Harry Potter and the Headsman's Hostage

Chapter 10
Concentration

"In the span of a night I have known you for years,
In the heights of your triumphs, the depths of your fears;
Each lesson and scar that shaped who you are --
And shy as a blossom, new insight appears."
-----"Alys' Lullabye," by Echo's Children

The rest of the morning passed quietly. After Sirius returned from the stable, the three of them played Double Fanucci for a while. Cho took a few hands to pick up the rules, but once she did she seemed to read Harry like a book, while schooling her own face into a bland smile that gave nothing away. Sirius ultimately won the game, but Cho made him work for it; as he swept up the final pot, he asked her whether she'd played cards much in the past.

"No," she replied, "but I play wizards' mahjongg with my parents and Liu, and sometimes with my friend Yuriko Kanzaki." Cho grinned. "If you think I'm hard to read, try playing Yuriko-chan some time. She doesn't bluff much, but when she does I nearly always fall for it. I doubt even Dumbledore would have an easy time figuring out what's going on in her head."

After lunch, Cho declared her intention to get some of her summer schoolwork done; in addition to her clothes and her wand, Liu had brought her schoolbooks from London. Harry got out his own books and they sat in companionable silence for a while, as he began working on the summer assignments he had neglected in the uncongenial atmosphere of Privet Drive and the mounting anxiety of wondering what Voldemort might be plotting. Every so often Harry looked over at what Cho was doing, which consisted mainly of taking notes from a large book bound in dark green leather, with the title embossed in gilt runes of a type Harry hadn't seen before. The pages were of a thick, parchment-like paper whose faint, musty scent of age put him in mind of the Hogwarts library. Eventually, growing bored with his own studies, he asked her, "Is that for Ancient Runes?"

Cho laughed. "No, believe it or not it's for Muggle Studies. I have to write an essay on Muggle views of magic; this is one of their most famous fantasy novels. My Mum read it to me when I was a little girl. There are trolls and goblins and elves and even a dragon in it, but none of them are quite like the real ones... though the trolls are pretty close. I suspect the author might have known something about our world, though, because there's a wizard in it who could have been modeled on Professor Dumbledore."

"Sounds interesting," Harry said, coming around the table for a closer look. The book was open to a color plate of a great red-golden dragon lying curled atop a massive pile of treasure. In the foreground, he could just make out the shape of someone bowing to the dragon - a featureless gray silhouette. "Is he supposed to be wearing an invisibility cloak?" Harry asked.

"Close," said Cho. "It's actually an invisibility ring. It does more than that, though; in the books that come after this one, it turns out to belong to the Necromancer - he's a Dark wizard something like You-Know-Who, or maybe even worse."

"It's hard to imagine anyone worse," Harry commented.

They ended up sitting side by side, heads together, admiring the illustrations, which Cho explained had been painted by the author himself, and reading over some of her favorite scenes: three trolls arguing over how to cook the hero and his friends, a duel of riddles by an underground lake, and the hero matching wits with a dragon which was no mere beast, but a monster as clever and cruel as any Dark wizard.

Harry only half-listened. He'd never read this story before, nor even heard of it. Uncle Vernon wouldn't have let such a book in the house. "There's no such thing as magic!" he'd shout, chucking the book into the dustbin if it ever showed up at Privet Drive. But there is magic, and you knew it all along! Harry mentally cursed at his absent uncle. You knew about my Mum and Dad, and you knew about me, and all you ever did was lie to me!

Cho glanced at what apparently was a strange look on Harry's face; he composed himself and went back to listening to her read.

The book kept them occupied until Liu returned from London for dinner. As at breakfast, she was friendly but avoided the topic of Harry and Cho's growing intimacy. After the meal, however, she gave Cho a significant glance, and the two of them disappeared into the library for another private conversation.

"So," said Sirius, after Liu closed the library door, "have you told her?"

Harry took a deep breath, the feeling of exhilaration tinged with terror that had been at the back of his mind all day rising to the surface. "Yeah," he said. Then he broke into a broad grin. "Actually, she said it first."

Sirius grinned back. "I suppose congratulations are in order, then."

