4/4

Scrimgeour stepped forward, "It's nothing personal. My colleague is overzealous at times. I would like to be the first to commend you on your service last night." He said with what might have passed for a smile if one squinted.

"T-thank you, Auror Scrimgeour." Sirius said, still struggling to believe it. He knew the Auror to be a good man from his numerous brushes with the law as a teenager, when Rufus was just a captain.

The Head Auror presented a key, "Your wrists, Gaara." He unlocked the cuffs, noticing all of the tarnishes and dents. They were old and would need to be replaced.

Gaara stood and looked back at Sirius, waiting for him to follow him out. As if Gaara had been patiently waiting this whole time for his inevitable release.

Sirius was in a similar daze as Gaara's earlier in the evening. He had been so sure he would lose Gaara to Azkaban, the place of his nightmares.

"Mr Black, my office will forward you the invoice for this morning." Grimshred said as he packed up his items more quickly than they had been taken out.

"Yes, of course, thank you."

The goblin did not pay any attention to the gratitude and walked right out, passing Gaara with as wide a birth as he could.

"Mr Black, if you would follow me please." Scrimgeour said, checking his watch impatiently.

"Right." Sirius jumped to his feet and marched on out, like he was afraid they might take his shock or hesitance as an insult and rescind this pardon.

When they emerged into the main Auror pit, it was heaving with frantic Aurors doing paperwork, dragging around arrested men and women, or loudly conversing with one another. A couple hushed their speech when the spotted Sirius and Gaara, but otherwise their entrance garnered little attention.

The Head Auror wandered over to a nearby desk and snatched a parchment off of it. "Sheridan!" He called.

"Sir!" A nondescript Auror approached.

"Bring me Sirius Black's and Gaara's wands."

"Yes, sir."

Scrimgeour brought the parchment over to Sirius and Gaara and talked it over with them. A standard release form, he said. Sirius read it over, wishing his solicitor had stuck around to make sure he wasn't confessing to littering or something. It all seemed okay, although he held off until his wand was back in his hand.

"It says 'I acknowledge that all property has been returned in the state it was confiscated in' but you still have Gaara's gourd." Sirius said.

"And my pouch." Gaara added, hoping no one was stupid enough to touch his few remaining exploding tags.

"I am afraid evidence can take up to eleven working days to be returned once it has been logged into evidence. Typically personal items aren't logged so fast and suspects aren't released so quickly. Hold on," He took the parchment back and started writing on it. He added a note that said the gourd and pouch were still to be released from evidence within the allotted time and asked Sirius to initial the change.

Once Sirius had checked his wand out for any scratches (it was brand new!), he checked Gaara's over. "What happened to it!?" He yelled, seeing all of the chunks missing and the rough carving.

"I can assure you that it the state the wand was delivered to us in." Auror Sheridan rebuffed.

"It's fine." Gaara said, pocketing the thing. He much more concerned about his gourd and weapons pouch. The gourd had been improvised and its chakra would not last long, but he still didn't like them having it, and much less his weapons.

"Sheridan will show you out. Oh, and Mr Black, the Minister for Magic has asked me personally to offer his apologies for the confusion. And to remind you of your prior arrangement. I am afraid he did not elaborate what that meant, to me."

"That's fine, he and I understand each other perfectly." Be discreet or else. Loud and clear.

Sirius and Gaara walked behind Sheridan without saying or looking at each other. Sirius noticed they were taking a longer route that would avoid the atrium, and the throng of reporters likely milling about the place. When they reached the private floo point, Sheridan waited for them to leave, presumably to then re-disconnect the secure fireplace.

Sirius took Gaara by the shoulder and walked into the flames with him, throwing the floo powder in. "The Burrow!"

Gaara knew full well how to use the floo network safely by now, but his longstanding aversion to magical travel might lead him to run off and Sirius did not want to lose sight of him just yet. Not after that scare.

Plus, with his steadying hand, he could stop Gaara flying face-first into the kitchen table at the other end.

