5/8

Gaara looked up at the latest entrants, and his blood ran cold. In his mad worry for Draco, he hadn't thought about Sirius. There stood Potter and his friends along with Snape. They all looked particularly upset and they were being guarded closely by an Auror.

Gaara listened in closely to what was happening from that point on. He would have liked to go on over and ask what had happened to Sirius plainly, but since Snape hated him and the three teenagers most likely had no reason to trust him enough to share the truth with him, he didn't expect it would get him anywhere.

He got the information he needed, sadly, when he heard one of the Aurors that was supposed to be watching him relay what he had heard from the Golden Trio's watchdog: that Sirius Black had been captured with them, but that Harry Potter of all people had tried fighting off the arresting Aurors, hence the 'guard'.

Black had somehow brainwashed the children into believing he had been framed or something, so they had to be restrained whilst Black was taken into custody. Black, for his part, had enacted his right not to make a statement upon his arrest (mostly because he wasn't conscious), and had been taken to the Dungeons until they got clearance to transport him to the Ministry cells.

They couldn't follow the Minister's directive to have Black kissed after what had happened earlier.

Somehow, Snape had been credited with the capture (probably since he was an adult close by and wasn't making a fuss over Sirius' innocence). Gaara assumed Snape was keeping his mouth shut even though he had to know by now that Sirius was innocent, because of Sirius' past misdeeds and because Snape was an ass.

Snape, in truth, had elected to remain quiet since his word would mean absolutely nothing in the matter and he would likely be accused of colluding with Voldemort's "right hand man", which would make his life much more difficult than it already was.

Like most of the people in the castle, Severus was waiting for the Headmaster to return so that they might straighten things out.

There was more activity and eventually three new Aurors relieved the ones in the Hospital Wing. These three couldn't stop themselves from staring as soon as they caught sight of Gaara. They had been among the Aurors assigned to questioning the staff and the students for the past hour and the consensus had been that, in varyingly dramatic or underplayed narratives, Gaara had somehow called upon unbelievable magic and destroyed all of the dementors with brute force.

It was said that Dumbledore and some highly skilled duellists had been known to kill dementors, the former even dispatching as many as twenty in the fifties in the last known dementor attack on Muggles. He had enchanted a dozen spears from the local castle attraction and managed to kill the group. He had explained at the Statute of Secrecy hearing that he would have used the Patronus Charm, in which he was expertly proficient, but it would have simply driven the dementors away. They would have scattered and it would have taken weeks and the Kissing of hundreds more people before the Ministry managed to get them all back under control.

No one wanted to say it, but it was in the back of their minds that this child was not just some freakish prodigy. To be able to enact feats even the greatest wizard of all time might not be able to…

They came to the same conclusion so many other adults had come to: Gaara was a monster.

The students, on the other hand, were undaunted by his powers. They now all saw him as the boy who had saved them from a fate worse than death.

A fate that had been caused by the Ministry's mistake.

When Gaara finally looked up at the silent Auror sentinels, they quickly averted their eyes, as if it would be impossible to tell they had been rudely staring moments before. Gaara looked on at them for a few seconds, before returning to staring into space.

"Did you hear about Black?" One of them whispered to the other.

"Do you think there's anyone in the castle that hasn't heard about his capture yet, Alan?"

"No, not that. They finally managed to get a hold of Fudge and he sent word ahead that we have to keep him secure and they'll move him tomorrow. They're gonna have him Kissed on Sunday."

"They're still gonna go ahead and Kiss him? After this? Wow…"

"Yeah. I don't know how they're going to explain this all to the papers, but I suppose showing the dementors actually doing their job might help."

"That'd explain why they're doing it in three days time."

"So, since Fudge is out of his meeting or whatever, does that mean we're all going to Azkaban ourselves now?"

"Nah. We'll get told off, the Commander will probably get suspended for a couple weeks with pay, and then they'll pretend this never happened."

"Sweet."

"What do you reckon they're gonna do with him?" One said, nodding over his shoulder to where Gaara had been sitting since he arrived.

"Who knows…" He muttered, looking over at the boy, only to find his chair empty. "Where did he go?"

"Hmm?"

"The boy, he's gone." He said, not worried. He assumed the teen had wandered over to the bathroom or to check on another of his schoolmates.

"We should get eyes on him. If he wanders too far, Fudge and his lot might get here before we find him again. I don't want that sort of attention today."

The pair started to shuffle around the cots and the hospital beds, looking for the distinctive red hair. The stumbled across a Weasley or two before they concluded he wasn't there. They started to panic when he wasn't in the Hospital Wing, but they tried not to let on to their colleague watching over the Boy-Who-Lived and his friends.

