Harry Potter and the Headsman's Hostage

Chapter 11
Consummation

"I know you're an emotional girl;
It took a lot for you to not lose your faith in this world -
And I can't offer you proof...
But you're gonna face a moment of truth...."
-----"Matter of Trust," by Billy Joel

"Lovers should treat one another like shy children."
-----Ingmar Bergman

I could get used to waking up like this, Harry thought, curling his fingers lightly around Cho's left breast. She stirred, pressing her body back against him, and he nuzzled the back of her neck until she turned in his arms so that he could kiss her mouth.

Harry and Cho spent the next half hour quietly kissing and caressing each other, building from a slow, languorous start toward the crescendo of passion they had discovered the previous evening. They paused, smiling at each other, as Sirius began singing "Three Jolly Coachmen" again in the shower next door - and then their eyes widened and they both tried hard to suppress their laughter as Liu began to sing along, her voice coming unmistakably from the same shower.

When he had his voice under some semblance of control, Harry asked, "Do you suppose they...?"

Cho just nodded helplessly, one hand pressed to her mouth and tears of mirth running down her cheeks. Finally she choked out, "My sister's taking a shower with the most wanted fugitive in Wizarding Britain... and the worst part is, I can't even threaten to tell Mum, because we're not supposed to know where Sirius is!" Another fit of giggles overwhelmed her.

Harry, though, was struck by a thought that wiped the grin right off his face. "Cho, if we can hear them this clearly, doesn't that mean they must have heard us last night?"

She stopped laughing abruptly. "I... don't know," she said. "The truth is, I was so far gone at the end I don't know how we sounded."

Harry gave an involuntary snort of laughter, and she blushed. "Was I that noisy?"

"Not that I minded, of course," said Harry hastily, blushing himself. "But I'm afraid there's a good chance they heard us."

Cho looked thoughtful. "This isn't Liu's first time flaunting a boyfriend. When I was twelve it was just to embarrass me, but now it's, oh, I don't know...."

"One-upping you?"

"Good guess."

"It wasn't a guess. Before I got my Hogwarts letter I was always being compared to Dudley: 'Why can't you do this like he does?' Drove me mad sometimes." Harry ran a finger lightly over Cho's lips, and she kissed it just as gently. "I'm sure she just wants you to be happy, though."

Cho took Harry's fingers in her own hand. "Oh, I am, my love, I am. I just don't like being pushed, and she knows it." The singing had stopped, but the water was still running next door. Cho's smile suddenly grew broader, and her eyes took on an almost wicked gleam. "Harry," her voice dropped to a whisper, "you feel like having some fun?"

"I thought we were," he grinned.

"Just get up and follow my lead."

Reluctant but curious, Harry got out of bed. Cho followed after. As she started to get dressed, Harry couldn't help but stare at her body. She had just fastened her bra when she walked up to Harry and gave him a quick but powerful kiss.

"What's that for?" he whispered.

"Inspiration, for both of us." As Cho stepped into her jeans, she began moaning. "Harry... oh, Harry... yes... yes, love, there, right there...."

With as much as he fumbled trying to do up his own jeans, Harry was glad he had only a t-shirt to go with them. "Cho," he moaned, "ah, Cho."

Cho's breathing grew louder and faster as she whispered a spell to make the bed. "Harry! Now! Now, Harry, now!"

"Yes!"

Now they were both grunting and moaning in rhythmic unison, fully dressed and grinning like fools. Suddenly, Cho screamed and pushed over the small bedside table, which hit with a heavy thud. She quickly righted it again.

"Cho?" Harry asked, but Cho put her finger to his lips. The delivery owl from the Daily Prophet chose that moment to swoop in the window. Cho untied the paper, motioned Harry to sit at the desk, and tossed it to him. She sat in the recliner by the window and picked up a school textbook.

On the other side of the wall, the water had stopped, voices were muttering indistinctly. There was a wet squeak, a thud, and Liu cursing (or so it sounded to Harry) in Chinese. Not five seconds later the door flew open, with Liu shouting, "Cho, are you all--" while Sirius shouted, "What's going on--"

Harry couldn't help but stare at the two of them, dripping wet, each barely clothed in a towel. He especially stared at Liu, clutching her towel to her chest with one hand (which did little to conceal her mons and failed entirely to cover her nipples) while the other hand rubbed the spot on her hip where she had fallen in the shower.

Cho raised her head from Miranda Goshawk's Standard Book of Spells, Volume Six, to look sweetly at Sirius. "May we help you?"

Liu looked fit to breathe fire. All she could say was "Oooh," as she turned on her heel and stalked angrily back to Sirius's room.

Sirius, meanwhile, fell into the stuffed chair by the door, his towel still around his waist, and laughed longer and harder than Harry had ever seen anyone laugh.

By the time Sirius stopped, Liu had returned, wearing a bathrobe, and was standing by Sirius' chair. For his part, Sirius was wiping away tears of mirth.

"Godric's bones, that one was worthy of the Weasley twins!" he finally managed to say. "Best laugh I've had in decades."

"No reason to laugh so much about it," Liu muttered.

Sirius reached up and took one of Liu's hands in his own. "You wouldn't say that if you'd ever been to Azkaban, love. That place makes you forget there ever was such a thing as laughter."

