Also, one A/U feature is Harry's Great-Aunt Miranda, who I keep in my story. Another note is I forgot what year Katie Bell is in, but I have her be one year older than Harry and most of co in this story, so I have her be the Gryffindor Quidditch Captain, so if the age is off, that's an A/U part also.
The usual disclaimers that the characters, places, names, and institutions the HP fans recognize from the five books do not belong to the current author; they belong to the swell JK Rowling. Kudos to JK for keeping Harry at his loveable best!!!
This short one-chapter fic is when Harry and Cho struggle to reach a compromise and decide if they can be friends. Can they?
The Same Side
By: CNJ
PG-13
Harry:
"Happy sixteenth birthday, Mione..." I said softly as two of my friends Ron and Ginny Weasley carried the small cake into the D.A. meeting room and set it down in front of her.
"Make a wish, Mione..." Luna Lovegood added. Hermione did and blew out all the candles on the cake. It's hard to believe Ron, Ginny, Hermione Granger, Neville Longbottom, and I are sixteen this year. Ginny and Luna are fifteen and a year behind the rest of us.
"Thanks..." she told us softly. Yes, we'd made it to this year and now the six of us, who are part of a group originally called Dumbledore's Army, were in the room where we meet to devise a strategy to defeat the evil forces that are threatening to corrupt the magical world. Now we're the Young Order of Phoenix; about a third of Hogwarts students fourth year and older were initiated into the group the first week of school.
So far the strategies we've developed so far are still in the makings; none have been completely fool-proof. I still get the shivers thinking of the head of the evil side, Voldemort. I pushed the thoughts of the battle that took place in the Ministry last year and just forced myself to concentrate on all of us here now as I watched Hermione open the gifts we'd gotten her.
It was almost ten when we finally wound down and headed back to our dorms. Luna's a Ravenclaw, so the rest of us made sure she got back to her dorm all right. Hermione and Ron are prefects, so they checked the hallways to make sure everything was all right. Padme, a Ravenclaw prefect waved at us and motioned that everything was fine at her end.
But as we headed back, who should we run into but one of our least favorite people in the world, Draco Malfoy, who's a Slytherin prefect.
"Well, there you are, Mudblood, Weasals, and Potty," he snarled, lifting his lip in a sneer. "Looks like Mudblood and Weasel One disappeared on the job again, ehhh?!"
"Looks like you have also!" Hermione sniped back. "What are you doing in our hall; why aren't you in the Slytherin hall?" I was trying to stay calm, since Malfoy has an incredible talent for making my blood boil at over two thousand degrees Centigrade.
"Hey, I didn't see anyone here, so I came over to investigate!" Malfoy retorted, leaning toward us. My hands began to shake and I felt my face redden, always a dangerous signal. "You two were apparently skulking around solving some mystery for that sorry excuse of a Headmaster we have, weren't you? Keep this up and you all are going to land yourselves in more trouble than you ever imagined!"
"Come on, let's go..." I muttered, fearful that I'd blow up and punch Malfoy's face right there in the hall. The last thing I need is to get into a fight right here. I pulled an also-fuming Hermione back into the dorm with me.
"Knew it, you filthy little sneaks!" Malfoy yelled after us. Just then, Crabbe came up behind him and said something I couldn't hear, but Malfoy bellowed, "Get back into the dorm; I'm the prefect here, not you!"
"Merlin..." The five of us heaved simultaneously as we sank down hard on the couch in front of a gently lit fireplace. We sat a minute, letting the fire calm us.
"You and Luna are lucky, Gin," I told her with a trace of envy.
"Lucky?" Ginny looked puzzled. "How?"
"Since...Malfoy's in our
year, you and Luna won't be stuck with him in your seventh year," I told
her. My friends chuckled and I managed a weak grin. I really
haven't been able to laugh since last May when my godfather, whom I loved
very much, died last year at the hands of his death eater cousin.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was the following afternoon after Quidditch practice that I saw Cho Chang again. Both the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw teams were practicing on opposite ends of the field.
