A/N: As requested by LunaPadma… a ChoxPercy chapter. It doesn't have very much actual interaction between them but that is a deliberate thing, I don't see them having long chats or dates or anything. At least not yet...

Next, I have been shamed into writing a Luna and George chapter because I've just had three requests for one and so, even though I don't really want to write them (please don't kill me, I love them…just not so much together?) I will because I love you all.

And reviews. That was absolutely not a hint. Honest.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Jo Rowling does. Lucky, isn't she?

Chapter Nine

Percy x Cho
The Ministry

"Parvati!" Cho cried happily, flinging herself across the bustling tea room and into her friend's arms.

"Cho!" Parvati squealed, hugging her friend and then sitting down at their table. Cho took the chair opposite her.

The waitress, who was lurking behind the till wearing a disgruntled and unfriendly expression, looked over, sighed heavily and began trudging towards the giggling pair.

"How are you and Seamus doing? Tell me all!" Cho said, pulling her jacket off and draping it across the back of the chair.

Before Parvati had a chance to even open her mouth, the waitress appeared. "Can I get you anything?" She asked moodily, her facial expression suggesting that 'getting anybody anything' was the very last thing she wanted to do and was akin only to boiling in oil or having all of her fingernails extracted with red hot tongs.

"Coffee and a pumpkin pasty please, I'm starved." The woman slowly wrote down the order and turned to glare at Parvati.

"Tea for one please." Parvati smiled falsely.

The waitress left, moving at an unhurriedly sluggish pace and wearing a resigned expression.

"So, you and Seamus, I heard you got matched!"

"I know! It was like a dream come true, we'd been together for a while and you know, this law just gave us a chance to step it up. Take it to the next level. I honestly don't know if he would ever have got around to proposing otherwise, he's a typical man. I'm going to be Mrs Finnegan!" Parvati gushed, smiling broadly.

"I know! Lucky girl!" Cho reached across the table to grasp her friend's hands in her own. "You're going to be so happy together."

"Who'd you get?"

"Percy Weasley." Cho replied glumly, her face dropping. She pulled her hands back into her lap.

"Oh. Well, he's not so bad. He's smart and…he's very high up in the Ministry. Good job and all." Parvati attempted to hide her absolute dismay at her friend's bad luck under a barrage of speech.

"Nice try." Cho looked fairly close to tears. "He's so boring; we have nothing to talk about. I mean, obviously he's smart and stuff but there is just nothing there. Nothing between us. Even Harry and I were better together than me and him. He's not even that good looking or anything; he's just…not my type."

"It'll be okay, Cho." Parvati said quietly, patting Cho's arm sympathetically. "Look, this law is awful, we all know that. Lots of people are very very unhappy; a lot of people have been given horrible matches."

Cho burst into loud sobs. The moody waitress appeared from seemingly thin air, dumped the order unceremoniously onto the table top and left.

Parvati tutted loudly and said in a perfectly audible tone, "Awful service in this place."

The waitress, now firmly ensconced back behind her counter, shot her a dirty look and turned her back pointedly on the pair.

Cho cried louder. "I don't- I d-don't… w-want to ma-ary h-him." She hiccoughed through tears.

"I know. It isn't great…look, you don't have to actually talk to him, you know." Parvati tried valiantly to console her friend.

Cho looked up to glare at Parvati. "Yeah, not talk to him…just marry him and have his kids! They're going to be bloody Weasleys! They'll be ginger and freckly! I'm going to be related to the Weasleys! CHO WEASLEY! It's awful, sounds completely wrong. Completely wrong match." She ranted angrily, a witch sitting at a table behind them jumped visibly and spilled tea down herself. The waitress laughed nastily.

Parvati recoiled slightly from her raging friend, appeared to notice her lack of tact and moved back to her original position. "Look, I can't help you." She began softly. "You know, there's nothing we can do about it. So, how about we eat cake and bitch about Percy and be horrible about some new couples until you feel better?"

Cho nodded fervently. Parvati handed her a tissue and she blew her nose noisily and wiped her face clean. "Did you see the pictures of Harry and Lavender's fight?"

"Merlin, who didn't?" Parvati beamed, taking a sip of her tea. "She did it deliberately; she wanted people to know all about them. She's going to be the wife of the Chosen One, doors are just opened for her. She wants to make a sort of career out of it…she's going to make sure their next date is photographed as well. And, apparently, he's reserved a ring!" She babbled excitedly, delighted to be able to share unknown gossip.

