办不到

A Harry Potter fan fiction story by Gfyuwatr7

Authors Note: Thank you all again for your positive feedback, you're all motivating me to keep writing this story. If no one reviewed or faved this story, I'd probably stop writing it. I've yet to receive criticism of any kind (though I'll keep asking for it). If I mess up anywhere, please let me know, any criticism is welcome (though I prefer criticism of the constructive kind).

To chaosrin: Thanks for the review, I'm really trying to write Cho in a believable way. I really didn't like how Cho was treated and portrayed in canon, either (especially in the fifth film), so I decided to write this story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, its characters, ideas, books, films, or anything else in between. It all belongs to J.K. Rowling. If I did own it, I would have written this pairing in the novels myself.


Chapter 3

Harry, Ron, and Hermione were all seated at the same table, finishing an in-class essay in the study hall. Snape hovered over them all, smacking anyone upside the head whom he caught talking when they weren't supposed to. He had already set a new record of victims that period, and Harry and Ron didn't want themselves to be counted among that number.

Although Harry was supposed to be concentrating on his assignment, he couldn't help re-visiting his conversation with Cho a few days ago. She had seemed genuinely interested in talking to him, and he had been surprised by her concern over his arm as well. Granted, most of the students who had turned their backs on him now went out of their way to speak with him, claiming they had been on his side all along. It was utter rubbish, but he didn't want to make any more enemies, now that he had relatively few of them once again.

What truly bothered him at the moment, however, was that even if Cho had initiated their conversation, he still hadn't managed to ask her out to the Yule Ball. He almost had, but 'almost' never got any dwarf a bag of stink worms at a rally, as the saying went ('or maybe it's something else,' Harry thought). Seeing all of Cho's friends quietly laughing at him had made him lose his nerve. He couldn't understand how anyone managed to conquer their fear of asking someone out.

Almost as if he had read his mind, Ron whispered, "This is mad! At this rate, we'll be the only ones in our year without dates-ugh!" Ron grunted as Snape, who had heard him, grabbed the back of his head and shoved it towards the table, stopping just above his books. As Snape walked off, however, Ron grinned and said, "Well…us and Neville."

Harry smiled, replying, "Yeah, but then again, he can take himself!" They both sniggered under their breaths.

"It might interest you to know that Neville's already got someone," Hermione said, looking slightly apologetic. At her revelation, Harry and Ron visibly sagged in their seats.

Ron groaned in frustration and said, "Now I'm really depressed!"

Looking up from his work, Harry noticed Fred surreptitiously passing a note to Ron. As Ron read it, Harry managed to get a look of it as well. It read: Get a move on or all the good ones will have gone!

Ron finished reading it, and, making sure he was out of Snape's line of sight, he passed the note back to Fred and whispered accusingly, "Who're you going with, then?!"

Fred, with a 'watch and learn' look in his eye, crumpled up the note into a ball and threw it across the table at Angelina Johnson, fellow member of the Gryffindor Quidditch team. He proceeded to ask her to the ball by a clever use of miming action. Harry, in stunned surprise, watched as Angelina answered with a whispered agreement and a smile. 'How does he do that?!' Harry thought to himself dejectedly. Fred, his mission complete, turned back to his work, but not before winking and grinning at him and Ron.

With a renewed sense of determination (or was it desperation?), Ron turned to Hermione and said, "Why, Hermione, you're a girl."

"Oh, well spotted!" Hermione snapped. It was at that moment, however, that Snape noticed a commotion on their side of the table. As Ron began trying to imitate Fred's tactics on Hermione, Harry started to try to warn him by grabbing his arm. It didn't work; using a book, Snape smacked both Ron and Harry on the heads.

Wincing in pain but recovering, Ron said to Hermione in a low voice, "Come on, it's one thing for a bloke to show up alone. For a girl it's just sad!"

Hermione glared at him and said indignantly, "I won't be going alone, because believe it or not, someone's asked me!" She got up, handed her notebook to Snape, returned to the table to pick up her belongings and left, but not before leaving a parting remark, "And I said yes!" She stalked off, leaving Harry and Ron in stunned silence.

Ron recovered first, muttering, "Bloody hell…" He said something else, but Harry, who had been busy wondering why Hermione had recently been acting out all of a sudden (whether it was S.P.E.W. or some other thing, Harry couldn't keep track anymore), he had little choice but to reply, "If you say so," before turning back to his assignment.

Ron, in a resigned tone of voice, told Harry, "Look, we've just got to grit our teeth and do it!" Harry nodded, remembering why he had been distracted in the first place. "Tonight, when we get back to the common room, we'll both have partners, agreed?"

"Agreed." Harry replied, a new found sense of determination surging within him. Of course, it was at that moment when Professor Snape decided to grab the back of their heads and shove them towards the table, and their long-neglected work, once again.


