A/N: This is a prequel (of sorts) to one of my other fics, A Study in Green, which is, and remains, a one-shot because this fic (also a one-shot) does not include Draco Malfoy as a main character. For all you Cho-lovers out there, I apologize in advance for how I've portrayed her.
Warnings:Mild insanity and a less-than-healthy obsession on the part of one Cho Chang; character death; fem!Harry; mentions of homosexuality
Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns all recognizable characters and plot points in this fic. I'm just playing.
Cho Chang hated Rosalind Potter. The chit was obnoxious, attention-seeking, and just - just - too just.
"It's Ro. Just Ro." Probably most of the people the Girl-Who-Lived had introduced herself to got that line. Just Ro. Truer words had never been spoken.
Rosalind Potter wasn't pretty. She didn't have long, sleek hair, or a feminine body like Cho did. Her nails were always dirty and ragged, and her clothes were the ugliest things Cho had ever seen. And that included some of Loony's drawings of her ridiculous 'invisible creatures' and Granger's gravity-defying hair.
Rosalind Potter wasn't smart. She had average grades: not failing, but not amazing either. At least Granger used her brain from time to time.
Rosalind Potter wasn't pretty; she wasn't smart; she wasn't particularly talented at anything other than being the topic of rumors and showing off on that ridiculously expensive broom of hers. It was very evident that Rosalind Potter was nothing special.
So why, why, was Cedric Diggory so interested in her?! Cho was prettier; Cho was smarter; Cho was top of her year in Charms and Ancient Runes. Cho had been flirting with him for nearly four months now - since before his name came out of the Goblet of Fire. But nothing seemed to get through to him! He was firmly under the impression that they were just friends.
And this? Well, this was the last kneazle in the bag. It was bad enough that Cedric had turned down her invitation to go to the Yule Ball with her. No, he had to have gone with the one person Cho couldn't tolerate: Rosalind Potter.
And what was worse was that, somehow, by some miracle, Potter had been made to look like a girl. Gone was the boy's uniform that so irritated Professor McGonagall (Cho could tell it did; the woman's eye twitched every time she saw Potter). Instead, Potter had on dress robes of some shimmery silver material that disguised her whip-thin, childish figure. The disgustingly boyish hair-cut (although Cho hesitated to call it a hair-cut; that would imply someone had purposefully cut her hair like that; it should be a crime) was somehow tamed into gentle waves like a bob from the twenties.
Cho glowered at Potter, only half-listening to the conversations around her.
" - know where she's been hiding - "
" - Potter and Granger sure look - "
"That hair!" At least she knew that voice. Lavender Brown was nothing if not a social butterfly and queen of gossip.
Looking around the room, Cho's glower deepened into a sneer. Nearly every single Hogwarts boy - and a fair amount of the foreign boys as well - were gawping at the Champions. Viktor Krum - international Quidditch star - had, for some unknown reason, asked Granger to the Yule Ball. Like her friend Potter, Granger had done something - her hair wasn't three feet tall, for starters. Fleur Delacour had Roger Davies on her arm. (Cho had to hide a grimace; she'd gone on a single date with Roger before deciding he was only into her because she was pretty and cared nothing for her personality. If Delacour hadn't been so snobbishly French herself, Cho might have felt sorry for her.) And Cedric had asked Potter. She couldn't imagine Potter had asked him; she'd expected her to come with her tag-a-long Weasley, or maybe even the pitiable Longbottom.
The food wasn't memorable; Cho didn't even know what she had ordered, only that it was bland and tasteless. Even as she danced with her date (Robert Clearwater, younger brother of last year's Head Girl), Cho couldn't stop watching Cedric with Potter.
They were smiling, dancing together, laughing, talking, dancing for long stretch of time, sitting at a table and conversing with Krum and Granger, dancing again, - they were gone.
Cho nearly pulled Robert out of the Great Hall and onto the grounds. Even though it was snowing gently outside, it wasn't very cold. Most likely Professor Flitwick's work, although it might have been Headmaster Dumbledore's. The charms needed to affect such a large area were complex and required both finesse and power; although McGonagall had power, she was no charms-mistress.
