5/8

"Call back your sand now, Gaara!" Snape was worried, sweat forming on his forehead as he felt just how enclosed his dungeons were, and with all of the children there he was very concerned. He had no idea how Gaara's powers would hold up against his own, but the monstrosity still staring unblinking at him had apparently made short order of Potter the other day and his own spell hadn't made so much as a dent in that defence.

Gaara gave no sign of abiding with his professor's demand so Snape allowed himself the briefest of peeks around at his students, from Draco to Potter and his friends before he called out for everyone to hear: "Run! Get out and don't stop! Class dismissed." It was dramatic, but Gaara wasn't even in whatever passed for a right mind, and Snape had made his severe doubts about Gaara's moral compass known to all so he truly believed the teenagers under his charge were in danger.

The students closest to the door, in the other corner of the laboratory, began to sprint out, fearing either their angry and insane Potions professor or their deranged and erupting peer would give chase.

The tense standoff, with Snape not sparing another glance around the room, between the staring foes went on for centuries as the students manoeuvred around the room to get to the exit without passing too close to either. Not soon enough, the only students left in the class were predictably the Golden Trio and Gaara's own compatriot, all four having decided to meddle in this affair as they were wont to do, only recently in one of their cases.

"What are you waiting for, get out, now!" Snape resharpened his focus and aim on Gaara's torso, readying to fire off a curse at a moment's notice.

"Gaara, what are you doing?! Calm down, it's alright." Draco was a few feet behind Gaara but had dared to come a lot closer than the others who had elected to wait nearer the front of the room as spectators for now.

The sand twitched and Snape sent an exploding curse at Gaara's body and conjured a thin stream of super-heated flames towards his head soon after. The barrier of sand lazily rose to intercept the first attack and was ready to catch the fire, shifting the sand around so that none of it could melt into glass like Snape had planned.

The room wasn't well ventilated so keeping up that fire might have been just as costly to him as to Gaara so he readied another series of exploding curses, but he had to sidestep the sand as it speared where he had just been standing. He severed it and fired off his own attack before ducking clumps of sand that instead impacted hard on the back wall.

"Gaara, stop, please. It's not worth it." Draco hadn't moved a step closer since the battle really began, he looked desperate, but whether that was for Gaara's of Snape's safety no one could be sure.

Snape cast his very own Sectumsempra repeatedly, slashing wildly at Gaara's sand, hoping to cause enough damage to the boy himself so that he'd be incapacitated quickly enough that Snape could counter it and stop it from killing him.

The invisible sword was able to keep Gaara's sand from advancing but he couldn't penetrate the stone barrier that was erected every time he attacked. Shifting his stance he transfigured a nearby desk into a large snake and had it approach Gaara but without even looking, Gaara sent his sand to crush it, not leaving enough of an opening that Severus' inbound stunning spells and crippling curses could pass through.

Ducking under a wide swipe, Snape summoned as much water as he could draw from the nearby taps and sent that as a malleable stream towards Gaara, intending to either surround the boy's head with it until he lost consciousness or else soak this loose sand until he could out manoeuvre it. He couldn't anticipate that Gaara had experience with this trick and had developed a defence against it, so Snape was dumbstruck when the shield that blocked the aquatic tentacle had deflected the water and allowed it slide off its smooth surface before breaking back up into grains of sand. Each time Snape tried to send water to attack Gaara, the shield would compact and harden to the degree that it was no longer porous.

Snape wasn't a young man any more, he had aged prematurely so he wasn't nearly nimble enough to compete with this sand on any kind of physical level, especially since the tiny space he had to work with was littered with debris and desks, and the longer he fought the more the sand circling Gaara spread out to surround him.

The veteran was getting to the point of desperation where he began to consider using his more powerful, darker and more dangerous spells and curses, on a different level than his favoured Sectumsempra. What stopped him, really, was the presence of those incorrigible students stood so close to this escalating battle. If things had continued as they were, Snape would have had to consider using one of the Unforgivables to fight with. They carried immense risks but their power was the reason the Dark Lord had treasured them so.

Things, however, did not continue as they had, as through the door strode Albus Dumbledore with his wand drawn looking to be incredibly angry, compared to his famous granfatherly smile that twinkled around his beloved students. Gaara seemed to register this threat only after Dumbledore had sent off a nameless spell that froze the top layer of the sand shield and dusted Gaara's sand-covered hair in ice.

