A Little Bit Like Hope
DM/CC
"It might sound completely crazy… but I actually think I'm in love with you"
Cho glanced over at the boy, sitting uncomfortably on the sofa next to her, looking more and more vulnerable as the seconds past and smiled knowingly.
"I was wondering when you'd realise that" she replied. Her fingers found his on the soft cushion of the space between them. The time passed and neither of them broke the silence.
I do not own Harry potter. I also do not claim the rights to any song lyrics or references I may use within the following fan fiction.
Chapter One: Broken Hearts
Today was going to be the day, Cho Chang decided firmly as she stared at herself in the full length mirror that hung on the wall, next to the entrance to the sixth year girls' dormitory, in the Ravenclaw wing. Today would be the day she pushed aside all thoughts of him and returned to her studies.
Since Cedric's death three months previous, Cho had changed so dramatically, she could hardly tell that the person staring back at her in the mirror was herself. She had suffered the summer holidays in a never ending spiel of tears and mood swings until September the first had rolled around once again and after demanding that she was in a fit enough state to return to school, she'd caught the Hogwarts express; determined to show the world that she was coping. She wasn't.
In fact only a week into the school year, she'd crumbled once again. Now after six weeks of half hearted attempts to show up for classes, constant talks with Professor Flitwick, her head of house and the kindly matron, Madame Pomfrey and foul tempers, Cho had awoken that morning feeling as if she could, for once in the past three months, cope with the death of her first boyfriend and best friend.
Her thoughts returned once more to her appearance and she shuddered at her reflection. Cho had always considered herself to be moderately pretty, although the majority of others would consider beautiful, but now her once shiny dark hair hung limply round her shoulders and her brown almond eyes had lost their sparkle.
She sighed and dragged herself into the dormitory bathroom, in an attempt to fix her face before facing her fellow students.
Draco Malfoy smirked at himself in his mirror, before fixing his prefect badge to the front of his perfectly pressed robes. Blaise Zabini rolled his eyes from where he lolled on his four poster in the dormitory he shared with Draco.
"I can't help the fact I'm so good looking" Draco drawled, catching his best friend's expression.
"Or that your so modest" added Blaise sarcastically. Draco smirked again.
"That too" he agreed, and then slung his books into his school bag, flung it over his torso and beckoned for Blaise to follow him.
"Aren't you going to open your post?" Blaise asked casually, staring pointedly at the cream envelope that lay innocently on Draco's chair. The heavy black wax seal gave away its senders identity immediately.
"Nope" Draco glared at the envelope as if it had just bitten him.
"Draco… you have to make arrangements soon. Pansy's father is not a man to mess with" Blaise warned his friend and Draco shrugged.
"Neither am I" he replied in his velvet voice, a tone reserved for moments of extreme anger or passion. Blaise never ever questioned the tone. He enjoyed living too much.
Sighing, he rolled off his bed and grabbed his bag, then followed Draco's steps out of the Slytherin dungeons.
Okay… so far, so good, Cho observed as she headed as inconspicuously as possible, towards her charms class. People were of course staring at her, whispering about her, gossiping but she could handle that. She expected it and dealt with it for long enough by now. Ignoring the mutterings of her fellow pupils, she sped up and rounded the corner, colliding with the person coming in the opposite direction.
"Oh Merlin! I'm sorry! I wasn't paying attention-" Cho cried from where she was sprawled on the floor. The person she'd collided with was also on the hard stone floor, but shook off her apologies as he climbed gingerly to his feet.
"No matter" he said, as soon as he saw who he'd collided with. Cho Chang was in a delicate state of mind and he wasn't very good with tears. He offered his hand to her and finally she glanced up, catching his gaze.
"Malfoy?!" she gaped at the blonde Slytherin. Cho was not all that familiar with the Slytherin prefect; in fact she'd never spoken to him before. She knew how he taunted Harry and his friends, how he was a foul tempered snob and that he played for the Slytherin quidditch team. She also knew that his father was in lord Voldemort's inner circle and that he could make your life hell at Hogwarts if he so chose. Therefore she realised that accepting his offer of help was probably the easiest thing to do.
