Okay, so I meant to upload this at the weekend, but I didn't have as much time as I was visiting my granny in hospital. She's getting a bit fed up because she's been in longer than she was after having surgery for lung cancer, even though this time it was low sodium levels and then she developed an infection.

Sorry, rambling a bit. Anyway, I'm not entirely sure about the last chapter, I think I skimmed over the ball a bit too much, but I couldn't really think of what else to write.

Enjoy, and please R&R!

Chapter Sixteen

Keiko and Aidan continued to give each other the silent treatment – though I think it was more being ignored on Aidan's part – for the best part of a week. It was with the arrival of the post at breakfast the following Friday that had them talking again.

Keiko got the Daily Prophet, as usual, and she scanned over it as she buttered her toast, giving out a small gasp as she reached one of the inner pages. "Is it Rita Skeeter again?" I asked, rolling my eyes at Keiko's nod. "What's she saying this time?"

"She…it's…oh, it's horrible! Look." She passed the newspaper across the table to me and I glanced down at where she was pointing, nearly choking on my own toast when I saw the headline. "Master Fung's Giant Mistake?" I read aloud disbelievingly. I proceeded to read the article aloud, feeling the horror and disgust grow as I did.

It was about Hagrid. That evil hag had written an article about Hagrid and how he had a giant for a mother. I mean, it wasn't really hard of a jump to make, really. But the article went on to insist that it meant that Hagrid was just like the giants: aggressive and violent. Anyone who had spent half a minute with Hagrid knew that was a lie.

Upon finishing the article, I glanced up to see the others staring at me and the paper with expressions matching my own. "Is it…is it true?" Maria stammered. "Was his mother really a giant?"

"Of course!" I said, along with Keiko and, surprisingly, Aidan. We all stared at him.

"What?" he demanded defensively. "I mean, there's his obvious size, for starters. Plus, during the ball, I went outside for a bit, and had to hide in a bush to keep from getting caught by Snape and Karkaroff. I wouldn't have hidden there if I had any other choice, but it was that or hide where all the couples were hidden, snogging, and…well…" he trailed off rather awkwardly, his cheeks flushing slightly before he continued. "I tried not to listen in to their conversation, really I did. I kept trying to block it out – I even tried focusing on an annoying little ladybird on the stupid statue I was crouched against – but I could still hear them."

"Who?" Keiko asked exasperatedly, obviously wanting him to get on with it, though we all permitted ourselves small grins since it was the first time she had acknowledged his presence since the ball and really, she was almost civil.

"Hagrid and Madame Maxime. He was telling her about his mother. Though how Rita Skeeter knew it all I have no clue."

We glared at the newspaper, as if the glares would somehow reach the journalist herself, before hurriedly eating our breakfasts and rushed off to class.

Hagrid hadn't taken Care of Magical Creatures the rest of that week. Eventually, the nine of us invaded Hagrid's hut, Rai and I threatening to break the door down until he let us in, and we managed to convince him that the students didn't care about what the devil woman had written. The parents didn't either – we had heard from Master Fung. They had all known Hagrid when they were at school and they, like their children, knew that he wouldn't hurt a fly unless in self-defence, and would never harm a student.

As the second task began to draw nearer I grew increasingly anxious. We still hadn't figured out the egg, and the niggling feeling at the back of my mind, telling me that I knew it but just couldn't remember was driving me insane!

The Tuesday before the task found Rai and I on the bridge that crossed over the lake between the castle and the part of the grounds with the stone circle and Hagrid's Hut. It had a gorgeous view and we sat with our legs dangling over the sides, staring out past the grounds in comfortable silence.

We felt rather than saw someone approaching us and turned when they neared us. It was Cedric and Cho, and I saw Rai's face settle into a distinct frown. Odd. "What do you want now?" he grumbled, but low enough so that they couldn't hear him. I shot him a confused glance before turning to Cedric and Cho.

"Hi guys." Cho smiled at us, though she too shot Rai's still scowling face an unsure look.

"How are you doing?" Cedric added, eying Rai's face with a speculative look.

"Spectacular." Rai growled and Cedric smirked.

