Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, locations, or ideas from J.K. Rowling's books or the movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
A/N: I hope you enjoy the story. Just like the other fan fiction writers, I am assuming that Ginny and Hermione are BEST friends, despite--to my knowledge, at least--a lack of conclusive evidence in the canon supporting this fact. Please don't pay too much attention to the beginning; those familiar with my stories know that I tend to get carried away at the start. This story is not going to be exclusively Cho- and Harry-centric (although ff.net could use more Cho stories); there will be plenty of Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Draco. Also, future chapters will contain romance, though the pairings may be traditional or unorthodox. Also, spoiler alert!
Harry Potter and the Relic of Power
Chapter 1: Cho's Secret
Aboard the Hogwarts express at the beginning of this fifth year, Harry Potter was not quite himself. The strong urge to talk to a certain girl made him more nervous than usual. He had greeted Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger somewhat distantly, and they immediately noticed he was distracted. In fact, from the moment he had arrived at King's Cross Station, he had been keeping an eye out for Cho Chang.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione had little catching up to do, since they had, as usual, spent the last few weeks of the summer at the Burrow. While Ron and Hermione argued over something so trivial that Harry had already forgotten how it had started, Harry restlessly shifted in his seat and tried to concentrate on what he was going to say to her.
Of course, he had been thinking about it all summer, but he still couldn't find the right words. He wanted to apologize to Cho, his crush, for the death of Cedric. She would be the first one to know of his guilt over Cedric's death, but not the first person to suspect; Ron and Hermione had sensed his guilt somewhat, but they had both individually made conscious efforts not to bring up the situation until Harry was ready.
And he wasn't ready. But before he knew it, he was slipping out of the compartment his friends and he were sharing, and he was on his way to look for Cho.
Ginny Weasley saw him leave, sighed, and then reluctantly turned her attention toward Ron and Hermione's bickering.
Harry made his way through a sea of familiar and unfamiliar faces. The Gryffindors he knew all smiled at him and greeted him, but most of them were too deep in conversation to do much more than that. Harry was gratified, however, and he kept a look out continually for any member of the Ravenclaw house, especially any friend of Cho's who could point him in the right direction. Along the way, his determined mood made it unusually easy to ignore the Slytherins' comments towards him. He had almost reached the train when he had seen someone who he had vaguely remembered as one of Cho's friends. It was just before he had asked Cho to the ball in the previous year. He tried to think of her name, but couldn't quite remember. He walked up to her. "Hi," he said shakily.
"Hi, Harry," the girl cheerfully replied. She smiled. "I'm Carolyn Green." The girl had blonde, curly hair. For some reason, Harry realized, there were very few blondes in Ravenclaw. [A/N: I'm sorry; that was below the belt!]
"Er, Carolyn, right. Um, have you seen Cho?"
"Cho and her family live in Hogsmeade, so they don't take this train. You might see her just before you board your carriage for the school."
"Thanks." He felt somewhat hopeful. Then he felt he probably owed her some conversation. There were some empty bags next to her in the otherwise empty compartment, so her friends seemed to be away for a while. "So, are you a 6th year, like Cho?"
"Yes I am."
She probably meets a lot of guys just because she' Cho's friend, Harry thought. He resisted the urge to ask her to verify that.
Carolyn hesitated, and then said, "You know, Cho's a really busy person. Kind of like your friend, Hermione. But she doesn't really study a lot, more like an extracurricular reader. Tutors students sometimes, with Dumbledore's permission. And she writes a lot of stories for us. She might write for a living, she says." She paused. "I'm rambling, right?"
"No, not really." It was a white lie, maybe.
"Oh, it looks like I've discouraged you. Actually, well, I haven't told this to any boy but, you're such a nice one, and good-looking, too." Harry blushed slightly. "Did you know that Cho runs early every morning? That's why I think she's always in shape."
"So you're saying that--"
"Yeah," she interrupted in a friendly tone. "That's what I'm saying. I bet she's really fast." She looked up at the sound of her friends' voices and saw three of them enter the compartment. "My girls are here," she said simply.
Harry had no objections to meeting more Ravenclaw girls, especially if they were friends of Cho's who could help him get on her good side. He chatted with them for about fifteen minutes, getting to know the red-head Stacey Brown (no relation to Lavendar) and a brunette named Maggie Smith. Harry and Carolyn both met a brunette transfer named Lindsay McCourt.
All the while,
he resisted the urge to interrogate them about Cho. When he finally felt
that he should see what his friends were up to, he said bye to his new
acquaintances and headed back for his original compartment.
