Cho Chang and the Goblet of Fire: An Alternate Fanfic

By monkeymouse

Based on writings by JK Rowling

Part Six: 29 June to 1 July, 1995

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The three returned to Dumbledore's office at Hogwarts, where the Cup had last been. Harry, still in the body of Cedric Diggory, turned away from Cho. He couldn't bring himself to look at her, and didn't want her to look at him. Not now; not until he had been restored to his own body. He barely heard her whisper, "Thank you, Headmaster." Then, in an even softer whisper: "Harry?" He didn't move; he didn't dare. He didn't think he could handle how she would look at him, or what she might think. After a second, he heard the sound of her trainers on the stone floor, and down the steps leaving the office.

After a minute Dumbledore spoke. "I think she's had enough of a head start. It's time for us now."

Harry didn't have to ask. He followed a step behind Dumbledore to the hospital wing. At the far end of the room he saw a body covered with a sheet lying on one of the beds. Standing next to the bed was a man Harry guessed was Sirius. He wasn't sure, because the man wore a harlequin mask, with an overly long nose, cheekbones sticking up like mountains, and a very thin moustache painted onto the papier-mâché.

"I feel like a fool with this on," he told Harry and Dumbledore, "but I didn't know Pomfrey would be up and about. Couldn't have her telling the Ministry about me, and I doubt she'd let a dog run loose in the wing. Anyway, it was the best I could do on short notice."

"It suits you, old friend," Dumbledore smiled. "Your humour used to cause me as many problems as James' athletic overconfidence." Harry's ears pricked up at the mention of his father. "But there's a time and place to reminisce.

"Lie down on the bed, Harry."

Harry did as Dumbledore asked. "I should let you know right now that you need to be put into a very deep sleep to separate you and Cedric, and no potion can be effective enough. I'll have to cast a spell to accomplish this. You should sleep until after sunset, by which time, if all goes well, you'll be yourself again."
"Hold up, Albus," Sirius interrupted. "I expect I know the answer to this one already, but, I mean, the question has to be asked, doesn't it?"

"Point taken," Dumbledore said to Sirius; he then turned to Harry. "Harry, it seems that your godfather, who still can't help but cause a bit of mischief, has asked me indirectly to ask you a question. It is this: do you really want to go through with this? You could stay as you are now, and become the only son of a good and true Pureblood wizarding family. Like the Weasleys, the Diggorys have made the right choices in their lives. Like you, Cedric was a Seeker, although he was Sorted into a House that did not always give full scope to his talents. You, on the other hand, have nowhere to go this summer except back to Muggle relatives who would be delighted to see the back of you. I know that I'm presenting a one-sided view of things, but you must consider both sides to make your choice."

Harry pondered the problem for only a few seconds. "I never really knew my parents," Harry said softly, "and the Diggorys may be nice people, but I couldn't do that to Cedric's family, or to my own. I couldn't pretend to be who they'd want me to be. It isn't right. Besides, Voldemort tried to make me want to be Cedric, just to get me out of his way."

Sirius gave a kind of barking laugh. "He got you there."

"I fully expected he would. Close your eyes, Harry; it's time."

Harry as he felt himself slipping into unconsciousness tried to hang onto only one memory of Cedric's: the memory of Cedric's first kiss with Cho, on Christmas night at the end of the Yule Ball. Harry realized one thing: as many times as he's seen Cho in passing, and she smiled at him, at that moment Cho wasn't smiling at Cedric. He didn't understand why she looked that way: so serious, as if she was taking the biggest step of her life…

He woke up hours later, long after the sun had set, and alone in the dark ward tried to recall anything to do with Cedric and Cho; he finally had to concede that he could not. Only then did he try to recall the Cho-Cedric kiss; ultimately, it was all jumbled and confused. He didn't know if he recalled what happened or was fantasizing about it. But, once he realized he'd lost Cedric's memories, Harry felt somehow empty.

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Ron and the twins come down early in the morning of 30 June, asking Harry to bring them up to speed about what happened with Voldemort while telling Harry what's been happening in Hogwarts and the wizarding world. They told him about the son of Barty Crouch posing as Alastor Moody for an entire year. "Mum didn't want you to know anything and get all upset, but dad was easy to get the news from." Dumbledore had announced to the school the night before that Cedric was dead and that Harry won the Tournament. They also talked about Crouch getting a Dementor's Kiss, with Harry wondering whether it was deliberate to protect the reputation of some wizard (or of the Ministry itself). Dumbledore had spent most of the previous night closeted with Molly and Arthur Weasley, who were going to be rounding up some old friends from the days when Harry was still an infant. They were hooking up with Dumbledore to carry out some sort of rear-guard action against Voldemort. Finally, Harry got the Tournament prize money from Ron, decided that he had no use for it, and gave it to Fred & George.

