Harry Potter and the Headsman's Hostage

Chapter 7
Conversation

"Shared pain is lessened; shared joy is increased. Thus do we refute entropy."
-----Spider Robinson

He was lying on the cold, damp ground of the graveyard, hearing Voldemort's high, cold voice commanding Wormtail to kill, and Wormtail shrieking, "AVADA KEDAVRA!" This time, though, when he turned his head, it wasn't Cedric on the ground beside him; Cho's dark eyes stared sightlessly back at him, her sweet face pale and frozen in an expression of stunned surprise. Harry cried out, and the dream shifted....

He was on his broom in the cottage, frozen in mid-air like a bug in amber, unable to move as Macnair's great axe descended. Cho gazed at him pleadingly, and he couldn't speak, couldn't bring his wand to bear, could only watch helplessly as the blade cleaved through her neck and the light in her eyes died. "Cho..." he whispered brokenly, and the dream shifted again....

He was still in the cottage, but now he was on the cot, holding Cho in his arms, trying vainly to comfort her as she writhed in the grip of the Cruciatus Curse. He could feel her heart racing, see the hopeless terror in her eyes, as he screamed at the four masked Death Eaters who stood around them, "Not her! Let her go, it's me you want!"

One of them drew a dagger from his belt and thrust it hilt-first into Harry's hand. "Then release her, boy," he sneered. "End her pain."

"I can't...." Harry gasped, staring in horror at the blade in his hand.

"Please," Cho sobbed, her voice raw from screaming. "Do it, Harry... it's the only way...." She gripped his hand and pulled it down until the point of the dagger rested just below her left breast. "Please," she said again. "Please make it stop."

He squeezed his eyes shut and pressed down with all his strength. Cho gave a choked cry, jerked convulsively in his arms, then sighed and went limp. Harry kept holding her, rocking her gently, murmuring her name over and over as tears streamed down his cheeks....

He woke with a start. His clothes were damp with clammy sweat, and his hands shook slightly as he pulled the blanket up over his chest. Cho slept peacefully in the bed beside him. He reached out to touch her hand where it rested on her pillow. It felt reassuringly warm; her fingers curled lightly around his, and she smiled softly in her sleep. Harry sighed, wishing he'd taken a dose of the Sleeping Draught himself. He knew from experience that the sleep it brought was deep and untroubled by dreams. Now it was too late; if he used it now, he'd sleep away half the day before he woke up. At length, he drifted off again, his hand still resting over Cho's.

She ran from him, laughing, down the grassy hillside to the lake. He caught her at the water's edge and pulled her to the ground with him, and they lay side by side in the grass, gazing up at the clouds. And then she was in his arms, and this time it was not terror that made her heart beat so fast against his chest, nor tears that made her eyes so bright, and when she cried out it was not in pain....

Harry awoke to find early morning sunlight filtering through the curtains, and his hand still lightly clasping Cho's. When he started to pull it back, her fingers closed more tightly around it and she stirred in her sleep, so he desisted and lay still, watching her.

The moment was broken by Sirius's voice, singing loudly in the shower next door:

"One, two and three jolly coachmen sat in an English tavern.
Three jolly coachmen sat in an English tavern.
And they decided, and they decided,
and they decided to have another flagon."

Cho stirred again, then her eyes fluttered open. She stared uncomprehendingly at Harry for a moment, squeezed her eyes shut, opened them again, and glanced down at their joined hands. Looking a bit self-conscious, she released his hand. Finally she said, "Good morning, Harry."

"Good morning, Cho. How are you feeling?"

She started to sit up, then groaned. "Sore," she replied. "Being tied up for twenty-four hours doesn't do your shoulders any good."

"Ah," said Harry. "I'm sorry." He paused, then added, "I might be able to help a bit."

"Oh? You know any healing spells?"

"No, but after she wrenched her shoulder last year, Alicia Spinnet taught me how to give a backrub." He smiled slightly at the recollection, and didn't add that she'd told him it might help him get a girlfriend some day.

