One-shot
A/N My first actual attempt at a fic.
I haven't read the books in a while, and my only source of information is the mass amount of fics I have read in the past few months. I honestly have no idea what I'm doing but here goes nothing.
Enjoy.
Cho didn't know how long she was standing there. Standing there enveloped in a yellow jersey that had once given her comfort. Standing there alone in one of the Hogwarts towers, gazing out the window at the quidditch field, the hedges of the maze still encompassing the interior of it.
She didn't know how long she had been crying, or when she stopped. She could taste the salt of her tears on her lips, feel the stains on her cheeks, and the weight of the words on her back.
DIGGORY
Cedric Diggory, her boyfriend, someone who she loved, was dead. She was there when they returned. Him and Harry.
Harry over his body.
Harry's screams of grief.
Cedric wasn't moving.
And that's when she realized he was dead. She didn't want to believe it at first, but tears rolled down her cheeks. The crowd swarmed the two. The world got a little more blurry as she tried to get closer. It couldn't be true, she thought as she pushed through people. Her arms were shaking. She pushed through and there at the center was Cedric and Harry.
That's when she saw.
His glazed eyes.
The lack of a smile on his lips.
The lack of movement.
His body sprawled on the ground.
He was dead, and the world got colder.
Cho had never felt more alone.
Summer passed by in a blur. On some days she stayed holed up in her room. Other days she flew aimlessly around on her broom. September 1st had never come quicker.
The morning of September 1st, Cho was hurriedly scribbling the last few words of her explanation on her summer potion essay. Racing out of her room, to meet her mum. The feeling of side-along apparition never went away she mused, as she was forced through a tube to Platform 9 ¾ . With a kiss from her mum on the cheek, and the whispers of stay safe, she boarded the Hogwarts express.
She quickly found an empty compartment, and occupied it. Sitting there in the compartment, she realized that she was… alone. Cedric would have joined her, or one of her friends, but none of them seeked her out.
The sound of the compartment door opening alerted her, and as she looked up, dark eyes met piercing green.
Harry and Cho stared at each other awkwardly. For a few moments nothing happened, before Harry mouthed the words 'I'm sorry' and slowly closed the compartment door.
Before he could do that however, she blurted out something along the lines of wait and stay. And so he did, entering the compartment and sitting across from her.
For a while they just sat there, silence filling the small area, and neither of them wanted to break it.
Cho could feel the words on the tip of her tongue, threatening to break out of her lips, questions she had since the beginning of the summer, and so she spoke.
"Why did you both grab the cup?"
He didn't answer her for a while. Cho regretted asking.
Then he spoke about an argument the two had before they both grabbed the cup, the other wanting the other person to win, before they both agreed to grab the Cup at the same time.
That sounded like Cedric.
For the first time in 4 months, Cho smiled.
After the train ride, Cho saw Harry often. Whether it was the quick conversation she had with him on the way out of Charms, the greetings as they passed each other in the halls, or him bumping into her as she left transfiguration, she interacted with him often.
"Cho! I bet I could out race you on the obstacle field."
"You're on Potter."
She stopped walking and glanced at the broom in his hands.
"You can't use your Firebolt though."
"Oh come o-"
She laughed.
(He still beat her)
As they floated above the quidditch field he asked her out to Hogsmeade.
She accepted.
Their date to Hogsmeade was lovely.
They went on one more. Then two.
And then they were dating.
Cho realized something.
She noticed the similarities between him and Cedric. The way they ran their hands through their hairs. They way they stuck up for people they cared for. The smiles they had. Their ability on a broomstick
She realized that she was using him to replace Cedric. A rebound.
When she realized, she cried.
But didn't have the heart to break up with him.
She noticed as time passed, Harry was becoming more distant. The way he now nervously rubbed the back of his hand after every detention with Umbridge. The increasing bags under his eyes. He told her he was fine, but she didn't believe him.
Her heart shattered as she realized she couldn't help him. Just like how she was unable to help Cedric.
News of Harry in the infirmary had her rushing, but her body felt sluggish as she walked up the stairs. She opened the door to the infirmary and saw him there, injured. His eyes were bloodshot, and tears rolled down his cheeks. The name Cedric almost flew out of her mouth. Her lips quivered as she walked closer. Images flashed through her head.
Cedric's dead body.
She saw Harry with a small smile.
Cedric walked out of the first task, burned, but a small smile on his face as he saw her.
Harry flying on a broom.
Cedric flying on a broom.
Harry injured, Cedric dead.
She couldn't help either of them.
With a shaky voice she whispered, "I can't do this anymore." Harry's eye made contact with hers. They flashed grey for a moment.
"I'm breaking up with you."
Harry let out a slow nod of acknowledgement, and pulled her into a hug.
She pulled away after a short moment, and turned around, her shoulders were trembling. She let out a choked sob as she walked.
"I'm sorry," she whispered, and tears freely flowed down her cheeks.
She never loved him.
Cho Chang was alone and the world has never been colder.