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

30. The Great Compromise

MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF

THE EXTRAORDINARY COMMITTEE

REGARDING

THE HOGWARTS QUIDDITCH SEASON

Attending: Professors Hooch (chair), McGonagall, Snape, Flitwick, Sprout

On this 2nd Day of February 1993

Pr. HOOCH: Well, we all know why we're here. Frankly, this has gone on too long already. We need to schedule three more elimination matches, not to mention the Cup final, and there's barely room in the schedule for them.

Pr. SNAPE: With all due respect to our distinguished Chair, this entire issue constitutes a diversion. The reason for this Academy, for the full thousand years of its existence, has been to educate young witches and wizards in the ways of magic, not to provide them with athletic training.

Pr. FLITWICK: As a wiser mind than mine once observed, "mens sana in corpore sano"; a sound mind in a sound body. We really cannot separate the two.

Pr. SNAPE: Are you suggesting that Quidditch be thought of as on a par with Physical Training?

Pr. FLITWICK: I do not, sir, but do you deny that it is indeed a physically taxing athletic event? The players do considerably more than ride around on brooms, you know.

Pr. SNAPE: I am well aware of that, sir, given Slytherin House's long string of Cup victories, which was only recently, and temporarily, broken.

Pr. HOOCH: Gentlewizards, the issue is pressing and time is pressing. We need to continue the battle on the pitch.

Pr. McGONAGALL: Now that the worst of the harsh weather seems to be behind us, I, as Head of Gryffindor House, am all for a resumption of play. However, I must remind you that the Board of Governors has taken the matter out of our hands. After the December attack, the Board sent a notice to the Headmaster stating that, if I may quote, "sports, excursions, diversions and other forms of amusement shall be suspended for the duration of the present crisis". We all know the practical results of this notice. We've had to cancel Hogsmeade trips as well as Quidditch matches.

Pr. SPROUT: Yes, and it's been damned inconvenient! Pardon my French, but there are some gardening supplies I samply cannot procure except through Hogsmeade, and if I cannot go into town, or the merchants there cannot come onto the grounds . . .

Pr. FLITWICK: Supplies are hardly the least of it. I hope that I am not the only one to notice the mood of gloom and despair which hangs over the student body. Morale has gotten dangerously low, and Cheering Charms are only a temporary expedient. I suggest that playing the full schedule will prove just what the doctor ordered to bring a bit of normalcy back to the school and the students.

Pr. HOOCH: You've stated the matter quite succinctly. Profesor Snape, Professor McGonagall, you both attended the meeting of the Board of Governors, didn't you? What is your sense of their notice? Did they seem likely to amend or withdraw?

Pr. McGONAGALL: Most of the members of the Board are, of course, Hogwarts alumni themselves, and some have children in attendance here now. They put a great store by the traditions of Hogwarts, yet they considered the safety of the students to be paramount. I don't believe that they will be swayed in this matter, unless and until this business of the so-called Chamber of Secrets is settled.

Pr. SNAPE: If I may add an observation here, Professor. This year, one of the Governors, Lucius Malfoy, provided, at considerable personal expense, a complete set of Numbus 2001 brooms to the Slytherin team.

Pr. SPROUT: Giving them an unfair advantage. I know that I've said this before . . .

Pr. SNAPE: And we all know that you're saying it again.

Pr. SPROUT: but this sort of blatant favoritism will lead to a bad end. If Galleons determines the better Quidditch team, how long before we abandon the Sorting Hat and let students buy their way into the House of their choice?

Pr. McGONAGALL: We've all heard your views on the matter before, Phyllida. Your point is well taken, and that day will not come as long as I am Assistant Headmistress. But we seem to have strayed from the point Professor Snape wished to make.

Pr. SNAPE: Thank you. I was merely going to observe that Governor Malfoy may well be of two minds about the notice. On the one hand, he would be concerned for his son's life; on the other, the brooms would hardly justify his investment if they were left sitting in a shed. Perhaps we should consider approaching him with a view to reversing the decision.

Pr. FLITWICK: I can think of several reasons not to try that approach, sir. The first is that the Board of Governors will not meet again for another month, and I doubt that they would be called into special session merely to overrule themselves. Meanwhile, we will have lost the chance to schedule all of the remaining matches. Second, I don't like the idea of any one of the Board becoming powerful enough to sway the rest, regardless of the issue or the direction. The Board of Governors was instituted when the Wizards Council determined that the school was too large and too complex not to have its own governing body. The idea of Hogwarts governing itself depends on the vision and the independence of the Governors.

Pr. McGONAGALL: Be that as it may, Professor, the Board of Governors is now under the auspices of the Ministry of Magic, and I fear what can happen to this school, no matter how venerable it may be, if we simply disregard the will of the Board.