"All right," said Cho, turning over. "Right now, I'd try just about anything."

Harry moved to sit beside her on the bed. His hands trembled slightly, and his palms began to sweat; he wiped them off on his knees. It was always easy with Alicia, he thought. Why am I so nervous? He reached out and rested his hands on her shoulders. That first touch was almost electric, sending a tingling thrill up his arms and throughout his body. Gently at first, he sought out the knots of tension in her muscles and began to knead them away with fingers made strong by years of household chores and catching Snitches and dexterous by the exacting precision of wand practice. Cho's delicate frame demanded a lighter touch than the powerful shoulders of the Gryffindor Chaser who had taught him the technique, but that only made it easier.

The room, Sirius's singing, and the sound and scent of the sea soon faded from Harry's awareness. There was nothing in his world but Cho Chang, warm and supple and alive beneath his hands. The tension in her back gradually ebbed away as Harry worked his way inward toward her spine.

"Higher," she murmured, as his thumbs met in the middle of her back. His heart beat faster as his hands moved slowly up past the loose neckline of her t-shirt. His glasses were fogging up, and he lifted one hand to push them lower on his nose. Then, carefully brushing her hair to one side, he began massaging the back of her neck, where two taut cords of muscle stood out under her smooth, tan skin. She made a soft sound that was almost a purr, as the muscles softened under the persistent drumbeat of his fingertips.

Entranced, Harry had entirely forgotten the song coming from across the hall, but Cho was apparently listening, as she suddenly started to giggle. "Did he just say what I think he said?"

Harry ran the last verse over in his head, parsing the words this time, and blushed crimson. "I think so," he said. "Anyway, whatever it was, I think he was singing it off key. Shall I go ask him to stop?"

Cho glanced up at him over her shoulder, taking in his expression of embarrassment. "Please don't leave," she said. "Not just yet. That felt really nice, you know? I don't feel so stiff now."

"I'm glad," said Harry. "I really do have to get up, though." He glanced significantly toward the bathroom door.

"Oh, all right," Cho replied. "Tell you what: you can have first shot at the loo, if I can have the first bath."

"Deal," said Harry, rising from the bed. "I'll start the tub for you."

After Harry had finished with the bathroom and Cho had shut the door behind her, he stepped out into the hall. Somebody, probably Dobby, had brought his trunk upstairs and set it by the door to Cho's room. He knocked on the door of the next room up the hall, where the sound of running water had ceased, and called, "Sirius? Are you finished with the shower in there?"

The door opened, revealing his godfather already dressed for the day, his long, dark hair slick from the shower and pulled back into a ponytail. "Good morning, Harry," he said. "Sleep well?"

"Well enough, I guess. I had some pretty awful dreams." He shuddered at the memory.

Sirius nodded. "It happens. I still wake up screaming now and then, thinking I'm back in Azkaban. Some things you can't ever put completely out of your mind."

"Yeah. Still, they weren't all bad...." He paused a moment, savoring the intense tactile memory of Cho lying warm in his arms on the soft grass beside the lake, and Sirius smiled as if he could read Harry's mind. "You look like you slept pretty well last night," Harry commented, studying him. Somehow, Sirius looked younger and healthier than he had the previous day - better than Harry could ever recall him looking, in fact.

"This place agrees with me," Sirius replied. "Actually, any place short of Azkaban would be an improvement on the old mansion."

"I see," said Harry. "I thought you sounded awfully cheerful in there."

Sirius laughed. "You heard that?"

"Yeah. You sing off-key, you know."

"Too true," Sirius agreed, grinning unrepentantly. "Your father hit me with a Silencing Charm once when I wouldn't stop singing." He frowned. "I hope I didn't embarrass anyone, though; that song is a bit off-color, now that I think about it."

"I think Cho thought it was funny, and that's something."

"She seems like quite a remarkable young woman," Sirius commented. "Amazingly resilient, considering all she's been through."

