Forever Mine, Forever Yours
Chapter One: A Secret
A/N: My first shot at a Cedric/Cho, though I have written other things before. Sorry if the first chapter seems a little lengthy, and don't worry, this is a Cedric/Cho story. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I own nothing except Paige and the plot. Everything else belongs to J.K.
"Cho, you are not going to that tournament."
"Dad! It's not a tournament, it's the Quidditch World Cup," Cho protested, following her father on his way to the study.
"Cho," her mother warned, her voice hitting that pitch that told Cho to tread carefully, else anger would explode. "We tolerated you being on your school Quidditch Team, but going to an actual Quidditch tournament? It won't do."
"It's the World Cup, mother. The Quidditch World Cup. Not a Quidditch tournament. Anyways, don't you know how hard I worked to get on the Ravenclaw Quidditch Team? They really protested a girl joining—they thought we were a load of pansies, but they let me on, didn't they? And now they think a girl can play just as well as a boy."
"There's a good reason why people protest girls being on Quidditch Teams. It's too dangerous. Girls should be studying, to make a difference rather than playing a sport where people throw things at each other a hundred feet up in the air."
"Mum!" Cho exclaimed, revolted. "Wasn't it you who told me that girls can be just as good as boys in anything? And that if I put my mind to it, I could achieve anything?" Her mother opened her mouth to retaliate, but Cho cut her off, intoxicated with sudden anger. "And mum, do you know how many girls there are on the Gryffindor Quidditch team? Three. Three. And they're really good, Gryffindor won the House Cup last year. And plus, Paige is going to be on the team with me next year."
"Yes, but how many girls are Seekers?" her mother asked, her voice etched in disdain, glaring at her daughter, as if daring her to talk back. Cho was glaring back, her eyes dripping in silent fury; her mouth set in a line so straight that it challenged Professor McGonnagoll's infamous one. One by one, she started to curse all the other Seekers, wishing at least one of them was a girl instead of a boy. Draco Malfoy, Cedric Diggory, Harry Potter—well, perhaps not so much Harry Potter as the rest, she admitted, her stomach giving a slight jolt at the thought of the black-haired boy.
"There, see?" she smirked, as if the matter was settled. "No more of this World Cup nonsense."
"Mum," Cho breathed, mortified. She dropped her anger in hopes of swaying her mother's opinion. "Paige already bought my tickets for me! And they're supposed to be really good! It'd just be a waste of money for them if I didn't go. Please mum, please just let me go."
"Cho. Are you even listening to me? No. You are not going. I will not allow you to get farfetched ideas into your head and start thinking that you're going to make a living out of Quidditch playing—"
"Who said I was? I don't want to Seek forever, and do it for a living. How is going to the Cup going to change that? Mum, please, it's a once in a lifetime opportunity, it's never going to happen again as long as either of us live. You have to understand!"
"You know dear…"
"Oh not you too," Cho's mother hissed, turning towards her husband, who remained still.
"I'm just saying that Cho here's got a point. What harm is going to come out of watching the World Cup? It won't hurt her grades, that's for sure. Cho's proved to us over and over she's perfectly capable of juggling Quidditch and school beautifully. Just give her this one chance, and we'll see," her dad said rationally, carefully to pick the right words to keep her mother from finding something to get angry over.
Cho couldn't help it—she was grinning from ear to ear. Her dad usually let her mom get her way with things, but once her dad intervened, she let in… well, most of the time, at least, and Cho couldn't help but feel that this time would be the same.
"Very well… She can go, I suppose. But I'm warning you—"
"I know! Behave!" Cho replied brightly, pulling the older woman into a hug and walking over to kiss her father on the cheek. "I'm going to go get packed, okay?" As she left with a great amount of spring in her step, Cho overheard her mother start to speak rapidly to her father in a hushed voice.
"Honestly, you always let her get away with these things. You're spoiling her. At this rate, Cho's going to turn out to be an awful little girl…" Cho just grinned, knowing her dad could take care of it by himself, and sprinted up to her room. She couldn't wait to get to Paige's house.
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"Cho, dear! How are you?" A tall, middle-aged woman grasped her in a hug, her blonde curls suffocating Cho's face.
"Great," she managed to choke out, wriggling a little to release herself from the woman's deathly grip. "Having a nice summer, Mrs. Carlson?"
"Wonderful. Shouldn't keep you down too long; Paige is upstairs in her room, sleeping. Feel free to wake her up. In fact, I think it's best if you go do that now. You're going to be late, otherwise. You two will leave with Mr. Carlson in a tick," Mrs. Carlson chuckled. "He's having some trouble with the Muggle clothes."
