Harry Potter and the Unicorn's Horn
by
Glee-chan
This is a fan fiction based on the J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter universe. I do not take claim to own any characters, places, and magical objects that are not original. Most characters are the property of Rowling, and I do not intend to make money off of this fan fiction, merely just writing for fun. I don't have a million dollars to fork over, thus does not want any legal action to be taken. The events in this story take place in a Book 6 alternate timeline
Chapter One
Harry Potter woke up late at night on a July evening at Number 4 on Privet Drive, blinking through what seemed like a fogged filled room. His eyes still not adjusted to the sudden awareness, burned slightly as he pushed himself from his laying down position to that of a groggy sitting one. What woke him up he was not all that sure of, but the after a few seconds of looking lazily around his room, he soon realized that it was his birthday once again.
Harry grumbled and laid back down in his bed. There was no real reason from him to be excited, there never really was. The only time he remembered having a birth worth celebrating was when his dear friend Hagrid had rescued him from the Dursleys on his eleventh birthday and took him to his true home: Hogwarts Witchcraft and Wizardry. The Dursleys only tolerated him because he was the child of Petunia's dead sister, thus never really treated him as a son, much less ever gave him a decent birthday. Not that it mattered anyway. Harry never had a decent birthday. He thought that it was no loss since he never experienced a true birthday.
Harry continued to lay there in his bed thinking of these things. His past was more colorful than that of any normal soon to be sixteen year old. Even compared to those in the wizard community. Not every child parents were murdered by the most dangerous wizard Lord Voldemort, then were attempted to be killed themselves. Not every child was famous for being the only person to ever survive Lord Voldemort's Avanda Kedavara - The Killing Curse, and receiving a lightning shaped scar on their forehead as a reminder of the incident. If that wasn't enough, not every child interfered with Voldemort's plan four times, and lived to tell about it. Harry truly was a legend in his own time. At least in the Wizard world.
In the Muggle world, the non-magic world, he was nothing more than an orphan child that no one liked or cared to bother liking. While he was famous and had lots of friends at Hogwarts, he was relatively invisible to the Muggles and had no friends what-so-ever. As can be imagined, Harry hated living with his Aunt and Uncle during the summers when he was not at Hogwarts but the ironic fact was that he was safer from the returned Lord Voldemort living under the same roof as Aunt Petunia.
He looked at the clock and realized that half an hour had past since he woke up and realized that he had just turned sixteen. He could not believe he laid there thinking about stuff he had thought before endlessly over and over again for a half an hour while he could have been sleeping. Harry lowered his eyebrows and closed his eyes tightly, as if that would help him get to sleep. Unfortunately his mind began pondering other things that he had pondered before.
Harry grumbled, having turning these thoughts in his mind constantly, the subject was boring to him. It was the only thing that occupied his brain though. There was absolutely nothing he could do on Privet Drive. Over the summer, had entertained himself by reading his old text books and the Wizard Newspaper The Daily Prophet. All of which seemed to annoy Uncle Vernon who wanted nothing to do with the magic world. Still Harry did this in his room, so that his family would not have to see him doing such "rubbish."
The mulling over of these thoughts suddenly jerked out of his mind when his body literally jerked out of bed. He was not the only one, objects in his room fell over to the ground as well. There came with these sudden happenings a low thunder sound in the earth, and the sound of his pig like cousin Dudley also falling from his bed. Shouts came from Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia's room as more things in the house seemed to have rattled out of place.
"The bastard child, practicing magic I bet!" Uncle Vernon's voice came from the hallway this time, advancing towards his room. Harry would have gotten up but more trimmers came along in another wave. The sound of his uncle falling was nearly drowned out by the noise of the thunder sounding from the earth.
The door to his room opened after awhile, as the trimmer continued, as if coming in waves. Some stronger than others. Uncle Vernon was supporting himself against Harry's door jam. "Stop whatever the hell you're doing, boy!"
