The Legacy of the Founders :: By: JoC a.k.a JkReviewer

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Chapter VI – Girls, friends and Girlfriends!

Neither of them knew how much time had passed since a single word was spoken – and they didn't care. The first kiss had seemed like an invitation to both of them. And they had accepted graciously. Harry tried several times to think a rational thought – what would Hermione and Ron say? What if they were caught? Would this mean more attention? – but within seconds his mind was wiped blank again, filled with nothing but happiness. Time seemed to stand still, but in reality several hours had probably passed before they finally parted.

Although out of breath Harry managed to mumble and point something about going back and Cho obviously understood it. She started getting her stuff, while Harry looked for anything to clean up like he usually did. He smiled at the fact that everything looked neat and clean. Other, more important things had been "discussed" he said to himself, noticing in the deflector-mirror just how messy his hair looked. He sighed loudly, making his way to where Cho was gathering her stuff. Harry crouched, helping her gather her stuff. It only took a minute or two to get it all back in the bag, but Harry was unknowingly working as slow as possible to postpone the moment when they would part.

They got up and walked, hand in hand, back to the great hall. Neither of them said a word, on the way down – but both seemed to have a lot on their minds. When they reached the entrance, Cho just kept walking toward what Harry assumed was the corridor towards the Ravenclaw house. Harry cleared his throat to indicate that he wasn't supposed to go that way, but Cho just kept on walking. Harry was about to object, when she finally stopped in front of a huge statue. Harry was no ornithologist but he was pretty sure it was a raven. "Cho… What…" he started, but she put a finger on his lips, to silence him. "Shhh…. We have to be quiet!" she whispered dragging him closer towards the statue. It was made out of some kind of deep black marble, and the eyes seemed to sparkle a shade of blue.

"Dux Ducis Corax" she murmured while placing her hand on the claw of the enormous statue. A soft blue glow appeared around the statue as it slowly began to fade to transparent. Harry's mouth dropped at the incredible guardian of the house of the clever. "Come on…" Cho said eagerly, dragging Harry through the statue and into the Ravenclaw common room.

They continued down a pair of stairs and were now standing in the very centre of the room. It seemed to be divided into three levels: The bottom level was obviously the study level, every wall around him was hidden behind huge bookshelves. A pair of big wooden tables was situated before a fireplace very similar to that in the Griffindor common room and various magical gadgets occupied a small stone table near the wall.

The middle level was more of a relaxing level, Harry thought, but it amused him a lot to see that it was smaller in size than the study level, how Ravenclaw. Big blue armchairs were placed around a few low tables, each with a neat looking marble stone chess set on it.

The top level was not really a level, but more of an entrance "platform" to what Harry supposed was the dorms. Between the doors was a neatly woven picture of a beautiful woman, with dark hair and a black bird on her shoulder.

"That's Rowena Ravenclaw! My House's founder…" Cho said, noticing where Harry was looking. "She was the smartest of the four, very polite and hard working." She continued. Harry turned, and noticed a slight frown on her face. "Named the house after her pet bird. Makes you wonder doesn't it?" She said, substituting the wondering face for a smile. "I mean if the was the smartest one, how come she called her raven… well raven?" she chuckled. It was obviously some kind of Ravenclaw joke. Harry didn't join in the laughing. He was much to occupied looking at Cho. He had always thought she was pretty, but when she smiled and laughed like now… Harry sighed, his mind once again wondering of to happy land. A quick kiss on the lips brought him back faster than a Firebolt in steep dive. Cho was in front of him - smiling.

"Lucky everyone has gone too bed…" she said. "You have no idea how fast gossip travels in here!" She gestured at the common room, and especially the door the girl's dorm. Harry smiled; he knew exactly how fast gossip could travel. Last year, and the year before when Rita Skeeter made him his personal enemy, the rumours seemed to be there before even the story itself. She took him by the hand again and dragged him over to one of the study tables. He still wondered why he was here, but decided to let Cho finish her tour before asking. She waved her wand at the cosy armchairs and levitated them down too the fireplace, motioning for him to sit down. He did, and so did she although for the first time since their first kiss – she seemed nervous.

