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

57. The Yule Ball 2: The Secret Garden

Cedric led Cho around the castle toward the greenhouses. Cho began to worry about this; what did Cedric mean exactly when he said he wanted to show her something special?

They stopped behind Greenhouse Number Three at the wall that separated Hogwarts' grounds from the fields and woods beyond. Cedric drew his wand, touched it to one brick in the wall, and drew a circle. As soon as the circle was completed, a portion of the wall swung away as if on hinges, and revealed . . .

"This is," Cedric began.

"A garden!" Cho exclaimed in delight.

True, it didn't look like a garden now, covered with the snows of winter. Cedric looked part impressed and part disappointed that Cho had guessed it. "I suppose the stone bench was a giveaway," he said sheepishly.

Cho pulled out her own wand and pointed it at the bench, which was against the back wall of the garden, and just long enough for two people. "Thermos!" she said, and the bench was cleared of snow and slightly warm to the touch. "May I?" she asked Cedric.

"Of course." He sat down beside her. "In fact, you're the first person who's ever been impressed by this."

"Meaning that others have been here?"

"Well, if I've gone out with a girl, and I thought she was, y'know, something special, I'd bring her here to see the garden. But they just end up saying, 'That's all? Now what?' I'm glad you can appreciate it."

"Well, we don't exactly have a garden back in Diagon Alley, but my family were Herbologists for generations back in China. I guess I picked up something from them."

There was an awkward minute when neither said anything, but they both seemed to want to say something. In the silence they heard some sort of animal calling in the Forbidden Forest, and faintly they could hear the music of the Weird Sisters start up again.

"When you were taking me back here," Cho finally said, "I wasn't sure what I'd find. I suppose this really isn't a secret garden, though, if others know about it. How did you start it, then?"

"Professor Sprout showed it to me in my First Year. The reason she did, well, it's not important. Strange to think that I'll be leaving at the end of spring term and never working the garden again."

"Then let me," Cho said. "I'd be happy to share your secret; if Professor Sprout agrees, of course."

"Thanks, that's awfully nice of you to volunteer, but I'd rather not share this secret."

"But you've just said that others know about it, so it really isn't a secret, is it?"

"I can tell you a real secret, then; something that nobody else at Hogwarts knows. But first you have to tell me one."

"Let me think. There's something I can think of that nobody here knows: my middle name. I don't think I've ever told it to anyone."

Cedric suddenly looked very serious, as if he were being trusted with the keys to Gringotts. "What is it, then?"

"Li. It's my mother's family name. In China, I'd be called Chang Cho Li."

Cedric looked at her strangely, almost inquisitively for a few seconds, then broke into a grin. "I like it. Not that there's anything wrong with your name, but I never liked just calling you 'Chang' or 'Cho'. Makes me sound like a barking dog. Cho Li is softer, somehow; it suits you."

"That's not how you're supposed to think of it." She was about to tell Cedric off when he interrupted.

"Would you mind awfully if I called you Cho Li?"

He looked so anxious, so hopeful, that Cho realized that she couldn't dress him down for what he'd said. Her mother would call him "every inch a gwailo", but he was at least interested and seemed willing to learn.

"I'd like that; thank you," she smiled. There was another awkward moment when each looked at the other, waiting for . . . something. Cho finally broke the silence: "Your secret now."

"Well, there's one thing," Cedric said. And either a cold wind had chosen that moment to touch his cheeks, or he really was blushing. Cho thought that, in spite of his size, it made him look childlike and vulnerable. Yet he wasn't ashamed or afraid of his own vulnerability. There was no mask, no attempt to strut before Cho as if she was a veela. She liked this side of him.

"Well, what is it?"

"I do a little singing. Not professionally, like those blokes in there," he quickly qualified what he was saying. "Just for family parties and things like that. The truth is, I only bothered to learn the one song. My dad taught it to me years ago. It's Irish, I think . . ."

"Stop stalling and let's hear it, then!" Cho laughed.

Cedric chuckled again in embarrassment. And then he started: started in a clean, pure upper range that surprised Cho, then entranced her as she became caught up in words and music:

"Of all the money ere I had, I spent it in good company,

And all the harm I've ever done, alas was done to none but me

And all I've done for want of wit, to memory now I can't recall

So fill me to the parting glass, goodnight and joy be with you all.

Of all the comrades ere I had, they're sad to see me going away,

And all the sweethearts ere I had , they wish me one more day to stay,

But since it falls unto my lot that I should rise and you should not,

I'll raise my glass and softly call, goodnight and joy be with you all."

Cho sat quite still for a minute, letting the last note die away into the winter night. When she spoke, it was to ask: "Are you sure that isn't Chinese?"

Cedric almost laughed in surprise. "Pretty sure."

"It's just . . . the melody . . . and the sentiments . . . they're all so . . . "Sing it to me again."