If they let this Gaara kid escape, they'd be the laughing stock of their unit for weeks.

They tried the toilet but it was empty, and the massive door hadn't been opened in a while, so he hadn't gone out that way.

"Excuse me, matron, have you seen Gaara?"

Madam Pomfrey looked around, pointedly at Draco's bedside, but turned and shook her head, "I'm afraid not. He does tend to disappear sometimes. He'll show up sooner or later, I'm sure."

Her assurance didn't have the comforting effect intended.

"Ah, shit."

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

The Aurors who had been ordered to stay at the Ministry had, after hours and countless spells, managed to get the Ministry Meeting Room doors open. They hadn't managed to crack the warding; that would have taken even a team of Gringotts' ward specialists hours longer, but they had managed to make enough noise to get the Minister's attention.

Inside of the room, the participants had all been flagging. Even Fudge, who had been determined for hour upon hour to power through the tedium and the ridiculousness until they achieved something by pure force of will, ended up slumped in his chair, occasionally batting away requests to break up the meeting for the night and reconvene later.

Dumbledore fell asleep sometime after four in the morning, his age catching up with him, and Minerva wasn't far behind. Fillius succumbed hours ago, having nothing constructive to add. Lucius didn't look at all dishevelled, beyond the noticeable bags under his eyes, but his witty retorts had dulled as the meeting wore on.

Morbidus might have just shown up for all the lethargy he was displaying. He seemed to constantly find new ways to unnerve the people around him.

Sutherland, Barnett and Bones were the main driving force for the meeting after Fudge's carefully laid out itinerary was thrown out of the entirely metaphorical window. They had taken to discussing the complex logistics of protecting the castle from Black who was a real threat and had displayed the ability to bypass the dementors at will.

The issue was that they hadn't been able to agree on any one single issue, other than that there was an issue.

Some proposed solutions had been: increasing the number of dementors, moving them closer to the castle, reducing the number of dementors by a small amount, replacing them with Aurors, replacing them with a new branch of Ministry security, replacing them with Goblins, offering Black amnesty, activating further wards around the castle, releasing magical creatures into the grounds to keep him out, removing Potter from the school to a secure location… And the list went on with even sillier ideas.

All of them were deemed to be too expensive, ineffective, or more dangerous than Black himself. And all through, there had been squabbles about whose job it was to stop Black or to foot the bill, or who was to blame for his escape in the first place.

Then there were issues of public relations, and then there were discussions of the teaching staff at Hogwarts and how they were dealing with the difficulties. Lucius spearheaded this transparent attempt to steer the conversation towards impeaching Dumbledore again.

Needless to say, it had been too much of a stretch to blame the Headmaster for the problems this time around, and Morbidus had even been called by Fudge to support this by giving a frank and rather positive assessment of the school from his inspection.

Most present knew that it had been a ruse, even if they didn't know why Morbidus had been inspecting the school exactly.

It was shortly after the attack on Hogwarts had been fended off, hundreds of miles away, that Albus had gone to sleep.

Fudge, by three in the morning, looked miserable, wanting nothing more than to call off this farce and try something else, but he knew it would be leaked to the Prophet that the meeting had taken place and from there he would be speared by public opinion.

'Fudge Fails Again!' He could see the headlines now.

It was at perhaps six in the morning, after the sun must have risen, that Fudge heard a dull thud coming from outside. Working in the Ministry of Magic for as long as he had, he had come to expect such bangs and thuds from outside of his office.

It was the better part of an hour later that it occurred to Fudge that he wasn't in his office at the moment, he was in hell, and this particular hell was entirely soundproof. This realisation came after a particularly loud bang shook the door a little, alerting everyone else in the room to it.

Every conscious person jumped on the excuse to break up the meeting, except Morbidus, while Minerva started trying to wake up her boss and mentor, who was a surprisingly deep sleeper.

The ensuing five minutes blurred by for the sleep deprived officials as the Meeting Room was stormed by a dozen haggard Aurors who started relaying the terrifying story unfolding at Hogwarts.

Minerva went weak in the knees and had to lean on Lucius Malfoy of all people when she heard about the wholesale dementor attack on the castle. Albus only took one short breath, and then he was straight on to crisis management alongside Morbidus, who was filling in for Fudge and Lucius, both of whom were still frozen. The former because of his indisposition to high stress situations and crises, and the latter because of the immediate connection his mind drew between this attack and where his son was.

