CHO CHANG'S EIGHTH 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 the wizarding world that Harry isn't aware of.
Rated: PG
Spoilers: Everything
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14. Why I'm Here
By the time Cho got to the Great Hall it looked like Platform 9¾: most of the students were dressed in travelling clothes, and a handful of adults tried to keep some form of order. Some of the younger students were close to dozing off, and others looked ready to burst into tears.
She made her way to the Ravenclaw table and quickly found Professor Flitwick, checking with the Prefects to be sure all of the dormitories were empty.
The diminutive professor's eyes lit up when he saw her. "Miss Chang! This is a surprise, although a slightly ill-timed one."
"Is everyone accounted for?"
"Almost. I'm still waiting to hear from a Prefect who's supposed to have brought a group of girls down, but they're taking a deucedly long time about it."
Something made Cho ask, "Which group?"
"Second Year girls." He said it with a sigh, as if that group had been a thorn in his side for months.
Cho smiled, which puzzled Professor Flitwick almost as much as her next words: "Miss Anand?"
"Erm, yes, but how did…"
"Leave them to me," Cho said, then dashed off without a word.
As she ran through the halls of Hogwarts toward Ravenclaw Tower, Cho felt strangely giddy. Here they were facing death and destruction at the hands of the most evil wizard who ever drew breath, and she felt giddy. It was because she recognized what was happening, because it had happened to her.
Her very first class on her very first day in her very first year in Hogwarts, she had gotten into an argument with Professor Snape, and had cost Ravenclaw twenty points. She almost laughed at herself now, for thinking that twenty points was such a catastrophe. But she barricaded herself in her dormitory room out of shame, and a Prefect had to talk her out of it. That Prefect was Penelope Clearwater, who she'd just met the day before on the Express.
And here she was with the role reversed. She was now the voice of reason, and the anxious young Ravenclaw girl who'd thrown a dragon-bone in the works was Sarasvati Anand. Just like Cho, Anand (who everyone called Sara) was so anxious to play Quidditch for Ravenclaw that she'd tried out for the team last year despite the rule against First Years playing. She had the impudence to break rules, or at least bend them, which Cho had recognized in herself.
Cho didn't have time to reflect much further; she found herself back at Ravenclaw's tapestry, although things were a bit different. Under Snape's regime as Headmaster, Ravenclaw House had added to its own security, asking a riddle instead of requiring a password. Cho hoped this would be an easy one, lifted a corner of the tapestry, and knocked once.
A voice came from the statue of the eagle mounted by the tapestry: "Fear is born from joy, and fear gives way to safety."
Too easy, Cho smiled. "Patronus."
The door opened soundlessly. Cho dashed into the Common Room, then up the steps to the girls' dormitories. At the Second Year girls' room, a young witch with a Prefect badge, frizzy red hair and a thick Scots accent was trying to talk through the door.
"Miss Anand, please; ye canna stay there!"
"Yes we will!" came a voice on the other side of the door. "All night if need be!"
"Sorry, but allow me," Cho whispered. The Prefect, who recognized the Ravenclaw Seeker, stepped back. Cho then pounded on the door. "Open the door, Sara!"
There was a silence inside the room, then the voice: "Captain Chang?"
"Fine; you recognized my voice. Now do another sensible thing and open the door!"
Again a moment of silence. "You're here to fight, aren't you?"
"Right now I'm here to get you and whoever's in there with you out! Hogwarts isn't safe for a Second Year tonight!"
Another moment of silence, then Cho heard a muttered Locomotor spell through the door, moving whatever barricade they'd put up. Cho tried the door and it opened.
Sara Anand wasn't wearing Hogwarts robes or a travelling cloak. Instead, she had put on a beautiful sari in Ravenclaw blue, with orange and gold decorations all over. Her raven-black hair, like Cho's, hung down her back, actually touching the backs of her legs.
Before Cho could say another word, Sara sheepishly said, "We wanted to fight for Hogwarts; it's our school."
"And we all admire that," Cho smiled back, suddenly realizing she had no idea who "we" were. "And if there were only seven Death Eaters wanting to get up a Quidditch game, I'd let you stay. But this is war, and that means a battle to the death. And a war is no place for children. The school's evacuating every underage student, so you're hardly alone."
"It still doesn't seem fair," Sara muttered, although some of her dormmates glanced nervously at the stairs or the window.
"You may be Ravenclaws, but you haven't even taken your O.W.L.-level classes yet; it wouldn't be fair to send you up against murderers, either. Come with me, please."
"Can't we wait it out here?"
Cho sighed. Was she as frustrating at that age as Sara is being now? "Do you trust the Dark Lord to leave one stone on top of another when he does attack Hogwarts?" Cho let the question hang in the air; the young Ravenclaw girls all knew the answer. "Follow me, then."
"Excuse me," the Prefect asked, "but follow ye where?"
"There's an escape tunnel in the basement that will take you all the way to Hogsmeade; your parents can Apparate with you from there. But only a few of us know where it is, so stay close to me."
Having finally gotten through to Sara, Cho watched the young witches gather in a ragtag group behind her. She walked them as quickly as she could through the castle.
"I wanted to fight," Sara muttered as they walked down the flights of stairs.
Cho turned to her. "And I want to see you play Quidditch one day. This way, one of us gets our wish, and I promise nobody will think less of you for leaving."
"But you don't have to be here. Why are you doing all this?"
"Because, when I was new to Hogwarts, a Ravenclaw Prefect helped me through a couple of bad patches. She and I became fast friends for years, and maybe you and I can be as well."
