By monkeymouse
NB: JKRowling built the Potterverse; I'm just redecorating one of the rooms. And one of the great things about JKR telling the story from Harry's point of view is that stuff could be happening all over Hogwarts that Harry isn't aware of.
Rated: PG-13
Spoilers: Everything
xxx
30. Letting It Happen
"We were talking about brooms, and he was recommending this Japanese model, and he said the broom had a lot of strength most people wouldn't see at first glance. And I don't know, but something about the way he looked straight at me when he was saying that, it made me think he was complimenting me and not the broom."
After a few seconds studying Cho, all that Marietta said in reply was, "Michael Corner, eh?"
"Is there some sort of problem?"
"First Potter, now another Fifth; you're turning into a right cradle-robber."
"Hardly. Harry can be so immature--growing up the way he did, poor thing, he can't help it. But Michael just seems, I don't know, older, somehow. More confident, anyway, more self-assured, and maybe that makes him seem older."
"Sounds as if you've made your mind up already."
"Oh, anything but! It's just that, well, I never considered the possibility before."
"And now it's---"
"Possibly possible. See you in the morning, then."
Cho was halfway to the door of the hospital wing when Marietta called out: "Cho!" She turned. "I hope this one works out for you."
"I guess I do too." With that, she went up to Ravenclaw.
xxx
Sunday, 7 June, was just another lazy end-of-term Sunday for most of Hogwarts. There was still four more days of O.W.L.s for the Fifth Years, though. The library tables were still piled high with books, and small knots of students discussed fine points of magic in the Ravenclaw Common Room, and, Cho supposed, in the other Houses as well.
She had slept in, skipped breakfast, and was passing through the Common Room to have lunch with Marietta when Michael waved her over from a large stack of books on a small table. He and two other Fifth Years were preparing.
"Potions tomorrow," he shuddered.
"At least Snape won't be there," Cho nodded.
"There's half the battle won right there," Michael smiled.
"Tell me how it went, will you?"
"Of course." Michael's smile got just a touch wider. "I'll meet you in the Great Hall and tell you during dinner."
"Sounds good. Erm, I'd better let you get back, then."
Cho almost ran out of the Common Room. She knew exactly what had brought on her case of nerves. She wanted to tell Marietta about it, but when she got to the hospital wing, she found that she couldn't bring herself to do so over lunch. It wasn't until after dinner that Cho mentioned Michael to Marietta.
Cho waited until the dinner dishes cleared themselves. "Erm, Marietta, I might not be having dinner here tomorrow night."
"Oh? Is there someplace secret you're supposed to be?"
"No secret at all. It's just that I'm meeting Michael Corner in the Great Hall during dinner. The Potions O.W.L. will be over by then, and I wanted to ask him..."
Marietta smirked. "Making it official so soon? You don't let the wolfsbane grow under your feet."
"Nothing's official! It's not even a date; more like an appointment. I just want to..."
"Just want to stop eating all your meals in the hospital wing."
"It's not that, Marietta!"
"Look, Cho, I don't blame you a bit. Everyone said they'd fix my face up in a minute or an hour or a day, and here it's been two bloody months. I'm forgetting that I ever lived in Ravenclaw."
"Honestly, it's nothing to do with you or the wing. It's just, well, I ..."
"You what?"
"Look, we may be Ravenclaw, and we may be clever, but, clever or not, I know that every one of us thinks about love or romance or, or call it whatever you like. Unless, of course, you've never..."
Cho left the sentence hanging in the air. Marietta looked at her hands rather than at Cho. After a minute she muttered, "Guilty as charged."
"There it is. I don't need details if you don't want to share them, but my point is that we all think about these things. I certainly thought about it even before Cedric came along. And you know how that's turned out this year: all sad reminders and shrieking nightmares. And then I loved Harry after Cedric." Cho paused, then lowered her own voice. "The truth is, I loved Harry before Cedric as well. But I kept it to myself for too long, and the result is, well, you know. Marietta, I still feel the need for something romantic in my life. Harry may be a lost cause now, but I want to get on with some boy without him or me or both of us making a total hash of everything! Can you see that?"
Even though Marietta was smiling, her eyes were filling with tears. "Actually, this is the best news I've heard from you in a long time. I don't mind giving you up for a meal or two." She looked at Cho a minute. "At least I'm not losing you to a Slytherin."
"Bite your tongue!"
They both laughed.
xxx
Monday night, Cho was down early to dinner, waiting by the large doors to the Great Hall. She could hear the furniture rearranging itself back into the House tables. The noise continued right up to the stroke of five, when the doors opened and revealed the Great Hall, as it was supposed to be.
Although Cho had grown accustomed over the years to sitting toward the middle of the table, she sat down at the end closest to the doors. Perhaps she wanted to make sure that she saw Michael, or was seen by him. Perhaps she still had trouble sitting near Housemates she had once counted as friends, yet who failed to help her through her problems this year. Cho thought for a minute about why she'd done what she did, then gave it up as Michael entered the Hall.
