Chapter 5
Someone was trying to kill her. Cho knew it. Any single event could have been an accident, but there were just too many of them. There had been falling masonry, collapsing bookshelves, a rampaging suit of armor, exploding potions, a snake in the fruit bowl, and a Seeker-seeking Bludger. Hermione had told her life with Harry could be dangerous, but she hadn't expected immediate and random danger. How do you defend yourself against random events? It was making her paranoid.
Harry was in the middle of exams. Steady, nagging pain from his scar made a normally stressful event almost unbearable. Cho could tell it was wearing him down. She did her best to comfort him, but nothing seemed to help. One more week and his exams would be over with. After that would be their Exhibition Match. Cho had no idea how Harry was going to fly feeling the way he did, but he insisted the match would go on.
They had great hopes for this match. She, Harry, and Madame Hooch continued to meet a few times a week to talk strategy and tactics. The three of them continued to smooth out Harry's vision, and refine it. They worked on ways to search for the snitch while traveling at full velocity. They worked out new aerial maneuvers and acrobatics and ways to cutoff and isolate the other Seeker from the Snitch. Madame Hooch insisted that this was going to be the most revolutionary thing to happen to Quidditch since they quit using straw brooms.
Cho came up with the idea to write everything down. She was sure that this would make a fantastic book. It would become one of the classic texts of Quidditch. She would be part of it. She was part of it. It was Harry's vision, but she influenced it. He considered all of her ideas with the same gravity that he gave to Madame Hooch's or even his own. Some he shot down, some he kept. If she questioned something of his, he would listen to her arguments, and if necessary they would test it in the air. There were only three sacred tenets: Keep moving; Keep the other Seeker guessing, and Catch the Snitch.
There were just barely three weeks of school left. Cho was dreading the summer. She would have to go and face her mother. Harry would have to go back to those awful Muggles. She wouldn't see him for two whole months. She was desperately worried that something would happen to him and she wouldn't be there to help him. There was a pretty good chance that she wouldn't even be able to owl him, at least not directly. She and Hermione were working on a code and a relay system in case things got desperate.
Harry had been her boyfriend for almost two months. She had seen him everyday. They ate their meals together. They studied together. Occasionally they made midnight excursions for a little extra time alone - Harry's list of good qualities did not include anything resembling respect for the rules. They had gone to Hogsmeade together and had romantic dinners. It was going to be hard to face eight long weeks without him. Even when his scar hurt him at his worst, and he was most overwhelmed with studies, his face always lit up into a smile when he saw her. She could not remember how she had ever managed to make it though a day without that smile.
Harry's friend Ron had eventually come around and accepted her presence. If nothing else, he saw her as a tiebreaker in his frequent arguments over obscure points of Quidditch. Ron seemed happiest when he was arguing with someone, and Hermione seemed to be the one he enjoyed arguing with the most. Hermione had quickly become Cho's best confidant. Ellwyn was still not talking to her and Cho was almost positive that she was acting as an informant for her mother.
She still had no idea who it was that wanted to kill her. Everyone but Ellwyn seemed to have gotten used to the idea of her and Harry as a couple, and she doubted Ellwyn would try to kill her over it. If the accidents happened to Harry, then maybe she would've considered Ellwyn, but everything seemed directed at her. She had suspected Ginny Weasley at first, but the latest rumor about her was that she had moved on and was seen in the company of that git Malfoy. That was not a rumor one repeated in the presence of Ron Weasley though unless you wanted a duel.
The week that the O.W.L.s ended, things got more serious. Her broom exploded. She just happened to not be on it at the time, which was a miracle, because it happened in the middle of practice. She had landed to discuss a maneuver with Madame Hooch, and left her broom lying where she landed. That was also very uncharacteristic of her; she never just left her broom. She was glad she did this time though, because it suddenly burst into a million splinters.
Some one was definitely trying to kill her. All of the other events could have been accidents, but this was unmistakably an attempt to kill her. If she had been flying when that had happened, even if the blast hadn't killed her, hitting the ground in excess of 150 kph would have. As if someone trying to kill her wasn't bad enough, now she had no broom for the match.