When Harry returned to the compartment, he saw his friends all turn their heads at once. Ron had a curious look on his face that seemed to ask Harry where he had been.
"I went to talk to some of Cho's friends."
None of them had expected that. They had all been talking about how he had probably found some place where he could be alone with his thoughts.
"Not on purpose I'm sure," Hermione teased.
Ron looked at Hermione and then realized what she had meant. "Oh, right, you meant to find Cho. I've actually never seen her on this train."
"Cho who?" Ginny asked.
"Cho Chang," said Hermione simply. Ginny's expression seemed to ask for more information, so Hermione obliged. "A sixth year Ravenclaw who plays seeker like Harry."
"I see," said Ginny.
Harry explained the conversation he had had with Cho's friends. "I'm going to take her advice and look for Cho as soon as we arrive."
"That's good," said Ron. "You know, I might want to catch a glimpse of her, too. I don't really have a good idea of what she looks like, but people say that she's really pretty."
"That's so typical of you, Ron," came Hermione's condescending tone, but she in a more teasing that vicious tone.
Harry stifled a laugh, but Ginny couldn't help but giggle. He looked at the smirk on Hermione's face, and then at Ron. "She's the prettiest girl in the school, I think," said Harry finally. "If you want to catch a glimpse of her, by all means go for it."
Ginny almost flinched at Harry's words.
Hermione groaned. "Didn't I just say that looks aren't everything?"
"She's the top student in her class," said Harry eagerly. "A really amazing girl, that one."
Hermione did not reply.
"Does she have cute friends?" Ron asked eagerly. Ginny and Hermione both rolled their eyes.
"There's no point
getting through to them," Ginny said to Hermione. "Come on, Hermione, let's
go see what the others are up to." Harry and Ron, so engrossed in their
own conversation, barely noticed the girls leave.
It wasn't raining outside like it was last year when the train arrived at Hogwarts. Amid all the shouting, hugging, and hand-shaking, Harry immediately darted towards what looked like a crowd of Ravenclaws to look for Cho. Ron was about to follow when he heard a familiar voice call out his name.
He turned around and saw Hermione, Ginny, and an Oriental girl smiling at him. He just stared breathlessly at the dark-haired girl with the large eyes and high cheekbones.
"Ron," Ginny continued. "This is Cho Chang."
"I'm Ron Weasley," he said finally. "Nice to meet you," he managed as he stretched out his hand.
Cho took it eagerly and shaked his hand in a way that was somehow firm yet very feminine. "Nice to meet you, too. I've heard that you're a great chess player."
Ron's face went red. "Um, yes, do you . . play chess?"
"Sometimes, but I'm not very good actually." She smiled again at him, and then looked at Ginny and Hermione. "Do you two play also?"
Instantly, Hermione said, "Yes."
Ginny said, "No, not really."
"I always beat Hermione," Ron boasted.
"Oh? Consistently lucky are we?" Cho teased.
Hermione stifled a giggle and gave Ron a look behind Cho's back.
"You would have enjoyed living in Ravenclaw, Hermione, if that was the house to which you were assigned. But your friends in Gryffindor are obviously irreplaceable."
Hermione looked
at Cho and then quietly thanked her for the compliment. Ginny blushed slightly.
Ron turned beet red.
Harry had ended up getting into an involved conversation with Colin and Dennis Creevey, but in spite of himself, he obliged them. He found out that if he was patient with him, he would actually be rewarded. They told him that their family had gone camping together over the summer, and they spent the last few weeks visiting France.
Perhaps, Harry
thought, this would be a good excuse to put off his apology. Now that he
was so close to telling her, he felt scared to do it. Besides, these stories
were pretty interesting, especially because Harry had never been to France.
When Harry saw the carriages were about to leave, he bade farewell to the
Creeveys and ran after the carriages where he was sure the others must
be. Dennis called out after Harry, "You're an inspiration to us all!"
The opening banquet and the Sorting Process was complete, and all the Gryffindors were in the common room catching up on each other's summer experiences.
"I really got Dudley to lighten up a little bit," said Harry. "He eventually pried some information from me that I'm sure Aunt Petunia wouldn't want him knowing. He actually started secretly helping me with some chores in exchange for some of my stories."
"Would you go far enough to say that you're friends, now?" Ron inquired.
"No, not really." Harry admitted. "Let's just say that I have more important things on my mind that make it easy to ignore what used to annoy me. I think Dudley has more important things on his mind than annoying me."
"Like what?" Ron asked.