"Well, then," she greeted him smiling, "it didn't kill you after all. I saved you a place," and she pointed to the side of the table across from her. It was as if she was saying that he could sit near her but not next to her--not yet, anyway.
If any of this gave Michael pause, he didn't show it, and sat down across from Cho with an exaggerated sigh of relief, as food appeared immediately in front of them. "Wasn't as rough as I thought it would be, mainly because Snape wasn't in the room."
"I remember feeling that way last year," Cho smiled. "So, what happened?"
"The written part in the morning wasn't too bad; all out of books, anyway. Afternoon was a bit tricky. We first had to whip up a Scintillation Solution--the short-term one, not the long term. So anyone who got them confused and put in knotgrass instead of fluxweed added an hour to the cooking time, which was their bad luck. Because, after the Solution, we also had to run off one other potion. If they asked you for it last year, it would've been dead easy."
"What do you mean by-- Did they ask for that again? The Iron Stomach potion?"
Michael nodded. "I expect the Ministry wanted to catch us out with an old Chinese potion that's pretty much obsolete these days. Anyway, I saw the ingredients included powdered Fireball eggshell, and I thought of you."
"Should I take that as a compliment?"
"Well, they fly and you fly."
Cho nibbled at her pork cutlet. This was an unexpected pleasure for her: dinner and a conversation. She suddenly felt that the year had gone by and that she'd missed so much of it.
"It's all one, anyway," Michael was saying with a mouthful of turnips. "I mean, I don't see what half of the classes we take have to do with Real Wizarding Life."
"You've had the Career Advisement, I take it?"
"Well, Flitwick chatted me up a bit, but, truth to tell, I haven't made any sort of plans at all. It's not exactly Wit and Learning, but I'll probably do nothing in Sixth Year, talk it over with my parents during Seventh Year and then see which way the wind is blowing."
Cho glanced around, then lowered her voice to make sure she wasn't overheard. "That may be the best policy, what with Voldemort still out there somewhere."
Michael's brow furrowed just a bit. "For my part, the jury hasn't come back on that one, no matter what Harry told the Quibbler. Anyway, enough about me. Have you chosen a career yet?"
"My parents have, of course. They want me in the family shoppe selling herbs, and maybe I'll do that a few years down the road. But it's not what I want to do."
"What's that, then?"
"Can't you guess, Mister Wit and Learning?"
Michael gave a low whistle. "You don't want much."
"Right in one, then."
"You do realize the odds are against you. I mean, there's only thirteen Quidditch teams in Britain. With Reserves, that's twenty-six Seeker spots that don't exactly open up every day."
"As long as there's one open, I think I have a good shot at it."
Michael raised his water goblet. "Well, you have the talent, and you certainly deserve it." He took a sip, then set the goblet down. "Anyway, what if there is no spot? Would you play in Europe?"
"If it comes to that, things are loosening up in China. The Fukien Fireballs still aren't sanctioned, but there's talk of forming a couple of other exhibition teams there. Anything can happen. I think it would be glorious to be part of that: opening up an entire nation to Quidditch!"
"Yeh, well, you'd be missed."
"Oh? By anyone I know?"
"You're a Ravenclaw; you figure it out."
The way Michael looked at Cho when he said that made her feel--well, she didn't really know how she felt. Fortunately, Luna Lovegood started laughing raucously at some joke or other a couple of feet down the table. That broke the spell.
"I'd, erm, better go see about Marietta."
"And tell her about me?"
"Won't know until I get there," Cho smiled. Before she left, though, she turned back to Michael. "Meet you here tomorrow night?"
"You're on," he smiled back at her.
Some Ravenclaw you are, Cho scolded herself as she walked to the hospital wing. You should be able to figure this out. When I was with Cedric it felt one way, when I was with Harry it felt a different way, and now talking with Michael leaves me feeling yet another way altogether! How am I supposed to know which feeling is real? They can't all be real, can they?
At that moment she reached the hospital wing. She decided not to discuss any of the various feelings with Marietta.
xxx
Cho knew that Michael would be studying most of the rest of the week. Even so, at dinnertime the next day she was again waiting to be first into the Great Hall. She sat at the end again, and once again Michael Corner came in and sat across from her.
"No problem at all with the Magical Creatures," he said as soon as he hit the bench. "After the beasts Hagrid had us working with, knarls and bowtruckles were dead easy. That, and sick unicorns."
"They didn't have a unicorn there, did they?" Cho interrupted.
"Nah, just a pile of ingredients, and you had to sort out what to feed a sick unicorn."
"So today was almost a day off for you, then."
"It'll seem like it tomorrow. Astronomy in the morning and at night, with Divination in the afternoon."
Now that she had a chance to observe Michael up-close for a second day, she realized why she had once mistaken him for Harry from the back. Both boys had a bushy head of black hair, but Michael's was naturally thick; Harry's looked thick, but it was merely perpetually disordered. But Michael's skin was also swarthier than most Hogwarts students; not olive-colour, but not far from it. He seemed to have a permanent suntan. "If you don't mind my putting it this way, you don't look like a Corner."
"I take after my mum; everyone says so who's met her. She's from Greece, you know."
