OR DIE TRYING: CHO CHANG'S SEVENTH YEAR

By monkeymouse

NB: JKRowling built the Potterverse; I'm just redecorating one of the rooms. And one of the great things about JKR telling the story from Harry's point of view is that stuff could be happening all over Hogwarts that Harry isn't aware of.

Rated: PG

Spoilers: Everything

BOOK SEVEN: SEVENTH YEAR

Chapter 106: Begin Again

"So it was just Hagrid and me talking about this foul-mouthed little beast. I swear it would have made Grimaldi blush!"

Wednesday evening, Cho hesitated a bit before going down to supper. This would be her first extended time with Michael Corner. She had said he was not to speak to her until Wednesday supper, and he'd kept to that. Even though they had passed each other several times in the corridors or in the Common Room, Michael had done no more than nod to her in passing.

Why was Michael like this, Cho wondered as she walked with Marietta to the Great Hall. She had set the terms of their friendship, and he was respecting them. He had done the same thing in the spring, for that matter, and they had gotten along perfectly—until the picnic by the lake. Well, obviously, he wasn't about to try groping her there in front of the whole school, but still…

They took their seats at the Ravenclaw table, with Cho at the place where she sat and talked with Michael during his O.W.L.s. And, five minutes later, Michael sat in his same space.

He began, a bit sheepishly, "I expect that I'm…"

"Neither forgiven nor forgotten," Marietta put in.

"Let me speak for myself," Cho stopped her friend. After a pause, she went on, "Although she's right. You said you wanted to talk, though."

"I didn't expect an audience."

"This 'audience' is my friend and your Prefect. You should be able to speak in front of her."

"It's just, well, have you ever had a monster in your chest?"

"A WHAT!"

"Look, I know it sounds like rubbish, but it's the only way I can explain it. At the time, by the lake, I got caught up in the moment, and something inside me said, well, that you and I were thinking the same thing."

"You should know better than to trust impulses like that. Especially since that one was dead wrong."

"Yeh, I know that now. Anyway, it just felt at the time like the thing to do; you know what I mean?"

Cho's own experience with Chest Monsters had been limited to her jealous flare-ups against Hermione Granger: a time when her Ravenclaw reason abandoned her and her worst, most jealous, fears seemed to make perfect sense. "Seems to me, then, that we should just agree not to bother with chest monsters. Agreed?"

"Agreed," Michael nodded happily. Only then did he turn his eyes away from Cho and start loading his plate with Welsh rarebit and sausage. "So, how was your summer?"

"Yours first," Cho said as she helped herself to some sole.

"Not that much to tell. As I said on the train, my mum went off like a dragon when Amelia Bones was killed. Had the whole family on lockdown: no owls, no floo."

"Speaking of O.W.L.s," Cho began.

"Yeah, this is my first chance to tell you. Eight E's and an O—in, erm, Dark Arts." Michael glanced nervously at Marietta, unsure how she would react. But Marietta, as Cho had warned him, seemed to remember nothing of Dumbledore's Army.

"I really wanted to send you something when I got the news," Michael went on. "I think I owe a lot of that to you."

"And a dozen other Ravenclaws, I'm sure," Cho said, taking up a forkful of fish and avoiding Michael's eyes.

"No, I mean it! You'd already taken the exams, you see, and you knew what they'd be like. And I could trust your version of the tests; you know what rumours can be like around here."

"So all you did was stay home all summer?"

"Well, there was sweet, erm, I mean, there was little enough to do, wasn't there? Between the weather and the attacks. I'd heard someone in Diagon Alley say that werewolves were getting together again."

"Let's hope that's just another rumour," Cho shivered.

"Well, as long as we're here, we can all look out for each other."

"We?"

"Hogwarts, I mean; the whole school. There should be enough talent and experience here to keep us all safe, right?"

Cho nodded, and smiled, and realized that things had thawed out between them, to the point that they again were the friends they'd been in the spring. From that moment, they both seemed to relax, as Michael talked about his family's very brief outing to Bristol in August, and Cho talked of her visit to Penelope Clearwater. By the time dinner was over, and most of the students had left the Great Hall, Cho was on about her classes that week.

"Funny how Snape's disposition seems to have gotten worse, even though he's finally made Defense teacher."

"Yeh, there's another rumour altogether. Which side you figure he's really on?"

"I can't take that talk seriously," Marietta, who had basically sat back and listened, finally interrupted. "He's still here, isn't he? If he'd been in league with You Know Who, would he still be here?"

"Perhaps, if he was a spy."

"That's just foolish, Michael," Cho replied. "There's Dark detection all over Hogwarts, from Aurors to Kneazles. Snape couldn't hope to fool them all if he really were against Dumbledore."

"Plus he'd be the first suspect, wouldn't he, given his past," Marietta added. "You wouldn't make much of a spy if everybody thought you'd be one anyway."

"Fine, fine," Michael chuckled, "point taken. At least he's teaching real stuff, advanced stuff."

"Well, we all have a lot of catch-up to do."

"Speaking of which, ladies, I have a couple of essays to get to tonight."

"Is it that late? I hadn't noticed."

"And he's not the only one," Marietta added, looking a bit darkly at Cho.

"Well, then," Michael smiled as he stood up, "I'll see you around the Common Room."

"Not for the next few days. I have the team tryouts to worry about."

"On the subject, did you ever look at those other brooms we spoke of?"

Cho started to blush and looked down at the table, recalling with shame the way she mistreated her broom after losing the Cup. "Haven't had the chance, really. I'll just stick with the Comet."

"Let's hope that's a good choice. See you." And Michael turned abruptly and left the hall.

The second he was out of the door, Marietta turned to Cho. "Well?"

"Well, what?"

"Is this what you wanted? Getting back with Michael…"

"I was never really WITH Michael!"

"because you said Harry was being a full-blown prat. Do you really think Michael's learned his lesson?"

"Well, he just … I … To tell the truth," Cho sighed, "I just don't know. He doesn't seem to have changed a lot over the summer, for better or worse."

"While you have."

"You mean about Cedric? No more nightmares? There's that change, yes, but for the rest, I just don't know about myself, either."

"You said last spring you wanted to get on with some boy. You didn't exactly drop Harry like a hot cauldron, despite the row you got into."

"It's not just that!" Cho said, blushing again. "I mean, well, Harry said some awful things, but I'm not holding that against him and forgetting the other times, the nice moments we had together."

"Look, Cho, it's all well and good to forgive them both, but you'll have to make a choice some time, and I don't exactly see Potter trying to chat you up in the corridors."

"You're not telling me to go out with Michael, are you?"

"If it were up to me, I'd say that it's our N.E.W.T. year and let the pair of them go shift for themselves. Not many couples last too long around Hogwarts, anyway."

"It was six months for me and Cedric."

Cho looked as if she were going to scold Marietta, but the Prefect cut her off by taking Cho's hand in her own. "I understand all that," Marietta said quietly, "and the two of you were blessed to have that kind of love for as long as you did. Personally, I don't think I'll ever have that kind of luck. I'm just, well, I wonder if I'll ever see any of that kind of luck."

"I hope so," Cho smiled. "It's not all heartache and misery, you know." Then she slid her hand out from under Marietta's.

"Just don't settle for less than what you really want," Marietta went on. "You shouldn't be with a boy just to be with a boy. That defeats everything you've been through. Make sure he's the best one."

Cho nodded, hoping she wouldn't start crying. Not over Cedric this time, but because of her friend Marietta, for whom Cho's happiness was so important.

xxx

to be continued in chapter 107, wherein Cho holds Quidditch tryouts