Chapter 13: A New Conclusion 1/8

Disclaimer: I do not own either Harry Potter (rightfully owned by J.K Rowling) or Naruto (rightfully owned by Masashi Kishimoto) nor do I make any money out of this fiction. I will also add that any sections or phrases in this chapter that bear resemblance to works by either author or from movies based on works of said authors is recreated in the same spirit of free usage and is not for profit.

A/N: Here it is, the last official chapter of this instalment of Gaara's story in the Harry Potter world. The bare bones of Silent Humanity have been written for a long time, almost seven years for some parts, so it is quite strange to be writing such long awaited scenes finally. A lot has changed since the original plans were drawn, a fair amount has changed since the last chapter was written for that matter…

This turned out to be the second longest chapter so far, by a smidge. I would have split the chapter into two but I couldn't be bothered and I said this would be the last proper chapter (except the epilogue) of this story.

As I said previously, there will be another instalment to follow, but that will be in a separate story. There is still an epilogue to come for this one and with it I will post the first chapter of the sequel so you will know when and where to look for it.

I said a couple of chapters back that I would like to reach a thousand reviews for this story before it finished, but that was quite unrealistic since I wasn't even up to five hundred by that point, so I will content myself in knowing that over five hundred people have taken the time to write something about my fanfic-ing at the time of my writing this. To my memory, I think I only got one actual flame. Coincidentally, I also passed the 500 page mark on this chapter, and also passed the 1,000 alert review.

It's not too bad all things considered.

In any case, please take the time to write something after you have seen what I have to say, but more importantly I hope you enjoy the climax of Gaara and the Prisoner of Azkaban, A.K.A. Silent Humanity.

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(Last Time)

When Draco, who had given that scene a wide birth, reached him by the tree line, he watched too. And he was even more clueless than Gaara as to what was going on.

"You didn't know that was going to happen, right?" Draco asked, switching his terrified gaze from where Potter and Granger had crawled under the flailing tree, to Gaara whose eyes, unchanged from their intense human versions, were staring at the unfolded scene too.

Draco might have heard a whine come from his canine friend, but he didn't say anything.

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"Please, come this way, the Minister is expecting you." The secretary led the esteemed group towards the Ministry Meeting Room, knowing full well that Cornelius was still sitting in his office so he could keep them all waiting at least five minutes to establish who was most important.

The large and estimable group included Albus Dumbledore, Minerva McGonagall and Fillius Flitwick from Hogwarts, all of whom had taught most of Britain's Witches and Wizards since the mid-1950's. The secretary himself had been a member of Professor Flitwick's House, and struggled now not to show an improper amount of respect to someone who was not his boss. The Minister had emphasised that while they may have been his teachers once upon a time, now they were just private citizens and he was a Ministry employee.

He didn't bother to try and correct his boss, that Dumbledore was not a private citizen but the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot and the Supreme Mugwump. He had seen at least two secretaries and another Ministry worker lose their jobs for correcting the Minister in the four years he had worked for the man. He was already the most senior among the man's secretarial squad.

Then, behind the teachers, came Lucius Malfoy, purposefully walking apart from the others. His cane tapped against the floor in a hypnotising fashion, but the twenty-four year old administrator's thoughts were quickly drawn from the aristocratic blond when he remembered the other man walking along down the corridor: Henrik Morbidus.

As much of a grown man as he was, he was still frightened of Morbidus. Honestly, he had very little idea of what the man did for the Minister, only that he had unfettered access to him and everyone knew you didn't cross him lightly. The more gossipy of the Ministry staff spoke in hushed tones of people being threatened or disappearing.

He didn't believe all of that but the gaunt, insectoid man still terrified him.

Trailing at the back came the four other Ministry employees: Marcus Barnett, Head of the Department of Magical Punishment and Sentencing; Derek Sutherland, the head dementor wrangler from Hogwarts; Rufus Scrimgeour, Head Auror; and Amelia Bones, Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.

Such a distinguished group, feigning civility.

Scrimgeour and Bones got on well enough, but no one liked Barnett since his job was essentially the management of dementors and Azkaban, a job that no virtuous man would consider undertaking; and Barnett was quite suited to his ill-reputed position, as far as anyone could see. Then there was the dementor wrangler who looked ready to fall asleep if he stood still for any length of time.

