Hi! Sorry, it's been a while since my last update, hasn't it? I'm just a bit overwhelmed going into sixth year - it's so different!

I'm annoyed at myself that I haven't finished 'Journey to the Past' yet, but I'm kinda stuck on how to start the next chapter. I mean, I know the general gist of what I want to happen, but I just don't know how to put it! Aaargh! And 'XS HSM' is on hold until I finish it.

Whenever it's been a while between writing chapters, I usually go back and re-read the rest of the story to get back into it, and for some reason I re-read all of them. Personally, I think that 'Somebody Save Me' is one of my best. What do you think? I'm considering putting up a poll to ask what you think is my best so far...

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the chapter, and please R&R!

This chapter is dedicated to you, Katie, for the first appearance of someone that I - and any who read your review for 'Somebody Save Me' - know you love. Your threat pushed me to introduce him earlier!

Oh, and I mentioned that Aidan was the Neville character before, but now I'm more inclined to think that he's sort of Neville/Ron, and Keiko's kind of Hermione character as well.

I'm listening to the score of 'The Deathly Part I & II' as I'm writing this, and the music just expresses everything so clearly that I almost start crying again! At one point it did. Yeah...I'm that wierd...

Chapter Eight

I practically skipped down to breakfast next morning, I was that glad to be back. Once we were given our timetables, we pored over them intently. "Today's not bad." Rai commented, putting down his timetable to start eating breakfast, something Clay had wasted no time in doing. "We're outside all morning – Herbology with the Hufflepuffs, and then Care of Magical Creatures…damn it, we're still with the Slytherins!" I wrinkled my nose in distaste. Why did it have to be the Slytherins? "Then we've got DADA, the only downside – Divination!"

"No!" Aidan groaned from his place at the table. At least Trelawney wasn't predicting his death every minute like she had in the two months I took her class last year.

"Well, then you should've dropped it like Kimiko did, and then maybe you could've been in our Ancient Runes class – it's fascinating!" Keiko spoke as she dropped into the seat opposite him, immediately reaching for the toast.

"You're eating again, I notice."

"I've decided there are better ways of making a stand about elf rights." Keiko insisted before stuffing her toast in her mouth – she was obviously hungry after missing out on the feast the night before.

Aidan sniggered. "Yeah…and you're hungry."

In Herbology we were working with Bobotubers and their pus, which was highly dangerous, so we had to wear our gloves, and then we all felt like keeping our gloves on once we got to Hagrid's, as we were working with something called Blast Ended Skrewts which, I had a sneaking suspicion, Hagrid had bred himself, and seemed to be extremely volatile – they could bite, sting and burn you. It was a 'project' of sorts, Hagrid had said, for us to raise them.

We were glad to get away when the lunch bell rang, and most of the class practically sprinted up to the castle.

When we sat down, Keiko immediately began eating as fast as she could. We sat and stared as she finished within a minute – even faster than Clay! – and then began to gather up her things. "What's the rush?"

"I've got to go to the library – loads to do!"

"But we don't have any homework!" Aidan stared at her as if she had grown another head.

"Oh, it's not schoolwork." She said brightly, lifting her bag over her shoulder and scurrying off.

"She's mental!" Aidan muttered, staring after her. "Absolutely mental!"

We were interrupted in our simultaneous incredulous staring by the arrival of the Pedrosa twins and Lee Jordan. "Moody – how cool is he?" Ricardo said excitedly as he dropped into a seat.

"Beyond cool!" Fernando agreed, mirroring his twin's movements.

"Supercool!" Lee added excitedly. "We just had him."

"What was it like?" Rai asked eagerly. Defence Against the Dark Arts was the one subject that Rai and I had matching views on. It was by far the most interesting – even though first year's classes were a bit of a joke – the teacher being afraid of me, on top of having Wuya in the back of his head – but last year's teacher, Professor Lupin, had actually managed to teach us something.

The three of them exchanged excited looks. "Never had a lesson like it."

"He knows, man!"

"Knows what?" Clay asked, his food forgotten in front of him.

