7/7

"It's not just about him; we need to know because you're obviously not just some exchange student. You don't have a surname, and you won't tell anyone where you're from, and you can do all that stuff with your sand even though you didn't know how to do any magic before you arrived last year?"

It had become increasingly difficult to ignore the fact that Gaara was not just another weird schoolmate, even in a magical school, he was something dangerous and entirely beyond the scope of the schoolyard.

"I don't intend to divulge any more secrets to you. I have no interest in harming you or your friends."

Gaara wasn't sure if he appreciated Harry's interest/suspicion of him, or if he resented Harry's continued presumption.

"We will work it out eventually." Harry warned.

"Quite probably," Gaara conceded, "But that is a problem for another day."

Harry stood up and walked to the door, feeling defeated, but stopped halfway. "Does Sirius know, or Remus?"

"They know everything." Gaara admitted. He was sure in the belief that Sirius and Remus would not tell anyone what they knew.

Harry turned, surprised by that, but smiled. "If they know and decided you were okay then I'll try to not bug you about it too much. We'll still find out, though."

"Probably. Then you can make your own conclusions." Gaara said. He had been sure as could be that Sirius would reject him after finding out, so he was reserving judgement until Harry and his gang also worked it out. They might surprise him, or they would head the mob. One or the other.

Harry left him alone after that so Gaara assumed they could resume their avoidance of each other.

Another ten minutes later, as Harry was finishing sorting through his clothes to go in his trunk for the train tomorrow, he finally heard Sirius shouting from downstairs. He sprung up from his seat on the floor and practically ran for the stairs, eager to see what Sirius had in store. He caught a glance of Gaara also coming at a more sedate gait as the excited Lion flew down the stairs to the first floor.

There, he found not only Sirius but Remus as well waiting there. Harry ran straight up to his favourite ever professor and hugged him tightly.

Gaara arrived and asked, "What is the surprise?" He had not noticed Remus disappeared for the day.

"Don't worry, Gaara, there's more. Remus is just stopping by for a cup of sugar. I'll get back to looking for where Kreacher has hidden the sugar in a bit. For now, we're going to take a picture, all four of us."

"Entirely his idea, I must add." Remus said.

"The new and improved Marauders!" Sirius declared, pulling the antique-looking camera out from where he had set it after spending the better part of the last hour searching for it and putting it back together.

Harry was as energised as Sirius was, whereas Gaara was still underwhelmed.

"Alright, everyone together." Sirius said after setting up the tripod. "Closer than that." He looked pointedly at Gaara who was off to the side.

When the other three were together in the frame, Sirius pressed a button and ran to stand with them, settling in place as the timer buzzed away. "Now, everyone smile!" He yelled.

The camera flashed and left them all temporarily blinded. Sirius walked back over to the camera and fiddled about with something Gaara could not see but came away with a thin, photo-shaped wooden box which he promised would be developed soon, and he would send to them copies at school.

They sat around downstairs for a while that evening, with Remus getting Harry and Gaara to promise they would try to avoid trouble this year. The moment Remus stepped out of the room to go to the toilets, Sirius made them promise to ignore Remus' promise. Gaara had nodded both times, his mind elsewhere.

The evening was lively and jovial and Sirius never wanted it to end, but the hour grew late and Remus had to leave and the boys needed to go to bed, in Gaara's case to continue reading and maybe pack his possessions in his expanded trunk sometime in the early morning. Sirius had stayed up late that night, wishing he had a little more time before Gaara and Harry would have to leave.

Early the next morning, Sirius went upstairs and loudly woke his wards, or rather rudely woke Harry and startled Gaara who had been finishing his transfer of a quarter of the Black family library into his cavernous trunk. Gaara was confident Sirius would never notice the missing books since the only reason the man-child ever entered the library was to bother Gaara.

Harry stumbled out of his room looking tired and bedraggled, resenting his godfather in that moment, who was still banging on Gaara's door.

Harry yawned, "What time is it?"

"About six, I think." Sirius smiled manically. He had gotten maybe three hours sleep and was running on coffee and Pepper-Up potions.

