Written For:
Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition: Round 9 - Beater 1 - Beater's Bat: Write about a bully. / Prompts: 2. (word) defeated / 11. (word) grass-stain / 15. (word) slate
The Musical Category Competition: Sweeney Todd
Pretty Women - Write about a beautiful woman.
Are You Crazy Enough to Do It?:
Prompt 106. (character) Cho Chang
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry: Roald Dahl Day Event
Turquoise room - Write about a Ravenclaw
Beta'ed by Sophy, Em, and Lexi.
Warnings for canonical character death.
xXx
Turning Over a New Leaf
Fourteen-year-old Cho Chang smirked cruelly. "Marietta, I'll never understand why you're a Ravenclaw. You're not that smart, you don't study hard enough for your classes, and you don't even participate during class. If I'm being perfectly honest, you give Ravenclaw a bad name."
Marietta looked down at her feet. "At least I'm not a bully," she mumbled.
Cho glared at her. "At least I have friends. No one likes you, Edgecombe," she countered.
Marietta looked up, her eyes blazing, and a forced laugh exploded out of her. "You think people like you? They don't like you; they fear you. A bully is never truly liked. Everyone is just nice to them so they don't gain unwanted attention."
Cho clenched her hands into fists. "You don't know what you're talking about. People like me. I have friends."
Marietta threw her head back and laughed again. "You're delusional." And she left.
Cho moved to walk away but stopped when she noticed Harry Potter standing a little bit away. "What are you looking at, Potter?"
He shook his head and left.
Cho crossed her arms over her chest. Edgecombe didn't know anything. She had friends. She did.
X
When Cho walked onto the Quidditch pitch, she immediately noticed Cedric Diggory sitting on the grass. She did a quick check to make sure her hair and makeup were perfect before she approached the handsome Hufflepuff.
"Hello, Diggory. Good win against Gryffindor."
He looked up at her. "You call that a win?"
"It was."
He shook his head. "Maybe officially, but I only count wins as wins when the other Seeker is able to stay on his or her broom. If my request had been listened to, we'd be having a rematch. Instead, I'm forced to deal with a hollow victory."
She made a face. "What's the big deal? In my books, it doesn't matter how it happens. A win is a win."
The look on Cedric's face was nothing short of disgust as he stood up. "You know, Chang, you might be beautiful on the outside, but you're ugly on the inside."
He turned and walked away from her, and she tilted her head. She couldn't help but notice the grass-stain on his robes. Even so, his words kept bouncing around in her head.
'I'm pretty on the outside but not the inside?'
X
Even with Cedric's words, Cho didn't try to change. She was at the top of the food chain, so to speak, and everyone else should learn their place.
She wasn't a bad person; she was just making sure everyone knew where they stood in Hogwarts' precious social hierarchy.
But, as one of the best, she deserved to be paired with the best. And that was where Cedric Diggory came in. All of the girls wanted him, and that made him worthy of her.
He didn't seem interested in her when she flirted, but she wouldn't be defeated. When Cedric was around, she was as nice as she could be, but when he wasn't… Well, let's just say, maybe the insult 'two-face' was a good way to describe her.
Still, it worked. The following year, she was on the arm of the real Hogwarts' champion during the Yule Ball. Cho made sure Potter knew he wasn't the true Hogwarts' champion. How dare he try to steal Cedric's glory.
She was blissful that year. It was a perfect year. At least, it was perfect until the third task when Cedric…
Cedric…
She pressed her face into her pillow as memories of his prone body laying on the grass of the Quidditch pitch assaulted her. She couldn't even think the awful word.
Cedric couldn't be gone. He just couldn't be.
X
Cho tried writing to her friends. Daniella and Marcy didn't answer any of her owls. She tried fire-calling their houses, but their parents said they were too busy to come to the fireplaces.
Whenever she called them, they were always too busy.
She needed their support, but were they there for her? No. They were too busy living their lives. They didn't care about Cho or her grief. They didn't care her first love died in such a horrific way. They were too selfish to care about anyone but themselves!
What kind of friends were they?
Edgecombe's words came back to her from fourth year. "They don't like you; they fear you."
Daniella and Marcy were proving they weren't true friends, but Edgecombe couldn't be right. The reason for their selfishness couldn't be because of how Cho was as a person. It just couldn't be, because Cho deserved friends, especially during this hard time.
Then she remembered what Cedric had said the same year. "You know, Chang, you might be beautiful on the outside, but you're ugly on the inside."
Had he been right?
She had spent so much time lying to Cedric, showing him that she had changed. He died believing she was with a nice person. If he had known she continued to bully people behind his back, he never would have dated her.
She hadn't deserved him. Cho claimed he was worthy of her, and that was why she pursued him. In reality, though, she hadn't been worthy of him.
Cho sniffled. She had never felt so alone.
Maybe she should finally change. It was a little late to change for Cedric, but she could change because of Cedric. Maybe it was time for her to become a better person.
X
"You want to help me?" Marietta asked incredulously.
Cho nodded as she stood in front of the table that Marietta was ensconced at in the library. "You need help with Transfiguration, don't you?"
"It's my worst subject," Marietta conceded, "but since when are you interested in helping me? You usually only care about ridiculing me for being a dumb Ravenclaw."
"Can't we just start off with a clean slate?" Cho asked hopefully.
"Only if you tell me why the sudden change of heart. Forgive me for not trusting you, but it's kind of odd you're doing a complete 180 from last year when I was still your favorite victim."
"Isn't it possible that I simply changed over the summer?"
Marietta stared at her.
Cho closed her eyes. "Cedric died last year. And I spent all year lying to him, pretending to be a nicer person, just so he'd date me. Maybe I want to finally make the change I told him I made. Maybe I want to try to be the girl he thought I had become. Now, do you want my help or not?"
Marietta stared at her for a moment longer, and then she slowly nodded. "Sit down."
Cho took a deep breath and did so. She happened to look by the Charms books and saw Harry Potter watching the interaction. She was surprised by the small smile he gave her before he disappeared behind a shelf.
She shook her head. Why should she care if Potter was proud of her? She was doing this for Cedric. And maybe a little bit for herself.
As Cho started explaining a Transfiguration principle to Marietta, who avidly listened, Cho couldn't help her next thought. 'And maybe this is a way to finally have a true friend.'
xXx
(word count: 1,208)