Santiago

...The drums beat incessantly in her head, mingled with the wail of the violins and the heady scent of the full-bloomed white blossoms of jasmine. Her feet twitched with the mad desire to fling herself on the dance floor and let the rhythm carry her to lands unknown. A tendril of black hair swung in front of her eyes, and she brushed it casually away as she shoved her salt-rimmed margarita away from her and headed for the floor. There were a few young men moving to the notes at the rims of the dance floor, yet they were nothing to her. She commandeered the room and the band stopped playing for a minute before launching into her signature music - Santiago.

She whipped and turned and twisted, never losing her balance, her hair flying out behind her, writhing as if an open wind were moving it. The music went around her, in her, through her, pervading her every pore, all of her being. Her almond-shaped eyes were half-open, dreamy in the whirlwind of the dance. She let her eyes close...

The crash of thunder resounded in her ears and she sat bolt upright. That was just a dream...She'd had that dream many times before. It was always the same, always her last dance at the Plaza de Santiago before she had returned to Hogwarts. The lightning flashed across her room, yet it didn't affect her. She straightened her long white nightgown and slid her feet out of bed onto the cold stone floors of Hogwarts. She had to admit that she was gradually adjusting to England again. Her Spanish accent still shocked her friends, as did her new clothes, often gifts from the Chilean witches she had stayed with while studying at Academia de Esperanza. Yet Cho had easily shrugged the comments off. Nothing much affected her anymore, she'd realized. Maybe it was Santiago that had done that to her, or maybe, just maybe, it was Cedric's death...

..."I'm a little worried about the third task...the dragons were awfully dangerous, and I'm surprised no one got hurt more than minimally..."

"Cho, you know I'll be fine. Flitwick gave me that pass for the Restricted Section of the library, remember? I've been studying all sorts of obscure charms. I know what I'm doing..."

"Still, you never know...there are dangers everywhere, you must be careful..."

He bent down and kissed her lightly between her eyebrows. "You worry for me too much." His tone was teasing, slightly. "I know I'm not as all-knowing as you are, Miss Ravenclaw, but my head isn't quite that hollow."

"Oh, Cedric...I never meant...but..."

Professor McGonagall, spectacles resting firmly on the end of her nose, bustled in then and flung them a look. "Mr. Diggory, I assure you there will be plenty of time to commiserate over your daring exploits after you are done with the third task."

Cho, surprised at herself, had flashed McGonagall a look just as venomous and said in a taut voice, "Professor, I would ask that you excuse us for a moment. Cedric will be at the third task promptly, but there is something we must discuss."

McGonagall cleared her throat. "Five minutes." She was gone.

"Something we must discuss, eh?"

"I...I only have a bad feeling, is all, Cedric. I know I'm sounding silly...but...oh blimey, nevermind, there's nothing I could say..." She turned suddenly, stood on her tiptoes, and kissed him desperately, hoping that her actions could show what her words could not.

He had kissed her with equal ardor, smiling gently beneath her lips. And then it had been time, but she had ran after him, and right before he was to enter the maze she kissed him again, and the fire of it left a warmth on her lips that had not left her until she had heard of his demise...

Cho had went to McGonagall a week after. The professor had been in her office, gazing out the window at the bright summer day that seemed to Cho somehow blasphemous in light of what had happened. She had stood there, in the office, in silence, for what to her was like an eternity. Then McGonagall had spoken, without turning to face her.

"Did you - "

Cho cut her off quickly. "I did. And he, to me."

"I'm sorry."

"So am I, Professor, so am I." Cho dropped a sheaf of parchments on McGonagall's desk. "My application for a year abroad at Academia de Esperanza." She had then left, unable to bear the mocking sound of birds twittering mindlessly outside the window...