Amelia Bones, Rufus Scrimgeour and Derek Sutherland also ran to the floos to get to the castle and help. Mr Sutherland, hearing along the way about how the dementors had run wild and that the other wranglers hadn't shown up, causing him to worry even though he knew exactly what had happened. His men had all been Kissed.

This was the busiest the Ministry had been before nine in the morning since November 1st 1981, and the halls were not filled with celebrations or tears of joy this time. Instead, this morning, the hallways were abuzz with panic and fear. A good number of the men and women running around had children, or nieces or nephews or grandchildren or brothers or sisters at Hogwarts, and word had inevitably spread that the dementors guarding the castle had attacked the school, and the Aurors had only been deployed after the fact.

The fervour slowed to a stop when people caught sight of the key people for handling this issue, namely those who had been sealed tightly in a meeting all night.

Morbidus didn't pause when the crowds began rushing towards Fudge and Dumbledore, slipping through the mass and continuing to his office to get his own staff running properly. There was a lot to be done and a great deal of it needed to be finished before any of these simpletons worked out who was to blame. Henrick had invested far too much time in managing Fudge to let him trip himself out of office.

And now that he had finally ousted Dumbledore from the inner circle too...

Albus gritted his remaining teeth when the crowd blocked his way, so he sent Minerva and Fillius on with Amelia and Mr Sutherland while he dealt with the panicked relatives. His job was going to involve a lot of that in the next few weeks. He also did them the courtesy of unlocking Hogwarts' floos to them.

"Please, everyone, stay calm!" He called, gathering every eye's attention instantly.

Fudge looked also, upset that the centenarian was taller than him and had managed to take charge even now, ignoring the Minister for Magic entirely.

He needed to be seen to do something!

Minerva and Fillius were almost running by the time they got to the Floo corridor, followed by Ms Bones and the dementor wrangler. They had no idea what the state of their precious school or the children would be when they got there. The reports they had heard in the initial breach had been spotty and inconsistent, and had some strange variances.

Some of the earlier stories talked about the dementors swarming and no one being able to fend them off, and then the newest ones just coming in said that the dementors were all gone.

When they arrived, directly into Fillius' office, the walls were still standing, the windows were still intact, and the fire warmed the stone room from the Scottish morning chill. It was anticlimactic to say the least.

The halls were empty as they made their way down to the Great Hall, all the while on the lookout for soulless bodies or stray dementors. By the time they got to the ground floor of the castle, they almost didn't believe what the frantic Aurors had told them. There was no sign of battle, no bodies, no panicking students, it was as if nothing at all had happened and the students were still sound asleep in their dormitories.

That notion was dispelled when they entered the Great Hall and witnessed the chaos within. The tables were nowhere to be seen, and once again the entire student body had been relocated there following a breach of the castle. Second time in a year…

However, unlike last time and contrary to expectations, the student were not frightened, they were excited beyond control. The distinctly-robed Aurors were stood to the side with a handful of Slytherin upper years, taking notes about something, while the rest of the vast student body were being corralled by the overwhelmed teachers.

Minerva wasn't going to stand for this!

She strode through the children, quieting every one that saw her, and when she got to the head of the Hall, she sent out a bang from her wand, silencing the ruckus, and then amplified her voice.

"Quiet down at once! Headmaster Dumbledore, Professor Flitwick and I have been informed of the situation. No students or teachers have been seriously hurt, so there is no need to panic. Classes will be cancelled for today at least, and everyone here will stay in the Hall while the Ministry Aurors complete their search of the castle. Your parents have been or will be informed soon and the morning post will be here shortly."

Stepping down, Minerva took a deep breath and said, aside, to Fillius, "We will need to have the tables put back so the students can have their breakfast. It would help if we knew when Albus will be getting here."

"You're doing fine, Minerva. Let's just keep everyone calm and fed for the time being, and hopefully Severus will show up soon and take care of his Slytherins. We'll have to split 'Puffs and Slytherins until then. Pomona looks about ready to drop."

"Yes, poor dear. I believe it was her turn to patrol last night and then to have to fight off however many dementors in the morning…" Fillius went quiet.

"I'll help her up to the Hospital Wing where she can get some rest. At least we know it's clear in there."

McGonagall walked over to the Head of Hufflepuff, leaning against the wall and watching vigilantly over her precious students and not just her House.

"Pomona, you need to take a break. You can't have slept more than an hour or two." McGonagall whispered.

"Oh hush now. You look like you slept even less than I did last night. I'll wander off and take a nap when you do!"

"I didn't have to fend off hundreds of hungry dementors this morning. You're exhausted. Which do you think will upset the children more: you going to see Poppy and having a little sleep, or collapsing in front of them and being levitated there?"

