Ling grinned up at the castle. It was pretty big, but not quite as large as the palace where his father lived, where his father sat on a throne. A throne upon which Ling would soon recline.

Well, no point in dawdling—he'd best get inside. Despite it being summer, it was raining quite hard.

'-'

May stared at the castle, but quickly looked away when the sun shone in her eyes. If her information was correct, this was the right place. This was exactly what she was looking for.

She broke through the gate with simple Alkahestry and immediately froze when a kunai landed in the dirt beside her.

Damn, Yao was already here.

'-'

No one knew much about Ling Yao, nor did they know anything about the ninja bodyguards that followed him. They didn't know anything about May Chang either. What they did know was that they were looking for something, competing for something, and they would give almost anything to get it.

The Asians—for that was what they appeared to be—could be seen flitting about the halls of Hogwarts every once in awhile. Sometimes they were separate. Others they were fighting. At still other times, they could be seen simply staring at each other menacingly.

Oddly enough, the teachers could never approach them, not even Dumbledore. If the professors gave so much as a hint about restraining them in someway or making them leave, the mysterious strangers would disappear in a blur. That, or the teacher would find themselves hanging from the ceiling.

Where they stayed was a mystery. It was rumored that the Hufflepuffs were housing May, but no one except the badgers themselves knew if this was true, and they neither confirmed nor denied it. Yao could usually be seen exiting a door on the seventh floor, however, it always disappeared before anyone could enter.

Although they shared long black hair and their skin color, that was all. May's eyes were wide and seemingly innocent, while Ling's were narrow and slanted. Ling was very tall, but May was so short that she obviously couldn't be older than twelve. May carried a tiny panda bear named Xiao-Mei with her at all times, and Ling had no pets. It was almost as if they were royalty, the way they carried themselves, and Ling with his two guards gave him a slight air of importance.

Ling was very cheerful and had a voracious appetite. Sometimes he would come down to the Great Hall for meals, and he devoured plate after plate of any food he could get his hands on. May acted her age, but could often be serious. No one knew where she ate, but the general opinion was that the Hufflepuffs told her where the kitchens were located. Again, they neither confirmed nor denied it.

There was one thing that everyone in the castle agreed on, if a few didn't think the Hufflepuff theory was true.

Those two were strange.

In under five minutes they had managed to scare Filch and Mrs. Norris so much that they ran whenever any of the Asians came within sight. Ling had succeeded in forming an alliance Peeves, much to the Weasley twins' jealousy, and sent him to wreak havoc on May every few days. The first time, the poltergeist had thought he meant Cho Chang. It had caused a lot of confusion before Ling clarified that he meant "May Chang" and not "Cho Chang". Peeves had immediately set off to do his job. A few Slytherins and Ravenclaws were under the opinion that these minutes of mischief were to distract May from her goal and leave Ling to take the cake. Most of the students disagreed.

May talked to her panda as if it could understand, which it could, apparently. It could also perform kung-fu.

May also had a rather interesting ability—she would draw a circle on the ground with a pentacle (Hermione said it looked like Dark Magic), impale each point with a throwing knife, then put her hands on its edge. It would light up with a crackling noise and a lot of blue light and the ground or floor would morph into something (or in one case, a cloud of dust to block her from view) that would help her in whatever fight she was having.

In any case, this year was a lot more interesting than the last few. Or at least, that was what the older students said—it was only Harry's first year at Hogwarts.

'-'

The first time Harry actually met Ling, it was the middle of the night and he was running away from Filch. Malfoy had challenged him to a duel, but it turned out he had been tricked.

He, Ron, Hermione, and Neville had all barged their way through a door after unlocking it and had waited for Filch to leave. Neville had then drawn their attention to the scene behind them.

There was a three-headed dog. A three-headed dog who took up the whole forbidden corridor.

And there, on its middle head, sat Ling Yao.

Harry, along with the other three students, gaped in shock and surprise. Ling was stroking the dog's ear and humming softly to it. He gave them a smile and gestured for them to leave.

Needless to say, they obliged.

'-'

When Harry met May, it was not under such odd circumstances. She happened to be running around a corner at the same time Harry was walking by. She had crashed into him, and they had both flown to the ground in a pile of robes, limbs, and unhappy pandas. They lay there in shock for a few seconds before leaping to their feet.

"I'm so sorry, but I'm in a big hurry," she had squeaked. Then she had run off without a backward glance.

'-'

The second time Harry had met both of them, it had been the weirdest experience of his life so far, and that was saying something. He hadn't seen the two much in the months since they had bumped into each other—literally, in one case. Snape being after the Stone had been so distracting, along with exams, that he hadn't had the time to try and spot them. He had seen them a few times, like that one incident when Peeves was pelting a fleeing May with eggs and Ling was laughing at her. They had run (and flown) right by him, Ron, and Hermione, and they had gotten their fair share of the eggs.

Now it was hard to believe that it hadn't been Snape who was after the Philosopher's Stone. Heh, even Quirrell was more believable than the Asians . . . but now, thinking about it, it made sense. They had just shown up this year, when the Stone was placed, and they were looking for something worth putting their lives on the line for.

Now the question was, should he let one of them take it, or should he keep it from them?

It seemed, however, that he had no say in the matter. They were already fighting, Ling with the help of his bodyguards and May with her strange magic.

They dodged and parried, twisted and turned, they fought with such speedy grace that Harry could barely follow their movements. He just stared them for a while, watching as May was pushed closer and closer to the edge of the room.

They hadn't noticed him yet.

Harry lifted his wand shakily and pointed it at the fighting group. His mind went blank for a moment, then he fired off the first spell the came to him. "Petrificus Totalus!" He didn't know who the whispered curse was going to hit, or if it was going to hit anyone at all. But hit someone it did.

It hit May Chang.

Harry stared from his wand to the unmoving girl he had hit. A fierce and determined, if slightly desperate, expression was frozen on her face. She held two of her kunai level with her chin. It looked as if she had been about to strike.

His attention was drawn away by Ling's voice.

"Hey, thanks buddy! You made this a lot faster than it would have been. When did you get here, anyway?" The teen had an enormous grin stretched across his face. He turned to look in the mirror, and his smile seemed to widen as he stuck his hand in his pocket.

"I, uh . . ."

"Well, I'd better be going—I've got things to do and emperors to see. Bye!"

Harry blinked, and he was gone.

Turning back to May, he stared at her for a moment until he remembered the countercurse for the full body bind. When he had performed it, he cringed at May's heated glare.

"Why did you do that? Do you have any idea what was at stake? WHY DID YOU INTERFERE WITH THE AFFAIRS OF OUR COUNTRY?"

"I'm sorry! I just shot the spell, I wasn't aiming!"

May's glare turned to tears. Without another word, she drew a circle and a star, broke down the wall, and hurried away.

A few minutes later, Dumbledore found Harry sitting in front of the mirror.

'-'

Looking out the window in the Hospital Wing and down at the grounds, Harry could see the Asians conversing. Not arguing, not glaring, just talking.

Ling was crouching in front of May, saying something with a softer-than-usual smile, and she was staring back at him and crying her eyes out. He put a hand on her head and said something, and she replied almost loudly enough for Harry to hear. Ling stared at her for a moment, then laughed and stood.

They walked away.

This idea kind of just came to me the other day. And I decided I would not neglect it, unlike the other forty-some fanfiction ideas I have lying around.

The whole time I was writing this, I kept telling myself that I was supposed to be working on No Longer Envious . . .

. . . It didn't work, as you can see.

Please review and/or favorite, don't follow because this is a one-shot and a one-shot it shall remain.

-The Leaf on Italy's Head