Even as Professor Dumbledore began to send off spells in rapid succession in tandem with Snape, once Gaara had shifted his stance to face both his opponents, he was still able to fend off all but a few attacks cast at him, and the paltry handful of hexes that made it past the shield only came to impact on Gaara's stony skin as if they too had been blocked.

The three passive spectators at the front of the room, who had never seen either professor duel seriously before, couldn't believe that they were earnest in their attempts to subdue Gaara, and in fact they weren't. As strong as Gaara was, they were each accomplished duelists and had the potential to rise to much greater strengths, but both were aware, on a deeper level, that Gaara was a student and they couldn't think of going all out on someone under their care.

They reached an impasse as the teachers could not force their student into submission without probably seriously harming him and the other students in the small room, and Gaara couldn't defeat his two opponents in his frenzied and wild state of mind, relying largely on instinct. As the battle lulled into a continuous attack and return between sides, Draco could stand still no longer. It was obvious Gaara would be the one to get hurt if things went further, so he slid forwards.

Seeing that Draco was making his move, Albus formed a wall of water to act as a barrier long enough to stop this fight. With the sand struggling to push through the surging shield of water, Albus walked over to Severus in order to calm down the adrenaline fuelled duellist on his side of the conflict whilst Draco took the unenviable task of undoing whatever rage the Potions master had driven the red-head into.

Moving closer to the action was perilous for anyone, but Draco hadn't even drawn his wand, he couldn't ward off Gaara's rebounding attacks after they had impacted on the wall of water and they hurtled towards him. Again and again he was knocked back, to the point where even his enemies behind him called out for him to give in, but he didn't.

For the first time in his life, Draco Malfoy didn't give up when things got too hard, he persevered and pushed on until he reached the edge of Gaara's absolute defence. The floating fragments of the sandy egg shell seemed to hesitate as his pale hand reached out to the paler shoulder of his best friend.

A flinch that could only be felt and not seen passed up to Draco and he squeezed the robed shoulder and said, "Gaara, it's over, calm down."

Gaara barely spared him a glance before sending out a wave of fresh attacks, but as he continued to attack, his assaults on the water shield began to weaken him as minuscule traces of water seeped into the super-condescend sand.

The Jinchūriki's brows were still furrowed in silent pain and (perhaps) unshed tears. The attacks slowed, becoming almost petty and half-hearted from Gaara's now waning anger more than any affect the water was having. Eventually the sand stopped pounding on the so-far impenetrable wall altogether and flopped onto the soaking wet floor, to be followed immediately by the water from Albus' spell, once the wizened, battle-scarred wizard was sure the diminutive demon-host was finished.

Meanwhile, Dumbledore had been able to persuade Snape to lower his wand, and what had previously been a basement brawl between pupil and teachers was now the awkward silence after a temporary truce has been reached.

Now that all was quiet and peaceful, Gaara lazily raised his hand, flat, and called together his soggy sand, as slowly as he could so as to not alert his one-time foes. The sand moved haltingly and struggled to lift into the air, dripping water all the while as it floated together into the shifting approximate form of a sphere and subsequently began to extricate the water it had absorbed. The process was so mesmerising that Draco almost forgot he was still holding onto Gaara's skinny shoulder, and wanted to let go but held on for a little longer. He wasn't one for physical affection, nor was he an affectionate person, and Gaara sure as hell wasn't either, but this contact had gone some way towards bringing his friend back from wherever he had gone in his anger so he would wait a little longer.

Eventually the sand had returned to a useable state and had reattached itself to Gaara's back. Gaara stared at his feet in shame, reflecting on losing control like he had and at striking out at civilians like... like a monster.

Harry, Ron and Hermione hadn't moved more than an inch between them so far, and even after the fighting died down they didn't want to draw attention to themselves. They weren't sure what to be more amazed by: Albus Dumbledore and Severus Snape, both reputed duelling masters and respected teachers in their fields, etc., engaging in a fierce battle with their enigmatic transferred peer; or that Draco Malfoy, the most cowardly snake in the entire school, had been the one to face up to the danger and put an end to the fighting by approaching his psychopathic roommate. They weren't just speechless, they were shell-shocked. And they were tired. The stress of the battle and the intangible killing intent that had assaulted all of them before had drained even the casual observers present.