"Sirius! Gaara!" Molly was in the kitchen, as Sirius had expected, looking both surprised and relieved to see them both. "Arthur said you'd been arrested. Come here you poor things." She swept both of them uncomfortable males into a crushing hug. "I'm just making breakfast. I'll make you a plate, just sit right down there."

Gaara took a seat at the dining room table even though he wasn't hungry and it felt intrusive to do so as a guest while the host was still busy cooking. But he still sat down because Mrs Weasley was less likely to initiate further physical contact if he did what she said, surely.

"By Merlin, you're back already. I can't believe you managed to make them see sense so soon. I was sure you wouldn't be released until at least tonight!" Arthur Weasley was all smiles as he descended the stairs into the kitchen-dining room.

"Yes, well, it was a good bit of luck, to be sure. How is Harry? And Remus?"

"Harry was worried but he's asleep in Ron's room right now. We almost had to send up some Dreamless Sleep for him, but he settled down a few hours ago. And I managed to get Remus into St Mungo's. They didn't want to take him at first," Arthur said.

"Ridiculous, the lot of them!" Molly piped up as she set some bacon into her cast-iron skillet.

"But they let him in eventually. Even got his own room."

"I'm sure they were only too happy to isolate him. As long as he's getting help." Sirius said.

"It was a nasty curse, whatever he was hit with, but they said he should be alright in a couple days. Should be little or no lasting nerve damage. But what happened with you, at the Ministry?"

"Let's talk about that in the other room. I have a couple ideas about what might have happened." Sirius got up from the table and led Arthur into the sitting room.

"Gaara dear, could you keep an eye on this, please. Just flip the bacon and make sure the eggs don't burn." She smiled at him and then bustled into the other room, shutting the door.

Gaara looked back and forth between the stove and the lounge door before getting up and tending the breakfast. It was entirely foreign to him, this level of homeliness. He had never even been to this house before, and he had only met the Weasleys a few times, and yet he was being treated like a close friend or a member of the family.

It was uncomfortable.

Gaara wasn't much of a cook, but methodically he flipped the bacon piece by piece. It was only as he looked towards the pan of eggs that he noticed the spatula, blowing on his hot fingers.

He was uncharacteristically weary after such a light battle. Maybe it was the stress or the waning headache? In any case, staring at the greasy full English breakfast as it finished cooking was calming. Yashamaru had said cooking was soothing but Gaara never understood why.

He might have liked to share this revelation with Draco, maybe the birth of a new hobby, but he knew it would only lead to a rant on how the impoverished Weasleys had to make their guests cook and how such a hobby was for plebeians.

"Can I have an extra sausage? I'm really hungry this morning." Ron said as he walked into the kitchen, yawning and scratching his head.

"I don't think there will be enough if you have extra. There might be some bacon to spare." Definitely-not-mum answered.

Ron rubbed his eyes, sure that his was a bad dream. He'd had similar nightmares before, so coming downstairs to find his mother replaced by Gaara of all people was par for the course. He half expected Draco Malfoy to come in and rant about rubber ducks and Snape to come downstairs complaining that all the hot water was gone.

When pinching himself and rubbing his eyes did not wake him up or change Gaara into his mother, he looked around to work out what was happening.

Gaara watched this process dispassionately, absently probing the bacon to stop it sticking. "Your mother and father are in the lounge with Sirius."

Finally his equilibrium was restored and Ron was still left with an irritable Slytherin minding his breakfast. He would have slunk back upstairs to avoid the situation were he not convinced Gaara was going to slip something into his food when he wasn't looking.

He was tired since they had evacuated the camp in the middle of the night, and now he was grumpy because there was a bastard in his kitchen first thing in the morning. He poured himself some orange juice and fell into one of the old wooden chairs, and watched Gaara like a drowsy hawk.

Gaara ignored him as best he could, serving up the eggs when they looked done. There were a lot of plates already warming in the oven and he figured Mrs Weasley wouldn't take any offense to his finishing up. He was less sure about the bacon and sausages. Pork was bad for you if it was not freshly killed or fully cooked. The Weasleys had no pigs so it needed to be cooked properly, but he didn't know how to check that.

