Hermione's Heart

HERMIONE'S HEART, PART III: The Best of Intentions

The school was abuzz over Cho's and Harry's breakup for a week. Cho kept determinedly quiet about it all, and turned down every boy who asked her out. Harry continued to look glum, and Hermione noticed he always kept an eye out for Cho when they were passing between classes. Although Ron was plainly relieved that Cho was now Harry's ex, he tried to cheer his friend up by pointing out all the girls who had begun eyeing Harry with renewed interest.

Draco Malfoy, of course, took every opportunity to remind Harry of what he'd lost. "Not man enough to hang on to Cho Chang, were you, Potter," he sneered as Harry, Ron and Hermione entered the Potions dungeon. "Couldn't keep her satisfied?" he added, with a very suggestive leer.

"You keep your filthy mouth shut!" Hermione shouted, before Harry could reply.

Draco looked Hermione up and down insolently. "What's it to you, Granger? Or has Potter been so un-manned he needs you to stick up for him?"

Ron jumped forward and attempted to pull Hermione away. "Leave her alone."

"By all means, Weasley, let's hear from you." Draco snickered. "You couldn't even hang onto this piece of gutter trash."

Harry and Hermione both moved towards Ron, who was reaching for his wand, when the cluster of students gathered round suddenly scattered. A few seconds later, the Potions Master appeared. Snape glared at his students, and Hermione had the feeling he knew they had all just taken their seats. "Open your texts to chapter five," he hissed.

Hermione turned to the appropriate page in her book and tried to concentrate. She had thought the breakup would make her feel better about seeing Cho, and in a way, it had. But Harry had been so nice to her about maintaining her friendship with Cho, she still felt guilty about her secret romance. And now her friendship with Cho, coupled with the breakup, added an unforeseen complication in her life: the two boys, especially Ron, were increasingly pressuring Hermione to provide some sort of information as to exactly why Cho had dumped Harry. They had no idea just how much time alone the girls spent together.

**

As the days passed, Harry and Cho ceased to be such a consuming topic of gossip, and the school drifted towards other issues. This change in focus had visibly lifted Harry's spirits. To his credit, he had never seemed angry at Cho, just bewildered, and frustrated at her refusal to elabroate on her reasons for breaking off with him. Hermione's guilt over being, in part, the reason for his ruined romance motivated her to make and effort to spend more time with Harry in an attempt to cheer him up. As a result, the three of them had returned to the habit of doing almost everything together.

"Hogsmeade weekend coming up soon," said Harry, pointing to the notice board and looking happier than Hermione had seen him in a while. "Shall we all go?"

"Erm, I kind of promised Cho I'd go with her."

"You can see her anytime," said Ron. "Ditch her and come with us. It'll be like old times, just the three of us."

"I already told her I'd go, Ron," Hermione snapped. Seeing the crestfallen look on Harry's face, she added, "But I could catch you up at The Three Broomsticks later on."

"Okay, but you'd better start doing a little better at finding out something useful," Ron declared. "What do you two spend all your time talking about, anyway?"

"Oh, you know, school and stuff," answered Hermione as vaguely as possible, and quickly changed the subject.

**

Hermione usually didn't see Cho until evenings, after she'd done her homework and once most everyone else had gone to bed. So she was surprised when she felt someone grab her shoulder, felt the hardness of a prefect badge scraping her shoulder blade, and heard Cho's familiar voice whisper "Miss me?" as Hermione was about to set off for an afternoon lesson in one of the far towers.

"Cho!" Hermione spun around and glanced nervously to see if anyone had noticed. Fortunately, this area of the castle was less well traveled. "What's with you?" she demanded, surveying her girlfriend. "Let me guess, you just did Energizing Charms with Flitwick?"

Cho was bouncing on the balls of her feet and her eyes glittered even more intensely than usual. "Sorry. Just nerves. I've got a match coming up tomorrow. Our first of the season."

"Oh! Right." Hermione could hardly keep up with the Gryffindor Quidditch schedule, and hadn't even thought about Ravenclaw. Then a very bad thought struck her. "You're not playing Gryffindor, are you?" she asked suspiciously.

