Chapter 3: 3/3
Draco Malfoy wasn't particularly gifted in potions, despite what his grades and teacher's compliments might lead one to believe. But no matter how un-talented Draco may have been at brewing potions, Sabaku no Gaara was ten times worse, at least. It was probably the same reason he was also unable to cook even the most basic of recipes. Gaara had no brewing or cooking ability which probably could have explained why he never killed his sister over the years. She may have been insufferable but she kept him fed.
It didn't escape Professor Snape's attention that Gaara was messing-up his potion, obviously having no talent nor previous experience in the subject, and so he decided to do the kind thing… and ridicule the poor boy much like Mr. Longbottom from Gryffindor.
He swept over to Gaara and Draco's desk to find that whilst the potion was meant to be a thick bubbling pink substance, it was, in the red-haired boy's case, a gooey green colour that occasionally released a noxious gas that made him gag. The only consolation about such a revolting potion being created was that his detested student, creator of said potion, seemed to be having a worse time with the smell than he thought strictly necessary, then again, he had worked with some of the worst smelling substances known to wizard so he might have lost some sensitivity in his nose.
He looked to his favoured student's cauldron to find a murky purple liquid in the cauldron that seemed to be around the same consistency as one of the perfected potions like his own or, he dreaded to say, Granger's.
Severus settled for mocking the child he hated, on par with his loathing for Potter, by making subtle verbal jabs. "You incompetent… did you mix some of your oh-so precious sand in or are you just so inept that following a simple potions recipe to the letter is beyond what your strange little mind can follow?"
… About as subtle as a drunken punch from Konoha's green beast.
"Well, why don't you answer? Oh right, you can't. I don't understand why a little freak like you was admitted into this great school," Snape continued his tirade, long since forgetting the reason he had started. He had silenced the entire class, which for the third time that day had had to stop what they were doing and focus their attention on the angry looking red-head who seemed to be getting more and more furious from the looks of his scowl and invisible eyebrows arching and shadowing his murderous eyes.
Gaara was so very close to performing a desert burial on this greasy haired man but was stopped when his attention was drawn to a small explosion that covered half of the room in the green substance he had concocted. The red-head was one of the few lucky enough to be spared from being covered by the nasty looking liquid. Though, luck might have entailed that he didn't allow his sand to spring up and protect him and the platinum blonde sitting behind the sand at the time. It might have been more accurate to say that Draco was lucky.
Snape couldn't fathom how the harmless ingredients he had listed on his, now green, blackboard had created such a repulsive mess. Also listed among his regrets for that day, along with letting the mysterious student into his classroom, was his slow reaction, because his slow reaction was the reason why he was now covered in his student's potion and was practically screaming for everyone in the room to leave. He would have liked to do more, to cause a little misery but if he deducted house points it would be his house to suffer, which wasn't entirely ethical to spare his house's points where he would otherwise have decimated any other's chances of winning the house cup at the year's end, and if he gave Gaara a detention he would have to let that monster into his classroom again.
He was going to talk to Dumbledore that night and have that child removed and possibly imprisoned for the crime of being a nuisance and a monster, among other things.
Gaara and Draco, two of the few that weren't covered in the former's creation walked out of the potions room with smiles on each of their faces. The smile progressed as they walked until, as they reached the great hall, they were actually laughing with each other. Gaara's was a silent laugh but his face was enough to make Draco double his own roaring laughter.
They gained quite a lot attention as they entered the hall but it didn't faze the taller boy quite as much as it did Gaara. The shorter had had quite an eventful day, even for him, and didn't relish the prospect of having to sit through another hour in which he would be stared at, questioned and in all likelihood, scorned. With this in mind he turned to Draco who was still sporting a grin and pointed in the opposite direction the great hall and when the platinum blonde inevitably questioned him he waved and walked away.
As he left he couldn't help but smile a little more as he relived the past lesson. He hadn't laughed like that in quite some time. Too long, in fact.
He walked straight out of the front entrance to the school and continued walking until he couldn't hear any voices. He then sat down, under the closest tree and tried to gather his thoughts. The day wasn't even half-way finished and he had already pretty much destroyed one potions laboratory, had an unsettling and ambiguous prophecy made to him and made a name for himself throughout the entire school. And he still had one lesson to go.
