~*Everything You Want*~
Chapter Twelve: Sweet Misery
Dove: We're back with the infamous Yule Ball chapter… why did Fleur kiss Roger in the rosebushes? Why was he agreeing with everything she said? Can we get enough Draco/Ginny plugs in here? The answers all lie ahead in this far-too-long chapter full of goodies, including much Blaise Zabini and more Weasley chaos. Enjoy.
Thalia: The way-too-much-fun Yule Ball chapter. *does happy Sadistic Fanfiction Goddess dance*. Now, the girls are all looking beautiful, people are dancing and partying, and yet, everyone's pissed, and sexual tension zooms across the room like freaky bolts of lightning! What fun!!
Disclaimer: My boyfriend would throw a conniption of incredible proportions if I, Thalia, were suddenly granted ownership of Roger. Not to mention.... Cho would kill me. Because, if you couldn't tell by now, I'm a bloody sadist.
"I was blind,
But oh how you could see,
You saw the beauty in everything
And everything in me
I would cry
And you would smile,
Stay with me, a little while
Oh, sweet misery you caused me
That's what you called me
Sweet misery you caused me
And in my heart I see
What you're doing to me
And in my heart I see
Just how you wanted it to be
Sweet misery…"-Michelle Branch, "Sweet Misery"
In the fifth year Ravenclaw dormitories, a lone girl lay awake in her bed, idly trying to braid her shoulder-length black hair, silently staring up at the blue velvet enclosure around and above her, surrounded by the light snores of her roommates. Tears that she could not stanch dripped slowly from her wide-open brown eyes.
"Cho Chang, you need to sleep! You have a Charms exam tomorrow morning! Charms.."
Charms. Roger's best subject. And Fleur bloody Delacour's. Fleur, who was positively reeking with veela charms like a strong perfume. Beautiful Fleur. Smart, stunning, a Triwizard Champion, talented at Charms... no wonder Roger was head over heels for her.
It was not fair. She was crying over a perfect girl she couldn't help hating irrationally, and an imperfect boy she couldn't bring herself to hate rationally.
"Roger, it's all your fault! If you hadn't been... if you hadn't been so stubborn, intractable, temperamental... beautiful, intelligent, beyond my reach... if you hadn't been such a prat... we would still be friends! Damn you anyway... it's all your fault! I didn't want to love you..."
That night, a night that should have been filled with pleasant dreams and excitement for the upcoming ball, a heartbroken Chinese girl fell asleep with a messy, short braid of hair sticking to a damp cheek, where the tears had marred the pale skin with tracks.
***
Over the next few weeks, the school was all abuzz about the Yule Ball. Melissa had sent away to her mother for dress robes, for she lived in Hogsmeade, and therefore had a set in lovely pale lilac the very next day, which Cassandra and even Cho obligingly made enchanted noises over. Others went into Hogsmeade themselves to return with packages and bright faces. Still others, such as Cassandra, had brought theirs in anticipation, and they were now airing in all their glory, so that most of the girls' dormitories looked as though a whirlwind of color and delicate scent had descended upon them and left wreckage that was unusually pleasant to the eye.
Cho belonged to this last group as well. When dress robes had shown up on her school list, she had immediately thought of the shimmering pale pink robes that Cedric had presented her with last Christmas. She was lucky, she reflected, this it seemed she would not grow any more, for they still fit as though they were made for her the night she tried them on, carefully timing it so that Melissa and Cassandra would not see. She looked like a fairytale princess, short hair or no, and it cheered her up a little, for the robes quite transformed her.
To everyone's great surprise, the quiet Calista was the only second year staying behind. Cho was certainly not expecting to see the small bespectacled girl sitting in her dressing gown and drinking cocoa in the common room on the first day of the holidays, a book on the breeding habits of Antipodean Opaleyes open in her lap. "Calista!" Cho exclaimed.
Calista looked up and smiled, putting a piece of hair that had escaped one of her two long honey-brown braids behind her ear. "Good morning, Cho! Sleep well?"
Cho nodded and sat down. Calista automatically offered her a second cup from the tray on the table and Cho inhaled the rich fragrance and felt better. "You're staying? Are you going to the Yule Ball?"
