2/3

The teachers had throughout the year (and most of their careers) worked to focus their students on their schoolwork and not the myriad of distracting events and activities around the school. Other than the aforementioned group that were happily working and revising for the tests in May and June, the rest were either in denial about it or planning to deal with the issue closer to the date.

Draco was in the latter group, procrastinating and worrying about the wrong things. He was still stressed about his exams, not that he let anybody outside of their room know, but with the massively important Quidditch match, the ongoing Sirius Black/dementor problem, and the looming spectre of returning to his parents (read:his father) for the entire protracted summer, he just couldn't put his mind to task.

Gaara wasn't worried, though. He was a bookish person by nature, though he certainly didn't take any real pride in that fact. In his world, it had been entirely leisurely to sit and read, even about maths or history. He hadn't even been tested to become a genin, so sure his father was that he would be an effective killing machine.

He had been doing very little, reading, trying to play by himself, and then one day he was introduced to his estranged siblings and told he would be going on missions with them. When he had been told those missions might include killing, he was sold.

So Gaara continued to read like the books were going off, but the exams themselves were mere inconveniences for him. That said, his professors were not so blasé about his chances. His academics were not in question, other than whether he would be amongst or at the top of his year, but his practical skills were still well below average.

In terms of raw power, he had more than Harry Potter or Neville Longbottom (put together), but his utter lack of control or natural talent for magic had left him with the spell casting ability of a first year. He wasn't injuring people with every spell he cast now, luckily, but he took a long time to learn any new spells and no one was sure if he was going to be up to passing into the next year.

It was an exceptionally rare thing, being held back a year at Hogwarts, almost as rare as a transfer student, but some of the teacher were not ruling it out. Gaara had no natural talent and a very late start, so a few argued that it would be best for him to be held back a year. Some, Snape included, rebutted that it was a very harsh move to make since he had been slowly catching up, plus some people didn't want Gaara staying in Hogwarts for an extra year.

As a result, excepting Snape, most of Gaara's professors began giving him extra help and the occasional remedial lesson. Lupin felt quite gratified that others were following his example, finally, even if they didn't have to contend with the ongoing antagonism between Gaara and Harry.

The two boys had not come so close to blows since the beginning of their shared tutorials, but there was still clearly no love lost. It didn't help that Harry was showcasing a prodigious talent for his spell work in front of Gaara who was struggling with the spells they had learned in a week in October.

In between his regular DADA tutoring, his reading, killing arachnids and dementors, occasional training, homework, these new remedial lessons, and the time he set aside for Fluffy, Gaara was very busy in April. On the bright side, it had given him the perfect excuse to ditch Luna and Draco when the mood struck, which was far more frequent with the former, who now wanted to do nothing but discuss his lamentable monthly form.

"Your ears are rather long, do they help your hearing?" Luna asked as she matched his quickened pace.

Gaara nodded, not wanting anyone to see his words if they couldn't already hear hers.

"You still haven't told me how you ended up that way. I've tried to read about tanuki, but they don't appear anywhere outside of Japan, and they don't look that much like you. You weren't scratched by one, were you?"

Gaara shook his head, enduring these questions for the millionth time. Luna was obsessive.

"I wish my father could have seen you. But now that I know it's you, and you don't want people to know, I suppose he won't get to see you in that form." The question was there, even if there was no inflection.

Gaara shook his head firmly. He didn't really feel a need to meet his tenuous-friend's father, and certainly did not feel compelled to reveal his dark secret to the man. He didn't particularly like Luna knowing, and he would prefer she never find out about the not-so-cute tanuki inside of him.

Allowing his sand to emerge, Gaara wrote: 'I have to go to class now.'

"Oh, okay." Luna said in stride, then she took a look out of the parallel window curiously. "It's night time, you know."

'I have an extra lesson with Professor McGonagall.'

"Oh." Luna actually sounded a little jealous. Gaara correctly deduced that he shouldn't let it be known to any other Ravenclaws that he was being offered extra time with the teachers out of hours. Jealousy is a horrid thing, and without the friendship Luna had with Gaara, it might have brought out some of Ravenclaw's less desirable characteristics.

With his time divided in a dozen different ways, time flew by quicker and quicker until the only meaningful marker of his time came around again. His/Draco's calendar had told him what was coming, but he still struggled with what to do. He had to do something, the more he thought about cooping himself up during the full moon, the crazier it sounded.

