Dichotomy

Because I'm absolutely SICK of seeing people going on and on about how much they loathe Cho and how Harry/Ginny is the "one true ship" or whatever. Just a one-shot sort of thing. Cho and Ginny, years after Hogwarts, sit down together by a chance meeting and drunkenly rage about how they wasted their years on one bespectacled boy in an alcoholic-possessed feminist sort of way. It's sort of experimental in terms of my writing style, and because of that, beyond weird. Don't read if you're a stuck-up anal ass. Or do, if you want. It's all good fun to me! The title was discovered when I flipped open a dictionary and randomly put my finger on a word. Cool, huh?

di·chot·o·my (d -k t -m )

n. pl. di·chot·o·mies

Division into two usually contradictory parts or opinions: "the dichotomy of the one and the many" (Louis Auchincloss).

Ginny Weasley trudged through the slushy ice of the bitterly cold snowstorm. She valiantly fought her way through the freshly powdered London ice while muttering half-hearted curses that were inaudible to a passerby's ear. Normally, she embraced the falling snowflakes. They were pure and fragile and had an enchanting charm to them. But the amount of fluffy little flakes piling in her eyelashes was just RIDICULOUS.

Sodding snow, the petite woman thought to herself while lifting her head to glare at the little impudent things. Ironically, in just the tiny moment that she raised her head, the freefalling snow accelerated by just a bit, leaving her nostrils framed with icy slivers and her nose itself clogged with water.

"Gerrghhlack!" Ginny stumbled a bit here and there, frightening a nearby elderly woman with her wild voodoo stomping dance. She struggled to regain balance of her foothold and doubled over, wrinkling her snout impatiently.

"Oh, thith ith dutht GREAT." Ginny said aloud. Her voice had become oddly nasal-like from having her boogers all frozen up and chambered inside. She stood up straight and looked up to see the sign that would proclaim what street she was on. Immediately upon looking, her shoulders sagged. She was still five blocks away from her flat.

Ginny turned her head a bit to see what building she was standing next to – a bar. 'Queen Pub', it read at the sign in big green simplified calligraphy font. It called out to her, radiating warmth and light, and not just in the literal sense. She was beginning to sorely regret rejecting her co-worker's offer to carpool the lot of them home before the storm hit hard. Just because she was all excited about getting a message from Jared, her boss, about "something" he had to talk to her about at the end of the day, as he had put it on her machine. She thought for sure it would be about a raise, or a promotion, or even…

"Haaalleluuuujaaahh…"

The crooning voice of some struggling acoustic guitar artist reached the 20-something year old's ears as she pushed the door open. Instantly, she was greeted by a lovely wonderful thing called heat that was invented by our caveman ancestors a couple thousand years ago after a freak lightning incident. She sighed happily and had to restrain her feet from dancing in like a loon, and instead walked towards the counter, where a bartender stood behind cleaning his glass in a very languid professional manner.

Ginny calmly walked towards him and sat herself on a stool, looking about at her surroundings curiously She didn't often visit pubs in her spare time – Molly Weasley had made her swear not to, after all.

"I won't have my only daughter boozing it up like some cheap floozy at any ol' time!" Mother Weasley had bellowed one particular New Year's Day party, at the time when Ginny had just turned 16 a month earlier. She had taken in a good deal of alcohol, and her senses were blurred as she continued to slur out her unrestrained rant with reddened cheeks. "No, she'll be a good girl and go to the university where she'll study some business or the like, and join the Ministry with her father and meet a nice man there. Not like the twins and their cock-and-bull prankster franchise or Ronald, bless him, wanting to be a Quidditch player and getting injured half the time. No, no, no, Ginevra will stay away from the vile substance and study and work hard. Because Gin is a good girl, aren't you, love?" After which, Molly slumped over the table unconscious, and her father had to drag her upstairs to bed and wished them all good night.

"Are ye going to order something, miss?" The man addressed her in a thick Irish accent. Ginny started, and looked at him dumbly. "Err…um, yes. One …er, water?"

He arched an eyebrow, but merely shrugged, leaving and coming back with a glass that he sat down in front of her.

"Thank you." She said, not touching it and still looking around. He left her to her own devices to service some new customer that had just entered the room. Ginny saw the back of his shirt that was uncovered by the black apron – a cream-colored coffee-striped shirt. It very much resembled Jared's.

