Return of the Unicorns, Chapter 20
Note: Okay, so we've gotten to the point where Hope remembers that she was Cedric Diggory in her past life! I hope that I delivered on the momentous occasion!
Another Note: Cho Chang gets a lot of hate as a character for crying over Cedric Diggory, and I happen to disagree with any hate she gets. Your boyfriend dies and then your friends forsake you because you're too sad about it?! Not very good friends, if you ask me. Also, I think Cho was very brave for joining Dumbledore's Army and then defending her friend Marietta when no one else would. Basically, I think she is an incredibly brave, loyal, intelligent (though inclined to make rash assumptions when emotional), and kind – and an absolute GEM. The end.
One Last Note: This chapter will be from the perspectives of Cho Chang and Hope Marshall.
"Welcome back to the land of the living, Cedric. It is so very wonderful to have you back," said Professor Dumbledore as he embraced Hope.
Hope leaned into the embrace. It was sweet and reassuring, as Hope expected it to be, but he was unexpectedly strong. He probably could've picked her up and swung her around if he'd wanted to. He smelled like vanilla and roses, and the scent calmed and soothed her.
"Thank you, professor," Hope said as she looked into his light blue eyes.
"Your parents will, no doubt, be looking for you. You ought to say hello to them. They'll be overjoyed to see you!" said the professor.
"And my friends, too!" blurted Hope. "Can I stop by the Hufflepuff common room to announce my return there, first? Oh my gosh, you can come with me!"
Dumbledore blinked and held her wrist when she made to peel away. "I'm afraid you can't do that, Hope."
She stood there and blinked. "Why not, Professor?"
"I am truly sorry, dear Hope, but we can't risk it." His blue eyes filled with genuine regret.
"Most of the Wizarding World, the Ministry of Magic included, would think you insane for proclaiming yourself to be Cedric Diggory. Yes, even though you can procure his memories from your mind. We can't risk you being locked away in the Insanity Ward of St. Mungo's for speaking the truth. And we also can't risk Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters finding out about what you are. Because if they do-"
Dumbledore probably cut himself off there because he didn't want to picture what Lord Voldemort might want to do to a reincarnated unicorn. Hope didn't want to picture what he'd do, either.
So, Hope nodded sullenly. "I understand, professor."
"I am sorry you cannot enjoy your return from the dead as fully as you ought to be able to. I hope that once Lord Voldemort is defeated, you will be able to reveal yourself fully."
Hope nodded, wiping at the tears forming in her eyes. Fawkes the phoenix flew the short distance from his perch at Dumbledore's desk to sit on Hope's shoulder again. He crooned his head over hers sympathetically.
"It's okay, Fawkes," murmured Hope as she scratched his head reassuringly. "I'll figure this out."
The phoenix crooned sympathetically.
"Although your return must be kept largely secret – and I do sincerely regret that, Hope – I do wish you a happy reunion with your family. Tell me, would you care to use my fireplace and some floo powder to get to Diggory Hollow, or perhaps Grimmauld Place, or perhaps the Ministry of Magic? You might find your parents at any of those places."
"It's okay, professor," said Hope. "I can just disapparate. Is it weird that apparition zones don't work on me, by the way?"
"Well, I've always seen that apparition zones work on humans, but not on any other creature. For instance, House Elves can apparate within Hogwarts, using their own magic."
"I see. So, as a unicorn, I can apparate regardless of the Hogwarts apparition zone, too?"
"Precisely," said Dumbledore, nodding. "Right. Well, off you go, then."
Hope nodded, and disapparated – but not to the Order of the Phoenix headquarters, or the Ministry of Magic, or Diggory Hollow. Instead, she disapparated to the left corridor on the 7th floor of Hogwarts. She might not be able to tell everyone in Hogwarts about her return, but there was one person who she abso-bloody-lutely had to see right this very minute. So, she threw on her Invisibility Cloak and waited.
XXXXX
Hogwarts 6th year student Cho Chang had been having an absolutely terrible year. It was inevitable, she supposed. First, her boyfriend Cedric Diggory, had died last June. Then, when Cho mourned him, most of her dorm-mates had deserted her because she wasn't the same cheerful Cho anymore. Marietta had stuck by her side, but Cho knew that her constant sadness had to be trying for the other girl.
Then, there was the fact that the Ministry of Magic had decided to deny Harry Potter's story about You-Know-Who coming back to power and murdering Cedric, even though it was the only story about Cedric's death that made any sense, whatsoever. And then the Ministry had gone and put that awful woman, Dolores Umbridge, in the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts professor at Hogwarts. Because the Ministry was so scared of the truth that they even needed to make school children believe their lies.
