Forever Mine, Forever Yours

Chapter Seven: Roses and Bango-Weeds

A/N: I am extremely aware of how long this chapter took to write, and I deeply apologize to everyone. I've just gone through finals and such, and I also hit a rut in the family crisis vehicle that needed and still needs attention. So, yes. Next chapter: The Yule Ball! (May or may not be split into two chapters.)

Disclaimer: J.K., once again, owns all, especially the bit down at the bottom.

"Now class," Flitwick's voice squeaked through the fifth year class, and the Ravenclaws all quieted. "As most of you may be aware of, the Yule Ball is approaching. This is mostly, a social event, to mix and mingle with friends and get to know the other students from the other schools.

"The Ball is open to anyone in their Fourth Year or above, though younger students can be invited by their peers. It is a formal event, which means dress robes must be worn. Dates—"

Flitwick was interrupted by an onslaught of giggles, mostly coming from the girls in the class. Even Cho grinned, catching Marietta's eye. Two faces immediately drifted past her eyes. One had a mass of messy black hair, the other, a haze of dark-blonde. If only one of them might…

Clearing his throat, Flitwick continued, "Dates are suggested, though not required, and it begins at eight o'clock on Christmas, and will end at midnight. Now… yes, I do believe that is all…"

The bell rang.

"What do you think Cho?" Marietta asked, her mouth in a wide grin. "A ball. The first one in Hogwarts for centuries, I'm guessing, and we just happen to be lucky enough to be in school while they hold one! Ooh, I hope Tucker asks me."

"Tucker Moskowitz?" Cho giggled. "No wonder you thought he had a chance for Champion. I didn't know you liked him."

"Not so much that I like him," Marietta said seriously. "But isn't he just so adorable? But then again, Gavin is good-looking too."

"Gavin Malone? On the Quidditch team?"

"That's the one."

"Ooh, don't worry about him, Marietta, I got it under control."

"You wouldn't!"

"Oh don't have a cow, I'm just going to drop a few hints here and there, that's all."

"Cho, promise me you won't say a word to him."

"Okay, okay. I promise Mare. Happy?"

By the end of the day, talk about the Yule Ball dominated the corridors, and everyone seemed to be caught up in the whirlwind of trying to find dates. The four friends were chatting excitedly by the fire, even Paige was just as excited as the rest of them. Lisa rushed into the common room, her face flushed, and looking as if she had just swallowed a golden rainbow.

"Don't tell me—" Marietta began.

"Miles asked me out," Lisa smiled, her eyes glittering.

"Miles Russell?" Cho asked, bewildered. "The one in my year?"

"The one and only," she smiled dreamily. "Isn't he handsome? He was so adorable when he asked, too, he snuck up behind me, put his hands over my eyes and asked, 'Will you go to the ball with me?' and then when I turned around, there he was." She sighed, melting into the nearest armchair.

"You've been asked on the first day?" Marietta asked in awe. "That's got to be a world record, or something. I can't believe it. You're probably the first girl in the school to get asked. And in our group, too!"

And Lisa seemed to be the last. The days dragged on, and nobody seemed to be asking anyone out. Neither Moskowitz nor Malone had asked Marietta, neither Harry nor Cedric had asked Cho, Roger had not asked Paige, and nobody asked Mandy, though she seemed perfectly fine with it.

"I'd rather just go with you guys," she had declared lightly, when all of her friends panicked over who would ask them—if anyone.

The next day, a Hufflepuff Cho had once played Quidditch against asked her, but she declined, the inkling of hope that Harry (or Cedric, she quietly admitted) might ask her fueling her to say no. Not much more than an hour after that, Marietta was asked by a Fourth-Year Ravenclaw, Terry Boot, and she kindly declined, also in hopes that Tucker or Gavin would come and ask her.

"At least you two got asked," Paige despaired. "Nobody's ever going to ask me, and everyone else has gotten someone who ask them."

"Oh? What does that make me? A dancing house-elf?" Mandy snorted.

"Well you're different," she told her. "You don't want to go to the Ball with a date, but I do. But he's never going to ask me, he probably doesn't even know I exist."

"Paige," Cho smiled reassuringly. "You can't possibly think that. Remember he let you on last year at the end of the season when O'Reilly broke his nose, and then his mum wouldn't let him play anymore? Now how could Roger not know who you are when he had try-outs and picked you over everyone else?"

Looking slightly heartened, Paige smiled, "You think so?"

"I know so, Paige. You have as much of a chance as anyone else for him to ask you to the ball."

"Hey… Er… Marietta? Can I talk to you for a second?"

Everyone turned, to see Gavin Malone, a tall, light-haired boy of about sixteen, his hands behind his back, looking a bit wired. Lisa, who was giggling madly, pushed a bewildered Marietta toward the boy, who stumbled toward him, her face a bit redder than it usually was, smiling nervously.

Watching the two carefully, the friends exchanged smiles, watching as the boy, now sharing Marietta's nervous smile talked to her. Marietta paused and nodded, her smile growing bigger as she flung her arms around him and bid him goodbye. By the time she reached the couches where Cho, Lisa, Paige and Mandy were sitting at, all four girls were grinning wildly, though not as widely as their friend. Marietta looked as if she had shot through the roof and right into the clouds.

"What'd I tell you?" Cho grinned.

Marietta shot her friend a suspicious look, dropping her smile immediately. "You didn't say anything to him, did you?" she asked, eyeing Cho warily.