"Better make sure no one walks in on us!" she said to no one in particular, raising her wand again. "Silencio" she said, oddly enough pointing at the floor between them. Too Harry this seemed a bit strange casting it on the floor, and how was that going to shield them from the eyes of others?

"There…" she said as if to make it final, but noticing Harry's raised eyebrow and doubting face she continued. "Ohh… I forgot you didn't know about how this room works." She cleared her throat, as if getting ready for a pre-made speech. "You know of course that we Ravenclaw's like too study and read. And sometimes, especially with boys around…" she said, screwing her face up, obviously remembering various incidents involving annoying boys. "…you need to have a place where you can sit undisturbed. Various spells offer this of course like the Secret room spell, but since 1st and 2nd year students aren't skilled enough to do these we – or rather they, the first Ravenclaw students – used some kind of charm that makes you oblivious to anyone if you want to be." She said while eyeing him as if too say: So no thinking about getting caught!

"Remember if people hear you they can see you, that's why I cast the area Silencio spell before!" She seemed very pleased with herself, and Harry could only smile at this invention. That sure would have come in handy in the past, when Colin Creevey followed him around. "But it only lasts for three hours, even so that should give us enough time!"

Enough time for what? Harry wondered, getting more and more confused about Cho's motives for bringing him here. He decided to ask her, seeing her expression that she obviously wanted him to begin the conversation.  "Uhh… Cho? I still don't know why you brought me here…" Harry began, hoping he hadn't missed an important clue about why she had shown him all this. At first she looked at him, if she was joking but then her expression changed from observing to serious. "I just thought…" she started, going back to being nervous. "…that you, you know, wanted to talk – get it all out of the way?!"

She looked up giving him a hopeful look. "Ehh… sure you begin!" Harry replied, hoping that she would have something to start the conversation. He still wasn't sure what he should say. Get what out of the way… Conversations that started like this usually didn't go well. But, he was determined to let nothing destroy the happy feeling that had taken permanent (he hoped) residence in his mind.

"Ok…" she sighed. "Harry, what is the deal between you and Hermione?" she said, giving him a look of somewhat hidden jealousy. Harry breathed a sigh of relief, those kind of questions. Well he had a few of them himself. "I mean, you're always spending time with her, and it looks to me like she's interested in you!" Cho had obviously wanted to ask this for a long time.

"Cho… I assure you we are only friends!" Harry began. Cho didn't look at all assured. "Besides, I think she and Ron are dating now, they're acting so weird all the time…" Harry had said the key words. Cho's face lid up like a glorious Christmas tree, and she smiled happily again.

"Really?" she said, although she already seemed convinced. Harry nodded and Cho too let out a sigh of relief. "Ok your turn…" she said resuming her nervous face. Harry sat for a moment wondering if it was even appropriate to ask this, but then again she had asked him a similar question.

"What about you and that… Michael Conner?" He said as casual as possible. Surprisingly Cho started to laugh nervously, looking somewhat embarrassed. "Well, you see – it's kind of embarrassing." She smiled and shook her head. "Ahh well, here goes. It doesn't matter now anyway. I actually only dated him for two days, because I wanted to get you jealous!" she paused, giving Harry an unreadable glare. "Obviously it didn't work – I even made sure your friends knew so they could tell you…" Her face suddenly went sad. "You - you actually didn't seem to care!"

"I thought I had lost all chance with you…" her voice trailed of. Her eyes seem to water up, but she didn't take her eyes of Harry for even a second. She began sobbing quietly. Harry felt completely lost. He was all too new to this, what did you do in a situation like that. Cho turned her gaze away from Harry and to the ground. A part of him felt guilty, but at the time only Sirius was in his mind.