She tiptoed down the stairs to the Ravenclaw common room, where a fire still crackled merrily in the fireplace. She quite by accident caught sight of herself in the long mirror at the landing. Her face was pale, and her black hair, tousled by the tossings of sleep, formed a messy halo around her head. Her eyes, two almost-black almonds, had a wild look to them and she quickly looked away. She couldn't stay here in the common room. It held too many memories. They had already begun to crowd her mind, but she strode towards the portrait hole and shoved it open. Before stepping out with one white bare foot, she grasped her wand firmly. It had been a long time since she'd ventured out like this.

* * * * *

The moon came through the windows in silver slivers as Cho closed the portrait hole behind her. She turned and was instantly faced by a young man who looked as much a wraith tonight as did she. The bars of moonlight divided his pointed face into regions of dark and light, and his hair seemed to glow with an ethereal whiteness.

"Cho."

"Draco."

"I didn't know that you'd acquired Potter's habit of sneaking out after midnight."

"I might say the same of you."

At a standstill, they stared at each other for a few seconds, and then Draco coughed. "If you wish, we may converse in the prefects' bathrooms. I do not believe they are frequented by obnoxious poltergeists, and I admit I am most impatient to hear details of your sojourn in Santiago."

She nodded, barely a tilting of her head, and they set off in the direction of the prefects' bathrooms, the way to which they both knew very well. When they had arrived, she turned uncertainly to him. "They haven't told me the new password yet."

"Use deodorant."

"Excuse me?"

He only smiled and opened the door with ease. "Too many people were forgetting."

She swept into the room with the natural grace and fluidness of movement she had acquired in Santiago. Cho knew very much so how different, how much more sensuous, even her little movements had become. ...Santiago will do that to you... She could hear his sharp, indrawn breath and smiled to herself. "Is anything wrong, Draco?"

He shut the door. She could see that he was breathing very hard. "Nothing. Nothing is wrong." He sat on one of the wicker chairs that lined the huge bathtub. The ceiling had been enchanted since Cho had left for Chile, and it glimmered down to them as the clearest night sky, twinkling with stars.

"You wanted to hear of my travels in Santiago?" Cho settled into another chair and crossed one leg over the other. She absentmindedly twirled one of the crimson ribbons on her nightdress around her little finger.

"Ah, yes, of course, Santiago."

"I think you would benefit from such a journey, Draco. It would greatly improve your complexion. You are still as pale as the grave."

Draco suddenly looked cross, and his voice reverted to that condescending drawl he was so well known for. "There are many that don't mind my complexion."

"So! You have been continuing your string of romantic exploits? Who is it this week, then? I know that the Parkinson girl is over with, and I believe I heard word that you toyed with one of the Patil girls - or was it both? And I know I'm forgetting a few of your numerous trophies...oh yes. There was that amazing scandal over Ginny, and a few death threats from the Weasley brothers, eh? You had bloody well better watch your back, Draco dear, else you get a knife in it from a red-haired Gryffindor!" She laughed, a clear tinkly laugh that still held some resonance of hidden sorrow.

"And what of your daring maneuvers against the unfortunate men of Academia de Esperanza?"

Her tone grew hard. "Don't you mock me. Cedric has barely been dead for a year."

He leaned toward her, slightly closer. She could smell his peculiar scent, quite like rain. "A year is a long time to wait, Cho."

"For who to wait?"

He said nothing.

She smiled very slightly, and moved toward him so close that strands of their almost-white and black hair mingled. "The men at the Academia waited. The men here will wait. They will wait as long as I want them to, until I can feel that I am not being a heretic to Cedric's memory. Whether you, Draco Malfoy, are patient enough or not is entirely your concern."

He again said nothing, but she could feel the hotness emanating from his reddening cheeks. Their lips were separated by a few inches. She slowly closed that distance, and barely brushed his lips with her own. Then she pulled away and smiled again, but her smile was full of infinite bitterness. She stood up and straightened her nightdress as he gazed up at her with a look between adoration and hatred.

"If you can wait, Draco, then I may reconsider your unspoken proposition. Remember always that patience is a virtue."

Without waiting for his response, she swept out into the hall and back to the Ravenclaw rooms.