"What?"

"I'm not the least bit musical, but I have a good memory. Sing it to me once more, then I'll always have it in my head."

Cedric obliged, singing a little louder and more forcefully as Cho tried to lose herself in words and music. This time, she spoke up as soon as he stopped.

"Cedric, this is a side of you I've never seen. Why haven't the rest of us heard about this?"

"It's just a party piece." He seemed more embarrassed than bothered. "Can't understand why you're making so much out of it."

"It's just that . I'm beginning to wonder if there's anything you CAN'T do."

"Well, there is."

"Such as?"

He thought for a few seconds, wanting to speak but clearly uncertain how to proceed. "I, well, I can't seem to ." He suddenly seemed to change his mind, putting on a forced happy air. "Never mind. It's a family matter anyway, and my dad always says you never air your dirty linen in public. About time we went back in, isn't it?"

"Before we go back in, Cedric, I have to ask. Why me? Why ask me to the Ball? I mean, there are lots of girls here who are older, prettier . . ."

"Listen, if it were up to me, I wouldn't have gone to the Ball in the first place. It's just that it's expected of the Champions."

Cho looked bothered. "So you only asked me because you had to ask someone?"

Cedric hurriedly and embarrassedly responded, "No! That's not how I meant that. I meant that, well, I didn't want to show off for the school or anything like that. Quidditch is one thing, but these social affairs. Well, I mean, once I knew I had to ask someone, I put together a short list, and there you were at the top of it. Is that better?"

"I, I'm not sure." It was Cho's turn to be embarrassed. "I still don't feel like I've done anything to deserve it."

"You know how I feel, then. That's enough."

They walked back into the Great Hall, where the band was playing as loud as ever, and even Dumbledore and McGonagall were dancing. Cho and Cedric danced to a few lively tunes, but they had spent more than an hour in the garden and the evening was winding down. Cho looked around the dance floor for Harry, but finally saw him talking with his friend Weasley along the wall. Their dates, the Patil twins, were dancing with other boys.

At the stroke of midnight, Dumbledore declared the Ball over. Some of the students crowded around the Weird Sisters; others sought out Viktor Krum and Fleur Delacour. A few went to their Houses. Cedric was walking with Cho out of the Great Hall, when he glanced at a staircase. He hurriedly told Cho, "Wait just a tick!" He then dashed up the stairs to talk to Harry Potter.

Cho could see that Harry didn't like Cedric, and didn't trust whatever Cedric was telling him. But she was sure that it wasn't really about Cedric: Harry had wanted to take Cho and couldn't. I'll make it up to you, Harry, Cho told herself; maybe on the next Hogsmeade trip.

Just then, Cedric came back. "What was that all about?" she asked.

"Oh, just Tournament stuff. Let's go."

They walked side-by-side through the corridors of Hogwarts toward the hospital wing. From there, they would have to go to their separate Houses.

Cho felt that she had to say something, even though she couldn't look at Cedric as she said it. "It was funny when you said you'd rather not have gone to the Ball. I felt exactly the same way. But now I, I want to thank you for asking me. It's been the most wonderful night of my life."

Cedric blushed again. "I, I really don't know what, I mean-thank you. I feel just the same."

"Too bad we have to go back to the old routine now. At least you still have the Tournament. Well, Happy Christmas."

She turned to go; Cedric grabbed her hand. "We don't have to, you know. Go back, I mean."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that I'd like you to go to Hogsmeade with me next month. I'd like to walk you to and from classes. I'd like to get away from the other girls who are just chatting me up to be seen with a Champion. Can we, I mean, can we be friends?"

"We're already friends."

"You know what I mean."

Cho hesitated, still looking away. Cedric blurted out, "Look, if you don't want to, I understand. I mean, I know my reputation around here. I'm supposed to be thicker than oatmeal, and you're one of those brilliant Ravenclaw . . ."

Cho turned suddenly toward him again, and put her other hand on top of his, smiling. "Cedric Diggory, it would be an honour to be your friend."

With that, she pulled her hand away from his, turned and started toward Ravenclaw. "Good-bye! And thanks again."

As soon as she was out of sight of Cedric, she broke into a run, and didn't stop until she was halfway to Ravenclaw. Then she leaned against a wall, panting as if she'd been running for miles.

I guess a few things have changed tonight, she thought.

xxx

to be continued in part 58, wherein Cho learns much more about Cedric and his garden, and finds herself preparing for the Second Task

A/N: The notion that Cedric Diggory had a separate garden that he tended, courtesy of Professor Sprout, I borrowed from a sweet and poignant little post-Tournament fic, "The Empty Garden" by Emma Moniz. I thank the author for permission to base part of my story on her idea; the story can be found in the Dark Arts section of fictionalley.org

And the song "The Parting Glass" is one of the classics of British Isles folk music.