All that there is to it
"How much do you love me?" Cho read the words over and over, but it was the response that was the important part. Turning over on her deep blue bed in her Ravenclaw dorm, she closed her eyes and repeated what had followed, for she had it memorized in her minds eye, could see it in his handwriting, and could recall the feeling when she had first read it.
"I love you, and that's all there is to it. I want nothing more than to be with you, and hold you in my arms, for there is only one of you."
She clenched the letter tightly in her hands, crumpled it and made to throw it…somewhere. Unfortunately there was no fireplace in her dorm. Feeling guilty about getting it wrinkled she attempted to smooth it out. No use. Flopping down, she let the letter drop to the floor. She lay face down in her pillow. How long ago was it? A couple weeks now, a couple weeks since Harry had finally realized his feelings for Hermione. Punching the pillow, she ground her forehead in harder. "Stupid, stupid, stupid!" she thought, I had him! He said he loved me…"
His conversion from Cho to Hermione had been sudden and complete. He, claiming he had loved Hermione since he met her, and just hadn't realized it. "Now who's stupid?" she thought bitterly, "how can you not realize you love someone? I hate Hermione. Hate her hate her hate her!…" Cho couldn't take it, couldn't stand lying there, stupidly pathetic, crushing her pillow in both arms.
Getting up, she started down the stairs to the Ravenclaw common room. Still being in her day-wear, (she had been too preoccupied with thought that day) she had no need to change. The fire was still glowing in the grate. She stopped for a moment, thinking of Harry. Now days everything had this effect. It all reminded her of something about him. Unaware that quite an amount of time passed before she started off again, she clamored out of the Ravenclaw entrance and down the blackened corridoors of Hogwarts castle.
Funny as it is, but it seems when you're not worried about running into a teacher in the dead of night…you don't. As a matter of fact, it didn't even cross Cho's mind as she made her way directly to the Gryffindor common room.
Before long she was there in front of the fat lady. Groggily opening one eye the large woman mumbled, "password?" (Now you may think that since Cho is a Ravenclaw she wouldn't know it, but oh hoho! Look at you so smart, cause when guys like girls they give them "special treatment" and that includes passwords to common rooms. –and in some cases, combos to lockers…Hi Nick!-) confidently Cho lanced into the chill stony air, "Zero" (Don't ask where that word came from…just don't) The painting peered at her, pausing for someone other than a Gryffindor, and reluctantly swung open, as if she didn't think much of it.
The Gryffindor common room seemed a lot warmer than Ravenclaw to Cho. Maybe it was all the warm colors, red everywhere, and the fire was practicly roaring. She took a step in, seeing the two staircases not far from her. She could go right, and find Hermione…at that moment a series of evil, and yet pleasingly violent thoughts crept into her mind. Hehehehe… Snapping herself out of it she spoke out loud to herself. "Stop it Cho, you have no reason to hate her. Hermione has done nothing to you. She didn't even steal Harry…cause she doesn't even like him back." Pausing at this she then continued thoughtfully, "I'm not jealous. Just because she's perfect, and better than me at everything. She can't be all that smart if she takes Harry for granted like she does…" Actually, its pretty dumb… she was thinking again. Well, I've tried not to care, and it didn't work. It was then that Cho remembered her response when Harry had been the one to ask that question: How much do you love me? She had answered with quite a good answer, but one sentence was stuck in her head right then. Even if you didn't love me back. It would be you, it will always be you.
Blinking back some wet that had suddenly appeared in her eye, she straightened up and looked about the common room. She had no inclination to sit down or go anywhere, she just felt more…connected here. She would be happy standing, standing with her thoughts, all alone. If this had been a couple weeks earlier,and something had been troubling her, she would have have told Harry all about it, and he would listen through the whole thing, really caring about what she said. Then, after that, he would hold her close and simply being with him during those moments always solved the problem.
Now there was no Harry. She had lost him, lost him to a perfect girl. Maybe she even liked Hermione. If it had to be anybody for Harry, she would have chosen Hermione, other than herself of course. He was lost to her, and she'd never have him back. All those moments, every bit and piece that had meant so much was obviously nothing to him now. She bit her lip. She was too strong to cry. "Tears won't do you any good." She thought to herself…so she held them back. Narrowing her eyes she blinked ferociously across the common room. She was going to forget Harry, just like he had forgotten her. He would mean nothing, nothing at all! Ha! She could see it now, her ignoring him, not caring, not even thinking about it. "I'd do it now if I had the chance. Just tell him he means nothing and turn around, and go away. Haha, in his face. If only he were here. I'd show him." For a moment she had the mad desire to bolt into his dorm and announce just how much she could care less about him.
For a moment she amused herself thinking about this, picturing exactly what she would say. "Harry I don't care anymore. I just don't. Sorry, but that's the way it is." Not realizing she had slipped into verbal speech she continued, "my sleepless nights are over, cause I don't have to stay up thinking about you. Nothing, hear me? You're nothing! I don't love you anymore! Ha. Take that."
"Ow, that hurt," came the bemused reply. Cho's heart stopped. How classic was this? Of course that was Harry, but…had she really been speaking out loud? "Oh please no…" From the stairwell, partly in shadow, Cho froze in anguish as Harry went down the last few steps into the room. Some primal instict told her to run, but her feet seemed glued to the floor.This, she later thought, was a good thing, cause bolting would have been extremely dorky. His hands were in his pockets as he took a few steps closer. She couldn't help but notice just how amazing he looked at that moment, with his face half reflected in firelight. "Am I really all that bad?" He inquired, his voice sounded amused. She wanted to sock him right in the jaw, although, it would have been stupidly unprovoked. She settled for oral speech. "worse." He looked slightly hurt.
Harry hadn't quite known who was in the common room when he started down the stairs…until he heard her talking to herself. It had been Cho. He briefly wondered if she had seen him, but no. he had been protected by the mere shadow surrounding him. After spending a lot of time in front of the fire that night he had forgotten to put the fire out before going to bed, and had been going down the stairs to do so. Then he had heard her.
Here she was, staring blankly at him, looking as if she were fighting some internal battle. For a moment they both just looked at each other, trying to read the others thoughts. He noticed the shadow and firelight playing merrily across her hair. Her face twisted with obvious thought. Harry was tempted to just go up and draw her to him, like he used to, but he had hurt her too badly. She wouldn't forgive him so easily. As she had said, he was worse than nothing. He considered telling her about what had happened with Hermione, telling her what Hermione had said a couple days ago, "You're not my first priority Harry. I have other things going on, and you know I don't…well…that feeling thing…I just don't….here, will you help me with this arithmancy book? Its heavy." It had been then Harry realized that nowone was ever going to love him as much as Cho had, and nowone could make him laugh like she had, or make him feel as good as she had. Emphasis on had, which is a past tense verb. "Nope, I've lost her" he thought to himself.
It was at that moment that something short of an explosion happened inside Cho's head, and before she realized what she was doing she had flung herself onto him, wrapping her hands around his neck, holding him as if he would slip away if she let go. Her next few words were extremely muffled, as they were spoken into his shoulder, but the extremely surprised Harry got the gist of it. "l love you, I love you, I love you, I'm sorry for whatever I did! Take me back!" She was still mumbling into his shirt her new proclamation. She was so warm, and he felt so good having her there, so close to him he could just stay like that forever… but he wouldn't hear it. It was his turn. Delicately lifting her chin, he looked into her eyes. "Don't be sorry. I love you. That's all that there is to it."