"Like his girlfriend," Harry said.
"She's straightening him out, is she?"
Harry knew the immature thing to do would be to point out that this was true figuratively as well as metopharically. Dudley's skinny girlfriend had gently pressured Dudley to exercise and diet, and that left less energy for Dudley to use for punching Harry. On the contrary, Dudley was now quite interested in magic, and that's why he always wanted to hear stories from Harry.
"So even Dudley knows you have a crush on Cho?" Ron asked.
"Yeah." Harry replied.
"She's a nice girl," chimed in Hermione.
"I'll say," said Ron enthusiastically.
Hermione gave him an ambiguous look.
"You've met her?" Harry asked.
Ron filled him in.
Harry felt only slightly peeved. He filled them in on the Creevey brothers' summer experiences.
"Cho is gorgeous," said Ron plainly as soon as Harry finished talking.
Harry didn't mind. "Yes she is."
Hermione rolled her eyes. "She's smart, too. Maybe she and I can discuss some things."
"Like Spew?" Ron was joking. He saw the look on her face and frowned. "I was just kidding, you know."
"Of course you were," teased Harry.
"So Hermione," Ron began, "you broke up with Krum?"
"Yes," said Hermione, sounding solemn. "He was a nice person, but definitely not my type."
"Okay, Ron's satisfied," teased Harry.
"What are you talking about?" Ron objected.
"Give it up, Ron," Hermione said playfully, "It was pretty obvious by the way you reacted to me during and after the ball."
"Well, I would have liked to tell her in a more dramatic way," Ron said with a little bit of frustration in his voice, "but yeah you read right through me. Satisfied?"
"I wanted to go, and I was wondering if his offer was the only chance I'd get."
"Oh. So you just couldn't say no, because you didn't think anyone was gonna ask you? Well, I was gonna ask you," Ron said.
"Sure you were, Ron, you spent the whole time chasing down the prettiest girls in the school and were lucky to end up with a date at all!" Hermione said self-righteously.
"Forget it, Hermione," Ron said slightly impatiently. "Who's up for wizard chess?"
"Count me out,"
said Harry. "I'm going to bed." He got up and walked towards the stairs
to the boys dormitory.
The next day, Harry woke up to his 6 AM alarm, grabbed his invisibility cloak, and snuck out of the room without waking anybody up. When he finally left out the front doors of the castle, he saw a girl, who looked like Cho, jogging away from him towards the forbidden forest. She wore a simple, white cloak. Harry put on his own invisibility cloak, not wanting to get caught in that forest without permission, and jogged after her at a much slower pace. He continued to follow her at a distance and eventually came to a clearing.
Cho appeared
to be practicing the martial arts. She was weilding a beautiful, slightly
curved sword with effortless grace and remarkable speed. Harry watched
with awe.
The slight coldness in the air
stung at Harry's skin and a beautiful sunrise began. Cho had never looked
more beautiful and more intriguing. Then, Harry's jaw dropped when he saw
Cho jump into the air and stab an imaginary foe. Cho had only leapt a few
feet off the ground, but she had appeared weightless.
Cho continued
for ten more minutes, and then concluded her practice. She hadn't broken
a sweat. Immediately looking directly at the spot where Harry was hiding
under his invisibility cloak, she said, "I know you're there, Harry."
Stunned, Harry removed his cloak and continued to stare at her. "How did you . . ?" Throughout the whole summer, he had never considered starting his apology in this way, but he found himself too shocked to do anything but wonder.
She smiled and held the sword behind her back, pointing straight up. "Learn to fight? My parents started teaching me mystic knowledge since I was five. See people under invisibility cloaks? That power comes from the sword."
"Mystic knowledge?" These days, he thought the only kinds of knowledge were Muggle and magical knowledge. A magical sword was something slightly familiar to him. He shuddered, thinking about the time when Barty Crouch saw him. Crouch had helped Harry, but only so that Crouch could try to kill Harry later. Also, Dumbledore could see people under invisibility cloaks, but Harry didn't know how. These martial arts, on the other hand, looked like they were invented by Muggles.
"From China. Knowledge of the human potential and of the Way of the Tao," she said.
Harry was already confused. He wondered what else was in her potential, but he didn't ask. "It's truly impressive, but, um, we're not supposed to be here."
"Actually, " she said in a friendly tone, "Dumbledore wants me to be here. I need a quiet, open space to train secretly everyday."
"Why secretly?" Harry was beginning to see some parallels between his and her life. Why did she trust him with her secret? He had never suspected that Dumbledore was as close to any other students as he was to Harry.
