9/9

He paid much more attention to the train ride this time around. He recognised some areas from his previous rides and from his flight back to Hogwarts, and also from his recent venture into the Scottish wilderness. It was a nice enough country, if you liked lots of life and water. And green…

It took hours to get back to London, but it was still much faster than Gaara had managed. As they entered the South East of England, Gaara assured Draco (not for the first time) that he would write to him.

…With absolutely no intention of following through with it.

The train pulled into the station late in the afternoon, and a large number of adults were waiting there to pick up their children. Clearly, no matter that the attack had been resolved and no further dangers had presented themselves since, the parents were all very anxious to see their children again.

Gaara noted that Sirius was already there, standing within his own exclusion zone and was still garnering a number of open stares despite the long awaited train's arrival. He was still gaunt and looked unhinged but he was wearing the finest robes Gaara had seen on anybody outside of a royal family. He had clearly gone to the finest wizard tailor in London and asked for the fanciest robes money could buy.

He looked emaciated and haunted but the robes looked rather dashing, all things considered.

Those around him were staring in awe but not crowding him, which made staying with him look a little more palatable. Still, if Gaara couldn't stop Molly Weasley from approaching, Sirius didn't stand a chance when she bustled her way through the crowd to her old comrade.

Seeing that woman hug his guardian, Gaara looked around for Lucius and Narcissa to check if he could wait with them until Mrs Weasley moved away. He found the pair standing apart from the masses as well. A lot of the students who had remained at Hogwarts this past week were there because it was cheaper, which left the Malfoys in very bad company on the train platform, in their eyes.

The train came to a halt and the students who had been standing out in the hallway since they passed over the county line forty-five minutes ago started to climb out onto the platform. Their parents were invariably right by the doors, so their tearful reunions all got in the way of those who had was yet to alight.

"I think it's probably best if we say our goodbyes here." Draco said.

Gaara looked over at him curiously. As far as he knew, it would be no more than a couple of weeks until they met up again, if not much sooner, and there was always the chance they might even exchange a couple of letters in the meantime. It didn't seem necessary to say any more prolonged goodbyes.

Still, he was rather proud that he understood shirking off this strange little ritual would be hurtful to his friend.

"Goodbye. I will see you soon." Even knowing that Draco was looking for something more open, this was the best Gaara could do. Draco seemed to accept that, unhappily.

As he had before, Gaara waited until the flood of students had already left the train before he opened the compartment door and led Draco out.

Platform 9¾ was heaving with people, even with the reduced number of passengers, because more parents and relatives had decided to come and greet their sons, daughters, nephews, nieces, or grandchildren after the harrowing events of the week before.

Luckily, the celebrity factor, which had begun to dim at the castle after the students had watched Gaara do little if anything extraordinary (or anything ordinary) since his heroic battle, was still strong in the minds of the adults who had read a couple of sparse mentions in the press and dozens of much more elaborate letters about his role.

They parted like the Red Sea, allowing him to walk unmolested to Sirius, who was smiling at the effect Gaara was having. The boy could clear rooms before, but now instead of fear Gaara was getting excitement wherever he went.

Draco branched off, more interested in seeing his parents than his long-lost relative. There would need to be formal introductions later anyway, with his parents present.

Molly Weasley had wandered back to her own family, thank the gods, so Gaara was able to walk up to Sirius without being accosted. Sirius tried to lean forward and hug him, so Gaara took a swift step backwards to dodge it.

"Oh, of course." He smiled. "How are you,… Gaara?" He clearly wanted to call him Lily, but with the crowd of adults and children watching them unabashedly, he felt it was probably not a safe idea right now.

Gaara nodded, as if to say he was alright, as he had a hundred times, before pointing at Sirius, silently asking the same.

"Oh, I'm fine, I… hold on, I heard you can talk now…" He stared at Gaara for a long moment and then slumped his shoulders before laughing. "Nicely done, my good sir."

Gaara smiled a little, but quashed it when he remembered the onlookers.

"I would love to talk to you properly now, but I need to have a chat with Harry first. Could you go and wait over with Remus for a minute? He's by the lockers. Just look for the space where nobody will stand within three metres of him."

Gaara nodded and wandered on over to where he remembered the lockers were.

