3/4

The column went on to give some wider context of the other student's reactions and gave promises of her next article exploring the fall of Lucius Malfoy, but Gaara stopped reading after his name's final mention, utterly shocked. Draco's initial gormless expression was likely perfectly replicated on Gaara's typically stoic face right now.

Gaara had to look back at the paper tightly clutched in his hands repeatedly to make sure that he wasn't imagining this total affront to him and his precious dignity, but sure enough it was still there staring right back at him. Looking around the Great Hall, he spotted copies of the same paper in the hands of dozens of other students and one or two professors. There were too many papers and too many people to rob quickly enough to avoid being hexed or avoided. There was no way for him to stop this heinous and libellous story from getting out. He was doomed.

Whether it was his imagination or truth, Gaara was convinced people were beginning to look up from their newspapers and look towards him in that moment.

Draco watched Gaara blush, stand and march out of the Hall without allowing his eyes to deviate from the exit. He did not think he had ever seen Gaara so mortified, which was saying something considering his low tolerance for embarrassment and his lunar cycle's regular inducement of it.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Draco was surprised to find Gaara waiting in the Charms classroom for the first period of the day, sure that he would ditch class as he so often and so easily did following his humiliation.

Gaara nodded his greeting to Draco as he entered the room and kept the incredulity off of his face when he noticed how out of breath his classmates were after climbing a few flights of stairs. How anyone got tired moving that slowly was anybody's guess. Of course, the worst of these unfit students happened to be in this class, the Slytherins and the Ravenclaws, who both seemed to believe unless it was sitting on a broom, there was no worthwhile excuse to exercise.

In the lesson itself, Gaara again demonstrated his total ineptitude for magic. Draco would have liked to spend the lesson helping Gaara with the relatively easy spell, probably chosen to reintroduce the students to the subject after months of lounging around at home, but all the help he could offer would likely do little good and he didn't want to fall behind as well.

After Charms came Care of Magical Creatures with Professor Hagrid alongside the Gryffindors. The Slytherins, Gaara noticed, were much more accepting of Draco this year following his being outcast last year, and by extension (or perhaps the other way around) Gaara was included too. No one tried to talk to him but they did not maintain the old exclusion zone.

During the class, when the other students were observing (with disgust) the Blast-Ended Skrewts which Gaara considered strange so he steered clear, he wandered over to where Hagrid was watching the class and asked, "How is the dog?" It hadn't been that long since he had snuck over to check in on the overgrown puppy but he still wanted to be sure.

"He's perfectly well." Hagrid said shortly, wary of indulging the miniscule redhead's bizarre and continued claim of ownership of the hellhound.

Rubeus was also in the midst of a rare argument with Professor Dumbledore since the Headmaster had found out that Fluffy was out in the woods and was now insisting that Hagrid relocate him to an 'appropriate home', somewhere in Greece. This disagreement was confounded by the dangerous Tournament Fudge was forcing on the school, which Hagrid was supposed to be helping with.

As happy as he was being a professor, Hagrid sometimes dearly missed being a simple groundskeeper.

Looking down at the flair of red that was slowly moving back over top the group of Slytherins who could not bring themselves to approach his Skrewts, Hagrid decided not to tell Gaara about the threat of sending Fluffy away. The last thing anybody needed was Gaara trying to sneak the giant three-headed dog home or into the castle.

After Care of Magical Creatures was over, Gaara said farewell to Draco and went on to his first Arithmancy class. His acceptance to the course was still contingent on his passing the introductory test but he was not too worried since he had spent so long on his independent studies focussing on magical numerology and linguistics. He still had no clues on how to get home but perhaps learning some of these disciplines with the help of a teacher might help him reach the requisite level to find some manner by which to travel between worlds and dimensions.

The only person he was at all familiar with in the class was Hermione Granger who smiled and waved, for some reason, when he entered the class, as if they were friends…

Fortunately, his entrance test was to last the full two hours of the class so he was guaranteed not to have to interact with the intrusive Gryffindor girl, instead sitting apart from the others at the back of the class. The written test was easy to start with but grew progressively more difficult, actually extending beyond the limits of his self-learned knowledge by the end, presumably designed to examine the full range of his abilities.

