Yup! This is chapter 23! Geez my fic has waaaaaaaaay too many chapters! Sorry to everyone who is so very bored by my infinite chapters! I dunno how many there are gonna be probably round about 30. Anyway I'll shut up now and thank my wonderful reviewers. :)
Princess Plankton: Ok ,ok you reviewed first, you have earned your place at the top of my thankyou list. In fact you had another hour and 27 minutes before the next person reviewed, haha! Anyway I had to say something since your review didn't really have anything in it to reply to, oh well it's still a review to add to my wonderful collection!
JkReviewer: Yup! You have definitely eared your review cookies! I'm glad you thought I introduced Kieran well, after all first impressions are important, lol. You have interesting ideas, but I'm not telling you if he's there to take Cho away from Harry, or what, haha! You're kinda mean, Ron's Harry's best friend! And you're not getting an explanation! Mwahahaha! My closely guarded plot secrets will not be revealed! Yes I did write a chapter with fights, but not with the claws and bites, lol.
DramaAnna4life: hmmm? Sorry can't tell ya anything about Kieran! He's a closely guarded plot secret, well only two people know. Oh well glad you like my fic and I hope you keep reviewing. Enjoy this chapter!
Indigal: Yeh…….I guess it's kinda weird, he just turns up. Oh well, He will play a very important part in this fic. He will be VERY important, but I'm not saying why. Sorry Cho wasn't in this much, you have JkReviewer to thank for giving her a much more important bit in the next few chapters (not including this one) Oh well, thanks for the review and glad to hear you're opinions and thoughts.
Miss-Aurelia: I think I figured that I cannot follow your logic, it's totally unlogical, lol. That makes no sense! I'm glad you think Kieran's cool, that's how I wanted him, was that sentence about Kieran being Harry's new best mate in that chapter, I can't remember, oh well. Don't worry you weren't bothering me, the longer the review the better! I love reading them! I'm glad to hear what you thought of my chapters and that sentence in particular.
Pippi: Glad you liked the chapter, what do you mean by inky? Hmm, oh well, I, strangely don't feel bad for Hermione, I guess I'm just evil, hee, hee. Anyway, thanks for reviewing, any questions will be answered before the end of the fic! Enjoy chapter 23.
Kemenran: Ok ,what can I say. Hope I updated quick enough, and enjoy this chapter!
Castercraft: I'm glad you like my fic so much! It's always great to have praise like that. I hope I didn't keep you waiting with my next chapter.
Tylah: Nice to have you back! It must have taken you ages to read all those chapters! I'm glad you're still liking my fic *gives you cookies* I nearly cried when I wrote the bit about Ron getting expelled too. *sniff, sniff* but don't worry, it'll all be happy in the end! Anyway, thanks for reviewing and thanks for all your praise. *more cookies*
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Harry wandered along the corridors that night in his usual state of deep thought. He was glad he'd talked to Cho about what he'd said to her the night he'd poured out all his memories.
That was one of the things Harry loved so much about Cho. You talk to her about anything and she'd always be sympathetic and never make you feel under pressure. Harry had found it surprisingly easily to talk to her about Voldemort. He'd kept calm even inside his body felt calm. The only thing he hadn't told her about was the order. Harry knew he couldn't, not yet anyway. Which was a major downside because he couldn't tell her about all the work they were doing against Voldemort and the death eaters. That's why he wash headed to Professor Dumbledore's office now.
Harry knocked on the door of Dumbledore's office still in deep thought but jerked out of it when he heard Dumbledore's voice from inside.
"Enter" he said, so Harry pushed the large oak door aside and stepped into the familiar office. Professor Dumbledore sat in his usual seat behind his desk organising paper work. Harry sat opposite him waiting for Dumbledore to look up at him. After several moments Harry cleared him throat and Dumbledore finally looked up. "Hello Harry." He said in his usual formal but slightly cheery tone of voice.
"Um……..Hi Professor." Harry replied.
"Normally I see you here with Miss Chang," Dumbledore said, Harry knew it was a kind of question, and he was glad he had the perfect opportunity to bring up the subject he had come here to discuss.
"er……yeh. She's sort of the reason why I'm here." Harry replied.
"Ok then, what is it Harry, what's on your mind."
"Well I was talking to her just before, about Voldemort and stuff, and I realised she doesn't know about the order." Harry said, he lowered his voice as he said 'order' as if someone was around to hear.