Calista nodded happily. "Yes! I'm so excited! Glenda was very sore with me, though; she thought if any of us would get asked, it would be her." The popular Glenda, who was growing up to be quite lovely with her hair in golden waves and green eyes had indeed been rather livid the night before as she was flying around the common room looking for a book she had to pack. Now Cho knew why.
"Who's taking you?" Cho enquired. "Someone from Ravenclaw?"
Calista shook her head. "No, Slytherin. Blaise Zabini asked me two days ago. I think that rather large Bustrode girl is vexed."
"You are the queen of understatement today," Cho deadpanned. She knew of Blaise Zabini, even if she didn't know him directly. Tall, dark, and handsome, if you excluded his affiliation with the children of Death Eaters, he had been born in Italy and moved to England at five years of age. He had made sure the accent stayed in place, though Cho personally thought it was an affect. "Well, I hope you have a good time in any case. Come and sit with us if he decides to be evil."
"Blaise is nice," Calista said tranquilly. "At least compared to the other boys in his year. He asked me and not Glenda, after all. I think I can handle it."
Cho had hugged her and realized that little Calista was growing up.
Cho had also spent quite a bit of her time with Cedric, for she was still eating at least half of her meals with the Hufflepuffs. They had talked about everything, carefully avoiding the topic of the Ball. It was agreed around school that she would go with him, but it had never been discussed. One night, she came back to the common to find a sprig of plum blossoms (it was December, and she had to laugh at his ingenuity) in a water-glass on her favorite windowseat with a note that said:
Cho,
I know everyone thinks we're going together
anyway, bit I thought I should ask to keep up
pretenses. What do you say?
-Ced
Cho had smiled a bit and the next morning at breakfast told him wholeheartedly, "I'd love to." Then it was truly settled, and she didn't have to think about much except the fact that she would likely have to be the center of attention for a while, going with Ced.
That afternoon, as she stood in the hallway debating the significance of the color of one's dress robes with Melissa, Cassandra, and the younger Padma Patil, a discussion she had been roped into against her will, she was approached by a very nervous-looking Harry Potter. "Er-Cho? Could I have a word with you?"
All the girls around her started giggling for no apparent reason. Cho sighed inwardly. And they called themselves Ravenclaws! She simply nodded, and followed him to a slight distance down the hall.
Harry muttered something very quickly, that she didn't quite catch. "Sorry?"
The boy blushed slightly, and repeated his statement a bit slower, "D'you-d'you want to go to the ball with me?"
Cho's thoughts flew from him, to Ced, then back, but all she could manage was, "Oh!" She felt her cheeks heating up as well. Reflecting that fate must really have a sadistic sense of humor, she said softly, "Oh Harry, I'm really sorry; I've already said I'll go with someone else."
Of course, she did not mention that said "someone else" was in love with him, and that right now, he was complicating an already irreparable tangle of love and hate and jealousy. She hoped... she really hoped that Harry had asked her only because he had a passing interest in her for her Quidditch skills, and thought that they would have common things to talk about.
"Oh," he said. "Oh okay, no problem."
What was she to say now? Mentally cursing her life, she apologized again. They looked at each other awkwardly for a few more moments, and then, just as she was about to leave, he asked her whom it was that she would be going with.
"Oh-Cedric. Cedric Diggory."
"Oh right," Harry said rather tonelessly, before walking off. And Cho Chang walked slowly to dinner, wondering how in the world things had gotten so ridiculously complicated.
***
The day of the ball, every female in the school sojourned to their respective dormitories shortly after lunch and stayed there, chattering and trying this way and that to style their hair and wear their make-up. The boys seemed quite baffled by this desire to spend any more time than absolutely necessary, and stayed down in their common rooms until an hour beforehand, playing games and wondering at the absurdity of women in general.
Cho decided to leave the washroom to Cassandra and Melissa, who were monopolizing it anyway, and made her way down the back stairs of the tower (it had taken her some time to bribe the house-elves into giving this location) and through the halls to the Prefects' bathroom. "blueberry pancakes," she said, and went in.
This was rather like a public bathhouse. Loud and fun, the large pool of a bathtub was filled to the brim with colorful bubbles, and Head Girl Penelope seemed to be having the time of her life filling the room with bubbles from her wand that refused to pop and instead settled on people's hair. There was much laughter and merriment.
