Just a Few Simple Emotions

Just a Few Simple Emotions

Cho Chang: Love's Flame

By: Lance Walker

It feels like only yesterday that Harry and I were walking the halls of Hogwarts hand in hand. I remember the beginnings of our relationship, and even through all the blank stares and whispers, I don't think anyone blamed us. We had a right to move on, especially after what we had been through together.

I'm not going to say it wasn't hard when I lost Cedric. It really was. Ced was the first man I ever loved. I think his life taught me much about myself, but in a sad irony, his death taught me even more. I was innocent up to the point in time when Harry came back from that cursed graveyard bearing my love's body. Innocence is not a claim I hold any longer.

Harry...just his name makes my heart flutter. As fluffy and pathetic as it sounds, I think I've found love with him. True love. My mother once told me that love was a flame. I remember us sitting in our flat, just her and I, when she gave me the love talk.

"Now Cho." She began. I had once been her "little Cho", but it was hard to remember the last time I had sat on her lap, allowing her to tell me a story of her homeland of China, and listened as she cooed, "Now, my little Cho...".

She continued, "Love is like a flame." She immediately came out and said what was on her mind. Love is like a flame. I amend this to say that love is a flame, a strong flame.

"Love is fed by the oxygen of friendship and caring, but extinguished by the troubled waters of hate and discord." My mother always talked in parables. Her Chinese ancestry allowed her the wisdom of ages. I could see her, her hands tucked in her sleeves sitting in the lotus position, as the ideal Zen master. "Love will only be strengthened with time, as any wildfire that starts as a spark can flare into an inferno. The more you care and tend your love, adding more fuel for its fire, the greater your love will be."

I think since the day Harry and I first kissed, we've been adding kindling to our fire. Granted, I was still very shaken by the death of Cedric, but I thought that providence had possibly shown me the way through the darkest times and into the moment of happiness.

Once, I would have calmly said, "I don't believe in destiny." Of course, out of the earshot of my mother...she believes all things lead you down a path predestined. I wouldn't go so far as to say I completely agree with her, but I do believe now that all things happen for the good of those who are faithful to those they love. See...everything comes back to love.

When Harry and I moved in together, shortly after he was promoted to the position of Editor-in-chief of the Daily Prophet, I figured it was then that our flame exploded into the inferno it is today.

I'm sure the pregnancy has something to do with that...

Now, I'm not saying that our child is what brought us love. When I told Harry, it was quite the opposite. I almost thought that it would be the one factor to tear us apart...but somehow, I think we've pulled through.

However, as all good things, there is an end. No, not an end...a dark middle. My mother would say, philosophically of course, "every path leads through the dark forests of the shadows...but if the path is true, and your footsteps sure, you will be carried through to the other side."

Our dark times are upon us. My flame is bright, and I feel that with it, I will pull through the forest. My knight, however, is being bogged beneath the sands of destiny. The Reapers of Light and all other evil wizards of the world, threaten my love's flame. Not because of lack of love towards me, but because his passions are flaring towards capture and murder of those who are evil.

My flame will burn bright...I will stay strong. The darkness of the world will only add to the brightness of my soul.

I can't, however, put aside an old parable that Harry once told me.

"The closer you are to light...the darker your shadow grows."

I pray that my shadow is overcome...

Cho