After the lesson let out and Gaara had given his test to Professor Vector, he rushed out the door, trying to avoid what he knew was inevitable-

"Gaara, wait a second!" Hermione called out behind him.

Damn, he knew he should have run or shunshined.

Since he did not want to start his feud with Harry and his friends anew, he did not rudely ignore her but slowed so that she could catch up, several oversized books held in her arms. She fell into step with him and continued to smile at him as if they were well-acquainted.

"How do you think you've done on the test?" She asked. "Professor Vector's tests are really hard but she's a fair marker, I think."

Gaara nodded, agreeing about the difficulty of the exam he just took but not wanting to encourage a conversation. Regardless of his continuing disinterest, Hermione ploughed on, starting up on her latest passionate cause: House Elf rights. She was flabbergasted to hear that Gaara had known for so long that Hogwarts employed House Elf labour and did not care about the prospect of slavery. It wasn't that he didn't care about forced labour, it was just that it did not seem all that forced with the elves.

There was a comparable debate in his world about the use of summons as, beside the few able to converse and test their summoners, most contracts were forced on the varyingly sentient animals, but like the elves they couldn't be summoned and commanded unless they allowed themselves to be. Trying to explain this to Hermione without mentioning his world or summoning proved yet again that conversations with Gryffindors were wasted breaths.

Glad to move away from Hermione's exaggerated indignation and over-familiarity, Gaara power-walked to the Slytherin table as soon as they entered the Great Hall, sitting alone and enjoying the brief return to peace and quiet before someone would inevitably seat themselves next to him. Nowadays, he would be lucky if that person happened to be Draco, rather than the shallow sycophants who were suddenly so eager to be seen in his company. The worst part was knowing that Draco almost certainly would have been amongst them had he and Gaara not become friends last year.

As luck would have it, Draco did manage to get to the Hall in time to snag the seat next to Gaara before one of the braver Slytherins took the liberty.

"What's Granger mouthing off about now?" Draco asked, helping himself to a sandwich.

Gaara looked over to where she was giving her latest speech. He was surprised she hadn't transfigured her seat into a soapbox. "I don't know." He lied.

"Honestly, some people come to into our world and try to change everything." He groused, taking an angry bite.

"Like how Voldemort did?" Gaara said.

Draco stopped his emotional eating and gave Gaara a look. Gaara resisted the urge to smirk, and continued eating lunch.

"It's not like I ever actually served the Dark Lord myself." Draco whispered, not wishing to be heard defaming the man many of his housemates still lauded.

Gaara continued with his lunch, ignoring Draco's fluster.

At the end of lunch, they were approached by Professor Vector who was smiling widely as she walked up.

"I'm pleased to tell you that you can continue in my class from next week onwards. You did very well on the test earlier, you should be very proud." She continued to smile despite Gaara's lack of outward reaction. "I wanted to come and tell you personally."

Gaara continued to stare at her, unsure of a polite response; should he thank her? Was he supposed to respond to her gratitude? Would saying "good bye" work?

Eventually, while he deliberated over the correct answer, she looked to Draco to work out why Gaara was staying totally silent and looking thoughtful, to which Draco could only shrug. She nervously said her farewells and went to have a quick, late lunch. By the time Gaara looked up having decided to thank her for using her lunch break to mark his test, she was nowhere to be seen and Draco had gone back to eating. Gaara silently wondered what had happened but decided it was probably unimportant, otherwise Draco would catch him up.

The rest of the first day of classes went swimmingly, though Gaara was eagle-eyed in his search for any reactions to Skeeters fraudulent article. The entire school enjoyed the immediate weekend after only that single day's return to schooling, nobody more so than the teachers.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

On Saturday morning, Draco beat Gaara to breakfast for a change, owing to the redhead being focussed on an interesting chapter of a book Draco had recommended to him from the Malfoy library. It recounted the life and exploits of Jean Malvoris, a notable wizard from the tenth century who might have been the forefather of the Malfoy family and who was said to have appeared out of nowhere. Sadly, as Gaara turned into the Great Hall, he came to the section that clarified that Jean did not come to England from another world so much as from the Kingdom of Italy.

They were early to the Hall so the only member of staff present at the head table was Professor Flitwick, who was quite clearly asleep after having had to go on patrol last night when Professor Sinistra claimed she couldn't possibly miss an 'important celestial event' and needed someone to cover for her.