One reprieve Cho might've taken was Quidditch – but after Cedric died and his body was deposited on the Quidditch Pitch, Cho couldn't fly around it without thinking of his demise. Her flying was getting sloppy and Roger Davies had warned her that if she continued on this way, he might have to cut her from the Ravenclaw Quidditch Team.
So, since Quidditch didn't bring her the joy it should have, the only reprieve left to Cho was learning new defensive magic with Dumbledore's Army. When she practiced with them, she felt like she was taking a step to avenge Cedric's death. When she did well in their lessons, it made her feel powerful.
And now, the DA lesson was ending as people filed out of the Room of Requirement. And
Cho was going to have to return home to her parents and their divorce proceedings. Sigh. At least her parents were taking the step of divorcing each other, instead of arguing about every little thing all day long. Hopefully, they wouldn't talk to each other (a.k.a. argue constantly) too much.
"Hey, Cho," said Harry, summoning her back into the Room of Requirement.
"Yeah?" asked Cho, meandering over to the mirror, where a picture of Cedric Diggory had been strung up for inspiration. God, she missed him.
"Are you doing all right? I heard Umbridge gave you a hard time the other day."
"Yeah, I'm ok," she murmured softly, looking into Cedric's photographic eyes. "I mean, it's worth it. It's just, learning all this… makes me wonder if he'd known it?"
"Cedric?" Harry asked. "Yeah, he was really good. It's just that, Voldemort was better."
Cho nodded and turned around, noticing how Harry was now close enough to touch her. "You're a really good teacher, Harry. I've never been able to stun anything before I was in the DA."
"Thanks, Cho."
She could see Harry swallow nervously. She knew he'd had a crush on her last year, based on the way he'd nervously asked her to go to the Yule Ball with him. While she hadn't returned his crush at the time, she was sorry to have let him down.
Cho knew Harry had a million reasons to be stressed beyond belief – where could he find time amidst all that to maintain a crush on her? But why else would he be hovering close to her while they were alone, waiting to pluck up the courage to initiate something?
Cho's eyes shot up to the ceiling, needing a reprieve from the intensity of Harry Potter's green-eyed gaze. And then she noticed what was hanging there… "Mistletoe," she breathed.
"Probably full of Nargles, though," added Harry.
Cho appreciated the moment of levity, even if it didn't fully cut through the awkwardness of the moment.
There was just so much going on. Between her grief over Cedric to the utter mess that was this year to the problems going on between her parents, she didn't even have time to figure out if she liked Harry.
But Cedric wasn't coming back and she would have to move on at some point. Maybe she could do that with Harry. He was a good student, very talented at defensive magic, courageous enough to face off against You-Know-Who multiple times, and defiant about resisting Umbridge's tyranny. Those were good qualities. And he seemed pretty nice. She could certainly do a lot worse.
She laughed half-heartedly at the mention of Nargles and inched her hand closer to Harry's and made to interlock their fingers. Harry's hand felt clammy, and it trembled slightly, betraying his nerves. This certainly wasn't the best handholding experience she'd ever had.
"Right," breathed Harry. He leaned in and put a hand toward the back of Cho's neck, interlacing his fingers into her hair. But his touch was clumsy and he ended up yanking at her scalp.
"Ow!"
"Sorry." Harry made to disentangle his hand.
"No worries." Cho turned her head a bit sideways, smelling close to Harry's neck. He smelled perfectly fine. She looked around his face – he looked perfectly fine, too. Sure, this was awkward, but what teenager wasn't a bit awkward sometimes? The dictionary defined the word kiss as: verb – touch with the lips as a sign of love, sexual desire, reverence or greeting. She could touch Harry's lips. That's all this was.
"Did Cedric… did Cedric mention me before he died?" The words slipped from between her lips before she could stop them.
"No," soothed Harry. "I'm sorry, there just wasn't time. One moment, we'd agreed to share the win for the Triwizard Tournament; the next, we were touching the Triwizard Cup together; the next, we were transported to a graveyard; and before anyone could stop anything, a voice was shouting 'kill the spare' and then Cedric was dead. Sorry," he added halfheartedly as he clumsily patted her on the shoulder.
For what felt like the millionth time, Cho's eyes swum with tears. Seeing what was happening with her, Harry hesitantly took a step back. The mistletoe hanging above them wilted, died, and crumbled to dust. Apparently, Cho Chang was not going to be kissing Harry Potter. And apparently, the fact that she didn't have to kiss Harry Potter was a relief.
It was good, she supposed, that neither of them would have to go through with the torture of kissing one another.