When Harry found out he was frantic. Just as Hermione had told her he would, Harry instantly began to blame himself. Only a vicious snogging had managed to calm him down. They would be careful, whomever it was that was making the attempts was getting braver, and they would expose themselves soon. Cho promised Harry he could do whatever he wanted to their remains after she was done with them. Harry promised her he would be patient.
The next day, Harry's scar pain stopped. Suddenly it had just faded. He had gone down to Hogsmeade station with Ron and Ginny, to see them off. Their brother Bill had been in some sort of accident and they were being allowed to leave early for their summer break. By the time Harry got back to the castle, the pain had receded. He seemed like a new man. Cho hadn't realized how much the pain had affected him until she saw him relieved from it.
That evening, Harry asked her down to the broom shed and said it was important. He seemed very nervous. At the broom shed she found out why. He handed her a package that could only be a broom. Opening it, she discovered it was a Firebolt. Her eyes went wide in disbelief, and then closed again in sorrow.
"Harry, I can't accept this."
"You need a broom Cho. You deserve this broom. For the Match, we should be on equal brooms. Wait until you fly on it, you'll never be able to fly on anything else."
"It's too much Harry, it wouldn't be right for me to take this from you."
"I want you to have it though. It's my fault your old broom was destroyed."
"You don't know that Harry. It's too much. This broom cost a fortune, I don't even know how you could have bought it."
"I have money," said Harry, "I have a vault at Gringott's."
"People will talk. They'll think you bought me."
"They already talk. Some of them think I killed Cedric because you wouldn't go to the Yule Ball with me and put an Imperius curse on you to make you like me."
Cho had heard that particular rumor, but she didn't know Harry had. He had never mentioned it. She knew that it must have hurt him to be accused of such a thing.
"Isn't there a custom so that when guy wants everyone to know he's serious about a girl, he buys her a ring, or a bracelet, or something like that? Why can't this be that gift?"
Cho shook her head. "Those are just trinkets, Harry. They are meant to express feelings. This is a professional broom. I would be taking advantage of your generosity if I accepted it."
"I want you to have this broom Cho. I want you to experience the speed and the acceleration. I want you to know how it feels when the broom seems to read your mind. I want you to experience the sheer unfettered joy of flying at 250 kph. I want you to know because that's how you make me feel. Maybe other guys can express their feelings with a trinket, but not me. I need a Firebolt."
And Madame Hooch had said he wasn't a poet. She buried herself in his arms. To hell with other people, to hell with mothers and friends and anyone else. She was gong to fly this broom until the last twig fell off, then she was going to re-twig it and fly it until those fell off too. He loved her. He hadn't used those words, but that was what he meant. If he could express his feeling best in terms of flying, she was just fine with that. He could take his time to find the words.
Harry stayed on the ground and watched as she took her new broom on its maiden flight. Magic was too casual a word to describe the experience. What she had thought of as flying before paled in comparison to this. She accelerated to top speed and watch the ground flee beneath her. She pulled impossibly sharp climbs and dove downward at speeds that defied imagination. There were tears in her eyes. This was what he wanted her to know. This was how he said he felt about her.
This soaring, sailing, streaming rush of emotion was what he wanted her to feel. He had wanted her to see the way the world blurred and faded until the only constants were herself and the place she wanted to go, the point of her desire. He had wanted her to share this experience that was too rarefied to be a mere sensation, but too physical to be simply sublime. He was a poet. He was an artist. He used the sky as his canvas, and raw existence as his paint. This was better than all the poetry in the world.
She wanted to find a way to let Harry know that his feelings were not lost on her. She was a Ravenclaw. She lived in a world of books and words, but these things failed her now. She needed a way to express the profound happiness he had brought to her. She needed a way to show to show him the courage he had brought out of her. Nothing she had ever learned gave her the eloquence she needed to match this gift. She would have to invent new words, and a new language. He would know. Somehow she would find a way to make sure.
The day of the match, the teams prepped themselves in separate ready rooms. Cho sat in the middle of her teammates, but felt very alone. Roger Davies was making one of his typical speeches. This would be his last game at Hogwarts, and he was glad to have one more chance than he should have to play with them. Cho ignored him. She had made her mental preparations in Madame Hooch's office with Harry before coming to join the others. Everyone seemed to think this was an elaborate setting for Harry to show off. They just didn't understand that Harry was the last person in the world to whom she would ever 'give' a Snitch.
