[A/N Thank you EagleRay for reminding me about this. Honestly, I had forgotten about this story, but oh well. Oh, and please forgive any spelling/grammar errors; my spelling/grammar check doesn't seem to work anymore. Sentences in italics represent thoughts. I think the timeline compared from my last story is a bit off, since back when I wrote that, the last book wasn't written, so please allow some leeway for that too. Lastly, my grammar tense switches between present and past on occasion, but not on purpose; I just suck at staying in present tense. XD
[Disclaimer There are some quotes from the 7th book in here at the beginning, and I don't own those. They belong to J.K. Rowling. But other dialogue is mine!
Epilogue: Through Eyes Combined
The galleon burned in her fingers as she crawled through the portrait hole leading from the Hog's Head to Hogwarts. She never knew before that such a passageway existed, but when the coin burned for her attention, she apparated as quickly as possible to where she was needed. Lee Jordan was already present when she had appeared, but the barman, who oddly resembled Dumbledore, filled them both in on where they had to go.
And so both Cho Chang and Lee Jordan treaded carefully through the mysterious dark tunnel, on their way to Hogwarts to help the resistence. After a few minutes of clambering through the dimmly lit passageway, they reached the light at the end of the tunnel and emerged into a room with multiple hammocks and tapestries. Familiar faces greeted them from all around, but time stood still as Cho's awed gaze connects with Harry's. She gave him an awkward smile, and took a seat next to Michael Corner. He gave her a fleeting glance before going back to heatedly discussing the haphazardly drawn together plan of retrieving some sort of lost artifact that belonged to Rowena Ravenclaw with Neville, Hermione, and Ron.
Cho glanced around the room and noticed how Harry's presence illuminated the previously dampened expressions of the young fighters. But there were some faces missing that she thought were going to be there. To be more specific, Fleur was not there. Last she heard, Fleur had married Bill, but if that were the case, she would have been here with Ginny, Fred, and George, right? But she wasn't there with the Weasley family.
She exhaled a hopeful sigh and fiddled with the cooling galleon in her palm. It had called her to action, and she really did want to help as much as possible with all her heart and soul, but her mind was elsewhere, concerned about Fleur's wellbeing.
She's a brilliant witch though, and more than capable of handling herself in any battling situation. I mean, she did a relatively fair job during the Triwizard Tournament all those years ago. What am I worried about?
"When was it lost?" asked Harry.
Harry's exasperated voice cut through the air and Cho's head snapped to attention. She at least knew this information regarding the lost diadem of Ravenclaw.
"Centuries ago, they say," she said, "Professor Flitwick says the diadem vanished with Ravenclaw herself. People have looked, but nobody's ever found a trace of it, have they?"
She scanned the crowd to see if anybody would add in their comments or thoughts, but nobody spoke a word. Harry's expression deflated upon learning that the object that he most desired, has been lost for ages. Ron and Hermione frowned upon hearing that nobody even knows what the diadem looks like, but Cho's head perked up. Once again, she actually knew the answer. Well, indirectly so to speak.
"If you'd like to see what the diadem's supposed to look like, I could take you up to our common room and show you, Harry? Ravenclaw's wearing it in her statue."
She needed to take her mind off of Fleur, so navigating Harry through the dangerous halls would be a perfect opportunity to keep her concentrated on helping the DA. Harry nodded hesitently after rubbing scar and Cho began rising to her feet.
"No, Luna will take Harry, won't you, Luna?"
No way…
Upon hearing the crisp, familiar voice, Cho anxiously turned around to face the tunnel's entrance that connected the room of requirement to the Hog's Head. Gracefully emerging from the passageway in elegent blue silk robes, Fleur seemingly glided over and stood calmly next to Cho. Their eyes connected for a brief second, blue meeting black, but no words were exchanged. No words were needed.
Both remembered what had happened before.
Harry nodded his head up and down before exiting through the cupboard door with Luna as his guide. The students resumed back to wandering the room of requirement in anticipation for the coming battle. With the arrival of Harry a few minutes before, it was universally understood that the final war would be upon them shortly.