"Yes, she is," said Harry. "I think she's hurting a lot more than she lets on, though - kind of the way I was the last week at school, after the Third Task."

"You're probably right. You're also probably the best friend she could possibly have right now. There aren't many people near her age who could understand what she's going through as well as you can."

"I don't know about that," Harry said, "but I am trying."

"You'll do fine, Harry," said Sirius. "Now, I'm going to go see what's for breakfast. The shower is all yours."

"Thanks." Harry dragged his trunk into Sirius's room and shut the door. In the bathroom, he turned the shower on full blast, letting the hot spray ease the kinks in his muscles from sleeping in the recliner chair. After scrubbing away twenty-four hours' worth of sweat and grime, he put on a clean t-shirt and jeans and went to tap on Cho's door.

"Harry?" she called. Her voice sounded slightly muffled; clearly, she was still in the bath. "You can come in if you want."

He went into the bedroom and stood by the bathroom door. "Would you like to come downstairs for breakfast, or shall I ask Dobby to bring it up here?" he asked.

"Up here, if that's all right," she said. "I was hoping we could talk."

Something about her tone set off alarms in Harry's head; his mouth went dry, and he felt the same hollow sensation in his middle that he had experienced when Cho refused his invitation to the Yule Ball. Here it comes, he thought. The moment of truth. His resolve of the previous evening seemed very far away now, but he managed to keep the apprehension out of his voice as he said, "All right, I'll go and tell Dobby."

Downstairs, he found Ron, Hermione, Sirius and Lupin seated around a table, the latter looking rather ill in the wake of his monthly transformation. "Morning, Harry," called Ron, pausing with a forkful of scrambled egg halfway to his mouth. "Going to join us?"

"Not just yet," Harry replied. "Cho asked me to have breakfast upstairs with her; there were some things she wanted to talk about."

Hermione shot him a concerned look. "Did she say what?" she asked.

"No, but I have a pretty good idea anyway." Harry sighed.

Ron looked from him to Hermione and back again. "What are you two on about?" he asked.

Hermione glared at him. "Honestly, Ron. Isn't it obvious? Cedric was Cho's boyfriend, and Harry was with him when he was killed. She's going to want to know what happened. It wasn't exactly easy for him to tell us about it, and we've been his best friends for years. How much harder is it going to be to tell Cho? Harry barely knows her, and Cedric's death hit her a lot harder than it did us."

"Oh," said Ron. "That's... gosh, Harry, what are you going to say?"

"Don't worry, I'll handle it. You were right last night, Hermione; she deserves the truth."

"Good luck, mate," said Ron.

"You'll be fine, Harry," added Lupin. "I remember Cho Chang from when she was in my class; she's not the kind of person who would blame you for what happened to Cedric."

"If she feels up to it after you've both had something to eat and a chance to talk, ask if she'd like to come downstairs," said Sirius. "I'm looking forward to meeting her."

"We'll see," said Harry. "I'm going to have to explain about you, first; as far as she knows, Sirius Black is still a fugitive murderer who came after me at Hogwarts the year before last."

"Well, I'm sure she won't be any harder to convince than Snape was - and it's always nice to add one more member to the exclusive little club who know the truth about me."

In the kitchen, Harry found Dobby scrubbing various pots and pans from breakfast. "Good morning, Harry Potter!" the house elf called over the noise from the sink. "What would you like for breakfast?"

"A bit of everything," Harry replied. "And could you bring a tray upstairs for Cho? We're going to eat in her room."

"Of course, Harry Potter," said the elf. He gestured to a group of large serving dishes on the counter, his long fingers dancing like a pianist's. Sausages, eggs, and toast sailed across the counter and arranged themselves neatly on plates, porridge leaped from a tureen into two smaller bowls as though lifted by an invisible spoon, and a pitcher of orange juice rose and tilted to fill two tall glasses. Then the plates, bowls, and glasses floated in an orderly procession to a pair of silver platters. Harry picked up one, and Dobby levitated the other, along with a third bearing a saltshaker, bowls of sugar and jam, and the bone china tea set from the previous evening.