Somehow he felt that there was only one thing to do. He slowly rose, walked the step to her chair and hugged her. It wasn't a regular hug, like a hello hug from a friend or a parent but a hug that only the person who cared most for her could give. "Cho…" he whispered. "Even if I at that time had convinced my mind not to care…"he paused as she looked at him again, small tears rolling silently down her cheeks. "…my heart would never listen! I love you Cho! I always will…"

He closed the distance between their lips, and once again Harry was shocked by the effect. If the other kiss had been passionate, this was more a caring and loving one. At first Cho seemed to stiffen, shocked by Harry's "response", but the warm touch of their lips soon melted away whatever backbone any of them had. It was slow and tender, a hidden warmth seemed to pass between them. If it hadn't been such a cliché Harry would have only one word for it: magical!

Without either of them really noticing, they soon found them selves in one of the blue couches, snogging like there were no tomorrow. It took quite a hoot from a very big owl, flying in overhead to break of the kiss. The owl seemed pleased with itself Harry thought, for breaking them up – but soon after it left again through a hole in the ceiling.

"Secret way to the owlery!" Cho explained noticing Harry's confused face. She kissed him again, only this time briefly. Harry smiled at her as she sat back, making sure her hair didn't get caught between her and the couch. She returned it warmly and all Harry could think at the moment was: I don't deserve this… Why am I so lucky? He knew he sounded like a fool, even to him, but he didn't care.

Cho took his hand and looked him strait in the eyes. "There are so many things I don't know about you Harry!" she said, almost whispered. Harry shook his head slightly. What was there to say? All his life had been death and sorrow! Surely she didn't want to see him all dark and sad. "I… What do you want to know?" he said.

She turned a bit gloomy. "Well, everything!" she said, giving him eyes of sympathy. "I want to know it all Harry… Even the things you don't think I should hear." She paused for a second, wondering if what she was too say next might push him away.

"I – I realise that you might not want to share this with anybody, but I really hope that I was the person you would…" she trailed of. A big lump in his throat prevented Harry from speaking. "Please Harry…" she almost begged, "Tell me everything!"

Harry sighed, knowing that there was no way around this. Part of him had always wanted to tell people about how he felt, but it was so easier locking everything away. But how much could he tell Cho? Why not everything? A small voice in his head said. You love her don't you? She deserves to know it all! A smile slowly made it's way to his lips. "Well, it all started some 25 years ago…"

Harry talked for several hours. He told her everything. From the Marauders and his parents to Ron & Hermione and the Dursleys. Sometimes Cho would give of a scared sound, a giggle at the embarrassing parts or a weak comforting smile, to let him know how she sympathised with him. Harry felt like she was reading him like an open book, but he didn't mind. The better she knew him he thought, the better she could be there for him if he needed it.

When Harry was finally through with the story an odd silence followed. Harry had told her about his entire life, all the things that he had done with his friends, all the times he had been nervous or happy, about the marauders map, how his first day was, everything he felt she should know. Everything, except Sirius (and the Invisibly cloak, which Harry for some reason didn't feel the need to inform her about just yet!)

Cho felt that Harry still had some things hidden, but she didn't bug him about it, and to break the silence she started her own story. If Harry had ever thought Cho was a spoiled little rich girl, he was very wrong. Her Childhood seemed to have been almost as controlled as his. Her mother (who was Chinese), had brought her up, or rather, tried to bring her up based on ancient traditions. And although her parents were wizard and witch and had been it for generations, she wasn't allowed to fly a broom or attend a quidditch match before she was ten years old.

"That just made me want it even more…" she said, retelling the story about how she had "borrowed" the neighbours broom to fly around Diagon Alley. Her parents owned a Herbal Remedies shop there, and Cho had been tutored in magical herbs since before she could even read. She had a sister, who was a squib – but Cho didn't seem all to keen on talking about that, so she quickly continued her life story.

With every story Harry heard he got more and more afraid of Cho's parents, and although the mother sounded a lot like Aunt Petunia he wasn't sure if he ever wanted to meet the father either. "I remember that I brought a friend of mine, a boy, home from elementary school once." She laughed at the memory as if it was funny. "My dad interrogated him for a full hour what his intentions with me was… No one is good enough for 'his little girl'!" She said, making a face.

They continued to talk for some time, until sleep finally overtook both of them. Harry hadn't even thought about how it would look the next morning, but he was about to find out.