She maintained eye contact with him. "Because some people must not know that warriors like me still exist."
"Warriors?" Harry's curiosity was mounting. Cho's comments seemed cryptic to him.
"So-called 'Mythic' Chinese legend is full of inaccurate stories of our heroics and our crimes," she said with what sounded like slight bitterness. She looked at his ambiguous facial expression. "We really should be going," she said finally.
She's smart in a different way from Hermione, Harry thought, but he couldn't pinpoint exactly how. The sentences were crisp and short, but it was also effortless. "Can I ask about your sword?" Harry blurted out. He never considered himself a nosy person before, but he couldn't help it.
"It belonged to the warrior Rowena Ravenclaw. It was a gift to her, and now it belongs to me."
Harry hesitated. The Hogwarts Four. He wished suddenly that he knew more about the history of Hogwarts, if not so he could understand then at least enough so that he could impress her instead of looking like an idiot. Ravenclaw must have received it from someone who was Chinese. Maybe that person taught her something. Shortly after that, maybe, is when the warriors had to pretend to disappear. He thought of the drama of her people's plight, and compared it to his own dramatic life. He wondered whether she had saved the world at one point, but didn't ask.
Cho said, "We should really head back now." They started walking together back to Hogwarts.
Along the way, Harry had an idea. "Cho, who isn't supposed to find about you?"
"Voldemort."
Harry was surprised to know that Cho didn't fear the name. "I asked, because I'm wondering if maybe you and your family need a secret-keeper."
"What is a secret-keeper?"
Harry explained.
"My parents trust a lot of people, but it may be hard for them to decide."
Harry thought for a while, and then his eyes lit up. "I know somebody who won't fail you. He lives in the area, too. Can I set up a meeting between him, us, and your parents?"
Cho looked at
him curiously. "Please do. I think my parents will be interested."
A meeting was arranged for the next evening at the cave in Hogsmeade where Sirius had stayed before. Cho and her parents arrived and waited outside like Harry had told them to. Harry introduced himself.
Harry learned that Cho's parents were named David and Jen. Jen was the wizard, but they both were warriors who appeared to still be very athletic. David was a journalist for the wizard newspaper The Weekly Oracle. Jen wrote poetry. "We're never on the same page," David said.
"And we don't know where our daughter's smarts come from," Jen said.
Just as they entered the cave, a thought suddenly came to him. "Snuffles! Don't transfigure yet," he said.
The black dog stopped and gave Harry a strange look, but he did not transfigure.
Harry told them everything. He told them that Snuffles was really the animagus form of Sirius Black. Cho's parents were suddenly very afraid, but Harry convinced them to listen. Harry explained why his parents trusted Sirius, how Sirius had doubted himself, how Peter Pettigrew had betrayed them all, and how Pettigrew was still at large. "I know that Sirius would never give away your secret and that he would never ask you to switch secret-keepers," he concluded.
Cho and her parents were speechless. "Harry," Cho began. "Why do you trust us so much with this information?"
"Because," Harry began with difficulty. "I think it's a great idea. Sirius, you can transform now." Sirius changed into his human form. The Changs gasped as they recognized his face from the Daily Prophet, but they did not react with fear.
Sirius shook the hands of the Changs. "I fight Voldemort with every ounce of life I have. Harry does the same. If you don't trust me, then please trust Harry."
Cho's parents looked at their daughter. "I trust him," she said solemnly.
"We trust you, Cho," said Mrs. Chang. "David, I think we should agree to it."
"I think so too, dear," said Mr. Chang. "All right, where do we start?"
After the spell had been performed, Mr. and Mrs. Cho thanked them and left the cave to go home. Cho insisted on waiting outside for Harry. Sirius stopped Harry as he was about to leave. "You don't know how much what you did means to me."
"Don't mention it," said Harry.
Sirius nodded. "That's what your father would say."
When Harry left,
Cho was still there. They walked back to Hogwarts together.
The next morning, Harry met Cho out in the Forest again.
After chatting
a few minutes in the clearing, an awful scream came from deep within the
forest. It sounded like a familiar male voice, but Harry couldn't quite
identify it.
Then he remembered. "It sounds
like Hagrid!"
Cho began to run towards the sound. "Follow me," she called back to him.
Classes hadn't started yet on this Tuesday morning, but Harry found that he was already in the midst of another adventure.
What happened to Hagrid? How does
Cho feel about Harry? Why do Cho's parents need a secret-keeper? Chapter
2, which will be out shortly, contains action and more revealed secrets.