Jared Mollughan was nothing like the old, cranky bastard that Ginny had envisioned on her first day of work at the firm. Oh, yes, he could still very much be a bastard still sometimes, as was necessary at times when being a boss, but he was much younger, and even more anal than she could've imagined.

Still, though. He was very, very, very attractive, with a sort of rugged charm that was contained in his regular business suit-and-tie outfits. His brown hair was left stylishly untamed with the magic of hair styling products, and his eyes a marvelously bright light blue without the aid of any sort of modern technology miracle at all, and he was extraordinarily tall and long-legged. Not to mention, he was young. He had yet to have been entirely corrupted, and could still manage to have a fun time and be lively when he wanted to be. He was devastatingly charming, though. It was no wonder he had managed to become the head of a department in the short time that he had been living in his life, with his level of charisma and wit.

So it had been no wonder that Ginny fell for him. She had started out in the very beginning his secretary, but that had been a chance mistake, as she had originally applied for a more business-deep position. She was supposed to have her own little cubicle and everything, not a desk by a top-notch office. But in that one short week she worked for him, he charmed her, and somehow, she charmed him.

Not enough, of course. It took months and a big important office party (New Years, it was…what was it about that holiday that made her life a complete whirlwind?) for the pair of them to get drunk enough to snog and fondle eachother in the janitor's closet for a whole thirty minutes.

Ginny had felt ashamed afterwards, of course. This was precisely the sort of thing she had sworn to her parents that she wouldn't do after leaving the Burrow. At heart, she really was a simple country girl, and longed to live out in the freedom of rural, wild, untamed Britain again.

It seemed her mother had been right, as she always was. With the city always came sin and temptation. But what did Ginny care? She was young, she was spirited, and she thought her boss's buttocks were insanely cute, so she dove right into that pit of temptation.

They certainly weren't an ordinary couple. It was always a bad idea to date your boss, and so they were incognito to the rest of the word. It even was concealed from the Weasleys. Ginny knew more than well enough that a beau would be embraced into the clan by the offchance that one ever strayed into the Burrow arm-in-arm with their little girl. But it didn't help that Jared was a Muggle. He wouldn't be able to understand the whole wizard business, and she planned to keep it that way. So their relationship stayed under wraps. Ginny rather enjoyed it, sometimes. It was more exciting. They did less typical couple things and more regularly lunged at each other in the storage room and left disheveled and lust-filled after an hour.

But she was a simple country girl at heart, after all. All she wanted was to be a couple.

"Whatever the strongest wine you have, dove. And take your time, really." A woman had parked herself in the stool next to Ginny and drummed her fingers on the counter idly, glancing over her shoulder from time to time to glance through the fogged up window. She looked oddly familiar. Asian features graced her face, with the almond-shaped eyes, pale-tinged skin, and high, sculpted cheekbones. She was very thin, as Ginny could see even through the bulk of the large coat she was wearing, but seemed to have strength and energy in her bones. She glanced over at Ginny, glanced away, looked over her shoulder, glanced again. She was so full of impatient energy that it made Ginny want to tie her down to a chair just to make her sit still.

"Er, are you alright? You look a bit jumpy." Ginny inquired. Indeed, the woman jolted up and jumped a little bit in her seat, but looked over.

"Oh, yes, I'm fine. Dandy. Fantastic. I…I… I really need a drink. Bartender!" She outstretched a bony hand nearer to the opposite counter edge. The Irish man briskly nodded towards her while being occupied with another customer. "I'll be there in a minute, miss."

Ginny stared at her, mouth agape. She had finally recognized her – the moment that she had seen that hand outstretched, grabbing feebly at the air – she had seen that hand a thousand times before, especially all the time during family get-togethers when the twins turned on the telly to the games and England was on –

"You're the Seeker for the Tutshill Tornadoes. Y..you're Cho Chang!" Ginny said in a shocked, but still quiet, voice. She had not yet forgotten that they were in a Muggle bar in a Muggle part of London.

Cho stopped waving desperately at the bartender and stared, wide-eyed, at the redheaded woman.

"You know who I am? Funny, I thought everyone had stopped watching us play ages ago once we started our long-term losing streak with the Appleby Arrows!" She laughed heartily. Ginny shook her head.

