~*Everything You Want*~
Chapter Four: Crush
Dove: Yay! The ficcy that is coming out faster than is humanly possible! In this chapter, Roger sulks, jumps to conclusions, and shows signs of being a Seer, no matter how much Trelawney tries to ruin any student's chances at being good in Divination. There's fluff far too early for it to be any good, but we save it. Furthermore, we have great fun with the first night Sirius broke into Hogwarts, and Cho is still adorably clueless about the entire thing. Good luck getting this convoluted mess straightened out.
Thalia: Oh! Oh! We also have signs that someday, Cho will make an excellent mommy~.^!! And Roger has a lovely not-so-little epiphany that causes him to nearly require the Heimlich, or its magical equivalent!! Now, with all these fantablous things in ONE CHAPTER, we deserve a lot of happy reviews, don't we?!
Disclaimer: If we owned these characters, Roger would be living with us and walking around wearing nothing but a loincloth. Obviously, this is not the case. This should be conclusive evidence that we do not own him, or any other characters from the Harry Potter world.
"In this moment it feels so right
Lovely lady
I am at your feet
God I want you so badly
I wonder this
Could tomorrow be
So wondrous as you there sleeping?"
-Dave Matthews Band, "Crush"
Halloween was the first Hogsmeade weekend. Cho, for reasons decided back on the train, resolutely refused to go when Roger asked her. He seemed rather put out until he heard her refusing Cedric as well, saying she would really much rather finish the Ancient Runes translation early, and would Ced please bring her some candy back? After that, Roger cheered up and went by himself.
The visits to Hogsmeade were quite nice, though he had to constantly watch everything he did, for every person in the small wizarding settlement knew his name, and he had the bad luck into running into his mother, Cho's, or both, every time he was thinking of doing something that he perhaps shouldn't. Therefore, he didn't even bother going near Zonko's, spending the majority of his time in the small Quidditch shop, looking over new broomsticks and buying a new book on tactics.
Glancing into Honeydukes on his way back, he saw Cedric paying for a pile of sweets. He quickly grabbed an armful of chocolate frog boxes and plopped them down on the counter, replying very absently when Cedric said hello. Cho was very fond of chocolate-it would be nice to give her a bit, especially since Honeydukes' was by far the best. In the summer, the two of them would often spend half their spending money in the store, despite Mrs. Chang warning Cho sternly not to get fat.
When it was time to leave Hogsmeade, due to some quirk of fate, Roger found himself sitting in the same carriage as Cedric Diggory. The Hufflepuff Quidditch Captain looked carefree and content, and did not seem to notice the wary looks that his Ravenclaw counterpart sent his way. The ride was fairly quiet, Diggory tried to make casual conversation, to which Roger gave cool monosyllabic replies. When they reached Hogwarts, Roger was about to turn towards the direction of Ravenclaw Tower when Cedric stopped him with a hand on his arm.
"Say, Davies, I've got a Potions essay to finish for Monday. Could you bring these to Cho for me?" He thrust a bag of sweets into Roger's hands. "Thanks, mate." With that, Diggory gave Roger a smile, waved and headed down the hall towards Hufflepuff.
Rolling his eyes, Roger, now laden with two bags of candy, continued on his way towards Ravenclaw Tower. Reaching the portrait, he called out "Rowena's Aviary", then walked in.
Cho was sitting at a table, Rune dictionary open, absently chewing her lower lip as she wrote the finishing paragraph of her translation. Seeing Roger, she smiled and cleared off the surface of the table, beckoning him to come and sit with her, and tell her about his visit "back home". He walked up to her and up-ended both bags of candy onto the table. Cho's eyes bulged.
"Crimony! You and Cedric didn't have to get me this much candy! My mother would have a fit if she knew, she'd say that I would rot my teeth and ruin my figure!"
Roger chuckled, "Well, I'm sure you can finish it all eventually, and since you are playing Quidditch, I doubt that you'll ruin your figure." Cho smiled at him, then got up and gave him am impulsive hug.
"Thanks, Roger. You and Cedric are both so nice to me. I'm so glad that I have you two." Roger returned her hug, and reflected that the whole thing would have been so much better had she not mentioned Diggory's name.
"Are you going to come down to the feast?" Roger asked, settling down over the rune translation he himself had also had to do two years ago. "It's starting in a few minutes, and I'd bet you would be upset if you missed out on all the pies I saw in the kitchen last night."
