5/5

The DADA classroom was totally empty and that irked Gaara somewhat. He was sure he was at least close to on time, and by any standard it was at least polite for one to wait a while, especially since this late appointment was currently holding his sickly teacher's wand and trying to work out if a wizard's twig could be replaced easily or if it would be crippling to snap Remus'. Before his hardened fingers could flex the wand into kindling, Lupin appeared through the back door with his customary tired smile and polite greeting.

"I'm afraid," he began from atop the stairs at the back of the room, "I won't be able to help you practically tonight. You see, I've had a little trouble finding my wand the last few days and I haven't had a chance to got to Diagon Alley to get a replacement, so I'll have to stick to the theory for now. I shan't try using your wand. Certainly not. The wand that chose you almost killed me the other day, I'd hate to think, the damage it could do in anyone else's hands." Lupin stopped as he heard a wooden creaking coming from somewhere close by, as he neared the small third-year carrying the massive gourd. "But don't worry, soon enough you'll be the one giving tips to your classmates, I'm sure. I'll do everything I can to help you."

With a mildly baffled face, not all that used to such open-faced kindness, especially from adults, a pensive Gaara reached into his pocket and pulled out Lupin's wand and held it out to him. The questioning look instantly disappeared from Moony's features as he recognised the ornate carvings of his very own lost wand.

"Lily! You found it! Oh, you brilliant boy! Wherever did you find it?"

Gaara had considered coming clean, answering 'In your pocket' somewhat snidely, but being called by some woman's name really pissed him off so he just shirked off his book bag and took out his own stick, ready to begin.

"Oh, yes, let's get started." The excitement of his returned wand bled into Remus' voice despite the probability of impending pain he was about to experience in the line of his duty as a friend and a teacher.

And thus began Gaara and Lupin's first extra spell-working lesson. Lupin began by explaining some of the basic theory behind wordless casting as well as a few tricks he'd picked up over the years to make it a little easier, and then, once that pool of knowledge had gone dry, he swiftly moved onto a few practice duels that caused more than scratches and dents to the stone-walled room. By the time the undercover werewolf called it quits for the night both teacher and pupil were winded by their practices. And, to both males' surprise, Remus hadn't been terribly injured, as he'd feared he might, but it did highlight to the war veteran just how powerful Gaara's mysterious control over the sand was, that all but his strongest spells and curses had simply bounced off of the protective shield. Towards the end, Lupin had tried asking, again, about the boy's sand, about his home, about anything, but as always he was ignored. It spoke volumes about Gaara on its own, that he was able to make being mute work so tirelessly for him and his secrets.

"Well, it's going to take a while, but soon I'm sure, you'll have caught up and you'll stop blowing things up," Remus said, handing Gaara's bag back to him, "I mean, last week your Stunning spells were almost as powerful as the Killing Curse and now you can cast them safely. A small but great step." The proud smile on Lupin's face was a little strange for Gaara and so he bowed his thanks for the help and made to depart. "Good night Gaara and well done, really well done. We'll do this again in three days, okay?" Gaara nodded back to his caring teacher as he walked out of the door.

Gaara had had a fun time, honestly. Other than the obvious betterment that was always on his agenda, it had been sort of nice to be in the company of Remus, who was the first person to actually talk to him in a quite some time. With how Draco had been acting lately, Gaara had been on his own, and he had figured the (more) normal teen would be making the first move to reconciliation but now Gaara wondered if he should make some kind of concerted effort in the matter. Though, how one went about such an endeavour was totally beyond him. He'd usually rely on Kankuro and Temari for this sort of situational advice. None of it had ever made any sense to him.

Gaara, now too wrapped up in his thoughts regarding his failing social relationships and his distant home to sleep in an unused, dusty classroom, wound up wandering the outside of the castle, roaming along the outside of the walls and up the various towers. With the waning moon still illuminating the countryside adequately, along with the myriad of stars that had apparently come out since he'd gone inside that evening, Gaara was able to appreciate both the magnificent night time view atop one of Hogwarts' highest towers as well as the startling number of dementors that were still swarming around in the distant grounds and forest.