A glance at Ron suggested even if he did know he wouldn't share that knowledge easily. Gaara would give it a few minutes and then interrupt Sirius. In the meantime, he dished out the beans and the fried tomatoes. He had just started buttering toast when he heard a door open.

"Morning mum," Ron said, "Dad, Mr Black."

"Oh, Ron, Gaara's just... Oh, my, sorry dear. I lost track of the time. Well, you've certainly done a good job here. I'll just get everything served up and you can sit down and join us." She took the spatula from him.

"I'll be back in a little while, Gaara. I've got to get Harry back soon or else they'll come looking for him. Best not to, after last night."

"Come now, surely he can stay for some breakfast. I can't send him back to that place on an empty stomach." Molly insisted, patting Gaara on the back and complimenting his buttering skills.

"Well, I really shouldn't. He's only meant to stay with me…"

"They'll know that he wasn't with you last night anyway. Surely they can make an exception just this once." Arthur agreed with his wife.

Looking at Molly's face, Sirius sat down next to Ron and wondered how the woman, not that much older than him, was still able to make him feel like a child. She 'hmphed' and set a glass of juice in front of the grown man.

"Ron, go wake our brothers and Ginny, and Harry and Hermione too. It's time for breakfast. Tell Fred and George if they're not down in five minutes, I'll let you have their sausages." Ron's grunting ascent perked up at that last threat and he practically skipped up the stairs to pass it on.

"Thank you for that, dear. You go sit down and I'll finish serving everything up. You must be famished after last night. I can't imagine you got a wink of sleep from what Sirius told me."

Gaara sat next to Sirius and sipped his freshly squeezed juice. He would have much rather had a cup of that awful British tea but he did not have the energy to try and refuse Mrs Weasley's well-intentioned but heavy-handed nutritional breakfast recommendation.

A great stampede sounded down the stairs as six Weasleys, a Potter and a Granger clomped down one after another. Bill had gone back to his own place in London, spending the better part of an hour convincing his mother to let him go last night.

"I told you he was here! And he was cooking breakfast earlier."

"We're still not buying it," George said.

"Where's the apron?" Fred added.

"Yeah, Ron, where's the apron,?" George continued.

"Sirius!" Harry looked very relieved to see his godfather, using the spare glasses Mrs Weasley had apparently stocked after his second year in case he came to visit again and they broke. An unbelievably kind and generous gesture.

He had only been told that Sirius and Gaara were at the Ministry answering questions but he had a pit in his stomach about it. Surely the Ministry could have waited to ask them about the fighting.

Gaara watched the reunion while he calculated how much of the piled plate set in front of him he would need to eat before he could be excused. He settled at 63.4%.

On one side sat Sirius but on Gaara's other side was Ginny (the only child of the clan willing to sit next to him, it seemed), and across were the twins who wanted nothing more than to drill Sirius for answers. Every time they voiced such demands, Molly or Arthur would stop them and resume a polite conversation about schoolwork or Quidditch.

Harry was on Sirius' other side, wanting to ask those same questions but sure he wouldn't get any straight answers. He trusted his godfather not to lie to him or to treat him like an infant, but with Mr and Mrs Weasley around, Sirius was acting like a cowed child himself.

Ginny had tried posing a few of the pertinent questions, whispered covertly with her raised glass to cover her moving lips. Gaara was impressed by her subterfuge and irritated by the repeated attempts when he ignored her. She kept asking if he had fought, why he went to the Ministry with Sirius, where his gourd was.

The last one was a pretty good question, actually.

The food was greasy and the company brash, loud and boisterous. Gaara was looking forward to returning to Grimmauld Place where he could seclude himself and eat in peace (when Sirius wasn't insisting otherwise).

His silence did not deter his inquisitor who continued to ask him about last night and then moved onto more acceptable lines of questioning, mainly about life with Sirius, homework, the incoming school year, her chances getting onto the House Team, et cetera. He still ignored her since he was quite used to doing so by that point in his meal.