Instantly, Cho was riveted. "There's pie?" she asked.
Roger answered in the affirmative. "Yes, there's pie."
She was out the door faster than he could blink.
***
The feast went off spectacularly. The ghosts provided entertainment and the whole school stayed up far later than they were accustomed. When the first years began to yawn and their heads began to nod, Roger, Penelope, and the other Prefects quickly gathered all of them up, shooing them off to bed.
Cho had actually managed to get halfway changed, thinking of nothing more than a long, relaxing sleep, when suddenly there was a call from downstairs which sounded suspiciously like Professor Flitwick. "Ravenclaw! All Ravenclaws downstairs please!"
Cho quickly threw a dressing gown over her nightshirt and, completely bewildered, descended the stairs behind Melissa and Cassandra, who were talking in hushed voices about whether a troll could have gotten into the castle again, or whether it was a vampire or something even more ghastly this time.
It turned out to be worse.
"Sirius Black has infiltrated the school," Flitwick began. It took him a moment to calm the ensuing clamor, for most of the younger girls were suddenly hysterical, and the older students were obviously fighting to keep calm. "He slashed the portrait guarding the Gryffindor common to ribbons when she wouldn't let him enter. Obviously, we are all very concerned for the safety of the students. We wish to search the castle to ascertain that Black is no longer among us."
The tiny professor looked positively grim. Everyone was whispering, obviously very frightened.
"Grab anything you need and follow me down to the Great Hall," the professor instructed. "You will be spending the night there tonight… you have five minutes before we leave."
Cho caught up with Roger, who was trying his best to calm a bunch of hysterical first-years and get them down to the Great Hall. "Roger, do you need any help?" she asked.
"Is it true that Sirius Black blew up a town and murdered fifty people with one single curse?!" a wide-eyed girl whispered, her face pale with fright. "And he's in this school?! I don't want to go down... no..." she resisted Roger's coaxing and orders.
Cho walked up to the younger girl and squatted down, so that the two of them were eye-to-eye. "Look, if Sirius Black slashed the Gryffindor portrait, he could very well slash ours as well. And the rest of us are going down. Do you really want to stay up here alone?" Digging into a pocket of her dressing gown and finding a Chocolate Frog card, she handed it to the younger student. "Here, that's a good girl. Now go and follow Roger; he's smart and brave and knows what he's doing, okay?" The girl nodded, and soon the first years obediently filed after Roger out of Ravenclaw Tower. He gave her a grateful look.
"How do you know how to make those children behave? I'm the Prefect here." He said. She shrugged, then grinned cheekily at him.
"I'm a woman. Or haven't you noticed?" Saying so, she, too, followed the rest of the Ravenclaws out of their tower and headed towards the Great Hall. Roger, staring at her back, chuckled wryly to himself.
"Yes, I've noticed. You have no idea how I've noticed."
After a moment of looking after her retreating form, conflicting emotions on his face, Roger led the Ravenclaws into the Great Hall. Other students were milling around, some still in robes, others in nightclothes. One scared-looking Hufflepuff first year was clutching a teddy bear. It was certainly a good thing the tables had been moved, for there was far more room to stand around this way. Roger found Cho in the crowd. "I wonder where we're going to sleep?"
She shrugged. "Dunno. The floor, apparently. I hope some of our fragile little girl types don't catch cold…"
Just then, Dumbledore began to speak. "The teachers and I need to conduct a thorough search of the castle," he explained. Professor Flitwick and Professor McGonagall were shooing the stragglers in before shutting the doors to the Hall. "I'm afraid that, for your own safety, you will have to spend the night here. I want the Prefects to stand guard over the entrances to the hall and I am leaving the Head Boy and Girl in charge." He smiled slightly at Percy Weasley and Patricia Villarreal, the Slytherin that had been named Head Girl. "Any disturbance should be reported to me immediately. Send word with one of the ghosts."
Cho sighed heavily. "Looks like it's the floor for us," she muttered. "Wonder if I could get someone to cuddle with for warmth? Cassandra's little group doesn't look too pleasant." Roger blushed very red, glad she wasn't looking his way. "Perhaps I'll ask Penelope," Cho decided.
Just then, Dumbledore turned back to them and looked over them mildly. "Oh yes, you'll be needing…" he waved his wand arm absently and soft, comfortable-looking sleeping bags appeared all over the floor. There was a general sigh of relief. "Sleep well."