What the preoccupied insomniac had failed to consider was that when the unsuspecting students of Ravenclaw House heard a distinct tapping coming from their ceiling, as if something was walking on their roof, and they, a small group of seventh-years who'd been in the top rooms, poked their heads out the windows to investigate, the scare the sight of him walking along their walls, parallel to the ground, was enough to make all of the witnesses to such a vampiric feat faint. And so the second great house of Hogwarts was pranked by the infamous Weasley twins, having apparently slipped some kind of unknown nightmare-inducing potion into the less-than-brave Ravenclaw seventh-years' dinners the night before. Once again all charges were categorically denied and the suspects tried to work out who could be out to frame or, worse, outdo them. Even they had to admit that using the scary, Slytherin, exchange student for material in a nightmare was genius.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Over the next few weeks in October, Gaara continued his lessons at night with Professor Lupin and no one was any the wiser as to why Gaara hadn't landed nearly as many people in the Hospital Wing as had previously been typical for the Walking Curse (an epithet he'd been gifted with before). Now, Gaara wasn't improving at any sort of prodigious rate, which was why most of his teachers still hesitated before allowing him to practice in their classes, but he'd still improved much faster than anyone could have imagined. Though, those imaginations would have based their pessimistic projections on the fact that the exchange student wasn't getting regular after hours tuition from Hogwarts' first capable Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher in a decade, but the fact remained that he barely wrecked one classroom since the beginning of the month.

It was truly the highlight of Lupin's entire week when he had been on his way to submit his student progress reports to McGonagall after she'd made a big to-do about comparing subjects, and he'd (coincidentally) walked past Filius Flitwick's Charms classroom and had seen Gaara performing a spell – perfectly. Gaara had conjured the Bluebell Flames, a simple but precise fire spell, without destroying surrounding furniture, without causing a violent explosion, without causing any injury to surrounding parties whatsoever; it had been a perfectly normal charm. And then Flitwick, already a courageous man for allowing Gaara to try fire magic in his class, praised the ever-stoic Gaara for his 'diligent work' and 'phenomenal improvement.' It was the first time, that Remus had heard of or could imagine, that Gaara had been praised in Hogwarts. He literally whistled on his way to Minerva's office, before he was harshly told to cease that incessant noise by the ever-terrifying Professor McGonagall who took the reports and sent him on his way.

There were only two in the entire castle, other than the werewolf and were-tanuki directly involved, that knew of Gaara's secret extra lessons. The first was Mrs. Norris, who'd been idly making her rounds, looking for students for her dear Argus to punish, when the cat had peered into the Defence classroom. That was one of the first animals Gaara had encountered in this world that apparently despised him. It was a strange feeling, to be hated by an animal; he had been feared and, recently, loved by them but never loathed. Lupin told him it was perfectly normal with that particular cat. In any case, seeing as a teacher, even a ragged, smelly, dog-breathed teacher, was present to dish out some cruel punishment to the trespassing student (seeing how they were firing spells at one another), the surly feline moved on to the next room.

The only other individual that had stumbled onto the private tutorials was Severus Snape. Snape had been roaming the halls, hoping, praying, for an out-of-bed pair of students so that he could work off some of the stress he'd been accumulating lately (funnily, ever since a red-topped punching bag had stopped coming to lessons). He'd recently perfected a potion that could make all the food the victim consumed taste like soap for a month. Albus had always politely requested that he not poison the students or punish them too harshly but what the Supreme Mugwump didn't see wouldn't hurt him. The pale man had been stalking along the third floor when he had heard some muffled talking, coming from somewhere near the abhorrent werewolf's classroom so he approached quietly, wishing to startle the hapless children before lightly poisoning them. And then he'd seen, who else but, the shallow monstrosity of a reminder, Gaara, being told by Remus not to forget about their next lesson as Gaara had walked away. And then it'd all made sense, Gaara's purported spontaneous improvements in all of his other classes (well, he wasn't about to let the detestable child back into his class after some minor improvements in his wand waving, not without a fight) and Lupin's inexplicable recent fatigue long before the next full moon: he'd been tutoring it at night.