"I didn't know, but I can see it in you."
"Came over to work for the Ministry, though it was years before she told me what. It was all rather hush-hush, to tell the truth."
"Have I heard of her?"
Michael rolled his eyes in mock despair: "I was afraid you were going to ask her name. Now I'll bet Sickles to Galleons you'll try for the next five minutes and not get her name right. Nobody ever does."
"I'll take that as a challenge. What is it?"
"Hecate Theototocopoulos."
Cho couldn't help it; between the extremely long name and the long face of the son of its owner, Cho started laughing.
"Not that funny," he muttered, although he too was smiling.
"I'm sorry, but--the poor dear."
"What 'poor dear?' It's no tougher back home for her than Cho Chang would be in China."
"Still, it's such a mouthful."
"Right, and you'll either master it in the next five minutes or give up entirely."
"It's Hecate Theotocopoulos."
"Nope, missed a syllable."
"Say it once more!"
"Sorry."
Cho started to laugh. "Hecate--that part's right, isn't it?" Michael nodded. "Theo ... Theocop ... No, wait, there's something there ... Theo-something-copoulos."
"Closer than most..."
"Don't distract me! Theo ... Theotocopoulos, but you said that's wrong." She threw up her hands. "I give up, then," she laughed.
"Come on, a good Seeker never gives up!"
"Well, if her name were a Snitch I'd have it in an instant, but ..." Cho suddenly stopped laughing.
"Something wrong?"
"Just that, well, I didn't get that last Snitch, at the finals."
"You shouldn't let that worry you one bit! Like I told Ginny afterward, there is still such a thing as beginner's luck. Besides, she'd rather be a Chaser next year anyway."
"Really?"
"Let's just leave Miss Ginevra Weasley out of the conversation, eh?"
"Yes, please. Back to your family; how did your parents meet?"
"At the Ministry. My dad worked for International Magical Law; he'd step across to her department if he got stumped on anything to do with Greece. After a while, they start meeting for lunch, and the grand result was me." Michael flashed that smile again: comforting, almost addictively so. "And what about the Changs?"
"A very, very long story. The short version is that they met in China and came to England just before I was born."
"Well, I definitely want to hear the long version someday, if only because that gives me an excuse to tell you some of the things my mum did back in Greece."
"She must have seen some very unusual things, then."
"Unusual enough; she wasn't much older than we are when she was active in the Resistance against Grindelwald."
Before he could say anything else, Torrance "Torture" Chambers stepped up.
"Hi, Cho. Sorry to break up the party, Michael, but the session starts in five minutes."
"Not to worry, I'll be there."
"Study session?" Cho asked as Chambers left the Great Hall.
"A study-group for the O.W.L.s; we're meeting tonight to go over Astronomy for tomorrow."
"You'll still be down to dinner tomorrow, though? The exam doesn't start until late."
"Even if the exam started at quarter past five, I'd still meet you down here. That's what you wanted to know, right?"
Even as Cho smiled and nodded, she thought: this is ridiculous. Why am I blushing?
"Tomorrow, then." Michael stood up, smiling, and left with a few other Fifth Year Ravenclaws.
He knew what I wanted to know, she thought; I wonder how well he really knows me. Maybe he can tell me what I want. Sometimes I feel so clueless ...
xxx
Wednesday was the third night in a row; Michael and Cho knew where "their spots" at the table were. Cho was in her spot as soon as the doors to the Great Hall opened. Michael strode quickly in about two minutes later. He sat down, and started grabbing dinner rolls and putting roast beef in them.
"Can't stay long tonight," he said, looking at Cho the whole time; he apparently could put his sandwiches together without looking at them. "I have to do some last-minute Astronomy studying."
"Is it that hard a subject?"
"There are just so many stars and planets and all to keep straight. How did you do it?"
"Well, I don't know now if I was better off or not, but I'd studied astronomy since I was a child. But then, I came to Hogwarts knowing all the stars and planets by their Chinese names. I had to keep both systems separate, for a start."
"Are they that different, then?"
"Oh, yes! Chinese astronomy tracks a select group of a hundred or so stars in transit through twelve Houses, as they're called. It's all part of the cycle of twelve years..."
"That have the animal names?"
"Exactly. But then, another cycle of five classic elements is overlaid on that, so the cycle really doesn't repeat itself for sixty years."
"They teach all this in Sixth Year Divination, right?"
The smile fell off of Cho's face immediately. "I have no idea."
Michael nodded. "Yeh, I remember now, right after the Tournament you challenged Trelawney. You mean you haven't been back to Divination since?"
Cho shook her head. "And I've no intention of going back, ever."
There was an awkward pause. Michael seemed to recover his humour first as he started stuffing his sandwiches into his pockets. "Hate to leave everything on that note, but I've got to dash. The moons of Saturn are still devilling me."
"I'm sure you'll do well," Cho half-smiled.
"Thanks. Anyway," Michael said as he stood up, "after Astronomy tonight we'll sleep in, then History is the last O.W.L."
"You'll come down tomorrow and tell me how they went?"