Sprout looked at the Deputy Headmistress and sighed, knowing her headstrong colleague wouldn't let her continue in this state. She supposed it would be best if she did go and lie down for a minute. Minerva and Fillius would crash around lunchtime if they hadn't had any sleep either. It was set to be a long day and none of them were young enough to be doing all-nighters anymore, except their absentee Potions master. He had no excuse.

When they got to the school infirmary, the Heads of House found out the unabridged story from Harry Potter, since Snape was still asleep, Granger was by Weasley's bedside and the ginger was unconscious. Potter relayed the entire night's events from chasing Scabbers, to being trapped by Sirius, to finding out about the switch, to Lupin's transformation, and the dementor attack.

As he went on, Harry wondered whether, if being an Auror or professional Quidditch player didn't work out, he might have a future in storytelling. Then he remembered the other famous storyteller he had met and decided being anything like Lockhart was not a good life goal, even if he happened to tell the truth.

When he came to the finale, of which the professors had only heard rumours, he explained in as much detail as he was possible how Gaara had flown overheard and sent his flood of sand to destroy all of the dementors. It took some pretty firm insistences on Harry's part before the adults would accept that Gaara had been able to accomplish what he had accomplished.

That line of enquiry had naturally led to the question, where was Gaara now? Amelia Bones had shown up wanting to question the red-head too, but the Aurors supposedly guarding him reported that he had given them the slip. While Bones chewed out her incompetent subordinates, McGonagall left Pomona to try (and fail) to get some rest amongst their injured students while she went back to the Great Hall to keep an eye on everyone else and await Albus' return.

Snape had been given a rude awakening and was dragged away by Minerva as she chastised his faltering constitution.

The Aurors were beginning to thin out in the castle, a great number of them having descended to the Dungeons to watch Black's unconscious body to make sure it didn't escape in the same mysterious manner the awake convict had done.

When the Minister and Dumbledore arrived, they quickly went to work barking unnecessary orders in front of the reporters they had invited, and calming the students, respectively. Albus had been briefed on all of the pertinent information alongside Cornelius. Albus had not been as surprised as others to hear Severus had a hand in Sirius' capture. Their childhood rivalry was bound to overcome any lingering loyalties the Ministry suspected Severus still held for Black's cause.

Although, if Black's ultimate goal truly was to kill Harry Potter, they would do better not to ask what Severus thought on the matter.

Nonetheless, he was quick to join the Minister in applauding the capture, doubly so when he heard that three of his students had been involved in the misadventure and had come out of it with nothing more serious than a broken ankle. A miracle, all things considered.

The school was unharmed; his students were all safe, for the most part. Those who had been worst hit by the dementors would recover in a week or two. Mr Weasley would be walking again by dinnertime, if Poppy was feeling generous.

And poor, misguided Sirius would be given the worst possible punishment for his crimes.

There were just a few details he needed to clarify. He, like everybody else, was very interested in the vital role Gaara had played in the conclusion, as well as the reports of Harry fighting his Auror rescuers.

Fortunately, Minerva cleared things up in the most terrible of ways. He didn't know what he would do without his deputy in times like these. She told him how Sirius was unverifiably innocent and that no matter what anybody said, Aurors would not listen. Albus knew all too well there was nothing to be done without some independent evidence.

Still, with such a grave injustice still ongoing, he did try to reason with Cornelius, try to buy some time to belatedly investigate matters further. The Minister for Magic had replied in the voice of his office that Sirius Black was unequivocally guilty and would be Kissed three days hence, with no stay permitted.

They hadn't spoken since, and Albus doubted they would before Cornelius returned to the Ministry in a few hours. Severus would likely try as well, no matter the animosity between him and Sirius, to intercede on his behalf while the Minister paraded him around as the man who caught Sirius Black. It was a small comfort in this dark time that Severus was undoubtedly immensely uncomfortable with all of this attention.

The only reason the boy would allow it was because he would be getting an Order of Merlin for his heroic deeds. First Class, too, Albus imagined.

The Ministry had made their statements earlier in the morning, and had someone answering the diminishing questions every hour in the Ministry Foyer. The headline from the Ministry had been Sirius Black's capture, followed by who had done it, that no one had been seriously hurt in the incident. And finally they mentioned that some of the dementors guarding the school had escaped their watchers' control briefly but no students or professors had been seriously hurt in the scuffle and the problem had resolved itself promptly.

The papers had relegated the attack to the third page but had accused the Ministry of underplaying the severity of the attack when it became clear from the number of owls from angry parents just how massive the attack had been. Even still, the entire front page was engulfed by the headline: 'Sirius Black Captured at Hogwarts!'