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

39. "Turnabout is Fair Play"

Cho wasn't surprised to hear that Madam Pomfrey insisted on Harry spending the entire weekend in the hospital wing. "Sometimes broken bones are the easy part," she'd told Cho years before; "it's the bruises that can rise up against you." What surprised Cho was the steady stream of visitors Harry had. Mostly it was the Gryffindor Quidditch team, but also his friends since their first year: Granger and Ron Weasley.

But so many others came as well. That wasn't a surprise, since Harry had taken such a dramatic fall literally in front of the entire school. Harry didn't even get privacy during his meals, since one of his friends or mates always brought a plate up to him. There was also a large slab of chocolate by his bed, in case the dementors left any after-effects; most of the chocolate was nibbled at by Harry's visitors.

Cho wanted to visit Harry, too, but she wanted to do it her own way, as she'd done before: in the dead of night, while Harry was sleeping. She couldn't say exactly why it had to be that way, except that the two of them had never been introduced, and doing so now under these circumstances might lead to some awkward questions and worse answers. She would wait, until late Sunday night.

So it was that she walked the halls of Hogwarts after midnight Sunday, hours before breakfast and the return of Harry Potter to classes, wearing her robes over her nightgown. She knew that this was no emergency crisis, as with the basilisk; Pomfrey would be on duty in the hospital wing. If Cho was lucky, Pomfrey would be napping. If she was awake, well, Cho was ready for that too.

She pushed the heavy door open just enough to see through. Pomfrey had set up a writing desk near the door, but she was seated with her back to the door, facing the ward and Harry. She appeared to be writing a scroll. Cho drew her wand out of her robes and pointed it at Pomfrey-a severe breach of the rules.

"Morpheus Temporus," she whispered.

Cho watched as Madam Pomfrey's head slowly sank forward, resting on the table. She'd be out for ten minutes. That would give Cho time. Time to do what? She still wasn't sure about that.

As it was in her Second Year, Harry was the only occupant of the ward. As she walked toward his bed, she could see him tossing fitfully. He must be having a bad dream. Then he started muttering to himself:

"No . . . don't . . . don't kill her . . . mummy . . ."

Cho stopped in her tracks, struck by the realization of what she was doing. She suddenly felt that it was - not obscene, exactly, but indecent; that she now knew something private, something Harry didn't want anyone to know, and would maybe cause him to hate Cho if he found out that she knew it.

She couldn't stay there. She turned, left the hospital wing, and almost ran back to Ravenclaw and her dormitory.

She'd dropped her robes onto her desk and gotten into bed, and was just about to draw the bed curtains when Jan whispered, "Where yeh been, then?"

"I wasn't," Cho whispered back. "I never left. Remember that."

"Suit yerself," Jan yawned and rolled over.

xxx

The school slipped back into its routines on Monday, and so did Cho. Her focus was on Saturday, November 27, the next scheduled Quidditch match. It would finally-FINALLY-mark her official debut as Ravenclaw Seeker.

At first, there was some confusion as to which House they were going to play. They were originally scheduled to play Hufflepuff, but they'd just taken Slytherin's spot in the first game of the year.

"It ought to be Slytherin," Roger Davies insisted to Madam Hooch in her office. It was the Friday after Harry's fall, two weeks before Ravenclaw's match. "Otherwise, you have Hufflepuff playing twice in three weeks!"

"Yes, and don't think that they don't know it. Unfortunately, when the, er, mishap with Malfoy and the hippogriff happened, Diggory consented to the arrangement, so that Slytherin could play two matches close together later in the year. You're the only one who thinks this is a problem, Mister Davies."

"Well, it is, but, oh, never mind." Davies very impolitely stormed out of her office and joined the rest of the team on the field.

"Rog, what's the problem?" Cho asked.

"We're playing Hufflepuff!"

"Tell me again why this is a problem," Jinx smiled. "I mean, they just came off a rough match."

"That's what worries me. They beat Gryffindor and Harry Potter, and they'll be taking that into the game with them. In better weather, at that. I wish we were against Slytherin; I'm sure they still remember the summer."

"D'you think we've forgotten how to play?" Skiddle could hardly believe it. "Y'know, you still have a lot of Mackie in you. He used to think too much, and that got him in knots all the time."

"Besides," Becksnee added, "we're supposed to have this brilliant Seeker. Oh heck, where has she gone? Anybody seen her?" He made a great show of looking high and low.

Cho tugged the sleeve of Roger's robes. "I'm right here, you know."

That seemed to set Roger's worst fears to rest. "Right! Let's get this practice started."

xxx

It would be an understatement to say that Cho woke up on Friday the 26th in high spirits. She was like a child on Christmas Eve. Unable to pay attention in class, she was constantly looking out the windows, checking the weather, as if it might change in the next few minutes. She was working out plays on paper rather than paying attention in class. She was thinking about Quidditch, and Hufflepuff, and Quidditch, and her Comet Two Sixty, and Quidditch.