"I-It's not me!" Harry shouted back at him, trying to get his voice heard over the thundering sounds.
"oppycock! Lies! Of course it's you!" Uncle Vernon shouted again, his face turning a shade of purple from anger and frustration. "Who ever heard of earthquakes like this in England!"
"I don't know what's happening…" Harry stated, but as he said this the house shook again. The sound of Petunia falling over in the hallway was heard shortly afterwards.
Vernon, who seemed to have forgotten about Harry for a second, exited out of his room to aid his wife. Harry could hear all three of the Dursley family talking to each other, though over the noise he could not make head or tail of what they were saying. Then Dudley poked his pink face into the door. "Hey Pot-head, we're going into the cupboard under the stairs!"
Harry smiled as Dudley rolled away from the door. He knew all to well of the cupboard under the stairs. That USED to be his room. The smile soon faded as the house shook a once again, sending his lamp off his night stand (which he was surprised later that it did not fall off before) crashing a million pieces on his black haired head. Harry could literally see stars floating around the already shaking room. Before he blacked out from the blow, Harry saw a tickle of blood drop drown from his head marking the spot where he'd hit the floor seconds later.
Harry's black out did not last for long. The continuing tremors , the house shaking objects off walls and tables onto the floor woke him up with a start. He attempted to stand up but was only forced back on the floor again. The blood that was gushing from his head seemed to have stopped, and the blood that had dripped on his face had a dried where it was when he blacked out.
A look in the mirror, Harry had a fleeting thought that he looked much like Two-face, with dried blood on one side of his face. Then he looked beyond his own image and saw someone else standing, as best they could, in his room. The figure of a girl he well knew, and one of his best friends: Hermione Granger. Stunned Harry turned around and saw that he was not imagining things.
"Hermione…" Harry blinked.
"Oh, Harry. Your face… are you all right?" She leaned against his bed for support in her standing position.
"Looks worse than it actually is." Harry said quickly and took the momentary stop of shaking to stand to his feet. "What are you doing here?" He asked quickly not meaning to be rude but knew if she was here and these earthquakes were happening, it had to something magic related.
While he was asking that, she was looking around his room, as though she were searching for something, without moving. Harry made his way over towards her. "Is there anything you're looking for Hermione?"
"Oh – Um, no. I was just looking. That isn't odd is it?" She looked at him with a strange look that he never really seen from her before, but having not seen that look from her before he didn't know what it meant.
"I suppose not. Listen here Hermione, what's going on? Why are all these trimmers happening? Is that why you're here?"
"Err- yeah actually I am here to collect you." She said simply. "The shaking is from magic battles, Harry. You-Know-Who and the Aurors have been battling for weeks. The Ministry of Magic has been having trouble keeping the battles away from Muggle areas."
Harry was glad he finally got some answers from the pre-occupied Hermione, who still looked around his room, and kept giving him that strange look. He shook his head and went for his closet and pulled out his trunk, that he had packed with all his Hogwarts supplies. Hermione, after just standing there looking at him blankly for a second jumped and started to clumsily help him.
"How was your summer …err… other than the war?" Harry tried to get Hermione talking. For the first time in his life he felt awkward around her. She was acting not herself.
"It was pretty much dull up till this point. Although I'd rather it be dull than to be battling against You-Know-Who.."
"Hermione, I thought you were over all this 'You-Know-Who' business…" Harry said out of frustration, mostly from being confused by the way she was acting.
"Oh - Yeah, sorry. Bad habit. V-Voldemort." She said, but the last part came out rather softly and more shaky than she had ever said it before.
Harry decided to ignore it. He wondered why he was being brought out of his house early and what the Weasleys where up too. He even wondered how the members of his DA (Dumbledore's Army) students were. He wondered if Hermione was acting on orders from the Order of the Phoenix, or Dumbledore himself. But asking questions to Hermione seemed like pulling teeth, so he thought it best to wait and ask question to where ever he was going.