"Ahhh…" a girl screamed. She didn't sound frightened, more delighted. But Harry didn't really give this much thought. He woke with a snap and so did Cho! "Shit!" she practically yelled, putting the nice girl away for a second, as she realised that both she and Harry wasn't wearing all their clothes. This could easily be misunderstood.

"Carrie come over here look!" the girl from before yelled at the staircase leading up to the girl dorm. Cho gave Harry a frightened look. "I – We…" she paused gasping for breath. "Harry get out, hurry, run – I'll meet you later!" she whispered quickly giving him a final kiss before pushing him towards the door.

Harry ran like never before, bouncing of walls as he ran. He dodged several frightened students on their way down to breakfast. If he was lucky the girl in the Ravenclaw common room hadn't recognized him. He really didn't wanted this being the main headline all over school, and he had a feeling Cho was feeling the same way.

Luckily he didn't meet anyone he knew before reaching the Griffindor common room, where he bumped right into Ginny who was about to go to breakfast. The tumbled over and Harry despite his heavy running, managed to hide a pant when saying sorry and pulling her to her feet. "It's ok…. But where were you last night? Ron and Hermione looked for you!" His heart skipped a beat, what could he do now? "

"Ehh… I was just… thinking!" he said, mentally kicking himself for using the stupidest excuse ever. But to his surprise she just nodded gloomy, instead of further interrogation. "About Sirius?" she said at a voice just above a whisper. She smiled encouraging at him. "Yeah!" Harry sighed, home free! The truth was that he hadn't really thought about Sirius, for the last 24 hours, very unusual indeed. He didn't exactly smile at this thought but for once it didn't put him down. She turned around and walked out the hole.

He had almost three seconds of mind gathering, before the once peaceful silence of the common room was ripped in shreds by a loud yell, followed by big book sailing through the air hitting Harry (again) right in his left temple. Only one person had the book throwing skills to pull that one of from afar, and as predicted, it was not long before Hermione stepped up, towering over the now covering Harry on the ground. "Where have you been?" she yelled, in a very good Molly Weasley impression that would have made him laugh, if it wasn't for the seriousness shown on Hermione's face.

Harry didn't even have time to answer before Ron showed up, equally mad. He refrained from throwing around books, but his stare could not be mistaken. "I was just… thinking!" he said trying to bluff once again, already knowing it wouldn't work. He smiled stupidly, being received with nothing but frowns. "You could at least have told us were you went…" Ron started. "… I mean, we're your best friends, and I know you had a lot of trouble on your mind, but still…" he paused, letting Harry swallow the words. Suddenly, Ron's face seemed to change from worried to a slightly more happy dreamy face.

"We waited up for you… Me and Hermione!" he said, confirming Harry's suspicions. The way he said the last words, made it sound like something carved in a tree. Ron sighed and his eyes went strangely blank. Harry decided to try another bluff; he really didn't want to tell them right now! Later…

"Oh…" he said with a knowing smile. "You and Hermione!"

Ron snapped back to reality faster than a hexed Golden Snitch being chased by two Seekers. He started mumbling stuff, stuttering an awful lot. "Eh- you know, not me AND Hermione…" he gave her a pleading look, which she completely ignored. She shook her head violently.

"Uhhh! Boys!" she yelled, throwing her hands up, before storming out of the room towards the great hall. Ron stared after her in disbelief. He looked to Harry, actually looking a bit scared. "It's…" Ron started, but Harry cut him of. "It's ok Ron, you guys can tell me when you are ready!" He smiled, happy to know that he had successfully turned the conversation away from him.

Ron helped Harry to his feet, and they started discussing the upcoming Gemini vs. Orion quidditch game like the past five minutes hadn't even happened. Soon everything seemed like they always did, Ron and him discussing their sport, the boring homework, being late for breakfast. Harry was surprised to hear how much research Ron had put into knowing everything about all the teams, and he gave Harry a few pointers about his upcoming game: "Don't worry about catching the snitch, their Seeker is rubbish compared to you! So use this match to get some points on the scoreboard before you get it, ok?" he seemed to be wondering about his own genius for a second. "Unless of course their Chaser are creaming you, than you better end it fast – you know like Krum…"

He hadn't even finished the sentence, but somehow the thought of Victor Krum seemed to fill Ron with a strange sort of anger. Harry knew exactly why, but tried really hard to keep a smile from his lips. Soon after they entered the great hall, finding two empty seats opposite Hermione.