"Of course. It's nice having someone to talk to about all this."
"Yes; erm, yes, it is." Cho again felt herself blushing, and she wasn't quite sure why. Michael may have noticed, but have no sign, just turning to give Cho a cheery wave as he walked out of the Great Hall.
xxx
When Cho woke up on the morning of the eleventh, she could tell something was amiss. She sensed it in the air, like a fireworks from the Weasley twins. She parted the bed curtains and saw Diana Fairweather putting on her robes. She looked agitated; not at all her usual state.
"Diana, what's going on?"
"Nobody knows what's going on, and that's the damned trouble."
Cho slipped into slacks and a light pullover, then ran barefoot downstairs to the Common Room. A dozen Ravenclaws, mostly boys, were shouting at each other, trying to make some point or other. One of the boys was Chambers; she tapped him on the shoulder.
"What's happened?"
"Someone attacked McGonagall last night!"
Cho feared the worst. "Was it Death Eaters?"
"If so, then they're growing a strange crop of Death Eaters this year, because one of them was Umbridge."
It felt like a fist had reached in and grabbed Cho's brain, to stop it from working. "It ... No, it's not possible!"
"We all saw it from the Astronomy Tower, during last night's exam."
"But ... Why? Why McGonagall?"
"She just got in the way. Umbridge and her lot were after Hagrid. Stunned by half a dozen wizards and he still walked away; well, ran away is more like it. He's still hiding out in the forest, I think, but McGonagall rushed out to stop it and got hit by four Stunners. Last anyone heard, they took her to the hospital wing."
Those words seemed to free Cho from her spell. She dashed out of Ravenclaw and to the hospital wing.
Cho didn't know what she'd see there; she half-expected to see Umbridge or her companions, or other faculty or students. This was clearly an attempt by Umbridge to settle old scores. But there was nobody in the wing but Marietta, sitting up in bed, staring down at her hands as if she'd never seen them before.
"I hear there was some excitement," Cho said, hoping that Marietta could fill in the blanks.
Marietta didn't seem to hear at first. After a few seconds, she turned to Cho. "They didn't get you, then. I half expected they would."
Cho pulled up a chair. "Tell me now; tell me everything."
"Well, I don't know everything, but it all started around midnight. There was this commotion, and people are getting put in beds down at the other end. I feigned sleeping so I could watch it all. Flitwick Locomotored McGonagall in here first, and the way he was crying you'd think he feared for her life. He was shouting at Pomfrey: 'Four! Four Stunners!' Then a bunch of wizards Locomotor in three more, all unconscious and badly beaten. No spellwork there. They're put in beds on the other side of the aisle from McGonagall, who's behind the screens now.
"Then Umbridge comes in, and Flitwick goes completely to pieces. He screams at umbridge: 'If anything happens to her, it will be on your head!' So then Umbridge turns to Flitwick, cold as ice, and says, 'The attempted arrest of Rubeus Hagrid was a Ministry-sanctioned operation. She tried to interfere in something that was none of her business, and was accidentally injured.' Well, Flitwick exploded then. 'Four Stunning Spells at once is no accident! Your people tried to kill Hagrid and McGonagall!' 'These wizards carrying out orders from ther Ministry didn't come by their injuries by accident, and assault charges will be levelled against Hagrid when he's found and arrested. Meanwhile, I've arranged for mediwizards to see to Professor McGonagall, and that should be the end of the matter for tonight. Unless you have something you wish to tell me about Hagrid.'
"She turns on that sick little sweet smile of hers, and she's basically telling Flitwick to make one false step so that she can mess about with him, too. Well, he holds his tongue after that, and she toddles out of the wing just as the mediwizards arrive. They look at McGonagall, and I hear them tell Pomfrey that they have to Apparate her to St. Mungo's, but that means taking her to Hogsmeade to do it. So, they take her out of the castle, with Flitwick following along behind."
Cho had been holding her breath. She, too, looked blank-faced as she waited to see if Marietta could tell her more. Finally, she sadly shook her head. "This is madness. Voldemort is attacking us, and we're attacking each other!"
"You haven't heard the worst of it."
"How can it be any worse?"
"The three other wizards all come around in about an hour's time. They were just beat up by Hagrid. And they were from the Ministry. I recognized one of them, named Dawlish, from that time I got dragged to Dumbledore's office, when this happened." She gestured vaguely toward her face. "When they all left, Pomfrey comes by and sits on my bed. She seems so sad and somber, I'm afraid she's going to tell me I'm dying. Anyway, she says, 'Things are taking a terrible turn, and I shouldn't keep this from you.' Cho, I've had mediwizards come in every other week or so to look at my face, and try to do something about the jinx. Pomfrey told me that they weren't from St. Mungo's. They were from the Committee on Experimental Charms." Marietta dropped her voice to a whisper. "Weapons Division."
Cho had been waiting for a dramatic revelation; instead, she smiled.
"I thought you'd understand," Marietta said angrily.
"I'm sorry, but you just told me the Ministry is going after the enemy with killer pimples."