After bidding Mrs. Carlson a quick goodbye, Cho sprinted up the steps, wrenching open a door that lead to a cluttered, but tidy room. Odds and ends were sitting wherever there was space, on top of intricately weaved boxes and beautifully painted shelves, that proudly supported the kinds of things that showed the owner traveled quite a bit to get it all. Cho had always loved Paige's room, right down to the shimmery orange-tan curtains which she yanked open, so beams of sunlight fell across a matching bedspread.
A grunt came from underneath the sheets and a strawberry blonde halo of hair peeked out of the blankets, followed closely by a fair complexion and startlingly blue eyes.
"Paige!" Cho squealed, launching herself on top of the older girl.
"Oh. It's you," Paige grumbled in mock disgust, thrusting the covers back over her head. Paige, now entering her sixth year at Hogwarts, was a newly appointed Chaser on the Quidditch Team, and one of Cho's closer friends. Paige was one Cho's friends who shared her intense love for the game of Quidditch.
"Paige!" Cho shrieked, diving after the girl and tugging the blankets off. "Don't you have any idea where you're going today?"
"To… sleep?" Paige grumbled, reclaiming the fabric and pulling it over her head to block everything out.
"Oh, come on. Really? You don't know? Hello, the Quidditch World Cup? Come on, we only have about twenty minutes to get you ready."
At this, Paige's head reappeared, the halo of strawberry-blonde hair standing on end as if it were surprised. "You're not serious? Twenty minutes? Is that it?" leaping up, the halo streaked across the room and disappeared into the closet. "Wait… er… oh shoot, Muggle clothes."
There was more frantic scrambling from behind the closet doors and minutes later, the girl burst back out into the room, fully dressed and smiling excitedly, all trace of sleep gone from her eyes and face. Her layered hair fell neatly onto her shoulders, and she was tying a sack full of rattling coins onto her jean pockets.
"You know, I bet the stuff at the Cup is going to be amazing," Paige said conversationally, having particular trouble getting the sack tied on correctly. "I mean… even I can't fathom what kind of stuff is going to be there. At tournaments, the kind of things they sell is already amazing, and think of the kind of stuff they're going to come up with for the World Cup! Or… at least I hope they'll come up with some brilliant merchandise," she added as an afterthought, getting the bag on with a final knot. During Paige's little commentary, Cho's excitement surmounted all possible limits. And the excitement only grew worse when Mrs. Carlson's voice drifted upstairs.
"Time to go, girls!"
With shrieks of mirth, both girls flew downstairs, giggling and cheering. They each took a slice of toast and strode outside, hiking through the woods and keeping their eye on the bright pink backpack of Mr. Carlson. He was dressed in old-fashioned trousers with an old battered t-shirt covered with a golf sweater. His ensemble would have passed for a middle-aged, old-fashioned Muggle, if he hadn't been wearing a bright pink backpack and large, wicker sunhat ruined the effect.
When Cho's legs had begun to protest the long hike, and was near ready to ask where they were going and when they would actually get there, Mr. Carlson exclaimed, "We're here!"
Up ahead, Cho saw a group of people huddled around what looked like a crushed soda can, waving the three over. Cho's eyebrow shot up, and she craned her neck to make sure that she was seeing it right. "What in the…"
"No time, Cho! We're almost late, it's going to leave in a few seconds! Just get a finger on it. Lucky we got here right on time," Mr. Carlson told her, putting one of his own fingers on it and Paige following suit. All the other families already were touching the can, looking expectantly at Cho who was still hanging back. With an exasperated tut, Paige grabbed hold of Cho's hand and pushed it onto the aluminum. It felt as if the ground beneath her had been torn apart, and thrust into the air, a peculiar feeling wrenching her stomach this way and that, her body swaying dangerously and crashing into Paige's. Before she could properly register panic into her head, she collided quite painfully into the ground.
Her shoulder aching and her vision jarred, she heard a voice before she could properly see faces.
"Bickerdash Forest, twelve past ten."
Blearily looking up, she saw that Mr. Carlson and almost everyone else, including Paige was standing. Only another small boy and girl, who appeared to be twins were on the ground like her. Her face flushing red, Cho sat up, Paige extending a hand and pulling her up.
"What was that thing?" Cho asked, rubbing her shoulder.
"Honestly, Cho," Paige said with an air of knowing. "With a mum for a witch and being in the Wizarding world for five years, you have no idea what a Portkey is?"
"Oh, sock it. You know I always travel by Floo or by car."
"A Portkey is a trashy looking Muggle object, so Muggles won't accidentally pick it up and be transported right smack in the middle of a Wizarding population. It brings you to a certain destination at a certain time, that's all it really is. Really useful if you have kids that can't Apparate or anything, and if it's impossible to get there by Floo. Want to go find people? We can find the campsite later. Leave your bags… yeah, he can take that too… No, you might want to take your money though, never know what we might run into… Ready? Let's go." Paige took hold of Cho's right arm and steered her away from the crowd of people after they learned that they were to ask for Mr. Payne in the second field.
