A/N : House: Slytherin

Category: Short

Prompts: Cho Chang

Word count: 1009

Cho Chang was fuming. It was quarter to seven, and she would usually be halfway through her french toast by then. Today, however, she was still in her room, frantically searching for her potions essay, which was nowhere to be found. Desperate, she decided to wake the other girls in her dorm to ask if they had accidentally taken it.

"Girls!" she cried, receiving nothing more than a few grunts in response.

"GIRLS!" she said again, more urgently.

Marietta groaned and opened her eyes. "What..?"

"Do you have my Potions essay?"

"You-you woke me up for homework!"

"Well, yes. You see, Professor Snape said that the results wou…."

"I don't have your essay! It's probably in your trunk somewhere! Now let me get back to sleep, and don't say another word about that slimy git!" her friend interrupted.

Rather annoyed herself, Cho stormed out of the room. On any other day, she would have assumed her friend was right, and that her essay was indeed in her trunk. However, her things had been going missing all week. At first, she had wondered if it was her cat Tutshill's doing, but she quickly ruled that out. No, this was some troublemaker's doing.

Giving up, she grabbed her bag from her room and rushed down to breakfast. She still had an hour until the start of class: she might have time to write her essay again. She certainly hoped so…

However, as she devoured her toast, something unexpected happened. An silvery-grey owl landed in front of her, a note in his beak. He dropped it on her plate before flying away. Perplexed, she cast a few hex-revealing charms on the paper, and, satisfied that it was safe, opened it. The handwriting was both foreign and, somehow — familiar. She was sure she had seen it before, but it wasn't one of her friends'. The note read:

You fear your Potions essay can't be found,

But if you check the Owlery,

You'll find that it is safe & sound!

There'll also be another clue for you to see

Cho scowled. Apparently, the troublemaker had decided to start playing games with her. How amusing. She wouldn't play though. Well, except this time. This time, she really needed her essay. So, she ran up the steps to the Owlery and found her essay in a bunch of kibble. She opened it and noticed that certain words were underlined.

You found me! Bravo!

Now if you want the next thing I took

The library is where you'll go,

I'll also hide a note there telling you where next to look

Cho frowned as she vanished the lines that tarnished her perfect work. She didn't want to engage in any game with this troublemaking poet. However, she wanted her things back. She settled on thinking it over during class and rushed down to the dungeons.

She was distracted the whole day, mulling over her options. In the end, she decided that it would be best if she played along until she had got her things back, and then she would hex his (or her!) eyes out. Satisfied with her decision, she made her way to the library.

Upon her arrival, a note appeared in front of her, seemingly out of thin air. She glanced around: maybe her poet had been waiting for her. However, she found she was alone in the library, except for a cluster of first years, clearly too immersed in their Charms homework to do anything else. Sighing, she opened the third note.

I'm finding it harder and harder to rhyme,

But I hope for now this will do,

And I hope that your things aren't too hard to find,

This thing shouldn't be, it's with "The Book of Blue"

Cho wondered why this guy even bothered. Poetry clearly wasn't his thing. Then, she set about finding the aforementioned book, which turned out to be about the History of Ravenclaw. Her seeker gloves were folded neatly beside it and she slipped them into her bag. If her memory served her correctly, she still had her best self-inking quill, her sapphire pendant and her first edition copy of Franny and Zooey by J. left to find. She hoped the prankster would return them soon, though the absence of any further clues made her unsure of that.

She walked down to the Great Hall and sat with her friends at the Ravenclaw Table. Suddenly, something very unexpected happened. The enchanted galleon she kept in her pocket as a souvenir from her Dumbledore's Army days began to heat up. Excusing herself, she hurried out of the Hall to check it. The numerals along the edge of the coin were 19 31 18 02. The 18th of February was today, and a quick glance at her watch told Cho she only had 5 minutes to get to the Room of Requirement.

She arrived in front of the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy one minute early and only slightly out of breath and looked around at what seemed to be an empty corridor. Then, Harry Potter appeared out of thin air.

"Invisibility Cloak," he explained, seeing Cho's perplexed expression. She nodded understandingly. "I-umm-here are you-your things," he stammered, thrusting a bag towards her.

Taking and opening it, Cho saw that the pouch did indeed contain her book and quill. "What about my necklace? And what happened to the rhyming notes?" she enquired.

Harry gulped and stepped towards her. He opened his mouth but didn't seem able to make so much as a sound. Instead, he took the pendant out of his pocket and fastened it around Cho's neck.

"Why did you do this?" she asked, breath catching in her throat.

Harry laughed nervously. "Forgot I wasn't a poet and I thought it would be kinda sweet…"

Cho blushed. "It was," she assured him.

Stepping even closer to her, his voice a mere whisper, Harry said one last thing before their lips met. "Besides, how could you blame me for borrowing a few trinkets when you outright stole my heart?"