Robert looked like Christmas had come early, but she resisted his attempts to pull her into a nearby bush. She would find Cedric and Potter! She had fended off six separate attempts to get her to put out from Robert by the time she heard his voice - coming towards her! Without hesitation, she yanked Robert off the path and behind a useful topiary, where she proceeded to snog the living daylights out of him, listening to Cedric the whole time.
" - having a really great time," he said. She loved his voice. It was deep, but not too deep, and very calming.
"Me too." That was Potter. Her voice hadn't even leveled out yet to what it would sound like as an adult; she still sounded like a child, unlike Cho. There was an awkward pause between the two, and Cho inwardly rejoiced as outwardly she removed Robert's hand from her arse and pressed it back to her waist. Only Cedric would touch her there.
"I'm glad I got to you early. I'm sure you'd have had boys all over you if I hadn't." Anger simmered up inside her and she bit harder than she'd meant to on Robert's lip. He made a noise of protest that thankfully Cedric or Potter didn't hear. She'd harbored a hope that Potter had asked Cedric, and that he'd accepted out of pity; now, that hope was crushed into a burning ball of rage.
"Actually," Potter spoke up, and there was the sound of water being diverted from its natural path. Apparently, there was a fountain near the two of them. Ugh. So much for hoping for a completely unromantic atmosphere. Professors Flitwick and McGonagall did far too good a job, Cho thought in frustration as she bunched her hand in Robert's hair and jerked him from trying to give her a hickey (and failing magnificently; she could've given Cedric three by now) back to her mouth. "Only a few boys asked me. And it's not like I could've said yes. You asked me right after I got past the Horntail." Cho nearly choked on Robert's tongue in surprise. He asked her before they announced the Yule Ball!
"Well, I couldn't take the chance, could I?" Cedric sounded suave and tender and gentle and romantic, and Cho would've given anything in the world to be the one he was speaking to.
"Even if you hadn't," Potter responded, and Cho hated that she sounded so breathless. "I would've said no to all of them."
"And if I never asked you at all?"
There was no answer, and Cho couldn't stand the not knowing, so she pushed Robert back forcefully. He lost his balance and stumbled rather noisily into a nearby bush, revealing a Weasley - one of the twins for certain, because the pathetic boy-toy of Potter's had shown up alone - entwined with someone who looked like Katie Bell but she couldn't be sure because she was too focused on seeing why Potter hadn't responded.
When she did find a place to peer through to where their voices had sounded earlier, Cho felt like vomiting. Cedric's perfect Seeker hands were cupping Potter's face in an obviously tender fashion, and tilting her face so that he could kiss her better. And Potter - 'just Ro' Potter - was kissing him back, was kissing her Cedric, had her grimy Gryffindor hands in her Cedric's perfect hair, was smiling with a disgustingly besotted look on her face at her Cedric. It simply wouldn't do.
Cho's hand twitched towards her wand - which was stuffed into the inner lining of the hem of her dress robes (which were, admittedly, a little shorter than strictly allowed) but she'd only just found the hard outline of her elm and unicorn hair wand when a hand grabbed her elbow.
"Hey - what'd I do?" It was Robert, hair mussed and looking thoroughly snogged. Cho felt a surge of irritation towards the older Ravenclaw; if only he'd been a minute slower in finding her...
"I got a bit claustrophobic," Cho lied wildly. The statement didn't really make sense, but Robert nodded anyways.
"Penny gets that way too. Are you feeling better now?" If she wasn't so in love with Cedric, Cho might have given Robert a chance. He seemed genuinely concerned about her. "D'you want to - you know - go back?" He wasn't talking about going back to the Great Hall, and her burst of affection for him withered and died like she hoped Potter would, only her feelings died without any pain. She glanced back at the fountain - Cedric was gone, and so was Potter. Damn.