If there was any report needed about the state of Hogwarts' security or the presence of dementors at the school, it was the state of abject exhaustion the head of the dementor wranglers was in.

The group walked without a word to the meeting room that few living had been to before. A Minister for Magic in the seventeenth-century, whose name the lowly secretary couldn't recall, had commissioned this Meeting Room in the lowest bowels of the Ministry as his office at the time. He had been a terribly paranoid and had ordered a number of powerful wards and protections be enacted around it to stop him being killed when the Ministry was breached.

No such breach ever happened and after two more Ministers had been isolated in the dark office, they had elected to move their work space in the Ministry proper, and the old office became the Meeting Room for covert or important meetings.

No one was sure why the Minister had ordered the meeting be held in such a secure, remote and seldom-used location. Most who knew about it figured it was a shallow display of the seriousness of the situation.

In other words, it didn't matter to Cornelius whether or not it helped fix the situation as long as he was seen to be acting; or, that was the secretary's understanding, at least.

He led them all into the room and was then to stand outside of the room until Fudge arrived so that he could seal the doors. The Ministry Meeting Room was built to withstand attack, but now it was simply the most undisturbed place in the country.

Hearing hurried footfalls behind them, he turned and saw a Ministry regular running towards the group. Gerald Goyle ran as fast as his bulky frame would allow until he was next to Malfoy. After a whispered word or two between them, Lucius stopped walking to address the man properly, albeit with a rather conspicuous eye-roll.

No one heard what was being said, but Goyle kept glancing towards the Meeting Room and then started gesturing towards it, all while Lucius sneered and shook his head, replying in the same bored, inaudible tone. In under two minutes, Lucius turned about face and walked away, contemptuously ignoring the Goyle's look of shock at his dismissal.

Lucius didn't bother to look back and walked straight into the room. Gerald stood there looking dumbstruck for a moment before turning around and leaving the way he came.

All of the invitees took their assigned seating and settled in for the predictable wait for Fudge, who had made a reputation for himself for keeping people waiting for no discernible reason.

"I don't believe I have seen this room since May of '45. It appears to have been decorated." Dumbledore mused, settling into his seat for the long haul.

"Wonderful." Lucius drawled, anticipating any number of useless titbits over the coming meeting.

For an unpunctual man, Cornelius was quite precise in exactly how late he was going to be. He showed up no more than twenty-seconds after the five minutes mark, bustling into the room.

"I am terribly sorry for keeping you all waiting. Busy times, as I'm sure you can understand." No one bothered to reply, which took the wind out of his self-important sails a little bit. "Now, let us begin…"

What followed was the beginning of the single longest meeting Albus Dumbledore could remember ever being part of. He had sat through war councils that lasted days, but the sixteen hours they sat taking attendance, noting people who couldn't make it, discussing points of discussion, organising sub-groups, explaining seating arrangements…

It was as if someone had devised a Cuciatus variant that simulated the uttermost extremes of tedium, without the possibility of relief since the room was sealed against interruptions. By the sixth hour, a majority were wishing for another Goblin Revolt to lay siege and try and break down the doors.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Peter Pettigrew knew Remus had the Map; which had made his presence in the castle too much of a liability these past months. The only times he had been able to sneak back in and catch up on the latest wizarding news had been on the full moon when he knew for certain Remus wouldn't be in the castle or looking at the Map.

Fortunately, the part of him that might have felt guilt for exploiting his old friend's condition like this had died a long time ago. It had to make room for the larger areas of self-loathing in his brain.

That said, he had also snuck into the school during the day a few times when he knew Lupin was teaching and thus unlikely to be able to check the Map. It was dangerous, but he had spent twelve years as a rodent to stay abreast of his native culture's current affairs and be ready for his Lord's return.

It was this attention to his surroundings that had yielded an interesting result: the meeting between the most senior staff at Hogwarts and a number of Ministry officials on the night of the full moon, the last such lunar event before the students all left for the holidays.

If he could just get back to the Burrow with the youngest male Weasley, he could somehow orchestrate Lupin's sacking from the school and he would be safe next year. The Ministry would undoubtedly have dealt with that Gaara child by then, and Sirius was on borrowed time as it was.

Once the children had cleared out, they would let the dementors swarm the entire area, he suspected, and even an animagus wouldn't be safe with that many wraiths around them, so while Sirius was doomed, Peter had to make good his escape.

