Veela Magic

Chapter 11: Light Scatters

And they walked on the dirt

And they walked from the road

Till they came up close

Throw your pain in the river

To be washed away slow

* * * * * * * *

"Take her."

Cho was spread-eagled against the wall, her legs painfully open. A faint smile was on her lips as she murmured, "Cedric... Cedric..." She didn't seem to notice the manacles that bound her wrists and ankles to the wall.

"Beautiful charm," Voldemort said, nodding in self-satisfaction. "Of course, I prefer them to be afraid, myself. But you did insist..."

Fleur couldn't remember insisting on any such thing. She stared at Cho in growing panic.

"Oh, look," Voldemort said. "She's wet."

And indeed she was; Fleur could see a glistening streak of it on the wall underneath Cho.

"This really is making is too easy for her, you know," Voldemort chided. "You've waited long enough. Go and take her... or shall I?"

"No!"

Fleur began to move towards her friend, knowing she was saving her from a much worse fate, that she was coerced... and yet perversely, monstrously, looking forward to it.

"No!" she screamed again, and woke.

She was so relieved to see that Cho wasn't there that it took her a few seconds to remember that she should have been. Last night. They'd... and Cho had gone.

Fleur buried her head in her hands. She'd ruined it. She'd hardly begun to dare to hope for Cho, that maybe one day, if they both made it out of the war alive, they might be able to have something... when she'd taken advantage of Cho at the worst possible moment and used her brutally. Cho would have been willing to touch anything that night, to get the taste of Prex out of her mouth. And - oh shit, she'd been drunk too, hadn't she?

Fleur pressed her face into the pillow and then suddenly leapt from the bed, because it still had Cho's scent on it and it smelled good, and Fleur couldn't tell herself that she didn't want it to happen again, that she didn't want Cho all the more after last night. She couldn't help it. She couldn't look at Cho without wanting to stretch out her finger and trace the curves on her body. She couldn't listen to her speak without wanting to kiss her throat and put a moan in her voice. She couldn't see the glimpses of golden skin when Cho changed robes without wanting to...

The naked, deluded Cho from her dream came before her eyes, and with her the image of Voldemort, urging her on.

Voldemort.

She'd ruined far more important things than her love life last night. Fleur had driven away her only ally in Hogwarts, and the only one who knew her secrets. If Cho hated Fleur now, what would she think of the cause? It was what had brought her to this pass, after all. It was the cause that had violated her.

If Cho wasn't too ashamed to tell people what had happened - Fleur would be discovered to be in league with Dumbledore's greatest enemy.

Somehow, she would have to stop Cho from telling what she knew.

* * * * * * * *

Cho wasn't in Advanced Defence Against the Dark Arts that morning, a fact for which Harry was devoutly grateful. How he was going to keep up the pretence of going out with her, he had no idea. Part of him wanted to hurl insults at her, coldly, tearing her down in front of everybody and showing them who she really was. Part of him was humiliated, remembering all the stupid, starry-eyed things he'd said to her (even without any of this Veela power! You just believed her! Harry burned) and wanted to hide away and not face anybody for at least a year. And part of him, the part he tried to crush the most fiercely, wanted to forgive her. To forget this had ever happened and to go on like they had before.

But everything that had gone before was a lie. Grimly, Harry accepted it. There was no way to go back.

He glanced over at her empty seat again. Fleur was sitting alone at the double desk, beautiful as ever but looking more tired than usual.rry stared at her fixedly. It was her fault Cho had sunk so low, he was certain. He'd been wrong about so many things, but - the girl he'd known in fourth year would not have gone over to Voldemort of her own volition. Fleur had coaxed her, maybe even lied to her. Harry had seen for himself how weak people could be when in the grip of fear. Cho had become a traitor, but she must have been confused. She didn't deserve the full punishment for treachery.

"Mr. Potter?" Cinyras was looking at him encouragingly. "If the lesson today is confusing you, don't hesitate to speak up! You look like you aren't understanding a thing."

"I'm... fine, sir," Harry muttered. "Just a bit tired."

"Of course! Early to bed, early to rise - that's what I always say! Make sure you're fully alert for my class in future. I wouldn't want you to miss anything."