But Cedric was gone. And he hadn't gotten to say anything about her in the moments before he'd died. She remembered the things he'd said to her before he entered the maze to start the Third Task.
"I will never stop loving you in this or any other lifetime."
Was he off living a new life now? Did he still somehow love her?
What she wouldn't give to see him even one more time.
"I should… go," Harry said politely. "Will you be okay to get back to your common room?" Cho was relieved that he was at least taking her rejection in stride. She nodded.
As Harry walked away, Cho noticed that he didn't seem too terribly dejected. Maybe his little crush on her had just been an infatuation. Maybe having that infatuation fade was a relief for him. She was glad that her rejection didn't turn out to be too much of a disappointment.
She wiped at the rest of her tears. She was sure more would come later, but she had one more thing to say first. "Harry!"
He stopped and turned around.
"Harry, I need your help. Professor Umbridge has been threatening Marietta. She said that she can tell that Marietta's up to something secret, and if Marietta doesn't tell her what it is… then Umbridge will get both her parents fired from their jobs at the Ministry."
"WHAT?!" Harry spat. Apparently, he wasn't going to take this nearly as well as Cho's rejection.
"Harry, she's being threatened. She's so kind and loyal and she'd never want to betray you. The only reason she didn't tell you is because she's too nervous! Harry, I'm telling you this because she needs your help!"
"You'd better make sure she doesn't say anything," Harry growled threateningly. That was all he had to say before he turned on his heel and left.
The last thing Cho thought before Harry stormed out of the Room of Requirement was that Cedric Diggory never would've refused to help her.
Why couldn't her Cedric be here with her instead of Harry?!
XXXXX
Still hidden beneath her father's invisibility cloak, Hope stood outside the Room of Requirement. She watched, silent and unseen, as Harry Potter stormed out of the room, seeming really furious about something.
What was going on? By Hope's count, all the members of Dumbledore's Army had left, save Harry and Cho, so now that just left Cho. Hope needed to get into the Room of Requirement. But how? Earlier, she'd seen the DA members open the wall by pacing in front of the side wall three times. Was that all there was to it, or did you have to do something else while you paced?
Desperate to find a way in, Hope paced back and forth impatiently. I need to see Cho, I need to see Cho, I absolutely, desperately, urgently need to see Cho…
The wall on the side of the 7th Corridor, which was formerly blank, turned into a door.
Well, that was convenient. Not bothering to question how the room had opened up, she opened the door and hurried inside.
XXXXX
After Harry Potter stormed out on her, Cho Chang could no longer control her tears. Her situation felt hopeless. You-Know-Who was back to power, the Ministry of Magic was lying about it – even to school children! – and she had no one to help her save Marietta – her best friend in the whole wide world – from blackmail.
What else could she do but cry?
As a Ravenclaw, Cho wasn't just what one would call "intelligent." She paid attention to the people around her and she noticed the surprisingly important details in life. She also had a huge imagination. She should be able to find a way to extricate Marietta from the sticky situation Umbridge had put her in. The fact that she could not think of anything at all was a testament to how this trying school year had fettered her mind and squashed her imagination.
Time passed and Cho felt her knees give a bit under her. She somehow slid until she was laying on the ground, head cradled in her hands, which were propped up on her bent elbows. Her father would ridicule her for looking like this. For heaven's sake, Cho, pull yourself together! He would reprimand her. "You must turn off your tears! Don't you want anyone to ever respect you?!" Fat lot of good a scolding like that did.
I need someone to help Marietta, I need someone to help Marietta, I need someone to help Marietta… Surely, Marietta had been through enough this year. It was a pity that the Room of Requirement couldn't supply her with a person – a loyal friend, perhaps – who could come to their aid.
As if it'd been brought about by her wishing for a friend, the door stepped open and a person stepped in. Cho didn't bother to look up. She heard a pair of boots walking briskly across the floor and stop near her.
"Go away," Cho groaned without bothering to look up.
But the stranger did not go away. Instead, the stranger knelt down next to Cho and put a soothing hand on her back. Her heart leapt. That touch. THAT TOUCH. She knew that touch from somewhere.
"I'm sorry you're hurting, sweetheart," said a soft, familiar voice. "Is there anything I can do?"
That voice. THAT. VOICE. She knew that voice. "Cedric?!" she gasped as she whipped her head up from the floor.
"Yeah, Cho, it's me," said the voice's owner. "I'm here for you, sweetheart."
"Cedric!" she exclaimed. Tears still blurred her vision, but Cho could see that this person who had Cedric's voice and his touch was kneeling right next to her. She threw herself at this person and hugged them just the way she'd hugged Cedric. Strong arms wrapped around her in the biggest bear hug she'd ever had. She buried her face inward, taking in the scent of fresh citrus mixed with warm spice, a scent she'd forever associate with Cedric.