Snape was aware that Malfoy and the sand monster hadn't seen eye to eye since sometime near the beginning of the month and that Gaara had been sleeping elsewhere at night, an arrangement he'd been perfectly content with as he was sure Gaara was a bad influence on Draco if the pureblood's recent secretive dealing with an Asian merchant and his trips out into the grounds were any indication. And then there was the population of Slytherin recently violently shunning Malfoy which he was sure was Gaara's fault somehow. And if the protection of one of his most promising students wasn't enough, it was also terribly satisfying to imagine Gaara lying cold in a ditch while Snape was trying to get to sleep; much better than counting sheep. Now, however, the bat had mixed feelings about his most despised pupil's latest night-time activity: on one hand he hated Gaara much like he hated Potter and any special treatment in the red-head's favour was despicable in his opinion, but on the other hand Gaara was an embarrassment to his beloved Slytherin as well as to Wizarding kind and any move towards being able to competently practice the divine art of magic was to the benefit of everyone. Eventually, the large scornful part of Severus that wanted to casually and venomously spread that the muted failure hadn't improved by his own merit at all but had required regular special attention just to reach the level of subpar and that had considered docking points from Gaara's House, his House, as well as assigning punishment for breaking curfew (regularly, apparently); this well-fed, resentful part of Snape lost out to the neglected division of his psyche reserved for professionalism and pity along with his preferred pragmatism backing it up. The greasy-haired man gave one last disdainful look to the back of the retreating Gaara's head before turning the way he came and swiftly walking back down to his laboratory. He had just come up with an idea to make his potion even crueller and he wasn't about to let such a creative idea go to waste, and there were always more students to punish. Soon they would rue the day they ran into Severus Snape... well, they would certainly rue it a great deal more than they already did.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

"Good evening, Headmaster," Lupin drawled in turn, already instinctively bored by this last-minute meeting called by Albus and led by McGonagall, who was carrying with her a large unidentified stack of papers that reminded him too much of his classes under her tutelage nearly two decades ago when he'd had to watch as Sirius was given his tests back, which was surprisingly like watching a hippogriff be excecuted. Many of the sounds had been the same as well. Now, however, he looked around the room and saw he wasn't the only one among the staff who'd been hoping for an early night and had instead been called for a meeting in Dumbledore's office that promised to be less entertaining than counting the hundreds of cracks in his bedroom ceiling before fitfully falling asleep.

"Thank you for coming," McGonagall, for all of her strict briskness and humourlessness, from the looks of her, could have just as easily been one of the many teachers at the meeting only there under duress, rather than the one who had supposedly called the meeting in the first place. "I will try and keep this brief." A lie, Lupin could tell. "But as you're all aware, I have been asking some of you to share academic reports from your classes' first month of school. Those reports were most illuminating and I have been able to ascertain just how the students have been progressing." Another lie, Lupin thought, but this one was harder to spot. "Both myself and Albus would like to congratulate you all. You have maintained Hogwarts' exacting standards even with the situation outside of the school the way it is."

Remus, as disinterested as he'd began, managed to tune out even further during the course of Minerva's in-depth analysis of the reports she'd been given, to the point that he actually had to be nudged to return to reality later in the meeting, and listen-in as Albus apparently continued to speak.

"Yes, the Minister has decided to send the head of his Administrative Inspectors to Hogwarts to observe the school during this latest crisis. It's nothing to be alarmed about, I assure you, and he shouldn't cause any disruption to your normal activities. I'm sure you're all as tired as I am so off to bed with you before Argus catches up with you. Oh, and could Remus and Severus stay for a moment. I'd just like a quick word."

