4/4

Gaara had been waiting in the empty room, planning his next move when the door had swung open and he heard/smelt someone enter the room. His improved senses could tell an invisible teenager had entered the room, but they had no sensory memory to reference back to, so he had no idea who it was. However, seeing as it was a teenager it was the middle of the night, and it was already causing him trouble, he correctly guessed it was either Potter or one of his stooge friends.

Harry was in the classroom, under his cloak, but he couldn't see where Gaara was. He had hoped to do this observation stealthily, though he didn't think about the door that would have appeared to have magically opened by itself, however, he was staring into the darkened room and he couldn't see Gaara hiding in the back amongst the piles of chairs.

Harry put away his map and walked further into the room, trying to peer under the furniture to see where Gaara was hiding. Being about as far from a ninja as it was possible to be (a damning description considering the wide… variety counted amongst the shinobi ranks in Gaara's world), after Harry had opened a door while invisible, he failed to take note that his invisible feet were not only making noise but also marking the dust along the floor.

With these factors, Gaara accurately located the invisible threat. He slowly circled around, using his small size to his advantage and moving through the smallest gaps in the direction of the door. Luckily, whatever means Potter had used to locate him had only taken him to the general area Gaara was hiding in. He managed to circle around the unwitting boy and run out the door before Harry had even though to check his map to pinpoint his target's location.

When he did, he understood that Gaara had somehow hidden from sight too and had snuck past his and out the door. Seeing the direction Gaara was headed, he tucked his cloak into his trousers and took off running, needing all of the speed he could muster. He had seen Gaara running on the map before and it seemed like he was moving even faster than usual.

He was on to something!

Gaara was on all fours, sprinting down the hall, running towards the stairs. He had wanted to stay away from the upper floors and Luna at all costs, but running the risk of encountering her was better than risk being caught by Harry. His other other blond friend might have been deranged, but that was better than being captured by an enemy. Well, he wasn't sure if he wanted to credit Potter with such a title, but he certainly wasn't a friend.

Potter was an unfriendly acquaintance.

Granted, he didn't seem like the type to hurt an unfamiliar and innocent (ha!) animal, but the greater danger was his transformation. He couldn't let someone he was on poor terms with discover his secret.

What Gaara didn't know was that Harry wasn't following a strange animal around, that he had somehow tracked; instead, he was following Gaara but he had yet to catch a glimpse of the boy.

The high speed chase around the castle continued for an hour. No matter how fast or evasive Gaara was, he was always found by Harry, who was entirely lacking in stamina to keep up with the trained shinobi/animal. More often than not, the chase turned into a protracted game of hide & seek, which Gaara didn't think was fair considering Harry clearly had some sort of magical parchment to track him and was in his own body. There was no way a civilian child could have come close to catching Gaara if he was in his own body.

The fuzzy little psychopath nearly had a heart attack when he skidded around a corner and saw Luna standing there, facing the other direction. First Snape, then Potter, now Luna. All he needed now was Draco, Sirius and Orochimaru to join the chase and his night would be complete.

His luck won out for a change as he was able to slink back the way he had come before she noticed him.

As he continued his cat and mouse act with Potter, Gaara knew that these transformations were getting to be too much of a liability.

Sometime around two in the morning, the unexpectedly tenacious Gryffindor had given up his chase as he became convinced that Gaara was messing with him. Whatever the slimy Slytherin had been trying to hide he could have easily hidden and then confronted Harry with impunity. Clearly Gaara had been running all around the castle to keep Harry awake.

The next morning, Harry was beyond tired, being repeatedly reawakened by Hermione and Ron. It was that morning that the trio realised why Gaara had those bags around his eyes, seeing some lesser versions around Harry's after one night of trying to keep up with him. Hermione used the word 'insomniac' which Ron liked, mostly because it made the Slytherin sound crazy.

It took Gaara a further half hour before he had realised Harry wasn't following him anymore and he could finally make his way back to the Dungeons. The running hadn't been all too bad for his overflowing energy, but the stress was driving him into the ground. He hadn't rushed on his way back down the school, considering all the while when it would become an appropriate action to go on a good ol' killing spree.

He went back to his changing place and prepared for the shift. He still had hours before it would happen, so he tried something he hadn't before: sleeping in animal form. Granted, he spent the better part of an hour setting traps around the room to stop anyone sneaking up on him while he was out.

It was more of a nap, lasting only two hours, but it was among the most peaceful night's sleep he had ever gotten. It was what Gaara imagined sleep was like for normal people, none of the screaming, demons or mental battles to retain his sanity. When he woke up again, he check and found none of the traps had been disturbed and he had less than an hour until he changed again.

