(note) I'd like to thank all the people who have reviewed my story so far, especially ardenz, tdolphing, and alex mort. Now to conquer school.
Eyes of Blue
Epilogue
She twirled the wand thoughtfully in her hand as if she were contemplating a terribly hard decision.
Cho glanced out the window of her empty dormitory and saw nothing but bleak, grey skies and lifeless clouds. She sighed heavily and gloomily looked at the deserted bed across from her own bed that she was sitting on.
That's how the bed was when the year began, and that's how it had finished when the year terminated.
Had it really been so long?
Slowly laying back into the cushiony soft pillows, the flaccid shell that was once a cheerful Cho sank deeper and deeper into the satin sheets. Staring blankly at the austere piece of furniture, she thought back to her fifth year. Nearly a year had elapsed since the Triwizard Tournament, but the memories still hadn't gone away.
The memories of her.
Fleur. Fleur Delacour, the part veela champion of Beauxbaton, could not, and would not leave her memory, no matter how hard she tried.
Cho rolled over on her side and shut her eyes, not bothering to stop the tears from rolling down her gaunt cheeks. She had lost much weight since last year, after the third task. Nothing mattered anymore; everything just lost its luster to her.
Every memory of her, every single, haunting memory of Fleur just kept replaying itself back in her mind. Their first meeting, when the blonde goddess just happened to sit next to her at the Ravenclaw table when there was the welcoming feast. It was a chance meeting, but once those blue eyes had met hers, she felt as if it were more than just luck.
Sharing the room with her at first seemed tedious, due to all of the complaining she had to tolerate, but after a while, her demanding personality became…well, quite endearing. There was never a dull moment with her, and although she gave off an aura that felt tough and imposing, deep down inside she really was a kind person.
Even when it came to the time of the Yule ball, Cho never really understood why Fleur had gotten especially finicky. She realizes now that she was jealous, but of course, it's far too late to fix anything.
It had happened too quickly.
So many words left unspoken, so many things that they could have done together. Right before the third task, the kiss they shared, it felt so right, but it was just too quick for her, and being the idiot she was, she denied it. It was the worst mistake she ever made in her life, and she paid dearly for it.
The shattered look on her face, the fresh tears, it stung so deeply that she had to run away from her. Fleur… her radiant beauty had wavered in that instant. She had opened her heart and offered Cho everything she had, and in return, she was left with a crushed spirit and nothing left to return to after the tournament. The intense dejection and disappointment in her eyes were the last things she ever saw.
In fact, that was the last time she saw Fleur alive.
Retreating to the stands like the coward she was, Cho watched with blurry vision as Fleur entered the maze with the most crestfallen look in her startling blue eyes.
All of it just went so horribly wrong. She was afraid of the feelings that she had felt for Fleur, and by rejecting her it just made them worse. They just intensified.
Cho twisted on her bed, clutching her wand with white knuckles and a clenched jaw as those few moments played through her mind again.
It was impossible to see past the twenty-foot hedges, but that didn't mean she couldn't hear anything that was going on. The scream, oh that ear piercing scream, shattered the unusual silence of the audience. Fleur's shriek had pierced straight through Cho's spirit, for she knew it could not mean anything good. That flash of green that appeared not too shortly afterwards made her heart jump into her throat with worry and concern.
She wasn't the only one who was anxious. The patrolling teachers ran straight to the source of the light and once they reached it, all havoc was let loose. All sorts of whistles began blowing as teachers rushed over the hedges with their brooms to airlift the body out of the dark maze that was its tomb.
Cho wanted to scream because of whose body it was, but no sound came out. She ran down the stands as quickly as possible as the other spectators jumped out of their seats, also shouting as well to add to the cacophony of haphazard noise.
The teachers had set Fleur's limp body by the triwizard cup and began to examine her for injuries.
Not a scratch on her, but with no pulse…
Cho jumped over the fence that surrounded the maze as Professor McGonagall yelled something to Dumbledore that sounded a lot like Avada Kedavra, but she didn't want to listen to what the teacher had just shouted out so loud.