"No, no, my brother Bill is a faithful fan, no matter if you win or lose. Ron goes mad about it though; he thinks the whole family should support only one team." Ginny paused when Cho glanced over her shoulder again to look at the window. "I say, what is going on out there? You look quite frightened."

"I do?" Cho voiced. "Do I, really?"

"Honestly, yes. You look scared beyond your wits."

"Oh, well…" Cho laughed again. "You can't really blame me. You see, my boyfriend's out there. Er, ex…boyfriend."

"Ahh." Ginny nodded wisely. She was acting wise, although she didn't really have that much relationship experience. Somehow, getting dumped just once, though, made you a romance guru.

"Do you need to talk about it? You're making it sound like he's a stalker or something."

Cho giggled uneasily at a high pitch. "Ah, well, if only it were that simple. You see, he's sort of madder than a cow right now at me because he caught me cheating on him in our bed with a woman. Oooh, thanks!" She snatched the glass that the man had just set down on the counter and chugged it down. Ginny gawked, amazed by both what she said and how fast she was drinking the stuff down.

"I…see." Ginny drained her glass of water in one swig. If Mummy Weasley would be mad at her for fooling around with her Muggle boss, then she could only imagine what it'd be like if Cho were ever her daughter.

"Oh, come on. You must've seen the rumors flying about in Witch Weekly." Cho chortled drunkenly. The alcohol seemed to reach her systems very quickly and easily. "After all, for every rumor there is a partial truth as the basis!"

"No, actually, I haven't. Whatever rumors there are about you are all about appearances of you and your boyfriend about town having a ball being together. You, and your Puddlemere United Chaser boyfriend, Andrew Mathe! A boy!" Ginny said dizzily. She didn't think water could make you woozy, but if it did, she needed something stronger. Cho seemed to notice. "Oh, sir! Could you get me a refill? And get this woman the same. It's on me."

When the man turned away, Cho spoke to her again. "It's a long story. Oh, okay, actually, it isn't, at all. I was bored one day – er, today – and drove about a bit, and went to perhaps the dykiest part in London unintentionally, and found myself being hit on by this woman, and I took her home."

"Why? How?" Ginny asked, curiosity overriding any politeness or manners. Cho seemed not to care, however, being very out of it.

"Don't worry, we didn't do anything. I was just curious as to what would happen, or what I would do. What kind of girl do you think I am?" Cho giggled, and resumed talking before Ginny could answer. "But anyway, Andy found me and Clarise lying in bed together, even though we were just talking, and it turns out he's a massive homophobic bigot and now he wants to burn me with a torch for my sins, so he's waiting outside. Funny story, huh?"

The two picked up their refilled glasses and simultaneously drank them. Cho set her down first and covered a hiccup with her mouth. "So, any boy problems of yours? I'm all ears. I'm all drunk, too, and with no ride home, but what do I care? Tell meeeee."

"Hah, nothing like you." Ginny said. "It's just that my Muggle boss Jared, who I've sort of secretly been sleeping with on and off for the past months, has to leave for Prague for a couple days to meet up with his fiancé."

"No!" Cho gasped and hiccupped at the same time.

"Yes. And I sort of had an outburst – a magical one, can you believe it, I haven't had one of those for years – but I was angry enough to make the chandelier fall down. It only missed him by a foot."

"Ooh, bad luck, mate."

"I know, really. But Jared was somehow clever enough to piece two and two together and started asking me odd questions, so I had to hit him with my wand."

"What?"

"Oh, I meant hit him with a Memory Charm. Then, I kicked him in the groin. Merlin, what's in this stuff?" Cho and Ginny both laughed hysterically. People were staring at this time, not only at the spectacle of two women choking up with laughter, but at their words, which were certainly loud enough by this time for outside ears to hear. But then again, they were drunk out of their minds, and nobody takes drunks seriously anyways.

"Why are you in a dumpy Muggle job position thingy anyways? You're probably more than qualified for a Ministry job of some sort."

"Oh, boo to that. My whole family's been tied to the Ministry from day one, always knee deep in all of the scandals and hush-hush rumors and everything – I wanted to estrange myself from all that and make a name for myself. Not quite working out though, as it happens, what with my low income and my horrible love life with ignorant-but-incredibly-attractive Muggle men."

"Oooh, dear. I don't think I've ever really had a normal relationship. I don't think it's possible for me!" Cho exclaimed while waving around her empty glass.