Pr. HOOCH: Has there been any headway at all in solving the mystery? I should think that a monster capable of attacking ghosts, people and cats would be quite memorable.

Pr. McGONAGALL: I spoke with Madame Pince. It seems the sheer size of our library is also our downfall. There are so many volumes about so many monsters that, even though experts from the Ministry are working on the problem, it may take us months to determine the true nature of the menace.

Pr. HOOCH: In the meantime, can we allow at least a few matches? It will get the students out of the castle, at any rate. Staying cooped up here can't be doing them any good, especially if the monster is still in the castle anyway.

Pr. SNAPE: I am afraid that we cannot presume to know where the monster is, any more than we can say what it is. Bodies have been found in the castle, but without signs of a struggle. It is possible that they were attacked in various locations, and then brought back to the corridor where they were found. The fact remains that no doorway has been found to this hidden chamber as of yet.

Pr. HOOCH: And the fact remains that none of the present victims were attacked in the Quidditch stadium!

Pr. SNAPE: But isn't it a telling point that the attacks stopped, for the time being, when the blizzard arrived? Is it not likely that this creature could be hibernating anywhere outside the castle walls, rather than within?

Pr. FLITWICK: But then that begs the question of how it carried its victims inside to place them in the hall. No, I think that this castle is the creature's domain. I would vote to let the games go on.

Pr. McGONAGALL: There is still the problem of students and studies. The school year usually includes five widely-spaced games. This way, we would have to play one game per month. As a result, there would be a great deal of homework-dodging. We'd need a month just for the teams to get back into shape. If any games are to be played, we shall have to resort to a more impartial judge to schedule them. I have brought with me, as you can see, the Sorting Hat. I will place it in the center of the table, like so, and ask it to decide how many games are to be scheduled, and for when.

[Whereupon the Extraordinary Committee waited for the Sorting Hat to offer anything up. After a few minutes, it coughed up a single piece of paper, resembling the date off of a calendar and reading: "8 MAY 1993"]

Pr. HOOCH: Personally, I don't lke it, but it's probably the most sensible compromise. Still one month before finals, during the nicest weather, and if we don't catch the monster by then, we've hardly earned the right to call ourselves teachers.

Pr. FLITWICK: I'll just toddle off then and tell my House . . .

Pr. SNAPE: Tell your House what? What makes you think that Ravenclaw will be playing?

Pr. FLITWICK: We won it last year; it's ours to defend!

Pr. SPROUT: And don't the rest of us get a chance, then?

Pr. SNAPE: Unless you think the match earlier this year counts for nothing.

Pr. FLITWICK: That's the way it counts for you, anyway, isn't it? Slytherin lost!

Pr. HOOCH: Gentlemen! That's quite enough! I propose that we let the Sorting Hat settle this matter as well. The four of you, reach in and draw out, well, whatever it is you can draw out.

[Whereupon Madam Hooch picked up the hat, realizing from its heft that there were four small balls rattling inside. Each of the other professors took a ball from the Sorting Hat. Professors McGonagall and Sprout drew out balls painted gold to resemble a Snitch; the others drew out black balls.]

Pr. HOOCH: Well, there it is. Go and inform your Houses that this year's Quidditch Cup will be determined by a single match between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, to take place on the eighth day of May.

Pr. SNAPE: If only Godric Gryffindor hadn't been such a ladies' man.

Pr. McGONAGALL: Nobody likes a poor loser, Severus.

Pr. HOOCH: And winners who gloat too much don't get on well either, Minerva. Of course, if the monster is caught tomorrow, we will probably have to go back and do this all again, but that'll be a load off of all our minds. If there is nothing further, this meeting is adjourned.

xxx

Professor Flitwick called a meeting of the Ravenclaw team that evening in the Common Room to give them the news. "We left it up to chance and the Sorting Hat," he concluded apologetically, "and that was the result."

Cho barely acknowledged that Flitwick had spoken. She stared into the fireplace even after he had finished speaking.

Roger Davies sighed. "At least there's next fall."

"Unless the monster's caught first." The words were out of Cho's mouth so quickly that even she was surprised. Then, with a distinct fire in her eyes, she rose and went toward the dormitory steps as if the others weren't there.

"Miss Chang?" Professor Flitwick asked.

With one foot on the steps, she turned to face the team. "There won't be any Quidditch here until the monster is caught. So I'm going to find the monster. I'm starting with Professor Lockhart's books. After all, the monster didn't attack anyone until he got here."

"Miss Chang, are you accusing a professor?"

"No, sir, merely observing. But if there's a clue to the monster in his books, I'm going to find it." With that, she turned and ran up to her dormitory.

xxx

to be continued in part 31, wherein Cho learns nothing about the monster, but learns a very interesting thing about Gilderoy Lockhart . . .