When he did change back into his small human body, he once more questioned his sanity in that form. After a night where he had done little else but flee from multiple pursuers, he had napped in the Dungeons.

Maybe he should just taken heed of that instinct that had told him to take a potion and hide in his trunk all night. Something to calm him, maybe sedate his 'wild side' a little while he was curled up tight in his trunk in his room. He could even knock Draco out and just stay in the room, but that ran the risk of one of Draco's braver friends knocking on the door. If Draco didn't answer they might get a Prefect to check on them.

Luna had not given up her search. She never would, she told herself.

She had looked all night, avoiding the patrolling teachers and ghosts with the ease that came with practicing. She had found faint signs all over the castle, stray tufts of fur, scratch marks on the stone, all since the last cleaning a few days before.

Her housemates had told her she was entering into a new form of weird; her father had applauded her training. If she wanted to grow up to track rare and exotic creatures, there would be no better practice. And he was selfishly rather eager to meet/examine this animal after his precious daughter had begun to obsess over it.

He remembered the first creature he had obsessed over. Over the course of three years, two broken broomsticks, a search by Aurors and sixteen angry Centaurs, he had found the beast and met his darling wife. And the less said about the two Centaurs who weren't angry, the better.

Luna had followed the signs of her dear, lost, fluffy pet down into the bowels of the school, and there she found a room she thought it must be hiding in.

"Animum Revelo." Luna whispered, pointing her wand directly at the door. As she had practiced at Hagrid's hut, the door started to glow a little before fading a little, assuring her that an animal was most definitely in there.

Luna, crazy though some might describe her, wasn't so out of her mind that she wanted to heedlessly pursue her lost pet and risk scaring it even further. The thing was clearly skittish, solitary, and didn't like being trapped, so she couldn't run into the room flinging spells. She wasn't a Gryffindor after all.

With that in mind, she sat down in front of the door and hoped none of the teachers had recognised her pattern and decided check if she had stayed in bed after midnight on this particular night. She would wait until the morning if she had to, she had even been napping during the afternoons in the past couple of days to ensure she wouldn't fall asleep.

In the room, Gaara was crawling in his skin, his animal mind fully used being allowed to run around freely by now. If he did want to lock himself up for these things, he would most definitely need tranquilising. When the sun rose, Gaara decided to devote some of his research time to try and resolve this worsening issue of the full moon nights. He had a month until his next one, however long that would actually be, so he figured that would ample opportunity to fix the issue.

It was after Gaara had put on his trousers and was pulling on his shirt that Luna crept conspicuously into the room. Both he and her froze staring at each other, her from behind the door and he with his fingers resting on a button he had been in the middle of threading.

"Oh." Luna said, her mind whirring back to life after the short crash.

Gaara lips mimed the same but he just ended up doubling over and coughed half a lung up. This broke both of them out of their reverie and she fully entered the room, less bothered about Gaara's state of partial dress and instead focussing on the bow clearly tied around his neck and the implications of it.

"You're a were-…tanuki?"

Gaara had stopped coughed, and instead had stood back up straight and resumed buttoning his shirt. He was hoping the repetitive activity would stop a blush from forming. It was because he had walked-in on when he was half-naked, but entirely because one of the people he was most afraid of finding out this secret had just done so in spectacular fashion.

He didn't address the question as he continued to work at his shirt, waiting until it was fully buttoned and he then located and called upon his sand to write out his responses in the early morning light.

'Yes.'

"Oh." Luna repeated. "Sorry for chasing you." That was the best she could come up with.

Gaara ignored the last comment and instead pulled on his shoes, longing for the comfort and flexibility that he had enjoyed with his shinobi sandals. When they were on and his cloak had been donned, he stood and approached Luna, the frustratingly blank expression still firmly (and resolutely) in place.

Luna watched him approach, feeling herself succumb to the widespread fear of him for just a second, until he stood before her and pulled his shirt collar down a inch, emphasising the blow material spelled on his neck.

"Oh!" She said for the third time. "Yes. Sorry. For that." She stuttered out, pulled out her wand again and pointing it at his throat. A muttered spell that he didn't care to concentrate on later and she was untying it. As she did, she stared at the fading scar on his neck for longer than he thought appropriate, so he dispelled her focus with a well placed hand rubbing the phantom sensation from his now bare neck.

She tucked the material in her pocket absently and then fell back against the door, still shocked and saddened by the revelation.

