yay! second chapter! lol. PLZ REVIEW!!! thank you my 4 reviewers so far, which are chochang0614, MystikalMagic, Chan, and Nimbus 2000. thanx for the support Nimbus 2000! glad u like my fic!

Crossed Wires and Mixed Signals

Disclaimer: I do not own the story of Harry Potter or any of its characters. They all belong to the FABULOUS J. K. Rowling and Warner Bros. Inc.

Setting: during their fifth year at Hogwarts; Defense Against the Dark Arts
teacher is still Dolores Umbridge

Chapter 2: Speaking with Cho

Harry looked around for Hermione in the common room and saw her sitting in her usual chair by the fire, reading Hogwarts, A History again.

Ron was already at the steps to the boys' dormitory when he said "You coming, Harry?"

Harry shook his head and said "Go ahead, Ron, I'll catch up with you."

Hermione looked up from her book and realized there were only two other people in the room.

"So Harry, what was the reason you asked me if I..." said Hermione, immediately starting to turn pink.

Harry sat in the empty chair next to Hermione and started to stare at the fire. "Yes," he said finally after a long silence.

"You said you don't know how u feel about him..."

"Yes, but Harry, why did you ask me in the first place?" asked Hermione.

"I don't think I'm aloud to tell u actually..."said Harry in an unsure tone with an expression on his face to match.

"Hmm... why would you ask... why," said Hermione slowly while she was lost in thought. Harry stared at her for a moment, then at the fire.

"... Hermione?" said Harry unsurely.

"Yes," said Hermione, who was still lost in thought, quickly.

"What would you say if I said..." started Harry, waiting for Hermione to lift up her head. When she finally did he said, "What would you say if I said I liked you?"

Hermione looked shocked. "But you fancy Cho, you wouldn't like me."

"I meant hypothetically."

"Oh, I guess I would say... I would say... I can't return your feelings. I like as you as a brother Harry, but nothing more."

"Good!" sighed Harry. Hermione has an exasperated expression on her face.

"So what would you say if Ron said he liked you?" Harry asked again.

"I don't know... I... I'd say I... I'd... err... umm..." stuttered Hermione. She turned a bright pink. "I guess I'd rather not say at the moment..."

"Okay," said Harry but he did not look satisfied with the answer.

"I'm going to bed now. 'Night."

"I guess I will too then," said Hermione. She walked to the girls' dormitory steps.

"'Night, Harry." Harry started to walk up the steps in another daze. Until...

"Ow!" said Harry as he tumbled down three of the stone steps. Ron was standing before him with a flesh-colored extendable ear string hanging from his left ear.

"Umm..." said Ron as he helped Harry up. Harry had an explain-yourself-now-or- I'll-hurt-you look on his face.

"Well, you didn't tell me that you were going to talk to Hermione without me!" said Ron, "But I didn't hear much of the conversation! This is one of the old ears Fred and George have been having for years and it went bolty after she asked why you were asking her something earlier in the Great Hall."

"Yeah, sure, right," glared Harry. Ron shifted uncomfortably when Harry looked as if he were about to move past Ron, up the rest of the spiral stone steps and into the boys' dormitory. But before he could do that, Ron stuck his arm out.

"Before you go up, what did u ask her...?" Ron asked, with a little more than a hint of suspicion in his voice.

"Umm...I'd rather not mention at the moment..."he said unsurely.

"Tell me Harry! Is it about me or something? Why wouldn't you tell me? I'm you're best friend aren't I?" Ron said loudly. Harry tried to look away from him, but couldn't because Ron had grabbed his face so he would have to look at him.

Harry sighed. "Yes, it's about you. I wouldn't tell you because I know you'd get mad at me. Yes, of course you're my best friend." Harry knew that if he hid it from Ron any longer Ron would stop talking to him.

"What is it then? What is it that would make me mad?"

"... I asked Hermione... I asked Hermione how she felt about you!" Ron stared at him. Disbelievingly, Ron let his jaw drop.

"I can't believe it Harry. I just can't believe it," said Ron disapprovingly.

"But thanks for taking the weight of my shoulders, mate! Now I don't need to ask her!" Ron continued, with such a sudden change of mood it made Harry jump. He would have fallen down the staircase again if Ron hadn't caught him.

"Let's go to bed before you hurt yourself, Harry," said Ron. Harry gave Ron a slight glare. "I hurt myself? You're the one who's scaring me!" "Yeah, yeah," said Ron and they walked the rest of the stone spiral staircase. When they got up, the two undressed from their robes, put on their pajamas, and fell asleep immediately.

In the Great Hall during breakfast Harry, Ron, and Hermione sat together and ate bacon, eggs, and toast with orange juice. Harry, Neville, and Ron continued to badger Umbridge while Hermione spoke to Ginny about the D.A. (I don't think I'll go into detail about that because it would be a spoiler to those who don't know what is yet)

At the end of breakfast Harry started to walk out the Great Hall with Ron and Hermione... until...

"Psst! Harry!" came a whisper to Harry's right. He looked around and saw Cho Chang. She made a hand gesture for him to come over to where she was.

"You two go ahead... I'll catch up with you in later in Snape's dungeon," Harry told them. Hermione and Ron nodded. Harry walked up to Cho. She kept quiet until there weren't many people in the entrance hall.

"Harry?" she said finally.

"Yeah," he said, his heart starting to thump in his chest.

