Chapter 15: Things You Learn Hiding Under A Common Room Table.
After a while Cho finished explaining about the change of rooms, and why. Nancy Cromwell had a look of hurt on her face. "I don't understand. What the hell did I ever do to them? And why are they acting like this now? They never used to hang out with me, but were always civil. Why do they hate me?" Nancy asked, with a tear in her eye. Cho had a guilty look on her face.
"Well the thing is Nancy…I made them be civil to you and everyone else not pureblood or up to what they consider acceptable, these last few years and…now that they and I are no longer friends, they have nothing to keep them from being the biggest gits on the planet. I'm really sorry if they hurt you guys, but I think that it's actually turned out okay. I mean I'm really happy not to share a room with the two of them. I'd much rather be with my real friends. You guys have been great, and I missed all of you over the summer." Cho finished grateful. Nancy smiled embarrassed.
"It's okay Cho; you've always gotten our backs. And your right, it will be good to be away from those creeps. Screw them." Nancy said hotly, and wiping away a tear.
"Here! Here! And were not about to let a couple of wankers like Marietta, and Danielle ruin our school year. I'm glad you decided to hang with us Cho. You've always been a great friend." Beverly put in. Cho's eyes lowered.
"No, I haven't. I haven't been a good friend at all these last few years. I divided my time up amongst my friends, because Marietta and Danielle wouldn't associate with any of you. I should not have let Marietta determine when I could hang out with certain people, and when I couldn't. I should have told her that if she didn't want to hang out with any of you that she couldn't hang out with me at all. But…I didn't. Instead I scheduled my time like my friends were a business, and selected when I could hangout with which friends. I also spent the lion's share of my time with Marietta. I'm sorry guys. I let you all down. I hope you can forgive me." Cho said softly. Her three friends gave her a group hug. Nancy spoke.
"Look Cho, the thing is that you're enough of a friend that you made time to be with all of us. You actually defied Marietta telling you to keep away from us, and were never embarrassed to talk to us in public, and never ignored us. And I remember you being there for everyone in this room when it really mattered. When no one else seemed to be there for us. You are a good friend, and we're all honored to have you with us." Beverly finished. Cho sincerely smiled.
"Thanks guys. But I promise you that this year will be different. This year I'm not going to divide my time up at all. If any of my pureblood friends will not welcome you guys as a friend, than I'm not interested in being theirs. I promise."
As the conversation continued Cho unpacked her steamer trunk and gave out the gifts that she had bought for Beverly, and Luna. She was glad that Beverly had agreed to go to the joke shop for her that last day in Diagon Alley for her and get Nancy's Weasley's Wildfire Whizbangs for her. She would have been too embarrassed to run into Harry with his girlfriend there. Cho was disappointed to find out that "The Magic Eight Ball" was not actually magic after all but, a novelty item, but the four girls had fun with it, asking it all kinds of yes or no questions. Cho also showed Luna some muggle money and explained the value of each if she ever decided to visit any Muggle sights. After a while, a girl with dark black hair, and a pink flower braid, on walked in with a steamer trunk. Cho and Beverly recognized her as Erica Goldberg, a Ravenclaw seventh year, and evidently Cho's and Nancy's new room mate. She had shared the room with Beverly, Caoimhe Duffy, and Jill Tanaka in previous years. Erica was surprised to see Cho and Nancy in with their things unpacked in her room, but Beverly explained about Marietta's reasons for getting Professor Flitwick to agree to a change. After more socializing the five girls realized that it was getting late, and Beverly, Nancy, and Erica got ready for bed. Luna started off to her Dorm room two floors down. Cho garbed a Charms book, a quill and some ink, and started to follow her out the door. Nancy had a look of surprise on her face.
"Cho? Where are you going?" she asked bewildered. Cho turned to her at the doorway.
"Oh…I have some work to do for tomorrow. I'm going to go to the common room to study." Cho said mater of factly.
"But we haven't even had our first class yet. I know you like to do homework, although I'll never know why, when it's not assigned to you, but why not wait until we at least have our first class." Nancy.