"No, she doesn't." Dumbledore replied.
"Well I was wondering if I could tell her, just so she knew what they were doing against Voldemort and stuff, cos I told her everything else." Harry watched Professor Dumbledore to see his reaction. He considered it for a moment or too, then broke into a slight smile.
"That's a very good idea Harry, yes of course you can tell Miss Chang, in fact she's old enough to join, but I don't know if that's wise so soon after she learns about it." Dumbledore said, Harry smiled too.
"Thankyou Professor, there's just one more thing, if Cho can join the order, why can't I? I mean I've faced Voldemort and stuff, could I join too?" Harry braced himself for another lecture about being too young to join, it's only for wizards who are of age. But it never came.
"I know exactly what you mean, I think you are perfectly capable of joining the order and I will make sure to do everything I can to get you into the order." Professor Dumbledore replied brightly.
"Thankyou very much Professor." Harry said gratefully and left Professor Dumbledore's office in a very good mood.
He returned to the common room that evening with a nice feeling in his stomach and for a change it was punctured instantly. In fact he went up to his dormitory where Kieran was lying on his bed reading.
"Hi Kieran," Harry said collapsing on his own bed.
"Oh hey Harry, what took you so long." He had a mischievous look in his eye which made Harry laugh.
"I was just talking to Cho, lost track of time." He said partly truthfully, he wasn't about to tell Kieran he'd been to see Dumbledore about the Order of the Phoenix. Kieran just smiled and changed the subject.
"Did you say your Quidditch practice is tomorrow?" Kieran asked. The topic immediately changed to Quidditch and the two whiled away the last few hours of the evening talking about their favourite sport.
Cho's POV:(Geeze it's been a while since I wrote one of these)
Cho lay in her dormitory talking to her friends about the up-coming Hogsmede visit, but her mind was else where. She was still chewing over her latest conversation with Harry. Well not really over the conversation, more just over Harry in general. She'd had a lot of boyfriends since she'd been at Hogwarts but she'd never had one like Harry.
Obviously Harry was a lot different from anyone in the world. He'd battled Voldemort 5 times, he'd been through a lot more than anyone Cho could think of. But these weren't the only reasons.
Harry was someone Cho admired. Someone she respected, not just because he'd been through all that stuff, but because he'd held himself together. He kept his life together even at the worst points in his life. She'd never seen Harry cry or break down into tears like she had over Cedric or her family, and that's why she looked up to him.
"Cho?" Samiha waved a hand in front of Cho's face making her snap back to reality.
"Um….what?" she asked shaking her head, trying to clear her thoughts. Serena shook her head at Cho and smiled.
"You're thinking about him again," Samiha said accusingly.
"Who?" Cho said innocently. All three girls laughed.
"So are you going to Hogsmede with him?" Serena asked.
"I dunno, he hasn't asked me yet." Cho replied. In all honesty, she'd forgotten about it, so she had no idea how Harry would remember. "Who are you going with?" Cho asked knowing she would be allowed to drift back into her musings about Harry once she'd got Samiha started on her latest boyfriend.
Cho wondered if she should ask Harry to Hogsmede, she didn't blame him for not asking her, or forgetting or whatever, but she still really wanted to go with him, it would be like their first proper date. By the time she was lying in bed, she'd made up her mind to send him an owl or ask him next time she saw him. and she fell asleep thinking of him, like she had fro so many nights since the Hogwarts Christmas ball.
Harry's POV:
The next morning and was woken by the sunlight streaming through his dormitory window. He got up and dressed quickly and went down into the common room where Kieran was sitting waiting for him.
"Have you seen the notice about Hogsmede trip?" Kieran asked after Harry greeted him.
"No." Kieran nodded over to the notice board and Harry went over. He returned holding his head in his hands. "Dam I'm so stupid." He said cursing himself. Kieran gave him an inquiring look.
"What's up?"
"Oh it's Cho, she'll be expecting me to ask her to go to Hogsmede, now she's gonna think I don't want to go with her." Harry said mentally slapping himself.
"Well there's still time, why don't you talk to her at breakfast?" Kieran asked. Harry smiled.
"Yeh I will." So they went down to breakfast and Harry watched Cho waiting for her to get up from her table (hopefully alone) so he could talk to her. Luckily just as he was finishing the last of his toast she stood up all turned to leave. Harry jumped up saying he'd meet Kieran in class. He almost ran to catch up to her along the corridors.
