Harry and Cho Chapter 2
"Hey, where've you been? Everyone else got back an hour
ago," Ron asked.
"Oh, I," Harry searched for a good lie. He just didn't
feel like talking about what had happened, "I, ummm…"
"Oh, don't bug him," Hermione obviously wanted quiet to
do her arithmancy homework, but Ron was staring him down with a questioning,
but innocent face.
"No, I was just playing around on the field. I missed
quidditch so much," Harry lied.
"If you're going to keep talking I might as well add that
you were smiling when you walked in, Harry," Hermione piped in smartly before
looking up at Harry. She folded up her
parchment and placed it on top of the pile.
"Well, that's just because I was so happy to be back and
playing," Harry said to them, trying not to look them in the eye, then marched
up to the common room to put his broom away.
"I wonder what's up," Ron said, sitting down next to
Hermione.
"Well, he obviously doesn't want to tell us, so leave him
alone," Hermione shrugged, seeming now to care. Ron gave her a dirty look when she turned away.
The next day in the library, Ron wouldn't stop bugging
Harry about what was going on.
"You're supposed to tell me everything!" Rom
complained.
"I do tell you everything, you're being paranoid!" Harry
didn't know how much longer he could keep this from Hermione and Ron,
especially. He thought they would make
fun of him, but he also felt guilty for telling Cho everything and not his best
friends.
"I give up!" Ron collapsed in a chair and looked away.
"Don't be like that, if I had something really important
to say, I would tell you," Harry looked away too.
"So you do have something to say!" Ron paused,
then his face lit up, "it's a girl!"
Harry got up, grabbed his bag, "I have to go to the
bathroom, see you in History of Magic."
"Oh, I got it!" Ron smiled, then jumped up to follow him
out, "I know who!"
They were passing a group of slytherins while Ron was
reeling off the names of every girl in their year. Harry shook his head in response to every guess. He nudged Malfoy out of the way, who smiled
in return.
"I know! Cho!" Ron stopped short as Harry turned around
to face Ron.
"I don't like Cho at all! Stop all this, you look stupid,
and you're nowhere near the right guess!"
"Fine then I'll stop," Ron said, surprised Harry had
snapped at him.
"Good."
They smiled a temporary truss at each other then walked on.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione had not seen Malfoy all year so
far, but they had heard lots about him. He seems to have become even nastier, if that's possible, even to his
fellow slytherins. Everyone might have
found out the next morning at breakfast.
"Hermione, what classes do you have this morning?" Ron
asked dully, knowing that she would be happy at any mention of classes.
"Oh! I have Transfiguration then Herbology, which means
so do you," she smiled excitedly at Ron.
"Hey, look," Harry muttered, tapping Ron on the shoulder
without taking his eyes off of Malfoy.
"What?" Ron and Hermione looked over just as the deep red
letter burst into speech:
"AGAIN?AGAIN?HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME?WHAT A
DISGRACE!I'M INSULTED TO HAVE YOU AS A SON!JUST IN CASE YOU HAVEN'T GUESSED,
YOU'LL BE STAYING FOR THE HOLIDAYS!!" Mr. Malfoy's voice rang in their ears
even after it stopped yelling.
"I don't want him here for the holidays," Ron
moaned.
"I wonder what happened," said Hermione thoughtfully.
Everyone felt almost bad for Malfoy until he snapped at
everyone to stop looking at him. Then he caught Harry's eye.
"And YOU!" he shouted, getting up and marching to Harry,
"THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!"
Harry didn't even flinch, but stared, bewildered, around
him. Some people were laughing quietly,
but all else was silent. Malfoy looked
around and then stomped out of the Great Hall. Crabbe and Goyle were snickering, and some people were still looking at
Harry.
"What did I do?" Harry exclaimed.
That day during Herbology with the Hufflepuffs, Harry was
paired with Hannah Abbott to work on some poisonous whip-vines. He was in a very good mood because the
gryffindors were originally paired with the slytherins this period for Charms,
but their schedules got changed.
"It's like a whomping willow baby!" Hannah exclaimed,
trying to hold down half the vines in a bunch.
"Yeah," Harry agreed, then muttered, "only there's no
button."
"What are you talking about?" she laughed.
"Oh," Harry looked up. He had not thought anyone was listening to him, "nothing." She gave him
a curious look.
"Didn't you drive a car into that tree in your second
year?" she continued without looking up, "And I heard that you got rescued by
unicorns who flew you up to your common room," she gave him a look that quite
plainly said now-I-know-that-is-not-true.
Harry couldn't help but laugh, causing the vines he was
holding to slip right out of his hand. They swung backwards and hit Hannah on the arm.
"Oh, I'm sorry!" Harry immediately stopped laughing. He looked up at Ron with a help-me look, but
Ron was almost laughing. While ripping
the vines off of Hannah's arm, Professor Sprout came hurrying over.
"You have to be more careful, Harry!" she said to him, then
turned to Hannah, who was clutched her left arm with her right hand while
rocking back and forth and biting her lip to stop from screaming. Her arm had slashes of bloated blue venom,
now seeping deep into her arm. "See, you got the plant angry by ripping it and
it let loose venom!" she yelled at Harry, who felt so horrible he wanted to
throw up.
"I feel so bad! I'm so sorry!" Harry looked around at Ron
and Hermione, "here, I'll take her up to the hospital wing, would that be
alright?"
Harry took her by the shoulders and led her up to Madam
Pomfrey.
"You know, this is my first injury here," she told Harry,
which made him feel even worse, but surprised him all the same.
"Are you kidding?" he said, "oh, it's really nothing to
be afraid of, I've spent weeks in there," he added quickly, seeing the worried
look on her face.
"I know you have," she made it sound as if she had read
his autobiography. Harry smiled.
"I really am sorry," Harry turned to her as they passed
the charms room, " but it was funny how that story turned into a completely
different one," and he went on to explain what had really happened.
"Oh, well, I was going to add that it sounded really
unusual, but then some one whipped some vines at me, then in an effort to help,
caused poison to seep into my arm, which is now bloated to twice it's size,"
she said with a sly grin.
"Oh, c'mon, you know I didn't mean it!" Harry laughed,
"I'm so sorry!"
"I know you are."
They reached the infirmary. Hannah stopped in the
doorway, allowing Harry to walk in first. When Madam Pomfrey turned around and saw it was Harry she nearly
fainted.
"What now?" she said so loud it made Hannah jump.
"What? Oh! Not me," Harry looked around, "Hannah has
poison in her arm"-
"-Which he put there," Hannah added. Madam Pomfrey gave Harry a tisk-tisk
look. Harry opened his mouth to
complain, but saw that Hannah was laughing at him, so just shut it and
smiled.
"You can go now Harry, unless you want to sit here and
watch on your bed."
"My bed?" Harry asked.
"Well, you should have one, you're here so much," she
explained while inspecting Hannah's arm.
"That's OK, I gotta get back to class, and Hannah, I'm
sorry one more time, really!" he back out of the infirmary, before sighing and
running off down the hall.