"Great tussle!" Katie Bell, our team Captain, told us as we got ready to head back inside. It feels good to be back on the team again and even enjoy the game again. Ron and I are both Beaters for the team this year while Ginny's the Seeker.
Thank Merlin Professor Umbridge is gone; last year she pulled Ron's two brothers, Fred and George as well as me off the team after Malfoy harassed Ron just too many times. I'd lost my temper and slapped Malfoy hard; George had punched his face.
Umbridge The Nightmare had been trying to take control of Hogwarts for some of the more corrupt members of the Ministry. I still simmer at the unfairness of Umbridge taking Fred off the team; he didn't even do a thing to Malfoy, but because Fred is George's identical twin, she just lumped them together.
To make it more awful for them than it ever was for me, last year the twins graduated, so that was their seventh and final year on the Quidditch team that she ruined. Well, they graduated technically with an equivalent diploma; they'd flown out of Hogwarts that March and never actually finished their final classes or attended the graduation ceremony; they'd later taken their equivalent exams and passed and got their diplomas then.
I am glad to say that they now have a joke shop that's rapidly rising. It's in Hogsmeade and already is a hit among young Hogsmeade visitors. They also have a flat right above that shop, so all they have to do is go downstairs to run the shop.
As I passed by the Ravenclaw team, I saw Cho, who's the new Ravenclaw Captain. We smiled rather awkwardly at each other and I felt my cheeks turn red. Cho and I had been in love last year and went out on a few dates at Hogsmeade. But we were both still healing from the death of one of our classmates Cedric, who'd also been Cho's boyfriend the year before last.
She'd wanted to talk about Cedric and I offered her my shoulder to cry on, even though it hurt me deeply to even think of Cedric. She'd hoped I'd talk about what was going on inside of me, but as usual whenever I'm asked about my deep feelings, I became closed-mouthed and dodged her questions. Don't ask me why I'm this way; I haven't figured it out myself. My friends are mostly the same way.
Cho and I had figured out by the end of last year that romantically, we could never last as a couple; our romantic and emotional needs were just too incompatible.
"Good to see you back on the field," Cho fell into step beside me as we headed up the stairs toward to dorms to get some homework done and get ready for dinner.
"Congratulations on making Quidditch Captain," I smiled back at her. Despite our having grown apart, it was good seeing her again. She seemed to be in better spirits this year; she just started her seventh year, so this is her last year here at Hogwarts. Before we realized it, I'd walked with her to the Ravenclaw dorms. I felt a bit funny and my stomach rolled into a doughnut shape.
"Care to come in?" Cho asked. "I think I have some tea and a few soda crackers…if the others haven't made off with them." She smiled tentatively.
"Yes, I'd like that," I said timidly. She said the password and I followed her in and sat on a long sofa covered with raven images. All around the ceiling and on some of the walls, raven images moved their wings back and forth in a flying gesture.
Cho went upstairs for a few minutes. The fireplace wasn't lit, but the room was as comfortable-looking as the Gryffindor Common Room.
There was no one else here, which was good because Cho and I needed to talk alone. She was back quickly with the tea and a napkin full of soda crackers.
"How's the bariol?" she asked me about the magical musical instrument I play.
"It's going along…" I nodded. I felt a bit self-conscious.
"I see you have a new broom this year…a Nimbus 2010?"
"Yes…" I said softly. "My Firebolt was…" I swallowed. "…stolen over the summer and I've never gotten it back." It had also been a Christmas gift from Sirius, I thought with a twinge of pain.
"Oh, I'm so sorry to hear it."
"Thanks…Cho…" I cleared my throat. "I know we kind of…" I hesitated a minute
"…parted awkwardly last year…and I wanted to know…" I swallowed again, my words cut off.