If his human mind rebelled at the idea, he would end up chewing off his own fur when his animal mind kicked in.

He knew he could count on Luna's assistance, but despite the ensured safety staying the night near her would bring, there were obvious drawbacks to that route and he wasn't willing to walk down that path. The promised measurements and drawings alone were enough reason to avoid her that night.

Continuing his tradition of flip-flopping, he ended up in the forest that evening, going through his routine preparations. By the time the moon had risen and he had transformed, he was almost finished with his current book. He fumbled and struggled putting the bookmark in place with his clumsy, yet opposable, paw digits.

Gaara had taken the time to map out the safer areas in the Forbidden Forest so that he might avoid the dangerous spiders, overly affectionate thestrals, troublesome centaurs, and Fluffy. It had left him with two relatively clear areas, so he had taken the area further away from the castle, where Hagrid wasn't likely to stumble across him.

Gaara had learned that climbing trees in this form was a fun challenge since the form clearly wasn't designed to perform the task. He could dig holes easily enough, though he tended not to since it covered his paws in dirt, but scaling any sort of tree was a difficult task.

He was half way up a particularly flat oak trunk when he heard a dangerous and familiar growling. He turned his head but wasn't able to turn it around far enough to see the werewolf, so he ended up bended it backwards and seeing the energetic wolf pacing about the clearing, looking right at the small creature trying to climb the tree.

He knew the werewolf didn't pose any danger to him in this form, for whatever reason, but being around the wolf didn't bring out a… palatable side of Gaara. He had time after their last encounter to lament his playing with another person turned animal.

He knew his mind worked differently in this body, but he didn't want to give in to the indignity. Not without a fight.

That said, when the wolf let out an impatient woof, Gaara dropped off of the tree and trotted over to the larger mammal. They promptly began a game of tag.

Over the course of the night, they played tag, hide & seek (which was harder since they could smell the other), play fighting, and they also just ran around the forest. They didn't encounter any acromantulas, which was a shame because Gaara wanted to see his lunar friend savage one of them. They did, however, run afoul of a single centaur patrolling the edge of their territory (most likely specifically to keep out the werewolf).

The adolescent man-horse fired an arrow at the pair of them, which was enough to have Gaara running in the opposite direction. He saw the irony in the situation after his thoughts a couple of weeks ago when the two fully grown centaurs had brandished their bows at him.

The wolf looked ready to run at the centaur, heedless of the danger, but followed after Gaara as soon as the tanuki had darted away.

That was the most perilous of dramatic thing to happen during the night, making it one of the most peaceful ones Gaara had experiences since this whole mess had begun.

As the sky was lightening, Gaara had been waiting for the werewolf to run away and leave him to go and retrieve his clothes. As soon as he tried to leave, the wolf would follow, so he ended up following the were-creature around the general vicinity of his clothes for a while, growing more and more anxious that his transformation would take place before the other afflicted male.

He didn't think his wolfish companion would be so affable when Gaara was in his human body. Though, if he had his sand nearby, it wouldn't matter much anyway.

They stopped in a clearly only a hundred metres away from his own, when the wolf sat back and then started to howl. Unlike any of the happy howls or communicative ones Gaara had heard during the night, this was clearly one of agony, signalling his time to go.

He transformed just before he reached the area where he had hid his clothes, marking this as a particularly close call. He threw on his uniform quickly and ran back the way he had come as soon as his sand was on his back.

The werewolf was still mostly canine by the time he returned. Obviously werewolf transformations, unlike his own, did not get easier with time. By the looks of things, the transformations must have gotten worse over the years. It was painful to watch and worse to listen to, Gaara thought.

It certainly would make an interested conversation with Professor Lupin when he next saw him. The DADA teacher had likely never seen what Gaara was now witnessing.

Of course, in a matter of minutes, that thought was derailed as he saw the wolf's snout snap back onto a comparably flat human face. A recognisable face, at that.

Gaara leaned against a tree, the shock actually taking its toll. Of all the people in the world, it just had to be Remus.

If he habitually swore, Gaara would have then.

Instead, he mimed not so silently, "Typical." Followed by a heavy cough, and an experimental "Ow." His throat hurt a great deal, and he could feel his voice weakening the more he used it but it was working!