It would have been simple, but there was a four day gap between the full moon and the students' return to their homes, so he would be forced to do yet another evil to his past and his friends. He would have to destroy the Marauders Map that the four of them had spent countless weeks and months working on together.

His attempt to enter the castle covertly that evening didn't go to plan as, of all people, Ron Weasley had spotted him like an owl hunting small animals, and had scooped him up with a celebratory cry. While he most certainly wasn't a real animal, and he was using the Weasley family for cover, Peter couldn't help but feel warmth at the happiness his retrieval had brought the boy.

Whilst he knew he would never be in any sort of position to demand such a thing; if the Dark Lord ever presented him with the choice of killing the blood-traitor family or sparing them, he would almost certainly spare them. Unless it was a test, in which case he would have no choice but to kill them all.

But still, the thought was there…

Unplanned, but not the end of the world. He would wait until Ronald took him upstairs, and then sneak away again and he would be that much closer to the DADA classroom and Lupin's chambers.

What he had underestimated was Ron's newfound determination to (heed his mother's strongly worded letters and) keep a better hold of his pet. When they got to the right floor, he had tried crawling out of Ron's pocket and had been taken in hand from that point and no amount of squirming or wriggling had released him. He would have bitten the boy, but that would likely have gotten him put straight into his cage.

He was taken to the Gryffindor dorms to meet the bookish girl again, followed by another almost-fight between Ron and her over that evil half-kneazle's pursuit of him. It looked like he was going to be able to sneak away soon since these two couldn't go more than an hour without fighting when they were alone together, but then James' son arrived and he calmed them both down.

And then he heard the most valuable or rather most enjoyable morsel of information he had garnered in the last decade: there was a prophecy that insured the Dark Lord's imminent return, and he got the impression he was the one that was going to do it! Tonight, he would escape from these people and go and find the Dark Lord!

Then they started talking about some sort of small animal and he was lost to the conversation. Sirius must have somehow found a way to train an animal to do his bidding. It was absurd enough to be Sirius' plan. Just like the time…

No, he couldn't bring up those memories.

He wasn't very happy when he was carried back down to the bottom of the castle. Lupin would transform soon and he would need to start moving up there if he wanted to arrive shortly after Remus left. He needed to sneak in as the man left otherwise the office would be warded against intrusion from even the smallest animal.

Instead, he was being taken to where James' son had seen a 'giant-squirrel' last month.

What followed for the rat was a nauseating series of jostling turns as he was thrown about in Ron's pocket while the boy and his friend's chased after the animal they had correctly located. Then they ran outside.

This was ridiculous. He was this close to chewing his way to freedom and hoping he managed to get all the way to Remus' chamber before the man left for the evening. And then, when Ron and he were running past the familiar tree he had never personally needed to avoid before, he spotted Padfoot.

Sadly, he only saw the giant black dog as it was mid-leap at the ginger he was being carried by. He scrambled to get out of the pocket but Ron's fall sent him to the bottom of the pocket and then he was trapped under the boy's weight as they were both dragged under the Willow and to Peter's certain doom.

He could hear Padfoot's growling as he pulled Ron by the arm. After they went under the tree, he felt Ron fall a little and heard him scream bloody murder having broken his leg or his ankle.

Somehow, as they were dragged further and further down the dark tunnel towards the Shack, Peter thought he might not get around to destroying the Map tonight.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

The staffing shortage in the school caused by Fudge's latest vanity project had meant that Remus was severely delayed that evening. He usually tried to get out of the castle and into the woods at least two hours before his change just to be sure.

With cloud cover and the rise and fall of the moon changing every month, he would never normally risk turning early and exposing the children or his colleagues to any sort of risk.

Sadly, with two Heads of House out, as well as the Headmaster, it fell to Lupin to not only attend dinner that evening, but also go on patrol even though Dumbledore had always ensured the schedules didn't call on Remus before a full moon. But, with the 'danger' of Sirius Black being as imminent as it ever had been, all teachers were needed to patrol.

By the time he got back to his chambers, he was already out of breath from his impending change and from having run through the last stretch of his assigned patrol route. He rushed through his office and into the back room where he lived and pulled out the vial of Wolfsbane Potion Snape had given him with a smirk the day before. The last free potion Remus would be getting.

He set the vial down for a moment and checked the Map as he did whenever he had a free moment lately. He didn't have a free moment right now, mind you, but Pettigrew had been on his mind almost constantly in the final weeks of the term.

