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

54. The First Task

Tuesday, 24 November 1994

Dear Mummy and Daddy:

First of all, scratch Chairman Miao behind his ears for me, and tell him I hope that he feels better soon. I'm sure many a younger cat would have lost all nine lives where he survived. But it's a shame that he should be sleeping in his own back yard and be attacked by a wyvern. I'm glad to hear that the Chairman gave as good as he got. Still, for a wyvern to get loose in Knockturn Alley and dash all the way into our yard! I knew Knockturn Alley was lax on pest control, but this is more than enough! Can't you and some of the other Diagon Alley merchants petition the Ministry to do something?

Anyway, speaking of dragons (and a wyvern is one of the smallest species of dragon), I saw four of them today! So did all of Hogwarts. The First Task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament pitted the Champions against dragons. I wanted to write this note and send it with Quan Yin tonight, before you saw anything in the Prophet, so that you could know what really happened. The way the Prophet has been covering the Tournament, they may well claim that the Champions had to fight armed only with their teeth!

The First Task was held after lunch today; afternoon classes were canceled. We all took the stands, which had been built far from the castle, almost on the other side of the lake, where we could see what would happen in four paddocks, side by side. In each one was a dragon-a mother dragon, no less, nesting on her eggs. Each Champion had to get an artificial golden egg out of the nest with the least damage and, of course, their skins intact. If this is the First Task, I shudder to think what the other two might be.

There were four different species of dragons, and the four Champions randomly chose which dragon to fight and in which order. The first was Cedric Diggory, a Prefect, the Hufflepuff Seeker and a decent person. At least, I thought so until the business with the badges I told you about in my last owl. I'd hate to think that he was showing his true colours, but he just kept going to classes and letting girls from all seven years it seems chat him up in the corridors. Meanwhile, people kept wearing those terrible badges.

Well, he was first up, as I said, and he was up against a Swedish Short- Snout. What he did was risky, but still made sense. There was a large rock on the ground, and he Transfigured it into a Labrador retriever. Now this dragon who can barely see past the edge of her nest (because all dragons have weak eyes) has this large black dog pestering her, poking its nose at the eggs. So she lets loose a few bursts of fire, but the dog just runs out of range, then trots back and tries again. He hoped to keep the dragon occupied, and maybe get her up out of the nest, so that he could run in and get the golden egg. And it almost worked. On about the fourth of fifth pass, the Short-Snout actually got up and was going to start after the dog. However, she must have seen Cedric make a movement out of the corner of her eye, and at the last second she turned and spat fire at him instead. It singed his face and part of his robes about the right shoulder, but he managed to get the egg. After that, the crew of dragon handlers put the Short-Snout to sleep, and Cedric went to see Madam Pomfrey, the school nurse. I could hear most of the girls around me lamenting that the dragon might have ruined Cedric's good looks, but I wasn't too concerned. He could still walk, after all, which most wizards can't who meet a Short-Snout.

The next up was that horrible French girl I wrote to you about, Fleur Delacour. She has not improved a bit in the three weeks she's been at Hogwarts. She still criticizes everyone and everything that isn't Beauxbatons. She's haughty, aloof and mean-spirited. I still can't believe that she's the best Beauxbatons has got; if so, then the French wizards must be pretty pathetic.

She had to fight a Welsh Green, and it seemed more agitated than any of the other dragons. Of course, we were all stunned when she walked right up to the paddock, as if she was going to cast a spell on the Green. I thought it would end horribly; dragons deflect all but the most advanced spells, after all, and certainly nothing a student could do would faze it. But, after a few minutes of the Green twisting and screaming and snapping in her direction, it began to slow down. Maybe it was the combination of her wand, which is loaded with veela hair, and Delacour being part-veela herself. Anyway, she put a sleeping spell on the Green and, sure enough, its eyes started to close. But no sooner does the dragon actually fall to sleep, and she tries to take the egg, when the Green snored, and a great torch of fire went straight at Delacour. She sidestepped it and grabbed the egg, but part of her robes caught fire. She put out the fire with water from her wand, and she did all of this in less time than it took Cedric. Perhaps the Goblet knew who it was choosing after all.