He was feeling a little nauseous by the time he had eaten as little as he thought would be acceptable to his overbearing host. His slow eating finished at the same time everybody had cleared their plates. He looked and the only other one that had eaten anything less than their full portion was Ginny next to him, who was almost as tall as he was and was 'trying to watch her figure'.

He shook off his budding Napoleon complex and picked up his plate, preparing to stand and take it to the sink. The food might not have been to his taste but it was a kind gesture and doing some dishes seemed like an equitable recompense for feeding him. He didn't like coddling, but Mrs Weasley was essentially a good person and he was supposed to doing nice things for people like that.

"Oh, you can leave them there, Gaara." Molly said, her watchful eye having caught his movement.

"Yeah, don't worry. Mum'll take care of it." Ginny said casually.

"I would never use magic for cooking, it ruins the taste, but it's fine for the washing up." She smiled as she moved her chair back, pulled out her wand with a flourish and sent the dishes floating to the sink with a flick. The brush and sponge were already scrubbing them as everyone rose from their seats.

"I'm sorry but I really have to take you back now, Harry." Sirius said, pulling his coat back on. "Thank you for breakfast, Molly. Lovely as always. And you'll make sure Gaara is okay while I'm dropping Harry off?" He said, presumably confirming whatever he had asked in the other room.

"Yes, yes, go on if you're going." She waved him off. "And Harry, dear, you'll come and stay with us next Wednesday for the last week of the holiday, won't you." She confirmed.

"Yes, Mrs Weasley." He said, running upstairs to get his bag.

"Gaara, you go into the lounge with the boys and Ginny." Molly encouraged.

He nodded and turned on his heel. His mechanical stride was with the foreknowledge that he was walking into the lions' den. The Weasleys and Granger would pounce on him as soon as he walked through the door, he could already see it happening.

"Gaara, what happened?!" Granger practically yelled as the door was slid shut right behind him.

Gaara concentrated on not letting his shoulder slump in defeat.

"Yeah, why did you leave?" Ron added.

"He said he was checking on Draco, didn't he?" Percy added.

"Yeah, but he also said he was gonna go and fight." Fred or George said.

"They wouldn't have dragged him to the Ministry with Sirius if he didn't at least see the fight." George or Fred continued.

Gaara sighed and moved to sit on the sofa as the group continued to debate between themselves what Gaara had or had not done last night. The only one not engrossed in the debate was Percy who was bitterly regretting his having the day off since the Ministry would be abuzz today.

Crouch would have given him so much responsibility, for sure, if he could just go in. But his mother refused to so much as entertain the idea, even refusing to let Arthur 'pop in' for an hour or two. Today was her day with her family (minus Bill and Harry who had to leave) and she wasn't about to let Percy run off for his unpaid internship with Crouch of all people.

Gaara and Hermione would be going home soon, and then Molly would crack out the board games!

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

After the worst part of an hour had passed, Sirius reappeared.

"So, he was probably using his sand is what you're saying?" Ginny said.

"Well, we can't be certain of that, but what we do know is-" Hermione was interrupted by the lounge door opening.

Sirius looked in on the group sat tightly around Gaara, all looking to deep in conversation apart from the topic of their debate, who was dead to the world once again. His ability to turn himself off like that was both impressive and worrying.

Molly and Arthur had just told him about the press conference Fudge was giving when he arrived, and he considered leaving Gaara to this close-knit hell so he could continue discussing it but the likely assault that would soon be perpetrated was not worth the schadenfreude. Plus there were more pressing matters like seeing Remus, to attend to.

"We've got to go now, Gaara." Gaara had never looked so relieved, Sirius thought.

Gaara pushed his way through the huddled teens and walked straight out. They didn't seem to miss him even as they continued speculating on what he had done during the battle.

"Come on, we'll go and check on Moony now." Sirius said in the same terse mood he always adopted after taking Harry back to Privet Drive.

"Thank you for your hospitality." Gaara said to Mrs and Mr Weasley.