Liu turned her icy gaze to Cho. "Jealous, were we?"

"No, but thanks for asking," she replied. "Look, we're happy for you, really we are. It's just that, well, the way things are..."

Sirius raised an eyebrow. "Being a bit obvious, were we?"

"I just don't want you to go through Cedric again," Liu said to Cho. "No sense missing another opportunity."

"You can rest assured, big sister, that the opportunity won't be missed. Harry and I just have our own schedule, is all; we don't need any pushing or prodding."

"So to speak," Sirius said.

Cho looked at Harry, realizing how Sirius had taken what she'd said, and they both blushed crimson. Sirius gave another barking laugh, rose, and put his arm around Liu's waist. "We'll see you lot in the kitchen, then," he chuckled as he ushered Liu out.

* * * * *

Just before Liu left for London, Cho whispered something in her ear. She smiled and said somewhat cryptically, "That's the second musical request I've had this morning. What about you, Harry? Can you think of any tunes you'd particularly like to hear later on?"

"Not off-hand," Harry replied.

Liu shrugged. "I'll see you all this evening, then. Try not to have too much fun while I'm gone." She gave Sirius a lingering, not at all platonic kiss, winked at her sister, stepped out the front door and Disapparated.

"That was... interesting," Harry observed.

His godfather grinned unrepentantly. "She's something, isn't she?"

"They both are," said Harry, wrapping an arm around Cho and kissing her rather more decorously on the cheek. "We may just be the two luckiest wizards in all of Britain."

"Care to test that theory with a game of Double Fanucci?" asked Cho mischievously.

"No thanks," said Sirius. "You know what they say: lucky at love..."

"Unlucky at cards," Harry finished.

"Spoilsports," said Cho, pouting. "You just don't want me getting my own back from yesterday - and I was so looking forward to cleaning out your Gringotts vaults...."

"Hermione did that already," said Sirius. "All I have left to lose is my ancestral manse - and trust me, you wouldn't want it. Dreary place."

"Oh, I don't know," said Cho, a bit wistfully. "It's where Harry's going to be for the next month, so it couldn't be all bad."

"You'd have to deal with Molly Weasley as a chaperone, though," Sirius replied. "She's a lot less, ah, permissive than Liu and I."

Cho shrugged. "All right, so we couldn't share a room, but at least I'd get to see him."

"True enough," said Sirius. "Still, with Liu in the Order we might to be able to work something out."

"I'll bet the two of you will be seeing a lot of each other," said Harry, a bit enviously.

Sirius shrugged. "It depends on what kind of work Dumbledore has her doing," he said. "Not everyone in the Order spends much time at headquarters."

"Sure, but if she wants to spend the night there instead of at her flat, who's to tell her otherwise? It's your house, after all."

Sirius smiled sardonically. "For my sins, yes," he agreed. "And Liu will always be welcome in it. And if her little sister happened to be visiting her some evening, and wanted to come to dinner with her, why, she would be equally welcome. Now, I've got to go feed Buckbeak; I'm sure you two can find ways to pass the time." He headed out to the stable.

Harry and Cho moved to the couch in front of the fireplace; Harry reclined against one arm of couch, while Cho curled up in his lap. "The other day," she said softly, "you never finished telling me what happened in the graveyard, when... when You-Know-Who came back."

"Voldemort," said Harry firmly. Cho shivered slightly but said nothing. "Professor Dumbledore told me once that fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself. It's all right to be afraid of Voldemort, Cho - anyone in their right mind would, except maybe Dumbledore - but there's no sense in being afraid to say his name."

"I suppose it's just the way I grew up," said Cho. "Everyone knew you didn't say the name - it was always 'You-Know-Who' or 'He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named,' or sometimes 'The Dark Lord.' It was years after I first heard about him that I even found out that his name was... Voldemort," she finished in a barely audible whisper.

Harry smiled at her. "That's better," he said. "All right. After... after the part I already told you about--"

"After Cedric was killed," she whispered.

Harry nodded. "Yes. After that, Wormtail tied me to one of the gravestones with the Binding Charm." Harry went on to describe the ritual that had revived Voldemort, the summoning of the Death Eaters, and the duel which had ended with his wand forcing the Priori Incantatem effect from Voldemort's, drawing out shades of Voldemort's last few victims, including Cedric and Harry's parents. He explained how they had distracted Voldemort, enabling him to seize the Portkey and Cedric's body and escape.

At the end of his narrative, Cho had tears in her eyes, but was maintaining her composure fairly well. "Did Cedric, um... did he say anything about me at all?"

Harry shook his head. "There wasn't time to talk," he explained. "He... we were all too busy with Voldemort. He asked me to take his body back to Hogwarts, but that was all."

"Oh." She shook her head. "I guess it's silly, but I was hoping he might have... given you a last message for me, or something."

"I would have told you," Harry said. He hesitated, then added. "There was something else, though. When we were getting ready to rescue you, I had... I don't know what you'd call it. It was like a dream, but I definitely wasn't asleep. I was thinking about Cedric, and what I could have done differently that night - if I'd just taken the Cup when he told me to, or stunned Wormtail the moment I saw him without waiting to see who he was... anyway, I suddenly heard Cedric's voice in my head. I don't know if it was my imagination playing tricks on me, or maybe something lingering from the Priori Incantatem. Anyway, he told me I shouldn't blame myself, and that if I still felt as though I owed him something, I should help save you, because... because he loved you."