An unforgivable curse? Right here at Hogwarts?
She dashed to Fleur's side and collapsed next to her, clutching her arm and holding on so tight as if she might fly away with the slightest of breezes.
Her pale skin and platinum hair along with her unusually sharp features only made her look more like death. She was not moving, nor was she making any sound. What a horrible way to die… alone, in a maze… and right after Cho had just… a broken heart must be far worse than death.
Madame Pomfrey was running up to them, but she couldn't help, not now, not ever. Fleur was gone, and even when she used to be alive, she never wanted help from the medicinal nurse.
The tears had streamed down her face like a river as some of the professors attempted to pull her off of the deceased champion. It was the most forlorn feeling that had ever crossed her heart, and as if nothing could possibly go even more wrong, Harry Potter jumped out of nowhere with the triwizard cup in one hand and another dead body, Cedric, in the other.
Dumbledore rushed up to the boy as he grabbed his wrist with a dazed look.
"He's back," Harry whispered, "He's back. Voldemort."
The whole stadium exploded into even more confusion and chaos as screams and cries echoed all throughout the stadium for the dead Hufflepuff.
Only Cho couldn't care less. Fleur was gone.
Those stupid professors, they kept trying to pull her off of her fallen friend, but she continued to struggle against them. It eventually took Hagrid to pull her off of Fleur before they covered the body and levitated it back to the castle.
All of it felt like so long ago, but it was just a year. But it took that whole year for Cho to accept what she had felt for her blonde friend. It wasn't because of her veela heritage that made her like her, no, Cho had fallen for her through her own free will. But when she died, her emotions were shot to hell. Summer was terribly lonely, and she slowly turned into just a living zombie.
She only ate when she had to, and as a result, she had lost pounds and pounds of weight. Even her parents worried for her. Nothing mattered anymore. Without Fleur, life had just become more of a hindrance to her.
When the long months of summer torment came to an end, returning to Hogwarts rekindled her pain. She was forced to go back to her same dormitory that she had occupied last year, but it worsened everything. Images of Fleur kept passing through her mind as she could remember every little detail of the girl. Where she sat, her favorite place to nap by the window… everything.
All of the other students thought that she was grieving over the loss of Cedric Diggory, and although she did miss him, it wasn't what they thought. Her heart and soul yearned for Fleur to be back with her, making fun of her, criticizing the food, anything! She just wanted her back…
When Harry tried to kiss her in the room of requirement, she just made of the story about missing Cedric, and she even tried to go out with him to make the memory of Fleur disappear, but nothing could do it. She even went as far as dating Roger Davies for a while just because Fleur had gone with him to the Yule Ball. True, she despised him for imposing himself on Fleur at the ball, but she was desperate for just a little piece of her.
This whole year, everyone thought she was distraught over Cedric. Oh how wrong they were.
Cho sat up on her bed and looked out of the window. More shades of grey, how depressing. Reminiscences of Fleur kept flooding through her mind, and they wouldn't stop.
"Stop it, get out!"
She clutched her head and shook it, hoping the ghostly images would leave her mind, but of course, like every time before, they wouldn't. How else could she possibly get Fleur out of her mind? She loved her, she loved her so deeply, that she wanted to forget her. Sure, that doesn't make sense, but just remembering the French girl and not being able to be with her only made her life miserable.
She picked up her wand.
She twirled it in her hand.
She pointed it at her forehead.
Closing her eyes tightly, she took one last look into her memories. A kiss, some laughter, some insults, and recollections of the times they shared.
But mostly her eyes of blue.
Those piercing blue eyes she first saw walking up to the castle on that fateful cold day outside of Hogwarts; the arrival of the Beauxbaton students and the arrival of Fleur Delacour; her friend, her champion, her unexpected love. But why live without really living? If Fleur was not here, she could not truly thrive.
The only thing that tied Fleur to her was her memories, and the only way to make the pain stop was to make her forget she had ever loved.
Her hand did not shake; her mind was made up.
"Obliviate."
[A/N: Just as a clarification, the obliviate spell does not kill anyone; it merely erases memories.