Across the room, Malfoy snickered. Harry's fingers twitched. He'd love to demonstrate his Defence Against the Dark Arts knowledge by hexing Malfoy - but of course, they needed his help. He stared at Hermione in silent frustration. She had probably been right to talk to him and gain his confidence, but dealing with Malfoy on a daily basis - probably with him dribbling out small pieces of information as and when it suited him, without a thought for the safety of others - was going to be very irritating.

Fleur's hand went up to answer a question and he saw the empty chair again. As if this wasn't going to be difficult enough.

Harry jumped slightly. "Hello, Fleur." He tried to keep his tone even.

Fleur did look awful this morning. In a way that was still beautiful, somehow. Harry tried not to grind his teeth, thinking about Veela charms and how deceitful they could be.

"Have you seen Cho, Harry? I haven't seen her since -" Fleur's voice faltered slightly "-since I woke up this morning. I thought she might be spending time with you."

"No, she hasn't," Harry said. "Er, if I see her later, I'll be sure to let you know you're looking for her, but I really have to go now."

"Thank you, Harry." Fleur actually did look grateful, he thought, as he grabbed his belongings and hurried out of the classroom.

Hermione was waiting for him outside. "Harry, we need to meet for our study group now..." She emphasised we.

"I know," Harry said wearily. "It doesn't mean I have to like studying with certain people."

Hermione nodded sympathetically, and then pulled him along to a nearby empty room. It wasn't a classroom this time - just one of the odd rooms without an apparent use that littered Hogwarts, rarely showing up where they were supposed to.

Malfoy was waiting behind the door, his expression anxious. "What did she say to you?" he demanded as soon as Harry entered.

"Wanted to know where Cho was," Harry replied shortly. He wasn't happy with Malfoy firing questions at him, as if he were some subordinate who was expected to give an account of himself.

"And?"

"I don't bloody well know. You're the one in league with them, why don't you talk to Fleur about it?"

"Harry, this could be serious," Hermione interjected. "What if they've found out what Draco told us?"

"Well, if they had, Fleur and Cho would both know, wouldn't they? Cho's missed one class. It's not as if she has her mind on her studies these days anyway."

"This is my safety we're talking about!" Malfoy said, wild-eyed. "She could be getting her wand ready to Avada Kedavra me right this minute!"

"Why would she bother to wait?" Harry said, shrugging. After yesterday's humiliation, he was getting a vicious pleasure out of needling Malfoy.

Malfoy bristled. "You have absolutely no idea -"

"How much of a coward you are?" Harry interrupted. "Yeah, I think I figured that one out back in first year. Maybe you should have asked to stay a ferret when you got the chance - they're good for running. And for hiding in smelly dark holes like the Slytherin dungeons."

"I'm doing you a favour!" Malfoy protested. "You owe me one!"

This time it was Hermione who rounded on him. "You're helping to save the lives of millions of people. That's not 'doing us a favour'; that's something any half-decent human being would do!"

"Oh, just because you're related to them, you have to take it personally -" Malfoy sniffed.

"Shut. Up." Harry said. His voice was cold, and unnaturally quiet.

For some reason, they both - even Malfoy - went silent. Hermione's look was grave; Malfoy's petulant.

"You told me not all Slytherins were evil, Malfoy. You'd better start proving it. Unless you want us to tell Dumbledore what you're mixed up in -"

Hermione looked like she was about to say something, but then thought better of it.

"-you'll co-operate with us."

"You don't dare go to Dumbledore." Malfoy's voice was mutinous. "What if they've got to him already?"

"I'd rather take my chances on Albus Dumbledore than on you any day," Harry retorted.

Hermione looked back and forth between him and Malfoy nervously. Eventually she said, "Maybe we should meet up again at lunchtime? I mean, we have another class to go to now, which we're late for already..."

"Fine." Harry said. "But what if Cho comes to see me then?" His stomach clenched at the thought of seeing her - at having to pretend to be happy to see her.

"Then you and I can discuss stuff while Potter plays the love-struck fool as usual," Malfoy said, sweeping Harry a disdainful glance. "That way everyone gets to spend some quality time with their fake girlfriends."

Hermione began to laugh, and caught herself as she saw the expression on Harry's face. "Right then," she said, hoisting her book bag onto her back. "I'd better go to Ancient Runes."

"I don't want to meet in the Great Hall at lunchtime," Harry said abruptly. "We can talk properly here, and if we're hungry we can get some food from the house-elves afterwards."

