Chap 22: 'Star Seeker'

"1, 2, 3! RAVENCLAW!" the Ravenclaw team cheered right before they headed out. It was just one day after Gryffindor's mighty showing against Slytherin and the team was now facing Hufflepuff, a game that the team expected to be relatively simple. Hufflepuff really did not look promising this year while Ravenclaw, despite missing their star chaser from the year before, was looking stronger than ever with fine inclusions into the team and Cho's new broom which made them a lot more competitive.

"AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST! THEIR NEW CAPTAIN AND SEEKER CHO CHANGGGGGG!" Lee announced as Cho flew onto the field, zooming around the Ravenclaw stands before flying back to the centre of the pitch. Meeting Hufflepuff's new captain, one that Cho was unfortunately familiar with, Zacharias Smith.

"Good to see you Cho," he commented, looking very nervous with the armband on.

"You too Zacharias, good luck for the game." Cho wished him well, internally celebrating his show of nervousness.

"Captains, I expect a clean and fair game understood (Cho and Zacharias) nodded, shake hands." Madam Hooch commanded which both complied with before breaking apart with Cho flying back to her team.

"AND WITH THAT, THE MATCH BEGINS!" Lee shouted as the Quaffle was released.

Byron immediately snatches the Quaffle from the air, rushing down the middle with Lila and Matt by his side, between them, they played short and rapid passes, something that they decided was the best option as neither of them was particularly good at juking the opponents while flying, something that Roger was excellent at. Missing that piece of the puzzle, Cho had decided to train them at quick and rapid passes, the intention being for them to play closer to each other so that they could evade attempts at snatching by opposing chasers. Watching them from afar, this was clearly something that Hufflepuff had prep for, all 3 of their chasers not committing one-by-one, something that Cho hoped would have happened, instead, they grouped up and waited for the trio to reach them, where they lacked the composure and technique to successfully fly pass and make space, resulting in the Quaffle getting snatched by Zacharias.

"DISPOSSESSED, Ravenclaw's chasers tried to play with fast and short passes to bait in chasers but Hufflepuff looked prepared, their chasers stayed back and let them reach them, Smith snatches the Quaffle from Chambers, excellent defence.

Watching the action from afar, Cho saw the Hufflepuff seekers successfully getting past her chasers, with Zacharias getting into a one-on-one situation, thankfully for Cho, Hufflepuff as a whole can't shoot as well as other teams, allowing Jordan to save the shot.

"SAVED! Great reflexes from Goldhorn who makes an excellent save, Smith could have done better with the power behind the shot but excellent save regardless." Lee announced.

Cho watched from afar as her chasers tried the exact same thing as before, making short passes between them and trying to outpass the opposing chasers, they however, did not buy it once more, pushing Lila into a very tight angle to shoot, shooting it off target again. Watching the game in frustration, Cho tuned out Lee's voice and started thinking about what to do while flying around and actively looking for the snitch.

As time passes, her chasers continued to suffer from the same problem, none of them trying to change the strategy and instead, trying variations of it, with Byron even trying to brute force his way through Hufflepuff's defence, failing rather miserably. Cho could see the frustrations in her chasers start growing as they kept failing while Hufflepuff was beginning to find some success at scoring, with the score being 50 to 20 to Hufflepuff when Cho finally decided to call a timeout.

"Come on everyone, cheer up, the game just started, we aren't that far behind," Cho encouraged the team when they all finally landed.

"At this rate, we will be behind by over 150 points in 1 hour time," Matt said pessimistically.

"Shut up Matt, we don't need that shit now, they are prepared for us but that doesn't mean that we are going to lose, we just need to adjust the game plan," Cho said.

"Beaters, I want you to target their defence with Bludgers, the Hufflepuff beaters are alright but aren't good enough to prevent their defence from getting rattled, don't do it constantly, just do it frequently to catch them slightly off guard and keep them distracted, Chasers, I want you to continue to do what you are doing, but play it slower, Hufflepuff got the momentum now and would want to keep us under pressure so they will get impatient, play it slow at the start and tempt them to move in more than transition into faster play, and don't be so single-minded about this strategy, I know that this is what we practised and is what you are all the most confident with doing but throw in some variation, they are hell-bent on defending against this play, maybe just throw some different ones inside or transition out of this play mid-play, it doesn't have to be successful, as long as it keeps them guessing it would be fine, understood?" Cho commanded, to which the entire team nodded, doing another cheer before heading back out.