"Constant vigilance!" Professor Moody cried for what seemed like the tenth time in the last hour, but even with that, Cho was still having a hard time paying attention to the lesson. Much of this was due to the fact that her friends, for past few days, had been badgering her about Harry Potter and his botched attempt at asking her out. She herself had thought it through many times, trying to figure out why he would he want to go to the Yule Ball with her, of all people.

She knew that some boys fancied her, but again, her parents' constant refusals to allow her to have much of a social life beyond a few friends rang out in her head. Now that she had a chance to have more than just friends, however, she wasn't sure what to do. Harry seemed to be a nice guy, but she knew the kind of attention he received. Cho also knew that he didn't go looking for that attention, but that sure didn't stop Rita Skeeter from trying to dig up nasty things about him and his friends.

'But, what if he tries to ask me out again?' Cho thought to herself for perhaps the fiftieth time that day. 'If he does, how do I say no to Harry Potter? How will he take being rejected? Well, probably better than Marietta did…' As this thought came to her, she turned nervously towards Marietta, who looked very distraught. According to her, she had tried to ask Cedric Diggory to be her partner to the ball, but he promptly broke her heart into a thousand pieces by flatly saying, "No," walking away, and leaving her in the corridor looking foolish. Cho hadn't even known that Marietta had had a crush on Cedric until she'd told her about the incident.

"Marietta," Cho began quietly, trying to avoid arousing Professor Moody's attention, "if you want, I can talk to Cedric for you…" Cedric was really starting to get under Cho's skin. 'What is his problem?' she thought angrily.

"Miss Chang!" Professor Moody shouted with his back turned to the whole classroom. "I would appreciate not being interrupted in the middle of class!"

"Sorry, Professor!" Cho squeaked, shrinking into her seat. Once Moody had begun teaching again, Marietta sent a grateful look in Cho's direction and Cho took her hand under the table to reassure her.

Once class had finished, the gruff professor asked both Cho and Marietta to stay behind for a quick word. "I overheard you two," Moody growled, but not in an unfriendly way. "Sorry about the scare, but this class in particular needs to stay focused. I can't have anyone just start talking in the middle of a lecture." He took out his hip flask and took a swig from it, shuddering slightly as he put it away. "What's the problem?"

"I-It's nothing, Professor…" Marietta mumbled. "Just…other things."

"I'm not buying it." Moody said. "You mentioned Diggory, didn't you?" he asked, turning to Cho. "Is he giving you trouble? I'm a teacher, you know. Can't do my job if no one tells me who to 'teach'."

"It's… the Yule Ball, Professor," Cho said hesitantly, glancing at Marietta briefly before continuing. "Marietta has been so excited about it, and she asked Cedric out, but…," she stopped, unsure if she should continue.

"Oh. Is that all?" Moody said bluntly, shocking them both. "He said no, didn't he? That's rough, but if he didn't even give it a second thought, then he's not worth your time. Simple as that." His magical eye began to swivel, stopping when it seemed to be looking through the back of his head. "Speaking of which…I need to have a word with him anyway. But never mind that." He shifted his attention to them again. "I suggest you forget about Diggory, Miss Edgecombe. If he doesn't give you the time of the day, neither should you. It's about time for dinner, you should both get a move on." On that, he ushered them out of the classroom. He himself did not go to dinner, but limped off in another direction.

"I guess he's right," Marietta mumbled thoughtfully. "He looks scary, but he really understands people, doesn't he? I mean, in his own way." She looked considerably more cheerful, and for that, Cho was glad. Marietta could be a bit of pain, but she was Cho's best friend. And Cho would be damned if she let any insult against any of her friends slide.

"What was that all about?" Stephanie Edgley asked, as she and their other friends turned from their own conversation. They had been waiting for Cho and Marietta to leave the classroom before heading to dinner.

"Oh, nothing. Just homework stuff," Marietta lied smoothly, looking as though she had not been moping for the last few days.

'There's the Marietta I know,' Cho thought, relieved. 'I thought she'd never get over Cedric.' As the others began discussing the class, Cho turned her thoughts to her erstwhile friend. 'What's changed? Has all this attention from the tournament gone to his head? Or the lack of it?' She contemplated this idea, wondering whether he was jealous of the attention Harry had been getting. 'Probably not, none of that attention has been positive in any sense of the word.'

She was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't notice Harry Potter walking towards her until he called out her name.


"Er-Cho? Could I have a word with you?"

'Here it comes, the moment of truth,' Harry thought. It wasn't made any easier by Cho's friends, who had all erupted into silent laughter. 'Giggling should be made illegal!' he thought furiously. 'They must really be enjoying this. Never mind, just do it!' He felt slightly better when he noticed that Cho herself wasn't laughing at him.