"Thanks" she winced, as he pulled her to her feet and rubbed her side tentatively where she suspected a bruise was already forming from the fall.
"You okay?" Draco asked, as he handed her her school bag. She nodded and took the bag, frowning at the tear in its side.
"So are you going to charms today?" Cho asked as Draco made to leave. She didn't want this interesting interlude with the notorious Slytherin to finish just yet. She was curious about his behaviour.
Although she was a year above him, Draco was a particularly talented wands man and had been offered extra classes with the sixth year charms students.
"Err... Yeah. They've changed the room though" he replied politely, "didn't you know?" he added.
Cho shook her head silently. Of course she didn't know. She hadn't been to charms in five weeks!
"Ill show you" Draco said and swept off down the corridor. Cho straightened her robes then hurried off after him.
"God! You walk fast!" she moaned as they raced along the hallways and up the third floor staircase.
"No, you just walk slowly" Draco replied, "plus you made me late" he added as an afterthought.
"Well you weren't paying attention either" Cho snapped back and Draco paused at the top of the steps.
"Didn't you take full responsibility for the collision, not a mere ten minutes ago?" he jogged her memory and smirked. Cho frowned.
"Wow – the Gryffindor's were right" Cho muttered under her breath. But Draco, having the hearing of a bat, heard and she felt him stiffen for a second, then he continued to walk, albeit at a slightly faster speed.
"Wrong again, I'm afraid. The Gryffindor's are never right." He corrected and did not speak to her until they reached the charms classroom on the fifth storey.
"pleasure to meet you Miss Chang" he said as he held the door open for her, then brushed past her and slid into his seat at the back, without even an apology to Professor Flitwick.
"Sorry I'm late, Professor" Cho muttered as she hurried to take a seat next to Hermione granger at the front of the class. She liked Hermione, who had also been offered the advanced classes. She was friendly with Harry and very understanding.
"No problem Miss Chang" Flitwick replied, startled to see her back in class and looking so composed.
"Now then, back to manipulation charms!"
"Good to see you back Cho!" beamed Hermione, once they'd been left to practise manipulating a length of ribbon into tying itself in a bow. Hermione had already completed the task and her ribbon now quivered in a perfect bow round her charms book looking very much like a gift wrapped parcel. Cho acknowledged it in envy then smiled back at the younger girl.
"Thanks Hermione" she replied warmly, then tried her spell once more.
"So are you feeling… you know...? Better at all?" Hermione asked awkwardly. Cho felt her stomach tightened but shoved those feelings aside.
"Much better. I'm a lot calmer now" she smiled and heroine beamed at her again.
Cho frowned again at her ribbon which was hovering lopsided in the air, quivering at one end as if it were thinking about cooperating. She chanced a glance over at Draco and watched as his long length of silver ribbon twirled itself into the word Draco at a mere flick of the wrist. She watched as he turned to speak to another Slytherin boy and casually flicked his wand again so the ribbon read, "Draco is a god".
She almost laughed out loud at his boldness, but stopped herself just in time, coughing instead. Draco heard and glanced up, catching her eye. He gave her a long look, in which she felt that he had just x-rayed her every thought and feeling, then his lips twitched up in the briefest of smiles, before he turned away.
"Cho? Are you alright?"
Hermione's voice drifted into her thoughts and she snapped back to reality.
"Yes. Yes of course" she replied, too quickly. Hermione glanced over her shoulder to see who Cho had been looking at and rolled her eyes.
"For goodness sake…" she muttered and flicked her wand over at Draco's ribbon.
Cho laughed as, obliviously to Draco, the end word changed from "god" to "git".
The day passed without trauma for Draco, except for the brief period of annoyance when he realised someone had manipulated his ribbon in charms to proclaim him a "git", but as days went, it hadn't been too bad.
He'd decided to grab and apple for dinner as he hadn't even picked up his knife and fork, when pansy began dropping heavy hints about whether or he'd received her father's letter. He waved her away and stomped out of the great hall, grabbing an apple from a second year Hufflepuff's plate. Why did they never get apples he was curious to know. The house elves must be punishing them…bloody things.