"And they say we're responsible," Cho muttered, a smile tugging at her mouth. "Prefects. Honestly."
Just as she had settled herself in a corner and readied for a quick shower in the stalls lining the back wall, a silence descended upon the room. Through the door were coming the female half of the delegation from Beauxbatons, herded in by Professor McGonagall. "There, the French students need a place to get ready too, as their hot water seems to have been exchanged for a torrent of beetles…" Angelina Johnson looked rather like she was about to pass out. "If anyone has solid proof that the Weasley twins are behind this, see me tomorrow morning." She looked around the room and sighed. "Hopefully you girls are faring better than the boys are," she said dryly. "Professor Snape has given out three detentions for… well…" she turned bright red and went to shut the door, following up with "Just behave! Or else!"
Fleur Delacour had been the last one to walk in. She looked around the room slowly. When her eyes landed on Cho, she stared unwaveringly for a few moments, then smiled to herself in what Cho thought appeared to be a very predatory fashion. Cho bared her teeth and whirled around in the direction of the showers, all the festive spirit gone.
A bit later, Cho watched as the French girl, freshly washed and groomed, brushed out her mane of long silvery hair and pinned it up in a sophisticated-looking twist. Fleur reached into an ice-blue cosmetic bag, and pulled out a thin silver hairpin jeweled with a single sapphire, and fastened her shining locks with it. Then, she put on elegant-looking dress robes of smoky silver, and, shoulders back, head held high, she marched out of the Prefects' bathroom looking every inch like a goddess. Cho's scowl deepened. Oh, what wouldn't she do for a vial of bubotuber pus right now!
Penelope's voice sounded behind her, "Cho, could you please help me fasten my robes?"
Cho turned around and faced the older Prefect, pasting a mechanical smile on her face, "Sure." She turned around, and laced up the back of Penny's sky-blue robes, "You look lovely, Penny."
"Thanks. Now, you've not shown me what you're going to wear. Come on, let's see them."
Cho had been quite satisfied with how she had looked when she had tried the beautiful pink robes on. But now, she sighed self-consciously as she held them out for Penny's inspection. "Ced gave them to me last Christmas... d'you think... d'you think I'll look all right in them? I'm not at all sophisticated, and my hair..."
Penny gave her a very perceptive look. "Your hair seems to be growing out nicely. And, you didn't have to cut it, you know. But I'm sure you'll look beautiful all the same. Not all boys go for the unapproachable look, no matter how it seems to be at our table. And besides, it seems to me that Cedric adores you plenty as it is; what are you worried about?"
Cho sighed, "Nothing......" then, she scowled again, "Why does that Delacour hussy have to be so damned flashy? So, she's a bloody champion... big deal! But none of the others strut around like a bloody peacock!"
Penny smiled wryly to herself behind Cho's back as she, in turn, helped the younger girl lace up her dress robes. "There, you look lovely. Now, are you going back to the dormitory to do your hair?"
Cho sighed. "Yes. Something possessed me, I swear, either that, or Melissa's a hypnotist. I promised to let them do it."
"Alas, poor Chang, I knew her well," Penny deadpanned. Cho found herself laughing genuinely for the first time that day.
***
Getting back to Ravenclaw Tower without being seen would have been a tricky business, so Cho put a long cloak over her robes before taking the back stairs up. She only met one person-Sarah Fawcett, who was on her way down to the prefects' bathroom, fully dressed but with a messy hairstyle. They smiled at each other as they passed.
Once she arrived and entered her dormitory, she was automatically accosted by a sweet floral fragrance and the excited squeals of her roommates. "Darling, we thought you'd forgotten!" Cassandra said, leading her to a chair in the middle of the room and plopping her down.
"How could I forget such a momentous occasion?" Cho said in a voice dripping with sarcasm.
The two girls pretended not to notice the venom as they fluttered about, resplendent in their pastel robes (for Cassandra was in buttercup yellow). Cho winced when she realized she actually matched them.
"Now, we took the liberty of looking through your hair things to see what we could do-I hope you don't mind," Melissa said briskly.
Cho sighed. "Whyever would I mind?"