"Cho, use your head! It's not about the pimples! It's about this hex hanging on for two months now, and nobody knows how to undo it. It's about the encryption, the arithmancy. They want something that can't be undone."
Now Cho saw what had bothered Marietta. "Oh, dear. This is not good at all."
"And I've been sitting here for hours trying to figure out what to tell my mum. The Ministry has been telling us the Death Eaters are the enemy, Dumbledore is the enemy, Potter is the enemy. What if it's the Ministry who's the enemy?"
Cho couldn't think of one aspect of life in the wizarding world that didn't touch on the Ministry of Magic. "First of all, don't tell your mother anything. Chances are they've already talked to her, and, if you admit that you know, they might trace it back to Pomfrey, and they'd come after her. As for the rest, well, there's just three weeks left to the term. Umbridge has finally gone too far to be ignored. They have to discipline her now. If she's still in the picture when we go back to London, then we think about doing ... something."
"But what?"
"We still have three weeks to worry about that," Cho smiled. "Do you feel up to some breakfast?"
xxx
The morning was quiet. With one more O.W.L. to take, things were far less tense than the week before, and especially calm around Ravenclaw. For the Fifth Years, even the droning narratives of Professor Binns and the daunting prose of "Hogwarts: A History" weren't such a challenge. Still, the Fifth Year Ravenclaws took it seriously enough that not one of them came down for lunch; they'd taken a quick bite of breakfast, then gone to their dormitories where they'd set up study groups. This would be the last chance before the exam.
Cho had eaten a larger-than-usual lunch of especially delicious chicken curry, came back to the Common Room, and set herself up in the bay window to reread Umfraville's "The Noble Sport of Warlocks". Between the book and the curry, she had nearly dozed off when she heard a commotion coming from the two sets of stairs leading to the dormitories. As if on a pre-arranged signal, the Fifth Years came thundering down both stairs, shouting like hooligans at a Quidditch match.
"They act like it's already over," muttered Vincent Krixlow, who was browsing for a book near the bay window.
"They're just warming up," Diana Fairweather said. "I heard them talking; they want to go out with a Weasley-sized bang."
Cho recognized Padma Patil from the DA, and "Torture" Chambers from the Quidditch team. When she saw Michael, she smiled and waved; Michael smiled and flashed her a thumbs-up before all the Fifth Years got swept out and toward the Great Hall.
xxx
Just as the doors opened at five, revealing the Great Hall back to its usual arrangement, Cho felt a tap on her shoulder.
"Michael!"
He stood there, beaming. "You don't look the worse for wear," Cho went on. "I suppose you did well."
"Perfect, more like. It was exactly what we expected: all the major treaties and goblin wars, and about half of the minor ones. Even finished it up with a few minutes to spare."
"Congratulations, then. Are you coming in?"
"Alas, no. I'm wanted back in the dorms. The year wants to, as the Muggles put it, party hearty. So we'll let the butterbeer flow tonight and sleep in tomorrow."
"Can't blame you for that," Cho chuckled. "So, when will I see you again?"
The question was out of Cho's mouth when she realized the double meaning it carried. Michael raised one eyebrow, but only said, "Saturday lunch, if you like. Only not in the Great Hall. I figure if the weather's nice we could pack a meal and eat by the lake."
"That's a wonderful idea! Meet you here at noon, then?"
"Noon it is; if I survive the party, that is. I'm off!" And he turned and headed back toward Ravenclaw.
Cho turned and walked into the Great Hall. She was lost in thought about Michael. She stayed that way even as she stopped by the hospital wing to look in on Marietta, and even as she went up to bed that night.
xxx
Friday morning, Cho woke up to hear her roommates chattering in surprise. She opened the bed curtains and saw Marietta, back at her four-poster. She was mobbed by the other Sixth Year girls, who were at least being polite enough not to mention the pimples that still spelled out the word "SNEAK"; they had gotten not one bit paler during her time in the hospital wing.
"It's not such a great mystery," Marietta was telling the others. "Pomfrey just said that two months was enough time with no change. I couldn't stay there any longer, and had to get out and face the world."
"So to speak," Diana interjected.
Raina clapped her hand over her mouth, stifling a laugh. She had caught Diana's pun, but was afraid it would be rude to laugh at it.
Cho simply started to get dressed. Then, as if by a signal, Marietta walked out of the dorm with Cho to go to breakfast.
As they walked down the stairs to the Common Room, Marietta whispered, "Not here and not now, but I've loads to tell you."
The Ravenclaw table lacked about a dozen students: the Fifth Years who had celebrated the end of their O.W.L.s until well past midnight. Cho and Marietta sat at the empty end, apart from the others.
No sooner did they sit on the benches than Cho asked, "What's this all about?"
Marietta took a quick glance to be sure she wasn't overheard. "Pomfrey woke me up just about dawn. She tells me, 'There's been...' and she stops. Probably realizes it's something she shouldn't tell me, whatever it is. She then says, 'I have some patients coming in, and I need all of the beds to be ready. In any event, you've been here two months with no change. You really should get back to your own dormitory.'"
