Chap 12: The Crow

The rest of the week at Cho's place was one of the most enjoyable he ever had, due to her mother being at work almost all the time, Harry felt very comfortable at Cho's place, getting along well with her father. They mostly spent the time exploring the area close to the house, exploring the wizarding culture in Scotland and admiring the architecture in the muggle world. They also spent quite an amount of time playing Quidditch on the smaller Quidditch pitch outside Cho's home. Occasionally, Harry would play 2 a-side Quidditch with Cheng and Mr Chang which proved to be competitive due to Mr Chang's evident talent in Quidditch. Harry also finally experienced Cho cooking for the first time and while her mum's cooking was slightly better, it was still fantastic.

However, the week flew by quickly and they had finally reached the second last day where Harry had to attend a press conference for his new role as Brand Ambassador for Nimbus. After packing his trunk, Harry, Cho and Mr Chang took the Floo Network back to London, landing outside of the Leaky Cauldron where they will stay the night before Harry returns to Privet Drive much to Harry's annoyance. Usually, the Weasley's will take him in to stay with them by now but they were being awfully quiet this holiday.

"Harry!" Marcus Wood exclaimed in excitement as Harry entered his office, running up to hug Harry, "How lovely it is to finally meet you after so long."

"Yeah, it's been a while hasn't it."

"Quite right, good to see you Ms Chang, and you are?" He said, giving Cho a hug before looking at Mr Chang."

"Mr Thomas Chang, Cho's father and Harry's guardian for today, pleasure to meet you." Mr Chang said, shaking Wood's hand. Harry was as little surprised by Mr Chang introducing himself as his guardian but he inferred that spending a week with their family would mean that Mr Chang would see taking care of Harry as his responsibility.

"Good to meet you Mr Chang," Wood replied before turning his attention back to Harry, "Let's proceed with the press conference shall we?"

Harry wasn't a fan of the publicity that he would get with this deal, it would only attract unwanted attention to him. However, that was the deal that he had signed, and it was a good investment for the future. Harry reluctantly followed Wood out of the office and to the entrance of another room.

"Now, Harry, I know that this is your first time attending a press conference and it is definitely very daunting for you, but need not worry, I will be sitting next to you and if a reporter asks any questions you are uncomfortable with answering, let me know and I will handle it, are you ready?" Wood asked.

Harry took a deep breath, calming down his beating heart, before nodding and entering the room.

The moment he sat a foot into the room, he was bombarded by the flashing lights of the cameras and the yelling of his name. Looking at the room, he saw a large horde of reporters crammed into the tiny room, all watching Harry intently. Harry awkwardly took his seat with Wood sitting right next to him. Staring into the crowd, Harry mentally prepared himself for the long conference it was going to be.

"Harry! What do you think about this new partnership!" a female reporter in the front row shouted out her question almost immediately.

"Er… I think that it is an honour to be working together with Nimbus."

"Harry! What do you think about the Nimbus Lightning 1?" another reporter shouted.

"It's a top tier racing broom, on par with the Firebolt and might even be better in some categories."

"What do you think about the new Quidditch format at Hogwarts?"

"I think that it will make Quidditch more interesting and provide more opportunities for us students to develop our talents further." Harry replied. Hogwarts had recently announced the new format which places a greater emphasis on gametime by making each house play against each other twice in a year rather than once. Additionally, they would be hosting a cup at the end of the year which invites the reserve squads from a few of the professional teams to compete with the houses, giving the students more exposure.

"What about the inter-school tournament that is being organised?" another reporter asked.

In addition to the new format, there were now plans to organise an inter-school quidditch tournament between Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, Durmstrang and Ilvermony (the American wizarding school) every 4 years to compete in a tournament where each school assembles it's best team and compete throughout the year. They would play twice against each school, home and away. While this was only in the planning stages, it should be taking place next year.

"I think that it's a great idea, helps to improve international relations and gives us the opportunity to gain more exposure and experience other schools."

"Do you think that it's the appropriate time to do this after the Triwizard tournament last year?"

There it was, the topic Harry was dreading. Not wanting to touch on this subject, he turned to Wood, expressing his discomfort with the topic.