Harry looked towards Gaara's door when it opened, hoping the moody Slytherin would be able to put Sirius down sufficiently so they might get at least another hour to sleep. Instead, Gaara stepped out fully dressed, looking as awake and aware as he ever did. With those ringed eyes, spotting bags under them was impossible, Harry thought.

Sirius smirked noticing the hope drain from Harry's blurry eyes. Gaara's insomnia finally had a use.

"Let's get some breakfast!" He said unnecessarily loudly, winding his arm around Harry's shoulder and guiding him back out when the tired boy tried ducking back into his room.

"It's too early." Harry moaned.

"Come now, it's not that early. Gaara's probably been up for hours." Sirius reasoned, leading them to the stairs.

"Days." Gaara clarified, quietly.

Breakfast was on the table when they got to the kitchen. Harry fell back into his chair and focussed entirely on keeping his face from smacking into the tabletop. "Can I get some coffee?"

Sirius thought for a moment, "Gaara, is it responsible to let a fourteen year old drink coffee?"

"In moderation." Gaara replied with no recognition of the irony inherent to the question. Harry was too drowsy to see it either.

Sirius smiled and poured Harry a mug of coffee and then slid the milk and sugar to him. Gaara asked for tea but Sirius insisted he drink orange juice in the morning. "I know it's an American tradition but it's got lots of vitamin C so no complaining."

Gaara sighed. Even if he had not been asleep, it was too early in the morning to be put through Sirius' excruciating attempts at responsible parenting.

Just as Sirius was piling his bacon and eggs onto a piece of toast, they heard a tapping at the window.

"It's early for the post." Gaara observed.

"I bet I know who it's from." Sirius groaned, collecting the letter and shooing the owl away without even a scrap of bacon. "Bloody Rita Skeeter. Been hounding me for weeks about an interview."

"Why not just do it and get her to leave you alone? Not like you did anything worth hiding." Harry said, his mind working at restricted but functioning capacity.

"You should read some of her articles." Sirius warned. "On second thought, I can't in good conscience recommend an impressionable mind expose themselves to such spurious rubbish."

"She lies?" Harry could not believe they were allowed to lie in a newspaper. Surely there were rules against that sort of thing.

"Habitually. I would tell her the innocent truth and would be public enemy number one by the end of the day, or a laughing stock. Either way, never trust a reporter, and definitely never trust tabloid writers like Skeeter."

"Noted." Harry said, spearing some bacon from Gaara's plate when he wasn't looking. Gaara looked back at his plate and tried to work out why it looked wrong. Sirius snickered but kept quiet.

"She spent two days camped outside my front door last week, trying to ambush me and find out 'my side of the story.'" Sirius said, even doing a smarmy impression at the end.

"She was?" Gaara asked.

"Yeah but you didn't go outside those days. I just ignored her and she went away eventually."

"Should have turned into Padfoot and scared her off, or sent Remus out there." Harry snickered.

Sirius chuckled a little but straightened up, "That might seem like a great idea at the time, and I will keep those two in mind for the future, but you can't go playing around with journalists, Harry. They will only write worse about you because of it. 'Sirius Black Sets Dog on Reporter' or worse, 'Sirius Black Sets Werewolf on Reporter.' That second one would probably get both Remus and I locked up."

Harry's eyes were wide.

"Just stay away from them, Pongslet, you too Bandit." Sirius said. Gaara nodded, confident he could blank any journalists trying to wheedle answers out of him.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

The drive to the station was quiet, being on a weekday midmorning, so Sirius kept taking his eyes off the road to spout out last minute pieces of dubious advice to his two teenage charges. Harry and Gaara accepted what he said so he would refocus on the road every time.

They parked up and the boys went and got trolleys for their trunks. Harry was always careful transporting Hedwig when she was in her cage since she didn't like being cooped up in it.

"I still say I should have got you an owl." Sirius said.

"I don't need any pets." Gaara replied, having told Sirius this at least a dozen times, but secretly anxious to get back and see how Fluffy had gotten on without him for a month. Hagrid could be absentminded.

"He can use one of the Hogwarts owls if he needs to." Harry defended Gaara, having experienced the pressures of Sirius' generosity.

