Chapter Twenty Three: Figuring out the Clue and the Yule Ball

Raiden sighed. While all the other boys fourth year and above had gone crazy trying to ask girls out, most getting tongue tied and stupid in the attempt, he had stayed calm and cool. Unlike most of his year mates he knew that the girl he liked liked him in return so there was no fear of rejection. Armed with this knowledge he walked into the common room one night after studying in the library and found Daphne sitting on the couch, staring at the fire.

"Hey Daph, what's up?" he asked.

Daphne turned to him and smiled, although it was a little wobbly. "Hey Harry. I'm just worried about the Ball, I mean, no one's asked me yet and it's not a good thing for a girl to go alone."

Harry shrugged. "Well, did it ever occur to you that you hadn't been asked yet because everyone knows that we're together, sort of, and that they were letting me get round to asking you?"

Daphne turned to face him fully. "Was that an invitation to the Ball, Harry James Potter?" she asked.

Raiden smirked. "No." As her face fell, he silently conjured fairy lights and a small enchanted snowfall above them.

"This is" he whispered, before taking her hands in his, and twisting off the couch, landing on one knee. Holding her hands gently yet firmly he asked, "Daphne, will you go to the Ball with me?"

Daphne laughed and replied, "Yes" before pulling him up and hugging him. She let him go after a bit and then asked, "Harry, when you got down on your knee like that I half thought the question was going to be something else."

Raiden laughed now, and hugged her again, before saying with a grin, "We're a bit young for that don't you think?" They laughed before settling down on the couch and watched the fire, eventually falling asleep. One of the prefects, coming back from a late night patrol found them and levitated them to their own beds, to avoid any comments of impropriety at a later stage.

The next morning, Daphne awoke, hoping that she hadn't dreamt the whole thing. She was relieved when she spotted Raiden waiting for her just inside the door to the common room. Holding out an arm he smiled and said, "Shall we practice for the Ball?"

Grinning and chuckling, the pair made their way up to the Great Hall, sobering when they reached the doors. Walking inside they made their way to the Slytherin table and sat down for breakfast. Raiden was mildly intrigued when Viktor Krum came to sit with him. The Durmstrang champion had said nothing bad about him at all, unlike Fleur Delacour. Cedric had remained silent too, but Raiden knew that the Hufflepuff was uncomfortable with the vilification that Raiden was taking from the rest of the school and wasn't willing to add to it. For that, Raiden was grateful and had asked the Avengers to leave him alone. The other Slytherins had seen his reasoning and had scaled back their intimidation attempts as well, resorting to cheering loudest and providing the most support for Raiden instead.

As it was a Saturday, Raiden thought he would devote more time to figuring out his egg clue. He had finished his homework and was getting highly frustrated with the fact that every time he opened his egg, the most horrible screeching came out of it. Sitting on the couch in the common room after breakfast, he tried opening it again, slamming it shut a second later as his ears violently protested at the noise.

"Maybe you have to fight off the Cruciatus curse?" Theodore Nott suggested. He wasn't part of the Avengers but he was friendly with them. Daphne, Blaise and Draco gave him dirty looks while Raiden ignored him being too interested in hissing swear words at the egg in Parseltongue. He had a localized silencing charm up so he could hear and respond to his friends, but no one else could hear what he was saying to the egg. That way he could swear in Parseltongue and not give away his secret.

Finally, Raiden looked up at the rest of the Avengers and Theo and growled. "It won't respond to anything I've tried. Theo, they wouldn't subject us to the Unforgivables, the Tournament is supposed to be challenging but fun, and subjecting us to the torture curse would definitely not be fun."

Sighing and glaring at the egg, Raiden continued in a morose tone, "No, there's some trick to it that I have to figure out."

He then rose and headed off to the bathroom, carrying the egg. He was hot and needed a bath. He also thought that maybe the bath would clear his head and allow him to figure out the clue. The rest of the Avengers followed him to the dorm room and sat on the beds, completing their homework, and wondering when Raiden was going to come out of the bathroom and why he took the egg with him.