Cho wiped the tears from her eyes and studied Harry's face for a long moment. Finally, she said, "I believe you. I can't say if what you heard was real, but I think... if Cedric knew I was in danger, and he couldn't be there, you might be one of the first people he'd think of sending to help me."

Harry shook his head. "My first choice would have been Professor Dumbledore, but we couldn't reach him in time. We couldn't reach anyone; the Death Eaters shot up Dark Marks all over southern England to distract the Ministry and the Order. If we'd been able to get any help, I wouldn't have been involved in the fight."

"Just as well you were," said Cho. "Anyone else might not have been as quick with that Disarming Charm...." She shivered.

"Well, I'm sure Dumbledore could have managed the whole thing a lot more neatly - I doubt Macnair would have escaped from him. Still, I can't say I'm too sorry for the way things turned out...."

"Neither can I," Cho agreed, hugging him.

Sirius returned from the stable then and took a seat at the opposite end of the couch. Their conversation wandered from one subject to another seemingly at random, but thinking it over later, Harry realized that Sirius had been subtly drawing him out, inducing him to talk about his hopes and fears, likes and dislikes, and doing the same for Cho. While helping them get to know one another better, Harry thought his godfather had also picked up a fair amount about Liu by getting Cho to talk about her family.

After lunch, Sirius said he was going to lie down for a while. "I didn't get much sleep last night," he explained, with a wink and a grin that made Cho giggle and Harry blush. Cho agreed that an afternoon nap seemed like a good idea, and she and Harry retired to what he now thought of as "their" room.

Cho turned away from Harry, and his eyes widened as she pulled her t-shirt over her head, unhooked her bra and dropped it on top of the shirt, and skinned out of her shorts, slipping under the covers wearing nothing but sheer white knickers. "Well? Are you coming?" she asked.

The question shook Harry out of his near-trance. "Um, yeah, of course," he stammered. Following Cho's example, he stripped to his jockey shorts and climbed into bed beside her. She snuggled up to him, but then said, "I know you'd like to make out, Harry, but I think we really should get some sleep. We didn't get much last night, and I think we might get even less tonight."

"All right," Harry replied, keeping the disappointment out of his voice. "I suppose you're right about tonight."

As usual, Harry was amazed at how quickly Cho could fall asleep in his arms. He lay awake for quite a while, intensely aware of her bare breast cupped in the palm of his hand. When at last he slept, his dreams were a torrid collage of erotic images and sensations.

He awoke to find that the last dream had been no dream at all: Cho was moving against him, her firm little bottom pressing into his hips. Already highly aroused, Harry pushed back, straining against her. Cho made a purring sound deep in her throat, then, with feline agility, turned in Harry's arms and pulled him on top of her, wrapping her legs around his waist.

Once more, instinct took over; Harry pressed himself into his love, stroking over the heat at her center with nothing between them but two thin strips of cloth. She gasped and pulled him closer, urging him on. Her dark eyes caught his gaze and held him fast, mesmerized by a magic more potent than the Imperius Curse.

He exploded against her and kept going; another dozen strokes and she began to keen, arms and legs wrapping him in an unbreakable embrace. There followed an indefinite time of soft kisses and incoherent murmurs, before they finally separated.

Harry looked down at himself rather ruefully, and said, "I think we'd better shower before dinner."

Cho glanced at the clock, then reached for her wand. "No time," she said. "Scourgify!"

In an instant they were both clean and dry; even the sweat had evaporated, leaving nothing behind. "How do you do that?" Harry asked, impressed. His own Cleaning Charm, though adequate for clearing away spills, could never substitute for bathing.

Cho shrugged. "Charms are my best subject," she said. "My wand's, too, Mr. Ollivander said." She grinned suddenly and added, in a passable imitation of the eccentric wand-maker's voice, "'Rowan and unicorn hair, nine-and-a-half inches, pliable. Not a great deal of raw power, but excellent for the more precise sorts of spell-casting, particularly charms.'"

Harry laughed. "Come on, let's get dressed," he said. "I'm starving."

They pulled on their clothes and went downstairs to find Sirius and Liu sitting at the chessboard; they were down to the endgame, with less than a dozen pieces left in play and no clear advantage. Liu looked up at Cho and smiled. "Can you see a way out of this impasse, Cho?" She asked.

Cho studied the board for a moment, then nodded. "Yes," she said. "But you'll have to figure it out for yourself; no fair asking for help."

Liu laughed. "All right, little sister, I'll fight my own battles. Why don't you two see how dinner's coming along?"

"Good idea," said Harry, heading for the kitchen.

Dobby was in his element, animating spatulas and serving spoons with quick gestures and directing them to stir several pots and pans he had going on the stove, from which emanated the mouthwatering scent of curry. "Good evening, Harry Potter, sir!" called the elf. "Good evening, Miss Chang! Dinner will be ready very soon."

