Disclaimer: If they were mine, it would be rather silly to kill them all off. But they aren't, and I can do evil things to them. Muahahahahaa!

Of Glorious Lives and Obituaries

Of Mirrors and Futures

"Aren't you a pretty girl!" the mirror had exclaimed at her on her first night at Hogwarts.

At home her mother had always told her that, and hearing it here made her feel warm and welcomed, but also alone and homesick. But being the pretty and kind girl she was, Cho quickly made friends and didn't feel alone anymore.

But life was not the fairy tale she had not so much expected but still hoped it would be. The boy she truly considered her love of life and future husband was taken away from her so viciously. At that time she had vowed never to fall in love again.

"You are a lovely girl – not only pretty but with a good heart as well," the mirror had comforted her. "You will find happiness again, you deserve it."

And the mirror had been correct. She did get over the loss of her first crush, and was happy once again. She had her friends and she had her boyfriends, and even though it never worked out the way she wished, Cho didn't give up her hope to be happy one day.

All through the war and the times of darkness, she clung to her hope and her faith, and every time another of her friends died, she clung to it even more desperately. And then, when she felt her fingers slipping and all her hope and faith slowly pouring away from her, when she felt she couldn't hold on to it any more, when she felt she had no more strength left… then the war had ended.

Things didn't get right at the second it happened, and not by themselves. Those still alive had to work for a better future, fight for it again and again. But they did their best and built up a new world for themselves and their children.

And in the end, after years of fighting and waiting, Cho had finally found her happiness. She had found a man who loved her and whom she loved and now they were engaged to be married.

In fact, instead of staring into the mirror she should have been packing. He had asked her to move in with him, and she had accepted. No more loneliness. Good things come to those who wait, and she had waited enough. Now it was time for her bright future and happily ever after.

She smiled to the mirror. It was a gift from her fiance, who knew that the reason she kept staring into mirrors the better part of day was not because she was a narcissistic self-admirer. She might be a pretty girl, but the real reason was that mirrors always comforted her.

Mirrors reflected things. They gave them back to those who looked just the way they were. The perspective was a bit changed, but the essence of the thing was still same. Mirrors didn't lie. Mirrors told the truth.

Drawing out her wand, she cast the Levitating spell to move it to her other things. This mirror she was taking with her, this mirror she would never leave behind. For this mirror would tell her she was happy, for the rest of her life.

"You're a pretty girl," the mirror told her in midair.

Cho smiled. It had told her that countless times, but today it reminded her of the first night in Hogwarts more than ever before, and a torrent of memories attacked her. Some were happy, some were sad, some were tragic – but they were all past. Now her future awaited her, and she was ready for it.

Her smile growing bigger, Cho didn't feel her wand slipping from her fingers, and with it the spell breaking as well. The next thing she felt was a sharp pain in her throat, and looking down she saw millions of little pieces of silvered glass.

Breaking a mirror would be seven years of bad luck.

I will survive it, she smiled, sliding to the floor and choking on her own blood.

Cho Chang escaped those seven years of bad luck.

The End.