's monotone repetition didn't effectively convey that he didn't want to stand around slinging insults like Harry might have liked. If Gaara wanted to fight, it wouldn't be using words; but he did not want to fight Sirius' godson again, he wanted to get back to his work.

"No, you listen!" Harry yelled, "Sirius is my godfather and here you are living here with him while I have to live with my aunt and uncle, and they both hate me. When I don't have a snake obsessed megalomaniac who killed my parents trying to kill me, I have you messing up my life. Why are you even here?!"

Obviously Harry had a few things to get off of his chest.