Til The End

~ ~ ~ * * * ~ ~ ~

'Til The End

~ ~ ~ * * * ~ ~ ~

"About to make your rounds?" Zach looked up from his Arithmancy homework to see Cho pinning on her Prefect badge.

Cho nodded, "Yes. It's my turn, and I finished my homework already. Have a nice night!"

"You, too." Zach gave her a little wave, and turned back to his homework. Cho walked out of the Ravenclaw Common Room and made her way towards the Prefects' office.

Soon, she met up with Moira Flint from Slytherin, Hermione Granger from Gryffindor and Hannah Abbott from Hufflepuff. "Good evening, everyone." Cho greeted them.

"So, who's patrolling where tonight?" the Gryffindor Prefect had fit into her role perfectly, and despite the fact that she often snapped at Malfoy and Warrington, Hermione genuinely liked her post and enjoyed being with the other Prefects. Cho was sure that in two years, this would be the Prefect who would be made Head Girl.

"I'll take the Astronomy Tower and upper floor." Hannah volunteered. Moira chortled.

"Meeting someone, perhaps?"

Hannah rolled her eyes, "Ernie is at Quidditch practice. Sorry to disappoint you."

Before the two could bicker any more, Cho spoke up, "All right. So, I gather that Hannah will be taking the Tower. I will take the main floors, who wants to come with me?"

"Granger can. I'll do the dungeons." Moira said dismissively. "Snape tends to not like intrusions from you non-holy ones, anyway." Saying so, the dark-haired Slytherin witch turned on her heels and glided down the path from whence she came. Cho turned to Hermione.

"Guess it's us, then." The Gryffindor Prefect nodded. Together, they walked down the stairs towards the Great Hall.

"So, how are your classes going?" Cho asked conversationally. She did not really know Hermione that well. True, they had met briefly last year, during the Tournament, and she knew that Hermione was one of Harry Potter's best friends and considered one of the smartest witches ever to matriculate at Hogwarts, but beyond that, she did not know much of the Gryffindor fifth year.

"Pretty well. I'm somewhat nervous about O.W.L.s, though. I don't know how difficult they are going to be. I mean... I've been talking to the Weasleys about them a bit over the summer. Fred and George didn't really say much, but Percy studied very hard for them and got very good results. I hope to do at least as well."

"They're not too bad. I know that you will do all right." Cho reassured her, "What classes are you taking this year?"

"Well, besides the usual, I'm taking Care of Magical Creatures, Arithmancy and Ancient Runes. Professor Vector says that perhaps I will be able to take Advanced Arithmancy next year, I'm quite excited! I just wish that Harry and Ron were in all of my classes... but they're still taking Divination. Are you taking any Advanced classes?"

"Oh, Transfiguration and Defense Against the Dark Arts." Cho replied, "But it's really quite interesting. I'm going a research project on Animagus transformations in Transfiguration, and in Defense, we're actually learning about Disfigurement Hexes! Rather gruesome, but quite useful to know about. Fleur... er... Professor Delacour is a good teacher." The Frenchwoman had become friends with Cho , and as there were less than three years difference between their ages, they called each other by their given names when it was not class time.

At the mention of Fleur's name, Hermione made a slight face. "Yes, she's a good teacher. Pity that Ron doesn't pay attention to his class work. Spends his time goggling at her, as if he'd never seen a girl before."

Cho grinned, she'd certainly heard of the youngest Weasley boy's 'goggling' before, from an incensed Padma Patil after the Yule Ball last year. "Boys tend to do that around her... you must remember that my former Quidditch captain went to the Yule Ball with her. At least you did not have to deal with that." She rolled her eyes at the recollection of her male teammates congratulating Roger after she had agreed to go to the ball with him. Surprisingly, though, although she had certainly mentioned Fleur in her letters to him, and teased him a few times, he did not rise to the bait, and in his replies, seemed remarkably cool-headed about the part-veela. "Oh well, don't worry about it, I daresay your Ron will come to his senses, and see reason." she said slyly, "Boys are gits sometimes, but we love them anyway, hmm?"

