Okay, so I know it's been ages but... Well, two weekends ago was my birthday and it all got a bit too hectic to update anything, and I spent most of last weekend helping my aunt to babysit a 6 1/2 month old boy - and by 'help' I mean she made the dinner while I watched him, mostly - my whole family was coming to her house for dinner as my grandparents were just back from Spain, and then I've been sick all this week...

Anyway, I'm off for Halloween now, so I have plenty of time to write, and though I'm going to Donegal - again - tomorrow, I think I'll be able to get the internet working, and if not, I'll keep writing and post it all when I get back.

So, here is my first update on my very own laptop! Enjoy! And please R&R!

Chapter Eleven

Rai and I waited in the common room, playing wizard chess, until it slowly emptied as everyone else went to bed. As the door closed behind the last of them, I sprung up from my seat, pulling up the Invisibility Cloak from where I had been sitting on it and throwing it over myself and Raimundo. We scurried out of the portrait hole, ignoring the Fat Lady's startled shouts of 'who's there?' as we used our elemental transport to get to Hagrid's Hut – we were rather late, you see.

We knocked on the door and Hagrid quickly ushered us in. Once we took off the cloak it took all we had in us not to laugh. Hagrid had dressed up, and I mean really dressed up. He had tried to comb his hair – I say 'tried' since there is a broken comb entangled in the back of his hair – there was a flower in his button hole, and he was wearing cologne. A bit too much cologne.

"Aw, Hagrid, it's so nice of you to dress up for us. You should've said something. I feel so overdressed." Rai teased pulling at the jacked he had pulled on over his pyjamas. Well, if we were going to wait in the common room all evening, we had to make sure we were at least in our pyjamas. We didn't want to be bothered by the prefects. I was wearing Rai's old hoodie again over my winter pyjamas.

"Uh…I…uh…" I giggled as Hagrid stammered, going rather red.

"It's alright Hagrid. So, who did you really dress up for?"

He was about to answer when there was a knock at the door. With a glance at each other, Rai and I knew exactly what to do, and we backed silently into the corner, throwing the cloak over ourselves again. When Hagrid opened the door I grinned widely, elbowing Rai hard in the ribs to stop him from laughing aloud. It was Madame Maxime. How cute!

Hagrid led her out into the forest, and as he held his cabin door open for her, he gave us a significant look, so we followed at a distance. The two were flirting – or at least attempting to – and due to our enhanced hearing we could hear every word. And cute as I found them, it wasn't really something I particularly wanted to hear, so Rai and I chatted in low voices that were outside the human range of hearing.

We were discussing our latest training session when Rai trailed off, staring at me. "What?"

"Is that…my jumper?"

I glanced down at it, my hands gripping the sleeves that were far too long and twisting them between my fingers. "Uh…yeah. It is. Sorry. You lent it to me last summer, and I sort of forgot to give it back…"

"That's okay. It's probably too small for me now. It looks better on you anyway."

My cheeks flushed red and for a second I wished Rai had regular human vision so he couldn't see it, but he did, and he surprised me by not teasing me mercilessly for it, he simply smiled. That funny feeling that had been growing inside me the longer I knew Rai – especially this year – was back again and it suddenly struck me. Great Ghosts of Dashi – I like him! Well, obviously I like him, but I like him like him. As in, more than friends.

That's why I've been blushing, and giggling and that's what that Skeeter woman meant when she winked, though she was still way off. Rai and I hadn't been doing anything like that in a broom cupboard. A, we're thirteen and fourteen, and B, he doesn't like me like that. Of course he doesn't; why would he? What's so special about me? Okay, I'm a witch, a Xiaolin Dragon, famous…but so is he. I'm rich, but that wouldn't matter to him. Not that I'd want anyone to be interested in me solely for papa's money anyway. What else am I? Nothing. I'm not pretty or anything… A sudden memory popped into my head, something Maria had said to me in the midst of all the yelling, 'I don't have your looks'. What in Dashi's name was she on about?

There was no time for further reflection, though, as 'the giant couple' – as Rai and I had been referring to them all night – came to a stop in the forest. I could hear furious roaring, footsteps and yelling, though the trees were blocking my view. I heard Madame Maxime asking if she could get a better look before she hurried off and Rai and I hurried to Hagrid's side in her place.

A jet of fire flashed across my vision. Dragons. There were four dragons in cages in a clearing. "Dragons?" I demanded, pulling off the cloak. "That's the first task?"

"You're joking!"

"Ah, come on now. They're vastly misunderstood creatures. Quick – back under the cloak!"

One of the dragon handlers was approaching Hagrid and when he got close enough, I recognised him – Carlos. "Alright there, Hagrid?" When he was close enough, he leant in and muttered, "What'd you bring her for? She'll be running off to tell her team."

Hagrid looked quite sheepish and I thought I heard him mumble "thought she might be interested" though I couldn't be sure.

"Don't know why they wanted nesting mothers." Carlos mused as he watched his friends and colleagues trying to subdue the dragons. "I don't envy the one who gets the Horntail." He was looking towards the largest and most vicious of the four, as eight stunners were shot at it, finally knocking it out.

"Yeah. It looks like a right nasty piece of work." Hagrid glanced at where we were – though still invisible – and seemed to think it tactful to change the subject. "How's the rest of your family doing?"

Good old Hagrid. Pick a subject he knows Rai and I will be dying to hear about.