"Knows what it's like to be out there doing it! Fighting the Dark Arts… He's seen it all…"

"Amazing…" Lee trailed off in awe.

Aidan dived into his bag, presumably in search of his timetable, but I already had it memorised. "We have him next."

We hurried up to DADA and the eight of us managed to take up the entire two front rows. Three guesses who was at the very front! We took out our books, but the first thing Moody told us when he entered the room was to put them away again, as we wouldn't be needing them. This only served to heighten the excited anticipation of the class. He called the register before turning to face us.

"Right. So, I've had a letter from Professor Lupin about this class, and it seems you've had a pretty thorough grounding in tackling Dark creatures, but you're very behind in dealing with curses."

A murmur went through the class at that. We hadn't even mentioned curses in class yet. I shot a quick confused glance over my shoulder at Keiko, who looked just as confused as I was. We both had read ahead, me especially in this subject, and we knew that we weren't really supposed to deal with curses until much later.

"So – curses. They come in many strengths and forms. According to the Ministry of Magic, I'm supposed to teach you counter-curses and leave it at that – not mention the Dark Curses until at least sixth-year – when you're ready." So why was he telling us about them. "But Master Fung has a higher opinion of your nerves, and he reckons you can cope. So…do any of you know which curses are most heavily punished by wizarding law?"

Most people put their hands up. This was a pretty well known subject matter. Rai spoke up from beside me when Moody singled him out. "Er…my dad told me about one…the Imperius Curse, I think it was…"

"Ah, yes. Your father would know about that one. Gave the Ministry quite a bit of grief." He dug around behind the desk and produced a jar of three spiders. He lifted one out and raised his wand to it. "Imperio!" The spider began to do anything and everything that Moody told it to – that was the nature of the Imperius curse. The class started to laugh as he made the spider tap dance on the palm of his hand. "Think it's funny, do you? How would you like it if I did it to you, eh?"

The class was instantly silenced. Moody went on to explain how the curse was a problem for the Ministry – Death Eaters claiming that they only followed the Heylin under the influence of the curse. But how did you sort out the liars?

"Anyone else know one? Another illegal curse?"

Aidan raised his hand tentatively, which was unusual for any class other than Herbology – his best subject by far, and as Moody called upon him, Sishi shot a frantic glance at him and winced, a look of horrified dread on her face. "There's one…the- the Cruciatus Curse." Aidan spoke in a small voice, as if wishing he hadn't spoken at all, his face starting to adopt the same expression as his twins'.

"Your name's Bakerset, isn't it?" Aidan nodded, and Moody enlarged the spider, saying that it needed to be larger so we could see it properly. Pointing his wand at the spider, once again, this time he muttered, "Crucio!"

The spider began to twitch horribly, rolling around, and I suspect that if it had a voice, it would've been screaming. I could feel the terror coming in waves from behind me and spun round. Aidan and Sishi were gaping, pale faced and wide-eyed in horror, at the spider, their hands were clenched so hard that their knuckles were white and they were trembling violently.

"Stop it!" I shrieked at Moody, who looked up from where he was staring at the spider intently, and relinquished the hold he had on the spider. Most of the class turned to look at the twins worriedly, and after a moment, their trembling ceased, but they were still very pale and looked frightened.

Moody cleared his throat awkwardly before talking a little about the curse before glancing around the now much more subdued classroom. "Anyone know the last of the three?" He glanced around at the rest of the class, and upon seeing that nobody was going to give him the last curse, prompted, "Miss Tohomiko?" I shook my head, fighting to suppress tears. I knew the answer; I just couldn't bring myself to utter the name of the curse that I desperately wished I could forget.

"Avada Kedavra!" There was a flash of green light and the spider fell to the floor, limp. I flinched and closed my eyes against the sudden barrage of images. I felt a hand settle over my own, and I opened my eyes slowly, and sent Rai a grateful, if watery, smile.

When we hurried out of DADA and everyone began to set off towards their own classes, everyone began chatting animatedly about the lesson, as if it had been some sort of show! I certainly hadn't found it very entertaining. I don't think the guys did either. "Hurry up!" I hissed to them as I spotted what I was heading for.