Caring for magical creatures didn't sound too difficult. They couldn't be that dangerous compared to some of the things he had met in the desert over the years.
'At least I don't need to use my wand yet,' Gaara thought to himself as he removed his gourd from his back and set it beside the tree so he could lean back. 'I need to get some practice with this.' Was his next thought as he pulled out the black stick and started to examine it. He knew he couldn't do it whenever he wanted because the use of magic was strictly monitored and he didn't want anymore hassle. He seemed to be getting enough of that on his own. He would need to wait for the night to try using it.
Gaara looked up at the sky and couldn't help but think of his own bright blue sky, remembering fondly a few months prior when he had actually been berated by Temari for staying out, under the burning sun, for a few days straight. She had the best intentions when she lectured the predictably bemused looking Jinchuriki about wearing a hat or at least taking shelter every few hours. He had then needed to convince her not to try and make him wear one of Kankuro's spare hoods. She couldn't have made him but it would have been troublesome problem had he not promised her that he'd take care of himself.
Now that he was thinking of home, he started to think of his main mission whilst at Hogwarts. He hadn't really had a chance to look for a way home yet, but he had plenty of time for that. He didn't really expect the task to be simple as he had to search for an answer without any help whatsoever. He didn't want to tell anyone that he was from another world because, like telling them he had a demon sealed within him or that he used to be a serial killer, it would just cause problems for him and draw unnecessary attention. He might be kidnapped or arrested for being a monster or an alien or something like that so he decided he would rather just try and solve his problems on his own first.
Gaara was forced from his musing when he felt a presence that was unmistakable in its infinite evil, an aura that he hadn't felt since he was back in Suna. Worse than a hundred dementors, this feeling that was crawling up is spine could only have been one thing.
Fangirls.
The young red-head had had to deal with a fan-club before, the Sunagakure chapter. They, along with various assassins, had been the bane of his existence for the last few months, ever since he stopped killing people. And even then, he had heard rumours it had started before that.
The short teen looked around and saw what he dreaded; a group of around twenty girls were slowly making their way towards him. It was at this point he decided to make his exit and leave, quickly. When he stood up they started to walk towards him faster and more excitedly. The tanuki-teen brought his hands together, eliciting more squeels and questions from his fan club, and moved fingers into the tiger seal in front of his chest. Suddenly, he disappeared along with his gourd in a flurry of sand.
Gaara reappeared just inside of the main entrance where he could hear the loud screaming and squeeling that was more than likely to have caused at least a few cases of deafness in birds around the school.
Deciding that he wasn't willing to deal with any more fangirls he walked back to his room in the belly of the school to pick up his text book for his final lesson of the day, seeing as lunch was almost over.
He walked back through the school, deciding along the way that if he ever became Kazekage by some bizarre and unlikely miracle, he wouldn't change the Kazekage building at all. All of this walking would be exhausting for civilians.
He made his way outside, where it said his class was on his timetable, to the edge of the so-called Forbidden Forrest, which he recalled being warned not to enter the night before by the headmaster. When he reached the area, he found rest of the class arriving, all holding their text books with the utmost care and each carried expressions of dread on their faces. Ever since Gaara had received the 'Monster Book of Monster' from the fearful and surprisingly injured sales assistant, he had been careful not to open it as it didn't seem to like being touched if the growling and snarling were any indication.
When the majority of the class were present, excluding the stragglers, everyone seemed to be talking, always talking. Gaara had always enjoyed the tense silences that could be found in the perpetually sandy village he called home. One notable conversation was between Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter, each with their own lackeys for backup, though Draco had had to find temporary replacements apparently. Though, a discussion wouldn't have been the correct term, it was more along the lines of mockery, one-sided of course…
Once again Draco seemed to be mocking the trio of Gryffindors and like the previous night it was regarding Harry's fainting spell on the train as a reaction to the dementors harrowing effects. They, Draco and a few unknown Slytherins distracted Potter long enough to pull up the hoods of their robes and perform a satirical "Oooohhhh" looking marginally like the creatures they were mocking.