"Harry - is this about it?" Hermione looked at all the stuff clustered that he had collected around him.
"Yes. I guess that's it. " He looked at the trunk, which had his owl, Hedwig, and her cage on top of it. "Mind if I ask how we're going to get out of here?"
Hermione pulled what looked like a frying pan from her robe and tossed it on his bed. "It's a portkey. Enchanted of course. Only the two of us can travel it, and we have to use the password." She said after looking at Harry's bewildered look. "I got it from Professor Dumbledore." She again gave Harry that weird look she had given him before.
"Dumbledore? So he sent you? Where are we going?" Harry could not resist. His thirst for knowledge of the magic world had increased since his summer long exile.
"Oh - um, well we are going to a safe house … of a .. err… a well established Wizard family. Professor Dumbledore did send me, and he said that he'll be along to explain things to you- us. To tell you the truth, my knowledge is pretty limited."
Harry nodded and looked at the port-key at which Hermione had been looking at the whole time. It seemed that almost every time she looked at him, that look came to her eyes again. Then after some silence, while waiting for the portal to open up, decided to ask another question. "Is Ron and his family going to be there?"
"Sooner or later…I would imagine." She said quickly again, then bit her lower lip.
Harry sighed heavily, wondering what she was hiding from him, and why it was so hard that she had to not even look at him anymore. But before he could think more of this the pan emitted a small blue light. The instant that this happened, Hermione grabbed his hand and jumped for the port-key, grabbing onto it. Then making sure that Harry had an arm on his things, she spoke "Explosive Lemon-drop!" The portal took them in a blink of an eye into a well furnished living room of what looked like a huge house.
The instant they appeared in the living room of what looked to Harry like a mansion, Hermione let go of his hand and turned her back towards him, almost shyly. Harry decided that instead of racking his brain over the behavior of women he was look closer in the room they had appeared in.
Aside from the his school things that were cluttered where they had appeared, it looked as though every piece of furniture was well decorated, fine, and ornate. It was the kind of place that one would keep their hands in their pockets just in case their hand went spastic and accidentally broke something.
On the wall there were pictures of wizards and witch that were from that family, all were elderly and Asian looking. It then occurred to him why Hermione was acting strangely about everything. This place had to be Cho Chang's house. Hermione knew that he really liked her, but last year at Hogwarts they had a chance to actually to go out on a couple of dates, but their relation always seemed to end up with fights.
Even though Harry had a good idea where he was at he decided to ask Hermione if this was Cho's house, just to sure. "Err- Hermione, is this Cho Chang's house?" He asked in a soft voice thinking that Cho could be anywhere and he did not want her to see him acting paranoid and stupid.
Hermione turned around, her eyebrows lowered and pointed toward the wall his back was on. On the wall there was a picture of Cho on her broomstick playing Quidditch, a wizard form of hockey, but with broomsticks. He looked at her picture a minute remembering how pretty she was, the picture only seemed to punch him in the head of how things ended last year.
"Harry?" Hermione voice came from behind him. "Things didn't work out the way you wanted them too, did they?"
Harry turned around sighing heavily, wondering slightly why Hermione was interested in his lack of love life. He shrugged figuring that it was a girl thing to want to know about those sorts of things. "You can say that. I told you about a billion times that I don't understand girls."
Hermione gave a small quiet laugh, which sounded a bit forced. "Well I'm pretty sure that girls don't understand boys."
"You don't have to try to cheer me up." Harry sulked. "You told me last year that she was jealous of you or something. I don't know if that's true or not. All I know is that it ended badly."
Hermione was quiet for a while. Then after a while of silence she asked quickly. "You don't like me in that way…do you?"
Harry nearly fell over on that question. Though Hermione had become one of the prettiest girls in Gryffindor, he only saw her as a best friend, and he thought she felt the same way about him, and knew how he felt. "Err - well you know Hermione. I mean you're my friend. I'm not saying that, uh, that you aren't like, uh…I mean … uh, no I never thought about you that way."