'Since I arrived here, the full moons have had a strange effect on me. My body changes but my mind doesn't.' He didn't mention the instincts for important reasons…

"So…" Luna's inner Ravenclaw was booting back up, finally, "Does the transformation hurt?"

'No. It did the first time but now it is quicker and easier.'

"Have there been any other changes?"

'No. Except my throat hurts in the mornings, lately.'

"Your throat? Where you have the scar?"

Gaara nodded.

"Interesting. Has the length of time you are changed gotten longer?"

'No. I turn into that form when the moon rises and back again when the sun rises.'

"So there's very little chance that it will become permanent." Luna sounded disappointed. "If it did become permanent, you would still be welcome at my home. My father already said yes if you were already domesticated."

'No thank you.'

Luna looked disappointed by that response, but eventually her scientist mind flared back up. "I've never heard of a were- anything other than a wolf before. Perhaps it is a strain of the curse native to your country."

'No, I have never encountered or heard of this before.'

"Then, would you like me to help you research the condition. If there is anything in the school library, I'm sure we could find it. Or would you rather wait and see if it goes away when you go back to your own world?"

Gaara looked into her eyes, quirking an eyebrow in question.

"I've seen your research. You were either from another world or running to one."

'I will read about this on my own. Thank you.' Anything to end the discussion of his disability.

"Then, I could help you hide your transformations. You weren't too hard to track down and you can't use your sand, can you?"

Gaara shook his head.

"Then I could help keep you-" She refrained from saying 'keep you safe' since that would only inflame Gaara's already bruised ego, "away from any dangerous people."

'Thank you. I will consider that.' Which meant he would tell her to stay away from him during those nights, under the guise of diverting attention. With any luck, this morning would be the last mention between them of this supremely disturbing subject.

"So, how long is your tail exactly? I never got to measure it."

Or not.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Harry had watched Gaara the next night but it happened to be one of the rare occasions that the insomniac weirdo spent the night in his own room, slumbering next to Malfoy. It was an unsettling thought that two-dimensional antagonist characters like Malfoy and Gaara actually had a bedroom and beds and they slept and read books.

He shook his head lest he start considering his enemies as people.

The night after that, Gaara had snuck out again, and he was staying in one place consistently this time, on the third floor. He tried to wake Ron up to help chase down his target, but the ginger said things Mrs Weasley would be better off never hearing about, and Harry had to go out alone.

Even if he could have gotten past the stairs that blocked boys entering the girl's dorms, he didn't hold out much hope that Hermione would be any more interested in Gaara's late night comings and goings than Ron. She wouldn't swear as much, but she might hex him.

He was on his way, periodically checking the map to make sure Gaara hadn't somehow caught wind of him coming from afar, when he saw a name he had only heard of. He wondered if the Marauders were really all they were cracked up to be since he knew for a fact that Peter Pettigrew was dead.

When he saw the dead name moving about, he then wondered if perhaps the man's ghost had somehow ended up in Hogwarts. Did ghosts show up on the map?

When he got to the general area of the name, he found no ghosts and no long dead family friends, instead he was found himself by Professor Snape, who confiscated his map and got insulted by it. Lupin showed up and covered for him, but then lectured him about keep the map with Sirius Black running around.

Harry hadn't really considered the danger the map presented, it had just been a godsend for snooping and avoiding curfew.

After Harry had been dropped off at the Gryffindor entrance, Lupin quickly opened his old map and looked all over for the rat's name. He looked all over but he didn't see Pettigrew anywhere. He knew Harry wouldn't lie about something like this, so the rat had obviously seen Harry with the map earlier and run away to one of the blind spots or out into the grounds.

Still, if he resurfaced, the map would make catching him much easier. He considered giving it to Gaara since the boy hardly slept, was a fast runner, and commanded that useful sand. Then again, Gaara was scary enough. At a certain point his power should be limited.

That sounded like a responsible teacher's reasoning, right?

Meanwhile, Gaara was admiring his reflection in a particularly narcissistic fashion. He had asked if Draco wanted to come and see it again, but the boy had said he would see it another time, he was tired. Weakling.

"I thought Mr Potter would be the last student I had to warn about this mirror. I fear perhaps I will have to make good on my longstanding plans to move it out of the castle."

Of all the people Gaara would have guessed would enter the room in the middle of the night, the Headmaster was low on the list.