A few minutes later Hermione poked her head in. "Hey guys, why are you all sitting here?" she asked, curious. Her Slytherin friends were normally given to studying in the sun, which led to jokes from the other Houses about snakes and sunbathing. Hermione herself preferred to study at night, which fitted her animagus form of an owl.

The other three members of the Avengers looked up and smirked at her which Hermione had come to learn was their version of a smile. "Hey Mione. We were just finishing up our homework and then we were going to get started again on our animagus anatomy research," Blaise answered.

Hermione nodded, and brought her animagus research out of her bag. "I've finished my homework and was looking for you guys so we could do the animagus stuff together. Where's Raiden?"

Hermione had been told of Harry's Dark Lord name as well when she was fully brought into the fold and had shown a surprising aptitude for researching Dark Arts spells for them. She could sweet talk almost any teacher into letting her have passes for the Restricted Section under the guise of research for DADA, and had copied several spells and made lists out of those books that couldn't be copied. The Avengers had benefited greatly from this, even if they were leery of researching the truly Dark Arts such as Necromancy and other such things. Spells for eviscerating people, erasing parts of the anatomy, and other such spells were subjects of interest though. After some discreet digging by Hermione, and talking with Madam Pomfrey, the Avengers discovered a whole new class of spells to use. Healing spells, which were generally used to heal people, could also be used to kill them if you left out the specific parts of the spells. It was with great interest that they learnt the spells as they should be used, and then wrote ways to use them for the opposite use.

Just then they heard a loud curse from the bathroom and then muffled gurgling for a bit, before Raiden called out, "Hey guys, I figured out the clue. Or at least I've heard it."

Raiden came out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped firmly round his waist. He stopped short at seeing Hermione and Daphne in the room, and blushed slightly before calmly walking to his bed and shutting the curtains. The two female members of the Avengers looked at each other and then Hermione said, "Daphne, you'd better not lose him otherwise I'll be snapping him up."

Daphne nodded, still wide eyed at the unintentional peep show that her sort of boyfriend had given them. Years of martial arts, Quidditch and garden chores had given Raiden a nice set of muscles even at age fourteen. Once Raiden was dressed he opened the curtains and fixed Hermione and Daphne with a look.

"Stop drooling, we're only fourteen," he snapped.

Both girls blushed, and then Hermione growled, "Oi, I'm fifteen thanks." Raiden merely looked at her and she dropped her eyes.

"Sorry" they muttered.

Raiden nodded, before stretching out Draco's bed. "Like I said, I heard the clue. The damn egg fell into the water and opened. I thought it was broken but then I heard singing so I ducked under and heard the song. It's a riddle."

"So what did it say?" Draco asked. He and Hermione liked riddles, unlike Daphne, Blaise and Raiden, who loathed them.

Raiden gave the two logically minded Avengers a mock glare and then said "Try this on for size then"

Come seek us where our voices sound

We cannot sing above the ground

An hour long you'll have to look

To recover what we took

"Hmm, so someone or something that can't talk above ground will take something of yours that you have to recover in an hour. So what type of creature can't sing above ground?" Hermione muttered.

The Avengers all thought hard before Raiden looked out the window and by chance saw a mermaid rise out of the water briefly. Looking back at the riddle again, he grinned.

"Got it!" he exclaimed. Seeing the puzzled looks on his friends' faces he shook his head. "Merpeople! They live in the lake and can't talk above ground; they make that same weird screechy sound. I can't believe I didn't recognize it before."

Looking at his friends, his face suddenly fell. "Oh bugger" he muttered.

Daphne frowned. "What is it, Harry?"

Raiden looked at her before saying, "Well, how the hell do I survive for an hour underwater? We haven't learnt the bubble head charm yet, we learn that next year."

The Avengers all looked at each other and shrugged. Seeing that they weren't going to get anywhere else on the egg, they settled down to work on their animagus research. Daphne and Raiden worked together on their serpent forms, while Blaise looked at the anatomy of the Alsatian dog. Hermione was researching her owl form while Draco was busy looking up his ferret form. After two hours they took a break and sat up, rubbing their eyes and massaging cramps from their hands and fingers as they'd been taking lots of notes and doing drawings of the inside and outside of their forms.

