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

38. Quite Unexpected

"In the year 1619," droned Professor Binns, "two boatsful of Muggles witnessed an international Quidditch match; obviously, it was all quite unexpected."

A thunderclap just outside the window jolted some of the Fourth-Year Ravenclaws awake. Cho Chang didn't really need the thunder; the mere mention of Quidditch was enough to rouse her. Normally, she was just as susceptible as the others to the numbing teaching style of Professor Binns. But the first Quidditch match of the season was fast approaching-only two days away now-and even though Ravenclaw wasn't playing, she was looking forward to Hogwarts' first official match in months.

"The sixteenth of May, 1619, to be precise." Professor Binns' voice went on. The professor-actually the ghost of the original Professor Binns- either didn't notice that Diana Fairweather had fallen fast asleep in spite of the thunderstorm raging outside, or he just didn't care. "Two ships met in the Java Sea, off the coast of Borneo. One was a Spanish galleon, the Loma Caliente, which had just left its port in Sumatra and was returning home. The other was His Majesty's Ship Cotswold, captained by Sir Hubert Sligby, and Sir Hubert must bear the blame for what happened next.

"Sligby was, and still is, the only student of Hogwarts ever to command a ship in the Royal Navy. Note that I said 'student' rather than 'graduate'; Hubert's parents were both Hufflepuff, but he himself was what is commonly called a Squib. Poor lad couldn't turn wine into brandy if you pointed him toward a fire and gave him a shove. But he gamely tried on, as Hufflepuffs are wont to do, until he realized the futility of the thing. Leaving Hogwarts after his second year, he ultimately went into the Royal Navy, where he seemed to have found his level. However, he always remembered his Hogwarts days with great fondness and no ill will at all.

"Sir Hubert drew his ship up alongside the Spanish galleon; the sea was calm that day and the winds were light. As they exchanged messages about sea conditions and the news of the day, Captain Sligby noticed that a few owls were passing between the ships. Now, he knew that there were wizards on the Cotswold; religious hostility was already abroad in England, and quite a few of his classmates found it expedient to leave the country, and joining the Navy was the quickest and cheapest way to accomplish that.

"Once the sun had set and he had posted a watch he felt he could trust, he sent a parrot over to the other ship with a message. It almost didn't get through, the Spanish owls being highly suspicious of the parrot. Still, Sir Hubert found out that the crew of the Loma Caliente was almost half- wizard, many of them having attended Beauxbatons, while others had attended the Yuksekokul Buyu Suleiman, or Suleiman Magic Academy in Ankara in the Ottoman Empire.

"Sir Hubert was so injudicious as to actually note the following in the Captain's log: 'So did we exchange notes of conviviality until the suggest was made me by the mate of the Loma that some Q might be a pleasing diversion for the hands on both vessels. Myself seeing no impediment to such sport, esp. with calm seas and a moon at the full, I did give leave, so anxious was I to watch a proper match after many years absence.'"

Absent? We're all here, aren't we? You're nodding off, Cho scolded herself; watch that!

"All went well at first, with the crew of the Loma Caliente enchanting a breadfruit to use as a Quaffle, and the crow's nests of the respective ships serving as the goals. Play had progressed until the score stood 90 to 40 in favour of the Cotswold. At this point, a Spanish Chaser missed a shot at the goal, and let fly a string of Turkish oaths at the British Keeper, many of which suggested that he was, let us say, on friendly terms with barnyard animals. The Keeper was not amused, drew his wand and tried to Hex the Chaser who uttered the insults. Wands were drawn all around, and only the timely intervention of the mate of the Loma kept the match from devolving into an international incident.

"This did not, however, go unnoticed by the Muggle crew of HMS Cotswold. One such sailor, arising and ascending to the deck, witnessed the quarrel, rushed below and sounded an alarm. He was joined by several companions, who would have torched the wizards of the crew had they not been alerted by the noise. Memory Charms were brought to bear . . ."

Cho wanted to dig her fingernails into her neck, just to drive away the torpor. She felt she might have to do something desperate to drive away the boredom. Another thunderclap outside the classroom saved her the trouble.