Which is why she didn't think about the phantom step on the staircase in the South Wing.

She was just coming down from a Dark Arts class with Professor Lupin when she planted a step on a solid-looking step that actually wasn't there. She fell forward, her kneecap hitting the edge of the next step with a sickening crack. Cho's book bag went flying; papers scattered everywhere. The Fat Friar passed through the wall, took one look, said "Oh dear me!", and vanished back into the wall again.

Cho hoped he'd gone to fetch Madam Pomfrey. The pain in her knee felt worse than her broken bones two years before. She tried to pull herself up and out of the gap, but the slightest move made her leg throb unbearably. It was all she could do not to cry out from the pain.

"What's all this, then?"

It was Roger, on his way up to Arithmancy. He looked around at the students running up and down the stairs around Cho. "Has anyone told a teacher?" he demanded; nobody stopped to answer.

"I think the Fat Friar went to tell Madam Pomfrey," Cho managed to say. She was trying not to talk at all.

"Can't wait for that lot!" He squatted down in front of Cho. "Put your arms around my neck."

"What??"

"Just hang on!" She wrapped her arms around his neck and, as he stood up, he pulled her free of the hole in the staircase.

"Mister Davies!" Madam Pomfrey had just arrived at the foot of the stairs. She created a stretcher, set it to hovering in midair, then caused Cho to float away from Roger and onto the stretcher. "In the future, Mister Davies," Pomfrey scolded, "kindly leave these things to trained professionals. You might have done Miss Chang more harm than good. Off to class now."

"No! That is, I want to make sure she's all right."

"Well, I can tell you now that she isn't all right. She'll probably be in the wing for a couple of days."

"I can't!" Cho almost jumped off of the stretcher. "The game!"

"Someone else will have to play it, and that's that. You can see her later on, Mister Davies; I'll send word to Professor Flitwick." With that, she guided the floating stretcher to the hospital wing.

When they got to the wing and Pomfrey transferred Cho to a bed and drew her robes above her knees, they both saw that the worst had happened: the kneecaphad broken and was threatening to break through the skin. This was bad enough, but the skin over the knee was dark and swollen to the size of a Bludger.

Pomfrey repaired the kneecap and gave Cho a potion for the pain. "This is the part you're going to hate hearing, but it all comes down to bed-rest. You have to be off your feet for two days."

"But the match!"

"Will go on without you; we both know that. I have to tell Professor Flitwick what happened." Pomfrey went back to her office just off of the ward.

Cho waited, miserable, until she was alone. Then she pulled the pillow from under her head and pushed it over her face. "DAMN!" she shouted into the pillow; "DAMN! DAMN! DAMN!" The rest was tears as she sobbed into the down-stuffed pillow.

xxx

The entire Ravenclaw team came to see her at dinnertime. By then the lump in her knee had almost doubled in size.

Roger looked as if he wanted to say several things at once. But as he looked at the knee, his first words were, "Are you sure you can't fly with that?"

"We both know I can't," Cho sighed, "and even if I could, the pain isn't worth it. So what'll you do tomorrow?"

None of the players seemed to have any idea, until Jinx said, "Skiddle, you think you could play Seeker?"

"In a pinch, but who'd be the third Chaser?"

Jinx thought for a minute. "Caporeale. He's the best of the reserves, and it's just for the one game."

Everyone looked at Roger, who nodded. "Right; it's all we can do, damn it. We're just going to have to hit them early and hard; have the Chasers run up the score, and hope Skiddle sees the Snitch before Diggory."

"Jinx and I will gang up on the Keeper," Becksnee added. "Rattle him early enough and it'll be easier."

"That's it, then. Tell Caporeale we'll need him in the morning. You lot get down to dinner now."

Roger was actually dismissing the rest of the team! Some of them exchanged smirks. "See you later, Cho," Jinx said as the others left the hospital wing.

Even after the others had left and they were alone in the ward, Roger seemed to have trouble finding words. "I'm really sorry this happened," he started.

Cho cut him off. "I'm sorry, Roger, but right now, misery does not love company. Please leave me alone."

"Oh. Er, right." Hesitently, with several backward glances, Roger left the wing, leaving Cho more alone than ever.

xxx

The girls in her dorm came by after dinner; the story was the talk of the Ravenclaw table.

"Do you want me to be here tomorrow morning?" Raina asked. "When everyone's away."

"When everyone's watching Quidditch, you mean. Thank you, Raina, that's so sweet, but you shouldn't miss the match on my account. Just come by after and let me know what happened."

The others promised to bring food, tea, books, scrolls, changes of clothes- they offered to bring Cho anything and everything until she burst out laughing for the first time since the accident. "I'm not moving in here, you know; I'll be gone in a day or two. I don't even know what I'll miss yet, but I'll let you know. Oh, there's one thing; just a quill and a scroll. I have to let my parents know."