…Pettigrew, and Gaara, who he was still waiting to hear back about from Professor Dumbledore.

Opening the Map, he scanned through each page representing each floor. One thing he noticed very quickly was that one of the few people he would know to look for in Gryffindor Tower was missing along with his two best friends. Working his way down, he then found a few very familiar names on their way out of the castle.

For some reason, and he couldn't begin to guess the circumstances, Harry, Ron and Hermione were chasing after Gaara, and Draco was following them all as well. They had run out of the castle and were headed towards the very edge of the Map, which thankfully had been drawn to include the Whomping Willow.

It was this inclusion that allowed him to spy the most worrying part of all of this. With Ron's name came Peter Pettigrew's, and then Sirius Black showed up.

If there was any group of seven people he didn't want meeting up unexpectedly, it was those seven. Sure, he was glad Sirius was closing in on the rat, but when he saw the footprints move impossibly fast towards Ronald, he knew Padfoot was the one in charge and would be liable to cause more trouble than he solved, as a dog.

He didn't think twice, he dropped the Map and went running after them all. The last he had seen, Ron was under the tree and would be on his way to the Shack, and Harry and Hermione had just started towards the Willow.

Gaara and Draco had disappeared off into the Forest so he wouldn't have to deal with them too, at least.

His mind was so busy with how he was going to deal with this that he didn't even consider the potion he had left on the side, nor the Map he had failed to deactivate on his personal desk. His mind was firmly set to task: find Wormtail who was hiding from someone who wanted to kill him, protect a Potter who was put at risk by Sirius' insanity, stop Sirius from doing something stupid. All before his 'furry little problem' was upon him. It was his fifth year all over again…

When he got outside and saw the Willow was fighting fit, he risked a glance skyward and saw that the clouds were still thick so the late moonrise would take even longer to affect him. He might be okay.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Harry and Hermione had both watched their close friend as he was tackled by the great big black dog, shocked into stillness. It was only as the redhead was being dragged into a tunnel under Britain's most unfriendly tree and they heard his agonised scream that they thought to pursue him.

After they had run to the tunnel, remembered which tree they were standing under, and managed to escape from that tree with no broken bones, they quickly stumbled along the tunnel after Ron and the dog. Their wands lit the way but they had no clue as to where they were going nor how long it would take, and they didn't want to stumble out into the danger unexpectedly, so they went more slowly than they might have liked.

Harry wanted to rush ahead, but fortunately Hermione was in front of him and had insisted on proper caution. Of course, that didn't mean she didn't want to rush in as well, but logic didn't abandon her like it seemed to for other Gryffindors.

For instance, unlike Harry, she noticed the distance they had shuffled would have taken them out of Hogwarts already, and the tunnel had curved downwards and then up again, so they were likely going to be surfacing soon above ground. Sadly, with her other commitments, she had never found the time to study the local geography as much as she would like, so she had no idea where they were going to end up.

They saw some very faint natural light filtering through the roof twenty metres away, so they doused their wand-lights and tip-toed onwards. Harry pushed forwards and started to lift the trap door the extremely dim light was shining through.

Up, out of the tunnel, they were in a derelict wooden house that neither recognised at first glance. It was rotted and damp, and the only light seemed to be the starlight filtering in through the windows that still, unaccountably, had glass in the frames.

Now with a little ambient light, the pair could see the blood stains on the floor where their friend had been dragged by the bloody great big dog. Neither believed it was the Grim that Ronald had compared it to, but they had their wands out ready all the same. Even non-magical wild dogs were incredibly dangerous, as evidenced by their absent, bleeding friend.

After a couple of seconds, they didn't need the blood to know where Ron was as they could hear his wailing upstairs. They climbed the creaking stairs, thankful for the house's cacophony of sounds that drowned out their movements. Something about the place was nagging at the back of Hermione's mind. It was only when they were on the landing and they could clearly hear Ron's caterwauling that she pieced together the two pieces of information.

The sound of Ron's shrieking and the house that would be better described as a shack. She was about to whisper this information in Harry's ear but he was determinedly moving on to where his best friend was.

In what might have once been the master bedroom sat Ron, clutching his arm and with one legs stretched straight out because he couldn't move it.

Ron didn't have the look of relief on his face that they had expected when they came to his rescue. Instead, he whimpered and said, "It's a trap!"