Blaise looked round and then said slowly, "It seems a bit odd to be researching how to change into our forms if we don't have names for them. We have two snakes, one ferret, one owl and a dog here, or we will at any rate. We should start thinking of possible names for them."

The rest of the group nodded and sank into a contemplative silence. Finally Hermione spoke up. "We should consider the fact that Harry and Daphne will be two different breeds of snake, so they can't have the same sort of name."

Raiden and Daphne looked at each other and then slowly nodded. "Makes sense, I'm a king cobra and Daphne is a python," Raiden replied. "Any ideas?"

After no ideas were offered, Raiden sighed and rolled over, looking up at the ceiling. "What about oh, Athena for Hermione's form?"

Hermione looked at him and Raiden shrugged. Thinking about it for a few minutes she nodded, pleased with the name. Looking round Raiden shrugged again. "That's one. Anyone else?"

Daphne spoke up hesitantly. "How about um, Argentum for Draco's form. It means silver in Latin." Draco looked at her and then at the rest of the Avengers before nodding his head. "Fitting. My eyes are silvery grey. I like it. Argentum it is then. My turn to name one of the rest of you. We have Athena for Hermione, Argentum for me, so what about, Blaise. Let me think."

After thinking for a few minutes he said, "What about Lassie?"

He ducked as Blaise threw a pillow at him. "I am not a girl Draco!" the semi annoyed but still amused Blaise growled back. Draco righted himself and straightened out his robes before smirking at the other boy.

"Fine, fine, you can come up with your own name then. I'll name Daphne's form. What about Slither?"

"Slither? That's the best you can come up with for a snake?" Daphne said in disbelief.

Draco shrugged. "There aren't that many names we can use and still remain anonymous. Besides, I was considering Harry's animagus name as Hisser."

The Avengers looked at each other before cracking up with laughter. "Hehehe can you imagine introducing ourselves as Messrs Hisser, Argentum and Lassie, and Misses Athena and Slither" Raiden chuckled. Seeing the annoyed look on Blaise and Daphne's faces he held up his hands. "Don't worry; we're not staying with the names Slither, Hisser and Lassie. Argentum and Athena can stay as their owners seem to like them."

"What would you suggest for our forms then?" Blaise asked.

Raiden frowned. "I was thinking about Diablo for you Blaise. I need to think a bit more for Daphne's and for mine."

"Diablo huh? I like it," Blaise murmured. "Sounds much better. Introducing Messrs Argentum, Diablo and Hisser, and Misses Athena and whatever Daphne's name will be."

Now it was Blaise's turn to duck a pillow, this time thrown by Raiden. "I am not naming myself Hisser!" he hissed at his friend before lapsing back into silence and thinking. They had names for Draco, Blaise and Hermione, but Daphne's and his were proving troublesome. Finally he sighed.

"Any ideas Daph?" he asked, using the shortened version of her name that he and he alone was allowed to use. Hermione accepted the shortened version of her own name, that being Mione from the Avengers and only them. She shook her head.

"Sorry, Harry, no clue. We'll come up with them. Try thinking of names fitting our specific snake forms. What about Veneficus for you? It means poisonous."

Raiden thought about it and then kissed Daphne suddenly. "Brilliant. I love it. Messrs Argentum, Diablo and Veneficus and Miss Athena will attempt to come up with a name for you," he said, grinning as the rest of the Avengers all smirked, or in Hermione's case smiled, at their new names. By an unspoken arrangement, the group then went back to studying their animal forms. By lunch they had the drawings completed and were ready for the next stage, that being the meditation to free their forms and change for the first time. Sirius would be taking them through this stage over Christmas. As a registered animagus he could teach others the skill and had told the Ministry that he would be training five students in the art.

They walked up to lunch and sat in their usual spot at the Slytherin table. It was now not unusual to see Hermione sitting at the green and silver table although Professor Flitwick had been seen looking somewhat mournful at the fact that one of his brightest students preferred the snake pit to the eagle's nest as Ravenclaw and Slytherin were unofficially known. This lunch time contained a couple of surprises.