"Hufflepuff. We won't play Gryffindor until next term." Cho bounced around some more. "So, going to come watch?"

"Of course."

"Excellent. Come and meet me by the broomshed after the match--I want to show you my new broom. Still no Firebolt, but it's the latest in the Nimbus Series -- should even things up a touch between Harry and me."

"Okay." Hermione smiled. She liked it when Cho talked about brooms so authoritatively. "I'd better go."

Cho nodded, and watched as Hermione continued along to class.

**

Although the girls were very careful to hide their meetings -- Hermione had wished for Harry's invisibility cloak on more than one occasion -- they had been rather indulgent about sending owls. They couldn't do it too much, or it would look suspicious, but fairly regularly, an owl would seek out Hermione in the Gryffindor common room, or at breakfast with a note from Cho. It was especially nice when they couldn't see each other due to homework or conflicting schedules.

Friday evening, Hermione was relaxing in the common room, wondering how Cho's practice was going. For once she was more interested in Ron and Harry's avid discussions of Quidditch, and listened more closely as they evaluated the chances of both Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw.

"Cho's got a new broom this year," Harry said to Ron. "She showed it to me when we first got back. Newest Nimbus. I don't think Hufflepuff can match her, either in broomspeed or talent. This is the first time their seeker has started -- was a reserve last year."

Both Hermione and Ron looked annoyed, but for completely different reasons.

As Ron was asking whether Harry really wanted Ravenclaw to win, Hermione was wondering crossly to herself if Cho had a habit of inviting all her sweethearts to visit the broomshed.

They broke off their conversation when a large screech owl tapped impatiently at the window. Hermione jumped up to let him in, but Ron got there first. The bird brushed past Ron and zoomed over to Hermione, who undid the message tied to his leg as quickly as she could.

"Who's it from?" asked Ron, curious.

"Nobody." Without even opening the scroll, Hermione stuffed it away.

Ron raised his eyebrows. "Secret admirer? Just what have you been keeping from us, Hermione?"

"It's nothing. Just a reminder about a prefect meeting."

"How do you know? You haven't even read it," Ron pointed out.

"Honestly, Ron. You don't have to get jealous every time I receive an owl."

"Who's jealous? Go on, let us have a look --"

"Goodnight," Hermione said firmly, sweeping around the chairs and towards the girls' dormitories.

But even Harry seemed in the mood to tease Hermione a bit. He jumped up and blocked her way. "New boyfriend?" he asked, his face amused.

"Hardly." Hermione kept her tone lofty, very glad Harry did not know the identity of her correspondent.

Shaking her head, Hermione pushed past him and went up the circular staircase. She intended to read it alone, behind the privacy of her bed hanging, but never made it up to her floor. Instead, a terrific racket was coming from the first-year girls' room, and Hermione burst through the door to find a magical pillow fight going on. They had obviously just learned Wingardium Leviosa, and were doing their best to levitate each other's pillows. Unfortunately, none of them was very good at it. A few girls had successfully levitated their pillows, but most of them had given up and were simply hurling pillows at each other.

"Stop it!" yelled Hermione, giving her prefect badge a tap with her own wand to enhance its brightness as she waded into the melee. With a quick wave of her wand, she sent each pillow back to its owner and glared at the eleven year-olds around her. "It was lights out for you lot an hour ago. If I have to come back, none of you are going to the Quidditch match tomorrow."

Her words instantly silenced the first-years, who looked terrified.

Hermione stalked back out, but was distracted yet again, this time by Lavender Brown, who was on the verge of hysteria over completing her astronomy charts. "I just don't understand how to calculate the distances!" she wailed. "And it's already late -- Professor Sinistra gave me an extension until tomorrow, but even so, I don't see how I can get it done. You've got to help me!" Hermione sighed and followed her classmate back to the common room. It looked like it was going to be a long night.

By the time Hermione staggered up to her own bed, it was almost midnight, and the note from Cho lay forgotten in the pocket of her robes.

**

Next morning the whole school was boisterous. The Great Hall echoed with voices, and Hermione cast a glance across the room to the Ravenclaw table. Cho was eating with her teammates, looking excited. Hermione caught her eye, and was surprised when Cho's sunny face suddenly clouded over and she looked away. At that moment, Hermione remembered the note. With a chill, she realized she had left it in her robes, and today was laundry day.