King's Cross station was busy, as was to be expected, and a conspicuous number of the inconspicuous witches and wizards were staring openly at Gaara, Sirius and Harry. The notorious trio tried to ignore the plainly dressed magical folk who were all taking their turns walking through the barrier to platform 9¾ one by one. Since standing in an orderly line would arouse even muggle suspicions, they had to work their way around the station in a rough formation so no one would notice.

Harry had always arrived at the last minute with the Weasleys so the line had been nonexistent.

"Of course, some people just skip the line, and muggleborns can walk right on through since they don't know about the rules." Sirius said bitterly. They could have flooed to the platform directly but Gaara's aversion to magical travel superseded Sirius' wisdom apparently, so they had to take the slow route.

"How do you know when to move forward?" Harry asked, trying to work out where the next family were standing.

"Normally they don't keep looking at you, but the line runs along this platform here, and then over to number 6, and then to 9. And the best way to work it out is to look for trunks. People who have trunks, or owls, or both and no fashion sense whatsoever, are wizards. Keep an eye on them and if they don't move after three minutes, assume they're just unfashionable muggles and move forward. We'll be at the portal in twenty minutes at most." Sirius said.

"That seems unnecessarily complicated…" Harry remarked, looking around again.

"Well, it was made up by a handful of Hogwarts parents about five years after they started using King's Cross, since they kept having to obliviate upset muggles." Sirius said. "That was about 1860, I think. My father used to say that a better solution would have been to exterminate the uppity muggle rather than put us through the trouble."

Harry stayed quiet, as he often did when Sirius mentioned his atrocious parents. If anyone ever made the argument for muggle inferiority to Harry on the basis of his relatives, he would point them in the direction of Sirius' family and feel totally vindicated in his beliefs of equality.

Sirius guided Gaara and Harry along the ridiculous path that witches and wizards apparently followed to take their turns to get onto 9¾. If not for all of the staring, Harry would have been sure this was a prank Sirius was pulling on them.

When they did finally get to platform 9, Harry was eager to board the train at last. It paled in comparison to Gaara's, of course, but Harry's impatience was not inconsiderable.

Platform 9¾ was even busier than the muggle side of the station, with the entire width of the area cluttered with witches and wizards reluctant to let their precious children board the train and leave them for months. They walked through the crowds until they found a clear spot to say their goodbyes. As they had walked, a number had felt it acceptable to pat Gaara on the back and thank him, presumably for his actions at the end of the last term.

Harry grumbled on the other side of Sirius, resenting the lack of appreciation for the two times he had saved the school. The most he had ever gotten were a few apologies for insulting him earlier in the term for being the heir of Slytherin. As always it helped to see that Gaara was not enjoying the attention. He shivered every time someone clasped his shoulder warmly.

"Remember everything I told you, except all the wrong parts which I expect you to forget." Sirius said, hugging Harry firmly. "School's not all about the grades, although your mother would never forgive me for saying it was okay to slack off. Don't fail, but have fun. I'll see you soon, and don't forget to owl me all the time."

"I won't." Harry promised, "Try not to get into any trouble."

Sirius laughed and cuffed him lightly over the back of the head. Harry had spotted the Weasleys so he went running for them.

"I know you don't want to but…" Sirius pulled Gaara into an embrace to, holding on a little longer this time. "Be careful with your animagus transformations. The Ministry is out to get you and an unregistered animagus is a good excuse to arrest you." He let go at last, brushing the creases out of Gaara's robes.

"I know." Gaara stated. "Don't be alone. You need someone to stay with you, Remus or someone else."

Sirius stared into Gaara's eyes and blinked back a tear. "You're too straight-faced to say things like that Gaara. Try to have some fun this year too. Don't spend all your time reading. And I expected you to write to me too, or else I will orchestrate an unscheduled visit to the school again."

Sirius looked to where Harry had been walking and spotted something troubling. Harry had just walked into Draco (or Draco had walked into Harry, depending on who you asked), and they were now glaring at one another.

"Watch where you're going, Potter!" Draco hissed.

"You watch where you're going, Malfoy!" Harry bit back.

