Sorry I wasn't able to get this up yesterday, but I was in Donegal and our house there doesn't have the internet. So I got yesterday's chapter up using the wifi at the local pub while we got a drink, but we weren't able to stay very long so I was only able to get the one chapter up.

Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it! Please R&R!

Chapter Thirteen

We spent the next few days practicing the summoning charm and soon it was lunchtime on the day before the task. I had managed to perfect the spell but Rai was still having some trouble. He was close, but he didn't seem to agree with me, getting increasingly frustrated each time he failed to move the cushions. We only had one class left after this and when the bell rang Rai seemed inclined to stay – I couldn't really blame him, he had Divination next – but I wasn't about to miss Arithmancy and he seemed to think it was pointless to keep going without me, so he went to class, albeit grudgingly.

After Arithmancy I headed straight for Professor McGonagall's classroom. She had let us use it for practicing spells for the tournament. She seemed really worried about us. All the teachers do. I think they momentarily forget that we've faced worse things than this tournament. And they were all for fun!

We had decided to go straight after class rather than going to dinner. If we didn't finish in time we could always go and visit Dobby and Winky down in the kitchens. The house elves down there practically throw food at you if you're down there.

When I got to McGonagall's classroom, Rai was already there, and he looked to be in a foul mood. "What's up?"

"It's that old cow, Trelawney." He answered sullenly. "In your absence she has moved on to predicting my death every five minutes."

"Ah." I knew from last year just how annoying that really was. "What did she say this time?"

"She spent half the lesson explaining how the position of Mars in relation to Saturn at this moment in time means that people born in September are in great danger of sudden, violent deaths."

I winced sympathetically. Then I noticed his face. "You lost your temper at her, didn't you?" I could feel a grin spreading across my face.

His face split into an almost identical one. "Yeah. I sorta shouted to the whole class 'well, that's good. Just as long as it's not drawn out, I don't want to suffer.'" I couldn't fight back the giggle and his grin showed me that I had been successful in cheering him up. "I stopped paying attention after that. Started trying to practice the charm. I think it worked. It could've just been that the fly just flew into my hand."

"Even flies aren't that stupid."

He raised his eyebrows at me, still grinning. "Oh, you think something has to be stupid to fly to me, huh?" My eyes widened as he raised his wand to me, and I scrambled backwards, anticipating what he was doing. "Accio Kimiko!"

I squealed as I felt the charm pick me up and carry me towards Rai. However, in typical Rai fashion, he hadn't quite thought it through. He was lounging in a chair, his feet propped up of the desk in front, smirking and laughing at me being dragged through the air towards him, and so whenever I reached him, the force of the spell dragging me – since I was a bit heavier than the books we had been practicing with and he hadn't thought of that (as usual) – sent the two of us tumbling to the floor.

I blinked as I suddenly found myself on my back, pinned between the floor and Rai. I was still giggling – though nervously – and could feel a furious blush working its way up my cheeks. Rai stared for a few moments before he shook himself and got up, offering me his hand. "Does that make you stupid?" I replied by sticking out my tongue at him.

"Well, if you can summon me, a human – well, not quite but that's not the point – person, summoning your broomstick will be no problem tomorrow. Shall we go down to dinner?"

The day of the first task was a sunny day with a clear sky and when I met Rai downstairs in the common room, identical grins spread across our faces: perfect flying conditions. Though that probably only fuelled the rumours that we had put our names in the Goblet, grinning like that on the morning of the first task…

After breakfast our large group headed down to the grounds where the task was to be held, separating only when we came to the stands where Rai and I were to go to the Champions' Tent while the others headed to find seats. They called 'good luck' after us and nerves started to set in.

Inside the Champions Tent we found only Cedric and Cho, who nodded to us as we headed to sit in the corner. Soon Fleur and Luc and Krum and Voskef joined us but we still had to wait for the school headmasters and Bagman and Crouch. The headmasters and Crouch were to be the judges and Bagman was to commentate.

As we sat around waiting, Rai and I having fallen silent due to growing nerves, I stared around the tent for something to distract me. I noticed that there was another joined onto the side and it appeared to have cubicles and beds in it. I swallowed. A medi-witch tent for Madame Pomfrey. Oh Dashi, what am I in for?