Then, her Cedric was getting up, picking Cho up and hugging her tightly, and spinning around in dizzying circles just the way Cedric had done with her when she'd said she'd go to the Yule Ball with him or after he'd made sure she was all right at the end of the Second Task. He did this with her when he was really happy.
Someone had better pinch her because she had to be dreaming. She'd wished for a friend and the Room of Requirement had one-upped her by giving her Cedric Diggory. This had to easily be the best moment of her entire life.
Then, Cedric was putting her down and steadying her on her feet and she looked into his face to find that this was… NOT Cedric.
It was a young woman. A tall, attractive, seemingly kind woman who WAS NOT CEDRIC. Cho stumbled backward in shock.
"You're not Cedric! Who the Hell are you? What cruel joke is this, that you're pretending to be Cedric?!"
"Cho, sweetheart, please believe me! I AM CEDRIC," she urged as she gently she could. "After I died in my past life, I reincarnated. But I remember all of my past life now! I remember being Cedric because I was him!"
Cho had backed herself into the wall now and since she couldn't scramble any further away, her eyes grew wide, like a trapped wild animal.
"I'm sorry I scared you. It's okay. I'm back. I'm Cedric, I reincarnated into a new body, I'm back from the dead, and I love you."
Cho's chest had gone tight, her breathing was fast, and she had to will herself not to faint. "How are you even back?" she demanded in a voice that bordered on a yell. "How do I know it's you?"
"Oh, jeez. Let me start at the beginning. I'm a unicorn. Do you know the myth that unicorns can reincarnate, sometimes into a human body? Well, it's true. I've had two past lives and in the first life, I was a unicorn. I can still turn into a unicorn if I want to. See?"
A moment later, she turned into a unicorn. It was a large, powerfully built male unicorn, majestic in its beauty. It had soft white fur and a magnificent main and tail that shone like the moon and a sharp, pearly horn proceeding out of its forehead.
Everything about this creature and its sublime, striking appearance suggested it would be a dangerous foe to anyone who crossed it, but when the unicorn approached her, it did so softly and gently. When it was close enough, it reached out its head and pressed its soft snout to her forehead to she could feel its touch and smell its sweet breath. Without meaning to, Cho raised a hand to pet the side of its face, and found that its fur was every bit as soft as it looked.
But then, a moment later, the otherworldly unicorn turned back into a human woman. Now that Cho had the time to take in her features, she could see that this woman and Cedric had a lot of features in common. Sure, she and Cedric were opposite genders and this woman had dark wavy hair and coffee-and-cream skin while Cedric had brown hair and pale skin… but they had similar cheekbones and similar straight noses, and a similar shy half-smile played about this woman's similarly lush mouth. And they had the same bright gray eyes – eyes which begged her to please, please understand. Cho knew these features. Cho knew their expressions. She'd looked into those eyes before.
"Wait, wait, wait," she said as she caught up with her rapidly racing thoughts. "I believe that you're a unicorn and all, but how do I know that you were actually Cedric? Why don't you just turn into him to make me believe you?"
"I can't," sighed the strange woman. She looked truly sorry that she couldn't appear how Cho really wanted her to.
"But I have all of Cedric's same abilities. I have his memories. I remember what it was like to be him, and we have the same personality! I know it seems impossible but I really am him! I just… look different now," she said, ending on a flat note. She broke eye contact with Cho and her beautiful gray eyes looked to the ground in mournful apology.
Cho paused for a moment. Maybe this was her Cedric. Her Cedric always came for her and hadn't this woman done just that? It was time to figure this out for sure.
"Room of Requirement," she instructed, "I need you to tie this woman to a chair and tell me exactly what I need to do in order to figure out if she's really the reincarnation of Cedric Diggory."
The Room did as she requested: a chair materialized and ropes sprung up from the chair to bind the woman to it.
The woman simply sat calmly in the chair, not even bothering to resist her restraints. Did she have to be so annoyingly compliant?! But then Cho remembered how calm Cedric always was, even when he was practicing dueling against her. She'd asked him if he was worried that she would hex him and what he'd told her would stick with her forever: "I'm never worried, Cho. Never when you're around. I'd trust you with my life, because I know you'd never hurt me."
Meanwhile, the woman's eyes took on a star-struck look that Cho knew all too well. "Wait, so you call this the Room of Requirement?" she gasped. "Does it just… give you whatever you say you need? Is that how you open it – by pacing at the entrance and thinking about how you need things? Wooooow!" Her Cedric was always eager to learn about the world. She'd missed how even the simple things in life could make him happy.
