Hey guys! I've decided to write a multi-chapter fanfic centered around Chinese New Year. As you can all probably guess, Cho Chang will definitely be one of the main characters. There may be a bit of Draco/Cho, but this is a DRAMIONE cause I love them. :) 2012 is the year of the dragon! So I did my math, and I decided to set this story in the year 2000, which was also the year of the dragon, to make things work.

So regarding the title, the Chinese idiom is "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." But to make it more Harry Potter-ish and to accommodate my story's needs, I changed the "Tiger" to "Lioness."

By the way, I'm part Chinese, and I annually celebrate Chinese New Year with the family. I hope this gives my story more credibility! ;)

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, but I do own one of the characters you are about to meet.

In honor of the first day of Chinese New Year, I have the first chapter done. Please enjoy!

Friday, February 4, 2000

Draco Malfoy was nineteen, rich, and single. The war was history, and life was relatively good. He and his family had been spared when the Ministry of Magic had sentenced all of the Death Eaters involved with the Dark Lord to Azkaban for life, and it was all thanks to his mother. The Boy Who Lived and Defeated You-Know-Who, as Harry Potter was commonly referred to nowadays, had testified before the wizarding court that Narcissa Malfoy had saved him and that she had been an important contribution to his success in bringing You-Know-Who to his demise.

He was the living proof. Draco and his father were pardoned for their treacherous acts in the past; the Ministry had done it as a favor for the wizarding world's newest heroine.

At first, post-war life had been difficult, with people constantly staring and whispering things to each other wherever he went. They didn't trust him, and Draco didn't blame them.

After he got by a year of doing good works such as volunteering at charity events and donating money, people began to treat him less coldly, and he was one step closer to being accepted back into society.

There was still a long way to go down the road to redemption, but he was determined to persevere to the end.

It was early afternoon, and he was running errands in Diagon Alley for his heroic mother. Blaise Zabini was accompanying him, and Draco was grateful he still had him as a friend—he had lost connections that were never reconciled with most of his former Slytherin housemates due to the war. And let's be honest—many of them still feared him because of his Dark Mark.

"Draco, I'm going into Flourish and Blotts to find a book. Meet you back here in ten minutes, alright?"

"Make that half an hour. I have to go withdraw some galleons from our family vault in Gringotts. We both know how long that can take."

Blaise snickered. "Have a nice ride." He waved and sauntered into the book shop.

"Bloody wanker." Draco muttered under his breath as he continued down the alley. (Who said that you had to have a clean mouth to be a good person?)

He passed by a peculiar shop and did a double take. How was it that he had never seen this shop before? He had walked by this part of Diagon Alley just last week—so what the bloody hell? If it looked this gaudy all year round, then it should have been impossible to miss.

He glanced around him, wondering why none of the other shoppers found the shop strange and out of place.

"Pardon me, sir." Draco called out to the man that was standing and reading a newspaper close by. "Is this shop always so…bright?"

The man peered over his newspaper to give him a funny look. "It only looks like this a few times a year. If it looked like this all the time, it wouldn't be here, if you catch my drift."

So it had been here for quite a while then.

Draco smirked. "This place could give Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes a run for their money when it comes to most eye-catching shop in Diagon Alley."

The man nodded in agreement. "Well, according to the Chinese, red is an auspicious color." He said no more and turned back to his newspaper.

There were weird characters in thick black ink everywhere—on the red door, on the red parchments, everywhere! There was a great deal of gold too—was that statue of an Asian-looking dragon made of solid gold?

"That would look pretty good in my room." Draco mused out loud. "On second thought…" He wrinkled his nose in distaste. He didn't know where the statue had been in the past, and he didn't really want to find out.

His eyes hurt from looking at all the red and gold the shop displayed, and they wandered up, catching notice of a sign.

Finally, something that he understood!

Grandma Chang's Divination Shop

What in Salazar's name? Divination Shop?

He immediately thought of Trelawney and shuddered. She was the reason why he never wanted to have anything to do with Divination ever again. It was all rubbish to him.

Draco hastily turned away from the odd shop and began to briskly walk past when he felt someone grab his arm. Tensing and acting on instinct, he jerked his arm away and whipped around to glare at the person who had dared to touch him. (Nowadays, he tried very hard to always appear as nice to even the most annoying people, but touching was where he drew the line. Touching was not okay.)

His glare faltered. It was an elderly woman. A smiling elderly woman.

"Nǐ hǎo!" She chirped.

Draco ran a hand through his blond locks in bewilderment. "Uh, look…I don't have the faintest idea about what you just said, but I apologize for my rudeness."

"Oh, don't worry about it, son." The Asian lady continued to smile at him.

Son? That was too intimate for his taste. She was just a little creepy. A little bit. Draco uncomfortably stuck his hands into the pockets of his trousers. At least she seemed to be fluent in English.

"Alright…I'll be on my way now. Have a good day, Madam." Draco politely bowed and made to walk away when the old woman gripped his arm again.

He resisted yanking it back this time. It took quite a bit of willpower, but he succeeded. "Was there something you wanted, Madam?" He asked with a clenched jaw.

Her smile widened. Draco was positively creeped out.

"Follow me, my boy! This way!" Her hold on his arm tightened.

"I'm sorry, Madam, but I have somewhere to go, and I'm meeting with a friend soon. Perhaps another time."

He was never coming back to this part of the alley again. His mother could go to Gringotts herself. He took out his wand, ready to Disapparate.

"Nonsense! It's only afternoon!" She waved her hand and started to drag him towards the open door of the red shop. When had the door opened? (But then again, this was Diagon Alley. Magic was no secret.)

Dear Merlin, save me! Draco silently pleaded as he grudgingly allowed her to pull him along. Being kind just got a whole lot harder.

And we meet Grandma Chang! That's it for the first chapter!

Just if you're interested: "Nǐ hǎo" is the phonetic spelling of "Hello" in Chinese. The Chinese characters are "你好".

I hope you guys are interested in sticking around for the rest. As much as I'd love to update daily, it's pretty impossible. But I'll update when I can! I'm not sure how long this will be yet haha, we'll see. :) ~Claudi Skies