Harry was surprised to see that she didn't look angry, anymore – actually she looked kind of sad, and she kept looking at Harry like he was deadly ill. She kept trying to say something, but stopped herself repeatedly. Finally Ron, who had also noted this odd behaviour, could take it anymore.

"Stopping acting like a choking fish an' tell us Hermione!" he said. Although she seemed a bit taken back by that comment, she did straiten up and clear her throat.

"Well… It's just – I heard some people are talking." She frowned. "Well, a lot of people talking… Mostly the Ravenclaw's!" she said, biting her lip. Ron seemed to have lost all interest after the word Ravenclaw had been uttered, but he still made hand motions urging her to continue.

"Well…" she gave Harry the sad face again, as if expecting him too cry any minute. "They were saying that a girl in their common room, had slept with some boy and two eye witnesses saw them this morning!"

Ron's attention was back, looking more eager than Harry. Even though he knew the "story" he was really waiting to hear if they knew the identities of these person.

"Oh… Harry, I sorry!" Hermione continued. "They said that the girl was Cho…" she said, expecting him too go all angry and mad. But he didn't. Instead he tried as hard as he could not smile. Hermione say his rather emotionless face as a sign of sadness.

"They don't know who the boy is, he fled the common room when they found out!" she said, still giving Harry mixed confusing and sad looks. Harry smiled inwardly – slept together… Well I supposed you could call it that!

He shook his head, fighting back the smile as he saw Cho giving him a wink, blushing slightly. She had obviously heard the story too by now. Although people would probably annoy her to no end for the next week or two, they would be in this together. If she wanted to he would even come forward, saying that it was him. But somehow this "secret lover" thing really appealed to him…

He started laughing, earning dubious glares from his two best friends.

"Ohh… Hermione, you should believe in such nonsense rumours!"

* * * * * *

Damn School takes too much time this year – plus I have used some time finding out how the story is gonna develop, so that's why it took me a week to update! Sorry 'bout that… Hope you enjoy!

I know, I know – "Where is the action? Why are they kissing all the time?" All I can say is don't worry, I know this chapter is a bit "fluffy" but action will come soon enough, remember the romance tag on the genre description eh?

Disclaimer: I own everything! Besides the stuff that you guys own – oh and I don't own that guy with the glasses and the wand either. I'm not a slave trader you know!

Anyway, as always:  I don't own any thing related to the Potter-universe that you can recognize!

Any criticism or comment you might have, about the story, the grammar, my weird sense of humour – I would be happy to hear it!

Respond to reviewers:

Indigal – as always thank you very much for reviewing, and thanks for the comment on the last part! Hope you like this one too…

Hippyman69 – my favourite crazy reviewer. Thank you as well for reviewing!

I Love Cho – Hehe, hope she isn't angry with me for that! Hope you like this chapter as well – really like you nickname! :)

Devotion408 – Thanks a lot! I have already read most of yours (so sad when she sacrificed herself so save him – you know what I mean), and I will review sometime. Hope you come back to read this chapter too…¨

Victoria Y – On behalf of my species (males) I must agree with you. Bear with me if some later scenes might be a bit "of"… hehe That comment about my English skills really hit home, boosted my confidence earning me a strait A in my test! Thx… ohh and thanks for reviewing.

TigerCat – My personal muse (or something hehe) Thanks for the comment about my skills, I'm blushing totally red over here! :) Hope you like this chapter, but if your craving action don't worry it will come…

Slate07 – That might be a bit difficult, considering that im in school seven hours each day, and I also have work. I am a busy man / boy…

Please review – I like questions and ideas, cuz that way you guys might influence the direction of the story!

Oh and please read "July" by Robin4 it's really… beautiful, and it deserves your attention!