Almost immediately, Cho could see her strategy adjustment working out, the Hufflepuff chasers were baited into their slow play and as they practised, entered their tight formation, with one chaser out of formation, it became easy for her chasers to play around their formation and led them to a one on one situation which they scored. The next play, they ran the exact same slow play, which the Hufflepuffs looked uneasy about, as they got closer to the Hufflepuffs, they suddenly launched into their formation, catching 2 of their chasers off guard and leading to them responding poorly to the situation, failing to stick to their protocol and resulting in Lila flying past and with her excellent shooting, fired one to the right hoop, scoring them another. Happy with the new change, Cho called a change in play where her chasers immediately went into formation, catching their chasers off guard once again, allowing them to get close to scoring as Hufflepuff's keepers saved the shot. Her beaters were also doing one hell of a job, randomly hitting Bludgers at Hufflepuff chasers, resulting in them taking sudden evasive action, with one even hitting Zacharias who had a slightly bloodied nose from that. The additional worry of random Bludgers led to the chasers being more sloppy in their defence, with them not paying as much attention to her chasers who started to run riot as their rapid tempo changes destroyed their defence, adding in some random attacks differing from her their usual strategy, the Hufflepuffs began to become more and more disorganised.

When her team finally took the lead at 90 to 80, it was already an hour in and both captains had called timeouts, with Zacharias' one not working as well as Cho's. At that moment, Cho spotted a flash of gold and dived rapidly at it, something that Summerby, Hufflepuff's seeker, caught onto 5 seconds too late. Being virtually unchallenged to the snitch, Cho easily caught it, winning Ravenclaw the game 240 to 80, an outstanding debut game for her as captain.

"AND THAT'S THE SNITCH IN CHO CHANG'S HAND, RAVENCLAW WINS 240 TO 80," Lee announced, "they look so much better after Chang timeout, we might have a title change on our hands lads!"

Landing on the ground, Cho was embraced by her team, all of whom were cheering excitedly. After some celebrations and the press conference, they all finally took to the showers, all washing up for the party that was going to take place in their common room. Taking a nice hot shower, Cho finished up and dressed into a simple hoody and jeans and stepped out, to her surprise, she could see her boyfriend standing at the entrance of the changing room, still wearing the Ravenclaw jersey with her name and number behind, something that she gave him when they exchanged jerseys.

"Stalking the Ravenclaw's changing room? What a pervert," Cho teased, walking up towards him.

"I'm not stalking the Ravenclaw team, I'm just stalking one specific person," Harry said, his typical pleasant smile on his face, though his eyes were lit up with joy and pure happiness, something that was only reserved when she saw her.

"Should I know who this person is? I'm the captain of the team after all, my players' safety is my concern," she said playfully, now embracing him and looking up at his emerald eyes.

Harry leaned in for a passionate kiss, both tongues enjoying each other's mouth.

"That should answer it," Harry whispered after they broke apart, "You smell amazing."

"Really? Of any compliments you can give, you compliment how I smell," Cho said, rolling her eyes.

"Well in my defence, you do smell fantastic," Harry said, "But amazing job with the game today Cho."

"That's more like it," Cho said, snuggling closer to him.

"You made an amazing call during your timeout," Harry commented.

"Eh, I guess it was," Cho shrugged.

"It definitely was," Harry said, kissing her on the head.

"Oi, no spying here Potter!" Byron shouted out jokingly after stepping out of the shower.

'Shut up Bradley, I'm just spending time with my amazing girlfriend," Harry responded.

"Oh ya Harry, did you know that Byron tried to hit on me early this year?" Cho told Harry, turning around and leaning on Harry while looking at Byron.

"Really? What did you do then?" Harry replied.

"I made him run around the pitch 20 times," Cho responded, laughing at Byron's red face.