Hermione blushed slightly. "I - I suppose." Then, all of the sudden, she became serious. "Oh, Cho , I... want to talk to you about something."

"Oh? What is it?"

"It's just..." Hermione swallowed, then said hurriedly, "You... you don't blame Harry, do you? During the Final Task... he never meant for that to happen... really..." she seemed rather unsure of how to continue, but Cho sighed and cut her off.

"Hermione, it's all right. Dumbledore talked to me afterwards. I know what happened. I don't blame him."

Hermione nodded, "I'm really sorry about Cedric, and so is Harry," she said sincerely.

"It's all right, but thanks." Cho replied, "I miss him a lot, but I'll survive. I have to."

"That's the spirit." Hermione smiled rather tightly, "Let's check the Charms corridor, shall we?"

"All right." And together, the two girls continued on the Prefect rounds. It was a rather uneventful night. Two students were caught lurking about after hours, but Cho and Hermione let them off with a warning. One time, they narrowly escaped being pelted with eggs by Peeves, but Cho was not in Advanced Transfiguration for nothing. The eggs were turned into birds, which flew away out a nearby window, and Peeves zoomed away, cursing. Hermione looked impressed, and for the next ten minutes, Cho showed the younger girl how to cast the spell. Then, they heard the clock strike nine.

"Oh, we're close to the Great Hall. They must be wrapping up a tutoring session." Hermione remarked. Cho nodded.

"Let's wait here for a few minutes, I want to say hello to Charisse."

"All right."

Sure enough, moments later, several younger students started pouring out of the Great Hall. Hermione greeted Dennis Creevey, who grinned at her before heading off in the direction of Gryffindor Tower. A moment later, Warrington sauntered out of the Great Hall, nonchalantly spinning his potions text on the tips of two callused fingers. He paused when he saw Cho and Hermione.

"Chang, Granger." He greeted, "Any detentions given?"

"No, only two warnings." Cho answered him. He scowled and shook his head.

"What rubbish. Next time, pack them off to Filch." He paused, then quirked an eyebrow at Cho , "Ready to get your arses kicked on Saturday?"

"In your dreams, Warrington. Tell Malfoy that he is going to bite the dust." Cho retorted, "And after we wipe the pitch with you, I'll have Charisse lend you one of her extra Ravenclaw ties for you to wear to the next Prefect meeting."

"One of Weston's ties? Too small... although it might suffice for making a codpiece." Warrington replied thoughtfully. Hermione choked. At that moment, Charisse, followed by a small first year Ravenclaw girl whose name Cho recalled as being Una Markham, joined them at the entrance of the Great Hall, just in time to hear Warrington's last comment.

"I don't want to know."

Warrington smirked, "Just having a completely innocent, friendly, intelligent conversation with my fellow Prefects, Weston."

"Right... and I'm an adolescent male blast-ended skrewt." Charisse rolled her eyes.

"Really? Does having a stinger interfere with shagging?"

During this exchange, the first year Una Markham had left the group to head back to Ravenclaw Tower. She had just gone about ten paces when a boy, whom Cho recognized as Anthony Weston, Charisse's brother, barreled into her. The boy glared at the girl, then wrinkled his nose. "Watch where you're going, Mudblood!"

Cho and Hermione gasped. Una Markham narrowed her eyes at the boy. Warrington raised an eyebrow curiously. But Charisse strode up to her brother, her face flushed crimson. "Anthony, apologize to her."

Anthony scowled up at his sister, "Father told me that I didn't have to listen to you."

Charisse gasped in shock and outrage, "Be that as it may, I cannot have you saying such things in this school; it's horribly ill-bred and offensive. Apologize."

"No." The two siblings faced each other, Anthony glaring up in defiance, Charisse looking down at him, a mix of sorrow and frustration on her face.

"Five points from Slytherin," Charisse finally said softly. Anthony's glower deepened.