"Ahem, let's skip this question." Wood announced.

"Harry, Dumbledore has been saying that You-Know-Who is back while the Ministry is denying it, where do you stand in this?"

"Let's keep the topic on Quidditch and Quidditch only." Wood announced again.

"Harry, what really happened at the final task."

"Keep this press conference on topic!" Wood said, noticeably louder now.

"Did You-Know-Who really kill Cedric!"

"How did You-Know-Who come back!"

"Why are you lying about You-Know-Who's return!"

The reporters kept yelling while Wood continued to try and calm them down. Having enough of the rubbish, Harry got up and left the conference room.

"What's going on in there?" Cho asked as Harry walked out of the room.

"What's with all the shouting inside?" Mr Chang asked, peeking into the room to see the chaos unfolding.

"Idiot reporters." Harry snarled as Wood came running towards him.

"My apologies Harry, reporters are probably some of the worst humans out there." He commented

"Very much agreed."

"I would assume that you have no intentions about going back there so I will end the conference now, take care of yourself Harry, can't wait to see you play this year." Wood said before re-entering the conference room.

"Well, looks like we ended earlier than we were supposed to, shall we go explore London?" Mr Chang said excitedly.

The rest of the day was spent strolling around London, both in Diagon Alley and in the muggle world itself. Mr Chang spent most of the time maintaining his distance from Cho and Harry, respectfully giving both of them some space to which Harry was truly grateful. As the night drew to a close, they finished their dinner at a muggle shop selling fish and chips before making their way back to Diagon Alley. On the way back they walked past a beautiful dimly lit street, filled with beautiful old architecture, one that looked romantic to be walking in. He turned and looked at Cho, who seemingly thought of the same thing, walking this street in private.

"You both can go ahead." Mr Chang sighed, resulting in Harry and Cho looking back at him flabbergasted.

"I see your faces, I will just spend some time in the cafe there" He said, pointing at a cafe nearby, "You 2 go spend some time together, be back in 15 minutes."

"Thanks Pa!" Cho exclaimed excitedly before pulling Harry along and walking down the street.

For the first few minutes, they both walked hand in a hand in comfortable silence, admiring the atmosphere around them. The street was completely empty and felt abandoned and stuck in time, like a relic from an ancient past. Something about that made the street feel almost magical to Harry, even though it was a simple muggle street.

"I wish we could spend more time doing this." Cho finally said, breaking the silence. "I wish that we could be normal kids, no one threatening our lives, no responsibilities and no rules to hold us back."

"I do too, every second of my life." Harry replied, looking at Cho. Tonight, she was wearing a simple white shirt with normal jeans, a thin blue jacket over the shirt and a simple necklace of her name in Chinese. Despite the simplicity, he felt like the luckiest man in the world.

"Maybe when we are older, we can achieve that." Cho said, "No more dark wizards, nothing threatening us, starting a family, raising children. Eventually growing old together and carrying our grandchildren."

"Yeah, raising kids is very scary though." Harry commented, making Cho giggle.

"Do you even want kids?"

"Yeah."

"How many?" Cho asked.

"I don't know, 2 or 3?"

"You sure not 7 like the Weasleys?"

"Hell no." Harry said loudly, making Cho laugh uncontrollably.

However, the laughter suddenly stopped as they started to feel cold, as if the temperature suddenly dropped by 10 degrees, the surroundings seemingly became darker as Harry felt Cho's breathing becoming more erratic. He turned to look at Cho whose face was pale, plastered with fear and confusion. Harry's feelings were getting jumbled up, his happiness that was strongly present seconds ago disappearing. Then it struck him, he knew what exactly they were facing.

At that very moment, 3 dementors came swooping towards them, Harry immediately pulled out his wand and dragged Cho away, before mustering the happiest thought he could muster and shouting.

"EXPECTO PATRONUM!"

However, only a silver wisp of vapour came out of his wand.

Come on Harry! He thought as he tried again. Only a silvery wisp of vapour came out once again. The dementors however, were drawing closer.

"CHO! RUN!" he yelled, trying to pull Cho away from the dementors, however, she did not move, she stood rooted to the ground, absolutely drenched in fear. The dementors were getting closer and closer, almost reaching Cho.

