new chapter, cuz I'm a busy bee :) thanks to everyone for reading and reviewing, it makes my day :)

P.S. Just a reminder that this chapter takes place before the last one. As you've noticed they're not in a particular order, so opinions and feelings will shift slightly (or dramatically in some cases).

You just have to pay attention to the volume and the scene I've taken from the book to be able to tell when things change. Hope that's not too much work:)

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6: Cho Chang (I)

At that precise moment the door of their compartment slid open.

"Oh…hello, Harry," said a nervous voice. "Um…bad time?"

Harry wiped the lenses of his glasses with his Trevor-free hand. A very pretty girl with long, shiny black hair was standing in the doorway smiling at him: Cho Chang, the Seeker on the Ravenclaw Quidditch team.

"Oh…hi," said Harry blankly.

"Um…" said Cho. "Well…just thought I'd say hello…bye then."

Rather pink in the face, she closed the door and departed. Harry slumped back in his seat and groaned. He would have liked Cho to discover him sitting with a group of very cool people laughing their heads off at a joke he had just told; he would not have chosen to be sitting with Neville and Loony Lovegood, clutching a toad and dripping in Stinksap.

"Never mind," said Ginny bracingly. "Look, we can easily get rid of all this." She pulled out her wand. "Scourgify!"

Rowling J.K., Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, PDF, Chapter 10: Luna Lovegood, page 140.

The Stinksap vanished instantly.

"I'm really sorry, Harry," Neville repeated in a mortified voice. He probably realized being seen in Stinksap was not the most attractive image.

"It's okay. Cho's used to nastier images. She plays Quidditch, remember?" Ginny said all of a sudden.

Harry glanced over in surprise.

"What?" Ginny asked sheepishly. "She does."

"I know," Harry murmured, lowering his head in embarrassment.

Was it that obvious that he fancied Cho that even Ginny could tell? And was she trying to comfort him or was she being ironic?

"She used to go out with, um, with that Cedric fellow, didn't she? Suppose that's why she came over," Neville intervened, hoping to placate Harry.

Harry didn't know how to reply to that, but he was saved the trouble when Luna Lovegood put down her magazine and cleared her throat.

"That's not why she came over. She clearly likes Harry."

Luna Lovegood, Harry would soon find out, had a very specific, brutally honest, sometimes downright cruel way of stating facts.

Their reactions were to be expected; Neville's mouth flew open while Harry and Ginny both doubled up, the latter more visibly than the former.

"Didn't you see how she blushed and stuttered? Cho Chang usually speaks in full sentences. I should know. She is in my House. Those are clear signs of attachment directed at the recipient of her speech who, in this case, is Harry Potter," Luna concluded, twisting a lock of hair between her fingers distractedly.

Harry tried to suppress the small flicker of joy in his stomach. This strange girl couldn't exactly be relied on.

"Wow, you got all that from a 'hi' and 'bye'?" Neville asked in astonishment.

"Well, either that or she has a terrible case of Wrackspurts," she offered as an additional possibility.

"What are those?" Neville asked warily.

"It's a microscopic creature that flies into your ears and makes your brain go fuzzy," the girl explained, as if it were the commonest thing in the world. "Cho didn't even sense them, most likely. Although I doubt they are the cause, because she would have felt the need to scratch her ears constantly."

Harry and Neville shared a look. They were clearly out-of-depth in the conversation.

Ginny coughed awkwardly.

"Luna's a bit too perceptive for her own good, you see. It's difficult to catch up," she explained to the others, smiling in the girl's direction.

"Girls' reactions are not difficult to deduce," Luna began philosophically. "They tend to be a bit more emotional so they are easier to read. You yourself Ginny exhibited this kind of behaviour when–"

"All right, Luna! That's enough about teenage crushes for now," Ginny interrupted her quickly.

Luna tiled her head unfazed. Ginny was trying to hide her agitation with laughter.

"Well, that's not the case with you now anyway since you have a boyfriend," Luna said dismissively.

Harry looked up in surprise. Ginny Weasley, Ron's younger sister, had a boyfriend?

He knew she was quite pretty for her age and very outgoing to boot, but he had never imagined her with a proper boyfriend before. Probably because she seemed much younger somehow and much more fragile, especially around him. The fact that she was someone's sister didn't help either.

He shook his head, feeling stupid. Of course she had a boyfriend, it was normal for her age, it's not like she still –

But his train of thought was interrupted by Luna once more.

"The real question now, though, is whether you like Cho Chang back."

Everyone in the compartment went suddenly quiet. You could practically drop a pin.

He wished someone would say something, but it seemed that they were all waiting for his answer.

Harry, who had never felt more embarrassed in his life, wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead and shrugged his shoulders, trying to appear nonchalant about it.

"I...I don't know," he said finally. "It's kind of a personal question, don't you think?"

Ginny's shoulders sagged almost instinctively. She could already see it on Harry's face and his hesitant words had only confirmed it. He did like Cho.

She shook her head, averting her eyes towards the window. She had to stop reminding herself that she had liked him at one point. There was no point dwelling on feelings that never led to anything, especially since she had stopped having them.

She supposed it was nostalgia. She felt nostalgic about her former crush.

"Oh. Is it personal?" Luna asked disconcerted. "Very well then. You have the right to keep your attachment to yourself."

"It's not attachment –" Harry argued, not happy with Luna's inference, but just then the compartment doors flew open and the elderly lady pulling the food trolley asked them if they had been waiting long.

The subject came to a dead end after everyone made their purchases and started eating, but Harry could still feel Luna's gaze directed at him. And sometimes Ginny's.

It was only much later after Ron and Hermione turned up from their Prefect rounds that he realized he had forgotten to ask her who her boyfriend was.