"Thanks. I just wish I had a better idea of where we go from here. I mean, we only have one more day here, and after that we probably won't get to see each other until we go back to Hogwarts. And even then, we're in separate Houses and separate years." He shook his head. "I wish I could talk to Percy. I'd like to know how he and Penelope Clearwater managed to make time together at school - she was a Ravenclaw, too. If he wasn't being such a git...."

"He'll come around eventually," Sirius predicted. "But actually, you and Cho will probably have an easier time of it than he and his girlfriend did. You have the Marauder's Map, after all, and your cloak."

"I wasn't thinking of midnight assignations," Harry protested. "And why are you making suggestions like that? Aren't you supposed to be the responsible one here?"

Sirius laughed. "You sound like Molly. I had a little chat with her in the fireplace up in my room this afternoon, while you two were reading; she wanted to know how you were getting on. I don't think she trusts my judgment very much." He shrugged. "Maybe she's right; maybe I'm not cut out for this guardian business. I can't help thinking about what it would have been like if your parents had lived: I could have been your rich Uncle Sirius and spoiled you rotten every chance I got. But I don't think Molly gives you enough credit for maturity; she didn't think Dumbledore should have told you about the prophecy yet."

Harry groaned. "I've been trying really hard not to think about that," he said. "Life's complicated enough right now, trying to work things out with Cho, without having to worry about the fate of the whole wizarding world."

"I wish you didn't have to, Harry," Sirius said. "But it's not up to me, or you, or even Dumbledore to decide that. The Order will hold Voldemort off as long as we can, but sooner or later you'll have to face him. Our job is to buy enough time for you to learn everything you'll need to know when you do."

"Great," said Harry gloomily. "All the more reason I won't have much time to spend with Cho this year."

"I'd say it's all the more reason to make the most of the time you have," Sirius replied. "And the map and your cloak, if necessary."

"I don't know if she'd want to sneak out after curfew. But the problem during the day is that we do everything with our Houses. I mean, we can't sit together at meals, or visit each other's common rooms... I suppose there's always the library, though, and the Hogsmeade weekends."

"True. As for slipping out after curfew, she might just surprise you there."

Harry was struck by a sudden suspicion. "Sirius, did my parents ever use the cloak for... never mind, I don't think I want to know."

Sirius grinned. "I never asked. James loaned it to me a couple of times, though, so I could meet up with Polly Plunkett outside the Hufflepuff cellar after hours. We used to go up to the Astronomy Tower, if the weather was warm. Filch doesn't bother climbing all those stairs unless he absolutely has to, so it's pretty safe."

"I'll bear that in mind," said Harry.

The library door opened then, and the Chang sisters rejoined Harry and Sirius at their table. "Well, Harry," said Liu, "my sister has persuaded me to trust her judgment and not... interfere between the two of you, as long as you respect her limits. But," she held up one finger warningly, "if I hear one word from her about you pushing those limits, I'll hex you into the middle of next week. Do we understand each other?"

"Absolutely," said Harry. "Although I suspect Cho can do her own hexing, if she needs to." He smiled at Cho. "Not that you ever will," he assured her.

"I tried to tell her that, but she insisted on warning you anyway," said Cho, returning the smile with interest.

"Do I get a say in this?" asked Sirius.

"No," said Harry, Cho, and Liu, in unison. "It's all right, Sirius," Harry added. "Liu's not going to have any reason to hex me, so there's no need to warn her off."

"I wasn't going to," said Sirius. "I was just going to suggest that on the off chance that she did need to tell you off, she might want to stick with sending you a Howler. Liu, Harry beats Remus and me in practice duels more often than not, and we're both trained fighters - Mad-Eye Moody gave us a crash course in combat back when we first joined the Order that was the next best thing to Auror training."

Liu shrugged. "He did promise me yesterday that if he deserved a hexing, he'd stand still and take it like a man," she replied.

"But that's only if he thinks he deserves it," said Sirius. "Anyway, as Harry says, it's probably never going to come up. So, what do you three want to do this evening?"

"What I want," said Cho, "is to go for a walk outside and get a bit of fresh air, but I suppose that's not an option."