Then, the professors were gone, and Percy was doing what he did best-being bossy. "Everyone into their sleeping bags!" He glared at a sixth year Slytherin couple who seemed to think this was an ideal time for showing their deep affection for each other, oblivious to the world. "Come on, now, no more talking! Lights out in ten minutes!"
"Spoilsport," grumbled Cho.
"I hope they don't collect homework tomorrow," Mandy Brocklehurst worried.
"I'll talk to Professor Flitwik," assured Roger. "Sleep well."
"Good night, Roger," Cho said. "Hopefully they don't make you stay awake the entire time…" She found a corner as yet unoccupied, rather amused and yet gratified when first year Ravenclaw girls crowded around her.
Crawling into her sleeping bag, Cho took about two minutes to unbraid her hair, then gave Roger one last wave, stifling a yawn, shut her eyes, and went to sleep. He stood at his station, waiting for the professors to return from their search and tell them what was going on, well aware that it might be a very long wait. Not that he minded, of course. Cho lay sleeping about ten feet away from where he was stationed, curled up peacefully in her sleeping bag, long lashes resting against rosy cheeks. And for not the first time, Roger reflected that his Seeker friend was quite alarmingly beautiful. Well, if he had to stay up all night, so be it. There were far more unpleasant things he could have been doing besides watching her sleep.
He lost track of time as he stood there at the door, eyes glued on the slight, slender form of the Oriental girl slumbering close by. He wondered to himself when it had changed. When had Cho ceased being the funny little girl next door whom he played with, and become a lovely young woman whom... He shut his eyes for a brief second. No, she had not changed. She was still the same as always. A bit older, perhaps, but that was all. He was the one who had changed, changed how he saw her. However, there was a problem with this alteration. He had changed how he viewed her, but she still thought of him as nothing but a chum, almost like a brother. And he certainly did not view her as a surrogate little sister any more. Oh well, as long as she did not view anyone else in a non-platonic manner, there would always be hope. Someday, perhaps...someday. Thinking of this, Roger smiled slightly.
"She looks so peaceful and sweet sleeping, doesn't she?" An unwelcome voice intruded into his thoughts and Roger snapped back into reality. Harsh reality, in the form of Cedric Diggory, who had walked over to where he was standing, and, to his annoyance, joined him in the highly private and personal activity of Cho-watching.
"I don't think that you should make such comments about how she looks when she's sleeping, Diggory." Roger's disapproving voice took on an uncanny likeness to that of Percy Weasley, with a forbidding frown to match. "In fact, you have no need to worry about how she looks sleeping at all, at least not for years yet," he couldn't help adding caustically. "She's not like that."
Cedric looked very taken aback. "I would never imply she was, Davies," Cedric said at long last. "Listen, I'm pretty sure you have the wrong idea about me."
"Oh, I've got your number, Diggory," Roger hissed, doing his best not to raise his voice and wake the sleeping students. "I've got you down. But you can't have her, at least not without a fight."
Cedric looked scandalized. "Davies, really! Hear me out, please!"
Roger shrugged and turned pointedly from him. "I don't need to hear anything. You can say whatever you like, but I know what's going on. You can just stay away from her, Diggory."
Cedric's voice had grown cold. "I think it's Cho's choice who she associates with, Davies. Now, if you'll excuse me, I see a potential situation." He walked away, joining Percy in once again separating the incorrigible Slytherins.
"Bloody git," Roger murmured under his breath, watching him walk away. "As if I didn't know."
Roger, now alone again, resumed his previous activity of Cho-watching. However, this was different. No longer watching and admiring her, but watching her, almost as if to make sure that she did not vanish, did not slip away from him. He was watching her so intensely that he did not notice Cedric Diggory's eyes on him, a wry but sympathetic expression on the Hufflepuff Prefect's face. However, when the doors to the Great Hall opened once more, he tore his eyes away from the sleeping Chinese girl to see the teachers standing in the doorway.
Sirius Black had not been caught. However, after a thorough search of the school, it was ascertained that he was not within the premises. So, the Prefects could now go to sleep as well, and they would deal with everything in the morning. Silently, Roger crawled into his own sleeping bag and closed his eyes, his mind still full of thoughts of Cho.