"Cho!" he called after her. She turned around quickly and broke into a grin as he caught up.
"Hi Harry." She said happily.
"Hey Cho, I was just wondering if you wanted to go to Hogsmede with me this weekend?" Harry asked, feeling nervous in case for some reason she said no.
"Of course Harry, I'll see you then." She said giving him a quick hug.
"k, thanks, I kinda need to talk to you anyway." Harry replied returning the hug and waving goodbye. He wandered to his first lesson with a nice happy feeling in his stomach not even puncture when he took his seat beside Hermione who still looked extremely upset.
Harry's day was pretty much the same as the previous talking, laughing and joking with Kieran all day looking, forward to his date with Cho, the only thing that was nagging at him was the memory of the other date they'd had in Hogsmede last year.
But he pushed that out of his mind as he entered the great hall for dinner that evening. Angelina Johnson came over to Harry not long after he'd started to dig into his shepherds pie.
"Harry don't forget practice in an hour, our next game is Slytherin and we have to beat them if we want to win the cup this year." Harry nodded.
"Um…..Angelina is it ok if Kieran comes to watch, he's really good and I was wondering if you could give him a trial?" Harry asked indicating Kieran who was sitting next to him. Angelina glanced at him briefly.
"Yeh ok, bring your broom and I'll give you a shot after the training session." Kieran grinned broadly as Angelina disappeared down the Gryffindor table. Harry gave him a smile, and they both continued to eat.
At seven thirty Harry and Kieran went down to the pitch, Harry showed Kieran where he could sit and watch, before turning to the rest of the team ready for a gruelling session. After Angelina revised some of their new moves they got into teams of five (two chasers, one beater, a seeker and a keeper per side) and played against each other.
Angelina warned Harry every training session to go easy on the reserve seeker and he tried, but he could never resist showing off sometimes, especially today when Kieran was watching from below. Harry's team won easily when Harry caught the snitch after barely five minutes. They played three games and in the last Harry just let the 4th year reserve catch the snitch for good measure.
By nine o'clock Angelina let everyone get changed and go back up to the castle and Harry flew down to see Kieran, he looked slightly nervous but Harry gave him an encouraging smile and he mounted his broom and kicked off with Harry and Angelina.
"So Kieran. Where'd do you normally play?" Angelina asked picking up the Quaffle.
"Chaser." Kieran said.
"Ok, I'll be the keeper and you and Harry can be the chasers. Pass the Quaffle and try to get it past me." Angelina instructed. "And Harry don't make it too easy for him." Angelina said winking at him. Harry started off with easy passes gradually making them harder for Kieran to catch and pass back, but Kieran drop it a single time and out of his ten shots he scored eight. Harry was very impressed and he could tell Angelina was too.
They moved on to Bludgers and Angelina played as a beater on the other team. Kieran managed to dodge all her Bludgers, hold on to the Quaffle and score at least five times. Harry felt hopeful that Kieran would get a chance on the team.
By nine thirty it was too dark to practice and all they flew to ground to hear Angelina's verdict.
"Well I'm impressed, come to the weekend practice, see what the rest of the team think of you. If you're lucky I'll let you play against Slytherin." Kieran and Harry smiled broadly.
"Thanks a lot…….um……coach." Kieran said, not really sure of what to call Angelina. She laughed.
"Call me Angelina, everyone does, right Harry?" Harry nodded still smiling. They helped Angelina lock away the balls and went back up to the castle talking happily.
"I told you you'd easily get a place on the team." Harry said.
"Yeh, I never thought she'd really let me, since you've already got a team an all." Kieran replied looking flushed with happiness at being accepted.
"You were great, how could she not let you play?!" Harry said enthusiastically. It was true, Kieran had a lot of talent and definitely had a chance to play a few games in one of the other chasers place. (Though he had good competition in Katie Bell and Alicia Spinnet.) Both boys were in high spirits when they returned to the common room, but it didn't last long.
They were half way up the stone staircase to their dormitory when Harry heard someone call his name.
"Harry wait!" Harry spun around knowing exactly who it was and feeling his insides fill with anger. Hermione climbed the stairs to his level and looked at him with pleading eyes. "Please Harry, I just want to talk." She said biting her lip.