"Okay," Hermione said, and Malfoy nodded sullenly.

She hurried away, and then Malfoy and Harry walked quickly down the same long stretch of corridor while pretending not to notice each other's existence, Harry fervently wishing he could just Apparate to the North Tower. Eventually they reached Malfoy's classroom, and Malfoy left Harry alone without a backward glance.

The sight of Ron in Divination threw Harry's thoughts into further turmoil. Ron was sitting there with a quiet smile playing over his freckled face, and more than ever, Harry wanted his friend's advice. But he couldn't tell Ron. Much as he wanted to let Ron in on this, to break out of the strange secretive partnership with Malfoy that Hermione had forced him into - no, that wasn't fair, Harry thought with a sigh, he hadn't done anything he hadn't decided on himself - he knew this secret had to be kept a while longer. Fleur could reassert her power over Ron at any time.

"Everything all right with Cho? You look a bit under the weather."

You'd almost think he knew, Harry thought ruefully.

"Oh yeah, everything's great." Harry forced out a grin. "And, er, you and Fleur still going strong?"

"Fantastic!" Ron grinned back. "She's everything I ever wanted. Looks like old Trelawney was wrong when she said that Venus in retrograde meant an angry woman was going to kill me in my sleep, eh?"

"I hope so," Harry said, sincerely.

"Head of Gryffindor." Ron snorted. "Wish Snape would bugger off and she could run the Slytherins instead. If ever a House and Head deserved each other, it'd be them."

Harry had never been so relieved to be silenced by a teacher as when Trelawney swooped down on them and loudly berated them for talking and distracting the Inner Eye. Keeping up this pretence with Ron was proving to be a horrible task.

Lunchtime came, and Harry sat in the deserted classroom, gloomily swinging his legs under the teacher's desk. He was already beginning to feel as if his life consisted of just that; waiting in classrooms as the rest of the school had their break, waiting for Draco Malfoy to come swanning in and tell him things, as if everything he'd done to Harry for the past four years was just forgiven, as if Harry was supposed to be his friend now.

Then again, it had always been like that, hadn't it? No matter how much Harry tried to have a normal life, it always eluded him. The other students would be relaxing, or worrying about their insignificant problems, or celebrating, while Harry alone faced the real problems. Draco Malfoy was the new factor, and really, Harry would have preferred to deal with the problem on his own. Malfoy as an unimportant enemy he could handle. Malfoy as an ally...

"Oh, stop looking so mournful, Potter. You won't save the day that way."

For a moment, Harry thought Malfoy was going to sit beside him on the desk, but he wisely chose to stay standing.

"Here's an idea. You're so eager to help us, you take care of Fleur and Cho yourself. Don't they tell you all their secrets?"

A look of exasperation passed over Malfoy's pointed face.

"Look, they hardly tell me anything, all right? I'm only working with them because my father wanted his son to have a part in this. Too afraid to do anything himself, so I have to do the work," he added venomously.

Malfoy? Speaking badly about his father?

"I thought... you got on well with your father," Harry said cautiously. He was honestly curious as to what had made Draco Malfoy turn against the father he'd always revered so much.

"We used to get on," Malfoy said, quietly, almost as if Harry wasn't there. Then looked up at him and said angrily, "Shut up asking questions. It's none of your business."

"Your father being a Death Eater is."

Malfoy paused. Suddenly, he looked even younger than his fifteen years. "He left my mother, at the beginning of the summer. He left his family. We're the Malfoy family, and he left us! He doesn't have any Malfoy pride left. All he does is follow the Dark Lord's orders!" Malfoy was almost shouting now. "He left, but he still gives me orders. He thinks he still has a right to be my father! Well, I'm not following them anymore. I'm the eldest real Malfoy now!"

Listening to this outburst of disappointment and defiance, Harry felt a strange impulse of pity towards the strange creature in front of him.

"I know what it's like to lose family," he offered. "To be given orders by people you don't respect..."

Malfoy's eyes hardened. "Well, you never had a family name to lose pride in, did you?"

"That's it!" Harry cried out in exasperation. "I'm sick of trying to get on with you. We have to work together, I know, but that doesn't mean we ever have to talk about anything that isn't to do with the work."

"Fine by me."

There was an angry silence as they crossed their arms in identical poses of anger, before Malfoy broke it. "I never wanted to talk to you in the first place!"