Cho still hadn't come to see him.

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The next morning, Ron and Hermione came by to visit Harry; Hagrid came along a little later with some "sweeties" left over from tea with Madame Maxim. The cookies Hagrid had tried to make smelled of sugar and cocoa, and were decidedly underdone, but Harry had eaten precious little since the Third Task.

Cho came by just before supper. It had only been two days since he'd seen her last, but somehow she seemed even prettier than before. She didn't say a word at first, but sat on the bed next to Harry's. Both were rather hesitant to talk; Cedric was still between them, and Cho was close to tears but fighting them back.

Harry wanted to talk about the two of them: what they had started to become before the Yule Ball, and what they might have become but for Cedric. Unfortunately, Harry had never had this kind of conversation in his life, and groped for words. After a minute, Cho took pity on him, touched that such a masterful Seeker would be at a loss for words for her sake. "Sorry, Harry, but it's still too soon. Maybe after the summer, when it isn't such a…"

"Bad time?" Cho nodded. "Cho, I'm sorry, but you have to tell me if you know. Why? Why did this have to happen? I mean, it's all my fault, isn't it? I told him to take the Cup along with me. Why would he listen to me about something like that?"

"Harry, I—" Cho couldn't finish what she'd started to say, and had to take a minute. "Believe it or not, Harry, I've felt exactly the way you do. Ever since you told me Cedric was dead, I wondered why, and all I could think was that it was my fault."

"No; how was it your…"

"Think about it, Harry. Why would a Hufflepuff share the kind of once-in-a-lifetime glory that could have been his alone? I didn't know what the Third Task would be, but I knew that you two were tied going into the task. So I told Cedric what I'd been telling him for months: that the two of you should be friends. I hated those Slytherin badges that set you two against each other, and he understood that. He hated the dueling Houses as much as I did. So Cedric tried to seek you out, didn't he?"

Harry remembered Cedric's hints about the golden egg and nodded.

"Yes, well." Cho fell silent for another minute. Harry didn't know why, but Cho seemed to still have something to say about it, and was herself struggling to find the words. "Cedric was the way he was because he was good and decent. My motives, well, I'm afraid they weren't so lofty. I'd finally gotten to know you this year, even if we haven't chatted much before this. And then there was the, erm, there was Cedric. And I never wanted that to happen, Harry, you have to believe me."

"You didn't want Cedric to die?"

"I didn't want to fall in love with him. I felt like you were avoiding me after the Yule Ball, and that wasn't the way I wanted it. Because I li—" Cho, who'd been running on almost without a breath, suddenly came to a full stop. "I think maybe I've said too much."

"Cho, did you really talk to Cedric about taking the Cup with me?"

"Well, no; how could anybody have known how the task would end? I just asked him if he could see a way to end it with Hogwarts winning rather than either of you losing. You didn't deserve that, either of you."

Harry looked down at his hands clutching his blanket. They suddenly looked to be the wrong size, as if they belonged to somebody else. He glanced over at Cho's hands, clutching each other in her lap; they looked perfect. He glanced up at her face; she was looking down at her lap, then suddenly glanced into Harry's eyes. He hurriedly looked away.

Harry swallowed, for his throat had suddenly gone dry. "So," Harry said after a minute, "you think we wanted the same thing?"

Cho nodded slightly. "Not for it to have ended like this, of course. Harry, please, don't ever apologise to me about Cedric. You did nothing to be sorry for. It was the Dark Lord's doing, not yours."

"I know," Harry said, barely above a whisper, feeling his voice would crack any moment. "But I think I know how you feel, and if I could I'd—"

"I know," Cho said softly. "Thank you."

They stayed silently sitting for another minute. "Cho, I, well, I can't remember any of it anymore, about Cedric. I'd like, I mean, if it's possible after all this, if we can still be friends…"

Cho reached over to his bed to take his hand. "We already are," she smiled rather weakly, tears already staring down her cheeks, "and I think we always will be." Her voice breaks. "I'm sorry, Harry, I …" With that, she ran from the wing.

A few minutes later, Ron comes down carrying a set of Harry's school robes. He was there to make sure Harry went to Cedric's memorial dinner. Harry had heard Ron's steps in the corridor, and made sure to use the blanket to wipe away his own tears.

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A/N: Please watch for my return to long-form Canon-compliant fanfic with "Cho Chang's Eighth Year". What happened after the death of Dumbledore? Did she ever sit for her NEWTs? What did Cho do during the war, and what about her parents? New experiences, old guests, Chinese magic, and two epilogues.