"Kimiko, where on earth are you going?" Rai exclaimed as I dragged him behind me. "You're not trying to rush off to the library too!"

"No." I snapped, but then my voice softened as we slowed down. "Aidan and Sishi." They were leaning against the wall, staring out the window, and their faces were still incredibly pale, and their eyes still held that awful horror struck look. "Aidan? Sishi? Are you alright?" I asked gently.

"Oh, hello." Sishi spun round and spoke in an unnaturally high voice. "Interesting lesson, wasn't it. I wonder what's for dinner, I'm – I'm starving, aren't you?" We exchanged worried looks. Dinner wasn't for another half an hour. We still had Ancient Runes. Well, Keiko and I did. The rest of them had Divination.

Aidan still hadn't moved. "Aidan?" Raimundo looked worried, and reached out and placed his hand on Aidan's arm. Aidan jumped and turned to us with wild eyes. "Are you…okay?" he asked, unsure.

"Oh, yes, I'm fine." Aidan spoke in the same high voice as his twin sister. "Very interesting dinner – I mean lesson – what's for eating?"

We exchanged even more worried looks at that, but we were interrupted by the arrival of Professor Moody, who took the twins for some tea to 'calm their nerves'.

During dinner the twins were still absent and Keiko once again shovelled her food into her and took off once again. We ate in a subdued sort of silence, wondering why that lesson had affected the twins so much, and if they were alright now.

After dinner we headed back to the common room, where we found the twins on the sofa, Sishi asleep, leaning on Aidan's shoulder, who was reading a book. "You all right, Aidan?" Rai asked upon sighting him, and I think we were all glad to see the fear absent from his eyes when he looked up.

"Oh. Yeah, I'm fine, thanks." He held up his book, which was one on Herbology. "Just reading this book Professor Moody lent me. Apparently, Professor Sprout told him I'm really good at Herbology, and he thought I'd like this." He went rather red and there was a faint note of pride in his voice. It made all of us smile. Aidan wasn't that great at most subjects, but he really made up for it with his spectacular performance in Herbology.

"I'm sure she did tell him." I said with a grin, collapsing into my chair. "You're the best in the year. Heck, probably the whole school! I bet you'll be the Herbology Professor one day."

Rai grinned. "Professor Aidan Bakerset." He mused. "I like it. Kinda has a ring to it, don't you think?"

Aidan was blushing harder now, but looked very pleased. It wasn't as if we were saying this just to cheer him up. Well, we were, but it was true. "I'm not as good as you or Keiko."

"Yeah, you are. And ton's better!" He gave up trying to argue with us and went back to his book. Rai and I sent each other grins before turning to our homework.

About ten minutes later, Rai set down his quill with a huff. "I haven't got a clue what this lot's supposed to mean!"

"You know," Aidan spoke up without looking away from his book, "I reckon you should just go with the old Divination standby."

"What – make it up?"

"Yup."

Rai shrugged and began to scribble. "Next Monday, I am likely to develop a cough, owing to the unlucky conjunction of Mars and Jupiter." He read off.

Aidan nodded approvingly. "Yeah. You know her – just put in loads of misery, she'll lap it up."

"Yeah… Okay, on Tuesday, I'll come off worse in a fight."

Aidan laughed. "You? Lose a fight?"

"He's fighting me." I piped in, finishing off my translations.

"Ah, of course." Aidan grinned, while Rai glared at both of us. "Well, then, I'll lose a bet."

"Yeah, you were betting I'd win my fight."

"Well, in reality, I'd bet on Kimiko, but for the sake of this, alright."

"Oi! Fine, on Wednesday, I'll be in danger of…uh…burns…"

"Yeah. You'll be in danger of burns right now if you don't let me read in peace."

"Sorry."

This went on for several minutes before Rai put down his quill again, this time satisfied. "There. All done. That was the most fun homework's ever been!"