Even after personally witnessing everything that had just happened, the three still couldn't believe that Draco had changed so much so rapidly under the watch of this new influence. It was eerie.

But apart from Draco, Gaara looked more damaged by all of this than anyone would usually have the right to be. It didn't seem to be about what Snape had said to set it all off, either. Gaara was looking ashamed of his actions, which the Trio could understand, but then they had been working under the assumption, at least since Harry's fight with him, that Gaara was some kind of violent crazy person just waiting for an excuse to start something. And with his ties to Slytherin and Malfoy, that had seemed like the most feasible possibility, but now they got a glimpse of something more; evidence that there was more to their odd new peer than fighting and Slytherin... though of course this isn't to say that any of them were any closer to liking him or even any further from disliking him, it was just the seed of a thought.

Primarily, Harry's thoughts were centred not on Gaara's newfound penitence like Hermione's were, but on the potential issues arising from Gaara's amazing strength and apparent lack of control. Sure, even Ron pitied the sad visage that was repentant-Gaara, but Harry had to focus on the danger that this boy posed to his friends and his school in an already dark year.

A part of Harry had honestly believed that with the escape of Sirius Black, his third year at Hogwarts might just be a little dangerous and troubling. Just a single problem for the teenager instead of the usual plethora that he'd come to closely associate with his true home at the school.

Instead he got an escaped mass-murdering convict hell-bent on killing him, dementors with a Boy-Who-Lived fetish, a weird not-prick Malfoy, and the creature formerly known as Gaara.

... He missed the basilisk...

Hermione, Harry and Ron were eased out of their individual trances by Professor Dumbledore who guided them firmly to the door and asked that they go rest for a little while and to please keep what they had just seen to themselves for the time being, even though everyone was sure to know about it by dinner that night anyway.

Once the Golden Trio had been sent to their dorms to tell all their friends about what they had just seen, Albus moved onto the next step of damage control and gave Snape the rest of the day off and sent him too off to his quarters to relax for a while, if Severus was capable of relaxing. He'd have the House Elves clean up the mess in the Potions lab. Asking whoever was sure to be on Snape's detention roster for that evening to clear the battle ground was beyond whatever sadistic bone lay dormant in the kind headmaster's body. He'd also have to have someone round up the straggling students who'd fled the Potions class just now. It wasn't beyond many of the students to use the panic caused to avoid going to their next classes.

"Gaara, I believe we need to have a talk in my office;" Dumbledore's eyes bore down on Gaara's fluffed red-head, taking charge now that the conflict had been resolved, before he turned slowly to look upon Draco who had since taken up position next to Gaara at a respectable distance, "Mr Malfoy, would you please join us, I'd like to hear your input as well." Draco understood that he was to come for emotional and psychological support for Gaara who was still in deep meditative thought, or was still contemplating the state of his shoes. In any case, the platinum-blond agreed it would be best if Gaara had a friend in what was yet to come. It didn't take genius to know that a meeting with the principal, after attacking that principal as well as a Potions teacher and destroying half a laboratory in the battle, would not be a pleasant meeting at all.

Albus left the dungeon first, without looking back for any further acquiescence, and Draco was about to follow when he noticed his friend had stirred from his trance, so he moved a little closer, though refrained from touching his friend again lest Gaara lose whatever tolerance he had for such contact and do something regrettable to the blond, and said the first thing that came to mind, as he had been doing a lot recently: "You aren't a monster, Gaara, and you're not a freak either."

Fortunately that seemed to break whatever spell Gaara had been in as the red-head finally broke eye-contact with his toes and looked up at Draco, watching steadily before nodding forwards, gesturing for Draco to lead on, though Draco liked to think somewhere in that vague gesture had been a recognition of his efforts for Gaara. Who knew with Gaara...?

When the two third-years exited the Potions lab, Dumbledore picked up the pace and began walking in earnest to his office, looking forward to a nice cup of tea when he arrived. It was at times like these, among increasing others, that he was harshly reminded of his age. Even the climb through the castle to his beloved chair was sure to wear him out, but Fawkes would soon stop answering his calls if he tried using him as an in-school apparition tool... again.

On the silent walk, the Headmaster began to consider what he was going to say and, more importantly, what he was going to do. He had been worried, maybe even afraid, of Gaara since he'd laid eyes on him in August, but he truly had not believed that something like today's incident would have occurred, or at least certainly not so soon.