First was the commotion at the Gryffindor table. The Avengers just about split their sides laughing at the dress robes Ron Weasley held up. "Those were very fashionable in about the fourteenth century," Draco whispered to the others. Raiden felt very glad that Lucius and Narcissa, along with Sirius insisted on his having proper dress robes to wear. Daphne hadn't seen them, and he hadn't seen hers, but Narcissa had got together with Daphne's mother and they had made sure that their robes complimented each other.

The other surprise was Viktor Krum coming up to them. He looked uncharacteristically nervous and they were curious as to why. Looking round at the other students who were trying to listen in, Viktor said, "May I have a word with all of you after lunch? In private?"

The Avengers looked at each other before turning back to face Viktor. "Yes, just follow us after we've finished" Raiden replied. Viktor nodded and was turning to go when Hermione spoke up. Looking rather shy, she invited Viktor to sit down with them. After a moment's hesitation he did so. Draco, Blaise and Raiden exchanged a glance, all of them thinking the same thing 'I wonder if he's going to ask Hermione to the Ball?'

After lunch, the Avengers, followed by Viktor retired outside to their favorite study spot. They sat down on the grass and Viktor followed suit, still looking rather uncomfortable. After a brief silence Raiden decided to start the ball rolling.

"Viktor, are you interested in Hermione?" he asked. Hermione gasped softly and then blushed furiously when Viktor nodded. Raiden raised an eyebrow and then turned to the two girls.

"Stay here, we're going to talk to Viktor for a minute" he said before pulling Viktor to his feet and then the three Slytherins surrounded the Bulgarian champion and retreated to a nearby tree.

"Do you want to ask Hermione to the Ball?" Draco asked.

Viktor nodded and then growled, "Yes, why do you keep asking?"

Blaise snorted. "It hasn't escaped your notice then that we're a bit protective of her and want to see her treated right?"

Viktor sighed and then answered "No it hadn't escaped me. It is why I wanted to talk to all of you before asking Her my oh knee." He pronounced her name carefully, not wanting to get it wrong. A smile from Raiden reassured him that he had it right, and he relaxed a bit.

Blaise, Draco and Raiden exchanged another glance before Raiden said, "You don't need our permission to ask her to the Ball, Viktor, but we will hurt you if you hurt her. Got it?"

Viktor nodded. "Yes. I will not hurt her, and I look forward to hopefully being friends with you all."

The other three relaxed at this and smiled. "Have a good time at the Ball, and good luck on the second task," Raiden said before he led Draco and Blaise back to where Daphne and Hermione were sitting.

Viktor looked at the group for a minute before walking back to the castle. He wouldn't ask Hermione now; he would wait till they had some privacy and then ask her. He thought about Raiden and then smirked to himself, he hadn't thought the younger boy had it in him to compete in the Tournament but so far he had proved to be a worthy opponent. The second task would indeed be interesting.

Two weeks later, Raiden and Daphne were in the room of requirement, along with Narcissa and Sirius. The two adults had requested permission to visit with Daphne and Raiden and Dumbledore had allowed it, although he was clearly not happy. The room was currently silenced and invisible to people walking around outside. Inside was a comedy film in the making as Sirius and Narcissa tried to teach Raiden to dance without stepping on Daphne's toes too much.

"No, Raiden, you need to twirl her the other way and for Merlin's sake start working out, you need to be able to lift her and hold her up while you turn round at that part of the dance. It's no good dropping your partner halfway you know," Sirius snorted as Raiden helped Daphne up from where he'd dropped her for the tenth time. It was a good thing that they were practicing now, a good month from the Ball and not a week before. It was also good that the floor had automatic cushioning charms that activated whenever anyone fell on the floor because otherwise Daphne and Raiden would both have a lot of bruises.

Grinning at each other, Raiden and Daphne took their starting positions again and this time they managed to get through the entire song without tripping up once, although it was clumsy and nowhere near the graceful dance it would need to be. That would come with more practice though.