"Sure, okay," she said, following him down the corridor a ways off from her friends. They stopped, and there was a pause before Harry realized that Cho was waiting for him to say something.

"Er," he said again.

'What the hell's wrong with me?! Just ask her!' Harry resolved himself, and with every fiber of his being, asked her,

"Wangoballwime?"

"Sorry? I didn't catch that," Cho said, looking confused and slightly worried.

"Sorry, I meant to say: D'you want to go to the ball with me?" Once he got the words out, Harry felt himself go red. 'Why now?' Harry thought in a panic. 'Why?'

"Oh!" said Cho, and she went red as well. "Harry, I…I'm sorry. I wasn't planning on going at all." She seemed very sincere. Harry suddenly felt as though his insides were missing.

'This can't be happening,' Harry thought numbly.

"But…," Cho suddenly said, a thoughtful look crossing her face. "But I suppose there'd be no harm in going…and they wouldn't know…" It almost seemed as though she were talking to herself. Her eyes had a far-away look to them.

"Um, Cho?" Harry asked carefully, wondering if she felt alright.

"Hmm? Oh, sorry!" she replied, turning even more red. "I was just thinking about…well, never mind. Um," Cho paused, a small smile gracing her features. "Sure, I'd like to go with you, Harry."

Harry's insides felt like they had returned, and they appeared to be dancing a very energetic jig in his body.

"Really?" Harry asked, slightly dumbfounded. He had been expecting a rejection, and he'd almost had one. He hadn't expected her turn it back around. "I mean, fantastic!"

"Fantastic," she agreed, laughing slightly at his choice of words. It was not a mean laugh either; it was a very gentle giggle, and Harry realized that he would like nothing more than to make her smile more.

"Alright, then…um," Harry paused, wondering if he should say more. "Oh, how was Defense? Professor Moody give any of you a hard time?"

"Um, not really," Cho replied, looking slightly surprised by how direct he was. "He's a good teacher. He really knows what he's doing, but sometimes that eye of his really distracts me!" She paused, laughing nervously and looking around to make sure that Professor Moody himself wasn't around to hear her say these things.

"Yeah, sort of feels like it's following you, doesn't it?" Harry agreed. They both started laughing, both of them wondering whether Moody's eye was following them at that moment.

"Speaking of Defense, Harry, I've been wondering," Cho began, looking very interested. "Remember last year, during our Quidditch match, when you conjured that Patronus Charm?"

"Sure, I remember," Harry replied, a rueful grin on his face. "Good thing those weren't actually Dementors, otherwise I don't think it would've worked."

"It looked strong," Cho reassured him. "I think it would have. I've studied it a bit, mostly just theory, though. It's really advanced magic, who taught it to you?"

"Professor Lupin did, last year," Harry replied. Then without thinking, he added, "Would you like me to teach it to you sometime?"

'What am I thinking?!' Harry thought. 'Where did that come from?! She'll say no, she definitely won't agree to this…'

Cho paused, looking at him as if wondering if he were joking. Realizing he wasn't, she grinned widely and said, "Sure, that'd be great, Harry! When can we start?"

"Huh?" Harry asked stupidly. "I mean, wow, really? I'm not a great teacher, though. I don't think I've ever taught anyone to do, well, anything before."

"Harry," Cho began, a mockingly severe look on her face, "if you offer to teach someone a spell, it means you know what you're doing. Do you?"

"I-yeah of course I do." Harry said, a sense of pride coming over him. 'I do know my stuff, don't I?' Harry thought to himself.

"Well, alright then," Cho said, satisfied. "When can we start?"

"Um…how about this Saturday, before the holidays begin?" Harry proposed, wondering how on Earth this was happening.

"Sure, that sounds good," Cho replied. "Say, about, eleven in the morning?"

"Yeah, eleven's good," Harry replied breathlessly, realizing what he had just done.

"Great, I'll see you around, then." Cho said, and with a smile, began to walk back towards her friends, who had been watching all of this in surprised silence.

"Yeah, see you then," Harry replied in a daze, waving good-bye. Smiling, she waved back, before finally turning around completely and re-joining her friends. As they began walking away, Harry could hear them bombarding Cho with questions, and he noticed them throwing furtive glances at him.

He didn't much care, though. He'd done it. He'd asked Cho Chang to the Yule Ball, and she'd said yes. He was also sure he'd just asked her out on a date, and she had agreed to that, as well. Harry began walking slowly up to the Gryffindor common room, completely forgetting that he was supposed to be meeting up with Ron and Hermione in the Great Hall for dinner.

He wasn't all that hungry, anyway.


2nd AN: Wow this one took a while to write. Thanks again for all the reviews, follows, favorites, all that good stuff. I'll keep updating as frequently as I can.

Seriously, what's up with Cedric? Things will come to a head soon…