Hermione jumped up, almost knocking over her chair, and sprinted back to her dorm. Thankfully, the house elves had not yet collected the robes for laundering, and Hermione found hers in a pile on the floor, just where she'd left them. She dug through her pockets for the note and breathlessly began to read.

Dear Hermione,

I know this is last minute, but come and meet me tonight after Quidditch practice. I can take you for a spin on my broom -- ever see the top of the Forbidden Forest at night? Practice should be done by 7:00.

Cho

"Oh, no," Hermione groaned. "She thinks I stood her up. But that owl didn't even get to me before seven -- how could I have known?"

Grabbing her Omnioculars, Hermione ran back to the Great Hall and glanced around wildly for Cho. She didn't want Cho going into the match thinking she'd been deliberately stood up. The Ravenclaw team was just leaving. Not caring how she might look to either Harry or Ron, Hermione hurried after the Ravenclaws.

"Cho!" she panted, waving the piece of parchment. "I just read your message."

Cho hung back for a minute as her teammates walked ahead. "What happened? Why didn't you come?"

"I told you," Hermione paused to catch her breath, "I didn't get a chance to read it until now. Crazy night. But I don't think your owl even reached me by seven -- when did you send it?"

"Really? That's odd. I stopped by the owlery right before practice. That should have been plenty of time." Cho appeared puzzled, but also relieved that Hermione hadn't been ignoring her. "I guess I should have figured something like this would happen. Mercury's in retrograde, that always plays havoc with communication."

Hermione snorted. "I can't believe you take that Divination stuff seriously. Professor McGonagall says --"

Now Cho's brooding look returned. "Oh, not her again," she said impatiently. "Granted, Trelawney is a terrible teacher. Knows as much about Divination as Quirrell did about the Dark Arts. But if you don't listen to her misty-eyed ruminations, you can actually learn something."

Hermione changed topics. "Forget it. I came over to wish you good luck." She took Cho's hand and gave it a squeeze. "So good luck. I'll be watching." She gestured at the Omnioculars around her neck.

"Thanks. I'll see you after the game." Cho returned the squeeze, then sprinted after her team.

The weather had turned increasingly cold, but the day was bright and clear, with only occasional gusts of wind. Hermione conjured up one of her containable fires and kept herself, Ron and Harry toasty throughout the match, each of them with a jam jar to warm their hands.

Hermione fiddled with her Omnioculars and watched the players warming up on the pitch. For once she had a perfectly legitimate reason to stare at Cho. However, Hermione had the uncomfortable feeling Harry was thinking the same thing, as he adjusted his focus and scanned the pitch.

Madame Hooch blew her whistle and nodded at the captains to shake hands. Hermione felt a thrill of pride as Cho stepped forward and gripped the Hufflepuff captain's hand firmly. Then they were off. Being Seeker, Cho was not initially busy, and the game got off to a quick start with early goals by both sides.

"Hufflepuff have been practicing," noted Harry, with a touch of surprise. "Their flying is really on today."

However, Hufflepuff had a young team, and after those first few scores, began making a number of unforced errors, the most spectacular of which resulted in the Quaffle being intercepted by a Ravenclaw chaser, who streaked across the pitch to score. The Ravenclaw stands erupted with cheers, while Hufflepuff groaned in dismay.

The Ravenclaw chaser had not even returned from the goal post, however, when the entire stadium leapt to its feet. Cho had gone into a rapid dive, and the Hufflepuff seeker wasn't far behind.

"Come on, come on," Hermione heard Harry muttering under his breath, and knew he was rooting for Cho.

The two seekers were parallel to each other when a sudden gust of wind knocked them into each other and spun them off course, each clutching her broomstick and trying to regain control.

"It's gone." Harry removed the Omnioculars and shook his head. "That wind can be tricky."

"You never showed Cho any dive tips, did you?" Ron groused. "No need to be giving away team secrets."

"Relax, Ron. She and I never talked about stuff like that."