"Let's take a walk," she said instead. Robert looked put out at the suggestion, but gamely offered her his arm. As well he should. Cho placed her fingers just below the crook of his elbow, and allowed him to steer her through the newly-grown hedges that bordered the charmed-clear gravel paths. They saw more than a few couples - both on the paths and off - but not the one that Cho was looking for. Twice she had to drag Robert away from interrupting other couples - the French Veela's allure was too much for him, and he was as much a Quidditch aficionado as the rest of the male population at Hogwarts, even if he'd supported Ireland over Bulgaria - but not once did she glimpse Cedric's handsome face or Potter's ridiculous attempt at styling her hair. Finally, she gave up on finding them outside.
"Let's go dance some more." Robert looked like he wanted to object, but she didn't give him time. "Then we can find a broom cupboard, or something." He closed his mouth and nodded. Too bad he didn't know she'd rather jump into the lake naked than do anything more than kiss him.
To Cho's frustration and irritation, she didn't see Cedric, or by association, Potter, for the rest of the night - or indeed, out of each other's company for the rest of the vacation.
Whenever she tried to corner Cedric, he was already with Potter. They were reading in the library, walking along the shore of the lake, pointing and debating some unknown subject, flying together, eating at each other's House tables. All in all, being an utterly, disgustingly, romantic couple. Only some of the Slytherins looked more nauseous at the sight of the pair than Cho felt, but that could have been because the two of them were dating their own competition, something that Pansy Parkinson had said (very loudly) only went to show how utterly insane Potter truly was.
It wasn't until the first Saturday of February that she managed to find Cedric on his own, walking back from the owlery.
"Oh - hey, Cho." His voice, even startled - it was rather early in the morning - was better than any sound she'd ever heard. They hadn't spoken since she'd asked him to the Yule Ball, and the time that had passed had only made her realize how beautiful his voice really was.
"Hello, Cedric. Lovely day." She berated herself internally at her uninspired comment. The weather? Really?
He grinned, and she felt her insides melt. "It is, isn't it. Ro and I are heading on down to Hogsmeade later. She wants to introduce me to her uncle. Do you have any plans?"
"Oh, my friends and I will probably go down and visit the usual places," Cho said casually, even though she felt more like screaming and hunting Potter down so that she could rend her into such fine pieces that even Professor Snape would be impressed with her method. "Maybe we could meet up for drink at the Three Broomsticks or something," she suggested, flipping her hair back over her shoulder in a move that should draw attention to her neck. It didn't work; Cedric just frowned out the window.
"Sorry, but that's where we're meeting Ro's uncle. Maybe next time though," he offered apologetically.
"Sure," Cho said through gritted teeth. If she was lucky, by the next Hogsmeade trip Potter and Cedric would be a thing of the past. "See you around." She continued on her way up to the owlery, fuming silently. Her mood only soured further when the owl she'd chosen left a long scratch behind on her hand, which stung all the way down to the village, even though she tried to distract herself by conversing with her friend.
In Hogsmeade, as she and Marietta passed by a teeming Three Broomsticks, she felt like cursing someone - preferably Potter - into a million pieces. Cedric had his arm draped over Potter's shoulders as they sat with their backs to the window. Only the other person at their table jolted her out of her trying to glare a hole through the back of Potter's head: Potter's uncle was none other than Remus Lupin! A werewolf!
While Cho prided herself on being open-minded and relatively liberal in her political views, she most certainly didn't want Cedric associating with such dangerous creatures, even if the werewolf in question was their old Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. She nearly took a step towards the Three Broomsticks, determined to put an end to their meeting, but Marietta squealed and pointed at a large canine shape in the alley just beyond the Three Broomsticks.
"Look!" she exclaimed, her curly brown hair bouncing with the force of her enthusiasm. "A puppy!"
With a stifled snort of amusement - Marietta was a sucker for all types of dogs, regardless of how big they were - Cho allowed herself to be pulled past the Three Broomsticks, pointedly ignoring Potter's friendly wave - the smug bitch - and towards the now-visible dog. It was big, black, shaggy, and friendly. While Marietta cooed over how precious and beautiful and adorable the dog was, Cho covertly watched Cedric and Potter. Potter and Prof - Lupin, she reminded herself firmly, as the werewolf was no longer her professor - were laughing over something, to the extent that Potter had to lean on Cedric far more than was seemly for such a public place. Cho glowered. At least Cedric wasn't laughing.