Albus had dealt with more troubled students than... well, than un-troubled ones, sadly; but even his worst failures had never done something like this. Or, rather, none of them had put up such a good fight, and he couldn't fight the feeling that that hadn't been Gaara's full power; he hadn't even been using magic to fight, either.

He had to draw himself out of his head as his thoughts were becoming more and more disturbing, and he had to say the password to open the stairway to his office. Soon the three of them were comfortably sat in his office, all holding their cups of sweetened tea and occasionally taking sips, except for Gaara who was still staring blankly at something or other. Plus Gaara hated such sweet tea.

"Mister Malfoy, would you be so kind as to tell me exactly what happened in there?"

"Well, I don't know, I just didn't want Gaara to get into any more trouble or get hurt so I..." Dumbledore held up his hand with a smile, trying not to distress the witness before he continued.

"Could you tell me what started this all? I need to understand what set off this... outburst."

As Draco relayed how Professor Snape had been tormenting Gaara, worse than usual, and that had led to things being said, about which he refused to elaborate, that caused Gaara to get angry. Then the weird fear-wave spell thing and then Snape fired off the first hex and Gaara fought back. Albus had a few reservations believing some of this, and he definitely needed to know which straw it was that broke the camel's back, but he'd seen how outspoken Severus was about Gaara so it was possible that what Draco had said wasn't all too far from the truth. And besides that, Draco had always been a preferred student in Snape's eyes and wasn't likely to make up stories to get the Head of Slytherin in trouble without good reason.

"Do you have anything you'd like to add, Gaara, to what Draco has just said?" Both he and Draco stared at the brooding monsterling only to be disappointed when Gaara didn't look up to meet their gazes and continued to stare at his cooling tea and shook his head gradually, as if he was mulling over the question.

Dumbledore sighed, "Frankly, I am disappointed in you, Gaara. I know it must be somewhat confusing being thrust into a new school, especially one where you continually find yourself singled out because of the differences children often find reason to focus on, and Professor Snape's behaviour has been unprofessional in his dealings with you, but the way you reacted today was wrong. I allowed you into Hogwarts so that you may move on from your past and make a future for yourself, but with your recent fight with Mister Potter and now with Professor Snape, I fear for the safety of the other students if things continue on as they have.

"In light of your conduct, but taking into account the provocations and instigations from others, you'll be serving two weeks of detentions, which will be with Professor Lupin, but more importantly, I have to ask that you no longer carry your sand with you, except for a small amount so that you can communicate as you have been." By now, Draco looked a little shocked by the leniency and Gaara had finally deigned to raise his head to look at his judge.

Dumbledore bore his hardened eyes into Gaara's, needing to gauge the reaction he'd receive. The headmaster had considered something more drastic than confiscation, like a runic sealing to put a stop to Gaara's unusual free manipulation of the sand, but he could never get Gaara to agree to something like that and it just wasn't in Albus to force a student into such a drastic measure, even after all that had happened now and all that had come to pass in his tenure.

The sand rose and spread into the increasingly legible sandwriting, 'I will leave if I am disallowed from carrying sand.'

Draco's face far outdid Dumbledore's, with his shock letting his jaw actually hang and his eyes widen to comical proportions. He'd expected a harsh punishment, and had been relieved that the headmaster had decided to be so uncommonly lenient with Gaara, but now his closest (and first real) friend was threatening to leave the school, an act that Draco had never ever contemplated before. For the first time he wasn't always afraid, and now the one that had helped him reach this state might be forced out into a country that he was totally alone in.

Draco immediately jumped to his feet in defence of his friend's continued education and boarding at the school, "Headmaster, you can't be serious! Gaara protected himself both times, so without his sand he'd have been hurt much worse." Gaara seemed to have reverted to his usual unflappable demeanour as his invisi-brow didn't even twitch towards a rise after yet another emotional outburst from Draco.

Gaara was surprised the blonde's floodgates hadn't opened yet. Who would've thought, under all that pomp, snobbery and bigotry was an emotionally vulnerable boy? Gaara wouldn't be surprised to find his roommate whimpering in the first-floor girls' bathroom one of these days.

"I understand that, Draco, but Gaara's sand is simply too dangerous should he lose control again."