Hufflepuff had called for a time out; their seeker had been blown into a tree and was looking rather dazed. Hermione took the opportunity to scan the crowd. Further down, Professor McGonagall was supervising the commentating, sitting next to the student with the magical microphone. Her cheeks were rosy with the cold and she seemed to be following the game with excitement, even though Gryffindor was not playing.

"There's never been a better commentator than Lee Jordan, has there?" Hermione mused to Harry.

He grinned and shook his head. "Don't think so. I hear he's a reporter now for the Daily Prophet. Has a Quidditch column."

"I think I've seen that," answered Hermione vaguely. In truth, she rarely bothered with the sporting news. But Professor McGonagall was a keen Quidditch fan -- perhaps she should begin following the sport more seriously.

Her attention returned to the game as the Hufflepuff seeker, beneficiary of Madame Pomfrey's pepper-up potion, zoomed back into position, leaving a trail of steam in her wake. With a new burst of determination, Hufflepuff seized the Quaffle and scored another goal. However, their beaters began rather over-celebrating by the goal posts, and Madame Hooch awarded a penalty.

"Poor sportsmanship!" she called, and pointed dramatically to Ravenclaw to take the penalty shot.

Their chaser easily maneuvered past Hufflepuff's Keeper, and a cheer went up among Ravenclaw fans.

Once again, however, the attention was drawn to the two seekers, who were now heading straight for each other at very high speeds. "The snitch! It's hovering in the middle there!" cried Harry.

Hermione turned her Omnioculars to the center of the pitch. There, glittering in the November light, hung the golden snitch. "Go, go," Hermione urged under her breath. "Oh, they're going to crash!"

It certainly seemed so. Each seeker was zooming closer, and a head-on collision appeared inevitable. Cho's broom was faster, but Hufflepuff had a head start. Hermione strained through the lenses, willing Cho to get there first. She saw Cho stretch out one arm, lunge forward, and saw her fingers close over the snitch. "Watch out!" Hermione cried, and closed her eyes in anticipation of Cho smashing into the other seeker.

"I don't believe it!" Harry gasped beside her, and Hermione hastily opened her eyes. At the last second, Cho had managed to spin off to the side and was now soaring above the stadium, pumping her fist in triumph. Her opponent, however, had been so shocked by the close call she had plowed right into the ground. Madame Pomfrey was already on the scene, shaking her head and no doubt muttering disparaging comments about the value of Quidditch.

Even Ron was impressed. "That was amazing flying!" he exclaimed, then sobered. "You'd better have some special moves up your sleeve when we play Ravenclaw," he ordered Harry.

Harry, however, looked unconcerned, even happy. "I've got a few," he replied, and stuffed his Omnioculars into his robes. "Thanks for the fire, Hermoine." He handed the jar holding the blue flames back to her. Looking suddenly determined, he said, "I think I'll go congratulate Cho, want to come?"

"Sure." Ron and Hermione exchanged glances, and they all scrambled down the stadium and joined the crowd around the changing rooms.

When Cho finally emerged from the changing rooms, a roar of appreciation went up, and Harry pushed his way forward. At first Cho appeared surprised to see him, but next moment a wide smile split her face, and she pulled him over to the side.

"That was some flying," he began. Hermione watched them for a minute, decided maybe they needed a moment to themselves, and headed instead for the broomshed. Harry really seemed to be coming to terms with the breakup now, even being friendly to Cho, who also appeared relieved.

Hermione leaned against the wooden planks of the broomshed. The crowd was starting to disperse, and Hermione felt a surge of happiness and anticipation. Harry and Cho seemed to be making up, and in only a few short weeks, she would be on holiday -- with Cho. Maybe things were looking up, after all.

A few minutes later, Cho came striding across the hard lawns, her smile evident even from a distance.

"You were amazing --" began Hermione, but Cho silenced her by taking Hermione in her arms for a deep kiss.

"Thanks," she grinned, releasing Hermione. If Cho had seemed excited yesterday, it was nothing compared to how she looked now. "Sorry," she added, noticing Hermione staring at her pacing. "Total adrenaline rush."

"I know! I thought for sure you were going to crash. How did you do it?"