"Not a good idea, at any rate," Sirius agreed. "The Death Eaters might be able to pin down either one of you with a Location Charm if you stepped outside the inn's wards. We know they had a bit of Harry's blood, and they could have taken something - a strand of hair, a drop of blood, whatever - from you as well."

"Not blood," said Cho. "I think I would have noticed. But I suppose they could have taken a few strands of hair while I was unconscious. I can't imagine why they would, though."

Sirius shrugged. "I can think of a few possibilities," he said. "Polyjuice potion is the most obvious. Disguising Crouch fils as Moody worked for them for ten months; if Harry hadn't come for you, one of them might have disguised himself as you in order to get close to him."

Cho shuddered. "What an awful thought. At least it's not likely to work now."

"No, having the real you around would be a bit inconvenient for the impostor. Anyway, going for a walk is out; any other ideas?"

"Music?" Liu suggested. "I brought my flute this evening; thought I might do a bit of practice."

Sirius shrugged. "Why not? Let's hear you play."

"All right." Liu took out her wand and pointed it at a long, narrow black case she had set on the desk when she first entered the inn. "Accio flute," she said.

The case flew across the room and into her free hand, and she set it on the table and popped the clasps. Carefully, almost lovingly, she lifted the silver instrument out of its case and brought it to her lips. She began with a popular Weird Sisters song, "Howling at the Moon," which made Sirius grin; Harry was sure he was thinking of his excursion with Lupin the first night at the inn. She followed it up with a slower tune played in the five-tone Asian scale, and then a bright, fast-paced waltz melody that Harry thought he recognized from listening to Muggle wireless at the Dursleys'. "I think I've heard that one," he commented, when she had finished.

"I wouldn't be surprised," Liu replied. "That's the Fledermaus Waltz; it gets played a lot." She turned to her sister. "Do you remember all the words to that song your friend Jan taught us when she came to visit last summer?"

"'The Wedding Dance?' I think so."

"That's good. I got hold of the sheet music for it, and I've been practicing the instrumental line. Would you like to sing?"

Cho colored slightly. "Oh, I don't know..." she said, glancing at Harry.

Harry smiled at her. "I'd really like to hear you," he said. "If you don't mind."

"Well, all right," said Cho, rising from her chair. Liu blew a single note on the flute to set the pitch; Cho took a deep breath and began singing in a light, clear soprano:

"Jenny wouldn't tell me why she laid awake last night,
But I saw her wide eyes glisten in the candle's gauzy light;
When I felt her body tremble to the pounding of her heart,
I reached to touch her shoulder, and I heard the music start...."

Liu began to play a harmony to the haunting, minor-key melody Cho was singing:

"I sat right up in bed and flung the window shutter wide;
My sister's flesh was icy where she shivered at my side.
The chestnut cast a shadow as I'd often seen before,
But I saw Jenny's eyes and she saw something more--

"There is something by the chestnut tree that from the barrow came;
It is singing to my sister, it is courting her by name.
She says that she must marry him the night he comes again;
I'll be rolled in flour and fried before he'll have our Jen!

"The flute's my only sweetheart; if this spirit fey and fell
Thinks that music is his power, he may find it's mine as well.
So I told her, 'Courage Jenny, for I think we have a chance;
Though I cannot stop the wedding, let me play the wedding dance.'

"It was an eerie wedding night, with no one there to see--
A shadow, and a shadow, and my sister there, and me.
And when the words were spoken and the spirit turned away,
I lifted flute to lip, and I began to play."

Liu played a couple of rounds of a quick-moving jig, then shifted into the melody of the refrain, as Cho sang along in an eerie, wordless lilt before picking up with the next verse.

"The flute spoke air and dancing; it was all that I could hear,
And the starry sky above us made an icy chandelier.
My sister took the hand of someone almost in my view,
And drew him, half against his will, till he was dancing too.

"Jenny stepped and swirled with a shadow in the gloom,
Leading out the dancing, as they must as bride and groom,
And shadow doubled shadow, till apparent to my glance,
The kinsmen of the groom were come to join the dance.

"There is something by the chestnut tree that from the barrow came;
It is singing to my sister, it is courting her by name.
She says that she must marry him the night he comes again;
I'll be rolled in flour and fried before he'll have our Jen!