I glanced around at the others. They were all staring around silently like I was. We all seemed to be wearing tracksuits of some sort made of flameproof material. They all had our individual school crests on it and the two Hogwarts teams' had their house colours too. Rai and I had wanted to just wear our Xiaolin robes, but we weren't allowed. I adamantly refused to wear tracksuit bottoms any longer than knee-length though. It just didn't feel right.

Master Fung entered the tent with all the others we had been waiting for. They made us gather round in a circle and held out a bag for us to pick from. "Ladies, if you please. Oh. Well, apart from the Durmstrang team, of course! Ha ha!" The Bulgarian wizards simply stared at him, no traces of humour on his face so he moved quickly on.

Fleur reached into the bag first and pulled out a tiny green dragon model – magic, of course, so it moved and breathed fire anyway – with the number two around its neck. "The Welsh Green. That means you two are second." I heard Rai scoff inwardly from his position just behind me. 'Lucky. Welsh Greens aren't that bad, really.'

He turned to the Durmstrang team next. "Now, uh, who wants to pull it out?" Krum reached into the bag next and pulled out a scarlet dragon this time, with the number three around its neck. "Ah, the Chinese Fireball. So you're to go third." 'Well?' I called silently to Rai.

'Well, not as bad as that Horntail seems to be, but worse than a Welsh Green.'

"Miss Chang, if you will." Cho reached into the bag and pulled out a greyish-blue one with the number one around its neck. "Ah, so you're first with the Swedish Short-Snout." 'Not too bad.' Rai silently commentated.

'But know we know what we're getting. Just as we thought, eh?'

"Miss Tohomiko?" I reached in and pulled out just what I had known we were going to get ever since I saw it in the forest. The Hungarian Horntail. Oh, well. At least we get to go last."

"Now. Each of these represents a real dragon, each of which has been given a golden egg to protect. Your task is simple: collect the egg."

He left not much later, and soon Cedric and Cho were leaving the tent for their turn. "Good luck!" I whispered as they passed.

We were right in thinking that Maxime and Karkaroff would tell their teams as no one had looked surprised upon seeing the dragons coming out of that bag.

At first I had tried to keep up with Bagman's commentary to find out how the others were doing, but the roar of the crowd as well as that of the dragon that my extra-sensitive hearing can pick up made me feel rather sick so I tried to block it out instead.

In what seemed like no time at all it was our turn. "Remember. I distract the dragon, you get the egg." I muttered to Rai as we headed to the arena. He nodded mutely.

We stepped out into the arena, which was basically a sort of crater with a lot of rocks in it. The crowd made a lot of noise when we emerged – I'm not sure whether it was for or against us though – but I blocked it out. I didn't need that sort of distraction.

Out of nowhere the horned tail of the dragon we were supposed to be stealing a golden egg from landed next to us, and we only managed to avoid it using our Xiaolin instincts. We dodged the tail, splitting and trying to confuse it as we scrambled for higher ground.

Once we got to it, I could see the eggs, the golden one nestled in with the rest of them. I saw the dragon then, too. She dropped out of the sky and landed on the eggs, protectively, eyeing us suspiciously. Rai and I raised our wands, simultaneously calling out the spell we had worked so hard on the last few days.

"Accio Firebolt!"

"Accio Nimbus!"

All of us had pooled together our money to buy Rai a Nimbus 2001 for his birthday. We had wanted to buy him a Firebolt, though we knew he would freak about the cost. As it was, he did freak; at least until I told him that we had almost bought a Firebolt. Then he calmed down when he realised we went for the cheaper option.

We ducked behind a large rock as we waited for our brooms to arrive. The dragon had decided she didn't trust us and had set her flame breath on us. It quickly melted the rock so I held it at bay until the brooms arrived, and we dived sideways onto them. 'Alright' I thought to myself, narrowing my eyes in determination. 'Diversionary tactics. Let's go.'

First I shot through the dragon's legs – she had lifted herself up to aim the fire at our heads – and shot straight into the air again, avoiding her tail. I grinned. This was gonna be fun!

