Chapter Seventeen

Kimiko POV

Okay. So, I had just woken up to find myself…well, I had no idea where I was to be quite honest. There was a man, apparently named Chase Young, who Dojo was terrified of and he could apparently turn into a lizard-man, and a Basilisk. Raimundo was currently fighting the lizard-man, so that left me the Basilisk. At least I had thought to blind him first.

Why Dojo had appeared, I had no idea – he wasn't much help – but perhaps it was to bring the sorting hat, which was a lot more help. I ran to it, stepping over Dojo's limp body in the process. I remembered something Master Fung had told us in training – 'help is always given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it' – and rammed it on my head, thinking 'help'. The hat obviously got my message for, a second later, something heavy slammed on my head. I pulled the hat from my head and sent a quick healing spell at the rapidly forming lump. Looking into the hat, I saw a sword, hilt lined with glittering rubies and marked with the name 'Godric Gryffindor'. 'Wow!' I thought to myself. 'I just pulled Gryffindor's sword from the sorting hat – this will be useful!' A grin spread across my face.

I twirled around to face the Basilisk, armed with my martial arts, element and now a sword. I continued to dodge and weave around the Basilisk's blind attacks, eventually climbing to the head of the statue. I waited for the Basilisk to come near enough before leaping, landing on the Basilisk's head and plunging the sword into its skull.

Raimundo and the lizard-man had ceased fighting to stare at me in shock. Smirking, I reached into the Basilisk's mouth and ripped out one of its venomous fangs.

I'm not entirely sure why I did what I did next, I followed my instinct. Maybe it was because I remembered hearing Chase Young saying that a part of Wuya's spirit was encased inside the diary. For whatever reason, I grabbed the discarded diary and pulled it towards me. "What are you doing?" came the voice of Chase Young, decidedly more anxious now, verging on panicked. I plunged the fang into the diary, hoping the venom would work on the piece of Wuya's soul inside and, judging by the ink spreading from the diary like blood and Chase Young's scream of "No!"

"This isn't the last you'll see of me, Raimundo Pedrosa!" He snarled before vanishing.

Raimundo rushed to me and pulled me into a tight embrace, the reality of the last few minutes sinking in. "Oh, you're alright! You're alive! I knew you were but they didn't believe me!" I cut off his babble with a swift punch to the arm. "Ow! Girl, you hit hard!"

I giggled in response and kissed him on the cheek, at which he blushed. "Thank you for coming after me, even if the others gave up."

"I-I…uh…n-no problem…" He managed and I giggled again before heading to revive Dojo.

We left the chamber; me with the sword in hand and Dojo snaked about my shoulders and Raimundo carrying the destroyed diary and the sorting hat. "So, now the two most powerful dark wizards have personal vendettas against us." I remarked.

"Yeah, that should be fun!" Raimundo added sarcastically and we rounded the corner, still laughing, to see Clay and Omi, sitting amongst many boulders, staring at us, dumbfounded.

"K-Kimiko?" I grinned at them and they smiled sheepishly back.

"What's with the boulders?" I asked, confused.

Raimundo looked sheepish. "I – uh – got a little mad…" I nodded, hearing his thoughts.

Dojo dropped from my shoulders and transformed to his larger size. "All aboard the Dojo express."

We stood in Master Fung's office minutes later; the four of us covered in grime and me blood and ink. Master Fung stared. "Clay, Omi, why don't you go and put your school robes on; you're just in time for the End-of-Term Feast." They nodded and moved off. "Oh, and Omi?" he held out his hand and Omi placed the Tongue of Saiping in it as all three boys grinned sheepishly.

When they had left, Raimundo launched into the story as Master Fung, Dojo and I sat riveted; for I had only been present for the second half, Dojo had been unconscious on the floor for the majority of his involvement and Master Fung hadn't been present at all. "Before you leave, I wish to thank you. You must've shown me great loyalty in the chamber, only that could've called Dojo to you." We beamed at him. Despite his eccentricities, he was like a father figure to the four of us.