"I understand you've come here few times since Hagrid unknowingly gave you the key. This mirror isn't dangerous, I assure you, but it can lead people to their deaths. As I have told numerous people, this mirror has caused men to waste away in front of it, fruitlessly hoping for the dreams it shows to come true."

'Fools.' Gaara didn't bother spelling out any other words. He did, however, turn to face the powerful wizard.

"I suppose. But you must admit, it is enticing. I know I still struggle with the Mirror of Erised, years after coming into possession of it. A more responsible man might have had it shattered but I never could bring myself to do it."

Dumbledore conjured a chair out of thin air and sat down next to Gaara, looking at his reflection.

"It is a beautiful and fascinating object. And not only is there the image in front of you, but the questions of what others might be seeing. When I first found this mirror, a long time ago, a friend and I tried to guess what the other saw. I guessed his but he never could see what I saw." The old man was a little wistful, obviously enjoying the opportunity to be nostalgic.

"Why, might I ask, did you say that those who had become enchanted by what was shown in the mirror were fools, Gaara?"

'This mirror only shows a person what they want, not how they were, are or could ever be. It is just a pretty picture.'

Albus seemed to understand, "Ah, then it seems you see something similar to my own vision. I am sorry to say I do not know you well enough to offer a guess as to what you might see when you look at your reflection in the mirror. You are a mystery to me, I have to admit."

Gaara look back at him after his eyes had drifted towards the mirror.

"I have had more people question me over your admittance than almost any choice I have made in this school in twenty years, except perhaps my handling of last year's difficulties with the Chamber of Secrets. And possibly the year before in the aftermath of the attempted theft of the Philosophers Stone." The weary man sighed long and deep. "It has been a difficult few years.

"It will come as no shock to you, Gaara, I'm sure, that you are an outsider in this school. A stranger to this country as well. But I did not accept you to this school just to keep an eye on you. I invited you to attend this school because you were a child alone in a strange country with nowhere to go."

'I'm not a child.' Gaara told himself his voice wouldn't have sounded petulant if he had said it aloud.

"I suppose not. Not in many of the ways we characterise childhood, but no matter what you have done, or how much of it shows in your face, I still see a child. I am just a naïve old man."

Gaara didn't speak to that.

"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, never to be seen again.

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Omake:

It had been a few days since his secret had been revealed to Luna so he was still avoiding being anywhere near her without a buffer close by, and he was trying not to get too close to the Headmaster since their uncomfortably open conversation two days before. As such, he entered the Great Hall with reluctance only after Draco promised he would clear a space for them to eat without any crowding.

Upon entering, he could see Draco had made good on threatening the surrounding Slytherins to move, or simply telling them who was coming. That observation didn't last long as his attention was quickly diverted to the pair of orange-haired twins fast approaching.

The Weasley twins, older brother of Potter's lackey, he understood, were dressed in waiter's uniforms and were wearing thin pointed moustaches.

"Good morning, mousier Gaara." One said with a heavy and arguably racist fake accent.

"We 'ave your table right over here." The other continued the obnoxious play.

Knowing that these two feared him as much as anyone, he didn't fight being led to a single place set on a small table off to the side of the other tables, with a white table cloth, candles and silverware. He sat down and one of them flicked the serviette over his lap and started to pour the water as if it was wine, even asking him to taste it before pouring a full glass.

Of course, this stunt had drawn the attention of just about every student and staff member in the hall, and the majority thought the twins were signing their own death warrants by pulling a prank on Gaara.

What they didn't know was that Gaara was being singled out as the only person not being pranked.

Gaara, while confident he was in no danger, was bewildered by the act as the twins continued in serving him his breakfast, commenting all the while in the accent that indicated neither had ever been to France. Before anyone could think to ask what they were doing or look for the punch line, they heard it.

It started with the Slytherins whispering to each other turning into literal hisses. It was just a few at first, trying to say something only to turn and check if anyone else was experiencing the same baffling symptom. In minutes, every Slytherin was loudly hissing incoherently (according to Harry Potter, who said he couldn't understand a Parsle-word they were saying.)

The Gryffindors' laughter and mocking turned into growls and roars as if they were lions soon enough, signally a terrible cacophony to start. The Slytherin continued their hisses, mostly at the staff table and at the obvious culprits still serving Gaara. The Gryffindors were split between obvious gaiety and anger at their mischievous Weasleys.

Then the Ravenclaws started cawing and the Hufflepuffs started making whiney growling noises like badgers. The Hufflepuffs were understandably the most upset by this prank, their House animal not being the most majestic creature.

Gaara wondered why he had been spared, or if he had been. It wouldn't be clear since a mute snake would sound about the same as a mute human.