"Thanks, Dobby," said Harry. He and Cho withdrew to the common room again. Liu and Sirius's game ended in a stalemate around the time Dobby emerged from the kitchen and began serving the meal, which consisted of lamb, rice, and various vegetables in several combinations and degrees of spiciness, from mildly piquant to palate-scorching, and a drink something like a milkshake, made from yogurt and mango juice. Harry had seldom tasted anything like it; his aunt and uncle despised "foreign" food, and Dudley, who had pocket money for takeout meals and would eat just about anything that didn't bite him back, was not in the habit of leaving leftovers for his hated cousin to enjoy.

"Was the Indian menu your idea, Liu?" asked Cho.

"Mine, actually," said Sirius. "I haven't had a decent curry since I came back to England."

"I'm surprised Dobby knew how to make it," Harry commented. "It doesn't seem like Lucius Malfoy's kind of thing, somehow."

"I don't know about Lucius," said Sirius, "but Dobby served the Malfoys for five generations. Lucius's grandfather Claudius was the Undersecretary of Magic for Indian Affairs during the Raj; he spent a lot of time in Calcutta."

"How do you know so much about the Malfoys?" Cho asked.

Sirius snorted. "Purebloods. In our insular little society, everyone knows everyone else. If you trace back enough generations, we're all related, too. Have you ever met Lucius's wife?"

Harry nodded. "Narcissa Malfoy. I saw her at the World Cup."

"Narcissa Black Malfoy," Sirius amended. "My first cousin."

Harry thought about that for a moment. "That would make Draco your cousin too, right?" He shuddered. "And I thought I had rotten relatives. Yours put the Dursleys in the shade."

Sirius nodded grimly. "Narcissa and that slimy son of hers aren't even the worst of them. Her sister Bellatrix gives Morgana le Fey some real competition for the title of worst dark sorceress in the history of Britain."

"What did she do?" asked Cho.

"She, her husband, and his brother were arrested along with Barty Crouch fils for torturing two Aurors into permanent insanity with the Cruciatus Curse. This was after Voldemort fell. For some reason, they thought the Aurors knew where he'd gone, and they wanted to find him and restore him to power."

Harry felt a chill, recalling the trial he had witnessed in Dumbledore's Pensieve: a tall witch with hooded eyes shouting her defiance at the court, affirming her loyalty to Voldemort and predicting his return. Now that he thought about it, he could see a vague family resemblance to Sirius in the woman's thick, lustrous black hair and aquiline features.

"That's horrible," said Cho in a subdued voice. "It's hard to imagine someone like that being related to you, Sirius... I mean, you seem so nice...."

"Oh, I've had my moments," Sirius replied. "I've done a few things I'm not at all proud of. But I never really believed all that rot my parents talked about pureblood superiority. I loved Quidditch, you see, and some of the best players in the League were half-blood or Muggle-born - the Wortlethorpe Warblers were all Muggle-born, and they won the League Cup when I was eight. Then I went to Hogwarts and made friends with James Potter. The Potters had impeccable bloodlines, but they always insisted that what you did was more important than who your ancestors were, and they had no use at all for the Dark Arts or pureblood prejudice. And of course the other really outstanding student in our year was a Muggle-born girl by the name of Lily Evans."

"Well," said Liu, giving Sirius a winsome smile, "I for one am glad you don't have any problem with half-blood witches."

"So am I, cheri" Sirius agreed, smiling back at her. "I'd certainly be missing out if I did."

Cho made a gagging sound and mimed putting her finger down her throat. Liu laughed and said, "You're one to talk, little sister. Or would you care to explain in detail just how Harry chases your nightmares away?"

Cho raised her hands in a gesture of surrender. "I give," she said. "How about this: I won't tell Mum your new boyfriend is a fugitive, and you don't tell her that I have a new boyfriend, okay?"

"Oh, I don't think she'll mind your seeing Harry, just as long as she doesn't find out where he's been sleeping. And I can't very well tell her that without admitting what kind of 'chaperone' I've been."

"Good point," said Cho. "I couldn't really tell her about Sirius, either. So, since you have nothing on me and I have nothing on you, I guess we're both free to tease each other mercilessly."

"Not quite," Liu disagreed. "If you want me to keep playing the role of shut-eye chaperone, I'd suggest reining it in a bit."

"Oh, all right," said Cho. "I'm sorry, Liu. I guess I'm just a bit jealous that you and Sirius can keep seeing each other, and Harry and I probably won't for the next month."

"I understand," Liu replied. "And I'll try to get you some time together. I can't promise anything, but you might be able to visit the Order's headquarters with me at least once or twice."

"Thanks, Liu. So, did you remember the music I asked you about?"

"Of course," Liu replied. "But hang on a bit; Sirius asked first, after all."

"What did you ask for?" Harry asked.

"A song I haven't heard for fifteen years," Sirius replied. "It was a favorite of your parents; James sang it for Lily when he was courting her, and she used to sing it to you to get you to sleep."

"I stopped by Flourish and Blotts this morning," said Liu. "Took me nearly an hour, but I finally found a songbook with sheet music for it. The flute part is pretty simple, I was able to get it all down this afternoon."

"Shall we?" said Sirius, rising from his seat.