"I think you'd better follow me up instead of Apparating, Dobby," Harry advised. "Cho was in the bath when I came down, and she might be upset if you popped into the room without knocking."

"Very well, Harry Potter, sir," Dobby agreed. "Dobby would not want to alarm Miss Chang."

As it turned out, they needn't have worried. Harry found the bedroom door open, and Cho standing before the full-length mirror, running a brush through her waist-length black hair. Her reflection had turned its back to her, making it easier to see what she was doing. She was dressed in a fluffy, voluminous white bathrobe which made her look even smaller than usual - the hem almost brushed the floor, and the sleeves appeared to be rolled over at least three times.

"Thanks a lot, Harry," she said, as he walked into the room. "And thank you, Dobby," she added. The elf gave her a deep bow. "Miss Chang is most welcome," he said. "Dobby hopes Miss Chang enjoys her breakfast."

Cho sat cross-legged in the middle of the bed, and Dobby floated her breakfast tray up to hover over her lap. Harry took the recliner chair, moving the nightstand in front of him and setting his tray on it. The serving tray hung in the air between them, in easy reach of both. "Thanks, Dobby," Harry said.

"It is Dobby's honor to serve Harry Potter, sir." Dobby snapped his fingers and vanished with the customary whip-crack sound of Disapparition.

"So," said Harry. "You said you wanted to talk to me about something?"

"Let's eat first," Cho replied. "I'm starving."

"Good idea," Harry agreed, relieved at having a bit more time to compose his thoughts.

Once he started eating, he found he had quite an appetite, and quickly polished off everything on his tray. Cho ate ravenously, finishing even before he did. Noticing his bemused expression, she colored slightly. "I don't usually bolt my food like that," she said. "But I had nothing to eat for twenty-four hours, and only some bread and broth last night, remember?"

"It doesn't bother me, Cho," he said. "I've just never seen a girl who could finish off a meal faster than I could. Growing up with my cousin Dudley, I had to learn to eat quickly, before he could steal the food off my plate."

"Really? I'd heard the rumors about that Muggle family you live with, but I didn't know how much to believe."

"When it comes to the Dursleys, anything bad you've heard is probably true," Harry said. "Do you know Gregory Goyle?"

"Malfoy's hanger-on, the one who looks like a troll? Sure."

"Well, Dudley's sort of like a Muggle version of Goyle, only meaner and not as smart."

Cho giggled. "That bad?"

"He used to beat me up all the time, until I went to Hogwarts. Now he's afraid I'll turn him into a toad. That would probably be an improvement, actually, but not worth getting expelled over."

"I see." Cho looked thoughtful for a moment. "There was something I'd been meaning to ask you, about last night," she said.

Harry, who had been expecting her to ask about Cedric, was caught off-guard. "What's that?" he asked.

"The other wizard who was with you, the one that got knocked out - he looked familiar, but I can't place him. Who was he? Was that him singing in the shower this morning?"

"Yes, it was. He's... well... do you trust me, Cho?"

"Of course, Harry. Why?"

"All right. He was my parents' best friend, and he's my godfather. His name is Sirius Black."

Cho stared at him in disbelief. "Sirius Black? But he was on You-Know-Who's side! He was the escaped killer they had the dementors looking for at Hogwarts all last year! That's where I saw him before, on the wanted posters in Hogsmeade. How can he be... I don't understand, Harry."

"He's not a murderer, or a Death Eater," Harry said. "He was framed. You remember the newspaper reports after he escaped, about how he had killed that other wizard, Peter Pettigrew, and all those Muggles?" Cho nodded. "Well, they were all wrong. Sirius didn't cast that curse, Pettigrew did; he faked his own death, and killed the Muggles to cover his escape. When Sirius escaped from Azkaban, people thought he was coming after me, but in fact, he was trying to get to Hogwarts to protect me, because he'd found out Pettigrew was hiding there. Pettigrew's an unregistered Animagus; he can turn into a rat. We almost caught him last year, but he got away, so Sirius had to run as well; without Pettigrew, we couldn't prove he was innocent. Only Dumbledore believed us."