"Well the thing is that I'm really behind and I need to catch up. Just for a little while." Cho said.
"Whatever." Nancy finished as she climbed into bed. Cho left went out the door with Luna hearing Beverly say to Nancy, that at least with Cho wanting to do extra credit work that it was a sign that she was returning to her old self again.
When Cho and Luna were out of earshot Cho whispered quietly that she needed to speak to Luna in the common room alone. The common was dimly lit this late at night, and it was difficult to make their way to a seat in the dark. The two of them sat at a table with a gray table cloth, by the window and Cho explained to Luna everything that went on over the summer. She explained about her mother being in a Muggle hospital and her work as a volunteer and all the classes she took, and books she read, about the disease. When she had to explain about a radical Mastectomy to Luna Cho finally broke down in tears, on Luna's shoulder who held Cho's limp body and sat horrified at the thought of the procedure. Luna stroked Cho's hair for a time telling her that things were going to be alright. Cho explained that the family considered it a very private matter, and that she was really not supposed to talk about it with anyone, but she was going to go crazy if she couldn't let at least one of her friends know how she felt. The two girls talked for an hour and Cho pored her heart and sole out to Luna about everything, including how she could not get Harry out of her head, and how he yelled at her on the train. Luna took particular offence to this. She also liked Harry, though just as a friend and thought it was horrible for him to treat Cho like that. Marietta was the one who had betrayed the DA, not Cho. Cho never had a jinx on her face.
"Look." Luna said. "I'll have a talk with Harry tomorrow. I'm sure he didn't mean it Cho. There must be some explanation why he acted like that. I mean maybe it was after he got in trouble for attacking those three Slytherins, and he was just mad at the world." Luna finished. Cho wiped away another tear, and looked at Luna perplexed.
"What do ya mean, attacked three Slytherins?" Luna explained about how she heard that Ernie Mac Millan, a Hufflepuff prefect had had to take points off Harry for some kind of altercation on the train. Cho just lowered her head.
"Poor Harry, I'm sure that he couldn't have started it. There must be some mistake. Luna, will you please tell Harry when you see him that I didn't mean to get everyone in trouble and I'm sorry about Marietta doing what she did." Cho pleaded.
"Look Cho. I'll tell Harry that you're sorry about how things turned out, but you don't have any reason to feel guilty. You had every good intention of showing Marietta that Harry was a good person, and changing her mind about him, and whatever she did to disrupt the DA was her own doing. I know that you would have never tried to get Harry in trouble. I'll talk to him for you, but let's get to bed for now, it's getting late, your not going to get any work done, and besides, Nargles come out of the woodwork and bite people during these hours the most. Cho started to follow Luna to the stairwell entrance, but as they reached it they heard familiar voices coming toward them. Luna whispered to Cho. "Marietta and Danielle. I was hoping to avoid them." Cho nodded her head.
"Me too." Cho said.
"Let's just rush past them." Luna said. Cho looked at her bewitched watch, and whispered to Luna that it was past curfew and that Marietta would give detention to the two of them if they were caught. She then pulled Luna over to the table that they had just been sitting at and the two of them crawled underneath it, and pulled the tablecloth down low over them just as Marietta, and Danielle entered the room. Cho and Luna could not see Marietta or Danielle, but could hear them moving around the common room.
"Anyone here?" Marietta's voice called. The ceiling of the common room brightened as Marietta turned the knob of the unlit oil lamp by the door that had been bewitched to control the brightness of the ceiling. The room became brighter but the table clot still hid Cho and Luna from sight.
"Your not really going to sneak out and see him now are you Marietta?" Danielle asked worried.
"Shhhhh! Danielle! The paintings. Gelo Abdo! Gelo Abdo! Gelo Abdo! Gelo Abdo!" Marietta shouted as Cho and Luna saw four bright flashes from underneath the table. "There that should do it." Marietta said satisfied.
"Are you sure that it's necessary to do this now? I mean what if one of the ghost sees you?" Danielle said.