Harry kept quiet. Letting Malfoy irritate himself saved a lot of time and energy.

"You don't think I would have, do you? If there'd been anybody else."

Harry shrugged.

Malfoy's voice took on a crueller note. "But Perfect Harry Potter was on the verge of spilling all his important secrets to the other side, so despite the fact that it meant communicating with him, I told him what was going on. They should give me a medal."

All right, Harry admitted it. Malfoy was getting at him.

Luckily, the door opened to admit Hermione before he broke and started throwing insults at Malfoy.

"Afternoon, Granger," Malfoy said sullenly.

Hermione glanced over at him. "You were calling me Hermione before, Draco."

"Well, Potter's been making it very clear that I'm not welcome to hobnob with you Gryffindors, so I don't see the point of making an effort."

"Draco Malfoy, would you please stop behaving like a twit?"

Harry and Malfoy gawped at her.

"Slytherin pride, Malfoy name, et cetera, et cetera. We've got the message that we're not your sort of people, so since you've already told us what's going on, could you just leave out the histrionics and co-operate with us?"

Harry saw Malfoy's face go very red, and wondered it he was going to walk out. But then the Slytherin gave a short laugh and said, "Right you are, Hermione. Just so long as you and Potter understand that."

"I don't like you either," Harry offered.

"All right, then," Malfoy says. His eyes glinting, he added, "So what are we waiting for? Let's plot those Ravenclaw bitches' nasty and painful downfall."

* * * * * * * *

"He didn't tell us very much, did he?" Harry said to Hermione during Herbology. It was the first chance they'd had to speak in private since their meeting with Malfoy at lunchtime - Fleur had approached them almost as soon as they'd left the meeting-place, making Harry jump. She'd asked Hermione to please tell her if Cho turned up to Arithmancy, and then hurriedly added, "Oh, I was so sorry I didn't see Ron with you! I was hoping to spend some time with him today," before running up to speak to Professor Flitwick, who had appeared at a nearby turn in the corridor.

"No," Hermione answered, "but I don't think he knows that much yet. You saw his memory, didn't you? He only learned about this last weekend, after the Quidditch match."

"Hermione, couldn't the Pensieve have been faked, somehow?" Harry felt a surge of hope at the thought. If the Pensieve had been faked, maybe they could prove it. Show Draco Malfoy to be in league with his father, working on some scheme to sow dissension at Hogwarts... get Lucius Malfoy packed off to Azkaban at last, and Draco thrown out of school. And most important of all, prove that Cho had never lied to him.

"Well, I suppose it's possible," Hermione said thoughtfully. "Though I'm not exactly sure how it would work. But do you really believe it was faked?"

Harry didn't want to answer that question.

"It's not just his word, you know. I saw Fleur flirting with the Head Boy. It fits with what Draco said, about them trying to seduce those with influence."

"Me," Harry said slowly. He looked over to where Ron stood at the other side of the pitch, paired with Justin Fitch-Fletchley and mucking out the Sprangets. Ron dropped his rake in a fit of laughter as one of the Sprangets leaf-butted Justin in the knee. "And my friends."

Hermione followed his gaze, and then patted his shoulder hesitantly. "We'll get him back, Harry."

Harry forced out a smile in return, and bent down to plant his seedlings. He didn't think he could face Hermione telling him right then that she had faith in him, or that he always came through.

* * * * * * * *

It was a room with only one corner, with only perfect curves where the other corners should be, and any student of Arithmancy, Architecture, or any of the other disciplines using the tenets of Geometricks would have been enthralled by its measurements, unless the here-today, gone-tomorrow nature of the lonely room had bothered them. Or unless they had weightier things on their mind than the number of degrees in a three-dimensional shape.

"Chronos," Cho whispered, raising her wand. She didn't know how long she'd been hiding in the lonely room, and she was beginning to realise that she'd have to leave at some point.

"It's a quarter past seven, child," a voice said from behind her. "Aren't you getting hungry?"

Her mouth gone dry, Cho whipped around.

"Maybe not," the Grey Lady said with a sigh. "I haven't been hungry for so long... I've forgotten how mercurial hunger can be. How sweet things can make you consume more than you thought possible... how it disappears when you're heartbroken."

"I'm..." Cho shook her head, trying hard not to cry. "Did my spell bring you?"