"I feel the same way. In fact, I haven't had ENOUGH relationships to judge reasonably, but I don't think I'll ever have enough to do so." Ginny moaned in a depressing manner while still chuckling appreciatively.

"Exactly." Cho sighed. "I've never really felt anything for the guys you see snogging me in the tabloids. I never have, except for one boy."

"Mmm. Harry Potter. I know, it's hard not to lust after him, innit?" Ginny said with actual wisdom.

Cho laughed. "Oh, not you too? I didn't think many girls did like him besides me! I mean, he's not actually a looker at all. Very short, scrawny, big owl glasses…"

"No, I like him for him. I knew him, actually, since back in school at Hogwarts. I'm his best friend's little sister."

Cho thought for a moment. "No! You're a Weasley? Ooh, I should've known. That red hair."

"You wouldn't have known two years ago, at my last year at Hogwarts." Ginny chuckled. "I dyed my hair pink."

"Oooh, but why? The red hair is not only infamous, but also quite lovely on you. Lovelier than it is on your twin brothers, anyway."

"Ugh; that was it. I was sick and tired of being associated as a Weasley and nothing more. I think I was going through some sort of rebellious teenage angst phase." Ginny ate the olive that had come with her drink, and then began to knaw on her toothpick.

Cho grinned. "Aye to that! I had my own a couple years ago as well, when Cedric…"

Her words trailed off and sort of stumbled a bit as she abruptly paused, looking a bit confused and estranged. It was probably due to her drunken state, but more so because of herself.

"Blimey, luv, I would've thought you'd have gotten over that by now," Ginny warbled and nearly stabbed her gum with the toothpick; normally Ginny wouldn't dare ever saying such a thing, as she was brought up to heed mannerisms, but due to HER drunken state, she now spoke freely without thinking. Cho laughed without taking offence, her senses incredibly dulled as she rang up for the bartender to bring them another round.

"You'da thunk, wouldn't you?" Cho said in a rhetorical way. "But no, no no no. I didn't. I guess I'm just sort of a wimp that way. It's why Harry dumped me. I was far too weepy for someone like him to juggle. His life was already emotional enough. I don't blame him," Cho dipped her head a bit shamefacedly.

"PAH!" Ginny yelled, making several heads raise, including Cho's. The asian girl stared at her companion with wide eyes as Ginny, red-faced and sluggish, inhaled deeply.

"This is exactly why men always act like we are the inferior sex!" Ginny slammed her glass down on the counter. "We let them push around like some sort of bloody rag doll! It isn't right, you know!

"If you just think about it, you know how much time Harry spent lusting after us?"

"Us?" Cho asked dumbly. Ginny turned redder, but paid no heed.

"Women in general, you know! And how much time WE ladies spent wooing him? Dressing up all pretty and staring at the mirror for an extra hour just to look right for HIM. And he would hardly notice it!"

"HIM. Yes, you're absolutely right." Cho shouted.

"And not just that," Ginny bellowed, "But he totally and completely took our affections for granted! He may be the Boy Who Lived, but just because you kill a total evil demonic asshole of doom doesn't mean you're exempt from manners, am I right or right?"

"RIGHT!" Cho yelled delightedly, and was surprisingly joined by two other women in the pub who were sitting together at a table.

"Oh, hello, dears." Ginny said curiously at the said women. One of them raised their hand a bit. "I was a Hufflepuff, a year or two younger than that git. I asked him to the Yule Ball, and he…he said no, without even missing a beat or anything!" She sobbed into her hands.

The other stood up a bit, but she needn't have, considering she was of a massive height. "I asked him too. He practically said no before I even finished asking the damn question!"

"Ooh, the slimeball!" breathed Cho, looking very roused and excited by the anger that Ginny had mustered together inside the room.

"I should thank him though," the tall one continued. "If it weren't for him, I would never have met my soul mate."

"Fancy that!" Ginny said, smiling. "So who was it?"

"Daphe, over here." The woman said fondly to the woman next to her, who, by this time, had finished her dramatic tearful sobbing. She sniffed and blushed prettily. "Ooh, Helga, you! Always showing me off like some sort of trophy."

"Oh…well…" Ginny and Cho both said. "Ahah. That's lovely."

After some more ranting and raging and general girl power gone mad, Ginny and Cho turned towards each other again, their glasses refilled.