"I play their dance for hours in the melody entwined
Till Jenny's passing feet are leaving tracks of blood behind.
I see I have accomplished all I hoped I would achieve;
They are captive to the dance, and while I play they cannot leave.

"But I cannot play forever here beneath the freezing skies!
My arms are made of lead, my hair is hanging in my eyes.
My fingers start to falter and to lose their strength and grace,
And the look of terror deepens on my sister's face."

The second instrumental break was longer, as Liu played snatches of different dances, making it sound as though she was stumbling, but never quite losing her touch, always managing to twist the thread of the music back into a new tune when it threatened to get away from her. Finally, she returned to the original melody, as Cho came back in to sing the final verse:

"I force my hands to melody; I know I must prevail
For but a dozen minutes now - the sky is growing pale.
The sun puts forth his finger as a soul in terror moans...
And the groom and all the wedding guests are only standing stones.

"Jenny crumples suddenly and all my strength is done--"

Liu lowered the flute and added her voice to her sister's:

"And we laugh and cry together and we bless the rising sun,
And turn to eye the barrow, for the treasure it may hold -
For Jen's the Master's widow, heir to all his gold!

"There is something by the chestnut tree that from the barrow came;
It is singing to my sister, it is courting her by name.
She says that she must marry him the night he comes again;
I'll be rolled in flour and fried before he'll have our Jen!"

Harry and Sirius clapped enthusiastically as the last note died away. "Great song!" said Harry. "Where did you say you learned it?"

"From my friend Jan Nugginbridge," Cho replied. "She's from the Isle of Man, and the song is based on an old Manx legend."

"I see. Do you know any others like that?"

"Not off the top of my head," said Cho. "And none that Liu can accompany on the flute."

"Anyway, I think it's your turn to entertain us," Liu put in. "Why don't you tell us about one of your adventures?"

Cho shot her sister an exasperated look, and Harry snorted. "What was that line about adventures in the book we were looking at earlier? 'Nasty, disturbing, uncomfortable things that make you late for dinner.' None of mine made me late for dinner, but only because you always get your tray right on time in the hospital wing. They're not exactly happy memories."

"I can understand that," said Cho, thoughtfully. "Still, it would be interesting to hear what really happened with Professor Quirrell and the Philosopher's Stone. There were so many different rumors floating around, it was hard to know what to believe."

"In that case, the wildest rumors were the closest to the truth," Harry said. "But it makes more sense if you know the background...." He outlined the chain of events that had led him and his friends to believe that Severus Snape was out to steal the Stone. When he got to Quirrell's attempt to knock him off his broom during his first-ever Quidditch match, Cho exclaimed, "So that's what that was about! I was watching the match, of course, and I wondered what made your broom behave like that."

"So did I, while it was going on. Of course, afterward we all thought Snape was jinxing my broom, but in fact he was countering the jinx; he probably saved my life." Harry shook his head. "There's a bit of a story behind that, too, but it's not really my story to tell," he added, looking at Sirius.

"Maybe later," said Sirius, frowning. "It's... not something I'm proud of, and I think your story's more interesting anyway."

"All right." He told them about Hagrid's baby dragon, Norbert, and the trouble in which it had landed Harry and Hermione; the encounter with the centaurs in the Forbidden Forest, when he had learned of Voldemort's presence near the school; and how he, Ron, and Hermione had run the gauntlet of dangers barring the way to the Stone. Cho smiled as he described Ron's chess prowess, and said, "He and I will have to get up a game some time."

Harry grinned. "That would be something to see. I haven't seen Ron beaten very often, but after our game yesterday I'd give you at least even chances."

"Best kind of game," said Cho. "So what came after the chessboard?"

Harry described the logic puzzle Snape had created with the potion bottles, and Hermione's solution. "I think the Sorting Hat messed up with that one," said Cho. "She should have been in Ravenclaw."

"I've wondered about that sometimes," said Harry. "She's plenty brave, though, as well as smart, so I guess she could have gone either way. The Hat offered me a choice, you know; it might have done the same with Hermione. She said she was hoping for Gryffindor on the train, the first time I met her."

"Maybe that's it, then," said Cho. "It considered putting me in Gryffindor, but decided on Ravenclaw, 'out of respect for the Great Teacher.'"