He wanted to test it even more, but as the feeling had indicated, his voice was fading as fast as it had returned as the next time he tried speaking it came out as nothing more than a croak. Still wonderfully audible, but not intelligible.

He didn't have time to be dwelling on this encouraging trend as Lupin would not be much longer, so instead he waited a few more moments for Lupin to finish changing and to cover himself, before walking towards him.

No one would know the tanuki creature that roamed the grounds spent the rest of the month as a human, so Gaara didn't need to worry about any association with it when he approached the visibly exhausted man.

The rustling of the leaves at his feet alerted the man to his presence, and he looked up, took a good long look at Gaara's impassive face, and uttered an "Oh."

His croaky voice and trembling knees were not an impressive sight, nor was his half naked body, covered in scars showing his ribs. Gaara knew his own was no pretty sight, so he pitied the man briefly, before darting forward and stopping him collapsing.

"How… how long have you been here?" Remus said, looking even more pathetic than when Gaara had carried his drunken body back to his office.

Gaara stared at him, thinking that Lupin's absences and appearance around the full moon made a lot more sense now. He felt himself rather lucky in that regard as he was fully functional whereas Lupin would have likely taken the better part of an hour to put on his clothes, let alone the time it would take to return to the castle, which had to be at least three miles away.

Lupin squinted, looking at the sand as it formed words. The morning after the night before was clearly affecting him in every possible respect.

'I saw you transform back from being a werewolf.' He figured he would cut to the heart of the matter.

"Oh, right… well, then I think we will need to talk about this. But not until I am wearing substantially more clothes."

While he wasn't as friendly as drunk-Remus, post-werewolf-Remus was remarkably similar in a number of other regards. It was difficult to watch the grown man struggle so much to put on a shirt, doubly so with the added grunting and groaning he made.

When he was attired, Gaara helped him to stand and then to walk. It took only a hundred metres for Gaara to get frustrated by Lupin's constant stumbling and noise-making and throw the full grown man onto his sand to carry him.

Regaining his bearings, Remus thanked Gaara for his harsh kindness, settling into the sand stretcher for the ride.

"As you will know from class, werewolves transmit their disease with a bite. What we didn't cover was that these are not always random, animalistic attacks. My father said some… unkind things about werewolves in front of an evil man one day when I was a young boy. This terrible man was a proud werewolf named Fenrir Greyback who decided to teach my father a lesson by attacking me. He snuck into my room at night and before my father could drive him off, he bit me. I was five years old at the time."

Lupin was drifting dangerously close to reminiscing, Gaara thought.

"Of course, there was no cure for it, so I have had to transform every month since I was five. When I got to school, for the first couple of years at least, Professor Dumbledore was the only one who knew about my condition."

Gaara thought long and hard about the fact that Lupin had had to undergo such painful changes for so many years. Not to compare them, but Gaara found himself considering whether it would be less humiliating to turn into a wolf rather than a tiny tanuki. Sure, there was obviously pain, but he wouldn't have to worry about being attacked (or beribboned), just worry about eating the occasional sheep or mauling villagers…

"Professor Dumbledore helped me a lot back then. He made sure I was able to transform safely away from everyone else. This was before the Wolfsbane Potion had been invented, you understand."

Gaara wondered how Lupin would act, in his werewolf form, if he hadn't taken the potion. Werewolves were apparently incredibly aggressive when untreated, even to their friends, family, or companionable tanuki they would otherwise like to play with.

'Did you transform out here back then as well?' Gaara asked.

"No, Professor Dumbledore was kind enough to provide me with a safe place to do it. I was too young to walk through the Dark Forest alone before and after the change, especially as it always leaves me so weak, so he used a little of the school's funds to purchase a rundown property and then had a tunnel constructed to allow me to get there and back without anybody noticing.

"It was the Shrieking Shack that he got for me. I would go there and transform alone and then be back in the morning before anyone noticed I was missing. There used to be all sorts of wards on the Shack to stop me getting out, but they've all long since faded. I expect Dumbledore's completely forgotten about the Shrieking Shack by now."

'There's a tunnel?' Gaara would have been indignant, having walked miles through the forest in the snow and the rain to visit Sirius, if he thought it might register with Lupin who was still in the throes of his lycanthropic hangover.