But none of this mattered to Cho at the moment. The one person that she both never wanted to see ever again, yet desperately desired and yearned for, was standing tranquilly next to her as if nothing was wrong. Her heart hammered incessantly in her chest, ready to burst at any given moment from the unbearable tension. Her eyes darted everywhere in the room, frantically looking for something to focus on. She didn't trust herself enough to look back into the deep blue gaze lest she lose herself in their hypnotizing grip. What could she look at?
Ginny is talking rather enthusiastically with Hermione over in the corner whilst giggling.
The Patil twins are chatting apprehensively with other worried students, practicing charms and defensive spell wand movements.
Fleur's crystal azure eyes?
Shit…
In all of her wild panic, Cho had turned full circle only to be met by Fleur's emotionless expression.
"Come. Walk with me."
"Walk with you? Are you kidding me? The final battle with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is almost going to start, and you want to take a walk?"
Cho meets Fleur's flat expression with a slight frown of annoyance, but the platinum blonde merely nods.
"That is what I said, is it not?"
Fleur's features did not falter for a second as Cho's frown deepened.
"It's not like we can just go outside and take a stroll in the park or something. Get over yourself! We're in the middle of a war!"
"I merely want to take a walk and… talk with you."
"Talk about what? What happened the last time you saw me? The last time before you left without so much as a goodbye?!"
Months upon months of Cho's bottled up emotions poured into her voice as her flaring temper elevated her voice until half of the room stopped their conversations in order to hear what was going on between two of the most desired girls from Hogwarts and Beauxbaton. Fleur noticed the unwelcomed stares and narrowed her eyes ever so slightly.
"I don't wish to make a scene of something so simple. I merely want to walk-"
"You already did the walking! You walked away from me those years back after we-"
Cho's words were cut short as the whole room shook slightly. Dust trickled down from creaks in the ceiling and the silk tapestries rippled from the subtle vibrations. Everybody in the room jumped to their feet in sudden alert mode, clutching their wands with such a grip that their knuckles turned white from fear and anticipation. Fleur opened her mouth to respond, but was cut short as the walls shook much more violently. Books tumbled off the shelves into a disheveled pile on the floor and a Ravenclaw tapestry unhooked from the wall crumpling straight to the reverberating ground.
The whole group of students prepared themselves for the worst as two grand oak double doors appeared in the side of the wall to facilitate the large mob's exit. Fleur swiftly drew her wand from beneath the folds of her flowing robes and turned to face Cho. Still seething with anger, but now frightened by the fact that the battle had begun, Cho drew her wand and wiped her dirty cheek with the back of her hand. A few tears had escaped her dark eyes, but now was not the time for that.
With blinding speed, the double doors swung outward as blinding light from the outside flooded the room. Hordes of large metal suits of gleaming silver armor were running down the halls holding steel swords, lances, pikes, and ball and chain weapons, ready to defend Hogwarts to its last standing foundations. Professor Flitwick rushed by, but was preoccupied with the ensuing battle that he did not even notice the emerging army of students. The group split off into two sections and headed in opposite directions of the halls while looking for any potential enemies to engage.
Fleur instantly made her way to the front of the group she was following with lightning quick speed, her platinum hair and blue robes cascading behind her like a divine waterfall. Cho found that she was having trouble keeping up, until the group rounded a corner and faced their first wave of death eaters. A red stream of light zipped towards Fleur, but she gracefully dodged to the left, aimed her wand accordingly, and knocked the death eater out with the crimson jet emitted from the tip of her wand. Another death eater aimed for Lee Jordan, but he cast a protego charm, and the spell rebounded towards another approaching enemy.
A dim gray light shot towards Fleur, and she evaded by jumping to the side, but the poor student behind her got struck and crumpled to the floor, unable to move a single muscle. A portion of the students stayed behind to keep the death eaters busy as Fleur led everybody onward towards the moving stairwells.