Remus was trying to maintain a low profile, but no matter how much the students had loved having him teach them, he was still a werewolf and a dangerous creature. After what a number of newspaper articles had said, no one was sure if he was even born a human anymore.

Still, they all eagerly watched the brave saviour of Hogwarts approach the killer beast without batting an eye. He just ambled on over, leaned against the locker and nodded his greeting.

Meanwhile, all good cheer had left Sirius as he was finally able to greet Harry as a free man. And he had no good news for him.

Harry didn't avoid Sirius' bony hug, instead he embraced it with a big smile. He had been one of the last off the train since he was nervous about meeting his godfather again and also because he didn't want to be near Gaara for a second longer than he needed to.

"Come on, I need to talk to you in private." Sirius said, his smile coming and going depending on whether he was actually looking at James' son.

They pushed through the crowd to the deserted end of the platform and Sirius turned back to Harry and his smile didn't come back.

"There's not an easy way to tell you this, I'm afraid. The Ministry won't let me take care of you, Harry. I'm so sorry."

Harry's mouth went dry and his knees felt week. He couldn't believe it. It couldn't be true!

Sirius saw Harry's utter shock and had to avert his eyes. "I've been fighting with them all week, but the Wizengamot have ruled that because of my diminished mental capacity after staying in Azkaban, I can't look after both you and Gaara."

Harry said the first thing that came into his head, "So you're taking Gaara to live with you?"

"I want to look after both of you, of course I want you to live with me, Harry. But you have your relatives, I know you don't like them, but Gaara has no one really." It broke both of their hearts. "I will keep fighting this, but, for this summer at least, you will have to go back with your aunt and uncle."

Sirius spotted an Auror and a Ministry official watching from afar. There to make sure he didn't just abscond with Harry anyway.

"I only found out this morning, their final verdict, otherwise I would have told you sooner. Harry, I'm so so sorry." The man had spent the last twelve years having his happiest memories eaten by monster, and yet he still felt as wretched as he ever had. Both of them were close to tears.

"So, I have to go back with Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon and I won't even get to see you?"

"No, of course you will. You can come and visit. You will come and visit. You can stay for a week at a time, twice over the holiday!" Sirius desperately wanted to cling to the enthusiasm and optimism that thought conjured.

Sirius couldn't tell Harry the whole truth sadly. This wasn't really about Sirius' state of mind. This was because he had caused a massive amount of trouble for the Ministry already, and because Gaara was dangerous. When he had first petitioned for guardianship, he had been denied Gaara and allowed Harry.

He found out that they intended to send Gaara to a special, newly opened orphanage for gifted wizarding children. Except, such an institute did not exist and was in all likelihood a front for the Department of Mysteries or another Ministry division. They wanted to take ownership of the weapon called Gaara and find out what made him tick.

Over the course of the week, he had fought and argued, and eventually he had threatened to go to the press and to become a thorn in the Ministry's side unless they agreed to his terms. He would not give any interviews about the injustice he suffered, he would receive a rather modest financial settlement rather than the vast sum of compensation he might have been awarded for the miscarriage of justice; and in return he would be given custody of Harry and Gaara. He felt it was pretty fair of him.

He had been told, resolutely, no. They could feasibly cede control of one massive political chit, but not two (especially when one was also a weapon of mass destruction). He had to decide one or the other.

Harry needed him, clearly more than Gaara actually needed a guardian, and he had promised James and Lily that he would look after their son if they couldn't. But whereas Harry would suffer staying with his relatives, Gaara might disappear into the Ministry's clutches or else become an enemy of the state by rebelling against their control.

Sirius couldn't condemn his friend and liberator to the same nomadic, hellish existence he had suffered through this past year on the run.

So, he had claimed Gaara and they had hammered out the rest of the details. He was only allowed two, non-consecutive unsupervised visits from or with Harry, otherwise he had to request a formal, supervised visit at the Dursley's home. Or else he had to restrict himself to written communications. During any visits to or by Harry, Remus could not be present, and they strongly intimated that the werewolf should not take up residence alongside Gaara, even if they couldn't outright demand it.

They had wanted him to sign away any legal right he had to custody over Harry, to formalise this agreement, but he rejected that entirely. He would never set this travesty in stone. He would continue to fight.

In the meantime, he had talked to Molly and Arthur Weasley and managed to persuade them to take Harry for the latter half of the summer, including and following the World Cup. He would have Harry visit him for ten days early in the holiday, and then he could take him to the World Cup and see him a couple times after that.