"I know…" Cho peered at me. "Did you know I was worried about you last year…over Cedric…you were so down and that's why I asked about your feelings about what had to be traumatic for you. Are you…?"
"I'm…" I struggled to articulate where I was. "I guess it was a bad time…but…I'm glad you seem happier this year…Cho, I hated seeing you so unhappy." I felt my throat tighten.
"I am," Cho nodded, her eyes thoughtful. "Mum was afraid I was depressed last year. I don't think I was, but I was feeling a lot of things…pain over Cedric being gone, angry that Voldemort had ruthlessly killed not only an innocent boy, but had put you through hell. Oh, Harry, it must have been awful for you."
"It was…" I whispered. Somehow, Cho talking about depression gave me a funny feeling in the pit of my stomach. By late last year and for part of last summer, I had periods where my mood was just so…bleak. It was fairly new and rather scary. I'd lost my appetite, lost weight, had often awakened during the night, and I'd felt low in energy. It had gotten worse after my godfather was killed in late May.
I think it was a combination of things…Sirius' death, and also realizing how much corruption there is in the Ministry and coping with some of our more narrow-minded classmates cruel teasing…not just of me, but also of others.
I still burn sometimes with anger remembering how Malfoy and his Slytherin cronies taunted Ron for missing several shots when he was Keeper last year and it had really hurt him. Ron had managed to hide it in front of them, but I knew inside he was devastated.
How well I remember one afternoon when he came back to the dorm after one awful practice of dealing with Malfoy's disgusting harassment. He'd had tears in his eyes. I hadn't commented on the tears, but had just encouraged him to hang in there; the team needed him. Ron had gone upstairs then and I knew he'd cried into his pillow. Like me, he's very embarrassed when he cries.
I suspect Aunt Miranda had talked to McGonagall, Dumbledore, and a counselor about me, but they never said anything directly. But now I know that Aunt Miranda had been worried.
"It…got to a low point early in the summer," I told her, sipping my tea. "Thank Merlin my aunt watched out for me. Cho, I'm so glad you're pulling through."
"I'm glad you seem to be getting back on track," Cho told me. "Did you know how worried I was about you?" Had I?
I'd been reaching out to Cho then, offering her my shoulder. Back then, when Cho asked me about how I was dealing with Cedric's death, I'd been taken rather aback. Why was she attempting to ferret out my deep feelings? I'd wondered.
I think I'd said something empty and noncommittal like I wasn't the one who'd had the close relationship and had discreetly changed the discussion back to how she was coping.
"I think I didn't realize it at the time…" I began. "But I started to realize…that it was true…you were concerned. And thank you, Cho. I appreciated it belatedly." We were quiet a minute.
"Harry…since we have different romantic needs and are different in how we vent our emotions, but now we've realized we're on the same wavelength platonically and have basically the same shared values and interests, can we be friends?" Cho asked tentatively.
"Yes," I let out my breath. To my great relief, the awkwardness fell away between us like rain evaporating after a rainstorm. "I'd like that...I'd like you for a friend." I thought of something Dumbledore had told us. "The good thing about this is since we're on the same side, we can work together to defeat Voldemort and his followers."
The Order of Phoenix is doing a good job so far tracking down and taking down the rampant death eaters, but they still might need our help here at Hogwarts. I hoped that the Young Order would be up to the task when we were needed.
"Yes…" Cho's eyes were bright, but I sensed her tears this time weren't of despair or even sadness, but relief and maybe thoughtfulness. "Let's do this for Cedric…another friend of ours, so his death won't be in vain." It was almost dinner, so we stood up, Cho rolled up the napkin with the remains of our cracker feast and she walked me to the door.
On impulse, both of us reached over and hugged. I felt better about us now. The romance was gone, but our friendship had grown. I had the feeling it would stay steady and be even more enjoyable than our romantic relationship had been. It was a new start between Cho and me.
Storyline Copyright by CNJ