***
He had finished his Prefect rounds for the night, so now, Roger headed back to his common room. It was quite late, for Prefect rounds lasted 'till 1:30 am. Usually, when he returned from them, there would not be anyone still up, unless it was time for final exams. Therefore, he was quite astonished to see Cho still awake, her face buried in a copy of Advanced Calcular Numerica. A slight frown between her brows, she didn't even notice his entrance. He sat down in front of the fire, and watched as she wrestled with the complex Arithmancy assignment she was doing. Hmm... he had taken Arithmancy too, since third year, but never recalled doing something this complex until well into his fifth year.
"Aarrgh! This is so bloody irritating! What is the Integral Geomancy Principle?!" Cho stood up, throwing her book onto the table in exasperation. Suddenly, she caught sight of Roger, sitting there, watching her with an amused expression on his face. "Roger! Just the person I wanted to see! Professor Vector assigned an extra credit research assignment, and this is just going nowhere!"
Roger stood up as well, walking over to her table. "Well, I'm not surprised you're having trouble over it, Cho. It's a year over your level, even though you're in the accelerated class. That's why reading the fifth year textbook won't do anything for you, because you've never covered the stuff before." Cho sighed, then nodded. Picking up her books and parchments, she moved them over to where he had been sitting earlier, and plopped down on the blue velvet couch.
"Well, could you explain it to me, then?" she asked softly. Roger smiled and nodded, then proceeded to teach her the rudiments of her assignment topic. Cho was a quick learner, and in half an hour's time, her assignment was completed. Triumphantly putting away her books, she stood up, then offered a hand to Roger to pull him up as well. The fire was now burning low, as the two of them stood before it. Cho was smiling sweetly at him.
"Thank you, Roger. You're the best!" She reached up to give him a hug, then stood on her tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek. Somehow, unintentionally, he turned his head slightly, and her kiss fell upon his lips instead. However, to his delight, she did not pull away, but threw her arms around his neck and continued to kiss him, lips soft and sweet as cherries.
When they finally parted for breath, he stroked her hair gently, and whispered, "I love you." She smiled, and stood on her toes to kiss him again.
Roger brought his hand up to run through her hair. He loved her hair, so silky and long and-
Wait a minute.
Cho's hair was short.
He looked at her, eyes wide. "Cho?"
She smiled at him gently and said, "Wake up, Roger."
And suddenly, Roger's eyes shop open, and he was looking up into Cho's amused gaze. He had slept on the floor. In the Great Hall. In a purple sleeping bag. Had it all been… a dream? "Wake up before they trample you setting up for breakfast," Cho advised. "They've canceled morning lessons. Are you getting up?"
Roger realized Cho was leaning over him, her hair a long black curtain around them. It was long, and in the dream it had been short. But he could still taste her… "Er… yeah. Sure, Cho, I'll get up. Get off of me?"
She grinned. "I should tickle you to death first. You were talking in your sleep, you know."
Roger paled. "Oh?" he asked weakly.
She shrugged. "It was too faint to make out. I'm very exasperated."
What a relief, Roger thought. Out loud he voiced a completely different thought. "It's hard to remember dreams."
Roger was extremely taciturn during breakfast, eating his pancakes without a sound. He looked like his mind was far away. Cho looked at him, seated across from her, then at Cedric one table away, and saw that both of them were looking at her with strange expressions on their faces. Bemused, she figured that they were still rather tired from having to stay awake and watch over the other students for goodness only knew how long last night. She smiled, thinking of the two boys hovering over them protectively. Caring Roger, sweet Cedric. Two whom she would trust with her life, and whose trust she had as well. She was a lucky girl, to be friends with these two.
Roger, for once, did not even notice her smiling at him. He was too busy remembering the last part of that dream, as it ran through his head over and over again. Him kissing Cho, holding her in his arms, telling her that he loved her... wait! He loved her?! He loved her?! The piece of pancake that he had been absentmindedly forking into his mouth got stuck in his throat, and he started choking. Cho stood up at once, leaning over the table and clapping a small hand on his back. "All right there, Roger?"
He finally managed to force down the morsel of food, and looked at her, blue eyes wide. "I'm... just fine." He replied in a strangled sort of voice.
"Oh, okay, just making sure. Say, could you help me with my Arithmancy assignment today? I've been working on it for ages, and the book tells me nothing! What the devil is the bloody Integral Geomancy Principle, anyway?"
There was only one thought in Roger's mind. "Oh God."