"Harry, I've been meaning to ask... oh my gosh Harry! Look at your hand!" cried Cho in surprise. Harry looked down at his right hand and saw that it was red and bleeding, you could clearly see I must not tell lies etched in his skin now.

"Yeah, well, you see... detentions with Umbridge are rather..." started Harry but was interrupted by Cho.

"We must bring you to the hospital wing! It might be infected!"

"No! Don't!" he said. Cho was already tugging him down the hall and he was attempting to cover his hand with the sleeve of his robes. "It's okay Cho! I'll just soak it on essence of murlap and it'll be okay!" Now Harry was attempting to wipe the blood with the inside of his sleeve.

Cho looked at him with concern filled eyes, "Are you sure? It looks really bad!"

"Yes!" He said pulling away from her grasp and glancing at his watch. Almost time for Snape's class, "I'm late for Potions, okay? I have to go. Bye." Harry ran the rest of the way to Snape's dungeon and just made it to class and found his seat between Hermione and Ron.

"What did Cho pull you aside for?" asked Ron intently with Hermione leaning in to listen.

"I don't know," Harry said truthfully.

"Right, so what did she pull you aside for?" repeated Ron.

"Really, I don't know. It was almost time for class when she was actually gonna tell me and I had to go. Plus, she wasted time fussing over my hand when she saw it." He pulled his sleeve up just enough for Hermione and Ron to see it started bleeding again.

"Oh, Harry..." said Hermione who started to dig in her bag for a Quick-Cut- Fix magic towlette (a/n not really sure if these existed in the wizarding world of the book) and handed it to Harry who stared at her in confusion. The packet looked like one of those moist towelettes at Muggle casinos.

"What the hell are these?!" he exclaimed, surprised by the familiarity

"New product I found in a store at Hogsmeade. Looked like something my mum and dad always brought home from when they went on vacation to gamble at a Casino," Hermione told Harry. Ron looked at them confused, wondering what a Casino was.

"It's a Muggle thing," the two said together as Snape walked in. Immediately they fell silent at the sight of Snape. With their O.W.L.s coming up they knew they really needed to pay attention in Potions class especially.

As usual, Snape had a careful watch over Harry as he was mixing the Potion of the day. Snape got up and walked to Harry's cauldron.

"Is there a reason your potion a light blue rather than a bloody red?" questioned Snape with a horrible sneer on his face.

Harry looked at the blackboard and saw his mistake. He was supposed to stir the potion slowly 5 times counter-clockwise and 3 times clockwise after the powdered root of Devil's Snare. He had instead instead stirred it clockwise 5 times and counter-clockwise 3 times.

"Oops," he muttered quietly.

"So what is it that you got wrong, Potter?" Snape asked maliciously, a grin of superiority approaching his thin mouth.

"I didn't stir it right," muttered Harry annoyed.

"Yes, that's what I thought," said Snape while performing a Vanishing Spell on the contents of Harry's cauldron.

When classes were over for the day, Hermione, Ron, and Harry took a break before doing anything in the common room. They had gone through the portrait hole but were stopped by the sight of Fred and George presenting a new product of their future joke store. They looked as if they had the worst allergies possible to the world. The two were sneezing so hard that they looked as if they had headaches from the sneezes, while they weren't sneezing they were coughing hard and had runny noses and looked dizzy while there eyes watered. Until they looked like they had gone the full extent of these pains they didn't put the other half of the pink candy in their mouth. Harry looked at his watch and saw they had already gone through this for ten minutes. At the exact moment Harry looked at his watch Fred and George shoved the hot pink candies in their mouths dramatically and bowed as the crowd applauded and people were raising their hands with gold in them to buy the new product.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione sat in their usual chairs upon seeing them free. Hermione was gazing intently at what first appeared to be Ron, but upon further examination you could see it was actually at the wall a little to his right. Ron, thinking she was staring at him, gave a, what he thought, was a sly looking grin while looking at her. Hermione noticed the odd smile and said, appalled at the look on his face.

"What?"

"Huh? Nothing, looking at the...err... stairs..." explained Ron nervously. Harry rolled his eyes and while Ron was glancing around the room nervously he noticed.

Harry was once again annoyed. I don't think people enjoy listening to me, thought Harry. No, not at all, his mind assured him. Harry looked into the fire, hoping Sirius's head would appear, even though he knew he wouldn't be stupid enough to risk it.

Sooner or later the three of them went to the library and studied for their O.W.L.S. (a/n if you don't remember what o.w.l. stands for, it's Ordinary Wizarding Levels) and while there, Harry noticed Cho in one of the aisles of books. He finished reading the paragraph he was reading and got up from the table. Ron and Hermione were so absorbed in their studies working hard to get, in Ron's case at least, decent grades on their tests that they didn't notice Harry getting up. He walked up behind her and tapped her shoulder. When she turned around with a surprised but happy look on her face, he whispered "Hi," in a polite tone.

Cho smiled widely and her eyes turned gentle, "Hi." For a while, his mind had been so worked up over the coming exams that he had forgotten how attractive Cho was. Without even realizing what he was doing, Harry was in a loving daze before he could stop himself he had alreadey asked Cho, "Would you care to go out with me, Cho?"

hehe, cliffhanger! well, i don't know if u'd call it that... its pretty obvious wat's gonna happen next. didnt get to Draco this time... oh well. promise to give him an appearence in the next chapter! hope u enjoyed this chapter! plz review! review review review!!!!!!!!!!!! thanx!