Cho had been sipping a cup of tea. She set it down and leaned forward. "No explanation? In the middle of the night?"
"It's an explanation you want? Here's one; she makes me get dressed double-quick and all but pushes me out the door. As soon as I'm in the corridor and the door closes, I hear a couple of bangs, like Portkeys arriving. I can't make out any of the voices, but I hear steps along the corridor, so I hide behind a statue; the one of Miglich the Miserable. Down the corridor comes Flitwick, looking every bit as panicked as he did last night. Well, Pomfrey is talking as he opens the door, telling everyone to hush up, but then I hear Loony Lovegood inside the hospital wing call out, 'Good morning, Professor! Nice to see you!' As if it were a tea-party or something."
The strange events were just getting stranger. "Are you sure you heard two Portkeys?"
"Absolutely."
"Then let's see who's not here."
"Start at the Head Table, then."
Cho expected to see empty places for McGonagall and Hagrid, but--
"Where's Umbridge?"
"I'd bet every Galleon I have that she's in the wing."
"Why!"
"Retaliation for last night. I think some of the students got it into their heads to get revenge for McGonagall."
"That would be Gryffindor, then. But--" For the first time in months, Cho looked at the Gryffindor table; she'd deliberately avoided doing it after her argument with Harry. Harry was gone; Granger was gone; both Weasleys were gone. And one other; she remembered him from the DA but couldn't recall his name. He had that plant...
Cho turned back to Marietta. "But what about Lovegood? How does she fit into that? I didn't think she particularly liked McGonagall or the Gryffindors."
"But in November, for the first Quidditch match, she wore that stupid lion-head hat as a Gryffindor booster. And her father's newspaper did that interview with Harry Potter."
Cho nodded. It made a great deal of sense, especially because she knew what Marietta had forgotten: that the missing students were all in Dumbledore's Army. "So you think they all did something to Umbridge? She'd have had them arrested, not put in the hospital wing."
"Unless Umbridge was badly hurt herself! Maybe they gave her a few Stunning Spells to the chest."
Cho shook her head. "Look, most of us hate Umbridge, but Pomfrey wouldn't just wink at assaulting a Headmistress! It's got to be something else. We should just wait and see."
"Getting older and wiser, are you? Your sneaking into the wing days are over?"
"Second Year I did that," Cho smiled. "Seems like a different person did it now. So much has changed."
"Anything in particular?"
Cho looked down at her unused fork. As she stared at it, she tried to form the thoughts in her head. "The thing is, I--" She paused. "It's about Michael." Marietta nodded. "Well, I've been thinking. We've chatted a few times this week, and he seems nice enough, interesting. And, I, well, I don't actually want to say it out loud because my luck's been so rotten--"
"You think you want to be Michael Corner's girlfriend?"
Cho had never said the words before, and they sounded strange coming from Marietta. But the expression on the Prefect's face hadn't changed. Cho bit her lower lip, and blushed as she gave a quick nod.
"Nothing's been settled yet?"
"Saturday noon we're having lunch by the lake. I think, well, we may talk about it then."
Marietta nodded and buttered a piece of toast. "Just tell me everything that happens," she smiled.
xxx
After breakfast, Cho realized that she really should write to her mother about this. Like it or not, her mother would have to face the fact that someday Cho was going to ... what? Fall in love? She'd already done that. Get married? That was looking much too far ahead. What, then?
Cho sat staring at a blank piece of parchment for half an hour, trying to figure out exactly what she was writing home to say.
"Yeh okay, Cho?" It was Jan Nugginbridge, holding onto her Manx cat Coriander. Apparently they'd been outside having some fun on the lawn.
"Just trying to write to my mum."
"About you an' Corner?"
"There's really not much to say about us. We've just been talking..."
"Yeh, ev'ry night this week, nose ter nose. Yeh got ter admit it's differ'nt."
Cho didn't reply at first. Things had been strained between her and Jan this year, but she had relied on Jan's friendship in the past and it was always there for her. After a minute, she asked, almost too softly to be heard, "Jan, can I ask you something? How would you feel about it if I, well, started seeing Michael?"
"Well, for starters, yeh'd be back in th' right House."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Some of us have thought tha' yer troubles came from outside Ravenclaw. First a Hufflepuff, then a Gryffindor; some of us were a bit afraid o' the way things were goin'."
"The House never entered into it! Besides, didn't you hear anything Dumbledore said at the start of the year? The Houses need to learn to work together."
"Well, pardon me fer breathin' yer air, but yeh asked wha' I thought an' I tol' yeh. I didn't expect a bloody lecture on the state o' the world."
Cho took a deep breath. "You're right; I'm sorry. So, is that all you have to say; that he's in the right House?"
"Actually, yeh. Don't hardly know the lad."
Cho, suddenly feeling frustrated, put her quill and the scroll in a drawer. "Never mind. The words don't seem to be coming now, anyway."
Cho went outside for a while, but couldn't think of anything to do but sleep. She went back to the Common Room, pulled a book off the shelves almost at random, and leafed through it almost at random. She was just marking time until dinner. Saturday would be a much more important day.
xxx
The sun rose Saturday on what looked to be a perfect day. It should have been simple for Cho; it should have been the high point of an otherwise miserable year.