After the room had cleared, Lupin turned to the headmaster, a man who had taken great pains over the years to help him with many of his troubles, and quickly began "I'm very sorry, I-"

"Not to worry, Remus, I'm sure you were just distracted, in deep contemplation over you sterling achievements in your first month's teaching." Dumbledore always found the most convenient times to showcase his innate omniscience. Other than himself, the headmaster and Snape, all that was left in the room were McGonagall and a preening Faux. Both the deputy-headmistress and Potions professor looked suitably peeved that Lupin had effectively been sleeping with his eyes open during a staff meeting but both held their tongues. Albus turned to address all three of the room's occupants, "I just wanted to have a word with the three of you-"

"Spare us, headmaster. Even Lupin here is probably aware, on some unconscious level, that you didn't really call every member of staff to talk about the students' academic progress. You called everyone here tonight to warn them about the visit tomorrow, and you've asked us in particular to stay to discuss the truth behind it regarding a certain loathsome 'exchange student.' Am I correct?"

"Visit?" Lupin intoned, not understanding the significance.

"Well, I can't understand why Lupin is here is the first place. Surely, the boy's head of house should be sufficient in dealing with this." Minerva didn't look any angrier than usual, with her accusation, but to his surprise it was Snape to the rescue.

"I can answer that. Lupin here has been giving some extra lessons to Gaara after school to reduce the risk of serious injury to students and bring his spell casting up to the level of a house-elf. I thought it best to avoid broadcasting it to save any embarrassment." No one bought that Severus was talking about Gaara's embarrassment.

Minerva, stuck between disapproving of the ex-Marauder for sneaking around behind her back at night and pride for helping a struggling Slytherin student, looked back at the only folder left of the pile on Albus' gigantic desk, "Well, that would explain the vast improvement over the last few weeks. You should have told either myself or professor Dumbledore about this, but under the circumstances it is understandable that wished to be discreet. I had no idea you had taken any particular interest in one of the students, other than Harry Potter, of course."

"Well, it's a challenge, but teaching Lily is-"

"What?" Severus challenged quickly, turning sharply to Lupin with intent eyes.

"Yes, Remus, could you repeat that last part?" Dumbledore said curiously, popping another Sherbet Lemon into his mouth when no one else moved to take one when proffered.

"Umm, yes, well... It was a silly nickname that... I thought of and it's sort of stuck since. You know, because of Gaara's eyes and the hair." Remus, while wholeheartedly endorsing the stupid epithet, really wished he could lay the blame for it on the escaped con he was currently aiding and abetting who had first said it. Especially, when he turned to see the silent, smouldering rage on Snape's face and the resigned disapproving look McGonagall had given him many times during his school days as if to reprimand him alone for associating and collaborating with James and the others. Dumbledore let out a short, bellowing laugh and congratulated him on an excellent nickname.

"You know, I've had over fifty nicknames in my life, but I've never actually been called Nick. Nor have I been called Lily; I'll have to remember that one. A friendly appellation helps to establish strong bonds of friendship. It is inspiring to see one of our professors bonding with their students so closely. To take a disadvantaged student under one's guiding wing is truly the summit of teaching."

"Err...thank you, headmaster." Lupin tried not to look as embarrassed for his slipup as he felt and swiftly tried to move back onto topic, wherever that had been. "Now, you were telling us about the Ministry spy they're sending."

"Oh, yes," Albus seemed to have forgotten the grim reality of the impending inspection. "Officially it is a gesture of goodwill, that the Ministry of Magic wants to check on the Black situation and the dementors' presence here as well as a general status report on the students' progress. Unofficially I made a grave mistake in openly requesting information about Gaara from the Ministry, believing him to be some sort of run-away, but when they found they had no information on anyone matching his description Minister Fudge became concerned and when I wouldn't hand Gaara over to the Aurors for interrogation he has since convinced himself that Gaara must at least be in league with Sirius Black, if not with the entire collective of Death Eater dissenters that seek to undermine him. Though why I would shelter such an individual is beyond me."

"Paranoid buffoon wouldn't know a Death Eater if he employed one..." Snape scoffed and took a chair in the corner. "So what is our plan? We obviously cannot allow..."

"Henrick Morbidus." Dumbledore said the name with the same curt and disapproving tone he had used to name Voldemort countless times in the past.

