Harry Potter's new girlfriend was Ginny Weasley, and he made no attempts to hide it. Cho had first spotted them one day during a match against Hufflepuff. Just before they'd mounted their brooms they'd shared a small, quick kiss and a fluttery wave farewell.
Cho's heart had twisted, a pang so sharp it felt as though it was palpable.
She'd forced herself to look away.
She still didn't know why it hurt so much.
She was done with Harry Potter and she was done feeling sorry for herself and she was done falling apart and yet -
Every time she passed Ginny Weasley in the corridor, an almost angelic smile on her face, Cho always looked away.
She supposed it was a good thing they'd never become friends, despite the fact that Cho rather admired the other girl.
That would have only made this all infinitely more agonizing.
Teal was the color of the twilight sky the day Cho decided to venture up to the Astronomy tower. It had since become a habit of hers, to let the stars take her someplace far, far away.
She did not notice the other girl there, not until she was already seated near the vast window, fingers framing the rising moon as she splayed her hands on the glass.
It was only when she heard the faint rustle that signaled the presence of someone else did she finally tear her gaze away to take in the rest of her surroundings - and found herself face-to-face with none other than Ginny Weasley.
This time, Cho could not look away so easily.
It was Ginny who spoke first, a simple and polite, "hello."
"Hello," was Cho's echoed, stammered-out reply.
"It's nice up here, isn't it?" Ginny mused softly, tilting her head towards the window and drinking in the seemingly endless expanse of teal sky, dotted with the faintest of stars.
Cho nodded wordlessly, though inside she felt as though she were burning.
This girl had kissed Harry Potter without shedding a single tear.
This girl had never caused such a scene over something so small as a mention of Hermione Granger.
This girl had a boy who loved her, one that was still very much present and alive.
What had Cho done to deserve otherwise?
She offered Ginny a tight smile before turning once more to the stars, wondering if the cosmos would offer her any sort of answers.
If only Ginny Weasley hadn't been so damn nice.
Since their short conversation in the Astronomy tower, she now took the time to smile at Cho every time they crossed paths in the corridors. Cho would always be sure to smile back, though each time she thought it was less of a smile and more a grimace masked to wear the guise of one.
She was filled to the brim with bitterness and resentment, though the more she realized Ginny had nothing to do with that, the more she channeled it inward, letting it chip away at herself. For she could not blame Harry Potter for loving Ginny and Ginny for loving him, and there was no one else to condemn aside from Cho herself.
The walls and masks that Dumbledore's Army had finally allowed her to shed, the things she'd learned that fateful day she'd finally stopped falling and started flying, were fleeting indeed.
It was troubling how quickly Cho was able to conjure them once more, to fall into that rhythm of hiding it all away. Odd that despite how hard she'd worked to rid herself of it all, it still had an uncanny way of returning.
She was not flying anymore.
But she was not falling either.
Cho stood her ground, forcing herself to be content where she was.
Even then, though, her eyes could not help but wander to the stars and sky above.