At the end of the session, they could perform a passable waltz, and had started the foxtrot. They wouldn't dance every dance and they had been told that the second half of the ball would be informal so they didn't need to learn a whole lot of formal dances, just the waltz and a couple of others. With further sessions, they would improve and be more than ready come the actual Ball night or so Raiden hoped as he downed a vial of Pain Reliever potion, and noticed Daphne doing the same.

"Sorry about your toes, Daph," he said as they left the room.

She smirked and replied, "It's OK, sorry about kneeing you in the nuts that one time. It was an accident." Raiden nodded and the pair chuckled quietly as they returned to the Slytherin common room for a game of Exploding Snap before bed.

Over the next few weeks, Raiden and Daphne continued to practice dancing. Having been told that the champions would be expected to open the dancing with a waltz, they practiced that one the most, until they could do the steps without thinking. Once they achieved that, they spent the time that they were dancing, also talking, about school, about the tournament, and about their relationship. Raiden was finally convinced to admit that they were boyfriend and girlfriend, although he still wouldn't permit them to go any further than the odd kiss and frequent hugging. The hugging wasn't so much a relationship thing as it was also a healing thing for Raiden. Growing up with the Dursleys he hadn't received very many hugs and so Daphne found herself in the odd position of having to teach Raiden that he was allowed to casually put an arm round her shoulders as a friendly thing, as well as the usual type of boyfriend/girlfriend hugging. Fortunately, Raiden was a fast learner, but he still liked to hug her as often as she permitted, while in private. In public, they wore their Slytherin masks and kept the growing affection well hidden as was expected.

The night of the Yule Ball came and the castle was thrown into a frenzy as girls rushed everywhere with hair products and make up strewn all over the bathrooms and fighting over the mirrors. The guys were less worried about looks, just making sure they looked respectable and smart before congregating in their common rooms or the small room off the great hall to wait for their dates. It was then that they started worrying about whether they would look alright, because they didn't want to embarrass their dates.

Raiden was utilizing every ounce of Occlumency he'd ever learnt to stay calm. He didn't realize that he was projecting a bit of his nervousness down the link to his master and was startled when Voldemort opened the bond and inquired as to what was going on. On hearing that it was the Ball night, the older wizard merely chuckled, wished him good luck and closed the bond. Raiden huffed in annoyance and then turned to look at the entrance to the girl's dormitory.

"Oh dear Merlin," he whispered when he saw Daphne. She was dressed in robes of a light silver color, with hints of emerald green, which complimented his emerald green robes with hints of silver very well. Her hair was done up in a bun with small ringlets falling forward and framing her face. He had managed to partially tame his hair so it wasn't sticking up everywhere and now looked stylishly messy. Holding out his arm, he smiled when she took it and turned with her, before walking out of the common room and up to the Great Hall. They arrived to see Cedric Diggory waiting with Cho Chang. Rumor had it that they were a couple as well. Roger Davies, a Ravenclaw looked delighted to be standing with Fleur Delacour, and Viktor gave Raiden a small smile when he came up to them with Hermione on his arm. The four stood talking for a few minutes before Professor McGonagall came along to organize them into the line so they could enter the Hall.

The Great Hall looked beautiful. There were enchanted snowflakes falling all around, and small tables dotted round the sides of the hall, leaving about half of the space open for dancing. The four champions and their dates walked up the centre aisle of students and took their places on the dance floor. Raiden and Daphne looked at each other and Raiden murmured, "Moment of truth." Daphne nodded before the music started and the four couples began to dance.

Raiden and Daphne moved gracefully over the floor, Raiden carefully steering his girlfriend out of the way of the others. When it came time for the lift and twirl part, he sent a quick prayer up and lifted Daphne, both of them delighted when they completed the maneuver with no problems. After a few minutes they noticed other couples coming out to dance, with Draco and Pansy and Blaise and Nora among them. Soon the whole floor was filled with couples and it became harder to steer so Raiden resorted to revolving on the spot and occasionally moving from side to side or back and forth to avoid other couples. It wasn't just the students dancing either; Raiden had spotted Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall dancing together. He then had a wild idea.

Giving Daphne to Blaise, he made his way over to Minerva, who had stopped dancing and retired to the edge of the floor. She looked oddly at him as he approached her. "Mr Potter, may I help you? You looked like you were having fun out there."

