~Say Goodbye, Dave Matthews

"Hey Pucey!" The voice is desperate.

"Hey Chang!" he yells back, tired of being talked to today. He's supposed to be alone, now. This is his time. Chang should get the fuck out of his quiet time, he decides. Even her hotness doesn't make up for the permanent red of her eyes and nose, the quiver in her voice, and the fact that she's interrupting him!

"Talk to me," she begs, running up to him and matching his long-legged stride. He nearly trips and falls headlong into the snow. She's still the beautiful girl he remembers, on glistening black hair done up in a beautiful braid and her cheeks stained red from the cold.

But no matter what, as a rule, Cho Chang doesn't speak to him. Cho Chang is a Ravenclaw. They're against each other in Quidditch all the time. They just don't get along.

And now she wants him to talk?

He breathes out, long and hard, and then says, "What about?"

With a sort of relieved look on her face, she says sweetly, "Why are you here alone, for one thing?"

They're walking along the edge of the school grounds, very far from the Castle, with the Forbidden Forest less than an arm's-width away. He looks at her sideways for a second, and then says harshly, "Next question."

She shrugs, probably wanting to keep his company, he thinks smugly. "Fine. Be that way. Then answer this question: What do you think when you look at me?"

He rolls his eyes. "A younger woman. Hot. Always crying. Chirpy and happy too often, or at least you used to be. Overly emotional. Brain. Amazing Chaser. Wouldn't mind snogging you."

Her cheeks get redder and she looks at the ground, playing with the finger of a glove. "Interesting analysis," she says.

"You went out with Potter, right?" he asks.

She nods, scuffing the snow with a fashionable boot. "Why? Jealous?" she teases shyly.

"And what if I am?" he asks, winking at her.

She blushes even harder, if such a thing is possible, but cannot hide a grin. "Harry was…involved. With others." And then her face puckers, and he looks away quickly.

"Don't cry, please. Merlin, Chang! Get hold of yourself!" When he looks back at her, she's wiping her eyes and trying to smile.

"Sorry. I imagine you hate over emotional people, eh?" she asks, clearing her throat.

"Yes," he says, with no wish to spare her feelings.

She looks down, and shivers. "I'm freezing," she says. Maybe she's hinting something, but he doesn't care to know what.

"Well, you're wearing the heaviest coat I've ever seen in my life," he says with a grin.

"Ooh, I love it! It makes me so happy!" she says, swishing it around her legs. It's the strangest mix he's ever come across - sort of a cross between a long, beautiful cloak and a big, puffball Muggle coat.

He looks up, at the strange purple-white clouds, at the grey of the sky, at the weak shining of the tired sun that only wishes to hibernate. Groaning, he looks back at her. "Merlin, Chang. You're just another girl, eh?"

"I - Yeah." She bites on the thumb of her glove and then smiles winningly. "But you like girls, right?"

"I could go both ways," he says, winking. She giggles.

"Who knew Slytherins could be so charming?" she teases him, pushing on his shoulder.

"Who knew Ravenclaws could be so not-annoying and sexy?" he responds, stopping and turning straight towards her. He's got her head-on, now, and she can't get away. The smell of pine in the air and the lights shining across the snow from the Castle seem to set the mood perfectly. She sighs, a small, sweet sigh, and then he grabs her shoulders aggressively and snogs her like there's no tomorrow.

Her lips taste of orange and salt and some girl cosmetic, and her hair feels so soft and beautiful in his hands. She radiates heat, warmth (How can she possibly be freezing? he finds himself thinking), the light from the Castle and the smell of pine from the forest. She's perfect, like a slice of heaven.

And they stay there like that for who knows how long, just holding each other and kissing and not saying anything at all.

Tomorrow the spell will be broken, pine and orange will not fill the air, her face won't be the only thing he can see, her smile lighting up her face. The feel of her hair will be lost to him, the warm pressure of her lips on his. This is precious, fleeting, and he grasps at anything he can get with a strange sort of desperation that he's never felt before.

And when she leaves him, with a little kiss and a whisper of, "Time to wake up," and hurries away like a silent dream? When that happens?

He can't say he didn't expect it.

A/N: I'm a crazy Cho obsessor right now, and I thought she'd welcome me back fittingly. This is for the Adrian Pucey Challenge (obviously, then, he is Adrian) at the HPFCF. Just to let you know - I won NaNoWriMo with a shocking 51,028 words!! I'm so proud of myself! =D Of course, it can never be read by a human being, at least until I edit it, but that's beside the point…

Also, I do not own "Say Goodbye" - Dave Matthews Band does, and same with Cho & Adrian & the Castle & the Forbidden Forest...:D

Yes, so, anyway, review!!