Chapter Seventeen
Classes had ended for the Christmas break and Ginny had two class free days at Hogwarts before she would be taken back to London on the Hogwarts Express. Thanks to the extra hours of study that Ginny and Cho had been completing every day, they were both completely up to date with all of their classwork, the reading of their textbooks, their assessment items and had even drawn up exam preparation timetables.
For the first time since her enrollment at Hogwarts as an eleven year old first year student - Hermione had enjoyed a relatively peaceful and high yielding academic year. Free of life threatening adventures, escapades and mysteries had also been easily able to keep up to date with all of her studies, including her extra subject load. Partnering a competent, penetrating student such as Cho Chang had enabled Hermione to be able to achieve a great deal of work, rather than poking, prodding, nagging, supervising and assisting less willing students as Harry Potter and Ron Weasley.
Ginny and Cho's romantic connection was making very slow progress, slow but not reluctant. Both students were not only focussed on their own responsibilities, they were also keen to make sure they were not rushing the other. There were very few stolen kisses or whispered sweet nothings. When it was time for training, they trained and when they were studying, they kept the focus on their tasks. There was certainly time for hanging out, fooling around, gossipping and so on, but they were careful to not let their joking, teasing, wrestling and racing around eat too much into their responsibilities.
After dinner they often pulled their books out in the Great Hall or arranged to meet in the Library, it was the only way they could all study together because they really were not allowed to enter the Common Rooms of other Houses. Cho, Hermione, Ginny, studied with combinations of Neville, Luna and Justin and other students as required, sometimes Luna or one of the others brought a friend they were working with on some project or other.
Ginny asked Cho on a date for the last night before she was due to go home before Christmas, Cho was delighted and asked what she had in mind.
"It's a surprise," said Ginny mysteriously, "I will say that I will be wearing something very pretty, hidden underneath my robes."
"You mean a dress or something, right?"
"As opposed to…?"
"Lingerie?"
"I don't think we are quite there, yet?"
"I agree, but I just thought I would save myself the embarrassment of any potential confusion."
"It's a dress."
"Phew,"
"Hey, I'd look just as good in lingerie,"
"I'm sure you would - Ugh, that's not what I meant," Cho began to colour.
"I'm teasing you." said Ginny, grinning, "So, is that a yes?"
"Yes."
"Good, I will meet you at seven pm at the door to your Common Room."
Ginny had arrived early, too early. She waited nervously outside the door of the Ravenclaw Common Room, then she paced up and down, then retraced the long flights of stairs to help process her new and unsual state of nerves. She tried to appear to passing students as though she was simply going about her normal course of activities, legitimate business, no one could possibly guess that she was here for some romantic purpose.
She was forced to nod hello politely to a couple of students who had passed her enter their Common Room, she was too nervous to be able to actually form words. They must have mentioned having seen Ginny hanging around outside because Helena Ravenclaw, the Ghost of Ravenclaw Tower, also known by many as the Grey Lady, glided through the wall to look her over appraisingly. Ginny nodded her head politely, colouring easily when she felt Helena had thoroughly made her purpose.
Eventually Cho came through the door and was pleased to see and nervous looking Ginny Weasley waiting for her.
"Hey," she greeted Ginny,
"Hey," Ginny replied, "Are you ready to go?"
"Yes, where to?"
"Room of Requirement, of course!"
"Oh, well that doesn't narrow things down,"
"No, but you will find out very very soon. Can I hold your hand or will you be worried about other students?"
Cho didn't answer in words, she simply took Ginny's hand and let herself be led through the Castle, to the empty wall where the door to the Room of Requirement would soon appear.
"Now, if you would just clear your mind, and let me…" Ginny motioned at the wall. Cho turned her back, shook her head vigorously and made to clear her mind, while Ginny paced up and down a number of times concentrating very hard on what she needed, what she required, for their date.
The wall shimmered and a door came into view, when it became corporeal Ginny touched Cho's arm and opened the door for her, standing back to let her date pass. Cho walked into what appeared to be a large commercial kitchen, right in the centre of the room was a huge kitchen island, so clean it was practically sparking. Cho smiled and threw a questioning look at Ginny,
"Whats this?" she asked looking around.
"My idea for our date is that we would choose something we would like to eat, look up the recipe," Ginny pointed to a bookshelf full of recipes, "We would prepare and cook it together," she then indicated the open fire and cauldrons, "Then we could sit and eat together," Ginny stepped back and indicated an apparently outdoor garden terrace which was framed with vines and decorated with candles.
Cho's eyes had followed Ginny's hands around the room, taking in the rustic old kitchen, what appeared to be thousands of recipes, and a romantic candlelit dining spot.
"Interested?" asked Ginny hopefully.
"It's a very creative idea, I love it, thank you," Cho was very keen, she enjoyed doing things together with Ginny.