Cassandra grinned. "Cho, darling, sulking spoils your complexion. Now, all we found that could be suitable were these." She brandished a pair of diamond-studded combs, and Cho's heart skipped a beat. She carried the gift given her by Cecilia Davies, but she had never expected to wear them.
"No, no, I can't…" she trailed off, wondering what to say.
Melissa looked at her shrewdly. "I see. Well, it doesn't matter in any case, for your hair is far too short for them now. We were quite baffled."
"Lucky for us, your wonderful boyfriend decided to solve our problems. You really are lucky, you know," Cassandra continued. She moved over to Cho's bed, drew the curtains, and picked up a delicate wreath of plum blossoms. She handed it to Cho. "He sent his owl and said that they were charmed not to wilt for the night, so we can worry about other things, such as curling those ends under…"
Cho smiled slightly at Cedric's thoughtfulness as she held the fragrant pink wreath in her hands. All things considered, Cedric really would have made the best of boyfriends, the obvious problem excepted. Well that, and the fact that he wasn't Roger. Of which Cho refused to think at all.
Together, the three girls, Cho bringing up the rear, trooped out of the dormitory and down the stairs. Henry Vanderhoff, escorting a red-clad Lisa Turpin, raised an eyebrow as they entered the common room.
"And here we have three resplendent asters. Lisa, why don't you, Mandy, Padma and Su match? Look how much more organized they are."
Cassandra and Melissa giggled, and together, headed out of the common room to meet their dates. Cho rolled her eyes at Henry, "Please... don't remind me."
Henry chuckled, "You look nice."
"Thanks, you two look nice as well," Cho said with a small smile. "Lisa, who is Zach going with?"
Lisa gave a little shrug, "Angela Branstone from Hufflepuff. I think they're partners in Potions or something. She's very sweet."
"Good for him!" Cho smiled thinly. "He has good taste, then. Better than I can say for some others... Well, I have to meet Cedric at the Entrance Hall. I'll see you in a bit!" Saying so, she walked out of the Ravenclaw Common Room.
Henry and Lisa exchanged an amused glance behind her back.
Cho met Calista on her way downstairs. The younger girl looked quite pretty in her moss-green dress robes, the light, airy material shot with golden threads to complement the wreath of golden leaves in her brown hair. "Hello, Cho! You look lovely."
"Thanks, you look very nice yourself. Blaise is a lucky boy." Cho smiled and took the younger girl's arm. "Where are you going to meet him?"
Calista scanned the hallway, which was starting to crowd with people dressed in brightly colored robes. "Oh, there he is!" Cho looked to where Calista was pointing, and sure enough, there stood the Slytherin boy, dressed in charcoal gray, a bored expression on his handsome face as a very overly made-up Millicent Bulstrode prattled on to him. He looked around, and his eyes lit upon Calista, descending the staircase. He grinned engagingly. Calista blushed. Millicent glared and skulked off.
"Well, I must go now," Calista called over her shoulder and she quickly walked down the staircase, "See you later, Cho!"
Cho waved and smiled benevolently at the younger girl. Ah, Calista was a little sweetheart. Cho hoped that she would have a delightful time tonight, and that Blaise Zabini would treat her every bit as well as she deserved to be treated.
And then, she saw a glorious head of silvery blonde hair, and all benevolent feelings vanished. Cho riveted her eyes away from Fleur and Roger before any budding thoughts about tearing out the part-veela's hair could progress too far, and saw Cedric Diggory standing at the foot of the staircase, smiling at her. She quickly joined him and took his arm. There! Fleur Delacour and Roger Davies could just go and... and hang themselves!
The Front Doors opened, and the Durmstrang students walked in, led by Viktor Krum. The Quidditch player was escorting a pretty girl with light brown hair, dressed in blue. Professor McGonagall called for the champions and their partners to step forward, and Cho, keeping her eyes studiously away from Fleur and Roger and fixing them upon Cedric instead, walked in before Harry Potter and Padma's twin sister and sat down to applause from everyone present.
They found themselves sitting next to Professor Dumbledore, and Cedric beamed down at her. "You look lovely. I'm very lucky to be going with the prettiest girl here."
Cho smiled back at him. Well... not everyone would think so... but she simply said, in a playful voice, "Cedric Diggory, are you, by any chance, flirting with me?"
He matched her grin with one of his own, "I wouldn't dare," he said solemnly, "but really, you look beautiful."
