Just Friends?
Disclaimer: I don't own HP or any of these characters. That belongs to JKR, Scholastic Books, Warner Brothers, etc.

Chapter Nine

The large orange cat stood in front of her, blocking her way and practically demanding that she give him a lift.

Cho sighed. The cat was not going to let her go anywhere without taking him with her. She had no choice but to provide transportation for the cat.

Besides, good luck came to those who could make friends of strange cats.

Of course, she wasn't sure if good luck would come from her helping the cat out. It wasn't as if she didn't know him at all. She knew perfectly well that the cat belonged to Hermione Granger, resident Gryffindor genius, and was called either Bowlegged or Crookshanks.

It would probably be best if she figured out his actual name, Cho reflected. Bending down, she called the cat to come over to her. "Come here, Bowlegged."

The orange cat glared at her, as if to say that she should be smarter than that. She hoped the second option worked.

"All right then. Come here, Crookshanks." The large cat walked up to her and she picked him up. He started to purr as she looked around to get her bearings. While she did not know exactly where the Gryffindor Common Room was, she could deduce its general location by noting the area that all the Gryffindors returned to after classes were over. Hopefully, she would be able to find someone in that vicinity to hand over her burden.

Of course, the best thing to do would be to return the cat to its owner. On one hand, Cho was almost positive that Hermione Granger could be found in the library; unfortunately, Madam Pince would throw a very big fit if she tried to bring the cat in. If any professors were in the surrounding area when that happened, the end result would be more likely than not points lost for both Ravenclaw and Gryffindor.

Hermione was a smart girl and so Cho was sure that she wouldn't mind if Cho just handed over her cat to another Gryffindor for safekeeping. In any case, she would have no grounds for a complaint as she had just let her cat run loose.

Cho started walking in what she thought was the right direction. While she didn't mind helping out the cat in need, he was large and rather heavy to hold.

For some reason, holding the cat made her think about its owner. To this day, most of Ravenclaw was mystified as to why Hermione was sorted into Gryffindor rather their own House. Cho knew that Professor Flitwick, their Head of House, was disappointed that the smartest student he had in Charms for ages came from another House. If Ravenclaw was the House known for its brains and studious habits, then by all rights, Hermione should have been sorted into it. If Gryffindors were known primarily for their bravery, then this was doubly so. Most Ravenclaws thought that Hermione was too sensible to go charging blindly off to face dangers unknown, which seemed to be the primary definition of bravery.

However, Cho knew that there was more than one type of bravery. There was the courage it took to stand up for those who did not have their own voice. Then there was the courage that it took to wait for your brave friends to come back safe while not going mad.

The last type of courage was especially rare. It was truly hard to have to wait for someone to come back. Especially when they might not come back at all. However, one needed this courage above all others to be friends with Harry Potter.

Cho knew that some of her close friends thought she was absolutely mad not to have gone out with the poor boy. It was true that from what she knew of him, she liked Harry very much, but just not in that way. His first strike was the fact that he was younger than her. While in time, one year's difference may not mean all much, Cho had always expected to date older men, particularly because guys were infamous for maturing at a slower rate.

The second strike against Harry was the memory of Cedric. Cho did not blame Harry for Cedric's death, although that had been her instinctive reaction. If Harry could save himself from You-Know-Who, why could he have not done the same for Cedric? But that was not being fair at all. Harry had been the youngest of the champions and the least well prepared out of them all. His survival seemed to be luck more than anything else. Still, it would be very hard to have any type of relationship at all with Harry after Cedric's death.

Finally, the third and final strike against Harry was the simple fact that he was Harry Potter. He was the Boy Who Lived and was destined to fight You-Know-Who again and again till at least one of them was no more.

Cho didn't think that she had the strength to wait for a person she loved and cared for to come back from fighting the darkness. She had a hard enough time getting over Cedric's death and she didn't think she could go through that again. But above all else, the waiting was the worst. Still, she was thankful for the time she was able to share with him. If it was hard getting over his death, it would have been harder to do so if she had never acted on her feelings. At least she had gotten to tell him how she felt before he left her—she would have regretted it always if she had not done so.

