3/6

Gaara knew all of this, having lived amongst Slytherins who wanted to uncover his secrets for over a year now. Still, that malicious part the off-worlder wanted to leave Draco in suspense for a while for the presumption.

Instead, he decided to make his life a bit simpler and avoid the games.

"Potter just wanted to know why I entered."

Draco's eyes lit up when Gaara started talking. "And?"

"And what?"

"Did you tell him? About the deal with Dumbledore."

"No."

"I suppose I would have assumed as much. He doesn't even know you're from another world, after all. What did you tell him, then?"

"I didn't. I confirmed that he didn't enter."

"Just as well. And I'm still not convinced. Potter's been a glory hound since he got here. He's probably chickening out now because he's realised he'll be killed.

"So was that it?" Draco asked. "I mean, you weren't gone long but I would have thought you'd have talked about more than that."

"He wanted to talk about tickets."

"Tickets?" Draco sounded excited.

"Yes, for attending the Tasks."

"Yes, I know that! What about the tickets?" Draco would be sending night owls to his father, Professor Snape, Dumbledore, and the Minister for Magic if Potter was trying to hog the tickets.

"He said I have two. Would you like one?"

"Well of course I would! I told you days ago that I wanted to go!"

Gaara didn't remember that. No matter.

"I expect you'll be inviting Lovegood with the other one." Draco added.

"Most likely."

Something visibly occurred to Draco. "Hold up, I won't have to sit next to Granger or the Weasel, will I?"

Gaara hadn't thought about that. "I don't know. Luna could sit between you, and maybe Sirius."

"Sirius Black is going to be there as well?" Draco still referred to his first cousin once removed by his full name from time to time, as if Sirius were still a notorious mass murderer on the run and not the informal, immature man who had hosted him multiple times over the summer.

"Yes, as my guardian and Potter's godfather."

"Of course, the family tickets. I don't expect either of you would be able to fill the other seat for relatives." Draco said thoughtlessly. "With the first Task coming up, have you given any thought as to what you'll do?"

"Use my sand and win." The simple confidence worried Draco enormously.

"You're not going to learn any spells in case your sand isn't enough?"

"If my sand is not able to handle the Task, whatever it is, my spellcasting will probably not make a difference."

Gaara was probably right, Draco acknowledged.

"Potter also said I ought to write to Sirius."

"What for?"

"To discuss my entering the Tournament, I believe."

Draco swivelled around fully in his non-swivel chair. "Hold on, you haven't so much as owled your guardian once since you were selected!?"

"It slipped my mind." Gaara said. "Do you think he'll be upset?" Gaara hadn't opened any of Sirius's letters since the morning after the selection so he couldn't be sure.

"Upset? I can't believe he hasn't sent you a howler. Then again, I often forget he is from the Black family like mother. Despite his Gryffindor past, maybe some of his manners are still in place." Draco had said 'Gryffindor' as if it were some scandalous indiscretion, which Gaara supposed it probably had been.

Gaara picked up his latest book while once again considering how strange it was to be expected to check in with an adult about things happening in his life. He'd really never had anything like that before. Baki had never asked questions, perhaps because he was afraid of the answer or perhaps because he was afraid he wouldn't get one. And his siblings were too preoccupied with their own lives half the time to care why he'd done something, though they'd been taking more of an interest in his comings and goings shortly before his transportation.

"You know, I don't think you should have allowed Potter to have those other guest tickets. You're obviously the actual Champion for Hogwarts. He should be so lucky to be invited, let alone getting some of your guest passes."

Gaara didn't look up from his book.

Draco noticed this dismissal and sighed. "So I'm going to be going to be watching you competing whilst sitting next to three Gryffindors and Lovegood. Wonderful."

Gaara tuned him out for the next twenty minutes while Draco continued to complain, berate him for not learning more spells, and tell him off for not writing to Sirius sooner.

When Gaara got to end of the chapter he was reading, he set the book down softly and moved over to his desk to write his belated note.

'Sirius,

I apologies if I have made you worry. I entered the Triwizard Tournament to experience a challenge. I am otherwise well.

Gaara'

It was a tad shorter than was conventional but hopefully it would suffice. He didn't want to tell Sirius about the deal with Dumbledore after Draco's reaction. Whether it was the manipulation of the old man or Gaara continuing efforts to return home, Gaara expected Sirius's reaction to match or exceed Draco's own disapproval.

Gaara discreetly folded the nearly-empty parchment and sealed it with wax before Draco could see how little he had written. If Draco knew, he wouldn't have rested (or let Gaara rest) until the off-worlder wrote a new one from scratch, following all of the seemingly random and pointless etiquette rules relating to letter writing.

"May I use your owl?" Gaara asked.

Draco looked up from his assignment, just about finished for the night. "Hmm? Oh, you've written a letter to Sirius. Let me look at it then." He said.

Gaara showed him the sealed letter.

"Oh, you've sealed it." Draco seemed a little offended that his proof-reading skills wouldn't be of use. "Well, yes, of course."