Having finished eating, the four of them moved to the end of the room by the hearth. As Harry and Cho cuddled up on the sofa, Liu took her flute from its case on the mantelpiece, and raised it to her lips. Sirius stood beside her as she began to play a sweet, melancholy strain; after the first few bars he joined in, his strong tenor complementing the plaintive voice of the flute. The harmony served to keep him on key for a change, as he sang,

"Small in the plaza, a lone figure stares,
Young in her yearnings and old in her cares.
She doesn't have jewels, diamonds and rings,
But under her coat she has wings.

"Crumbling sidewalks and drizzling skies,
People brush past her with unseeing eyes,
The veil of illusion like spider web clings,
Under her coat she has wings.

"Cruel is the world that she is caught in,
Dreaming, her wings she has forgotten,
Footsore as any mortal going,
Lost here, she looks on me unknowing....

"Cloaked in the dark her aloneness I chart,
She thinks she is human; I might win her heart...
But keeping her crippled, the thought of it stings -
Under her coat she has wings.

"Under the stars alone I find her,
Gazing on heaven, I remind her...
Suddenly bursting to astound me,
Wings like a beating heart around me....

"Closing my eyes for a moment alone,
I needn't look up, I know well she has flown,
Her trench coat lies shed like the leaves the wind flings,
Under her coat she had wings.

"Creature of air myself I knew her,
Though I have wings I can't pursue her.
Her wings are white and shining feather,
My wings are dark and gleaming leather....

"Wishing I'd kissed her just once while I could,
Kneeling I touch the last spot where she stood,
Love and compassion are bitter cruel things,
Under her coat she had wings."

The song ended; Liu quickly set her instrument back in its case, then turned to Sirius, who took her in his arms and held her close. Harry looked at Cho and saw tears glistening at the corners of her eyes. He was close to tears himself, moved not only by the words and melody, but by an aching sense of familiarity; he couldn't remember hearing the song before, yet a part of him seemed to know it by heart. That was my mother's lullaby, he thought. How many times must I have heard her sing it? I wish I could remember....

At length, Cho broke the silence. "That was lovely," she said. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," Sirius replied. "I'm glad you liked it. So, what was your request?"

"Well," said Cho, "I was thinking that I really should have danced with Harry at least once at the Yule Ball. I did look for you, Harry, when one of Cedric's teammates asked him for a dance, but you'd gone outside by then."

"I'm sorry I missed you," said Harry. "One dance with you would have made the whole evening a lot more enjoyable. Although... I'm not very good at dancing," he admitted. "So maybe it's just as well."

"I'm not much of a dancer either," said Cho. "I'd never tried it before that night, but Cedric taught me the basics."

"Sounds as though you both could use a bit of a refresher," Liu observed. "What do you think, Sirius?"

Sirius shrugged. "The last time I danced was at James and Lily's wedding," he said. "I don't know that I'll be much use as a teacher."

"As long as you can do a simple waltz," said Liu. "Here." She took his left hand in her right, raising the joined hands to about shoulder height; Sirius put his other hand on her back, just below her left shoulder, while she rested hers on his upper arm. Then Liu began softly counting the beats of a waltz, "One, two, three, one, two, three...." After taking a moment to catch the tempo, Sirius took a step forward with his left foot on "one;" Liu followed by stepping back on her right. Then a sidestep to Sirius's right on "two," followed by a closing step on "three." On the next measure, Sirius stepped back with his right foot, sidestepped and closed to the left. Then the entire pattern repeated.

After the fifth repetition, they stopped. "That's called a box step," said Liu. "If you can do that, you can waltz. Most of the other basic steps are variations on that one. It won't win you any prizes at Blackpool, of course, but it will let you dance at a ball without making a fool of yourself. Now, let's practice a bit."

Liu and Sirius used their wands to rearrange the furniture, moving chairs and tables aside to create a large open area in the center of the common room. Then Liu partnered Harry, while Sirius partnered Cho. It took Harry a while to get the hang of it, but Liu was a patient tutor, carefully explaining each detail of the technique - how the positions of their hands allowed each partner to feel where the other was moving, how to shift his weight on every step so that he never got on the wrong foot, how each partner watched over the other's right shoulder for fellow dancers or other obstacles, and what it meant to lead and follow. Once he was accustomed to the basic box step, she showed him how to open it out by turning each sidestep, and how a couple could work their way around a dance floor while circling each other, alternating left and right turns.

After about half an hour, Liu and Sirius turned their pupils loose to dance with each other. Harry faced Cho, feeling unaccountably nervous as they joined hands, creating the solid frame Liu had emphasized. Why should I be feeling butterflies now? he wondered. I've held her so much closer than this, yet it feels like I've never touched her before. She's so pretty....

Liu began counting the rhythm again, and Harry and Cho started to dance -- awkwardly at first, with many missteps, nervous giggles, and whispered apologies, then gradually learning to move together, stepping between each other's feet and turning as one. Cho closed the gap between them until Harry could feel her pressing lightly against his right hip. The proximity actually seemed to make leading easier. "That's good," Liu approved, when she noticed what they were doing. "The woman who taught me to dance used to say that in a good closed position, you could hold a dinner plate between your bodies at waist level and it would never fall."

"I think we're ready for music now," Cho said, as she and Harry stopped in front of her sister.