She stayed in bed most of the morning, feeling as if every butterfly in the Forbidden Forest had made its way into her stomach.
This is rubbish, she kept telling herself, as she got out of bed, took some clothes out of her wardrobe, and sat back down on the bed, the clothes in her lap. She made no move to put them on, she just looked at them, as if they were artifacts from an ancient civilization.
Why can't I-- She couldn't finish the thought, even to herself. The fact was, she had no idea exactly what she wanted to happen today.
Would Michael try to kiss her? Would she fall apart, as she did with Harry under the misteltoe? Or would his kiss return her to the fog she was always in when Cedric kissed her? Or what if--
Stop this! she finally scolded herself, after turning the possibilities over in her mind for an hour. Whatever is going to happen, let it happen.
It was a quarter past eleven when she started to get dressed. It was shaping up to be a warm and sunny day, so she decided on slacks and a loose-fitting light tunic that bared her arms only up to the elbow. It was an outfit she'd bought in Copenhagen last summer, so there was no association with Cedric, and it had never been warm enough to wear it anytime she was with Harry, so--
Stop making comparisons! Let it happen!
She was in the Common Room at quarter to twelve, but wasn't going to wait there for Michael. She felt she needed some sort of neutral ground, as it were. A reminder that this wasn't anything emotional. She walked toward the entrance to Hogwarts, but lingered on the second floor landing, coming downstairs only at a minute to twelve.
Michael showed up at two minutes after, carrying a covered wicker basket. "Lunch as promised," he smiled.
His smile was infectious; Cho returned it. "How'd you get that?"
"I chatted up that elf who came round to the--" He looked around at the students filing past them, going into the Great Hall for lunch. He lowered his voice: "To the DA. "Bit of a lunatic but very nice. Acted like he'd move heaven and earth if I asked."
"You didn't ask for too big a lunch, I hope."
"I think we can manage. Shall we?"
Michael and Cho walked out onto the steps under a blazing noonday sun. They proceeded across the lawn and around the shore of the lake. At one point they passed the area where the tents and bleachers had been set up for the Second Task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament. Cho, who had been talking about Dumbledore's Army with Michael now that they were sure they wouldn't be overheard, looked at the lake and fell silent.
Michael asked, "Was it strange being underwater like that?"
Cho hadn't expected the question; it startled her. "What? Um, to tell the truth, I don't remember anything that happened underwater. Dumbledore enchanted us all, you see."
"Ah. Wonder where he is, anyway?"
"Someplace safe, I expect."
"Listen, Cho, I'm sorry I brought it up. If you don't feel comfortable talking about that--"
"It's all right. It's been a long time since then. I should be used to it by now."
Only I'm not, Cho thought, as Michael pointed out a fallen log in a shady clearing that overlooked the lake. I'm down to only one nightmare a week, but I still have them. Maybe this is too soon.
No sooner did Cho sit on the log when she realized that there was no place for Michael to sit except in the dirt or on the log. A second later, he sat down at her right side.
Don't panic, she told herself. There's nothing happened yet, and probably nothing will. You've had a good time talking with him this week. Just let it happen.
Michael opened the hamper and produced Cornish pasties and a game hen, lightly seasoned and perfectly cooked, with two flasks of pumpkin cider. No plates or utensils, but none were needed, and indeed, eating in the clearing, facing the lake with the castle hidden from view by the trees, made the meal feel, not exactly uncivilised; what was the word Cho was looking for--
"Heard anything about Umbridge?" Michael asked through a mouthful of pasty.
"Last I heard was the attack on McGonagall."
"Well, nobody's seen hide nor hair-ribbon of the old bat since Thursday."
"I've, erm, heard a rumour that she's in the hospital wing."
"Hope so. Believe me, the worst the Weasley twins could have done to her is still too good. I hope Dumbledore gets back in for next year."
"I'm sure he will."
Michael took a long draw on his flask, set it back in the basket, and stretched his arms up and out. "This was a good idea, even if I do say so."
"Yes, it's lovely out here."
"Well, good weather's still worthless if you don't have good company." Michael reached back and rested his left hand on Cho's left shoulder. She flinched slightly, but didn't say or do anything else.
"Didn't mean to startle you," Michael went on, "but, well, this past week, having you to talk to, it's been really grand. I'm glad the way things have turned out."
In a voice Michael could barely hear, Cho whispered, "So am I."
"Funny how these things work out sometimes," Michael went on. "We're in the same House for years and never exchange five words. I guess it was just the right time to get to know each other better."
Again in a whisper, Cho answered, "Yes, I think you're right." She felt instinctively that Michael's next move would be to kiss her, and she was just about to turn her head to face him.
Michael's next move, however, was to let his hand slip off of Cho's shoulder, sliding down and cupping her breast.
