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

59. After the Second Task

Dumbledore was correct when he said that the four would sleep until their heads broke the surface of the lake. However, this didn't stop them from dreaming in the lake, or from seeing and thinking some strange things in the foggy land between sleeping and waking.

The first thought that crossed Cho's mind was: Sushi? I don't like sushi.

Vaguely she realized there was a taste in her mouth of seaweed and marine animal. She tried to spit whatever it was out of her mouth, but through her half-closed eyes could only see a bubble of air being pushed out, then floating up.

Bubble of air?

She tried to turn her head but couldn't; tried to open her mouth wider but couldn't; tried to wake up from this odd dream but couldn't. In this dream she was underwater and everything was half-hidden in twilight dusk, although her mind tried to tell her that it had to be late in the morning, and the sun was high enough in the sky-

But there was no sky.

Instead there was water, full of floating plants and silt, like a fish tank that hasn't been cleaned properly. And there were beings that lived in this water and were no less filthy: merpeople with green hair and yellow eyes and gray skin and silver fish-tails that looked far more muscular and alive than did their human halves.

They were threatening and taunting one of their own. No, it couldn't be; this merman wore trousers and a shirt, and his head was much more human looking. Except that he had gills like a giant fish. Gills, and brilliant green eyes and a lightning-bolt mark on his head.

Harry, she tried to speak, but again only a bubble came out.

Again she tried to move her head, but it would not move, or could not. All she could do was look straight ahead at whatever was in her field of vision, which at the moment was the merboy who looked like Harry Potter and, coming closer out of the underwater twilight, what seemed to be Cedric Diggory, except that his head was now too large for his body. Bighead Cedric reached into his pants pocket, pulled out a knife, and cut the ropes that Cho didn't even realize were holding her. He grabbed the collar of her robes and swam toward the surface, pulling her along, and it was a pleasant feeling, traveling this way, not having to do anything, just being drawn along by someone else-

In that instant, she bobbed up to the surface. The spell broken, Cho suddenly came wide-awake, and all that she had dreamed or thought she had dreamed beneath the surface of the lake vanished. The immediate problem was staying afloat.

This was solved when Cedric put his arm around her waist. "Don't struggle," he said, "just relax. I have you now; you're all right."

Yes, Cho thought, as she let Cedric swim her into shore; I'm all right.

She hardly noticed the cheering and applause as Cedric got her within a few yards of the shore. There, the water was too shallow to keep swimming; Cho tried to stand but staggered; she was helped at once by Madam Pomfrey, who placed her on a bench, sat Cedric beside her, wrapped them both in heavy blankets and made them drink a warming potion. Cho's robes were still drenched under the blankets, and lake water was running into her eyes and mouth from her hair. She tried to wipe her head with the blanket.

"Wait just a minute, Miss Chang!" Madam Pomfrey exclaimed. "I've rather a handful just now!" The nurse was seating Viktor Krum and Hermione Granger next to them on the bench, wrapping them both in blankets as well.

"What-what just happened?" Cho asked Cedric, her voice shaking from the wet and cold that the blankets and even the potion did little to ease. "Dumbledore said something about rescue ."

"You were all tied up down there," Cedric said through slightly chattering teeth. "We had an hour to rescue you. That stupid egg gave off a poem that told us, so we've really had all this time to prepare. Didn't seem to help much in the moment, though."

"We were all tied down? But where are the others?" Cho looked around anxiously. "Where's Harry?!"

The moment she spoke, three heads broke the surface of the lake, one of them belonging to Harry Potter. She sighed in relief and relaxed on the bench, the cold and wet forgotten for the moment. Harry was safe, and Ron Weasley was safe, and even Gabrielle the young Beauxbatons girl-

Madam Pomfrey bundled up this last group to come out of the lake and fed them potion. Dumbledore and the judges put their heads together to figure out the scoring, while Fleur Delacour thanked both Harry and Ron for rescuing her sister by kissing them on the cheeks. This gave Cho a slightly upset stomach, although she wasn't quite sure why.

When Ludo Bagman announced the scoring, he said that Cedric was the first back with his "hostage"-still a concept Cho could not quite accept. However, when he said that Cedric was awarded 47 points out of 50, the missing three points for being late, she smiled happily at Cedric.

"Almost perfect marks; let's see your father complain about that!"

"He'll find a way," Cedric nodded.