Gaara set off to send his letter. It would arrive in the morning and then hopefully whatever scathing reply Sirius sent afterwards would inspire him to resume some semi-frequent correspondence with the man. This recent block when it came to composing letters could have caused him all sorts of problems if he hadn't gone for it and written one tonight.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

The next morning's breakfast was a raucous affair as the school rumour mill went into full swing. Gossip was good but gossip about the Tournament had a premium attached. Everyone wanted to know about the meeting between Harry and Gaara and the only one claiming to have any pertinent information was Draco.

All morning, Draco had been telling anyone who would listen (almost exclusively Slytherins) that Potter had asked to meet so that he could beg Gaara for mercy. His claims were met with varying levels of belief from his own House. Those from other Houses, who either overheard Draco's claims or heard a second hand version elsewhere, almost all saw through the lies. Malfoy's rivalry with the Boy Who Lived was infamous and even if there had been a nugget of truth in the story, they knew it would have been blown out of all proportions.

Of course, nobody could get Gaara to say a word on the subject no matter how much they tried to bug him. He didn't like Potter but he had no interest in spreading lies or badmouthing the boy. Also, Gaara wasn't a huge fan of ostracisation.

On the bright side, Draco was surrounded by a crowd of people again, which seemed to make the blond happy. Particularly because the group of Slytherins huddled around him were listening to what he wanted to say, not some blood purity rubbish his father had insisted upon. Granted, the subject that had brought them all together was to bully someone, but Gaara was just relieved that Draco seemed to have cheered up a bit after having been in a foul mood for weeks. If the anti-social element of his emotional recovery continued longer than Gaara thought appropriate, he would step in.

Gaara was sitting away from the crowd so that he could eat his small meal in peace. He had tried recently to ask the house elves to make him rice for his meals, and possibly more fish and some gizzards, but they had been surprisingly resistant to his suggestion. Apparently they wouldn't cater to every student's individual preferences. The vitriol with which they said this indicated that they dealt with insistent and picky student quite frequently.

Nonetheless, Gaara was considering speaking to Dumbledore about it. As long as Gaara had been in this world, he still wasn't used to the food they ate every day. The worst part was the knowledge that some countries had cultures and diets almost identical to his own, and instead he had landed in Britain, known in this world for not having the best cuisine.

As Gaara nibbled on another piece of dry toast, his attention was drawn to the entrance of the Great Hall where there seemed to be a bit of a commotion. There were raised voices outside in the castle foyer and now the doors had opened abruptly. And McGonagall backed into the Hall, trying to calm whoever was causing the disturbance before they entered.

Gaara sighed and let his attention drift back to his toast. He'd heard that civilian schools were supposed to be boring places of routine and learning. He had experienced less of either than he would have liked.

"Gaara!" Gaara's eyes shot up and found Sirius standing by the doors, ignoring McGonagall who was sternly telling him off for not waiting outside.

He looked angry.

Wishing to avoid more of a scene than was strictly necessary (or that had already been made), Gaara left the rest of his meagre breakfast and stood up. Sirius's eyes locked onto Gaara's as soon as he rose but Sirius waited where he was, thankfully, allowing Gaara time to approach.

Sirius watched him approach with as scornful a look as Gaara had ever seen on the man's face, aside from when he had been talking about Wormtail. Gaara did not know what had brought this about and could not have guessed that Sirius would snatch his hand as soon as he was within snatching distance.

"We need to talk."

"Honestly, mister Black!" McGonagall proceeded to scold the grown man, "If you had just waited a moment outside, I would have fetched him for you and avoided this scene!"

Sirius ignored her and dragged Gaara right back out of the Hall without another word. Gaara could hear the voices at the tables rising already, the rumour mill spinning even faster than it had from just a meeting between he and Potter.

Harry had jumped to his feet when Seamus had notified him of Sirius' abrupt arrival but by the time he was nearing the entrance, Sirius had pulled Gaara out of the Great Hall and Harry felt very awkward to be standing in full sight of everyone. He steeled himself with his Gryffindor courage and shook off the whispers at his back. If he dwelt on them, he would have made more a spectacle of himself and run out of the Hall after his godfather, rather than walking out in at what he desperately hoped appeared to be a casual pace.

Gaara allowed himself to be pulled after the skinny man without any protest or resistance. The deputy headmistress was rushing after them, looking stern and disapproving as she hustled along. Gaara wondered if she was frowning at Sirius or if she knew something about what Gaara had done to upset the man.

In the tense silent moments as they continued up the stairs, Gaara wondered again if the contents of his letter to Sirius might have somehow given cause for offence. There just simply wasn't enough in that letter to have upset anyone. Gaara's non-existent eyebrows scrunched up as his confused mind whirled into a frenzy. He just didn't understand!

Gaara was starting to get angry because of his confusion, which clouded the observation he might have made, that Sirius, who was quite out of breath by the time they reached the second floor, really ought to take up some form of exercise. It was fortunate really, that Gaara was as distracted as he was, because Draco got upset when Gaara routinely insulted his physical fitness and Sirius was already in a foul mood.