Harry hoped that he wouldn't suddenly get slapped of stuttering over that. This question he asked only confirmed his belief that he had no clue what happened in girls heads. Hermione, to his relief smiled happily, almost as if she were going to dance. On one side he was glad Hermione was not asking awkward questions, but on the other side he felt a bit insulted that she seemed a little too happy that he was not interested in her in that way.
"Why'd you ask?" Harry then said after a while of feeling huffy.
"No reason." She said quickly, then smiled even more.
Harry rubbed his forehead, his fingers tracing around his scar. All this was giving him a slight headache. Then the thought came to his mind that he had been in Cho's house and no one had came to greet them. It was as if the house was empty. Hermione did not say anything about them being there with out the Chang family.
Before he got the chance to ask her where everyone was Hermione coughed some what. Harry looked at her and saw her face turned a bit greenish color. Rushing over to her he tried to help her to the nearest crimson sofa, but she shook him off and ran out of the room with her hand on her mouth. Harry followed her up to the point where she ran into the bathroom and closed the door behind her.
"Hermione… you all right?" Harry asked the most stupid question in the world. He wondered if portal traveling had a delayed reaction on her and she was just now feeling sick.
An all assortment of gagging and grunting noises came from the bathroom, even some sounds of object being knocked over. Worried Harry waited outside the bathroom door, but Hermione wouldn't answer him. Even when the noises stopped she did not say anything, much less open the door.
It seemed like an hour or so that he was standing out there in front of the bathroom door, wondering if she dyed in there or was so hurt she needed help. He wondered if he should force his way through the door, being an underage wizard he was not positive if he could not cast a spell to unlock it without punishment. Before he made up his mind to tell her he was coming in, he heard foot steps behind him.
Turning around he saw that of the tall shadowy figure of Professor Snape. Two reactions happened when he saw his most dreaded teacher at Hogwarts. He was relieved to see some one who could use magic to open the door and help check on Hermione, and the other was a mutual contempt that both felt towards each other. However he knew that Snape would help him if another was in danger.
"rofessor - Hermione's in there. She's been ill for a long time, I'm worried she might be hurt." Harry said in a rush.
Snape narrowed his dark eyes at Harry and glanced at the door slightly. "What are you talking about Potter?"
"Hermione…she's hurt. She ran in there and I thought I heard her fall down." Harry tried again.
Snape looked suspiciously at him, then at the door that was indeed locked. "Granger. Are you in need of assistance?"
Nothing came from the door.
"Ms. Granger, this is Professor Snape. I am coming in if there is no reply. Now do you need assistance."
"Leave me alone." Came the muffled voice inside.
Snape glanced at Harry then looked at the door again. "Just how long as she been in there Potter?"
"About an hour or so." Harry said, then looked at near by clock to see if he was correct. "Maybe a bit less." He added sheepishly.
"Ms. Granger, are you decent."
"Don't come in here."
"Are you decent, Ms. Granger!" Snape was losing tolerance.
"Yes- err- No!" came the reply.
"Which is it?" Snape asked again.
No reply.
Snape cursed under his breath and started to walk away. Harry followed him, looking angrily at him. "You can't just leave her in there."
"I intend on doing no such thing, Potter." Snape grumbled. "Ms. Chang!" he shouted.
So Cho was in the house. Harry's skin suddenly dropped temperature and regained it just as suddenly, giving him a cold shiver. Cho was there the whole time. What if she heard him and Hermione talking about her, and was angry at him again. Harry sighed, yet again, trying to compare the need of Hermione to be well or seeing an angry Cho.
"Chang!" Snape called again. After no response he looked at Harry. "where did she go after she brought you here?"
"What?"
"Hurry up, Potter. Your dim mind is trying at times, but now isn't the time."
Potter gritted his teeth, feeling a surge of heat boiling his blood with anger. "Cho DIDN'T bring me here, it was HERMIONE!"
Snape gave a small smirk. "Mind your temper, Mr. Potter."
