CHO CHANG'S EIGHTH YEAR
By monkeymouse
NB: JKRowling built the Potterverse; I'm just redecorating one of the rooms. And one of the great things about JKR telling the story from Harry's point of view is that stuff could be happening all over the wizarding world that Harry isn't aware of.
Rated: PG-13
Spoilers: Everything
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6. Detour
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Sleep filled Cho's brain like a fog in the Forbidden Forest. She couldn't move; she heard words, but couldn't tell what they were or who spoke them. It wasn't clear until she heard a clattering sound and then…
"BUGGER!"
She remembered; she and Penelope Clearwater had gone to see Diana Fairweather, another Ravenclaw girl from Cho's year at Hogwarts. They had gone to see in the New Year, but also to hide out in case Ministry wizards came looking for the ones who tried to arrest Penelope. They would never be found, though.
"Right, ladies, we're getting up and getting out! Wakey wakey!"
"What's wrong," Penelope asked. They were supposed to meet her parents at Heathrow around noon; they were coming home from attending an academic conference in America.
"Nothing's wrong, really," Diana answered. "I just checked with Heathrow; your folks's plane caught a favourable wind and is going to land two or three hours ahead of schedule. So we don't have the luxury of waiting."
"Is it, well, safe?" Cho asked nervously.
"Probably. I mean, I've got a plan to get us to Heathrow that's loopy enough, nobody will follow us. But we still have to get going."
Cho glanced at a clock on the wall; it was just past seven. "Diana, have you done this before?"
"Penelope and I have both taken this little trip. Just stay on your toes."
The three bundled up against the winter cold; only their eyes could be seen in the dim light of dawn as they stepped out into Bolsover Street. A sharp cold wind hit them as soon as they emerged. Diana started walking south, and the others followed. They set a brisk pace, which kept the cold off, but they hadn't gone two blocks before Diana stopped them.
"I know him," she said, pointing to a taxi idling in front of a coffee shop. The girls quick-marched to it, and Diana rapped on the window. The driver was behind the wheel, sipping at a cup of coffee; he clearly wasn't engaged, but waved Diana and the others into the cab.
"Happy New Year, Danny," Diana said once she closed the door.
"Same to you ladies," Danny said, not turning around but looking in his mirror and smiling with his eyes. "Just stopped for a cuppa and a baggin. Been on since last night but it's been quiet. Are you goin' to a party or coming from one?"
"In between, actually." Diana fished some Muggle money out of her coat pocket and dropped the bills onto the front seat. "No rush, but we're going to Oxford Circus Station."
The driver looked at the bills. "Decided to be a big tipper this year?"
"Makes up for helping me out last year."
"Right, then." Danny pocketed the bills. "Off to the tube."
The cab ride wasn't too long, but the cold would have made it seem worse if they'd walked. In no time they were at Oxford Circus Station. Even though it was early on New Year's Day, there was the usual crowd entering and leaving.
"Good luck to you, then," Diana said as she opened the door.
"Likewise, ladies."
"Stay close, Cho," Diana said in a low voice as they entered the building. They didn't look back at the cab as it pulled away, nor did they notice a man reading a newspaper suddenly stop and follow them in.
xxx
Three different Underground lines converge at Oxford Circus; the three witches made for the Bakerloo line and took the next train heading north.
"Don't get too comfortable," Penelope warned Cho. "We change trains in no time."
Cho wasn't sure what there was to worry about. It was unlikely that anyone from the Ministry was hanging about Oxford Circle on the off chance that witches and wizards would be riding … And yet, Cho thought, here we are.
Penelope was right; it was only a few minutes until the train arrived at Paddington station. The doors opened, passengers entered and exited the car; and then just before the doors started to close again, Penelope grabbed Cho's hand, whispered "Now," and pulled her up and onto the platform. Diana was already moving with them.
Cho wondered about whether this was necessary—until she looked back at the closed door of their car as it pulled away from the station. There was a middle-aged man with a long dark beard standing at the door, glowering angrily at the three witches.
"You don't think," Cho began.
"We figure it out later. Come on," Diana said, as the girls moved quickly through the tunnel connecting the Bakerloo, Circle District and Hammersmith lines. Cho let herself be carried along by her friends as the boarded a southbound Hammersmith train and rode it to the end of the line, after which they waited for the Heathrow Express.
"We go to Terminal 3," Penelope said as they waited. "That's where I'll meet my parents."
"This is quite a test," Cho replied, looking almost in spite of herself at the other people on the platform. Most wizarding people disguised as Muggles usually give themselves away by not getting the look right. This time, however, Cho realized she couldn't be sure. Some Muggles riding the early morning Underground in party attire looked very wizardish.