A faint smile appeared on the Grey Lady's translucent face. "You've forgotten that magic requires a clear voice to work, child. Only the ghost world responds to whispers."

"I did forget," Cho said quietly. She sat down against the dusty wall and laid her head against her knees, hoping the Grey Lady would go away. Cho badly needed to talk to somebody, and that was exactly why she shouldn't have the chance to.

"Yes. Because of your anguish." A cold finger of air ran down Cho's cheek, making her jump. The Grey Lady was very near her, a dark shadow of hair starkly outlining the ectoplasmic whiteness of her face. "Do you think she loves you?" the ghost asked softly.

"What?" Cho whispered.

The Grey Lady looked puzzled. "Isn't that what you wanted? Isn't that what's been troubling you?"

Cho started to shake her head, and then stopped. "No... well, a part of it, yes, but not... she's a girl!"

"And what's so wrong with that?"

Cho closed her eyes briefly, remembering the night before. Tearing at each other like crazed animals, two girls blind with rage and fear... oh, it had been unnatural from start to finish.

"It was wrong." She didn't realise she'd spoken aloud until the Grey Lady responded.

"Something did happen between you, then? Even though she is a girl? It couldn't have been so wrong if you both wanted it."

"I'm not like that!" Cho burst out. The Grey Lady sighed, and Cho turned her head away fiercely. She didn't want to be here, stuck in this world where she had to do terrible things to find justice, and then seek out terrifying comfort. She wanted Cedric. She wanted to walk through the school holding his hand and looking up at his strong face. She wanted to sneak away into forgotten corridors and kiss him. She wanted to share his Butterbeer in Hogsmeade, and to play Quidditch with him. "I used to have a normal life," Cho murmured. Her vision had gone blurry.

She felt a sensation as if a soft wind was rustling through her hair. "Nobody has a normal life," the Grey Lady told her.

"They have lives more normal than mine," Cho said numbly.

"Perhaps, child. But I've lived for centuries, and I've seen the people of Hogwarts come and go. And I can tell you, not one of them doesn't have something strange mark him or her out, not one of them lives exactly the way the life was planned. The strange possibilities in us are what make us human." The Grey Lady looked down at herself ruefully. "Or ex-human, in my case."

"But... I've never felt like this before. I don't see how I can live this way."

A smile. "You're so young. You have so much still left to learn about yourself. Now you've just learned something new - that you can love those of both genders."

"What would people think? I don't know anybody else who feels that way."

"You know Fleur, don't you?"

Cho blushed. "Well, apart from her... and I'm not even sure how she feels. What we did - it wasn't normal. It... we were upset about something. We didn't even speak to each other."

"So you turned to one another in a time of need," the Grey Lady said calmly. "Child, many relationships I've seen have started that way. In a time of grief, we are vulnerable and open. We show our true desires more easily.

"And as for nobody else being like you... I am not Peeves. I do not spy on the students, but I do have a rather good viewpoint. There are not many who are like you, true, but neither are there few."

"I'd still be different," Cho said, staring at the ground.

"Are you really worried about what they'll think of you? They-"

"No!" Cho interrupted suddenly. The Grey Lady fell silent.

"I've already set myself apart from them," Cho said quietly. Working on the side of Voldemort, plotting to cut off the Muggleborns, seducing the teachers of Hogwarts - even if it was for their own good, most of the students of Hogwarts would not forgive her for this, not for a long time. Perhaps not even within her lifetime. Among all the things she and Fleur had done, this - to most people - would be the least reprehensible.

If it were reprehensible at all.

"Then you have only to worry about what you yourself think."

"And about what-"

The Grey Lady held up one ghostly hand. "I told you that I have a rather good viewpoint. And I have seen the way Fleur looks at you, and the relief in her eyes when she leaves the others. They are nothing to her; you may be everything."

"What else have you seen?" Cho said, suddenly wary.

The Grey Lady was silent for a moment. Then she said, "I listen to no private conversations, I go into no bedchambers. I know you are troubled by something more than this, but I do not know what it is. If you were to share it with me also-"

"I can't."

"So be it, then. But take one more piece of advice from me?"

Cho smiled. "Yes."

"Do not be too afraid to trust."

I can trust Fleur. Always.

"Now, it is almost eight o'clock - I saw Fleur passing through the common room recently. I think she is in your room, if you want to find her.