Cho's eyes were round as saucers. "I heard rumors about how Black was caught and then escaped again," she said. "But I never would have imagined...."

"No, nobody would," Harry agreed. "The truth is so strange I don't think anyone could imagine it if they didn't know. There's a lot more to the story, of course, if you'd like to know...."

"I would, but not right now. I also wanted to ask about the Death Eaters who kidnapped me; I know Macnair and one of the others got away, but what about the other two?"

"They're both dead. The one you saw in the doorway broke his neck when Buckbeak hit him."

"Oh," she said, in a very small voice. "I thought he might have... died then. He went down so hard...." She shivered. "I've never seen anyone die before."

"I'm sorry, Cho."

"It's not your fault. It's just kind of creepy, you know? Knowing he died right before my eyes. What happened to the other one?"

"Sirius and I Stunned him right before we broke into the cottage; after the fight, we tied him up and brought him here. Dumbledore wanted to question him, of course, so he had Professor Snape bring him a bottle of Veritaserum. But apparently Lord Voldemort's invented another potion that makes Veritaserum poisonous to people who've taken it. Steggles - that was his name, Snape and Dumbledore knew him from when he was Hogwarts - choked and died right after Snape gave it to him."

Cho looked appalled. "Do you think he knew what was going to happen?"

"No, apparently he'd been told that the other potion would just make him immune to the Veritaserum. He was actually eager to swallow it. I guess he thought he could fool Dumbledore into believing he was an innocent bystander or some such story. Not much chance of that."

"I wouldn't think so," Cho agreed. "So, did he say anything before he died?"

"Well, the first question Dumbledore asked him was whose idea it was to kidnap you. He said it was someone called Terry, and that Terry's little sister had told him... told him I liked you. Cho, what's wrong?"

Cho had gone pale. "'Terry's little sister?'" she repeated. "You're sure that's what he said?"

"Yeah. Why, do you know who he meant?"

She groaned and squeezed her eyes shut, rubbing at her temples as though her head hurt. "Marietta," she grated. "I asked her not to tell anyone, she promised she wouldn't... aaagh!" She lowered her hands and looked up at Harry. "Marietta Edgecombe is my best friend," she explained. "Just about the only friend who stuck by me after Cedric died; most of them, it seems as though they couldn't figure out what to say to me, so they just took to avoiding me. She's a lovely person, really she is, but she's too trusting for her own good, and sometimes she doesn't know when to keep her mouth shut. See, she has this brother - step-brother, actually - Terence Higgs, the Slytherin Seeker you played against in your first Quidditch match."

"Higgs? Yeah, I remember him... skinny git with sandy hair and a face like an underfed fox, right?"

"Yes. I used to see him sometimes when I went over to Marietta's house; she and I were friends even before we went to Hogwarts. The way he looked at me sometimes made my skin crawl - like he was undressing me with his eyes...." she shivered. "Marietta just didn't see it. She could never understand why I didn't like him. He was always flattering her, telling her how pretty she was; after he moved out of the house he would bring her little presents when he came to visit - sweets, costume jewelry, Quidditch tickets, that sort of thing. He's a reserve player for the Falmouth Falcons now, so he can usually get good seats at matches. Marietta has a bad case of hero-worship for him."

"Wasn't Marietta the one you were supposed to be visiting, the night you were kidnapped?" Harry asked.

"Yes. Oh, it all makes sense now! Terence must have seen her handwriting plenty of times, he could have forged that letter easily. And in the cottage, I thought the one that was talking about... about what he wanted to do to me sounded familiar. It was him, I'm sure of it."