A Seeker is expected to have quick reflexes, and Cho's were as quick as any young Seeker's could be. But, as she recalled what happened next, even she was surprised at the speed of her reaction. In a single, fluid movement as swift as thought, she drew her right arm up, elbowed Michael in the chest off the back of the log and onto the ground, stood up, drew her wand, and pointed it at Michael's throat. Her eyes blazed like a dragon's.
"DON'T! YOU! EVER! TOUCH! ME! AGAIN!"
Michael had his hands up at the level of his head, like in the Muggle movies when the bad guy surrenders. As he stood, the smile he wore never left his face. Except that, now, it looked more like a contemptuous sneer.
"Well," he said, "that was a week wasted. Maybe I'll go see if Ginny'll have me back. At least she knew how to have fun; she's alive. You're as dead as Diggory."
"GET OUT!"
Michael's smirk didn't change, but he raised one eyebrow. "Get out? We are out. And, if I'm not mistaken, I have as much right to be on the grounds as you do."
The anger was draining out of Cho; all she felt now was completely foolish. All she could think to do now was to turn and run around the lake back to the castle--taking the far side, avoiding the way they had come. She ran hoping at first that her tears, equally of rage and embarrassment and fear, would stop by the time she got to the castle. They hadn't stopped.
Cho ran instead to her dormitory, where she found Marietta playing a game of Snakes and Ladders with the Grey Lady. The snakes scattered in all directions and the ghost at first hovered, seeming sympathetic but not wanting to intervene without being asked. After a minute, Marietta shook her head, as if to say that her help wouldn't be needed, and she floated through the dormitory wall.
Cho howled out everything: the walk to the clearing, the words they'd said, Michael's grabbing of her, her reaction, his seeming scorn for her once she'd rejected him. And she told Marietta about the vagrant-looking Muggle who had tried to attack her in the British Museum several Christmases ago; the closest she had come to being raped, and she had only told one other soul about him before now.
Finally, she ran out of tears and words and emotions. She slumped off of the bed onto the stone floor, exhausted.
Marietta finally asked, "You're not going to blame yourself for this, are you?"
Cho wiped her eyes, ran her hand through her hair, and looked up at Marietta. "Why not? Maybe it's what I deserve."
"Stop that! It's nothing to do with you that Michael Corner turned out to be a right little ... can I call him a bastard?"
"You can and you should."
"And you should stop moping. None of it was your fault, or even bad judgment. You should do what my mum keeps telling me: put it on the shelf. Just get those thoughts out of your mind until you're out of Hogwarts. By then, you'll know what you really want out of life. I hate to see someone as lovely and talented as you down on yourself."
Cho simply sighed. "I'll never be able to; ever again." Marietta wasn't quite sure what Cho was referring to, but she was remembering the meeting of Dumbledore's Army where she had produced her Swan Patronus. Never again, she kept telling herself; I'll never be able to make another one.
I'll never be that happy, ever again.
xxx
The dawn of Sunday, June 14, brought even worse news for Cho Chang. As soon as she opened her bedcurtains, Marietta walked up to her, the Sunday edition of the Daily Prophet in hand.
"Cho," she said, "let me be the first to take back everything I may have said this year, or even thought, that you might be, well ..."
"Some kind of nutter," Diana Fairweather stood up from her writing-desk, also holding a copy of the Prophet. "I'm sorry, too. You were right all along."
"I, I don't understand."
"It's all in the paper," Raina said as she was putting on her robes.
"Here." Marietta handed her copy to Cho. As she read the large, bold headline, the letters seemed to be a cold metal fist grabbing her by the throat:
HE-WHO-MUST-NOT-BE-NAMED RETURNS
Cho's legs seemed to give her trouble; she staggered more than walked down the stone stairs to the Common Room, where she slumped down on the day bed. She read the leader article, she read the sidebars (including the same interview with Harry that had appeared in the Quibbler four months ago). She read everything three times, then let the newspaper slip out of her hands onto the floor. She spent the next hour curled up in a fetal ball on the day bed, whimpering to herself. Finally, Marietta came down and, ignoring the sniggers about her face, tried to get Cho to stand up.
"Come back up," she whispered. "You don't want to let them see you like this."
Cho allowed herself to be led upstairs, but she didn't really hear anything Marietta said. Her mind was filled with one thought:
It should have been me. I should have been there. I should have been with him--with them. I wanted to be in the battle. I wanted it so badly. I trained so hard this year for it, and, when it happened, I wasn't there. The one thing I really wanted this year, the only way to avenge Cedric, and they never thought of asking for my help--
because I didn't deserve to be there.
As soon as she was in the dorm she turned to her desk, pulled out parchment and a quill, and wrote one sentence:
Mummy, I want to come home
She couldn't keep the tears in after that. She dashed from her desk to her bed, crawled in, shut the curtains, and only then hurriedly took off her robes, ripping them in the process. She didn't care. They hung on her skin like fire. She tossed them on the foot of her bed, buried her face in her pillow, and cried long and sorrowfully. She didn't answer Marietta until almost sundown.
Cho Chang didn't leave the dormitory, nor did she eat, for two days.
xxx
to be continued in part 31, wherein Cho, on the anniversary of Cedric's death, finds comfort from the least likely source ...