As soon as she was in the air, her teammates realized she was playing to win. Once the whistle was blown, what happened on the ground was forgotten. She was Cho the Seeker. At top speed, she buzzed the Gryffindor Beaters causing them to foul and yield a penalty to her team. Ravenclaw had the first score if nothing else.
She and Harry began the intricate ballet of dividing the airspace into zones of control. It was a race to cover the most ground first. No longer did you sit and look for the Snitch, you hunted it at 250 kph. You had to do this while forcing your opponent down blind alleys. You had to know how to tell when the other Seeker was bluffing, and when he was actually on the Snitch. You had to convince the other seeker to chase you instead of looking for the Snitch himself. For good measure, you tried to cause havoc with the other team at the same time.
She and Harry had developed these tactics together. Strictly speaking they were not lovers, but they loved each other and they knew each other with the deep familiarity created by that emotion. They each had a pretty good idea of how the other one thought. They were on identical, high-performance brooms. By all outward appearances this should be a match of equals.
Harry started a zigzagging run down the pitch, and was pulling himself up high on his broom. Cho's heart sank. He had the Snitch already, and she was on the opposite side of the Pitch. There wasn't even going to be a chase. She yanked her broom around and made a dash for it anyway. Amazingly, she began to close on him. With ten meters to go, he suddenly banked hard left and made straight for a new patch of sky. He had faked the whole thing, and she had fallen for it.
Furious, she resumed her search pattern, and flew almost directly into the Snitch. The small winged orb zipped past her before she even realized it was there. That was okay. She knew more about its location than Harry did. Making no sudden moves, she continued as if she was still sectoring the sky. There wasn't a whole lot space left in the direction the Snitch was moving, so it had to reverse soon and head the opposite way. She just had to guess its new altitude.
She decided to go up. Even if the Snitch went down, height had its advantages. Gravity could give her extra acceleration, and it was easier to look down inconspicuously than it was to look up. Sure enough, the Snitch reversed its course and started its way back down the Pitch in a three dimensional 'z' pattern, as if it were a Navy Destroyer, trying to avoid mines. The time for subtlety was gone; she pitched forward and made her move.
Suddenly Harry was there. She had no idea how he had managed it, she had been pretty sure he had been at the opposite end of the field. She threw her broom over to block his path. He was not going to take this Snitch from her. Harry swerved to avoid collision. She pointed herself back in the direction of the Snitch. Harry was already leveling out beside her. She was sure that Harry could teach birds a few things about flying. She gave herself a bit of altitude, and tried to use the acceleration of gravity to give her an edge. It helped but it wasn't enough. She started to do the math in her head to figure out how much altitude she would need to get the necessary edge. Harry rolled and broke high, anticipating a change in direction.
Cho decided to stick with the Snitch a few more seconds in case Harry was wrong. He wasn't. The snitch changed directions almost entirely in the horizontal plane. It was now hugging the boundary of the pitch. Harry had taken the opportunity to gain much more altitude than the figure Cho had come up with to gain the necessary advantage. The only chance she had was to block his path of descent. Keeping her eye on Harry and the Snitch at the same time was starting to make her feel cross-eyed.
Harry pulled himself up into a low crouch and inched his way forward on the broom. He passed the center of the broom's gravity and it tipped downward. Cho figured he was moving around 300 kph as he passed her. Her attempt to block probably would have worked against an ordinary Seeker, but Harry evaded it with a few simple course changes. He snatched the snitch out the air about two meters in front of her. Her biggest concern now was whether or not Harry would be able to decelerate before hitting the ground.
Harry seemed to have already worked this out. As soon as he had the snitch in his hand, he threw his feet out from under him so that he was lying prone against the broom, hugging it against his body with one arm. Loosening his grip, his body slid further and further back on the broom until the center of balance changed in the opposite direction. The broom now tipped upwards and started to lose speed quickly. Harry pulled him self into a normal position and held up the Snitch. He had done it again.
She cheered for him. Harry had out flown her. When tactics, and brooms, and knowledge of the opponent were all canceled out, the match came down to who was the better flier. In a match of flying ability, she felt no shame in losing to Harry. Consistently Harry came up with the creative solution to win the game. The things he thought of would never have occurred to her. That was his gift. The fact that Harry always had to come up with something creative to beat her was a compliment.