By now Bagman was announcing the points for Harry Potter. Harry got 45 points, which left him tied with Cedric for first place. But when he explained that Harry stayed past the time only to make sure all the hostages were safe, not just his own, Cho buried her face in her hands.

"Something wrong?" Cedric asked.

"I-still have the chills," Cho said through her fingers.

In truth, Cho didn't want Cedric to see her like this, on the point of tears. He risked it all, she thought, not just for Ron Weasley. He wanted to save me; he wanted to save all of us. Bless you, Harry Potter.

Madam Pomfrey directed them all back to the castle; they went to the hospital wing where they were given dry clothes and fresh robes and told to change in the lavatories. Cho ignored Hermione, but kept taking covert glances at the Delacour sisters. She told herself it was because she was curious about their being part veela, and wondering what they looked like undressed.

Perhaps it was a good thing that the sisters didn't stop fussing with each other; as they shed garment after garment, Cho found it harder to glance at them, and soon she was staring openly. Their skin was flawless, their now- dry hair was flawless. Even the immature body of Gabrielle fascinated Cho in a way she knew was totally unacceptable.

When she stepped out of the hospital wing, Cedric was waiting in the corridor. "Could you walk with me for a bit, Cho Li?"

She nodded. Cho expected him to take her to the garden, but instead he walked with her along the lake, to the now-deserted bleachers.

Cedric spoke first: "Doesn't seem real, now, and it was only an hour ago."

"Yes, it was-strange. Cedric, I think I asked this already, but now I need to know-why me? You knew we'd be tied up underwater; you said so."

"Well, I, I mean, I was sure the Ministry and Dumbledore wouldn't let anything happen."

"So you let me get put down there so that you could get me out. Do you think that proves that I'd be the one you'd . oh, I can't even say it. Sounds so conceited."

"But it's the truth, and there's lots of reasons why I think that. You're a brilliant Seeker."

"Well, I worked damned hard for that."

"I know; we all know. Broken bones and all; you're as much a celebrity among all the teams as Harry Potter, you know."

Now Cho really started to blush. "I . I didn't know."

"Well. Roger saw to it that we all knew. There's that, and you're brilliant. Of course, you wouldn't have been Sorted into Ravenclaw if you weren't. All that's on top of yesterday."

"Yesterday?"

"I've had many a good cry in that garden, Cho Li, but always alone. Now I- I don't think I want that anymore. You made me feel comforted; you gave me peace I've rarely known, and all without saying a word."

"That's, that's wonderful of you to say, but ."

"Wait! I won't be able to finish it if I don't say it now. Cho Li, I think you . you're beautiful."

Cho wouldn't have tried to think of herself as beautiful-especially not now, feeling the lake water and bits of seaweed still sticking to her skin and hair. With the memory of her mother's angry words ringing in her memory, she violently shook her head. "No, no. I'm not. I mean, I can name a dozen girls in each House who are prettier than I."

Cedric put his hands on her shoulders and turned her to face him. "I can't," he said, softly and simply.

And he lowered his mouth to hers.

When he broke the kiss, the instant their lips parted, Cedric murmured, "Cho Li, I love you."

Cho backed away from him, as if his head was still grotesquely oversized. "I, Ced, I'm-I have to go, I'm sorry."

"Wait!"

"I have to-- I'll see you later!"

"Where? When??"

"Right here, after classes."

"Cho Li!"

"Cedric, please, I'm sorry, I ." She turned and ran toward the castle.

All the way back to Ravenclaw House she kept the same sentence spinning round and round in her head: Got to think this through. Got to think this through. As she passed through the entrance, she heard the noise from the Great Hall. Everyone seemed to be at lunch; excellent. No answering awkward questions. Cho walked straight to the tapestry in the West Tower, said the password "yclept", touched the spine of her Confucius, walked through the Common Room, and up to her dorm.

Jan Nugginbridge was sitting on her bed, highlighting a recipe in a Potions book with one hand and scratching Coriander's ears with the other. She glanced at Cho; then looked harder. "Oh, Lord above!"

"I know," Cho said ruefully, "I look a fright. It was the blasted Task."

"Not that, yeh fool!" Jan sat up on the edge of the bed, smiling. "Yeh look fine, and better than fine."

"What do you mean?"

"Yeh look like Penny did after she started goin' out wi' Percy Weasley. Like my older sister when she came back from evenings with her beau. Cho, yeh're Glowing!"

Cho actually raised a hand in front of her face to see if it was true.

"Yeh can't see it yersel'!" Jan laughed. "So tell me wha' happened! I wants ter be the firs' teh hear!"