"Oh, yes. About that… I would have mentioned it earlier you see, but you tend to draw attention to yourself, and we couldn't afford for anyone to notice you near the Whomping Willow. If they find out about the Shack, Sirius will have nowhere to go."

Gaara sighed. It was by no means his speciality, that was true, but he was still a ninja. He could, if the need arose, sneak past some teenagers and untrained civilian adults. Sure, there was the need for secrecy, but on the other hand he still had some pride left…

'I am a trained warrior. I can sneak past anyone here.'

Lupin was sure Gaara was bragging, but there was no way to be sure when Gaara's face refused to show the smallest smirk or upturned nose.

"Perhaps you're right. At least you seem to draw less attention these days, so I don't see any harm in telling you anymore. Under the Whomping Willow,"

'The violent tree near Hagrid's home?'

"Yes, the Whomping Willow is rather ill-tempered. The trick is to touch the knotted root at its base, that will open the passageway into the Shack. Sirius keeps watch of the front garden to make sure no one is coming, so be sure to give him a good scare when you next go and visit him."

The weakened smile on Lupin's face was lees endearing and more alarming. It didn't come as that great a surprise that Remus was a werewolf; there were warning signs after all, that he had missed because of his own lunar issues. Still, knowing that his friend had been suffering for so long without respite was sad.

Lupin's smile dropped suddenly off of his face when he realised he had missed a prime opportunity for mischief: he could have told Gaara to do all manner of humiliating things when he pressed the knot like flapping his arms or hopping in place or…

So many regrets.

"Why were you in the forest so early, Gaara?"

'I have been in here all night. I was monitoring the dementors.'

"Yes, 'monitoring.' I'm sure. After what Hagrid has told me, I suspect you have been 'monitoring' the acromantulas as well."

Gaara's impassive face looked anywhere but at Lupin at that point.

'Just a coincidence.'

He carried Lupin until they reached the tree line, before he helped Lupin to stand again and they both limped back up the hill and into the castle. There was nobody around this early in the morning so Gaara took him all the way up to the strung-out man's office again.

While he had what amounted to superhuman strength and speed, his stamina was one of the worst in Sunagakure, a trait that he had been trying to train out of himself for months. By the time they got to the DADA classroom and adjoined office, Gaara was sweating and cursing the four founders for making a school with so many stairs.

He dumped Lupin, conscious this time, with no more care or gentleness than when he had (literally) dropped Lupin off after his drinks on Gaara's birthday. The groans and grunt he got in response were all the thanks Gaara needed, so he left the pained man to recover a little before the day ahead.

He needed to change his own clothes before breakfast; he smelled like the forest, which sounded nice in theory, the smell of nature etcetera, but really he just smelled like moss and dirt.

As he walked down the familiar path to the dungeons, Gaara's hand snuck up to rub at the scar on his neck, his fingers running across the smooth surface of the largest and deepest gouge in his throat. With his hand still between his hitai-ate and his neck, he tried again to speak, but all he got was a squeak before he felt something give.

What followed out his mouth were garbled and harsh whispers, incomprehensible even to his own ears, but they were audible.

He didn't miss a step but he did smile as he walked. His throat was healing during these full moon transformations, whether over the course of the night or during the changes themselves, he didn't know. Still, at least Shukaku was finally making himself useful.

Or, what did his Konoha counterpart term the exchange of chakra for housing inside of a Jinchuriki? Ah yes, Shukaku was paying rent, at last. Absolute defence, notwithstanding.

That screaming, whining, irksome beast was due a visit sometime soon, he supposed. If only to confirm that this world's peculiar effect on the seal had not changed it further.

Of course, Gaara didn't let on to Draco that his throat was on the mend, for the usual reasons of pointless secrecy. That, and he didn't want to draw any additional unnecessary attention towards himself. Madam Pomfrey had promised to not speak about any of his scars or other abnormalities, but he didn't intend to make her privy to any more secrets than he had to, including his inexplicable (and slow) regeneration.

He needed to guard himself against overreliance on the people of this world.

At breakfast, clothed in a fresh uniform, Gaara watched with new eyes as Lupin struggled to his seat as he had every month since Gaara had known him. It made him feel a bit of a dunce now that he knew for sure, that Lupin had displayed these obvious signs all the while and Gaara had never put them together.