"All right," Liu agreed. She walked over to the desk, on which sat a portable stereo system. "I just hope this works," she commented. "Muggle electronics won't do anything at Hogwarts, after all, and this is a magical building too...."

"It shouldn't be a problem," Sirius said. "The Harrington Arms is protected by magic, but it wasn't built by magic the way the castle was."

"One way to find out," said Liu. She tapped the buttons on the top of the stereo, and music filled the room. A solo violin played a delicate, wistful air, supported by other strings and a piano in the background. The stately tempo made dancing easy; Harry and Cho floated around the room, caught up in the melody and in each other. Out of the corner of his eye, Harry noticed Liu and Sirius dancing as well, keeping to the far side of their makeshift dance floor, but his attention was focused on keeping his feet moving in time to the music and savoring the feeling of Cho Chang in his arms, the two of them weaving a pattern of beauty and grace as ethereal as the song itself. Harry felt he finally understood what Dumbledore had meant on Harry's first evening at Hogwarts, when he'd called music "a magic beyond all we do here."

When the song ended, Harry and Cho moved still closer, holding each other in a silent embrace. Time seemed to slow; Harry could feel Cho's heart beating in time with his own, hear her every soft breath. At length he whispered, "I love you, Cho Chang."

"I love you, Harry Potter," came the soft reply. "I wish this time could last forever."

"So do I. But we will be together like this at school; I don't know how or when, but I know we'll find a way."

Cho backed up just enough to look up at him; she was smiling. "You're right, Harry. What could ever stand in the way of a Ravenclaw mind and a Gryffindor heart?"

"A Slytherin snout?" Liu suggested, coming up behind Harry. "I once got caught with a boy by Severus Snape; I don't recommend it."

"We'll be careful," Harry assured her. "Snape's had it in for me since the day I arrived at Hogwarts; I'm used to staying out of his way."

Sirius said, "If Snape gives you a hard time this year, use that mirror I gave you and let me know about it; I'll sort him out."

"Don't you have to stay out of sight?" asked Harry skeptically.

"Don't forget, I got in and out of Hogwarts undetected when there were dementors guarding the place and Dumbledore thought I was after your blood; doing it now would be a piece of cake compared to that."

"Yes, but you weren't looking to get into fights with teachers then, either," Harry replied.

"Oh, I won't fight with him," Sirius assured him. "I'll just transfigure him into a bat in his sleep."

Cho shook her head. "Waste of time. Nobody would notice the difference."

As Liu and Sirius laughed, Harry added, "I'm not sure Snape does sleep. You can run into him in the corridors at any hour of the night. Anyway, Sirius, I appreciate the offer, but I can handle Snape myself; you need to keep out of sight, at least until we can prove to the Ministry that you're innocent."

"Not much chance of that unless we get hold of Wormtail," said Sirius gloomily. "And so far he's done just as good a job of staying out of sight as I have."

"We don't need Wormtail," Harry disagreed, "we just need any Death Eater who's seen him, and a dose of Veritaserum."

"If Dumbledore and Snape can find a way around that poison of Voldemort's," Sirius amended. "Veritaserum does us no good if they don't live long enough to answer questions." He yawned, then added, "I'm going to bed. Coming, love?"

"Not yet," Liu murmured, "but very soon, I expect." As Harry groaned at the ribald pun, Liu turned to her sister and said. "Good night, Cho. Don't stay up too late, and don't do anything I wouldn't have done when I was your age, all right?"

"I won't," Cho assured her.

"Good," said Liu, giving her a brief hug.

They all said good night, and Liu and Sirius had retired upstairs. The music was still playing, a slow, melancholy piece with the same piano and violin backed by an entire orchestra's worth of woodwinds that conjured misty, windswept moors in Harry's mind. The gloomy prospect of a month away from Cho suddenly seemed very real and immediate; he shivered and moved toward the fire.

Cho seemed to sense the change in his mood; she shut off the stereo and drifted over to stand beside him, watching him as he stared morosely into the flames. After a minute or so, she asked, "What's wrong, Harry?"

Harry shook his head and shot her a wry smile. "I was thinking about the next month," he said. "You're not even gone yet, but I miss you already."

Cho moved closer, wrapping her arms around him. "I know that feeling. But... that isn't all, is it?"

Harry looked down into her dark eyes, wondering how she could read him so well. He shook his head again. "No. I was also thinking about my parents. There are so many things I wish I could ask them right now...."

"Ah," said Cho. "Yes, I suppose there would be. It's must be awful, not having any family you can talk to...."

Harry hugged her, grateful for the comfort. "At least I have Sirius now," he said. "He's good to talk to. Still, I wish you could have met them; I think they'd have liked you."

"I hope so. They might not have approved of everything we've been doing, you know."

"I don't know," Harry admitted. "They married awfully young, right out of Hogwarts. I don't know how old they were when they first got together, but they could have been as young as we are. And remember, Voldemort was around back then, too. It would have been a scary, uncertain time - just like now."

"The kind of time when it's best to seize the moment?"

"Yes, and not wait for a future that might never arrive. Heaven knows their time was short enough," said Harry bitterly.

"They made the best of it, though. They made you."

"Yes, and died for me. I sometimes wonder if I was worth it."

"They thought so." She hugged him harder. "I think so. I'm sorry they died, Harry, and I'm sorry that you never got to know them - but I'm not sorry that you're here."