After the near-fight, Hagrid had appeared with a great thumping as his colossal feet hit the ground. He instructed them to stroke the spine of their books to soothe their frightful temperaments. Gaara did so, but not before he uncorked his gourd so he'd be ready for a sudden, and biting related, attack. Fortunately it seemed he had a way with this world's animals, including the hardback and paperback variety. By the time he'd reached the page Professor Hagrid had called out the book was literally purring in his hands.
The page he was reading, silently, like all of his activities, was about a species of magical creature called the hippogriff. Gaara had wondered why the gigantic new professor hadn't been allocated a classroom and was beginning to suspect it wasn't because of his kind and meek nature when the giant man starting to march forward with the rest of the class trailing behind him whilst trying to open their monstrous books without being attack viciously, though for the poor minority it was in vain.
By the time the entire combined class of Slytherins and Gryffindors had arrived at a clearing within the surprisingly well lit forbidden forest the gourd baring red-head was sure it was going to be a practical lesson, he surmised by the looks of the large hippogriffs standing in the centre of the clearing. They each looked to easily be the size of a horse and had the head of an eagle along with talons bigger than most kunai. They were moving towards Hagrid who had stood at the front of the class, in between them and the animals, and was explaining that they were proud and dangerous. That rung a bell with Gaara but he couldn't place the familiar description.
Rubeus continued his explanation, showing quite a bit more ability than the shinobi would have credited him with from the brief encounters they had as well as the giant's appearance but he seemed as proficient at teaching as Snape, but without the irritating personality and damp classroom. The time came for a demonstration as he called for volunteers from the students to approach one of the deadly looking creatures. Gaara, along with the twenty or more students around him took a large step back, leaving one student standing at the front of the class.
Gaara unnoticeably smirked as he looked upon the startled face of Harry Potter who was moved forwards by Hagrid's massive hands. Harry was forcibly moved towards the closest Hippogriff, called Buckbeak if Gaara had heard correctly. As instructed Harry walked forwards further and bowed lowly to the half bird, half horse creature which wasn't immediately returned, causing the teacher to start to panic and start to approach the student and animal hoping to avoid an incident on his first day of teaching. Fortunately he was going to avoid losing his job as the bird head started to lower until the beak was practically touching the ground, causing almost the entire class, minus most of the Slytherins, to breathe a great sigh of relief.
Before anything else could have possibly happened, Hagrid lumbered over to the, still shocked, teen and picked him up causing the black-haired Potter to start to object, especially when he was sat atop the large bird-horse. As he voiced the last of his objections the professor slapped the hippogriffs behind like one would do to its horse counter-parts and like a horse it started to gallop away from the group, its wings starting to flap.
Soon after, the hippogriff with the supposed saviour atop of it flew into the sky and out of sight. Gaara looked back towards his teacher and wasn't surprised to see a big smile on his face.
Around five minutes after the screaming boy-who-lived had disappeared he returned, landing almost in the exact same spot he had taken off from. Hagrid walked over and helped him down before pulling what appeared to be a dead weasel or pheasant off of his coat and threw it to the animal a few feet from him. The bird head chomped on it happily before walking away a little ways, back to its herd.
Hagrid had leaned down towards Harry and his friends before standing back up straight with a very pleased look on his face. Gaara hadn't heard what he had said due to him still standing with the Slytherins who looked decidedly less impressed than their rivals at the flight of one of the students. Their disapproval of the apparent achievement grew to such an extent that Draco couldn't hold it to himself any longer. He started to insult the hippogriff, Buckbeak, whilst approaching it. He called it an overgrown turkey and ridiculed it in many other ways, none of which were advisable if the shouting and terrified face of their magical-creature-expert teacher was a sign.
Gaara was running forwards before the talons of the enraged hippogriff left the ground and by the time they were about to strike Malfoy, who had raised his fore-arm in a terrified attempt at self defence, Gaara had already uncorked his gourd again and was letting the sand flow out of it and in front of the terrified aristocrat's son. The sand formed a rough shield to block the razor sharp claws from doing any damage to Draco. After the unsuccessful strike, Buckbeak landed back on its feet before walking away looking as angry as Gaara had ever seen a bird get.