Harry didn't even look at him. Snape turned back towards the bathroom, with Harry following shortly behind him. Once he reached the door, Snape pulled out from his robe his dark wand. He pointed it towards the door, then tapped it on the handle speaking silently: "Alohomora!" The spell unlocked the door instantly. Snape nudged the door open with his foot reviling the girl laying on the ground with her back towards the door.
Snape and Harry walked in slowly, both noticing a cauldron in the bath tub. Both spoke silently at the same time: "olyjuice Potion." Then after saying that both looked at each other. Snape with the look that Harry actually know something about potions for once, and Harry with a look of surprised, directed mainly towards the girl on the floor.
The girl, now had long shimmering black hair. Both knew who she was at once. Cho Chang. Harry was too surprised to say anything. Snape on the other hand placed his hand on her shoulder, and spoke words directed towards her welfare. After a few moments Snape helped the small Asian girl to her feet and ushered the two out the bathroom, and into the living room.
"olyjuice Potion, Ms Chang." Snape said, a bit impressed. "Am I to assume that you conjured this up on your own without assistance."
Cho nodded, not looking at Harry.
Snape smirked at Harry, now understanding why Harry was talking about Hermione. "You took the form of Ms Granger, then."
Cho nodded again. After a pause she added: "To get Harry to come with me."
"Ah yes. Potter can be stubborn and difficult." Snape gave Harry another look.
Cho said nothing, but it was apparent that she did not go though the trouble of making Polyjuice Potion just because of that. Snape did not seem to mind anymore. After making a comment on how if they were in Hogwarts he would give Ravenclaw 10 points, he then was silent and waited for Harry or Cho to say something.
"Very well then. Ms. Chang, am I right to assume that this house has enough for you children to survive a week without guidance."
Cho nodded, Harry knew that guidance meant food and things of that nature.
"Then I shall take my leave. You two are to stay in doors. Others may come to check on you in and out. Be prepared for more guests." Snape looked at the two for a long moment then got up and started out towards the door.
"T-Thank you Professor." Cho said at last.
Snape nodded a nod that stated that he only was nodding out of politeness. Then he exited to the hall. Soon the sound of her door opening and shutting came, leaving Harry and Cho all alone.
Harry and Cho stared at each other from their seats both not saying anything to the other. Harry couldn't understand why Cho would go though all that trouble just to bring him there. It was not as if he would have said no if she just came as her to Privet Drive. She was part of the Wizard Community. He would have gone with practically anyone that was from it, that and on Dumbledore's side.
The awkward silence last a bit longer. Harry did not want to swarm the girl with questions. He figured it would be easier, mainly on himself, if he just waited till she explained it all. Girls were a complicated thing to Harry, well this girl anyway. He never could do or say the right thing, it always ended up with her yelling or crying at him. Where he was once comfortable talking to her before as Hermione, now he found himself with a lack of words.
After a while Cho stood up, slowly taking off her Hermione Gryffindor Robe, then folding it nicely she placed it on the chair she was sitting. She was still wearing the school uniform, which somewhat looked odd, them being out of Hogwarts. She turned back to Harry, her hands holding each other in front of her as if she was supporting herself emotionally. Her eyes shifted, as if she wanted to look at Harry but was to shy or embarrassed to do so. "I-I'm going to make some tea…" She said in very low voice. "Would you like a cup?" It was apparent that she was not going to volunteer answers anytime soon.
"Sure." Harry replied resisting the urge to ask her questions about the Polyjuice Potion.
Cho turn her back to Harry and walked slowly towards the kitchen, while Harry followed suit. He noticed that her hips swayed slightly as she walked, that her behind was perfectly round, her skirt only amplifying her feature. Then he realized that he was looking, then adverted his eyes to the left side, where he saw a long mirror on the wall. Cho's eyes were fixed on him, but on seeing that his eye caught hers, her eyes darted quickly in front of her. Had she seen him looking at her behind?
