Chapter 2: The Ball

"Are you sure you don't want to add some more things to your look?" Marietta asked

It was the day of the ball and the girls were preparing to leave for the ball.

"No, I think this is enough," Cho said, twirling in front of the mirror, proud of what she was wearing. She decided to go for a simple yet elegant silver dress, inspired by traditional Chinese Cheongsam, tying her hair up with some simple makeup. Her friends on the other hand, spent hours preparing for this, trying to dress up the best they could, hoping to catch the eyes of other guys. Cho on the other hand was only trying to catch one pair of eyes, Harry's. She was certain that Harry would find her beautiful, seeing how even in normal school clothing, he was always glancing at her whenever she passed.

"Well, let's go then!" She said enthusiastically as they left for the ball. As they made their way there, the girls were busy gossiping about guys, as they normally would, Cho thought. Cho on the other hand, was lost in her own world, the mixture of excitement and anxiety had managed to grab onto her and her heart was pounding rapidly.

What would Harry wear? She thought

While Harry was popular and famous, he was never the best-looking guy in the school. He wasn't a Cedric or a Roger. But Cho didn't mind, he was reasonably attractive, he also had a good body, a by-product of quidditch, however, he wasn't ripped or huge. He was a seeker after all, they both were and being large would only undermine their performance as they had to be swift and agile. But he was very much in shape, and those green eyes, probably his most striking feature, his beautiful bright green eyes, something about it made her want to stare at it and study it.

Lost in her thoughts, she didn't realise that they had arrived at their destination until her friends bid her goodbye and left to find their dates. Cho glanced in the crowd, looking for her partner. She eventually spotted him waving at her, beckoning her to come to him. She smiled back at him which made his face red, making her chuckle to herself.

After some squeezing, she finally made her way to him. He was wearing a simple and classy dress robe. Perfect. She thought happily, seeing how both of them were dressing rather similarly.

"H - Hi" Harry stammered, his eyes fixed on her dress. Evidently, Cho's assumption was perfect, Harry was at a loss of words looking at her.

"Like the dress?" Cho replied teasingly, before twirling.

"Definitely, you look stunning," Harry said, beaming.

They continued to talk about the Ball and Hermione Granger who looked stunning as she walked to Krum, saying hi to Harry on the way.

At this sight, Cho felt a little uneasy, uncomfortable at what she had just seen. She always knew that Harry and Granger were close, but she never knew how close they were, whether they were just friends or perhaps, something more. Usually, she would not really care about this gossip that her friends and largely the whole school would divulge in. But this time, she had a weird urge to ask Harry. Confused, she tried to turn her focus to Ball, which was starting very soon.

Professor McGonagall came to the 4 champions and their partners to address them about the order that they will go in by. Due to Harry's name being the last to come out of the Goblet, it only made sense that they entered last. Looking at the time again, she quickly told them to line up and to prepare for their grand entrance. While waiting for the start, Cho began to notice that Harry was as pale as the ghosts of Hogwarts.

"Harry? Are you ok? You look sick," She questioned worriedly.

"Oh! Yes… I'm just worried about the dance," He replied anxiously.

"Not confident?"

"Nope, McGonagall looked as though she was going to kill me when we practised."

Cho giggled at this revelation which seemed to put Harry in a better mood, smiling a little more.

"Don't worry, follow my lead, I won't kill you if you step on my feet, but do try and avoid doing that," She replied teasingly.

Harry seemed to relax a little more after she said that. At that very moment, the doors swung open and the Yule Ball started. Holding Harry's hand and beaming brightly at him trying to inspire him a little, this had the opposite effect as he looked shocked and stunned. Thankfully however, he recovered quickly, firming up the grip and prepared for their names to be called.

"Last but not least, Harry Potter and Cho Chang!" the announcer exclaimed enthusiastically.

In unison, they both walked onto the dance floor, preparing to open the ball.

"Just follow my lead," Cho whispered to Harry as the music started.

Harry was surprisingly better at dancing than he claimed, while far from good, he was average at least. Thankfully, the music was also at a low tempo which made it easier for him to dance.

"Loosen up a bit Harry, sway to the music, let the music control the dance," She said encouragingly.

Harry nodded with determination, loosening his grip and attempted to feel the music, swaying a little more to Cho's delight.

Soon, the first song was over and the Weird Sisters began to play a faster tune. Looking at Harry's expression, Cho suppressed her laughter at his terrified face, afraid of the faster tune. Who would have thought that the boy who defeated You-Know-Who as a baby, apparently fought a Basilisk in his second year and faced a Dragon recently feeling complete fear at the change of a song?

"We don't have to dance to this Harry, let's get some drinks," she said cheerfully as Harry looked as though the weight of the world was lifted from his shoulders.

After getting their drinks, they made their way to the tables where a rather unpleasant Ron was sitting next to an equally unhappy Padma. As they settled in, Cho noticed that Ron was glaring at something in particular, turning discreetly, she soon found who he was glaring at. Hermione and Krum.

Interesting… She thought to herself. What happened next was probably even more intriguing.

Hermione soon came to the tables they were sitting at where she had a pretty heated argument which caught the attention of a few. It eventually ended with Hermione leaving, seemingly hurt and close to tears and Ron even more grumpier than before. Taking note of this, Harry nudged Cho and non-verbally told her that it was time to leave.

"Where do you wanna go?" Harry asked her after they took their leave from a rather unpleasant table.