"Who's that?" asked Harry.

"Kong Fu Zi," said Liu. "Europeans usually call him Confucius. Anyway, I want to hear the rest of the story. What happened when you actually got to the Stone?"

Harry told them of his confrontation with Voldemort and Quirrell, how Dumbledore had hidden the Stone within the Mirror of Erised, and how the touch of his skin had burned Quirrell.

"So You-Know-Who can't touch you?" Cho asked curiously.

Harry shook his head. "He can now." He didn't elaborate, and his expression discouraged further questions on that subject.

There was a moment of silence, then Sirius asked Liu if she was up for another game of chess, and they decamped to the table where the board was set up. Harry yawned. "I think I'll make it an early night," he said. "We didn't exactly get a full night's sleep last night."

"Good idea," said Cho. They said good night to Liu and Sirius and headed up the stairs together, pausing in the hallway for a long, lingering kiss. When it was over, Harry murmured, "Good night, Cho."

Cho shook her head. "That wasn't 'good night,' that was 'see you in a minute,'" she said. "That is, if you don't mind sharing a bed again...."

"I don't mind, but what about Liu?"

"You heard what she said; she's agreed to trust my judgment and not interfere with what I want - and I want your arms around me tonight."

Harry smiled at her. "My arms are yours to command, fair lady," he said, attempting a courtly bow.

Cho giggled. "Why, thank you, sir knight," she replied, essaying a curtsey that was about as convincing as his bow. "Go ahead and get changed for bed, Harry," she added. "I'll be ready in a few minutes." She went into her room, closing the door behind her.

In his own room, Harry changed into his pajamas and brushed his teeth. When he went back out into the hall, he found the door to Cho's room open. She was standing at the mirror, brushing her hair again; instead of the long nightdress, tonight she wore loose silk pajamas of the same royal blue as her Ravenclaw Quidditch robes. Hearing him enter the room, she turned and smiled. "Close the door," she said softly. When Harry had done so, she held up the hairbrush and asked, "Would you like to give me a hand?"

"Sure," he said, accepting it after a moment's hesitation. "Uh, how should I...?"

"Start with short strokes near the tips, then work up," she explained. "That way, the tangles don't build up." He followed her instructions and quickly become absorbed in the task: the soft weight of her hair as he lifted it away from her back, its silken sheen, the faint scent that made him think of sunny afternoons on the Quidditch pitch. He gradually worked his way up until he was brushing the full length of it in slow, deliberate strokes, so that any tangles wouldn't catch and hurt her.

Eventually she said, "Thanks, Harry," took back the brush and set it on the dresser. Instead of moving away, however, she leaned back into him. Harry slipped his arms around her, hugging her from behind and admiring their reflection. "We look good together, don't we?" said Cho.

"I think so," Harry agreed. Cho turned in his arms and tilted her head for a kiss.

"Harry," she said, after they broke the kiss, "I've been wondering: when you brought me in here, that first night, how did you get me up to the room? Did you use a levitation charm?"

Harry shook his head, smiling. "I carried you."

"Ah. I thought that might have been it." She looked faintly wistful. "I wish I'd been awake for that."

Harry shrugged. "You're awake now." Cho smiled up at him, wrapping her arms more firmly around the back of his neck, and he bent his knees and swept her up into his arms. As he straightened, she sighed happily and laid her head on his shoulder. "How do you feel?" Harry asked.

Her breath tickled his ear as she whispered, "Safe." After a moment she added, even more softly, "Loved."

Harry stepped over to the bed, noting that she'd already turned down the covers, and gently set her down. With no hesitation this time, he climbed into bed beside her and reached over to turn down the oil lamp until it gave only a faint orange glow.

Cho came into his arms again. His awkwardness of the previous night seemed a distant memory; kissing her was now the most natural thing in the world, and his body's reaction to her touch was no cause for embarrassment but simply one more sensation to be savored with the rest. A small part of his mind was busily recording every detail of the moment and storing it away for the next time he faced a horde of dementors, certain that the Patronus this memory conjured would send the lot of them howling all the way back to Azkaban. His conscious attention, though, was focused entirely on the lithe, lovely girl in his arms.

