OR DIE TRYING: THE STORY OF CHO CHANG
By monkeymouse
NB: JKRowling built the Potterverse; I'm just redecorating one of the rooms. And one of the great things about JKR telling the story from Harry's point of view is that stuff could be happening all over Hogwarts that Harry isn't aware of.
Rated: PG
Spoilers: Everything
xxx
23. A Whole New World
For weeks after the expulsions, it seemed to Cho as if Penny Clearwater was eluding her. She'd wait for Penny to pass through the Common Room, camped out in the daybed at all hours, pretending to read a book while eyeing the traffic to and from the girls' dormitories. Still, she could never seem to catch Penny in the Common Room, or in the Great Hall, or anywhere else in Hogwarts. Maybe they teach Prefects a special spell, Cho thought one morning, which lets them come and go in the blink of an eye.
It was all getting rather obvious. Cho's grades were starting to slip, she wasn't keeping focus at Quidditch practice, and other Ravenclaws were wondering about the attention she was paying to the comings and goings of Ravenclaw girls. But the question had become an obsession with Cho; she had to know.
One night in early October, Cho was on the Common Room daybed, with the Divination text open on her lap but her eyes fixed on the staircase. Roger Davies walked behind her, pretending to scan the bookcase for a title. While he was there, he whispered, "You know, people are starting to talk about you."
"Good," was Cho's reply.
"You WANT a reputation for being, well, a bit creepy?"
"If it gets back to Penny, maybe she'll seek me out. I'm not having much luck finding her on my own."
"What's this all about, anyway? You're supposed to be able to find a Prefect when you need one."
"But I can't-not her, at any rate. She sent an owl this summer about something that happened to her, but left it off before she could say what."
"So that's what this is all about. Should have said something to me sooner; I could have saved you a bit of stalking."
"What do you mean?"
"Nip on over to the Dark Arts classroom."
"But nobody's there at this hour!"
"That's the idea." Roger took a book from the case and walked away.
Cho was mystified, but still decided to follow Roger's advice. She dashed toward the Dark Arts classroom, afraid of missing whatever might be happening there. On the way, she had to slow to a walk as she passed one of the Prefects, Percy Weasley of Gryffindor, who gave her a stern look for running through the halls. Fortunately, that was the extent of it, and as soon as he turned a corner Cho put on speed to get to the classroom, which was nearby.
Part of her wanted to burst through the door to catch sight of whatever was in there, but she deliberately held back and opened the door slowly and carefully. She still remembered the late Professor Quirrell, and half expected to see his ghost inside.
What Cho saw instead was no less of a surprise. There was Penny Clearwater, dressed in slacks and a shirt. She had taken off her Hogwarts robes, and had draped them onto a mummy-a visual aid Professor Lockhart had conjured up for one of his lectures. As Cho watched, Penny curtsied politely to the mummy, then covered her mouth with her hands to stifle her giggling.
Cho's curiosity couldn't let this go on. "Er, Penny?"
The other girl whirled around at the disturbance. Seeing it was Cho, she smiled her sunniest smile, ran to the door and dragged Cho by the wrist into the classroom.
"Cho, Cho, I know I should have said something sooner to you! I've been just awful, but the problem is I don't feel awful!" Nor did she look awful; she looked like she would turn back to the mummy and waltz him around the room in a second.
"Well, better late than never," Cho said as she sat in the front row of the classroom. "Now, what happened?"
"Oh, nothing much. Just the most important, most wonderful thing that could ever happen. I'm in love!!"
Maybe she expected Cho to jump up, give a squeal of glee and hug the living daylights out of the older girl. It didn't happen. Instead, Cho nervously cleared her throat and asked, "So that's why you don't call yourself Penny?"
"Oh, I stopped that this summer. Percy was absolutely right about that. He said it made me sound like a child."
"Percy?"
Penelope Clearwater's face started to shine even more brightly. "He's the one; Percy Weasley."
