Cho sipped her wine and closed her eyes. It was half past three and she was already feeling a bit drowsy.
"I told him if he was keep me miffed like that, he could find some random broad in Cheshire," said a woman adjacent to Cho. The rest of the women in the living room cackled, Cho notwithstanding.
"You should tell him that you'll go out on the pull if he does that to you again," said another woman, much older than Cho. In fact, most of the women in the room were significantly older than Cho. Amongst the group of a half-dozen housewives, Cho was the youngest at 23. Most of the others were in their forties.
"If he skives off you like that again, you need to kick his jacksy out of his gaff, and make him take you on a month long trip across the Mediterranean," said another woman, adorned in a blue dress with polka dots. The other woman giggled while Cho merely looked at the clock.
"Tell me Cho, has your husband taken you on a gallivanting yet,?" a women across from her with short brown hair asked.
Cho took a soft sip from her wine and shook her head. "I'm afraid not," she said meekly. "His work at the hospital limits his schedule, so apart from our honeymoon in Italy, we haven't been too many places." Her eyes darted back to the grandfather clock hanging in their living room. "Does anyone want more crackers? I have some more caerphilly if anyone wants that too."
The rest of the women rejected her offer and proceeded to continue with more vapid conversation that Cho paid no attention too. Cho went to the kitchen and grabbed the box of crackers and took another glance at the clock. There is no way I'm waiting another 20 minutes for this to end, she thought.
She proceeded back toward the coffee table with the box in her hand and poured some more crackers onto the plate. "Mrs. Haverford, I must say your necklace looks very spiffy. I love how it matches with your blouse."
"Oh, why thank you darling. My husband got it for me after fifth anniversary. Real mint, isn't it? Reminds me of another time when..." before Ms. Haverford could finish her sentence, her wine glass shattered into pieces. She let out a loud shriek as shards of glass laid at her feet and the leftover of her wine splashed onto her face.
"Oh my heavens, I'm so sorry. This sample of glasses must have been faulty when I picked them out," Cho said, pretending to be frantic as she got a broom and began sweeping up the shards with a duster. "I can't believe this happened, I'll have to clean all this up now and have to scramble to get dinner done before my husband gets home."
On cue, the other women inside her flat began to get up and grab their belongings. "I'm so sorry dear, do you need any help getting this all cleaned up?" the brown-haired woman asked.
Cho shook her head and began patting down the wine sodden carpet with a cloth. "I'm so sorry Ms. Haverford, I'll be extra careful when buying my next set of fine ware."
"Perhaps have your husband pick one out for you," she said with a half-smile, still frantically checking her blouse for small shards. Cho once again feigned an apology and greeted each of the women as they exited out of her flat. She looked up to see the clock read that it was 15 minutes till four. Feeling relieved, she dropped to her knees and sighed.
Performing magic in front of muggles had always felt satisfying, especially when she was sworn to secrecy upon her marriage. Upon their meeting with the Minister after their marriage, the ground rules were laid down. There would be absolutely no magic performed in public. Magic at the house was severely limited, mostly allowing for only household chores. If her husband spoke at all of her powers, his memories would immediately be obliviated; in other words, a premature ending of their marriage.
"I can't believe you are actually going through with this. I worked hard for all the opportunities presented to you, and you're just going to throw it away to be cooped up in a London flat you're whole life," shouted Madame Chang.
"It's not being cooped up, it's marriage. I'll be a wife, a mother, just like you are. But apparently that's not a good enough for you," Cho responded.
The two of them met at a random happenstance. Cho had decided to attend a Lung Cancer charity event and met her eventual husband there. He was older, just shy of his forties, and was eager to find a mate sooner than later. He was persistent in his pursuit of Cho, who was initially uninterested in his advances but eventually agreed to go on a date with him. Cho, only 21 at the time, was impressed with his accolades as a physician and appreciated his emotional maturity and financial stability while maintaining somewhat good looks.
"I knew that Muggle Studies class was trouble from the start. It put end in all these fictional ideas about how a traditional family was. Those were different times. You need to work and support a family."
"Being a wife is a lot of work. I need to be their for my family when they need me. You would know better if you tried it for once," Cho retorted.
The two became engaged about five months later, and married a year later. Madame Chang was a reluctant attendant at her wedding; a reluctant supporter of their marriage altogether. She argued that Cho was too young to be married, which Cho countered that she wanted have plenty of time to have many children. Her daughter was enamored with the idea of a traditional family structure where the wife could have ample to time to tend to the home and also her children. An ideal to her that was becoming more of a rarity in both the Muggle and the Wizarding World.
Cho pulled out her wand hidden away at the cabinet and concentrated on repairing the shards of glass back to it's original place. She pointed the wand in the direction, and muttered 'Reparo' while moving her wand in a semi-circle. The shards began to levitate from the air but merely fell back down to the ground.
That's strange, Cho thought. I have done this one plenty of times before. She tried the spell once again, but suffered the same result. Panic began to creep in, thinking of where she had gone the past week and if somehow a potion or another unwanted agent had tampered with her system. She tried it a few more times, trying to slow down her movement each time to make sure she was not second guessing herself. Near her sixth attempt, she gripped her wand tighter and looked intently at the pieces as if she they were blots on a Rorschach test.