He took solace in the fact that no one else probably had either.

It was almost mesmerising, watching the man struggle to eat his cereal, his hands shaking most of the milk and shredded wheat off his spoon before it reached his mouth. He was broken from his reverie when he noticed Draco was staring at him, obviously wondering what Gaara's fascination with their DADA professor was.

Not intending to give the game away, he wrote, 'I believe Professor Trelawney has poured alcohol into her orange juice again.'

Draco looked to the head table, and predictably the Divinations professor was already looking drunk, which could have been because she was indeed sneaking drinks at breakfast or because she was still drunk from last night's bender.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Gaara hadn't rushed to test his new path off of the school grounds, in part because he wanted to find a new area of research and that was taking up a an inordinate amount of his time, and part because he had had no luck in finding Pettigrew and it was a shameful defeat for a train professional like himself. That said, the opportunity for mischief Lupin had mentioned was too rich to pass up when Draco invited him out for a Hogsmeade visit.

It was always on Draco's invitations that Gaara went to the nearby village since Gaara had no burning desire to be around people, because Gaara was entirely broke and occasionally he needed new stationary or other items only available through the generous charity of Lucius Malfoy's second largest drain on his wallet. Draco was always happy to buy Gaara the things he needed since that amount didn't account for even a tenth of Draco's allowance, but Gaara normally had to drag his generous friend out of shops before he started buying useless items for him too.

What on earth would he need a cane for anyway? Even if it was imbued with lightweight charms and would be his size.

With the opportunity here, Gaara sent Draco on ahead with the permitted students whilst he waited for the coast to clear for him to take what he imagined would amount to a nice little shortcut, if Lupin was to be believed. He didn't know if he would be angry or impressed if Lupin had managed to trick him during his sorry state that morning.

Sure, it would be quite the feat to make a joke when the man could barely stand, but then Gaara had to weigh that against the real danger his proximity to the great big, violent tree would place him in.

All that said, he was nervous approaching the willow tree's base, eyes ever watchful for any sudden movements. With a great deal more luck than judgement, he made it to the prominent and presumptive special knot he was looking for. He wondered if his mysterious effect on the simple-minded creatures of this world, that the centaur had mentioned, had also ensured him safe passage past this surly tree.

Inside was nothing more extraordinary than a narrow, low-ceiling dirt tunnel largely maintained by the roots that occasionally hung down from the otherwise unsupported roof.

He stumbled along, barely having to lower his head in the low ceiling thanks to his unimpressive height, his hands feeling the walls in the dark. It must have been only a mile as soon after he felt a small incline begin, he was underneath a wooden trap door. He pushed up the wood slowly and quietly, immediately recognising the rotted downstairs hallways of the Shrieking Shack.

He used all of his considerable stealth skills to move upstairs, utilising his expertise to navigate the creaky floorboards (which were the majority) to get to the front bedroom. In there sat Sirius, watching the woods beyond the edge of the property intently.

Gaara walked up behind Sirius and waited.

It was five minutes of watching Sirius watch the outside before the man shifted a little and rolled his neck to ease the tension, inadvertently catching a glimpse of Gaara.

"Ahhh!" Sirius fell off of the bed he had been perched on, having turned almost as pale as Gaara himself.

Sirius stayed prone on the floor for a few moments to catch his breath, all the while staring up at the smirking red-head who had taken the time and the effort to sneak up on him.

"What – why – and the – how?" Sirius' mind took a while to boot back up, before he finally sighed, smiled behind his thick convict's beard and perked up.

"Nicely done!" He congratulated the prank well executed. "How on earth did you get in here? I barricaded all of the back entrances. Wait, you haven't broken any of the walls down, have you?"

Gaara shook his head. 'Moony told me about the secret passage under the violent tree.'

"He did, did he? Well, I hope he also didn't suggest this little idea?"

Gaara shook his head very slowly.

"Right." Sirius clearly didn't believe it, but he could plan his revenge on the both of them later. He had all the time in the world, these days. "Well, it was about time he did. I wanted to tell you about it all along, but mister Moony-pants was concerned you would lead everyone and their mothers there."

Gaara didn't pout.

'He told me after I saw him transform after the full moon.'