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
Spoilers: Everything
xxx
32. The Hippogriff in the Parlour
"Dear Mummy and Daddy,
As you can see, I've sent Quan Yin ahead with this note. It should be there when you wake. This is just to let you know that I feel..."
Cho had to break off writing. She thought and thought about what the past week had been like, ever since her encounter with Firenze. Not quite believing it herself, she continued:
"I feel fine. You can see that for yourselves when the Express gets back to King's Cross.
Former Headmistress Umbridge left us today. She'd been keeping a very low profile since the return of Albus Dumbledore, and I suspect she feared getting the reception she finally got. She tried to sneak out of Hogwarts while the rest of us were at lunch today, but the resident poltergeist, Peeves, wasn't about to let her get away easily and started pummeling her, and what started as a sneak turned into a run. The students all ran to watch, of course, and the faculty tried half-heartedly to restore order. I did, however, overhear Professor McGonagall tell another professor that she was sorry that Peeves was beating Umbridge with her best walking-stick. "I would like to have given Umbridge the send-off she truly deserves." We can talk about this further when I get home."
And when I can be sure the owls aren't being tampered with, Cho thought.
"The Leaving Feast only went to show that Dumbledore is once again in charge. Going by points, and the Slytherin Prefects' tendency to take points from every other House on the slightest pretext, Slytherin had been the clear winner of the House Cup going into the Feast. Then Dumbledore started adding back points to the other Houses for all sorts of reasons, until it was nearly a four-way tie. Then came the final blow, with Slytherin ahead of Gryffindor by thirty points. Referring to that enchanted swamp I wrote about, he said, "In my absence, the Fifth Floor has sprouted a little bit of wetlands. Professor Flitwick assures me that it was a very ingenious spell, which deserves twenty points." Then he deliberately paused a bit, and added, "For each of its creators."
There it was; Gryffindor got the House Cup yet again, and it was the Weasley twins who got it for them. The two greatest ne'er-do-wells I've ever met, and they get the Cup for the House they fled weeks ago. Dumbledore was being hopelessly partisan in favour of Gryffindor, again, but it's perfectly understandable to those of us who've been here all year.
I'll finish this now and turn to the little bit of packing I still have to do. See you tomorrow.
Love, Cho"
xxx
Cho put the quill and inkwell into her trunk, certain that she wouldn't need it again until she was home in Diagon Alley. She tied the scroll to her owl's leg; the owl immediately left through the open window and flew into the night.
She looked at the other girls in her dormitory; girls who, like her, were packing for the trip home the next day. Jan Nugginbridge had long since taken down her poster of the Weird Sisters, the band that had played at the Yule Ball. The poster had triggered a crisis in Cho her first night back, and Jan refused to take it down back then. It had come down sometime in the spring; Jan had simply grown tired of it. Now she was combing out her cat, Coriander.
Marietta was gloomy, talking to nobody, her face still a mass of blotches that spelled out the word "SNEAK." The other two, Raina al-Qaba and Diana Fairweather, glanced around the room even as they spelled their belongings into their trunks.
I know why it's like this, Cho thought. Dumbledore didn't say anything about it, but I know we're all thinking it: a war we thought had ended years ago has come back. Perhaps we won't all be back here in September. In the last war some families fled England, others fought and lost loved ones. It's strange that my family chose to come here from China, just before I was born, while the war was still on. Voldemort hadn't yet met Harry--
Harry.
This was the year that gave me what I wished for, Cho thought with a touch of bitterness, a touch of regret, and even a touch of joy. I got to know Harry Potter. And it was ... nice. That morning in the Owlery, anyway, when Harry finally got over his nerves and we could have a chat. The Army. The misteltoe... Then that business with Marietta's face; and if Granger still can't forgive Marietta, fine. I shan't forgive Granger.
She closed her trunk a bit loudly, got into bed and drew the curtains. If her mates saw her so angry, there'd only be awkward questions, and she didn't want that.
xxx
By the time Cho's bed curtains opened again, the sun was streaming in on a flawless summer day. She again wondered what might happen over the summer, who might not return...
Roger Davies, of course, would not return, because he'd done his seven years, completed his N.E.W.T.s and was set to go into the wizarding world, war or not. But he and Cho had already said their goodbyes, after a fashion, and it hadn't been very pleasant.
She watched the other girls dressing, packing the last few items, going to breakfast or returning from breakfast. Their lives are so much simpler than mine, she thought. This past year has been, well, parts have been good but most of it has been ghastly. Quidditch was good--all but the last match. But that gives me something to aim for next year. It'll be my Seventh, and I WILL bring the Quidditch Cup back to Ravenclaw! That and my N.E.W.T.s will be more than enough to get on with. Speaking of getting on, better have breakfast; there's nothing between here and Diagon Alley but the trolley, and that's never good enough...
xxx
Cho and Marietta were among the last to arrive on the platform, waiting for the Hogwarts Express. Marietta couldn't find anything suitable to cover her face. At the last moment, Cho got a woolen balaclava, in Ravenclaw colour stripes, out of Marietta's trunk. She tried to Transfigure it into silk, but it kept slipping out of place.