It was so far from perfect, but at least Harry would know he wasn't alone anymore.

In spirit.

He explained all of these plans, if not the truths behind them, to Harry in the hope that he might alleviate some of the visible suffering. Harry faked a smile, and thanked him. Sirius wanted to spend longer there, talking to Harry properly, but he noticed in the corner of his eye the Ministry worker was tapping his watch. Clearly they had been ordered to cut any contact between Sirius and Harry short.

Sirius wished he could explain this all to Harry's satisfaction, but even if he hadn't agreed not to as part of the deal, he didn't know if wanted to expose his godson to that sort of corruption. He was a teenager but he was clearly still so innocent and ignorant of some of the world's evils. The same as Dumbledore, Sirius didn't want Harry to believe no adult could be trusted. Not yet.

He guided Harry by the shoulder back to the platform barrier and went through it with him. He wouldn't relinquish a single moment with Harry until he was in the car on his way "home".

Sirius took Vernon Dursely aside for a moment to say a few choice words with the man where the Ministry worker and the Auror could not hear him. Vernon went from purple with rage at the presumption of this 'freak' to pale and shaken. By the time the walrus had clambered into his car, he had taken to heart what Harry's protective godfather had told him.

Frankly, it was as well that the Auror had been so far away, as some of the threats Sirius had levelled alone might have sent him back to prison.

He walked back to the platform to retrieve Gaara and Remus. He snarled as he walked past the Ministry lackeys, just following orders, as they verified Harry Potter had left with his relatives before they too left.

Sirius had been told it would be ill-advised and might upset people in the Ministry if 'it' (Remus) came to live with him and Gaara. Sirius had promptly invited Moony to move in with him the next time he saw him.

Remus had a family home elsewhere so he declined, but he was grateful nonetheless and promised to visit or stay often. If only to give Sirius some company that wasn't Gaara.

Gaara was a good person, but not a great companion after months and years of isolation.

When he saw Gaara and Remus, his devastation lifted for a moment, seeing his two friends ready to return with him to his home.

Meanwhile, Harry was in his uncle's car, fighting back tears that he didn't want to shed in front of the man, wondering what Sirius had said to stop his uncle from performing the same tirade on the way back from King's Cross about how ungrateful he was, how freakish he and his kind were, or how busy his summer was going to be with chores. None of it. Petunia was concerned.

Harry just counted in his head how many days until his first trip to see Sirius.

He couldn't stop his mind turning to jealousy at the thought that Gaara, of all people, had taken his place with his godfather. It was not fair!

"Alright, let's get going!" Sirius cheered, a smile set on his face that didn't reach his eyes. Remus had done him the courtesy of explaining Harry's absence to Gaara. He led the pair out through the barrier, past the gawking witches and wizards, and into the muggle car park.

Gaara was expecting a 'taxi' about which he had been told, or the infamous Knight Bus, both championing Sirius's ongoing support of anything pure-bloods hated. Instead, the man had gone a step further.

"You see, I used to have a wonderful motorcycle, but around twelve years ago I lent it to a guy to give someone a lift to Surrey and I never saw it again. Finally managed to track him and it down recently and it's knackered. Turns out he didn't know it was needed oil put in it!" Sirius said. Lupin was glad. That bike had been a death trap, and that sidecar meant he insisted everyone he knew had to be given a ride at least once.

James had loved the thing until Lily had told him he wasn't allowed on or in it anymore.

Remus had quietly asked if she would forbid him too.

"Anyway, since I'm in the family way now, I decided to go ahead and spend my vast sums of family money on something I just know will make my parents turn in their graves, wherever they are." He declared, presenting them with a…

"You bought a car?" Remus stated.

"Yeah, isn't it wonderful!"

It certainly was a sight to behold. Remus knew more about the muggle world than most wizards tended to, but he couldn't name the sleek black car. He only knew from its general shape and design, not to mention the buyer, that it was likely very fancy and incredibly fast.

"It's the fastest one the man at the shop sold." Sirius went on.

Of course it was…

Gaara had seen these 'cars' before, when he was in London last and when he was travelling around the country. They were wonderfully useful inventions for civilians, he thought. Of what little he could gleam about their inner workings, Kankuro would absolutely love to tinker with one of them.

