Harry
Potter Short Story: Harry and
Cho
8-5-01
It was the most joyous sight,
Hogwarts! Harry couldn't believe he was back. The last summer had been the
longest one he could remember, even with all his books to look through. As he stared at the great castle in front of
him, thoughts of friends and magic and adventures rushed back to him, but then
there were the not-so-great memories of, well, you know. Harry shuddered thinking of last year. He still wasn't able to discuss it with
Hermione and Ron, but they had gotten the main gist of what had happened and
knew not to question Harry about it.
Seeing Hogwarts again made Harry feel as if he could stand in front of
the whole school and tell the story of Voldemort's return.
Last summer, Dumbledore wouldn't allow
Harry to go anywhere but the Dursley's.
He also advised him to stay in the yard as much as possible, which
wasn't that hard because the Dursleys had no intention of bringing him anywhere
except maybe Mrs. Figg's.
All in all, thinking of being back
here at Hogwarts was-
"Hey, snap out of it," Ron chuckled,
waving his hand in front of Harry's face, "we haven't even gotten inside yet."
"Oh, right," Harry mumbled, his
thoughts all breaking apart, "just thinking…"
Inside, everything at the feast was
perfect. Even Malfoy, who seemed to be
in the worst mood ever, couldn't ruin their fun.
Classes started and went by as usual.
History of Magic was boring, Potions was scary, and Divination was
amusing. The only differences were that
Harry and Ron were now taking Arithmancy and that Hermione was made a
prefect. She seemed to lighten up a
bit, feeling the pressure of having to do so well lessened because of her
badge, which was the exact opposite of what happened to Percy.
The Gryffindor quidditch team needed a
new captain and keeper, since Oliver Wood graduated. The first quidditch practice of the year held the try-outs for
keeper.
"I know I'm just watching other people
play, but this is really tiring," Angelina exclaimed with a sigh.
"It is quite pathetic," Katie agreed,
"the best keeper we've had so far was Colin Creevy, and I don't want to be the
one to tell him that he made the quidditch team because then I'll have a
fan club!"
"Yeah," Harry nodded as he watched the
next person fly up to the to hoops with some difficulty, "hey, is that
Neville?"
"Yeah," Alicia answered, then yelled
over to Neville, who had finally steadied himself in front of the middle hoop,
"all you have to do is block the quaffle from going into any of the hoops, ok?"
Neville nodded as Alicia started
whizzing bright red balls at Neville.
It ended up Neville didn't let one
ball pass through any of the hoops, being the best keeper that had tried out so
far. Everyone on the quidditch team,
surprised and excited, immediately agreed to have him on the team. Neville was so happy he fell off his
broomstick.
"So now we must appoint some one
captain," Fred announced in the locker room.
"And it must be some one worthy,"
George continued, both pacing back and forth.
"Some one fairly good"-
"Kind of fast"-
"Has only gotten us a couple of points
for us, but"-
"-that must be," George paused with
his hands halfway into the air, "….Mr. Harry Potter!"
Harry smiled, but wasn't very surprised
they had picked him. They are probably going to try to pay him back his whole
life, he thought, but he honestly didn't think he should be the captain.
"So what do u think Mr. Potter?" Fred
asked in a news reporter's voice.
"Well, I don't know. Everyone's been on this team longer than me,
and I've let you down with all those injuries.
Plus, I can't make Oliver Wood speeches before every game," Harry looked
around at them all.
"You just made one, Harry, and you're
the best seeker Gryffindor's had in so long," Katie smiled pleadingly.
"Well, alright," Harry smiled back,
very happy indeed with his new position.
"Way to go Harry!" Neville said, still
pink in the face from smiling so much.
Fred and George winked at him.
Everyone left the locker room with a
happy step in their walk. Harry was the
last to leave and the summer sun was just setting as he sat down on the first
row of seats around the quidditch field.
Harry sat with his elbows on his knees, hands on his chin, before
dropping his head in between his
arms. He could easily picture the maze
from the year before and the scene afterwards.
"Harry?"
Harry looked up. It was Cho. She looked prettier than last year, or
ever.
"Oh, hi," Harry managed to get out, "I
didn't know anyone was watching me."
"I'm sorry, I wasn't really watching
you. I had left something in my locker
room earlier, and when I came to get it I saw you," she explained, "you really
shouldn't be out here alone you know."
If that had come out of anyone else,
some one telling him what or what not to do, he would've gotten angry, but
seeing Cho's sympathetic smile changed everything.
"I guess not," Harry was trying to act
normal, but he was having trouble looking up at her.
She seemed to be to be thinking about
something and paused before saying anything.
"I never had a chance to say this last
year, but" Harry looked right up into her eyes as she talked, "I wanted to
thank you for bringing Cedric back. It
was really brave."
Harry stared. He didn't know what to say. Nobody had
really purposely brought up the subject, except maybe Hagrid.
"I mean," Cho said quickly, "I know I
shouldn't have brought that up, but I thought I should say something about it."
She looked down.
"Oh, uh, yeah," Harry was still
speechless, "It's just that I haven't really talked to that many people about
it so I don't know what to say."
"Oh, right, this is kind of
awkward. I don't know what to say
either," Cho looked around before coming and sitting down by Harry.
"What I mean is," Harry explained,
getting red in the face, "I can't really get over what happened. I can't figure out how to get over
what happened."
"Maybe you should tell a friend,
sometimes that helps," Cho said quietly, still looking down. Harry could take a
hint. She looked understanding, and he
knew it would help.
"I guess it started with some one
putting my name in the goblet, which ended up being…."
Harry told Cho everything, and she
nodded at points and listened intently.
Harry didn't think about what to say, it just came out, easy as
that. When Harry had gone through the
whole story, ending in the infirmary scene and the meeting with the Diggorys,
he just stopped, thinking of how he felt to get that all out.
"Wow," Cho looked as though she was
going to cry. Harry then thought for
the first time that maybe he had made a mistake in telling her everything, and
that she was still all tears over Cedric, "I can't believe all that happened to
you," she said thoughtfully, but Harry thought it was pity.
"Oh," Harry looked down now.
"You'd think Dumbledore would have
spells guarding you at all times or something," she smiled.
Harry laughed. The thought of telling Cho all of that not
being a good idea was erased from his mind.
He was pretty sure he was glad.
"I won't tell anybody," she said,
smiling still.
They both got up. Harry picked up his broomstick, took one
more look at the quidditch field, and followed Cho up to the school. He was wondering if she would really tell
anyone anything, but decided she wouldn't.
As they walked side by side up the steps, Cho glanced over at Harry and
gave a light, admiring smile. That was
when Harry noticed that Cho hadn't gotten anything from her locker room. He thought about it before smiling
back.
But what Harry didn't notice was that
Snape, who had seen the whole thing, was now watching them from one of the
second floor windows with the brightest smile he had ever worn.
