Cho Chang was not sure what exactly she felt for Harry Potter. He'd asked her to the Yule Ball and she had been quick to turn him down, so smitten with Cedric that the idea of going with someone else was unfathomable.
But that had been a different Cho.
For Cedric was gone, now, and Harry Potter was the only person who had truly seen him go.
Perhaps it was curiosity, then, that drove Cho to seek him out. At first, there were small interactions: stumbling upon him and Neville Longbottom on the train, engaging in stilted small talk upon crossing paths in the owlery, spotting each other across the Quidditch pitch and waving.
But those simple interactions soon escalated into something more. Something tangible, something real.
Cho had been standing on the precipice, holding on far too tight for far too long. It was beneath the mistletoe in the Room of Requirement one day that she finally let go.
Cho had felt nothing in that kiss. Nothing towards Harry, at least.
But she'd felt a thousand other things: grief and confusion and guilt because he was not Cedric.
He was not Cedric.
And that was the thought that had sent Cho falling.
She was still falling when, months later, Harry asked her to accompany him to Hogsmeade.
She did not know why she said yes.
Perhaps it was simply to find something to hold on to.
The teacup was lined with bronze that stood out garishly against the lacy pink tablecloth at Madam Puddifoot's tea shop. But of course, Cho wasn't all that concerned with the decor.
What she was concerned with was the fact that she was on a date, yet that was the thing she was most focused on.
Not Harry, who was sitting directly across from her, a distant expression on his face that showed that his mind was clearly elsewhere. Cho shifted uncomfortably in her seat, absently swirling her bronze spoon around the cloudy dregs of tea left in her cup.
Neither of them spoke for a long while, despite the fact that Cho had far too many things she wanted to say to him. What was it like? What did he say? Did you even get to say goodbye?
But those were dangerous questions, ones she dared not ask.
Instead, she let them echo around her skull until the silence finally broke again.
And the first thing out of his mouth was an offhand comment about meeting Hermione Granger after this.
Cho didn't know why it hurt so much. It wasn't like she'd been invested in their relationship, after all. She had no reason to care.
Except she did. Because all she was to him was another girl. Someone to check off a list who knew how long?
This was what she got for trying.
This is what she got for moving on.
She stormed off, letting her temper get the best of her and not caring about the tears or the scene she was making.
She was done being quiet.
The boy who lived, the chosen one-
He had not chosen her.
And the one boy who had was dead and buried.
Cho continued to fall, and there was no one to catch her.
She hardly spoke to Harry after that. Perhaps it was better that way. She let her questions remain unanswered, let her curiosity remain unquenched-
She would never truly know what Cedric's final fate had been.
But if Harry Potter would rather speak to Hermione then her…
So be it.
Cho held her head high and pretended to be unbothered.
She pretended like she had that night she'd been a queen.
Callous. Indifferent. Heartless.
And somewhere along the line, the pretense shifted into reality.
So be it.