Gaara didn't know how much one of these mechanical carriages cost, but if he could find a way to get back to his world, he might see if he could take Sirius' with him. Sirius would just have to talk to the carriage makers and get a replacement. Branding was a new concept to the desert-dweller, but he figured Sirius shouldn't have any trouble getting a replacement from Mr. Rolls-Royce.

Strange name.

As Gaara crawled into the back seat of the carriage, safe in the knowledge that his sand would protect him, a much more nervous lycanthrope climbed into the front seat and asked, "Sirius, you do have a driver's license, don't you?"

"Of course, don't you remember I got my license when Lily got pregnant and wouldn't let me drive you, her or James without one, Moony?"

"Yes, I also remember that that license was drawn in crayon by James, and Lily hexed you when you finally showed it to her."

"Yep, that's the one." Sirius turned on the engine and gave it a few loud revs.

"I think I might just walk instead, Padfoot. It's such a nice day."

"Nonesense, Moony. Lily isn't making a fuss, is he?" Sirius said, jabbing his thumb at Gaara who had been enjoying the very comfortable leather seats up until that point.

"Well, unlike Lily, I don't have an automatic shield of sand to protect me when you crash this thing."

"I have never crash- Lily, I've never crashed once, I swear."

Gaara was getting more and more upset as they went on, but they couldn't see him from the front, so they continued.

"Lily, don't believe a word he says. He crashed his bike at least four times because I saw him do it all four times. Probably did it a dozen times more when I wasn't around."

"Rubbish! See, I've been driving for five minutes and I haven't even bumped another car or taken a wing mirror off. I used to hit them every time I drove, you remember."

"We've just left the car park and we're now stuck in traffic. I'm more worried when you get to a main road. I would have started casting spells if I thought you were going to go on the motorway."

"Can you hear this, Lily? He has no faith in me!"

"My name's not Lily, it's Gaara!" The irate red-head said a touch louder than his monotonous, gravelly voice usually sounded.

"Ha!" Sirius declared. "Pay up." He held out his hand and Lupin dropped a handful of coins into his palm.

"You couldn't even make it to his house, Gaara?" Remus said, tucking his lighter wallet back into his robes.

Gaara was still angry, doubly so to have been tricked.

This was going to be one long summer.

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Omake:

Luna had been happy when Gaara and Draco had overcome their quarrel. Draco didn't like her that much but he was a good friend to Gaara so she didn't mind. She had been even happier when she found out that the reason for their reconciliation had been Draco's discovery of Gaara's fluffy little secret. Finally someone with which she could actually discuss it with.

Gaara hated talking about his transformations.

However, no matter how fortuitous the end of their argument was, it had come too late for one event in particular: Draco's birthday, June 5th.

Draco had worked so hard to organise a birthday party for Gaara, she only thought it right that Gaara reciprocate, even if it was weeks after the actual date. But since she knew he wasn't very good at things like parties (or friendships) she had resolved to help him as best she could.

Admittedly, the only two birthday parties she had been invited to recently were Gaara's this year and Ginny's party two years ago just before they both joined the school. Ever since, Ginny either didn't have parties or she just wasn't inviting Luna anymore.

It was okay, Luna still believed Ginny was her friend.

But Luna still thought she would be able to come up with something to celebrate Draco's birthday. And then, miracle of miracles, she saw that Gaara had been trying to organise one already himself. He hadn't gotten very far. Clearly he had even less experience with parties than Luna did. Plus every time he tried to approach one of Draco's other Slytherin friends, they ran away in terror.

It was upon seeing that spectacle happen the fourth time that she stepped in to help, secretly.

While keeping out of his sight, Luna went about setting up a party for a boy who didn't like her, to help a boy she liked.

Soon enough she had it all set up, and had to trick Gaara into turning up, while she personally gave Draco his invitation. As she walked back to her room, she hoped Gaara would play along and claim that he had organised the whole thing, or at least stayed until Draco arrived.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Omake 2:

"I'm taking Fluffy." Gaara said, standing in Hagrid's cluttered hut.

"Fluffy? Taking him? Where?"

"To Sirius' home."

"You can't take Fluffy there. He's mine, for one."

"He's mine." Gaara calmly rebutted.

"No he's not. I bought him off a chap at the pub."