"You don't mean to say that Cornelius is sending that dreadful man here, do you?" Lupin had no clue as to who this Morbidus was but from the deep concern written all over McGonagall's face, it was clear as to the type of man he should expect.

"In any case, even if Gaara isn't in league with dark forces, we cannot allow him to come into contact with Mr. Morbidus. He might not be breaking the law, as far as I can prove, but there are enough questions surrounding the boy to warrant a full investigation by Morbidus' department. Wouldn't surprise me any if Fudge decided to send in a squad of Aurors to spirit Gaara away to a holding cell in the Ministry just on a hunch."

Lupin spoke up, "Now, Severus, you're exaggerating. There are a few mysteries surrounding Gaara, no one's denying that, but this Henrick..."

"Henrick Morbidus is not only the 'Head of Administrative Inspectors,' he is Fudge's right-hand man. If there is ever a dirty job that he doesn't even want Lucius or his cronies in on, he calls Morbidus in to do it. The Department of Administrative Inspectors is a front for the Minister's intelligence gatherers. How is it that you, who fought in the last Great Wizarding War, do not know this?" Snape, even with his customary glare, looked somewhat haunted by his knowledge on the Inspector.

"Calm down, please," Dumbledore had conjured tea for himself and Minerva, and was sat back at his desk looking to have far more control over the situation than Lupin thought probable, under the circumstances. "Now, as Severus said, we cannot allow Henrick to see Gaara, otherwise it will lead to further unanswerable questions."

"Then we should just send the boy away for a day or two, until this farce of an inspection is over. We could send him to Diagon Alley or maybe the Weasleys might be able to put him up for the night."

"Alas, I wish we could, Minerva. Undoubtedly, by now the Minister or rather the Administrative Inspectors will have put Hogwarts' floo network under surveillance and posted agents in Hogsmeade for the same purpose to stop us from moving Gaara. I'm afraid we will have to be more creative in our approach. We will simply ensure that wherever Mr. Morbidus is on the grounds, Gaara is anywhere but. This is why I asked you here tonight, Remus, I need you to move Gaara secretly while Minerva guides the Inspector. When they move, Minerva will contact you and you will take Gaara somewhere else."

"In that case, couldn't we simply take Gaara somewhere secret in the school to hide until he leaves? I mean, how is Professor McGonagall supposed to signal us with Morbidus stood next to her?"

Dumbledore opened one of his desk drawers and retrieved a strange silver compass and a golden coin the size of a Galleon but without any of the details on it. "I had these made some time ago, perfect for hiding from someone, but I never got the opportunity to use them until now. Minerva will carry the coin and with this compass Lupin will know precisely which direction to travel in order to avoid her. And since Morbidus is coming with the express intention of seeing Gaara, if we are not forthcoming with him, we will need an excuse as to why he is not around, otherwise the Minister will indeed send more agents here to check up on us. So, as Remus and Gaara move through the school, many of the students will see Gaara and so when Morbidus asks, and he will ask, where our new exchange student is, the pupils will be able to point him in every direction he is not."

"It's convoluted enough to be one your plans, Albus. Are you sure Lupin will be able to follow your directions properly?"

"Don't worry about me Severus; I haven't lost my way in this school since my first year. However, if you want to give Lily- I mean Gaara his tour around the school, I'm sure I could keep myself busy. Who knows, he might appreciate the chance for a one on one with his Head of house."

"Enough!" Honestly, Minerva could swear she was dealing with her second year Transfiguration class with the way they were going on at each other. If her memory served, which it always did, both Severus and Remus had acted like this in their second year Transfiguration classes. She didn't stand for it then and she wouldn't stand for it now.

"You're quite right, my apologies, Minerva." Lupin had no intention of saying sorry to Snape and he was sure it wouldn't be received kindly in any case. "Headmaster, when is the Inspector coming?"

"Really, Remus! Albus told us all that before everyone left." Minerva often wondered if the rest of Remus' friends would have retained their childishness into their adult years like he seemed to have, if things hadn't gone the way they did. "Morbidus is coming in two days time. 'A last minute inspection,' indeed!"