She landed on the ground beside him and they threw their arms around each other. He gave her an enormous kiss. The entire school was watching and she didn't care. Madame Hooch escorted the two of them off of the field and into her office. Following close behind them were Ludo Bagman from the Ministry's department of Magical Games, Ian Horrigan who was manager for the Irish National Team, Anna Moran Manager for England and former Seeker, and finally Professor Dumbledore. Madame Hooch sat them all down and passed out Butterbeers.
Mr. Horrigan offered to sign them immediately. Harry, who was still fifteen had to confess that he couldn't sign anything. Ludo Bagman offered to pull strings to get a waiver for him. He also hinted that he was more than willing to represent them professionally. Harry, remembering Fred and George's experiences with the man, held back stating he wished to consider all of his options. Cho followed suit.
There was no doubt their concept had been a success. Mr. Horrigan and Ms. Moran went on at great lengths about it. If Harry and Cho would not sign yet, perhaps they would agree to come to some practices and explain their new strategies. Cho used the opportunity to push their book. This idea was warmly received, but still they wanted Harry and/or Cho to speak. Cho was going to have enough problems this summer without trying to throw Professional Quidditch into the mix. She explained that this was her final summer and her family had already made plans for her. That was more or less the truth.
The desire to go was apparent on Harry's face. There was no reason he shouldn't go; it had been his brainchild after all. Professor Dumbledore interceded though, explaining that arrangements had been made for Harry as well. Perhaps arrangements could be made for a day or two later in the summer, Professor Dumbledore would contact them at a later date if it were possible. Harry looked as if someone had died. Mr. Horrigan and Ms. Moran promised to stay in touch. Mr. Bagman left with Professor Dumbledore. Harry and Cho stayed in their seat.
Madame Hooch tried to cheer them up. "How many Seekers your age have the managers of National teams trying sign them before they even leave school. I told you that you were going to be big. This is just the start. Wait until you finish that book."
"She's right you know," said Cho. "We only proved the concept today. We have forever for the rest. We succeeded. They love us."
Harry smiled. "You're right, of course. Good game by the way. A couple times I thought you had me for sure."
"Exactly when was that?" asked Cho, " I thought it was you the whole time."
"It was pretty funny when the Snitch practically flew in your face. I thought I was a goner for sure that time. I was lucky."
"I didn't know you saw that, I was wondering how you ended up on top of me so soon. I was peeved about that feint you made. Climbing up on your broom and reaching for nothing."
Madame Hooch laughed. "I thought Potter had lost it."
"It worked though. I figured out that what was wrong with feints is that people fly too straight. When you're really on a Snitch, there's always a lot of weaving and such. I had been saving that one for a rainy day."
"No more Firebolt advantage got you down, Potter?" asked Madame Hooch.
"Not even a little," Harry smiled, "If anyone deserves a Firebolt, it's Cho. I don't mind working harder for my Snitches. I rather like it actually."
They broke up and went for showers. Harry and Cho agreed to meet later. They had four nights left before the term ended. Cho had always looked forward to summers before, now she wished June to be immediately followed by September. She had important work to do though.
On the train to King's Cross they shared a compartment with Hermione. Cho spent the entire time in Harry's arms. They promised to owl as often as possible. Cho and Hermione explained to him their code and relay system. Cho made him promise that no matter how bad things got he would tell her about them. When Hermione fell asleep, they used the opportunity for some last minute snogging.
Cho's parents were both waiting for her at the platform. She had hoped to have a minute or two at least before they came. Before stepping off the passenger car, she gave Harry one last kiss. She made sure her mother saw. Furious at her display, they immediately escorted her out of the station. Twisting her head, Cho watched until Harry disappeared from view.
***
Author's Notes:
Special thanks to Alex, Amy and Kensai. I would also like to thank everyone who has reviewed. You've all been far too kind. I've had a chance to read some of your stories and you guys make me feel inferior. If I haven't read & reviewed yours yet, it's just a matter of time.
Chapter six should be out in a day or two. I have some reworking in mind, so it might be delayed a bit. Cho, Harry, and Hermione have a brush with evil and Cho and Harry finally get some quality time alone.
