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

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32. Visitation

While the others in the dormitory were getting ready for bed, Cho placed her wand, now softly glowing, upright on her writing desk. Drawing out a fresh piece of parchment, she began writing. No title, no prologue; she copied out the three contradictory passages from Lockhart's books, and laid out the now self-evident fact (self-evident to her and her friends, so far) that Lockhart had some explaining to do.

Within two hours, she finished her writing. She rolled up the parchment, put it in her desk, extinguished her wand, then changed and got into bed, pulling the curtains around her. She was asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow. It was the sleep of the just; she felt she had accomplished a good day's work . . .

In fact, she slept through breakfast, and didn't rise until almost ten.

She only woke up because the two cats in the dormitory-Coriander and Pywacket-began fighting over something or other. Cho was never sure what; she only knew that the hissing and snarling woke her up in time to see the bed curtains shake when one of the animals tried climbing straight up them.

Seeing that she was alone except for the cats, she looked at the time, and rushed to get dressed. As she struggled into her clothes and robes, she berated herself with a few choice curse-words in Mandarin--words her parents didn't know that she knew. She didn't even bother with her hair. She knew that she had just enough time to deliver the scroll to McGonagall before the Quidditch match. She'd probably have to stand at the back of the gallery, but it would be worth it to see some Quidditch again-and especially seeing Harry Potter as Seeker again.

As she ran through the corridors, it seemed as if everyone was already at the stadium; Cho didn't see a soul. She assumed that McGonagall would already be there, with the Griffindors. As she rounded one corner just past the hospital wing, though, she ran into McGonagall-literally. Both student and pupil ended up on the cold stone floor.

"I'm sorry! I'm really sorry!" Cho apologized again and again as she helped Professor McGonagall to her feet. "But I was just looking for you! This is important-very important!"

"Child, what are you doing here?"

"I said, I was looking for you. There's something you really need to know!"

"If it's what I think it is, then I already know it."

"You do?" Cho looked totally defeated as she drew the scroll out of her pocket. "But we only discovered this last night."

"Let me see it then." McGonagall held out her long, thin hand; Cho put the scroll into it. McGonagall then put the unopened scroll into her own pocket. "Time enough to look at this later. Go back to your House, then."

"But . . . the Quidditch match!"

"Yes, well, I was just on my way to the stadium. You may as well know now: the match is canceled. Professor Flitwick will be by to explain it to you." McGonagall then looked over her shoulder, as if something was following her. "I really must ask that you go to your House now!"

"But Professor!"

"No buts, Miss Chang. I don't want to have to take points at a time like this. Just go!"

Cho knew better than to argue with McGonagall, but she also knew that something had happened. She retreated down the corridor, then ducked into an empty classroom near the hospital wing, leaving the door open a crack.

She didn't have long to wait. Barely a minute later, Professors McGonagall and Snape walked down the corridor, levitating two bodies before them. They were covered with sheets, so Cho couldn't tell who they were or what had happened. But the circumstances were clear: another attack.

McGonagall knocked on the door to the infirmary. Professor Pomfrey ushered them in, then quickly closed and bolted the door.

Another Quidditch game ruined; in fact, the match for Cup itself! As she walked back through the empty halls to Ravenclaw House, she thought that Salazar Slytherin and his monster seemed to have a grudge against Quidditch as well as the Muggle-born.

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Cho told the tapestry the password ("sesquipedalian") and sank into one of the large comfy chairs in the Common Room. She hadn't long to wait; first singly then in groups, students began returning from the stadium. Many of them had already reached the same conclusion that Cho had: another attack. Cho just sat quietly, not even wanting to think about it.

When the students were packed into the Common Room, Professor Flitwick stood up on the table to address them. Cho, whose chair was right in front of Flitwick, had never seen him look so distraught.

"There has indeed been another attack," he sighed. "Two more students are in the hospital wing, and both happened to be students I know very well, whose classwork is exemplary and whose comportment here at Hogwarts has been beyond reproach. They are Miss Hermione Granger of Griffindor, and . . . " As Cho watched, tears started down Professor Flitwick's face. "The other is a Ravenclaw: Miss Penelope Clearwater."

Quite a few of the students gasped, screamed or cried out. Cho's mind simply stopped for a few minutes. She didn't want to think about what she'd just heard. Even as the meeting broke up, after Flitwick had composed himself and explained the new security measure that would go into effect, she sat there, blankly staring at nothing. She didn't say anything when Roger Davies tapped her on the shoulder to ask if she was all right. She didn't say anything a minute later when she went up to her dormitory, just in time to hear Jan Nugginbridge saying, " . . . had no ideer she was a Mug. . ." She cut off her sentence as Cho walked into the room. Cho simply sat at her writing desk, staring out at the sunny spring fields just beyond the castle.

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Cho didn't move for an hour, after which she went down to the Common Room, where she saw Raina and Diana talking. She told them that she had given the scroll to McGonagall, who had pocketed it unread. "For all I know, she still hasn't seen it," she sighed.

"She'll have a lot on her mind," Diana nodded. "It got a Gryffindor-one of hers."

Raina was nervous, almost trembling. "Do you think Professor Flitwick was serious? Could they close Hogwarts?"

