Legal Disclaimer: I own my stuff, but not the original source material. That belongs to whoever. Also, the opinions and interpretations I use here may not reflect the same in said whoever that owns the source material. Look, I'm just a poor college librarian. Suing me isn't going to get you anything but tears.
Warning: This work may be offensive to some readers. Feel free to back out if need be.
Author's Note: Ambiguous alternate universe is ambiguous. Is there magic atop of the quirks? Who knows? The only thing I'm certain of is this is Cho & Harry's first meeting and nobody murdered Cedric like he was rubbish.
Things to Know (Quick & Dirty): Sifu is Cantonese for teacher. A piān-tong is a food box, the Taiwanese equivalent of a Japanese bento. A tiffin is the Indian equivalent and is distinctly shaped as a sloped tower. Tate is Yiddish for father; Zeyde is grandfather in the same language. It's a custom for Jewish people to leave rocks on graves. With no religious guidance behind the custom, "this rock is pretty" is a good enough reason for that rock to be chosen. Combined with a seven-year-old's (mis)understanding of the custom, there's likely a little pile of rocks there.
Submitting Info:
Stacked with: Hogwarts (Term 12); MC4A
Individual Challenges: True Colours; Writing with Music; Gryffindor MC; Ravenclaw MC; Professor MC; Artist MC; Neurodivergent; Rian-Russo Inversion (x3) (Y); Ethnic & Present (x3); Tiny Terror (Y); Lovely Triangle; Claimed; Ship Sails; Setting Sails; Hold the Mayo (x2); Zed Era (Y); Old Shoes (Y); Bucket Listing; Skittles [Asexual]; Gwen's HP Checklist [Intelligent Harry Potter]; Short Jog (Y); Two Cakes (Y); Eating Cake (Y); Green Ribbon
Subject (Task No.): n/a
Other Hogwarts Challenges: Insane Prompt Challenge [533](Orange); 365 [83](Edge); Herbology Club [3-04]("Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover" - Sophie B. Hawkins)
Other MC4A Challenges: Su Bingo [1A](Orange); AU [3D](Powers are Norm); Hunt [Su Con](Dim Sum); Ship (Chosen Seekers) [Sp Medium 1](Parent/Teacher); Chim [Limu](Sharing); Fire [Hard](Nontraditional Family); Garden [Bed Types](Parent & Child)
Representation(s): Teacher Cho Chang; Desi Harry Potter; ADHD Teddy Lupin; est. Cho/Cedric; pre-ship Cho/Cedric/Harry; Harry raises Teddy
Primary & Secondary Bonus Challenges: Three's Company; Larger than Life; Unicorn; Second Verse (Ladylike; Not a Lamp; Found Family; Nontraditional; Unwanted Advice); Chorus (Endless Wonder; Wabi Sabi; Bee Haven; Fizzy Lemonade; Machismo; Peddling Pots; Mouth of Babes; Tomorrow's Shade)
Tertiary & Generic Bonus Challenges: T3 (Thimble); SN (Rail; Ameliorate); LiCK (Yarrow); FR (Satisfaction; Evolution)
Word Count: 1347
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Smiling & Warm
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Cho had always liked pretty things. Her quirk had pretty much guaranteed that she would. After all, what use would the ability to make pretty ribbons out of colored lights be if she could not appreciate it? So she liked pretty things. She liked things that sparkled or glinted. She liked bright colors and bold ones. She liked how some colors bled into pale oblivion or darkened into an endless void. She like the contrast between the two as much as she liked the slow fade of one into the other. This appreciation of pretty things, of things which sparkled or simply dared, had led her not only to her husband Cedric but also to art school where she had learned how to make even prettier things.
Unfortunately, no amount of pretty things was enough to keep the bills paid if no one else was buying what was created. Which is how she ended up teaching art at a primary school. Teaching wasn't as horrible as some of her classmates had said it would be. Children were a very imaginative bunch and for the most part, the world hadn't dulled that part of them much. Watching them create their own pretty things with the skills and knowledge she taught them was beyond rewarding.
Many of them were just coming into their quirks, too. Depending on what their particular ability was, that could be scary, given how the first few years after the first manifestation were a roller coaster in terms of control. Yet most of the children never did anything deliberately harmful with their quirks. Even the little playground battles that involved quirks tended to be no more violent than playground fights that didn't involve quirks. Children were kinder than adults, sometimes.
"Sifu!" screeched Teddy Lupin as he ran into her classroom. Despite Parents' Night being in full swing for almost an hour and a half already, the boy was her first visitor. Teddy was one of her Year 2 students, but unlike his classmates, the seven-year-old was new to the school this year. He was also the first student she had that had insisted on acknowledging the difference in their cultures, though many of his classmates had picked up the habit in the month since the school year had started. "Sifu, we brought you dinner!"