"Well tough, cos I've got nothing to say to you." Harry spat.
"Harry I'm really sorry, and I know you're mad at me but please just listen." Hermione begged.
"There's nothing you can say that's going to change my mind." Harry said, his voice was cold and harsh.
"Please Harry, we've been friends for years and I don't want to loose you now." Hermione had tears in her eyes.
"Ron was my best friend too, and because of you, it'll never be the same." Harry felt sadness creep upon him once again thinking about Ron, but it only made him feel more hatred towards Hermione.
"I know, he was my friend too, you don't think I feel as bad as you, but there's nothing I can do anymore." Hermione said, Harry heard slight anger creep into her own voice.
"If you hadn't opened your mouth in the first place and gone to bloody McGonagall Ron would still be here, if you cared about him so much, why did you get him freaking expelled!" Harry was loosing his temper and he knew it, but he didn't care. Hermione deserved every word.
"I couldn't watch you get hurt, I didn't know what was going to happen, I've said it so many times, I'm sorry."
"It's a bit late now Hermione, Ron's gone and it's your fault, and if it was me, couldn't live with the fact I'd got my best friend expelled on my conscience." Harry whipped around, bolted the last few steps, ran into his dormitory and slammed the door vigorously behind him.
It was half an hour before Kieran came in to find Harry lying on his bead staring at the ceiling. Harry looked in Kieran's direction when he entered and sat up.
"Sorry about before, I guess I just lost my temper with her." Harry said, knowing how uncomfortable it must be for Kieran to watch that.
"It's ok, I don't really understand, but I know Ron was……is your best friend and it must be hard for you." Kieran said. Harry smiled.
"Yeh thanks." Harry said gratefully and changed the subject, not wanting to linger on Hermione.
It wasn't until later that night when Harry lay alone in his four-poster did his thoughts turn to her again. He began to regret his actions. Did Hermione really deserve everything he'd said, sure it was her who'd told Professor McGonagall, but he could see why, she must have been worried, not just about Harry, but about Ron and what he would do if no-one found out.
He sighed, why did his temper have to get the better of him so often. He vowed to apologize to Hermione, after all, like she said, they'd been best friends for a long time, and that shouldn't end now, they needed each other more than ever now that one of the trio was gone.
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The next morning after breakfast Harry told Kieran he'd meet him again in first lesson and raced after Hermione, he caught up with her just before the portrait hole.
"Hermione." He called feeling nerves swirl in his stomach. She turned to look at him and her face fell.
"Come to yell at me again?" she said quietly. Harry sighed.
"No, I wanted to apologize." Harry said hardly baring to look at her.
"Really?" Hermione replied looking perplexed.
"Yeh, I'm sorry for all the stuff I said yesterday, I didn't mean it, I over-reacted, I guess I just wanted someone to blame." Harry said hoping everything would be ok now.
"It's ok and I'm sorry too, I know how hard it is, we were all best friend remember, I miss him so much." Hermione had tears in her eyes again. Harry stepped towards her and gave her a comforting hug.
"Friends?" Hermione asked when she'd raised her head. Harry smiled.
"Of course, but no more, I'm sorry but we can't be a couple any more." Harry said, knowing this would officially end it.
"Yeh, I know what you mean." Hermione replied nodding. Harry knew she didn't understand but he smiled at her anyway and brushed the tears from her eyes.
"Let's get to class."
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The week passed pretty quickly and Harry found himself facing Saturday and his date with Cho. He was nervous as he got ready, all he could remember was Cho's tears of sadness and anger as she stormed out of the café. He wore an ordinary pair of jeans and Kieran let him borrow a Quiksilver t-shirt. The only thing that annoyed Harry was his hair. It still stood up at the back. But he sighed and gave up trying to tame it.
He walked to the entrance hall with Kieran who was spending the day with Dean and Seamus. (Yes, he did get permission off his mum to go Hogsmede.) He noticed Cho straight away, she was wearing an ocean blue top, a pair of tight fitting blue jeans, which showed off her perfect figure and her long black hair was loose, letting it fall down her back, framing her face. Harry couldn't help but smile as he approached her. He greeted her with a quick kiss on the cheek trying to keep his cool as the memories still played on his mind. He took her hand and they left the castle together, both hoping that this date would be a lot more successful than their previous.
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There ya go. Kinda a cliffy at the end cos I know you hate them. Now get reviewing! :)