Everybody piled onto the cement stairs, and with a surprising jolt, the stairs lurched to the right slowly. Death eaters appeared on the upper staircase looking down, and aimed their wands to hit the students, who were now stuck on the slow moving stairs like sitting ducks. Hideous green lights flashed towards them and a couple of people screamed as a few students fell limp and tumbled over the rails to the lower levels lifeless. The killers laughed in amusement at their acheivement, and aimed their wands to strike out yet again, but were cut off prematurely as they were struck by a green light emitted from Fleur's wand below. Their eyes glazed over before they plummeted over the edge to the lower levels to lay with the victims they had claimed a few moments ago.
Cho looked at Fleur completely terrified. Fleur had just killed people without so much as a blink of the eye. There was no emotion in her flat, haunting expression. Cho's hand grasped her wand tighter, but her nerves refused to keep her grip from shaking uncontrollably. She had always thought of war as a way to gain glory and be a hero, but after witnessing such death, she suddenly felt selfish for ever imagining such childish concepts.
This is war. Death is never glorious.
The moving stairway finally reaches the other side with a dull thud and the surviving students rush off down more flights of stairs in an attempt to reach the Great Hall. A wave of death eaters rushes them from the bottom steps with flurries of green, silver, and red lights soaring dangerously all around them like deadly shooting stars. Students crumple left and right, many writhing in pain, but a few dropping permanently.
Fleur swoops her wand in a crescent formation causing a sparkling navy shockwave to burst forth in a silent explosion of power, blowing the death eaters back against the stone walls.
"Wow, that was amaz-"
Parvati Patil was cut short mid-sentence as a stunning charm connected squarely with her torso sending her flying in the air until she hit the wall unconscious. Lavender screamed and ran over to help her best friend as the rest of the group moved onward to the last large corridor before reaching the Great Hall.
The corridor was already chaotic from the small individual dueling going on between Hogwarts students, staff, and the death eaters. Different colored curses, charms, and other spells were shooting in every direction as some of the students tried to run to the other end of the hall without getting hit. In the corner, Luna was fending off a ferocious death eater, while only a few feet away, Terry Boot castexpelliarmus to disarm a rather bulky enemy.
Fleur darted left and right with ease while making her way to the other side of the corridor, but came to an abrupt halt as a cackling death eater jumped in front of her path.
"Avada Kedavra!"
A green light barely missed her ear as she rolled to the side, wand already aimed in the enemy's direction.
"Relashio!"
A light orange spell shot out like a coiled whip, but missed its mark as the death eater ducked quickly to avoid danger. Not noticing the silver bolt, that was aimed for the Hufflepuff student next to her, Fleur cursed as the spell connected with her shoulder causing her to fly through the air until she collided with the wall. His crooked grin twisted into a maniacal smirk as he pointed his wand again.
"Crucio!"
Searing waves of pain surged throughout her entire being causing tormented screams to escape Fleur's mouth. The death eater laughed with enjoyment as he watched her squirm and spasm uncontrollably on the floor.
"Avada Kedavra!"
The death eater fell to the floor, his sadistic fun interrupted by a well placed killing curse. Fleur had little energy to move, but she recognized the voice that cast the powerful spell. It was said with conviction, no hesitation, and noticeable passion. To cast the curse effectively, you have to really want to do it.
Her hand still shaking from the fact that she just killed for the first time, Cho ran over to Fleur's side and dropped her wand to cradle her head in her lap gently. Fleur's breathing was labored and heavy, with little beads of sweat forming on her brow, but she opened her eyes and managed a tight smile laced with fatigue.
"Thank you."
Silent tears slid down Cho's worn face as she beamed widely.
"I'm sorry that I was such a jerk earlier. I was just… so angry with you. I mean… how could you leave me after what happened? We didn't even get to talk about it. And then you up and left to Paris with Bill, but only sent a postcard saying you were sorry? Sorry about what?"
In spite of the dire situation, Fleur laughed and unsteadily lifted her left hand to reveal a plain, albeit slightly scratched, hand with no ring in sight.
"I never… how do you say it… tied the knot? Bill and I are friends, yes, very good friends indeed, but I could never bring myself to fully love him. I just was not able to say yes."
Time stood still again as their eyes connected. They both knew what the other was thinking, but neither could talk.