Harry felt extremely nervous now. If she saw him looking, then she was going to think he was no good and probably the yelling and crying would start again. He felt like running away and banging his head against something solid, much like Dobby did whenever he felt the need to punish himself.
The two arrived into the kitchen. Just like the Weasleys kitchen in the Burrow, there were all kinds of ordinary Wizard objects that Harry found fascinating, forgetting his troubles at the moment. Like Ms. Weasleys house, there was a clock that told the location of her mother, father, and of course her. It seemed both her parents were at the Ministry of Magic. In the sink their were dishes washing themselves, sponges cleaning the counter tops, and of course the occasional picture with people waving at Harry as he looked at them.
Cho glanced at Harry, having turned around so that she was facing him, and had be staring at him oddly, as he was totally gocking at what seemed to her ordinary things. Harry seeing that she was facing him, pulled himself from looking a butter Knife and a Spoon dueling. A small smile rose on Cho's face once he turned to her, which shocked him.
The smile rose into a laugh. Harry clearly was not in on the joke. "What?"
"Oh - I'm sorry. It's just you look like a kid in a broom store!" Cho giggled again.
"What do you mean?"
"The way you're looking at everything…" She tried to explained.
"I can't help it. I live with Muggles." Harry paused then raised his eyebrows. "You were doing the same thing when you came to my house. I thought you were going to take pictures."
"I was not." Cho shook her head, still laughing at bit.
"You were. I was wondering why my room was so interesting."
"Well you know, I never had been in a Muggle house before." Cho placed her hands on her hips. "And I know that you've been to Ron's House."
"Ron's house is a bit different." Harry tried to explain that it was cluttered with Muggle things that Mr. Weasley collected and filled with people anyway, so that one would spend most of their time looking at the living. He was about to start about garden gnomes when he thought that he was boring Cho. If he was he couldn't tell.
He stopped talking, and she looked down at her feet, the right one 's toe was digging at the wooden floor. Then as if she just remembered she sprung from that state she was in and walked over to a cupboard. "Tea…" She reminded herself.
Harry sat down where Cho had motioned him too while she started to prepare a pot of water to boil, and of course the necessary tea things. Then as if she were saying so idly she asked: "Have you ever been to Hermione's house…"
Harry wondered if Cho was obsessed with Hermione. Conversation always seemed to fall right back on her. Then of course end badly. "No." He said simply.
"Why not?" Cho's voice sound like it was trying to even.
"She's always on vacation somewhere. Plus the Dursleys wouldn't allow me to go some place fun over the summer. Also I'm sure her parents would think it odd for a boy to stay at their house with their daughter." Harry muttered, as if it were an auto response. "Besides, if I went to her house I'd end up doing homework the whole time, she's make sure of that…"
Cho muttered something under her breath, something that he barely heard, but around the lines of "She orders him around like he's her slave."
Harry choose to ignore it. Maybe Hermione was right about what she said about Cho last year at Hogwarts. Maybe Cho had a jealous streak.
Cho had finished boiling the water. Then she add her special blend of wizard brew tea (Harry knew this because she told him that it was one of those traditions that her mother taught her ) She placed the pot on a serving tray, with a bowl of sugar and a small cream filled cup, and two cups to drink the tea in. She arrived at the table she had assigned Harry to sit at, and slid the tray carefully on the it.
Harry smiled, filling sort of bad that he didn't get up and help her. The thought only just reached his mind. But Cho seemed to busy thinking to herself, and arranging tea condiments to even notice. After serving the tea, she leaned back in her seat, looking rather stiff, as if she was nervous about a job interview.
"Harry." She said something at last. Harry looked up at her but didn't say anything because he had tea in his mouth. "Can we - like - start over?"
Harry swallowed quickly and placed his cup down and blinked a bit confused. "Start over?"
"Last year." Cho looked down. "I was - we were… I mean… Well we were both going through bad times. You know? I was crying every five minutes and you… and the whole You-Know-Who thing."