"Bint," he muttered as he pushed past his sister, Cho , Hermione and Warrington, obviously there for the Astronomy tutoring session. Cho watched as Charisse hurriedly helped Una Markham pick up her things, and apologize for her brother's rude behavior, her head bowed and her red face hidden by her blonde hair, which had fallen over her shoulder.

"Is he always like that?" Charisse asked Una softly. The first year girl nodded, then shrugged.

"It's all right. He's just jealous that I do better than him in Astronomy. Boys are stupid like that," Una said matter-of-factly as she gathered up all of her things, and thanked Charisse before continuing on her way back to Ravenclaw Tower.

At that moment, Terry Boot and Cyrus Chilton, the Astronomy tutors, came striding down the hall. Charisse, seeing that her job was done, immediately started walking off towards the Head Boy/Head Girl quarters. Warrington lingered for a moment longer, taking Chilton aside for a moment and having a few private words with his fellow Slytherin. Chilton looked surprised for a moment, then nodded. Warrington smiled very briefly, then followed Charisse's footsteps back to Head Boy/Head Girl quarters.

Several hours later, Cho returned to Ravenclaw Tower, quite tired out from her rounds. "Aurora Borealis," she called out to Proserpine. The portrait opened, and she saw Terry Boot reading through a long roll of parchment.

"Lots of homework?" she asked sympathetically. He shook his head.

"No. Chilton, for some indiscernible reason, decided to spring a surprise examination upon the boy who comes for tutoring. Of course, he goes and makes the test long and hard, then says that he has no time to grade it because he's got a Quidditch game coming up this weekend. Slytherins..." Terry scowled, "Never done such a thing before, I wonder what in the world made him do it this time..."

Slytherins indeed. Cho decided then and there that she would never quite understand the species.

* * *

However, lack of understanding aside, it was a very indomitable, steely-eyed Cho who shook hands with the smirking Carl Warrington Saturday morning on the Quidditch pitch. The rest of their teams were already up in the air, and Cho noticed, with satisfaction, that both Su and Kevin took their positions in the air like they've been doing it for their entire lives.

Gryffindor seventh year Lee Jordan was commentating. "And today's match is between Ravenclaw and Slytherin. For the Eagles, we have Chasers Li, Turpin and Wellesley, Beaters Entwhistle and Hamilton, Keeper Calvert and Seeker Chang. For the Serpents, we have Chasers Chilton, Montague and Warrington, Beaters Bole and Bulstrode, Keeper Nott and Seeker Malfoy. Both Chang and Warrington are new captains this year, although I must say that in the attractiveness department, the Eagles' lady captain certainly wins out." Cho blushed somewhat as laughter and a few catcalls sounded in the audience. Warrington sniggered before taking the air, and Cho mounted her broom as well.

"And they're off! Slytherin is in possession of the Quaffle, Chilton tearing up the field, flying towards the goal. Nice interception by David Wellesley, and he's off! Ooh, and Bulstrode pelts a bludger towards the Ravenclaw Chaser... Wellesley passes to Li, a newcomer, talented, fast and quite cute too... and she scores!"

Cho heard the cheers of the Ravenclaw supporters and smiled. Her team would do well. Two of her Chasers were seasoned and experienced, with a great understanding not only of the game's strategies, but of every other team's favorite tactics as well. The third was new, but damn fast and agile. They'd worked well together in practice, the three of them. Now, she had to make sure that Ravenclaw scored as many points as possible, while holding Malfoy off the snitch.

A moment later, she saw Warrington, Quaffle tucked under one arm, zipping towards the Ravenclaw goal posts. He dodged a bludger from Kevin, none-too-gently knocked Zach out of the way, and pulled a burly arm back to aim. Narrowing her eyes, she pushed forward with a burst of speed and cut right in front of him, obstructing his line of vision of the goal posts. That moment was all that was needed for Edward Hamilton, her other Beater, to pelt a bludger at him and force him to drop the Quaffle into Su's waiting hands. Warrington glared at her, and Cho gave her most Slytherin-like smirk back.