Cho's mouth fell open in spite of herself; she hastily shut it. "You DID say Weasley, didn't you?"
"I know just what you're thinking: that he's like those Beater brothers of his, the practical joking twins. Well, let me tell you, he's not like them at all. He's so-mature, so responsible. Hard to believe they're in the same family."
Actually, Cho was finding much of this hard to believe. "How did this . . . happen?"
Penelope finally sat down. "There was a meeting for the Prefects at the end of last term, just before we all went home. Percy and I sat next to each other, and I didn't think anything of it at the time. But I watched him take notes during the meeting, and his were a lot like mine: very complete, very well written. After the meeting, I asked him to stay a minute, so that we could compare notes. I told him I might have missed something, and wanted to check his version. And-that may not have been strictly true. But we put our books side-by-side on the table, and sat next to each other, and compared notes, making the odd correction now and again. It hardly seems the most romantic hour on earth, but at the end of it, there was-just something between us. Something I'd never felt before.
"After that, of course, we all went home, but we started writing to each other. It got to the point that I couldn't bear the day if Hermes didn't come by."
"Hermes?"
"Percy's owl. He'd bring me a nice lengthy letter from Percy, and I'd write a nice lengthy letter back. And by the time the summer was over, I'd told him all my hopes and fears and wishes, and he'd told me his." Penelope looked back at the mummy, and even Cho now expected to see the Weasley boy wearing them. "To think that he loves me!"
"Well, why not?" Cho chuckled. "I mean, I'm surprised you haven't been involved with anyone before now. You're very sharp-witted; you've been a great Prefect and a good friend. And I'm sure he thinks you're pretty. I'm sure he thinks you're perfect."
Penelope's face suddenly clouded over, as if facing something she had feared. "Ah. Well, there's something about that. You probably don't know."
"Know what?"
"I'm-I'm Muggle-born."
Now Cho understood. There were factions at the school-and in the larger wizarding world-who regarded the Muggle-born as less than true wizards and witches. It didn't matter to Cho one way or the other. One of her parents was a half-and-half, but she considered them both equally magical. "I-I never would have guessed."
"Yes," Penelope sighed. "Funny, isn't it; how some of us take to the magical life so readily while others never do? My parents got used to it all in short order; but then, they live in the country, at Little Wilbraham. Might have been totally different if we'd had the neighbours always poking about."
"Honestly, I don't even think this blood business matters, really. I know some Purebloods who couldn't start a fire if they had a dragon in each hand."
Penelope chuckled. It was the first time that she'd told Penelope a joke and gotten a laugh for it. "But you see why it's important that Percy and I are in love? The Weasleys are an old family of powerful witches. And good ones, too; not like some of the trash in Slytherin. But I met the Weasleys over the summer, and Percy's mum just took me to her heart so quick-it's all so wonderful!" She almost jumped out of her seat. Then she stopped. "Don't you approve, Cho? You've such a queer look on your face."
Cho wasn't aware until Penelope mentioned it. "I'm happy for you, Penny, really-sorry; Penelope. But there it is; it's as if you're Transfiguring into someone different right before my eyes. I guess I still don't know if I like it. But if you're both happy, then that's what matters."
"That's better, then," Penelope said, leaning over to hug Cho. "You look so lovely when you smile. And I'm sorry I haven't written."
"Maybe we can get together and talk more often."
"Well, maybe not. Percy and I try to meet whenever we have the chance, so that we . . . well, you know."
"I know NOW!" Penelope was blushing Gryffindor-red. Cho thought about Percy Weasley, who she'd passed in the hall on the way to the classroom. "I'll just see you when, well, when I see you. And good luck to you!"
"Oh, we already have that, thanks."
Cho went to the door; Penelope still sat in the front row, looking at the skeleton as if it were really someone else wearing Hogwarts robes. Cho doubted that Penelope even heard her leave the room.
This was all very new to Cho. She was used to her parents: a long-time married couple who finished each other's sentences. And she found some student couples embarrassing in their utter shamelessness. They'd be crawling all over each other as if nobody noticed-in shadows and corners, of course, but still.