"If it was, he must be the other one that got away," Harry said. "I didn't recognize the man Buckbeak killed, and I'm sure I would have recognized Higgs."

"We'll have to tell Dumbledore," said Cho. "Maybe he can find a way to prove it. I don't know what I'm going to tell Marietta; she'll never believe me without some hard evidence."

"Dumbledore will come up with something," Harry said, with more confidence than he felt. His faith in the Headmaster's ability to solve any problem had been severely shaken by the events of the last twenty-four hours. Still, he thought, there was a good chance that once he and the Order knew where to look, they would find some way of linking Higgs and Macnair to Cho's kidnapping.

"I hope so," said Cho. She paused a moment in thought. "You can't imagine how glad I was to see you when I woke up last night, Harry. Not just because you rescued me. You see, I've been wanting... needing to talk to you since the end of last term. I can't count how many times I sat down to write you a letter, but I could never make the words come out right."

"What did you want to talk about?" asked Harry warily, certain that he already knew the answer.

"Cedric," she whispered. "Please, Harry... I have to know how it happened... how he died." Her voice broke on the last word.

Harry sighed. "It's not something I like to talk about... but if anyone has the right to know, it's you."

Cho nodded gratefully. "So... what happened after you went into the maze?"

"We took off in opposite directions. I wandered around some, and ran into a few obstacles - not as many as I expected, though. I found out afterward that Crouch - the Death Eater who'd been impersonating Mad-Eye Moody all year - had been clearing my path as much as he could. I heard Cedric yelling at Krum, and... and Krum casting the Cruciatus Curse."

Cho gasped in horror. "Why? How could he do that?"

"Because Crouch was controlling him with the Imperius Curse. Krum would never have attacked Cedric on his own. Anyway, I crawled through an opening in the hedge and hit Krum from behind with a Stunning Spell. Cedric got up and thanked me, and we split up again. I had a nasty run-in with the last of Hagrid's Blast-Ended Skrewts, but I managed to get past it okay. Cedric and I got to the center of the maze at almost the same time, but before we could get to the Triwizard Cup we had to deal with a giant spider. It actually picked me up by one leg, but I managed to make it drop me. Then Cedric and I both hit it with Stunners at the same time, and that was enough to knock it out. My leg was hurt pretty badly, so I couldn't run. I told Cedric to go ahead and take the Cup. He refused. He said he'd never have made it to the center if I hadn't helped him out. We had a bit of an argument over who'd helped the other more, and finally I said..." Now or never, Harry told himself. "I said we should take it together - after all, it would still be Hogwarts that won. So he helped me limp over to the plinth where the Cup was sitting, and we counted to three and each grabbed a handle. That's when things really went wrong."

"What happened?" Cho asked, her voice low and tense.

"Crouch had turned the Cup into a Portkey. The moment we touched it, it carried us away to an old graveyard. Of course, we had no idea what had happened, whether it was part of the Task or what. We pulled out our wands, just in case. Then we saw someone in a cloak walking through the mist toward us. And then, all of a sudden, my scar hurt. It hurt so much I couldn't see, couldn't hold my wand, couldn't even stand up. And then I heard him... Lord Voldemort. Once you've heard his voice, you never forget it; it's like ice water running down your spine. He said... God, Cho, this is the hardest part... he said, 'Kill the spare.'"

Cho gave a kind of choked half-sob. "Go on," she said, in a barely audible whisper.

"The man in the cloak was Voldemort's servant, Wormtail. I heard him cast the Avada Kedavra curse. The next thing I knew, Cedric was lying there on the ground beside me. He looked... surprised. Not hurt, not scared, just... stunned, as though he couldn't make sense of what he'd just heard."

Cho was weeping quietly. "So he... he didn't suffer?" she asked with a catch in her voice.

