Chapter 9 - I returned home

"Nervous?" Cho asked my reflection in the mirror, her hands holding a comb and a wand. She promised to do my hair and though I was reluctant to let her, she was my cousin after all. Besides, I know nothing about hairstyles other than making a ponytail so I gathered it was wise to allow Cho to do it. In fact, in the short two weeks that I came to stay in Hogwarts, I find that I was... starting to get used to Cho. Which was just as well since I didn't know when I could go home.

I smiled at her. "Just a little. You know-" I arched my eyebrow. "-you haven't told me who you're going with to the concert." My smile turned into a grin at the telltale blush on her cheeks. "Lemme guess, Diggory, isn't it? Trust you not to tell me anything."

"What about you?" she retorted good-naturedly with a grin. "Are you going with Flint?"

My smile disappeared. "No," I said abruptly, in a voice that told her not to argue. After what he did to me, I was not even sure if I could forgive him. All those sweet things he did were lies. It pissed me off that I was so stupid to like someone whom I had only known a few days. The fact that he looked like Jamie should warn me that he had no good intentions.

Jamie. The thought of that boy made me reminisce of home. Will I still be able to go home? Lacey seemed like such a faraway thought now. If it hadn't been her, I wouldn't have ended up here. I sighed and looked at Cho's reflection. I might as well get used to living here.

Backstage, everyone was rushing here and there. A girl was hysterically crying into poor bewildered Professor Flitwick's arms. There was a fight between a band of five boys at the back. I cringed when I saw a violin crashed onto the ground. Apparently, I was the only one sane.

I sat still alone. Cho had offered to come backstage with me but I told her not to. Clearly, anyone with half a brain could see that she was besotted with Cedric Diggory. How could I be so horrid to deprive her of that?

Dumbledore's voice boomed across the Great Hall as he introduced the exchange students. It was loud enough to gather some peace backstage and a sigh of relief escaped my lips. At last, some silence. I listened to the headmaster half-heartedly, my own mind drifting away from the scene. It was only when a hard shove to my shoulders than I snapped out of my daydream and looked straight at one of the students in charge of the concert.

"You are up first," he yelled as though I was deaf. I blinked at him in confusion and followed his nod to the group of boys who had been fighting earlier. "Their drummer broke his wrist."

Oh great. Why do these things only happen to me? "But I'm not ready!" I started to protest until I saw the look of panic across his face. Why make his job even more difficult. I swallowed and gave him a shrug. "Fine." The worst scenario that could happen was me forgetting the lyrics.

Within two minutes, I was up onstage with my - Chang Ling's - guitar. And then I felt the beginnings of stage fright. My mind went back to the time I auditioned, and how Marcus...

I drew a deep breath and strummed the first chord on the guitar. I'm playing for nobody, I told myself. Pretend you are alone and nobody's listening. Pretend you don't hear the snickers. Pretend you didn't just hear someone yell "mudblood".

"'Do you wanna run away together?'
I would say it was your best line ever
Too bad I fell for it
And I walked alone
Waiting for you to come along
Take my tortured heart by the hand
And write me off"

With each line, I felt more confident. My eyes immediately sought out Marcus in a crowd of Slytherins with a girl hanging by his arm. I noticed he was wearing the funny silver ring I saw on Malfoy and a few of the Slytherins. Were they some sort of a cult? Before I could delve deeper into it, his eyes met mine and I looked away.

"You forced me to become strong
When I just craved being weak
And you think you know
And I would like to think so
But do you know that when you go
I fall apart"

A small smile formed on my lips when I saw Cho and Cedric. Was there a couple more in love?

"I'm tired of hiding behind these blind eyes
I'm tired of this smile that even I don't recognise"

"You were awesome!" Cho enthused when I came out from backstage after leaving the guitar there. My cheeks reddened at the compliment since I had never played for anyone before. I was about to answer Cho when someone tapped on my shoulder.

Oliver Wood.

He cleared his throat nervously. "That... that was a great song," he said with a half smile. I smiled my thanks, but he was too busy looking at my heels to notice. "Do you want to dance?"

"Sure-"

"No, she doesn't." My head snapped up and my eyes narrowed. Bloody Flint, hadn't he made my life miserable enough?

"I can answer for myself," I retorted, folding my arms as I glared up at six foot tall boy. Unfortunately, it was difficult to look angry when your head is tilted up to stare down a person.