I glanced over it from where I was curled up in the armchair he was leaning against, reading. "Not going to have a very good week, are you?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Ah, well," he sighed dramatically, "at least I've been forewarned."

I giggled. I seemed to be doing that around him a lot more lately. I wonder why? "You seem to be drowning twice."

"Oh, am I? Better change one to getting trampled by a rampaging Hippogriff."

"Don't you think it's a bit obvious you've made these up?" Clay asked, glancing over the parchment.

"How dare you!" Aidan said in mock outrage. "We've been working like house-elves here!"

"Better not let Keiko hear you say that!"

It was at that moment that Keiko came hurtling into the common room and headed straight for us. "Kimiko! You've got to see- I've just found- Oh, just come on!" She grabbed my arm and dragged me from my seat, and towards the portrait hole. Rai, Clay and Omi hurried after to save me from her clutches, while Aidan just waved with a grin before turning back to his book.

"Keiko, what on earth, is this about?" I demanded, not for the first time, as we reached a portrait and she tickled the pear. She ignored me, stepping through as it opened, and I suddenly found myself being hugged around the middle.

I pulled back and saw a house-elf gazing up at me, awe shining in his eyes. "Oh, you're Miss Kimiko Tohomiko! I'm meeting you at last! This is such an honour!" The little elf looked quite beside himself with excitement to meet me! I blinked in astonishment as the others looked on, smirking. "When Winky told me she had met you, I thought she was so lucky, and now I've met you too!"

"Oh! You must be Dobby!"

The elf almost fell over in shock. "You know my name! You remembered my name!"

"Winky told me you were having trouble finding work…" I trailed off, unsure of what to say to him.

"Yes, Miss Kimiko, but when I heard Winky had been freed too, it hit me. Where can two house-elves go to get work? Hogwarts, of course! Master Fung is very generous – he even pays me – a galleon a week! – and I get one day off a month!" He looked very excited about that, even if Keiko did seem to be thinking it wasn't enough, and the other house-elves looked embarrassed to be near him when he started talking like that. "I use my money for clothes! He pointed to the mismatched socks, tea cosy, and shirt he was wearing. "I'm buying a jumper next!"

"Tell you what, Dobby." Rai spoke up. "My mum knits us jumpers every year for Christmas. I could ask her to make one for you too, if you'd like."

Dobby's eyes shone with admiration. "Oh, Master Raimundo is very kind!" Rai blushed.

"Is Winky here too?"

His face fell slightly. "Yes, Miss Kimiko, but she is still upset over Mr Crouch." He pointed to the fireplace where she was in a rocking chair, drinking butterbeer while sobbing, occasionally hiccupping.

I tried to talk to her, but she seemed slightly drunk, so I decided to come and see her tomorrow, when she was sober, and since it was late, we should probably get to bed.

As we turned to leave, Dobby tugged on my sleeve. "Miss Kimiko? Would it be alright if Dobby came to see you sometimes? To see the four of you?"

"Of course." I answered, still slightly shocked by his seeming hero-worship of me.

"Looks like you've got your second fan, Kimiko!" Rai smirked on the way back up to Gryffindor Tower.

"Second?" I repeated, confused. "Who's my first?"

"My little brother, of course! Both him and Dobby simply worship you!"

"Oh, shut up!" I snapped back, and we laughed the whole way back to the tower.

So, since it's been a while, it's a little longer than usual...

At my granda's retirement party the other night, someone mentioned 'pipe-cleaner' and I couldn't stop laughing! Everyone thought I was crazy until I explained it was from a Criminal Minds episode...ah...it's always fun when my family thinks I'm insane!

The line 'calm their nerves' came from my mum. After I got my GCSE results, she had to have a cup of tea before going into work to 'calm her nerves', so I decided to put it in this story!

I realised when I was reading the Chamber of Secrets to Jack, that Dumbledore is described as having an 'x-ray glare', and I just wanted to make it clear that that is not what I was referring to in 'The First Step' when I said Master Fung gave Dojo that x-ray glare. I meant it as more of the search-light type glare Master Fung gives Omi in the Pandatown episode.