"No," Harry replied gently. "It was over before he even knew what was happening... I'm sorry, Cho," he added, as her face crumpled and she began to cry in earnest. He reached out to her, and she squeezed his hand tightly as she fought to bring her emotions under control. Sensing that she needed something more, he moved from his chair to sit on the edge of the bed and wrapped his arm around her trembling shoulders. Something seemed to break loose inside her. She buried her face in Harry's chest and clung to him like a lifeline as her whole body shook with great wracking sobs. Harry gently stroked her long, silky black hair and waited for the storm to pass.

At last, Cho seemed to have cried herself out. She sat up, and when Harry offered her his handkerchief she accepted it gratefully. "Thanks, Harry," she said. "I'm okay now. Sometimes it just hurts so much. But I know Cedric would want me to... not forget him, I could never do that, but... let the pain go, I guess. It's so hard, though."

"I know," Harry said. "I still have nightmares about that night."

"What happened... afterward?"

"I... can we talk about it later, Cho? I will tell you the rest, I promise I will, just not right now, please?"

"Okay, Harry," she said. "I can see it's hard for you, too. Maybe that was enough for one day." She paused, looking thoughtful. "It's strange, you know, how someone can become so important to you so quickly. When Cedric asked me to the Yule ball, it was completely out of the blue. I'd been admiring him from a distance, of course; half the girls at Hogwarts had crushes on him. The other half were all mad for Viktor Krum. But I never guessed that Cedric liked me."

"Really? I always thought... well... you seemed to be so popular."

"Oh sure, I have lots of friends - or at least I did, before... well. I'm good at getting along with other girls, Harry. But I'd never had a boyfriend before; all the nice ones just didn't seem to notice me."

"I can't imagine why," Harry said, sincerely surprised. "I mean, you certainly got my attention."

"Well, I think maybe some of them were intimidated because I'm the Ravenclaw Seeker. I'm also the youngest girl in my year, and the shortest. That foul little ferret Draco Malfoy sneers at me about 'first-years not being allowed to fly' every time I run into him. And I'm skinny, too; most of the boys seem to prefer girls with more, um, curves. When Marietta is around, most of them won't give me a second look." She snorted. "When Fleur Delacour was around, I might as well have been invisible."

"Not to me," said Harry firmly. "When you said you were the youngest and shortest girl in your year, you left off 'prettiest.' It took me so long to ask you to the ball because I got butterflies in my stomach every time I looked at you, Cho."

Cho blushed. "You really mean that?"

"Absolutely," he said. "The first time you smiled at me, at the match the year before last, I just about fell off my broom."

She blushed a deeper shade of crimson, and seized the opportunity to change the subject. "I'm glad you didn't. That would have been awful, especially after the first time. I mean, I would have liked to win that match, of course, but not like that. Cedric told me once he felt terrible about beating you just because of the dementors. He asked for a rematch, you know."

Harry decided to let the topic of her beauty drop for the moment, since it seemed to be making her flustered. "Yeah, Ron told me. Of course, with me in the hospital wing and my Nimbus smashed to splinters by the Whomping Willow, I wouldn't have been able to play again any time soon."

"No, I suppose not. You don't give up easily though, do you? I mean, you still managed to catch the Snitch after that Bludger broke your arm; I'm not sure I could have managed that."

Harry laughed. "Well, I couldn't lose to Malfoy; I'd never live it down. Anyway, the broken arm wasn't so bad; the worst part was when that git Lockhart tried to mend it and vanished all the bones in it instead." He grimaced, remembering the miserable night he'd spend in the hospital wing having them regrown. "It's getting on toward lunch, you know. Do you feel up to coming downstairs? Sirius wanted to meet you, and Professor Lupin and Ron and Hermione are there, too...."

"Maybe in a little while; it's not that long since breakfast."

Harry glanced at his watch. "Yeah, I guess so. Um. Did you want to talk about something else?"

"Well... I've been meaning to tell you... when you asked me to the ball last year, I wished I hadn't said yes to Cedric. I mean, he was really nice, and good-looking, and I did get to like him a lot - I think maybe I was even in love with him - but I liked you first."