She was still wrestling with it all when she got back to the tapestry. She gave the password-"obstreperous"-and passed through the bookcase into the Common Room.
This time, Roger was in the daybed, leafing through the biography of "Dangerous Dai" Llewellyn, one of the most foolhardy players in Quidditch history. Surely he couldn't be looking for strategy in there . . .
He looked up when Cho came in. "Find what you were looking for, then?"
"Didn't exactly answer all my questions, I'm afraid, and left me with a few new ones." Cho was about to turn to go up to her dorm, when she turned the other way and sat on a lumpy gray sofa facing the daybed. "Mind if I ask you something, Roger?"
"You can ask me anything about anything."
Cho thought for a few seconds and sighed. "Well, there's a friend of mine. She and I are getting along well, and we have for years, when all of a sudden she says she's in love with someone. And the problem is, well, she's changed practically overnight. Her personality is different, the way she talks; she even calls herself by a different name. And I want to be happy for her, Roger; really, I do. But this all seems so strange."
"Your friend is older, I take it?" Cho nodded. "Then just wait until it happens to you. Won't seem so strange then. It'll seem like the most natural thing in the world."
Cho's brow crinkled as she frowned. "I'm not sure I want it to happen to me. I mean, not if I'll be losing some part of me."
"You're just looking at it from the outside in," Roger smiled. "It's part of you that changes, while part of you stays the same. And, well, maybe I'd better leave it at that. Does that help?"
"Not much, but thanks all the same," Cho smiled as she went up to her dorm. "Is this the voice of experience?"
"Meaning have I ever been in love?" Cho nodded. "Just a bit."
"Well, it doesn't seem to have done you any permanent damage. G'night."
Roger watched Cho climb the stairs, and looked at the stairs for quite some time. Finally he closed the book and said, almost in a whisper, "Most natural thing in the world."
xxx
to be continued in part 24, wherein the Quidditch season is rudely interrupted by a monster
By monkeymouse
NB: JKRowling built the Potterverse; I'm just redecorating one of the rooms. And one of the great things about JKR telling the story from Harry's point of view is that stuff could be happening all over Hogwarts that Harry isn't aware of.
Rated: PG
Spoilers: Everything
xxx
23. A Whole New World
For weeks after the expulsions, it seemed to Cho as if Penny Clearwater was eluding her. She'd wait for Penny to pass through the Common Room, camped out in the daybed at all hours, pretending to read a book while eyeing the traffic to and from the girls' dormitories. Still, she could never seem to catch Penny in the Common Room, or in the Great Hall, or anywhere else in Hogwarts. Maybe they teach Prefects a special spell, Cho thought one morning, which lets them come and go in the blink of an eye.
It was all getting rather obvious. Cho's grades were starting to slip, she wasn't keeping focus at Quidditch practice, and other Ravenclaws were wondering about the attention she was paying to the comings and goings of Ravenclaw girls. But the question had become an obsession with Cho; she had to know.
One night in early October, Cho was on the Common Room daybed, with the Divination text open on her lap but her eyes fixed on the staircase. Roger Davies walked behind her, pretending to scan the bookcase for a title. While he was there, he whispered, "You know, people are starting to talk about you."
"Good," was Cho's reply.
"You WANT a reputation for being, well, a bit creepy?"
"If it gets back to Penny, maybe she'll seek me out. I'm not having much luck finding her on my own."
"What's this all about, anyway? You're supposed to be able to find a Prefect when you need one."
"But I can't-not her, at any rate. She sent an owl this summer about something that happened to her, but left it off before she could say what."
"So that's what this is all about. Should have said something to me sooner; I could have saved you a bit of stalking."
"What do you mean?"
"Nip on over to the Dark Arts classroom."
"But nobody's there at this hour!"
"That's the idea." Roger took a book from the case and walked away.
