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On Sunday morning, Cho woke up a disheveled mess. Her entire body was sore, her face was caked with dried tears, and she was still wearing her cold, sweaty Quidditch robes. In fact, Cho was strongly reminded of the time of the morning after Marietta had thought it would be funny to pour fire-whisky in Cho's pumpkin juice. She climbed slowly out of the four-poster and tested her sore limbs. After cleaning her face and brushing her hair thoroughly, Cho began to feel a bit better. She took out a soft robe from her suitcase and prepared for a quick bath downstairs. But when she pulled her Quidditch robes off, an oddly shaped object rolled out of the pocket and clattered on the floor. A few housemates grumbled from their beds, and Cho hurriedly picked it up. Malfoy's broken wand. Oops, Cho thought. I should return this. She decided on postponing the shower and instead put on a sweater and jeans and started toward the hospital wing.
The halls were pretty deserted; not a lot of people would willingly get up early on a Sunday. Maybe I should pay a visit to the Owlery, finally mail Mum's gift that's sitting in Doraemon's nest, Cho thought. She loved the tranquility of the Owlery, and she enjoyed how it always smelled of animals and parchments. I can use the emptiness to…just think, Cho told herself, trying to forget just who it was she wanted to think of.
She pushed open the Owlery door as she reached it. Well, speak of the devil, Cho thought grimly. Harry Potter was inside already.
"Hi, Cho," he said quickly.
"Hi!" Cho answered. "I wasn't expecting anyone to be up here yet…" Her glossy brown owl, Doraemon, swooped down with the parcel that it was instructed not to send yet, and gave Cho a questioning hoot. She nodded, tied it onto its leg, and gave it an affectionate pat before it soared off.
"Hey, how's your Quidditch team shaping up?" she asked, attempting to sound as if she wasn't worried about the upcoming match.
"Er," said Harry, "I don't know, honestly. I haven't been to too many practices; Umbridge has been keeping me in detention a lot. "
Cho remembered hearing about Harry's stand against the new, completely foul DADA teacher, Umbridge. Her heart soared at how brave Harry was. That was another thing she loved- No. Cho scolded herself firmly. I don't love Harry! I can't do that to Cedric. "That Umbridge woman is horrible," Cho said quietly, bringing herself out of her reverie. "You don't deserve all your punishments. You were just telling the truth about how Ced…" Her voice faltered, then strengthened. "How he…died. I thought you were really brave, standing up to that foul woman."
Harry grinned sheepishly, and Cho felt…felt...
Cho gasped softly and clutched at her heart. What! What? I don't understand this! Ignoring Harry's confused looks, Cho said nonchalantly, "Oh, haha, silly me! I forgot! I have to.. be somewhere."
She darted quickly out of the Owlery and rested her head against the cool stone of the walls. What's going on? she thought. That smile used to melt my heart! When I made him smile, I would feel warmth travel throughout my body! Those green eyes used to make my knees weak! What's so different about today? Today.. today…I felt nothing. Cho took several deep breaths and regained herself. Don't lose yourself. You still have to see Malfoy. Pull yourself together.
Cho sniffed and pretended she hadn't just leaned against the wall talking to herself, and then set off for the hospital wing.
Malfoy was asleep when Cho stepped into the white room, but once she placed the wand on his cot and prepared to leave, his intense eyes snapped open.
"Chang," he growled dangerously, briefly noting the wand in his lap. "You! What the bloody hell did you do! What happened! I'll kill you!" He made an attempt to leap out of bed, but then groaned in pain and lay back down. "You're lucky I can barely move," he snarled, clearly wanting to rip Cho from limb to limb.
Cho's mouth opened in disbelief and anger. "Hey! I saved your life!" she cried in his face. A nagging voice in her head reminded her that she also endangered it, but she decided that now was not the best time to bring that up. " You would have died without me," she finished haughtily.
Malfoy laughed unbelievingly. "Yeah, right! Madam Pomfrey told me all you did yesterday was sit by me and cry! Merlin, Chang, you're such a hosepipe! And a bad liar!" He turned his back on Cho.
"Okay," said Cho, fighting to keep her voice calm, "you're obviously in a lot of pain right now, but, seriously, I saved your life."
After a few moments of silence, Malfoy sat up to face her. "What?" he asked, sneering.
Cho sat down in a nearby chair and sighed. "Look," she started quietly to retell the story. "We were going after the Snitch when you, er, fell headfirst into the ground. I didn't notice for a long time, but when I did, you weren't breathing. You were turning quite blue. I had to find a way to restore your breathing, and after I did, I carried you all the way here."
She searched Malfoy's face for a reaction, and he narrowed his eyes. "Why didn't you just leave me there?" he finally smirked. "Life without me –must have sounded pretty appealing to you, right?"
Cho allowed herself a smile. "I thought about it," she admitted airily. He looked scandalized at this, and Cho laughed. "Kidding. I was too stressed to even think about anything else, honestly."
Twirling his ruined wand in his fingers, Malfoy added quietly, "Except for saving my arse."
"Yeah," agreed Cho.
A few awkward moments passed before Malfoy frowned and asked, "Did you catch the Snitch?"
The last thing Cho wanted to do was admit she was feinting the whole time, so she stammered stupidly, "Y-yeah, sure did. Great catch, you know, you should have seen it."
She cringed at the lie, but felt even guiltier, when Malfoy said, "Well, I guess you don't need me anymore then."
"No!" she cried, a little too forcefully. "I mean," she continued softer, "You're extremely helpful." She didn't want to add that she just needed to improve as much as possible before the Gryffindor-Ravenclaw match, so Harry wouldn't...Harry. Cho frowned again. Her heart didn't skip a beat or speed up. In fact, it just kept beating normally as if she hadn't uttered the revered name. She shook her head, concentrating back on Malfoy.
He was smirking knowingly at Cho. "You mean, you just want to practice as much as possible so you don't make a fool of yourself at the upcoming match in front of St. Potter, right? Then, Merlin, Chang, just come out and say it! Everyone knows already!"
Cho looked startled at how close he pinpointed her incentives. She was about to snap back angrily at him before deciding that already cracking his skull, rib, and arm, was punishment enough. "Are you going to help me or not?" she hissed instead.
A brief silence met her query. Malfoy frowned for a while before whining, "Fiiiine…but just until your match. Madam Pomfrey said I should be out of here in two or three days."
Cho silently cheered. She desperately needed the exercise, and she knew that without external motivation, she would likely stay in her dorm each Saturday, stuffing herself with Acid Pops and chatting. Cho beamed at Malfoy, who was drinking a dark green antidote that was making him grimace. "That's so great! I'll see you next week!" Cho said, standing up and preparing to leave.
"Hey, Chang," Malfoy started uncertainly and quite loudly, as if he was practicing English for the first time. "About yesterday…er…I didn't, I mean, I could've but I didn't…so it was really, you know-"
Cho turned around and chuckled, "In a month or so, when you're ready to tell me this, come find me." She pushed open the door, and right as she was about to close it, saw Malfoy sit up in his cot.
"Thanks for saving me," Malfoy finally mumbled, quite angrily, to the floor.
She smiled.
(A/N) Yay! Chap. 3 is up! Chap. 4 in progress...Hope you guys liked it! Please review with suggestions, comments, etc. I would love to know what my readers think!