He paused as he slid out of the castle entrance and felt the chill of the autumn air whip his face. He wondered for a minute whether heading down to the lake was really the best thing, or whether listening to pansy's whines would be warmer. However his decision was made by the sight of a lone figure sat on the bench beside the lake. Cho Chang.
"Hello again" he punctuated the silence with a bite of his stolen apple.
Cho started and stare up at him wildly, her eyes round in shock.
"Oh" she said simply, when she saw who it was. Draco frowned at her lack of greeting and bit into his apple more ferociously.
"How are you?" Draco asked formally and Cho shrugged.
"Not so great" she admitted, her honesty catching Draco off guard. He took a seat next to the dark haired girl and offered her a bite of his apple. She declined with a smile.
"I'm sorry" he muttered after a while.
"For what? I thought wed already established the collision was my fault" she gave him a mischievous grin, then turned to stare out across the lake again.
"No… not about that. That was your fault" Cho grinned again at his words.
"I'm sorry about Cedric… about what happened last summer" he forced the words out and cringed internally as they came out wrong.
"Don't" Cho said simply.
"Sorry" Draco muttered again, acknowledging that she probably didn't need it bringing up again.
"I said don't" Cho sighed, turning to stare at him. Draco frowned.
"Don't what?"
"Don't apologize. It wasn't your fault. I hate it when people say their sorry as if they had something to do with it. I wish people would just carry on and not mention anything to me. They should be mourning for his loss just as much as I am"
Draco mulled these words over in his mind, before replying.
"Okay then… how about I just say… I wish the circumstances were different" he suggested. Cho nodded.
"That will do fine. Thank you" her eyes were still trained to his face.
"You feel guilty don't you" she murmured, her gaze intense. Draco made to protest but gave up.
"Of course I do... my father… you know what he is… what he did… to Cedric, to all those other people" he trailed off.
"You're not your father Draco" Cho replied soothingly.
"You're much more. I doubt your father would have helped me up this morning, or held the door open for me or would even care that I'm sat alone beside the lake" she pointed out and Draco stared at her.
"Your very observant" he answered dryly. "Too observant – you'll be the undoing of me"
Cho laughed. The first time in weeks and felt instantly better.
"I think you may just be my cure Draco Malfoy"
"That would make you infectious" he played along, harmlessly flirting, pushing the boundaries. It was something he was good at and it made Cho laugh again.
"What a line!" she giggled.
"Hey! You set it up" he protested, holding his arms up in surrender. Cho shook her head, the grin still on her lips.
"Hey... Do you want help with that manipulation charm?" Draco asked suddenly and Cho caught his eye. She smiled at him, marvelling at how his eyes were almost the colour of molten silver.
"Yeah. Yeah I really do" she nodded, remembering her disastrous attempts in class that morning.
"Great – ill meet you in the library tomorrow- say eleven thirty?" Draco raised his eyebrows. Cho nodded.
"Ill be there" she replied and Draco gave a brief nod and stood up.
"Don't get cold" he warned, "see you tomorrow"
"Yeah…" Cho replied, quashing the feeling of disappointment in her stomach that he was leaving.
"Oh and Draco…" he turned, "thanks"
Draco hesitated then gave her a curt nod and turned away again, striding off up the grassy slope towards the castle.
Cho shivered involuntary, hugely aware of the lack of his presence. Everything felt colder, less exciting without it. She bit back a smile as she glanced up once again at his retreating form and sighed.
It could just have been her imagination but she was starting to feel something that felt a little bit like hope.
Authors note: So that's chapter one. Hope you enjoyed it. Now firstly I know my grammar and spelling sucks but the story's not illegible so please don't torment me with complaints. Were here for the story are we not?! Lol. If something's really confusing then do tell me and ill correct it immediately.
Secondly – what do you think of the plot so far. Any ideas for the story would be greatly welcomed! I get writers block sometimes and so interesting twists are great!
Thirdly – is Draco too out of character. There's no history with him and Cho so I just went with a softer version but I can make him more Draco- ish if you want?!?
READ AND REVIEW!!!! Please