Until next time…
***
Someone was trying to kill her. Cho knew it. Any single event could have been an accident, but there were just too many of them. There had been falling masonry, collapsing bookshelves, a rampaging suit of armor, exploding potions, a snake in the fruit bowl, and a Seeker-seeking Bludger. Hermione had told her life with Harry could be dangerous, but she hadn't expected immediate and random danger. How do you defend yourself against random events? It was making her paranoid.
Harry was in the middle of exams. Steady, nagging pain from his scar made a normally stressful event almost unbearable. Cho could tell it was wearing him down. She did her best to comfort him, but nothing seemed to help. One more week and his exams would be over with. After that would be their Exhibition Match. Cho had no idea how Harry was going to fly feeling the way he did, but he insisted the match would go on.
They had great hopes for this match. She, Harry, and Madame Hooch continued to meet a few times a week to talk strategy and tactics. The three of them continued to smooth out Harry's vision, and refine it. They worked on ways to search for the snitch while traveling at full velocity. They worked out new aerial maneuvers and acrobatics and ways to cutoff and isolate the other Seeker from the Snitch. Madame Hooch insisted that this was going to be the most revolutionary thing to happen to Quidditch since they quit using straw brooms.
Cho came up with the idea to write everything down. She was sure that this would make a fantastic book. It would become one of the classic texts of Quidditch. She would be part of it. She was part of it. It was Harry's vision, but she influenced it. He considered all of her ideas with the same gravity that he gave to Madame Hooch's or even his own. Some he shot down, some he kept. If she questioned something of his, he would listen to her arguments, and if necessary they would test it in the air. There were only three sacred tenets: Keep moving; Keep the other Seeker guessing, and Catch the Snitch.
There were just barely three weeks of school left. Cho was dreading the summer. She would have to go and face her mother. Harry would have to go back to those awful Muggles. She wouldn't see him for two whole months. She was desperately worried that something would happen to him and she wouldn't be there to help him. There was a pretty good chance that she wouldn't even be able to owl him, at least not directly. She and Hermione were working on a code and a relay system in case things got desperate.
Harry had been her boyfriend for almost two months. She had seen him everyday. They ate their meals together. They studied together. Occasionally they made midnight excursions for a little extra time alone - Harry's list of good qualities did not include anything resembling respect for the rules. They had gone to Hogsmeade together and had romantic dinners. It was going to be hard to face eight long weeks without him. Even when his scar hurt him at his worst, and he was most overwhelmed with studies, his face always lit up into a smile when he saw her. She could not remember how she had ever managed to make it though a day without that smile.
Harry's friend Ron had eventually come around and accepted her presence. If nothing else, he saw her as a tiebreaker in his frequent arguments over obscure points of Quidditch. Ron seemed happiest when he was arguing with someone, and Hermione seemed to be the one he enjoyed arguing with the most. Hermione had quickly become Cho's best confidant. Ellwyn was still not talking to her and Cho was almost positive that she was acting as an informant for her mother.
She still had no idea who it was that wanted to kill her. Everyone but Ellwyn seemed to have gotten used to the idea of her and Harry as a couple, and she doubted Ellwyn would try to kill her over it. If the accidents happened to Harry, then maybe she would've considered Ellwyn, but everything seemed directed at her. She had suspected Ginny Weasley at first, but the latest rumor about her was that she had moved on and was seen in the company of that git Malfoy. That was not a rumor one repeated in the presence of Ron Weasley though unless you wanted a duel.
The week that the O.W.L.s ended, things got more serious. Her broom exploded. She just happened to not be on it at the time, which was a miracle, because it happened in the middle of practice. She had landed to discuss a maneuver with Madame Hooch, and left her broom lying where she landed. That was also very uncharacteristic of her; she never just left her broom. She was glad she did this time though, because it suddenly burst into a million splinters.
Some one was definitely trying to kill her. All of the other events could have been accidents, but this was unmistakably an attempt to kill her. If she had been flying when that had happened, even if the blast hadn't killed her, hitting the ground in excess of 150 kph would have. As if someone trying to kill her wasn't bad enough, now she had no broom for the match.