"If you need to see my memory for yourself, you can take a look inside my mind," the woman offered gently. "If you need it, the incantation to execute the spell is Legilimens. Take a few deep breaths first if you need to – you might need to focus for this one."
Just like Cedric had tutored her in her subjects. BLOODY. HELL. Cho ran a hand through her still-messy hair, before instinctively pulling a hair tie off her wrist and tying it back in a ponytail.
"You've got this," the woman softly reassured her – in a voice that was definitely female, but that sounded far too much like Cedric for Cho's liking. "You've got this. I trust you."
Cho would not know peace until she got this inquiry over with. She wanted this woman to be Cedric. She also desperately wanted this woman NOT to be Cedric. So, she whipped out her wand and pointed it at Hope, all in one fluid motion. "Legilimens!"
Images flashed up on the wall. A little-girl version of the woman before her, playing ice hockey with her friends. The woman before her, now a teenager, skiing with her friends in Vermont, then taking classes in a Muggle school, then eating pizza with some other teenagers who must be her friends…
Just when Cho was wondering if the memories were going to be of this woman, they switched to be of the unicorn. Cho saw the unicorn, sometimes as a baby being watched over by its herd, sometimes as an adult running through the forest at top speed, or even fighting off trolls. There was even one scene where Cho could see the wandmaker Ollivander pluck the unicorn's tail, and nearly get gored by its horn soon after.
Had that unicorn been the donor of the unicorn hair in Cedric's wand?
And then, the subject of the memories switched… and there was her Cedric. She saw him as a little boy playing on a toy broomstick, his first trip to Hogwarts, getting sorted into Hufflepuff, taking classes, making loads of friends who all utterly revered him, getting onto the Hufflepuff Quidditch Team, and… seeing the corpse of the unicorn he'd been in his past life. It had to be so surreal for her poor Cedric, seeing his own corpse, even if he didn't really know it at the time…
This was her Cedric. Cho knew that now. There was just one more thing she desperately needed to see.
As if the spell had been pulled by her own mental query, the memory of the end of the Third Task surfaced.
Cho saw Cedric arguing with Harry, telling him that he should take the cup. Because of course her Cedric had thought Harry should win. He was always so fair-minded, always so considerate, always so grateful whenever someone helped him. And then Cho felt her heart soar with joy as Harry and Cedric agreed to take the Triwizard Cup together.
The joy was short-lived. As Cedric and Harry grabbed the Triwizard Cup, they were both tugged away and suddenly realized: it was a portkey! With a thud, they landed in a dark graveyard and both scrambled about to get their bearings. Cedric barely had a second to suggest that he and Harry have their wands out, before a cold clear voice proclaimed, "Kill the spare!" and then a flash of green light came at Cedric. And that was it. Just like that, in the flash of a second, her boyfriend's life was gone.
Kill the spare. Cho had never heard what really happened to Cedric at the moments of his death. Someone had thought that the champion of Hogwarts, one of the most beloved students ever to go here, the love of Cho's very life, was a spare?!
As long as she lived and breathed, Cho Chang would never let anyone call her true love a spare. She was going to let him know how very loved he was and this and every other lifetime-
Before Cho could put an end to the Legilimens spell, it slipped and one more memory flashed before her vision: this woman, embracing a tall blonde man who seemed very handsome. The woman had tears in her eyes as she proclaimed desperately: "I love you with all my heart, Andrew."
Cho dropped her wand with a clatter, which ended the spell. She stared into Cedric's same desperate eyes.
"Please, Cho, I can explain!" Cedric's reincarnation pleaded.
Cho sucked in a frantic breath. "That's what every cheater said, ever." It broke her brain. How could those pure, true eyes belong to someone unfaithful? What in Merlin's name had happened to everlasting love?! What happened to Cho being the only one for Cedric in this and any other lifetime?!
"It was before I remembered that I was Cedric, or even that you existed!"
"I don't even know who you even are anymore!" shrieked Cho. She scrambled to pick up her wand. Then, she turned on her heel and ran away as fast as she could.
Normally, Cho would be on her way back to the Ravenclaw Common room at this hour, but her feet seemed to know she needed to be away from other people. As if on autopilot, her sprinting feet took her to the top of the Astronomy Tower, a place where she and Cedric had spent many blissful nights snuggled in each other's arms as they gazed at the stars. Ironic, that Cho had now come here to scream into the void.
When she finally caught her breath, Cho realized that she hadn't even bothered to ask Cedric's reincarnated self what name she was going by in this lifetime.