Cho was mystified, but still decided to follow Roger's advice. She dashed toward the Dark Arts classroom, afraid of missing whatever might be happening there. On the way, she had to slow to a walk as she passed one of the Prefects, Percy Weasley of Gryffindor, who gave her a stern look for running through the halls. Fortunately, that was the extent of it, and as soon as he turned a corner Cho put on speed to get to the classroom, which was nearby.
Part of her wanted to burst through the door to catch sight of whatever was in there, but she deliberately held back and opened the door slowly and carefully. She still remembered the late Professor Quirrell, and half expected to see his ghost inside.
What Cho saw instead was no less of a surprise. There was Penny Clearwater, dressed in slacks and a shirt. She had taken off her Hogwarts robes, and had draped them onto a mummy-a visual aid Professor Lockhart had conjured up for one of his lectures. As Cho watched, Penny curtsied politely to the mummy, then covered her mouth with her hands to stifle her giggling.
Cho's curiosity couldn't let this go on. "Er, Penny?"
The other girl whirled around at the disturbance. Seeing it was Cho, she smiled her sunniest smile, ran to the door and dragged Cho by the wrist into the classroom.
"Cho, Cho, I know I should have said something sooner to you! I've been just awful, but the problem is I don't feel awful!" Nor did she look awful; she looked like she would turn back to the mummy and waltz him around the room in a second.
"Well, better late than never," Cho said as she sat in the front row of the classroom. "Now, what happened?"
"Oh, nothing much. Just the most important, most wonderful thing that could ever happen. I'm in love!!"
Maybe she expected Cho to jump up, give a squeal of glee and hug the living daylights out of the older girl. It didn't happen. Instead, Cho nervously cleared her throat and asked, "So that's why you don't call yourself Penny?"
"Oh, I stopped that this summer. Percy was absolutely right about that. He said it made me sound like a child."
"Percy?"
Penelope Clearwater's face started to shine even more brightly. "He's the one; Percy Weasley."
Cho's mouth fell open in spite of herself; she hastily shut it. "You DID say Weasley, didn't you?"
"I know just what you're thinking: that he's like those Beater brothers of his, the practical joking twins. Well, let me tell you, he's not like them at all. He's so-mature, so responsible. Hard to believe they're in the same family."
Actually, Cho was finding much of this hard to believe. "How did this . . . happen?"
Penelope finally sat down. "There was a meeting for the Prefects at the end of last term, just before we all went home. Percy and I sat next to each other, and I didn't think anything of it at the time. But I watched him take notes during the meeting, and his were a lot like mine: very complete, very well written. After the meeting, I asked him to stay a minute, so that we could compare notes. I told him I might have missed something, and wanted to check his version. And-that may not have been strictly true. But we put our books side-by-side on the table, and sat next to each other, and compared notes, making the odd correction now and again. It hardly seems the most romantic hour on earth, but at the end of it, there was-just something between us. Something I'd never felt before.
"After that, of course, we all went home, but we started writing to each other. It got to the point that I couldn't bear the day if Hermes didn't come by."
"Hermes?"
"Percy's owl. He'd bring me a nice lengthy letter from Percy, and I'd write a nice lengthy letter back. And by the time the summer was over, I'd told him all my hopes and fears and wishes, and he'd told me his." Penelope looked back at the mummy, and even Cho now expected to see the Weasley boy wearing them. "To think that he loves me!"
"Well, why not?" Cho chuckled. "I mean, I'm surprised you haven't been involved with anyone before now. You're very sharp-witted; you've been a great Prefect and a good friend. And I'm sure he thinks you're pretty. I'm sure he thinks you're perfect."
Penelope's face suddenly clouded over, as if facing something she had feared. "Ah. Well, there's something about that. You probably don't know."
"Know what?"
"I'm-I'm Muggle-born."
Now Cho understood. There were factions at the school-and in the larger wizarding world-who regarded the Muggle-born as less than true wizards and witches. It didn't matter to Cho one way or the other. One of her parents was a half-and-half, but she considered them both equally magical. "I-I never would have guessed."