When Harry found out he was frantic. Just as Hermione had told her he would, Harry instantly began to blame himself. Only a vicious snogging had managed to calm him down. They would be careful, whomever it was that was making the attempts was getting braver, and they would expose themselves soon. Cho promised Harry he could do whatever he wanted to their remains after she was done with them. Harry promised her he would be patient.
The next day, Harry's scar pain stopped. Suddenly it had just faded. He had gone down to Hogsmeade station with Ron and Ginny, to see them off. Their brother Bill had been in some sort of accident and they were being allowed to leave early for their summer break. By the time Harry got back to the castle, the pain had receded. He seemed like a new man. Cho hadn't realized how much the pain had affected him until she saw him relieved from it.
That evening, Harry asked her down to the broom shed and said it was important. He seemed very nervous. At the broom shed she found out why. He handed her a package that could only be a broom. Opening it, she discovered it was a Firebolt. Her eyes went wide in disbelief, and then closed again in sorrow.
"Harry, I can't accept this."
"You need a broom Cho. You deserve this broom. For the Match, we should be on equal brooms. Wait until you fly on it, you'll never be able to fly on anything else."
"It's too much Harry, it wouldn't be right for me to take this from you."
"I want you to have it though. It's my fault your old broom was destroyed."
"You don't know that Harry. It's too much. This broom cost a fortune, I don't even know how you could have bought it."
"I have money," said Harry, "I have a vault at Gringott's."
"People will talk. They'll think you bought me."
"They already talk. Some of them think I killed Cedric because you wouldn't go to the Yule Ball with me and put an Imperius curse on you to make you like me."
Cho had heard that particular rumor, but she didn't know Harry had. He had never mentioned it. She knew that it must have hurt him to be accused of such a thing.
"Isn't there a custom so that when guy wants everyone to know he's serious about a girl, he buys her a ring, or a bracelet, or something like that? Why can't this be that gift?"
Cho shook her head. "Those are just trinkets, Harry. They are meant to express feelings. This is a professional broom. I would be taking advantage of your generosity if I accepted it."
"I want you to have this broom Cho. I want you to experience the speed and the acceleration. I want you to know how it feels when the broom seems to read your mind. I want you to experience the sheer unfettered joy of flying at 250 kph. I want you to know because that's how you make me feel. Maybe other guys can express their feelings with a trinket, but not me. I need a Firebolt."
And Madame Hooch had said he wasn't a poet. She buried herself in his arms. To hell with other people, to hell with mothers and friends and anyone else. She was gong to fly this broom until the last twig fell off, then she was going to re-twig it and fly it until those fell off too. He loved her. He hadn't used those words, but that was what he meant. If he could express his feeling best in terms of flying, she was just fine with that. He could take his time to find the words.
Harry stayed on the ground and watched as she took her new broom on its maiden flight. Magic was too casual a word to describe the experience. What she had thought of as flying before paled in comparison to this. She accelerated to top speed and watch the ground flee beneath her. She pulled impossibly sharp climbs and dove downward at speeds that defied imagination. There were tears in her eyes. This was what he wanted her to know. This was how he said he felt about her.
This soaring, sailing, streaming rush of emotion was what he wanted her to feel. He had wanted her to see the way the world blurred and faded until the only constants were herself and the place she wanted to go, the point of her desire. He had wanted her to share this experience that was too rarefied to be a mere sensation, but too physical to be simply sublime. He was a poet. He was an artist. He used the sky as his canvas, and raw existence as his paint. This was better than all the poetry in the world.
She wanted to find a way to let Harry know that his feelings were not lost on her. She was a Ravenclaw. She lived in a world of books and words, but these things failed her now. She needed a way to express the profound happiness he had brought to her. She needed a way to show to show him the courage he had brought out of her. Nothing she had ever learned gave her the eloquence she needed to match this gift. She would have to invent new words, and a new language. He would know. Somehow she would find a way to make sure.
The day of the match, the teams prepped themselves in separate ready rooms. Cho sat in the middle of her teammates, but felt very alone. Roger Davies was making one of his typical speeches. This would be his last game at Hogwarts, and he was glad to have one more chance than he should have to play with them. Cho ignored him. She had made her mental preparations in Madame Hooch's office with Harry before coming to join the others. Everyone seemed to think this was an elaborate setting for Harry to show off. They just didn't understand that Harry was the last person in the world to whom she would ever 'give' a Snitch.