"I ... think I will," Cho said, picking herself up from the floor. "Grey Lady - thank you."

"No need. I am the Ravenclaw house ghost, child. I always do my best to help my Ravenclaws achieve their potential - and the first step to true knowledge is self-knowledge.

"Now, you said you and Fleur did not speak last night?"

Cho nodded. Her heart was in her mouth.

"I think now might be the time for words between you."

Cho stood up hesitantly, and the Grey Lady, a look of compassion in her night-dark eyes, kissed her on the forehead. Cho shut her eyes as she felt the ghost lips pass slightly through her skin.

"Go, child."

Cho stepped out of the room, blinking. Busy portraits lined the wall outside, most of them full of bright colours and laughter. She set off down the nearest staircase and tried to contain her feeling of rising panic.

The staircases of Hogwarts seemed determined to chop and change as much as possible that evening, to the point where Cho feared she would never get back to Ravenclaw Tower. Her initial confidence and faith in the Grey Lady's words and in herself had evaporated, and only the knowledge that sooner or later, short of running away, she would have to confront Fleur, kept her going.

Terry Boot rose up from his chair as she entered the common room, a worried look on his face. "Cho! Martin says you haven't been in class all day. Where on earth have you been?"

Oh no. Not now. "I was sick," Cho said, moving towards the staircase that led to the girls' rooms.

Terry persisted. "I checked with Madam Pomfrey -"

"I didn't..." Cho thought. "I was worried she'd keep me from playing in the next Quidditch match if I told her I was sick." That should work; Terry was an avid Quidditch fan.

"Oh, right." Terry nodded. "Good call." He looked abstracted, as if he were trying to work something out.

As she hurried up the stairs, Terry's call came after her: "But Ravenclaw's Quidditch matches are finished! You couldn't have used that as an excuse!" Cho pretended not to hear him.

Up three flights of stairs, past the younger girls' dormitories, and the room she shared with Fleur was before her. Cho took a deep breath, and opened the door.

No sooner had she shut it behind her than Fleur leapt up from her bed and cried "Obsera. Silencio." Her eyes were wild.

"What are you doing?" Cho cried. She had been expecting... she wasn't sure what she'd been expecting, but it wasn't this.

"I looked for you everywhere," Fleur said. Her wand was held loosely in her right hand. "I tried spells, but the location was never specific enough - I was afraid of what you might do. Eventually, I gave up on finding you and just tried to keep the teachers within reach, so that you would not have a chance to tell them."

"It wasn't like that - I needed some time to myself. I've been doing some thinking. And I talked to somebody..." Cho faltered as Fleur jerked her wand up to point it directly at her heart.

"You told somebody?" Fleur looked as if she were about to cry from anger.

"Fleur, please." Fleur looked as if she were about to cry from anger, and Cho was scared of what she might do. "Put the wand down. I didn't say anything about our mission, and I will never compromise it. I promise."

Fleur lowered the wand fractionally, but didn't put it down. "But you talked to somebody."

"I talked to the Grey Lady." Cho hesitated. "About us."

"I thought you might hate me," Fleur said quietly. "I thought you might have told somebody everything, because I'd pushed you too far and you were scared."

She put the wand down, and just stood there, looking at Cho as if her world were falling apart and Cho were the only human thing left with her.

"I am scared, a little. I'm so confused. I feel as if bits of me were ripped out last night, and I don't really know who I am anymore. Look what I've been doing! And then what happened between us - it felt wonderful, but... it scared me."

"I'm sorry," Fleur said brokenly. "You had so much to deal with already; I shouldn't have showed you how I felt. Not then."

"I'm in this of my own will," Cho said. She swallowed. "All of it." She moved towards Fleur, cautiously, trying to ignore her rising anxiety. "Would you really have killed me?"

"I don't think I could ever make myself do that. I was going to Obliviate you, if you had, and then go after whoever you'd managed to tell and Obliviate them too. It might not have worked. But I would have done my best. And if it had, I would have continued with my work and tried to stay away from you." Fleur reached out to stroke Cho's hair. "That might have been the hardest part of all."

Cho wrapped her arms around Fleur's waist. "Those privacy charms you you barred the door with are still there, aren't they?"

Fleur nodded, and there was a hint of a sparkle in her eyes now.

"We should take advantage of that," Cho said, and kissed her.