"And you'll let him leave the school with nowhere to go if he won't give it up, sir?" Draco had almost forgot he was openly arguing with the wizard revered as being on par with the Dark Lord, not that that fact tempered his defiance any.

Dumbledore wanted to see some open remorse or some input from Gaara, but he gained no reaction from humouring Draco's desperate protestations. Truly, Albus had hoped that Gaara would show some kind of sign that he was bluffing, that he was afraid to go through with this threat, but Gaara had no such reservations. He was deadly serious about leaving Hogwarts if he was called to give up his personal sand. If anything, leaving might allow him to move around in the Wizarding world more freely so that he could explore some less travelled paths of research to go home. Gaara had no intention of fighting to stay, if his hand was forced, but that didn't mean he was blind to the difficulties that expulsion would surely bring about.

The office had lapsed into an uncomfortable silence, for non-battle-hardened Draco at the very least, and each of the three took turns staring at one another before then switching on to a new target. Eventually, Albus closed his eyes deeply and sat up a little straighter to address both the precocious teenagers. He wasn't quite as imposing in stature or presence as he once was, but Albus was greatly aided by the fact that both Draco and, even more so, Gaara, were exceptionally short for their ages and allowed him to tower over them even at his considerable age.

"Well, I can't very well be seen to expel such a promising young student because of my own inflexibility, so I will allow you to continue carrying your sand for now, Gaara, on the condition that in future you remain calm when someone tries to provoke you. There cannot be a repeat of today's incident."

How pathetic, a child had called his bluff and he had caved. Dumbledore wasn't about to let Gaara run off into the world, it would defeat the entire reason he had invited the boy to attend Hogwarts in the first place. He would have to believe in the Malfoy heir's ability to calm Gaara's calamitous wrath, as well as his own ministrations to keep Gaara away from anything that might cause persistent agitation. No need to stir the hornets' nest again.

Gaara didn't show it, but he was a little relieved. Having to leave would have been troublesome, with finding a place to stay and means to indefinitely sustain himself as well as maintain connection with the wizarding world in order to continue his search. And leaving Draco would... be a shame? Something along those lines. His relief was cut short with a ice-bath of cold sweat when the headmaster added that all of his detentions, which would be with Remus, would be from now on every night except for the night of the thirtieth. Draco didn't see anything wrong with this 'prior engagement,' but Gaara had marked down that date already as the night of the full-moon!

No one should know about his transformation, not even Lupin or Sirius, so why then was he being allowed off for that one night. Looking into the old man's eyes yielded nothing but joviality at giving such a lenient and sparing punishment to Gaara and giving him the night off instead of giving him over to Minerva or one of the other willing senior staff.

"I also want to award twenty points to Slytherin, for your steadfast courage and dedication to your friend, Draco. Hopefully it might go some ways towards counterbalancing what I am sure is a considerable number of house-points that Professor Snape has undoubtedly removed by now." Trust Severus to finally remove points from his own house only when he has an axe to grind with one of the students.

"Thank you, headmaster." Secretly, Draco was more than a little embarrassed at receiving house-points for 'courage' of all things. He wouldn't be able to hold his head up around his peers if this got out. He was already on thin ice in Slytherin. And Potter and his cronies would have a field day if they found it he had one of the infantile Gryffindor characteristics. Thank goodness that the awarding of house-points wasn't publicised at all. He'd just tell everyone that it was for his cunning and ambitious... something or other along those lines, he'd work out the details later on.

"Now that we've dealt with this unpleasantness, I wonder if I might ask you two about something that's been nagging at me the past couple of days. Would either or you be able to tell me what happened two days ago, as I happened to see someone that looked remarkably like Gaara here being flown out to the Black Lake on a magic carpet. I needn't remind either of you that such an enchanted carpet is illegal, but perhaps you could tell me what happened."

Draco looked very unsettled for a few beats whilst he searched Dumbledore's expression for any kind of anger or reproach, but seeing only mirth he swallowed his fear and smiled a little, "Well, sir, it started with a boy, let's call him Kaara for now, accidentally almost killed his roommate, Braco, through sheer thoughtlessness. They didn't speak for a while, but eventually Braco decided that he could even the status quo by evening the score and pranking Kaara. Long story short, an illegally smuggled carpet and an open window along with a well placed sticking charm solved their problem. All has been forgiven and forgotten. I'm afraid, though, sir, that I can't tell you the real names of the two involved."