"Of course not!" Cho exclaimed, looking terrified. She shook her head, a half-smile on her face. "Honestly, Marietta. How could you ever accuse me of such a thing? Is our friendship so weak that you would believe that I, Cho Chang, would ever tell your secrets as if they were-"

"Shut up," Marietta interrupted, the smile back on her face.

"How did he ask you?" Lisa asked, leaning forward intently. Mandy looked disinterested, staring into the fire. Cho was about to move to comfort her, but Paige got there first, wrapping an arm around the younger girl and talking to her in hushed tones. With a lack of things to do, Cho sat back, nipped Paige's book from the table and propped it open against her legs, wondering when she would get asked to the ball, and by whom.

With the ball approaching closer and closer, a great many people became desperate in their search for dates. Cho's day, however, went about as usual until her last class, when a torn piece of parchment sat on her desk. Walking over and picking it up, she read, 'Cho Chang, will you go to the ball with me?' She frowned, and looked back down, to see a single rose sitting on her desk, with another note attached. It said, 'Meet me at the Entrance Hall after dinner.' Marietta went through the rest of the class trying to figure out who possibly would have gone that out of their way to ask her to the Yule Ball.

Dinner went almost as slowly as the night when the Champions were announced, her friends also debating over who the mystery person could be. Cho found herself looking around her table and then at others, trying to figure out who possibly could have sent it to her. Nobody caught her eye, however, and once dinner had ended, her friends lingered until the Great Hall had nearly emptied and left, leaving Cho alone in the Entrance Hall.

She waited. Who had written it? Cedric? Or Harry? Or…

"So is this a yes?"

Cho flipped around, and found herself smiling widely at a very familiar figure. Her brown eyes met his gray ones.

"That was you, Cedric?" she laughed, in pleasant surprise, ignoring the sudden increase of heartbeats per minute.

"Of course," he said, his cheeks red, though he was looking at her expectantly, an expression of anticipation and anxiousness crossing his face at once. When she said nothing, he asked, "So?"

"Maybe," Cho grinned. "Only if you tell me how did it."

"Oh, I have a lot more talents than just turning rocks into dogs, Cho Chang."

"Oh now really? I never would have guessed… is one of them walking me back to my common room?"

"I believe one of my many talents is walking you to your common room."

"Shall we then?" Cho smiled, gesturing the way. Heading through the hallway, she continued to try and wheedle out how he had gotten the notes to her class and knew where she had sat. Cedric kept up denying her anything in a friendly way, though it all seemed rather strained until they reached the portrait of Cho's common room.

Cho bid Cedric goodbye and stated the password. As her portrait creaked open, Cedric's voice sounded behind her.

"So are you coming to the ball with me?"

Cho waited until she had stepped into her common room and turning around as the door of the portrait closed on her. "Of course."

Marietta was next to Cho in what seemed like the next millisecond. "Was that… Cedric?" she asked, bewildered, looking at the back of the closed portrait. Cho looked at her friend, smiled, and walked right past Paige, Lisa and Mandy who were looking at her expectantly and stepped into her room. Throwing herself on her bed, she hugged her pillow to her chest, grinning.

Cedric Diggory, School Champion, had asked her to the Yule Ball. And she couldn't have been happier.

The next day went about as usual again, until she left her last class of the day, Defense Against the Dark Arts.

"Er—Cho? Could I have a word with you?"

Cho looked around, surprised. Immediately, Marietta began to giggle, along with the rest of the fifth years who Cho was acquainted with. When she had managed to maneuver around her friends enough to see who was talking to her, she smiled. It was Harry.

"Okay," she agreed, stepping around her friends and following him until Marietta was out of sight and out of hearing. When they stopped, Harry stayed quiet for a long while and Cho simply stood, a bemused but curious expression on her face. Never in her five years of Hogwarts had Harry actually walked up to her and initiated a conversation.

"Wangoballwime?"

"Sorry?" Cho had no idea what a bango-weed was, nor did she think Harry had just accused her smoking some, so she picked the best next thing: ask what in Merlin's name he was talking about.

"D'you—D'you want to go to the ball with me?" he asked, his face flushing red.

Cho acquired a similar crimson hue, as she realized that the boy she would have rather gone with had just asked her… and she already had a date. "Oh! Oh Harry, I'm so sorry," she said. She was. "I've already said I'll go with someone else." But she wished she hadn't—or did she? Cedric was wonderful, and she liked talking to him, and it was true that his touch made her weak at the knees, but she had liked Harry longer.

Was she holding herself back because she thought she liked Harry more than she did Cedric? Wasn't it true that she was standing right in front of Harry, talking to him, and her heartbeat just barely increased? Wasn't it true that when she was talking to Cedric, she had wanted to embrace him?

"Oh. Oh okay, no problem," Harry said, looking a little distraught. Cho diverted her attention back to the boy.

"I'm really sorry." She still was.

"That's okay."

"Well—"

"Yeah."

"Well, 'bye," Cho responded, surprised to notice that a blush still adorned her cheeks. She had almost turned the corner, when his voice came back through the hall.

"Who're you going with?"

"Oh—Cedric," she told him, turning around. "Cedric Diggory."

"Oh right."

She fully turned the corner this time, only to find that most of the students had left the corridors and were making their way to the Great Hall for dinner. As she made her way down to her common room, a dull light glowing from the floor caught her eye. Making her way over to the object, Cho saw the distinct shape of a badge. The very badges she detested, and refused to take part in. Once she was standing straight over it, she could easily read the words. Potter Stinks.

Frowning, she picked up the button and pressed it until it read, 'Support Cedric Diggory—The Real Hogwarts Champion!'

Cho tucked the badge into her pocket, a small smile on her face.