"Look, Chang Lin," Marcus said, a hint of irritation in his voice. "I know it was wrong of me and I apologise. But-"

"I don't care," I said icily and would have turned around to get Oliver if Marcus hadn't grab my arm and all but dragged me to the dance floor. "Wha-?"

He held my hand and waist gingerly, and I reluctantly placed my hand on his neck and let him take the other one. I refused to look him in the eye, choosing to look sideways at Oliver. Annoying prat. Marcus, that is.

"Do you like him?" came the unexpected question.

I blinked at him stupidly. "What?" I said again.

Marcus nodded at Oliver. "Him. You like him?"

"Why is it your business?"

"Because I like you."

I stopped in my tracks at the precise moment a couple twirled in our direction. Their elbows shoved me but the only step I made was to release Marcus's hands and stalk towards the punch bowl. He was still playing that stupid game, wasn't he? Good grief, wasn't it enough that he had a dare with his silly Slytherins? Now he had to humiliate me in front of the whole school and the exchange students?

"Wait!" he yelled, as he caught my hand and pulled me back to the dance floor. His grip on me tightened as though he knew I was going to escape again. I seethed angrily.

"I've had enough of your stupid games, Flint," I snapped at him as I desperately twisted my hand to get him to loosen his grip on it. "What's this now; did they dare you to get me angry? If they did, well, congrats on your winning."

He pulled me into our former dance position. "Could you just listen and not talk for once, Ling?" he asked exasperatedly. I shut up, mostly because of my surprise at him calling my name. Alright, so my name was really Zhang Lin instead of "Ling" but who was keeping track? This was the second time he used my name. (The first was during the auditions where he was not supposed to be.)

"Yes, they did dare me to make you fall in love with me-" He tightened his grip again when he saw that I was about to flee. "-but I didn't take it seriously." He licked his lips. "Because during the time, I started to... like you."

"Why didn't you take it seriously?" I returned, pretending to ignore the latter part of his confession even though I was hoping that he wasn't lying this time. "You could have a chance of humiliating the mudblood."

He winced and swallowed. "Because... you're the only girl who was even remotely interested in me in disregard of my blood and money. And because I am attracted to you. I really like you, Ling."

There it was again. Ling.

I wasn't sure what to think. He didn't look as if he were lying, but I wasn't exactly good at judging people correctly. "Are you sure this isn't a dare?" He shook his head fervently. I smiled hesitantly. "Good, because I like you too." I laughed when I saw his face brighten. I hesitated to continue. Maybe I should say this another time. No. "But," I continued, biting my lower lip when I saw his wary expression, "I don't belong here." I gave him a summarised version of how I managed to appear in the strange world of theirs and watched as his face turned from red to green to white.

"Y-you're a Muggle?" he asked slowly.

I nodded.

"No wonder. No wonder you're so different from the usual Chang Ling." He shook his head in shock and I had to drag him to continue our dance lest another couple knocked into us. He smiled sadly and drew me closer to him.

Somehow I knew that I was going to leave. From the expression on his face, he knew, too. Both of my arms went around his neck as he lowered his head. God, I don't want to leave. His lips pressed against mine (I could hear gasps of Slytherins) and I returned his kiss just as enthusiastically. We deepened the kiss as though it were our last and when we came up for air, I could see my vision darkening.

"Goodbye, Marcus."

"Zhang Lin? Zhang Lin, you okay?"

I groaned.

"She's awake! Thank God. What would we do without you..." the voice jabbered on.

I rubbed my eyes and tried to sit up. My eyes surveyed my surroundings. I was outside the shop that Lacey and I entered minutes ago. What happened? Gracious, my head hurt worse than suffering a hungover. The only thing I could remember was pressing the return key... and then... and then... I'm on the ground. My eyebrows furrowed. Why did I feel like I forgot something?

"Jamie here rescued you, you know," Lacey said with a broad smile at the boy in question. "He caught you before you passed out. You okay now?" I nodded. "I'm going to go get you something to drink."

There was a brief moment of silence when Lacey went off, leaving me with the annoying prat. My plan was to ignore him and pretend he didn't exist until Lacey came back. Except that at that moment, my eyes fell on the familiar-looking silver ring on his finger. Where had I seen that before? I furrowed my eyebrows and looked at Jamie.

He smiled. "Hello, Ling."

/AN/

It's FINISHED AT LAST! Haha. Sorry I procrastinated. I do hope the ending wasn't too confusing. Oh yes, and the song lyrics from above is supposed to be written by Zhang Lin, but I got lazy and just took the lyrics from the Wreckers ("The Good Kind").

This story is complete.