Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. The reference to Hogwarts as a Star-Tree is explained further in my earlier fic, "Tree of Stone."
Harry, I have an idea. Let's try a thought experiment.
Let's say that I'm Cho Chang, and you're Harry Potter and we just happened to meet again here, on the roof of the world. It's all theoretical, you understand. I'm not talking about you and me, just people in a little story that happen to share our names. And what is the story?
Once upon a time there was a girl named Cho and a boy named Harry. And once upon a time they had nothing in common, except that they both went to Hogwarts. And they both liked Quidditch. And Cedric—they had him in common.
You with me, Harry?
-Once upon a time, there was a boy named Harry who couldn't stop getting into trouble.
Now you're in the spirit!
-Once upon a time there was a boy named Harry and a girl named Cho who both went to Hogwarts, and they both knew a gallant boy named Cedric. And once upon a time, Harry was very jealous of Cedric.
Is that so?
-Oh yeah. He was handsome and popular and, well, taking you to the Yule Ball—
But this isn't about you and me, now, this is the little story.
-Right, right. Go on.
In this once-upon-a-time, there was Cedric. And he was the star of Cho Chang's little world. She saw him like some kind of fairytale prince, and loved him completely—the kind of love a heart can give for the very first time. You know?
-I know.
And Harry…
-Let's say Harry was a little in love with Cedric, too. Cedric was… he was everything Harry wanted to be, but not even smug about it. He was just good.
Yes. A good man. And then…
Once upon a time, Cedric was murdered, and his murder kept silent. And then, Cho and Harry had that in common, too—a horrible thing that no one else wanted to speak of.
And they thought, well, that's not nothing. So in the earnestness of teenagerhood, they tried—oh, did they try—to turn this link into something useful, something good. In short, they tried to force themselves to fall in love, and the result…
-Disaster. Calamity.
They were so young. And falling in love, well, it seemed like a good idea at the time.
-How could love possibly be a bad thing?
It turns out, love can be bad when it's forced.
-And a few other ways, too. Anyway, back to the story. What happened then?
Well. The war happened. The war was so different for each of them. Harry and Cho ran across the ragged edges of one another's stories. It seems like they had less in common than ever before.
-But the war's over now.
It sure is. And I know Cho's half of the story… she'd come of age and she was eager to tour the magical world. She would go it alone, she decided. She needed to spend time with the solitude of her own thoughts. And besides, that way she could wander as much as she liked without putting out any friends of hers.
-Smart Cho.
Cho thought, shall I go a'sailing on the sea for a whole year? Shall I seek out sacred flights of swans? Then Cho decided to focus on sites of pilgrimage. Places where magical kin would journey for months or even years, seeking a glimpse of something sacred. Even a glimpse of that could heal the heartsick. If that's not magic, then what is?
And that's how Cho found herself in Nepal, at the bottom of winter. She checked into a hostel near a Nepalese pilgrimage site. But as for Harry… how did Harry get here? Will you tell me?
-Ah! The tables have turned! Well, I'll give it my best shot.
-Once upon a time, there was a boy named Harry Potter. He'd survived a war, and he was doing well on the whole, but he didn't quite know what to do with himself.
-Let's say that Harry had two best mates. And after years of simmering tension, those two best mates have admitted that they're dopey in love for one another. Let's say that… Harry was over the moon for his friends, really, and more than ready to be the best man at their wedding, but Harry felt he wanted to get out of their way. They need to figure themselves out, as a 'we,' and Harry wants to figure himself out as a 'me.' Hey, that rhymed!
Harry the Poet!
-I found my career at last. So. Once upon a time, Harry calls on his old chum Neville—
Three cheers for Longbottom!
-Yes, cheers! And Neville's gearing up to do HIS Grand Tour. He knows all the traditions down pat, but he's reluctant to go alone, even though he's got his route all planned out. Focusing on herbology, of course. And Neville offhandedly says to Harry, a tour like this is always better with a friend. And so Harry says, what the hell, can I tag along? And Neville, being the good chap he is, says yes.