She and Marietta had just begun to head for Gladrags to browse when the door to the Three Broomsticks opened, letting out a burst of noise. Despite herself, she glanced back, only to see Cedric - with Potter clutching his hand like some ridiculously tall toddler - and Lupin emerge. The dog Marietta had been fussing over bounded over to Potter, dancing around her like the puppy Marietta had called him. The dog barked happily, and Marietta turned to look, a smile blooming on her face.
"Oh! It's Professor Lupin's dog!" she said. "Let's go find out what his name is!"
Before Cho could stop her, Marietta backtracked to where the dog was now sitting obediently at Lupin's feet and staring adoringly up at Potter. Great, Cho thought bitterly as she slowly followed Marietta towards the group. Even the dogs like her. Then, snidely, she added with no small amount of vindictive spite, Probably because she's a bitch. As if to prove her point, the dog reared up on its hind legs and licked Potter from chin to forehead, making her squeal in combined disgust and laughter as she pushed the dog off.
"Padfoot!" Potter exclaimed as Cho got closer. "That's gross!" The dog just wagged its tail innocently from where it sat, once again, at Lupin's feet. Cho wondered how the dog could sit so calmly with its back to a werewolf, but at the same time silently cheered it on for slobbering all over Potter's face. Cedric wouldn't want to kiss someone with dog drool all over their lips.
"Hi, Professor Lupin!" Marietta was already there, and Cho steeled herself for the upcoming conversation. "Your dog is just so cute and friendly. What's his name?"
Cho rolled her eyes but didn't say anything as she finally caught up with her friend. As if Potter hadn't just told the entire street what the dog's name was.
"Good morning, Miss Edgecombe," Lupin said in his usual calm voice that belied the monster he really was. "Padfoot here is actually Ro's dog. He's just living with me during the school year since dogs aren't allowed as pets at Hogwarts."
"Well," Marietta said, a mite cooler, turning her smile on Potter, who smiled tentatively back. "Your dog is very handsome, Rosalind."
"It's just Ro," Potter said in that infuriating 'just Ro' tone of voice that she seemed to save for those specific words. "And thanks. He thinks he's handsome too." Cho didn't know what to make of that statement, but didn't have time to ponder it too much, because the dog - Padfoot - had leapt to his feet and was tugging at the hem of Potter's cloak. "Okay, okay," Potter laughed, and Cho found a new thing to hate: Potter's laugh was far too feminine to come from someone like her. Potter should've had a laugh that was brash and obnoxious, not light and breathy and charming.
"Sorry," Potter apologized, "But Padfoot wants to go for a walk. It was nice to meet you!" Cho watched for a moment, her eyes narrowed in annoyance, as Potter, Cedric, Lupin, and the dog walked off down the lane that lead towards the Shrieking Shack. Her face fell into a glare as, just barely out of the village, Cedric pulled Potter in for a quick kiss, despite the leftover dried dog drool.
"Cho?" Marietta looked concerned. "Are you alright?"
"Fine," Cho snapped irritably. "Cramps," she offered as explanation when Marietta looked taken aback at her fierce response.
"Some tea will help," Marietta said cheerfully. "Come on. Madam Puddifoot's is just down the road." With one last glower at Potter and Cedric - who were now laughing and chasing the dog, who seemed to have broken up their kiss (Cho found she didn't mind the dog as much anymore; it, at least, didn't seem to like Potter and Cedric together any more than she did) - she allowed Marietta to pull her through the still slushy streets to the cozy and warm tea shop.
The dog made another appearance during the Second Task. It appeared that since Potter and Cedric had gone to the Yule Ball together, the organizer of the Tournament had had to find someone else to send to the bottom of the Black Lake. In the stands, Cho watched with a stony face as Potter finally surfaced, with both the black dog and a little blonde girl, a good hundred yards from shore. Cedric had come in first, hauling his best mate, Elijah Durnswick, to the shore while simultaneously dispelling a rather impressive Bubble-Head Charm. Cho had only just begun to learn about the theory behind them, although they weren't covered in class until sixth year.