Hagrid looked more than just relieved to see that no one was hurt, so much so that he didn't stop to question the shield of sand that had since dissolved and been drawn back into the gourd from where it had originally sprung. Unfortunately the sand had not gone so unnoticed by the rest of the class who seemed determined to ask him all kinds of questions that he had no doubt they had wanted to ask since the morning. As they, the entire class, walked towards him, Gaara backed away quickly and walked towards the hippogriffs and Hagrid who had since gone to check on them and thank whoever was listening for not having to explain to an angry Lucius Malfoy that his son was almost maimed.
Rubeus noticed the scary silent student approach him and his herd of hippogriffs and by way of an apology and to show his gratitude for saving his rear, he turned to Gaara and asked, "Wanna ride one o' these beauties?"
Gaara shook his head, not wanting to leave his gourd on the ground where it would most likely be toyed with and possibly broken by the ignorant and, for some, jealous students.
Unfortunately for the sand Jinchuriki, Rubeus Hagrid smiled and undid the strap running across his chest for him before hastily picking him up and depositing him on one of the hippogriffs; despite his silent, frantic, protests.
The hippogriff didn't seem to be too happy with the pairing either, much like the red-head who was still being held onto the bird-horse hybrid. Gaara couldn't help but notice that the giant hadn't let him go through the bowing ritual that Harry had had to before, Hagrid was obviously too excited with not being in trouble to follow his own procedures.
Before either, magical creature or perturbed demon container could voice, or, in the latter's case mime, any of their protests and profanities at being forced to ride/carry the other, Hagrid slapped the giant horse's ass sending it into a veritable charge ending much the same as the previous one, in the sky.
Gaara had to close his mouth as he flew through the sky, being utterly shocked to have been thrust into the air on the strange foreign creature. He gripped strongly onto the feathers on the back of the eagle-like head as the owner of the head swooped through the air. Just as he was starting to enjoy the feeling of flying through the air, like the wind that his country was famous for, he jerked suddenly as the bird dropped down to just above the tree line causing him to accidentally tear out a few of the feathers he had been holding.
Suffice it to say, that didn't end well for the short crimson haired sand sibling.
In mid-air, the startled and angered hippogriff started to swoop faster and more excitedly, like a bull trying to forcibly eject an irritating cowboy. Gaara almost desperately tried to get a tighter grip on the feathers on the back of the squawking beast's neck; but even that effort couldn't prevent him from being thrown straight over the bird head and falling twenty feet through the air before hitting the top of one of the countless trees that made up the deepest area of the forbidden forest. He hit the top of the tree wishing he had his sand on his back, as the coming fall would have hurt a lot less. As he brushed past the highest branches he tried to stick his feet to the tree trunk but he was falling too fast, which was made painfully clear as he started to impact on the lower, thicker, branches of the pine.
Gaara, being the wise ninja he was, had learned from his mistakes and had remembered to activate his armour of sand before being forced onto the giant bird-horse, which was probably the only reason he was conscious after hitting the hard cold ground. Though he was conscious, he wished he wasn't as the armour had taken the brunt of the potentially fatal fall but left him with a dislocated arm and possibly a broken leg as well as what he imagined would be plenty of bruises. The worst part was that he didn't have enough sand with him to carry him, nor did he have enough time to sit around and try to make more. Gaara pushed himself, using the nearest tree, to his feet and started to limp through the dangerous forest. He wasn't worried, walking through the woods which were renowned in this world for being incredibly perilous, as, even with the limited sand he had coating his body, he could still defend himself.
He continued limping through the dense growth of roots that comprised the forest floor until he could hear the faintest shouts of the giant who had put him on the beast in the first place. At that point it had been nearly two hours since his take-off but Hagrid and some of the students had stayed behind after the classes for the day had ended to look for the absentee new student.
Gaara started to walk towards the voices that couldn't have been more than a mile or two away when he heard a low rumbling, almost like an earthquake but more localized. It was off towards the mountains but whatever it was; Gaara decided it sounded distinctly angry. Deciding not to dwell on nor investigate the rumbling noise whilst he had so little sand, he moved on. It didn't take too much longer to get back to the opening in the forbidden forest where he had left over two and a half hours before, despite what he was beginning to suspect was a twisted ankle as well as the broken leg and dislocated arm. Ninja had to continue no matter how injured they were, and he had heard tales of ninja who had marched onwards after losing limbs. The only reason he was struggling so much with the injuries was because he had only started getting injured during missions in the last year-or-so. Ever since the Chunin exam he had been sent on more dangerous missions resulting in the damages to his body. But it was still rare that he was hurt this badly meaning that by the time he was spotted by his teacher he was about ready to collapse.