Cho simply said, "I only know one thing." Without explaining what that one thing was, she went back up to her dormitory. She stayed there for the rest of the day, not eating or speaking. She waited.

She waited until almost one o'clock in the morning. Then, moving barefoot through the castle as quietly as she could, with her wand in the pocket of her robes, she went to the hospital wing and tried the door. It was locked.

She couldn't leave it like that, though. She gently tapped on the door with her wand. "Alohomora."

The door opened just a crack. Cho slowly and quietly opened it, went inside, and almost ran into Professor Flitwick.

"What are, what are you doing here?" Cho whispered.

"Watching over the beds, letting Madam Pomfrey get a few hours of much- needed sleep. And I can imagine why you're here."

Cho bowed her head. "How many points have I cost us, then?"

"Cost? My dear Miss Chang, I would have been disappointed in you if you hadn't tried to sneak in here tonight. It's one of the reasons I volunteered to keep watch.

"You see, Miss Chang, Madam Pomfrey is a skilled mediwitch and has a very good heart. Sometimes, however, she doesn't understand that not all rules apply in all circumstances. Over the holidays, for example, there was a student here-I won't name any names-who apparently tried to Transfigure herself into a cat. She was only partly successful. Madam Pomfrey kept visitors away from her because she didn't want to make a spectacle of the girl-it would just make her feel worse than she already did. In that case, a ban on visitors makes sense.

"And with the current problem with the monster, it wouldn't do to have people coming in here just to look at the victims. The students would grow fearful, morbid, and maybe out of desperation bring about something even worse. So, there too, Madam Pomfrey is in the right.

"However, I've known since your first day here that you and Miss Clearwater are very much attached to each other. I doubt that anything you could say to her now would make her feel better, but we don't really know these things. But I know that you'll feel better as a result. So, as for keeping you out, I decided, to quote the old Muggle playwright, that 'it is a custom more honoured in the breach than in the observance.' Don't take too long." With that, Professor Flitwick stepped aside, allowing Cho to enter the infirmary.

It was a strange place, lit only by moonlight coming through the high windows, yet Cho saw perfectly. She knew which bed she wanted: the last on the left to be occupied. She recognized the long curly hair, now as fixed as stone. She saw Penelope seeming to point with the index finger of one hand; she saw Penny's mouth beginning to open to utter something. It was like looking at a very lifelike statue, yet knowing that a mandragora restorative potion was all that stood between life and death for this statue.

Cho sat on the empty bed next to Penelope's. At first she just sat and stared at the Ravenclaw prefect. Then she gingerly reached out to touch her friend's hand. It was hard and cold as stone.

Cho started to speak just above a whisper. "They say you're still in there, Penny. I know you prefer Penelope now, but I've been thinking about my first days here, when you were still just Penny. I'll never be able to repay all the favours you've done for me, all the help and advice and just sitting and listening while I blather on and on." Cho chuckled. "I guess we're doing it again now, only you're not listening just to be polite. Believe me, Penny, if I could change places with you, I would. If I could have been there with you. . .

"What am I saying?" Cho's voice suddenly had a bitter edge to it. "I'm swearing to save your life like some sort of knight, and I couldn't even protect you from this. Please don't hold that against me. I tried to find a solution the only way I know. I'm sorry if it wasn't enough.

"I can't imagine what your friend Percy is going through right now. Probably worse than the things I'm feeling. All of a sudden, I want to talk to him, to let him know how very valuable you are to me, to let him know that he's not really alone."

Cho sat there for a few more minutes, not really knowing what to say, but just glad to be with Penny, even if she was in her petrified state. Finally, she stood up and walked back to the door, where Professor Flitwick was sitting in a chair, his legs not even touching the floor, reading a well-thumbed copy of "Hogwarts, A History". She silently mouthed "Thank you" to the professor, then left.

No sooner had she closed the door, than she turned and bumped into someone. It was the Hufflepuff Seeker, Cedric Diggory. He seemed to have thrown his robes on over his pajamas, and wore slippers on his feet.

Cho simply said, "He's expecting you," then turned to go.

Before she could take a step, Cedric grabbed her by the elbow. "Why do you do that?"

Cho pulled her elbow out of his grasp. "What?" she asked suspiciously.

"You're always saying and doing things that, well, it's like you're trying to start a fight or something."

"Not really; just keeping you off balance, one Seeker to another."

"But this isn't a match, and I don't see a Snitch around here. Yet you're always saying and doing odd things. Do you think of me as the enemy?"

"Most of the time, Mister Diggory, I don't think of you at all. I came down here to see my friend; what's your excuse?"

"Pomfrey wouldn't let me in, either. I'm here to see Justin. He got attacked. But he doesn't have many friends here. I wanted to see if I could pick up his spirits."

Cho suddenly felt ashamed; the monster had attacked one of her friends, she was helpless to do anything about it, and here she was attacking someone she barely knew, someone who cared just as much about his own friends. Without another word, she bowed to Cedric, turned and ran back to Ravenclaw. It was still the dead of night; she was sure he couldn't have seen her cheeks burning.

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to be continued in part 33, wherein the monster is defeated, the school year comes to an end, and Cho realizes what she wants . . .

A/N: The quote by the Muggle playwright is from "Hamlet", Act I scene iv.