Harry's thoughts went into a frenzy as desperation took over. I have to save Cho, I can't let this happen, he thought, before mustering up all his energy, picturing the image of Cho's face moments before the dementor's arrival. He yelled again.

"EXPECTO PATRONUMMMM!"

This time, a silver stag emerged out of his wand, it galloped straight at the dementors, it charged into the first one, ramming its horns into it, pushing it away from Cho. However, the other 2 came even closer to Harry. Harry tried to conjure it once more, but his energy was draining rapidly, his mind now being overwhelmed by negative thoughts, thoughts of despair.

"EXPECTO PATRONUM!" a voice yelled behind him as a large silver crow flew past him and straight at the dementor in front of Harry, its beak ripping through the dementor. Together with Harry's stag, managed to push the dementors away.

Regaining some of his strength, Harry got up and ran towards Cho, who was now sitting on the ground, shaking with fear.

"Cho! Cho! Are you ok?" Harry asked worriedly, embracing Cho tightly which seemingly calmed her down a little.

"CHO!" a voice yelled behind him who he recognised as Mr Chang who ran towards them. He started talking to her in Mandarin which she responded with a voice full of fear.

Harry turned to see Mr Chang, whose expressions were one mixed with worry and relief, as he then asked Harry.

"Harry, are you hurt or anything." To which Harry shaked his head.

"Come on Harry, we have to get her back to the Leaky Cauldron."

"We should give her some chocolate." Harry added as he slowly shifted Cho up with the assistance of Mr Chang.

"Yes, we should, bring her back to Leaky Cauldron first, I will get the chocolate." He said, before breaking off to get chocolate from a nearby stall.

"Come on Cho, let's get you back to shelter." Harry said softly, slowly bringing her back to Leaky Cauldron.

Once they were all back, they fed her the chocolate which thankfully, helped to improve Cho's condition. At this moment, an owl came flying into the room, one that Harry already knew the contents of.

"This is fucking ridiculous! Why the fuck would there be 3 dementors in the middle of a muggle street!" Mr Chang yelled in frustration, cursing in Mandarin repeatedly. "Don't worry Harry, they would not expel you, with 2 witnesses and 1 being an Auror, this case won't even fucking get to The Wizengamot." Mr Chang reassured.

After many more owls from Mr Weasley, Sirius and the Ministry, things finally calmed down with Cho looking much better, but still drained.

"Harry, could you watch over Cho, I'm afraid that I have things to attend to at the Ministry tonight," Mr Chang said, clearly annoyed at the situation, "Tomorrow morning, there will be people you know here to bring you and Cho to another location, they will tell you more about it tomorrow."

Despite being completely confused, Harry nodded which brought a small smile to Mr Chang's face as he thanked Harry, before giving Cho a small peck on her cheek and disapparating out of the room.

"Harry," Cho said softly, attracting Harry's attention, "The dementors, I - I saw terrible things when it arrived." She said, voice shaking and trembling with fear. Looking at Cho, sadness overwhelmed Harry, he knew how that felt, he remembered how terrible the sensation was the first time he encountered one.

"I know Cho, I know." Harry said, moving closer to her and holding her hand firmly

"How do you fight it, the thoughts and the visions?" Cho said.

"Practice and determination, you will learn to fight against it, I promise." Harry reassured

"Now, you need to rest." He said firmly, to which Cho nodded, closing her eyes and soon falling asleep.

Sitting in the bed and watching over Cho, Harry couldn't help but wonder what on earth happened. One moment everything was peaceful, Harry and Cho were having the best moments of their lives, talking about the future. The next 3 dementors came to attack, in the middle of a muggle street in London, why were there dementors there, they would never randomly show up in the middle of a muggle street. And tomorrow they will be randomly brought to a secret location by random strangers. What was the meaning of all this, Harry thought.

"Then that's probably it." Harry said.

The rest of the train ride went by smoothly, Harry and Hermione eventually had to leave for some patrolling but overall there wasn't any trouble, even Malfoy didn't attempt to try anything funny, quickly realising that he did not have the protection he used to.