Disclaimer: yet again the only thing I own that's to do with harry potter is the faint glimmer of hope that in future books we will see some PROPER harry/cho or if not harry/Hermione

Thank you now, on with the chappie.

2. Shame

Harry was snapped from his thoughts about Cho by a far more worrying one. What would she and Dumbledore say when they arrived. He was weak through near starvation (he was fed what he needed to survive nothing more), his countless bruises and cuts clearly visible on his face even if his clothes covered the ones on his body. His face was pale and drawn with bags round his eyes, his scare red and angry in protest from being opened and bleeding at least once every night. To put it simply he looked like death and the mere thought of looking like that when she arrived made feel even more ill than he was before.

At 7 o'clock he headed downstairs to make a start on breakfast in the hope that it might avoid beatings for today which only make him look worse when Cho arrived. He got the frying pan from the cupboard and set it on the stove with a bit of oil in it. Retrieving 7 eggs from the hen shaped basket that was on the worktop, he cracked and put them all in the pan at once heading to the fridge to get out the packet bacon and some sausages.

10 minutes later he had finished cooking putting all the food on one big plate in the middle of the kitchen table, wolfing down his own small portion and bolting back up the stairs after washing his dish. Upstairs he attempted to get a few hours more sleep so that he would look at least awake when Cho arrived.

He woke up at a quarter to twelve. Ten minutes later after drying and getting himself changed after a shower he resolved that he would not warn uncle Vernon, wary of the outburst and punishment such a revelation would almost definitely bring. He needn't have worried though because after getting himself a drink he took into the living room he found his uncle sat half reading his paper he stumbled on Dudley's new CD walkman he dropped the glass spilling the contents on Petunia's freshly shampooed carpet. " BOY!!! YOU WILL PAY DEARLY FOR THAT!!!." Vernon had his belt off in a flash and raised ready to strike Harry. Just as he brought the belt buckle down on Harry's jaw there was pop just behind Vernon and out of the corner of his eye his saw two figures. Fraction of a second later however Harry couldn't see who it was because he was on the floor blood seeping from the fresh wound on his jaw line and pooling on the carpet. He managed to flop himself onto his back so he could see what was going but what he saw made him feel sorry for uncle Vernon. Albus Dumbledore stood there, the familiar twinkle in his blue eyes gone the only time Harry had ever seen Dumbledore look like this was at the end of his fourth year, when he had stunned Barty Crouch Jnr. Cho ran over to him to see if he was alright, whilst Dumbledore advanced on uncle Vernon " Cho I want you to take Harry upstairs along with your trunk I will be up in a few minutes. Not wanting to disobey Dumbledore in his current frame of mind she helped Harry up onto his feet and they somewhat haphazardly made there way up to his bedroom.

Cho sat Harry down on the bed and pulled out her handkerchief and started to clean up the blood from his wounds many of which were old reopened ones, she worked in silence for ten minutes until she couldn't hold in her emotions and began to sob uncontrollably into her hands. As uncomfortable as Harry felt he did not hesitate in taking Cho into his arms, revelling in the scent of her hair and her warm body next to his, at the same time wincing at the pain in his ribs where his uncle Vernon had kicked him in the ribs the day before. At that moment Dumbledore stepped into the room and sat down on the corner of the bed while Cho made no move to get away from Harry's embrace.

"Harry how long has this been going on for?" Dumbledore asked with a particularly grave look in his eyes.

Harry sighed he didn't really have much choice in the matter. "It started as soon as we got in the car to come home from Kings Cross. On the platform Moody, Lupin and Tonks warned Uncle Vernon to treat me better this summer. But it seems that it seems that he was deemed temporarily deaf, towards that particular warnings at least. He seemed to think that my 'abnormality' could no longer be kept in check by starvation, verbal abuse and rather inhumane amount of chores to do. So he resorted to beating me everyday."

After finishing his tale he proceeded to look down in shame.

As Dumbledore spoke to Harry his voice began crack much to Harry's surprise "Why did you not tell anybody, why did you decide to bottle it up."

" For a fair few reasons actually. I wasn't here, I mean in my mind I wasn't hear, I was with snuffles. So the pain was blocked out for the most part. Another reason you will probably think is umm… well a bit stupid because I deserve the pain for all the things I have done to everyone else. I mean first their was my parents they died to save me *look how worthwhile that sacrifice proved to be*, then Cedric (at this point he tried to move away from Cho but her grip held fast) if I hadn't told him to take the cup he would be alive, and then Sirius. He looked down as two single tears rolled down his cheeks.

"Harry stop this now" Dumbledore said in the sternest voice he could muster given the current situation.

"I have spoken to your uncle and I believe that he will not dare harm you again" the familiar twinkle seemed to come back into his eyes.               

"However you have a choice in the matter Harry. Unfortunately you cannot stay at the burrow however you have two options and both you have to decide which one as you will be living together. The first option is quite simply stay here, as I assure you your uncle will not threaten you or abuse you in anyway, or and Harry I strongly believe that you will vote this option, you could stay at Godric's Hollow."

"But Godric's Hollow that's where my parents lived before they died. Isn't it ?"

"Yes Harry it has been renovated, and is now probably the second safest place in the wizarding world behind Hogwarts"

"You should also know that at either of these places you will not be directly supervised only checked in on. So what do you say?"

"Ghmphaecks hoggle" said Cho in a somewhat muffled voice as she still had her face in Harry's shirt.

"I am sorry Cho but could you repeat that please." Dumbledore said not hiding the amused tone in his voice.

"Godric's Hollow" she replied proceeding to bury her face back Harry's shirt.

"And you Harry?"

"Godric's Hollow"

"Well now that's decided I think you should stay here until tomorrow, which is when I will return to collect you. Make sure you both get plenty of sleep as tomorrow is going to be long day. 

However should you need to do magic between now and then there is a special spell that disguises your magical aura which, is what the ministry uses to check for illegal underage wizardry. The incantation is 'Verisium Destisio' " 

Then with a pop he was gone