Chapter two
Harry sat there in disbelief. Cho Chang, live next door to him, it was just not possible. Was it? Mrs. Figg walked into the room with two cups of tea and sat down in the chair. One of her cats immediately jumped up on her lap.
"We'll be going over there later in the day for brunch. Before we go, we'll have to talk about a few things, alright?"
" Can I ask you a few questions?" he raised his head.
"Of course dear, I will answer them as best as I can. I will not lie, but I wont answer if I have a very good reason not to. If that is the case, then I ask you to forgive me." Where had he heard that before? Mrs. Figg took a sip of tea. Her cat purred.
"Are you a witch?" he asked.
"Of course dear, I have been for along time."
"Why didn't you tell me before?" Harry had a hard look on his face.
"If you had known I was a witch before you knew you were a wizard, what would you have done?"
"Well, I guess I would have thought you were a raving lunatic or something." Harry understood and didn't press the matter further.
"Do you know Professor Dumbledor?"
"I went to school with him."
"But he's 150 years old!" Harry exclaimed
"Ah, the years go by fast, don't they?" Mrs. Figg had that look on her face that people get when they are remembering something from their childhood. Harry was polite enough not to ask how old she was.
"How come you don't have any magic stuff, like spell books, a wand, a cauldron?" he looked around him for any sign of magic.
"I do dear, I have all that stuff in another room. I do occasionally have muggles over for some reason or another, and I don't think it wise to leave things they aren't supposed to know about laying around, anything else?" Harry really couldn't think of any more so he shook his head.
"Would you like to see my magic things?" she offered him.
"Sure," Mrs. Figg showed Harry a room he had never seen before. In it he saw all kinds of wonders, crystal balls, cauldrons, books. It looked more or less like a study.
"Where did you work when you were younger? I mean what were you, what did you do?" Harry was curious to know what wizards and witches did when they got out of Hogwarts.
"I worked in the ministry of magic, I worked at Hogwarts, and I worked at a little shop in Diagon Ally. It was the cutest little shop I ever did see…" Mrs. Figg continued on and on and on about her little shop while harry browsed through her spell books.
When Mrs. Figg had talked out the subject she was on, she moved to a new one: her childhood. This Harry was more interested so he listened to her. Tid-Bit, one of her cats, jumped up on Harry's lap and Harry stroked her fur absent mindedly while listening intently to Mrs. Figg.
Tid-Bit leaped over to Mrs. Figg in the middle of her story and mewed at her once. Mrs. Figg stopped in the middle of her sentience, and looked at her watch.
" I do believe your right," she said to the cat. "It's time to go to brunch, we don't want to be late." Harry glanced suspiciously at the cat. Did Tid-Bit tell her what time it was? He shouldn't have been surprised; Filch does it all the time.
Harry and Mrs. Figg knocked on the Changs' door a short while later and Mrs. Chang answered. They embraced and began with the usual 'how have you been' and other pleasantries.
"This is Harry Potter, your neighbor." Mrs. Figg introduced him. Harry shook Mrs. Chang's hand.
"Hello, pleased to meet you," he said.
"Hello Harry. I heard you play seeker on the Griffindor team. I used to play seeker on Ravenclaw, like my daughter."
" That's nice," Harry didn't know what else to say. Just then Cho came down the stairs.
"Hey mom, I heard the door open. Hi Harry," Cho greeted him.
"Hi, nice to see you again," he greeted her back.
"Sorry, I probably smell bad. I've been polishing my Firebolt." She rubbed her hands on her muggle pants. The adults went into the sitting room leaving Harry and Cho to their own devises.
"You have a Firebolt?" He asked.
"Yeah, you wanna see it?"
"Sure,"
"It's up in my room, this way." Cho lead Harry by the hand to her room, and Harry could feel the heat rising in his body just at her touch.
"Well, this is my room. Do you like?" her room was very neat and organized. It had pale blue walls and dark blue carpet. Her broomstick was in the middle of the floor on an old edition of the daily prophet, and a broomstick servicing kit much like Harry's own was open on near the broomstick. She had her trunk full of her Hogwarts stuff at the end of her canopy bed. There was elegant lace the color of her walls cascading from an unknown source somewhere near the ceiling over the canopy.
"It is very beautiful. How did you get moved in so fast? I just saw the moving van last week dropping off your stuff."
"Mom and dad used some useful little charms and spells that are specifically for moving. I have no Idea where they learned them. I had better clean this up before my room begins to smell like this," she said indicating the broomstick polish.
Harry helped Cho clean up. When they were done Cho's mother called them down to eat. At the table Cho sat next to harry, and while they were eating Cho and Harry talked adamantly about Quidditch moves and the last quidditch world cup.