At length, she pulled away from him, but only far enough so that she could get her hands between them to unbutton his shirt. When it was entirely open, she gently pushed him onto his back. He relaxed, letting her do as she wished. She kissed her way along his collarbone to the hollow of his throat, then down across his chest. Harry gasped in surprise as her lips touched his nipple; he'd had no idea it could be so sensitive. Cho smiled at him, her fingers trailing over the flat, taut muscles of his stomach.

Eventually she moved to kiss him on the lips again, then rolled onto her back beside him. He got up on one elbow to look at her, her black hair spread out on the pillow, her languid smile and half-closed eyes as she murmured, "Your turn."

Hesitantly, Harry undid the top button of her pajama top. She closed her eyes, making no move to stop him as he undid the rest of the buttons. He hesitated again after undoing the last one, his heart pounding in his chest. Cho arched her back, stretching like a cat, and the two sides of her shirt slid apart. Slowly, almost reverently, Harry reached out to caress her breast. Her areolae were barely wider than his own, but much darker, a dusky rose color, and crowned by nipples the size of his pinky fingertip which crinkled and hardened at his touch.

Harry had occasionally listened to the older boys in Gryffindor bragging about their exploits with girls. He was privately convinced that at least ninety-five percent of it was what Hagrid would term "codswallop," but he recalled one bit of advice - from George Weasley, of all people - which seemed to make sense: "Let her show you what feels good."

"Um, Cho?" he whispered.

"Yes?" she whispered back.

"I'm, um, kind of new at this... do you suppose you could... sort of show me what to do?"

"All right." She put her hand on her left breast; Harry placed his hand on the other, watching her carefully and trying to mimic the way she touched herself. She gasped as he squeezed her nipple, and he quickly let go.

"I'm sorry," he said. "Did I hurt you?"

"No, it felt good," she said. "Better than when I do it. It's kind of like the way you can't tickle yourself...."

Harry nodded, thinking of the startling sensation of her mouth on his own nipple, and of the even more startling information: Girls do it to themselves? He filed that information away for a later date as he leaned down and caught the little nub between his lips, letting it slide free, eliciting another gasp. Her hands went to the back of his head, fingers entwining with his hair, trying to keep him against her breast - as if he had any idea of leaving it....

He continued exploring her breasts with his fingers and mouth, learning which touches would make her shiver and moan with pleasure, until she slipped her arms under his and pulled him up to kiss her mouth again. This was like the kiss Liu had interrupted that morning, Harry lying half on top of Cho with one arm around her shoulders and the other hand gently massaging her breast, but even more intense for the electrifying touch of skin on skin. Harry realized that he could feel Cho's heart beating, and their closeness made him feel as if his own heart would break apart at any moment.

One of his knees was between hers, and as his thigh brushed against her, she clenched her own thighs around it, pulling it more firmly against her center. His hardness pressed into her hip, and he jerked involuntarily. Without thought, lost in the sensations they were experiencing, Harry and Cho began to move in an ancient rhythm, seeking an elusive release neither one could name.

Cho found her peak first, going suddenly rigid and squeezing Harry's leg hard enough between hers to leave bruises, her moans rising to a keening almost too high to hear. A moment later, Harry followed her over the top, into a blaze of pleasure that obliterated conscious thought as thoroughly as any Stunning Spell.

Drifting gradually back to reality, Harry became aware of the patch of warm wetness where his body pressed against Cho's. Feeling suddenly ashamed, he mumbled an apology and began to roll away from her. Cho, however, held onto him, turning onto her side and maintaining the contact. "It's all right," she whispered.

"But... your clothes..." he stammered.

"It's nothing." She reached over to the nightstand and picked up her wand; waving it over them both, she murmured, "Scourgify."

Their pajamas were instantly clean and dry again. "Thanks," he said.

"Thank you," she replied. "I've never felt anything like that - and I wouldn't have believed it could be that good."

"Same here," Harry agreed. Like virtually all boys his age, he had long since learned how to relieve the tension that caused distraction during the day and wet dreams at night, but no release he had ever known, alone with his fantasies of Cho, had prepared him for the intensity of what he had just experienced. He wondered what it would be like actually making love to her - and whether she might be wondering the same thing. That, however, was one question he wasn't prepared to ask.