Cho glanced between the two of them before continuing. "We, uh, realised that we never really thanked you for tipping us off about the dragons."

"Don't worry about it." I smiled. "I'm sure you would've done the same for us." Rai grunted.

"Exactly. Um, you know the prefects' bathroom on the fifth floor, right?" We nodded, confused. "It's not a bad place for a bath." I raised my eyebrows incredulously at her. "Just…take your egg and…mull things over in the water. Oh, the password's 'pine fresh'." She smiled again before turning to leave. I clambered to my feet too, noting the sun's position in the sky. It was getting dark, so we had to head in. Rai got up to follow me and we started to walk across the bridge. "What on earth was that all about?" I spluttered once out of their earshot. "What do you think? …Rai?"

I turned to where Rai had been walking beside me, but saw that he was talking to Cedric, who had apparently caught his arm, and he didn't look happy. I headed back towards them, catching only the end of the conversation. "…thirteen! And besides, you have Cho." Rai hissed.

Cedric glanced over his shoulder to where Cho was waiting for him, turning back to Rai with a smirk and a shrug before jogging to catch up with her.

I decided to leave it alone, though my instincts were screaming at me to ask. I'm incessantly curious, you see, but Rai's face held such a dangerous expression that I was afraid to ask.

I jumped up onto the railing of the bridge, flipping along it to dispel my boredom. I misjudged the placement of my feet at one point and would probably have landed in the water if Rai hadn't reached out and grabbed my arm, pulling me away from the railing and onto the bridge. The motion brought me flush against him and we blinked owlishly before quickly stepping away from each other, faces flaming.

"So…" Rai began, coughing awkwardly. "What do you think they meant?"

"I dunno." I stared out across the lake as we neared the doors. I knew the answer, I just couldn't remember.

"We'll go tonight then. I mean, if anything, it's an excuse to check out the prefects' bathroom, eh?"

We snuck out later, swimming suits under our pyjamas, and headed for the fifth floor. As the bath ran we sat on the edge, the egg on my lap as I played with the catch absent mindedly. "I'd try putting it in the water if I were you." A voice from behind said suddenly, making both of us jump and I dropped the egg into the bath which had just finished filling.

I spun round, wondering why I hadn't picked up the person's life force as they entered. Moaning Myrtle was lounging in the nearest cubicle, half in the toilet, resting her elbow on the seat. Ah, that explains it. She doesn't exactly have a life force, does she?

"Hi Myrtle."

"Hello Kimiko, Raimundo. Long time no see. You know, the other day I was circling the drains and I could've sworn I saw a bit of Polyjuice potion." Her eyes narrowed at us. "You haven't been naughty again, have you?"

Confusion clouded Rai's face for a moment, before realisation took its place and a large smirk spread across his face. I elbowed him in the side, though I was grinning too. Last year we had been rather bored, so we had made some Polyjuice potion, hiding in Myrtle's bathroom to do so, for a prank on the Slytherins. We had infiltrated their common room disguised as Ashley and Jack Spicer, proceeded to…well, let's just say that the Slytherins were laughing at Ashley and Jack for the rest of that year, under the impression that it had been them acting that way. Though, to be honest, Rai's impersonation of Jack was spot on – a big baby.

"Polyjuice potion? No, we've kicked the habit. Did you say put it in the water?"

She nodded gravely. "Yes. That's what those others did."

"Cedric and Cho?" she nodded again and I glanced at Rai, shrugging. We dived into the water, after removing our pyjamas, of course, for the 'bath' more closely resembled a swimming pool, and Rai collected the egg from the bottom. He opened it under the water and I could faintly hear…singing? We shared puzzled glances before ducking our heads under the water to listen. It was singing, a beautiful voice was singing the instructions.

"Come seek us where our voices sound,
We cannot sing above the ground,
And while you're searching, ponder this:
We've taken what you'll sorely miss,
An hour long you'll have to look,
And to recover what we took,
But past an hour – the prospect's black
Too late, it's gone, it won't come back."