"Elderflower wine?"
"Sure, okay," Cho moved the book case, and ran her fingers over the variety of scrolls, reams of parchment, crudely made books all proclaiming secret generational family recipes, recipes from various non human species and even recipes from long lines of muggle royal families.
Ginny poured two glasses of wine and held one out for Cho, "Thanks, so what are we cooking?"
"Well, this part of the process could easily take a long time," responded Ginny, "Are you hungry?"
"Yes, not starving, but I could eat,"
"Do you feel like anything particular?"
"I'm not sure," said Cho, suddenly confronted with an over large range of foods to choose from.
"Does your family eat much traditional Chinese food?" asked Ginny.
"Yes, always. My po po, that's my mother's mother, lives with us and does all the cooking. Have you eaten much Chinese food?"
"No, other than the most obvious spring rolls and fried rice. Thats embarrassing."
"No, well I mean, it may be obvious, but still delicious."
"Should we cook something you love?"
"Next time, why don't we cook something from your family?"
"Sure, if you like," Ginny whipped out her wand and ran it along the shelves, "Accio 'Kreacher's French Onion Soup with warmed Crusty Rolls', Accio 'Hearty Lamb and Root Vegetable Casserole with Dumplings' and Accio 'Traditional Steamed Raspberry Pudding with Custard'."
Three sheets of Parchment wriggled themselves free of their neighbours, they flew over to the kitchen island and laid themselves down. Ginny and Cho poured over the sheets,
"What do you think?" asked Ginny.
"Perfect," responded Cho.
It must have been their years Potions training because Cho stood back, and opened a drawer, pulling out a couple of quills, they went through the recipes, numbering the steps in order of operation, so that they didn't leave a process that was going to take a long time, to the very end, accidentally.
Having identified the steps, they grabbed a shopping basket and went over to where there were rows and rows of groceries, fruit and vegetables and ingredients. They moved in and around each other, washing, peeling and preparing, cutting, chopping, slicing and dicing. Ginny passed her forearm across her eyes as they streamed from the naked onions, she couldn't see that tears were also pouring down Cho's face as well, they both began sniffling.
"Sorry," choked Ginny, blowing her nose, "I didn't think this part through very well," Cho was washing her face and hands trying desperately to mitigate her streaming red eyes and her running nose to regain some sense of attractiveness. Once they had gotten a grip on their biological reactions to the onions, they looked back at the bench to see a small pile of onions still awaiting attention, they both burst out laughing. Cho waved her wand at the offensive root vegetables and Ginny scraped them off the board and into the pot.
"That wasn't the romantic experience I was aiming for…" said Ginny, shaking her head.
"All is not lost, come here," said Cho, tugging Ginny's waist, pulling her closer, she looked into Ginny's eyes, looked over her face, tucked a stray strand of dark auburn hair behind her ear and kissed Ginny. Their kisses were always simple, gentle, peckish - an expression of their determination to take things very slowly, but this kiss deepened every so slowly, stealing their breath and practically lifted them up off their feet.
When they finally parted Cho noticed the colour of Ginny's eyes, "Hey, your eyes turn from green to an aqua colour, really quite blue, when you have been crying,"
"Note to self; 'don't bother denying crying'" Ginny grinned, shyly.
"Ok, if we are going to eat tonight…" said Cho, trying to recover from that amazing kiss.
Cho set up two bunsen burners and lifted a cauldron onto the stands over each, Ginny was pounding spices and herbs in the mortar and pestle. According to the directions they began adding items to the cauldrons, stirring and caramelising onions for the Casserole in one and stirring and sweating onions for the soup in another.
They were sipping their wine and chatting away whilst they were busy, everything from Christmas, Quidditch, terrible dates they had been on, new and exciting uses for the Room of Requirement, their families, their childhoods, their hopes for the future, books they had read and Cho talked a bit about the muggle world.
She had stayed in St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries for a while but she ended up staying in a muggle hospital for much longer, in the Mental Health Unit. Cho had been amazed at all the cultural differences between muggles and magical folk, she had Ginny in stitches recounted some of the differences.
There was still quite a messy bread making process to get through, rolls for the soup, dumplings and the pudding. Finally all the dirty work was over. Ginny removed her robes revealing a sleeveless baby blue dress with a black trim at the shoulder, neck and hem just above the knee. Cho raised her eyebrows, "Wow, you look gorgeous,"
"Thank you, more wine?" She tipped the bottle in the direction of Cho's nearly empty glass. Cho nodded, opening her robes and letting them fall back over her shoulders revealing a sun yellow dress with a high collar, sleeves buttoned at the elbows and built in belt.
"That's a lovely dress, Chang, you look very pretty," said Ginny, impressed.
Cho bumped Ginny's shoulder, rather shyly and the two took their wine out into the garden.
"Why did the wizard become a chef?" asked Ginny.