No sooner had they started walking that they were waved down by Padma Patil, a girl in their house, and met her twin Parvati. Then, they ran into Roger Davies, Captain of the Quidditch Team, who began to talk excitedly of the potential outcome of the game.
After a long conversation with Roger, they both walked away, Cho leading, since Paige was rather reluctant to leave him. To make sure talking to Roger didn't get to her friend's head, Cho launched into a conversation about next years Quidditch matches and possible new plays they could use.
Paige was talking excitedly about different plays she had thought of over the summer (Paige was a mastermind when it boiled down to practically anything), Cho caught a glimpse of a messy mop of jet-black through the crowd. Her heart jumping, she turned her head to see that next to it, was a bushy brown head and a fiery red blaze a few inches above both heads. Continuing to walk in what she hoped was a casual fashion, she waited until she could see his glasses and his green eyes. She looked away and talked to Paige, and turned her head.
Their eyes met for a crucial moment. Grinning, Cho waved. Harry, who seemed to be holding a bucket of water, detached a hand and returning the grin, started to wave back, but cut off when his bucket slopped water all down his front.
Cho turned her head away, hoping Paige hadn't seen. But her friend was clamping a hand over her mouth to smother her giggles until Harry disappeared from sight. When he did, her hand flew to her side and she erupted in laughter. "Oh Merlin!" she gasped. "Did you see that? Slopped water all down his front, just to wave to you. He's totally into you."
A blush crept onto Cho's cheeks as she nudged Paige, "Oh sock it."
"He does! Did you see the way he looked at you? And he sacrificed his clothes to wave back," Paige grinned wickedly. Before she could continue badgering Cho, a familiar face fought it's way through the crowd.
"Paige! Cho! Hey guys!" A cheery girl ran up and hugged the both of them, her long dark-brown hair pulled into her typical ponytail.
"Mandy!" Cho exclaimed with a grin, glad that Paige could no longer bother her. Mandy Brocklehurst was a bouncy Fourth Year Ravenclaw, and one of Paige's and Cho's better friends. She was the only other friend who enjoyed Quidditch as much as they did, though she wasn't on the team. Their other two friends, Lisa Turpin and Marietta Edgecombe had no love for Quidditch, and much preferred what they called 'girl talk' to watching or playing sports.
"Here with your parents?"
"Unfortunately," Mandy remarked, rolling her eyes. "Hey Paige, show me where your campsite is!"
"Well, we were just looking for it. We can all go and look for it together then," Paige smiled, motioning Cho over.
"Oh, you guys go ahead. My shoe's untied. I can catch up." When Cho stood up after tying her laces, she collided into something quite solid. With a mortified gasp, she apologized profusely to the tall wizard, who just shook it off.
"Don't worry about it, it was an accident. Cho Chang, is it?"
Startled, Cho looked closer at the boy she had just ran into. He was tall for a student, and older. He was actually quite handsome, with messy dirty blonde hair and gray eyes. Something about his stature seemed incredibly familiar, so familiar that it seemed as if she had watched him intensely before; and there was only one instance where she would study someone carefully in this fashion, so it had to be… "Cedric? Cedric Diggory? You're a Seeker aren't you?"
Cedric grinned. "I was wondering if you'd remember me. Never will forget that day."
Cho giggled, returning the grin with a wicked gleam in her eye, "When I stole the Snitch right under your nose in the Cup Qualifying match?"
"Now be fair," he reprimanded jokingly. "The Snitch was hanging around at the bottom of my broom. If you were me, you wouldn't have seen it either. Merlin, my dad wouldn't get off my back for that one."
"Fair enough," Cho smiled. "Are you still in school?"
"Yeah, my last year, actually. One more try to beat your team in Quidditch. I have all your plays mastered, you know."
"Oh I'm sure. Roger may seem thickheaded, but he's brilliant when it comes to Quidditch. Really, the only reason that Slytherin beats us is because they just play downright dirty," Cho scowled. Cedric gave an appreciative laugh.
"Enough about House Quidditch, what about the Cup?"
"Irish, hands down. Krum's an amazing Seeker, but the Irish Chasers are amazing. There's no way you can get by their formations," Cho remarked a-matter-of-factly. Cedric agreed, and they talked a little more before Cho broke off, remembering her friends. With a friendly wave, she ran off, knowing she had been gone a little too long for her friends' comfort. They'd have a cow when they figured out who she was talking to. She would just keep it a secret.