Forgiveness to the Worthy

Cho Chang was on the train to Hogwarts, getting ready to face her classmates once again, the piles of homework once again, and the pressures of Quidditch once again. For a while she hadn’t wanted to continue being a Seeker, but she had been talked into it. Talked into it by people who thought that they knew what was best for her, but actually didn’t know a thing. And of course, the realization that Cedric wouldn’t want her to change everything in her life.

Cho sighed, staring out the window into the pasture roaring by. Her medium length black hair almost reached her shoulders, but not quite. Today it was put up in a bun, with chopsticks stuck through for decoration.

“Cho?” The door slid open. Harry Potter stood there, his dark hair as messy as ever, the lightning-bolt shaped scar on his forehead a dark reminder of his past. He looked different than she remembered him, the summer had seemed to do him some good. Harry was looking healthy and fit.

His eyes, as always, were shockingly green. Cho remembered a time when she thought he had the most beautiful eyes in the school. In fact, she still thought they were. Harry’s skin was darker, a light olive color, as if he had been in the sun a lot. His body too, had grown into itself. No longer looking small and lanky, Harry was taller and more muscular. Not so much to be rippling with physique, but just enough to make an impression. “I wanted to talk to you.”

“Sure, sit down Harry.” Always so polite. Had to be polite. Cho gestured towards the seat opposite her. A brief thought crossed her mind about why he was alone, that why the other two members of the Trio- as they were sometimes called- crossed her mind. She self-consciously shook herself. It doesn’t matter, she thought.

“We... We never got a chance to talk last year about... what happened.” Harry’s voice had deepened, obviously gone through puberty in the last time she talked to him. Cho almost groaned inwardly; not another Cedric chat. She knew that it was important to be polite, always important to be polite, but she didn’t want Cedric talks for the rest of her life. “I imagine that the pain was... long lasting, for you?”

“Harry, is this what you came to talk to me about?”

“Cho... I know that you and Cedric were... together. And I know I could have talked about it sooner, but you looked distracted at the end of last year...”

“Harry, you’re not apologizing are you? Because you did nothing wrong. I know the story, its ok. I don’t blame you.” This seemed to give Harry some relief, as he looked downward and his eyes brightened.

“Good... I mean, I’m glad. Because I wouldn’t want you to-”

“Harry?” Cho interrupted. She lent forward and kissed him softly on the cheek. “Thank you.” Harry blushed immediately. He stood up, gentlemanly and courteous.

“Good-bye Cho.”

“Good-bye Harry.”