"In my defence, I did it as a joke rather than actually trying to hit on you!" He protested.

"Noted Byron, wanna run another 10? Cho asked, watching his face turn pale.

"Urm, I'm going to go back to the common room for the party," he said, before dashing out of the changing room as Harry and Cho burst out laughing.

"You should really go and celebrate with your housemates though," Harry commented.

"Wow Zhu, pushing me away that fast huh?"

"No, just that you shouldn't keep everyone waiting for their star seeker," Harry replied which Cho scoffed at.

"1 month ago I was the Chinese whore, now I'm apparently the star seeker." Cho said, making Harry frown and hug her a little tighter.

"Well in that case, you can join them for like 10 minutes before you run away with me," Harry replied, giving Cho a brilliant idea.

"You know what, I have a better idea, you are coming to the common room with me."

"Wait what? Is that even allowed?" Harry asked confusedly.

"Matter-of-fact, it kinda is, technically there is an exact school rule that says that different house members can't enter another's house common room," Cho replied.

"Technically isn't really convincing."

"If Flitwick asks, we would just say that we are improving inter-house relations," Cho replied.

"Huh, you are really witty aren't you?" Harry said.

"I'm Ravenclaw Zhu, obviously I'm witty," Cho said before pulling Harry along to her common room.

After a short climb up a tower and answering a question (which Harry contributed nothing to), they entered the common room which was bustling with excitement, the Ravenclaw students setting off miny fireworks when she entered, though all the cheering immediately subsided when they saw Harry who entered the common room awkwardly.

"Urm Cho," Sow asked, "Is Harry allowed to enter our common room?"

"Technically yes, there aren't any rules that forbid it," Cho asked casually.

"Technically?"

"If you want to pull Professor Flitwick here to confirm, I would happily argue with him, if he says no I would leave with Harry and spend time at other places, after all, didn't you all know me as the Chinese whore a month ago," Cho said, knowing that she hit jackpot immediately as everyone in the room looked uneasy and guilty, Harry on the other hand, held her hand tighter, glaring at the room's occupants.

"Er… ok then," Sow replied, walking away and the party resumed.

"Come on Harry, let's take a seat," Cho said, leading Harry to an empty couch. They both settled onto the couch, Cho leaning onto Harry's shoulder while Harry placed his right hand around Cho's body.

"So you are telling me that your own house was calling you a whore?" Harry asked, his tone mixed with anger and worry.

"Well, I heard rumours that they were calling me that behind my back, when I confronted the person bullying Luna she kinda confirmed that rumour, called me a whore and said that I can't do anything without you saving my yellow ass."

"Care to tell me who said that exactly?" Harry asked, glaring at the entire room.

"And get you into trouble? Nah, she is already kinda scared of me after the outburst," Cho admitted.

"Still though, I can just send Fred and George after her, they will happily help," Harry suggested.

"That's a worse fate than having you go after them," Cho said, making Harry chuckle, "But I will keep that in mind if she messes with Luna again."

As they sat in silence for a few more moments, Cho could feel Harry deep in his thoughts, his body tensing up a little, his hand absent-mindedly rubbing the material of her hoodie.

"Wrackspurts got you?" Cho asked.

"What?" Harry asked confusedly.

"Nothing, ask Luna about it if you are interested," Cho laughed, "What are you thinking about though?"

"Oh, urm…" Harry hesitated.

"Yes?"

"Why didn't you tell me anything about this, all the name-calling and getting ostracised?" Harry asked, "I was thinking about all the subtle signs that you showed in the early months, you spending very little time in your common room, not mentioning about your group of friends like you did back then, no mentions of your work partner during lesson time, the awkward hellos between you are Marietta… I'm such a pathetic boyfriend to not connect the dots earlier-" Harry said before Cho kissed him on the lips to get him to stop talking.

"Number 1, you are not a pathetic boyfriend, you getting feisty and worried for me tells me that you are a great boyfriend, number 2, calling yourself a bad boyfriend essentially means that I have bad taste which I take insult to (Harry tried to protest that but Cho placed her finger on his lip to stop him), finally, I didn't tell you because I felt that you had enough stress with Prefect duties, Umbridge, Quidditch, lessons with McGonagall and O. year."