"Worried. We all are. I suppose if anyone can handle this, those two can, but that doesn't stop us being afraid. Raimundo's my favourite little brother, you know? None of us want to see him get hurt – even Al, though he doesn't really know what's going on. And then there's Kimiko. She's practically part of the family already. Mum and dad think of her as a daughter and the rest of us think of her as a sister. Especially with the way Raimundo feels about her. She's one of us. And well, we all know she will be someday." At the last sentence he shared a smile with Hagrid and I glanced – utterly confused – at Rai. 'we all know she will be someday'? What does he mean by that? Rai seemed to know though, given the way he was glaring daggers at his brother.

We decided to take our leave when we noticed the time and crept away slowly, almost walking into Karkaroff who was sneaking around the forest. It seems that everyone will know by tomorrow – apart from Cedric and Cho. "Dragons? Are they mad?" Rai exploded once we were back inside the common room, waiting before the fire for Sirius to appear.

"I bet, with our luck, we'll get that 'Horntail'." I said grimly. "If Hagrid's saying that it looks like a nasty piece of work then it must be really bad."

"Oh, it is." Rai said darkly. "Carlos has told me about them. The most vicious and temperamental of any dragon. I wonder why they wanted nesting mothers, though. They're more vicious than others."

I was starting to get really nervous about the task when Sirius' head appeared in the fire.

"Sirius!"

"We don't have much time." Rai and I glanced at each other in confusion. "You should be in bed!" I rolled my eyes. "Right. Tell me everything that's happened."

We explained everything, including what we had just discovered.

"This is serious." As if we didn't know that. "It sounds like someone is trying to get you killed." Alright, way to make me feel better, Sirius. "People have died in this tournament."

I felt sick. "I'm not ready for this, Sirius. I don't think I can do this."

"It doesn't matter if you're ready. You have to compete. It's a binding magical contract." Sirius really wasn't helping, and luckily Rai realised or I would've had a mental breakdown right there and then.

"Hey." I turned my panicked eyes to him and he locked his on mine, his gaze unwavering. "We've done things normal people would consider crazy just for training. We've dodged the branches of the Whomping Willow, which only makes it madder, and enjoyed it. We've fought Cyclops the troll, you fought off at least a hundred Dementors at once, a Basilisk… We can handle a dragon. It'll be just like training."

The more I thought about it, I realised he was right. These tasks were just like our Xiaolin Training. Suddenly I didn't feel so afraid, and sensing this, Rai smiled, letting go of my hands and turning back to Sirius. "All we need to do now is plan. Now, I know a bit about dragons from Carlos, but you, Sirius, have the wider knowledge of magic. What do you suggest?"

He thought for a moment. "Well, if it was me, I'd-" but he broke off and Rai and I spun round. Someone was coming down the stairs. "I've got to go. Good luck. You can figure it out."

I hissed a quick goodbye and turned to face the staircase, terrified of who would come down. Would it be a prefect, who would get us into trouble? But it was only Maria. She glared at us – me specifically – suspiciously. "What are you two doing down here at this time?"

I sort of just blinked at her. I wasn't really sure what to say. "We were just…"

"Oh." Her eyes flickered between the two of us, raising an eyebrow. "I see…" The tone of voice she said it in though made my cheeks redden again. It reminded me of our interview with the devil-woman. "I could've sworn I heard talking though. That doesn't require much talking…"

I could practically feel the heat radiating off Rai's cheeks now as well as my own. "Perhaps you're imagining things." I said sweetly. "Wouldn't be the first time, now, would it?"

Maria's eyes narrowed at me and Rai's flickered between the two of us, unsure. "Probably just practicing for your next interview, I expect."

I felt a flare of hot anger surge through me and I grabbed one of the muggle badges that some of the students were trying to enchant so that they read 'support Kimiko and Raimundo' and flung it at her. It hit her exactly where I had been aiming – her forehead. Right between the eyes.

"There!" I spat acidly, eyes burning. "Maybe you'll even have a scar now! Just what you wanted, eh?"

She glared back before storming up the stairs. I took a few deep breaths to calm myself before Rai thought it safe to talk to me. "What has been going on between you two? I thought you were practically sisters."

"She thinks that we put our names in the goblet."

"So she hates you now?" I found it a bit odd that Rai seemed to be under the impression that it must be Maria's fault that she and I aren't speaking and seem to hate each other. Though it makes me feel strangely happy that he isn't even entertaining the notion that it could be my fault.

"She thinks…she…she said…"

"She said what?" Rai demanded softly.

"…some stuff…" I said evasively but Rai got around that by wracking through my memories when my guard was down. "Hey!" He found what he was looking for and his eyes hardened and darkened in anger. Note to self: seriously strengthen mental barriers.

"She said that to you?" I nodded meekly. "How could she? She's supposed to be your friend! I mean, Aidan wasn't too happy about it and he thought we'd done it at first, but he listened to me, like a friend should!"

"Rai, it's okay-" I tried to cut across Rai's ranting but it only seemed to anger him further.

"Okay? How can it be okay? Those things she said to you…"

"Maybe…maybe there's some truth in them…" I said quietly.

"No."

"I mean…I do always hang out with you guys instead of her and-"

"No. Yeah, you hang out with us more than her, but we're closer. And besides, that doesn't give her the right to say something like that to you."

I searched Rai's eyes for a moment, finding only sincerity, and gave him a small smile, which was soon broken up by a yawn. "Time to follow Sirius' advice. Of to bed – chop chop!" Rai chivvied me up the stairs and into my dormitory, making me laugh again, and I gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek in thanks.

As I lay in bed that night, I thought over my revelation. So, I like Raimundo Pedrosa as more than friends, and he is my best friend who can tell when anything is wrong with me… How in Dashi's name am I supposed to keep something like this from him?

Please leave a review to let me know what you think!