Cho steered Hermione along the path leading away from the broomshed. "Maybe if you're lucky, I'll show you," she teased, and held out her new Nimbus. "Like it?"

Hermione tried to look properly intrigued, but the truth was, flying was one of the few magical arts she had little interest in. "It's great."

"Thanks." The broom hovered a bit off the ground, inviting the two girls to climb on. "And I couldn't believe it when Harry came back to see me. Did you put him up to that?"

"No." Hermione remembered the flash of jealousy she'd had earlier, but now it seemed insignificant. Instead she teased, "He did tell me you'd already shown him your broom. Just how many times have you used that 'meet me at the broomshed' line?"

Cho took the broom up higher. "Harry only saw it for a minute when we were at King's Cross station, right before we caught the train up here. You're the only one I've actually invited."

"Better be." Hermione placed one hand around her long hair to keep it from whipping across her face.

They flew level to the tree tops now, making a big circle and heading away from the main grounds. Hermione was about to lean her head against Cho's back, but Cho still seemed to be in Quidditch mode, and was speeding along so quickly that Hermione had to let go of her hair and grab Cho around the waist with both arms to stay on.

"You can slow down," she called out, wind whipping their faces. "There's no snitch now."

"I like the speed," Cho shouted back, and they took off again with a rush, Cho riding a sudden gust of wind.

It wasn't so bad, Hermione thought, gripping Cho tightly and marveling at her deft control over the broom. It had been days since she and Cho had been so close, and she closed her eyes, enjoying the sensation of the wind and Cho's silky hair flicking across her cheeks.

Cho brought them down to a spot at the far edge of the legal school bounds. Hermione had never been here before. "Are you sure it's okay for us to be here?" she asked, climbing shakily off the Nimbus.

"Yeah. If you have to know, Harry first showed me this spot."

"Oh."

"Don't worry," Cho urged, and they reclined on the ground, Cho's cloak spread over the now-dead grass. "I've wanted to bring you here for weeks."

Cho's pent-up energy seemed to be taking more forms that just fast flying. Her fingers, not shy now, undid Hermione's cloak, found their way under Hermione's robes, and her kisses came hard and fast.

Hermione sat up after a bit, breathless and heart pounding. "Let's slow down a minute, okay?"

"I just can't seem to get you out of my system," panted Cho, who made to push Hermione back again.

"Cho, come on." Hermione squirmed out of the way and adjusted her hair. Frowning at a leaf she found there, she returned her gaze to Cho. The girl had never looked lovelier: her face glowed, her eyes crackled, and her desire was undeniably all for Hermione. How many other Hogwarts boys -- or girls -- would have given anything to have Cho Chang, champion seeker and captain of Ravenclaw Quidditch, look at them like that? Still, things were going a little further than Hermione had bargained.

"Okay, sorry," said Cho, now looking abashed. "I've just really missed seeing you is all."

"I know." Hermione took one of Cho's hands and began playing with her fingers. "I wish I'd got your note earlier. As it was --" she gave an involuntary shudder when she remembered how close Ron had come to reading it.

"What?" Cho was sitting up now, and pushed her hair off her damp face. "This doesn't have anything to do with McGonagall, does it?"

"No, why would you say that?" Hermione looked puzzled, then continued. "It's just, well, when that owl came, Ron and Harry were both there."

Cho's face drained of color. "They didn't see it?"

"Of course not," Hermione said quickly. "But now they're convinced I'm seeing somebody new. This would be a lot easier if I just told Harry what's going on between you and me."

"Easier?" Cho's eyes widened in disbelief. "Oh yeah, I reckon he'd be thrilled to learn that bit of news."

"It's just a thought. It's really hard, not saying anything. Maybe if they knew, we wouldn't have to sneak around so much."

Cho got to her feet and pulled Hermione up as well. "Trust me. It's better if nobody knows. Do you have any idea what people will say? They'll say we're sick, that I have a dirty mind - "

"And it's one of the nicest things about you," smirked Hermione.

"I'm serious. Some people think what we're doing is perverse." Cho proceeded to lecture Hermione about the prejudices they faced.

