Chapter 10: Cho Chang

It was about 10:45. Harry was sitting alone in his favorite chair by the common room fire, thinking. Naomi is hiding something, I'm sure of it, he thought. And Hermione knows, too! This made him feel a bit angry. Why don't they just tell Ron and me? Don't they trust us? But...then again, if it's Naomi's personal business, she doesn't have to tell the whole world if she doesn't want to.

Just then the portrait opened and Naomi came into the common room. She moaned and collapsed onto the couch, rubbing her arm. She had a smear of chalk on her face.

"Tired?" Harry asked mildly.

"Yes." Naomi said, not opening her eyes.

"What'd you have to do?"

"Copy lines onto the chalkboard. My arm is killing me!" She opened her eyes and looked at Harry. "Why are you up so late?"

He shrugged. "Just...thinking."

"Oh." She didn't ask what he was thinking about, and Harry was grateful for it.

"Well, I guess we'd better go to sleep soon. What have we got tomorrow?"

She closed her eyes again, thinking. "Um...I know this...I remember reading it...hold on-Oh yeah, it was Transfiguration all day."

"Well, that's not so bad. When have we got Potions?"

"Friday."

"Oh, great. Right before the weekend. The whole weekend will be ruined from all the homework Snape's going to give us!"

Naomi sighed. "Well, at least that means we have Defense against the Dark Arts on Thursday, so we don't have to wait all week for that lesson."

"...True."

"Well, goodnight, Harry."

"See you in the morning." Harry watched Naomi as she swept up the girl's staircase. He sighed, heaved himself out of the chair, and headed up to bed.

××××××

Harry had the dream about himself attacking Naomi once more that night. He woke up, breathing fast, then eventually managed to fall asleep again. But when he fell asleep he had the other dream where Lucius Malfoy killed Naomi. He shouted and woke up, tearing back his bed hangings, only to find four other people already awake. Dean, Seamus, Neville, and Ron were staring at him, looking worried.

"You okay, Harry?" asked Dean.

"Did you have a nightmare?" asked Neville.

"Is it...You-Know-Who, Harry?" said Seamus anxiously.

"No-it's just-just a nightmare, guys." But he gave Ron a significant look as he turned to get dressed. The two of them hurried up to change and get downstairs. They found Hermione, who was waiting for Naomi. Ron started to tell her to go and get Naomi, but Harry pulled him away, calling back to Hermione, "We'll meet you in the Great Hall!"

"What was that for?" panted Ron as he struggled to keep up with Harry's fast pace.

"I'll tell you in a second...just grab some toast or something and we'll walk around."

Ron dashed into the Hall and came out with four pieces of toast. He handed two to Harry, then asked, as they climbed the marble staircase, "So...was it another nightmare?"

"...Yes, two of them," said Harry softly (he didn't want to be overheard).

"Well then, why couldn't you tell Hermione and Naomi?"

"I don't want to tell it to Naomi. Don't look at me like that, I have a reason! The first night back I had a dream that I was walking down one of the corridors and I heard someone scream. I went to see who it was, and when I turned the corner, I saw Naomi on the floor with Malfoy over her, pointing his wand at her. I stunned Malfoy, and Naomi was unconscious. Then I looked back at Malfoy and he changed into another person, like he had been taking Polyjuice Potion or something, and-" Harry stopped as a group of third-year Ravenclaws walked by.

"Who'd he turn into?" Ron asked impatiently.

"Ron...he turned into-me!"

Ron stopped in his tracks and turned to Harry, gaping at him.

"So now do you see why I didn't want to tell Naomi?"

"Yeah" said Ron faintly, resuming his walking. "So what about the other one?"

Harry explained the other dream as well as he could. Ron was again gaping at him as they reached the door to the Transfiguration classroom. "And," Harry finished, "I've had each of these dreams twice, Ron. Remember the dream about the Department of Mysteries corridor? I had that one loads of times, and it came true!"