Unable to last under the water any longer – Rai was using his element to ensure that we had air in our lungs, though he couldn't hold it for too long – we broke the surface, and it hit me. "I knew it!" I exclaimed excitedly, causing Rai to stare incredulously at me. "I knew I had heard the sound somewhere before! It's Mermish. You know, the language of the merfolk. It can only be heard underwater, otherwise it's just horrid screeching."

Rai looked thoughtful for a moment. "Are there merpeople in the Black Lake?" I nodded with a grin.

"Ooooh! Very good. It took them ages. And she was awake too." She looked disdainfully over her shoulder at the painting of a sleeping mermaid on a rock.

"We should really be getting back to bed now. Thanks for the help, Myrtle." We hauled ourselves out and drained the bath. Myrtle disappeared from view, back into the toilet, as I dried the two of us off with my powers and we pulled our pyjamas back on.

Sliding back under the cloak, we checked the Marauder's Map to ensure our way was clear, and I pulled Rai to a stop. "What is it?" he whispered in my ear.

Fighting a blush, I pointed to the map. "Does anything look wrong in that picture?" Rai looked to where I was pointing and frowned.

"What is Mr Crouch doing in Snape's private stores?"

In the small square marked 'Snape's Office' a little dot, marked 'Bartemius Crouch' was darting about. "He's supposed to be sick. He didn't come to the Yule Ball, so what's he doing sneaking around Snape's potions store?"

"Let's go check it out." Before I had a chance to protest – not that I would have, I was too curious – Rai dragged me after him, heading for Snape's Office. Unfortunately, Rai didn't seem to be looking where he was going and soon had himself sunk knee-deep in the trick staircase half-way down the staircase.

I just about managed to stop myself from shrieking in surprise as Rai was still dragging me behind him, so when he jerked to a stop, I almost went head over heels down the stairs. I would have if Rai hadn't caught me. Thanks to my short stature, I was able to stand upright next to Rai, and we were still under the cloak, but when Rai pulled me back, the egg and the map slipped from my hands.

The map landed a few steps below us, but the egg bounced to the bottom of the staircase, falling open upon reaching the floor, emitting the piercing shrieks.

Rai and I shared horrified looks. It was a bit odd having Rai's head at my eye level. The only way I could get Rai out was to pull him out, but the cloak would come off, so we could be seen by anyone. And with the egg shrieking like that, it would be no time before Filch showed up.

Sure enough, he appeared seconds later, yelling about Peeves stealing the property of a Triwizard Champion. Moody showed up later, and his magical eye could see through invisibility cloaks – focusing on us straight away. He managed to convince Filch to hand over the egg – nothing short of a miracle – but pointed out the map at the last second. Rai and I frantically motioned to him that it was ours, and he made up a story about dropping it himself.

He asked to borrow the map, and we couldn't really say no. Even though we didn't really want to part with it.

"So you have to go into the Black Lake and get something from the merpeople?"

"Yep."

"Kimiko, tell me the rhyme again." Keiko asked. We were seated by the edge of the Black Lake, the nine of us lounging against and in the tree on the lake's edge.

"Come seek us where our voices sound."

"The Black Lake. That's obvious."

"An hour long you'll have to look."

"Again, obvious. Though potentially problematic."

"Potentially problematic?" Aidan asked incredulously. Thankfully they had each moved on from the 'Yule Ball Incident' and we weren't witness to an explosion. "When's the last time you held your breath underwater for an hour?"

"It's not really a problem." Rai countered from where the four of us Dragons were doing our sit ups for training, hanging upside down from the tree. Master Fung had left us when we only had them to do, since the second task was tomorrow. "We've borrowed the Gills of Hamachi." Omi gave him a stern glare. "Oh, come on, Omi. We asked."

We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing, until Keiko and Neko were called to Professor McGonagall's office and we were sent inside.

I was equally excited and nervous for the task. I mean, we have an hour to retrieve something from merpeople, who are known to be vicious at times, but we're heading into the depths of the Black Lake with the Gills of Hamachi. We're Xiaolin Dragons; we live for that kind of adventure. Though that didn't stop me from being kept awake most of the night. And I found it rather odd that Keiko and Neko didn't come back.

What did you think? I'm going to apologise in advance for the undoubtedly large period of time between this chapter and the next update.