"What are you doing with your omnioculars, Harry?" Ron questioned Harry as he, and Hermione sat down on either side of Harry.
"It's a Quidditch match, Ron. What do you think I'm doing with them?" Harry responded.
"Harry, it's Ravenclaw versus Slytherin, it's not like the players fly high enough that you need your omnioculars to see them. Unless ..." Hermione's voice trailed off and she fixed Harry with an extremely inquisitive look.
Harry returned her look for a moment or two. "What?" he asked. Hermione continued to stare at him. Harry gave her another, more exasperated, "What?" and suddenly found himself not only blushing, but having to fight off the silly grin that was slowly forming on his face. Harry looked away, and started inspecting the empty pitch as more Gryffindors settled in around them. His battle against the grin was not going well, and he noticed himself getting giddy. Cho would be walking out onto the field any minute now.
Finally, Hermione scoffed at him, and crossed her arms over her chest. "Hmph. I can't believe you. Honestly ..."
Now grinning like and idiot, and fighting down *giggles* of all things, Harry gave another "What?!"
Ron looked from Harry to Hermione, back to Harry, and then back once more to Hermione. "What's going on? Am I missing something here?"
"If you don't know, I'm not telling you, Ron," Hermione commented in her best teacher voice as she continued to look out onto the field with feigned interest, and trying to ignore Harry sitting next to her.
Rolling his eyes, Ron muttered, "Girls ..."
Harry started to lose it. He felt the blush in full bloom in his face, and a few giggles started to escape. He brought his omnioculars up to his eyes, to try and keep himself from cracking up, but before long, his body gave up the struggle, and he started laughing uncontrollably. Keeping a firm grim on his omnioculars so as to not lose them, he eventually fell onto his knees, drawing the stares of several rows of seats around them. Ron started blushing as everyone's attention was starting to be on the scene unfolding before him. Hermione was still sitting there, arms crossed, and ignoring the hysterical boy next to her. Ron put his arms out to try and pull Harry back into his seat. "Harry ..." he whispered fiercely to him. "Harry, come on. What's up with you today?" As Ron pulled him back into the seat, Harry's fit seemed to be subsiding and everyone turned back to their own conversations. One glance over at the still pouting Hermione, however, brought it all back on, and Harry collapsed into more gales of laughter.
It was the amplified voice of Lee Jordan that finally brought Harry back to some semblence of normalcy. "Testing, testing. Are we on? Alright. Welcome to our third Quidditch match of the year! The Inter-House Quidditch Tournament is the closest it's been in over fifty years! Coming on to the field now, currently in second place behind the Gryffindors, Slytherin!" Harry regained his composure, and stood up with his friends to join in the booing and hissing of their most heated rivals. Jordan recited the teams roster, ending with a Ludo Bagmanesque finish, ".. Aaaaaand MALFOY!" Harry, Ron, and Hermione yelled loudest at the name of their own personal nemesis.
Soon after the boos had died down, Harry quickly put his omnioculars up to his eyes, and focused in on the team now walking onto the field. "Now walking onto the field, currently in third place behind Slytherin by only twenty point, RAVENCLAW!" All around Harry, cheers erupted. Harry himself was trying to not drop his omnioculars while jumping up and down and screaming like a maniac. Jordan read off the list of Ravenclaw players with a little bit more emphasis then the Slytherins, and ending with "... Aaaaand CHANG!" There she was, walking calmly onto the field, with her game face on. Zooming in, Harry saw that Cho was staring hard at Malfoy, as if all that mattered in this match was the competition between the two Seekers.
"Harry? What are you ..." Ron followed the direction that the omnioculars were pointing. Looking over to Hermione, he got a definitive nod from her. "Harry!" he yelled. "So it's true! There *is* something going on with you and Cho!"
"Shut up, Ron! The match is about to start," Ron gave a disapproving grunt, and turned back to watch the take-off.
"And there's the whistle. And there goes Malfoy, first into the air, and look at him go. Of course, that Firebolt of his does help. Kauth makes a good move there to take first posession, and immediately passes to Farrell. These two third-years have been an absolute terror all season. Farrell goes wide, looks like he's gonna take a long shot, wait, he makes a great cross-field pass back to Kauth, he shoots, SCORES! Slytherin up ten. Spofford is gonna have to keep his eyes open a bit better if he's gonna stop these two. Valero heads up the field on a breakaway. Look at her go! Caught the entire Slytherin team napping as she heads for the goalposts. What a move! Martin's way out of position, looks like she's got a clear ... OW! ... That had to hurt. Wait, she still gets the shot off, it's good! Valero took a bludger shot dead on, and still makes the play!" Harry pulled his omnioculars off of Cho, and looked out at Amelia Valero. Even though she was still on her broom, Harry saw how she was holding her right arm, which much have taken the brunt of the bludger shot. This was bad news. Amelia was the best Chaser Ravenclaw had. If she was put off her game this early, Ravenclaw could be in serious trouble.