"He looked pretty mad in the photos, are you sure he actually bought a ring?" Cho asked doubtfully, she'd dated Harry, she didn't think that he and Lavender would ever be happy together. She made a mental note to keep that to herself.

Parvati nodded, "It was all over Witch Weekly. He denied it all of course, but, well don't tell anyone but…Lavender was thrilled. You know what she's like, she loves the publicity. And she really is a romantic at heart, for all her rules and stuff."

They exchanged glances at Lavender's new found 'dating rules', she stuck to them religiously ever since her humiliation over the disastrous relationship with Ron Weasley.

"Well, aren't we all though? All we girls love romance and surprises and stuff."

"I know, Seamus wants to take me shopping to actually choose a ring, he reckons I've got better taste at that sort of thing. And, his mother is no good at that sort of thing. She's all Irish." Parvati stifled a shudder. "The ring would probably be Leprechaun gold with an emerald clover on it!"

They burst into girlishly horrified giggles.

"I need to get a ring." Cho mused thoughtfully. "Percy wants me to come to some Weasley dinner thing, apparently they all go… like all the Weasleys and Harry and Hermione and I think Neville. You know, Longbottom? Apparently, loads of the fiancés go as well so I suppose I should. Lavender might be there so it could be okay."

"Is Percy the ring type though?" Parvati asked seriously.

"I really don't know. I don't know him at all. I hope so! He's got to be earning a fair bit, he's assistant to the Minister of Magic. I bet he earns enough to get by. God, can you imagine if we end up living together?"

"Merlin, I don't envy you that!" Parvati squealed.

"I know. Can you imagine? Everything would be very serious and organised and…bla."

"Bla?" Parvati raised a well groomed eyebrow, trying to hide her amusement.

Cho nodded fervently, grinning widely. "Bla."

"That sums him up doesn't it?"

"Oh yes. I will be Mrs Bla."

Parvati laughed. "That's a good one. At least you've kept your sense of humour!"

Cho consulted her watch and jumped to her feet. "He's on his lunch break, I'm going to go ambush him and ask him about rings."

Parvati nodded, "Good luck!"

Cho left quickly, throwing her share of the bill on the table, pulling her jacket on as she crossed the road, narrowly avoiding a miniscule witch carrying no fewer than thirty precariously balanced cauldrons.

She ducked into the Ministry, reported to the Welcome Witch and received a vivid purple Ministry pass.

"Percy!" She called, striding down the corridor.

Percy Weasley sat at a desk at the end of the corridor, on his desk was a huge stack of papers, several appeared to be smoking. Behind him was a neat wooden door with a small plaque engraved neatly with the words, 'Kingsley Shackebolt. Minister of Magic."

Percy emerged from behind the papers and looked at Cho for a long moment, his face completely blank. Suddenly, something seemed to click into place in his head. "Oh, Cho, it's you."

"Yes. I need to talk to you." She said impatiently.

He shook his head. "I don't really have tim-"

Cho cut across his words. "We're going to get married very soon, you need to make time."

"You know what this is?" He asked, waving an arm at the smoking papers.

Cho shook her head.

"These are today's complaints. They were Howlers but we have a team who explode them so they just come to us as letters. So far today, we have received eighty four letters, every single one needs reading and replying to. I have an awful lot of work to do."

"Okay, well I'll just take five minutes." Cho said in a determined fashion. "I need a ring. And yes, I would like to come to your Weasley dinner. I like silver rings for an engagement, nothing too fancy or disgustingly expensive. If you don't know what to choose or you don't have time then I can pick one out and you can pay." She smiled sweetly.

Percy blinked, nodded and ran a hand sheepishly through his red hair. "Oh Merlin, yes, I forgot all about a ring." Cho resisted the sudden violent urge to throw something at him – stupid man, how could he have forgotten about buying an engagement ring? "You choose one, I'll pay. Mum'll love to see you at dinner, Floo into The Burrow. Anything else?"

Cho seemed slightly disgruntled at his abruptness. "No. That is all." She turned on her heel and flounced out, her long hair swinging behind her.

Percy sat down heavily at his desk wondering what on earth the Minister had been thinking when he reinstated the law.