Closing the ancient book and putting it under his arm, Gaara was concerned to find Draco missing from their usual seats despite having left for breakfast only a couple minutes before him. In spite of the hope that his platinum-blond friend was just visiting the loo, he looked around the Hall, especially at the Gryffindor table. Unsurprisingly, he found Draco stood across from the usual suspects from the lion House. Slumping his shoulders in defeat, Gaara wearily approached to hear the middle of the latest argument between the sons of the Malfoy and Weasley families.

Gaara had clearly missed a lot but right then and there he heard Draco mocking Weasley's family over another recent Rita Skeeter article. Apparently, instead of laying blame on the Ministry, which was golden in the eyes of the press at the moment, it was blaming Arthur Weasley for failing to capture the wizards or witches who attacked Professor Moody's home. If there was one thing Gaara could be sure of, following his own experience with Ms Skeeter's brand of journalism, it was that Mr Weasley was entirely blameless in the situation.

It was just as he was nearing the antagonised group that he had to hear Draco say some very unbecoming things about Mrs Weasley's weight, to which Ron fired back an insult about Narcissa's face being 'pinched'. Gaara stepped right into the middle of the closing group, which would have likely led to blows between the blond and ginger had he not, and effortlessly knocked both of the disparaging boys to the ground. He liked both women and would not suffer to hear them insulted like this for no good reason.

Gaara ignored Granger and Potter's protective stance over their downed friend and waited for Draco to climb back onto his feet unaided, before shoving him back to their side of the Hall.

The rest of their morning meal was silent as Draco fumed over the words said about his sainted mother and Gaara's failure to side with him, all while they both had to endure the harsh glares of Ron and then the other Weasley children all through their eating, though it was clearly pointed more towards Draco than Gaara.

Worse than the feeble looks directed at them from angry teenagers was the fact that the entire first-year cohort had evidently been informed by the upperclassmen in their Houses of Gaara's role at the end of last year and his other exploits during his first year in the school. They were all now looking at him like the pureblood children looked at Harry Potter when he first arrived, as some sort of local celebrity. Fortunately, they had not had the time to build any resistance to his exclusionary glares and temperament so they maintained their distances. Draco thought it was hilarious.

The blond spent his Saturday morning catching up with his Slytherin Quidditch teammates, strategising on how best to get the most people onto the school team for the Triwizard inter-school tournament. Meanwhile, Gaara decided to take the time alone to visit his pet in the Forbidden Forest for the first time in about a month.

Fluffy was… excitable.

By the time Gaara returned to the castle, he had to make a beeline for the Dungeons so that he could take a shower. He was lucky he hadn't brought any food out for the over-enthusiastic dog otherwise he might well have drowned in all of the slobber. Stupid mutt. At least he had not forgotten the tricks Gaara had taught him.

After he had freshened up, the smallest fourth year headed up to the library, hoping that Madam Pince might have added a few new and pertinent books to the school's legendary collection. He was almost there when he noticed the older boy coming in the opposite direction was looking directly at him. Back in Suna, that was a good indicator that this boy was a poorly-trained assassin but here it could mean a fan, a simple well-wisher, or some sort of schoolyard enemy. The latter was less likely since the boy approaching, definitely heading straight for him, was wearing a green tie.

"Professor Dumbledore wants to see you." The older boy said. Suddenly he seemed more familiar but Gaara could not place the face.

"When?" He replied, wanting to visit the library first.

"At your earliest convenience, he said." The boy informed him. He was the prefect who had told Gaara to remove his mini-gourd the night before last! No wonder he seemed less than pleased to talk to Gaara and kept glancing down at the gourd, which had not left his hip once outside of his room.

"Understood." Gaara nodded and turned on his heel. The Headmaster was too polite to demand Gaara appear immediately but nonetheless the trained soldier had no desire to put off the meeting. With any (non-existent) luck, this would be a clerical meeting, or one about his living situation with Sirius.

The spiral staircase was ready for him when he came upon it, and Dumbledore called for him to enter before he even had the chance to knock.