She had meant to talk to Hermione Granger about that for the longest time now.

Whenever the rumors of a relationship between Harry and Hermione resurfaced, both parties vigorously protested them. To Cho's eye, they both protested far too much. She suspected that Hermione had feelings for her friend and was aware of them. She wanted to encourage Hermione to act.

It was always hard to tell someone that you liked them, particularly when you did not know if that feeling was reciprocated or if the mere act of telling would tarnish a beautiful friendship. Privately, Cho was of the opinion that the bonds between the Trio were strong enough to weather such a confession.

As a girl who knew what it was like to love and lose, she knew that it was better to have let someone know that you loved them before losing them forever. She would always be grateful that she didn't have to take a chance on a confession. However, given her experiences with love, she would almost always recommend a girl coming clean to her crush, so long as there was some hope of the feeling being reciprocated. It was better to know that it wasn't than to wonder about it forever.

Thus, she had been meaning to speak with Hermione. That girl cared so much about her rumored boyfriend that it was infinitely suspicious. While Cho did believe that it was possible to have an extremely close platonic relationship, the bond between the two Gryffindors seemed to go deeper than that. But no one would ever know the truth if neither party was willing to confront the possibility of what may be.

A flash of red hair distracted Cho from her thoughts. While most of the Weasleys had already graduated from Hogwarts, it was still a good bet that red hair near the Gryffindor Common Room meant a Weasley was also near. She made towards the redhead with the intention of handing over her burden.

Cho made another mental note to herself. When she got around to having that chat with Hermione, she would also recommend that she feed her cat less.

Author's note: Finally, another chapter is completed. I'm sorry it took so long, but I've noticed in fan fiction, Cho's character is usually much maligned. While I don't think that there's too much basis for that in canon, I did briefly play with a "Three Faces of Cho" idea. But that idea is best put to other uses. Besides, she really does seem to be a nice girl (well, so far at least).

In any case, I hope everyone can tell that this is beginning to wind to a conclusion. In any case, please review and let me know what you think.

And to respond to a few prior reviews:
hecuba—I'm glad that you liked the Crookshanks viewpoint. It was a lot of fun to write as well. ^_^
Lunarian, Heaven, kazster, KMH, Noodlejelly, Utter Inzanity, fluffybun, GundamAylith and artificially flavoured—Am very happy to hear that you liked the chapter and the nicknames. It took me awhile to settle on them.
Ryoko Blue—Yes, I do plan viewpoints for both the H's. I hope you can see that I'm getting there.
Jme H—Thank you so much for reading all of my fics and leaving the nicest reviews. I really can't say how much I appreciate it.
Max—Look! It's finally here—really sorry that it took me so long to update.
hermioneharry4ever—Nice pen name there. ^_^ Originally, Krum's name was funny talking guy, but I decided to shorten it. If I had to think of a name for the twins, right now it would be the Original Pranksters.
Seiryuu—I think I'm beginning to regret having 16 chapters. *sigh* Might cut out the last chapter, which is an epilogue really. Am glad you are looking forward to the other chapters though.
Nappa—Please promise me you'll review the Ron chapter. ^_^ Am very interested in your response since you don't seem to like the boy.
Animagus-Steph—Eep! I had to read chapter six over again to see what you mean since I did remember that fact (mainly b/c was surprised when read it). But after re-reading—eep! I most definitely did give that impression, didn't I! I've always seen Snape and Sirius as having a loathe-at-first-sight relationship, and so if they had to work on the same side, they would make all the snide comments they could possibly make. Unfortunately, I wasn't careful enough in laying that out. Am really really sorry about that. Anyway, have tinkered with the chapter so hopefully it's better now. Thank you so much for the catch and if you have any further comments about that chapter (or any others), they would be most welcomed.
And I must say I agree with you emphatically over any nickname for Hermione. I hate the Herm variant—but for me that's because it reminds me of the word hermaphrodite. I think I can safely promise you that I will never use that nickname.