"Yeah…" He wondered if she knew about his god fathers death, he hoped she did not bring it up.
"The best times I had last year was in the DA meetings." Cho said after a while to regroup her thoughts. "When you were…teaching me."
"I have to say that if it weren't for the DA meetings, I would have just left Hogwarts last year…I would have stole my broom like the Weasley Twins and flew off with them. The Order keeping me in the dark, special classes with Snape, Dumbledore ignoring me. And worse, that git Umbridge." Harry muttered out loud. He kept sure not to mention Sirius.
"You - you enjoyed them? I mean, teaching me- them?" She was stumbling over her words.
"Yes. The thought that we were doing something that was against the ministry was enough for me, plus…I got to spend more time with you." On the last part he said quickly and lower, then he quickly looked away at the spoon and the butter knife, which had stopped their battle and was now imitating them drinking tea.
Harry could hear that Cho was smiling. He could hear it. It was just something that he knew she was doing without seeing it. He then turned, a bit embarrassed that he actually admitted that to her, to see she was grinning and was blushing as he was sure he was doing.
Cho lean forward on her seat and reached her hands across the table, her eyes practically ordering Harry to do the same. Harry followed suit, and as soon as his hands were on the table, she grabbed them with her own hands. She still looked shy, but looked like she had been waiting to do this, as if she practiced it.
"Harry, remember that day we went to Hogsmeade, and everyone there was- kissing?"
Harry nodded. He couldn't forget that. He had been feeling awkward, wanting to be close to Cho but felt that he had to compete with the others making out.
"I really wanted to kiss you then." She said, not looking at him that time. "But I got scared…"
"Why?"
"Oh - I…I was shy. I was hoping you would kiss me." Cho said, then biting her bottom lip before saying her next sentence. "Sort of like I do now." Harry stiffened up. If he wasn't nervous before he was now. "If you don't want to I understand…" She said quickly, feeling Harry's hands freeze.
"No - I - well, I do. I just…" Harry wondered why this had to be so hard. He could catch a near impossible golden snitch by standing on top of broom stick while it was going near lightning fast, but was having trouble just leaning forward and kiss her.
"You're nervous." Cho said, and smiled shyly. "It's sort of cute." Harry smiled a bit. "I'm nervous too." She said after while.
Harry took a deep breath as he saw Cho lean forward. He saw that as she did this, Cho closed her eyes and her lips inched forward a small bit. Her cheeks grew pinker as her moved forward. He didn't really know exactly what to do, as his nose was practically touching hers. He swallowed hard and arched his lips forward, allowing them to meet with hers.
This time she was not crying, this time her cheeks were not wet and her lips salty from tears. This time her lips were very soft, and tasted slightly of tea, milk, and sugar. He pulled back, still holding her hands. Her eyes slowly opened, and her lips retracted, and moved upward in a small smile.
"Oh …" was all she could say.
Harry did not mind, he could not think of anything either. He wondered how he had problems doing that before. It was so simple, and it was very rewarding. Still as much as he had liked Cho the previous year, he felt strangely odd after that kiss. Like perhaps his feelings where all different after the events of last school year. However confused he was about the situation, he decided to keep it to himself. He did not want to upset Cho again.
"I'm glad you don't like Hermione." She said at last, which sounded a bit odd, like she was forcing herself to say something after that, but could not think of anything, so something just spurt it.
"She's just a friend." Harry said, almost annoyed that Hermione kept popping back up in the conversation. Then his mind went back to the Polyjuice Potion. "Cho…why did you--"
"You know why I did." Cho looked down, a bit ashamed of herself, and took back her hands.
"You just…wanted to know if I like her?" Harry asked after awhile. She only responded with a nod. "What do you think now?"
"I think - um - that you -" Cho stuttered. "I don't care anymore." She stood up and walked over to him, grabbing his hands and pulling him to his feet. "It's not important. We're alone finally, and we might as well take advantage of it."