Harry found Cho in the sky just in time to see her sprinting out after Malfoy, who looked like he'd seen the Snitch. Malfoy, however, wasn't half the flier Cho was, and she was able to outmaneuver him just as she did during hers and Harry's practices. Her aim, however, seemed to be cutting off Malfoy, and distracting him long enough to lose sight of the Snitch, rather then going for it herself. Harry knew that she'd have to make a quick catch if Ravenclaw was going to pull this off, but it looked like Cho wasn't aware of the situation with Valero. It was only a few more minutes into the game when the scoreboard read Slytherin: 80, Ravenclaw: 20. Harry stomped his foot in frustration as he watched Cho toying with Malfoy, high above the action. "What is she doing?!" he said out loud.
"You know, Harry, the game of Quidditch isn't *just* about the Seeker. You should try and watch the Chasers every now and then. Or maybe the beaters. They've got a difficult job, too." Hermione recited, as if she was talking to a child.
"Yeah, Harry. This game's gonna be won by the Chasers. Do you really think Cho can beat Malfoy on that Firebolt of his? She can't keep up with him. This game would already be over if it weren't for the fact that Malfoy can't turn to save his life. See, there they go again." True enough, Malfoy had sped off to try for the Snitch. Once again, he couldn't react fast enough to the zig-zagging Snitch, and ran into Cho cutting him off. "It's only a matter of time before Malfoy accidentally catches the Snitch up his nose, and the game ends. Which will put Slytherin way in the lead. Jeez, between Slytherin pounding Ravenclaw, and finding out that our Seeker has gone all googly eyed over the enemy, it's shaping up to be a really bad day." Ron settled back down in his seat, and sulked.
Ravenclaw was now down forty to one hundred and fifty. Soon, the game would become a moot point. Harry was wishing for some way to just yell at Cho and tell her to stop playing around. Through his omnioculars, Harry could see that at least she was getting to Malfoy. The sneer on his face was almost frightening, especially with the zoom features that the omnioculars provided. Harry once again found Cho, who was nearby apparently exchanging insults with Malfoy in midair. Then suddenly, without any warning at all, she broke off in midsentence, and raced upwards, and across the field. Malfoy, momentarily stunned, gave chase a second or two afterwards. Lee Jordan's voice suddenly rang out with new energy, "There goes Chang! It looks like she got the drop on Malfoy, and has the Snitch in sight." Harry had seen her do this before, and he felt the butterflies in his stomach start fluttering around. Even Hermione and Ron stood up with him to watch what was going on. Cho was going full out on her Nimbus Two-Thousand and One, but Malfoy was gaining on her quickly. Harry noticed that she was carefully looking back, and keeping an eye on how close he was. Malfoy, however, was focused on the Snitch.
Harry felt himself getting nervous, but at least had the presence of mind to hit the "Record" switch on his omnioculars. "Come on, Cho ..." he whispered. Malfoy was catching up, and Harry could make out the angry look on his face as he began pulling up alongside Cho. The intense look of concentration on Cho's face remained until he was neck and neck with her. Harry watched as a sinister smile spread across her lips, and watched them mouth the words, *Eat this, Malfoy!* Doing so, she jerked her Nimbus Two Thousand and One directly into Malfoy, who careened off course, and was nearly knocked off his broom, and he was so surprised, he stopped in midair. Cho had leapt ontop of her broomstick, and launched herself into midair, and Harry noticed that the Snitch had zipped backwards, just as she collided with Malfoy.
Gasps and screams of alarm went up from the crowd as they saw Cho dive off of her broom. "Chang is out of her mind! She's two hundred feet in the air without a broom! What is she ... wait! She's got it!! Chang's got the Snitch! But how's she ... Wait, her wand is out, and she's pointing back towards Malfoy, who ... MALFOY IS HOLDING BACK HER BROOM!!"
***
Characters and Setting copyright J.K. Rowling
A/N: Here is the second part of this. I left it at a cliffhanger for a specific reason because the next part is going to be the scene in the air from Cho's perspective, and will explain how she gets out of it. I love Cho, she's one of my favorite characters. She doesn't die. I just wanted a good place to switch perspectives. I do have one question for anyone who likes this mini-series. The next piece is going to involve Cho and Malfoy talking smack to one another. Would people rather read trash talking with contemporary swearing, or would you rather I try and make up slang and such for a more wizarding type style? Please review/comment and let me know. Also feel free to email me, there should be a link for that around here somewhere. ^_^
"It's a Quidditch match, Ron. What do you think I'm doing with them?" Harry responded.