"Then they will get a memory charm just like Potter. It's harder to work one on a ghost but I studied this summer when I received the assignment. And it's necessary to get some plans laid out now. I'm going to have a lot of work to do for my classes this week, and I need to get the society's work underway when I'm working on my studies. Are all the leaflets handed out to all the appropriate students?" Marietta asked.
"Yes. We have Pansy Parkinson and Oliver Skint in Slytheren, and Brian Walsh in Hufflepuff. We couldn't find a Hufflepuff girl that we could trust with the job. We also have Devin Smith and Lori Sanchez in Gryffindor. They all have their material and assignments. Everything's set for the first Hogsmead weekend." Danielle stated worried. "Look Marietta. I don't know if the society would approve of your relation ship with him. Are you sure you know what your doing?"
"No need to worry about that. When he is who he becomes he is a pureblood. He is who ever he becomes. And the society has given me a free hand in the planning of this operation." Marietta said flatly.
"But what about the room? It's not going to take the ghost or that poltergeist too long to find another bewitched room. And the Head Master will be asking filch a few questions since that's not his office. What happens then?" Danielle continued with concern.
"I'll get a plan worked out for that tonight. The room is in a remote part of the castle so, it will be some time before any of them come across it. By that time I might just have it un-jinxed if we come up with a better plan. If any of them find it before then, which isn't likely, Filch can just deny knowing about it. Besides I'll up any trace of evidence every night. No one's going to find out anything. Oh! We also have to start working on Caoimhe. We have to let her know the importance of her heritage. Pollyanna has already been spoken to over the summer by some friends and she's learning the importance of being with her own kind. Look I've got to go before it's to late. I'll fix the paintings when I come back. If anyone comes in they will just think that they are sleeping, which is probably what they were doing anyway. Now get some sleep. We have work to do tomorrow after class.
The room dimmed as Marietta turned the knob on the oil lamp that turned off the illumination of the ceiling, and left through the portrait. Cho and Luna waited a few minutes after they heard Danielle walk up the stairs to her room. The two girls made their way to the lamp and turned up the illumination on the ceiling a little. They looked around at all the paintings on the walls. They all appeared to be sleeping. Cho walked over to a painting of a young wizard in front of a library, and poked it.
"Hello?" she whispered. "Hello? Wake up. Please wake up." Cho finished, but the portrait did not move. In fact none of the pictures moved, or made any sound at all. "I don't understand. What has she done to them?" Cho asked. Luna just gave a shrug. Cho went to the doorway of the common room.
"Where are you going?" Luna asked. Cho turned to her with a worried look on her face.
"I'm going to ask the lady and soldier in the portrait outside to come in here and take a look at this." Cho said.
"But they can't. They have to guard the door at all times." Luna said. Cho thought for a minute.
"Well…there are two of them. If only one comes in for a minute it will be okay. I just need to test something. But …hold the door open for me." Cho opened the door and exited out into the hall out side. Luna waited with baited breath. After a few minutes Cho finally reemerged. She did not look happy.
"What did they say?" Luna asked.
"They didn't say anything. Their just frozen there, still as anything. Not moving at all." Cho said worried.
"Do you think that Marietta killed all the paintings?" Luna asked.
"No, she's more likely found a way to just keep them in a state of suspended animation. But I don't know why…well I guess she wanted to make absolutely sure that no one saw her leave tonight." Cho said.
"Who was she going to go see?" Luna asked. Cho gave a shrug.
"I don't know, but I think that we need to keep a careful eye on those two from now on. I need time to think of a way to keep tabs on them. And maybe to talk to the Gray Lady tomorrow." Cho gave a yawn. "God though, I'm tired. Look I've got to get some sleep. We'll meet in the library tomorrow after our last class." Cho finished. The two of them left to their respective dorm rooms. Cho found her three room mates fast a sleep, and she got changed for bed. She looked at the time on her watch. One fifty AM. She was going to be very tired in class tomorrow.
Authors note: As I have run out of what little I have that could be considered talent. The next chapter will be from Marietta's point of view. I had hoped to keep it from only Cho's and Harry's perspective, but I'm really not that good. Still, I'll try to keep it interesting.