They got onto the Express, which this morning had nothing but standing room, and very little of that. All of London seemed to be meeting someone at Heathrow. The three witches were so busy trying not to get separated by the crowd milling around them that they almost missed the stop at Terminal 3. Diana grabbed one of Cho's arms and pulled her toward the car door.
Someone else had hold of her other arm.
Cho tried to move out of the car, but the man who had her arm wouldn't let her budge. The man wore a blue wool coat, a watchcap, and a pin on his jacket.
A Puddlemere United Quidditch pin.
Cho's heart sank. This was a Ministry wizard, and he wasn't about to let go of her. Diana was trying to pull her out of the car, but she couldn't move, and she didn't know why. It must have been some sort of Imperius, but Cho couldn't counter it. All Cho could do is stare at the door, which hadn't yet closed, but would surely close any second…
Suddenly, the wizard let go of Cho's arm. Diana jerked her out onto the platform, and the three of them ran to the terminal.
Cho began to ask, "What just…"
"Later," Penelope said. "Stay close to me, and follow my lead."
Cho felt what she could only describe later as a tugging at her brain. She looked back; the wizard with the Puddlemere pin was trying to get through the crowd. He was trying to cast a spell on Cho again, but wasn't having much luck with all the unintentional interference.
"But, Penny," Cho tried again, "once we're in the terminal…"
"We'll be safe as if we were in Ravenclaw. Just play along."
Before Cho could wonder what that meant, they took a sudden turn, shoved between groups of people, and Penny grabbed onto a man wearing the uniform of Heathrow Security.
"You've got to stop that man, officer!" Penny shouted. "He's an evil wizard and he's trying to enslave us!"
Cho, picking up on Penny's plan, looked at the officer (actually a little past him) and said, "He got inside my brain!"
The wizard stopped a few feet away, waiting to see what would happen next.
The security officer clearly didn't believe a word of it, but he looked over his shoulder at the wizard and said, "Sir, we need to get this sorted out."
"No!" Diana interrupted, a little too loudly. "It's just a bit too much partying. I can settle these two down."
"Whatever you say," the officer said. He turned to look at the man, but now he was nowhere to be seen. Diana, meanwhile, had pushed Penny and Cho into a coffee bar next to the Terminal Security post.
Two minutes and three coffees later, Penny asked the others, "How are you now? You were in trouble back there."
"I don't know how he knew," Cho shuddered, "but I think he had some sort of Imperius on me."
"That's not good," Diana shook her head. "Can you fight that?"
"I think so; he just caught me off guard."
Like this, Sunshine?
It was the wizard; it had to be. He was back inside Cho's head.
Leave me alone!
Not much chance of that. Now, if you want to see any more of the New Year, you'll cooperate…
Cho didn't know why she did what she did next. She didn't have her flute, but she remembered her exercises, playing and sustaining a single note. She remembered, concentrating with all her powers on the last time she sounded a note on the flute: feeling the carefully controlled breath, hearing the base note and the higher harmonics, sustaining the note for a full thirty seconds and letting that sound crowd everything else out of her consciousness. By the time Cho came to the end of the note, she could feel it: the wizard was gone.
Cho had closed her eyes; when she opened them again, Diana and Penny were staring at her. "So, how are things, then?" Diana asked.
Cho smiled rather weakly. "I think he got discouraged and left. Still, even though there's a Security Officer next door, he's still a Muggle and we can't count on him too much. We'd better get going."
"That's why I wanted to come here first," Penny said. "There'll be hundreds of people at the arrival gate.
Penny was right; between the crowd deplaning and the friends and family there to meet them, the mob was even worse than on the Underground. Here, however, the mood was completely different. The passengers on the train were a mixture of stress, frustration, worry, giddiness, and a dozen other emotions. Here, the joy was as thick as pudding as friends and families met their loved ones. This level of happiness could even defeat Dementors; the wizard from the Ministry wouldn't be able to stand it.
It took about thirty minutes for the Professors Clearwater to get out of Customs. Penny was never so pleased to see her parents; it surprised even them.
"Now we get to work off all that wonderful airline food," Penny's father joked, "by taking all these bags to Long Term Parking."
"You're welcome to join us, of course," Penny's mother said to Cho and Diana.
"Well, I won't say no," Diana said. "Cho?"
"Sorry, but I'll have to leave you, then," Cho said.
"Are you sure?"
"Quite sure, Diana. Nothing to worry about." Actually there was. Cho was hoping that, if a Ministry wizard was still shadowing them, she could lead him away from Penny and her parents. After some quickly exchanged New Year's greetings and a general invitation to visit Cambridge for dinner in the near future, Cho left the others.