He placed a piān-tong on the edge of her desk. Her breath caught at the sight of it. Instead of being a single layer like most piān-tong, this one was shaped more like a tiffin, with three layers that descended in size as the stack rose. The perfectly smooth wood had been stained an inky black. A waterfall pattern had been carved down so that it flowed down the layers like an actual waterfall. The grooves meant to be water had been filled with a cerulean lacquer while the ones shaped like the stones had been left empty. The exposed wood was a rich purple as distinctive as a shout. A pair of crimson ribbons, silky and shiny, tied the stack together in a flatten X that framed the waterfall. Delicate and jagged lines of burnt orange and brilliant yellow had been stitched along both edges of the ribbon. She sucked in a greedy breath as she realized that it was embroidered flames.
It was so beautiful.
"Sifu?"
She dragged her eyes from the piān-tong to the little boy standing on the other side of it. Teddy still had the dark brown skin and emerald eyes that he liked to wear, but instead of the shocking violet that he normally kept his bouncy curls, they were fading into a sickly shade of lavender. The ends were starting to flatten and darken into a dull shade of honey, too. Knowing how prone the boy was to anxiety, she shook herself out of her stupor.
"It's so pretty," she gushed, "but you didn't need to bring me dinner, sweetheart."
"But we wanted you to have some of Papa's dim sum," Teddy explained. She couldn't help the smile that she gave him. Not only was the thought really sweet but it had been a long time since she had had homemade dim sum. "Papa talked to Mr. Diggory yesterday so that he could make all your favorites."
"Is that so?" she asked with a raised brow. Teddy nodded eagerly. "I'm sure that meeting had nothing to do with how you bit Billy Stubbins for the second time in the last week."
"He deserved it!" Teddy insisted as his hair went short and spiky and so, so red. She pressed her lips together to keep from smiling or laughing at just how serious the boy sounded. When she trusted herself, she spoke.
"And why did he deserve it?"
"He knows what he did."
"Teddy," someone scolded from the doorway. Cho snapped her gaze to the newcomer. The man has the same brown skin and bouncy curls that Teddy did, but while their eyes were the same color, they were different shapes. He also had glasses while Teddy had never shown any issue with his sight. Maybe Teddy just took after his mother? Or perhaps it was a perk of Teddy's shapeshifting quirk? "Remember how that's not a reason to bite people?"
Teddy's hair went a limp carroty orange under his father's stern gaze.
Oh, but Teddy's father is just as pretty as the piān-tong sitting on her desk.
Instead of offering his hand like so many people in the country did, he clasped his hands in front of his chest and gave her a half-bow. Stunned, she returned the greeting. Her mind raced, trying to connect information that had not meant much on their own but was now taking on a new light.
"You're Buddhist?" she asked before she had time to censor herself. He gave her the same crooked smile that Teddy always did when he wasn't sure how to take something that someone had said.
"Sort of," he answered. He bit his bottom lip, so clearly uncertain that the need to reassure him like she would Cedric burns through her. "I'm still learning."
"We're learning together!" Teddy chirped excitedly. The boy bounced in place and clapped his hands. "Papa says we can start new additions, because we're oar-fins. Nana is teaching us ewe things, so that we can 'member Mommy and Tate and Zeyde."
"Well, that sounds very exciting," Cho said, even though she didn't recognize all the names Teddy had spouted off. She looked over the boy's head at his father. "You sound like a very caring and very busy man, Mr. Lupin."
"Oh, um," the man stuttered as his cheeks darkened with a flush. He looked even prettier with it. Idly, she wondered if he would blush as prettily if Cedric was kissing him. "My name is actually Potter. Harry Potter. Teddy is my godson. His parents died shortly after he was born."
"They're in the rock pile," Teddy added helpfully. His hair had shifted back to his preferred purple but the curls were hanging just a bit limp. The green of his eyes shimmered with hints of gold. It occurred to her for the first time that maybe Teddy looked so much like Harry for the same reason that his hair shifted in reaction to his mood. Could Teddy's shapeshifting really be that strong? "Papa takes care of me and Nana now. Papa asked Mr. Diggory if maybe he could take care you, too, and he said yes and told him all of your favorites! That's why we brought you dinner."
He nudged the piān-tong closer to her. With careful hands, she traced the waterfall pattern. She raised her gaze back to Harry who watching her. His emerald eyes held a gentle warmth to them, like a banked fire. They would need to actually talk about this later, give voice to the tension rising between, but for now it was enough to know that Cedric apparently approved, at least tentatively.
But then again, her husband knew just how much she liked pretty things.
After all, he was one of them.