"I don't know, somewhere quiet maybe, too many things going on for my social battery."

Nodding in agreement, they both left the Ball for a quieter environment. Cho had no idea where they were going but Harry seemingly had a place in mind. Soon, she found herself in an abandoned classroom in a secluded area of the Castle. At least it seems to have been a classroom, because inside were comfortable furniture like sofas and oddly, a bed.

"This is where I have spent most of my time after the whole school started hating me," Harry said with an unusually sad smile, when he realised that Cho was looking at him, his face quickly changed, a brighter smile on his face now, "it's not bad honestly, rather comfortable and nice to be unbothered for once, have a look around."

"Where did you find things like this?" She asked, looking at the various objects in the room, especially at a huge shelf of books which seemed to contain many books teaching defensive spells.

"I might have asked a favour or two from Dumbledore," Harry replied cheekily.

It wasn't really a surprise to Cho, while she never really had any interactions with Dumbledore, he was definitely the accommodating type, providing students with what they needed if possible. And yes, everybody knows that Dumbledore and Harry had a closer relationship than most pupils, while some saw that as favouritism, she felt that it was logical, after all, no one gets into as much trouble as Harry. More importantly, nobody saves the school as much as Harry.

"You 2 are quite close aren't you?" She asked Harry as he settled into a bean bag.

"Er, not really? Closer than most students yes, but I only see him when something major happens, which happens to be every year unfortunately." He chuckled pessimistically.

Cho sat next to him on the beanbag and asked.

"Tell me more about those"

Listening to him unload his multitude of stories, Cho could not remember ever spending a night talking to someone with stories as interesting as his, maybe with her father when she was younger, but no one in Hogwarts definitely.

"You are telling me that in your first year, you encountered You-Know-Who, not once, but twice, and the second is on the back of someone's head, the same someone who taught DADA to everyone in the school?" Cho questioned, puzzled at this revelation.

"Mhm, I am saying exactly that," Harry said dreamily, as if nostalgic about those days. How much has this boy faced that that is nostalgic, she thought.

"And you can also produce a Patronus Charm, a corporeal one at it? And it's a Stag?"

"Yeah, Lupin taught well I guess."

These stories of his were some of the most interesting she ever heard, more than that, they painted a fuller picture of who Harry was, he was more talented than she thought, and more humble than what others said. Most students will go about bragging about it, trying to bring as much attention to themself as possible if they had a fraction of what happened to Harry happen to them. Judging by how little everyone knew about these stories, Harry was clearly different.

"So… who knows about this little hideout of yours?" She asked.

"Not many, obviously Dumbledore does, other than him, Hermione and Ron only."

And there it was, Hermione again, Cho couldn't shake this odd feeling she had about her, she never had this before today, and it felt like it was getting stronger. More importantly, she was overly curious about what their relationship was.

"You don't look too happy, is anything wrong?" Harry asked, looking at her body language and her face.

"What- no... no, nothing is wrong." She said, cheeks turning slightly red.

"Your cheeks betray you, you know, it looks like you've put on a lot more makeup," He teased.

Great, thank you cheeks, she thought.

"Haiz, fine, I'm curious, what do you think of Hermione?" She finally asked.

Taken aback by the question, Harry observed her for a short while, as if trying to read any body language to better understand the question. Fortunately, her cheeks couldn't betray her again.

"Well, she's just like a sister to me, nothing more, nothing less. I mean, she's been with me since the start of my journey into the magical world, feels like she's been with me since I was born, if you understand what I mean," He said, before groaning and saying, "you don't think that we are together do you?"

"Oh! Urm… No? I don't know, I never cared, until today maybe, not sure why," she replied.

"Well, maybe it's because this is our first real interaction I guess, not counting Quidditch where we were both distracted by the prospects of winning," He said.

"Maybe you are right…"

This kind of comforted her a little, Harry's reasoning behind her being a sister made complete sense and his view on her odd feelings reassured her a ton.

As the night drew closer to its closure, Harry continued to tell her stories about his various adventures, oddly leaving out last year, saying that he would tell her eventually, reasoning that the story wasn't exactly over yet. As confused as she was about this, she let it slide, after all, this was their first-ever conversation. Soon however, it was time for them to leave Harry's comfortable hideout, Harry insisted on bringing her back to her common room before leaving, truly a gentleman like Wood said, she thought. As they strolled back to her common room in the dying moments of the night, Harry's smile began to fade, looking more like a depressed boy than the happy and cheerful man who gave her one of the most memorable nights of her life. When they finally reached her common room, the smile was fully gone, replaced by a forced one, clearly upset that the day was over.

"Well this is it then," Harry said, trying to not sound gloomy.

"Yeah, thanks for walking me back Harry."

He muttered a response she could not catch. The Boy Who Lived looked more like The Boy Who Lost in this moment, she couldn't help but feel pity. What has this world done to him…

As he bid goodbye and trudged away, Cho called out his name one last time.

"Hey, Harry, wanna meet at your hideout the Saturday after the Christmas break? I can help you with the clue for the second task?"

As if on cue, his smile began to return again as he nodded profusely.

Walking up to him, she continued.

"Cheer up Zhu," a nickname she had given to him, one which she would not explain to him either. She then gave him a peck on the face, before turning and entering her common room.

She chuckled to herself as even though she could not see, she knew that he was frozen to the spot, as if she had hit him with a Full Body-bind curse, she could imagine his bright red face. What a night it has been.