"At least come with me while I wash up! I can still feel the lake on me and I can't stand it much longer." Cho was out of her robes and clothes before she got to the door of the lavatory. She was at the sink in her underwear, washing her face and arms, while Jan stood in the doorway.

"Long story short, then."

Cho could hardly believe it was herself speaking: "I got kissed!"

"I knew it!" Jan shouted. "The Glow don' lie! Was it Roger?"

"No," Cho almost giggled at the idea.

"Not Harry Potter!?"

That one actually made Cho feel a bit uncomfortable, but she shrugged it off until later as she said, "Right: not Harry."

"Who, then?"

As if it hasn't been obvious since the Yule Ball, Cho thought. She kept her eyes down, looking at her hands under the taps, and said in a small voice: "Cedric Diggory."

"You jammy little thing!" Jan rushed into the lavatory and hugged Cho, even though she'd just taken off her bra and was standing there only in panties, drawing a bath. "I'm so happy fer yeh! Come on, then; details!"

"Can't I have a bath first?" Cho laughed.

"An leave me hangin' like Guy Fawkes? Not bloody likely!"

So it was that a naked Cho Chang soaked in a hot tub and shampooed her hair while a fully robed Jan Nugginbridge sat on the floor next to her, all smiles. She had to repeat several details of the Second Task two or three times. One thing she didn't talk about-something she tried to not even think about-was the kiss, and how it made her feel.

At one point, Cho stopped and turned to Jan. "What color am I; the Glow, I mean?"

Jan leaned back a bit and cocked her head to one side. "Red. Bright red, wi' a goldish color aroun' the edge."

Like a Fireball, Cho thought to herself.

"O' course, Cedric will have the same Glow," Jan continued. "If he don', summat's gone wrong wi' the Glow, or wi' me eyes."

"I wish it was really that easy to know," Cho said.

"Oh, it still ain't goin' ter be easy. Ye'll fight, o' course; ever'one does. Jes' don' never forget wha' yeh mean teh each other."

A clock chimed in the next room. "The others'll be up soon. What'll yeh tell 'em?"

"Nothing!" Even Cho was surprised by the force of her answer. "I mean, this is all so much, I really have to think about this."

"There ain' nothin' lef' ter think about."

"There is for me. My parents, mostly. I don't know what I'll say to them. What time is it? I have to get dressed!" Cho jumped out of the tub, quickly toweled herself off, then ran into the dormitory to put on fresh clothes.

"Yeh," Jan sighed happily, "I guess yeh jus' need time ter get used to it all. All right, I'll hold me tongue."

Cho spent the rest of the day in classes, but could barely concentrate. In Transfiguration she was supposed to turn a rooster into a cat, but hers kept turning into a badger. She didn't even think about what it meant until Professor McGonagall looked down at her and said, "We all know you're supporting the Hufflepuff Champion, Miss Chang, but you still need to complete the assignment." Her face burned blood red as the rest of the class laughed.

Herbology was better, quieter. She and Pablo Molina pruned a Lithuanian ice-thistle tree, harvesting the thistles that cooled the blood better than any potion known. It was demanding work, because the thistles were surrounded by dozens of long, sharp thorns. One actually punctured one of Cho's dragon-hide gloves and almost sliced into her skin.

As soon as class was over, Cho dashed around the lake, toward the bleachers, her mind still racing with all the arguments, the counter- arguments, the considerations. What could she possibly tell Cedric? And why? And what would it mean for the rest of the year? And for the rest of her life?

When she got there, the bleachers were already gone. The tent was gone. All that was there was Cedric Diggory, sitting on a large rock on the edge of the lake. He stood up when he saw her approaching.

When she came within five yards of him, she stopped. He simply stood there, the rays of the setting sun lighting him in his Hufflepuff Prefect robes. She walked toward him very slowly, until only the width of a hand separated them.

"You want to tell me something?" Cedric asked.

Cho had a hundred things to tell him: about the Glow, about trusting him never to hurt her, about her nervousness when she thought of the future. But she looked up into his gray eyes, and smiled.

"I want to tell you, Cedric Diggory, that sometimes Ravenclaws think too much. But the more I think about this, I come back to the same answer. I think I love you, too."

Again, Cedric moved to kiss her; this time, Cho wasn't taken by surprise.

xxx

to be continued in part 60, wherein Cho and Cedric find joy in Hogsmeade and talk about sex in the garden.