"You're always welcome here, Gaara. Please do stop by again soon." She replied, catching him a short hug.

"You must tell me about exploding knives sometime, Gaara. Simply fascinating!" Arthur said. He'd been bursting to ask all morning but Molly insisted on letting him alone with the children.

"Thanks again for breakfast and for keeping an eye on Harry and now Gaara." Sirius said.

"You must come back soon. I'll help you with those forms we talked about and I'm sure Molly will have some more useful advice for you." Arthur smiled.

Sirius thanked him again and swept Gaara out of the door before much more could be said.

"Sorry I took so long. I had to stop by the house to drop off the tents and pick up something for Remus."

Gaara suspected the little silver thing in Sirius' pocket was a flask, freshly refilled with single-malt but made no mention of it.

After he had recovered from the post-apparition nausea and mood, Gaara was quite impressed by the wizarding hospital, much more modern and clean than most of the magical buildings he had seen. He was hoping the visit would be short so he could go back to Sirius' and rest at last, although with any luck they could take a taxi since they were already in London.

They drew fewer stares in this building, the magical equivalents of doctors and nurses running about the place with little interest in an ex-convict and a peculiar redhead. Even when Sirius stopped a witch in the hall and asked for directions, she seemed wholly uninterested in them and didn't seem to recognise Sirius at all as she guided them to the correct floor.

Sirius was not happy to find Remus' room in the Infectious Magical Diseases and Secure Patients Ward, the doors made of very heavy wood and all having locks on both sides.

Inside a room that had signs outside notifying visitors of the presence of a werewolf, they found Remus lying in bed looking bored and tired. It was a bare room but there was a small dish with some grapes next to his bed that he had started on. It took a moment for Gaara to work out that Mr Weasley had probably purchased them for Remus when he arrived.

With how late things had run last night and how hurt he was supposed to be, Gaara found it odd that his chronically lethargic friend was awake.

"I thought the kissogram wasn't due round till midday." He quipped, struggling to push himself up to sitting position with his heavily bandaged arm.

Sirius smirked but then stopped himself from moving and pulled out the silver device in his pocket. He held it up and pulled out a decorative needle that had immobilised a spinning component that started up immediately after. It span so fast it rose into the air and let off some sparks and sank back down to the main piece where Sirius again fixed it with the needle.

"One of the more useful keepsakes from my paranoid father. Just had to make sure no one was watching or listening in." Sirius smiled. "Now, you were saying about a kissogram?" He transformed into Padfoot and ran up to Remus to slobber all over him.

"Get off me you mangy mutt!" The man griped, trying to push the shaggy black dog off of his hospital bed before it was covered in fur. It would send the nurse into a panic if she found fur in a werewolf's bed days before the full moon.

Padfoot didn't struggle much and jumped back down, his tail wagging frantically. Gaara watched the animal antics and prayed he wasn't forced to strike a dog should that man-dog try to lick his face too.

Sirius straightened back up in his human form and smiled still as he sat in the bed-side chair. He whipped out his wand and locked the door.

"I don't have mange. I have a vet's note and everything." Sirius said. "And you're looking well."

"Nothing a couple nights in here won't fix. I'll have to come back after my transformation, though. The healer said it would probably undo most of their work."

"That's pretty understanding of them." Sirius said.

"Well, he did say he didn't want me coming back until two days after the moon's passed, 'just in case'. I'll just have a friend keep an eye on me until then." Remus said.

"Oh, which friend were you thinking this time?" Sirius leaned forward, feigning casual interest.

"I'm not sure. So many on holiday this time of year, plus the bank holiday is coming up so I don't want to impose."

"I know how you hate to impose." Sirius chuckled.

Gaara was watching the light and friendly banter distantly. He knew this was just Sirius' way of checking Remus was okay but Gaara had no way of entering into the facetious repartee so he settled into the other chair and waited. They would inevitably draw him in sooner or later.

Sirius had moved on quicker than expected to recounting their interrogation for the second time that morning. It was almost as boring as experiencing it, Gaara thought.