"Harry, it's Ravenclaw versus Slytherin, it's not like the players fly high enough that you need your omnioculars to see them. Unless ..." Hermione's voice trailed off and she fixed Harry with an extremely inquisitive look.
Harry returned her look for a moment or two. "What?" he asked. Hermione continued to stare at him. Harry gave her another, more exasperated, "What?" and suddenly found himself not only blushing, but having to fight off the silly grin that was slowly forming on his face. Harry looked away, and started inspecting the empty pitch as more Gryffindors settled in around them. His battle against the grin was not going well, and he noticed himself getting giddy. Cho would be walking out onto the field any minute now.
Finally, Hermione scoffed at him, and crossed her arms over her chest. "Hmph. I can't believe you. Honestly ..."
Now grinning like and idiot, and fighting down *giggles* of all things, Harry gave another "What?!"
Ron looked from Harry to Hermione, back to Harry, and then back once more to Hermione. "What's going on? Am I missing something here?"
"If you don't know, I'm not telling you, Ron," Hermione commented in her best teacher voice as she continued to look out onto the field with feigned interest, and trying to ignore Harry sitting next to her.
Rolling his eyes, Ron muttered, "Girls ..."
Harry started to lose it. He felt the blush in full bloom in his face, and a few giggles started to escape. He brought his omnioculars up to his eyes, to try and keep himself from cracking up, but before long, his body gave up the struggle, and he started laughing uncontrollably. Keeping a firm grim on his omnioculars so as to not lose them, he eventually fell onto his knees, drawing the stares of several rows of seats around them. Ron started blushing as everyone's attention was starting to be on the scene unfolding before him. Hermione was still sitting there, arms crossed, and ignoring the hysterical boy next to her. Ron put his arms out to try and pull Harry back into his seat. "Harry ..." he whispered fiercely to him. "Harry, come on. What's up with you today?" As Ron pulled him back into the seat, Harry's fit seemed to be subsiding and everyone turned back to their own conversations. One glance over at the still pouting Hermione, however, brought it all back on, and Harry collapsed into more gales of laughter.
It was the amplified voice of Lee Jordan that finally brought Harry back to some semblence of normalcy. "Testing, testing. Are we on? Alright. Welcome to our third Quidditch match of the year! The Inter-House Quidditch Tournament is the closest it's been in over fifty years! Coming on to the field now, currently in second place behind the Gryffindors, Slytherin!" Harry regained his composure, and stood up with his friends to join in the booing and hissing of their most heated rivals. Jordan recited the teams roster, ending with a Ludo Bagmanesque finish, ".. Aaaaaand MALFOY!" Harry, Ron, and Hermione yelled loudest at the name of their own personal nemesis.
Soon after the boos had died down, Harry quickly put his omnioculars up to his eyes, and focused in on the team now walking onto the field. "Now walking onto the field, currently in third place behind Slytherin by only twenty point, RAVENCLAW!" All around Harry, cheers erupted. Harry himself was trying to not drop his omnioculars while jumping up and down and screaming like a maniac. Jordan read off the list of Ravenclaw players with a little bit more emphasis then the Slytherins, and ending with "... Aaaaand CHANG!" There she was, walking calmly onto the field, with her game face on. Zooming in, Harry saw that Cho was staring hard at Malfoy, as if all that mattered in this match was the competition between the two Seekers.
"Harry? What are you ..." Ron followed the direction that the omnioculars were pointing. Looking over to Hermione, he got a definitive nod from her. "Harry!" he yelled. "So it's true! There *is* something going on with you and Cho!"
"Shut up, Ron! The match is about to start," Ron gave a disapproving grunt, and turned back to watch the take-off.
"And there's the whistle. And there goes Malfoy, first into the air, and look at him go. Of course, that Firebolt of his does help. Kauth makes a good move there to take first posession, and immediately passes to Farrell. These two third-years have been an absolute terror all season. Farrell goes wide, looks like he's gonna take a long shot, wait, he makes a great cross-field pass back to Kauth, he shoots, SCORES! Slytherin up ten. Spofford is gonna have to keep his eyes open a bit better if he's gonna stop these two. Valero heads up the field on a breakaway. Look at her go! Caught the entire Slytherin team napping as she heads for the goalposts. What a move! Martin's way out of position, looks like she's got a clear ... OW! ... That had to hurt. Wait, she still gets the shot off, it's good! Valero took a bludger shot dead on, and still makes the play!" Harry pulled his omnioculars off of Cho, and looked out at Amelia Valero. Even though she was still on her broom, Harry saw how she was holding her right arm, which much have taken the brunt of the bludger shot. This was bad news. Amelia was the best Chaser Ravenclaw had. If she was put off her game this early, Ravenclaw could be in serious trouble.