Once I had reached the same height with the dragon's head, I shot over it, to the ground once again, pulling up at the last millisecond, avoiding the dragon's flames again. Not that it really mattered. I could've diverted it with a flick of my wrist. I shot up once again, only to pull a 180 degree turn and head for the ground once again, pulling another 180 about a centimetre from the ground – just as I had done to catch the golf ball-snitch during the summer at the Pedrosas'. I let out a whoop of laughter and heard an answering one from Rai as he entertained himself by dodging around the rocks, keeping out of the dragon's sight.

"Great Scott she can fly!" I heard – not without a swell of pride – Bagman yell as the crowd shrieked and gasped – not the Pedrosas though. They had seen that trick before, so they merely laughed. "They both can! Are you watching this, Mr Krum!" Okay, I won't lie. That felt good.

I kept at it for a while, circling the dragon's head to get it nice and dizzy. This time it tried to hit me with its flame-breath and its tail at the same time. I dodged the tail, though I was flying head-first into the fire. Some in the crowd screamed, but I just grinned, lifting a hand and stopping the fire in its tracks as I flipped over backwards in mid-air.

I wondered why I had ever been scared to do this – it was the most fun I had had since the summer!

The dragon was getting nice and frustrated now, so I flew higher this time, calling "Catch me if you can!" back to the dragon with a laugh. It roared and lifted into the air, swinging its tail as it did. I was too busy laughing and flying circles around the dragon to watch what Rai was doing but when I heard the cheer from the crowd the grin on my face widened considerably.

"Look at that!" Bagman yelled delightedly. "Will you look at that! Our youngest Champion Team is the quickest to get their egg! Well, this is certainly going to shorten the odds on them!"

I turned my broom as I saw Carlos and the other dragon-keepers rushing to subdue the dragon that I had severely angered. "Thanks for that, Kimiko!" he yelled up at me, but I could see that he wasn't really angry. He was glad Rai and I were safe. I dove quickly and landed beside Rai who was standing with Professor McGonagall, waiting for me.

"That was excellent, Tohomiko!" she beamed at me. "You too, Pedrosa!" We just kept grinning.

"You know, Professor," Rai grinned cheekily. "I thought these tasks were the most terrifying thing since Wuya and Chase the way you lot described them."

"Yeah. That was the most fun I've had since summer!" I laughed in agreement with him.

Professor McGonagall just shook her head at our madness. "You'll need to see Madame Pomfrey before you get your scores, Mr Pedrosa."

I turned to him in alarm. "What? You got hurt?"

"I, uh, wasn't watching the dragon's tail when I went for the egg." He said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck.

I shook my head incredulously. "Idiot. The whole point of the 'I distract the dragon while you get the egg' plan was that I'd be the one in danger of getting hurt since I didn't have to worry about its flame-breath, just the tail. You're a chaser! How could you not notice the tail! That's like not noticing a bludger!"

"I got a little over-excited. Better me than you anyway."

I sighed. Our argument had taken us the whole way to the first aid tent, where Madame Pomfrey was bustling about, ranting about the dragons. She examined the cut on Rai's shoulder, saying that she needed to clean it out before she let us heal it.

While she was doing that I went to see Cho and Cedric in the next cubicle over. They were sitting up and talking, so they didn't seem too badly hurt, but their clothes were singed and they looked to have a few bad burns. Cho had one on her arm and Cedric one on his cheek.

"Hey. Congratulations on getting your egg." I said by way of a conversation starter.

"You too. I heard you did a spectacular bit of flying." I grinned at Cho's words.

"It was fun." I said with a shrug.

"Yeah, we heard you laughing." They both looked at me as if I was mad.

"Hey, maybe my dad will believe me about last year's match, now." Cedric suggested.

"Maybe." I laughed. "You want some help with those burns? I can't imagine how they must feel." They shrugged. "No, really. I can't imagine – I'm fireproof. That's why we came up with the 'I distract the dragon' plan."

"Lucky you. Yeah, some help would be appreciated."

I healed Cho first, then Cedric. Rai entered the cubicle just as I was finishing with the burn mark on Cedric's cheek. "Hey, you coming? Madame Pomfrey won't let me heal the stupid thing myself. Says if I can't see the wound, I won't be able to see if it's healing properly."