"But, he was okay, I think. He's going to be back at the Burrow next week and I'll take him to Diagon Alley." Sirius said, finishing his tale with the morose delivery of Harry into the unwelcoming arms of the Dursleys.

"I would imagine so. Will Bandit be going with you or do you want me to take him?"

"Thanks but I think I'll take both. Plus I have a whole speech lined up for when I take them to Zonko's showroom and I don't want to have to say it twice."

Remus laughed as did Sirius. It was good to see that, especially in a hospital.

"I heard the radio earlier. Fudge is saying it was a terrorist cell. Last of You-Know-Who's followers." Remus said.

"Yeah, I heard it. It'd be lovely to think that there are only a dozen of them left in the country. And to think: none of them work at the Ministry!" Sirius laughed bitterly.

"As long as none of them work here, I'm happy for now." Remus added.

Sirius chuckled for a little longer but he went quiet afterwards.

"I can't put this off any longer. Not just today, I've been avoiding this for… Well, I've been ignoring this for a while now. Questions coming up and I've told myself they don't matter. But that's not true. I have to know, I need the answers and I think you do too, Remus."

Sirius paused and looked to Gaara, who had a sinking suspicion this is where things would lead after Sirius locked the door. "Gaara, last night was well beyond your usual level of… your normal level. Something happened, and I should have seen whatever it is coming. But with what happened, how normal it was for you, and your eye… I need you to tell me everything, Gaara. I need the truth. Please."

Gaara felt trapped, but he could have escaped. He could run away and they would never know the truth. Better he be gone than finding out this secret.

But he didn't run. He didn't jump to the door and keep running until his existence could no longer bring ruin and pain to his friends. Instead, he stayed sat where he was and looked up at Sirius and Remus, trying not to feel like the teenager he technically was.

"It's okay, Gaara, we're just worried. Take your time."

He took a deep breath.

"It started the night I killed my mother…" He started.

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Omake:

August was a nice month, Gaara thought as he ran back from the match. It was the warmest and that was pretty much all he required in order to decide it was the best time of year. He had ditched the others to have some time alone before the others arrived back and enjoy a moment's peace and quiet.

The first such moment since Sirius had practically dragged him out of the house.

The woods were dark now and were quiet. It was very pleasant. He was almost tempted to spend the evening in here, enjoy the night air and the smell of the forest. He slowed his pace, the lead he had gained would provide plenty of time to settle when he got back to the campsite.

He walked through the trees, enjoying the feeling of his feet on the soft forest floor, and the sight of two people making out against a tree…

…hold on…

He had paused when he walked into view of a sturdy tree, against which a pair of twenty-somethings were deep in the throes of a passionate lip-lock. The surprise had cause him to stop in his tracks, but in doing so, one of the otherwise occupied participants parted one of their eyes and happened to catch sight of a pale boy with bright scarlet hair and dark rimmed eyes staring right at them.

She screamed.

Gaara continued walking, ignoring the reaction and the boyfriend trying to calm her back down.

'I wonder if this is related to what Kankuro used to say about Temari and that Nara boy 'sucking face'?' Gaara thought. 'She sometimes screamed at Kankuro too.' It fit the description, anyway.

Gaara mused on the purpose of kissing as he walked the rest of the way to Sirius' tent. By the time he got there, he came to the conclusion that it was the eleventh human behaviour that simply had no rational explanation or purpose to it.

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A/N: I have been wanting to use that 'I am serious, and don't call me Shirley' joke from Airplane for years. I wrote it down in that form, even with Hermione setting it up, in around 2015. So pleased I managed to squeeze it in.

I almost forgot to mention, I had a guest reviewer mention a reference I made to Edgar Allan Poe in the first chapter of SH and I may be mistaken but I think that might have been the first such mention in a review I have gotten. For a joke I made seven years ago to be noticed now brings me endless joy. I figure other saw it and just didn't care, but it still made my day to see the review.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Please take a moment to review if you happen to have anything to say.