"Thanks," Cho replied, her eyes involuntarily glancing at Fleur Delacour. "I'm glad you think so."
"Trust me, I'm sure that I am not the only one," Cedric said seriously. "Now, let's eat, shall we?"
"We shall. Chicken Kiev!" Cho called out, after seeing the Headmaster enunciate his order to his plate. The food arrived, and she studiously looked down at her plate, trying to ignore the Beauxbatons champion's imperious voice a few seats over.
Meanwhile, Roger was trying very hard to concentrate on Fleur. Trying so hard, in fact, that he was quite oblivious to the world around him. "Are you even listening to me?" the lovely girl asked.
"Hmm," said Roger noncommittally, picking at his food. He decided he should probably look at her, and once again concentrated on Fleur's face-certainly not on the wreathed black head behind her. Why was it that Cedric was the only one who could get Cho's favorite flowers to grow in this climate? Roger smiled absently so he wouldn't scowl. He was feeling rather miserable and doing his very best not to show it. He shouldn't ruin the evening for Fleur.
"…'e would be expelled like zat." Fleur slapped her slim hand onto the table impatiently.
Roger realized he probably should have been listening. What had she been talking about? His fork missed his mouth again as he tried to remember. "Absolutely right," he said quickly and, he hoped, not too guiltily, slapping his own hand down on the table in imitation of Fleur. "Like that. Yeah."
Fleur gave him a very curious look, and Harry Potter a veiledly amused one. Roger tried not to blush. He didn't notice Cedric's rather tragic expression. He was, after all, pretending that he didn't exist.
The rest of dinner passed without incident, though once Roger caught Fleur softly asking him what he thought of the breeding habits of Manticores. Roger, who had tuned in just in time to hear this, blushed and choked on his food. Fleur had looked gratified. "It appears I can make you listen to me aftair all," she said lightly.
Roger looked at her and wondered what she meant by that half-smile she wore. "I've been listening to you," he disagreed.
"Off and on," she shrugged. "We need to go dance."
Roger stood; glad for the many dancing lessons he had had from his mother in childhood, and offered Fleur his hand. He wasn't concentrating at all, but his body responded automatically. It was hard to forget the many times he had done this, the many times Cho had grinned, stood, and curtsied to him while Cecilia smiled in the background and called out the beat. How they had fallen, stepped on each other's feet, and spun in circles around his living room until one of them became too dizzy and fell. Roger remembered the fancy party his parents had thrown when he was about ten and how he and little Cho, who had looked younger than her eight years, had charmed the guests by opening the dancing with a sprightly waltz. His heart gave a pang.
Fleur stood, took his hand, and they proceeded to the middle of the floor, Roger's other hand lightly on her back as he escorted her. He hadn't danced in years, the last time when he had been no more than sixteen, when he had caught Cho dancing around alone with her eyes closed in her backyard and tapped her shoulder, asking if she would be so gracious as to let him have this dance. Their endless, music-less spinning had been interrupted by Ying-Ying Chang who had come outside and called Cho in for dinner. Roger had watched Cho go inside with a look of loss on his face.
That had been the summer before his sixth year, and that had been the moment he realized he cared for the diminutive girl as more than a friend.
Sighing, Roger made himself smile, made himself bow elegantly, and drew Fleur into his arms. They began to dance slowly. She was really quite wonderful at this, light on her feet, graceful. She was also, however, too tall, for her eyes nearly met his. Her delicate hand in his was cool and her lovely face was impassive without laughter hiding behind the blue eyes. He looked into those eyes and realized that, despite the fact that he was dancing with the loveliest girl he had ever met, a girl lovely, intelligent and caring, however she tried to hide it under a haughty exterior, he wasn't at all happy. He hear a familiar voice murmuring softly somewhere to his right. Cho seemed to be having a good time. Cedric laughed at whatever she had said softly.
He wondered whether he could make it through the night without screaming.
Cho and Cedric, dancing a little ways away, were, indeed, having a good time. "Someday someone will explain to me how that little girl manages to wind everyone around her fingers without us realizing it," Cho was saying, looking out of the corner of her eye at Calista, who had just been lead onto the dance floor by Blaise Zabini, who really seemed quite taken with her. "A Slytherin! Really!"
