Her heart's lead her to many places, as horridly cheesy as it seems to say that. She's found the love of her live, once in Cedric and in the comfort of sheer amount of hope Harry had, and she found friends in expected places, like Marietta (the obvious choice for a best friend since they immediately hit it off even after inevitable rough patches).
But her heart never had the time to warn her about was Seamus Finnigan, a young man in the form of everlasting optimism and boundless energy and loyalty that never faded. He would write her often (although she can't seem to recall giving out her address to him, not that she learned to mind) and just those words alone make her smile a little less reluctantly.
They barely talked during their Hogwarts years but when they exchange letters it feels as if Cho has known Seamus for a life time. He shares what he's feeling when he's feeling it and it sometimes breaks Cho's heart to read how raw and emotional Seamus is. In the most recent letter, he says he misses Hogwarts and the atmosphere and the people he's met and the people he's never talked to and the everything. There's always the hope, that glimmer of hope, that Hogwarts is stable enough to properly house the new generation of students. Seamus briefly wonders about the first years.
"How are they doing?" He muses airily, and almost convinces Cho to visit Hogwarts just to check on those ickle firsties.
Cho sometimes feels jealousy boil in her veins when she talks to Seamus at Hogsmeade, drinking warm cider and chatting easily about the news and Quidditch and whatever else decides to come to mind. It's so easy for him to open up, to spill the contents of his heart and bounce back so easily. She opened up to Cedric (Cho still faintly remembers the precise cologne he used when he calmed her down all those times she had panic attacks over such petty things) and look where that got her: death and heart break.
And then she cries, remembering Cedric. Cho can't believe she's shedding salty tears for a boy she loved far too long ago in a situation she desperately wishes to rewrite. Better yet, she wants it completely gone and totally erased from her memory, from everyone's minds. Through watery eyes, she sees that Seamus is crying too. She puts an arm around him and suddenly she feels better.
A/N: I've been in a writing slump lately, and writing this on a whim kind of alleviated it slightly. Life's been mean to me lately, to put it lightly. Unbeta'd and in a writing style I don't normally write in. Thanks to Morghen on the 'Weird Pairings' forum for inspiring this.