Harry felt his spirits lift. "Then neither am I," he said. "You know, I think I was wrong before. My parents wouldn't have liked you, they'd have loved you - just like I do."

Cho backed away just enough to smile up at him. "I love you too, Harry. And another thing - I'm not sorry that you're here, but Vol--" she bit her tongue, then pressed on, carefully enunciating each syllable of the dreaded name, "Voldemort is - and I have a hunch you'll make him a lot sorrier before this war is over."

Harry nodded. "I'm sure going to try," he agreed. "For my parents, for Cedric, for you... I swear I'll do whatever I can to make him pay for everyone he's ever hurt."

"I believe in you, Harry," she said. "If anyone can stop him, you can."

The radiant confidence in her eyes was almost frightening, but Harry felt suddenly exalted, more sure of himself than he had ever been. Up to this moment, the prophecy of which Dumbledore had told him had felt like a vast, perhaps impossible burden; only now did he begin to feel it as the call of destiny. "That's truer than you know," he told her. "Professor Dumbledore told me the other night that the reason Voldemort tried to kill me when I was a baby was because he'd learned of a prophecy about the one person with the power to destroy him. Dumbledore says that person is me."

"Professor Dumbledore is usually right," said Cho. "But prophecy or no, I'm certain you can do it. I don't know how, but... every time you've crossed paths, you've beaten him. I know you'll do it again."

"I will," Harry promised. He paused, then added, "But not tonight. So, what do you want to do now? Up for another game of chess?" His smile made it obvious that wasn't what he had in mind.

Cho grinned back at him. "Don't make me hex you, Harry. We've got one more night here; let's make the most of it."

For answer, Harry pulled her in and kissed her hard. Then, bending at the knees, he lifted her off her feet, eliciting a surprised "Ooh!" before she relaxed in his arms and let him carry her up to their room.

Once there, the two of them quickly shed their outer clothes and slipped under the covers, kissing with a passion and urgency born of their impending separation. Harry was lost in rapturous adoration of Cho's breasts when she whispered, "Do you want to...?"

He pulled back so that he could see her face; she was biting her lip nervously. "I thought you promised Liu that you wouldn't...."

"Do anything she wouldn't have done at my age?" Cho snorted. "Liu was Gryffindor's leading wild child. Remember what she said this morning about missing an opportunity? That's about the only thing she wouldn't have done. If I left here a virgin, she'd wonder what was wrong with me."

"Oh." Harry swallowed hard. "So, um... you've never...?"

She shook her head. "No. Cedric... he wanted to, but I wasn't ready. Then I decided I wanted to, but we couldn't find anywhere private enough... until the Third Task. His parents were staying in Hogsmeade, and he was going to stay at the Three Broomsticks, in the room next to theirs; I told him I would take my broom and fly down to his window and spend the night with him. And then he went into that maze and never... never...." Her voice cracked, and her eyes filled with tears. Harry actually felt a fleeting moment of relief at this return to what was by now familiar territory. He held her close, stroking her hair, while she sniffled against his chest.

"I keep thinking," Cho whispered after she'd calmed down, "we're going to say goodbye tomorrow, and we'll be apart until school starts... and there's a war on. Anything could happen; I might never see you again. Before we leave here, I want you to make love to me."

Harry's head felt stuffed with cotton - Cho's voice seemed to come to him from a thousand miles away, everything was moving much too fast, and his racing thoughts couldn't keep up. "Well... all right," he stammered, then mentally kicked himself. Brilliant, Harry, he thought. The girl of your dreams wants to make love with you, and the best you can come up with is "well, all right?!" "I mean, yes, I'd love to. Um, how do we... what do we do first?"

"Help me with these," Cho said, arching her back and hooking her fingers in the waistband of her knickers. Slowly, almost reverently, Harry drew the wispy garment down her thighs. As he reached her knees, she lifted her legs up so that he could pull them the rest of the way off. For the first time, Harry gazed upon his love's naked form; the sight took his breath away.

"Your turn now," Cho whispered. A bit awkwardly, Harry peeled off his jockey shorts and dropped them on the floor. Cho returned his appreciative gaze with just a hint of nervousness. After a moment, though, she murmured, "Kiss me."

Once again he lay above her, skin pressing skin from their eager mouths down to Cho's feet, caressing the outsides of Harry's calves. He was intensely aware of the warmth radiating from the juncture of her thighs, a moist heat promising that her arousal matched his own.

At length, she drew her knees up and apart in a silent, unmistakable invitation. Harry raised himself up to his own knees so that he could see what he was doing, and cautiously, gingerly, positioned himself at her entrance. "Now?" he whispered.

"Now." She opened like a flower before him, and her hand guided him slowly in, until his hardness was entirely enclosed in her softness. Gazing down at her lovely face, he saw that she was biting her lip - but her expression was not so much of pain as intense concentration.

"Are you all right?" he asked.

She gave a jerky nod. "It hurt a little at first," she said. "But it feels good now."

"Can I move?"

She nodded again. He drew back until he was barely inside her, then carefully pressed forward again. Her eyes widened and her hands went to his hips, urging him on. The second thrust was quicker, surer, and now she was pushing back against him, rising up to meet him, and the sensation expanded beyond anything he had ever experienced or imagined....