Cedric laughed a little and turned Cho around slightly. "It's not as rare as you think. Look over there."
Cho looked and beheld Draco Malfoy, the terror of Slytherin, a slight sneer on his face, dancing with an over-frilled and over-perfumed girl from his own house. However, though she was chattering at him amicably, his eyes were elsewhere. Cho followed his gaze across the room and beheld a small red-haired girl in forest green robes who was trying and failing to dance with a very clumsy boy in dark brown.
"Ginny Weasley. She's Gryffindor," Cedric grinned. "I wonder if she would deck him if she knew he had been watching her covertly for the greater part of two months?"
Cho giggled softly. "You notice everything, don't you?"
Cedric looked at her very seriously. "Just about," he said.
Cho's good mood vanished like smoke. "Ced-"
Cedric shook his head. "You don't have to worry. I'm not going to bring this up tonight."
Cho sighed. "I'd rather you not bring it up at all. I'm thirsty." With that, she fled the dance floor, Cedric following behind.
Roger, watching Cho leave the dance floor, belatedly realized that Fleur was addressing him. "Sorry?"
The French girl made a slightly exasperated sound, "So, Roger, would you mind 'orribly eef I asked you to escort me for a turn in ze rosebushes outside?"
"Oh, all right." Anything was fine. Really. Perhaps the fresh air outside would help clear his head, and moreover, he wouldn't be able to see Cho and Diggory waltzing around in each other's arms. Roger allowed Fleur to lead him out the hall and out the door, into the lovely rose-filled splendor that had taken Professors Sprout and Flitwick goodness knew how long to set up.
Fleur led him down the path to a rosebush close to a stone reindeer sculpture. Back down their original path, they could hear rather strident-sounding blasts, and the unpleasant voice of Professor Snape.
"Ten points from Ravenclaw, Fawcett! And ten points from Hufflepuff too, Stebbins!"
Hurried footsteps resounded down the path, then died away in the distance. Roger looked at Fleur rather distractedly. She had a very odd look in her eyes, as if she were trying to come to a decision about something.
"It's nice out here, don't you thi-!"
His words were abruptly cut off as she, somewhat forcefully, pulled him close to her and kissed him on the lips.
It was only a moment, a moment when he was deciding what to do, before he let his arms come to rest on her shoulders and attempted to relax. It didn't work. He stood there, stiff and somehow exhausted as Fleur Delacour kissed him and felt… nothing.
Fleur released him a few moments later. "Poutain de merde," she whispered under her breath. "Roger Davies, get in 'ere right now." With that said, she grabbed his hand and dragged him behind a particularly thorny bush.
"What-" Roger managed before she turned on him, all fury.
"I see ze way you aire watching ze girl 'oo nevair sits wis us at dinner anymore and stares at me as zough she would like me dead!" Fleur hissed. Her volume was low, but her anger was evident on the strained, lovely face. "You say you like me. So I come to see for myself. Batârd!"
Roger winced, for he had a very good idea of what she was saying despite his complete lack of knowledge of French. "You're wrong. She-"
"Oh non," Fleur said, her voice growing more French by the moment. "Ne parle pas, ou je vais trouver quelquechose qui fermirait ta bouche pour toujours. Charogne." She took a deep breath and switched back into English. "You should know enough about veela to undairstand, you eedeeot. When we kiss someone, zat someone falls in love wis us… unless zey are truly in love wis someone else. And know it. Merde! I am not 'ere wis you so zat you can make la petite fille chinoise jealous!" With that, she swung a small, delicate hand at him.
The small hand appeared to be quite strong, for Roger found himself flying out of the rosebush, quite dazed. Roger looked up just as Fleur emerged, queenly and elegant despite her fury. "We veela keel men 'oo deceive us," she said flatly. "Eet eez in my nature… and I only let you go because I feel absolutely nosing for you eizer… and I managed to find ze two boys in zis entire school 'oo will not respond to me ll in ze course of one week." She then launched into a string of muttered words which Roger was quite sure were very profane, for all the elegance she had while saying them. "You English," she finally decided, "Are exceedingly stupid. You know whaire to find me when you want to apologize." With that, she swept off and Roger was left sitting on the cold December ground, wondering why the world was against him.