"Which wizard?" asked Ginny, feeling as though she had come into the conversation halfway through.
"It's a joke, why did the wizard become a chef?"
"Oh, I don't know. Why?"
"He is great at saucery."
"Oh, saucery, cute."
"If we weren't on a date, you'd have rolled your eyes and poked me in the ribs,"
"If we weren't on a date you wouldn't be trying to impress me and looking quite so attractive."
"Touche! Soup?"
They had made it through the first two courses with less awkwardness, but as Ginny placed their dessert bowls on the table she felt a tightness in her chest. She had wanted to raise something with Cho several times in the last week but it just never seemed to be the right moment. But it had to now, if she wanted to leave Hogwarts for home without wondering.
"Cho?" Ginny cleared her throat, licked her lips, her mouth was suddenly dry.
"Ginny?" returned Cho, without looking up.
"I wanted to ask you something," Ginny was stalling, preparing herself.
"Ok," said Cho, looking up, hearing the agitation in Ginny's voice, she could see that the other woman was clearly a little nervous. Cho reached out and took Ginny's hand, trying to encourage her.
"I just didn't want to leave Hogwarts with asking. Incase, incase…"
"Just ask me, Ginny," Cho, unable to watch Ginny struggling, jumped in.
"Will you be my girlfriend?" Ginny said, rather quickly.
"Yes. I would love to be your girlfriend."
"Good. Great. It's just that, well now we know, you know?"
"In case I meet someone over Christmas, while you're at home?" said Cho, smiling.
"Well, that too, but I might want to tell my brothers and I what would I say if it wasn't settled?"
"You want to tell your brothers about me?"
"Of course! If you had a girlfriend as awesome as mine, you would too!"
"I'm half-way there," Cho said, with a coy smile and Ginny raised her eyebrow. "I have an awesome girlfriend, I just don't have the brothers."
"Oh, very good!" said Ginny, relieved. "Bill and his wife Fleur, oh do you remember her? She's from Beauxbaton, she was a TriWizard Champion?"
"I do remember her, she married your brother?"
"Yes, two years ago. So Bill's the eldest, and they will be coming, then Charlie is next, I'm closest with those two. They will make time to hang with me, away from the others, they will talk about their jobs, Bill's new wife, Charlie's many girlfriends and they will want to know all about my Quidditch and my other news."
"You're not as close with Percy, George and Ron?"
"We are all close - like a small Weasley army. Percy is the least able to relate to, the twins have always been so teasing and Ron is an emotional void, unless I am talking about broomsticks or pudding. But Bill and Charlie are great, they see me as a person whole and take the time to catch up. I look forward to being able to say Cho Chang is my girlfriend."
"Oh, that's so very sweet, it's made me all squishy inside." said Cho laughing, smiling brightly. "They won't mind that you're dating a woman?"
"Firstly, I wouldn't care if they did. Secondly, I doubt Bill and Charlie would care, Percy and Ron will certainly present resistance. My parents will be surprised but they will come around.
If my mother makes a fuss I fully intend to tell her that I am doing it for her."
"How so?" asked Cho, looking completely bewildered.
"I will say that after all the daughter in laws, I don't want her to have the inconvenience of having to adjust to a son in law." They both laughed.
"What about your family, will they mind?" Ginny asked Cho.
"My mother knows that I have been interested in women in the past, my father will accept it but my po po, I'm not sure I could tell her. Neither my father or po po even know I got married, I can't bear to disappoint her. She really didn't understand what was wrong with me when I was in hospital, she seemed to think that I needed to just try a bit harder or something."
"It's not that she doesn't care, she does, she loves me dearly. I think she is just used to a more simple life; she went to school, went to work, got married, had a child, they emigrated, when her husband died she moved in with us. There weren't all these choices about what to do for a job, and who to marry, she just got a job and married a man who seemed to be the best pick of the bunch and they made the best of it."
"What does she think about you playing Quidditch for a living?"
"Yes, it's a point of contention," Cho gave a wry grin, "Po po seems to think Quidditch is an appropriate healthy outdoor sport for small children and that I need to grow up a bit. However there is a contradiction in her approach, on the one hand she suggests that I take a more serious approach to my career and on the other it's not really that important because clearly I will be having babies and staying at home, according to her."
"So is it often contentious?"
"Almost never, surprisingly. Nobody really articulates these ideas, they are all either implied or assumed. I am probably a bit hard on po po, I spend most of my time with her in the kitchen, she cooks and I eat, it's really lovely actually - she loves me through food!"
The end of their evening was lovely, they talked quietly between lingering looks, shy smiles and soft kisses and it was a very late night, much later that either anticipated or realised. Luckily the following day was class free, Ginny had only a journey on the Hogwarts Express, where one Weasley or another would meet her off the train at Platform 9 ¾.