"Call me to them?" Dojo demanded. "What do you mean 'called me to them'? Did you put a spell on me again?" Master Fung cast his x-ray glare on him and he shut up pretty fast, shrinking back to the plant he is always hanging around.

Master Fung cast a quick spell to clean my robes and Raimundo's appeared on him. "The four of you will receive awards for special services to the school. Now, off you go to the feast. I'm sure you're hungry."

When we arrived at the feast, half of Gryffindor house descended upon us: either for details or to let me know how glad they were that I was alright. But mostly details. We sat opposite Clay and Omi as the Great Hall's attention was drawn to the High Table. "As I understand it, the House Cup needs awarding and the points stand thus: in fourth place, Gryffindor, with two hundred and fifty two points;" there was scattered applause. The four of us felt terrible. Gryffindor had been in the lead before the 'Norbert incident'. "in third, Hufflepuff, with three hundred and twelve points; Ravenclaw, second, with four hundred and twenty six; and in first place, Slytherin, with four hundred and seventy two points." The Slytherins broke into cheers. I felt sick.

"Yes, yes, well done Slytherin," Master Fung cut in above the noise. "However, recent events must be taken into account and I have a few last-minute points to award." The room went silent.

"First, to Mr Omi Greensberg," Omi looked delighted, "for the best-played game of chess Hogwarts has seen in many years, I award Gryffindor house fifty points." We all cheered. Perhaps we have a chance…

"Second, to Mr Clay Bailey, for the use of cool logic in the face of fire, I award Gryffindor house fifty points." Clay blushed as we all cheered for him. We were catching up…

"Third, to Mr Raimundo Pedrosa and Miss Kimiko Tohomiko, for pure nerve and outstanding courage, I award them sixty points each. The hall erupted again as I did the mental arithmetic.

"We're tied with Slytherin!" I hissed down the table and everyone looked back to Master Fung eagerly as he raised his hand once more.

"There are all kinds of courage. It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends. I therefore award ten points," all the Gryffindors sat in anxious anticipation, "to Aidan Bakerset."

The entire hall, minus the Slytherins, cheered as they were all ecstatic to see the cup go to someone other than Slytherin. The Gryffindors gave the five of us a standing ovation and Keiko kissed Aidan on the cheek – causing Aidan to promptly turn red – as Master Fung clapped his hands, changing the green and silver Slytherin decorations to red and gold ones, sporting the Gryffindor lion. "Gryffindor wins the house cup!"

As we left the Hogwarts express and prepared to return to the muggle world for the holidays, I pressed a piece of parchment into Raimundo's hand. "My number." I explained. "I taught Maria how to use a telephone over the year."

He grinned. "And you've got to come over, too. I'm sure Al would love to spend time with you." He pointed to where his parents were waiting, with little Alejandro standing beside them, smiling and waving at Raimundo and me.

"Make sure you call." I added over my shoulder, as I walked to where I saw papa; returning to a world where I was famous for my parentage and eagerly awaiting the end of the summer, when I return to the world where I am famous for me.

Yay! I've finally finished the first in the series! It may be a while before I start uploading the sequal - I have it all planned out, but I still have absolutely NO idea for the title! I may end up just naming them all with 'step' in the title - I know, I know; it's kinda sucky but I'm truly awful at titles!

Anyway, I'm going to try to finish my other stories before working on this series, namely:

Journey to the Past

Bittersweet Reunion

Somebody Save Me

& XS HSM (I'm sort of stuck on this one - I know exactly what I want to happen but I don't know how to start the next chapter - once I do that, I'm fine.)

I probably won't end up finishing them, just adding loads of chapters and then, when they're almost finished - at least Bittersweet Reunion & Somebody Save Me, which are set to me much shorter than Journey to the Past and XS HSM - I will start on the sequal to this.