As soon as she was in the air, her teammates realized she was playing to win. Once the whistle was blown, what happened on the ground was forgotten. She was Cho the Seeker. At top speed, she buzzed the Gryffindor Beaters causing them to foul and yield a penalty to her team. Ravenclaw had the first score if nothing else.
She and Harry began the intricate ballet of dividing the airspace into zones of control. It was a race to cover the most ground first. No longer did you sit and look for the Snitch, you hunted it at 250 kph. You had to do this while forcing your opponent down blind alleys. You had to know how to tell when the other Seeker was bluffing, and when he was actually on the Snitch. You had to convince the other seeker to chase you instead of looking for the Snitch himself. For good measure, you tried to cause havoc with the other team at the same time.
She and Harry had developed these tactics together. Strictly speaking they were not lovers, but they loved each other and they knew each other with the deep familiarity created by that emotion. They each had a pretty good idea of how the other one thought. They were on identical, high-performance brooms. By all outward appearances this should be a match of equals.
Harry started a zigzagging run down the pitch, and was pulling himself up high on his broom. Cho's heart sank. He had the Snitch already, and she was on the opposite side of the Pitch. There wasn't even going to be a chase. She yanked her broom around and made a dash for it anyway. Amazingly, she began to close on him. With ten meters to go, he suddenly banked hard left and made straight for a new patch of sky. He had faked the whole thing, and she had fallen for it.
Furious, she resumed her search pattern, and flew almost directly into the Snitch. The small winged orb zipped past her before she even realized it was there. That was okay. She knew more about its location than Harry did. Making no sudden moves, she continued as if she was still sectoring the sky. There wasn't a whole lot space left in the direction the Snitch was moving, so it had to reverse soon and head the opposite way. She just had to guess its new altitude.
She decided to go up. Even if the Snitch went down, height had its advantages. Gravity could give her extra acceleration, and it was easier to look down inconspicuously than it was to look up. Sure enough, the Snitch reversed its course and started its way back down the Pitch in a three dimensional 'z' pattern, as if it were a Navy Destroyer, trying to avoid mines. The time for subtlety was gone; she pitched forward and made her move.
Suddenly Harry was there. She had no idea how he had managed it, she had been pretty sure he had been at the opposite end of the field. She threw her broom over to block his path. He was not going to take this Snitch from her. Harry swerved to avoid collision. She pointed herself back in the direction of the Snitch. Harry was already leveling out beside her. She was sure that Harry could teach birds a few things about flying. She gave herself a bit of altitude, and tried to use the acceleration of gravity to give her an edge. It helped but it wasn't enough. She started to do the math in her head to figure out how much altitude she would need to get the necessary edge. Harry rolled and broke high, anticipating a change in direction.
Cho decided to stick with the Snitch a few more seconds in case Harry was wrong. He wasn't. The snitch changed directions almost entirely in the horizontal plane. It was now hugging the boundary of the pitch. Harry had taken the opportunity to gain much more altitude than the figure Cho had come up with to gain the necessary advantage. The only chance she had was to block his path of descent. Keeping her eye on Harry and the Snitch at the same time was starting to make her feel cross-eyed.
Harry pulled himself up into a low crouch and inched his way forward on the broom. He passed the center of the broom's gravity and it tipped downward. Cho figured he was moving around 300 kph as he passed her. Her attempt to block probably would have worked against an ordinary Seeker, but Harry evaded it with a few simple course changes. He snatched the snitch out the air about two meters in front of her. Her biggest concern now was whether or not Harry would be able to decelerate before hitting the ground.
Harry seemed to have already worked this out. As soon as he had the snitch in his hand, he threw his feet out from under him so that he was lying prone against the broom, hugging it against his body with one arm. Loosening his grip, his body slid further and further back on the broom until the center of balance changed in the opposite direction. The broom now tipped upwards and started to lose speed quickly. Harry pulled him self into a normal position and held up the Snitch. He had done it again.
She cheered for him. Harry had out flown her. When tactics, and brooms, and knowledge of the opponent were all canceled out, the match came down to who was the better flier. In a match of flying ability, she felt no shame in losing to Harry. Consistently Harry came up with the creative solution to win the game. The things he thought of would never have occurred to her. That was his gift. The fact that Harry always had to come up with something creative to beat her was a compliment.