"Never mind about that," Marietta said sourly, as she Transfigured it back to wool. "Mum's sending me to St. Mungo's first thing tomorrow morning and letting them sort it out."
"Sending? Won't she be with you?"
The scarf muffled Marietta's reply as they walked down to leave for the summer. "She doesn't have the time now. Ever since the Ministry decided You-Know-Who is back, the Floo Network's been humming along nonstop. She says she spends most of her time sending panicky callers to Magical Law Enforcement; there's really nowhere else to send them yet. Fudge is trying to put together some sort of Death Eater Activities Division, but it's not off the ground yet..."
Cho was only listening to Marietta with one ear as they emerged onto the great stone steps, joining the trickle of last-minute students heading for the station. The day was deceptively beautiful, sunny and warm (too warm for a wool balaclava, but Marietta was more interested in being covered than in being cool).
They had been standing toward the back of a crowded platform, with just a few minutes before boarding, when Cho heard a voice behind her: "Cho, please don't walk away. I have to talk to you."
Michael Corner.
She had tried, very hard, to avoid him after their disastrous date. Her hand instinctively twitched toward her wand, but she decided not to do anything.
Marietta quickly said, "I'll be back in a minute," and stepped away before Cho could say anything.
"First of all," Michael said, "I am so very sorry about what I did. I've been trying to find you for three weeks now to apologise."
Cho stared straight ahead, not looking at him. "What you did, and what you said, won't go away with a simple 'I'm sorry.'"
"I ... Well ... Look here ..."
"What made you think that I wanted that!"
"You're not the first girl I've ever gone with, you know. Some of them, speaking frankly, didn't complain. But you'd shoved me, and, well, you hurt my pride more than anything else. I just felt I had to say something to hurt you."
"Congratulations, you succeeded."
"Will you listen, please? I was mad at you until the next day, when I realized something. I missed you. I missed those little chats we had during my O.W.L.s week. I don't know how you did it, but you became very important to me, and I didn't realize it until you were nowhere around. That's why I'm apologising: because I know that you didn't deserve to be treated that way."
Cho was still unsure whether to accept his apology, and said nothing.
"Cho, I just want to be able to send an owl or two over the summer to you. I'd like to keep in touch." This time, Cho turned to face him, eyes blazing. Michael held up his hands. "Sorry; poor choice of words. Fine, let's just leave friendship out of it. We're both still in the Army, you know, and there is a war on, and nobody knows what You-Know-Who will do in the next two months. Suppose Harry needs our help? We should be ready for that, at the very least."
Cho looked at the swarthy boy, who seemed so anxious to have her forgive him, and admitted to herself that she too had missed their conversations. She took a breath and said, "Well, on that basis..."
Michael's face lit up, not even waiting for her to finish. "That's super! Thanks, Cho, thanks a lot." A student shouted down the platform. "Oops, that's my mates. Gotta ride with them. Have a good summer!" And he vanished into the press of students.
A minute later, Marietta reappeared. "What was that all about?"
"He wanted me to forgive him."
"What cheek."
"And ... I think I did."
Marietta stared at Cho for a minute. "You still have a lot to learn about boys, then."
Cho sighed. "I was just thinking the same thing."
xxx
For the most part, the train ride was as uneventful as ever--eight hours of British countryside sliding past. Marietta sat next to the window looking out, which kept anyone in the corridor from seeing her face. Cho sat across from her, as if keeping watch. Occasionally, another Ravenclaw would come in to chat for a bit, but they never stayed long. Cho couldn't tell if it was her mournful reputation or Marietta's face that made them leave shortly after they arrived.
When Diana Fairweather came in, it was to tell them what had happened to Draco Malfoy and his two "shadows," Crabbe and Goyle. "Malfoy must have been half-mad to draw a wand on Potter like that. Anyway, a half-dozen students in the compartment see the whole thing, rush out and hex the three of them. Left them looking like something between a sausage and a slug."
"Any of us?" Cho asked.
"A couple of Fifth-Years, Boot and Goldstein. The rest were Hufflepuffs. Never would have thought they had it in them."
"There's bravery in numbers, I suppose," Cho said, not wanting to mention that they were probably all in Dumbledore's Army. She found herself envying them; they were doing something constructive, actually Defending Against the Dark Arts. Then her thoughts pulled her up short; be careful what you wish for, Cho Chang, because you may not end up facing some loutish Slytherin. It may be one of the Azkaban escapees, or some other Death Eater who's studied the darkest of the Dark Arts...
"Cho?"
Cho snapped out of her reverie when she realised Marietta was talking to her. "Sorry."
"Didn't mean to bring you back from whatever far-off place you were in, and you can go back there, but after you walk with me to the loo."
They walked down the corridor toward the girls' toilet, Cho not thinking about anything in particular. She glanced in one compartment, and stopped.
Harry.
Granger was with him, of course, and the two remaining Weasleys, Keeper Ron and Seeker Ginny, and Neville Longbottom, who she remembered from Dumbledore's Army. But she only thought about them later.