The game continued. The chasers on both teams were fairly evenly matched. Bole 'accidentally' hit David on the leg with his Beater's club, and Zach took the penalty, making the score 70/50 in favor of Ravenclaw. And then... Cho saw it. A glimmer of gold, flittering close to the faculty stands, near the ground. She zoomed forward and downward in hot pursuit. A whooshing sound behind her a moment later indicated that Malfoy had seen it as well. Cho narrowed her eyes and pressed forward, mentally urging her broom to go faster. Malfoy was gaining on her slightly, but by heaven, she would win. 'Come on... just a little faster.' She muttered to herself. There! She was within ten feet of the Snitch, then five, then three, then two... it suddenly dropped down about two feet, and Cho , without a thought, somersaulted on her broom, flying upside down, and reached out a hand to grab the snitch. Her hand closed around it, but Cho did not have time to hear the yells of triumph from the Ravenclaw supporters. Her broom continued forward due to its momentum, and as she was still upside down, the top of her head hit the ground, and her world went dark.

* * *

Cho awoke to find that night had fallen, and that she was in the infirmary. She opened her eyes, then promptly shut them, grimacing. Her head felt like it had been stomped on by a herd of stampeding centaurs. "Ow, this bloody hurts." She muttered.

Suddenly, she felt a hand pushing a goblet into hers, and a familiar, deep voice saying, "Come now, drink up... that's a good girl." Another hand reached behind her back, gently but firmly pulling her into a sitting position and she felt the edge of a glass raised to her lips. Automatically, she opened them up, and gulped down the thick, gooey fluid. Immediately, the pain in her head lessened, and she re-opened her eyes.

"ROGER?!" She gaped at her former Quidditch captain, who was sitting by her bedside, a somewhat relieved smile on his face. "What on earth are you doing here?!"

He smiled somewhat ruefully at her. "I'm off work today, so I got permission from Dumbledore to come and watch the game. Cho , you are the most bloody reckless Seeker I've ever seen!" His voice was filled with a mixture of awed admiration and worried disapproval, "Well... you caught the Snitch all right. I've never seen anyone flying like that before... ever... and then, you just crashed into the ground..." here his face darkened, "We were frantic... you weren't moving... well, Dumbledore conjured up a stretcher and carted you off here. You've a concussion. You'll be here for the rest of the weekend, at the very least..."

"We won?!?" Cho stilled, then gave a very un-Cho -like squeal, "We WON!!"

Roger shook his head at her, "First broken bones, now a concussion. Kindly try to not get yourself killed on the pitch, Chang."

"I make no promises, but I'll try my best." Cho smiled, "How long have you been here?"

"Since you were levitated in, about seven hours ago." Roger replied, "And in the meantime, you've gained quite a substantial amount of material goods." He gestured towards the pile of candy and flowers on her bedside table, "It's about nine o'clock right now."

"You've been here for so long?! Have you eaten?" Cho asked, flabbergasted but somehow gratified. She hadn't realized how much she'd missed him until right now.

"Yes, Zach nicked some food from the kitchens for me earlier on. You should probably start on that pile of candy."

"All right." She grabbed a chocolate frog and started nibbling on the sweet, "It's nice of you to come see me, Roger."

He reached out a hand and patted her shoulder fondly, "My pleasure."

The two talked a bit more, and Cho felt herself starting to feel drowsy after a while. She lay back down on her side on the bed, the post-game exhaustion setting in upon her body. Roger stood up and gently pulled the comforter to her chin. She felt a sense of peace and comfort warm her body from head to toe, and smiled as she curled up and closed her eyes. "Will you stay just a little longer, 'til I fall asleep? I've missed you." She murmured, her voice half muffled by approaching sleep.

She felt a warm, graceful but callused hand lightly stroke her hair, then her cheek. The last thing she heard before sleep claimed her was his voice, gentle and soothing, "I'm right here for you, Cho ...'til the end."

~ ~ ~ * * * ~ ~ ~

Awww...wasn't that sweet of Roger *glomps him repeatedly*?! Anyway, REVIEW!!