Hagrid had been so worried for his student that by the time he spotted a patch of blood red past the trees, over two hours after he had disappeared, he hadn't stopped to think that not only were the kind Gryffindors helping him look but also the usually cold and distant Slytherins, who were known to be almost as callous to their own as they were to everyone else. For them to have been searching meant either a very good sign or a foreboding one.
The giant bounded towards the limping, stumbling Gaara followed soon after by the student search party, comprised of most of the Gryffindors, Draco Malfoy and all of the Slytherins that the latter could blackmail. The red-head was less than happy to see Hagrid as he firmly placed blame for his most recent suffering, but he didn't have the luxury of standing still long enough to kill or maim the man as he needed to get to his sand before he passed out. If he was going to be unconscious in this school he needed to be close to his sand. He couldn't leave himself defenceless, because he knew, after the eventful day he had he wasn't safe.
When the group neared Gaara they all, including the stoic purebloods, simultaneously gasped when they saw the deep dark cracks that webbed across the glaring teen's face as well as his hands and presumably everywhere else on his body.
"Gaara, what happened? What happened to your face?" Hermione pried, a perfectly normal action for her.
"I knew it!" Exclaimed Ron at the mute teen's silence, misconstruing the lack of immediate explanation for the cracked face and disappearance as a sign of guilt. "He's an impostor, look at his face!" He pointed in righteous indignation "And remember on the train and the way he uses that sand he's always carrying around! And he doesn't speak to anyone!" He had blurted out the entire accusation at an ear splitting volume pushing the accused into further pain and displeasure.
"He's mute Ronald, he showed us the scar when we met him in the Leaky Cauldron." Gaara almost face palmed as Granger explained his continued silence.
Throughout the entire encounter Gaara hadn't stopped stumbling forwards to where he had been forced onto the hippogriff despite the wall of students seemingly trying to block his advances, obviously attempting to get him to lay down or explain before he hurt himself more.
"But look at his face 'Mione!" The orange-haired teen bellowed once more, the last time such an outcry was sounded as he received a swat to the back of his head for his troubles from the aforementioned girl.
"I'm sure he has a very reasonable explanation for that," Hermione said, almost patronisingly to her friend "He might have a skin condition or maybe-" She was cut off when Gaara held up his hand and, despite his reluctance to do so, removed some of the sand covering his face to show that he looked the same underneath it. He collected the sand, as it dissolved off of his face, in his hand before commanded it to recover the pale skin once again. He had been fortunate not to earn any bruises on his face as they were sure to be purple and encompassing over his small body.
"He's made of sand!" One of the other students gasped making Gaara question the teaching of the previous years of the school as the student didn't seem to be quite as bright as the average person, even Konoha's Green Beast hadn't accused of him being 'made of sand' and he wasn't exactly a genius.
Fixing another glare at that student, Gaara noticed the pile of sand in the forest floor, the gourd having obviously been broken while he was gone. He recalled the sand to him, reforming into his gourd in mid-air before being strapped back onto his leather brace. A look of fear passed over most of the students, soon turning into a look of absolute terror as he led some of the sand drift up to form shapes. They seemed to think he was going to attack them, and while it was tempting it wasn't what he did… anymore.
'It's armour.' The sand spelt out again. Oh how he loathed his inability to speak. Thankfully for him, it was only an inconvenience and not crippling.
The message caused a look of realisation to wash over the previously startled teens before it vanished again when one of his fellow Slytherins asked him about his disappearance.
Gaara was amazed some of these people were able to dress themselves in the morning with such simple minds, then again, they probably used magic for that.
He used the sand to morph into new words, simple enough to conserve chakra and his precious time, time which was quickly running out before he would pass out 'I fell' All of the students expressions, minus some of the more composed Slytherins and the ever optimistic teacher shifted into more embarrassed and surprised.
It was at this point that Gaara decided that he was safe enough so he slipped out of consciousness to the sounds of startled shouts and the feeling of being picked up. His last act was to command the sand to protect him.
A/N: Please review because it really helps motivate me to write.
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