Hermione, however, puzzled over Cho's worries. What had happened between herself and Cho seemed to be what could happen when any pair of normal, healthy girls were thrown together in a magical wood. She didn't see anything abnormal about it. Hermione returned her attention to Cho.

"And it's not just me," she was saying. "What about all those restrictions that were placed on covens in the seventeenth century? They claimed it was for the witches' own protection, but if you ask me, it wasn't just Muggles who were nervous about a bunch of women getting together and casting spells. Plenty of wizards find that sort of thing threatening."

"What coven restrictions?" Hermione furrowed her brow. They had studied witch persecution previously in Professor Binns' class, and she couldn't recall any such bans.

"It was a footnote in our History of Magic book. I looked it up in the library."

"Well, that was a long time ago. I don't think any such laws are really enforced now. Besides," she added, seeing Cho's unconvinced expression, "It's just a matter of education. Once people understand, they're not so afraid. Look at what I've done for the house elves. I'm sure if we just helped people understand --"

Cho shook her head. "You're awfully idealistic, Hermione."

"I'm not saying I want to hang a banner in the Great Hall with our names on it. I just think you should give people a little more credit is all."

Cho gave her a weary smile. "Optimist," she said.

Hermione tried again. "Professor McGonagall told me that it's not so uncommon for witches to -- to not marry."

"You talked to McGonagall about this?" Cho wore an expression of utter disbelief mingled with outrage.

"No." Hermione felt a blush creeping over her. "We just had tea the other evening. It's nothing," she added hastily, noticing Cho's stormy expression.

"Yeah, I bet." Cho held up her hand and the Nimbus zipped into her grasp. She fumbled with the two heavy cloaks, now both rumpled on the ground, and tossed one to Hermione. Broomstick in hand, she began to march down the hill.

Hermione dashed after her. "Cho, don't be upset. She is my Head of House, you know. It's not like I can avoid her."

"Maybe, but you don't need to go around having tea with her, do you? You don't see me simpering after Flitwick."

Hermione couldn't help smiling at the idea of anyone fancying Flitwick. He was so tiny, he seemed more like a pet than anything. A very smart pet, of course. "Don't let's fight," she soothed, as they climbed back on Cho's broom. "You were great today. I was so proud of you."

"Yeah?" Cho turned and gave Hermione an affectionate smile. "Well, keep your knickers on around that McGonagall. I want you to be all mine."

"Cho!" exclaimed a shocked Hermione. She didn't have a chance to say anything else. Cho took them up quickly, and zoomed back toward the broomshed. The afternoon sky was already growing darker, and there was sure to be a big celebration going on in the Ravenclaw common room.

"I'd better get going," Cho announced after she put away the Nimbus.

"Alright. You go on ahead. It might look odd if we're both leaving here. I'm not exactly a broom enthusiast," Hermione said.

After giving Cho a good five minutes' head start, Hermione began to trudge up to the castle. She had just passed the greenhouse when Harry and Ron intercepted her.

"Where have you been?" they chorused. "We've been looking everywhere for you."

"I, um, I went to visit Hagrid," Hermione lied.

"But we just came from having tea at his place," said Harry. "He was looking for you, too. It was like you just disappeared after the match."

"Well, I changed my mind and came back to the stands," Hermione said, wishing she were a better liar. "I must have just missed you. It was really crowded, you know."

Both Ron and Harry continued to look at her, confused. Ron finally said, "Well, we've found you now. Let's get back to the tower -- I'm freezing!"

But Harry was still staring at Hermione. "Is that your cloak?" he asked.

"Of course."

"But the fastenings are different. I thought you got those new Gryffindor lion fasteners -- these are plain."

"What?" Hermione whipped off the cloak, despite the dropping temperatures. She instantly recognized it as Cho's. Clearly, they had inadvertently exchanged cloaks after their woodland interlude. "I must have picked up the wrong one at the stadium," she stammered.

"Well, that's easy enough to solve," said Ron, reaching for the cloak. "The person's name should be inside--"

"Forget it, Ron. I'll take care of it later--"

Too late. Ron had intercepted the cloak and caught the name tag. His expression was one of complete befuddlement. "What are you doing with Cho Chang's cloak?" he finally asked.