She landed on the ground beside him and they threw their arms around each other. He gave her an enormous kiss. The entire school was watching and she didn't care. Madame Hooch escorted the two of them off of the field and into her office. Following close behind them were Ludo Bagman from the Ministry's department of Magical Games, Ian Horrigan who was manager for the Irish National Team, Anna Moran Manager for England and former Seeker, and finally Professor Dumbledore. Madame Hooch sat them all down and passed out Butterbeers.
Mr. Horrigan offered to sign them immediately. Harry, who was still fifteen had to confess that he couldn't sign anything. Ludo Bagman offered to pull strings to get a waiver for him. He also hinted that he was more than willing to represent them professionally. Harry, remembering Fred and George's experiences with the man, held back stating he wished to consider all of his options. Cho followed suit.
There was no doubt their concept had been a success. Mr. Horrigan and Ms. Moran went on at great lengths about it. If Harry and Cho would not sign yet, perhaps they would agree to come to some practices and explain their new strategies. Cho used the opportunity to push their book. This idea was warmly received, but still they wanted Harry and/or Cho to speak. Cho was going to have enough problems this summer without trying to throw Professional Quidditch into the mix. She explained that this was her final summer and her family had already made plans for her. That was more or less the truth.
The desire to go was apparent on Harry's face. There was no reason he shouldn't go; it had been his brainchild after all. Professor Dumbledore interceded though, explaining that arrangements had been made for Harry as well. Perhaps arrangements could be made for a day or two later in the summer, Professor Dumbledore would contact them at a later date if it were possible. Harry looked as if someone had died. Mr. Horrigan and Ms. Moran promised to stay in touch. Mr. Bagman left with Professor Dumbledore. Harry and Cho stayed in their seat.
Madame Hooch tried to cheer them up. "How many Seekers your age have the managers of National teams trying sign them before they even leave school. I told you that you were going to be big. This is just the start. Wait until you finish that book."
"She's right you know," said Cho. "We only proved the concept today. We have forever for the rest. We succeeded. They love us."
Harry smiled. "You're right, of course. Good game by the way. A couple times I thought you had me for sure."
"Exactly when was that?" asked Cho, " I thought it was you the whole time."
"It was pretty funny when the Snitch practically flew in your face. I thought I was a goner for sure that time. I was lucky."
"I didn't know you saw that, I was wondering how you ended up on top of me so soon. I was peeved about that feint you made. Climbing up on your broom and reaching for nothing."
Madame Hooch laughed. "I thought Potter had lost it."
"It worked though. I figured out that what was wrong with feints is that people fly too straight. When you're really on a Snitch, there's always a lot of weaving and such. I had been saving that one for a rainy day."
"No more Firebolt advantage got you down, Potter?" asked Madame Hooch.
"Not even a little," Harry smiled, "If anyone deserves a Firebolt, it's Cho. I don't mind working harder for my Snitches. I rather like it actually."
They broke up and went for showers. Harry and Cho agreed to meet later. They had four nights left before the term ended. Cho had always looked forward to summers before, now she wished June to be immediately followed by September. She had important work to do though.
On the train to King's Cross they shared a compartment with Hermione. Cho spent the entire time in Harry's arms. They promised to owl as often as possible. Cho and Hermione explained to him their code and relay system. Cho made him promise that no matter how bad things got he would tell her about them. When Hermione fell asleep, they used the opportunity for some last minute snogging.
Cho's parents were both waiting for her at the platform. She had hoped to have a minute or two at least before they came. Before stepping off the passenger car, she gave Harry one last kiss. She made sure her mother saw. Furious at her display, they immediately escorted her out of the station. Twisting her head, Cho watched until Harry disappeared from view.
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Author's Notes:
Special thanks to Alex, Amy and Kensai. I would also like to thank everyone who has reviewed. You've all been far too kind. I've had a chance to read some of your stories and you guys make me feel inferior. If I haven't read & reviewed yours yet, it's just a matter of time.
Chapter six should be out in a day or two. I have some reworking in mind, so it might be delayed a bit. Cho, Harry, and Hermione have a brush with evil and Cho and Harry finally get some quality time alone.
Until next time…
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