Then came Viktor Krum, except thast he didn't look the way he did at the World Quidditch Cup. He was just as nervous as the others, especially because he was facing a Fireball. She wasn't as big as the ones we saw in China, but she was angry enough for two. Her frills were full-spread and vibrating in a wonderful display. If I had been against her, I wouldn't have been afraid, since I know how to read a Fireball's movements and moods; you taught me what to expect from a dragon. But Krum was clearly out of his element.

You have to bear in mind, since I forgot to mention it earlier, that the Champions were kept away from the paddocks until it was their turn, so none of them knew what the others had tried to get the egg. Krum took roughly the same approach that Delacour did, by attacking the dragon directly, and also the same approach Cedric did, by trying to take advantage of the dragon's weak eyesight. He gave the Fireball a Conjunctivitis Curse; it's not what I would have done, since it falls under the area of the Dark Arts. But Krum paid the price for it, because the Fireball immediately knew something was wrong, panicked and started thrashing about. She destroyed half of her own eggs before Krum could dash toward the nest and grab the golden egg. He came away unharmed, but he actually made me feel sorry for the Fireball.

Then the last Champion: Ha Li Po Te. I wish you could have seen it. The other three were all Seventh-Year, so when Harry comes out of the tent, he looks like a child by comparison-he's only fourteen. And he drew probably the nastiest dragon of the four: a Hungarian Horntail, which meant that he had to watch out for both her fiery breath and her spiked tail.

I don't know Harry very well, but we've spoken. We're both Seekers for our Houses, but I don't mind admitting that he's a genius flier. He's done a brilliant job as Seeker. He's already the kind of Quidditch player I want to become someday, and he's just a bit younger than I am. (Here Cho wrote something, and then thoroughly scratched it out.)

Anyway, the first thing he does, he turns his back on the Horntail, points his wand toward the castle and performs a Summoning Spell! And sure enough, a few minutes later, his Firebold Quidditch broom comes sailing along by itself, right into his hands! So simple, yet so brilliant! Two of the other Champions were also Seekers, and it never occurred to them to do it!

Well, once Harry was airborne, the contest was over. Not that he wasn't still in danger from both ends of the Horntail, but it was just another Quidditch match for him-except he was trying to grab a very large Snitch. He kept passing in front of the Horntail, gradually going higher and higher, keeping just out of range, trying to get her to come up off the nest. One time a tail spike cut into his shoulder, but that didn't stop him; he did exactly what a Seeker should do. He waited for just the right moment, when the frustrated Horntail had reared up, ready to fly after him, and then he dived down swift as the wind and carried off the golden egg. And the Fourth-Year did it all quicker than all three Seventh-Years!

The scores were posted afterwards, and even here there was a bit of a battle, because of the outright favoritism shown to Krum by the Durmstrang Headmaster. Still, at the end, Krum and Harry Potter were tied for the lead. And the Hogwarts students, most of whom resented Harry even being in the Tournament, had largely turned around and were cheering him on. That made me gladdest of all. However he had gotten chosen, he didn't deserve everyone's suspicion and scorn. I shouldn't be glad that so many of my fellow students are hypocrites, but they had no good reason to be so hard on Harry.

The Second Task won't be until February 24; a late birthday present for me. In the meantime, we still have classes, and next month is the Yule Ball. Never having been to one, I don't hold out much hope for having fun, and I wish I could come home for the holidays, but at least the rest of Hogwarts will be here, and if I've learned anything, it's that Hogwarts always has something unexpected to offer!

My love to you all,

Your little Horse, Cho

xxx

Cho read the parchment several times over, finally satisfying herself that the wording was right. She called to Quan Yin, who had been siting on the window sill, patiently waiting.

"I really don't hold out much hope for the Ball, you know," she said to the owl, barely above a whisper, as she tied the letter to her leg, "although there is one boy who I hope asks me." She smiled, kissed the owl on top of its head, and set her loose into the night sky.

She looked out at the Hogwarts grounds, hidden by night, for some time, before she went to bed. She lay down, drew the curtains, and her final waking thought was: Good night, Harry, and congratulations: you really are a Champion.

With that, she drifted into a dreamless sleep.

xxx

to be continued in part 55, wherein Cho is asked to the Yule Ball in a most distressing manner.

A/N: As I type this, we are literally hours away from the release of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I have plotted out "Or Die Trying" to take place during the summer after the Tournament, but now I am oftwo minds about whether to try to reconcile this story with OotP. I'll let you know as the fic progresses.