They both circled each other and then reluctantly turned away and continued in their respective directions.

Sirius turned back to Gaara who had watched the standoff as well. "I don't suppose you know why they hate each other so much?" It was hard to believe it was because of Lucius or the usual Slytherin/Gryffindor rivalry since Draco had seemed like a nice enough boy since they met.

"He was a bigot and a snob and Harry is obnoxious and headstrong." Gaara answered bluntly.

Sirius laughed loudly, slapping Gaara on the back. "Have a great year and do be careful."

Gaara nodded back at him and walked to meet Draco, doing his best to avoid as many congratulatory interactions as he could.

"You ready to go?" Draco said as a greeting, turning straight towards the train.

"Yes." Gaara liked brevity.

They stepped onto the train, Draco going first, and as Gaara climbed in after him, he noticed something. The throng of students vying to board after Gaara pushed him in after Draco, but the moment Gaara had noticed the skilfully concealed limp Draco was sporting, he knew exactly what he wanted to do next. Sadly, the people behind him kept Gaara moving forward into the train.

Gaara followed his friend to the nearest empty compartment and they settled in for the trip ahead. Looking out on to the platform, Gaara saw Lucius and Narcissa standing further apart than he had ever seen them stand in public, and Narcissa was looking less composed than normal. Gaara wanted to go out onto the platform and make good on his promise to kill Draco's father, but even the oblivious assassin knew it would be better to wait until a more private moment.

The hundreds of parents and children, Lucius' wife and child, and Sirius as witnesses would be pretty damning for him. Still, the time would come that Gaara would kill Lucius, of that he was sure.

He stared at Lucius until they made eye contact and the message was sent.

A few people tried to enter their compartment but Draco either told them to leave or Gaara held the door shut on them.

"They really should put locks on these doors." Draco laughed confidently, content that Gaara had not noticed his limp, resulting from a couple of nasty-looking bruises.

Gaara nodded, sitting back down after the latest attempt to join them.

A few minutes later, a polite knock was heard and before Draco could shout one his increasingly rude dismissals, Gaara opened it for Luna to enter. She was smiling brightly. "Good morning, you two."

"Good morning." Draco said.

Gaara nodded.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Harry, Ron, Hermione and the twins were all sat together, listening to Fred and George repeat the same pitch they had bored Ron with half a dozen times already that summer, explaining the plans for their joke shop to be built in Diagon Alley. They finished their impressive description with a complaint that their mother was not letting them start it up until they finished school. She had flatly refused to let Arthur co-sign a business loan with Gringotts until they were at least eighteen, and even then only for a small amount. They were going to have to look for a partner or an investor to make up their shortfall.

Harry enjoyed listening to their wacky ideas and inventions and their dream for the future.

"Did you find anything else out, about our research project?" Hermione asked quietly when the twins had finished.

It took Harry a few seconds to work out what she was referring to, and then frowned. "He's an ass but we shouldn't worry too much about him. Trust me." Harry affirmed in a whisper.

"If you're sure, mate." Ron said softly, wondering why Harry was downplaying things now.

"So-"

"What's this 'research project' you're talking-"

"About?" Fred and George said in their infuriating twin speak.

"Um… nothing…?" Ron lied so convincingly.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Sirius sat in his chair and dropped his car keys on the table next to him. Remus was due back tomorrow morning after he had settled some unspecified business, but until then Sirius would have to sit in his silent house alone.

Reaching over to the same side table, he picked up a new photo that had been delivered while he was out, already set in an ornate silver frame. He would send Gaara and Harry copies tomorrow in the morning post. For now, he simply wanted to appreciate the picture.

Harry was stood in front of him and Gaara was in front of Remus, nearly five inches shorter than Harry next to him. It was a moving/wizarding picture and it showed Sirius running into the frame, them all trying to stay still, and then Sirius' hand darting behind Gaara's head to give him bunny ears. Everyone but Gaara smiling as the flash went off, the light reflecting off the three pairs of damp eyes.

Sirius lost track of time as he admired the scene playing out on repeat.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Omake:

"He's not going to want to." Remus said.

"It's not about what he wants, it's about what's good for him." Sirius argued back, carefully tying a balloon.

