Team: Holyhead Harpies
Chaser 1: One half of your OTP is caught up on leftover baggage from a past relationship
Reserve: Yes; Extension: no
Prompts: (object) lipstick; (action) reading;(setting) a park
C/W: References to abuse, slight ptsd and depression
A/N: Just in case the piece isn't clear, Cho's baggage from past relationships guilts she carries with her into new relationships. While it isn't the only reason for her break-up it is one she has only just started processing.
Beta by: TheMejesticDophin, bea writes and MissyAndTheDocs
WC: 1144
Cho sat on the park bench waiting for one romance novel after another kept her occupied as she waited for him, and yet she still dreaded his arrival. It didn't matter that he loved her, in all the ways the world told her she deserved to be was something about him, something that told her to run away - and yet, for some reason even she didn't understand, she forced herself to stay.
Roger Davies was never late. He hadn't been late for Quidditch practise or a lesson at Hogwarts. He carried himself with the importance of a man who knew his value. He valued himself, just like he valued his time, as something precious.
Cho despised him for it.
She despised that he was so crisp and put together without the hassle of lipstick and powder. She envied the effortless ease with which he did most tasks. It annoyed her that he thought himself worthy of the world without any disclaimers. However, it didn't stop her from waiting on the park bench for him to appear.
He saw her waiting and waved. There was an apologetic grin on his face although he had nothing to apologise for, he was on time and she had just been early, and Cho put her book down. He kissed her on the cheek and raised an eyebrow at the graphic cover of the romance-thriller she had picked up from the Muggle library.
"Maybe you should work through lunch," he said, taking stock of the lunchbag littered with empty containers. "The Ministry only really promotes you if you put in the extra effort you know."
"Maybe I should," Cho absentmindedly agreed before uncapping her cylinder of lipstick. The colour was a bright blue that reminded her of better times, summer skies and the Ravenclaw Quidditch robes she wore with Roger.
She probably would work through her lunch break for the next maybe, if she didn't, Roger would realise that she didn't really care for his opinion. Either way, the decision shouldn't have warranted this much thought.
"Have you called Marietta?"
"Hmm," Cho hummed, trying to avoid the question.
"Cho," Roger said, his voice raising a single octave. It was the same voice he used on the Quidditch pitch when she flew out of the tight circles and strategies he had concocted.
"I'm not chasing after her. We work in the same department. If she doesn't want my help translating Mandarin or Korean missives, I'm not going to force her to work with me. We aren't children anymore. She was my best friend, she knows how to talk to me!"
Cho flinched when his dark shadow enveloped her. She knew she had said too much. Roger stood towering over her, his wide, bulky frame blocking out the sun.. A pair of children cycled past them giggling as he caged her in with his body. All Cho could think about was how she wanted to leave the park, but as her eyes scanned the edges of the grounds, she could see no way out. No exits, no escapes. Only Roger..
A good feminist - hell, a good person - would have told her to leave Roger as soon as she felt ready to, as soon as she felt safe. As soon as she had realised what a relationship with him meant enduring. But then the thoughts of Cedric would plague her mind; because, years later, everything always came back to Cedric.
"You know I don't appreciate that tone Cho," Roger said, pulling her up.
Cho dropped both the book on her lap and the lipstick cylinder to the ground. She flinched as his hand held her in its iron grip, pressing on the bruises left from the night cycle was the same. It had always been like this. She would fall for someone, they would show their true colours and then Cho would have to carefully gather up the pieces to walk away. God, walking away from things and people that made her unhappy used to be so easy. If she had a time-turner, Cho knew she would prevent awful things from happening to those she walked away from.
Then Cedric happened, and she thought if she hadn't walked away then he would be alive today.
"Okay," Cho hissed as Roger snaked his other arm around her and pinched the skin of her waist before dragging her in for a soft kiss.
"Let me know when you talk to her. I have to get back to work," he said, grabbing his stuff and collecting her fallen items. He scowled down at the book she had dropped. "You should read things with a bit more substance."
It took everything for Cho not to scream at him.
Cho wore blue lipstick when she called Dudley. He met her in the park and packed her lunch bag for her.
"Roger again?" Dudley asked after she sent the owl to the Ministry telling them she had suddenly fallen sick.
Cho nodded, avoiding his gaze. "I like him, or at least I did, but I don't anymore."
"Is it the Cedric thing?"
Cho watched people jogging on the path, going about their lives, unaware of her crises of identity.
"It always comes back to the Cedric thing," Cho said. "No matter what self-help books I read, no matter who I date, I can't stop thinking about Cedric and how if I had done things differently—"
"You know it wouldn't—"
"You don't know that Dudley!" Cho said, letting her head drop to her arm.
"And you shouldn't stay with Roger out of some twisted sense of loyalty! Leave, I'll help you leave. I'll even contact Harry for you if you need someone else to talk some sense into you." Dudley pleaded.
Cho hated the sound of that plea. They did this every time Cho needed to break up with someone. A cycle of questions that didn't make her life easier to live.
"Owl him, send him one of those yelling letters. Screaming helps, you know," Dudley said.
"Ok," Cho said, pulling her stuff closer to her. "Can I hide out with you until Roger settles? Just to make sure I don't kill him?"
"You're not going to kill him. A break-up shouldn't kill anyone, it rarely does. Cedric was a freak accident. But, yes take your holiday weeks and you can help me revise my module. We are looking at wars."
Cho opened her lipstick and swiped it on her lips. "Comm'n I have a guy to owl a break up with."
Dudley grinned. "It's ok to be brave, Cho. You are allowed to put yourself first.. And if he dies, it's on me since I made you do it."
"Promise?" Cho asked.
"Of course, what are friends for," Dudley said.
She nodded and took his hand. She could do this.