Cho yawned. "I suppose we'd better get some sleep." She began buttoning up her pajama shirt. "Just in case Liu walks in on us again in the morning," she explained. Harry nodded and buttoned his own shirt. When they were both fully dressed again, Cho turned over and spooned herself into his embrace.

Harry pulled the covers up over them both, then kissed the back of her neck. "Good night, Cho," he whispered.

"Good night, Harry."

* * * * *

Harry's sleep was once again troubled by nightmares. Over and over, he watched helplessly as Cho suffered and died. In one dream, she took his mother's place, falling to Voldemort's Avada Kedavra in his nursery at Godric's Hollow; in another, he tried to rescue her from the lake in the Second Task of the Tri-Wizard tournament, pulling her to the surface only to realize that it was too late - she had drowned. Still another found him stumbling into the Chamber of Secrets, but this time it was Cho, not Ginny Weasley, who lay pale and still on the cold flagstones, her last spark of life already gone and Tom Riddle, entirely solid and alive, standing triumphantly over her with her wand in his hand, mocking Harry for his failure. Finally, once again, he saw the sweep and flash of Macnair's great axe, his own reaction coming a split second too late to stop its fatal arc.

He woke with a start to find Cho staring at him anxiously from a few inches away. His whole body was damp with sweat and his breath came in great ragged gasps as he fought for self-control.

"What's wrong, Harry?" Cho whispered.

"Bad dreams," he mumbled. His eyes stung and tears blurred his vision; he rubbed at them irritably. I will not cry, he told himself savagely. I won't make a fool of myself in front of Cho, she needs me to be strong... damn it....

"It's all right, Harry," Cho whispered. She wrapped her arms around him and pulled his head against her chest, comforting him as he had comforted her so often in the past three days. "It's all right," she repeated. "You've helped me so much, let me help you now...."

Harry gave in and let the tears flow freely. He wept for the horror Cho had endured, and for Cedric Diggory, and for his parents, and for all the suffering Voldemort had caused and all that was yet to come, beyond his power to prevent it. Cho held him in silence, stroking his unruly black hair.

Gradually the tide of emotion that had overwhelmed him receded. He pulled back a little from Cho and wiped his eyes on his sleeve. "Sorry about that," he muttered.

"Don't be," said Cho. "I'm not."

Harry smiled ruefully. "I thought I was supposed to be the strong one," he said. "It doesn't seem right...."

"Nobody can be that strong all the time," Cho replied. "You've been my anchor these last couple of days, Harry. You've given me enough strength that now I can give a little back to you, and I'm glad of it."

"So am I," said Harry. "I mean, I'm really not like this - contrary to what that Skeeter woman wrote about me, I'm not in the habit of crying at night - but once in a while it all gets to be a bit too much. It's nice, for once, to have someone around who understands what it's like...." he stopped. "I'm not making any sense, am I?"

"Perfect sense," said Cho. She smiled suddenly. "Remember that time, a few days after the article came out, I ran into you in the corridor outside the Potions dungeon?"

Harry blushed. "Yeah," he said. "I sort of snapped at you, didn't I?"

"And I told you you'd dropped your quill."

"Right. I don't think it really was my quill, actually; I had an extra one in my bag later that day. I think somebody else must have dropped it."

It was Cho's turn to blush. "It was mine," she said. "I just... it seemed like the whole school was against you, thinking you'd put your name in the Goblet yourself, believing every stupid lie in that in that stupid article, and I wanted to let you know there was at least one person at Hogwarts who believed in you. And then you shouted, and I just... froze. I couldn't think of anything to say, and I had my quill in my hand, and I just sort of blurted out that you'd dropped it."

"I'm sorry I shouted at you," Harry said.

"It's all right. Anyway, it wasn't exactly because you were shouting that I froze. It was that, well...." She hesitated, then went on, "I have a confession to make, Harry. The night after you fell off your broom during that match with Hufflepuff the year before last, I sort of... snuck into the hospital wing to see you. I can't really say why; I suppose I just wanted to see if you were all right, after falling like that. Anyway, when I saw you, you were having a nightmare... kind of like just now...." Cho trailed off, looking nervous and embarrassed, but Harry just nodded. "That was because of the dementors," he said. "Whenever they come near me, I hear Voldemort murdering my mother. I was probably dreaming about that."