Leave it to Professor Binns to make even Quidditch seem dull.

xxx

Quidditch practice for Ravenclaw that evening was shortened. The rain hadn't let up, and looked as if it might carry on through the weekend.

"Glad we don't have to play in that," Erasmus Skiddle said, stretching out in front of the Common Room fire. The team had spelled their clothes dry, and were talking about the upcoming match.

"So's Slytherin, I'll bet. Can you believe their nerve?" Roger complained. "They wait until the last minute to arrange a switch, so Gryffindor's all of a sudden against Hufflepuff."

"Malfoy's arm is still in a sling," noted Jinx Jenkins.

Roger nodded. "And he knows it'd be his arse in a sling if he goes up against Potter. Does anyone here still think there's something wrong with his arm?" Most of the team chuckled at the sugestion. They'd known from the beginning that Malfoy was faking his injury; hadn't Chaser Pablo Molina been nipped by a hippogriff in Professor Hagrid's class, yet showed up for practice later that same day?

"Hey Rog. What's the latest on Hufflepuff?" That was Becksnee, the other Beater.

"Diggory's Captain, and they say he's taken to it like a Snitch to flying. Hufflepuff may give us a run for it this year."

"How can they?" Cho asked incredulously. "You've seen how tall Diggory's gotten."

"Tall, yes, but he can turn his broom on a Knut. He's got a lot of control. Don't underestimate him."

"Well, we'll find out, won't we?" Roger said lazily as he stretched and reached for another butterbeer. He seemed almost bored by the prospect of a Quidditch match.

xxx

When Saturday dawned, hardly anybody at Hogwarts knew it. The storm had only gotten worse. Rain came down in sheets, and lightning crackled through the sky.

There was some talk among some First-Years of whether the match would be postponed, but this was cleared up at once by the older students. Minor inconveniences like fires, floods, blizzards and the odd earthquake weren't worth canceling a Quidditch match. (Last year's blizzard was only an excuse; the match was really canceled because of the basilisk attack the night before.)

So it was that, as the hour of eleven in the morning approached, students rushed from the castle to the stadium at the last possible moment. There was no sense in staying out in the tempest any longer than necessary, and in this weather the notion of "good seats" was a joke. Nobody could really see much of anything.

In weather like this, the students usually tried to show off their magic by finding ways to keep dry. When Cho and her dorm mates arrived at the stadium and found some benches, Libby Foggly performed an Engorge Charm on her umbrella, making it grow big enough to cover all six girls. At least, it covered them for a few minutes, until a strong gust of wind carried it up into the sky.

"Got one worth two of that," Jan Nugginbridge said as she pointed her wand at a blank spot on the bench and said, "Arboretum".

At once a large oak tree appeared, its leaves still green in spite of the season. The girls sheltered themselves under it, but again only for a minute. Jan hadn't allowed for the weight of the tree. When the plank of wood it was resting on gave a loud crack and started to give, the girls jumped clear of the tree and back into the rain. Professor Flitwick, who was sitting with other Ravenclaws nearby, performed the counter-charm and the tree vanished.

"Don't worry, Miss Nugginbridge," he called over the rising wind, "I'm not taking any points or assigning detention. Not yet, anyway; I want to find out from Madam Hooch afterwards if there's any permanent damage. In the meantime, do be careful!"

All of this had happened before the match. Cho simply pulled the hood of her cloak up over her head. This was the first chance she had to use its built-in Billowing Charm, and it worked perfectly, expanding to twice its size and serving as a personal umbrella.

Even dry, though, Cho found it almost impossible to follow the game. The wind and rain were just too much; the rain clouds blocked out more and more of the sun. The thunder was loud enough to drown out Hooch's whistle, and play often continued when it should have stopped.

Cho, as a Seeker, often watched a match by following the play and searching for the Snitch at the same time. Today, though, she didn't even try. The only way to see the Snitch from the stands, she thought, would be if it were to flap up here and poke me in the eye.