As time passed, Cho could see Cedric get more and more anxious. She herself started to pray - even though she wasn't particularly religious in any sense of the word - to any gods that might be listening for Potter to either not come up at all, or to come up so horribly disfigured that not even Cedric's noble heart could find her attractive.
But Potter did surface, with the large dog and the little girl, and she found herself having to watch as not only Cedric, but Delacour as well, plunged back into the lake to swim out to Potter, even though it was completely unnecessary as the dog had allowed the little Veela to grab onto his shoulders as he paddled his way to shore. Potter, once relieved of her burdens, swam rather well, to Cho's dismay, even before Cedric joined her.
Then Cho had to watch as Granger, Delacour, and Cedric fawned over the wet, bedraggled, and scrawny (dear Merlin, even Granger looked better in wet clothes than Potter did in her task uniform!) Potter until the scores were given. When Potter came out second, tied with Cedric for overall points, Cho closed her eyes so that she didn't have to watch as he grabbed her and kissed her in front of the entire school. She wished she could plug her ears without looking churlish, so that she wouldn't have to hear as boys cat-called and whistled, and girls all around her sighed at the romance of it all.
After the Second Task, Cho didn't' have much time to try and get Cedric on his own. As a fifth year, she had O.W.L.'s coming up, and as a Ravenclaw, both her parents and her House expected her to pass every one of her nine courses with nothing less than an 'Exceeds Expectations' for any of them. She herself was hoping for straight O's - Cedric would have to realize how much better she was than Potter once he saw how smart she was.
Still, no matter how hard she concentrated on her studies, Cho couldn't avoid seeing Potter throw herself all over Cedric like the trumped-up hussy she was. They ate together - mostly at the Gryffindor table, but occasionally with the Hufflepuffs. If it was Cho dating Cedric, she'd eat at his table at every meal; Marietta would understand. Cho wasn't the only person that found the sight of Potter and Cedric giving each other bits of their dinner from their forks to be absolutely sickening; Weasley the Youngest and Dumbest - because even the Weasley Twins had some sort of brains between them - would sometimes pretend to gag into his plate, only to have Big-Hair Granger elbow him in the ribs, and Malfoy over at the Slytherin table would spend entire meals glaring daggers at Potter, which alarmed Cho slightly. Did Malfoy have designs on her Cedric?! If he did, he was out of luck. Cedric was very clearly into women (although Cho hesitated to label Potter one, because she knew boys that had bigger breasts than Potter did).
Cho also saw the Champion Couple - as the Hogwarts gossip mill had begun to call them - quite often in the library, sitting, rather unexpectedly, at a table with Granger and, surprisingly, Viktor Krum. None of them spoke very often - Cho would take the closest empty table she could find, just in case something of note happened - but anyone looking at them would be able to tell that the foursome was split very firmly into two couples: Granger and Krum (what on earth could the Bulgarian be thinking!?), and Potter and Cedric. Towards the end of May, Longbottom and Weasley the Dumbest sometimes joined them, although Longbottom was even more tongue-tied than usual, and Weasley seemed to be trying to decide between worshiping Krum or hating him. If Cho hadn't been so mad at Potter for stealing her boyfriend - because surely he'd only been a few days away from asking her out on a date - the whole spectacle might have been amusing. As it was, it was merely pitiful, and, no matter how hard she tried to squash it down, painful as well.
Finally, the Third Task arrived. Fresh out of her O.W.L.'s, Cho now had time to dedicate to the ruination of Potter's attempts at snaring Cedric. She'd hoped that the 'relationship' would fail on its own through stress and competitiveness, but no such luck: Potter, it seemed, didn't care about winning. All Potter wanted to do was survive, because - and Cho didn't believe a word of it, even if poor Cedric quite clearly did - Potter claimed that she hadn't even entered herself to begin with! As if anyone could believe such a blatant lie.