McGonagall was made of sterner stuff than her one-time pupil. Despite her more advanced age, Minerva had been performing morning aerobics since she was a young woman and was able to race up the stairs with nary a drop of sweat spilled. She had asked Mr Black to wait in one of the disused classrooms on the third floor but at least he was going there now, after having made a scene in front of the student body.

As Mr Black pulled his ward into the empty classroom, Minerva turned in time to halt Harry's pursuit.

"Wait here, Mister Potter. Mister Black wants to talk with Gaara alone." She said. She felt bad for the poor boy, clearly feeling left out by his godfather, but Minerva knew no good would come of Harry interrupting a surely tense meeting. She wouldn't hurry him away, though. After whatever scolding Mr Black intended to give Gaara, hopefully he would still be in good enough spirits to talk to Harry.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

"Well?" Sirius asked, having finally released Gaara to stand apart from him and cast some privacy wards on the room.

Gaara was glaring at Sirius now, which probably wasn't helping the situation. In the scant couple of minutes since they left the Great Hall, Gaara had still not come to any understanding of what had set Sirius off.

Gaara waited for some explanation.

And waited.

Sirius was waiting.

The silence stretched on, with Sirius's angry determination keeping him quiet only so long before he realised that Gaara would stand there silently all day if given the chance. Beyond the year he spent mute, Gaara was also more pig-headed than any Slytherin had a right to be.

Sirius got tired of waiting, "You've got nothing to say?! I've sent you letter after letter and you've not had anything to say to me?"

Gaara's glare loosened up a smidge. He'd just sent a reply, hadn't he?

Though, it was supposed to arrive in the morning while Sirius was eating breakfast… And instead Sirius was here…

Oh…

"Not one word in days after you entered the Tournament without telling me!?"

"I sent an owl last night. You missed it by coming here." Gaara quietly mentioned.

There. Sorted.

"You sent an owl last night? Why didn't you say?" Sirius said. "Like I didn't use that excuse a hundred times! Oh, it got lost in the owl post, did it?"

Sirius didn't believe him.

"What were you thinking?! You entered the Tournament! Don't even deny it, Harry saw you do it." Gaara had no intention of denying it. "After everything you've told me, everything that you've done, why would you hide this from me?"

Gaara didn't intend to tell Sirius, but before he would have had a chance, Sirius went on.

"You're strong but that's no reason to do something as stupid as to enter the bloody Triwizard Tournament! People older and smarter than you were killed before they stopped running the thing the last damn time." Sirius said, having been told this by Remus only days before.

"And I know you're some big shot where you come from, an adult in the eyes of your people, but not here, you're not. I'm responsible for you, so you have to tell me when you're going to do stupid things like this. At least give me a warning. That's fair, isn't it?"

Gaara was processing everything so he missed his cue.

Sirius sighed. "Look, you don't have to tell me exactly why you entered. I'm sure it was either incredibly important or incredibly dumb. Either way, I suppose I can understand. We did some important stuff as well, the Marauders and I. And lots of really stupid stuff too."

Of that, Gaara had no doubt. It was pure luck that Sirius had conceded and ended his interrogation there. Gaara was just about to tell the finely dressed man-child the truth about his bargain with the old man.

Gaara had no defence against emotional pleas like this. Kankuro had told Gaara, only weeks before his banishment to this world, that Gaara was pretty much the worst liar in Suna, despite his poker face. He had always got by, killing anyone who knew anything about him outside of his immediate family and team leader, so he had never had to develop any sort of tact or guile.

While Gaara had resented the accusation at the time, he had to admit (at least to himself) that he had told an awful lot of people things about himself since coming here.

He would have to work on that when he resumed his shinobi career.

Sirius leaned against a table. "Well, there's no way to get you out of it now. All there's left to do is help you through the Tasks, both you and Harry. And occasionally insult your meagre intelligence for entering in the first place."

"I don't need any help." Gaara said.

"No, I suppose you might not..." Sirius said contemplatively. He had seen Gaara fight a couple of times, most notably after the Quidditch World Cup finals, and knew that Gaara of all people would be able to handle himself physically. But Sirius would not stand back and leave him to it. He didn't get most of this parental stuff that Remus kept telling him about, but he knew that he needed to do everything he could to help both Gaara and Harry survive.

Whenever he was in doubt, Sirius just asked himself what he thought James would do in his situation. Then he asked what Lily would tell James to do.

"But you'll be getting my help regardless."

"I believe the rules state that no outside help is allowed."

"Listen to you, Bandit. Quoting the rules as if you're not already an honorary Marauder. And anyway, it's not against the rules if they don't find out." Sirius winked at Gaara and he considered leaving. Sirius had come all the way here but Gaara couldn't imagine anything important coming out of this conversation. Particularly if Sirius had already devolved into silliness.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Harry was pacing back and forth in front of the door while Professor McGonagall kept vigil outside. It was a terribly annoying habit but Minerva allowed Potter to continue his incessant pacing since he was clearly distressed.

Eventually Potter seemed to lose his steam and he finally stopped moving, settling a respectable distance away from his Head of House.

"Professor?"

"Yes, Mister Potter?"

"How come Sirius able to come in to the school like this?"

"What do you mean?"