"The Wealseys did not want to risk your wrath, mousier Gaara." One of the French accent chimed in.

They had snuck into the kitchens that very morning and managed to spike the pumpkin juice with a potion they had spent months reading up on, brewing and testing.

Gaara was wondering why they had bothered sparing him at all now, since it made no difference.

Until he saw the Slytherin start to panic all the more, their hisses rising in tempo. He saw the closest one to them showing their closest neighbour their newly forked tongue. Each of the Slytherins were now sporting thing, snake tongues, still hissing incomprehensively.

The Gryffindors didn't laugh or cheer (with their roars) this time, anticipating their own humiliation soon to come. They were right to hold off their celebration since the first red mane grew shortly thereafter, followed by everyone else at the table. They roared even louder, especially the girls who did not appreciate the extra body hair.

One seventh year tried to spell the fur off of them, but as soon as it was cut off, it grew back around his neck and then on his head as well, warning everyone else from trying the same.

Then came the Ravenclaws, who grew black feathers all over their arms. Some were glad they had not been given beaks instead, but the rest were just as indignant as the other Houses. Curiously, one second year blond girl was flapping her arms in an apparent effort to fly. Unsuccessfully.

The Hufflepuffs got off rather lightly in appearance, merely gaining a pair of white strips in their hair, or black ones for the blonds. That did not register in their continued and loud complaints to the teachers to reverse this and punish the twins.

At the staff table, the teachers were mostly glaring at the ones responsible or trying to rein in the student body who sounded like an irate zoo. Dumbledore and Lupin were the only ones openly smiling. In fact, Lupin looked to be laughing a little, but would periodically stop himself.

When a semblance of order was restored, it was revealed by the entirely unapologetic twins that the effects would last until tomorrow morning. They were assigned detentions spanning into next year and would receive particularly harrowing Howlers the next morning from their mother.

It was a hilarious day for Gaara, now not the only mute person in his classes who were forbidden from making 'animal noises' in classes. He thought the punishment would have been worse but the prank had done wonders for reducing the amount of classroom chatter.

The widespread belief that Gaara had been at least complicit if not an accomplice in the prank had further eased his stigma, as had the rumour that was spreading that he had been responsible for the smoke bomb and broken heating system in Slytherin earlier in the year.

Snape had been all for assigning some punishment to Gaara, but Dumbledore had just told him any detention assigned would be served with Snape so he had dropped the matter. And there hadn't been any proof.

Despite the anger of every student, the Howlers from their parents, the detentions too numerous to count, and the House points lost, Fred and George counted that prank as being one of their best birthdays ever. Though they still contested that they shouldn't have been punished at all.

They had shouted 'April Fools' after all!

The next day, as two people were getting Howlers and everyone else was enjoying their newly regained ability to speak to each other, the first thing Draco said to his best friend was "Gaara, stop whittling your wand already!"

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A/N: Thanks for reading etc.

I got a very flattering guest review shortly after the last chapter was published and I thought it was worth discussing here. It started out by denouncing a plot point (the tanuki Gaara thing specifically) as an immature idea, which as you can imagine I was a little wounded by in the immediate aftermath. It was described as a 'fantastical [thing to] happen to the extra-dimensional character. It's too much oddity.'

And then I read the follow up, that they were wrong in that I had taken the 'immature and have portrayed it maturely.' I was so flattered because this is exactly what I had been aiming for.

I planned out a large part of this fic years ago, when my writing and my knowledge of finer fanfic points was immature. I realised this in the meantime, and short of quitting/discontinuing this series (which I have always said I wouldn't do) or rewriting it from the start (which I SO can't be bothered with doing), I was left with the option of trying to improve my writing around these silly points as I go.

I think this connects with my Mary-Sue point I made a chapter or two ago, in that I did write in some dubious character traits/circumstances. In all, I guess my point here is that I'm glad someone noticed the lazy improvement.

Don't forget to look in on my other series if you haven't already. It's just starting out but it will develop into some action later and won't have the annoying fragmented narrative after the first chapter. Oh, and it will not be a harem series since I have read precious few good harem stories and will struggle enough with romance, much less such a convoluted romantic concept as the polygamous relationship.

Long story short, give it a look, tell me what you think, should I bother continuing?

But before then, review this story. I'd love for it to hit a thousand reviews before it finishes. Admittedly that's a little unrealistic since it's only just reached 425 and there aren't that many more chapters to go, but I'm hoping for an exponential growth sort of thing.