Harry spun around immediately and Sirius Black was stood there in all of his glory, which was more figurative than literal since he looked like a starved homeless man, dressed in rags, sported a dirty beard, and had what many would describe in the weeks and months to come as 'the crazy eyes.'

Harry and Hermione backed up into the room, against the wall Ron was still slumped against.

"Where's the dog?" Harry asked, not sure what else he could ask in that situation. He had spent so long thinking about what he would do when he confronted Sirius Black, but now it was happening and he was dumbfounded.

"He's an animagus. I told you he was one!" Ron said accusingly, and Hermione dared to peak back at him, feeling a mite cowed. She wasn't wrong that often, but she could admit when it happened.

"He must have used that animal to lure you out of the castle, Harry!" Hermione whispered.

"I did not lure you here this evening." Sirius rasped. "Still, when fortune shines down on you, it's rude to ignore it." He smiled and they had to endure the sight of teeth twelve years after a toothbrush had last seen them.

"You're not taking him!" Hermione screamed, trying to position herself between Harry and Black, while Harry did the same with her. The ultimate effect was of two teenagers falling over each other while not breaking eye contact with their quarry.

"I'm afraid there is no escaping this. This is long overdue…" Sirius said as he took a step forward.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Draco watched Gaara as he tried to draw something in the dirt with a stick, but with the failing light and Gaara's lacklustre artistic skills, it was a lost cause. It was a few minutes after they had watched the Golden Trio disappear into the ground that Gaara had started trying to communicate with his roommate with no result.

At first the small fluffy creature had tried growling and making strange yipping noises, but that clearly wasn't going to work so he had tried drawing something on the ground that could have been a cloud, or possibly a picture of the castle. After a minute more of this, causing the small and arguably adorable Gaara to lose his patience and start getting worked up, Draco just said, "Why don't you write it out instead?"

Gaara looked up at him and stared for a few seconds.

Obviously he hadn't thought of that in his panic. This body played havoc with his good sense.

He started writing, 'Go and get my clothes and my gourd. I will need them as soon as the sun rises.'

"How am I supposed to carry your gourd?! It has to weigh at least three-hundred kilos!"

Gaara stared again for a moment before writing one word: 'Magic.' He even included the full stop.

Draco didn't want to go when there was obviously trouble afoot. Any time those three Gryffindorks were out and about at night, it usually resulted in a new DADA teacher and some spectacular rumours spreading around the school. Plus, Gaara clearly needed help as he was and Draco was loathe to leave him like this…

Oh, God… He was turning into a Hufflepuff!

No wonder his parents warned against friendships. Here he was volunteering to selflessly help someone whilst risking his own health…

Damn.

Draco took off running at his modest speed back up the hill to the castle, hoping he wouldn't be spotted be one of the patrolling teachers.

He got the impression Gaara had a reason for not wanting the teachers to get involved, though he couldn't fathom what it might be. Still, it would have been interesting if Professor Snape had found and stopped him to ask what was going on. The summation of what he had seen would have caused the pale man to showcase all kinds of interesting and amusing emotions.

Gaara watched Draco climb the hill for as long as he could before he got embarrassed by the spectacle of the boy struggle to jog up the incline. Physical Education needed to be a higher priority in this world. No more than sixty seconds after Draco, visibly wheezing from a distance, had entered the gate, Lupin of all people ran out and straight towards the Whomping Willow.

Gaara didn't know how Remus had found out about all of this, but he was glad there was someone he could count on with more sense that Sirius.

More sense, but not a lot. Why the man was running in there at all when the moon would be rising fully anytime now was a mystery. Gaara tried running up to the Willow to head Remus off and get him safely away, but the man had already disappeared under the roots by the time he was halfway there.

Gaara sighed and trotted back to his cover to wait.

If Lupin had taken his potion, he might be docile enough to be restrained or to leave after he was transformed, but if he hadn't he would probably try and kill all three children and his best friend too. Even if Gaara had followed, he wouldn't be able to do much of anything beyond providing an appetiser.

Underground, Lupin wasn't happy about what was happening, but perhaps Sirius and he would finally be able to solve this farcical situation.

As he approached where he knew Sirius would have taken the Weasley boy, he heard raised voices and would have smacked his palm on his forehead were it not far too serious a moment for it.

"You betrayed my parents!"