Put the pieces together, they are like clouds in the sky breaking off. You have to finish…
Cho opened her eyes and realized she had passed out. The grandfather clock read that it was twenty minutes past six. She felt beleaguered and opened a window in her flat to get out some of the musky feeling inside.
What could have done this? It wasn't the wine, I barely drank any. Could one of those women secretly be a witch and possibly spiked a potion into my drink.
About a couple stories below her balcony were hoards of people meandering through the various stores as many were going coming home from work. Cho knew that her husband would once again be coming home late due to a shift and sighed as she was behind on making dinner. Cho's eyes diverted down to the street's corner where she saw a seemingly very large cat scurry through the crowd of people. To her surprise, no one seemed to notice it.
She stepped out onto her balcony and tried to find its position. After a few moments, she gave up, only to turn around and find it sitting atop her balcony. Cho shuddered upon his presence, as he looked much bigger than he expected. His ears were much different from cats, with his ears much more pointed. Amongst his orange fur was a mysterious insignia that was in the shape of a spiral on his forehead. Upon further inspection, Cho knew that wasn't a normal cat, but rather a shadow lynx, a special form she learned about in Magical Creatures class.
She slowly backed away toward the railing, her wand having been left inside. She remembered to not try to look it directly in the eye. A buzzing sound came into her head and felt a massive headache coming on.
Head downstairs and follow the purple line. You will know when you see it.
Cho heard a mysterious elderly voice as she closed her eyes to brace against the pain. When she opened them up a moment later, the lynx was gone. Without hesitation, Cho ran back inside her flat, grabbed her wand and headed out the door. The possibility of a rogue witch in downtown London was too much of a risk to stay dormant.
She creaked open the middle of the door that opened slowly and peered outside. Her wand was hidden inside the sleeves of her dress and she went around the corner. A crowd of Londoners brushed by her, some not heeding any manners. She looked around for any landmarks that could be purple. She looked over about a block down and saw a purple tent erected on the corner of the street. Cho rushed past people to reach underneath the tent, which happened to contain a farmer's market. She looked around in all possible directions for the next marker, and saw a purple sign to a coffee shop just visible a few blocks down again.
Upon reaching the next point, Cho looked around in all directions but could not find anything else that was purple. She began to panic, thinking the original marker was wrong. She began moving down the street more and saw that it eventually peeled off into an alley. She looked up and saw a trail of purple smoke that formed a vector heading deeper into the alley.
Yes, your ambition has not faltered.
The voice came back in her head and Cho began to feel dizzy. She followed the vector further down until she reached a dumpster and began panting.
"Good for you to finally make it my dear." Cho looked around and then realized the witch was on the other side of the dumpster. She peered around and saw her sitting down cross-legged on a mat, the shadow lynx sitting adjacent to her.
"Have a seat my dear, I mean you no harm," she said. She looked very elderly, her skin so wrinkly that Cho inferred that she was in her 90's if not more. Her harsher features were hidden in a headscarf and was adorned in antique purple robes.
Cho was fraught with doubt. "What are you doing here and what do you want from me. I just want to live my life in peace. I'm not involved with the wizarding world anymore. I might as well just be a muggle."
"But you aren't. You know that will never be a reality, as much as you force yourself to pretend otherwise. So take a seat and let me show you something.
Cho sat down across from her. The witch shuffled a few tarot cards in her hand and laid them down on the mat. "Choose two. Take your time, my dear."
Cho had about a dozen of cards to choose from. Without much thought in the process, she chose the fourth from the left and the second to last one on the far right. The witch first uncovered the first one from the left. It was a red hawk.
"A hawk," Cho said in a manner of fact manner. "Could it have to do something with Ravenclaw. Our symbol was an eagle though, not a hawk."
The witch turned over the second card revealing a moon with a very light color, to the point it was almost translucent.
"A moon. What could this mean? Maybe I I represent the hawk and I have a new beginning with my married life," she said with a half-smile.
The old-witch looked at her with a smirk. "Hopeful are we. My dear, I would not be here if I came here to foretell you about your marriage your life. You are going to be part of something much bigger."
Cho gasped. "That's not fair. I did not ask to be a part of anything. I just want a normal life."
"In due time, maybe. But careful for what you wish for. I foresee you being the first of many to lose something precious. The moon does represent a new beginning, but one with absence."
Cho thought back to earlier that day and knew exactly what she was talking about.
"The first of many. So this will be permanent. How many others have already felt their powers being lost?"
"In due time, my dear."
She looked around in consternation, seeing if anyone else was around. By coincidence, or perhaps not thanks to magical barriers, it was barren in the alley.
"What about the hawk? What is that supposed to mean?" she asked nervously.
"That one is less clear. But be cautious my dear, for I foresee some nefarious opportunities become bad actors in this new beginning."
Her answer made Cho question the veracity of her claims altogether. She always thought Divination was more of a crackpot theory of magic and a half answer seemed to support this. On the other hand, her knowledge of her lose of powers seemed a bit too much of a coincidence.
"What am I supposed to do then? I have a husband who cannot be involved this. How am I supposed to protect him?"
A gust of wind began blowing, briefly blinding Cho. When she opened her eyes, the witch and the lynx were no where to be seen. She exhaled, looked around, and headed back to her apartment.