Cho glowered as Cedric and Potter entered the maze holding hands, which seemed to cause some dissent amongst the judges and start some grumbling with both the Hufflepuffs and the Gryffindors in the crowd, as well as the French and the Bulgarians, who, apparently (although Cho couldn't understand either of their languages, the gestures they were making were quite clear) thought that working together was cheating. Cho couldn't help but agree: it was very obvious - to her, at least - that Potter, worthless tramp that she was, had only gotten together with Cedric so that he would lead her to the Triwizard Cup in the middle of the maze.
After thirty minutes of nothing, red sparks shot up above the maze. Cho sat up in her seat - maybe Potter had given up!
But no, it wasn't Potter. It was Delacour, removed from the maze and completely unconscious, with her robes burnt and singed and most of her hair mangled so badly that Cho knew that not even the Veela would be able to escape a very short style for the foreseeable future. Some things not even magic could fix, especially wounds resulting from curses; Cho was no expert, but the burns and tears didn't look like they came from any animal she'd ever read of.
The next time red sparks soared into the darkening sky, hardly ten minutes later, Cho felt sure it would be Potter - liability that she doubtlessly was, and with a one in three chance - who was removed. Instead, it was Krum, also unconscious, but in nowhere near as bad shape as Delacour had been. Clearly, he'd either fared better against the curse, or bypassed it completely and been caught by something else.
Nothing happened for a good hour after that. Cho was one of the few in the audience not talking. Marietta had given up on trying to start a conversation with her, and had turned to her other neighbor - dotty Loony Lovegood - and had sparked what seemed like an argument about - of all things - mistletoe. Just as Loony was saying something about Snorkers or some other figment of her imagination, Cedric and Potter reappeared, Potter splayed out over Cedric, the both of them on the ground, ignoring the Cup as it bounced away from them. Potter was sobbing loudly, and that's what caught the audience's attention - Cho was more worried about how Cedric didn't seem to be moving.
For a split second, nothing happened. Then the world exploded. Potter was still crying, but Cho couldn't hear her any more. Instead, she heard someone - and then many someones - yelling and screaming, "He's dead! Diggory's dead!" as the rest of the crowd dispersed into a panicked mob.
Cho still hadn't moved. Cedric couldn't be dead. Not her Cedric! They hadn't even gotten a chance to go on a date! He hadn't proposed after she graduated, like he was supposed to; she hadn't gotten to plan their fabulously stylish wedding!
Her world narrowed down to one irrefutable fact: It was all Potter's fault.
She was on her feet and moving before she knew what was happening. Her wand was out, blasting a path through the crowd, ignoring the added screams that followed her out of the stands.
"YOU!" she shrieked once she was down on the field, running at where Potter was still clutching her Cedric, her poor, beautiful, dead, Cedric, unmoving as panicked students and guests ran around like whiskerless kneazles, subconsciously skirting the fallen Hogwarts Champions. "YOU KILLED HIM! I'LL KILL YOU!"
Granger appeared from the crowd and tried to stop her, grabbing onto her left arm from her side, but Cho left the girl in a Full Body Bind before the Gryffindor could so much as say her name. Weasley the Dumbest was dealt with in a nearly identical manner. Only a trio of red-haired men halted her from killing Potter where the two-faced murdering bitch lay sobbing on her Cedric's dead body. She vaguely realized that four adults (two women and two men) and a dog were converging rapidly on the champions as she faced down the three men who thought they could stop her from getting her vengeance.
The Weasley twins and the unidentified Weasley - no other family had hair in that unnatural shade of red - had her trussed up like a Christmas turkey before she could even shoot off a Cutting Curse at Potter. Once her wand was taken away, though, Cho's anger faded into despair, and she began to sob.
"He's dead!" she wailed to her unsympathetic captors. "She killed him! Killed my Cedric!"
"Er - Bill," she faintly heard as she sank into her new, dark world, a world that was empty without her Cedric. "D'you think we should - you know - put her out?"
A pause. "Yeah. I'll do it."
Blissful nothingness descended.