"Okay, I will take Gaara aside after breakfast on Friday and we will keep moving during the day. Is there anything else?"

"No, my boy, sorry to have kept you so long but I'm sure you see how vital this task is for both us and Gaara. Good night Remus, and good night Minerva." As everyone stood to leave, Dumbledore called out, "Severus, if I might speak to you alone for a moment."

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

The castle's paintings were rather upset when their sleep was disturbed by the incessant and repetitive sneezing of a strange giant-gourd-carrying student who was stalking the halls at this ungodly hour. The red-head himself was quite perplexed as he'd never gotten a cold before and he had also never been the subject of another's conversation so often that his continuous sneezes had led him out of the library for fear of splattering the precious books with mucus. It was disgusting and inconvenient. Also, his recent sense of foreboding, that he'd solely attributed to Draco's plotting, had doubled since his sneezing began.

This, the coming last week of what had been a remarkably peaceful month of October, in which he'd transformed into a tanuki-human hybrid, befriended a giant three-headed dog, taken up magic lessons with a man calling him 'Lily' and wronged his friend and was now awaiting what was sure to be a terrible retribution, was sure to cause him all sorts of trouble, even by his warped standards. He just knew it. And then there was the waxing of the moon that was leading to his next transformation in about a week's time. Even the pessimist in Gaara couldn't envision the full moon's effects getting any worse.

But still, what did he ever do to deserve... oh, right, the indiscriminate murders...

Omake:

A few months ago, long before the utter craziness of England and the Wizarding World, it had been three months since the failed Suna-Konoha War and the Chunin Exams and Temari and Kankuro had set up a small party. It had been two who months since their Gaara had killed an innocent person and they thought it was worth celebrating this milestone with a party, only inviting the relevant people, which was pretty limited seeing as most of the village still saw him as a monster. When Baki arrived at the Sand Siblings flat, he brought a little alcohol with him and after that the small gathering really started to party.

It was only an hour after the party had actually began that Gaara returned home from his wandering musings on his pivotal battle; whereupon he found many more people than had been invited all dancing and drinking in his family's shared apartment. Among the revellers were Baki, singing something incomprehensible, Temari chatting up some uncomfortable looking guy, and Kankuro half-naked on top of the coffee table.

"I'll kill anyone who doesn't leave." The quiet words from the quiet boy seemed pierce right through the crowd despite the loud music and happy atmosphere and immediately everyone exited the apartment, minus the two inebriated sand siblings who quickly tried to calm the baby brother down before he went out and indulged in his old hobby.

The road to recovery is a long and slow one, especially for Gaara.

"I told you we should have invited him."

"Shut up, Kankuro!"

A/N: Thanks for reading the longest chapter yet. Just a short Omake this time seeing as this chapter has probably taken more than a little of your time already. But please do take the time to review as it means so much to me to read them. I'll try to get the next one up some time sooner than the last, otherwise I probably won't live long enough to finish this fic.

Last year, when I posted chapter 4, I asked after a fanfiction I unaccountably lost and couldn't find even after hours of searching. This fiction was one of the best I had read and I was thankfully reunited with it by you, my dear readers. So, as I am editing this long chapter, I have decided to post a brief review of that fic:

'The Ghost and the Darkness' by Kirsdarkenvar, a Naruto fiction that is already 114,000 words long in 17 chapters, follows a decidedly dark theme of an obsessive, paranoid Naruto being cruelly pulled out of his self-imposed imprisonment and starvation by his recently orphaned Academy classmate, Sasuke Uchiha, who needs a place to stay for the night. The twisted bond of friendship that forms is unique, as is the tragic plot and the beautifully disturbed progression of events, all complimented by the professional quality of the writing. I don't wish to oversell it but the Ghost and the Darkness is a fiction that, by the number of reviews, is under appreciated. So, if you have a spare few minutes, check it out and if you might well like it.

I want to promote fics that are truly great, to you, the readers. I, too, have trouble finding good things to read, especially on this site, and any help I can give I will. I wholeheartedly recommend any of the fictions on my favourites list.