"Sure, I'm coming." I laughed at the sulky tone in his voice at not being allowed to heal it himself. "I'll see you guys later." I didn't miss how Rai glared at Cedric as he left, nor how he closed the cubicle curtain harder than necessary. Odd.

The whole gang burst through the door as I was finishing with Rai's shoulder, congratulating us, but I was surprised to see Maria slip in after them. Rai spotted her too and glared, alerting the others to her presence and they glared too. I didn't though. She didn't have the accusing glare on her face that she had been wearing the last few weeks. She was really pale – almost as pale as me – staring at me wide-eyed.

"I reckon whoever put your names in that Goblet is trying to do you in!" she said, very seriously.

My face split into a wide grin. Rai wasn't so forgiving. "Finally caught on, have you? Took you long enough." I hit him, though I kinda forgot that it was his injured shoulder, so he yelped louder than usual.

Maria opened her mouth to say something, but I cut her off. "It's okay. Forget about it."

"No." She tried to apologise. "I shouldn't've said those things."

"Damn right you shouldn't have." Rai muttered darkly, rubbing his injured shoulder and ducking out of my way when I went to hit him again.

"Forget it." I repeated and Maria grinned back.

"You'd have to be mad to put your own name in that Goblet!"

"Hey, I am mad, remember? I just proved it by actually enjoying getting a dragon angry at me!" We giggled and she grabbed my hand.

"Come on, they'll be putting up your scores now." I grabbed Rai's hand as she dragged me out the door.

As we were waiting, she told us what everyone else had done. Cedric and Cho had transfigured a rock to a dog in an attempt to distract the dragon – though a distraction with live bait works better – Fleur and Luc put it in a kind of trance and Krum and Voskef hit it in the eye with something, though they lost marks because the dragon stomped around in its pain, squashing the real eggs.

"Yours was the best by far! No competition. And get this – Krum didn't even think of flying! Not that he's anywhere near as good as you or anything, but it's how he makes his living, you know? Oh, look! Here come the scores!"

The marks were out of ten, and were displayed by silver ribbons in the air. Madame Maxime came first, awarding us eight. "Not bad." Maria commented. "I suppose she took the points off for your shoulder, Raimundo."

Both Crouch and Master Fung gave us nines. "Looking good!"

Then came Bagman, who, for whatever reason, gave us a ten! "Ten? But idiot here got himself hurt! What's he playing at?"

"Don't complain!" The Pedrosa siblings yelled back at me excitedly.

Karkaroff was next, giving us a measly four. "What?" Maria bellowed furiously. "Four! You gave Krum and Voskef ten, you lousy biased scumbag!" I couldn't care less at that moment in time. Maria standing up for me was more than enough and I tried to tell her that by hugging her tightly around the middle. I think she understood.

After I let her go, both Rai and I were picked up from behind and I heard Carlos' voice yelling in our ears over the noise of the crowd, "Well done you two! You're tied with the Durmstrangs for first place." He set us back down again, grinning. "Well, I gotta run. I promised mum I'd owl and let her know how it went. I'll be sure to tell her you two enjoyed it so much!"

We had a quick meeting in the Champions' Tent before we were allowed back up to the castle for lunch. They told us that the eggs held the clue for the second task before letting us go.

We had the rest of the day off to relax and our usual crowd spent it on the Quidditch pitch, re-enacting our epic battle against the dragon, taking it in turns, and when I wasn't playing myself or parodying Rai's stupidity to the point where he got so annoyed he stuck his tongue out at me, I was playing the dragon, chasing everyone around the pitch, shooting fire, though not actually hurting anyone – it was the fire I use to throw at Rai's head when I'm not too mad at him, so it doesn't actually harm you, it treats everyone the way normal fire treats me – until Rai catches me around the waist, dragging me from my broom to his, declaring that he's caught the dragon. Then Maria rescues me, coming up behind him and clobbering him until he lets me go.

All in all, it was a great day.

Hee hee. So Rai walks in on Kimiko with her hand on Cedric's face... Yeah, it's a little wierd, but so am I!