办不到

A Harry Potter fan fiction story by Gfyuwatr7

Authors Note: Hello, denizens of the Internet, and welcome to my impossible story. I say it's impossible because no matter how hard I wished, Harry Potter and Cho Chang did not get together in the novels or in the films. In fact, I've noticed that Cho gets a bit of a bad rap in the fifth film. We're all entitled to our opinions, but honestly I prefer Cho over Ginny as Harry's love interest, and I would have liked to have seen Cho grow more as a character. But enough of my ranting; this story is (hopefully) the first of many that I will write. This is my take on what should have happened between Cho and Harry when he asked her to the Yule Ball, and how some events deviate from the books and films over the course of time.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or any of its characters or anything of the sort. They belong to J.K. Rowling. If I did own it, then I wouldn't be writing this story at all.

"The Yule Ball," Professor McGonagall began, while Mr. Filch attempted to fix the ancient-looking record player in the background, "has been a tradition of the –," she paused briefly at a distraction from Mr. Filch, while the students looked on in nervous anticipation. She continued, "-Triwizard Tournament… since its inception. On Christmas Eve night, we and our guests gather in the Great Hall for a night of well-mannered…frivolity." She paused, gazing at the students gathered around her with a stern look before speaking, "As representatives of the host school, I expect each and every one of you to put your best foot forward; and I mean this literally because, the Yule Ball is first and foremost…a dance." As she paused to let that sink in, all the young ladies in the classroom began to whisper and chatter excitedly, while the boys, on the other hand, began to moan and groan loudly. Harry barely had time to realize the implications of this sudden announcement when Professor McGonagall called for order. "Silence!" she called, and the room quieted down.

"The House of Godric Gryffindor has commanded the respect of the wizarding world for nearly ten centuries." She paused briefly and surveyed the room with a piercing gaze. "I will not have you, in the course of a single evening, besmirching that name by behaving like a babbling, bumbling, band of baboons!" Again she paused, and in the course of a few seconds, Harry lost track of the Professor's next words, courtesy of the Weasley twins, as they began to repeat the Professor's (unintentional?) tongue twister at five times its original speed.

When he refocused his attention, he realized that he missed a good portion of the Professor's next statement, "- breathe!" She turned to the girls and said, "Inside every girl, a secret swan slumbers, longing to burst forth and take flight!"

"Something's about to burst out of Eloise Midgen, but I don't think it's a swan!" Ron remarked, getting a laugh from a few of the boys nearby. However, it seemed that Professor McGonagall had heard him, because her next sentence seemed to be directed at him.

"Inside every boy, a lordly lion prepared to prance." She began to walk towards him. "Mr. Weasley?"

"Yes?" he replied nervously.

"Will you join me, please?" Professor McGonagall asked. Ron, looking as though he were about to sick, rose slowly to his feet. Harry, being a good sport, gave him a shove in the back to get him moving.

As they stepped toward the center of the room, the students erupted into amused whispers and quiet cat-calls. When they stopped, the Professor said, "Now, place your right hand on my waist." Ron, looking baffled, managed to ask, "Where?" before McGonagall grabbed his hand and placed it on her waist. There was a small struggle as one of the students (most likely male) wolf-whistled at him, and he attempted to put his hand somewhere else before the Professor returned it to its position and signaled, "Mr. Filch, if you please…" As everyone looked on in quiet amusement, music began to fill the room. It was a slow waltz, perfect for beginners, as Ron clearly was, for he looked completely out of his depth as Professor McGonagall began directing his steps. Harry, noticing the twins humming and dancing in place near the back of the class, whispered to them,

"Oi! You're never going to let him forget this, are you?" The twins, with a shake of their heads and evil grins on their faces, replied, "Never!"

"Everybody, come together!" McGonagall cried, as the girls all simultaneously rose to their feet to practice. "Boys, on your feet!" The boys all stayed in their seats, slouched and arms crossed, apparently adopting a 'let someone else try first' attitude. This ended sooner than any of them expected, however, when of all people, Neville Longbottom, Gryffindor's resident klutz, was the first boy to rise to his feet and approach the practice space. The others, left with little choice, began to rise from their seats as well. 'This is going to end very badly,' Harry thought to himself dejectedly as he approached a nervous Eloise Midgen.

"That was pure bloody torture!" Ron groaned as they entered the Gryffindor common room. He collapsed onto the largest couch, directly in front of the fire place. "I've never even heard of a Yule Ball, let alone it being a tradition of the tournament, have you?" he asked Harry as he sat on the floor next to Ron.

"No, never," he replied, wondering how on earth he was going to learn to properly dance in time for the ball. He must have stepped on Eloise's feet ten times during that first practice dance. He didn't really blame her for looking for someone else to practice with afterwards.

"Honestly, you two, if you paid attention to Professor Binns' lectures, you would have seen this was coming!" Hermione snapped as she sat down at a desk nearby. She pulled out a book and began to look for her bookmark as she continued, "He mentioned the Yule Ball in class last week, how could you two have missed that!?" She waved a hand in their general direction, as if ending the conversation, and buried herself in her book. Harry and Ron shared bemused glances, and after a small pause, they left Hermione to her studies and walked up the stairs to their dormitory. As Ron closed the door behind them, Harry realized that Hermione was right; he did vaguely remember Professor Binns, their History teacher, mentioning something about a formal ball or some such thing. Granted, to Harry's sleep-deprived brain at the time, it had sounded more like, "yak-yak-yak-Yule Ball-yak-yak-tradition-yak-yak…" and so on.

"So…," Ron began, looking crest-fallen and defeated, "I guess that means we're going to need to find partners, right?" He sighed, running a hand across his slightly sweaty brow. Ron had done very poorly in the practice session as well.

"Yeah, it looks like it." Harry replied thoughtfully, an idea striking him mid-sentence. An idea that gave him goose bumps and made his stomach churn with anxiety. An opportunity, one might say, but to Harry it seemed like anything but. He knew who he wanted to be his partner, and after slaying a dragon, it should have seemed easy to ask her to the ball.

Except it wasn't. It really wasn't.

2nd AN: So here it is, the first chapter. I hope you all enjoyed it. I know it doesn't seem to focus on any specific character, but this chapter is just a set-up. I will be focusing more on Harry and Cho's perspectives in the next chapters. Please leave a review, I'm accepting any constructive criticism you may have. I'm hoping to update this story regularly, so if you like it so far please let me know.

PS: I know most of the dialogue is straight from the film, but trust me, I'll be writing more original dialogue in all future chapters. Hang in there.