-And there's just one suggestion that Harry can make in the itinerary. He says, why don't we stop off in Nepal? There's something magical we ought to see.
The Star-Tree, I presume?
-Yep. What happened when a falling star landed on a pine tree, and the star's fire, and the sap from the tree, kind of fused into one living, magical creature.
Not a lot of people know about it. I knew this became a pilgrimage site about fifty years ago, but only at the foothills did I learn why. How do you know about it?
-Dumbledore told me. He said that Hogwarts started as a Star-Tree, too—
I didn't know that!
-It's true. It was an oak tree, and the four founders poured their magic and love into it. I had to see this one, too. It's so young.
So young, but looking at what Hogwarts grew into… it makes me excited to think about what this tree might become.
-And Neville was thinking about all the repairs Hogwarts still needs… he thinks that by studying the Star-Tree, maybe we can get an idea of how to not just rebuild Hogwarts, but heal it.
Wow. That's ambitious.
- Neville is full of surprises.
I'd say that's worth taking the pilgrimage all the way here.
-A toast. Here's to healing.
Cheers!
((Glasses clink. Silence a moment.))
Now, Harry, about this story…
-Yes, Cho?
What if Harry and Cho's story isn't finished? What if one day, when Cho was on her World Tour, and she had gone on pilgrimage to a site in Nepal… what if she was taking porridge in the mess hall and heard two Englishmen talking in her language, and she turned, and saw that one was Neville Longbottom, and the other was…
-Harry Potter, her ridiculous five-minute boyfriend.
Harry Potter, her old flame.
((Break for laughter))
-Oh, that's a good one, Cho, very wry.
You kind of were!
-Please let's move on.
Well. Let's say that Cho had never quite given up wondering, what if, what if. If things had been different. If only she'd been a little wiser, a little more mature about things.
-If Harry hadn't been a complete and utter twat during his fifth year.
Let's say that Cho has found a way to be at peace with the past. And let's say… she wonders still, what she and Harry could be.
-Is that so?
What if they healed, separately, in their own spheres, and then… what if they were healed enough that they could touch each other? Really touch? And what if they could try again?
-If that were so… I'd tell you that Harry's wondered the same thing. Especially in this lamplight. Very romantic light, all amber and flickering.
Very flattering.
-I should tell you, though… Harry isn't anything like a prince. Not a prince on horseback, not the prince that disguises himself as a masked thief. Harry's messed up and scarred on the inside, and—okay, talking in third person is getting too weird. Do you understand, Cho?
Yes. But I'm not looking for a prince. I'm not a little girl anymore.
-You certainly aren't.
Look at me, Harry. I don't want a prince, not even a disguised one. I'm interested in the man who taught me when we were barely more than kids. He taught me how to bring out my hope in the middle of despair. He introduced me to my swan Patronus—which saved my soul more than once, let me tell you.
-I'm glad to hear it.
If you're not a prince, I'm not a delicate maiden any more. I've healed into someone different, but with plenty of scar tissue. I've got my bad habits, and my twisted dreams. I'm very terribly interested in yours.
-Is that all you're interested in?
Well, there's a few other things. The physical world is pretty important, after all.
-Good, if I thought I was the only one with impure thoughts, I would have been…
Oh, count me and my dirty thoughts in there, too, Harry-my-boy. What do you say? We can always blame it afterwards on the thin mountain air.
-Makes a man lightheaded. I'm game, Cho. Let's give it a try.
Atta boy.
-Now… five years ago… where did we leave off exactly?
I believe it was that good snog right by the standing stones…
A/N: Promise to thirteen-year-old self: kept!
Shoutout to that one Harry/Cho fic, I believe it was on Fictionalley back in the day, wherein Cho meets Harry by chance in a pub, and the text literally said "Harry Potter. Her old flame." I've never forgotten, however hard I've tried.