"Yes," Penelope sighed. "Funny, isn't it; how some of us take to the magical life so readily while others never do? My parents got used to it all in short order; but then, they live in the country, at Little Wilbraham. Might have been totally different if we'd had the neighbours always poking about."
"Honestly, I don't even think this blood business matters, really. I know some Purebloods who couldn't start a fire if they had a dragon in each hand."
Penelope chuckled. It was the first time that she'd told Penelope a joke and gotten a laugh for it. "But you see why it's important that Percy and I are in love? The Weasleys are an old family of powerful witches. And good ones, too; not like some of the trash in Slytherin. But I met the Weasleys over the summer, and Percy's mum just took me to her heart so quick-it's all so wonderful!" She almost jumped out of her seat. Then she stopped. "Don't you approve, Cho? You've such a queer look on your face."
Cho wasn't aware until Penelope mentioned it. "I'm happy for you, Penny, really-sorry; Penelope. But there it is; it's as if you're Transfiguring into someone different right before my eyes. I guess I still don't know if I like it. But if you're both happy, then that's what matters."
"That's better, then," Penelope said, leaning over to hug Cho. "You look so lovely when you smile. And I'm sorry I haven't written."
"Maybe we can get together and talk more often."
"Well, maybe not. Percy and I try to meet whenever we have the chance, so that we . . . well, you know."
"I know NOW!" Penelope was blushing Gryffindor-red. Cho thought about Percy Weasley, who she'd passed in the hall on the way to the classroom. "I'll just see you when, well, when I see you. And good luck to you!"
"Oh, we already have that, thanks."
Cho went to the door; Penelope still sat in the front row, looking at the skeleton as if it were really someone else wearing Hogwarts robes. Cho doubted that Penelope even heard her leave the room.
This was all very new to Cho. She was used to her parents: a long-time married couple who finished each other's sentences. And she found some student couples embarrassing in their utter shamelessness. They'd be crawling all over each other as if nobody noticed-in shadows and corners, of course, but still.
She was still wrestling with it all when she got back to the tapestry. She gave the password-"obstreperous"-and passed through the bookcase into the Common Room.
This time, Roger was in the daybed, leafing through the biography of "Dangerous Dai" Llewellyn, one of the most foolhardy players in Quidditch history. Surely he couldn't be looking for strategy in there . . .
He looked up when Cho came in. "Find what you were looking for, then?"
"Didn't exactly answer all my questions, I'm afraid, and left me with a few new ones." Cho was about to turn to go up to her dorm, when she turned the other way and sat on a lumpy gray sofa facing the daybed. "Mind if I ask you something, Roger?"
"You can ask me anything about anything."
Cho thought for a few seconds and sighed. "Well, there's a friend of mine. She and I are getting along well, and we have for years, when all of a sudden she says she's in love with someone. And the problem is, well, she's changed practically overnight. Her personality is different, the way she talks; she even calls herself by a different name. And I want to be happy for her, Roger; really, I do. But this all seems so strange."
"Your friend is older, I take it?" Cho nodded. "Then just wait until it happens to you. Won't seem so strange then. It'll seem like the most natural thing in the world."
Cho's brow crinkled as she frowned. "I'm not sure I want it to happen to me. I mean, not if I'll be losing some part of me."
"You're just looking at it from the outside in," Roger smiled. "It's part of you that changes, while part of you stays the same. And, well, maybe I'd better leave it at that. Does that help?"
"Not much, but thanks all the same," Cho smiled as she went up to her dorm. "Is this the voice of experience?"
"Meaning have I ever been in love?" Cho nodded. "Just a bit."
"Well, it doesn't seem to have done you any permanent damage. G'night."
Roger watched Cho climb the stairs, and looked at the stairs for quite some time. Finally he closed the book and said, almost in a whisper, "Most natural thing in the world."
xxx
to be continued in part 24, wherein the Quidditch season is rudely interrupted by a monster