"You left him in the woods and I found him. He's mine now."

"Now see here, you can't just be taking him. Is Sirius' house even big enough? Fluffy needs lots of room to run around." Hagrid knew Gaara was difficult to deal with so he tried not to get upset.

"I will make room for him."

"Have you asked Sirius if you can bring a great big three-headed dog with you?"

Gaara paused at this. He hadn't thought to but perhaps it was one of those things he was supposed to do to be polite. "I have not."

"Well, before you go taking any of my pets, you better check with your guardian if you're allowed to have them."

Hagrid said this safe in the knowledge that there were perhaps four people in the world, including himself, that would agree to take in a fully grown Cerberus and Sirius Black was most certainly not one of them. Evidently, that number had grown to five with Gaara. Either way, there was no way Gaara would be allowed to take Fluffy home with him.

If Gaara wanted to tell himself that Fluffy belonged to him, that was fine. It was lovely that the boy cared so much about Fluffy, really.

OXOXOXOXO

'Lily,

No, Fluffy cannot come here. He's a giant three-headed hellhound and my place is a townhouse in a busy neighbourhood. Don't steal any other of Hagrid's pets either.

Looking forward to seeing you,

Yours sincerely,

Padfoot'

Gaara crumpled up the reply and went to kill some acromantulas. It would be harder to relieve his stresses around here now that the dementors were all gone. He would have to be careful he didn't accidentally wipe out the giant spiders too and leave himself with no other outlet.

Maybe he could pick off a couple Hufflepuffs without anybody noticing…

While he was on his way to hunt down spiders, he just happened to wander past Fluffy's area and ended up spending most of the day there. So invested in training the dumb dog, Gaara forgot entirely that he had walked into the forest during his lunch break and by the time he walked back out he had missed the rest of the day's classes and half of dinner.

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A/N: Thank you for reading. That was a long one. Took me more than a day to read through and proofread it (hopefully I got out all of those typos).

A little while back, I received a review from someone who mentioned that they didn't regularly leave reviews but went to the trouble. I don't bring this up to lament over lazy readers but rather to admit my own failing when it comes to reviewing stories I've read and liked.

I have written precious few reviews because often at the end of a fanfic I like, I cannot think of anything worthwhile to say. I don't want to just demand more chapters, nor do I particularly want to chime in with my opinion as if I am a qualified critic for their work. I don't know why this is, really, since I like any kind of review I get.

I'll only mention one other I got from the last chapter. I have to admit, negative reviews (not flames) don't lift my spirits quite as much but I do value them easily as much as the overt praise I get. I got one such critical one that pointed out something that I had feared for a while now, that my Gaara was drifting further away from the canon version. This was somewhat inevitable since the source material ended a while ago now and I haven't had my vision of Gaara renewed or updated since then.

This isn't the signal of an inevitable decline of this story, but it was a vital reminder to focus a little more on the characterisation I started with rather than following a script to progress the story.

I don't know whether I will be able to, but who knows?

Before I forget, there were a fair few changes I made since first envisioning this chapter years ago: different character interactions, changed timings, etc. But I distinctly remember that in the first iteration, I planned to have Gaara's very first words after his transformatioin back to be "My name's not Lily!" But upon reflection I couldn't justify having him shout, much less make a comedic declaration in a serious moment.

I'll take this part here to once again reiterate my intention to write an epilogue to conclude this instalment of the series, telling of Gaara's experience in the first half of the summer holidays. It may take a while to appear, though, since I am in the midst of a postgraduate degree and my time is rather limited. On top of that, I will need to have written the first chapter of the next instalment and uploaded it before I can finish this one off, so that I can notify all of you that it's there.

I'm also considering taking some time to clean up the fic, editing the old chapters and bringing them up to a higher standard for any new readers. However, there wouldn't be any substantive changes worth re-reading the fic for.

With the next book, would you prefer I stick to the canonical Triwizard challenges or should I make up three new ones? I can go either way. I have the original tasks thought out, but I wouldn't be opposed to making up new ones if anyone has an opinion, as I'm sure I could fit in the parts I wanted to.

For that, or if you happen to have any other thoughts or opinions, please don't hesitate to write me a little review.

And once again, thank you for taking the time to read. Just the epilogue left to do now on this one, and then onto the Goblet of Fire.