"Here's to the years wasted away pining for the Jerk Who Unfortunately Lived." Cho said mock- seriously to Ginny's sniggering.

"Yeah, and also, to the years to come where we eventually meet the perfect man, who is tall, broad-shouldered, and has perfect 20/20 vision!" Ginny proclaimed.

"Hurrah!" They clinked glasses and solemnly gulped down their beverages. Cho glanced down at her watch and spit out some of the liquid.

"Oh, shit. It's been 3 hours!" Cho suddenly became as jittery as she had been when she first came in. She shoved some money onto the counter and hustled to get off the stool, nearly falling over. Ginny quickly jumped to her feet and helped Cho by letting her use Ginny's shoulder as a clutch.

"You've got very good reflexes, you know," Cho said sluggishly. "You'd be a top Chaser, I think."

Ginny shook her head. "That's mad. I can't throw to save my life."

"Didn't you play Seeker in school?" Cho tilted her heads upwards – she really was short – and grinned crookedly. "As I remember, you beat me once or twice as well. In your first year."

"Oh, well…" Ginny said sheepishly. "That was then. This is – OW!"

Cho had punched her in the shoulder. "That's for beating me in my time of turmoil and distress, you frigid cow!"

"If you weren't so obviously intoxicated, I would drop you to the ground." Ginny said murderously. "Now, you seemed to have had an urgency to go somewhere a couple minutes ago, ma'am."

"My dear girl," Cho cooed drunkenly, "our Keeper was recently taken by bronchitis, as you might know from the newspapers. You would be an ace substitute, I just know it."

"Thanks for the offer, but if I ever take any Quidditch position on a team you're on, it'll be a Beater, so I can knock the stuffing out of you and your bony knuckles."

"Mmmm 'kay. Oh God, he's going to KILL me for being late." Cho leaned her head against Ginny's shoulder, who, in spite of herself, felt her ears prick up. "Who?"

"My boyfriend, Caleb. He's such a grouch sometimes, especially with a drink or his damn Muggle baseball bat in his – what?" Cho asked plainly when Ginny stopped walking the pair of them towards the door.

"Caleb? How on earth does Andrew turn to Caleb?"

"What are you talking about, I have – oh. Heheh."

"Have you NO morals at all? And what do you mean, grouch with a baseball bat? God, how messed up are you? How do you wind up being an amazing Seeker on an awful team with not one, but TWO mad possibly abusive boyfriends who have ulcers because you go toying around with your sexuality by inviting a woman stranger to your home but not do anything except see what happens???"

"Ummm… does this mean we're not friends anymore?" Cho asked diminutively.

"Friends? This is…ugh! This is complete bosh. Where are your blazing priorities, Chang?! Merlin, you could make anyone near you go mad!"

Cho lowered herself to her knees and clutched at Ginny's wrist.

"That's exactly why, Ginny. No one else can stand me, except for my boyfriend…er, boyfriends. You've been such a sweetheart. Please don't think less of me, dear."

Ginny stared at the woman, who was knelt before her with pleading eyes. She was impossible. Absolutely, positively impossible. A complete loon who just happened to have a talent for Quidditch and a pretty face, which was probably the only reasons why she lived in a trendy two-floor flat with her crazy bigot boyfriend and not out in the streets. Did Cedric's death mess up her head or something? How could she be so irresponsible and spacey and daft?

And yet, Ginny found it hard to pull herself away from the weak grip on her wrist. It was destined that they would meet, one might say. Or, Ginny was just being kind and protecting Cho from herself. Or, they really did have the oddest, strangest connection with each other; the kind that made two completely different people become friends.

It was more like a combination of all three.

"You can stay at my flat for the night," Ginny sighed as she pulled Cho up to her feet.

"Yay!" Cho cheered, and then looked thoughtful for a moment. "Can I sleep in the same bed with you?"

"No! Keep your lesbian tendencies to yourself, you freakish sad sack." They strolled out of the pub together, occasionally stumbling and keeling backwards from alcoholic intoxication and giggling upon doing so. Ginny managed to stay focused enough to call a taxi, and they rode together on the plush leather exterior amidst the Christmas carols being crooned out from the radio.

"You can adopt me for my Christmas gift. I wouldn't mind." Cho mumbled sleepily.

"Shut up. We're here."

-----

- Jeff Buckley of the song "Hallelujah" on the timeless Grace album.