"Yes, that was it," Cho agreed. "You were talking in your sleep... anyway. When you shouted about crying over your mum, I thought for just a moment that you knew I'd seen you. I hope you're not angry," she finished anxiously.

"If you'd told me all that three days ago," Harry said slowly, "I'd probably have been pretty brassed off. But now... no. I'm just glad it was you, not anyone else. But why did you come to see me in the middle of the night? I mean, you could have gotten in trouble, and it's not as if you wouldn't have been welcome during the day."

"I don't really know," said Cho. "I suppose I thought it would be awkward, since we'd never been introduced. Anyway, it wasn't the first time."

"Oh?" Harry asked. "When was the first time?"

"Your first year, after you fought with You-Know-Who," she replied. "The Gryffindor-Ravenclaw match was the next day, and Mackie - our team captain back then - wanted to know if the rumor that you were out of action was true. The teachers were still trying to keep it under wraps. I went over to the hospital wing to find out - told Madam Pomfrey that I knew you, and she let me in to see you for a minute."

"I see," said Harry. "I guess that makes sense. I'm sure if one of the other Seekers were rumored to be laid up in hospital the day before a game, Oliver would have wanted to find out for certain, no matter how many school rules he had to break." He smiled, remembering Oliver Wood advising him to knock Cho off her broom after she'd blocked him from the Snitch during their first match together. "I wonder how different things would have been, if I'd woken up while you were there," he added thoughtfully. "We could have been friends for the last three years. I might not have been so shy about asking you to the ball...."

"No way to know what would have happened," said Cho. "But we're together now, and that's what matters."

"True." Harry hugged her, and she sighed contentedly.

After a brief silence, Cho asked, "Harry? I was wondering... you don't have to tell me if you don't want to, of course... but what were you dreaming about, just now? I thought I heard you whispering my name, right before you woke up."

Harry grimaced, not really wanting to tell her, but she had been open with him, and he felt he could do no less. "It was... what could have happened to you, if I hadn't been quick enough with that Disarming Charm. I don't want to lose you, Cho."

"Oh," she said faintly. She snuggled up closer against him. "I'm here," she murmured. "Safe in your arms; you're not going to lose me."

"I keep dreaming about it, though," Harry said. "Cedric's death, my mother's death, Ginny Weasley in the Chamber of Secrets... but in the dreams it's always you."

She shivered. "It sounds like the same kind of nightmare I was having last night, before you woke me," she said. "I wonder if it's because we're going to be apart? I mean, the day after tomorrow I'll be going home, and you'll be off to that headquarters your friends talk about, and I probably won't see you again until school starts...."

"I've been thinking about that, too," Harry admitted. "It's going to be rough, but at least we should be able to send each other letters. We might be able to fire talk, too - and maybe Dumbledore would even let us visit. I mean, Liu's in the Order, so she'll probably be at their headquarters sometimes, and it sounds like your parents' shop will be pretty well protected. There's at least a chance we can see each other some time before we go back to Hogwarts."

Cho brightened. "Let's hope so. I'm really going to miss you, Harry - especially this. I doubt we'll be able to spend any nights together even after we get back to school."

"Oh, I don't know about that," said Harry. "I mean, if you wanted to, of course... there are ways of getting around the school at night without getting caught."

"Even with your cloak and that map you mentioned yesterday, though, where would we find any privacy? Even if we slipped into each other's Houses, which I don't think is a very good idea, we both have roommates, and anywhere other than our Houses there are the ghosts to worry about...."

Harry rubbed his chin. "True, I wouldn't fancy being caught snogging by the Bloody Baron... still, they can't see through the cloak any more than Filch can. I'm sure we could find somewhere out of the way enough that as long as we stayed under the cloak we'd be safe."

"I hope so. I wouldn't want to give this up entirely...." Cho yawned. "Do you want to go back to sleep now?"

"Yeah, I suppose we should," said Harry. "Good night, Cho."

"Good night, Harry. I love you."

"I love you, too."