Harry had been playing chess with Ron, and had looked up for a second. In that second, their eyes met. Cho suddenly grabbed Marietta's wrist and pulled her along the corridor. Marietta started to say something, then stopped. She saw that Cho was blushing like a sunset.
Cho pulled Marietta into the waiting room outside of the girls' toilet and onto a bench next to her. Then Cho started to laugh.
It was literally the first time since the Tri-Wizard Tournament that Cho had laughed at anything at all. All Marietta could do was watch as Cho's laughter just went on and on.
After about a minute, Marietta tried to interrupt her. "What's wrong?"
Cho turned to her, still chuckling. "What's wrong is that I saw it, Marietta. I saw the hippogriff in the parlour."
Marietta just looked completely confused.
"You know how they say," Cho said, still chuckling from time to time, "when people are together and there's some embarrassing subject they just refuse to talk about, that it's like a hippogriff in the parlour? This large, moody, ferocious beast who could claw any of them to pieces, and they don't say a word about it, they just pretend it isn't there..."
Marietta's confusion had given way to worry. "Are you all right?"
Cho smiled at her Prefect, her friend; smiled sadly at her. "If you're wondering have I lost my mind, no, I haven't; just my heart. I looked at Harry just now, looked into those eyes, and all the old feelings just flooded back into me. I still love him, Marietta; after everything that happened this year, Merlin and Morgana help me, I'm still in love with Harry Potter."
Marietta let out her breath. "You realize, of course, that no good can come of this."
"If I could choose to walk away from him, from both the good moments and the bad moments, I certainly would. But I can't! One way or another, my life is caught up with his."
"I wouldn't say you're destined for anything of the kind with him."
"Next year, Marietta. Something will change next year."
They didn't say much for the rest of the trip. When the cart came around, Marietta bought half a dozen Chocolate Frogs and popped them in her mouth in short order. "My complexion can't get any worse than it is now, can it?" she half-smiled between bites.
xxx
When the Hogwarts Express got to King's Cross, Cho and Marietta waited until they were the last to leave the train. Cho wanted to wait until Harry was gone; Marietta until her mother came onto the platform.
"I'm sure your mother will get you taken care of in no time," Cho was saying. "She'll ..."
"She'll do nothing!" The wool wrappings only muffled her shouting a little bit. "I'll spend the summer in St. Mungo's, like I spent the spring in the hospital wing, and--"
"Stop that! I've had quite enough of my own tears this year; please don't add yours."
"Have you?"
"Have I what?"
"Had enough. About Cedric, I mean."
Cho bowed her head, thinking for a minute. "There'll probably never be enough. I'll remember Cedric until I die. But I don't have to go to pieces everytime I think of him."
Marietta mumbled something that was swallowed up in the balaclava. She tried again: "I saw you blush, when we saw Harry. You were ashamed of me, weren't you?"
"No, it's just--I don't understand him anymore. I want one conversation with him when we wouldn't start fighting again. Such a waste when I still--"
"Do you think Harry knows about Michael?"
"No." A minute's pause. "I don't know." Another pause. "I don't care."
"Is that so?"
"Oh look! That's your mother, isn't it?"
Marietta rushed into the arms of a tweedy, middle-aged witch who bundled her daughter off of the platform with barely a glance at Cho.
Cho waited a minute, to give the others a chance to be on their way, then passed through the barrier herself.
Harry was still there, having a conversation with--Cho could hardly believe it--Professors Lupin AND Moody. That explains his abilities, Cho thought. Harry Potter, I don't know what will happen tomorrow or the next day, but, whatever else may happen, you are the best Defense teacher I've ever had, and I'll believe that until my dying day.
Only now did she notice the witch standing with the Dark Arts professors. She looked like any of a thousand young people in London, with spiky pink hair and a t-shirt; except that this one said "The Weird Sisters."
Instinctively Cho braced herself for the feelings--the rush of emotion with a Cedric-related topic. She knew she would be reminded of the Yule Ball and of dancing in Cedric's arms--
and those memories came again, but the rush of emotion didn't. It was there, to be sure, but it didn't overwhelm her. For the first time, it was manageable.
The surprise of this made Cho lean against the track 10 side of the barrier. Was it over, then? she thought. Probably not. The feelings will still come unbidden, and may still conquer me--but it may not happen for another week, or another month. In the meantime, I can handle them. I can actually handle them.
She practically ran with her luggage cart into the station, where she saw both her parents waiting for her. She rolled up to them, beaming.
"Cho," her father began a bit nervously, "are you, I mean, how are you?"
"Much, much better," Cho smiled--a smile they hadn't seen in over a year. "Especially since we've lost that monster Umbridge!"
"Manners, Cho!" her mother scolded her.
"Whether I say it or not, she's still a beast. But I'll tell you about it on the way home."
Cho raced on ahead with her luggage, leaving a Chinese wizard and witch gazing after their impudent, headstrong, unpredictable seventeen year old daughter.
xxx
My deepest thanks to all the readers who have stuck with me this far. Will this continue? It all depends on what JKR puts into "Half-Blood Prince". As soon as I've read it and have a chance to think about the newest addition to Canon, I'll post something to let you know...