Hogwarts no Gaara-sensei

みんなは到着いて

Chapter Five:

Everyone is Arriving

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Gaara woke to find himself in an unfamiliar room. It was dark and cold, and the air was muggy and smelled of rain and moss. This wasn't Suna. Konoha? No...no, that's right, he was on a god-awful mission outside the Barrier.

Gaara got up and began examining the room—he hadn't bothered last night before going to sleep—he still wasn't used to it, and he didn't think he'd ever be, but he valued it greatly after spending sixteen years suffering from extreme insomnia that, in addition to the monster screaming his lungs out in Gaara's head every hour of every day, essentially drove him insane—but he didn't want to think about that now.

Opening the drawers in the bedroom revealed that his clothes had already been delivered and put away for him, which was helpful, if a bit...strange. There wasn't much else in the room besides the drawers, the bed, and a lamp—he supposed he was expected to decorate or something of the sort.

Moving onto the sitting room he found the bookshelf filled to the brim with all the books he'd read whilst he stayed in Hogsmeade. He supposed it'd be helpful to have on hand if he ever needed to review or check anything. It must've been difficult to transport though...wizards weren't very strong after all. Ah, but they had their spells, didn't they? Perhaps they had a spell that functioned a bit like fūinjutsu...he did remember reading something about an expansion charm...*

Enough exploring though, he supposed it was time to get ready. Gaara returned to the bedroom and quickly dressed. He'd take a shower later—in the Sand, water was more of a luxury, and thus like all Sand Shinobi he was used to taking effort to preserve it.

As he dressed, he reflected on the events of the night prior...it was going to be difficult trying to avoid that Obā-san all year long—this mission was getting tiresome already. But seriously, he was determined not to spend any more time with her than he had to. The problem with that, however, is that she was one of only three people whom he was going to be able to report to, and he had already personally ruled Dumbledore out as well—the old mage unnerved him as well, but for different reasons. Maybe it was the way he always seemed to know more than he should, even more than he let on, or maybe it was the way he tended to act immature and foolish, and not all there, when it was clear he was a lot older and wiser than he often pretended to be—and why pretend? Why hide? Why try to get Gaara to let his guard down around him unless he had something to hide? Nonetheless, Gaara wasn't falling for it, and it only served to make him determined to avoid the old man at all costs.

Which unfortunately only left him with one remaining option: the elusive Severus Snape. He hadn't been there at dinner when Gaara had first arrived, but Dumbledore had assured him that he would be showing up for breakfast this morning.** Gaara could only hope that he wasn't as bad as the other two, because he needed someone to report to after-all, and he would really rather prefer if that person wasn't the Obā-san or that Ojī-san.*** This mysterious Severus Snape was his only hope—how unfortunate. He just hoped this guy would be different.

In the end, he was right—just not in the way he had been hoping for, or expecting...

The second Gaara arrived in the Great Hall, thanks to some not-entirely-helpful directions from Hashirama (evidently, portraits traverse the castle a bit differently than the living), he nearly walked into someone. He was about to apologize when the mop of greasy hair turned to then fix him with an accusing stare.

"And just who...are you?" The man drawled, grimacing distastefully.

But Gaara just grit his teeth and bared it, bowing slightly as a formality. "Sabaku no Gaara," he introduced.