By the time Cho finished her letter, it was time to turn out the lights. Nurse Pomfrey promised to send Quan Yin home with it and went up to the Owlery as Cho closed her eyes.

xxx

House-elves are the living embodiment of being generous to a fault. Once it's understood that your needs are their responsibility, there's nothing they won't do. The cooking elves at Hogwarts kept the tables of the Great Hall filled with plates and bowls and pitchers full of fine food and drink.

But all the food was monitored by Professors Pomfrey and Sprout, who knew that growing witches and wizards had certain nutritional needs. They provided a sense of proportion where house-elves have none. If the kitchen elves were left to their own devices, every meal would be a ten-course banquet with too many sweets, and the wizarding world might take after Dudley Dursley.

Elves supplied food to the hospital wing, but Madam Pomfrey kept her own tight controls over it. On top of nutrition, she had to worry about possible potion interactions, and so she frowned on students sneaking food into the wing. The chocolate by Harry's bed a few weeks ago was understood to be "for medicinal purposes only".

When Cho woke up that Saturday morning, it was to the smell of porridge, hot scones and honey. She tried very hard to ignore it all. She just looked glumly out the nearest window, but all she could see was the chilly autumn sky.

"You have to have something you know," Madam Pomfrey said as she approached the bed. "Otherwise, I won't let you out."

"What's the point?" Cho said. "I'll be in here when it's eleven, and everybody else will be at the match. You couldn't let me out for that, could you?"

"Of course not, because I've read Eunice Murray, too. If I let you out as a spectator, you'd probably try some foolish trick to get in the game. But there are other games this year, you know, and I'm sure you'll be tickety- boo for the next one. But you have to eat."

Cho looked at the food beside her. "I don't suppose you could make a change?"

Madam Pomfrey looked dubious. "Not until I know what it is."

"Rice. Just a bowl of rice."

"I suppose you want some of that what-do-ye-call-it, soy sauce?"

"No. Just a pinch of salt on top."

The nurse smiled. "This is your comfort food, then?" Cho nodded. "Well, that's all right." Pomfey waved her wand, and the tray vanished. In its place was a bowl full of steaming white rice."

"I'll leave you to it," she said as she went to her office.

Cho waited until she had gone, then took her own wand (which she had asked Jan to smuggle in the night before, just in case) from under her pillow, and Transfigured the fork into a pair of carved ivory chopsticks. She picked up the bowl and practically inhaled the rice. She lost herself in the warmth of the bowl in her hand, the firmness of the rice, its subtle taste. It was food from home, which she hadn't tasted at Hogwarts.

A few minutes later, her stomach pleasantly full but still consumed by disappoitment, she was surprised to see Madam Pomfrey approach her bed. "I know you'd feel awful being here all alone during the game, trying to hear the shouts and everything. So I'll make things a bit easier for you before I go to the stadium myself."

"Easier? How?"

Pomfrey drew her wand. "Just remember, Miss Chang," she smiled, "that turnabout is fair play. Morpheus Temporus."

Cho couldn't even keep her eyes open long enough to say a word of protest.

xxx

As Cho came to, she realized that she could hear the mad clatter of boots along the stone corridors. It was loud and getting louder.

The door burst open; it was the Ravenclaw team.

Cho didn't have to have been sorted into Ravenclaw to see what had happened; the team was beaming.

"I guess it went well, then," she said, still a bit groggy.

"And why not?" Roger couldn't even sit on one of the beds; he was pacing, almost strutting, in front of Cho's bed. "We had a great plan, and it worked."

"What Captain High-and-Mighty means," Jinx quickly added, "is it worked well, considering you weren't there."

"We did just what we set out to do," Roger gloated. "Got fifty points up in the first five minutes, a hundred up in the first twenty. Once we were one hundred fifty in the lead, we could coast. Diggory couldn't catch the Snitch then; he'd end the game with his team short. Then it was just stringing Hufflepuff along until Skiddle had a chance at it."

Skiddle stepped through the players clustered around the side of the bed. "Do me and the House a favour, Cho, and please don't break anything else. I thought I could cover for you, but, well, if they hadn't built up that lead, I'd still be out there chasing that damned thing. You make it look so easy, you know that?"

Cho didn't know what to say to that. Fortunately, she was interrupted by Madam Pomfrey.

"Nobody said you could come in! Get out, the lot of you!" She practically shoved the others out of the wing.

She turned back to Cho. "Can't blame them, really; it was a good match. The Headmaster was saying . . ." She stopped. "Are you in pain, Cho? Is anything wrong?"

Cho had been biting her lip to keep from crying after the compliment Skiddle had paid her. "No, ma'am," she smiled through her tears, "nothing's wrong."

xxx

to be continued in part 40, wherein Cho has a meeting in the corridor and reads a letter in Hogsmeade