Harry found, somewhat to his surprise, that it no longer hurt to hear her talk about Cedric. "At the end, in the maze, Cedric was my friend. I wish I'd gotten to know him better before that. I'd never have gotten through the Second Task if he hadn't told me how to get the clue out of the golden egg."

"Really? He told me that you warned him about the dragons, but he never mentioned returning the favor. I'm not surprised though; he was always pretty modest." Tears appeared at the corners of her eyes. "I'm sorry," she said, her voice slightly choked. "It's just... sometimes it's so hard to believe he's gone...." Harry once again sat on the edge of the bed and wrapped an arm around her, and Cho rested her head on his shoulder, crying softly. After a couple of minutes, she stopped and looked up at him. "Thanks, Harry."

"It's all right, Cho," he said. "Honestly, I miss Cedric too. He was a good person, and he deserved better."

"Yeah. He... I don't know, maybe you don't want to hear this."

"It's all right," Harry said again. "Say whatever you want; I'll listen."

"Cedric was the first boy I ever kissed," she said. Harry nodded, unsurprised. "It... it happened right after the Second Task. I was so scared when I woke up...."

"Really? I thought that task was a lot scarier for the champions; you and Ron and Hermione and Fleur's little sister were all asleep the entire time you were under water, weren't you?"

"Yes, but we woke up as soon as we hit the surface. I really, really don't like deep water, Harry. I almost drowned at the beach when I was five, and I've been terrified of it ever since. When I woke up and realized I was still in the lake, I was so scared I could hardly move; all I could do was hang onto Cedric and shiver. But then he... he hugged me and said, 'It's all right, I've got you. You're not going to drown.' He held me like that all the way to shore, lying on his back in the water with my head on his chest, swimming just with his legs... and I felt completely safe. I never would have imagined I could feel that way in the water, but I knew he wouldn't let anything happen to me." Catching the look on Harry's face, she added, "I'm sorry, Harry, I shouldn't be talking about that...."

"It's all right," Harry said. "It's just that... if it had been Cedric instead of Fleur that got stuck, I would have rescued you instead of Gabrielle. I guess I just wish I could have been the one to make you feel that way."

She stared at him in surprise. "But Harry, you do! That's exactly how I felt when you cut me free back in Macnair's cottage. That's exactly how I feel every time you hold me like this." She paused, studying his face for a moment. Then she seemed to come to a decision. "Kiss me, Harry," she whispered.

"Are-- are you sure?" Harry stammered.

"Please. I want you to."

Harry nodded, not trusting himself to speak. He bent forward, his lips slowly coming closer to Cho's, but just as they were about to touch he heard someone's brisk footsteps in the hall. He practically leapt from the bed back to his chair, and they both looked guiltily at the door.

Sirius appeared in the doorway; seeing their expressions, he smiled slyly. "I'm sorry, did I interrupt something?"

"Um, er... no, not really," Harry stammered.

"Oh. Because if, say, you wanted to give her a kiss, I could go away for ten minutes or so; I just came to see if you were coming down to lunch."

Harry blushed furiously, but could think of nothing to say. Seeing his distress, Sirius added, "Harry, relax. I'm not Molly Weasley; I still remember what it's like to be young."

Before Harry could collect his thoughts enough to reply to Sirius's ribbing, Cho slipped off the bed and walked to the door, holding out her hand. "You must be Sirius Black," she said. "I'm pleased to meet you."

"The pleasure is mine, Miss Chang," Sirius replied, clasping her hand.

"Come on, Harry," said Cho, looking at him over her shoulder. "Let's go down and see your friends. We can, um, talk some more after lunch." She winked at him.

Harry swallowed hard, finding his voice, and said, "All right." He got up and walked over to stand beside her.

"Why don't you two go on downstairs while I change," Cho suggested. "Oh, and could I borrow your wand for a moment, Harry? I don't have mine, and my clothes could do with a Cleaning Charm."

"Of course." Harry handed her the wand, then stepped into the hall. Cho shut the door behind him.