"And a party is good for him?" Remus said from across the room, trying to get the other end of the banner to stick to the wall.

"Of course it is. His birthday consisted of me giving him a joke gift and you indulging your irresponsible habit of daytime drinking. He should have a party."

"It's not a habit, Padfoot."

"I think anybody that has to be carried home by teenagers because they got pissed in front of them at least has a bad habit. I was thinking of suggesting you join a program, to be honest, Moony."

Remus sighed heavily, giving up on the Spell-O-Tape and pulling out his wand to use a sticking charm. "I will admit that was not my best moment as a teacher, but I knew Gaara was responsible enough to keep everyone safe. Which is not my endorsement for you trying to get him drunk next week at the World Cup."

"You're going to take the wallpaper off with that sticking charm." Sirius said, blanking out that last part.

"And?"

"And nothing, just wondering what bright colour I should paint after I pull the rest of this mouldy paper down."

"A nice friendly yellow, perhaps. I'm sure your mother would love it."

"That's always my first thought when I make decisions: WWMCMD – what would my crazy mother do?"

"So who is actually coming?" Remus asked, picking up an un-inflated balloon.

"Who do you think?"

"Draco?"

"Yep." Sirius said, moving onto his fortieth balloon.

"Luna?"

"Yep."

"Anybody else?" Remus would not get into a race with Sirius about who could blow them up the fastest.

Sirius snorted, "No. He has two friends and he seems quite happy with them. Thought of asking Draco for some of their housemates' names and addresses, but Gaara doesn't seem to like any of them."

"What about Harry? They seemed to be getting on better these days, right?"

"I think they're just not at each other's throats at the moment. Best not to force them to hang out too often. Besides, I only have a couple days left with Harry, I'm sure he would rather not spend one of them with Draco Malfoy."

"Fair point. Reminded me of James and Snivellus, a bit actually, this past year. Cats and dogs." Remus acknowledged they were definitely racing to blow up the balloons now.

"Snakes and lions, more like." Sirius said.

"Except there's no Lily to mediate this time. At least Harry isn't much of a prankster and Draco wasn't much of a…"

"Prat?"

"I suppose prat works. So it will just be you, me, Draco, and Luna Lovegood?"

"Yep." Sirius said.

Remus wondered how many balloons they were going to inflate since the bag still had a lot in there and the drawing room floor was already covered. "Those two know about where Gaara comes from, right?"

"Yeah, he said so. Makes it a bit simpler, I think."

"When are they due?" Remus was getting light-headed now.

"About two minutes ago, I think. I thought I heard them downstairs, actually."

"What?" Remus jumped up from his seat but had to brace himself against the wing-back when his vision flickered from the sudden rush. "Gaara's going to hear them!"

"No he won't. I put a silencing spell outside his door about two hours ago so we wouldn't need to worry. He could guess anyway, you know how he is, but we might get away with it."

"That's a smart idea. But why, then, did we have to sneak by his door when we were bringing down the decorations?"

"I forgot I put the spell up." Sirius smiled.

"And you tell me off for daytime drinking." Remus muttered, eyeing the half-empty glass at Sirius' side.

"It's my turn!" Sirius mocked outrage. "Anyway, I'm not sure how powerful my spell was so you should probably go and get those two before they shout too loudly and spoil the surprise."

"Sure." Remus ducked out the door, wary of spotting Gaara's distinctive red hair as he went.

"Hello, welcome. Sorry no was here to welcome you, Sirius is… an idiot, really…" Remus sighed.

"Not to worry. I just thought I was early and that Draco was early too." Luna said.

"I thought you and Mr. Black might be decorating." Draco admitted, brushing the soot from the floo off of his fine robes.

"Draco, do me a favour, could you refer to him as Uncle Sirius today?" Remus asked. After Sirius got Harry to call Remus 'The Wolfy Scrounger' in his letters for a week, Remus had been trying to come up with some sort of revenge.

"Okay." Draco seemed less sure but agreed. Technically they were cousins once removed.

"What should I call him?" Luna piped up.

"How about Lord Black?"

"Okay." Luna said it with more excitement than Draco had.