"I know witches who wouldn't do that."
"Then they must be witches who don't believe in karma."
Sara didn't say anything at first; then, hesitantly, she reached up and took Cho's hand in her own, like a child seeking the touch of her mother.
It was all Cho could do to keep down her tears of joy; she wasn't sure Sara would understand.
xxx
The Room of Requirement's shelter in the basement was almost empty when Cho got there. Michael Corner, still recovering from his beating earlier, couldn't do much more than turn his head.
"Ah; reinforcements."
"Bad time for jokes, Michael."
"Sorry, ladies; no offense. Look at me; I'm stuck here. You at least can get someplace safe."
Cho opened the portrait, revealing the tunnel. Sara looked at the dark opening, then nervously back at Cho. "This is safe, right?"
"Let's make sure," Cho smiled. She then addressed all the girls: "If any of you can do what I'm about to do, you can stay and fight, alright?" Sara and a couple of girls nodded. Cho turned back to the tunnel and, without words and without a wand, created a Patronus. The larger than life swan flew into the tunnel, even though it seemed at first too big to fit. Its silver light shone like a lantern as it glided silently down to the other end in Hogsmeade.
"That should clear away anything hiding in the tunnel. Now get going!"
Sara was the first one into the tunnel. She stopped and turned back to the others. "You heard Captain Chang! Come on!" She then turned to Cho; "See you next year," she smiled.
"One way or another," Cho smiled back, "I'm sure you will."
The Prefect, a Fifth Year (Cho found out) named Anais Macroom, was last to leave. She actually shook Cho's hand. "I hope I can be as good at this as ye are."
"I had a good teacher," Cho smiled. She watched the Prefect vanish into the tunnel.
"Maybe I should go with them," Michael said. "I can't do a Patronus like that, either."
"Ðo you think you're safe here?"
"Safe enough, I reckon. There's a lot of castle up there, and, even if it takes direct hits, it's not going to collapse down here. I've got Shield Charms ready, though, just in case."
"Ah." Cho sat down next to Michael, looking down at her hands. She was so busy working her fingers she didn't even look up when the Slytherins, escorted by Argus Filch, trooped into the room ("That's a first", Michael muttered) and into the tunnel.
They watched the Slytherins leaving Hogwarts, most of them with their eyes fixed forward, refusing to look at anyone else. Now and then, though, some of the younger students turned to look behind, or over at Cho and Michael, before they left Hogwarts. One of the last students, who couldn't have been older than twelve, looked straight at the two Ravenclaws and mouthed the words "I'm sorry" before he entered the tunnel.
"The nerve of that little git," Michael muttered. Then he noticed Cho had her hands over her mouth, as if stopping herself from crying out. "What?"
"He gets it, Michael. Don't you see? He gets it." Cho bit her lip, attempting to keep from crying. "This war is based on a lie. It's foolish to believe that there's any real difference between Pureblood and Muggleborn and anything else."
"That's easy to say, but…"
"Michael, look at me! Look at my parents! They're Pureblood going back generations; I'm Pureblood. But the Ministry won't recognize that. We're indulged, tolerated, dismissed as if we were Muggle tourists. Our pure blood means nothing."
"I can't believe anyone who knows you feels that way."
"There are thousands of wizards and witches in London alone, and I can't persuade them all myself. The Ministry has to change!"
"No argument from me, but, before we start spreading the truth about blood purity, we have this little matter of a battle to get through."
At that moment the Ravenclaw evacuees started filing in. Professor Flitwick walked over to Cho and Michael. "The Second Years, Miss Chang?"
"Got the girls safely out of here ten minutes ago, before the Slytherins came down."
"Good; excellent. Let me see to these children; then I have some defensive spells to cast." He turned away, paused, turned back, then took one of Cho's hands in both of his tiny hands. "I never had a chance to say this, but the Sorting Hat did a good day's work when it put you in Ravenclaw. Thanks for everything."
"I should be thanking you, Professor, and Hogwarts. Please be careful."
"It's a war, Miss Chang; one can only be so careful." The professor then went back to the Ravenclaws queueing up to enter the tunnel.
Almost as soon as he walked away, Cho said, in a low voice, "We have a battle to get through."
"Well, yes," Michael replied, "but what…"
She jumped up off the bench while he was speaking, ran to the hearth in the room, took a pinch of Floo Powder from the bowl on the mantel, and tossed it into the hearth. As the flames roared up, she shouted: "The Chang Residence, Diagon Alley!" After waiting a few more second, she shouted again: "Xuexiao wuye! Xuexiao wuye! Xuexiao wuye!"
The fire died down. Cho went over to Michael just as the Hufflepuff evacuees were arriving.
Michael spoke first; "I assume that was for your parents, but what did you tell them?"
"The school at midnight. I've been missing for hours; I assume they've been waiting to hear from me, and I think they'll understand my message."
"But you didn't tell them about the tunnel!"
"I didn't have to. They have their own way of getting here."
"You know they can't Apparate onto the grounds!"
"They won't! They're going to drop down out of the sky! I have to go meet them." Cho then took Michael's face in both hands and kissed his forehead. "Be careful." Then she ran from the room, leaving a doubly-stunned Michael Corner on the bench.
xxx
To be continued in part 15, wherein the battle is joined…
A/N: Just by way of checking, I looked up the name of Macroom, the Ravenclaw Prefect in this chapter, and found that Macroom is a town in County Cork, in the south of Ireland. It's said that Macroom is "the town that never reared a fool." It makes sense that a witch from there would be Sorted into Ravenclaw.