Nope, I still don't own Harry Potter.
Sneak
The Sorting Hat wanted to put me in Hufflepuff.
'No,' I told it firmly. 'Hufflepuff is for duffers.'
So I went to Ravenclaw, like my Mum.
The other Ravenclaw girls were giggly and flightly and viciously competitive. I worked hard to fit in. I wanted the best marks too, so Mum could be proud of her Ravenclaw daughter.
After Cedric, Cho was a mess and the other girls drifted away. Honestly, she wasn't much fun to be around, but she needed a friend.
I didn't want any part of Potter's Defense group. Mum had warned me to stay well away from anyone with close ties to either Dumbledore or the Death Eaters.
I tried to talk Cho out of it.
'Potter is nothing but trouble!,' I said. 'He's been involved in one dodgy thing after another ever since he came to school!'
She wouldn't listen, so I tried pointing out his obvious deficiencies.
'He never studies,' I pleaded. 'His marks are average at best! How is he supposed to teach us Defense?'
That should have worked on any Ravenclaw. It was even true. But Cho was dead set on having Harry Potter as her replacement hero.
I knew something was wrong with that scroll of Granger's. She was all flustered and shifty-looking when she pulled it out of her bag. I should have known better. I did know better, but I knew that Cho wouldn't follow me if I left and I couldn't just leave her there alone.
She may be a bit flighty and shallow, but Cho is pretty decent, really. She stuck by me, even to the point of snubbing Potter.
'I don't blame you,' she said. 'You were scared and you made a mistake.'
That wasn't quite true, but it wasn't worth trying to explain. She did agree with me about Granger though.
It was a nightmare, that last year of school, and I still wonder why I bothered. I suppose I wanted those NEWT Os for my Mum. But Os or no Os there's no place for me in the Wizarding World. The Order's Ministry would never hire me - Mum was transferred to the Centaur Liason Office. Whenever I set foot in Diagon Alley I can hear the whispers that follow in my wake. Everyone knows what the faded scars on my face are.
Oh, I made a mistake alright, but it has nothing to do with Harry Potter or his ill-fated Defense club. I learned too late that loyalty counts for nothing in the Wizarding World. Hufflepuff is for duffers, after all.