It was over far too soon. A tidal wave of pleasure overwhelmed Harry's self control; his nerves lit like quick-burning fuses, and the explosion they triggered seemed to blow him clear out of his body. He collapsed, retaining just enough presence of mind to take some of his weight on his elbows so that Cho could breathe. For a little while they just lay there, catching their breath; then he looked down into her eyes and whispered, "Thank you."

She pulled him down into a fierce hug and whispered back, "You're welcome. I love you, Harry."

"I love you too."

They were silent again, until something that had been niggling at the back of Harry's mind suddenly broke through to the surface, chilling him to the bone. He squeezed his eyes shut in mortal embarrassment. "Um, Cho," he muttered miserably, "I feel like a total git for not thinking of this earlier, but shouldn't we have used some sort of, um, protection?"

"It's all right, Harry," said Cho. Harry dared a quick look at her expression; she was smiling at him. "Thanks for asking, even if it was a little late. I'm safe. Liu gave me Morgana's Gift over a year ago.

"Morgana's Gift?" Harry repeated, silently cursing at how foolish he sounded.

"The Contraceptus Charm. I can't get pregnant until the spell is reversed."

"Oh," said Harry, nonplused; he'd never heard of such a spell. "That's... convenient."

"It's a lot better than what Muggles have to put up with," Cho agreed. "Of course, the spell itself is a lot older than the countercharm that lifts it; it used to be called the Contraceptus Curse."

"Huh? How is that a curse?"

"A pureblood wife's first duty is to give her husband an heir; if she can't, the marriage can be annulled. Witches used to use the Contraceptus Curse to make their romantic rivals barren. It's called Morgana's Gift because she used it against Queen Guinivere - that's why she and King Arthur never had children."

"Oh," Harry mumbled, feeling lost again.

Cho smiled sympathetically. "Binns puts you to sleep, too, doesn't he? The Ravenclaws in my year take turns using Infusion of Insomnia to take notes in his class, otherwise I'd never have heard that story either."

"I usually get notes from Hermione," said Harry. "She actually stays awake in History of Magic. I think she might have been in the hospital wing when Binns talked about Morgana, though."

"It's a wonderful story," said Cho. "Only a crashing bore like Binns could possibly make it dull. Maybe we can look it up in the library some time."

"I'd like that," said Harry. After another brief silence, he asked, "Are you tired?"

"Not especially," Cho replied. "You?"

"Not at all. I was thinking... what I'd like most right now is a nice, hot bath... with you."

Cho gave him a radiant smile. "Are you using Legilimency, Harry? You just read my mind."

"Great minds think alike," said Harry, grinning back at her. "I'll start the tub."

A few minutes later, Harry reclined up to his neck in hot, sweet-scented water with Cho Chang in his lap, his arms encircling her lithe young body just below her perfect breasts. They relaxed together in silence, until Harry, still coming down from the blissful, almost intoxicated contentment that followed their lovemaking, suddenly frowned. Replaying the act in his head, he thought he had seen a fleeting look of disappointment cross Cho's face at the moment of his climax. "Cho?"

"Yes?"

"I was wondering... did you... did it feel good, for you?" Harry asked anxiously.

"Yes, of course," she replied, just a bit too quickly.

"I... it didn't seem as though you... I mean... it was over so fast...."

"Liu says that's usually how it goes, the first time."

"But you didn't...."

"Finish? Well, no," she admitted. "It still felt good, though."

"I'm so sorry, Cho," Harry said. "I wanted you to feel as good as I did."

"It's all right, Harry. It did feel good, and it was only the first time; I promise you, it won't be the last."

Reassured, but still feeling slightly guilty, he asked, "Is there anything I can do to make it up to you?"

"Well... since you mention it... you know how you can do it for yourself... 'having one off at the wrist,' I think you fellows call it?"

Harry blushed scarlet. "I, um...."

"Look," said Cho, a trifle impatiently, "Liu once told me that if any boy ever claims he doesn't do that, I shouldn't trust anything else he says, either. Anyway, the point is, girls do something similar."

"Really?" Harry asked, curiosity overcoming his embarrassment. "How do you...?"

"Give me your hand."

It took a little while for Harry to get the hang of what Cho showed him how to do, but once he did he soon had her writhing and moaning ecstatically in his arms. Her passion quickly restored him to full arousal. Noticing his reaction, she murmured, "Let's go back to bed." They scrambled out of the tub; Harry reached for a towel, but Cho picked up her wand and said, "Evanesco," drying them both off in an instant.

Back in their bed, she quickly pulled him on top of her. This time he entered her easily, and the sensations, while no less powerful, seemed somehow more controllable. He was able to achieve a steady rhythm, and she worked right along with him, pressing back just as she had in their earlier miming of this ultimate act. Finally his control slipped, swamped by the rising tide of sensation and emotion. Feeling him falter, Cho gasped, "Keep going!" Driven by that urgent plea, Harry continued to thrust, and in a moment found himself caught in a velvet vice, riding a razor's edge between pleasure and pain as she climaxed with him. When it was over, Harry and Cho lay silent in each other's arms, all passion spent, drifting off to the most peaceful sleep they had ever known.