Somewhere in the middle of brunch Harry and Cho got into an argument about the Wronski Feint.
"There is no way that you could take a dive like that and come out of it," Cho was saying.
"Oh yes I could," he defended himself.
"Well then, prove it." Cho leaned back on her chair with her arms folded.
"Neither of you is going to prove anything. There are muggles all around us, someone might see you," said Cho's mom.
"Awe, mom, please?" Cho gave her mother the puppy dog eyes.
"No, the risk is too dangerouse, and that's final." Mrs. Chang continued her conversation with Mrs. Figg. Cho and Harry talked some more, not really paying attention to their food.
"What was your old neighbor hood like?" Harry asked.
"It was alright. The houses were far enough apart that we got our privacy. My dad got a raise and my mom felt a need for a bigger house, so we moved."
"You better tell your parents to be careful about my aunt. She is the nosiest person in the world. She knows about witches and wizards and if she finds you out, she will probably find someway to make you move or something like that."
"Well, we wouldn't want that would we? If she made us move it would be a lot more difficult for us to see each other during the summer." Harry had a disbelieving stare on his face. Cho laughed and pushed him playfully.
"Let's clear our plates, we're not eating anything anyway." They moved into the kitchen and deposited their plated in the sink. Cho leaned back on the counter.
"So, what do you want to do now?" she asked.
"I have no idea. Wanna go outside?" he suggested.
"Sure. Maybe we can see if there is a way to get on the roof. I used to do that at my old house." She explained.
"Ok."
"Mom! I'm going on the roof!"
"Ok dear, don't fall." Harry and Cho went outside and looked speculatively at the roof from a distance. After about an hour they figured their way up. Harry and Cho got settled on the roof and looked out at the view.
"Ya know what we should do?" asked Cho.
"No idea. Please oh great one, enlighten me." Harry joked.
"Me and you should meet down there at midnight tonight, with our broomsticks, and we should go flying. What do ya say?" Cho had a mischievous look in her eye.
"Lemme guess, I get to prove to you that I can do a deep dive and come out of it?" Harry asked suspiciously.
"Wow. We must be on the same train of thought because that is exactly what I was thinking. So…?" Harry could see in Cho's eyes that she really really wanted to go flying.
"Let's make it interesting…how about 3 galleons?"
"10."
"You're on!" they shook hands on it to make it official.
Harry and Cho talked on the roof about many things. They talked about Harry's situation with the Dursleys, Dudley's pudginess, Cho's family and so on. Both of them seemed to be avoiding the subject of Cedric, after all, it was a fresh wound, why throw salt on it?
Both of them stopped talking to watch the sun set. It was the most beautiful thing Harry had ever seen, except of course, Cho. Cho laid her hand atop Harry's. Harry turned his hand rightside up to hold hers.
Harry saw a single tear roll down her cheek. He delicately wiped it away with a finger of his free hand. She turned to look at him. She was so beautiful. He felt he needed to kiss her or his head would explode. He moved closer but before his lips touched hers, they were interrupted by the sound of a car close by.
"Your family's home," said Cho sadly. Harry sighed.
"Mrs. Figg will be coming out here any minute to tell me that we have to go," Said Harry. Cho recovered from her momentary sadness.
"Remember to be out here tonight at midnight with your broomstick," Cho reminded him.
"Don't worry," Harry reassured her, "I will." Harry and Cho climbed down from the roof. Harry immediately left for his house after he said good bye to her in the yard.
Vernon and Petunia were in the living room watching t.v. when Harry came in. They both ignored him completely. He went into the kitchen and quickly got himself a snack before anyone came in, and brought it to his room.
Hedwig cocked her head at him curiously as he entered his room.
"What?" he asked her kindly. She ruffled her feathers that looked peculiarly like a shrug. Harry found this immensely funny and laughed himself silly as he sat on the bed.
Harry immersed himself in a book to pass the time until midnight came around.
Harry looked at the clock again. It read 11:53. He put his book away and fetched his Firebolt. He put his ear to the door to make sure the Dursleys were asleep. Once he was reassured they were, he opened the window as far as it could go, and made a daring jump out the window, Firebolt in hand. In mid air he mounted his broomstick and landed safely on the ground after a few loop the loops.
"Impressive." Cho was leaning against her house in the shadows, her Firebolt leaning next to her.
"Well, shall we be off then?" Harry asked her elegantly.
"Why I do believe we shall old chap."
"Race ya to the moon," said Harry. Cho cocked her head to the side much as Hedwig had done, but mounted her broomstick all the same. They were off.
So, What do ya think? Please R/R and tell me what you liked or didn't like about it so far, thanks! -Goddess