Finally, at what seemed like forty minutes into the match, although she had no way of knowing, Cho looked at the pitch as it was briefly illuminated by a flash of lightning. She saw the Golden Snitch! She saw Diggory of Hufflepuff flying madly into the wind toward it.

And she saw Harry Potter. She saw him see the Snitch, turn his broom and rush to get it before Diggory.

Cho was on her feet without realizing it. The rain was letting up a bit, and she could see the two Seekers, no more than a blur, rushing toward what looked to be a collision in mid-field. She wanted to call to Harry, to cheer him on.

But she couldn't speak.

Something tightened her throat, something which gave her the same sickly feeling she'd had on the Hogwarts Express when . . . She looked down, and there they were.

Dementors. Not just one, but dozens of them.

Apart from their appearance on the train and her having to pass them on the Hogsmeade trip, Cho tried to have nothing to do with the dementors. The feelings they recalled in her-feelings of dread and bleakness and despair- were the worst emotions she'd felt in her life. She tried not to even think about them, and she certainly didn't want to relive what she'd felt.

Yet the black robed figures-over a hundred of them, it seemed-clustering on the field were awakening those feelings in the entire stadium. It took all of her will for Cho to shut her eyes against the dementors. But she could still hear their presence; Jan was whimpering, and Raina was chanting something-a spell or perhaps a prayer-in a broken whisper.

Cho didn't know how much time had elapsed when she sensed something change. The atmosphere was lighter-no, something was fighting against the darkness. She opened her eyes in time to see the two Seekers rapidly closing on the Snitch. It was a dead heat, but Harry Potter didn't seem interested. Diggory reached out for the Snitch; Potter didn't even try. One second later, Potter fell sideways off of his broom and toward the muddy field fifty feet below.

Cho was on her feet, the word that was caught in her throat finally forced out: "HARRY!"

A pillar of silver light rose up under Harry, slowing his fall. Dumbledore had taken the field and slowed Harry's fall, although he still ended up hitting the soggy ground faster than was wise. He took just a minute to scold the dementors for coming onto the grounds without permission, emphasizing the point by chasing the dementors out with a spell that cast a silver light-something Cho had never seen before. After that, Dumbledore summoned up a stretcher, placed Harry onto it, and walked with it toward the castle.

Cho could well guess where it was going; the hospital wing. She and Harry had both spent so much time there.

With the game over, the students rushed to get back to the castle. The stadium cleared out in less than five minutes, leaving only the score up on the scoreboard: Hufflepuff 230, Gryffindor 130.

xxx

The Ravenclaw side immediately took over a corner of their Common Room to talk about the game. Except that Cho didn't feel much like talking. She simply curled up into a comfy chair and let the talk swirl around her.

"One thing's certain," Pablo Molina was saying, "even Harry Potter is a mere mortal."

"Don't get too happy," Jinx Jenkins cautioned. "All he did was break his winning streak."

"Broke more than that," chuckled Skiddle. "His Nimbus is a total cock-up; nothing but toothpicks."

"You're sure?" Becksnee asked.

"Flitwick rounded it up himself-what was left, anyway."

"So Potter is broomless, Malfoy is gutless, and Diggory's a complete charlie!"

"He is not!"

It was the first time Cho had spoken since the match, and it was more of a shout. Still curled up in the chair, she looked over at Roger. "He's not a charlie."

"Come on, Cho. He beats Potter to the Snitch, then tries to forfeit his own win!"

"It was a foul. Play should have stopped."

"What foul?!"

"Interference by a non-player. A hundred of them. Didn't you feel it?" Cho didn't wait for an answer but pressed on. "Didn't you feel the whole mood in the stadium change when the dementors came in? Don't you think those things affected the players too? Matches have been canceled for less. Diggory did the right thing. He was just being honourable."

"Well, let's hope you're not that honourable, Cho."

She glared at Roger, who laughed and put his hands up to protect himself from whatever Hex she might throw at him.

Cho simply stared at the fire. "Let's hope those things don't attend the next match."

xxx

continued in part 39, wherein neither the dementors nor Cho attend the next match