She didn't want to retrace her steps, so she took a shuttle from Terminal 3 to Terminal 4, where she could get the Piccadilly Line and take it directly to Kings Cross Station. This time, she tried to keep aware of everyone and everything around her, while also ready to defend herself against any further spells.
xxx
Even though it was New Year's Day, and not a day when the Hogwarts Express normally returned from the Christmas Holidays, the new regime in the Ministry had changed a lot of things. For one, they tried to avoid treating Muggle holidays as anything special. The old Ministry approach was to use the holidays to blend in with Muggle society. Voldemort's intention, however, was to sever all ties between the wizarding world and the Muggles. In addition, Hogwarts under Severus Snape had increased the number and length of classes during the schooldays, even if the content of the lessons had grown rather thin. By elevating some forms of magic over others, the children were actually learning less magic than before. After the ouster of Dolores Umbridge, the Ministry decided that students—even the Purebloods—shouldn't be taught too much too soon.
Cho, who had done her seven years under Headmaster Albus Dumbledore, wasn't worried. Between her years at Hogwarts and her Chinese studies, she felt she had magical knowledge equal to any student and even some faculty. However, it wasn't until she slipped through the barrier to Platform 9 ¾ that she had to face it. She had no plan. She wanted to go there to help, but had no idea what she could contribute. She was going to Hogwarts to hide from the Ministry, yet almost everyone there knew her, and none of them was expecting her.
She was about to give it all up as a foolish idea and go home to Diagon Alley when she heard a voice shouting from further down the platform:
"I WON'T GO! I WON'T! YOU CAN'T MAKE ME!"
Cho's heart leapt when she realized she recognized the voice. It belonged to Sara Anand, a Seeker in training Cho put on the Ravenclaw team when Sara was still a First Year. Sara was the younger sister Cho never had.
Luckily, Cho was near the luggage van, she positioned herself between two tall piles of luggage, and listened for Sara's footsteps. When they grew close, timing it very carefully, she waited until Sara was running past the gap. She reached out, grabbed Sara's robes, and pulled her in; like getting a Snitch, she thought.
Sara started to struggle, then recognized Cho. She started to speak; Cho put a finger to her lips and led Sara closer to the wall.
Not until Cho put down her finger did Sara speak, and then in a whisper. She's very quick on the pickup, Cho smiled.
"Captain Chang! What's all this, then?"
"First, tell me about Hogwarts. How much have things changed there?"
"Too much. It's more prison than school, but some people put up a fight. Still, it's pretty bad."
"I heard you saying you didn't want to go back."
"What? No; my mum wanted me to stay home. She pulled me off the train, and I wanted to go back. I wanted to be part of it all."
"Part of what all?"
"Dumbledore's Army."
Cho's heart felt as if it had been kicked by a dragon. Had they actually gotten back together?
Sara went on: "Just a handful of students who used to be in it, mind you. Luna Lovegood from Ravenclaw, and Terry Boot, Anthony Goldstein and Michael Corner. Although we all have to live up to the Gryffindors; you know what that's like."
Cho nodded, her mind racing. "Sara, I know you want to be there, but tell me; how dangerous has it become?"
"Oh, horribly dangerous. The way that Snape and the Carrows run the school now, it's a surprise they haven't killed anyone yet, although I suspect they've come close. They say you used to be in the Army, right? What was it like?"
"I'd like to make a deal with you. I'm not going to be long at Hogwarts. If you give me your ticket, I'll find out what I need to know at Hogwarts, then come back for the Easter break. Then we can spend a whole day together, and I can tell you about the Army. Would you mind awfully if your mother caught you this time?"
"Well, when you put it that way," Sara smiled. She started pulling things out of her coat pocket and thrusting them at Cho. "Here's the ticket, and a vial of Polyjuice; absolutely everyone's got some at Hogwarts now. And take this comb; it's got some of my hair in it."
Cho almost laughed in spite of herself. "You've given this a lot of thought in just a few seconds."
"The mark of a good Seeker, I hope," Sara smiled again at Cho.
"Right. See you in a few weeks."
Sara worked her way out from between the luggage, back onto the platform, and was loudly caught by her mother.
This is wrong, she thought, as she ducked into the women's lavatory, mixed up the potion, drank it, and turned into a slightly shorter, beautiful brown-skinned witch with hair hanging well down her back. Some of the students seem to think this is all fun. I'm afraid it won't be.
xxx
To be continued in part 7, wherein Cho gets a patient …