"Good morning, Gaara. I hope I haven't disturbed your Saturday too grievously. Would you like some tea? I have some delicious Hojicha tea a friend sent to me from abroad which I think you might like. Sadly, it means we will have to make it ourselves. The elves here can make the most sumptuous feasts and brew almost any drink, but I have never had the time to devote to teaching them how to make perfect cup of herbal tea."

Gaara nodded, trying not to sound overly eager for the first cup of potentially well-brewed tea he had encountered in this world.

"Wonderful. I must say, I am pleased to host a student who appreciates a proper cup of tea for a change, although a stiff Irish coffee is an equally enjoyable rarity." He chuckled and clicked his fingers, summoning the house elf with the tea tray. "Thank you. If you could set it down over there…" He pointed to a small side table between two stuffed chairs.

"If you would bear with me for a moment, I just need to finish these last two papers." Dumbledore continued scratching away with his quill and Gaara continued his survey of the room, filled with any number of fascinating gadgets. After only a few minutes, Dumbledore set down his quill, blew the ink dry on his papers and set them aside. He groaned and creaked as he climbed to his feet, before gesturing for Gaara to join him in the more comfortable seats away from his desk.

"I hope you don't mind but I think this talk is best done away from my desk. It is not, strictly speaking, within the purview of a headmaster to ask what I am about to ask."

Gaara sat across from him and tried to work out what the elderly man was about to push him for now, or if he was just going to ask the same old questions about Gaara's origins. He carefully watched the headmaster make the tea, wary of any potions the man might slip in to help draw out answers to questions Gaara had no desire to divulge.

"I suppose I might take the opportunity to personally welcome you back to Hogwarts. I'm sorry that you will not get to experience a more typical school year, after the troubles last year; but if I am truthful, I'm not sure I have experienced such a thing myself either. Have you settled in comfortable?"

"I do not like small talk." Gaara said, watching the man evenly, "What do you want?"

"Yes, I expect you see the value of directness after your vocal difficulties last year. I will cut to the point, then, as they say." He poured out two cups and allowed Gaara to pick which one he would like, having noticed Gaara's careful observation. Gaara took a cup and enjoyed the scent but only after the old man took a sip did Gaara allow himself to enjoy it. "I know that you come from another world or dimension." He took a sip and gave the boy a moment to unfreeze.

Gaara was glad he had not had a mouthful of tea when he heard the elderly man announce this otherwise he might have spurted it out. Looking the old man in the eye again, he tried to work out whether this was a guess or a threat.

"I have seen a great many things in my life, as old as I have become, but I don't think I have ever met someone not from this world. I confess, I worked out your origins a little while ago but decided to let you keep your secret until you proved yourself to be a threat to the other children here. Far from that, you have protected them. When I last asked you to tell me about yourself, I had hoped you might feel enough trust in me to freely share your past."

"What evidence do you have that I am from another world?" Gaara finally asked, eliciting a sigh from his fellow tea-appreciator.

"Precious little, evidence or proof, that is, but I have seen enough of your abilities and behaviours over your time here that I felt confident in my assessment. Then when I saw what happened on the night of the attack, through the eyes of one or two of my colleagues, I was sure."

Gaara spent a few moments processing what this might mean and decided not to try and deny it since that would only forestall whatever the headmaster desired by bringing this up now. "You mentioned keeping my secret; why are you bringing it up now?"

"Very astute." Albus said. "I don't imagine I was at all subtle in my disapproval of the Triwizard Tournament after Minister Fudge's announcement on Thursday. The plans were sprung on me only a week before with a threat of removal as headmaster should I refuse to accommodate it. I decided I could do more good in place than resigning in protest. Only time will tell if I was correct in doing so. Make no mistake, this tournament is a selfish stunt by the Minister for Magic because he wishes to regain his popularity. Cornelius has always been afraid but until now he has always put stock in my council. Now others are advising him to control the country like a Roman emperor holding gladiatorial matches to pacify the people.

"I couldn't stop him from running the Tournament and now my primary concern is to stop any of my students from being killed, as did happen in the Tournaments of centuries gone by. It was for this reason that I insisted on an age-line, but contrary to my desire to allow only the most experienced and trained students from taking part, I asked that it be set at fourteen so that you might participate. I have no doubt that the Goblet of Fire will select you, and you posses the skills and the mindset to survive the Tasks, whatever they might be. This is why I asked you here this morning, to ask you to enter your name for the Tournament, and should you be selected you will act as Hogwarts' champion."