"So where is Gaara now?" Draco asked.

"In his room but it's been muffled so he doesn't know anything." Remus said, leading them up to the drawing room.

"And you're sure he's going to like this?" Draco continued.

"It's just a small party, nothing fancy or crowded." Remus said, suddenly wondering the same.

"I think he will like it." Luna said, with a surety that could inspire confidence in nobody who knew her.

Stepping into the party room, Draco was less sure than ever, staring at the hundreds of balloons, the banner on the wall, the fairy lights, and the presents.

"I wasn't aware we were expected to bring presents." Draco worried, working out whether he would have enough time to go out and get something before the party actually commenced.

"Don't worry. Mostly just a few expensive books, some new clothes, that sort of stuff. It's not really a birthday or anything like that so I kept it simple." Sirius said.

"After I persuaded you not to get him the dragon scale belt with the solid gold buckle." Remus said.

Sirius grumbled while he finished setting up the last of the lights around the room.

"Thank you for inviting me." Luna said.

"Yes, thank you, Uncle Sirius." Draco said, trying out the assigned nickname.

Sirius spun around, unsure of whether Draco was actually playing a prank or if he genuinely thought it was a good idea to call him that. "You're both very welcome. We couldn't celebrate this without you two around, now, could we?"

"I think we're all done here." Remus observed the over-the-top decorations critically.

"Okay, you all stand away from the door. I'll get the light." Sirius waded through the balloons and turned off the lights once the other three had taken their places. He cracked open the door and shouted at the top of his lungs, "Gaara! Come here a minute!"

They all listened avidly, in the pitch darkness until, after several moments of nothing happening, Remus said wearily, "You forgot to take off the silencing spell, Sirius."

Sirius laughed and undid the spell and repeated the undignified yelling.

They heard a door open and close and then nothing. Gaara made almost no noise as he walked so they prepared themselves to trigger.

The door creaked open slowly, Gaara wary of entering the darkened room.

"Surprise!" They all chorused as Sirius switched the lights back on, throwing wide their hands and sending Gaara jumping back into the hallway in a fright.

"Ha ha, we got him!" Sirius cheered.

Gaara peered back into the room, now that the lights were on, and saw Remus, Sirius, Draco and Luna standing in a pool of brightly coloured balloons.

"Happy anniversary, Gaara." Sirius cheered and the other followed suit.

"Anniversary?" He asked, still trying to catch up with what was happening. There was a lot of visual sensory data to process.

"You came to this world about a year ago now and while I don't remember the exact date, we couldn't let the opportunity for a party go to waste." Sirius answered.

"It was all Lord Black's idea. We all know you might be homesick but we're glad you came to this world anyway and wanted to show you that." Luna told him, missing the flat look of understanding and loathing Sirius shot Remus.

Gaara looked again at the decorations and lighting and presents and foods laid out, glanced behind at his exit and then stepped into the room. "Thank you." He said quietly.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

A/N: I finally decided to cave and watch Boruto. From the first episode I get the impression that despite the heavily and necessarily derivative setting and story, they are trying to imbue it with as much originality as possible. I take a good deal of comfort in knowing that there is very little at this point that they could reveal about Gaara that would complicate my stories. Unlike the later parts of the original series, wherein every ten chapter or so a groundbreaking discovery was revealed, necessitating a rewrite of the lore, I don't believe there is much they could say about Gaara that would impact writers' current understandings or portrayals of his character.

That said, I am very interested in Shinki, Gaara's adopted son with the Magnetic Release bloodline. There's a very interesting story there, I just know it.

Just ended up watching a BBC documentary about Japanese wildlife and when they started talking about tanuki, I felt like I should be taking notes. Decided not to in the end since I figured it was unlikely that urban encroachment would destroy Gaara's habitat, forcing him to scavenge out of the bins. Although, if raccoons=trash pandas, what are tanuki (Japanese raccoon dogs)?

As I said above, I have written another Suna-centric story that readers of this fic may enjoy. Pop over and give it a read.

Regardless, thanks for reading this chapter. Take a moment to review if you can think of anything to say. I always appreciate and enjoy reading reviews.