Suddenly, Cho noticed that the corridor grew silent as death eater and Hogwarts wizards and witches stood still with caution. The air grew heavy, then the hairs on the back of her neck stood up as the temperature plummeted below normal. Everybody's breath puffed out in visible clouds before they realized what things were approaching, and then all hell broke loose.
People left and right started darting towards the exits, but were stopped dead in their tracks as dementors glided into the room like blankets of death, immobilizing people left and right with their feared kiss of death. More dementors poured into the room like a dark and ominous cloud, making it difficult to see. Cho bolted up from her position while helping Fleur up, but quickly crashed to the floor when three dementors kissed her at once. Fleur watched in horror as more dementors gathered around the fallen Ravenclaw, sucking what little happiness they could get and still going back for more. Cho lay motionless on the floor like a ragdoll, helpless to fight off the dementors in her weakened state as more wraith-like figures took turns sucking her soul and memories. Fleur crawled as close as possible and intertwined her hand with Cho's.
"Happy memories… you have to think…"
The connection established between the simple contact of their hands was enough to jump start Cho's brain into working on bare minimum energy.
Happy thoughts… what memories do I have that make me happy…? Fleur…? Yes. Wait, no. She left me alone. All alone… but she came back, right? Happy memory… my birthday is a happy memory, isn't it? We kissed… but how did that feel? I can't remember. Everything is so cold…
Fleur could see the color draining from Cho's cheeks as her shivering intensified. She shook her head furiously.
"No! Cho, you have got to think harder!"
I… can't remember anything… so… cold… I can't… wait….
Warmth flooded through Cho's whole body as Fleur's lips touched her own. All at once, the memory of the feathery light embrace and the delicious taste of heaven came rushing back to her. Platinum strands of hair tumbled over Fleur's shoulder like a veil of security as Cho gathered renewed energy from her ignited hope. The dementors hesitated after feeling the influx of happy memories, giving Fleur the time to hand Cho her wand to perform the patronus charm.
"Expecto patronum!"In a brilliant explosion of light, a magnificent swan erupted forth and swept clean the dementors that had gathered in the room from all around. Heat seemed to radiate from the silvery patronus as the temperature returned to normal once the dementors left, leaving many of the previously frightened students lying happily on the floor.
"Well done."
Cho smiled, the feeling of a soft hand held her in her own, as those were the last words she heard before drifting off to sleep from exhaustion.
Fleur studied Cho's relaxed expression while sleeping and couldn't help but marvel at her beauty. Now that she thought about it, she didn't understand why she tried to run away from her in the first place. So what if she liked this complex Ravenclaw? Liking her did not make Fleur any less of who she is.
Who I like does not define who I am.
Cho stirred in her sleep and her eyes fluttered slightly before opening slowly to take in the greeting sunlight. She yawned quietly, realized where she was, and immediately sat upright.
"Where's You-Know-Who?! Where's the death eaters? We've got to go help the others!"
Fleur chuckled and pulled the disoriented Cho into a hug.
"The war is over. The battle has been won. Harry defeated Voldemort an hour ago while you were resting. Take a look around you."
Calming down a little more, Cho realized that she was no longer in the corridor where she fought the dementors and death eaters; instead, she was in the Great Hall surrounded by other sleeping students recovering from their wounds. Some students sported painful slashes throughout their body thanks to the werewolf Fenrir Greyback, while others were nursing broken bones from spells. However, there was a smaller group of bodies lined up, that were not moving at all; bodies that had fellow students, parents, and staff alike, crying beside them. Cho recognized a one of the fallen as a member of the Weasley family, and she tore her gaze away, unable to watch Mrs. Weasley weep for her son. Nestling herself back into Fleur's warm embrace, Cho closed her eyes and sighed.
"Now… I'm not dreaming this up right? The war actually is over, we've won, and… I'm here with you…"
Fleur nodded and pulled Cho in tighter.
"This is all real. And… I want to apologize for my behavior back at your birthday so long along. I did not want to get involved, since I believed that it would complicate life if we tried to make it work, but now I understand that not being with you is what made life complicated."
They both smiled contently, not caring about the few people that were now staring at how intimately they were holding each other. There were whispers as people pointed, but none of that mattered to them; they finally had each other.