Ron bit his lip. "But, Harry, about that first one...you can fight the Imperious Curse, so none of You-Know-Who's followers could make you..."

"That's what worries me."

×××××××

Once everyone had gathered outside the door to McGonagall's classroom, Ron and Harry were acting normal. They had decided it was best not to let anyone know that anything was wrong. "But we can tell Ginny," Harry had said earlier. "She might be able to help."

The lesson was rather uneventful. All they did was take notes, and everyone was glad for the break when they headed off to lunch. They ate quickly and hurried back to the classroom, for all of them were eager to start transfiguring. They learned the spell 'Avifors', which turned rather small things-like parts of a statue-into birds. It took a while to get it down, but Harry finally managed to turn his large stone into an eagle. He couldn't change it back, though, and McGonagall had to fix it for him.

They had some free time after dinner, as everyone had been let out early. The teachers told them to enjoy about an hour of free time, but to be back in the Great Hall by 6:30. Hermione, Ron, Naomi, and Harry found Ginny and they all went out to the grounds. Ron had a watch, and Hermione said that they should start back to the Hall about ten minutes before 6:30.

They all took a walk around the lake, talking aimlessly. When they were all the way on the opposite side of the lake, they met Cho Chang coming around the other way.

"Er-Hi," said Cho, looking highly embarrassed. "Harry, could I-talk to you for a minute?" She looked at Naomi, but didn't say anything. Ron shrugged, and Ginny said, "Sure. Just catch up with us when you're done, Harry." They all started around the lake again. Harry looked casually at Cho.

"What?" he asked. He didn't really want to talk to her.

"I was-was just wondering...well, how's your summer been, first of all?"

"Miserable, as always. How about you?"

"Oh...well, I'm sorry you had such a crummy summer, then...Mine was okay, I guess. Michael Corner and I broke up...he was just too young, you know, he's only in fifth year."

Harry said nothing. He couldn't care less about Cho and Michael Corner. His friends were getting farther away, and he wanted to still have some time to talk to them.

"So...there's a Hogsmeade trip coming up..." Cho said timidly.

"Yeah, there is."

"Are you going with anyone?"

"Just my friends, you know, Ron, Hermione, Naomi..."

"Is she that girl that was with you?" said Cho, turning around to look at Naomi's retreating back.

"Yeah."

"I've never seen her around. Is she in fifth year or something?"

"She's a sixth year."

"Why haven't I met her before?"

"Because she's a new student, Cho," said Harry in an exasperated tone. "Well, I guess I'd better be going-"

"No, wait! I wanted to ask you if...if..."

"If you want to ask me something, ask it!"

"If you wanted to go to Hogsmeade with me."

Harry had seen this coming. He was prepared to answer.

"No, I don't."

Cho looked like she had been slapped in the face. Apparently she had never been turned down before.

"Sorry, Cho, but it just didn't work out last time, remember?"

"Yes, but I just wanted to try again, I mean-"

"I don't want to."

"Why not? I thought-"

"See, the only thing is that when I was going out with you, I was always worrying about looking stupid in front of you or making you upset or something, and then there was exams coming up, and it was just too much. Now my godfather is dead and I don't want to go out with someone who's going to burst into tears every time I talk to them, okay?"

Harry said this all very fast, because he felt like it had been building up inside him for a very long time. Cho's eyes began to fill with tears, and Harry snapped, "See? I talk to you and you start crying. Now, I have to go catch up to my friends." And he ran off to meet the others. He didn't look back one single time.

"How'd it go?" asked Ron.

"Great," said Harry brightly. "She asked me to go out with her again and I turned her down, and I finally gave her what she deserved. I mean, she was always bursting into tears every five minutes and also whenever I tried to talk to her. It was ridiculous! So that's basically what I told her."

Ron and Ginny were doubled over laughing, and Hermione looked torn between telling Harry off for being so rude to a girl and congratulating him on telling off Cho. Naomi, however, was staring out into the trees, looking as though she hadn't heard anything Harry just said. She whispered urgently, "Did you see it? Any of you?"