"I was Professor" Raiden replied. Taking a breath he said, "I was hoping that I could have the honor of having this next dance with you."

Minerva McGonagall was shocked, in all her years, never had a student asked to dance with her. Looking at him, she noticed the sincere look in his eyes and knew that this wasn't a joke to him. "Erm, Mr Potter, I'm not sure it would be appropriate" she hedged.

Raiden's face fell slightly. "It's not anything inappropriate Professor, I just want to try dancing with someone taller than I am."

Minerva thought for a moment before agreeing. "One dance Mr Potter" she said and Raiden inwardly exulted as he led his Transfiguration Professor onto the floor. One dance later and he returned her to her place with the rest of the staff. He stopped when he felt her hand grip his shoulder.

"That was a very nice dance Mr Potter, you're very good."

Raiden smiled at her and replied, "Ask Sirius to show you the memories of the practice sessions between Daphne and I, Professor, it wasn't so easy then. And, thank you too, for not refusing."

Minerva nodded in acknowledgement and Raiden left to go talk to Daphne. He was intercepted by Hermione who dragged him off for a dance, telling him that Viktor needed a rest. In between avoiding other students they discussed the ball but not the tournament. When Hermione left him Raiden noticed Ron Weasley sitting with one of the Patil twins, Padma he thought her name was, from Ravenclaw. She looked distinctly unhappy, and Ron wasn't paying her any attention at all. Smirking to himself, Raiden made his way over.

"It's Padma isn't it?" he asked as he sat down beside her.

She looked at him, before answering, "Yes it is. How did you know?"

Raiden smiled. "You and your sister are different people, I can tell the difference easily. Parvati is more into boys than books I think, while you are the opposite. Are you having a good time?"

Padma wasn't all that suspicious of him, after all Ravenclaw and Slytherin historically got on well so she smirked at him and replied "I would be if my date would pay attention to me and not Hermione."

Raiden looked annoyed. "How could he do something like that? It's deplorable. Would you allow me to make it up to you by way of a dance?"

Padma smiled. "I'd love to, thank you Harry. Won't your girlfriend be upset?"

Raiden smiled. "Hermione told her what I'm doing over here. We trust each other. Have you met Daphne yet?" Padma shook her head so Raiden continued, "Well, after this dance I'll introduce you. It would be good for Hermione to have another friend that isn't in Slytherin. Apparently most of Ravenclaw have been giving her the cold shoulder for her friendship with me."

Padma shook her head in vigorous denial as Raiden steered her round the floor. "No, that was some of the older years who were jealous of her brains. We want to get to know her but she spends so little time in the Tower these days that we really can't."

Raiden smiled and shook his head. "Sounds like one massive case of miscommunication to me," he said. Padma laughed and agreed. When the dance ended they made their way over to the Avengers table and by the end of the night the two Ravenclaw girls were on their way to becoming good friends, although Padma would not be inducted into the Avengers until a few years down the track. Hermione agreed to spend more time with the Ravenclaws while not neglecting her Slytherin friends either, even though the Slytherins assured her that they wouldn't revoke her password privileges. Padma was stunned to hear that the notoriously secretive Slytherins had given Hermione access to their House due to her strong friendship with Draco, Blaise, Daphne and Raiden. She was also becoming tentative friends with Daphne and assured her that she had no plans to steal Raiden.

At the end of the night, which wasn't until two am, the exhausted fourth years left for their common rooms. Viktor, who had shared their table headed back to the ship where the Durmstrang students were sleeping. It was apparently quite comfortable. Raiden was still pondering the mystery of how to survive an hour underwater sometime in February and went to sleep with that question on his mind. Information on potions floated through his mind and his subconscious examined it while he slept. One potion had used gilly weed and his subconscious pulled up the information on the herb, information which quite neatly solved the mystery. Anyone that ate gillyweed would develop gills and fins and have to stay underwater until the effects wore off. This information percolated through to his conscious mind and Raiden sat straight up in bed at 5am and said,

"GILLY WEED!"