"That's a bullshit reason Cho," Harry sighed, "how badly was it affecting you."

"Not that badly to be honest, I didn't care that much, but it did bother me quite a bit," Cho admitted, "I think joining your group of friends made up for the loss of friends in Ravenclaw, Katie sat with me whenever I have classes with her, she's pretty good company, look Zhu, I'm not that affected by this, I'm really not."

"You sure?"

"I would never lie to you Zhu, I really didn't care about that too much, it was just some minor inconvenience to my life," Cho reassured Harry, "And also it helped me realise something that you said before."

"What did I say?" Harry asked curiously.

"That I didn't exactly belong in my group of friends, joining your friend group made me realise that the popular gossipy group isn't really for me, I've never exactly told anyone this before but I became friends with them largely because I wanted to fit in, Pa always warned me that being a Chinese is hard in the UK and that many people will judge me for my race, I tried to fit in largely because I did not want to be left out and isolated, while I grew to love them and enjoy their presence, their group was never the type of group I wanted to be part off," Cho explained, "In a weird way, this freed me to make new friends that were more suitable for me."

"I see," Harry nodded, "But promise me that if anyone does this to you again you will tell me?"

"Promise," Cho replied, making a pinky promise with Harry, "But you will seek my permission before you confront him you understand?"

"So no setting Fred and George on them?" Harry asked with fake innocence.

"Absolutely not," Cho laughed.

At that moment, the common room door opened again and a 7th years walked into the room and made an announcement.

"Urm guys, we unfortunately could not get the Butterbeers today, our so-called suppliers couldn't get it for us," they announced, leading to loud boos from the crowd.

"Wait one sec, is your source Fred and George?" Harry asked the 7th-years, who shook their heads in confusion.

"In that case, I think I can get us all some Butterbeers, Dobby!" Harry called.

At that moment, Cho's favourite house elf apparated right in front of them, startling the Ravenclaw students.

"Harry Potter! It's so good to see you again, good to see you too Ms Cho Chang!" Dobby said enthusiastically, to which Cho greeted back friendlily.

"Dobby, good to see you too, will it be possible for you to do something for me?" Harry asked.

"Sure thing, Dobby will be honoured to do anything for Harry Potter!" Dobby said proudly and enthusiastically.

"Alright Dobby, can you help me ask Fred and George whether I can around 50 bottles of butterbeer from their stash, tell them it's investor's request and that I would pay them, then would you help us to transport the bottles here?" Harry asked.

"Sure thing Harry Potter!" Dobby said before disapparating with a snap.

After a few moments of stunned silence from the crowd, Anthony Goldstein finally asked the question on everyone's head.

"Blimey Harry, you have a house elf?"

"Oh no, he is a friend," Harry replied, leading to more confusion.

"You are friends with a house elf?" Sow asked from the crowd.

"It's a long story, but I freed him from his abusive owner and he now works at Hogwarts, he sees me as a sort of honorary master so he responds to me when I call his name," Harry shrugged, leading so some confuse nods.

After a short while, Dobby appeared in front of Harry again, this time with a large bundle of Butterbeer.

"Dobby got Harry Potter the Butterbeers sir! The Weasleys said that they would happily do anything for their investor and Captain!"

"Thank you Dobby, I will give you more socks for Christmas," Harry said warmly.

"Oh no sir, Dobby is just happy to help!" Dobby bowed before disapparating away.

"Alright everyone, take the Butterbeers if you want, just place 2 sickles into this bowl," Harry said to the crowd, transfiguring a small wooden box on a nearby table into a bowl which resulted in a few impressed murmurs."

As everyone began to take their own Butterbeer, the celebrations resumed as Cho cuddled closer to Harry, both sharing a comfortable silence together.

"A toast to Harry Potter, the new honorary Ravenclaw!" Sow shouted from the crowd as everyone in their rooms raised their Butterbeers to Harry who did the same.

"You are right, you Ravenclaw's really change your opinions of people really fast," Harry whispered to Cho, making her burst with laughter.