"And if I do not enter, you will reveal my origins?" Gaara asked, beginning to feel hostile.

"No, no, certainly not. No, I ask that you enter and if you're selected, you will win the Triwizard Cup, and if you do, I will offer my not-inconsiderable knowledge and help in getting you home."

"How do you know I want to go home? I might want to stay here, I might be hiding from something."

"I know for the same reason I am aware that you are not from this world: I know what books you have taken out of the library. Your reading has been so varied, it took me longer than I might like to admit to put it together."

Gaara smiled at that. He had not considered that anybody would think to look at his reading and much less that they would be able to work out what it all meant, considering how broad his search had been.

"If I say no?" Gaara asked.

"I will be very disappointed." Dumbledore said, "Not in you. I will be disappointed that I misjudged the situation so, and that I have allowed children your age, without whatever training you have undergone, to enter freely. I do not think any of them would be selected as the Champion but it would haunt me if they were. But this is not to be taken as coercion, this is entirely up to you. I will do whatever I have to, to protect the children."

"You believe I would be chosen, from all of the Gryffindors and older students?" Gaara asked.

"Yes, I do. Of all of the boys and girls in the school, I believe that you are the strongest, the most worldly, and possibly one of the bravest. Your facing the boggart, your killing of countless dementors. Do you know why the killing of dementors is so rare? It is not a wizard's lack of offensive magic, it is because he is affected too strongly by the dementors aura that he cannot think to fight, only to run and hide. Only the exceptionally brave can even summon a Patronus to revitalise their spirits and fend off the dementor. To try and fight them would usually lead only to a Kiss. You, however, have proven yourself to be courageous and powerful.

"If you are selected, you will follow the guidelines and will fairly win the Tournament and along with the prize you will receive all the help I can offer. Allow me a moment of ego when I tell you that I might be your best chance of returning to your home soon."

Dumbledore felt retched lying to the boy. He had every intention of helping Gaara go home, regardless of his decision here, and should he elect to enter and lose the tournament he would still be helped. However, sadly, this motivation was required even if it was the worst type of manipulation, preying on a child's hope. Beyond that, he did not want Gaara entering and not participating, spurning Fudge and potentially leading to further trouble down the road.

Gaara took a while to decide. Dumbledore's contingent help would be an immense help in his search, and it would be a small bonus to know that no one else would be able enter from the school. Even if their death or dismemberment would be their own fault for entering. Still, it was a steep price to pay. He knew very little about the Tasks so it may well be dangerous even to him, and the notoriety it would foist upon him would be even worse than he suffered until now. It would also lead to difficulties with Sirius, Remus and Draco since they would never let him live down his entrance, and he could not reveal the nature of this accord since that would possibly endanger the deal.

Sirius would lay siege to Hogwarts (again) if he found out Dumbledore put him in the line of fire.

Gaara sighed heavily, set his teacup down and said, "I will enter."

"I am glad to hear that, and very sorry to have asked it. I will add one more caveat before we conclude our deal. I want you to return to Potions this year."

Gaara turned sharp eyes on the old man, feeling conned with the goal posts changing like this.

"I have talked to Professor Snape about this and we have come to an understanding about the acceptable behaviour of teachers towards their students. I fear he may never come to warm to you but he should no longer discriminate against you so harshly."

"If he treats me as he did-"

"Then I ask that you come to me about it and I will correct the issue. We cannot have a repeat of what transpired in your last Potions lesson."

Gaara was less than happy about this addendum to the deal but decided it was a good opportunity to make demands of his own. "Agreed, as long as I can use the Restricted Section of the Library as I wish, total access. Furthermore, I will no longer be bound by the school curfew."

"I can give you permission to access the Restricted Section as long as you are responsible with your research. Your readings in there will be recorded and checked by me. If I feel you are straying too far into ill-advised territory, I will contact you about it. The curfew is another matter. I cannot give a single student special permission to break the rules without raising eyebrows, you understand." Dumbledore hoped the eyebrow analogy would not raise a sore subject.

"I am an insomniac. Tell anyone who asks that I need to walk at night."