Heart
A Harry Potter Songfic
This is done from what Cho's perspective might be if she were to fall in love with Viktor
Krum. All the characters in this work of songfiction belong to J.K. Rowling. Please don't
sue. I am making no money off this fic. The song Heart belongs to Britney Spears.
***
Cho Chang looked at the framed photograph on her nightstand. A picture of Cedric. For
months after Ced's death, she had slept with the photograph, cried on it, prayed to it. It
had become her idol, her link to life. She had wanted to kill herself, but the picture kept
her going on. She wanted to do something, anything to be with Ced, even if it was just in
the afterlife. But something kept telling her not to take her own life. Her mind was
warring with her heart. She spoke to herself, softly, silently.
Heart,
I know I've been hard on you.
I'm sorry for the things I put you through.
Before you start to break on me,
Or ask for sympathy,
I need to make you see.
She had loved him. But it was a childhood love. Cho needed to be in the spotlight, and
she knew that that was a flaw that would eventually have destroyed their relationship.
She had wanted it to end normally though, not like this. She had felt like no one loved
her. Was that how Harry had felt when his parents died? It had been funny, when he liked
her. But he got over her very fast, when he began to notice Ginny Weasley. They had
been married the year Ginny turned 20. That had been ten years ago. Ced had died over a
decade ago. It was hard to believe. And now Viktor, wonderful Viktor with his smile and
his charming attempts at making her happy, was the being she loved.
Oh heart,
I'm not sure it's been long enough
To say what I feel is really love.
There is just one way to learn.
Sometimes we'll get hurt
And right now it's our turn.
Cho was frightened of love, she knew that. Ced, the love of her girlhood, had died. She
had become chummy with Hermione Granger and Fleur Delacour, only to see one lose
her sweetheart to Voldemort's arts, and the other commit suicide when a telegram was
typed wrong and told her that her lover was dead. Cho visited Fleur's grave every year
with Ginny and Hermione. Last year, she had seen a marker for Draco next to it. He had
felt so guilty, even though the telegram hadn't been his fault. His father had attacked him
a year after he graduated, and he reformed. The telegram he sent his father reading 'The
ideas you instilled in Draco Malfoy are dead,' had been misread and forwarded to Fleur
as 'Draco Malfoy is dead.'.
Give it time,
Help me through.
Heart,
We can do this together.
She knew suddenly that her love for Ced had been a young girl's rosebud love, that the
full-blown bloom belonged to Viktor Krum. It was the red rose of love everlasting, but it
was tinged with the orange-red color of the bittersweet blossom. The white rose of love
dead belonged to Cedric, and the pink rose of love forsaken to the men in-between. The
acidic, bittersweet tang of her love for Ced would always haunt her, but she could forget,
if she tried, and if her heart would let the dead past bury it's dead.
You're my strength,
You're my soul.
I need you now more than ever.
Viktor had asked her to marry him last night. She had told him she wanted to think it
over. If she wanted to be happy, she had to force her heart to agree with her mind. She
looked at the picture and Cedric's voice spoke to her.
"Live," he said simply. "Live again, love again. Don't think I hold it against you. Don't
let the past ruin the future."
Heart,
All the hurt will soon be gone.
If you, if you'll just keep on being strong.
You will always be my friend.
So keep on hanging in
And we'll find love again.
She knew life as Viktor's wife would suit her more than Ced's would have. Viktor was
still a top Quidditch player, was still in the limelight. He was more self-confident, better
at holding to an ideal Cedric was. For Cedric had been a bit like an unsheltered candle,
blown hither and thither by any passing wind. He gave up a tad too easily, was a bit too
considerate of the social niceties.
Give it time,
Help me through.
Heart,
We can do this together.
She knew that she could make marriage to Viktor work, and that it could be a wonderful
thing. She knew that losing Cedric had taught her to cherish things even more than
before, so that taking a vow to do so would not be to live a lie, as so many did. So why
was she so afraid of marriage? She realized that it was because for so many years she
had thought that she and Cedric were meant to be. Everyone else had thought so too. She
didn't want to marry because it would appear she was unfaithful to Cedric, not when all
her friends were widowed like Ginny or without lovers as Hermione was, the men that
they loved killed by the same person who killed Ced- Lord Voldemort.
You're my strength,
You're my soul.
I need you now more than ever.
Cho stood there in her room pondering over what she had thought unimportant before.
Ced's words echoed through the room. "Live again. Love again. Don't let the past ruin
the future...the future...the future." Then all was quiet. A tear slid down her face as she
walked to her dressing table. On it was a bouquet of flowers. She picked out a creamy
white rosebud and performed the petrifaction charm. She laid the flower atop the photo in
it's rose carved frame, then wrapped it in a scrap of the dress she had worn to the ball,
and placed it in the carved mahogany box she kept her other keepsakes in, as they were
no longer anything more than reminders of another era in her life. The burden of guilt
was shed, she knew the answer she would give Viktor. The rosy sun flamed against the
gilt and ruby sky, and for the first time in twelve years, she felt completely at peace.
Heart,
I know I've been hard on you.
I'm sorry for the things I've put you through.
Please don't you break on me.
I need to make you see
It wasn't meant to be.
'Cause you, you'll always be my friend.
So keep on hanging in
And we'll find love again.