Harry found Cho in the sky just in time to see her sprinting out after Malfoy, who looked like he'd seen the Snitch. Malfoy, however, wasn't half the flier Cho was, and she was able to outmaneuver him just as she did during hers and Harry's practices. Her aim, however, seemed to be cutting off Malfoy, and distracting him long enough to lose sight of the Snitch, rather then going for it herself. Harry knew that she'd have to make a quick catch if Ravenclaw was going to pull this off, but it looked like Cho wasn't aware of the situation with Valero. It was only a few more minutes into the game when the scoreboard read Slytherin: 80, Ravenclaw: 20. Harry stomped his foot in frustration as he watched Cho toying with Malfoy, high above the action. "What is she doing?!" he said out loud.
"You know, Harry, the game of Quidditch isn't *just* about the Seeker. You should try and watch the Chasers every now and then. Or maybe the beaters. They've got a difficult job, too." Hermione recited, as if she was talking to a child.
"Yeah, Harry. This game's gonna be won by the Chasers. Do you really think Cho can beat Malfoy on that Firebolt of his? She can't keep up with him. This game would already be over if it weren't for the fact that Malfoy can't turn to save his life. See, there they go again." True enough, Malfoy had sped off to try for the Snitch. Once again, he couldn't react fast enough to the zig-zagging Snitch, and ran into Cho cutting him off. "It's only a matter of time before Malfoy accidentally catches the Snitch up his nose, and the game ends. Which will put Slytherin way in the lead. Jeez, between Slytherin pounding Ravenclaw, and finding out that our Seeker has gone all googly eyed over the enemy, it's shaping up to be a really bad day." Ron settled back down in his seat, and sulked.
Ravenclaw was now down forty to one hundred and fifty. Soon, the game would become a moot point. Harry was wishing for some way to just yell at Cho and tell her to stop playing around. Through his omnioculars, Harry could see that at least she was getting to Malfoy. The sneer on his face was almost frightening, especially with the zoom features that the omnioculars provided. Harry once again found Cho, who was nearby apparently exchanging insults with Malfoy in midair. Then suddenly, without any warning at all, she broke off in midsentence, and raced upwards, and across the field. Malfoy, momentarily stunned, gave chase a second or two afterwards. Lee Jordan's voice suddenly rang out with new energy, "There goes Chang! It looks like she got the drop on Malfoy, and has the Snitch in sight." Harry had seen her do this before, and he felt the butterflies in his stomach start fluttering around. Even Hermione and Ron stood up with him to watch what was going on. Cho was going full out on her Nimbus Two-Thousand and One, but Malfoy was gaining on her quickly. Harry noticed that she was carefully looking back, and keeping an eye on how close he was. Malfoy, however, was focused on the Snitch.
Harry felt himself getting nervous, but at least had the presence of mind to hit the "Record" switch on his omnioculars. "Come on, Cho ..." he whispered. Malfoy was catching up, and Harry could make out the angry look on his face as he began pulling up alongside Cho. The intense look of concentration on Cho's face remained until he was neck and neck with her. Harry watched as a sinister smile spread across her lips, and watched them mouth the words, *Eat this, Malfoy!* Doing so, she jerked her Nimbus Two Thousand and One directly into Malfoy, who careened off course, and was nearly knocked off his broom, and he was so surprised, he stopped in midair. Cho had leapt ontop of her broomstick, and launched herself into midair, and Harry noticed that the Snitch had zipped backwards, just as she collided with Malfoy.
Gasps and screams of alarm went up from the crowd as they saw Cho dive off of her broom. "Chang is out of her mind! She's two hundred feet in the air without a broom! What is she ... wait! She's got it!! Chang's got the Snitch! But how's she ... Wait, her wand is out, and she's pointing back towards Malfoy, who ... MALFOY IS HOLDING BACK HER BROOM!!"
***
Characters and Setting copyright J.K. Rowling
A/N: Here is the second part of this. I left it at a cliffhanger for a specific reason because the next part is going to be the scene in the air from Cho's perspective, and will explain how she gets out of it. I love Cho, she's one of my favorite characters. She doesn't die. I just wanted a good place to switch perspectives. I do have one question for anyone who likes this mini-series. The next piece is going to involve Cho and Malfoy talking smack to one another. Would people rather read trash talking with contemporary swearing, or would you rather I try and make up slang and such for a more wizarding type style? Please review/comment and let me know. Also feel free to email me, there should be a link for that around here somewhere. ^_^