Marietta remembers the first time she saw Cho Chang.
She was one of the many eleven year olds swept up in the sea of boarding students on the Hogwarts Express; albeit she was on the smaller side, and found herself getting jostled from all sides as she tugged her trunk along with her.
She bursts into the first compartment she comes across, which happens to be empty, save for one girl who looks to be her age staring at the window and waving at someone, probably her family.
Suddenly the train starts, making a long toot as it begins to chuff away from the platform.
And in that dying half-light between the station and the outside world, she turns around, her face glowing underneath the shadows.
"I'm Cho Chang," she says, and Marietta knows that she's someone special from that very moment on.
Cho is just a few people before her in the Sorting ceremony.
"Chang, Cho."
She walks forward, her chin held high as she places the hat that will decide her fate on her small head, carefully adjusting it as to not ruin her hair.
Marietta holds her breath for that moment.
"RAVENCLAW!"
She tumbles down the steps, her hair flying behind her and grazing Marietta's cheek. Time slows down as Marietta's eyes follow her, meeting hers for a split second as Cho sends her the smallest wink before sitting at her table, introducing herself in her musical voice that Marietta would love to listen to more.
"Edgecombe, Marietta."
She shuffles forward, trying to seem self-confident like Cho but failing. As the Hat settles its self on her head, she catches Cho's startling gaze on her before the world fades around her.
The murmurs are crinkling scrolls in her ears. She can hear her rapid breaths, her pounding heart, and, "I'm Cho Chang," repeating over and over.
"RAVENCLAW!"
Her eyes widen as she stares at Cho. This girl, who she's barely known for a few hours, is already some sort of pivotal point in her life.
She doesn't know much more than her name, her love of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, and that they're now in the same House, but she feels as if she's known her forever.
Marietta smiles back.
That was first year. Now it is early in the morning of their fifth year together, and she is silently braiding Cho's silky hair as Cho's hands apply make-up on her eyes.
Cedric Diggory. How Marietta hates him.
Oh, he was a fine person on his own - but now, in all his Champion, Hufflepuff Seeker glory, he was the one who stole Cho's young heart for the first time. Her first love.
Marietta doesn't understand. Why does she wish that she would get rejected? So that she would run back to her and stop talking about him all the time?
"Mari? Are you all right? Your braids are too tight."
"Sorry," she mumbles, undoing her handiwork and running her fingers through the black strands, sighing as she remembers their first year.
She's a glass doll now. Marietta is afraid that if she breathes the wrong way, Cho will break.
It's been like this ever since Cedric's untimely death. She shut herself off completely, not talking to even her.
Marietta's heart would break apart all over again every night, hearing Cho crying into her pillow, trying to hide her sorrow.
Why didn't she understand that she had a should to cry in? Why didn't she understand that she didn't have to hide anything?
Why didn't she understand that Marietta was there?
"Cho? she asks softly at the door of their dormitory, watching her struggle to pin her hair up with her trembling hands.
"I'm fine," she reassures. "Go on without me. I'll join you."
She's lying. She's always lying. All her life is now is a tower of lies.
Cho never comes. If she shows up for class at all, she isn't paying attention at all, just sitting there with a glassy glazing over her eyes. And she never comes for meals.
She's not tricking Marietta. She's seen how thin she's become, how the bags under her eyes are always there.
"Cho," she says more firmly this time, and she breaks down, her pretty butterfly hair pin dropping to the floor and shattering.
Marietta moves towards her and quickly wraps her arms around her small frame, pulling her best friend into her warm hold.
Her uniform shirt is quickly getting soaked. Cho's mascara is running everywhere. Her nose is runny and her eyes are overflowing.
This moment is both the most ugly and the most beautiful Marietta has ever seen Cho.
"Cho," she says again, and Cho nods, looking up at her through her half-lidded eyes, blinking away tears.
"You're loved," Marietta says simply, hugging her tightly. "Don't leave me now."
Marietta has always been a girl of few words.
Cho's only response is her fist tightening, clenching Marietta's shirt. She doesn't have to say anything, because Marietta will read between the lines, read the silence, look into her eyes; she always has and she always will.
"You're stronger than this," Marietta tells her. "You will not break. Remember him, but remember yourself too."
She rubs circles into her back. "Remember you in first year? Be that girl. Be that happy girl with no cares in the world."
"I've changed. She's gone, that little girl," Cho mumbles. "I lost her a long time ago."
"No." Marietta takes ahold of Cho's shoulders and looks her in the eye. "She's still inside you. You just have to find her."
Cho gazes at her, and Marietta says, "Because I know you, and I know that you're not a glass doll. I know that you're a strong, caring girl that stands up for her friends and her beliefs and I know that you're a girl with big dreams and and a bigger heart and I know that you still dream of sloppy first kisses and baking brownies and I know you, Cho, are not someone who will let someone who loved you break you."
The words run out of her mouth like water. "I love you, Cho Chang, for everything you are and I have ever since I first met you. You're not perfect but you're Cho and that's all that I need."
"And-" Marietta's voice cracks, tears flowing down her cheeks. "And I don't know what I'll do if you don't come back to me."
Cho's lips softly touch hers. Marietta blinks in surprise, her fingers touching her lips that still tingle with the feather touch of Cho's warm mouth.
"I never left," she says, smiling softly. "And I don't plan on leaving any time soon."
A/N: Written for Crystal (bluemermaid) on LJ.